Crossing Anthologyby yon-cryokineticChaptersLemmour ZoxusThe Eclipse Festival Is ComingMake OverThe Lone TwilightRainbow Dash and ApplejackPonderingDawnA Black PerscriptionManehattanThe Blank FlankBreakfast In BedHollow Shades BoundCrescent FistCold RelationsThe Final HitThe Greatest WeaponAuthor's NotesPinkie Pie And FluttershyEpilogueLemmour ZoxusI am Lemmour Zoxus, formerly known as “Metal Seth”. After my sacrifice to aid my friends, I died from an intense electric shock. Before I knew it I awoke in the sight of a strange necrokinetic. The mysterious man claimed to have known my friends so I trusted him. He helped heal my wounds and repair my armor suit, I asked him where my friends could be and he told me that they’d be in a town in Virginia called “Winchester”. So that’s where I’m headed, to Winchester. I was all alone on my travel, just me and my memories. I couldn’t remember a lot. I could remember as far as my interactions with my former enslaver, King Zoxus. I remember the hypnosis he put me into, to follow his every command. Luckily, my mind and my friends helped me overcome it. That freedom was short lived, King had returned for revenge in a massive airship. To aid my friends I sent out an Electro-magnetic pulse wave to temporarily corrupt King’s airship and give them enough time to board and do more damage to him. Those were the memories I had; everything about my life before I was put in hypnosis was for some reason gone. After months of searching for the town of Winchester, I finally found it. It was a rather ghetto-ish town but also has a sort of early European renaissance feel to it, a little out in the country. It has a bit of everything. As I walked around through the town, I stumbled across a horse stable close to a farm. After observing the horses for a matter of seconds, I had some kind of mental image pop in my head. A silhouette of some sort, I ignored it. I walked into a suburban neighborhood, and then out of nowhere, a powerful gust of air throws me into a picket fence. I looked up and there was one of my old friends, Eric using his air manipulation powers. I asked him, “Eric!?... What the hell was that for?” “Oh! You’re Metal Seth! I thought you were regular Seth. What are you doing here? You’re dead, at least you were…” I looked up at him with a smirk, “Not anymore. How have you been?” “I’ve been better.” With concern and curiosity I asked him, “What’s your beef with regular Seth? And where is everyone else?” “They all left this planet through a door that only comes for one week every seven years, in search of the regular Seth, who for some reason went in the moment he saw it, even knowing what it was. That’s why I attacked you, I thought you were regular Seth and I thought he was here this whole time without letting anyone know. I was so enraged because, I don’t think we’ll ever see the rest of the team again.” Seth vanished; the team goes after him, and a seven year door? I must have missed a lot after I died. “Who all went in?” “Jonah, Cole, Del, Metal Jonah, and Jasmyn; who’s new to the team. It’s not like they’d be able to return even when the door comes back in another seven years. The door is a one-way only.” I hesitated to say what was about to spit out of my lips. But it had to be done. “How’s about this, I’ll use my jetpack to fly into space, and find the team.” It may sound stupid but with me being an Atevian, or “alien” to the humans, I don’t need oxygen to survive. “You’d do that?” “Yes.” Without another word my jetpack blasted me into the depths of space. Flying through the stars and dodging asteroids at supersonic speeds. The Eclipse Festival Is ComingSix days have passed, I grew tired and impatient. I was hardly able to stay awake from hunger and exhaustion. I wonder where is my searching going to take me. The next day I saw something, a planet, just about as lush and green as the Earth. I flew down at top speed hoping this would be it; this would be where I could finally find the rest of my friends. But then my jet pack cracked and snapped in half, likely due to overuse or from burning up in the atmosphere, the only thing bringing me down to this planet now was gravity, there’s no turning around, the only thing I could think was, “my friends had better be here.” I eventually fell far enough to get a good view of the land, seeing mountains and monuments. One mountain in particular appears to have a castle built on the cliff of it; I received another quick mental picture, this time of a rather small shack on a snowy mountain top. Normally I’d wonder what’s up with these mental pictures but my falling was more important, as I fell I hoped to land into some kind of ocean or lake or anything to break the fall. Falling passed the troposphere I estimated where I’d be crash landing, then WHAM right into a dark forest. About an hour later I woke up in mud, the whole left side of my face plating was blown off my head. I was spitting out blood and pinecone bits along with three of my front teeth. Had it not been for my armor, it would have most likely been fatal. I got up and limped my way around the forest until I saw a hut, there was steam billowing out, it was also surrounded by what appeared to be African inspired masks and arts. I knocked on the door hoping someone would be inside to escort me to medical attention. I saw a window curtain move and behind it was a very large eye. I then heard a frightened voice, “Get away demon child! Turn back and frolic in the wild!” I was surprised to hear her English. I replied, “Hello? I need medical help! Hello?!” Frustrated, I kicked the door and walked away. I then saw a forest path and walk down it. The paths led me to a less dense area of the forest. This could have led to society; either that or a friggin' grizzly bear was going to lash out at me, what with my luck recently. The path led me out of the forest, and in the distance, I saw a small town. As I got closer and closer to the roads into the town, I noticed that the entire population is nothing but ponies. Multi-colored ponies, some of which have wings, while others have horns on their forehead, some others have neither. I walked down the road, as I did the expected happens; everyone looks at me with fear and curiosity. It was hard for me to really believe this was happening, I could’ve just been dreaming, or possibly on some strong-as-hell shrooms. I continued to walk about, I noticed that their writing was also in English just by noticing all the posters, “THE ECLIPSE FESTIVAL! 4 DAYS FROM NOW! DON’T MISS IT!” I took a poster off the side of one of the buildings. I turned and asked one of the wandering ponies, “Excuse me, miss? What’s this?” “Why that’s…” She was cut off by her attention towards my face. I then said, “Yeah I know my face is all messed up, now what is this?” I waved the poster in front of her. “Darling, what has happened to your mane!?” I thought to myself, “My mane? What is she talking about, I’m no pony.” Then I started to realize, it was my hair she was looking at. “Oh, my apologies. I had a fall, into some mud and trees.” “Well I can’t just let you walk around Ponyville, let alone the upcoming Eclipse Festival with that messy thing on your head!” “It’s fine, really-“ Before I could finish my sentence she pushed me to a nearby building which she called “her boutique.” I went along and figured that it ought to be interesting. Make OverThe pony that brought me to this boutique had me sit on a cushioned couch while she prepared for whatever she planned to do to me. Judging by how damaged my armor is, I imagined that this is going to take one big chunk of time out of my schedule. “So, what’s your name?” I asked. “Rarity, the best you’ll find for fashion here in Ponyville, and your name?” “Lemmour, and is this place really called ‘Ponyville’”? “Why yes, aren’t you from Equestria?” “Ma’am I’m not even from this planet.” She looked at me with confusion; I guessed that to her and everyone else in this town, this is the only planet they know of. She then asked, “A different planet, well that’s new, I don’t hear that unless it’s from a young filly playing pretend on Nightmare Night or something.” “I’m from Planet Atevia, I spent a little time on Planet Earth, and then after a recent accident I came here. My jetpack failed on me so I crash landed into some forest nearby.” “Oh you must be talking about the Ever-free Forest, no wonder you’re in such dreadful shape, the whole forest is just so icky!” She got done with her preparations, she had set up a chair for me to sit in by a sink, and on the counter next to the sink were some hair accessories and combs, and such. I sat in the chair and leaned back. The crash from earlier left me pretty disoriented so while she was fixing up my hair I drifted off into sleep. I had a dream of myself in a small room, then the window shattered open and someone came, the person raised his or her hand and shot out some sort of bolt of energy that made my whole body quiver and paralyze, for some reason I kept crying “SOAR!” “SOAR!” “SOOOOAAAARRRR!!!!” but there was no response, and I was taken away from the room out of the window. The dream was over; Rarity woke me up saying, “All done, you look smashing!” Using her unicorn horn she telekinetically levitated a mirror in front of me. I looked completely different, my hair was slicked back, cut and trimmed, and the back was les split-ended than before. “Wow, this looks great! Thank you!” “You’re most welcome.” “So what’s the damage?” I had my pocket ready to pull out whatever money I had, though thinking of it now would she accept U.S. currency? She shook her head and told me, “No that’s quite alright, it’s free of charge. By the way, I also found some outfits that I think would look great on you.” “May I see?” She pushed a wheeled rack of many formal shirts and slacks. She had me try on every one of them until we found one that was perfect; a collared shirt with a gem necklace, the back of it came down to the back of my knees. It came with a nice pair of slacks to. Out of curiosity I asked, “Pardon my confrontation, but why are you being so nice to me and giving me these clothes? We only met about an hour ago.” “I like to do these kinds of things with everypony who comes around. It’s fun for me.” I examined the attire a little more; they all looked to be stitched without excessive use of a machine. “Did you make these?” “Oh yes, all of them.” I then saw a rather small outfit, it had a hole in the back for a tail but looking at its shape it didn’t look like it was for a pony. “What’s this one for?” “Oh… That’s for a friend, if we can ever find him.” I then noticed some melancholy in her voice, I asked with concern, “What’s happened to him?” “He was kidnapped recently, and we have no clue where he could possibly be. Twilight told me that a strange unicorn pulled him towards her and teleported him away. I feel so worried for him. I can’t imagine how Twilight must feel, all cooped up in that library alone to feel scared and nervous for her little Spikey-Wikey.” Tears began to fill her eyes, I felt like I should have poked at that subject. But it did give me an idea, she mentioned a library, I could use that to find my way around this planet and find my team. I then asked, “Rarity, could you take me to this, Twilight?” The Lone TwilightRarity agreed to take me to the Library where this ‘Twilight’ lived. On the way there I asked Rarity about Twilight, she told me that her full name is Twilight Sparkle, and that she was unicorn pony from a place called Canterlot, which just so happens to be that castle on the mountain cliff from earlier. Twilight is the pony that is most into the study and practice of magic, she is a prodigy with her magic, mastering teleportation, telekinetics and transformation. Her library holds hundreds of books, novels, tales, and encyclopedias that contain the history of Equestria. Because of her large library she needs help in order to maintain its wellbeing. That job is primarily left for Spike, her ‘number one assistant and baby dragon friend; since Spike has been kidnapped though, Rarity anticipates the library to be ‘messy’ and ‘out of order’. We arrived at the library. “Here it is Lemmour, Twilight’s library.” I looked up at the library, it was actually I wide tree hollowed out to contain a library. There were windows, doors, decorations, and other homely accessories. “Interesting library, I’ve never seen a building made out of a tree. I have seen buildings build ON trees however.” Rarity knocked on the door. Then about several seconds later out came a depressed, purple unicorn pony, this was Twilight. Her mane was tangled, dirty and all over her. She must have been awake for days researching on where Spike could have been taken. Twilight then began to speak, “Oh, hello Rarity…” “Hello Twilight, I just came over thinking you’d need somepony to talk to.” Twilight then looked up at me, with a confused face. “Twilight this is my friend, Lemmour. He just came to Equestria today. Would it be alright if he joined us?” Twilight still studied me closely. I finally broke silence and said, “Hello there.” “Hi, I’m Twilight, sorry I’m a mess, I’ve been awake for about two straight days. Where are you from?” “I’m from Planet Atevia. I just got here from Planet Earth.” “Atevia, I’ve never heard of it. I didn’t even know there were other planets out there. None of my astrology books say anything about other planets.” “Atevia is kind of distant from you, same with Earth.” “I’ll have to look into it sometime, come on in you two.” I looked around her library and was impressed by how many books were in it, though most of them on the floor from non-stop studying it was impressive. She told me and Rarity to sit in the chairs on the far side of the library and wait for her while she made us tea. She came back with three cups for us. She spoke to Rarity, “After thinking hard enough, I think I should try searching all across Equestria, not leaving one nook untouched. I was wondering if you’d like to come with me. Would you?” “Well of course dear, anything to find Spike. What about the others?” “I got to talk with Rainbow this morning and she’s in full support, she’ll come to, as for the others, I’m not sure yet.” Recapping on my time as Metal Seth, I remember how my partner and I would try to search for our former targets. But seeing as how this is an issue with teleportation, I felt my advice would be useless. I did however say, “It would be good to have someone who flies accompany you.” “We do, our friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy if she decides to come. They’re both Pegasus ponies.” “That’s good; I would know I use to be a bounty hunter of sorts…” I didn’t want to tell them my slave job was to hunt and kill, they’d never trust me. Twilight looked intrigued; I can kind of tell where this is headed. She directed her attention to me and asked, “Did you ever succeed in any of your searches?” I nervously placed my tea on the table in front of me, my hands shaking rapidly. I replied, “… Yes.” “Hmm… Tell me more about yourself Lemmour.” “Well, there’s not a lot to know about me, I don’t even know a lot about me.” “What do you mean?” “Most of my distant memories are gone, I can’t really remember who I was so I’ve kind of had to restart. But what I do know is that during my bounty hunting, I had a partner. Me and this partner quit working for our original boss and joined a team of other, um, bounty hunters… ” Everything I said was almost a lie. My partner and I never quit, we escaped from enslavement, and my team wasn’t a group of other hunters, they were all just innocent teenagers trapped in an endless war against my wicked, former enslaver. But Twilight believed every word of it. She continued to ask questions, “Wow, so where are your other friends?” “Well that’s actually why I came to Equestria, on Earth we became separated after an accident. One source told me that they moved on without me, and left planet Earth. So I used my jetpack to fly through space until I could find another planet that looked like it supported life, and low in behold, here I am now. With my jetpack destroyed however, I hope they’re here, otherwise I’ll be trapped here forever.” Twilight then looked at me with condolence, “Aww, why would they just leave you behind like that? That doesn’t sound very friendly.” “I was dead, that’s why they left.” Twilight was shocked at what she heard, she had never heard of real-life resurrection being performed, she’d only heard it in her stories. “Dead? Then how are you even with us now?” “I was revived, I’m not sure how but someone found my body and revived it. Now I need to rejoin my friends. I can only hope that they’re on this planet.” For once I was honest; I didn’t seem to need a reason to lie about my death. “Sounds like you’ve been through a lot. Do you have anywhere to stay here in Ponyville?” “No, not at the moment, are there any hotels in this town?” Twilight immediately cut me off, “Don’t fret about a hotel, you can stay in the extra bed I have here.” Rarity looked over at Twilight knowing what she wanted from me. Twilight finally asked, “Lemmour, I hope I’m not asking too soon, but I was wondering, since you have experience in bounty hunting, could you help me and my friends find Spike?” I thought about it for a moment, I then figured, if she’s going to search all across Equestria. Then I could possibly find my team along the way. I agreed. Twilight then hugged me and said, “Thank you so much! We need all the help possible.” Twilight then asked Rarity to show me around Ponyville and introduce me to the other ponies while she prepared for our journey. Rarity agreed to it, and Rarity and I got up and exited the library. Twilight then called out to me, “Once you’ve met everypony, come back here and get some sleep, we’re leaving to search at dawn.” Rainbow Dash and ApplejackRarity and I left the cottage and kept walking through random areas of Ponyville, Rarity kept looking up in the clouds as if she was looking for something. I then asked, “Rarity, what are we looking for?” “Rainbow Dash, she already decided to come with us but you should still get to know her.” “Rainbow is another Pegasus right? Is that why we’re looking in the clouds?” “Why yes, Pegasus ponies can live in clouds they can walk on them, and Rainbow usually lounges around on a cloud whenever she’s not trying to break some flying record or come up with some new trick.” “Had my jetpack not broken in the exosphere I’d try flying up there to find her.” All of a sudden a rainbow blur traced itself across the sky. “Oh good, that must be her! Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-air to look back at us and said, “Oh, hey Rarity! What’s up?” “I just wanted to introduce you to my friend here, his name is Lemmour, and he’ll be coming with us tomorrow to help find Spike.” Rainbow flew right in front of me to introduce herself, “Hey there, the name’s Rainbow Dash, A.K.A. The fastest Pegasus in Equestria, I’ve got the prize to prove it.” “Yes well, I’m Lemmour. I’m from Atevia; I just got to this planet a couple hours ago.” “’This planet?’ how did you travel from another planet?” “I used a jetpack; it allows me to travel at supersonic speeds.” “Jetpack ay? Ha! I bet it’s nothing in comparison to me!” “Well, I can’t exactly beg to differ; it broke into pieces upon my arrival, overuse I suppose.” “Hahaha, that’s something you won’t see from me, I never get tired!” Rainbow raced circles around me at incredible speeds, almost as fast as I once was. “Has Rarity ever told you about my world renowned sonic rain-boom?” “No, I’ve never heard of such a thing. What is it?” “Well it involves me going and sonic speeds, then finishing off with a powerful wave of rainbow that goes out for miles in width. Then for a matter of minutes I’m able to trace a rainbow across the sky. Trust me, they don’t call me Rainbow Dash for nothing he he.” “Interesting…” “So, you tell me you use to be fast huh?” “Yeah, I’m not sure how fast I am on my feet though; I always used my jetpack for transportation.” Rainbow had a grin on her face, she then asked, “How’s about a race then? Let’s just see how fast you can go.” Though I had things to do, and should probably get to bed early. But I liked Rainbow Dash, so I agreed to her offer. With a smile I said, “You’re on!” Rainbow drew a line into the dirt road, she then pointed to the entrance to the Ever Free Forest and instructed, “First one to the forest entrance wins!” I prepared myself, while Rainbow didn’t even need to. She then quickly said, “ON-YOUR-MARK-GET-SET-GO!” And there she went, faster than a bullet, faster than a bat out of hell to the forest entrance. I hadn’t even gone 10 meters from the start. From the finish point she yelled, “I WIN!” I was amazed by her speed; she rushed back over to me in the blink of an eye and asked, “Wanna rematch?” “… No thanks, I need to be going now, it was fun though, and see you tomorrow.” “Okay, see ya Lemmour, later Rarity!” Rarity and I walked along a dirt road, on one side was the forest, on the other was an apple orchard, there must have been over a hundred some acres. I then began to imagine that the next person we’d see would have some food for us. On the far end of the road there was a gate that we walked through. Rarity then looked up at me and said, “Here we are Lemmour; I’ve saved the most repulsive for last.” “Repulsive? Looks no different than most places I’ve seen on Earth.” “It’s just so… Uncouth and disorganized here. So backwards, so manner less.” It wasn’t bad; it was just a farm, almost like a farm you’d see in Virginia. It had a red barn made up to be a residential home, and a small stand set up just outside of it, perhaps for concessions. Rarity and I walked to a cellar opening, Rarity stomped her hooves on it and yelled, “Applejack, come out!” The cellar opened and out came a smaller pony, yellow coat, with a red mane. Rarity then greeted herself, “Oh hello there Applebloom.” “Hiya Rarity!” I immediately noticed her country accent; it made me remember a couple of my old friends. Rarity asked Applebloom, “Is your sister home?” “Yep, she’s out there, buckin ‘em apples ‘n what not.” “Thank you, Applebloom.” Rarity and I walked into the acres, there we saw Applejack bucking her back legs at trees to shake down apples, impressive strength. We went up to her, Rarity then said, “Hello Applejack. Busy today aren’t we?” “Ay Rarity, yep, just buckin down the last batch of apples for the day.” Applejack looked at me and quickly asked, “Who’s ‘is big ol’ fella?” “Applejack, this is Lemmour.” I introduced myself, “Hello there.” Applejack put out a hoof and wrapped it around my hand shaking it rapidly, “Howdy there, nice to meet ya. So where are you from? I reckon I ain't never seen anythin' like you before.” Rarity intervened and said, “Applejack! Don’t be so rude.” “It’s alright Rarity; Applejack can ask what she wants. To put things short Applejack, I’m an alien.” I kind of got tired of explaining my history over and over with these ponies, so ‘alien’ is a good word for the situation. “An alien huh? Y’all ain’t gonna suck out my brains or not’in are ya? Heh-heh.” Funny, she made a joke about the ‘stereotypical brain-sucking alien’ while I had to listen to her paint huffing, howdy-doody accent. I didn’t retaliate, “Hmhm, good one.” “So tell me some about yourself, Lemmour. How come ya came to Equestria?” “I came here originally to find my friends, if they’re here. Now it seems that I’ll be helping you all find your friend.” “Oh you mean Spike?” “Yeah, Rarity and I have been walking all over Ponyville today asking the other ponies if they’d be willing to come along on the search for him, would you like to come Applejack?” “I’d be more than happy, but how come you’re helping us?” “Since Twilight wanted to search all across Equestria, I figured I’d take that opportunity to look around for my friends while following you, plus I believe I would be quite the asset.” “How so?” “Observe.” I raised my hand to the sky and fired a large laser into the sky, far enough to make a circular hole in the clouds. Applejack was stunned by what I could do. Meanwhile a gray pony with a yellow mane poked her head out of the cloud I shot. She had weird eyes one looking at me, the other looking at Applejack and Rarity. She looked confused so I said, “Uh, sorry! My bad!” She simply flew away to another cloud, I noticed on her thigh though she had a tattoo of bubbles. Then I came to think of it, every pony here had a tattoo, so I finally asked, “Okay, what the hell is up with all these tattoos you ponies have, so far besides Applebloom, every pony here has a tattoo of some sort.” Rarity and Applejack looked at each other for about a second, and then began laughing. Rarity then answered, “Oh darling you’ve got a lot to learn here, they’re called cutie marks. They’re a mark received after a young pony learns his or her destiny in life.” “Don’t your kin got’em Lemmour?” “No actually, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one.” Then out of nowhere, I had another flash of a mental image, it was an image of a cutie mark Rarity and Applejack previously mentioned to me. The mark was of the sun. The mental image was gone. I then asked, “Is there possibly a pony that has a sun as his or her cutie mark?” “Yes actually, you must be thinking of Princess Celestia.” ‘Celestia’ that name repeated itself in my head, ‘Celestia… Celestia… Celestia…’ Why was the name burdening me so much? “I was just wondering…” “Oh alright, say want somethin' to eat? I got some mighty fine apple fritters at the barn if y’all want any.” Rarity agreed to it, but I opposed the offer, “No thank you, actually I think I should probably go on back to Twilight’s library, I need some sleep.” “Do you remember the way back?” “Yeah I think I do. Nice meeting you Applejack, and thanks for showing me around Rarity, see you both tomorrow!” “Bye!” Rarity said. "Nice meetin' ya partner!" Applejack yelled. I mumbled to myself quietly, "... Yeah whatever, Apple-Bob-Thorton..." PonderingAs I walked back to Twilight’s library, I took some time to ponder on these recent mental images and voices. There was the silhouette, the dream of me being kidnapped yelling ‘Soar’, and then Celestia’s cutie mark. I began to piece something together; the silhouette was of Princess Celestia, though I still couldn’t explain the kidnapping. Could Celestia have taken me? And could these mental images and voices not be dreams, but who I was before my enslavement? I couldn’t be sure, so the only thing I could do was simply wait for more of the images and voices to come. I approached Twilight’s library and knocked on the door. Twilight answered, “Oh hey Lemmour, come on in.” I walked in and noticed the whole room was still cluttered with books, obviously from Twilights study and concern for her friend. She turned to me and asked, “So did you meet the other ponies?” “Yes, they were very nice to meet. That Rainbow Dash is definitely my kind of pony.” “Good, did they all agree to coming with us?” “Yeah, all of them, so there will be seven of us searching.” “Perfect!” “What are you up to now?” “I’m preparing some supplies for the journey, food, blankets, and first aid kits.” “We should probably get some sleep soon.” “You can go on to bed, I set up a small bed upstairs for you, I’m gonna stay up late.” “Okay, thanks.” I began walking up the library stairs, looking back; I could see how worried Twilight was. Even when knowing that all her friends would be aiding her in the search for Spike, it was not enough to ease her fears. I continued to walk up. I saw the bed Twilight set up for me; I opened my armor to crawl out of it, and then hopped in to the bed. I looked to the right to see a picture of Twilight and a purple dragon in a framed picture. The picture next to it showed them both again, only younger. I assumed that this purple dragon was Spike. I saw one more image, it was of an egg, a greenish, purplish egg, the same colors that Spike had. That egg burned itself into my mind. I then had another mental image. This mental image was of Princess Celestia again, she was walking away from me with that same egg. The image was over. I then closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep fast, but I couldn’t keep from wondering, just who the hell was I before King enslaved me? It was something I couldn’t ignore, after tossing and turning in the bed for about an hour, I finally got up and went down stairs. I saw Twilight still up and studying, she didn’t recognize me out of my armor. She quickly realized it was me though, “Oh, Lemmour. I almost didn’t recognize you, what’s wrong?” “I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been having strange visions or dreams or something. I was hoping that you’d have a book about it somewhere. Maybe one about memory loss to?” “Sure I’ve got a couple.” Twilight’s unicorn horn glowed, as she telekinetically lifted a couple books on dreams, hallucinations, memory loss, psychology, and even Alzheimer’s disease. “Thanks Twilight, I’ll bring these back down once I’m done.” “No problem.” I went back up stairs and sat on the bed and began reading about memory loss. I moved on from book to book, from what I could gather my memory loss is called “Amnesia”. I saw that some diagnosed claim to have seen mental flashes, blurs, or images that their peers confirmed to be their past or in a way linked to it. I can now say that I must have been born here in Equestria, but how? I’m an Atevian… Right? DawnMy morning began with Twilight’s hooves on my shoulders, jolting me awake. It’s time to begin the search for Spike. After breakfast Twilight and I went to the limits of Ponyville to meet the other five ponies. I imagined this voyage would end in diabetes seeing that Pinkie’s entire luggage was candy and frosting, reminds me of that fat bitch from “Death Becomes Her”. Everyone else had sleeping bags, food, water; and Rarity had more clothes than the rest. After Twilight re-inspected her bag making sure she had everything, she asked everyone, “Is everypony ready?” Everypony replied with a big “Yes!” “Alright then, we’ll start here in the Ever Free Forrest, we’ll travel uphill from there and out of the forest, then into Manehattan, then we’ll push through to Appleloosa and climb the mountains to Canterlot. If we don’t see him at that point I’ll devise an alternate path.” We all agreed and entered the forest. After walking for about a mile, I ran up to Twilight and asked her, “So, when Spike was taken, did you get a good look at who the culprit was?” “Yes actually, she was a light purple unicorn; she had a black mane and a cutie mark representing crescent moon with a fist adjacent to it. She also wore a small, single diamond necklace.” “I’ll try to remember that.” “She also said something to me. She told me, ‘You will know my pain, you’ll know the pain of being ripped from someone you love!’ then she vanished… with Spike… trapped in a magic grip.” A single tear ran down Twilights cheek, I put my palm on her back and said, “Do not worry, we will find him.” Hours later, it appeared we were lost in the forest. Earlier Fluttershy became scared when a tree branch lightly slapped her thighs and she became physically immobile from fear. So LUCKY ME got to carry her around from that point on. Rainbow Dash then said to Twilight, “I told you Fluttershy would only slow us down!” “You don’t think I’m not surprised at this point Rainbow?” “You shouldn’t be! Like I’ve said, that pony is afraid of her own shadow. Ya don’t see me freaking out.” Then all of a sudden, behind Rainbow Dash, rose a giant five headed monster out of the depths of the forest. It roared as loud as it could behind her. Rainbow screamed and flew behind me, then noticed that everyone directed their attention at her. Rainbow just said, “Uh, just a sneeze. Heh heh...” Everyone was frightened by this enormous beast, Twilight then explained what it was. A Hydra, a dragon with 5 heads. Fluttershy, who had just then regained consciousness only to see a towering Hydra in front of her flew to the other ponies as fast as possible. Everypony began running away, but I stood my ground. All the ponies called out to me, “LEMMOUR!” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” “YOU’RE GONNA GET EATEN!” I raised both hands at the hydra, as one of its heads charged at me; I fired a powerful laser incinerating the beast in one shot. The Hydra fell dead on the ground. The ponies had their eyes covered; they shuttered to look, fearing I’d be gone. When they finally looked they saw me in front of one burning Hydra corpse. I then boldly said, “… Eat shit and die, Hydra!” The ponies stomped their hooves on the ground, I guess it’s their version of clapping in a way. All but Rainbow were stomping, Rainbow flew to me and said, “So you beat a Hydra in one blow, big deal. Bet ya can’t do it again!” Rainbow and I got in an argument until Applejack intervened, “Uh, hey both y’all. I don’t reckon there’s gonna be anything to barbeque in one shot if the forest is burned down!” Applejack pointed behind me. I turned to see loads of billowing smoke coming from the trees and bushes from where I shot the Hydra. The fire was spreading rapidly, and it would only be a short amount of time before it would incase us. We began to bolt out towards the other side of the forest. A Black PerscriptionAs the Ever Free Forest burned behind us, no pony even glanced back. I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the others, the smoke and ash then began to blind me, and my armor visor was covered in soot. All I could see was black, nothing but pure black. I ran in to tree after tree, trying to find the ponies. The smoke was overwhelming; it came to the point where the smoke was poisoning me. This slowed my movements and made me start to faint and I fell to the ground and I passed out. Another mental image came to me, this time of a strange silhouette organizing what appeared to be prescription pills and other medications, even a few syringes. He then devoured the pills, bottle after bottle, and injected himself with a strange bright colored substance. The person doing this then looked to me and told me, “Go into the other room Méso, I don’t want you to see me doing this...” He called me ‘Méso’ why? Was this my original name?! Before I could really think about it, I was slapped awake by Rainbow Dash. My visor was then rubbed clean of soot by Rarity. My sight was restored, “Thank you, Rarity.” “Well I couldn’t simply let you wonder around the rest of the way with all that horrid ash all over you.” The other ponies looked at Rarity with a blank disappointed stare. Then Rarity replied the look with, “Oh, and your sight of course!” “Hey! What about me? I’m the one who flew in to that smoke and dragged you out!” Rainbow Dash said. “Thank you to, Rainbow Dash.” I observed the forest fire; a large portion of it was completely gone from the fire. But it appeared that the Pegasus ponies were pushing rainclouds over it to drown the fire. I turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Do Pegasus ponies have the ability to manipulate weather?” “Yeah, looks like they’re gonna rain the fire down. It’ll be alright, there’s still a whole other section of the forest remaining. We do a pretty good job don't we, huh?” I ignored her boasting, and replied, “That’s good.” I turned to Twilight and gave some advice, “Twilight, since this fire was so massive, I imagine if the pony who took Spike has fled if she was here from the start.” “You’re probably right, we should move on to Manehattan.” Suddenly a rumble came from Applejack’s stomach. “Boy, I’m mighty hungry, y’all wanna stop ‘n have some lunch before we move on out?” The other ponies agreed, as did I. Nothing like breathing in ash and smoke from a burning forest to make you hungry. Applejack opened her saddle bag, and displayed bagged sandwiches, caramel apples, bottles of apple cider, and apples. I sat down, escaped my armor and began to dine on some apples. The other ponies looked at me, besides Twilight, because she already knew what I looked like outside the armor. I looked back and stated, “Yeah, this is what I look like.” “Golly, you Atevian folk sure look different compared to anything I’ve ever seen.” “Thinking about it now though, I don’t think I’m really an Atevian.” “Whatcha mean?” “I think I was born here, on Equestria.” The ponies all looked surprised. I then continued, “It’s a strong possibility, all these images and voices I receive point to it. They also point to me having an encounter with Princess Celestia at one point. I don’t even believe ‘Lemmour’ is my real name! What was I? Am I supposed to be someone else?!” My frustration concerned the others, Rarity trotted over to me and placed her hoof on my shoulder and said, “Lemmour, a matter of months ago, Spike had the same questions and wonders. But he learned, that you don’t have to follow the path others expect, you can move on and continue the life you already lead.” I let out a sigh, what Rarity said, was helping. “And from what I’ve seen, you’ve adapted fashionably to our way of life, why try to differentiate from it?” Applejack trotted closer and stated, “We’re more than happy to welcome ya to it partner!” I smiled at Applejack and Rarity, and nodded my head, “Yeah, you’re right. I think I was meant to be different. But still all the voices, the images, they make me more and more curious.” Rainbow flew over and said, “Well tell those voices to take a hike! Let ‘em know you wouldn’t stray from your new friends!” There was silence on my part. “I’ll try to ignore them; I won’t let them keep me from helping you find your friend. Thank you all for your concern and support.” Pinkie pounced to me and said, “That’s what friends are for, Lemmour! Now let’s have our lunch!” Pinkie grabbed a cupcake out of her saddle bag and thrusted it into my mouth. It was poppy-seed… It was tasty. ManehattanWe arrived in Manehattan; it’s a rather large city, almost like planet Earth’s ‘Manhattan’. There was even a colossal statue of a pony resembling the statue of Liberty. Between here and Ponyville, this has to be the most technologically advanced, however it still doesn’t stray too far from the telegraph, or perhaps ‘pony-graph’ in their case... I’m still adjusting; maybe exploring this city will comfort me. So far I haven’t heard a single voice or seen a single image in my head since our picnic in the forest. I felt relaxed, I simply went with everything, and let the beauty of Manehattan’s lights and views take my focus away. Then suddenly I hear, “Get out of the way, kid!” Said a stallion, moving around me. Applejack trotted to me and said, “That’s Manehattan for ya, too much hustle and bustle for any kind talkin.” “I can definitely see, but I sure like this city’s look. So what’s on our agenda here?” Twilight levitated out a checklist in front of her and said, “Posting lost fliers. We should try to find a big hotel to post them in; I have the fliers in my saddle bag, let’s go.” We went into a local hotel to ask about posting fliers regarding Spike’s kidnapping. We were approved and Twilight handed me a stack of fliers to post through the hotel hallways. Each of us was on a different floor of the building; posting fliers and asking guest questions. I was on floor ‘#4’ doing the job. After three hours of posting fliers and asking questions, we had zero luck. Not a single eye has seen Spike. Twilight then suggested trying another hotel the next morning, and checking in to the current hotel to hit the hay. Twilight felt it was appropriate seeing as we have been in here for hours, not using the hotel’s business for its intended use. We got a rather small room; it had two queen-sized beds and a balcony which gave us a nice view of the city. Three ponies got into one bed, while the other three got into the other. I then curiously asked, “Where do I sleep?” The ponies then laughed and finally Fluttershy suggested, “You could climb into a bed and snuggle up with us.” I blushed and just stood there, eyes widened, and possibly bloodshot from what was suggested; I then reject the offer and said, “I’m not really tired anyway; I think I’ll stop by the swimming pool.” Fluttershy looked disappointed and I left the room. I entered the pool room, got out of my armor, and walked into the pool. The water was warm and relaxing, this is exactly what I needed after a day of hard work. I did front flips and back flips off the diving board over and over, stood on my hands under water and even allowed myself to float along the surface. I then wondered how long I could hold my breath for, so I went down and started counting; after thirty seconds my vision began to fade, then my vision returned, but the water was a dark glowing green color. I was moving my arms and legs rapidly trying to get back to the surface, and as I reached the surface I looked forward and I saw him, King, my former enslaver. I looked down to see that he put me in a large cauldron. I looked ahead again and saw that he had a small zebra character held at gun point, being told to do exactly as he said. My true vision returned and I was in the hotel pool again. It was just another horrifying mental image. I rushed out of the pool and got in my suit, I didn’t even dry myself off. I ran out of the pool room and took the stairs back up to the hotel room. I stepped inside the room, got out of my armor again. I hopped into one of the beds and held Fluttershy close to me, nuzzling into her soft chest. She then woke up and looked down at me, she smiled and quietly said, “Awww… How sweet…” She put her hooves fore-legs around me and pulled me closer, and I drifted off to sleep. The Blank FlankThe sun cascading through the balcony curtains of our hotel room woke me up, still in Fluttershy’s arms. I maneuvered myself out of her hold so that I wouldn’t wake her. I walked to the balcony and closed the curtains, so that the sunlight wouldn’t disturb the other’s sleeping. I decided to get some breakfast for myself; I chose to go to a donut shop across from the hotel. I was still tired, I had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep during the previous night. Because I was so exhausted from my lack of sleep, on my way out the lobby to exit the hotel, I tripped over and fell face first into the concrete. I got up, and I could feel that my forehead scraped up some; it was covered in dirt to. I figured I’d simply wash it out once I got to the donut shop. When I arrived at the donut shop, I headed directly to the restroom. I used the sink to wash my scrapes of all the dirt, and then I suddenly hear somepony shivering, I peeked on the other side of the restroom to see a very skinny stallion pony in the corner on the ground. He had wings and a unicorn horn; I believe Twilight once told me this race was called ‘Alicorn’. One thing he did lack however was one of those ‘cutie marks’ Rarity told me about the previous day. After I was done cleansing my wound, I approached him and asked, “Excuse me, but are you okay?” He looked back at me with bloodshot, gloomy eyes. “I’ll be fine, I just need to use my umm… Medicine…” “Oh okay, is it Parkinson’s?” “What’s that?” “Oh, never mind.” Judging by his red eyes, slim appearance and slurred voice; I imagined he probably hadn’t had anything to eat in a while. From his paleness, and long, messy, dirty mane; I had the assumption he was homeless. So I offered, “Would you like to get some lunch, it’s on me.” “Yes, please, that would be nice.” The Alicorn stood up slowly, every limb shaking and rattling. I could tell he must have many personal problems. We walked out of the bathroom and towards the counter to order. I had to wait for him to catch up with me, even my normal walking was too fast for him to follow. He finally caught up, the cashier trotted over to us and asked, “Hello, welcome ‘Donuts, Bagels ‘n Biscuits’ may I take your order?” I responded, “Yes, I would like a large coffee and two cream filled donuts. Also I’d like a dozen chocolate glazed donuts to take with me. ” The dozen being for the other six once I return to the hotel room. The cashier asked my new friend what he wanted, and he said, “I will have three the croissants, and two jelly filled donuts.” The cashier wrote up the order and said, “Alight, wait one moment.” There was silence between me and my new friend. I finally asked, “So, what’s your name?” “Pan, and yours?” “Lemmour.” Pan looked intrigued. “I’ve never heard of that name.” “It’s Atevian, so is all that food for you?” “Yeah, I haven’t had anything to eat in a while.” My concerned look became apparent to Pan. He quickly stated, “Don’t worry I’m not homeless or anything, my friend Shards is however, and I’ve been giving more of my own food to her.” “I understand.” “It’s quite sad though, Shards is such a talented mare, and she’s a prodigy with her magic, I’ve never seen anything like her. She has so much potential, but things just didn’t turn out in her favor.” “What happened?” “Her and her older sister was living alone at one point, in poverty. About a year ago, the older sister went to Ponyville to perform her own magic show; it was her only source of gaining any money at the time. She was gaining money for her and Shards, to afford food, and comfortable living conditions. During her visit, she was completely outshined by another unicorn, and the older sister had to leave Ponyville, and she returned to Shards with little earnings. The older sister gave Shards what she had earned and told her to go on her own, and that she’d be better off. Just two weeks ago, I met Shards and we had become instant friends, and she began residing with me.” That was such a sad story, I felt as though I shouldn’t have asked about her misfortune. The cashier came back to us and gave us our orders, I tried to pay her with U.S. currency, but then Pan stopped me and said, “Hold on, I don’t think that money will be any good here, allow me to pay instead.” “What, no you don’t have to this was on me, I’ll just simply ask her to take it back.” “No, I need someone to talk to, and I need a bite to eat.” Pan tossed up 10 golden checker-shaped objects. He levitated his own purchase and I carried my own, we sat down near the window and began breakfast. I then asked, “So tell me about yourself, Pan.” “Well, there’s not much to say, I lead a pretty solitary life, other than having Shards around. I’m just a very boring pony in general.” “So, what brought you to this donut shop today?” “Well I was actually here last night, I slept here.” “Oh! How come?” “Ah… I’ll… I’ll be honest; I have a lot of emotional problems, ever since some loved ones were… taken from me by the princess…” I then remembered the name ‘Celestia… Celestia… Celestia…’ ringing in my head. I then asked, “Princess Celestia?” “…Yeah, for a long time, I’ve had a lot of untreatable sadness built up. I don’t like ponies I know personally, like Shards for example, seeing me in one of my moments. So last night I left my home on Foal Mountain, and I came here, far away to be alone with myself.” I couldn’t eat; I was too distracted by these stories. I was afraid to ask him anything, I was afraid that anything at this point could only bombard him with memories of his past. He then asked me, “So, Lemmour. Tell me about you.” I didn’t hesitate to tell him everything; I told him of where I came from, my memory loss, my new pony friends, and my current mission with them. After I told him my story, he then said, “Wow, memory loss huh? I envy you, friend.” “Trust me, it’s a burden, always wondering what you were before, and the grasping thought of finding out that you weren’t even born in the same place as you think.” “You told me you and your friends are looking for someone kidnapped, who is he?” “His name is Spike; he’s a purple baby dragon. That’s all I know.” Pan’s eyes jumped at the word ‘dragon’ he looked up at me and stated, “A dragon? Well I can’t say I’ve ever seen any dragons before, only in story books and murals.” “Oh okay.” Pan wrapped up all his food; he got up and said, “Sorry Lemmour, but I’m afraid I’m expected to be somewhere pretty soon, it was nice meeting you. Good luck finding your friend’s dragon.” “Thanks, Pan. Good luck in your future endeavors.” “Goodbye.” Pan exited, and I continued my breakfast. Breakfast In BedI returned to the hotel, I entered our room and I was greeted with Rainbow Dashes face two inches away from me, she asked me, “Just where have you been all morning!? None of us could find you!” “I went to get breakfast. Donuts for everypony!” I displayed a box full of delicious chocolate glazed donuts to the six ponies, all of them trotted happily to have some, Pinkie however sprung to the donuts and gobbled up 3 in one bite. I promptly said, “Damn.” Everypony else said, “Thanks Lemmour!” “Ah you’re welcome, I didn’t even buy these.” Twilight looked up from her donut and asked, “Really? Then how did you get them?” “They were bought for me by a new friend, his name is Pan.” “Oh that’s nice.” Applejack used her nose to flip a donut in the air and then catch it in her mouth, while chewing she asked, “Mmmm… Where is he? I’d wanna meet any fellar who’d be so kind as to buy us donuts.” Rarity turned to Applejack with a disgusted face and yelled, “Applejack! Please, don’t talk while you’re eating!” Applejack continued to chew and got closer to Rarity’s face and said, “I ain’t talkin and eatin; I’m eatin and talkin, miss frilly-filly!” Small drops of spit got on Rarity’s face, and Rarity became angrier. The redness of her cheeks really contrasted with her white fur. Fluttershy tried to calm them both down, “Oh… Um… Girls, please, settle down, let’s just enjoy these delicious donuts and have a good time, please?” Rarity and Applejack continued to argue, the argument became more heated, and Twilight finally intervened, “BOTH OF YOU STOP!” Twilight used her magic to separate them to opposite sides of the room. Then suddenly, the attention was brought off of Rarity and Applejack, and towards the knocking on our hotel door. Pinkie Pie opened up the door, behind the door was the hotel receptionist as well as another pony behind him. The receptionist greeted himself, “Good morning mares and…” He was looking confused at me. “…Robot? Any who, I’ve come to tell you that this young mare behind me claims to have seen your lost friend, there was no hotel room included on the fliers so I brought her here.” Twilight became ecstatic; she jumped toward the door yelling, “YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Come on in!” The unicorn mare trotted in and sat on the bed. Twilight introduced herself, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and your name?” “The name is Lemonleaf; allow me to express my condolences on your kidnapped friend.” “It’s quite alright, I feel we’re getting closer, so, what have you seen?” “Well, yesterday near my home in Hollow Shades, I saw a light purple pony, with a black mane. She had your dragon by a chain around his neck. With several chains binding his hands and feet.” Everyone gasped in shock; Rarity looked even more angered than a few moments ago. Rarity then said, “SHE HAD MY LITTLE SPIKEY IN CHAINS!? I’LL KICK THE SHIT OUTTA THAT BITCH!” Everypony was baffled at what Rarity had just yelled. My assumption was that ponies didn’t cuss a lot. Rarity then said, “… What? Lemmour says those words too!” Twilight then turned back to Lemonleaf and continued her conversation, “ANY way… That sounds just like the appearance of the same person who took Spike. I saw her take him, was she wearing a diamond necklace?” “Yes, she also had a crescent moon and fist cutie mark.” “Yep, that’s definitely her. You said she was in Hollow Shades?” “Yeah, that’s the place.” “Would you be kind enough to take us there and direct us around the town?” “I’m sorry, but I’m here to visit my family and just got here today, I’m glad I could be of assistance though.” “It’s alright, I’m sure we can find our way around.” “I will give you this advice though; steer clear of the west part of town, there’s a lot of gang and drug activity that goes on in that area. You Earth ponies and Pegasi ponies better watch your backs especially, the gang there is a unicorn gang, they are very confrontational towards anypony that isn’t their own race.” “We’ll keep that in mind, thank you so much for coming by.” The other ponies thanked her, and she left. I was in the back of the room; I lied down onto the bed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the town that Lemonleaf mentioned. “Hollow Shades… Hollow Shades… Why was that so significant? I then got a mental image of myself being dragged by my neck through a forest by King. I could see something far in the distance, a sign saying “Hollow Shades”. Suddenly, a sharp pain entered my head, and I screamed as loud as I could. The pain I felt was like having a tent peg struck into my skull with a metal baseball bat. The ponies galloped to me as fast as they could, they saw me with my hands on my ears, my body shaking and shivering, and with tears running down my cheeks. Seconds later I passed out. Hollow Shades BoundI woke up on a moving train; my head was lying on Rarity’s stomach. I lifted myself up; I was greeted by a worried look on Rarity’s face, “Hello darling, do you feel okay?” “I feel fine…” I turned around to see more concerned faces, all looking in my direction, with the exception of Pinkie Pie’s face which was buried in chocolate cake from her saddle bag. I then stated, “Everypony, listen. Please don’t think too much of my episode earlier today, it was just another mental image.” Fluttershy then argued, “But… But you were shrieking in terror, you were swinging your legs and arms around. You kept screaming, ‘Soar’ over and over again… We were so scared for you…” “Please, don’t be so worried about me.” “But you’re our friend! How could we not be worried?” “You haven’t known me that long though.” “We still like you a lot…” “Well, it’s nice to know I have friends who care about me here on this remote planet, but I really just want to look past my emotional situation.” “I think it would be better if you just simply talked to us about it. What did you see?” “No Fluttershy, I don’t want to talk about it.” “Just give it a try, if there’s anything I’ve learned from my friends, it’s how to be brave and confront your feelings when they are bothering you.” I became irritated, and told Fluttershy again, “I said. No!” “…Please, just give it a try? We all really want to help you!” My anger became too much to bottle up. I turned to Fluttershy and yelled, “NO! DAMN IT! Now all of you leave me the hell alone for now!” I got up and walked toward the back of the train cart towards the door to the next cart. I could hear Applejack’s voice call out to me, “Lemmour! There ain’t no reason to get all worked up, come back! Twilight’s voice followed, “Lemmour!” Next Rainbow Dash, “Wait up!” Rarity, “Oh please! Come back Lemmour!” Then finally Pinkie, with her voice muffled by the chewing of cake, “Wait!” I slammed the door on the way out, and went to the next train cart, and continued on until I finally made it to the caboose. I sat near the window, seeing Manehattan grow smaller in the distance. I let out a large sigh, I felt awful about how I treated Fluttershy and everypony else. Then I heard the caboose door creak open from behind me, behind it was Pinkie Pie. She came closer and said, “I’m sorry about how you feel.” “No, I’m sorry; I should have never yelled at Fluttershy like that, I feel horrible about it. How is she?” “She started crying, she feels afraid to talk to you.” “She had good intentions, perhaps I should get all these problems off my chest. I’ve had so much anger bottled up, and it only grows with all these voices I hear and all these images I see. At any moment, I could blink and then there it would be, right in my face, another terrifying scene. It’s all thrown right in to my face, and I feel even worse throwing hateful words into Fluttershy’s face.” “I think the only think that should be thrown into anypony’s face, is chocolate cake!” Pinkie proceeded to fling chocolate frosting into my face with a spoon. I used my finger to wipe if off, I pushed my head out of my armor to lick it. Pinkie laughed. “Ha, what’s so funny Pinkie?” “It’s just silly how you wear that big armor, the real you is so tiny and cutesy!” “Oh, heh-heh.” We laughed for a little while, and suddenly I burped up fire, actual red, glowing fire. Normally I’d take it seriously and wonder just what the hell was up with that, but Pinkie brightened the mood by saying, “OHHH! Maybe we can roast marsh mellows now!” “Hahaha! I don’t even know how I did that, it was pretty cool.” “Maybe you’re a dragon, like Spike! Maybe you two are even brothers! You did say you came from this planet right?” “I don’t think that would be the case. But yes, I must have come from this planet. That previous image I had showed that I was being dragged from Hollow Shades, maybe that was my birth home.” “Hee hee, or maybe you just partied to hard, hahaha!” I busted with laughter at Pinkie’s comment, I was truly having a great time for once. For the first time in a long time I was genuinely smiling and happy. I told Pinkie, “Thanks for coming down here, Pinkie. You’ve made me feel great, and for once I’m actually truthfully happy, and smiling.” “That’s what I specialize in; I hold the element of laughter! I enjoy making everypony happy, and watching everypony smile. Well in this case, every-alien, haha!” Pinkie and I got up and headed back to the cart where everypony else was. The first thing I did was go to Fluttershy to apologize. She was balled up in a corner crying intensively. I sat next to her and put my hand on her back. She looked up at me and reached for a hug, I leaned down to embrace her. She then told me, “I... I… I’m… so… sorry…” “You don’t need to be sorry, this was my fault. I’ve had a lot of bottled up anger and sadness. I should be talking about it in the comfort of my friends; I should have never lashed out towards you like that. I’m sorry.” “You’re… You’re not mad?” “No, I’m not mad at anyone.” She looked up at me with a smile; she stretched her neck up to nuzzle her head under my neck. All the ponies behind us awed, and the train stopped. We’ve arrived in Hollow Shades. Crescent FistAll of us stepped out of the train; there was a long stretch of road surrounded by dark, dense forests. On the far end of the road was the same sign from my previous mental episode. As we walked down the road, I anticipated whatever voices could come. We walked past the sign, in front of me was a village in poverty. It was the gloomiest place I have seen so far in Equestria. I asked Twilight, “Is this place usually so gloomy?” “Whenever someone in Ponyville would mention this place, it’s quickly dismissed. I can definitely see why.” As I looked around the village, I saw posters and flags of a crescent and moon. They were all over shops and houses. Each poster would say “THIS IS OUR WORLD.” Out of curiosity I asked Twilight, “Twilight, do you know anything about these posters?” “No, I’ve never seen them before. They have the same design as the cutie mark of the mare who took Spike. She must have something to do with all this.” Fluttershy looked around the most cautiously, she then asked us, “Say, didn’t that unicorn from the hotel say there’s racism against Pegasi and Earth ponies?” “Well, yeah but-“ Fluttershy squealed in fear, ducked down, and covered her eyes with her hooves. I then said, “Everypony stand behind me, and look out for each other. I won’t allow any unicorn to hurt any of you.” They all got behind me and walked. As we continued on, the local unicorns gave us some unfriendly looks, and those looks changed to fear when they saw me. I imagined there would be no trouble, seeing as the unicorns were becoming so afraid of me. We walked into the closest grocery store available, inside were more unicorns with nasty looks, and hateful eyes. I reminded my friends, “Everypony, remember, just stick together.” We walked to the first register open; Twilight greeted herself to the cashier, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m a tad curious; I’d like to know a little more about the crescent moon posters and flags around town.” The cashier gave Twilight an angry look, “I don’t believe that’s any of your business, Miss Sparkle. We all know who you are; you’re the traitor of the unicorns.” “Excuse me!? Traitor, I’ve never betrayed anypony!” “Your show against The Great and Powerful Trixie last year doesn’t say that! You just had to stand up for your pathetic Earth pony pals.” “What?! This is ridiculous! I had every reason to stand up to Trixie, and I wasn’t doing this for only Earth ponies, I did it for everypony, even Unicorns! Trixie only wanted to be better than everypony, and just how do you know about it?!” “We all know, and Trixie wasn’t just trying to be better, there was family involved, and your actions that day ripped that family apart!” “What family!?” The unicorns in the store noticed Twilight’s argument with the cashier and began surrounding all of us. I could tell this was about to become ugly. But then, I remembered what Pan said to me about his friend, Shards. “Her and her older sister was living alone at one point, in poverty. About a year ago, the older sister went to Ponyville to perform her own magic show; it was her only source of gaining any money at the time. She was gaining money for her and Shards, to afford food, and comfortable living conditions. During her visit, she was completely outshined by another unicorn, and the older sister had to leave Ponyville, and she returned to Shards with little earnings. The older sister gave Shards what she had earned and told her to go on her own, and that she’d be better off.” These stories couldn’t have been a coincidence… The Great and Powerful Trixie, was Shard’s older sister. I was too distracted by this fact, the unicorn gang surrounding us, caught all seven of us in a telekinetic hold, no pony was able to move, and neither was I. I saw my six pony friends screaming in fear and pain, as they were forced into cloth bags and tied up. My friends were being dragged away from me they called my name begging for my help, they were quickly taken out of my sight. I refused to be taken by this gang; I broke free and ran out of the store, I looked all over the village for my pony friends. I called out their names, “TWILIGHT! RARITY! APPLEJACK! RAINBOW DASH! PINKIE PIE! FLUTTERSHY! WHERE ARE YOU?!” For the next few hours, I ran around the village countless times. I even broke into a couple homes and tore through doors and walls to look for them. After 3 hours of search, I gave up. I felt horrible, I let my new friends down, they depended on me and I failed them. No Unicorn dared to get in my way, especially after my hours of massacre on their town looking high and low for my friends. I sat on the grass frustrated and stressed; I focused all my thoughts on just where could that gang could have possibly taken them. Pan was obviously involved with gang, so I thought of him; I tried to remember everything he told me. I got it; Pan told me he came to Manehattan from his home on Foal Mountain, he also mentioned Shards residing with him. I stood up, my stress and frustration turned to rage and determination. I started running; I didn’t stop running until I made it to Foal Mountain. Cold RelationsAs I traveled through the thick snow that covered Foal Mountain, I prepared myself for the final confrontation, this will be it, I’ll save my new friends. We’ll save Spike, and then everything can be at peace. So far, I can’t seem to find any residential environments, I can hardly see anything with all the snow blowing down and blinding my vision. I tripped over and fell down a hill; I landed face first into the snow, getting up I wiped all the snow off my armor and face plate, behind the blinding snow laid before me; a small wooden cabin. This had to be Pan’s home; there were no other houses on this mountain. I said to myself, “You’re mine now, bitch!” I walked closer to the house; I stood on the porch in front of the door, stiff as could be. I couldn’t move closer, my head began to hurt again. I put my hands on my ears and kneeled down. I closed my eyes, and saw every single vague mental image, and voice, rush into my thoughts. This was possibly the strongest of all of them, and the most painful. What I saw would reveal everything to me. Who is Soar? How was I affiliated with princess Celestia? What was with the egg she held as she trotted away from me? Why did the mysterious silhouette call me “Méso”? What happened to me? What is my origin? Everything was coming, all my memories were finally returning, I remembered who I was before King Zoxus took me away. I was still on the ground, distracted by my now revealed past. The door opened in front of me, behind it stood Pan, wielding a shovel in a telekinetic grip. I could only utter the words, “… You… I know now… I know who you are… I know… everything!” “I wish you hadn’t come here Lemmour, you seemed like such a good person earlier. But you're only another low life who basks under Celestia’s inferior, and corrupt rule!” He hit me directly in the head with the shovel, and I passed out immediately. I woke up sometime later, tied up inside of a dim, cold cellar. In front of me were my pony friends, all of them, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. They all were glad to see me awake and yelled, “LEMMOUR!” Twilight hopped herself over to me in her tied up hooves and laid her head on my shoulder. She said, “Oh we’re so happy to see you! We’re so glad you’re okay!” “I’m glad to know you’re all doing okay too. Here, I’ll free us.” I used a tiny laser from my finger to burn the ropes keeping me tied up; I began freeing the six ponies. Rainbow Dash then said, “We were starting to get worried you’d never find us, or just give up.” “No Rainbow, trust me, I have more loyalty than that.” “Heh, just like me, I’d never leave my friends hangin either.” Applejack then asked, “How’d ya know where to find us? That pony up stairs said you came for us when he threw ya in 'ere.” “The pony up there just so happens to be Pan, the stallion Alicorn I met early this morning at the donut shop. I remembered he told me the exact same story that the Hollow Shades store cashier was arguing about with Twilight.” Twilight look surprised, “How was he involved?” “He wasn’t, his friend was, a young mare named Shards.” “Okay, how was she involved with me and Trixie?” “Shards is the mare who took Spike from you, and she’s also Trixie’s younger sister.” All the ponies gasped, I could hear, “Good heavens!” “What the?!” “Woah nelly…” “Oh my…” “Wowzy!” Twilight, was speechless, finally she asked, “But… Why would she take Spike? I didn’t do anything to her; I never even met her when Trixie came.” “Just as the cashier said, ‘Trixie wasn’t in Ponyville just to boast, there was family involved.’ Trixie’s sole purpose of doing magic shows was to raise money and support herself and her little sister who were in deep poverty. After having been outshined by you, she left Ponyville with little earnings; she gave those earnings to Shards and told her to leave, and to lead a better life for herself. Shards wanted revenge, for being torn from Trixie; she wanted to tear you from someone dear to you.” Twilight’s mind was blown. She laid down and sighed, “So, all this is my fault?” “No Twilight, you didn’t know what was on the line.” “Yes, it is, I should have just done nothing that day. Now Spike is up there with those monsters, alone being beaten and being told to do who knows what…” “Beaten?” “Yes, when we were dragged in here I saw Spike in the kitchen; he was strapped to a chair. They were both beating him and yelling at him to do something, I don’t know what though.” Fluttershy then said, “Poor Spike, no creature should be treated like that…” Rarity then followed that comment with, “I’ll tear that pony to pieces! No one hurts one little scale on that cute little head of his!” Rainbow Dash then floated in the air and said, “I’m with ya Rarity! So how are we gonna get Spike outta there and get those two knuckle head ponies?” Twilight responded, “I’m not sure Rainbow, we’re gonna have to be quick and quiet with our plan, they could take Spike as a hostage if they catch us.” I then turned down that plan with, “No. We don’t need physical violence or even stealth to get Spike back. I know what to do; I know how to persuade Pan. I know him and Spike far too well for him to possibly ignore what I have to say to him.” “What makes you think that?” After some silence for me to regain my thoughts after that shovel to the head earlier, I told the ponies, “… Spike, Pan, and I are brothers.” A wave of surprise and shock was shot across the room. Everypony’s eyes were wide open, pupils small and shaking. Twilight broke the silence, “…WHAT, wha, how is that even possible?! It’s not scientifically possible, you and Spike being brothers is not scientifically possible!” Pinkie Pie pounced over to me and yelled, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! Hee hee hee!” I continued my story, “This cabin was our home years ago. Pan’s real name is Soar, my real name is Méso; we were both dragons, just like Spike is. When Soar and I were young, our mother had laid an egg, from which we would soon expect to have a new baby brother, who we would have named Roy. But sadly, our mother and father died in a train accident, leaving Soar and I with the egg. Rather than be able to take care of the egg ourselves, or even care for the baby after hatching, princess Celestia took the egg from us. She told us that it would go to a good home, clearly he has.” I gave Twilight a smile, but her surprised face didn’t change. I continued the story, “I understood why the egg had to be taken; Soar and I were too young to care for it alone. However Soar didn’t see it as optimistically as I did, Soar was devastated. He became addicted to several narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens. The drugs were in the forms of powder, liquids, inhalants and pills. Soar always told me to leave the room whenever he did any, but I always knew what was happening. He never forgave the princess for taking the egg, he completely resented the princess and disregarded any laws she set. Years passed since the egg was taken, and one night Soar over did it with the drugs he was passed out in the kitchen, face down in a pile of his own vomit. I went back to my room to try and sleep, but minutes after, King broke into my room and kidnapped me. I screamed for Soar, praying and begging for him to wake up and find me. King dragged me from here, down to Hollow Shades, and into the Ever Free Forest. He took me into a small house in the forest, he held the Zebra that resided in the house at gun point and forced her to use her knowledge of magical arts to change me into an Atevian, afterwards King took me aboard his space ship, and I was taken away from Equestria. I guess after I was taken, Soar assumed it was Celestia who took me. I’m not sure why he changed into an Alicorn and renamed himself, or what he plans to do with Spike and Shards. Though it does explain why he has no cutie mark since he's not a real pony. If anything, it can’t be good. He also mustn’t know that he’s related to me and Spike.” Pinkie broke the silence and said, “That’s one of the most unhappy stories I’ve ever heard…” Twilight then said, “I can’t believe Spike’s origin was so chaotic, it’s always been an enigma to both me and him.” Rarity then stated, “… Spike’s name was going to be ‘Roy’? That’s such a dreadful name.” Everypony looked unsure of what to do; everypony was frightened at what could possibly happen to their young friend upstairs. I walked to the door that exited the cellar; I turned to the ponies and said, “Here is what we’re going to do; I’m going to reveal everything to Pan and after that he’ll be conflicted to continue his plans. Though I’m not sure how Shards will follow.” The ponies gathered behind me, and Twilight told me, “Don’t worry, we can handle her.” “Okay then. Let’s do this!” I kicked down the cellar door, and all of us headed for the kitchen. The Final HitWe entered the kitchen, we saw Spike strapped to a wooden chair with tape over his mouth, Pan and Shards were facing his direction. I was ready for the worst to come, either Pan would feel conflicted and stop whatever he was doing, or become enraged and think I was only joking. Regardless, it began. I yelled one word, “SOAR!” Pan turned to me quicker than lightning, and said, “… What did you just call me?” “Soar, you’re Soar the Dragon!” Shards interrupted, “How did you filthy peasants escape!? PAN, KILL THEM!” “How do you know my birth name?” I swallowed nervously, and I said in a weak voice, “I’m Méso, your younger brother.” Pan’s eyes shot wide open, his hooves stepped further back from me. I continued to say, “Also, that baby dragon you’ve been beating and manipulating is our younger brother, Roy!” Pan put his hooves on his ears, and closed his eyes. Spike was in shock, Spike’s voice being muffled by tape said, “Brother?” “That’s right.” Pan stomped his hooves on the ground and began to cry, he then screamed, “NO! THAT CAN’T BE POSSIBLE!” “IT IS! SPIKE AND I ARE YOUR YOUNGER BROTHERS, SOAR!” “NO!!! STOP! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!” He wasn’t kidding in the donut shop when he said he had episodes, he ran down the adjacent hallway and barricaded himself in a room. I turned to my pony friends and said, “Free Spike, I’ll go after Soar.” Pinkie Pie replied with, “Okie Dokie Lokie!” The other ponies followed her over to Spike, and I ran down the hallway to the barricaded room. I kicked and pounded the door; I didn’t want to start a fire with my lasers, seeing that the cabin was wooden. I yelled to Soar, “Let me in! What the hell are you and Shards planning to do with Spike?” There was no response from the other side, and there was no way I could get in. I heard my friends down the hall fighting Shards, Shards told them, “I’m sorry ladies, but I can’t allow you to take our little weapon here!” Twilight used her unicorn horn to grab Shards in a telekinetic hold, Twilight yelled, “Why did you take my friend!? What are your plans!?” Rarity and Fluttershy ripped the tape covering Spike’s mouth and untied him; Spike gasped for air and was held in Rarity’s hooves. Rarity said to him, “Oh my little Spikey-Wikey, I’m so delighted we found you! Oh look at you, you’re all bruised and cut up!” Rainbow Dash flew over to hug Spike and asked him, “We’re glad to have found you big guy, what do they want from you?” Spike gasping for more air told her, “They’re… They are trying to get me to use my power to send items to Princess Celestia!” “For what?” “They want me to send a bomb to her and Princess Luna during the Eclipse Festival!” The six ponies gasped in shock, Twilight then said, “It all makes sense now, Pan hates the princess, and you hate me! So much to the point you both devised a plot, a plot that would weaken me, and kill the princesses! But why?” As Shards struggled to break free of Twilights power, Shards explained, “Pan wants to use his newly found fake Alicorn powers to take control of the sun and moon, so that he could build a better world! One were a pony’s family isn’t taken away, from government, or foul street-rats like YOU! My Unicorn gang will parade all corners of Equestria, enforcing order, and killing off the ungrateful Earth and Pegasi races of ponies!” Applejack stomped her hoof on the floor and yelled, “Who do ya think you’re calling ungrateful!” “The very ponies who were ungrateful for my big sister’s magic act last year, and didn’t support her, and made me homeless, sister-less, and completely ALONE! Ponyville is full of nothing but filthy Earth and Pegasi ponies that only wanted what this harlot had to offer!” Shards pointed her hoof to Twilight, Twilight responded with, “I’m sorry this happened to you and Trixie, but there’s no reason to kill innocent ponies for your misfortune. Also, it was Trixie’s own fault! She boasted herself to such a point where it put my friends in mortal danger, I had to intervene and you know what, I’m glad I did it! Also it looks like Pan is too conflicted to do anything at the moment, what makes you think he’ll do anything now?” “SILENCE DAMN YOU! Even if Pan won’t take control of Spike, or the Eclipse, I won’t give in! I’ll make you experience the same pain I had!” Shards broke free of Twilights telekinetic hold, and use her Unicorn powers to throw all six ponies across the room, she grabbed Spike with her powers and began to pull his limbs and neck, Spike struggled to resist, but was near the point of having his neck snapped and limbs torn. Still trying to reach Soar, I had no choice but to turn and stop Shards. I fired a laser into Shard’s chest and incinerated her instantly. Spike was freed, and Shards was killed. Twilight ran to Spike and embraced him, happy to see him alive and freed. I turned back to the door and continued to kick and punch to get in, Applejack trotted in front of me and said, “Allow me, partner!” Applejack bucked her hooves at the door, and the door collapsed. I rushed in, and found Soar, lying in the corner in a puddle of vomit. He wasn’t moving, I picked him up and shook him, he had no pulse, he wasn’t breathing, he was dead. I looked to the left, and saw a mess of prescription drugs scattered across the floor. Pills, powders, and inhalants were everywhere. It was his final hit and it was fatal. All six of the ponies and Spike walked into the room. Twilight turned Spike around; she didn’t want him to see this. Under some of the pill bottles was a note, I picked it up. The note read, ________________________________________ “Méso, My dearest brother, I cannot live with the thought of myself, hurting and scolding the dragon I was fighting for. It really shows that this all was my problem after all. I should have been more like you, and I should have moved on years ago. Take good care of Roy. Your brother, Soar” ________________________________________ I folded the note and placed it inside a pocket in my armor. I let out a large sigh, Twilight trotted over to me, she then said, “It’s over now, let’s go home. We’ve had a long day.” The Greatest WeaponA day has passed since our victory. My six pony friends, Spike, and I visited Canterlot for the Eclipse Festival. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna crossed their power to move the moon in front of the sun in a wondrous and beautiful display of astronomy, as I gazed at the eclipse my worries and concerns for my past team and their battle against my former enslaver faded from my mind, I decided, why not move on and enjoy my new free life, with my new friends. My new pony friends have been nicer to me, more emotionally supportive, and more understanding than any of my old friends. It was time to move on. The eclipse ended and night began; I left my armored suit at Twilight’s Library and went as my original, dragon self, thanks to Twilight’s metamorphosis spell. My dragon form as roughly the same size as Spike, maybe two inches taller, my scales were pale purple and my spines where white. My eyes were emerald green just like Spike; my tail wasn’t as pointy as his though. Spike and I had gotten along famously, I was curious to hear his adventures after he was taken into custody, and he was just happy to have a brother. Spike seemed to brag a lot about himself and what he had, I listened regardless of the annoyance. Spike also liked to talk about the ponies around Ponyville who he had a crush on, one in particular, Rarity. I didn’t see the big deal about Rarity, sure she looked enticing enough, but I always liked Applejack. As I walked around the post-eclipse party, I didn’t receive as many frightened looks as I did whenever I wore my armor in my adventure. Everypony was interested to hear my story and what I went through to get where I was, suddenly, Twilight tapped me on the shoulder with her hoof, “Lemmour, come with me, there’s someone I want you to meet.” I followed her into a large castle, the atrium was colossal, it had a stair case that went up about 10 feet and then split off into two directions. Twilight took me up the left stair case and into another hallway, where we came face to face with the largest door in the castle. Twilight used her telekinesis to open the door and right before my eyes was a throne room, with gorgeous mosaic paintings on either side of walls. At the end stood the tallest pony I had ever seen on this planet, she was and Alicorn with a glowing white with a bright rainbow mane that flowed without a breeze. It was Princess Celestia. Twilight pulled me in her direction over to Celestia, we approached her and Twilight began, “Princess, this is Lemmour.” The princess turned to me with a proud smile; she wrapped one of her large wings around me and said, “Hm, I haven’t seen you in quite a length of time.” “I can remember you now; you’re the one who took Spike into custody. No hard feelings, haha.” “Glad to see you understood, I’m honored to welcome you back home. Twilight told me about your eventful stories.” “Yeah…” “My subjects have a common belief, that they are the only ones with personal, stressful, life prevalent issues. But they fail to think of others, whether it be their neighbors and best friends, to even those extra-terrestrial.” “My whole former team has had it rough, their home city was flooded, and everyone they knew was killed by it. One in particular was under a complete belief that he was psychologically crazy, due to others making him believe that, his whole life he was cynical and unsupportive of any of us. Some of them ran away from home, abandoning their dysfunctional families, and facing nothing but hardship.” Celestia closed her eyes as if she was thinking of something; she let out a quiet sigh and said, “I’m well aware.” “Aware? But, you were never there.” “True, but for quite some time now, I’ve been observing a select group of people from both planet Earth and planet Atevia.” “Who was it? Why were you watching them? What were they doing?” “I began watching everything in Earth-year 1989.Your former ruler’s father, Rayit Zoxus, came to Equestria in search of supernatural power. His intentions were to present that supernatural power to the Atevian prime minister in an attempt to raise money for him and his pregnant wife, Yonina Zoxus, for when their expected child would be born. When Rayit arrived, he studied the unicorns and became obsessed with their raw magical abilities. He demanded to have this power any form possible to take with him. But everypony refused to give up their abilities for such a strange character. Rayit grew impatient and murdered ten unicorns in one night, he fled the planet before I or any pony else could prosecute him.” “So, my former team’s powers came from unicorn magic?” “Precisely.” “But how did it get to them?” “When Rayit took the unicorn magic from the unicorns he killed, he modified them into a virus substance, which could spread from user to user with an unpredictable outcome in power type. He presented this development to the Atevian Prime Minister for use in the Atevian military, but this proposal was hastily denied. It was fear that if this power virus spread to the Atevian public, then Atevians could take advantage of their abilities and commit crimes or threaten others. Rayit became angry; he spent all his money for research and travel and didn’t have anything left to support his new family, he could only afford a space ship for his family to live on. In 1990, King Zoxus, your former enslaver was born. Five years later he was playing around in his father’s laboratory while their ship was flying above Earth, King found the power virus stored inside a capsule and dropped it out the ship’s window by accident. The capsule containing the virus fell to Earth and landed on the head of a child, a child who you may recognize, as Seth, from your former team.” I could remember Seth; my counterpart, using a telekinetic power to subdue me, when I first confronted him on planet Earth in 2009. It makes sense that Seth would be the first carrier of these abilities. “… How much more did you watch? Can you explain what connection King had to Seth and the rest of my former team?” “King has always had a fear of supernatural powers, it all stemmed from his father. In the 90’s, Rayit had enough stress on his mind raising a child, but five years later Yonina gave birth to another child, Kinuulah Zoxus, which wore on his sanity even more. It was at this point where Rayit grew cruel and began to abuse his children and spouse. All his anger bottled up from his poverty, hardship, and failures was fully expressed in the form of beating, berating, and even molesting upon his wife and children. All the derogatory actions by Rayit were performed with his own powers. In 1999, he even used his gift to murder his own wife. Seeing this at age nine, scarred King for life and left him under the impression that supernatural powers were bad, he believed that his purpose was to hunt out and destroy any and all supernatural entities in the universe. In 2009, he finally found a signal, a signal from none other than Seth and his younger brother. Thus, you were put into place as a hypnotized assassin.” “So that’s what it all was, killing Seth and the others is his only way of finding mental peace. Luckily neither I nor any of the other assassins were ever successful, as far as my knowledge serves. They could still be fighting King right now for all I know, or they could be dead.” “I can assure you that they are alive, and they have been very successful, they are actually very close to finally defeating King. Let’s just hope they will prevail in the coming days.” “You’re still watching? From 1989 to now, that’s twenty-three years! Why are you continuing to watch King!?” “King wasn’t the only person I had an eye on, I also watched Seth’s team. The reason I watch everyone, is because this story is simply amazing. I’ve rarely ever seen friends as committed and concerned for each other as Seth’s team was, they’re so young, and have been through so much for so long, it’s inspiring to see them bound to each other so firmly. The leaders of the team, Jonah and Cole are a perfect example; they have an unbreakable blood-bond of friendship, it’s almost like they’re blood-brothers. The both of them look out for one another, and will do anything and everything they can to protect one another. This is completely without exaggeration; unity is the greatest weapon you all have.” I was still unsure as to why Princess Celestia continued to care so much about it. Twilight saw my confusion and told me, “Princess Celestia here gave me an assignment two years ago, to report to her on the findings of the magic of friendship. It would only be normal for her to have other sources to learn the magic of friendship.” Celestia continued, “I’ve always wanted my subjects to embrace friendship and love above most other feelings. You and your friend’s stories are as uplifting as Twilight’s own. You all set a perfect example for my little ponies. This new adventure Twilight has told me is no exception either.” My depression, my anxiety, and my confusion were all washed away by the Princess’ inspiring words. I had new feelings; hope, optimism, and care. My experiences and troubles no longer weakened me, they recreated me. They have reunited me with my younger brother, and have led me to embrace the future. Author's NotesThank you for reading Crossing Anthology, you may be wondering what the hell aside from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the other “Anthology”. The story being crossed is another story that I have made and still make called JKC. JKC is a comic about two young teenagers named Jonah and Cole who are fighting against an evil, alien space pirate named King Zoxus in their own home towns and cities. The story spans three years and is set on planet Earth. If you are interested in reading JKC, you can find it on my Facebook page, in the photo albums. JKC will also be submitted to Deviant Art at a later date. The main JKC characters will be the main stars for Crossing Anthology 2, which is expected to be done by 2013. It will involve them teaming with the “Mane 6” to find Lemmour’s murderer. Thank you for reading, Yon The Cryokinetic Pinkie Pie And FluttershyRarity and I walked through town, until we stopped at a building that looked like a ginger bread house, the kinds children make on Christmas. Rarity knocked on the door, and out came a pink pony with curly-unorganized hair. She had a big smile on her face. She then said, “Hi Rarity!” She then looked over at me, “Ooooh, who is this? She’s shiny!” “Um, hello, I’m Lemmour and I am a man.” “Sorry, hee hee, my name is Pinkie Pie!” “Nice to meet-“ “Where are you from? Are you an alien? Do aliens eat cake? What kind of cake do they like?” “Hmm… I come from Planet Atevia; to your race yes I am an alien; I’m not sure; and it’s non-applicable.” Everything I said was cut off, I thought to myself; “Just listen to her, rambling on. Why don’t I curse her out!?” I was that annoyed. Rarity couldn’t help but notice it, so she interrupted, “Pinkie Pie, Twilight has decided to look for Spike all across Equestria, starting tomorrow, we wanted to know if you’d care to tag along?” “Sure I would! Oh if we’re going all over Equestria, I’d better make up as much snacks and goodies as I can before tomorrow.” “Okay Pinkie we’ll leave you to your work! Come along Lemmour, let’s go see Fluttershy.” I followed Rarity about two miles down the road, to a cottage. It was surrounded by small bunnies, turtles and all sorts of other animals. There was also a bridge over a small stream that divided the house from the rest of the road, it felt isolated from everything else but in a good way. Rarity then knocked on the door and turned to me, “Fore-warning Lemmour, Fluttershy is a very nervous and shy Pegasus; only the smallest things could frighten the poor thing. So try not to make any sudden movements. No offence darling, but I can already tell by your different appearance she’ll be nervous.” “I’ll keep that in mind.” The door creaked open slowly, out came a quiet and shy voice, “... Hello?” “Fluttershy it’s Rarity, I’d like you to meet someone.” Fluttershy opened the door slowly and saw me next to Rarity; she jumped at the sight of me. I could tell she was frightened easily; she looked at me and asked, “Wow, uh… what are you supposed to be?” “I am an Atevian, my name is Lemmour.” “Hello Lemmour, I’m um… Fluttershy….” “Oh I know our name, Fluttershy.” She jumped more at the surprise of me knowing her name. Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder to get her attention, “Fluttershy, Twilight has decided to look for Spike all across Equestria. We were wondering if you’d like to come and help us.” “Oh, I don’t know… if we’re going all over, does that include the Ever Free Forest?” “Yes, and I don’t think there’s much need to be afraid of that forest, now that we’ve got someone as big and strong as Lemmour on our team, hmhmhm.” I’ll be honest, I blushed at that comment. “Well I guess but, it sounds so… dangerous…” I could tell this was going nowhere, so I raised my hand into the air, extended my palm, and shot out a laser beam from my armor. Fluttershy and Rarity were amazed. I then told Fluttershy, “As long as you’re with me, you’ll be safe out there; no foe on in that forest could match what you just saw.” After a matter of seconds, Fluttershy hesitantly said, “…Oh… Oh okay, I’ll come with you. Just allow me to give my creatures extra food and water before we leave.” “Okay Fluttershy, we’ll be back at dawn to get you.” “Okay, bye…” EpilogueI have been writing from Twilight’s library for the past six months since my journey ended, documenting the adventure and how it changed me. It’s been a long day of writing, and I believe I am done. It is a lovely night for a walk; I think I’ll hop into my armor and take the opportunity to get to know this town better. I should bring Spike with me to keep me some company. This is Méso Lemmour Zoxus, signing off. ________________________________________ This is Spike; I don’t know why this has happened. I was just walking through Ponyville with Lemmour, and all of a sudden some tall hooded creature raised a long metal tube at Lemmour and BANG, out of the tube came a flash and instantly there was a gaping, bleeding hole in his head. He fell to the ground completely immobile and unresponsive. The hooded creature ran away into the Everfree Forest, I stayed with Lemmour and shook him trying my best to get any response out of him, but he didn’t do anything. He was dead; my own brother that I only knew for six months was killed. I feel so afraid, why did this happen to me? What did I or anyone do to make this happen? I went to Twilight immediately and she promised me that everything would be okay; she promised that the murderer would be found, but I still feel so afraid and sad. Even if I only knew Lemmour for half a year, him and I were getting along so well, and I was so happy to finally meet someone from my family after not knowing anyone others my whole life. I can’t stop crying, I am still crying. ________________________________________ The End.
Lemmour ZoxusI am Lemmour Zoxus, formerly known as “Metal Seth”. After my sacrifice to aid my friends, I died from an intense electric shock. Before I knew it I awoke in the sight of a strange necrokinetic. The mysterious man claimed to have known my friends so I trusted him. He helped heal my wounds and repair my armor suit, I asked him where my friends could be and he told me that they’d be in a town in Virginia called “Winchester”. So that’s where I’m headed, to Winchester. I was all alone on my travel, just me and my memories. I couldn’t remember a lot. I could remember as far as my interactions with my former enslaver, King Zoxus. I remember the hypnosis he put me into, to follow his every command. Luckily, my mind and my friends helped me overcome it. That freedom was short lived, King had returned for revenge in a massive airship. To aid my friends I sent out an Electro-magnetic pulse wave to temporarily corrupt King’s airship and give them enough time to board and do more damage to him. Those were the memories I had; everything about my life before I was put in hypnosis was for some reason gone. After months of searching for the town of Winchester, I finally found it. It was a rather ghetto-ish town but also has a sort of early European renaissance feel to it, a little out in the country. It has a bit of everything. As I walked around through the town, I stumbled across a horse stable close to a farm. After observing the horses for a matter of seconds, I had some kind of mental image pop in my head. A silhouette of some sort, I ignored it. I walked into a suburban neighborhood, and then out of nowhere, a powerful gust of air throws me into a picket fence. I looked up and there was one of my old friends, Eric using his air manipulation powers. I asked him, “Eric!?... What the hell was that for?” “Oh! You’re Metal Seth! I thought you were regular Seth. What are you doing here? You’re dead, at least you were…” I looked up at him with a smirk, “Not anymore. How have you been?” “I’ve been better.” With concern and curiosity I asked him, “What’s your beef with regular Seth? And where is everyone else?” “They all left this planet through a door that only comes for one week every seven years, in search of the regular Seth, who for some reason went in the moment he saw it, even knowing what it was. That’s why I attacked you, I thought you were regular Seth and I thought he was here this whole time without letting anyone know. I was so enraged because, I don’t think we’ll ever see the rest of the team again.” Seth vanished; the team goes after him, and a seven year door? I must have missed a lot after I died. “Who all went in?” “Jonah, Cole, Del, Metal Jonah, and Jasmyn; who’s new to the team. It’s not like they’d be able to return even when the door comes back in another seven years. The door is a one-way only.” I hesitated to say what was about to spit out of my lips. But it had to be done. “How’s about this, I’ll use my jetpack to fly into space, and find the team.” It may sound stupid but with me being an Atevian, or “alien” to the humans, I don’t need oxygen to survive. “You’d do that?” “Yes.” Without another word my jetpack blasted me into the depths of space. Flying through the stars and dodging asteroids at supersonic speeds.
The Eclipse Festival Is ComingSix days have passed, I grew tired and impatient. I was hardly able to stay awake from hunger and exhaustion. I wonder where is my searching going to take me. The next day I saw something, a planet, just about as lush and green as the Earth. I flew down at top speed hoping this would be it; this would be where I could finally find the rest of my friends. But then my jet pack cracked and snapped in half, likely due to overuse or from burning up in the atmosphere, the only thing bringing me down to this planet now was gravity, there’s no turning around, the only thing I could think was, “my friends had better be here.” I eventually fell far enough to get a good view of the land, seeing mountains and monuments. One mountain in particular appears to have a castle built on the cliff of it; I received another quick mental picture, this time of a rather small shack on a snowy mountain top. Normally I’d wonder what’s up with these mental pictures but my falling was more important, as I fell I hoped to land into some kind of ocean or lake or anything to break the fall. Falling passed the troposphere I estimated where I’d be crash landing, then WHAM right into a dark forest. About an hour later I woke up in mud, the whole left side of my face plating was blown off my head. I was spitting out blood and pinecone bits along with three of my front teeth. Had it not been for my armor, it would have most likely been fatal. I got up and limped my way around the forest until I saw a hut, there was steam billowing out, it was also surrounded by what appeared to be African inspired masks and arts. I knocked on the door hoping someone would be inside to escort me to medical attention. I saw a window curtain move and behind it was a very large eye. I then heard a frightened voice, “Get away demon child! Turn back and frolic in the wild!” I was surprised to hear her English. I replied, “Hello? I need medical help! Hello?!” Frustrated, I kicked the door and walked away. I then saw a forest path and walk down it. The paths led me to a less dense area of the forest. This could have led to society; either that or a friggin' grizzly bear was going to lash out at me, what with my luck recently. The path led me out of the forest, and in the distance, I saw a small town. As I got closer and closer to the roads into the town, I noticed that the entire population is nothing but ponies. Multi-colored ponies, some of which have wings, while others have horns on their forehead, some others have neither. I walked down the road, as I did the expected happens; everyone looks at me with fear and curiosity. It was hard for me to really believe this was happening, I could’ve just been dreaming, or possibly on some strong-as-hell shrooms. I continued to walk about, I noticed that their writing was also in English just by noticing all the posters, “THE ECLIPSE FESTIVAL! 4 DAYS FROM NOW! DON’T MISS IT!” I took a poster off the side of one of the buildings. I turned and asked one of the wandering ponies, “Excuse me, miss? What’s this?” “Why that’s…” She was cut off by her attention towards my face. I then said, “Yeah I know my face is all messed up, now what is this?” I waved the poster in front of her. “Darling, what has happened to your mane!?” I thought to myself, “My mane? What is she talking about, I’m no pony.” Then I started to realize, it was my hair she was looking at. “Oh, my apologies. I had a fall, into some mud and trees.” “Well I can’t just let you walk around Ponyville, let alone the upcoming Eclipse Festival with that messy thing on your head!” “It’s fine, really-“ Before I could finish my sentence she pushed me to a nearby building which she called “her boutique.” I went along and figured that it ought to be interesting.
Make OverThe pony that brought me to this boutique had me sit on a cushioned couch while she prepared for whatever she planned to do to me. Judging by how damaged my armor is, I imagined that this is going to take one big chunk of time out of my schedule. “So, what’s your name?” I asked. “Rarity, the best you’ll find for fashion here in Ponyville, and your name?” “Lemmour, and is this place really called ‘Ponyville’”? “Why yes, aren’t you from Equestria?” “Ma’am I’m not even from this planet.” She looked at me with confusion; I guessed that to her and everyone else in this town, this is the only planet they know of. She then asked, “A different planet, well that’s new, I don’t hear that unless it’s from a young filly playing pretend on Nightmare Night or something.” “I’m from Planet Atevia, I spent a little time on Planet Earth, and then after a recent accident I came here. My jetpack failed on me so I crash landed into some forest nearby.” “Oh you must be talking about the Ever-free Forest, no wonder you’re in such dreadful shape, the whole forest is just so icky!” She got done with her preparations, she had set up a chair for me to sit in by a sink, and on the counter next to the sink were some hair accessories and combs, and such. I sat in the chair and leaned back. The crash from earlier left me pretty disoriented so while she was fixing up my hair I drifted off into sleep. I had a dream of myself in a small room, then the window shattered open and someone came, the person raised his or her hand and shot out some sort of bolt of energy that made my whole body quiver and paralyze, for some reason I kept crying “SOAR!” “SOAR!” “SOOOOAAAARRRR!!!!” but there was no response, and I was taken away from the room out of the window. The dream was over; Rarity woke me up saying, “All done, you look smashing!” Using her unicorn horn she telekinetically levitated a mirror in front of me. I looked completely different, my hair was slicked back, cut and trimmed, and the back was les split-ended than before. “Wow, this looks great! Thank you!” “You’re most welcome.” “So what’s the damage?” I had my pocket ready to pull out whatever money I had, though thinking of it now would she accept U.S. currency? She shook her head and told me, “No that’s quite alright, it’s free of charge. By the way, I also found some outfits that I think would look great on you.” “May I see?” She pushed a wheeled rack of many formal shirts and slacks. She had me try on every one of them until we found one that was perfect; a collared shirt with a gem necklace, the back of it came down to the back of my knees. It came with a nice pair of slacks to. Out of curiosity I asked, “Pardon my confrontation, but why are you being so nice to me and giving me these clothes? We only met about an hour ago.” “I like to do these kinds of things with everypony who comes around. It’s fun for me.” I examined the attire a little more; they all looked to be stitched without excessive use of a machine. “Did you make these?” “Oh yes, all of them.” I then saw a rather small outfit, it had a hole in the back for a tail but looking at its shape it didn’t look like it was for a pony. “What’s this one for?” “Oh… That’s for a friend, if we can ever find him.” I then noticed some melancholy in her voice, I asked with concern, “What’s happened to him?” “He was kidnapped recently, and we have no clue where he could possibly be. Twilight told me that a strange unicorn pulled him towards her and teleported him away. I feel so worried for him. I can’t imagine how Twilight must feel, all cooped up in that library alone to feel scared and nervous for her little Spikey-Wikey.” Tears began to fill her eyes, I felt like I should have poked at that subject. But it did give me an idea, she mentioned a library, I could use that to find my way around this planet and find my team. I then asked, “Rarity, could you take me to this, Twilight?”
The Lone TwilightRarity agreed to take me to the Library where this ‘Twilight’ lived. On the way there I asked Rarity about Twilight, she told me that her full name is Twilight Sparkle, and that she was unicorn pony from a place called Canterlot, which just so happens to be that castle on the mountain cliff from earlier. Twilight is the pony that is most into the study and practice of magic, she is a prodigy with her magic, mastering teleportation, telekinetics and transformation. Her library holds hundreds of books, novels, tales, and encyclopedias that contain the history of Equestria. Because of her large library she needs help in order to maintain its wellbeing. That job is primarily left for Spike, her ‘number one assistant and baby dragon friend; since Spike has been kidnapped though, Rarity anticipates the library to be ‘messy’ and ‘out of order’. We arrived at the library. “Here it is Lemmour, Twilight’s library.” I looked up at the library, it was actually I wide tree hollowed out to contain a library. There were windows, doors, decorations, and other homely accessories. “Interesting library, I’ve never seen a building made out of a tree. I have seen buildings build ON trees however.” Rarity knocked on the door. Then about several seconds later out came a depressed, purple unicorn pony, this was Twilight. Her mane was tangled, dirty and all over her. She must have been awake for days researching on where Spike could have been taken. Twilight then began to speak, “Oh, hello Rarity…” “Hello Twilight, I just came over thinking you’d need somepony to talk to.” Twilight then looked up at me, with a confused face. “Twilight this is my friend, Lemmour. He just came to Equestria today. Would it be alright if he joined us?” Twilight still studied me closely. I finally broke silence and said, “Hello there.” “Hi, I’m Twilight, sorry I’m a mess, I’ve been awake for about two straight days. Where are you from?” “I’m from Planet Atevia. I just got here from Planet Earth.” “Atevia, I’ve never heard of it. I didn’t even know there were other planets out there. None of my astrology books say anything about other planets.” “Atevia is kind of distant from you, same with Earth.” “I’ll have to look into it sometime, come on in you two.” I looked around her library and was impressed by how many books were in it, though most of them on the floor from non-stop studying it was impressive. She told me and Rarity to sit in the chairs on the far side of the library and wait for her while she made us tea. She came back with three cups for us. She spoke to Rarity, “After thinking hard enough, I think I should try searching all across Equestria, not leaving one nook untouched. I was wondering if you’d like to come with me. Would you?” “Well of course dear, anything to find Spike. What about the others?” “I got to talk with Rainbow this morning and she’s in full support, she’ll come to, as for the others, I’m not sure yet.” Recapping on my time as Metal Seth, I remember how my partner and I would try to search for our former targets. But seeing as how this is an issue with teleportation, I felt my advice would be useless. I did however say, “It would be good to have someone who flies accompany you.” “We do, our friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy if she decides to come. They’re both Pegasus ponies.” “That’s good; I would know I use to be a bounty hunter of sorts…” I didn’t want to tell them my slave job was to hunt and kill, they’d never trust me. Twilight looked intrigued; I can kind of tell where this is headed. She directed her attention to me and asked, “Did you ever succeed in any of your searches?” I nervously placed my tea on the table in front of me, my hands shaking rapidly. I replied, “… Yes.” “Hmm… Tell me more about yourself Lemmour.” “Well, there’s not a lot to know about me, I don’t even know a lot about me.” “What do you mean?” “Most of my distant memories are gone, I can’t really remember who I was so I’ve kind of had to restart. But what I do know is that during my bounty hunting, I had a partner. Me and this partner quit working for our original boss and joined a team of other, um, bounty hunters… ” Everything I said was almost a lie. My partner and I never quit, we escaped from enslavement, and my team wasn’t a group of other hunters, they were all just innocent teenagers trapped in an endless war against my wicked, former enslaver. But Twilight believed every word of it. She continued to ask questions, “Wow, so where are your other friends?” “Well that’s actually why I came to Equestria, on Earth we became separated after an accident. One source told me that they moved on without me, and left planet Earth. So I used my jetpack to fly through space until I could find another planet that looked like it supported life, and low in behold, here I am now. With my jetpack destroyed however, I hope they’re here, otherwise I’ll be trapped here forever.” Twilight then looked at me with condolence, “Aww, why would they just leave you behind like that? That doesn’t sound very friendly.” “I was dead, that’s why they left.” Twilight was shocked at what she heard, she had never heard of real-life resurrection being performed, she’d only heard it in her stories. “Dead? Then how are you even with us now?” “I was revived, I’m not sure how but someone found my body and revived it. Now I need to rejoin my friends. I can only hope that they’re on this planet.” For once I was honest; I didn’t seem to need a reason to lie about my death. “Sounds like you’ve been through a lot. Do you have anywhere to stay here in Ponyville?” “No, not at the moment, are there any hotels in this town?” Twilight immediately cut me off, “Don’t fret about a hotel, you can stay in the extra bed I have here.” Rarity looked over at Twilight knowing what she wanted from me. Twilight finally asked, “Lemmour, I hope I’m not asking too soon, but I was wondering, since you have experience in bounty hunting, could you help me and my friends find Spike?” I thought about it for a moment, I then figured, if she’s going to search all across Equestria. Then I could possibly find my team along the way. I agreed. Twilight then hugged me and said, “Thank you so much! We need all the help possible.” Twilight then asked Rarity to show me around Ponyville and introduce me to the other ponies while she prepared for our journey. Rarity agreed to it, and Rarity and I got up and exited the library. Twilight then called out to me, “Once you’ve met everypony, come back here and get some sleep, we’re leaving to search at dawn.”
Rainbow Dash and ApplejackRarity and I left the cottage and kept walking through random areas of Ponyville, Rarity kept looking up in the clouds as if she was looking for something. I then asked, “Rarity, what are we looking for?” “Rainbow Dash, she already decided to come with us but you should still get to know her.” “Rainbow is another Pegasus right? Is that why we’re looking in the clouds?” “Why yes, Pegasus ponies can live in clouds they can walk on them, and Rainbow usually lounges around on a cloud whenever she’s not trying to break some flying record or come up with some new trick.” “Had my jetpack not broken in the exosphere I’d try flying up there to find her.” All of a sudden a rainbow blur traced itself across the sky. “Oh good, that must be her! Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-air to look back at us and said, “Oh, hey Rarity! What’s up?” “I just wanted to introduce you to my friend here, his name is Lemmour, and he’ll be coming with us tomorrow to help find Spike.” Rainbow flew right in front of me to introduce herself, “Hey there, the name’s Rainbow Dash, A.K.A. The fastest Pegasus in Equestria, I’ve got the prize to prove it.” “Yes well, I’m Lemmour. I’m from Atevia; I just got to this planet a couple hours ago.” “’This planet?’ how did you travel from another planet?” “I used a jetpack; it allows me to travel at supersonic speeds.” “Jetpack ay? Ha! I bet it’s nothing in comparison to me!” “Well, I can’t exactly beg to differ; it broke into pieces upon my arrival, overuse I suppose.” “Hahaha, that’s something you won’t see from me, I never get tired!” Rainbow raced circles around me at incredible speeds, almost as fast as I once was. “Has Rarity ever told you about my world renowned sonic rain-boom?” “No, I’ve never heard of such a thing. What is it?” “Well it involves me going and sonic speeds, then finishing off with a powerful wave of rainbow that goes out for miles in width. Then for a matter of minutes I’m able to trace a rainbow across the sky. Trust me, they don’t call me Rainbow Dash for nothing he he.” “Interesting…” “So, you tell me you use to be fast huh?” “Yeah, I’m not sure how fast I am on my feet though; I always used my jetpack for transportation.” Rainbow had a grin on her face, she then asked, “How’s about a race then? Let’s just see how fast you can go.” Though I had things to do, and should probably get to bed early. But I liked Rainbow Dash, so I agreed to her offer. With a smile I said, “You’re on!” Rainbow drew a line into the dirt road, she then pointed to the entrance to the Ever Free Forest and instructed, “First one to the forest entrance wins!” I prepared myself, while Rainbow didn’t even need to. She then quickly said, “ON-YOUR-MARK-GET-SET-GO!” And there she went, faster than a bullet, faster than a bat out of hell to the forest entrance. I hadn’t even gone 10 meters from the start. From the finish point she yelled, “I WIN!” I was amazed by her speed; she rushed back over to me in the blink of an eye and asked, “Wanna rematch?” “… No thanks, I need to be going now, it was fun though, and see you tomorrow.” “Okay, see ya Lemmour, later Rarity!” Rarity and I walked along a dirt road, on one side was the forest, on the other was an apple orchard, there must have been over a hundred some acres. I then began to imagine that the next person we’d see would have some food for us. On the far end of the road there was a gate that we walked through. Rarity then looked up at me and said, “Here we are Lemmour; I’ve saved the most repulsive for last.” “Repulsive? Looks no different than most places I’ve seen on Earth.” “It’s just so… Uncouth and disorganized here. So backwards, so manner less.” It wasn’t bad; it was just a farm, almost like a farm you’d see in Virginia. It had a red barn made up to be a residential home, and a small stand set up just outside of it, perhaps for concessions. Rarity and I walked to a cellar opening, Rarity stomped her hooves on it and yelled, “Applejack, come out!” The cellar opened and out came a smaller pony, yellow coat, with a red mane. Rarity then greeted herself, “Oh hello there Applebloom.” “Hiya Rarity!” I immediately noticed her country accent; it made me remember a couple of my old friends. Rarity asked Applebloom, “Is your sister home?” “Yep, she’s out there, buckin ‘em apples ‘n what not.” “Thank you, Applebloom.” Rarity and I walked into the acres, there we saw Applejack bucking her back legs at trees to shake down apples, impressive strength. We went up to her, Rarity then said, “Hello Applejack. Busy today aren’t we?” “Ay Rarity, yep, just buckin down the last batch of apples for the day.” Applejack looked at me and quickly asked, “Who’s ‘is big ol’ fella?” “Applejack, this is Lemmour.” I introduced myself, “Hello there.” Applejack put out a hoof and wrapped it around my hand shaking it rapidly, “Howdy there, nice to meet ya. So where are you from? I reckon I ain't never seen anythin' like you before.” Rarity intervened and said, “Applejack! Don’t be so rude.” “It’s alright Rarity; Applejack can ask what she wants. To put things short Applejack, I’m an alien.” I kind of got tired of explaining my history over and over with these ponies, so ‘alien’ is a good word for the situation. “An alien huh? Y’all ain’t gonna suck out my brains or not’in are ya? Heh-heh.” Funny, she made a joke about the ‘stereotypical brain-sucking alien’ while I had to listen to her paint huffing, howdy-doody accent. I didn’t retaliate, “Hmhm, good one.” “So tell me some about yourself, Lemmour. How come ya came to Equestria?” “I came here originally to find my friends, if they’re here. Now it seems that I’ll be helping you all find your friend.” “Oh you mean Spike?” “Yeah, Rarity and I have been walking all over Ponyville today asking the other ponies if they’d be willing to come along on the search for him, would you like to come Applejack?” “I’d be more than happy, but how come you’re helping us?” “Since Twilight wanted to search all across Equestria, I figured I’d take that opportunity to look around for my friends while following you, plus I believe I would be quite the asset.” “How so?” “Observe.” I raised my hand to the sky and fired a large laser into the sky, far enough to make a circular hole in the clouds. Applejack was stunned by what I could do. Meanwhile a gray pony with a yellow mane poked her head out of the cloud I shot. She had weird eyes one looking at me, the other looking at Applejack and Rarity. She looked confused so I said, “Uh, sorry! My bad!” She simply flew away to another cloud, I noticed on her thigh though she had a tattoo of bubbles. Then I came to think of it, every pony here had a tattoo, so I finally asked, “Okay, what the hell is up with all these tattoos you ponies have, so far besides Applebloom, every pony here has a tattoo of some sort.” Rarity and Applejack looked at each other for about a second, and then began laughing. Rarity then answered, “Oh darling you’ve got a lot to learn here, they’re called cutie marks. They’re a mark received after a young pony learns his or her destiny in life.” “Don’t your kin got’em Lemmour?” “No actually, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one.” Then out of nowhere, I had another flash of a mental image, it was an image of a cutie mark Rarity and Applejack previously mentioned to me. The mark was of the sun. The mental image was gone. I then asked, “Is there possibly a pony that has a sun as his or her cutie mark?” “Yes actually, you must be thinking of Princess Celestia.” ‘Celestia’ that name repeated itself in my head, ‘Celestia… Celestia… Celestia…’ Why was the name burdening me so much? “I was just wondering…” “Oh alright, say want somethin' to eat? I got some mighty fine apple fritters at the barn if y’all want any.” Rarity agreed to it, but I opposed the offer, “No thank you, actually I think I should probably go on back to Twilight’s library, I need some sleep.” “Do you remember the way back?” “Yeah I think I do. Nice meeting you Applejack, and thanks for showing me around Rarity, see you both tomorrow!” “Bye!” Rarity said. "Nice meetin' ya partner!" Applejack yelled. I mumbled to myself quietly, "... Yeah whatever, Apple-Bob-Thorton..."
PonderingAs I walked back to Twilight’s library, I took some time to ponder on these recent mental images and voices. There was the silhouette, the dream of me being kidnapped yelling ‘Soar’, and then Celestia’s cutie mark. I began to piece something together; the silhouette was of Princess Celestia, though I still couldn’t explain the kidnapping. Could Celestia have taken me? And could these mental images and voices not be dreams, but who I was before my enslavement? I couldn’t be sure, so the only thing I could do was simply wait for more of the images and voices to come. I approached Twilight’s library and knocked on the door. Twilight answered, “Oh hey Lemmour, come on in.” I walked in and noticed the whole room was still cluttered with books, obviously from Twilights study and concern for her friend. She turned to me and asked, “So did you meet the other ponies?” “Yes, they were very nice to meet. That Rainbow Dash is definitely my kind of pony.” “Good, did they all agree to coming with us?” “Yeah, all of them, so there will be seven of us searching.” “Perfect!” “What are you up to now?” “I’m preparing some supplies for the journey, food, blankets, and first aid kits.” “We should probably get some sleep soon.” “You can go on to bed, I set up a small bed upstairs for you, I’m gonna stay up late.” “Okay, thanks.” I began walking up the library stairs, looking back; I could see how worried Twilight was. Even when knowing that all her friends would be aiding her in the search for Spike, it was not enough to ease her fears. I continued to walk up. I saw the bed Twilight set up for me; I opened my armor to crawl out of it, and then hopped in to the bed. I looked to the right to see a picture of Twilight and a purple dragon in a framed picture. The picture next to it showed them both again, only younger. I assumed that this purple dragon was Spike. I saw one more image, it was of an egg, a greenish, purplish egg, the same colors that Spike had. That egg burned itself into my mind. I then had another mental image. This mental image was of Princess Celestia again, she was walking away from me with that same egg. The image was over. I then closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep fast, but I couldn’t keep from wondering, just who the hell was I before King enslaved me? It was something I couldn’t ignore, after tossing and turning in the bed for about an hour, I finally got up and went down stairs. I saw Twilight still up and studying, she didn’t recognize me out of my armor. She quickly realized it was me though, “Oh, Lemmour. I almost didn’t recognize you, what’s wrong?” “I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been having strange visions or dreams or something. I was hoping that you’d have a book about it somewhere. Maybe one about memory loss to?” “Sure I’ve got a couple.” Twilight’s unicorn horn glowed, as she telekinetically lifted a couple books on dreams, hallucinations, memory loss, psychology, and even Alzheimer’s disease. “Thanks Twilight, I’ll bring these back down once I’m done.” “No problem.” I went back up stairs and sat on the bed and began reading about memory loss. I moved on from book to book, from what I could gather my memory loss is called “Amnesia”. I saw that some diagnosed claim to have seen mental flashes, blurs, or images that their peers confirmed to be their past or in a way linked to it. I can now say that I must have been born here in Equestria, but how? I’m an Atevian… Right?
DawnMy morning began with Twilight’s hooves on my shoulders, jolting me awake. It’s time to begin the search for Spike. After breakfast Twilight and I went to the limits of Ponyville to meet the other five ponies. I imagined this voyage would end in diabetes seeing that Pinkie’s entire luggage was candy and frosting, reminds me of that fat bitch from “Death Becomes Her”. Everyone else had sleeping bags, food, water; and Rarity had more clothes than the rest. After Twilight re-inspected her bag making sure she had everything, she asked everyone, “Is everypony ready?” Everypony replied with a big “Yes!” “Alright then, we’ll start here in the Ever Free Forrest, we’ll travel uphill from there and out of the forest, then into Manehattan, then we’ll push through to Appleloosa and climb the mountains to Canterlot. If we don’t see him at that point I’ll devise an alternate path.” We all agreed and entered the forest. After walking for about a mile, I ran up to Twilight and asked her, “So, when Spike was taken, did you get a good look at who the culprit was?” “Yes actually, she was a light purple unicorn; she had a black mane and a cutie mark representing crescent moon with a fist adjacent to it. She also wore a small, single diamond necklace.” “I’ll try to remember that.” “She also said something to me. She told me, ‘You will know my pain, you’ll know the pain of being ripped from someone you love!’ then she vanished… with Spike… trapped in a magic grip.” A single tear ran down Twilights cheek, I put my palm on her back and said, “Do not worry, we will find him.” Hours later, it appeared we were lost in the forest. Earlier Fluttershy became scared when a tree branch lightly slapped her thighs and she became physically immobile from fear. So LUCKY ME got to carry her around from that point on. Rainbow Dash then said to Twilight, “I told you Fluttershy would only slow us down!” “You don’t think I’m not surprised at this point Rainbow?” “You shouldn’t be! Like I’ve said, that pony is afraid of her own shadow. Ya don’t see me freaking out.” Then all of a sudden, behind Rainbow Dash, rose a giant five headed monster out of the depths of the forest. It roared as loud as it could behind her. Rainbow screamed and flew behind me, then noticed that everyone directed their attention at her. Rainbow just said, “Uh, just a sneeze. Heh heh...” Everyone was frightened by this enormous beast, Twilight then explained what it was. A Hydra, a dragon with 5 heads. Fluttershy, who had just then regained consciousness only to see a towering Hydra in front of her flew to the other ponies as fast as possible. Everypony began running away, but I stood my ground. All the ponies called out to me, “LEMMOUR!” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” “YOU’RE GONNA GET EATEN!” I raised both hands at the hydra, as one of its heads charged at me; I fired a powerful laser incinerating the beast in one shot. The Hydra fell dead on the ground. The ponies had their eyes covered; they shuttered to look, fearing I’d be gone. When they finally looked they saw me in front of one burning Hydra corpse. I then boldly said, “… Eat shit and die, Hydra!” The ponies stomped their hooves on the ground, I guess it’s their version of clapping in a way. All but Rainbow were stomping, Rainbow flew to me and said, “So you beat a Hydra in one blow, big deal. Bet ya can’t do it again!” Rainbow and I got in an argument until Applejack intervened, “Uh, hey both y’all. I don’t reckon there’s gonna be anything to barbeque in one shot if the forest is burned down!” Applejack pointed behind me. I turned to see loads of billowing smoke coming from the trees and bushes from where I shot the Hydra. The fire was spreading rapidly, and it would only be a short amount of time before it would incase us. We began to bolt out towards the other side of the forest.
A Black PerscriptionAs the Ever Free Forest burned behind us, no pony even glanced back. I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the others, the smoke and ash then began to blind me, and my armor visor was covered in soot. All I could see was black, nothing but pure black. I ran in to tree after tree, trying to find the ponies. The smoke was overwhelming; it came to the point where the smoke was poisoning me. This slowed my movements and made me start to faint and I fell to the ground and I passed out. Another mental image came to me, this time of a strange silhouette organizing what appeared to be prescription pills and other medications, even a few syringes. He then devoured the pills, bottle after bottle, and injected himself with a strange bright colored substance. The person doing this then looked to me and told me, “Go into the other room Méso, I don’t want you to see me doing this...” He called me ‘Méso’ why? Was this my original name?! Before I could really think about it, I was slapped awake by Rainbow Dash. My visor was then rubbed clean of soot by Rarity. My sight was restored, “Thank you, Rarity.” “Well I couldn’t simply let you wonder around the rest of the way with all that horrid ash all over you.” The other ponies looked at Rarity with a blank disappointed stare. Then Rarity replied the look with, “Oh, and your sight of course!” “Hey! What about me? I’m the one who flew in to that smoke and dragged you out!” Rainbow Dash said. “Thank you to, Rainbow Dash.” I observed the forest fire; a large portion of it was completely gone from the fire. But it appeared that the Pegasus ponies were pushing rainclouds over it to drown the fire. I turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Do Pegasus ponies have the ability to manipulate weather?” “Yeah, looks like they’re gonna rain the fire down. It’ll be alright, there’s still a whole other section of the forest remaining. We do a pretty good job don't we, huh?” I ignored her boasting, and replied, “That’s good.” I turned to Twilight and gave some advice, “Twilight, since this fire was so massive, I imagine if the pony who took Spike has fled if she was here from the start.” “You’re probably right, we should move on to Manehattan.” Suddenly a rumble came from Applejack’s stomach. “Boy, I’m mighty hungry, y’all wanna stop ‘n have some lunch before we move on out?” The other ponies agreed, as did I. Nothing like breathing in ash and smoke from a burning forest to make you hungry. Applejack opened her saddle bag, and displayed bagged sandwiches, caramel apples, bottles of apple cider, and apples. I sat down, escaped my armor and began to dine on some apples. The other ponies looked at me, besides Twilight, because she already knew what I looked like outside the armor. I looked back and stated, “Yeah, this is what I look like.” “Golly, you Atevian folk sure look different compared to anything I’ve ever seen.” “Thinking about it now though, I don’t think I’m really an Atevian.” “Whatcha mean?” “I think I was born here, on Equestria.” The ponies all looked surprised. I then continued, “It’s a strong possibility, all these images and voices I receive point to it. They also point to me having an encounter with Princess Celestia at one point. I don’t even believe ‘Lemmour’ is my real name! What was I? Am I supposed to be someone else?!” My frustration concerned the others, Rarity trotted over to me and placed her hoof on my shoulder and said, “Lemmour, a matter of months ago, Spike had the same questions and wonders. But he learned, that you don’t have to follow the path others expect, you can move on and continue the life you already lead.” I let out a sigh, what Rarity said, was helping. “And from what I’ve seen, you’ve adapted fashionably to our way of life, why try to differentiate from it?” Applejack trotted closer and stated, “We’re more than happy to welcome ya to it partner!” I smiled at Applejack and Rarity, and nodded my head, “Yeah, you’re right. I think I was meant to be different. But still all the voices, the images, they make me more and more curious.” Rainbow flew over and said, “Well tell those voices to take a hike! Let ‘em know you wouldn’t stray from your new friends!” There was silence on my part. “I’ll try to ignore them; I won’t let them keep me from helping you find your friend. Thank you all for your concern and support.” Pinkie pounced to me and said, “That’s what friends are for, Lemmour! Now let’s have our lunch!” Pinkie grabbed a cupcake out of her saddle bag and thrusted it into my mouth. It was poppy-seed… It was tasty.
ManehattanWe arrived in Manehattan; it’s a rather large city, almost like planet Earth’s ‘Manhattan’. There was even a colossal statue of a pony resembling the statue of Liberty. Between here and Ponyville, this has to be the most technologically advanced, however it still doesn’t stray too far from the telegraph, or perhaps ‘pony-graph’ in their case... I’m still adjusting; maybe exploring this city will comfort me. So far I haven’t heard a single voice or seen a single image in my head since our picnic in the forest. I felt relaxed, I simply went with everything, and let the beauty of Manehattan’s lights and views take my focus away. Then suddenly I hear, “Get out of the way, kid!” Said a stallion, moving around me. Applejack trotted to me and said, “That’s Manehattan for ya, too much hustle and bustle for any kind talkin.” “I can definitely see, but I sure like this city’s look. So what’s on our agenda here?” Twilight levitated out a checklist in front of her and said, “Posting lost fliers. We should try to find a big hotel to post them in; I have the fliers in my saddle bag, let’s go.” We went into a local hotel to ask about posting fliers regarding Spike’s kidnapping. We were approved and Twilight handed me a stack of fliers to post through the hotel hallways. Each of us was on a different floor of the building; posting fliers and asking guest questions. I was on floor ‘#4’ doing the job. After three hours of posting fliers and asking questions, we had zero luck. Not a single eye has seen Spike. Twilight then suggested trying another hotel the next morning, and checking in to the current hotel to hit the hay. Twilight felt it was appropriate seeing as we have been in here for hours, not using the hotel’s business for its intended use. We got a rather small room; it had two queen-sized beds and a balcony which gave us a nice view of the city. Three ponies got into one bed, while the other three got into the other. I then curiously asked, “Where do I sleep?” The ponies then laughed and finally Fluttershy suggested, “You could climb into a bed and snuggle up with us.” I blushed and just stood there, eyes widened, and possibly bloodshot from what was suggested; I then reject the offer and said, “I’m not really tired anyway; I think I’ll stop by the swimming pool.” Fluttershy looked disappointed and I left the room. I entered the pool room, got out of my armor, and walked into the pool. The water was warm and relaxing, this is exactly what I needed after a day of hard work. I did front flips and back flips off the diving board over and over, stood on my hands under water and even allowed myself to float along the surface. I then wondered how long I could hold my breath for, so I went down and started counting; after thirty seconds my vision began to fade, then my vision returned, but the water was a dark glowing green color. I was moving my arms and legs rapidly trying to get back to the surface, and as I reached the surface I looked forward and I saw him, King, my former enslaver. I looked down to see that he put me in a large cauldron. I looked ahead again and saw that he had a small zebra character held at gun point, being told to do exactly as he said. My true vision returned and I was in the hotel pool again. It was just another horrifying mental image. I rushed out of the pool and got in my suit, I didn’t even dry myself off. I ran out of the pool room and took the stairs back up to the hotel room. I stepped inside the room, got out of my armor again. I hopped into one of the beds and held Fluttershy close to me, nuzzling into her soft chest. She then woke up and looked down at me, she smiled and quietly said, “Awww… How sweet…” She put her hooves fore-legs around me and pulled me closer, and I drifted off to sleep.
The Blank FlankThe sun cascading through the balcony curtains of our hotel room woke me up, still in Fluttershy’s arms. I maneuvered myself out of her hold so that I wouldn’t wake her. I walked to the balcony and closed the curtains, so that the sunlight wouldn’t disturb the other’s sleeping. I decided to get some breakfast for myself; I chose to go to a donut shop across from the hotel. I was still tired, I had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep during the previous night. Because I was so exhausted from my lack of sleep, on my way out the lobby to exit the hotel, I tripped over and fell face first into the concrete. I got up, and I could feel that my forehead scraped up some; it was covered in dirt to. I figured I’d simply wash it out once I got to the donut shop. When I arrived at the donut shop, I headed directly to the restroom. I used the sink to wash my scrapes of all the dirt, and then I suddenly hear somepony shivering, I peeked on the other side of the restroom to see a very skinny stallion pony in the corner on the ground. He had wings and a unicorn horn; I believe Twilight once told me this race was called ‘Alicorn’. One thing he did lack however was one of those ‘cutie marks’ Rarity told me about the previous day. After I was done cleansing my wound, I approached him and asked, “Excuse me, but are you okay?” He looked back at me with bloodshot, gloomy eyes. “I’ll be fine, I just need to use my umm… Medicine…” “Oh okay, is it Parkinson’s?” “What’s that?” “Oh, never mind.” Judging by his red eyes, slim appearance and slurred voice; I imagined he probably hadn’t had anything to eat in a while. From his paleness, and long, messy, dirty mane; I had the assumption he was homeless. So I offered, “Would you like to get some lunch, it’s on me.” “Yes, please, that would be nice.” The Alicorn stood up slowly, every limb shaking and rattling. I could tell he must have many personal problems. We walked out of the bathroom and towards the counter to order. I had to wait for him to catch up with me, even my normal walking was too fast for him to follow. He finally caught up, the cashier trotted over to us and asked, “Hello, welcome ‘Donuts, Bagels ‘n Biscuits’ may I take your order?” I responded, “Yes, I would like a large coffee and two cream filled donuts. Also I’d like a dozen chocolate glazed donuts to take with me. ” The dozen being for the other six once I return to the hotel room. The cashier asked my new friend what he wanted, and he said, “I will have three the croissants, and two jelly filled donuts.” The cashier wrote up the order and said, “Alight, wait one moment.” There was silence between me and my new friend. I finally asked, “So, what’s your name?” “Pan, and yours?” “Lemmour.” Pan looked intrigued. “I’ve never heard of that name.” “It’s Atevian, so is all that food for you?” “Yeah, I haven’t had anything to eat in a while.” My concerned look became apparent to Pan. He quickly stated, “Don’t worry I’m not homeless or anything, my friend Shards is however, and I’ve been giving more of my own food to her.” “I understand.” “It’s quite sad though, Shards is such a talented mare, and she’s a prodigy with her magic, I’ve never seen anything like her. She has so much potential, but things just didn’t turn out in her favor.” “What happened?” “Her and her older sister was living alone at one point, in poverty. About a year ago, the older sister went to Ponyville to perform her own magic show; it was her only source of gaining any money at the time. She was gaining money for her and Shards, to afford food, and comfortable living conditions. During her visit, she was completely outshined by another unicorn, and the older sister had to leave Ponyville, and she returned to Shards with little earnings. The older sister gave Shards what she had earned and told her to go on her own, and that she’d be better off. Just two weeks ago, I met Shards and we had become instant friends, and she began residing with me.” That was such a sad story, I felt as though I shouldn’t have asked about her misfortune. The cashier came back to us and gave us our orders, I tried to pay her with U.S. currency, but then Pan stopped me and said, “Hold on, I don’t think that money will be any good here, allow me to pay instead.” “What, no you don’t have to this was on me, I’ll just simply ask her to take it back.” “No, I need someone to talk to, and I need a bite to eat.” Pan tossed up 10 golden checker-shaped objects. He levitated his own purchase and I carried my own, we sat down near the window and began breakfast. I then asked, “So tell me about yourself, Pan.” “Well, there’s not much to say, I lead a pretty solitary life, other than having Shards around. I’m just a very boring pony in general.” “So, what brought you to this donut shop today?” “Well I was actually here last night, I slept here.” “Oh! How come?” “Ah… I’ll… I’ll be honest; I have a lot of emotional problems, ever since some loved ones were… taken from me by the princess…” I then remembered the name ‘Celestia… Celestia… Celestia…’ ringing in my head. I then asked, “Princess Celestia?” “…Yeah, for a long time, I’ve had a lot of untreatable sadness built up. I don’t like ponies I know personally, like Shards for example, seeing me in one of my moments. So last night I left my home on Foal Mountain, and I came here, far away to be alone with myself.” I couldn’t eat; I was too distracted by these stories. I was afraid to ask him anything, I was afraid that anything at this point could only bombard him with memories of his past. He then asked me, “So, Lemmour. Tell me about you.” I didn’t hesitate to tell him everything; I told him of where I came from, my memory loss, my new pony friends, and my current mission with them. After I told him my story, he then said, “Wow, memory loss huh? I envy you, friend.” “Trust me, it’s a burden, always wondering what you were before, and the grasping thought of finding out that you weren’t even born in the same place as you think.” “You told me you and your friends are looking for someone kidnapped, who is he?” “His name is Spike; he’s a purple baby dragon. That’s all I know.” Pan’s eyes jumped at the word ‘dragon’ he looked up at me and stated, “A dragon? Well I can’t say I’ve ever seen any dragons before, only in story books and murals.” “Oh okay.” Pan wrapped up all his food; he got up and said, “Sorry Lemmour, but I’m afraid I’m expected to be somewhere pretty soon, it was nice meeting you. Good luck finding your friend’s dragon.” “Thanks, Pan. Good luck in your future endeavors.” “Goodbye.” Pan exited, and I continued my breakfast.
Breakfast In BedI returned to the hotel, I entered our room and I was greeted with Rainbow Dashes face two inches away from me, she asked me, “Just where have you been all morning!? None of us could find you!” “I went to get breakfast. Donuts for everypony!” I displayed a box full of delicious chocolate glazed donuts to the six ponies, all of them trotted happily to have some, Pinkie however sprung to the donuts and gobbled up 3 in one bite. I promptly said, “Damn.” Everypony else said, “Thanks Lemmour!” “Ah you’re welcome, I didn’t even buy these.” Twilight looked up from her donut and asked, “Really? Then how did you get them?” “They were bought for me by a new friend, his name is Pan.” “Oh that’s nice.” Applejack used her nose to flip a donut in the air and then catch it in her mouth, while chewing she asked, “Mmmm… Where is he? I’d wanna meet any fellar who’d be so kind as to buy us donuts.” Rarity turned to Applejack with a disgusted face and yelled, “Applejack! Please, don’t talk while you’re eating!” Applejack continued to chew and got closer to Rarity’s face and said, “I ain’t talkin and eatin; I’m eatin and talkin, miss frilly-filly!” Small drops of spit got on Rarity’s face, and Rarity became angrier. The redness of her cheeks really contrasted with her white fur. Fluttershy tried to calm them both down, “Oh… Um… Girls, please, settle down, let’s just enjoy these delicious donuts and have a good time, please?” Rarity and Applejack continued to argue, the argument became more heated, and Twilight finally intervened, “BOTH OF YOU STOP!” Twilight used her magic to separate them to opposite sides of the room. Then suddenly, the attention was brought off of Rarity and Applejack, and towards the knocking on our hotel door. Pinkie Pie opened up the door, behind the door was the hotel receptionist as well as another pony behind him. The receptionist greeted himself, “Good morning mares and…” He was looking confused at me. “…Robot? Any who, I’ve come to tell you that this young mare behind me claims to have seen your lost friend, there was no hotel room included on the fliers so I brought her here.” Twilight became ecstatic; she jumped toward the door yelling, “YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Come on in!” The unicorn mare trotted in and sat on the bed. Twilight introduced herself, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and your name?” “The name is Lemonleaf; allow me to express my condolences on your kidnapped friend.” “It’s quite alright, I feel we’re getting closer, so, what have you seen?” “Well, yesterday near my home in Hollow Shades, I saw a light purple pony, with a black mane. She had your dragon by a chain around his neck. With several chains binding his hands and feet.” Everyone gasped in shock; Rarity looked even more angered than a few moments ago. Rarity then said, “SHE HAD MY LITTLE SPIKEY IN CHAINS!? I’LL KICK THE SHIT OUTTA THAT BITCH!” Everypony was baffled at what Rarity had just yelled. My assumption was that ponies didn’t cuss a lot. Rarity then said, “… What? Lemmour says those words too!” Twilight then turned back to Lemonleaf and continued her conversation, “ANY way… That sounds just like the appearance of the same person who took Spike. I saw her take him, was she wearing a diamond necklace?” “Yes, she also had a crescent moon and fist cutie mark.” “Yep, that’s definitely her. You said she was in Hollow Shades?” “Yeah, that’s the place.” “Would you be kind enough to take us there and direct us around the town?” “I’m sorry, but I’m here to visit my family and just got here today, I’m glad I could be of assistance though.” “It’s alright, I’m sure we can find our way around.” “I will give you this advice though; steer clear of the west part of town, there’s a lot of gang and drug activity that goes on in that area. You Earth ponies and Pegasi ponies better watch your backs especially, the gang there is a unicorn gang, they are very confrontational towards anypony that isn’t their own race.” “We’ll keep that in mind, thank you so much for coming by.” The other ponies thanked her, and she left. I was in the back of the room; I lied down onto the bed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the town that Lemonleaf mentioned. “Hollow Shades… Hollow Shades… Why was that so significant? I then got a mental image of myself being dragged by my neck through a forest by King. I could see something far in the distance, a sign saying “Hollow Shades”. Suddenly, a sharp pain entered my head, and I screamed as loud as I could. The pain I felt was like having a tent peg struck into my skull with a metal baseball bat. The ponies galloped to me as fast as they could, they saw me with my hands on my ears, my body shaking and shivering, and with tears running down my cheeks. Seconds later I passed out.
Hollow Shades BoundI woke up on a moving train; my head was lying on Rarity’s stomach. I lifted myself up; I was greeted by a worried look on Rarity’s face, “Hello darling, do you feel okay?” “I feel fine…” I turned around to see more concerned faces, all looking in my direction, with the exception of Pinkie Pie’s face which was buried in chocolate cake from her saddle bag. I then stated, “Everypony, listen. Please don’t think too much of my episode earlier today, it was just another mental image.” Fluttershy then argued, “But… But you were shrieking in terror, you were swinging your legs and arms around. You kept screaming, ‘Soar’ over and over again… We were so scared for you…” “Please, don’t be so worried about me.” “But you’re our friend! How could we not be worried?” “You haven’t known me that long though.” “We still like you a lot…” “Well, it’s nice to know I have friends who care about me here on this remote planet, but I really just want to look past my emotional situation.” “I think it would be better if you just simply talked to us about it. What did you see?” “No Fluttershy, I don’t want to talk about it.” “Just give it a try, if there’s anything I’ve learned from my friends, it’s how to be brave and confront your feelings when they are bothering you.” I became irritated, and told Fluttershy again, “I said. No!” “…Please, just give it a try? We all really want to help you!” My anger became too much to bottle up. I turned to Fluttershy and yelled, “NO! DAMN IT! Now all of you leave me the hell alone for now!” I got up and walked toward the back of the train cart towards the door to the next cart. I could hear Applejack’s voice call out to me, “Lemmour! There ain’t no reason to get all worked up, come back! Twilight’s voice followed, “Lemmour!” Next Rainbow Dash, “Wait up!” Rarity, “Oh please! Come back Lemmour!” Then finally Pinkie, with her voice muffled by the chewing of cake, “Wait!” I slammed the door on the way out, and went to the next train cart, and continued on until I finally made it to the caboose. I sat near the window, seeing Manehattan grow smaller in the distance. I let out a large sigh, I felt awful about how I treated Fluttershy and everypony else. Then I heard the caboose door creak open from behind me, behind it was Pinkie Pie. She came closer and said, “I’m sorry about how you feel.” “No, I’m sorry; I should have never yelled at Fluttershy like that, I feel horrible about it. How is she?” “She started crying, she feels afraid to talk to you.” “She had good intentions, perhaps I should get all these problems off my chest. I’ve had so much anger bottled up, and it only grows with all these voices I hear and all these images I see. At any moment, I could blink and then there it would be, right in my face, another terrifying scene. It’s all thrown right in to my face, and I feel even worse throwing hateful words into Fluttershy’s face.” “I think the only think that should be thrown into anypony’s face, is chocolate cake!” Pinkie proceeded to fling chocolate frosting into my face with a spoon. I used my finger to wipe if off, I pushed my head out of my armor to lick it. Pinkie laughed. “Ha, what’s so funny Pinkie?” “It’s just silly how you wear that big armor, the real you is so tiny and cutesy!” “Oh, heh-heh.” We laughed for a little while, and suddenly I burped up fire, actual red, glowing fire. Normally I’d take it seriously and wonder just what the hell was up with that, but Pinkie brightened the mood by saying, “OHHH! Maybe we can roast marsh mellows now!” “Hahaha! I don’t even know how I did that, it was pretty cool.” “Maybe you’re a dragon, like Spike! Maybe you two are even brothers! You did say you came from this planet right?” “I don’t think that would be the case. But yes, I must have come from this planet. That previous image I had showed that I was being dragged from Hollow Shades, maybe that was my birth home.” “Hee hee, or maybe you just partied to hard, hahaha!” I busted with laughter at Pinkie’s comment, I was truly having a great time for once. For the first time in a long time I was genuinely smiling and happy. I told Pinkie, “Thanks for coming down here, Pinkie. You’ve made me feel great, and for once I’m actually truthfully happy, and smiling.” “That’s what I specialize in; I hold the element of laughter! I enjoy making everypony happy, and watching everypony smile. Well in this case, every-alien, haha!” Pinkie and I got up and headed back to the cart where everypony else was. The first thing I did was go to Fluttershy to apologize. She was balled up in a corner crying intensively. I sat next to her and put my hand on her back. She looked up at me and reached for a hug, I leaned down to embrace her. She then told me, “I... I… I’m… so… sorry…” “You don’t need to be sorry, this was my fault. I’ve had a lot of bottled up anger and sadness. I should be talking about it in the comfort of my friends; I should have never lashed out towards you like that. I’m sorry.” “You’re… You’re not mad?” “No, I’m not mad at anyone.” She looked up at me with a smile; she stretched her neck up to nuzzle her head under my neck. All the ponies behind us awed, and the train stopped. We’ve arrived in Hollow Shades.
Crescent FistAll of us stepped out of the train; there was a long stretch of road surrounded by dark, dense forests. On the far end of the road was the same sign from my previous mental episode. As we walked down the road, I anticipated whatever voices could come. We walked past the sign, in front of me was a village in poverty. It was the gloomiest place I have seen so far in Equestria. I asked Twilight, “Is this place usually so gloomy?” “Whenever someone in Ponyville would mention this place, it’s quickly dismissed. I can definitely see why.” As I looked around the village, I saw posters and flags of a crescent and moon. They were all over shops and houses. Each poster would say “THIS IS OUR WORLD.” Out of curiosity I asked Twilight, “Twilight, do you know anything about these posters?” “No, I’ve never seen them before. They have the same design as the cutie mark of the mare who took Spike. She must have something to do with all this.” Fluttershy looked around the most cautiously, she then asked us, “Say, didn’t that unicorn from the hotel say there’s racism against Pegasi and Earth ponies?” “Well, yeah but-“ Fluttershy squealed in fear, ducked down, and covered her eyes with her hooves. I then said, “Everypony stand behind me, and look out for each other. I won’t allow any unicorn to hurt any of you.” They all got behind me and walked. As we continued on, the local unicorns gave us some unfriendly looks, and those looks changed to fear when they saw me. I imagined there would be no trouble, seeing as the unicorns were becoming so afraid of me. We walked into the closest grocery store available, inside were more unicorns with nasty looks, and hateful eyes. I reminded my friends, “Everypony, remember, just stick together.” We walked to the first register open; Twilight greeted herself to the cashier, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m a tad curious; I’d like to know a little more about the crescent moon posters and flags around town.” The cashier gave Twilight an angry look, “I don’t believe that’s any of your business, Miss Sparkle. We all know who you are; you’re the traitor of the unicorns.” “Excuse me!? Traitor, I’ve never betrayed anypony!” “Your show against The Great and Powerful Trixie last year doesn’t say that! You just had to stand up for your pathetic Earth pony pals.” “What?! This is ridiculous! I had every reason to stand up to Trixie, and I wasn’t doing this for only Earth ponies, I did it for everypony, even Unicorns! Trixie only wanted to be better than everypony, and just how do you know about it?!” “We all know, and Trixie wasn’t just trying to be better, there was family involved, and your actions that day ripped that family apart!” “What family!?” The unicorns in the store noticed Twilight’s argument with the cashier and began surrounding all of us. I could tell this was about to become ugly. But then, I remembered what Pan said to me about his friend, Shards. “Her and her older sister was living alone at one point, in poverty. About a year ago, the older sister went to Ponyville to perform her own magic show; it was her only source of gaining any money at the time. She was gaining money for her and Shards, to afford food, and comfortable living conditions. During her visit, she was completely outshined by another unicorn, and the older sister had to leave Ponyville, and she returned to Shards with little earnings. The older sister gave Shards what she had earned and told her to go on her own, and that she’d be better off.” These stories couldn’t have been a coincidence… The Great and Powerful Trixie, was Shard’s older sister. I was too distracted by this fact, the unicorn gang surrounding us, caught all seven of us in a telekinetic hold, no pony was able to move, and neither was I. I saw my six pony friends screaming in fear and pain, as they were forced into cloth bags and tied up. My friends were being dragged away from me they called my name begging for my help, they were quickly taken out of my sight. I refused to be taken by this gang; I broke free and ran out of the store, I looked all over the village for my pony friends. I called out their names, “TWILIGHT! RARITY! APPLEJACK! RAINBOW DASH! PINKIE PIE! FLUTTERSHY! WHERE ARE YOU?!” For the next few hours, I ran around the village countless times. I even broke into a couple homes and tore through doors and walls to look for them. After 3 hours of search, I gave up. I felt horrible, I let my new friends down, they depended on me and I failed them. No Unicorn dared to get in my way, especially after my hours of massacre on their town looking high and low for my friends. I sat on the grass frustrated and stressed; I focused all my thoughts on just where could that gang could have possibly taken them. Pan was obviously involved with gang, so I thought of him; I tried to remember everything he told me. I got it; Pan told me he came to Manehattan from his home on Foal Mountain, he also mentioned Shards residing with him. I stood up, my stress and frustration turned to rage and determination. I started running; I didn’t stop running until I made it to Foal Mountain.
Cold RelationsAs I traveled through the thick snow that covered Foal Mountain, I prepared myself for the final confrontation, this will be it, I’ll save my new friends. We’ll save Spike, and then everything can be at peace. So far, I can’t seem to find any residential environments, I can hardly see anything with all the snow blowing down and blinding my vision. I tripped over and fell down a hill; I landed face first into the snow, getting up I wiped all the snow off my armor and face plate, behind the blinding snow laid before me; a small wooden cabin. This had to be Pan’s home; there were no other houses on this mountain. I said to myself, “You’re mine now, bitch!” I walked closer to the house; I stood on the porch in front of the door, stiff as could be. I couldn’t move closer, my head began to hurt again. I put my hands on my ears and kneeled down. I closed my eyes, and saw every single vague mental image, and voice, rush into my thoughts. This was possibly the strongest of all of them, and the most painful. What I saw would reveal everything to me. Who is Soar? How was I affiliated with princess Celestia? What was with the egg she held as she trotted away from me? Why did the mysterious silhouette call me “Méso”? What happened to me? What is my origin? Everything was coming, all my memories were finally returning, I remembered who I was before King Zoxus took me away. I was still on the ground, distracted by my now revealed past. The door opened in front of me, behind it stood Pan, wielding a shovel in a telekinetic grip. I could only utter the words, “… You… I know now… I know who you are… I know… everything!” “I wish you hadn’t come here Lemmour, you seemed like such a good person earlier. But you're only another low life who basks under Celestia’s inferior, and corrupt rule!” He hit me directly in the head with the shovel, and I passed out immediately. I woke up sometime later, tied up inside of a dim, cold cellar. In front of me were my pony friends, all of them, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. They all were glad to see me awake and yelled, “LEMMOUR!” Twilight hopped herself over to me in her tied up hooves and laid her head on my shoulder. She said, “Oh we’re so happy to see you! We’re so glad you’re okay!” “I’m glad to know you’re all doing okay too. Here, I’ll free us.” I used a tiny laser from my finger to burn the ropes keeping me tied up; I began freeing the six ponies. Rainbow Dash then said, “We were starting to get worried you’d never find us, or just give up.” “No Rainbow, trust me, I have more loyalty than that.” “Heh, just like me, I’d never leave my friends hangin either.” Applejack then asked, “How’d ya know where to find us? That pony up stairs said you came for us when he threw ya in 'ere.” “The pony up there just so happens to be Pan, the stallion Alicorn I met early this morning at the donut shop. I remembered he told me the exact same story that the Hollow Shades store cashier was arguing about with Twilight.” Twilight look surprised, “How was he involved?” “He wasn’t, his friend was, a young mare named Shards.” “Okay, how was she involved with me and Trixie?” “Shards is the mare who took Spike from you, and she’s also Trixie’s younger sister.” All the ponies gasped, I could hear, “Good heavens!” “What the?!” “Woah nelly…” “Oh my…” “Wowzy!” Twilight, was speechless, finally she asked, “But… Why would she take Spike? I didn’t do anything to her; I never even met her when Trixie came.” “Just as the cashier said, ‘Trixie wasn’t in Ponyville just to boast, there was family involved.’ Trixie’s sole purpose of doing magic shows was to raise money and support herself and her little sister who were in deep poverty. After having been outshined by you, she left Ponyville with little earnings; she gave those earnings to Shards and told her to leave, and to lead a better life for herself. Shards wanted revenge, for being torn from Trixie; she wanted to tear you from someone dear to you.” Twilight’s mind was blown. She laid down and sighed, “So, all this is my fault?” “No Twilight, you didn’t know what was on the line.” “Yes, it is, I should have just done nothing that day. Now Spike is up there with those monsters, alone being beaten and being told to do who knows what…” “Beaten?” “Yes, when we were dragged in here I saw Spike in the kitchen; he was strapped to a chair. They were both beating him and yelling at him to do something, I don’t know what though.” Fluttershy then said, “Poor Spike, no creature should be treated like that…” Rarity then followed that comment with, “I’ll tear that pony to pieces! No one hurts one little scale on that cute little head of his!” Rainbow Dash then floated in the air and said, “I’m with ya Rarity! So how are we gonna get Spike outta there and get those two knuckle head ponies?” Twilight responded, “I’m not sure Rainbow, we’re gonna have to be quick and quiet with our plan, they could take Spike as a hostage if they catch us.” I then turned down that plan with, “No. We don’t need physical violence or even stealth to get Spike back. I know what to do; I know how to persuade Pan. I know him and Spike far too well for him to possibly ignore what I have to say to him.” “What makes you think that?” After some silence for me to regain my thoughts after that shovel to the head earlier, I told the ponies, “… Spike, Pan, and I are brothers.” A wave of surprise and shock was shot across the room. Everypony’s eyes were wide open, pupils small and shaking. Twilight broke the silence, “…WHAT, wha, how is that even possible?! It’s not scientifically possible, you and Spike being brothers is not scientifically possible!” Pinkie Pie pounced over to me and yelled, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! Hee hee hee!” I continued my story, “This cabin was our home years ago. Pan’s real name is Soar, my real name is Méso; we were both dragons, just like Spike is. When Soar and I were young, our mother had laid an egg, from which we would soon expect to have a new baby brother, who we would have named Roy. But sadly, our mother and father died in a train accident, leaving Soar and I with the egg. Rather than be able to take care of the egg ourselves, or even care for the baby after hatching, princess Celestia took the egg from us. She told us that it would go to a good home, clearly he has.” I gave Twilight a smile, but her surprised face didn’t change. I continued the story, “I understood why the egg had to be taken; Soar and I were too young to care for it alone. However Soar didn’t see it as optimistically as I did, Soar was devastated. He became addicted to several narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens. The drugs were in the forms of powder, liquids, inhalants and pills. Soar always told me to leave the room whenever he did any, but I always knew what was happening. He never forgave the princess for taking the egg, he completely resented the princess and disregarded any laws she set. Years passed since the egg was taken, and one night Soar over did it with the drugs he was passed out in the kitchen, face down in a pile of his own vomit. I went back to my room to try and sleep, but minutes after, King broke into my room and kidnapped me. I screamed for Soar, praying and begging for him to wake up and find me. King dragged me from here, down to Hollow Shades, and into the Ever Free Forest. He took me into a small house in the forest, he held the Zebra that resided in the house at gun point and forced her to use her knowledge of magical arts to change me into an Atevian, afterwards King took me aboard his space ship, and I was taken away from Equestria. I guess after I was taken, Soar assumed it was Celestia who took me. I’m not sure why he changed into an Alicorn and renamed himself, or what he plans to do with Spike and Shards. Though it does explain why he has no cutie mark since he's not a real pony. If anything, it can’t be good. He also mustn’t know that he’s related to me and Spike.” Pinkie broke the silence and said, “That’s one of the most unhappy stories I’ve ever heard…” Twilight then said, “I can’t believe Spike’s origin was so chaotic, it’s always been an enigma to both me and him.” Rarity then stated, “… Spike’s name was going to be ‘Roy’? That’s such a dreadful name.” Everypony looked unsure of what to do; everypony was frightened at what could possibly happen to their young friend upstairs. I walked to the door that exited the cellar; I turned to the ponies and said, “Here is what we’re going to do; I’m going to reveal everything to Pan and after that he’ll be conflicted to continue his plans. Though I’m not sure how Shards will follow.” The ponies gathered behind me, and Twilight told me, “Don’t worry, we can handle her.” “Okay then. Let’s do this!” I kicked down the cellar door, and all of us headed for the kitchen.
The Final HitWe entered the kitchen, we saw Spike strapped to a wooden chair with tape over his mouth, Pan and Shards were facing his direction. I was ready for the worst to come, either Pan would feel conflicted and stop whatever he was doing, or become enraged and think I was only joking. Regardless, it began. I yelled one word, “SOAR!” Pan turned to me quicker than lightning, and said, “… What did you just call me?” “Soar, you’re Soar the Dragon!” Shards interrupted, “How did you filthy peasants escape!? PAN, KILL THEM!” “How do you know my birth name?” I swallowed nervously, and I said in a weak voice, “I’m Méso, your younger brother.” Pan’s eyes shot wide open, his hooves stepped further back from me. I continued to say, “Also, that baby dragon you’ve been beating and manipulating is our younger brother, Roy!” Pan put his hooves on his ears, and closed his eyes. Spike was in shock, Spike’s voice being muffled by tape said, “Brother?” “That’s right.” Pan stomped his hooves on the ground and began to cry, he then screamed, “NO! THAT CAN’T BE POSSIBLE!” “IT IS! SPIKE AND I ARE YOUR YOUNGER BROTHERS, SOAR!” “NO!!! STOP! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!” He wasn’t kidding in the donut shop when he said he had episodes, he ran down the adjacent hallway and barricaded himself in a room. I turned to my pony friends and said, “Free Spike, I’ll go after Soar.” Pinkie Pie replied with, “Okie Dokie Lokie!” The other ponies followed her over to Spike, and I ran down the hallway to the barricaded room. I kicked and pounded the door; I didn’t want to start a fire with my lasers, seeing that the cabin was wooden. I yelled to Soar, “Let me in! What the hell are you and Shards planning to do with Spike?” There was no response from the other side, and there was no way I could get in. I heard my friends down the hall fighting Shards, Shards told them, “I’m sorry ladies, but I can’t allow you to take our little weapon here!” Twilight used her unicorn horn to grab Shards in a telekinetic hold, Twilight yelled, “Why did you take my friend!? What are your plans!?” Rarity and Fluttershy ripped the tape covering Spike’s mouth and untied him; Spike gasped for air and was held in Rarity’s hooves. Rarity said to him, “Oh my little Spikey-Wikey, I’m so delighted we found you! Oh look at you, you’re all bruised and cut up!” Rainbow Dash flew over to hug Spike and asked him, “We’re glad to have found you big guy, what do they want from you?” Spike gasping for more air told her, “They’re… They are trying to get me to use my power to send items to Princess Celestia!” “For what?” “They want me to send a bomb to her and Princess Luna during the Eclipse Festival!” The six ponies gasped in shock, Twilight then said, “It all makes sense now, Pan hates the princess, and you hate me! So much to the point you both devised a plot, a plot that would weaken me, and kill the princesses! But why?” As Shards struggled to break free of Twilights power, Shards explained, “Pan wants to use his newly found fake Alicorn powers to take control of the sun and moon, so that he could build a better world! One were a pony’s family isn’t taken away, from government, or foul street-rats like YOU! My Unicorn gang will parade all corners of Equestria, enforcing order, and killing off the ungrateful Earth and Pegasi races of ponies!” Applejack stomped her hoof on the floor and yelled, “Who do ya think you’re calling ungrateful!” “The very ponies who were ungrateful for my big sister’s magic act last year, and didn’t support her, and made me homeless, sister-less, and completely ALONE! Ponyville is full of nothing but filthy Earth and Pegasi ponies that only wanted what this harlot had to offer!” Shards pointed her hoof to Twilight, Twilight responded with, “I’m sorry this happened to you and Trixie, but there’s no reason to kill innocent ponies for your misfortune. Also, it was Trixie’s own fault! She boasted herself to such a point where it put my friends in mortal danger, I had to intervene and you know what, I’m glad I did it! Also it looks like Pan is too conflicted to do anything at the moment, what makes you think he’ll do anything now?” “SILENCE DAMN YOU! Even if Pan won’t take control of Spike, or the Eclipse, I won’t give in! I’ll make you experience the same pain I had!” Shards broke free of Twilights telekinetic hold, and use her Unicorn powers to throw all six ponies across the room, she grabbed Spike with her powers and began to pull his limbs and neck, Spike struggled to resist, but was near the point of having his neck snapped and limbs torn. Still trying to reach Soar, I had no choice but to turn and stop Shards. I fired a laser into Shard’s chest and incinerated her instantly. Spike was freed, and Shards was killed. Twilight ran to Spike and embraced him, happy to see him alive and freed. I turned back to the door and continued to kick and punch to get in, Applejack trotted in front of me and said, “Allow me, partner!” Applejack bucked her hooves at the door, and the door collapsed. I rushed in, and found Soar, lying in the corner in a puddle of vomit. He wasn’t moving, I picked him up and shook him, he had no pulse, he wasn’t breathing, he was dead. I looked to the left, and saw a mess of prescription drugs scattered across the floor. Pills, powders, and inhalants were everywhere. It was his final hit and it was fatal. All six of the ponies and Spike walked into the room. Twilight turned Spike around; she didn’t want him to see this. Under some of the pill bottles was a note, I picked it up. The note read, ________________________________________ “Méso, My dearest brother, I cannot live with the thought of myself, hurting and scolding the dragon I was fighting for. It really shows that this all was my problem after all. I should have been more like you, and I should have moved on years ago. Take good care of Roy. Your brother, Soar” ________________________________________ I folded the note and placed it inside a pocket in my armor. I let out a large sigh, Twilight trotted over to me, she then said, “It’s over now, let’s go home. We’ve had a long day.”
The Greatest WeaponA day has passed since our victory. My six pony friends, Spike, and I visited Canterlot for the Eclipse Festival. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna crossed their power to move the moon in front of the sun in a wondrous and beautiful display of astronomy, as I gazed at the eclipse my worries and concerns for my past team and their battle against my former enslaver faded from my mind, I decided, why not move on and enjoy my new free life, with my new friends. My new pony friends have been nicer to me, more emotionally supportive, and more understanding than any of my old friends. It was time to move on. The eclipse ended and night began; I left my armored suit at Twilight’s Library and went as my original, dragon self, thanks to Twilight’s metamorphosis spell. My dragon form as roughly the same size as Spike, maybe two inches taller, my scales were pale purple and my spines where white. My eyes were emerald green just like Spike; my tail wasn’t as pointy as his though. Spike and I had gotten along famously, I was curious to hear his adventures after he was taken into custody, and he was just happy to have a brother. Spike seemed to brag a lot about himself and what he had, I listened regardless of the annoyance. Spike also liked to talk about the ponies around Ponyville who he had a crush on, one in particular, Rarity. I didn’t see the big deal about Rarity, sure she looked enticing enough, but I always liked Applejack. As I walked around the post-eclipse party, I didn’t receive as many frightened looks as I did whenever I wore my armor in my adventure. Everypony was interested to hear my story and what I went through to get where I was, suddenly, Twilight tapped me on the shoulder with her hoof, “Lemmour, come with me, there’s someone I want you to meet.” I followed her into a large castle, the atrium was colossal, it had a stair case that went up about 10 feet and then split off into two directions. Twilight took me up the left stair case and into another hallway, where we came face to face with the largest door in the castle. Twilight used her telekinesis to open the door and right before my eyes was a throne room, with gorgeous mosaic paintings on either side of walls. At the end stood the tallest pony I had ever seen on this planet, she was and Alicorn with a glowing white with a bright rainbow mane that flowed without a breeze. It was Princess Celestia. Twilight pulled me in her direction over to Celestia, we approached her and Twilight began, “Princess, this is Lemmour.” The princess turned to me with a proud smile; she wrapped one of her large wings around me and said, “Hm, I haven’t seen you in quite a length of time.” “I can remember you now; you’re the one who took Spike into custody. No hard feelings, haha.” “Glad to see you understood, I’m honored to welcome you back home. Twilight told me about your eventful stories.” “Yeah…” “My subjects have a common belief, that they are the only ones with personal, stressful, life prevalent issues. But they fail to think of others, whether it be their neighbors and best friends, to even those extra-terrestrial.” “My whole former team has had it rough, their home city was flooded, and everyone they knew was killed by it. One in particular was under a complete belief that he was psychologically crazy, due to others making him believe that, his whole life he was cynical and unsupportive of any of us. Some of them ran away from home, abandoning their dysfunctional families, and facing nothing but hardship.” Celestia closed her eyes as if she was thinking of something; she let out a quiet sigh and said, “I’m well aware.” “Aware? But, you were never there.” “True, but for quite some time now, I’ve been observing a select group of people from both planet Earth and planet Atevia.” “Who was it? Why were you watching them? What were they doing?” “I began watching everything in Earth-year 1989.Your former ruler’s father, Rayit Zoxus, came to Equestria in search of supernatural power. His intentions were to present that supernatural power to the Atevian prime minister in an attempt to raise money for him and his pregnant wife, Yonina Zoxus, for when their expected child would be born. When Rayit arrived, he studied the unicorns and became obsessed with their raw magical abilities. He demanded to have this power any form possible to take with him. But everypony refused to give up their abilities for such a strange character. Rayit grew impatient and murdered ten unicorns in one night, he fled the planet before I or any pony else could prosecute him.” “So, my former team’s powers came from unicorn magic?” “Precisely.” “But how did it get to them?” “When Rayit took the unicorn magic from the unicorns he killed, he modified them into a virus substance, which could spread from user to user with an unpredictable outcome in power type. He presented this development to the Atevian Prime Minister for use in the Atevian military, but this proposal was hastily denied. It was fear that if this power virus spread to the Atevian public, then Atevians could take advantage of their abilities and commit crimes or threaten others. Rayit became angry; he spent all his money for research and travel and didn’t have anything left to support his new family, he could only afford a space ship for his family to live on. In 1990, King Zoxus, your former enslaver was born. Five years later he was playing around in his father’s laboratory while their ship was flying above Earth, King found the power virus stored inside a capsule and dropped it out the ship’s window by accident. The capsule containing the virus fell to Earth and landed on the head of a child, a child who you may recognize, as Seth, from your former team.” I could remember Seth; my counterpart, using a telekinetic power to subdue me, when I first confronted him on planet Earth in 2009. It makes sense that Seth would be the first carrier of these abilities. “… How much more did you watch? Can you explain what connection King had to Seth and the rest of my former team?” “King has always had a fear of supernatural powers, it all stemmed from his father. In the 90’s, Rayit had enough stress on his mind raising a child, but five years later Yonina gave birth to another child, Kinuulah Zoxus, which wore on his sanity even more. It was at this point where Rayit grew cruel and began to abuse his children and spouse. All his anger bottled up from his poverty, hardship, and failures was fully expressed in the form of beating, berating, and even molesting upon his wife and children. All the derogatory actions by Rayit were performed with his own powers. In 1999, he even used his gift to murder his own wife. Seeing this at age nine, scarred King for life and left him under the impression that supernatural powers were bad, he believed that his purpose was to hunt out and destroy any and all supernatural entities in the universe. In 2009, he finally found a signal, a signal from none other than Seth and his younger brother. Thus, you were put into place as a hypnotized assassin.” “So that’s what it all was, killing Seth and the others is his only way of finding mental peace. Luckily neither I nor any of the other assassins were ever successful, as far as my knowledge serves. They could still be fighting King right now for all I know, or they could be dead.” “I can assure you that they are alive, and they have been very successful, they are actually very close to finally defeating King. Let’s just hope they will prevail in the coming days.” “You’re still watching? From 1989 to now, that’s twenty-three years! Why are you continuing to watch King!?” “King wasn’t the only person I had an eye on, I also watched Seth’s team. The reason I watch everyone, is because this story is simply amazing. I’ve rarely ever seen friends as committed and concerned for each other as Seth’s team was, they’re so young, and have been through so much for so long, it’s inspiring to see them bound to each other so firmly. The leaders of the team, Jonah and Cole are a perfect example; they have an unbreakable blood-bond of friendship, it’s almost like they’re blood-brothers. The both of them look out for one another, and will do anything and everything they can to protect one another. This is completely without exaggeration; unity is the greatest weapon you all have.” I was still unsure as to why Princess Celestia continued to care so much about it. Twilight saw my confusion and told me, “Princess Celestia here gave me an assignment two years ago, to report to her on the findings of the magic of friendship. It would only be normal for her to have other sources to learn the magic of friendship.” Celestia continued, “I’ve always wanted my subjects to embrace friendship and love above most other feelings. You and your friend’s stories are as uplifting as Twilight’s own. You all set a perfect example for my little ponies. This new adventure Twilight has told me is no exception either.” My depression, my anxiety, and my confusion were all washed away by the Princess’ inspiring words. I had new feelings; hope, optimism, and care. My experiences and troubles no longer weakened me, they recreated me. They have reunited me with my younger brother, and have led me to embrace the future.
Author's NotesThank you for reading Crossing Anthology, you may be wondering what the hell aside from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the other “Anthology”. The story being crossed is another story that I have made and still make called JKC. JKC is a comic about two young teenagers named Jonah and Cole who are fighting against an evil, alien space pirate named King Zoxus in their own home towns and cities. The story spans three years and is set on planet Earth. If you are interested in reading JKC, you can find it on my Facebook page, in the photo albums. JKC will also be submitted to Deviant Art at a later date. The main JKC characters will be the main stars for Crossing Anthology 2, which is expected to be done by 2013. It will involve them teaming with the “Mane 6” to find Lemmour’s murderer. Thank you for reading, Yon The Cryokinetic
Pinkie Pie And FluttershyRarity and I walked through town, until we stopped at a building that looked like a ginger bread house, the kinds children make on Christmas. Rarity knocked on the door, and out came a pink pony with curly-unorganized hair. She had a big smile on her face. She then said, “Hi Rarity!” She then looked over at me, “Ooooh, who is this? She’s shiny!” “Um, hello, I’m Lemmour and I am a man.” “Sorry, hee hee, my name is Pinkie Pie!” “Nice to meet-“ “Where are you from? Are you an alien? Do aliens eat cake? What kind of cake do they like?” “Hmm… I come from Planet Atevia; to your race yes I am an alien; I’m not sure; and it’s non-applicable.” Everything I said was cut off, I thought to myself; “Just listen to her, rambling on. Why don’t I curse her out!?” I was that annoyed. Rarity couldn’t help but notice it, so she interrupted, “Pinkie Pie, Twilight has decided to look for Spike all across Equestria, starting tomorrow, we wanted to know if you’d care to tag along?” “Sure I would! Oh if we’re going all over Equestria, I’d better make up as much snacks and goodies as I can before tomorrow.” “Okay Pinkie we’ll leave you to your work! Come along Lemmour, let’s go see Fluttershy.” I followed Rarity about two miles down the road, to a cottage. It was surrounded by small bunnies, turtles and all sorts of other animals. There was also a bridge over a small stream that divided the house from the rest of the road, it felt isolated from everything else but in a good way. Rarity then knocked on the door and turned to me, “Fore-warning Lemmour, Fluttershy is a very nervous and shy Pegasus; only the smallest things could frighten the poor thing. So try not to make any sudden movements. No offence darling, but I can already tell by your different appearance she’ll be nervous.” “I’ll keep that in mind.” The door creaked open slowly, out came a quiet and shy voice, “... Hello?” “Fluttershy it’s Rarity, I’d like you to meet someone.” Fluttershy opened the door slowly and saw me next to Rarity; she jumped at the sight of me. I could tell she was frightened easily; she looked at me and asked, “Wow, uh… what are you supposed to be?” “I am an Atevian, my name is Lemmour.” “Hello Lemmour, I’m um… Fluttershy….” “Oh I know our name, Fluttershy.” She jumped more at the surprise of me knowing her name. Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder to get her attention, “Fluttershy, Twilight has decided to look for Spike all across Equestria. We were wondering if you’d like to come and help us.” “Oh, I don’t know… if we’re going all over, does that include the Ever Free Forest?” “Yes, and I don’t think there’s much need to be afraid of that forest, now that we’ve got someone as big and strong as Lemmour on our team, hmhmhm.” I’ll be honest, I blushed at that comment. “Well I guess but, it sounds so… dangerous…” I could tell this was going nowhere, so I raised my hand into the air, extended my palm, and shot out a laser beam from my armor. Fluttershy and Rarity were amazed. I then told Fluttershy, “As long as you’re with me, you’ll be safe out there; no foe on in that forest could match what you just saw.” After a matter of seconds, Fluttershy hesitantly said, “…Oh… Oh okay, I’ll come with you. Just allow me to give my creatures extra food and water before we leave.” “Okay Fluttershy, we’ll be back at dawn to get you.” “Okay, bye…”
EpilogueI have been writing from Twilight’s library for the past six months since my journey ended, documenting the adventure and how it changed me. It’s been a long day of writing, and I believe I am done. It is a lovely night for a walk; I think I’ll hop into my armor and take the opportunity to get to know this town better. I should bring Spike with me to keep me some company. This is Méso Lemmour Zoxus, signing off. ________________________________________ This is Spike; I don’t know why this has happened. I was just walking through Ponyville with Lemmour, and all of a sudden some tall hooded creature raised a long metal tube at Lemmour and BANG, out of the tube came a flash and instantly there was a gaping, bleeding hole in his head. He fell to the ground completely immobile and unresponsive. The hooded creature ran away into the Everfree Forest, I stayed with Lemmour and shook him trying my best to get any response out of him, but he didn’t do anything. He was dead; my own brother that I only knew for six months was killed. I feel so afraid, why did this happen to me? What did I or anyone do to make this happen? I went to Twilight immediately and she promised me that everything would be okay; she promised that the murderer would be found, but I still feel so afraid and sad. Even if I only knew Lemmour for half a year, him and I were getting along so well, and I was so happy to finally meet someone from my family after not knowing anyone others my whole life. I can’t stop crying, I am still crying. ________________________________________ The End.
