Return of the Lord

The sun was at its peak, blazing with celestial fire, and shining hot heat onto anypony who dared to venture outside under the midday sky.

Unfortunately for Zaros, Applejack had been mighty suspicious of him when he arrived at the barn last night, expelled from the library, and had therefore decided to get to know him a little better.

This had involved waking him at no later than six in the morning, and interrogating him over breakfast.

To Applejack's great surprise, Zaros had already awoken by six, and he had stayed stoically silent for the duration of breakfast.

With that all in the past, Zaros now stood in an apple orchard under the aforementioned sun.

"So ya see, Midnight, you jus' take yer hindlegs up, standin' on yer, um, other legs, an' push 'em into that tree there, um, real fast." Applejack was struggling to explain how to buck a tree to Zaros, and he could see that Applejack had obviously never had to describe it before.

For her, knowing how to buck a tree must be as natural as knowing how to breathe.

"So, um, ah guess you can give it a try now, right sugarcube?"

Zaros was interrupted from his thoughts by Applejack's request, and, having been caught off guard, stared blankly at her for a few moments.

"Oh, why yes, I guess I better had," Zaros mumbled, before turning to face the tree.

His slender, pegasus form had no way near enough physical strength to accomplish the task of successfully bucking the apple tree and causing the apples to fall from it's branches and into the eager, empty buckets below which Applejack had positioned carefully.

He could feel the confidence emanating from Applejack, and knew that she knew he couldn't do it.

Well then, I better give myself a little assistance.

Turning his back towards the tree, Zaros prepared to harvest the apples. He performed a quick check to see if any powerful unicorns were nearby, and satisfied with the result, began to divert a little of his power into his rear hooves.

When he felt enough energy was present, Zaros learned forwards and kicked backwards. As soon as he felt his hooves making contact with the tree, he released the spell, causing a minor shockwave to be transferred directly into the bark.

The effect was immediate. Not only did all the apples neatly fall off the tree and come to rest peacefully inside the baskets, but the force of the magic induced kick was so great that all the leaves from the tree were torn from the branches and cast into the sky.

Zaros turned around, and grimaced, for there was a large split in the trunk where his hooves had made impact.

A little too much power, if there is such a thing. I should probably tone it down a little next time, if I wish to leave the orchard standing.

His attention was soon drawn to Applejack, however, as he heard a large thud. He soon realised this was the sound of Applejack's jaw hitting the ground in amazement.

The mare stood motionless for a moment, with a shocked expression on her face, and a gaping maw, probably open large enough to swallow one of the apple trees.

Finally, Applejack managed to reel in her lower jaw, for it was still disobeying her. Gradually, she turned to look at Zaros, still in amazement.

"Wha' the hay was that? Ah never seen a pony buck so hard mah whole life!" Applejack exclaimed, a little annoyed that she was beaten at bucking by a pegasus.

Zaros was a little wary when Applejack first started talking, or rather shouting, but could quickly tell she was pretty impressed by his attempt.

"Well, maybe ah can use ya t' help me after all," the mare continued, looking out over the orchard, "but we gotta lotta trees t' buck!"

With that, the ponies set out harvesting apples for a good portion of the day. Zaros was able to use his wings to take the baskets of apples back to the barn quite quickly, and whilst Applejack was in other areas of the orchard, Zaros would cheat a little and use his powers to instantly harvest huge swathes of trees. Overall, the day had been very productive for Sweet Apple Acres.

It was now drawing on toward evening, and Zaros was trotting back to the barn at a gentle pace, when suddenly a pink mare burst out of a bush in front of him, clearly breaking physics, stamping it into the ground, then mauling it to death.

Zaros expected the pony to invite him to a not-so-surprise-party-anymore, as both Applejack and Twilight had warned him of this inevitable encounter, and the party that she would undoubtedly organize for him. This foresight had been useful, however, and he now had a few things he could investigate whilst at the party.

"Surprise!" The pink mare shouted in his face, before blasting him with a confetti cannon.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and you're Midnight Feather, and your friends are my friends, so do you know what that means? Do ya?"

Zaros was impressed at Pinkie's rapid rate of talking, and although he understood every word of it, he shook his head dumbly, intrigued as to how the mare would react.

"It means we're friends, silly!" Pinkie explained, whilst bouncing up and down in front of him.

"Oh, and can you come to a party at Sugarcube corner tonight? Please! I invited everypony in Ponyville, just to welcome you here!"

Zaros agreed, and Pinkie Pie disappeared back into the bush after a quick thank you, leaving Zaros alone in the centre of the path.

Zaros looked skyward, and saw time was getting on, so he took off and flew back to the barn, in order to prepare for the party.

Zaros stood in the corner of the room, surveying the party. It was a most odd ritual indeed. Zaros, of course, hadn't been expecting the formal, ceremonial festivals or events back home he had occasionally attended at Senntisten, but then again, he had never really been there for that long. Most events, his presence was only necessary to give the attending subjects something to worship or madly adore, whilst he gave an improvised speech of some sort - his mind was too complex for planning.

This, "party", as Pinkie had called it, however, was an entirely different kind of event entirely. Ponies tossed themselves around on a floor in the middle, and the traditional orchestra had been replaced by a single musician in the opposite corner to Zaros, whom had been introduced by Pinkie Pie as Vinyl Scratch, and she was using computer assistance to play some most odd music indeed. Now, Zaros wasn't a particularly big fan of music, and never did have an ear for it, but compared to the travelling fools or ceremonial orchestras back in Gielinor, Zaros felt this electronic replacement was rather lacking.

As he continued to examine the party room, he caught sight of a table on a nearby side of the room, stocked full of drinks and cakes. Deciding that, if he felt hunger, he would be hungry, Zaros battled through the crowd of ponies. Not in a literal sense, of course, but the throng of equines was so thick he had trouble struggling through the seething mass of bodies.

Eventually, after much strenuous effort, he reached his destination at the drinks table. Carefully taking a glass in his mouth, he filled it with punch. He tilted his head back to try and sip a bit, but ended up getting the drink all over his coat. He felt slightly frustrated, and he was now soaking wet, but as he was about to try and pour himself another glass, he felt a hoof on his shoulder.

Turning around, he saw Twilight Sparkle in front of him, who then proceeded to lead him outside where the music was not quite so loud. Standing around him and Twilight, he recognised Applejack, but there were two other ponies there that Zaros had not yet been introduced to. The one closest to him was a unicorn, who had a pure, white coat, and a purple mane and tail formed into perfect curls, the second was a yellow pegasus with pink hair.

"Oh, Twilight! You've returned! Did you see Dash inside by any chance?" The white unicorn queried.

Twilight shook her head, "No, but I brought back Midnight Feather with me, that pony I was talking about?"

A look of worry quickly flashed over the unicorn's face, but she then quickly responded that she remembered her talking about him, although Zaros could clearly see she had not been listening at whatever point Twilight had decided to talk about him.

"And what, may I ask, might your name be?" Zaros politely asked, taking care not to insult anypony, but also being cautious as to not appear awkward.

"Oh! How terribly rude of me! I am Rarity, and this here is my friend Fluttershy," the white unicorn explained, gesturing to the yellow pegasus beside her, who murmured something under her breath and shied away from the attention.

"So I hear you're staying with Applejack?" Rarity continued, obviously managing to remember part of what Twilight must have been saying earlier.

Applejack glared at him, and he took the hint not to mention that he had not only bucked harder than her, but in the end, had managed to collect more apples than her as well.

"Yes, she's kind enough to let me sleep in her barn," Zaros said, and he saw Rarity recoil slightly.

"Oh my! But surely it must be terrible to sleep in such a dirty place?" Zaros chuckled a little at such a vain and petty remark, and was about to respond when Fluttershy finally spoke up.

"But surely it must be lovely inside with all the animals?" The mare queried.

"Well, I guess they do keep me up a little, but I don't mind them. I sleep up in the rafters anyway, so no worries." Zaros replied. The animals hadn't just been keeping him up a little, however, he hadn't gone to sleep at all, but that was completely unrelated.

"So I hear you have some magical friendship powers?" Zaros ventured, hoping it wasn't a too blunt approach.

The group looked a little taken aback, but Twilight stuck out her chest a little and proudly explained.

"Well, me and my friends are all part of what's called the elements of harmony, which are essentially six different values of friendship, and the power to use these elements is bestowed unto a being, or beings, who emulate those six qualities. We've had to use them a few times in the past, once to stop Nightmare Moon taking over Equestria, and another time to stop Discord. Out of interest, however, may I ask how you knew?" Twilight had been confidently telling the story up until her last question, although now she seemed rather worried, almost.

"Your brave and daring adventures are famous far and wide," Zaros remarked, respectfully bowing his head. In reality, he'd learnt of the elements' existence whilst staying at the library, but Twilight did not need to know that.

At his comment, Twilight appeared happy again, and the group broke out into conversation once more, all anxiety removed.

Zaros, however, was busy thinking about the elements.

A collection of objects that somehow uses friendship as a power source?

Zaros had read of the entities Twilight had mentioned they had defeated, and although they would have been no match for Zaros himself, he was intrigued by these object's potential, and the power that must lurk within them.

If I manage to secure the elements, they might be able to help me regenerate my power quicker, and return to Gielinor.

One small problem that remained was the fact the objects appeared to be attached to certain individuals, and had a kind of reactant magic that responded to friendship and it's qualities. Regardless, obtaining them would be more useful than not.

Zaros remained with the group until the party ended deep into the night, at which point the ponies said their goodbyes and all departed their separate ways.

The walls of the abyss seethed and pulsated as if they were alive, but the dark mage in the centre of the room could not be less disturbed by this. Rather, he was locked in deep concentration keeping open a portal to Gielinor, so that runecrafters could pass through and take advantage of the abyss.

Although just an initiate, the mage had significant power, and although he had to keep the portal open indefintely, which was mainly possible to a slower time flow in the abyss, there were distinct busy and, not so busy, times that people would use the portal at.

During these not so busy times, the dark mage had sufficient power unused that he would often think about rather complex things, and perhaps try and explore his magical abilities. He still had to be careful, however, for there was an incident just the other day when he had been thinking about something, then an unusual force had struck the portal, and he had almost lost the universe, which his master would not have been happy about.

At the moment, the mage was locked in deep thought about realms, most likely prompted by the fact that at that current moment, he was holding open a portal to another realm.

Inter-realm travel was quite common in Gielinor, but what was interesting was how all this travel took place across pre-determined paths, kind of like bridges between realms, so without an existing teleport, portal, or world gate, it was essentially impossible to travel out of your realm.

At least, that's what you've been told.

The dark mage was rather sceptical of this belief, primarily because, if you could only travel across predetermined routes and bridges, who built those paths in the first place?

Cautiously, he cast out his mind, diverting a little of his power. Concentrating hard, he managed to make contact with a weakening of ethereal fabric, implying he had managed to find a weakness in the realms substance, which he could use to create a portal. He pushed with his mind, but nothing happened.

Just a little harder!

He tried again and again for a while, although to an observer he would have just looked like he was hovering cross-legged, staring at nothing in particular.

After several more fruitless attempts, the mage gave up, and instead chose to continue focusing on the portal, as he had done for the past long time.

Rarity and Fluttershy were both walking home from Pinkie's party. They were both going in a similar direction, so their paths had merged.

They were walking in silence for a while, until at last, Rarity struck up some conversation.

"So, what did you think of that Midnight Feather character?" Rarity asked, looking over to Fluttershy.

"Um, he was kinda scary, although nice, um, I guess," Fluttershy stammered, trying to say something she hoped Rarity wouldn't mind, but also hoping not to say anything that might be heard and eventually reach the slender pegasus, for he had been quite intimidating, and had had very cold eyes.

"Well, I thought he was quite the gentlecolt!" Rarity exclaimed, who had obviously grown to be rather fond of the pegasus's seemingly polite nature.

They continued on in silence for a while, before at last, they reached the Carousel Boutique.

"Well, goodnight Fluttershy, have a nice sleep!" Rarity waved goodbye, before Fluttershy continued her walk home.

Zamorak was once more examining the boundaries of his current realm, and if Guthix had his way, the only one he would reside in for the rest of eternity.

Suddenly, he felt a foul presence approach him, and began to wish once more that Guthix and banished them to separate realms.

"There is energy growing below. Glorious war is coming! Not coward's war!"

Zamorak sighed, metaphorically, as Bandos's rough presence carved into his mind. Pausing his ruminations, he decided to respond.

"Most likely your useless goblin tribes squabbling again." Zamorak causally remarked, and he felt Bandos's presence grow angry, ever the short tempered.

"Goblins are mighty warriors! Far stronger than cowardly majarrawhatsies-"

"Mahjarrat." Zamorak interrupted.

"Mahjarrat, fine. All are cowardly warriors before Bandos's mighty!" Bandos retaliated, clearly enraged at this point.

"If I can remember a certain observation correctly, one I made a few months ago, wasn't your mightiest bested by a mere human adventurer?"

Bandos erupted with anger, and began to march off, metaphorically, of course, before throwing Zamorak a final comment.

"At least goblins don't have to steal their power! Goblins are strong! No, it is one of your coward followers I can feel below!" With that, Bandos left Zamorak's immediate presence.

Intrigued by his last words, however, Zamorak carefully scanned Gielinor for what Bandos may have been referring too, but he instead found the energy from within the abyss. Investigating, he found a dark mage, trying to pierce through the barriers between realms, just as Zamorak himself had been doing earlier.

It seems my followers and I think alike.

Zamorak metaphysically smiled, before continuing his ponderings.