[DAY 35]

I woke up in a cold sweat.

My breaths were fast and shallow, and I could feel bile rising up my throat.

The light of the moon coming in through the window was overbearing, as well as the below freezing breeze that was nipping at my toes.

I had gone to bed as a human because it was simply more comfortable, but I was now regretting that decision. Even with a blanket, a coat of fur would've been quite a bit helpful right about now.

I hadn't taken off the necklace, so with a tired hand, I double tapped it, watching as a golden aura of flame enveloped me and my body got shorter.

The effect wasn't immediate, but I had begun to warm up after a bit of time.

I looked up at the moon.

There was a pony on it.

I never really talked about it before but, yep. Right there, created by a slew of craters, was a pony.

Or, rather, the head of one.

I chuckled to myself.

This is insane.

I've been going with it for a while now, but talking ponies? Really? And there's a pony on the moon as well?

How could I not find that funny? More than funny, it was hilarious.

The hysteria must've begun to hit as I genuinely began to burst out laughing.

”BAHAHAHA!” It quickly died down though, “Hahahahahaha…ha…”

“What is wrong with me?” I spoke out into the abyss.

Computers? History? Geography? Synchro-Rate? There was nothing about lowering it in the description, which means that it's something that'll inevitably reach 100% no matter what I do.

Even if I act the complete opposite of Darwin, one day I'll slip up and it'll be raised by a single percent, which'll cause more mistakes. It's just delaying the inevitable.

So that's it?

A month of building, fighting to survive, reduced to nothing because of this system? The very same system that let me do these things?

…

This game was rigged from the start wasn't it?

Faust must be getting some sort of sick sadistic kick out of it.

So what now?

I'm on a sinking ship, and the only lifeboat I got is full of holes.

Maybe these magic horses have some kind of spell to keep me in control even after he reaches 100%?

Magic horses…

Hilarious.

[Synchro-Rate: 5% —> 7%]

I sat up and looked around.

I'm thirsty. I need water.

I got up, my body moving automatically towards the door. I didn't transform into a pony.

After all, why would I want to?

I’m human, why would I ever want to be a pony?

An idiotic race full of beings who can't comprehend basic mathematics.

[Synchro-Rate: 7% —> 9%]

A race full of beings who religiously praise a half-baked non-deity.

[Synchro-Rate: 9% —> 10%]

I'm the closest being to God in this shitshow of a country, I've talked to her after all.

[Synchro-Rate: 9% —> 10%]

I mean, who else but a God could send me to this place?

[Synchro-Rate: 10% —> 11%]

Why would God bring me here?

Unless it wasn't God.

No being worthy of the title ‘God’ would do something like this.

After all, God is omnibenevolent.

Oh yeah.

If it wasn't God.

Then it must've been…

The Devil.

[Synchro-Rate: 11% —> 15%]

I hear hoofsteps from around the corner.

FUCK.

I NEED TO HIDE, IF THOSE PSEUDO-SAINT BASTARDS FIND ME THEY'LL DRAG ME BACK TO HELL!

Huh?

Pseudo-Saint? Hell? What am I talking about?

[Synchro-Rate: 15% —> 14%]

They've been nothing but kind to me.

Why…

Why would I betray their kindness with hate?

Argh! No time to think about that! I quickly tap my necklace twice and transform into a pony in a gust of golden flame, as I find a tired looking white unicorn stallion in the royal guards uniform.

“Shining Armor?”

”Victor?” we both stopped, he had a torch right next to him, floating. Like always there was absolutely no indication he was using magic, like all magic, the only thing that was ever visible were the effects, ”What're you doing out in the Castle so late?”

“I could ask the same thing to you…” I say, before he straight up deadpanned at me.

“I'm out on patrol, your turn.” He speaks bluntly, barely a hint of friendliness in his tone. Yeah, I guess I am a bit suspicious, whilst I would like to consider the both of us acquaintances, that's all we were. He was Vice-Captain of the Royal Guard, and I'm a random person, well pony, walking around the castle. It's his job to catch ponies like me.

“I was just heading out for some fresh air…” He brings the torch a little closer to me, observing me. I was basically dressed in nothing but my leather skirt, something I had worn to bed but usually took it off whilst in Pony form. I had a nasty case of bed head and an expression that yelled ‘Just woke up’, as he sighed and gestured for me to go on by.

I quickly nodded at him and speed walked my way around the corner he came from.

I didn't really have any direction to go… so I'll just head to the Training Grounds. That's the only real place I knew anyway, and there's an exit from there.

I ventured downwards, and before I knew it I was standing in the centre of said training grounds.

…

What now?

I guess I should go explore…

And then I began to walk. Judging from the position of the moon, it's around just after midnight. Summer is coming to an end, I can feel it, the dry cold of Autumn is approaching fast.

I'm so… hungry.

I'm starving. Genuinely.

I kept walking, and walking. My mind was so… fuzzy.

I couldn't think.

I need food.

I need water.

The sound of flowing water rushed into my mind. I could tell where it was, but it was far. Far as all hell. I could only hear it due to my Enhanced Senses skill probably.

One step forward. Into two steps forward. Into four. Into 8. Into 16. I kept getting faster and faster, my limbs propelling their way to the source of the water.

I finally had it in my vision, a small stone fountain surrounded by finely trimmed hedges in various patterns, marble statues surrounding it.

There was one statue that was seemingly made from regular stone, a strange creature.

Kind of like a chimera of some kind, just not your average mix of animals. The head of one particularly ugly and asymmetrical pony, and the body a mish-mash of all other sorts of things.

It seemed to be laughing at something.

I didn't care though. I was thirsty.

I began to drink from the water fountain. It was strange, the water felt… murky, and very mineraly. Shit, this was probably swarming with bacteria.

Who cares, it's not like I was going to be alive long enough to worry about it. That's Darwin's problem, not mine

Poor Darwin, forced to take responsibility for my actions. I wonder if he'll get killed when Celestia realises he doesn't know how to make a computer? I mean, she would do that. She's an Alicorn After all.

[Synchro-Rate: 14% —> 15%]

GET

OUT

OF

MY HEAD!

*crack*

Huh?

I turn back to the source of the crack. It was quiet, near imperceptible. Absolutely miniscule in its presence. But it existed.

It was there.

On that strange stone statue.

The Draconequus. Chaotic Spirit. Feeds and thrives off of it. Only one can exist at a time and they’re quite strong, this ones weirdly lifelike if I'm being honest.

[Synchro-Rate: 15% —> 16%]

GET

OUT

OF

MY HEAD!

*CRACK*

It was louder.

IT’S MY HEAD!

[Synchro-Rate: 16% —> 17%]

I

WAS

HERE

FIRST!

*CRACK*

NO

YOU

WEREN'T

[Synchro-Rate: 17% —> 18%]

FINDERS!

KEEPERS!

*CRACK*

I turned my head to the sound of the crack yet again to find a fracture line straight across the statue of the Draconequus.

splitting its stone eye was a large hole that had been broken out. And behind It was A pair of closed eyelids.

Fleshy eyelids.

They shot open, before glancing straight at me.

The sclera was a jaundice yellow, a disgusting, grotesque yellow. A strange red, unnerving small pupil looking at me.

It's face morphed into one of… glee

More and more stone fell away, before under the cold moonlight gaze, it revealed its full self.

It let out an exasperated groan as it cracked its back, far too many crunching sounds ringing out in the back of my mind as he did so.

”It is GOOD to be back!” His voice was crisp and clear, yet also dripping with a mischievous arrogance, like he was trying his very best to make somebody want to punch him in his face, ”And what’s this? A ...Human? in Equestria? Sounds like the beginning of some shitty book!”

I stood there a bit starstruck at his visage. He narrowed his eyes and began to speak aloud.

“Shitty… shitty…? Fuck? Bitch?” His eyes lit up as he continued, listing off a few words that I frankly wouldn't be comfortable even repeating in my head. He glared at me for a moment, before he positioned his paw and claw out to the side, tearing open… Something, a strange static filling the area as a rip sound echoes throughout. He shoves his head through the static filled hole in space before whistling, “Teen Rated? Oh Faust you spoil me~”

He stops for a moment though, pulling his head out of the hole and shaking his head, cartoon ducks running above his head, before they sprout giant muscular human legs covered in yellow feathers and run around the area quacking at everything, “Is that how my voice sounds? Making somepony want to punch me?”

He added extra emphasis on the pony part, as the hole in space closed itself with a pop, a bit of static splattered on his face as his freakishly long tongue literally rolled out of his mouth and he licks it away, the fleshy pink muscle deciding to do a few loopty-loops on the way there.

“What the…” I manage to murmur out, as the Draconequus snaps his fingers and the world brightens up tenfold, it takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the newfound light as I look up to see… the sun. In the sky. Blazing like it wasn't night a few moments ago.

It flickered out a bit as he frowns and turns around, a modern day electricians outfit appearing on him, as he uses his thick leather gloves to unscrew the sun, revealing it to be a light bulb, before taking his hand into a leather satchel and pulling out a box much too big to fit inside of it.

Now, I could only really barely make this out because of the residual faint dull glow of the sun light bulb, but anywhere else was completely pitch black. The stars shone like flashlights, without the light pollution from the sun they were beautiful…

He began fiddling with the box, the unscrewed sun in his mouth as he opened it up after a few attempts and screwed in a new lightbulb into it…

How… How? What? Wait… HOW!?

I genuinely couldn't make sense of a single thing, a was a tad bit sleep deprived, not in the best mental state and had also witness somebody do maintenance on THE FUCKING SUN.

What the actual…

“Oh that is fun! You've got quite the filling Chaos, Victor De La Cruz!” He spoke my name with a heavy Spanish accent, as a sombrero, a poncho, a fake mustache and a pair of maracas appeared on him, he shook the instruments in a joyous manner, “Olé!”

I'm going to go insane…

I'm still hungry.

Maybe I should eat this Draconequus. Maybe he'll be tasty.

Are you insane? You think we can beat that… thing? This isn't some Timberwolf, or a random pony! This is a being that can bend the rules of reality at a whim! He unscrewed the sun. I don't even need to describe how great of a feat that is! How could we ever hope to compete?

Just trust me. It’s definitely possible if I make use of ‘Baar’.

What the actual fuck are you talking about? ‘Baar'? Also, even if you could, why the fuck would I trust you? You've been trying to gain control of this body so annoyingly, influencing my thoughts to be all pessimistic and… malicious.

You can trust me BECAUSE I’ve done that. I've only had negative thoughts about those… vermin, also you're currently only at a 4% Synchro-Rate, you can take control again whenever you want.

...I despise the fact that you're actually making sense… but it's too risky… from what I can gather, you had the system too when you were alive, right? You should know that my stats, class and skills are practically all anti-combat. You won't be able to do anything with it…

It’s fine, all I gotta do is buy enough time till the rat arrives. She's of a species with powerful harmony, it'll be hard for the Draconequus to do much to her directly. He was trapped in stone right? That was probably her doing, we just need time till she wakes up.

...

Fine, but the moment you do ANYTHING suspicious, I'm taking back control and booking it.

I rolled my eyes at my own remark. This conversation happened at immense speeds, after all it wasn't really a conversation. Merely me thinking. 'Darwin’ isn't really Darwin, he's just me when I'm not actively mentally suppressing him, or when his ego reacts to certain stimuli.

No matter what, it's still me.

Just an ‘influenced’ me.

Whenever I'm ‘influenced’, it feels like words spill out without me wanting them to, words that I don't even understand. I think about things without knowing about them.

I can't believe I'm doing this…

{VICTOR POV}
{DARWIN POV}

Oooch~ that's good~

Now, enough musing, I need a spear.

I turned my head to the training grounds. I need to make my way over there, there's surely going to be some kind of weapon I can use…

My eyes glance to the Draconequus. Now how am I going to do that with him here…?

I began to walk away. As long as I don't make any sudden movements, the chaos spirit will ignore me, after all there's a much bigger fish in the pond right now. One that he would surely want to catch. Celestia.

And I was wrong. My feet were heavy… feet? The pendant had snapped somehow, bursting into flame as I was reverted back into a human.

I looked down to see a strange white material spreading, crawling its way upwards from the soles of my feet, my movements being frozen wherever it grew.

The material was rock hard, probably because it was rock. Stone, I was being turned to stone.

Shit, finally gaining a bit of control and I’m getting turned to stone.

"You have GOT to be kidding me…” So this is how it ends… the great Darwin dying to Draconequus of all things.

I had realized it before, but this body truly is a younger me… That means I lost all of my… fuck

{DARWIN POV}
{VICTOR POV}

Well that was useless. Like honestly, what was the point of that?

We didn't have a chance from the beginning, did we?

The most tired expression I could ever muster appeared on my face as I turned to face Diacord. I raised my right hand and curled it into a fist, before unfurling my middle finger.

“Puta madre” I let out, both at me and at my situation.

Oh yeah, I don't have that anymore do I?

Can't even show defiance, can I?

I felt my arms stiffen up, I couldn't even use my other hand to properly convey my message, white stone slowly spreading across my arm before I felt my very lungs freeze. I couldn't breathe. My neck was next. then my mouth. And then my vision faded.

Author's Note

Shorter chapter. It's also a chapter that I'm posting a week early. Why? Because I want to. There are thousands of questions that'll be answered later, this is a long term project, with a shit ton of lore and ideas that I tried to make coherent. It may be better for you if you think of this less as a MLP Fanfiction, and rather just a novel that takes place in Equestria (idk what I'm yapping about tbh)

LET ME COOK!!!