The Last Heroes of Equestria

by ZeroStar

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 179372

Follow the adventures of a few ponies who will see the changing of the powers that be.

Follow the adventures of the ones who will take part in changing the face of Equestria and lead it into a new era. This tale is long and not ending anytime soon. The select individuals watch Equestria change dramatically around them as they still manage to live their own lives to only a minimal degree of normality. Drama and adventure await...

I would appreciate some feedback so comments would be fantastic. Also I would like some suggestions as to who I should label as main characters, so far I got OC, Twilight, and Dash... I don't know if some others would be seen as main characters.

Published 2012-01-10 07:56:22 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-21 04:19:42 UTC

Sound of the Whistle

In the middle of Ponyville everypony was going about their business as a spark of electricity came out of no where building up. In a sudden flash of light and burst of electricity an earth pony stood wearing a pair of goggles. "Oww..." Not moving at all the earth pony started to talk. "I appear to be paralyzed." Shaking his neck around some ash came off of him, his purple spiked up mane sprung up. "And blind.” The ponies stood and stared at the pony with the purple mane. “Is anypony there? Aaaanypony at all.” Soon a rainbow streak tackled into the paralyzed pony sending both of them into a wall. “Oh, heheheh. You okay?”

“More or less.”

“You need some help?”

“Well, I seem to be paralyzed… and blind. I think I might need to go to a hospital.”

“Well I guess I could bring you there.”

“Much obliged.” Rainbow Dash propped the pony up and laid him over her back as she flew over to the hospital. “Wow you are really heavy.”

“Oh that’s not me, that’s my bag. It has a lot of… I’ll tell you later. Just don’t drop it.” They made their way to the hospital and after an hour or so the pony was fully recovered. “I forgot to ask. What is your name?” The Pegasus landed. “Oh right, I’m Rainbow Dash.”

“Lovely name, I’m the Wizz Fissle, Flizz Gizzle, Giss Listle, Fo Shizzle…” He slapped himself across the face which was followed by a momentary pause.

“Fizz Whistle.”

Rainbow Dash looked at him in awe with head cocked to the side, “Is that normal?”

“Is what normal?”

“What you just did there?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.” He looked at the Rainbow Pegasus in a sort of ‘You’re crazy’ sort of way. “And why does my face hurt?”, he questioned whilst rubbing his cheek.

“Oooookay, well you have fun in Ponyville, I have to go practice some more.”

“Practice what, might I ask?”

“Flying. I’m practicing some moves so I can someday join the Wonderbolts!”

“Flying? I love flying, or well at least I’d like to fly, but seeing as I’m not very aerodynamically inclined I have much trouble gaining enough velocity to gain altitude, as well as sustain it for any extended amount of time other than in some sort of vehicle.”

“Uh… Wha-”

“But that is all going to change! I’ll invent a device that will enable myself to fly alongside the Pegasi! All I have to do is observe somepony like yourself long enough to understand how it works.”

“Okay, well le-”

“Come on! Let’s go!”, Fizz began walking outside before Dash could finish a sentence, however he had no clue where he was going. Dash started following him, wondering where he was going. They left the hospital, went out of town, kept going for a few miles and ended up in a big empty field. “This will be an appropriate place to start and with that cliff over there, I can do a few tests on my own for this.”, he proceeded to drop his saddlebags and throw down some tools and an assortment of other devices that seemed to serve no purpose other than waste space. “Okay, now I need you to take off and show me how you fl-….”, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. She had actually stopped following Fizz right as he left Ponyville. “Well… Looks like a proper time to set up my shop.”, he enthusiastically stated as he cracked his neck.

Over the next few days, nobody had seen or heard of the new and eccentric earth pony. Not until the disturbances at least. First it started off as a small column of black smoke. Then it was the noises: big crashes and booms rolling across the land. There was at one point a bright light that flashed like lightning but had no thunderous aftershock. It came to the point where Twilight Sparkle was wondering what was going on, so she set out towards the smoke on the horizon. Upon her arrival she was shocked to see several craters in the once green grassy field that used to be there. There was a decently sized building about 3 stories tall. She walked up to the small door on the side of it. She knocked only once before the was a loud metallic crash and then silence. “Hello? Is anybody there? Are you okay?”, Twilight shouted at the door, expressing concern for the stranger within. After a moment there was a few seconds of metallic objects sounding like they were being pushed aside and then a slit in the door opened. “Yes, Who is this, Who are you, What do you want, Are you trying to steal my research, Are you a spy? Answer quickly!”, a sound of paranoia was on the pony’s breath. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, I’ve come here to ask about the noises and light coming from here, because, you see it’s causing a bit of a disturbance to the town.”

“Oh… Well, I’m sorry. One moment.”, The slit in the door closed and then sounds of several locks being undone ensued. “You may want to get away from the door right about now… 3... 2... 1...”, a purple light came from around the door frame and there was a whirring sound of something powering up. The door disintegrated inside a large purple blast. An earth pony walked out with purple mane and coat and bluish green eyes. “Greetings, my name is Fizz Whistle, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”, He paid no attention to the baffled look on Twilight’s face from witnessing him blow to door off his building in such a nonchalant fashion. “Hellooooo? Anyone in there?”, he questioned whilst waving his hoof in front of the unicorn’s face. Twilight regained her composure, “What did you just do!?”, she asked in a rather alarmed tone while pointing at the now no longer existing door. “Well I needed to get out, and I have been meaning to test my laser, so I figured I’d hit two birds with one stone and blast the door off.”, The earth pony seemed rather proud of what he just did. “Then why did you bother unlocking the door?”

“Well I didn’t actually think of it until I was done unlocking it.”

“So you would rather test some crazy and dangerous thing than open the door and not have a hole in your wall?”

“I’ve been getting to the point of wanting a new door and now this will force me to get to it.”

“Right… Well still, I’ve come on behalf of those ponies at Ponyville to ask that you try not to be so noisy.”

“I think you’d prefer me to be noisy out here than to destroy your town with one of my crazy ideas.”

“Crazy ideas? What exactly are you doing here?”

“Science! Of course!”, he exclaimed rather enthusiastically. “It is my job to advance what we know of the universe and technology with my research and inventions. It’s been sort of a family legacy thing ever since my great great great grandfather Stone Whistle and his invention of the train. So sad that nowadays the average pony still can’t figure out how it works and they make other ponies pull it around but I guess we can’t all be so talented with machinery. Wanna see some of the stuff my family has come up with?”

“Ummm… Sure, why not?”, Twilight hesitantly said as she was lead into the workshop of Fizz.

“Would you like something to drink? I have some of my brother Steam Whistle’s special elixir.”

“Yes please, that sounds delightful.”, she said in a polite manner.

“Hope you like it, it’s pretty much all I ever drink.”, He poured a glass full and put in a straw which Twilight floated over to her direction.

“Thank you for the drink.”, she said as she took a sip and immediately sprayed it out of her mouth. “What is that stuff!?”, she screamed.

“This is my brother’s elixir ‘Wuh-high-sky’”, he pointed to the bottle it was in that was labelled ‘Whiskey’.

“What’s in that stuff?”, Twilight asked curious about what she was about to ingest.

“I think it was ‘Ee-thaw-nawl’, made from grain and I believe I heard him say something about putting battery acid in it for flavour. It tastes like fire and amazing and makes you forget your worries and makes pain and inhibitions a thing of the past, a very necessary thing for being a scientist.”

“And you drink this on a daily basis?!”, She exclaimed a sound of concern.

“More or less an hourly basis. I guess it is a bit of an acquired taste. You should try again, maybe I’ll try mixing it with something like… Fizzy pop.”

“Please don’t tell me that it tastes like that other drink.”

“Well it has a minor sensation but other than that it has no effects. I make it using the air that we breathe out and put it into water then add syrup and sugar and bam, a new drink is made. Already I have several ponies trying to steal my idea with their stupid ‘sars-paw-ree-law’, as if they could make one better than the original!”, he opened a bottle of his invented drink with a pop sound coming from the bottle and put a straw in it. “This should be more to your liking.”, he said as Twilight floated the new drink towards her hesitantly. She took a sip and to her pleasant surprise enjoyed the taste of it. “Yes, this is a lot better, thank you.”

“Not a problem. Now, let me show you some of my shop.”, he began walking in the direction of the main work area while Twilight followed.

“This is where I keep my prototypes that have failed.”, he pointed to an empty corner of the shop.

“Well if anything was left of the one’s that failed.”, he moved on towards a large contraption made from bronze. Riddled with gears and looking like it would be menacing or do something terrible. “What does this do?”, Twilight asked, curious if the machine was meant to blast things out of existence. “Oh, this was something I made when I first got here. I call it… Well I don’t really have a name for it but ask me a math question, any math question.”

“Okay then… Ummm, what issssss… four divided byyyy… zero?”

“NO!”, the machine started making noise as it sprung to life. It began to spin gears and then started making grinding and gnashing noises until the whirring got more high pitched and seemed to be getting higher.

“Hit the deck!”, he tackled Twilight to the ground and covered her like a meat shield. At the pinnacle of the whirring there was a bell that went off. ‘Ding!’, Twilight had a rather shocked look on her face while Fizz had his eyes shut tight as if he was about to receive a blow of monumental proportions. He opened on eye and looked toward the machine, ignoring the unicorn underneath him. A slip of paper popped out of a slot in the machine. “Strange…”, He walked over to the machine.

“A question like that would usually make this thing-”, he pulled on the slip of paper only to have the entire contraption explode, leaving a crater in front of the unsurprised and charred inventor. “-Explode… Well let’s move on.”, Twilight followed feeling a bit freaked out at what she felt she just caused.

“I-I’m sorry I made your invention destroy itself…”, she sincerely apologised to Fizz.

“Think nothing of it, as you may have noticed it’s a rather frequent occurrence around here. Oh, and I’m sorry I had tackled you to the floor like that, it’s that I couldn’t allow somepony to be injured by my own contraption, I hope you understand.”, He turned around and kept walking before Twilight could really thank him and/or forgive him for what he had done.

“And this is one of my more recent inventions.”, he stated as he came to the door way into a tiny room and went inside.

“Where? I don’t see anything.”, Twilight said as he looked around in confusion.

“Well come in here and see.”, Twilight then walked into the small room with him. Fizz proceeded to press a button on the wall. After Fizz pressed the button, a pair of glass sliding doors closed in the doorway and room began to shake slightly, throwing the unprepared unicorn off balance. Seeing that Twilight was about to fall, Fizz helped steady her. “Careful now, the room is moving up towards the roof. I call this my elevating room.”, The two ponies came to the roof to see a decent view of the field the building is on and a weird device with a steel frame in the shape of wings and canvas covering it. “Ah yes, this is my latest project. It is the first model and I’m hoping it won’t be the last because I have some good ideas for it. All I have to do is strap it on and leap off the roof and I should glide safely to the ground.”

“Isn’t that a little… Dangerous?”, Twilight asked with some concern due to their height above the ground.

“All science isn’t without it’s risks.”, he stated as he was tightening the leather straps onto him. He prepared to jump by going to one end of the roof. He then charged towards the other end and made a great leap off. He glided for a few seconds which felt glorious. Twilight was watching him do this almost admiring the fact he got this far without wings or magic. She thought he would go places, until she saw him fall face first into the ground and roll a few times before stopping. She cringed at the painful display and when she opened her eyes after about 3 seconds, he was up again, completely un-phased and jumping for joy. Twilight concentrated for a second and vanished in a purple light and reappeared with the same purple light next to Fizz. Shocked by this sudden appearance of Twilight, he gasped. “How did you do that!?”

“You mean teleport? Well it’s a spell, I can do it because I’m a unicorn.”

“Amazing, that’s another thing I have to work on doing now.”

“I don’t think that is possible…”, Fizz put his hoof to her lips gently so he wouldn’t strike her, “Nonsense, I can do anything equipped with science and time.”

“Well okay, but I’m feeling pretty hungry right now, and I should probably head back to Ponyville right about now.”

“Hungry…? Oh, right, food, I need that. I’ve been so busy I haven’t actually noticed that I haven’t eaten since I got here!”

“What? How long have you been here?”

“About a week or so I believe.”

“Well I think you should come with me into town for some food or you are gonna be having some health issues”

“Very well… To the Fizz-Mobile!”

“The what-now?”, Fizz took off towards the shop and large hanger doors opened, revealing a vehicle much resembling a purple mars rover. He pushed the car out of the shop, then began to pour his brother’s elixir into a hole in the side of it. “You see, this one time I accidentally discovered that the ee-thaw-nawl in my brother’s elixir was flammable and at some points explosive. So I put it in a tank and use the energy created to power this vehicle to carry me places. Pretty cool, huh?”, after his quick and not so thorough explanation he hopped into the Fizz-Mobile. “Is this safe?”, Twilight was hesitant to climb onboard due to the brief but violent history of some of Fizz’s other inventions.

“Just trust me.”, He smiled and winked at her while hold out a pair of goggles.

“Also, put on these goggles.”, He told the unicorn as he revved up the engine. “This is going to be fun, I’ve never tested it with a partner before.”, Twilight strapped in and put on her goggles then braced her self for whatever she could expect. Fizz slammed on a pedal marked ‘Go’ and the vehicle drove on forward in the direction of Ponyville, a loud roaring sound coming from the engines as they raced across the land, arriving in Ponyville within minutes. “We’re here!”, Fizz said excitedly as he removed his goggles. He turned towards Twilight to see her frozen with fear. “Uh oh…”, He gently grabbed her by the face and looked into her eyes “Hmmm… Doesn’t appear to be any damage…”, he stated as he examined her. He gently slapped her in an attempt to snap her to attention. “You okay there?”, Twilight was coming to suddenly as she shook her head.

“I guess Princess Celestia was right when she said nopony would be ready for such a thing yet.”, he chuckled. “Did you say you know Princess Celestia?”, Twilight asked with disbelief in her voice.

“Yes, I am advisor to her and Head of the Science and Technology department of Canterlot. As well as Chairman of C.O.G., the Coalition Of Gearheads.”, Fizz had stated with an immense amount of pride.

“The COG? Never heard of it, and I’ve never heard of you until now.”, Twilight was caught off guard at what Fizz had claimed who he was.

“Well, she tends to consider me rather… what’s the word…? Too odd to be seen with but just odd enough to be worth investing in the future.”

“I only ask because I am a student of hers.”

“Fascinating, it must be nice to be able to be known as an official and not as a wing nut.”

“Right, well I’m going to go now.”, Twilight tried to come up for a reason to ditch Fizz but nothing came to mind. Fizz began to walk around Ponyville for a while, looking for somewhere to get some food. It took him a few minutes but soon he stumbled upon a rather cheery looking bakery, “Sugar Cube Corner, huh?”, he read aloud to himself looking at the sign above. He walked into the store to find a rather excitable pink earth pony at the counter. “Hello, I was wondering if I could buy some food here.”

“Hi, I’m pinkie Pie, are you new here? Well, Duh you must be new here because I know everypony, do you like parties? I love parties especially the fact that it makes everypony happy and smiling and having fun. What’s your name?”

“Yes, Yes, Fizz Whistle. You seem like an interesting pony. You say you like parties? Well I have the idea of throwing my own little get together in the middle of the night at my field in front of my shop. There’ll be Fizzy Pop and music and dancing and a surprise I’ve prepared but don’t tell anyone that I said that because it won’t be a surprise if you tell anypony. So spread the word of the party, and tell them to follow the bright lights on the horizon, bye.”, whilst this conversation was going on Fizz was picking out almost everything in the shop and loading them into a crate then paid twice as much as they were worth then leaving as soon as he said ‘bye’, giving Pinkie no time to respond.
“That went rather well, but I don’t think I have enough food for tonight…”, he looked around on the street and saw a mare with a grey mane and a pair of glasses. “Excuse me, I was wondering where in this town I would buy some food? I’m new here and I was going to throw a party for everyone in town at my shop outside of town.”, he was no aware that he was talking to the Mayor of Ponyville. “Well I believe that Sweet Apple Orchards may have a god amount of apples for you to buy.”

“Kay, thanks, bye.”, Fizz left before the mayor could say anything else.

“What a nice young stallion.”

Fizz got back to his Fizz-Mobile and loaded the pastries in and strapped them into place so they would not fall out. He drove over to the fruitful orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. He stopped at the entrance and took a look around, not seeing anypony. “Hello, anypony there?”, he proceeded to drive towards the barn in the distance. He saw a large red earth pony and drove up alongside him. “Excuse me, are you in charge here?”

“Eeyup…”, the large earth pony said rather plainly.

“Fantastic, where might I buy some of your apples for a party tonight.”

The large earth pony pointed towards a stand that was next to the Apple house that was being looked after by another earth pony with an orange coat, blonde mane and green eyes that just screamed ‘I’m too friendly’. Fizz marched up to the stand.

“I’d like to buy enough apples to feed all the town for one night.”

“… Ah beg yer pardon?”, she questioned, not expecting anypony to make such an order.

“Ee-nuff, ah-pulls, to, feed, the, whole, town.”, Fizz spoke in a slower manner seeing the mare in front of him is probably one of slower mind than him.

“Okay, jus’ checkin‘. Mah name’s Applejack, and the feller over there is Big Macintosh, in case you were wonderin’.”, she started punching in the numbers for Fizz’s order.

“Fascinating, however I would like to invite you two to a party going on at my shop on the outskirts of Ponyville.”

“Why we’d be delighted.”

“Excellent.”, Fizz paid for the apples he had bought and gave Applejack a map scribbled on a napkin. “This is where I need the apples delivered.”

“Delivered? Ah thought you woulda just tried takin’ em your self.”

“No, my dear I have some science to do before guests start arriving.”

“Uh… I guess we can try to get all of it done.”

“Marvellous. See you at the party.”, Fizz left back to the Fizz-Mobile and drove back to town.

“Hey, Big Mac, yer gonna eed some help deliverin’ on this order.”

“Eeyup.”

“And ah reckon ah know just who to call.”

Fizz drove into town in search of more things for the party he was planning. “Let’s see here: I got the food, I made the drinks. Now I need music and atmosphere. I need somepony with some taste, and style..”, He stopped in front of a beautiful building. “This looks like the place to look.”, He walked into the building seeing a sign inside that read, “The Carousel Boutique, hm?”, as a white unicorn mare with a dazzling purple mane walked in. “Ah yes, I came here to inquire about hiring somepony to decorate for my get together tonight, I must say that you seem to have a refined sense of style and taste. Interested?”

“Why thank you for noticing, and I must say, you too have a very refined look about you.”

“Now about the task I’ve come to hire you for. Do you think you can come up and spruce up the place before dark, and by that I mean now.”

“I’m sorry, but art takes time. I couldn’t possibly hope to finish before nightfall.”

“Ah, well that is a shame. Will you attend the party though? if you are not too busy that is.”

“Of course, I’d love to attend his little Suarez of yours.”

“Excellent, just look for the lights on the outskirts of town.” Fizz left before Rarity, the purple maned unicorn, could respond. Fizz had everything he needed from the outside. Now it was time to work at home. “This will be an event to remember. I’ve spared no expense to prepare for this.”, Fizz hopped back into his Fizz-mobile and took off towards home.

A few hours later, it was getting to be a dark evening in summer. The air was warm and all was silent in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was in her library trying to read up all she could on Fizz and his family. It turns out there were no records as they were probably either not preserved or destroyed for some reason. “This seems strange. I’ve found nothing that I can account for their beginnings. It’s almost like it’s been erased or hidden or maybe existed if I didn‘t know otherwise. A family like his wouldn’t just vanish and stop doing things like the does… I wonder why.”, Twilight was talking to herself, trying to figure out this mystery.

“Spike, find me a book on a family history of the Whistle family.”

“You mean that new weird guy?”, spike questioned her, the subject piquing his curiosity.

“Yes, now help me look.”, she ordered him while searching through the stacks of books lining the walls.

“Why do you need to know about his family?”, Spike asked, seeing the unicorn’s behaviour being rather unusual for taking such an interest in a family history.

“Somepony like Fizz is not the kind that wouldn’t make news at almost a weekly basis. He also mentioned something about Princess Celestia talking to him about things, but she has never mentioned him before, nor have I ever seen him in all my time in Canterlot.”

“Well, Twilight, it’s not as if you were really looking up from your books long enough to notice him walk in front of you if he did. You didn’t even really make friends until you got to Ponyville.”

“That may be true, but still.”, Twilight found a book that had been in a rather unlikely place in the library, the How-to section: where somepony looks for books on how to performs a task or make things.

“Ah, here a book by one of the Whistle family. ‘How to construct a locomotive engine, By Stone Whistle.”, Twilight blew the dust off the what seemed to be ancient book. She opened it up and looked at the published date that read it was 220 years ago. At the back of the book there was a drawn portrait of the author. It had a striking resemblance to Fizz, which could easily be taken as he just looks a lot like his ancestor. However, the fact tat his cutie mark looked exactly like Fizz’s was way too unlikely.

“It’s almost as if he is the same pony from back then… but how…?”, I’ll have to ask him when I arrive at the par-”, she snapped a glance to the horizon, visible through her window. On the horizon there was a myriad of lights and lasers of a multitude of colours. “What the-, what is he doing over there.”, Twilight put the book in her saddlebag and started walking towards the lights, as did everypony else in town. Some seeming more excited and others more intrigued and mystified by the lights.

As Twilight neared the home of Fizz, music that was compiled of a multitude of digital sounds that had both fast paced blips and slow booming sounds that combined into an electric symphony. Twilight went into the yard where the party was apparently being held. She saw Applejack, Big Macintosh, and a large Black Stallion Pegasus, even bigger than Big Macintosh, the Pegasus also had red and green stripes in his spiked forward mane. “War Heart, what are you doing here?”, Twilight asked the large Pegasus.

“I was paid to help bring a load of apples here. This guy has got to have a lot of bits to afford all this, eh?”, the Caneighdian stallion spoke in a low growling voice.

“Yes, he must, but I wonder where he got it all.”, Twilight was getting rather suspicious of Fizz now. “Ah, you’re here! Ummmm… whatsyername… uhhhh…”, somepony behind Twilight was trying to talk to her, although the voice was familiar to Twilight already. As she turned around, she saw Fizz Whistle in a new outfit which consisted of a black tuxedo coat with a small stainless steel rose in the chest pocket. On his head he wore an iron top hat made of metal sheets of metal bolted together and painted black. He wore a pair of small circular glasses that only added to his distinguished look.

“Fizz.”

“Don’t be silly, that’s my name, I want to remember yours.”

“I’m Twilight.”

“Yes, of course. Twilight, I totally remember now.”

“Fizz, I need to ask you something.”

“Of course, is it about science? I do hope it is.”

“No, it’s about this book I found.”, she levitated the book out of her bag and showed it to Fizz.

“Ah, that old thing, I remember giving that away some years ago when I wrote that only copy. However, since then I have learned a lot more and would like to rewrite it.”

“Wait… Are you saying that you wrote this?”, Twilight thought he was either meaning that he had scribed the book and wanted to rewrite it to make it better.

“No, of course not. That’s ridiculous.”

“Okay, because that would be ridiculous.”

“My assistant unicorn did. Their name was… ummm… something Sparkle. You actually look a lot like her.”

“Where is she?”

“Oh, she passed away a long time ago, after we parted ways when she said she wanted to have a family. Always said I was the most interesting pony in the world, but when she left me, she had left me a slip of paper that said being around me is dangerous and that starting a family requires her to change her lifestyle. I still have a portrait somewhere in my home of the both of us.”, He showed twilight to a room filled with old portraits and photos. “This is a record of my life. The only way to remember everything if I happen to forget.”

“It looks as if you have a taste for paintings, what’s wrong with photos?”

“It doesn’t have the same value to me as a painting. It holds more emotion within a canvas than on a photograph.”

“That sounds touching, a new side to you that I haven’t seen, or expected of you.”

“Not many ponies decide to go as deep as you have. You are the first in a long time.”

“Why?”

“It was because I have not seen the outdoors in a long time. I was considered to dangerous because of what I was capable of, and they said I was… unstable.”, Fizz took a sip from a drink that was green and looked as if it had a viscous texture to it.

“what is that?”, Twilight asked weirded out at what he was drinking.

“My medicine, I need it to treat my ailments.”

“What ailments?”

“Age.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve been the keeper of secrets of too long, holding all this knowledge is blissful at first but is eternally taxing on my mind. I start to develop side effects. But, I know what lies beyond, and I’m afraid of it. I’m imprisoned by my own doing.”

“What are you saying?”

“Did you not notice I do not get hurt easily? How I stood next to my machine that exploded and remained unscratched? Or the crash of my flying machine?”

“I assumed you were just very resistant to things but apparently now I know there is something more to it than that.”

“I am the author of that book, I am Stone Whistle.”

“So that potion makes you immortal?”

“It enhances my natural ability to heal, giving me almost instant regeneration and eternal youth.”

“Being alone for that long would be awful…”

“It has been. I was supposed to be keeping a low profile when I was released from my prison lab where I was supposed to develop new things for Celestia but not let anypony know I exist. The only person I knew in confinement was the princess and only asked what I needed to keep working.”

“That doesn’t sound like her.”

“I’ve been fuelling the fires of science and technology for the last 200 years alone. Equestria depended on me, how could I let everypony down when I had so much to offer when I constructed my first locomotive engine. I had to find a way to make my gifts last. I eventually discovered how to make myself immortal. I have done only a bit of what I can for Equestria and I will continue to work until I am ordered to stop, or until I fall someday.”

“It seems to me that you went a bit above and beyond what was needed of you. Surely somepony else would have taken your place eventually.”

“I know that if there are not new developments for everyone to enjoy, ponies will not be distracted with new things and begin to covet other ponies things, seeing them as new things to acquire. Envy goes to theft, theft to assault, assault to murder, murder to war, and eventually our race will be gone and all that will remain is a few skeletons of ponies fights over a piece of junk. I work to keep that from becoming a reality.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“There isn’t anything for you to say. However, I know what I have to say, ‘Back to work.’”, during the conversation and explanation he was looking for the portrait of him and his assistant. He found it somewhere in the back of the room. “Here it is.”, the portrait revealed a unicorn that looked almost exactly like Twilight.

“So you knew one of my ancestors?

“She was my closest friend.”

“If you were locked away for so long, how did you get out?”

“I told Celestia that if I was not allowed to build my shop somewhere else, or I would bring Canterlot to the ground. A bluff, of course, luckily she didn’t call me out on it.”

“You threatened to destroy Canterlot?”

“Yes, I did.”

“you must have been desperate.”

“I am.”

“It seems like you need to settle down and just live for yourself.”

“I can’t, I must do all I can for the betterment of pony kind.”

“Nopony asked you to do this, and I’m pretty sure if everypony knew about it, they would want you to stop because you have done far more than you have to.”

“Nopony can know I’m this old, they could use that against me, but I’m trusting for you to keep it a secret. For my safety and yours.”

“Why would it be dangerous to know?”

“Loose lips with this secret makes ponies disappear.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There are secret police that keep ponies from doing bad things and knowing the wrong things.”, there was a knock on the door of the room. Fizz jumped at the noise. He then walked to the door. He opened it slightly and saw a plum coloured pony with a pink mane that had a light streak in it and green eyes. He quickly slammed the door. “They’re here!”, Fizz said in a hushed but worried tone. Twilight had saw who it was at the door, it was Cheerilee, elementary school teacher. “She can’t be one of those police people, she’s just a teacher.”

“And what a better way to control the learning of the new generations than to teach them.”

“This seems a little crazy.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“Oh, okay, never mind.”, he opened the door again and Cheerilee was gone. “If anypony asks, we were spending alone time together.”

“Excuse me?”, Twilight seemed almost insulted at the idea.

“Nobody will probably ask, or make up a new excuse now.”

“You were showing me some new machine?”

“Why didn’t I think of that? Good idea, Miss Sparkle.”

“What did you call me?”

“Oh, sorry, that’s what I used to call my assistant.”

“You miss her, don’t you.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know if I can miss anything… It’s strange. Another side effect of the medicine or perhaps part of my two centuries of drinking has had a psychological effect on me, or perhaps the tides of time have affected me so. But that is for another time. Now we should get back to he party.”

“All right then.”

Fizz walked her outside where the music was still going and everypony was having a good time. Fizz was happy to see that his work is for once appreciated and they know who is responsible. He took out a whiskey bottle and drank about 1.5 litres in one chug. In mere minutes, his perceptions were dulled and his reflexes slowed. He danced in a strange way by just trying to keep his balance. At some point he blacked out. He passed out near the edge of the party on the grass. Twilight saw that he was unconscious, and being the only one he could call a friend, found a blanket in his shop and put it over him. “You deserve this courtesy at the least.”, Twilight whispered as she put the blanket on him. She left him to rejoin the party, not noticing the dark figure in the shadows near the shop.

Fizz opened his eyes to an absolute black silence. “It wasn’t this dark when I passed out…”, suddenly a bright light clicked on, nearly blinding him. “Wasn’t this bright either…”, he tried to move, but was bound at the joints. “It seems you were there for more than just keeping tabs on me…”, he spoke to the pony in the darkness, which, to him, was much darker than it really was. “You were ordered to keep a low profile… A party for the whole town? What were you thinking?”, the mare speaking in a serious tone.

“That I’ve done so much that I should deserve a bit of time to make ponies happy with them knowing who was behind it.”

“Still, you can’t do that, you’re going back to the prison.”

Fizz smirked. “You know what’s a little funny?”, Fizz chuckled. “I think you people underestimate my abilities.”

The mare walked towards him slowly. Cheerilee walked into sight. “Is that so?”

“Sure you wanna try and stop me from getting out of here? I don’t think I can be held responsible for what I’ll do to you if you don’t help me instead.”

Cheerilee smiled and looked Fizz in the face. “Then let’s see it.”, Fizz inhaled deeply. “Dammit…”

“Nice try, you bluffed the first time. We won’t fall for it again.”, Cheerilee walked to the door and exit the room. “Well… This is not good.”

Fizz’s sudden disappearance caused a bit of a stir among the ponies of Ponyville. They all had seen him and what he could do. This worried Celestia, ponies disappearing suddenly makes ponies ask questions, something that she wanted to avoid. Knowing the darker side of the Equestrian government was something she did not want to get out. “We let him leave, and he escaped his escort by teleporting to a random location that we didn’t know. Luckily, he didn’t keep a low profile or would never have found him. However, it ended up as a double edged sword here, he let everypony see him, and worse, he told his secret, and our secrets to somepony else. This is a real mess, and we need it dealt with.”, Celestia was talking to her sister Luna, who was scarcely able to believe her sister could be capable of such things. “What do you want me to do?”, Luna asked, awaiting orders from her older sister.

“I want him to get back to work, and you to find out who he told everything to and make them forget everything.”

“Doesn’t this seem a little… excessive? For just one Earth pony inventor?”

“You don’t understand, he is a threat unless we keep him under control. He is over 200 years old and can be made to live longer. I don’t know how he does it, but he is old and very clever.”

“How long was he here for?”

“Around sixteen decades. He was the only one pushing our technology forward at a slow pace.”

“How did he get here in the first place?”

“He actually came to me personally and asked if he could work for the good of Equestria. He prolonged his life to keep working, and when he said he wanted to stop and settle, I magically implanted in his mind that if he stops creating new technology, the world will end in war. His fear is what keeps him working.”

“That’s so… cruel.”

“But necessary.”

“I’ll try to talk to him, but I don’t know if I can promise anything.”

Fizz was waiting in the darkness of his cell. “What can I do when I get out of here? I can’t go back to Ponyville, that agent knows my face now… I don’t want to be responsible for what will happen if I stop working on things. Perhaps I can go back and change things… Maybe Ms. Sparkle was right… What I was doing was dangerous… She had the foresight to get out while she could… I guess I’m running out of options here… The blackness for myself and risk war over all Equestria, or start a war and change this land for the better.”, The door opened to his cell and a silhouette of an Alicorn. “Have you come to gloat over my capture then?”

“No, I haven’t.”, Luna turned on the dim lights and brightened up the room enough for Fizz to see but enough to hurt his eyes.

“Oh, I thought you were Celestia, who are you?”

“I’m Princess Luna.”

“I’ve never seen you.”

“I’ve only come back recently from banishment.”

“Banishment?”

“I was sent to the moon for 1000 years.”

“That must have been fun.”

“Indeed?”

“Yep… So what did you want?”

“My sister wants to keep working for her, and the name of the pony you told your secret to…”

“I’ll never say, I’m pretty sure they can keep their mouth shut, besides, like one pony knowing will make a difference.”

“I somepony who could.”

“Really now, and who might that be?”

“You. I’ve heard of what you can do, and I believe we can dethrone my sister and her tyrannical rule will be broken.”

“I guess with somepony that has blood of the royal family backing a revolution could at least pull together some kind of force.”

“And you can make our technology be superior to hers, make us weap-”

“I can’t…”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t want to be responsible for the death of somepony else. I made a promise.”

“An honourable Stallion, admirable.”

“I’ll make anything you need that won’t be used to cause death.”

“Very well.”

“Now that I think about it, I want to be able to have a normal life afterwards. Give me your word that you will not keep me against my will.”

“Granted.”

“Thank you. Now you may want to start gathering support. Gain a base of operations, some supporters, some resources, much preparation is needed for this.”

“You seem to know a lot about how to go about this.”

“When you have nothing to do but think inside a dark room being kept against your will, your mind tends to wander to dreams and scenarios.”

“Well, I’ll go get this done then.”

“If this is not done right, more blood will be spilled than needed.”, Fizz warned her as she left the room.

Luna spent the next few months talking to certain ponies that she had become friends with in Ponyville. She made sure not to be obvious about what she was planning but tried to get certain ponies opinions on Celestia and the way things are run. Not many ponies knew much about the way things are run, being completely uneducated of government other than the princess was in charge, more or less they just concentrated on their individual jobs and social lives. Luna was growing weary of everypony treating her with a half feared response, as if she were going to harm them some way. However, a young earth pony was not at all afraid of her at all. A small colt from Trottingham, named Pip. Luna had not seen him since Nightmare night. “Princess! I have not seen you in for’evah, how’ve you been?”, the colt spoke in an excited tone with a Trottingham accent.

“Ah, it’s you, say, how would you like to work for a princess?”

“Really!?”

“Yes, you will do little jobs for me when I need you to.”

“Any adventurin’ we gonna be doin’?”

“Pip, if we play our cards right, we’ll have a real grand adventure and maybe land you in the palace as a steward.”

“Wow!”

“Are you in?”

“Yes, Princess.”
Luna walked off with Pip following behind her, off to talk to more ponies about the state of things.

Over the course of several months, Luna had become a big part of the community of Ponyville. Volunteering for working at a hospital and just generally helping out almost everypony in Ponyville. She had become admired among the ponies of Ponyville. On her return to the palace, Celestia had been wondering why Luna spends so much time in Ponyville. Celestia confronted her about it. “Luna, why have you been spending so much time in Ponyville?”

“I’ve been wanting to make a new image of myself in their eyes, I’ve been sick of being seen as a sort of evil.”

“Oh, just public relations… very well.”, Celestia left to check on Fizz in his cell. He was remaining motionless in his room. “What do you want, Princess?”, Fizz spoke from dark corner of his room in a weary and downtrodden tone.

“I was hoping you reconsider working again.”

“No…”

“I can keep you in here as long as need be.”

“I’ve got time…”

“But only so much time before you’ll begin to lose it totally.”

“I’m already too far along to worry about my sanity.”

“Fine, be that way.”, Celestia left to attend some other matters while Fizz was left to brood on his own.

“It should be soon now…”

Luna came in to see Fizz in his room. “Whistle.”, Luna called to him.

“Yes?”, Fizz’s ears perked up.

“It’s time to leave. I’ve gotten some followers in Ponyville who’d be able to hide you there while you work on some things that are needed.”

“Good, I’ve been working on a dummy to take my place in this corner since I’ve been talking less and less now, she will probably think I’ll just have stopped talking altogether. It’ll work for at least a few days, she doesn’t check in very often.”, he explained all this while dragging out the dummy and setting it up in the corner. He then went over to Luna. “I’ll teleport out of here to my shop, meet me there, but be warned, I’ll be paralyzed from the neck down so bring somepony to carry me away.”

“Very well, Fizz, Good Luck.”

“You too.”, He stood in the middle of the room while he took a small device out of his mane, and activated it. He vanished in a white and blue flash of energy but totally silent. Luna walked out and headed for Ponyville, to the cave of Ursa Minor. She approached the opening of the cave and called into it. “War Heart, I need your help with something.”

“Oh yeah, like what, eh?”, the Caneighdian stallion Pegasus asked the Alicorn.

“Heavy lifting, and help of a friend.”

“Sure, I’ll help.”, He followed Luna to Fizz’s workshop.

“What are we doin’ here, eh?”, War Heart asked.

“Picking up Fizz. I want you to hide him in your cave while he does work for me.”

“Of course, but why does he need hidin’?”

“Celestia has been keeping him imprisoned for a long time and forcing him to work against his will.”

“That’s really messed up.”

“Exactly, that’s why I want you to help and join our revolution.”

“She’s not my queen, I’m in.”

“Excellent.”, after their conversation, the buzz and crackle of energy in the air broke the short silence and electric arcs forming in mid-air. A sudden burst of light revealed the partly charred Earth pony. “Ow…”, Fizz was stuck in pose. “Luna? You there, I’m kind of blind at the moment.”

“Yes, Fizz, I’m here. War Heart, take him to your cave.”

“Yes, ma’am.”, War Heart walked over to Fizz and without trouble put him on his back. They headed over to War Heart’s cave and laid down Fizz on the floor in the back part of the cave. “You’ll be fine there, need anything while you’re here?”

“I’d appreciate if you got me the stuff on the list in my jacket pocket.”, War Heart grabbed the list and nodded.

Over the next week, Fizz recovered his ability to move as well as his vision. He was working on a tunnel underground and around the outside of Ponyville. Luna had asked him what he was working on several times but the only response she would get is “It’s a surprise, a much needed surprise.”, which Luna just accepted, putting absolute trust in him. At this point, about half of Ponyville had joined Luna’s underground movement against her sister. Now was the time to address the public about her sister and her reign. Luna had her followers gather up everypony to the center of Ponyville.

“I have gathered you all here to tell you something. You are being lied to! There is a darker side to your great Princess Celestia’s way of running things.”, Some of the Ponies in the crowd started whispering amongst each other.

“Your Princess has been keeping somepony in captivity for most of his life, forcing him to work in a laboratory against his will and magically affected his mind to put the fear that if he stops, that it would cause the death of everypony. In fact, she told me herself that she wanted the pony he told this all to should disappear. He wouldn’t give up their name to me or anypony else even after enduring solitude for weeks. This is a call to arms, a beginning of a rebellion to end the reign of tyranny and take the fight against corruption and show that we can’t just be made to disappear on a whim of anypony. We will become the New Lunar Republic and take the fight to her Solar Empire. Who stands with us?”

Almost instantly there was a young colt who walked forward and stood at attention next to her. “Good, Pip.”, Luna whispered to herself. More ponies whispered among themselves as War Heart stepped forward and took his place at Luna’s side. Next it was Fizz who stepped out of the crowd, wearing a hood which he took off after taking his place beside Luna as well. At this point some other ponies walked to her side as they started flocking towards Luna, there were a few who left town square, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity among them. Those three met in Twilight’s house. “How could this be happening?”, Twilight said, not quite sure what to believe. “They aren’t being very loyal.”, Rainbow Dash said in a spiteful tone. “It seems that the lower ponies are too uneducated to know what propaganda is.”

“You mean they are spreading lies about the princess?”, Twilight asked

“Of course.”, Rarity stated matter-of-factly.

“I guess there is only one thing we ca do now.”, Twilight said as she held her up and looked at her friends, “We need to inform the Princess about what is happening. Spike, take a letter. We must inform her about what just happened here.”

“Okay, Twilight”, Spike said as he wrote a letter to Celestia and sent it in a puff of green flame. Within minutes, Spike burped up a new letter from Princess Celestia. Spike opened the letter and read it aloud. “Twilight, it is good that you inform me of what has happened. I’m coming over to Ponyville to deal with the situation. Your Teacher, Celestia.”, Spike looked up from the paper at the ponies in the room who were nervous about what was happening. War was not something they were familiar with. The three walked outside to see Celestia descend upon the town and land in the center of Ponyville. Twilight sparkle went to her teacher. “Princess, they said you held Fizz against his will, and forced him to work. Is this true?”, Twilight asked her teacher, expecting an honest answer.

“My Dear Twilight, I did keep him against his will, but that was because he is a very dangerous pony. I had to have him away from everypony else for their safety.”, Celestia made it sound as if Fizz was a horrible criminal, a danger to society. “Come with me back to Canterlot, you three are going to be at my side during this revolution.”, Celestia ordered them to follow her. As they were leaving, Luna called to her sister, “It seems that your secret is out now.”, Luna stated looking at Celestia with hate in her eyes.

“This little rebellion isn’t going to do anything except get ponies hurt, stop now, or else.”, Celestia threatened, returning the same look to Luna.

“Step down from power, and disband your secret police, then this revolution will stop.”, Luna had stated her terms, Celestia scoffed at her ridiculous demands and very plainly stated, “Very well, little sister, you’ll be responsible for their pain.”, Celestia walked outside the town of Ponyville toward Canterlot.

In the dead of night, Fizz had been working on his project underground. He finally finished with pressing a button. Suddenly the ground began to quake as the borders of Ponyville erected walls of metal with insignias resembling Luna’s cutie mark in the gates. Everypony awoke and walked into the streets to see these new structures from out of nowhere. “I have constructed walls to protect us from any advancing armies of the Solar Empire”, Fizz announced as everypony walked into the streets before him. “I am sorry if anypony was alarmed at the erection of the walls.”, he stated to them in a sincere tone.

“You’ve done well for your surprise.”, Luna congratulated him on a job well done.

“Thank you, Princess.”, Fizz bowed to Luna.

“Soon we will march on Canterlot. The fight will be hard, but we have more troops than they.”

“However, they will be better equipped, and better trained.”

“Numbers and spirit will win it for us.”

“and you got me, eh?”, War Heart walked towards them.

“Of course, You will probably turn the battle in our favour.”, Luna chuckled.

“Still, I hope not too many ponies get hurt.”, Fizz said in a concerned tone.

“Such is the cost of war, ponies will get hurt, possibly die.”, Luna told him trying to look like a strong leader.

Fizz went into his new workshop which was inside what used to be Twilight Sparkle’s library. “What in Equestria have I done?”, he asked himself with a burden of guilt for everything that is happening. “It will be all my fault for everypony getting hurt.”, he walked toward the table with his last project underneath the white polyester sheet. “After this ends, it’ll all be over.”, he stroked his hoof along the sheet. “One last machine that will end it all.”, he said to himself as a tear rolled down his cheek. He saw a flash of light come from behind him. He quickly spun around to see Twilight standing there, who had just teleported into the room. “What are you doing here, Twilight?”, Fizz asked wiping away the one tear on his face.

“I came here to make sure you didn’t end up hurting yourself.”

“Now why would I do that?”

“Well you tend to act like you’re invincible.”

“You got a point.”

“I came to tell you that Celestia is planning on leading an assault on Ponyville tomorrow morning.”

“Very well…”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll think of something…”, Fizz said as he turned away from Twilight. She looked back at Fizz, “Please don‘t do anything stupid.”, then teleported away. Fizz lifted the cloth on the table. “I guess it’ll be time soon… Better prepare for it.”, he said as he picked up the contents of the table and walked to the Fizz-Mobile outside the Library and started working.

As dawn came, Celestia could be seen on the horizon with a large army behind her golden chariot being pulled by two Pegasus stallions. Twilight was not there on account that she did not want to partake in fighting. All the ponies in Ponyville lay sleeping in their homes except for Fizz. “I have no idea if I can pull this off, but I guess there is no time left.”, he told himself as he finished working on the Fizz-Mobile. He added a large metal contraption that had a multitude of buttons, lights, and tubes. It also featured several metal arms pointing toward the front of the vehicle. He started up the engine and slowly cruised toward the gates of Ponyville, which opened automatically at his approach. He got to the outside of Ponyville, with Celestia’s army dead ahead. He clicked a few buttons and switches. The engines of the vehicle revved as the machine on the back sparked to life. He stomped on the gas pedal of the Fizz-Mobile and raced towards Celestia. Celestia saw him speeding towards her and ordered the charge. In mere seconds the army was to collide with Fizz. He lifted up the protective panel on a switch and pressed it. The machine on the back of the vehicle began to glow red and sparks of energy flew about between the arms of the machine. A digital voice counted down slowly.

“Three.”, Fizz’s vision was blurring from the effects of the machine as well as the speed he was going.

“Two.”, Fizz was closing in on Celestia. He then remembered something his old assistant had said to him while she was with him.

Fizz was working on a new fuel for his locomotive engine. He figured he could burn his brother’s elixir to make it go faster. His assistant Ms. Sparkle walked in and asked, “What are you doing?”, in a rather concerned tone. “I am about to check a new fuel source for the engine I made.”, he explained as if he weren’t doing anything important.

“Okay, well I was going to go out and get us some lunch, did you have anything in mind?”

“Surprise me.”, he said as he readied himself to do his experiment.

“Okay, Please don’t do anything stupid.”

A tear rolled down Fizz’s cheek as he thought of that one moment with his assistant.

“One.”, the machine began to shake violently and make a loud rumbling sound like thunder.

“I’m sorry…”, He whispered to himself just before the bright flash of light and boom of the explosion echoed throughout Equestria. A shockwave of force blowing over trees within a kilometre and everypony in Celestia’s army instantly vaporized. Upon hearing the explosion Luna charged outside the city to see a gigantic crater on the outskirts.

Black turned to grey, and grey turned to fuzzy lights and shapes. His eyes opened to see a familiar building. Fizz walked inside to see a unicorn leaving a message on a desk. As she turned to him she jumped in surprise. “Oh, Mr. Whistle, I was, uh, just leaving.”, the mare said as she put on a bad poker face.

“I was hoping I could join you, actually.”, Fizz said to her, realizing what he really wanted all along.

“I can’t settle down with so many dangers around.”

“That’s why I’m giving up my trade.”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely, I’ve had a long time to think about this, and I’m done.”

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that.”, she smiled with tears in her eyes.

“Ladies first.”, Fizz said as he held the door to the shop open for her. Miss Sparkle walked through the door outside with Fizz following her. About ten seconds after they left the room, Stone Whistle walked into the room and read the note left by Miss Sparkle.

Dear Mr. Whistle,

I am sorry I have to leave in this way. I didn’t think I could say goodbye face-to-face. I wanted you to know that over the years I had developed feelings toward you. I know that you are not prepared to leave this dangerous life behind you, something that I would need of you to settle down and have a family. With this, it will be the last time you hear from me.

With love, Farewell.

Midnight Sparkle

A Heart of Courage

In the lands of ice and snow, where nopony dare live for it would be their certain demise. But, there was one family, one that could withstand such cold days and even colder nights. A family of Pegasi, the Heart Family who had built up an immunity to the cold. Living among the moose and learning the ways of being a lumberjack and how to skillfully craft things out of the trees. Our story focuses around the youngest of the family, the black coated Pegasus with a spiked out red and green striped mane. War Heart. And this is where it starts.

War Heart just finished his daily chores, having to cut down several trees from the forest having to drag them back to his parents camp. On his way to get the second batch he heard a familiar voice come up from behind him. “Hows it going there eh?” The voice was a thick Caneighdian accent which most moose had, but this one particular voice belonged to- “Jean-Luc, Nice to see you again.” War Heart turned to see a Moose wearing a toque with ear flaps leaning against a tree. “Did you hear the news eh?”

“What news?” War Heart raised an eyebrow with intrigue as he raised his head to look at his friend. “I heard some folk sayin’ that they were going to send one poor sucker to live down south eh.” War Heart smirked and laughed to himself. “Man it sucks to be that guy, I wonder what loser they got going.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M GOING!”

“War Heart, lower your voice!” Snapped the white Pegasus with the mane of several wild purples. War Heart quieted down and looked at his front hooves in embarrassment. “Yes Mom.”

“Your Father and I have thought long and hard about this… and we want you to carry on the business down south.” War Heart’s Mother looked over at a tall dark grey Pegasus with a shaggy black mane and beard. He turned and looked at War Heart then back to War Heart’s mother. “ Please War Heart.” Everything was quiet for a brief moment. With a sigh War Heart answered. “Fine, I’ll go.” As War Heart said that a light grey Pegasus with a dark purple mane burst into the room pushing the door open and quickly latching her front hooves around War Hearts neck. “Noooooo I don’t want War Heart to go!” War Heart stood with a face that looked like it said ‘I am not amused’ not even flinching as the other Pegasus tackled into him. Barely even moving him an inch. “Sweet Heart! Let go of your brother!”

“I don’t want him to go!” War Heart looked down. “Sweet Heart.” She suddenly stopped, her eyes narrowed as she looked up at her brother. “Yes?”

“Let go. You’re my older sister and you’re acting like a filly.” Sweet Heart let go of him and walked a few steps away. “So now that we have that taken care of. When will I be leaving?”

“Tomorrow around lunch. That leaves you today to pack and say your goodbyes.” War Heart nodded his head in agreement and walked over to his room. Grabbing his saddle bag, he started to put some of his personal belongings inside. A small axe his father gave him when he was young and a wool toque with a red heart of the front of it. Not noticing his father enter the room War Heart continued to pack. “War Heart.” His father spoke with a deep yet soothing voice. “ I have something for you.” War Heart looked up and turned to his father. “What is it Dad?” He responded in his natural growling tone. His Father stepped back a bit and pulled inside the room a wooden chest with a metal plate that had some writing engraved on it. “ A gift from father to son.” War Heart hesitantly walked over and opened the chest, Inside was a large blackened metal axe with a red wood handle. Engraved into the metal was a heart on a shield. “What is it?”

“It is our family heirloom. This is the great axe from my great grandfather, Pride Heart.”

“The Great general?” War Heart asked with excited curiosity. “The same. Now it is yours, carry it with honour.” War Heart picked up the axe and swung it from side to side. “Thanks Dad.” War Heart’s father nodded and walked out.

The next day War Heart had his saddle bags packed and a small wagon set up full of maple syrup and some lumber jacking equipment. War Heart’s family stood there with him as he said goodbye to the three of them. Pulling the cart, War Heart started walking down the snowy road. Passing by what looked like a small hut, his friend Jean-Luc walked up to the road. “So I see you were the one they picked eh.”

“Afraid so Jean-Luc.”

“It wont be the same without you eh.” Jean-Luc raised his hoof. “It wont be the same without you either old friend.” War Heart raised his hoof as well and pressed it against his friends making a small clack. They lowered their hooves and War Heart began walking again.

As War Heart made his way to a wooden archway in big letters saying “PonyVille? Well it looks like I’m here.” War Heart continued walking through the town. Soon enough the residents were looking at him. He was not sure why they were but he just ignored it. Rummaging though his bags he pulled out a letter with a picture attached.

War Heart, once you get to PonyVille you need to find the Mayor and she will give you the land you will need, finding a home is your own problem.

With love: Mom and Dad.

Holding up the picture War Heart looked around. “So…. Where the clop do I find this Mayor?”

“I know where to find her.” War Heart turned around to see where the soft voice came from. Beside him was a small yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane. “You do? Can you show me?”

“I umm I-…” She got quiet all of a sudden like she was afraid of something. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

“What was that?”

“I said yes.”

“Still didn’t hear you.” From the other side War Heart heard somepony yell. “Hey big guy!” War Heart turned and saw another Pegasus hovering just at his eye level. “What are you doing to Fluttershy!?”

“I wasn’t doing anything!”

“Oh yeah!” The Pegasus pressed her face up against War Hearts “Then tell me why she looks so afraid!”

“How am I supposed to know I just got here! I was just asking for some help!” The Pegasus just kept staring at War Heart. “You know you have really pretty eyes.” The Pegasus jolted back. “I- Uh- What? Thank you?”

“You’re welcome. Now back to.. Fluttershy was it?”, The shy Pegasus nodded and pointed towards a bigger building with some columns in the front of it. “She’s there? Thanks for your help. Have a nice day Fluttershy. Later beautiful.” Rainbow Dash hovered there dumbfounded by the compliments. War Heart knocked on the dark wooden double doors of the building. The door opened and out walked a tan mare with a grey mane and tail wearing some librarian styled glasses. “Oh Hello, I am the Mayor, How may I help you?”

“My name is War Heart. My father sent me here and told me you were going to give me some woodland for my business.”

“Oh Right Stout Heart is your father. You know what. Walk over to the big tree in the middle of the town and a purple Unicorn will be there. Tell her the Mayor asked her to show you around.”

“Thanks a lot Mayor.”, War Heart walked down the steps and made his way through the town. Over head on a cloud Rainbow Dash watched him make his way to Twilight’s Library. “Why? Why did he say that!? GAH I’m getting all worked up over a guy.” Rainbow peered over the cloud, her cheeks turning a slight pink. “Well… he is kinda nice.” War Heart knocked on the red wooden door. Out came a purple baby dragon. “Can I help you?”

“I was looking for a unicorn. The Mayor said she lived here.” , The baby dragon walked inside the library and called out. “TWILIGHT, DOOR!” Soon enough the purple unicorn opened the door the rest of the way. “Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Uh yeah. I’m War Heart and the Mayor told me you can show me around.”

“Right, even if I have only lived here for a few months I know this town pretty well. So let me just tell Spike and we can go.” War Heart raised an eyebrow with curiosity. “Who is Spike?”

“Spike is a baby dragon and my assistant.”

“Right. Well, I was mostly wondering on where the land I bought is.”, War Heart brought out a map with the land marked on it. “I need to get here, could you show me?”

“I suppose so. Follow me.”, Twilight led War Heart out of town and towards the woods. After a few minutes of walking they passed by a cave. Twilight had a look of discomfort about her. War heart took notice of her uncomforted demeanour, “What’s wrong?”, he asked in his growling tone which seems to be impossible to whisper.

“Shh! This is the cave of Ursa Major and Minor. We have to be quiet or we’ll make them angry.”, Twilight whispered to him in a half scared and half ‘are you an idiot?’ sort of tone.

“Oh, really?”, War Heart walked in the cave. Twilight just watching with mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief. Her frightened look persisted even after War heart came from out of the cave without his saddlebags. “What?”, War Heart looked at Twilight, who was dumbfounded and wondering, “How did you make it out of there with the Ursa in there?”, she half expected that he was either really sneaky or he was really lucky that they were asleep or something.

“I walked in there, woke them up, declared my territory to them and stood my ground. After they accepted my stay, they left me alone.”

“How did that work? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Where I come from, I wrestled with bears, they respect strength by any means, including strength of character. Fear is what they use to keep anypony off their territory.”

“Sounds like a very foreign place you come from.”

“There aren’t any ponies other than my family where I’m from. The moose were some of the only ones I could interact with on a regular basis.”

“Why are there no ponies up there?”

“Too cold.”

“Huh, I guess I’ll have to read up on Caneighda later then.”

“Right, well let’s go to where my land is supposed to be then.”

“all right, well, it isn’t very far. It is just about a minute’s walk past this cave northeast.”

“All right then. I don’t know how it works down here, but where I come from: everyone pulls their own weight. I feel I should help out with the town to earn my place.”

“Well, okay then. Maybe Applejack needs some help with her farm?”

“Sounds good, lead on.”

“Okay.”, Twilight walked back into Ponyville and then towards Sweet Apple Acres with War Heart trailing behind her. As they approached the home of the Apple family, an Earth Pony with a red coat and orange mane was standing on the porch.

“Big Macintosh, is your sister here?”, Twilight asked the large red stallion.

“Eeyup.”, he pointed over to the orchard where Applejack was bucking apple trees. Twilight walked over to Applejack while War Heart stayed at the house. Big Macintosh walked off the porch and raised an eyebrow as he noticed the black Pegasus was larger than he was. “You want somethin’?”, War Heart asked, feeling like he was being measured up.

“Ee-nope.”, Big Macintosh walked off toward the barn. War Heart watched the two mares approach him. “This is War Heart, he wants to help you with the harvest.”

“Well, that’s mighty decent of ya, War Heart.”, Applejack reached out a hoof to shake his. War Heart looked down at her hoof and clacked his hoof against hers.

“I felt like I should help the town in some way if I’m to live here.”

“Well, then you came to the right place, we’ll need plenty of help here with the harvest. With a pony your size, you’ll be able to help plenty enough.”

“So what do I do?”, War Heart looked towards the trees, all loaded with apples.

“Well, you put the baskets under the tree, buck the tree, and bring the apples into the barn over there.”, Applejack pointed towards the barn with the concluding of her explanation.

“Sounds easy enough.”, He walked towards a nearby tree with baskets already under it. He looked it over for a moment then turned around and walked away from it to gain some distance. He readied himself for a second before charging towards the tree. As he approached the tree he turned around and thrust his back hooves into the tree, causing a thunderous cracking and the tree to topple over. Twilight stood there in awe while Applejack had a look of annoyance. “Now why did ya do that?!”, she yelled at War Heart as he was picking the apples off the fallen tree.

“What? I did what you told me to.”

“I didn’t tell you to take the tree down!”

“Yes, you did, you told me to buck it, and I did.”

“I told you to buck it, not bring it down.”

“You lost me… I don’t think I am meant to work on a farm…”, He started walking towards the exit of Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight Sparkle looked at Applejack and mouthed the word “Sorry.”, and then she ran to catch up with War Heart.

“Okay, that was just a bit of a hiccup, I’m sure we can find you some work.”

“Hope so.”

“Maybe Rarity needs somepony to help her in her shop.”, they just arrived at Ponyville again and headed to Carousel Boutique.

“What kind of shop is this?”, War Heart asked kind of confused by the interior of the shop.

“This is Rarity’s dress shop.”

“Dress? What’s a dress?”

“Is that a serious question? Or is this sarcasm?”

“I’m serious, what’s a dress?”

“Twilight, did you really bring someone who does not know what a dress is?”, a purple maned, white unicorn walked into the room to greet Twilight and War Heart.

“Yes, I did, and he is looking to work for you. This is War Heart.”

“Hello.”, War Heart’s voice somewhat disturbed Rarity in its purely callous presentation of language.

“Well, I guess that would be the generous thing to do. I’ll let him help out as my assistant for now.”, Rarity exit the room, still not very interested in the idea of having such a pony in her employ. She came back with a jacket, in bright pink and golden lining. War Heart looked at it in confusion, “What’s that?”

“Your uniform. I’ve had this for so long in the case I got an assistant.”

“It’s… Pink…”

“And? It’s to make it apparent that you work here and are not just some random pony doing things he shouldn’t.”

“It’s also small…”

“Well I can fix that quickl- wait, where are you going?”, War Heart was leaving as she was in the middle of her sentence.

“Away, I quit.”, as War Heart left the building he was stopped by a Pegasus he had met earlier. “Oh look, it’s the mare with nice eyes.”, War Heart smirked as Rainbow Dash put on a look of irritation.

“Why do you keep doing that?!”

“What, I’m not allowed to speak my mind?”

“No, but still! Why are you trying to help my friends? Trying to get all their attention or something?”

“Has anyone told you that you’re cute when your angry.”, War Heart just stood there with a smile on his face, remaining totally unphased by her apparently aggressive mood.

“I bet you think you’re so cool with the way you act.”, Rainbow Dash said as her eyes narrowed.

“What’s it to you?”, War Heart asked in a calm, yet challenging way.

“I’m challenging you to a race. I’ll show you that you aren’t so cool after all.”

“Oh, Really?”

“Yeah!”

“You’re on.”

“The edge of the Everfree forest, be there in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll be there, beautiful.”, War Heart kept a completely straight face as the entire conversation went on. After the last comment, Rainbow dash turned a little red and flew off.

“What was that all about?”, Twilight walked outside the Carousel Boutique.

“She challenged me to a race.”

“No, I mean your obvious flirting with her. Do you like her?”

“What? No. I just find it fun to disarm people socially. A pony like her is out to show that she is the best, toughest, the coolest, and so on. A compliment on her looks is something that she isn’t used to.”

“That’s a bit of a strange thing to do…”

“A stranger thing is why you don’t wear glasses, you’d look awfully cute with a pair of glasses.”

“Uh… I don’t know… I never really considered…”, Twilight’s cheeks began turning red at the suggestion.

“I just did the same thing to you as I did to her.”, War Heart explained as Twilight just understood what he did. “Now you try.”, he told her as he stood waiting with a slight smile on his face.

“Oh, okay, ummm… You would look very handsome in… ummm… blue?”, She wasn’t quite sure if she was doing it properly, not quite sure if she wanted to do it at all.

“Well… it could use some work…”, War Heart said as he began walking away with Twilight following this time.

“I don’t know if you can win this race.”

“Why would that be?”

“She is pretty fast, and she also has the sonic rainboom.”

War Heart chuckled, “What, is that supposed to be some fruity energy drink?”

“No, she can go so fast that it breaks the sound barrier and creates a rainbow.”

“Sounds impressive, bet ya I can beat her.”

“How?”

“I have my ways.”, They had arrived at the start of where the race was supposed to be. Rainbow Dash was waiting impatiently, pacing back and forth.

“Hey, Beautiful, still waiting for me?”

“Are you sure you don’t like her?”, Twilight whispered to War Heart which he just whispered “Yes.”

“Stop calling me that!”, Rainbow Dash stomped the ground with her front hoof.

“I will when you stop being so beautiful.”

“We’re going to have a race around the forest all the way to back here.”

“All right then.”, War Heart took his place at the start line nonchalantly. Rainbow Dash readied herself, “The first one to cross the line wins.”

“Alright.”

“Go!”, Rainbow Dash zipped off into the distance. War Heart did not move.

“Aren’t you going to race her?”

“I am.”

“You aren’t moving.”

“Giving her a head start, she has a long way to go.”

“I think you do too at this point.”, Twilight was wondering what kind of incredible feat he was about to pull off. He walked forward a few steps and then walked around the end of the line and then stepped over the line.

“I win.”

“…. But, you cheated.”

“She said the first to cross the line. Never said that I had follow her path.”

“I guess that is true, but it seems dishonest.”

“I never wanted to race her anyway. This is more of a way to prank her.”

“I guess you did kind of fool her.”, Twilight giggled at the thought a little. Rainbow Dash was coming back to the starting line. She zipped past it and landed in her triumph while War Heart just stood there smiling. “What are you so happy about? You lost!”

“Technically, I won.”

“What? I never even saw you out there. How did you pass me without me seeing you?”

“I only had to move a few feet to go around the line and cross it, seems kind of silly to go the long way around.”, at this point, Rainbow Dash was getting very steamed about losing like that.

“You mad? You never look cuter than when you’re mad.”, War Heart said with a grin. Rainbow Dash took off without a word.

“She seems upset.”, Twilight remarked, not expecting the Dash to be so angry.

“She’ll get over it.”, War Heart said as he walked towards Ponyville with Twilight.

As they reached Ponyville, the commotion of three little fillies playing around could be heard. One orange coated Pegasus with purple mane and tail; a bright yellow coated earth pony with a bow in her red mane; and a white unicorn with bright purple and pink mane. “Hey, Girls, how’s it going?”

“We’re still trying to figure out what our special talents are.”, the young Pegasus said to Twilight

“Why’re you doing that?”, War Heart asked, a bit confused.

“We’re trying to get our cutie marks.”

“Your what-now?”

“Cutie marks, the symbol that you have on your flank?”

“How does that work?”

“It appears when you discover your talent.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you have one, you should know this.”

“Oh yeah, that, right. Bye.”, War Heart turned around and walked away, Twilight still following, “Bye, girls.”, she said as she left.

“What was that all about, War Heart?”

“I don’t have one.”

“A what?”

“One of those whatever marks.”

“A Cutie mark? Yes you do, it’s right there.”

“I had my friend draw that on when I was younger. I thought my parents just got tattoos and they didn’t really pay attention to that stuff.”

“You seem pretty old to not have even discovered it by accident.”

“Never occurred to me until a few minutes ago.”, War Heart and Twilight arrived at the Ursa cave again. “I guess I should wash this off.”, War Heart looked at his flank thinking, ‘I knew it was a stupid idea to do that in the first place.’

“I guess I could help you find your talent sometime, but I have to get home to Spike.”

“All right then, I guess I’ll walk you home.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“But I will anyway.”

“Thank you, but-”, Twilight disappeared in a burst of light, and reappeared behind War Heat.

“Nice trick.”

“Thank you.”

“Night.”

“Good Night.”, Twilight then disappeared again and War Heart went into the Ursa cave for some sleep.

War Hear had lived in the area for a few weeks now and winter was here. The winters in Ponyville had usually been reasonably chilly but this time it was a lot colder than usual. Everypony was wrapping themselves up in winter wear. War Heart found the cold was calming, reminding him of summer at home. War Heart strolled into Ponyville, no longer carrying his falsified cutie mark, or any other clothes for that matter. He saw Twilight in the street wrapped up in a scarf, hat, and jacket. “Hey, how’s it goin’?”, War Heart walked up beside her.

“It’s freezing out. I had to go and get some clothes from Rarity.”

“I haven’t noticed.”

“I forgot that you are pretty much impervious to the cold.”

“Yep, so what are you doing right now?”

“Going home, where it’s warm. Why?”

“I was going to invite you over to my place for pancakes and maple syrup.”

“What’s Maple?”

“…. Are you serious?”

“Should I not be?”

“How do you not know what the best thing in the whole world is?”

“I… don’t know?”

“Yeah, you are so coming over now, bring some friends if you want to, I can make enough for a lot of ponies.”, War Heart flew off towards his home.

“Ooookay. I guess I could bring Pinkie, and maybe Applejack and him should get another chance to fix for getting off on the wrong foot. Rarity too I guess, and Fluttershy should meet him too.”

About an hour later, Twilight gathered Pinkie, Rarity, AJ, and Fluttershy to Ursa Cave. “Where is he?”, Twilight wondered as she looked into the cave.

War Heart came out from the trees behind the group of mares. “I guess I forgot to mention I don’t live in the cave anymore.”

“I was wondering how you were making cake in a cave.”

“Pancakes.”

“That’s a type of cake right?”

“Kind of, follow me.”, War Heart walked back into the trees with the mares following him. They eventually came to a new clearing in the woods and a wooden long house.

“This is my new house.”, War Heart took pride in his work.

“It looks really good.”, Twilight commented. They group approached the doorway which was lined with ornate carvings of what looked like dragons.

“The Craftsmanship is divine.”, Rarity said as she passed the doorway. They group entered the building wear a wave of heat enveloped them.

“It’s so… Warm…”, Fluttershy looked around the long room.

“It took me a while to warm the place up, but I finally got a fireplace working.”
The walls were made of logs and a large rectangular table sat in the middle of the room. There was a circular shield on the wall behind the seat at the head of the table. The shield had a heart on it and had some wood chopping axes behind the shield itself.

“What is that thing for?”, Applejack asked pointing at the shield. War Heart looked up at it. “Well, I have ancestors from WorNeigh, and thought that I should have a shield hall.”

“What’s a shield hall for?”, Twilight asked War Heart, never even hearing of WorNeigh.

“It was where they would eat, drink, and celebrate.”, War Heart was explaining this to Twilight until Pinkie Pie screamed, “You mean they had a PARTY!”

“Yes, they did. Now if you’ll have your seats, I’ll bring out the pancakes and maple syrup.”

The mares all took a place at the table, waiting for this new food they never knew of. War Heart came back with a large steaming plate of circular pieces of baked batter. He gave them all four pancakes each and poured on some maple syrup. He sat at his place on the end of the table. All but he and Pinkie hesitated to eat at first. Pinkie took a liking to the syrup instantaneously. “It’s so good! What is it made of?”, Pinkie asked, by then everypony in the room was eating their pancakes.

“Well… I made this batch last year, I won’t bore you with the details but… it’s tree sap.”

“Really?”, Pinkie was starting to wonder is all tree sap was this good.

“Well, it’s from certain types of maple tree. The rest don’t have enough sugar in the sap to make this.”, War Heart explained.

“Well, I must say it was mighty decent of ya, to invite us over.”, Applejack said in appreciation of the meal.

“I’ve yet to serve you all drinks. A shield hall is not complete without it.”, War Heart brought out a large jug and wooden cups. He poured the yellow liquid into each cup.

“What is that?”, Twilight asked as she smelled the liquid. He aroma was strange to her.

“It’s made of honey.”, War Heart said as he was pouring the last cup. “It makes a pony strong, stupid and full of spirit.”, Twilight took a sip and shivered.

“I think it might have gone bad. It tastes a bit strange.”

“It’s supposed to. The taste won’t bother you after a bit. While you start drinking, I’ll just grab the other jug.”

“Where did you find all the time to make all this?”, Twilight asked.

“Well, I know how to get things done when I want to. The syrup and Mead though I brought from home.”

“It’s very impressive you got all this done in such a short time.”

“Yep, now who wants a shield in my hall?”

“What does having a shield in here mean?”, Twilight asked, wondering if there are consequences for such a thing.

“It means that you have a seat in my hall always reserved for you.”

“Does it come with more pancakes!?”, Pinkie asked with an abundance of enthusiasm for sweet things.

War Heart chuckled, “Yes, you can have more pancakes if you have a seat here.”

“Then I want one! Me! Me! Me!”, Pinkie was bouncing up and down, all excited.

War Heart left the table to grab a blank shield and he put it on the floor in the corner with some buckets of paint. “Just paint what you want to represent you on your shield, and I’ll put it up when you are finished.”, War Heart explained it to the excited pony who had just finished their drink.

“Okey, dokey, Lokey.”, Pinkie said as she went to the shield to paint.

“Okay, anypo-”, War Heart was about to speak until Pinkie screamed

“Finished!”, Pinkie came back, bouncing with a shield in her mouth, painted with a pink balloon.

“That was quick.”

“Now where are the pancakes?”, Pinkie asked, looking around.

“Over there.”, War Heart pointed and took the shield from Pinkie and placed it on the wall behind her seat. Pinkie Pie came back with a bottle of maple syrup and poured it into her drink.

Over the course of the night, they had drank an entire jug of mead and were starting to share stories with each other after they all eventually made a shield for the walls. All the ponies were having a good time being intoxicated in the warm hall of War Heart. The next morning War heart awoke on his chair. He looked around the room. Pinkie Pie was asleep, clutching an empty syrup bottle; Twilight was asleep on the floor; Fluttershy was asleep on the table; Rarity was sleeping on a pile of cushions on the floor she had stole from the chairs; Applejack was also on the ground but laying facedown in a puddle of vomit. “Well, that’s no good.”, War Heart said as he went into the back room and grabbed some blankets and put them on reach of the sleeping mares. War Heart dragged AJ away from the puddle of vomit and put a bucket next to her just in case. Then he went over to Twilight and put a blanket on her, then going to Rarity’s cushion pile and stealing one, he put a cushion under Twilight’s head for a pillow. War Heart then went to Pinkie Pie and put a blanket on her as well. He walked over to Fluttershy, “I wonder what happened to you.”, he whispered to himself as he placed a blanket over her. He walked to his closet and grabbed a bucket and headed to a small stream nearby to gather some water. He was starting to walk back until he saw Rainbow Dash flying overhead with a frantic look on her face. War Heart raised an eyebrow and stared at her. After a few seconds, she returned his gaze with an addition of suspicion. She flew down to War Heart and stared him in the face, “Where are my friends!?”, she interrogated him with an angry tone. War Heart grinned, “I took them all to my place. They are all lying on my floor, because I poisoned them.”, War Heart made and extra effort to sound extra sadistic. At the point of hearing this news, Dash grew pale and a grim look made its way to her face, “You’re lying!”, Dash said in disbelief.

“Well, a little bit, yeah.”

Dash sighed in relief.

“Fluttershy is on my table.”

“Why would you do this!?”

“I felt like having some fun.”, War Heart smirked. Dash backed up a bit, starting to fear War Heart.

“And now I have you all alone out here. You’re all vulnerable here, completely at my mercy.”, War Heart was staring down at Dash and walking towards her slowly and menacingly as possible. Dash kept backing away until she bumped into a tree. As War Heart closed in on her, her heart began to race. He kept staring at her, getting closer each second which seemed like forever. As War Heart came face to face with her he whispered, “Would you like some pancakes?”, at which point Rainbow Dash was frozen from confusion.

“What?”

“Pancakes, it’s almost lunch and I’m making plenty for the rest of your friends.”

“But, you told me they’re dead…”

“I never said that.”, War Heart stated while trying to hold back a chuckle as he walked towards his house with the bucket of water.

“What is he up to?”, Dash whispered to herself as she hesitantly followed, hoping her friends are okay.

War Heart walked back into the house and put the bucket of water on the table, then went to put more wood on the fire. Dash walked in and was taken in by the warmth and the decoration of shields on the walls and dragons on the doorway. Dash was relieved to find her friends were all just sleeping on the floor and Fluttershy on the table.

“You said you poisoned them, they look fine.”, Dash stated to War Heart, a hint of curiosity in her tone.

“I did technically.”, he pointed to the jug of mead on the table with a cup next to it.

“What is it?”

“It’s sweet, take a taste, but not too much, it’s more appropriate that you not drink much until the evening.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, let’s just say that some ponies have a worse reaction than others, like the farmer over there, she got a bit sick.”

“You said it was poison, but you still drink it?”

“It is a poison, you lose sense of balance and the idea of social barriers. Fluttershy is quite a party animal when drinking.”, War Heart was making more pancake as he was talking to Dash.

“So you tricked me.”

“I didn’t lie and you jumped to conclusions. That’s all there was to it.”, War Heart walked to the table and put down a plate of pancakes at a seat without a shield behind it.

“What’s that?”

“Pancakes. For you.”, War Heart then poured some maple syrup on the pancakes.

“Umm… Thank you?”, Dash said as War Heart began to wake up the other ponies by gentle nudges and soft-ish whispers. As Applejack awoke she had a weary look and gross taste in her mouth. War Heart pointed her to the bucket of water and told her to drink a cup. Applejack did so without hesitation. War Heart then went to Fluttershy and poked her in the face with his nose, he then put on a creeper face and stared at her while poking her. Soon her eyes opened and saw him staring at her, she froze for a moment.

“Time to wake up.”, War Heart said in a creepy voice. Fluttershy quickly slid off the table and hid under it. War Hear then went to Rarity and her cushion pile. He leaned in closely, “You’re wearing a plaid dress.”, he whispered and then walked away. Rarity’s eyes shot open and she quickly jumped up to check if such a terrible thing was true. To her relief, it was a lie. “Good morning, Princess Cushion-thief.”, War Heart said with a humorous tone.

“A lady does not stoop to sleeping on a floor.”, Rarity said as she took her place at the table.

War Heart went over to Twilight and looked down at her. He knelt down and whispered, “Wake up, it’s almost lunch.”, Twilight slowly opened her eyes and stretched. War Heart put more plates down, all covered with steaming pancakes and syrup. Everypony was eating slowly, feeling all groggy from the night before except for Pinkie and Dash. Pinkie was just fine and didn’t require a wake up call to be up and about. “What’s wrong with my head? It hurts so much.”, Twilight groaned.

“Well, that is the after effects that sometimes happens when you drink.”

“It seems kind of silly to do this with the knowledge that it will give you a headache the next morning.”

“Well, you had a good time, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes.”

“And that is why ponies do it, to have a good time.”

“I guess it makes sense when you look at it that way.”, The ponies all continued to eat in the quiet. After a while all the mares left to go about their daily business. War Heart began cleaning the place up. “That was a good night.”, War Heart said to himself as he was cleaning Applejack’s vomit off the floor. “I’m gonna sleep now though, still feeling a bit tired.”, War Heart went over to another room in his home and laid down on his bed.

War Heart awoke the next day with a rather good feeling. “That was a good sleep.”, War Heart got out of bed and went towards the front door. “I think I’ll go for a walk.”, He yawned as he opened the door. He froze as he opened his eyes, “Where’s all the snow!?”, he looked around in a panic. “Did I really sleep the entire winter!?”, War Heart flew off towards Twilight’s house and busted into her house, breaking the door down. “Twilight! I think I’ve been asleep for weeks! The snow is gone!”, War Heart shouted in panic.

“What? You were only asleep for a day, when we left we took care of winter wrap up.”

“Winter What-now?”

“Winter Wrap-up, we melt the snow and get spring ready.”

“… You serious about that?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“… That might explain why it’s always so cold where I’m from…”

“That could be an explanation… I guess.”, Twilight looked at her now broken down door. “Now, about my door…”

War Heart looked at the door, “Oh… Oops, sorry.”, War Hearted propped up the door against the wall, “I’ll make you a new one later.”

“At least it isn’t so cold anymore, so I can wait a while.”

“Alright, I’ll have it soon, I promise.”

“I know you’re good for it, War Heart.”, as Twilight said this, a thunderous crash came from the sky and an explosion of rainbow colours.

“Another weird seasonal thingy?”, War Heart guessed.

“No, that is Rainbow Dash and her Sonic Rainboom.”, War Heart chuckled at the name once again.

“A nice move, but it still sounds like a fruity energy drink. Why is she doing that?”

“She’s always practicing for the Wonderbolts, who she’s meeting at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“The what?”

“It’s a formal event for the higher-ups of Equestria.”

“Sounds… odd.”

“It can be fun if you try to make it fun.”

“I don’t know if I’d be good at the whole formal thing. I’m going to catch up with Dash, be back later.”

“Bye, War Heart.”

War Heart took off towards the sky. He found Rainbow Dash resting on a cloud, looking exhausted. He was more wondering how she was sitting there. “How are you not falling through that cloud?”

“I’m a Pegasus, all Pegasi can walk on clouds.”

“First the cutie marks, and now this too.”

“What?”

“I can’t walk on clouds.”

“You can’t? Why?”

“I don’t know, I just can’t.”

“That’s weird.”

“Not as weird as you’re cute.”

“I was half expecting that at this point.”, Dash put on an uninterested face.

“Looks like it has lost its effect on you.”

“Yep, totally lame now.”

“Or you totally love it.”

“No, I don’t!”, Dash reacted with anger in her voice.

“Gotcha again.”

“Grr…”

“Well, I’m gonna go now, good luck with that fruity drink move.”

“It’s a Sonic Rainboom!”

“That’s what I said.”, War Heart flew off towards his house to prepare a door for Twilight.

Meanwhile, a shadow loomed over Ponyville. It came from above with the smell. It reeked of sulphur and rotting flesh on it’s breath. It’s massive wings as wide as houses and powerful as the tide. It’s eyes a piercing green with a rage only centuries of hatred and greed could create. It’s claws were long and sharp as razors. It’s skin was that like a serpent, with scales as black as an ebony statue. It’s tail as if it were another limb also carried with it spines that could chop a tree down in one swing. A dragon had its eye on Ponyville now. Fixing it’s deadly gaze on its ponies. The beast had a hunger that would only be satisfied with blood. And when it was finished with them, it would take their precious things and leave nothing but smoke, ash, and fire. It slowly descended upon Ponyville from the mountains. The Ponies outside noticing the awe-inspiring creature coming down to them began to panic and run in a rush of fear. As the dragon landed, it let out a roar that shook the very foundations of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle ran outside to see the source of the noise. Her mouth agape at the sight of the dragon destroying Ponyville, devouring ponies as they futilely tried to flee the beast. There was another noise that bellowed from the creature, but more in words this time. “I am Agarrmagonn, your lives are forfeit until my hunger is satiated!”, the dragon shouted this more as a challenge for anypony to try to fight him. Twilight watched as the more brave ponies attacked with no result and only result in their doom of being devoured, piece by piece. The dragon walked towards Twilight, “You shall have an interesting flavour.”, the dragon reached for Twilight, who was frozen in terror. Suddenly the dragon wrenched away from Twilight and screamed. It turned it’s head to see a large black Pegasus stallion with a red and green striped mane; a shield on both his sides, strapped to his wings; and an axe on his belt biting on Agarrmagonn’s tail. “Puny creature, you will suffer my wrath for this insolence!”, the dragon then inhaled deeply. War Heart let go of the dragon and stood there, waiting for the dragon to make the first move. War Heart had a determined look on his face looking the dragon in the eye. Agarrmagonn exhaled forth a stream of viscous glowing fiery fluid at War Heart. The Pegasus could not be seen in the smoke, but when it cleared, there he was standing there with shields extended forward, they had blocked the hit and had remained unscathed. “It seems this will not be as simple as it seems.”, Agarrmagonn said as he turned around completely to fully face War Heart. “Who are you, Pegasi, so I can remember the whelp that actually survived the first ounce of my wrath.”

“I am War Heart, of the Heart Clan.”

“And what makes you think you can stop me?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why don’t you run?”

“Because I have to protect those I care for. With every bit of my being…”, As War Heart spoke, his flank began to glow and a cutie mark of a shield with a heart emblazoned on with a vertical sword behind it. War Heart stood on his hind legs and pulled out his woodcutter’s axe. “I wield the axe of my great great grandfather: Pride Heart, the general, the mighty-”

“An old axe is not going to help you defeat me.”

“But it is…”, War Heart point the head of the axe at Agarrmagonn, “…for he was also known as ‘Slayer’, for his feats of bringing down creatures like you.”

“Expect that axe to be added to my hoard, Pegasus.”

“Expect your head to be mounted on my wall!”, War Heart flew towards the dragon with his axe in hand. Agarrmagonn slashed at War Heart with his front claw, swatting War Heart into a nearby building, crashing through the wall.

“Ha! Pathetic pony, fell on the second blow!”, Agarrmagonn walked to the building and pulled away the roof, to reveal War Heart standing there, covered in dust.

“My shields are made of the wood of the Steelbark trees. Sturdy enough to withstand your hits.”, War Heart coughed a bit, blood dripping from his lips.

“You, however can’t take as much punishment.”, Agarrmagonn chuckled before inhaling again. War Heart readied himself, waiting for the exhale.

On the Exhale, Agarrmagonn screamed “Diiiiiiiiiie!”, the fiery fluid spewing forth into the house where War Heart was standing. There room was filled with fire and smoke. War Heart was gone. “It seems that your time was shorter than you believed it would be.”, Agarrmagonn taunted, looking at the shield in the inferno that used to be a building of Ponyville. War Heart hid behind a building to Agarrmagonn’s right. “That was a risky move, I couldn’t get away unscathed.”, War Heart whispered to himself as he looked at his partly burnt wing, cringing as he tried to move it. He had thrown a shield off him as he tried to dive away from the blast. “At least now I have the element of surprise.”, War Heart Whispered as he readied his axe again. He ran at Agarrmagonn as the dragon was about to go after another bystander. War Heart brought his axe down on the dragon’s tail. The axe cleaved through the scales as if it were butter. Agarrmagonn let out a guttural roar of agony as his tail was cut, which he swung the remainder of it into War Heart, knocking him to the ground a few feet away. “A clever move, one you will not be able to boast of later.”

War Heart coughed up a bit more of his blood, “Wanna bet?”, War Heart challenged and readied his axe again. Agarrmagonn was growing tired of this pony. The dragon inhaled once again. War Heart started running with his shield put up towards Agarrmagonn, he ran towards a house with the door open. Agarrmagonn exhaled the fluid flames at War Heart as he ran into the house. The dragon then reared back and brought both front claws down on the house, crumbling it to the ground. War Heart shattered through the second story window of the house next door, landing on the dragon’s back. “Dragon! Your death shall neither be quick nor painless!”, War Heart screamed as he brought the axe down on Agarrmagonn’s right wing. Agarrmagonn reared back again, in an attempt to throw the Pegasus off his back. War Heart grabbed onto the remainder of the dragon’s nub of a wing as it reared back. War Heart then took his axe and swung into the dragon’s back and held on by his axe while Agarrmagonn tried to shake off the Pegasus. Agarrmagonn rolled over onto his back, War Heart jumped away, tearing the axe from the dragon, but not jumping far enough that he got his wing caught under the dragon, causing the Pegasus’ already burnt wing to make him cringe in blinding pain. The dragon got back to his feet, and so did War Heart. Both of them were looking weak from loss of blood on Agarrmagonn’s part, and from exertion and internal damage on War Heart’s end. “Is… That… All you have?”, War Heart mocked exhaustedly.

“I will devour you by this day’s end.”

“Say that when I’m dead!”, War Heart screamed as he threw his shield from his wing into the dragon’s face, and then charged after it. The shield struck the dragon in the eye, causing it to raise a claws to it’s face to care for it’s eye instinctively. As the dragon was caring for it’s eye, War Heart swung down with his axe, cleaving it’s claw of the leg. Agarrmagonn lost his balance upon losing a foot suddenly and fell to the ground with a thundering crash. War Heart quickly swung again and cut off the claw coming to hit him on the dragon’s fall. The dragon was now at his mercy. “There are others, I’m not the only one, they will come, and they will come looking for retribution.”, Agarrmagonn told War Heart in a last hope he might be shown mercy.

War Heart raised his axe above his head, “I said I’ll protect this town…”, he looked Agarrmagonn in the eye, “… And I will.”, with that War Heart brought down the axe into the dragon’s neck, cutting through bone and flesh in one fluid motion until the head severed. War Heart walked away from the corpse to a nearby house and threw his axe to the ground. He sat down and leaned against the building, cringing from pain. War Heart sat there for a moment before the blackness took him, seeing a purple entity speeding towards him until all was black.

He opened his eyes to see he was in a hospital bed. His head shot up, he didn’t know where he was, he cringed in pain as he looked at his belly, which was all bandaged up. “They said that you broke a lot of ribs and nearly collapsed a lung and that you almost lost your wing.”, Twilight said as she walked in, noticing that War Heart woke up.

“Not the best day I’ve ever had…”, War Heart said trying to sit up.

“Everypony in Ponyville was so grateful for what you did that they are declaring you protector of Ponyville. They’ve been leaving gifts all week.”

“All week?”

“Well, yeah, but that was after we got the town cleaned up. That really took a long time.”

“How long have I been out?”

“About a month.”

“Wow…”

“Of course, you’ll be able to leave soon, but you’ll have to take it easy for a while.”

“Fantastic…”, suddenly there was a knock at the door.

“Who’s that?”, War Heart wondered.

“Come in!”, Twilight said as the door opened to reveal the familiar face of Jean-luc.

“Oh hey there. Nice battle scars there, eh?”, The moose with his ear-flapped toque entered the room.

“What are you doing here?”, War Heart asked him, kind of cautiously.

“Well, we heard the news that Ponyville was attacked, eh?”, Twilight Sparkle was staring at Jean-luc, never seeing one of his kind before.

“Did you come alone?”, War Heart asked.

“Uh… Well…”

“WAR HEART!”, Sweet Heart burst into the room and leapt at War Heart to hug him. War Heart screamed in pain as Sweet Heart jumped away.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”, she quickly tried to apologize to her sore brother.

“It’s okay…”, War Heart said while cringing.

“Also, War Heart, I forgot to mention that I wrote to Princess Celestia about what you did. She said she wants to meet you. You are now invited to the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Sweet Heart turned to Twilight and then whispered to War Heart, “She’s cute, is she your mare-friend?”, she then giggled as War Heart swung to smack her upside the head but missed.

“So what’s your name, eh?”, Jean-luc asked Twilight.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.”, Twilight answered the moose in a polite manner.

“So, what are you, eh?”, the moose asked in a clueless manner.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, Twilight was feeling rather awkward.

“Well, War Heart says he’s a Peggy-sauce or something. What are you, eh?”

“I’m a unicorn.”

“That’s pretty nifty, eh?”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Saying what, eh?”

“That ‘eh?’ word.”

“Just the way I talk, eh? I can tell you have an accent too, eh?”

“Rrrriiiight, well I have to go do something, but I’ll be back later to check up on you War Heart.”

“Bye, Twilight.”, War Heart said as Twilight left.

Jean-luc and Sweet Heart left the same day that War Heart left the hospital. He was walking along the street until he was stopped by three fillies. “What do you three want?”, he asked with an eyebrow raised as they were staring at him.

“Your cutie mark looks different from last time.”, Apple Bloom stated.

“Well, my cutie mark was just painted on before.”, War Heart explained to the fillies.

“You were a blank flank until you were this old?”

“Uhhh… sure?”

“How did you get your cutie mark? Was it while you were fighting that dragon?”

“Yeah, sure.”

All three of the fillies looked at each other in excitement until they all screamed in unison, “Cutie Mark Crusaders, Dragon Slayers!”, and took off down the street.

War Heart scoffed at first but then his eyes widened as he realized they were serious. “Son of a birch…”

About a week passed, War Heart was at home, napping. There as a knock at his door. “It’s open!”, he shouted in the direction of the door. The door opened and Twilight walked inside “Hey, how’s you injuries?”

“Still being injuries.”

“I came to get you.”

“For what?”

“We’re going to get you some clothes for the Gala.”

“… I’m not wearing a dress…”

“You won’t be wearing a dress.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“I guess I could take a look.”, He slowly got to standing position, struggling to get up.

“Are you okay, do you need help?”

“Nope, nope, nope, I’m good.”, He said as he finally stood up and walked towards the door.

“Okay then let’s go.”

“Lets go by your place first.”

“Why?”

“I still need to put your new door in.”, War Heart said as he balanced the sturdy door on his back with one wing.

“You really don’t have to…”

“Well, I’m going to anyway.”

“Ok, I guess…”

The two ponies walked into Ponyville on their way to Twilight’s library. War Heart dropped the door by her door way. “This is gonna be a real birch to put in place…”

“I can help.”, Twilight’s horn began to glow with a purple light and the door began to levitate into place.

“Handy.”, War Heart commented as he fixed the door into the frame.

“Okay, now that is taken care of. Let’s go to Rarity’s.”

“Okay.”, War Heart walked with Twilight to Carousel Boutique. They entered the well decorated shop. Rarity came out to greet them. “Well if it isn’t the hero of Ponyville.”

“Uh, yeah. I need clothes for that Gala thing.”, War Heart said, still not sure if he wanted to go.

“I guess I could make a jacket for our hero.”

“So long as it isn’t pink…”

“I wouldn’t put that colour on you it wouldn’t suit. You need something to go with your coat.”

“Okay… How about just a regular tuxedo jacket?”

“You shouldn’t be seen wearing any old jacket! You have to show off that you are a somebody!”

“Okay…”

After about an hour, War Hear was wearing a crimson uniform jacket with several jewels pinned into the breast of it as if they were medals. The trim and embroidery was done in gold. “I feel… overdressed…”

“Well that’s because you aren’t at the Gala.”

“I guess.”, War Heart took off the jacket and put it in a box, “What do I owe you for this?”, he asked expected a high price.

“Nothing, think of it as a thank you for saving the town.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t take this for that. Is there anything you need done?”

“Well, I’d love to be seen at the Gala with the hero of Ponyville, such a thing would surely get me noticed if you were to act as my escort.”

“So you’re asking me to be your date?”

“In a way, yes.”

“Pass…”

“What?! Why!?”

“I’m not interested in you.”

“Fine. Your loss.”

“Yep.”, War Heart picked up the box and left a bag of bits by the door on his way out.

It was the night of the Gala, War Heart donned his new jacket in preparation of his meeting with the princess. “Son of a birch, I’m so nervous, my knees are quaking. Just got to remember to act like a gentleman.”, War Heart walked outside towards Ponyville, where he saw the carriages that Twilight and her friends were stepping into. “That must be my ride.”, he said as he walked towards the carriage behind theirs and took a seat. He was so busy looking out the window that he didn’t notice the grey coated blonde Pegasus mare sitting across from him. The mare spoke up, “So, you’re that new Pegasus that saved the town.”, this sudden break of silence startled War Heart.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”, he said in a rather bored tone.

“What’s wrong?”, the mare asked curious about how the Pegasus could not be happy about his new status.

“I don’t know, I kind of feel like I don’t deserve this. Like I haven’t done enough to earn it.”

“You can only do so much. You are just one pony, you aren’t invincible.”

“I guess, what’s your name?”

“Ditzy Doo, but my friends call me Derpy Hooves.”

“Why do they call you tha-”, he looked towards her and noticed one of her eyes was fixed on him and the other on the window, “Nevermind.”

“What’s your name?”

“War Heart.”

“Sounds pretty interesting, pretty intimidating I’d say.”, Ditzy giggled a bit.

“Nopony has anything to fear from me.”

“Says the Pegasus that became famous for being strong enough to bring down a dragon?”, Ditzy jested.

“Okay, I guess then everypony has something to fear of me…”, War Heart chuckled with Ditzy.

War Heart noticed they were alone in the carriage, “Were you coming to the Gala with someone? Or were you separated from your friends?”, he asked with honest curiosity.

“Nope, I’m all alone.”, Ditzy declared without any shame or embarrassment.

“Would you like for me to accompany you to the Gala?”, War Heart asked her, hopeful.

The mare pondered for a moment, “Hmmm… Sure, why not?”, she said with eyes closed and a grin.

“Great.”, War Heart said with a bit of enthusiasm. Soon the Carriage stopped and War Heart stuck his head out the window of the carriage. He noticed the line of carriages that also stopped, leading all the way to the palace about a dozen carriages away.

“It seems we’re going to wait a while… There’s a line to get in.”, War Heart explained the situation to Ditzy.

“Oh well, gives us time to get to know each other. What do you do for a living?”, she asked with honest curiosity.

“I’m a lumberjack, from Caneighda. I cut down trees for wood to make… stuff.”, He explained to her as best as he could, “How about you? What do you do?”, he asked, rather intrigued by her.

“I deliver letters and packages to other ponies.”, she showed some pride in her occupation.

“Is that difficult?”

“No, not really, but sometimes accidentally drop things on my way. That is one of the reasons they call me Derpy Hooves.”, she scratched the back of her head and smiled with eyes closed, somewhat embarrassed.

“Nopony is perfect.”

“How about being a lumberjack? Is that difficult?”

“Well, I kind of grew up with it, but it was really difficult at the beginning when I was just a colt.”

“You had to work like that as a colt?”

“Yeah, being the only ponies, I had to help out a lot for my family’s survival.”

“What was it like where you lived?”

“Well, I can sum it up in about one word: Cold.”

“Anything else?”

“Well, the only other creatures to talk to were moose.”

“What’s a moose?”

“Big creatures with horns that look like tree branches, with big squishy noses. They say ‘eh’ a lot.”

“They sound friendly.”

“They are.”, The carriage had finally arrived at the Gala.

“Looks like it’s our turn to make our entrance.”, War Heart said as he began to open the door to the carriage. He stepped out the carriage onto the red carpet leading to the palace. Ditzy stepped out after him and took her place by his side and walked with him to the palace.

Twilight and her friends were all waiting around for War Heart and noticed he had a mare by his side. “Isn’t that the mail-mare?”, Twilight asked her friends and pointed towards War Heart and Ditzy.

“I do believe so.”, Rarity said, looking at them as the pair walked by.

War Heart walked up the stairs with Ditzy towards Celestia. Celestia had her usual smile on. She looked down at War Heart. “I must congratulate you on your amazing feat. To defeat a dragon like Agarrmagonn is no easy task.”

“I was just doing what I could. If I were to refuse helping, I’d be no better than the dragon itself.”

“Powerful, Brave, AND Noble. You are very special kinda of pony. Please accept this medal, and with it my thanks for saving the lives of many of my subjects.”

“Thank you, Princess.”, War Heart bowed his head as the medal floated around his neck. The medal was made of silver and was in the shape of a shield. War Heart walked on with Ditzy into the palace where the most of the Gala was being held. Almost everypony stared as he entered, he felt uncomfortable. He walked out into the crowd where he whispered to Ditzy, “At this point, I think I’d rather be fighting the dragon again…”, at which point Ditzy giggled.

“Don’t worry, just be yourself.”, she instructed him in his doubt.

“If you say so.”, he responded, still feeling a bit ill at ease. He walked up to a white unicorn stallion with blonde mane and a snooty look.

“Hey, some party, eh?”, War Heart gave a playful jab to the unicorn who was taken off guard.

“I am Prince Blueblood, how dare you assault me!”, the unicorn speaking with utmost confidence from years of being treated as superior to all others.

“Hey, buddy, I wasn’t assaulting you, eh.”, War Heart put on a bit of an irritated look.

“And that accent… You sound so uncouth!”, the unicorn scoffed and walked away.

“What was that all about?”, Ditzy asked War Heart quietly.

“I speak in my Caneighdian accent whenever I get nervous.”, War Heart explained in embarrassment.

“Aw, you don’t have to worry about anything. Prince Blueblood is always like that anyway.”

“He’s a Prince?”

“Yep, nephew of Princess Celestia.”

“Greeeeat. I’m never gonna fit in at this rate.”

“It’s just a few hours, don’t worry.”

“Why couldn’t they be as nice as you?”

“I dunno.”

“I need to get out of here.”

“There’s a way to the garden over there.”, Ditzy pointed to a big glass door leading outside.

“Sounds good, let’s go.”, War Heart hurriedly walked towards the door, Ditzy following behind at regular pace. Upon reaching the door, War Heart waited for Ditzy to get there before opening it for her, then exiting himself. When he got out to the garden he breathed in deeply. “Felt like I was suffocating in there…”, War Heart walked a few steps before sitting on the grass.

“I’m going to get a drink, I’ll be right back.”, Ditzy walked off nonchalantly.

“She’s a good mare.”, War Heart commented to himself as she left.

“Sounds like you found someone to go to the Gala with after all.”, Twilight approached War Heart.

“I guess so… At least it wasn’t Rarity.”

“What was wrong with Rarity?”

“She’s too… Fancy for my blood.”

“Oh, I see.”

“So how is the Gala going for you?”

“Stuffy, as usual.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Yes, and it was boring at first, but then a bunch of things happened that ended up making it interesting.”

“Hm… Just wish that not everypony would stare. I hate being the center of attention.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon enough.”, Twilight turned and left to go back indoors.

A few hours later, everypony was starting to leave and head home. War Heart and Ditzy took the same carriage back. Was Heart fiddled with his hooves nervously, “Would you like to come over to my place for some pancakes?”

Ditzy looked at him and smiled, “I would love to.”

END

Black & White (edited)

The night was brisk and the sky was clear except for the aerial feats of the great Wonderbolts. Orion, A Unicorn with an icy blue coat, a darker blue mane with a white streak going through it, was standing amidst the crowds at the Canterlot castle. “Another year another stuffy Gala.” Orion sighed out of boredom and walked over to the banquet table grabbing a small cup of Celestia’s favourite punch. “Oh punch, you are truly my only friend.” Orion levitated the cup to his lips and took a sip. From the other side of the room Orion heard some shouting. “I am Prince Blueblood, how dare you assault me!”, taking interest, Orion looked over and saw Blueblood storm off away from a Black Pegasus with a spiked red and green mane. “How curious.” Orion said as he pushed up his glasses. From behind him a voice Orion knew very well appeared. “I see you are enjoying yourself.” Orion turned and saw Princess Luna. “Oh… hey Luna. Yeah the Gala is a bust every year. Filled with snobs and squares.”, Luna chuckled to herself. “Well you don’t have to come to these you know.” Orion looked over at the lunar princess with a grin. “Well then how am I going to show off my Magical hat and cape, My enchanting hat and cape, My mystical hat and cape My-”

“Please stop. I got the point.”

“Sorry.”

“Its okay Orion. Actually I was meaning to tell you something.”

“You have piqued my interests.” He said as he looked over at Luna quizzically. “I want you to stop your teaching job here and go to PonyVille.”

“Whats in PonyVille?”

“I fear that there might be followers of Blackheart.”

Blackheart, the unicorn that worked with my great great grandfather, Star Swirl the Bearded. Choosing to betray Star Swirl and to use dark magic, Blackheart became corrupted wanting to destroy Canterlot. Star Swirl caught wind of Blackheart’s plans and told Celestia, who imprisoned him inside a tall tower for hundreds of years.

“I will pack immediately.” Orion turned away from the Princess and made his way to the castle courtyard, the perfect place for his secret door. Upon reaching the entrance, Orion was about to cast a spell to unlock the door but, before he could he heard a voice behind some bushes. “How are you doing mister bird?” Orion peered through the bushes seeing a yellow Pegasus flying near a tree smiling politely like she didn’t have a care in the world as she talked to a bird. Orion’s watched the delicate Pegasus intently. “Hmmm I see, she doesn’t look at all like a threat, I guess I could try opening the door.” Orion stepped back and walked up to a stone wall. Quietly Orion spoke “Ianua”, after this the wall shimmered as if it were made of water. Walking through Orion made his way into a big room with a rounded high ceiling gazing up at the stars. Pieces of paper and scrolls filled all the tables, the walls were covered in bookshelves and symbols. Orion walked over to a cabinet, opening it he grabbed a saddle bag and a few scrolls placing them inside. “Hello?” A voice came from the castle entrance. The same voice as before? Orion thought to himself. “Is anypony there?” No, not the same voice, somepony else. Orion looked around the corner to see a purple unicorn. “Oh hello, I didn’t know anypony was here.”

“Its quite alright, Who, may I ask, are you?”

“Oh, I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s best student.”

“Oh really? Celestia’s best student?”

“Yeah, You don’t sound impressed.”

“Well I’m not.”, Twilight was shocked to hear that someone wasn’t surprised about her connection with the princess. “What? But the Princess Celestia is the greatest magic user in all of Equestria!”

“Yeaaaaah, Tia is pretty good but, not the best.”

“Wait… Who is the best?” Twilight sounded a little shocked and confused. With a sudden outburst Orion lifted up his front hooves and brought them down making a snap sound while saying “I AM!” Twilight was startled at what Orion had done. “H- how did you do that?”

“Do what?” Orion raised an eyebrow. “You snapped… with both hooves.” Orion looked down at his hooves. “I’m not quite sure.” From the doorway another voice called out to somepony. “Twilight? You in here?”

“Yeah I’ll be right there.” Twilight looked back to Orion. “I better be off.”

“It was a pleasure taking to you Miss Sparkle.” Orion’s horn started glowing and he vanished into a blip of light.

Orion stood at the entrance to PonyVille somewhat early in the morning thinking to himself, ‘So… the cultists are hiding out in this town, I better not draw attention to myself.’, Stuffing his wizard hat and cloak into his bag, he began walking again. Nopony was awake at this time. “Hey, you seem new.” Orion looked up and saw a grey pegasus mare with a blonde mane and tail. “Yeah I am, you wouldn’t mind showing me around would you?”

“Not at all but. WAR HEART!” A black Pegasus with a red and green striped mane landed down near the grey mare. “What is it Ditzy? This guy bothering you?”

“Not at all, War Heart, I want you to show… I forgot to ask your name.”

“Orion.”

“I want you to show Orion around PonyVille.” War Heart made a low grumbling noise as if he wasn’t pleased about what he heard. “Fine.” Ditzy Doo flew close to War Heart and kissed his forehead. “See you later.” Ditzy flew off and left War Heart and Orion standing alone in the entrance of the town. “So what are you doing here?”, War Heart asked without looking down at Orion. “Business.”, Orion quickly replied. War Heart looked at Orion sceptically. “Right. Well follow me.” War Heart began walking into the town, as they made their way, more and more ponies woke up and began walking around.

“Here we are, the last stop. The Library.” War Heart knocked on the dragon carving covered door, out walked Twilight yawning. “Oh… Hey War Heart.”

“Its a pleasure to see you again Miss Sparkle.” Twilight lifted up her head and looked at Orion. “Its you! I saw you at the Gala the other day.”

“That’s right, My name is Orion.”

“You look tired Twilight, want me to make some breakfast?”, Twilight smiled as her eyes closed from just waking up. “If you don’t mind.”, War Heart and Orion walked inside and War Heart started cooking. After they all ate Twilight began asking Orion some questions. “So you said you were the best magic user in Equestria… What did you mean?”

“Well I’m not the best, that would be my great great grandfather was really good with magic. He even invented some of the spells actually. When Celestia found about his great magical ability she gave him a workshop in the Canterlot Castle, which is why I was at the castle, kinda like a family business.”

“You have an interesting past.”

“You know it Twilight.”

“I am curious though.” Orion raised an eyebrow at Twilight. “Oh?”

“Who was your great great grandfather?”

“You might have heard of him, Star Swirl the Bearded.” Twilight stared, mouth open in disbelief. “She okay?” , War Heart shrugged and continued to sit quietly. “Hey… Miss Sparkle? You okay?” Orion waved his hoof in front of Twilight’s face. She quietly muttered something but neither of them heard it. “What was that?

“Star Swirl, You are a direct descendant of Star Swirl!”

“I guess that means you heard of him.” , Twilight quickly grabbed Orion’s hoof with hers. “ Please teach me what you know!” Orion rubbed his chin with the hoof Twilight wasn’t clinging to. “Hmmmm… Yeah I guess so.” , Twilight let go of Orion’s hoof and started to bounce up and down continuously saying Thank you. “Lets go outside though, I think I need some fresh air.”

As Twilight and Orion walked through town, he began telling Twilight about some magic he knows. “Tell me Twilight, how does one cast a spell?” , Confused, Twilight gave the only answer she would think would be right. “You cast spells with your horn right?”

“And what else?” Twilight looked over at Orion. “What do you mean?” Orion stopped and turned to Twilight. “Well… My ancestor had found another way to cast magic besides the horn. Would you care for a demonstration?” Twilight nodded. “Might want to step back then.” Twilight took a few steps back. “Now… which one to use. Oh I know!” , Orion began taking a stance readying himself. “Ventus.” Suddenly as said the word a violent gust of wind shot from Orion causing him to fly back several feet into a small pile of hay. Twilight jumped in concern and surprise quickly running over to Orion. “Sweet Celestia! Are you alright?” Orion tried stand up and stumbled over. “Yeah I’m oka-” Falling over Orion bumped into a big red Stallion. As Twilight watched Orion she noticed a thin layer of a magical blue aura cover Orion. As he came in contact with the stallion some small bolts of lightning shot off causing the stallion to be pushed a few feet away, leaving Orion on the dirt ground. Twilight ran over to Orion. “What was that!?”

“What was what?”, Orion asked picking himself up off the ground. “That… Aura thing, it was like that one time.” The red stallion walked over to Orion and Twilight. “Uhhh… Twilight.” , Twilight turned towards the stallion. “Oh, hey, Big Mac, you okay?”

“Yeah, it just caught me by surprise.” Orion looked over at Big Mac. “Well hello, Orion.” Macintosh looked over at Orion. “Big Macintosh, you can call me Big Mac. I have a question.”

“Oh? Whats that then?”

“How did such a small pony like you, send me flying like that?”

“Actually I also want to know how.” Said Twilight with interest. “Well I guess I have to tell you then. My ancestor, Star Swirl had one downside to his magical ability and it turned out it stayed within his bloodline.”

“What do you mean?”

“That aura you saw and the thing that made you fly several feet was a defence mechanism of my bloodline. I came to know it as the Star Barrier. The Star Barrier sends out a force of pure magic to protect me from harm.”

“How did I not read about this in my books?”

“Star Swirl never told anyone but family about it, he didn’t want others to worry about him.” A quiet rumbling started to grow louder. Orion and the two other ponies looked around. In the distance, a herd of cows were stampeding through PonyVille. A orange coated pony ran along side the cows, her blonde ponytail wiping in the wind. Big Mac jumped out of the way onto a crate, Twilight teleported to the side where none of the cows were. Before he could do anything Orion was being trampled. As Orion hit the ground, a burst of pure blue magic covering his entire body erupted from Orion, sparks shot off as it sent three cows flying, one landing in a tree and the others causing the stampede to slow down and then halt. Twilight, Big Mac and the orange pony walked over to Orion, he laid on the ground bruised and unconscious, A cut going down the side of his face. “What in tarnation was that Twilight?” Asked the orange mare. “I guess that was his Star Barrier.”

“His what-now?”

“Big Mac could you help carry him to the hospital, AppleJack could you come with us?”

“Sure, Id like to meet this here new pony.”

Orion began to opened his eyes, to his right was what looked like the orange pony from before. “Hey there Sugar cube, how ya feelin’?”

“Ow, like I was trampled by a bunch of cows. I’m Orion by the way.”

“Twilight told me about you. I’m AppleJack, I’m Big Macintosh’s younger sister.” Orion continued to look at AppleJack. “Uhmmm… You okay?”

“I don’t know if it’s the magic or not but, You have really pretty eyes, you know that?” AppleJack looked away from Orion with a confused look on her face. “Oh you’re awake!” Twilight walked inside the room. “What happened to me?”

“You were trampled by the stampede of cows. Oh also your Star Barrier went off again.” Orion sat up straight, he looked as if he heard some horrible news. “Oh no, that’s not good.”

“Whats not good?”

“Whenever one of the barriers are released stronger barriers will happen. That was the second one of five barriers.”

“What are you saying?” There was worry in Twilight’s voice. “There are five barriers. The first is the Core Barrier, it would only effect a really small area. The second is the Body Barrier, that is the one you saw before.”

“Then what are the other three barriers?”

“The third barrier is the Earth Barrier, its range could destroy several houses. The fourth is the Sky Barrier, the range of that could take out just about half of PonyVille.”

“Whats the last barrier?” Twilight asked sounding like she didn’t want to hear it. “The final barrier is the Star Barrier, this barrier is strong and big enough to destroy all of PonyVille and then some.” Both AppleJack and Twilight were quiet, a little shocked from what they heard. Orion started to get up out of the bed. “I wouldn’t want to harm anypony with something like that.”

“No you don’t need to go.”

“Sorry Twilight, I‘ve made up my mind.” Orion walked out of the hospital and down the street. As he walked passed a dark alley way. A hooded pony stood in the shadows, just barley noticeable. “You know you can’t stop it.” Orion stopped and looked down the alley. “What do you mean?”

“The Dark one will rise. Blackheart has returned.” Orion quickly turned towards the alley but, the hooded pony was gone. “I cant go just yet.”, Orion said to himself.

Orion made his way to the outskirts of PonyVille, he stood at a field. “Here we are. This will do.” Orion started to concentrate, his horn and eyes began to glow. “DUCO!” From the ground rock and stone were shooting out of the ground constructing a dome, on the inside tree trunks held up the structure and the stones made the base. “Now time to lighten the place up. Caerula flammis!” Along the walls of the construct blue flames appeared. “There we go.” Orion stepped outside of his newly made workshop.

Orion walked into PonyVille, walking quickly like he had something to do. Kicking open the door to Twilight’s library he quickly made his way to Twilight. “Orion!? I thought you left?”, Twilight exclaimed in surprise.

“I was going to, but I remembered I had a task I must complete before I can go. There is something I need to tell you.” Orion said as he grabbed her hooves. Twilight’s face began going red. “W- what is it?”

“You need to tell me you wont tell anyone. Promise me!”

“I promise.”, she said as Orion let go of her hooves and walked away. “I was sent here by Princess Luna. We believe there is a group of followers. A cult if you will. This certain cult follows a unicorn, one that worked with Star Swirl, Blackheart.”

“I never read anything about him.”

“He was corrupted and turned to black magic instead of staying to the natural white magic us unicorns use. If it wasn’t for Star Swirl, Equestria would have been destroyed.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

“You are close with the Princesses and also very powerful with magic, If not you, who could I trust?”

“You have a point.”

“I had just built my work shop in the field outside PonyVille. I just came here to tell you to be careful.”

“Thanks Orion.”

The night air was cold and there were a slight breeze passing by, The moon full and glowing. Orion was awake working on a way to suppress the Star Barrier inside his body instead of having it explode all at once. “NO! NOT AGAIN!” He yelled throwing papers off of a wooden table. “What am I missing! Its right there and I cant get it!” Orion smashed his hooves down on the table and a surge of bright magic blasted out over the table. “Wh- how?” Orion sat and thought about how that was possible. “What did I do to make that happen. Emotions?” Orion tried to calm down and imagine the star barrier. Orion felt the barrier start to appear over him, he heard objects being thrown and breaking on the walls and floor. Opening his eyes Orion could see the world differently, the world had a strange vision to it. The colors were blending with the shadows and he could feel the essence of all of the towns magical abilities. The barrier started to retreat inside of Orion then quickly blasting out and sending everything flying off the ground and crash into the walls. Orion stood on the stone floor panting, exhausted from the use of that much magic. “Well… I think… I think I got it.”

AppleJack was working on the orchard harvesting a fresh batch of apples until she heard an explosion from a little ways away, turning to see what it was, a cloud of black smoke rolled up over the treetops, an expression of fear and concern came to AppleJack’s face as she started to run towards the source of the smoke. In the middle of a clearing laid the most recent addition to PonyVille, Orion. “What in blue blazes happened to you?” Orion laid still due to being unconscious. AppleJack ran back and got Big Macintosh to carry Orion back to their home on Sweet Apple Acres. Orion slept for one and a half days. When he came too all he saw was the amber eyes of a young filly. “AppleJack! He’s awake!” AppleJack quickly walked into the room “I was getting worried there for a second. How are ya feelin’?”

“Ow, my head. I’m okay, I guess… What happened?”

“I don’t know, I heard an explosion and saw the smoke. When I got there you were unconscious.” Orion laid there thinking, Apple Bloom and AppleJack watched Orion as he stayed quiet. “I can’t stay here, It’s not safe.”

“What do you mean ‘not safe‘?” AppleJack asked cautiously. “There are some ponies after me, bad ponies who will hurt others to get to me.”

“And you expect us to send you on your own, we don’t do that to our friends.”

“Thank you and be prepared the ponies after me are very stealthy and skilled in combat.”

“No problem. We got Big Macintosh.”

“Optimism, that’s good.” Orion hopped out of the bed he laid in. “I will need a disguise for when I’m not here.”

“Well I reckon Rarity can fix you up some new duds. Not sure about yer’ face though.”

“Can you go out and get me a some clothes, I can do the facial change on my own.”

“Alright then.” AppleJack left the room and walked off to Rarity’s. As she got there Rarity was in the middle of fixing up a red coat. “Hey there Rarity, I got a favour to ask ya’.”

“My Dear AppleJack. What can I do for you?”

“I have this Stallion at my place and he asked me to get him some clothes. I was hopin’ you could help me out.”
A spark of inspiration sparked as Rarity heard the news. She quickly agreed and got to work. “I was just thinking of making something a little country and this gives me the PERFECT OPORTUNITY! Dear AppleJack, please wait for a little bit as I get this done.”

“Sure thing, Rarity, just don’t make it to fancy ya’ hear.”

“Yes yes whatever you say, Darling.” Back at Sweet Apple Acers, Orion was still in the room, he sat on the bed, meditating. Apple Bloom walked into the room and said in her average country accent. “What are ya’ doing?”

“It is a technique from the eastern kingdoms, It is called Meditation. It clears the mind and relaxes the body.”

“Do you think I could get my cutie mark from it!?” Orion shrugged. “Its worth a try.” Apple Bloom jumped up onto the bed and sat down beside Orion crossing her legs like he did. They both sat there in silence for a few minutes until. “When does it happen?”

“What does what happen?”

“The relaxing, I’ve been doin’ this and still nothing.”

“Not sure, maybe meditation isn’t for you.” Apple bloom opened her eyes and looked depressed. “Oh, I was hoping to get my cutie mark.”

“Be patient, it will come, eventually.” After Orion said that, AppleJack walked inside the room holding a bag in her mouth. “Herr Ouu go.” She said placing the bag on the ground. Inside was a brown vest with the letters R A stitched into the collar in a fine gold thread. “R A, I wonder what that stands for?” Apple Bloom said. Orion picked up the vest and put it on. “Now time for the facial change. Orion stood still, his eyes quickly shot open and began to glow with his horn. From Orion’s hooves his coat started to change colour, from a icy blue to a deep red. Making its way up, his tail grew shorter and turned red, his mane the same thing. The only thing not effected was his horn, the once icy blue horn was now a deep red. “I might need something to cover up my horn.” Orion looked over at Apple Jack and smiled. “Hey AppleJack, mind if I use something for a bit?” AppleJack backed away a bit. “What?” she asked with some caution in her voice. “I want to use your hat, It would fit over my horn perfectly hiding it.”

“Oh, I guess that’s alright.” AppleJack handed her hat over to Orion. “Thanks… You know… if you let your mane go free, it could look a lot nicer.”

“I might try that then.” Orion smiled and put the hat on. “Perfect fit, don’t you think?”

“Wow Orion, you look like a new pony.”

“I will also need to change my name, Orion would give away my identity. Hmmm…”

“Well what do you have in mind?”

“R A, R A. Red coat… That solves the R, now A.”

“Why not Ace?” Apple Bloom answered sweetly. “That’s not a bad idea.” Apple Bloom smiled, happy she could help. “From now on, whenever you see me like this, refer to me as Red Ace.”

“Sure thing, Ace.” AppleJack chuckled to herself at how silly the name sounded.

“I wonder what Big Macintosh will think when he sees Orion like this, Ey AppleJack?”

“That would be interestin’ ta see.”

“Well, If I fool him ‘m sure I can fool the ponies after me.” Orion walked out of the room and down the stairs leading outside. AppleJack and Apple Bloom watched from the window in the room. “Hey there friend.” Orion said as he walked over to Big Macintosh. “Oh uh, Howdy there. Do I know you?”

“Oh right I forgot to introduce mahself, I’m Red Ace.”

“Nice at meet ya, Ace.”

“I’m AppleJack’s stallion friend.” After that Big Mac’s face became serious as he walked over to Orion. “You hurt AppleJack even the slightest… I’ll break all of your legs.” Then he went back to his normal blank look and walked off. Orion stood there stunned. “The clop did he just say?” AppleJack and Apple Bloom walked out of the house. “What did he say?” Apple Bloom asked somewhat excited. “He… he.”

“What did he say?” Orion walked over to AppleJack and whispered what Big Macintosh had told him. AppleJack chuckled as she heard what he said then she saw Orion’s face and her mood became less happy. “Yur serious?” Orion nod his head. “Oh dear.”

“What is it? What did Big Macintosh say?”

“Sorry Apple Bloom, this isn’t for fillies ears.” Apple Bloom looked up at them both not amused. “Fine keep yer secrets.”, she said as she walked off. “Should we tell him?”

“Maybe not, We could use this to our advantage”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, since Big Mac doesn’t know its me, we could take his advice and say I’m your new… ‘Stallion friend.’” AppleJack began to blush. “I- uh- I guess so. Maybe we should walk into town, tell the others about you.”

“Not now, I think well… we should spend some time together before you introduce me to the others.”

“Alrighty then.”

After a week AppleJack and Orion got very fond of each other getting closer by each day. In the morning Orion and the Apples were sitting at a table eating, Orion quickly finished his food and his conversation with Apple Bloom on how he got his cutie mark. Turning to AppleJack he said. “I think its time.”

“Sure, I think Rarity would preciate us seeing her, showing off yur new duds.”

“Lead the way my dear.”, Orion moved some of AppleJack’s mane that hung in front of her face.

“Thanks, Sugar Cube.”, AppleJack smiled at Orion and he back at her. “Awwwe.”, Apple Bloom said as she watched them, the two of them looked over at her then back to each other and started to blush with embarrassment. AppleJack lead Orion towards Carousel Boutique and opened the door. “Hey Rarity.”

“Oh AppleJack, what a pleasant surprise.”, Rarity paused to see the dark red stallion dawning her fashions. “And who is this classy gentle colt?”

“This here is my Stallion Friend, Red Ace.” Orion tilted his hat at Rarity. “Ma’am.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Red Ace.”

“I assure you that the pleasure is mine.”

“Well now, AppleJack, you got yourself a charmer.” Orion smiled glad that she approved of him. “I just wanted to bring him over, show you the stallion who the new duds was for.”

“Charming and fashionable, Don’t let this one get away, AppleJack.”

“I assure you I wont, I was just introducing him to the gals, so we will see you later okay.”

“Very well. Again, pleasure to meet you, Red Ace.”

“Once again, pleasure is mine and call me Ace.” AppleJack and Orion left the shop and headed to Twilight’s Library. Orion opened the door to the library and walked inside. The floor was covered in books of many shapes and colors, A purple unicorn picking them up and shelving them. “Oh, hello, may I help you?”

“Hey, Twilight.”

“Oh, hey AppleJack. Who is your new friend?”

“Oh this is my new stallion friend, Red Ace.”

“Nice to meet you, Red Ace.”

“Same here.”

“So AppleJack is he the reason you’ve been missing for a few days trying out your new stallion?” Twilight said as she raised an eyebrow. “Very funny Twi.”

“Have you seen anypony else yet?”

“Yeah we stopped by Rarity’s first.”

“What did she think of him?”

“I think her exact words were ‘Charming and fashionable’.” Twilight giggled to herself. “Sounds like she likes him. Better watch out there, AppleJack.”

“Whatever you say Twi. We’re going.”

“Have fun you two.”, Twilight said in a suggestive way, The two ponies left the library. “Hey, AppleJack, I want to say something.”

“What is it?”

“Well, when I’m done with my orders here… I was thinking that-.” As Orion was about to say the last words Rainbow Dash had crashed into something right in front of them, Fluttershy not far behind landed beside her. “Nice landing there, Rainbow.”

“Oh… Hey AppleJack. Whose the guy?”

“His names Red Ace, he’s my… My new stallion friend.” Rainbow Dash was a little stunned as she heard the news, Fluttershy seemed happy. “So you are AppleJack’s new Stallion, huh.”

“That’s me.”

“Its really nice to-” Fluttershy said in her natural quiet tone. Orion smiled at Fluttershy. “If you’re with AppleJack you need to be tough. ARE YOU TOUGH!?”, Rainbow screamed as Orion looked over at AppleJack looking like he was saying ‘Is she serious?’.” AppleJack nodded. In the loudest most growly voice he could muster. “YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!” Rainbow stood still as Orion’s voice filled her ears. “Now that’s what I like to hear!”, Rainbow shouted while Fluttershy was hiding under a nearby table, covering her eyes. Orion walked over. “I’m sorry, was I too loud?” Fluttershy looked up at him. “Just a little bit.” She stood up and walked back over to Rainbow and AppleJack. “So, where are you two off to?”

“We were planning on heading over to Pinkie’s. Might as well get the party out of the way.”

“Wait what? What party?”

“Pinkie likes to throw parties for new ponies.”

“Well that’s nice of her.”

“If you two are going we might as well tag along. Means less people to gather.”

“Alrighty then lets go.” The four ponies walked over to Sugar Cube Corner where Pinkie Pie leaned over the counter looking somewhat bored. As The four of them entered her mood perked up quickly. “Hey girls!”

“Howdy there Pinkie. I have someone for you to meet.” Red Ace walked up beside AppleJack. “This is Red Ace hes-”

“Your Stallion Friend.”

“Yeah… How’d you know?”

“Pinkie sense, whenever my hooves feel tingly, means somepony met somepony special.”

“Well we brought him over since we know how much you love throwing new ponies parties.”

“I’d LOVE to throw him a party! Stay here as I get the things.”, Pinkie bounced off. “She’s nice.”

“She can be.”

As more and more ponies get there, Orion started to survey the crowds to see if they’ve seen a suspicious pony lately. Most of them said no and the others were no help. The party was ,at first, slow, not much ponies were there and then, all of a sudden, as Orion walked down stairs the party had doubled in size and War Heart, the giant black Pegasus carried in a barrel. “Hey there.”

“Oh, Hey Orion, new coat color?”

“H- wha- How did you know?” War Heart shrugged. “Just did.”

“Don’t tell anyone, I need to stay hidden.”

“Why?”

“I’m on a mission from Princess Luna. So just. Shush okay?”

“Whatever you say, guy.”, War Heart said.

Orion noticed the barrel that was strapped to War Heart’s back. “What’s in the barrel?”

“Oh this? Just a drink from my place.”

“Yeah, but what is it?” War Heart set the heavy barrel down and grabbed a cup from the counter pouring some inside. “Here, try some.” Orion was ,at first, hesitant, but then came to enjoy the taste of the drink. Before he knew it, the entire party was filled with drunk ponies. War Heart watched and laughed at them as they did some stupid things. Orion sat on a couch, somewhat intoxicated, feeling a slump next to him. Next to him sat Fluttershy. “Hey there, handsome.” She said in an unnatural seductive tone. “Oh hey… Fluttershy?”

“Yes?” She leaned in getting closer. “Are you hitting on me?”

“What if I am? What are you going to do about it?” She said into his ear as she strokes the other side of his head. “You know I’m with AppleJack right?”

“Oh who cares about silly old AppleJack. You have me here.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.”, Fluttershy leaned in and whispered into his ear. “You’re going to love me.”, with a menacing sound of promised violence in her voice. “Okay.”, She became happy once again and rested her head on him as her arms were around his neck. Orion looked over to War Heart, he mouthed the words ‘Help me’ to him. War Heart just chuckled to himself and shook his head and walked away. AppleJack walked in and saw Orion being snuggled by Fluttershy. Orion noticed AppleJack and looked down at Fluttershy then back up to AppleJack, his expression changed to a shocked look as he furiously shook his head. AppleJack walked over to Orion. “So, what do we have here?”

“I can explain!”

“Sure ya’ can.”

“She threatened me!” AppleJack looked at him, as if she was saying ‘are you serious?’, “Well, She’s not threatening you now.”

“She has a very good grip.”

“Grip on what?”

“You aren’t making this easier for me!”

“Don’t worry, I don’t mind.”

“You don’t?”

“As long as I get to join in.” AppleJack leaned into Orion and starts to- Orion suddenly wakes up with AppleJack leaning against him. Orion thought to himself, ‘Did I just have a dirty dream of Fluttershy and AppleJack? Not sure if gusta, but pretty gusta.’ Orion looked over to his right and sees Fluttershy nuzzling against his leg. ‘Oh clop! Was it a dream? I don’t remember!’ War Heart walked over to Orion, “Have a nice nap? You needed it after the night you had.”

Orion’s eyes widened as he thought, “oh clop, what happened?”

“Who knew you were so good at Karaoke.”

“What?”

“Yeah, You, AppleJack and Fluttershy had a trio.”

“Oh… so that’s what happened.”

“Yeah, I didn’t see all of it, I kinda left after you three started making out. Later, Orion.”, War Heart walked out of the room. “I’m getting all my legs broken…”, Orion fell back asleep, waking up later to see AppleJack gone. “I wonder where she went off to?” Attached to the wall was a note, reading, ‘We have taken her, if you want to see her alive, come to the abandoned house, near the edge of town. Come alone, or else.’, Quickly getting up in shock, Orion charged out the door and onto the street. He had cast a spell changing him back to his natural icy white and dark blue. Running towards the abandoned house. The door hung open, the house was dark and lifeless. Orion walked in cautiously. “AppleJack, you in here?”, Before realizing it, a pony ended up behind Orion, knocking him unconscious.

Orion awoke to a room made of cement, stone pillars holding up the foundation. The room was lit by candles with a symbol painted on the wall of a black star with a red droplet in the middle. On the other side of the room laid an unconscious AppleJack. “APPLEJACK!” A hooded pony walked in. “Well well well, I see you’re awake.”

“Who are you?”

“Call me… Rose Shadow.”

“What do you want?”

“What do I want? I want the world plunged into darkness.”

“I cant let you get away with that.”

“Id like to see you try and stop me.”, A few more cloaked ponies walked inside. “I want you to take care of him.” Then She walked out of the room as the two new ponies began to kick and stomp at Orion. A few more cultists came in and started to bring their hooves down on AppleJack, she cried out in pain and slowly began to go limp. Orion couldn’t feel her presence anymore. Orion’s vision began to blur and then darken. Then… suddenly the pain stopped. Orion stood over the ponies, he could feel all of the magical essence of the town. Orion’s eyes glowed a bright white. Walking over to AppleJack he stood above her concentrating on his magic, His hooves began to glow a bright blue. Orion stomped them onto the ground sending a shock wave through the stone floor causing the pillars to shatter and collapse in on itself. Orion knelt and nuzzled AppleJack and they both vanished in a flash of a bright blue light.

Orion and AppleJack appeared back at Sweet Apple Acres, levitating AppleJack, he brought her to her bed and laid her down. A tear dripped down as Orion walked through town in a rushed pace walking towards his workshop. “I wont give up, I wont let them get away with what they have done.” The doors flew open as Orion walked towards them, he stopped inside his workshop. “What happened back there?” , A brief flash of memory. Another barrier was activated through the trauma of seeing AppleJack being harmed, The cultists were tossed across the room like play things. Orion stood up and looked over at the other cultists, eyes glowing and sparks shooting off his body. One brought out a knife and the other charged at Orion, The charging pony hit Orion and knocked him to the ground but was also tossed away by the barrier. The next cultist took the knife and slashed Orion across the eye, cutting deep. Orion turned away from the cultist in pain. The cultist lifted up their knife for another strike but, as they brought it down, a bolt of lightning shot out and sent them into the corner, their chest fried from the burst of electricity.

Orion lifted his hoof up to his left eye, looking down at his hoof he saw blood drip down from it. “Well that explains the pain.”, Rummaging through a drawer, Orion found some bandages and covered up his left eye. Grabbing a few scrolls and placing them in his bag he teleported back to the house. The building was now collapsed, rubble of wood and stone was now in its place. Concentrating, Orion began to lift the pieces of the house until he saw the stairs to the basement. Most of the cultists were crushed by the cement and one was fried by the lightning to their chest. One of the cultists began to crawl away, one of their back legs broken. Orion walked up to him and lifted him up, “What are you planning!?”

“Eat shit.”, Orion started getting furious and threw the pony on the floor. “I’m only going to give you one more chance! What are you planning!?”

“Why do you care!? Just because your mare was hurt, you want revenge!? Maybe you’re on the wrong side, mate.” Orion grabbed the knife that the cultist had cut his eye with, “Now tell me, where all of you are meeting. If not, I won’t be the only blind pony here!”

“Okay, okay.”

“That’s more like it.”

“We were all-”

“We were all?”

“We…” The cultist began gag from the foam in its mouth. “WHERE!” In choked back words and gurgles the cultist said “E-ever… free.”, saying that the cultist’s head lowered as he died. Orion stood up and teleported outside.

Orion stood at the edge of the Ever Free Forest. “I’ve heard a lot about this place, but I must push on. They will pay for hurting her!” Orion charged inside the forest searching high and low for any sign of the cultists. As Orion knelt down to rest he could feel the area growing colder. Not thinking about it Orion continued to rest. Out from the bushes walked a creature, legs like a wolf except hairless and white, the body was hunched over with its spine protruding out its back forming spikes of ice. The arms were long with fur around its forearms, fingers long like branches and claws like icicles. Its head was shorter than a normal dogs face and its ears were long and pointed. Teeth sharp and clear as well as 2 tusks dangling down from its top jaw like icicles. Orion looked up at it and jumped back, its glowing blue eyes watching him. “Wh- what are you?”, The creature didn’t speak, it slowly began to walk over to Orion. Orion slowly began to back away but, the creature’s reach was long and its hands big. It grabbed Orion by the horn and pulled him closer to it. It stared at Orion in the eyes, Orion couldn’t help but stare back at the ice creature. “What are you doing here?”, The creature looked over to a small gap in the trees, on the other side was hooded ponies walking by. “The cultists.”, The creature nodded. “I came here to stop them, they… they hurt somepony special to me.” The creature looked back at Orion and let go of his horn. In a voice that sounded like several whispers the creature spoke. “I will assist you.”

“You can talk.”

“Indeed I can.”

“What are you?”

“I am a Ghellu, a frost creature.”

“Never met one of your kind before.”

“My kind is only few, most of us were hunted by the Griffons.”

“Whats your name?”

“In my language I am known as The Frozen Ranger, but you may call me Fir”

“Well Fir, how do you plan on helping me? Fir looked over at the cultists and back at Orion. “With this.” Fir stretched out his arm and his index finger’s claw began to glow blue, cutting through the bandages Fir touched Orion’s eye. The bandages fell, Orion’s eye was healed. “What did you do?”

“I have given you a gift.”

“I feel different, I feel… controlled, calm.”

“I had felt that you were greatly superior in magic then almost any being I have felt before…but.”

“But?”

“But there was something wrong with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because of your magical ability your life was shortened.”

“What? How?”

“Your magic was eating away at your life span slowly killing you.”

“What did you do to me?”

“I have replaced that slow killing with something else.”

“Something else?”

“One point of every year you will loose all ability in magic, as well as become extremely weak.”

“I guess that’s better then dying.”

“Now, lets go stop them.” Orion’s eyes began to glow. His voice echoed. “Way ahead a ya’.”, The two walked over to a cave entrance where 2 cultists stood guard. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? ARNT YOU SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!”, Out of Orion’s horn a bolt of lightning shot out leaving a burning mark on the cultist’s side. Fir stared at the other cultist shaking with fear, inhaling, fir leaned back and shot out a blast of frost from his mouth, freezing the pony in place. “Looks like he… got the cold shoulder.”, Orion jested. Fir looked over at Orion, “What?”, Orion questioned.

“Are you serious?”

“Shut up.”, Orion said as Fir chuckled to himself while the two ran into the cave. They stopped as they came to a room, where several of the cultists were standing around another repeating some words. “Drun faal dilon In. Drun faal dilon In. Drun faal dilon In.” the words began to quiet down as the middle pony began to speak. “We gather here today to bring forth our fallen Master, so that he can bring this world into darkness. Begin the ritual!”

“How are we going to stop them?”, Orion asked the Ghellu.

“We must destroy the ritual.”, Fir suggested.

“Thanks Captain obvious.”, Orion retorted

“What do you suggest?”, Orion sat in thought for a few seconds, “Well I have one idea.”

“What’s that?”

“ATTACK!!!”, Orion leaped over the rocks of the cave and down at the cultists, Fir followed after him. The cultist in the middle looked over at Orion and Fir. “Stop them!”, Orion took stance and cast a fireball at the cultists, Fir charged the others and cut their sides with his long icicle-like claws. “Is that all you got?”, A few more cultists ran at Orion and Fir, quickly Fir shifted over and blasted the cultists with his frost breath. Orion and Fir turned to face the ritual, the middle pony laughing. “Hahahahaha You bloody foals, The time has begun, the master has risen!”, As she continued to laugh a burst of dark purple fire shot out from under her. After a brief second of inferno, the same mare stood there, surrounded by the other cultists. After the fire cleared, the cultists began to bow to the mare in the middle of them. “Oh, it is great to be back.”, the mare inhaling deeply after her sentence.

“What the…?”, The mare took off her hood, long dark purple hair flowed down her face and around her horn. “Well this is new. Never was a mare before.”

“You must be Blackheart.” The mare looked over at Orion, her deep purple eyes filled with anger. “Why yes, I am. New and improved. Who are you?”

“Orion, the 4th descendant of Star Swirl the Bearded!”

“Another Swirl eh?

“You fought against my ancestor Star Swirl.”

“That’s right, my old friend Swirl.” The mare began to walk closer to Orion. “Then he betrayed me!”, She said in a angered voice.

“Betrayed you? YOU BETRAYED HIM!”, Orion shouted.

“They would want you to think that, Star Swirl was such a good pony. Hahahaha, what a joke.”

“I can’t have you insult my heritage that way!”

“Boo hoo hoo. What are you going to do, Stop me?”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Fir lunged out at Blackheart only to be stopped with the telekinesis. “Is that the best you can do?”, the mare said as Orion started channelling his magic. “Fir! Get out of here!”, Fir looked up at Orion and quickly dashed off leaving Orion and Blackheart. “Whats this? Does the little pony want to be the hero?”

“You hurt her… And for that… YOU WILL PAY!”

“What are you doing!?”

“OPENING RESTRICTION SKY BARRIER!”, As Orion finished his command the entire cave blasted full of a bright blue force, everything inside being pushed and crushed against the stone walls. Orion’s eyes opened, everything around him was rubble, the walls were scorched from his blast. In a pile of rubble a leg from a black pony laid limp. “That… teaches… ya‘.”

“Teaches me what?”, Blackheart began to stand up out of the rubble. “Teaches me how much of a screw up you are? That wasn’t a spell, that was child’s play.”

“How… How did you survive that!?”, Orion was angered as well as saddened from the sight. “Oh, it was easy really, I just needed to make a small barrier around myself at the right time.”

“All of that… She’s dead… Because of you.”, Orion slumped to the floor, eyes wide.

“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself. If it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t have died that slowly. She would have died faster! Hahahahahahaaaa!”

Orion sat on the floor speechless.

“Oh what’s this, the silent treatment? Well doesn’t matter really, I was going to just kill you and go about my business. But… I guess I can leave you to wallow in pain for a while. Taa taa for now.”, Blackheart vanished in a cloud of smoke and Orion sat alone in the shattered remains of the cave. “I cant believe it… She died for nothing. I- I’m not even strong enough to stop Blackheart. The world is doomed.”, A hand was placed down on Orion’s shoulder. “Its not over yet.”, Orion looked up to see Fir.

“What do you mean?”

“I want to show you something Orion.”, Fir said as Orion looked up uninterested, “What is it?”, Fir placed his hand on Orion’s heart. “Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“The beat of your heart. The heart that beats for that one you care so much for, even if it has been only a day or even a week. I can tell you truly love her.”

“What does it matter… she’s dead.”

“Is she?”, Orion felt a spark in his magic. He could feel all of the life rush back into AppleJack. “How… I was positive she died.” Fir chuckled. “I have been around for a long time, trust me when I say. Love, it can work in mysterious ways.”, Orion stood up with a smile. “Fir…”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.” Orion said just before teleporting out of there.

“Anytime young one.”

Blackheart stood in the middle of a field, the skies were covered in thick black storm clouds, the plant life around her began to die as she stepped, as did the birds in the sky. “It sure is good to be free again.”

“So you are the pony that’s doing all of this.” A growled voice said from behind Blackheart. “And who may you be?”, Blackheart turned to see a big black Pegasus with a spiked out green and red mane. “War Heart, Protector of PonyVille.”

“So I’m in Ponyville, eh? That explains this earthy feeling.”

“If you don’t stop now, I will have to stop you, forcefully.”

“Then come on Pegasus, give me your best shot.”, Blackheart said with a hint of a challenge in her voice. War Hearts wings spread open as he bolted off the ground at Blackheart. A wave of sound took over as War Heart flew closer, dodging War Heart, Blackheart teleported out of his way but was stumbled by the gusts of air. “Not bad, for a Pegasus.”

“Not bad, for a unicorn.”

“But now… Its my turn.” Blackheart’s eye became black as coal and her horn glowed with a black aura as well. “Sopor Aeternam!”, War Heart started to become weak. “Wh- whats going on?”, He said as he fell on the ground. “Not much really, just a little sleep spell. Make sure you wont be able to move.”

“When I get free I’m going to-” Blackheart closed his mouth with telekinesis. “That’s enough from you.”

“Then how about somepony else.”

“Well well well, the Swirl is back. Come to apologize?” Blackheart chuckled to herself. “Not exactly, I came to join you.”

“Really? What made you choose the dark side?”

“The pony I loved has died, the good side has nothing for me now.”

“Now that is a good stallion. You made the right choice.”

“I thought so.”

“Come here. I have a task for you to do.” Orion walked over to Blackheart. “You see this Pegasus, I want you to kill him. Right here and now.”

“Is that it? I thought you were going to give me a challenge.”

“Think of this as initiation.” Orion walked over to War Heart. “Sorry about this. Evanescere.”, War Heart was gone in a bright blue light. “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

“For now… no. That will be all.”

“Good. Congelasco!” Blackheart froze in place. “Well, looks like some pony has done their homework.”

“I may not be as strong as my ancestors. But I will stop you.”

“What ever happened to, the good side has nothing for you?” Orion smirked. “It was merely a lie.”

“Bravo. Now I guess you are going to kill me where I stand.”

“Not sure about that.”

“Good. Since… You suck at freezing ponies.”, Blackheart’s horn glowed and she was freed. “I thought you were going to break free. Which is why I had a failsafe.”

“And what’s that then?”

“Me.” Blackheart teleported behind Orion and kicked him. “You? Please, a pony in magic kindergarten can stop you.” Orion struggled to get up, Blackheart teleporting over and kicking him down again. “Like a useless toy. Tell me, useless toy, do you have anything to say before you die?”

“Yes I do.”

“Oh this better be good. What is it?”

“Opening restriction Star Barrier.” Orion began to glow as he was lifted up into the air. Over Orion’s hooves were an aura of light blue. “Didn’t you already show me this trick before? Its getting kinda old.”, Orion teleported in front of Blackheart, hitting her cross the face sending her flying by, teleporting again Orion looked at her limp on the ground. Blackheart kicked up and she flew a few feet away. “Looks like you learned a new trick.” Orion stayed quiet, constantly teleporting over to Blackheart hitting her down. “Well why don’t we put our differences behind us, imagine. I can resurrect your Marefriend!”

“Sorry… but no.” Orion brought his hooves down on Blackheart’s chest sending the full force of the Star Barrier inside of her, her chest crushing down and making her heart explode instantaneously killing her. War Heart was freed from the magic and the sky began to clear. “Looks like I did it.”

“You did well for a Unicorn.”

“Thanks War Heart. Sorry I cant stay for the victory, there is… somepony I need to see.”

“Its okay.” Orion teleported and found himself in the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. Quickly rushing upstairs he found AppleJack asleep on her bed. Quietly he walked up to her and gently nuzzled against her, AppleJack woke up. “H- hey Orion.”

“AppleJack.”

“What is it?”

“I… I need to go.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I had to do is done, I have to go back to Canterlot.”

“I… I understand.”

“Don’t worry, I will be back.”, AppleJack watched as Orion stepped back a bit. “Oh and AppleJack.”

“Yes?”, Orion started to tear up as his horn began to glow. “I love you.”, With that he vanished in a flash of light.

For the past week AppleJack hadn’t seen or heard about anything from Orion, Until. “Excuse me. Miss AppleJack.” AppleJack turned. “Ye-…” Before her was a dark icy blue pony, his mane a little messy since last she saw, his eye fully healed showing a noticeable scar going down his right eye. “I- is it you?”

“Sorry I’ve been gone for so long.” AppleJack walked up to him, her head down. “It- its okay. I just missed you that’s all.”

“Oh AppleJack.”, Orion knelt his head down and brushed hers with it, “You don’t need to worry about that anymore. I have built a home for myself in the field I fought Blackheart. I will be able to visit whenever I want.”

AppleJack began to tear up, “Thank you.” For the next week, the two seemed inseparable, As the two of them sat on the porch Orion’s horn began to glow a bright yellow. “Well that’s interesting.”

“What is it Sugarcube?”

“Well it only does that when Tia wants me.”

“Go… I will be here when you get back.”

“What if she wants me to go on some kind of long quest?”

“Then when you get back, we can work on your bucking.”

“See, that’s why I love you so much.”

“Good luck.”

The Cure-all Pony

The sun slowly crawled out from its hiding place behind the horizon. Its rays shone through the window of a young unicorn in the city of Canterlot. The young unicorn opened her bright teal eyes to the sight of a new day in the city of Canterlot, the capitol of Equestria. This certain pony’s name is Cura, she had a white coat and bubblegum pink mane that had darker streaks of pink. She wore red-rimmed librarian glasses and had a relatively upbeat view on things.

Cura walked down the frigid hard-wood stairs, still cold from the night before. She made her way into the quaint little kitchen of her home. “What shall I have for breakfast, I wonder?”, she asked herself in a soft and soothing voice. She walked to the refrigerator and opened the stainless steel door to reveal a rather bare interior. “It seems I may be going shopping first…”, Cura commented as she opened the crispers of the fridge. She closed the door gently and walked with a certain enthusiasm usually found in ponies having a particularly good day. Cura went over to her coat rack and grabbed her dark purple scarf and wrapped it around her neck. Her horn glowed with a baby blue light as she approached the front door, opening it with her magic, and closing it on the way out. She trotted down the street towards the bakery. She walked inside and greeted the pony who owned it. “Why hello Cura, how are you this morning?”, the tall earth pony had a dark brown coat and a white moustache and mane that was cut short.

“I’m feeling great, stopping in for a muffin before I head out on my next assignment. I forgot to go shopping the other day.”, Cura walked up to the counter and grabbed a muffin, floating a few bits from the purse hidden in her scarf onto the counter.

“Where are you going this time?”, The Stallion asked her with interest, knowing that if Cura ever heads out anywhere, it usually means that something interesting had happened.

“Ponyville, but they never told me what happened”, Cura answered, almost suspicious of the assignment’s lack of details.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do plenty of good out there. Good luck, Cura!”, the adult pony called to her as Cura left.

“Thanks, have a nice day!”, Cura called back on her way out the door. Cura walked back towards home, taking bites of the fresh blueberry muffin she just purchased on the way back towards home. A chariot being pulled by two large white Pegasi with golden armor, signifying they were sent by Celestia pulled up beside Cura. “Miss Cura?”, one of the Pegasi looked down at Cura, wondering if he was addressing the correct pony.

“Yes?”, Cura responded, expecting that this was how she was getting to Ponyville.

“We’re here to bring you to Ponyville.”

“I expected as much.”, Cura said as she hopped into the chariot.

“You’re younger than we imagined.”

“Excuse me?”, Cura asked, trying to look over the rim of the chariot at the Pegasi.

“We expected somepony of your reputation as a doctor to be… older.”

“Well, I don’t like to brag, but I take my practice to heart. I’m sure that there are other ponies that are as good but are too busy. Now, could we please depart? I would like to get there soon to help everypony.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”, the Pegasus said as the two Pegasi took flight with the chariot behind them.

It was a few hours before black smoke could be seen coming from the once happy town of Ponyville. Cura looked down on the town to behold the destruction left by some sort of devastating event. Houses were demolished, stores burned, and ponies riddled the streets, both dead, alive, and somewhere floating in between. A worried look found it’s way to Cura’s face. “It looks like I have a lot of ponies to help…”, she cringed slightly at the horrific sight. After a minute or so, the Pegasi landed in the street, keeping their panic in check as they were trained to do. Cura hopped off the chariot and thanked the Pegasi for bringing her there. The Pegasi took off and went back to Canterlot. Cura walked along the blackened streets and surveyed the area, looking for anypony who was injured and asking those who weren’t for help by bringing them to town square.

Cura walked about the town. She found an tan earth pony with a light brown mane who was in a bad place. The pony was stuck underneath a large wooden beam that had their leg pinned down. Cura rushed over to the Earth pony. “Are you okay, can you move?”, Cura asked with urgency in her voice.

“No, I can’t, it’s too heavy for me to move.”, the tan earth pony pushed against the beam, struggling to try and free himself, but to no success. Cura braced herself against the beam to help push it away, but being so small, she was not strong enough. She quickly scanned the area for anypony that could help her. She saw an unconscious earth pony on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. She quickly ran to them and nudged them with her hoof. “Hello? Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?”, she asked while quickly looking them over for anything out of place.

The pony quickly came to, placing her western style hat back on her head. “I am now.”

“Good, I need your help freeing that pony that’s trapped over there!”, Cura pointed to the tan pony trapped by the beam of wood.

“I’ll do what I can.”, She followed Cura to the trapped pony and slowly tilted the beam enough to take the pressure off the other pony’s leg for Cura to pull them out. Cura then got to work, her horn glowing baby blue, giving an X-ray of the pony as Cura looked up and down the leg that was pinned. Cura could see that the bone was broken in several places. “Don’t move while I get something to deal with your leg.”, she tried to use a softer tone of voice, so she wouldn’t induce panic in the already traumatized pony. Cura looked around, scrounging a few pieces of wood from what used to be a house and some cloth from the ruin of a kitchen. Cura created a makeshift splint and placed it on the earth pony’s broken leg. Cura then lowered her head to the pony’s leg and used her magic to push the bones back into place and tighten the splint and bandages. The earth pony screamed in pain as the bones shifted inside his leg. Cura then went back into a nearby building and came out with a wooden block about half a foot tall and put it under the now splinted leg. “I’ll come back to check on you later.”, Cura said as she left to find somepony else to help. She had walked about a block before finding somepony in front of the Carousel Boutique. They were a white unicorn with a very pristine dark purple mane. Cura cringed as she looked at the mare’s front right leg, which was broken to make it face the opposite way it was supposed to. “I don’t think I should wake her up for this…”, Cura said as she walked into the store to grab some material to use for bandages. As Cura returned, she found the unicorn coming back into consciousness. She went to the lady unicorn’s side, “Don’t panic, it looks like you’ve gotten injured in the incident. Can you tell me your name?”, Cura looked the unicorn in the eye.

“Rarity, my name is Rarity.”, she said weakly, barely conscious.

Cura looked over a few feet and floated a small stick towards her, “Here, bite on this.”, Cura instructed Rarity in her usual soothing soft voice.

“W-… Why?”, Rarity asked, still pretty out of it.

“Just trust me.”, Cura said as she put the stick in Rarity’s mouth, “This may hurt a little.”, Cura explained as she held Rarity’s foreleg with her front hooves.

“Wha wiww?”, Rarity said wearily, her speech muffled by the stick in her mouth.

“This…”, Cura said as she quickly bent Rarity’s foreleg with a gut wrenching crack, followed by a muffled scream of agony coming from Rarity, which then turned to a series of sobs and waterfall of tears. Cura bandaged up Rarity using her magic and shifted the bones back into place. Rarity was still in unbearable pain, so Cura used her magic once more. Her horn glowed it’s usual baby blue colour and she tapped Rarity on the forehead with her horn. Rarity froze up as Cura’s horn made contact with her. Cura then gently laid Rarity into a resting position. She softly whispered an apology as she made her way down the street to help more ponies. Cura was wondering what could have caused all this. “Could it have been a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake?”, she suggested to herself, trying to make some sense of the situation. “No, none of those could have started the fires I saw from overhead…”, Cura was starting to really worry about what was going on, and also understanding why she wasn’t told any details about what happened. The fact that it could spread panic at the news means this was a serious incident that meant it could prove a future threat, but what could it be? She turned a corner and found another earth pony. He had a red coat and orange mane and was absurdly larger than the average pony. “Wow, he’s pretty big.”, Cura said as she walked around him and looked him over, noticing a semicircle of punctures in his flesh, still bleeding a bit. “What could have done this to you?”, she looked into the wound with her X-ray vision, seeing something in one of the punctures. Cura concentrated on the object within the opening of the stallion’s flesh, lifting it out with her magic. To her surprise it wasn’t a bit of wood, or a nail, or a rib, but a tooth of gargantuan size. “That’s odd…”, Cura said as she studied the tooth. She put the tooth on the ground next to her and quickly closed up the large pony’s wounds with her magic. She nudged the large stallion with her hoof. To her dismay, he did not awaken. She concentrated for a moment, her horn began to glow yellow, electricity arcing off of it. She touched his chest with her horn, surging electricity through his body, his eyes shot open as he jolted back to life. “Are you okay, Big Guy?”, Cura asked, making sure she didn’t end up hurting him in her attempt to shock him back to consciousness. “I guess so.”, The large red stallion said shaking his head, trying to clear the haze in his mind. “Good, now stay put, I’ll come back to check on you.”, Cura smiled and ran off once again. It was only a few moments before she found another pony in need of attention. This time it was a sky blue Pegasus mare with rainbow mane and tail. Cura went over to her. Cura looked over the Pegasus and saw that on of her legs was severely burnt and she had a few ribs broken out of place. “It seems you had some massive blunt trauma to the side, and a burn? Odd, I don’t see any burning houses around this area…”, Cura took note of the surrounding area. She turned her attention to the ribs of the blue mare. She used her magic to look at the extent of the damage. All the ribs were broken on the left side of her body, forcing pressure on the lung. “Wow, what could have done that?”, Cura wondered as she magically forced the bones back into place and bandaged the burnt leg. She shocked the Pegasus to life like she did with the Stallion from before. The sky blue mare gasped for air as she returned to the land of the living, coughing up blood shortly after. “Calm down, your left ribs are broken, and you’ll put them out of place if you keep moving too much.”, Cura touched the mare with her horn and put her to sleep like she did with Rarity. Cura looked down the street, hoping she won’t have to lose anypony today. “I’ve done good so far, I hope I can keep it up.”, Cura said as she ran down the street to find more injured ponies.

Cura got to the centre of town where she beheld the sight of the creature that caused all the mayhem. A giant creature with black scales, enormous teeth and claws. A creature that Cura did not expect at first. “A dragon? By his size, he must be pretty old, and powerful.”, Cura observed it to find that several pieces of the beast were cut from its body. Its front feet, its right wing, the tip of its tail, and, most amazingly, its head. Cura’s mouth slowly opened as she tried to imagine what could have possibly done this to such a powerful creature. “Help, somepony help him!”, a voice cried out from behind the dragon’s corpse. Cura rushed around the body to see a frantic purple unicorn by the side of a large black Pegasus with red and green spiked mane. “Wow, he’s even bigger than that other stallion!”, Cura said as she rushed over to him. Once Cura arrived, she noticed an axe beside the stallion. “No way… Did he take down the dragon? Alone?”, Cura thought to herself. “Are you lost, little one? Do you need help finding your parents?”, the purple unicorn asked in concern for Cura. Cura looked at the unicorn, “If anypony needs help, it’s him. Help me lay him on his back.”, Cura instructed the unicorn as she tried moving the stallion. Cura looked over the stallion and saw a lot of problems. A burnt wing, several broken ribs, a crack in his skull and a lot of broken glass in cuts. “Are you sure you should be doing this? You just a filly after all, how do you know what to do?”, The unicorn questioned Cura. The young unicorn looked towards the older one, “I’ve been sent here by the princess to help out. I’m a doctor. Cura.”, Cura explained to the purple unicorn. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and this is War Heart.”, Twilight introduced them, concerned for her friend’s health she had a panic in her tone. Cura began pulling glass out of War Heart’s wounds, “Wow, he really took a beating…”, she commented as she pulled out the glass shards one by one. When the last of the glass was out, she looked at the pile of shards, “What, did he try to catch every piece with his body?”, Cura shook her head. She then fired up her magic and x-rayed War Heart. “Let’s see what we find.”, she said to herself as she scanned the massive Pegasus. “He’s lucky he’s so big and tough, not many could withstand this kind of punishment without dying…”, she shivered for a second, “Or maybe unlucky enough to live through all that pain.”, Cura began to push his ribs back into place with her magic, making all sorts of crunching sounds as the bones shifted through flesh into their original places. Cura looked at War Heart’s head for more injuries and noticed a nasty looking bump on the back of his head. “I can imagine he’d wake up with quite a headache if I woke him up now.”, Cura looked at his wing, “That is going to take about a month to heal if given daily bits of healing magic.”, she diagnosed him and kept looking him over. She turned on her X-ray again, concentrating on his heart and lungs, noticing one lung was almost collapsed. “Well, that isn’t any good, better re-inflate that lung.”, Cura called Twilight over. “Is he going to be okay?”, Twilight asked, worried he might not make it. “He won’t be if I don’t get this lung inflated.”, Cura explained.

“Then how do you fix him?”, Twilight’s worry worsened nearly into a panic at the thought of losing a friend.

“I need you to blow air into his lung using mouth to mouth while I heal it to make sure it stays inflated.”, Cura instructed her with a voice of urgency.

Twilight hesitated for a moment before having Cura shout at her, “Do it, or else he dies!”, Twilight closed her eyes and put her lips against War Heart’s and exhaled into his mouth, his chest filling with her breath. Cura was casting the healing magic still, “Good, nice job.”, Cura put her ear to War Heart’s chest, smiling. “he’s going to live, but will have to be hospitalized for a while.”, Cura cast one last spell that would put War Heart to sleep for the next thirty days. She backed away from War Heart, “Now, can you explain what happened?”, her question directed at Twilight. Twilight shook her head for a second, trying to clear her thoughts and taking a deep breath. She began to tell all she saw when the creature attacked.

A few minutes of explanation passed as Twilight concluded her telling of what she saw. Cura looked at War Heart, “Wow… that is quite admirable. You don’t find may heroes these days… But… I suppose it’s crises like these that a hero must rise from the crowd.”, Cura smiled.

“How old are you?”, Twilight asked, kind of taken aback at the young unicorn’s wisdom and knowledge.

“Young enough to know I have a long ways to go, and old enough to know I have come far.”, Cura said to Twilight as she walked away.

“That didn’t answer my question at all…”, Twilight stated in an irritated tone. Cura ignored the unicorn and left to take care of the rest of the town.

Cura returned to Canterlot by hoof. Taking quite about a week to get back. She walked into the palace, many of the guards recognizing her and letting her pass through with no trouble. She made her way to the throne room where Celestia was seated on her magnificent chair. “I’ve dealt with the situation at Ponyville.”, Cura reported to the princess.

“What happened?”, Celestia asked, concerned about what the source of the smoke in the distance was.

“It was a dragon, very large, black scales, breathed fire, and I was told that his name was Agarrmagonn?”

Celestia’s eyes widened, “Are you sure that it was Agarrmagonn?”

“Yes, Princess.”

“Then this is bad news indeed.

“Why, what is happening now?”

“I’m going to have to make some plans…”

“There was also Agarrmagonn’s death.”

“Wait, he’s dead?”

“Yes, I saw the corpse myself.”

“How did this happen?”

“It turns out that there was one Pegasus that took action against him, and bested him in battle.”

“What is their name?”

“His name was War Heart, a newcomer apparently, he wasn’t born in Equestria as far as I was told.”

“Hmm… Perhaps I should meet this War Heart, I shall send him an invitation to the Gala and meet him, as well as have the Mayor of Ponyville declare him as ‘Protector of Ponyville’”

“You seemed concerned before, what is it about that dragon that bothered you so much?”

“He is part of a clan of dragons that once warred with us a long time ago, and our treaty has stood for over a thousand years, until now. Only me and Luna remember since we were the only ones from that time.”

“So what are you planning on doing about this?”

“They will be after him when word gets out of Agarrmagonn’s death… I will have to warn him, so that he may do what he decides is best. We owe him that much for risking his life that he at least have a choice in the matter.”, Celestia floated a paper and quill to her using her magic. She wrote out a letter to Twilight, instructing her to inform War Heart of his new title and invitation to the Gala. Celestia then sent it away in a wisp of cloud.

Celestia shook her head, “This is not good… It could mean war with the dragons of the west…”

“I’m at your service whenever you need me, Princess.”, Cura bowed and turned away, about to leave before Celestia spoke up, “Wait… After the Gala, I’m going to talk to War Heart personally and discuss what he plans to do personally, I’d like you to come along when I go to him.”

“Of course, Princess, you need only call on me.”, Cura then turned and left the throne room to go home.

About a month later, on the night of the Grand Galloping Gala, Cura was hurriedly getting ready, trying to put on her dress, which had a very difficult to reach zipper. It took her about a minute until she realized she could just use magic to zip it up. Her dress was made of silk, breezy and a beautiful shade of crimson. She quickly ran out her front door and galloped to the castle. She got there as Twilight Sparkle was stepping off her carriage. Twilight of course did not recognize her, only seeing her once and a month ago. Cura rushed up the steps, a little clumsily due to wearing a dress. She finally reached the top of the stairs where Celestia was. “Hello, Princess!”, Cura greeted the princess in an ecstatic tone.

“Hello, Cura. Good to see you.”, Celestia replied in a friendly manner.

“How goes the Gala?”

“Boring, as usual… Would you fetch me a glass of water, please?”

“Yes, Princess.”, Cura trotted away happily.

Celestia looked towards the carriages at the entrance to see a large black stallion Pegasus exit the carriage. The Pegasus approached her with a Pegasus mare with blonde mane and grey coat at his side, her eyes staring off in different directions. She looked down at the black stallion. “I must congratulate you on your amazing feat. To defeat a dragon like Agarrmagonn is no easy task.”

“I was just doing what I could. If I were to refuse helping, I’d be no better than the dragon itself.”

“Powerful, Brave, AND Noble. You are very special kind of pony. Please accept this medal, and with it my thanks for saving the lives of many of my subjects.”
“Thank you, Princess.”, War Heart bowed his head as the medal floated around his neck. The medal was made of silver and was in the shape of a shield. The black stallion walked on with his accompaniment into the palace where the most of the Gala was being held. Cura trotted down the stairs floating a glass of water in front of her. She reached Celestia and gave her the drink. “Thank you, Cura.”, Celestia said after taking a sip.

“No problem, Princess. Did he show up yet?”

“You just missed him.”, Celestia chuckled.

“Really? Well that’s a shame, I was hoping to see how he recovered.”

“I’m sure he is fine, he looked like he was fine. However he was quite nervous.”

“Must not be used to this sort of crowd.”

“Probably.”

About two weeks after the Gala, Celestia and Cura took a chariot to Ponyville. They went to visit Twilight Sparkle, since they had no idea where he lived. Twilight then led them to where War Heart lived. A house made of wood with a stone chimney. The doorway had ornate carvings of dragons along the frame. Twilight knocked on the door with her front hoof. “It’s open!”, a gruff growling voice shouted from within. Twilight opened the door and walked in, as did Celestia and Cura.

“Hey, Twilight, Princess, Filly?”, War Heart greeted them as he was sitting at his table next to the grey coated, blonde Pegasus from the Gala, both of them eating a plate of pancakes.

“I am Cura, I saw that you lived to see another day after that fight with the dragon.”

“…”, War Heart sat there in silence and turned his gaze to the Princess, “… She serious?”

Celestia nodded, “Yes, she is. Cura is one of my best doctors.”

War Heart nodded his head slowly, “Impressive…”

“We’ve come to ask you something.”, Celestia declared.

“And what would that be?”

“Now that you have killed a dragon, they will be searching for you. I’ve come to ask if you planned to leave for somewhere else, or what you propose you do.”

War Heart paused for a moment. He crossed his front legs and pondered the situation.

“I guess staying would endanger Ponyville… Hiding isn’t my way of doing things… Plus if I ran away from their direction, they would surely attack the rest of Equestria on the way to get me…”

“So what is your choice?”

“The only one I feel is right. I’m going over there to hunt down their leaders and stop them from organizing an attack on Equestria.”

Cura smiled, “I told you he was a hero.”, she looked at Celestia.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”, Celestia asked, wanting him to be sure before going into the western scorched lands and mountain ranges.

“I’m sure, I have someone here to protect…”, he put his hoof on Ditzy’s and looked over at her smiling.

“Very well, it is decided. You will venture west. You will have to defeat or kill the ringleaders of the dragon clans.”, Celestia declared to War Heart.

“I will be joining you.”, Cura spoke with a firm feeling in her decision.

“And you will need a guide, somepony to guide you when you are lost, and to help you by providing knowledge and wisdom when he is able.”, Celestia’s horn began to glow and suddenly an icy blue Unicorn with a dark blue mane streaked with white appeared in front of her.

“Yes, Tia?”

“I want you to accompany War Heart on his journey to the west.”

“Ah, another chance to be with that stallion should be rather pleasant.”

“Excellent. The War on the dragons has begun, you are our front and only line of defence.”

War Heart walked over to his wall and grabbed his shields. One shield was emblazoned with a large heart, symbolizing his family, the other had a picture of bubbles identical to Ditzy’s cutie mark. He then grabbed his belt and axe. He walked over to Ditzy, who nuzzled her face against him, “Good luck, come back safely.”

“Don’t worry, I will. I promise.”, War Heart walked towards the door and outside, taking the first steps into his next big adventure with his companions Cura and Orion.

Dragon Land (part 1 of 2)

A long way westward of Ponyville, the three ponies travelled slowly but surely into the mysterious western lands beyond the mountains. The lands beyond were know as the scorched badlands, due to the dangerous creatures who lurk throughout the land. At this point, however, our heroes are a long way from reaching their destination.

The large black Pegasus walked along with unstoppable confidence, his green and red spiked mane soaked from the heavy downpour of rain. The next in the line of heroes was of an average size for a unicorn, using his magic to create a barrier between him and the sky, keeping his icy blue coat and white streaked dark blue mane dry. The last in line of their marching order was an unlikely one, just barely a mare by age or height standards. She had a pristine white coat with bubblegum pink mane, with patches of darker pink throughout. She took cover under the other unicorn’s barrier to shield her from the rain.

“Are we there yet?”, the young unicorn whined, being sick of the rain and cold.

The older unicorn looked down on her, “We have yet to even reach the Dragon’s lands and you complain already?”

“If I knew that it was going to rain for three days straight I would have at least brought a raincoat.”

“And who’s fault is that?”

The young mare stuck her tongue out at him, then walked ahead of the unicorn to the Pegasus’ side. “Aren’t you cold?”, she asked in concern.

“This is my usual summer weather where I come from.”

“Really? Where is that?”

“Caneighda, a land to the north, where it is always cold, snowing, or raining.”

“Are the ponies from there nice?”

“My family are the only ponies, the rest who live there are moose.”

“What’s a moose?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“But I want to know now!”, the young one whined.

“Cura, you keep talking like that, you’re grounded.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Watch me…”, his eyes narrowed as he stared down at her.

Cura pouted and looked away. The ponies kept marching onward towards the west along the muddy dirt road. Nightfall coming quickly, the ponies sat under a large old oak tree for cover. The large Pegasus laid down near the base of the tree. The icy blue unicorn took his place away from the base of the tree on the grass, a barrier still floating above him, keeping him dry. The young mare laid down away from the two of them, laying her head on the grass. All was quiet, save for the constant sound of water hitting the ground. The young mare lay there shivering. “I knew I should have packed my bags for cold weather…”, she whispered to herself.

“What was that?”, the Pegasus’ head rose as he spoke.

“Sorry, War Heart, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“I’m guessing you’re cold…”

Cura looked down in a sort of shame, “I didn’t come prepared for cold weather, or the rain…”

War Heart raised his wing that was not against the tree, “Here, you can sleep under my wing tonight, I can’t have you getting sick on this mission.”

Cura walked over to War Heart and took shelter under his gargantuan wing that covered her completely. War Heart lowered his head once again and slept.

The morning arrived with its brisk air and fresh scents. The rain had stopped last night and the sky was beginning to clear. War Heart opened his eyes and rose his head to the new day. He looked down at his side where he was laying, checking under his wing for Cura. She lay there huddled up against him, “Hey, time to get up.”, War Heart nudged her with his front hoof. She pulled the wing back over her, “Five more minutes…”, Cura said, still half asleep.

“Nice try, but this is my wing.”, he pulled it away from her and stood up.

“Fine.”, Cura stood up and stretched. She looked over at the icy blue unicorn, “Wake up, Orion, it’s time to leave.”, Cura walked over Orion, leaving muddy hoof prints on him.

“Hey!”, Orion awoke abruptly to the pressure put on him.

“Oops, clumsy me.”, Cura giggled as she walked away following War Heart.

“Hey, Orion, is that the mountain range we have to get past.?”, War Heart said as he motioned towards the mountains in the distance.

“I believe so…”, Orion said as he was looking at an old scroll floating in front of him, containing a map of where they were going.

“It’s about a day away if we keep this pace.”, War Heart estimated as he walked.

“Or we could run!”, Cura shouted as she began to gallop ahead of them.

It took about a minute before Cura realized they were not running with her, so she waited ahead for them. “Jerks…”, she commented as they came by and she rejoined the march.

“Maybe, but we have to conserve our energy or we’ll tire ourselves out by the time we even get to the dragon lands.”

“Fine… I won’t run.”

They walked for the rest of the day with not a word said. They finally came to the Drake Tooth mountain range. Ahead they saw a long twisting dirt road going in a twisted path through the pass. “I guess this is the way in.”, War Heart took in the sight of the mountains and their snow capped peaks. The three walked along the unkempt path, stay from the edges so to avoid a nasty fall to the pointed rocks below. The path ended after about a three hour hike along the mountains and opened them to a tropical jungle terrain.

Orion took a look at the map, “Looks like we’re finally in the dragon’s lands… in the region of Novaterra.”

“That’s a weird name, why’s it called that?”

“I read that it mean ‘New Earth’, because this forest is burnt down every one hundred and fifty years, the dead things fertilize the soil and new life finds its way here every time. A certain clan of dragons also use the ashes to house their eggs.”

“Well, judging by how big the trees are, they may be burned down within the next year or so.”

“How would you know that?”

“My business is trees”

“Okay then…”

The walked into the dense woodland, brightly lit by the sun shining through the canopy made by the trees towering over them. There was never a moment of silence in the forest full of all sorts of wildlife. The three ponies marched through the forest, searching for something to mark which direction they must go. They slowly started to notice something somewhat concerning, the forest was quiet. “It’s quiet…”, War Heart noted. He walked forward a few steps, pushing a bit of foliage out of his way. To his dismay, he stepped into a black soiled clearing as if it had burnt recently, and even worse, he was staring directly at three large eggs, white like bone and the size of him. “Well, look what we have here…”, War Heart walked over to the eggs.

“Uh… War Heart, are you sure that is wise? The mother could be around somewhere.”, Orion commented.

“I’m going to make sure a dragon never threatens Equestria, starting with these eggs…”, War Heart reared back and brought his mighty hooves down on the eggs, resulting in them cracking open like they were just chicken eggs. He looked at his hooves to notice no mess, no dead unborn dragon, just shattered shell. He inspected the egg closer to find a hole in the other side of it. “Huh, looks like they already hatched…”, he turned back towards his party and began walking towards them. Cura and Orion exhaled in relief, glad that they would not have to be face to face with the angry mother dragon that left those eggs. “Well that was rather disapp-”, War Heart could not finish his sentence as a creature the size of a pony tackled him to the ground. It had a slender snake-like body, four legs with claws on all of its feet, it had spines along its back and a layer of skin between its front and back legs on each side to serve as a way to glide. It had green scales similar to the colour of emeralds and it’s eyes were amber and had the gaze of a predator. Its shriek was ear-piercing and high pitched as steam burst from it’s nose. War Heart swung his front hoof into the beast’s face, then threw it to the side off of him. He quickly got to his hooves and reared back, readying himself for an attack. He began to hear the shriek again, except the one he was facing wasn’t making the noise. He heard the shrieking get louder. He quickly turned around and threw his hooves down onto the beast’s sibling, pushing it to the ground and crushing its skull in one smooth motion. The creature he was fighting with before, leaped onto his back, digging in into his hide with its claws, biting into his shoulder. War Heart screamed in pain as the teeth of the beast sank into him. A scream of pain that turn into a roar of bloodlust as he threw himself onto his back, crushing the creature beneath him, stunning it for a moment from taking such a hit. War Heart rolled onto his hooves again and reared back once more, about to crush the creature like he did to the other one. The shriek came back right before he felt more claws digging into his back. The other beast got back up and jumped at War Heart, who was wrestling with it’s sibling, only to have his hoof trusted into its face, pushing it away from him. The creature on War Heart’s back sank its teeth into War Heart’s shoulder. War Heart threw himself back, hoping to crush the creature, only to end up flat on his back as it jumped off him. War Heart got back up, trying to catch his breath from the impact of the fall. The beasts began to circle him, trying to make sure they had him blindsided. The creatures hissed at him as they moved, watching his every move. One of them screeched at War Heart, making him turn towards the source of the noise. The one that kept quiet pounced on him, latching on to him once again. At this point, the pain did not occur to War Heart, the adrenaline making him feeling nearly invincible. He rolled to the ground, making the beast jump from his back. He stood in the center, once again surrounded by the two of them. One screeched at him, he looked towards it, and then quickly turned around, extending his shielded wing and swinging it into the pouncing creature. As War Heart was turning back towards the one that screeched, he reared back and trusted his front hooves into its face. It fell to the ground. War Heart ran to it roaring and crushed its head beneath his front hoof. He snapped his gaze towards the only one left. The creature hissed at him, trying to limp away with its leg broken from the bash War Heart gave it. He walked over to it and stepped on its tail, stopping it and causing it to screech more. War Heart screamed back at it and stomped down with all his strength onto its skull, causing it to be crushed into a bloody mess. War Heart there stood there, breathing heavily as his party just stared at him, mortified at what they had seen. Orion walked out to one of the dead creatures. He examined it and looked towards Cura, motioning her over to War Heart. Cura nervously walked over to War Heart, “War Heart? Are y-you okay?”, Cura didn’t stand to close to him, afraid of his wrath.

“I’ll be fine…”, War Heart said, still breathing heavily, just staring at his hooves in the bloody mess of the creature’s head.

“It looks like these are the Scathewinds.”, Orion said upon finishing his examination.

“What does that mean?”, Cura looked over at Orion.

“They are a type of dragon that have no wings or an elemental breath. They drink water and store it to breath steam to blind their enemies and support their altitude while gliding with these flaps of skin.”, Orion pointed at the creature’s skin, “And by the look of it, those were all siblings, and born about a week ago.”

“Wow…”, Cura said in astonishment, amazed how big they got after only a week of life.

“Their tactics work a lot like wolves, hunting in packs and retreating when defeat is certain.”, Orion stated, recalling the fight between them and War Heart.

“Isn’t their mother going to look for them?”, Cura looked slightly worried at the idea of seeing whatever gave birth to such creatures.

“We should keep moving, we have to find shelter before dark.”, War Heart said as he started to walk away. Cura and Orion looked at each other, and then began to follow War Heart. They walked for about a half hour towards a mountain before reaching it and finding a cave. War Heart went inside, finding nothing in there but rocks and darkness. He laid down, wincing in pain from the cuts from his battle earlier. Orion stood at the mouth of the cave and began preparing a spell. Cura walked over to War Heart, still uneasy from seeing his behaviour from earlier.

“Are you sure you’re okay, War Heart? You look pretty hurt.”, Cura kept her distance from him.

“I don’t know, I’m not an expert on medicine. Check if you think it’s necessary.”

Cura nervously walked over to him, looking him over from farther away than she usually would, not wanting to touch him and get on his nerves. The only thing to look at was his shoulder, but to do that she’d have to go face him. It was almost as if she did not want to catch his gaze, lest she be turned to stone. She swallowed her fear and walked to his shoulder and examined it. She found that the creature sank its teeth in him pretty deeply, that he would have died in his sleep overnight if she left it. She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow blue. War Heart’s wounds began to heal to the point where they would stop bleeding, at which point Cura put bandages on his wounds. “You would have died over night if I left those alone.”, Cura said as she finished fixing him up.

“Thank you, Cura. That is twice you saved my life now.”, he smiled slightly at her, hoping to cheer her up.

“Well, it was my job, and what kind of a pony would I be if I just let you die?”, her tone sounded like one of pride, she felt like a hero.

“So, how exactly did you become a doctor?”, War Heart asked the young medic.

“Well… It’s a long story…”, she said, turning away from War Heart.

“Does it look like we’re going anywhere?”

“Okay then… When I was very little me and my father were going for a hike along a mountain far from home. There was a rockslide and my dad pushed me out of the way of a falling stone. His legs were broken and another rock came down and pinned him by stabbing through his lower torso… I had to sit there for three hours and watch him die because I didn’t know what to do… I was orphaned but I swore that I would keep anypony from dying so long as I could help. So I learned healing magic and first aid so I could help anypony that needed it.”, Cura began to tear up at the memory of her father. She stomped the ground with her front hoof, “If only I knew what to do! I could have saved him!”, her tears flowed down her face onto the ground as she started to sob. War Heart walked up beside her and laid down next to her, taking her under his wing. “You can’t change the past, Cura. I’m sure he would be proud of the pony he raised if he could see you now. You’re here on a mission to save the lives of many ponies in Equestria, how much more heroic can you get?”

“I guess…”, Cura stopped crying for a moment, slowly being drawn into the warmth of sleep.

“Guess getting that off her chest was a real relief.”, War Heart thought as he looked down at her under his wing.

Orion walked over, not actually having heard the conversation by being busy with a spell to protect them while they’re asleep, “The barrier I set up should keep any dragons from coming inside.”

“That’s good… I would not like to be taken by surprise.”, War Heart said as he laid his head down to sleep.

Orion looked at where he put the barrier and smirked, “Stupid dragons…”, Orion mocked as he also went to sleep.

The night was pitch black and the world seemed as if it were frozen in a moment of peace. The heroes lay still asleep within their cave shelter. Even they seemed to be frozen in the peace of the night. A pair of red eyes floated in front of the mouth of the cave, staring at the ponies within the darkness, a deep craving in its stare. The eyes fixed upon Orion and began to glow brighter. Orion ear twitched, then he shivered for a moment before rolling over. Cura woke to a sharp pain in her head and an ear-piercing whistling sound. She looked over at the opening of the cave to see the red eyes slowly floating side to side over to her, the space looking more and more distorted around the eyes as they drew closer to her. She tried to speak but she didn’t hear anything but the whistling. Her heart began to race as the eyes got closer. Cura tried to scream, feeling the air escape but still no sound. She looked around in a panic and smacked War Heart on the nose, waking him up. He immediately noticed the eyes and leaped at them. War Heart fell to the floor with the eyes and almost immediately his limbs pressed up against his body tightly. War Heart then floated upright, a look of anger on his face as he stared at the eyes with murderous intent. Cura watched in horror as all this occurred, she quickly ran to Orion and kicked him in the behind and pointed at War Heart and the pair of sinister eyes. Orion quickly jumped up and began mouthing some words, resulting in a surprised look on his face when no sound came of it. He concentrated for a second and had a look of confusion as his horn did not glow. Orion ran over to War Heart’s axe and picked it up, throwing it from his teeth at War Heart. The axe stopped and a loud screech came from in front of War Heart as everything could be heard again. Orion’s horn glowed for a second before a ball of light shot out of his horn at the pair of eyes. The screech continued as the ball made contact. The eyes turned on Orion, burnt flesh where the left eye used to be. The eye began to float away in the same way it came, floating back and forth away from them as War Heart’s limbs slowly released themselves, he then was gasping for air.

“I… Thought you… put up a barrier…”, War Heart questioned Orion between gasps.

“I did, but that thing disabled it. I don’t know how, but it did.”

“I heard a high-pitched whistling that woke me up.”, Cura mentioned, hoping to help Orion figure it out.

“Really? I guess it is a GhostWyrm.”, Orion said as he adjusted his glasses.

“What does it do then?”, War Heart asked, being rather impatient.

“Well, it only comes out at night, its skin gives it a sort of active camouflage, blending into anything behind it. It gives off a high pitched whistle that distorts sound in the area, making it seem like there is no sound at all as well as affecting the part of a unicorn‘s brain that deals with using magic, Cura only heard it because she is still young and her ears are still sensitive to such sounds. They call them GhostWyrms because they would be exposed by fillies and disappear, the fillies would say they saw a ghost but, something far deadlier was out there, waiting. They burn in sunlight, the spell I cast was a light spell, it burns its skin. It also is shaped like a snake which is why you were unable to move.”

“Great… That’s a great thing to have on our tails now.”, War Heart sarcastically remarked.

“It won’t bother us anymore, it knows that we know what it is, it will also take some time to heal, about a week or so.”, Orion clarified, then went to the entrance to put up another barrier while War Heart and Cura went back to sleep.

Cura was the first to awaken the next morning. She looked out side the cave, happy to see no floating eyes. She trotted over to War Heart and Orion and woke them up. “It’s time to get up.”, she said in a mocking impression of War Heart from the day before, giggling afterwards.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m up.”, War Heart said as he rose to standing position.

Orion stood up, “I know which way to the closest dragon leader.”

“Some good news for once.”, War Heart said with a bit of relief in his tone.

“This dragon lord is special, he is a Shade Drake. A dragon with no wings but has special powers. This one in particular, Aceribus, has the power to hypnotise, and another power that I’m not sure of because that part of the scroll was missing. He lives in a deep mine with a race of shorter ponies known as pit ponies. He hypnotised a whole village in the night to dig him a mine for his lair. They are slaves to his power and attack any intruders.”

“Shouldn’t be much of a problem then…”, a hint of sarcasm in War Heart’s voice.

“Let’s goooooo”, Cura said with impatience as she trotted outside. War Heart followed her at his usual pace, as did Orion. A roar could be heard off in the distance, obviously far away, but from something that is disturbingly large. “We better keep moving, I don’t think you are ready to take that on, War Heart.”, Orion said as he kept walking, seemingly ignoring the sound.

“I’ll be ready for whatever I need to be ready for.”

The three heroes walked for a few hours to come to a clearing in the trees and a large opening in the ground. Cura walked over to the giant pit.

“I can’t see the bottom…”, she said as she peaked over the side.

“I can glide you down there, but only one at a time. I don’t think it’s safe to leave her alone, regardless of top or bottom.”, War Heart explained.

“Well, you don’t really have to.”

“Why?”

“This isn’t even the hole we’re looking for.”

“Oh…”

The three heroes walked around the dark hole and onwards towards their destination. They soon came upon a hole which had stairs carved in the stone going down in an amazingly more gradual slope than the hole they found before.

“This makes things a lot easier…”, War Heart commented as he lead the way into the dark tunnel with his companions behind him.

As they descended for what seemed like hours, not really knowing since they could no longer see the light of day anymore, only the dim lights of eerie blue flames along the corridors of the underground. “Couldn’t they have picked a better colour than blue? I mean, I can barely see.”, War Heart complained as they walked along.

“Better blue than no light, I guess.”, Cura retorted.

“Doesn’t change the fact that I can’t see where I’m-”, felt something tickle his face, “Son of a birch!”, War Heart frantically shook and stomped on the ground, alarming his companions.

“What is it!?”, Cura asked in urgency.

War Heart slowly turned to his followers, “A spider landed on my face…”

“Really… A spider? You’re such a baby.”

“Pfft, the baby that can bring down a dragon.”, War Heart exclaimed. Orion just looked at his party and covered his face with his hoof in shame, “What have I gotten myself into?”

It was a few more minutes after that incident that they happened upon a vast cavern. The cavern was brightly lit with what looked like glowing crystal formation, giving off a baby blue glow. The three stood in awe at the fortress they saw ahead. They could see multitudes of green pairs of orbs floating about in the darkness, that turned out to be attached to shorter ponies when they came into the light. There was a wall with a drawbridge that made a way to cross a pit with wooden pikes at the bottom of a twelve foot drop. The actual interior was not visible from where they were standing, but they were going to come up with a plan to get inside.

“Okay… How are we going to get in undetected?”, Orion began.

“I don’t know, that pit is too wide to get across. Can you disguise us as some of them?”, Cura asked

“I’m afraid not, I can only disguise one of us at a time.”

“Can’t War Heart just fl-”, Cura’s eyes widened.

“What?”, Orion asked, totally clueless. Cura turned his head to look face War Heart who was walking straight towards the fort.

“Oh clop, what is he doing?”, Orion said, awaiting the result of such a foolish action.

“Hey!”, War Heart shouted to the ponies on top of the wall who all stopped and stared at him in unison. War Heart stood there with the utmost amount of confidence, throwing off his shields from his wings and sliding his axe behind him several feet.

All the ponies on top of the wall stood on the edge of the massive stone barrier. They took a step off the edge only to begin walking straight down the wall.

“Okay, not gonna lie, that creeps me out.”, War Heart shivered as he watched them walk towards him.

They had no emotion. Not hate, anger, sadness, joy, or any of the like. Their expressions blank and their coats all an unhealthy shade of grey. They stared with single minded purpose. There were dozens closing in on the massive Pegasus. There was a pause for a moment right as they reached about six feet away from him. Then one of them spoke. “What does the prey want here?”, the pony spoke in a monotonous voice.

“Prey? I am no prey.”, War Heart replied, somewhat taking the label as a threat.

“You are not of the dragon blood, and not one of us. You are prey.”

“Listen, I’m here for the dragon lord, Aceribus.”

“You speak of the master, what do you want from him?”

“None of your concern, now let me pass!”

“It makes demands in even while it is in no position to argue.”

“Let me pass, or let me speak to whoever is in control.”, a moment passed in silence.

“Very well, behold the master. Ibus.”, the pony looked straight up as he spoke. Insect-like legs slid out of the eye sockets of the pony that was speaking to War Heart. The glowing green orbs being the torsos of two spiders. The spiders crawled out of the heads of everypony with the green glowing eyes. Suddenly the spiders began to float upwards towards the ceiling, the little green dots covering a surface revealing the shape of a giant spider. It’s eight giant glowing eyes shot open, fixing their gaze upon War Heart, who was frozen in fear. It glided down on its invisible thread and landed without a sound. It moved slowly and silently towards War Heart. “Now do you see the master puppeteer, my little pony?”, the giant arachnid spoke in a low bellowing voice. War Heart could not find the courage to move.

“We have to help him.”, Cura whispered to Orion.

“Yes, I have an idea, seeing that it-”

“No time to explain, just do it!”

“Right…”, Orion concentrated for a moment, making his horn glow. He then jumped out of his hiding place and shone a light from his horn, as bright as he could make it. The giant spider screeched in pain and covered its eyes with its front legs. Orion stood in front of War Heart, keeping the light going.

Cura grabbed War Heart’s shield and dragged it towards him. Orion then closed his eyes and the light he emitted turned orange, and he then shot out a fireball the size of him at the spider, torching a bit of its flesh.

“War Heart! If you don’t fight, we’ll fail, and that means everypony in Ponyville will be attacked.”, Cura shouted at War Heart, trying to snap him out of it.

“If you don’t fight, you’ll die here, breaking your promise to Ditzy!”, she held up the shield with Ditzy Doo’s cutie mark on it, tapping it with her front hoof twice, making a stout sounding thump.

War Heart looked at the shield, remembering leaving two days ago.

He walked over to Ditzy, who nuzzled her face against him, “Good luck, come back safely.”

“Don’t worry, I will. I promise.”

War Heart turned away from his companions, head down, and started trudging towards the exit.

Cura’s jaw dropped as she watched her companion, the bravest pony she ever knew, just walk away. Cura looked back at Orion, who was looking rather weak from expelling so much magic. Cura looked down at the floor, waiting for the spider to come and finish it. The giant arachnid walked towards them as the light from Orion faded. The spider drew closer, slowly gaining on them. Ibus reared back and readied his stinger, swinging backwards to ready the final attack. Suddenly there was a sound of a collision of something hitting wood. War Heart stopped the spider’s sting with his shield. Cura’s eyes brightened up to see him again.

“I swore I would protect them, and if it means I have to face my worst fears, and go to hell and back, so be it.”, War Heart then took his axe in hoof and swung at Ibus’ stinger, severing it and letting it drop to the floor with a clack. Ibus screeched in agony, stumbling to the ground.

War Heart stood on his hind legs with his axe ready, “Let’s finish this.”, he said as the spider came skittering towards him, charging. It rushed him, forcing him to block and pushed him into a wall with shield pressed against its face to keep its fangs away from him. After a bit of struggling he managed to get the spider away from him for a brief moment and slice at it with his axe, catching it in on of its eyes. It screamed as it backed away from War Heart, blinded by the strike. War Heart took flight and raised the axe above his head and brought it down with all his weight into the spider’s head, it’s body giving one last violent thrashing as its nerves went haywire. The body twitched as War Heart removed the axe from its head. Laughing could be heard throughout the cavern. It wasn’t low and menacing like the spider, but sounded female and sultry. A black smoke rose from the body of the spider and floated about the heroes.

“That seemed like a difficult battle, you must feel proud.”, the sultry voice spoke as if it was all around them.

“Who are you?”, War Heart called out.

“I’m just a spirit that has been trapped inside that big monster for oh so long now.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to reward you.”

“With what?”

“Anything your heart desires.”, there was a black mist in the cavern, dimming the light. War Heart looked into the distance and saw a grey mare with blonde mane, bound in spider‘s silk. “Ditzy!?”, War Heart was about to run to her until he hit some sort of invisible wall.

“Whoa there, lover-colt.”, a mare with grey coat and white flowing mane wearing a crown in the shape of a spider, “There are rules to this.”, she rubbed her hoof along his chin.

“What rules?”, War Heart looked at her.

“First, you have to kill that pit filly over there.”, she pointed to a small grey filly with her eyes missing.

“Very well…”, War Heart turned to the small filly and began walking to her. The filly had no emotion in its face and as slowly backed away from War Heart as he approached. Suddenly a figure of fire in the shape of a stallion charged in front of War Heart. It snorted flames at him in anger. War Heart reared back on his hind legs to strike at the fiery stallion. Suddenly War Heart was pushed back by an unseen force, knocking him into the ground, bashing his head. He looked to Ditzy and reached his front hoof towards her as he heard her scream as she fell into the pit of wooden pikes. After that, everything went black.

When War Heart came back into consciousness, Cura was looking him in the eyes. “You are so lucky I know you so well. I figured that you were under the effect of a mind-altering agent, and you were.”, she showed a decently big puddle of black liquid, “That is from the stinger that you got hit with as you were blocking it.”

War Heart stood up, stumbled a bit and then steadied himself, “I’m sorry… For whatever I might have done.”

“It’s all okay, I know you wouldn’t ever hurt me.”, she smiled sweetly at him.

“Well, I still suggest we leave this cave, it is way too dark down here.”, Orion was on his way out the cave.

“I just feel that we forgot something…”, War Heart pondered for a moment, “What was the name of the dragon lord we were looking for?”

Orion turned around to answer him, confident he knew the answer, but he stopped, “I… don’t… remember?”, Orion would never forget something like that so quickly.

Orion quickly looked at the scroll for the info but the name was torn from the parchment, “It’s been torn from my papers…”

War Heart looked to where the entrance was to find there was a new wall there.

“Excuse me…”, a small voice called from beside War Heart.

“Can you help me find mommy?”, the little filly beside War Heart had a purple-ish coat and blonde mane, with a striking resemblance to Ditzy.

War Heart looked at Orion who was looking at him oddly, then War Heart looked back to see a skeleton of a filly, with words carved into the ground, “YOU LEFT”

War Heart backed away and closed his eyes, “It isn’t real, it isn’t real, it isn’t real…”, he looked back and the skeleton and the words were gone.

“We have a serious problem guys, I keep seeing things…”

Orion had a sudden flash of remembrance, “Aceribus!”
A black scaled creature with green glowing eyes appeared in front of them, “Congratulations on remembering my name in my domain. Now, what do you want of me?”, the beast was only the size of Orion, but it had a booming voice.

“We came here to slay all the dragon ringleaders that would go to war with Equestria!”

“And you believe I would want this? Why?”

“You don’t?”

“I spend all my time here, what do I care of the outside world?”

“True…”

“However, I do grow tired of the other lords trying to rally me to a cause with threats. If you were to kill them, I may be able to claim lordship over the others. Does that suit your Equestria?”

“If you are true to your word.”

“Leave my home, the next one you seek is to the far north of this land, on Mount Gennafor where you will meet the dragon lord Raazmus, but be warned, he is no ordinary dragon.”, and with that last word, Aceribus disappeared.

The Heroes walked towards the exit of the cave, upon finally reaching the surface, “You pointed us to a Dragon Lord that happened to be a reclusive mind twister, I’m considering gong back home to grab Ditzy and flee Equestria from what I saw in there, AND FOR WHAT!? Knowing where the next dragon lord is!? For all we know, we could be walking into a trap.”, War Heart ranted, Cura walked up to him.

“What did you see?”, she put a hoof on his, War Heart laid down.

“I thought I saw Ditzy dying, and… I don’t know, it seemed so real…”

“You have to know that nothing in there was real, we have to press on for everypony in Equestria.”

War Heart took in a deep breath, “Okay, I’ll keep going… I have promises to keep.”, He stood back up and took another step forward.

Dragon Land (part 2 of 2)

The three heroes walked through the tropical forest in silence, not speaking so they do not attract unwanted attention from whatever beast may be hiding nearby. War Heart looked up as he walked along, noticing it was about noon as the sun was directly overhead. He looked back forward to see nothing but jungle. He walked on with weary steps, unenthused about walking across such a large stretch of land. “I’m bored…”, Cura said as she walked behind War Heart.

“I know…”, War Heart replied, sounded somewhat impatient.

“Can we play a game?”, Cura asked him, hoping he would agree to play with her.

“Sure, how about the one where we don’t get me ambushed by keeping quiet.”, War Heart answered, still sounding grumpy. Cura’s reaction was hopeful at first but changed to disappointment at War Heart’s game idea.

“My hooves hurt…”, Cura complained after a few minutes of walking. War Heart sighed, thinking he was never going to find an end to her complaints. War Heart ignored her complaint and kept walking.

“Can I ride on your back?”, Cura asked him in a relatively helpless tone.

War Heart looked back at her with a face that looked like it said ‘Are you serious?’

Cura put on the most pathetic face she could, even managing to tear up a little.

“Nope…”, War Heart said as he turned away from her.

Cura pouted, but kept walking due to her lack of choices.

The heroes walked into a clearing of the jungle, with a single green bush sitting at the center of it. The bush looked somewhat unnatural, but what does one suspect when in a strange land? The heroes proceeded past the bush, as Orion walked past he was suddenly brought to the ground. A creature with a long face covered in bone a mane of green unkempt hair, a coat of wood brown and a tail green and as unkempt as its mane. The eyes were an orange colour, the irises somewhat smaller than they should be. The eyes also had a flavour of mystical insanity about them, giving a feeling that they were not looking at you, but into your very being.

“You have been ambushed…”, The creature spoke after a moment of stillness and silence, “…By the bush pony!”, the unkempt earth pony stallion exclaimed as he reared back and raised his front hooves to make him look intimidating. The stallion looked down at Orion, whose eyes were widened in surprise. He lowered back on all fours, then moved his head downwards towards Orion and forced open Orion’s mouth and looked inside, then let go, sniffing him afterwards.

“You aren’t dragons…”, The stallion stated in disbelief. He jumped away from Orion.

“What was your first clue?”, Orion said sarcastically as he got off the dirt covered ground. Cura and War Heart had just been watching the two’s interaction, with an uninterested look.

“I have been here for so long, the only company I know is dragons. Not the friendliest of folk, seeing as they try to kill me every time they see me. Luckily, I know how to get around unseen.”, The earth pony explained as he lifted the dragon skull mask off his face.

“What are you even doing here?”, Cura asked as she looked him over from afar.

“I came here from Equestria because I just didn’t like most ponies, however it wasn’t until lately I noticed that dragons are not very talkative. I tried to make a conversation with one only to have them reply with a very unattractive snarly noise like this! GRRRRRR!”, the earth pony bared his teeth as he growled at the party, a sight that was more than enough to make them uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong with your teeth?”, Cura asked with curiosity as to how they got that way.

“Well, when hunting, you need to learn to live like your prey. I can’t grow wings, but I can change my diet. At first it only made me sick from consuming the flesh of another being, but one grows accustomed to such things after the first dozen times.”, the earth pony smiled, bearing his pointed teeth once more.

“Rrrrright… We’re leaving.”, War Heart stated as he turned away. A look of shock struck the earth pony’s face, “But don’t you want a guide or something?”

“I’m sure we can find our own way.”, War Heart replied as he kept walking, “We have to get to the far north and can’t be slowed down by you.”

“I could probably cut off days of travel for you if you let me come along.”, the earth pony bargained

“Pass.”, War Heart said as he rejected his offer. Suddenly War Heart’s leg was caught in the earth pony’s grasp, “Pleeeeease?”, the pony had a look of desperation and a fear of being all alone. War Heart sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, “Fine…”, then War Heart pulled his leg away from him and kept walking.

The earth pony’s expression turned from dismay to excitement as he walked next to Cura, having a certain spring in his step.

“So what’s your name?”, Cura asked, looking towards the earth pony.

“It’s… ummm…”, the pony put on a face of despair, “I forgot…”

“Can I name you?”, Cura asked with some excitement.

“Why not?”, he replied, thinking it was not that important or unwise.

“How about… Lily Bush?”, Cura suggested.

“…. Maybe I’ll come up with a different name.”, the earth pony had a look of uneasiness.

“How about hermit?”, War Heart suggested.

“That sounds good, I’ll be hermit, then.”, the hermit said, rather accepting of the new title.

“What was wrong with the name I gave you?”, Cura pouted.

“It was just a bit too… um… feminine.”, Hermit smiled nervously, hoping she would be understanding.

“Fine, take his name then.”, she scoffed and looked away. The Hermit then suddenly stopped, a shocked look on his face, he stared off into space. Cura turned towards him, “What’s wro-”, she was suddenly interrupted as she was grabbed by the mane and dragged, screaming into the jungle.

“Cura!”, War Heart shouted as he charged in the direction she was dragged to. Suddenly Hermit snapped out of his stupor and followed after Orion who was following War Heart.

Cura was taken to another clearing in the jungle, a small shelter of boulders in the center where she was forced to stay inside by the green-scaled creature with blue reptilian eyes. It snarled at her viciously as it backed her into the corner of the shelter. She screamed in fear as it got closer and closer to her. More of the beasts showed up, all with a look of hunger in their eyes, their gaze fixed upon their next meal. A loud roar could be heard outside as War Heart charge towards the shelter, as if challenging the creatures to attack him. The beast’s green scaled shimmered in the sunlight as the five of them circled War Heart. The made no noise as they stared at him, he stared back at them, the look of a beast in his own eyes. Orion and the Hermit watched from the side of the opening, keeping out of sight of the creatures War Heart was about to face off against. War Heart let out a bellowing battle cry as he charged at one of the creatures, trampling it he charged past it to the entrance of the shelter. The creatures all at once jumped on him, latching onto him with their claws and biting him once before jumping away and going back into a surrounding position. War Heart screamed as he was bitten, wincing in pain for a moment. Only one creature leaped at him this time, digging its claws into him and biting into his shoulder. War Heart reared back and turned his head towards the creature biting him, biting down on it hard enough to break its skin and crack the bones in its neck, then throwing it to the ground as it went limp. The blood went off his lip and dripped down his chin while a good deal of it ended up down his throat. The taste was strange, a warm sensation followed by an adrenaline rush like he never experienced before. He quivered for a moment as his eyes widened, he then closed his eyes for a moment. Another one of the beasts pounced at him only to be brought to the ground by the large black stallion, he screamed in his face like he did with the Scathewinds, only now it seemed more feral, and filled with so much more bloodlust than before. War Heart began to repeatedly bring down his front hoof into its face, making it cave in on itself, making a repulsive cracking sound as he screamed and kept pounding its face into the stone. Cura watched merely ten feet away from the corner of the stone shelter, tears in her eyes as she watched her hero horribly mutilate the head of his opponent, a look of murderous bloodlust in his eye. The other creature began to slink away slightly as they watched pack-mate get pummelled into the floor. After a few more stomps War Heart stopped and screamed at them again, rearing back and stomping once more. The pack quickly turned tail and sprinted away, fearing the force they had witnessed. War Heart’s only movements were only from his heavy breathing. Orion was appalled at what he saw while the Hermit stroked his chin. The Hermit walked towards War Heart. War Heart shook his head seeing something approach him slowly, not quite able to tell what it is. He didn’t know what it was as his vision was blurring. He charged towards it, almost in instant reaction the blur began to charge at him as well. As they collided, War Heart found himself pinned to the ground. Cura walked out of the stone shelter cautiously. War Heart’s head was forcibly turned towards Cura.

“Look at her, she’s frightened. She thinks you mean her harm. Are you going to protect her? Then protect her from yourself.”, the Hermit expressed to War Heart with the utmost concern.

War Heart’s vision cleared as he calmed himself. The Hermit climbed off of War Heart and let him stand up, “What happened?”, War Heart asked, not knowing exactly what he did.

“You drank of their blood, it awakens something in one who tastes it. A call to the beast within, making one more bestial than sentient. With enough of the blood ingested, you’ll develop traits like them, like my teeth.”, The Hermit explained to War Heart.

“Is it permanent?”, War Heart asked, seeming bothered with this occurrence.

“Well, the physical changes are, as is the new lust for the blood of other creatures, but only if you give in to the rage too much that physical changes will manifest.”, The Hermit spoke in a reassuring tone.

“How can I avoid it?”, War Heart asked, knowing this development was going to be trouble.

“You need something to concentrate on, or somepony you would protect. Violence will stir the beast, that will be unavoidable, and acts that one would consider immoral would decay your very being into that of a monster. It seems that your focus is the young one, if she dies, so will you, in a sense. Seeing her in danger will incite your beast, allowing you to draw on its instincts and power.”

“How do you know all this?”, War Heart asked suspicious of the Hermit.

“I told you before that I had to survive here, and I did that by calling on the very beast I was speaking of before.”, Hermit smirked, bearing the unnatural sharp teeth again.

War Heart looked at Cura, who flinched as he turned to her, scared of what he was before, “I’ll resist its call, I won’t become a monster.”, War Heart said as he turned back to Hermit.

“Good! Let’s keep heading north then!”, Hermit exclaimed as he marched away.

War Heart walked over to Cura, who slinked back as he approached. “How about you give your legs a rest for a while, I’ll carry you.”, War Heart smiled slightly at Cura as he lowered himself for her.

Cura felt somewhat nervous as she walked over to him and hopped on his back. He stood up and began walking north with Orion and Hermit.

After a few hours of walking, Cura fell asleep on War Heart’s back, her face rested against the back of his neck, her legs dangling on either side of him. He looked back at her and smiled slightly. He walked forward with Hermit and Orion at his sides.

“She must be quite brave to come here with you.”, Hermit commented, noticing she had fallen asleep.

“She calls me a hero, admires my will to protect others.”, War Heart explained.

“Do you believe you are a hero?”, Hermit asked.

“I do what I can, and I can’t sit by while the land is in danger.”, War Heart stated with confidence.

“And that is exactly the reason I believe you won’t fall to the beast, you are noble, you hold a value of others lives above your own. That is the thing that will keep you from being a monster.”, Hermit explained to War Heart.

“This doesn’t sound like any magic I’ve ever heard of…”, the other stallions looked at Orion who just spoke out, “That somepony can transform by drinking of blood and being angered is ridiculous.”

“Well, I know from first hand experience that it’s real.”, Hermit said, sounding a little insulted.

“How about we drop it and keep walking until we find some shelter?”, War Heart asked rhetorically.

“Is that what you’re looking for? Well I can make shelter round her no problem.”, Hermit said boastfully.

“We don’t look like bushes, Hermit.”, War Heart stated as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh yeah…”, Hermit said, looking down in shame.

It was getting late and the party stopped for a moment.

“Who’s on guard duty first?”, War Heart said as he let Cura slide down his wing gently onto the ground.

“I guess I will, not feeling very tired anyway.”, Orion said as he laid down, readying a spell to make a barrier around them.

Hermit laid down as well, almost instantly falling asleep. Cura awoke somewhat, and looked at War Heart, then proceeded to lazily walk over to him and take shelter under his wing again. She went back to sleep nuzzled against War Heart. War Heart laid his head down and closed his eyes, drifting off into the blackness of sleep.

It was in the dead of night when Cura awoke, she lifted her head to see she was alone. She stood up and saw a pair of red eyes floating among the foliage in the pitch black. She froze in fear as their gaze locked upon her. She backed away slowly. The eyes began moving towards her. Her heart raced in panic from the thought of this may be her last moments. The eyes drew closer and War Heart walked into the light. Cura sighed and walked over towards him, relieved to see somepony instead of something terrible like the Ghostwyrm. As she got closer to War Heart, she began to notice he had a smile on his face, like he was happy to see her. She smiled back and kept approaching him. It wasn’t until she was merely two feet away that she noticed his teeth were sharp. Her eyes widened as she start to back away again. War Heart jumped at her and kicked her over with his front hoof, injuring one of her legs in the process. She tried to get up, but her futile efforts came to no avail. War Heart stood over her, looking down with a sadistic grin, bearing the awful teeth that she found so unsettling. He raised his hoof, getting ready to strike. Cura looked over to her left and saw the bodies of the hermit and Orion, both missing pieces of flesh, as if it were torn away and devoured by some monster. She looked back up at War Heart who brought down his hoof as she screamed. She awoke with a sudden shake of her body, startling War Heart, who was on watch at the moment. “Are you ok, Cura”, War Heart asked in a concerned tone.

Cura pressed her face against him and began tearing up, “Please don’t hurt me.”, she said in a fearful tone.

“That wasn’t me, you had a nightmare. You’re safe now.”, War Heart spoke in a reassuring voice, patting her on the back lightly, “Now go back to sleep, it’s only a few hours before the other wake up and we head out.”

“Okay…”, Cura said in a pathetic tone as she retreated back under War Heart’s massive wing.

“Good girl…”, he whispered as he returned to watching the surrounding area.

Dawn came, the sky was turning a shade of orange, and the air was cooled and crisp from the night. War Heart was still on watch. He stood up and nudged Cura, “Time to wake up.”, he whispered. Cura opened her eyes and stretched her legs. War Heart woke the others, telling them that they needed to get moving once more. As all of them woke, they began moving on again. They pressed on towards north, War Heart leading; the hermit and Cura in the middle, side by side; and Orion in the back. After three hours of walking they reached the end of the jungle and a snowy plain was revealed to them. “It seems we have reached the northern lands.”, Orion declared, walking up beside War Heart.

“It seems that way…”, War Heart replied, staring at the landscape. He stepped forward and entered the land of snow, the others promptly following him. His mind wandering off to thoughts of his old home, of coming back to the forests of Caneighda, but then wandered back to Ponyville and his new home where Ditzy was waiting for his return. The thought made him smile, gave him something to think about other than his quest. For the next few moments he only thought of how he would want to go back home to see her now. He stopped thinking of home when he stepped over the ridge to see a mountain of stone and ice. A fortress sat in the side of the mountain, carved out of the stone itself. Cura shivered as she walked, not having as much tolerance to the heat as the others. Her teeth chattered from the cold, loud enough for War Heart to hear. He turned to the young, shivering mare. “You need another ride?”, War Heart asked, raising an eyebrow.

“N-n-n-no, I can walk, I c-c-can be strong t-t-too!”, Cura said, standing up straight and marching on, trying to show she wasn’t totally helpless. Until the point where she tripped and ploughed face first face-first into the snow. War Heart rolled his eyes and chuckled as he walked on. Cura stood up again and started walking, trying to stop her body from shaking so much. The walked for about an hour before her willpower caved, “Can I have a ride?”, she asked War Heart, feeling somewhat shameful.

“Baby.”, War Heart said chuckling, mocking what she called him before.

“I am not a baby!”

“Then I guess you don’t need a ride.”, he raised an eyebrow and looked down at Cura.

“I don’t.”, she walked on with a pride in her independence. Until there was a sudden drop of a foot, where she was totally submerged in snow. She was freezing at this point and scrambled out of the snow to War Heart.

“Okay, I’m a baby, can I have a ride, pleeease?”

“Okay.”, War Heart crouched and let her climb onto him. She clung to him tightly, trying to get some warmth from him. He walked into the deeper snow, it only reached his belly. On Orion and Hermit it went to their chest level. They trudged through the snow for what seemed like forever, nearly blind from the reflection of the sun on the snow. Cura looked on ahead from War Heart’s back, the mountain side fortress was close, only a few minutes away. Something seemed unsettling about it. She got an eerie feeling just by looking as it, as if it was looking straight back at her.

“Hey, Orion, what do you know about this dragon lord, whats-his-name?”, War Heart called back.

“Well, there is a bit of an issue there, it says in my scrolls that he was slain by Celestia in the great war over a thousand years ago. The map doesn’t show this place at all, but that could be that it’s a new structure since these maps are about as old as Canterlot itself.”, Orion explained as he looked at the fortress.

“Maybe Celestia only thought he was dead, and he escaped.”, War Heart suggested.

“Perhaps, that seems pretty likely the case here.”, Orion replied.

The heroes approached the entrance to the fortress, the gateway was massive enough to easily fit a full-sized dragon through it. The snow was tracked in on the stone floors by the heroes’ entrance. The ceiling was high above their heads, reaching about eight stories high. The walls covered with symbols every few feet as they walked down the halls. Cura walked beside War Heart, having dismounted as they entered the halls of stone, “I don’t like this place…”, She commented staring uneasily at the high ceilings and walls.

“I don’t recognize these symbols on the walls… it seems like a new dialect in their language.”, Orion said as he studied the symbols on the walls.

“It seems kind of pointless to put writing on the walls of a hallway…”, War Heart commented as he started to look closer at the walls, actually stopping completely and starting to look closer. Hermit walked up to one of the parts of the wall with writing. He looked at it and mumbled for a few moments.

“Bah-lay Gar-lah too-rem Raazmus, kah-lak vah-soo ahr-tem.”, Hermit spoke as he read the indented writing on the walls. His eyes widened for a moment, “This isn’t a fortress, it’s a crypt… These writings are epitaphs. ‘Here lies a loyal servant of Raazmus, eternally loyal.’”, Hermit translated the writing to the others.

“That’s not unsettling at all…”, War Heart remarked in sarcastic tone before continuing down the hall, Cura right next to him.

“How can you read this?”, Orion asked the Hermit.

“I dunno.”, The Hermit said as he walked down the hall with War Heart and Cura, Orion following right behind him. They walked for a few minutes before finding themselves at a dead end. Symbols as large as War Heart adorning the wall.

“Here lies lord Raazmus, the old king of the old mountain.”, Hermit read aloud.

“So the other dragon sent us here to beat down a corpse?”, War Heart chuckled, “Maybe he should come out of his cave more often.”, War Heart laughed at the idea that Aceribus had not left in so long to realize the lord was dead. Hermit put his ear to the wall and tapped on it with his hoof, “It doesn’t seem to be very thick, we could break through if we wanted to, check out what he looked like at least.”, The hermit suggested.

“Sure, why not, he may have some treasure we could bring back home.”, War Heart said as he reared back and smashed through the wall with his powerful hooves, making a hole large enough for him to squeeze through and the others to walk in. They entered through the hole to find a large dome shaped room. At the center was a large skeleton of what looked to be a massive dragon, even bigger than Agaarmagonn, the black dragon War Heart fought in Ponyville. The gargantuan skeleton was wrapped around a hoard of treasure of all sorts. Gems, and golden objects, more than they could possibly hope to carry. The skeleton also had a crown of what looked to be obsidian, a volcanic glass, jewelled with a ruby, a sapphire, an emerald, and a diamond all adorning the sides of the crown and at the center was a brilliantly cut bit of jet, a gem as black as midnight. As the three stallions were busy admiring the treasure, they did not notice the thud coming from the hall that Cura heard. She poked her head through the hole in the wall and looked around. She heard the thud again, a little louder than last time. A last thud made the rock crumble, creating a cloud of dust. Cura’s eyes widened as she saw a figure emerge from the dust, eyes glowing with blue flames, its body creaking as it walked towards her, making a clacking noise as its feet hit the ground.

“War Heart…”, Cura called out nervously, not moving out of fear the skeletal dragon may charge.

“What is it?”, He called back, unaware of the danger.

“I think you should look in the hall…”, Cura said slowly motioning him over, looking towards him wide-eyed. He looked in the hall to see the slow moving skeletal beast walking towards them.

“What the fir!?”, War Heart said as he walked back into the hall, “Hey, Orion, check this out.”

Orion walked into the hall, raising a curious eyebrow at the skeleton, “Strange, I’ve never heard of something like this before…”, Orion commented.

The skeletal dragon was the size of a regular pony, bones indicating it once had wings and a tail. It flared out its skeletal wings and roared. The sound echoing for a few short moments. It began walking towards the heroes again. Noises could be heard from inside the walls of the hallway, a series of muffled roars and thumping as the walls seemed to empty themselves of a multitude of dozens of skeletal dragons, all with blue fire in their eye sockets. The Hermit walked out to join the two other stallions, “Well, I guess that is what one would call, eternally loyal.”, Hermit said as he shifted into a battle-ready position.

“There plenty enough for the three of us, may the best pony win.”, War Heart exclaimed as he flared his wings out getting into a stance to charge. Orion’s horn began to glow, readying a spell.

War Heart reared back and charged at the reanimated skeletons with a determined look in his eyes, colliding with one and forcing it to the ground. He stomped down on its head with his front hoof, shattering the skull. The Hermit bared his teeth as he charged, his pupils dilated as he ran at one of the skeletal beast, taking pleasure in seizing it by the neck with his jaws and snapping its spine, making it go limp as the head severed. Orion let out a small ball of energy fly at the mass of skeletons, the ball shattering five of them as it passed through them. War Heart was being latched to by several of the undead dragons, their claws were dull from ages of decay so they were not effective at holding onto the Pegasus. War Heart readied his shields attached to his wings and swung them around, spinning around and bucking another skeleton. The Hermit seemed to completely lose touch with reality, taking too much joy in the battle. He would use his teeth to grab hold on one skeleton while he smashed another with his front hooves. He felt absolute bliss hearing the smash of bones and the cracking of a spine within his jaws. He cackled in bliss as he began to pound one of their skulls into a pile of tiny bone fragments and dust with his front hoof. As Orion finished the last skeleton with a fire ball spell, silence found its way back into the hall of crushed bones. The Hermit froze in place as his eyes went back to normal, acting as if nothing happened. War Heart looked among the shattered remains, “That was a good work out.”, he said as he stretched, “I needed that.”

War Heart walked back towards the end of the hall with Hermit where Cura and Orion were waiting.

“That almost seemed too easy…”, Cura said with an eyebrow raised. They all heard a low growl that echoed throughout the crypt. The walls and floor began to shake violently. Among the bones of the once animated skeletons, the blue flames they saw in the skeleton’s eyes floated above the remains and lazily floated towards the end of the hall, passing by the heroes and entering the main chamber where the treasure hoard and the remains of Raazmus were. They all walked into the room to see the wisps of blue fire float into the eye sockets of the giant deceased dragon lord.

“That can’t be good…”, War Heart commented, watching this proceed with an annoyed expression on his face. He took a step forward towards the giant skeleton, the flames turned red and gained speed, now whizzing past the heroes and flowing into the eyes of Raazmus. As the last of the wisps of flame entered the eyes of the dragon lord, his once inanimate head turned to the heroes. Raazmus roared at them, a blue flame glowing inside his mouth, eyes, and ribcage.

“That’s more like it.”, War Heart said as he stepped forward, smirking, “You three stay here, I’ve got this.”, he said as he stood on his hind legs, grabbing his axe from his belt with his front hoof. He crouched into a readied position with wings spread, shields upon them. He took off, and flew at the reanimated dragon lord. He was struck out of the air by the dragon’s large claw. War Heart fell to the ground, rolling back to his hooves. He ran towards the dragon this time, knowing he won’t have enough control of his movements in the air with his shields on. The dragon raised its claw and swung downward onto War Heart, creating a cloud of dust on impact. As the dust cleared, War Heart could be seen holding the dragon’s claw back with his shields, he struggled as he tried to keep standing under the strength of the dragon lord. He smirked as he began to push back the claw, only to have a sudden expression of shock as the dragon’s other claw slammed into him from the side, forcing him into the wall.

“Ow…”, War Heart said as he got up from the ground near the wall. The Dragon looked towards the other three ponies. War Heart’s eyes widened as the dragon blew flames into them before they could possibly run away, making them disappear into an inferno and cloud of smoke. Time froze for him as he watched his companions die before him. He felt the bloodlust return, his pupils dilated as a tear ran down his right cheek at the idea they were all gone, that he failed to protect them. He slammed the ground with his front hoof as everything went red to him. He screamed at Raazmus, the echoing battle cry serving as a herald for his inevitable destruction. War Heart dropped his axe and threw off his shields. He took flight at Raazmus, who was facing him now. Raazmus swung at War Heart like he did before, War Heart dodging it by barrel-rolling to the side and flying straight into Raazmus’ skull. The impact caused Raazmus to recoil, War Heart landed behind Raazmus and charged again. Raazmus brought down his claw, colliding with War Heart again. War Heart threw the claw to the side, causing Raazmus to lose balance. War Heart jumped to Raazmus’ head, landing on his face and started to pound his front hooves into the top of Raazmus’ skull. Raazmus shook his head violently, throwing War Heart off him. War Heart screamed at Raazmus again, the look in his eyes was that of rage, murder, and sorrow. War Heart took flight again, preparing an aerial dash. War Heart screamed again as he dashed towards Raazmus, diving straight into his maw and breaking through Raazmus’ rib cage. The beast roared at War Heart once more, not able to feel the pain War Heart wished he could cause to him. As Raazmus tried to turn to face War Heart, War Heart charged again, this time aiming for Raazmus’ left leg. War Heart landed on Raazmus’ left front leg, War Heart stomped on it with his front hooves, snapping the bone and breaking off the leg. Raazmus lost his balance upon losing a leg. He fell to his left side, War Heart jumped upon his head once more, this time noticing that the crown Raazmus was wearing was glowing. “Let’s see how much of a king you are without this crown of yours!”, War Heart shouted as he brought his powerful hoof down onto the obsidian headpiece. The crown shattered, as did the life of Raazmus. The blue inferno within the dragon flowed out into several torrents, the skeleton became lifeless once again. War Hear continued to stomp into the skull, cracking it and breaking through bone with tears in his eyes. He could almost hear her voice in his head calling his name as he broke down and sobbed on the skeleton of the now inanimate dragon. He cried at the thought that his companions were gone now, and that he had failed to protect them. He could almost hear the little mare’s voice in his head, telling him to get up and press on. War Heart felt something tug on his tail, “Come on, we have to keep going… you can cry later…”, Orion was standing behind War Heart. War Heart’s ears perked up as he heard Orion speak, he quickly wiped away his tears. “Right… Let’s go…”, War Heart said as he pretended he wasn’t crying and got off the skull of the dragon lord Raazmus. He walked towards the hole in the wall they used to enter the burial chamber of Raazmus. Cura and the Hermit just watched War Heart leave the room with his head down, as if he had been defeated. Cura walked beside War Heart, “What’s wrong?”, she asked with concern.

“I failed…”, War Heart replies with a hopeless tone.

“What do you mean? You beat the dragon, he’s gone.”

“I failed to protect you all… I don’t know how you survived but it isn’t my actions that kept you from harm.”

“Orion put up a barrier right before the blast hit us, but you didn’t know it was going to do that.”

“Still, I got cocky, I even let the beast take over…”

“You tried your best. That’s all anypony can really ask of you, you taught me that.”

“I guess I did…”

The Heroes exit the crypt. Orion looked over his scrolls once again, “It looks like there is only one Dragon Lord left… Barridamus… Supposedly he has been asleep for ages… He must be pretty powerful to survive so long… The map points to the southwest, to a cave on the edge of a mountain in the middle of the land.”

“Let’s get this over with…”, War Heart said wearily.

“You don’t sound too enthused…”, Orion said, commenting on War Heart’s mood.

“Just… Leave it alone.”, War Heart said in an irritated tone.

“Fine.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”, Cura asked, concerned for her large friend.

“I’m sure, I won’t bother anypony with my issues.”, War Heart walked faster, moving ahead of everypony through the deep snow. Cura was freezing once more from the cold. The Hermit walked by and offered her a ride. She hopped onto his back and hid in his ridiculously large green mane, keeping her warm. Orion and the Hermit walked on, following War Heart. They soldiered on through the snow, Orion shivered as the cold worked its way into his bones, “I swear that it got colder than last time we were out here.”

“The weather around here gets pretty erratic, encouraging a need to quickly adapt to anything at a moment’s notice.”, the Hermit explained to him, un-phased by the cold.

“How curious…”, Orion whispered to himself.

The rest of the journey seemed rather boring in comparison to the rest of their journey. They finally reached the cave of the Dragon Lord. The mouth of the cave was 8 feet in radius, stalagmites and stalactites along the edge, giving it an eerie look. War Heart was the first to step inside, hearing a squishing sound as he landed on the ground inside. “What the fir?”, War Heart said as he looked at his slimy hoof. He looked at the rest of the cave, beginning to smell something unsettling as a hot breeze blew past him. His eyes widened as a part of the ground moved from under him. He flew out right away, “It’s the Dragon’s mouth!”, War Heart shouted as he exit the colossal dragon’s jaws. The entire mountain and the area around it began to shake as the massive mound of dirt and rock crumbled around the Dragon. Its scales were pitch black and shiny and dotted with many pearly white stars. The dragon’s eyes were a bright purple that glowed even in the light of day. The heroes all watched in awe as the dragon roared to the skies, a guttural sound that tore through the air with the sounds of impending doom.

“Well, this is it… The final lord…”, War Heart said as he discarded his shields to allow himself to fly. He flew up to meet the dragon at eye level. The dragon stared at War Heart like one would like at an insect, “Are you the one that has awakened me?”, the dragon spoke with a booming and thunderous voice.

“I am War Heart, descendant of Pride Heart the Slayer, Protector of Ponyville, Hero of Equestria. I have come to slay you, to keep Equestria safe!”, War Heart shouted at the dragon, who scoffed at him.

“Then I will obliterate you with just my breath…”, Barridamus inhaled, taking several seconds to fill his lungs. War Heart brought out his axe and dove towards the massive maw of the dragon. War Heart watched as a mass of black stained energy amassed itself in the mouth of the colossal dragon. He stopped and threw his axe into the mass of dark energy in the jaws of Barridamus. The axe flipped through the air into the black mass, colliding with it and causing a shockwave that made it become unstable and begin to collapse in on itself, dragging in bits of the dragon into a centre the size of a pinhead. War Heart began to feeling a force pushing him towards the point that his axe collided with the mass. He tried to fly away but to no avail. He struggled against the flow as a rock came flying by and hit him square in the face, knocking him unconscious and flying into the pinpoint. Short seconds after they saw their friend disappear into nothing Cura screamed, “War Heart!”, her eyes widened as the black point in the sky disappeared. The remaining ponies stood there in shock, Cura collapsed to the ground, unable to believe her hero was gone. Hermit put a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Cura shed a few tears before letting her head hang down as melancholy took over. She headed towards home, not caring whether or not Orion or Hermit followed. Orion picked up the shield with bubbles upon it and hung it by the strap on his saddlebag. The trip was silent on the way back home. The aura of melancholy had them drained of energy. As they returned to Ponyville, three fillies ran up to them with excitement to see the heroes return, but with one missing. Cura and Orion went to town hall and talked to the mayor, telling her what happened. The mayor sent a message to Celestia who came immediately to Ponyville, however, the princess was informed of the fact only two ponies of the original three returned. “It’s wonderful that you returned, I must congratulate you… two?”, Celestia’s joyful tone turned to sorrow as she realised the truth of what must have happened. Orion explained to Celestia what War Heart did to slay the last Dragon Lord. Orion then went to War Heart’s home and knocked on the door. Ditzy Doo answered the door with a smile that turned to a look of concern as Orion put a shield on the floor with Ditzy Doo’s cutie mark on it. Orion left her to her sorrow and went back to his mare friend Apple Jack. Cura went back to Canterlot, she opened the door to her home and went straight to bed, not caring that it was the middle of the day. She sat there and cried, thinking of what War Heart taught her.

The cold feeling of raindrops tapped upon his face. His eyes opened slowly with his vision blurred. He sat up and looked around to see a world of grey buildings and dark skies. He laid in a small pile of trash bags and rolled out of the pile wearily, his head pounding. He braced his fall out of the trash, putting his hands to the ground. He heard a voice, “Hey, Man, You alright?”

Unex City, Here I Am

“Hey, Man, You alright?”, War Heart heard the voice of young male. War Heart looked up to see something with pale skin that stood on two legs, he held out his hand, offering to help War Heart up. War Heart took his hand and got up.

“Where am I?”, War Heart asked as he took in his surroundings.

“Well, I’d assume you’re down on your luck, the guy that probably mugged you took your clothes too.”, The young man took off his dark green coat and handed it to War Heart. The young man was slender and pale, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. War Heart took the jacket and tied it around his waist.

“Thank you, but where am I, really?”, War Heart asked him once again.

“Wow, that guy must have really hit you hard. You’re in Unex City.”

“Unex? Is that far from Canterlot?”

“Wow, you really got to lay down. I’ll take you back to my place and get you patched up there.”, He motioned for War Heart to follow him. War Heart walked wearily following the young man. The passed by an alley to see a man on the ground being kicked and stomped on by three other men. War Heart stopped at the entrance of the alley, watching the men brutally beat on the poor soul. The young man stopped to see if War Heart was following, he noticed War Heart was watching the man get mugged.

“Hey, dude, we gotta go.”, he called to War Heart, who ignored him and began to walk down the alley towards the three men. One of them stopped kicking at their victim when he noticed War Heart approaching, “Yo, get back if ya know what’s good for ya!”, the man walked a few steps towards War Heart. As War Heart got within reach of the other man, the man took a swing at him, landing his full force punch into War Heart’s gut. His smile turned to a look of despair as he realised his mistake of punching a man that was seven feet tall and looked to be about two hundred fifty pounds of muscle. War Heart did not even flinch at the punch and grabbed the mugger by the collar and lifted him clear off the ground, “I want you to stop hurting others… Got it?”, War Heart explained slowly.

“Screw you, man!”, the mugger shouted as he spit in War Heart’s face. War Heart flinched for a second that gave the mugger he was holding a death glare, then threw him into the wall, knocking the mugger unconscious on contact. War Heart walked over to the two muggers who just witnessed an example of War Heart’s power. They started to back away and run further into the alley, jumping a chain link fence and disappearing into the night. War Heart looked to the beaten man on the ground, “Are you alright?”, War Heart asked as the man backed up into the wall, a look of fear in his eyes. War Heat turned to the entrance of the alley and walked away, stretching out his wings slightly as he walked, then folding them back into place. The young man just motioned for War Heart to hurry up, they both ran along the deserted streets to small one-storey house that was a little rough around the edges. The young man unlocked the front door and opened it. Him and War Heart walked into a small hallway.

“Hey, Chris, I’m home.”, The young man shouted down the hall.

Another young man’s voice came down the hall, “Cool, did you bring anything back?”

“Yep.”

“Really?”, a young man that was pale, tall, and slicked back brown hair came down the hall. He sighed as he saw War Heart then spoke with a Scottish accent, “Kacey, I told ye that ye can’t bring homeless people here all the time, remember?”, He spoke to the young man who gave War Heart his jacket.

“Dude, he’s cool, he stopped a mugging earlier. Plus, we got jobs that we can use him for.”

“I don’t even know where I am, who says I’ll help you?”, War Heart interjected.

“Well, here in Unex, everyone always looks out for themselves. I’m one of those people that help people out when they need me to. Like taking out gangs and such. You look like you could make sure Chris here doesn’t get himself killed out there.”, Kacey explained to War Heart.

“So… You’re like heroes?”, War Heart tried to make sense of the situation.

“Well, we kind of are, we have had some rotten luck getting started.”, Kacey scratched the back of his head.

“I guess I can’t break my oath now.”, War Heart said to himself.

“See? He’s exactly what we need: big, tough, and noble.”, Kacey said to Chris, who was sizing War Heart up.

“Fine, we’ll show him the ropes tomorrow, but right now, get him some clothes.”, Chris told Kacey and turned around and head down the hall again. Kacey motioned War Heart into a room that was riddled with dirty clothes and dishes, pointing to a closet, “Take whatever you need and get some rest, we have work to do tomorrow.”

War Heart entered the room and opened the closet to many replicas of one type of jeans and plain black T-shirts. He put on a pair of jeans and a shirt, throwing the coat on the floor. He looked on the floor at the mattress, then went over and laid down on it, falling asleep, hoping he’ll wake up in the hospital at Canterlot.

War Heart opened his eyes to the light coming in from the boarded up window, squinting, he got out of bed. He walked over to the bathroom and looked at the mirror, noticing he kept his same hair colour: red and green. He walked into the hallway and headed into the living room where he saw Kacey with a laptop, “Hey, man, didn’t catch your name.”, Kacey stated, not even looking up from his computer.

“War Heart.”, he replied, Kacey looked at him with an eye brow raised.

“Pretty rad name.”, Kacey said, looking back to his computer.

“What are you doing?”, War Heart asked.

“I’m hacking the signals that phone calls and texts go along, so I can find out where we can find a gang meeting. If we find a place where there is a deal going on , we can seize their funds and use it to better prepare ourselves for future operations.”

War Heart was dumb-founded, not having a clue what he was talking about. Kacey then decided to dumb it down a little, “Go where I say, take the money and bring it here.”

“Okay then.”, War Heart pretended to understand.

“Oh, take this.”, Kacey grabbed a handgun from the coffee table beside him and threw it to War Heart. The gun fell into his hands, he stared at it in wonder, “What’s this?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”, Kacey raised an eyebrow at War Heart. Kacey’s face turned to an expression of surprise, then to one of curiosity, “Where are you from?”

“Equestria.”

“Sounds like a place from a little kid show… I’ve never heard of it before.”

“It’s pretty far from here… I guess.”

“Right, well Chris is waiting for you outside. He’s gonna bring you somewhere to stop a drug deal and seize their funds. Just listen to him and you’ll be fine.”

“Alright…”, War Heart put the handgun down on the couch and left. He opened the door to find Chris leaning against the wall, “Good, you’re up. Let’s go.”, Chris led War Heart to his car: an old beater with chipped dark green paint. They both sat inside and took off. They drove for about a half hour before parking near some old brick buildings with an alley way going in between them. They both walked down the alley and a man in a dark green suit walked out of the shadows, he was tan and average in height. His smile revealed a silver tooth, “Looks like you took the bait…”, he said as three guys came from behind him, armed with bats and pipes. Four more came from the entrance behind War Heart and Chris. All of them wearing hoods of dark green with a logo that read ‘Blunt Heads’, with a marijuana leaf behind it.

“Didn’t you know that playin’ hero gets you hurt?”, the man in the suit snapped his fingers, the three thugs walked forward, towards War Heart and Chris.

Chris got into a readied position, while War Heart turned to the four that came from the entrance of the alley. War Heart walked towards them, his red eyes fixed upon them with a stare that could kill. His sheer size was intimidating as he approached them. One of the thugs actually had the nerve to strike, swing his baseball bat at War Heart, closing his eyes as he swung. The thug felt the bat hit something and looked to see what he hit. War Heart stood there, bat in left hand. War Heart wound back and threw a punch into the thug’s face, knocking him out cold. War Heart tossed the bat aside and glared at the other three thugs who were cowering. Chris was fighting the other thugs, using a sort of martial arts to take each one down, usually breaking limbs as he took them down. At this point the man in the green suit was backing away slowly, seeing this was a bad idea. War Heart had taken care of the four thugs on his side, and Chris finished up with the other three, only the suit remained. War Heart and Chris approached the cornered man.

“Whoa, man, chill, I jus’ doin’ what I’m told!”, the suited man tried to plea for forgiveness.

“Well, maybe ye wouldn’t mind if we take your cash?”, Chris said in his usual accent. The man reached into his coat and threw down a brown leather wallet, “Take it, just leave me alone!”, the man said in a fearful tone. Chris wound back to punch the man in the suit out, finding himself stopped by a powerful force. War Heart had his arm in his grasp, shaking his head, “He’s given up, leave him.”, War Heart said, trying to keep Chris from losing his head. Chris pulled away from War Heart and picked up the wallet. Him and War Heart walked out of the alley, “Hey, thanks for stopping me. I really lost my head back there.”, Chris said to War Heart as they got back in the car, War Heart nodding in acknowledgement. Chris picked up his cell phone, “It was a trap, the blunts set us up.”, Chris spoke into the device while War Heart waited. A voice came from the device, not loud enough for War Heart to hear.

“Okay, where to now? … Unex hospital? Got it.”, He hung up the phone and drove off.

“Looks like a black market sale of organs is going down, we’re to get this guy into the car and drive away“, Chris showed War Heart a picture of a bald man with a goatee. War Heart nodded and stayed quiet.

They arrived at the hospital, they waited for about fifteen minutes, parked outside the entrance. The bald man walked out of the hospital, dressed in a red suit. Chris spoke up, “Okay, grab that guy and walk him over here to the car and put him in the back seat. War Heart nodded and got out of the car. He walked over towards the bald man, who froze as he saw War Heart, he turned to run, with briefcase in hand. War Heart sprinted after him, Chris following them both in the car. War Heart caught up with the man in seconds due to his better physical condition. He lifted the bald man into the air, “You’re coming with us.”, War Heart said as he opened the door to the car and tossed him inside. The three drove off, War Heart and the bald man in the back seat. Chris spoke up, “Okay, Ghoul, where’s your cash?”

“I’m not giving you anything.”, he said in a Romanian accent.

“If you don’t hand it over, I’ll let my buddy back there smash your face in the pavement.”, Chris threatened the man in all seriousness. The bald man looked up at War Heart, who stared back with his red eyes fixed on him. The man panicked as he opened his briefcase, within it was a decent amount of twenty dollar bills. He closed it and put it on the floor, “It’s yours, now please let me go…”

War Heart looked at the reflection of Chris in the rear view mirror, “Toss him out.”, Chris said as he pulled over. War Heart opened the door and threw the bald man out. The car drove off again.

“Are you going to explain what we’re doing to me?”, War Heart asked.

“Well, the guys in green were Blunt Heads, they own the drug trafficking ring in Unex. The guy we just ripped off was part of ‘The Coven’, they kidnap and kill people to drain their blood and remove their organs and set up a deal with the hospitals to sell them that stuff. Then there is the last and worst gang in Unex: The Damned. They do just about anything: Rape, assault, murder, robbery, you name it, they’ve done it. They are all just a stain on the already filthy concept of humanity.”, Chris explained to War Heart in a serious tone.

War Heart looked shocked, “What kind of people could lead such organizations?”

“Well from the Blunt Heads, is their leader Jacob Bruintall. He grew up in Unex and made a living pushing drugs he made as a chemist, he pumps himself with drugs to make him pretty much superhuman. Then there is Vladimir Roman: This guy is pretty weird in the fact he’s obsessed with vampires. He’s never seen outside during the day, rumours even tell that he drinks some of the blood that they get out of their victims. The last, but certainly not the least is the leader of the Damned: DeadBeast, nobody knows his name. He wears makeup to make dark circles around his eyes and make his face totally white. His teeth are all sharpened and his face and scalp are pierced. This guy is a real freak show but is accounted for over six hundred counts of murder, two hundred counts of rape, and four hundred fifty counts of armed robbery.”

War Heart’s mouth was agape, “How can one live in such a world?”

“Because we have no choice. That’s why me and my friend Kacey are trying to work against the gangs and make the world better, one shot at a time.”, Chris replied. He drove back to the house, they both got out of the car and head inside with their spoils.

Kacey was sitting on the couch with his laptop still. He looked up to see his two friends walk in the room and drop a briefcase on the old wooden coffee table in the middle of the living room. He looked at the briefcase for a moment in utter silence, then looked to Chris, “Are you f***ing crazy?”

“What?”, Chris replied in a victimized tone.

“We can’t use this anywhere, it’s stolen money and, even worse, belonged to the Coven and they probably have it marked and will be searching for it, did you at least kill the guy you took it from?”

“Jeez, the big guy wouldn’t let me!”, Chris gestured to War Heart.

“Why the hell not?”, Kacey questioned War Heart.

“It didn’t feel necessary…”, War Heart was firm in his position on the matter. There was a silence after that last statement. Kacey held his head in his hands, trying to think of a way to take care of the money.

“Ye know, the blood pit makes bets all the time. Why not have our lad here have a shot and we bet on him?”, Chris suggested.

“As much as I hate to resort to gambling… Fine, take him down there.”, He looked at War Heart, “Don’t worry, the people you’ll be up against are almost all in the for the blood, plus it’s an underworld thing so they are all criminals.”

“So what am I doing?”, War Heart was confused about what was going on.

“You are going to enter some bare knuckle boxing matches so we can get rid of this money. You really must be from some crazy fantasy universe if you’ve never even heard of blood sports.”, Kacey shook his head at the idea that War Heart was clueless about so much, “Just get in the ring, beat the guy until he stops moving, got it?”

“I guess.”, War Heart said, sounding uncertain. Chris took some money out of the briefcase and put it in his pockets, “Let’s go, boyo.”, Chris said with a smile on his face. They got in the car and drove down to the more derelict part of the industrial district. There were many rusted and run-down buildings. They came to a place where there was loud heavy metal music blasting and a crowd of people in a circle around two fighters. There was a platform that stood six feet above the crowd. A pale man who wore a tight leather sleeveless shirt, blue jeans and black canvas shoes. He also had red hair that was put into a Mohawk. He watched over the crowd as am overlord watched over his minions, giving off an indication that he was the boss here. Chris told War Heart to stay put while he went to talk to the guy in charge. War Heart stayed put as he watched Chris go up and talk to the man, then the man looked at War Heart and stroked his beard in thought, then nodded at Chris. Chris then went back to War Heart, “Okay so Marcus is gonna let ye fight, but the rules are different, seeing as you’re such a big fellow.”

“What are the rules?”, War Heart asked curiously.

“Well, it goes until either to take down every fighter, or until you black out. If you make it through this, you’ll get us our money cleaned.”

War Heart thought for a second, “Okay… I’ll do it.”

“’atta boy!”, Chris looked to the pale man and gave a thumbs up. The pale man nodded, then rose his hands to indicate that he needed silence. The roar of the crowd died within seconds as all eyes were on the man on the stand.

“It seems we got ourselves a new challenger for me blood pit. He says he wants to take on a lot of us. Five grand to the one who lands the knockout blow!”, the crowd cheered at the announcement, the air brimming with excitement and bloodlust. War Heart approached the center, Chris right behind him, the crowd clearing the way to the center where three men stood, all looking like they have had their fair shares of hits to the face. War Heart stood in a neutral position, arms hanging at his sides, he had a look of determination.

“Let the pits be filled!”, the pale man screamed as he hit a steel pot with a small mallet, indicating the fight has begun.

War Heart stepped forward towards the center of the ring, the other three fighters set up in fighting poses beginning to circle him like sharks that smelled the fragrance of spilt blood. War Heart made no move as they circled him, attacking first wasn’t how he did things. One of the men screamed as he ran at War Heart from behind, reminding War Heart of his fight in the jungles and how they attacked from behind. War Heart clenched his fist and spun around, swinging his fist into the face of the man that ran at him, sending a spurt of saliva and blood through the air as the fighter bowled over. War Heart shifted his position into a battle stance, getting ready for the next attack. The fighter shook his head before standing up, swaying a bit and then steadying himself afterwards. Another fighter ran at War Heart, also screaming as he swung at him. War Heart took the hit, which didn’t impact him too badly. War Heart turned to face the fighter, towering over him. The fighter started taking shots at War Heart’s gut, alternating between his left and rights hands. War Heart waited for a few seconds before quickly bringing up his knee into the fighter’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. The other two fighters both jumped on War Heart’s back and begin to punch his spine, War Heart was brought to his knee from the sudden weight on him. War Heart spun around again, swinging his elbow behind him, knocking one of the fighters loose. War Heart then reached back and grabbed the arm of the other fighter, throwing him to the ground with brutal force, knocking the wind out of that fighter as well. The fighter that War Heart had elbowed came back and went around to War Heart’s front to send a fist directly into War Heart’s face. War Heart was wide-eyed as he recoiled from the impact, then his face grew to one of rage as he slowly stood up and shot his gaze on the one who just struck him, sending fear into him and rattling the fighter’s nerves. War Heart wound back and sent his fist into the fighter’s face, a disturbing crack sound came from his face as blood sprayed out of the fighter’s now-shattered nose. The fighter hit the ground coughing up blood that was seeping from his nose, he crawled to the edge of the ring, indicating he was finished. There were two fighters left, one came behind War Heart and threw his fist into War Heart’s kidney, causing him to cringe in pain from the unexpected blow. War Heart turned in one fluid motion, forcing is clenched fist into the face of the fighter, causing more blood to spurt from his face as well as a tooth. The fighter laid on the ground immobilized and unconscious. The last fighter walked to edge of the ring, breathing heavily, showing that he was done. War Heart was the only one standing in the ring, the man on the stand clapped slowly in applause before saying, “Round Two!”

Four new guys entered the ring, all ready to take on War Heart, who was looking at them with rage. All the fighters charged at him, War Heart just walked towards them slowly. The first to reach him ended up with War Heart’s fist flying into his face, putting him down. The second jumped at War Heart, dropkicking War Heart in the chest, knocking War Heart backwards onto the ground. The other two ran up two War Heart and began to take shots at his face. The crowd roared with excitement as War Heart was getting beaten. War Heart tried to cover himself with his arms, in an attempt to block. Chris watched as he got beaten, pacing back and forth unsure of what the outcome will be. War Heart began to fade out, the darkness soon took him. He opened his eyes to see the Hermit, “What are you doing here, Hermit?”, War Heart asked in disbelief.

“Making sure you don’t get yourself killed. Get back in there, summon the dark part of you that dragon blood revealed and I can assure you that you will become invincible.”, the hermit explained in a serious tone.

“I suppose, to help others… I can do it, this one time…”, War Heart was looking down and then looked up to see a blinding light, forcing him to close his eyes again.

He opened his eyes once more, only seconds had passed. He slowly stood up to the surprise of the fighter in the center of the ring. War Heart looked down on him with a burning hatred and bloodlust in his eyes, a look that would inspire one to believe they were to be murdered in the most terrible ways possible. War Heart let out a War Cry before running to one of the three fighters, quickly punching him in the face and knocking him unconscious with a splatter of blood. He dashed over to the next one, kicking him in the chest with extreme power, sending him flying back a few feet and hitting the ground unable to breathe properly. War Heart closed in on the last one and grabbed the poor bastard by the throat, holding him up and screaming into his face, then throwing him into the ground. All three of the leftover fighters were out. Some bystanders dragged them out of the ring and even more fighters came in to the ring to face War Heart. He turned to them as the man on the stand shouted, “Round Three! Final Round!”, there was a total of seven fighters, all seasoned with scars.

“Sudden Death!”, The man on the stand screamed as the fighters took out bats, chains, boards of wood. Chris looked up and the man as if he’d been betrayed, with the man only looking own at him and grinning.

War Heart screamed again, his race turned red as his eyes. His fury could be felt in his voice as it was a herald of death for those who meant him harm. Two fighters with bats ran over at him. War Heart swung his fist into the chest of one, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the floor. The second swung his bat at War Heart’s gut, connecting the blow, forcing War Heart to recoil. As War Heart recovered, he took the other bat and swung low towards the other fighter, connecting the bat with the guy’s leg. A loud cracking sound came from the fighter’s leg as the bone pierced the skin on his thigh, which was followed by a scream of pain. Two more fighters ran at War Heart, armed with a chain and a plank of wood. War Heart threw the bat at the fighter with the chain, connecting the aluminum bat with the chain-wielding fighter’s nose. The chain-wielder dropped to the ground, holding his face. The other fighter ran over and cracked the board off of War Hearts leg, smiling briefly before looking up at the unamused giant that was War Heart. War Heart kicked him over, then kicked him again in the gut. The fighter writhed in pain, curling up into a little ball of agony. The last three fighters, all wielding baseball bats of aluminum, charged at War Heart. War Heart grabbed his most recent victim by the leg and swung him in a circle, smashing him into two of the other fighters and releasing after the impact, leaving the three into a crumpled mess of pain. The last fighter still charged at War Heart, about to swing at War Heart until he was stopped by the giant grabbing his weapon. War Heart pulled the bat away and threw it aside. War Heart kicked him in the chest and forced him to the floor. War Heart began to repeatedly punch the last fighter in the face, screaming as he did so, until the last fighter stopped trying to block. War Heart stood up with blood dripping from his knuckles. He turned to Marcus, the man on the stand who looked down approvingly, “Looks like we have a winner!”, Chris ran to War Heart.

“Nice work there, you’re a natural!”, Chris complimented as he pat War Heart on the back. War Heart said nothing and went back to the car, sitting inside, ashamed of what he let himself become. Chris collected the money from Marcus, shook his hand and went back to the car. “We made some decent cash today, War Heart. Here’s your cut.”, He handed some bills to War Heart.

“What do I do with these?”, War Heart asked.

“Well I don’t know, ye buy whatever ye want. Clothes, games, electronics, food, whatever. I could take you to see Malcolm if ye want something more black market.”

“I think I’ll just hold it for now, until I figure out some things first at least.”

“Okay, suit yourself.”, Chris replied as he drove off back home.

War Heart and Chris walked back into their run down home, Kacey waiting in the living room as usual, “Hey, War Heart, you apparently made the news since the other night. ‘Angel saves man’s life.’”, Kacey pointed to an article with a particularly inaccurate drawing of an angel. War Heart did not show a face of pride, but more of confusion, “What’s an angel?”, he asked.

“Well according to some old myths and religious stuff, they were holy beings of good that worked for some sort of deity.”, Kacey explained, now getting the idea that War Heart was obviously not of this world.

“How does that mean that they were talking about our boy War Heart? It’s not like the man can fly or nothin’”, Chris commented, thinking that the witness was probably crazy or high.

“Well, Chris, War Heart here, has wings.”, Kacey had an uninterested look about him, not even looking up from his laptop.

“No way, that’s impossible.”, Chris scoffed at the idea and looked at War Heart, assuming that he was in on the joke. War Heart’s face was serious as he locked eyes with Chris. War Heart lifted the back of his shirt up and let his wings unfold slightly, making sure he didn’t break anything in the room.

“I thought I was just seeing things when I saw you come out of the alley, take note that I was very intoxicated at the time and it was dark as well, this is why I didn’t comment on it earlier for fear that I may be losing my mind.”, Kacey explained his conundrum to the others in the room. Chris poked the black feathered wings on War Heart, “Can ye fly?”, Chris asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t tried.”, War Heart replied shrugging.

“Probably not a good idea right now anyway. We still have the Coven on our backs and no power to hide behind. We’d need some muscle and respect from the powers that be in the city.”, Kacey explained matter-of-factly, still not looking up from his computer.

“The man’s right, we need to get our names out there, pull off something to get respect. One thing they respect is strength, and to prove that, we got to issue a public challenge to one of the gangs.”, Chris was trying to throw an idea on the table, hoping Kacey would come up with a way to pull it off.

“I have a way for you to do that, but you will have to see Carls first and get some stuff. The money in the briefcase will be fine, leave the money from the blood pit here, Carls can hold that Coven money due to his deals with them, they won’t get suspicious.”, Kacey gave them their instructions, to Chris’ delight that his vague idea was made into a plan once more.

“All right, Kace, we’ll go there, but then what?”, Chris asked, clueless.

“I’ve intercepted a flurry of text messages all referring to a big rally for the gangs where they’ll be recruiting. It’s near the college, must be ripe with young idiots looking for some colours to throw on and make them think that they’re part of something ‘cool’ or something, retards, but necessary retards that we will need for our cause. Show up there, kill the gang lieutenants and announce your presence and that you’re looking for recruits, got it?”, Kacey looked at the other two, who were having trouble keeping up. Kacey rubbed his eyes, tired of having to deal with incompetence, “Go to the college, kill gangsters, recruit young people, comprende?”

“Got it.”, Chris said, winking at Kacey and giving him a thumbs up. Kacey rolled his eyes and went back to his laptop, tapping away at his keyboard. Chris pat War Heart on the shoulder, “Let’s go!”, Chris walked out the door and got into the car with War Heart. Chris put the car in gear and drove off again, putting on some Irish punk music. It was a good half hour before they stopped in front of an old warehouse. Chris picked up the briefcase full of money and walked up to the rusted metal door. He knocked three times and waited. After about a minute, a slit in the door opened at about eye level.

“Yeah, who be dis’?”, a man from within spoke in a strange accent.

“Oi, it’s Chris, lemme in Carls.”, Chris stood back a few feet and showed the briefcase full of money to the door. The slit quickly closed, Chris motioned for War Heart to come over. War Heart jogged over to Chris and they both waited for the door to open. A series of clicks and the sound of metal sliding against metal could be heard from the other side of the door. The door opened and out stepped a man that looked like was of Jamaican descent, “Chris, been some time, mon, who dis’ big boy?”, his voice was deeper than one would figure for his size. He wasn’t very big, or muscular. His hair was done up in dreadlocks, he wore a head band in tie dye colours and circular purple sunglasses. He took a drag from his cigar that smelled a bit funny. His eyes were reddened from the smoke. He wore no shirt that revealed a nipple piercing that was a silver ring with a skull that wore a top hat attached. His cargo pants were a tan colour like sands on a beach.

“This is War Heart, fella from outta town. We’re goin’ start a little war at the college.”, Chris smirked after his last statement. Carls smirked back.

“Den it looks like you need some bang for da party.”, Carls motioned them to come inside. They walked inside to a room that had many samples of guns and other weapons like bats, knives, chainsaw, and many others. War Heart wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do and just looked around in confusion. Carls looked at him with an eyebrow raised and finally exhaled the smoke from his drag from earlier, “Sometin’ wrong, mon?”

War Heart snapped to attention and looked at Carls, “I just have never done this before…”, War Heart admitted, somewhat mystified by the ridiculous amounts of weapons in the room.

“Relax, mon, dun worry, be happy. I’ll let ya ‘ave a freebie since it be ya first time ‘n’ stuff ‘n’ tings.”, Carls walked over to War Heart and sniffed in his direction, nodded and walked over to a table with some bladed weapons on it, he lifted a large sword with many runes inscribed into the three foot long steel blade. The design gave it a real artsy look to it, the handle was a foot long and made to look like the torso of a dragon made of ebony; the hand guard was made to look like a dragon’s head with the blade coming out the mouth; the pommel had what looked like a ruby that was held in place by the dragon’s table. Carls walked to War Heart and handed him the sword.

“Here, mon, dis be your blade.”, Carls said smirking at him. War Heart took the sword with a raised eyebrow.

“I got a replica from dat dragon slaya movie, sometimes da crazies like dat stuff.”, Carls justified his possession of such a wacky weapon. Chris walked over dragging two bullet-proof vests, an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a variety of belts to hold all the things needed (ammo and whatnot.) They put on all their gear while Carls counted the money in the briefcase from his leather chair on one end of the room. The shotgun was small enough for War Heart to be able to wield it with one hand. Chris had a pistol holstered on both of his thighs, his main weapon being his assault rifle. They were all suited up and ready to start their war.

“dun forget, dun worry, be happy!”, Carls shouted to them as they left the building. They got into the car and drove towards the college. War Heart was getting nervous, not knowing what he would be capable of should he get out of control with the shotgun in his hands. He began to sweat somewhat, closing his eyes. He returned to the blackness again.

“Back again? You sure are an uncertain one, are you?”, The Hermit spoke again to him.

“I don’t know if it’s right to use the blood. I can’t control myself, what if I hurt the wrong people?”

“Well, in the jungle, even one of concrete, there is no right or wrong, just points of view. You are the most evil thing to another, just like you consider them to be evil. Use the blood, and you will have immense power, but to use it well, you must understand the nature of the beast. There is no nobility, no good, no bad, it’s you, your pack, and everything else. The more you use the blood, the more you will understand things.”

War Heart awoke startled as Chris woke him up, “Hey, we’re here.”, Chris said as he got out of the car and walked towards the stands with the gangs’ colours showing. The Coven, disguising their gang as a ‘Vampire Role-playing Club’ the BluntHeads disguising theirs as a ‘Gardening and Chemistry Club’.

“Okay, War Heart, lets do this.”, Chris said as he slowly walked towards the booths, the gang members noticing him and recognizing the familiar face of Christopher the CrimButcher, renowned for killing over fifty criminals with his bare hands, and even more with firearms, a legendary hatred from a legendary man. The members of the coven and BluntHeads watched in fear as the vigilante approached with his homicidal grin. War Heart was following close behind him, brandishing his sword, a serious look on his face. The gang members numbered about a dozen from each gang.

“All righty, War Heart, will you take The BluntHeads, or The Coven?”, Chris asked him, making sure he was loud enough for the other gangs to hear.

“I’m thinking I’ll tear any apart that decide to stay here and fight.”, War Heart declared as he cracked his neck.

“I like yer thinking’ boy.”, Chris replied as he clicked the safety off on his assault rifle. The other gang members all took out their own weapons, ranging from bats and knives to pistols and Uzi’s. Chris and War Heart looked at each other, Chris still smiling, War Heart a little wide-eyed. They both dashed to the side in opposite directions, Chris taking cover behind other clubs’ booths made of wood, not perfect cover but sufficient to last for a little while. War Heart ran towards a bench of stone, kicking it over and laying down behind it for cover. A flurry of bullets flew around and past them, a deafening roar of gunfire echoing off the buildings. Chris was firing from behind his cover, winging a few Coven goons by spraying bullets at them blindly.

“Hey, War Heart, don’t let me steal the show now!”, Chris yelled to him, laughing somewhat. War Heart nodded, then propped up the stone bench using it as a makeshift shield and began to charge at the BluntHeads. The goons began to panic at War Heart’s inhuman strength, losing morale quickly as he approached, some of the members wielding bats and knives charged towards him. War Heart collided with one of the five stupid enough not to dive out of the way, throwing down the stone bench and crushing him. He had his sword in hand and waited for them to make the first move. One of the Blunts lunged at him wielding a butterfly knife, jabbing war Heart in the side, only to be stopped by a bullet proof vest. War Heart grabbed the Blunt’s arm and twisted violently, breaking the arm and throwing him into another Blunt goon. One of the three left swung at War Heart with an aluminum bat, hitting War Heart in the knee which forced him to the ground. War Heart swung his sword in a moment of panic and cleaved through the man who struck him. War Heart looked to see the damage, he cut into the man’s neck, leaving a shocked expression on the goon’s face. War Heart heard an advance on him from behind and quickly grabbed his shotgun, swinging around and blasting the Blunt in the chest, blowing him back as bits of buck shot tore through his chest. Yet another Blunt advanced on War Heart, this one wielded a machete. War Heart spun to face his attacker, parrying this machete with his sword. War Heart kicked forward and knocked back the Blunt then slashed open his chest while he tried to maintain balance. War Heart smirked for a second before feeling a powerful force hit him in the gut. A Blunt stood there with pistol drawn. War Heart’s heart pounded for what to him seemed like forever but was really only an instant. He looked up at the one who just shot him with a ravenous look in his eye. War heart bolted at the blunt, throwing down his weapons as he charged. The Blunt panicked and attempted to run, leaving his comrades. War Heart leaped into the gathering of six blunts, all of the armed with guns but no ammo left, they only had their fists to depend on. War Heart grabbed one by the neck and lifted him into the air, then slammed his face into the pavement, painting the ground with blood. He grabbed another on by the collar and threw him into the floor, knocking the wind out of him before War Heart raised his leg and brought his foot down onto the Blunt’s head, causing it to splatter into a bloody mess from the force. The other four all jumped onto War Heart at the same time, trying to overwhelm him. War Heart threw himself backwards onto the ground, crushing them beneath him. Three were unconscious from hitting their heads, one was only disoriented, trying to sit up. War Heart got up and grabbed him by the hair then grabbed a pistol from the ground. Holding it by the barrel, he proceeded to repeatedly bash the face of the Blunt who could not do anything against the powerful force that was War Heart’s wrath as his face began to crack and break, becoming more brutalised with each blow until he ceased to live. War Heart threw the gun aside and looked to the one that was running away, almost half a block away. War Heart threw off the bullet-proof vest and spread his wings. He jumped and took flight, soaring towards the unlucky Blunt. War Heart’s victim looked back to see a silhouette gliding towards him, and beginning to overtake him. The Blunt tripped and fell to the ground terrified of what was to come, he was in tears knowing this was his end. He shut his eyes and curled up into a ball, waiting for his end. He heard a thump, he felt the impact on the pavement. Seconds passed, he looked up to see War Heart, staring down at him with those sanguine eyes, judging him. The Blunt quickly unzipped his hoodie and threw it aside, “Yo, man, I’m done. It’s cool, I’m going home.”, he said hurriedly and began sprinting away shirtless. War Heart just stared at him, then turned back and flew back to the college, the fighting had stopped and Chris was surrounded by a large group of young people that one would assume were part of the college.

“We’re an organization that is dedicated to taking the city back from the gangs that act like they own the place. Anyone wanting to sign up talk to me or me friend there.”, Chris pointed to War Heart, who was still shirtless and had his wings spread. The crowd looked at him in awe, mystified by the fact he had wings. A random young man from the crowd shouted, “What do you guys call yourselves?”

War Heart looked down and thought for a second then looked to the crowd, “We are ‘The Last Heroes’”, War Heart announced. He looked towards the city of skyscrapers and spoke to himself, “Unex City, Here I am…”

It has been a few days since the heroes came back from the land of dragons. Twilight Sparkle had been told by Orion about Barridamus. She surveyed her library for all she could on the ancient dragon, but she had no luck in finding anything in all her library. She decided that she would need to go to the Canterlot archives and search for this. It was dawn, the sky was a bright orange from the sunrise. She went to her dragon assistant, Spike. She awoke him in a gentle manner, nudging for him to awaken so she could send her letter to Celestia, which held a request to gain entry into the Canterlot archives.

“Spike, I need you to send this letter.”, Twilight spoke with urgency but in a hushed voice.

“What time is it?”, The baby dragon wearily asked.

“That’s not important, I just need you to wake up for a minute to send this letter.”

“Fine…”

“Thank you, Spike.”, Twilight levitated the letter over to Spike, who inhaled, then sent forth a puff of green flame that engulfed the letter and sent it away in a poof of smoke.

“I need to gather some things, I’ll be leaving Ponyville for a while.”, Twilight said as she put on her saddlebags, looking back at the baby dragon who already fell back into his slumber. She smiled and rolled her eyes before leaving the library. Twilight decided that she should tell all her friends that she was leaving to Canterlot so they wouldn’t think she disappeared or anything. Twilight’s first stop was Sweet Apple Acres, to see AppleJack and Orion. She trotted up to the front door and knocked. A large red stallion with orange mane answered, “Eeyup?”

“Big Macintosh, is Applejack here?”

“Eeyup…”, he motioned for Twilight to come inside and led her their dining room/ kitchen area. Applejack and Orion were sitting at the table eating apple pancakes, an idea they got from War Heart’s original dish.

“How’s it goin’, Sugarcube?”, Applejack greeted Twilight.

“Yes, what are you doing here?”, Orion asked curiously.

“Well, I came over to tell you that I’ll be leaving Ponyville for a while.”

Applejack seemed rather shocked, “Yer leavin’, why?”

“It’s only for a week or so Applejack, sorry I left out that detail.”

“Ya gave me a scare there for a second. Have fun in… Where you goin’?”

“Canterlot. I need to look in the Archives for something that wasn’t in the library.”

“Oh, well then have fun readin’, Twilight.”

“I hope I will, Bye, Orion, Bye, Applejack.”, Twilight left the house and walked towards Ponyville, heading towards Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow Dash, who was laying down on a cloud above, spotted Twilight, wondering what she was doing out so early.

“Hey, Twi!”, Rainbow Dash shouted.

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash, “Oh, Hi, Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash flew down beside Twilight, “What are you doing out so early?”

“I was going to say farewell to you and my other friends and tell you guys I was going to Canterlot.”

Rainbow Dash responded to this as Applejack did, “Why are you going back to Canterlot!?”

“I’ll only be gone for a week or so, I’m not leaving forever.”

“Oh, okay then.”

“Actually, Dash, could you tell anypony that asks where I am, that I am in Canterlot, I have a train to catch.”

“Sure, Twi, no problem.”

“Thanks, Dash.”, Twilight said as she ran towards the train station. Taking the first train to Canterlot.

Twilight got off the train in Canterlot and walked towards the castle. Upon her a arrival, Princess Celestia was waiting there to greet her, “Hello, my faithful student.”, Celestia greeted in her usual regal and enchanting voice.

“Hello, Princess, did you receive my letter?”, Twilight was hopeful that she would be allowed into the archives.

“Yes, I’m giving you full access to them. Just be careful, the place is old and almost nopony goes in there anymore.”

“I’ll be careful, Princess.”, Twilight trotted inside the castle and into the courtyard. She then walked up to a door that was old and wooden, it creaked open into a dark and musty room. Twilight coughed from the dust in the air. She opened the door more and tried to let the room air out. She used her magic to create an air current to speed things along. After playing house keeper for about a half hour, Twilight made the room tolerable to stand in. She used the glow of her horn to let her see the titles of the books she peaked at. Eventually she found a book on the ancient dragon lord Barridamus. The book stated that he was called the galaxy dragon, or the eternal dragon. Apparently, he was one of the first dragons and his breath attack was strange in that it was not an element that anypony was familiar with, that it seemed to alter gravity itself.

“Okay, well this is no help… I was hoping that it would let me know what it was and how it works…”, Twilight continued to pull books off the shelves until one she noticed was much lighter than it should be. She looked at the title which read, “Science: For Dummies”, Twilight opened the book to see the center of it cut out, with a peculiar device in the center of the cut out. The device was an unpainted iron cube with a purple half-sphere button on top of it. Twilight levitated it out of the book and placed it on the floor in the middle of the room, “What’s this?”, Twilight wondered as she looked at it in curiosity. She walked over to the device and pressed the button. A green holographic set of words popped up above the device. Twilight read the words aloud, “’I have no hope of learning what I need. I call upon you to help with my great deed’?”, Twilight’s eyebrow raised. The words disappeared as the device unfolded, the button glowed purple and metallic arms spread out and began to rotate and glow with energy. Twilight stepped back, unsure what she had just done. Arcs of electricity crackled through the air above the device. A sudden blast of light forced Twilight to look away from the device momentarily before she looked back to see a stallion earth pony standing there with a dark grey coat, a vest, goggles, and a purple mane.

“Did somebody say, Deus Ex Machina!?”

Battles and Bonds

War Heart opened his eyes to a new day. He got out of bed and walked over to his window, this place he was looking at was familiar to him, he was home. He looked down to notice he had hooves again. His face lit up as he burst out the door of his room and ran into the main room of his shield hall, a plate of steaming pancakes waiting on the table for him, but only one plate. He looked around, now somewhat confused. “Ditzy, where are you?”, he raised his voice slightly, calling out to her. He ran over to the front door, ready to run out and search for her. He crashed through the door with ease to find himself fall several feet down and hit a stone floor. He looked around him and saw only the cold walls of stone, the cold enveloping him in a feeling of hopelessness. He stared at the ground, losing his confidence, trying to live with the fact, he will never go home, never see her, never know what would have happened if he decided to stay instead of going on a suicide mission. A small piece of the ceiling in the cave broke away, the light shining directly on War Heart, he looked towards the blinding light, he saw a silhouette of a mare, he couldn’t quite make out who it was, but he thought it was Ditzy. War Heart tried to fly towards the light, only to feel something tug on his wing. He heard the rattling of chains, he looked down to see he was chained to the floor. He landed and tried pulling on the chain to no avail. He stopped for a moment, beginning to lose hope once more.

“You’ll never return at this rate…”, the mare’s voice echoed throughout the cave, it wasn’t recognizable who it was, but it inspired War Heart. He got up and tried flying again, he was pulled back again by the chains. He kept pulling, more chains shot from the floor as his determination turned to rage as he was pulled back more, losing altitude slowly but surely. As he was forcibly returned to the ground the light from above began to eclipse, as if something were closing the way out slowly. The all-consuming darkness began to creep towards him as the light went away. His rage turned to fear as he futilely struggled to get free. He reached towards the light with his front hoof as the last of the opening had shut. He froze, he laid down as he felt all he cared for slip away, the darkness still creeping on him, then consuming him.

War Heart woke up, the dream inspiring a new bout of depression in the new day. He stood up, wearing his jeans from the day before. He walked out to the main room, many people riddled about the floor, the room reeking of alcohol. “Right, I forgot about the party…”, War Heart whispered to himself as he walked to the kitchen. He sat down on a stool at the counter.

“These dreams are becoming a nuisance…”, he told himself. He looked over to a bottle full of a yellow liquid, he turned it to look at the label.

“Olaf’s Sack Mead…”, he read the label and noticed that a post-it note was stuck to the bottle. He took it off and read it, ‘War Heart, you really need to cut loose, drink up, Chris.’, War Heart chuckled as he crumpled the paper and put it on the counter. He took off the cap of the bottle and took a drink, tasting the sweetness of the honey-wine. He recalled the time he shared his mead with his friends in Ponyville, smiling at the good memories of that night. He looked around the room to see Kacey in the armchair, his head tilted down, hands still on his laptop.

“That guy spends too much time on that thing…”, War Heart whispered to himself as he took another drink. War Heart walked over towards the TV and turned it on to the news and then went to his room and got dressed. He thought he may as well get ready since he’s no longer grounded. War Heart developed a new taste for longer range weapons as of late, he learned the hard way that being shot isn’t very enjoyable. He felt like he had more control of himself when attacking from a distance, not getting too emotional about. His biggest problem being that he would lose his temper, and totally lose it to the point where he would brutalise an opponent long after they were dead. His new arsenal consisted of dual revolvers of ridiculous size, due to his own ridiculous size and strength, he could wield them without much trouble. He kept his sword in case anyone decided to get to close. He always had a vest under his shirt, in case he was outside and someone decided to take a shot at him, it wouldn’t be fatal. He was all suited up after about a minute. He walked back into the main room, the TV showing a gathering of people, dressed in the usual BluntHeads Green, all marching the streets. War Heart turned up the volume to hear the audio of the story.

“It seems that recent events have driven one of the local organization to mobilise and claim the streets by force. It seems that the leader of the BluntHeads has appeared to issue a challenge to The Last Heroes, a new group that has been on the rise as of late, lead by the infamous Angel of War.”, the news caster spoke in the usual tone of reporters.

“Angel of War…? Nice name…”, War Heart said as he went to Kacey and nudged his leg with his foot.

“Hey, Kace…”, War Heart whispered and pointed to the TV.

“Oh…”, Kacey sat there for a moment in thought. “I guess we should get mobilised…”, Kacey was monotonous in his speech, as usual. He type away on his keyboard a bit.

“Satellite footage show that there are approximately three hundred and fifty-three Blunts, with seven generals and then there is also Mr. Bruintall. This doesn’t look very good for us, we don’t have nearly enough people to pull this off in open warfare… We’ll have to play this one a bit sneaky and or dirty.”, Kacey explained the situation to War Heart, who was looking at everyone passed out on the ground.

“They really could have picked a better time to do this…”, War Heart commented, noticing how everyone had been drinking last night, heavily…

“Well, I guess I should put on some coffee and pull out the set of headsets for the fire teams. We’ll have each squad leader be equipped with a headset to receive instructions from me. We have sixty members so that’ll be a dozen fire teams, I may also have to call in my sister for this…”

“Sister?”, War Heart raised an eyebrow at this new piece of information.

“Yes, she became a professional mercenary, she’ll take the job for a discount since I have done work for their organization in the past…”

“Technician… Hacker…?”, War Heart tried to guess what his job was.

“Assassin…”, Kacey replied as he tapped at his keyboard.

War Heart’s mouth went agape as he tried to imagine Kacey being some kind of ruthless killer. He then stopped trying and then had a question, “So how much would a discount be?”

“Approximately, one million…”, Kacey looked up from the keyboard, “… Per squad they send.”

War Heart’s eyes widened, “… We have that kind of money, right?”

“Nope, but when we take the BluntHeads out, we’ll have plenty to pay the mercs with.”, Kacey explained as he went back to tapping away at the keyboard.

War Heart inhaled deeply, then sighed, the stress of the situation starting to get to him.

“I suggest you begin waking our ‘army’ while I do this…”, Kacey told him while continuing to type.

War Heart started nudging all the heroes to wake them from their drunken slumber. After a few minutes he woke most of them, the ones who were now awake waking the others as well. War Heart looked around for Chris, noticing he was not in the main room. He walked over to the door to his room and knocked, “Hey, Chris, we gotta get up…”, War Heart received no reply. He opened the door, Chris was on a mattress on the floor, the room a total mess and he was accompanied by two young women in his bed. War Heart walked over to a dress and threw a pair of pants at Chris, who slowly looked towards War Heart with one eye barely open.

“What is it?”, Chris asked, barely awake.

“We have trouble, Bluntheads are taking the city by force…”

Chris paused for a moment, staring at the ceiling, as if he were weighing his options, “You can take’em.”, he said as he put his head back on the pillow, closing his eyes again.

War Heart rolled his eyes, “I’ll drag your ass out of bed if I have to.”

Chris sighed, “Fine, I’m up, I’m up…”, he sat up and yawned as War Heart left the room, closing the door behind him.

War Heart now beheld a room full of heroes, all enjoying a moment of interaction before the bloodshed was to begin. Kacey called over twelve of them and told them to get into groups of five. He also gave each of the twelve a headset.

“I’m here to inform you all that the BluntHeads are declaring open war on us. Today we will fight with them on the streets of Unex… You will be split into groups and receive orders from me directly or from War Heart if and when he arrives at your position.”, Kacey spoke to them, looking directly at them the entire time.

“Then let’s take those Blunts down!”, a random member of the group shouted, which resulted in all of the group cheering, basking in the newfound morale. They all ran out of the room and down to the parking garage under the building, loading into the vans the crew usually got around in. War Heart put on a headset like the others and walked out on to the roof. He stepped to the edge and lowered himself to one knee, watching The Last Heroes take to the streets in their vans. War Heart dove off the building and spread his wings, taking flight.

“War Heart, I need you to head to the docks, there are about fifteen blunts, unarmed. We need to take out as many as possible.”, Kacey spoke to War Heart through the headset.

“Alright, I’m on it.”, War Heart turned towards the ocean, flying towards it. He arrived within minutes, spotting the green hooded Blunts. He descended and landed in front of them. They all backed up a bit, intimidated by War Heart’s reputation of brutalising his opponents. War Heart walked towards them slowly, staring the one at the front in the face. War Heart stopped about twelve feet away, “Come get some…”, he taunted, motioning them to come get him. One of the blunts started to pull out a switchblade. War Heart pulled out his revolver, “No weapons now… Drop it or I’ll take three of you out with one shot…”

The Blunt froze in place, he opened his hand, dropping the knife. War Heart held his gun at his side, then dropped it. He smirked while looking at them, “Three…”, a look of fear struck the Blunt’s faces as they backed away from War Heart.

“Two…”, War Heart counted down and held his arm towards them pointing his index finger at them as if he were pointing a gun at them.

“Fire!”, War Heart shouted as the Blunts were mowed down by a flurry of bullets from automatic weapons, held by a group of the Last Heroes that were nearby. War Heart chuckled, blowing on his index finger as if it were a smoking gun. He picked up his pistol and placed it in his holster. He walked over to the captain of the fire team that helped him out, “Nice work, let’s keep going.”, he ordered the group and pointed north up the street. The heroes obeyed as they ran up the street towards their next objective.

“Alright, War Heart, some of our guys are in some trouble, Two squads, they’re surrounded, they need you to flank them. One block north, two east.”, Kacey spoke from the headset again.

“How long before the mercenaries get here?”, War Heart asked, thinking that this may impact battle plans.

“I’m still negotiating the contract with them. It’ll be a while.”

“Well, we don’t have a while.”, War Heart said in mid flight, coming into view of the two squads in trouble. They hid behind their vans, which one was toppled on its side. The Blunts seemed to be armed with only pistols but there were thirty of them. War Heart landed on a nearby building, looking down on the area. He flew down behind one squad of the Blunts, walking up to a nearby car and tore the door off. He held it in front of him like a shield, crouching and taking out one of his revolvers. He approached silently compared to the constant gunfire going on. He was two cars away before one of the Blunts turned around and began firing on him, the bullets hitting the car door. War Heart dove behind one of the cars, taking cover from the hail of bullets, “Well, so much for sneaking up on them…”, He said as he threw the door aside and pulled out his other revolver. He waited for a pause in the gunfire, where they had to reload. Bullets flew past him, then he couldn’t hear that group shooting at him anymore, it was time. He dove out of cover, rolling to his feet, sprinting at them, screaming. He held his revolvers forward, pointing at the Bunts, firing at them, forcing them to try and take cover behind their cars. War Heart only let off six bullets before he noticed they were diving to the other side of their cars. He holstered them and kept sprinting to the car, stopping when he reached it and flipping it over onto them using his brute strength, crushing them. He pulled his revolvers out once more and shot the other four who were still busy reloading. War Heart took cover behind the car that was adjacent to the one he flipped over.

“Maybe I should have taken a machine gun, this is ridiculous…”, War Heart told himself while reloading his revolvers. War Heart shot at another group of Blunts, who returned fire almost instantly. A squad of Heroes jumped out from behind covering, charging towards the Blunts War Heart was firing at, flanking them, all of them armed with assault rifles. Two heroes went down in the charge, being shot by the Blunts on the other side of the intersection. Two of the squads were down, only one on the block left, ten Blunts left to smoke. War Heart reloaded his revolvers again, this being the last of his shots, he had to make them count. He sprinted away and took flight, flying up to the building on the Blunt’s right’s roof. He stood there and shot down at them, turning their attention on him, bullets whizzing past him, he stopped shooting and dropped his revolver as he was hit in the shoulder, “Gah! Son of a birch!”, he screamed while clutching where the bullet hit his vest, pulling the bullet out. The Blunts below were massacred by the Heroes who got the drop on them. They all stood on the cars and cheered in victory. War Heart flew down and hovered above them, “The skirmish is done, but theres still a battle to be won, get moving!”, War Heart shouted to them.

The heroes all cheered once more and ran down the street to the north. War Heart went to one of the injured heroes, taking his gun, “Kacey, we got two injured down here.”, War Heart spoke into the headset.

“Leave them, I’ll have Chris help them out.”, Kacey spoke once more.

“He still hasn’t left, has he?”, War Heart covered his face with his hand.

“Nope…”, Kacey replied.

“Great, Where to next?”, War Heart asked.

“Keep heading north, then kill any Blunts you see, the fights seem to be going rather well, which somewhat leaves me uneasy…”

“Well, we’ll deal with whatever happens, today, the BluntHeads will die. When is your sister going to be here with reinforcements?”

“Well, I’m not going to sugar coat it, she is a bit of a stubborn bitch, but I am finalizing the details.”

“… It baffles me how you can say such things with absolutely no… feeling.”

“Deal with it.”

War Heart looked at the injured young man, “Help is coming, hang in there.”

The young man coughed up some blood, “Nah, I can keep going, it’s only a flesh wound.”, he said smirking. He slowly tried to stand and picked up a pistol from a nearby dead Blunt before collapsing again. War Heart leaned him up against a car, “Just stay put, that is an order.”, War Heart stated firmly.

The young man stood up again, “No, I got a fight to get to.”, he said as he began walking north. War Heart watched the kid walk, it reminded him of himself, determined to protect everyone. Their cause was known to its members, to stop those who mean the city harm. War Heart walked up behind the kid then abruptly hit him on the back of the head with his gun, knocking him unconscious, “You’ve done your part…”, War Heart whispered as he dragged him back to the vans and leaned him against them. War Heart ran again and took to the sky, flying north. On the way he saw more bodies of Blunts, and some Heroes. The war was getting to be more and more tense. The heroes had lost almost half of their members, they were getting forced back into one big group, thirty-four in total, they were pushed into a corner. They managed to take cover behind cars that were parked along the streets. War Heart flew overhead, watching their morale fail. On the Heroes’ side there were thirty-four and War Heart, The Blunts were outnumbering them with about one hundred on this street alone. War Heart flew to the back of the group of Heroes. Four of them looked to him as he landed, War Heart returned their look with one of determination, and nodded. War Heart walked up the middle of the street, shooting off a few bursts of bullets at the enemy as he walked.

A new voice came on to the radio, “Strike teams, inbound. Let’s party!”, it was a woman’s voice. War Heart put on a look of confusion, then looked behind him to the west as he saw a jet flying in his direction. They flew directly overhead dropping some sort of contraption on their way, lining up five of them, each one the size of a van. They shot metal panels off them, revealing heavily armoured soldiers bearing an insignia on their chests and backs of a half black, half white circle. A young woman with turquoise hair, green eyes, and a smile on her face walked out of one the pods. Her hair reached her shoulders and she had an athletic physique. She was equipped with a large anti-material rifle, while wearing a uniform like the others but one that showed off her figure. She smirked at War Heart, who was approaching her.

“Quite an entrance, right?”, she said in a mildly flirtatious tone. War Heart didn’t say a word and walked right past her, rifle in hand.

“We have a battle to win.”, War Heart said as he passed her.

She paused for a moment, noticing he didn’t even pay any attention to her, “What, is he gay?”, she whispered to herself as she ran down the street with her sniper in hand.

At this point the mercenaries were doing almost all the fighting, not even having to take cover from the pathetic bullets that were being shot at them, not even strong enough to pierce their armour. The Blunts were getting pushed back towards their main building, Greenview Plaza. It had gardens with many concrete planters the Blunts could hide behind. War Heart watched as the Blunts were now wielding stronger weapons, causing the mercenaries to take cover. There were still about a hundred of them hiding throughout the gardens. The towering structure before them housing their leader. War Heart looked up at the tower, the young woman looked at him and then the tower.

“Are you seriously thinking about going up there?”, she asked.

“I’ve got to end this, or more of our people will be killed than necessary…”, War Heart said as he threw down his rifle, then his revolver.

“And you’re going to do that without a gun.”, she added sarcastically.

“Yes.”, War Heart replied as he took off his vest and threw down his sword. He jumped upwards and flew up towards the top of the tower. He dove through the large window, shattering it. He rolled to his feet to see a man in the center of the room. He was six feet tall and slightly tanned. He wore a sleeveless white undershirt and green dress pants. He was bald and had a thick moustache. There were seven men standing on the other side of the room, all in green suits.

“Angel of War… I was wondering if I would have the pleasure of making your acquaintance.”, the man in the center spoke while looking at War Heart.

“If by that, you mean dying by my hand, then the pleasure is all mine…”, War Heart spoke in a mocking tone while cracking his neck.

The man chuckled, “You really think you can challenge me?”

“I know I can. Come on Bruintall, let’s do this!”, War Heart charged at Jacob Bruintall. Jacob put his hand on the back of his neck, “Releasing power augmentation level one.”

War Heart was about to swing a punch at him, “Huh?”, War Hearts punch missed Jacob, resulting in him losing his balance. Jacob thrust his fist into War Heart’s gut, hitting him with inhuman force. War Heart backed up a bit, coughing.

“Nice try, but I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than that to beat me.”, Jacob taunted War Heart.

“Right… Better… Right…”, War Heart ran towards Jacob again. Jacob readied himself for another punch. War Heart swung again towards Jacob’s face. Jacob ducked out of the way, then threw his own punch on War Heart’s face. War Heart once again was forced back by the blow. He cringed as he felt himself become angered slightly.

“No, I can’t lose it now, I have to do this on my own…”, he thought to himself as he charged again, swinging his fist like a hammer towards Jacob’s neck then uppercutting with his other hand. Jacob dodged the hammer fist swing, but dodged into the uppercut, taking its brutal force in full. Jacob stumbled backwards a bit from the blow.

“Nice move, kid.”, Jacob said as he got back into his boxing pose. War Heart charged again and started throwing more punches at Jacob. Some punches landed, and others were countered. They exchanged blows for a few seconds before another pause in the fight came.

“It looks like you’re strong enough to handle level one, commendable, but I have two levels left to go, you’ll never win.”, Jacob smirked as he put his hand on the back of his neck, “Releasing power augmentation level two.”, Jacob’s muscles grew larger. War Heart ignored it and swung at him again, landing the punch in Jacob’s face, then another to his gut. War Heart smirked and then looked at Jacob’s face to see him smiling. Jacob trusted his fist into War Heart’s gut, pushing him back and knocking him to the ground.

“… Ow…”, War Heart said as he sat up, cringing in pain, “Quite a punch you got there…”, he said as he stood back up, feeling his anger rise again, “Damn it, I can’t let it take control…”, he thought as he struggled against his growing rage.

“Not many can take that punch, in fact, I think you’re the first that survived it. Too bad you won’t be able to brag later.”, Jacob cracked his knuckles, and readied himself in his boxing stance once more.

War Heart ran towards Jacob again, he swung his arm back to make a punch. Jacob prepared for the punch, but the punch never came. War Heart jumped at Jacob feet first, dropkicking him with all his weight and inertia. This knocked Jacob over, both fighters were on the ground.

“Gotcha.”, War Heart mocked as he stood back up.

“Far from getting me, you little punk. Releasing Power augmentation level three.”, he put his hand on the back of his neck again, his muscles growing even larger and his skin turning red.

War Heart’s eyes widened as his opponent grew much larger, the only thought going through his mind as Jacob swung his fist at War Heart being “Oh shi-!” as he barely dodged the most likely fatal punch.

Jacob swung again, War Heart narrowly jumped out of the way once more, backing up bit by bit.

“If you keep moving, it’ll only be worse for you, kid.”, Jacob said in an angered tone that was deeper from the augment.

“Fine, I’ll let you take a free shot… Baldy…”, War Heart smirked and stood ready in his fighting stance. Jacob became enraged, charging towards War Heart and thrusting his fist into War Hearts gut.

War Heart coughed up some blood, there was a moment of silence. His head shot up, a deceptive grin on his face, “Gotcha…”, War Heart whispered as he had Jacob’s fist in his grasp, pulling him with all his might backwards, causing Jacob to lose his balance and fall forward trying to catch himself, ending in the both of them falling out the broken window. War Heart looked Jacob in the face as they fell, “Later…”, War Heart said mockingly as he spread his wings and hovered while Jacob fell to the ground below, creating a crater on his thunderous impact. War Heart wiped the blood from his face, smiling.

“I did it… I beat him on my own.”, War Heart whispered to himself as he looked up towards the sky to see the clouds part slightly to let the sun through. He basked in its warmth and the hope it brought him, “I will go home… Some day… But until I find a way, I have work to do…”

Meanwhile, in Equestria, Fizz attends a party held in his honour by a very enthusiastic pink pony. He walked into Sugar Cube Corner to find the party in full swing. He walked to the food tables and appraised all the delightful treats that lay before him.

“Hmm… What to choose…?”, He asked himself as he stroked his chin with his front hoof in thought.

“Howdy there.”, A mare spoke in a western accent from behind him, he turned around to see Applejack.

“Ah, Hell, Loh, There, Ahh, Pull, Jack.”, Fizz spoke slowly, assuming she was a bit slow, but only to receive an odd look.

“Uh, are you okay?”, Applejack asked.

“Oh… Yes, I’m fine.”, Fizz stated, pretending nothing happened.

“So, what brings ya to Ponyville?”

“Oh, you know, scientific conundrums; factors of time and space; a quest to save somepony from a terrible fate, that whole thing.”

Fizz was once again given an odd look, “Well, okay then, have fun.”

“Indeed, I will!”, Fizz replied then turned around again, “Lucky me that she didn’t ask how I knew her name.”, he returned to deciding on which pastry to eat, examining each one closely.

“I assume you are not from around here.”, another mare spoke from behind Fizz. He turned to the source of the voice to see Rarity.

“Oh, the tasteful one. I was wondering when you would show up.”

“Excuse me? Have we met?”, Rarity asked.

“Oh, ummm, well, no, but I can tell by your mane alone that you must be a mare of more refined tastes.”

“Oh, well thank you for noticing, not many ponies take note of my mane. May I say you dress very well yourself. Your vest is fantastic, although I think you may want to lose the goggles.”

“I’ll take a note of it, now if you’ll excuse me I have to… Find Twilight…”, Fizz shimmied away from Rarity. He walked among the guests of the party, looking for Twilight. He passed by a table with many drinks, of the non-alcoholic variety. He took a sip from one and shuddered, “Gross…”, he looked around to see if anyone was watching as he took out a small glass bottle filled with clear liquid. He poured a little bit in nonchalantly, only to have it slip and drop right out of his hoof. He froze for a moment then slowly retracted his hoof, then slowly walked away. He took a sip from his flask then walked towards the door that went outside. He bumped into a grey mare Pegasus with blonde main and yellow eyes.

“Excuse me.”, Fizz said as he moved out of her and a blonde unicorn stallion’s path. Fizz then walked out after they passed him. He took a deep breath, “Gah, this being a time traveller stuff is tough.”, He said to himself.

“You’re telling me.”, a light brown earth pony with dark brown hair and an hourglass for a cutie mark said as he walked by Fizz and entered the party.

Fizz took a second to think if he imagined that or not, but then was interrupted by a pink earth pony.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie, and I threw this party for you, I don’t think I know you and I know everypony in Ponyville, and I mean EVERYpony, my friend Twilight told me about you and how you work all day and don’t have any real fun, so why are you out here in the boring outside when you can be inside having fun and cake and stuff?”

“Ah well I thought I needed a breath of fresh air, I was looking for Twilight, have you seen her?”

“Nope, it’s weird because she should be here, I wonder where she could be.”

“I wonder that myself, she is one of the only people I can really share much with.”

“Awww, that’s so adorable! Well you two have fun with that!”, Pinkie said as she hopped away.

“Yes, right, well… Was she implying something? What did she mean ‘adorable‘…?”, Fizz stood there in thought for a moment, “I’m sure it’s nothing, I should go find her, it’s really taxing being here alone… and I’m talking to myself again, I really must stop doing that… But I guess if it is in the search of a intellectual equal then I guess it’s fine…”, Fizz talked to himself as he went to Twilight’s library. He arrived there and opened the door, walking in without a care in the world.

“Miss Sparkle, Miss Sparkle, Are you here?”, he called to her in the dim lights of the library. Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. Fizz looked to see a baby dragon there.

“Oh, Hello there, is Miss Sparkle here?”, Fizz asked the young dragon.

“… No, she left to Pinkie’s party a while ago.”, Spike told him then started back up the stairs

“Hmmm… Odd…”, Fizz walked out of the library and headed back to the party. The walk took him a few minutes to get there, he arrived at the party. He noticed it was a bit louder than it was before.

“What’s going on here?”, Fizz said as he tilted his head to the side in curiosity. He walked into Sugar Cube Corner to listen to blasting music and everypony dancing, and not very well at all. They looked like they couldn’t keep their balance whatsoever. He looked at the empty punch bowl to see the bottle he dropped at the bottom of it.

“Oh my… This can only end in vomit, headaches, and broken dreams…”, He said as he took the empty bottle back. He looked over to the center of the party to see Twilight… Dancing, if you could call it that, and everypony cheering her on. He covered his face with his front hoof, “Oh good gears, what have I created?”, he asked himself as he walked over to Twilight.

“Um, Twilight, Are you feeling alright?”, he asked, expecting her to be ridiculously intoxicated.

“Why yes, I’m fine, just dancing. Are you enjoying the party?”, Twilight’s speech was flawless, she had no sign of intoxication.

“Oh… Yes, the party is fantastic, you go on and keep… dancing.”, Fizz said then turned away, “Yikes.”, he whispered to himself as he walked away from her.

He sat down on a couch that was nearby, not noticing a mulberry purple earth pony with violet mane, eyeing him from across the room. She walked over to him stumblingly.

“Hey, You!”, she shouted, but not loud enough to catch everyone’s attention, but plenty loud enough for Fizz to notice her.

“Me?”, he pointed to himself with his front hoof.

“Yeah, You!”, she pointed at him and ended up poking his nose.

Fizz raised an eyebrow as she squished his nose, “Yes?”

“I don’t like your face…”, She said, glaring at him.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t stutter…”

“Right… Well… I don’t like your… Wings.”, Fizz tried to come up with something.

“Wings?”, the very drunk earth pony actually looked at her back, believing for a second she actually had wings. While she was looking away from him, Fizz snuck away. He got back outside, “That was close, I can’t get the tar beaten out of me now, too much is at stake.”

Fizz sat down, leaning against the Sugar Cube Corner staring into the night sky, thinking over the project, “How am I going to pull off creating a singularity…? Even worse, how can I safely disturb it and make a rift? I don’t know even if I can possibly pull off making a rift back here from there… What if I bring something back with us? Or what if something comes through when we open it?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”, Twilight stood next to him.

“Of course, but I won’t be able to do it without my fantastic assistant.”

Twilight smiled and sat next to him, “You know, you are probably one of the most interesting ponies I’ve met.”

“I don’t know, that pink one is pretty interesting.”, Fizz chuckled, as did Twilight.

“Everypony seems like they’re really enjoying the party, unusually so.”

“Oh… Uh, yeah, that is kind of my doing… Partially…”, Fizz scratched the back of his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m I kind of accidentally poured a bottle of Ee-thaw-nawl into the punch…”

“What’s that?”

“It makes a pony become intoxicated, they lose the idea of social barriers and such things.”

“Oh, I drank stuff like that with War Heart. It was a good night but I couldn’t stand the headache the next morning.”

“I’m liking the War Heart in this timeline more and more.”

“I’m curious, how do you travel through time?”

“Well I’m not going to bore you with details, but what I do is I place a multitude of beacons all over the place that connect to a base machine that would transport me to whatever beacon was activated. I do this at night when my wife and children are asleep, because although I am living for days, months, or even years in my adventures, I return to my time five minutes after I left, to them it’s as if I never left. I only return when the task I am set out on is completed. Then I activate a hidden device on me to bring me back to said time.”

“Why don’t you just travel through time with that hidden device at will?”

“Because I travel through time to help others, not for my own amusement.”

“That’s very noble of you, a hero if I ever knew one.”

“Thank you, Miss Sparkle.”

Twilight yawned and leaned against Fizz, who continued to look up at the night sky. She fell asleep against him, he looked at her and smiled kissing her on top of the head.

“Sweet dreams, my dear. If only you knew who I really am to you…”, Fizz whispered as he continued to stare at the night sky, falling asleep as well.

Sudden Slumber

War Heart flew back to the penthouse of the apartment complex where Kacey was waiting on his laptop. He looked at War Heart, “You did well, certainly there will be a party tonight.”, Kacey said in his regular tone as he returned to looking at his computer. War Heart went into the bathroom and took off his shirt, looking at where he was shot before. Luckily it only left a large bruise. He walked out of the bathroom to his bedroom to change. When he finished, he heard voices in the main room, he peaked out of the door to see Kacey talking to the turquoise haired woman he saw before.

“I’m pretty sure he isn’t gay, Trish…”, Kacey said to her.

“He was the only one not ogling me out there, even some of those Blunt slimes were eyeing me.”

“He says he’s from somewhere called Equestria, I’ve never heard of it before, but maybe they look for something different in women, and you just don’t have it.”

“Uh huh, whatever.”

“Don’t bother about it, go make some tea or something.”, Kacey pointed to the kitchen.

War Heart walked into the room, Trish whipped out a handgun and aimed it at him. War Heart kept walking forward, not even flinching at the handgun pointed at him.
“What does ‘gay’ mean?”, War Heart asked.

Trish put on a look of confusion and turned to Kacey, she mouthed the words, “Is he serious?”, to Kacey who only shrugged in reply.

“It’s nothing, War Heart, don’t worry about it.”, Kacey said to War Heart.

“Fine.”, War Heart walked towards Trish.

Trish looked up at him, “Quite a big one, aren’t ya?”, she questioned rhetorically.

“I guess you’re Kacey’s sister…?”, War Heart asked.

“Yep, Trisha Turner. Leader of Turncoat Mercenary Corps.”, she stated with confidence.

“I’m War Heart.”

“I figured, little brother likes you, I’ve yet to decide on what I think of you, but so far you’re alright.”

“Right, I’m going to leave now.”, War Heart said as he turned away.

“Where are you going?”, Kacey asked off handed.

“… For a flight, just need some time.”, War Heart said to them as he closed the door to the roof on his way out.

“What’s up with him? He seems… depressed… Is he always like that?”, Trisha asked Kacey.

“I already know he is not from anywhere around here. I don’t know where he is from, but I do know that where he originates, honour, kindness, and nobility is valued. Unlike the world here where corruption runs rampant. He feels alone because he is not among those he knew from wherever he came from. He probably misses a close friend or lover and since he knows he is an idol to some of our troops, he doesn’t want them to see him disheartened, no good for morale. He’ll go somewhere to cry it out or sit and brood, a common tactic for one to deal with such emotions.”

“How do you know so much about him?”

“Well, over the years, I’ve tried to learn all I can about everything, including the nature of people. The mind is fragile and can only operate along certain guidelines.”

“So, in other words, you look up a bunch of online classes?”

“Sure, if that helps you sleep at night.”

“I’m just surprised that you aren’t some fatty, sitting on that computer all day.”

“I go for runs on occasion, I’m still fit somewhat.”

“Right…”

“There will probably be a party tonight, will you be staying?”

“You know what… Sure, I haven’t had a good party in a while.”

War Heart flew over the city, watching over its people, seeing the streets still littered with the bodies of Blunts and Heroes from the battle before. He saw some woman getting mugged by a man in a dark red hoodie. War Heart dove towards them, passing in between two apartment buildings. He was about to get pass the buildings until he felt a sharp pain in his torso, feeling a rush that forced him to lock up all his muscles and hit the ground with a violent smash. His vision was hazy as the man in the red hoodie and the woman walked towards War Heart who was on the ground, barely conscious. The man in the hood smiled, revealing fangs like a vampire. Two more men in hoods came to his side. The woman snapped her fingers, the three men started kicking War Heart, brutally beating the barely conscious ball of pain. After about a minute they stopped. The woman stood in War Hearts view, “Well, Angel of War, it seems you have fallen.”, she pulled out a handgun and aimed it at War Heart’s face. War Heart laid his head down, having no energy left in him. He closed his eyes, a gunshot was heard. The blackness took him.

Meanwhile, in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was walking towards the lab that she and Fizz had built. She got there and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Twilight rose an eyebrow and sounded the buzzer, “Fizz, I’m here, but the door is locked.”

There was a small pause before the intercom was answered, “Yes, Uh, You may not want to come in at the moment…”

“What’s going on, Fizz?”

“Well, I’m about to test out a new power source, I don’t know if you like having your skin flayed off in a blast of heat and radiation as well as having a sickness that could cause you and your children to grow extra limbs and whatnot.”

“… What the hay are you doing in there!?”

“I told you what I’m doing.”

“I mean, why are you in there if it is so dangerous!”

“Well, somepony has to press the ‘On’ button, duh.”

Twilight sighed, knowing there was no way to stop him.

“Firing in three… Two… One… Go!”

A loud explosion came from inside the lab, the large steel door being pushed outwards a slight bit, startling Twilight, “Fizz! Fizz are you alright!?”, there was no reply. The door clicked and slowly began to open. A pony walked out, missing a leg and most of its skin, it hobbled towards Twilight groaning, “Braaaaains…”, it said in a half moan. Twilgiht was severely frightened by this creature and backed away in terror.

“That really didn’t go as planned.”, the pony shook its head, “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost Twilight, something the matter?”, he asked as if nothing happened.

“You… But… how!?”, she asked in disbelief.

“Well, I may have forgotten to mention I am immortal by mean of regeneration. I also installed a solid casing around my skull so that my brain stays intact at all times. Just watch, my skin will grow back soon, as well as this leg I happen to have lost.”, Fizz took out his bottle of green viscous fluid and downed it quickly. He held out his stump of a leg to show Twilight the magic of his elixir. The bone began to slowly form and muscle grew around it. His skin regenerated at random patches on his body, soon returning him to his regular self, leaving the last thing to reconstruct was his eye. He closed the eyelid for a moment and waited a few seconds before opening it to reveal a new baby blue eye.

He stretched a bit, “Much better…”, he said, not noticing the disgusted look on Twilight’s face. He looked at her with an eyebrow raised, “What…?”

“That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen…”

“Oh, well you’ll get used to it, just don’t tell anyone about it.”

“I don’t think I’d want to.”

“Excellent, then there is nothing to worry about then!”, Fizz walked back into the lab with Twilight.

“What exactly were you doing?”

“Well, I tried using Uranium to make a reactor to create energy for the Singularity Spawning Device, but I kind of had a design flaw, I forgot that there were just too many neutrons going around and creating fission so it achieved critical mass and I had a meltdown of the explosive variety. I also suggest that you stay in that booth while I work in here, also put on this suit.”, Fizz pulled out a yellow rubber suit and a helmet that would cover her whole body.

“Alright…”, She took the suit and went into the new booth that fizz apparently installed. She donned the suit and watched Fizz begin cleaning up the mess the reactor left.

“Use Uranium, they said… It’s totally safe and clean, they said…”, Fizz grumbled as he was cleaning, “I knew I should have had more control rods… Maybe a better casing too…”, Fizz finished up the cleaning and dumped the stuff into a slot in the wall that was marked as ‘Scrap and Dangerous Waste’. He pressed a button next to it and the entire lab filled with a white gas after a few seconds. The gas cleared out and Fizz waved to Twilight.

Twilight came out of the booth, “Is everything okay?”, she asked.

“Yes, you can take off the suit now.”, he told her as he went to his desk and drew up some new plans quickly.

“What are you doing now?”, Twilight took off the helmet and walked over to him.

“Well, I was trying to think of something that would give us a lot of energy and not explode like that. I figured, why not thorium?”, he explained after he spat the pencil out of his mouth.

“What’s Thorium?”, Twilight asked as she looked at the complex sketch.

“Well, it is a radioactive metal. I’ll use it for the reactor and create a safe source of energy that we’ll be able to pull off making this rift.”

“Then what is that big thing next to the reactor?”, she pointed to a structure adjacent to it.

“Well, that will be a Hyper Capacitor. It’ll store the electricity, of course, I’ll probably build more than one.”

“How long will this take?”

“If my estimate is accurate, another two years. Unless I come out with some sort of breakthrough that I can come up with a way to make more energy faster.”

“What if we’re too late to find War Heart?”

“Twilight, you must believe me, a pony like him doesn’t just die.”

“He’s still mortal, Fizz, We’re not all invincible like you.”

“Right… Minor detail, but I’m sure he’s still alive.”, Fizz rubbed his chin in thought.

“What do we do now?”, Twilight asked.

“I’m going to need to prepare some things, wait outside until I come for you.”, he told her as he began pushing her out with his front hooves then closed the door.

“Umm… Okay.”, Twilight sat down outside the lab and waited.

“Okay, I’m alone now. What am I going to do about finding this thorium…?”, he paced for a moment. “There is the alchemy approach… Though it might be a bit of a danger to pull it off with Twilight… To do such a thing she needs to first understand the inner works of matter itself. To reconstruct any matter would require a breaking down of atoms which is just dangerous as is… To split up a multitude of atoms and put them together to form a new element would require tremendous amounts of magic. I’d hate to put her in danger of getting herself blown up… I guess I could ask her if she is willing to do this… but to put my descendant in danger at all is terrible… I guess I have little choice…”, Fizz sighed and walked towards the door and opened it, Twilight sitting outside waiting. She rose and walked to him, “Do you have everything you need?”, Twilight asked.

“Well, kind of. I need your assistance for something. We need to obtain thorium, but there are no decent sources of it anywhere in Equestria.”

“Then why do you need my help?”

“I need you to perform alchemy magic to transmute some heavy metals into thorium. It will require you to learn the science of the atom. You will break them apart and reconstruct them into a new substance. Though I must mention that every time this is done, it will cause an explosion. It is a dangerous art, but needed for our goal.”

Twilight paused for a moment, wondering if this was all really worth the effort. War Heart was a good friend to her, he did so much for everypony and asked for nothing in return. She had saved his life once before, which happened to also be her first kiss. She never told him of it, but if he was alive, she wanted him to know, and find out if there was something there between them, “I’ll do it.”, she said with a determined look in her eye while facing Fizz.

“Fantastic! Oh I am so proud of you, sticking your neck out for science and others.”, Fizz said as he wrapped his front legs around her in an embrace.

“Uh, excuse me?”, Twilight was feeling a bit uncomfortable from this sudden outburst of affection from Fizz.

“Oh, it’s just… Umm… Well… I find your dedication to be quite…”, he tried to quickly come up with a good word to describe what he was thinking of, “… Fetching… That you would go so far for your friend.”, Fizz talked to himself in his head, ‘Nice recovery!’, he thought to himself.

“Uh, Fizz… Do you… Like me?”, Twilight asked hesitantly.

“Well, Of course I do! You are a wonderful pony who is intelligent, talented, and wonderful to have for company.”, Fizz said all this, meaning it in a totally platonic, and somewhat oblivious view on what he said.

Twilight looked away and blushed, “I had no idea you saw me that way…”

Fizz was walking towards Ponyville, “I’m sure anypony with eyes and a brain can see that.”, he said matter-of-factly while rolling his eyes with a light smile on his face.

“Where are you going?”, Twilight asked as she ran up to join him at his side.

“Well, I figured I may as well treat you to dinner.”, he said, thinking of it more as a favour for her agreeing to go through with learning alchemy magic.

“Oh… Well, thank you. That’s very sweet of you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The walk into Ponyville was silent. The sun was setting and everypony was either heading home or going out to the restaurants in town. Fizz walked into one of the more high end restaurants. He waited at the front with Twilight beside him. A stallion came to the desk with a moustache and a dress coat, “Dinner for two?”, he asked in a polite manner.

“Why, yes my good sir.”, Fizz replied.

“This way.”, he lead them both to a table covered in red silk. Wine glasses placed on the table as well as lit candles. Fizz walked up to the table and pulled out the chair for Twilight, “Take a seat.”, he said in a friendly manner.

“Thank you.”, Twilight said as she sat down. Fizz took his seat across from her and looked at the menu, not paying much attention to her as he read. Twilight was looking at the menu as well, but was a bit distracted by her glance turning to Fizz. He put down the menu, “They don’t have much here, do they?”, he commented.

“I wouldn’t know, I never have been in here. Usually it’s only couples who come here…”

“Well, that’s silly, you must have been here at least once.”

Twilight looked down and shook her head.

“Oh, well at least you now know what you’re missing.”

“I guess so…”, Twilight said with a smile.

Fizz smiled back, “This has a splendid look, if only the food here was a bit less… strange… What is spaw-get-high?”

“I think you mean, spaghetti, it’s noodles and the put tomato sauce on it. I read about it in one of my books.”

“Well, it looks strange… I think I’ll have some with a cup of Earl Grey Tea with four sugars and lots of milk.”, Fizz said as he looked over the menu once more.

“I think I’ll have some spaghetti too. I don’t know what to have for a drink though.”

“I could order some wine, if you want.”

“I think I only ever had honey wine with War Heart…”

“Oh, did you spend an evening with him then?”

“Yes, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, and I all spent the night then.”

Fizz’s jaw dropped, “Wow, impressive…”

“What is?”

“Nothing, he must’ve been a good host.”

“He was a very good host.”

The waiter came to their table, “Would you like anything to drink while you wait for your order?”, he asked, looking down his nose at the two ponies.

“Well, I’ll have the spaghetti, and a bottle of white wine.”, Fizz told the waiter, who was writing down their order. The waiter turned to Twilight, “and you, Madame?”

“I would like the same as him, please.”, she smiled politely. The waiter nodded and left, returning shortly with a bottle of wine and filled their glasses. He placed the bottle on the table and left. Fizz downed the entire glass right away, alcohol in general had not affected him for the longest time now. Twilight stayed still, just staring at him like he was crazy. She wasn’t sure if that was how one drank wine, so she readied herself and did the same as Fizz and downed the glass herself. She shivered from the taste of the alcohol hitting her tongue, not accustomed to it since she had only consumed it once before. Over the course of an hour she had drank another glass of wine with Fizz, her reflexes began to slow, her perceptions of barriers both physical and social began to fade. Fizz remained completely unaffected by the alcohol, totally forgetting other ponies are susceptible to such a thing. Their dinner went rather well, Twilight was very giggly when intoxicated. They left the restaurant towards Twilight’s house, she was somewhat off-balance on the way there. They reached the door to the library, Twilight turned to Fizz and leaned towards him, getting her face close to his. Fizz backed his head away a little bit, “Umm… Good night?”, he said, not really knowing what Twilight was doing.

“I had a good time tonight.”, she kept staring into his eyes, smiling.

“I did too…”, his eyes shifted from side to side.

Twilight leaned in more and closed her eyes, expecting a kiss.

“Twilight what are you doing?”

“We were just on a date, weren’t we?”

“Ohhhhh… I was just treating you to dinner for deciding to go through with learning the alchemy magic… I meant it as a reward, plus I don’t feel that way about you.”

“What is there something wrong with me?”, Twilight asked.

“Well, Yes… The fact that you are one of my descendants prevents me from even finding the slightest romantic interest in you.”

“… What?”

“I’m your very great grandfather from like two centuries ago. Also, I’m married, and still very much in love with my wife.”

“Okay then…”, Twilight said downtrodden, not really listening to what he said, her very selective hearing of only the words ‘No’ and ‘I’m not interested’ that her intoxication caused. She felt rather embarrassed and depressed at the same time as she walked inside the library, closing the door after she entered. She stumbled upstairs to her room and collapsed on her bed, looking up at the stars and the moon through the window. The silence set in and she finally realized how alone she really felt. She closed her eyes and hoped she would stop thinking about it as she drifted off to sleep.

Fizz was standing outside, “She really took that badly… Hopefully she won’t remember anything tomorrow.”, he said as he walked back to the lab and began working on Twilight’s new workspace for tomorrow.

He opened his eyes to bright white lights above him, forcing him to squint just to see only blurry silhouettes. He turned his head to the left to see a tray of bloody surgical tools and bandages. He could hear a beep every few seconds, feeling like it was in tune with his very heart. He tried to sit up, but the pain of movement was too immense. He remained motionless. He couldn’t speak, he had a tube going into his mouth and down his throat.

“Ah, so it seems we are waking up.”, a male Italian voice said. War Heart couldn’t see where the source came from. A man wearing a bloody smock walked into view, “I guess you want to know where you are, you’re in safe hands, rest assured, they pay me very well to keep people alive. I can’t do it legally mind you, lost my license a long while back. My name is Giacomo. You’re going to wake up some time later, but for now… I’m told to keep you asleep until the time is right.”, he said as he prepped a few things, “Night Niiiiiiight…”, Giacomo said as he waved his hand slowly in front of his patient’s face. The blackness creeping back into the patient’s view, slowly overtaking it and fading everything out once more..

Awakening

The doctor walked into the dark room. He flicked on the light and strolled over to his unconscious patient. He smiled as he examined the particularly large specimen before him, “What a magnificent weapon you are… To think you were all we needed for us to accomplish our task, I especially couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.”

The patient slowly opened his eyes to the bright lights. He looked the doctor in the eyes, a look of confusion to express what he felt due to his inability to speak.

“Oh, did you want to wake up now?”, the doctor asked his helpless patient.

The patient nodded slowly at him, although in his head, he wasn’t sure if the doctor would let him stay awake.

“Well, give yourself a few hours, then you’ll be able to get up and walk out.”, the doctor grinned for a moment before turning and walking towards the door and exiting the room, closing the door behind him.

The patient waited for what seemed like an eternity. Slowly feeling control of his body return to him. He tried to move his fingers at first, but to no avail yet. His eyes slowly closed once more, drifting off into a small nap. He awoke later, more quickly this time, feeling more aware of his surroundings. He could actually see now, not just make out blurry shapes. He sat up and pulled the tube out of his mouth and throat, coughing as he did so, saliva and some sort of slop dripping onto the floor next to the bed.

“Where am I…?”, he said as he looked around the room. It looked like it used to be a doctor’s office, but was abandoned some time ago. The room looked like it had some new equipment installed to treat him though. He pulled out the various sensors taped to his skin, as well as the tubes and needles stuck in him. He slowly slid his legs and draped them over the side of the bed. He felt strange at this point, more at peace than he thought he should feel. He stood up and looked at himself, he was still in his black t-shirt and jeans. He moved towards the door and opened it. He found himself in a long hallway, totally barren of any signs of life. He walked down the hall, still having no idea where he was. As he was walking he saw a reinforced window. He walked to it and looked outside to see Unex City. What he saw was different though, he saw a place barren of human life. He kept walking through the building, gradually getting to the ground level of the abandoned hospital. He walked outside to greet the cold morning air, his breath turning to mist as he exhaled. All was silent, but in an eerie way. The streets were packed with cars, unoccupied, some crashed and others abandoned.

“What happened here…?”, he walked further outside and towards home, not feeling quite back at full strength yet. Along the way there he noticed a lot of tags on the buildings, painted images of a fanged skull with a purple pentagram on it’s forehead. It gave him an eerie feeling, like he was being watched. He saw a figure standing in the middle of the street, facing away from him and wearing a purple hoodie that covered the back of their head. He approached the figure, stopped eight feet away from it.

“Who are you? What happened here?”, he asked the hooded figure.

“You’ve been gone a long time… A few months in fact…”, the voice from the hooded one was that of a male, sounding completely monotonous, “I know you must be confused, War Heart. Trust that your job is done, people don’t hurt each other anymore…”

“Kacey…?”, War Heart wasn’t sure he understood what he was saying.

“That was my name, at one point… I have to say I haven’t been completely honest with you, nor Chris.”, he turned to face War Heart, who reacted in shock upon seeing his painted white complexion, black circles on his eyes, and a black jagged jack-o-lantern mouth painted over his lips.

War Heart stood there in shock, taken aback that he was consorting with one of the worst examples of humanity he had ever heard of.

“You’re speechless, I understand. But have you notice how peaceful everything is? This city no longer suffers from pointless disputes anymore, thanks to your help.”, he removed his hood to reveal his bald head with scalp piercings, “When Chris told me the stories of your feats of strength at the blood pit while you were away, I was impressed at your prowess, not knowing that something enabled you to reach that strength. At that point you were just a pawn I needed to start my mission. When I was told that you had went berserk at the college and turned brutally violent upon provocation, I began to take notice. It was when you killed Bruintall with your bare hands that I knew something was behind it. Your blood had some sort of agent in it than multiplied your adrenaline output by incredible amounts, making you inhumanly strong, fast, and resilient to pain. You were ambushed by the Coven, they meant to kill you, but luckily a couple of the legion were nearby to help you out after you passed out. They dragged you to the good doctor, which I told him to extract that certain chemical in your blood that allowed you to pull off these incredible feats of rage. It was a few months before I had enough made to corrupt the city’s water supply. It was a good week of almost non-stop brawls in the streets at the slightest provocations. People died, and as people died, some retreated to their homes, where they stayed and rotted in their own self-imposed cages. None could truly control their inner beast like we could. Humans are weak, which is why my humanity died a long time ago. You might also notice that you are grounded, in case you didn’t notice…”

War Heart looked at his back to notice his wings were gone, the skin stitched together where they once were, the shock causing him to fall to his knees, hope seeping from him in huge amounts as he spiralled into a deep trance-like depression.

“I figured your biggest advantage was gravity, so I stripped that from you. If you are to fight, it’ll be on equal terms.”, he grinned and bared his sharpened teeth, “You should be happy, everyone stopped fighting, we both got what we wanted. I got the streets to be filled with blood and carnage, and you get to have peace. At the cost of the raging fire inside you. We had to be sure we had enough, so we drained it all out of your blood. I, of course, did not consume the water tainted with your blood. I am still my regular self, still ready to fight you.”, he stood there with his arms behind his back, “I’ll even let you take the first swing…”, he smirked.

War Heart was still kneeling on the ground, speechless.

“Aw, don’t tell me the great angel has fallen since he lost his wings. Look at yourself, you’re a pathetic specimen of life like everyone else!”, he mocked and shouted at War Heart, who kept staring wide-eyed at the ground.

“Come on! Get up and fight like a real beast! Or are you too weak to protect anyone anymore!?”, he walked up to War Heart and kicked him in the gut. War Heart felt the impact like nothing else, causing him to cringe.

“You’re pathetic, you don’t mean anything if you won’t fight against the things that make the world such a vile place!”, he put his foot on War Heart’s shoulder and pushed him over.

“Who were you kidding? You fought when you had advantages over others, you aren’t a hero, you’re an animal. You won’t even stand up against me, even after I used you to kill all of Unex.”, he stood over War Heart who was laying on the ground.

Kacey crouched and looked War Heart in the eyes, “Right now, you wouldn’t protect anyone, which makes you a monster, just like me.”

War Heart clenched his fist and brought it to Kacey’s face, knocking him to the side a bit.

“Alright, that was good, try again!”, Kacey said as he got into a stance to hold his balance.

War Heart got up off the ground slowly. He clenched both fists, he didn’t feel the call of the beast any longer, the dragon blood was pulled from him. He felt free but powerless at the same time. He felt now was the time to fight with pure determination and spirit, to rid the world of a monster, so others would live better lives by not ever having to come into contact with it. He ran towards DeadBeast and swung his fist towards his face, but only hit air as Beast dodged the blow by shifting to the side and sweeping his leg around, tripping War Heart, who landed flat on his back.

War Heart gasped for air on the ground. He rolled over and slowly got back up. Beast was waiting there in his stance, “Come on!”, he motioned for War Heart to come at him. He ran towards Beast and tackled him to the ground, he got on top of him and began to swing his fist into Beast’s face, who was laughing as he got hit. After four punches, War Heart ended up on his back, put in an arm bar by Beast. Beast grinned at War Heart, bearing those terrible teeth again, and swiftly shifted his body, dislocating War Heart’s arm. War Heart screamed in agony as the bone in his arm cracked. Beast quickly rolled away and on to his feet, “Had enough, Hero!?”, he yelled at War Heart, who was grasping his arm.

“Not nearly…”, he said as he forced his arm back into place quickly, cringing from the pain as he did so. Beast smirked and waited for War Heart.

War Heart charged at him once more, swinging one fist towards Beast’s face and another towards his gut. The second punch landed, War Heart grabbed with his other hand and punched Beast in the gut three more times before grabbing with both hands and bringing his knee into Beast’s nose.

Beast backed up, recoiling from the hit, “That’s more like it! Fight like you mean to kill me!”, Beast charged at War Heart, jumping into the air and kicking him three times before landing and forcing his fist into War Heart’s neck.

War Heart recoiled, coughing from the last blow. He turned back to Beast and unleashed another flurry of punches at Beast, who blocked them all.

Beast grabbed War Heart’s arm and flipped him over, making him land on his back. Beast began to unleash his own flurry of fists into War Heart’s face, bloodying it profusely. He backed up a few steps while War Heart slowly stood once more. War Heart’s nose was bleeding and one eye he could barely keep open. He was feeling weak at this point, having been out for so long did not leave him in good condition. He ran towards Beast again, who just shifted to the side and flipped him onto his back again, then stomped on his chest, cracking a few ribs. War Heart couldn’t handle moving anymore.

Beast looked down at him, “Looks like even you have limits, but I’m done with you, for now… Bye.”, Beast turned away from him and started to walk away.

War Heart laid there in the street, unsure what was to come. His entire body was on fire with pain. The clouds were overhead, grey as usual. Some distant thunder boomed in the distance. A drop hit War Heart’s face, it was cold, but refreshingly so. The drops became numerous and soon there was a full shower of rain on the whole of the city. War Heart closed his eyes, not having any energy to keep them open. He heard some footsteps approach him, his eyes kept closed.

Back in Equestria, Fizz and Twilight had much work to do. Twilight had been learning Alchemy: the science that would change one element into another by rearranging protons, neutrons, and electrons of atoms by means of magic. Twilight had some trouble with it at first, luckily working with only small amounts at first and handling only very small amounts in a controlled environment Fizz built. It has been several months and the Singularity Spawning Device is built. The main task now was to wait to have enough power created from the Thorium Reactors Fizz had made. The thorium was made from a pile of gold bits that Fizz had come by, having literally tens of thousands of bits being turned into barely enough thorium to sustain the reactors.

“We’re making fantastic progress! We should be able to make the rift soon.”, Fizz said as he looked over his pages upon pages of calculations at his desk.

“Great! How soon?”, Twilight asked, walking next to him and looking over his notes, not really knowing what it all meant.

“Next week.”, Fizz said with some confidence. He nodded with a smile on his face.

“Hopefully he’s okay.”, Twilight said, still worried for War Heart.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, just keep your head up and march on towards the future, do what you can, like you are doing now.”, Fizz told her as he put his front leg around her neck.

“I guess you’re right.”

“Well, of course I’m right. Now you go have some time off, be back next week.”

“Okay, Bye, Fizz!”, she trotted outside.

“Bye!”, he shouted to her as she left.

Twilight closed the large steel door behind her. She trotted back towards Ponyville, excited for the coming week. She was stopped by her friend, Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, Twilight, I haven’t seen you around Ponyville too often, where have you been?”, Dash asked her unicorn friend.

“Me? Well, I’ve been working with somepony on a project.”, Twilight explained.

“Really? What kind of project?”, Dash felt a little suspicious of what Twi has been doing.

“Well, I’m not meant to tell ponies this, but we believe War Heart may be alive.”, Twi whispered to Dash.

Dash’s jaw dropped, “Really?”

Twilight nodded to her and replied, “Yes, we’re working on getting him back. We’ve only a week left before we find out if he truly is alive.”

“Honestly… I have to admit I kind of miss him…”, Dash looked at the ground as if she were ashamed to admit her feelings.

“I’m sure we all miss him, Rainbow.”, she put a comforting hoof on Dash’s back.

Dash lifted her head back up, “I… need to be somewhere. Bye, Twilight.”, Dash said as she took off into the clouds. She laid down on one of the clouds, out of sight from everypony. She took a moment to gather her thoughts. “Why do I care so much about this? He’s a decent enough pony, of course. But this feels… weird.”, She got up and paced on the cloud, “What’s wrong with me…?”, she said as she sat back down. She continued to wrack her brain for an answer, not wanting to admit the obvious. “It can’t be that I care for him, do I?”, she kept questioning herself, feeling uncertain about the whole mess. “Maybe, I’ll decide how I feel if I see him again…”, she said to herself as she laid down again.

Twilight walked into Ponyville, heading towards her library for a quiet afternoon alone. In a way, the work with Fizz was exhausting, if only in the mental sense. She trotted over to her bed and collapsed on it. Only to have her moment of peace disturbed by the doorbell. Her face showed irritation as she got up and walked towards the door.

Confetti flew through the doorway and into the room as she opened the door, “Hey, Twilight! I just came over to invite you to a party I’m planning!”, the excitable, pink earth pony stated gleefully.

“Oh, okay, Pinkie, when is it?”, Twilight asked.

“Sometime next week, I have a lot of baking to do at Sugar Cube Corner to prepare.”

“Alright then, Pinkie, I’ll go, and I’ll bring a friend with me.”

“Oo, you have a new friend, who are they?”, Pinkie jumped in excitement at the news.

“It’s a surprise, I can’t tell you.”

“Oh, Okay, bye, Twilight, see you at the partyyyyy!”, Pinkie hopped away to go invite more ponies to her party.

Twilight closed the door, hoping that would be the last of the distractions from her long awaited rest. She trotted upstairs once more, laid down on her bed, and drifted off into sleep.

Meanwhile, Fizz had been working on a new set of devices that would pull him, Twilight, and War Heart back through the rift and back into their world, “As much as I would like to stay and study the world we’ll be visiting, I can’t risk leaving my daughters fatherless by staying there too long. We’ll go in there, get War Heart, then go.”, he examined the device he made and strapped it to his front leg. He walked over to a larger device and switched it on. It had a white glow to it as it flickered to life. Fizz walked to the other side of the room, then clicked the button on his newly built device that was strapped to him. He flew across the room as if being pulled by some invisible force. He collided with the large machine with a big clang, hitting his head against it, “Perhaps I should invest in some padding…”, he said as he rubbed the back of his head.

A week past without incident, Twilight returned to the lab where Fizz was. It was early morning. She opened the door to find Fizz piling a stack of about two dozen pillows, “Did I miss something?”, Twilight asked.

“Ah, Miss Sparkle, I just was making a modification to this device. Strap the device on the table to your front leg, then don’t touch it after that.”

“Okay…”, Twilight raised an eyebrow and walked over to the table and proceeded to equip the device. She waited by the control panel for the singularity spawning device. Fizz walked over to her, he dropped a full body hazmat suit.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a suit that will protect us from harsh environments in case we end up in any of those.”, he explained as he donned the suit. Twilight put on her suit as well and waited for the moment of truth.

Fizz propped himself against the control panel and began pressing buttons. The Singularity Spawner hummed with immense energy. It consisted of two large rectangular towers that supported a metal circle, riddled with wiring. A bolt of electricity shot in the center of the circle. A few seconds passed as more bolts came. A small black sphere appeared, floating in the center of the circle. Fizz adjusted his goggles and cracked his neck. He pressed more buttons and slowly pulled back on a lever, the black orb grew to twice the size of a pony.

“Twilight, I need you to disturb it now…”

Twilight looked at him, “How?”

Fizz pointed to the woodcutter’s axe that was next to the control panel, “Throw it into the singularity. It will be attuned to War Heart and bring us near to him.”

Twilight nodded and levitated the axe through the air towards her. She looked at it for a second before sending it into the black sphere. A sudden force began to pull everything towards the center of the black orb, which had now shrunk down to a pinpoint. Twilight braced herself against the control panel, not sure if she wanted to go through with it. She waited for a second before seeing Fizz fly over her head and into the vortex. She swallowed her fear and jumped, feeling the invisible current carry her into the pinpoint of space. Everything suddenly went silent.

Twilight opened her eyes to see a grey sky that would even inspire Pinkie to feel a bit downtrodden. The area was filled with vehicles that looked similar to Fizz’s. She stood up, she looked at a figure in a big rubber suit like Fizz was wearing.

“Oh my… I believe we have undergone a transformation on our way through… It worked!”, Fizz jumped up and thrust his fist into the air. Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. She looked around for any sign of War Heart. She saw a person laying on his back. She walked over to him, she took note of his red and green hair and froze, “Fizz! I found him!”, she shouted as Fizz came running to her side.

Fizz took off his hazmat helmet and took a look at him, “Well…”, he opened War Heart’s eye, “It is indeed War Heart… But what could have done this to him?”, he took note of the bruises on War Heart.

“Does it matter? He may be hurt, we need to get back and bring him to a doctor!”, Twilight shouted in urgency.

“Okay, just give me a second.”, He pulled one of the devices from his pocket and strapped it to War Heart’s arm, “Okay, press the button on your device, it will send you back through the portal.”, he said this as he pressed the button on both War Heart and his own devices, sending them flying into a ripple effect in space. Twilight then quickly pressed the button on her own device, she wasn’t quite mentally prepared for what was to happen. She squeaked as she took off towards the portal and within seconds found herself in a pile of pillows with War Heart and Fizz.

“Come on, Let’s get him to a doctor, get the trolley over there!”, Fizz pointed towards a large steel platform with wheels under it. She levitated a few pillows onto it for War Heart and then struggled to levitate him onto the platform. They moved him out of the cave and rode the trolley downhill towards Ponyville’s Clinic.

“Fizz, I’m going to send a letter to Celestia and tell her to send a surgeon for him.”, Twilight told him before jumping off the cart and galloping towards her library. She burst in and shouted for her assistant, “Spike! I have an emergency! I need to get a letter to Celestia!”, she quickly went over to her desk and quickly wrote out a note, telling Celestia to send her best surgeon down to Ponyville.

“Twilight, I’m here! What’s wrong!?”, Spike sounded rather surprised that Twilight was acting like this. Twilight levitated the note to him. He inhaled and shot his green flames onto the paper, causing it to poof into smoke and be sent off to the Princess.

Twilight galloped back towards the clinic where War Heart was being treated, only to be stopped by AppleJack, who had been in town at the time.

“Howdy Twilight… Is somethin’ wrong, Sugar Cube?”, Applejack asked with concern to Twilight’s panicked expression.

“War Heart, he’s hurt!”

Applejack’s expression turned to one of confusion, “Come again?”

“War Heart, he’s back and he’s hurt, I’m going to go see him, bye!”, she ran around the blonde earth pony and towards the clinic again. She was stopped at the waiting room, not being allowed in since War Heart was in intensive care. She paced back and forth, nearly in tears at the thought that he may die here after coming so close to bringing him back.

A small, young, white unicorn mare sat in her home, reading a book on the latest theories of medicine, “Some of these ponies have no idea what they are talking about…”, she said as she shook her head. She heard a loud knock at the door. She looked up from her book, then set it down. She walked to the door and opened it with her magic. A tall guard Pegasus stood at the door.

“Miss Cura, you are being called to Ponyville for an emergency.”, he said in a firm tone.

“Very well, lead on.”, Cura said as she floated her scarf around her neck and followed the Pegasus stallion to a carriage. She hopped in and they took off. She noticed they were going awfully faster than usual, “I wonder who it is I have to save today.”, she thought to herself as they flew. After a few minutes they landed in front of the Ponyville clinic. She quickly hopped out of the carriage and went into the clinic where the doctor was there to greet her.

“Miss Cura, this way, we don’t know how long he’ll last.”, the doctor informed her.

“What’s his condition? Who is he?”, she asked in a professional way.

“He’s a Pegasus, pretty large one too, he has suffered massive trauma and mutilation, we have a feeling he is also sick but we don’t know how we can treat it here.”

“Very well, I’ll take care of it from here.”, she said as she entered the room, totally unprepared for who she was going to see. She hopped up on a stool and then on the table itself to see War Heart. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing now, as if he came back from the dead. It sure did look as if he spent some time in a grave. She closed her eyes and shook her head quickly, trying to regain her concentration. She began to examine him, she started by looking in his eyes. She then put her ear to his chest, hearing a faint heartbeat, she smiled, “You really are alive…”, Cura quickly began to work her magic, her horn glowing a baby blue as she scanned his torso, noticing the broken ribs. She forced air into his lungs with her magic, a new spell she was working on, and healed the ribs back into place. She then began to heal his bruises then turned her attention to his broken front leg. She aligned it and healed it back into place. She did another scan, noticing something in his blood, “He’s been poisoned, pretty heavily too…”, Cura levitated a scalpel towards her, she carefully floated it to his neck and made a small incision. She used a spell to keep it from bleeding and used another spell to push the poison out of his neck and into a beaker. It took two minutes to drain all the poison out, ending up with a whole litre in the beaker. She healed the cut and sighed in relief that she extracted the poison. She was about to leave when she remembered the doctor say something of mutilation. She looked at him for only a second before noticing what was missing: his wings. She gasped as she realized what this would mean for him. To be able to fly since a young age and have it taken away would definitely be a terrible hardship to bear. She looked at the floor, she felt helpless to be able to help him at this point now. She rubbed the scar where the base of his wings used to be, she closed her eyes and shook her head, “I’m sorry… I wish I could have helped…”, she whispered to herself. Cura hopped down and walked out of the room. She walked back to the carriage and flew back to Canterlot, not having the heart to see his face when he finds out.

War Heart opened his eyes slowly. He saw that he was in a medical room again. He looked to see he had hooves again. He got up out of bed, upon landing on the floor he cringed from his leg, still fragile from the break even after it was fixed. He slowly limped out of the room, determination in his eyes, he knew where he was going, or more, to who he was going to. Twilight saw him limping out of the medical room.

“War Heart!”, Twilight ran up to him, “Where are you going?”

“I need to go see her, I have a promise to keep…”, he didn’t even turn to face Twilight as he kept limping.

Twilight didn’t know what to say to him, but knew she couldn’t stop him.

He kept limping, he was outside. It was a bit past noon and the young ponies were being let out of school. He saw Ditzy at the school, he continued to limp towards her. She was speaking to Cheerilee, the teacher. As he drew closer, he noticed a young unicorn that had the same hair as Ditzy. He stopped, he looked to her side to see a blonde unicorn stallion with her. He froze, not knowing what else he could do. He waited for a moment and then turned around, hanging his head. The determination in his eyes turned to a look of defeat. He trudged along the streets of Ponyville, not sure if it was right to come back anymore. His heart sank and he could barely breathe as he walked. Tears started to well up in his eyes. He lost her, he lost his wings, he lost his very willpower that made him who he was. He was being stared at by all the ponies passing him.

Twilight was standing in his path, “I’m sorry you had to find out that way…”

“Whatever…”, War Heart’s tone represented his loss of will in its lack of any joy whatsoever.

“I want to-”

“Just… Leave me alone…”, War Heart interrupted her and kept walking.

Fizz walked up next to Twilight, “He looks down…”

“It looks like he feels he has lost everything…”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“What can I do?”

“Some ponies are too tough for their own good, even the most invincible ones have feelings they’ll bottle up. It can drive a pony to do bad things to themselves…”

“What are you saying?”

“He needs to let it out, but that is something you’ll have to figure out. Wait here.”, Fizz said as he trotted after War Heart.

Twilight watched Fizz talk to War Heart and pull out his flask and show it to him. Twilight saw War Heart’s ears perk up. Fizz smiled and nodded at War Heart as he handed him the flask. War Heart started drinking it all down as Fizz trotted back to Twilight, “Well, he’ll be getting his wings back. I gave him a powerful dose of my elixir that will make him regenerate his wings right away.”

“You gave him some of that stuff?”

“I can’t let a hero go on a selfless mission and not at least keep his dignity.”, Fizz said as War Heart groaned in pain, bones forming out of his back, growing flesh and skin, then feathers into his full wings once more.

War Heart smiled lightly, looking towards Fizz. He nodded to Fizz, who nodded back. War Heart’s eyes had a glimmer of hope in them once more. He continued to limp, he was going home.

Twilight just watched as he limped away, “Well… I don’t know what to do…”

Fizz looked at her, “You live, Twilight, you keep looking forward and live. I have to go, though.”

“I guess I forgot that you were not really supposed to be here.”

“I go when I want…”, he smirked and activated a device on him, “Who the hay do you think I am?!”, he said in a rhetorical joking tone as he vanished from sight, going back home.

Twilight smiled and whispered to herself, “Goodbye, Fizz.”

War Heart was still on his way home when Rainbow Dash spotted him from the clouds. She flew down towards him, landing a few feet behind him, “War Heart?”

He stopped, he turned his head towards Dash, “Oh… Hey, Beautiful.”, he said as if he were passively greeting a friend.

Dash blushed slightly, “How’s it going?”, she asked as she followed him.

“I just came back from one of the worst places ever… I don’t know if I really want to talk about it.”, he said looking at the ground as he walked.

“Do you want some company?”, Dash asked, hoping to stick around long enough to ask him a specific question.

“Not really, but I guess it couldn’t hurt.”, he said as he arrived at his cabin. He stepped inside to find it dark and empty, but untouched. He took another step and hit something with his hoof, looking down at a shield with bubbles painted on it. He took the shield and violently threw it into the fireplace, which startled Dash by the sudden outburst. War Heart sat at the head of his table and put his head down, covering it with his hooves.

“Are you okay?”, Dash asked as she approached him.

“No… I was worse before, a bit better now…”, he said as his head rose from the table, “To think I was coming here to end it…”, tears welled up in his eyes again.

Dash felt uncomfortable but too concerned for him to leave, “What happened?”, she sat next to him to listen to everything he had to say.

“You remember the Gala? Well, I went with Ditzy Doo. We met in the carriage on the way there and we started spending a lot of time together. She practically lived with me for a while.”, War Heart explained to Dash.

“Then what?”, Dash asked, wanting to know what happened.

“I ended up going to the Dragon Lands, I ended up getting sucked into something that took me to another world, much darker than this one. There I was made to face against monsters. I helped those who needed it, defended them. In the end, I couldn’t save anypony… Then I was back here in Equestria, I thought the entire time, she would be waiting for me, but I come back to see her with a new stallion, and her own filly… I guess I was a bit naïve about it… But… I don’t know…”, he covered his face with his front hooves and tried to hold back sobs.

Dash just thought to herself, ‘I suppose even the toughest stallions can cry…’, Dash reached her hoof over to him and laid it on his back, in an attempt to comfort him. He stopped for a moment and looked at her, wiping his eyes a bit, trying to regain his composure. His eyes were even redder from the tears, “Thank you… I don’t think I’ve really ever did that in front of anypony like that…”, he told her, looking down at the table, feeling a bit emasculated.

“It’s okay, good to see that you’re better now.”, Dash smiled at him.

War Heart nodded, smiling slightly, feeling a lot better that he got that off his chest.

“You wanna go for a flight? It’s almost sunset.”, Dash asked.

“Sure, I need some air.”, War Heart said as he got up from the table with Dash. They both walked outside and flew into the air.

“There’s a mountain over there with an awesome view.”, Dash commented pointing to it.

“Race you there!”, War Heart shouted as he flew ahead, with Dash soaring alongside him.

“You’re on!”, Dash shouted as she raced towards the mountain with him.

Feelings Unveiled

He opened his eyes to the welcome sight of his bedroom in his log cabin. The warmth of the stone fireplace giving the place a cozy feeling. He smiled as he stretched in his bed. He got out from under the blanket and walked out of his room into his shield hall. He walked to his cabinet in search of breakfast, only to find all his food spoiled.

“I guess that’s only to be expected…”, War Heart said to himself. He closed the cabinet and walked outside, breathing in the fresh morning air, “It’s good to be home.”, he told himself as he took flight. He soared over to Ponyville to find the town itself just awakening from its nightly slumber, all the ponies beginning to head to their workplaces. He landed on the edge of town and began walking through the streets, receiving an odd look or two but relatively uneventful. He walked over to Sugar Cube Corner to catch the Cakes just opening the shop for the day.

“Well, Hello there, Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner, What would you like?”, Mrs. Cake asked War Heart as he walked in.

War Heart walked over to the counter, looking through the glass for a moment at the selection of treats to choose from. He rubbed his chin with his hoof, then looked up to find Mrs. Cake missing and young pink pony in her place. War Heart jumped a bit at her greeting.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, what would you li-… War Heart? We thought you were dead!”, the pink pony was not informed of what happened.

“Well, no, I was taken into another world, but now I’m back.”, War Heart explained simply.

“Oh! Did you bring back any of that maple syrup!?”, Pinkie asked excitedly.

“I wasn’t even near the place I could get some, sorry.”

“Aw, that’s okay, so you going to buy something?”

War Heart looked at the bounty of pastries once again, “I’ll take whatever you recommend.”

“Sure!”, she said before pulling out a cupcake with pink frosting, “I made it myself!”, she said with an enthusiastic smile.

“Alright then…”, he said as he dropped a few bits on the counter to pay for the treat, then took it and started walking away.

“Oh! By the way, I wanted to tell you that there is a party tonight! You going to show up?”, Pinkie asked as War Heart reached the door.

“A party? Any occasion for it?”, War Heart asked.

“It’s a Hearts and Hooves day party, silly!”, Pinkie giggled at his ignorance.

“What is Hearts and Hooves day?”, he asked.

“Well it’s a day where everypony spends time with their very special somepony, or finds their very special somepony.”

War Heart rose an eyebrow, “Seems strange to have a holiday about it…”

“Who cares? It gives everypony to have an excuse to party!”

“I guess you have a point. I might show up, I have a few things to do, though. Bye.”

“Bye, War Heart, seeya later!”, she shouted to him as he left the store.

War Heart walked out of the bakery to sit down on a bench nearby and enjoy his pastry. He took a bite of the pink frosted cupcake, savouring the sweetness that he believed was only found in Equestria’s foods. The taste making one’s moods be lifted no matter how low they were. He finished the cupcakes after a few bites, knowing the sustenance will tide him over until he restocked his cabinet at home. He looked around at the streets of Ponyville, enjoying watching the ponies go about their business blissfully, a welcome sight to him after what he had been through. He saw a white unicorn with a curly purple mane struggling to carry a heavy bolt of fabric on her back. He walked over to her, “Need any help?”, he asked as he approached from behind.

“Why, yes, I would, if you don’t mind.”, she said in a strained tone.

War Heart walked up next to her and shifted the bolt onto his back using his wing.

“Thank you, very gentle colt-like of y-”, she stopped mid-sentence as she looked towards him, “War Heart?”, she spoke in a disbelieving tone.

“Hello, Rarity.”

“But… How… Weren’t you… Deceased?”

“No, I was taken away to a bad place, but I’m back now.”, they conversed while walking towards Carousel Boutique.

“Oh dear…”, she said in a concerned tone, “Are you feeling fine?”

“I’m trying not to think about it.”

“I apologize, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“You didn’t know, it isn’t your fault, it isn’t anypony’s fault, really.”

“Though, something seems strange… About you… You seem… More calm, gentle…”

“I don’t know… I never really thought about it. Is it a bad thing?”

“No, no, it’s a rather welcoming feature, if I do say so myself.”, she said as she smiled politely.

“Alright then…”

They soon reached Rarity’s shop. She unlocked the door and opened it. Rarity walked in and stood over in a corner of the shop, “If you could just place it over here.”, she pointed with her hoof.

War Heart walked over and lowered himself and let the bolt roll off his back and onto the floor.

“Marvellous, thank you for helping me with that, War Heart.”

“No problem, glad I could help.”, he said as he walked out of the store. As he was walking out of the store he nearly bumped into somepony. A small yellow Pegasus mare with long pink mane. She cowered at first, not realising who it was.

“Hey there, Fluttershy.”, War Heart greeted in a gentler tone than usual.

Fluttershy looked up to see a face she remembered, “War Heart?”, she said in her usual quiet voice.

“Yes, and no I wasn’t dead. In case you were going to ask.”

“Oh okay… Why are you here?”

“… I don’t know, but I believe that we make our own way in life, choosing our path around, over, or through all the obstacles life sets in front of us…”

“… Um… I meant why are you at Rarity’s shop…?”

“Oh… Right, I was helping her carry something.”

“How nice of you.”, she said, smiling.

“I’ll just get out of your way.”, he said as he moved aside.

“Thank you.”, Fluttershy said as she walked into the shop, closing the door behind her.

War Heart walked back in the direction of his home. He passed by the great tree that was Twilight’s library. He stopped in front of it, “Maybe I should pay Twilight a visit.”, he said as he walked to the door and knocked.

“Come in!”, a mare’s voice called from inside.

He opened the door and walked inside, closing the door after he entered. He looked around, not seeing Twilight there, “Hello? Twilight?”, he called out.

A purple unicorn poked her head around the corner from the upstairs room, “Oh… War Heart… Um, Hi, I didn’t realize it was you.”, she smiled nervously.

“Well, I was in town and I thought I should check how you were doing.”

Twilight paused, “I’d have thought you would have needed checking on. You were looking awfully… Depressed.”, she said hesitantly.

“Well, I’m feeling a lot better.”

“I wanted to go to you and help, but… I don’t know… I probably shouldn’t have left you alone the rest of the day…”, she said apologetically.

“I wasn’t alone.”, he replied.

Twilight put on a look of confusion, “What do you mean?”

“Well, on my way home, Dash came by. She ended up coming over for a little bit, then we went flying for a while.”

Twilight’s expression turned to one of self-pity, “Oh… sounds like you had a good time…”

“It was rather pleasant, yes.”, he replied.

Twilight walked down the stairs to War Heart, “I’ve been meaning to tell you something that happened… When you fought that dragon that attacked Ponyville, and you were knocked unconscious… I helped the doctor heal you…”

“Thank you, Twilight. I wouldn’t expect anything less of a pony from you.”

“It wasn’t my magic that saved you. The doctor said your lungs had deflated, that you needed them pumped back up with air. She told me to blow air back into your lungs by mouth to mouth. I never told you because at first I was only trying to save you. Later on, I felt differently towards you. I’ve been hiding the way I feel about you for some time now. Then you left on that mission and didn’t come back with the others. I wanted to know what happened for myself, where I ended up meeting Fizz. When he told me we could bring you back, I thought I would burst into tears with joy. I worked with him for a long time to bring you back. Now that you’re here… I wanted to tell you how I felt and that is that I feel you are somepony special to me.”, she looked up at him, wondering how he would react.

War Heart looked down at her, a smile on his face. He moved next to her and put a hoof on her back, “You’re somepony special to me too…”

Twilight’s heart went aflutter as she heard him say that. Feeling in a state of bliss that she could hardly contain.

“You’re one of the best friends anypony can have.”, he said to her, “You are definitely one of my very best friends.”, he took his hoof back, leaving Twilight staring at the floor in disbelief. He walked towards the door, “I’ll see you later, Twilight.”, he said as he left the library.

Twilight sat down on the floor. Her eyes wide, not making a sound. The shock from his reply to her pouring her heart out making her speechless. Her eyes started to well up with tears. She then ran to her room upstairs, jumping into bed to cry her eyes out from heartbreak, realizing that in all her efforts, she was still rejected by one of the only ponies she ever loved.

War Heart left the library and took flight back to his cabin.

“Hey, War Heart! How’s it goin’?”, Rainbow Dash flew up next to him.

“Hey, Beautiful, just had breakfast, going home to clean out my cabinet, it’s full of spoiled food.”

“Gross. Need any help?”

“Not really, I guess I could always use the company, though.”

“Cool.”

They flew to War Heart’s cabin together. He opened the door and let Dash walk in first. He closed the door once they were both inside. He walked over to an empty sack he had and took it to his cabinet, then started to empty the cabinet’s contents into the bag. He shuddered from the awful smell.

Dash held her nose from the odour of the rotting food, “Ugh, that’s nasty.”, she commented.

War Heart finished emptying the food into the bag, “No kidding.”, he said as he carried the bag outside. He flew over the trees and dropped the bag somewhere in the middle of them, then flew back. He walked back inside and looked at his now empty cabinet, “Looks like I need to go shopping.”, he said to himself.

Dash walked up next to him, “I’ve got food at my house.”

“Where is your house? I’ve never seen your place before.”

“It’s up in cloudsdale. You should come over for lunch.”, Dash told him.

“Yeeeeah… I can’t walk on clouds.”, he sounded a bit embarrassed about this fact.

“Well… That’s okay, I can bring some food down and we can have a picnic instead.”, Dash suggested.

“Sure, that’d be nice, I’ll bring one of my bottles of mead along.”

“Okay, I’ve never had it before, and I was wondering for a long time what it was like.”

“It’ll taste a little strange at first, but you’ll begin to like it after a little bit.”

“Alright, I’ll go get some food, I’ll be back soon.”, Dash said as she walked out the door, taking flight and heading back to Cloudsdale.

War Heart went back to his bedroom and reached under his bed for a bottle of Honey Wine. It rolled out from under the bed. He picked it up and walked back into the shield hall and placed it on the table. He waited there for a few minutes, grabbing some cups and straws while he waited. A knock was at the door, he went over and opened it.

Dash stood there with a wicker basket on the ground beside her, “You ready?”, she asked.

“Yeah, I’ll just grab the drink and we’ll go.”, He walked to another sack he had lying around and put the bottle, cups and straws in it, then put it in a saddlebag he just put on. He walked back to the door where Dash was waiting.

“Okay, I got a spot we can go to, follow me.”, Dash said before taking flight.

War Heart took off after her, flying alongside her.

Dash flew him to a place in the middle of the forest, a clearing in the trees with a small meadow and a stream. There were a bunch of flowers all in bloom at the moment, making the once green meadow to a multitude of colours, “There it is.”, she glided down with War Heart, landing in the flower-filled meadow.

“It’s a nice spot.”, War Heart commented as he admired the surrounding area.

Dash opened the basket and pulled out a blanket. War Heart took it from her, “I’ll take care of that.”, He said as he spread the blanket on the grass while Dash rummaged through the basket. He took a seat on the blanket, taking off his saddlebag and bringing out the bottle, cups and straws. Dash put down some sandwiches and took a seat across from him.

War Heart poured the Honey wine into the glasses and put a straw in each one. He put the cup down in front of Dash. He took a sip from his drink, as did Dash. Dash shuddered from the taste, it tasted sweet, but strange as well.

“This tastes weird.”, she commented looking at it.

“I know, after a while, it’ll taste better.”, War Heart said with a light smile.

“Okay then.”, she said as she took another sip, “So, what do you wanna talk about?”, she asked.

“I don’t know, what do you want to talk about?”

“How about you tell me about what happened when you left?”

“Which part?”

“As much as you want.”, she laid down holding her head up with her hooves, eager to hear about his adventures.

“I guess I could tell you what happened…”, War Heart said before he began to tell Dash what happened in the Dragon Land.

“Wow, that’s so awesome! You must be really strong!”, Dash commented after he finished telling her about the Giant Spider he fought.

“Yeah, after that, the Dragon Lord said he would leave Equestria alone so long as we took care of the other two Dragon Lords.”, War Heart explained, leaving out the hallucinations of Ditzy and the filly. At this point Dash and him had been drinking a bit, Dash feeling slightly intoxicated.

War Heart continued retelling his story to Dash. Often pouring more Mead into his cup as well as hers, taking a bite out of their sandwiches once every little while.

At a certain point Dash wasn’t paying attention to what War Heart was saying and was more focused on War Heart himself. All the way to the point where War Heart stopped telling his story. The bottle of mead was empty now, it had been a good few hours that flew by.

“Do you have anything to talk about?”, War Heart asked her.

Dash tried to stand up, not being able to keep her balance very well at this point of intoxication. “Why, can’t I keep my balance?”, she asked, not quite sure what was going on, but not alarmed in the least.

“One of the effects of this stuff, you drank a lot, for somepony your size.”

“Oh… Okay.”, she said as she walked over next to him, laying down, “I feel like I forgot about something…”, she said while looking up at the sky. It was almost sunset.

“Well, I think Pinkie was throwing a party tonight…”, War Heart told Dash.

Dash covered her face with her hoof, “Oh right, that Hearts and Hooves Day Party…”, she said in an unenthused tone.

“Something wrong?”

“Every year has been the same, a lot of couples go there and talk all stupid to each other, going gaga over their special somepony.”, Dashed rolled her eyes at the ‘special somepony’ bit.

“I guess you’ve never gone?”, War Heart assumed.

“Nah, I usually just went flying.”

“I wouldn’t do that now if I were you, the drink has affected you a lot.”

“Oh yeah? What if I try to take off now? Gonna try and stop me?”, Dash asked in a playfully challenging tone.

“Not sure if you could, but I wouldn’t take any chances.”

Dash got up stumblingly. She spread her wings and smirked, she started to tilt to the side then quickly steadied herself, nearly falling over.

War Heart raised an eyebrow, “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna go flying.”

“You wouldn’t…”, his eyes narrowed.

“You going to stop me?”, she challenged him.

“I will if I have to.”

Dash began running away, War Heart taking off after her. He was overtaking her quite easily. Not even getting out of the meadow she tripped and fell to the ground, War Heart trying to stop immediately after her, but sliding a feet forward. He walked over to her, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, could be better though.”

“I figured… I’ll take you to my house, you can’t be flying around like this.”

“Okay, then.”, she said as she stood up again. Walking over to their picnic spot War Heart packed it up then put all of the stuff into his saddlebags. He walked her all the way to his cabin. He opened the door and let her walk inside.

Dash stumbled inside, War heart closed the door and put down his saddlebags. He walked to Dash and led her to his bedroom. She walked in and dove onto the bed, rolling around and enjoying the softness of it.

War Heart spoke up, “You should get some sleep, or you’re going to have a real headache later.”

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“I have some stuff to do, and I’ll just sleep on my chair in the other room.”

Dash got up off the bed and approached War Heart, “I wanna ask you something.”

“Okay, What is it?”

“Do you have a special somepony?”

“Nope, can’t say I do.”

“Wanna be mine?”

“Nope, because you’re drunk and not thinking clearly, now you should go to bed.”

Dash was not happy with this answer and quickly grabbed his face and forced it into hers, their lips colliding in a forced kiss. War Hear pushed her away gently, “That isn’t helping. If you go to sleep now, we’ll talk when you wake up.”

Dash sighed and walked over to the bed and laid down on side of the bed, leaving plenty of room for somepony else to sleep next to her, falling asleep within seconds.

War Heart closed the door. He smiled as he went to the fireplace and threw a log on the fire, “She’s pretty insistent. Then again, when drunk, a lot of ponies are.”, he said with a slight chuckle. He thought for a moment if she was serious about making him her special somepony, “She’s a good pony… I didn’t really think of her that way before until now…”, he sat on his chair, thinking about Dash.

Dash was still awake in War Heart’s room laying there in the dark, looking through the window to the stars in the sky. She heard the door handle jiggle, she quickly closed her eyes and pretended she was asleep. She heard the door open, then close, followed by some hoof steps. She felt the bed sink down a bit on the other side and something drape over her. She opened one eye to see War Heart’s black wing on her. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

Morning arrived with its rays of light shining through the window of War Heart’s room. He opened his eyes to see Dash was gone, “Weird, I thought she would have slept longer.”, he said to himself as he sat up, immediately rubbing his eyes. He looked at his door to see it was cracked open slightly. He got up and walked out of the room to find the main room of the suite in Unex. He looked around confused, “What the…?”, he walked into the room. The floor suddenly broke out from below him, sending him into a hard stone floor. He landed on his back, feeling one of his wings crack on impact. He cringed in pain, slowly getting up. He looked around to see only darkness. He heard something behind him and turned to it. He saw a pony in the darkness, “Who are you?”, he spoke out to it. The pony didn’t answer. Soon the shapes and shadows of several dragons appeared, then those of humans, all surrounding him. He could feel their stares, judging him for what he had done. They shadows all started to draw closer to him, they slid across the floor, getting closer. War Heart couldn’t do anything with nowhere to run. He panicked at the approaching shadows. Chains shot out from the floor and wrapped themselves around War Heart, pulling him to the ground afterward. He was trapped as they were on half a foot away. There was a pause, a moment of absolute silence. One of the human shadows put its foot on War Heart’s side and abruptly tore the wing from his body. War Heart began to scream as all the shadows began to tears pieces from him, forcing him to watch them consume his flesh in front of him. It was only minutes but it seemed like eternity to War Heart that they devoured him, piece by piece. He soon felt himself grow weaker as the dark enclosed itself around his vision.

War Heart woke up feeling his head pressed up against Dash’s coat, with her holding his head.

“You were tossing around in your sleep, you were having a nightmare.”, Dash said as she stroked War Heart’s mane with her hoof, “You’re okay now…”

Deal With It

War Heart awoke in his bed, like usual he woke in a cold sweat. The dreams haunting him almost every night. He rubbed his eyes and looked out the window to see the morning sun. He sat there in his room, still thinking what he had done during his time in Unex. He had flashbacks of those time, often violent ones, or faces of those he had murdered. For the most part he tried to ignore it, tried to move on. The main reason being that he didn’t want Dash to worry about him. War Heart still thought he was supposed to set an example for everypony, he wanted to be strong for them. It was very taxing on his mind, still remembering DeadBeast calling him by that title, “Monster…”, War Heart said to himself as he sat on the side of his bed, stranded on an island of his own thoughts. He looked to his bedside table, a half bottle of honey wine sitting there, open from last night. He took it and drank from it, letting the alcoholic beverage dull his mind and senses, if only slightly, due to his high threshold for such poison. He rested the bottle at it’s original spot on his bedside table. He got off the bed and walked into his shield hall. He inhaled deeply, his eyes closed. There was a total silence in the room, he exhaled in a melancholic sigh. He moved himself to his cabinet, opening it and examining its contents, eyeing an apple and taking it. He bit into the red fruit, not paying much attention to its sweet flavour, but more consuming it because he had to eat it to fill himself. It has been several months since he returned to Equestria, things have returned to the Equestrian norm. War Heart threw the core away and sat at his throne-like chair at the end of his dining table, taking a moment to brood. He didn’t have much time for peace since there was a knock at the door. He rose from his chair and trudged to the door. His eyes widened upon seeing Princess Celestia standing there on the other side of the door, “Your Majesty?”, War Heart was baffled at this surprise visit.

The princess had a serious look on her face as she stepped in, “War Heart, we need to talk.”, she told him in a foreboding tone.

“About…?”, War Heart asked in suspicion.

Celestia turned to him, “About what happened on your journey…”

“Why?”

“I need to know what you saw. Now tell me.”, she ordered him.

War Heart looked at the ground, closing his eyes tightly as a headache flared up, then opening them and looking Celestia in the eye, “No… I won’t talk about it, I just want to move on, it’s over…”

Celestia rose her eyebrow, “Are you disobeying a direct order from your Princess?”

“I’m not doing anything wrong, I just want to forget this whole mess. I want to settle down, I want to live…”

“What if I told you that Equestria is still in danger?”

War Heart put on a look of surprise, “What do you mean?”

“So long as you have knowledge of such a place, their ideas, their customs, it will lead to the ruin of Equestria’s order.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t want anypony to get hurt because of what you know, would you?”, Celestia’s tone turned to one of aggression and intimidation.

“I wasn’t going to tell anypony in the first place! I didn’t like living in that world, I don’t want to bring it here either!”

There was a pause for a few moments before Celestia spoke again, “I’ll remember this, if you speak of what happened, there will be consequences.”, Celestia spoke as she walked out the door, closing it behind her.

War Heart walked back into his room, the memories of Unex now fresh in his mind. He grabbed the bottle of Mead and gulped the rest down. He put the bottle back down. He was beginning to get drowsy, “I need some air…”, he walked outside, basking in the sunlight. He shook his head and took flight, “Maybe spending some time with Dash will help get my mind off things…”, he said to himself as he flew sloppily, now being impaired from the effects of the alcohol. He started to feel drowsy about half way to Cloudsdale, forcing him to land. He rested on the side of mountain. He walked over to a tree and collapsed, falling asleep under the tree.

He awoke later at night, with a pulsing headache. He looked to the sky to see stars dotting the blackness that was space. He stood up and kept flying towards Cloudsdale. He arrived there to see everypony was asleep. He flew up to Dash’s door, slowly opening it and checking if she was home, “Hello, Dash, You there?”, he called out, but received no reply, “Maybe she’s out at a slumber party or something…”, he wondered as he entered the house, hovering since he was (strangely) unable to walk on clouds like all the other Pegasi. He hovered over to a nearby desk, a book there that looked rather plain except for the word scribbled on the cover, “Diary… What the fir does that mean?”, he asked himself, not knowing of such things. He decided to ignore it, he looked around some more, not finding anything of real interest. He flew out the door, closing it behind him. He flew out of Cloudsdale, “I wonder where she went to…”, he spoke to himself in mid-flight. He decided he might as well just return home and try to sleep so he wouldn’t end up sleeping all day tomorrow, in case Dash wanted to do something. He arrived at his home, he opened the door and walked in to see Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight all just conversing with each other. War Heart froze as he entered, raising his eyebrow in silence and confusion.

Applejack looked towards the doorway to see the large black stallion, “Oh… uh… Surprise…”, she said with a nervous smile.

War Heart stood there, not quite understanding what was going on, “What… are you doing here?”, he spoke to them collectively.

Dash walked over to him, “Well, we didn’t know your birthday, so we were going to celebrate the day you arrived in Ponyville… We were going to surprise you but… you weren’t home…”, Dash said with the same nervous smile as Applejack.

“Yeah, I fell asleep while I was going to visit you.”, he scratched the back of his head.

“Are you okay?”, Dash asked in concern.

“Just had a rough time today…”

“Is it the dreams again…? You smell like mead…”, she commented.

“It’s a bit o’ the dreams, a bit of… I don’t know…”

“Well, try to have fun, it is your party after all.”, Dash smiled and looked in his eyes.

War Heart smiled back and nodded, “Yeah, I guess I should let loose a bit.”, he said as he walked over to his stash under his bed, bringing out another bottle of mead. Dash and the others were standing at the doorway, all staring at him with narrowed eyes. War Heart had a confused look as they all entered the room, “Ummm… What’s going on?”

“Get him!”, Dash yelled as they all pounced on him, overpowering him with the element of surprise, Applejack tying him up.

“What the fir is going on!?”, War Heart said as he struggled to break the ropes.

Twilight walked over to him, looking down on him, “It’s an intervention, you are drinking too much of that stuff. We’re taking it away from you. We’re worried you may do something you’ll regret if you keep this up…”

War Heart sighed, “Fine… I’ll stop drinking it…”

Twilight looked at the others, “We actually thought that was going to be a lot more difficult.”, the other mares all shrugged.

War Heart just laid there watching the mares take all his mead and dispose of it by taking it far away, probably.

After a while they rid the house of all the mead, War Heart was untied and free to walk about again, “You know you could have just asked me to stop…”, War Heart said in an irritated tone.

Twilight spoke up, “Sorry, I honestly thought you’d be a little more… Hard-headed about it…”

Dash spoke next, “Yeah, we were just worried about you.”, she looked to him and smiled, somewhat embarrassed.

War Heart approached Rainbow Dash, kissing her on the cheek, “I should have figured you would be looking out for me…”, he said with a smile.

There was a silence, until Pinkie burst it, “Now that that is over with, Lets Party!”, she shouted with enthusiasm as she brought out her party cannon and blasted confetti, balloons, and other party necessities into the shield hall.

The ponies walked into the room and started having a grand time throughout the evening. Hours later it was midnight, almost all the mares had left for home, all but one.

War Heart was cleaning up the garbage leftover from the party, “That was rather fun, I needed that…”, he looked around to notice Dash was missing. He stopped what he was doing and walked into his room, to find Dash lying there on the bed, staring at him in a sultry manner, motioning him to approach her. He walked into the room, closing the door behind him.

Over the next few weeks, War Heart’s dreams and flashbacks grew more frequent, he slept less and less each week. He felt weaker, slower, not as aware. Without the alcohol the dreams were also more vivid. He would often end up recalling those he had killed in the frenzy of the dragon blood, only feeling remorse, and sorrow for what he was. There were times that he would not leave his house for days at a time, only coming out when Dash came to him and forced him to leave the house.

War Heart walked into the shield hall, taking account of what he had left in his cabinet. He took note he was almost out of maple syrup, even though he didn’t partake in eating pancakes very often. He sighed, “Looks like I have to go home for some more…”, he told himself as he started loading up his saddlebags for the trip. He was interrupted by a knock at the door, “It’s open!”, he shouted to the door, hearing it creak open after.

“What are you doing?”, a familiar voice asked from behind him.

“I’m going home, I need to get some things.”, War Heart explained as he turned to Dash who had entered the room.

“How long will you be gone?”

“Two weeks, maybe more if I end up staying for a while.”

Dash looked at the floor, feeling a bit down at the fact she won’t see him for so long.

“You can come if you want, just dress warm, it’s very cold.”

Dash’s eyes lit up, “Okay, I’ll go home and grab my stuff!”, she said excitedly as she galloped out the door and flew home.

War Heart waited outside his cabin for her, thinking what his parents will say after being away for so long. He looked to the sky to see Dash on her way back to him, saddlebags and a scarf on her, “I’m back, we ready to go?”, she asked, excited to see what Caneighda was like.

“Yeah, let’s get moving then.”, He said as he took off to the northeast, Dash flying beside him. They soared over plains and mountains, the air become colder hour by hour as they headed north.

Dash’s teeth started chattering from the cold, she was having a hard time adjusting to it while flying, where the air in the sky is colder.

War Heart descended to the path below, Dash following him. Upon landing he motioned for her to come to him. She did so, and found herself at his side, his wing wrapped around her, “We walk from here…”, he told her before stepping forward.

Dash nodded, shivering from the low temperatures of northern Equestria. War Heart’s body heat kept her from freezing.

They marched on for two days, resting under the natural canopies of the evergreen trees of Caneighda so they didn’t sleep in the banks of snow. Dash was still not adjusting to the cold of Caneighda, shivering unless she was right against War Heart’s side.

“Well, how’s it goin’ there, eh?”, a familiar Caneighdian accent from a familiar voice called to War Heart.

“Jean Luc, good to see you.”, War Heart replied to his old friend. He put out his front hoof, Jean Luc tapping it with his own hoof, creating a clack noise on impact.

The moose looked down at Dash, towering over her, “How’s it goin’, eh? You one of those Peggy-sauce, things too, eh?”

War Heart spoke up, “Yes, she is. I was running out of syrup, came back to get some, probably see the parents while I’m at it.”

The moose nodded, “Sounds like a good time, eh? I gotta go do some stuff, seeya later, eh?”, he said as he walked away into the forest.

“What was that?”, Dash asked War Heart.

“He is a moose, the native ones around here, my family are the only ponies up here.”, War Heart explained as he kept walking.

“I wonder why…”, she said jestingly with a smirk.

They approached the large log cabin, “I have to warn you, my sister is a bit… touchy…”

“You have a sister?”

“Yes. An older sister. Her name is Sweet Heart.”

“I’m a bit nervous about this…”

“Don’t be, they’re friendly ponies.”, he said as they walked up to the door. He knocked in the door with his hoof.

“Coming!”, a very enthusiastic voice shouted from the other side of the door. The door opened and revealed a Pegasus mare with a light grey coat, freckles on her face, and a dark purple flowing mane, “War Heart!”, she screamed as she tackled him in a hug, War Heart not even flinching. She released him and looked at the mare next to him, “Who is this?”

“This is Rainbow Dash, my mare friend.”

“Oh my gosh, my little brother is growing up!”, she covered her mouth with her hooves.

War Heart covered his face with his hoof.

“I’m Sweet Heart, would you like some butterscotch?”, she asked Dash excitedly.

“Ummm… Sure?”, Dash said hesitantly, being grabbed by Sweet Heart and dragged to the kitchen immediately after finishing her sentence.

War Heart looked around the living room of his old home, remembering his childhood, smiling slightly.

A mare with a dark purple coat and a mane of hot pink and plum colours entered the room, “Looks like the hero finally returns home.”, she said with a smile. She approached War Heart and hugged him.

“I came back for some syrup, I was running out.”

“It sounded like you brought somepony with you, where are they?”

War Heart shifted to the side, staring at the door to the kitchen.

The mare looked to the door, then rolled her eyes, “Oh, that filly is just so friendly and free with her candy. She was considering moving south to open a shop down there.”

War Heart shrugged, “I don’t know, they seem to like our syrup well enough.”

“Question is, who wouldn’t like it?”, the mare chuckled as she headed to the kitchen.

War Heart followed her to the kitchen, entering through the swinging door after her.

“Mom! This is Rainbow Dash, War Heart’s Mare friend!”, Sweet heart said giggling.

Dash blushed a bit, “Hello…”

“Hello, I’m Wild Heart, War Heart’s mother.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Heart.”

“How are you adjusting to the north temperatures?”

“It’s very cold outside, I don’t know how anypony can stand it.”

“Well, our family is very tough, War Heart was the only one to become emotionally cold, he was never the one to partake in hugs or other things.”

War Heart rolled his eyes, “It just feels uncomfortable…”

“Even when he was just a young colt, he would go outside and stand there in the snow without anypony out there to help him keep warm. More than a few times did he catch a cold from pulling that stunt.”, Wild Heart shook her head and smiled.

“I don’t see why you don’t just have a winter wrap up around here.”, Dash said.

“A what?”, Wild Heart asked in confusion.

War Heart spoke up, “In Ponyville, the Pegasi and all the other ponies melt the snow and change the weather.”

“Odd, might explain why it’s always cold, but the wildlife around here is used to it.”

“I guess so…”, Dash said as she took another piece of butterscotch and put it in her mouth.

The front door opened and closed, all the ponies in the room looked towards the kitchen door to see a large stallion Pegasus with grey coat and black mane and tail as well as a black beard. He wore a plaid sweater.

“I see you’ve returned, War.”

“Yes, a lot has happened since I left.”

“I heard you were declared a hero.”

“He also has a mare friend, Dad!”, Sweet Heart shouted.

He rose his eyebrow, “Really now?”, he leaned over, looking behind War Heart to see Dash. He smiled, “We should drink to celebrate!”, he cheered.

“I can’t, I stopped drinking.”, War Heart told his father.

“What? Why?”

“It was getting to be that it changed me… I promised my friends that I’d stop.”

“Very well…”, his father thought for a moment, “Why are you here?”

“Well, I ran out of syrup, they don’t have any maple trees down there.”

“Hmm… maybe I’ll send some saplings with you, grow your own trees and make your own syrup.”, his father suggested.

“That could work.”, War Heart replied nodding.

“Alright, I’ll load up the wagon with some bottles of syrup and saplings, then you can leave tomorrow. You and your mare friend can stay in your old room.”

“Okay.”

War Heart’s father left the room and went back outside. All went quite for a few seconds before Sweet Heart spoke up.

“So, Dash, you think they could use a candy shop in Ponyville?”

“Ummm… I don’t know, but everypony usually goes down to Sugar Cube Corner, it’s a bakery.”

“But you ponies don’t have any butterscotch, do you?”

“I don’t think so…?”, Dash replied hesitantly, not really sure if she was right.

War Heart yawned, “I’m feeling kind of tired, I’ll be in my room.”, he said as he left the kitchen. He walked into his room and collapsed on the bed, the weeks of losing sleep finally catching up to him. He eyes closed and he drifted back into the dreamlands.

“I’ve never seen him go to bed so early…”, Wild Heart commented.

“He’s been losing sleep a lot lately, he won’t say why, but I think he’s been having nightmares.”, Dash explained.

“Poor War Heart…”, Sweet Heart replied in concern for her younger brother, having no clue what he’s been through.

“It might be something to do with the fact that he disappeared a while ago, he only came back to Ponyville recently.”

“Really?”, Sweet Heart asked.

Dash nodded in reply.

“I’m sure he’ll be better in no time, he’s always been strong at heart.”, Wild Heart told them.

The mares proceeded to make small talk throughout most of the day, Dash eventually feeling tired herself and retiring to War Heart’s room to fall asleep with him.

“I like her, she’s a nice pony.”, Sweet Heart commented while making more candy with her mother.

“Yes, she seems to care about War Heart a lot too. He seems to have many friends that care for him, maybe it was best that he went out into the world.”

“Can I go with them to Ponyville?”, Sweet Heart asked, somewhat excited to see the warm climates and all the other ponies again.

“I don’t see any reason you can’t go.”, Wild Heart replied with her usual smile.

“Yay!”, Sweet Heart said, bouncing up and down excitedly. She bounced out of the kitchen and went to her room to pack up.

That night, War Heart was having another nightmare. He woke in the morning in a panic, not waking Dash this time. He covered his face with his hoof, “Again… Almost every night…”, he said to himself. He looked out the window to see the dawn arrive. He got out of bed and walked into the kitchen to see Sweet Heart making pancakes.

“Hi, War Heart!”, she said in an excited tone, putting down a plate of pancakes for him, “How was your sleep?”

“Could’ve been better…”, he said rubbing the back of his head. He slowly picked at the pancakes, not feeling too hungry.

War Heart’s father walked into the kitchen, just waking up himself, “I guess you’ll be leaving soon.”

“Yeah…”, War Heart replied unenergetically.

“One of those nights?”

“You could say that…”

War Heart’s father sat down at the table, Sweet Heart put down another plate of pancakes. He started eating them.

War Heart pushed his plate away from him, “I’m not very hungry…”, he said as he left the kitchen and walked outside. War Heart stood outside in the frozen air of his home, brooding on his dreams once more.

Dash awoke an hour after War Heart, noticing she was alone in the room she walked into the kitchen to find Wild Heart cleaning up.

“Oh, you’re awake! Come here, I want you to have something.”, she motioned for Dash to come to her.

Dash approached, curious about what she was talking about.

Wild Heart put a small jewellery box on the table and smiled at Dash, “War Heart’s grand mother gave me this when his father brought me to see his parents. It’s the symbol of their family line.”

Dash looked inside that box to see a wooden carving of a heart, polished and shining.

“It’s carved from an evergreen tree, a symbol to show that even in the coldest of times, love will not wither. I’m giving this to you as a way of saying, ‘Welcome to the family.’”, Wild Heart wrapped her front legs around Dash in embrace.

Dash felt something she wasn’t familiar with. She had not had an actual family that embraced her like this. She felt she was a part of something bigger than just her and War Heart. She now felt like she had another home to go to now, and for that one moment she felt happier than she thought she could. She hugged Wild Heart back as tears welled up in her eyes, “Thank you…”, she whispered before letting go.

“You’ll always be welcome here, Dash. Now you better head outside, War Heart and Sweet Heart are waiting.”, she said as she returned to cleaning.

Dash took the jewellery box off the table and left the room, putting it in her saddlebags. She put on her bags and scarf and headed outside where War Heart was loading up a large wagon.

Sweet Heart looked in Dash’s direction, “She’s up! She’s up! Let’s go!”, she shouted ecstatically.

War Heart walked over to Dash, “It seems that Sweet Heart is moving to Ponyville…”

“Yeah, she was talking about that last night.”, Dash replied.

War Heart sighed, “Oh this is going to be just dandy…”

“It’ll be fine, Pinkie will be excited.”

“Oh for Faust’s sake, those two will be out of control…”

Dash chuckled, “It’ll be interesting at least.”, Dash replied as she walked over to the wagon and got inside.

War Heart sighed once again, walking over to the wagon and strapping himself to the front, ready to pull it to Ponyville, “You two ready?”

Sweet Heart bounced up and down, “Mush!”

War Heart stood there glaring at her, then shook his head before he started pulling the cart. He only looked ahead towards the horizon, heading back towards his new home, wondering what future he has in store with Dash.

Parasite

The journey back to Ponyville was uneventful, riddled with long silences, save for the creaking of the wagon as War Heart dragged it along. They finally reached Ponyville once more, looking the same as it usually did.

“We’re back. Sweet Heart, maybe you can go ask the Cakes for a job at their store?”, War Heart called back to his sister.

Sweet Heart gasped, “Oh right, Yeah I’ll do that right now!”, she flew out of the wagon and looked around Ponyville.

Dash raised her eyebrow, “Does she know where the Cakes are?”

“Nope…”, War Heart chuckled, knowing his sister wasn’t the brightest pony.

Dash smiled and rolled her eyes. Dash was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea, shivering slightly as she felt like she was going to vomit, “What the-?”, she whispered as she felt the contents of her stomach rise up her esophagus. She quickly covered her mouth with her hooves and flew off the cart to the side of the road where she let out the contents of her stomach, “I don’t feel so good…”, she groaned, feeling even more sick from the smell of stomach acid.

War Heart quickly ran over to her, “Are you okay?”, he asked urgently.

“I don’t feel too good…”, she replied weakly.

“I’ll take you back to my cabin, get you some water, something to eat, okay?”, War Heart patted her back gently.

“Okay… That’d be nice.”, she smiled at him.

War Heart returned the smile and walked her back to the cart, then kept pulling. He went a bit slower now, not wanting the cart to move around too much and upset Dash’s stomach more.

Dash laid down in the cart, still feeling nauseous, but not as bad as before, “Maybe going to Caneighda was a bad idea… I think I got sick from the cold…”, she spoke to War Heart.

“If that’s the case, I’ll take care of you until you’re better. It’s my fault for letting you come along.”, War Heart soon came back to his cabin, helping Dash off the cart and bringing her inside, letting her lay down on his bed, “I’ll be back soon with some water.”, he told her as he ran out of the room, soon returning with a bucket and placing it next to the bed, “Just in case you need to puke…”, he said before running off again.

Dash had still been wearing her saddlebags, she got up and put them on the floor, taking the Jewellery box that Wild Heart gave her, she opened it to behold the polished wood heart inside. Dash smiled and took it out of the box, noticing that it had a chain attached, making it out to be some sort of amulet, Dash put it over her head and slipped it on around her neck. She smiled looking down on it, a moment which was short-lived as the wave of nausea returned, forcing Dash to expel more of the contents of her stomach into the bucket beside the bed. She groaned again, then looked down at the polished, wooden heart, “Worth it…”, she whispered as she rested her head on the pillow.

War Heart entered the room with a bucket of water, he placed it on the floor next to the bed, “How are you feeling?”

“Not so good…”, Dash said before drinking some of the water War Heart brought for her.

“I’ll bring you something to eat, probably some bread or something.”, War Heart turned to leave before Dash stopped him.

“Actually, could I have some Apple Sauce and a cupcake?”

War Heart stopped in mid step and slowly turned his head towards Dash with a face that said, ‘Are you serious?’.

“Please?”

“Okay…”, War Heart replied before leaving the cabin, “Pretty odd request…”, he said to himself as he flew off to Sweet Apple Acres. He soared overhead and landed in front of the house. He trotted up to the door and knocked, “Anypony home?”

An orange coated mare with blonde mane answered the door, “Well howdy there, War Heart, what brings you over here?”, Applejack asked, knowing War Heart never had visited before except the time he bucked over their tree.

“I need some Apple Sauce, do you have any?”, War Heart asked, looking down at Applejack.

“I don’t know, Granny Smith usually makes it, but I s’pose I could whip up some.”

“Thanks, I also have to go into town and grab some cupcakes. So I’ll be back later to pick up the sauce.”

“Apple sauce… ‘n’ cupcakes? What kind of meal are you makin’?”

“I don’t know, Dash wanted Apple Sauce and cupcakes, so I’m getting her what she wants.”

“Mighty kind of ya, but I’ve never seen anypony eat those at the same time.”

“She’s feeling a bit sick from the trip to Caneighda.”

“So that’s where she was, I was wonderin’ where she went off to.”

“Yeah, well , I gotta go, I’ll be back.”, War Heart said as he flew off once more. War Heart glided over the orchards of apple trees, flying in the direction of Ponyville. He landed in front of the Sugar Cube Corner and walked inside. He looked around to see the front desk was unattended, “Hello?”, War Heart called out. He walked over to the desk and waited.

Pinkie Pie heard somepony enter the store and came bouncing into the room, “Hi, War Heart!”, she shouted as she stopped behind the desk, “What would you like?”, she asked.

“I’ll take a dozen cupcakes.”, War Heart said while taking out some bits from his saddlebags.

“You sure you don’t want some butterscotch too?”

War Heart froze for a moment and looked at Pinkie, “Butterscotch?”

“Yeah! We got a new pony working here, making butterscotch!”

War Heart sighed, “Yeah, that’s my older sister, Sweet Heart.”

“I was wondering why I didn’t know who she was, now we can have a party tonight! You wanna come?”

“Can’t Pinkie, I have some things to do.”

Pinkie frowned, “You don’t want to come to my party?”, she said in a saddened tone.

War Heart was startled at Pinkie frowning, “No, I wish I could but, I have to take care of Dash.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened in surprise, “What’s wrong with Dashie?”

“She’s feeling sick from the trip to Caneighda.”

“Aw, poor Dashie! I should make her a cake! Or throw a ‘Get well soon’ Party!”, Pinkie sounded very enthused about the party idea. She quickly grabbed a dozen cupcakes and put them in a box for War Heart, she placed them on the counter and bounced into the kitchen, “Sweet Heart, We have a cake to bake!”

War Heart stood there for a moment, imagining what kind of trouble those two could get into. He shook his head and left the bits on the counter, taking the box of cupcakes and putting them in his saddlebag, “Now to get that apple sauce.”, he told himself, taking off towards the Apple Family’s home, “I can’t help but feel like things are going to change with my sister being here…”, he said to himself as he landed in front of the Apple house. He went up to the door, knocked, and waited.

Applejack answered the door once more, “Howdy again, here’s that sauce ya wanted.”, she held out a jar of mush, which did not look very appealing to War Heart.

He took the jar and put it in his saddlebag, “What do I owe you for this?”

“Nothing, just make sure Rainbow Dash gets better.”

“Thanks.”, he said and turned to leave, “By the way, Pinkie is throwing a party tonight, thought you might have wanted to go.”

“Thanks for the memo, seeya, War Heart.”, Applejack waved to him as he flew away.

War Heart tried to get home as quick as he could, thinking Rainbow might have gotten worse while he was gone. He walked up to the door and jogged over to the bedroom where Dash was leaning over the bed with her head in the bucket.

Dash looked up from the bucket, “Oh… Hi.”, she smiled weakly at War Heart, happy to see he was back.

“I got the sauce and cupcakes.”, he said as he put down his bags and put them on the bed for her.

“Thanks.”, Dash stated weakly. The aroma of the cupcakes and apple sauce reached her nose, she felt a lot better, and hungry from the fact that she had expelled most of the contents of her stomach in the last little while. She took a cupcake from the box and dipped it into the jar of apple mush. She quickly shoved it into her mouth and began chewing.

War Heart stood there with a confused look on his face, “That’s new…”

Dash smiled nervously, “I just sorta… wanted to try this. It’s pretty good, you should try some.”

“I’ll pass, I’m not very hungry…”

“Alright then.”, she said as she dipped another cupcake in apple sauce and devoured it.

“Well… I’ll be out there, just call if you need me.”

Dash nodded, her mouth full of apple sauce and cupcake at the time.

War Heart walked into the shield hall and closed the door to the bedroom, “That was weird…”, War Heart whispered to himself. He paced for a bit in his shield hall, “Maybe she has a flu… I really don’t know what I’m doing here, I’m no doctor…”, War Heart spoke to himself, “Maybe I should take her in to the clinic to see if she does have the flu, and what to do if she does… Yeah, I’ll do that after she’s done eating.”, he told himself. He waited for a few minutes before walking into the bedroom to see Dash had finished the box of cupcakes and the jar of applesauce, “How are you feeling?”

“Much better, just tired now.”, Dash replied.

“That’s good.”, War Heart said as he laid down beside her and draped his wing over her, “Just get some sleep now, I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Dash nuzzled her nose against War Heart’s, “Thank you.”

War Heart smiled at her, “No problem.”, he said closing his eyes, thinking he could take her to the doctor tomorrow instead.

War Heart awoke the next morning, seeing Dash draped over the bed, her head in the bucket, emptying her stomach. He put his hoof on her back, “I’m taking you to the doctor today, okay?”, War Heart said to her, still half asleep.

“Oka-”, Dash vomited again as she replied, “… Let’s go.”, Dash took the other bucket full of water and took a drink, then got out of bed, feeling weak.

War Heart got up and walked beside her, letting her lean on him for support. He walked her all the way to Ponyville clinic. He sat her down on a chair in the waiting room while he went up to the desk. He approached the nurse at the desk, who looked somewhat surprised to see him.

“You? Weren’t your wings…?”, the nurse could scarcely believe what she was seeing.

“I got better, I’m bringing somepony in, she’s feeling rather sick and I have no clue what I’m supposed to do with her.”, War said as he pointed to Rainbow Dash.

The nurse looked over at her, then back to War Heart and nodded. She got up and went into one of the back rooms.

War Heart went back to Dash, “How you feeling?”

“Not so good…”

The doctor walked in, dressed in a white coat as doctors usually wear in the office, “Hello, would you come with me?”, he motioned for them to follow him.

War Heart walked with Rainbow Dash, trailing behind the doctor and into his office.

“Please sit on the table here.”, the Doc instructed as he tapped the table with his hoof.

Dash slowly got up on the table, feeling a bit dizzy.

The Doc was a unicorn, he used his magic to levitate a thermometer to Dash and stuck it in her mouth. He pressed the stethoscope receiver against her chest and listened for a moment. He retracted away from Dash, “Pulse is normal…”, he took the thermometer from Dash’s mouth and looked at it, “As is her temperature…”, he floated a popsicle stick over to him, “Say, ‘Ahhhhh’.”, he instructed Dash.

Dash opened her mouth, looking up at the ceiling, feeling the popsicle stick press down on her tongue.

“Nothing wrong in there either… What kinds of problems has she been experiencing? Any unusual behaviour?”, the Doc turned to War Heart, who thought for a moment.

“Well, she’s been feeling weak and been throwing up a lot, and the other day she asked me to get her cupcakes and applesauce to eat.”, War Heart explained.

The doctor’s face grew serious, “I know what’s wrong now…”, he turned and faced away from them, “You have a parasite in you…”

War Heart and Dash looked at each other in confusion.

The Doc spoke up again, “But don’t worry, ponies get these all the time, eventually it’ll burst out of you. Some ponies like to name them, dress them up in cute clothes, and whatnot.”

Dash spoke up, “A-are you saying… I’m…?”

“Pregnant, yes.”

Dash felt another wave of nausea and ran to the sink to empty her stomach.

“Strange, usually the mares are thrilled to her they are going to be a mother.”, The Doc looked to War Heart, who was frozen in place. The Doc looked at each of them, “Maybe I should go, I’m sure you’re fine.”, he said as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Dash pulled her head out of the sink and looked at War Heart.

War Heart walked over to Dash and hugged her, not knowing what to say. He felt excitement at the idea of being a father.

Dash couldn’t help but tear up, she never knew her parents, she knew she wouldn’t do the same thing to her child.

The morning they were at War Heart’s house, sleeping in. Dash always felt sick in the mornings, but she puked less often. They heard a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it…”, War Heart said as he rose from his sleeping place. He walked out of the room and towards the front door, opening it as he got there.

“SURPRISE!”, Pinkie and Sweet Heart screamed in unison as the door opened.

War Heart stood there, unflinching as confetti exploded through the door, “I forgot you two were probably going to show up…”, he turned from the door, “Dash! Pinkie and Sweet Heart are here.”

Dash walked out to see them holding a cake, her ears and wings perked up, “Hey Guys, what are you doing here?”

“We heard the news and we came to throw you a party!”, Pinkie said enthused for the party she was throwing for Dash.

“You know? Who told you?”, Dash was confused how Pinkie would know so quickly.

“War Heart did, we felt so bad for you that we made a cake for you!”

Dash threw on a look of confusion, “Felt bad for me?”

“Yeah! He told us you were sick!”, Pinkie said as she held out the cake that read, ‘Get Well Soon’.

Dash laughed a bit, “Pinkie, I’m not sick.”

“You’re better already?”

“I wasn’t sick in the first place.”, Dash said as War Heart stood next to her.

“Then what was War Heart talking about?”

Dash looked at War Heart then back to Pinkie, “I’m pregnant…”

Pinkie froze in place, a bit of confetti shooting out of the confetti cannon on the back of her head, “Oh my gosh, Dash!”, Pinkie jumped over and hugged Dash.

Sweet Heart bounced up and down, “I’m going to be an Auntie!”, she squealed excitedly and she tackled War Heart with an embrace, War Heart still not flinching at the impact.

Pinkie gasped, “This calls for a Party!”, Pinkie shouted excitedly and zipped out the door.

War Heart looked to Dash, who returned his glance, “She’s gonna invite all of Ponyville… isn’t she?”, War Heart asked.

“Well, if I know Pinkie Pie, and I do, she will.”, Dash told him, nodding her head.

Sweet Heart let go of War Heart and looked at Dash, “So, how far along are you?”, she asked excitedly.

“Ummm… We’re not sure…?”, Dash smiled nervously, honestly not knowing.

“Oh well, only a matter of time, I should tell Mom and Dad to come down!”, Sweet Heart said jumping up and down.

“Maybe we’ll wait until later. I think they’d want some time before dealing with new ponies for a while.”

“Aw, fine, if you say so, I’m going to help Pinkie plan the party, Bye!”, she said as she trotted out the door.

War Heart walked to the door and closed it, “Another Party, should be fun.”

“Pinkie’s Parties are always awesome!” Dash commented.

“They sure are, and now you’re the guest of honour.”

“We are, this is yours too.”, Dash told him while rubbing her belly.

“Well, you’re the one that is carrying it, I figured you deserve more credit.”

“I guess you’re right.”, Dash rolled her eyes and smiled.

“How about we head to Ponyville and get some breakfast?”, War Heart said as he walked over to his saddlebags.

“Sure, I think I need some air…”, Dash’s stomach growled, “… Some food would be nice as well.”

War Heart put on his saddlebags and opened the door for Dash. Allowing her to exit before him. After she was outside he followed her out and closed the door behind him.

They walked together into Ponyville.

War Heart looked at Dash, “What do you feel like eating today?”

Dash pondered while walking with War Heart, “I think… Butterscotch… and maybe some hay fries.”

War Heart nodded, “Sounds good.”, he replied as they made their way to Sugar Cube Corner.

They arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, War Heart entering first and holding the door open for Dash, allowing her to enter before closing the door. They both walked up to the counter, where Mrs. Cake was standing.

“Well hello there, how are you two doing?”, Mrs. Cake asked them.

“Doing great, we’re really excited.”, Dash replied to her.

“Oh? What for?”

“We just found out that… I’m pregnant.”

“Aww, how adorable, Carrot and I had two of our own recently, I’m sure you remember, Rainbow Dash.”

“I sure do.”

“Now, what would you like then?”

“Well, I was craving butterscotch.”

“You’ll start to crave all sorts of strange things, let me tell you.”, Mrs. Cake said as she took out a plastic bag and put some neatly wrapped butterscotch candies inside.

“I know what you mean.”, Dash said and chuckled.

War Heart reached for some bits out of his bag.

“Oh no, this is on the house.”, Mrs. Cake insisted.

“Thank you.”, Dash said as she took the bag of candy and put it in War Heart’s saddlebag.

The couple turned and left the store, heading to their next destination. They stopped at one of the local restaurants, deciding to sit outside to eat their hay fries. The waiter put their plates of hay fries in front of them.

“Can I have those butterscotch candies now?”, Dash asked War Heart, who already knew where this is going. He reached into the bag and gave her the candy. Dash proceeded to unwrap each one and put them onto the plate on top of the hay fries.

War Heart at his fries as they were, watching Dash come up with another new combination of food.

Dash started eating now after a minute or two of unwrapping candy and putting them on the fries.

They soon finished their breakfast and were starting to head home, only to be stopped by Pinkie Pie in the street.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

Dash looked at War Heart for a moment then back at Pinkie, “Home?”

“Well why would you go home when there’s a party going on for you?”

“Already? I thought it wouldn’t be until tonight.”, Dash replied to the hyper, pink pony.

“Nope, It’s happening now, at Twilight’s place!”

“Okay, well let’s go then.”, Dash said and followed Pinkie, War Heart walking beside her.

The three ponies arrived at the large tree that was Twilight’s library. Pinkie opened the door to the nearly pitch black interior. The three walked inside, the door closing as they reached near the center of the main room. The lights were suddenly switched on, many ponies all shouting in unison, “Surprise!”

Dash’s wings and ears perked up in the excitement, her best friends all crowding around her and congratulating her.

War Heart only smiled, standing there as if nothing happened, then going over to the punch bowl to get a drink.

The ponies spent the rest of the day at the party, in a celebration of life.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary, Today, I found out I was pregnant, which would explain why I was feeling so sick in the mornings. I also have been craving weird foods like cupcakes dipped in applesauce or caramel coated pickles. Pinkie and Sweet Heart were so happy to find out, I actually just came back from a party that Pinkie and my friends threw for me. Those ponies are so awesome to me. Recently I also went to War Heart’s old home in Caneighda, which was WAY too cold! No wonder Nopony lives up there. His mother and sister are nice Pegasi, but his dad kind of weirded me out, made me so nervous. Sweet Heart came with us back to Ponyville and is working with Pinkie and the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner. Oh, and I got a very special necklace from War Heart’s mom. It’s as if she saw me as her daughter. I never felt like that before, I never knew my parents so… It feels good to have somepony like that, even if it is a little late. War Heart tries so hard to look after me, he seems just as loyal as me. He went out and got me whatever I was craving, and helped me when I wasn’t feeling too good. He’s a good stallion, I love him so much.

Dear Diary, it’s been a few months and my belly is all swollen up. It isn’t too much trouble so far but I’m pretty psyched to be a mom. I wonder what we’ll name them, me and War Heart have been talking about it but we haven’t decided yet. The only thing we did decide is that the name will end up with Heart in them, his family name. I wonder what kind of a dad War Heart will be?

Dear Diary, my back is killing me, it feels like a bag of bricks in my belly. I can feel the baby kick sometimes. We still don’t know if it’ll be a colt or a filly, we don’t want to know until it happens. Today I had one of Pinkie’s Cherrichangas with some mustard, I know it’s weird but it tasted good… somehow.

Dear Diary… I was not expecting this at all… I gave birth to a beautiful filly. Sadly we won’t be able to teach her how to fly… She’s a unicorn. War Heart had quite a day. He slipped on the floor where my water broke, he was kinda disturbed at first but then rushed me to the hospital. When we got there it was so painful going through labour. War Heart fainted when the baby was coming out. He must really be heavy, he shook the room when he hit the floor. So yeah, our baby is a unicorn filly, her coat was just like mine, her mane was purple like War Heart’s mom’s mane. She also had my eyes, I was so happy when she looked at me. I’ve never felt so excited, I think I want another one. I’ll have to talk to War Heart about that first though.

Dear Diary, it’s been a few months, I’m SO exhausted, taking care of a unicorn is kind of hard when they use magic. I can’t count the amount of times she just disappeared and reappeared in random places. Pinkie and Sweet Heart visit almost all the time when they aren’t working, so they can play with the baby. At least Pinkie had a little experience with baby unicorns from babysitting for the cakes. Gah, I’m so exhausted, I need more sleep.

Dear Diary, Arcana has been walking into things a lot. Me and War Heart have been wondering about it and we went to see the doc. He said that she had a stig-ma-something. He says she’ll need glasses in order to see properly. So now she wears her specs with purple rims that she picked out. She speaks pretty good for not even being a year old, she has a knack for words. I guess my daughter may be an egg-head, but I still love her. She’s getting that same spiked mane-style as War Heart, I actually thought that was how he styled his mane, but apparently it was natural. War Heart’s parents also came for a visit, it turns out War Heart’s grandmother on his mom’s side was a unicorn, she told us since we didn’t know why we had a unicorn. Maybe that means that my parents had Unicorn blood in them too. War Heart and I have been looking into getting Arcana into a school for magic since she is started to have some… issues… her accidents are getting a bit hectic from having everything in the kitchen float around to setting her toys on fire by accident. I talked to Twilight about it and she said that she would have to be sent to the Magic School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot. I really don’t want to send Arcana away for so long…

Dear Diary, Today was Arcana’s first birthday, Pinkie threw her a huge party, with Sweet Heart’s help. AJ introduced her to Apple Bloom, who introduced her to Rarity’s sister and that orange coated filly Pegasus, I can’t remember her name. They seemed to get along pretty well, I let them go play while I hung out with my friends. War Heart has been heading off into the woods pretty often lately. He tells me that he goes and takes walks in the woods like he did back home. I think he sometimes feels homesick but he doesn’t let out feelings often, but when he does, it usually is something pretty extreme. I also notice he’s very fond of our daughter, it’s good that he wants to be a good dad. Maybe he wants to be better to her than his dad was to him? Twilight also came to me today, she told me that Celestia had approved her for teaching magic and that she would take Arcana as her apprentice. At least I know I can trust Twilight with my daughter and let her teach Arcana not to blow up the house or something.

Dear Diary, Arcana is apparently pretty smart, but not book smart, Twilight says that she doesn’t understand the books she is given, but when Twilight shows her how a spell works, she knows how to do it, but not as impressive as the original. Twilight says it is only a matter of practice before she’ll be able to do spells easily. Something else that happened today was that War Heart asked me if we could have another kid, I was thinking of asking him the same thing but wasn’t sure if he wanted to. We seem to have plenty of time when Arcana heads to Twilight’s for her studies, maybe I should surprise him.

Dear Diary, War Heart has been adding more and more rooms to the house to give Arcana her own room across the shield hall from our room. As well as another room for the next baby. Arcana sometimes brings the ‘Crusaders’ to our home to play and try and find their cutie marks. They tried helping War Heart make the new room by carving some cool drawings in the door frame. Apple Bloom’s carvings looked awesome, better than War Heart’s but I don’t think I should tell him that. I think tomorrow will be a good time to surprise War Heart.

Dear Diary, I’m getting sick in the mornings again, it’s been a few months so I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant again, Arcana is a little worried, she thinks I’m getting sick with flu or something. War Heart tells her that I only got an upset stomach, I don’t think she’s old enough yet to know about that stuff. I’ll probably tell my friends that I’m pregnant again soon.

Dear Diary, sorry I lost you, I sorta dropped you and you ended up under the bed and you were just sorta gone. It’s been about two years since the last entry, I’m happy to say that in that time, War Heart and I had two more kids. First, we had Arcana, a filly unicorn with my coat and eyes, War Heart’s mane style, with the dark purple colour that War Heart’s mom has. Our second born was a Pegasus filly, Air Heart, her coat looks like War Heart’s mom’s coat, she has War Heart’s eyes and my Mane-style (so awesome), and her mane is a mix of pink and purple streaks. Our last one is a colt. An Earth pony colt, War Heart said that the kid has Wild Heart’s eyes. The kid definitely has War Heart’s coat although it is a little brighter. He also has a totally black mane, he is also a bit bigger than his sisters. He doesn’t talk yet but then again, he isn’t very old, maybe he just isn’t ready to talk yet. Air Heart has potential as a flyer, she reminds me of me when I was her age. She isn’t afraid of anything. Which reminds me of the one time War Heart saw a spider crawl across the table while he was eating and he flipped the table and dashed out of the room. Then Air Heart just walked over to it and squished it, she wasn’t very impressed by War Heart’s reaction to that bug. Arcana has been taking her studies seriously, I almost never see her without a book floating in front of her face. She apparently is now able to learn spells from books but still learns easier from watching Twilight do it. Now that I think of it, the whole book thing may explain why she keeps bumping into things lately. Black Heart, he just sort of keeps to himself, never calling to me or War Heart for anything. I saw him outside one day and he just sat there looking down at something, he was facing away from me so I didn’t know what he was looking at. I went over to him and noticed his front leg was bleeding, I took him inside and got him bandaged up. When I asked him what happened he said he fell down and scraped his leg. He was totally calm about it like it didn’t hurt or something. I asked him why he didn’t call for help and he just told me he didn’t want to bother me or War Heart. I guess it’s sweet that he doesn’t want to be an issue but I don’t know he seems kind of… not all there when anypony talks to him. It’s almost like he isn’t paying attention when anypony speaks to him, like he has his mind on something else.

Dear Diary, Twilight told me that the Gala was coming up again this year, she told me that Celestia was interested in meeting Arcana, and that she is inviting War Heart, the kids and me to the Gala. I guess I should bring Arcana, Air, and Black to Rarity and get them some clothes. Air and Black are both in school, in the same class since Air didn’t do so well last year and had to redo the class. She told me that Black just sits at his desk and doesn’t talk to anypony. I’m starting to wonder about that colt, I barely hear him talk and only when I start talking to him. Air Heart has a few friends from flight school that she hangs out with, I have to bring her to and from flight school since War Heart can’t walk on clouds. War Heart seems to be the stay at home parent, taking care of cooking and whatever while I go flying or hanging out with Pinkie. He seems kind of different since I first met him. He seems a lot calmer. There were points where I felt that Air Heart was going to drive me up the wall that War didn’t even bat an eye. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get angry… ever.

Dear Diary, tomorrow is the Grand Galloping Gala, the kids all have their clothes and are psyched to meet the princess, well the girls do, Black seems like he doesn’t care. War Heart doesn’t seem nervous at all, Twilight told me that he actually panicked the first time he was there that he had to get outside. I also saw War Heart and Black Heart talking outside, looking at the sky. It was the first time I ever saw Black actually seem interested in anything. When I asked War Heart what they were talking about he told me that he was telling Black about his adventures. Maybe I should get Black to read the Daring Do books with me, maybe he’ll have something to talk about with me. Tomorrow morning I have to do some stuff to get ready for the Gala, gotta go to bed now.

The Voice

It was the night of the Gala once more. War Heart’s second time going, not having any good memories of the last one. He kept his usual expression which many mistook for a look of slight anger. He wore his old suit that Rarity had tailored for him for his first time at the Gala. He looked at himself in the mirror, a sudden headache causing him to flinch and shut his eyes, showing himself flashbacks of Unex City in flames. He shook his head, trying to shrug it off.

“War Heart! We gotta go, the carriage is here!”, Dash called to him from the other room. Busy dealing with the kids.

“I’m ready.”, War Heart called back and walked into the shield hall where his family was waiting.

“Okay, let’s go, Pinkie is waiting for us.”, Dash told him as she herded the kids into the carriage where Pinkie was waiting inside. War Heart followed them into the Carriage. The ponies pulling the carriage took off, pulling it behind them.

A dark pony shaped figure awaited in the shadows by the house, “Oh, War Heart. It’s been too long…”, he said to himself as he followed in the dark and the trees.

It was a few hours before the Heart family got to the Gala. Air Heart felt like it was the longest ride ever. Arcana was too busy reading her latest book that she got from Twilight. Black Heart was just staring out the window, not making a sound, you wouldn’t realize he was there if you didn’t look for him. He would imagine what it would be like to be a Pegasus or unicorn like his sisters. He felt like he would never amount to his parents or his sisters, what with his father slaying dragons, his mother defeating Nightmare Moon, his sister Arcana becoming a magical prodigy, and Air Heart becoming top of her class in flight school he felt a bit like he was a disappointment to his family. He never told them this but he had sort of a reserved hatred towards his sisters, Air Heart especially with her mocking him from out of reach. Their parents never knew because he never told them about it, like the time he didn’t tell his mother that Air Heart knocked him over which cause his leg to be cut on a rock and bleed. He didn’t know what to expect at the Gala, but he wasn’t very hopeful.

The carriage pulled up to the Palace where Celestia resided. The Heart family all got out of the vehicle. The kids followed their parents to Celestia, who greeted them in her usual regal and enchanting voice.

“Welcome back, War Heart, Rainbow Dash.”, Celestia addressed them.

A brief memory of Celestia visiting War Heart some years ago flashed through his head, “Glad to be here… Your Majesty.”, War Heart replied with forced politeness.

The three children walked forward.

Celestia looked down at them, “I suppose these three are yours?”

Dash and War Heart nodded.

“That’s nice, have fun.”, Celestia said as she walked away to deal with other matters.

Black Heart already didn’t have a fondness for the princess, he didn’t like the fact she had both wings and magic and that she looked down on everypony else. His parents told him and his sisters to go and have some fun. Black Heart walked into the main room to hear somepony, or something that he couldn’t quite tell what it was. He looked around slowly, trying to figure out where the sound came from. “What was that?”, he asked himself. He then began to wander towards the doors to the garden, not wanting to be around everypony. He walked outside to see the starry night sky, admiring it for a moment before wandering around the garden. He made his way to the palace courtyard where many statues stood. He walked around them to see what they were depicting. He came across a peculiar one. It looked as if it were made of many parts of different creatures. It’s pose and face looked as if it were in a panic. Black Heart cocked his head to the side, “Why would they make a statue in such a silly pose…?”, Black Heart told himself.

“Because I hadn’t the foresight to strike a pose before they made me turn to stone.”, a voice told Black Heart, who jumped at the sudden sound.

Black Heart turned around and looked for the source of the voice.

“Up here, little foal. What? Never seen a creature of chaos before?”, The voice continued.

Black Heart looked to the statue, “You can… talk?”

“I‘m assuming one of the elements of harmony is starting to fade. Perhaps it‘s that marshmallow getting greedy, or the cowpoke telling a little white lie. I know something has done enough to allow me to speak even if it is somewhat limited. Say, how would you like to be friends?”

“I don’t know… Who are you?”, Black Heart asked.

“… Kids today, I must be losing my touch for ponies to not know who I am. I am Discord, master of chaos and disharmony. If you let me out, I will give you whatever you want.”

“How do I let you out?”

“I need to feed off the disharmony of others to overcome the power of harmony which put me in this position.”

A dark figure walked out of the shadows, “I think I can help there.”, he spoke in a monotone. He was an earth pony with white coat and dirty blonde mane. His eyes were ice blue and he looked straight at the statue.

“Oo, I can just feel the disharmony just pouring out if you, where are you from?”, Discord asked the newcomer.

“From a place where there is greed running rampant, violence is commonplace, nobody is kind to each other unless it suits them, murder, theft, arson, and everything else that is horrible comes into play where I come from.”, the newcomer explained.

“I think I like that world, maybe this one could use a bit of redecoration. Free me by showing me an act of disharmony. Do as you see fit.”, Discord instructed Black Heart before going silent.

Black Heart turned around to see the other Earth Pony was gone. He looked around for a second, trying to spot him.

“BOO!”, a filly’s voice shouted from a slight bit above Black Heart, startling him and causing him to jump away in fright.

Air Heart laughed at Black, “Scaredy Cat!”, she exclaimed in a mocking tone.

Black Heart looked at the ground, knowing his sister was right, that he was a coward.

“Are you going to sit there and let her mock you? Why don’t you do something, it’s so boring if you don’t retaliate.”, Discord’s voice floated through Black’s mind.

Black clenched his teeth for a moment, then glared at his older sister.

“What? You gonna cry?”, Air Heart laughed at him.

Black Heart walked towards her and abruptly swung his hoof across her face, leaving only a wide-eyed look of surprise on her face.

Air Heart shook her head after a moment and swung back at her younger brother, hitting him back in his jaw. Afterwards they began to trade blows, Discord feeling his power return once more as the stone around him began to crack.

War Heart was in the main ballroom at the Gala, taking a sip of the punch they were serving. “I really wish I didn’t have to come to these, but I guess if Dash wants to, I’ll just deal with it… At least I don’t feel as awkward this time.”, War Heart’s conversation with himself was interrupted when he suddenly felt something bump into his leg. He quickly snapped towards Arcana, who walked into him while reading her book.

“Oh, My apologies father. I didn’t see you.”, Arcana said as she used her magic to adjust her purple rimmed glasses.

“It’s okay, how is the Gala treating you?”, War Heart replied to his daughter, patting her gently on the head with his hoof.

“I’m not really acquainted with any of these ponies… I just try to ignore them and hope none will try to try approaching me if I look busy.”, Arcana explained in her unusually wordy manner.

“Eh, don’t worry about it, there are things scarier then these ponies.”

“Like spiders?”, Arcana rose an eyebrow, making a remark of the incident with the spider and her father.

War Heart shuddered, “Don’t remind me…”, he said in disgust.

Arcana giggled at the idea that such a large pony could be so terrified of such a small thing. “Mother says that you were here before. Is this true?”, Arcana asked, not knowing much of her father’s past.

“Yep… and I can tell you I didn’t like it any more than I do now.”, War Heart nodded while reminiscing.

“Why were you invited to such an event?”

“Well, I did some things that other ponies saw to be… irregular.”

“What is that supposed to mean.”

“There was a big incident concerning a dragon. I ended up slaying it to protect Ponyville.”

“So they considered you to be a hero?”

“Yes… I found my cutie mark that day. I found that my special… thing was to protect others. That was about seven years ago…”, War Heart’s voice contained a minor hint of despair, a flashback to the past times when he was in Unex City, murdering several people in a blood rage. He shut his eyes and shook his head for a second to clear his mind.

“Interesting. I sense that there is more to this story than you are letting me know.”, Arcana rose an eyebrow to him, expecting him to tell her what happened.

“I don’t feel like talking about that…”, War Heart said as he took a different beverage from the table, this bottle filled with wine instead.

“What are you doing?”, Arcana asked.

“I’m drinking grape juice.”

“That’s wine…”

“It used to be grape juice.”, War Heart said as he crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out in a mocking matter towards his daughter.

Arcana put a hoof to his face, “And they call me a child…”, she said to herself as she shook her head.

“Well, I-”, War Heart stopped in mid sentence as the lights in the Gala all snuffed out at once. Leaving the once brightly lit room in a state of utter darkness.

Slow maniacal laughter began to fill the room, increasing the tempo into a harmony of cackling that sounded as if the source was from nowhere, yet everywhere. The lights flickered to life once more.

In the once empty throne sat a creature with a mischievous expression on his face. “Hello, my good ponies of Canterlot.”, he said in a eerily cheery tone. He floated up out of the throne and glided through the air. “Oh Tia, Oh Tia!”, he called out in a semi-mocking tone.

The Princess galloped into the room with Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash.

“Discord!”, the Princess shouted in an angered tone, which seemed very out of place for those who knew the Princess’ usual vocal habits.

“Well at least SOMEpony remembers me, I was worried that Nopony would remember what fun I started, and what fun that your little band here RUINED!”, a cloud of smoke erupted from Discord’s nostrils and his eyes changed to a deep red on his last word. His voice became unusually deep and sinister and his appearance for that moment changed to something out of a nightmare.

Everypony in the room except for War Heart and Celestia jumped at the sudden outburst from the master of chaos.

“So now you’re free again, I’m sure we can stop you once more!”, Twilight spoke with confidence in the fact that they had defeated him before and that they could do it again.

“Oh, my dear Twilight, I’m afraid that is where you’re wrong. You see, the elements were the only thing sealing me away in that dreadful stone form. Seeing how intelligent you claim to be, I thought you would have figured that out on your own.”, Discord returned to his regular appearance, his tone mocking Twilight.

Twilight’s expression of confidence quickly turned to a troubled one. She had no idea how this could have happened, but something inside her knew he was right.

“But this time, I won’t interfere with anypony beyond tonight. I recently got a little bit of inspiration from somepony who has been beyond this world and seen a different race that is capable of all sorts of chaos just by their own nature.”, Discord explained to the entire room with a grin.

Celestia’s angered look shot to War Heart, who was too busy hiding his daughter behind him.

Discord turned to Celestia before floating a bit higher to the ceiling, his body starting to glow with immense and powerful magic. “Ciao, Tia.”, he said with a wave and a smirk before snapping his fingers. He disappeared in a great blinding blast of white light, everything suddenly went dark for everypony.

War Heart slowly awoke, being flat on his back he sat up to see all who were attending the Gala were out cold. His vision was blurred from the violent blast of magic. He rubbed his eyes to see that he was dreaming again, or he was in that nightmare once more. He panicked as he saw that he had hands once again, abruptly slapping himself across the face to awake himself from this nightmare, “Come on, dammit, wake up!”, he said to himself in a tone of fear. He looked around the room to see everyone was now a human, “No… No, no, no, no… This can’t be happening…”, he said before being lifted from the floor by an invisible force and slammed into the wall.

“War Heart… I trusted you would not reveal what you knew of the world beyond. Now I know that was a mistake. But the fact that you even allowed Discord to be freed and do such a thing to my empire… I should have you executed.”, Celestia spoke as she walked towards War Heart, her veins glowing a pale yellow from inside her flawless alabaster white skin and white feathered wings spread wide.

“I didn’t say anything!”, War Heart shouted, unable to move from the grip of the unseen force pressing him against the wall of the palace.

“Liar! Your treasonous acts leave you deserving no less…”, Celestia said as she held out on one of her hands, a sphere of glowing yellow energy gathering in her palm, “Any last words?”

War Heart struggled against the Princess’s telekinetic hold. Slowly pulling his arm away from the wall with a clenched fist, holding out in front of him and slowly forcing his middle finger up at her.

The orb from Celestia’s hand launched at War Heart, a blast of light flashing on impact. All there was on the wall was a black stain on the yellow paint and a single black feather. She looked to her faithful student and woke her up.

Twilight’s senses were hazy at first but she jumped at the sight of a humanized Celestia waking her up.

“Discord has changed everypony here into… these creatures.”, Celestia explained to Twilight.

“Can we reverse it?”, Twilight asked.

“I’m afraid that unless we find Discord and trap him in stone again, we cannot hope to fight his magic.”, Celestia told her student, no hope in her tone.

Twilight’s friends were starting to awaken now, all having the same shock of changing their appearance to something so unfamiliar.

Dash looked around at the Gala, trying to spot War Heart, but couldn’t, “Where is War Heart?”, she asked aloud with concern, “Where are my kids!?”, she panicked as she looked around trying to find her children. She eventually found herself at the food table and looked under it to find Arcana unconscious underneath. She pulled her daughter out from under the table and hugged her tightly before getting up and trying to find her other kids. She quickly ran over to Twilight, “Twilight, look after Arcana while I try to find Air Heart and Black Heart.”, she said quickly before sprinting outside and looking around the gardens, “Black Heart! Air Heart!”, she called out, worried if they were okay. Soon she found Air Heart, unconscious and bleeding from the lip. She nudged Air Heart to wake up, which she did.

“Air Heart! Are you okay?”, Dash asked quickly, worried that Air Heart could be injured.

“Yeah, Mom… Just took a bit of a fall… No problem.”, Air Heart responded weakly but calmly, also not wanting to admit she was beaten by Black.

“Where is your brother?”, Dash asked Air Heart.

“He’s… I don’t know… I can’t remember…”, Air Heart put her hand on her head for a moment as she tried to collect her thoughts.

Dash picked up Air Heart and flew back into the ball room, running in through the door from the gardens and back to Twilight and the others, “Guys, have you seen Black Heart, and where is War Heart?”

Twilight held out a black feather, the same shade of War Heart’s coat to Dash.

“What… What does this mean? What happened?”, Dash asked, not understanding what was going on.

Celestia put a comforting hand on Dash’s shoulder, “War Heart… Woke up before the rest of us… He didn’t know the extent of Discord’s power… War Heart tried to attack Discord and… He didn’t make it…”, Celestia explained to Dash and pointed to the black stain on the wall.

Dash’s eyes widened as tears began to well up in her eyes. She collapsed to her knees as the weight of sorrow fell heavily on her heart, “Idiot… Just had to be a hero and try to protect everypony…”, Dash said in an angered tone before sobbing and smashing at the ground with her fist. The tears ran down her face and dripped off the tip of her nose, falling to the floor.

Fluttershy and Pinkie walked beside Dash, both putting their hands on her back. Dash quickly grabbing her best friend and wrapping her arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder.

Pinkie gently patted Dash’s back to comfort her, tears welling up in her bright blue eyes at the sight of Dashie, her best friend, in such a sorrowful state.

Twilight held Arcana close to her, not wanting her to see Dash like this. Arcana was asleep now but didn’t want to take the chance of her waking up to see Dash.

Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy all embraced Pinkie and Dash, making a group hug to comfort Dash.

Celestia walked off and ordered her guards to find a Black Earth Pony Colt that should be on the grounds. The guards nodded and flew off. After a half hour of searching, they returned with no results.

Celestia approached Twilight and kneeled beside her, “Twilight, I have been told by my guard that her son is missing.”, Celestia whispered to Twilight before walking away once more.

Twilight sighed in melancholy, scarcely able to believe everything was going so well for Dash, only to have it all taken away so suddenly.

It was only minutes before Celestia had the group escorted to a large room with beds for all of them. The group of friends all guiding Dash to the bed for her to lie down. She continued to sob deeply on the bed, soon crying herself to sleep.

“I can’t believe this could happen to poor Dashie…”, Pinkie commented while looking down to Dash, who was now asleep.

“I don’t think any of us were expecting this to ever happen…”, Twilight said aloud, just finishing putting Arcana and Air Heart to bed.

“What is Rainbow Dash gonna do now? She can’t move to Cloudsdale with Arcana over there.”, AppleJack added.

“She may have to stay in the cabin with her children… As painful as it may be for her, she has little choice at this point…”, Twilight explained, finding the situation to be rather unnerving.

“Perhaps we should deal with this in the morning…”, Rarity suggested as she prepared to get into bed.

“You’re right, it’s been a long day and we should rest for now…”, Twilight agreed and got into bed, as did the others.

Hours passed in silence. The dark was all consuming within the walls of the room. A single light shone from the finger tip of Arcana as she walked over to Twilight’s bed. She nudged Twilight who slowly awoke but snapped to attention as she realized who it was.

“Arcana, What’s wrong?”, Twilight asked in a whisper.

Arcana hopped on the bed and sat on the edge, “I know what happened to my father… I know my mother will not be able to cope with living in that cabin… I wanted to ask… If I could live with you so my sister and mother can live in Cloudsdale with the other Pegasi?”, Arcana looked at Twilight as she asked this, a look of depression on her face which was barely visible in the dim light from Arcana’s hand.

“Ummm… I don’t know about that… I mean, I think your mom would want to be with you and your sister more now than ever.”, Twilight scratched the back of her head.

“She will be better off not being in a place where she is shackled to old memories of my father or brother. I know I am the only one that would really keep her grounded, and I don’t want her to be. She requires time to mourn, alone.”

“I guess I could talk to her tomorrow… We’ll have to see what she wants. Now go to sleep…”, Twilight motioned for Arcana to go back to her bed.

Arcana nodded and walked back to the bed with Air Heart on it, carefully climbing onto the bed and slipping under the covers so she didn’t wake her sister. She drifted off into her slumber after her head hit the pillow, sinking into the black silence of sleep.

The next morning, everyone was awake. Dash sat on the bed, hugging her knees, wishing that it didn’t happen. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she wouldn’t speak a word. Not that she had to. The sorrow could be felt just by gazing into her rose eyes. A pain of loss like no other would strike at the very soul and tear at one’s heartstrings. Pinkie never left her side all night, being her best friend, she felt it was her obligation to be there and hopefully make Dash happy, or at least comfortable. However, even Pinkie was feeling that a party couldn’t fix what happened. The best she could hope for was to be there for Dashie and hope she feels better soon.

Arcana walked over to Dash. She hopped up on the bed and sat in front of her, “Mother, I know how you are feeling… and I want to ask you… If you would prefer to live in Cloudsdale.”, Arcana asked, not looking at Dash.

“What are you talking about?”, Dash asked weakly.

“I want you and Air Heart to live in Cloudsdale… I can live in Ponyville with Twilight, or Aunt Sweet Heart, maybe… I don’t want you to be grounded because of me…”, Arcana explained then looked to her mother with sincerity in her eyes.

Dash began to tear up and pulled her daughter to her and hugged her tightly, “You’ve always been so mature for your age… I’m so proud that you’re willing to do this for me and your sister… But I want to be with you both…”, Dash was struggling to hold back sobs as she spoke.

Arcana gently pulled away from her mother, “Mother… You have to do this, we cannot live in that house anymore… We have to pull away from our past, lest it keep us from our future…”, Arcana held her mother’s hand as she spoke.

Dash looked down, realizing that her daughter was right, that she had to get away from that place. She looked to Arcana and nodded, “You’re right…”

Twilight left with Arcana to Ponyville, Arcana immediately began looking through the sections of books in Twilight’s library.

Twilight watched as the young girl looked through the books, thinking that she just wanted to escape. “Are you okay, Arcana?”, Twilight asked her.

“I’m am fine, Miss Sparkle. However, I feel I should get back to my studies…”, Arcana replied.

“Okay… Well if you ever want to talk, I’m here for you.”, Twilight told her before walking outside.

Arcana stood there in front of the shelves of books, scanning them over for anything that could be of interest.

“Hey! Who are you!? What are you?”, a male voice that emanated from a baby dragon came from behind Arcana.

“Oh, Greetings, Spike, I have returned from the Gala.”, Arcana turned to Spike, who was still in his regular dragon form.

“Wha-… Arcana?”, the dragon’s jaw dropped to see that the filly from before in a completely different body.

“Indeed, Now, If you don’t mind, I have to return to my studies.”

“You mean, you aren’t going to explain what happened?”

“In short… No.”

Spike sighed, knowing that Arcana was serious about not giving him any information. He walked outside and saw that everyone was like Arcana, walking on two legs and looked totally different. “What’s going on?”, Spike asked himself as he walked off to look for Twilight.

Arcana stood in the library, now sure that everyone was gone. “I need to figure out how I’m going to do this…”

Plots and Therapy

It was not long until Arcana, Twilight, and Rarity had arrived at the train station in Canterlot. Twilight walked off with her one suitcase in hand at her side; Rarity, walked off the train with her luggage floating behind her, her veins were glowing with magic as she used her telekinesis spell; Arcana brought one suitcase as well, mostly containing clothes and the like.

“Ah, Canterlot, the true seat of the high class ponies.”, Rarity said in reminiscence of the time she spent in Canterlot where she met Fancy Pants.

“I still find it strange that the Princess would invite all of us here…”, Twilight spoke off-handed, more talking to herself than anyone.

Arcana did not speak, she simply started walking ahead of the others. They walked alongside her, not wanting to lose her.

Twilight was thinking over the events of the last few months, and remembering what she found in the library the last time she was there. ‘Is it really necessary to bring him back now…?’, Twilight thought to herself.

The three of them soon found themselves at the royal palace, many more guards than usual at attention.

Twilight felt a bit uneasy walking past the guards, feeling them watch her as she walked, yet remaining motionless like the stone walls themselves.

Rarity walked with confidence only found in the most proud of people. If one didn’t know any better, they would assume she was in charge.

Arcana kept her usual stare, the eyes that did not visualize, but they scanned everything, eyes that revealed a busy mind that constantly calculated with cold indifference.

As they walked up the stairs to the throne room, they looked to see Princess Celestia waiting for them. “Welcome, Twilight, Rarity…”, Celestia looked down to the little one before her, crouching down to Arcana’s eye level, “Arcana, my condolences on what happened to your father. He was a hero to us all.”, Celestia put a hand on Arcana’s shoulder and smiled.

“I do not require pity for my loss of a patriarchal figure. I will mourn in my own fashion.”, Arcana replied with her cold words, Celestia being forced to look at her quizzically.

“She sounds like quite a charmer.”, a young woman with pink hair and red-rimmed glasses walked over to the four of them.

“You…”, Twilight squinted, unsure if it was the same person as she was thinking.

“Oh, yes, how rude of me. I am Cura, the doctor that went with the team to the Dragon Lands about 6 years ago.”, she looked over to Rarity, “Did your leg heal up fine?”

Rarity shivered for a second, the memory of her leg making such a terrible crunching noise echoing through her mind, “Yes… It has…”

“How has War Heart been, has he adapted to being without wings yet?”, Cura asked, totally oblivious to the events of the Gala other than that Discord had changed all the ponies into humans.

Twilight and Rarity looked at each other, not sure if she was serious.

Twilight spoke first, “Um… Didn’t you hear?”

“Hear what…?”, Cura’s face turned to an expression of concern.

“He’s been dead for months… Discord killed him…”, Twilight’s tone was grave, she hated to be the one to tell her.

Cura’s eyes widened, then she lowered her head, feeling the guilt of just abandoning him when he was grounded and wingless. A tear welled up in her right eye, “I’m afraid I have some things to work on… If you’ll excuse me…”, Cura walked away, trying to pretend as if nothing were wrong.

Twilight turned to the Princess, “Is she still your doctor?”

“Yes, and since she is older now, she has become my advisor of health. She’s the head of every field of medicine.”, Celestia explained as she began walking, motioning for the other three to follow.

“The dear was about to tear up at the news, how did she not know?”, Rarity asked.

Celestia kept walking, “She was not present at the Gala, she didn’t give me a reason. Nobody ever really informed her of it, but she was also busy learning the anatomy of these new forms over the last few months.”, she explained to the others.

The four arrived at the room that Rarity, Twilight, and Arcana were going to be sleeping in. “This is the room, just call on one of the servants if you ever need assistance. For now I have to deal with my advisors. Goodbye.”, Celestia said as she walked away.

Rarity walked inside as she set her things on the largest bed in the room, as if reserving it for herself in silence.

Twilight walked in and sat on one of the other beds, unpacking her luggage which consisted of a few changes in clothes and some books.

Arcana went over to the bed and placed her suitcase on the smaller of the three beds before walking out of the room.

Twilight followed her as she left, “Where are you going?”, she asked, knowing she was responsible for Arcana.

“I am going to the Archives. I have much to learn…”, Arcana replied coldly.

“Why don’t you give yourself a break? Spend some time with us instead?”, Twilight suggested.

Arcana turned to Twilight, “Ms. Sparkle, as kind as your gesture is, I must decline. I desire to further my understanding of magic and other things.”

Twilight crossed her arms, now becoming curious, “What do you need so badly that you would need the Archives?”

Arcana kept stone-faced, “That is need-to-know basis, and I’m sorry to say, you don’t.”, she turned away before being stopped by Twilight.

“Arcana, I’m concerned… You never seemed at all phased by your Dad’s death… Are you trying to hide your feelings by pouring over books?”, Twilight asked her.

Arcana stopped for a moment, thinking over Twilight’s words, wondering if she was right. She turned to Twilight, now with an expression of slight frustration. She glared at her teacher coldly.

Twilight was somewhat startled at the glare coming from the young one, almost as intimidating as her father’s. “Sorry, go on, go study…”, Twilight said before waving her away.

Arcana returned to her blank expression and bowed to Twilight, “Thank you, Ms. Sparkle.”, she said politely before leaving to the archives.

Rarity was watching from the bed the ordeal between Twilight and Arcana, she shook her head, “She really needs someone to talk to… But apparently that isn’t you or me.”

“I wish she wouldn’t just see me as a teacher… I’m supposed to be looking after her, but she won’t stop being like… her… long enough to know that she doesn’t have to be as tough as War Heart.”, Twilight said after collapsing onto her bed.

“I suppose it’s out of hands, Twilight… Perhaps she needs more time before coming out of her shell…”, Rarity told Twilight as she put away all her spare clothes into drawers.

“I guess…”, Twilight replied with a sigh afterward, shaking her head at this mess.

Arcana walked into the Archives room, the door unlocked ahead of time by Celestia’s groundskeepers. She scanned the room over, noticing it was in a state of disrepair. “Now… I must begin my search…”, she said as she walked along the shelves of age-old tomes. She passed a dusty old book labelled, “Alchemy: Science and Magic”, Arcana read the title aloud to herself and began reading, intrigued by the idea of science and magic in coexistence. She walked about with the book, not paying attention to where she was walking. She tripped over what she assumed to be a book. She looked to where she tripped to see a peculiar-looking device made of steel. She examined it quizzically, “How queer…”, she said as she placed the book she was reading on the floor and picked up the contraption. “I wonder what this is…”, she pondered for a moment. Soon she decided to ignore it, she placed it against the wall of the Archives and continued reading, almost seeming obsessive with the acquirement of knowledge now that she had no time or patience for other matters. She continued to study in the Archives for three days straight, only coming out for the most basic requirements such as food and to go to the bathroom.

Celestia happened to be walking by the archives as Arcana was leaving to fetch some food. “Hello, Arcana, what are you doing?”, Celestia asked in a polite tone.

“I find myself in need of nourishment. I was leaving to acquire some.”, she replied to the Princess in her usual lifeless tone.

“Well, why don’t you join me? I was about to head to the dining hall for tea. I can have the servants bring you some too.”

Arcana pondered for a few seconds, “Very well, I shall join you. Thank you for the invitation.”, she bowed in a show of respect.

They walked together into the empty dining hall. Celestia took a seat at the head of the table. Arcana was about to sit on her right side before being interrupted by Celestia, “You may want to sit to my left, Luna usually sits there, and she is very protective of her place.”

Arcana nodded and walked behind the princess and sat down on her left.

Celestia poured herself some tea, “So, Arcana… Why did you want to have access to the archives again?”, the Princess asked while pouring.

“I wished to further my studies. Ms. Sparkle is an exemplary tutor, but lacked the necessary resources to teach me all I wanted to know.”, Arcana explained.

“Yes, Twilight has told me of your gift. She tells me you can mimic magic when you see it, is this true?”, Celestia asked while stirring sugar into her tea.

“Yes, this is true. Although, I must practice the spell after watching in order to perform it properly.”, Arcana poured herself some tea.

“That is a very impressive gift, would you like to learn a spell from me?”, Celestia asked.

Arcana nodded at her, setting down the pot of tea.

The princess rose her hand, a yellow energy glowing in her palm. “This is a ball of pure energy. It can be very dangerous if used wrong, but very handy for getting rid of things.”, the light dimmed and disappeared, Celestia returning to her cup of tea.

Arcana nodded again, working out the spell in her head for a moment. She rose her hand and closed her eyes, a few sparks of light fizzling in her palm before becoming a steady dim light, not nearly as bright as the princess’.

“Very impressive, especially for one so young.”, Celestia lightly applauded at the young one’s achievement of learning the new spell.

Arcana bowed her head, “Thank you, Princess.”

Celestia took a piece of cake in hand, “So, why don’t you tell me about yourself? You are going to be spending a lot of time in my palace, so I’d like to know more about you.”, Celestia took a small bite of cake, waiting for a response.

Arcana looked up from the table, “Well… My life has not been one teeming with adventure, like my father… I learned what I could from him, I did see him as one who was strong of character. He did have his moments where he would show he had weaknesses. I saw he had nightmares sometimes, but I never got to question him on what kind of nightmares they were. I asked Mother about this topic, only to find she didn’t know since he apparently never told anyone of it. I myself was born with a stigmatism, my eyes don’t function properly and I have to constantly wear glasses to see, my mother told me I kept walking into walls, when I was younger it was more severe.”

“How were your siblings?”, Celestia asked.

“My sister, Air Heart, was not very agreeable. She always strived to be the best but gloated when she was. She constantly bullied our young brother, without the knowledge of my parents, of course. I still don’t think they know. Black Heart was never one to fight back, or tell my parents what happened.”, Arcana took a sip from her cup, “I know many things… I just don’t feel like sharing them…”

Celestia nodded slowly then took another sip from her own cup.

Meanwhile, Dash was at home in Cloudsdale. She was laying down on her couch of clouds, not feeling like going anywhere once again. She was still trapped in her state of depression over what happened. She heard a knock at the door. She sighed as she got up and walked over there to open it.

Pinkie was right in front of the door in her balloon, “Hey, Dashie. You feeling okay?”, Pinkie asked

Dash slowly shook her head, looking at the floor, not being able to make eye contact with Pinkie and make her feel anything she was feeling.

Pinkie motioned for Dash to come closer, “Aw, come here, Dashie…”, Pinkie spoke in a comforting tone with arms spread.

Dash tried to hold back the tears that were beginning to well up in her eyes. She walked towards her friend and received an embrace from Pinkie.

Pinkie patted Dash’s back, “It’s okay Dashie… You can cry in front of me…”

Dash felt tears run down her cheeks, her face was turning red from holding in the sobs. She wrapped her arms around Pinkie and let out her cries of sorrow.

Pinkie’s lip quivered, she herself didn’t want to cry, tears ran down her face as she patted Dashie’s back.

“I miss him, Pinkie… I just want him back…”, Dash said in between sobs.

“We all want him back…”, Pinkie said in a quiet tone, trying not to sob.

“If only I could have stopped him from fighting Discord… I could have stopped him if I was strong enough to wake up in time… I keep blaming myself for him being gone…”

Pinkie hugged a bit tighter, “Dashie, it wasn’t your fault at all… Nobody could have stopped this… We have to move on…”

“I don’t know how I can… He was so much to me… I keep seeing him… Almost every night I have nightmares of losing him over and over again…”, Dash sobbed more into Pinkie’s shoulder.

“Give it time, Dashie…”

“I just want it to end… The nightmares… The guilt… The crying… I want it to stop…”

Arcana walked back to her place in the archives. She closed the door and made sure nobody was inside with her, “At least I now have a spell to practice. Perhaps I shall use this to remove some refuse.”, she said to herself as she made the glowing energy appear in her hand. She stopped when she heard a knock on the door, startling her somewhat. She quickly opened the door a sliver to see Twilight.

“Arcana, are you okay in there?”, Twilight asked with concern, knowing she hadn’t returned to the room for three days.

“I am content, Ms. Sparkle. Thank you for your concern.”, Arcana nodded her head once before trying to close the door.

Twilight put her foot in the door, keeping Arcana from closing it, “Arcana, we’re worried about you… You didn’t act like this before, you’ve changed. I wanted you to see the doctor here in the palace.”

Arcana stopped for a moment, thinking over what Twilight just said, ‘Have I really changed so much…?’, she thought to herself, taking account of her behaviour. She backed away from the door and let Twilight inside.

Twilight stood in the doorway, looking at Arcana with a light smile, “I just want to help you, Arcana.”, she said as she opened her arms and knelt down for a hug.

Arcana froze for a moment. The idea of her father being gone rushing through her mind, all the memories she had with him slowly fading away and turning into anger, and then to sorrow. A tear rolled down her cheek as her posture slouched, putting on a display of hopelessness. She walked over to her teacher and was embraced by Twilight.

“Come on, I’ll take you to the Cura’s office…”, Twilight told Arcana before releasing her from the hug and walking away from the archives.

They arrived at the room that was Cura’s office. Twilight knocked on the large door to receive an immediate reply from within.

“Come in!”, Cura called out from her desk. She was examining some of the unusual reports from the clinics and hospitals from all over Equestria. She looked up to the door to see Twilight and Arcana walk in. “Hello, What can I help you with?”, Cura said in a sweet tone. She smiled at them as she closed the portfolio on her desk and slipped it away into a drawer.

Twilight rose an eyebrow, “Are you busy?”, she asked.

Cura shook her head, retaining her caring smile, “Never too busy to help someone who needs help in person. How can I help?”, she asked as she rested her head on her arm.

Twilight bit her lip before speaking, “Um, me and some others have been worrying about Arcana here.”, Twilight motioned to Arcana whilst speaking, “I think she might have some emotional issues… With her father dying.”

Cura’s expression turned to one of pity as she looked to Arcana, “I can try to help her, although it is probably best if you left her here with me.”, Cura explained to Twilight.

“Of course, anything you say, Doctor.”, Twilight replied, having confidence in Cura’s abilities.

“I will also need to speak to you afterwards.”, Cura adjusted her glasses as she spoke.

Twilight nodded and then left the room, “When should I come back?”

“I’ll send her to fetch you when we’re finished.”, Cura replied before waving goodbye to Twilight.

Twilight exited the room and gently closed the door behind her, heading back to her bedroom in the Palace.

Cura smiled at Arcana, “So… What’s your name?”, she said as she pulled out a note pad and pen, her veins glowing a pale blue as they levitated and readied themselves to write down notes. She walked over to her chair, motioning for Arcana to sit on the couch that was across from the chair.

Arcana walked over to the couch and sat down, “My name is Arcana Heart.”

“I’m guessing War Heart was your father then?”, Cura asked, expecting she was correct.

Arcana nodded, “That is correct, and Rainbow Dash is my mother.”

The pen scribbled the information onto the paper by use of Cura’s magic. “Okay, now why don’t we just have a little chat about the relationship between you and your dad. Any problems between you and him?”

Arcana shook her head, “He was an acceptable patriarchal figure.”

“How about you explain with more detail what that means?”

“He never lost his temper with me or my siblings, even when Air Heart, my younger sister, was misbehaving in such extreme manners, such as breaking things in the house by flying about inside.”

“Anything specific in memory you have in mind with your dad?”, Cura continued to scribble down notes.

“I do remember the one time when I was only one year old. I mentioned I wanted to know what it was like to fly. He picked me up and took flight to show me the clouds, it was then I realized that I was afraid of heights. It had frightened me enough that I had a nightmare that night, my mother was gone at the time, she was in the hospital with Air Heart just being born. He heard me tossing and turning in my sleep, and slept next to me to let me know that I was safe. He draped his wing over me as I slept. I felt… safe from everything. I knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”, Arcana laid down on the couch.

Cura was nodding slowly while scribbling down more notes, “So… What would you say if I thought you stopped showing emotion to protect yourself from others? Your father not being there to protect you anymore makes you afraid to open up to anyone? Are you afraid to get hurt, Arcana?”

“I have a healthy sense of self-preservation. I do not enjoy the feeling of pain… It is… unpleasant.”, Cura replied.

“I mean emotionally, you need to know it is okay for you to miss your father. You are so young, nobody expects you to just shrug off his death. Feel free to share your feelings about his passing to your friends, or family.”, Cura explained.

Arcana paused for a moment, thinking over how she has been behaving, and how changing could be for the best, allowing her to let out some feeling.

“If you keep it bottled up, it will only eat away at you, Arcana. If you let it out, you’ll be better off in the end.”, Cura smiled at Arcana.

Arcana sat up, “I feel… Angry… More than anything.”

Cura looked at her quizzically, “Angry?”

“I know my father was murdered… I only wish the destruction of the one who murdered him…”, Arcana clenched her fists, her veins starting to glow as magic pulsed through her. A tear streaming down her face, “How dare they take my father from me…”

“Arcana, take a deep breath, you need to calm down.”

Arcana sighed as she returned to normal, “I apologise for that… I just… I don’t know…”

“It’s fine, Arcana, you made a lot of progress today. You’re starting to open up, which is good.”, Cura said as she closed her notebook and returned it and the pen to her desk, “Now you should probably go get some rest, you look tired. Also, tell your friend to come see me, okay?”

Arcana nodded and stood up, “Thank you… Cura.”

“Anytime, Arcana, drop by whenever you feeling like talking some more.”, Cura waved as she returned to her desk and looked through the medical reports she was examining before.

Arcana left the room and walked back towards the room she was supposed to be sleeping, but hadn’t in the last three days.

Cura poured over the reports, “This doesn’t make sense… Is this just a hiccup with their examinations? Is there a disease breaking out…? It says their skin is colder than normal but their behaviour is otherwise normal… Strange things happening…”, Cura was interrupted after a few minutes by a knock at the door, “Come in!”, she shouted to the door, allowing Twilight to enter. Cura closed her files and motioned for Twilight to take a seat in front of her desk.

Twilight sat in front of Cura, “Is anything wrong with Arcana?”

“She just needed help realizing that she can’t bottle up her feelings. She should be acting a bit more open to you and others. How was she before the passing of War Heart?”, Cura asked.

“Well, she wasn’t always so cold, she was very well spoken with a wide vocabulary, but never talked with so little feeling before.”

“I also remember her saying that War Heart had wings… Was this true?”

“It was true, he had his wings.”, Twilight nodded.

“… When I finished operating on him, his wings were gone… Someone had removed them surgically, I left before he woke, I didn’t want to see him like that. I now regret it, and I guess I will never have a way to make up for it…”

“I saw him when he did wake up, he was crushed… mostly for what happened to his first girlfriend.”

“What happened?”

“She didn’t wait very long after he disappeared to find a new guy. She had a child by the time he returned… I felt so bad for him.”

“I’m sensing you were closer than friends…?”, Cura raised an eyebrow at Twilight.

Twilight blushed somewhat, “Um… no…”, Twilight looked down in disappointment, “I tried to tell him how I felt, but I think he misunderstood what I meant now that I think about it. When Dash and him become a pair, I couldn’t bring myself to try and split them apart for my sake…”

“Well, can’t win everything.”

“I spent almost three years working to bring him back… Almost the entire time I had hope I could bring him back into my life… Dash didn’t take interest until he returned. I guess I must have waited too long to tell him…”, Twilight shrugged, “I don’t know…”

“Don’t worry about it… If you’ll excuse me, I have some reports to look over and file away.”

Twilight stood up and walked towards the door, opening it and looking back to Cura, “Thank you.”, Twilight smiled slightly.

Cura waved to her from her desk, “Anytime.”

Twilight closed the door and walked back towards her room. She kept thinking about War Heart and the feelings she had for him back then. She kept thinking about what could have been. How Arcana could have been her child, how she could have been War Heart’s love. She smiled at the idea, but soon snapped back to the cold reality of her life. She sighed as she walked through the halls of the palace. She soon arrived at her room to hear voices within. She opened the door to see Rarity talking to Arcana.

“Hello, Ms. Sparkle.”, Arcana smiled slightly as she spoke.

Twilight was glad to see Arcana smiling, but not sure if she was sincerely smiling or just putting on a face to make everypony else stop worrying. It seemed to work on Rarity, “The doctor said you’ll be fine. In case you’re wondering.”

“Excellent, I was unsure of my results.”, Arcana replied.

Rarity spoke up, “I was just telling Arcana about my time around Canterlot today. She was about to show me a spell she learned from the princess.”, Rarity was laying on the bed, her arm holding up her head as she looked at Arcana.

Arcana’s veins were glowing as she summoned the small ball of energy into her palm, “I don’t have it at a functional state yet, she only showed it to me briefly, and I had no chance to practice it yet.”

Twilight smiled, “That is still impressive that you learn it so quickly.”

Rarity lightly applauded, “My dear, you truly are a wonder with magic.”

Arcana bowed her head, “Thank you, Thank you both.”, Arcana yawned, having slept little in the last few days. “I believe I shall retire for the night, I have not met the recommended amount of sleep as of late. Good night.”, Arcana said as she slid under her covers, closing her eyes.

“Good night, Arcana.”, Twilight spoke from across the room.

“Night, Dear.”, Rarity said as she turned to Twilight, “She seems to be acting better.”, Rarity whispered to Twilight.

Twilight nodded as she climbed into her own bed.

Rarity slid under her covers, “Night, Twilight.”, she said as she put on her sleeping mask.

“Night, Rarity.”, Twilight replied as she laid her head on the pillow. She closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep.

Twilight awoke to see Arcana and Rarity still asleep. She turned to the window to see the sunrise, a sight to behold. She got out of bed and walked outside, taking in the fresh morning air. She began to think about all that may happen today. She decided she should go for a walk through town, see it for what it was without all the commotion. She moved out into the streets of Canterlot, admiring all the buildings.

“Good morning.”, a voice hailed her from behind.

Twilight stopped and turned towards the voice, seeing a man with dirty blonde hair, “Oh, Good morning.”, she smiled politely.

“Come out to admire the face of the city without its people?”, he continued.

“I don’t really enjoy the crowds of people, it’s just too much to handle.”

“I know what you mean, where I come from, there are little to no people walking the streets.”

“It sounds peaceful where you come from.”

“It is now, before it was just buzzing with activity.”

“Such an odd transition, isn’t it?”

“I saw it was happening, a large winged one saw to that.”

“Are you talking about War Heart?”

“So you know him?”

“I worked with him for a while. He saw that what I needed was done.”

“It’s a shame he is gone…”

The stranger paused for a moment, “… What?”

“I’m sorry if nobody told you… he was killed by Discord.”

“… I was never informed…”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news…”

“It is fine, I must go now…”, the stranger began to walk away.

“Goodbye.”, Twilight walked in the opposite direction, continuing her walk in the streets of Canterlot.

The stranger headed down an alley to a manhole to the sewers, he climbed down and covered the manhole once more. He navigated through the catacombs and came upon a room of stone masonry. “He’s Dead!”, the stranger screamed as he walked over to a table and flipped it over in rage.

Discord popped into view, “You don’t say? Any other details you wish to share? Maybe who’s birthday it is.”, Discord mocked the man.

“You killed him! I wasn’t finished with him yet! He wasn’t ready! The entire land wasn’t ready!”, The stranger shouted at Discord.

“Now listen here, I said I wouldn’t interfere beyond that night, and I didn’t. I didn’t kill him. Obviously you didn’t account for Tia doing anything. She has always been a peaceful ruler until her subjects show resistance. Then she becomes cruel and heartless, it is such fun to watch.”

“We needed War Heart, he was vital for the plans I had for this land… It seems I will need to find a replacement…”, The stranger leaned against the overturned table.

“Well, you better find one soon, not many will be able to overthrow Tia in time.”

“What do you mean ‘In time’?”, The stranger turned to Discord with a look of suspicion.

“That would be telling, and I do hate tattle-tails.”, Discord smirked as he popped out of existence in front of the stranger.

“Dammit… It seems there is a darker side to their ruler here… Looks like this land isn’t all rainbows and friendship after all…”

Arcana woke to see Twilight was gone, “It seems I have overslept…”, she said to herself as she rose from her bed. She walked outside and sought out one of the servants, asking them where she could practice magic. The servant led her to a room that was poorly decorated and covered in the marks of past castings of offensive magic. The servant showed her the room and left her to her practice. Arcana lit up the spell Celestia showed her, the orb of energy glowing in her hand for a moment before she thrust her hand forwards, releasing the orb only to have it float lazily a few feet before vanishing into nothing, “It seems I will need some practice with this one…”, she whispered to herself as she tried again.

Cura had been awake in her office since dawn, reviewing the medical reports from towns throughout Equestria. She slammed her head on her desk, “I can’t figure it out, what do these symptoms mean? If I had one that was afflicted here I could easily figure it out… But ‘you are my royal advisor, and my doctor, you must be here in the event of a disaster’.”, she said to herself in a mocking tone. She leaned back into her chair, “I miss being able to leave when I wished to, a shame I didn’t take the opportunity more often.”, she spoke to herself, reminiscing on her adventures in the Dragon Lands six years ago.

Back in Ponyville, a man with short coal-coloured hair walked the streets, he took in his surroundings as he walked. He saw something in the sky and turned to it to get a better look, he witnessed Rainbow Dash soaring through the air, heading to a mountain top nearby, “There you are…”, he whispered to himself as he took account of where Dash landed. He continued walking towards the mountain eventually reaching it. He stood at the base of it and looked up to behold its massive form, “This will take a while…”, he said before rubbing his hands together and began climbing. It was hours before he reached the top. He stood on the peak as he beheld a patch of grass on the peak, a large stone with a round shield with a sword behind it carved into it. He walked over to the stone and smirked. He knelt on the grave and put his hand on the grave, a pale green magic pulsed through his veins for a moment before dimming. “When it is time, you will do great things once more…”, he whispered as he began climbing down the mountain again.

The Fall

A month passed. Arcana had been practicing her new spell and practicing alchemy in the Archives almost every day. She returned to her room in a hurry to show her teacher the spell that she had now mastered.

Arcana burst into the room while Rarity and Twilight were conversing over some lunch. Her expression and tone were not as monotonous as before, she had a slight hint of excitement in her statement, and relief, “I did it…”, she said with a sigh.

“Did what?”, Twilight asked, not sure what she was talking about.

“I mastered a new spell. Would it interest you to see it?”, Arcana asked.

Twilight nodded, “This sounds interesting, let’s see.”

Arcana looked at a vase that was rested on a bedside table. Her veins had a magic glow to them as she summoned up the energy into her palm. She forced her hand forward, sending the ball of light across the room. Upon colliding with the vase, a bright flash of white light blinded the three of them for a moment. The vase was gone, and Twilight was shocked.

“Celestia showed you that?”, Twilight was somewhat worried about the idea of giving Arcana such a dangerous spell.

“Correct.”, Arcana replied to her teacher in a proud tone.

“I don’t think you should be using that, you could really hurt somebody.”, Twilight explained.

“You act as if I will fly into a rage and start vaporizing anyone I please.”

“I just-”, Twilight began.

“Don’t trust me, Ms. Sparkle?”, Arcana looked at her mentor quizzically.

“You know that isn’t true!”, Twilight rose her voice to her pupil.

The room went dead silent for a moment.

Arcana turned to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going?”, Twilight questioned her.

“My presence is not wanted here, I’m going back to the archives.”, Arcana declared without turning to her teacher. She walked out the door and closed it, “Besides…”, she whispered to herself, “I’ve got a tea party to attend soon…”

Within the archives, Arcana set up a set of flasks and equipment to study her alchemy. She began looking through one of her books on the subject, flipping over to a specific page that was bookmarked. She read it over for a moment before picking up a tiny sealed bottle, no bigger than her thumb. It was filled with a clear liquid that one could mistake for water. She had took some teabags from the royal kitchen, telling the staff that they were for personal use, and placed them on her worktable. Arcana dripped the clear liquid on one of the teabags, allowing it to mix with the contents and dry. She picked up the packet and smiled slightly. She put the bag in her pocket and walked out the doors of the archives. It was about half an hour until tea time, Arcana walked towards the royal dining hall. She arrived at the time that the staff was just setting up everything for the Princess’ tea time ritual and leaving afterward. Arcana walked over to the teapot, opening the lid and removing the packet of tea and replacing it with hers. She walked outside with the extra packet and threw it in the shrubs nearby, “I hope the princess enjoys my new blend.”, she whispered to herself before sitting in her usual spot on the left hand side of the Princess, who had not arrived yet.

Princess Celestia entered the room, looking as regal as usual, “Hello, Arcana, eager for tea once more?”, the princess chuckled.

“Very eager, your Majesty, but more for your company than for tea. I will just nibble upon desserts today.”, Arcana said in a tone that seemed more cheery than usual.

“You sound happier than usual, anything special happening?”, The Princess asked as she took her seat and poured her tea.

“I mastered the spell you showed me. It took some time, but in the end, I learned how to do it.”, Arcana smiled at the Princess.

“That’s very impressive to learn such a spell, you should feel proud.”, the Princess congratulated the young one and took a sip of her tea.

“I’ve also been studying alchemy and chemistry.”, Arcana commented.

The Princess turned to Arcana with a smile and moved her mouth, no words coming out. The Princess’ face turned to an expression of shock as she kept trying to speak but to no avail.

Arcana glared at the Princess, who rose from her chair. Arcana’s veins began to glow with her magic very brightly, “I wouldn’t bother trying to talk if I were you, Refined Strangleroot tends to force the larynx to be paralyzed when ingested.”, Arcana explained as she stood and used her telekinesis to throw the Princess against the wall of the dining hall.

Celestia’s expression turned from shock to fury, she forced her hand toward Arcana, nothing happening to her surprise.

“Oh, trying to use magic? I’m afraid that won’t be possible due to the poison. All the magic in your blood has been depleted by it.”, Arcana smiled fully and chuckled. She summoned the glowing orb in her palm, “You know, I was thinking of just killing you with poison… But…”, she looked down at the orb in her hand, “When you showed me this spell, I just could not resist to end your life with it… I’m sure it is familiar to you. After all, you did kill my father with it…”, Arcana turned a glance to Celestia, who was shocked. Arcana shook her head, “You see, my father was trying to protect me when Discord cast his spell, my father acted as a sort of shield, absorbing the impact and leaving me under the table.”, Arcana glared at Celestia with severe anger, “I watched as you destroyed my father, but I couldn’t just tell anyone that you did, who would believe me? I decided that if I was going to get retribution, I would only get it by killing you myself… My mother is in absolute pain because of you, having to see her lose the person she loved so much because you wished his death… Sickening, you deserve worse than this.”, Arcana’s magic pulsed before she sent the orb forward into Celestia, the flash of light shining instantly and disappearing. Celestia was gone, and only a black stain upon the wall was left, “Farewell, Your Majesty…”, Arcana whispered as she left the room to flee the city.

Twilight was laying on her bed, thinking about Arcana being upset with her, “I just don’t think she is ready for that kid of magic yet…”, she was speaking to Rarity who was busy on her sewing machine, making a new outfit.

Rarity did not turn to Twilight, “Don’t worry, Twilight, a girl at that age will try to grow up fast, Sweetie went through the same phase. You’ll just have to wait it out.”

“I guess you’re right… but I still don’t believe that she thinks I don’t trust her. It’s not her intentions, I just don’t want her to get hurt doing that kind of magic.”, Twilight stared at the ceiling, confessing her thoughts to Rarity.

“Twilight, you have to let this go, I’m sure she’s fi-”, Rarity was interrupted as there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it.”, Twilight said as she got out of bed to get the door.

Upon opening the door, there was a guard awaiting on the other side, “Lady Sparkle, I have news for you. The Princess… is dead.”

Twilight gasped upon hearing the news, her eyes widening from the shock of her idol being gone now, “What happened?!”, she shouted in concern.

Rarity turned around from her work to listen to what was going on, scarcely able to believe what she heard.

The guard spoke again, “I do not know the details, but Lady Cura might know, she is in the dining hall.”, the winged guard took off after reporting to Twilight.

“How could this happen!?”, Twilight panicked while running outside with Rarity trailing behind her. Twilight ran to the dining hall to see many people examining the scene.

Cura was supervising the area and saw Twilight enter. She walked over to Twilight.

“What happened?”, Twilight asked hurriedly, eager to know how the Princess could have died.

Cura sighed while shaking her head, “We have a theory that Discord must have killed her, there is the same evidence here as the evidence present at War Heart’s murder…”, Cura explained to Twilight.

Twilight shook her head, “How could this happen…? She didn’t deserve to die…”, Twilight stared at the ground, the loss of her teacher sinking in. She suddenly thought of Arcana, “Where is Arcana? I haven’t seen her for an hour.”

Cura shook her head, “I don’t know, I never saw her today.”

Twilight grew worried of her own student, “I have to find her…”, Twilight said as she turned and ran for the Canterlot Archives to look for Arcana. She burst into the room to find it empty of people. She looked around frantically trying to find something that could signify some idea of where Arcana was. She overturned books and other items in search of clues but had no luck. She walked over to the wall, leaned against it and slid to the floor. “She’s gone… What am I going to do…?”, Twilight whispered to herself, shaking her head.

The Stranger was working in his sewer room, drawing up plans and ideas for Equestria that would hopefully change the face of the nation forever.

Discord popped into the room, looking at the plans over the Stranger’s shoulder, “I hope those plans account for Tia’s death.”, he spoke casually whilst floating behind the Stranger.

The Stranger looked forward, an unenthused look on his face, “Obviously, someone is working on changing things in this world as well… I need to know all the parties that are working to make a plan, I did not see either of these murders coming.”

Discord was smirking as he floated in mid-air, “I must say, ever since I made this change, things are getting rather interesting.”, Discord commented.

The Stranger turned to Discord, “Things will only get more out of control now, without one of royal blood on the throne, and no heirs, somebody else will have to take control. I doubt that any of the races will want the others to rule over them. I’ve noticed all of the higher class people here are capable of magic, they will probably seek to control the kingdom since the Princess is gone. This will probably spark a civil war… Things are about to get very exciting indeed.”, the stranger explained to Discord.

The next day, Arcana arrived at Ponyville. She walked off the train on to the platform. She looked to the sky and smiled at the bright day that was ahead of her. She moved off of the platform and headed towards Sugar Cube Corner. She walked inside to see her Aunt Sweet Heart. She had long dark purple hair, bright purple eyes, and bright grey wings, “Hello, Aunt Sweet Heart.”, Arcana greeted.

At the time, Sweet Heart was working on the sales of the last few days, going over them on a piece of paper. She looked up from the counter to see Arcana, “Arcana!”, Sweet Heart exclaimed as she hopped over the counter and hugged her niece, “How are you? Would you like some candy?”, Sweet Heart asked.

Arcana shook her head, “I am not hungry at the moment. I was only returning here because I have stopped studying magic at Canterlot.”, she explained.

Sweet Heart rose an eyebrow, “Why?”

“I did not want to be there anymore, I miss mother.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet, want me to go get her over here to see you?”, Sweet Heart asked Arcana.

“Yes, Please.”, Arcana nodded.

Sweet Heart stood up, “Hey, Pinkie! I’m going out for a bit, watch the store!”, Sweet Heart shouted towards the kitchen.

Pinkie shouted back from the kitchen, “Okie-dokie-lokie! I got it!”

Sweet Heart smiled as she walked out the door and flew off to Cloudsdale to find Rainbow Dash. Upon arriving she knocked on the door excitedly, bouncing up and down in front of the door.

Dash slowly opened the door, “Sweet Heart…?”, Dash looked at her quizzically.

Sweet Heart pushed the door open and hugged Dash, “Hi, Sis! I have a surprise for you! Come with me!”, Sweet Heart excitedly said before running out the door and taking off again.

Dash didn’t have any time to ask what was going on but ran out the door, closing it on her way out, then flew after Sweet Heart. She soon caught up to Sweet Heart, “So what’s going on?”, Dash asked her in flight.

“It’s a surpriiiise.”, Sweet Heart replied with a smile. They soon arrived at Sugar Cube Corner. They both stood outside as the door opened to reveal Arcana standing there, smiling to her mother.

Dash stood there as Arcana ran towards her. She went down on one knee as Arcana drew close and hugged her.

“I missed you, Mother… I’m sorry for everything I put you through…”, Arcana whispered to her mother in embrace, sounding like she was about to cry.

Dash was shocked to hear her daughter say this and began to tear up, “… I missed you too…”, Dash said, trying to hold back herself from crying, “… But what are you doing here?”, Dash asked.

“I decided that I would rather live closer to you than expand my knowledge of magic.”, Arcana explained to her mother.

“Where will you live?”, Dash asked her, concerned for her daughter’s well-being.

Sweet Heart spoke up, “I’d be happy to let her bunk with me!”, she said excitedly.

Dash sighed in relief, glad to know that Arcana will be looked after and not being forced to move into the cabin, still filled with so many memories. She hugged her daughter once more, “I’m so glad your back, Arcana…”

Another day passed, Arcana woke up around noon, alone in the room she shared with Pinkie and her Aunt, who were already awake and working. Arcana looked out the window, smiling at the sunny day outside. She hopped out of bed and walked downstairs to the store level. Everyone was busy in the kitchen so Arcana walked outside without seeing anybody. As she got outside, she saw her friends: Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. She waved to them, which they walked over to her.

“Hey, Arcana, what are you doing here?”, Scootaloo asked.

Arcana smiled and replied, “I have returned to Ponyville, I decided I learned all I wanted of magic.”

“Great, mah sister told me that Canterlot was boring anyway.”, Apple Bloom chuckled.

“And now that you’re here, fun levels will be at maximum efficiency.”, Sweetie Belle spoke in a strange tone.

Arcana looked at Sweetie Belle quizzically, “Is something wrong with her?”, Arcana asked the others.

“Oh, Sweeties jus’ been doin’ that the last little while, her skin is a bit colder lately too, but we don’ really mind.”, Apple Bloom explained.

“Very well, what are you three doing anyway?”, Arcana asked.

Scootaloo spoke up, “We’re going to climb on buildings and houses. Sometimes we race across town, the rules are you can’t touch the ground. You in?”

Arcana pondered for a moment, “Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

“That’s half the fun.”, Scootaloo smirked.

Arcana thought more before speaking, “Sounds like fu-”, she was interrupted as the Mayor began an announcement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Some grave news has come to my attention! Gather around!”, The Mayor shouted for all to hear. Everyone gathering in town square to hear what she had to say. After everyone was present she began her announcement, “I’m afraid it has come to my attention that Princess Celestia has passed away! Our ruler is no longer with us. Now, her advisor of culture, Blazing Dawn, will be overseeing the kingdom now.”

“I have a question!”, a man’s voice called out from the crowd, “I thought Celestia was the one that moved the sun and moon to make day and night?”

The mayor opened her mouth to answer but then stopped as she found that she didn’t have one, “I’m not sure if I can answer that, I do not know.”

The voice called out again, “Celestia was not as powerful as she claimed to be!”, the man with coal coloured hair stood near the mayor, “Celestia claimed to make day and night, we believed her to be powerful enough to rule us. Now she’s dead, and the sun sets and rises still without her! We’ve been deceived into serving her, and I’m sure the unicorn that is taking charge will be no better!”, the man shouted to the crowd, which was now murmuring in agreement other than those who were unicorns before the great change from ponies to humans. The unicorns walked away from the crowd, either from feeling insulted or ostracized.

The man spoke again, “We should declare independence from Equestria! We don’t need the big wigs in Canterlot telling us what to do, what authority do they even have?!”

The crowd cheered in agreement once more which was now comprised of almost all past Earth ponies.

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Arcana were all watching from afar. Scoot turned to the others, “This isn’t good, how can this happen?”, she whispered to her friends.

Arcana knew what happened, she knew her actions of murdering the Princess would have started this, but she acted as if she was shocked all the same.

Apple Bloom looked at the others, “Maybe this is more than it really is?”, she suggested.

Sweetie was silent, unsure of what to say.

“We should probably head over to our hideout.”, Scoot suggested before running off and leading the way, the others following her, Arcana was too small to follow on her own so she lost them soon.

Arcana stopped and turned around, heading back to Sugar Cube Corner.

After the crowd dispersed, the man with the coal-coloured hair walked away into the alley way nearby. He smirked, “Fools… They have no idea what is going to happen soon. This war will cover all of Equestria… and when the dead outnumber the living, it will be too late and his return will not be stopped this time…”, he whispered to himself as he shrank back into the shadows and disappeared.

Over the next week, tensions between Glows, a new term for those who were once Unicorns, and Earthbound, the name of the Earth Ponies, were growing. Unicorns supported the new ruler, Blazing Dawn, believing that he could run the kingdom. The Earthbound thought that the Glows had no right to rule over Earthbound and Winged Ones. The Winged Ones also declared independence from Equestria, on account they did not want to be forced into a conflict they did not see as necessary. There were of course some Earthbound who saw that the Glows had unmistakeable power and remained loyal to Equestria. Most of the Royal Guards at Canterlot remained at their place, as did the advisors for the new ruler. In this time of stress, Blazing Dawn declared martial law, using the royal guards to patrol the streets and enforce a curfew in every town that was still under their complete control, which amounted to more than half of Equestria.

Most of the Glows in Ponyville had moved from town to live in a place that was still loyal to Equestria. The Winged Ones would not leave or act on things unless forced to, not wanting to anger either party. The land had been divided, lines were drawn, and they were about to be crossed.

In Ponyville, the mayor was taken from her place of power. She was being replaced with a new Earthbound man with long green hair and amber eyes. Nobody knew him very well, but something about him made everyone seem to trust him with leadership. He was wise and strong as a leader, making sure the people of Ponyville were protected and free, sometimes personally taking night watch duties to look out for possible invasions. He started up a local militia, giving them training himself, but not in a disciplinary way, but teaching them to become more primal when going into battle. He taught to fight with passion.

Orion lived in Ponyville with AppleJack still, he supported the Earthbound’s movement to be independent. He’d become physically stronger from working on Sweet Apple Acres for quite some time now, ever since he returned from Dragon Land almost six years ago. He and AppleJack had a child, around the same time War Heart and Rainbow Dash had Air Heart, the child was a Glow named Apple Star, a little girl.

The Glows who wished to stay hidden from persecution could easily do so by not doing magic, seeing as that was their only means of showing they were a Glow, it was pretty easy.

The legends of the freezing winters were proving to be true in the presence of disharmony between those who used to be ponies. The windigos worked their magic, creating freezing weather that the Winged Ones had trouble suppressing but managed to do so enough that food could still be grown. Everyone was becoming bitter, needing more land to grow food, turning their gazes on what each of the others had.

“If this keeps up, our stockpiles of food will run out, we need to find some way to increase our food output.”, a Winged One spoke in a serious tone in the chamber where the advisors and Lord Dawn held a meeting. He was the economic advisor.

The Winged General who was the military advisor for Lord Dawn spoke next, “I say we take it from the traitorous fellows in Ponyville, they are only one town with no true military power, we could crush them with a battalion of Royal Guardsmen. Then when they are helpless and hungry, they’ll come crawling back to Equestrian rule.”

Cura stood up, “The people there are not as weak as you may think, General. Open battle would be a declaration of war. We need to unite people, not create needless bloodshed!”, the young pink-haired woman angrily shouted.

The General stood up, slamming the table with his fists, “Listen, Missy, I’ve been around a lot longer than you have. I know a thing or two about how to win a war!”

“We are not even at war!”, Cura yelled at the General.

“A bit of civility, please?”, Lord Dawn spoke in a calm tone. Both advisors taking a seat and apologizing. “I know we may not like the idea, but the attitudes towards us are very negative, it is almost an even split in the Earthbound that are separatist and loyal. If we attack without warning, we will be depicted as tyrants. First we will create a false attack on a town, pin it on Ponyville, then we may go in and arrest the leader of Ponyville who organised the attack.”, Lord Dawn explained to his advisors, mostly instructing the General on what to do.

“Lord Dawn, isn’t that a little… deceptive?”, Cura asked.

“I’m afraid we are pressed for time, we are running out of food and we must unite the people to our cause as well as make the other side look like the bad ones.”, Lord Dawn explained.

Cura sighed, knowing that she had to do as she was told.

They all stood up from their seats, the meeting had concluded. They all left to their respective offices. Lord Dawn remained in the conference room, he sat in silence.

A dim green light flashed from behind Lord Dawn, who turned to face it.

Lord Dawn looked to the newcomer, “It is done, I will have everything in place to start this war.”

The newcomer had coal-coloured hair, “Excellent, I will make the necessary preparations…”, he said with a smile and vanished in the same way he appeared.

The War Begins

It was a week before there was an attack that was set up by the Canterlot government, to pin it on the resistance in Ponyville and cause a last push that started a civil war throughout Equestria.

Applejack found herself in support of the resistance, as did Orion, who believed that Earthbound could easily be capable of governing themselves.

Rainbow Dash kept in the neutral zones of Pegasus territory, she kept to herself mainly because she was still trying to deal with the loss of her son and War Heart. She had been making progress, but felt like she will never feel happy.

Fluttershy declared her home a refuge for those who didn’t want to fight at all. Opening her doors to all who wanted to escape the terrible things that came with war.

Twilight Sparkle stayed in Canterlot, being offered a home within the walls of the palace as a Magic Researcher. Her job was to look into magic that would aid the Canterlot forces.

Rarity stayed in Canterlot as well, mostly to keep Twilight company and stay within the safe walls of Canterlot. Her life as one of the Elite in Canterlot also took up a lot of her time, tea and parties with the high class of Canterlot frequenting her evenings.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were old enough to make their own decisions now, they decided to side with neither Ponyville nor Canterlot, since at least one of their friends would be disliked on either side. They started their own club of outcasts, taking in children that didn’t feel like they had a place in this war. Their efforts were strained on trying to find enough food to feed the thirty odd kids that came to them and soon resorted to crime to get the food they needed.

Sweet Heart stayed in Ponyville to look after Arcana, who still remained quiet and never spoke of what she had done to the Princess. Arcana was also kept secret from Ponyville, Sweet Heart told her not to use her magic or she’ll be considered a bad person by the Ponyville folk who didn’t know her personally. Arcana would often be visited by Dash and her sister Air Heart, who had been top flyer in her school for half a year now. Air Heart didn’t have much connection with Arcana, seeing as Arcana never wanted to play very often, preferring to master the secrets of magic than fool around.

Ponyville soon found itself becoming the home of Earthbound architects who built walls to prevent attacks somewhat. The town soon became a fort with a militia that turned to a true military. The army was not disciplined, the man in charge felt it to be unnecessary to have discipline. He had long green hair and a wild look in his eyes, he taught them all to have passion fuel their strikes. He took a few select ones that he saw to have potential for more and took them away for a few days for secret training, which they would return changed. Those elite members were known as “The Claw“.

A battalion of Earthbound marched towards the walls of Ponyville, dressed in golden trimmed armor was the Glow Leader. He walked towards the gates of Ponyville, his troops waiting a few hundred meters away from the wall. A smaller door in the gate opened, out walked the new leader of Ponyville, his long unkempt green hair and wild look in his eye seeming to unnerve the Glow Commander.

“What do you want?”, the Green haired one spoke in a calm tone, glaring at the commander.

“By order of Lord Dawn, I have come to occupy Ponyville and arrest those who are responsible for the attacks on towns loyal to the kingdom.”, the commander showed his dislike of the green haired Earthbound in his facial expression of disapproval.

“Are you now? How do you expect to do that when you’re out here? Your Lord’s will, it has no pull here.”

“If you do not submit to Lord Dawn’s rule, I will be forced to-”

“Forced to attack us? I’d like to see you try…”, the green haired man grinned, bearing sharpened teeth.

The glow commander’s veins lit up with magic, channelling fire into his hand only to have it interrupted by being lifted by the throat by the wild-eyed leader of Ponyville. The flame dimmed, as did his vein’s glow.

The leader’s grin persisted as he held the commander in the air, “That was stupid of you, what will your soldiers think of you being beaten by a lowly Earthbound?”, he mocked the commander then threw him to the ground, “I suggest you turn away, go home, but I can assure you of one thing: you attack this city, you will die.”

The commander stood back up, “Your city will be razed to the ground for your insolence!”, he shouted in anger at the still grinning leader, who wasn’t in the least moved by the commander’s threats.

“Go home, kid. It’s not worth dying for a false ruler…”, the leader spoke and turned away to walk back into the city.

The commander lit up his magic once more, conjuring up fire in his hands and sending a fireball the size of his head at the Leader of Ponyville, which engulfed the leader in flames. The commander smirked as the Ponyville leader disappeared in the flames and smoke. His smirk soon turned to an expression of fear as the leader stood there idly as the fire had only affected his clothing.

The leader non-chalantly patted himself out, extinguishing the flames as he walked towards the commander with a furious look on his face, “Nice try, but I’ve had worse…”

The commander summoned up more flames, but found himself being held up by the throat before he could release the fire. This time he was being strangled while the leader held him up by his neck.

“Now I’m going to walk back into Ponyville, and you are going to try taking this town, but you will find out soon that we Earthbound are capable of more than you realize. You will not try that stunt again, or I will tear out this throat of yours, understood?”, the leader spoke as he held the commander, who nodded quickly and was released.

The commander coughed, his throat in pain from being strangled. He started walking towards his army.

The leader of Ponyville entered the city. He whistled sharply. Within seconds there were six people that seemed to appear from around corners and come out of shadows and approach the leader.

One of the Earthbound spoke, “You have need of the Claw?”, he spoke in almost a predatory snarl.

The leader nodded slowly, “I will need you in the battle today, you will need to show them what the beast within is capable of… Ready the troops, they will be here s-”, the leader was interrupted as a boulder flew overhead and landed in the middle of the street. He stared at it for a moment, “That was quick, looks like they are on their way already. Alert the town…”, the leader ordered.

The six members of the Claw kneeled and then ran off, climbing over buildings and jumping across the rooftops, trying to alert everyone of the incoming attack.

Over the next few minutes, a crowd wielding weapons gathered near the front gate with the Leader of Ponyville standing before them with a determined expression on his face. Most were young men, eager to defend their homes. Orion walked in front of the crowd to join the leader.

“I guess we never saw this one coming, huh, ‘Hermit’?”, Orion spoke as he approached, catching the attention of the Leader of Ponyville.

“One of the reasons I left Equestria, was that nobody just left you alone. They would always try to force rules on you, no matter how ridiculous or unnecessary they were. I now see that it will only change through pushing back… Although it took me some time to realize this, something to the tune of a century of drinking dragon’s blood. Now I have to teach them that these people are capable of holding their own, that they are strong and capable.”, he turned to Orion, “Seeing War Heart’s sacrifice to defeat that dragon made me realize that being a hero can inspire others to do the same. I don’t want to be alone forever, and War Heart’s example led me to come to Equestria and make good use of my beast within. I have shared this power that is within all of us, and now we have a battle on our hands, and I can say now I can die happily knowing I have taught the people of this town that they can stand up for themselves.”

“I never figured you for the monologue type, Hermit.”, Orion commented as he glanced at him quizzically.

“Well, over a century alone with nobody to speak to, you have a lot of time to reflect on your words and thoughts. It’s good that I can finally share.”

“Fair enough. It will be nice to not die for me, though.”, he turned to the Hermit with a smirk, “But I’m still willing to fight here with the rest of my comrades.”, Orion’s veins glowed ice blue with magic, “I think I have a little something I can do for this fight anyway.”, he said with a smirk.

One of the members of the Claw ran to Hermit, “They are marching towards the gates.”, he said in a bestial growl.

Hermit turned to Orion, “Feel like opening the door to let our charge begin?”

Orion nodded and walked towards the gate. He waved his hands through the air slowly, the gates starting to glow icy blue. He thrust his hands forward, the gates flying open.

The Hermit stood on top of the boulder the Glow Commander tossed into the street. He looked to the crowd as all eyes fell on him. He smirked and motioned for them to follow as he leaped off the rock and started running towards the opposing army.

Orion ran after him, and was followed by all the members of the Claw, which inspired others to begin their charge. Their voices all turning into a battle cry as they sped towards the armoured troops outside of town.

At the back of the Equestrian army were Glows at the ready with large rocks to throw telekinetically at their opponents. They threw a massive boulder at Hermit directly, a great dust cloud engulfing him on impact. Seconds later they saw the very some boulder flying towards them. They all dove away to avoid the gargantuan projectile, then saw that it never hit Hermit, but was thrown back by Orion.

As both armies clashed, many died. The battle showed the worst sides of people, how much pain they could cause one another was horrendous. The people of Ponyville fought hard, taking strength in the knowledge that their homes will be gone if they fell. The Equestrian army fought for the hope of reunification of Equestria, both ideas noble but they could not co-exist in the ways they wanted.

Orion’s magic helped the Ponyville army as all the Glows followed him off to the side to confront him directly, knowing he was a real threat.

It came down to Orion, four other Glows, and the Glow Commander. Orion snapped his fingers and lit blue flames in his palms. He glared at the other Glows, knowing that his reputation as greatest magic user in Equestria would unnerve them.

The four Glows and the Commander all readied their magic. They began to spread out and circle around him, hoping that he would not be able to defend from all sides.

“I hope you all know who you are dealing with…”, Orion spoke to them, still holding his blue flames in his hands.

The Commander was standing off to the side of the fight, “You are a traitor to Equestria, nothing more. You betray your own kind and stand with these lowly Earthbound. Incapable of anything but dirt farming since they are not capable of anything else.”

Orion fixed his gaze upon the commander, “No, you are the incapable one! I have lived as one of them. I have worked for years and seen the strength they have, and the resolve to put that strength to good use. We use magic for everything and with little to no effort, we become overconfident. Just because we are born with power, does not mean we deserve to abuse it…”

Commander rose his arm and snapped his fingers. The four Glows sent a barrage of fire into Orion, engulfing him in flames. The commander smiled as he saw his opponent burn away. He turned away to go oversee the battle, hearing an explosion from behind him as he looked away. He quickly turned to see Orion standing there in a blackened crater, the other four all burnt in twisted heaps on the ground around him. “I should have figured that wouldn’t stop you…”, the commander commented as he cracked his neck.

“I don’t think I even need to use the Star Barrier to deal with you…”, Orion said as he readied himself.

The commander chuckled as he readied his own magic, “You can’t beat me in magic at this point.”, he said in confidence.

Orion intensified the flame in his left hand spinning around and forcing the ball of fire towards the Commander.

The icy blue flame shot towards the Commander who stood there unflinching. The flame struck him and dissipated immediately, not even leaving a mark.

The commander smirked, “Maybe you didn’t realize that my armor makes me immune to fireballs and such other projectiles.”, he said as he threw his own flames at Orion, which were dodged by Orion diving out of the way.

Orion stood up, bringing his hand to his face and biting his thumb so it bled. He then clenched his fist, “I guess I will have to use this new spell I figured out then.”, Orion explained as he swung his fist through the air. A beam of light now protruding from his fist and taking physical form as if he were holding a sword.

The commander expressed a feeling of surprise, “I’ve never seen that one before…”, he commented as he drew a regular sword, trimmed with gold and jewels on the handle and hand guard. The steel blade shining in the afternoon sun, it was a thinner blade, resembling a rapier. He took a stance with legs spread apart somewhat and one hand on his hip.

They both made eye contact, an expression of anger on Orion’s face, a smug look on the commander, confident in what he was doing. Orion charged at the commander, approaching him with fury in his eyes. Orion swung downward at the commander, who parried the blow with his sword.

The commander smirked as he kicked Orion in the gut, sending him stumbling back. The commander readied a fireball and threw it at Orion. The commander then regained his stance.

Orion quickly reacted as he saw the fireball flying towards him. He brought up his free hand, catching the fireball, allowing the momentum of the projectile to spin him around and send it back to the commander. Orion ran towards the commander once more, with his weapon ready to strike.

The commander deftly dodged by leaning backwards and then abruptly lunged forward to Orion, thrusting his sword toward him. Orion parried the weapon and brought his fist up into the face of the commander who recoiled from the blow.

The commander brought his hand to his face, wiping some blood from his lip, “I didn’t see that coming…”, he said as he looked back at Orion.

Orion conjured up another spell, his veins glowing icy blue, “Maybe I should show you how little magical prowess you possess…”, Orion said as he pointed the sword at the commander.

“Is that a challenge?”, the commander mocked.

Orion pulsed magic into the blade violently, sending massive excess energy through it, turning it into a blast of power that shot forward to the commander’s torso.

The commander recoiled for a moment, then stood back up straight, “Tricky, but needs work, old timer…”, the commander smirked. He then prepared a spell in his free hand and ran at Orion again.

“I did not want to have to do this…”, Orion spoke before making his magic blade disappear. He held out his hands toward the commander, who started to float into the air, “I’m giving you one last chance to surrender, or you will die…”, Orion spoke in a serious tone.

The commander’s expression was one of anger, “I will never surrender to a traitor like you!”, he shouted at the blue haired Glow.

Orion sighed, looking down at the ground, shaking his head slowly. He looked back up to the commander, “Goodbye…”, he whispered as he clenched his fists that were pointed towards the airborne commander.

The commander’s bones cracked and snapped as his body began to cave in on itself. His screams of utter agony were short-lived as his lungs did not last very long in the process. When his body was crushed into a ball, it violently shot outward in all directions, leaving nothing but blood-spattered gore on the grass.

Orion looked back at the ground, closing his eyes, “Why did he force me to do it?”, he whispered to himself.

Meanwhile, the battle for Ponyville was still raging. The Hermit and his Claw soldiers were slaughtering their way around the battlefield. Their attacks so primal as if they themselves were beasts. They went as far as to even howl after a successful kill. The Hermit was quick, strong, and an inspiration for the rest of the Ponyville army by the way he fought with passion to defend the town.

Without their leader, the Equestrian battalion faltered, especially without magical support. The recruits found themselves more and more demoralised as the battle raged on. Countless amounts of people being butchered by the Claws and The Hermit. They soon started retreating little by little. As the bulk of the battalion started fleeing, Hermit and the Claws began running them down and injuring their legs, not allowing their prey to escape. In the end, only a few dozen escaped with their lives.

The Hermit walked back into the city with the rest of the Claws, “Today’s battle will have sparked the war between us and the rest of the Equestrian Empire… We will need to take others into our ranks… Find more for the pack.”, he ordered as they all sprinted off and disappeared. He then looked to Orion who had a troubled look about him, “Orion, it seems you defeated your fair share of foes.”, Hermit spoke to him.

Orion slowly nodded without looking towards Hermit, feeling somewhat guilty for abusing his magic in such a way.

The stranger was hiding away in his sewer lair still, making plans and gaining an understanding of what was happening in Equestria. He had also one day followed a suspicious looking coal-haired man, seeing him climb up a mountain. The Stranger didn’t follow him up the mountain but decided that today he would go up there and check what he was doing up there. He hitch-hiked on the train towards Ponyville, leaping off and rolling on the ground when they were closest to the mountain. He walked to the mountain and climbed to the top. Upon reaching the top, he beheld a grave. He examined it for a moment before realising who the grave was for, “War Heart…”, he whispered to himself. He went over to the grave and knelt down to dig. He clawed at the dirt to unearth a small wooden box, “Curious, perhaps I can at least make a clone of him with his remains…”, the stranger spoke while examining the box.

Later on that day he returned to Canterlot via train. He was walking in the streets towards his hideout. “I wonder what kinds of remains I will be working with…?”, he said as he opened the box to reveal a single black feather. He looked at it quizzically expecting ashes but found something that he could easily use to reproduce War Heart. He smiled at first but then his smile turned to an expression of alarm as a gust of wind blew the feather away into the air. He dropped the box and chased after the feather, soon losing it when it was too dark to follow the feather due to it being night time. The Stranger’s face showed extreme anger, “So close… and a single gust of wind… dammit…”, he withheld himself from shouting since he did not want to attract attention.

That same night, Twilight had been feeling restless and decided to take a walk to think on things. She kept thinking about what she and Cura discussed, and her own dreams on how she wished War Heart had chosen to be with her. Even worse was that Cura was missing, and she had no idea what she would tell Dash. She had felt terrible about the whole situation, one bad thing after another. Even her mentor was dead, killed by Discord. As she was walking she stared at the ground, eventually coming across one black feather in her path. She stopped and crouched down to examine it, “I don’t recall there being any black birds in the area around Canterlot…”, she said to herself as she picked up the feather and began walking again. She eventually came back to her room, which was now solely hers since Rarity had now set up her own shop in Canterlot. She placed the feather on her dresser. Then got into bed, now feeling a little tired from the walk. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift into slumber.

The Return

Over the next few week the civil war was fought. Both sides not making any progress, for neither had too great an advantage. The cold winters were growing worse, and the casualties were numbering in the thousands. Twilight, being the head of magic at Canterlot was not taught magic for warfare, so was not of much help to Lord Dawn, so he turned to seeking out the outlawed practitioners of magic, the old ones who tampered with forces that were forbidden. They had all been locked away hundreds of years ago, in a tomb under the palace, given immortality for their mastery over these magics.

Lord Dawn walked down the ancient winding stone staircase, with five guards accompanying him to help with any heavy lifting. They came to a large stone wall with many arcane symbols engraved on it. He walked up to the wall and placed his hand on it. His veins began to glow as he channelled his magic into the runes. He removed his hand and stepped back as the wall began to move aside with the sound of stone grinding against stone. A stench so foul thrusting itself upon Lord Dawn and the guards, all except Dawn recoiling from the horrid scent. He walked forward into the burial room, hearing a crunch as he stepped in.

The guards all looked to the floor with their lanterns to see the ground was packed with bones and the walls were lined with skulls. “What is this place milord?”, one of the guards asked in slight fear.

Dawn walked over to the center of the room, “This is where Celestia locked away five powerful magic users… She feared their potential, and stopped them by locking them in the royal tomb and binding the door. The bind had grown weaker with her gone, I am about to offer them amnesty for their services…”, Dawn explained to the acknowledgeable guards.

“But, Milord, they are dead…”

“They are merely asleep, preferring to keep close to their passion, they sleep in their own special way known as a ‘Death Trance.’ Their power does not fade with time this way… Now each of you, stand at the head of a tomb.”, Dawn commanded.

The guards all walked over to the heads of each stone coffin, as ordered. They were unsure what would happen, so they readied themselves.

Dawn charged up his magic, placing his hand on each of the coffins and pulsing magic into each one. Once he finished with the coffins, he looked to the guards, who were ready to open the tombs on Dawn’s order, “Open them…”, he ordered.

Each of the guards barely cracked open the tombs before a flow of dark green energy shot out in a torrent and struck each of them. The all screamed in terror and pain at first, soon feeling weak and being unable to make a sound as they began to shrivel up into dried husks of what they once were.

Lord Dawn stood unflinching at the sight of the guards being killed in such a horrid fashion.

Each of the tomb’s lids slid off onto the floor. Out from each tomb rose a man with Dark Blue hair, pale skin, and red eyes; A woman with silver hair, pale skin, and Green eyes; A man with black hair, skin that was pale and he was skinny enough that one could see his bones through his skin, his eyes were also completely white; another man rose with red hair and green eyes; and the last to rise was a man with purple hair and purple eyes.

The man with white eyes looked to Dawn, who was bowing to them, “I see that one of our own has summoned us back from the grave… Is it time our plans come to fruition? Or have you come to inform us that you have failed and you require assistance?”, his voice was raspy and sounded like it tore at his throat, but he seemed to not be bothered by it.

“The age old plan has come to fruition, there is a civil war and they are beginning to spill their own blood. We are sure that the ritual will have many to rise…”, Dawn explained while looking only at the floor, not considering himself worthy of looking upon the five elders.

“Well done, young fledgling, you will have a place in the new world. We will wash over this land in a tide of death and make sure this land will become a paradise for our followers like you… Now go, we require some time to accustom ourselves to being waking beings once more…”

“As you wish, Master…”, Lord Dawn said as he backed away. He walked back up the staircase into his private chambers that once belonged to Celestia.

“Looks like the awakening was successful…”, a man with coal-coloured hair spoke to Dawn as he entered the room.

“Have you risen their new hero?”, Dawn turned to him.

“I cast the spell a while back, War Heart should rise soon, he will not remember anything when we arrive and brief him on ‘Who he is.’”, The man said with a smirk.

“Excellent… You should take care of that soon. With him as an animated corpse that is so powerful, we will be unstoppable.”, Dawn smiled.

“I will go pick him up now…”, The man declared as he vanished in flash of pale green light.

The man teleported to the base of the mountain where War Heart was buried. He concentrated for a moment before teleporting to the top a smirk still on his face. When he arrived at the peak he saw the grave was dug up and empty. His expression turned to one of shock, “Oh no… He’s not here…? He’s going to rise any moment now and now he might be in the hands of someone that is our enemy…”, he paced as he pondered on where he could have been taken.

Twilight was in her room reading one of the novels she had packed, this one afternoon was rather peaceful for her, she was able to actually calm down enough to read in bed.

The black feather that she had picked up the night before floated off the dresser she had placed it on, beginning to glow green.

Twilight turned to the feather, putting down her book as she looked at it quizzically, “What the-? What is this?”, she asked herself.

The feather began to shine brighter as bits of bone formed around the point, rapidly showing form of a wing that grew a spine attached to it. There was a faint sound of screaming that could be heard by Twilight that was almost haunting. The bones soon formed a full skeleton. Twilight backed away in horror as the scream was now loud enough for her to clearly hear. She backed up into the wall out of fear of what was happening. The bones stopped forming and flesh seemed to just grow upon the bones, the screams were ones of agony. After a moment the flesh was covered by skin and hair was grown back in the form of red and green which was spiked forward. The screams stopped as the new person went from being on all fours to collapsing onto the floor, unconscious.

Twilight slowly walked over to the man with black wings, “War Heart…?”, she wasn’t sure what to feel at this point, a mixture of bliss and longing. She realised that he was nude on her floor and covered him up with a blanket in case anyone walked in. she paced in her room trying to figure out what to do, “Oh Celestia, what do I do? Is this really War Heart? He was dead… How can this be possible…? What do I do with him?”, she spoke to herself.

War Heart slowly opened his eyes to see the red carpeting of the floor. He slowly lifted his head to face a wooden dresser. He sat up in silence, then spoke, “Where am I?”

Twilight cleared her throat, “You are in Canterlot.”, she explained.

War Heart quickly looked to Twilight, startled from her response, “Who are you?”, he spoke with confusion.

Twilight was surprised at his response, thinking he perhaps lost some of his memory. She walked over to him and knelt in front of him, so that she could question him on what he remembered, “I am Twilight Sparkle, Can you tell me what you remember?”, she asked.

War Heart rubbed the back of his head, “My name is…”, he paused as he struggled to recall his own name, but couldn’t, “I don’t know… I can’t remember anything…”, he said with confusion.

Twilight felt sorry for him as he couldn’t recall anything. She spoke to him once more, “Your name is War Heart, we are close friends. You…”, she paused for a moment trying to think of a way to explain what happened, “You were sleeping over and you fell off the bed. You must have been having a bad dream and hit your head on the ground.”, she lied to him blatantly, but War Heart obviously couldn’t tell.

War Heart sat there wrapped in the blanket Twilight threw on him trying to take in all that he was told.

Twilight realized he was still sitting on the ground in nothing but a blanket, ‘Maybe I should get some clothes for him… But I can’t just buy anything, he’s too big for normal sized clothes…’, she thought to herself. She looked at War Heart and smiled, “I’ve got to go do something, I’ll be back soon, don’t leave, please.”, she said as she threw on a coat and scarf, then went outside into the streets of Canterlot. She walked for a few minutes before arriving at the new Carousel Boutique. She walked inside to see Rarity at the front desk.

Rarity spotted Twilight enter, “Hello, Twilight, It’s been a while. How can I help you?”, Rarity asked in her friendly tone.

“I have a friend that needs clothes, could you tailor some for him?”, Twilight asked.

“But, Of course, just get him to come down here and I’ll make some for him.”, Rarity replied.

Twilight scratched the back of her head, “There is a problem there… He’s sort of unable to walk around the streets due to the fact he isn’t wearing clothes…”, she explained hesitantly.

Rarity rose an eyebrow, “What kind of weirdo have you befriended, Twilight?”, she asked.

“Well, he’s living with me at the moment, and he’s bigger than most people so there are not any clothes that fit him…”, Twilight smiled nervously.

Rarity rolled her eyes and smiled, “A new ‘friend’? You could have just admitted that your new boyfriend had no clothes. I’ll fetch some fabric and my tools and we’ll head over and make him some new clothes in no time.”, Rarity said as she walked into the back room and came out with her tools and fabrics floating behind her via magic, “Let’s go.”, she said as she walked out the door.

Twilight stood and thought for a second, “Boyfriend…?”, she said to herself, giggling at the idea of having War Heart to herself. She then exited the Boutique and walked after Rarity.

They both walked into Twilight’s room where War Heart was standing at the window on the opposite side of the room looking at the sky.

Twilight blushed, not sure how to explain to Rarity or quite sure how she would react.

Rarity just walked over to a corner of the room and started unpacking her tools, not really caring about War Heart standing there exposed. She walked over to him and realized he was very tall, which was about the only thing that surprised her. She tapped on his shoulder, actually having to reach up to do so to get his attention.

War Heart turned to Rarity, “Hello?”, he said before looking to Twilight, “Who is this?”, he asked Twilight.

“I am Rarity, Twilight’s friend. She asked me to make you some clothes.”, Rarity told him while stretching out her tape measure and taking his measurements.

War Heart rose an eyebrow, not quite sure what she was doing.

Twilight walked over to Rarity and whispered to her, “I’m surprised you aren’t at all bothered you’re doing this…”

Rarity looked to Twilight, “I’ve had to do this for pretty much everyone in Ponyville when we got back from the Gala, I really don’t mind anymore.”, she whispered back. Rarity kept taking measurements and floated over some fabric and tools. She was a bit concerned over the fact that his skin was almost freezing, that his body had almost no warmth to it. She shrugged it off and continued working until she finished with him wearing new denim pants and a heavy black coat.

“I’m feeling a bit too warm…”, War Heart declared taking the coat off.

Rarity looked at him quizzically, “It is freezing outside, Dear, you will need that coat to keep warm.”

War Heart looked down at her, “I would prefer something less restricting. The sleeves are too long on that coat…”

Rarity sighed, “Very well…”, she said as she floated some more fabric over to her and make him a tight fitting short sleeved shirt of cotton.

War Heart examined the shirt on him and smiled, “Thank you, this is much better…”, he said to her.

Rarity smiled, ‘He is so going to freeze to death…’, she thought to herself. She walked over to Twilight, “You might want to get him a check up with a doctor, he’s freezing and says he is too warm.”, she whispered to Twilight before packing her things and leaving.

Twilight went over to War Heart taking his hand into hers and finding out she was right. She looked up to War Heart to see him looking back at her, “I want to take you to meet somebody.”, Twilight said to him.

War Heart nodded, “Okay, who?”, he asked as Twilight started walking while holding his hand.

“She is going to make sure nothing too bad happened to you when you hit your head.”, she explained to him on the way.

They both arrived at Cura’s office, Twilight knocked on the door. A voice from the other side responded, “Come in!”

They both entered the room to find Cura sitting at her desk with a bottle on the desk and a wine glass in hand while she looked over reports from doctors all over Equestria. She looked up at the two of them entering the room her eyes turned to War Heart. Her eyes widened as the glass slipped out of her hand and shattered on the floor.

Twilight and War Heart were both startled by the breaking glass. Both looking at each other then back to Cura.

Cura took a moment to collect herself then stood up, “Take a seat.”, she said as she sat on her chair.

Twilight and War Heart both sat down on the couch across from Cura.

“So… What do you need?”, Cura asked.

Twilight spoke up, “He needs a check up, He is cold to the touch and he doesn’t remember anything.”

Cura stood up and floated her doctor’s bag over to her, opening it and taking out a thermometer. She stuck it under War Heart’s tongue and used a stethoscope to check his pulse, lifting his shirt and pressing it against his chest. She moved around the receiver trying to find the heart beat. Her eyebrow rose as she couldn’t find one. She took out the ear pieces of the stethoscope and felt his neck for a pulse by hand, still unable to find a pulse. She took back the thermometer to find his temperature was below room temperature. She looked to Twilight and motioned for her to follow her then looked to War Heart, “We’ll be back in a moment.”, she then took Twilight out into the hall and closed the door.

“What’s wrong with him?”, Twilight asked with concern.

“He’s dead… That’s the only way I can explain it. What have you done? Have you been messing around with things you shouldn’t be?”, Cura questioned her with hostility.

“No, Of course not, I was reading in my room and he just… appeared.”, Twilight was honest in her response.

“Well, whatever it is, he is dead and walking around… It isn’t just by chance that he is the one to appear in your room?”, Cura said without really believing Twilight.

“I suppose I should have guessed you recognized him by your reaction to seeing him.”

“I’ve been spending a while learning the physiology, I can recognize almost anyone I’ve done work on in the past, and I’ve had to deal with his wounds plenty, so he’s pretty recognizable. The fact that he’s massive and the hair is a dead giveaway. I suggest you try to keep him out of the public eye as much as possible to avoid an incident, understand?”, Cura explained to Twilight.

“I will keep him in my room, there isn’t really anywhere else I can keep him.”, Twilight replied.

“Very well, just keep him low profile.”, Cura said as she entered the room again with Twilight to see War Heart looking to the sky from the window.

Cura spoke up, “Well, you are perfectly healthy, you may go now. Make sure to stay indoors, you might catch a cold.”, Cura told him as she walked over and started cleaning up the glass she dropped earlier as well as the spilt wine on the floor.

Twilight motioned for War Heart to follow her. He did so without hesitation, feeling lost in a sense and feeling like she was his only guide. They walked back to her room. It was night now and war Heart was feeling slower and slightly dizzy.

“What’s wrong with me…?”, War Heart said weakly.

“You’re tired, just lay down and go to sleep on the bed.”, Twilight said as she closed and locked the door to the room.

War Heart laid down on the bed, soon falling asleep.

Twilight touched War Heart’s cold lifeless hand, “How is this possible…?”, she whispered to herself. She noticed his skin was almost white; it was so pale. She looked at his face that expressed a peacefulness that only the naïve possessed. She stroked his hair and smiled, happy to have him back. She laid down next to him, facing him. She fell asleep smiling, feeling blissful in the fact her lost love was back in her life once more.

During her sleep, War Heart was tossing and turning. His dreams came back to haunt him once more. He dreamt of Unex again. He saw the things he did and the one he couldn’t stop.

Deadbeast stood in the middle of the street, staring at War Heart, who had no idea what was going on.

“Who are you?”, War Heart asked, standing merely steps away.

Deadbeast did not answer him, he only stared into his eyes. He lifted his arm and pointed behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around to see a young woman with rainbow streaks in her hair. She was crying in her house of clouds, alone. War Heart was confused and walked towards her. He stopped as something caught hold of his leg. He looked down to see the sickly hand of a young man in red clothes.

The sickly one looked as if he were rotting and already dead, “Murderer…”, he groaned to War Heart. He squeezed War Heart’s leg tighter.

War Heart pulled away and stepped back from the rotting man. He looked around him and saw more rotting men around him, all slowly moving towards him. They all groaned and moaned at him, “Murderer…”, and, “Monster…”, in voices that lacked life or emotion other than dulled pain.

Another voice spoke out, it was coming from Dash, who was still crying, “why did you leave me…?”, she cried.

War Heart was completely confused, not knowing what any of this meant. He looked towards Dash to see her still crying. He started running towards her, not knowing why. He was soon delayed by one of the moving corpses tripping him by grabbing his leg. They soon swarmed him as he thrashed about, soon being restrained by the dozens of corpses.

Deadbeast walked through the crowd of corpses and stood over War Heart, looking down at him judgingly.

War Heart’s eyes grew wide as he was helpless. He waited for something to happen.

Deadbeast, with blinding speed, thrust his hands into War Heart’s gut, piercing his flesh and tearing War Heart open to reveal his innards to the corpses who began to tear out his insides.

War Heart screamed in pain as his organs were torn out and gnawed upon.

A ghostly woman’s voice whispered in his mind, “Wake up War Heart…”

Everything went black for a moment for War Heart. The next moment he shot up to a sitting position, panting in panic from his nightmare. Twilight was sitting on the bed next to him, “Are you okay, War Heart?”, she asked in urgent concern.

“I don’t know… I’m not sure what happened…”, he said not even able to make eye contact with Twilight. He was still breathing heavily, feeling his belly where it was torn open in his nightmare.

Twilight wrapped her arms around him and stroked his hair, “It’s okay, it was just a bad dream… You’re safe.”, she whispered in a soothing tone to him.

War Heart felt the warmth coming from Twilight’s embrace, which helped calm him. Her voice also soothed him, soon his breath slowed and he began to relax once more. He laid back down, rubbing his eyes with his hand then sighed.

Twilight knelt next to him on the bed, “Are you going to be okay?”, she asked quietly.

War Heart nodded, “Yes… Thank you for being here for me… I didn’t know what was going on in that dream…”, he replied, still distracted by what happened in his nightmare.

“What happened in the dream?”, Twilight asked, hoping she could make sense of it for him.

“Well… I was standing on a street… There was this… man with white face paint. He didn’t speak, he only pointed behind me and I saw a woman crying, she had rainbow streaks in her hair.”, War Heart struggled to recall the dream.

Twilight’s eyes shifted from side to side as he described Dash, “She… You and her…”, Twilight thought about telling him the truth, but suddenly realized that doing so would cause him to return to her. Twilight spoke once more, “You two were friends, but… There was an accident… She died… You tried to save her but couldn’t…”, Twilight struggled to tell him but got it out.

War Heart looked down as he felt the loss of a friend sink in.

Twilight instantly felt a mix of guilt and relief all at once. She knew he would not seek her out now, and that she could have him to herself finally. An idea came to her head, “And when I said we were close friend, I meant that we are in a relationship.”, she said blushing.

War Heart looked to her, his eyes wide, “I’m sorry that I forgot… You’ve been so kind to me, I should have realized… I’m sorry.”, War Heart pulled her towards him and hugged her.

Twilight smiled as she laid her head on his chest feeling his cold skin but she didn’t mind it, “It’s okay, you took a nasty blow to the head. You’re back here with me now, that’s what matters.”, she said in a happy tone. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep, as did War Heart, who now felt more at peace knowing that he had someone who cared for him so much, so close to him.

Chapter 22

Lord Dawn awaited in the War Room of the palace. He was mulling over the plan for Equestria involving the return of War Heart and the five ancient ones. His silence was disturbed by the magical entry of the man with coal-coloured hair. Dawn looked to him with a smirk, “I suppose he has returned now.”

The man froze for a moment, a nervous look on his face, “I’m afraid there is a complication…”

Dawn’s smirk turned to a glare of irritation, “What do you mean, ‘complication’…?”, he asked in a threatening tone.

“When I returned to collect him, he was gone. Somebody had dug him up or he came back earlier than expected and is now loose.”

It was apparent that Lord Dawn was growing furious at this news, the magic in his blood started to brighten to a bright red, his eyes starting to glow. He took a deep breath and the magic dissipated, returning him to his regular form, “Well… I guess you’ll have to find him then… We cannot have someone like him running around uniting the people or making an enemy of us, or in a worst case scenario, both. You’ve made an error, correct it, or I will be sure the ancient ones will be informed of your failure. Believe me when I say: They are not as forgiving to failure as I am…”, Lord Dawn waved him away.

The man bowed and disappeared in a flash of green light, teleporting away to find War Heart, hopefully finding him somewhere in Ponyville.

A blizzard had hit the town of Ponyville, almost everyone was confined to their homes since it was dangerous to go outside with the snowstorm. All except the members of the claw, who made it their duty to never fear the elements or anything else. The Claw watched over the town when nobody else could, prowling the streets and sprinting through the forests in search of enemy troops and sometimes food like mushrooms or fruit. Not a lot of people felt comfortable eating meat, the members of the claw had to take a liking to it. They were taught to feed the beast within, even when it went against their own nature.

The Crusaders had been staying in their club house which had been expanded in the last year or so. The club house was more like an actual house now. Apple Bloom had become more adept at carpentry and expanded it to make room for the orphans that came to them. Scootaloo had become a leader of the orphans, helping them survive on the streets like she had done all her life. She had taught them to steal food and bring it back to the house so that it could be divided among them. Forcing a sense of camaraderie between them, knowing they had to rely on each other if they were going to survive. They were unaware that the Claw was aware of their crimes, but they allowed it, knowing everyone has a right to fight for their own lives.

Scootaloo sat on the floor in the living room, it was dawn so almost everyone was asleep. She leaned against the wooden wall thinking on the situation with food. It was obvious to her that they would not have enough food if they were just stealing it. “There has got to be some other way to get food, or money to buy it…”, Scoot whispered to herself.

Sweetie Belle entered the room, obviously hearing what Scoot had said, “Perhaps we should enquire the town purchasing our services as military contractors.”, Sweetie said in a strange almost digital voice.

Scoot looked at Sweetie, “You mean fight in their battles for money?”

Sweetie Belle nodded at Scoot, “Affirmative.”

Scoot stood up, “But what about the kids? Somebody needs to look after them.”

“I have accounted for that, I have calculated that their chances for living out their natural biological life span will increase by 34.1% if we bring back the money from our contracts. Apple Bloom will stay to look after them in case of emergencies, or perhaps we shall find the eldest orphan and tell them to be responsible while we are gone.”, Sweetie explained to Scoot who was crossing her arms thinking over the idea.

Scoot sighed, “Well… I guess it could work… But I think we should wait until this blizzard is over at least…”, she said as she took a look through the window.

“Affirmative, I shall await the end of the storm.”, Sweetie said before leaving the room.

Apple Bloom walked into the room from the end opposite of Sweetie’s exit, “So lemme get this straight, ya wanna go out and fight to get money for the kids?”, Apple Bloom spoke as if she didn’t quite understand the situation.

Scoot still had her arms crossed, she looked at Bloom and nodded, “That’s the idea…”

“Mah sister’s boyfriend is already fightin’ in this. He did it fer free but maybe I can have him ask the mayor of Ponyville about it?”, Apple Bloom said in a half excited tone.

Scoot smiled, “That would probably get us some kind of chance at least.”

“But who are we going to leave in charge while we’re gone?”, Apple bloom asked, not wanting to be volunteered for the job.

“Can one of your siblings do it for a while? Only once in a while, I doubt we’ll have to do much at the start…”, Scoot suggested.

“I don’t know, Applejack is usually pretty busy with mah niece… But Big Macintosh won’t be doing too much since nothing can really be grown on the farm.”, Apple Bloom said in an excited tone, knowing she had found someone who could look after the kids.

“Yeah, he couldn’t say no!”, Scoot exclaimed.

“Eenope…”, Big Mac said in his usual simple tone.

“What do ya mean, ‘No’?”, Apple Bloom shouted.

“I mean that I’m leaving to go visit Miss Cheerilee. This civil war has got her all scared and I have to be there for her.”, Big Mac explained to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom crossed her arms in disappointment, “Darn it! I’m gonna be stuck with babysittin’!”, Apple Bloom grumbled.

Applejack walked into the room, “What’s all the commotion?”, she asked.

Apple Bloom looked to her sister, “We need someone to look after the kids while we’re gone, Big Mac is busy so I’ll have to do it.”, Bloom said as she crossed her arms.

“Nah, I can take care of ‘em. Where are they?”, Applejack asked.

“They’re at the club house.”, Apple Bloom replied.

“Alright then, I’ll take Apple Star over there and look after ’em.”

Orion walked in behind Applejack, “Look after who?”, he asked when he entered the room.

Applejack looked to him, “Oh, I’m jus goin’ over to there clubhouse to look after their little friends.”, she explained to Orion.

“Oh, okay, can I tag along, I have nothing better to do.”, Orion declared.

Apple Bloom spoke up, “Actually we need your help with something…”

Orion turned to Apple Bloom, an eyebrow raised in curiosity, “Like what?”

“We need you to talk to the mayor for us, we’ll explain on the way”, Scootaloo said as she walked out the door where Sweetie Belle was waiting.

Apple Bloom went up to Orion and grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door, Orion grabbed his heavy cape for the weather. He spoke quickly as he was being dragged off, “Well-I-guess-I-gotta-get-going-see-you-later-I-love-you-bye!”

Applejack smiled and shook her head as he left.

Hermit was in the town hall, being mayor of Ponyville meant he was to spend his time in town hall when he was not needed elsewhere. He was sitting at his desk taking a nap when Orion and the Crusaders burst in through his door. He opened an eye and looked towards them, “What do you want?”, Hermit asked in a bored tone.

Orion stood before hermit, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, regretting what he was about to do, “These three want to fight for the town…”, he said with his eyes closed.

Hermit sat there and shrugged, “So? Women are allowed to join the militia.”, he stated.

Orion scratched the back of his head, “They want to be paid for it…”

Hermit looked at the three of them, scanning over them for a moment, then bursting out into laughter, he then went back to a straight face, “You serious?”

“I’m afraid they are, they seem pretty dedicated to this…”, Orion explained.

Hermit leaned in closer from his chair, “What do you want the money for?”

Scootaloo put her hands on the desk and leaned in towards Hermit, “We need to feed a bunch of Orphans back home… The money would really help…”

Hermit leaned back and smiled, “Alright, you got it. Good to see someone is looking out for the less fortunate in these times, and not just begging for more, but offering something in return. I have some stuff that the Claw does not have time for, and the militia is unable to do since it requires secrecy… But before we get to that, you need to get some training or at least experience under your belts… I’ll be sure there is food delivered to your house for the orphans so long as you do jobs for me, got it?”

The Crusaders all nodded, excited to begin.

As the sun rose high enough to peek over the mountains in the distance, Twilight found a ray of sunshine make its way to her face, disturbing her sleep. She shielded herself from the ray with her hand, opening her eyes barely. She looked around to realize she was in bed alone. Twilight looked around, startled by the fact War Heart was gone. Her gaze turned to the window, where the silhouette of War Heart was, sitting on the window sill, staring into the distance as if waiting for something. Twilight got out of bed and walked towards him, “War Heart?”, she called to him.

War Heart turned to her, startled by her voice but saying nothing.

Twilight kept walking towards him, “Is something wrong?”, she asked, concerned for what could be on his mind.

War Heart looked to the floor, thinking of how to answer Twilight, he then looked back towards her, “I don’t remember anything… It’s like I’ve been taken into a new world. I don’t have any idea what is going on or what my place is… Who am I?”

Twilight put a hand on his cheek, “You are a great man… Kind and noble; Strong and Gentle. You are also my love.”, she said while pulling him in for a kiss.

War Heart kissed Twilight, afterwards he looked back outside, “I know I should be here with you, but I know nothing of the world outside this room, I want to spread my wings and meet the people.”, he said as he watched the sun slowly rise.

Twilight had to come up with an excuse to keep him indoors quickly, “The doctor said you are not to be outside.”, she said hastily.

War Heart was startled by her answer, “Am I sick?”, he said in confusion.

“Uh, yes, I mean, sort of, the doctor says that you are not to leave here until she deems it safe.”, Twilight told him in a sort of half truth.

War Heart looked at himself, trying to figure out what was wrong with him, “Is it because I am so… colourless?”, he asked regarding the paleness of his skin.

Twilight hesitated for a second, “Yes, that is one of the signs that you are sick.”

War Heart nodded slowly, “Okay, I won’t leave the room… I don’t feel sick, but if you say that I’m sick, I’ll trust you.”, War Heart smiled and removed himself from the window sill. He hugged Twilight, “I’m glad I have you to look out for me.”

Twilight felt his almost frozen arms wrap around her, she felt her heart go aflutter as she felt him embrace her. She returned the embrace out of bliss. She soon began to feel the guilt of the fact she had lied to him that Dash was not dead and the fact that he had children, but did not want to give up the only chance she would have at having him in her life as more than a friend.

There was a knock at the door, which startled Twilight. She walked over to the door and creaked it open to see Cura at the door, “Oh it’s just you…”, Twilight said in relief, glad that it was not Rarity for the risk that she might recognize War Heart. She opened the door and allowed Cura inside.

Cura had brought a medical bag and threw it on the bed, “I’ve come to do an examination of War Heart.”, she declared as she put on gloves and face mask, “Now, I’m going to have to ask you to lay down on the bed while I check you for anything that may cause problems.”

War Heart was confused and looked to Twilight, who nodded at him to let him know that it was fine. He complied and laid down.

Cura lit up her magic, her eyes glowing baby blue. She looked down at him as she saw his bones, muscles, organs, and bloodstreams. She examined his body then spotted a dull green glow in one of his feathers. She put on an expression of curiosity, “What is this…?”, she asked herself as she prepared magic in her hand to extract whatever could be inside the feather. As she touched the feather with her magic, she saw the green glow rush out of the feather and spread throughout his wing.

War Heart winced in pain as he felt an intense burning sensation rip along his wing and towards his torso.

Cura could only stand back and watch as he thrashed about in pain, holding back Twilight who wanted to go help but, in reality, could not do anything. She saw the green glow in his blood stream spread throughout his body, moving faster with his thrashing about. Soon it found its way into his heart, at which point he locked up for a second before falling limp.

They stood there in dead silence as they just watched War Heart lay there motionless.

Suddenly War Heart shot up to sitting position, gasping for air and putting a hand on his chest as if he were having a heart attack. His breath slowed over a few seconds. He sighed in relief as the pain had passed.

Twilight stepped towards him, “Are you okay? What happened?”, she asked, hoping he didn’t have anything too terrible happen.

War Heart looked towards her and Cura, “I don’t know… One second I was fine and the next I felt like I was being burnt alive from the inside…”

Cura walked over towards him and activated her magic, her eyes once again able to see his insides. She looked at his chest, concentrating on his heart which now had the same green glow. She saw his blood stream had now been filled with the same green glow from the feather. She felt his hand and noticed his skin was still cold, she also noticed that his heart was now slowly beating, slow enough that anyone else should be unconscious from having not oxygenated blood in his system. It was as if he was coming back from the dead. She didn’t know how she would explain it, so she just turned off her magic and started packing up her stuff.

War Heart spoke, “Hey… How long until I can go outside?”, he asked Cura.

Cura looked to him and thought for a moment, “I don’t know.”, she shrugged. She made her way towards the door, “If you need anything, just get Twilight to come get me.”, she called out to them as she went out the door, closing it on her way out.

War Heart started feeling dizzy, his vision blurred, and his body felt heavy. He laid down on the bed, feeling unable to move.

Twilight sat next to him, “How are you feeling…?”, she asked in concern.

War Heart couldn’t sit up, “I feel… weak… I don’t know why.”, he said in a lifeless tone.

Twilight placed her hand on his forehead, checking for signs of fever. She only felt the cold as her hand made contact with his skin. She looked down at him and smiled, not wanting to worry him, “Just get some rest, you look tired.”

War Heart nodded slowly and closed his eyes, drifting off into sleep almost immediately.

Twilight watched over him as he slept for the first few minutes but soon sought the pleasure of a good book. She looked over to her bookshelf and levitated one over to her. She opened it up and began reading.

War Heart returned into his dreams, the ones that haunted him from before. He found himself in the middle of a road again. This time was different, he saw a little girl in the middle of the road. She had purple hair and pink eyes, she wore purple-rimmed glasses as well. Her stare was cold and silent as she looked into his very being. She did not speak or move as she stood there. A young boy with black hair walked out from behind her and stared at him as well, followed by a young girl with pink hair and red eyes with wings. War Heart stood there in confusion for a moment before speaking, “Who are you?”, he asked.

The three looked at each other and pointed behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around to see Dash crying again. He tried to take a step towards her only to find his legs were bound by the animated corpses from his last nightmare. They screamed at him, “Murderer!”, and “Monster!”, in a mess of voices. The corpses all wore hoodies, some of them blood red, and others coloured green.

War Heart struggled to free himself, pulling away from the corpses as much as he could. He soon fell over with all the corpses piling on top of him. He saw a shoe placed in front of him, a leg attached to it, and a man attached to the leg. It was Deadbeast again, he knelt down to War Heart, holding out his hand to him.

War Heart panicked and lashed out to grab hold of the helping hand. He felt a fierce tug as he flew out of the pile of corpses and into a ballroom of royal tastes, where he was pinned to the wall and an angry tall woman with long flowing hair and glowing veins approached him. He struggled to be free of the wall but found himself helpless against the invisible force that held him there.

“War Heart… I trusted you would not reveal what you knew of the world beyond. Now I know that was a mistake. But the fact that you even allowed Discord to be freed and do such a thing to my empire… I should have you executed.”, the tall woman said as she approached him with a glowing orb in her hand.

War Heart was completely confused at what he was dreaming, he looked at the orb the woman held in her hand, guessing it was not meant to illuminate the already bright room. The tall woman thrust the orb towards War Heart, blinding him with a flash of light. The sudden shock forced him from his slumber, his chest began to give him excruciating pain. He shut his eyes as the fires in his blood burned once more. After a few seconds the pain stopped, he was wide awake now. He looked to the window to find it was night now. Looking to his side on the bed was Twilight, at peace and sleeping with a book in her hand. War Heart took the book from her gently and placed it on the bedside table. He sat on the side of the bed, staring at the floor, wanting to know why he kept dreaming of these things. He got off the bed, walked over to the window and sat in the sill. He sat there until dawn, not sure of what else he could do in the mean time.

Twilight awoke to see him at the window again, “Did you wake up in the middle of the night?”, she asked.

War Heart nodded, a depressed look on his face, “I keep having these dreams… I don’t understand why I’m having them. The people in it are… familiar. I don’t remember who they are though.”

Twilight motioned for him to come back to bed, which he did. She leaned against him, now noticing something new: his skin had warmth to it. She smiled and hugged him, “They’re just dreams, you don’t have to worry about them… You’re awake now, everything will be okay…”

Chapter 23

Twilight walked along the marble halls of the palace, heading towards the office of Cura. She reached the large wooden doors and opened them, peeking inside to see Cura at her desk. Twilight had questions to ask her.

Cura looked up from her polished wooden desk, “Yes, Twilight, what do you need?”, she asked half-attentive as she was looking over some more reports from hospitals and clinics all over Equestria.

Twilight approached the desk and placed her hands on it, leaning on the surface, “I wanted to ask you about letting War Heart outside… He sits in there all day and it is obvious that he is growing restless in there.”, she replied to Cura, concerned that she may not be able to keep War Heart inside much longer.

Cura looked up from her reports and made eye contact with Twilight, staring quizzically, “How many do you think would recognize him? Seeing as how nobody has seen him in this form, he may be able to pass off as another person.”, she suggested.

Twilight stroked her chin in thought, remembering that she only recognized War Heart in this form because she had seen him in that form before, “Well… I only recognized him because I had seen him in the same way a few years ago…”, Twilight replied to Cura.

Cura’s expression switched from curiosity to concern, “What are you talking about…?”, she asked, not sure if Twilight was telling the truth or was mentally ill.

Twilight hesitated from the look Cura was giving her, “He was stuck in another world after the Dragon Land incident… Being in that world changed him into the form he is now. I was only there for a short time before leaving with War Heart.”, she retold in short what happened when War Heart returned to Equestria.

Cura turned around in her spinning chair and thought for a moment, “So this isn’t from the sick imaginings of Discord… Somebody must have told him of these creatures… But who?”, she said to herself in thought, making sure Twilight did not hear. She turned back to Twilight, “I believe War Heart should be able to go outside without much trouble, so long as he doesn’t go to Ponyville. Until we are sure what has happened, we can’t risk him doing anything… well… you know what he is like when there is a fight going on. So long as he is in Canterlot, he’ll be safe.”, Cura explained to Twilight.

Twilight sighed in relief that she didn’t have to worry about keeping him indoors anymore. A thought crept into her mind, “Oh, I wanted to mention that he has been having nightmares almost every night. He also has had a change recently: his skin is warm now.”, Twilight reported.

Cura leaned back in her chair, resting her head on her arm, “This is news… He seems to have gone from an animated being with little signs of life: No heartbeat, no warmth in his body. Now he developed a pulse and temperature over the last two days? I’ve never seen anything like this before. The nightmares may be memories, or unconscious reflections on his memories. There isn’t much to do, if he has nothing to occupy his mind, he will revert back to his repressed memories. If he does retrieve those memories in his fragile mental state, he may have… side effects.”, Cura explained to Twilight.

Twilight had a look of concern on her face, “What kind of side effects?”, she asked, curious but fearful of what may happen.

Cura looked to the ceiling in thought, “Well… He may just lose it and go into an obsession over something; he may go on a homicidal killing spree; he just might regress into an earlier state of life where he would be trapped in a past tense of himself; but in all honesty I can’t tell what will happen… Be sure that he does not EVER know that he has died… We have no idea if he can handle that kind of idea at this point…”

Twilight inhaled deeply, exhaling in a sigh. She could already feel the pressure of being War Heart’s mental caretaker setting in. She was happy to have him back, but wished it was under better circumstances. She turned to leave, heading towards the door.

Cura called out to Twilight, “Remember, keep him in Canterlot.”, she said as she returned to her reports.

Twilight nodded and closed the door, walking back to her room to tell War Heart that he can be outside. She reached the door and opened it to reveal War Heart sitting on the bed, looking at the ceiling in thought, obviously having himself wake up from yet another nightmare.

War Heart looked over to Twilight, managing to smile when he saw her. He cleared his throat before speaking, “Good morning…”, he said in a weak and tired tone. He had not been able to sleep soundly with all his nightmares forcing him to wake up.

Twilight stepped inside and closed the door, “Good morning, I just went to see Cura. She said that you can be outside now, but to stay in Canterlot. She wants to make sure that if anything goes wrong because of your head injury that she needs to get to you as soon as possible.”, she explained to him using a made up excuse.

War Heart smiled, “It’ll be nice to go for a walk once in a while… Maybe meet some people… I need to get away for a bit…”, he continued in his tired tone and pattern. He moved towards the edge of the bed, allowing his legs to hang over the side. He looked to the floor and held his head in his hands.

Twilight walked over and sat down next to him, “The nightmares bothering you still…?”, she asked him while putting a comforting hand on his back.

War Heart remained motionless while he spoke, “Yes… I’m starting to see the people in my dreams… They are there one second and gone the next… I tried talking to them, but then they just stare at me…”, he explained to Twilight, whose expression was growing more concerned.

Twilight stroked his back in an attempt to comfort him, feeling the warmth of his skin on her hand.

War Heart looked up in front of him to see Deadbeast standing in front of him. War Heart froze as he locked eyes with him. Deadbeast stared at War Heart with a soulless gaze that seemed to unnerve him with its vast emptiness of emotion. War Heart’s heart began to pick up its pace, now feeling himself grow fearful and angry all at once.

Twilight looked at War Heart, seeing something was obviously bothering him. She turned to see what he was looking at, only able to see a wall on the other side of the room. She looked back towards War Heart whose face turned to a look of hatred. She grew nervous, frightened at what may happen if he were to lash out in anger. She put a hand on his cheek and turned his head towards her, “Look at me… You need to ignore them… They aren’t real, they can’t do anything to you…”, she told him while staring into his eyes, which seemed to calm him down somewhat.

War Heart sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a moment to calm down. When he opened his eyes he smiled at Twilight, “Thank you… for being here for me…”, he pulled her in and hugged her, “I’m glad I have you looking out for me…”

Twilight was pressed against War Heart, her ear against his chest able to hear his beating heart. She closed her eyes and stayed still, not wanting this moment to end, “I’ll always be here for you…”, she whispered.

The civil war in Equestria had kept going in the last few days. It seemed that the nation was covered in snow, blood, and ashes. The dead were beginning to outnumber the living, and food was growing shorter in supply by the day. Lord Dawn sat in the war room, awaiting the news from the man with coal-coloured hair.

A flash of green light appeared suddenly, then disappeared as quickly as it came. The man with coal-coloured hair stood there before Lord Dawn, immediately kneeling.

Lord Dawn sat in silence for a moment shrouded in darkness, “What news of finding our champion…?”, he asked.

The man slowly stood up and faced Lord Dawn, “Milord, I’m afraid I could not find him anywhere in Ponyville…”, he reported in a slight tone of fear.

Dawn sighed in irritation, “Very well… We’ll have to move on with the plan now… We will have to do this without a champion… We shall bring back Blackheart and have him use the ritual that has been prepared. The Ancient Ones will assist him in the ritual.”

The man bowed, “I am ready to make my sacrifice, milord…”, he said with a sense of duty.

Lord Dawn nodded towards him, “Then head to the chamber where they stay. Tell them it is time for Blackheart’s return…”, Lord Dawn instructed.

The man looked to Lord Dawn, “My life for the Black…”, he whispered as he disappeared in a green flash again. He reappeared in the chamber of the Ancient Ones, bowing to them immediately, “Lord Dawn wishes to begin the ritual now… I am to be the vessel for Blackheart’s return…”, he spoke while looking at the floor as they looked over him.

The Ancient man with white eyes and black hair looked down on him, “Very well…”, he motioned for the four others to gather in a circle around the man with coal-coloured hair.

The Ancient Ones joined hands in a circle looking upwards with eyes closed. Their magic pulsed in their veins, preparing a powerful spell. They all faced the man in the center, eyes still closed. Their eyes and mouths shot open all at once, letting out a cacophony of screams of suffering and terror, like a thousand shrieking in agony and pain. The man with coal-coloured hair writhed in pain as the sound caused his ears to bleed. Green magical auras flowed forth from the eyes and mouths of the Ancient Ones in torrents and into the body of the man in the center of them. The ritual was only mere seconds but felt like an eternity of burning to the man with coal-coloured hair. The Ancient Ones stopped once the ritual was complete, backing away from the man in the center all at once.

The man with coal-coloured hair opened his eyes, which glowed a bright green from an overflow of magic. He slowly stood to face the Ancient Ones, smirking at them, “I have returned…”, he spoke in a deep echoing voice. He looked at his hands with a confused look on his face, “Curious… It seems we have new forms…”, he whispered to himself.

The Ancient Ones bowed to him, “We are prepared to take the land, Lord Blackheart…”, the man with white eyes said in his usual raspy tone.

Blackheart grinned, “This city… shall fall… and from the ashes a new kingdom shall rise. Our power will bring all the others to their knees. We have planned this for centuries, and now the time has come to execute it…”, he began to walk out with the Ancient Ones following behind him, their trail becoming emblazoned by green fire. He walked outside the royal chambers and into the halls.

Guards had been on duty, patrolling the halls of the palace. One guard saw the six Glows all walking the halls, setting the place ablaze with their footsteps, he froze in fear as Blackheart glared at him.

Blackheart pointed his hand towards the shocked guard, letting out a beam of magic that caused the guard to wither.

The guard screamed as he felt the life flow out of his body, which soon turned to a weak moan as he had no energy to scream as it looked like he aged a hundred years in seconds. He collapsed onto the floor, completely drained of life.

One of the Ancient Ones summoned up some magic into their hand, dropping it onto the guard’s corpse as they passed, the green lights flowing into his eye sockets and beginning to glow. The guard’s corpse shivered before standing up and walking with the six Glows.

Another guard had seen this from around the corner, he rushed ahead and ran to evacuate the members of the council, starting with Cura. He burst into her office, “Milady, I’m afraid I am going to force you to evacuate.”, he said in an official tone.

Cura jumped as the guard opened the door, “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”, she asked.

The guard ran to her, “The palace is under attack, we have to get you to safety.”, he informed her. He jogged over to her and assisted her in gathering her things. They both heard a bashing against the door, “I’m afraid we’ll have to abandon by another route.”, he said as he took her hand and pulled her towards the window, spreading his wings, “You’ll have to climb on my back and allow me to carry you out of here.”, he told her.

Cura quickly hopped onto his back, preparing herself mentally for what he was about to do. She soon found herself gliding through the air to the streets of Canterlot below in front of the palace. The guard dropped her off and told her to evacuate the city and flew off back into the palace. Cura ran towards Twilight’s room and burst through the door to find her and War Heart on the bed, hugging. She sighed in annoyance, “Okay, Lovebirds, we have to get out of here!”, she announced as she walked over to them.

Twilight looked at Cura as if she were crazy, “What are you talking about?”, she asked.

Cura grabbed their hands and started pulling them towards the door, “The city is under attack we have to evacuate.”, she replied as she pulled them along. When they got outside they could see the desiccated but animated corpses of guards marching out of the palace and causing panic with their presence in the streets.

War Heart looked towards the palace, seeing some people getting butchered by the dead guards, he felt anger build up inside him. Cura and Twilight tried to pull him along but couldn’t hope to match his strength.

Twilight shouted to him, “Come on, we have to go help the city evacuate!”

War Heart looked at her for a moment, “I’ll distract them… you go get everyone out of here…”, he told her while staring at the slaughter going on at the palace steps.

Twilight froze for a moment as she felt she was losing War Heart all over again, soon being snapped out of her stupor by Cura pulling her along. She joined Cura in informing everyone to evacuate the city.

War Heart jumped off the ground and took flight for a moment before landing in front of the desiccated guards all feeding on the flesh of the recently killed civilians. He glared at them as they all slowly turned to him, staring at him with a lifeless void of emotion. There were six of them that started to circle him like a shark would circle its prey. One of the guards shrieked at him as if to intimidate him.

War Heart looked at the one who shrieked at him, promptly charging at it, screaming as he sprinted towards it.

The dried out husk of the guard leaped at him like a beast on all fours would. As it flew through the air at War Heart, a flash of light went off that caused War Heart to see the Scathewind dragon pouncing and glide towards him. He swung his fist forward toward it, another flash of light being seen as he made contact with his opponent, revealing the dead guard taking the hit and shattering on impact. The corpse fell into a crumpled mess on the floor, the green glow of its eyes flowing out of their sockets and towards War Heart.

War Heart was cautious of the glowing aura, but felt himself drawn to it as it floated towards him, making its way into his eye. He felt odd at first but shrugged it off as after. Two more of the guards leaped at him, shrieking as they came down on his back, pinning him to the floor. The began to tear at his back, ripping through his shirt and rending the flesh on his back. He forced himself up and ran towards a wall, meaning to tackle it. He quickly spun around to slam his back into the wall, crushing the corpses between him and the stone. The green auras flowed from the corpses and into his eyes once more. He felt the wounds on his back close up as he took in the magic that came from the dried out, inanimate guards. He looked to the three that were left, he ran towards them and they charged too. He tackled one and threw it aside as he grabbed one by the head and bashed it into the floor, shattering the empty skull. He then grabbed the other one and rose it above his head, bending it in half with a crunching that would cause anybody to feel a shiver in their spine. He threw the broken guard to the floor. The last one leaped at him from the side, only to find itself to be caught by the neck. War Heart squeezed its neck to the point of not only breaking it, but severing it. He dropped the now inanimate guard to the ground feeling the magic that animated him flowing into his being.

Twilight ran towards War Heart, glad to see that he was okay. She sprinted up to him and hugged him, “I left something in the archives, we are going to need it. You need to take me in there!”, Twilight told him.

War Heart nodded, “Okay, Let’s go!”, he shouted while running up the steps of the palace.

They entered one of the halls to find it empty of people, they looked around and sprinted down the hall. They stopped and peeked around the corner to see nobody. They continued down the hall to reach the archives. Twilight ran in and started frantically looking around, searching for the metallic device that she left there. She looked to a wall and saw the device leaning against it. She quickly grabbed it and ran outside, signalling War Heart that they were leaving now. They sprinted towards the entrance of the palace uninterrupted. Soon they were out on the streets and heading towards the entrance of the city. There were crowds of people flocking towards the gates of the city, many confused and others panicking. The crowd stopped as they found the gates were closed. They began pounding on the giant wooden gates, in the futile hope it would open.

War Heart looked up along the walls to see more of the dead guards looking down on the crowd. He then looked behind them to see more guards gathering in the streets. He looked to Twilight, “It’s a trap…”, he said to her while motioning upwards towards the walls.

Twilight looked up to see the dead guards standing above them, “We need to find Cura and get out of here!”, she shouted.

War Heart looked over the crowd and saw Cura near the front, he looked back to Twilight, “I’m going to carry you over the wall and then come back and get Cura.”, he told Twilight before wrapping his arms around her and spreading his wings, forcing people in the crowd away from him as he took flight over the wall. He descended quickly and dropped Twilight off on the other side. He soon flew to the crowd to see it dispersing as the dead guards all started to attack the crowds. He scanned the crowds for Cura, spotting her bright pink hair in a sea of many colours. He glided down to her, and grabbed her before taking off over the wall. He got back to Twilight and the started running down the road as the screams of the crowd roared from the other side of the gates, War Heart looked back, feeling guilty that he couldn’t save them from the dozens of creatures that attacked. The three soon stopped running as the two women present ran out of breath, one being a doctor and the other being a scholar. They started walking as they were far enough from the city not to be overtaken so quickly.

Twilight panted, “What happened in there?”, she asked, out of breath.

Cura was panting also, “I don’t know, I’ve never seen this kind of thing before…”, she replied.

War Heart didn’t speak and kept walking, he wasn’t sure of what to say. He led them on down the road.

They walked for hours eventually stopping due to it being too dark to continue. They gathered some firewood and made a small campfire, using Twilight’s magic to light it. They all sat around the fire in silence, unsure of what to talk about.

War Heart broke the silence, “So… Where are we going…?”, he asked, not wanting to sit in silence all night.

Cura sighed, “I don’t know, the closest town is… Ponyville… I don’t know if we’d be welcome there though… What with the rebels making that their base…”, she rambled.

War Heart looked at her wondering what she was talking about, “Why are they rebelling?”, he asked.

Cura looked to Twilight, “I thought you would have been informed, but I guess not.”, she turned back to War Heart, “Well, with Celestia’s death-”, she was interrupted by War Heart.

“The Princess is dead?”

Cura nodded, “We’re pretty sure Discord did it too… Luna was so frightened that she outright refused to take the throne, leaving it to the Head of Culture to take power. The Earthbound, the people who used to be Earth ponies, did not want a Glow, the people who used to be unicorns, to rule over them. Now this rebellion started, and I think it will hopefully end now with this incident. Perhaps if they have a hero to rally behind, somebody they look up to, they can unite against this new enemy… I don’t know if anybody fit’s the bill except you…”

War Heart looked into the fire for a moment processing all this new information. He turned to Twilight, and then to Cura, “What makes me like that?”, he asked, unaware of his past.

Twilight put a hand on his, “War Heart… You used to be a hero to the people of Ponyville… You defended the town from a dragon and stopped an invasion almost single-handedly… People looked up to you because you protected everyone you could, and asked for nothing in return.”

War Heart looked into the fire again, trying to remember more. He looked up to see Deadbeast staring at him again. They locked eyes, War Heart glaring at Deadbeast and Deadbeast staring down at him judgingly. Deadbeast mouthed the word, ‘Monster’, towards War Heart.

Cura looked at War Heart and then towards where War Heart was looking, “What are you looking at?”, she asked.

War Heart shook his head and looked to Cura, then turned back to where Deadbeast was, but he was gone, “Nothing… just my eyes playing tricks on me…”, he said as he took a deep breath and sighed.

Twilight snuggled up to him, “You look tired… you should get some rest…”

War Heart shook his head, “I need to be up and keep watch overnight… I don’t need a lot of sleep…”, he replied while staring at the fire.

Twilight stared at the fire before turning to him, “Okay… but if you get tired, you better sleep.”, she told him before laying down.

War Heart nodded and continued to stare at the fire.

Cura laid down near the other two, since they had no blankets they would have to rely on shared body heat when the fire goes out. She already knew the feeling of sleeping under War Heart’s wing, it was long ago but she remembered the safe feeling that came with it. She knew nothing would happen with him watching over them. She closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep almost immediately.

About an hour passed before Twilight opened one of her eyes to see War Heart was still up and staring at the fire. She sat up and ran her hand along his back, “I guess you really can’t sleep…”, she whispered so she did not wake Cura.

War Heart nodded as he continued to stare into the fire. He then turned to Twilight, “I guess you can’t sleep either…?”, he whispered back.

Twilight gently grabbed War Heart’s shirt and pulled him towards her. She placed her hand on the back of his neck and kissed him.

Dawn came within hours, War Heart and Twilight were locked in embrace. Cura was the first to awaken, she rubbed her eyes and saw the fire was out. She yawned and stretched out on the grass. She looked over to see War Heart and Twilight, both embracing each other in their sleep. Cura looked at them quizzically, then turned to the empty fire pit to see a pair of purple underwear on the ground next to the fire pit. Her eyes widened as she realized what must have happened. She mouthed some obscenities as she was totally appalled at what happened right next to her while she slept. She looked over to the steel object Twilight had brought along, “Curious… I wonder what it does…”, she whispered to herself, though not wanting to risk messing with any crazy arcane inventions. She awaited a few minutes in silence as she noticed Twilight slowly waking up.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to find herself in War Heart’s embrace. She looked over to notice Cura sitting there with a look on her face that informed Twilight that Cura knew what happened. Cura pointed over near the fire pit, “I think you dropped something…”, she whispered while pointing at Twilight’s underwear. Twilight blushed in embarrassment.

Cura shook her head as she looked away from Twilight, allowing her some privacy to equip her undergarments. After a moment she turned back to Twilight with a look of anger, “What the hay were you thinking?!”, she exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Twilight looked down in shame, “I… I love him… I have been waiting for so long, and done so much that I just wanted to share this with him…”, she confessed, feeling guilty for taking advantage of his loss of memory for her own means.

Cura inhaled deeply, obviously feeling stressed about the situation. She then let out a sigh, realising that they should only press on and forget about what happened. She stood up and brought the steel device to Twilight, handing it to her, “Wake him up, we should get moving…”, she told Twilight as she turned around and started walking down the path.

Twilight woke War Heart and followed Cura with War Heart at her side. She carried the steel device that she used to summon Fizz, still unsure if she should call on him to help. This was a matter of magic, not science.

It took them almost all day, trekking through snow towards the town of Ponyville. When they got within a certain distance of Ponyville, they all began to see things in the forest. They weren’t sure what they were seeing but they all felt like they were being watched.

Chapter 24

War Heart, Twilight, and Cura were walking along the path towards Ponyville, all of them feeling uneasy as they thought they were being watched. They soon found themselves surrounded by four men with bestial looks in their eyes. One of them snarled at them, “What do you want here, Glows?”, he pointed at Twilight and Cura, completely ignoring War Heart for a second.

War Heart stood between the man and his companions, “Stay away from them…”, he warned. Towering over the snarling man, War Heart glared down at him.

The bestial man sniffed the air while looking at War Heart, “We will take you to the pack leader… You will take up your qualms with him…”, he snarled, motioning them to follow him as the other bestial men accompanied them. They marched through the gates of Ponyville, all the citizens of Ponyville that happened to be outside at the time stared at them as they moved along, mostly taking note of War Heart. Many did not recognize him in this form, since nobody but Twilight had the chance to see him as a human. Others saw him as familiar but couldn’t quite put their finger on who it was.

War Heart and the others were marched into the town hall where Hermit sat at his desk. He looked to the three people who were strangers to his rule. He eyed War Heart and sniffed the air, his eyes widening at the realization of who the familiar scent belonged to, “War Heart…?”, he said in disbelief, standing up from his desk.

War Heart nodded, not sure of who this man was, “I am War Heart… But… Who are you?”, he asked, honestly having no clue of his past with Hermit.

Hermit looked at War Heart quizzically, “Do you not remember me? I am the Hermit, from the Dragon Lands.”, he introduced himself to War Heart, hoping that he would remember.

War Heart had a bothered look on his face as he kept saying the name over and over in his head and then out loud, “Hermit… Hermit…”, he murmured as a blinding wave of pain pierced his head. He was brought to his knees by the agony as he saw visions of his memories with Hermit. He slowly opened his eyes to see Twilight, Hermit, and Cura all staring down at him. Twilight spoke but to him, her voice was faint and muffled. His senses sharpened back to their original states as he could now hear and see clearly.

Cura snapped her fingers towards his face, “Are you okay, War Heart.”, she asked while looking him over.

War Heart nodded, getting back up to standing position, “What happened?”, he groaned, feeling like he got hit in the head with a rock.

Cura thought for a moment before answering, “I am not quite sure, but I do know you should wipe your nose, you have a bit of blood dripping.” she commented casually.

War Heart felt under his nose to find the blood Cura mentioned, he turned to Hermit and instantly recognized him, “Hermit… I remember you now… You guided me through the Dragon Lands.”

Hermit smirked, “Nice to see you remember now.”

Cura looked at them, “It seems that there are two ways to regain your memories… To reintroduce them, in which case your brain violently reforms itself, or gradual, in which you really don’t regain memory but create new ones.”, she explained with pretty much only Twilight understanding what she was talking about.

Hermit sat down in his chair, “So what brings you here, Friends?”, he asked in a happier tone.

War Heart put his hands on Hermit’s desk, “Something happened at Canterlot…”, War Heart spoke in a serious tone which seemed to bother Hermit.

Hermit noticed how if something bothered War Heart, it must have been serious, “What happened at Canterlot…?”

War Heart explained what happened, describing the creatures he saw and the things they did to the civilians. The Hermit sat in his chair, brooding over what to do. Hermit smirked and crossed his arms while looking at War Heart and Cura, “Looks like we have another war on our hands.”, he declared before standing and walking towards the door.

Hermit whistled sharply, bringing the snarling members of the Claw to him. He ordered them to do something that the others couldn’t hear. He walked back towards them, “We just have to wait right here for a moment…”, he said as he took a seat again.

A few minutes later, Orion entered the room, “You called?”, he asked while walking over to Hermit’s desk. He stopped as he looked over to Cura, War Heart, and Twilight. He squinted at War Heart, not sure if it was the one he remembered, “War Heart?”, he said out loud.

War Heart nodded slowly, “… And you are?”, he asked, obviously not remembering who Orion is yet. He took a deep breath, knowing that he was headed for another pulsing headache most likely.

Orion was taken aback that War Heart was alive, but also by the fact that War Heart did not remember him, “It’s me, Orion. Don’t you reme-”, he stopped himself as he saw War Heart collapse to the ground, “Well I know I’m a pretty amazing person, but fainting at the mention of my name is a bit much, don’t you think?”, he jested, thinking War Heart was joking around.

War Heart was out for a few minutes, seeing many images flash through his mind as he violently gained memory of Orion back. He soon came to, feeling dizzy and light headed.

Cura forced his eye open and examined it, “I hope these rapid recoveries of memory won’t do anything…”, she said to herself as she used her magic to examine his brain.

Orion stood there and looked at them quizzically, “Did he do this when he heard your name Cura?”, he asked aloud while War Heart was staring straight at her.

War Heart’s eyes rolled back into his head as his brain shut off to reconstruct itself again.

Cura looked at Orion with an annoyed expression on her face.

Orion bit his lip, realizing what he just did, “Sorry…”, he whispered to her, knowing he just made her job take longer.

War Heart came back into consciousness. He rubbed his head as it throbbed, “Ow…”, he said in a slightly annoyed tone. He opened his eyes and looked towards Cura, “How’s it going, kid?”, he casually asked Cura.

Cura kept using her magic to examine his brain, “Oh, the usual… stitching you up, becoming the head of medicine in every field, forced out of home because of a bunch of corpses walking around, how ‘bout you?”, she casually replied while working.

War Heart sat up, still feeling light-headed, “Memories suck…”, he commented as the headaches returned.

There was a knock at the door, it opened almost immediately afterward. Scootaloo walked in with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom with her. She was walking towards Hermit but then found herself distracted by the fact that someone was sitting on the floor, and that he looked familiar. She squinted at him but failed to recognize him, she shrugged and continued on towards Hermit, “Well, that area you sent us to is empty. Nothing there but snow and trees.”, she reported to Hermit.

Hermit nodded, “Very well, I don’t have anything for you at the moment, you can go.”, he told them, waving them off.

Scootaloo nodded and signalled the other two Crusaders that they were leaving, “Lets go to Sugar Cube Corner. I’m craving something sweet.”, she said as they left the building. They walked over in the snow to sugar Cube Corner, they entered the shop to see Sweet Heart at the counter, “Hey! How are you three doing?”, she asked in a chipper tone.

Sweetie Belle was the first to reply, in a odd digital tone, “We are content, These two require sugary sustenance.”

Sweet Heart looked at Sweetie Belle quizzically, then looked to the other two.

Scoot replied next, “We just came back from out of town, I saw a really bigguy there with green and red hair, it was pretty weird. He seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite remember.”, she explained to Sweet Heart whose jaw had dropped. Scoot looked at her oddly, “Are you okay…?”, she asked.

Sweet Heart ran out of the room, “I know that description anywhere!”, she shouted in excitement. She ran upstairs and entered her room to see Arcana reading a book, “Come with me! I have a surprise!”, Sweet Heart squealed as she ran over to Arcana and threw her on her back, piggy-backing Arcana outside.

Arcana was genuinely confused by her aunt’s behaviour, “Where are you taking me, Sweet Heart?”, she asked as they were outside.

Sweet Heart kept running, “City Hall.”

They burst through the door to see War Heart sitting on the floor.

Arcana froze as she looked upon her father, her eyes were widened and her mouth agape. Sweet Heart put her on the floor. Arcana slowly walked to War Heart, feeling as if this could be a glass dream that could shatter at the lightest touch. War Heart stared at her like she was familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on who it was.

Twilight looked at Arcana with eyes wide, “Arcana?”, she asked aloud, forcing War Heart back into a memory recovery state.

Arcana gasped as her father fell backwards, running towards him with tears welling up in her eyes, the feeling that she could be losing him all over again. When she reached him, he was unconscious on the floor, seeming like he was dead. She kneeled in front of him, about to cry. Seconds later he opened his eyes, he reached out to her, putting his hand on her cheek and wiping away a tear that was running down her face, he smiled at her. She hugged him tightly, feeling like she never wanted to let go. More tears streamed down her face, “I missed you Father…”, she whispered, about to sob. She felt his arms wrap around her in an embrace, unable to find the right words he tried to speak, “I love you, Arcana…”, he whispered to her, a tear welling up in his eye, feeling terrible that he forgot his own daughter.

War Heart had a sudden realization. He turned to Twilight, “We… had a child?”, he asked Twilight.

Sweet Heart looked at War Heart, not knowing what he was talking about. She walked over to him, “War Heart, Arcana is Rainbow Dash’s child…”

War Heart looked at Sweet Heart with a confused expression on his face, “Who?”

Cura glared at Twilight, who looked back at her nervously.

Sweet Heart walked over and knelt in front him, “You really don’t remember anything from before, huh?”, she asked with a bit of sadness in her voice, pitying her little brother.

War Heart scratched his head, “I can’t remember anything from before I hit my head.”

Sweet Heart looked at him, confused about what he was talking about, “War Heart… You’ve been gone for a long while… You were dead…”

War Heart wasn’t sure if he could believe it, he turned to Twilight, “Is this true?”, he asked, a hint of anger in his voice.

Twilight backed away from him, “I… I didn’t think you could handle that explanation… So I lied… I’m sorry…”, she admitted her guilt to him.

Arcana spoke in a happy tone, “Mother will be so happy to see you… She has been suffering ever since your death…”

War Heart looked down at Arcana with a confused expression, “Who is she?”, he asked her.

Sweet Heart decided to answer, “She is beautiful, she had rainbow colour hair, and you were both so cute together.”, she said with a smile.

War Heart remembered the woman with rainbow streaks in her hair from his nightmares. He turned to Twilight in confusion, “You told me that she was dead… That she and I were friends…”

Everyone turned to Twilight with a glare that judged her. She backed away, towards the wall. Arcana in particular gave her a nasty stare that seemed to unnerve her.

Sweet Heart had a sad expression on her face, incapable of being angry, “Why would you say such a thing…?”

Twilight knew the answer, but didn’t want to admit what she did. She looked to the floor, guilt weighing heavily on her, “I don’t know…”, she whispered.

Sweet Heart walked out the door, “I’ll be right back, stay right there.”, she told them before taking off towards Cloudsdale. She flew as fast as her wings could carry her, excited to see her little sister, Dash, smile. She arrived at Cloudsdale and sprinted to Dash’s house. She burst in through the door to find Dash asleep on her couch. She went over to Dash and sat next to her, “Hey, Sis, wake up.”, she nudged Dash gently to wake her up.

Dash slowly turned to see Sweet Heart, “Oh… Hey Sweet Heart… What are you doing here?”, she asked, still half asleep and only in shorts and a tank top.

Sweet Heart smiled at her, “Get dressed, I want to show you something.”

Dash sighed, this not being the first time that she or Pinkie has tried to make her happy with some kind of surprise. She yawned and then spoke, “Alright… I’ll get some clothes on…”, she said as she moved to her dresser and put on some pants and a scarf.

Sweet Heart walked towards the door and opened it for Dash, closing it and taking flight as soon as Dash stepped outside. She flew as fast as she could, knowing Dash could easily keep up.

Dash flew alongside Sweet Heart, “Why are we going so fast?”, she asked her in mid flight.

Sweet Heart just looked at her and smiled, “It’s a surprise.”

They eventually reached Ponyville, Sweet Heart landed in front of City Hall, Dash landing next to her.

Dash had a confused look on her face, “What are we doing here?”, she asked, noticing that they were in front of the City Hall.

Sweet Heart didn’t say anything, motioning for Dash to go inside.

Dash was hesitant. She looked at the door, wondering what kind of surprise would be waiting on the other side. She stepped towards the door and slowly turned the doorknob. She stepped inside to see a man with red and green hair, spiked forward in the way War Heart’s was styled. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that War Heart was standing before her now.

Cura sighed, “He’s going down again…”, she turned to War Heart, holding his arm to make sure he didn’t fall over when he went unconscious again.

War Heart sat there staring at Dash, “Rainbow Dash…”, he whispered, all the memories flashing into his mind all at once. He slumped over, Dash ran over to him, not sure if he was okay.

Dash looked at him, tears welling up in her eyes, “It really is you…”, she whispered.

War Heart looked up to her and smiled slightly, “Hey there, Beautiful…”

Dash hugged War Heart tightly, crying as she did so. He was gone for so long, and so suddenly he returned. He rubbed her back, attempting to comfort her. She was beyond words at this point.

Arcana was still glaring at Twilight, giving her the same look she gave Celestia when she murdered Celestia. She felt a hatred for her old mentor that she had for Celestia as well. She soon shook her head lightly and turned away from Twilight, not wanting to spoil the nice moment between her parents.

Twilight started to shuffle away nervously, knowing that Dash would indeed be wrathful towards her. As she started moving away, the silence in the room broke.

War Heart looked at Dash, “I have something to explain…”, he said to her, hoping that Dash would understand.

Cura interrupted, “I can explain this one… War Heart here started with no memory of anyone, as you may have noticed. Lately he has been rapidly gaining his memories back. However, at first he wasn’t able to retrieve these links between memories and people, so he created new memories.”, Cura explained to her, setting up the rest of what War Heart was going to say.

Dash understood what Cura was saying, however, “What does this have to do with what War Heart was going to say?”, she asked.

Cura continued, “Well, Twilight was the first person he saw, therefore he was unable to make a sudden memory recollection in his initial state, forcing him to rely on what she told him for who he was.”, Cura walked away from them, still explaining, “So she fabricated her own story to him. Details like what his name was and how he behaved was all true, but it also had some mistruths to it…”, she turned to the others, “She told him that they were intimate… very intimate… I only found out this morning about what they had done together…”, she glared at Twilight.

Dash couldn’t believe what she heard, she looked at War Heart, “Is this true…?”

War Heart looked down, feeling the guilt of what he had done.

Dash then looked to Twilight. She stood up and walked over to her, tears still welled up in her eyes, “Why… Why would you do this Twilight…?”

Twilight inhaled slowly before speaking, “I… I love him… I spent years trying to bring him back when he disappeared… I thought if I brought him back that I could admit my feelings for him, but then I choked… I couldn’t do it… Then you started spending your time with him… Then I was shut out… I’m sor-”, her speech was interrupted by Dash slapping her across the face.

Dash’s tears rolled down her face, “I thought you were my friend, Twi…”, she said as her hand and voice trembled. She turned away from Twilight, unable to look at her.

Twilight was shocked from the slap, she put her hand on the reddened mark it left behind. She tried to speak, “Dash… I-”, she was interrupted by Dash again.

Dash turned back to Twilight, “You betrayed me, Twilight… Just go…”

Twilight was about to cry, she turned to the door and walked towards it. She opened the door to the cold air and snow. She walked out on the street, feeling lost. When word got to the rest of her friends, they wouldn’t trust her anymore. She looked to the sky and realized now that she was all alone.

Cura walked over to Dash and put her hand on her shoulder, “Whatever you may be thinking, War Heart is not at fault… He couldn’t have known about you or your children… Don’t be angry at him, he has been through a lot… He’s injured in ways that even I can’t heal… He obviously already feels terrible for what he did.”, she whispered to Dash, who just nodded slowly.

Dash walked over to War Heart, who was sitting on the floor still. She held her hand out to him.

War Heart stood up, then took her hand, “I’m sorry…”, he said with sincerity.

Dash gently shook her head, “You… Didn’t do anything that you knew was wrong… It’s fine…”, she smiled at him.

War Heart hugged her again, feeling terrible for what he had done, regardless of what his mental state was.

Arcana walked over to her parents, “Perhaps we should reintroduce Air Heart to him…?”, she suggested.

Dash looked down at Arcana, realizing she was right, she turned to the door to see Sweet Heart just opening it, giving her a grin and a thumbs up before leaving. Dash smiled lightly, “Looks like Sweet Heart has it covered.”

A few minutes passed before the door opened again. In walked a young girl with dark purple wings and Sweet Heart.

Dash smiled at Sweet Heart, “Thanks, Sweet Heart.”, Dash said to her, suddenly feeling War Heart drop to the ground. The loud thud startled her as War Heart hit the ground. He woke up a few minutes later, “Should I just lay down and have people get in line?”, he asked in a joking manner.

Sweet Heart chuckled, “Well, little brother, I think you have one that wants you to remember them…”, she showed War Heart Air Heart. She looked at War Heart, “This is Air Heart.”, she spoke, knowing the repercussions of telling him Air Heart’s name.

Air Heart sat next to her father, not able to believe he was back. She looked at him for a moment before he woke.

War Heart looked at Air Heart, now remembering who she was, he smiled at her. He ruffled her hair with his hand, “How goes flight school?”, he asked.

Air Heart was hesitant but replied, “Top of my class… Figured you’d be proud if I did it…”, she replied on the verge of crying.

War Heart nodded, “I’ll always be proud…”

Air Heart burst into tears suddenly and hugged her long lost father, feeling him place a hand on her back as she clung to him.

War Heart moved Air Heart off of him. He stood up and took Dash’s hand and looked at her, smiling as he spoke, “Let’s go home…”

Chapter 25

War Heart and his family moved back into their old home, which was filled with dust and some mice. They cleaned up their cabin without much trouble, sleeping in their old home the same day.

Almost a week past, War Heart was in the shield hall of the cabin, still decorated with the shields his friends painted themselves so long ago. He was sitting at the head of the table with Arcana next to him. He sharpened a new axe he made while Arcana was reading one of her books. The silence in the room was disturbed as there was a knock at the door. Arcana only looked for a moment before going back to her book.

War Heart stood up from the table, walking over to the door with an axe in hand. He opened the door to reveal one of the bestial men from the woods, “What do you want…?”, he asked.

The man bowed before speaking, “Our leader wishes to speak with you.”, he snarled, then ran away before War Heart could answer.

War Heart looked to the sky, squinting as the sun peaked out from behind the dense clouds for only a moment before becoming shrouded again. He sighed and turned to Arcana, “Tell your mother I’ll be right back, she just left to pick up your sister from school.”

Arcana heard him, waving to him before he left, not taking her eyes off the pages of her book, “Farewell, Father…”

War Heart stepped outside and closed the door. He leaned his axe against the door frame and took flight towards Ponyville. He soared overhead, he did not feel the cold of the weather, his Caneighdian heritage making sure of that. He landed in front of the city hall, opening the door and stepping inside. He closed the door behind him before walking towards the Hermit.

Hermit was looking over some maps, they seemed to be marked with red all over some areas. He had a troubled look on his face as he studied the map.

War Heart walked up to Hermit’s desk, “What do you want, Hermit?”

Hermit looked up to him, not having good news in store for War Heart. He sighed before speaking, “War Heart… Things are going pretty badly for Equestria… You told us that there were walking corpses attacking people in Canterlot?”, he mentioned, hoping War Heart would remember.

War Heart nodded, “Yeah, they can be destroyed… I did so personally… What of it?”

Hermit looked up at War Heart, “You see these red marks on the map? These are places that things just like the creatures you described were spotted by my agents…”, he pointed to the map that half of Equestria was covered with red.

War Heart scratched his chin for a moment, “There may be survivors out there… Or even better: the ones who started all this…”

Hermit nodded, “I can’t send my Claw out there, they have to stay here and make sure that nobody enters the area and tries to spread this… Whatever it is… I’m asking you to lead the team that is going out there to find survivors and bring them here. The civil war is over now that we have a common crisis to handle.”

War Heart crossed his arms, thinking whether or not he should accept, “I don’t know if Dash could handle this… I don’t want to worry her… But I can’t leave Equestria in this state when I know I can help it in some way…”, he looked at Hermit, “I’ll do it… Give me a while to tell Dash.”, War Heart said as he turned to the door and left.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle came out of the back room of the City Hall, approaching Hermit from behind. Scootaloo stood next to Hermit, looking towards the door, “I’m surprised he actually decided to go…”, she commented.

Hermit looked to the door as well, “What can I say? That man is a hero. Making defending the land his own personal responsibility. Selfless and powerful force to be reckoned with. He is a good man that we can all learn something from.”

War Heart landed in front of his cabin, noticing his axe was not leaning against the door frame anymore. He opened the door to see Dash, Sweet Heart, Pinkie Pie, Air Heart, and Arcana all sitting at the table, all suddenly shouting in unison, “Surprise!”, War Heart stopped and raised his eyebrow, “What is going on?”, he asked.

They all looked at each other for a moment in confusion. Dash scratched her head, “Oh right… I forgot that you wouldn’t remember it was your birthday today…”, she said aloud.

War Heart shrugged then walked over to his spot at the table. He sat down with them and sighed, feeling terrible for having to spoil the moment. He inhaled deeply, “I’m afraid I have some bad news…”, he announced.

Everyone in the room turned to him, Dash showing some sadness in her expression, “What do you mean…?”, she asked.

War Heart sighed, “There are creatures that attacked Canterlot. Hermit showed me where they have been spotted… They have taken over half of Equestria…”, War Heart explained then turned to Dash, “I’ve been asked to go out there with a team and find survivors to bring back here to safety.”, War Heart looked down to the table, not able to face Dash.

Dash put her hand under his chin and turned his head towards her, “Do you really want to do this?”, she asked.

War Heart nodded, “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do what I could…”

Dash closed her eyes for a second before looking at War Heart again, “Just be careful when you’re out there, okay?”, she said with a smile.

War Heart smiled back at her, “I’ll try not to disappear and/or die this time.”, he said with a chuckle.

Pinkie left the room quickly and came back in with a cake, she started singing “Happy Birthday” while the others joined in. She placed the cake on the table in front of War Heart. Chocolate covered the top of the cake, white frosting wrote his name in cursive letters, the candles spelled out the words “Twenty something”.

War Heart looked around at them, “How old am I?”, he asked.

Sweet Heart shrugged, “I don’t know, I just know I’m older than you, we never really celebrated birthdays…”, she said as she looked to the ceiling in thought.

War Heart looked at his cake for a moment before blowing out the candles, everyone at the table clapped as Pinkie took out a knife and started cutting the cake. Everyone had their pieces and started eating.

War Heart was about to take a taste of his piece, stopping for a moment because the scent of it troubled him. He took a bite and began chewing. He swallowed the chocolate treat, soon regretting doing so due to his immediate nausea afterwards. He slowly pushed the cake away from him.

Dash noticed this and looked at him with concern, “Something wrong?”

War Heart shook his head lightly, “No, just not very hungry…”, he told her, putting on a light smile to put her worry at ease.

Dash smiled back at him, “Okay.”

It was hours later when Pinkie and Sweet Heart left for their place. Arcana and Air Heart were asleep in their beds. War Heart stared at the cake Pinkie brought over, wondering why it made him feel sick.

Dash called from the other room, “War Heart.”

War Heart turned to where the sound came from. He got up from his chair and walked into the room where Dash was.

Dash laid there on their bed, her head resting on one arm while she beckoned him towards her with the other. The lustful look in her eyes made it obvious what she wanted. She slowly licked her lips as War Heart entered the room.

War Heart stepped in, closing the door behind him and locking it. He turned off the lights and walked over to his bed where Dash awaited him.

War Heart slept soundly that night, waking up to having Dash in his arms, still sleeping. He laid his head back and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and sighed, being pleased with waking up with no nightmares or anything haunting him. He gently rolled Dash off of him, hoping not to wake her. He failed to move her and ended up with a pair of bright pink eyes staring up at him. Looking down at Dash, he smiled, “Good morning, Beautiful.”, he whispered to her before kissing the top of her head.

Dash yawned and nuzzled her face against him, “Good Morning.”, she replied in a whisper. She then looked at him with eyes half open, “Did you like your birthday present?”

War Heart smiled and rolled his eyes, “What do you think?”

Dash laid down beside him, “I think that I enjoyed it as much as you did.”, she said winking at him. She got out of bed and started to put on her clothes, preparing for the day ahead.

War Heart got out of bed and put on his pants and shirt. He walked out the bedroom door and closed it behind him to let Dash finish getting dressed. He walked over to the table to see Arcana reading her book. He looked over to the corner of the room to see the axe he was sharpening yesterday. He went and picked it up, checking how sharp it was before setting it down again.

Dash walked out of the bedroom, her hair in a mess of bed head. She stretched as she entered the shield hall. She went over by Arcana and kissed the top of her head, “Which one is that?”, she asked Arcana, regarding the Daring Do book she was reading.

Arcana did not look at her mother as she responded, “The newest one… Apparently it is the worst one yet…”

Dash looked away, not wanting to spoil the book before reading it, “Well don’t tell me what happens, I haven’t finished them yet.”, she told Arcana before walking away towards War Heart and hugging him again, “So I guess you’re leaving soon?”, she asked.

War Heart nodded, “Yes, I’ll be meeting the team and leaving.”, he replied as he nodded. He returned Dash’s hug.

Air Heart walked out of her room still half asleep. She sat down at the table and put her head down.

Dash turned around to her kids, “Hey, guys, your dad is about to leave, you should say ‘bye’ before he goes.”

Arcana folded the corner of the page she was reading, marking the place she reached. She closed the book and placed it on the table. She got up from her chair and walked over to War Heart, who knelt down as she approached. She wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace, “Goodbye, Father, I’ll miss you…”, her words were sincere. She released him as he stood up and walked over to Air Heart, who was still asleep with her head on the table.

War Heart leaned over to Air Heart, “Hey, I’ll be going for a while, kid. Be good to your mother, okay?”, he whispered to her, not quite sure if she was asleep or not.

Air Heart was barely conscious, her being quite tired with her flight practices lately. She managed to hear War Heart, “You got it, Dad…”, she said in the middle of a yawn.

War Heart smiled and pet her head before turning away and walking over to Dash again, giving her a kiss, “I’ll be back, I promise…”, he said with a smile. He picked his axe and walked out the door, Dash and Arcana following to wave goodbye as he flew off to Ponyville. He landed in front of City Hall, walking inside with his axe slung over his shoulder.

He saw five people in the room: Hermit standing behind his desk; Scootaloo, wielding a couple knives, flipping them along her fingers; Apple Bloom sat on a table along the side of the room, taking a nap apparently; Sweetie Belle stood there next to Hermit, totally motionless, her eyes seeming to glow in some strange way; and Cura, who was equipped with a bag of medical supplies.

War Heart walked forward towards his new team, examining them as he moved towards Hermit. He looked at Hermit, “They’re kids…”, he outright stated in front of them.

Scootaloo seemed rather insulted at this, “Hey, We have just as much reason for going as you do!”, she shouted at him.

War Heart looked down at her, “Is that so? Then tell me, what makes you think you can accomplish this?”

Scootaloo hesitated before speaking, “I don’t know… But we’re going to do it or die trying…”, she spoke with determination in her eyes.

War Heart smirked, “All right…”, he turned to Cura, “Looks like you’ll be patching us up then?”

Cura nodded, “Somebody has to make sure you don’t just go off and get yourself killed over something like internal bleeding.”, she replied with a wink.

War Heart nodded and turned to Hermit, “Where are we headed?”

Hermit pointed to the map, “You are to head to all the major cities… Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Las Pegasus…”, he pointed to the places on the map, “Cloudsdale is safe since it is in the sky, so we have to get to the ground cities and secure any survivors. Got it?”, Hermit asked to have War Heart confirm that he understood.

War Heart nodded, “Got it, save anyone that still has a pulse.”, he said as he walked towards the door, signalling the rest of the group to follow, “Follow me!”, he commanded.

Scootaloo walked after him, “Alright, let’s do this.”

Apple Bloom got off the desk and stretched upwards, yawning and walking towards the exit, “Ah wonder how many of those things we’ll see over in Manehattan.”

Sweetie Belle twitched her head to the side before speaking, “Engaging extended travel mode.”, she stated in her digital tone before following the group.

Cura took a breath before saying anything, “See you later, Hermit.”, she waved as she left the building.

Hermit waved back to her, “So long, little one.”, he whispered as he sat down at his desk.

The five of them marched out the front gates and onto the dirt road that would lead them to Manehattan, their first destination. It would be a while before they reach there.

They walked for hours, until the sun was beginning to set.

“Are we there yet?”, Apple Bloom whined at the fact they had been walking all day.

Cura was the one to reply, “Manehattan is at least three days away from Ponyville.”, her voice had a tone of irritation. She thought back to when she was younger and complained in much the same way to War Heart, except without the southern accent.

Scootaloo looked up to the sky, seeing the snow still falling, “I heard Manehattan is supposed to be music capital of Equestria…”

Apple Bloom looked around at the trees, “Probably gonna be the dead capital of Equestria now…”

War Heart ignored their conversations, concentrating on the road before him.

Sweetie Belle said nothing, she constantly scanned over the surrounding area, being alert of danger if it would make itself present.

They soon stopped to camp under a tree, War Heart gathering wood and making a campfire for the rest of his companions. It was a smaller fire, which forced them to stay close to keep warm.

War Heart sat against a tree, the cold not bothering him at all. He had his eyes closed, ready to sleep. His axe was laid out across his lap, he held it tightly in case he needed to defend himself.

The others crowded around the fire, all eating some dried up trail mix. Scootaloo looked over to War Heart, she got up and walked over to him, “Hey…”

War Heart opened an eye and looked up at her, “What?”

“You hungry?”, she asked as she offered some trail mix.

War Heart shook his head, already feeling nauseous at the mere sight of food.

Scootaloo crouched down, “Who are you…? You’re familiar but I can’t put my finger on it…”

War Heart looked at her with an unenthused expression, “War Heart… I don’t remember much, so I’m probably not the best one to ask…”

Scootaloo stood up again and walked away, wondering what he meant by not remembering much. She sat down with the rest of the group again.

Over the next few minutes they all fell asleep, War Heart keeping an eye on them as they slept. He sat there for hours, totally silent and motionless. He stared in one direction non-stop, eyeing DeadBeast, who just stood there staring at him. The white face-paint and the piercing on his bare scalp gave him an unnatural look. War Heart could feel himself become angered, though not knowing why. DeadBeast walked over to War Heart, still just staring at him. War Heart just kept glaring back, “What do you want…?”, he asked in an aggressive tone. DeadBeast vanished as War Heart heard another voice call out to him. He turned to the Campfire to see Cura sitting up.

Cura looked over at War Heart, wondering what he was looking at, “War Heart? Is something wrong?”, she asked.

War Heart shook his head, looking at the ground afterwards.

Cura walked over to him, “What were you looking at?”

War Heart sighed, “I keep seeing… Somebody… I don’t know who he is.”

Cura looked around quickly, “Is somebody following us?”

War Heart shook his head, “I think only I can see him… I’ve noticed that when I saw him, that nobody else seemed to notice he was there…”

Cura rubbed her chin in thought, “I guess you must be hallucinating… I suggest you ignore whoever it is, it will only become more frequent if you interact with it.”

War Heart nodded, “Alright…”, he sighed wondering what would be in store for him at Manehattan.

Cura looked at him curiously, “When did you eat last?”

War Heart thought about it for a moment, trying to remember, “Well other than a bite of cake that made me feel like I was going to puke, I don’t remember… When the kid offered me food I felt sick just by looking at it.”

Cura looked at him strangely, “You’re saying that you haven’t actually eaten since you came back?”

War Heart nodded, “I just never thought about it… “

Cura sighed, feeling annoyed that she had so many questions that War Heart couldn’t answer for her, “Well, I think you should get some sleep, I’m going to go back to sleep myself.”

War Heart shook his head, “I’m not tired…”

Cura looked back at him with an irritated expression, “Well try to get at least some sleep, I’m not going to drag you to Manehattan.”, she said as she laid down in her sleeping bag.

Their journey continued through the forests of Equestria. They soon found themselves at the city limits of Manehattan. They walked out of the tree line towards Manehattan.

“Looks like we’re here…”, Cura declared as the city came into view.

“It’s about time, Ah don’t think I coulda stood that forest much longer!”, Apple Bloom stated.

“I am detecting no life signs nearby, we had better proceed with caution…”, Sweetie Belle warned the party in her digital tone.

Scootaloo looked at the streets that were littered with trash, “It’s only been days… How did it get this bad?”, she asked aloud.

They proceeded down one of the larger streets, not seeing anyone anywhere.

“What exactly are these things that the Mayor was talking about?”, Scootaloo asked the rest of the group.

“They are dead people, but they move around and attack anyone that isn’t dead.”, War Heart explained while walking.

Apple Bloom was taken aback by this description, “So yer sayin’ that we have a bunch a dead people are going to try killing us? You gotta be pullin’ mah leg on this one…”

Scootaloo interrupted their conversation with a stray thought of hers, “I wonder if we’ll see any famous people here…”

As they reached another street corner, War Heart turned to see almost a dozen of the creatures mulling around an intersection.

They looked like people except that they were grey. Their skin was cracked and dried out. Their stare looked as if it had life replaced with unending hunger. Their nails were extended into claws and their bodies were unnaturally slim. Their bodies lacked any source of hair, which only made them look stranger. Some of them had their mouths hang open, revealing their yellowed, pointed, and bloodstained teeth. Their lips and their cheeks were torn, torn from how far their mouths opened when they screamed or bit into their victims.

War Heart motioned for all of the party to move back as they hid behind the corner. He peaked around the corner to see they didn’t notice them. He sighed in relief, then motioned for Apple Bloom to come up, pointing at the creatures.

Apple Bloom went wide-eyed, “I guess ya weren’t kiddin’…”

The creatures all of a sudden turned towards something, almost all immediately running towards what they were looking at.

“They’re movin’?”, Apple Bloom announced to the party.

War Heart quickly popped his head around the corner to see them running, “That must mean they see someone, let’s go!”, he quickly took flight over the buildings while the others ran, he looked down to see two people running away from the creatures. War Heart dove down to the survivors, landing behind them in between them and the creatures.

The creatures all became hesitant as they stood before War Heart, almost confused at what to do. He glared at them as he spoke to the survivors who also stopped running, “You two okay?”, he asked.

A female voice called out, “Yeah, We’re cool.”, she said panting.

War Heart readied his axe, he pointed it to the creatures who stared at him.

Some of them hissed at War Heart waiting for something to happen, for someone to make the first move.

War Heart suddenly charged forward, which caused the creatures to charge as well. He swung his axe through one of them, cutting it down with a sickening crack of bones and rending of flesh. They all swarmed him, engulfing him as they all surrounded him and attacked him.

The rest of his party saw him get overtaken, they picked up their pace and sprinted towards the battle. Scootaloo pulled out her knives, able to move faster than the others by using her wings to propel herself forward. She charged into one of the creatures, tackling it to the ground. She drove a knife into its skull, it twitched for a moment before going still. She yanked out the knife and was jumped by another creature, it pounced on top of her trying to claw at her and gnashing its jaws. She struggled to keep it away, its strength proving to be nearly equal to her own.

The others quickly arrived at the battle, Apple Bloom quickly sprinting over to Scootaloo. She kicked out the hidden knife in her boot and punted the creature in the head, killing it and forcing it off Scootaloo. She picked Scootaloo off the ground, then equipped her brass knuckles.

One of the creatures stopped trying to get at War Heart, seeing there was new prey for it to go after. It’s first sight was Sweetie Belle, who stared at it with no fear, approaching it while walking, completely unarmed. The creature ran at her hissing with claws ready.

Sweetie Belle examined it as it ran, “Initiate Attack Protocol Twenty-Three”, she declared before sprinting at the creature. She slid on her side, kicking out its legs then quickly stood up and held it above her head, bending it in half above her. It howled in pain as she broke its spine. She tossed it to the side, broken and squirming. She walked towards the bunch of them.

War Heart was busy trying to get off the ground as the whole bunch of them dog piled on top of him. He struggled with the body weight of six people on top of him, all trying to claw at him.

Scootaloo charged at one of the creatures, wrapping her arm around its neck and stabbing it in the kidney. Black ooze poured out of it onto the ground. Scootaloo took her knife and jabbed it into the back of the creatures skull, it stopped struggling afterwards.

Apple Bloom took out her other blade hidden in her other boot. She walked up to one of the creatures and pulled it away from the gathering of them. It stumbled back and screamed at her, she screamed back as they both charged at each other. Apple Bloom swung her Brass knuckled fist into its jaw, making a cracking sound as it followed through. It swung its claw toward her, being blocked by Apple Bloom’s other arm. She wound her head back and swung it forward into its skull, disorienting it before she kicked it in the gut, knocking it to the ground. She jumped on top of it, her feet pinning down its arms as she began to swing her fists into its face, spurting more black fluid out of its face with each blow.

Sweetie Belle approached another one of the creatures, “Initiate Attack Protocol Fifteen…”, she declared as she went up behind it and grabbed hold of both of its arms, she then forced her foot onto its back and pulled on the arms while pressing forward with her leg, tearing off its arms. Torrents of black fluid went to the ground, both from the disembodied arms and the torso of the creature, who now was facing Sweetie Belle. Sweetie kicked at its knee, snapping it backwards and forcing it to the ground. As it squirmed on the ground she stomped down on its head, a crunch sounding off as its skull caved under the pressure of her boots.

War Heart felt a lot of the pressure on him being lifted off. He pushed back and forced them off of him. He stood up quickly to be jumped by one immediately. He grabbed it by the throat and threw it to the ground, stomping on its head to finish it off. Another jumped on his back, tearing through his shirt and flesh alike. It grabbed him by the head, its claws digging into his face, making it bleed. He screamed in anger as he fell backwards on to it, nearly crushing it under his weight alone. He grabbed his axe, quickly chopping into its head while it was disoriented on the ground, killing it.

Scootaloo was face to face with the last creature, staring it down while they both moved in a circle. “Come on… Try it…”, she taunted as she spun her knives in her hands. The Creature hissed at her before pouncing. Scootaloo jumped back out of the way, using her wings to speed her escape from the attack. Upon landing she charged forward with knives at the ready. She thrust the knife at its torso, only to hit nothing but air. It dodged to the side and then pounced on her, pinning her to the ground again. She wrestled with it, holding back its claws just barely.

“Initiate Attack Protocol Thirty-One”, Sweetie Belle said as she punted the creature off Scootaloo. She ran over towards it as it stood up, swinging her arm into its neck. It fell to the ground, its head whip lashing onto the pavement. Sweetie Belle stood over it, crouching down and grabbing it by the face and squeezing. The creature let out muffled screams of pain as the bones in its face were crushed and broken. When her hand closed into a fist she pushed it inwards, black liquid spewing out of the creatures ears. She withdrew her hand from its face which was now unrecognizable. She looked over the area, “No Hostile Targets Detected, Combat Sequences Disengage.”

Cura walked over to War Heart, seeing he took a nasty injury to his face. She was a bit freaked out about the younger ones being so violent.

War Heart looked down at the creatures noticing the same green glow in their eyes as the ones in Canterlot. He knelt down and saw the glowing green essence float into him. It felt strange to him, he wasn’t sure whether to like it or not. The other creatures’ green glow flowed out of them and into him. He noticed that everybody was either ignoring this or they couldn’t see it, he kept quiet about it, at least for now. His cuts on his back and face healed quickly, leaving no scars or anything. He turned to the survivors he had helped, “Are you two okay?”, he asked, picking up his axe that was embedded in the skull of one of those creatures.

One of the survivors was a woman with white skin and wore a dark blue hoodie with jeans with black canvas shoes; Her hair was blue with Cyan streaks; She also wore a pair of purple sunglasses. She walked up to War Heart, “Thanks for the help, who are you?”, she asked him.

War Heart looked down at her, “I’m War Heart, my team is here looking for other survivors. Looks like you two got lucky.”

The woman with sunglasses nodded, “Sounds like it… Oh right, I’m Vinyl, and that’s my friend, Octavia.”, she pointed to the other survivor.

Octavia wore a white dress shirt; her dark grey hair was long, reaching her hips; she wore a long grey skirt and black dress shoes. She approached War Heart and bowed her head slightly, “Much obliged for assisting us.”

Cura walked over and forced War Heart to turn to her, noticing his face wasn’t cut anymore, just bloody. She squinted at him wondering what happened but then turned to the survivors, who were eyeing her oddly. She let go of War Heart and greeted them, “Hello, I’m Cura, the team’s doctor.”

Vinyl nodded, “Cool.”, she turned back to War Heart, “We know where there are some more survivors. We were on our way there when we got jumped by those.”, she pointed to the pile of bodies behind War Heart.

“Can you lead us there?”, War Heart asked.

“Sure can, they aren’t too far away, just another sixteen blocks.”, Vinyl explained.

Cura looked at her oddly, “Not too far away?”, she mocked.

Octavia interjected, “She runs around the city a lot in her spare time, which happens to amount to a lot of time somehow.”

“Maybe if you went with me to the free running club, I wouldn’t have to slow down for you all the time.”, Vinyl teased with a smirk.

Octavia rolled her eyes at Vinyl, “Shall we get moving?”

War Heart and Cura nodded.

Vinyl turned around and started walking.

War Heart looked back to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, motioning them to follow. They did so with haste, running over to the rest of the group.

As the group walked along, Vinyl decided to break the quiet moment with some conversation, “So, where you guys from?”, she asked collectively.

The crusaders all answered in unison, “Ponyville.”

Cura answered next, “Canterlot.”

War Heart kept quiet.

Vinyl kept walking backwards, “Well, how bout you?”

War Heart looked at her, still walking, “I don’t remember…”, he said in a half-whisper.

Vinyl looked at him quizzically, “Whats that supposed to mean?”

Cura interjected on War Heart’s behalf, “He recently lost his memories, he doesn’t remember who he was. He’s still trying to piece everything together.”

Vinyl looked at Cura with an eyebrow raised, “Weird.”, she turned around and kept walking on.

War Heart spoke up, “So who are these other survivors?”

Vinyl turned around again, “My buddy Riff, his sister Lullaby, Poltergeist, and Spectre.”

Cura thought for a moment, “Wait… If they’re so far away, how do you know they’re alive.”

Vinyl chuckled, “Riff, such a cool guy, he has this thing he can do that he can read your mind. He can also project his thoughts if he really wants to. I heard him tell me he’s at his place.”

Cura was surprised, she had not heard of such a powerful Glow, nor heard of anybody with that kind of power.

They walked for a while, avoiding any groups of the creatures on the way. They eventually reached a large red brick building that seemed to be an apartment building.

Vinyl walked up to the door unlocked it with a key she took out of her pocket. She motioned for the others to come in as she held the door open.

They all filed inside into the bottom floor of the building that was a large open room. It had stairs that went up to the next floor that were made of white painted wood.

Vinyl closed the door behind them, “Alright, now we have to get up to the fourth floor.”, she led the way towards the stairs. She placed her foot on the first step, about to move to the second. The step creaked and echoed up the winding stairs, she froze for a moment, as did everyone else. They all stared at her wide-eyed as she smiled nervously at them, blushing slightly from embarrassment.

Screams, hisses and snarls could be heard from the rest of the building. Vinyl looked up to see a whole bunch of the creatures running down the stairs. She sprinted away from the stairs to the rest of the group, hiding behind War Heart since he was the biggest. The crusaders set up in their own personal fighting stances, Sweetie Belle saying something about activating battle protocols. Cura stayed with Octavia and Vinyl, behind the four of their party that was going to be fighting. They heard the thunderous trampling of the creatures, hearing a lot of crashes and smashing. Soon the first of the creatures showed up, they were almost all falling down the stairs, and dying on their way down.

Apple Bloom watched them show up dead from falling down stairs, “That’s so sad, I dunno whether to laugh or cry…”

After about half a minute of creatures falling to their death, some live ones erupted from the mess of inanimate corpses, being taken down swiftly by War Heart and the Crusaders. They cut down six of them before they stopped showing up, almost all of them being trampled on the stairs.

Scootaloo shook her head, “That was just… I don’t even know…”, she said as she started to move up the stairs, stepping on the bodies that littered it on the way up. The others followed her up to the fourth floor, where they saw the walls were sprayed with blood in some places and claw marks on others.

Vinyl lead the way down the hall, stopping at the sixth door. She knocked loudly, “Hey Riff, you in there.”, she proceeded to make a face as if she heard something weird, then rolled her eyes. She grabbed the door handle and turned it, opening the door. She walked inside.

The others only heard a woman shouting, “Are you kidding me, Riff, You didn’t even lock the door!?”

Octavia whispered to the party, “That was Spectre… She has a certain attitude that seems frightening at first but she is harmless…”

A guitar flew out the door and broke against the door across the hall.

“For the most part, at least…”, Octavia commented before walking inside.

War Heart walked inside to see what the commotion was about. He saw a man sitting on a couch being yelled at by a woman with long red hair.

The man sat there with a look like he hadn’t a care in the world and that he just woke up from a nap. His hair was long and poofed out in a large mass of pale dark blue; his eyes were yellow and he wore a light grey sweater and jeans; he also had some black wristbands made of cotton. He sat there as the woman continued to scream at him about how he was lazy and irresponsible.

The woman was almost as red in the face as she was in her hair which was a deep crimson, and long enough to go halfway down her back; her skin was white and her frame was rather average. She wore bellbottom jeans and a red tank top.

Vinyl was just leaning against the wall, watching the show. She shook her head at War Heart, signalling him not to interfere.

The man pointed at War Heart, the woman immediately stopping and turning around, “And who the heck are you!?”, she shouted at War Heart.

Vinyl cleared her throat, “This is War Heart, he and his team saved me and Octavia. They’re looking for survivors and we came for you guys. By the way, War Heart, that is Spectre…”, she said pointing at the woman and then pointed to the man on the couch, “That’s Riff.”

Riff had a carefree look on his face, “Hey, man… come to chill with us…?”, he said this in a strange way that seemed a tad too mellow to be natural.

War Heart shook his head, “No we have to get you all out of town…”

Riff squinted as he spoke, “Ffffffffffffffffff- what…?”

Vinyl sat next to him, “We’re leaving, Riff.”

Riff looked at Vinyl, “We going on tour?”, he asked.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, “Sure, Riff, you don’t even have to bring your drums.”

“Sweet, do I like, have roadies?”, he asked her.

“Yeah, but you have to walk there yourself.”, Vinyl replied.

“Bummer.”, he commented with his usual spacey tone.

A tall man with blue, slicked back hair; and pale skin entered from the other room. He wore black dress pants and shoes, a black T-shirt, black circular sunglasses, and a bright grey long trench coat with blue flames adorning the bottom of it. He looked at the stranger in the room, and spoke with a German accent, “Who is zis?”, he asked openly.

Vinyl looked over to the tall man, “Oh, hey Poltergeist.”

Riff looked over to him too, “Tempo, we’re going on tour!”

Poltergeist sighed, “Don’t call me zat…”, he looked at Vinyl, unsure whether they were going on tour, she shook her head at him, “I guess I’ll go and get Lullaby…”, he said as he went into another room.

Riff looked to War Heart, “Don’t worry, he’s just embarrassed of his name. I thought Tempo Finish was a pretty rad name.”

Poltergeist re-entered the room, “I do not like my family, nor the name that came with it.”

War Heart sighed, “Shall we leave before we encounter more of those creatures?”

Vinyl got off the couch, “Yeah, just bring Lullaby with you when you’re ready to leave. We’ll be in the lobby.” she said as she walked out of the room.

Riff stared at Vinyl as she left, biting his lower lip as he watched. Once she was out of the room he only stopped making the face to say two words, “Dat ass…”, he then chuckled to himself.

Spectre covered her face with her hand, embarrassed at Riff’s behaviour.

War Heart left the room and went out into the hall to see the rest of the group already going down stairs.

Riff was still on the couch, he looked to Spectre, “He looked nice… Who was he again?”

“Screw off, Riff…”, Spectre grumbled as she walked out of the room and towards the lobby.

“Ouch…”, Riff whispered to himself before getting off the couch, revealing the apparently permanent indent of his body on the couch. He reached down to the side table next to the couch and grabbed a pair of drumsticks, putting them in his pocket. He walked out of the room, humming some random tune as he walked.

Poltergeist waited for a moment before another woman entered the room from behind. He turned around to see a woman with short pink hair and teal eyes; wearing jeans and a tight-fitting cream-coloured hoodie. Poltergeist motioned to the door, “They already left to the lobby, let’s go…”

Lullaby nodded and walked out of the room towards the stairs and then down into the lobby.

Once they all gathered in the lobby, Vinyl opened the door to go outside, allowing their already giant party to exit.

They walked down the empty street, some of them talking amongst themselves.

Vinyl walked beside War Heart with Octavia, “So, War Heart, what exactly do you do? Other than, you know, whatever this whole mission of yours is?”

War Heart kept walking as he spoke to Vinyl, “I have a family back home, a Partner and two daughters…”

“No shit? How old are you?”, she asked.

“Twenty-something…”, he replied.

“Twenty six… seven?”, she pressed further.

“I don’t know… Apparently, where I’m from, we didn’t celebrate birthdays, or keep track of our age.”

“Huh… Cool.”, Vinyl nodded.

Cura was walking beside Riff and Poltergeist, watching Riff pretend to play drums with his eyes closed and sticks in his hands as he walked, “Does he know what he is doing?”, she asked Poltergeist.

Poltergeist looked down at her a moment before answering, “I’m not sure… But I do know he has strange abilities… He can’t remember too much at a time, but when it comes to music, he can remember any rhythm or beat he has listened, whether it be he heard it with his ears or heard it from someone’s mind.”

Cura looked at Riff curiously, “So he reads minds to hear the music one has on their mind?”

Poltergeist nodded, “He has the talent that can realise dreams…”

Cura nodded slowly, “There would be many who would abuse the power to read minds… It’s nice to see someone with power who doesn’t abuse it…”

“He has no ambition, no drive, or competitive edge. He does not strive to be anything better or different than what he is now. It is something many try to become…”, Poltergeist explained.

Cura looked at him quizzically, “And what do people try to become?”

“I don’t know… and if you can somehow get him to tell you, I’d be surprised you got him to pay attention for more than five seconds without talking about nacho chips…”, Poltergeist replied, adjusting his sunglasses.

War Heart looked up at the sky, noticing the clouds were getting darker, “It’s going to be dark soon…”, he thought out loud.

Vinyl tapped War Heart’s arm, “We could take cover in the convenience store over there.”, she pointed to a store with metal bars lining the windows.

War Heart nodded and walked over to the store’s door, trying to open it to find out it was locked. He stood there for a second in thought.

Octavia leaned over towards Vinyl, “What do you suppose he is thinking?”, she whispered.

Vinyl shrugged, “Maybe he doesn’t realise that we may need to use the back-”, she stopped as she saw War Heart wind back for a swing of his axe, “Uh oh…”, she whispered right before War Heart shattered the glass door, setting off the burglar alarm.

War Heart reached for the other side of the door where the lock was, unlocking it without needing a key. He pushed open the door and motioned for everyone to get inside.

Everyone started running into the store, hearing the screams and howls of the creatures coming from nearby. Sweetie, Scoot, and Apple Bloom stood at the door, readying themselves for a fight. War Heart looked to everyone in the store, “Stay in here, barricade the door…”, he ordered as he walked outside, closing the door behind him. He stood with the crusaders with axe in hand.

The creature’s howls and screams grew louder as they drew near. They crawled out from nearby buildings and eyed the four fighters before them. They all seemed to take particular notice of War Heart, most of them just stopping and staring at him as they got only yards away. They all stopped, remaining totally silent as they surrounded the four of them.

Vinyl was inside looking at the alarm system for the store, she opened it up to reveal the keypad. She felt a rush of panic, “Um… How do you turn this thing off…?”, she asked herself, staring at the keypad. The alarm suddenly went silent. She looked up and smiled, “Good enough for me.”, she turned around and took a step, noticing a pool of blood she just stepped in. She raised an eyebrow as she followed the trail of blood with her eyes, leading into a back room.

The standoff outside was suddenly broken as War Heart charged towards a group of the grey monsters, chopping into one of their heads with his axe. Its head split open then fell to the ground limp. One of them jumped at War Heart, aiming high to try and knock him down. War Heart ducked down quickly, then uppercut another one of them next to him.

Apple Bloom kicked the ground with each of her boots, revealing the blades hidden in the front of them. She put on her brass knuckles and jabbed at the air a few times. She then dashed over to a group of them, jumping at one of them and punting one of them in the face, which left a big gash in its head. Upon landing she crouched and swept her leg along the ground, tripping one of the creatures. She uppercut one as it tried to grab her, its jaw breaking as she made forceful contact with her brass knuckled fist. She stomped on the head of the one she knocked down, the weight of her boot and the power of her leg causing its head to cave in.

Sweetie Belle simply walked towards a group of the creatures, “Initiating Attack Protocol Thirty-one”, she declared before reaching one of the creatures. As she got close, the creature attempted to grab at her only to have a sudden shock to its system. It looked down to see Sweetie Belle’s arm forced through its gut. A crunching could be heard before Sweetie Belle yanked back her arm, several vertebrae of a spine in her hand. The creature fell in half, lifeless and inanimate. She opened her hand and allowed the piece of spine to fall to the ground. She looked at the other two creatures as they pounced at her. Time seemed to slow down for her as she spoke in digital tone once more, “Defence Protocol Twelve.”, she grabbed the arm of one of the creatures and swung it in a circle, using the momentum of its pounce to slam it into its comrade. The two were disoriented in a heap on the ground. Sweetie stood over them, “Initiate Attack Protocol Four”, she knelt down and extended her index fingers and pinkies, she quickly shoved them into the eyes of the disoriented creatures. They squirmed for a few seconds before becoming lifeless. Sweetie stood up and turned back to her comrades.

Scootaloo crouched down and leaped into the air, gaining twelve feet of altitude using her wings to propel herself upward. She took out her daggers as she descended onto two of the creatures, forcing her blades into their skulls as she landed. She tore the knives out as she stood up to take a swing at another one of them, slicing open its neck with one knife and driving the other knife up through the soft tissue of its lower jaw. She twisted the knife and ripped it from the grey thing’s jaw, driving the knife into another one’s temple.

The grey creatures were no match for their combined might and skill. They all looked to one another and smiled. Their victory was short-lived as they heard a scream from inside the store.

Vinyl stepped towards the back room of the store, everyone else watching the fight that was happening outside. She moved slowly, cautiously, hoping to get the jump on whatever might be in there. She slowly reached for the doorknob.

Chapter 26

Vinyl slowly reached towards the doorknob, unsure of what she will find behind the door. She turned it hesitantly, her heart beating so hard that she could feel it in her throat. She was thrown back and onto the ground by the swinging door. She quickly looked to see the pale grey flesh of the desiccated man who lunged at the door and knocked her down. It looked straight at her and pounced for her receiving a swift kick to the face as she scrambled away from it. The shell of what remained of the man grabbed her leg, pulling her towards him. Vinyl grabbed the edge and pulled away from it for her life. It let go of her leg and attacked her again. Vinyl grabbed its wrists, wrestling with it to keep it away from her. She looked under the counter to see a heavy glass bottle filled with a liquid that looked like water. The creature was pushing down on Vinyl, almost close enough to her to take a bite. Vinyl, in a last act of desperation, pushed it away with all her strength. She quickly grabbed the glass bottle and swung it into the monster’s face, breaking bones and glass on contact. It was severely disoriented and seemed to writhe and grip its face in pain. Vinyl didn’t think twice before plunging the broken bottle she held into the creature over and over again. She kept stabbing at it frantically, fearing it may rise up and attack her again. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, she quickly turned to see Riff with his usual content expression. She looked down at the mess she made of the thing that used to be a man, and then to the black-stained bottle in her hand. She put it down and stood up quickly and took a step away from it. She felt so afraid that just one of those things attacked her and nearly finished her off. She began to tremble at the thought of being swarmed and alone.

Riff gently took her hand, “It’s okay, Vi, You’re safe now.”, he kept his composure and put his arms around her for a hug.

Vinyl hugged back tightly, Riff always knew how to calm her down. Whether it being his ability to read minds or just his nature, she didn’t care; she knew she could count on him.

Almost everyone else was in the front of the store trying to move the shelves of stuff they used to barricade the front door. Poltergeist and Cura stood aside, mainly because Cura was curious about what was happening with Vinyl and Riff.

Cura whispered to Poltergeist, “So what is the story between those two?”, she rubbed her chin in thought trying to imagine what case could be.

Poltergeist stood there with his arms crossed, “They were friends for the longest time… I don’t know much more than that I’m afraid… You’ll have to ask Vinyl or Riff… By which I mean: Ask Vinyl…”, he walked away from Cura to help with the others moving the barricade to let the fighters back inside.

Cura quickly moved over to Riff and Vinyl with her medical bag in hand, “Are you hurt, Miss Scratch?”

Vinyl was startled by Cura’s voice, “No… I’m fine… Just scared me.”, she said with a false smile that made a poor attempt to hide her fear.

Cura nodded at her, although in her head she wished she could get a moment alone with her to ask her questions about Riff. She walked away and put down her bag, her stomach grumbled from hunger, realizing that they all hadn’t eaten all day. Luckily, being in a convenience store, they had plenty of food. She walked over to one of the nearby aisles, looking around for any sort of half decent food, due to her personal dislike of junk food. She searched with no avail of a slightly healthy food to feast upon. She sighed and walked over to the nearest freezer to find many ice cream treats. She opened the freezer and pulled out something with the largest amount of fudge. A small tub of the expensive brand name ice cream that came with a tiny plastic spoon. She opened it up and slowly started eating with an expression of deep thought.

The others had finished moving the barricade, letting the fighters inside, and replacing it. The Crusaders celebrated their victory, talking to each other about how they disposed of the monsters. War Heart walked over to Cura, looking at her curiously to find her eating ice cream in the corner.

He stood in front of her and looked down at her, “So who screamed?”, he asked, assuming it was her.

Cura looked up at War Heart, a spoon of ice cream in her mouth still. She nudged her head over in the direction of Vinyl and Riff.

War Heart turned and looked at them, then back to Cura, “Didn’t think his voice could go that high.”, he commented with a smirk.

Cura smiled slightly and rolled her eyes at War Heart’s joke, “She was attacked by one of those… things. Seems to have scared her pretty badly. I think Riff is just trying to calm her down now.”

War Heart scratched his head in thought, “I guess we’ll have to find everyone weapons… We can’t go around in such large groups with so many vulnerable…”

Cura nodded, “But perhaps that will be our priority for tomorrow.”, she said as she yawned.

War Heart sat down next to Cura. He took a deep breath and sighed.

Cura looked at him quizzically, “Something wrong?”

War Heart shook his head, “I don’t know… I can just… feel the gaps in my memory. I see images but I don’t know what they mean… Then again… I don’t know if I want to know what happened…”

Cura started to hear a faint tune. It was soft and slow tempo. It was a peaceful piece of music. She couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it made her eyes feel heavy suddenly, though that was in addition to already being tired and just finishing a small tub of ice cream. She quickly looked around the room.

War Heart looked at Cura curiously, seeing her quickly scan over the room, “Are you okay?”

Cura looked at War Heart oddly, “You don’t hear that?”

War Heart raised an eyebrow at Cura, “I hear people talking… What of it?”

Cura shook her head for a second, “I mean that music…”, she whispered to him.

War Heart leaned in as if to tell her a secret, “I think this adventure is really getting to you…”

Cura showed a look of irritation, “I’m not crazy… Someone is playing musi-”, she looked over at Vinyl and Riff to see Riff’s veins were glowing with magic and Vinyl was smiling with her eyes closed. She calmed down and leaned back against the wall, “Nevermind…”

War Heart shrugged, “Okay then…”

Cura closed her eyes and kept listening to the music in her head. She let it drift her off into sleep. She leaned her head against War Heart, who didn’t mind in the least since he saw her as a good friend. He smiled and wrapped his wing around her to keep her warm.

Soon Vinyl and Riff leaned against the wall themselves, getting away from the counter that made Vinyl uneasy. As time went on Vinyl fell asleep against Riff, allowing him to stop using his magic. He laid her head on his lap and leaned his head against the wall, letting her sleep in comfort.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo slept back to back laying on their sides, keeping whatever warmth they could.

Sweetie Belle sat cross legged on the counter, her eyes closed and her body motionless.

Poltergeist and Spectre slept leaning against the front window, using his jacket as a makeshift blanket between them.

Octavia had fallen asleep on her own, leaning against the counter and facing the front entrance.

Lullaby, the quiet one who had not spoken at all today, sat against one of the walls. She was awake and obviously cold, she had a look of despair in her eyes. She heard a voice call to her, “Psst!”, she looked around for the source of the noise. She turned to see War Heart beckoning her. She moved over to him, curious about what he wanted.

War Heart waited until she was close before whispering, “Are you okay? You look cold…”

Lullaby just looked at the ground in shame and nodded slowly.

War Heart looked at her curiously, “Can you talk?”

Lullaby nodded again, this time looking at him.

“Then why don’t you?”, he asked.

Lullaby tried to clear her throat before speaking, “I lost my voice from our last concert…”, she struggled out her voice in a hoarse tone that screamed of pain. She winced and rubbed her throat.

War Heart pat the ground next to him, signalling for her to sit there, “Here, I can’t have anyone here getting a cold from being cold overnight…”

Lullaby hesitantly crawled over next to War Heart, kind of expecting that he was coming on to her. She sat next to him with some space between them, suddenly feeling something move behind her and pull her toward him. She was startled at first and then realized it was his wing. She felt comforted by its warmth and found herself drifting off into sleep.

War Heart was still awake. He sat there for a long time not wanting to return to sleep and fall back into one of those terrifying dreams. He had never felt so alone before even though he was surrounded by people. He wasn’t tired, if anything he was restless. He didn’t want to sit there doing nothing, he wanted to keep moving. He looked forward to see a familiar yet unwelcome face. He saw DeadBeast standing in front of him, staring at him with that usual judging stare. War Heart glared at him, hoping to frighten the image away. DeadBeast stood there and reached into his pocket, pulling out a playing card. War Heart’s expression turned from fury to confusion. DeadBeast turned the card around to show the letter “D” on the card, then flick the card over in front of War Heart so he could clearly see it. War Heart examined the card, “’D‘?”, he asked himself before looking back to DeadBeast to find he was gone. War Heart then looked back to the card to find that it also disappeared. War Heart inhaled deeply and lightly tapped his head against the wall, “What is going on…?”, he whispered to himself. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off, being tired mentally and all that was happening. He opened his eyes again to see a very angry Red head glaring at him.

“You think you’re such a big shot? Making a move on Lullaby like that?”, she whispered in a hostile tone.

“What…?”, War Heart whispered in response, rather confused.

“I see you getting all smooth on her, getting to cuddle with her and another girl at once…”, Spectre kept glaring at him.

“Listen, I’m just looking out for everyone, she was cold and I can’t have anyone getting sick while we’re out here…”, War Heart explained to her.

“Heh, nice excuse.”, she sarcastically remarked.

War Heart sighed, “Listen, I’m not even interested in her, especially with the fact I already have a partner and two kids at home…”, he explained, now beginning to glare back at her.

“So you’re looking for some tail on the side to chase while you’re off on an adventure without your wife?”, Spectre’s tone became more hostile.

“I don’t need to be married for anyone to know I love her, and that I would never betray her. Just go away before you wake these two up…”

“Hmph, fine, jerk…”, she whispered before going back over to Poltergeist and getting under their coat blanket.

War Heart sighed and closed his eyes again. His thought drifted towards Dash and how he wouldn’t see her for a while. War Heart also thought about the apparition that appears to him every so often. He opened his eyes to see light outside. It looked warm and inviting until you stepped outside to feel the cold indifference of the frost and snow. He looked around to see everyone still asleep. He nudged Cura and Lullaby gently to awaken them, “Hey, it’s morning, we have to get ready to go.”, he informed them, slowly pulling his wings back towards him.

Cura yawned as she awoke, “Okay… Let’s get moving…”, she said as she stood up and stretched.

Lullaby stretched and stood, not saying a word on account of her throat.

War Heart stood up as well, walking over to one of the aisles where he left his axe and picked it up. He looked over to the Crusaders, “Hey, Crusaders, time to get up.”, he spoke to them from across the room.

Sweetie Belle’s eyes shot open, “Reinitializing systems…”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom woke slowly and looked at War Heart. They nodded sluggishly before standing up and stretching themselves.

Soon everyone was up and ready to go, they moved the barricade after eating whatever breakfast they decided and left the store in a state of disrepair. They all trudged through the snow covered streets of Manehattan.

Spectre was walking alongside Riff and Vinyl. She whispered to Riff, “Hey, Riff, I saw that big guy making a move on your sister last night. Got her snuggling up against him and everything.”

Riff and Vinyl looked at Spectre with an eyebrow raised. They both looked at each other before Riff spoke, “So? He seems cool.”, Riff commented in his casual tone.

Vinyl commented next, “He’s got kids, he wouldn’t do something like that without some kind of reason.”

“Even ask Lullaby, she totally slept next to him last night!”, Spectre whispered in a more serious tone.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, “Listen, Spectre, you’re going to have to let go of the idea of you and her being together. She doesn’t swing that way, deal with it and stop getting hostile all the time.”

Spectre crossed her arms with an irritated expression on her face, keeping silent.

Poltergeist and Octavia walked next to each other. Both of them conversing.

“So what is your view on the situation?”, Octavia asked the tall blue-haired man.

“Well, in my honest opinion, I don’t know what is going on, so I can’t make a decision. Although, I am sure that staying alive is number one at the moment.”, Poltergeist replied in his German accent.

Octavia sighed, “I guess I am lucky that my neighbour Vinyl invited me to come along… I’m not sure I would have survived on my own…”

Poltergeist nodded, “Nobody knows what is going to happen… You might have discovered something else or found others, best not to worry about then and concentrate on now.”

“I suppose you are correct…”, Octavia sighed at the predicament she was in.

War Heart constantly scanned around for somewhere they could get some weapons for everybody. He spotted another store that seemed to sell camping equipment. He nudged Cura, who was walking next to him, and pointed to the store as he walked towards it.

Cura grabbed his arm quickly, “Oh no, you are NOT breaking into a store like that again!”, she exclaimed.

War Heart looked back at her and rolled his eyes, “Then how do you suggest we get inside?”

“I don’t know but we can’t keep smashing open doors with alarms on them.”, Cura argued.

War Heart sighed, “Fine… Does anybody here know how to break into a building without setting off an alarm?”, he called out to the rest of the group.

Spectre hesitantly raised her hand. Everyone looked at her oddly. She put on an expression of anger, “What? My father was a locksmith…”, she grumbled while walking over to the door and picking it open with some paper clips.

Vinyl quickly ran towards the door and over to the alarm system panel. She pulled off the cover and looked through the wiring, pulling out one of the wires and closing the panel to see the power to it disconnected, “Alarms are off!”, she shouted from inside the store.

War Heart looked at the crusaders for a second, “Clear out the building…”, he ordered. He watched them sprint into the building without hesitation and search the area ahead of everyone. They all reported back with nothing found in the store, meaning that it was safe for everyone to explore.

Everyone gathered inside, War Heart informing them to pack some essentials for travelling in the cold. He ordered them to grab blankets, weapons, non-spoiling food, and something to carry it all in. They all nodded and spread out through the store, gathering what they could. They ended up with a few days worth of food (Mostly things like trail mix and energy bars), some canteens for water, a bunch of blankets, some tarps and sleds to drag the stuff along.

While everyone was inside the store gathering supplies, War Heart was standing outside keeping watch. He constantly looked back and forth along the road. He heard a faint noise that he couldn’t really describe. It was like the crunching of snow, but much more numerous than his party ever made. He turned to see a pack of the grey-skinned people on all fours, sniffing about as if trying to track something, or someone. He looked back into the store to see everyone was still trying to pack up the supplies, “We’ll need that stuff if we’re going to get out of here… They’ll never make it if these creeps spot them…”, he said to himself as he turned back to the grey-skinned creatures. He glared at them for a second before sprinting at them.

The creatures heard the incoming footsteps, all looking over to see a tall man with an axe running towards them. They all screeched and screamed at him as they rose up to run at him on two legs.

As War Heart closed in on them he spread his wings and leapt into the air, gliding over them and keeping their attention. He landed on the other side of the pack and kept running, those monsters hot on his tail. As he ran through the streets with those things howling after him, he noticed more and more of them starting to gather behind him, crawling out of the buildings and joining the horde now following him. He looked back while running, “Maybe this wasn’t the best plan…”, he said to himself while sprinting away from the horde that would surely overtake him if he were to fight them.

Cura took note that they were finished packing up their things and walked over to the door to find he was gone. She looked at the empty doorway curiously, wondering where he could have run off to. She stepped outside to see his footprints leading away from the store. Her expression was that of pondering, “Why did you leave us…?”, she whispered to herself.

Sweetie Belle walked over next to her, “What seems to be the problem?”, she asked in her digital monotone.

Cura looked towards Sweetie, then pointed to the footprints in the snow, “I think he left us… I don’t know why…”

Sweetie walked over to one of the footprints and examined it, “The pattern indicates he was running…”, she looked over in the direction War Heart was running, “I have detected that there were approximately fifteen or more life forms in that direction.”, she declared as she pointed to the street corner.

Cura looked at the corner curiously, “But there is nobody there…”

“Examination dictates that there is a 86.4% probability that War Heart led them away from the group.”

Cura crossed her arms while shaking her head, “That guy… He’s going to get himself killed someday…”

Sweetie Belle turned around to the rest of the group, “Scootaloo, Your talents are required.”, she called out to Scoot.

Scootaloo walked over to Sweetie, “What’s going on?”

Sweetie pointed over to the corner, “Our leader has led a pack of creatures away from us, we need you to climb over and find him.”

Scoot flipped out her knives and smirked, “No problem.”, she said as she sprinted towards the building across the street. As she arrived at the wall she ran up a step and jammed one of her knives into the wall, using it to pull herself farther up the wall. Soon she found herself on the rooftops, Cura was watching from below in wonder. Scoot sprinted along the rooftops, jumping between each roof with her wings which allowing her to jump farther and higher. She soon spotted a horde of the grey-skinned creatures chasing War Heart. She followed alongside them from the rooftops, “Oh wow, he looks like he has his hands full…”

War Heart was down below, getting ready to take off and leave the creatures behind. He looked behind him to see they were not gaining any ground. He then noticed Scootaloo was following from above, “Oh no… She can’t fly, they’ll catch her if I leave…”, he stopped suddenly, skidding a few feet to a halt. He turned to face the creatures to see them all stop when he saw them. They just stood there for a few seconds, nobody moved an inch. War Heart thought to himself, ‘Why aren’t they attacking me…? They could easily overtake me…’

Scootaloo stood at the edge of the roof, “Why is he just standing there? Why are they just watching him?”, she whispered to herself.

All the creatures stood there, waiting for something. Their eyes watched War Heart in a non-hostile way.

War Heart slowly moved to the side, the creatures watching his every step. He began moving around them. He started backing away at a sluggish pace, the creatures still showing no hostility. He kept stepping back, ‘Maybe I can lose them…’, he thought to himself. He backtracked away from where Scootaloo was, soon getting to the corner of the street. Upon reaching the corner, he ran a few feet before flying up to the roof of the building next to him. He looked down below to see the creatures all searching for him. War Heart smirked at how clever he was. He looked over to Scoot and flew over to her, “What are you doing here?”

“I came looking for you, since you booked it.”, she replied.

War Heart sighed, “Lets just get back to the group…”

“Alright.”, she said before sprinting along the rooftops as War Heart flew overhead.

They came back to see the group was outside with a couple sleds covered with tarps. War Heart flew down to them while Scoot jumped off the building, using her wings to glide down to the ground.

War Heart walked down the street, signalling them to follow him.

Scoot pulled one of the sleds full of equipment while walking alongside Cura, “I went after War Heart, he was being chased by a whole bunch of those things…”

Cura kept looking ahead, but still paying attention to Scootaloo, “Alright…”

“He stopped and turned around at one point, and they didn’t attack him.”

Cura looked over to Scootaloo, “What happened?”

“I don’t know, they just stood there and watched him. He backed away from them and lost them around a corner by flying over a building.”

Cura crossed her arms in thought, “Maybe I should check War Heart for any abnor-… Any MORE abnormalities in him.”

Scoot gave Cura a surprised look, “What? What’s so ‘abnormal’ about him?”

“You haven’t noticed? His massive size, the fact he never gets cold, the idea he was dead not even a year ago?”

Scoot looked ahead towards War Heart, “That’s… pretty… Wow…”

“He’s been through a lot I believe… He has all the reasons anyone would need to stop and settle down but he presses on. I don’t know whether he is stubborn or determined but it is admirable.”

Scoot sighed and looked at the ground, “I work for the government of Ponyville, I get paid for this. He just does this on a whim.”

Cura looked back at Scoot, “I was curious about your situation. How exactly does Ponyville’s military work?”

“Well, we technically are just working for the government. They use a militia, almost all the men in town are asked to learn how to use weapons in the case we were attacked. The women are allowed to volunteer too. Then there are the Claw, those weird guys who sound like they’re wild animals or something. They scout out the area around Ponyville and hunt for food. Me, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle deal with stuff that requires a bit of… Finesse. We went into an intensive training week being forced into a jungle that we’d never seen before, it was filled with something that looked like dragons but they were… wild. I’ve only ever seen Spike and that big dragon that attacked Ponyville a long time ago and they both were able to speak. We were dropped in there for a week and were forced to survive on our own. Lucky for us, Sweetie Belle was able to fight pretty well until me and Apple Bloom got the hang of it. We all got out fine, then got ambushed by Claw members a few times on the way back. Most of the time they fought us and went for a killing strike then froze right before it hit, showing us we lost. It was tough, but we got through it all, and now we work privately for Ponyville.”

“So you’re doing this for the money?”, Cura asked.

Scootaloo shook her head, “It isn’t like that… Me, Apple Bloom, And Sweetie Belle have a clubhouse in Ponyville, we house over a dozen orphans who lost their parents in that civil war that I guess is now over. We were having trouble feeding them all and I taught them what I could but it wasn’t enough to just steal scraps of food. Sweetie suggested that we work as ‘Private Military Contractors’ and fight for our money. Now we’re here, making sure those kids can live to grow up and get off the streets when they can.”

“It’s very noble of you three to be so young and devote yourselves to helping the unfortunate…”

Scootaloo looked up to the sky, “I guess so…”

Octavia walked next to War Heart up at the front of the group, “From where do you hail from, War Heart?”, she asked.

War Heart kept looking straight ahead, “I wish I knew… I don’t remember a lot ever since… Well… My death.”

Octavia looked at him as if he told a terrible joke.

War Heart looked to his side to see the expression on her face, “You can ask Cura about it, I don’t know much myself… Why do you want to know?”

“I enjoy knowing things about people who save the life of me and my friends. Lately, people have become less than civil with each other…”

“I couldn’t just watch as those things chased you two down… It would make me no better than the creatures…”

“That’s quite a way to damn inaction. Those who decide to just watch someone suffer is just as bad as kicking them when they are down… Although there are some who do not do anything out of fear.”

“I don’t really apply my rules to anyone else… I know I’m bigger and stronger than almost everyone… So I wanted to put what I have to good use.”

“Admirable, but it seems reckless of you. Then again, perhaps that is your greatest trait. A disregard for your safety to ensure another’s could make anyone watching be inspired to do something as well.”

“I never really thought about it like that.”

As the party reached the center of an intersection, War Heart turned to his right. His eyes grew wide at what he saw. He stopped walking, “You guys… Run. I’ll catch up.”, he said as he readied his axe. He slowly walked down the street away from the group. He stood before the new threat that faced him.

Chapter 27

War Heart saw the large creature before him.

It was a minotaur, now grey skinned like the other creatures. It was still a massive beast and looked as strong as it normally would be. War Heart could see the green glow in its eyes. At the moment it was facing War Heart. It chewed the flesh of its latest victim. The fingertips of the minotaur had the skin flayed off and the digits of the bones looked sharpened. It only stared at War Heart with a confused expression. War Heart walked towards it, glaring as he did so.

The creature rose from its prey and walked towards War Heart, towering over him.

War Heart looked up at him, showing not even a hint of fear in his expression. The minotaur stared down at War Heart still, motionless as they were face to face.

The rest of the party froze and waited for something to happen, wondering why such a standoff had come to pass.

War Heart cracked his neck and threw his axe aside. He proceeded to crack his knuckles. War Heart backed up slowly, the minotaur only watched as he did so. War Heart then leapt into the air, using his wings to give him a boost and land a kick in the minotaur’s face.

The beast stumbled back slightly, clutching its nose from the blow. It roared at War Heart as it charged at him.

War Heart readied himself to dodge the incoming giant, then dived to his right. He narrowly avoided being gored by the minotaur. He jumped onto its back and wrapped one of his arms around its neck, holding on as he punched at the back of its head. While War Heart was doing this he saw a small glimmer of green light trail off from the beast, it led away at an incline. It disappeared as quickly as he noticed it and War Heart soon felt a giant hand grab him and throw him into a nearby building, the impact knocking the wind out of him. He gasped for air as he sat on the ground against the now broken brick wall.

The minotaur trudged towards War Heart, ready to deliver a devastating kick to his opponent. He rose his leg and forced it towards War Heart, a cloud of dust coming from the newly created rubble of the wall.

As the dust cleared it was clear that the creature had taken down half the wall, and that War Heart had apparently dodged to his left by only a foot. War Heart then bull rushed the beast, forcing it to lose balance and fall to the ground with a great crash. He jumped onto it and started punching it in the face. Only able to get a few hits in before being swatted away by the creature’s massive arms. War Heart rolled for a few feet before regaining his stance. He spotted the green glowing string again, “What is that…?”

The Minotaur rose to a standing position, going over to the wall and grabbed a large piece of rubble that was as big as War Heart, and held it above its head. He then hurled it at War Heart.

He was surprised that the minotaur had thrown rubble that size at him. In a flash of instinct he decided to try to break through it, knowing it would hit the party if he dodges it. He wound back his arm and punched into the wall that flew at him as hard as he could, seeing the same green glow pour that he saw in these creatures’ eyes now pouring out of his arm. As the wall and his fist made contact, the wall cracked and shattered off of him.

The rest of the party just watched in wide-eyed awe as he destroyed the massive projectile. They all knew that was far beyond the physical limits of normal people.

War Heart stood there panting, somewhat startled by the fact he showed such power. He then winced as he felt a sharp pain flash throughout his entire arm. He couldn’t bear to move it as the bones cracked as he tried to do so. He cradled his arm and watched as the minotaur walked towards him. The minotaur raised its leg, preparing to stomp War Heart into the pavement. War Heart looked away, preparing himself for the hit.

To his surprise, he did not feel a thing. He looked back to see Sweetie Belle with the Minotaur’s hoof in her grasp, struggling to hold against the pressure, “I require assistance.”, Sweetie Belle announced to her comrades.

Scootaloo was already rushing towards the battle, in a hurry to help out. As she drew closer to the minotaur she jumped into the air and landed on the Beast’s face. The impact caused the creature to stumble backwards, taking the pressure off Sweetie. Scoot then crouched and kicked off of the beast, performing an aerial backflip and landing on the ground again.

Apple Bloom ran towards Sweetie Belle, nodding at her while she approached. Sweetie Belle crouched and interlocked her fingers, making a place for Apple Bloom to step onto. Apple Bloom ran up to Sweetie Belle, stepping onto her hands and let herself be thrown into the air by her. She flew through the air towards the minotaur that was on the ground. She landed on top of it and began to punch it in the face repeatedly.

The minotaur took a few of the hits before batting Apple Bloom away, sending her rolling a few feet away unconscious.

Scoot watched her friend take the massive hit to the head, “Apple Bloom!”, she shouted in concern for her friend. She then glared at the minotaur that was picking itself up off the ground, “Big mistake…”, she threatened as she equipped her knives.

Sweetie Belle looked to Apple Bloom and then back to the minotaur, “Threat Level Escalated, Entering level 2. Calculating new attack protocols…”, she droned on in her digital monotone. Her eyes glowed red, “Attack Protocol Sequences Complete. Initiate Attack Protocol 127.”, she announced in a deeper voice than usual as she sprinted towards the beast, faster than she has before. She leaped at the minotaur, landing on its shoulders and grabbing it by the horns.

The minotaur grabbed Sweetie and attempted to pull her off, but to no avail.

Sweetie snapped of the horns of the minotaur with a sickening crack. She jumped off the beast and dove underneath it, rolling behind it. She then jumped onto its back, stabbing its horns into it. She climbed on top of the beast and started pulling its jaws open. It roared as she started to break its jaw, making futile attempts to shut its mouth. She snapped its jaw open and jammed her arm down its throat, silencing it as its larynx was torn out by Sweetie. She squished the organ in her hand and tossed it aside. She then hung on the beast by holding its jaw and thrust her arm into its chest, she pulled out a black glob which one would assume would be a heart. Sweetie kicked away from the beast, taking its jaw with her. She landed in front of it, waiting for its next move.

Scootaloo was busy pulling Apple Bloom away, knowing Sweetie Belle can take care of herself.

The minotaur writhed in agony, choking on the black ooze that poured from its wounds. It fell to its knees in front of Sweetie.

Sweetie walked to its back and yanked out one of its horns that she stabbed into it. She kicked out its leg and stomped on the back of its knee, shattering the bones. She walked back to its head and jammed the horn into the top of its skull, making a cracking noise as she drove it into its brain and pierced its cranium. She stomped on the horn, forcing it to have a last full body twitch in its now inanimate state, “Enemy Nullified. Reducing Threat Levels. Disengage Combat Protocols.”, Sweetie announced as her voice went back to its regular tone and her eyes back to their original colour. She turned around and walked to War Heart, who was eyeing her rather oddly. She walked past him and rejoined the group.

War Heart stood up and looked at the now inanimate minotaur. He watched as the green glow poured out of its eyes and into him. He breathed deeply as the strange feeling passed. He turned to the party to see Cura looking after Apple Bloom. He trudged towards them, still cradling his broken arm. He walked over to Cura, “Is she okay?”

Cura was using her magic to examine Apple Bloom’s wounds, “Minor Damage. I think she took a hit to the head but nothing fatal…”, she turned to War Heart. She noticed he was cradling his arm, “So I see you finally pushed yourself a little too far…”, she motioned for him to kneel. He did as she wanted, allowing her to shift his bones back into place and heal them. She shook her head at him, “I didn’t think you could pull off smashing through something like that at all. You’re lucky you didn’t have it worse.”

War Heart moved his hand around, it didn’t hurt anymore, “Thanks, Cura.”

Cura nodded at him and smiled, “Anytime, War Heart.”

War Heart looked down at unconscious Apple Bloom, “What do we do about her?”

Sweetie Belle stepped forward, “I will carry her while we travel.”

War Heart nodded, “All right, I’m confident you can handle that.”, he turned away and went to go fetch his axe. He saw a glimmer of green in the air, almost like a faint trail. He rubbed his chin and thought on it, “We’re going this way!”, he announced to the party as they all started to move towards him. Sweetie Belle dropped the minotaurs jaw and picked up Apple Bloom and started piggy-backing her. Some of the others walked while pulling sleds while others just walked along and conversed.

Cura walked along next to Vinyl and Octavia. She saw this as her chance to finally talk to her about Riff, “Miss Scratch, I was wondering if I could ask you about Riff.”

Vinyl looked over to her, “Just call me Vinyl, and go ahead.”

“I’m curious about that ability of his. I heard music as he was trying to comfort you the other night. I noticed that nobody else seemed to hear it.”, Cura stated.

“I’m not hearing a question in there.”, Vinyl replied.

“Can he only project his thoughts to other Glows?”

Vinyl looked up to the sky and thought about it, “I think so, I don’t really know. I do know that I can hear it, though.”

“Alright, and just out of personal curiosity: Does he take any medication or use any sort of-”

“Drugs? Nah, that isn’t the way he is. I’ve known him for a long time.”

“Are you two close?”

“I see him as more of a big brother more than anything. He just isn’t interested in any romance. He only wants to chill out with everyone. At one point I did crush on him but that ship has passed.”

Cura nodded, “Thank you for answering my questions.”

“No problem, Doc.”

As they were all walking down the street Riff actually had his eyes open while walking. He stopped suddenly and just stood there.

Spectre noticed Riff stopped walking and looked back to him, “What’s the hold up, Riff?”

He pointed to the stop sign on the corner, “I’m waiting for the stop sign to change…”

Spectre covered her face with her hand, “Damn it, Riff… You’re such an idiot…”, she said as she walked over and pulled him along.

Riff walked next to Spectre. He looked at her, “Hey, Rose…”, he spoke in his spacey tone.

Spectre inhaled deeply in irritation, “Riff… I’ve told you a thousand times, I do not want to be called that…”

“Oh… Sorry…”, he apologised and looked off in a different direction. He looked back, “You play guitar, right, Rose?”

Spectre clenched her teeth in anger, “Yes, Riff, I play guitar…”

“Okay…”, Riff moved his hands into a position as if he was holding a guitar. His veins started to glow as he pretended to play an invisible guitar. He heard the music play in his head.

Spectre looked at Riff oddly, “What are you doing, Riff?”

Riff was either ignoring her or couldn’t hear.

Vinyl shouted back to them, “Nice music, Riff!”

Cura could hear the music in her head as she walked next to Vinyl, “Does he do this often?”

Vinyl smiled and nodded, “Yeah, great isn’t it?”

“I suppose, it isn’t my type of music.”

War Heart started having a piercing headache, not knowing the reason. He tried shrugging it off, not allowing himself to be hindered by such things. He continued to follow the faint flickering of green and lead the party to wherever it was going. As he turned a corner, he witnessed the central square of Manehattan.

The central square used to be a large plaza with a large lawn. It was now a barren and dead area filled with bodies of the dead. There stood a person in a black hood and robe in the center of the square.

War Heart motioned for everyone to stop, they all obeyed. He turned to them, “I’m going to scout out ahead… You all take a break.”, he ordered as he walked into the central square. He started to notice the green flickering was brighter here. He looked to the hooded person and saw that their entire body was glowing green and the flickering was leading to them. The hooded one turned to War Heart.

“So our champion finds us at last…”, it was a man with green glowing veins that lit up the inside of his hood. He removed his hood to reveal his messy purple hair and his deep purple eyes, “I suppose you don’t know what I am talking about though… So much potential and it is all lost because somebody’s meddling in our plans.”, he spoke to War Heart in a lifeless dull monotone.

“Who are you?”, War Heart asked, being only ten feet away.

“My name is not of any concern…”, he replied with his blank stare.

“Are you behind this?”, War Heart motioned to the destroyed area.

“This area… Yes… Why?”

“Because I’m here to gather the survivors… But now I’m starting to think I should just kill you and stop this mess altogether…”, War Heart pointed his axe towards the purple haired man.

The man looked to the sky with a curious look on his face, “I don’t think you can… My powers are most likely above yours… I have been watching you for the entire time you have been here… My dozens of eyes following your every move…”

“I was wondering why the creatures don’t attack me on sight… Why is that?”, War Heart questioned.

“You are one of them… They are not the most intelligent of creatures, making them very obedient…”, he looked straight at War Heart, “Unfortunately for us, You have returned on the other side of this conflict. It seems that since you retained your higher brain functions, we cannot control you. We shall eliminate you.”

War Heart smirked, “I’d like to see you try.”

The man looked at War Heart’s feet, skeletal hands bursting from the earth and grabbing War Heart, tripping him. As War Heart fell to the ground, the bodies around the square rose from their resting place on the ground. The desiccated corpses walked over to War Heart and the Ancient one. The man opened up his robe to reveal armor made from yellowed bones, “I am master of bones. One of the dead masters…”, he announced as he backed away from War Heart.

War Heart yanked his legs out of the grasp of the skeletal hands. He was attacked by one of the animated corpses, it snarled as it tried to claw at him. War Heart swung his axe at it, catching it in the face, taking out its right eye and its nose.

The creature stumbled back from the hit and then screamed at War Heart. Another creature jumped at War Heart from behind, biting into his neck.

War Heart winced as he felt the teeth sink into his flesh. He jabbed the head of his axe into its face and made it release him before chopping into its skull. He then turned around to take care of the other one, to find its face had healed. He didn’t think twice before bashing the back end of his axe into its face, making a crunching sound on impact. He kicked it over and stomped on its head, its skull crumbling under the pressure. War Heart smirked at his victory, then looked up and realized he was surrounded by many of the Ghouls, as he had now decided to call them. The bite on his neck healed over as the green glow from the Ghouls he had just killed floated into his body.

The Ancient One looked at him curiously, “I see you are able to tap into the dead magic…”

War Heart was busy fighting the ghouls to notice the Ancient One speaking. He continued to brutalise them only to find their numbers were bordering on endless. He stopped for a moment and knew it was hopeless to keep fighting the hordes. He turned to the Ancient One, “Are we going to keep wasting each other’s time? Or are you going to fight me yourself?!”

The Ancient One rose an eyebrow at War Heart’s statement, “Very well… I shall fight you myself…”, he nodded at War Heart. Two of the ghouls walked over to him. He grabbed their faces and they had full body spasms as bones seeped out of their skin and covered the Ancient One. The new bones gave him a thick coat of armor. He also combined the two spines into a long whip while using some ribs to make a claw on his other hand.

War Heart took a deep breath, readying himself to take on the Ancient One. He started running towards him only to trip after his first step. War Heart looked down to see a skeletal hand gripping his leg. He rolled his eyes and pulled his leg out of its clutches. He looked up to see the spine whip snap at him. He rolled out of the way and watched it punch into the dirt. ‘That was close…’ he thought to himself before standing up.

The Ancient One pulled his spine whip back towards him, still keeping his neutral expression in the light of his failure. He awaited War Heart’s next move.

War Heart stood there watching the Ancient One, ‘Okay… If I run at him, he’ll just trip me with those skeleton hands…’, War Heart had a sudden flash of insight and then leapt into the air, taking flight. He smirked as the Ancient One just stared at him, ‘Heh… can’t get me up he-’, War Heart’s thought was interrupted by him suddenly being attacked by the extended spine whip snapping at him. It whipped through the air, War Heart narrowly avoiding it. He dove down towards, attempting to get around to the spinal whip. He found himself entangled and swung down to the ground by the whip, crashing into the dirt with tremendous force. War Heart winced from the impact, spitting up dirt and blood. “I think I bit my tongue…”, he spit out a piece of flesh, “Ow…”

The Ancient one released War Heart from the whip and waited once more.

‘If only I could just reach him…’, War Heart thought for a moment before standing. He wound back and threw his axe towards the Ancient one, who caught it with his claw of ribs. As War Heart drew near the Ancient One, he forced his fist into the chest of the Master of Bones. War Heart smirked as his victory was certain. To his surprise he looked at the face of the Ancient One to see him staring back, unharmed. War Heart went wide-eyed for a second before being wrapped up by the spinal whip and thrown back. War Heart hit the ground with great force, spitting up more blood from his tongue.

“War Heart!”, Scootaloo shouted while sprinting towards him with knives drawn. She must have come after him, wondering what was taking him so long.

War Heart looked back at her, motioning her to stop, “No!”, he shouted to her.

Scoot stopped dead in her tracks, confused at why he would turn down the help.

War Heart stood up, ‘Okay… I’ll have to break those bones around him to get him…’, War Heart thought about the fight from earlier and how he punched through the large chunk of debris. He inhaled deeply, ‘I guess this is going to hurt…’, War Heart thought as he crouched slightly. He started running again, faster than he could possibly have run normally. He felt the bones in his legs started to break. The skeletal hands attempted to grasp at him but could not hold. War Heart quickly gained on the Master of Bones, winding back his arm for a punch. He thrust his fist forward into the chest of the Ancient One, bones snapped from both of them. War Heart had driven his fist into the lung of his enemy.

The Ancient One fell back onto the ground, keeping his composure. His expression remained unchanged as his breathing became unsteady, “It seems you have bested me…”, he struggled to get his words out as he had little air. He laid motionless on the ground as he spoke to War Heart, “By the customs… of our order… I will pass on my power… the dead magic cannot be forgotten…”, his body went limp and his eyes grey pale.

War Heart fell to the ground beside him, unable to stand on his broken legs. He looked over to the Master of Bones and saw the green glow, or what he now knew as ‘The Dead Magic’ pour out of the Ancient One and into him. War Heart felt the power he just gained. He looked at his legs and was able to feel where the bones were. He sat up to see Scootaloo sprinting over to him. His vision soon went dark and he fell back unconscious.

Scoot skidded to a halt in front of War Heart, “I gotta get you back to the doc!”, she said with urgency. She walked over to his side and let him lean on her for support, which she struggled with. He was pretty heavy and she had to support nearly all of his weight since he had both legs broken and was unconscious. She reached the party after a few minutes, most of them pretty surprised to see War Heart in such rough shape.

Cura sprinted over to War Heart, helping Scootaloo lay him down so she can examine him. She used her magic to see what the damage was, “Four broken ribs… His left arm and BOTH legs are in pieces…”, she opened his eye and flashed a light in it, seeing his iris contract. She sighed, “Well he’s alive…”, she looked in his mouth, “and missing the tip of his tongue…”, she shivered at the idea of biting off the tip of one’s own tongue. She began to set his bones back into place, letting them tear through the muscle and fat back into place. She healed any wounds that moving the bones had caused and wiped off her forehead. She started to feel weak from using so much magic in one sitting. She had finished fixing everything but his arms, but she would fix that tomorrow.

Scootaloo sat next to Cura, “I saw what happened…”

Cura looked at Scootaloo, “Let me guess, he decided to free fall off a six storey building into a mosh pit?”

“He was fighting some guy… They were surrounded by those monsters. The other guy was covered with bones. I saw War Heart finish him off. I have never seen anyone but Sweetie Belle move that fast. He punched into the guy’s chest through that bone armor.”

Cura looked at Scootaloo, “Well isn’t this adventuring becoming interesting…?”, she said sarcastically before standing up. She looked down at War Heart, “Put him on a sled, we’ll find some shelter…”, Cura walked over to Vinyl, “Why don’t you find somewhere that we can get food?”

Vinyl nodded at Cura, “Sure, I know that there is a grocery store a block from here.”, she signalled for everyone to follow her.

Chapter 28

The group set up in an abandoned grocery store. It was large so everyone stuck towards the front of the store. Cura was rather pleased to find some decently healthy foods for once other than trail mix. Riff kind of disappeared on the group, nobody really noticing where he went.

Vinyl looked around for Riff, “Hey… Where’s Riff?”, she asked aloud. Everyone who heard her shrugged. She walked along the aisles searching for him. She walked past the dairy aisle to see him staring at something. She looked at him curiously and walked over, “What are you doing, Riff?”

“I can’t decide…”, he replied in his spacey tone.

“What?”, Vinyl asked.

“Cheddar or Mozzarella…?”

Vinyl looked in his other hand to see a shopping bin filled with salsa, nacho chips, and green peppers. She sighed and figured that he would do something like this, “Where are you going to cook that?”

“In the microwave…”

“And where is that?”

“In the kitchen…”

“… Riff, we’re at the store.”

“Oh… Right…”, he put down the basket and grabbed the Nachos from the basket, opening them and eating them while walking towards the front of the store.

Vinyl smiled and rolled her eyes at him, she then followed him towards the front of the store.

It was hours before War Heart woke up. He was leaned against one of the checkout counters. He looked around to see everyone was sleeping in their sleeping bags. He shook his head to clear the haze from his mind. He was about to stand until he tried lifting himself up, pain tearing across his arm that was broken. He winced and cradled his broken arm. He looked at it and saw the dead magic glowing in him. “You said your power is passed on… But how do you use it?”, he whispered to himself. He concentrated on his arm, forcing himself to see the bones in his broken arm. He closed his eyes and tried to will the bones into their original place. He cringed in pain as the bones started tearing through his flesh by moving around. He stopped and opened his eyes as he heard a small click noise on the ground next to him. He quickly looked down to see a shard of bone on the floor. War Heart stared at it for a moment before saying anything, “Uh oh…” He picked up the shard of bone and examined the bloody piece. He sighed as he pressed it against his arm, “This is gonna hurt…”, he whispered before jamming it into his skin. He winced and clutched his teeth together as he kept trying to will the bones in his arm back into place. They slowly crawled and slid around in his arm, which only added to the pain. They slowly but surely set themselves in the proper places, fusing and clicking back together. He took a deep breath and sighed quietly, not wanting to wake anybody up. He looked at his arm to see the flesh and skin was bruised and torn up slightly. He remembered that the ghoul he fought had regenerated itself. He thought that since he had killed plenty of those; had taken the dead magic that was inside them; and the fact that he had done the regeneration before, it should not be that hard to make it happen on his own. He stared at his arm, concentrating on melding his flesh. He noticed his veins begin to glow dimly and the flesh start to move and heal itself. The wounds closed and the sinewy material in his arm started to restore itself. Once his arm was fixed, he examined it to admire his work, “These powers will come in handy… Though, I should probably tell Cura about this…”, War Heart figured that Cura could answer why he is able to use this magic without being a glow. He also wished that he was still friends with Twilight, she would know about it, or at least teach him how to control it without making himself push his bones out of his body. He shook his head at the fact that she had fooled him like she did, but thought about what she meant when she said she spent years trying to get him back. He looked outside to see more snow falling from the sky, “Twilight… I want to know the truth…”, he whispered to himself. War Heart looked over to the aisles, seeing a shadowy figure walking towards him. As the figure came into view, he noticed it was DeadBeast. He sighed, “Oh it’s you again…”, he shook his head at the apparition. He saw another playing card slide along the floor and into view. He examined it to see the letter ‘E’ inscribed on it. He looked back to the apparition, “D, E?”, he whispered to himself, trying to figure out its meaning. The card and DeadBeast vanished again, War Heart sighed at the fact he was going crazy.

Vinyl woke up at dawn, seeing the outside through the front window. The streets were still covered in snow. She looked next to her to see Riff sleeping with an empty nacho bag. She smiled and shook her head. She stood up and yawned, turning to War Heart to see if he woke up during the night. She walked over to see a blood stain on the floor next to him, “What the?”, she looked at his arms and neither was injured as far as she could tell. She touched the blood on the floor to find it was dried out, meaning that it happened a few hours ago. She rubbed her fingers together and looked at War Heart, “What’s up with this guy?”, she whispered to herself. She stood up and went to wake everybody up.

Over the next half hour they packed up and ate what they could, knowing they may not have much of a chance to do so on the road.

Cura walked over to War Heart, who was still asleep, as soon as she woke up. She approached him to find his arm fixed. She examined his arm with her magic to find it was all in tact. She nudged him to wake him up, he looked a bit disoriented at first but came to attention soon. Cura stood back up, “War Heart, we need to go…”, she informed him and walked away.

War Heart stood up and walked towards the front door of the store. He stepped out onto the streets of Manehattan and looked into the sky. He only saw the grey clouds overhead, giving the entire land a gloomy overlook. He took a deep breath of cold air. He turned around to see his companions all prepared for travel. He motioned for them to follow and started walking again.

Vinyl was walking with Cura, “Hey, Doc, did you fix him up while we were all sleeping?”

Cura looked at Vinyl curiously, “No. I didn’t…”

“How do you think his arm is better now?”

“I don’t know, Vinyl… I’ll have to ask him later…”, Cura replied.

They all trudged through the snow, the cold weighing down on most of the group. They reached the city limits, heading towards their next destination.

Scootaloo walked next to war Heart, “Where are we going now?”, she asked her leader.

“Las Pegasus… it wasn’t covered in red on the map. So we may be assisting in an evacuation…”

Scoot nodded, “Hopefully you won’t get your ass beaten again…”

War Heart scowled at Scootaloo, his crimson eyes only adding to the intimidation of his gaze.

Scootaloo ignored him and kept walking along.

Apple Bloom was walking next to Spectre and Riff, “Hey… What yer name?”, she directed her question at Riff.

Riff looked at her, “What…?”

Spectre sighed, “She’s asking what your name is…”

Riff had an expression as if he had an epiphany, “Oh! I couldn’t understand your accent… I’m Riff.”, he answered in his spacey and casual tone.

Apple Bloom was shocked she didn’t recognize them from before, “Hold on… Are you guys the Ghosts of the Guilty Mare?”

Spectre looked at her quizzically, “You a fan?”, she asked in her Trottingham accent.

Apple Bloom had an ecstatic expression, “I love yer album! It was so cool!”

Riff totally disregarded the rest of the conversation, he was totally unable to understand her accent.

Spectre smiled, happy to know that their band at least had one fan.

Poltergeist was walking next to Sweetie Belle, “It seems you are quite strong for your size…”

“Affirmative.”, Sweetie replied in her digital tone.

Poltergeist looked at her strangely, “Why do you talk that way?”

“My speech patterns are at optimal performance. Perhaps it is your ears that are malfunctioning.”

“Forget I asked…”

They walked all day, eventually it became dark. They made camp at the side of the road.

Cura approached War Heart with a concerned look on her face, “War Heart… I need to know something.”

War Heart was rather surprised at Cura looking so worried, “What is it?”

“Your arm… How did it get fixed?”

“Oh… I guess that would raise some suspicion… I fixed it.”

Cura was stunned, “How?”

War Heart shrugged, “I was fighting this guy… After he died I got some kind of power… I tried using it last night, which was a lot more difficult than I thought.”

“Wait… Are you saying you used magic?”

“I don’t know what it was… but as far as I know: Yes…”

“Can you show me?”

“Unless you want me to break my arm again, no…”

“So, tomorrow then?”, Cura asked, knowing he was going to get into some kind of trouble.

War Heart rolled his eyes, “Sure.”

Cura chuckled and walked back to the rest of the group.

War Heart laid down in the snow, staring into the sky. He noticed something fly overhead and soar by. He quickly stood up and took off after it, whatever it was. He found it difficult to keep his eye on it at first but managed to stay on their tail. He could see that it was humanoid in shape and that there was no dead magic in them. He struggled to catch up but soon was within reach, “Hey!”, he called out slightly behind them. He was surprised to see a young woman with blue hair turn to face him. She stopped suddenly in an attempt to evade War Heart, taking flight in a different direction. War Heart turned around and tried to follow her, wanting to know who she was. By the time he finally turned around, she was gone. He looked around trying to find her, “Who are you…?”, he asked himself. He got back to the camp to find a playing card in the place where he was laying down. The card had the letter “A” written on it. War Heart looked around for the one who would have put it there and saw the card disappeared. He sighed and laid down again.

The rest of the journey on the way was uneventful, they soon reached their destination to find it busy and thriving.

“Las Pegasus…”, Cura said in wonder.

Scootaloo crossed her arms while looking at the city, “I guess those zombies didn’t make it all the way here… Maybe they got it under control?”

Apple Bloom walked up next to them, “Yeah, it looks like it. We could stay here for the night on our way to the next city though, right?”

Cura nodded quickly, “Oh how I’ve wanted to come here to see the shows and the lights. It looks like so much fun!”

War Heart sighed, “Fine… We’ll stay here for a while. You guys need a break, I guess.”

The group made its way into the city, finding that they could leave their gear on the outside of the city now that the weather was warm here. Vinyl led the way to a hotel, signing them up with the penthouse suite.

“How are you able to afford this?”, Cura asked Vinyl.

“Well I own my own music company. I was successful enough to pull it off and now I’m pretty loaded.”, Vinyl explained as she led the way to the elevator. They all loaded into the elevator. It moved a little bit before a light came on that read, “Maximum Weight Exceeded”, everyone took note of the light and then looked at War Heart.

War Heart sighed, “I’ll fly up…”, he said as he stepped out of the elevator.

The rest of the group waited for about a minute in the elevator as they rose twenty storeys.

War Heart walked out of the building and flew up to the top. He landed on the roof and waited, looking down on the city.

Vinyl opened a nearby door from the room, “War Heart! Over here!”

War Heart turned to Vinyl and entered the large room with hardwood floors and fancy furniture.

Cura looked out the window to the city, being hypnotized by the lights. “We should go see a show! War Heart, you should go with me!”, she exclaimed.

War Heart sighed, “Okay then…”

War Heart and Cura soon found themselves in a club, both sitting at a table together. War Heart couldn’t really eat or drink anything without feeling sick so he decided not to have anything. Cura decided to have red wine, the waiter left the bottle at the table.

The lights dimmed in the room and a spotlight shone on the stage. A man in a tuxedo and white dress gloves walked into the spotlight.

War Heart showed a sudden interest in the show, eyeing the announcer oddly.

“Ladies and Gentlemen… for your viewing entertainment… The Great and Powerful Trixie!”, the sharply dressed man announced.

The spotlight shone on Trixie. She wore something that looked like a one-piece bathing suit, a wizard’s hat decorated with stars and a cape similarly decorated as well as a pair of high-heels. She flashed a showy smile and began to perform some magic tricks involving a myriad of lights that didn’t seem to incite the crowd into applause. After a few minutes she bowed to indicate her act was over. She walked off to the side of the stage where the man in the tuxedo guided her into a back room.

War Heart put his hand on Cura’s, “Stay put, I’ll be right back.”

Cura was already slightly intoxicated from the wine, “Sure, honey.”, she replied not really paying attention.

War Heart got up from his table and walked towards the back room. He walked in through the door in time to see the man slap Trixie across the face, bringing her to tears.

“I swear, if you don’t manage to put on a decent show next time, you’re fired!”, the man in the tuxedo turned to War Heart with an angered look on his face, “Hey, staff only back here, buddy.”

War Heart was walking towards the man while he spoke. As he reached him, War Heart punched the guy in the face.

Trixie was startled and backed up a bit.

“Are you okay?”, War Heart asked.

Trixie nodded, feeling intimidated by War Heart.

War Heart held his hand out to her, “Come on… I’ll get you out of here.”

Trixie was hesitant. She looked at the ground where her unconscious employer lied. She turned to War Heart and nodded shakily, taking his hand.

War Heart led her out into the dark room and went to the table where Cura was sitting. He tapped Cura on the shoulder, “We need to go…”, he whispered to her.

Cura giggled, “I like whispering too.”, she whispered back to him.

War Heart sighed and took her hand, leading her to the exit. He noticed Cura was having trouble walking, “How much did you drink?”

“Uh… a lot?”, she replied, obviously very intoxicated.

War Heart rolled his eyes and picked her up. Trixie walked beside him.

“Where are we going? Who is she?”, Trixie asked.

“I’m taking you to safety.”, War Heart replied simply. They reached the elevator and went to the top floor. Upon entering the room with Cura in his arms and a stranger in a costume he received more than a few odd looks.

Vinyl lowered her sunglasses and stared at War Heart, “Uh… I didn’t think you were into that sort of stuff…”

War Heart sighed again, “Cura got drunk and she was in trouble.”, he walked over to a couch and put Cura down, “I think this town may have some of those creatures here…”

Vinyl looked at him like he was crazy, “Everyone here looks like they have a pulse.”

“Well, they’re different here… I can’t explain it, but I know there is something up here.”

Trixie cleared her throat before speaking, “I have noticed the new management was very… violent…”, she said as she put a hand on her cheek.

Vinyl looked at Trixie and walked up to War Heart, “Dude… You can’t be picking up random prostitutes…”, Vinyl commented on Trixie’s somewhat skimpy outfit under the cape she wore.

“I am not a prostitute! I am a magician! I don’t get a choice in my costume…”, Trixie started in a shout and finished with a whisper.

“Sorry, it’s just… yeah… Never mind.”

War Heart looked to Vinyl, “I saw her manager was beating her. I think he was one of those things.”

Vinyl looked at him as if he was crazy, “What, did he try to eat her brains or something?”, she asked sarcastically.

War Heart shook his head, “I know these things when I see them. I suspect there may be more of them in the city.”

Vinyl crossed her arms and sighed, “Alright… Looks like this isn’t a vacation anymore…”

War Heart nodded, “I’ll see if I can get some information… I may need a guide though…”, he looked to Trixie.

Trixie closed her cape, “I would show you around town, but I may need some clothes…”

Vinyl reached for her wallet and gave War Heart some cash, “Get her a set of clothes and do what you can. I’ll make sure everyone here is looked after.”

War Heart looked to Trixie, “Let’s go.”, he motioned to the elevator. Trixie walked into the elevator with her cape still closed. War Heart stood next to her and pressed the button for the ground floor.

“Good luck, War Heart.”, Vinyl waved.

The doors of the elevator closed and the peaceful music could be heard in the silence between the War Heart and Trixie.

“Thank you…”, Trixie spoke off handed.

War Heart didn’t reply.

“I don’t think I ever met someone like you… A regular knight in shining armor…”, Trixie started to blush.

War Heart remained stone faced.

There was a dead silence for the rest of the ride down. They both walked off the elevator, Trixie led the way to the nearest clothing store. She immediately headed towards the women’s aisle and started browsing around. She picked out a multitude of shirts, skirts, and pants. War Heart ended up carrying a lot of it around the section then was dragged off to the changing rooms. Trixie took the clothes and went into the changing room.

War Heart sat on a chair outside the changing rooms. It was a few minutes before Trixie came out in a short skirt and t-shirt, posing in front of War Heart. She waited for a reaction to the degree of applause or flirting but was disappointed to see War Heart’s usual neutral expression, “No? Alright then.”, she walked back into the changing room. She proceeded to pose in front of War Heart several times. She eventually walked out in tight leather pants and a purple shirt, striking a pose in front of War Heart.

War Heart was starting to get the idea that she was not going to stop until he answered, “I like it, let’s go…”, he said unenthusiastically as he stood and headed for the counter.

Trixie grinned and walked beside War Heart to the counter.

War Heart paid for the items she was wearing and left the store with Trixie. He looked down at her, “Can you lead me to some places with a lot of people?”, he asked her.

Trixie nodded with a smile and pointed down the street. He looked at her and nodded, then started walking. Trixie walked up next to him and slowly tried to hold his hand.

War Heart looked down at her holding his hand, “What are you doing?”, he asked while looking at her quizzically.

Trixie smiled at him, “I just wanted to hold your hand. That’s not a problem, is it?”, she batted her eyelashes at him.

It suddenly hit War Heart that Trixie was attempting to flirt with him. He stared blankly for a moment before responding, “I have two kids… and a girlfriend…”

Trixie froze for a moment, feeling terribly awkward. She took her hand back and kept walking, ‘Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! I can’t believe this! I’m such a twit!’, she thought to herself.

War Heart sighed and walked next to her, ignoring the awkwardness of the situation.

They soon found themselves at a large casino. War Heart looked up at the towering building, then looked at Trixie. He walked into the building ahead of Trixie, who was following him closely.

War Heart scanned over the crowd as he moved about, searching for any signs of dead magic. Soon a man in a suit passed by, his body faintly glowing with dead magic. War Heart turned to him as he passed, seeing him go into a bathroom. He looked to Trixie, “Block off the door… I’ll be right back.”

Trixie looked at him with a concerned expression, “What are you going to do?”

War Heart looked at her just before he turned away, “I’m going to talk to him…”, he said in a sarcastic tone before walking into the bathroom.

Trixie quickly stood in front of the men’s room nervously, “Oh Celestia, this guy sounds crazy…”, she whispered to herself.

War Heart walked into the bathroom to see the man with black hair and a suit washing his hands at the sink. He saw the man was glowing green with the dead magic. War Heart walked over to him, “So… What can you tell me about the Master of Bones?”

The man froze for a moment with a fearful look on his face. He slowly turned to War Heart, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

War Heart shook his head, “Now you’re lying… That isn’t good…”, he stepped towards the man.

The man backed up a step, “Listen, Buddy, I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

“And I don’t want to have to make a mess of this place… Now tell me who is in charge…”

The man jumped at War Heart, swinging his fist into War Heart’s face.

The impact surprised War Heart with its force. It seemed to hit harder than he thought it would.

The man backed up again, “You should be out cold…”

War Heart shook his head slightly. He felt around in his mouth with his tongue and spit a tooth onto the floor. He glared at the man, a sign of impending doom. He walked up to him and grabbed the man by the throat and held him against the wall, “Now tell me who’s in charge!”

The man only squirmed and writhed as he tried to free himself from War Heart’s grasp.

“I will kill you if you don’t tell me…”

The man grew frantic, frenzying himself and lashing out at War Heart.

War Heart squeezed his neck to the point where he felt a crack and the man went limp. He shook his head and opened one of the stalls, placing him on the toilet and closing the door. War Heart stepped out of the bathroom to find Trixie standing outside, “We’re leaving…”, he told her as he walked away.

Trixie jogged over to catch up then walked alongside him, “What did you find out?”, she asked.

“That my conversations are going to be really interesting in this town…”

Chapter 29

“I need you to take me to another place. We have to root out more of those people, quickly.”, War Heart spoke to Trixie as if he were talking to someone who knew what he was talking about.

“Who are these people that you’re talking about? Are you part of the Canterlot guard?”, Trixie asked, hoping her involvement in this affair wouldn’t get her in trouble.

“I’ll explain when I get some more info. For now, take me someplace else.”, War Heart ordered, walking away from the Casino quickly.

“Very well, I shall take you to some other place… But I expect an explanation when we get back!”, Trixie said as she led the way to another casino that was not far away.

They both walked in the doorway, War Heart looking around at the crowd. He searched for traces of the dead magic. He couldn’t see anybody with it from the doorway. He stepped inside and walked among the crowd.

Trixie walked along next to War Heart, looking around the crowd as well. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she tried to find something for him. She turned to see a man looking straight at her and War Heart. He was leaning against a wall and glared at her. His hair was black and he wore a navy blue suit. Trixie quickly looked away from him, pretending she didn’t see him, “Umm… I think we are being watched…”

War Heart looked down at Trixie, “Where are they?”

Trixie nudged her head in the man’s direction, “Leaning against the wall, he’s staring at me…”

War Heart glanced at the man, seeing the unmistakeable glowing of the dead magic in the man’s eyes, “Nice find…”, he whispered as he started to walk towards the man.

Trixie watched him walk towards the man who was obviously shorter than War Heart.

As War Heart drew closer, the man’s expression changed from a glare to shock as he started to run towards the exit. War Heart sped up his pace, running after the man.

Trixie just watched as the two sprinted out the front door, “Oh no…”, she whispered to herself.

War Heart was chasing the tuxedo clad man around to the side of the building. The man ran around a corner. War Heart smirked as he knew he was catching up to him, he approached the corner quickly. Then everything suddenly went black. War Heart could hear whispers in the dark, unintelligible due to being distracted by his throbbing headache. He opened his eyes to see the a white tile floor. He squinted from the bright white light that shone in his face. He felt weakened for some reason. War Heart tried to move but found he was strapped in to a steel chair. He turned his head about to look around, “Where… Am I…?”

“Not among friends, I assure you…”, a woman’s voice spoke in a sultry tone.

“What’s wrong with me…?”

“That is just one of those things we can do… It has been so long since I drained life from anyone… It is surprising to know you are not dead.”

“What do you want with me?”

“Oh, nothing really… However, I did hear you attacked one of my managers, and killed another one of my neonates…”

War Heart chuckled, “So that guy was bait… You people act fast…”

“Indeed…”, the sound of finger’s snapping burst from the darkness. A slim and sleek man in a black suit walked into War Heart’s view. The woman’s voice spoke again, “This is my follower… He used to be a doctor, but used his magic to dabble in things he shouldn’t have… I have given him what he wants, and now he works for me when I need him to. He has very extensive knowledge in nerves and physiology…”, she chuckled slightly, the sound slowly fading as the sound of a door closing silenced it.

The Doctor walked up to War Heart, wheeling over a tray or surgical tools. He grabbed a scalpel and examined it for a moment before gliding his tongue over it. His tongue bled. He smacked his lips and put his hand on War Heart’s forehead, holding him in place.

War Heart’s eyes went wide as he realised he was in the hands of some kind of sick freak. He watched the gleaming scalpel approach him slowly leaving his vision as he felt a warm streak across his left cheek.

The Doctor then took the scalpel in his other hand, using his free hand to hold War Heart’s head in place as he let the blade glide across War Heart’s other cheek, from the corner of his mouth to the back of his jaw. He removed his hand from War Heart and placed the scalpel on the tray, the blade was dripping with blood.

War Heart felt something trickling down the lower half of his cheeks, slowly making its way to his chin.

The Doctor took out a hammer, one of the kinds that would be used to drive nails into planks and a hook to pull them out. He used the scalpel again, this time on War Heart’s right knee. He felt around and located the kneecap, first drawing a line around it, and then cutting the skin around it. There was little pain from the cuts, for reasons unknown to War Heart. The Doctor finished cutting away the skin around War Heart’s knee cap, he took the flap of skin and placed it in a tray next to the tools. The Doctor then grabbed a nail from out of his pocket, showing it to War Heart and then placing the tip against War Heart’s exposed kneecap.

War Heart could only watch as the Doctor readied the hammer. War Heart’s eyes were wide with horror.

The Doctor swung his arm back quickly, then slowly moved the hammer’s head to the nail. He practiced the motion a few times. He looked straight into War Heart’s eyes and smiled. He swiftly swung the hammer into the nail.

The nail pierced the bone in War Heart’s knee, agony itself rocketing through War Heart’s system as he screamed in pain, tearing open the sides of his mouth. He kept screaming as the fires set to his nerves wouldn’t be extinguished.

The Doctor took a jar of some kind of brown liquid labelled ‘Iodine’ and poured it on War Heart’s knee, creating a burning sensation in War Heart’s leg. He looked at War Heart and splashed some in his face.

War Heart couldn’t see after his eyes were burnt by the Iodine. He coughed as his throat was sore from screaming. He breathed heavily as he was still weak for some reason.

The Doctor took another tool that was hidden under the chair. The sound of a small stone grinding against metal could be heard as a low hissing noise indicating a blow torch was made.

War Heart took a deep breath and tried to prepare himself for what might happen next. Nothing could have prepared him for the pain that flashed through his hand as he felt the heat of the flames eat at his left hand. He screamed as he felt the flesh melt off his fingers and the bones cook in the flames. Everything was black and silent for War Heart suddenly, he passed out from shock.

The Doctor stood back and extinguished the blow torch. He placed it on the floor and stepped out of the room.

War Heart drifted in and out of consciousness, they left him alone in the dark.

“Where’s your friends now, War Heart?”, a voice called out to War Heart in the shadows.

“Who is this?”, War Heart asked weakly.

“Not important… You look like you could use some help… You look like shit.”

“How did I fall into this…?”

“You were weak, you were slow.”

“I walked into a trap, they had the jump on me…”

“Bullshit, You are capable of so much more.”

“I’m just… One man…”

“What kind of man can do the things you do? You aren’t a man…”

“Then what am I…?”

The room went silent. The door opened from behind War Heart and then closed. The Doctor walked in front of him and turned on the bright white light again. He placed down a toolbox on the floor. He looked at War Heart and grinned, “Let’s begin…”

Trixie tried to keep up with War Heart as he chased down the man in the tuxedo. Only rounding the corner in time to see War Heart take a hit to the face from a lead pipe as he was running. She hid behind the corner and watched as more men in tuxedos dragged him away. She followed them through side passages leading to a steel door that went down into the ground. She shook her head, “I have to get help…”, she whispered as she snuck away and sprinted to the hotel. She got to the elevator and frantically pressed the button for the top floor. She fidgeted as she slowly went up to the top, knowing every second wasted only put War Heart in further danger. The elevator finally reached the top floor, she immediately shouted to the people in the room, “He’s been captured! We have to help him!”

Scootaloo looked at her in disbelief, “What!? How?”

“It was a trap. They must have been waiting for him, I can show you where they took him.”

Scootaloo whistled sharply, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom entering from the other room.

Apple Bloom looked at Trixie, “Where’s War Heart?”

Scoot turned to Apple Bloom, “He’s been kidnapped, we’re going on a rescue mission.”

“Affirmative.”, Sweetie Belle said in her digital tone before walking into the elevator where Trixie was waiting.

The crusaders all stood in the elevator with Trixie. Slowly descending to the ground. Trixie sprinted out of the elevator, the crusaders close behind. It had taken a few minutes for her to get to the hotel and lead them back to the cellar door that War Heart disappeared into.

Scootaloo looked down at the steel door, “So, they took him down there?”

Trixie nodded shakily.

Scootaloo brought out her knives, “Okay, Crusaders, We’re sweeping this place clean. Nobody gets out alive except for us and War Heart.”

“Extermination Protocols Active. Friend Or Foe Visual Filters Recalibrated.”, Sweetie droned.

Trixie backed away from the Crusaders. She was frightened of Sweetie Belle mostly, seeing her voice itself as intimidating.

Apple Bloom flipped the door open, it leading down into a hallway with white tile floors.

“Mission Initialized.” Sweetie said as she jumped into the hall and sprinted along the hall.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sprinted after her, they all soon came to a section where the halls all split off into three directions. They all looked at each other and nodded, running in different directions to cover more ground.

Apple Bloom ran down the hall, coming across a wooden door in the hall way. She ran up over and kicked it open. There were three men in tuxedos playing cards, they stood up at the surprise of Apple Bloom kicking down the door.

“Who are you?”, one of them asked.

“Somebody who’s friends with someone you should not have messed with…”, she replied as she put on her brass knuckles. She ran at one of them, who retaliated by trying to take a jab at her. She ducked to her right and grabbed his wrist, using her other hand to punch into his elbow and break his arm backwards. He screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. Apple Bloom took out the blade hidden in the toe of her boot and kicked him in the neck, he stopped screaming and started choking on his own blood. She looked at the remaining two and glared at them. One of them flipping the table with their cards out of the way while the other pulled out a knife. The one with the knife lunged at her to hit nothing but air. Apple Bloom grabbed his arm and swept out his leg, bringing him to the floor. She kicked him in the back of the head with her boot knife, killing him instantly. She turned to the last one who just stood in awe of what she had done. She walked up to him and grabbed him by the throat and smirked.

Scootaloo sprinted down the hall way and found her first door, kicking it down to find three men counting money. She took both her knives and threw them, hitting two of them in the chest. She ran up to the last man and punted him between the legs. He bent over in agony. Scoot then grabbed him by the head and started kneeing him in the face. She wrapped her arms around his torso and lifted him up, throwing him flat onto his back to the floor. Scootaloo grabbed one of her knives and jammed it into the man’s chest, piercing between the third and fourth rib into his heart. She grabbed her other knife and left the room.

Sweetie Belle found a room with a wooden door, she opened it to find six men in a room, wearing regular clothes. The room was lined with beds, obviously being the place where they slept. Sweetie Belle walked in and closed the door. All the men in the room looked at her strangely.

“Miss… Are you lost?”

“Initiate Attack Protocol Twenty Eight.”

“Wha-”, the man was interrupted as Sweetie Belle grabbed him by the throat and tore out his larynx. He fell to his knees choking.

Sweetie Belle looked to the rest of them, seeing they were shocked at what they just witnessed. Two of them pulled out knives and charged at her, hoping to avenge their fallen comrade.

“Initiate Defense Protocol Six.”, she said as she grabbed their hands that held the knives. She crushed their hands in her grasp, breaking most of the bones. She released their hands, “Initiate Attack Protocol Sixteen.”, she grabbed them both by the face, hooking her fingers into their eye sockets. She forced their heads to collide with enough force to crack their skulls off each other. They fell to the floor bleeding out of their heads. She looked around at her next three victims, “Initiate Attack Protocol One.”, she said as she sprinted up to the next one and punched him in the chest, breaking his ribs and stopping his heart. She watched them man collapse to the ground and die, “Initiate Attack Protocol Four.”, she ran over to the other two men and smashed their heads into the wall, leaving a blood splatter where they made contact. She scanned over the room, “No life forms detected…”, she declared as she left the room.

The crusaders went through a few rooms, they combined their kill count to be thirty two. They all met up at one last door which was made of steel. They opened it to find it was dark but had a bright white light shining at them. In the light there was a silhouette of a man standing in front of a chair.

“Is this important?”, the Doctor asked.

The crusaders looked at each other and motioned for him to come out into the hall.

The Doctor nodded and walked into the hall, closing the door behind him. He looked to the Crusaders, “What is it that you had to interrupt me f-”, he was interrupted as Apple Bloom punched him across the face. He fell to the floor and looked at them again, “I guess our security has failed us…”

“Make sure he doesn’t move while I check the room.”, Scootaloo told Apple Bloom as she walked into the dark room once more.

Apple Bloom nodded, “If he moves, I’ll make sure he doesn’t walk again…”, she glared at the Doctor.

Scoot looked around and felt the wall next to her, finding a light switch. She flicked it on. Her eyes widened as he saw a large puddle of blood on the floor, “Oh no…”, she whispered as she walked around to the front of the chair. She gasped as she looked upon War Heart.

His lips were gone and his cheeks were split. Only the bones of his left hand were left and they were blackened. His eyelids looked like they were cut away, revealing his bloodshot crimson eyes. He had an iron nail driven into his skinless kneecap on his right leg. His right arm looked as if it were dissected as all the tendons and muscles were sliced apart and hanging apart. Streams of reddened tears flowed from his eyes.

Scootaloo walked out of the room and closed the door again. She breathed heavily as she stood over the Doctor, “You son of a bitch…”, she said as she crouched. There was a second of silence before Scootaloo started thrashing at the Doctor in a blind rage. She brutalised his face with her bare fists. Apple Bloom was surprised at her, knowing it took a lot to set her off like that. Scootaloo proceeded to begin stabbing the Doctor in the face with her knives, far beyond the point of death and well into the idea of mutilating his head.

Sweetie Belle walked inside the room and saw War Heart. She looked him over and placed her hand on his chest, “Pulse detected. Life signs confirmed.”, she announced. She took out the nail from his knee and removed his bindings. She picked him up and walked out of the room, startling Apple Bloom.

“Dear Celestia, What is that!?”

Sweetie turned to Apple Bloom, “Our commander.”, she stated as she walked towards the exit, the other two crusaders following her.

Trixie waited outside nervously for the crusaders. She paced back and forth until she saw them rise out from the door. She took one look at War Heart and turned away, emptying the contents of her stomach onto the ground. She looked back, “Is… That him?”

Apple Bloom nodded at her.

Trixie looked at the ground, feeling guilty that she is the one who led him there.

Sweetie Belle proceeded to walk along the alley ways towards the hotel, the other three following her.

Trixie walked next to Apple Bloom, “Don’t you think we should take him to a hospital… Or a mortuary…?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “They would ask questions, questions that we can’t answer. We have the best Doctor in Equestria at our hotel anyway.”

Trixie sighed, then thought of a certain detail, “How are you going to get him to the hotel room without anybody seeing us?”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other, “We don’t know…”

Trixie nodded, “I shall help. I’ll teleport him up there… It’s far and I can only teleport the two of us. You three will have to head up by elevator.”

Scootaloo nodded, “All right.”

They reached the hotel, they were well hidden at the back of the building. Trixie had Sweetie lay War Heart on his back.

Trixie put her hands on War Heart’s chest. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her veins glowed purple as she and War Heart disappeared in a flash of light. They were now on the roof of the hotel. Trixie got up and ran into the hotel room, bursting through the door and into the room. She ran into the kitchen and cleared off the large counter quickly.

Vinyl walked over to her, “What are you doing? Where’s the big guy? Where are the girls?”

Trixie turned to Vinyl quickly, “We need somewhere to lay him down.”

“What? Why?”

“You’ll find out soon.”, Trixie quickly replied as she ran back onto the roof to War Heart. Vinyl followed her and was shocked to see War Heart in his current state.

“You went to go rescue him and brought back his corpse!?”

Trixie looked at her, “He’s still alive…”

Vinyl ran over to help Trixie drag War Heart into the hotel room. Everyone else was sleeping except Vinyl at the time.

The Crusaders entered the room from the elevator. Vinyl and Trixie dragged War Heart to the kitchen, leaving a bloody streak behind them. Sweetie Belle walked over and picked him up, placing him on the large counter in the kitchen.

Trixie just looked at War Heart, “What do we do?”

Vinyl crossed her arms and thought for a moment, “Well, the Doc is asleep and probably still drunk… So we wait until morning.”, she told them as she left to go to sleep.

Trixie sat on a stool next to the counter, feeling responsible for War Heart’s predicament.

The Crusaders all left the room to go sleep. Sweetie Belle decided to sit down on the floor next to the counter, remaining motionless the rest of the night.

Trxie eventually went to sleep on the floor in the kitchen.

It was dawn when Cura awoke to the city lights outside. She smiled and stretched while she yawned, “That was a good night.”, she said to herself. She turned around to see War Heart on the counter, she assumed he was sleeping. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the kitchen to wake him up. As she approached she noticed his left hand was only bones. Her smile turned to an expression of shock. She ran into the kitchen to see War Heart in his mutilated state, “Dear Celestia!”, she screamed as she looked him over, “What happened to you?!”, she put her fingers on the artery in his neck. She felt a faint heartbeat. She sighed in relief and started to close the cuts on his cheeks, “I’ll help you War Heart, don’t worry…”, she whispered as she used her magic to do what she could. She looked at his left hand with a defeated expression, knowing she could not possibly heal that. She moved down to his leg to see his exposed kneecap with a hole in it. She cringed at the sight of the hole in his knee. She moved on to his right arm where all the tendons and muscles were sliced apart. She slowly started to move the tendons and muscles into place, making sure that they are all where they are supposed to be. It took her a few minutes to do so, requiring lots of magic to make sure the tendons would stay in place. She stood back, tired from using so much magic so quickly. She sat on one of the stools in the kitchen.

War Heart gasped and coughed while laying on the counter. It startled Cura, she moved over next to him. He looked over to her, feeling slightly comforted that he was not going to be tortured here.

Cura was nearly in tears, “I’m sorry… I can’t fully heal you…”

War Heart weakly nodded at her.

“I forgive you.”

Cura turned to Riff, “What?”

Riff walked over to them, “He said: I forgive you… And something about a weird guy talking to you… Who do you think he’s talking about?”

Cura looked back to War Heart, “I’m afraid you are going to have to try and heal yourself, War Heart…”

War Heart nodded again. He looked up to the ceiling and held his left hand in front of his face. He stared for a second, his veins glowed green before the flesh began to crawl along the bones and cover them. Skin began to form around his hand and cover it completely, finishing the reformation of his left hand. He sat up. His eyelids were healed back over his eyes. He opened his eyes and stared at his knee, watching the bones of his knee regenerate and the skin slither over and cover the wound. He saw that his right arm was fixed. He looked over to Cura, his lips regenerated before he spoke, “Thank you, Cura…”

Cura was looking at him, not quite sure if she could believe what she just saw. She cleared her throat, “You’re welcome…”, she said in a nervous tone.

War Heart got up off the counter.

“Dude… That was like… gross…”, Riff commented as he walked out of the room.

Cura took a deep breath and sighed, “That was… Unexpected…”

War Heart nodded at Cura, “Well, I showed you what I can do. Any idea on how I can?”

Cura shook her head, “I don’t have a clue… You’re a Winged One, not a Glow. This goes against everything that we know…”

War Heart sighed, “I have no idea how this magic works. I know that the guy I fought called it ‘Dead Magic.’”

Cura crossed her arms, “I’ve never heard of anything like that…”

“I’ve only been able to figure out how to heal myself so far. I saw that guy pull the bones out of those creatures in Manehattan. I think he is the one that rose them from the dead too. They moved on his command.”, War Heart explained to Cura.

“Perhaps you will figure out how to do this with time?”

War Heart nodded, “Maybe…”

Chapter 30

War Heart got up off the counter. He walked over to the couch that Cura had been sleeping on and laid down. He felt drained from regenerating his body so extensively, and from the torture session he had earlier. He kept thinking about the voice he heard when the doctor was out of the room. It sounded familiar but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Are you going to be okay…?”, Cura asked him, sitting by his side.

“I’ll live…”

Cura smiled slightly, “That’s good…”, she whispered as she went back to the kitchen. She noticed Trixie sleeping on the floor. She looked at her quizzically, “The magician from last night?”, she asked herself. She walked over to her and nudged her shoulder, waking her up.

Trixie groggily sat up and leaned against the wall. She yawned and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. She looked at Cura and snapped to attention when she noticed War Heart was gone, “What happened? Is he okay?”, she asked with genuine concern.

Cura nodded, “Yes, he’s all fixed up. He’s asleep now.”, Cura put her hand on Trixie’s to calm her down.

“I guess you’re the Doctor they told me about…”

Cura nodded again, “Yes, and you are ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’?”

Trixie sighed, “Yes… Well I was at least. It’s just a stage name for me nowadays…”

“Some thing tells me there is more to that name than one would expect.”, Cura leaned against the side of the counter while sitting on the floor across from Trixie.

“Well… A long time ago I used to travel around and show my magic to others. I figured I was the best at magic in Equestria and figured I’d make a living off it. That is how it started anyway.”, Trixie explained her beginnings to Cura.

“Go on…”

“Eventually I found myself in Ponyville. I was challenged to tasks that some of the others believed they were best at. One challenged me to using rope. She swung it around on her tail and proceeded to show off to the crowd. I tied her up using the very same rope. Another challenged me, a Pegasi with a rainbow mane. She performed some aerial stunts and I embarrassed her in front of everyone. It kept going that way and I boasted my power, claiming I had defeated an Ursa Major.”, Trixie sighed, “That one really backfired… Two colts decided to go and lure an Ursa into town. I couldn’t stop it. Then that Twilight Sparkle ended up showing great prowess with her magic and returned it to its cave. She turned everyone against me by calling me out on my boasts… I ran out of town. I was angry at her for so long. I was ruined so I came to Las Pegasus. I signed up to work for the clubs as an entertainer. Soon I found out that Entertainer meant something… Different than what I was thinking… But I signed a contract so I was forced to stay. The managers had started to beat me in the last while… I lost all sense of self worth… I was a broken shell of my former self…” Trixie shook her head, “I feel like such an idiot for the way I acted before… belittling people in front of others. I wish I could have taken it all back.”

“I’ve met Twilight before. I was almost able to call her a friend at one point.”

“You know her? How is she lately? Probably a high position of power…”

“Quite the opposite. She… did something. She is now shunned for the act she committed.”

Trixie gasped in shock, “What did she do?”

“Well… to make a long story short: She had War Heart believe that they were a couple and that his family didn’t exist. They… had done things…”

Trixie was shocked at what she had heard, “That’s terrible.”

“I know… She took advantage of his confused state. I do remember her saying something about how she spent years trying to get him back. I remember coming back to Ponyville and I performed the surgery myself. He was missing for three years before he returned to Ponyville, broken and wingless.”

“You can make Pegasi grow their wings back?”

Cura shook her head, “I wasn’t able to give his wings back. I didn’t see him again until after he died…”

“… What?”

“I know, I know… I said he died and I meant it. He was killed by Discord. In later months, Twilight Sparkle brought him to me. I examined him and his body did strange things. It had no pulse and no warmth. Right now his body emits a strange magic that I have never encountered before. I wish I could ask him, but even he doesn’t know anything about his past. It has been rough on him to remember a lifetime in the little time he has been back.”

Trixie’s jaw hung open and her eyes wide, “This… is a lot to take. I never knew that he has been through so much…”

“You wouldn’t think he had feelings unless you see him actually express them for once. I’ve seen him at his best times… and his worst… I’ve seen him brutalise a dragon, and cry when he thought that he lost his friends. He is very strong, and it scared me at how furious he looked when fighting. Eventually I learned that he would never lay a hand on me, even in rage.”

“I guess he is a knight in shining armor.”

“You should meet his daughter though, she was… odd. I only met her after her War Heart died. She was so… emotionless when she spoke. I tried to give her psychological help which I assumed that it worked but I don’t know. She apparently had a real talent for magic, she was Twilight’s student until she disappeared the very day that Celestia was murdered by Discord.”

“I heard of that… I was surprised that the sun didn’t stop moving across the sky every day afterwards.”

“The thing that bugs me is that Arcana disappeared the same day. Eventually Canterlot was attacked-”

“By rebels?”

“No… the civil war is over. There is a new threat to face.”

Trixie was taken aback, confused that the war ended and nobody in Las Pegasus had heard of it.

Cura spoke again, “The castle was attacked by these creatures. They looked like people but they were dead. They moved and acted like animals. They attacked the populace which was sealed in. War Heart got me and Twilight outside the walls and we went to Ponyville. We found Arcana, War Heart’s Daughter, there. I wondered at the back of my mind, why she would leave the day Celestia was murdered.”

“Perhaps she did not want to be the next victim? Or perhaps she murdered the princess?”, Trixie made a mocking suggestion.

“She’s very young. Exceptionally talented but I doubt she could rival the princess in magic. Anyway, I met War Heart’s partner, Rainbow Dash, in Ponyville that day.”

“Oh…”

“Hm?”

“I guess I embarrassed his girlfriend in public then…”

“I’m sure she won’t hold a grudge… “

“If you say so…”

The two were interrupted by Riff who walked into the room, “You guys… I keep hearing someone talking…”

Trixie looked at Cura, wondering if Riff was serious.

Cura sighed, “Riff, it’s only me and Trixie talking.”

Riff shook his head, “Nah, I keep hearing some dude talking.”

Cura raised an eyebrow at him, “Uh… I don’t know what you’re hearing then…”

Trixie whispered to Cura, making sure Riff couldn’t hear her, “Is he slow?”

Riff looked at Trixie, “Yeah, I guess.”

Trixie looked at him with surprise in her expression, “How did you-?”

Cura interjected, “He can read your thoughts… I have yet to figure out how he does it but it seems pretty safe with him.”

Riff sat down next to them, “So what are you guys talkin’ about?”

Cura motioned over to the couch, “War Heart.”

Riff turned to the couch and then turned back to the girls, “Oh, he must have got hammered last night.”, Riff commented with a casual smile.

Cura cringed, knowing that the hole in War Heart’s knee was probably caused by a hammer and nail, “I guess you could say that…”

Riff nodded his head, “Awesome, sounds like he had fun. I heard you got pretty smashed yourself.”

“I was… very intoxicated last night.”

Riff turned to Trixie, “… I don’t remember who you are…”

“I’m Trixie. War Heart saved me from… Well that is in the past now…”

“Okay, I’m Riff, The Wraith.”

“That sounds… Familiar… Somehow.”, Trixie replied.

“Wraith is my stage name. I’m in a metal band, Ghosts of the Guilty Mare.”

“Ohhhh, yes, I’ve heard of you guys. “, Trixie nodded.

“Really?”

Trixie shook her head with a bored expression, “No…”

“Oh… That’s cool too.”, Riff nodded again, keeping his casual smile despite Trixie’s sarcasm.

Cura spoke up, “Riff, you said you heard a man speaking?”

“Yeah, dude sounded kind of creepy. Kept on saying weird things to… I think it might have been me…?”

“What kind of things did he say?”, Cura asked.

Riff was about to recall what the man’s voice said. He stopped as he took a deep breath, struggling to recall the words. His smile remained as he told them, “I don’t remember… It was like… hours ago… Right before I started talking to you guys…”

Cura covered her face with her hand, “Riff…”

“Yeah?”

“That was two minutes ago…”

“Oh… Guess I lost track of time.”

Cura shook her head, “Never mind.”

“Never do.”, Riff declared with his usual expression.

“Is he on something?”, Trixie asked Cura.

Cura shook her head, “According to his friends, this is the way he has always acted. His personality is… Interesting. His ability is impressive though: both the reading thoughts and projecting his own.”

Trixie looked at Riff quizzically then turned to Cura, “Are you serious?”

Cura nodded, “Absolutely.”

Riff put his hands into positions as if he were holding a guitar. His veins glowed brightly.

Trixie looked at him and wondered what he was doing.

Riff moved his right hand down gently, a strum on his imaginary guitar. It made a sound that Trixie could hear, which fascinated her.

War Heart immediately sat up holding his head, “Son of a birch!”, he shouted as his head rang with pain.

Riff slowly turned to War Heart, “Sorry, Dude, did I wake you up?”

Cura looked at War Heart, wondering what woke him up and what could be giving him head pain.

Trixie was rather startled at the sound of War Heart shouting.

War Heart shook his head as looked down in his lap, seeing another playing card. The card had another letter on it, ‘A.’ War Heart turned to the others sitting in the kitchen. He then laid down again, trying to go back to sleep.

Riff turned off his magic, “So yeah, That’s what I can do.”, he said while nodding.

Trixie nodded slowly, “That is… quite a gift…”, she wasn’t sure if she should find this power impressive or intimidating.

Riff stared off into space with a quizzical expression on his face.

Cura looked at him curiously, “Is something wrong, Riff?”

“I’m like… Hearin’ things… And stuff…”, he responded to Cura in his far off tone.

“What do you hear, Riff?”, Cura asked with some concern.

“These people are holding you back from what you are…”, he droned.

Trixie turned to Cura, wondering if this was normal.

Cura turned to Trixie, she shrugged and continued listening to Riff.

“What if I don’t want to be like that? I don’t even know who you are!”, Riff shouted.

Cura and Trixie jumped from hearing Riff raise his voice.

“You will find out in time. What’s important now is you keep going. You’re weak, you need to become stronger… I am stronger… Events from last night say otherwise… Just stop talking to me, I’ve had enough of this… And what will you do? Break me? You’re pathetic…”, Riff snapped back to attention. He seemed to be dizzy and disoriented, “Whoa… I think I need to lie down…”, he said to Trixie and Cura as he stood up and left the room.

Cura looked to Trixie, “That was… Strange.”

“Without a doubt…”

Vinyl poked her head in from around the corner, “Hey, guys, what’s going on?”

Cura took a deep breath before speaking, “Well… We heard Riff have a conversation… With himself.”

“Oh… that.”, Vinyl walked over and sat with Cura and Trixie on the floor. She sighed, “He constantly hears people’s thoughts… Sometimes he just blurts out what he hears. I don’t think he even realises it though.”

Cura thought on the things that Riff said, “I think it may have been War Heart he was hearing…”

Trixie looked to Cura, “He was having a conversation with himself? One of them said that they didn’t know the other’s name.”

“Maybe there are fragments of War Heart’s memory that persist somehow… Images that have no labels and therefore he can’t tap into those memories… It explains why he couldn’t remember the names of many people he once knew but remembered when he looked directly at them and heard their name.”, Cura explained.

“But who is he talking to then?”, Trixie asked.

“I don’t know… but I do know he has been seeing a particular person. He didn’t describe it but I don’t think he ever said they spoke before…”, Cura replied.

Vinyl turned to the couch where War Heart was sleeping, “Wow… gotta feel bad for the guy… He seems okay but… I guess doing all this stuff is taking its toll on him.”

Cura sighed, “He has had… A rough time for the last little while.”

Vinyl looked to Cura with a bit of concern, “You don’t think he’ll… you know… snap?”

“He is much too bull headed to break at the whims of a hallucination… I hope…”

War Heart sat up quickly, breathing heavily as if something had frightened him.

They all turned to him, surprised at his sudden movement.

War Heart took a moment to collect himself, covering his face with his hand.

“You okay, War Heart?”, Cura asked.

“I’m fine… Just a bad dream…”, he replied.

Cura nodded slowly and stood up. She walked over to him, “Now… What have we learned about going out after bad guys?”

“That I should take my time with them… Make it real slow…”, he spoke in a slightly joyful tone.

Cura backed away from War Heart, “War Heart… I think you should lie down…”

War Heart chuckled, “I think I’ll be just fine…”, he stood up and faced the window going outside.

“War Heart… You’re not yourself… Just lie down and take a second to calm down…”, Cura spoke slowly and clearly. In the back of her mind she knew that there was really nothing she could force him to do.

Trixie and Vinyl were both standing in the kitchen, afraid to move lest his attention turn on them.

“I know I’m not myself… I feel…”, War Heart took in a deep breath, “… Stronger… I feel like being what I really am…”

“What are you talking about, War Heart? What do you think you are?”, Cura asked fearfully.

War Heart turned to Cura and smiled, “A monster.”, he whispered as he grabbed the couch and threw it into the window, smashing it through the glass and letting it fall to the street below. He dove out the window and fell down to the street below, slowing his descent with his wings.

Cura ran towards the window and looked down onto the street below.

War Heart looked at the crowds that saw him descend to the ground. He had a sadistic smile as he stared at each one. He noticed one man in a tuxedo, a faint green glow of the dead magic inside them. He walked over towards him slowly, his wings spread to make him look more menacing than usual. He grabbed the man by the arm and tossed him into the middle of the street. He chuckled, “All right, let’s see what you got… I want you to try and take me down!”

The man stood up slowly, obviously aware of War Heart’s inhuman strength. He trembled, knowing he was out of his league.

“And don’t you even try running… Or I’ll rip out your spine…”, War Heart laughed at the idea of doing such a thing.

The man couldn’t think of anything he could do. He stood there, frozen in fear at the creature before him.

War Heart’s smile turned into an expression of anger. He walked towards the man, “If you won’t hit first, I will!”, he shouted as he kicked out the man’s leg, breaking it backwards at the knee. War Heart grinned as he heard the man scream in pain and hold his now broken leg. War Heart looked at his hand and thought for a moment. He concentrated on his fingertips, his blood glowed green. The bones in his fingertips extended into sharp points, he chuckled at the discovery of his new power. He jabbed his fingers into the man’s chest, ripping through his flesh and piercing his lungs. He retracted his claws from the man and watched his lungs fill with blood. War Heart stomped on the man’s chest, breaking ribs and spurting blood out the man’s mouth. As life faded from the man, the dead magic flowed into War Heart. He took a deep breath and enjoyed the feeling of power. He turned to the crowds to see them all terrified of what they had seen. War Heart grinned at them for a moment then screamed at them in a lust of blood. The crowd turned from him and started running away. War Heart chuckled as they ran from him, feeling high off of their fear.

Cura turned to the others after War Heart dove out the window, “Crusaders!”, she shouted.

Sweetie opened her eyes, “Initializing Processes.”, she stood up and turned to Cura, “What is the nature of your emergency?”, she inquired in her digital tone.

“War Heart is out on the street, he’s going crazy!”

“Lethal Force Authorization?”

“Don’t kill him! Just bring him down!”

“Affirmative. Initializing Retrieval.”, Sweetie said as she sprinted towards the window and dove out.

Cura had a shocked expression as Sweetie dove out the window, thinking it was pure suicide.

War Heart was about to take off after the civilians before he heard a crash from behind him. He turned around to see a cloud of dust.

Sweetie Belle emerged from the dust, a small crater where she landed. She looked straight at War Heart, “Target: War Heart. Combat Proficiency: Dangerous. Escalating to Threat Level Two.”, her eyes glowed red. She changed into a combat stance, “Initializing combat protocols.”, she announced in a deep digital tone.

War Heart chuckled, “Looks like the little one think she can take me down…”, he cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the battle.

“Initiate Subdual Protocol Five…”, Sweetie announced as she sprinted towards War Heart. She leapt into the air, aiming to kick War Heart in the head. Her flying kick was interrupted as War Heart grabbed her leg and shifted sideways. He swung her around and tossed her aside. Sweetie rolled along the ground a few feet before bouncing up and landing on her feet.

War Heart sprinted at her with a wild look in his eye, an expression on his face that only showed an excitement for battle. He readied his claws and swung his right arm at Sweetie.

“Initiate Subdual Defense Protocol Three.”, she announced as she grabbed hold of War Heart’s wrist and thrust her other hand into the back of his elbow, breaking his arm.

War Heart screamed in pain and anger, he reacted by taking a jab to Sweetie’s facing, dead magic surging out of his arm and forcing Sweetie to stumble back a few feet. War Heart’s knuckles bled from the impact, the bones in his hands shattered from the blow. He wrenched his arm back into place, grunting at the pain and then smiled at Sweetie, “This is gonna be good…”

Sweetie watched as he fixed his arm, “No Substantial Damage Afflicted. Reinitializing Lethal Authorisation.”, she declared.

“Say wha-”, War Heart’s thought was interrupted as Sweetie slid under him and kicked out his legs. He did not fall to the floor as Sweetie immediately rose and held him up.

“Initiate Attack Protocol Twenty Three…”, she declared as she started to bend War Heart in half.

War Heart could feel the pressure on his spine building, he tried to resist. His regular strength seemed to not be enough to break out of her grasp, but enough to keep it at a stalemate. He twisted his body around and swung his elbow into Sweetie’s arm, forcing her to let him go. He dropped to the floor, the pressure leaving a sore point in his spine. He stood and faced Sweetie, grinning. He panted from the tough fight she was giving him while she stood staring at him, motionless. He chuckled, “You’re tough, kid, but I’m-”, his taunting was interrupted as something grabbed his arms. He turned his head to see Apple Bloom holding his right arm and Scootaloo holding his left.

In the instant that War Heart was looking away, Sweetie quickly moved in towards him. She grabbed his shoulders, “Initiate Subdual Attack Protocol One”, she announced in her digital tone as she swung her head back and then smashed her forehead into War Heart’s. She saw that he was unconscious now.

Apple Bloom was breathing heavily, “What the heck happened?!”

Scootaloo shrugged, “I don’t know…”, she and Apple Bloom started dragging War Heart back to the elevator, Sweetie trailing behind them.

They brought War Heart back to the hotel room, laying him down on the floor with Sweetie Belle keeping close in case he had to be restrained when he woke up.

War Heart slowly opened his eyes, he groaned at the headache that greeted him, “Ugh… Was I hit by a train or something?”, he looked beside him to see Cura standing a few feet away. She seemed fearful of him, “What’s wrong…?”

Cura looked at him with a shocked expression, “You don’t remember… You jumped out the window and killed a man. We had to restrain you… Violently.”

War Heart put a hand on his head, his face showing an expression of disbelief, “I thought it was a dream… I watched as it happened… It was all him…”

“Who?”, Cura asked, she thought she already had some idea of who it was.

“I don’t know his name… He has never talked before until after I was…”, he paused for a moment as he recalled being tortured, “… Last night…”

Cura thought for a moment, “Perhaps the traumatic event caused you to make your hallucination more realistic. Creating a personality that is violent as a defense mechanism…”

War Heart had no clue what she was talking about, “I just want him to leave me alone… I can’t escape hi-”, he stopped speaking as he looked up to see DeadBeast standing next to Cura, smiling at War Heart. War Heart glared at him, “Just leave me alone!”

Cura jumped as War Heart shouted, “War Heart… I’m trying to help you…”

War Heart pointed at DeadBeast, “Not you, Him! He’s taunting me…”

Everyone in the room was becoming unsettled by War Heart’s outbursts, all filing out of the room except for Cura, the crusaders, and War Heart.

Cura walked over to War Heart, “I know it’s hard… But you have to try and ignore him… I told you that it will only get worse if you interact with it.”

DeadBeast chuckled and then spoke to War Heart, “If she had any idea of what you really are, she would fear you. Nobody wants to help you, they only want to make you weak so they can be safer…”

War Heart’s expression grew furious, he glared at DeadBeast with an intense hatred.

Cura turned War Heart’s head towards her, forcing him to look into her eyes. She pressed her forehead against his, “War Heart… You need to ignore him… He will only have more power over you if you keep talking to him or act on his presence.”

“She’s a weakness… Kill her… Or I will.”, DeadBeast threatened.

War Heart was still looking at Cura, “He says he’s going to kill you…”

“He can’t do anything to anyone, War Heart. You need to understand that it is all in your head.”, Cura explained.

“It’s all in my head…”, War Heart whispered to himself.

DeadBeast rolled his eyes, “Forget it, I’m out. See you soon, if you can keep yourself alive that long, Wretch.”, DeadBeast said as he left the room.

“He’s gone…”, War Heart whispered.

Cura smiled, “See? He can’t do anything…”

War Heart nodded unenthusiastically, “I guess so…”

Chapter 31

War Heart looked to the now shattered window of the suite. He sighed that the group was now in danger of being found by the ones who hold the dead magic. He turned to Cura, “I need you guys to leave this place and find somewhere else to hide…”

Cura nodded, “I’ll talk to Vinyl about it…”

“Talk to me about what?”, Vinyl asked as she walked into the room.

Cura turned to Vinyl, “We need to relocate…”

“What? Why?”

War Heart spoke up, “Those people now know where we are most likely… I’ll stay here and wait for them… I don’t want you guys in danger when they show up…”

Vinyl nodded slowly, “Maybe we’ll get a couple rooms on the lower floors…”

Cura stood up, “I guess we should go take care of that.”, she walked over to the elevator with Vinyl. She waved to War Heart, “See you later.”

War Heart sat on the floor staring out to the city through the broken window.

“Heard about the relocation… You aren’t going to be alone in here.”, Scootaloo stated from behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around to see the young woman looking down at him, “You guys will be looking after the others.”, he said as he looked at his fingers, the bones still sharpened into claws.

Scoot took notice of his fingers, “What’s with your hand?”

War Heart shrugged, “I guess it’s one of the things I can do…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I’m dealing with the idea of being able to use magic.”

“Really? How does that work?”

“Apparently there is this Dead Magic. I don’t know what it is exactly but I’m able to use it because I was made by the same magic. I absorb it from people and monsters that have it. That guy you saw me kill in Manehattan, I took the same magic from him too. It’s possible that I will be able to use his powers with practice… But I have no idea how to use magic properly, so it is coming along slowly.”

“… You lost me at the part where you said you were ‘made by the same magic’?”

“Yeah, apparently I was killed and brought back by this Dead Magic.”

“Wow…”

War Heart sighed, “I guess the only thing I can do is keep going, keep fighting, and keep protecting what I can.”

Scoot went silent and nodded. She turned around and walked towards the area where everyone else was staying. She entered the room to see the several giant beds all riddled with people. She walked over to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, “Guys, looks like we’re moving out of the suite. The commander is going to stay and wait for enemies. Our mission is to guard the rest of the group.”

Apple Bloom nodded, “All right. I’m surprised he wants to do this alone, though… After what they put him through especially…”

Scoot nodded back, “Yeah… Can’t tell if he’s freaked out or not… He said that all he can do is keep on fighting.”

Apple Bloom rose one of her eyebrows, “How long do ya think he’s been doin’ stuff like this?”

“Well… I guess a little over six years… Ever since that dragon in Ponyville.”

“I’m surprised he isn’t dead yet…”

“He already did die.”

“What? Now yer pullin’ mah leg.”

“He told me himself.”

“What the heck is up with him?”

“Well… Unlucky for one. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes… Sweetie, why don’t you go downstairs and keep an eye on the Doc and Vinyl.”

Sweetie Belle stood up, “Affirmative.”, she droned and she walked out of the room and into the elevator. She waited for a while before the elevator doors opened. She walked out to the lobby to see Vinyl and Cura talking with the clerk.

“Come on, we need some new rooms.”, Vinyl pleaded with the clerk.

“I’m sorry, but your party vandalised our suite. Either stay there or leave the hotel. You are lucky we are not just kicking you out.”, The clerk replied.

Sweetie approached the counter next to Cura and Vinyl, “What is the situation?”, she inquired in her digital tone.

Cura turned to Sweetie, “He won’t let us have another room.”

Sweetie turned to the clerk and back to Cura, “Aggressive Diplomatic Authorisation?”

Cura looked at Sweetie quizzically, “Uh… Okay?”

Sweetie turned to the Clerk and quickly grabbed his hand from over the counter.

“What are you doing?!”, the clerk asked in a panicked tone.

Sweetie turned to Cura and Vinyl, “State your demands.”

Vinyl snapped to attention, “Oh, right. We need a new room.”

“I’m sorry we can’t give you a new-”, the Clerk was interrupted by Sweetie squeezing his hand with force he did not expect. He cringed in pain as Sweetie broke some bones in his hand, “On second thought, you can have room number 641 on the sixth floor!”, he spoke without hesitation.

Sweetie released his hand, “Diplomatic Protocols Disengaged.”

The Clerk dropped a key on the counter with a tag on it that read ‘641’.

Vinyl picked up the key, “Thanks…”, she said before heading towards the elevator with Cura and Sweetie.

A woman stood in the lobby, watching Sweetie Belle and the other two go into the elevator. When the doors closed she walked over to the elevator, watching the numbers above the door as they went to the top floor. She smiled and spoke in a sultry tone, “Excellent…”

Cura, Vinyl, and Sweetie went back up to the room. They passed War Heart and went into the room that everyone was staying. They started telling everyone about the situation.

War Heart sat in the main room, still looking out the window. He heard a whistling sound coming from the roof outside. He turned to the door and stood up, “What was that…?”, he asked himself as he walked towards the door. He opened it to see a woman in a black dress standing on the edge of the roof. Her hair was a silvery colour and her eyes were green. War Heart closed the door behind him as he walked out onto the roof, “What are you?”, he asked, seeing the obvious glowing green light emanating from her.

She chuckled, “You are definitely a difficult one to dispose of…”, she stated, completely ignoring War Heart’s question. She walked towards him slowly, “You see, I am one of the Dead Masters… Master of Blood.”

War Heart glared at the Dead Master, “So you’re the one putting the Dead Magic into these people…”

“And you’re the one that killed my brother, my neonates, and made a scene in my city. You wield my brother’s power with no prowess or finesse like he did.”

War Heart felt a burning sensation on his neck.

“Oh, you feel that, huh? That’s because you’re marked.”, she grinned to show off pointed fangs, “I can do so much with my power over blood, like this.”, she snapped her fingers.

War Heart cringed as he felt searing pain in his neck. He was brought to his hands and knees. He felt extremely nauseous.

The Blood Master walked up to War Heart, “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

War Heart felt some kind of substance begin bubbling in his gut and force its way up his esophagus. He retched and then began to vomit up blood.

“What’s the matter? Not feeling so swell?”, she asked mockingly as she kicked War Heart in the ribs.

War Heart fell over on his side, continuing to take punishment from the Master of Blood.

She knelt down beside him, “I thought you would’ve lasted longer. What a shame…”, she shook her head in disappointment. She placed her hand on his chest.

War Heart looked at her hand to see the Dead Magic pouring out of him and into her. His vision blurred as it left him weakened. Everything grew dark as the last of it poured out of him.

The Master of Blood stood up, feeling the power of the Dead Magic strengthen her. She chuckled as she basked in the feeling of all the magic. She heard the door to the main room open. She turned around quickly to see Sweetie Belle walk out and close the door behind her. The Blood Master chuckled again, “Run along, young one. You don’t have to die today.”

Sweetie looked down at War Heart, “ID: Commander, Status: Deceased.”, she looked at the Master of Blood, “Target: High Profile, Danger Levels: High, Escalating to Threat Level Two.”, Sweetie droned as her eyes began to glow red and her voice grow deep in tone. She went into a fighting stance facing the Master of Blood.

The Dead Master smirked, “You think you can kill me because you can make your eyes glow?”, she cracked her knuckles.

“Initiate Attack Protocol One.”, Sweetie charged at her and swung a punch towards her chest. Her fist stopped as the Blood Master caught Sweetie’s hand.

“And now I’ll drain the life from you…”, the Dead Master announced as she tried to drain the life force from Sweetie. She was surprised when Sweetie was not growing weaker at all, “How are you…?”

“Target Strength: Critical, Escalating to Threat Level Three: Maximum Power. Deleting Combat Protocols, Engaging Reactive Procedures.”, Sweetie announced as her veins began to glow bright blue. She grabbed the Master of Blood’s arm and swung her in a circle, releasing her to send her flying across the roof.

The Blood Master landed on her feet gracefully, “Looks like you have a few tricks up your sleeve…”, she said to herself before sprinting towards Sweetie.

Sweetie charged at her, swinging a punch at her head to contact nothing but air.

Blood Master ducked under Sweetie’s punch, extending some bone claws from her fingers and swinging them at Sweetie as she turned around.

Sweetie grabbed The Dead Master’s wrist and squeezed, making a crunching sound as the bones broke. Sweetie smashed her forehead into the Blood Master’s, making the Dead Master stumble back a few feet.

Blood Master shook her head and healed the bones in her wrist. She glared at Sweetie’s emotionless expression. She quickly ran over to War Heart and threw him off the roof. She smirked as Sweetie ran towards the edge of the roof.

Sweetie sprinted towards the edge of the roof, and towards the Blood Master. She got in close and tackled the Blood Master, who had a look of surprise as Sweetie pushed her off the edge. Sweetie wrapped her arms around the Dead Master, her arms tight against her body as they both fell head first towards the ground below. Sweetie shifted her body, making the two of them rotate on their way down. As they were two floors away from the ground, Sweetie threw the Dead Master towards the ground. Sweetie shifted again and landed on her feet, leaving an indent in the street where she landed. She looked over to the Dead Master, who was in a broken and crumpled heap on the pavement. She squirmed as she tried to get back up. Sweetie walked over to her, she crouched down and grabbed the Dead Master by the head and started pushing her thumbs into her eyes. The Dead Master screamed and writhed as her eyes burst. She was still alive from that, Sweetie placed her hand on the Blood Master’s face, muffling the screams and began pushing down with incredible force, caving in the Master’s skull and silencing her once and for all. Sweetie stood up and looked over to War Heart’s broken body which was only mere meters away. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his chest, “No Pulse detected. Status: Deceased. Confirmed.”, she said as she started dragging him towards the entrance to the hotel. She only got to the body of the Blood Master’s body before War Heart gasped. Sweetie turned to him to see him slowly breathing, “Status: Alive.”, she stated as she let him go.

War Heart felt the Dead Magic returning to him. His body started to repair itself. He felt something strange as he grew fangs. He sat up and shook his head, “How did I get here?”

“You were thrown from the roof in combat.”, Sweetie answered, her veins no longer glowing, eyes back to normal and her voice was no longer menacing.

War Heart continued to take deep breaths and looked over to the Blood Master’s corpse and sighed, “At least that’s over…”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sat waiting for Sweetie to come back. Apple Bloom stood up, sick of waiting, “I’m gonna go find what’s keepin’ her.”, she told Scoot.

Scoot nodded to her and proceeded to sharpen her knives.

Apple Bloom stepped outside and into the main room, closing the door behind her. She walked to the middle of the floor, noticing nobody was in the room, not even War Heart, “Where the heck did they go?”, she asked herself as she heard the door to the elevator open. She walked to the elevator, expecting it was War Heart or Sweetie, “You know you outta’ tell us you were goin’ somewh-”, she looked into the elevator to see three men in black robes and hoods, one of them swinging his fist into her face before she could react. The force was enough to knock her off her feet and out of consciousness.

Scoot heard a thud from the other room, she looked at the door quizzically. She stood up and walked over to the door, stepping out into the main room to see Apple Bloom on the floor. She ran over to Apple Bloom and knelt next to her, “She must’ve fain-”, she couldn’t finish her sentence as one of the hooded men snuck up on her and hit her on the back of the head. She faded quickly before flopping onto the floor.

Riff was in the room with everyone else, he glided along the minds of everyone in the room. He soon heard another voice he didn’t recognize. He turned to the door, now not hearing Scoot or Apple Bloom’s thoughts. He squinted at the door and stood up. He walked over to the door. Everybody at the moment was either asleep or busy talking. He opened the door to see the three man standing over Scoot and Apple Bloom. He closed the door behind him, “Hey guys, How’s it going?”, he asked in his usual casual spacey tone.

The three man all snapped their gaze towards Riff in unison. They remained silent as they stared at him.

“Something the matter?”, Riff asked, still in his usual tone. He began to hear their thoughts again, ‘We’ll have to move quick and neutralise this guy…’, Riff thought for a second, “What does neutralise mean?”, he asked them.

One of the hooded ones looked at his comrades who returned the same look of confusion.

Riff continued to hear their thoughts, ‘What is this guy doing…?’, Riff looked at them with a confused expression, “I don’t know, what are you doing?” Their thoughts continued, ‘Can he hear our thoughts?’, Riff smiled, “Yeah, it’s pretty metal.”

All the men in cloaks looked at each other. One started walking up to Riff.

Riff looked at him, not hearing his thoughts at the moment, “What’s up m-”, he stopped speaking as the hooded man grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off his feet. Riff choked and was unable to breath, his eyes widened and his veins began to glow.

The hooded man cringed as his head felt like it was splitting open. He fell to his knees, releasing Riff who was coughing from being strangled.

Riff gasped for air, “Not cool… Man…”

The other two men in cloaks looked at each other, wondering why their comrade collapsed.

The man that attacked Riff stood up and looked at him in anger. He rose up to strike Riff.

Riff reacted instinctively, his veins glowing brightly as the man collapsed to the floor, holding his head in agony.

The man writhed on the floor as Riff stared at him. He felt a sharp ringing in his mind that would shatter glass. His eyes, ears, and nose bled. He soon fainted from the pain that was wrought on him.

Riff stopped glowing when the man stopped moving, “Whoa, man…”, Riff looked frightened as he turned to the other two men that watched their comrade fall before them.

The two men slowly backed away towards the elevator, knowing that they will probably share their comrade’s fate if they tried anything. They entered the elevator and closed the doors, descending to the ground floor.

Riff was breathing heavily, still freaked out over what happened. He soon spaced out and stared at the ceiling, regaining his regular composure.

Vinyl poked her head out the door, she saw Riff sitting on the floor in front of a hooded guy with blood coming out of his eyes, ears, and nose. She ran over to Riff, “Are you okay, Riff?”, she asked quickly in concern.

Riff took a few seconds before he looked at Vinyl, “Oh hey, when did you get here?”, he asked as if nothing happened.

“Riff, Who is that guy?”, she asked a she pointed to the hooded man on the floor.

Riff stared at him for a few seconds, “A dude…?”

Vinyl sighed, knowing she wouldn’t get much else from him. She walked over to the other room and opened the door, “Hey, doc, we got some injured in here.”, she called out to Cura, who ran out into the main room to see two of the Crusaders and a hooded stranger on the floor.

Cura mainly directed her attention to the stranger, “Who is this…? And what happened to him?”, she asked aloud.

Vinyl stood beside her with arms crossed, “Well… I don’t know who it is… As for your second question…”, she motioned over to Riff, “Riff did that…”

Cura looked at Vinyl with a confused expression, “Excuse me? HE did it? I don’t recall him being the violent type.”

Vinyl took a deep breath, “You know how he can project his thoughts? Well when he gets scared, for example when someone actually attacks him physically, he freaks out and uses that power. At that point… I’ll let Spectre explain. Hey Spectre!”

Spectre walked over to Cura and Vinyl, “Yes?”

“Tell the Doc here when you made the mistake of actually hitting Riff.”, Vinyl told her.

Spectre rolled her eyes, “Yeah, he was being an idiot during practice and I got so pissed I decided to take a swing. He freaked out and I felt this ringing in my head and I ended up in the hospital for a week.”

Cura had a look of concern, “And you didn’t think I should be aware of this?”

Vinyl shrugged, “You never asked. Plus, why would anyone in the group actually attack Riff?”

“’cause he‘s an idiot…”, Spectre muttered in a grudging tone.

Vinyl looked at Spectre and shook her head, “Who’s the bigger idiot? The idiot? Or the one who got beaten by him?”

Spectre chuckled sarcastically and turned to go back into the room they were hanging out in, holding her middle finger up towards Vinyl.

Vinyl shook her head, “Yeah, she can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.”

Cura nodded, “I guess… I’m curious how he managed to sneak up on the crusaders and not Riff.”

Vinyl smirked, “He is impossible to sneak up on. He hears your thoughts before you can actually get the drop on him. He was the best at the game ‘Red Light Green Light’ as a kid. He always knew when they were going to say red light way before they said it. Of course, we didn’t know he could read minds back then, and he didn’t understand it either. Of course he did manage to get through most of school by cheating on every test that he took. He thought he was just pulling the answers out of his own head. They eventually tested him and found out he was cheating by reading minds. So he was failed and he dropped out of school to join his sister’s band.”

Cura sighed and walked over to the Crusaders, “I swear, this journey is only getting more insane as we go…”

War Heart and Sweetie Belle were heading towards the hotel, walking through the lobby and towards the elevator. The elevator door opened and two men with black robes and hoods stood in the elevator. The men froze at the sight of War Heart.

War Heart looked down at them, “You stay put…”, he said as he and Sweetie stepped into the elevator and closed the doors.

The two men stood frozen and wide-eyed on the way up, no idea of what their fate will be when the reach the top.

The doors opened to Cura examining the Crusaders who were sitting against the counter, unconscious.

War Heart pushed the hooded men forward then made them kneel in the middle of the floor.

Sweetie walked over to the other Crusaders.

War Heart looked down at the two men with his arms crossed, “Now… You are going to tell me who you are… And why you were here.”

The two men looked at each other and then removed their hoods to reveal their faces. Their mouths were stitched closed and their skin was pale. They were completely bald and their ears were pointed. Their eyes were yellow and had a certain predatory look to them.

“Hmm…”, War Heart grabbed one of the men and dragged him over to Riff, “Were you sent here to kill us?”, he asked the man.

“Yes.”, Riff muttered.

War Heart nodded slowly, “I guess this gives me a chance to use my new powers…”, he said to himself as he looked at the Dead Magic within the robed man. He put a hand on his shoulder. The Dead Magic started flowing out of the robed man and into War Heart.

The man grew wide-eyed as his body decayed in front of him. His vision faded to black as the last of the Dead Magic that was keeping him alive was consumed.

War Heart smirked and released the man’s shoulder. He looked around to see Cura, Vinyl, and Riff all staring at him oddly, “What?”, he asked aloud and rhetorically. He turned to the one that was still kneeling in the middle of the floor. He walked over to the man and took hold of his shoulder, draining the Dead Magic from him like he did with the other one. The man shrivelled up in a desiccated heap on the floor. He could hear whispers that seemed not to come from inside the room, but from everywhere in the city. He looked towards the window.

“What are you doing…?”, Cura asked.

“I have an idea to get all of the ones with Dead Magic in the city…”, he replied.

“And how are you going to do-”, she watched as War Heart jumped out the broken window before she could finish her sentence, “… that.”, she concluded in an annoyed tone.

War Heart glided down to the street, not making as much of a scene this time. He closed his eyes and heard the whispers again. He repeated in his head over and over again, ‘Show yourselves, come to me.’, he thought over and over again.

The whispers went silent as people started walking out of buildings all over the place and begin to surround War Heart. They all looked confused when they realised that the whisper that was strong enough o reach all of them was not from the Blood Master, but they could not resist his call.

War Heart looked around at all the people around him, there were dozens of people from almost every area of Las Pegasus. People in suits, vacation clothes and casual clothes. He saw that they were all holding some of the Dead Magic. He closed his eyes and held out his arms from his sides. His veins glowed green as he clapped his hands together. Everyone around him fell to the ground in agony, a mark burning on their necks as if they were set ablaze. He watched as they all writhed in the street, puking up blood and whatever they had in their stomachs. They all began to fade from life completely dropping dead as they puked up too much blood. The Dead Magic poured out of them and floated toward War Heart. He took a deep breath as he took in the massive amount of power, now able to enjoy the feeling even more then before.

Cura went back to examining the Crusaders after War Heart jumped out the window. It was about a minute before the man started writhing on the floor as if in agony. Cura watched as he futilely tried to crawl away from the pain.

“Kill me…”, Riff stated while looking at the man that was on the floor.

Cura shook her head, “I can’t… I’m a doctor, I took an oath to do no harm…”

Sweetie walked over to the man and put her hand on the back of his neck. The man froze as she put her hand on him. Sweetie quickly twisted her hand, a small crack could be heard as she broke his neck. She stood up and turned to Cura who cringed at the noise of the man’s neck breaking.

War Heart entered the room through the window. He took a deep breath, “It’s done… All the Dead Magic in this city is gone…”, he looked down at the robed man on the floor, seeing some remaining Dead Magic in him and draining it by merely standing near him.

Cura looked at War Heart, “Did you do this…?”, she pointed to the robed man.

War Heart looked down at him and then back to Cura who seemed a bit upset, “Yes.”, he stated plainly.

“Do you know what his dying thoughts were?”

“No.”

“He asked for us to kill him… Whatever pain he went through, whatever pain YOU put him through was bad enough to wish for death…”

War Heart looked down at the man face down on the floor. Some part of War Heart wanted to feel sorry for him, another part thought that it had to be done in order to get rid of all the Dead Magic. He looked to Cura, he felt confused, “I…”, he was at a loss for words. He fully realised he just used his powers to murder dozens of people in the last while. He didn’t really think about it, he just saw the Dead Magic and killed whoever had it. He realised he was becoming exactly what his hallucination said he was: A Monster. War Heart sat down on the floor, he breathed heavily and had a panicked expression on his face.

Cura’s disappointed expression changed to one of concern as he almost collapsed to the floor, “Are you okay?”, she believed he was having a panic attack.

“I’m becoming a monster… Just like he said… I am a monster…”, War Heart frantically told himself.

“You aren’t a monster, War Heart. Now you need to calm down.”, she gently grabbed him by the head and looked him in the eye, “Are you listening? You need to calm down War Heart. Take slow, deep breaths.”

War Heart started to breathe a bit slower, starting to calm down.

“Good…”, Cura smiled and walked away from him to go check on the Crusaders.

War Heart kept taking deep breaths, he saw a card slide beside him, it had the letter ‘T’ on it. He closed his eyes, not wanting to face DeadBeast.

“You’re such a wuss… Don’t even have the guts to face me? You take out that many people and you go all melodramatic like some little bitch… You felt that power from killing them… You can feel it more if you keep doing what you just did. There is nothing but upsides when you be who you really are…”

“Shut up…”

“Why don’t you make me!?”

“Just go away!”

Cura turned to War Heart, “War Heart, don’t interact with it. It doesn’t exist, it’s all in your head.”

DeadBeast chuckled and crouched in front of War Heart, “If I wasn’t real… could I do this?”, he slapped his hand across War Heart’s face.

War Heart was wide-eyed at what just happened, “He… He slapped me, Cura…”

Cura looked towards War Heart again with a confused look on her face, “What?”

“He slapped me…”

“That’s impossible…”, she hook her head in disbelief.

DeadBeast chuckled, “Well, I’m gonna go now. Seeya, Monster Man…”, DeadBeast jumped out the window and disappeared.

Riff spoke up, “Dude… He didn’t slap you…”

War Heart looked at Riff with a confused expression, “What do you mean?”

“You slapped yourself, man.”, Riff nodded at War Heart.

Cura rubbed her chin in thought, “Maybe your hallucination is getting more… ‘Real’ with each traumatizing experience… Did something happen?”

War Heart thought for a moment, “I died again…”

Cura sighed, “I can’t turn around without you dying, can I?”, she asked in a joking rhetorical fashion.

War Heart nodded, “I don’t know… Maybe I should get the Crusaders to take you guys back to Ponyville… I can take care of myself on the way to Fillydelphia.”

Cura nodded, “We do seem to be taking on a lot of people… I’m going to have to stay with you though. I have a feeling you’ll need me with your little hallucination problems…”

“All right… I guess we’ll head out in the morning…”

Chapter 32

The party had all vacated the top floor suite. They went to the sixth floor to room 641. It had two beds and a couch. Nobody had any problem sharing the king size beds since they did spend nights in worse places.

War Heart sat on the floor leaning against a wall. He couldn’t sleep, most likely on account of the fact that he did not require it as of late. He was developing a habit of licking his newly elongated fangs, they felt foreign to him although they were clearly part of his body. His mind often wandered to Dash and his kids back home, hoping that they were okay without him. He also thought of the repercussions that might come from him gaining these powers. War Heart was uneasy as he thought that Dash may not understand what has been happening to him. He sighed in melancholy as he watched the sun peek over the horizon to greet his crimson eyes. He looked over to Cura, who was sleeping on the couch with Riff, Vinyl, and Octavia. He stood up and nudged her gently to wake her up, “It’s morning, let’s go…”, he whispered, trying not to wake the others up.

Cura groggily stood up, taking some time to stretch. She looked at War Heart and smiled slightly, “Good Morning.”, she said quietly.

War Heart motioned to the door, “We need to get going.”

Cura nodded, “Alright, I’ll leave them a note.”, she walked over to a table near the door and scribbled something onto a white notepad. She turned towards the door, War Heart had opened it. She yawned and shook her head slightly to clear her mind, “Let’s go.”, she whispered as she walked out the door and down the hall to the elevator.

War Heart followed Cura out the door and closed it behind him. He walked alongside her to the elevator. When they reached it, he pressed the button to call for it and waited silently.

“So did you discover anything new about your powers?”, Cura asked, trying to break the silence.

War Heart nodded, “Yes. The Dead Master here was the Master of Blood. She had fangs and I guess she bit people and marked them.”

“What does this ‘mark’ do?”, she asked as the elevator reached their floor, the doors opening before them. They both stepped inside, War Heart pressing the button to go to the ground floor.

“Well, I’m guessing that I can mark people, maybe creatures, and I can make them feel pain from far away. She was able to make me puke blood on the rooftop. I think it also gave her slight control over the ones who were marked. I could hear so many whispers when I got the power.”

Cura thought for a moment as the elevator doors opened. They both started walking out of the hotel, “I think this particular power might have let you hear people’s thoughts if they were marked.”

War Heart nodded, “I figured as much, I brought them all to me…”

Cura looked at War Heart, “How did you figure that out?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know. I just concentrated on the whispers and sent my own. I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right, but it felt almost like instinct.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see what happens with these powers as we go… Maybe you can figure out how to shorten those fangs of yours, though I have to admit they look very alluring somehow.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“I forget, where are we headed again?”

“Fillydelphia… We still are looking for survivors… But I am curious if we’ll see another Dead Master there…”

“It seems that they just happen to be wherever you go…”

“I don’t know. Maybe they are tracking where I’m going and show up before I do. Then again, it could be coincidence.”

“No way to tell for sure, yet.”

They walked over to a store in Las Pegasus, where they bought what they needed to make the trek to Fillydelphia.

War Heart sighed, “I kind of wish I wasn’t taking you along. Flying there would take a lot less time…”

“Well, then who would be there to stop you from going crazy?”

“Point taken…”

“Besides, the crusaders have their hands full with so many to look after already.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Like always.”, Cura giggled at her remark.

Scootaloo woke up about an hour after Cura and War Heart were gone, “I guess they must have gone already…”, she told herself as she got off the bed where Sweetie and Apple Bloom were resting. She walked over to the door and saw the note Cura left behind. She picked up the note and read it to herself,

“Crusaders, War Heart and I have left for Fillydelphia. In case you don’t remember: You are to bring the rest of the group to Ponyville. We will come back with more survivors, if we find any, and leave with you from Ponyville. In the case we find no survivors, we will continue on to Appleloosa.”

Scoot nodded after reading the note. She looked around the room and sighed, “Five more minutes…”, she whispered as she laid down on the bed with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, drifting off to sleep again.

War Heart and Cura hiked through the woods for what seemed like forever, but really it was only a few days.

Cura looked up at the sky, feeling exhausted from all the walking. She sighed, “In hindsight… Maybe I should have gone with the Crusaders…”

War Heart chuckled, “And miss out on the great things we’ll see in the boring forest?”, he sarcastically and rhetorically remarked.

“I’m fine with forests, I just don’t like walking for so long…”

“I figured that you would have done more walking after we went on that adventure in the Dragon Lands.”

“Nope… Still don’t like walking.”

“Well we still have about two days to go before we reach Fillydelphia…”

Cura stopped walking and sat down, leaning against a tree.

War Heart turned around and looked at her quizzically, “What are you doing?”

“Not all of us have a ridiculous constitution like you.”

War Heart rolled his eyes and sighed, “Fine, I’ll just have to carry you.”

“Much obliged…”, she said as she walked over and hopped onto his back.

War Heart proceed to piggy-back Cura along the dirt path to Fillydelphia. It felt a bit weird at first with the extra weight, but soon he was accustomed to it. It was soon nightfall, he figured that he could keep on walking if Cura was to just sleep on his back on the way there. He softened his strides, not wanting to wake her up. He looked up to the night sky, admiring the stars that managed to show themselves in the small patches of sky the clouds did not cover. He turned his eyes back to the road and kept walking.

“Excuse me…”, a woman’s voice called out quietly from behind a tree.

War Heart turned to the source of the voice to see the blue haired woman that he chased after before reaching Las Pegasus, “You? What do you want?”

“I’ve been wandering and have nobody to travel with… May I travel with you?”, she asked humbly, almost in a frightened tone.

War Heart considered it and then nodded, “Sure, I’m up all night anyway. I could use the company.”, he said as he turned back onto his path.

The blue haired woman walked next to him quietly.

“So, what’s your name?”, War Heart asked off handed.

“Oh, uh, it’s Moondancer…”

“Alright… My name’s War Heart, and the pink puff of hair I’m carrying is Cura.”

“Nice to make your acquaintance.”

“So why were you wandering around in such a panic?”

“Well… When the civil war started, I was so afraid of being forced into it. I took off as fast as I could and never looked back. I was never so afraid in my life…”

“Sounds rough… I wasn’t around for the civil war…”

“Where were you?”

“The ground…”

“Oh… You mean like mining? Like those creatures… What are they called…? Diamond Dogs?”

“Not exactly, but sure… What’s a Diamond Dog?”

“They’re a sort of creature that dig tunnels and search for gems and other precious stones.”

“Cool.”

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Fillydelphia. I’m going to look for people to move to Ponyville if there are any survivors.”

“Survivors? Of what?”

“Well… There was a big load of zombie things in Manehattan; Then there was a bunch of people trying to control Las Pegasus through magical means; and now I’m heading to Fillydelphia and ,depending on whether or not we find more survivors there, we’ll go back to Ponyville and then head to Appleloosa.”

“I had no idea… I’ve been in the air almost all the time unless I had to land…”

“Well, life on the ground is rough… I don’t blame you for flying away.”

They both walked for the rest of the night in silence.

Cura began to wake up, she realised she fell asleep on War Heart’s back. She yawned, “Looks like we got some distance covered… even in my sleep…”, she turned to see the young woman with blue hair. She paused for a moment before turning to War Heart, “Who’s this?”

“Her name is Moondancer, she’s coming with us to Fillydelphia.”, War Heart explained.

“Where did she come from?”

“She was hiding and asked if she could come along.”

“… Okay then.”, Cura shrugged off the idea, knowing she’s seen stranger things happen.

They soon found themselves on the outskirts of Fillydelphia. War Heart stopped and put Cura on the ground. They all looked at the city for a moment before continuing walking towards their destination.

Cura yawned, “We should be there by noon…”

War Heart nodded, “I wonder if there will be any creatures there…”

Cura shrugged, “Maybe, I don’t recall there being any red marks on this part of the map.”

“So it may be like Las Pegasus…”

“Hopefully without having a repeat of the whole incident with all the…” Cura shuddered at the memory, “Yeah… Gross.”

“Wasn’t exactly pleasant, believe me…”

The blue haired woman kept silent, not knowing what they were talking about.

As Cura had predicted, they arrived at Fillydelphia at midday. The streets were barren, save for the odd litter on the sidewalks. They all looked around for signs of life.

Cura crossed her arms and thought, “Perhaps… They already evacuated?”

War Heart shrugged, “Dunno, but we should look around.”, he told them as he started walking down the street.

Cura and Moondancer followed War Heart, looking around as they walked down the street with him.

War Heart looked about the streets of Fillydelphia, seeing slight blurs in his vision at random points. There were times when his skin just crawled for no real reason. The feeling made him uneasy, “Something about this place… I don’t know… It creeps me out.”

Cura scoffed, “I’ll say…”

Moondancer silently nodded, also feeling somewhat uneasy by the city.

War Heart saw an open door to a general store. He walked over to it and looked inside, “Hello?”, he called out. He received no reply. He stepped in and started walking along the aisles. He turned a corner to one aisle and saw something move around the corner on the far end of the store. He ran towards what he saw and looked around. He found nothing. He scratched his head for a moment.

“Is something wrong?”

War Heart shook his head, “Nah… Just seeing things…”, he told Cura as he walked into the back rooms of the store, finding nobody. He walked out of the store with Cura and Moondancer, “Maybe they did evacuate…”

Cura looked to the sky, “We should probably keep looking though… This doesn’t sit well with me… I want to know why they evacuated. There is no evidence that they had to evacuate.”

“Alright… We’ll keep looking.”, War Heart declared as he continued to walk through the city. As he was scanning over his surroundings he turned to a small playground to see someone sitting on a swing. He kept turning until he realised what he had seen, quickly turning back to find they were gone. War Heart closed his eyes and shook his head, “Maybe not sleeping is affecting me…”, he whispered to himself, Moondancer and Cura didn’t seem to take notice of him. War Heart turned to look where he was going to walk into something.

All he saw was a mask. A blood red mask that screamed at War Heart for an instant before disappearing.

War Heart jumped at the sight and the sudden scream, nearly falling over.

Cura and Moondancer looked at him strangely.

Cura looked over to where War Heart was looking and then back to War Heart, “Are you okay?”

War Heart nodded, “Just seeing things…”

“Is it that guy again?”

He shook his head, “No… Something else.”

“What was it?”

“It was…”, War Heart squinted in the distance to see someone in a tight black outfit wearing a white mask that was smiling. He stared as the person waved at him and disappeared as War Heart blinked.

“What are you looking at?”

“I’m not sure…”, War Heart told her as he kept walking onward.

Cura looked at Moondancer, who just shrugged at her and kept following. Cura sighed, “Great he’s going to have to be in a mental ward when this is over…”, she mumbled as she started following again.

War Heart could almost swear he heard someone giggling. He couldn’t tell from where but he had some inkling of an idea who it was. He continued to look around, hoping that he would find somebody to make being here worthwhile. As he reached an intersection in the street he turned to see the person with the mask standing in the middle of the street, except the mask showed a neutral expression. War Heart looked at him curiously and started walking over to them.

“I suppose you’re the one that was supposed to be our champion…”, the man in the mask spoke in a bored monotone, slightly muffled by the mask. His blue hair was shaggy and some of it drooped over the mask. He looked very thin and wore a tight, black, full body outfit.

War Heart glared at him, “I guess you’re another one of the Dead Masters…”

Cura and Moondancer looked at each other and then turned to War Heart. Cura looked at him with concern, “Are you sure it isn’t your hallucinations again, War Heart?”

War Heart turned to Cura, Wondering if she was serious that she could not see the man standing not even twelve feet away from him. He turned back to the man who was still standing there.

“Their eyes are not open. Yours are only barely open as it is… You can see me because I allow you to.”, the man in the mask continued in his dull monotone.

“What exactly did you do to this place?”

“I opened them up to another plane of existence. There are worlds within worlds… I can pass between them with ease.”

“Where are the people?”

“Oh, they’re everywhere. This entire city is trapped in the world that I manipulate using the Dead Magic.”, he spun on his heels to hide his face for an instant and reveal a new blue mask with a saddened expression on it, “But I have to admit it is lonely being the only one with any power in there… Nobody can play my games to their fullest…”, he hung his head, hiding his face once more.

War Heart saw this as a chance to take a swing at him. He quickly ran over and took a jab at the Dead Master. Much to his surprise, his fist went straight through the Master as if he were not there.

The Dead Master turned to War Heart quickly, his mask was blood red with a furious expression, “How dare you! To try and attack me without even playing by the rules!?”

War Heart backed away a step, “Let’s say I do play by your rules… What happens then…?”

The Dead Master turned around, “I guess I could let you play… But I’m afraid that I will raise the stakes for how rude you decided to be…”, he turned around to reveal a white mask with a smile, “Oh, it will be so fun!”, he said before he began to cackle loudly.

War Heart just stood and watched the man laugh maniacally. He only blinked to find the Dead Master face to face with him for only an instant before blacking out.

War Heart opened his eyes to see the dark green sky. He sat up and saw that he was right where he was before blacking out. Looking around he saw the buildings were decayed and falling apart. He could smell death all around him, making him uneasy but not disgusted. He stood up slowly, he felt strange as he saw the thick fog that obscured his vision ahead, leading further into the city. War Heart started walking forward, unsure of what awaited him in the clouded depths of the now decaying city. He felt slow and weak. He walked towards one of the stores on the street, wanting to keep close to something so he had some idea of where he was going. He walked along the walls and windows at a weary pace. He turned to look inside the window of one of the stores. He jumped back at what he saw. A creature that had pale grey skin; its eyes were red and glowing; a figure was gaunt and you could see its bone through its skin; and wings that were only bones and unable to give any sort of flight. War Heart reached out to the window, seeing it moved with him. He realised he was looking at his own reflection. He touched the glass and continued to observe his new form.

There was a scream in the distance that disturbed War Heart. He looked behind him only to see the fog. Taking steps into the thick cloud he wandered towards where the scream came from. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded like somebody was in trouble. He suddenly found himself outside the fog to witness a large beast chasing after a woman.

This beast had slimy, almost toad-like, skin; it walked on four massive, clawed legs that protruded from its sides, three toes on each foot; its mouth was large enough to fit several people inside, the roof and floor of its mouth was lined with pointed teethed that seemed to move on their own will to rip and tear at whatever unlucky creature found itself inside the maw of the beast; its eye was huge, sitting on a stalk at the top of the creature’s body, shining some sort of spotlight wherever its gaze turned; it had a long whip-like tongue covered in barbs that resembled spikes of bone with a spike on the tip that looked like it would be used to impale whatever it lunged at; it reeked of death and rotting flesh as it was covered in exposed sores and wounds oozing blood and pus.

War Heart saw it shoot out its tongue and impale a young green-haired woman. Blood splattered on the wall behind her. She panicked as she tried to pull away futilely against the beast’s strength. She fell to the ground and began clawing at the pavement in an attempt to escape, her fingernails coming loose from her fingers and bleeding. She continued to try and crawl away, slowly failing as she was dragged along the ground. She kept screaming as the beast pulled her into its maw. She only kept screaming as the beast chewed on her body, its teeth shifting around to tear her apart and spurting blood out the beast’s mouth.

War Heart stood in shock as the beast’s eye turned on him. He felt nearly blinded by the light it put on him. Its body started turning towards him. War Heart weakly went into the fog, hoping to escape the monster. He got only a few feet before he saw the barbed tongue of the beast fly past him, it grazed his arm, causing it to bleed a black ooze. He started walking towards the closest building, not having any energy to run. He walked in through the door and closed it behind him. He collapsed on the floor, just out of view in the window. He slowly lifted himself up just high enough to see the beast tromp past the building he was in. He turned and leaned against the wall, still feeling weak for some reason. He saw something standing in the corner, just staring at the wall.

It was thin and looked like a malnourished man from behind. It had only a pair of dark grey shorts on and no shirt. Its fingers were unnaturally long, several extra knuckles on every finger, making them almost a foot long each. Its grey skin was akin to War Heart’s. The head of this creature was thin, bald, and the skin seemed too stretched.

“What the-…”, War Heart whispered to himself.

The creature quickly snapped towards War Heart. Its eyes were black and lifeless; it had no mouth on its face, nor nostrils, nor a nose; its chest opened up to reveal large serrated teeth. It hissed at War Heart and began shambling towards him slowly, looking like it too was feeling weak.

War Heart tried to back away from the creature, soon to find himself up against the door. He didn’t have the strength to fight, he stood up and pulled open the door. He himself shambled out onto the street.

The creature slowly opened the door, trying to catch up with War Heart. It followed him down an alleyway, following to trail of black ooze left by War Heart’s arm.

War Heart found himself at the dead end of the alleyway. The creature still stumbling towards him. He looked around, hoping to find an exit. He eyed a heavy glass bottle by a dumpster. He knew that he had no choice but to fight this thing. He stumbled over to the bottle. As he tried to pick up the bottle, he found his strength was not enough to lift it. He looked back as he realised the creature was merely feet away from him. In an act of desperation he swung his fist at it. The punch did little to no damage, seeming more like he nudged it away lazily than attack. It stumbled back slightly, but seemed a bit hindered. War Heart backed away from it, hearing a clack as his skeletal wings made contact with the wall. He took a look at his wings, they spread out like hands with pointed tips on the ends of them. He looked back to the creature stumbling towards him and swung his wings forth, the bones jabbing into the creature. It hissed weakly as it fell to its knees. War Heart sat down, feeling drained from his attack.

“You know, I think I forgot to tell you the rules of this place.”

War Heart slowly turned to the source of the voice to see the Dead Master leaning against the wall, “What did you do to me…?”, War Heart wearily inquired.

“Not just to you… The whole city! Turned into a world of decay and despair, filled with dangerous creatures.”, the Dead Master sounded very enthusiastic about the idea. He turned to War Heart, “You will grow stronger if you feed on them.”, he pointed at War Heart and explained.

“What… Are you talking about…?”

“I’m saying you need to take this…”, he stepped over to the creature and tore off a piece of its flesh from its back, “and eat it.”

War Heart grimaced at the idea, “What kind of world is this…?”

“The Dead World. If you want to survive, you eat.”, he dropped the piece of grey flesh in War Heart’s lap, “Toodles.”, The Dead Master vanished in front of War Heart.

War Heart could hear faint laughter after the Dead Master disappeared. He looked down at the grey meat in his lap. He cringed as he took it into his hands. The smell was absolutely repulsive, like a dead animal that had been sitting out in the sun for a week. He closed his eyes and sank his teeth into the flesh of the creature, tearing off a piece and trying to swallow it quickly. He retched as he choked down the chunk of disgusting meat. He felt some of his strength return to him, he felt able to move more. He looked at his hand to see it bloat to a not as unhealthy point. He sat there to see the corpse rapidly decay into dust, only to be blown away by an unfelt breeze.

Chapter 33

War Heart took a deep breath. He took comfort in the slight amount of peace in all that has happened. Soon he brought himself to his feet, still weary. He walked along the wall of the alley, leaning against it for support. As he reached the street, he found himself in the fog again. The dense cloud that seemed to shroud everything in mystery, only adding a fear of the unknown to this Dead World he happened to be trapped in. His eyes stung, he felt like he had not slept, nor blinked in weeks. War Heart pressed on into the fog, wearily trudging through the imposing mist. War Heart made sure he was on the lookout for that huge creature. He remembered its eye staring down at him, glowing and bloodshot with an unnatural orange colour to it. He tried to keep the image out of his head while moving about, he knew he had to keep his wits about him in this place. He had no idea where he was going, he aimlessly wandered about in the fog hoping that it will hold answers to his questions. He took a step to find many pebbles on the ground, like one would find on a child’s playground. After reaching there, he started hearing something: a squeaking of metal on metal. War Heart turned and started walking towards the sound, hoping it was a more civil being than the creatures he has seen so far. He soon was close enough to see the old rusty swing set through the mist, a little girl sitting on the swing with a downtrodden look about her. He took another step towards her, “Are you okay?”, War Heart asked, his throat feeling dry and weak.

The girl’s head shot up immediately, greeting War Heart with an expression of fear. She trembled at the very sight of him. His macabre appearance more than unnerving her.

War Heart took another step towards her, “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you…”, his tone was that of sincerity. He held out his hand to her, silently offering to take her with him.

She stood up from the swing and slowly started backing away from War Heart. She looked at if she did not want to make noise as she shifted away from him.

War Heart looked at her quizzically, wondering why she was so fearful of him. He stood up and took another step towards her, only causing her retreat to hasten. He brought his hand back to his side, no longer holding it out to her. He took a step back, “Why are you so afraid?”

The girl didn’t respond, she only remained still with her frightened expression. Soon her expression turned from terror to curiosity. She looked at him quizzically, as if to wonder what he was doing.

War Heart sat down on the ground, staring back at the little girl. He tilted his head to the side, as did she in some kind of mirror image game. He stopped for a moment, wondering why she was so frightened of him before. He saw her lips move, he heard nothing at first. It was only seconds after that a deafening ringing pulsed through his brain, causing agonizing pain. He clutched his head and rolled onto his back, groaning in his torment.

The girl was startled at his reaction, retreating from him slightly. She was slow at first in her retreat.

War Heart turned to her, getting up off his back on to his knees. He reached his hand out to her, “Wait!”, he shouted.

The little girl turned away and sprinted off into the fog, leaving War Heart alone near the swings.

War Heart exhaled a heavy sigh and rolled over on to his back. He shook his head, “So weak… So alone… What am I doing here…?”, he asked himself in regard to his current situation.

“You’re playing my game.”

A look of annoyance donned War Heart’s face as he rolled his eyes while he was on the ground. He turned his head to see the Dead Master on the swing set, hanging on the high bar by his legs and looking down on him, “What exactly are you master of…?”, War Heart asked, wondering what kind of power would enable him to do such things.

“I see you know more than you’re supposed to, but since you managed to know this much, I will not withhold much. I am the Nether Master. I have the ability to walk between worlds and manipulate this one as I see fit.”, The Dead Master explained to War Heart. He dropped to the ground, his grey mask putting on a neutral expression, and he spoke in an appropriate tone for the mask.

War Heart sighed, growing more and more weary with this Dead Master. He sat up and faced the Nether Master, “So what exactly am I supposed to do here?”

“Ah, that is something you’ll have to figure out. Although I will have to remind you that you must eat here to survive. Magical energies tend to degrade quickly here, and it’ll kill you if you don’t replenish it once in a while.”

“What about the woman I saw earlier? And the little girl? Do you force this on them too?”

“Oh no, they are simply beings that have survived. They do not possess the Dead Magic and do not look monstrous in appearance, which means that they do not waste away in this realm. They are the prey for our kind, their living essence converted into large amounts of Dead Magic once you consume them.”

“You’re sick…”

“I do not make the rules, I have control in that I can quit and move about when I please.”

“I don’t care what you can do, I’ll kill you somehow.”

“I somehow doubt that, you don’t even know how to use your Dead Magic abilities to their full potential. You probably assumed you would just gain all the powers that the previous masters had? Wrong. A lot of the time, the powers will change depending on the user who has them.”

“How do I find out what I can do…?”

“Well, we had training. We learned our powers through a tutor we shared.”

“Who?”

“He is master, and taught us all how to use the Dead Magic. He learned how to achieve immortality through reincarnating himself every so often.”

“Where can I find him?”

“Back in your world, at that lovely castle in Canterlot. Why? You wanna find out what you can do?”, the Nether Master spoke in an excited tone.

“I want to be able to control these powers… Not the other way around.”

The Master’s mask changed expression from neutrality to happiness, “Well, of course! I’m almost tempted to let you out right now just so you can go to Canterlot and find him and learn under or kill him. I have no preference, I am happy in my own little world, watching the wonderful deaths, fantastic scenery, and creative monsters that people make themselves into.”

“So why are you keeping me here?”

“Letting you go so quick would be against the rules.”

“So what are the rules?”

“First Rule: Eat often, or you will Die; Second Rule: Don’t damage your body to badly, or you will die; Third Rule: Kill every other monster in here before leaving, see where this is going?”

War Heart weakly nodded, “If I try to leave without being the only monster, I die.”

“No… Normally it would just strip you of your Dead Magic. However, I know that is the only thing keeping you alive so I guess you’re outta luck there.”

War Heart sighed, “Fine… How many monsters are out there?”

“No clue, but I have to say that they are attracted towards noise. Unless it happens to be from that superbly large fellow stomping around here… Speak of the discord!”, the Nether Master vanished in front of War Heart as an orange coloured spotlight shone on War Heart.

War Heart turned to see the creature eyeing him. He quickly got up and started stumbling away. He could hear the giant footsteps behind him as he wearily jogged way. The beast was massive, a force to be reckoned with, but it was slow. War Heart moved over to the nearest building and burst in through the door, hiding against the wall in the darkness of the room he entered. He watched as the orange spotlight scanned over the inside of the room, only barely did it miss him before passing on. He watched as the beast tromped away heavily within the fog. War Heart sighed in relief and collapsed on the floor, sitting down. His mind wandered to the other world, he wondered how long he would have to keep doing things like this. He had an inkling of hope that this will be the last quest, that he would be able to settle down and raise his children properly instead of leaving on adventures where he may not come back. He also thought of Dash, and the mental torment she must be going through because he may not come back again. The guilt set in, he lowered his head, ashamed for putting Dash through this. He turned towards the outside, a newfound determination in his heart, “I promise you, Dash… I will come back… and never leave again.”, he got up off the ground and walked out the door into the solid fog. He wandered through it, now searching for more of those creatures, the other users of Dead Magic. He found himself in the middle of the playground again. He looked to the sky and let out a scream. His voice was still dry and his throat was parched, he coughed after raising his voice to that point. Every time he breathed in, it felt like he was inhaling powdered glass that tore at his lungs and set them ablaze. He heard the crunching sounds of footsteps in the pebbles of the playground. He turned to see one of the creatures approaching him.

It looked like it was a person at some point. Its hair was a mess and crusty with what looked like dried blood; its eyes were missing and bled from the empty sockets; its jaw hung low and open to complete a macabre version of an expression of utter despair; the tongue was long and reached almost two feet out of its mouth, grey and slimy; it was missing the lower half of its body, the intestines dragged along the ground while it was held up by six long and slender legs that came out of his back that resembled a spider’s legs; its skin was a dull shade of grey and it sounded like it groaned and moaned as if it were in utter sadness. It approached War Heart slowly holding its arms out to him.

War Heart readied himself, unsure what this creature might be capable of. He awaited its first move. His leg suddenly gave away, he fell on his back He started sliding along the ground towards the creature. He looked at his left leg to see his ankle wrapped up with the creature’s intestine. As he drew closer to it, it stood higher, balancing on four of the legs and readying the front two. He felt a sharp pain as both the legs jammed into his shoulders. He winced as he was pinned down by its pointed legs, breathing heavily to try and shrug off the pain and pull them out to free himself. The creature moaned at him as it reached with its arms towards his face.

“Are you gonna let him just take you down like a little bitch?”

War Heart heard the voice of DeadBeast, a familiar feeling of rage boiling inside of him. He threw his fist in the face of the creature, breaking its jaw so it hung on by one side. He grabbed the legs that pinned him down, now he decided he wasn’t going to pull them out, but break them off. He strained and growled as he bent the creatures legs. It started getting louder as the legs cracked and crunched from War Heart’s strength. There was a sudden snap as both legs broke, the creature falling over and thrashing in pain. War Heart slowly stood up, the broken off pieces of the creatures legs still in him. He grabbed them and started pulling, tearing them out to see his black, oozing blood spill onto the ground. He felt a moment of anticipation, watching the creature slow its thrashing from weakness. He looked at the creature’s pieces he now held in his hands and smirked. He walked over stood above it, he smiled as he jammed the pieces of the creature’s legs into its eye sockets. The creature squirmed for a few seconds as War Heart twisted them into its brain. Once it stopped moving, War Heart tore off a piece of the flesh on its chest and proceeded to eat it hastily. After he swallowed the flesh, he felt more of his strength returning to him. He looked at his fingers to see them grow into claws, he also felt as through he was no longer thirsty. He grinned as he felt so alive, like he could take on the world. He knew he wasn’t at his full strength yet, he still had a ways to go before then. He heard the cries of a man in the distance. He turned to the direction it came from, the body of the creature he just killed turning to dust beneath him. The fog was dense and impaired his vision, not allowing him to sprint. He kept a decent pace despite the mist, now able to rely on reflex to avoid any obstacles he my run into. He arrived to see a man on the ground, apparently his ankle had been injured.

The creature shambled towards the man on the ground. It had the shape of a person, like the others; it had no face on its head to speak of; on its hands were eyes in the center of its palms; although it had no legs, it had a fleshy serpent-like tail that moved it along. Its gaze was fixated on the man who was its prey, which cowered and tried crawling away only to find a wall. Suddenly the creature found itself knocked down, a larger creature with glowing red eyes and skeletal wings looking down on it. Its head twitched and started shaking.

War Heart stood and watched it recoil from him tackling it. Its head shuddered while it was on the ground. Its head burst open from the front, cracking open and spraying a liquid onto War Heart. He felt a burning sensation on his arm that he used to block the liquid. He watched as his hand began to melt to the bone. He looked at the creature and spread his skeletal wings. He stepped towards it, looking more menacing than ever. He grabbed its wrist and twisted its arm, he lowered it to the ground and stomped on its elbow. He pulled on its wrist until the entire forearm came off. He put his foot to its throat and jammed the forearm into the mouth that took up the entirety of the front of its head. He watched as it choked on its own arm. He jammed his claws into its chest and tore open its torso, letting its blackened blood spill onto the sidewalk. He broke off the creature’s other arm and bit into it voraciously. He now noticed that the flesh did not taste as bad as before, in fact, he began to crave more of it. He felt his teeth morph themselves into more pointed versions of their former shapes. His muscles were beginning to show their natural size once more. He watched as his hand healed back to its flesh covered state. He looked to the man who was still laying on the ground nearby, who was horrified by what he just watched. War Heart walked over to him, “Can you stand?”

The man only responded with more fear, backing away slightly.

War Heart looked at him curiously, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The man slowly started crawling away, his sprained ankle not allowing him to run.

“Where are you going?”, War Heart asked, starting to get a bit annoyed at the man.

The man hastened his retreat from War Heart, retaining his expression of terror.

War Heart was fed up with the man. He walked over and grabbed him by the collar.

The man responded to this by screaming, a sound that pierced War Heart’s ears and brain.

War Heart held his ears in an attempt to shut out the noise, “Shut up!”, he yelled at the screaming man who was crawling away still. After a few seconds, the screams continued to ring in his head and cause him pain. He ran up to the man and punched him in the jaw in an attempt to stop the noise. The noises stopped, War Heart looked down at the man who was wide-eyed and unmoving on the sidewalk. War Heart realised what he had just done: he killed a man who was innocent in all this. He sat down and held his head, “No… It was an accident… I didn’t want to… I couldn’t stop myself…”, he tried to rationalize his murderous act to himself.

“He was causing you harm. You reacted.”

War Heart heard the voice of DeadBeast again, “I don’t need your help.”

“Oh really? Who got you out of the last mess with one of those things? Me. Admit it, in this world: there are no room for heroes, only monsters. You have to be what you really are to thrive here or you will die.”

“I can’t do it… It’s wrong…”

“If you die here, what will happen to your family?”

“Don’t you dare bring them into this!”

“Oh, did I hit a nerve? Suck it up, Monster. You’ll have to just be yourself here if you want to make it back to your family. Give me control, and I’ll get us out of here…”

“No… I have to do this… Without becoming a Monster.”

“You just killed a man, that is pretty monstrous as is.”

“I didn’t want to kill him… He just… I just… hit him too hard.”

“You acted on instinct, it was harming you and you got rid of it. I have to say I’m proud of you for that.”

“I messed up… I regret it…”

“Stop being so melodramatic and eat this guy already. You’ll be able to leave sooner if you gain a lot of power quickly to take on the big thing later.”

“I can’t…”

“I guess Dash will have to wait even longer for your return then, if you return…”

War Heart didn’t want to believe him, but he was right. Things in this world were only getting worse and if he didn’t act quickly, he could be risking never leaving. He looked over to the dead man on the ground. He reached over and tore off a piece of the man’s neck. He held the pink flesh in his hand, trying prepare himself mentally for what he was about to do.

Chapter 34

Cura and Moondancer watched as War Heart argued with something they could not see or something that may have been imagination. He even took a swing through the air and jumped back the second after. They were afraid to intervene.

“Let’s say I do play by your rules…”, War Heart spoke to the air.

Cura thought he might have been confronting his hallucination, she decided she would let it play out. Much to her surprise, War Heart fainted in the middle of the street. She dashed over to him to make sure he was okay. Checking his vitals were becoming more routine than it should nowadays. She turned to Moondancer, “I need some help dragging him.”, she told her as she grabbed one of his arms and started pulling the massive winged one, slowly but surely.

Moondancer hesitantly obeyed, unsure of what was going on with War Heart. She was somewhat curious as to why Cura was with him. He seemed to be certifiably insane to her at this point. They both dragged him into a nearby furniture store that happened to only be half a block away. Placing War Heart on a couch near the entrance was taxing, with him being bigger than them and all.

Cura sighed, “I guess we’ll leave him here for now…”

“I must ask… Is he… alright? I mean up here.”, she pointed at her head.

Cura shook her head, “He has had to deal with a lot… Dying twice-”

“Excuse me?”

“I know, it’s crazy. But I am telling the truth when I say he was dead. The second time I may be exaggerating his severe mutilation…”

“Mutilation? He hasn’t a mark on him.”

“He’s… an oddity. I’ve known him for years and I can really say that there is nobody like him. He’s interesting to be around to say the least, things never get boring with us. I nowadays help him psychologically more than medically.”

“Is he so skilled that he does not get injured?”

Cura rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Ha. Like he can go into a fight without it seeming like he has a will to destroy both his opponent AND himself. He sometimes makes the most stupid moves out there. Like when he had a huge chunk of debris flying at him, he decided to, of all things he could’ve done, punch it…”

Moondancer sat there with squinted eyes, “What…?”

“I know… Not that bright. Although, he did manage to smash through it, not without breaking almost every bone in his entire arm.”

“I assume you healed that…”

“Of course, but the next time I had to treat him was by far the worst.”

“This sounds as if it is going to sound ridiculous…”

“Pretty much, so we were in Las Pegasus, we went to a show, I happened to drink a bottle of wine to myself, black out, I wake up the next morning to see him on the counter in the kitchen.”

“And then…?”

“This is where it gets nasty. He had his cheeks torn open and his lips surgically removed as well as his eyelids.”

Moondancer threw on a shocked and disgusted expression, “Oh my…”

“Then there was the hole in his kneecap that looked as if it was done with a hammer and nail; his right arm was sliced open and all the tendons were sliced apart; then his entire left hand was burnt off to the bone. As far as I can gather, he was conscious through all of it…”

Moondancer was cringing at the thought of such things, she shivered and looked at War Heart to see him at peace as if he were sleeping or dead. She shook her head, “How does he not have a single mark on him from that? You must be a great healer indeed to leave no traces of such things.”

“I only fixed his right arm, melding all those tendons and muscles back in place was tough, and all I could really do for him.”

“Then how did the rest of him heal?”, Moondancer was starting to take genuine interest in War Heart.

“He says he has this ‘Dead Magic’ or something. It gives him these magic powers apparently. He used his magic to heal himself. It was pretty interesting to watch. It also gives him hidden reserves of strength which explains him being able to smash through that flying debris.”

“I… I am afraid I don’t know much about magic. Being a winged one and all.”, Moondancer declared, smiling nervously.

“He doesn’t know much either, he is struggling to grasp the idea of using magic. I often wonder what will happen when he fully gains control of his power… They say power corrupts. I know him well enough that he is always looking out for others, but even he must have a limit, a breaking point in which he will feel like he has lost all reason to help. I’ve seen him in a raging fury when fighting, one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen.”

“Let us hope he remains strong in heart as well as strong in arm… For his sake and everyone else’s…”

Cura nodded, “Yeah… I wouldn’t want to lose a friend like him again…”

Hours went by as if they were days. Life was very slow and a bore for the young doctor and the artist. They waited in silence for the most part, only breaking the silence to let out a sigh.

War Heart suddenly shot up to a sitting position, startling both Cura and Moondancer. He panted in a panicked state, his eyes were constricted. Frantically War Heart shot his gaze around the room as if he was seeing things that were not there.

“War Heart…?”, Cura spoke to him, in an attempt to calm him down.

War Heart covered his ears and growled in pain, the sound of Cura’s voice causing his ears to ring and brain to burn. He fell to his knees as the ringing did not cease, continuing to echo within his skull. He looked towards the window to the street and dove into it, shattering the glass into many shards. He fell onto the pavement outside, jagged pieces of the window jutting out of him. He stood up and started running down the street.

Cura and Moondancer looked at each other before rushing out the door. They looked at War Heart, seeing him jogging down the street.

“What is he doing…?”, Moondancer asked, assuming Cura would be able to explain.

“I’m not sure, we’ll have to follow him until he stops freaking out.”, Cura replied as she started jogging after War Heart.

Moondancer took flight and rose above the rooftops, looking down on Cura and War Heart.

After a few minutes of running about, War Heart finally collapsed suddenly.

He laid on the ground for a minute before Cura arrived and examined him. He opened one of his eyes to see it was dilated back to their regular form. She sighed, “I swear, you do this stuff just to keep me guessing…”

War Heart’s eyes slowly opened, he squinted at the light of the sun coming from directly overhead. He shielded his eyes from the sun’s rays with his hand and then sat up. He shook his head, hoping to rid himself of the migraine that currently inhabited his skull. He felt a hand touch his shoulder. He turned to see it was his good friend, Cura. He smiled lightly, “Hey… Long time, no see…”

Cura looked at him with a confused expression, “War Heart… It’s only been a few hours since you passed out…”

“What…? I was there for…”, he tried to recall how many days he ended staying, he lost count around forty or so, “… a long time…”

“Come on… We should keep looking for survivors…”

“No… There aren’t any…”

Cura looked at him, “What?”

“I was in another world… I was there with the other people of this city. They are dead… all of them.”

Cura nodded slowly, feeling defeated that they didn’t end up saving anybody from here, “All right… Let’s just go…”, Cura started walking towards the edge of the city.

War Heart stood up and walked next to her, Moondancer joined them almost right after.

They all walked in the direction of Ponyville, War Heart decided it would be best if they just returned home. Most of the journey was in silence, except for Cura inquiring about where War Heart went when he passed out. He made it clear he did not want to discuss it.

War Heart mulled over the letters on the card that DeadBeast had been leaving him. ‘D’, ‘E’, ‘A’, ‘D’, ‘T’, ‘S’, ‘E’, ‘B’, ‘A’. He was rather impressed at himself that he had the letters all but burned into his brain. Something, however, was keeping him from figuring out what they meant. It was as if he either couldn’t do it, wouldn’t let himself, or didn’t want to remember whatever the word was and all that it was connected to. He kept trying to push it out of his mind, but it was like an obsession. At night he would see the cards laid out in a mess on the ground in front of him. He tried to touch one only to receive a horrible migraine and a sudden flash of an image that he couldn’t make out to be anything in particular. It was the night before returning to Ponyville that DeadBeast revealed himself again.

“Well, well, well… You’re holding all the cards now. You don’t do anything with them. You’re just gonna sit on your ass and stare at them all night? Or are you going to face the facts and figure out what you are?”

War Heart took a moment before looking at DeadBeast, remaining totally stone faced with his melancholic expression. He then turned his stare down to the imaginary cards in front of him. He closed his eyes and reached for one. Upon touching it he felt the searing pain of the migraines return.

He opened his eyes to find himself on wet pavement. It was raining heavily, he looked around at the rundown area of houses that made up his surroundings. He watched a hooded person’s silhouette approach him slowly, a voice that was muffled and distorted seemed to echo all around him. He blinked and returned to his waking state, his hand on the card that had the letter ‘B’ upon it. The card was now next to the letter ‘D’, spelling out ‘DeadB’, he knew he had a ways to go. He closed his eyes and reached down again, returning to the agonising headache and forced memory. He was now standing in a room. It had a couple couches and a man sitting on the couch, his face was blurred from War Heart’s vision as he saw a gun being tossed to him. War Heart caught the gun and looked down on it before returning to see another card was in order. War Heart nodded and went repeated his action, this time the memories were numbing, almost draining the energy out of him. He opened his eyes to see he was in an arena with a bunch of men on the ground, bleeding and broken. He was shocked at what he was seeing, he looked up to see someone he didn’t quite recognise as his vision blurred out their faces again. He blinked again and quickly moved on to the next card. He now saw him standing over a young man in a hoodie, frightened for his life.

“Yo, man, I’m done. It’s cool, I’m going home.”, the young man said as he threw off his hoodie and ran away from War Heart.

War Heart returned to reality again. He looked down to see the last card that was out of place. He put his hand on it and shifted it towards the rest of the cards, that now spelt out a name. He looked up at his imaginary nemesis, “DeadBeast?”, War Heart’s pupils constricted and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as the three years he spent in Unex flooded his brain. All the murders he committed were now apparent, he now saw what he was like before, a raging beast that had little to no consideration. He breathed heavily, trying to sort out everything in his head. He looked at his hallucination, who was no longer wearing make-up.

“You once considered me an ally, then considered me an enemy… I challenged you to bring out the beast within you… You were capable… All this time you have been pushed by me, DeadBeast. I was teaching you to not give up… I wanted you to defeat me… You couldn’t. Return to where you died… Where you were reborn… You can find answers there…”, the hallucination of Kacey Turner walked into the shadows and disappeared from War Heart’s mind. He waited for morning to arrive and wake his two companions. Cura was the first to wake, greeting War Heart with a yawn.

War Heart cleared his throat, “Cura… I have to do something before I go back… Alone…”

Cura looked at him with a puzzled expression, “What is it?”

“I want to see… Where I died. I’m going to Canterlot alone.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

War Heart nodded, “I need to see something for myself.”

Cura sighed, knowing she really couldn’t stop him, “Fine… I’ll see you later…”, she smiled.

War Heart nodded before taking to the sky soaring through the clouds towards Canterlot. It took hours to get there, he arrived in the middle of a rainstorm.

“Why you’ll never guess who just soared into town.”, Discord smiled casually as the stranger was sitting at a desk in the sewer.

“Why should I care if anybody flies in to this rotting shell of a city…?”, the stranger had a depressive tone to his speech. He covered his mouth as he had a coughing fit, hacking up some blood onto his sleeve.

“Well, I don’t know, I thought you might take an interest in that big guy with the red and green hair with black wings.”

The stranger froze, “So… He’s alive… and you didn’t tell me…”

“I thought I’d surprise you, It is kind of my fault he ended up back here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well I felt like making a bit of drama. I made him go totally crazy in an attempt to remember all you told me of your world. It just took a few pokes and few powers aimed at his brain and now he’s back, looking for blood, it seems.”, Discord put on a sly grin as he chuckled and faded out of sight.

The stranger went up to the surface via the manhole. He noticed it was raining and put on his hood. He was wearing the make-up, but it was faded from being put on so long ago. He walked down the street. It was empty except for the inanimate corpses lining the streets.

War Heart landed several metres in front of the stranger. He glared at him with eyes of crimson, a stare that could kill.

The stranger lifted his hood to reveal his face covered with the make-up of DeadBeast, “It looks like you want a rematch… I want to know if you overcame your beast…”

War Heart looked up to the sky, “I have been harassed, tempted, murdered, mutilated, and subject to much pain over this life time… I resisted… I won’t let myself become a monster like I was in Unex… I have to protect what I love. So long as I defend that, I will not break…”

DeadBeast cracked his knuckles and then clapped in a slow applause, “Now… All you have to do is defeat the Beast… Let’s see if you are strong enough to kill me without becoming a monster.”, he grinned. He walked over to War Heart and threw a punch into his gut. War Heart stumbled back, but went back into a neutral standing pose. DeadBeast continued to hit him, in the face, in the gut, the limbs, trying to cause as much pain and damage as possible. Bone cracked, skin broke, cuts bled. DeadBeast was losing his patience, he flew at War Heart in rage, “Why won’t you fight me!?”, he screamed as he continued to beat on War Heart. He stopped and started coughing again, retching up blood onto the street.

“I know you are dying… I don’t want to attack a sick person.”, War Heart started to regenerate his wounds to DeadBeast’s amazement.

DeadBeast chuckled, “Looks like you learned a new trick…”, he coughed up more blood. He looked to the sky, “I guess you did conquer your beast after all… Now… all lessons aside… You did good… I’m done…”, he started walking away. He started laughing, coughing up more blood, “Looks like this lung is catching up with me finally…”, he whispered as he walked away. He went back to the sewer, the cold rain chilling him to the bone as he sat at his desk in the sewer. He smiled as he thought on it, “I’m sure you’ll do good, War Heart…”, he whispered as he dozed off into his final sleep.

War Heart stood there in the middle of the street, now realizing that his time with DeadBeast was a lesson in Humanity. DeadBeast saw that War Heart had great power, and knew that he could be driven to mindless rage, becoming nothing but a monster. He taught War Heart that he could be strong without becoming a monster, giving War Heart the will to carry on protecting others like a hero would. War Heart felt as if a weight lifted off his shoulders, he looked to the clouded sky and felt the rain washing away everything. He took flight and headed to Ponyville. He looked down on his cabin on the outskirts, not paying any attention to the town itself. He landed next to the door, taking a deep breath and exhaling before opening the door. He saw Arcana sitting at the table as if she had never moved since he left, she was reading another work of fiction. He also saw Dash sitting at the head of the table, also reading.

Dash looked up as soon as she saw the door open from the corner of her eye. Her face lit up as she saw War Heart walk inside the house. She immediately put down her book and walked over to him hurriedly, embracing him tightly as if to never let him go.

War Heart returned her hug, lifting her into the air slightly. He let go of her and looked into her eyes, “I’ve just decided something…”

Dash had a puzzled look on her face, “About?”

“I’m never leaving you again. I’ve had to take a few hits to the head to realize this… I want to spend my life by your side without distractions.”

Dash grinned, “I was kind of worried back there… But I knew you would come back.”

Arcana finally put down her book, “Hello, Father.”, she waved from the table.

War Heart waved back at his daughter, smiling.

Dash turned War Heart’s attention back to her, “I have to tell you something that happened while you were gone.”

War Heart’s smile turned to a look of concern, “What happened?”

“There’s a new mayor now… The town was taken over by these new guys. They built up new walls and they have these weird things. They all wear these masks and they seem pretty weird.”, Dash explained to him as best she could.

“What happened to the other mayor?”

“They chased him and his guys out of town.”

“I think I need to have a talk with this new mayor…”

“I’ll come with you, I haven’t spent any time with you for so long and I haven’t been out today.”

“Okay then, Arcana, You stay here, your mother and I should be back soon.”

Arcana nodded and remained seated at the table, pulling out a new book to read.

Dash and War Heart started walking, holding hands as they made their way to Ponyville.

War Heart looked up at the sky, which was now clearing up, “It seems the weather is returning to normal.”

Dash nodded, “Yeah, some of the glows in town have been helping with that.”

“Like Orion?”

“I suppose, he seems to be one of the most powerful from what Applejack tells me. How was your trip?”

“It was pretty dull, monsters, beating down monsters, find survivors, all that boring stuff.”

“Sounds like a real snore fest, alright.”, Dash giggled.

“I missed you a lot when I was out there… It’s on3e of the reasons I decided to stay here and not go out on adventures anymore.”

“I missed you too, especially at night since the kids go to bed so early, I had nobody to talk to. I can’t believe how quiet it is.”

They had arrived in Ponyville and were on their way to the town hall.

There were strange looking men wearing rubber gas masks that hid their eyes in blackened pits of nothing behind glass. They seemed completely motionless other than their head would turn towards anyone who was approaching. They held in their hands a contraption that looked like it was made of a metal tube and wood. They were a leather outfit with steel plates over it. There was not a single bit of skin showing on these new guards, they were unnerving as they stared at War Heart as he and Dash walked past.

Meanwhile, The three crusaders were walking towards town hall.

“I really hope that these Machina guys pay us for bringing in those survivors.”, Scootaloo was leading Sweetie and Apple Bloom down the street.

“Yeah, no kiddin’ I don’ want to have done all that fer nothing’!”, Apple Bloom had her arms crossed, feeling somewhat upset for this sudden change in management of the town.

Sweetie Belle looked around at the buildings, remaining silent as she walked with her friends. As she and her friends turned the corner, she noticed that War Heart and Dash were walking ahead of them. She fixed her eyes on War Heart and scanned him over in silence, her eyes glowing red. She walked at a faster pace, ahead of her friends who were preoccupied with conversation. She kept approaching War Heart, who had just entered the marketplace. He was looking at some books to buy for Arcana at one of the stands, “Target: War Heart, Winged One, Glow Power Capabilities. Conclusion: Alicorn. Immediate Termination Required. Enabling Assassination Protocols…”, Sweetie droned on in her digital voice. She proceeded to sprint towards War Heart, a blade sliding out of her wrist.

Dash heard some quick footsteps approaching, turning just in time to see Sweetie brandishing a knife. With only a split second to react, she pushed War Heart out of the way.

War Heart was taken by surprise as he hit the ground. He looked to see Dash motionless on the stall table and Sweetie brandishing a knife dripping with blood. He jumped to his feet and attacked Sweetie, only seeing red as he used the Dead Magic to give him incredible strength, enough to bring Sweetie to the ground and smash her face with his fists. He tore off her arm that had the knife coming out of it and proceeded to repeatedly stab at her chest. Black liquid spewed forth from his as she droned out her last words.

“Damage: Critical… Shutting… Down…..”, Sweetie’s voice faded.

War Heart quickly went to Dash to see if she was going to be okay. He held her in his arms, tears streamed down his face. He noticed to stab wound was near the middle of the chest.

Dash coughed weakly, “War Heart…”

“I have to find Cura…”, War Heart mumbled.

Dash shook her head slowly, “No… I can feel myself slipping… I don’t think I’m going to make it…”

“You will… You have to…”

“Make sure Arcana at least goes out and sees the sky once in a while… And tell Air Heart that I’m so proud of her…”

War Heart could barely believe this was happening, never before had anything hit him so hard. He struggled to hold back sobs, his face turning red.

“I love you…”, Dash smiled weakly at War Heart before closing her eyes.

War Heart trembled, he laid her down on the table as if she were sleeping, “I love you too… Beautiful…”, he fell to his knees and sobbed. Everything he had was gone, taken by one cruel act.

A digital voice called out, “Sir, You are under arrest for destruction of De Machina Property.”, one of the guards was standing a few metres behind War Heart, with almost a dozen other at their side. They pointed their weapons at War Heart. The guard took a step forward, “If you do not surrender, we will have to neutralise you with force.”

War Heart felt it again, the rage that he had not felt in years. The fire inside him that felt like he would set the world ablaze and watch it burn to ashes. He turned to the guards and screamed at them. His teeth formed fangs, his fingers turned into claws, his eyes glowed red. He flinched as he heard several small explosions, and then the sharp pains all over his front side coming from the bullets that pierced his skin. He screamed again, sprinting at them and tearing a few of them apart. In his rage he turned to see Sweet Heart, staring at him teary eyed from watching her brother. He noticed more guard coming and took to the sky, flying as fast as he could away from Ponyville.

Chapter 35

Sweet Heart trudged over to Dash’s body. Tears streamed down her face as she looked down on her deceased sister. She had lost her and War Heart all at once, in the blink of an eye. She noticed everyone was just gawking. She turned to the crowds, her face red from holding back her sorrowful sobs. She wiped the tears from her face and walked away from the body to Sugar Cube Corner, where she lived with Pinkie, her best friend. She opened the door to the pastry shop to be greeted by none other than Mrs. Cake.

“Hello Sweet Hea-…”, Mrs. Cake paused on account of Sweet Heart’s normally blissful expression was missing, “What’s wrong, Dear?”

Sweet Heart’s lip trembled, she didn’t know if she could admit it to anyone else. She didn’t want to accept the truth of what happened to her brother and Dash. She cleared her throat, “I… lost my brother… and my sister…”, she didn’t want to say the ‘D’ word.

Mrs. Cake’s expression turned to one of pity, “Oh no… Are you okay, Sweet Heart?”

Sweet Heart shook her head slowly, “No… I think I have to go lie down…”, she said as she headed for the stairs.

“You can have some time off. I hope you’ll feel better, though.”, Mrs. Cake went back to working at the counter as Sweet Heart went up the stairs.

Sweet Heart entered her room that she shared with Pinkie and collapsed on her bed, face into her pillow. Her tears soaking into the fabric as she started to sob alone in the empty room.

Hours later, Pinkie opened the door slowly. She poked her head inside the room, “Sweet Heart, What’s wrong? Mr. Cake said you were upset.”, Pinkie had no idea of what happened.

Sweet Heart knew that Pinkie and Dash were best friends, she didn’t want to be the one to tell her. She took a deep breath, trying to stop her own sobs. She sat on her bed with back against the wall, “Something terrible happened…”, she patted a spot next to her, indicating to Pinkie that she should sit next to her.

Pinkie was understanding that Sweet Heart needed someone there for her. She took a seat next to her, “What happened, Sweet Heart?”

“It’s about War Heart… And Dash… I was in the market and I saw them walking together. I was trying to get over to them and talk to them but there was a crowd of people in my way. I saw Dash push War Heart over as someone ran over and tackled into her. Next thing I knew: War Heart screams and takes the other person apart in front of everyone. Dash…”, she took a breath before letting out what happened, Pinkie’s heart sank as she realised what was to come, “Dash is… gone… So is War Heart…”

Pinkie’s bright blue eyes welled up with tears immediately, the loss of Dashie hitting her like nothing had hit her before. She felt Sweet Heart wrap her arms around her, something telling her that they both needed a hug. She hugged Sweet Heart back, she was very open with her tears and cries of sorrow.

Orion had been working in a room of the town hall with a man who wore a full black coat with a hood; as well as a mask that was exactly the same as the ones on the guards of the town other than the eyes of the mask glowed bright blue. Orion had been working with this man on a project for the last few days. The man found this metal that had curious reactions with magic.

A small red light blipped on the wall, a small electronic beeping sounding off in sync with the light. The man walked over to the light and pressed a button next to it, “Yes, what is it?”, his voice was deep and digital.

“Prototype SB-7 has been destroyed.”, a speaker next to the button let out another digital voice.

“How?”

“Combat.”

“Ridiculous, the Prototypes can withstand massive amounts of damage. Do you have an ID on the one who destroyed SB-7?”

“Negative.”

“Describe them.”

“Tall, muscular, black wings, red eyes; red and green hair.”

Orion turned to the speaker, “War Heart?”

The man turned to Orion, “You know him?”

Orion nodded, “Yes, we’re friends.”

“He destroyed one of my prototypes.”, the man informed Orion.

The speaker let out more sounds, “Confirmed casualties of seven GearGuards.”

Orion was confused, “Why would he just attack your guards?”

The man turned back to the speaker, “Give me the details of what happened prior to SB-7’s destruction.”

“No GearGuards were witnessing the event before.”

The man spoke again, “Fine, bring me the remains of SB-7.”

“Affirmative.”, the red light on the speaker went out.

Orion looked at the man suspiciously, “Deus… what is going on?”

Deus looked back to Orion as he walked back to their worktable, “I suppose I can’t hide this from you. However, I will not allow you to relay this information to any others. I’ll have to show you what is going on when the remains get here.”

“You told your guards to bring you a corpse?”

“In a way I guess you could call it a corpse.”

They waited for a few minutes before three GearGuards walked inside with the remains of Sweetie Belle, broken and leaking black fluids.

Orion grimaced at the sight of the young woman beaten and broken, “She just a girl… How could War Heart do this?”

Deus had the guard lay her down on an empty worktable. He walked over to Sweetie and spoke, “Reinitialize, code 1406. Replay latest memory before functions ceased.”

“Affirmative.”, The broken and battered Sweetie drone in the digital voice. Her eyes glowed green as a holographic image showed up in the air above her. The image moved and played out the events from her point of view. Her vision was focused on War Heart, the data pulled up on him showed he used to be an Alicorn and that she activated her assassination protocols.

Orion was already surprised at the floating images, but even more surprised at what he was watching, “She thought War Heart was an Alicorn…? So she tried to kill him?”

Deus kept his gaze on the image, “I set parameters to sort out targets. Those who have wings are obviously Winged Ones, those who show magic are Glows. If they ever so happen to have wings and performs magic, they are labelled as Alicorns. I only set this parameter after I took over the town and the signal only goes so far. She must have witnessed him perform magic at some point.”

“But why would that make her want to kill him?”, Orion questioned.

“I have seen much… I will not let the Alicorns destroy this world because they believe they have a born right to rule.”, Deus explained a tone of hidden anger in his voice.

“That doesn’t give you the right to kill them on sight… especially when…”, Orion turned back to the image in time to see Sweetie had killed Rainbow Dash. He gasped, “Now I know why he destroyed her… You killed his wife… They had a family together.”

Deus put his hands on the worktable, he looked down to the floor and sighed, “I didn’t want this to happen… Where is he now, though?”

One of the GearGuards spoke up, “Witnesses report that he fled the town.”

Deus shook his head, “and he will never know now…”

Arcana waited at home reading for hours. She just finished her last book. Looking on her pile of six books, she sighed, “It seems I must set out to the library again…”, she whispered to herself. She stood up and grabbed her messenger’s bag from her room and packed the book inside. She opened the door and walked outside, closing the door behind her. She walked into town and to the library, nothing very interesting happening on the way there. The marketplace was crowded as usual so she paid no attention to them. She soon arrived at Twilight’s tree which still served as the town’s library. Walking inside she saw spike putting books back on shelves, “Greetings, Spike.”

The baby dragon, who was still his original size since his greed was kept in check, looked over at Arcana and waved, “Hey, Arcana, finished with those books I guess?”

Arcana nodded, she was rather familiar with Spike, seeing him every week. She was glad for it too, for she could not stand how dull life could be without reading but being familiar with Spike also meant that she did not need to see Twilight, who she despised with a passion over what she did. She began to pull out the books she had in her pack, setting them on a nearby table and wandering the shelves for new ones.

Spike walked near her on his way to put away the books Arcana brought back, “Still mad at Twilight?”

“Very…”

Spike sighed, “I think she really regrets doing it. She barely comes out of her room, I walk in there and notice she’s been crying sometimes.”

“I don’t care, she betrayed my mother.”

“She still sees you as her student… she still cares for you.”, Spike told her as he walked to the other side of the room.

Arcana was put in a foul mood from thinking of Twilight again, she clenched a fist as she just imagined Twilight running away with her father to leave Dash alone and in despair. A thought of what could have been if Twilight had her way. She tried to avoid thinking about it as she skimmed through some works of fiction, absorbing herself into the first bits of the stories. She eventually picked out a few and left the library, taking a deep breath as she stepped outside. She walked back to her home on the edge of town. She reached the door and opened it. She walked in to see Air Heart in tears and her aunt Sweet Heart sitting at the table with a hand on Air Heart’s back. Arcana looked at them oddly, having no idea what had happened.

Sweet Heart looked as if she had been crying. She turned to Arcana who just walked in, “Arcana… I have something to tell you…”

War Heart landed far from the town, he collapsed to his knees upon landing. He knew he could not go back to that place. He saw too much there that reminded him of her, it would kill him to stay, slowly choking what was left of his sanity. He looked at his hands that resembled that of some creature that was born to hunt and tear other creatures apart. He shook his head, “How could this have happened…? The kid attacked me… killed her… I killed her now… nothing is better…”, he mourned over Dash in tears among the trees of the Everfree Forest. He heard someone approach and quickly stood up, spreading his wings and putting on a violent expression. He looked towards the one that approached him to see a familiar face. He gasped before speaking, “Dash…?”

Sweet Heart spent the night with her nieces, knowing they had to have someone look after her now orphaned relatives. She sat with them as they cried themselves to sleep, she knew she would have to become their guardian now and with spending so much time at Sugar Cube Corner she’d have to find someone to look after them while she was at work or find some other means of getting the money to support them. She heard a knock at the front door, she got up and quietly crept over to the door and opened it to find nobody there. She looked at the ground and saw a small box. Sweet Heart picked up the box curiously and opened it to find a small wooden heart pendant, “This was mother’s… She gave it to Dash…”, she pulled out the pendant and looked at the bottom of the box had a large sum of paper money that was put in effect since De Machina took over the town. She looked around for the generous one who left such a thing for her and her nieces. Sweet Heart saw nobody but clutched the pendant, holding it close and smiling slightly, “Thank you…”, she whispered as she walked back inside.

Epilogue

War Heart disappeared. He never revealed himself to Equestria in the years after he destroyed SB-7 and fled the town. Whether it was out of fear, biding his time to take revenge, or if he was just too traumatized from losing Rainbow Dash to do anything but stay alone in the unexplored wilds of Equestria or beyond. His most recent adventures made him an idol as the band “Ghosts of a Guilty Mare”, wrote songs about him. The songs however, depicted him as a monster of dark power, vilifying him to the older parts of the populace while starting a sort of dark trend in young Equestrian society.

Cura became Minister of Health alongside Deus of De Machina, making sure that Glows who sought out education in the healing arts would get it. She felt rather distraught over the fact that her greatest friend had vanished again without her being there or without her knowing until the day after. She regretted letting him leave that one night before arriving back in Ponyville, often wondering if things could have been different if she had not allowed him to leave. It haunted her dreams for years, clawing at her mind constantly.

Orion worked as an advisor to Deus. He worked part time as an assistant in the workshop whenever Deus required someone experienced in magic. They worked to the point of developing new weapons and methods for improving weapons using a metallic alloy that allowed a glow to store magical energy within it and allow it to be used in all sorts of ways such as flaming weapons or a field of energy that would repel outside forces. One of these weapons ended up in the shape of a walking stick, although it was made of many moving parts that would allow a user to shoot a blast of flame, a bolt of lightning, or a blizzard. He too, regretted what happened to War Heart. He had known him for years and knew he deserved better than what happened. He pulled strings in De Machina government to insure that War Heart’s children would have monetary support in the very least.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom continued to work for De Machina as a mercenary company. They eventually taught many of the orphans they cared for how to defend themselves. Many of the orphans took a liking to battle and wanted to assist the two of them on assignments. They soon had plenty of members in their ranks and formed ‘Crusaders Mercenary Company’, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom naming it after their secret society they had long ago before the great change. Some of the orphans were rather used to the idea of stealing what they needed to survive and ran away from the Crusader’s home and started their own underground organization. They called themselves ‘The Family’ as they were taught to look after each other. They hid away from the authorities and ran all the crime in Ponyville.

Ponyville itself became a great thriving metropolis. The technological advances that De Machina brought had allowed it to expand rapidly. Soon they built a wall of steel around the great city and gave everyone inside ID cards that they were forced to keep on them at all times. To protect the populace, they also enforced a rule of no leaving the city unless licensed to do so. There were licenses for adventuring, trading, and vacation. The license would allow one to re-enter the city after they’ve left. There was also another project that De Machina had begun. De Machina had started to construct a tower in the center of the city, armed with many weapons and built to withstand massive amounts of force. Nobody was told what the tower was for.

Arcana did not take the news of her mother’s death or her father’s leave very well. She was furious to the point she had nearly vaporized her aunt in a magical blast of rage. After that night she showed next to no emotion, knowing that it was foolish of her to become attached to anything. She grew a deep resentment towards her father for abandoning her, and a far more passionate hatred for whoever was behind her mother’s death. She no longer read at home. She was barely even seen by her aunt except when she would come back home, appearing exhausted.

Air Heart went into a deep depression when she discovered that she was orphaned in a matter of less than a day. The idea of having a happy family after her father’s return from the dead was a dream and nothing more. She often would look around the house to see her parents sitting at the table, almost immediately having a headache afterwards. She would spend nights crying often, most of her memories of her mother being ones of her crying over her father, and even fewer of her father who had died and come back while she was still so young. She knew that she could not stay in that cabin that had a lingering sadness to it. At a very young age she looked to the sky and flew east, never to be seen in Ponyville again.

Sweet Heart stayed in the cabin with her two nieces for as long as she could still look after them. Even when trying her best they were not happy with her. She sometimes stayed awake at night looking out the window, wondering where her brother was, wishing that he would come back. She would then think of her nieces and realise how poorly she was raising them, looking back out the window she would say, “I’m sorry…”, apologising for not being the guardian that her nieces deserve. She eventually went out with Pinkie one night to a Ghosts of a Guilty Mare concert and was approached by someone that she swears could read her mind. He showed her a kindness and a certain charm in his demeanour that was alluring to her somehow. She found out soon that he was Wraith from Ghosts of a Guilty Mare, eventually going steady.

Pinkie Pie eventually took full control of Sugar Cube Corner. Mr. and Mrs. Cake eventually retired happily and healthily and were more than willing to leave the bakery to Pinkie at that point. She was still a party animal at heart but knew she could run a bakery if she wanted to. Business was good, her outgoing behaviour acted as a curiosity to newcomers and her friendly manner only reinforced their desire to return to the shop.

The Great and Powerful Trixie took apprenticeship under Orion. She learned how to properly use more powerful magic. Sooner or later she became a professor of magic at the University of Ponyville, teaching new and inquisitive young minds on the adequate use of magic.

The Apple Family had lost their beloved Granny Smith. It was a dark day indeed that she passed away in the night. Big Macintosh eventually married Cheerilee who still taught at the Ponyville Elementary school. Applejack and Orion had already been raising their own child Apple Star, who was well on her way to becoming a proficient spell caster. The weather that had for a long time now been terrible, cloudy, and cold had cleared up and the apple orchards of Sweet Apple Acres had flourished, bringing in a great deal of produce.

Twilight Sparkle was quite a hermit within the city of Ponyville. She was devastated after finding that Rainbow Dash was killed and War Heart was gone. Barely ever leaving the library, she was sometimes seen walking outside with a little girl.

Fluttershy stayed in the wilderness with the animals. There were reports of a winged one living among packs of timber wolves and soaring above with the winged creatures but none could confirm whether or not it was really her.

And so it came to pass that a select few of these individuals saw the changing of the times. They fought many battles and suffered through hardships. Along the way, many had gained new friends and others lost their lives. It was clear that the sun was setting on the age and that these individuals would be the last heroes of Equestria.

Progress

“Who are you? Where did you come from?!”, Twilight exclaimed at the appearance of the new Earth pony in front of her with dark purple mane and dark grey-purple coat with goggles and a vest.

“Ah, my dear Twilight, You summoned me here with the beacon. You obviously have some sort of problem that you require some kind of assistance?”

“I still have no clue who you are, and how do you know my name?”, Twilight questioned him.

“Oh, right, how rude of me, I’m Fizz Whistle. Is there anything you need help with?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to figure out what happened to my friend, War Heart.”

“Ah, how is the big Caneighdian?”

“He’s gone. He never returned from his mission into the Dragon Lands…”

“Dragon Lands…? Hm, seems the New Lunar Republic never took place in this timeline…”

“The what?”

“Oh, nothing, how about you tell me what exactly you need help with?”

“Well, I need to find a book or scroll or something on the Dragon Lord Barridamus. Supposedly his breath attack wasn’t just a simple element of fire or something, but it was dark and Orion told me something about how War Heart disturbed it by throwing his axe into it which caused it to suck in everything around it and-”, Twilight was cut of in the middle of her explanation.

“- and it sucked in everything to a tiny pin point for a while until it stopped and exploded?”

“Y-yes, how did you know that?”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to figure things out when you have an IQ of two THOUSAND.”

“IQ?”

“I’m really smart.”

“Okay, then, but do you think you can help me figure out what happened?”

“Twilight, my dear, not only can I figure out what happened to him, but I can figure out if he’s alive and even how to get him back if he is!”

“How?”

“I don’t know, I’ll figure it out, but I’ll need an assistant.”, he looked towards Twilight.

“I guess, I could be your assistant…”

“Marvelous, let’s go then.”, Fizz began walking towards the exit of the archives.

“To where?”, Twilight questioned him.

“Ponyville, I need to get a few things, and meet some associates of mine.”

“Okay, then…”, Twilight said somewhat hesitantly, not entirely sure if Fizz was insane or not.

They both walked over to the train in Canterlot to go to Ponyville. Fizz was busy studying the train engine and looking over its design. “It seems in this timeline, there are actually ponies who know how to use my machines!”, he began to tear up in joy then rubbed his eye, “I’m so proud of this timeline…”

Twilight just stood there with an eyebrow raised, becoming almost certain that Fizz was truly mad. They both boarded the train and were taken off to Ponyville. Fizz looked around at the world through the window, admiring the beautiful landscape. “So, War Heart is missing, what events before that happened? Where did he live, what did he do, Was he with anypony?”

Twilight tried to remember all she could, “Well, I know that he lived in a cabin in the woods near Ponyville, that he defeated a dragon in town, nearly died, went to the Grand Galloping Gala with Ditzy Doo-”, Twilight was cut off yet again by Fizz.

“How Wonderful, I was wondering if the big hero would do better than living in a cave on the outskirts.”, Fizz lightly applauded in glee.

“Yes, well, he was doing well until he disappeared.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be alright. If he’s alive I can get him back.”, Fizz told Twilight as they pulled into the train station in Ponyville. The got off the train together, Fizz began walking right away into town. “So, where are we going exactly?”, Twilight asked Fizz, still hoping to get a straight answer.

“Well, first I’ll need to stop by a cache of tools I have hidden away, then we can begin figuring out a way to bring back our friend, War Heart.”

“You hid tools in Ponyville? When, and where?”

“Well… That’s a long story so I won’t bore you with details.”

“Okay then, well so long as we can get War Heart back here.”

“Plus, the readers probably don’t want a recap on everything.”, Fizz rolled his eyes and whispered to himself.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing.”, Fizz said as they walked into the center of Ponyville. Twilight turned her head in the direction of a mare with a grey coat and blonde mane. She turned away at first, but then turned back to see her walking with a purple-coated unicorn stallion with blonde mane. Twilight looked back at Fizz and found she fell behind somewhat, she sped up to keep up with him, ignoring the couple that was suspiciously familiar.

The two kept walking until they reached Twilight’s library home, Fizz walked straight inside. “How did you know where I live?”, Twilight asked.

“Well, I didn’t, but this is where I left my tools.”, fizz explained.

“So you are perfectly comfortable with barging into somepony’s home without permission.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time, and it will not be the last.”

“Isn’t that a bit intrusive?”

“I have no time to worry about such things, it will not matter in the grand scheme of things.”, Fizz walked into the main room and began stomping around on the floor as he moved around. Twilight just sat and watched him stomp around like a foal throwing a tantrum. Fizz tromped around for about three minutes, “Curses! I can’t find it!”, he jumped in place in aggravation, the floor broke out from under him. He vanished from sight into the floor, “Found it…”, he announced to Twilight, who came running as she saw him fall into the floor. “Are you okay!?”, Twilight shouted to him in concern.

“I’m fi- that’s not supposed to bend that way…”

“What happened!?”, Twilight wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know.

“I seem to have broken my leg, no worries. I have it all under control.”

“You break your leg and you say you ‘have it under control’!?”

“I keep forgetting that other ponies are not quite as durable as myself. I wouldn’t jump down if I were you, it’s a good two storeys drop.”

“Did you, build this?”, Twilight said as she looked around the dimly lit cavern.

“Yes, I did.”

“How did I not notice?”, Twilight asked herself, still looking around.

“Well, I’ve grown accustomed to hiding my things throughout my travels.”

“How long have you been doing this exactly?”

“I’m afraid I lost track quite some time ago.”

Whirring sounds could be heard from the hole as Fizz began to rise up on a platform, looking no worse for wear and now equipped with some saddlebags.

“Your leg doesn’t look broken…”, Twilight commented while looking at his legs.

“That’s because I fixed it, of course.”, Fizz said as he walked out the door, Twilight following closely and closing the door on the way out.

“Where are we going now?”, Twilight asked, not having a clue where Fizz was going.

“To the Ursa cave.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, “That is not a good idea.”

“Oh please, Twilight, dear, you are going to have to trust me… Or you can wait outside while I fetch what I need.”, he told her as they approached the Ursa cave.

“I’ll wait here.”, she hid behind a tree outside the cave as Fizz disappeared inside. A few moments later a revving sound could be heard from inside as Fizz came out on his Fizz-Mobile.

“Come on, we haven’t got all millennium.”, Fizz said as he pulled up nearby Twilight.

“What is this?”, Twilight said as she walked out from behind the tree.

“The Fizz-Mobile, two point oh.”

“You have another one?”

“Had… I needed to rebuild after… well I don’t feel like sharing, get in.”

Twilight walked to the side of the vehicle, jumped in and took a seat.

“You may want to wear these.”, He said to her as he handed Twilight a pair of goggles.

“Okay then…”, Twilight said as she put on the goggles. Fizz clicked a few buttons and switches. “Time to buckle up.”, Fizz said as the seat belts shot around him and Twilight and strapped Fizz and Twilight to their seats. Twilight let out a small yelp from being startled by the seatbelt. “Okay, so which direction are we headed, Twilight?”, Fizz asked with both front hooves on the controls.

“They said that they headed west, into the Dragon lands.”

“West it is, then.”, Fizz pressed a few more buttons and then slammed his back hoof on a pedal that was labelled “Go”, revving the engines and sending the vehicle forward at a ridiculous speed. Twilight was fearful that they were going to crash as they were weaving between trees, Fizz looked like he was having the time of his life. Twilight screamed as they cleared out of the forest and headed straight off a cliff. She shut her eyes and felt a rush as they fell through the air. The falling sensation stopped, she opened her eyes to see there were going in a horizontal direction now. Wings had spread from the vehicle and from the wings came propellers. Twilight sighed in relief that they weren’t going to die. She looked at Fizz with a rather annoyed expression on her face, Fizz just ignored the look she was giving him. “If I told you outright that the Fizz-Mobile was able to turn into a plane, that would have ruined the surprise.”, Fizz explained.

“I thought we were done for!”, Twilight yelled at Fizz.

“I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, but then again, I have a bit of a higher threshold for taking punishment than you probably do.”

“You still have not explained much since you got here.”

“Well, I have a bit of an odd history. It’s a long story.”

“It’s not like I’m going anywhere, and it is probably a long flight.”

“Well, I don’t think I can cover over two-hundred years in twenty minutes.”

“Two-hundr- What in Equestria are you talking about?”

“Well, I’m immortal by my own means, I travel through time by placing beacons throughout time that are activated by ponies like you that are searching for help with scientific matters. I show up, help with the problem, then leave. In my original life I was working in secret for Equestria against my will and a whole bunch of things happened that ended in a huge disaster but apparently separated the timelines from my violent means of time travel. The world I am from I started a revolution with Princess Luna against Celestia and it ended in me causing mass destruction upon my departure. In this world I knew you as a friend and War Heart was a fellow New Lunar Republican on Princess Luna’s side of the rebellion. That clarify things?”

Twilight was dumbfounded and could hardly believe what he just said, “I don’t know what to make of this.”

“You could blissfully ignore it and concentrate on what we have to do.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

They flew for a few minutes, passing over the mountains and the jungles of Nova Terra. A colossal crater could be seen in the center of the land. Fizz flew the plane over and landed next to the crater. “Well, I guess this is where it happened…”, Fizz said as he took note of the area. He walked over to the back of the Fizz mobile and rifled through the storage trunk. “I am going to have to scan the area for some clue as to what kind of event we are looking at here…”

“What are you doing?”, Twilight walked over to Fizz. Fizz brought himself out of the storage trunk and looked at her with black goggles that had dark blue lenses and a contraption that was strapped to his head with wiry antennae which was wired to a metal box that made crackling noises. Twilight backed up a step, surprised at how ridiculous he looked. “Now, it is time… FOR SCIENCE!”, Fizz shouted as he waddled with his heavy machinery into the crater. He kept his face close to the ground as Twilight sat on the edge and just watched him do his thing. He looked like a dog sniffing out a bone it had buried in a yard, except with a bunch of machinery attached to it. He waddled about the crater, the machine every once in a while would crackle louder and at a higher frequency. At one point the machine beeped, Fizz froze for a moment. The beep came again, he walked in one direction and waited a few seconds. No beep, he walked back and heard the beep again, and another. He ran in one direction for a few seconds, the beeps became more frequent. He eventually got to a point where the sound was one high-pitched ringing. He turned off the machine and began digging with his front hooves. After a few moments the earth yield to him a discovery. A woodcutter’s axe, Fizz stared at it, not sure what to think. He turned on his goggles and saw that the axe had a strange aura on it. Fizz grabbed it with his mouth and brought it over to Twilight, dropping it in front of her, “What do you make of this?”, He said pointing to the axe with his hoof.

“That looks like War Heart’s axe, he used it to slay the dragon that attacked Ponyville.”, Twilight explained as she took note of the axe.

Fizz looked into the air for a moment stroking his chin in thought, mumbling to himself in thought, “The only way that something like that could harm a dragon is if it were enchanted… perhaps it was the magical force within this axe that caused a disruption that caused a rift in space and time that caused him to be pulled in. So that means that this dragon had the ability to create dark matter in its body… After it was created, War Heart must’ve thrown his axe into the dark matter, making it become unstable and collapse in on itself, creating a massive gravity field. He essentially made a miniature black hole and got sucked in.”, Fizz was more talking to himself, but Twilight couldn’t help but hear what he was saying. “Are you saying he’s alive?”, Twilight asked, having some hope for her friend.

“Possibru… It’s always been a theory and I’ve never really had a reason to explore it until now. I must say it will take some preparation to pull this off.”, Fizz told her, making it sound like he already figured out exactly what they have to do to pull this off.

“What do we have to do then?”, Twilight asked, unsure if she was going to like what he was going to say.

“We’ll have to recreate the rift, hopefully we’ll be able to get into the world he’s been pulled into and do the same thing on his end to come back.”

The suggestion gave Twilight some hope that she may have War Heart back, “But…”, As Fizz said this, Twilight’s heart sank a little.

“But the theory may be wrong and we’ll just be crushed into the pinpoint of space and have our atoms scattered in every direction.”, Fizz said as Twilight’s expression turned to one of shock. Fizz put his equipment back in the plane. “Come now, We have work to do Miss Sparkle, We have to find a lair; make machines; do research; experiments; oh, the fun we will have!”, Fizz said in an enthusiastic tone while jumping into the plane and preparing it for takeoff. Twilight jumped into the plane, now mentally prepared for what was to happen on takeoff. The wings propellers spun as the wings themselves turned to a vertical position, the propellers lifted the vehicle into the air then snapped back to a horizontal alignment and they began to fly back to Ponyville.

The night was filled with the dull roar of raindrops on concrete. The streets were only dimly lit by the poorly maintained lamps. A flash of lightning in the distance and the resounding thunder booming across the city. A figure stood atop an apartment building of glass and grey cement. His eyes were sanguine red, staring down at the filthy pit of crime and indecency before him, judging those who set out to hurt others for personal gain. He was tall and muscular, his wrath was to be feared by all who meant him harm. His hair was crimson and deep green, now sagging along the sides of his head from the rain. He wore a long grey trench coat with the sleeves rolled up; dark blue jeans that were faded from wear and tear; his shoes were black with white laces made of cotton with white rubber soles. His black-feathered wings were folded against him, sticking out of slits in his jacket. He held a sword in his hand and a sawn-off shotgun in a holster on his left thigh. He stood there completely still and silent as if he were a statue of an angel set on watching over the city. A troubled look crossed his face as he thought of home, wherever it was. He looks off into the sky, his eyes narrowed to keep the rain out of his eyes. He snapped to attention as he hears the familiar sound of his ring tone come from his ear-piece. He brought up his right hand and turned on his phone, “Hello?”, he spoke in a low tone.

“War Heart, we found one of the places that the BluntHeads are keeping their drugs and money, we sent a few of our guys there but they’ll surely need backup, you ought to head over there.”, the voice was calm, sounding as if he was far from danger, emotionless as he knew that people were going to die.

“All right, Kacey, I’ll follow our vans when I see them.”, War Heart said, showing no enthusiasm, acting as if this sort of thing had become routine. He pressed the button on the ear-piece and turned it off. He heard tires screeching in the distance. He spread his black wings and took flight. He glided overhead above the streets, searching for the recognizable black vans that the Last Heroes used to transport their members. He saw one of the vans speeding down the street, War Heart followed where it was going. It headed into the slums downtown, stopping in front of a townhouse. Seven men in black t-shirts with the words ‘The Last Heroes’ on the front jumped out of the van brandishing pistols and Uzis. War Heart knew none of them personally but found himself feeling a sort of kinship with them. Although this feeling of kinship was not returned, the others more saw War Heart as someone to look up to. Many of The Last Heroes were orphans or had no father, a result of the gangs’ oppression of their home city. Each and everyone one of them knew that they fought to clear out the gangs so that the people could walk the street again without fear. War Heart descended upon the Last Heroes party. They all stood at attention, awaiting the command from War Heart.

“All right, let’s do this.”, War Heart said as he walked towards the townhouse’s front door. He pulled out his shotgun and readied himself, looking back at his party, they all looked at him and nodded, giving him the sign they were ready. War Heart, shifted back slightly before slamming his shoulder into the door and bursting it open, his followers all running inside with guns at the ready. They moved quickly and quietly, going down the halls and checking every room. War Heart walked in and began to search the place himself. He entered a study and looked over the papers on the desk, records of how much product was being produced and was being sold, how much money was being made, etc. He saw it as relatively uninteresting then he heard a sound from behind him, a footstep. He quickly turned around and pointed his shotgun into the face of one of the Last Heroes, the young man spoke shakily, “W-we couldn’t find anyth-thing.”, War Heart lowered his gun, “Don’t sneak up on me again.”

War Heart walked outside and looked up into the clouded sky, it was still raining. He could hear more tires screeching, but didn’t think anything of it. His thoughts returned to home, his mare, the warmth of his house, his friends both new and old, and how there was a quiet life awaiting him back there if he returns. He smiled as he imagined the rest of his life play out in his head. Settling down, have a family, teaching his kid how to talk, growing old, watching his child grow up, and someday be there when his child would go off to find their soul mate. The idea of it brought a tear to his eye, leaving him in a state of fantasizing. This state did not last long as a bullet whizzed passed him after hearing a loud gunshot, he flew out of his fantasy to rejoin reality. War Heart dived back into the house and kicked the door closed. Several cars skidded in front of the house, five cars in all and four men in each car. Both the cars and the clothes of the men were Dark green, colours of the BluntHeads. They all opened fire on the house. “Everyone, out the back door!”, War Heart shouted as he ran to the back of the house. It took him a few seconds to realise, but there was indeed no back door to this place. He attempted to open the window, only to find they have been bolted shut. War Heart took out his shotgun and shot the glass, it only cracked. “We fell straight into their trap…”, War Heart whispered to himself as all his party were at the windows (which were not bullet proof glass) at the front side of the house, shooting back at the BluntHeads. War Heart looked to the window out the front of the house. He looked around the house and found a cellar. He hurried down there and looked around. He found a sledgehammer and ran back upstairs. He swung the hammer into the back wall, cracking through the drywall and breaking the wooden supports. War Heart kept smashing at the wall as hard as he could, until he had a hole that a person could easily jump through. “You guys run, I’ll distract them long enough for you guys to get away. And give me a couple pistols.”, War Heart spoke loud to be heard over the gunshots. Two of the party ran over to War Heart, each handing him a pistol. War Heart walked into the kitchen and looked around, he saw a gas stove and smirked, “Perfect…”, War Heart said to himself as some of the party were still shooting at the BluntHeads. War Heart walked over to the stove and turned on one of the burners. He then turned on the oven and put out the pilot light by taking a bucket of water and pouring it inside the oven. He left the oven door open and walked out, grabbing some of his party members by the collar and pulling them outside out the back. He took flight and watched his party flee by jumping fences. War Heart watched from above as the BluntHeads shot at the now empty house. After a bit the BluntHeads stopped shooting and a few walked into the house, seconds later they went running out of the house in a panic. The house exploded, sending a fiery inferno in all direction, a shockwave blowing War Heart back a bit, and killing quite a few of the BluntHeads, as well as knocking the rest of them out. War Heart flew down and picked up one of the unconscious BluntHeads that was wearing a suit. He flew up to a roof that was seven storeys high and a few blocks away. War Heart slapped him across the face, waking him up. War Heart held him with one hand, leaving the BluntHead dangling over the edge. The man’s eyes widened as he realised his current position. “What do you want?”, he said in a panicked tone, quivering in fear.

“I want you to talk, who set up the ambush!?”, War Heart growled at him.

“W-we didn’t set up an ambush, we got a call that you guys were taking over an empty house and we thought we could claim it ourselves if we showed up with more guys.”

“Who called?”

“I don’t know…”

“Is that all?”, “War Heart asked in a angered tone.

“I’m serious I don’t know anymore!”

“Then you’re no longer of use to me…”, War Heart walked over the ledge of the building and brought his fist into the side of the Blunt’s head, knocking him unconscious and dropping him off the roof into a dumpster filled with garbage bags, probably breaking a few bones but not killing him.

“You got out of that predicament pretty well, you didn’t even lose one of your men.”, a deep voice spoke from behind War Heart.

War Heart turned around quickly to see the stranger. He was an average size and build; his face was painted white with makeup with black circles for eyes and a black jack-o-lantern mouth surrounding his lips; his bald head had several spiked piercings.

“DeadBeast…”, War Heart said to himself, now face to face with one of the most terrible examples of humanity.

“I see my reputation precedes me, but I am not at a disadvantage here, I know who you are. You’ve been starting a real problem in my city, attracting a lot of attention, starting up fights, stealing from the gangs. It’s all so… exciting. I haven’t seen this kind of thing since I started my spree and my climb to the top. I want you to go all out, to come at them like an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. I want you to make sure the streets run red with the crimson torrents of hundreds- no, thousands of the low-lifes. I can see in your eyes you have the hunger, the rage, the inferno of fury within you. You’re an animal, just like me, unlike everyone else, we get power from being animals. I look forward to our final fight, it shall be… delicious.”, DeadBeast walked towards the ledge opposite of War Heart.

“Later, Arch-Angel…”, DeadBeast said as he leaped off the building. War Heart ran over to the ledge to see DeadBeast run through the alley way and disappear around the corner.

“That guy… is a serious freak…”, War Heart told himself as he flew back home. He, Chris, and Kacey had moved out of their run down one story home and had managed to get enough money to buy their own six storey building which used to be an apartment building. They lived in the top floor which served as their one big apartment, making it easy for War Heart to come and go by flight. He landed on the roof and walked to a door and opened it. He walked down a set of stairs and took off his jacket, hanging it up on a wall hook on the entrance to the apartment. Kacey walked into the door with plastic bags from the grocery store, and other bags from a hobby/game shop. War Heart looked at Kacey, “What’s in the bags?”, War Heart asked with honest curiosity.

“Instant noodles, milk, apples, marshmallows, mint ice cream, tofu, and lettuce.”, Kacey recited the entire grocery shopping list he created.

War Heart raised an eyebrow, “What the hell kind of food are you making?”

“Toast…”, Kacey said plainly as he walked to the kitchen and began to put things away in their appropriate places. Kacey left the bags from the game shop on the table. War Heart walked over to them, “What’s this?”, he called to Kacey.

“That is all the pieces to a game we’ll be playing for a while… A fantasy role-playing game that you play as adventurers and go explore and do quests and things. You guys will be grounded for a while to lay low seeing as you levelled a house.”, he looked at War Heart.

“Hey, they ambushed us, I didn’t have a choice, we could have lost someone!”, War Heart yelled in his defence.

“Still, blowing up a house is never a good idea, you aren’t allowed leaving the house until my say so.”

“Oh Yeah, and how are you going to stop me.”, War Heart crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Because I’m the only one who controls the locks on this place, and I reinforced the doors when we redid this place, as well as replace the windows with shatter-proof glass.”

“… I guess I could take a vacation…”

“So will Chris, and Carls will be coming over too, I knew him in high school, he used to play too and three is better than two in a party.”, Kacey explained as he brought out a bunch of books and papers as well as a bunch of graph paper and figurines. He handed War Heart some books and a piece of paper with a multitude of lines and boxes to fill.

“What do I do with these?”, War Heart looked at the books, clueless about what they were for.

“You look through the book and find your race, class, and follow the instructions to create a character to put in this fictional world I’m going to create and run for you guys.”, Kacey explained in his regular monotone voice. War Heart opened the book and started skimming through it, mostly looking at the pictures but soon actually began reading the words. After about an hour or so there was a knock at the door. Kacey walked over to the door and opened it for Chris, “Bloody rain, can’t stand it…”, Chris said as he walked in and threw his coat on the floor near the door.

“You won’t have to…”, Kacey commented as he closed the door.

“Now why is that?”, Chris asked.

“Cuz we’re grounded…”, War Heart said after he bit into a granny smith apple.

“Wha-! What do ye mean we’re grounded!?”, Chris shouted at Kacey.

“Well, somebody decided the best way to deal with a situation was to blow up a house, you both have to lay low for a while, you cannot leave the house.”

Chris looked over at War Heart, “Great…”, Chris sighed and a moment of silence passed, “So what are we doin’ in the meantime?”, Chris looked over to Kacey.

“We’re playing a game, War Heart seems to be taking an interest in it already.”, Kacey pointed to War Heart who was pretty much absorbed into the hardcover rulebooks. Chris sighed and walked over to the pile of books and paper and picked up a book, a pencil, and a character sheet and began filling them out. It wasn’t long before another knock was heard at the door, Kacey getting up to answer it again. He opened the door to see Carls standing there with a backpack, “’ey mon, ‘ow it be doin’?”, Carls spoke in his usual accent.

“Fine… The others are just making their characters.”, Kacey allowed Carls in, who walked over the pile and opened his bag and pulled out his own book that was riddled with bookmarks and a character sheet that was already filled out and ready. He then took out a bag of regular potato chips and opened it, then began eating them one by one, “So… ‘ow you boys be doin’?”, Carls asked the two grounded heroes.

“Grounded… Blew up a building…”, War Heart said, not paying that much attention to anything but the book he was reading.

“Dat be no good, mon. At least we get good times outta dis’”

“Sure…”, Chris said, not really enthused about the idea of playing this game.

After about a half hour, the characters were ready, the dice were set, the graph paper laid down, and Kacey was sitting there with his eyes closed.

“Now… We begin…”

The three adventurers walked down the dark and damp hall of the dungeon. The three were sent there on a mission to slay a witch who lived in the ruins at the center of a bog. The first adventurer is a Dwarf Rogue, Alain. Alain prefers to practise using his crossbow instead of getting directly involved with fights. Kujul-Be, a Human, and a Dark Cleric. Kujul uses his powers of death to create undead slaves and sometimes stop the hearts of his foes if they are too weak to face him. The last of the three is a Half-Orc Fighter, Talgar the Wrathful. He wields dual axes and charges into battle head first, getting through the fight on willpower and adrenaline. The three walked into a new room, the walls covered in moss and the floor was dirt. Alain walked in first, looking about for traps that may have been set. He stepped on the dirt floor slowly, expecting something to happen. He took another step, nothing happened. “Looks like it safe…”, he told his companions who were waiting at the entrance. They walked across the room slowly, “I don’ like da vibes I be getting’ from dis place…”, Kujul spoke aloud so his companions could hear. The ground trembled for a second, they all stopped.

“What was that…?”, Talgar asked, somewhat startled at the feeling of something moving beneath their feet.

“Don’ move…”, Kujul told them. He looked at Alain specifically, knowing that rogues were not to be trusted.

“I think it’s a creature under us…”, Talgar said as he equipped his axes. Kujul’s eyes widened as he shook his head.

“No… No, no, no, don’ chu dare…!”, Kujul whispered in a serious tone as Talgar slowly raised his right hand, about to swing his axe at the ground. There was a pause as Kujul was ready to run to the entrance while Alain was going to go to the exit. Talgar looked at both of them, then brought his axe down and hit the floor, sinking the axe into the dirt. Kujul and Alain both dived towards either side of the room. There was silence, Talgar brought his axe up, “Guess it was nothing…”, he said as he began walking towards Alain’s end of the room, only to have his foot snag on something. He stopped and looked at his foot to find it was caught on a root. Expecting it was going to be something grabbing him, he put on a look of irritation and removed his foot from the root to continue walking, Kujul following behind him. The heroes continued to walk down the narrow corridors of the ruins. They came to a room that was lit by candles, a young woman tied up in the center. Alain was the first to approach, he removed the gag from the woman’s mouth, she spoke to him, “Thank you, how can I ever repay you?”, she said as Alain untied her.

“Check it out, boys, my dwarf is about to get lucky.”, Chris chuckled as Kacey narrated the events.

“Roll me a diplomacy check if you want to do that…”, Kacey instructed Chris and handed him a twenty-sided die. Chris rolled it on the floor.

“Well a nice reward would be a kiss from yer ladyship.”, Alain said as he untied her. The young woman blushed but nodded, she gently held him by his face and move towards him, pressing her lips against his.

“Although, little did Alain know that the young woman he was now kissing was indeed a hag, who took on the form of a young woman.”, Kacey narrated.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, Chris looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

“It means that the young woman is revealing her true form, which looks like…”, Kacey explained as he flipped through the book full of monsters, “… This.”, Kacey said as he revealed a picture of a old woman with grey skin, one eye, wiry hair, and little to no teeth. An expression of disgust struck Chris’ face while Carls and War Heart laughed at him.

“That’s f***ing nasty, Kacey…”, Chris stated in a rather irritated tone.

“Well, you were looking for a witch, it was pretty much your fault for falling into the trap.”, Kacey argued in his defence.

“Well, I’m out, not enough guns in this anyway.”, Chris said as he got up from the table.

“I have another game we can play, except this one is darker, set in modern era, and is riddled with monsters like vampires and stuff.”, Kacey called to Chris to try and get him back into playing with them. Chris stopped for a moment, “Fine, but pull another stunt like that and I’m done.”, Chris warned as he sat back down with the rest of them.

Back in Equestria, a few months have passed in both worlds. Fizz was working inside a newly built laboratory, drawing up blueprints for new machines that could be used in the nearby future for getting War Heart back or at least trying to figure out if he’s alive. The laboratory was built into a mountain that was nearby Ponyville, a path led into a cave that served as the entrance to the lab. The workshop was lit by fluorescent lights, had a white tile floor and walls, and was almost completely empty, due to the very construction of the rooms just being completed only the other day. Twilight walked into the lab, whispering to someone before entering, “Now just stay right there, I’ll ask if it is okay for you to come in here..”, she whispered then approached Fizz from behind.

“Umm, Fizz.”, Twilight said hesitantly.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle?”, Fizz replied, still busy with his blueprints.

“I was wondering if I could bring in some ponies.”

“We could always use the help, who are they?”

“Well, not to help, but I did promise Rarity and Applejack I would look after them for the day since they were busy.”

“Oh, filly-sitting?”

“Kind of, yes.”

“Fantastic, they could learn a lot.”

“You’re fine with this?”

“Absolutely!”, Fizz said with excitement as he turned to Twilight, “I had no idea how enjoyable children were until my daughter was old enough to go to school and learn.”

“You have a daughter?”

“Yes, two, in fact.”

“What were their names?”

“Well, my first daughter, Dawn, a unicorn, took after her mother and studied magic, not my forte you can see, but I love her all the same, and my second daughter, Penny Whistle, an Earth pony, she takes after me, I taught her how to do science and math, she is very bright, I’m so proud of her.”, Fizz recalled his daughters, pulling out a small locket and looked inside it smiling.

“They sound wonderful, may I see?”, Twilight said smiling.

“Of course.”, he held it out and showed the photo of a two fillies, one unicorn with purple coat and dark blue mane, laying on the floor, reading a book and an earth pony with purple coat and copper mane, playing with building blocks.

“They’re adorable.”, Twilight commented looking at the photo.

“Whose adorable?”, a young filly’s voice came from behind Twilight. Twilight and Fizz looked towards the source of the sound to see a yellow-coated, red-maned earth pony with a bow in her hair; a white unicorn with pink and purple mane; and a Pegasus with orange coat and purple mane.

“Oh, girls, sorry, I got pulled into something.”, Twilight apologised.

“Who is he?”, Sweetie Belle asked.

“I am Fizz Whistle: Scientist, Inventor, Genius, Immortal, Invinci-”, Fizz was cut off by Twilight.

“He’s a friend of mine, I’m helping him with a project.”

“He’s weird…”, Scootaloo commented, staring at him as if he were some unusual item.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to be normal when you live for over two hundred years, and have IQ of over two THOUSAND.”, Fizz said in his defence as he took out a flask and was about to take a drink. Twilight levitated the flask away from him.

“You really shouldn’t drink in front of the fillies…”, Twilight said as she took it from him.

“Fine, I’ll turn around then.”, Fizz turned away and took out another flask and quickly gulped it down. Twilight covered her face with her hoof and floated the flask into Fizz’s pocket.

“Now, how about we do some science?”, Fizz suggested.

“Can we help too?”, Applebloom asked hopefully.

“Of course! I’ve been meaning to test how aerodynamic fillies are when shot out of cannon.”, Fizz said as he looked at Scootaloo, who backed away in fright.

“Just kidding, I’ll probably more just need somepony to fetch wrenches and other tools for me while I work.”, he explained.

“Well, I guess we could get our cutie marks that way…?”

“Cutie marks?”, Fizz asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been trying to get our cutie marks for so long now.”, Applebloom replied, looking down in shame with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Hmm… Can’t help you there, I don’t remember how I got my cutie mark…”, Fizz sat and thought for a moment, “Was it my first locomotive engine…? No, maybe when I made my first invention explode… No… I can’t remember it has been soooo long.”

“Maybe we should get started…”, Twilight suggested.

“Of course, I almost forgot, I need you to pick up some things, mostly metal and stuff like that, maybe get somepony large to help you carry all of it.”, Fizz handed a list to Twilight. She studied the list and nodded a bit then stopped and looked at Fizz with her eyebrow raised.

“What…?”, Fizz asked.

“This here, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get polyurethane suits… and what is a set of hypodermic needles? Sewing needles?”

“Right, just bring me some sand and… I guess we’ll make do without the suits.”

“Alright then… sand…”, Twilight turned away and walked out with the list. Fizz looked down at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who stared right back at him.

“So… Who wants to play a game?”, Fizz asked awkwardly.

“What game?”, Apple Bloom asked.

“I’ve got something in my bags that I think you’ll all enjoy.”, He walked over to his bag and fished around pulling out three small metallic boxes with leather straps.

“What are they?”, Scootaloo asked with her head tilted to the side.

“Well, I made them only recently, it enables the wearer to fly!”, Fizz explained with much enthusiasm.

“How do they do that?”, Sweetie Belle looked at the boxes.

“Put them on and find out.”, Fizz told them and strapped a larger version to his back. He stepped back fifteen steps and clicked a button on his chest. A high pitch whistling sound could be heard as the pack powered up. Fizz crouched, preparing himself for take-off. A grinding noise came from the pack, a look of shock striking Fizz’s face. The pack exploded, a cloud of smoke left where Fizz once stood. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood there in awe. They slowly back away from the boxes. Fizz walked out of the smoke, coughing. His coat was charred and his mane was gone.

“Okay, I have a few adjustments to make still…”, he said as he shuddered in pain. He shook his head and walked over the fillies as his skin healed before their eyes and his mane grew back to its original state.

“How did you do that?”, Apple Bloom asked.

“Do what?”

“You were all burnt up… but you’re fine now?”

“I healed, your body does it naturally, duh.”, Fizz rolled his eyes with a smile.

“But, you healed right away!”

“Oh that, well when you become a good scientist like me, you can do stuff like that.”, Fizz said as he took another drink from his flask.

“What’s that?”, Sweetie questioned.

“This is Wuh-high-sky, not meant for fillies, it’s a grown-up drink.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s poison.”

“Why?”

“Because I made it that way.”

“Why?”

“Becau- Wait, I know that trick, cut that out!”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

“Why?”

“…. You win this round…”

“Why?”

Fizz’s eyes narrowed, “How about I tell you three a story…?”, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all sat in front of Fizz. He clapped his hooves together twice and the lights turned off, He brought out a candle and lit it, dimly brightening the area around them.

“Now this is a story… All about how… my life was flipped… turned upside down… This is a story about the day I came face to face with an ancient horror, an evil so menacing that all one could do is freeze in fear. This pony, no… This THING, had no face. Its legs are slim and long. This thing wears a suit and tie and roams between worlds hunting for its prey.”, Fizz spoke in a hushed tone, trying to make it sound like he was telling a secret.

“What does it go after?”, the young fillies asked in unison.

“Young ponies, a lot like you three. It prefers the young ones. I had an encounter with it once. Just once.”, He spoke as the fillies sat in silence.

“It was cold winter night, I was young, and my family lived on the edge of the woods. My brother Steam and I were up late, playing our games in the living room, so young, so innocent… My brother heard our dog was barking, the dog was outside, as he always was. We ignored the dog, thinking he was barking at some rabbits, our first mistake… After a minute of barking, he stopped suddenly. We didn’t notice right away, but when we did, we looked out the window into the yard, the dog wasn’t there. Me and my brother walked outside to where he was leashed, we found an empty collar, snapped open by… something, we didn’t know what. My brother spotted a figure on the edge of the woods. It stood there, motionless, we couldn’t tell who it was from so far away. We ran towards them, we assumed they took our dog, we wanted him back. The figure walked into the woods, nearly vanishing. Once me and my brother got there, we lost sight of the figure. We looked around for it and couldn’t find it. I looked to a nearby tree and saw a symbol carved into it, it looked like this.”, Fizz took out three pieces of paper and drew a circle with an X through it on each piece and passed it to each of the three fillies, “This is its sign, but at the time we didn’t know about it. I was busy looking at the symbol, but then I turned around, my brother was gone. I tried to shout his name, I felt the air escape from my throat but no sound came out. I looked at the ground and saw a piece of paper with that symbol on it. I looked forward to see the figure not even twenty feet away from me. It was tall and had the body of a pony, but its legs were eerily long and slim. I looked at its head and saw it had no face. It grew long black legs out of its back, long enough that it lifts itself off the ground and begins to slowly move towards me, I was frozen with fear, I couldn’t move as it approached. I only heard whispers as it approached me. Telling me what it was…”

Scootaloo heard a whisper from behind her, “Slender Pony…”, she looked behind her and saw nothing there.

Fizz got up and turned away from them, to try and capture the seriousness of the moment. The three fillies waited in suspense for the next part of the story, clinging to each other in fear.

“At that point I had lost consciousness, but when I awoke, I was at home… I looked in my brother’s room, I couldn’t find him, I screamed for my parents, no reply. I burst into their room and jumped onto their bed, to find two more pieces of paper with the mark… It wasn’t until that point that I realized I was taller, I had a strange craving that I never felt before… I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw something I will never forget. It turned out there was more to the legend than was told… It had not taken me for I…”, Fizz went silent as he pulled a nylon stocking over his head, “I was the Slender Pony!”, He quickly turned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who screamed in fear as he showed his lack of a face in the dim lights. He walked slowly towards them, they looked at the pieces of paper, realizing he marked the papers for them. They all backed away until they backed up into a wall, their hearts raced as Fizz drew near. The doors to the lab opened and the room became bright as the lights turned on, “Silly me, I forgot to ask what you wanted for lun-… Why are you wearing a stocking on your head?”

Fizz froze in place, looking in Twilight’s direction, “I’m not going to lie… This isn’t what it looks like…”, Twilight just looked at him oddly, then looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were terrified.

“Then, what’s going on here?”, Twilight asked.

“I was telling them a story, a horror story…”

“You know you could severely impact their mental stability with stunts like that…”

“And? Who needs mental stability, I ,sure as science, don’t.”, Fizz said as he removed the stocking from his head and placed it in his bags.

“Maybe I’ll take the girls with me…”, Twilight suggested as the Crusaders ran to her, still terrified.

“Very well, I’ve got a month of sleep to catch up on…”, Fizz said as he froze into place and went quiet.

“What?”, Twilight asked, getting no reply, “How does he do that…?”, Twilight asked herself before leading the Cutie Mark crusaders outside towards Ponyville to get the list of items Fizz needed for the lab.

Gears and Tears

Throughout the next few months, a civil unrest was taking place across all of Equestria. A lot of the people who were once ponies were starting to believe Celestia could not change them all back. They doubted her power and began to turn their backs on her word of law. It soon became a sort of civil dispute, with many factions dividing all the citizens of Equestria.

“Tensions are building, and soon we will risk civil war. Your guards are the best trained in the land, but even they cannot stave off thousands in an angry mob.”, a humanized Pegasi in a dark grey breastplate trimmed with gold wearing black dress pants; his head was bald and his body was riddled with scars from past battles. He sat at the table with Celestia and her other advisors. He was giving his view on the situation and sharing it with the others at the table.

“General, Who says we must fight? Is it not enough that we try to win their hearts with some sort of act of good will?”, a humanized unicorn, although one wouldn’t be able to tell until she cast magic, suggested her view of things.

“I suggest that we remind them who they owe their loyalty to…”, Celestia spoke and the other advisors went silent. “Perhaps, I need to make an example out of the louder ones. Since they have been getting violent as of late, we should show them that it will not be tolerated.”, Celestia explained slowly with a hint of malice in her tone.

“As you wish your majesty, how do you want them to be punished?”, the General asked humbly.

“Do what is necessary, but make it severe. And… don’t kill them, it will only make martyrs for the others to flock to.”, Celestia told him as he left the room.

The general closed the door to the War Room and shook his head, “I have never seen this side of the princess before…”, he told himself before heading off to a nearby town to dole out some fear in the populace.

Arcana was in Twilight’s library, as her usual routine entailed, looking for certain books that would teach her new things. “Gah, This library isn’t enough… I need more books…”, Arcana’s tone was rather lifeless as she said this. She placed her latest book on the floor, one she got from Zecora while she and Twilight were visiting her. It was a book on Equestrian plant life, she found herself interested in the special properties of each plant. She read the section on poison joke, “How drole… A plant that pulls pranks. What else will nature create?”, she said to herself. Arcana walked out of the library to see a crowd gathering outside. She rose an eyebrow, “I wonder what the commotion is about?”, she whispered to herself as she walked into the crowd.

At the center of the crowd was a man in regal attire and accompanied by royal guards in the traditional golden armor. He was announcing the new laws that were going to take effect immediately, “First new law: Anyone who wishes to become a pony once more, must be loyal to Princess Celestia, bringer of the sun, and merciful leader. Second Law: Those who defy the law of Celestia will suffer punishment. The punishment will be as though one had committed treason, and be sentenced without trial to the Canterlot dungeon. Thir-”, the man was interrupted by a voice from the crowd.

“Nonsense! Celestia has no power! I bet she can’t even change us back!”, the random outburst began a myriad of murmurs among the people in the crowd. Some of the whispers being in agreement with the one who shouted first, others whispering that they think that those who defy the Princess deserve death.

“Death to the Solar Empire!”, another voice shouted as an apple flew threw the air from the crowd and hit the official in the head, not causing injury to anything but his pride.

“Please, let us remain civil.”, the official pleaded to the mob that was starting to look more infuriated. “You are all still subjects to Equestria, and you must pay your loyalty to the Princess!”

“We will never bow! Not to a monarch who claims to make the sun rise! If she could do that, then she should be able to change everyone back into ponies!”, a man walked out of the crowd and approached the official, only to be knocked over by one of the royal guards.

The murmurs of the crowd rose and fell silent as the man was struck. All eyes were on him.

He stood back up, and was knocked down once more by the guard.

“You will kneel before the Royal Advisor”, the guard stated after knocking the man to the ground the second time.

“No, I will not kneel to a lackey of the Princess.”, the man said as the guard began to kick him to make an example to the rest.

Many of the people in the crowd who were unicorns shook their head at the man, many who were earth ponies gasped as they brutalised him. Pegasi in the crowd were unsure what to make of it. The crowd dispersed as the beating continued until only Arcana stood there watching.

The Advisor looked over to Arcana with a curious expression, “Hello?”, he said as he approached her, “What is your name, little one?”, he asked Arcana who was but a child.

“Arcana.”, she replied in her usual dead tone.

“That’s a nice name. Where are your parents?”

“My mother resides in Cloudsdale, My father has been deceased for months.”, the fact she had little to no emotion in her words, made the Advisor somewhat curious.

“And this is… not shocking to you?”, he asked.

“Life is a limited thing, I do not waste mine, by mourning over things that do not require it.”

“Well, what do you say of this?”, he asked as he gestured towards the guards beating on the man from before.

Arcana took a moment to ponder, nibbling on her thumbnail for a second before responding, “He is punished for not following the rules. Social creatures often have some norms that the others must follow, if they don’t, they are punished. It is simple, easy to understand when it is put in perspective.”

The advisor took a moment to admire the young girl’s vocabulary, “Well, here is another question: Are you a loyal subject of Celestia?”

Arcana looked back to the advisor, “Of course, she is royalty and only deserves my loyalty and respect.”

“Good answer.”, the advisor commented while nodding his head, “Celestia was speaking of this situation, she believe she must be more harsh in order to quell the upcoming war…”

“She believes there will be a war?”

“Yes, there are many ponies who will not abide by her laws anymore, believing she is powerless. The unicorns know better, the Pegasi are unsure, and many of the Earth ponies don’t believe she deserves to lead anymore. When people disagree and are passionate enough, they will do anything to show that they are right.”

“Interesting… I wonder if the Princess will allow me to reside in the castle archives.”, Arcana pondered and spoke aloud.

“That is just an old room filled with dusty books, what could you want there?”

“I am a student of magic, under Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s Student. I wish to further my studies, and for that I require a more expanded library.”

“I will enquire the Princess about that, you show promise. You may even become an advisor to her majesty some day.”

“Just what are you the advisor of?”, Arcana asked.

“I am her majesty’s advisor of Culture, Blazing Dawn.”, he snapped his fingers, lighting a small flame, “I too was a unicorn. However, I found watching culture was much more interesting, so I ended up following trends and trying to predict how ponies will react to certain things. However, I am ordered to do things against my will, but I do have faith in our leader.”, he walked back over to the guards that were escorting him, “I’ll be sure to ask the princess about your request. Ta-Ta!”, he waved goodbye as he walked off with the guards.

Arcana smiled slightly as he walked away. She then turned and walked towards the library once more.

“Hey, Arcana!”, the voice of a familiar person called to her.

Arcana turned to the source of the sound to see Scootaloo on her scooter and dragging Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in a wagon behind her.

“Oh, greetings, Crusaders, how goes the pursuit of your unique abilities?”, Arcana asked with friendly concern.

“The usual, what are you doing?”, the purple-haired young girl asked Arcana.

“I am returning to Miss Sparkle’s residence to gather my things before I leave for Canterlot.”

“You’re leaving!? What about your mom?”, Sweetie Belle busted out in concern.

“She has Air Heart. I don’t find it necessary to have her bother with me when she could be making efforts to getting her life in order.”

“But what if she misses you?”, Sweetie Belle continued.

“You speak as if I were going to disappear forever, like my father.”

“I still find it pretty weird that you can even talk about yer dad so easily…”, Apple Bloom commented.

“My relationship with my father was strong, but I do not allow that to impede my daily activities. He was strong in heart, as am I.”

“Alright then, Arcana. We’ll see you around some time, hopefully. We’ll say ‘Hi’ to your mom for ya if we see her around.”, Scootaloo said as she pushed away on her scooter.

Arcana waved to the crusaders before heading into the library to find Rarity and Twilight conversing.

“I don’t like the way that this is happening, how could they just drop their loyalty for the Princess so quickly?”, Twilight thought aloud.

“Well, my dear, they are simply disloyal louts who don’t realize how wonderful a leader the princess is.”

“I wish that we cou-”, Twilight stopped as she turned to Arcana who just entered, “Hello, Arcana.”, Twilight greeted her politely.

Rarity smiled at Arcana, “How are you, Dear?”

“I wish to inform you that I will be evicting myself from your residence.”, Arcana stated.

Twilight shook her head for a second, not quite sure if she heard that right. “What’s going on?”, she asked.

“I will be living elsewhere soon, I will not require to bother you too much other than allowing myself some time to pack my possessions.”, Arcana said as she walked over to her room/study. The veins on her body glowing a dull sky blue as objects began to float into some bags.

“Wait a minute! What do you mean by that, where are you going?”, Twilight followed Arcana, Rarity trailing behind.

“I am going to take up residence in the Canterlot Archives. I require a larger library to continue my studies.”

“I can’t let you do this, your mom will not be happy with this.”, Twilight told her.

“I would not imagine mother would be pleased about this, but I must go. I am more than capable of taking care of myself.”

Twilight took a deep breath, “I still think you should talk to your mom about this. She would be heartbroken to know you just left, and she would be furious to know I just let you leave.”

Arcana stopped for a moment, allowing her possessions to slowly float to the ground. She turned to Twilight, “Very well, I will speak to her of this. I will inform her of the situation personally. I will also assure her that you have been a exemplary caretaker, making sure she will have no quarrels with you. Is that a satisfactory plan?”

Twilight sighed, “Fine…”, she rolled her eyes, knowing that for a child she was maturing way too fast.

The next day, Twilight received a letter from Celestia, telling her that Arcana has been invited to live in the palace, as well as her and Rarity.

“Odd… Celestia has invited Rarity and I to live in the palace? I guess maybe she wants Arcana to have some company there…”, Twilight thought out loud, rubbing her chin as she read the note.

Arcana walked into Twilight’s bedroom, seeing Twilight was reading a letter on her bed. Arcana walked over to the bed side and hopped up, “I assume that is Celestia accepting my request to live in the Archives?”

Twilight looked up from the letter and at Arcana, “Yes, and Rarity and I will be joining you.”, Twilight said as she showed the letter to Arcana.

Arcana took the note and looked it over, “Curious…”, she said to herself. She looked back to Twilight, “I suppose a good action would be to gather your belongings for the trek.”, Arcana told Twilight as she laid the letter down on the bed and walked out of the room.

Dash woke up in her old room, waking from her own nightmares of how she imagined War Heart had died. Some mornings she would cry upon waking up, others she would just open her eyes and stare at the ceiling in a near catatonic state, just thinking about it over and over. What bothered her the most was that she was not even conscious to see it. She wished she could have been there for him then, that she could have told him not to go after Discord, or take the hit for him even. She would often take Air Heart to school to drop her off and go flying elsewhere, trying to soar across the skies as if fleeing something. She tried to outrun it, the pain, the anger, it was eating away at her every second. She kept going faster, but to no avail, she couldn’t escape this, but she felt like she had to try. Other days she would go over to the mountain peak they sat on to watch the sunset. She had set up a makeshift grave there, a headstone with his cutie mark carved into it. She would kneel in front of it and apologise for letting him die, or for not being strong enough to wake up and keep him from that last heroic act, always saying sorry, but never able to accept forgiveness. Buried beneath the headstone was the sole feather that was found afterward. Dash continued to wear the polished wooden pendant that War Heart’s mother gave to her. She felt it was like having a piece of him close to her heart. Tears welled up in her rose-coloured eyes, turning red from crying so hard. She would try not to cry in front of Air Heart, always trying to play it off as something was stuck in her eye.

Air Heart had overheard her crying more than once, but didn’t know what to do about it, so she just kept quiet. She knew her mother was in pain, she understood that she was sad. She tried her best in school, trying to get the best grades she could, hoping that her success in school would make her mom proud, or maybe even smile again. What Air Heart wouldn’t give to hear her mother laugh again. Air Heart wasn’t the best with words, but she knew one phrase that was so simple, but straight from the bottom of her heart. Everyday, after getting dropped off at school, she would hug her mother tightly, as if she never wanted her to leave and say, “I love you, mom.”, just to see her mother’s gentle and caring smile again. Air Heart wasn’t sure whether it was that her mom didn’t hear or that she just didn’t have it in her to reply, but she didn’t smile. She would crouch down and hug her back just as tightly, then left to her daily activities.

Today, Dash flew to Ponyville while Air Heart was in school to visit Arcana. She landed in front of the library. She slowly opened the door and walked in. She was surprised to see her daughter packing her things, “What are you doing, Arcana?”, Dash questioned her.

Arcana walked over to Dash who was dumbfounded. Arcana looked up at her mom, noticing she had been crying not too long ago and hugged her, “Mother, I need to move to expand my studies in magic. I am moving to Canterlot to live in the palace.”, Arcana explained.

Dash didn’t know how to react, but soon she thought of questions, “Why? What’s wrong with Twi’s library, how will I visit you? Who will take care of you?”, each question was filled with a motherly instinct to care for her child.

“Miss Sparkle does not have the books I require to continue my practice. I will be sure to compose a letter as often as I have the time to do so. And as for who will take care of me, I am sure the Princess’ staff will help, even then, Miss Rarity and Miss Sparkle will be accompanying me in the palace.”

Dash sighed and shook her head, wishing that she could go too, but she knew she couldn’t do anything to help with Arcana’s studies on magic, “Okay then, but promise that you will be careful when doing your magic, and make sure to write at least once a week.”, Dash said as she crouched down to hug her daughter.

“I promise, mother. Say ‘Hello’ to my sister for me when you see her.”, Arcana stated as she returned her mother’s embrace.

“You got it…”, Dash started to tear up again, almost feeling like she was never going to see Arcana again.

It was a few hours before the Royal Guard escorts arrived for Arcana, Twilight, and Rarity. The guards helped move their belongings onto the train for Canterlot.

As the train was slowly moving away, Dash was right outside, waving to her daughter for one last ‘Farewell’.