Turn off the lights and sit as close as you can to your monitor’s screen as possible!

JUST KIDDING!!!

Keep the room well lit and keep your distance while you’re on your computer for long periods of time. Now enjoy this story!

It has been said to be place in Equestria where evil creatures are held prisoner, and guarded by the mythical three-headed dog, Cerberus. The guardian of this underworld prevents any and all of its inhabitants from escaping into the bright world of Equestria.

However, just as there as many stars in the sky, there are just as many forms of Tartarus and just as many gates. Some of these forms are entirely different worlds, netherworlds spoiled by spite, cruelty, blood soaked taboos, bad one-liners, mimes, and boundless riffraff.

Many a stallion have wondered what lies behind these gates – What worlds are hidden by the darkness guarded by Cerberus? Only the bravest and foolish know, and of those few… Well, they’re more like idiots cause nopony’s ever seen them again once they found that answer.

As I said, a number of stallions have crossed the gates into Tartarus, but what if a denizen from the Netherworld stumbled into Equestria?

Hehehehee… Well… How about we stop thinking about the ‘what ifs’ and get on with story? After all, I’ve droned on enough about these what ifs, so, let the fun begin!

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Absence of Friendship

Prologue 0

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It was a clear and calm night in Canterlot Gardens, the large moon loomed over the statues and foliage.

The castle in the distance loomed in the dark basked in the moonlight had only a few lights on in the high windows. Several unicorn guards trotted on the concrete path, their hooves clacked against the concrete paths, which shattered the silent night every once in a while.

A cold breeze wisped through the gardens, the tree branches quivered along with the wind. The shadows casted by the many statues in the garden crept across the ground and amongst the shadows, a lone figure stirred.

“Gargh… Ah, what the hell?” the lone figure growled as he pushed himself from the ground to stand on his hind legs. “I’m still in one piece? Hmm, the only thing I feel is just a headache – Note to self, use more of the Super Hero’s energy to power Getter Mach 2, if it explodes, it should at least break a few limbs.”

The figure glanced around and took in all of the surroundings, “Heh, at the very least it blew me away from the academy. Wonder where the hell I am though – Looks like some sort of castle for an overlord…”

His glasses covered eyes turned towards the statue behind him – A small pony on her hind legs. He looked past that statue to see the others, “One with a horse fetish apparently. Well, since I’m here, I might as well use this opportunity to expand the academy! My evil mind is telling me that I could find some unique test subjects and… Omph!”

The figure tried to take a step forward, but had only succeeded in losing his balance and crash face first into the ground. “SONVA-!”

With a loud groan, the glasses wearing figure began to push off of the ground but stopped when he gazed at where his… Hooves were?

He lifted his hooves up to his red eyes and gazed at them deeply, like he waited for some sort of response from his gaze at the two gray hooves. His eyes traveled down his legs to see that they too ended with a pair of gunmetal gray hooves. But then his eyes traveled up slightly when out of the corner of his eye he saw something crop out of the back of his white shorts.

With one of his fore hooves, he brought it to his face and felt his nose a lot sooner than he expected, along with his mouth too.

That cry echoed through the air of the garden, which caused a number of the guards that roamed about to gallop towards the source.

“Was I propelled through my ‘Henshin Formulas’ again?!” The glasses wearing stallion questioned as he slammed his four hooves into the ground in order to at least get off of the dirt. “No! That’s inconceivable! That stuff would’ve turned my hair golden! It would’ve given me muscles! Or even give me an entire new outfit!

With a push of his hooves, the stallion stood upon his hind legs again and threw his forelegs to the side. “THIS IS JUST STUPID! WHOEVER HEARD OF A BEING TURNED INTO HORSE BEING A POWER UP!?!”

The stallion turned his red eyes to the side to see a pair of guards a few yards away – A unicorn and a pegasus who both trotted towards the glasses-adorned stallion. The stallion in response shifted his head left and right a few times, “Who the hell said that?”

“State your name and business!” The unicorn guard questioned, drawing the black stallion’s attention right back to the two stallions.

“Talking… Horses…” the stallion mused as he blinked a few times before his glasses before he focused on them. “Wait… A horn? Wings?”

“Are you deaf?” The unicorn shouted as his horn lit up the immediate area. “State your name and business!”

The mysterious white haired stallion lowered and his head and his body shook slightly, “Heh… hehehe…”

“We can never be sure, he could be one of those Princess fancolts we’ve been dealing with,” the unicorn guard replied as he trotted towards the stallion. “But he’s acting even weirder than the usual bunch.”

Both of the Royal Guard stallions jumped back as the black stallion had managed to get to his hind hooves and lifted his fore legs out to the side, forcing the baggy red coat to billow out from behind his body. “AMAZING! FASCINATING! Two mythical creatures right before me… Hehehe… And they can talk! SIMPLY MIND-BOGGLING!! There are so many facets here that intrigue me!

The stallions glasses fogged over as he began to wheeze loudly and drool began fall from the corner of his muzzle. The two Royal Guards reeled back from the freaky action from this stallion.

“This requires experimentation!” the stallion laughed out as he flew his coat up into the air. It was then that countless gears grounded against each other and sparks flew from the stallion’s back – And then six, extremely long, mechanical arms unfolded from the maniacal pony.

The two Royal Guards staggered back when they saw what was at the end of the mechanical arms – Two had thin, mechanical hands, one had a drill, one ended with a buzzsaw, and two more were tipped with scissor-like claws.

The arms came to life with the buzzsaw and drill spinning quickly about while the two hands shot towards the two Royal Guards. The guards leapt out of the last second before the hands latched onto them.

“Don’t run!” The black stallion laughed loudly as he turned his gaze towards the two royal guards. “I just wanna see what’s inside you – I’ll put everything back! Or wait… I know! Maybe I’ll cut you both apart and upgrade you two! Yes!

“A pegasus with laser beams on his head! A unicorn with rockets on its back for flight! JUST IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!”

“Lasers on my head?” The pegasus guard mused with a quizzical look on his face. “That sounds awesome!”

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A tall, dark blue form trotted to a balcony and looked up into the sky, her eyes locked up on the full moon that hung in the night. Her long royal blue man flowed freely through the air, caught amongst light breeze of the wind. The mare sighed loudly as she gleamed at the clear sky, ‘After so long and all the hardships, this world is still confusing to me – Especially considering the recent events.

‘The Nightmare Forces – They were able to corrupt even one of the wielders of the elements. And although they were defeated, there is no guarantee that the Forces are gone forever. As history has shown, when one darkness has been quelled, another just as terrible or even more so shall appear.

‘Discord, the Changelings and even… Myself. And even then, who knows what other forms of darkness will rear their ugly heads.

‘As princess of this land, I must remain vigilant. No matter what happens, I must make sure that Equestria and its citizens are safe from whatever…’

A loud explosion rocked the air and made the regal mare’s eyes widen in surprise. Her attention was immediately drawn down to the courtyard where a large amount of smoke billowed from the ground and up into the air. But what was strange about the explosion was that there wasn’t any fire, but rather from where the smoke originated, there was a large amount of jagged ice that pillared into the air.

“What in the name of Equestria?” The mare questioned as her wings unfolded before she flew off the balcony to investigate.

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The black stallion quelled his laughter as he looked upon his handiwork – Or rather hoofwork – and gazed at all of the royal guards that were trapped in the ice all around him. So many unicorns and pegesai were partially bound by the odd ice, and the mechanical limbs from the black stallion’s jacket hummed to life again. “Very interesting! You horses are not only capable of speaking, but magic and even combat! Too bad your levels are way too low to fight me. But this’ll be an amazing experiment!

“Heat beam eye blasts, rocket hooves, and maybe even – Dare I say – missile launchers! I’ll turn each of you into weapons of mass destruction!”

“That actually sounds pretty cool,” The first pegasus guard admitted, despite the fact that he was frozen up to his neck with the mysterious ice.

“You idiot!” The first unicorn guard snarled as he glared daggers at his pegasus comrade. “Do you really think you’ll survive something like that?!”

The familiar buzz of a saw drew the unicorn’s attention to see that the mechanical limbs had encircled him. The Royal Guard reeled back as best he could in his trapped state.

“Ya know, that constant blathering is annoying,” The black stallion growled as he pushed up his glasses to reveal his red eyes. “Of course, once I remove that voice box of yours – That won’t be a problem! Now, if you’re a good little test subject, I might just be persuaded to use some of my homemade anesthetic.

“Then again, it might be fun to see how much pain a talking horse can take before he goes insane! Or dies… But don’t worry, even if you die, I can just turn you into a robot! Muhwahahahahahahahaa!”

The robotic arms drew closer and closer to the unicorn, with the drill and one of the mechanical hands coming in fast.

But just before the mechanical menace made contact with the stallion’s skin, a stream of blue energy crashed into the mechanized limbs and shattered them into millions of pieces. The black stallion’s red eyes blinked a few times in confusion. “Wha?”

That loud, booming voice echoed throughout the garden and forced the black stallion back a couple of feet. His glasses covered eyes brought up to the sky where a solidary, winged figure descended from above. The winged figure quickly landed on the cool grass between the black stallion and the ‘iced’ royal guards, “What is the meaning of this?”

“A horn… And wings?” The black stallion questioned as his glasses fogged over.

“Your highness!” The unicorn guard called. “Please stay back! This stallion… He’s not normal!”

“Yeah! He talks weird!” the pegasus guard added. “And he’s got this weird breathing thing going on, Princess Luna!”

The stallion’s red eyes slowly disappeared as his glassed fogged up and the upper right of his mouth slowly curled. What stood before him was a mixture of the two mythical creatures – A mare (from the way the pony’s body was shaped and her facial features, he was able to discern that she was a female – Thanks to his 1.8 million EQ) with a royal blue coat and a flowing midnight colored mane and tail that billowed in the wind. Atop her head behind her horn was a black tiara that had a crescent moon adorned on it.

“Nay!” Princess Luna proclaimed as she lifted one of her front hooves up and pointed at the black stallion. “As Princess of Equestria, it is my duty to stop any and all harm that may come to my subjects!”

For a few moments, the black stallion’s glasses defogged, “Wait, you said Princess?”

“Indeed, you villainous colt,” Luna answered with her eyes narrowed down at the odd stallion. “No matter what you truly are I shall not…”

Luna reeled back at the surprisingly loud laughter that boomed through the ice encased garden – The black stallion had leaned back and unleashed a his deafening cackle before he snapped his head back and revealed the perverted look on his face. “THIS IS SO CONVENIENT! I was never able to have extensive research on Princesses before, but here’s one right in front of me!

“In addition! You’re also one of these talking horses as well! But you’ve got wings and a horn! This is like Evil Claus thought I was worst of the worst this year to treat me so well! Such prime research material! Who knows what I could learn from studying you!?!

“And who knows? Maybe I can improve upon you! I’LL UPGRADE YOU INTO SOMETHING AWESOME! Perhaps I’ll replace those wings of yours with mechanical arms armed with sawblades! Or maybe some anti -gravity generators to make sure you can fly?”

“Mecha Luna sounds awesome!” The pegasus guard chimed up with a goofy smile on his face.

“You idiot! Don’t say that out loud!” The unicorn guard hissed at his comrade. “The princess is right there and we’re all in danger!”

The black stallion lifted his right hoof up, and lifted up a weird device that had a bulky white connector with a red glass-like protrusion on the side of it. “First, let’s see what your level is! Such a powerful attack to break my machines has to belong to something strong!”

Luna cocked an brow as she watched the stallion fit the odd device on his right ear, ‘What sort of stallion is this?’

“What does the scanner say about your level?” The black stallion asked as the scanner beeped a few times as some numbers appeared on it.

“A thousand and six?” The stallion questioned before he shrugged and ripped the device off. “Oh well, must’ve been a fluke. That makes this all the easier!”

Luna turned her head towards the two captured royal guards, “Is this really the one who did this to you? He seems a bit… Uncouth.”

“Why thank you!” the black stallion laughed as he lifted his right hoof up. Several sparks erupted over the stallion’s hoof before it glowed a bright purple. “But enough talk! You may have that fancy talk of yours, but I’ve got these shining fing… Wait…”

The black stallion looked down at his hoof and growled. “DAMN IT! I DON’T HAVE THOSE ANY MORE!

The stallion leapt high into the air, his right hand burned brightly, with Luna just watched as he fell towards the ground. “Take this! Shining…”

Luna’s horn glowed a low cobalt blue before the magical energy surged up into the stallion’s body. For a moment, the stallion was frozen in midair before he yelled out in agony. The energy washed over his body, the aura around his hoof wisped away and the stallion yelled out of pain.

When Luna stopped her attack, the black stallion crashed into the ground, his clothing, fur coat, mane and tail were singed and his red eyes spun about, dazed. “Urgh…”

The ice that had captured the guards cracked and shattered upon the mysterious stallion’s apparent defeat. Luna blinked a few times as she watched the odd stallion’s body twitch a few times in pain and she used her magic to lift up the odd scanner that the black stallion used earlier. ‘This thing appears to be upside down…

‘But this stallion, who is he? Why has he come to terrorize my ponies? And how is he able to use this odd… ‘magic’? I’ve never seen an earth pony with such abilities before…’

Absence of Friendship

by MangaKamen

Prologue 0