Creed: Return of the Alicorns

Chapters

Chapter 1: Awakening
Chapter 2: Bulwark
Chapter 3: Diversion
Chapter 4: Flight
Chapter 5: Magic
Chapter 6: Cakes
Chapter 7: Banishment
Chapter 8: Dream
Chapter 9: Price

Chapter 1: Awakening

Written by bossfight1

Chapter 1: Awakening

My name is Aaron Creed, but I ask my friends to call me Creed, just because it sounds cool. For the past couple of years, I’ve been a brony, and proud. The writing, the animation, the songs, the character development, it’s all fantastic; of course it is, Lauren Faust is involved, she has a goddamn Midas touch with cartoons.

Having said that, you’d think a brony would be pretty fucking thrilled to wake up one morning in Equestria as an alicorn, and he would, in the right circumstances. However, just dumping him there out of the blue without any proper explanation isn’t exactly the polite way of transferring people into other worlds.

I was never really one for mornings. Either I slept through them entirely, or grudgingly woke up early because I had to. The way I woke up this particular morning, though, I planned to reconsider my relationship with them. The first thing I realized once I woke up was that I was lying in grass. This confused me, because I strongly remembered getting into bed the previous night. The second thing was that my body felt... wrong. It didn’t hurt, but it felt like my brain was told to control me in stick shift after spending the last twenty-three years driving automatic and needed some time to adjust.

I opened my eyes, seeing a dense yet pleasant-looking forest surrounding me. I reached up to rub the sleep out of my eyes, but felt something thick smack me in the face rather harshly. After giving the obligatory “Ow,” I looked at what had hit me. There I saw a gray hoof where my hand should have been. My eyes widened as they trailed down the hoof to what was unmistakably my own body; gray fur, a pair of wings on my back, a black tail, even a damn CUTIE MARK, this one of six black circles, intertwined with one-another. I raised my hoof to my head to wipe the sweat that was starting to pour from my forehead when I felt it; a damned horn. I prodded it a few more times to make sure my mind wasn’t bullshitting me; not only was I a pony, I was a goddamned ALICORN.

I lay my head back on the grass; the crisp smell helped keep my head together. Try to remember last night, I thought. Did anything out of the ordinary happen?

“Well,” I muttered to myself. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to envision the previous night. “I... got out of class... I went home... it was raid night, so I went to bed late... and that’s it.” Ugh. Nothing weird... Whatever happened must have happened while I was asleep.

I lay there for a few more minutes before finally deciding that my brain wouldn’t forgive me if I just lay there instead of trying to find some answers. Shakily, I pushed myself up, my legs trembling, but I quickly got the hang of it; newborn horses, deer and such can walk within minutes of birth, right?

So, standing was a pass, it was walking that concerned me; I took a deep breath and took a step forward with my right front hoof. Simple enough. Then my back left. Front left. Back right. Soon enough I was trotting comfortably around the small clearing I had landed in. I was thankful this stuff was coming naturally, otherwise I would have been embarrassed that I died in the forest because I couldn’t figure out how to walk, even if it was in a new body. I gazed at my wings and groaned in longing as I stretched them. I’d always dreamed of being able to say “Suck it, gravity,” and here was my chance, but walking was one thing; attempting to fly within ten minutes of getting wings was another. I needed to find help, and I preferred doing so without breaking one or more of my legs. I vowed I’d find someone- or somepony, I’d need to get used to using that term- to give me a crash course... in the figurative sense, hopefully.

With no real plan or direction, I picked up a leaf with my mouth and chucked it into the air. The wind blew it to my left, so I decided to head that way; a bullshit plan was better than no plan at all, I figured. I walked for about ten minutes, enjoying the peacefulness of the forest; birds were chirping cheerfully, the sky was the most delightful shade of blue... I actually felt happy. That’s one of the reasons I’d always wanted to come to Equestria; the simple, natural beauty of it all.

My bliss was interrupted by the sound of foot- sorry, hoof-falls. I glanced to my right and saw, to my surprise, another alicorn sprinting through the trees; this one had more feminine features, had a bright green coat, a red mane that, combined with her coat, made me think of a horse-shaped watermelon, and a cutie mark depicting a spark of flame, no larger than you’d see burning on a candle. The alicorn was panting with desperation, like she was trying to escape something. That something became apparent when seven more ponies bolted into view; two of them were pegasi, one of them was a unicorn, the rest were earth ponies. All of them were decked out in black, green-trimmed armor. My confusion got the better of me and made me say “Uh...”

The ponies heard me. “There’s another one!!” One of the pegasi screamed, glaring at me with malice while still chasing after the other alicorn. “You guys get him,” he barked at the rest of his friends before turning to his fellow pegasus. “We’ll get the girl!” The earth ponies and single unicorn wasted no time and changed course, sprinting towards me without a single friendly-looking face on any of them.

With a yelp I spun in place and sprinted for anywhere that wasn’t here. I was honestly surprised my legs were handling running so well. I turned my head back and noted I had a decent lead on my pursuers, but I also noticed that, unlike Celestia and Luna, despite being an alicorn I wasn’t any larger than any other ponies. I attributed that to me not being royalty and kept running.

I brushed against a tree and felt the feathers of my left wing get rustled, and had an idea; what better teacher than first-hand experience, right? I waited for a break in the trees before spreading my wings and, giving a short prayer to every god I knew and some gods that I made up on the spot, kicked off from the ground while giving a powerful flap of my wings. I gained a good six or seven feet, but with another powerful flap I cleared the treeline. I heard my pursuers shout in frustration, and felt good. I looked back and resisted the urge to scream something along the lines of “So long, suckers,” before noticing the sole unicorn in the group charging his horn, a bright blue aura surrounding it..

Before I could react, he let off a bolt of energy that hit me right at the point my wings met my back; it didn’t hurt much, just enough to get me to lose altitude. “Shit!” I yelled as I frantically flapped my wings and kicked my legs as I fell towards the treeline, but my descent was as inevitable as the scratches I’d get from the branches I’d fall through as I tumbled towards the ground, making a variety of sounds like “Gah!” or “D’oh!” and “Ohgodwhy!” before landing painfully on my back in a bush. I lay there, groaning for a good minute before the black-armored ponies finally approached. “Nice try, buddy,” the unicorn said with a sneer. “Get that collar on him and tie his wings down!”

One of the earth ponies stepped forward, reached into his satchel with his mouth and pulled out a stone collar, thick enough to wrap around my neck without choking me, ornate runes lining its surface. The pony opened the hinged collar and locked it around my throat; I was in no real position to resist anymore. I languidly rolled off the bush and stood still, letting them tie my wings down tight with a thick length of rope. When they finished, they began leading through the forest, surrounding me to ensure I didn’t try to escape again, but I wasn’t planning on it; this was probably my best bet at getting answers. I only ran out of panic.

For about a half-hour, we walked. I kept quiet, these guys didn’t look like the talkative type, and I doubted they’d answer any questions I’d have, like “Where are we going”, “What do you want from me”, or “Do you have any idea why I woke up as a pony this morning?” But after awhile, the unicorn turned to me. “Were there any others out there?”

I stared. “Other what?”

“Don’t play dumb!” He barked. “Other alicorns! Did you see any others?!”

“No, no others!” I cried defensively. “Well, there was that green one you were chasing, but that’s it! And honestly, I’m more than a bit confused here, so cut me some slack!”

The unicorn glared at me for a few seconds before accepting it as the truth and looking away. We kept walking for another few minutes before finally, I saw it through the treeline; an immense, magical, gray-colored dome that stretched a good mile or so across the forest. Around the base of the dome was this forty-foot high stone wall, towers rising from several points in the perimeter and a great deal of armored ponies patrolling the wall, armed with a variety of swords, spears and other equally pleasant weapons. The guards led me around the dome and through a massive gate inside the complex. Just beyond the gate I spotted an immense number of low-quality tents beyond a tall, wrought-iron fence, but I was pushed to my left and guided into a dark, windowless office within the stone wall, with a table and a single unicorn sitting behind it. He was wearing the same black and green armor set, minus the helmet, and was using his magic to levitate a variety of stamps, pens and papers. He pulled up a blank form and pen, and looked up to regard me. “Name?” He asked.

I was silent; do I say my full name, or make up a pony-sounding name, or...?

“Name!” The unicorn asked. “Your name is the only thing you can bring in here, but we could just as easily assign you a number-”

“Creed!” I said. “My name is Creed.”

The unicorn filled out the paper with disinterest, mumbling to himself. “Name, Creed... coat, gray... mane, black... eyes...” He looked up at me. “Red...”

I took a moment to think, I have red eyes? Nice!

“Mark...” The unicorn said, giving a quick gesture. I was forcefully rotated on the spot to show the unicorn my cutie mark. He looked at it and doodled a quick sketch of it on the paper as I was turned to face him again. He looked like he’d been doing this all day. Once he finished, he pressed his stamp against the paper; a black handled sword with a green blade.

“Okay,” he said, preparing to give a well-practiced set of guidelines. “You will be fed at regular intervals each day, you have free reign of the camp, just don’t try to escape, guards have full jurisdiction, and NO, I can NOT tell you why you are being kept here, you will discover that at the right time. Any questions?” Before I could think of anything he gestured for me to be rushed out of the office. I was led past a growing line of other alicorns, among which I saw the green one I’d seen earlier. I was escorted through the fence to the area with the tents, where the guards removed the ropes around my wings before simply leaving me there, passing through the gate and slamming it shut. The unicorn who had blasted me turned to face me through the fence.

“Welcome to Equestria!” He said with a malicious grin before turning away, leaving me alone and dreadfully confused; so much for answers.

Chapter 2: Bulwark

When I first arrived in the camp there were twenty, maybe thirty other alicorns around the place, all wearing the same collars as the one wrapped around my neck, but out in the courtyard the noise of a crowd was growing louder and louder; these guys were doing well in rounding us up. I asked around, tried to see if anyone had any idea what was going on, but these alicorns were in the same boat as me; they woke up in the forest, having previously been a human, and were promptly captured and tossed in here. The guards along the walls and beyond the fence weren’t particularly talkative, but I didn’t expect them to be.

As the camp started filling up I tried getting the hang of flying; the clear purpose of the dome overhead was to prevent any aerial escapes, but it still allowed some room for practice. The guards were wary when they saw me floating around the camp but they didn’t give me any trouble. While I still instinctively longed for open skies, simply floating around the camp was good enough for me for the time being. I would have liked using magic but those collars seemed to keep us from doing so much as a card trick.

Hours passed and the camp became congested with countless alicorns of various colors and cutie marks. By nightfall the guards stopped bringing them in and escorted them from the camp; I heard one of them saying “This camp’s full, let’s bring em to another...” Another camp? How many other camps are there? And how many alicorns had appeared in Equestria??

One of the guards blew on a horn to draw the attention of the camp before shouting, “Gather in the courtyard!” We did as we were told, gathering in a tightly packed crowd in the courtyard right next to a portion of the wall, with a wooden balcony jutting off the top of it. Before long, with a bright flash of light, another unicorn appeared on the balcony, this one wearing black and green armor more ornate than the rest of the guards. His coat was a poisonous green, and his eyes were rather piercing beneath his helmet. He looked down upon us like he had been waiting for this moment; like he felt this was his natural state.

“Alicorns,” he began, clearly enjoying being able to use his authority. “I am Warden Bulwark, Leader of the Somber Blade, your new masters. You have been brought here to fulfill your great purpose... But first, I must see that you are ready.” With another flash, he disappeared, then reappeared on our level. He approached one of the alicorns, who stood rather stiffly, showing no signs of fear, just confusion. Bulwark glared into the alicorn’s eyes with a sneer for a minute before turning away with an annoyed grunt. Bulwark spent about ten minutes doing this to random alicorns; he looked like he was trying to get a rise out of them. Eventually, he turned to me. I stood ramrod stiff, taking the occasional uncomfortable glance off to the side as Bulwark stood nose-to-nose with me, growling.

“We’re the reason you’re here, you know,” he whispered. “We’re the reason you’ll never see your families again... All that you may have loved, gone within an instant!” He smiled, clearly waiting for something. I simply raised an eyebrow; what the hell was he doing? Why was he trying to piss people off?

Bulwark grew impatient as I remained silent, but he kept his cruel grin. “I doubt they’ll miss you, though... You never belonged there in the first place...”

I couldn’t remain silent any longer. “I’m sorry,” I interrupted as politely as possible. “But, what the hell are you doing?”

Bulwark took a step back, growling angrily. His horn began to glow; I debated whether it would be worth running, but before I could reach a conclusion he let off a blast of energy right in my face. I was sent rolling backwards across the ground, causing other alicorns to hastily step aside. Once I stopped rolling a couple of the alicorns helped me stand up; the blast didn’t hurt, it was more of a force-push kind of deal.

“What the hell, man?” I asked Bulwark. I wasn’t particularly angry, it just made me even more confused. Bulwark snarled in frustration and, with another flash, teleported back up to the balcony.

“Clearly you are not ready yet!” He barked from above. “A few weeks in here, however, and you will be ready to fulfill your destinies.” Bulwark took a moment to calm himself. “We of the Somber Blade are your masters now, alicorns. The barrier above obviously prevents flying, the collars around your necks prevent magic, and the guards are more than capable of preventing any pitiful attempts at escape. You will be free to leave once you have all reached your full potential.” Bulwark cast a quick glance at me. “Though it may take some time for some of you. Welcome to Camp 89, alicorns.”

With a final flash, Bulwark vanished. We were left there, confused, before slowly dispersing. The guards began lighting the lamps that lined the inside of the walls; night had fallen, I decided to find a tent to sleep in. As I looked for a tent that wasn’t full, I felt something in my horn; a prickling, tingling sense, it was faint but I felt it. I had thought the collars prevented magic, but my horn was doing something that was undeniably magical. I turned my head to my right, the tingling grew fainter. I turned to my left, it suddenly grew stronger. As I contemplated this, I remembered something from the show; Rarity’s story of how she got her cutie mark, in which her horn literally dragged her towards a rock full of diamonds. I realized that my horn was doing the same thing, more or less, so I decided to follow it.

Not unlike a metal detector, my horn tingled more and more as I got closer to... wherever it wanted me to go. Eventually, I found it; a tent towards the back corner of the camp, indistinguishable from the rest. With a shrug I opened the flap; clearly magic was used on these tents, as it was considerably larger on the inside. Two bunk beds stood at the back corners of the tent, a simple table with an oil lamp between them. On the top bunk of one of them sat the green alicorn I’d seen in the forest. She was quickly brushing something out of her eyes; she had been crying. I immediately thought that leaving would be the best option, but my horn gave another quick buzz. I needed to stay. I walked into the tent and climbed into the opposite bed on the bottom bunk. I lay there for a few moments while she lay down with her back to me. Eventually the silence became too much to bear; I sat up. “My name’s Creed.”

She was still for a second, but she rolled over to look at me, tears still in her eyes. “I’m Lily,” she said, quietly.

Okay, the conversation could happen, it just needs a pushing start, I thought. “Where, uh... Where you from?” I asked. Lily didn’t respond, she rolled over again and faced the side of the tent. When I heard her faintly whimper I thought about getting up and leaving, but the tent flaps were opened and two more alicorns entered. One had a dark red coat, black mane and a mark of a stethoscope, the other was blue with a darker blue mane, and a broken chain; I recognized them as the two that had helped me up after Bulwark blasted me in the face. The two had clearly expected the tent to be empty.

“Oh, uh, sorry...” The red one said. “We’ll just, uh...” He made to leave, but I stopped him.

“Dude, there’s enough room for all of us here.” I beckoned for them to come in. The two shared a quick glance before coming in. The blue one clambered into the bunk above me while the red one sat below Lily, who had sat up from the fresh arrivals.

Things were quiet for a few moments. Once again I broke the ice. “I’m Creed.”

“I’m Jake,” the blue one above me said.

“I’m his brother, Pete,” the red one said.

“Lucky you guys found each other, huh?” I said.

Pete chuckled. “Yeah. We woke up next to each other in the forest, we didn’t get very far before those... what did he call them? Somber Blade? Well, they caught us.”

I looked up at Lily expectantly; she hesitated before speaking. “I’m Lily.”

With the introductions out of the way, Pete lay back in his bunk. “What do they want with us?” He asked himself, rubbing his head.

“Well, Bulwark said that the Somber Blade were the reason we’d been brought here...” I said. “So at least we have something of an idea.”

“Yeah, but they’re CLEARLY up to something!” Pete said, frustrated. “I wouldn’t mind finding out what before it actually happens, you know?”

I rolled over on my side, Pete’s frustration becoming my own. “This isn’t how I’d have liked to come here...”

“Wait, what?” Jake said from above. He hung his head upside down into my bunk. “Say that again?”

I stared at Jake; could this be happening? “I said ‘This isn’t how I’d have liked to come here...’”

“You’re a brony?!” Jake said happily. I immediately sat up, nearly banging my head on the bunk above me.

“Yeah!”

Pete and Lily immediately perked up at this. “I’m a brony too!” Lily cried, showing the first signs of happiness in the few minutes since I had arrived. “Well, pegasister...”

“Jake was the one who brought me into the herd!” Pete said as he stood up from his bed.

“Hey, sorry, did I hear that right?” A yellow alicorn poked his head through the tent flaps. “Y’all are bronies?” Before we could nod, we heard someone calling from outside.

“I’m a brony!”

“Me too!”

I then realized just how quickly this pleasant realization could descend into a total shitstorm. I got up from the bed and poked my head through the tent flaps as the yellow alicorn departed. From our tent, every alicorn in sight was quickly revealing their bronyhood to others. The cries of “I’m a brony!” and “Brohoof!” spread like wildfire throughout the camp, until I could barely hear myself think over all the noise.

“Holy SHIT!” I exclaimed, pressing my hooves to my ears in a vain attempt to soften the noise. I turned to the alicorns behind me, they looked as dumbfounded as I did. Was every single alicorn here a brony?!

“ENOUGH!!”

As the voice somehow managed to shout loud enough to be clearly heard over the ruckus, a bolt of lightning streaked from the top of the dome and struck the very center of the camp; no one was hurt, but the noise snapped everyone to attention. Despite the dark I could make out the shape of Bulwark standing on top of the wall, his horn smoking from the recent spell.

“This is your PRISON! It is not a place for such childlike joviality!!” He barked before turning and walking down the wall towards one of the towers. I ducked back inside the tent without a word and climbed into bed. Despite the scare, after a few minutes the four of us began discussing the show and the fandom; Lily and I were similar in that we’d never met another brony in person before. It felt great to be able to talk to someone else through actual words, and not through a forum. We discussed all the music we’d heard, the fan art, the great fanfictions we had read, we gave our views on various aspects of the show, we must have spent a couple hours discussing everything pony.

But as we began to wind down and start falling asleep, my thoughts drifted to the fact that most, if not all, of the alicorns in this camp were bronies... I knew we were great in number and far spread, but this didn’t feel like a coincidence.

Just what the hell was happening?

Chapter 3: Diversion

The next week we spent in the camp wasn’t exactly a deathless experience; sure, the guards clearly studied How to Be an Oppressive Tool very diligently, quickly yelling at anyone who was smiling or laughing, and even applying mild beatdowns to anyone who showed them any lip. However, they also kept us fed with decent food, and often left us alone unless they were feeling bored. All the Somber Blade did when not applying the whip was watch us... Like they were waiting for someone to do something.

Every morning we’d be woken up by that same horn that had been blown before we met Bulwark; we’d be lined up outside our tents for a headcount before being left to our own devices for the entire day, having breakfast, lunch and dinner before being lined up for attendance again and going to bed. After the second day we began falling into the routine, finding ways to amuse ourselves as the hours dragged on, but I was still thankful the Somber Blade didn’t have us performing slave labor; they looked like the type to do so.

In our own tent, Jake, Pete, Lily and I bonded rather quickly, only talking about the show occasionally, mainly discussing our lives as humans. Pete Cain worked as a doctor, as evidenced by his stethoscope cutie mark, at a hospital in New York. His brother Jake was in a local college, trying to get a degree in sociology, but he mainly spent his time working as a human rights activist; with this information I realized what his broken chain cutie mark stood for: freedom... Breaking the bonds who would control you. Jake was skeptical at this, but I thought he’d keep thinking about it. Lily Mason told us that she had a bit of an adventurous spirit, often going rock-climbing or skydiving, but spending her time in between getting doped up on Pony. She said she had to stop after... something, she clammed up before she could tell us. I guessed that she needed some time, so I didn’t press.

Despite the guards’ best efforts to make us feel like complete and utter shit, we, the alicorns, did our best to remain in high spirits. Mainly with the knowledge that we were, more or less, living the dream: we bronies were in Equestria! Sure, we hoped for a way out soon, but we decided to play the waiting game. It was only a matter of time before somepony found one of the camps and spread the word to Celestia, then we’d be free and could do everything a brony dreamed of doing... Flying with Rainbow Dash, caring for Fluttershy’s animals, but, most importantly, living a blissful life of pure harmony.

So, we let the Somber Blade do their thing, but every time a guard shouted at us for “disturbing the peace” or simply looking too happy, we did what bronies always do in the face of adversity. We looked the guard in the eye and said “Love and tolerate.” It often pissed the guards off even more, but we knew that we were getting to them far better than they were getting to us.

But Pete was getting rather antsy; he didn’t like not knowing what the Somber Blade were planning to do with us. At every opportunity he would try to eavesdrop on the patrolling guards, but they never talked to each other outside of the rooms within the walls. Pete once had me keep watch while he tried to sneak into one of the towers, but the door was locked. We were lucky we weren’t spotted, but Pete was growing increasingly restless. A week after we had arrived in the camp, when everyone had gone to bed, Pete suddenly spoke up in the darkness, causing me to wake up with a startled snort. “I’ve got it!”

I tried to say “What?” but I was still at the halfway point between sleep and being awake, so I made a noise somewhere along the lines of “Whivuhvuh...?” as I rubbed my eyes.

Pete turned up the flame in the lantern on the table. “I know how we can get some answers... It’s so simple!”

Lily rolled over in bed and faced the wall of the tent, turned away from the increasing light. “Can you tell us in the morning...?”

“No, no; I need to tell you now, while it’s fresh!” Pete insisted.

“If it means we can get back to sleep, then tell us...” Jake muttered from above my bunk.

“Creed,” Pete looked at me, a serious look in his eye. “You think you can take a punch?”

For hopefully obvious reasons, I immediately dreaded what Pete had in mind.

Lily lingered around the door to one of the towers furthest away from our tent, waiting for the opportune moment. I stood next to a friend of Jake’s, Steve Murphy; the yellow alicorn who had visited our tent a week ago. The corpulent Somber Blade chef laid out our usual lunch - a loaf of bread, water and various vegetables (they evidently wanted us healthy for whatever their plans were). Steve and I walked close to one another towards the tables, balancing our trays on our backs. Pete was sitting nearby, munching on his food, when he did the signal. Pete pretended to catch something in his throat and made a loud coughing noise. I took care to watch Pete ‘choke’, and Steve snatched some of my veggies from the tray on my back. I immediately looked back at my tray, then at Steve, and tried to make it look real. “Hey!” I snapped. “That’s my food!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Steve said defensively; I had to give him credit, he was pulling off the part well.

“You stole my food is what I’m talking about, asshole!” I said, adding a dash of anger.

“Whatever, douche...” Steve said, preparing to turn away, but I quickly snatched his loaf of bread from his tray. Steve turned to me so fast he dropped his tray and gave me a shove, causing me to spill my own tray.

Okay, this is looking good... I thought before responding to Steve’s shove with a shove of my own. Steve stumbled backwards into a table behind him; we were attracting a great deal of stares, from both alicorn and the Somber Blade patrolling the wall - just how Pete wanted. Steve lunged forward and tackled me to the ground, but I quickly rolled us over so I was on top of him; I gave him a punch across the face, trying to be gentle, yet real at the same time.

Now, I sort of lost track of what happened next, but what I do know is that we had somehow managed to bring up a legitimate dust cloud over our little brawl, like the kind you’d see cartoon characters become obscured by during a fight between two or more parties. We kept shouting as we ‘punched’ and ‘kicked’ each other. But through the clouds of dust I could make out the tower door swinging open as a pair of unicorn Somber guards poured forth; Lily, who had been hiding beside the door, wasted no time in wedging a stick in the frame to keep it from closing all the way before diving inside.

The guards sprinted for us and each used their magic to separate us; we put on a show of continuing to try and fight some more, fighting against the levitating force that held us in the air, but one of the guards yelled “THAT’S ENOUGH!” and we stopped. The guard that was gripping me with his magic held me close. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“He stole my food!” I barked, pointing an accusing hoof at Steve; I thought it would be best to keep the act going, buy Lily some time to leaf through the tower. Steve evidently had the same thought, as he kept glaring at me loathingly.

The guards looked at each other for a moment before looking back at us. “You’re going to see Bulwark,” the other guard said with a sneer. I dared a quick glance at Pete; this wasn’t part of the plan! Pete gave a slight, encouraging nod as the guards levitated us towards one of the other towers; just beyond the door there was a room lined with weapon racks along the walls, and a staircase on the left. The guards carried us up the stairs and into a room with a big, fancy desk lined with various papers, with an equally fancy chair behind it. In the chair sat Bulwark, sans helmet, reading one of the papers before looking up at us.

“And what is this?” He asked, not showing any real interest.

“These two got into a fight, sir,” the alicorn holding me said. “This one,” he gave me a quick shake to indicate who he was talking about. “says that the other one stole food from him.” Bulwark raised an eyebrow with interest.

“Set them down and leave us,” he said. The guards released their magic, allowing us to land on the floor somewhat painfully. As we stood up, Bulwark leaned back in his chair. “So... you stole his food, Mister...”

“Murphy. Steve Murphy,” Steve said. “And... yes, yes I did.”

Bulwark narrowed his eyes at us for a moment. “Hmm...” He thought for a moment before saying “Ah!” and turning to me. “Well then, I suppose justice is mine to dish out, eh, Mister...?”

“Creed.”

Bulwark then seemed to recognize me from the previous week and chuckled. “You will eat all of Mister Murphy’s meals, as well as your own, for the next three days, directly in front of him. That should certainly teach him better than to steal from you. Good day, gentlecolts...” He gave a dismissive gesture while pulling out some papers, so we hurried down the stairs. The guards escorted us out of the tower, giving us a quick shove back into the camp before heading back to the tower they had come from. I cast a quick, anxious glance at that tower, worried that Lily was still in there, but then I spotted her hurrying away from the place, holding her mane like a makeshift bag as she ran towards our tent.

While Pete walked over to quietly thank Steve for his help, I dashed over to our tent, ignoring the stares from all the other alicorns. As I flung the tent flap aside I saw Lily and Jake sitting on the floor, huddled around what she had gathered: a pair of two inch thick, blood-red orbs; a large, rolled-up parchment; and, what I considered to be the real prize of the haul, a key. Pete came into the tent shortly after me and gave a delighted laugh at what Lily had managed to find.

“This is GREAT!” Pete said. “Excellent job, guys!” He disregarded the orbs for the moment and unfurled the parchment, giving another laugh at what it was: a map of Equestria. The four of us leaned over the map and studied it; it was clearly purchased (or stolen) from any store that sold maps, and the Somber Blade had made a wide variety of scribbles across several features of it. Many numbers littered the areas that highlighted the San Palomino Desert, the Badlands and the Hayseed Swamps. The only scribble that wasn’t a number on the map was of the letters “HQ”, laid upon a mesa in the San Palomino. We stared at the scribbles for a moment before it hit me.

“There’s the camps...” I said, scanning around the map, mainly in the Hayseed Swamp. Where was it, where was- “There!” I pointed (as accurately as I could with a hoof) at it. “89! This is Camp 89, this is where we are!” My eyes fell on the ‘HQ’. “So that would be their headquarters...”

Jake looked at all the other numbers on the map. “So many camps... how many other alicorns are they holding?”

Pete gave the key a nudge. “Well, this little baby is the first step towards freeing them all...” He said, unable to keep a hint of pride from his voice.

I looked up at Pete. “Wait, what?”

Pete looked back at me. “You don’t want to be in here forever, do you?”

“No, no I don’t, but...” I bit my lip. “You really think the four of us can free hundreds, if not thousands of people?”

“It only took six ponies to save the world, three times,” Pete said.

“Well, that was different,” I argued. “They’re the Elements of Harmony! We’re just four friends... And yeah, I know, in Equestria, Friendship is Magic and all, but...”

“...But what?” Pete asked.

I dragged my hoof along the floor. “I’ve... never been the... heroic type.”

“Then what type were you?” Pete asked, raising an eyebrow.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I couldn’t think of anything to say; back on Earth I’d been going for a Liberal Studies major, since I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. When I wasn’t at school or work I’d always be in my room, hunched at my computer desk playing games or watching ponies. I snapped out of my trance, unable to find a good answer.

“Now, what are these things?” Pete asked, nudging the orbs with his nuzzle. I picked one of them up with my hoof (bizarrely) and held it up, looking closely. Up close, the orb looked like a clear, glass sphere with a constantly shifting cloud of red smoke inside of it. I held the orb closer to my eyes, gazing deeply into the orb, before I noticed it; the silhouette of... something. I squinted my eyes, trying to make it out, and it suddenly became clear; Jake. I looked over at Jake, who was gazing deeply into the other orb before suddenly looking back at me. Pete took the orb from him and looked inside. “These orbs, they... they let us see the person who has the other!”

“Maybe more...” I muttered. I held the orb close to my mouth and whispered a less-than-kind comment about Pete into it, quietly enough that the others couldn’t hear it. But Pete evidently heard it through his own orb, as he shot a cross look at me.

“Hey!” He said resentfully, before rolling his eyes and placing the orb next to the key. He bent over the map again, scanning for Camp 89. He trailed his hoof from the camp to the nearby town on the edge of the swamp. “Look, Dodge Junction! You guys remember that, right?”

“How could we forget?” I asked as a certain, beloved voice echoed in the back of my mind, claiming her ignorance to what exactly had gone wrong.

“Well,” Pete continued. “Dodge isn’t that far from here; we would just have to escape under cover of night and fly west; if we can’t fly very fast, we’ll run...” He laid his hoof beneath his chin, thinking. “We’d get onto a train from Dodge and head to- where else?- Ponyville... We find some...pony... anypony... who can help us. Twilight, Celestia... We need to spread the word that the alicorns are being held captive.”

Lily squirmed uncomfortably where she sat. “I don’t like the idea of leaving everyone here... Why should we escape while everyone else keeps suffering here?”

Pete nodded. “Hmm, you’re probably right... And also, we’d still have no clue what the hell they’re gonna do with us...” Pete’s eyes fell on the orbs. He stared at them for a minute before letting out a sigh. “I think a couple of us should stay here. We can use these orbs to communicate with whoever leaves, keep each other informed of what’s happening, inside and outside the camp.”

“So who gets to leave?” Jake asked. The four of us sat silently; we had a lot to consider in this decision. Our inner bronies were screaming at the chance to get out and see Equestria proper, meet the characters we’d grown to love... But we also knew that, once outside, we’d pretty much be making things up as we went along, potentially facing a great deal of disbelief from those we’d tell our story to...

“I’m gonna stay,” Jake said suddenly.

Pete looked to his brother. “Say what now?”

“I’m staying,” Jake repeated, firmly. “I couldn’t bear to leave these people here... I’d be constantly worrying about them suffering at the hands- or hooves, rather- of those Somber Bastards...”

Pete stared at Jake for a few moments before sighing. “Fine... then I’m staying too.”

“Say what now?”

“I’m NOT leaving my kid brother here alone,” Pete said, laying a hoof on Jake’s shoulder. Jake opened his mouth to argue, but promptly shook his head. Evidently, the brothers were equally stubborn. Pete looked to Lily and I. “Guess it’s up to you two.”

Lily and I glanced from each other to Pete and Jake, making noises like “Ah,” and “But...” and “What...” before groaning in resignation.

“We should get you out soon,” Pete said, rolling up the map. “Tonight, if possible. Before they realize that these things are missing.” Lily and I shared an uneasy glance, but the shouting of a Somber Guard outside drew our attention. We all poked our heads through the tent flap and watched as a Somber Guard was smacking a poor white stallion around the head with his staff, guffawing at the alicorn wincing in pain from each smack. The four of us retreated into our tent. Lily and I nodded to each other, then to Pete.

The four of us gave our goodbyes that night before turning in early. Jake volunteered to stay awake and get us up at a late hour, when the guards would likely be faltering from exhaustion. It took me awhile to fall asleep... I couldn’t help but feel anxious about the following day, and yet excited at the same time. What would we face out there? What familiar faces would we see? But one thought gave me a sick feeling in the deepest part of my stomach; Would I ever see my family again? I fell asleep before I could seriously consider that point.

Chapter 4: Flight

“Wake up.”

Normally I would have told whoever had the nerve to wake me up in such a way to go suck a rigid one, but I quickly remembered what was happening and clambered out of bed. Jake had already woken Pete and Lily; the four of us, with nothing to bring other than the orbs, the map and the key, wasted no time in slipping out of our tent, sneaking around other tents during breaks between the patrols on the walls. We approached the tower closest to our tent. Jake took the key and, using his mouth, slipped it into the lock and opened the door a crack. He peeked inside for a moment before turning to us and nodding.

We entered the tower; it was evidently the pantry for the alicorn’s food, with sacks of flour, seeds and such lining the walls, haphazardly tossed by the uncaring Somber Blade, and a few large crates beneath the staircase leading to the top of the tower. Pete opened one of the crates and rummaged through its contents. He withdrew a pair of saddlebags for Lily and I, a length of rope, and some fabric that we could use as makeshift cloaks. The four of us climbed the staircase with great care, and were relieved to just find more crates and supplies, as well as a ladder with a trapdoor at the top; our way onto the wall.

I volunteered to climb the ladder and peek through the trapdoor; any guards in sight were either too far along the wall to see us, or had their backs turned. I climbed back down the ladder and relayed what I had seen. “I think our only way down is to jump... or fly.”

“But... I haven’t flown yet!” Lily protested.

“In that case...” Pete said, brandishing the rope. “You’ll use this to rappel down the wall. Remember, you’re heading west, towards Dodge...”

“Which way is west?” I asked.

Pete screwed his eyes shut, trying to remember where the sun had risen in the week we’d been here. After a few moments his lids popped open, and he pointed towards the wall. “That way, the sun rises from the other way. Stay hidden in the forest until you can’t see the camp anymore, then run like hell.” Pete laid his front hooves on our shoulders. “You guys are the best chance we have. We’re counting on you.”

“So, yeah, no pressure or anything,” Jake whispered dryly as he fed the rope between the rungs of the ladder. “Pete and I will hold the rope from here while you rappel down; give us a couple tugs when you’re on the ground and we’ll draw it back.”

As Jake stuffed the saddlebags with everything we’d need, Lily quickly pulled Pete into a tight hug. “We’ll come back for you guys...” She whispered, giving Pete a peck on the cheek. As she did the same with Jake, Pete and I shared a quick bro-hug.

“Keep her safe, man,” Pete muttered in my ear as Lily began climbing the ladder with the other end of the rope. I gave Pete an affirming nod before giving Jake a quick hug and climbing through the trapdoor. Lily stood at the edge of the tower uncertainly, looking down at the ground. I laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“Want me to go first?” I asked. Lily nodded, so I reached down for the rope... and realized I had no idea of how I was going to rappel down the wall without fingers to hang onto the rope. “...Well, shit.” I muttered. I cast a worried glance along the wall; the guards I could see were still stationary at the other towers, but I didn’t know for how long.

“What’s going on?” Pete whispered from below. I whimpered nervously for a second before finally picking up the rope with my mouth and biting down hard. I carefully lowered myself over the edge, biting on the rope for dear life, occasionally loosening my bite enough that I slowly slid down the rope, flapping my wings to keep from falling too fast. My teeth screamed in protest, but I eventually felt my feet find purchase on the ground. I released the rope and beckoned for Lily to come. She hesitated for a good minute before following my lead; she held onto the rope with her mouth, flapped her wings to slow her descent, and soon enough she joined me on the ground. I took the end of the rope in my mouth again and gave a couple hard tugs. The rope was promptly pulled up the wall without a sound. I gave a sad little wave to it before turning to Lily.

“Let’s get moving.”

Lily and I lurked through the forest for an hour, jumping at the sounds of twigs breaking or strange animals chirping in the night. We stayed close yet moved quickly, putting as much distance between us and the camp as we could; we wanted as much time as possible to escape before the Somber Blade realized we were gone and came after us.

Soon enough, the grass beneath our hooves gave way to dirt and dust, and the trees began to part; we had reached the desert. I sighed in relief, but we still had to get to Dodge. We kept walking, hoping to get as far as possible before the sun rose and started beating us down. After about fifteen minutes, I turned to Lily. “How’s about I teach you what I know about flying?”

I initially thought she’d decline, given her unease about the idea of flying off the wall, but she quickly nodded. “Sure!”

I spread my wings. “Okay, so I usually take off by giving one big flap while kicking off from the ground, like this.” I bent my knees and sprung up with a thrust of my wings; I rose about ten feet in the air and soared in a circle above Lily. “See? It’s easy. Now you try.”

Lily bent her knees right, but as she sprang up she flapped her wings frantically like a falling chicken, so she didn’t rise any more than four feet off the ground before landing back on her feet.

“Just one big flap,” I instructed. “If you keep moving your wings like that you’ll get tuckered out. You’ll get the hang of it, don’t worry.”

Lily took a deep breath, closed her eyes, bent her knees and sprung up with a strong thrust of her wings, rising up to my level. She opened one eye and, when she saw that she had done it, gave a happy laugh. She quickly learned the feel of when you needed to flap your wings to stay airborne, and soon we were making great time flying west, even having a race at one point to a mesa in the distance. It was close, but I was the one who won in the end (And if Lily tells you otherwise, she is a filthy liar.) It was probably the first bit of true fun we’d had in a long time.

About an hour later as we were flying we were suddenly bathed in a light shining behind us. We turned and were awed at the sight; the sun was rising, far faster than it did on Earth. It was Celestia’s time to shine, evidently. Ten seconds after we had been in near complete darkness, the sun was suddenly at the point it would typically be at around ten o’clock. We stared at the display... for about a couple seconds, at which point we quickly rubbed our eyes to keep from going blind. As my eyes recovered, I opened them to see another light. This one was much smaller, red, and just barely visible on the horizon in the direction we had come from. I squinted to see it clearly, but it was almost too late when I realized what it was.

I ducked my head as a crimson blast of magic energy zipped over me. “FUCK!” I looked to where the blast had come from; I couldn’t tell how many there were, but I recognized those black and green colors instantly. “RUN!” I yelled. Lily and I spun around and bolted west as fast as our wings could carry us. I dared to look back and saw them; pegasi, three of them, each being ridden by a unicorn who was charging his horn to fire energy blasts at us. Thankfully the pegasi had clearly never carried other ponies while flying before, so they were having trouble flying steady, and the unicorn’s aim suffered for it.

I looked ahead and saw it, just on the horizon; a small, old-west-style town with a set of train tracks stretching past the outside of town from the east to the west: Dodge Junction. And as luck would have it, a train was stationary at the Dodge Platform. I looked to Lily. “We need to get on that train!” I yelled.

“But those guys’ll keep following us!” Lily called back. She was right; we needed to lose them. The anti-magic collars were still around our necks, so magic was out of the question; I looked everywhere in our surroundings, trying to find something - anything - we could use to our advantage. My eyes fell on the cherry orchard on the edge of Dodge, and I had an idea; a risky, stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.

“Follow me!” I called to Lily before diving down towards the orchard. We flew below the treeline, dodging the trees and the confused farmers that ducked and dodged out of our way when they saw us coming. During breaks in the trees I dared a glance back; our pursuers were definitely having trouble keeping up while trying not to drop their unicorn riders. Sure enough, one of them flew head-on into a tree branch that sent them tumbling head-over-heels into a pile of cherry bushels. Lily and I laughed at their misfortune and kept flying.

As we zoomed between the trees I noticed a big cart being pulled by a brown earth stallion across our path. I quickly gave myself a boost in altitude and barely cleared the cart; one of the pegasi behind us wasn’t so lucky, colliding with the cart and sending his unicorn rider flying into another tree. This time we simply winced at the extremely loud ‘CRACK’ that echoed through the orchard as we kept flying. “One more to go...” I muttered.

The last flyer was either very lucky or very skilled, and remained behind us in the orchard. I decided to try something fancy. I slowed down a little bit to let the last pegasus get closer to me, so they would have less reaction time, when I immediately stopped in midair. “Whoops!” I cried, cracking a smile.

The pegasus and the unicorn soared right past me, both turning their heads at me in confusion. “What the...” The unicorn began before turning and noticing the particularly large tree they were about to get friendly with. “No, no, no, stop STOP STOP--” He yelled at his colleague, but it was too late. Wham! they collided with the tree so hard every single cherry within it fell from its branches. The pair dropped from the tree to the ground; they had left an imprint in the trunk that deeply reminded me of George of the Jungle. Lily banked around and flew up to me.

“Creed, that was awesome!” She cried, pulling me into a hug. My eyes widened at the gesture; it felt... good. Lily quickly released me, giggling modestly.

“Yeah, so, uh...” I coughed. “We should... we should get to the train.”

“We have no money, though,” Lily pointed out. I nodded, that would be a problem. My eyes fell on the unconscious pegasus and unicorn on the ground, covered in multi-colored cherries and leaves. I hesitated at the thought, but I decided that our needs were greater than that of these jerks. I hovered down to them and reached into the unicorn’s saddlebag.

“Hope the Somber Blade has medical...” I muttered to the pair as I leafed through the bag’s contents, finding another orb like the ones we’d stolen, and a small bag that made the oh-so appealing sound of jingling coins when I shook it. “Well, now we do,” I said, tucking the bag of bits into my saddlebag.

The two of us quickly flew over to the train station; the ponies all around town cast awed glances our way, like we were visiting royalty. They probably thought we were, but we didn’t linger, it was only a matter of time before those Somber goons recovered. We went to buy our one-way tickets to Ponyville, and the guy in the booth even gave us a “royalty discount” that he probably made up on the spot. We didn’t argue, the extra bits would likely come in handy. Thankfully nopony questioned the collars around our necks, likely believing them to be some kind of royal swag.

Lily and I sat in the back of one of the front most cars, resting our weary legs and wings. As the train chugged out of the station we both relaxed a little bit. Lily soon fell asleep, leaning her head on my shoulder as I watched the horizon pass by. I debated on whether I should catch some sleep, but I wanted to remain alert in case the Somber Blade caught up with us.

My body eventually gave in, however, and I fell asleep. I was woken up when a pair of laughing foals ran past me through the car; Lily was gone. I began to panic; had she been taken? Before I could get up and start calling for Lily, the door in the front of the car opened and she simply walked through, carrying a few bags of chips in her mouth. I let out a sigh of relief and sank in my seat. Lily sat down opposite me and handed me one of the bags. “Thanks,” I said as I began wrestling with the bag; once again I cursed my lack of fingers.

The two of us sat there in silence, quietly munching on our chips. It felt good to have something actually tasty to eat. Eventually, Lily broke the silence. “My mother was sick...” She said.

I laid my chips down. “Sick how?”

“She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer... I’d always told her to stop smoking, and she tried, but she just kept going back to it. I was in Nevada when I got the call, and I was on the red-eye back home. I fell asleep during the flight, and...” Lily’s lip trembled. “Then I woke up here.”

I was silent as Lily laid back on the headrest of the seat, sniffling. Lily didn’t even make it home... And she wasn’t alone. Hundreds, thousands of people were just living their lives, and then... this happens. No big arrival by Celestia to offer a trip to Equestria, no chance to say goodbye to our friends and loved ones, we were just dropped right into this world without any explanation. Why?

Lily had begun to cry, so I quickly moved into her seat and held her close. She buried her head into my shoulder and wept. “I’m never going to see her again...” She sobbed.

I gently rubbed my front hoof through her hair, unsure of what to say. As Lily quietly wept into my shoulder, I thought of what Bulwark had said when I first met him.

“We’re the reason you’re here, you know... We’re the reason you’ll never see your families again... All that you may have loved, gone within an instant!”

The thought of his smug voice made my skin crawl. That jackass tore countless people from everything on the spot. As I felt Lily’s tears drip onto my gray fur, I made myself a promise.

Bulwark would pay. The Somber Blade would pay.

Chapter 5: Magic

Lily eventually cried herself back to sleep, and once again I found myself watching the horizon pass with her laying her head on my shoulder, constantly worrying that the bumps of the tracks would wake her up. The ponies passing through the car would always do a double-take at the two alicorns sitting on the train like normal ponyfolk, but did nothing more than that.

When the sun set as quickly as it had risen earlier and the moon took its place, I shifted slightly in my seat, feeling the orb in my bag pressing up against my flank. Remembering the orb’s purpose, I reached into the bag and pulled it out, placing it on the seatback table in front of me. I leaned in close to look into the smoke. “Pete?” I whispered into the orb. “Jake? You guys hear me?”

For a second it looked like they weren’t there, but as I prepared to put the orb away Pete’s worried face came into focus. “Creed!” He called through the smoke, his voice echoing and mildly distorting. “Thank god... Are you two okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re fine!” I replied. “We’re on the train from Dodge to Ponyville, like you planned. We were chased by some Somber Blade but we lost them. How are things on your end?”

Pete moved aside as Jake’s face came into view. “Dude, it is crazy here,” Jake said. “We were lined up for headcount this morning and when they realized you two were gone all hell broke loose. Bulwark was downright furious, he sent a bunch of guys to look for you two.”

“There were six of them after us when we got to Dodge,” I explained. “We managed to lose ‘em, though. But I’m worried they won’t have a hard time figuring out where we went.”

“Then keep moving,” Pete instructed through the orb. “The sooner you get to someone- Twilight, Celestia, anyone- who can help us, the better.” Pete’s face suddenly disappeared for a moment, then returned. “Shit, Bulwark’s yelling something, we gotta go!” His face disappeared.

“Stay safe!” Jake said before vanishing.

“You, too,” I quickly muttered into the orb before stowing it back into my bag.

“I hope they’ll be okay.”

I turned my head to find that Lily had woken up.

“I do too,” I replied.

“Get some sleep,” Lily said. “I’ll keep a lookout.”

I nodded and lay my head against the window. I fell asleep within seconds.

“Creed.”

I moaned as I gestured for whoever was poking me to go away.

“Creed, get up, we’re here.”

My memories of the previous day suddenly flooded back and I sat up, blinking quickly. The train had stopped at Ponyville Station. My inner-brony forced me to dawn one of the biggest grins I’d ever had; I was in Ponyville!

Lily evidently had the same attitude. “Come on!” She said before bolting for the carriage door. We stepped onto the platform, passing the number of ponies who were either struggling with their luggage or happily reuniting with relatives. The town was every bit as energetic and high-spirited as the show had portrayed it. Every single pony in sight was smiling contentedly as they went about their business, greeting friends warmly and entering the various shops. Wishing to soak it in, we remained on the ground to take in the sights; it reminded me of entering Disney World for the first time, all the promise of meeting characters I’d obsessed over.

As per usual the ponies would give us awed stares when they noticed us. Some even bowed, believing us to be royalty. We picked up the pace a little bit, since all the stares and the occasional bow were making us feel a bit awkward. “They’re not as surprised to see us as we’re thrilled to see them...” Lily muttered to me, observing all the ponies. Her eyes suddenly widened. “Oh my god...” She pointed at a spot in the air ahead of us. I looked and had to stop from squealing. There she was, in all her clumsy and wall-eyed glory: Derpy! She was soaring past the clouds, nearly hitting a few of the pegasi that shared the skies with her.

We kept moving, unable to remove the big, dorky grins from our faces as we passed through town. We’d made it; we were in Ponyville, and we were going to meet the characters we’d been obsessing over! That train of thought, however, made me realize something. “What are we going to say?” I asked. Lily looked at me, unsure of what I meant. “How are we going to explain how we know about Equestria?” I clarified. “I mean, how would you react if someone came to you and told you that your life is the center of a TV show?” A horrifying thought occurred to me. “What if she thinks her whole life has been a lie?”

Lily shook her head. “No, that would imply that none of this,” she gestured to the bustling town around us. “is real. We’ll explain it as best we can to Twilight, and hope she understands... There it is.”

She pointed over the buildings. I followed her gaze and spotted it: the immense tree that was the Golden Oaks Library. We hurried to the great tree but stopped at the door.

“I can’t believe it...” Lily said, taking steadying breaths. “We’re gonna meet Twilight!”

“We should try to keep our heads about this,” I urged. “We need Twilight’s help, and and we don’t want to make her uncomfortable by fanboy-gushing at her.” I reached for the door and, taking a breath, knocked. Do we really need to knock? I thought. It’s a public library, Twilight just lives upstairs...

Di-ding. A bell rang on the other side of the door as it opened, and there he was; Spike. He seemed a bit older than when he appeared in the show. He was a bit taller, the fins atop his head were farther spread, his fangs were longer and I could make out a couple bulges in his back; his wings were starting to emerge. “Hey, there-- whoa,” He said, eyes widening at the sight of the alicorns before him.

“Uh, hi!” I greeted as informally as possible. “You must be Spike, I’m Creed, and this is Lily. We’re looking for Twilight Sparkle, is she in?”

Spike nodded. “Sure, come on in!” He stepped aside to let us in, taking a bow as we passed. The library was exactly as it appeared in the show; shelves lining every wall, a staircase curving up the far wall into the upper floors with the door to the basement underneath, and a table in the center of the room, littered with a few books. Spike hurried to the bottom of the staircase. “Twilight, come down here!” He called up the stairs. We waited for a few moments before she appeared at the top of the stairs.

I swear, I could actually hear my heart beating as Twilight Sparkle descended the staircase, levitating a book in front of her face. “‘The ‘Memory Convergence’ spell was invented by Spell Weave the Runic as a means of sharing confidential messages between unicorns...’” She muttered to herself as she read from the book. She was snapped out of her trance when Spike cleared his throat. Twilight looked up at us and promptly gasped in surprise. She used her magic to quickly gather the books from the table in a last-ditch effort to tidy up the already fairly clean library. “I’m so sorry about the mess, your majesties!” She said frantically before turning to Spike. “Spike, make some tea for our guests!!”

Spike bolted into the kitchen while Twilight turned to us, putting on a smile that was probably intended to be welcoming, but came more across as a desperate attempt to hide the great deal of stress she was clearly feeling. I stepped forward in an attempt to get her to chill out. “Nice to meet you, Twilight, my name’s Creed.”

“And I’m Lily,” Lily spoke up from behind me. Twilight relaxed a little bit as she pulled up a couple cushions for us to sit at the table.

“Please, sit down,” she said.

As we sat, I decided to get right down to it. “Twilight, we... need your help.”

Twilight pulled up a cushion of her own and sat. “You do?”

I nodded. “Lily and I, we escaped from one of many camps in the far south that are holding maybe thousands of other alicorns, under guard by these cruel peop- er, ponies called the ‘Somber Blade’.” I reached into my saddlebag and withdrew the map, unfolding it on the table. “We escaped from Camp 89, here,” I pointed at the small ‘89’ on the map. “We can’t just let the others suffer under the Somber Blade, we were hoping we could get help.”

Twilight bent over the map, her eyes darting from each number on the map before looking up at me. “The alicorns... but they haven’t been seen for over a thousand years... not since before Discord...”

I found myself doubting whether she’d believe me, but I felt it would be best to try. “Well, we did, kinda...” I struggled to find the right way to explain it. “...just... appear here, over a week ago.”

Twilight looked up at me. “The alicorns have returned?”

I opened my mouth to say yes, but I stopped; ‘returned’ implied we had been here before. “Well, we’re... well, I guess what you’d call ‘new arrivals’.” Twilight simply stared at us, so I felt the need to clarify. “Well, we weren’t ever... in Equestria before...”

“Then how do you know where you are?”

I flinched as though someone was about to hit me; that was the burning question, wasn’t it? To which I knew the answer all too well. I reached up to rub my neck but felt the anti-magic collar there again. Without warning my annoyance with it had skyrocketed. “First off, could you get these things off?” I asked as I started wrestling with the collar. “They’ve been keeping us from doing so much as a card trick since the Somber Blade strapped ‘em on us!”

Twilight stood up and closely examined the collar around Lily’s neck. “These collars... They haven’t been used in the Equestrian Justice System for a long time, since someone invented a spell that would remove a unicorn’s horn... Not that crime has always been a real problem in Equestria...” Twilight suddenly became alert as an idea came to her. “Hang on!” She ran to the ‘M’ section of the library and scanned along the shelf. “Ah!” She used her magic to pick up a book and brought it to the table. The cover read Magic Suppressing Artifacts. Twilight flipped the book open with her magic, muttering under her breath before finding a page with an image of the collar in question.

“...’made by a pair of earth pony inventors named Lock and Key...” Twilight muttered as she quickly read the page. “...’cut off the unicorn, or other magic user’s flow of magic to the horn’... ‘only guaranteed method of preventing an alicorn from using magic’... Ah! Here we go... ‘The collars were easily removed by a spell that, in that time, only unicorns in the Equestrian Justice System knew.’ But luckily, the instructions for the spell are right here!” Twilight read the instructions a few times before looking back up at me. “All right, let’s give it a try.”

I gulped and stepped forward, holding my collar out like a dog waiting to be leashed for a walk. Twilight stood in front of me and aimed her horn directly at the collar. A purple aura surrounded the horn as Twilight shut her eyes in concentration; I could feel the heat of the energies radiating from her horn before a blast of violet energy surged from the horn and hit the collar. With a satisfying snap, the collar opened and clattered to the floor.

“Finally!” I said, happily, rubbing my neck where the collar had left imprints. But before I knew what was happening, I felt my horn grow white hot. “Uh...” I managed to say before a white blast of energy flew from my horn and left a burn mark in the wall above the staircase. “Oh god, OH GOD!!” I yelled as my horn let off another blast that sped towards Lily, who screamed and ducked. The bolt flew over her head and hit the curtains, turning them to ashes. I reached up to grip my horn in an effort to stop it but firstly I had no fingers with which to grip, and secondly it felt like I was trying to grip a pan that was ready to come out of the oven.

Twilight jumped to the side as a third blast fired, this one hitting the floor just inches from her hooves. “What are you doing?!” She cried.

“I’ve never done magic before, HOW DO I STOP IT?!?!” I screamed as my horn let off another blast, aimed right at the door to the kitchen just as Spike came through carrying a tray with a full tea set. Spike yelped at the white energy blast speeding towards him and held the tray up vertically like a shield, dropping the tea set and breaking some of the cups in the process. The blast bounced off the tray and hit a flower vase, shattering it and setting the flowers on fire.

“You need to pull your energy away from your horn!” Twilight said. I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant, but I nodded and screwed my eyes shut. When I focused I felt some kind of stream of energy between my brain and my horn. I took a breath and gave the stream a bit of a tug. Immediately my horn started cooling down, and didn’t let off another blast. I opened my eyes and sighed in relief. As Spike ran back into the kitchen I looked at the damage I had caused within the first fifteen seconds of being able to perform magic.

“Sorry about that...” I said.

Twilight picked up the collar with her magic. “I guess this thing was acting as a dam of sorts, and when it was removed all of that buildup had to be released...” She laid the collar on the table. “You said you’ve never done magic before?”

I shook my head as I sat down. “None of us have. We... weren’t...” I sighed. “We weren’t alicorns over a week ago. We were humans.”

“‘Humans?’” Twilight asked.

I thought of how to explain what humans were, but then I had an idea. I let just a little bit of energy go to my horn while I screwed my eyes shut and envisioned what I looked like as a human. I felt my horn gain a bit of heat, and heard a faint sparkling sound on the table in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw a three-inch tall version of a human me; wearing a green jacket, a t-shirt underneath and a pair of jeans (I wasn’t exactly a fashion sensation). I stood there on the table like I was waiting for the bus, hands in my pockets. “This is a human,” I explained. “Specifically, this is what I looked like as a human. We lived on a planet called Earth. None of us, at least no one in our camp, remembered what had happened that brought us here.”

Spike returned from the kitchen with a hand broom and dustpan and cleaned up the pieces of the teacups he’d broken. Twilight stared at the illusion of me on the table, awestruck. “Incredible...” she whispered. As the illusion faded she looked back up at me. “But why did you come to me?”

“Because we knew you were our best hope of contacting Princess Celestia,” Lily said. “She’s our best hope at freeing all the alicorns.”

“But if you weren’t in Equestria before...” Twilight began.

Uh oh, I thought.

“How would you know that? How did you know what you were, where you were brought?”

I clenched my teeth and squirmed in my seat. “Well, Equestria is...” I took a breath. “The setting for a TV show,” I finished quickly, quickly covering my face in my front hooves.

“A what?” Twilight asked.

Oh, Christ. I thought.

Chapter 6: Cakes

I leaned back in my chair, sighing as Twilight carefully removed Lily’s collar. Lily, evidently, had more control over her own magic, as she didn’t burn down half the library once her collar was off. I’d just finished explaining everything to Twilight; the show, how it was centered on her, how it had told the story of all her lessons in friendship, and the fanbase that had diligently watched as that story unfolded. The tea Spike had brought remained undrank and had become cold. Lily helped in explaining the bits that I couldn’t find words for, like how the fanbase was considered highly unusual in modern culture.

Twilight was rubbing her temples, overwhelmed at this information. “Our story has been told to another world?” She asked, unsure how to react to this news. “Everything me and my friends have learned?”

I nodded. “I know this must be a lot for you to consider, Twilight... But know that the people who watch the show... they look up to you. They see you as the symbol that reminded us of what we had forgotten, or hadn’t taken seriously in years.” I walked around the table and lay a hoof on her shoulder. “You’ve shown us the values of friendship that humanity has taken for granted, and we are eternally grateful.”

Twilight looked up at me, smiling modestly. “Well, it wasn’t just me...” she said.

“Oh, yes, your friends also had a great part to play, Twilight,” Lily said. “And the alicorns- or, as we’d called ourselves, ‘bronies’, will take the time to grant you their thanks, but first, we need to meet with Celestia and find a way to free them.”

Twilight nodded. “Spike!”

Spike came bolting out of the kitchen, springing into a salute. “Yes, Twilight?”

“Prepare a letter to the princess; tell her a pair of alicorns are here, and they desperately need her help...”

“Hold up,” I interrupted as I saw something through the windows. A trio of pegasi, wearing the golden armor that identified them as Canterlot guards, were marching down the street towards the library. I crept up to the window and got a closer look. My heart fell when I realized that I recognized those three pegasi: they were the pegasi Lily and I had lost in Dodge.

“Shit!” I whispered. I reached for the curtains to close them but then remembered I’d reduced them to ashes. “Crap.” I turned to Lily. “Lily, we gotta go! The pegasi from Dodge are here!!”

Lily stood up from the table and stuck close to the wall. “What are we gonna do?”

I looked at Twilight and Spike. “We can’t wait for Celestia to get here, those goons will find us! We’ll head to Canterlot ourselves and beg for her help there!”

“Here!” Spike called as he flung the kitchen door open. “Head out the back door!”

Lily and I bolted for the kitchen but we both stopped. “Thank you...” I said to Twilight and Spike. “Thank you, so much!”

“Just be careful!” Twilight urged. Bang bang bang, someone was knocking on the door. “Go!” Twilight urged. Lily and I ran into the kitchen and through the back door. We carefully crept around the side of the library, listening carefully.

“How can I help you gentlecolts today?” We heard Twilight’s voice from the front door.

“We’re looking for two fugitives,” one of the Somber Blade pegasi said. “One gray with a black mane, one green with a red mane. Witnesses report two ponies fitting the description heading into this establishment, have you seen them?”

“Why, no, I haven’t!” Twilight said in an overly cheerful manner. “What kind of ponies are they?” Lily and I stared at the distant Canterlot; it lay in a direction that we would need to risk being seen in order to fly towards. Hoping the pegasi would be too focused on Twilight to notice us, we took off, flying at a slow pace towards the capitol.

Before we got far, however, off to our left into town I began to hear... music. I looked for the source of the music and spotted it: Sugarcube Corner. Before I could wonder what that music was, I could see the front door swing open and a familiar pink blob bouncing into the door frame.

Now, we were too far to make out exactly what Pinkie was saying, but one thing was abundantly clear: she was singing. And clearly whatever was making her sing was extremely contagious, as every other pony in sight was gathering towards Sugarcube and bobbing to her rhythm as she sang an upbeat tune. Indeed, as I started hearing the music growing louder, pounding in my ears I felt my body start moving with the rhythm. I quickly shook my head to remain focused, but I was too late. “THERE THEY ARE!”

We both swung around to see one of the pegasi pointing at us. His two chums turned from questioning Twilight, who tensed when she realized that we had been seen. “Freeze!” One of the pegasi yelled. These guys weren’t carrying unicorns this time; no amount of fancy flying through a dense, clustered orchard was going to let us lose them. My eyes drifted back towards the immense musical number that was gaining momentum back in town, and I had an idea that I immediately wanted to try, just for the sake of watching these goons humiliate themselves.

“Come on!” I yelled, smiling widely. I bolted towards Sugarcube Corner, Lily following me with a perplexed look on her face. The pegasi were in hot pursuit. As we approached Sugarcube, Pinkie’s song had gotten into full swing, and I could make out her lyrics.

“Weeeellll... theeeeerrrrre’s...

Angel, Apple,
Aranygaluska,
Bakewell Tart,
And Buckston Creme,
Banana, Banoffee,
Bara brith and Battenberg!
There are many wonderful cakes,
And we make them to an extreme!”

The surrounding crowd began to sing in a chorus. I fought a sudden instinctive urge to join in, and looked back at the pursuing pegasi as we flew directly over the crowd. The song was clearly having an effect on them, they were faltering as they moved their bodies to the beat. Their eyes widened when they realized what I was doing, so they tried plugging their ears... but I was having none of that.

I screwed my eyes shut, channeled my horn, thought the word ‘Dance’ as hard as I could and directed a flow of magic to the pegasi. The trio suddenly stopped in midair and snapped their forelegs to their sides. Another flow of magic and they dropped to the ground and joined in the chorus, singing louder than anypony else down there and dancing Thriller like their lives depended on it.

Lily and I hovered there in the air, clutching our guts at the display as we laughed hysterically. When we managed to calm down we decided it would be best if we left before the song ended... which was depressing because the songs were some of the best parts of the show.

We flew quickly towards Canterlot, still giddy about our escape. Our high spirits diminished somewhat when we thought that simply flying into the capital city might be allowed by the Royal Guard. Thankfully, once again the ponies must have assumed us to be royalty since they let us land in the gardens on the edge of the city without any trouble.

We marched through the streets of the city towards the castle to take in the sights. We immediately deemed the place to be Rarity’s style; a great deal of high society, influential-looking ponies, some of the fanciest looking stores and restaurants I’d seen, and everypony had their noses held in the air like they were expecting a sneeze.

As we climbed the stairs into the castle the royal guards all sprang into a salute as we passed. The entrance hall seemed to be a more public affair for the city, but any doors leading higher into the castle were guarded. Unsure of how to proceed to meet the Princesses, I sheepishly approached one of the guards. “Um, excuse me, we know you might get this alot, but we need to meet with the princesses, is there any chance you or somepony else could make that happen?”

The guard eyed me over, glancing from my horn to my wings before looking straight ahead again and remaining silent. Before I could jokingly wave my front hoof in front of his face, he suddenly pointed at one of the doors off to the side of the hall. “You’ll have to speak with our Lieutenant about that,” he said before returning to his ramrod-stiff posture.

“Thank... you?” I said tentatively before leading Lily to the door he pointed us to. Beyond the door was a cramped yet organized office. Two cushions sat in front of a basic desk, behind which a yellow-colored, white-maned pegasus wearing the usual Royal Guard armor was rummaging through the drawers of her desk. On the desk were a couple pictures, one of her at a younger age, and one of her in a stallion’s embrace.

“This better be good,” she said harshly, without looking up from the drawers. “I’ve lost my good pen and if you’ve got bad news for me, you’re gonna wish it was brought by somepony...” She looked up at us. “...else,” She finished silently when she realized who she was speaking to. She recovered quickly and sprang into a salute. “Lieutenant Sky Bolt, at your service, your majesties.”

I shook my head. “We’re not royalty, but we were hoping to speak with the princesses, as soon as possible.”

“Lives are on the line, Lieutenant,” Lily urged.

Sky Bolt nodded. “Of course, I’ll head up myself and see if they’ll see you. If you two would have a seat right there...” She gestured to the cushions in front of the desk. Lily and I sat down while Sky Bolt hurried out the door. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Lily spoke up.

“Maybe we should try to get in touch with Pete and Jake, let them know what we’re up to?”

I nodded and reached into my saddlebag, this time with my magic. I withdrew the orb and held it up for both of us to see into it. “Pete?” I called into the orb. “Jake? You guys there?” The orb remained silent. I held it up to my ear to try and listen; all I heard was a faint... squishing noise. I furrowed my brow. “That’s odd...” I muttered. I held the orb to Lily’s ear so she could hear, and she grimaced at the wet noises.

I stowed the orb back into the bag just as the door opened again. Sky Bolt entered the office and came around the desk. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that Princesses Celestia and Luna are away on secret business, I don’t know where they could be.”

My heart sank. “Is there somebo- er, somepony else we could talk to?”

Sky Bolt began to shake her head and opened her mouth to speak, but a different, very familiar voice rang through the room. “I’m available for a meeting.”

All eyes in the room fell on the source of the voice; one of the pictures on Sky Bolt’s desk, the one of her as a filly, was moving. The filly was smiling rather mischievously, gazing at us with strangely red and yellow eyes. “Please, come up and see me,” the filly spoke in the familiar voice.

Sky Bolt opened her mouth to protest, but without warning there was a ‘Pop’, and Sky Bolt’s office vanished around us, replaced by a completely different room; one higher up in the castle, with a door to a balcony, a large vanity mirror, a wardrobe and a king-sized bed. In the bed lay a draconequus that I recognized immediately.

“May I be the first to say,” Discord said. “Welcome to Canterlot!”

Author's Note

I'm really happy to see the response I've gotten for my dumb little story so far. ^_^

Chapter 7: Banishment

“I suppose you had to turn up sooner or later,” Discord said as he sat up against the many pillows in his bed - he looked rather tired. “I’m eager to find out where exactly you ponies got to...”

Lily and I recovered from the shock of being ripped from one room to another, and tentatively approached Discord’s bed, unsure of what to say. “Ah, I suppose some introduction is in order,” Discord said. He prepared to make a grand introduction, but I interrupted.

“Discord, Spirit of Chaos,” I said, taking some pride in the confused look on his face; Discord always came across as the guy holding all the cards, so it felt good to surprise him. “You were recently, for the most part, reformed.” Discord, for once, had nothing to say, so I continued. “I’m Creed, and this is Lily. We were hoping for the Princesses, but I’d say you’re the next best thing.”

Discord raised an eyebrow. “How do you know...?” He stopped and reached for my head. I stood still as he removed my horn like it was never attached in the first place. In the vanity mirror I could make out a small hole right where my horn used to be. Discord peered into the hole, murmuring to himself as he observed... whatever was happening in there. After several very bizarre minutes Discord finally spoke. “Aaahh, I see...” Satisfied, he popped my horn back in its spot and sat back in bed.

I walked over to the vanity mirror to ensure my horn was replaced properly while Lily stepped forward. “We escaped from one of many internment camps in the southern lands; a great deal of alicorns are being held in each of them, guarded by a cruel order called the Somber Blade. We need your help in freeing them.”

“The ‘Somber Blade’?” Discord asked, stroking his goat-chin. “Sombra’s up to his old games again?”

“Sombra?” I asked as I spun around, but the obviousness of the whole affair made me facehoof so hard I was worried I’d put an eye out. “Som-ber. Som-bra. Christ, why didn’t we figure this out...”

Discord chuckled. “Well, like many others, you must have assumed him destroyed.”

“Yeah, but we could have at least figured the Blade followed Sombra’s example!” I argued before holding both front hooves in the air. “Fine, fine, whatever, not important; what’s important is that you can help us spring the alicorns...”

“I actually can’t.”

“...and we can whozeewhatnow?” I stared wide-eyed at Discord.

“Why not?” Lily asked. “It’s not like you’re declawed, you still have your magic! You just know to use it responsibly!”

Discord nodded. “Indeed. I expended a great deal of my magic already, however, by returning your kind home.”

Lily and I remained silent for a few moments.

“You brought us here?” Lily asked, but I was more concerned with his use of the word ‘returning’.

I slowly shook my head. “‘Returning’? No, no, no, we weren’t alicorns before...”

“I assure you, you were.” Discord said in a smug yet definite tone.

“No, no, no, never in my life was I an alicorn! I remember my childhood!” I said as I approached Discord. “I remember being three years old! I remember having a crib! I remember wearing those damn footsie pajamas!! I was born and raised a human!!”

“As I intended,” Discord said. When I had nothing to add other than short, confused stammers, he continued. “See, thousands of years ago I discovered my ability to inspire wondrous, glorious chaos across Equestria... but I also had one teensy little hurdle... the alicorns. You were roughly as common as any other earth ponies, unicorns, or pegasi. Some of you were in high authority, but all of you had one hidden power, unearthed in the most dire of moments...”

“What was it?” Lily asked.

“Harmony,” Discord groaned, making a face like he’d found a hair in his food. “Harmony was present in all ponies, but you, the alicorns, were Harmony’s source. Hatred and fear were borderline mythology thanks to your kind. If you were removed from the game, however, Harmony would be undone and I’d be unchallenged. So I planned to simply... destroy you. However, I recognized that you were also highly potent in magic, so I had another idea; what if I could snuff the flame of harmony from your hearts, and replace it with beautiful chaos? It would be a long, arduous process, but I believed the payoff would be worth the investment. I would check on you every few Equestrian centuries or so, track each of you down and determine just how much hatred had filled your hearts in place of harmony.

“So, I lured all of you to the Crystal Empire, and I banished every single one of you to a world of darkness... of bigotry... of hatred.”

“Earth...” I muttered. My heart felt like it wanted to stop beating. My own legs were shaking, wanting to simply let me fall to the floor, and I couldn’t blame them. “You sent us to Earth...”

“Indeed,” Discord affirmed. “Of course, I couldn’t just drop you there, I needed to truly make you... human. I removed your physical forms and bound your spirits, your souls, to be reborn as humans.” He chuckled to himself. “Humans are always attempting to overcome their very worse attributes- hate, bigotry- but in the end, every human alive falls victim to the most profound hate. Mind you, sending you to Earth was no small task; I was practically comatose for roughly two hundred years, but afterwards I was free to do with Equestria as I pleased! The world was blanketed in an amazing sheet of chaos!” Discord had risen in his bed, his eyes sparkling with nostalgia. His spirit diminished as he continued. “At least until Celestia, Luna, and a few other alicorns returned. I underestimated the will of an alicorn... Their love of Equestria was far too powerful to be simply forgotten. I’m not sure how exactly they returned, but when they did I took measures to ensure they would be the only ones to return.”

“What did you do?” Lily asked, though she sounded like she was dreading Discord’s response.

“Well, I needed to snuff any desires held by the reborn alicorns to return to Equestria,” The draconequus explained. “I believed the best method would be to portray Equestria as a world that, in human culture, would be unbearable, asinine, would make a normal human feel ill at the thought of being trapped there. I learned of your ‘television’, and came up with a plan; I would plant the idea for a program depicting the false Equestria into the heads of the right people.”

“The first gen...?” I muttered. It all made sense. “You created the first generation of My Little Pony?”

“Is that what they called it?” Discord asked, snickering. “Yes, I did. I understand they planned to make- what were they called, ‘reboots’?- of the franchise, but in the end, my little safety measure was set, and I did not feel the need to stay on Earth to ensure the depiction of Equestria remained... distorted. The alicorns would not wish to return to Equestria, at least not the one I envisioned. Sadly, by the time I returned, I was promptly stamped out by the Princesses.”

Lily looked crestfallen, but she looked a lot better than I felt. I fell to my knees, breathing slowly. I began to recall every time I had felt hatred; pure, blind hatred, towards someone who had done me wrong, who I had wished harm upon... and I was once able to never experience such hate? Never capable of bringing serious harm to another? And all that had been taken away from me when I was sent to Earth? A world where horrible people attempt to take advantage of the pain of others for their own personal gain... Where greed and corruption managed to cheat their way past honest and legitimately good people... Where things like genocide and slavery were considered bad things in hindsight?

I lived a life in one of the most wonderful worlds imaginable, and someone decided to sacrifice me, along with thousands, thousands of others, just for himself?

Now, I enjoyed Discord as a character in the show, but with all this... Knowing what he did? The hatred he had intended to fill each and every alicorn with suddenly and violently flared up within me, directly at him. I thought I would just be angry, but I remembered too late that, in magic-users, emotions that are strong enough can have a physical manifestation.

I felt... something clouding my eyes. My vision became green, but I barely noticed as my thoughts became clouded, focused only on one thing; Hurt Discord. My horn became white hot again, but this time because I wanted it to. I flew straight up to Discord in his bed and stood right on top of him, pinning him to the bed with my horn right in his face. For the first time since I’d ever seen him, in the show or in person, he looked legitimately scared; not like when the Elements were unleashed upon him. This was a fear he felt for his very life.

“You son of a bitch!!” I roared, a rather demonic-sounding distortion somehow finding its way into my throat. I pressed my horn into his eagle-chest, singing the feathers and causing him to mildly gasp in pain. “You RUINED us!! You damned us to one of the worst worlds IMAGINABLE!! And all because you wanted to make FUCKING CHOCOLATE MILK RAIN!?!”

“Creed, please!!” Lily pleaded. She reached up to pull me away from Discord, but I turned to look at her with a snarl, and she immediately shrunk away under the green haze of hatred clouding my eyes.

I turned back to Discord. “Celestia should have killed you!! She should have shattered you when she made you into a statue! You should never have been allowed to hurt anyone else again!! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!!!”

“If she did that, I wouldn’t have been able to bring you all back!!” Discord cried.

The heat surrounding my horn diminished somewhat. “What?” I asked, the green haze not yet fading away from my vision.

“When I became... reformed... I began to feel something I’d never felt before... It was... happiness... Not just the giddy feeling I got from causing chaos, but a true, contented joy... From having a... friend. But I started feeling something else... Something bad. It ate away at me for days until I finally spoke to Luna about it. She said it was...” Discord trailed away, looking ashamed of what he wanted to say.

“She said it was what?” I asked harshly.

“...Guilt,” Discord finished. “I was feeling guilty... Guilty for all the pain I had caused, not the least of which for you. I suppose she would know guilt better than most, wouldn’t she?” He looked up at me sadly. “I had been given a chance to change my ways, a chance to be brought back into pony society, but as long as you remained banished, my happiness would be sullied knowing nopony knew about the greatest injustice I had done...” Discord’s eyes were watering now. He buried his face in his talon and paw, sighing heavily.

At this point I suddenly felt like I was watching myself from an outside perspective, and was horrified at what I was doing. The green haze faded from my eyes and my horn cooled off as I took shaking breaths. I stepped off of Discord and off of his bed. Lily kept her distance from me, and I didn’t blame her. I was doing exactly what Discord had planned... I’d become a weapon of hate... I sat in the corner faced away from them, resting my head against the wall.

“So, about a month ago, I confessed my sin to the sisters,” Discord continued. “Of course, Luna was absolutely vivid, reacted in a manner... well, not unlike that,” I couldn’t see him but I knew he was gesturing towards me. “They had assumed I’d merely took an opportunity with the alicorns’ disappearance, never assuming I was behind it all along. But I wished to make it right... I told them that I knew how to bring you all back. So we made some preparations and convened at the Crystal Empire and used its powers to return you all... We’d intended for you all to appear there, but, as you know, you didn’t... I’m unsure why, and I would have worked to locate all of you had the ritual not drained most of my powers. I was thankful the sisters allowed me use of the Empire, or they’d have lost me for another two hundred years.”

I remained silent; the hatred that had flared up within me was steadily falling. I still felt... angry with the draconequus, but I also felt I could move on. Something I could write Celestia about.

“So you were weakened after the ritual and sent back here?” Lily asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes, I was to return and regain my strength while Celestia and Luna used the Empire’s powers to track all of you down... I’ve heard nothing from them, nor would I; that barrier that encompasses the city blocks communications, even by dragon’s flame. But I’d assume they’re having little luck in finding all of you, if they haven’t found you already...”

I stood up from the corner and withdrew the map from my saddlebag. “Well, we know where they are,” I said. I laid the map out on Discord’s bed. “The camps are spread out in the Badlands, the Hayseed Swamp and the San Palomino desert. With this knowledge the princesses can stage a rescue.”

Discord wasn’t looking at the map, but at me. He looked truly concerned. “Why don’t you two stay here for the night, first?” Discord asked. “You two seem to have had a long journey, and the accommodations here are... mostly sufficient.”

I opened my mouth to deny his offer, to say that we should keep moving, but I suddenly realized just how tired I was. With a sigh, I nodded.

A knock at the door made Lily and I jump; Discord, however, seemed used to it. “Enter,” he called.

The doors swung open, giving way to three guards as well as Sky Bolt. “Lord Discord, the guards reported shouting up here, is everything alright?” She asked; I gave an embarrassed cough.

“Yes, yes, everything’s fine,” Discord said, dismissively. “Actually, it’s good that you’re here, can you arrange for a couple rooms for these two?” He pointed at us. “And get them tickets on the first train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning.”

Sky Bolt’s eyes flickered towards us for a second before she nodded. “As you wish, sir,” she said before departing, the guards shutting the door behind her.

Discord settled into his bed. “It’s nice to see they’ve taken the Princess’s word that I’m not here to cause a great deal of havoc...”

“No, just the occasional bit of mischief,” I remarked. Discord chuckled. The three of us kept chatting it up for a while; Discord turned out to be pleasant company with people he considered friends. He preferred to keep the conversation centered on Lily and I, what we did on Earth; I guessed he either didn’t want to talk about his own life, or didn’t even remember it. I made efforts to keep friendly with him, but knowing what he did kept me from truly considering him an ally, let alone a friend.

After about ten minutes Sky Bolt returned. “Your rooms are ready,” she said as she turned to lead us down the hall. We made to follow her, but Discord held his talon and paw on our shoulders.

“I know I did something truly horrendous to all of you...” he said to us. “But I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”

I looked at Discord, my face clear of emotion. I was unsure of how I should feel towards him. Lily, however, wrapped her forelegs around Discord’s neck and hugged him. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear. Discord, awkwardly at first, returned Lily’s hug, a warm smile spreading across his face that seemed to stretch onto my own. Regardless of how I would regard him from this point, it felt good to know he had found true happiness.

Author's Note

Exposition, ho!

Chapter 8: Dream

I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, my head reeling from today’s events. My mind kept telling me the exact same thing over and over again, trying to make it stick. Equestria is your home. Equestria is your home. Equestria is your home. Equestria is--

“Stop!” I muttered, clutching my head. “God, please, stop...” I sat up in my bed and looked around. My room looked not unlike Discord’s, albeit smaller. There was a door to a balcony, a simple yet elegant dresser with a mirror, and a small bathroom. The guards had given Lily and I adjoining rooms if we needed to talk, but we’d been silent since we came in here. I climbed out of bed and walked over to the dresser, on which I’d tossed my saddlebag. I reached into the bag and withdrew the orb. “Pete? Jake?” I whispered into it.

Things were silent for a minute before finally Pete came into view. “Creed! How are things going?” He asked.

“I could ask you the same thing!” I muttered. “Lily and I tried to contact you earlier, but there was this weird... squishing noise.”

Pete looked hesitant to explain. “Yeah, I kinda... swallowed the orb.”

I gave my head a little shake to make sure I was fully awake. “You what?”

Jake’s face came into view, trying and failing to keep a smile hidden. “Well... The Somber Blade took inventory of their equipment after your escape and must have found that they were missing, along with that map, a couple of their orbs. Bulwark guessed that you guys had an eye on the inside, and ordered a search of every single tent and every single alicorn in the camp. We didn’t want to lose the orb, so Pete had the wonderful idea of... stowing it.”

Pete shot Jake an annoyed look. “It was the only thing I could think of on such short notice, jackoff,” he growled.

Jake evidently hadn’t gotten to the part that had most amused him yet. “So, in order for us to get into contact with you again, we had to wait for...” He stopped, trying to find the right words. “...for nature to do it’s course.”

For the first time in hours I started laughing. “And how did it feel, Pete?”

Pete coughed. “Well, to be honest, I’ve passed worse stones.” He began to chuckle, having recognized the hilarity of the whole affair.

Jake couldn’t stop guffawing. “He’s still walking funny from ‘retrieving’ the orb!” I fell to my knees, laughing. The door to Lily’s room opened and she entered.

“What’s going on?” She asked. I was laughing too hard to say anything, so I just pointed at the orb. Lily approached the orb and leaned in while Pete and Jake explained their method of concealing the orb. She ended up laughing harder than me. “That is disgusting!” She cackled.

“It’s the greatest thing ever, that’s what it is!” Jake said. The four of us kept laughing and found it difficult to stop. After a couple minutes we managed to control ourselves.

“So... as for us, we’re in Canterlot right now,” I explained. “The Somber Blade from Dodge had followed us to Ponyville, but we escaped here. The princesses are at the Crystal Empire, but we met up with Discord, of all people.”

“Oh, really??” Jake asked. “He do anything awesome?”

“Well... he’s kinda weak right now. He expended a lot of magic recently...”

“Doing what?” Pete asked.

I opened my mouth to explain, but the thought of explaining everything brought a sharp pain to my stomach. I glanced over at Lily, giving her a nod and a look that said ‘Explain things’ before heading to the balcony door. I needed some air.

I stood on the balcony, staring up at the stars; they were truly beautiful tonight, Luna had reason to be proud of her night sky. The cool night air helped me clear my head, but I still found myself thinking about Discord’s story. Who was I really? Who was I before we were banished? I looked to my cutie mark of the six circles intertwined with one another; I still had no clue what it meant. What had I done as an alicorn? Where did I live? Who did I have for family?

Who did I love?

“Creed?” Lily came out onto the balcony. “Are you okay?”

I stared up at the moon, silent for a moment. Lily walked up beside me and sat down. “How are you handling this?” I asked quietly.

Lily looked down, dragging a hoof along the ground. “Not very well, I think... How about you?”

I took a breath. “I’m wondering about the life I had here before... The friends and family I may never know... If I had that ‘special somepony’... What was my name?”

Lily scooched closer to me. “I’m betting everyone else will be feeling the same way when we tell them,” she said.

My eyes drifted towards the train station below. “Well, maybe the Princesses will be able to tell us who we were tomorrow,” I said before turning to Lily. “Let’s get some sleep.”

Lily nodded. “It’ll feel nice to sleep in a good bed again...” She muttered.

We both returned inside, mumbling ‘goodnight’ to each other as Lily returned to her room. I climbed into bed, and the day’s overwhelming truths seemed to slip away as I fell asleep.

I lay in the grass, staring up at the gorgeous midday skies; the weather-ponies had truly outdone themselves today with removing the unsightly clouds. I rolled over to my left to look at her; I rubbed my hoof through her gorgeous golden mane and cradled her face, happily receiving her wonderful smile. She inched closer to me, wrapping her forelegs around my neck.

“I love you...” she whispered to my ear before nuzzling me affectionately.

“For as long as I live...” I whispered to her. I could simply lie here with her forever. Nothing else seemed to matter as long as she was near.

A deep rumbling noise snapped me out of the moment. I sat up, looking around. At first I thought the sound had come from the city to the east, but then I realized it was echoing from the very skies. I looked up and softly gasped as a massive number of black, swirling clouds began to blot out the perfectly blue skies, cracks of lightning serving as the only brief spots of light. “What’s happening...?” I muttered. She sat up and held me close.

“This isn’t right...” she said. “We should get back to the city.”

I nodded, and we both flew as fast as our wings could carry us back to the city. As we landed near the base of the Crystal Palace all of the other alicorns had gathered there as well. Hundreds of others were still in flight to the city center. The worried chatter grew louder with each arriving alicorn, until I could barely hear my beloved say to me, “Is this what we were called here for?”

I shook my head. “I do not know, but I dread whatever it means...”

Soon, the alicorns had stopped coming. Every last one of us was here in one tight crowd on Empire’s city streets. Some of us even poured into the buildings to make room for others. I held my love close to avoid losing her in the crowd. My heart seemed heavy, as if it somehow knew that one of the worst things imaginable was about to fall upon us.

One of the loudest cracks of thunder silenced us. The swirling clouds ceased their thundering, and gave way to a new sound; laughter. A cruel, proud laughter. The clouds parted somewhat, revealing a single figure floating down towards us. From the very sight of him I felt something in the pit of my stomach twist, almost revolted at what I beheld. He was... an amalgamation. He was built of a variety of animals. Goat, eagle, snake, lion, bat, all pieced together into a single being. My love beside me gasped. “A draconequus...”

“Alicorns of Equestria!” The being called to us, his voice magically amplified. “You have been gathered here for your gifts in ensuring an era of peace and prosperity in this land for thousands of years!” His initially cheerful demeanor suddenly dropped. “That ends today.” He held his talon and paw at his sides, channeling a thick, twisting red energy around his clawed fingers. “Take heart! Your sacrifice today will herald a new era for this land! An era of delightful, glorious... Chaos!!”

The crowd gasped in horror. Many of us, myself included, began charging our horns to confront the creature, to punish him for his hubris, for his plotting; he would rue the day he would challenge the alicorns-

The draconequus fired the crimson energy at the top of the Crystal Palace. The energy arced from the peak to the very base of the spire, spreading across the ground before any of us could react. The energy tore into our bodies, bringing about an excruciating pain... I screamed... we all did. I could feel my very bones burning from the searing energy. I turned to her; the sight of her in such agony made me feel worse than any pain I had ever felt, even now. I tried to reach out to her, to comfort her, to assure her that everything would be all right, but the mere act of twitching my foreleg seemed impossible with the energy tearing through our bodies.

The draconequus was laughing at the display as he continued channeling the energy. “Yes! You feel it, don’t you?! Your very essences, being torn from your bodies! Take one last look at your precious Equestria, alicorns, for the Harmony it has known for generations dies today!!”

To my left I saw one of us suddenly open his mouth in a silent scream, a blinding light pouring from his eyes and mouth. His very body seemed to crack like a crumbling statue, before finally bursting... there weren’t even pieces. All around us the same thing happened to many others. One by one, each alicorn began to leak a brilliant light before exploding, leaving no evidence they had been there in the first place.

Then I felt it; something in my chest, something white hot, was growing... I felt it burning my insides as it climbed up my throat. I looked to her, and saw that-

“NO!” I screamed as she opened her mouth, the light pouring from her throat and her eyes. My own mouth wrenched open as I began to spew the bright light, and I watched as she moved her head towards me before she exploded just like the others. I barely had time to suffer a grief worse than I had ever known before my vision became obscured by light and I knew no more.

“Creed! CREED!!” Someone was shaking me violently, but I barely noticed as I found myself struggling to control my rapid breathing. “Creed, wake up!!” My eyes opened to see Lily hanging over me, shaking me. Cold sweat leaked from my forehead as I sat up, gasping - sobbing, even. My stomach, it felt... wrong. I climbed out of bed and scampered for the bathroom. I knelt by the toilet and retched; it took me a few minutes before I managed to stop heaving and calmed down. I lay on the cold tile floor, slowly catching my breath. I felt Lily lay a comforting hoof on me, but she remained silent.

I began weeping. Silently at first, but soon I was sobbing uncontrollably. I had trouble clearly remembering my dream... but no trouble remembering exactly how I felt as I dreamt. “I saw them, Lily...” I said, once I got my breathing under control. “I saw us... the alicorns, we were being... banished... It hurt us so much...” A memory of a blonde mane flowed into my mind’s eye. “I had someone... I had someone I loved and I watched her suffer... I couldn’t stop it...”

The faintest thought of it being Lily in that scenario nearly made me heave again; I didn’t know why. After a few minutes I finally sat up, Lily not removing her hoof from my shoulder. I stared at the floor, trying to control my breathing. Lily tenderly lifted my face up with her hoof, looking into my eyes like a mother seeking to comfort a weeping child. When she couldn’t think of anything to say, she pulled me into a hug. “It’s okay, Creed,” she whispered. “It’ll all be okay...” I got the feeling that she had learned this from somewhere else... Like she had been the one who needed someone to hug her, whisper cooing assurances... I returned the hug, finding it much easier to take a steady breath.

Somehow I found myself feeling like I had in the start of the dream... in that moment of happiness, of bliss... it felt right.

Chapter 9: Price

I sat on my balcony under the morning sun, piecing together what I had seen in my dream. I remembered being with someone at the Crystal Empire, the skies turned black, we gathered at the Crystal Palace, Discord came and did... something. What I considered oddest was how vivid my dream had been vivid, too vivid. All signs pointed towards one possibility, but I had trouble accepting it... They were memories.

I found my thoughts constantly drifting back to that yellow-maned mare I was with... I screwed my eyes shut, trying to remember just how she looked. All I could remember was her golden mane, and that she had flown with me; those things were definites. But what other features did she have? What was the color of her coat, what was her cutie mark, what was her name?

I held my head in my forehooves. The anger I’d felt towards Discord the previous day was beginning to flare up again. Whatever I’d felt towards that girl had been real, and he shattered it with no remorse... but I kept my anger at him in check lest I actually try to hurt him again. The door behind me opened as Lily came out to the balcony. “The train’s due to leave in ten minutes.”

I nodded and took one last look out over Canterlot; the view really was quite splendid. I looked down to the streets, watching the ponies head about their daily lives-

My eyes fell upon three ponies marching through the streets towards the castle. I narrowed my eyes and saw that they were Royal Pegasi... at least, they had the armor. I recognized the color of their coats, however.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I said dryly.

“What?” Lily asked.

“They’re here.” I bolted into my room and grabbed my bag. “We gotta get to the train, now!” Lily spread her wings and prepared to take off, but I laid a hoof on her back. “No, no, no; they’ll see us! We need to be discreet about this; we’ll take the rear stairwell.” Lily nodded, and the two of us bolted into the corridor, sprinting for the stairs.

I kept worrying we’d get lost in the twisting hallways since we hadn’t spent a lot of time here, but we simply needed to get to the ground floor and take any exit other than the front door. Upon reaching the ground floor, however, we rounded a corner and nearly trampled Sky Bolt, along with a pair of Royal Guards carrying long golden spears. “Whoa, whoa, where’s the fire?!”

“Please, you gotta help us!” I implored. “The ponies who’ve been chasing us, they’re here!”

Sky Bolt, to my surprise, nodded. “Yes, I know.”

“You... know...?” I asked, but a simple realization made Lily and I drop to a defensive stance. Sky Bolt’s guards, however, lowered their spears, ready to jab at the merest sign of resistance.

“You two had such a good run...” Sky Bolt cooed, condescendingly. “But I’m sad to say you’ll need to return to Camp 89 now.” Her eyes fell on my saddlebag. “Place your bags on the ground.”

Glaring at Sky Bolt, we removed our bags and placed them on the ground in front of us, kicking them towards our captors. Sky Bolt donned a smug grin before turning to her cohorts. “Contact Bulwark, tell him we’ve found our little jailbirds, thankfully, before they could do any real harm.” One of the guards nodded and hurried down the hall and out of sight. Sky Bolt turned back to us. “I feel I should thank you, had you two not escaped I wouldn’t have been able to turn you two in, thus proving my worth to Bulwark and King Sombra. Perhaps once they are finished with you two and your friends back in the camp, they will promote me... ‘General Sky Bolt of the Somber Blade’,” she giggled. “I like the sound of that... But trust me when I offer my sincere gratitude, Mr. Creed.”

Lily’s eyes lit up. Her eyes fell on our bags. “It sounds like Bulwark’s trust means a lot to you,” She said. I threw a confused look her way but she didn’t look back at me.

Sky Bolt chuckled. “Why, yes!” She prepared to monologue again, but Lily interrupted her.

“I hope you don’t betray his trust,” Lily continued, speaking loudly while still staring at the bags. “Losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend!”

“FOREVEEEEERRRRR!!!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed as her head burst out of my bag, startling the three pegasi, causing the two armed ones to drop their spears. Lily looked amazed her plan worked as she used her magic to snatch up our bags; Pinkie withdrew into mine and, as suddenly as she had appeared, vanished.

“MOVE!!” Lily yelled. The two of us spread our wings and took off, kicking off the heads of Sky Bolt and her cronies as we soared down the wide corridor.

“STOP THEM!!” We heard Sky Bolt scream as we dove down the corridors. I didn’t dare look back for fear of losing Lily, but I could hear the sounds of wings flapping behind us. My eyes fell on a tapestry hanging from the ceiling; I snatched it with my magic and flung it behind me. I heard the pegasi grunt as they got caught in the cloth. The sound of heavy body falls told me they had become preoccupied in their pursuit. We finally found the front entrance and, ignoring all the confused and startled glances of the ponies below, bolted out the front door and into the city.

Fwooooooooh! A train whistle blew on the outskirts of town. “The train!” I said.

“Stop those two!!” Sky Bolt’s voice rang from the castle behind us. “They seek to bring harm to our Princesses!!”

All around us, the various Royal Guards on patrol took flight and soared straight towards us. “Aw, fuck!” I yelled. “The train station!! MOVE!!”

We flew as fast as we could over the city, weaving around towers and beneath bridges in an attempt to lose our pursuers. As we arrived at the station, the multi-colored train was pumping steam out of the smokestack as it prepared to depart. We dove down to the station platform and landed by the train’s caboose. I looked up and could make out the numerous approaching pegasi diving towards the platform. I swung the train car’s door open with my magic.

I bolted into the caboose with Lily right behind me and began running forward towards the front of the train. “We aren’t gonna lose ‘em, what are we gonna do?!” Lily cried.

“Improvise?!” I called back without the merest trace of confidence in my voice. I opened the door to the next car and made to run through it.

“Hold it!!” We stopped and looked behind us; Sky Bolt stood in the rear of the car, with her two pegasi cronies holding their spears and advancing slowly. “Now that was real clever, bub, but the game is up. You’re through.”

With a jerk, the train began moving forward. The pegasi didn’t drop their gaze as they slowly crept towards us, scowling. Lily turned to me, despair falling upon her face, but her eyes fell to the floor with interest. I looked down and noticed the train coupling beneath my feet. Initially I thought of removing the pin and leaving these creeps in the dust, but then noticed that Lily was still in the rear car. I hung my head sadly; the jig was up.

“Creed?” Lily asked. I raised my head; Lily had a look of determination about her. “Get to the Princesses.”

I barely managed to say, “What?” before Lily reached down with her magic and removed the coupling pin. “Lily, NO!” I yelled. I took a step forward, but Lily charged her horn. I expected a mere blast of arcane magic, but a big fireball spawned at the tip of her horn and smacked me right in the chest. I was sent flying into the car behind me. I quickly patted out my singed coat and watched as, in the rear car that was falling behind, Lily spun around and blasted the advancing pegasi with another fire blast, sending them tumbling backwards into Sky Bolt. I thought, no, hoped that she would then fly out of the car to catch up, but several more armored pegasi descended upon the caboose, hopelessly surrounding her. “LILY!!” I screamed after her as I stood up and bolted to the door.

“I’ll be fine!!” Lily called. “Get to Celestia!! You’re our last-” She didn’t finish as the pegasi flooded the car and tackled her to the ground, one of them holding a very familiar collar in his mouth. Some of the pegasi began flying after the train as it gathered speed and went around a corner. Not wishing for Lily’s sacrifice to be in vain, I charged my horn and fired a salvo of blasts at the pegasi. Many of them missed, but the few that struck home did so to great effect. The pursuing pegasi plummeted out of the sky and landed painfully on the platform. By the time they recovered, the train was already speeding faster than they could keep up with.

When the train entered a tunnel, I shut the door and sat in one of the rear seats; the entire car was empty. Evidently the trip north wasn’t quite the tourist attraction just yet. I slouched in the seat, my head in my hooves. “Lily...”

For roughly twenty minutes I sat like that, the process of what had just happened playing over and over again in my head. I kept trying to think of ways I could have saved her... If we’d been quicker, maybe I could have removed the coupling pin while she was in the car? Maybe if we had taken off from my room we would have avoided the Somber Blade? Many ways I might have been able to save her occured to me, all silenced by one fact; I had failed. I had failed to protect Lily, and now I was en route to the Crystal Empire all by myself. Why was it me? I should have been the one to stay behind while Lily went to the Frozen North, I should have been on my way back to Camp 89, but here I was; all alone, a miserable failure.

Then I was shown the exact definition of shit meeting the fan.

I felt something in my bag shake. Initially I thought Pinkie was going to poke out of it again, but I opened the flap and saw the orb twitching. I picked it up with my magic, examining it; a small crack had appeared. Was it broken during the escape?

Without warning the red smoke spewed out like air being sucked through a hull breach of a spaceship. Startled, I dropped the orb in the middle of the aisle as the entire car began to quickly flood with the red smoke. I thought of opening a window, worried that I’d choke, but as the smoke rose I found it was quite safe to breathe. Soon I couldn’t see a foot in front of me through the thick red smoke. “What the hell...” I muttered.

“Good day, Mr. Creed,” a familiar voice rang through the smoke. I dropped into a defensive stance and charged my horn when I noticed the silhouettes of about six ponies appearing in front of me. The smoke started to thin out; instead of the train car I now appeared to be in what I recognized as Bulwark’s office back at Camp 89. The desk had been moved off to the side to make room for all of the ponies in front of me. Two of them were tied up on the floor, under close guard by Somber Blade guards; I recognized them immediately.

“No...” I whispered.

“Creed, don’t worry about us!!” Jake yelled as he struggled in his binds.

“Just find the princesses!” Pete screamed. “You’re our only hope!!” One of the ponies that wasn’t tied, whom I realized was Bulwark, stepped forward.

“You can relax a bit, Creed, we’re not actually in each other’s company... for now,” he said. “I believe you were using the orbs wrong, by the way, they are meant to be used once, to relay messages of vital importance among our covert members. Our order has used them since its founding.” Bulwark used his magic to open one of the drawers in his desk to the side, and withdrew a long, curved dagger. “Now, you have had your fun, Mr. Creed, but the time has come for you to return home.” He donned a thin smile that he probably thought was friendly. “We’ve missed you.”

I glared at Bulwark. “Can’t say the feeling has been mutual,” I growled. “You have no right to hold us like this.”

“Ah, but it is the will of our king that grants us the right!” Bulwark said. “He ruled over the Crystal Empire; its far-reaching power would affect the whole of Equestria. As such, he who controls the Empire, controls Equestria. He proved his worth by conquering those pitiful crystal ponies. His right to rule was taken from him by those foolish sisters you would call your princesses.”

“You call them foolish,” I said. “Yet they’re not the ones serving a king who was beaten quite soundly a while ago.”

Bulwark chuckled as he reached into his armor, laying a hoof on something he evidently had on his person. “Beaten, yet not destroyed. My master lives on as a shadow, and free to roam Equestria... He learned of Discord’s return and listened in on his little confession. When he learned of the potential you held, he leapt on the opportunity to intercept the Princesses’ spell to return your kind to Equestria; he scattered you throughout the southern lands, ripe to be gathered by his most loyal servants.”

“And what, pray tell, does your stair-loving patriarch want with us?” I asked; my interruption seemed to annoy Bulwark, which I took pride in.

“You would merely be the means with which we shall retake the Empire! Your rebirth in a world of hatred should have hardened you, made you ripe for King Sombra’s command...” Bulwark explained, rotating the dagger in his magic. “And yet, when you all returned, you came out... wrong. Despite what the draconequus believed, you were not filled with hatred and cruelty upon your return.”

“So you’ve been holding the alicorns, treating them like complete and utter shit in hopes of filling them with the hatred you’d thought would define us,” I finished.

“Precisely!” Bulwark said. “Sadly, progress has been... agonizingly slow. But if we have to spend years planting the seeds of hatred within your hearts, we will do so. After all, we waited generations for our master to return.”

“And yet you weren’t there when he did,” I pointed out, hoping to get under Bulwark’s skin. “If I were him, I’d question your loyalty...”

Bulwark scowled. “The King wasn’t in a position to summon us when the Crystal Empire returned. He believed he could conquer it immediately; he could have, were it not for those interfering ponies!” He stopped and gathered himself. “Now, onto business...” Bulwark approached Jake, holding the dagger close to his throat. “You will leave the train you are riding and return to Canterlot. My men will bring you back to Camp 89, and your friends will be no worse for wear.”

“Don’t do it!!” Jake yelled, receiving a smack across the back of the head from one of the Somber Blade for his trouble.

“Don’t you fucking touch him!!” Pete roared at the Blade pony, struggling even harder in his binds. Bulwark raised his eyebrows with interest at his outburst, but turned to face me again.

“Do you see the trouble your friends are in because you couldn’t cooperate?” Bulwark asked, like he was the victim in this whole affair. “Do you believe yourself the hero? The brave stallion who will save the day? What kind of hero can’t even protect his friends?” I glared at Bulwark. Once again the hatred within me flared up despite my best efforts to keep it in check.

“If you hurt them, I will show you what an Earth-born hatred can do, I promise you that,” I snarled.

“That’s it!” Bulwark said, encouragingly. “That’s the hatred we’ve been looking for, Creed! You are already on your way to being part of one of the most devastating forces Equestria has ever known! All you need to do is return here, and, I give you my word, none of your friends will be harmed.”

I wagered that his word wasn’t worth shit, but my eyes fell on Pete and Jake. They were rapidly shaking their heads back and forth, but the thought of leaving them to these bastards, especially now that I knew what trouble they were in, weighed heavily on my heart. Then I thought of Lily, and how the Somber Blade must have been treating her as they brought her back to Camp 89. I could save them, here and now.

Lily’s voice echoed in my mind. “Get to the Princesses.”

I took a breath. “If I return to Camp 89, nopony will be safe from you and your asshole master.” I stepped towards Bulwark and stared him in the eye. “I’m going to the Crystal Empire, I’m going to find the princesses, and we’re going to beat you, and your dipshit king, to a bloody pulp.”

Bulwark seemed unphased. In fact, he seemed to prefer this outcome. “Very well then,” he turned to Jake. “It’s not like one alicorn can stand against the thousands we have at our disposal, especially since I believe I’ve found the secret to unlocking your potential.”

In one swift, casual motion, the dagger swung through the air and slashed Jake’s throat.

“NO!!” I screamed as blood sprayed forth from Jake’s blue throat, spraying Bulwark in the face. Jake’s eyes were wide in surprise as he swayed almost dizzily before falling to the side and moving no more. But my scream paled in comparison to the deafening, almost feral roar of anguish and rage that erupted from Pete. Pete made to stand up, to tackle Bulwark, but one of the Somber Blade stepped forward and held him down. When he found that he couldn’t handle Pete alone, he beckoned for his friends to help him. The three ponies held their front hooves on Pete’s thrashing form, barely keeping him pinned to the floor.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!” Pete screamed at Bulwark, his eyes flooding with the same green haze that had flooded my own when I was furious with Discord.

Bulwark casually wiped the dagger clean of blood on Jake’s coat before turning to Pete, chuckling. “Do you see, Creed? You... ‘bronies’ may hold a code of ‘love and tolerance’, but in the end you, like all humans, still have that burning core of hatred deep within you, waiting for the chance to flourish... One just needs to know where to push.”

Bulwark’s horn began to glow with a venomous green energy as he leaned towards Pete, who was nearly about to break away from the Somber Blades who were holding him down. Bulwark’s horn touched the tip of Pete’s, and the green energy spread across Pete’s head, quickly seeping through his coat and into his skin. Pete immediately stopped thrashing and sat still, yet his expression of uncontrollable fury remained.

Bulwark, pleased with himself, stepped away from Pete and turned back to me. “And now you know the price of defiance, Mr. Creed,” he said. “Go. Flee to your princesses. Within days, we will be in control of an army the likes of which no world, not even the one you call ‘Earth’, has ever seen.”

Bulwark’s office suddenly melted away, and I was left standing in the train car, breathing heavily. I looked down at the orb on the floor, now crystal clear without the red smoke within. It almost looked innocent of what it had just shown me.