Just Human

Chapters

Unwelcome
Beginning of a Nightmare
The Coming Storm
A Truth Told With Bad Intent...
Alone
By Royal Decree
Sleep
Hell
Lost
Formal Introductions
Freedom

Unwelcome

Just Human, chapter 1: Unwelcome

Twilight stood her ground as the monster leered at her with hungry eyes. Every breath seemed to set fire to her aching lungs, every slight movement reminding her of her bruised and beaten body. The monster took another step. She could’ve sworn that she could feel the ground shake as it moved.

She looked behind her. All her friends were here, each sharing that same look of fear and hopelessness. She felt so horribly lost, knowing that even her friends had given up hope

She heard the monster take another step. It wouldn’t be long now.

Her horn began to glow, brighter and brighter, and she summoned every bit of strength she had. She gritted her teeth together as magical wind began to blow around her, the light radiating from her horn reaching up to the starlit sky and bathing the forest in its glow.

“I’m not going to let you hurt my friends!”

Three days ago

Deep beneath the earth, an entity began to awaken. Memories of times long past began to return to it, passing through the haze imposed upon its mind by centuries of sleep, allowing it to recognize the utter silence and utter darkness that surrounded it. This was its prison. Its tomb. It could hardly remember how long it had been since it had been abandoned here.

Through a blur of memories it could remember waking up many times before, trapped in this place, unable to do anything but rage against its imprisonment, before the magic holding it here would force it into slumber once more. The void of its cell had left it weak and drained. There was nothing to feed on here. Yet somehow, it did not feel as hungry as it once did. There was something different this time. Carefully, it began to reach out past the boundaries of its prison, projecting its mind into the world around it.

To its astonishment, it could reach out beyond the cold walls that surrounded it. For the first time in ages, it could feel magic coursing and flowing beyond the tiny space that kept it trapped, all coming from the world above. A world teeming with life and light.

It knew it would not get another chance like this. It had to break free, somehow. However, it knew there would be no allies waiting for it beyond its prison. Undoubtedly, its enemies would be waiting for it to try and break free, and they would jump at the opportunity to force it back into its prison before it could regain its powers. It needed to escape, but first, it would need a distraction. Something to keep the powers that be preoccupied until it could find ways to nourish itself. But what, it asked itself. No creature on this world was suitable for what it required.

There was only one way. It had to do the impossible. It had to breach the barriers between worlds to find that which it needed. The entity cast its will into the stream of magic within the world surrounding it, commanding it to alter its course.

It is time...

With a feeling that could only be described as that of a glass wall breaking as one pushed his way through, the entity breached the barrier that separated the different worlds. It began to search entirely new horizons for what it needed, but none of the planes of existence that it visited met its criteria. Some of them were empty, devoid of anything of meaning or significance. Others were mad, filled with things that one could not release upon another world without causing untold destruction. Yet other worlds had guardians of their own, which would not tolerate prying eyes.

The entity began to grow desperate. It had searched countless universes in the blink of an eye without finding what it needed, and already it could feel its power abandoning it. Soon it would be entirely without, cursed to linger in this cage of its for another age, a realisation that only made it more desperate.

I cannot fail here. I will not remain in this tomb forever with only the darkness as my jailer!

In a moment of impulse, it reached far beyond anything it knew to be, reaching out so far away that it feared it would lose itself within the vast emptiness. Yet even here, it found a universe far removed from all others. It was the most massive, incomprehensible place it had ever seen.

As it gazed into this world, it could see this place was filled with wonders it could not imagine ever existing. Impossibly, this world stretched into all directions almost infinitely, far beyond the reach of the moon or the sun, or even the stars that lay beyond. Though life was concentrated on only a single planet within its reach, it was teeming with it, a beehive of living things of unimaginable proportions, and filled with technological wonders the likes of which it could never have fathomed. For all the rage and despair the entity felt, it was completely awestruck at what it had found.

However, the entity felt a cold void surrounding it. Despite the marvels and size of this world, something was missing here that pulled at the entity like a vacuum drawing in air. Magic. No matter where the entity tried to reach with its ethereal senses, it could not sense magic, not to power all the wonderful creations it beheld, nor in possible powerful guardians watching over this universe. The entity knew it would have to hurry to get what it wanted. It could already feel its strength leaving it, as just being in this place was draining its magic rapidly.

Like an invisible cloud, it made its way through this new world, watching and listening. It saw so many creatures that could fulfill its need, yet in a small way, they were all flawed. None of them could serve its purpose exactly as it intended. That was, until it found the strangest creature. It was perfect. There was no other way for the entity to describe it. This creature would be its tool. The tool with which it would attain the freedom it so craved.

The entity cast its will into the currents of magic that flowed richly through its own world, gathering it into a single spot, before perverting it to its own desires. This was the way the entity had always wielded magic, not by gentle coercing that other creatures of its world used, but by demanding its obedience. The magic concentrated heavily, turning pitch black as the entity used it like a blunt instrument to shatter the barrier between worlds and open a gateway.

In a single moment, all the might the entity had gathered imploded in upon itself, and disappeared entirely. The entity’s invisible influence retreated from the world, entirely spent by the ordeal.

The entity knew it could not draw its chosen weapon in directly. That would require too much magic at once and draw unwanted attention. The gate would open slowly, draining magic from its surroundings, before finally letting its cargo in. Already, the entity could feel the fruits of its labour. Imperceptible to things that were not attuned to the flow of magic, the corrupt magic it had used during its summons was leaking back into this world through a slowly widening breach. Though the tainted energies were spreading further than intended, it was of no consequence. It had accomplished its goal.

The entity felt the last of its power draining away. It had spent itself completely in opening this gateway, and felt the icy tendrils of the darkness surrounded it again making their way into its mind, forcing it to slumber again.

Everything is set into motion. All that is left is for me to sleep in this place...

One last time.

The Goddess of the Sun rose from her bed, unexpectedly disturbed during her slumber. She felt how the flow of magic in Equestria shifted suddenly, changing its course before imploding in upon itself, and then disappearing, leaving everything behind the way it was. It wasn’t unusual for magic to flow erratically, but a magical spike like this shouldn’t disappear so quickly.

She let her covers slide off of her body as she got out of her bed. Though she was still a little dazed from her slumber, and unused to being active after the sun had gone down, she managed to reach her bedroom window. Her gaze wandered the distant pastures and mountains of her realm. Princess Celestia, just like her sister, had a unique connection to the world around her, allowing her to sense the tides of magic as they ebbed and flowed.

Though her senses reached far, the anomaly seemed to have disappeared on its own. There was no trace of it left, not even a residue that might indicate where exactly it had occurred. Everything seemed as normal and peaceful as Equestria had ever been.

Her body already yearned for a return to the soft warmth of her bed, causing Celestia to let her eyes close, her head drooping down before she managed to catch herself.

Maybe it was just a powerful unicorn casting a spell, or simply magic flowing as it pleased.

She shook her head gently, giving up on pondering it further.

Maybe I just worry too much... Maybe I just need to get some rest.

Present

A strangled cry sounded in the library, stirring a young dragon from his sleep. Spike sat upright in his improvised bed, rubbing his eye sleepily with a claw. “Wha?” he asked, looking around in an attempt to figure out the source of the noise that woke him up.

Moonlight shone through the bedroom window, making him realise it was still in the middle of the night. However, a pale light illuminated the room, causing eerie shadows to play unnaturally across his field of vision. It didn’t take him long to find the source of the light. It came from Twilight’s bed.

She’s not studying at this hour, is she? he thought. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d stayed up late to finish a book, but she’s really taking it too far this time.

Twilight’s sheet rustled as she moved erratically beneath them, causing Spike to doubt his earlier train of thought.

“Twilight?” he called out, his voice barely above the volume of a whisper. There was no reply. Now more concerned than irritated, the little dragon used his claws to climb up onto Twilight’s bed.

Her forehooves were folded tightly over her covers, clinging to them with all her might. Her eyes were clenched shut, beads of sweat running over her face. Her hooves kicked weakly against her covers, as though she were trying to escape from some unseen threat. Her horn glowed faintly, the source of the strange light Spike had seen before, while her breathing was heavy and laboured. It was obvious that she was having a nightmare, but Spike had never seen her in this bad of a condition. She seemed absolutely terrified.

When tears began to run down her cheeks, weak sobs escaping from her lips, he knew he had to do something.

“Twilight, wake up!”

Her reaction was nearly immediate. She screamed wildly as her horn’s glow became unbearably intense, random objects being lifted into the air and thrown across the room in a whirlwind of destruction. Spike ducked off of the side, just narrowly dodging Twilight’s nightstand as it flew over his head and broke against the wall, before taking cover under her bed. He closed his eyes and put his claws over his head, hoping that somehow he’d be spared the utter destruction of their home.

A few seconds later, the screaming and the sound of furniture being smashed stopped, leaving just the sound of a frightened mare breathing heavily.

“S-Spike?” she called out, her voice confused and unsteady. “Spike?” she called again, her voice now breaking up in fear.

Daring to stick his head out to take a peek, Spike saw the devastation wreaked upon the bedroom. The bookcases had their shelves ripped out, everything that wasn’t attached to something had been broken or strewn throughout the room. Had a tornado hit, he wasn’t sure it could’ve done more damage.

As he crawled out of his shelter, again climbing up to see what’s happening on Twilight’s bed, he found her staring around at the devastation around her in disbelief, as though she didn’t understand what had happened.

“Twilight? Are you okay?” he asked. As her eyes locked with his, they immediately filled with tears. She picked him up with her hooves, holding him in a hug as she broke down completely and began to cry.

They remained like that for some time. Spike was afraid to break the silence, still having trouble grasping why Twilight would do something like this.

Could it have been the nightmare? Was it really that bad?

After a while, Twilight released her hold on Spike and broke the hug. She looked at him with puffy eyes, a heartbreaking sight if ever there were any. “Spike. I have to tell you something.”

“Did you have a bad dream Twilight?”

“Yes. I’ve been having them for a few days now, and I just know I’ll go crazy if I don’t tell somepony!”

Spike’s concern only grew deeper now. He knew she’d been having trouble getting enough sleep this past week, but he blamed it on the usual stuff, namely, that she just stayed up too late. He never thought it would’ve been something more severe, let alone this much more severe.

“At first I thought I was just having a bad dream, but they didn’t stop! And every night, they became worse! I...I’m afraid to go sleep Spike. I can’t take this anymore.”

Spike hesitated before he spoke. He felt hopelessly out of his league as she looked at him with a trembling lower lip and fresh tears running down her cheeks, expecting him to somehow have the answer. She was supposed to be the smartest of the two. He didn’t know what to do, but he couldn’t bear to tell her that.

“Can you tell me what the nightmares are about? Maybe you’ll feel better if you talk about them.”

His answer only seemed to make her more distressed. “That’s just it Spike! I’m trying to remember, but the moment I wake up it’s all gone! I know that I was scared, or sad, or angry, but I can’t even remember why! I feel like I’m going crazy.”

As a ragged sob escaped her throat, she pulled Spike in closer. He put his claws around her neck, doing his best to comfort her. He wracked his mind for ideas, something that would help get her out of this horrible situation.

“How about tomorrow we’ll write a letter to Princess Celestia? Maybe she can tell us what’s wrong. She might even know a way how to make you better!”

Twilight nodded softly in response. They continued to sit there on Twilight’s bed, the moon slowly tracing its trajectory across the sky. In the distance, the roar of thunder could be heard. Spike looked up towards the window, only now noticing the dark clouds slowly blocking sight of the moon.

“That’s odd... The weather patrol didn’t schedule a storm tonight, did they?”

The world was hazy and dark. It was still remarkably silent, with the darkness in the room being interrupted only by a small blinking red light.

“Ugh, what time is it?”

Alex reached out to his nightstand, grabbing the alarm clock and holding it directly in front of his face. He only got grumpier when he realised it was still in the middle of the night. It was hard enough for him to wake up early in the morning, much less when he hadn’t gotten enough sleep. He groaned into his pillow, hoping to communicate his frustrations with whatever decided to wake him up at this hour. He felt completely awake, for some reason, so he knew that trying to go back to sleep again would be wasted effort.

Might as well start my day then. It’s gonna be a long one, that’s for sure.

Alex placed the alarm clock back on his nightstand, before grabbing his glasses and putting them on his face, allowing the room to come into focus a little more clearly. He threw his sheets to the side and got out of bed, but as he took the first step, he felt just a little disorientated. Something seemed off, like nothing in his room was in the place where he left them. He looked around, yet his eyes told him everything was still in the same place.

A sharp pain shot through his lower legs, as though he was struck hard by a solid object. He lost his balance, falling to his knees.

Fuck! What was that!? he thought. His first instinct was to turn around, half expecting a burglar to be standing behind him, weapon still in hand. However, there was no one. He was alone in the room with just the burning sensation of a recent impact on the back of his legs.

He put his hands to the floor, trying to get himself up, but his legs didn’t respond at all. A dull pain began to spread across his limbs. His breathing became laboured and his vision was starting to blur slightly. Fear was making his heart pump faster as he desperately tried to move.

This is bad! I need to get some help, right now!

He clenched his teeth so hard he was afraid they’d break in an effort to bite through the pain and panic and reach the one thing that may save his life. The cellphone which he always forgot to take out of his jeans. He focused on the drawer on the other side of the room, his jeans cast over them the previous night. Using his hands as leverage, he began to inch his way across the room in a painful crawl, his legs dragging unresponsively across the floor.

After the most taxing and agonizing struggle of his life, Alex finally reached the drawer, pulling his clothes down to the ground and reaching for his cellphone. He checked one pocket of his jeans, then another, and another. To his horror, he realised it wasn’t there. For once, he had taken it out, and now he payed the price.

Full-blown panic began to set in as his body began to quake uncontrollably. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as every breath became harder to draw, the pain spreading from his limbs to every part of his body. The primal fear of death shared by all living things erased all coherent thought from his mind as he felt himself losing the fight to stay conscious.

Is this the end?

He imagined his parents crying over his early grave. Doctors scratching their heads over how a man in his early thirties could just double over and die without any apparent reason. His mind tried to reach out further, trying to recall faces of good friends, people who would surely miss him. He had trouble recalling more then a handful who would care in a meaningful way about his passing.

I wonder if anyone will even notice... he thought as his arms gave way beneath him. His lungs strained themselves to draw air, but it felt as though the air itself had clotted, leaving him to breathe in the equivalent of quicksand. His vision blurred and darkened. Alex closed his sightless eyes as all sensation began to leave him, and awaited whatever was meant to come.

For what seemed like an age, there was nothing. Alex felt trapped within a bubble, a world no larger than his own form, as he drifted aimlessly in a place that denied him all his senses. He could vaguely recognize his body craving air, but the feeling seemed so distant. A strong urge to fall asleep was beginning to take over, the only thing keeping him from giving in to it was the fear that falling asleep now would ensure his death, provided he was still alive at all.

A bright light engulfed Alex, flowing through every pore in his body, blinding even his closed eyes with pure whiteness. The pain in his chest had returned, forcing him to gasp for air, his painful lungs eagerly filling themselves.

He remained motionless on the ground, half expecting to find himself in a hospital, hooked up to all sorts of machines as the sedatives would begin to wear off. He began to question whether it was possible for him to wake up at all. His eyes remained closed, as he feared what he would be confronted with if he opened them, though his other senses were shaping a strange picture of the world around him.

Whatever he was lying on, it was soft, yet too cold and uneven to be a bed. He flexed his fingers experimentally, and to his surprise, felt himself grasping blades of grass. He heard the sound of birdsong in the distance, accompanied by the sound of leaves rustling against each other in a gentle breeze. As curiosity replaced his feelings of fear and confusion, he opened his eyes.

Everywhere he looked, ominous tall trees surrounded him. The canopy above shrouded the sky, allowing only glimpses of the slowly approaching daylight through to reach the forest floor. He put his hand down onto the ground, feeling the soft grasses and mosses yield beneath his weight as he tentatively pushed himself onto his feet. He felt his clothes lying on the ground next to him, quickly pulling them close. It wasn’t chilly, but without clothes, the breeze still stung a little. He quickly began to pull them on, a thousand incoherent thoughts rushing through his head.

What is this place? There aren’t any forests like this for miles around where I live.... But then, how did I get here? How long has it even been since I got here? None of this makes any sense!

He could find no traces around his place of arrival, no tire tracks, no footprints, nothing at all that would lead him to some clue as to how he could have ended up in what seemed to be some primeval forest. He began to wander, despite not knowing what direction he had to go.

This forest can’t go on forever. It just can’t. If I just keep moving in one direction, I’ll find a town, or a road, or something else that will point me in the right direction.

Eventually, the terrain began to climb as more light began to filter into the forest. Alex realised the raising terrain meant he would find some vantage point soon, high enough for him to see above the trees, and if the sun was shining he’d be able to see buildings or landmarks in the distance. He knew that would be his best bet to escape from this place. Soon, the hill he had been climbing began to grow too steeply for trees to take root upon its flanks. He climbed up onto it, using the exposed roots of various smaller plants to reach the top, until he finally broke through the canopy.

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened as they scanned the horizon, the rising sun slowly turning the distant sky into a beautiful blazing orange. No matter where he looked, the forest stretched impossibly into all directions. He felt his heart sink as his only real hope for an escape out of this forest was brutally shattered.

“Where in hell am I?”

Unbeknown to Alex, his shadow writhed in the sunlight spilling over him. Parts of it broke off and slithered away. Though indistinct from one another, many of such things were already present here, beyond the sight of mortal creatures, in the very currents of magic itself. They were only just sentient, but they all felt that same sensation pulling on them. Hunger.

Following magic’s flow, they joined an invisible march to the nearest food source. The town of Ponyville. For within this town, six souls stood out above everything else, shining stars on an otherwise dark sky, promising a feast unlike any other.

Beginning of a Nightmare

Just Human, Chapter 2: Beginning of a Nightmare

Twilight brought the cup of hot milk up to her mouth, tentatively taking a sip. She did her best to take things easy, but she felt drained, as though she had been in some great battle overnight but couldn’t remember it upon awakening. She dared not eat anything, too afraid that it would make her even more nauseous than she already felt.

She levitated the cup back towards the table, only narrowly avoiding hitting the side and tipping it over. She gritted her teeth as she focused harder, raising the cup just high enough for her to drop it on the table. Her fatigue was taking its toll on her concentration, just as it took a toll on her body. Though Spike had been doing his best to look after her, nothing seemed to be able to soothe her nerves. Her every thought dwelling the horrifying events of last night, and the more she thought about it, the worse she felt.

Her horn began to glow softly as she took hold of her writing quill with her magic, raising it from its inkwell and to the piece of parchment in front of her. After a brief moment, she stopped writing as she finished the first sentence of the letter, the only one she was sure about.

“Dear Princess Celestia,”

Spike had encouraged her to do this, but some part of her mind wouldn’t relent.

I promised Spike I’d do this, for both our sakes, but what if he’s wrong about this? What if Princess Celestia thinks I can’t handle my studies here in Ponyville anymore and demands that I come back to Canterlot? What if she will never let me see my friends again, thinking they were the cause of my breakdown?

The quill began to tremble in her telekinetic grip until she lost her hold over it, causing it to float gently down to the floor.

And I won’t be able to tell them anything! I have no idea what’s causing this, just that I can’t sleep and that it feels like I’m going mad! They’ll tie me up in a straitjacket and toss me in an asylum! The princess would be so disappointed... And my friends. I’ll never see my friends again.

Twilight felt her eyes sting with fresh tears as she imagined the worst-case scenario. She knew she had to sleep eventually, and she was sure that when she did the nightmares would come back, and she’d wake up in an even worse state than she was now. It would only be a matter of time before somepony began to realise what was going on and spread the word around. As much as it terrified her to think what could happen to her if she didn’t manage to cure herself, somehow, it didn’t even begin to compare to the dread she felt in knowing that there was a chance she’d lose her friends forever.

Now having made up her mind, she picked up the quill again, dipped it quickly into the inkwell, and began to write.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

I am afraid that this is not a friendship report, but rather a request for help. I’ve been feeling under the weather for several days now, and I’ve been having trouble sleeping.

I know that you must have a lot of things on your mind, and you may not have the time to assist me. If this is the case, I understand, and ask that you discard this letter. Still, I kindly ask you for advice in dealing with this, I’ve not slept well for a few nights and I’m feeling worse every day. Is there anything you can recommend? Meditation, certain herbs or perhaps a doctor? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”

She rolled up the scroll as Spike came walking in. He balanced a bowl of soup in every claw. Exactly the opportunity Twilight needed.

“Spike, can you send this?” she asked as the levitated the scroll towards Spike.

“I sort of have my claws full Twilight, can you hold up a second?”

“Oh come on Spike, it’s not like you need your claws to breathe fire, and I’m pretty sure I don’t need you to check my grammar this time. Just light it and it’ll send itself.”

Spike raised an eyebrow, sighed reluctantly, but did as he was asked anyway. He blew forth a plume of green flame which quickly consumed the scroll, the smoke disappearing through an open window.

“There you go, I’m sure the princess will know what to do. You’ll get better in no time Twilight, I promise!” Spike said in an effort to cheer Twilight up. She nodded, faking a smile.

I’m sorry Spike. I know this isn’t what I promised I would do... But I can’t let anypony take me away from my friends just because I’m having some nightmares. I’m just going to have to figure this out on my own.

A few hours later, Twilight was walking through Ponyville, her face pointed towards the ground, despite her best efforts to keep her head raised.

I promised Spike I’d take it easy today. I’ll be at Sugarcube Corner soon. I can catch my breath when I get there. Just don’t let anypony see me like this. I don’t want Spike dragging me back to the library.

She had done her best to convince her number one assistant that she was strong enough to go out alone, but even she was starting to have her doubts. Her limbs felt weighed down by some invisible extra weight, while her stomach groaned, despite her light breakfast.

Maybe staying in bed wouldn’t have been such a bad idea, Twilight thought. She dismissed that thought immediately. She needed to get out of the house, get her mind off of things. She didn’t want to stay locked inside the library, where she knew her thoughts would inevitably return to the nightmares, followed by the same maddening sense of hopelessness that’s been plaguing her all morning.

I just need to keep myself distracted, stay busy and not think about it. As long as I keep myself occupied with other things, I’m sure I’ll improve...

She only wished she could believe it herself. She dreaded the coming night. She knew she had to sleep again eventually, and it hung over her like a dark shadow, haunting her thoughts. She could already feel that same fear, that same sense of despair, creeping into her chest.

She walked over to the edge of the street and sat down, staring at the ground as she took deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She knew she had to let it go, or else she’d arrive at Sugarcube Corner a complete mess and Pinkie would start asking questions that she really didn’t want to answer.

Please... Just let me get through this morning. That’s all I ask. Just this morning, and I’ll be fine.

Twilight took another shake breath, before she opened her eyes again. She gasped as she saw the scene that lay before her.

Everywhere she looked, colour had drained from the world. The houses. The trees. The townsfolk. Even the sun no longer shone golden, but merely glowed with bleak, grey rays of light. Ponies walked the streets, shivering in a non-existent chilling breeze, all looking just as worn-out, tired and fearful as her.

She blinked, and as she opened her eyes again, the vision was gone. Ponyville had returned to normal, just like everything else.

Was that just a dream? she wondered. Did I fall asleep just now?

She blinked several times more. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, but no matter how hard she tried, whatever she had seen did not return. She shook her head wearily.

I’m... I must not be feeling as good as I thought. I better hurry to Sugarcube Corner. I need to sit down for a while.

It didn’t take her long to reach Sugarcube Corner, but she hardly felt better now that she had arrived. Though it hadn’t been a long walk, she felt a lot more tired than she knew she should. Eager to be able to sit down for just a bit, she walked to the front door, dragging her hooves a little as she moved. Just as she was about to knock, she noticed a sign hanging from the handle.

“Closed for today.”

Strange. The bakery shouldn’t be closed today. I know the Cakes are out of town, but Pinkie should be running business while they’re gone. Is anypony even home?

Twilight knocked several times on the door. “Hello? Is anypony in there? It’s me, Twilight!”

The silence from within the bakery was interrupted by hoofsteps. The door opened shortly afterwards, revealing Pinkie Pie. Pinkie smiled widely as she realised who had been knocking.

“Hi Twilight! How are you doing?”

Twilight didn’t respond immediately. There was something off about the way Pinkie was looking at her. It wasn’t that she didn’t seem happy to see her, but her smile seemed different from usual. Forced was the first word that came to mind, though Twilight was quick to disregard that. After all, Pinkie always smiled, and it was always sincere. However, that smile quickly faded as Pinkie got a better look at her.

“Are you okay Twilight? You look a little pale, is something wrong?” Pinkie asked, now sounding far more concerned than before.

“I’m fine Pinkie, but can I come in? I think I need to sit down, just for a little bit,” said Twilight, failing miserably at hiding the fatigue in her voice.

Pinkie stepped aside as Twilight made her way into the bakery. It was more then a bit dark in here, as though Pinkie hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights. The usual scent of freshly baked goods was absent, and she noticed a pile of what seemed to be shredded party decorations lying in a corner. Before she could get a better look, however, Pinkie popped up right into her field of vision, smiling guiltily as she grabbed Twilight by her shoulders.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I got just what you need!” Pinkie said as she rushed Twilight over to a nearby table, plopping her down on a pillow before bouncing off towards the kitchen.

“Just sit right there, and don’t let any nasty ol’ frowns pop up until I get back! I’ll be back in a jiffy!” Pinkie declared before disappearing from sight.

“Pinkie, wait! Why is Sugarcube Corner closed? Are you all alone in here? I thought the cakes were out—” The sudden noise of pots and pans clattering to the floor made Twilight wince.
“—of town...”

“Oh, uhm, no, Rarity is here too. She went upstairs before you came in,” Pinkie called back, though her voice was rather reluctant. Sure enough, hoofsteps from above soon followed as Rarity came down the stairs. Realising Twilight was here, she hurriedly put up a smile and waved.

“Good morning Twilight, what brings you to Sugarcube Corner?” Rarity asked as she made her way down the stairs, taking a seat at Twilight’s table.

“I just... I just needed to get out of the library for a while. I haven’t been feeling too well lately, thought I might need to get my mind off of it. Have you been here long? What were you doing upstairs?”

Rarity’s smile dropped, as though the clamps holding it up were released. “Uh, I just needed to freshen up!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You came all this way just to use Pinkie’s bathroom?”

Rarity visibly hesitated before speaking up, choking on the words before they could form. Before she could speak up, Pinkie Pie came bouncing out of the kitchen, balancing a tray of freshly baked cupcakes upon her nose.

“Oh, you know Rarity! She felt so bad about her sister not being able to sleep well last night that she came here to pick up an extra special breakfast for the both of them! Right Rarity?” Pinkie Pie said as she shot a wink to Rarity, who nodded gratefully in response. Twilight, however, was left pondering if she hadn’t been the only one in town who had trouble sleeping.

As Pinkie Pie placed the tray of cupcakes on the table, the smell hit Twilight like a brick wall. She felt her stomach churning in protest. She averted her gaze, trying to banish the very thought of the sugary treats from her mind, but every breath was like an assault, making her feel even worse.

“Darling, are you sure you’re welling well? You’re looking a little flushed.”

“No, I’m not feeling alright. Last night, I hardly slept, and this morning I didn’t feel too good. I’m not sure if Sweetie Belle has the same thing, but for all I know it could be contagious. Do you two know of anypony else who might be having the same problems?”

There was a long, painful silence. Twilight did her best to just focus on her breathing so she could avoid her stomach turning around completely, before a voice interrupted her concentration.

“Well... I... I...”

It sounded like Pinkie Pie, but her voice was all wrong. Instead of the joyful cheer it always carried, now she seemed to be on the verge of crying.

“Shut up Pinkie,” a different, harsher voice spoke, which finally made Twilight look up. She failed to find the words to talk as she looked at what she knew should be her friends.

One one side of the table was Pinkie Pie, her mane flattened entirely, her eyes puffy as though she had recently cried. She looked absolutely pitiful. On the other end was Rarity. Her eyes were staring down at Pinkie Pie, a scornful look on her face. Twilight could’ve sworn that Rarity’s horn seemed far sharper than it otherwise would be. Whereas she immediately felt sorry for Pinkie, Rarity actually hurt to look at, and were her eyes not locked on the scene before her, she would’ve turned around and ran away as fast as she could.

“But... But Rarity,” Pinkie pleaded.

“A-ah!” Rarity said to try and keep Pinkie quiet before she could continue. “You promised, remember? After all, it was your idea to keep this quiet!”

Pinkie’s head sank even lower. “You didn’t have to do this. You didn’t have to tear my streamers down and ruin the party I had planned. You know everypony is feeling bad! A party would-”

“I already told you!” Rarity interrupted, her voice raised as though berating a foal. “I needed the fabrics I gave you back! I already explained this to you before, do you want me to do so again?!”

“Please, Rarity! I said it was okay! I forgive you, just don’t get angry again, please!” Pinkie begged as she let herself sink to the floor, whimpering pathetically as Rarity continued to bear down on her.

What’s going on here? What are they doing?! Twilight thought as she watched one of her worst fears coming to pass. Her friends were turning on each other in the most horrible way she could imagine. She wanted to do something, but the sheer shock of what she was seeing prevented her from bringing herself to speak.

Rarity stood up and began to pace around Pinkie, grinning widely as she admired the miserable state Pinkie was in.

“Ofcourse, I wouldn’t expect you, of all ponies, to understand.”

Pinkie began to sob as she covered her head with her hooves, trying to block out the sound of her own friend crushing her spirit.

“No dresses to create and sell, no good reputation to maintain, not even a little sister to support! All you do is ‘party this’ and ‘party that’ with not a care in the world! You wouldn’t know responsibility if it hit you on the head!” Rarity added a quick move of her front hoof to her last words, making Pinkie flinch.

I have to stop this.

“After all,” Rarity said as she gently took Pinkie’s head and brought it to eye level, forcing her to look her in the eye. Twilight could see a horrifying change come over her friends. Rarity’s horn practically became a blade, so keen and sharp, while her eyes became slit and glowing, her mane waving behind her not unlike that of Nightmare Moon. Bruises began to appear on Pinkie’s face and body, while she became gaunt, as though several weeks of starvation washed over her in a matter of seconds.

“After all, you will never amount to anything.”

This has to end! Twilight thought, panic taking over completely as she began to lose all her nerve to the horrible drama unfolding before her. She desperately sought for the words she needed to bring a stop to this right now.

“You’re worthless, you stupid foal.”

That was the final straw. Pinkie began to openly weep, while Rarity grinned like a mad pony. Twilight couldn’t take this anymore.

“No! Stop! Please stop! Please stop!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, covering her ears and closing her eyes to try and block out any more of this torture. She didn’t understand why this was happening, just that it was tearing her apart to watch it. She didn’t care how, but this had to end. It didn’t matter how. She just couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked up again, her hooves still clamped down over her ears so hard it hurt, but was unprepared for what she saw. She saw Pinkie and Rarity, still sitting where they were a few moments ago, looking completely fine. Her eyes darted between them both. They were just staring at her, worried, and neither of them appeared to have moved. Like the last few moments hadn’t even happened.

“Twilight, are you okay? You seem a little out of it,” asked Rarity, who got up to walk over to Twilight, obviously concerned about her. “Maybe you should lay down for a while, Twilight dear. Heavens, you look like you’re going to faint any second.”

Twilight wasn’t listening to her. She was desperately searching for a logical reason to explain what just happened.

Did I doze off again? Am I in such a bad condition that I’m hallucinating?... Am I going insane?Wait, what did they say during that... That vision? Something about streamers, and Rarity getting angry ‘again’?

“What happened before I got here?” Twilight asked slowly and deliberately. She looked at Rarity, waiting for an answer, but Rarity didn’t speak. Instead, her worried look seemed to turn to dread, and she looked at Pinkie, who tried to shake her head as subtly as possible.

“I—”

“No,” Pinkie said, interrupting Rarity mid-sentence. Pinkie’s smile was gone entirely. Instead, she just stared at the table, speaking blandly, without a hint of joy in her voice. “Nothing happened Twilight. Rarity just came to visit. That’s all.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she realised that something did happen. They were lying to her about it, she just knew it. More importantly, she knew she wasn’t the only one who seemed to be suffering from “something.” She had no idea whether it was a disease, or a spell, or something else, but something was influencing her and her friends.

This is bad. This is very bad!

“There’s something wrong with Ponyville!” Twilight blurted out, startling both Rarity and Pinkie with the urgency in her voice. “I don’t know what, or why, or how, but something’s wrong, and we need to stop it as soon as possible!”

Pinkie and Rarity both looked at each other, before turning back to Twilight. “But then, what should we do? Should we get help?” asked Pinkie.

“First, we gotta make sure everypony is okay! We gather everypony and then... Then we’ll see what we can do next. Maybe there’s some spell that can reverse the process, or a cure. If all else fails, we’ll call Princess Celestia.”

Both of them nodded in agreement, though Rarity seemed a little distracted. Twilight wasn’t sure, but she seemed even paler than usual.

“We’re going to have to do this as quickly as possible, there’s no telling what will happen if we wait too long! I’ll go find Fluttershy, you two go and find Applejack and... Rarity?”

Rarity was staring blankly ahead of herself. Suddenly, she snapped out of it, shaking her head. “I... I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t! What if Sweetie Belle has it too?! What if she’s at home, sick and I’m not there and—” Rarity ranted in desperation, before a pink hoof shot up to her mouth and silenced her.

“Don’t worry Rarity, I’m completely sure that Sweetie Belle is fine! How about we both go, make sure she’s alright, and then see where we can go from there? I’m sure she’ll be super happy with these cupcakes I made!” Pinkie said cheerily. Rarity let out a little sob, quickly hugging Pinkie tightly. They visibly relaxed in each other’s embrace, and Twilight too felt relief seeing that those two dealt with the situation as well as they could. It gave her a little hope that she’d find some way of fixing this, before any real damage could be done.

“Thanks Pinkie. You’re the best friend anypony could ask for.”

Soon, all three were standing outside the bakery.

“You two go and make sure Sweetie Belle is okay, I’ll find Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. We’ll meet up at Sweet Apple Acres if we can, or at the boutique if we can’t.”

Rarity and Pinkie nodded, and quickly set off. Twilight swallowed as she turned to head to Fluttershy’s cottage. She dreaded the task that lay before her. Not only did she have no idea what she was dealing with, but judging from Rarity and Pinkie, there was no way of knowing what condition her other friends would be in. There was a grim possibility that they were even worse off, though she shuddered to think about it.

Please, just let me find some way to fix this, before somepony gets hurt.

“Where is it!? Where is it!?” Alex kept repeating as his hands searched the forest undergrowth. He was on his knees, he hands brushing over the forest floor as he desperately sought for his cellphone. Some part of him realised he didn’t even have it when he lost consciousness, but he desperately grasped at any straw that could save him from this nightmare. All he knew now was that he needed to get out of this place. It didn’t matter how he got here anymore. He just wanted to go back home.

Finally, something sharp in the undergrowth pricked his hand. He quickly recoiled from the source, and though it didn’t even draw blood, the pain snapped him out of his terror-induced state. He let himself calm down, as he began to contemplate his situation. He knew the area around his home well, and knew for a fact that for miles around the areas with trees were small artificially planted forests. The forest around him was, to put it simply, an impossibility, and he struggled to cope with the knowledge that wherever he was, it was a long way from home. An impossibly long way. He tried to control his breathing in an effort to keep himself calm, though it wasn’t doing him much good.

Okay... Just... Just stay calm. Think! How could you have gotten here? Did I get drugged and dumped into a forest somewhere? Why would anyone do that? Besides, it would take days, at least, to get me to a place like this, and there should be something like tire marks or footprints around. But if that’s not the case, then how did I get here? Am I... Am I dead?

It was a terrifying thought, to think that you’re dead and know that, wherever you are, it sure isn’t heaven. He placed a hand on his chest, his heartbeat quite noticeable even beneath his shirt.

Well, if I’m dead, I’m sort of sure I wouldn’t still have a pulse... Or be breathing.

As he concentrated on his own breathing, he realised something was wrong. Not with him, but with the forest that surrounded him. He listened closely, but the only sound that disturbed the forest was the sound of his own breath. The birds had gone silent. Only the sound of a gentle breeze brushing past the treetops could be heard, causing even the sound of his own breathing to seem painfully loud to Alex’s ears.

A rustle in a nearby bush drew his attention. His heart skipped a beat as he felt his hope for a rescue daring to rise again. Did someone find me? Have they come to rescue me?

“Hello? Is anyone there?” he called out, as he rose to his feet. In response, the rustling became more intense, but what stepped out into visibility was anything but a human being. The creature seemed vaguely recognizable, standing on all fours, two glowing yellow eyes set into its head. To his amazement, Alex recognized this to be a wolf, but it appeared to be made entirely out of wood, it’s body making the creaking sound of branches being bent or twisted as it moved. It growled deeply at it slowly paced towards him.

Alex was at the verge of panicking completely, his entire body shaking like a leaf as the monstrosity made his way towards him, but his mind still recoiled at the thought that this creature, this thing, could move on its own. A voice inside his head told him to run as fast as he could, away from this predator that had come to devour him whole. Another voice kept screaming that what he was looking at couldn’t possibly be real, that he was dreaming or watching an illusion, that he needed to wake up.

He took a step back as he became more panicky, wanting to keep distance between himself and the wolf. It reacted by increasing its pace. As the gap between the two of them quickly closed, Alex knew it was now or never. In a burst of adrenaline-fueled speed, he ran the other way as fast as his legs would carry him. The canine behind him barked as it began the pursuit. Only just in time did Alex notice movement in the bushes left of him. Another wooden wolf jumped out, and he could hear many more jumping out of their hiding spots in the surrounding forest.

Fuck! I gotta get out! I gotta get away!

He jumped over fallen trees and tried to get as many low hanging branches in the way of his pursuers as he could, but no matter how many obstacles he cleared, the sound of barking and howling and that of claws ripping through the leaf litter remained close. It didn’t take Alex long to realise that his situation was hopeless. These things would catch up to him eventually, either because they were faster than he was or because inevitably he’d wear himself out. He could already feel their hot breath in his neck, their fangs sinking into his legs until one made his way to his throat for the killing blow.

No! Think! If you can’t outrun them or hide, then what can you do!?

A tree with a great number of branches low to the ground appeared before him. Alex took his chance, hoping that whatever these things were, they wouldn’t be able to climb trees. He threw himself up towards the highest branches he could reach, pulling himself into the tree’s canopy as fast as he could. He kept climbing up, afraid that looking back would cost him a precious second, as well as his life.

Finally, he reached a split where the tree had divided into two main branches. Seating himself there, he finally allowed himself to stop. His heart was pounding in his ears, even as his pained lungs struggled to draw air into his body. As he looked down, he could see the pack that was chasing him gathering at the base of the tree, growling angrily, their slavering jaws hanging open to reveal rows of long sharp teeth. A total of six pairs of yellow eyes stared up at him, making him thankful for not trying to stand his ground earlier. He wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Finally... I’m safe.

Alex’s victory didn’t last long. The biggest of the wolf-things reared up against the tree, standing up against it on its hind legs. Suddenly, it pushed itself forward, using its front claws to keep a hold as it kept pushing itself up. It latched on higher with its front claws, pushing itself up again. Inch by inch, it began to make it’s way up into the tree.

Fuck! Since when do wolves climb trees!?

He knew he was cornered, his only way out would be going down where the pack would be waiting for him, and climbing higher would only result in him snapping a branch and falling down. As he looked down towards the growling beast making its way towards him, he could’ve sworn the thing grinned maliciously at him, like it knew Alex had nowhere to go. Alex stood up on the branches that supported his weight, desperate to gain more height.

I’m not going to let myself get eaten!

Alex reached higher, grabbing a thick branch and pulling on it with all his weight, nearly falling down when the branch broke free. He lifted it with one hand, keeping it suspended until the wolf very nearly reached him. As the wolf got within reach and prepared a final push that would launch itself into striking distance, Alex brought his weapon down upon the wolf’s head.

The impact of the blow knocked the wolf’s head against the tree trunk, dazing it enough to make it lose its grip. It fell backwards, clawing at the air as it tumbled down towards the forest floor. It hadn’t shown any signs of pain when Alex hit him, nor when his skull impacted against the side of the tree. Still, the wolf yelped as it’s body connected with the unforgiving earth, its startled packmates giving the bigger wolf a wide berth.

The bigger wolf got up, though it seemed to have trouble doing so, and stumbled away into the forest, the rest of the pack close in tow. They had given up on capturing this strange prey that had turned the tables on them. The nightmare was over, for now.

Alex slumped down, his back resting against the branch supporting his weight, as only now he fully realised how much his body hurt. He had pushed himself well beyond his limits with the sudden burst of activity, and every muscle in his body craved rest. As the adrenaline began to sink away, thoughts slowly began to trickle in again.

So, this isn’t just some primeval forest in the middle of nowhere, it’s got monsters too.

The realisation suddenly struck him at how close he had come to dying back there. Had he slipped, or stumbled, or if a branch had broken as he tried to climb the tree, he would have been dead right now. It was the closest he had ever come to death, and the realisation was making his hands tremble. He hit his head against the branch behind him, and again, as his sanity seemed to slipping to his fingers as he watched, helpless to stop it.

The Coming Storm

Just Human, Chapter 3: The Coming Storm

Twilight moved through Ponyville, not quite running, but a definite haste in her step as she made her way in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. There was this foreboding sense of dread eating away at her, though she hadn’t a clue what she could expect.

Was I right before? Is it some kind of illness? And if it is, how far has it spread? What does it do to the victims? If it’s a curse, who cast it, and why? I know there’s something wrong with Ponyville, but what? I’ve never read about anything that can cause these symptoms! And why do I keep seeing things?... Am I hallucinating? Is there something wrong with me too? Or is it something else?

Twilight shivered in a cold breeze, before realising she shouldn’t be feeling a cold breeze at all. The weather patrol made sure the weather in Ponyville was managed carefully, and today should be warm and sunny. As she began to pay more attention to the sensation of cold, she began to realise it wasn’t the weather, but her. Thin droplets of sweat were starting to form on her brow, not from exhaustion, but from anxiety. There was something in the air that was putting her on edge. It was almost like her instincts were telling her that there was a predator nearby, and that she needed to tread carefully.

Making her even more anxious was the town itself. Everything had grown silent, despite the time of day, like everypony in town could feel something was brewing and wisely stayed at home.

She carefully made her way through town, always seemingly driven to avoid large open spaces and stick to the alleys that led behind the houses in Ponyville. It wasn’t long before she started hearing some sort of commotion coming from the center square. She hurried her pace, unsure of what was going on, though as she approached, more voices began to sound. One of them was Fluttershy. She broke into a sprint, heading for the source of the voices.

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy, where are you!?” she called out, completely forgetting about that unexplainable fear that had kept her in the shadows of the town as she tried to reach Fluttershy as soon as possible. She broke into the open, nearly hitting a closed market stand on her way, and saw Fluttershy, crouching down defensively in the middle of a crowd of ponies.

“Quick, stop her! She’s going to get away!”

Twilight barely hesitated as she charged up, her horn glowing fiercely as she gathered raw magical power. She didn’t intend to cast a spell, merely to cast as much force as was necessary to protect Fluttershy from her assailants.

“Hey! Leave her alone! I’m warning you!” she called out. One member of the group, a yellow coated stallion, turned to face her. To her surprise, there was a massive bruise over his eye, that barely allowed it to open.

The crowd immediately exploded into chaos as a yellow flash darted from one side to the next, ponies practically flying out of the circle with bruises, cuts, even gashes on their bodies. It took only moments for most members of the group to end up on the ground or running away in terror. In the center of the battlefield stood Fluttershy, a snarl on her face that Twilight didn’t think the gentle pegasus would’ve ever been able to muster, steam practically shooting out of her nostrils with every breath.

“F-Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, but failed to raise her volume above a whisper. The glow of her horn had died down as she tried to comprehend what she saw happening. She hardly recognized her own friend, who was stomping around in anger, her attention so fixated on the crowd that had tried to restrain her that she failed to even notice Twilight there.

“So, had enough, huh!?” Fluttershy shouted, making her victims on the ground flinch.

“Please, we didn’t mean it. Just let us go,” one of the wounded pleaded. Fluttershy’s reaction was immediate. She paced to the one who talked back, pure fire blazing in her eyes.

“You didn’t mean it? You didn’t mean it!? Is that what you thought when you shoved me out of the way in the street!?” Fluttershy responded viciously, stomping one of her hooves on the ground, making the mare whimper. “Or is that what you thought a few days ago when you cut in line when I was waiting to do my groceries!?” she growled at another mare, who feebly covered her head with her hooves.

“No! You all had this coming! Everypony had this coming for a long time!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. Her wings began to beat, lifting her up into the air. “I’m sick of everypony treating me like thin air! All of this is your fault! And now... I’m going to make sure everypony learns that Fluttershy is nopony’s doormat!”

Her gaze focussed on the one who talked back to her first. Her upper lip twitched, baring her teeth, as she shifted her body and began to dive.

“Starting with you!”

Twilight couldn’t believe it. Not only had Fluttershy hurt several ponies, with physical violence no less, she was now going to take it even further in the most horrible way imaginable. All of that, over something so small. Twilight had no time to consider why Fluttershy was doing this, only that she had to stop her before she took this too far.

“Fluttershy, stop! You can’t do this!” Twilight shouted, but Fluttershy didn’t respond. In fact, her dive only seemed to increase in speed. Her intended victim screamed and closed her eyes, shielding her face with her hooves. Twilight realised that, at this rate, she wasn’t just going to injure somepony. She was striking to kill.

Dear Celestia, what is she doing?! I can’t let this happen!

Twilight’s horn glowed brightly as she used her magic to reach out, taking a firm hold of Fluttershy. She pulled with all her might, trying to slow down her descent as much as possible, until she could feel Fluttershy slowing down and coming to a halt entirely, just out of reach of the mare she tried to attack. The mare slowly opened her eyes, only to see Fluttershy suspended just inches in front of her, breathing like a wild animal.

Fluttershy began to scream wordlessly, wildly thrashing about within Twilight’s magical grasp, but unable to get within reach of anything to vent her rage on. Her hooves kicked and lashed out, trying to hit something, anything.

Twilight got closer to Fluttershy, who didn’t cease her struggles for a second.

“Fluttershy! You have to calm down!” she said, but Fluttershy hardly responded. She just began to struggle even more, straining Twilight’s ability to hold her in place. She felt herself panicking even more when she realised she wouldn’t be able to hold her forever.

She won’t even listen to me! How will I ever be able to calm her down if she won’t listen!? She hurt all these ponies! What if she’ll go after me next!? I can’t... I can’t help her like this!

Before her very eyes, Twilight saw a change coming over Fluttershy. Small embers seemed trapped within her mane, burning and smouldering. The air around her seemed to distort, as though great heat came from her body, while her eyes turned to orbs of burning green fire. Her voice echoed, making it sound like it came from some large monster rather than from the pegasus she thought she knew so well.

“Please, Fluttershy. You have to snap out of it. This isn’t you!” she begged and pleaded, her eyes stinging with tears at how powerless she felt. She was watching Fluttershy slip away right before her eyes, and could do nothing to stop it. A choked sob escaped her throat, causing her concentration to falter momentarily. To her horror, she realised her grip on Fluttershy had loosened too much. If she lashed out now, Fluttershy could hit her.

Twilight waited, but Fluttershy didn’t move. She simply hung there, in mid-air, her trying to maintain her snarl as best she could, until it began to fade away. It wasn’t long before Fluttershy gave Twilight a curious look, rather than an angry one, as though she had become confused by something.

“T-Twilight?... What’s going on?”

“Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed happily. She didn’t know how, but she managed to reach her. Her joy quickly faded, however, as she saw Fluttershy looking around herself with a lack of comprehension. She hardly seemed to recognize the scene that lay before her, until she made eye contact with one of those she had savagely beaten, still curled up on the ground in fear.

Fluttershy gasped as realisation seemed to dawn, hyperventilating as she struggled weakly against the magic that held her in place.

“T-Twilight, what did I do!?” she sobbed, completely unable to grasp the horrors she had inflicted. Twilight knew that Fluttershy wouldn’t ever harm another living soul. She couldn’t imagine how horrible it must’ve been for her. Twilight slowly brought her to the ground, taking Fluttershy in an embrace.

“Shh, it’s okay. This isn’t your fault,” she said to Fluttershy, who held onto her with all her might, crying into her mane.

A cold fear gripped Twilight, for now she knew that what she had been seeing up till now weren’t just visions. They were real.

Alex stumbled across a branch, cursing and swearing as he went. The forest had not been kind to him. His clothes were ripped in some places, and his skin stung where thorns had dug into him. He was growing tired, but despite the state of his body, his psyche was in far worse condition. He kept looking back, expecting to see yellow eyes emerging from the dense vegetation behind him at any second, fully convinced he was being followed. He was right.

He had left the safety of the tree sometime ago. The moment he dropped to the forest floor, still carrying the heavy branch in one hand, he knew the wooden wolves were still around, though they made no attempt at him again. They kept their distance, though the occasional rustle or the sound of one of them picking up some speed just behind him had made it clear they had no intention on just letting him go. He didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for, but he could guess they were waiting for him to slip, or stumble, or let his guard down one way or the other.

My life back home might not have been that great, but anything would be better than this hell. No food, no water, no shelter, and now no rest either. Fuck... I’m going to die out here.

No! Pull yourself together! I’m not going to let those bastards eat me! I’ll fight those fuckers with my bare hands if I have to! I’m not going to die out here!

Alex leaned his weight on the branch, panting slightly as he gave his muscles some rest, before looking back over his shoulder. He could see the faint outline of another wolf moving through the bushes, before it disappeared into the shadows. He had lost track of how long he had been walking, but the light was getting dimmer. The canopy overhead made it hard to see why though. He stumbled further ahead, using the branch as a walking stick in an effort to keep the strain off of his legs, absolutely determined to keep moving no matter what.

His resolve broke when he heard a thunder strike, the sound very close. He moved further, breaking through the treeline into a clearing, only to see his worst fears coming true in the sky above. Dark clouds gathered on one end of the horizon, slowly creeping their way towards him. Rain was coming soon, and he knew it would be the death of him. He was no survivalist, but he knew that in these clothes, even if the wolves wouldn’t get him, the rain would. Much to Alex’s relief, the clearing also revealed a chance for him to escape a death by hypothermia. A cave, set into the side of an overgrown hill.

Another branch snapped not far behind him.

That cave is my only hope if I don’t want to freeze to death out here. But if I go in there, I won’t have anywhere to go. I’ll be trapped... And that’s just what those bastards are waiting for.

Alex knew that he didn’t really have a choice. His pursuers didn’t look like creatures that would be bothered very much by rain, but he would, and if he slipped somewhere and got stuck or broke his leg, he’d be even more helpless than if they cornered him inside that cave. With a deep sigh, he resigned himself to his fate as he walked to the cave entrance.

The opening was just under half-again his height, allowing him to get in easily, though it was only broad enough to let in two people at once, at best. It wasn’t very deep, but it could protect him from sight and from the rain. That was most important.

He walked into the cave, every step kicking up a bit of dust. A few spiderwebs blocked his way, but they weren’t much of a barrier. The ground was littered with small pebbles, all smooth and even, as though some unknown force had cleaned them of all imperfection and swept them into the cave. Alex spotted something glinting in the fading light streaming into the cave. He dared to hope that perhaps he had come across some trash, a lost tool, anything that would indicate there was civilisation nearby.

He reached down, his fingers finding the shiny object and closing around it. He felt a sharp edge. Is it a knife? he wondered. When he held it in the light, he was again disappointed. It was nothing more than a piece of flint from a rock that had been cut perfectly in twain, the edge sharp, but otherwise merely a product of the elements.

He looked back at the entrance. He guessed he’d have about five to eight paces between himself and the entrance, more than enough to see anything coming.

Guess I’m not gonna find a better place to catch my breath, but what if those wolves show up? I won’t be able to get out.

His gaze wandered to the branch he still carried with him, and the sharp flint in his free hand.

At least this time, I’ll be able to prepare.

Putting the flint to the end of the branch, he cut away a thin strip of wood. He repeated the process, over and over, a sharp tip slowly forming at the end. The vegetation around the cave rustled occasionally, while the sound of thunder crept ever closer.

Twilight and Fluttershy just left the outskirts of Ponyville. She and Fluttershy had helped the injured to the hospital and made sure they were all alright, but it hadn’t done either of them much good, especially Fluttershy. She just stared at the ground as she followed Twilight, a miserable expression on her face, giving no sign that she’d ever forgive herself for what she did. Twilight had told her several times already that it wasn’t her fault, that there was something wrong with everypony, but even so, Fluttershy wasn’t the type of pony who just forgets that something like this ever happened. Twilight didn’t dare think about the long-term effects, whether Fluttershy would get in trouble for this, or whether the damage that had been done could even be repaired.

I just have to focus on making sure everypony is alright. That’s what’s most important right now. I have to get all my friends together, write Princess Celestia and then... And then...

“Twilight? We’re here,” she could hear Fluttershy say. She hadn’t exactly been watching where she had been going, but it seemed they had already arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage. The curtains were closed, all the birdhouses and other shelters empty, as though every animal had fled. The place now stood in an ominous silence, casting a dark shadow upon the pair as they made their way to the front door.

“So Rainbow Dash wanted to stay with you for the night? Did she say why?”

“No, she just said she didn’t feel too well, and would be a lot more comfortable if she had somepony close. You said there was something wrong with Ponyville. You don’t think she has it too, do you?” Fluttershy asked as that deeply sad expression of hers grew more anxious. It was clear she didn’t like the idea of having left her potentially sick friend all alone.

“Only one way to find out,” Twilight said as she knocked on the front door. There was no reply. Fluttershy shot Twilight a fearful look. With a little hesitation, the pegasus walked up to the door and pushed it open.

The lights within the house were out, making the only part of the house that was visible the tiny stretch that lay within the strand of light coming in through the front door. A spitting sound could be heard.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked as she lit her horn up with magic to cast light into the house. She gasped in pure horror at what she saw. Bloody blue feathers lay scattered thinly around the house, with in a corner the shaking form of Rainbow Dash could be seen. Her wings looked torn, the way her feathers were disheveled, all stained with red droplets. Her hooves were on her head, cradling herself, as she slowly rocked back and forth, sobbing.

Twilight’s jaw fell open. Not even in her worst nightmares could she have imagined that she’d find Dash in this state. A sob could be heard from her right. It was Fluttershy, who looked as though she was on the verge of crying again, one hoof covering her mouth.

“R-Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called out, her voice breaking up.

“I tried, Fluttershy,” Dash said weakly as she tried to get up. “Everypony looks up to me! Everypony knows that when things go wrong, Rainbow Dash will be there to save the day! But what if I can’t!? What if I fail!? I can’t let that happen! I can’t disappoint everypony like that! The only way I can stop that from happening is by making sure that nopony will look up to me anymore! There’s something wrong with Ponyville right now, and I can’t do anything about it! And I... I can’t be the one to let everypony down!”

Rainbow Dash stood trembling, tears dripping from her chin as she clenched her eyes shut. Twilight’s mind began to fill with memories of what happened to Fluttershy, driving her to act. She could not let such a thing happen again.

“Dash, you have to stay calm. There’s something wrong with us,” she said as she walked towards Dash as carefully as she could. The rainbow-maned pegasus recoiled at the sound of her hoofsteps.

“No, don’t get any closer! I can still stop this, I have too!” she cried out as she spread her tattered wings. She brought her head around to her wing, bit down, and pulled. A single bloodied blue feather floated gently to the ground. Dash erupted in tears as she looked at the feather, completely lost in pain and grief.

“Dash! Stop!” Twilight yelled as she ran through the cottage.

I have to stop her! I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can’t let her hurt herself like this! Oh Celestia, the feathers! They’re everywhere! How long has she been doing this!? I have to stop her!

She tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground right as she wanted to reach for another feather, pinning her forehooves down with her own. She knew Dash was a lot stronger than she was, but though Dash struggled, her limbs didn’t seem to have any strength behind them. She looked up at Twilight with pleading eyes, gritting her teeth together as every breath came out agonizingly forced.

“Let me go! I have to do this, Twilight!”

Twilight saw her vision growing misty, her lips trembling as she held back sobs. Dash had hurt herself so much, and she hadn’t been in time to stop her. She couldn’t help but think what would happen if this had already spread too far, destroying countless lives in the process, as she felt her whole world falling apart around her.

What if this happens to me as well? I’ll end up as a useless wreck, unable to save myself, let alone my friends! What if there is no cure? What if this just keeps spreading, further and further? How do I stop this!?

Suddenly, Twilight noticed a change in Rainbow Dash. The colours seemed to fade from her coat, her breathing became steady, and her eyes starting darting around the room wildly.

“Dash? What’s wrong!?” she asked, but she didn’t respond. Their shadows around them seemed to grow deeper and darker as she watched. Voices began to speak, though she did not recognize them.

They all look up to you.

Twilight tried to look around the room, but her eyes seemed locked on Dash, unable to tear themselves away. Dash’s outline became hazy now, indistinct yet constantly moving, like a cloud of pure electrical energy.

This is your fault.

“Who’s there!? Please, stop this!” Twilight called out, though the voice didn’t respond. More voices began to echo around her, all seemingly originating from Rainbow Dash’s incoherent form, each louder and more vicious than the last.

Your friends are not well.

They will look up to you to save them, like they always do.

And you will fail before their very eyes.

They will lose heart, for you are the weak link in the chain.

You will drag them all down with you.

For a moment, Twilight could have sworn, to her horror, that they were not alone. Countless eyes stared at her from within the darkness, as the voices grew in intensity.

They will be destroyed, all because of you!

Blackness struck her as though a heavy weight had hit her on her head. She could feel herself falling, before all her senses left her entirely.

“Twilight! Please wake up! I’m so sorry!”

Twilight opened her eyes, one after another, finding Dash and Fluttershy looking down on her. She was on the ground it seemed, though she could hardly remember how she got there.

“W-what happened?” she asked a little weakly, as though the force that drove her unconscious hadn’t been dispelled entirely yet.

“You fainted, for no reason! One moment you’re holding me down, trying to stop me from making the biggest mistake of my life, then suddenly you tipped over and fell. We were so worried about you!” Dash said. She hugged Twilight fiercely, who started to gasp for breath with how tightly she was being held. From her view over Rainbow’s shoulder, she could see her wings. They were a rather ugly sight now, the feathers missing in some places, making her wonder if Dash could fly at all anymore.

“Your wings...”

“Don’t worry about my wings! The feathers will grow back. The first thing we gotta do now is get you to a hospital!”

Dash was already lifting Twilight up. She briefly wondered if Dash planned to carry her the whole way to the hospital, but she already decided it wouldn’t come that far.

“No Dash, stop! I’m fine!” she said as she pushed herself out of Dash’s grasp. She landed on her hooves as she broke free, but her footing was unsteady. Her legs didn’t seem to carry her weight as well as they had, but she was too determined to let herself fall. There was no way she would give in to whatever was draining her strength until this was over. She could see the way Fluttershy and Dash were looking at her. They were mortified with fear as they saw her struggling to just stay upright, but she couldn’t let them stop her here. Not before everypony else was safe.

“Twilight, please! You’re not okay! You just fell over and passed out!”

A commotion from outside drew their attention. A heavily panting Rarity, followed by Pinkie Pie, came into the cottage. She looked like she’d just run a marathon and took the long way back home.

“It’s...” she huffed as she tried to catch her breath, “Applejack.”

Twilight felt the adrenaline rushing through her body as the shock hit her. Applejack, the last of her friends she had to reach, and something had happened to her. Strength, fueled by panic, drove her forward. She ran to Rarity, grabbing her by her shoulders.

“What’s wrong with Applejack!?”

“She’s gone! She left the farm a few hours ago and nopony’s seen her since!”

Alex examined his handiwork in the fading light falling into the cave. He had sharpened the wood to a fine tip. It wasn’t much of a spear, but it was the best he’d get if he would have to defend himself. Somewhere deep down, he hoped it wouldn’t come that far.

Again, the sound of thunder rumbled outside, but despite its increasing frequency and the gloominess of the air outside, Alex hadn’t seen nor heard a single drop of rain fall yet. It was starting to become a little disturbing, more so than the fact that the wolves seemed to have left.

A deep growl came from just outside the cave.

Alex got up immediately, pointing his spear at the entrance to the cave. There was nothing there yet, but already he could see the tip of his weapon shaking. He tried to breathe, but his breath got caught in the back of his throat, as cold sweat started to break out on his palms.

He was convinced he wouldn’t survive. There were too many of them, and even if he had a decent weapon, he wasn’t a soldier. He was hopelessly out of his league, and the only thing that kept him standing at all was a sheer determination not to lay down and die without a fight.

The first pair of yellow eyes appears at the entrance to the cave, almost appearing like glowing lights against the dark background that was the sky.

I... I can’t let it end like this.

A Truth Told With Bad Intent...

Just Human, Chapter 4: A Truth Told With Bad Intent...

“We arrived at the orchard at noon, but Granny Smith said Applejack stormed off after they had an argument. She said she had never seen Applejack act like this before... Like she didn’t trust her own family!” Rarity said behind Twilight, though she showed no sign of slowing down. Her heart was racing, every bit of weakness she had felt before completely suppressed by the fear that this time she would be too late.

The sun was turning the sky a blazing orange as she began to set behind the treeline, just as Twilight and her friends arrived at the farm itself. Granny Smith sat outside on her rocking chair, keeping an eye on the horizon. As she noticed Twilight approaching, she simply shook her head sadly. Applejack hadn’t come back yet.

Twilight looked at the setting sun. She knew there was no time to waste. Once the light was gone entirely, they’d stand next to no chance at finding Applejack before sunrise, and she knew that anything could happen during that time. She couldn’t afford that delay, not even one night.

“Alright, we’re going to have to look for her! We’ll split up into groups of two, and... Wait.”

In the distance, she saw a red shape moving towards them. It was Big Macintosh, carrying a tired looking Applebloom on his back. She wasn’t sure if they had just gone out to look for Applejack, but judging from their expressions, Twilight guessed they hadn’t found her either way. She did her best to try and come up with ways that would help them find Applejack. Just randomly searching an area as big as the orchard could take hours, and she knew they didn’t have that time.

Maybe I should ask Mac? Maybe he heard Applejack say something, or do something, that could give us a clue as to where she went. It’s a long shot... But it’s all we’ve got.

“Mac, did Applejack say anything unusual?” Twilight asked Big Macintosh as he she approached him. “Anything that might tell us where she’s going? ”

He averted his eyes, taking Applebloom off of his back and pushing her forward.

“Just tell ‘er what you told me, lil’ sis.”

Applebloom looked up at Twilight. Tears were already starting to well up in her eyes, but she still managed to speak softly.

“A-ah heard mah sis and Granny Smith fighting from outside. Ah didn’t know why, but she threw open the door and began to walk away all angry an’ such. Ah asked her what was wrong, but she didn’t say anything, so ah asked her again, and she... She told me to go back home and stop following her. She said—” Applebloom managed to utter, before a choked sob broke through. “She said that if we didn’t want her here that she didn’t have to be told twice. That she’d leave, forever, an’ then she went into the Everfree Forest!”

Applebloom began to cry pitably. Big Mac nuzzled her to try and comfort the filly, to no avail.

Twilight remained dead silent. That which she had feared to be the case had come to pass. Applejack had put herself into mortal danger because of this thing that was affecting them. The Everfree Forest was full of perils, not to mention huge, and they had far too little time to search it thoroughly.

But I can’t give up. Not as long as anypony, especially not a friend, is in danger.

“Do you think you can take us to where you last saw her, Applebloom?”

The filly nodded as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes. Twilight tried to smile, forcing herself to push her fears away and not give up hope, if only for Applebloom’s sake. Yet, some part of her wouldn’t cease telling her that every second of daylight lost made the chances of finding Applejack even more slim, and the odds were already against them.

It was but a short walk to the location, where the orchard was separated from the Everfree Forest by a gentle stream. In the mud surrounding the stream Twilight saw hoofprints, which she had no doubt belonged to Applejack. On a branch of a tree, at the very edge of the forest, hung the hat she always wore, waving gently in the breeze. Pinkie walked across the stream up to the hat, picking it off of the branch, and hugged it closely. Far more pressing was what Twilight saw on the horizon. Large, dark clouds were gathering, occasionally lit by a flash of lightning. Their time was running out.

“I’ve never even seen this many come our way,” Rainbow Dash commented as she stared at the distant clouds. The sound of distant thunder rumbled, further unsettling the entire group. It wasn’t hard for Twilight to imagine why. Going into the Everfree Forest was dangerous in its own right. Doing so when it was getting dark, during a thunderstorm, was so insane that she’d have called herself mad for even thinking of going in there, were the situation not so dire.

She had no doubt what had to be done. She had to save Applejack, no matter what, but looking back at the rest, she saw they were afraid. They averted their eyes, the worry that they all shared now plainly visible, even if they refused to speak about it. Twilight was sure they wanted to save Applejack, but the events of today had painfully obviously drained them of their courage. They were at the end of their rope, and Twilight wasn’t sure if she’d be able to press on without them.

“Come on everypony! If Applejack is in the Everfree Forest, it’s up to us to get her out! We can’t give up now!” she spoke, trying to raise their spirits, but the group continued to give her that same look.

“I know you’re all worried about Applejack, but we can’t give up! She’s out there somewhere, in Celestia knows what condition, and we—”

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said suddenly, interrupting her. “We’re all worried about Applejack, and we’re not gonna give up on trying to find her, no way. But...”

“But what?” Twilight asked, though anger began to creep into her voice.

If they’re just as worried as I am about Applejack, then why would they hesitate!? Don’t they see that we’re running out of time!?

“Is it because you’re scared!? How can you even think about leaving Applejack in the Everfree Forest!?” she snapped at Rainbow Dash, completely losing her ability to restrain herself.

“It’s not Applejack!” Rainbow Dash retorted bitterly. “It’s you!”

Twilight’s mouth fell open in shock. At first, she didn’t believe what she was hearing, until she noticed how all of her friends were looking away, trying to avoid making eye contact.

“Applejack can handle herself, and we’ll find her in time. There’s no way we’re gonna give up on her... But we all know you’re not okay, Twilight. We’ve all seen it.”

Rarity stepped forward, now looking straight at Twilight, but showing an unwillingness to say what was on her mind. Twilight knew what was coming, even though her stomach turned at the mere thought. It was the cold dread that had been haunting her every waking moment all day.

“We... know you’re sick, dear. You haven’t been yourself all day. We really think it’s for the best if go home and get some rest.”

“No!” Twilight shouted, backing off as the group stepped forward, concern etched on their faces. “You can’t expect me to go back while Applejack is somewhere out there and needs my help! I won’t do it!”

“Twilight, relax,” Rainbow Dash said with concern. “You’re not alone in this, you know? But what if you get worse while we’re out there?”

“If something happens we’re out there, we’ll be really far away from Ponyville,” spoke Fluttershy with even more worry than the others. “If your condition gets any worse, who knows what will happen?”

“I won’t get worse. I swear I’m fine!” Twilight exclaimed defensively, but she could see she hadn’t managed to convince any of them. She couldn’t bear the thought of being forced to return home, not knowing what would happen to Applejack or everypony else. Even more terrifying than the hopelessness she’d feel at knowing her friends would go into danger without her was the fear that whatever was affecting her would return even stronger than before, right when she was all alone.

“Girls please, don’t make me go back! I can’t explain why, because I don’t understand what’s going on, but you can’t leave me! Applejack needs all of us, and... And...”

Twilight faltered as she failed to find the words. The more she thought about it, the more sense they seemed to make. Maybe they were right. She knew there was something very wrong with her, without any idea when her condition would get worse. Maybe she’d just be a burden out there, or even put them all in danger.

She noticed Pinkie Pie making her way through the group, Applejack’s hat now upon her head. She gave Twilight a dour look, the likes of which Twilight had never seen on her before.

“Twilight, if you really want to come with us, then pinkie promise you’re going to be okay. Pinkie promise, or I’m not letting you come along, because if something would happen to you in the Everfree Forest, I’d get really really mad at you... And I’d never forgive myself.”

Twilight looked at Pinkie pleadingly, but Pinkie didn’t flinch. It was clear that Pinkie wouldn’t tolerate any argument. Twilight didn’t want to take such radical steps just so she could come along, but to her, this wasn’t a matter of choice. Going home simply wasn’t an option.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Rarity shot a worried look between Pinkie and Twilight.

“Pinkie, are you sure about this?”

“She pinkie promised. I trust Twilight,” Pinkie deadpanned. The others looked at one another, but didn’t argue. This was enough. They began to walk towards the Everfree Forest, everypony close together, though Twilight stood at the back of the group, facing Big Mac and Applebloom.

“Big Mac, we need someone to warn the weather patrol. Tell them there’s another storm coming from the Everfree Forest. And tell Spike... Tell him I’ll be alright,” she said hesitantly. She knew it would be a lie, but didn’t want Spike worrying about her on her conscience. With a last look at the dark forest before her, she began to make her way in.

She had no idea what to expect, but there was no turning back now. She’d find Applejack and bring her home. She wouldn’t accept anything less, despite the terror she felt at the unknown fate that awaited her beyond the shroud of trees.

“Applejack!”

The call echoed in the forest around her as her friends repeated the call. They had spread out a little to make sure they covered as much ground as possible without going out of earshot of each other. The storm above already on top of them, though rain had yet to fall. The Everfree Forest had a habit of creating completely unpredictable weather, and threat of the rain taking them by surprise had the entire group on edge. Still there was no sign of Applejack. Her tracks were far and in between, until it became hard to tell whether they were really following Applejack anymore, and not just some other creature that lived in this place. Every minute Twilight despaired more for the fate of their friend, and her friends seemed to feel the same, as their voices began to crack more and more as time passed.

More and more horrible thoughts began to assail Twilight, as every minute that passed seemed to drain her hope that Applejack was okay, but it was more than that. There was a pressure in the air, a foreboding sense of tension, like something terrible was about to happen. They were in the eye of the storm, and she wasn’t sure if they’d be able to get out of it again. Some part of her began to regret coming here, despite the determination she had felt before. Now, it felt more like she was leading all of them blindly into the maw off some great beast that was waiting to devour them.

“Twilight? Are you holding up? Do you want to take a break?” the voice of Rainbow Dash called out to her. She swallowed before she replied, trying to clear her throat so that she wouldn’t give a hint of the fears and worries grinding her down.

“I’m fine. Just keep going, I’ll keep up.”

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash called back a moment later. Twilight could hear the reluctance in her voice. She had dodged a bullet, for now. She fought the urge to sigh deeply, for she knew her voice would quiver, and was too afraid anypony else might hear. She sat down, her back against a tree, giving herself a moment to catch her breath.

I can’t fall behind now. I told them I would keep up... Even though I’m tired.

Falling asleep was so tempting now. Her body craved the rest she had missed this past day, and it was starting to catch up to her. She fought the urge to close her eyes, if only for a second, for she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to sleep if she did.

Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard a strange sound. A familiar giggle carried on the wind, coming from a female voice, though she didn’t immediately recognize it. Hopeful that perhaps, she had finally found a sign of Applejack, she unsteadily pushed herself to her hooves and began to walk towards the sound. Knowing that sound wouldn’t travel very far in the forest, she knew that the source wouldn’t be too far away.

“Applejack?”

The giggle sounded again, clearer this time, though Twilight still wasn’t sure of the direction it was coming from. The sound seemed distorted somehow, not just by the forest, but also like there was something wrong with it beyond the wind warping it. She walked even further into the forest, now less hopeful that she might have found Applejack, and more wary that whatever was luring her here might not be of kind intent.

She heard that same giggle again, though this time it was certainly more mocking, even malicious, than it had been before. She froze in her tracks, her ears swivelling around to try and home in on the source. She soon realised that the sound wasn’t coming from in front of her. It was coming from above her.

She looked up, and was confronted by what seemed like a black-coated unicorn, lying lazily upon a branch high up in a tree. As Twilight looked closer, she realised its coat and mane rolled as though it were made of smoke, gently waving in the breeze. Of its eyes and mouth only a soft lavender glow was visible, making it look more like a spectre rather than a thing of flesh and blood.

Twilight’s mouth ran dry as the creature’s strange looks sank in. She realised that despite its unnatural appearance, its mane, its face and its body were shaped to look just like her own. The reason that the giggle had sounded familiar was because it sounded just like hers. As Twilight observed it, the thing’s mouth curled into a wicked grin as it looked down upon her.

“Hello, Twilight.”

Twilight didn’t respond. She merely stared wide-eyed at the strange apparition, unable to form words or coherent thought, which soon prompted the thing to enter another fit of giggling.

“Aww, what’s the matter Twilight?” the thing cooed mockingly. “Aren’t you happy to see me, even after all that time we spent together?”

Twilight blinked in confusion.

“What are you talking about? Who... What are you?”

The spectre didn’t move much in response, just enough to shift her weight, making it slip off the branch it had been lying on. Much to Twilight’s surprise, it caught itself by its tail, making it swing gently left and right, much like a pendulum. It chuckled again, as though it was endlessly amused by the whole situation.

“I’m the little lie you tell yourself before you go to sleep. I’m the doubt you feel when your friends turn you down. I’m the fear you feel when you’re all alone in the dark. But most of all...” it said, as its grin turned into a beaming smile.

“I’m you.”

Twilight shook her head, unable to acknowledge what she was being told. She struggled to understand what this thing was, making it all the more easy for the spectre to play with her head.

“What are you saying? That doesn’t make any sense! You can’t be me!”

Despite the spectre’s lack of pupils, it still seemed to make the motion of rolling its eyes. It seemed disappointed, more than anything else.

“Tsk tsk Twilight, and here I thought you were such a clever mare. Well, if you won’t listen...” she spoke, as she somehow managed to use her tail to flip herself back onto the branch she was hanging from. She walked to the very tip, the spectre’s weight somehow bending the branch as she began to hunker down.

“Then I’m just going to have to show you!” the spectre said as she used the branch as a diving board, propelling herself into the branches of other trees, leaping from one tree to another with unnatural grace.

It took Twilight a moment before she spurred herself into action. The spectre was on the verge of disappearing from sight as she began to run after it.

Whatever that thing is, I can’t let it get away! It has something to do with what’s going on, I just know it does!

Twilight chased the spectre blindly through the forest, heedless of the distance she was putting between herself and her friends, her mind set only on chasing this dark reflection of herself down and getting the answers she desperately needed. For some reason it stayed well out of reach, but close enough that she was able to track it by sight or sound, as the thing giggled the entirety of the pursuit.

Suddenly, the thing lept through the canopy and out of sight. Twilight followed it, panting as she went as she depleted what little strength she had left, before breaking into a clearing. Of the spectre, there was no sign, but instead, she was greeted by a very different sight. Several timber wolves had their back towards her, their attention focused solely upon a cave set at the other edge of the clearing. They hadn’t noticed her, and she could hear why. From inside the cavern, she heard the sounds of growls and barks, mixed with the sound of a person fighting for his life.

There’s somepony in that cave! I have to do something, but what!? There’s no time to go back for help, and if I just distract them, I’ll put myself in danger! But then, what can I do!?

She began to gather magical energy, her horn glowing softly, as she tried to come up with some way to save whoever was in that cave. Eventually, she settled on the only thing she could do right now, and the glow intensified.

Alex backed off further from the wolf that approached him, his spear very nearly within striking distance of the wolf, but only used as a tool to force it to keep its distance. The wolf growled as it closed the distance, carefully taking one step at a time, which also forced Alex one step at a time.

His back hit the wall of the cave, and he knew he had to make his move now, or never. He stepped forward, driving his spear forward with all his might. The tip connected, the blow itself hard enough to force the wolf back several steps. The spear glanced it without doing any sort of damage, simply not having the strength to pierce the wooden flesh of his opponent.

The wolf wasted no time capitalising on his victim’s failure. As Alex realised his folly, the wolf lunged at him, landing on him with a heavy thump. Alex only just barely managed to bring the spear up to stop the wolf’s teeth from clamping down onto his throat. With both his hands, he did his best to keep the wolf’s jaws off of him, but its talons were not as restricted. The wolf dug them into his shoulder, making him cry out in pain.

No, I can’t die like this! I don’t want to die here! I have to keep fighting! But I can’t... I can’t win this. Someone. Anyone. Help me!

The wolf began to overpower him, the jaw of his attacker coming ever closer to biting down. Alex felt himself losing the struggle. Though he refused to accept it, he knew that he already lost.

Suddenly, a strange violet glow began to surround his attacker. The strain on his muscles and the pain in his shoulders began to lessen, until the wolf lifted off of him entirely. He watched in awe as the wolf floated through the air, yelping in fear, as it floated out of the cave.

Alex lay there, breathing heavily, trying to grasp what just happened. Something had saved him, but there was nothing that could explain how. It took him some time before he was able to gather his wits and stand up.

As shocked as he was, curiosity called to him to stand up and see what now stood outside the cave.

Twilight panted heavily as the wolves floated helplessly in the air above her. There was no time for her to come up with a plan, or get help, or for her to weave a spell. Whoever was in her cave needed help right now, forcing her to go for the most direct approach she could manage, even if she knew it would exhaust her completely.

She gritted her teeth, turning up the power even more, her horn blazing with light as the yelping timber wolves began to float upward above the canopy, and then moved some distance away from Twilight. At last, she released her telekinetic grip, the wolves tumbling through the branches audible in the distance. It wouldn’t hurt them much, timber wolves were durable creatures, but hopefully they’d get the message and wouldn’t come back.

Twilight felt the world spin around her. She tried to catch herself, but her muscles didn’t respond. She fell to her knees, utterly spent by the ordeal.

“You made it, well done,” a familiar voice spoke. As Twilight looked to the side, she saw the spectre coming out of the treeline, a smile on its face and a skip in its step. If anything, it only seemed to have grown more cheery than before. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to pull that one off, but you sure proved me wrong!”

“Wha?...” Twilight managed to utter in between breaths.

“Well, we’ve been having so much fun, Twilight,” the spectre spoke as she came closer. “I mean, didn’t you have fun? Especially last night, I had to dig quite deeply for that particular horror, but it was sooo worth it when I saw your face when you woke up!”

“You... You’re the one...” Twilight said breathlessly as realisation finally dawned.

“Yes, me! Oh, the past week has been the best in my short existence! It’s so much fun to have somepony to play with every single night! And today, I could get the others involved! It was like one big party, and all our friends were invited!” the spectre said as she danced little circles of joy around Twilight.

“What others? There are more of you!?” Twilight asked. At first, she thought this strange creature had been the cause for everything that had been happening to Ponyville, but now, she was terrified at the idea that there were more of them causing havoc.

How am I ever going to be able to stop several of these... Things!?

“Well, yes! One for each of you,” the spectre claimed as it pointed a hoof at Twilight. “And there will be many, many more.”

The spectre laughed cruelly, which further fueled Twilight’s anger at this thing that was tormenting her for its own amusement. She forced herself to stand up, trying to at least show the spectre she wasn’t going to give in easily. Not after having come this far.

“Why are you doing this!? Why won’t you just leave me and my friends alone!?”

The spectre waved a hoof dismissively, not at all affected by Twilight’s attempt at resistance.

“But Twilight, I’m not the cause. Now that we’re this close, don’t tell me you can’t hear it. Don’t tell me you can’t feel it?” the spectre said cryptically. At first, Twilight felt herself just getting more angry as the spectre seemed to reject the notion that it was responsible for what had been happening. That’s when she started hearing it. A heartbeat, soft, yet powerful enough to make her tremble with every beat. It was almost like it reverberated within the air she breathed and the ground upon which she stood. It frightened her deeply, and her eyes darted around, looking for the source.

“Wh-What’s going on? What are you doing?” she asked fearfully, but the spectre merely chuckled in response, before slowly pointing a hoof, drawing Twilight’s eyes to the cave entrance.

“You wanted your answers Twilight, and now, you will finally see.”

The heartbeat she noticed before began to grow louder, drowning out all other noise in the forest around her. The darkness in the cave grew thicker as she watched, some unknown force keeping her gaze locked upon it. Before her very eyes, the darkness in the cave seemed to move, exiting the shadows like a cloud of roiling black mist. Two eyes were only vaguely visible within the cloud, standing far too high for this to be any creature she knew of. It stopped just outside of the cave, its expression completely unreadable, though it seemed to study her intensely.

“Isn’t he beautiful, Twilight?” the spectre asked, its voice somehow carrying over the deafening drum of the heartbeat. “He is father, from which we all came.”

Twilight watched in horror as, from the black mass, small wisps seemed to peel off, before eyes and a mouth appeared within these tiny separate clouds. Soon, they began to solidify into tiny shadowy forms, imp-like creatures with wicked little eyes and claws. As Twilight watched, she began to realise many more of these glowing little eyes already present in the forest around her. From every branch and every shadow, one of these things seemed to be looking at her. It was an army, and she was surrounded entirely.

The spectre that resembled her stepped forward into her sight, smiling gleefully.

“Well Twilight, isn’t this what you wanted to see?”

Alex stepped out of the shelter of his cave, blinking against the faint light outside. He rubbed behind his glasses, trying to stop his eyes from stinging after spending so much time in the dark. When he looked up, there was nothing that could have prepared him for what he saw. At first, he believed himself to be hallucinating, or dreaming, or quite possibly even mad. There, in the centre of the clearing, no longer stood a pack of wooden wolves, but stood a single purple-coated unicorn. Her mane deep blue with a streak of pink and violet, a single horn jutting out from beneath it, and two incredibly large lavender eyes staring in the same wide-eyed surprise that he felt.

For what seemed like an hour, he couldn’t bring himself to move or speak. He merely looked, utterly dumbstruck at the strange creature that now stood before him.

That... That is a unicorn. A small, purple unicorn. Why is it just looking at me? Did that unicorn save me from those things? How the hell did it do that? Why isn’t it doing anything? Does it even speak?

Alex very carefully put his battered spear down on the ground, trying his best to show that he meant no harm. He raised his hands, showing his open palms, to let the unicorn know he posed no threat.

“Are you the one who saved me?”

His words seemed to have an immediate effect. The unicorn began to shake its head, as though denying something, and much to his surprise, began to speak in a voice that sounded not just feminine, but very human.

“No, no, no, no no no! Stay away from me!”

Her tone rapidly became completely terrified, which in turn made Alex panic. As insane as the idea of a small talking unicorn sounded, this was his best, or perhaps, his only chance for rescue. He needed help, and the idea that this one chance that had been presented to him would get away drove him to desperation.

“Please! You don’t understand!” he pleaded, lowering his hands as he fought the urge to just run towards her. “I don’t belong here! I can’t survive in this forest. I need help!”

He let his words settle in, but the unicorn simply stared at him in mortal terror, giving no further response.

“Please!” he said again, as he took a step forward.

As soon as his foot hit the grass, the unicorn began to shriek, turning around and fleeing into the dark of the forest. She was running for her life, and didn’t stop screaming for one second.

“Wait! No!” he called out, chasing her to the edge of the clearing, but before he even reached the treeline, he knew he wasn’t going to catch her. She was fast, and it was getting darker. Unless he somehow managed to walk right into her, there was no way he would find her now.

Alex growled in anger and frustration, balling a hand into a fist and slamming it into a tree. It did little harm to the tree, but pain shot through his limb immediately. He hardly cared. This might have been his one opportunity to escape from this wretched forest, and he blew it. It didn’t even matter if he really was to blame or not, that she was going to react that way no matter what he did. All that mattered now was the calm certainty that he was going to die here.

“Did you hear that? That’s Twilight! Quick, it came from this way, hurry girls!”

Alex heard more voices coming his way, all feminine, though not the same as that of the unicorn he just chased away.

Could it be there are more of them? But, what will they think of me? I just scared away one of them. Will they flee as she did? Will the one I scared away give them enough cause to attack me on sight?

The voices rapidly came closer, and Alex was torn between his two options. Stay here, and risk whatever these creatures had in store for him, or escape into the forest. He remembered what that one unicorn did to those wolves.

Picked the one that was attacking me up like a stuffed animal. God knows what she did to it. How many of them are coming my way now? Two? Three?

As the voices came so close that he feared they would spot him, he made a choice based on the one thing that had been guiding him all day. Fear. He ran back, scooped up his spear, and ran into the forest, his heart heavy with the thought that now he had made enemies with the only creatures he had met that might just save him from this hell.

Alone

Just Human, Chapter 5: Alone

Twilight ran as fast as her legs would carry her. That thing, that monster, had tried to reach out to her. She didn’t doubt it would’ve grabbed her for Celestia knows what. Neither time, nor distance, nor anything else were important as she dashed past trees and through bushes, the branches and thorns clawing at her as she passed them.

Eventually she came to rest, her chest heaving and her entire body numb with exertion. She sagged down against a tree, lying down on the ground, unable to carry herself another step. Slowly but surely, the rush of terror and adrenaline abated, allowing rational thought to seep in again. She listened carefully, but the only sound around her was that of thunder, the wind brushing past the treetops, and her own breathing. Relief began to take hold, until she looked around. Suddenly, she realised that nothing around her seemed familiar.

“G-Girls?” she called out softly, before calling again louder a second time. There was no answer, and now she was sure that wherever she was, she had succeeded in putting far, far too much distance between herself and her friends.

“Poor Twilight... All alone,” a voice called out, though it seemed distant. She recognized it as the voice of the spectre that had led her to that monster earlier, but it was nowhere in sight. Its absence didn’t seem to deter it from tormenting her.

“All you wanted was to save your friends, but you can’t save them now... And they can’t save you.”

Twilight bit back a sob, the anger and stress of the past day getting to her far more than she was willing to show to this thing. “What do you want from us!?” she cried out in anger.

“We have to feed,” the spectre replied, followed by a long period of silence.

Feed? Feed how? Were they... Were they planning on eating us!?

“We were borne of the darkest parts of the heart,” the spectre continued, almost as though it could sense Twilight’s doubt. “We had to feed, but without Father, we starved. Until we found you and your friends. We brought with us a part of the pain that spawned us, and planted it within your hearts, so that we may feed on each of you, as we once did with Father...”

Twilight listened intently, but the voice did not return. She shivered, not in cold, but at the sickening sensation in her gut at this horrible revelation.

So, I was right from the start. I am sick. All of us are. And now...

She tried to stop herself from letting her mind wander to such dark places, but she couldn’t help herself now. Everything the spectre had said was right. She bit back a sob as she tortured herself with her worst suspicions coming true.

I can’t save my friends anymore. I should’ve just stayed at home. I should’ve just written Princess Celestia and stayed home, and none of this would’ve happened. And now... Now it’s too late. I’m lost, and no one will find me here.

Twilight stepped back, her eyes stinging so much she could hardly see. Her back suddenly hit a tree. She didn’t even bother trying to keep standing. She let herself slump down to her knees, putting her head between her hooves. She fought the urge, but eventually lost the battle to keep herself from weeping.

She remained where she was, sobbing, as despair gripped her fully and refused to let go.

I failed everypony, and now it’s too late.

In her misery, Twilight only barely noticed a sound that began to build at the edge of hearing. A myriad of alien voices, coming from afar. They were much like the voice of the spectre, but there were many, and they were drawing near.

“They don’t want you back there.”

“Didn’t you see the way they looked at you? They were going to turn on you, in time.”

“You’re better off out here, alone. You know this.”

Twilight didn’t want to hear it. She couldn’t take all this extra punishment being thrown her way, so she covered her ears, trying to block out the sound. It was no use. It was like the voices vibrated through her very being, making her hear them whether she wanted to or not.

“Just leave me alone! Just leave me alone!” Twilight shouted, trying to drown out the voices with her own, to no avail.

“No one has come for you, and no one will come.”

“You’re all alone.”

Twilight began to cry loudly, the guilt of being unable to save her friends overwhelming her completely. She felt the last spark of hope within her disappearing, as her whole world seemed to drown in darkness.

“Wait, what are you doing?”
A change came over the voices, though Twilight didn’t notice at first, not until they became far harsher than before.

“You fool! She didn’t come here for you! Remember why you left in the first place!”

“She will betray you, and you will be all alone again!”

Twilight cried loudly, desperate in trying to make the voices go away, when suddenly something took a hold of her. She froze completely, terrified at what had caught her, even though it just seemed to be shaking her gently.

Twilight kept her eyes clenched shut, the crescendo of voices around her reaching their high as they were all screaming at the same time. Slowly but surely, the noise began to die down, until she became vaguely aware of a familiar voice, calling her.

“Sugarcube, you okay?”

She carefully opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear the haze out of them, before the orange shape in front of her turned into Applejack. She was covered in dirt, her mane was ruffled and there were a few branches caught in it, but there was was, managing a careful smile.

“Applejack!”

Twilight couldn’t help herself, hugging her lost friend tightly.

“I thought we lost you!”

“Yeah, uh...” Applejack said hesitantly. “Ah was in a bad spot there, needed to... Think things through, on my own, for just a little bit.”

“It’s fine, it’s not your fault! I’m just happy that you’re back!”

Twilight felt herself just beaming with joy, but the feeling quickly faded. Everything that had happened up till now had led to this point. She could stop all of this, but she had to act now. Her expression became more serious as she looked Applejack straight in her eyes.

“I know how we can stop this, but we have to hurry!”

Alex sat, his back against a large tree, hidden from view, as he tried to convince himself to stand up and continue going. Sadness and despair welled up in his chest, but all that escaped was a long weary sigh.

Lightning shot through the sky above him, casting a pale light over his form. There were marks of scratches and bruises on his exposed arms which he hadn’t been able to see in the dark. His stomach hurt with persistent hunger, and his mouth had run dry. He tried to force himself to stand, but his limbs were still tired, as though resting, if only for a short while, had done him no good at all. No matter what happened next, his journey would be ending soon. He doubted it would be a happy ending.

He hated this place. He hated whatever force had decided he had to come here, only to be met with a prolonged agonizing death. Most of all, he hated that he had come so close to being rescued, only for it to be taken away right in front of him. Some part of him even blamed himself for it. That if he had done things differently, chosen his words more carefully, then perhaps that unicorn would’ve helped him. All such hope was gone now, and he knew that all that was left was to get up and keep going. That was the only way he had any hope of avoiding a death of hunger and thirst.

He planted the blunt end of his spear into the ground, pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. He fell backwards against the tree he had been hiding behind, but didn’t bother to try and get himself to move. He needed rest, even though his only source of shelter was gone. He was about to give in and let himself fall asleep, when a strange sensation crept through the bark of the tree to his skin. A vibration.

Steadying himself, he put a hand on the tree, feeling it shiver gently beneath some unheard rhythm, though it did not remain unheard for very long. A soft pounding, too steady to be thunder, was drawing closer to him. Not long after, he noticed the trees in the distance shedding leaves with each pound.

Something is coming! What the hell is it!? It must be huge!

Alex curled up into a ball, hiding between the massive roots of the tree, as he felt the massive creature approach. He dared not look, fearing that it would reveal him to whatever was coming, and so far he had good reason to believe that few things in this forest would be friendly to him. The pounding, now clearly the steps of some massive beast, stopped just on the other side of the tree. A warm air rushed over him several times. Something on the other side was breathing in deeply, and Alex dreaded to think what kind of creature would be able to project its hot breath over such distance.

It has to be around here somewhere, Twilight thought, as she made her way through the dense forest. She had scratched herself on branches and thorns countless times during her flight and had no intention to repeat the experience, nor did Applejack seek to share in it. However, she moved faster now than she had all day. Time was of the essence now, and knowing that she was so close to a solution drove her forward. As she broke through another dense shrub, she found herself back in the clearing where she was confronted by the spectre and the creature it referred to as “father”. Instead, she found her remaining four friends here, looking more crestfallen than ever.

“I knew we shouldn’t have let her come along! I just knew something was gonna go wrong, I just knew it,” Rainbow Dash muttered, apparently arguing with herself.

“It’s not your fault Dashie... It’s mine. I’m the one who let her come along,” Pinkie Pie said in response, as she stared down at her own hooves. “If something happened to Twilight I’ll... I’ll...”

“Girls?” Twilight said as she stepped out into the clearing. Immediately, everypony’s eyes lit up like fireworks. The next thing she saw was a pink blur as Pinkie Pie slammed into her, taking her into a hug that could just as easily be called a stranglehold.

“Twilight! Oh I was so worried that you had gotten lost and that we’d never see you again and it would be all my fault and I’d have to tell the princess an-,” Pinkie began to rant, before Twilight stopped her with a hoof to her mouth. However, that didn’t stop the rest from her friends from also jumping on top of her, hugging her fiercely.

“Girls, I’m fine, I really am. I found out what’s causing all of this, but if we want to stand any chance of fixing it we have to hurry!”

“But what about Applejack? Are we just gonna leave her out here?” inquired Rainbow Dash.

“Y’all wouldn’t have gone all the way out here just to look for me, did ya?” Applejack said plainly as she walked out of the bushes, only to be tackled down and receive the same treatment as Twilight.

Twilight got up and walked over to the giggling pile that were her friends. As happy as she was that everypony had been reunited, she couldn’t afford to waste more time now.

“Girls, I know all of you are happy to see Applejack again, but we have to keep moving! There’s a creature in the forest that’s responsible for everything that’s happened to us. If we hurry, we can still catch up to it!”

All of her friends’ heads perked up as she said this, looking at her inquisitively.

“There’s a creature responsible for all of this? What kind of creature would do these dreadful things to us? Even Discord didn’t take his jokes this far,” said Rarity.

“I... I don’t know,” Twilight responded, “but I do know it’s not far from here. It went further into the Everfree Forest just before I... Just before you girls got here. If we’re all together, we might stand a chance at stopping it.”

“But Twi’, we don’t have the Elements or nothin’. If that thing is strong enough to cause all this, how do you figure we stop it?” asked Applejack.

Twilight didn’t respond immediately. So eager had she been for a solution that she hadn’t thought that far ahead. Eventually, she made the most logical conclusion.

“If we leave now to get the elements, it will be too dark to search the forest again until tomorrow morning, and by then that creature will be Celestia knows how far away. We can’t risk it coming back when we don’t expect it, or creating the same kind of havoc elsewhere. If we can’t stop it here and now, we might not get another chance.”

As much as her friends wanted to go back home, she could see each of them resigning themselves to another search. She knew that to them, just like to her, the thought of what had happened to them today happening again, or to ponies elsewhere, wasn’t something they were willing to risk any more than she was.

The group collected themselves as Twilight led them to the cave where she last saw Father, only to find the very last thing she had expected to see. Hoofprints unlike any she had seen before were imprinted in the soil outside the cave. A long bent oval shape, with five tiny little dots at the end. Now that she thought about it, it didn’t even look like a hoof, or a claw, or anything else she recognized.

“Fluttershy, have you ever seen prints like these?”

Fluttershy carefully walked over to the prints. She furrowed her brow, apparently trying to come up with something that could explain these weird prints, running a hoof gently along it.

“N-no. I’ve never seen anything like these tracks. A-are you sure this is a good idea, Twilight? This animal could be d-dangerous.”

Twilight looked at the forest surrounding her. The light from above was nearly gone, coating much of the forest in ominous shadows. If it weren’t for the severity of their predicament, she would’ve turned around long ago.

“We don’t have a choice.”

Using the last rays of the sun, Twilight and her friends made their way through the forest again, this time quietly. Whatever this thing was, they wanted to make sure they saw it before it saw them. Thunder and lightning occasionally boomed through the forest, though the light was fading quickly. They didn’t have much time left.

However, above the sound of the forest around them, a different sound began to become noticable. They couldn’t quite place it. It was like the sound of the wind blowing through a wide cavern, but somehow, that didn’t seem quite right either. Twilight turned her head to face the group, who were all even more nervous than she was.

“Stay quiet, I think we’re getting close.”

They made their way through the dense shrubs as quietly as they could, until they came across an area of the forest where the trees grew far taller, with a little bit more space to move and see. Here, they saw some sort of massive form moving, though the light had grown too dim to see what it was beneath the canopy of the trees.

“Is that it?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hushed tone, just before lightning illuminated the forest briefly. There, they saw the body of a massive feline, easily the size of a small house, and to their amazement, two heads stuck out of its front. One had a big brown mane and ended in a lion’s head. The other was covered in shaggy white fur, with two horns sticking out of it, ending in the head of a goat. The strange sound they had heard earlier was the sound of that thing, taking deep breaths.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide in shock, and he did her best to swallow the lump in her throat.

“That’s a chimaera... What is that thing even doing here? They’re not supposed to come this close to Ponyville.”

As another flash of lightning struck, Twilight realised why it was here, and cursed herself inwardly for not thinking of it.

“They follow thunderstorms, and it must’ve followed this one all the way to Ponyville. We better get away, before it notices us.”

Before they could start moving, Twilight noticed something that made her heart skip a beat. The noise had stopped, though the chimaera hadn’t turned around yet.

“Did it see us?” Applejack whispered.

Twilight didn’t think it did, or else it would’ve turned around by now. She studied the thing intensely, not daring to move for fear of giving herself away. As another flash of lightning struck, she noticed the chimaera’s tail had an odd texture, as her mind struggled to remember something. She followed it with her eyes, leading straight up for some reason into the branches above.

Only then did she realise what she had forgotten. Chimaera’s do not have two heads, but three, she thought as she stared into the serpentine eyes of a gigantic snake head which had attempted to creep towards from through the branches above. It’s body was the tail of the chimaera, and as soon as the snake realised it had been noticed, the rest of the body began to stir.

“Run!”

Alex listened as every hot breath passed by him, until suddenly it stopped. He wasn’t sure if the creature had given up, but he was too afraid that it might still be lurking just next to his hiding place. A familiar voice rang out.

“Run!”

The creature roared and began its pursuit, the ground quaking as it began to charge. Alex waited for several seconds as the shock wore off, before rising up from his hiding place in between the roots of the tree. He saw, even in the dark, that whatever creature that had been must have been massive. It had charged off into a certain direction through the forest, leaving devastation in its wake. Brushes and plant life had been stomped into the ground, and smaller trees had been uprooted entirely.

That voice... I know that voice. That was that unicorn.

Alex moved to the trail the monster had left, before noticing, that between the massive paw prints that had been left behind, stood dozens of tiny little half-circular prints. Hoof prints, he realised.

Why did she follow me? Did she... Did she save me again just now? But why? She was terrified of me. And now... Now that thing is after her.

He stared off into the dark for several moments as his thoughts went into conflict with themselves. Suddenly, he darted into the dark of the forest, following the trail the monster had left as fast as his legs would carry him.

What are you doing!? he questioned himself internally. That thing is huge! What the hell do you think you’re going to do, even if you catch up to them!?

I don’t know... I don’t know.

Twilight ran as fast as she could, not caring that she had no idea where she would end up, only that she stayed out of reach of the monstrosity that was chasing her and her friends. Leaves and branches rained down around her, a result of the thunderous charge of the chimaera behind her. Twilight tried to focus on running, keeping her legs moving without tripping, but the events of today had stripped her of her strength. Her hooves hurt. Her legs hurt. Her entire body was in agony, and the best she could do was try to focus on something else.

Something inside her urged her to look back, and see what progress she was making, but she feared that if the chimaera had begun to lose ground, she’d lose her focus, and if it was too close, that the sight would paralyze her with shock. When she heard somepony struggling behind her, however, she couldn’t help but look behind her.

“Come on! Come on!” Dash pleaded as she fluttered her damaged wings, only just barely managing to lift herself off the ground without achieving flight. The damage she had done to herself had been too much, and dash hissed in frustration as she beat her wings even harder, trying to lift off. Suddenly, two yellow hooves wrapped themselves around her.

“Come on Rainbow Dash! You have to flap your wings or we won’t make it!” said Fluttershy as she hovered above Rainbow Dash. As Rainbow Dash put all her effort into fluttering her wings, she finally managed to get into the air with Fluttershy’s help, however clumsily. She gave Twilight a remorseful look as she began to climb above the canopy of the trees.

At least they’re gonna be safe... It’s my job to keep everypony else safe!

Further behind them was the chimaera, all its heads fixed on her, charging through the forest like a bulldozer. The only thing that slowed it down at all were the trees, which it didn’t even bother moving around, instead ramming straight through them.

Twilight gritted her teeth as she focused on her task, keeping herself and everypony else alive, but her body betrayed her. As she redoubled her efforts, her vision suddenly blurred and she was nearly swept off of her hooves by vertigo, causing her to fall behind on Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack. They all looked back at her with intense worry, which only caused Twilight to panic more.

They can’t slow down because of me!

“You have to keep going, Twilight!” Rarity called out. Suddenly, there was a shriek in front of Twilight as the group made an unexpected fall just beyond a thick bush. Twilight’s reaction was too sluggish to alter her course or speed, and found herself falling after the rest.

On the other end, there was a steep slope, causing Twilight to slide down to the rest of her friends. It was an old dried-up riverbed, with sides too steep to climb, leading in only two directions.

A powerful hoof pushed her back up. “Come on sugarcube, no time to take a breather!” Applejack called as she took the lead, leading the group through the riverbed. Though Twilight was still disoriented from the fall, she did her best to kickstart her legs into action, and soon the group was moving again.

Behind them, a loud thump could be heard as the chimaera fell into the same trap they had fallen in. Though it took the large creature time to get back up, its path would now no longer be littered with obstacles.

Pain began to take over most of Twilight’s body. She had been pushing herself far harder today than she should have, without giving herself the time to rest. Even if she had been more athletic, that wouldn’t have stopped her body from paying the price. All of her other sensations seemed to dull, only to be replaced by stinging agony as her muscles begged for her to stop. She did her best to focus on her friends running in front of her, trying to remind herself that as long as she could keep up, everything would be okay.

Slowly, her friends in front of her slowed down and ground to a halt entirely.

“What’s wrong? We can’t stop now!” Twilight said as she looked up, panting heavily. What she saw robbed her of any hope they might have had to escape.

They had reached the end of the riverbed. It ended in some sort of deep basin, leading them into a bowl-shaped pit with slopes too steep to climb and no path leading out. They were trapped.

The group backed off as far as they would go, hugging the slope at the very end of the basin as closely as they could. The chimaera’s pace slowed until it stopped by the very entrance to the basin. It was no longer in any rush. Its prey had nowhere to go now.

Twilight could only stare as the chimaera took a single, painfully slow step forward.

“Twilight! What do we do!? What do we do!?” a panicked Pinkie Pie cried as she held Twilight’s face in her hooves, though it barely registered in Twilight’s mind. Behind her, Applejack was frantically trying to dig through the loose sand of the slope, trying in vain to create a path up. Rainbow Dash stood on the edge of the basin, reaching down in an attempt to grab hold of Applejack, but the distance was too great.

Twilight saw the chimaera take another step forward now. It was already nearly entirely in the basin. Just three more steps and it would reach them, and it would all be over.

“Twilight!”

It took another step, the ground beneath Twilight’s hooves shaking. She almost imagined it being as result of the fear that she felt right now. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and the panic that gripped her chest was constricting her lungs. Every breath became harder.

“Twilight!”

It took another step. So close was it now that she could smell its breath. A switch triggered in her mind. She had to act. It didn’t matter what she’d do, as long as it was something. As long as it could buy them some time. Her horn ignited in a burst of magical energy, causing Pinkie to let go. She braced herself in the dirt as she drew on all the power her beaten body had left.

“I’m not going to let you hurt my friends!”

Air began to rush away from the space between her and the chimaera, until with a flash, a magical barrier materialised between them and it. The chimaera looked at it for a moment, dumbfounded at this strange interruption of its meal, before tentatively touching it with its paw. The barrier held, sparking with energy on the touch, but Twilight could feel the strain the chimaera was putting on it. It withdrew its paw, instead opting to beat its head into the shield once, before pushing hard, causing her magical strength to be depleted even faster. She already knew that she wasn’t going to last for long.

“Everypony has to get out of here, right now!” she forced out, the sheer concentration that this spell making it hard for her to even speak.

“But how!?” Applejack called back, before Fluttershy appeared just above her.

“Take my hooves! I’ll pull you out, just hurry!”

Pinkie was the first to get airlifted out by Fluttershy, but Fluttershy wasn’t the strongest flier. Progress was painfully slow, and Twilight could feel her magic draining by the second, every push the chimaera gave making it harder on her.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Applejack walking to Rarity.

“Okay Rarity, you’re next! Twilight can’t hold this spell forever!”

Rarity was staring at the magical barrier. Her face was set in determination as she steadied herself, digging her hooves into the ground with gritted teeth as her horn slowly began to glow. As Rarity’s magic began to take hold within the barrier, it became just a little bit more solid.

“Just go Applejack! You won’t make much of a difference here, but I can! Now go!”

Twilight could hear Applejack trying to find the words to argue with Rarity, but all that came out were half-formed sentences. She hung her head low as she turned around to grab Fluttershy’s waiting hooves.

“You better come out of this alive you two,” she whispered as she began to climb the hill with Fluttershy’s help.

Cracks were beginning to form in the barrier. The chimaera’s sheer weight was far too much for the two unicorns, even if they hadn’t been exhausted from that day’s events. Lightning flashed in the sky overhead, showing the bright white gleam of the lion’s teeth, the vapour in the air created by the snorting of the goat’s head, the forked tongue coming out of the waiting serpent’s head.

Twilight felt herself getting dizzy, losing her grip on consciousness as more and more of her stamina was lost to maintaining the spell. The chimaera on the other side of the barrier became hazier by the second, though she couldn’t be sure that wasn’t just her vision fading away. More glowing cracks appeared within the barrier, beginning to form a spider’s web across its ethereal surface.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just give in, Twilight? Can’t you feel how tired you are? You need to rest...

No! Twilight mentally cried out, silencing the voice of the spectre immediately as it returned to her. I’m not giving up! I’ll never give up! Not while my friends are in danger!

Alex’s body was reaching its limit. He ran across the trail of destruction left by the great beast, no longer trying to pace himself, nor paying heed to the numbness of exhaustion that was spreading through his legs. All he could focus on was the thought of that unicorn, who knowing or not, had put herself into mortal peril to save his life.

He ran across fallen branches and flattened bushes, before reaching a dried riverbed where the trail continued in the dirt below. Unwilling to get trapped between the steep slopes below, Alex followed the trail from above, following the edges of the riverbed, before finally reaching a basin. Here stood the great monster, possessing three heads, with the unicorn and several others trapped at the other side.

He could see that there was another unicorn down there too, and both their horns were glowing brightly, apparently to power some barrier between them and the chimaera. However, he could see the way the purple unicorn was swaying that she wasn’t going to last for much longer. One of them that could fly with wings too small for its frame was ferrying them out of the basin, but it was going too slow. He knew, beyond any doubt, that they wouldn’t make it in time.

Beneath him, the chimaera bashed its front heads into the barrier over and over, trying to break through.

What am I supposed to do?

Alex was afraid of the monster that stood before him, just as he was afraid of returning to the woods where he knew only a slow and agonizing death awaited him, but even that paled in comparison to the sickening feeling of powerlessness he felt, staring down at this horror scene and being unable to act.

If I go down there, I’ll get killed, or worse...

His eyes drifted to the side, the dark forest surrounding him. He became acutely aware of the cuts on his body, some still bleeding, and the hunger that plagued his stomach.

And what else am I supposed to do, huh? Go back? To where? I’m going to die out here, and no one can help me.

With a mighty blast of air coming from the basin, the chimaera broke through the barrier. The explosion sent the white unicorn flying, whose body was thrown against the slope of the basin like a ragdoll. It sagged down, no longer moving. The purple unicorn collapsed where she stood, breathing heavily, but otherwise completely spent. Her head slowly rose, and she suddenly acknowledged his presence, though seemed all the more confused for it. She looked up at him through teary eyes, as though begging him to act.

She... She saved my life. She did so twice, and all I’ve done was scare her in return. She... She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to die out here.

He looked back at the yellow one with the wings, who just finished dragging one of the other horse-like creatures out of the basin. She gave him the strangest wide-eyed stare.

All she needs is time to get out. And me... I’m not going to get out of this forest alive.

Alex looked down at the spear, the weapon he had made to save his own life, and thought it to be oh-so ironic at how he now planned to use it. He took a deep breath, readying it.

At least this way, it won’t be in vain. At least, now, I’ll have made a difference.

He charged forward, jumping as far as he could over the edge, and aimed the spear down at the chimaera beneath.

Though Twilight could see the chimaera approaching from the corner of her eye, some unknown force kept her eyes glued to the strange creature standing on the edge of the basin, stranger still than the dark things she had seen up till now. It wore clothes, though those parts of its body that were exposed seemed mostly hairless. It stood on only two legs, its limbs ending in strange appendages that reminded Twilight more of Spike’s claws than hooves. In one hand it held a long wooden branch. On its face, there were a pair of glasses, though its face was oddly proportioned. It’s eyes were small, and its mouth was set very oddly beneath its nose. She could see the determined expression its face bore as it took several steps back, before launching itself over the edge of the basin right onto the chimaera, its branch held in front of it. Only now did Twilight notice the sharpened tip.

Her jaw fell open. The strange tall creature landed directly on the back of the lion’s head, the eyes of that head suddenly flying wide open, its mouth hanging open as though it tried to form some sort of noise, but nothing would come. A thin trail of drool leaked from its open maw, slowly reddening.

The head slumped down, becoming useless dead weight on the chimeara’s body. It was far from beaten, its right side only momentarily faltering before another head took over the torso’s motor functions. Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. That creature couldn’t have been more than twice her size, yet it dared to attack something the size of a house, alone no less.

The goat’s head blared in anger as it began to throw itself around, the entire torso beginning to buck wildly. Twilight could see the creature hanging on to its branch, which she now could see had been wedged into the chimaera. It didn’t last long before the wild bucking forced the creature to let go, causing it to soar through the air, landing further away into the basin on its back with a soft thud.

Twilight watched as the creature groaned, though made little effort in trying to get back up. It seemed dazed, somehow, despite the chimaera closing in fast. Only when the goat’s head hung straight above the creature did it react, its front limbs reaching behind it weirdly as it began to push itself back across the soft sand. Each time the chimaera brought a paw forward to try and grab the creature, it only barely managed to crawl or roll out of the way.

“We have to do something, that thing just saved Twilight! Come on girls!” she could hear Applejack calling. She watched as her friends rushed along the edge of the basin, closer to the chimaera. The creature was still backing off as quickly as it could, its eyes now wide in terror, but it was running out of room to move.

A hail of stones came from above as Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash began to kick stones down into the basin at the chimaera.

“Take that you monster!” Pinkie called out as she kicked as many rocks as she could find down at the chimaera. Unfortunately, the small pebbles did little to slow the monster down. Suddenly, the chimaera seemed to have enough of playing with its food, the goat’s head reaching down with its jaw wide open. Its teeth were blunt, and the goat’s head was unlikely to eat the creature, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t just crush the creature’s body and then spit it out again.

She heard her friends gasp.

“No!” Applejack called out as she jumped over the edge of the basin, straight on top of the chimaera’s back. The chimaera’s reaction, this time, was instantaneous. It began to buck and thrash around, throwing itself against the slopes of the basin in a mad bid to throw its unwanted passenger off. Thankfully, it moved away from the creature.

Twilight saw Fluttershy glide down to the creature, who’s back was pressed against the slope of the basin, its eyes staring wildly. There was still red blood dripping off one of its arms, though Twilight knew that wasn’t its own. Fluttershy very carefully reached her shaking hooves out towards the creature, almost too fearful of the blood to touch it.

“Please, just grab my hooves! You have to get out of here!”

Twilight’s attention returned to the wildly thrashing chimaera. It was slowing down, the serpent’s head above raising higher up into the air, its eyes focused on Applejack.

“Applejack!” Twilight called out. Applejack looked up at the massive serpentine head just as it began to spread its maw to strike. She jumped out of the way as the serpent’s head moved to strike. It missed her by but a hair’s width, only to strike the back of that goat’s head instead.

The chimaera’s body suddenly convulsed, it’s movement becoming spastic as the goat’s head jerked up and down at an ever slowing pace. The entire body fell to its knees right as Applejack hit the dirt rolling. She tried to get up as quickly as she could, knowing that there was one head left. However, when she looked up, she saw the snake’s head pulling away from her, instead going for a far easier target. Fluttershy, who’s back was turned to the chimaera.

“Fluttershy, look out!”

Fluttershy turned around only to see the snake’s open maw coming towards her. Out of sheer terror, her wings seized up, causing her to fall down towards the ground, but even that wouldn’t put her out of the way of the open jaws coming towards her. She closed her eyes as she fell.

Suddenly, the creature seemed to jump into action. With a rough shove of its shoulder, it beat Fluttershy out of the way. Twilight closed her eyes at the expected moment of impact.

She heard a scream, but it was not Fluttershy’s. When she opened her eyes again, she could see the creature, one of its rear legs disappearing entirely within the serpent’s maw. The serpent’s maw began to draw the creature back, even as it cried out in agony.

Twilight watched in awe as the creature took something out of its back pocket and began to stab something into the serpent’s head. She could hear him roar in pure outrage as it fought like nothing she had ever seen before. Though anypony would fight for his or her life in a situation like this, never could she imagine a creature doing so with so much violence, so much blind rage.

The serpent’s head flinched harder everytime the sharp object struck its head. Its lower jaw began to open, the chimaera desperate to let go of the kill that just wouldn’t stop fighting. It took far too long, the creature’s leg too impaled upon the serpent’s fangs for it to just let go.

As the creature’s leg finally slid free of the serpent’s fangs, it brought the sharpened object down upon the serpent’s head one more time. The serpent’s head hissed loudly as the creature fell off of it, squirming around as the trauma to its head became too much to bear. With a thud, the head fell down, and the chimaera’s torso toppled and struck the earth.

It was over. The chimaera was dead.

The creature lay several feet from the chimaera’s corpse. Even from this distance, Twilight could see its entire left leg running red with blood. It moved only slowly, one of its “claws” slowly moving down to touch its leg, before bring it up to its face. It was covered in blood.

Oh no, it’s hurt! We have to do something!

Twilight tried to get up, but her body had taken too much of a beating from the earlier battle against the chimaera. She tried to force her legs to bend and push herself up, but it was no use. Her body no longer responded as she demanded.

Come on! I have to move!

Though her magic reserves were severely depleted, she managed to reach out and grab her own limbs with telekinetic force. Little by little, she managed to force magic to do what muscles could do no longer. Slowly, she walked over to the creature, Fluttershy and Applejack already standing near it. Fluttershy was holding her hooves in front of her mouth as she continued to flutter around the creature. The panicked look on her face spoke volumes.

As she drew near, she could see it staring off into space. It seemed completely out of it.

She got up closer to it, until she could look it in the face.

“Can you hear me? You have to stay awake!”

She knew it was undoubtedly already going into shock. There wasn’t any time left. Very slowly, it raised one of its claws. She wasn’t sure what it was trying to do, until its claw brushed briefly past her cheek. She felt so sorry for this strange creature that had sacrificed itself to save her.

“We have to get him back to Ponyville!” she called out. There was no way she would leave it to die here.

It was only now that she began to notice something. Something that seemed to crawl from underneath the creature’s clothing. Darkness, flowing like black smoke. Her eyes widened, as the realisation struck her.

This thing is Father!

“Twilight?”

She looked up to see Applejack looking at her worriedly. “Ah’ll carry him, you just lead the way.”

“No. I’ll carry him,” Twilight replied plainly.

“You sure sugarcube? Ah can see you’re at the end of your rope here.”

“I said I’ll carry him. Don’t worry about me.”

Applejack sighed, nodding silently. Twilight guessed Applejack knew better than to try and argue now.

She, along with Fluttershy, crawled under the creature’s arms. It was a very strange way of carrying another creature, but this thing’s weird body shape made it impossible to do it any other way. Applejack took a still unconscious Rarity onto her back. Twilight gritted her teeth, as now she had to extend her magic to not just carry her own weight, but that of the creature as well.

I don’t know who or what you are, or why you’ve caused all of this, but you saved me and my friends! I won’t let you die here. Please... Just don’t die.

Twilight stared down at the forest floor as she took one agonizing step at a time. She was reaching the very end of what her body could take. Her legs were numb with fatigue, and a dull pain seemed to pulse through her body with every breath. The passenger she shared with Fluttershy didn’t make things any easier on her. She struggled just to keep her eyes open, barely aware of what little progress they made.

Her horn glowed faintly as magic filled in where her muscles could no longer bear the strain. It was the only source of light as she and her friends made their way through the forest at night. On her right was Applejack, beads of sweat rolling down her face as she carried Rarity on her back. Even she, strongest of them all, was starting to show the strain of their forced march.

Suddenly, the weight on Twilight’s back became even greater. She fell limply to the ground as the weight on her back asked too much of her failing strength. As she looked to the side, she saw, to her horror, that Fluttershy had collapsed, the strain having grown too great for the poor pegasus to bear. Fluttershy covered her eyes with her hooves, choking back a sob as she tried to catch her breath.

“I’m so sorry Twilight... I’m so sorry,” Fluttershy snivelled. Twilight wanted to tell her everything would be okay. Glancing back at their passenger convinced her that doing so would be to tell a lie. She had never seen anypony seriously hurt before, but just a single glance made it clear. If they couldn’t keep going, they were never going to make it in time.

Applejack stepped next to her. “Twi’, just let me take over. You’ve had enough.”

Gazing up at her, Applejack’s expression betrayed the same hopelessness she heard in Fluttershy’s voice. Twilight had come so far, tried so hard, and yet still, she knew there was no way they would make it.

“No...” she said as she climbed to her hooves, gently letting the creature’s arm slide to the ground.

“Twilight?”

“I’m not going to let it end like this!” she shouted out as her horn began to glow fiercely. The sky above was illuminated with its fierce glow, appearing as a fountain of light to any who managed to see it, as she called upon the last of her strength for the second time that night.

Alex could feel the warmth rushing out of his body. Everything else was blurry and distant, like he was watching things happen through a very old television screen. The sound of himself breathing seemed to overshadow all other sounds around him. His vision was steadily growing darker, until a heavy din began to fill the air, breaking his concentration. Light began to fill his vision, and he smiled weakly.

I guess... I guess I won’t be going home after all.

By Royal Decree

Just Human, chapter 6: By Royal Decree

Princess Celestia stared down into the valleys below Canterlot, her eyes resting nearly unceasingly on the direction in which lay Ponyville. Though she couldn’t physically see the small town, her senses reached far beyond mere sight, and Ponyville appeared to her as a tainted stain in the magic flowing through the land. Some dark force has spread its tendrils through that whole area of her kingdom, and the one reason she wasn’t there to stop it in person was because she feared the effect it would have on her.

“Sister?” she heard behind her. In the doorway to her bedroom stood Luna, whose expression betrayed her concern.

“Has there been any word?” Celestia asked.

“No, we haven’t had more word from Ponyville in some time,” Luna said sadly with a shake of her head.

Celestia nodded, and with a heavy heart she turned back to face the window.

What could be causing this? Discord? Changelings? Nothing I know off has the capacity to affect magic on this scale, but something must be causing this.

“Sister?”

Luna had moved to sit next to Celestia, still looking at her with that same look of concern.

“You should really get some rest.”

Celestia looked back at the window, though this time up at the sky. The moon cast its gentle light down on the world beneath it, and she wondered briefly how long it had been since she had gotten any rest at all. From the few reports she’s received from Ponyville, insomnia seemed to be rampant there as well, though unlike with her, that wasn’t due to an inability to stop worrying.

“I will not rest while those in my care cannot do the same.”

Luna looked even more saddened upon hearing that, turning her gaze to the window briefly, before looking back at Celestia.

“Then what do you propose we do?”

“I’ve sent one of my court to Ponyville to investigate the situation. He will come through for us. He has to.”

Twilight awoke as warmth and softness enveloped her body. The world around her had become so serene. She could feel the warmth of sunlight on her face, and in the distance she could hear birdsong carried on the wind.

Her eyes fluttered open, the first thing entering her vision that of a white earth pony with a pink mane and tail, who sighed in relief as they locked eyes.

“Thank goodness, Twilight. You had us all so worried.”

“Nurse Redheart?...” Twilight asked in confusion, as she began to take in the room around her. The pristine whites allowed her to immediately recognize her surroundings. “How did I get to the hospital? The last thing I remember was...” she trailed off as she realised that her memory cut off into a blank after she tried to use her magic again.

“I was hoping you’d be able to tell me,” Nurse Redheart replied with a big smile on her face. “There was a bright flash in the lobby, and suddenly all six of you were there, including that strange creature you brought along.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in response, as her thoughts immediately went to the greatest source of danger.

“What happened to the creature!? Is he alright!? And my friends, are they-”

“Twilight, calm down.”

Twilight looked at Nurse Redheart, suddenly realising that her expression had turned around completely, as the nurse looked at her now with deep concern. A hoof on her chest had stopped her from rising from her bed, an action she didn’t even realise she was undertaking, as she also noticed she had begun to hyperventilate.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Nurse redheart replied as Twilight gently lowered herself back into her bed. “From what I gathered, you and your friends went through a lot last night. You just need to take it easy. You pushed yourself far too hard, and your condition may still worsen if you do it again.”

Twilight nodded slowly. Nurse Redheart had taken good care of her, she realised, as most of the pain she was in last night from the cuts and bruises she suffered didn’t bother her that much anymore, but that sudden surge of activity definitely had an impact, as her some of the wounds on her forelegs began to sting again, while her muscles painfully reminded her that she really had gone too far the other day, even if doing so was absolutely necessary.

“Your friends are fine,” Nurse Redheart replied, a soft smile returning as she noticed Twilight taking her advice. “None of them were seriously hurt, though miss Rarity and miss Rainbow Dash have been admitted and received specialist treatment for their injuries. They’re doing well however, and can probably return home later today.”

Well, at least everypony is okay, Twilight thought, with no small amount of gratefulness for that fact.

“And the creature, is he...” Twilight inquired carefully.

“Yes. He was severely injured when you brought him in, and he had lost a lot of blood, but he’s stable.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Though she didn’t know the creature very well, he had gone through extreme lengths to keep her and her friends safe, and she was sure he didn’t mean them harm. Still, she knew what she saw. If that creature really was “Father”, he was still a menace to all of Ponyville, possibly all of Equestria, regardless of whether he knew what he was causing.

“Can I go see him?”

Nurse Redheart appeared pensive for a moment, bringing a hoof up to her chin. “I’m afraid I can’t make that call. You’d have to ask Professor Greymane.”

“Professor Greymane?” Twilight asked, more than a little surprised. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“He arrived last night, not too long after you and your friends showed up. He said he’d come to Ponyville for you, on behalf of Princess Celestia, but when he examined you and realised you didn’t need treatment, just a lot of rest, he turned his attention to the creature. He’s been taking care of it ever since.”

Wait, on behalf of Princess Celestia? Could it be...

“That wouldn’t be ‘the’ Professor Greymane, the physician of Princess Celestia’s royal court?”

Nurse Redheart nodded eagerly and began explaining at length at what an honor it was for her little hospital to be privy to such a visit, but Twilight’s attention quickly slipped as she was filled with a sense of immense gratitude.

The princess must have received my letter, and she sent her own physician to make sure I was alright! The princess really looks after me... No matter what.

Suddenly, the door to her room opened.

“S’cuse me, miss Redheart? How’s Twilight?” Applejack asked meekly from the door opening, before realising Twilight was awake.

“Hey girls,” Twilight called with a wave of her hoof and a smile, as Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy entered the room. Without any warning, they suddenly charged forward and jumped, embracing her.

“We were so worried about you Twilight! When you teleported us, you weren’t awake when we arrived!” Fluttershy said. “We thought you might have hurt yourself trying to save everypony.”

“Yeah! And that grumpy old doctor wouldn’t even let us see you! We had to wait forever before we even knew if you were okay!” Pinkie exclaimed loudly, puffing her face up in a mock-angry expression.

“Ah’m just so glad nopony got seriously hurt! Ah’d never have forgiven myself!” Applejack said as she tightened her grip on Twilight even more.

“So, are you feeling any better, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“Not if you won’t stop choking me,” Twilight sputtered in the group’s crushing hug, who then quickly let go. “S-sorry,” they apologized in unison, rubbing the back of their heads.

“Alright, that’s enough girls,” Nurse Redheart said, unable to suppress a giggle of her own. “Twilight needs her rest. I’m sure she’ll be in a better state to receive visits later today.”

That was enough to jar Twilight awake. Suddenly she remembered she had unfinished business. The creature was still here somewhere, and she had no idea what was going on with it.

What if he’s already up? Do they know that he’s the cause? If so, what are they doing with him? I have to check! I need to be sure!

“No wait! I’m fine!” Twilight said, as she again began to fumble with her sheets.

“Twilight, stop! You’re not in any condition to be up and about!” Nurse Redheart insisted, but Twilight would have none of it. She jumped out of bed, her friends and Nurse Redheart looking aghast, though she landed on all fours and kept her footing with little issue. Though her friends breathed a sigh of relief, Nurse Redheart sure didn’t.

“Twilight, please! You need your rest!”

“I said I was fine,” she said as she barged past Nurse Redheart. “Have you girls checked on Dash and Rarity?”

“Uh, yeah,” replied a suddenly apprehensive looking Applejack. “They were gonna wait for us in the lobby.”

“Alright then, let’s go find them.”

Though Twilight was already on her way out the door, Applejack shot a nervous look at Nurse Redheart.

“Is she gonna be alright?”

Nurse Redheart sighed deeply, acknowledging a lost battle when she saw one. “Just try not to let her push herself too hard today. She should be fine as long as she doesn’t put herself under any stress.”

Twilight hurried through the hospital her friends close in tow. Pinkie Pie was already rambling about plans to throw a gigantic party to celebrate their survival, with both Applejack and Fluttershy just politely nodding the whole time. She was pretty sure they just wanted to go home and forget about everything that had happened, at least for a little while. Twilight knew that was exactly what she craved, but right now, she had to remain focussed.

I still don’t know for sure whether that creature intentionally meant to cause of all this, but how else could he have done it? I’ve never heard of a creature that could subconsciously affect so large an area alone. Then again, I’ve never heard of a creature that looked anything like him either...

It wasn’t long before Twilight’s train of thought was interrupted. Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity stood in the lobby, waving and smiling happily at her, no doubt glad to see her again. Twilight couldn’t help but smile in turn. So worried had she been about what condition those two could’ve been in, she felt a massive weight dropping from her shoulders just seeing them alive and well. However, she did notice the bandages wrapped around Dash’s wings and Rarity’s horn.

“Hey girls, are you two feeling any better?” Twilight asked cautiously, to which Rarity immediately struck a pose.

“Why yes of course! We were far more worried about you. They only treated me for a... ‘minor’ case of magical exhaustion,” she said, before very gently prodding her bandaged horn with a hoof, wincing immediately at the touch. “I may have gone a bit too far last night. I have no regrets, but... this is going to sting for a while.”

“Yeah, and look at this,” Rainbow Dash said as she bit into one of the bandages and carefully pried it apart to show her wing. Small, fluffy blue feathers had already grown in the places that had been ugly bald patches before. “They used some sorta ‘growth acceleration’ spell or something like that. Means my feathers will have grown back before next week!”

Pinkie pushed her way in between her friends, running up right next to Rainbow Dash with a massive goofy grin on her face, inspecting the wing. Suddenly Twilight remembered where the last time was that she saw that look on Pinkie’s face. When the Cake’s babies were teething.

“Aww, just look at these fluffy little feathers! They’re adorable!”

Dash’s teeth immediately locked together at hearing the dreaded “A” word, and she rushed to hide her wings with the bandages once more.

“Okay, that’s it! I’m not taking these off until the feathers have grown back! Every single one!”

“Pinkie, put that camera away!”

Watching her friends being themselves again, with Pinkie trying to get a good angle to snap a picture from while Applejack’s trying to stop Dash from tackling the pink prankster to the ground, made the weight on Twilight’s mind lessen.

It really seems like everything’s gone back to normal again. I still want to check up on the creature, if only to make sure he’s alright. But maybe, when all of this is over, everything’s going to be okay after all...

Only now did Twilight realise that she hadn’t stopped smiling the entire time.

“So girls, who wants to go visit the creature that saved us?”

An eerie silence fell over the rest of the group. They looked between each other to gauge the opinion of everypony else, though eventually they all nodded yes. Still, they seemed apprehensive. After what happened these past few days, Twilight couldn’t really blame them.

They walked to the wing of the hospital where they were treating the creature. It didn’t take them very long before they hit the double doors with the big “Quarantine, keep out!” sign posted on its front.

“You sure we oughta be comin’ here Twi’? It don’t look like they’d appreciate a visit,” Applejack remarked. Twilight carefully prodded the door with a hoof, which then slid open with little resistance.

“It’s not locked. They probably just imposed a quarantine as a precaution. Considering we’re the ones who brought him in, I don’t think it’ll be any problem if we check up on him.”

“Wait, Twilight!” Fluttershy called out after her, but Twilight was already through the doors, checking the rooms in the ward for the location of the creature. Her friends followed her closely, but were obviously not as eager to join in the search as she was.

A few orderlies made their way through the corridors, dragging or carrying equipment and materials around to the empty rooms. Twilight didn’t recognize most of it, though a lot of it seemed to be designed to deal with different conditions. Clearly they were leaving nothing to chance, setting up everything they could in case their mysterious patient ended up having a yet undiscovered ailment that needed treatment.

A lot of the orderlies were giving them weird looks, until one of them called out: “Hey, are you even supposed to be in here?”

“It’s fine!” Twilight replied. “Professor Greymane knows who I am, and he’ll want to see me.”

“He does?” the orderly questioned, scratching his head in confusion, though Twilight didn’t pay him anymore attention as she continued her search.

Eventually, she came at a room where the noise was greater than the rest of the ward, with plenty of nurses, orderlies and physicians making their way in and out of the door, closing it before Twilight could get a good look inside. She gathered her courage and knocked, hoping that she was right in her assumption that Professor Greymane wouldn’t mind her interrupting him.

“Professor Greymane? It’s me, Twilight Sparkle.”

A loud crash could be heard from the other side of the door as countless metal objects clattered to the floor, much to the dismay of those who were going to have to pick them up.

Suddenly, the door opened as a grey-coated pony began making his way out of the room, except in reverse... With the wrong end coming out first.

“Yes yes, just clean that up, we’ll sterilise them again later! Just don’t forget to take those measurements again! I can scarcely believe the first batch!”

True to his name, Professor Greymane didn’t just have a grey coat, but also a mane, tail and moustache in a lighter shade of grey. On his head was mounted some ridiculous contraption that held several magnifying glasses in front of his face, magnifying his amber eyes to incredible proportions.

“Oh, Miss Sparkle! I didn’t expect you to be up and about already, you were in quite the condition last time I checked! Do try to take it easy. We don’t want you pushing yourself too hard again!” Professor Greymane patronized as he removed the contraption from his head, revealing that beneath it all it still wore a pair of round glasses and that he was, in fact, a unicorn. Now that the magnifying glasses were no longer between her and the professor, she found it remarkably easier to read his expression. He seemed quite happy about something. Ecstatic even.

“I’ll be alright, but about the creature we found—”

“Why yes, isn’t it exciting!?” Professor Greymane interrupted her, rubbing his hooves together like a little filly about to unwrap her birthday presents. “I dare say your discovery could be the greatest discovery of our generation, nay, of the past century! We’ve only skimmed the surface of this creature’s biology and already we have data unlike any we’ve ever seen in another life form! His immune system, bone structure, muscle tissues and more are true treasure troves of information! And his clothing! Even it is unlike anything we have here in Equestria! Oh, but where are my manners!”

He interrupted his long rant to make a slight bow for the group. “Professor Greymane, personal physician of Celestia’s court, at your service.”

“How is he, professor? Has he said anything at all about where he’s from or what he’s doing here?” Twilight inquired, to which Professor Greymane’s smile weakened, if only slightly.

“Unfortunately, no. He was in critical condition when you’ve brought him in. It took us quite some time to get him stable...” he said, as he took off his glasses using his magic as well as a small handkerchief from one of the saddlebags on his sides, each marked with a red cross. He began cleaning his glasses as he continued, his expression more solemn now. “It was rough going for most of the night, as quite understably, we had no donor blood, and though his physiology follows most of the same basic rules as ours, we were hesitant to attempt more invasive techniques to treat him with. Worse still, he didn’t respond at all to magic. Thankfully, in the end he pulled through mostly on his own! He’s quite resilient, even if he doesn’t look it. To answer your question, he has been unconscious since you brought him in. Though he has been stable for some time now, he hasn’t shown any signs of waking up. However, there is no need to worry! I assure you that as long as he’s within my care, he shall receive the best treatment Equestria has to offer!”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She had been very worried that the creature hadn’t survived the mauling it had received. Even now, she didn’t want to think back at the horrible wounds it had suffered, just to protect Fluttershy.

However, if they’ve been treating him all night, why didn’t he mention anything about that... That darkness that I saw? If he is Father, then why hasn’t Professor Greymane said anything about that?

“So, he’s stable right now? There’s nothing else you can tell us?” Twilight asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. That’s all we can say for sure right now. Well, that and that he’s undoubtedly the most remarkable creature we’ve ever seen. How did you even find him?”

Twilight and her friends began to explain the events of the past few days, Twilight withholding her suspicions that the creature was behind the strange affliction that affected Ponyville, up until the point where the chimaera showed up. The professor’s jaw began to drop slowly as she explained the battle against the chimaera.

“You-you mean to tell me that the creature fought off a chimaera, practically on his own, and won?” he asked, utterly awestruck. “Dear Celestia, he can’t weigh more than 180 pounds! I’m not sure whether he had acted on desperation or truly believed he had a chance of winning!”

The group remained silent after that, with Professor Greymane looking as though he had been given enough food for thought to last him a lifetime.

“Professor, those measurements you asked just came in!” a voice called from within the lab. Professor Greymane took a moment to realise he had been called, before nodding to himself.

“Yes, alright. I’m sure you girls have more questions, but I am needed elsewhere. I’d like to see you again for a complete examination tomorrow Twilight. After all, I was sent here specifically to check up on you. However, I fear that beyond that, the creature will be taking up most of my attention from now. I’m sure you can see yourselves out.”

The group nodded in unison, and Twilight finally allowed herself to relax.

Finally, everypony is accounted for. He’s in good hooves. All I can do now is hope he’ll get better soon.

Just as she turned to leave, a strange sound filtered through the noise coming from the creature’s room. A familiar giggle, carried as though from far away, slowly becoming louder until she could make out words being said.

“This isn’t over yet, Twilight. We still have a lot of playing to do...”

Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. Every suspicion she had up till now had been confirmed immediately, and she rushed to stop Professor Greymane from closing the door behind him.

“Professor Greymane! Have you done magical scans!? Has anyone in your staff noticed weird things happening since the creature was brought in!?”

Professor Greymane looked shocked at Twilight’s sudden change in demeanor, and took a moment to recompose himself.

“Of course we did Twilight, they all came out negative. We have a strong suspicion that he isn’t a magical species. Why the sudden concern?”

Twilight was at a loss for an immediate answer. Just like before, nopony else seems to be noticing the strange voices and hallucinations that Twilight had been seeing.

What do I say? How can I possibly explain that I’m seeing things that nopony else is seeing, and that through that I know the creature is a danger to everypony here?

“Please Professor Greymane! You have to let me see him! I can’t explain it, but he’s somehow responsible for everything that has happened to Ponyville recently!”

Professor Greymane studied her for a moment, as he apparently struggled to conceive what had caused this sudden outburst. His expression hardened as he made up his mind.

“Miss Sparkle, you’re unsettling my staff. If he really was responsible for such a thing, our unicorn physicians would have detected it by now. If he was carrying a disease that’s responsible for such strange behavior, it’s obviously out of his system by now, or we would’ve discovered it. All I ask is that you remain patient until we are sure that he is healthy and sound.”

“That’s not good enough!” Twilight retorted. “If he is responsible for everything’s that happened then there’s no telling what will happen if we don’t find a way to stop it! Just let me see him, I know I can find a way!”

“Miss Sparkle, please, you’re hysterical. Go back to your room and get some sleep. The last days must have affected you more severely than we believed,” Professor Greymane said, more sternly this time. He clearly wasn’t going to budge. She glared at him, even baring her teeth in anger as she raised her voice even more.

“If you won’t let me see him, I will demand that Nurse Redheart will!”

“That won’t be necessary,” the professor said as he used his magic to pull a scroll from his saddlebag. On it was more than Twilight could read so fast, written in beautiful golden text, with a seal depicting Celestia’s cutie mark at the bottom. “I carry the royal seal, which grants me authority over any institution in Equestria. She is no longer in charge here. Now, these good chaps will show you to the door. I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Sparkle.”

As Professor Greymane shut the door behind himself with a loud bang, Twilight suddenly found herself flanked by two friars. They were both male, and so were just slightly taller than her, but it definitely wasn’t her that was scared of them. They did their best to avoid eye contact. After all, news of Twilight’s magical powers did travel across town. It was no surprise they weren’t looking forward to dealing with the princess’s student when she was in a foul mood.

“R-right this way, M-Miss Sparkle,” one of the friars stuttered. Twilight did entertain the thought to just force herself in, but instead she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

No point going through with this if it’ll bring everypony against me. I’m just going to have to find another way to fix this.

As she turned around to head for the door, she caught her friends looking at her in complete shock. Even Pinkie Pie stared slack-jawed at Twilight’s sudden outburst, and suddenly she was worried at the damage she may have done.

The friars led the group up till the doors leading into the quarantined ward, at which point they let the girls go their own way. They began to make their way out of the hospital, everypony eager to go home after today. Twilight didn’t dare face her friends, not after going crazy in front of all of them without being able to give a good reason why, so she led at the front of the group to avoid having to look at any of them,

“Uhm, Twilight? Dear?”

“Hm?” she replied quietly, turning back to see a concerned Rarity now walking briskly besides her.

“Were you positive about all those things you said to the professor? Truly positive?”

She remained quiet for a moment, as she attempted to pick together the words to explain it to her friends.

“Do you... Do you remember what I told you after me and Applejack found you girls again? About that strange thing I had seen, like an evil dark cloud?”

Rarity nodded in response.

“When we were carrying the creature back to Ponyville... I noticed that same darkness leaking from his body. I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure how you’d all respond. Even if he is responsible for what had happened to us, he still saved our lives. I don’t think he means to hurt any of us, because why else would he have risked so much to save us? That’s why I need to see him, to figure out a way to stop this from happening all over again. I owe him that much. I owe it to him to give him another chance.”

“So, what you’re saying is, you want to get back in there so you can have a look yerself?” Applejack asked.

“I have too.”

For a moment, there was silence. Twilight finally stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the group, who were all smiling brightly at her.

“Well, gee Twi’, why didn’t you just explain that to us in the first place?” Applejack said as she pushed up her hat.

“Wait, so, you girls are okay with that? Considering that the professor has all that authority, I didn’t think you’d—”

“You’d what?” Rainbow Dash questioned with a smirk, as she propped herself up next to Twilight with a foreleg hanging around Twilight’s neck. “That we wouldn’t try to help you on your mission to help the weird monster that saved all of us? Are you kidding me! I’d figure you’d know us a little better by now, Twi’.”

“Of course Twilight, we’re you’re friends,” said Fluttershy confidently, until she continued. “Even though it might be d-d-dangerous and d-d-difficult—”

As soon as Pinkie realised Fluttershy was hesitating, she immediately took Fluttershy into a big bear hug and began to spin her around. “Don’t worry so much Fluttershy! After all, don’t you know what it would mean if we stop the black gooey stuff from leaking out of him and wake him up?”

“N-no,” Fluttershy responded. Pinkie had since stopped spinning her around, but her eyes hadn’t quite caught up, still rolling in her sockets.

“It means we can welcome another new face into Ponyville, silly!”

“Girls,” Twilight said as she used her magic to gather all her friends around her, before taking them in a big hug, “you’re the best.”

“So, dear, how do you plan on going about this? I’m quite sure that Professor Greymane will not let us in to see the creature before he’s done examining it... And considering his apparent enthusiasm that may take some time, and as we know, he has that royal seal,” Rarity said.

“I’ll look into it. Meet me at the hospital’s entrance tomorrow, and I’ll have something figured out.”

The group nodded, and they all locked hooves together, before throwing them up into the air and cheering loudly.

It was night, and in the Ponyville library, somepony was still reading at candle light.

“The royal seal, given by Celestia only in times of emergency when she herself cannot be present to deal with a situation, gives the owner it was assigned to full authority...” Twilight recited, before groaning in frustration and throwing yet another book on Equestrian politics from her desk. She laid her head down, blowing some of the hairs she might have neglected to groom out of her eyes.

I’m running out of time, and I’m not getting anywhere! There’s just no way around that royal seal. Nothing I say or do, short of bringing the princess to Ponyville, will let me get past Greymane. I can’t afford to wait that long!

Spike placed a steaming cup of herbal tea in front Twilight, shooting her a worrying look.

“Found anything yet?”

“No, not yet, but tomorrow, I’m going to fix this. One way, or the other.”

Sleep

Just Human, chapter 7: Sleep

The sun had just risen above Ponyville, shedding light on the townsfolk as they went about their business. It was miles removed from what it had looked like the other day, when everypony was agitated, tired and restless. Twilight was already underway to the hospital, perhaps a little on the late side to join her friends. In the distance she could already see them, waving hooves at her approach.

“Hey Twilight! We’re all set whenever you’re... uh...” Rainbow Dash called out cheerfully, before her mouth dropped open in shock, soon followed by everypony else in the group. Twilight knew why, of course. She had stayed up all night without even attempting to groom herself when the sun rose, but that didn’t stop her. She didn’t have any more time to waste on niceties.

“T-Twilight? Are you...?” Fluttershy asked, though she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence as Twilight walked past her at a brisk pace. Judging from the sound behind her, her friends followed, though they had to run to catch up to her.

“Twilight? You’re not going to do anything reckless, are you? I mean, I know I’ve told you you could be a bit more impulsive from time to time, but this may not be... Wise,” Rarity said, cringing as Twilight blew some stray strands of hair out of her face.

“Twi’, listen to me. Just cause this is lookin’ bad, don’t mean you shouldn’t think this through,” Applejack said.

“Oh, I have. I was up all night coming up with the plan.”

“You were? What did you come up with?”

“You’ll see.”

They walked into the hospital together, as Twilight made a beeline for the quarantined ward. A friar had been put on guard just outside the double doors. No doubt somepony had anticipated that she’d try to enter again.

“Hey you!” the friar called out, more than a little nervously as Twilight headed right for him. She was pretty sure she could see a bead of sweat forming on his brow. “You shouldn’t be here! P-Professor Greymane said—”

Twilight’s horn began to glow with magical power, combined with a purplish aura surrounding the friar, who suddenly slid along the hospital floor several paces before he mercifully stopped just short of the wall. He let out a brief sigh of relief, before Twilight turned herself to her goal again. She practically kicked open the double door, making her way straight for the room where she knew Greymane was keeping the creature. None of the nurses or friars who she encountered along the way tried to stop her. In fact, most of them hurried to get out of the way.

“Twi’, are you sure about this?” Applejack asked uncertainly, but Twilight didn’t bother to respond. Explaining it would cost her time, and she didn’t have that.

It wasn’t long at all before they reached the door, which Twilight opened without hesitation. Within, several white curtains had been drawn around a large area within the room, with several nurses and friars peeking around them to see what the commotion is about. Professor Greymane wasted no time in walking up to Twilight, physically blocking her way to the creature as he shot her a stern gaze.

“Miss Sparkle, might I ask you what you think you’re doing? You know as well as anypony that treating a comatose patient, especially one in this condition, requires delicacy and concentration!”

No sooner had he said that, than did another crescendo of metal clattering to the floor sound through the room. A few paces further a charcoal black pegasus stood over a whole bunch of surgical tools which had fallen to the floor, looking rather guilty.

“S-Sorry.”

Professor Greymane used a hoof to rub the bridge of his nose, no doubt nursing a terrible migraine, before turning his attention back to Twilight.

“Miss Sparkle, Twilight, Princess Celestia herself has bestowed on me her trust in dealing with this matter. I ask only that you do not question her decision. Now, would you mind explaining to me why you’re here?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. The reason why I’m here is simple,” said Twilight, as she managed a mischievous smile, “I’m here to present you an ultimatum. Allow me to conduct my own investigation of the creature immediately... Or else!”

He looked at her, dumbfounded, tilting his head just slightly to the side. She returned the stern gaze he had given her earlier.

“Or else what?”

“Or else you’ll be dealing with the one thing that document signed by the princess has no authority over.” she said plainly, but this only seemed to confuse the professor even more.

“And what would that be?” he asked, when suddenly Twilight’s face turned to a snarl as she gritted her teeth and prepared herself to execute “the plan.”

“Me.”

Twilight’s horn began to glow intensely, magic pouring out of it like a fountain, as a purple aura grabbed everypony present, save for Twilight and her friends. With peeps and cries of alarm, the entire staff of Professor Greymane had become airborne, and began floating towards the open door.

“Miss Sparkle, what do you think you’re do—” Professor Greymane shouted before the door closed behind him. The glow of Twilight’s horn died down shortly, before regaining its powers as Twilight focused her attention to a new target.

This time, the door began to glow, and with a flash, a sturdy iron bar, with a lock in its centre, had been placed over the door. The glow, both from the door and Twilight’s horn, died down, and she gasped for breath as the strain of so much spellcasting at once hit her.

A few knocks came from the other side of the door, as people tried to open the door. Some shouting was heard, but the walls were insulated and most of it was too muffled to make out. All her friends looked at her, even more dumbstruck than Greymane in the face of his “ultimatum.”

“That was your plan!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed loudly.

“There was no other way! That document gave him full authority over everypony in town, and it would take too much time to alert Princess Celestia!”

Rarity put her hoof to the bridge of her nose, apparently nursing the same migraine that Greymane was suffering from.

“This won’t come back to haunt us now, will it?”

“Probably not,” Twilight said. “If the princess hears about this, she’ll come to investigate, but if we tell her our side of the story, she’ll have no choice but to tell us we were right to act!” Twilight answered with no small amount of pride in her voice that she had been able to come up with this.

Her friends didn’t seem so convinced. After a moment of awkward silence, she rubbed the back of her head.

“Yeah... That plan actually sounded better when I came up with it.”

Nervously, the group turned their attention to the white curtains which were undoubtedly shrouding the creature. Soft breathing could be heard on the other side. Using her magic, Twilight carefully slid open the curtain. Behind it, several beds had been pressed together, as the creature was too tall for a normal hospital bed to suffice. Bandages had been wrapped extensively around his left leg, which had been mauled in the fight with the chimaera, the memory of which made Twilight wince slightly. An IV drip had been attached to one of the creature’s forelegs, slowly allowing a clear liquid to replace those the creature had lost. However, despite the commotion, it still slept peacefully, or more accurately, hadn’t awakened from its coma.

“So, this is the creature that saved us?” Rarity questioned curiously, which didn’t surprise Twilight. After all, Rarity had been rendered unconscious just before the fight really started, so she had no chance to see the creature for herself. Rarity walked up next to the bed, using her forehooves to prop herself up and get a better look. “I had imagined something more... Fierce. The poor dear. It looks like he’s had it even harder than us lately.”

Most of the creature’s arms and legs were exposed, the clothing pulled aside to reveal skin pockmarked with scratches and bruises. Fluttershy hovered just slightly above the creature, inspecting it with a sad look on her face.

“He must be in a lot of pain. Goodness, he hardly has any fur left, just tiny little hairs. He c-could be s-sick.”

“Good point, Fluttershy,” Twilight commented as she looked across the tables that had been gathered near the creature. One of them was labelled as a journal belonging to Professor Whitemane. Embracing the booklet with her magic, she hovered it to herself and opened it on the first page, and began to read aloud.

“Day one, treatment of unknown creature.

We managed to stabilize the creature by giving it a simple IV drip. Preliminary tests have shown the creature to be remarkably durable. Despite failure of magical treatments of the extensive damage he has suffered, he has recovered admirably on his own strength. So far, the duration of his coma can only be speculated at, but I am confident it won’t be much more than twenty-four hours. We will continue to monitor the creature’s progress. Beyond keeping him hydrated and his wounds cleaned, there isn’t much we can do.”

Beyond this first entry was a detailed sketch of the creature’s body, which was about 90% complete, the professor being unwilling to remove too much of the creature’s clothing for fear of opening up unseen wounds. There were several pages, some just stuffed into the journal as additional notes, but the information was quite extensive. Everything ranging from how to best bandage each of the creature’s wounds, to instructions on how to make the IV drip they were using, to guesses why magical treatment had failed.

“Well, this solves our biggest problem. With this, we should be able to take care of him ourselves! Fluttershy, as you have the most experience out of any of us, do you think you can handle keeping the wounds on his leg clean and keeping his IV drip going?”

Fluttershy gave the stained bandages on the creature’s leg a pensive look, before nodding.

“Alright. Rarity, I could use your help sorting out the professor’s notes and the supplies they stored in this room. The rest of you should probably keep a lookout, in case the professor tries to break through the door.”

“Not to be a downer, Twilight, but what do you think he’s gonna do? Try to ram the door down? Cause I’d like to see him try,” Rainbow Dash snickered.

“Actually, I think that right about now, he’ll have no choice but to inform Princess Celestia, and that’s exactly what I’m counting on. Until then, we just have to try and do our best to solve the issue. ”

Hours passed as Twilight and Rarity sorted out the different notes they had scattered over a table. While Applejack remained on guard, watching with waning interest how the door shuddered occasionally with the feeble attempts of ponies on the other side trying to contact them or break down the door. Pinkie and Dash had made sure the windows were secured, and afterwards had taken to playing games to lighten the mood. Fluttershy stuck closest to the creature, though not entirely without apprehension. She dared not let her patient rest unsupervised, that much was obvious, but Twilight was sure that she wasn’t so keen about being this close when the creature woke up.

“Alright, I should have everything I need to begin our own examination,” Twilight announced as she brought a whole bundle of books on a table on wheels to the creature’s bed. The rest of her friends gathered around the bed as well, no doubt out of curiosity, and because it was about time to break the monotony of standing guard for most of the day. “We’ll start with a simple physical. Shouldn’t be that difficult, even though we’re essentially dealing with an unknown species here... Fluttershy, what can you tell us about his injuries?”

Fluttershy averted her eyes as the group turned its attention to her, instead looking at the creature’s injured leg with a pained expression.

“H-he suffered serious i-injuries to his left leg. I-it’s not broken, thank goodness, and didn’t get infected. He won’t walk again on that leg for two weeks or more, if he rests well, but he should be f-fine. All his other injuries are minor.”

“Great start Fluttershy,” Twilight commented. She originally also planned to have a look at his injured leg herself, but she happened to sneak a peek when Fluttershy was changing his bandages. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and she secretly wondered how the timid Fluttershy was able to stomach the sight without flinching. Twilight quickly wrote some notes in her own blank notebook, for future reference. “In that case, I’m just going to look him over really quick.”

The first thing she started with were the creature’s strange forelegs, one of which was already being held up by Pinkie. “Oooh, look! If you hold it up just right, it kinda looks like a spider! If spiders had five legs...” Pinkie chirped happily, though the idea seemed to make Rarity shudder.

Now that her attention was drawn to it, she did find the “claw” of the creature to be a strange sight. It had five appendages, rather than the four she was used to from non-hoofed creatures, which were slender and long, and didn’t really end in claws at all. They were short and stubby, and hardly even seemed sharp. It’s rear legs ended in similarly strange appendages, though these seemed to be far more designed for walking.

“Not much of a weapon, is it, Twi’?” Applejack commented.

“Oooh,” Rarity cooed from the other side of the bed, carefully inspecting the sleeve of the creature’s shirt. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before! This stitching... It’s exquisite! More than that! It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen!”

“How so?” Twilight asked.

“Just look carefully. Each and every stitch is perfectly aligned, not one is out of place, save for some wear and tear! Imagine the patience the seamstress who created this must’ve had to make sure every thread and every stitch was perfectly placed. I mean, the colour is a little drab, and it certainly wouldn’t do for today’s fashion, but that doesn’t change the sheer craftsmanship that must’ve been required to create this! I do wonder, however, who would go through this much effort to sew a shirt, only to make it so... Dull, for lack of a better term.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes dismissively. “Maybe where he’s from, they don’t have fashion.” She then immediately covered her mouth with her hooves as she realised what she just said. Rarity’s eyes nearly bugged out of her skull, as she reared up on her rear hooves, putting one of her hooves over her forehead and opening her mouth to mime a scream, though no sound actually came.

She kept that pose for a few seconds, before looking at Twilight imploringly. Twilight sighed deeply, before using her magic to roll a hospital bed behind Rarity, allowing her to safely fall backwards and begin to sulk.

“The horror! The travesty! What kind of nightmarish place doesn’t know fashion! No wonder the poor thing fled it’s home!”

Twilight decided it was for the best if she just went about her business. She made a few notes about the complexity of the creature’s clothing and lack of useful claws in her notebook, before turning her examination on the creature’s head. A thick dark-blond mane covered it, the only significant patch of hair they had managed to find on the creature’s body, which made Twilight hope that, if the creature was balding as a result of sickness, that such a sickness wasn’t infectious. To her surprise, however, she noted a thin layer of hair was starting to break through on the creature’s cheeks, chin and upper lip. She shook off the thought, and gently used a hoof to raise one of the creature’s eyelids. Its green eyes seemed tiny, compared to hers, but they had obviously been functional when the creature was awake.

Next, she used the same method to raise the creature’s upper lip, and the sight made her heart skip a beat. The creature’s teeth were small, but certainly were sharp.

“Oooh...” Fluttershy uttered, which piqued the interest of the group, who were having trouble getting a good look.

“What’s wrong?” asked Applejack.

“It’s t-teeth are s-sharp,” Fluttershy stammered,” which m-means that he c-c-co-co—”

“It means... He might not eat the same things we do,” Twilight interjected, sparing Fluttershy from having to finish that sentence. Unfortunately, it seemed to have been a wasted effort. Her friends now looked at the creature with far more apprehension than before.

A painful silence fell. None dared to verbalize the horrifying thought that had entered everypony’s mind, save for Applejack.

“Twi’, are you sure that, if he wakes up, he’s not gonna... You know.”

“No. He wouldn’t...” Twilight said, though the doubt she tried to fight had already taken root in her mind.

Those teeth aren’t made for chewing hay... This creature attacked a chimaera, practically alone, and lived to tell about it. Not just that, but it won! What if he does eat meat!? What if he turns on us the moment he wakes up like he did on the chimaera!?

She saw all her friends thinking the same thing. For a moment, she seriously doubted whether this whole plan of her was a good idea, and not a result of the trauma she had suffered these past few days. However, there was one fact she could not look past, and she used it to dispel all her doubts.

“If that was his intention from the start, he wouldn’t have saved us. He wouldn’t have risked so much just for us, and even if none of that is true, we owe it to him to give him a chance.”

The rest hesitated, but one by one, they nodded their agreement.

“You’re right Twi’. It ain’t often I have to take something back, but he deserves at least one chance,” Applejack stated.

“Okay... Let’s just continue then,” Twilight replied as she levitated a book to the side of the bed and opened it up on a page labelled “Diagnostic Spells.”

Following the instructions, her horn began to glow, followed by her eyes. With a flash, all sorts of vital information about the creature began to flood her mind. She’d never used this spell before, so it was hard to sort out what was useful and what wasn’t, but it didn’t take that much to adjust.

“Heartrate... High but steady... Oxygen levels... Nutrient levels... Brain activity,” she muttered as she went through all of the information, one by one. As she neared the last of the information the spell gave her, she took a deep breath. The spell was taking a lot more out of her than she had thought it would.

“It seems like he’s... Well, ‘normal’ might be a big word. His immune system is really active, probably fighting off infections before they can take root, and his heartrate and blood pressure are high, though that might be normal for his species. Besides his obvious injuries, I can’t see anything wrong with him.”

“Well, that’s good... Right?” Rainbow Dash asked, though Twilight shook her head just a little, as though that didn’t make any sense.

“That’s just it. I couldn’t find any signs of concussion or brain damage. It isn’t just that there’s no reason for him to not wake up, it’s that there’s no reason for him to be in a coma at all.”

“Then, what do you propose we do next?” Rarity asked, which took Twilight be surprise. She honestly believed that Greymane must have missed something, something vital, but right now, it looked like she was coming to the same conclusions as the professor. He was stable, and there wasn’t much else they could do but keep him that.

“I... There are other spells in this book. I’ll try them out. Maybe this spell just isn’t designed for a creature like him.”

Twilight began trying spell after spell, some designed to scan specific functions of the creature’s anatomy, others similar to the first. After the third or fourth spell, Applejack and Rainbow Dash returned on guard, while the rest of the group watched Twilight as she struggled with the sheer volume of spells to cast.

A neat stack of books had formed next to Twilight as she panted, exhausted by the effort she was forcing herself through. As Twilight reached for another one, Rarity stopped her with a hoof of her own, giving her a painfully pitying look.

“Twilight... Dear, I know you want to help him. We all do, but don’t you think you’re pushing yourself a little too hard now? Go lie down, get some rest.”

A dead end. Again. Do they even think I can save him anymore? Does anypony? Or was this all a goosechase. Did we do more damage than we set out to fix? Maybe... Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

She looked back at the creature. His chest rose and fell softly with his breathing. Twilight couldn’t help but remember the way he looked at her just after he has saved them all. Pleading. Sad, even.

“I can’t stop until I know for sure!” she announced, before her horn exploded in a fountain of light.

She poured everything she had, all her strength and will, into the simple diagnostic spell she had used earlier. She was pushing it far beyond its limits, but right now, that was of only secondary importance. She needed to know for sure he would be okay.

The rush of information flooding into her mind as a result of the spell doubled, tripled, before increasing to tenfold its original speed, and eventually filling her mind with so much information at once that she became unable to process it. Still she pushed herself further and further.

Her eyes were glowing so brightly that it became hard for her to see beyond their glow. Eventually, a bright light engulfed her entire vision, and it was then that she could finally see.

On the other side of the bed stood the spectre, grinning maliciously at her.

“So, you finally found us out, did you, Twilight?”

Twilight looked around. It seemed as though they were trapped in a space that was surrounded by darkness. The only things that seemed to exist were her, the creature, and the spectre.

As she looked down at the creature, she noticed for the first time a swirling vortex of dark matter, centered straight on the creature’s heart.

“What is this?” she asked in shock.

“An opening,” the spectre answered. “An opening into our own little world. Our own little Hell...” The spectre seemed to speak of it almost wistfully, as though it were a home she longed to return too.

“Hell?” Twilight asked, not recognizing the word, before noticing that something coming out of the vortex. It was the very dark matter it was composed off, oozing out of it like a foul slime. It seemed to move with a will of its own, slithering off into the dark of her surroundings before disappearing out of sight. “So this is where you’re from...”

“Yes. So tell me, Twilight, do you want to stop this?” the spectre said, immediately gaining Twilight’s attention. It smiled broadly, revealing countless sharp teeth where none had been before. She rose up over the creature, heading towards her, and Twilight found herself unable to move as the spectre bore down on her.

“Then let’s play, Twilight. Let’s play!”

“Twilight!”

Twilight awoke to the sensation of falling. Rarity grabbed her before she could land, thankfully breaking what could’ve been a nasty drop. She looked around, bewildered, only to realise she was back in the hospital room, her friends all looking down at her with worry.

“Twilight! Goodness gracious, what happened? Did you faint?” Rarity asked.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. Let me up!”

She pushed herself out of Rarity’s grasp, using her forehooves to push herself up against the creature’s bed again. Just like before, she could see the swirling vortex on the creature’s chest.

“Celestia...” Twilight muttered, as she reached out towards it. She flinched at the first touch with the dark matter, the unnaturally cold sensation of the touch sinking into her hoof. “Do you girls see this?”

All of them stared at the same spot on the creature’s chest, but none of them seemed to acknowledge what Twilight could see.

“Uhm, see what, Twi’?”

Twilight reached out again, this time dipping her hoof well into the vortex. Immediately, she felt as though the life itself was being sucked out of her. For an instant, she thought she was actually being sucked out of her own body.

So that’s what the spectre wants... That’s how I can solve this!

“Twilight? Are you sure you’re feeling... Okay?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“Yes! I know how to fix this! I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I need you girls to cover me while I’m gone. No matter what happens, don’t let anyone interrupt me, alright?”

“What are you going to do? Where are you going Twi’?” Rainbow Dash asked unbelievingly with a twinge of panic to her voice.

“I... I don’t know. But I have to do this... Alone.”

She reached her hoof out to the vortex, no longer trying to pull back as she felt her consciousness slipping away out of her body, sinking into a dark, cold world that she didn’t recognize.

‘Twilight! Twilight!” Rarity called out as she caught Twilight’s limp body. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t respond.

“What did she do!?” Applejack asked urgently, but Rarity seemed on the verge of panic herself.

“I don’t know!”

The girls looked at each other, despair washing over them like a tide. None of them knew what had just transpired, but they knew it was going to be dangerous, even if only for one of them.

“Just... Just get her on a bed. We’ll do as she said, keep her safe and sound,” Applejack said, though she couldn’t quite believe her own words. “Just... Twi’. I don’t know if you can hear me, but you better come back from this, you hear? You better come back...”

Alex felt himself sinking away. There was a sense of weightlessness, and the feeling of warmth being leeched from his skin by an invisible current surrounding him. He faintly recognized a source of light beyond his closed eyelids, but it was faint, and slowly growing dimmer.

Where am I?

Alex carefully opened his eyes. Through the murky waters surrounding him, he could vaguely see the sun shining down, growing ever smaller as he sank away deeper into the depths.

He moved his head to look around, but darkness surrounded him everywhere but for the light above him. He felt a tug of panic in his chest, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move. His limbs felt weak.

He tried to recall how he could’ve gotten here, but his memory came up a blank. All he remembered was losing consciousness in his own room, but that didn’t make any sense. His head throbbed with pain as he tried to dig for memories he knew should be there.

A dense coldness wrapped around his arms and legs, chilling him to his very bones. He felt himself being dragged further into the deep by some unknown force. He didn’t want it to end like this, but somewhere deep down, a voice was telling him to let go. An eerie calm took hold of him as he tried to force himself to gather the will needed to stop himself from resigning to this fate.

The water above him was broken as something broke through the surface, thousands of bubbles obscuring his vision. When the water finally cleared, he saw, to his amazement, a small equine with a purple coat, a deep blue mane and a horn sinking into the water, her eyes closed.

Panic gripped him, shaking him out of his stupor as he realised that there was something important about that unicorn, though he couldn’t remember what. He tried to call out, but his throat didn’t respond. He tried to struggle against whatever was dragging him further down, but his limbs refused every command. Whatever was dragging him down took a firmer hold of him, and pulled harder. The sun, and with it, the slowly sinking equine, disappeared from his sight as darkness consumed him entirely.

That... Unicorn... Why did she seem so familiar? Why is she here?... Why am I here?

Hell

Just Human, Chapter 8: Hell

Where am I?

Alex felt strange. There was a stillness in the air around him, and a warmth to whatever he was lying in. He recognized occasional flashes of light beyond his closed eyelids, though he couldn’t place their origin. He opened his eyes, only to become even more confused by what he saw.

Above him, dark clouds gathered in a great swirling vortex, blotting out the sky entirely. The area around him was a wasteland of dead trees and ashen dirt, which was cracked and parched. The horizon around him was made up of the peaks of mountains, surrounding him like jagged teeth as though he were in an open maw that was primed to snap shut. Lightning occasionally flashed in the air above him.

What... is this place?

He pushed himself up from the warm soil. Standing up, he could see the broken landscape that surrounded him, as though some cataclysmic event had torn into the earth and left it littered with canyons, craters, hills and valleys. It was the most mournful sight he could remember seeing. Unfortunately, due to the landscape being so broken up, he couldn’t see very far.

A cold had begun to set in, carried on a breeze that didn’t seem to stir the ground or the grasping branches of the dead trees surrounding him. He shivered and did his best to keep his arms close to his body. An unmistakable feeling of dread had begun to creep into his chest.

I... I can’t stay here. I have to move. It doesn’t matter where. I just... Need to get out of here...

He looked around himself for any landmarks, anything that could tell him what direction was safe. There was nothing he could see. There was only a feeling that pulled him into a certain direction, like a distant voice that called to him.

How did I get here? he thought as he began to move, though no memory of this place, nor his journey here, came to him.

I remember the voice of a girl. No... Not a girl. A unicorn... But those don’t exist. But if they don’t exist, why did she seem so... Important?

As Twilight slowly regained consciousness, she realised she was resting on something hard and solid, which had a texture unlike anything she'd felt before. As her eyes fluttered open, the sight that greeted her was unlike anything she could’ve imagined.

“Celestia...”

She lay on a road, that she could tell, but the material it was constructed from was completely alien to her. It was black, with a texture like cracked stone, that despite its worn appearance still felt incredibly durable. Above her, in the sky, a great mass of dark clouds blotted out the sky, swirling in a familiar vortex pattern centered somewhere far beyond her sight.

Far more incredible was the city that lay before her. It was massive, even compared to Canterlot, with buildings that almost seemed to caress the clouds, though each and every one of them was monotone in shape and coloration. All of them were the same blocky constructs, though of different sizes, and coloured in the same dull grey. She recognized windows in all of them, hundreds, if not thousands, set into the city like small black gemstones.

Twilight stared in awe at the city, unable to grasp how buildings of such size can even be constructed, before realising where she was, and how she got here.

“This isn’t real. This is... A dream world, I think. It’s his dream.”

Lightning flashed in the dark clouds in the distance, casting an eerie pale light over the dull grey of the city. In the distance, she noticed the jagged peaks of mountains, giving her the ominous idea she was surrounded. No matter how incredible this place was, a part of her was mortified at the thought that what she was witnessing was taking place in the creature’s mind.

“But then.. How did it come to this? If this is his mind, why does it look like this?”

Her memory traced back to the moment when she first saw the creature, struggling atop the chimaera’s back, before fleeing for his life from its stomping claws. Especially the dazed, terrified look on his face when Fluttershy tried to help him escape the chimaera.

“Was it the chimaera? I knew he was scared, but fear alone wouldn’t do this, would it?”

As she looked into the city, she noticed a nearby sign. Once, she thought, this sign may have shown the name of whatever city this was, but now the metal was deeply scratched, as though something tried very hard to erase it.

As the bleakness of this place struck Twilight once more, a feeling curdled in her chest like sour milk. Agonizing pity, that this was the creature’s state of being. Some part of her even felt responsible, as if this really was the doing of the chimaera, then it was her fault that the creature was drawn into it.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, or if you know I’m coming, but I’m on my way. I’ll figure out where you are, and this time, I’ll save you.”

She began to walk into the city, though she couldn’t help but feel apprehensive. The massive grey buildings towered above her like sentries, giving her a strong impression of being watched as she entered the streets and left sight of the ruined signpost.

Every step she took clicked painfully loud against the stoney road. Despite the clouds overhead twisting and spiraling rapidly, she did not feel, nor hear, a wind or breeze travelling through the city. Silence seemed to cover this place like a shroud, only adding to the oppressive atmosphere that seemed to hang here. Up close, Twilight could see that the buildings were, for a lack of a better term, completely empty. Each window had only a shadow behind it. No street lamps, sewer grates or ornaments of any kind could be seen, and when Twilight took a look inside one of the buildings, she found nothing at all. No furniture, and most importantly, no people.

“Hello?” Twilight called out softly, the sound echoing through the structure. There was no reply, but Twilight still felt her heart beating faster in her chest. It was almost as though she had just let her presence be known to the entire city, and that thought frightened her even more than the desolation that surrounded her.

She quickly hurried on her way into the city, though the feeling of being watched only seemed to intensify. Soon, she reached an open area in what appeared to be the centre of the city, surrounded by the tallest structures. Here she stopped, as for the first time, she caught a glimpse of something standing behind a window of one of the structures.

It was tall, like the creature, though its shape was hard to define in the shadows. All Twilight saw for sure was a pair of pale eyes, looking at her from the dark. Soon, she noticed another pair, and another, appearing in windows all around her.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked aloud, looking around frantically. The strange shapes staring at her were appearing not only in previously empty windows, but also on the top of roofs, gathered in thick throngs. They did nothing but stare at her, but even that was akin to torture. It felt as though each and every single one could look right through Twilight, condemning her, but more importantly, surrounding her.

“What do you want from me!?” she called out desperately, before noticing that the strange shapes were also filling the alleys and streets around her. They were blocking off her routes of escape, and she’d have nowhere to go.

Twilight made herself as small as possible in the centre of the square she was in, and though she could not see them move, the shapes in the corner of her eyes seemed to creep closer every time she didn’t look. It was driving her mad with fright, and she didn’t know how to escape.

Why are they doing this to me!? What are those things!? Why can’t they just—

“Leave me alone!”

A bright flash of light erupted from Twilight’s horn, melting away the shadows around her. With the shadows, so too did the eerie shapes disappear, unable to stand the light.

Immediately, Twilight saw a purple stream of magic flowing from her horn up into the air, a weakening sensation setting in immediately, followed by a cold radiating from her horn. All the breath felt like it had been knocked out of her lungs, and she struggled to draw breath for several moments. The thin strand of her own magic disappeared from her sight, into the heart of the vortex above her, as she realised what was going on.

Magic... It’s magic that’s sustaining this place. That’s why none of the magical treatments worked on him! Because all the magic was drained here. But that doesn’t make any sense! Nothing has the power to create something like... Like this.

Twilight looked around, only to realise that all of the shapes that had been watching her had not returned. The oppressive feeling of paranoia that had been digging into her mind had abated, though not entirely. Whatever evil presence existed here lingered, even though it had retreated for now.

In the direction of the eye of the vortex above, she saw a great wall surrounding the city. A wooden gate had been set in it, the road that had led her through the city leading right to it.

A way out! I have to leave quickly, before those things come back!

Wasting not a further moment she ran towards the gate, which swung open remarkably easy under her touch. She hurried herself through it, before closing it behind her with a loud thud.

She took a moment to catch her breath, relief washing over her at leaving that nightmarish city. Again, she was surrounded by silence, but no longer would a lightning strike occasionally light her surroundings. Here, in this strange new place, all she saw was a brick road, leading to a house, much smaller than the buildings she saw in the city, and looking much more homely. A fence stood around the one-story house, surrounding a patch of grass interrupted only by a small tree. It reminded her a lot of the houses in Ponyville, save that it seemed to be made entirely of stone.

It looked quite homely, save for one thing. It was entirely devoid of colour. It seemed as though something had drawn out all colour that this place might have had and replaced it only with shades of grey. Not only that, but this house, with its lawn and the road leading to it seemed to be the only things that existed in this place. The door behind her had disappeared into the shadows, and darkness surrounded everything, making her afraid that one wrong step could send her falling into a black void forever. Twilight approached with caution, keenly aware that like the city, this place may also contain more of the apparitions she had encountered before.

What could’ve created those things? she thought, invoking a shudder as she began on the road to the house. It must be the magic that’s keeping this place intact. Why would anypony create a place like this? The creature couldn’t have done that himself, could he? I need to find him, as soon as I can.

As she reached the door, she first attempted to take a peek through one of the windows. The curtains were drawn, preventing her from seeing inside.

I’m not sure what this place is... But there’s no going back. Only one way forward.

She tentatively touched the front door with her hoof, which slid open. Inside, darkness greeted her.

I can’t see anything. I’m not going to walk in there blindly.

She urged her magic, emitting a small flash of light, but no more than that. She didn’t want to feed this place anymore of her magic than she had too. Inside, she saw tables, chairs, closets. Everything she’d expect to find inside a house, but nothing that was immediately frightening to her. She also spotted a lamp very close to the door.

She walked up to the lamp, searching for a bit until she found how to light it. A switch, set into the wall just below it. It wasn’t made for something with hooves, but with a little effort, she managed to flick it on. The lamp burst into light immediately, momentarily blinding her with the intensity. She couldn’t find the presence of a flame within it, nor anything that could’ve possibly lighted the lamp.

How does this thing work? she wondered, before realising the strange things that now surrounded her. Many of the simple pieces of furniture she saw she could recognize, even if their design was odd at best. The chairs were too tall and would leave no room for her tail if she tried to sit on one, and the closets reached up higher than an earth pony could hope to reach without a ladder. More intriguing to her were the items she couldn’t place at all. A box of an unknown black material with a thick sheet of glass placed in it, a device with all sorts of buttons on it that she dared not touch, and several metal devices she couldn’t open at all. The sense of wonderment she experienced at the sight of all these contraptions she couldn’t place completely made her forget about the apparitions that had driven her here.

Did the creature make all of these things? It’s amazing! How do they work? What are they for? I can’t wait to ask him!

Nearing the end of her exploration of the house, she found a set of stairs which led to another room. Here, covered in the same greyness as the rest of the house, she found a very simple bedroom. There was a bookcase, a nightstand, and a bed. Something caught her eye on the nightstand. She came closer, and when she got a better look, she realised it was a picture. It showed the creature who’s mind she had entered, surrounded by two more of his kind. Though it took her a moment of intense study, she could see there was some resemblance between the two others and the creature. A family resemblance.

That must be... His family. His mother and father. This must have been their house, and this his room.

She looked around, trying to find more pictures. On the bookcase, she found books, but they had no titles and were filled only with empty pages. No matter where she looked, she couldn’t find any other pictures.

He has a picture of him with his family... But then, why none with him and other people? No other relatives... No friends?

She looked around again, and the greyness of the place struck her anew. She wracked her brain for a good explanation, but couldn’t find it. It was almost as though she had the pieces of some puzzle, but the pieces didn’t quite fit together.

She moved back into the rest of the house, searching and trying to find more pieces to this puzzle she had uncovered, though her search afforded her little. Many of the closets were empty, or filled with items that defied her comprehension, or items that didn’t seem to have any purpose at all.

It’s almost like... This place is a memory, but an incomplete one. Like only the most important things were left intact.

However, as she searched, she came upon a door that she hadn’t opened yet. Only now did she realise its odd placement. It was placed between two other doors, but logically deducted that the door should lead into a room she’s already visited. When she looked in that room, however, she couldn’t see the door on the other side.

Logically, it shouldn’t lead anywhere, but then, why is it here?

She tentatively opened the door, and beyond it yawned the darkness of an entirely new room. The light coming from the house she had already explored seemed to struggle to penetrate this new place, though within the thin strip of light that did enter she was able to see another lamp.

She carefully stepped into the room. Again, the switch was where she had found it before, and with a little effort, she managed to switch it on.

This room was unlike any of the other ones she had encountered.. The ground showed wear and tear where it appeared as though someone had paced back and forth constantly. It was empty, save for two things. The lamp hanging from the ceiling, and a mirror standing in the furthest part of the room.

Twilight stepped forward carefully, reminded of the dreadful events that led her here. She swallowed dryly as she stepped close to the mirror, and peered into it.

She saw but the vaguest reflection of herself. It was as though the mirror was dirty with grime, allowing her to see only a shadow of herself. She ran a hoof along the glass, but no dirt came off. In fact, the glass felt completely clean.

What is the purpose of this room? Why doesn’t this mirror show my reflection?

Just to the side of the mirror, something caught her attention. Writing in the wall behind it. She pushed the mirror aside to remove the shadow obscuring her view, to reveal writing that appeared clawed into the wall itself rather than chiselled.

“You see yourself reflected in the people you hold dear”

It took Twilight a moment to let the phrase sink in. Her brow furrowed as the pieces began to click together.

You see yourself reflected in the people you hold dear... So someone who has no one to hold dear, will not see themselves reflected? Does the mirror symbolize that?

Is that why this place is so grey and bleak? Because the creature was all... Alone?

Twilight looked back in the mirror. It no longer showed her own reflection, but it now showed the reflection of a tall shape with glowing green eyes.

The glass of the mirror cracked and the door slammed shut.

This place is so cold...

Alex folded his arms over his stomach, trying to preserve the body heat that was being drained from his body. It was only a soft breeze that blew here, but it felt like it was he was caught in a blizzard. Everything was numb and sore, but worse, he didn’t feel like he was making any progress at all. The landscape remained the same, no matter how far he seemed to walk, just shattered hills, dead trees and barren dunes. Looking back, he saw a trail of his own footsteps going back far beyond his sight.

He shook his head in frustration, trying to get himself to focus on the job at hand so that these little thoughts of hopelessness wouldn’t distract him. Looking ahead, a tall dune blocked his path. He would’ve opted to walk around it so the climb wouldn’t drain him so much, or expose him to the biting breeze, but now a different idea crossed his mind.

Let’s just see what’s over this dune here. I’m sure I’ll be able to see something that will guide me out of this... This place.

He began the climb, the soft sand shifting around his feet and making the effort twice as taxing. Before he even got halfway there, he fell to his hands and knees, forced to crawl the remaining distance. He put one hand on the crest of the dune, then another, and pushed himself up so he could see.

The wasteland seemed to reach as far as the eye could see. There did not seem to be an end to the ashen landscape, save for the mountains on the very horizon. Not a single city, nor any sign of civilisation, lay in sight.

There’s... There’s no way out. Why am I here? Why hasn’t anyone come to try and find me?

The cold gripping him seemed to grow even stronger now. Alex lost even the strength to keep himself up as every muscle in his body shivered and begged for warmth. The sand around him began to slide to the other side of the dune. Only now did Alex realise his mistake. He hadn’t looked down. On the other side of the dune was but a mighty rend in the earth itself. A black chasm that didn’t appear to have an end, just an endless blackness of an inconceivable depth, and the way the sand was giving way around him, he’d slide right into it.

He struggled and fought, willing his arms and legs to motion, but what little movement he managed was utterly wasted. There was nothing to grab, and no way to fight against the sand.

“Help! Someone, help me!” he managed to cry out, before he tumbled over the edge and into the void. The cold embraced him fully, and everything went dark, save for two sickly white lights in his vision. A sinister voice hissed to him.

“Not yet Alex. Not like this.”

Alex pushed himself up so quickly he nearly blacked out again. No longer was the ground beneath him an ashen dirt, but now it was white and cold. Snow, he realised. All around him, tiny little snowflakes flitted in the breeze, falling all around him.

His new surroundings confused him. His vision was limited, the flurry of snow turning everything beyond a few dozen yards into a white fog, but he could clearly see a great pillar of ice closeby. He stood up, carefully making his way closer to the pillar. Though his surroundings were still cold, it was different from the breeze before. This cold was soft, soothing. He put a hand on the surface of the ice, and to his amazement, felt a soft vibration making the pillar shudder.

That’s odd...

He put his ear to the pillar, listening closely for a sign what might be causing the strange vibrations. Deep within the ice, he could hear a familiar rhythmic thumping, the ice quaking with every pound.

“It’s a heartbeat,” he said aloud.

A vicious chuckling cut through the air, causing Alex to jump. He looked around, but couldn’t immediately find a source for the voice.

“Who’s there!?”

“You already know, Alex.”

The voice sounded so strange, familiar, despite the guttural tone. In the blizzard, he saw a figure approaching. Slowly it came into view, until Alex could clearly see that this thing, whatever it was, looked like him, though it was something far more terrible.

It wore his clothing, though his was ripped and torn. It’s nails were jagged curved claws, and its eyes bore slitted pupils that glowed a soft green. It’s teeth were a mess of misshapen jagged spikes that curved at uneven angles, and its legs bent the wrong way, giving it a strange raptor-like gait. It was a sight that terrified Alex, and he jumped back several steps as the full horror of the monstrosity struck him.

“What the hell are you!?” he cried out in disbelief.

The creature chuckled again in response, scratching its chin idly with one claw.

“How about a different question first, Alex? Where are we now?”

Alex looked at the icy slab, the sole feature of the landscape here, but nothing came to mind. Nothing did since he entered this hellish place.

“I don’t know,” he spat back in anger. “I’ve walked for ages, and I haven’t gotten anywhere! Why am I here!?”

“Ah ah!” the creature spoke, waving a clawed finger around as though berating a child. “That’s not the way it works, Alex, but I’ll lift the veil, just a little. After all, this wouldn’t have any point if you didn’t understand.”

The creature put both its fingers to its head, poking at it several times. “This place you’re in, everything you’ve seen. It’s all in your head.” It then placed one claw on the surface of the ice, before grinning wickedly. “This place in particular, this cold place, that has been locked away for so long behind walls of ice and snow, is your heart.”

Alex looked disbelievingly between the creature and the icy pillar. His head shook slightly, as though he were denying it to himself.

“That-That can’t be true!” he uttered. “That can’t be true... You can’t just... Go inside your own head like this! Everything’s too real! This isn’t a dream, is it!?”

The creature just laughed even harder at Alex’s increasing confusion.

“No. No more dreaming Alex. This time, it’s all too real. This time, you will not run away from this,” the creature said menacingly, as it took a step forward. “Tell me, Alex. If this world is your mind, and this place is your heart, what do you think that makes me?”

“S-Stay back!” Alex said, taking another step in response to the creature’s advance, but the creature immediately took two more steps.

“I am every little doubt that has bitten into your will, Alex. I am the little fears and little questions you were afraid to confront at your heart. And when you sealed this place away,” he said, as he gestured widely around himself, “I was locked in with it. And now, I want what belongs to me.” It said as it took another step.

“I want you.”

Alex was panicking. He knew he couldn’t fight this thing. It had claws and teeth, and he had nothing. All thoughts of escape evaporated as the creature began to bounce forward, its inhuman gait carrying it faster than Alex had any hope of running.

Alex managed to dodge the first rake of its claws as it swung sideways, trying to rip Alex open in the first swing. However, immediately afterward the creature swung both its claws downward, and Alex had no chance to evade. All he could do to prevent the claws from gouging out his eyes was by using his own hands to cover himself. The claws locked on his hands, and with savage glee, the creature dug his talons into his fingers, drawing a thin trickle of blood from each hand.

Alex groaned in pain, trying not to let himself cry out, as the creature smiled broadly at him, twisting its fingers ever so slightly to elect another jolt of pain from his hands.

“No more running, Alex. No more hiding. Now, you’re going to face this.”

Alex fell to a knee, cold sweat dripping down his brow as he fought against the creature’s immense strength. It bore down on him, giving him no respite.

“You were always afraid, Alex. You’ve always been so very afraid,” the creature spoke with sadistic delight, making obvious his intent to draw as much torment out of Alex before he would finish the job.

“That’s why this world looks like this. That’s why you are here now. That’s why you are weak.”

That last word echoed in his head like a painful memory. Involuntarily, he began to clench his teeth, his expression turning into a ferocious snarl as the word seemed to grip his chest and stoke the fire within to the point of bursting outward.

“Weak,” Alex spoke softly.

“Yesss...” the creature hissed.

“Weak!?”

Alex began to push back against the creature, causing it to lock the talons on its feet in the snow. The creature’s eyes turned wide as Alex pushed even harder, allowing himself to stand back up, while slowly forcing the creature down on its knees.

“No! This-This is impossible! You are weak!”

The creature lost his grip on Alex’s hands, but Alex’s didn’t let the creature’s claws retreat. He grabbed them in turn, squeezing tightly and making the creature whine in pain. As the creature was pushed fully to its knees, Alex looked dead into its mortified eyes.

“I was never weak!”

Alex headbutted the creature square between the eyes, causing it to fall backwards, its eyes rolling aimlessly in its sockets. He pulled on its arms, forcing it to stand as he rammed his knee into the creature’s side. Alex let it fall against the slab of icy, small spots of blood marking where it had impacted.

Alex was furious. Enraged even. How dare this, this thing, call me weak? he thought. It looked up at him, blinking blood out of its eyes from the wound on its forehead.

“You... You cannot win.”

Alex grabbed the thing by its deformed head, and rammed it into the icy slab.

“I.”

Again, a blow to the ice. More blood spread across its clear surface.

“Am not.”

Another impact, small fragments of ice falling into the snow beneath the thing.

“Weak!”

A last bash of the thing’s head against the ice, the crystalline surface cracking under the strain, as the thing’s body went entirely limp.

Alex stood up to his full height. His hands hurt. So did his chest. He didn’t want to realise it, but this thing had hurt him. The dull pain of a insult too many throbbed in his chest.

“I am not weak. I will get out of here, and I don’t care if you, or anything else, is going to try and stop me!”

From the crack in the ice, a black sludge began to ooze. Alex recoiled from it, but it seemed to follow him, moving ever faster until it latched onto his foot, which went numb immediately. He dropped, unable to maintain his balance, struggling against the grip of whatever held him.

“No! Let me go!”

It drew him closer, dragging him into an empty void like the one he fell in before. All went cold as he blacked out once more.

A black shadowy form looked sadly at the broken body at her hooves. Snow was already settling on it, covering it in a soft coat of white, while erasing the ugly red stains in the snow around it. A look of mournful regret was drawn across her violet eyes and shadowy muzzle. She looked up at the vibrating slab of ice and let out a deep weary sigh.

“Father has always been more... Resilient.”

She shook her head sadly, and stood up to walk away. Her outline slowly disappeared against the white background that was the blizzard.

“But it doesn’t matter. Everything is set. All we need to do is wait. This place will break him. And then, it will break her.”

Lost

Just Human, Chapter 9: Lost

Twilight nearly lost her footing when the whole room began to shake, only barely managing to keep herself from falling. Pieces of the cracked mirror fell to the stone floor, breaking into countless smaller shards in a crescendo of breaking glass. Small chips of stone rained down around her as cracks began to appear in the walls around her.

This whole place is coming down! I need to get out of here, right now!

She sprinted to the door, but every step was less sure, the shaking floor tossing off her balance. She tried to open the door, which seemed far heavier than before, holding her back with ease. Only when she took a few steps back and threw her full weight against it did it fly open. Twilight, unable to stop her own momentum, flew to the other side, only now realising that the door no longer led to the house she was in before.

It opened into a vast broken wasteland. She landed softly in ashen soil, the door slamming shut heavily behind her. She took a moment to catch her breath, her entire body trembling in the aftermath of the sudden earthquake. Looking behind her, the door seemed strangely out of place, like someone had set it against a rock and abandoned it there, with no indication that it even led somewhere.

As her eyes traced the horizon, she felt an immense sense of sadness welling up at her at the world around her. Trees stood like dead dry stumps, branches grasping up as though begging for rain that would never fall. The hills were broken and uneven, as though a gardner had ploughed the earth itself but never finished the job. Deep dark canyons dotted the land like scars, and sharp peaks rose at the very edge of her vision to stab at the sky like long claws. The sky was the same swirling vortex of dark clouds she had seen before, though now lances of fire occasionally breached the clouds to bathe the world in an angry red glow. She was much closer to the eye of the storm now, but she dreaded to think what she might encounter here. A place where the world already seemed to have ended.

Almost in response, the world shuddered around her, another earthquake nearly knocking her down. Nearby, the ground split open to reveal a deep chasm, and in the distance another appeared, fire bursting forth from each of them like miniature volcanoes.

What’s going on!? Why is this happening!? Did something change?

Twilight dropped down, making herself as small as possible as she attempted to weather the earthquake. It lasted only shortly, but it was intense. As she got back up, it took her a moment to get her vision to stop moving.

As she looked around, she saw several new rends in the earth, and from within each came a red glow, as though fire still burned within. More disturbing, however, was a smell that began to permeate the air around her. It was metallic, instinctively putting her on edge, though she didn’t know why.

She noticed movements in the glow of the nearest tear. Something was coming out of it, already preceded by the sound of an angry growl. A hand reached out of it.

A claw.

It was a horrible sight, like something had taken a hand, like that of the creature, yet stripped it off all skin, with vicious cleaver-like talons growing out of the tips. It sank into the dirt, putting the rest of the mangled body behind it. It was vaguely reminiscent of the creature, but like its hand the rest of its body appeared to have been flayed. It’s jaw was distended, full of long white fangs, and its eyes glowed a malevolent green. Two more of the wretched things crawled out of the chasm, just as the first one noticed her. It let out a monstrous howl.

Twilight didn’t take long to recover from the initial shock of seeing these horrific beings, turning tail and running across the sandy dunes blindly. Her mission and her convictions were forgotten entirely. All that remained was blind, unrelenting terror.

Similar howls began to sound all over the place. It felt like she was surrounded, though the only things she saw were the three monsters on her tail.

I have to get out! I have to get out!

She tried to reach out with her magical senses, trying to return to the physical form that awaited her in the real world, but to her horror realised that it wasn’t her magic that brought her here. It was this place that drew her in. She simply didn’t know how to go back.

Her eyes began to sting with tears as the hopelessness of her situation came crashing down on her.

I can’t get out. I can’t escape. What will happen when those things catch me? If they... If they get me, will I wake up? Will I even be able to wake up?

Suddenly, she noticed a new, unfamiliar sensation that began pushing its way to the fore. A burning sensation in her chest, like a bonfire that was being fed more fuel than it could consume. She continued to run, but the heat in her chest wouldn’t abate. In fact, it only seemed to get worse.

I can’t stop! I can’t let them get me!

Her path came at an end before a great canyon. Beneath, instead of darkness, a dense mist filled the depths. No matter where she looked, no path led down, and if she’d try to run from the edge it would lead her right into the monsters.

The monsters came bounding over the hills, their muscles visibly tensing under every movement, like wire stretched tight until it was about to snap. Each of them grinned at her, like they savoured the moment, which only stirred the fire in Twilight’s chest even more.

I don’t deserve this.

They began to spread out in a semi-circle around her, closing the gap slowly. The heat in her chest actually became physically painful, making her heart pound in her ears and her breath speed up.

They can’t do this to me.

Small droplets of red fell from their bodies. It barely registered to Twilight that it was blood. Their own blood. Only now did Twilight begin to realise the nature of the strange feeling which was taking hold in her. At first, she didn’t recognize it at all, this venomous feeling that drowned out her other thoughts, filling her with the desire to lash out against everything around her. Only then did it dawn on her that it was rage, more vicious than she had ever experienced it.

They don’t have any right to do this to me!

Twilight’s eyes flew wide open, her teeth clenching as she tried to fight the mad anger that tried to take over. Her hooves unconsciously dug into the dirt, and she raised her horn in front of her threateningly.

“Stay back!” she shouted, not in fear but in rage, though the monsters hardly responded at all. They simply continued their approach, until their stench became overwhelming.

How dare you?

A bright lance of light flared from Twilight’s horn.

“How dare you!?” she shouted in outrage, before casting the wildest, most uncontrolled spell she ever managed. It was pure magic, ripped out of the air and hurled directly at her targets. The shockwave was immense, the sheer kinetic force ripping the monsters apart until they disappeared in a fine red mist.

So powerful was the blast that it pushed Twilight over the edge. She attempted to latch onto something, but couldn’t stop herself from sliding down in the sand, too mercifully slow to truly fall, but unable to stop herself nonetheless.

She soon came to rest at the bottom of the ravine, where she found herself unable to see further than several meters. The mist had overtaken the entire world around her.

Twilight’s mind tried to register what had just happened. Something inside her refused to acknowledge it, like a bad dream that had already ended and should be forgotten. The rage in her chest had disappeared with the monsters, as though they carried it with them like a foul aura. However, through the residual warmth she still felt in her body, a single thought surfaced, something she found too horrible to ever have imagined.

They deserved this.

She began to shake and heave, struggling desperately to hold back. She tried to blink the fog out of her eyes and tried to force her legs from shaking and her breath from faltering, but the will to do so had left her. For the first time since this nightmare had begun, Twilight curled up where she lay and began to sob uncontrollably. Tears flowed freely, as a single questioned burned in her mind.

Why would you do this to me?

Alex’s eyes opened, but he had trouble seeing. His vision still blurry from whatever had dragged him back into unconsciousness, he blinked several times to clear his vision, only to stare into a pair of milky white eyes, attached to a black scaled body.

He gasped and jumped up immediately, pushing himself back through the sand at the horror in front of him. It resembled a snake or eel, with a mouth full of long fangs that forced it to grin eternally. It hissed at him, two pairs of small bat-like wings flapping softly to lift it into the air. Rather than actual flight, it seemed to swim through the air, its wings unmoving as its body slowly circled in the air above him, reminding him very much of a shark circling prey.

“What the hell...” he uttered, more to himself than to anyone else. Whatever this thing was, it seemed content to hover in the air above him, as though waiting for something.

Alex looked around, but a thick mist impeded his vision. He couldn’t see where he was. All he saw was a trail in the sand, which looked like someone had dragged him here, which then led up an impossibly steep cliff, which disappeared into the mist above him. He did not quite understand how something could’ve let him fall down that cliff without seriously injuring him. More importantly, there was no way to scale the sheer surface, meaning he had no way back.

“Why can’t I get out of here!?” he asked aloud in frustration. This entire place seems to have been set up to torment him, and it was driving him over the edge. His patience had run out, and he wanted answers.

“I thought you figured it out by now, Alex,” a vicious hissing voice spoke. Alex looked around but saw nothing to indicate the source of the voice.

“Who’s there!? Show yourself!”

“I’m right here, Alex.”

Alex looked up at the serpent that was still gliding in the mists above him, cutting a figure eight in the air. It turned its head down and slowly began to descend, its milky white eyes looking at him inquisitively.

“Come on Alex. We’re almost there. No need to tarry, is there?”

Alex took a step back from the monstrous creature, unsure whether to take his chances in the mist and run. The creature hovered at eye-level now, slowly circling Alex.

“What the hell are you?”

“I am nothing of significance,” the thing replied. “But you are. You know what this place is, don’t you?”

Alex didn’t respond. He stared angrily at the serpent. He didn’t want to repeat what that other thing had told him, if only because he would rather believe it wasn’t true.

“This place is your mind, Alex, but the question you’re asking yourself right now is ‘why am I here?’ isn’t it? After all, if it was just a dream, you should be able to wake up. But what if it’s... A nightmare?”

“Then I should still be able to wake up.”

“Possibly, but you are here for a reason. Tell me, what can you remember of how you got here?”

“I can’t. I can’t remember anything!”

“Then come with me. I will guide you, and you will see.”

The serpent began to glide away from Alex, in the opposite direction of the cliff. He’s leading me deeper into the mist, Alex realised. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust this thing. In fact, he was pretty damn sure he couldn’t.

But what choice do I have? I don’t know where to go, or how to get out. I need to follow it. Otherwise, who knows how long it will take for me to get out of this place... If at all.

He began to walk after the flying serpent, deeper into the mist. It did not lead him to any pitfalls filled with sharp rocks, or to other monsters, or to anything else that might have been a trap. Instead, as Alex moved further into the mist, sounds began to appear. Strange sounds that were out of place. The sound of a breeze he couldn’t feel, the sound of birds and crickets, and of leaves brushing against each other.

Suddenly, Alex could see it. A vast forest stretched out before him, bathed in the light of the rising sun.

“I... I know this place. The forest... I was in a forest. I couldn’t get out.”

The world began to shift around him. It became darker. No longer above but now below the canopy, Alex suddenly found himself running, the sound of howls and barking behind him.

“I was being chased.”

The world changed again. He now stood at the entrance to a cave, set into the side of a hill. A most peculiar sight greeted him. A unicorn with a violet coat and deep blue mane.

“There was a unicorn... She saved me.”

Alex found himself on his back. In front of him, two yellow eyes stared at him from a gigantic goat’s head, snorting in anger. His breathing became erratic, painful even, and he felt cold sweat trickling from his brow.

“And... I tried to save her! I tried to fight this thing! And... I... I...”

The strange sight disappeared, leaving Alex standing in the mists again. He looked around himself, still with cold sweat running over his skin, but no longer saw the serpent. He was alone, and the fog that had been clouding his mind, preventing him from remembering, began to clear.

“I remember. I... I nearly died. I... Am I still alive? Am I dead?”

“No. Not dead. Not yet.”

The serpent appeared again, as though in response to Alex’s questioning.

“And that is why we are here, Alex. Because of you... And because of her.”

“What are you talking about?” Alex questioned, before his face twisted in anger. “If I’m still alive, I want to wake up. Right now! There’s no reason for me to be here!”

“But there is, Alex,” the serpent replied, almost mockingly, “and that reason... Is her.”

The serpent coiled around itself, biting its own tail to form a circle mid air. Within the circle, as though looking at a television screen, a vision appeared. The unicorn he had seen before was sitting there, crying next to his prone body. Impossibly, the serpent still spoke.

“You have a strange influence on her world, Alex. Your very presence poisons the minds of these simple creatures with your emotions. Your memories. The one you tried to save... She fights against it. Tries to hold it off. But you’ve already taken her friends...”

The vision within began to swim as it changed, now showing a pink variant of the unicorn, though without the horn, with a curly red mane and tail. Both tail and mane seemed to inflate comically, almost like balloons, before running empty as one, becoming flat. She began to cry, her body becoming gaunt until Alex could count her ribs.

“One by one...”

Another vision, now of a white-coated unicorn with a curled purple mane and tail, whose features rapidly turned monstrous, with sharp fangs and slitted eyes, who laughed heartily, though Alex knew there was nothing to laugh about.

“You’ve taken them...”

The next was of another small horse, but instead of a horn, it had wings on each side of her body, and a long flowing pink mane and tail. She stood up and dug her hooves into the dirt, her mane and tail igniting in flames as her eyes glowed brightly, before she roared in anger.

“Twisted them...”

Again, a winged horse, this time blue coated with a mane and tail in all colours of the rainbow. Her eyes looked around her wildly, as she put her hooves over her ears. She was trying not to listen, but failing as she rocked herself back and forth miserably.

“Hurt them...”

Another vision, this time of an small orange coated horse with a blond mane and tail. She reacted similarly to the former, putting her hooves over her ears to attempt to shut out a sound, while she had her eyes shut. However, she soon removed her hooves, a thin trickle of black goop oozing from her mouth. She opened her eyes to reveal only blackness. She began to shiver uncontrollably, just before the vision disappeared. The serpent let go of its own tail, showing not even a drop of blood where it had bitten itself, as it resumed circling him as it had before.

“And now, their world is next. You will bring ruin to their whole world!”

Alex was silent, staring blankly ahead of himself. Something inside him told him that like before, this thing was just trying to manipulate him, trying to hurt him, but this was different. It wasn’t his own mind at stake now. Throughout his life, he had never hurt another soul. For it to happen like this made his guts twist, pain welling up in his chest. Not the pain of sorrow, but of shame.

“I... How do I know you’re not lying!? What if none of this is true!”

The serpent broke from its circle to hover right in front of Alex. Impossibly, its grin seemed to grow.

“Have I ever lied to you before?”

The serpent backed off as Alex clutched his head with one hand. He looked around wildly, wracking his mind for a reason not to believe this thing. For any indication that this thing was lying to him. He could find none. There was no evidence at all that this thing wasn’t lying to him.

“How... How do I stop this? I can’t let this happen... They shouldn’t suffer on my account. I can’t let that happen.”

“Now you understand why you are here. Come. We are almost there.”

Alex looked at the serpent as it began to fly into the mists again.

“Where are we going?”

“To the end of your journey.”

Alex followed the serpent once more, but only a few steps into the mist made him run into steps leading up, carved out of the solid rock. The serpent led him up, further and further, until he broke out of the mists and beheld the wasteland again. Now, however, it was far behind him. The great canyon filled with mist seperated him from the wasteland by what appeared to be miles, and he could hardly believe he had walked all that distance in such a short time.

“This way, Alex. Not much farther now,” the serpent said, a small tremble in its voice.

The serpent led Alex to a rocky plateau, overlooking a great depth. Beneath him, stretching out for miles and miles, was a great ravine. Darkness flowed in the depths below like a lightless ocean. However, there was nothing here beyond the depths below.

“What is this place?” Alex asked, his voice hushed.

“This is the end, Alex.”

He looked at the serpent in confusion. He looked around again, but the plateau remained empty.

“But there’s nothing here.”

“There is the end, Alex. You have been brought here to make a choice,” the serpent explained, and as Alex looked into the depths below, he came to that final, horrid revelation.

“Your very presence is what causes the world around you, her world, to be poisoned. It will burn, and you will be entirely responsible. But you can end it... Right here.”

“No! No, that’s-that’s not true!” Alex cried out, terror in his voice. “There has to be another way.”

“You said it yourself. You can’t wake up. It’s either them... Or you.”

Alex fell to his knees on the stone plateau, cradling his head with both hands, as the serpent circled in the air above him, patiently awaiting the inevitable.

Tears still fell from Twilight’s face as she took one small step at a time further into the mist. She had been walking in a daze, the memory of her actions having crushed her desire to see her mission to its end. She felt utterly broken. She didn’t know how far she had gone into the mist, or in what direction, but it didn’t matter to her.

What kind of creature would want to hurt others? What kind of creature would make others feel like that? Why are you making me go through this? I just... I just wanted to save you. Do you even care?

I just... I just want to go home.

Her legs gave in, forcing her to lie down on the spot. Still the tears came, and she hadn’t the will left to stop them. For the first time, she began considering whether there even was a way out of this place. Whether she’d be able to escape at all. The thought only filled her with more despair.

With her next breath came a completely unexpected smell. The smell of grass and the forest. She blinked several times to see the mist around her gradually changing, until she found herself in a dark forest.

It’s... It’s the Everfree Forest. But how did I get here?

“I have to get out,” a strange voice echoed around her. It was the voice of the creature, she realised, but it didn’t sound like she expected. It sounded frightened.

“What is this place? How did I get here? This doesn’t make any sense!”

She heard something moving behind her. She got up and turned to see the creature step out of the forest and into plain sight. It walked past her, completely oblivious to her presence. It took her a moment to get over her initial shock before she walked after the creature.

“Hey, stop!” she called out, but the creature didn’t respond. Her face contorting in anger, she ran in front of the creature. She didn’t know why it was ignoring her, but she would be damned if she didn’t get some answers now.

“I’m talking to you!” she snarled at the creature, but to her amazement, he walked right through her, as though she wasn’t even there.

“I have to get out...” the creature’s voice echoed around again, this time more softly, but the creature’s mouth didn’t move. Twilight followed the creature, trying to figure out what was going on.

Did I get caught up in a dream? she wondered as she continued to follow the creature. He moved through dense foliage, causing Twilight to lose sight of him, but when she broke through it herself, the whole world had changed around her. The open sky was above her, though dark and filled with lightning. The creature stood at the edge of a deep decline, and below, she heard a familiar growl. As she looked over the edge, she saw the chimaera that had nearly killed her and her friends, as well as herself, still maintaining the barrier she used to hold it back.

This isn’t a dream... This is a memory.

“I can’t let this happen,” the creature’s voice echoed once again. “She saved me before. I have to do something. What am I supposed to do? If I go down there, I’ll get killed, or worse...”

The creature’s eyes drifted, now looking back into the dark forest behind them.

“And what else am I supposed to do, huh? Go back? To where? I’m going to die out there, and no one can help me.”

Twilight stared in shock at the creature’s incredibly fatalistic outlook.

Did he... Did he already give up on himself? But why? Ponyville wasn’t that far away. If he lived in the Everfree Forest, he should know that... But did he really come from here? If not, then where did he come from?

A mighty burst of air came from the basin below them. She already knew what had happened. The barrier had failed. This was it. The moment when the creature had decided to save them. She looked up at the creature with wide eyes, as it stared down into the basin. She knew that right now, it was locking eyes with her down in the basin.

“She... She saved my life. She did so twice, and all I’ve done was scare her in return. She... She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to die out here. All she needs is time to get out. And me... I’m not going to get out of this forest alive.”

“Celestia... He knew he was going to die,” Twilight uttered.

He took a deep breath, bringing the spear down to aim at his intended target. The chimaera below. His face was set in cold determination.

“At least this way, it won’t be in vain. At least, now, I’ll have made a difference.”

He jumped over the edge, and everything blurred. The memory faded away, returning Twilight to the mist.

“He... He saved us because of me,” Twilight said aloud as she put the final pieces of the puzzle together. “He knew it would kill him. He knew he wouldn’t survive, but still he did it.”

She looked at the world around her. The anger she felt before had fled entirely, replaced by a sense of regret. Suddenly, she began to believe that this place, whatever had been the cause of it, wasn’t just set up to torment her.

He must be out there somewhere too... And he may be suffering just as much as I had. I promised you I’d save you before. I still don’t know why all of this has happened, or why your mind looks like this... But I aim to keep that promise. I’m going to get you out of here.

The mists split before her, as though in response, and revealed a great flight of stairs leading up. The sky was revealed to her as well, the eye of the storm above centred directly on her.

I’m close. I’ll be there soon, and then we’re getting out of here, together.

“You must make a choice, Alex,” the serpent repeated.

“Shut up,” Alex snarled back.

“She suffers and cries while you exist. Would you really do that to her, Alex?”

“I said, shut up!”

I can’t do this, Alex thought as he looked into the great abyss below. What if he’s lying? I can’t know for sure! I can’t just give in like this!

“Well?”

“No. I’m not doing this. You’re lying to me, I know it!” Alex responded viciously. The serpent, though incapable of doing anything but grin, looked visibly taken aback by Alex’s response. It hesitated for a moment, until its milky eyes locked on something behind Alex. It began to glide, passing him, towards a sound that was coming from behind. The sound of hooves on stone.

He looked around, only to see the unicorn, climbing the last of the stairs. Her mane was disheveled, her coat dirty with the dirt of the wasteland, wet stains leading over her cheeks.

Alex looked up at the serpent in anger.

“What is this? A trick? Answer me!”

“Oh no, not a trick, Alex. This time, it’s all real... Isn’t it, Twilight?”

“Twilight...” Alex said as he stared at the unicorn in disbelief.

The serpent approached Twilight directly, making the her seize up completely, frozen with terror. It began to circle her, just as it had done to Alex sooner.

“Poor little Twilight, having come all the way out here just to beg you to stop. Now do you see, Alex? This must end here. You have caused so much suffering already...”

The unicorn’s ears drooped, and she looked ready to jump down the stairs if it meant she could get away from the flying serpent. Rage kindled in Alex’s chest, his fingers finding and closing around a rock at his feet.

“Go ahead, Twilight. Tell him of the horrors you’ve seen here. Tell him how much he hurt you.”

Alex could see her eyes begin to water again, and he couldn’t take much more than that. He threw the rock, which hit the serpent against its head. It hissed in anger and pain, quickly flitting its wings to fly off into the shadows.

His eyes met those of the unicorn. They were wide in awe, even bigger than normal, but they were reddened and puffy. She had been crying, he realised.

“He was right... He was right all along. This has to end.”

Slowly, he began to stand up. He turned around, looking at the immense void that yawned open in front of him. He took a step towards it, and then another, and another.

“What are you doing!? Stop!”

The unicorn charged in front of him, just three steps removed from the edge. She reared up on her hind legs, planting her hooves against his chest and leaning against him with all her weight.

“Don’t do it! Please! I don’t care what you did to me! I came all this way to save you! Please don’t let that have been in vain! Please...”

Her big violet eyes stared pleadingly at him, at the verge of tears. He felt his heart breaking up at the sight. He let himself down on one knee, bringing himself to eye level with her.

“Why?”

She looked at him in confusion, as though not understanding the question.

“Why would you go through all of this for me?” he asked, feeling his insides tying themselves in a knot as he confessed to her. “I’m the cause for all of this. I can end it, for the both of us.”

Her eyes went wide, this time in shock. Suddenly, she reached forward, hugging him softly.

“Please don’t,” she said, a tremble in her voice. “You saved me and my friends before. I don’t know what you think you did, but you don’t deserve this. I promised I’d bring you back. Please don’t make me break that promise.”

Alex could only sit there in shock. Slowly, his arms rose, shaking like leaves, as he reached around her neck and brought her in closer.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

They released each other, as she looked at him, smiling. She suddenly gasped, staring at something behind him. He turned to see dozens, if not hundreds of the serpents crawling up the stairs from where he had come. They hissed in spite, before one rose up from the mass to speak.

“You can’t do this, Alex. It must end here! There is no alternative! And if it’s her that makes you think otherwise, then we’ll have to take her away from you!”

Alex quickly stood up, holding a hand behind him to motion for Twilight to stay.

“Stay behind me. I’m not letting them take you.”

She looked up at him in fear. He wasn’t going to let her down now. Alex took a step towards the serpents, who recoiled at his approach.

“No, Alex! This is not how it was supposed to happen.”

“I don’t care. Stay away from her.”

As one, the mass of serpents began to surge forward towards him. He held his arms in front of him to shield himself, panicking slightly as he imagined them biting into his limbs in unison. As soon as the mass of wriggling monstrosities reached him, however, they broke apart like water upon a rock. The mass fell apart like a shattered window, thousands of black scales and white fangs falling to the ground to dissolve into thin air.

“You can’t escape, Alex. We’ll always be here... Always,” the voice of the serpent spoke, slowly fading away into nothingness.

“So will I.”

Above, the sky began to change. The vortex of clouds rapidly disappeared, revealing a black midnight sky. Within, a single star appeared. Alex couldn’t help but smile at the sight. He turned around, to see the unicorn smiling at him again.

“You saved me.”

Slowly, Alex felt his consciousness fading away again. It wasn’t the life-sapping cold of before, or the all-consuming darkness that had come to claim him this time. It was a calm assurance that this time, he’d finally wake up from this nightmare.

Twilight awoke. The ground beneath her was soft and cold, and small flakes of snow floated gently in the air around her. A great slab of ice rose up in front of her.

“Where am I?” she asked herself. Only now did she notice a pulse beneath the ice, a light that appeared to flicker on and off. She approached the ice, putting her hoof against it to feel rhythmic vibrations passing through the ice. A heartbeat, she realised.

This... This is his heart. It’s so cold here...

The snowfall stopped. Though the world around her remained invisible behind a curtain of white, no more snowflakes fell. Only now did she notice a great crack in the ice, further ahead, from where spilt a black goop, oozing forth.

The ooze began to grow, before forming a shape that was roughly that of a pony. It was breathing heavily, and its mane was as disheveled as hers, but she recognized it as the spectre that had tormented her all this time.

“You... You can’t do this!” it cried out in anger. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! You were supposed to give in!”

“Well, I’m not giving in!” she called back in defiance. “I’ve come all this way, and I’m not giving up now.”

“You stupid fool!” the spectre called out as her horn began to glow. Unlike her own magic, however, this magic didn’t glow with its own light, but rather, seemed to sap the light from everything around it, giving it a strange dark aura. The magic began to reach out to Twilight, and she knew she had to do something.

I don’t have that much energy left. What if I can’t fight her? What if she’s stronger than me?

Just before the magic of the spectre reached her, Twilight fought back with magic of her own. To her surprise, she swept away the magic of the spectre like it was nothing. Her own magic enveloped the spectre. The spectre was swept off of her hooves, rising helplessly into the air, screaming in anger and struggling against Twilight’s magical grip. It surprised Twilight how easy she was able to keep a hold on the struggling spectre, like the spectre didn’t really have any strength at all.

Hanging upside down, the spectre now stared quietly at Twilight in anger.

“Go ahead, try! You don’t have the guts to destroy me! And even if you did, more will come. I’m but one of many! Father has too many nightmares for you to stop it by destroying me alone!”

Indeed, behind her, the tide of black ooze coming from the crack in the ice began to increase. Glowing eyes began to form in the black mass.

“I don’t have to destroy you,” Twilight responded plainly. “I just have to stop this from ever happening again.”

With her magic, she began to reach out and pull all the darkness she could out of the crack in the ice, holding it within her magical grip to prevent it from spilling out. Much to her surprise, it yielded easily to her will. It was still magic, corrupted and twisted as it may have been. As she brought the dark magic up into the air, she pushed the spectre spectre into it. It fused with the blackness, her eyes disappearing within.

Now, she began to shape a spell unlike any she had done before. She knew how to increase the flow of magic, how to make it easier for a unicorn to shape certain spells.

Now, all I have to do is the exact opposite... So none of this black magic will be able to flow!

A trio of golden runes, interlocking circles, was imprinted on the mass of black magic she held in her grip. It fell to the snow in a perfect round shape, no longer spilling or twisting around. The crack in the ice sealed itself again, and the snowstorm around her disappeared entirely.

I did it. I saved him... Just like he saved me.

Formal Introductions

Just Human, Chapter 10: Formal Introductions

As Twilight regained consciousness, all was silent around her. A gentle warmth had wrapped itself around her body. She fought back the urge to fall asleep and began to stir.

“Girls, I think she’s waking up!”

Twilight’s eyes opened slowly, to see Fluttershy watching her carefully. She smiled brightly at Twilight as she pushed herself up on her forehooves into a sitting position.

“Oh thank goodness,” was all Fluttershy could utter before Pinkie Pie ran into view and nearly tackled Twilight back down, taking her in a tight hug.

“We were so worried about you!”

A faint reddish glow came in through the window, signifying the setting of the sun. The only difference was where she lay, on a mattress that had been placed on the floor, a blanket half-covering her.

“How long have I been out for?” she asked curiously.

“The entire day, sugarcube.”

Applejack walked into sight, tipping her hat to her. Everypony was right there where she left them, running into view to watch her stand up, and she was happy to return the smiles.

“Ya gave us quite the scare there Twi’, just passing out like that. Could ya try to warn us next time?”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’ll try.”

Suddenly, everypony went deathly silent. A soft noise, the ruffling of sheets, began to come from behind Twilight’s friends. Alex was stirring, using one of his claws as leverage to push himself up. He sat in a position that would be painfully awkward for anything else, using one of his claws to rub his eyes. Everypony else could only stare in shock as the creature they had spent so much effort to keep safe finally woke up.

“Alex!” Twilight exclaimed as she jumped up and hurried to his bed. He turned his head to her as she stood up against his bed, bringing herself to eye-level with him, but he looked at her through squinted eyes, as though he couldn’t quite see her.

“Twilight?”

“Yes, it’s me! Do you remember?” she asked, though she began to worry when she noticed he wasn’t quite looking at her, but rather, seemed to look far past her. She waved a hoof in front of his face, the movement of which he managed to follow with his eyes, but only barely. “Are you okay?”

“Feels like I got run over, but I’ll be okay, I think. Where are my glasses?”

He was wearing glasses? Oh, that’s right! How could I forget? Greymane’s journal said he stored it here somewhere.

Twilight ran to a nearby cabinet, opening several of the drawers before finding the one that had Alex’s glasses in them. Using her magic, she took it out and carefully floated them to him. He flinched from it at first, before using his claws to grab them out of the air and place them on his nose. His eyes seemed to focus on her properly now, giving her a small grateful smile.

“Thank you.”

A shockwave blew a gust of air through the room as the door was thrown open, the magical lock Twilight had put on hit shattered instantly. A bright light shone in through the other side of the door, nearly blinding Twilight with its radiance. It slowly died down as the sound of hooves tapping the floor echoed through the room, a silhouette appearing of a tall figure with a flowing mane like the aurora borealis. She smiled gently at Twilight.

“Princess Celestia!”

“Hello Twilight. I’m sorry I couldn’t be here any faster. I was... Delayed. I see you girls have had to deal with quite the situation in my absence.”

Twilight blushed as she rubbed her neck with a hoof.

“We, uh, did the best we could.”

“I’m sure you did. Is everypony alright?”

Twilight nodded, causing Celestia to breathe a deep sigh of relief.

“I’m glad. This situation has brought enough trouble to Ponyville. The last thing we would need is for anypony else to be hospitalized as well... Which reminds me. I do believe you brought us a guest, didn’t you Twilight?”

She turned her attention to Alex, who stared silently at Celestia wide-eyed, his claws braced on the bed beneath him and his jaw just slightly unhinged. She wasn’t sure whether he was awed or terrified out of his mind.

Celestia began to walk towards him, to which Alex seemed startled. He tried to move, but pain visibly shot through his lower body as he did, causing him to inhale sharply. Celestia stopped in her tracks, looking at him pityingly from a distance.

“I promise I’ll do you no harm,” Celestia spoke softly.

To Twilight’s surprise, Alex looked at her, as though asking for advice. She gently put a hoof on his claw, feeling the muscles tensed beneath his skin.

“It’s okay. She’s a friend. She’s only here to help,” Twilight said reassuringly.

She felt his claw relaxing underneath her touch, letting go of the sheets. She could hardly believe that he placed so much trust in her, despite his fear.

Twilight stepped away from Alex’s bed and gave Celestia a nod, who took that as her cue to try again. She moved closer, making a slow half circle around Alex’s bed as she took in his appearance. Alex remained still, though he followed Celestia’s every move. Twilight noted that the muscles in his jaw were very tense. She wasn’t quite sure how to read that, but she took it as a bad omen. She wasn’t sure how far he’d allow Celestia to go, and she didn’t want to find out what would happen if Celestia stepped over some invisible line.

In a moment that made Twilight’s blood run cold, Celestia leaned forward, bringing herself closer to inspect Alex’s face. Twilight was very afraid now that Celestia was pushing their luck. She had no idea what was considered a personal boundary for his kind, and this may be pushing it too far. Celestia, however, tilted her head to the side a little, as though pondering something.

“Such a strange creature you are...” she said, more to herself than to Alex.

Alex, to Twilight’s surprise, snorted with strained laughter. “So says the magical talking unicorn. With wings.”

Celestia blinked in surprise, before bursting into a hearty giggle.

“I suppose we must be as unfamiliar to you as you are to us. I meant no offense.”

“None taken,” said Alex, though he still seemed quite tense. Twilight couldn’t help but feel relief, however, that Alex didn’t seem to react in an extreme way. From what she’s seen up till now, a couple of frightening scenarios had played out in her mind, and she was thankful that none of them had come to pass.

“My name is Princess Celestia. Do you have a name?”

“It’s Alex.”

Twilight only now realised just how strange a name that was. It could be perfectly normal for his kind, but thankfully, if Celestia found the name as strange as Twilight, she did not show it. From behind Celestia, Professor Greymane stepped into the room, adjusting his glasses slightly as he met eyes with Alex.

“Astonishing... He’s awake. And he speaks too. I would never have thought...”

“Professor, could you look him over? We need to be sure he’s fit enough to be active.” Celestia asked, to which the Professor began examining Alex. He did not have Celestia’s impressive stature, so like Twilight, he was forced to stand up against his bed to get a better look.

“Could you lift your foreleg? No, the left one. Yes, that’s right. Just let me have a look.”

As the professor inspected Alex, which seemed to cause him less stress than Celestia’s scrutinizing gaze, Celestia stepped to Twilight as her friends gathered close.

“I’d like to talk to you girls in private,” she whispered. Everypony nodded and they followed her to the corridor. It was hardly private, but it was outside of earshot of the room.

“Professor Greymane already informed me about our visitor, but I’d like to hear the story from you as well. I know you girls have a had a long day, but do you think you can bear to tell the story once more?”

Twilight and her friends recited the entire story. The strange behavior in Ponyville, each of them experiencing strange symptoms, following Applejack into the woods, all the way up to Twilight teleporting everypony to the hospital. They left some details out. None of them wanted to describe how they found Dash, or how much abuse Rarity had given Pinkie. Eventually, they reached the point where they had locked themselves into the room with Alex.

“So you were sure that Alex was the cause for the strange behavior you saw in your friends?” Celestia inquired. “How did you know?”

“I kept seeing... Things around him. Moving shadows, voices, and when I touched him...”

Twilight looked at her hoof. A painfully vivid memory shot through her of touching the black magical goop that was leaking out of Alex in her vision. The cold sensation that chilled her to the bone.

However, her story seemed to alarm Celestia greatly. Her smile was gone, and she looked into the room where Alex was still being examined by a rather noisy Professor Greymane. Twilight immediately jumped between Celestia and the entrance.

“But it’s okay now! I fixed it. It’ll never happen again, I promise.”

Celestia looked at her curiously. “How did you manage that?” she asked. There was concern in her voice, rather than curiosity.

“I... Uh...” Twilight trailed off as she realised it wasn’t just Celestia, but also her friends that were listening intently. Everypony was wondering what occurred after she passed out. This was, after all, the one part of the story they didn’t know. A moment of indecision struck her. She wanted to tell the truth, but she didn’t even want to think about the sheer madness she left behind. More importantly, she was afraid what they would think off Alex if she told them.

“We... We made a connection. I don’t think he ever meant to harm us. He just really needed a friend to be there for him.”

It was the best Twilight could offer. It was true, in a way, though it didn’t even come close to describing the entirety of events that took place. Celestia continued to give her that curious pondering look.

“Is that how you woke him?

Twilight nodded silently, expecting further probing for answers she didn’t really want to give. To her surprise, Celestia smiled brightly at her.

“Twilight, my faithful student, you continue to amaze me with how well you’ve learned your lessons about the magic of friendship,” Celestia said proudly.

It took a moment for the compliment to sink in, causing Twilight to blush when it did. “Thank you, princess,” she replied, bowing her head just slightly.

Celestia turned her attention to the entire group now. “Now girls, whilst I would love to formally welcome Alex to Equestria, the professor and I had a chat, and we believe it may be for the best if we move Alex to Canterlot.”

“But why, princess? Isn’t Ponyville safe?” Twilight asked.

“For a number of reasons. It’s where foreign dignitaries normally go for diplomatic purposes, and we’ll be able to provide him with everything he’ll need to recover. Considering that we have no idea what his species requires, it’s more prudent to go somewhere where we can tap into as many different resources as possible. Also... You may wish to look out of the window.”

Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow, before she and her friends hurried to a nearby window. Outside she could see the entrance to the hospital, and a good length of the road leading into the town. It was absolutely packed with the townsfolk, who were muttering amongst themselves.

Half the town must be out there! Twilight thought.

“I’m afraid we weren’t able to contain information regarding the creature’s stay here,” Celestia spoke from behind the group. “Some ponies got wind of a ‘strange creature being admitted,’ and well... You know how fast news travels. Considering everything Ponyville has gone through lately, I’d really like to try and avoid causing any further panic.”

“Are you sure he’s fit to travel, princess? I mean, his leg...” Fluttershy said. It struck Twilight that Alex was still quite injured. With that leg of his, she was sure he wasn’t going to be walking for quite some time.

“Indeed. It’s best if we let the professor decide if he’s able to travel.”

Before they could even move, Professor Greymane left the room to join them in the hallway. He nodded a quick greeting to the princess, before levitating a napkin to dab his forehead. It was hard to tell whether he was actually dabbing sweat from his brow, or whether it was some nervous impulse that made him do it.

“He’s stable. Better in fact than I expected. He’s certainly not the most friendly patient I’ve ever had, didn’t say a word while I examined him. However, he’s awake, alert and not in any immediate discomfort. The only thing we need to worry about is his leg, which I fear is the issue. It’ll be a while before he can walk again. Thankfully, I’m sure that he’ll make a full recovery.”

Twilight was glad to hear that Alex would be alright, but the knowledge that he didn’t immediately get along with Professor Greymane left a sour taste in her mouth. It wasn’t beyond what I should expect, she thought, but it still worried her.

“That’s good news professor. I shared our plans with the girls. Do you think it’s a good idea to move him?”

Greymane furrowed his brow as he thought, thinking his reply through thoroughly. It was clear he did not want to make a bad call. “It’s hard to say, your highness. Our knowledge of his species is unsatisfactory at best. How fast they recover or how prone his injuries are to worsen under stress are anypony’s guess. It may be worth the effort of asking him personally.”

“I’ll ask him, if that’s alright with you princess,” Twilight said. “He already knows me, so I’m sure he won’t mind as much if I’m the one asking him.”

Celestia nodded, Twilight taking that as her signal to enter.

Inside, Alex was busy cleaning his glasses on the folds of his shirt. He frowned as he realised the dirt that had accumulated on it only seemed to dull the glass even more.

“So, Alex. You met Professor Greymane?” she asked as she approached the bed. He put his glasses back on before replying.

“I did. He looked me over. Seemed nervous. Didn’t scare him, did I?”

To Twilight’s surprise, the corners of Alex’s mouth drew up to reveal his canines in a mischievous grin. She was pretty sure he was joking. Pretty sure.

“I talked with the princess, and we wanted to move you somewhere else. It’s for your own good, but we’re having trouble coming up with a way of doing without... You know, making your situation even worse. Do you have any ideas you could share?”

Alex’s gaze seemed to wander back to the door opening. Looking back, Twilight could see everypony was peeking in, no doubt unable to hold their curiosity in check. Twilight could hardly blame them, but still, they could’ve found a subtler way of eavesdropping.

“Yeah. Just get me a crutch. I’ll manage.”

“A crutch? That’s it?” Twilight asked disbelievingly. “But your leg. You can’t possibly walk on that!”

“Didn’t say I was going too. Just get me a crutch and I’ll be alright.”

“...Alright.”

Mildly irritated by Alex’s vagueness, she walked back to the group. Professor Greymane was already gone, no doubt getting Alex’s crutch.

“What would he want a crutch for? He’s not considering walking on his own, is he?” Fluttershy asked Twilight, so worried her voice shook a little.

“Would be awesome if he could, but don’t let him go too far Twi’,” said Rainbow Dash. “ I don’t even want to know what will happen if he falls.”

A few moments later, Professor Greymane came back with a whole bunch of crutches, all of different sizes. He put them down, wheezing as he did. The poor professor clearly wasn’t used to carrying that kind of weight around.

“These are all I could find. I’m fairly sure they’re all too small though, considering his impressive stature.”

“I might be able to fix that,” said Twilight as she levitated two of the largest crutches up in the air. Her horn began to glow fiercely, and with a poof, the two crutches merged to form one very long crutch. Twilight looked it over to ensure she managed to merge the materials without damaging them, before walking back to Alex and presenting him the crutch.

“Will this work?” she asked him. He grabbed it from the air, using his claw to tap it on the ground several times, testing if its strength could carry his weight. The room fell silent as he carefully moved his legs off of the bed, one at a time, putting his good one down on the ground to support his weight. He put the crutch beneath the pit of his left arm, and as he allowed his weight to rest on it, he pushed himself off the bed.

Twilight looked in wonder as Alex carefully took a step, and then another, using the crutch as a replacement leg, while keeping his injured limb from the ground. It was strange enough for him to walk on two legs without a tail to help him balance. Now, he was walking on one, hobbling about the room as he tried to adjust. He wasn't doing too well.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just the right size. So, where are we going?”

It took a moment for the question to register with Twilight. Now that she thought about it, she realised the way to Celestia’s carriage must be blocked by a hundred or more curious ponies. She turned to Princess Celestia, who, along with everypony else, was still studying the strange way Alex moved with his crutch.

“Princess? If your carriage is out there, how are we going to get Alex past the crowd? Anything could go wrong if they start mobbing him with questions, or worse, if everypony panics!” Again, Celestia cracked a proud smile at Twilight.

“Very observant, my faithful student. I’ve been thinking of a few ways to transport him out of Ponyville unseen, but I’d like to make sure we’re choosing what’s best for everypony. Professor? If you’d be so kind to meet with me and Nurse Redheart. I have some ideas I’d like to discuss.”

“Very well, princess. I’ll be in the meeting room when you need me.” His gaze wandered to Alex, and Twilight could’ve sworn he was fighting the urge to smile like a mad pony. “I must say, however, that I’m ecstatic with the opportunity to learn more about his species. This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, and the implications–”

Celestia held up a hoof to motion him to silence. “I am aware it’s exhilarating, professor. Just try to keep your excitement contained until we return to Canterlot and have all had some much needed rest, alright? In the meantime, here’s what I’d like you to look at...”

Celestia quickly led Professor Greymane out of the room, leaving Twilight and her friends with Alex. Looking up at him, she could see he was frowning just slightly. He shook his head and slowly hobbled back to his bed. He sat down, taking deep breaths, no doubt his leg still giving him a hard time.

“So...” she said as she sat down next to his bed. It was strange how much height difference there was between him standing and sitting down. “How do you feel about Professor Greymane?” she asked, trying to start some idle conversation.

“He talks about me like I’m his pet labrat.”

Twilight swallowed dryly. The last thing she wanted was to start off on the wrong hoof.

“Don’t worry, the Professor means well. He’s just... Excited, that’s all, and he shows it in his own way. We’ll get you to Canterlot, safe and sound, and then everything will be fine, I promise.”

Alex didn’t respond immediately, but slowly started nodding. He seemed to have something on his mind, even if he didn’t speak it, and that bothered Twilight. Still, the going was good so far.

If everypony works together, we might just pull this off.

A loud “ahem” came from her right. Her friends had gathered in a half-circle around her.

“Twilight, dear, don’t you think you should introduce us?” Rarity inquired while raising an eyebrow. The idea struck Twilight like a hammerblow. After all of this, and she hadn’t even introduced any of them.

“Oh, I’m so sorry girls! Alex, these are my friends,” Twilight said with a wide gesture of her hoof.

“Rarity, charmed,” said Rarity with a polite bow.

“Name’s Applejack,” Applejack stepping forward. She raised one hoof to shake, but pulled it back, unsure of herself.

“Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria!” Dash said with a flex of her wings.

“I’m Fluttershy,” Fluttershy whispered, shrinking under Alex’s gaze.

A moment of silence followed. Twilight looked around, but was missing a particular pink pony.

“Where did Pinkie go?”

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie!” Twilight heard behind her. Much to her surprise, Pinkie was already sitting on the bed next to Alex. She had taken one of his claws into her hooves and was shaking it up and down rapidly.

“I’m so happy to finally meet you! I mean, we already met before, but you were asleep so I don’t really count that time! We haven’t even had the chance to thank you for saving us from that huge monster yesterday! I was going to throw you the super-duper-bestest party ever, but if they’re gonna move you to Canterlot first then we’re going to have to delay it! Or we could do it in Canterlot! In fact, we could invite all of Ponyville and Canterlot! You’d be the guest of honour!”

Pinkie stopped shaking his claw, but at that point, the motion seemed to stick and he moved his now empty claw up and down several more times before it came to a halt. He looked imploringly at Twilight, looking almost comically unsure of himself.

“Is... Is she always like this?”

He got a good snicker out of the group for his trouble. Shortly afterwards, Celestia and Professor Greymane stepped back into the room.

“Alex, I believe we have a plan, if you’re ready to move...”

Outside the hospital, dozens upon dozens of voices filled the evening air as the townsfolk chatted amongst themselves idly. It had been quiet these past few hours, even after the arrival of Princess Celestia’s carriage, but there wasn’t a soul who didn’t wonder at the business the princess must be attending too. Curious eyes wandered around shrouded windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of the “strange monster” that supposedly now resided within.

The front doors were pushed open, and a hush fell over the crowd. Princess Celestia stepped outside, drawing everypony’s attention immediately. She cleared her throat, before her voice began to boom, as though through a loudspeaker.

“Citizens of Ponyville, I thank you all for coming here today, and for showing such interrest in the well-being of your town. I’m sure you’re all wondering what’s been going on for these past few days, and I’d like to take a moment to explain it to you all...”

Meanwhile, a door also opened in the back of the hospital.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Alex asked, his crutch tapping painfully loudly against the threshold of the door before he broke out into the open air. As far as Twilight could see, there were no townsfolk on this side of the hospital.

She could hear the sound of Celestia’s voice coming from the other side of the building. That was their cue to move.

“The carriage is on the other end of the road. There’s no other way to get to it. Just keep your head down and don’t make any noise, we’ll get there before Celestia finishes her speech.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took flight, getting a better vantage point as the rest of the group walked around the building. As they edged towards the corner, Rainbow Dash began signalling them to move from above. The crowd was facing Celestia, thus giving them the opening they needed.

They began to move, Twilight leading from the front, while Pinkie and Greymane flanked Alex, with Rarity covering their backs. It was too much to ask for them to shroud Alex from sight, his sheer height making the effort hopeless, but he was by far the slowest of the group, and this way they’d be sure he wouldn’t be left behind. In fact, he was already panting with the effort.

However, as Twilight turned her head, she could see him eyeing Pinkie in a panicky fashion. Pinkie, as always, didn’t so much run as bounce up and down. She made as little noise as any of them, miraculously, but it was clearly worrying Alex. She wanted to calm him down, but saying anything would risk drawing unwanted attention.

“Will you st-” Alex began, but his attention was so focussed on Pinkie that his crutch failed to find purchase and slid out. Time seemed to slow as Twilight watched Alex falling. Her horn glowed as she pushed with her magical power, trying to catch him from hitting the dirt. Though she managed to steady him, he reflexively put out his injured leg. He found his balance as it hit the ground, but a muffled cry of pain got caught in his throat.

It was just enough to draw the attention of one of the ponies in the crowd standing closest to them. She turned around, gasping as she looked at Alex, drawing yet more eyes in their direction.

“Oh shit,” Alex noted.

Soon, the eyes of the entire crowd were fixed on the small group. Their whole plan was ruined, and ponies were already approaching from all directions, practically surrounding them.

“You... You’re what fought off that chimaera, aren’t you?” one member of the crowd asked.

“He’s huge! How can he stand like that?” another pony asked.

“What are you?”

“Why did you come to Ponyville?”

“Do you want somepony to show you around town? Least we can do for a guest!”

The mix of awed, friendly or even frightful questions began to barrage Alex from all sides as the townsfolk closed in, unable to help their own curiosity. Twilight found herself panicking completely as members of the crowd pushed her aside to get a closer look or ask questions. Alex himself was looking around, trying to find some gap in the crowd he could bolt through, but he was too slow with his injured leg. He just looked on blankly as more and more questioning ponies began to invade his personal space.

Think Twilight, think!

“Mister, mister, sign my stuffed animal!” a small child called out from the crowd as she raised a stuffed pony.

“Will there be an official welcome in town? Sure there’ll be! This is Ponyville after all!”

Twilight was still trying to come up with a way to fix this, when suddenly Alex let out a deep sigh. He bent forward, slowly bringing himself face to face with the closest member of the crowd, a yellow-coated mare with orange curls. Her eyes became as wide as saucers as her eyes locked with his. He cleared his throat briefly.

“Boo.”

The yellow mare screamed in fright, everypony around her joining her, a massive stampede occurring as townsfolk clambered over each other to escape from the sudden terror in their midst. When the dust settled, they were left all alone. Alex had a smug grin on his face, though Twilight couldn’t imagine what was funny.

“Was that really necessary?” she scolded, but Alex didn’t seem overly bothered.

“They’re gone aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but you spooked the entire town!”

“Works for me,” he said as he began to move again. Twilight groaned in frustration. She was sure she could’ve dealt with this better, somehow, if only she would’ve had more time to think, and it irritated her to find him acting so carelessly about what he’s done. Sure, nopony got hurt, but she questioned what would happen if Alex would ever return here from Canterlot. Wide-scale panic is what she considered, like early on with Zecora. The thought darkened her mood, and Rainbow Dash’s snickering behind her didn’t help it at all.

“Oh man, you should’ve seen Carrot Top’s face,” she said, before making a ridiculous impression of the mare’s plight, sending herself into another fit of laughter.

Celestia met them at her own golden carriage. Two extra carriages had been prepared for transport, probably more as a precaution than anything else. Judging from Celestia’s frown, she seemed to be thinking the same thing Twilight did about Alex’s “solution,” even if she didn’t voice it. Professor Greymane stepped into one of the carriages as Celestia turned to address Alex, Twilight and her friends.

“Alright girls, I can’t thank you enough for your efforts so far. You’ve personally prevented an unimaginable tragedy from happening here,” Celestia explained, to which everypony smiled proudly. “I couldn’t possibly ask for more from any of you, so if any of you want to stay in Ponyville, I’ll understand.”

“I’m coming along,” she said as she looked up at Alex. “After all, we’re friends, and friends stick together no matter what.” He nodded gratefully towards her.

Suddenly, Twilight felt Rainbow Dash putting her foreleg over her neck.

“If Twilight’s going, we’re all going, right girls?”

Everypony voiced their agreement. It warmed Twilight’s heart to see them not hesitate for even a moment, despite the weirdness of these past few days.

“Alright then girls. Find a carriage. It’s time to go.”

Everypony had scattered to spread themselves amongst the carriages. Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had joined Professor Greymane in his carriage, while Pinkie Pie and Applejack had taken place in Princess Celestia’s Carriage. Twilight was alone in a carriage with Alex, who had been nursing his leg since he sat down in the carriage. He wasn’t showing much, but she was pretty sure it was still hurting him. Maybe that, in part, explained for his behavior with the crowd just now, but there were already so many uncertainties with him, it was impossible to tell if she was right.

The golden-armored guards at the front of the carriage snorted loudly.

“Alright, we’re about to lift off. Try not to move too much.”

Alex shot her a strange look, like he was looking at a madpony.

“Did you just say, ‘lift off?’”

The carriage lurched and began to move. Alex leaned forward to look out of the window, his eyes growing wide as he began to see the town disappearing beneath them.

“We’re flying! This isn’t possible! How can this thing fly!?”

Twilight already knew this was going to be a long trip.

Freedom

Just Human, chapter 11: Freedom

Twilight fidgeted nervously as she watched Alex. Since the trip began, and she calmly reassured him he was in no danger, he had been silently staring at the landscape passing by. His lips moved occasionally, though no words seemed to form. She imagined he had questions. In fact, she had plenty of her own, but the lack of any conversation at all was distressing.

I’m going to have to break the ice somehow... But where do I start?

She moved over to his side of the carriage, leaning over the side as he did to look at the great landscape below them. She tried to follow what he was looking at, which seemed to be the villages and towns they passed over directly. Though it didn’t seem that special to her, she could imagine he might’ve never had a bird’s eye view of the world before.

“So,” she began, stopping briefly as Alex turned his head to her. She nodded quickly to the great expanse beyond the carriage. “What do you think?”

“Well… Aside from the fact that every town we’ve passed so far is populated by small colorful horses—”

“Ponies,” Twilight correct.

“Sorry, ponies,” Alex replied, though with a hint of irritation. “It’s almost like… Like looking back in time. The houses, the cobblestone streets, the farmers using plows to, well, plow. And that big castle over there, the one I’m assuming we’re heading towards,” he said, nodding at the spires of Canterlot in the distance.

Twilight looked at distant Canterlot. For most of her life, she’s either lived inside Canterlot or within sight of it. To her, it had always been an soothing sight. With it’s walls and towers pristine white and gold, it had always seemed as strong and timeless as Princess Celestia herself. She had always thought that Princess Celestia, and maybe even her parents, watched over her from there, making sure no harm would befall her or her friends. She knew a few ponies that might have never seen a castle, but few would describe it as Alex just did. As something not of this world.

“Is it really that strange to you? We’ve had castles for hundreds of years, if not more. You’re not afraid of going to Canterlot, are you?”

Alex’s mood seemed to darken further at that question. “It’s not the castle itself I’m worried about. It’s what’s going to happen to me when we get there.”

Alex broke eye contact and gloomily looked back down towards the passing landscape, making it clear to Twilight that he was worrying.

“Are you worried about what’s going to happen to you?”

Alex nodded slightly in response, before turning his head to face her again. “Wouldn’t you be?”

“No,” she answered with complete confidence. “Whatever happened, I’m sure you didn’t mean to cause any of it, and I’m sure Princess Celestia will see it that way too.”

“I hope you’re right,” Alex replied, though he didn’t seem to be anywhere near as convinced as she was.

Another uneasy silence began as the pair awaited their arrival in Canterlot. Still, Twilight couldn’t help but try to sate her curiosity once more.

“Alex… If we’d show you a map of Equestria, do you think you’d be able to point out where you’re from, and where we can find more of your people?”

Alex seemed to ponder the question as he stared farther and farther away, until he began to scan the horizon itself.

“Seeing all of this…” he said with a wide motion of his claw, “I don’t think I know anything of where I am anymore.”

The carriages landed with a thud in a courtyard within the castle, specially designed to receive airborne visitors in private. Little lanterns filled with fireflies marked the landing strip, and two columns of royal guards flanked either side of the road leading into the castle.

From a distance, he could already make out the fountains, the pearly white towers, the gardens, among other things. Up close, he couldn’t help but feel like the entire castle had been ripped straight out of a fairytale.

Alex carefully made his way out of the carriage, but the strain of standing up was already getting to him. Twilight was leading the way, but she shot him a very concerned look when she saw him struggling.

“Are you okay? You didn’t hurt yourself more when you tripped earlier, did you?”

“I just realised, I probably should’ve asked you for a second crutch. I never actually used one of these before… Didn’t figure walking with one would take such an effort.”

“Oh, hang on. I think I can fix that for you.”

Twilight’s horn began to glow, as well as Alex’s crutch. With a flash, it duplicated, and Alex found himself now leaning on two. He stared perplexed at the new crutch before he began hobbling alongside her to the rest of the group.

“You know, I’m still at a loss at how you’re doing that, but where I’m from, that kind of stuff usually makes you an immediate celebrity.”

She blushed and made a dismissive gesture with one hoof. “It’s nothing special, really. Just a simple duplication spell.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Right. Simple.”

The rest of their group had already gathered. The girls were already making small talk amongst themselves, which stopped abruptly as Alex came into earshot. Princess Celestia watched with a soft smile on her lips, Professor Greymane at her side.

“We’ll get Alex to his room first. I wouldn’t want to push you any further than I already have.”

The group soon began to make their way into the castle. The guards on either side of them saluted to greet the princess, but most of them lost their concentration upon seeing the strange creature she had brought with her. They all looked up at Alex with wide eyes and dumbstruck expressions. A murmur went up among them, which took the one in the most ornate armor a few angry whispers to silence.

In a way, he thought it was hilarious. His mouth curved into a wide grin as he hobbled forward, which did not improve the situation at all. In fact, it only seemed to make the guards more edgy.

He caught a stern glare from Twilight. “You’re not thinking of doing what I think you’re going to do, are you?” she pressed.

“It may have crossed my mind,” Alex replied coyly, before noticing that Princess Celestia was giving him the same look. “I’ll behave,” he said hastily.

Twilight then shot him back the same grin. “Good. I’m putting a lot of trust in you, okay?”

Alex muttered a half-formed reply. Part of him felt like she was manipulating him into doing what she wanted, which he recognized as something innately negative, yet at the same time he couldn’t hear was any ill intent behind her words. He found himself trusting her, but that didn’t make him any more comfortable.

The guard wearing the most ornate suit of golden armor saluted as the group reached the gates of the castle. “Your highness,” he said as he greeted Celestia, though his eyes shifted rapidly between the princess and Alex. He did a better job at maintaining discipline than his men, but not by a wide margin.

“It’s okay, captain,” Celestia replied in a soothing tone. “This here is a guest to my court. I know it’s a little unexpected, but do try to keep your men quiet about the event. It would be best if we kept this silent for now.”

He nodded curtly, opening the door to allow the group entry into the castle. He caught Twilight giving the captain a sideways look, and she quickly hurried to the front to join Celestia’s side as the group began to move again. They shared a few hushed words, but he couldn’t make out what. However, his attention was soon taken up entirely by the castle itself. It was the most amazing sight he’d ever seen.

The inside was so vast he could hear his footsteps echo. Everything seemed to have been cut out of marble and inlaid with gold or silver, and gems in all shades of the rainbow adorned various parts of the castle of pieces of art that they passed. From the outside, it already seemed like someone had tried to replicate a castle as described in a fairy tale. On the inside, it had been made in that image more vividly than Alex had thought imaginable. It was at once horribly cliché, and utterly breathtaking.

After climbing a stairwell into a tower, which was probably the hardest thing Alex had to do all day, they arrived at a set of ornate wooden doors, twice as tall as he was, with carvings showing one figure he recognized as Princess Celestia on a sunlit hillside, and another figure he didn’t recognize of far darker colours who stood on the other side of the hill under the light of the moon.

“Please tell me that was the only set of stairs I’m going to have to climb,” he whined, in between huffs.

“Don’t worry, we’re here,” Princess Celestia replied. “I chose this room specifically because it’s in a tower that’s separated from the main complex, so that hopefully we can keep you safe from prying eyes. Normally, this room is reserved for foreign dignitaries, though I suppose that in light of our situation, that may not be too far off the mark.”

Celestia shot Alex a disarming smile. He was pretty sure that she actually meant, “Here I can keep an eye on you and you won’t have anywhere to go if you try to escape.” Then again, he was pretty sure that with his busted leg, he wasn’t gonna be going anywhere in a hurry anyway.

Might as well just make the best of whatever hole she decides to throw me in.

As Celestia pushed open the doors, Alex knew that if he had spoken those words out loud, he would’ve swallowed every single one.

The room looked like it belonged to royalty. Every piece of furniture was masterfully carved and inlaid with yet more precious metals and gemstones than he could’ve ever afforded. Curtains framed the windows that were lined with golden threads, and candlesticks hung from the walls carved out of solid crystal. The bed, however, utterly dominated the room. It was large enough for four people to sleep in comfortably and the entire woodwork was inlaid with gold and silver depicting an entire landscape with frolicking ponies, like a massive painting drawn in the most expensive dye.

Something nudged his side. As he looked, he saw Twilight giving him a cheeky grin.

“Your mouth is hanging open.”

He quickly corrected himself, only to see Celestia trying very hard to stifle a giggle.

“So, what do you think?” Celestia inquired.

“It’s… Nice,” he managed to say. In reality, he was amazed. The room seemed fit for a king, and for the live of him, he couldn’t grasp why they’d do him such a favor when he’s made such a nuisance of himself. A little pang of regret shot through him for almost having caused a scene at the entrance.

“You’re free to make yourself at home, at least until you’re fully recovered. Until then, consider yourself to be a guest in my court.”

He nodded lightly in reply as he began to hobble forward, before sitting down on the bed with an audible sigh. To his shock, both of his crutches burst in a shower of sparks, leaving only the two small pony-sized crutches behind. He noticed Twilight’s taking a deep breath, appearing just as drained as he felt. Soon, however, she looked up at him cheerfully once more.

“Sorry, I wanted to warn you first, but the spell only lasts as long as I concentrate, and it was wearing me out. How’s your leg?”

“Not much better than before, I’m afraid. That trip couldn’t have been good for me,” he said, idly rubbing across the bandages on his leg. He hadn’t noticed it before, his thoughts so consumed with the splendor of the castle and with his own musings that he hadn’t noticed the stinging sensation that had begun developing in his wounded limb.

“Let the professor take a look at it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Twilight replied as she faced Professor Greymane, who raised his chin in acknowledgement.

“Certainly not! You are still my patient after all. Just lay your leg down on the bed and let me unwrap the bandages. We can change them while we’re at it.”

It was a little unnerving for Alex to watch his bandages being taken in Greymane’s magical grip and unwind themselves. His state of mind hardly improved at the sight of his injuries.

“Ah, good. No infection has set in. You girls did an excellent job taking care of him,” Professor Greymane stated, a twinge of pride in his voice.

“Actually, that was mostly just Fluttershy. She was taking care of his wounds the whole time we were in there,” Twilight said, which immediately drew all attention in the room to the pegasus.

“Uhm… Thank you,” she muttered quietly, drawing a smile from Greymane. However, soon he was facing Twilight, giving her a stern look.

“However, Miss Sparkle, I’m going to have to ask you not to repeat the events at the hospital again. Ever.”

Twilight nodded bashfully, apologizing again for her actions at the hospital, but her attention was soon drawn by Alex’s wounds. Something seemed to occur to her.

“Professor Greymane, do you know any regenerative spells?” she inquired.

“Of course! Every unicorn doctor knows them. They were designed to increase the speed at which tissues repair themselves. Historically, this has led to them being widely used in assisting in the healing of injuries, though this has to be done after initial physical treatment due to the nature of—”

“Yes!” Twilight interjected. “Can you try and use it?”

“I tried it before, Miss Sparkle. Initial tests have shown that, for reasons we haven’t been able to discern, that our visitor seems to absorb magic like a sponge, rendering magical therapies ineffective.”

“Try it again. Please,” she asked, resulting in Greymane sighing wearily.

“Very well, Miss Sparkle, but only because I dread the results if I deny you a request again.”

Professor Greymane moved his horn above Alex’s leg, illuminating it as his horn began to glow with a soft silver light. The light radiated outwards to touch Alex’s leg. It felt strange, like his leg was being bathed in sunlight. Greymane’s eyes widened as soon as the sensation took hold.

“Extraordinary,” he muttered, as the glow intensified. It took only a few brief moments and he was done.

“I do not know why, but the magical treatment seems to have taken effect!” he proclaimed, equally enthusiastic as he was surprised. Alex looked at his wounds, but they appeared no different from before.

“Are you sure it worked? No offense, but you didn’t seem to have ‘fixed’ anything.”

“Patience. The treatment takes a while before your body will begin to react to it. Your wounds will heal faster than normally. However, be prepared to bear a few scars. Even our magic can’t fix that, I’m afraid.”

After wrapping his leg in new bandages, he had to admit, he felt better. The stinging sensation was gone, at least.

“Now, we’ll leave you to get some bedrest,” Celestia began. “Tomorrow we’ll come and get you when you’re properly rested. Sleep well, Alex.”

“Thanks. For everything, I mean,” Alex replied a little awkwardly. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to bow. He was thankful that she didn’t seem all that keen on formality anyway, because he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to wrap his head around it.

Twilight gave him a last look as the rest of the group left the room. “Good night,” she said.

“Good night.”

Twilight blew out a few candles that had been illuminating the room, before she closed the door behind her. Alex laid down on the bed, thoughts still plaguing him of how he’d gotten here, or even how it’s possible that he was talking to mythical animals. However, those thoughts were soon lost in a haze as he drifted off into a peaceful slumber for the first time in at least three days.

“I’ve arranged for each of you to get your own rooms,” Celestia spoke to the girls as they gathered around her. “You know where to go. By now, I can almost reserve them all six of you, considering how often you all have had to come to Canterlot to avert one disaster or another.”

A little giggle erupted from the group, before Twilight looked up to her with a questioning look in her eyes.

“Did you already replace Shining Armor?” she asked. Though she tried to hide it, Celestia could detect the hurt undertone in Twilight’s voice.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but your brother has his own duties now in the Crystal Empire. Somepony needed to fill the position. Otherwise, the Royal Guard would be without leadership. You understand, don’t you Twilight?”

“I do, princess,” Twilight replied in a resigned tone.

She smiled warmly at Twilight. “If it makes you feel any better, your brother personally recommended the new captain. He wouldn’t want you to fret about this on his behalf. Now, I ask that you all go get some rest. Tomorrow we can start worrying about our visitor.”

“Princess?” Rarity began. “Might I ask where I can send a message back to Ponyville? We left in such a rush, and I need someone to look after Sweetie Belle. I’m sure Spike wouldn’t mind looking out for her until I return.”

“You can use the chimney in my study. It’s enchanted. Just throw your letter in the fire and Spike will receive it.”

“Thank you, Princess,” Rarity said with a curtsy.

“Shouldn’t you send a message for Applebloom too?” Rainbow Dash asked Applejack.

“Nah, she’ll be fine with Big Mac and Granny Smith. Then again… Ah reckon ah should let them know they’re gonna have to take over my chores for a day or two.”

“Oh oh!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I just remembered, I got a shift in the bakery tomorrow! I need to let the cakes know I won’t be there.”

As the group quickly descended into idle chatter, Celestia decided it was best to take her leave quietly. They obviously went through a through a lot today, and she had no intention of disturbing them further. Professor Greymane joined her at her side. His expression, his thick eyebrows lowered as though he were in deep thought.

“Is there something on your mind, professor?” she asked, to which he looked up as though suddenly shocked out of his reverie.

“Yes, actually, there is. That creature… Alex, I think they called him? His strange name, form and mannerisms aside, something about him shook me to my very core.”

Intrigued, Celestia stopped in her tracks and awaited his answer, as Greymane fumbled over his words.

“When I allowed my magic to touch him, it… I felt…”

“Nothing?” she filled in, and Greymane immediately began nodding.

“Yes, that’s exactly it. It was like making magic flow through thin air, or water, or earth. There were no energies innate to him to resist me, like he was completely devoid of magic, but I couldn’t believe that was true. Magic is one of the elements needed to sustain life as we know it. Earth, water, air… But I couldn’t feel any magic in him. Yet still, there he was, most assuredly alive. It was… Disconcerting to see something I thought was the complete truth to be proven wrong before my very eyes.”

His expression soon changed, and he looked at Celestia curiously. “Princess, if you don’t mind me asking… How did you know?”

Celestia smiled. “No offense, Professor Greymane, but my eyes can see further than you might think. I saw the same thing you felt.”

“Princess, you understand what his existence implies, don’t you?” he said, his voice almost a hushed whisper.

“That he is from another world? I understand, professor. However, that makes our job here even more important. If he is an emissary of his kind, then he must be treated with all due respect.”

Celestia involuntarily led out a small yawn, to the surprise of Greymane. “I’m sorry professor, but this will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind to continue keeping our visitor healthy, would you?”

Greymane beamed as he replied. “Would I mind? Princess, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How many academics on Equestria can say that they were the first to have made contact with an intelligent completely unknown species? It would be my honor to lend my services.”

Celestia nodded and bade an unusually cheerful Greymane good night. She slowly trudged back to her quarters, eager to finally get some rest after the past few days. However, her mind wouldn’t stop wandering to the strange thing she glimpsed within the creature. A rune of three overlapping golden rings which stemmed the flow of magic entirely, placed right into his very core. Such a ward should not have survived this long. All living things had magic coursing through their veins, and such a rune placed on a living creature would soon burst beneath the pressure of the magic it contained.

The only real explanation was the same given by the professor. This creature was entirely devoid of natural magic.

So many questions… Who put that rune on him, and why? How did you get to Equestria? What really happened down there in Ponyville?

Freedom…

The entity awoke with a start. His senses immediately took the confines of its prison into focus, more clearly than they had in ages. Still, he was caged here, but no longer did the prison have the strength to lull him into sleep once more.

The reason why was obvious. Through the cracks in the world’s crust above him, he could sense power flowing into him unbidden. Misery and despair, rejection and anger. All these things fed his power, and he knew for sure that his chosen tool had been successful. The how and why were irrelevant. He had all he needed to take what he had yearned to possess for longer than several mortal lifetimes. His freedom.

His power strained against the walls that kept him here, the magical spells that had been woven to imprison him yielding beneath the force he applied.

Deep in the earth, in a place no living thing had seen for several thousand years, electricity arched around a vast stone gate. Bit of rock and debris fell from above, and dust was stirred from its resting place, as the doors began to creak open.

Within, an unfathomable darkness reached forth, like an angry amoeboid stretching to escape water. A vague form was visible within the darkness, but it was little more than a barely solid cloud with two white orbs of light set into it, like glaring eyes. It stretched out of the darkness beyond the gates, but no matter how far away it managed to reach, a thin strand of dark matter continued to connect it to its prison, threatening to drag it back within.

I must take physical form. Only then can the prison no longer reclaim me!

It weighed its options for a moment. And the form I shall take shall mirror that of my rescuer. My tool. My servant.

Within the dark, a hand formed, and then an arm, a torso, legs and feet, before finally forming a head. It was made to resemble the thing that had been summoned, but only in the most abstract way. Hair, scars and other imperfections were eliminated. They were not necessary to the function of this new form. Only a suit of armor was added, black plates meant to protect its physical form from damage.

The tether that bound the entity to its former prison was severed as its form solidified entirely. With a load groan, the gates closed behind it. The entity looked at its hands, noticing for the first time that he would have to learn to use these unfamiliar appendages as though he was born anew.

Born anew… That is exactly what I am.

It looked around the vast cavern that it now occupied. Murals had been carved into the solid rock surrounding him, depicting how countless alicorns banded their powers to drive away a great evil beneath the earth, sealing it away forever. So old were these murals that dust alone made some of them incomprehensible. It was then that the entity truly felt the weight of ages.

“How long was I imprisoned?” it asked, its voice echoing into the vastness of the caverns.