For Want of a Better World

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Awakening
Chapter 2: Origins
Chapter 3: Regret
Chapter 4: New Arrivals
Chapter 5: A Simple Wish
Chapter 6: Deceit
Chapter 7: Transcendence
Chapter 8: Mixed Reality
Prologue
Info

Chapter 1: The Awakening

A/N: This was my first attempt at writing in first person that isn't a flashback, so if I'm using the wrong tense just let me know.

My name is Rarity Belle, just Rarity to my friends and colleagues. I was recently asked to bear witness to the excavation of what was going to be the largest gem ever unearthed. I had just finished my last order of dresses for Fancy Pants and his troupe, so my schedule was open for the next few days. It just so happened that Twilight was headed to Canterlot the next day, apparently the Royal Library had gotten some new editions and Twilight was taking the first chariot out to the city. She was also nice enough to allow me to accompany her and to drop me off at the dig site.

I stood before an enormous hole in the mountain and in that instant I regretted ever coming. All the dirt and icky muck was improper for a lady such as I, but no! I mustn’t! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the most marvelous and precious of gemstones!

“Excuse me?” I was interrupted from my musings by a scruffy young colt wearing a yellow safety helmet with a hole cut into it for his horn. “Are you by chance Miss Rarity of Ponyville?”

“Why yes, I most certainly am.” I said, flaunting my looks as the colt eyed me over. “Are you going to take me to the marvelous gem?”

“I-I umm…” I love it when they get flustered. “Y-yes, this way.” I could see he was trying to hide his blush as he led me inside.

We went deep within the base of the mountain, upon which sat the great city of Canterlot. The dig crew worked around the clock to uncover what they considered to be the biggest discovery to befall Equestria, let alone the largest gem in the world. The crew consisted of 26 ponies, comprising mostly of earth ponies and unicorns to dig through the long hours of both day and night. They worked quickly, not wanting to damage the huge spherical crystal gem while opening the tunnel wide enough to safely remove it. They had planned to present the crystal gem to Luna herself on the eve of the upcoming Sun’s Celebration tonight, as a gift for the anniversary of her return, a secret I was bound to keep until the unveiling.

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat to announce my presence. The workers stopped their frantic digging. “I still cannot simply believe you would ask me to come to such a filthy place. This amount of dirt and muck is hardly befitting for a lady.”

“Ah, Mizz Rarity, it iz such a pleazure to zee you ‘ere!” Exclaimed the Foreman, his heavy accent made him sound like a mad scientist rather than a humble archeologist. “Ah truzt your trip vent vell?” he said, holding out a hoof to greet me.

“Uh, yes.” I said, backing away slightly from the repulsively dirty appendage. “Twilight was on her way to Canterlot anyway, something about a new book for her collection. I was able to join her in the royal chariot, but she also seemed excited about this… dig… and would like to know if she could have a look at the gem as well?”

“Of courze Mizz Rarity! Ze prized student of ze Prinzess iz more zan velcome ‘ere! Come now, I, Fernando De Levinchie, vill show you ze gem.” Fernando turned and led me further into the tunnel. “Ve hav a hunch az to vat type of gem dis iz, but ze size iz impozzible it iz. Not only dat, but ze gem appearz to be crafted, ze perfection iz not natural.”

The tunnel opened up into a large carved out chamber, scaffolding and support beams lined the walls, and magical globes of energy floating around the chamber lit it up like the midday sun. The workers had dug out almost the entire sphere and were preparing for the removal. I had to stop and just gaze at it, the amazing majesty, the sheer size dwarfed anything I had ever imagined.

After taking a moment to snap myself out of the shock, I went straight to work. I began to cast a spell to tell me the density, purity, and composition of the gem. I released the magic, only to have it slip off to one side, striking a worker in the chest. The biological form made the spell backfire, assaulting me with an annoying, loud ringing as was accustomed to glitches in various spells.

“Hmm. That was odd.” I said as I turned to Fernando. “Did you have any of your unicorns try to examine it?”

“No, unfortunately ze unicornz employed ‘ere are spezializtz in ze digging or dating of fossilz, but ze datez of ze fossilz in zis area are hudredz of millionz to evenz billionz of yearz old.”

“I see…” I said as I wreaked my mind trying to figure out why my magic had no effect, if only Twilight were here.

“Sir,” A young apprentice approached the Forman, “We have a Miss Twilight Sparkle at the entrance, she wants to have a look at the dig.”

“Ah! Twilight is here already? Well let her in, she will know how to examine this.” I said, looking at the apprentice expectantly.

“Vell, you heard her.” The apprentice nodded and ran back up the tunnel, returning shortly with an overly excited Twilight Sparkle bouncing with glee.

“Oh wow! Is this it?” Twilight asked as she joined me and the Fernando. “This is beautiful, Princess Luna’s going to love it!”

“You knew this was to be a gift for Princess Luna?” I asked.

“Oh, well, Princess Celestia ‘accidentally’ let it slip from her mouth this morning.” Twilight said, I raised an eyebrow as she put hoof quotes around “accidentally.”

“Yez, vell… ve are having troublez dizconcerning ze age and type of gem zis iz. I vas hoping you could shed zome light on zis mystery?” Fernando motioned toward the large crystal.

“I thought Rarity would have already done that?” Asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow to me.

“That’s the thing, Twilight. My magic seems to just slip right off, like it’s not even there.” I went up to the sphere, tapping it with a hoof. “I can tell without magic that it is simply clear quartz, but I have no way to tell if it’s solid, hollow, the structure, how brittle it is, or many other things.” I turned and pouted to Twilight, who giggled at my dramatic desperation.

“Ok I get it, I will see what I can do.” Twilight closely examined the sphere, sticking her tongue out as she worked. “The sphere is 14 meters in diameter, so that’s a volume of…. 1436.755 cubic meters, and a surface area of….615.75 square meters.”

“Yes, ve know zat already, ve need ze composition for ze record book.”

“Oh, right…” Twilight let out a nervous giggle. “Well, here goes…” I watched as She closed her eyes in concentration, letting her magic reach outwards as an extension of herself. I watched as she made contact and her magic slipped off the surface. Twilight gritted her teeth, “Well if that’s the way you wanna be…” I heard her mumble, she grunted as she redoubled her efforts. Her horn was soon enveloped in several layers of over glow, much like it had been with the Ursa Minor. She threw everything she had into the spell, forcing it to stay on target as she made contact.

It looked like this new spell was going to work, but then her magic was rejected, knocking Twilight onto her rump.

“OOF! The hay?” Twilight shook herself off as she got back to her hooves. “Who was talking to me while I was concentrating?” She glared at me to my surprise.

“Darling, nopony was talking to you, at all for that matter. Did you hear something?” I asked, looking her over for any injuries.

“Um, yes, actually.” Twilight said. I could tell she was considering lying to me, probably so I don’t worry. Then she sighed with resignation, “I heard a rough gravelly voice and a kind, soft one. They said that I was ‘bright,’ but that could mean my intellect or magical abilities.”

“Hmm… I do remember somepony saying something about life and the stars.” I said as I cast my mind back to the various romance novels and poems I’ve read, at a loss as to the meaning behind Twilight's words.

“’The souls of a pony are like stars in a sea of darkness.’” Twilight quoted from memory.

“Twilight, I didn’t know you read poetry.” I couldn’t stop myself from gasping dramatically; she was more of the science type, not romance.

“Sometimes, but I need to read the books in order to properly categorize them.” I couldn’t tell if that was a clever lie or the truth. Regardless, I’ve learned a bit more about my shut-in friend. The girls at the spa are going to love this.

“Ah, vell, now zat dat myztery iz solved,” Fernando turned to his workers, “Are ve ready to pop ziz cork?” His crew responded with a series of cheers

“Wait, what?” Twilight and I looked around in confusion was the workers began running from place to place, setting down wooden planks in the form of makeshift train tracks.

“Ve’re about to chizel de last piece ov rock from ze cryztal, den ve vill roll it along zees tracks and onto a cart to be taken to Canterlot.”

“What?! But you’ll scratch the surface and ruin the pristine shine!” I wailed, genuine concern in my soul as to what the damage will do to the shine.

“Oi! Ve couldn’t hurt ze damn zing if ve tried, it’z stronger than diamondz. Now pleaze, stand over ‘ere out of de vay, ya?” Fernando asked us, gesturing to a side tunnel.

A call of ready was yelled from the entrance, signaling the cart was prepared. The ponies preparing the tracks also gave the ready signal, then the entire tunnel was filled with the sound of an explosion. The blast breaking away the last of the rock attached to the spherical gem and setting it to roll along the wooden tracks. Several earth ponies helped push it along through the tunnel at a slow trot. The cart was set level to a small drop off, allowing the crystal to roll smoothly in place, where the tail gate was raised and numerous lengths of rope secured it in place. Several earth ponies quickly ran to the front of the cart and strapped themselves in before pulling it along a dirt road leading around the mountain to the backside of the palace.

“Twilight,” I said, noticing the lack of a chariot. “I do hope you’re not planning on us walking all the way to Canterlot, I just had my hooves manicured.” I said, inspecting my hoof for dirt or any other foreign material.

“No, we’ll get back the same way I got here.” Twilight said, I swear that’s a devious smile on her snout.

“Oh? And how would that-” There was a blinding flash, “-be…” I looked around at my new surroundings, then noticed that my coat and main were slightly singed. This was a crime against fabulosity, punishable by banishment, I will not have this. “Twilight…” I said through gritted teeth as I made my way towards her. Twilight folded her ears back, obviously worried for her safety.

“I-I… Oh! Hi Princess!” Twilight said as she ran from me to hide behind her mentor. I vowed to never forget this atrocity as I bowed with a smile to the Princess.

“Good afternoon, Princess.” I said as I stood from my bow. “How are preparations for the celebration coming along?” I said as I magically removed the ash and burnt hairs from my once pristine form.

“Oh just absolutely wonderful. I sent my sister on a wild goose chase across Equestria until sunset, so she won’t accidentally find out what we’re planning.” Celestia giggled at her own cruel joke. “She’s never going to find the Snipe!”

“What did you tell her it looked like?” Asked Twilight.

“A giant hairless ape.” Said Celestia as we walked down the magnificent halls towards the grounds, the preparations were indeed well underway. Streamers depicting the moon and colorful decorations were strewn from lamp post to lamp post. Enormous banners hung from the roof of the main tower all the way to the grass below, an enormous image of Princess Luna looked out over the kingdom.

“But Princess, apes have been extinct for the last 800 years!” Exclaimed Twilight.

“She doesn’t know that. Now hide, it’s nearly time!” Princess Celestia pointed to a large column, which Twilight and I hid behind. I watched as another pair of ponies unrolled a giant canvas painting of the courtyard to hang in front of the archway, instantly hiding the crowd and decorations. I marveled at the realism, If I didn’t know any better I would assume I was looking out into the courtyard itself.

“Celly!” I heard the angry voice of Princess Luna. I wanted to witness the dispute but I didn’t want to be seen, so I stayed hidden. “I flew half way across the world and searched the woods, deserts, and oceans and not only could I not find the so-called ‘Snipe,’ there were no apes anywhere!”

“Oh did I say ape? Apes have been extinct for 800 years, sister.” Princess Celestia said slyly.

“Bvwa-huh??” Princess Luna spit out, obviously flabbergasted, the poor dear.

“Oh come now. Besides, I wanted to show you something.” I heard their hooves clopping on the tile as they made their way toward the archway leading to the grounds. From our hiding spot we were able to see the backs of the Princesses as they neared the archway.

“SURPRISE!!!” I heard thousands of voices cry out as the image of the grounds fell away to reveal the enormous crowd of ponies, all happily cheering and applauding.

“Sister, what is all this?” Princess Luna asked her sister, who in turn smiled sweetly.

“This is your celebration, to welcome you back to Equestria. We couldn’t do it two years ago because of the short notice, and last year’s was ruined by Discord’s return. But we got you something special to make up for the missed parties.” Celestia said.

I heard the sound of many ponies pulling on the cart before I saw it, the huge gem glistened in the setting sun as they pulled to a stop in front of a beveled hole in the ground. The ponies unhitched themselves and removed the rear pair of wheels from the cart, allowing the gem to roll off and into the inset groove as its permanent resting place.

“This… Celly, this…” Was all Princess Luna could manage as I watched her closely examine the marvelous gem. “This is absolutely gorgeous! I love it! Thank you Celly, Thank you everypony!” She announced to the crowed as she hugged her dear sister.

“Everypony? Am I to assume we are at a party?”

“That voice!” Gasped Twilight. She ran to the Princess, I followed closely behind. “Princess! I heard that voice when I was examining the gem this morning.”

“The bright ones are present, now would be the best time.” I heard the voice, like a low growl far more sinister than a diamond dog.

“Twilight, I don’t like where this is going…” I said, voicing my concerns.

“Ok, let’s do ‘Dramatic Reveal 46,933’”

“Grrr….Fine.”

The sky darkened at an alarming rate as the light seemed to fade from the sky, the lamp posts lit up in the new darkness as a strange music filled the air. I remember hearing something similar during a party hosting DJ Pon3, but this was much deeper and faster. The top of the gem slid down and around the lower sides, I was blinded by the sudden beam of light pouring out from the top. I squinted my eyes to see the silhouette of two figures, one on all four legs while the other stood tall on its rear legs, its arms spread wide as if greeting the world.

The tall one waved its arms in a flourish before punching at the sky, the light disappeared to reveal a brilliant display of fireworks before fading into a beautiful aurora. Once the display was over I looked to the top of the gem, my gasp met with many from the crowd. There stood a tall white hairless thing, wearing some strange garment for clothing with only a mane on top of its head, and with no tail to speak of. Standing next to it was a monster, resembling the timber wolves of the Everfree forest, but it was large enough to bite a pony in two with its massive jaws if it chose. Everypony was stunned into silence as the creature spoke.

“Is this some noble’s stockade?”

“I hope not, I’m starving.” The wolf licked its chops, a few ponies in the crowd fell in a dead faint.

“Better not, not until we find out the local customs. They might be possessions or a food source.” The tall one turned towards us. “Oh look, these must be the prized ones, look at the decor on them.” It said as it jumped down in front of us. I could tell at this point that the creature stood on only two legs and has claws, like Spike, but they were not sharp at all.

“So, is this a unicorn with wings or a pegasus with a horn?” Asked the wolf.

“Well these small ones are unicorn so my assumption is unicorn with wings. I shall call you….” The tall one seemed to ponder for a moment. “A peguunicorn.”

“ENOUGH!!” Yelled Princess Celestia. “I tire of this absurd display of insufferable mannerisms! I’ll have you know that we are the princesses of this land and you are trespassing on our castle grounds!” I smiled smugly as news of this hit home in the creatures heads, they stood staring at Celestia slack jawed.

“…Talking horses? Did not see that coming.” Princess Celestia, Luna, and Twilight stomped a hoof and brandished their horns while I backed away, what use was sewing magic in a fight?

“WHOA! Easy!” The tall one said as it backed away slightly, claws raised defensively. “We mean you no harm. Ok, speech means they-YOU! I mean, have intelligence, and intelligence listens to reason…mostly. But please, let’s calm down and sort this out. We have questions, you have questions, let’s get some tea or hay or whatever and have a nice chat, okay?”

“Ha! I knew they were real! In your face!” I heard from the front row of ponies.

“Shut up Lyra!” I saw Bon-Bon grab Lyra's head, her protests muffled. I looked back to see Princess Celestia give a long sigh.

“Fine. Come with us. Twilight, gather the elements and meet me in my chambers. You two, try anything funny and I’ll personally send you to the sun, got it?” Princess Celestia said with a very serious expression on her face.

“Probably won’t be as fun as Proxima Centaui.” The wolf nodded in agreement. “I mean, yes, your highness. Lead the way.”

As the princess led them away, a large group of guards followed after as Twilight and I went to find our friends in the massive crowd of ponies.

A/N: Not a superb ending nor really a cliffhanger, I needed to break it up so I can switch the perspective to another pony.

As always, Jagun was the editor. So send hate mail his way if something's not right.

Chapter 2: Origins

Princess Celestia, for as old and wise as she was, was at a complete loss at the recent turn of events. The celebration of her dear sister’s return was once again ruined as a new creature made itself known to the world. Strange beings already exist throughout the world, no thanks to Discord. Some of the beings born from his chaos were the manticore and the dreaded ursa, luckily they were mostly passive and stuck to their forest habitat.

However, this new creature was unlike anything in the known world. It stood far taller than any of the ancient apes of the past, Celestia’s eyes just level with its chest. Not only was it able to speak fluent Equestrian, but the sheer power it demonstrated when it showed itself actually frightened her. No being has been able to show such mastery over the sky, Princess Luna could come close, but it would fail to be as stunning and spectacular.

“Was this the snipe you had me hunting for?” Asked Princess Luna in a hushed whisper, hoping this was just a continuation of the mean joke. Celestia could only shake her head as she lead the group to her chambers in silence. All was silent save for four pairs of hooves clopping on the white linoleum. The Princess stopped suddenly, listening intently before looking back to make sure the two guests were still behind her. A pair of blue eyes were floating right in front of her muzzle.

“AIEE!” She yelled as she jumped back in surprise. “What the hay do you think you’re doing?!” Celestia chastised, the creatures were floating through the air without the assistance of wings.

“Stretching.” Replied the tall one. “Oh, by the way, a bunch of other horses-“

“Ponies.” Corrected Luna.

“-Ponies in armor tried to detain us a bit ago.” The tall one finished with a glance to Luna.

“Where are they now?” Celestia said, a shiver running down her spine.

“I took care of them.” The wolf said nonchalantly. Celestia and Luna’s blood ran cold. Had this duo destroyed an entire platoon of guards without them even noticing? The tall one saw the look of horror on the Princess’s faces.

“You know what?” The tall one turned to the wolf. “I think I should just do the talking. I bet they think you just ate all the guards.”

“But I didn’t! I just immobilized them!” The wolf tried to defend itself.

“Not helping.” The tall one turned toward the Princesses. “I’m sorry, what my friend is trying to say is, instead of having them interrupt us, he turned the floor into an incredibly sticky glue, preventing them from advancing. They’re fine though, just splash some water down and all is well.”

Princess Celestia was fuming, quite an achievement with her thousand years of learned patience. Without a word she turned back and led them around the final corner. The hall before them was just as magnificent as the rest of the castle, the door at the end decorated in various markings of the sun.

“I take it your race worships the sun?” The tall one said as it eyed the door over. “Makes sense. Many of the ancient races worshipped the sun because it brought warmth, made the crops grow, and fought back the… Darkness…” It trailed off as Celestia glared intently at it.

“Inside.” She said, opening the door with her magic. “Now.” Once everypony was inside, Celestia sent a guard for an order of tea before going inside, slamming the door with enough force to shake dust from the ceiling. Luna placed several large cushions on the floor in a semi-circle, with another two in the center before sitting on one of the cushions. Celestia soon joined her sister and watched as the guests took their seats.

They stared at each other for several long minutes, the great grandfather clock next to the wall the only sound in the room. Tok…Tok…Tok it went, counting the seconds in the silence.

“That is a rather loud clock, isn’t it? I can fix that.” The tall one said. Tok…Tok…To- Silence penetrated the bed chambers, so blissful yet so haunting.

“What did you do?” Luna asked warily.

“I stopped time.” The princess’s jaws hit the floor as the wolf and the tall thing glanced at each other, then burst into laughter. “I can’t believe they fell for it! The look on their faces!” They rolled around on the floor in great guffaws before slowly calming themselves down a bit to explain. “Look, I’m sorry, but I was trying to break the ice before we got serious. I didn’t stop time, I just prevented the sound from penetrating the case for a bit.”

Celestia shook her head slowly, she was once again at a complete loss. “What are you?” She finally asked.

It looked at her for a bit longer, “I think we should wait for the tea and the elementals of hamography you asked for before we begin.”

“That’s Elements of Harmony to you!” They turned to the sound of the new voice to see Twilight and the others at the door. “Sorry we’re late Princess, we had to help a bunch of the guards get unstuck from the floor.” Twilight explained as the group made their way to sit upon the remaining cushions.

“Sorry, but I’m absolutely dreadful with names. Now, you asked what I was? I think we should save that until after introductions. Ok?” It waited a moment, looking to each of the ponies in turn. “Right then, I’ll start. Hello everyone, My name is Jeff, I am a human turned god, and I am 1.6 billion years old.” His statement was met with silent stares.

“Hello, my name is Fang, Jeff’s familiar, same age.” More silence. “Look, this will be much easier once we get to know each other a bit, so what are your names? Or would you rather be called a peguunicorn?”

Celestia huffed her distaste. “I am Princess Celestia, reagent of the sun.” She announced. “And this is Princess Luna, Reagent of the Moon.” She motioned towards Luna, then to the other fillies surrounding her. “The others are the Elements of Harmony, you need not know their names, just that together they wield the most powerful magic in Equestria, the magic of friendship.”

Jeff nodded to each in turn. “Ok, that’s all good and well, but now here’s what I don’t understand. This world was never fused with magic of any kind, forcing the beings to adapt using technology. Now here’s the kicker, apes were the next species to evolve intelligence, not horses nor ponies. As for pegasai and unicorns, they were stuff of legend. So here’s my question, Princess, what happened to my planet?” Jeff finished, staring intently at Princess Celestia.

“Princess?” Twilight looked up to her mentor. “What is he talking about?”

“I was hoping this would never be brought up, but now it seems I have no choice but to admit the truth of pony origins.” The door opened and a waiter came in with a tray laden with several tea cups. Everypony grabbed a cup while Jeff drained the pitcher in a massive gulp that made Pinkie jealous, then sat back and waited for his answer. “About two thousand years ago, our parents discovered this planet, I was still a young filly, Luna just a foal. They saw how our primitive kind was being treated by the apes. Angered by the abuse, they killed most of the ape population, forcing the rest into camps to labor away constructing the first castle of the land, the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters deep within the Everfree Forest.

“Over the years, our parents fused their own magic into the land, giving life to unicorns and pegasai, while strengthening the earth ponies. Unfortunately the strain was too much for them. In the end it killed them both, fusing the entirety of their magic into the planet. The wild magics unleashed upon the land gave birth to the Elements of Harmony, Discord, and many other monstrosities. It fell to my sister and I to protect the land and our little ponies.

During the years Discord was raining chaos upon the world, he managed to stop the rotation of the planet and threw off the moon’s orbit in an attempt to destroy the world. After sealing him in stone with the Elements of Harmony, I began to oversee the rotation of the planet, giving the illusion that I raise the sun, while Luna ensures the moon is no longer on a collision course.”

“Princess, you mean…” Began Twilight.

“Ya mean… Ya lied ta us?” Questioned Applejack, hardly believing her ears.

“I’m sorry, my little ponies, but truth changes in the eyes of ponykind. They don’t see me rotate the planet, they see me raise the sun. They don’t see Luna keeping the moon at bay, they see her create the night. After several generations we just stopped correcting them.” She looked to her student with tears in her eyes. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Jeff was silent for a moment, “Do you know what you’ve done?” He asked quietly, his hands balled up into fists as he glared at Celestia. “I sealed myself away, I was to be found when they were ready. I was supposed to be their god, show them how to live in peace without war or strife, and mold them into a grand civilization to live among the stars.” He stood and moved slowly toward the princess. “But no, you and your kind killed them all and ravaged the planet. Did it ever occur to you to search for a resident god? Pop in and say hello?” He turned his back on the princess, her levels of anger growing by the second. “No. Your kind destroyed my reason for existence, and that does not bode well with me.”

Princess Celestia jumped to her hooves and walked up to Jeff, her mane billowing in fury. “Your ‘grand civilization’ turned my kind into nothing more than pack mules to labor away! We cleansed this world of their filth and made one better! How dare you accuse us as committing atrocity when it was your own kind creating hardship and strife for our species!”

Jeff turned back toward the Princess, his nose against hers as they stared each other down. “Are you saying this civilization is better? Almost all of your culture is stolen from the previous inhabitants of the planet! For what possible reason would a pony use a round doorknob?” He stood to his full height with his arms crossed, glaring down his nose at the slightly shorter princess. “You sicken me. If I never took an oath for the peace and prosperity of this planet, you would all be burning in the fires of my wrath.”

Princess Celestia had had enough; this creature was nothing but a relic of the past, an ancient god well beyond his time, a god of the brutes she and her parents rid the world of. She opened her wings and began to hover several feet off the floor, “You will not harm my ponies! I would rather die than let them suffer the likes of you!”

“Are you threatening me? You will soon see how sorely mistaken you are in your judgment.” Jeff began to effortlessly float above the floor as well, a brilliant light burst forth from him, and then condensed into a whirling vortex. The funnel expanded outward, the floor beneath Jeff glowed with a large and very detailed circular rune, another formed just above his head. Large bolts of energy jumped from rune to rune as a sickly green sphere consisting of an infinite number of smaller markings encompassed him.

“Before this day is through I will have your head!” Celestia focused her magic, her horn and body glowing as bright as the sun on a hot sweltering day, her radiance splitting stone and shattering windows.

Princess Luna turned to Twilight and her friends, “If they fight here the damage would be massive! You need to use the elements to stop Jeff while I try to calm my sister!”

Twilight nodded in confirmation, then turned to the others. “Come on girls! We need to stop him!” She yelled over the intensity of the massive displays of power. Twilight focused on her tiara, letting the spark of her friendship activate the Elements of Harmony. The six ponies were engulfed in their own orb of magic as they were lifted off the floor.

Luna’s protests were lost amidst the chaos, unable to reach her dear sister as Twilight opened her eyes, fully charged with the awe inspiring power of the Elements. An arc of rainbow blasted from the top of the orb that contained them. With lightning speed it raced towards Jeff, who dropped his barrier to allow the arc to approach him. With a grin and a casual backhand, the power of the Elements was deflected, straight at Princess Celestia.

Time slowed to a crawl as she saw the elements blazing towards her, cutting through her extended aura like a knife through warm butter. ‘This is it’ She thought as her 2,000 years of life flashed through her mind at a blinding speed. She saw her parents, her arrival at this planet, the terrible actions of her parents, their deaths, their unbound magic creating Discord, Discord creating chaos with his minions, finding the elements where her parents had died, sealing Discord, Luna’s jealousy, Nightmare moon, her banishment with the elements, creating the government, ruling the land, turning the planet and holding back the moon.

Her flashback reached the present, where she was left to wonder, what lies in store for her? How will the elements react? So far they have banished to a celestial body, ripped apart corruption, and turned Discord to stone. Will her fate be banishment to the sun? Or will she live each day, watching as her beloved ponies pass her by like any other statue in the gardens?

Un-content but resigning to her fate, a pair of blue eyes appeared before her own. ‘Come.’ She heard from the depths of her soul, and she found herself desperate to not give up, to push onward with her duties. She felt something grab her in a tight embrace before her world faded to black.

Princess Luna and the Elements of Harmony watched in horror as the rainbow was deflected toward Celestia. Luna and the others were helpless to stop the rainbow, watching it strike Celestia with deadly precision. Not wanting to see what has become of her sister, Luna slowly opened her eyes as the light faded to reveal Princess Celestia, standing unscathed in the center of a spiral that the Elements had carved into the stone upon impact.

“What? But I don’t…” Was all Celestia could manage as Jeff lowered the barrier surrounding them.

“That magic is indeed strong, strong enough to have devastating effects even on you.” He said as he dusted himself off. “I was able to gleam your flashback from your mind, and now I know. You were making due with the burdens your parents left you with, and for that I relinquish my initial judgment. Will you find it in your heart to forgive this fool, and allow us to remain in your kingdom?”

Celestia let out a long sigh as she considered his words and her own feelings. “Your powers are massive, more than I even imagined possible, and to be honest, you frighten me. I have never felt this amount of terror since I was a filly, and suffered my father’s wrath for trying to protect an ape. But I also see a kindness behind the power, the will to do anything to help others. If you wish to remain in my kingdom, I only ask that you extend that will to the ponies and citizens of the present day world.”

Jeff bowed in a flourish, “As you wish, I shall do what I must for the betterment of all creatures, and not just my own, but yours as well.” He stood with a grin. “My, what a mess!” He said as he looked around. “Fang, if you would please.”

Fang padded over to the center of the room and sat. He let out a long, low howl that sang to the world. A soft blue light emanated from every surface, pillow, and appliance in the room. The cracks in the floor, the shattered windows, even the tray of tea cups seemed to put themselves back together as order was restored. Everypony in the room was in stunned silence as Jeff moved to the tea tray.

“You forgot the tea.” Jeff pointed out.

“B-but you drank it all!” Fang argued, he hated missing such small details, and hated being picked on for his short comings.

“So? I want more.” Jeff said with a small smile. Fang responded with a low growl, tea suddenly appearing in all the cups.

The Princesses, Twilight and her friends took their seats once more. “What was that? How did you do that? I’ve never seen anything like it.” Twilight said as she sipped some more tea to calm her nerves.

Fang smiled toothily, causing the ponies to cringe back out of reflex. “It’s simple really, I isolated the lifespan of all the damaged material and reversed time for each object, effectively undoing any and all damage to the point just before the fight.” Fang finished proudly.

“So wait, can ya do that ta say, an older pony? Make ‘um young again?” asked Applejack, a glint of hope in her eyes.

Fang’s smugness faded, “No, and for two very good reasons. One, all memories and life experiences would be reversed, basically wiping the mind of the years between now and when they were young. Two, the blood and oxygen flow would be reversed, removing all the oxygen from the body and killing the brain instantly.”

Silence once again fell, “So what of you, where do you come from?” Asked Luna, attempting to restart the conversation.

Jeff pondered for a moment. “Well now, my story begins 1.6 billion years ago, the earth was ruled by greed, corporations and industry transforming the world. Enormous buildings of steel reached clear into the heavens while chariots of iron filled the land. I was found in an alley of such a city…”

“… And that was when I created the crystal gem to wait for life to find me.” Jeff finished, his audience looking sad for his many losses.

“If you don’t mind my asking, who are these little ones?” Asked Fang.

“Oh, my name is Twilight Sparkle; I am the personal student of Princess Celestia and run the Ponyville library. If you don’t mind I would like to talk more about these people that used to inhabit this world.” She smiled at the prospect of so much research and learning all she could get from Jeff.

“Sure, I see no reason not to.” Jeff turned his attention to Rarity. “What about you?”

“Rarity, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Should you find yourself in Ponyville just stop by my boutique and I will turn those hideous rags into something befitting of royalty.” She said as she eyed his garment in disgust.

“But I like my robe…” Jeff said, pulling the robe tighter around himself. “Makes me feel Greek.”

“Oh but I insist!” Rarity said, standing and flaunting about dramatically.

“…Fine.” Jeff submitted. “I’ll stop by once I get a chance.” Rarity returned to her seat the victor, a winning smile upon her face.

“Ah’m Applejack. Ah own an’ operate the apple farm Sweet Apple Acers, feel free to stop by for some brunch ya hear?” Jeff nodded in agreement, fresh home-cooked food was something he had been missing.

“And I’m Rainbow Dash! Perhaps you’ve heard of me?” Fang and Jeff just stared at her. “What? You haven’t heard of the greatest filly flier in all of Equestria?”

“Sealed in a gem, remember?” Jeff reminded.

“Heh heh, oh yea. I’m the only pony to ever pull off a Sonic Rainboom, three times, and I have never lost a race.” She gloated, much to the distaste of her friends.

“Y’all tied fer last with me during the running of the leaves last year.” Said Applejack snidely.

“Uhg, fine. So I lost one race. But I know I can beat both of you, without using my wings, fair and square.” Rainbow boasted, challenging the ancient gods.

“Challenge accepted.” Fang and Jeff said together. “Let us know a time and place and we’ll be there.” Jeff finished, a grin on his face.

Fluttershy sat silently during the exchange, her love of animals placing her interest upon Fang. She was lost in her thoughts when the asked for her name. Suddenly the center of attention, she froze up on the spot, unable to say anything but a small squeak as she hid behind her mane.

“I’m sorry, this is Fluttershy. She cares for the animals in Ponyville.” Provided Twilight “I’m sure she would appreciate it if you helped her out with the animals sometime.”

Jeff smiled to Fluttershy, “I would love to help out.” Fluttershy smiled bashfully. “Now, wasn’t there a pink one?” The others looked around the room, Pinkie had indeed disappeared without their knowing. Just then the door blew open, almost flying off the hinges as a bouncy pink pony with a massive cake rushed inside.

“Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie and this is going to be your Welcome to Equestria party because your story made me sad then I remembered that you didn’t have any friends and that made me even more sad so I asked myself how do you cheer up somepony who is a sad-saddy-sad-pants and the answer is a PARTY!!” She said in a breath before blowing a party horn and tossing confetti into the air.

“Pinkie, I think we should save this for another day, It’s already very late the way it is.” Twilight said, stifling a yawn. “We can invite all of Ponyville later, rather than just the eight of us.”

“Indeed, Twilight, you and your friends may stay in the same rooms you usually occupy during visits.” The six said their goodnights and headed off to their rooms, but not before witnessing Pinkie lash out an insanely long tongue and grasp the cake with it, unhinge her jaw, and shove the entire confection into her mouth where it disappeared.

“And what of us Princess?” Asked Jeff once the doors closed, shaking his head at the display.

“We should have a few open cells in the dungeon.” Celestia watched them simply raise an eyebrow. “Nothing gets past you.” She sighed.

“That was a terrible attempt Celly, even by your standards.” Luna shook her head. “But I would like to know, what is your special talent? Like how Celly rules the day, and I rule the night, what do you do?”

“To put it simply, I can do what I want to do by simply extending my will into the world.” Jeff held out his hand and closed his eyes in concentration. The light bent around his hand as a massive amount of energy condensed in his palm, lighting up the room as bright as day. “A simple ball of pure energy, in its most simple form, is able to be molded into virtually anything.” The ball began to expand at an alarming rate, quickly swallowing up the entire room. They found themselves sitting in a meadow, a slight breeze making the tall grass sway slightly in the mid-day sun. “My personal favorite is illusions.”

“How is this possible? This looks so real, I swear this is real!” Luna said, astonished. She took a bite of the wild grass and sniffed some of the flowers.

“It’s not that hard really. The illusion taps into your mind, showing you things you have already seen, felt, smelled, tasted and heard into any combination to give the illusion the vivid feel to it.” He waved his hand and the field faded back into Celestia’s quarters. “So, how is it that your ponies manipulate magic?”

“Very similar to the way you just described for unicorns, but their type of magic usually revolves around their special talent.” Princess Celestia explained. “A unicorn with a special talent of playing a musical instrument will not be able to use magic to build a house.”

“So their skill set determines their magic?” Asked Fang.

“That technically applies only to unicorns. For a pegasus their magic is passive in their ability to fly with smaller wing spans than is required for their mass, and to manipulate the weather.” Luna said.

“Wait, they can control the weather? This I have to see.” Said Jeff enthusiastically.

“I’m sure Rainbow Dash would be more than willing to show you around the weather factories in Cloudsdale. But as I was saying, the earth ponies’ magic is also passive, existing in their hooves to grow crops, build, and to manipulate many objects.” Princess Luna finished.

“I have one more question before we turn in.” Said Princess Celestia. “You said you sealed yourself in the crystal gem, what was that like?”

Fang snorted in laughter, “Word to the wise, if you choose to seal yourself away for several eons, don’t be like this guy and remain conscious.”

“What’s that got to do with anything? I thought we were having fun!” Retorted Jeff.

“It was fun for the first 700,000 years, but you can only play Candy Land so many times before it drives you insane!” Argued Fang.

“We had Monopoly!” Jeff said.

“You kept getting the best property!” Fang replied in a growl.

“You stole from the bank!” Jeff accused.

Fang changed the subject, “So? It still wasn’t as bad as your Skyrim phase.”

“Oh please, it wasn’t that bad.” Jeff waved a hand dismissively.

“You crafted the armor and convinced yourself you were the Dragonborn out to save the land from dragons.” Fang pointed out. “For two million years.” Fang added, interrupting Jeff’s counter argument.

“Sounds better than my banishment.” Luna said sadly.

Fang and Jeff stopped their bickering to ask, “How did that go? We got the short version from Celestia’s flashback.”

Luna let out a long sigh. “I was jealous of my sister for all the praise she received for raising the sun, while my night was feared and shunned. In my weakened state, one of the agents of chaos known as Nightmare festered inside me. It fed on my jealousy and gave me hatred and power. Not long after Nightmare had complete control over my body and my power. I don’t actually remember too much, just a thousand years of boiling in hatred that was never mine to begin with.

"On the thousandth year Nightmare Moon used the aid of the alignment between the stars to undo the banishment. Less than a few hours later, Twilight and her friends had found the Elements of Harmony to strip the Nightmare from my being, but the process left me weak and powerless. It took a little over a year, but I am back at full strength.” She finished with a smile.

Jeff nodded his head in understanding. “It’s never good to let your anger control you, but congratulations on your return to power.”

Princess Celestia stood, “Well Jeff, this has been an eventful evening, but we have duties we must attend to tomorrow. If you like you may stay here in my room, Twilight and her friends have taken up the other available suites and ambassador rooms.”

Jeff looked back at the very large bed. “We graciously accept your generous offer, and bid you a good night.” He said she the Princess sisters left the room, closing the door behind them.

Jeff walked up to the bed and pulled back the covers, allowing Fang to jump in first before joining him in a cuddle.

“Fang?”

“Hm?”

“Fart and you’re sleeping outside.”

A/N:
Fun Fact: I had initially wanted Celestia to yell “For Equestria!” as a battlecry, to which Jeff would respond “For the Horde!” then after the battle have Fang question why he said that, and Jeff’s reason “I drew a blank so I went with something that sounded cool.”

Edited by: Jagun as always.

Please rate an comment =D

Chapter 3: Regret

Sunlight beamed into the large bedchamber, causing two figures to stir amongst the crimson bed sheets. Jeff opened his eyes, the sudden pain of staring into the sun forcing him further awake. He groaned and ran his hand through his short brown hair as he sat up and looked around. Judging by the angle of the sun and the fact he loathed getting out of bed, he figured that it was early morning. Very early morning. He looked back at the sleeping figure of Fang, wrapped in a cocoon of blankets with a random leg protruding up into the air. Jeff shook his head as he stood and began searching the side rooms for an area to wash up in.

All the doors were beautifully decorated, yet unlabeled in any way. He shrugged and opened the closest door. Inside was a mess. Clothing and papers layered the floor among dirty dishware, as though they were forced into hiding in just a few seconds. Jeff couldn’t help but grin, Someone has a few secrets… he thought as he read a passage of text on a bit of parchment. He raised an eyebrow at the rather questionable content, secrets indeed. He tossed the scroll back into the mess and closed the door, wondering what he would stumble upon behind door number two.

The next door beheld his goal – a large porcelain bathroom. The resemblance to human society was irritating, but what was he to do? Force an entire world to change when they were living in comfort? No, that wasn’t like him. But he may casually remark on things from time to time for a laugh.

He washed his face in the sink with some nice cold water, and as he was drying off something in the mirror caught his eye. He turned around to face a tub that was large enough to be considered a small pool. Around the edges sat a an abundant number of bottles and several baskets of fresh flowers. He cautiously lifted a bottle to his nose. The scent was captivating. It was some of the most frou-frou shampoo he had ever come across. He set it down and made his way back to the bed chamber to see Fang still passed out in bed. He stopped mid-step, a devious grin donning his face as he turned back around and closed the bathroom door behind him.

Sometime later, Fang was slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. It felt like he was being carried, but he was still gripped by sleep and he simply ignored it, a snore escaping from his muzzle. He suddenly had a horrid feeling of free fall, and his eyes snapped open as he began to panic, but immediatly slammed them shut again as soapy water assaulted his eyes. He quickly fought to get himself to the surface gasping for air.

“What the hell are you do-GLOGLOGL!!!” Fang’s protests were cut off as Jeff forced him under the surface and began scrubbing soap and shampoo vigorously into Fang’s fur. His struggling was sloshing water everywhere; the only dry thing was Jeff, thanks to a special barrier he erected. He worked quickly, shampooing and conditioning Fang’s fur. While rinsing his fur for the final time, a massive shock wave blew apart the tub, sending water and shards of porcelain in all directions. Every mirror was shattered as chunks of the tub buried themselves into the walls.

“Awww isn’t that precious?” Jeff said while pulling a particularly large piece of porcelain out of his shoulder. The wound healed in moments. Fang stood, growling in the center of ground zero. His fur was silky smooth and gleamed in the light, giving off a faint glow. “Oh one more thing-!” Jeff said as he dashed toward Fang, stepping back a moment later to admire the pink bow tied to Fang’s ear. Fang shook himself vigorously, spraying water droplets everywhere, yet his fur remained pristine and the bow refused to move.

“What did you do?!” Fang snarled dangerously, irritated at being unable to return to his prior appearance.

Jeff burst into a giggle fit, “I reformulated the shampoo so the fragrance binds to the fur immediately and is permanent for 24 hours!”

“And the bow?” Fang growled.

“It’ll come off, eventually.” Jeff said with a grin. He began to move everything back into place, putting the tub back together and repairing the mirrors. Fang, now stuck smelling like a pretty princess, helped to restore the bathroom to its previous condition as well.

Both now fully awake, with the bathroom cleaned and the bed made, the rosy wolf and grinning Jeff opened the main doors to welcome a new beginning in a new world. His smile faded as he almost smashed his chest into Princess Celestia’s face.

“I received reports of an explosion in my bedroom. What did you do?” Celestia said, accusingly glaring into Jeff’s once more grinning face.

“I gave Fang a bath.” He said, gesturing to the alluring wolf and his flamboyant bow.

“You used my shampoo?” She repremanded as Fang’s flowery scent wafted into the hall. “So what, I let you sleep in my personal chambers, and you thank me by using my things and blowing up my bathroom?” She accused Jeff.

“Fang blew it up but we fixed it.” Celestia furrowed her brow before giving up with a sigh, it was too early for such shenanigans.

“Alright, I have a meeting to go to for the next hour. After that, breakfast is to be served in the private dining hall with my sister, Twilight and her friends. A few nobles will most likely be making an appearance so please be on your best behavior. I have also assigned you a pair of guards,” She nodded to a pair of unicorn stallions on either side of her. “They will take you anywhere you need to go, just, stop blowing things up.” She said as she turned down another hall, leaving the two nearly identical guards with Fang and Jeff.

The guards were dark grey brown with white mohawk manes. They wore gold armor with a light blue cloth underneath for comfort. The only difference was their age. One was weathered with experience from many years of serving the Princess, while the other looked like he was fresh from boot camp. They both stood staring straight ahead at the wall, as though it were the most captivating thing they have ever seen.

“Oh man, does this bring back memories.” Jeff said as he waved a hand in front of their unwavering faces. “Hey Fang, I bet they're trained to never move like British sentries.” He stood in front of the younger of the pair and stared intently into his eyes. “Don’t. Blink.” He said in a hushed undertone, as though the guard’s very life depended on it.

They stood there, stock still, eyes wide open in a stare down. The young guard was terrified, they never mentioned watching over crazy monsters in basic. He had no idea what would happen should he break eye contact, even for a blink. However, as much as the guard refused, his eyes began to water and twitch spastically. Suddenly without warning his eye lids closed, filling his eyes with bliss as the fluids hydrated his flaky retina. Half a second later he opened them again, and jumped back in terror as an innumerable amount of claws reached towards him. Laughter quickly drew him back to reality and he saw Jeff standing there holding his hands out in front of himself.

“What was that for?” The guard demanded, all sense of formality lost.

“I was in the military, you don’t need to be so formal around me. I’m Jeff, and this adorable puppy is Fang.” Fang nipped at Jeff’s out stretched hand, but he pulled it back at the last second. “What are your names?”

“Um, I’m Dusk, and this is Blitz.” He motioned to his superior.

Jeff turned his attention to Blitz, “Hmm… You’re well-disciplined aren’t you? I bet I can break you.” Jeff suddenly pulled a dagger from out behind himself, and buried it up to the hilt into his left lung. His breath became ragged as he coughed up blood onto Blitz’s face, who just stood there unwavering. Dusk began to panic and tried to run for help, only to be stopped by Fang. With a flash the illusion was undone, leaving Dusk in a state of panicked confusion.

“This guy’s good.” Jeff said as he straightened out, a loud rumble escaped from his body. “Oh well. Let’s get to breakfast early and see what they have.” He said and began to wander off in a random direction, Fang at his heels.

Dusk took a moment to calm himself, then kicked Blitz in the ribs. Blitz snorted and looked around in confusion.

“You fell asleep with your eyes open again, Sir. Come on, we need to make sure those two get to breakfast.” Dusk took off down the hall with Blitz trotting alongside. They came around the corner they saw Jeff turn towards, only to be halted in their tracks. Before them was the enormous pair of doors that lead to the throne room, guarded by the best guard ponies the Equestrian Military had to offer, Jeff and Fang were nowhere to be seen.

“Great, we lost em.” Blitz said as they turned back.

“… with this new banking system, the regulation of bits throughout Equestria will be much easier with the introduction of paper bits. The paper version of bits allows ponies to carry vast amounts of bits at a single time, making life much easier. Ponies may come to any branch to trade their golden bits for the newer more efficient form of bit.” The business pony announced to Princess Celestia, holding up a paper bill for her to see.

“So, the bank would regulate the flow of money, how would the kingdom handle the finances then?” She asked.

“Simple, Your Highness. We would gladly loan the kingdom any amount of financing, so long as the amount is repaid, with a small amount of interest of course.” The business pony said with a grin.

Princess Celestia considered his words for a moment. “Do you take me for a fool? You propose that my kingdom turn over millions of solid gold bits in exchange for flimsy pieces of parchment at only your banks? This would allow you possession of over 90% of the gold in circulation, which in turn can be melted down and sold back to my ponies at a higher price than what it is worth! Then the funds you promise to lend are to be repaid with interest? Removing all the bits from the ponies to pay your banks back would still leave the interest to be paid, where is that money going to come from?”

Celestia waited for an answer from the business pony, who stood there shaking like a leaf. When none came, she finalized her decision on the matter. “Mr. Monopoly, your proposition is hereby rejected, to never be made a reality as long as I sit upon the throne. Is that made clear?” Mr. Monopoly nodded his head vigorously, fearing his banishment was imminent. “Then you are all dismissed.”

She watched patiently from her throne as the presenters packed their prophet charts and estimates into various suit cases before filing outside, closing the door behind them. She let out a long sigh, how many times has this topic come up the past millennia? She lifted her head, “Well, Jeff, how was I?”

“You knew we were here? Can you sense us?” Jeff asked as he and Fang materialized on either side of the throne.

“No, I cannot. But my shampoo is hardly common in the land.” She said as she turned her gaze to Fang, who folded his ears back and did his best to hide behind his paws.

“Of course. Truth be told I’m rather proud of your standing for that issue. If you passed the proposition all of the power in Ecuador would transfer to him. He who owns the money, owns the world.”

“Ecuador?” Celestia asked, puzzled why this place was relevant to the conversation.

“Yea, er… whatever it is you are the princess of.” Jeff said, looking away toward the ceiling.

“My kingdom is Equestria, how does one so powerful forget things so easily?” she said with a worried expression.

“About that, my memory and abilities were much better before the solitude. I lost my mind, went mad on multiple occasions. Even someone of god status can’t expect to come back from that unscathed.” He said as he plopped down into a blue beanbag that wasn’t there before.

“So only your memory was affected? But you still seem very powerful to me.” Celestia said.

Jeff burst into laughter. “Of course I still retain all my power, but the forms it can take are limited to my imagination. After losing my mind, all I can use my power for now is cheap parlor tricks or crushing opponents with unrestrained energy. I used to be able to copy the minds of everyone around me, gaining all of their knowledge, experience, and memories in an instant. Not anymore, gone also is my ability to sway entire nations, not that it helped in the first place.” He sighed.

Celestia looked at the broken god in a new light, she saw her sister in him. She had witnessed her sister’s return, her frail and weakened state. Had she lost her mind during her banishment? Were the years of solitude a much worse form of punishment than death? It broke her heart to think of what she put her sister through over such a petty argument.

“You can’t change the past.” Said Jeff.

“What, how-"

“The look on your face, the color of your aura, I can read you like a book. Everyone has regrets, Princess. You cannot change the past, so you must move on. Learn from your past mistakes, and do the best you can with what you have. You should know this by now.” Jeff said from his beanbag, laying back to gaze at the gold plated ceiling.

Just then the door burst open as a pair of guards tripped over themselves trying to quickly approach and bow at the same time. “Your Majesty please forgive us! We lost sight of our query and fear they may be running amok someplace in Canterlot City!”

Celestia turned to Jeff, “Care to explain?”

Jeff sighed and stood to his full height, the beanbag returned to the oblivion from whence it came. “I tested their wits, and have found them wanting. Is it your desire to have me make them better guards?”

“That won’t be necessary.” Celestia said before addressing the guards, “Dusk, you may return to your squadron, tell the other fresh recruits of your experience in the castle. Blitz, your papers have been signed, and I am happy to have granted you one last exciting day as a farewell gift before your retirement.” The guards bowed low to the Princess and left without a word. Celestia turned to Jeff and Fang, “It’s about time for breakfast, shall we be off?”

“Indeed, let us drink and be merry!” Fang said joyfully at the prospect of food.

“The hell kind of breakfast selection is this?” Jeff said as he flipped through a menu. “Hay pancakes? Alfalfa bread? Where’s the steak, eggs, and bacon?”

“I’m sorry, eggs and what?” Asked Twilight as she placed her menu down, ready to order.

“Steak and bacon! A primary source of nutrition, a meal fit for a god!” Jeff said, posing dramatically for no apparent reason.

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t follow.” Twilight said, tilting her head in confusion.

“It’s meat.” Fang said flatly, an audible gasp was heard around the table.

“W-we had our assumptions, but…” Twilight trailed off.

“But we thought you wouldn’t need to eat any meat.” Finished Applejack.

“Eating another living being is so… revolting and barbaric.” Rarity said.

Celestia sighed, “I figured you may want meat products for breakfast, so we were able to arrange a chef trained in the art of cooking meat to be on staff this morning.”

The main door opened as a white unicorn stallion entered the dining hall. He was dressed in a very fancy set of garments as he approached the table with his snout pointed toward the ceiling. He stopped right behind the chair Fang was sitting in.

“What is such a filthy beast doing in my chair? Guards, I demand you remove it at once and have it put down for such treachery!” The guards didn’t move, Fang’s eye twitched as the pony kept talking. “Commoner ponies at my royal table? I am disgraced! I will never stoop as low to dine with the common filth as the lower classes. I demand you all leave at once!”

Both Celestia and Luna face-hoofed as Rarity ground her teeth together. The others prepared to run as they watched Fang begin to growl menacingly, barley controlling his anger.

“Forgive me…” Fang whispered to the ponies at the table before turning to face the insulting noble. “It’s been a while…” He barred his fangs in a menacing snarl at the pony, long streams of drool pooling onto the floor. “Since I ate a fresh kill… How does pony taste I wonder?”

The white unicorn was frozen in fear as Fang leaped at him, teeth burying themselves deep into his neck as a powerful set of jaws closed tight for the kill. A second later the pain was gone, the pony opened his eyes to see the wolf sitting calmly in front of him.

“I am not filthy, you heathen. I am beautiful today.” Fang said, turning his head to the side to show off his pink bow and bringing his tail up to his chin in the cutest way possible. The white unicorn had had enough at this point and simply fled the dining hall, the jeering of Rarity following in his wake.

Jeff turned back to the others, “So, who was that? The entertainment?” Fang returned to his seat.

“That was Prince Blueblood, my nephew.” Celestia hung her head in shame from his behavior.

“Wow. No more kids for you then, a rotten egg spoils the batch.” Jeff said, appalling the ponies at the table from his insult.

“No, we’re not related by blood, he’s born from the family tree of someone I adopted before my banishment.” Said Luna.

“And that just gives him the right to act that way?” Asked Fang.

“Most of the upper class ponies are that way, being raised rich and spoiled leads to that behavior.” Informed Twilight.

“And, Rarity, was it? Why the insults?” Asked Jeff as he leaned forward on the table.

“Oh well, forgive me for being un-lady like, but he is the most horrid, self-centered pony I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, and I would rather not talk about such things during breakfast.” Rarity said, flourishing her hair as though to end the discussion.

“Ok…” Jeff shook his head to rid the questions from his mind, he had much more important matters to attend to. “Now, where in the world is the waiter? I’m dying here!”

“I’m right here, Sir.”

“Whoa! You’re good… Too good…” Jeff said as he eyed the waiter over. “I want a 30 oz. steak, medium rare, four eggs sunny side up and a pile of bacon. I don’t mean a little pile next to the steak, I mean get the largest plate in the castle and stack the bacon to where it can barely remain stable. Got it?”

“Umm…” The waiter stammered, astounded by the enormous appetite.

“I think I’ll have the same, except I want my steak raw, heated enough to where the center is not frozen.”

The waiter proceeded to take down the rest of the orders then handed them to another pony, “And for dessert?”

“None thanks, although I do believe Celestia might want some.” Jeff winked at the Princess and gave a small smile. Celestia’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates as her mouth dropped open.

“Celly, have you been sneaking cake into your room late at night again?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“N-no, don’t be silly.” She smiled as her eyes darted back and forth.

“Oh, well you don’t mind if I take a peek then do you?” Luna said playfully.

“NO!” Celestia almost shouted before she contained herself. “No, I mean. It’s really messy and I need to, uh, finish, um, sorting Twilight’s friendship reports…?”

“Wait, Twilight wrote those?” Jeff watched as Celestia’s face drained of all color, “She must be REALLY friendly then.” Celestia disappeared in a flash of light as she teleported away, Jeff grinning broadly in amusement.

“What was that all about?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Jeff stated, feigning ignorance.

Luna sighed, “Looks like I need to talk to her again…”

“This has happened before?” Asked Jeff.

“You can say it’s her only weakness.” Said Luna.

They sat there in silence, waiting for both Celestia’s return and for breakfast to be served. Jeff cast his attention to the various portraits of Celestia and Luna lining the walls, they seemed to be staring at him, one in particular gave him a bad vibe. In his experience, bad vibes were not to be taken lightly. He conjured a small dagger into his hand beneath the table, never taking his eyes off the portrait. In one swift motion, he stood and threw the dagger with amazing speed and surprising accuracy, striking the portrait in one of the eyes.

“Whut in tarnation are you doing??” Demanded Applejack.

“OH MY GOSH!! That was so cool did you guys see that?” Praised Rainbow Dash.

“Yeppi-doodles! He was all like, FWOOSH and the dagger was like SWOOSH and the painting was like NOOOO but it couldn’t move because it’s a painting and was struck right in the eye!” Pinkie said, enacting each event with her entire body on the table.

“Sorry everyone, I thought I felt something is all.” Said Jeff, trying to calm everypony down.

“And that gives you the right to stab my sister in the eye?” Asked Luna. “That used to be an act of war back in my day.”

A flash of light announced Celestia’s return, “What’s all this commotion?”

“Breakfast is served.” A waiter announced as several chefs carted in a number of trays, two piled high with a mountain of bacon, not too crispy yet not too soft.

“I’ll tell you later when we have our talk.” Luna said to Celestia as the chefs placed the trays before the guests, lifting the silver cover to reveal their orders.

“Oh man, this steak is perfect!” Jeff exclaimed as he savored the first bite. “Whoever cooked this deserves to dine with us, bring us the one who made the steak!” Jeff called to the chefs as they returned to the kitchen.

Twilight and her friends became increasingly nauseated at the site before them. Sure, Jeff and Fang were civil, using forks and knives or biting off smaller pieces. But the prospect of watching the remains of another living creature be eaten was almost too much for Twilight. She gagged, quickly bringing a hoof to her mouth to fight back the bile. As sickening as the barbaric display before her was, throwing up all over the royal table in front of the Princesses was much worse. Jeff looked at her as he finished another bite. Upon seeing her and the others about to blow chunks, he tapped his finder on the table, twice.

All the meat began to glow a light golden yellow. The food was lifted into the air broke apart into billions of particles, leaving nothing behind as they flowed into Fang and Jeff. Now that the meat was no longer in sight the ponies slowly began to feel better.

Twilight's curiosity began to get the better of her, "So, um... where did it go?"

"The meat?" Jeff asked her, the others nodded. "We assimilated it. We turned it into pure energy and absorbed it. You didn't make it seem like a problem when we ordered but you were probably just trying to be polite. I'm sorry everyone."

Applejack nodded her head, "It's ok. Being on a farm so close to the Everfree Forest I've come to accept that some animals can only eat meat. But to see it for myself..." She shivered.

"Yea, and I used to be friends with a griffon named Gilda, she ate meat from time to time. She never did when I was around but she did mention it once."

"Talking about me behind my back, Dash?" A griffon said as it entered the dining hall, wearing a chef hat and blouse.

“Wait, Gilda?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

“Heya Dash, been a while hasn’t it?” Responded Gilda as she approached the table.

“Wow, what are you doing here? As a chef even?” Asked Rainbow Dash, pulling out a chair for her old gal pal to sit while they chatted.

“Well, I thought a lot about what you said, and about what I said. After a while I began to realize that there are more important things in life than just being cool. I guess you can say I grew up a bit, found a job here as assistant meat chef and started a new life.” Said Gilda as she removed the apron. “I’m sorry for the way I acted back then everypony, it took you all to make me realize my real goals in life, and for that I want to thank you.”

“Well said Gilda! I guess you’re not a mean meanie pants anymore!” Cheered Pinkie. “You know what this calls for?”

“A party?” Dash Asked.

“A PARTY!!! Wait, how did you know?” Asked Pinkie Pie, twisting her neck at an impossible angle.

Breakfast soon became an impromptu party, celebrating Gilda’s change in attitude, welcoming new friends, and reacquiring old ones. Yet unbeknownst to the party ponies, a shadowy figure was regaining consciousness after fainting in fright.

That was too close. It thought to itself. Lucky it hit the other eye and not the one I was looking through; my death would not have made the master happy. It composed itself before disappearing into a wisp of smoke.

A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone, I was preoccupied. I vow to write the next chapters within a reasonable amount of time.

Re-edited by BodaciousBabe22.

I also fixed the meat scene, tell me what you think.

Please rate and comment!

Chapter 4: New Arrivals

The forest was dark, depressing, pressing in on all sides with its viscous presence. Predators of all sizes stalked among the trees, hungry for anything that dared to near their territory. No sane pony had ever ventured this deep into the forest and come back in one piece, if at all. The ones who survived spoke of a cloaked beast through their mad ramblings. A beast of such great power, none could stand against it. One cried out in anguish, telling the story of how his fallen brother was revived by the beast, rising from the blood stained ground to claim his soul. Deep within the forest, the beast sat upon its throne of flesh and bone, biding its time as it fed on the souls of the careless.

A wisp of blue smoke snaked its way to the clearing and stopped before the throne. The hooded beast watched patiently as its minion reformed into a unicorn. The unicorn bowed low before its master as various beasts began to show themselves along the edge of the clearing. Should the unicorn make one wrong move, its life would be forfeit, the body to join the ranks of the dead littering the forest.

“Master, I bring you news most urgent.” The unicorn said from its position before the throne. It knew to never dare to see under the master’s hood, to do so would be rewarded with a punishment far worse than death.

SpeAk, mINion, oF wHAt NeWs iS So imPorTAnT tHAt YoU wOuLd dARe ApPRoACh Us?

The unicorn shivered as the sound of thousands of voices echoed and screeched through the clearing. It felt like death itself was toying with its mind and soul, as though it could be killed in any number of ways in an instant. The unicorn dared not move, not even to wipe the sweat from its brow as it cowered in terror before its master

“M-master, during my mission I have witnessed a pair of strangers interacting with the Sisters!” The unicorn reported as quickly and clearly as it could.

YOu DArE tO dIsTUrb uS By bRinGIng US sUch fooLIsh NoNseNSe? ThEy aRE iRREleVaNt, KILL thEm imMEdiAtELy.

“Master! I cannot! They have more power than even the Sun Princess! I-”

SiLENce!! MorTAls hAVe nO proOSpeCt oF TrUE poWEr. gO foRTh wITh mEiN pOWEr aNd tAKe mEaSUre Of tHEiR wORtH.

“Yes! Of course! Right away!” And with that the unicorn dissolved back into a mist and slithered from the throne, the hollow, mad laughter of the beast following in its wake.

At the castle, breakfast was finally over. Princess Celestia was an hour late for her first duty of the day and had said a quick farewell, leaving Luna to see the others off as they boarded a carriage to Ponyville.

“Farewell friends! May your journey be swift and uneventful!” Luna bade as Twilight and her friends climbed onboard, Fang climbing in behind them.

“Fang, what are you doing?” Jeff asked.

“I’m going with them. Besides, you said we would visit, so why not now?” Fang said as he lay down on the floor of the carriage.

“Alright, but where would I sit? You take up too much room.” Jeff said.

“I can fly alongside; I’m way faster than these guards are so keeping pace is no problem.” Rainbow dash said as she took to the air, freeing barely any space.

“Looks like you have to walk Jeff.” Fang smiled toothily as Fluttershy pet his head. The pegusai pulling the carriage bounded forward, quickly taking to the sky.

“Heh. I’ll see you when you get there. You there, rainbow one, what was your name again?” Jeff looked up to her quizzically.

“Uh, Rainbow? Dash? Remember?” Dash said skeptically.

“I’m always forgetting the easy ones.” He tapped his forehead in an effort to associate the color to the name. “Anyway, last night you said something about a race?”

“Yea! You bet I did! Thinking you can take me on tough guy?” Rainbow boasted.

“Of course. But I have two conditions to this race, number one: where is this Ponyland?”

“That’s PonyVILLE.” Rainbow Dash said with emphasis. “And it’s right there.” She pointed into the distance to a large brown patch of earth, the buildings were just specks on the horizon. “What’s your second condition? No wings?”

“Ha, no. Condition two is, try to keep up.” He said with a grin. This confused and irritated Rainbow, was he mocking her? Before she could retaliate Jeff sprinted to the edge of the platform and dove off. Without a second thought Rainbow flew after him in a steep dive down the side of the mountain in an effort to save him from his self-imposed doom.

He was too far away from her, she may be able to catch him if she accelerated to sonic rainboom speeds, but that would leave her no time to pull out of the dive safely. She was powerless as she saw him plummet to the ground. She closed her eyes and flared her wings, she wasn’t fast enough. She failed at the one thing that separated her from every other living pony. Slowly she forced her eyes open, she should at least stay until the medics arrive. But what she saw instead of a mangled body in a pool of blood was Jeff standing there looking up at her, tapping his foot impatiently.

“This is a race, it involves racing, perhaps you’re new to this concept?” He joked.

“Wha- Bu- I thought you were going to die!” Rainbow yelled at him angrily.

“Didn’t you listen? Death wasn’t a condition I stated. See ya!” He called as he jogged off in the direction of Ponyville.

Does he really think he can outrun me? Rainbow thought. I don’t even need wings to beat this guy. She landed on her hooves and began trotting after the jogging figure.

She soon caught up with him and easily matched his pace. “Um, this is a race, it involves running, perhaps you’re new to this concept?” Rainbow Dash grinned as she sped past him.

Jeff let out a hearty laugh, “Perhaps I am, little pony, perhaps I am.” Jeff slowed to a stop. He twisted his body in a number of odd ways, stretching his misused muscles and snapping his joints back into proper alignment. Here we… GO! He leaned forward at an impossible angle, his legs coiling up beneath his chest then springing into the ground at an impressive speed. Rainbow Dash had quite an impressive lead on him, but with his new speed he quickly overcame her.

Rainbow was irritated that he somehow sped past and got such a huge lead on her. She took to the air, instantly doubling her speed. This just wasn’t enough to catch up to him. She began to frantically beat her wings, pushing herself forward as fast as she could. She was nothing more than a rainbow colored lightning bolt speeding across the land. Over the hills and around trees she sped, chasing after that figure in the distance. The figure began to increase in size at an alarming rate, Rainbow quickly flared her wings and dug her hooves into the ground. She skidded to a halt in a small clearing just before she smashed into him.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?” Rainbow yelled at him indignantly.

“What woods are these?” Jeff asked, looking around with a furrowed brow. Rainbow Dash looked around as well, judging by the weight of the air and the feel of the wild magics, she was sure they were deep within the Everfree Forest.

“This is the Everfree Forest… We really should keep moving, it’s not safe here.” Dash advised, she was beginning to sweat as the forest seemed to close in around her. She and her friends had ventured into the forest before, but nowhere this deep.

“Shh…” Jeff said, holding a finger out at her. They listened intently for several long moments. “The birds have stopped chirping. I think something’s com-” Jeff was cut off by a deafening roar. The sound of heavy footsteps and the shattering of tree trunks made its way to the duo. Without warning Jeff grabbed Dash and jumped back to the entrance of the clearing they just came. Before Rainbow could voice her anger at the sudden jostling, the place they stood not a second before exploded into a mass of wood and fallen trees.

As the dust settled, before them stood a massive Hydra, it had six heads, each with a number of scars and innumerable teeth. This Hydra was enormous. Its body was elongated and sported six limbs and three tails. Its heads roared again as it charged at the pony and god. Rainbow Dash was sensible enough to fly above the creature's reach, hoping the human god would do the same.

She looked back in horror as Jeff stood his ground. “Oh look at you. You’re beautiful… I wonder if Fang will get jealous if I bring you along as a pet. Come on! Here boy!” He called to it as he patted his thighs encouragingly. The hydra reared up, “Oh good boy!” Then each head clamped onto Jeff’s body. It struggled to dig its teeth into his flesh but was unable to rip him into shreds.

“Shh shh shh… there there, it’s okay.” Jeff whispered to the Hydra. Confused, it lifted its heads off him to study Jeff quizzically. “Yes yes… rule number one, no BITING!!” Jeff yelled as he punched toward the creature. His fist stopped just a few inches short of one of the Hydra’s heads, yet the sound that he hit something solid was unmistakable. The air around his fist cracked and shattered, the result was a massive shockwave that ripped and tore at the Hydra, its blood spraying out majestically while the shockwave continued on to devastate the forest beyond.

When the shaking subsided, the Hydra stood, blood flowing smoothly from the wounds on the body. The heads had blood drizzling from their mouths and eye sockets. The hydra’s many eyes rolled to the back of each head, then all at once the creature fell forward in a heap. A blood covered Rainbow Dash landed behind Jeff and risked a look at the remains, the amount of blood on her and the mangled beast was too much for her to handle and she lost her breakfast. Jeff turned at the sound of Rainbow’s retching and patted her on her back as she finished up.

“Are you okay now?” Jeff asked, regretting what he had put her through.

“Yeah…” Rainbow croaked between breaths.

“Alright, lets hurry up and get you home.” Jeff scooped her up in his arms. She wanted to protest being carried but only managed to shiver. She had had enough excitement for one day. A bright light enveloped them, then they shot into the air and zoomed over the tree tops toward Ponyville.

As Jeff and Dash left, the remains of the Hydra dissolved into ash, and a unicorn stood in the center of the remains. “So it takes more than that to best you does it?” It said. “Well then, let’s get this party started. I’ll be seeing you tonight.” It laughed towards the sky.

The carriage carrying Fang and the other Elements of Harmony landed in front of the Books and Branches Library, Twilight’s tree home and main base of operations. The ponies and flamboyant wolf with his magnificent bow gathered their things and followed Twilight to the door.

“Huh, that’s odd.” She said as she opened the door. “I asked Spike to keep the library locked until we got back.” The group filed inside. Fang was impressed with the amount of space and the number of books provided. It looked like magic was used in order to keep the hollowed out tree alive. His musing was interrupted by a collective gasp. Fang turned back toward the group to see a new member, a sky-blue unicorn with a very light blue, almost white, mane.

“Trixie? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked in the silence. “And where’s Spike?”

“Hello, Sparkle.” The sky-blue unicorn said hotly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has graced this pitiful tree with Trixie’s presence, you should be grateful.”

“Oh come on, just tell her why you’re here and quit the theatrics.” Fang looked towards the top of the stairs and saw a stack of books walking down. Fang did a double take, something short was carrying them. It reached the bottom of the stairs and set the books down, revealing itself to be a type of reptile.

“Fine. Sparkle, Trixie-er, I, am here to…” Trixie looked away, the words not coming easily. “to…” Her wandering eyes landed on Fang for the first time. “What the HAY is that thing?!” She screamed and erected a magical barrier.

“That’s Fang. He’s a wolf with powers of a god.” Twilight said nonchalantly.

“Nice to meet you.” Fang said with a bow.

“Charmed, now why is it here??” Demanded Trixie. Twilight sighed before delving into the long explanation.

“Oh. So they’re learning about our world then?” Trixie asked as Twilight finished her story.

“Pretty much.” Fang confirmed. “But Jeff and the pegasus should have been here by now, it’s almost midday.”

“Ah know Rainbow should have been here way before we got here.” Said Applejack.

“OOH! OOH! Maybe she’s taking him out to lunch like a date or something because he’s such a good racer and she wants get to know him better or she’s showing off her super cool stunts and flying around like FWOOSH FWOOSH VRROOM!!!” Pinkie rambled then bolted out the door. Before the group of ponies could roll their eyes, she ran down the stairs from Twilight’s bedroom. “I found them I found them I found them!” She bounced around and opened the front door, revealing Rainbow with a hoof raised to knock.

“Oh, hey pinks.” Rainbow said unenthusiastically.

“Dashie? Is something wrong?” Pinkie asked, she placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“She’s still in shock.” Jeff said as he came in behind her. “We ran into a six headed Hydra and things got pretty messy. I took Dash here to her home to wash up a bit before coming here.”

“Oh no! Did it hurt you? Did you hurt it?” Asked Fluttershy, the thought of an injured friend making her rush forward to inspect Dash.

“A six headed Hydra? Those haven’t existed since Discord’s imprisonment over a thousand years ago.” Twilight said.

“Interesting. There was something about it that didn’t feel right. I’m sorry, timid yellow one, but I had no choice but to lay it to rest. If we fled it would have followed us here and endangered the citizens.” Fluttershy was sad the creature had to die, but if it meant protecting her friends, then just maybe it was worth it. “So,” Jeff continued, “is there a possibility this Discord person could be back in power without arousing suspicion?

“No, I don’t think so. Discord isn’t the sneaky shadowy type.” Twilight said. “He would go on a rampage, we would know instantly if he escaped his imprisonment.”

“So, either the Hydra survived for hundreds of years without detection, or there is another pulling the strings. What say you stranger?” All eyes fell on Trixie.

“I-I don’t-”

“Ya’ll never said why ya was wait’n fer Twilight, an right now ah find ya pretty suspicious.” Applejack said. “Ancient creatures er coming back, mah friend is in shock, and yer in here waiting for Twilight, ya better tell us the truth or ahm going to be forced to take actions.”

“Whoa Applejack calm down.” Spike said as he blocked her view of Trixie. “It’s not like that at all. She’s just afraid to ask.”

“Ask whut?” Applejack looked over Spike’s shoulder to Trixie.

Trixie made eye contact with Twilight, “I… I wanted to ask you…” Trixie paused as she bit back her stubborn pride. “Iwanttobeyourapprentice.” She suddenly blurted out.

“What was that?” Twilight asked, leaning in closer to Trixie.

Trixie gave an annoyed huff, “I’m asking to be your apprentice. In magic.” She added hastily.

“Oh… well…” Twilight was slightly taken aback. “You’re already a talented magician, I don’t know if I would be able to teach you anything.”

“No, I’m not good enough. I need training in more types of magic to make my show even better.” Reasoned Trixie. "When you showed me what magic could really do, I just couldn't stop thinking about how much better and more amazing I could make my act."

“Don’ do this, Twi. This here’s a fishy one.” Applejack cautioned.

“Oh Applejack, you’re just over reacting. Trixie, I accept.” Twilight smiled. “First thing though, drop the ‘Great and Powerful’ title. Titles are given to you by your fans and reputation. You should also stop challenging the audience, embarrassing ponies will not gain you fame.”

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” Trixie said. “Very well, I shall agree to your terms. And, if you all like, I can treat you to a club hosting DJ PON-3 tonight.”

“She’s here? I didn’t see any of her usual fanfare recently.” Twilight said.

“We traveled here together from Hoofington, and the posters should have been up already. Those fillies said they would have them up all over the town in a second.” Trixie said.

“Wait, three fillies?” Asked Applejack. “Wus one on a scooter and the other two in a wagon?”

“Yes, why? Was it a problem?”

Three fillies were out behind their clubhouse, delicately hanging dripping wet posters onto a clothes line.

“We’re in fer it now.” Said Applebloom.

“I told you not to go so fast Scootaloo.” Said Sweetie Belle.

“Well it’s your fault, you dropped them into the river.” Scootaloo blamed.

“The wind from your wings ripped them out from my hooves!” Sweetie yelled.

“Enough fight'en girls!” Yelled Applebloom. “We need ta dry these licitly split and hang ‘em up all around Ponyville.” Applebloom’s statement was punctuated by the sound of a wet ripping noise. The fillies watched in horror as all the posters they had just hung ripped apart along the clothes line.

“Great! Now what ‘r we gonna do?” Applebloom said dejectedly. The fillies pondered for a moment before a brilliant idea struck them and they all exclaimed out at once.

“What just happened?” Jeff asked out loud. Pinkie and Fluttershy had moved Rainbow Dash to the bedroom upstairs. The others had run out the door a few moments ago, leaving Jeff and Fang almost alone. “And what’s with the iguana?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m a dragon!” Spike corrected.

Jeff raised an eyebrow. "Drem Yol Lok, Joor."

“He’s a baby.” Fang informed.

“Oh.” Jeff said, Spike looked at him in confusion. “No? Oh well. Can you, you know, breath fire?” Jeff asked.

“Of course, it’s how I send letters to the Princess.” Spike said, beaming with pride.

“Have you ever sent anything other than a letter?” A devious smile played across Jeff's face.

Princess Celestia was in the throne room, listening to another petition from a local farmer about the beneficial effects of a rainstorm that should be scheduled for his land. The princess knew good and well every detail the farmer was describing, yet she held a smile on her face as she patiently waited for his presentation to end. However, their meeting was interrupted as a whisk of green fire swirled into the throne room. It stopped in front of Celestia, then with a small pop a scroll appeared in its place.

The princess examined the scroll, it was sealed with her student’s insignia. She opened it quickly, had Jeff and Fang caused a commotion among the locals? She was disappointed to see only a few words scrawled onto the parchment, "Do you like bananas?” Before the princess had time to ponder the question further, the entire throne room was thrown into a panic as hundreds of bananas rained from the ceiling.

“That was hilarious!” Jeff exclaimed as he tried to stop laughing. “I can’t…believe…it worked!”

“Hey! Bring back my bananas!” Yelled an irate sales pony operating a now empty banana stand.

"I'm sorry! It only works one way!" Spike exclaimed. He was cut off from further arguments as his cheeks bulged. With a mighty belch, a massive ball of green fire erupted from his mouth. A series of pops filled the air as the bananas were returned, along with a letter.

Jeff picked up the scroll and he read it aloud, "I have plenty of bananas in my banana bag, thanks anyway." Jeff shrugged. "Still funny, but at least you got them back." He said to the banana pony as they wandered off.

Fang, Jeff, and Spike made their way through the rest of Ponyville. Spike was giving them the ground tour, showing off the best places to eat, where each of his friends worked, and the local scenery. All the while during the tour, ponies would stop and stare at the strange biped or flee in terror at the sight of Fang.

“We could try to change our forms, you know, to blend in.” Fang suggested.

“What, forcefully change the body’s molecular structure to that of a pony? You first, it was your idea.”

“Consider this revenge for the bath and the ribbon.”

Jeff grunted at Fang's point, and then closed his eyes in concentration. “Okay, here we go. Hope this doesn’t hurt too much…”

"Wait, didn't you get attacked by a Hydra? Didn't that hurt?" Spike asked.

"Nothing can penetrate my flesh if I don't allow it to, but I would still feel the pain of the transformation. Just hope I get it right."Jeff said as he released the magic, the effects took place immediately. His entire body was thrown to the ground as his legs broke and his knees shattered to pieces. A joint formed on the fracture between his shattered knee and hip. His knees were twisted around backwards and reformed while his feet elongated. His toes fused together and solidified, the flesh retreated up to the ankle, leaving a bone hoof protruding from the end of his legs.

Jeff’s arms formed an extra joint at both the elbow and the shoulder, allowing for the range of movement the ponies had. His hands balled up into fists, the bone fused into a hoof as the skin melted back to his wrists. His neck elongated, a loud series of snaps and his screams of pain suggested his spinal cord was breaking and reforming itself, sending a multitude of pain signals to his brain. The last thing to change was his head, it grew in size as his mouth and nose grew forward. His eyes swelled to fill the new sockets and his teeth formed to that of an herbivore.

“AARG!!! OOWWW! FANG!! THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!!” Jeff screamed out from his mangled possession on the ground. “This fucking hurts! NNNGG!!! I’m not even formed right!”

“Ha! That’s what you get!” Fang yelled triumphantly. “Payback is a bitch isn’t it?”

“Fuck you! Just kill me so I can reverse it!” Jeff cried out.

“Remove my bow and the smell, then we have a deal. You’re hardly in the position to negotiate.”

“Fine! I’ll remove it!” Fang let out a fierce roar, Jeff’s body was encased in a soft blue glow, then was twisted around and around like one would wring a towel. Bones were shattered, organs smashed, and several ribs pierced through the torso.

The mangled corpse fell back to the ground. The body began to glow with a black energy as it started to disintegrate into a dark cloud. The cloud condensed and a new form was created. Jeff had returned to life, the mist condensing into a new body. He grew his hair out a bit longer, and a new set of clothing covered his body. Green pants, leather gauntlets, and leather boots donned his person as he set back onto the ground.

“That, was a stupid thing to do.” Jeff said as he worked out the kinks in his limbs. “Oh look, the little guy passed out. Good going.” Jeff picked up Spike and placed him on Fang.

“Forgetting something?” Fang asked as he centered Spikes weight on his back. Jeff reached forward and ripped the bow off Fang’s ear. “OW!”

“It was glued on Fang. The scent was from the bow, not your fur. Good thing you scared off all the other ponies, one unconscious body is easier to take care of than a dozen. Let’s get him someplace where he can rest, probably back at the library.”

“Just what were you girls doing?” Twilight asked. She, Trixie, Applejack, and Rarity were back at the library scolding the three fillies.

“The posters got destroyed, we was try-en ta improvise.” Defended Applebloom.

“By painting all over the buildings? Ah thought ah taught ya better!” Applejack scolded.

“And you Sweetie Belle, you had best hope that paint will come off!” Reprimanded Rarity.

Scootaloo was relieved that nopony was about to punish her, unfortunately Trixie noticed as well. “And you, little filly, will pay us back the 80 bits for the posters.”

“Awww, do we have to?” They said, doing their best to sway their hearts with their big, watery eyes.

Twilight giggled, “Well think of it this way, you might just get your cutie marks.”

The fillies gasped in excitement. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLEAN UP CREW!! YEAY!” They bounded out the door, nearly trampling Fang and Jeff as they approached the library.

“Wow, this town is really lively today.” Fang commented as they entered the library.

“Oh my gosh! Spike! What happened?” Twilight said in a panic as she lifted Spike off of Fang, then noticed Jeff's new appearance. "And what happened to you?"

“Well, he witnessed a sight his subconscious assumed he might be able to forget by forcing him to lose conscious, and my story is better left unsaid.” Jeff said with a glare at Fang.

Twilight brought Spike up to her room and placed him in his basket. Rainbow Dash was feeling better. The news of a party with DJ PON-3 greatly distracting her from her encounter with the Hydra.

“I can’t wait! It’s been too long since I heard her awesome beats!” Rainbow exclaimed at the news.

“Oh, umm… she’s, nice…” Commented Fluttershy.

“Nice? She’s amazing! She’s so cool with her awesome beats and her WUB WUB rhythm it just makes me want to party until I wake up in a hospital!” Pinkie said as she danced around the room.

“Pinkie, that doesn’t sound very…” Twilight sighed, Pinkie will be Pinkie. “Never mind.”

“Yeah, anyway, what time is the party?” Asked Rainbow.

“It’s not till nightfall, we’ve got plenty of time until then.” Twilight said as she made sure Spike was tucked in. The group of friends made their way downstairs, not knowing what adventures awaited them.

A/N: I really, really, really hated writing this chapter. Trying to progress the story at a steady rate while keeping so many ponies in character and keeping track of them was making me climb the walls. When I finished the chapter I was yelling and cursing out my laptop. As for the ending, I just want to move on. If you're concerned about the swearing, this is rated teen and "This hurts so terribly bad." did not sound right.

Edited by BodaciousBabe22

Please rate and comment!

EDIT: I added the link for the banana joke.

Chapter 5: A Simple Wish

“So, what’s this all about?” Jeff asked Twilight. He was strapped to a table in the library’s basement. A number of wires were connecting him to a large machine off to the side. The machine in question was making a number of strange sounds and dispensing long sheets of paper. The paper was covered in a numerous lines, letters, and numbers for every type of calculation.

“I have never heard anything about your kind, and this type of discovery needs all the data I can gather!” She giggled as she examined the readouts. “This is simply amazing! Your power level is off the scale, yet your biology is fairly simple. The organs and their layout are generally the same as a pony.”

“And I am strapped down because…?” Jeff asked as he tested the strength of his bonds.

“Oh, I just need you to stay still for a bit while I run some tests.” Twilight said as she examined another readout.

“You’re not secretly the crazy mad scientist type are you?” Jeff asked tentatively.

“What? No of course not, don’t be silly.” Twilight giggled. Spike poked his head out from the other side of the machine, shaking his head woefully. “And besides, everypony else had stuff to take care of until tonight. Trixie is getting fit by Rarity for a new outfit, Rainbow is helping Pinkie, Applejack is making food for the party, and Fang is helping Fluttershy tend to the animals. So that leaves you, me, and Spike. You promised that I would be able to learn more about your kind and the old world anyway.”

“I remember promising to tell you about it, not volunteer to sate your insane lust for knowledge. Besides, you can only learn so much about an entire species by just examining a body. What about the history, the culture? There is far more to human society than I revealed in my short backstory.” Jeff said.

“Oh? And how do you suppose I go about doing that? According to Pre-Equestrian literature, you do not exist.” Twilight stated.

“Well well, for being so smart and studious you have forgotten just what I am.” Jeff said with a mysterious undertone.

“And you, for being what you are, have forgotten my name.” Twilight retaliated.

“What? No I haven’t.” Jeff said.

“Oh really? You have not once said my name since last night.” Said Twilight.

“There was no need to, that’s all.” Jeff said as calmly as he could.

“Oh? Then lets here it, just say my name and this will be all over. If you can’t, well, I don’t think you’ll be missed for a few hours.”

Jeff smiled toothily at her, Shit. He thought. He cast his mind out, searching the energies for his familiar. Fang! I need your help!

You need help? Came the reply, I’m getting bossed around by a rabbit and you’re the one asking for help?

Yeah, fine, whatever! Just tell me the purple unicorn’s name or she’s going to experiment on me! Jeff begged.

She’s named pretty much after her color like every other pony we met, it should be obvious.

“You do realize I know exactly what you’re both saying?” Twilight informed as she held up some freshly printed paper. Jeff was shocked to see his private message with Fang printed in solid black and white. “So if my name is so easy, what is it?”

“Umm… Lil Blue?” Jeff went out on a limb.

“No! My name is Twilight Sparkle! How dense are you to completely forget?” Twilight said angrily.

“OOH! Now that makes sense. I kept thinking, purple unicorn is a crappy book, and glitter.” Jeff said proudly. Twilight was fuming, steam was literally coming out of her ears. “Ok, I’m sorry, let me make it up to you.” Jeff offered.

“If you think you can. But you’ve got one chance, so don’t mess up or the experiments will double.” Twilight threatened.

“Oh, trust me, you will not be disappointed.” Jeff said, he sat up on the table, his restraints snapping to pieces as he removed himself from the table.

“You were pretending to be strapped down?” Asked Spike.

“Well, yeah. More fun that way.” He turned to face Twilight, “Now, what I am about to show you is a direct memory from my time as a child. This way, you will be able to witness first hand all of humanity in just a few hours. Scales, what I am about to show her is not for children, so your task is to watch over us.”

“Spike.” Corrected Spike

“What spike?” Jeff asked looking around in confusion.

“My name is Spike. What do you mean watch over you?” He asked, dumbfounded.

“I’m going to cast an illusion just for Sparkles and myself-”

“TWILIGHT! SPARKLE!” Twilight yelled, interrupting Jeff’s safety speech.

“That’s what I said, Sparkles. You don’t like it?”

“I like MY name just fine, not whatever you keep calling me.”

“Ok, fine.” Jeff pulled out a sword from behind him.

“What are you-?” She asked, fear evident in her voice.

“Just sit still.” She did. “I hereby dub thee, Lady Sparkles of Ponyland. There, you no longer have any right to complain, as Sparkles is now your name.” Jeff’s eyes went wide. “Huh, I spoke in rhyme. Hope I don’t do that all the time.” He said with a smile.

“I don’t care about your rhymes, what do you think you’re doing?” Asked Twilight.

“Tsk. Fine, ‘Twilight.’ As I was saying, the illusion is only going to affect us. We will appear to be just sitting here staring at the wall for a few hours, so Spike, if you need us for anything important just shake me like you’re trying to wake me up. Twilight, time will move slower for us while in the illusion, about an hour in the illusion is about five minutes in reality. Neat huh?” He paused and waited for any questions or comments. “Alrighty then, let’s begin. Twilight, sit in a comfortable spot in a position you can stay in for a few hours without getting sore.”

Spike grabbed a pair of cushions for Jeff and Twilight, upon which they sat facing each other. Jeff stretched his arms out to his side, the light in the basement dimmed as a large orb of energy condensed before him. He brought his arms together, closing his palms onto either side of the orb. With a grunt he began to compress the energy further, squeezing the orb smaller and smaller, the color changing from a dull yellow to a white hot as the energy fought back against him. His hands slowly clasped around the orb, blocking out the blinding light, with one last look around him, he asked, “Are you ready?”

“Will it hurt?” Twilight asked, observing the massive amount of condensed energy.

“Only if you want it to.” And with that, the light bled through his hands, quickly enveloping the entire basement and forcing Twilight to cover her eyes from the blinding light.

Twilight opened her eyes as the light faded to nothing but pure blackness. The darkness pressed in from all sides as she panicky looked around in vain. She tried to move, only to find her limbs were as cement. “Jeff?!” She called out in a panic, “Jeff!” She screamed to the darkness. No reply came; her own voice seemed to be swallowed by the darkness.

Just as she was about to give up all hope of salvation, her world grew blindly bright as her legs returned to normal, earth spread out from her hooves and the sunny sky shone brightly. Grass grew from the dirt as the clouds soared past overhead at an incredible speed. She watched in amazement as bushes, trees, and eventually an entire forest grew around her. The growth of the forest slowed down as time seemed to return to normal.

Oh there you are. Twilight looked around for the source of the voice, but she failed to pinpoint its source as it seemed to come from the very world itself. Sorry about that, my mind is a bit fragmented and you fell through, uh, let’s call it a crack.

“Where am I?” Twilight asked as she meandered through the dense woods.

A place in my head would be a more accurate description, but everything you see is an illusion. Just sit tight while I make an avatar. Twilight stopped her wandering as a large number of vines grew straight out of the ground in front of her. They twisted around and in between themselves, forming the rough shape of Jeff’s body. With a quick jerk it ripped one, then the other leg from the ground. Feet formed under the appendage as the entire form shimmered slightly, the appearance of flesh and clothing covered the earthy construct.

“There, all better.” The newly grown Jeff said. He held out a hand to Twilight, “Come on. Let me show you my world.” Twilight reached out a hesitant hoof, which the not Jeff grasped gently. The lush forest faded to white as a strong wind whipped her mane around her head. As soon as it began, the changes ended.

When Twilight looked around this time, she was in a place she had never imagined before. Under her hooves was solid cement, walking past her on all sides were hairless apes, much like Jeff but so different at the same time. They seemed to ignore her, some even walking through her before she remembered that this was an illusion, and assumed they could not be seen anyway. She quickly noted that the ones with longer hair must have been the females of the species, while the short haired ones were male, much like pony civilization. To her right, she heard a strange rumbling sound, much like that of a hungry beast. She went stiff with terror before forcing her head to turn and look at the cause of the offending sound, ready to teleport or run away should she need to.

What she saw instead of a hungry beast was more cement, darker in color and painted with lines of yellow and white. Upon which noisy chariots drove themselves this way and that. She noticed the apes wave to a few, the yellow ones in particular, which would slow to a stop as the apes opened a hatch on the side and climbed in before the chariot would drive off again.

“Those… Those are just like the taxies in Equestria…” Twilight half whispered in stunned amazement.

“A bit more advanced I would think.” Jeff said, startling Twilight out of her stupor. “Now do you see what I was talking about the other day regarding the relation of your world and my past?” Twilight slowly nodded, she felt his previous outburst was entirely justified. “Now come on, we need to keep up with past me or the illusion will break.”

“What do you mean? I thought you were in control of the illusion.” Twilight asked in confusion.

“This illusion is actually a memory of mine when I was a younger child. I chose this memory because it was the most intact, but that is because of the events that are to come. You wished to see the whole of humanity, but for future reference, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”

“What? But I thought that’s what wishes were for, to get things.” Twilight asked as Jeff led them through a crowd.

“For mundane wishes like toys at a birthday or for rain. But real wishes, ones that actually affect lives, they can come true, and at a great cost.” He said as he pushed his way past more people, right behind a shorter human with a blue bag on its back.

“What do you mean, where are we going?” Twilight asked as she weaved between the many legs in her path.

“You will see soon enough. Allow me to introduce you to my younger self.” Jeff said as he gestured to the short human with the blue bag.

“That’s you? How old were you then?” Asked Twilight.

“Let’s see… If I recall correctly, I was around twelve.” Jeff said. “Anyway, all around you, the buildings, the cars, the fashion, what you see can be considered the more brilliant and passionate side of humanity. The world’s engineers making the mundane world so much easier to live each and every day. We have elevators, machines that pull large amounts of people straight up to the tops of the largest buildings in mere seconds. We have hand held devices; you can see a few in that group of people there, called phones. They can wirelessly send electric signals to anywhere in the world, imagine, talking to someone thousands of miles away as though they stood right next to you.”

Jeff went on to explain a great deal of things, Twilight listening intently as he explained such things as fast food, airplanes, indoor plumbing, television, movies, microwaves, and even space travel. “Back in 1969, mind you the date seen here is 2001, we sent men to the moon. Not as punishment, but as a new frontier of space exploration. A number of years later, scandal broke out, saying America faked the moon landing. Once we get back to Equestria, do me a favor and send a letter to the moon princess asking if she ever found a flag with red and white stripes on it. If she did, then we really made it to the moon with less technology than can be found in a modern cell phone.”

“That’s a touchy subject, why don’t you ask her?” Suggested Twilight.

“Well, I would, but after the banana incident I don’t think they would want to speak to me for a bit.” Jeff said as he scratched his head.

“Wait, what incident?” Pressed Twilight.

“Oh look, we’re here!” Jeff said, changing subjects as he led a frowning Twilight into a brick building with a large number of shorter humans, children she assumed. “You might like this bit, a human school!”

Twilight was surrounded by running, screaming children as they made their way to their classes or spoke with friends. The madness of the flurry of activity was overwhelming. During her years in the School for Gifted Unicorns, there had never been this many students in her school, or any school she knew about or had the honor of visiting herself. “This is a large number of students…” She casually remarked as they followed past-Jeff into a classroom.

“Not really. If you don’t mind, what is the world population of ponies in general?” Asked Jeff.

“Umm…” Twilight pondered, “We as a species are almost to the billion mark, I think we’re at about nine hundred million and some, why do you ask?”

“Human population is at six billion seven hundred million and growing by about a thousand each day, possibly more.” Twilight’s jaw hit the ground. “In reality, this is one of the smaller schools with only a thousand or so students. Some of the bigger ones have almost ten thousand students a day. Our population has outgrown our food supply, forcing us to engineer food that grows much faster and produces more in quantity than was originally produced, just to feed the growing world. Our cities, instead of growing and expanding outward, we began to grow into the sky.”

“That’s terrible.” Twilight said. They stood there in silence, observing the English class. Twilight was making mental notes about what she was hearing.

After some time, Jeff interrupted her thoughts, “Now, you are about to witness the dark side of humanity. Are you ready?”

“I stood up to a tyrant attempting to make eternal night and the god of chaos, I think I can handle anything at this point.” Twilight said confidently.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The entire building shook as a massive shockwave struck the school, past Jeff fell from his desk, appearing to writhe in pain.

“Wha-What’s going on?!” Twilight yelled in panic, Jeff grabbed her to prevent her from running off in fright.

“Calm down, nothing can hurt you here, this is just a memory. Just calm down and watch the events unfold.” Past-Jeff had recovered and ran out of the class room after his peers, Jeff and Twilight following closely behind. Once Twilight was out in the open air once more she was able to calm down a bit. All around her she saw the humans crying and running in a panic, some pointing to a place just above her head. She turned and looked to see for herself, the upper part of a building was billowing turrets of thick, black smoke; much like the dragon near Ponyville did while he was sleeping.

“What happened? Is there a fire?” Asked Twilight as she watched various emergency response vehicles fly past.

“Just… Just watch.” Twilight looked up to see Jeff’s face, red with anger as burning tears ran down his face as he watched the fire. Without another word, Twilight sat on her haunches and watched the burning building as well.

Her ears perked at the arrival of a new sound, like a distant screaming. She scanned the skies just in time to see a large metal bird, an exact form of what a plane was from Jeff’s description. It must be here to help. She thought, but her eyes widened in horror as she watched it crash into the adjacent building, creating another large billow of black smoke. “Wh-what happened? Did it not see the other building? How could it not see what was hap-”

“Shh!” Jeff cut her off. Twilight bit her lip and returned to watching a true disaster unfold before her eyes. Even Discord never physically harmed anypony, is this the true darkness of mankind? An actual war, the murder of thousands of innocent lives? Her questions remained unanswered as the towers collapsed into a cloud of dust, innocents fleeing in terror were consumed by the cloud, most not returning.

“We blamed something called terrorism.” Twilight looked back to Jeff. “This was labeled as an act of war, and so we sent our armies in retaliation.” The world faded to white again. The light dimmed as Twilight found herself in the middle of a downpour, the water seeming to pass through her body. “This is about five years later, I was seventeen. This is the marine boot camp I mentioned the other day, that’s me getting yelled at for not crawling correctly. Apparently my butt was too high in the air and was touching the wires.” The world faded again, when it came back they were in a vast desert, riding in a metal carriage. “This is a very important part of my life. I am this one,” Jeff pointed to one of the humans. “Don’t lose sight of the past me, no matter what you see, okay?”

“Um, okay.” Twilight had no idea what was about to happen next. We’re in the middle of nowhere, what happens that is so important? Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted once again as a massive explosion assaulted her ears. The carriage stopped suddenly, her momentum throwing her forward as the marines quickly got to their feet and jumped over the side. She looked around hurriedly and saw past Jeff just as he leapt over the side. Twilight quickly followed after him, another human was running alongside him. Twilight heard a soft clicking sound, past-Jeff and the other human stopped dead. Twilight dug her hooves into the sand and stopped just on the other side of past-Jeff, present-Jeff was nowhere to be seen.

“I think it’s you!” She heard the gruff voice of the other human shout as he turned to flee. As he did so, another explosion ripped apart the ground, Twilight saw the human get torn to ribbons in the blink of an eye. Past Jeff was sent flying over her head, then slammed into a boulder before landing in a heap in the sand. She watched as the sand turned red with his blood, drinking it in like a thirsty beast.

The desert faded to black. “This is where my life ended, you cannot see anything because I do not remember the events going on when I was dead, and what I do remember is not meant for mortal eyes.” Jeff said, once more standing beside her.

“Is this the darkness of mankind?” Twilight asked.

“This is only scratching the surface.” Jeff replied. The darkness faded away, revealing the desert once again. Past-Jeff’s body was enveloped in darkness for a brief moment. Once the darkness lifted, past-Jeff was glowing with a bright white aura. The aura split off and fused into the boulder his body had hit. Using his finger, he traced out an image of a wolf, the stone falling away as he did so. Twilight watched in fascination as Fang was born from stone.

“Let’s fast forward a bit.” Jeff said. Suddenly Twilight was standing in front of a shed. “This is the very shed that innocent people were taking shelter inside of.” Twilight cringed from the explosions emitted by the metal sticks the humans were pointing at the shed. A large number of holes and screams erupted from the slaughter. “This was the beginning of my journey, to root out the corruption of the world. My wish, Twilight Sparkle, was for world peace. I sought out to make it so.”

The world faded into another room, the walls covered in monitors as humans were working at various terminals. “This is where I found out the truth. I used my powers to possess a high ranked employee to look through the archives. Here I found out that America was responsible for the attacks in New York, and that they used that as a reason to go to war over the dwindling resource, oil.”

“And that was when you decided to…” Twilight trailed off. Instead of responding, Jeff changed the illusion. They were back in the desert; all around them raged massive walls of fire and smoke blocked out the sun. “Then it was…” They were standing in another city, different from the first one. Toward the horizon, long white lines filled the sky. Some split off, but one seemed to turn toward the city. There was a bright flash, then a deafening roar. Once the noise died down, Twilight found herself standing in the middle of a crater. To her left was past-Jeff and Fang, holding each other tightly under a green shield. “What was that?”

“A nuclear weapon.” Responded present-Jeff. “All over the planet, they destroyed every major city. I was faced with a decision, stop as many missiles as I could, saving the lives I could save, or let them fall, using my power to protect the planet. At first I tried to save their lives, but the radiation would kill them anyway. So in the end, I kept the planet from being destroyed while the civilizations burned. I finally got my wish. World peace was achieved through the lives of over seven billion people, innocent and guilty.”

“That’s… That’s terrible. Everyone died from the missiles?” Twilight sobbed, the reality finally taking effect on her emotions.

“That would have been better, but there were survivors. Not just humans, but plants and animals as well. Unfortunately, nuclear fallout had poisoned the air.” The world faded and returned, they were in a makeshift hospital ward. “The survivors,” Jeff pointed to a bed, laying on top of it was a human covered in boils, the stench of death and decay emanating from it. “All died slow, painful deaths from the radiation.” He finished solemnly.

“Now, this finishes the tour. What say we get out of here and back to your world, yeah?” Jeff said all too cheerfully.

“How can you just say that? How can you live with what happened?” Twilight almost yelled as she became more distraught. Jeff kneeled down and hugged her, letting her cry onto his shoulder.

“It’s not easy. It never is. But at the same time, the past is irreversible. I got through this by looking to the future, a future filled with a new, wonderful species that does not know the horrors of war. With that to look forward to, why would I dwell on something that cannot be changed?” The world faded out for the last time, they stayed in the comforting darkness, clinging to each other as emotions ran through them.

With a final sniff, Twilight broke the embrace. Her face and muzzle were matted with tears, “Take me home… Please.” Jeff nodded his head, his body shimmered and the illusion of flesh dispelled around the earthly body as it turned to dust. Twilight felt herself spinning and closed her eyes to fight against the sensation. When it stopped, she opened her eyes to see that she was back in her basement surrounded by her friends.

“Twilight dear, are you alright? You were sitting there crying, is everything okay?” Rarity asked. Without a word Twilight lunged at her and pulled her into a tight hug. Twilight sobbed with renewed vigor into her friend, both from the experience and the joy of being home again. Her other friends, including Trixie, soon joined in on the group hug in an attempt to comfort Twilight.

“I-I’m sorry everypony.” Twilight said after some time. “The past… it was both wonderful and terrible at the same time. I guess it was a bit much for me.”

“It’s not your fault.” Jeff said. “My past is truly terrible, and you were strong enough for me to share a bit of my own inner turmoil.”

Twilight thought for a moment, “You must have had that bottled up for a long time. Do you feel better now that you have shared your experience with someone else?”

“A bit, yeah.” Jeff said with a smile. “Are you still up for the party here in a bit?”

“Are you kidding? It’ll take more than a mere history lesson to make me miss a party.” Twilight said cheerfully, doing her best to ensure that at least her friends will have a good time tonight.

“Mind if I borrow Spike for a bit? I wanted to get a letter to the princess really quick.” Said Jeff.

“You’re not going to prank her again, are you?” Spike asked as he followed Jeff up into the main part of the library.

“No, I just need to ask her something. Let me borrow some paper and ink.” Spike retrieved the requested items in a flash. “This is to be considered top secret, so no peaking.” Spike nodded his head slowly.

For the eyes of the Reagents of both Sun and Moon only,

I, Jeff, God of the former civilizations, have taken the student of the Sun Princess, Twilight Sparkle, into an illusion of my past for learning purposes. While most of the event went without a hitch, the initial entrance of the illusion faltered due to high levels of magical interference. After a close examination of how her emotions threatened the stability of my illusion, it has become clear to me that Twilight Sparkle is no ordinary unicorn. She has a great power within her, power she is yet unaware of. Should that power awaken, she will need a guide to help her control it. Fortunately the power will remain dormant for a long while. Yet I felt another magic, I assume yours, suppressing the latent power. My only hope is that my presence here does not forcefully awaken the power, a newborn berserk god may destroy this planet.

P.S. Luna, during your time on the moon, did you ever find an alien artifact? Namely a cloth rectangle of red and white stripes?

A/N: Once again, I am terribly sorry about the delay. First it was Skyrim, then after quitting I take a spill on the ice. Typing with one hand and a few fingers takes a bit to get used to.

Edited by Bodaciousbabe22

P.S. To those who are wondering, Twilight's power level measuring machine goes up to nine thousand, implying that Jeff's power level, by being off the scale, is over nine thousand.

Chapter 6: Deceit

Jeff, Fang, Trixie, and the Elements of Harmony stood before a massive stage erected near the Everfree Forest. Towering above the ponies on the stage were large speakers and a tangled mess of wires ran from various instruments to amps and equalizers before being routed to the speaker system. The group had arrived early, just before sunset, and they stood patiently waiting as various sound technicians wired together the speakers positioned near the back of where the crowd was to gather.

Rainbow dash had taken to the skies, already bored with waiting for the party to start. Rarity and Twilight were talking to Trixie about ideas for her act as Applejack nibbled some hay while laying back, covering her face with her hat. Fluttershy was practicing her cheering, barely audible as it was while Spike stared off into space. Fang was watching Jeff wander around in a lazy circle.

"Well, I'm bored." Jeff stated as he waved his arms through the air. "Hey you there, speaker pony."

"Well, you're a strange one." He remarked, noting the strange creature speaking to him.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm Jeff by the way, this is Fang, he's tame. Well, tame enough." The technician slowly nodded his head before turning back to his task.

"I'm Spectral Frequency, what do you need?" He asked as he tweaked a few wires.

"Not much really, just wondering if you guys needed a hand, er, hoof, with anything." Jeff gestured to the setup.

"Actually we still need to do the mic test, Scratch usually does it for her usual fanfare but she wandered off to do something. Just speak into the mic on the stage and play a few notes from the instruments so we can get the configuration set up." Said Spectral as he finished wiring together the last speaker.

"So long as I get to play a little something for fun you got a deal." Jeff bargained.

"You can play?" Jeff nodded. "Well so long as you don't break anything it should be fine."

"Nice, let's go Fang." Jeff and Fang jumped onto the stage and switched on the mic. "Test, test, can you hear me out there?" A pony at the main console twisted a few knobs and motioned for Jeff to continue. "A manticore walks into a bar. Manticores do not belong in bars and it became confused by its surroundings and then ran out the door, knocking over a table."

"Ha! Wasn't expecting that." The pony at the main console said. "Thanks, we're all set up now."

"Awesome. I would like to start off the night by singing a little something that has been stuck in my head for quite a while. Unfortunately you lack the technology to play it. So instead I will provide the electric signals to the speakers." Jeff held up a hand, a blue orb of energy appeared to hover over the palm. He touched it to the microphone, and soon the sphere was absorbed into the audio system. Every speaker played a mystical note, elevating in bass and treble until it was heard reverberating off of the houses in Ponyville.

The note died off, leaving the few gathered ponies to stare in shock. Jeff ignored them as a new sound began to play though the possessed speaker system. The sound of an orchestra set the ponies at ease, classical music was always soothing. None of the ponies recognized this song, so they listened intently. The music quickly changed tempo to a more electronic beat, a few smiles were seen in the growing crowd, they paid for a rave, not a classical show. Fang walked up to a mic, adjusted it to his height with a tendril of power, and took a deep breath as he began to sing.

Steel a soul for a second chance
But you will never become a mare

My chosen torture makes me stronger
In a life that craves the hunger
A Freedom and a quest for life
Until the end the judgment night

Bless me with your gift of light
Righteous cause on judgment night
Feel the sorrow the light has swallowed
Feel the freedom like no tomorrow

Stepping forth a cure for soul's demise
Reap the tears of the victim’s cries
Yearning more to hear the suffer (of a)
Of a demon as I put it under

Killed before, a time to kill them all
Passed down the righteous law
Serve a justice that dwells in me
Lifeless corpse as far as the eye can see

The eye can see
The eye can see
The eye can see
The eye can see
The eye can see

As fang finished his verse, the entire stage darkened as a dense fog smothered the lights. Jeff's tall shadow was seen slowly walking around the back of the stage. As he approached the crowd, he raised the mic to his mouth.

Bless me with the
Leaf off of the tree
On it I see
The freedom reign

We are falling
The light is calling
Tears inside me
Calm me down

Midnight calling
Mist of resolving
Crown me, with the
Pure green leaf

Both Fang and Jeff began singing their verses at the same time, adding a new level of chaos to the overall performance.

Praise to my father Life of vengeance, a passive test
Blessed by the water Until the grave I will rest
Black night, dark sky Engage the pressure until it crumbles
The devil’s cry The existence of the lifeless black souls

Bless me with the Onward to the sacred battlefield
Leaf off of the tree Where justification and limits are revealed
On it I see Tools of steel in rage they conquer
The freedom reign Weed out the killing of victim’s stalker

We are falling The powers proven to end the madness
The light is calling Upon I take it to end the savage
Tears inside me The rays of light a truth of meaning
Calm me down To my father the blood is pleading

Midnight calling A justice rage for all to feel
Mist of resolving With innocent cries and hatred squeals
Crown me, with the The gore of evil seems to satisfy
Pure green leaf When slain an maimed and pacified

Bless me with the My chosen torture makes me stronger
Leaf off of the tree In a life that craves the hunger
On it I see A Freedom and a quest for life
The freedom reign Until the end the judgment night

Praise to my father Watch the footsteps but never follow
Blessed by the water If you want to live tomorrow
Black night, dark sky Steel a soul for a second chance
The devil’s cry But you will never become a mare

As the music faded Jeff and Fang were able to make out the sounds of panicked screaming. They both jumped off the stage and ran through the now dense crowd. Near the center purple and blue bolts of magic lightning arced high into the air. Worried, Jeff leaped into the air and floated in for a closer look. Upon his arrival he witnessed Trixie and a white unicorn with red eyes and blue mane and tail using their magic to entrap Twilight and her friends. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had their wings bound, preventing their escape through the hole at the top, while Twilight fought back as much as she could. Unfortunatly she was unable to beat the might of the two unicorns, most likely due to the restraints in place by Celestia. Her horn sputtered out and she fell, panting heavily. The entrapment formed a dome over their heads, quickly cutting off all escape routes.

"Did you get them?" Trixie asked the white unicorn. The unicorn in question held out a bag, inside Jeff could make out the top part of the tiara Twilight was wearing when they first met. Jeff had seen enough to know that there was something big going down.

"Hey! What the hell is going on here?" Jeff demanded.

"This doesn't concern the likes of you! We have the Elements, nothing can stop us now!" The white one said as darkness enveloped them. The darkness lifted them into the air and flew towards the forest, leaving a trail of evil laughter in its wake.

"Oh no you don't!" Jeff said, he hunched forward and arched his back; His shirt was ripped off as his shoulder blades grew out of his back. With a cry of pain and the sound of tearing flesh a pair of white wings drenched in blood took form. He flapped them experimentally a few times, flinging most of the blood to the grass. Fang used his power to condense the energy into a physical form of wings, saving him the pain and the horrific sight of mutilated flesh.

"Why do you always do things the hard way?" Fang asked.

"Oh shut up, it works okay?" Jeff said. He crouched down while stretching his wings upwards. The ponies still in the area were blown off of their hooves as a massive explosion shook the town. The ground was stained in rainbows, Jeff and Fang had leaped into the air at instant rainboom speeds, the rainbow trail leading up over the tops of the trees of the forest.

"Trixie! Vinyl Scratch! Why are you doing this?" Demanded Twilight. The group of ponies found themselves deep within the Everfree Forest; the lurching forms of monsters could be seen on the outer edge of the clearing they were in.

"Is it not clear? Trixie has captured you and your friends, we have the Elements of Harmony, and you can sit there and watch this world burn beneath my power!" She exclaimed, bolts of lightning blasted across the sky silhouetting her form against the woods.

"A-hem." The white pony, Vinyl Scratch, cleared her throat.

"Um, Trixie means, us." She corrected quickly.

"Anyway, we have been planning this for that last seven months. We noted all of your movements, talents, abilities, even when you went to visit the princess, we were there." Scratch filled in as she paced in front of the barrier. "Soon, our master will arrive, and we will be rewarded beyond all measure."

"Oh yea? What kind of reward, actual musical talent?" Taunted Rainbow.

"For your information, we are to be imbued with ultimate power, immortality, and first rights to all the lands." Trixie bragged.

"Power? Life? Leadership? Are you really prepared for that?" A new voice rang through the clearing. "And for what cost? Why would you need to imprison these ponies and take the elements?" Trixie and Scratch stared, mouths agape, as Jeff and Fang emerged from the bushes, the remnants of wings and flesh shrinking back into Jeff's shoulders.

"Our master will take this world for himself, and with the elements out of the way there is nothing that can stop him!" Trixie yelled triumphantly. "We will use this planet as a gate of darkness, infesting other worlds and stars alike, spreading our new empire across the stars! All shall fall before our might!"

"If you wanted fame, immortality, you could have just asked me. But no, you would rather betray your friends, your country, your planet, in order to obtain such meager wants."

Trixie and Scratch paid him and the ponies no heed, instead they began bowing low to a throne of bone seeming to grow from the ground itself, upon which sat a figure shrouded in darkness.

YoU hAVe dOnE WelL, MInioNZ

Twilight and the others covered their ears from the sounds of thousands of ponies screaming out in pain, somehow forming words as the creature spoke.

thE sISterZ wILl bE HeRe SoON

"Oh? So what's your big plan then?" Jeff said as he approached the figure. "You must be what they call master. Is all this darkness yours? How did you obtain such power?"

yOu Are BUt a PEttY gOD, nO MaTCh FOr mY powER, uSinG SUcH WEak ILluZIonZ. YoU ARe uNWorTHy oF YOur TiTLe AnD ARe oF nO UsE TO mE, bE GOne FRoM HeRE

"I'm not going anywhere until-" Jeff's world suddenly faded to black.

"...cle that he survived." Jeff heard a feminine voice.

"We will need to keep him under observation once he wakes up, nobody will be quite the same after surviving something like that." Survive? Did something happen? Jeff thought.

"Doctor, look! He's moving!" Jeff was trying to open his eyes, but something was keeping them shut.

"Sir, can you hear me? Follow the sound of my voice, come on, you can do it!"

"W...where...?" Jeff managed to mumble.

"Don't worry, you were in an accident but you're safe now." The doctor comforted.

"F...Fang...?" Jeff was confused, he shouldn't be in this state, and Fang was missing. He could no longer feel the presence of his familiar, nor any of his powers manifesting.

"I'm sorry, who was that?" Asked the doctor.

"Wolf..." Jeff felt constantly out of breath, one word was barely manageable in his condition.

"Oh, yes. I hope you don't mind but we did search your luggage for possessions while you were comatose." Luggage? Comatose? Jeff's mind was slowly registering these few words the one called doctor was saying, yet the entire picture was still beyond him. "We placed some pictures we found on your bedside table, and Fang is right here."

Jeff felt a small weight on his chest, the doctor helped him lift his arm up to the furry object. "Fang...?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, the label on the tag had Fang written on it, so we just assumed."

No, this isn't right. Jeff thought. "Whe...where am...?"

"You are in a hospital; you have been for about four months. Ever since the attack on the convoy."

Wait, what? Jeff thought, No, it can't be...

"Doctor Kocmich, here are the latest test results you requested."

That's a human name...

"Thanks, Sharon." The doctor flipped through several pages of what must have been the test results. "Well I've got great news, your eyes are healed. Let's get those bandages off then shall we?" Jeff felt a hand, most definitely a hand, begin to undo the bandages around his head. "Ok, I've shut the lights off, you will be irritated by bright lights for a few days yet, but at least you will be able to see." The doctor pressed a button on the bed, the mechanics moved the mattress into a relaxed sitting position, then the doctor offered Jeff a glass of water. Jeff drank it down in one gulp, it tasted odd, bitter. He was offered another glass which he graciously accepted, still the odd taste remained.

Jeff sat back and got a good look at the doctor, defiantly human. He looked at the thing in his arms, a medium size stuffed wolf with remarkable similarity to the Fang he knew and loved. He cleared his throat; the water seemed to wake his body up a bit more. "Doc, where am I? Really? I want the date and everything."

"Alright. It is June fifth, two thousand and seven. You are in the American military hospital in Iraq. Your convoy was ambushed and a mine blast threw you into a boulder, resulting in a number of severe injuries. You survived, but you were in a coma for several months."

"What about the nukes? The third world war, the war that killed everyone..."

"There is no war, it was all a dream."

"A dream?"

"Yes, now go and get some rest." The doctor left Jeff to his own musings.

Was it all just a dream? The isolation, the power, the ponies, it felt way too real. Jeff thought. No, it was real. I know it was. All I need is some form of proof. If this is an illusion made in order to trap me, it would have to be based off of my own memories in order for me to think it was real. Ok, think think think...

Jeff set his mind on the doctor. His name, Kocmich, I had a neighbor with that surname. Sharon was a girl I knew in school. Still not enough... Jeff looked around some more. I'm not seeing something, something in plain sight. He sat still and listened, That's it! There was no ambient sound. No cars on the streets, no noises in the hallway, no machines monitoring vitals anywhere.

One of the most effective ways to escape an illusion is death. No matter how great the illusion, it is always defeated by an absolute. The ceiling cracked, long trails of dust fell from the crevice. Not much time left, whoever is casting this knows I'm catching on.

Jeff refocused his mind, no longer at the complete mercy of the illusion, he regained much of his strength, nothing godly but average human strength should do just fine for now. He reached over the end of the bed and grabbed the clip board holding his eye test results. He took a second to examine the paperwork, as he thought he was in an illusion. He had no knowledge of eye exams, or what the tests would look like. But he knew for certain that squiggly lines across a blank piece of paper was not real in the slightest either.

He discarded the "results" then broke the board in half at an angle, making a single sharp tip on both halves. Then he snapped off the steel clip that held the paper. He walked up to the wall and sharpened the metal on the exposed brick. Exposed brick in a hospital? Really?

He opened his door to the hallway, the steel clip held between his teeth and the sharp boards in each hand. The hall was rather long, every door except for his looked like it was painted onto the wall. He looked to the left, nothing any stranger than what he had already witnessed. To his right was another story. The wallpaper was peeling before his eyes; cracks appeared in the walls and began to bleed like a wound. Without a second thought he tread down the hall to his right.

The hall ended in a short staircase, at the bottom was the doctor seemingly oblivious to the warping reality around him. Jeff snuck up from behind him, and then tapped his shoulder to get his attention. When the doctor turned around Jeff thrust one of the pieces of the clip board into his neck, severing the jugular and effectively killing him. The board broke during impact and was now useless as a weapon. Instead Jeff looted the doctor's coat, noting that the chest pocket had a fresh supply of pens.

Jeff moved forward through the pair of double doors into another empty hall. The world was much more degraded, the cracks have widened, some pouring blood, others opening to a vast, empty darkness. The lights on the ceiling flickering and sparking as the power began to fail. About half way down the hall Jeff passed a staircase, on a whim he climbed to the top. At the top he burst out through a door onto the roof of the building. Standing there waiting for him were a number of identical doctors and nurses.

"Let me pass!" Jeff demanded.

"If you want to die so badly, why don't you stab yourself?" They all said as one.

"And leave myself in a weakened state? No, if I jump the shock from the impact will break the illusion far easier. Now, let me pass." The mass of doctors and nurses surged forward. Jeff was at a distinct advantage, they charged with their arms straight out like a horde of zombies, allowing him with his longer reach to stab them in the vitals, namely their neck.

Pen in one hand and steel clip in the other, Jeff stabbed and slashed his way towards the edge. As soon as Jeff placed a foot on the edge the world fixed itself. Gone was the darkness, the blood, the copies of the doctors. When he looked down what he saw was the view from his friend’s apartment from so many years ago.

"Jeff, calm down, you're sick, we're just trying to help you." A new voice said from behind him. Jeff turned to see who it was, his father. He was drenched in his own blood, pouring out of a pen size hole in his neck.

"Wow. You would stoop so low as to try and make me think I just killed my own father? I know who killed my father, and they along with the rest of the human race, are long since dead." Without turning away, Jeff spread his arms out to his sides and let himself fall into the void.

A/N: Alright, another chapter completed! I did have a bit of trouble, the original was a tad shorter and was missing some things that took me a while to figure out, special thanks to Caloo for assisting me with a bit of pre-reading. This is not the end, expect a chapter or two more in the future whenever I can make time to write them.

The THX sound effect and the song 'Devils Never Cry' from Devil May Cry 3 are not owned by me and were inserted mainly as a shout out to a fan who wishes to remain anonymous. Also, I changed the word "man" to "mare" because, who doesn't like pony puns?

Edited by Bodaciousbabe22

Chapter 7: Transcendence

Twilight watched from within her spherical prison as Jeff was engulfed in darkness. It swirled in a vortex before dissipating into nothing, leaving behind only a dead patch of grass.

"Where is he? What did you do?!" Demanded Fang. He tried to move but his legs refused to do so.

"Fang! What's happening to you?!" Twilight yelled through the barrier.

"I cannot exist on a separate realm from Jeff," Fang's fur and tail began to grow stiff and harden. "So I am reverting to my natural state... Please be... Careful." Fang's eyes lost their light as his body hardened and turned to stone.

SuCH a pitiful CReAturE

The shrouded figure lashed out with a tendril of darkness, shattering Fang into bits of ruble, much to the horror of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

Jeff awoke with a start. His back was sore and he felt cold, something terrible either has happened or was about to happen, or both. He rolled onto his side, the stone ground he laid upon sapping the warmth from his body. He slowly managed to get to his feet, then began rubbing his arms and jogging in place in an effort to revive his body.

Once he was sufficiently warm he began to take in his surroundings. He seemed to be surrounded by stone, no, the entirety of everything he could see near and far was stone as black as onyx. A feeling of nostalgia washed over him, a feeling of such familiarity for a place so unrecognizable.

Jeff began to wander the strangely familiar place he found himself in. Wherever he was it was no illusion. He came across a deep chasm that seemed to wind its way into the distance on either side of him. Taking a closer look, the edges of the chasm were smooth as though ground by running water. Just then he heard a shuffling sound behind him. Jeff spun around to face the potential enemy.

"I see you're finally awake, good thing too." The creature said. It was tall, stood on two legs, and was wearing a torn and tattered black cloak, hiding its body and face. The creature held out a skeletal hand and beckoned Jeff to follow.

Princess Celestia was in her throne room sipping some tea with her sister during a break from the nobles when a royal messenger pegasus burst through the doors unannounced.

"Your highness!" He paused to gasp for air, "Emergency!"

"Phantom Blaze, what is the meaning of this?" Questioned Princess Celestia.

"Reporting in... Information concerning the elements!" Phantom panted. The princesses’ eyes widened as they waited impatiently for the messenger to catch his breath, he must have flown as fast as his wings could carry him all the way from Ponyville to be in such a state. "The Elements have been kidnapped and are currently being held as hostages in the Everfree Forest! Reports state that the god Jeff and his familiar followed after them but have not yet returned!"

"Thank you for your urgent delivery, now go and get some rest. Sister, let us hurry to their aide." Celestia said in a regal tone in an attempt to hide her fear and anger.

"Of course, Celly." Luna replied in a near whisper.

“Guards!” Celestia called out, a small battalion bursting into the throne room in answer to her call. “Gather the fastest flyers and have them rendezvous with myself and Luna near the entrance to the Everfree Forest. Hurry!”

“At once, your highness!” The guards saluted before running off down the hall.

Together the sisters walked out onto the balcony, and with a mighty flap of their wings they took off into the sunset, heading in the direction of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest.

THe sISteRZ aPproACH, SoOn tHIs WoRld WILl bE MinE

The shrouded figure said as it waited patiently. Trixie and Scratch sat silently, waiting for the moment they have planned for all these months. Twilight was trying every spell in her power to either overcome the shell through sheer magical power or dispel it in some way, the others helping in any way they can.

Both Rainbow and Applejack were bucking away at the barrier with all their might, Rarity was using her telekinesis to throw whatever rocks or gems she could find. Spike was burning it with his flames and Fluttershy was keeping an eye on the beasts beyond, staring them down should they venture too close.

"This is hopeless!" Rainbow yelled in frustration, panting and sweating heavily from the exertion. "Twilight, are you sure the Princess can take this guy? You saw what he did to Jeff and Fang, and they were both stronger than Celestia."

"I know, Rainbow." Twilight said. "But I'm sure the Princess has a plan, she always does."

"Um, Twi?" Applejack began, "Don't the princess’s plans usually involve us using the Elements an whut not ta beat the bad guy?"

"Like I said AJ, Once the Princess gets here she will know just what to do." Twilight reassured the group as they resumed their continuing assault on the barrier.

Jeff followed the robed figure for some time, the landscape barely changing no matter how far they traveled. They passed mountains, rock formations, statues of various heroes and villains of old, all worn and weathered beyond anything recognizable. After what felt like hours the duo came across what appeared to be a small camp.

A row boat served as a makeshift shelter, propped upside-down over a few tattered sheets of linen. The cloaked figure gestured for Jeff to sit, and then the figure itself sat opposite him. Between the two of them a small fire of green flames burst to life.

"Now, do you mind telling me who you are and where I am?" Jeff inquired.

"Do you truly not remember this place? Granted, much has changed during the recent years, but have you really forgotten me? The one who ferries the souls of the damned?" The cloaked skeleton asked as he gestured to the small boat behind him.

"Wait, you're the ferry man! Kharon, if I recall. Then that makes this place the Underworld. That prick, to send me to the underworld and trap me in an illusion…” Jeff trailed off as his mind began to overflow with vengeful images. After a moment he shook his head to clear his mind. “So, what happened here? Where are the lakes of flame? What happened to the River of Styx? What happened to all the souls and monsters? Where is Hades? He would never allow this to happen!" Kharon waited patiently for Jeff to ask his questions. Once Jeff quieted down, Kharon explained the situation.

"It began about two thousand years ago. Since the extinction of the human race, the busiest day of my unlife I'll have you know, we have expanded to include all souls of sentient life which included the apes and the ponies once they came to be. One day, I go to collect a soul only to find the soul had gone missing. Of course, questions were asked and things looked into, but we never found the cause for it.

“Over the next thousand years, more and more souls had vanished before I was able to collect them. Eventually it led up to the point where even souls deemed for not only the underworld, but for the realm of Mt. Olympus as well, were all being taken by an unknown third party. After seven hundred years of no new souls, the realms had weakened severely.

“During that time of weakness we were invaded by a single figure shrouded in darkness. It began to absorb the souls residing in the realms. Both Hades and Zeus amassed large armies to fight against its power. Fat lot of good that did, wound up feeding the damn thing every soul on a silver platter. Once it finished with the armies it went after the gods. Hades was the first to fall, his power added to that of the figure of darkness. After that all the other gods of the realms fell before it's dark power. I survived by hiding in the place between the realms, as the ferry man only I know how to safely navigate it." Kharon finished, gazing deeply into the green flames.

“How could this have happened? Surly a being of pure darkness was no match for the gods of light." Jeff said.

"As you know there are exceptions to everything, you being one of such exceptions. Its darkness is all consuming like that of a black hole, not even the powers of light can affect, nor escape it." Said Kharon, now poking at the fire with a stray stick.

"And that's where I come in." Jeff said as he sat back.

"Yes and no. On an even field you would no doubt be more resistant to the darkness, possibly immune even. Unfortunately it is no longer your world; it now belongs to the pony princesses. Without an actual realm you hold no real power to completely undo the creature after you defeat it. It will hide and begin again." Kharon tossed the stick into the fire, sending sparks of fel-flame into the air.

"I see. Then I would have to use the power of the Elements to finish it off." Jeff pondered, stroking his chin in thought.

"That might work, but we must hurry. If the creature obtains the power of the princesses then nothing would be able to stop it." Kharon focused his gaze upon Jeff.

"Alright, how do I get out of here if the river is dry?" Jeff motioned toward the bottomless chasm.

"I have power enough to take you to the Gates of Tartarus, but to actually enter the realm of the living is beyond my power." Kharon said while slowly shaking his head.

"I can take care of that." Jeff said, standing and dusting himself off.

"Then let us be off." Kharon said, also getting to his feet. He made several gestures as they were shrouded in green fel-flames, disappearing as the flames died away.

Celestia and Luna flew low and fast, grazing the tree tops as they frantically searched for Twilight and her friends. They met the dispatched guards on the edge of the Everfree and debriefed them on the situation before quickly beginning the frantic search. They needed to find the elements quickly, there was no time to slow down and wait for the rest of the guard.

"Luna, keep an eye out for anything peculiar!" Celestia yelled across the distance to her sister.

"Oh really? I thought we were out for a nice evening flight!" Luna yelled back sarcastically. "I don't see anything strange or unusual, but the forest is interfering with my senses, we could be right on top of them for all I know!"

They returned to their searching, every now and then they would dive down into one of the many clearings, often finding nothing, sometimes finding a few ruins or wildlife. They had nearly finished scanning the forest in its entirety when they spotted another clearing in the distance much larger than the ones they had investigated. With a nod to each other they both decided to investigate the last remaining clearing together.

When they drew near they were buffeted by enormously powerful winds of darkness. Caught off guard the sisters were sent crashing to the forest floor.

"Luna! Luna are you alright?!" Celestia called out to her sister from her position in the mud. She was covered head to hoof in mud, twigs, leaves and dead blades of grass, hardly befitting of royalty.

"I'm up here, sister." Celestia looked above herself and saw Luna stuck in a tree, not the branches but the trunk itself. Luna's horn was buried up to the base of her skull as she frantically tried to pull herself out of the trunk without hurting herself.

"Hold still, I'll get you out." Celestia charged her horn as Luna stopped moving, her one eye facing Celestia focused on her sister. Celestia released the magic onto the tree, dissolving it into nothing. Without a tree to be stuck in Luna was free at last. She fluttered down and stood next to her sister.

"Thanks Tia." Luna said as she warmly nuzzled her sister.

"You’re welcome, now we must hurry to the clearing if we wish to save the Elements and my student. The guards won’t be able to make it past this wind, it will keep them at bay, we will need to be extra careful." Celestia said as she broke the embrace.

The sisters turned back to the clearing and took a step forward. Another gust of wind billowed and pulled at their manes and tails. Another step and the winds doubled in power, attempting to hold them at bay. The wind, no matter how furious, was no match for the sisters as they trudged closer and closer to the clearing.

With a final step through a thistle bush, the princesses emerged into the clearing where the Elements were held captive. Twilight and her friends were to their left encased in some type of shield spell and directly in front of them sat a figure shrouded in darkness. The dark entity stood from its throne and slowly stalked toward the princesses.

We aRe So gLAd yOU cOuLD mAkE iT

"In the name of Equestria I demand to know who you are and what you’re planning!" Celestia yelled to the beast.

OH liTtlE CELEsTia, hAVe YOu fORGotTen mE aLReaDy?

"What? No... It can't be...Azule!" Celestia whispered as she slowly backed away.

oH IT cAN Be, aNd iT Is, My dAUghTer. IT tOOk oVEr TWo thOUSaNd yEArs oV feEDInG on tHe SOulZ Of THe weAK, BUt i Am NOw sTRonGer tHAn eVEr BefORe

The sisters’ shadows cast by the moon pulled themselves up from the ground and grabbed them, holding them in place. Celestia and Luna quickly shot off several spells at once, trapping Trixie and Scratch while shattering the dome over Twilight and the others.

"Run Twilight! Take your friends and don't look back!" Celestia called out to her student, hoping to at least get her to safety if all else fails.

"I can't leave you princess! I won't!" Twilight yelled as she took an aggressive stance against the beast.

"Twilight, you can't beat Azule, even with the elements! Go and find Jeff and Fang, quickly! We will need their help!" Celestia begged her student.

"But princess, they were killed!" Twilight yelled back over the quickly forming wind, fighting back tears as she tried to help her mentor in any way she could.

"Death won't be enough to stop him if I gaged his strength correctly; Luna and I will hold him off while you get to safety!” Celestia let off a burst of light, shattering their bonds of darkness.

“Twilight! Let’s go! We need to get out of here!” Rainbow Dash yelled into Twilight’s ear as the others fled into the forest. Trixie and Scratch struggled against their binds, but were unable to move and their magic had been sealed.

She didn’t hear her, Twilight was too focused on the fight to pay attention to anything else. Princess Celestia’s appearance had changed; she was pure white with angry orange flames for her mane, tail, and wings. She stood firm, Azule’s attacks of darkness were being deflected while the princess shot powerful blasts of light burning like the heart of the sun towards her father.

Princess Luna looked like darkness itself, she teleported around attacks and counter attacked with such speed and agility that Twilight could barely follow her movements as she seemed like nothing but a cloud of smoke.

No matter how many attacks hit their target, Azule was unfazed, bored even, as he patiently watched his daughters quickly tire themselves out from their relentless onslaught.

“Twilight we need to get out of here NOW!” Rainbow Dash yelled while trying to shove the unicorn away from the battle.

I gROw tIRed Of THis, I wiLL tAKe bACk wHAt IZ RIgHTfuLly mINe

Twilight watched in horror as a tendril of darkness blasted up from beneath where Princess Luna stood while she tried to catch her breath. In an instant Luna teleported away just before it could catch her, instead it shot towards Celestia in an attempt to catch her from behind. Without thinking Twilight teleported herself to her mentor, using her magic to blast Celestia out of the way. Twilight took a moment to relish the fact that she had just saved the princess, a moment she never had.

Twilight’s chest felt tight and cold as she saw Celestia get caught by a second tendril of darkness. But what scared Twilight the most was the look of horror on Celestia’s face as she stared at her. She slowly followed the tendril from the princess, it seemed to arc over her head but it wasn’t coming from the other side of her. The color drained from Twilight’s face as she looked beneath herself. The tendril had come from the ground where Celestia was standing, much like it did for Luna, except when Twilight saved the princess, it was her standing there instead. The tendril had pierced through her entire body without her even feeling it.

Twilight turned to look at her friends, the look of horror on each of their faces as they struggled to fight back their tears. She saw their mouths moving and forming words, but they failed to reach her ears. Twilight wanted to reassure them that this was her choice and to save themselves, but instead of words, thick globs of blood and torn flesh burst from her mouth, eliciting screams of pain and misery from her friends.

The tendril dissipated, with nothing to hold them inside, Twilight’s entrails and organs splashed onto the ground beneath her. She stood shakily for a moment, blood streaming out of the gaping wound and dying the ground a deep crimson. The last thing Twilight saw was her friends rushing to her, rushing far too slowly. Twilight’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, she was dead before she hit the ground.

Luna saw Twilight fall, dead, in the puddle of her own blood as though it was in slow motion. The embodiment of the Element of Magic was dead. Her sister, Celestia, has been absorbed into Azule. As a final resort, Luna reached out with the last of her strength and wrapped her magic around her friends, the traitors, and Twilight’s cooling form. In a flash of light she teleported herself and the remaining elements to safety, an underground tunnel deep within the ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The silent halls were instantly filled with a chorus of wailing voices grieving for their friend.

Luna stood watching as Twilight’s friends held each other as Rainbow and Applejack positioned Twilight’s body to look as though she was merely sleeping. After everything that Twilight had gone through in her last few moments of life, she still managed to look peaceful. Luna looked away, no longer able to watch the ponies grieve for the loss of their best friend, her expression cold and emotionless.

“Princess Luna,” Fluttershy spoke up, her friends quieted down in order to hear the pegasus, “What happens now? What will happen to the rest of the world?”

Luna took a deep breath and held it for a moment before sighing in defeat. The truth, no matter how terrible, needed to be told. “He has captured my sister and no doubt has taken her power for his own. Equestria should remain safe from his influence for now, he cannot force his rule upon the land so long as I remain alive. All we can do now is wait for Jeff’s return, he has enough power to possibly weaken Azule, allowing me to deliver the final blow. Without someone of this world to kill Azule, the souls will be forever trapped as a source for his power.”

“What about Twilight’s soul? Was it taken by Azule too?” Pinkie Pie asked, her hair had been deflated since the death of her friend, tears constantly streaming from her eyes.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry but there is no way to tell.” Luna said sadly, pulling all the little ponies into a tight hug.

Twilight felt herself spinning incredibly fast, yet she was still. The world was upside down and upside right at the same time. Looking to her left she was also looking to her right, nothing was making sense. She had no idea who or what she was, she seemed to be everything and nothing at the same time. All she really knew was that she stood in a place of white, mists of clouds were slowly floating all around her. With the sudden sound like a gong a giant gate appeared in front of her, seemingly out of thin air. She cautiously took a step forward and reached out with a hoof when a burst of vibrant green flames erupted in front of her.

She quickly backed away in a panic as a pair of tall figures emerged from the flames, one was cloaked in battered robes and the other was incredibly familiar. Twilight stared at them quizzically as the figures looked around. One of them jumped in surprise at the sight of her.

“Twilight!” Jeff called out to her. “What are you doing here?”

Twilight? Why is that name familiar? Suddenly images of her entire life flooded through her mind. She saw her parents watching her nervously as she tried to make Spike’s egg hatch, her studies of magic under the tutelage of the princess, meeting her friends for the first time when they fought against Nightmare Moon, and all their adventures together. Then she remembered her last moments of life, how she almost saved the princess but was instead caught in the middle of the battle. In a sudden panic Twilight reared back to get a better look at her stomach. In its place, however, was a hole that let her see right through to the other side of her body.

Twilight broke down crying, she curled up as the pain and grief she caused her friends caught up to her mind. She was able to remember every horrible detail, the looks on their faces, the torrents of blood splashing to the ground from her body, everything broke her heart. In between sobs she felt she wasn’t alone, Jeff was with her, softly patting her head trying to comfort her. Twilight looked up at him, tears streaming from her eyes.

“Why so sad, Twilight Sparkle?” Jeff said, as though nothing was wrong.

“How can you just say that? I’m dead! I left my friends to fend for themselves and I might never see them again!” She wailed miserably.

“Celestia never got the chance to tell you, did she?” Jeff said evenly as he scratched behind her ears in an effort to calm her.

“Tell me what?” She asked, Jeff’s technique working wonders to calm her nerves.

“Okay, when the princess took you as her personal student, did it not seem odd she chose you as a personal student over every other unicorn?” Jeff asked. Twilight looked up at him quizzically.

“Well, it’s obvious. I had the most magical potential of all the students.” She said as though Jeff was incredibly oblivious.

“Think about it Twilight, there were a lot of unicorns throughout the reign of the Princess, yet of all of them you were her only student. She watched over you almost maternally as your powers grew.” Jeff said as Twilight stood, slowly backing away. “Twilight, you needed to be observed during your life in case you began exhibiting certain traits.”

“What are you talking about? I’m…I’m nothing special! I’m just me!” Twilight half yelled, panic in her voice.

“That’s the thing Twilight. You are you. And just what are you? You are the first ever natural born alicorn on this planet, a goddess just like the princess.” Jeff said, standing to face her with a look of determination. “Celestia has placed a powerful seal on your magic, limiting what you can do to that of a normal, if yet powerful, unicorn.”

“How can you say that about me?! What proof do you have?!” Twilight was almost hysterical, the recent shocks on top of her life possibly being a lie almost too much for her to handle.

“If you are looking for proof, look no further. You stand before the Gates of Tartarus, normal souls need to be ferried here first by Kharon, yet here you stand, on actual legs for that matter. You are, right now, simultaneously alive and dead. As for proof of Celestia’s seal, when Trixie was creating the prison around you and your friends your magic died off, but you could feel more deep down, did you not?”

“Th-that was beca-” Twilight stuttered.

“Did you not?!” Jeff interrupted harshly.

“Yes I did okay?!” Twilight screamed back hastily. She suddenly gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof as Jeff sat back down and smiled. “By Celestia, it is true…”

“Yes, now we have things to discuss. Come, join me and Kharon.” Kharon sat next to Jeff while Twilight sat facing both of them. “Now, Celestia is a kind goddess, and no doubt locked your powers away until you died a natural death at a ripe old age. The transition to godhood is easier once you have already lived a fulfilling life, for obvious reasons. Celestia no doubt wanted to be the one to help you transcend death, but unfortunately she is either preoccupied or taken by the figure of absolute darkness.”

“She was taken…” Twilight said sadly.

“Well in that case we must hurry.” Jeff leaned forward, “The spell was undone the moment you died and found yourself here. You now have access to all of your goddess power, yet without the proper training, once you return to the realm of the living you will be unable to control any of it. I’m talking about lifting a cup but accidently hurling the planet into the sun. So since we are short on time, I will lend you the collected knowledge of the powers of a god from myself, just as my guardian did to me long ago. It will feel like your head will explode, but trust me, it will be okay.”

Twilight nodded, “Okay…”

“Are you ready?” Twilight nodded again. “Close your eyes and point your horn toward me.” Twilight did as she was told as Jeff rubbed his palms together, static energy sparked off in every direction. He quickly reached out and grabbed Twilight’s horn.

Twilight’s eyes shot open as millennia after millennia of knowledge flooded her mind. Her eyes became half lidded and began to glow with the fury of a thousand suns as she accepted the knowledge. After a few seconds that seemed as long as the universe was old, the process was complete. Jeff broke the connection and sat back down, none the worse for the wear. Twilight on the other hoof, collapsed in a heap as she wrapped her mind around everything that was just crammed into her skull.

“I just gave you the basics, a vague history of the universe and the knowledge on how to properly exert your powers and how to limit them. Ironically, you can actually thank the being of darkness for sending me here. Since Fang no longer exists in a physical form he just rejoined me, returning me to full power.” Jeff said cheerfully as Twilight moaned on the ground. “Oh don’t be like that, you should be happy, you get to see your friends again!”

“Friends…?” Twilight muttered from her position on the ground.

“Yeah, your friends, Applewhiskey, Pinkie Cake, Double Rainbow, Commoner Belle, and Flutter-rage.” Jeff tested.

“W-what?” Twilight stood up to face him, “That is not their names, my friends are Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy!”

“Ah good you’re back.” Jeff said, patting her on her head.

“What?” Twilight was confused by his strange tactics.

“Needed to make sure you didn’t lose who you were amidst the universe of knowledge in your skull. Now, are you ready to come back to life?” Jeff asked encouragingly.

“No doubt about it!” Twilight said with absolute confidence.

“It will be dangerous.” Jeff cautioned.

“Bring it on! I need to do this, for me, for my friends, for Equestria and the princesses!” Twilight declared.

“And what about you Kharon? Will you join us in battle?” Jeff asked as he stood by Twilight’s side.

Kharon stood quickly, “I have hid myself for far too long,” he held out a boney hand, a massive scythe appeared in a burst of green flame. “I will join you for the glory of all the realms!”

Jeff placed a hand on Twilight’s head and the other on Kharon’s shoulder. “Let’s go say hello!” Jeff cheered as they each glowed a bright blue then winked out into nothing.

A/N: A manly tear was shed in the making of this chapter.

Edited by Bodaciousbabe22

Chapter 8: Mixed Reality

A/N: I realize that it has been a (very) long time for this chapter to come out. I tend to only write when I get into the zone to do so, so I apologize to those of you irritated with me. Regardless I feel this chapter went really well and I hope you all enjoy!

For what is it to truly want of a better world? Is it to have a better environment? A better society? Or is it simply to long for a close group of good friends, friends to share in your hardship, your pain, not only that but the feeling of being a part of something better? What does it take to truly create this better world, a single voice, a group of friends, or acts of a god? Is it much simpler, a simple act of courage in the face of oppression?

These thoughts and more flashed through Jeff’s mind as he hurtled through the space between the dimensions. The sensation was something he never really got used to, the feeling of being pulled and pushed in all directions at once in a place with no such thing as directions, up or down, of moving fast while not moving at all. The time of the jump was always distorted, seeming to last beyond eternity yet instantaneous. He knew, even though he could not feel or see, that both Twilight and Kharon were nearby, experiencing the same sensations.

The next moment, or eternity later, one never truly knows, they felt the tug of their destination, the land of the living. Their conscious minds seemed to fade to black, like one would close or shield their eyes in the face of a bright light in the darkness. With a final snap that was felt more than heard, they found themselves in a rather precarious situation. Jeff’s accuracy was slightly off, Twilight needed her body to truly return so he had aimed for his last location. Unfortunately they materialized beneath the ground, without physical bodies.

“I expected the land of the living to be more… open. Less constricting.” Kharon said, his ethereal voice emanating from someplace to Jeff’s perceived left. To his right he felt the presence of Twilight.

Odd, He thought, she should have materialized near her body, even if we did wind up underground. He mentally shrugged and worked on creating a new body from the surrounding dirt and rock. I’m becoming more like Fang, He thought randomly as he crafted a bony skeleton of his body. The stones and dirt melded and changed density and elongated into the various parts and pieces that made up the human skeleton. Able to move again, he reached up with a bony claw and began raking his way to the surface. Luckily he was only a few feet under, making the process a rather quick event.

His skeletal hand broke through the surface, followed quickly by his arm and skull. His body was easily something from a horror story, the black, empty sockets were illuminated by a fierce red glow. The skeleton pulled itself free of the earth, the ever present grin of its teeth was the only emotion it was able to convey. It made a series of circular motions with its bony hands then placed them on the ground to its left. The soil immediately began to fluctuate and condense as another form took shape. Soon enough a second skeleton joined the first, however, the glowing red in the eye sockets was absent. Instead a thick cloud of black death flowed down the figure, condensing and overlapping itself as it built a long, billowy cloak from the ground up to and covering the skull.

Jeff, the red eyed skeleton, nodded as Kharon’s form was completed. Jeff opened his mouth to speak but only managed a few creaks as the joints in his jaw rubbed together. Instead he pointed to his eyes, then the forest around them. Kharon nodded, understanding the order to keep a lookout.

Kneeling down, Jeff began extracting Twilight from the soil. She was very limited in motion and nearly invisible and pale. Twilight, can you hear me? Jeff projected his thoughts into Twilight’s astral form. She responded by slowly turning her head toward him, her pupils dilated and unseeing. Your body isn’t here, is there a place where the others may have fled to safety?

Twilight ever so slightly nodded, then turned to look past Jeff’s right shoulder. Jeff looked as well and cast his mind toward the direction. Through his mind’s eye he found the location of the old castle. It was vastly overgrown and most of the structure has suffered significant damage from age and exposure to the elements, leaving a corroded graveyard of what was once a truly spectacular castle. With a quick thought Jeff agreed that was a good place to hide, no doubt someplace in one of the tunnels that haven’t collapsed yet.

Jeff tied an astral tether to Twilights floating form, allowing him to pull her along as he began walking. He stopped suddenly as he remembered something, something so important that to forget it was suicide. He quickly looked around, but the bastard that put him in this situation was mysteriously gone. He looked to Kharon and gestured wildly towards the now empty throne and equally empty field, devoid of everything but a still drying pool of blood.

Kharon pondered for a moment, “Perhaps the beast went hunting for the other sister?” Jeff snapped his fingers in excitement at the deduction, in more ways than one. After picking up the other half of his middle finger, Jeff and Kharon quickly ran in the direction of the ancient castle, Twilight pulled along through the air behind them.

Luna was holding the Elements closely in a tight, supporting hug as they grieved the loss of their friend. How did it come to this? She thought, desperately trying to comprehend the situation and the cause of the events that lead to this point. Father had always been cruel, did that cruelty follow him to the afterlife? Did that somehow make him stronger? Or was it something else… Her inner monologue trailed off as a new thought occurred to her, What did these two have to do with him? She gritted her teeth in rage as she glared death to the two ponies trapped by her spell, Vinyl Scratch and Trixie.

Luna released her grip on the group of remaining friends and stomped up to the prisoners, and in a very loud, regal voice she said, “Explain. Everything. Now.”

Trixie gave an audible ‘Harrumph’ and turned her head away. “Trixie need not explain the great plan to the likes of you. You are nothing but-” Trixie’s self-important speech was cut short as she and Vinyl screamed out in pain. Luna jumped back in shock from the sudden outburst, but quickly regained herself. She rushed forward and used her magic to scan their bodies for the cause of the problem. Her eyes widened in horror as she discovered Azule’s magic forcefully tearing apart their bodies as some sort of connection was severed.

It’s not their fault! Luna thought frantically as she cast a series of multiple spells to help stop the pain and remove Azule’s influence from their bodies. He was controlling them all along, using their hatred as a way to gain control, just like… me… Luna finished her spells and the screams died away as the two unicorns fell to the ground, unconscious, small trails of blood oozed from their eyes and ears.

“Princess?” Luna turned to face Applejack, shock plainly on her face as well as the others. “Whut in tarnation wus that all about?” They cast fearful glances at the unconscious ponies behind Luna.

“It looks like Azule had them under some kind of spell, but more like a possession.” Luna received nothing but confused stares, so she was forced to elaborate. “A spell would cause a pony to behave differently, usually to accomplish a pre-determined task. Like Twilight’s-” The ponies before her suddenly broke eye contact and looked to the ground, but the princess pressed on. “Twilight’s ‘Want it, Need it’ spell affected the minds of those that saw the doll to suddenly want nothing but the doll. Where in this case, Azule completely took them over in both mind and body, turning them into completely different ponies, much like… myself.” This got the ponies’ attention again, understanding the situation as they only could.

“Their strong reaction just now was Azule cutting off his control of them. It was meant to kill them but I managed to save them. Unfortunately he no doubt knows where we are because of it, meaning we have very little time before he finds and kills us all, then moves on to the rest of Equestria and the world.” Luna continued, looking into the eyes of each pony. “We must hold him off until help arrives. I know Jeff is dead, but if my sister was right he should be coming back soon.”

“But, without Twilight we can’t use the Elements, how can we hope to stop him, let alone slow him down?” Rarity asked. The others nodded in agreement, the situation was indeed dire.

“We must simply do our best.” Luna replied. The group of ponies and the princess left Twilight’s body as well as the unconscious forms of Trixie and Scratch in the care of Fluttershy as they ran back to the entrance of the tunnel to make preparations for anything Azule could throw at them.

Azule let out a call of maniacal laughter towards the cloudy sky as he severed his control over the two ponies that were foolish enough to wander near his territory so long ago. He had no use for those that have outlived their usefulness and so decided to end their lives. In doing so, he discovered their location, the last useful thing they would achieve before their demise. He felt himself leave the pair of unicorns, but he also felt the magic of his youngest daughter, Luna, spare their lives. This was no matter; he knew where she was and was fully intent on finishing what he started.

He disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flew in a high arc over the trees, landing in the long forgotten cemetery of the ancient castle. He laughed once more, the sky growing darker as he summoned massive amounts of black magic. The magic seeped into the ground as Azule muttered softly in a long dead language lost to time itself. Soon the very ground surged upward as he completed the spell, a black mist swam from his body and seeped into the graves.

Soon the quiet night was filled with the bloodcurdling cries of the long forgotten. Their dried husks dug themselves up from beneath their earthy tomb. Few had their entire bodies intact, while most were missing limbs or horns, some even had only had their torso. Soon an entire army of undead stood waiting for their master’s orders. Azule stomped a hoof and pointed toward the ancient castle.

GO! FLUusH thEM Out! CruSh ThEM BenEItH yoUR EArthY HOoveS!

He commanded, his army spun around to the best of their individual ability, and descended onto the castle at a slow march.

Applejack was finishing setting up the last trap with a bit of her trusty rope when she heard them. The low moans and the sound of shuffling hooves announced the arrival of the undead army. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the mutilated, decayed, and dried out husks of what were once proud pones of great importance that were buried near the castle slowly make their way toward her position.

AJ tried to run and warn the others, but she was frozen with terror as the few in front of the hoard stopped to look at her, pondering whatever it is a zombie pony might ponder before letting out a shrill, rabid shriek and bolting forward at near impossible speeds. The shock of their speed snapped AJ out of her immobility as the instinct to run away and pure adrenaline flooded her body.

She risked looking back as she heard the sound of collapsing stone. The zombies had triggered one of her traps and collapsed a section of the roof on top of themselves, and blocked the way for the remaining undead, forcing them to find an alternate route. AJ turned back in time to vault over another trap, then headed into a nearby tunnel. About halfway down she activated a pressure switch on the wall, causing a section to slide into the floor, revealing a hidden room.

“Bad news y’all,” Applejack panted as the group of ponies fell silent. “We got ourselves a hoard of zombie ponies headed this way, my traps will slow em down but unless we think of somethen we’ll be overrun.” AJ spat out, much to the horror of her friends and the princess.

“So what? That’s no big deal, zombies are slow and clumsy and we can easily out run them, right?” Rainbow paused in her rant as AJ’s face fell.

“Not these ones darlin’, they walk around pretty slow but when they saw me they ran really, really fast, I was lucky enough to have a trap and a head start.” Rainbow was shocked into silence, the Daring Doo series had not prepared her for fast zombies.

“To think he would stoop that low, using the dead as his own puppets… he has no right to toy with my ponies’ remains!” Luna was furious. Azule has stepped over the line, and she was going to give him the what for if it was the last thing she did. “How dare he, turning once great warriors into his personal playthings, and toying with their long dead remains…” Luna was about to leave the hiding spot when something in the room struck her as odd. She quickly counted their numbers in her head, there were the elements, both alive and dead, which made six, the two unconscious unicorns for eight and herself made nine, but why was it she counted eleven just now?

Luna spun and blasted the two tall figures in the back of the room, one letting out a cry of pain and the other sounding agitated, in a familiar voice. “Hey! I’m still growing that, take it easy!” Luna lit up her horn and cast the light on the bi-pedal figures, one shrouded in a cloak, the other was a skeleton with bits of flesh and muscle still forming over the bones. The fleshy skeleton bent down and picked up his severed arm and stuck it to the end of the stump where it was supposed to go.

“Sorry, I’m still pulling myself together after a small mishap.” The fleshy skeleton said evenly as he cast his glowing eyes about the room, the silence was pressing in from all around. “That was a joke, you were supposed to laugh.” Silence once again. “The hell's wrong with you all? You’re acting like someone died in front of you and you’re seeing a ghost of them!” This was met with a dead faint from Rarity, and Fluttershy began to tear up at the harsh words as the others stood stock still.

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m not a sensitive person and in hindsight that was rather awful, being that you don’t recognize who I am. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Jeff the Human god, I believe we’ve met before, yes?” the gathered ponies slowly nodded. “And this,” He gestured towards the other figure, “is Kharon, the entity from the land of the dead that ferries souls into the afterlife. And this,” he moved aside for them to see the ghostly form of Twilight, “is Twilight Sparkle’s soul.” With a gentle push, Twilight floated to the other side of the room and was absorbed into her ridged and still cooling body.

The ponies watched in silence and with hope as Twilight’s ear twitched, a hoof, then began floating several feet off the ground as a beautiful golden energy encased her body, filling the hole in her chest. After several intense seconds Twilight’s hooves were once more on the ground, supporting a stiffly standing Twilight.

Pinkie stared at her, she stared back, gaze deep and unwavering, seeming to pierce through the pink pony. “T-Twilight? I-Is that…?” Pinkie began, but was unable to finish her sentence as her throat seemed to clench shut, so strong was the emotion that ran though her body.

“There is no Twilight, only ZUUL.” Twilight said evenly, not breaking her gaze with the pink pony.

“Ha… ha… That’s… that’s a good one Twilight.” Pinkie said as the tears started to form in her eyes again.

“THERE IS NO TWILIGHT, ONLY ZUUL.” Twilight said again, this time in a deep stallion voice that chilled to the bone and reverberated off the walls.

Pinkie backed away quickly, allowing Jeff to strut past and flick Twilight on the ear. “Quit screwing around, we got shit to do.” Twilight didn’t flinch, instead she cast her gaze upon the group of ponies, ignoring Jeff as though he were insignificant.

“ARE YOU GODS?” She asked in the same, eerie voice.

“Um… No?” Applejack said, casting questionable glances to the others.

“THEN, DIE.” Three things happened at almost the exact same time. First, Twilight, or the being known as ZUUL, charged her horn with an incredible amount of raw magical power and unleashing it in a flurry of lightning. Kharon was able to intercept the bolts of energy and deflected them into the far wall, saving the lives of the ponies. And finally, during the split second ZULL had her guard down Jeff rammed his shoulder into her, teleporting them both far away.

Jeff and Twilight appeared in a flash of blue light in the same clearing this series of events began. The momentum of Jeff’s attack a split second before followed them through the jump, resulting in Twilight being tackled to the ground and pinned beneath Jeff as he stared deep into her glazed eyes.

“Now you listen, and you listen well. Twilight, you let your newfound power seize control over your body, and it’s disgraceful. You bring shame on me, the princesses, and your friends. You need to regain control of yourself or so help me I will manually force you in control. Believe me, you do not want that, you or your crude new identity. You need to do this now because time is short and is forcing my hand.”

“PUNY GOD, SO LOST IN YOUR LOSS YOU FAIL TO SEE YOUR OWN END.” Twilight began to growl as her features began to change dramatically, on the verge of becoming a new, powerful monster. Her snout elongated as rows upon rows of sharp teeth grew haphazardly in every direction, a few even growing outward and through the flesh of her lips. Her tail solidified and grew multiple times its original length, resulting in an incredibly long, whip like tail. Her hooves were beginning to change shape before Jeff resorted to his final option.

“I warned you, you brought this on yourself.” Jeff reached out and grasped Twilight’s horn by its base, and quickly jerked to the side, snapping the horn off her head with a resounding crack. Not sparing a second to observe the face contort into a pain so unimaginable, Jeff plunged the horn, tip first, through her skull where the horn used to be attached. Jeff forced the Horn in all the way until the base of the horn was even with the top of her skull, the rest of the horn buried deep within Twilight’s brain. Little blood was spilled, her death had been instant.

The Royal Guard stationed themselves along the perimeter of the clearing in the Everfree as they waited for reinforcements to arrive. The pegasi that followed after the princess found themselves unable to move forward due to an intense wind that would simply push them away from the clearing. They were unable to do anything to help in the ensuing battle, forced only to listen as their beloved princesses dueled with a threat the guard had yet to learn about.

The sounds of battle and the heartbroken cries of several mares suddenly silenced, marking the sudden end of the ordeal. Several members of the guard gave each other worried glances. They feared for their princess, they feared they may even be next.

“Buck up men!” A bulky lieutenant barked as he paced back and forth. “If we are to be targeted, we perform our duty and fight to the death for Equestria! If our sacrifice is to be in vain then take solace in the fact that we bought time, no matter how little!” He continued to drill and motivate for some time until the reinforcements from Canterlot arrived.

The lieutenant broke off from his pacing to greet the new arrivals, a glimmer of hope and relief filled his heart as he beheld many chariots transporting a number of unicorn and earth ponies, the captain of the guard among them.

“Captain!” The lieutenant popped a salute to his superior, who nodded in return for him to continue. “We have secured the perimeter and are prepared for the unicorn squadron to make their assault against the barrier.”

“Very well, we shall begin immediately.” The captain said with a nod before turning to the rest of his squad. “Spread out evenly and examine the spell, I don’t want any surprises.” The unicorns did as told and spread evenly along the leading edge of the barrier. As one they closed their eyes, lit their horns, and began to poke and prod with their magic. After a few moments they broke their examination and turned to the captain.

“Sir,” One in the center strode forward as he addressed his superior, “It’s a simple repulsion spell, but a very powerful one none the less. With your permission we would like to begin the dispelling.”

“Proceed.” The captain motioned toward the speaker. With a nod the unicorn turned back and with the rest of the squad and they furrowed their brows in concentration. Even with the combined effort of so many powerful unicorns the barrier fought back with a vengeance, absolutely refusing to be dispelled. A few of the weaker unicorns outright fainted from the strain as the barrier gave one last recoil before dispelling completely.

“Alpha and Beta squad, with me. Delta, remain guarding the perimeter and care for the wounded.” The captain ordered, the various ponies filed behind him as he led the way closer to the clearing.

Soon he could hear the sound of a pair of figures speaking, one’s voice chilling him to the bone. He quickened his pace to a hasty trot before sprinting through the last of the underbrush into the clearing. There he saw a sight that would surly haunt him for the rest of his days.

A tall, bi-pedal figure grasped the horn of a purple unicorn and snapped it off as though it were a branch, then stabbed the unfortunate mare through the skull with it. Suddenly losing all military composure he rushed forward, crying out his beloved sister’s name as he prepared to kill the monster that would dare harm his family.

Jeff looked up at the sound of an anguished cry to see a blue maned white unicorn charging toward him, a powerful spell at the ready. With an annoyed grunt at yet another interruption, Jeff reached out and smacked his horn, successfully disrupting his magic. Then Jeff grabbed the unicorn by the neck and slammed him to the ground. The unicorn struggled and fought back with everything he had in him, but every spell was interrupted and his physical blows did nothing to hinder the creature.

“You fight valiantly, but I am not your enemy!” Jeff said as he disrupted yet another spell.

“You killed my sister in cold blood! I have every reason to mark you as an enemy, you monster!” The unicorn yelled while delivering a number of blows with his fore-hooves. Blows Jeff hardly felt.

“Your sister became possessed by a massive amount of power she was still getting used to. If I hadn’t interfered it would be you who would be dead or faced with killing Twilight.” Jeff said evenly as the stallion stared with pure hatred into his eyes.

“You lie! You still killed her!” He yelled as he began to break down under the futility of the situation.

“Yes, I killed her, but she’s going to come back. That’s the beauty of immortality, just be patient and stop crying, your making yourself look bad in front of your peers.” Jeff said as he got up, pulling the still sobbing stallion to his feet. Jeff cast his gaze toward the rest of the guards that followed their captain through the brush. His face alighted at seeing a familiar young guard. “Day! How have you been? The guard treating you right?”

“My name is Dusk, but yes the guard has been fine.” The young stallion corrected.

“Give it time, you will come to hate it. Or at least I did.” Jeff replied.

“Recruit! You will cease communication with this monster!” The stallion yelled at Dusk, his face still showing fresh tears down his muzzle, yet he carried himself with renewed vigor.

“Aw don’t be like that, cut him some slack.” The captain spun back toward Jeff and cast a pink shield around him. “What’s this? A prison? Cute.” Jeff tapped the force field and popped it like a soap bubble. The captain’s and the rest of his guard’s jaws dropped to the ground in astonishment. The captain concentrated harder and placed another force field around Jeff, who dispelled it with a small pop. Another bubble, another pop.

After popping the seventh shield Jeff decided to give his own attempt. He snapped his fingers and a blue bubble formed around the captain. The imprisoned unicorn looked about with wide eyes before blasting the shield with different types of dispels. None were working so he adapted a new tactic, blasting powerful beams of energy on a single point.

“You realize that’s not a shield right?” Jeff said pointedly. “That’s basically a ball of energy that’s been absorbing the magic you’ve been shooting at it. Now if you calm down I can explain what happened to Twilight. Yes she is dead, but not for long.”

Twilight waited with a held breath as she was engulfed in flames, taken back to the realm of the living as Jeff called it. Almost immediately she felt something was wrong, she felt something inside her, something she knew was always there but was always buried. The part of her subconscious that seemed to show itself when she was under intense pressure, always giving her ideas that made no sense and convincing her that the world was out to get her. She felt it awaken, a separate mind within her own.

She heard Jeff say something, but she was too deep in thought to register what was going on around here. Soon enough a searing pain burned its way through her chest in the spot the tentacle had gored her. At the same time she felt herself solidify and fall to the library floor. On impact with the hard wood the pain stopped and the world came into focus.

Confused as to why she was back home and not in the Everfree Forest she took a look outside. She saw several of the nearby houses along the road and a number of ponies ambling about, one even walking in a crude circle. She shrugged it off as it just being one of those days and prepared her saddle bags to go out and see one of her friends, presumably Pinkie, that way she could get a light snack as well.

As she was turning to leave a strange note was tacked to the inside of her door, ‘Don’t listen to the lies’ was all it said. Looking closely she was able to tell it was written by none other than Pinkie. Twilight took the note off her door with her magic and flipped it over. ‘I didn’t put anything on this side’ it read. Thinking it was some sort of prank, Twilight rolled her eyes and tossed the note into the wastebasket near the door.

She stepped out into the warm air, the sun beating against her coat warmly as a gentle breeze pulled at her mane and tail. With a relaxed sigh she casually strolled over to Sugar Cube Corner and opened the door with the familiar jingle of the bell overhead.

“Oh hello dearie!” Mrs. Cake greeted as she saw who came in. “What can I do for you?”

“Good afternoon, I was wondering if Pinkie was here? And I would like a strawberry cupcake please.” Twilight placed her order as she approached the counter.

“Of course sweetie.” She said as she ducked behind the counter and emerged a few seconds later, a pink cupcake grasped in a pair of tongs which Twilight grasped in her magic. “On the house today sweetie.” Mrs. Cake said as Twilight was digging several bits from her saddlebag.

“Oh, well thank you very much!” Twilight turned and walked out the door, cupcake in tow.

She was halfway back to the library when thought of eating the delicious cupcake began to overpower her will. Thinking nopony would care if she ate the sugary sweet in the middle of the road she tore the paper off the delicacy and opened her mouth, her tongue quivering in excitement for the sugary treat. Suddenly a flash of pink interrupted her vision as something knocked the cupcake out of her magical grasp and into a mud puddle.

“PINKIE!! What was that… for?” Twilight looked around in confusion, her hyper pink friend was nowhere in sight, the meandering ponies in the street were doing the exact same thing they were doing when Twilight left the library, none even seemed to notice her, let alone react to her yelling. Twilight wanted answers to several questions, firstly why Mrs. Cake failed to mention pinkie and how she forgot to press for details. Then with the cupcake incident she was suddenly herself again. The first thing she needed to do was find Pinkie, she seemed to be the only constant. Twilight trotted across the street to a familiar looking mare with curly orange hair and several carrots as a cutie mark.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked as she tapped the mare on the shoulder to get her attention. She ignored her, instead opting to continue staring straight ahead, at a brick wall. “I would appreciate it if you stopped ignoring me.” Twilight said, pausing to give time for the mare to respond. “Hey!” Twilight punched her hard in the ribs, panic beginning to set in.

“Stop ignoring me! What is wrong with…” Twilight trailed off as she finally got a response from the orange mare. She was slowly turning her head to face Twilight, but something was off. “Ok, sorry about yelling but I need to find Pink-” Twilight cut herself off with a loud shriek. She looked into the pony’s face, but where the features were supposed to be there were none, like somepony pulled extra flesh over the entire skull and forgot to add eyes, a nose, a mouth, and various other features. The pony in question could not possibly see, yet seemed to look deep into Twilight’s soul.

With another frantic shriek she bolted back into Sugar Cube Corner, and opened the door with the familiar jingle of the bell overhead.

“Oh hello dearie!” Mrs. Cake greeted as she saw who came in. “What can I do for you?”

“Good afternoon, I was wondering if Pinkie was here? And I would like a strawberry cupcake please.” Twilight placed her order as she approached the counter. She slowed down and tried to think for a moment, but all she really wanted was that amazing cupcake.

“Of course sweetie.” Mrs. Cake said as she ducked behind the counter and emerged a few seconds later, a pink cupcake grasped in a pair of tongs which Twilight grasped in her magic. “On the house today sweetie.” Mrs. Cake said as Twilight was digging several bits from her saddlebag.

“Oh, well thank you very much!” Twilight turned and walked out the door, cupcake in tow.

She was halfway back to the library when thought of eating the delicious cupcake began to overpower her will. Thinking nopony would care if she ate the sugary sweet in the middle of the road she tore the paper off the delicacy and opened her mouth, her tongue quivering in excitement. Suddenly a flash of pink interrupted her vision as something knocked the cupcake out of her magical grasp and into a mud puddle.

“PINKIE!! Would you stop… wait, I just did all that.” Realization hit as the memories came flooding back to her, the note, the first cupcake, the mud puddle and the faceless pony. “No, this isn’t right. This can’t be right.” Her breathing became quickened as panic set in once more.

“Well duh.” A familiar voice said behind her. “Geeze Twilight I thought you were smarter than this. Do you know how many times I had to knock that cupcake into the mud? Over 47 times! That’s a huge waste of food.”

Twilight spun and saw Pinkie looking back at her through what appeared to be a rip in the fabric of reality. “Pinkie, what’s going on? This is a bit over the top, even for you.” Twilight said evenly and as calmly as she could.

“Well, I wanted to say that I was breaking the fourth wall but the author thinks that is a lame excuse, but what does he know. Anyway, he wants me to say something about this being psychological and I’m a figment of your imagination or something, I wasn’t really listening because I was looking at silly cats on the internet. Did you know they look even cuter with bread around their heads? HA! They were so adorable and – er, I mean, come with me if you want to live.” Pinkie gave a hard look at the space just above and behind Twilight’s head before returning to her bubbly self and motioning for Twilight to come through the rift.

“Okay Pinkie, what is going on? And I don’t want some senseless garble you were talking about.” Twilight said as she leaped through the void and suddenly found herself in a white room. Everything was blank, the walls a solid smooth surface, each lacking a door. The ceiling was the same, no lights of any kind and yet the room was almost too bright to have her eyes open. Looking down she saw the same surface that covered the walls and ceiling.

“Okay Twilight, this is the part I tell you about your subconscious taking control of your body and as a protective measure you severed off your own conscious mind and locked it somewhere safe. Unfortunately the subconscious, calling itself Zuul, was able to force its way in and try to corrupt or kill you so it would have complete control. It made you crave sweets and every time you entered Sugar Cube it wiped out your short term memory and gave you a poisoned cupcake. I would then hop into your fake reality and force you not to eat it. When I tried explaining things to you out there you would run back to sugar cube and it would start over. As for the faceless ponies, they were figments of what you remember of them. You forgot what the face looked like and so saw it as blank. Questions?” Twilight was in shocked silence. “Good! Now let’s see what the meanie is doing.”

“Wait! How do I know this is all true, that this is in my own head?”

“Come on Twilight, would I really say all of that? Big words and everything? How I spoke like you when explaining something simple?” More stunned silence as the pieces of the puzzle fit together. “Now, let’s see what’s going on outside.”

Pinkie moved to a random wall, the number 4 crossed Twilight’s mind for some reason. Pinkie reared up on her hind legs, placing her front hooves on the wall then spread them to the side as if she was opening something. And open something she did, Twilight saw the clearing in the forest where she died trying to save the princess, and she saw Jeff staring right at her with burning eyes.

“Do you want stereo sound or Dolby 5.1 surround?” Pinkie said, snapping Twilight from her thoughts.

“… Huh?” Twilight raised a quizzical eyebrow at the pink mare.

“Let’s do 5.1, I want to test the new bass I got from Vinyl.” In a flash and the sound of party poppers a number of pony sized speakers appeared in the walls, Jeff’s booming voice rattling Twilight to her bones.

“I warned you, you brought this on yourself.” Suddenly a searing pain stabbed into Twilight’s head and raced along her entire body. She screamed out in pain with enough force to damage her vocal cords, small drops of blood splattering against the wall before she faded out into the darkness.

A/N: Edited by me, yeay!

Prologue

Reader discretion is advised, the following fic contains some very controversial issues for use in this story and has no real backing to any modern events including those referenced in the work.

My name is Jeff, and this is my story, my story of friendship, love, and family. I would like to start off with how I grew up like any other kid, with a mother, father, perhaps even a brother or even sister. Unfortunately, my life is not the happy kind. I never knew my parents, my real ones anyway. I was raised as an orphan after I was found in a back alley as a newborn. I was lucky to survive for as long as I did, as though my very soul simply refused to give up on life. I spent the first six months of my life in a hospital ICU, tube fed medications to warrant off the infections and nutrition to help my frail body grow stronger.

After the treatment I was handed over to the local orphanage, where the nanny had taken up the responsibility of digging through the police reports to find my real parents, and to bring them to justice. Unfortunately my DNA never registered a match to any of the police records worldwide, making me just another statistic for child abandonment for the year of 1989.

Growing up as an orphan in New York isn’t as bad as the movies make it out to be. We were all on a schedule just like any other child, wake up bright and early, go to church to pray, then to school to learn. As a child I never liked the idea of God, Jesus, the whole ghost thing or how thinking to yourself was somehow sending a psychic signal across the cosmos to a deity who was either all powerful, but didn’t care about us, or cared but had no power to help us, or never existed save for in the minds of those who believed.

To prove my logic I would ask others, “If such a god did exist, why are we orphaned? Why must we learn the cruelties of reality at such a young age?” But alas, my level of thought was beyond the comprehension of the other children, even the nuns and nannies, forcing me to be an outcast among outcasts. They wanted nothing to do with a “non-believer,” and seemed content to do as much as possible to either shun me or attempt to guilt me into the religion. I did try, just to fit in and no longer be shunned, I went through the robotic motions and read the words aloud. It worked for a time, until my soul became one with my mind and body.

I found I had a talent, a knack if you will. The phone would ring and without hesitation I would say the name of the person calling. Other times I would predict the order in which children became adopted, or who would win the next sports game. This was looked upon as coincidence, until my streak of 100% true predictions continued to predict word wide events of things others had no possible chance of knowing. Bombings, political struggles, deaths of people in the cities. I was told to stop, even called a demon, a monster.

So I stopped my predictions, well I stopped announcing them aloud. I stayed in my room most of the time, nobody came to see me, nobody wanted to adopt a freak like me. Often I would get lost in my imagination during my times of isolation, using anything as a toy for the center of my thoughts. All I had was my school supplies, the protractor became a fuel gage, the pens were spacecraft or rockets, and the pencils were the beings that operated the rocket. During one such session, I was holding all three aloft and moving them through the air when I heard a gasp of alarm at the door. I looked up from my play to see a nun mark the symbol of the cross in my direction. Confused, I looked back to see that my protractor was floating in the air before my face as the nun ran to get help.

Several priests from the Vatican stopped by to attempt an exorcism, so intent on my monstrosity they were willing to try anything. Have you ever witnessed an exorcism? I’m not talking about the crappy Hollywood films; the real ones are much worse and degrading. I was stripped naked, tied to a post and flogged while boiling water was splashed onto my back. The steam they claimed was the demon leaving my body was actually my flesh boiling on contact with the hot water. I didn’t last long before I lost consciousness from the intense pain.

When I awoke the next day, my wounds having been treated and was told they were from the demon ripping its way out of my body. I didn’t believe them for a second, I knew what monstrous things they had done. At that moment I vowed to never do such things again, the pain was simply too much, and so I locked away my potential and drifted through life for the next few years.

When I was ten, a very strange couple stopped by the orphanage. They were dressed in solid black, not like a nun or priest who usually wore a white collar or apron. Some rumors were spread that they were devil worshipers simply because of the way they dressed, but the man put their arguments to rest stating it was for his career as a sales man for the Black Friday event coming soon.

The nanny led them to the common room, where they were able to sit down with each child. I watched from afar as they seemed to interview each kid, taking notes and whispering to each other. I began having a tingling sensation in my mind as they made eye contact with me from across the room, which I blocked out purely on instinct. They kept staring, the tingling came back with more force than before, and I used all my will power to shut it out, forcing the couple to break eye contact as I did so. Without a word to me the couple stood and left for the main office.

Three days later, I was adopted by the same strange couple. I was worried, afraid even, as I waited for the time when they said they would pick me up. My fears meant nothing to the nanny or nuns, as though they were getting rid of unwanted trash. Right on time, my adoptive family pulled up to the curb. Their car had a white exterior, but the interior was a red felt fabric, giving it an older look. My new parents spoke very reassuringly to me, promising sweet things as they packed my solemn bag into the trunk.

The ride to my new home was silent, save for that annoying tingle in the back of my head.

“You really shouldn’t block yourself out to things around you.” My new father, Joe, had said.

“What do you mean?” I asked

“You shouldn’t rush him, he will learn in time.” Lisa, my new mother, said.

And so life went on, my parents showed me how to expand my mind, feel the energies around me, but still I held myself back, not wanting to frighten them. They were the most kind and caring people I was ever lucky enough to have as a family. They called themselves Followers of Enki, one of the gods of old. They noticed the news article about my exorcism in the news archives and decided to have a look, to see if I was as possessed as they said or was naturally strong in spirit. The tingling sensation was them trying to analyze me, and the fact that I could not only feel them, but block them out proved my spiritual strength.

Several years go by, my meditations advancing at an alarming rate. Middle school was a joke for me, the concepts and knowledge was far below my potential. It was just another day, period two was droning on about some literary author when my entire mind was raked with dread. So strong was the feeling that my body seized up and I fell to the floor, where I writhed in pain and misery. After several intense seconds I was able to sit up. My body was covered in cold, sticky sweat and tears were streaming from my eyes. Something of this magnitude has never happened to me before, but it wasn’t long before I found out the cause.

The school was full of screaming students and teachers were in a panic, the entire city was plunged into chaos. I was able to force my way outside, where a large number of people seemed to be running away from something. I looked up toward the sky, to notice the building my parents worked at, was engulfed in flames. In that moment I knew, the agony I felt, was the souls of hundreds, including my parents, leaving us. I stood there in silence, staring up at the burning building, wondering what could have possibly happened. Soon another plane crashed into the other tower, once again I felt the deaths of those around me.

I lost everything that day, I began life with nothing, and today it was reduced to nothing once again. I swore vengeance on those that would not only take my loving family away, but the families of the innocents lost to the towers. I was glad we invaded the nation responsible; the terrorists would never win against the might of a unified nation.

The years went by quickly, I was relocated to live with my dad’s relatives. They did not like the meditation or belief system I was raised with, they instead forced me to be a Christian again. I found it not to my liking, so instead I went to the gym each Sunday. I worked out, trained, became an athlete, and ate right. All for one goal: join the marines and kill the ones responsible for the deaths of thousands. The fact my parents died with the first ones made the quest for vengeance personal.

At the age of 17 I was able to convince my aunt and uncle to sign the waver to allow me to join the armed forces. They seemed happy for me, but also relieved to have me out of their hair a full year early.

It was only a few weeks before I was able to get on the first plane to the training facility. There were several Staff Sergeants lining up the new recruits into a formation I commonly saw used in movies and parades. We were ordered to line up into five rows, then empty our pockets of everything but our money and ID cards, the rest was deposited into the trash bins. We were then led off, nobody was able to march properly and this seemed to piss off the marines. After much yelling and verbal, degrading threats we managed to get onto the busses waiting for us outside.

During the ride to the main training facility we were forced to watch a video explaining the details of what was to transpire for that day. Once we got off the busses we lined up along the wall, where we were told how to stand at attention, the proper spacing between same sex recruits was to place your toes against the heel of the one in front of you, also called “nut-to-butt.” Opposite sexes were to remain one full linoleum tile behind the counterpart.

We stood and waited for hours, several fainting and being drug away. When asked where they were taken, we were ordered to be silent and do pushups. We eventually made it to the fitting room where we were issued a sweater, sweat pants, shirts, socks, and underwear. We changed into our new garments and placed the civilian clothes in a box to be shipped home. Next we waited in line for several more hours, this time to have our heads shaved to bare skin.

Boot camp was full of yelling, standing still, course maneuverability, and gun training. After several long weeks, I have fully succumbed to the jarhead mentality. Blindly following orders, I was the perfect marine. Our division graduated, and the ceremony held little importance to me, as I was already looking forward to the day I set foot in the sand, gun in hand, terrorist in my sights. But that had to wait, as I had more training for my part of the field to complete. Luckily, it was to take place in Afghanistan.

The long plane ride over the sea was torture in itself. I couldn’t bear to wait any longer. Fourteen hours and a plane terminal later, I joined a convoy on the way to base. We were all silent, nervous about our futures. We knew things were bad, but we were mistaken when we thought this trip was to be uneventful. There was a massive explosion as the lead truck ran over an IED. There was no ball of fire, just a large cloud of smoke and dust as the truck was sent flipping through the air. Everything happened fast, my training took over and I made my way toward cover. The man next to me and I stopped suddenly as we heard a “click.”

“I think it’s you!” He said, then turned to run. As he lifted his foot another blast blew him to bits, the concussion of the explosion threw me twenty feet into the air, before landing in a heap. The last thing I saw was the Afghans appearing over the hills and gunning down the remaining solders as I, too, died.

Being dead was a lot like sleeping, except as my soul left my body, I began to realize things. The power I had suppressed and held back for so long made itself known. My mind was flooded with imagery, sensations, and information on how to manipulate the world around me. I felt a hand on my shoulder, thinking it was my family I was disappointed to see it was someone else. He stood seven and a half feet tall with a slim yet muscular build, Buer, he called himself, said he had been watching me since I was born, and that death was no longer an issue for me. My soul had long since transcended to that of a gods, each reincarnation adding more and more power upon itself since the beginning of the human race. Now I knew, it was me. I was the one destined to fix the world, to act as the kind god that punishes the evil of the world.

Now open to the majesty of the universe, overflowing with power, I merged back into my mangled body. Bending the world to my will, I fixed myself, closed the wounds and healed my bones. I knew my task ahead of me was large, and I couldn’t do it without help. I called upon the energies and made a copy of my soul, then placed it into a large rock before me. I molded the stone into a spitting image of a large wolf. With another burst of energy I gave it flesh and life, more animal than golem, my familiar was complete. We gathered the bodies of the men around us, then I bent time and space, creating a worm hole to the base we were heading toward.

The appearance of the dead men and myself was met with mixed results, some thought I was a new biological weapon made by the government, others thought I was Jesus reborn, and others saw me as an abomination and wanted to kill me on site. My familiar decided to remain invisible and floated along behind me as I gleamed from the minds of the marines what they thought I was, then told them a simple story that turned them over to my side. I also read the emotions and reasons why they were here, most of them wanted to protect their family, others for the military benefits. I was able to transcribe the knowledge and experience of those around me and add it to my own knowledge. Soon I knew how to operate every weapon, vehicle, machine system, and to speak several languages.

A convoy was about to head out to attack a terrorist hideout, and the marines wanted their new weapon out on the front lines, I gladly jumped at the opportunity. It was my power, my responsibility to help the world, what better way than killing the source of terror? I was so naïve. The convoy pulled to a stop at a rundown shack, we quickly surrounded all sides and ordered the occupants to come out at once.

I reached out with my mind, all I could feel were scared women and children, the men putting on a strong face as they prepared to face the demon. What demon? My eyes widened in realization, the Americans were the evil, invading their land as a few fought back against the invasion. They were labeled as terrorists, thought to be a major organization when they were but simple farmers fighting for their land.

I tried to stop the company from firing into the hut, but they ignored my protests and killed everyone inside. They reported back to the base about the enemy using women and children as a diversion for terrorist activities. These simple people have done nothing wrong, and were gunned down in cold blood. This was not the vengeance I sought after, this was not the evil that needed to be purged. The evil was right next to me. I asked them why they killed innocents and reported the false information. They were following orders, they said. Orders from someone higher up.

The next day I set out to find this higher authority, unfortunately the chain of orders went up through the ranks, above even the president to the real people in power. The congress and representatives that were paid large sums of money to allow the war in Iraq to occur, for what reason? Oil. The industries running America set up an inside job to bomb the buildings my parents worked in, as an excuse to go to war over oil, were allowing hundreds to die each day, just to make a profit. This was no free world, this was not the America our forefathers dreamed of creating, this was just a sick game.

So my familiar, Fang he called himself, decided we should take the most logical course of action, we destroyed the oil fields. All of them. I watched the midday sunlight turn to night as the smoke filled the sky, the fires would burn indefinitely, until the oil ran dry. We thought that to remove the source of the problem would fix the problem, but no. The people were lost in a panic, very few listened to the idea’s I planted in their minds, how to clean the sky, how to build the future without need of oil, using pure electric cars and renewable energy.

Instead the world turned on itself, each country blaming the next. Another war took place, I was to blame for the oil burning, yet the people didn’t see me, they saw America. It happened all at once, each country killed the other with nuclear warfare. I had failed, I could not stop every missile, even with all my power. The aftermath left the world destroyed, the radiation killing all life, save for our own. I decided that this world needed to start anew, without humans and their influence of greed for power and killing.

Fang and I removed the radiation, feeding it to the sun. Next we cleaned the skies, the pollution was removed and split apart, the waste also sent to the center of the sun. The cities, the minerals, metals, and cement were returned to the core of the planet, where it was melted and allowed to become one with earth once more. We rebuilt the world, renewed life to be as it should have been.

Our task finally completed, I made a solid crystal cavern deep within the mountians. Should life evolve enough to find us, we shall do what we can for the betterment of the world, and this time, we will not fail.

1.6 billion years later

“Hey! Come see this, I found something!” A young worker called out to the other diggers.

“Did you find another strange fossil?” Asked a young female.

“No, even better.” He replied.

“Oh sweet Celestia, this is huge.” She said as they gazed upon a massive crystal sphere.

“The biggest archeological discovery of Equestria.”

A/N: I know that human in Equestria is frowned upon, but this is more than that. I'm open to criticism but please keep the trolling to a minimum.

The main concept for this was from Jagun, who was also the editor. So send hate mail his way if something's not right.

Also, the boot camp scene was from my own experience in the Navy with a few things added in to give it a Marine feel, I apologize to any marines who read this if it is not up to par with Marine boot camp.

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Good news everyone! I was finally able to break my Skyrim addiction!! WOOT! 156 hours of game play the last few weeks, but I'm finally over it and am now back to writing again! Expect the next chapter in a few days!