Chapter 1

Blood.

I do not fear it any more. I can draw it, shed it, and use it.

I revolve around it.

...Then why do I hate it...

Is it because the first blood I saw was my family's and my own?

"Master, the seal is weakening." Came a voice from behind me. I was in a forest, kneeling in front of a pond, looking at my reflection.

All I saw was a monster.

"Let us continue our mission then..."

I stood and started walking in a seemingly random direction.

How did I get this life again? It was so long ago... I'm pretty sure that it started when I nearly died.

Twice.

A long time ago... (Age: 6)

I was scared... It hurt so much... so cold...

Mother, father, and brother were dead. I knew what death was, my mother made me aware of the real world as soon as she could. Men had came in and shot them in front of me, and then they turned to me.

Tears were streaming down my face.

"Help..." I whimpered, letting myself be covered in red liquid. I couldn't help my family.

They were gone...

"Please..." I begged, knowing my pleas wouldn't reach mortal ears.

'I was useless... I wasn't strong enough... maybe I should die...'

Then, a miracle happened.

I was heard.

"Do not despair, young one..."

"...please...help..." I choked, finally drifting into unconsciousness.

I awoke in a dimly lit room. Its walls were a dark red and its roof, white with a single light in the center, which was turned off. A door was on the wall to my left along with an office desk and lamp, which was turned on.

A cloaked figure sat on said desk, its focus directed to me. It was rather tall, taller than average people. I couldn't make out any other details other than that the lamp behind it made it cast an eerie shadow.

"So, you finally awaken." He said in a dark and monotone voice. I could tell that it was a "he" because of his voice.

I could also tell that he was the one who spoke to me.

I tried to move, but I winced when pain shot up my body from my abdomen. "Don't move, you'll only reopen your wounds." The man ordered.

"Did you save me?" I asked. His answer did not surprise me.

"Yes, I did."

"Why?" This seemed to catch him off guard.

"What do you mean why?" He asked, giving me a curious look.

"I failed to protect my family... I'm a failure... why would you save a failure?"

The man chuckled, "Let's just say that I wanted to give you a second chance."

“A second chance?" I was confused, A second chance at what? Life?

"Yes, a second chance. You should be grateful, not many get another chance. However, there is a catch..." he explained, "You must become my apprentice..."

Just who is this guy? "...Who are you?" I whispered, glaring at him. He was silent for a while, about a minute.

The man just stared at the floor until he spoke. "Maybe it's best if I just show you..." He then pulled down the hood of his cloak.

The thing under the hood was definitely not human. It had white scaly skin, along with sharp teeth, a reptilian tongue, and blood red eyes. "I am known as Zero, and I am a god. If you decide to take my offer, you will become my representative, my demigod."

"I don't believe you... gods don't exist." I said, the atheist side of me showing.

"Well, believe what you want to believe, but I am what I say I am. Now, will you accept or decline my offer."

Well... I thought, it's not like I have anything holding me back... "...I... accept your offer."

Zero smiled slightly, "Good, now get some rest young one. Tomorrow I will give you your new name." He got up and went to the door.

"Wait, what kind of creature are you?"

He turned around and looked at me, "This is my dragon form, my original form." He then left the room, leaving me alone.

I thought about my recent past. I had lost so much, yet I did not feel any different. I thought about what I lost: my family. They had been the most important people in my life, and now I will never see them again.

The words echoed around my mind for awhile, and then I started to cry. I was silently crying, meaning that the tears were streaming down my face, but no noise was being made. I cried for a long time, I was not sure how many minutes... or hours I cried. However, my exhaustion caught up to me and soon, I fell asleep.

The next day...

Well, I'm not on my bed anymore. I'm face down on something soft, warm, and... fury? I tried to open my eyes, but it felt like they were glued shut. I tried to move, but it felt like there were lead weights tied to my limbs. So, I tried my voice...

"W-where..." I choked, not really expecting someone to answer.

However, "Ah... welcome back to the world of the living!" Someone said in front of me. It was very feminine, so it was probably a woman. "Don't try to move, your body has been through a lot in the past few hours. It will take a few minutes for your body to get used to the modifications we made to it."

I was now officially scared. I started frantically trying to move my eyes and body. I wanted to see what they did to me. "Stop! We only added things, we didn't take away anything! I give you my word as a god! If you keep moving you'll die!" She exclaimed, honest worry in her words.

I stopped. What did they do to me? At least I know she is a god. "Look," the god started, "I know you're scared, but I promise you that you are fine. All we did was strengthen your body so it can last longer." Silence followed, and I realized that our voices weren't the only noise in... were ever we were. It sounded like hooves on a tiled floor. Knowing that Zero was a dragon, could other gods be other things?

"Who...”

"Am I?" She said, finishing my sentence for me. "I am known as many things. A goddess, a deity, an alicorn, and a pony are some of the things I am called, but you can call me Solana." The newly dubbed Solana explained.

"Solana... the pony..." I whispered, letting it implant in my memory.

"Mmm-hmm" she confirmed. "Oh, and to answer your first question, you’re on my back, heading towards where you'll get you new name."

As I lay there, I couldn't help but notice something. "You're soft..." I stated, rubbing my head draped into Solana’s back to emphasize my point.

"I'm glad you think so. You're pretty cute yourself." She responded.

Solana carried me for a couple of minutes before she told me to try and move again. I opened my eyes and was enveloped in a sea of white. I blinked a couple of times, but the white was still there. I looked up to where Solana’s head should be and was greeted by beauty. She had teal eyes, her coat was a pure white, and her mane looked like an inferno. Her mane started off a dark red then it consistently got lighter until it turned into a bright yellow, it also blew in a non-existent breeze. I turned my head while examining her body and found out that she was equipped with a horn and wings, and her tail was the same way as her mane, but something caught my attention.

On Solana’s rear was a tattoo of the sun and moon circling three ponies in the formation of a triangle. The one on the left was normal, but the other two had something extra to them. The one to the right had a horn and the one on top had wings. Solana must have caught sight of my confused face because she asked what was wrong.

"Why do you have a picture on your butt?" I asked, honestly curious.

She giggled at my bluntness. "That's no ordinary 'picture', silly, that's my cutie mark!" I gave her a confused look and she sighed. "A cutie mark is a mark that ponies get when they discover their special talent." She explained.

"So, what does yours mean?" I questioned.

"Well, I'm the god who created the sun and moon, and they gave life to the three species of ponies: earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns." she explained. I looked at Solana with confusion.

"But, there are no unicorns or pegasi on earth." I stated.

She just smiled back, "Do you honestly think your world is the only world?" Solana asked. I was about to ask what she meant by that, but I was interrupted by Solana when she exclaimed "We're here!" I looked ahead of her to see large, white, double doors with red handles.

"Where are we?" I asked as she opened the doors.

"These are your new master's chambers." The room was dimly lit; the only light in the room came from some candles that had been placed around the room.

"New...master?"

"Yes, your new master." Came a familiar voice. In the middle of the room stood Zero without his cloak. All of his scales were white and he was tall, about 7 feet. "Come..." he said with a monotone voice. I slid off Solana’s back and approached the white dragon. As I stood in front of Zero, he looked down as he towered over me, studding me with piercing eyes.

"Do you, human, accept me, Zero, god of sorrow, as your mentor and master until I deem you fit to act on your own accord?" The room was tense and silent as he awaited my answer.

"I...I..." I hesitated and shook in fear. This was my last chance to refuse. I didn't want to leave my family; I didn't want to leave my old life. But... all of that is gone now. Everything is... just... gone... what other choices do I have? I...I...have none... I steeled my resolve and answered Zero's question.

"I... do," I declared, matching his tone. A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips and he put his right claw on top of my head.

"Very well, let this agreement be witnessed by my fellow god, Solana." Zero then motioned towards the pony and she shook her head in acknowledgment. "Then I declare you the demigod pain and despair, Zero Two."

Bellowing laughter erupted behind me. I turned to see Solana on her back, clutching her sides. "Zero Two?!?" She managed to squeak out in between laughter. "That's the most original name I've ever heard!" She said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

I just rolled my eyes and turned to Zero and was surprised to see him doing the same. "I accept my new name, Ze— my master."

"Very well... I have decided that since you have accepted me as you master, I should trust you. So, I am going to give you a very high honor. I'm going to give you a shard of my soul." Suddenly, the laughter behind me stopped.

I turned to find Solana starring sternly at my master. "Are you sure?" she asked.

I turned to my master, waiting for his response. He studied me, and then he said "Yes, without a doubt."

I was confused, Wasn't this what we were going to do anyway? What's the difference? I then voiced my concerns to the gods. "There are two types of demigods. There are the ones that have the power of a god, and then there are the demigods that have a shard of a god's soul within their own. The difference is that the demigod with just a god's power can only stay at the amount of power they started at. The demigod that has a shard of a god's soul, however, can let the god's soul unify with their own and let it and their own powers grow to levels equal to a god." Zero explained.

"So..." I started, "I'm special?"

The dragon closed his eyes in thought. "It's more like... you have a gift." Zero reopened his eyes and looked behind me to Solana. "Let us begin." He turned around and brought out something I didn't see before.

A sword. A broad sword, to be exact. "I've already said I trust you. However, I must know if you trust me." He turned to me and knelt, pointing his sword at me. "To claim my soul, you must impale yourself on this sword." I started backing away. To say I was scared would be an understatement. I looked to him, into his eyes. "Don't worry, it won't kill you," he said.

"But, w-won't it h-hurt?"

Zero closed his eyes, "I promise it won't hurt. I give you my word as a god." My eyes wandered back to the sword. Well, what have I got to lose. I thought.

My hands folded into fists. I clenched my jaw. I closed my eyes and ran at the weapon. It felt like I ran forever, but eventually something hit me in the chest. All feeling in my body was lost and was replaced by cold, and I felt my mind drifting off into darkness.

Solana watched as her fellow god removed the child from the blade and cauterize his wounds with a simple flame spell. "Was that really necessary?" she asked. Solana knew many ways to implant a shard of a soul into another being, but the way Zero chose was only used in dire situations.

"No," he responded, "but I wanted to test his loyalty to me. Humans can be easily mislead..." Zero carried the boy in both arms as he walked out of the room with Solana in pursuit. "Since my business is out of the way, how's the Discord situation coming along?"

Solana sighed, "Not good. Fo̱s won't even think about letting a demigod go down to Equestria, so my only hope is that he doesn't notice them," she explained. Zero groaned, he knew how stubborn the god of light could get, but this was out outrageous! How could he not let someone go down there and retrieve Solana's own children!?

"Don't worry, I'll try to convince him to let someone go," Zero said.

"That won't work, you and I both know that," she responded.

Zero sighed, he knew she was right, "I'll think of something. Just give me some time..."

The pair arrived at their destination, the boy's room. Zero gently tucked the boy in, turned off the light, and closed the door. He leaned against the door as he smiled, "That boy is going to have a very hard life, but I know he'll make me proud to call him my demigod."

Suddenly, a gryphon came scampering around the corner. "Lord Zero! Lady Solana! I bring urgent news from HQ!" he called out as he ran to the pair.

"What is it now?" Solana complained. The gryphon held up an envelope and she levitated it towards Zero with her magic.

The god opened the letter and began to read it, his eyes widening the more he read. When he finished, the letter slipped from his claw and floated to the ground, "Discord's taken the throne..."

Chapter 2

View Online

"We are nearing our destination. Please go ahead and start clearing out the target's projections, I will take care of the target himself." I ordered my servant.

"As you wish, my master." He said, disolving into my shadow. I looked at terrain in front of me: Beautiful plains sprawled out endlessly.

"We're getting close..."

(Age: 21)

Fifteen years.

It has been fifteen years since I lost my family and gained the title of demigod. As you can tell, I survived my trial. I had only grown a bit since that time, maybe an inch or two. Also, I have gained magical powers because of my acsension. Other than that, I see no difference in my appearence.

I've explored and memorized most of the area I've been living: a school. It was founded for the soul purpose of making sure that demigods don't get themselves killed the moment they leave their god's side. The school is in the space between worlds and doubles as a headquarters for the gods to watch over said worlds. The teachers are the gods themselves or seinor demigods (demigods that have power near or equal to a god). There's a wide arrange of classes ranging from combat strategy to spell design. But, my favorite training is with my master: blood magic. It is very complex and dangerous, most students wouldn't go near it. However, it comes naturally to me and I enjoy the challenge.

There is, however, another side of school: popularity. This side is rather hard for me. I tend to be alone most of the time and I don't approach anybody unless I need to. It also didn't help that I'm the only human here.

Solana and I still keep in touch. She teaches advanced spell making and casting which is my third best class, my second being battle techniques and strategies. Other than Solana though, nobody took an intrest in me. All they do is give me a look that says "you don't belong". Is it some sort of taboo to make a human a demigod? It would certainly explain the way the other students treat me.

Since were on the topic of students, most (if not all) students came from the world of Equestria because of the high magic presence there. There are dragons, earth ponies, unicorns, pegisi, griffions, and dimond dogs, however the latter was few.

Anyway, I was studying in the library which is massive, and I mean massive as in you could get easily lost for hours. I was studing advanced spell craft for a test that requires you to make an medium ranged magic attack that is easy to cast. I was almost done the written part of the spell, after that I would just need to test it.

"Hello?" A voice rang out. I ignored the voice entirely, devoting my focus to finishing the spell. 'Besides, who would go looking for me? I'm hated here...' I continued working as I heard hoofsteps trot around my work space. "Hello? I heard I could find someone I need to see here." The voice sounded feminine, young, and... unsure? "*sigh* I knew he was hard to find but, I didn't know he was practically non-existant!" She said.

I sighed and put down the quill I was working with. 'I'm so very close to being finished but if I don't help her she will just keep ranting and I'll never get this done.' "What do you want?" I said with irritation.

There was a yelp and a quiet thud that echoed after my words. "Oh my, you gave me quite the scare! I can't see you? Where are you?" The voice asked.

I sighed again, lothing that I had to reveal myself. I stood and peeked over the wall of spell books I was using. "I'm in here." I said, looking at the filly.

She was a unicorn and had a bright orange coat, yellow mane and tail, and she was about the same hight as me, perhaps a little shorter. Her eyes were also orange but, they glowed and flickered like fire. Her cutie mark was a open flame. The mare looked at me strangely, "Why are you in that pile of books?"

I gave her a flat look, "Because I like working alone and un-interupted." I deadpaned.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Who are you and what do you want?" I questioned.

"Oh! I completely forgot to introduce myself! I'm terribly sorry, my name is Scarlet Flame and I need help. I'm in your spell casting class and... well, I'm having trouble coming up with a spell for the test. Teacher says that your the best in the class and that you would help me."

I sighed for a third time. 'I thought it was obvious that I do not like being disturbed while working.' I tossed her a pair of spell books. "Don't talk to me until you get an idea for a spell." I ducked back down into my fortress of books, continuing to finish my preperations.

As I stroked my quill across the paper for the last time, a wave of relief flowed over me. 'Now all that's left is to practice it,' I looked over towards Scarlet as a sinister smile creeped over my face. 'No one would notice if she when "missing" in here. I mean, people get lost inhere all the time!' The smile, however, faded away as soon as it came, 'But, master would be disapointed...'

I got up and spectated Scarlet scanning the books I gave her for insperation. "Have you decided what you're going to create?" I asked in the monotone voice I picked up from my master. It's very useful for itimidation and it keeps people away.

She sighed, "I think so, but I have no clue how to put it on to paper!" She let her head fall into the book and groaned. "I'm gonna fail this test!" A shiver whent up my spine as a wave of ecstasy suddenly washed over me. But the wave left as soon as it came. "Are you alright?" Scarlet said.

I took a deep breath, erasing all traces of my previous feeling. "I'm fine," I lied, "I'm just cold." I taught Scarlet how to draw the spell and showed her the theory behind it.

When she finished the spell, she stood up on her hind legs and gave me a hug, "Thank you so much! If it weren't for you..."

I shoved her off and started to put away the books that littered the area, "It's fine, just leave me alone now..." A frown appeared on Scarlet's face, but she eventually walked away. I sighed and finished cleaning. "That was close" I wispered to myself, "I almost started feeding on her..."

I have a... strange ability. I can gain strength by "feeding" off of others despair. However, It feels... wrong, like I'm kicking someone when they're down. I've been trying to resist the urge to feed whenever I sence someone's despair. It is very hard: feeding is like a drug.

I collected my things and left the library. 'I have some time until night comes... Might as well test and practice this spell, then maybe I should report back to master...' I thought.

I eventually reached the the training grounds. Luckly, everyone was in the dining hall, so nobody was there. 'Excellent, no one will disturb me.'

I found some spair training dummies (straw dummies that are shaped to look like diffrent species and can repair themselves) and placed them around me. I took out the spell that I was previously slaving over from a white backpack that my master had given me when I first began my training, and read it over and over again, imprinting it into my mind.

When I felt ready, I put my spell away and began to focus. I began to feel magic course through my body. I focused the magic on a focal point: my hands. The magic built up to a point where it began to materialize. I raised one of my hands and whipped it towards one of the dummies. Red wires of magic shot out of the spaces between my fingers, wrapped around the dummy, and returned back to my hands.

'Let the fun begin...' I ripped my hand back and the wires dissapiered with a satisfing *shing*. The dummy, however, appiered to be untouched. Confused, I reached out and touched the dummy. As soon as I my fingers grazed it, it fell apart. It had been perfectly cut where the wires had wrapped around. The dummy's pieces then levitated back to their original position and joined back together.

I giggled with excitement, "It works perfectly! Now then, how powerful is it?" I released another wave of wires to my left, ensnaring another dummy. I cut that dummy to pieces as well. I cast the spell over and over again, mowing down dummy after dummy. Eventually, I stopped casting. I hunched over, panting. 'I easily casted that spell over five hundred times!' I looked around to find the dummies reforming.

'I believe that it's time for the finale...' I charged the spell for a couple of seconds, then I whipped my arms out in different directions. The wires went everywhere, wrapping around anything they could: dummies, tree branches, and some large rocks. Some dummies were suspended in the air from the tention in the wires. I chuckled again, then I tore my hands back. There was only carnage afterwards. Dummy parts were strewn around me, several wooden splinters were all that remained of the branches, and the rocks were reduced to the size of pebbles.

I looked at the aftermath of the spell, 'This spell is quite effective and easy to use. What shall I name it...?' I thought for awhile until the name hit me, "Blood wire...yes, I shall call this spell blood wire." I put the, now reformed, dummies back where I had found them and proceeded to grab my bag and leave.

However, my exit was interupted as I walked into the same mare from befohre. I fell to the ground as she walked head first into me. "Oh, sorry!" she apologized.

"Oh, it's you..." I said, recovering from my fall. "What are you doing here? I thought that you would have gone to eat."

"I was," she started, "but I thought I could test my spell before I eat."

I letter out a sigh and wiped the remaining dirt from my clothes, "Very well then, I have finished with the grounds. Test to your heart's desire." I turned my back to her and walked away. I heard cheering after about a minute of walking towards my destination.

I walked along one of the many roads of the campus as the sun set in the distance. I approached

a very tall and magnificent building made of marble, with collums and golden double doors out the front. I entered and came into a large reception area that had several hallways leading through the building. I walked down a seemingly random hallway and continued walking for sometime, until it stopped with a set of familiar white, red handled, double doors.

I was about to knock on the door, but they slowly opened before I could. "I've been expecting you..." my master called. The room was the same as I remebered it: the walls were shrouded in darkness and the only light sources came from the candles that were around the room, especially at the alter in the front. My master was sitting cross-legged in front of the alter with his eyes closed and his body relaxed. "It has been a while since you last visited me," he pointed out.

"My greatest apologies, master, but I have been buisy with my training," I explained. "I have just completed a rather powerful spell for Solana's test. I'm bound to pass it."

"You won't be attending that test." My master stated.

"WHAT!?" I protested. "That test—"

"Silence!" I shut up immediately. My master took a deep breath to calm himself, "There are more urgent matters that need to be dealt with..." Now I was curious, 'What could be more important than a test?' "Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony, has taken the throne of Equestria by force. He poses a theat to the safety and sanity of the population and needs to be stopped."

"So," I started, "you want me to go kill him!?" I asked exitedly. 'This is it,' I thought, 'I'm finally getting my first assignment!'

"No." I must have made a funny face because he laughed, "Let me explain. If you were to fight him now, you would be killed for sure. All I want you to do is stall him."

I was confused, "What would stalling him do? Wouldn't that just get me killed faster?"

"Well, under normal circumstances, yes it would, but you won't be alone in this battle. There will be two fillies trying to seal Discord with the elements of harmony," he explained. I nodded my head in understanding, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bundle of wine red cloth and gave it to me. "Take this, you'll need it." I unravled the cloth to find a one edged, bone dagger. It was curved on the bladed side and had small symbols carved out on the other.

I was dumbfounded, "But, master, this is your knife!" All he did was nod.

"Think of it as a gift," he said.

I gave the dagger a few twirls and swings. It was light and increadably sharp, in other words, an amazing weapon. "Thank you, master. I will keep it with me until I die," I thanked.

"You leave for Equestria tonight, so get some sleep," master ordered. I bowed respectively and turned to leave. "Zero two, please don't mention this mission to anyone. It's top secret."

"Don't worry, master, I won't fail you," I responded. I walked out of my master's chambers and towards my room.

Little did I know that my life would change that night...again.

The darkness of the night hid me as I strolled through the forest. My master had briefed me just before I left. Inside this forest was a castle where the two fillies were headed, and that ment Discord and myself were going to be there. I was to protect these fillies with my life —if necessary— againts Discord and his minions. The mission was simple enough.

I walked through the forest and eventually, I came to a chasm that stood between the castle and myself. I could see various flashes of light coming from the windows and there were explosive noises coming from inside as well. 'Damn, they've already started fighting,' I thought, 'I need to get in there before Discord kills them!' Unfortunately, the bridge crossing the chasm was cut, so I needed to find another way in. I took my new knife and looked at it. An idea came to me: I wrapped the handle of the knife with my blood wire spell and threw it into the castle wall. I checked that the knife was secure, then I leaped into the chasm. When I landed on the far wall, I used my makeshift grappling hook to scale the wall and finally, reach the top of the cliff.

Insted of bursting through the front door like an idiot, I climbed up to a broken window and saw my mission: two fillies, both of which had wings and a horn, and a patchwork monster. The biggest of the fillies was around three feet tall and had a bright pink mane and tail, a white coat, a cutie mark of a sun, and several cuts and scratches. The other was around two feet and six inches tall and had a light blue mane and tail, a dark blue coat, and no cutie mark. Finally, the creature looked as if someone had taken several body parts and sewn them together. It was tall, almost as tall as my master, and it was laughing.

"I never dreamed that this would be so easy!" he laughed. 'So this is discord...' "Did you really think you could beat me by coming here to find the mystical elements of harmony?" he taunted, putting massive emphasis on "mystical".

"Thou shall fall, Discord!" the white filly squeaked. "Once the elements are uncovered, thy defeat is eminent!" This made him hysterical.

I climbed down off the window and hid as Discord continued, "And who's going to look for them while you're fighting me?" he asked. The filly's expression turned to one of frustration, she knew that she wouldn't be able to beat the monster in front of her without the elements. "Oh, don't worry," Discord cooed, "this is going to end very soon."

"What makes thou say that?!" the blue filly questioned. "We have yet to get serious!"

Discord wiped a tear from his eye, "Oh, you actually think this is a real fight... Sorry to disappoint, but I've mearly been playing with you!" he said. "I think it's time to end this..." Discord raised his arm to strike, but it was enveloped in red wires. All eyes in the room then turned to a cloaked figure: me.

I kept a strong hold on the wires as I said, "You know, it's consitered rude to hit a lady..." My eyes met Discord's and he knew what I was here for. "Go," I ordered, "find the elements, I'll deal with Discord."

"Hey!" the blue filly called, "What do—, Tia!" Tia picked up her sister with her magic and started to run.

"We thank thou!" She called as she ran.

I didn't respond as I stared down my enemy. The tention in the air was palpable as I spoke, "I suppose you already know why I'm here?" Discord's laughing had stopped a long time ago.

"You don't honestly think you can kill me, do you?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"No," This seemed to catch him off gaurd. "I know I cannot kill you, so I shall do as I was orderd," I rotated to where the two fillies onced stood, blocking his path. I grabbed my knife and held it in a reversed grip, "en gaurd, Discord..."

Discord teleported away with a flash, leaving my wires with nothing to hold on to. My shadow flashed in front of me for a instant; I ducked to avoid a swipe from behind and retaliated with one of my own. He leaped back, "You're not bad, kid, but it's gonna take a lot more than that to beat me!"

"You really don't listen, do you?" I quipped. My wires lashed out again, this time wrapping around his leg. I slammed him to the ground and leaped into the air with my knife at the ready. He teleported away as my knife was implanted into the ground where he once lay. I pulled out my knife and turned to Discord, "I'm not here to defeat you."

"Then why are you here?"

I put a finger on my lips, "That's a secret." I unleashed my wires from both my hands, each stream going on either side of my enemy.

"Ha! You missed!" He laughed. I pulled back my wires, however that wasn't the only thing I pulled back. Two decent sized boulders smashed into him, sending him flying towards me. I got ready to strike him, but he exploded into a cloud of confetti. I wiped myself off and looked around for my target. "Oh no!" Discord taunted, his voice echoing around the room. "How will the little demigod hit what he can't see?" I looked around the room for any signs of movement, only to find that Discord was good at hiding.

I was annoyed by the game he was playing, but it had a fatal flaw. "I'm only going to give you one chance to show yourself and fight fairly, Discord!" I warned. I lightly smiled when no answer followed. I focused my magical energy into my hands and covered the room in wires. There was a tangle in my web, so Discord was caught! I released the hand that caught nothing and grabbed my wrist, pulling the tension tighter. I pulled as hard as I could until...

*squeak*

I blinked several times before releasing the remaining wires and letting whatever was caught fall to the ground. When the object hit the ground, a giant rubber doppelganger of Discord immediately became visible.

Suddenly, something wrapped around my neck and hoisted me up into the air. I flailed my limbs, trying to strike my attacker. I hit him a few times, but my efforts were in vain. And jut when I thought that it couldn't get any worse...

"Drop him now, Discord!" A voice called out. I was swung towards the voice: the one named Tia and the other filly.

"I don't want to. I was thinking about making him my pet," he replied.

"It would be unwise to disobey us this time!" the blue filly announced. Tia levitated six stones into the air, "We've found the elements!"

'Well that was surprisingly fast...' I thought. I felt Discord's grip tighten and I was brought in between the two. "Go ahead, you'll hit both of us though..." Discord calmly said. The stones started to rotate in the air, but they stopped when the blue filly bumped into Tia.

"Tia!" the blue one shouted. "We cannot hurt him, he saved us!" Tia started to look nervous, and shuffled on her hooves.

"Ti...a," I choked, "do...it..."

"But—"

I looked her straight in the eyes, "Do it." I needed to time this perfectly if my plan was going to work.

The elements levitated above their heads and started to spin rapidly, creating a rainbow swirl around them. I slowly reached for my knife, drawing it and bringing it close to my chest. Then, I grabbed the blade and waited, but just as I started to prepare myself, Discord whispered into my ear, "I will be back, and next time you won't be able to stop me."

The rainbow shot off of the two ponies and rushed towards us. Discord started to laugh hysterically as I quickly cut my hand and latched it to the appendage holding me. A sizzling sound reached my ears and I was dropped. I rolled onto my back just in time to see the rainbow hit Discord, slowly wrapping around him and turning him into stone, Discord laughing all the while.

And then, it was over. My mission was complete: Discord was defeated and the two fillies were safe. I let out a massive sigh and brought my hands to my face, where I realized my hands were covered in small cuts and blood, especially my left hand thanks to the gash from my knife. 'Mental note: putting to much tension on my blood wires will cut me,' I thought.

I didn't bother getting up, I was completely drained of energy. 'My first mission is completed,' I thought, 'and I have no idea what to do next! My master taught me how to get here, how to find where I need to go, but never how to get back!' I took deep breaths and calmed myself.

"Are thou okay?" a very concerned voice came. The two fillies came over to me and looked down at me. The one dubbed Tia seemed more worried than the blue one, who was more cautious if me.

"I'm fine," I retorted, "I'm just exhausted."

"Thy cuts say otherwise," Tia said. "We should help him."

"We do not know, Tia. We do not trust him..." the blue one cautioned.

"Lulu," Tia scolded, "if we were injured, would you not want us to be helped?"

"No, si—" and that's when I turned the corner and was out of earshot. I walked until I made it outside, where the moon was starting to set. Several wounded pony knights were scattered across the front yard. I flipped on the hood of the cloak I was wearing and travelled through the shadows to the forest's edge.

I couldn't help but gaze at the damage done to the area. Several chunks of stone had been ripped off of the castle and parts of the roof had caved in. Patches of dirt, grass, and flowers were scattered throughout the field. 'This place was probably once beautiful... It's sad to see it in such a state,' I thought.

Thunder took my attention away from the carnage. As I reached the forest, it started to pour rain, but it mattered not. I needed to get back to my master, before they found out that I was missing. "Hey!" someone called out from behind me. 'Ugh, what now?' I turned to see the white filly from before: Tia.

"What do you want?" I asked.

She glared at me, "How dare thou walk away when we were offering our help!"

"No offence," I started, "but I don't have time for you to play doctor." I turned and tried to leave but the filly jumped in front of me.

"Oh no, thou are not going anywhere!"

"Get out of my way."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!" she yelled.

I groaned in frustration, 'Whether she knows it or not, I can't get past her! Even if I did use force, she was my mission! If I accidentally hurt her, my master would kill me!' "What do you want from me?" I asked.

Tia smiled, "We can't let thou leave without repaying our debt to you."

I sighed, "You don't have to pay me back, I was ordered to protect you. Besides..." I paused and looked away, "you wouldn't want to associate yourself with a monster."

"A monster?" she questioned.

"I've been shunned for most of my life for being the only one of my kind. I am surely a monster," I explained.

The rain seemed to get heavier as she said, "Being different is not the same as being a monster."

I turned back to her, "Is it really? I'm treated the same way as a monster, just because of who my master is and what I am..."

"That does not matter! No monster would go out of his way to help somepony!" she countered. I turned away from her completely, "Please, we insist that thou let us treat your wounds."

I sighed, 'Maybe going with her isn't a terrible idea... Besides, I have no clue how to report back to master, and they may not be completely safe yet.' After a while, I let out a defeated sigh, "Fine, but on one condition."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Tell no one about this."

Chapter 3

View Online

The lake in front of me sparkled as sunlight beamed down on to it. I griped my pocket watch tightly as I took in the scene. The watch was gold, with a inscription of a sun on one side and a moon on the other.

"Celestia, I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it."

(Age: 21)

I was sitting on a chunk of cobblestone that had been broken off of the castle, staring at my newly bandaged hands. It was morning, the sun shone through gaps in the clouds as I sighed and looked up. Tia was explaining my being here to the guards and Lulu was trying to catch a butterfly with her hooves in the remains of a garden.

"Are you sure, princess? I've never seen anything like... that," I overheard one of the guards say.

Tia looked at me for a brief moment, then back to the guard, "We are sure. He may seem monstrous, but he is trustworthy. His actions prove it."

"As you wish," he said. The guards seemed uneasy when I gazed at them, but I didn't care.

"Our sister may have fallen for your ruse, but we won't. We know thou art plotting something." I turned to my verbal assailant and raised my eyebrow at Lulu. "Don't give us that look, whelp. Who art thou working for?!"

I was about to lash back with my own harsh words, but a better idea hit me. "Someone," I shrugged.

The filly groaned, "Be more specific!"

"Someone important."

"WHO!? How important?! What do they do?!"

"A very important manager of sorts," I said smugly.

The blue filly's eye involuntary twitched as she glared at me. "We hope thy death is long and painful..."

"In a fire?" I asked. 'I guess a little bit of Solana rubbed off on me...'

She launched herself at me with a ferocious cry. However, she was caught in a golden glow just inches away from me. "Let go, Tia!" she yelled as she struggled to break free of her sister's magical grip. "He only acts as an ally, but he is evil! We cannot be wrong!"

The young, white mare trotted up beside me and sighed at her sister's antics. "Lulu, just because thou doth not trust him, doesn't mean that his purpose here is evil," Tia explained. She closed her eyes and hummed, "What could we do to make thou trust him... Oh! Let us play hide and seek!"

"No," we both said flatly.

"Oh well. Looks like chefs will 'forget' to make pie tonight..." she said with a fake disappointed frown.

Lulu suddenly glared dagger at me, "Thou will play, whelp! We will have our pie!"

"No, I won't. I don't have to play your games, I need to leave," I stated. I turned and started walking away from the two, 'I can't let them keep me here, I need to get back to master!'

"Oh~?" Tia hummed with a false tone of interest. "Even without this?" I turned to her and saw my knife levitating in front of her.

My heart stopped. Frantically, I swiped at the knife, trying desperately to get back what was stolen from me. "Give that back! You have no idea how much that means to me!" I yelled. However, every time I reached for the knife, it was pulled out of my reach.

"Then play with us. Thy weapon will be returned after the game," she explained.

I glared at her, "Fine! But it will be humiliating for you by how much you lose!"

"Fine, but thou art seeking. The rules are no magic and no flying, and we will only hide in and around the castle. The game ends at sundown if thy efforts are in vain," the filly explained.

"And thou must count to one hundred!" Lulu added.

I quickly turned around and closed my eyes, "One, two..." I heard them scamper off into the distance. I honestly thought about leaving, but the thought of losing that knife just after receiving it from my master made me reconsider. "...nindy-nine, one hundred." I turned back to where the fillies once stood.

I'd seen this game played before back at school, but I never participated mainly because I thought it was a waste of time. However, I did contemplate how someone could excel at that game, and I found my answer really useful.

I crouched down and gazed at my key to win. The rain from before had made the ground muddy, and the sisters had left tracks. Smiling at my fortune, I decided to follow the smaller tracks first. 'Catch the easier prey first and have more time to catch the other,' I thought. I got up and followed her tracks carefully, making sure not to lose them in the blend of all the others that were made by the guards. They led into the castle and luckily, muddy hoof prints continued where they left off.

I was led through several corridors, rooms, and stairs, but eventually the tracks ended up going through a hall that had hooves lining the walls. I was thoroughly creeped out by this hall's mere existence, 'Why would these sisters have something like this? They didn't strike me as the type to like creepy things...' I followed the tracks through the hall, but they suddenly made a sharp turn into a wall, where they suddenly ended. Confused, I started looking for a way into the wall without using magic. I found scratch marks on the stone floor, like something heavy had been dragged along the floor recently. There was also a hoof-sized hole in the wall, about a meter from the ground.

"A fake wall... I'm going to have to be more careful, there's more than meets the eye to this castle," I whispered to myself. There was a scuffling noise coming from the hole in the wall. I looked inside, but I saw only darkness. I was sure that she was in there, but I wasn't sure how she got in. 'Maybe there's a switch on the other side...'

I reached in to the hole with one of my bandaged hands and felt around. Suddenly, my hand screamed in pain and I pulled it out of the wall. I examined my hand to find a bite mark imprinted on the wrappings! "You bitch! You bit me!"

"Then we suggest that thou refrain from sticking thy hand in holes from now on!" The blue menace replied.

I was about to tear the wall down with magic and kick the living shit out of her, but I realized something and smiled smugly. "I really must thank you for that, Lulu!" She didn't respond. "You've saved me the trouble of trying to catch you!"

"DAMN IT!" She swore. She continued to swear up and down as I walked away to find her sister.

I went back to where the game started and looked at the sky. The sun was only a quarter way in its cycle. 'Plenty of time to annihilate her...' I thought. I looked back to the ground, found Tia's hoof prints, and followed them back into the castle. 'Fools. They have absolutely no experience thinking about how to cover—'

They stopped. The tracks vanished in the middle of the hall, without a trace! Gone! '...damn... I spoke too soon...' I looked around for any signs of disturbance, but found nothing. I sighed and walked down the hall that the tracks were leading to. At the end was a marble bench in front of a set of three, tall pedestals, the next larger than the last. Each one held a different coloured vase and behind them hung a red curtain.

I sat on the bench and thought about what to do next. There weren't many clues to where she went and I didn't know her well enough to predict where she would hide. I sighed as I realized that I would need assistance in finding Tia. Then, there was a set of hoof steps coming from my right. The pony stopped and sat on the bench with me. I looked to see who would be daring enough to join me, and found Lulu hanging her head.

She sighed, "We thought that we would have had a chance at victory this time... Our sister beats us every time, you see."

"So, you have no leads either. Great," I said, disappointed that I may lose after all. We sighed at the same time.

She threw her from hooves up into the air and stretched, "We might as well get comfortable. We will be waiting awhile before— Woah!" She lost her balance and fell backwards off of the bench and into one of the pedestals. It didn't topple over, but the impact made the vase wobble, and it fell towards Lulu's head.

I caught it nonchalantly and turned to the filly, "You really need to be more careful."

"Be quiet, whelp!" She countered. "Your filthy claws got our vase dirty!" '...But, my hands are bandaged...' Intrigued, I examined the vase thoroughly and found that there was a dash of dryer mud on the back of it. I then looked to the pedestal that held the vase and saw that there were traces of mud on top of it. 'Why would there be...' I looked at the other pedestals and the curtain. There was a small horizontal fold in the curtain near the highest pedestal. '...That sneaky bitch...' I thought.

I walked over to the wall and motioned for Lulu to be quiet. I grabbed the curtain and pulled down, tearing it from it's rod and letting it and Tia fall down. I caught the filly in both arms and looked at her in her daze. "You lose," I bragged. I dropped her and she landed with a "umph." "Where is my knife?" I asked in a stern tone.

"Not yet, thou still needs to win," she said, rubbing what she landed on.

"What do you mean!? I caught you both!"

"Thou still needs to hide from us!" Lulu explained.

I groaned angrily, "Fine! Start counting!" They turned around and started counting. I ran as fast as I could down the hall that I came from. 'Need a spot! Need a spot!' I urged my self. Halls and doors rushed past me as I ran.

I turned down random halls as I searched. Eventually, I opened a door to a spiral staircase. I looked to see if anyone was watching me, then I ran up the stairs. At the top was two guards and a door. I ran passed them yelling, "Orders from the princess!" I opened and ran through the door, closing it and putting my back to the wall.

I was in a light, sky blue room with a white bed with a sun in the centre, a blue bed with a full moon in the center, a large dresser complete with a mirror, a window with white drapes, and a purple carpet. 'This must be their bedroom...' I thought. 'Since I'm here and they've caused me so much trouble, I might as well find out what I'm dealing with here.' I walked around the room, looking for potential hiding places if the sisters were to walk in on me. After finding that I could fit under the white bed, I went over to the dresser to investigate.

As I dug through the various articles of clothing in the dresser, my hand hit something hard. Grabbing the object, I pulled it out to find that it was a book with no title. Curious, I opened the book and read the first sentence I saw.

"Dear diary," 'Jackpot.' Tia, or should I say Celestia's diary held many secrets for me to use against her. Oh, all the blackmail! There were mistakes, crushes, and parental issues! And I also learnt the real name of the blue one: Luna. If the worse came to pass, then I could just use it as a bargaining chip for my knife. However, I wasn't going to pass this up, there was too much gold!

"He went in there, Princess," I heard from the hall. "He said it was an order from you." I quickly closed the dresser, stashed the diary in my cloak, ran over to the window, opened said window, and dove under the bed. As the door slammed open, I turned onto my back to a more comfortable position.

I heard two sets of hooves gallop towards the window. After a few seconds, Luna shouted, "He must have gone out the window!" One of the set of hooves ran out of the room, but I didn't hear the other pair.

After a few minutes, my heart was pounding. I was positive I had heard only one set of hooves, so why wasn't she moving?!

I was then suddenly crushed between the bed and the floor. It took all of my will power to not make a noise. I took a quiet deep breath in and out to deal with the sudden pressure on my body. "Oh, what shall we do!?" Celestia lamented sarcastically. "This creature is so hard to find! Truly a formidable foe!"

'She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing, She's bluffing,' I repeatedly told myself. Then, Celestia started jumping on the bed, killing me even more. "What, ever, shall, we, do?!" She said with every bounce.

It was at that moment that I realized the unbelievable power of my semi-immortality.

When she finally stopped, I was laying with my body limp, eyes closed, and mouth open. I involuntarily groaned as my body ached with pain. The filly jumped off the bed and joined me under the bed. She sandwiched herself between me and the bed. Our noses touched as she said, "Caught thou."

"You cannot comprehend how much I hate you right now," I groaned.

She giggled, "We can understand. Thou may not believe it, but we wished for you to come."

"What?" I questioned.

"We are the same. We both feel that we are... out of place. Our sister and I have not had real friends since birth. We wished that someone who could understand us would be our friend," she explained.

I stared into her eyes before announcing, "You have one hell of a way of making friends." She giggled and I closed my eyes. "So, this is your real reason for stealing my knife?"

"Yes. We apologize for our actions," she apologized. Her horn started to glow and my knife levitated on to my hand. "Here is what was taken from thou."

I sighed and wished I hadn't listened to her: I felt guilty for trying to leave. "Congratulations, your plan worked," I said. She gave me a quizzical look and I explained, "I'll stay, but only for a short time."

Celestia wrapped her front legs around my neck, "Oh, we thank thou to no end! Please, stay with us for at least three days."

"...Fine," I sighed.

She gave me a small kiss on the cheek and rolled from underneath the bed, running from the room. I stayed under the bed for a while afterwards, gently rubbing the cheek she kissed. 'I've never been kissed by a girl before...' I thought.

I ended up staying a month. They roped me into doing the craziest things imaginable. I mean, they made me dance! Who in tartarous makes the demigod of despair dance! If anybody had found out about it, I wouldn't hear the end of it.

However, they made me feel things that I had never felt before. Something inside me changed. Eventually, I started willingly joining their escapades.

I was happy. I had made friends.

I smiled for the first time in a long time.

Celestia got Luna to warm up to me after the first few days, then we would do whatever we wanted. We took walks, played pranks on the guards and servants, and talked like normal people. Well, as close to normal as you can get with a hairless ape and two ponies with wings and a horn.

I'll never forget the night before I had to leave. We were on a balcony that faced the horizon at sunset. I was lying down on the railing with my back against the wall, watching Tia and Lulu argue over who was going to raise the moon that night.

"But, you said we could do it!" Luna complained.

Celestia sighed, "Lulu, we just don't want you to get hurt."

"Besides," I added, "there's a difference between wanting to do something and being able to do it, Blue-butt."

Luna glared at me, "Stop calling us that!" She turned to her sister, "Tia, please! We know we can do it!"

The sun princess closed her eyes, shook her head, and sighed, "Fine... But if thou starts to fail, we will intervene."

"Yes!" Blue-butt cheered. Luna did a little victory dance while chanting, "We're gonna raise the moon~! We're gonna raise the moon~!"

I turned my head to Celestia, "You sure about this, Sun-butt?"

"What could possibly go wrong?" she sarcastically asked.

I looked to Luna to find her stretching her limbs. I pinched the bridge of my nose, 'Oh for the love of Zero...' She then leaped into the air and flew towards the horizon. She stopped not to far away from us and threw her hooves up into the air. Then, she started flying up over us, pushing the moon into place. However, Luna's face was contorted in stress and she started losing altitude. "Uh oh, she's going to fall!" I announced.

Celestia leaped off of the balcony towards her sister, opening her wings majestically and soaring through the air. She speeded underneath Luna as she started to fall and caught her on her back. Celestia then glided back to me and landed with grace.

Luna leapt off of her sister's back and glared at her. "Tia!" She complained. "Thou did not have to catch us! We were fine!" As she started to bicker with Tia, I noticed something different about her. On her flank was a large ink stain with a white crescent moon in it. However, before I could point it out, Luna shouted, "We hate thou!" and stormed off.

Celestia looked distraught as she sighed, "Oh, what are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry," I comforted her, "she'll forget about it after she finds out that she got her cutie mark."

She whipped her head to give me a quizzical look, "What?!"

"Yes. You didn't notice?" I asked. Tia shook her head and I shrugged.

"Will thou wait for us here? We must make amends with our sister and put her to bed," she explained.

"Yes, yes... I'll be right here when you get back," I said as I waved my hand at her to go. Celestia walked off into the castle and left me to stare at the newly raised moon.

I hummed to myself as I waited for my friend to return. I closed my eyes and tapped my foot with the rhythm of my song.

Suddenly, something light fell on to my lap. I looked down to see a small letter laying there. I picked it up and examined it. It had no send or return address on it, and the seal bore no symbol of any kind. I opened it and read it in the light of the moon.

The content of the letter still gives me shame, even when I remember it. To paraphrase the letter, "Shame on you for not even trying to find a way back. I'm glad you have made friends with the two princesses, but you had a mission. Someone will come to bring you back in the morning." My heart sank at the fact that I had failed my master, but it sank even farther to know I was leaving.

Celestia trotted out on to the balcony when I looked up from the letter. She sighed, "Luna is asleep and we think we've made up..." I didn't respond, and this caused her to turn to me, "Why the long face? And where did thou get that letter?" She asked.

"I..." I paused to steel myself for what I was about to say, "I have to leave. I'm going tomorrow."

She waited and stared at me with anticipation. Celestia's look then turned to one of disappointment, "Aw, we thought that thou were building up to something..."

I became frustrated with the filly, "Tia, I'm being serious here! I cannot stay any longer! My master is already furious with me! He's sending someone to pick me up tomorrow morning!"

Her look turned to one of sadness, "But... But... We don't want you to go..." Tears formed in her eyes, "This is so sudden...
Do you—?"

"Yes! I was supposed to return immediately!" I explained.

Celestia looked down, letting her tears drip on to the floor. "B-b-but, t-thou wi-ll s-ta-y for t-tonight...?" she cried.

I sighed, "Yes, the only time we have left is tonight. I'm sorry that we don't have more..." I hopped down from the rail and gave the filly a tight hug.

As she buried her face into my shoulder, she asked of me something that I'll never forget or disobey. "P-please, w-whate-ever thou d-do, come back! Pr-romise us that thou will come bac-k! We don't c-are how lon-g it takes! Just come back to us!"

I held her even tighter, "I will. I promise."

We sat there for a very long time. So long that Tia actually fell asleep in my arms and I had to carry her back to her bed. She was heavy, but soft and huggable. It was an enjoyable experience.

As I walk past Luna in her bed and lay Celestia on her's, I began to pull away. However, I felt the filly's hooves pull me closer. I looked to see her sad, tired eyes staring at me. "Please stay here. We don't want to be alone," she whispered. I sighed and reluctantly slipped in beside her. She snuggled closer and I wrapped my arms around her. "Zero Two?" she asked.

"Yes?" I responded.

"...thou art our only friend."

"I know. You're my only friend, too."

And with that, we fell asleep together.

I stood on the edge of the forest with Luna and Celestia at my back, waiting for my pick-up. Both of my friends were sad I was leaving, but they sat and waited with me, which was nice. I waited with my back to them because I couldn't look them in the eye without tearing up. Also, I could feel their despair and I wad trying not to feed off of them.

"There you are!" came a sudden voice from the forest. A small dark figure was running through the trees towards me, but stopped before they could be seen.

The voice seemed very familiar, "Scarlet? Is that you?" I called out.

"Yes! Now hurry up already!" she urged. "Your master has been throwing all kinds of excuses for your disappearance!"

I turned to the two fillies behind me and opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. Instead of talking, the sisters ran up and gave me a tight hug together. I tried to hug back, but each one of them had one of my arms pinned. When they let go, Celestia held out a golden pocket watch, with a sun imprinted on one side and a crescent moon on the other. "It's to help you remember us..." Tia said.

"Thank you... I will keep my promise to you, Tia," I said. She nodded in confirmation and I then turned back to Scarlet. I walked to her and asked, "How do we get back?"

She held out a hoof-sized gem, "With this." The gem started to glow, but then it got brighter and brighter! And then suddenly, we were gone...

Chapter 4

View Online

As I walked through the grasslands, the wind blew fiercely against me. My mind wandered back into the past since there wasn't much else to do. I was going to have to make up an excuse for my absence anyway, or who knew what Celestia might have done if I didn't.

Suddenly, something leapt at me from the corner of my eye. I pulled out my right pea shooter and pulled the trigger without thinking. There was a flash of light, followed closely by a bang. The thing exploded and dissolved into nothingness. A projection? This far out? I thought.

I put the weapon back into my cloak. My mind wandered back to when I first got my weapons of choice... and when I became a true monster.

(Age: 356)

The punishment for leaving without permission wasn't as bad as the loneliness I felt for the years I spent away from my friends. No lashing, burning, or removing of my limbs could compare. For fifty years, my punishment was carried out because I told them my master had nothing to do with my departure. However, the three-hundred and thirty five years I spent away from that haven in the woods was the worst. That promise I made to Celestia was the main reason I was still trying my best. But, that promise would be hard to keep since I was forbidden to go there until my training was complete.

So, there I was. Three-hundred and thirty five years older, a good two and a half feet taller, and much more dangerous. I was laying on the same bed I had since the beginning, with my hands behind my head, trying to get some sleep.

You see, I had a problem. A very serious problem to me, but everyone else seemed to think the opposite. The only reason they thought this is because they've already solved the problem I had. The problem was that I only had one weapon: the knife my master gave me. Every single demigod is supposed to be able to summon their own weapons, but I couldn't do it. Even though I had risen above most students of the level I was at, I couldn't solve a simple summoning problem! Embarrassingly, I asked for help, but the only response I got was that I had to "find my reason to fight," whatever that means...

There was a knock at the door and I rolled over to face it. "You know, you don't have to knock," I called out in a noticeably deeper voice. "I put an identification spell on the lock, so you can enter whenever you want."

The door opened and in came Scarlet, who was carrying several bags of various trinkets. "It's polite to knock. And besides, what if you're doing something you don't want me to see?" she asked. Scarlet had been coming to my room ever since I came back to this place. It was mainly so that someone could keep an eye on me, but she also got some other benefits out of it too. It was usually help with assignments though. I got used to her coming, and I guess she did too. So, we kept visiting each other.

"Point taken." I pointed to the bags, "What's with this junk? You better not be using my room for storage again..."

She glared at me, "No, I'm not going to. Not since you lit all of those things on fire..." She placed the bags on the ground and started to empty out the contents onto my desk. A crystal ball, tarot cards, and other things, but most intriguingly, several slips of paper which I identified immediately.

"Okay, how and why do you have magic identifiers?" I asked. Magic identifiers are slips of paper which burn up if your magic corresponds to the magic type in the paper if you touch it. They're used for identifying what element of magic you're strongest in. But, what bothered me most is that it's nearly impossible to get them without asking a god.

"I thought that maybe you just aren't able to produce the kind of magic involved," she admitted. I frowned as she levitated a slip of paper towards me. I sighed and reached out for the piece of paper, grabbing it and making it instantly burst into blue flames. As the slip quickly burnt out in my hand, Scarlet hummed in confusion. "Well, I have more stuff we could try," she suggested.

I groaned, "Do we have to? Can't I get some sleep for tomorrow?"

"I'm doing this for tomorrow! If you go in there with that little pig-stick, you'll be humiliated! And that's exactly what Fos wants!" she warned. "Look, I know how much this tournament means to you, especially the marks, but I don't think that it's worth it. My mistress could make an excuse for you, or maybe Zero!"

I sat up and turned to her, starring into her eyes, "I'm going to be in that tournament. I don't care what Fos and his lapdog has in store for me, but whatever it is, I'm going to deal with it myself. Besides, you know the relationship my master has with Fos. If anything, my master would want me to humiliate him."

"Yes, but Lumo is the best fighter in the school!" she countered. "You must understand that for the past couple of years, Fos has been training Lumo to destroy you in the tournament!" Scarlet walked over to me and poked me in the chest with her hoof, "You're underestimating them."

I removed her hoof from my chest, "You're underestimating me. Lumo may be Fos' prized demigod, but the only thing he has is his popularity and ego. If anything, he'll get caught up thinking that the fight will be easy. Then, I can annihilate him." She still had a worried look on her face. I went back to laying on my bed as I said, "You're acting as if I'm going to have my arms cut off or my eyes gouged out."

"Knowing Fos and Lumo, that is a possible outcome..." She stated.

I sighed, "You realize that there are rules, right? Almost everybody is going to be there, Gods included. If Lumo even thinks about cheating, someone will know." I closed my eyes and motioned for her to leave, "Now, get out of my room. I have to sleep. I've been awake for forty-eight hours."

Scarlet gathered her things and went to the door, but stopped just short of it. She turned to me and said, "Lumo knows how to use dark magic." I turned to her and raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "I accidentally saw him practicing it," she explained.

"So?" I asked.

She glared at me, "What do you mean, so?! He can use dark magic! He can disable you and your magic with it!"

I sighed and turned away from her. "Bottom drawer, hidden compartment, use the quill." She didn't respond, but after a few seconds she dropped her bags and followed my directions. Scarlet opened the bottom drawer and pushed the quill on my desk into a hole in the bottom of the drawer. I heard the popping of the wooden bottom of the container and some shuffling of various important items of mine.

"What exactly am I—" she paused. "W-why do you have one of these?" she asked while holding up a small, brown notebook. I may have been turned away from her, but I knew that she would pull out that book. I mean, who wouldn't if they knew what it meant.

"Take a wild guess..." I said sarcastically.

Scarlet quickly turned to me, "But, how!? When!? ...what does it look like?"

"I only learned of this ability recently, when I was training with my master," I explained. "I really haven't gotten any progress, other than a power boost and a minor appearance change."

"But still! This is incredibly high level magic!" she said in shock.

"Is it enough evidence to stop you from pointlessly worrying over me?"

There was silence for a while, but then Scarlet sighed. "Fine..."

"Good. Now get out," I ordered. I heard her replace everything back into it's original position, open the door, and leave. Finally, I thought, peace and quiet...

Ever so slowly, I drifted off to sle—

*knock knock knock*

I sat up quickly and whipped my pillow at the door. "CAN'T ANYBODY IN THIS SCHOOL LET ME SLEEP FOR FIVE MINUTES!?!?" I screamed. "I WAS SO CLOSE!!" I almost started weeping.

"Sadly, you have one more thing to do," Zero called from the other side of the door. My head dropped even further down as I realized what I had done. The door slowly opened and my master walked in. "Are you still upset?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered. I wasn't stupid enough to lie to my master.

Zero sighed and said, "I'll make this quick then. I believe in your ability to win tomorrow, but Fos is planning something."

I groaned, "I know this already! Scarlet just spent the past five minutes saying that!"

"I mean legally," he clarified. "He plans to change the rules of the tournament for your match against Lumo."

I looked at him with shock, "He can do that?"

"If he has approval from three or more gods, which we both know he can get easily," he stated. "He'll probably make it a life or death situation..."

"Then it seems like Lumo will die tomorrow," I said.

My master hummed at my determination, "Please keep in mind that you too could perish. I don't want to lose my best student..." Zero cleared his throat, "So, have you figured out-?"

"No."

"...I see..." He opened the door, "Very well. Get enough rest for tomorrow."

"Can do," I said, waving for him to leave. I heard the door close and let my head fall on to my pillow. Well, I would have if my pillow was on my bed, but it was lying at the foot of the door. So, instead of hitting something soft, my head bounced off of the wall. I quickly sat up and grabbed the area that I hit. "Ow!" I hissed.

*Klunk*

I pulled my knife out of the wooden target I had thrown it at with my blood wire spell. It flew back into my grasp and I gave the knife a few twirls. They could have called me at any moment for my match against Lumo. So, I readied myself for the fight. I would not lose to someone so inferior.

Lumo was one of my main enemies at the school. He was actually the first to comment on what I was, and he used that fact to destroy what little chance I had to obtain friendship. After that, more and more students turned against me, calling me an ape and a demon, the latter mainly because I was taken in by Zero.

But, the most irritating one was evil. Why was I considered evil? Just because I was different? Just because I was given abilities that I didn't ask for?

"Your anger is wavering your focus," Solana's voice said from behind me. I gave her no response and continued preparing. "You can ignore me all you want, but it's not going to help you. Especially since I know what Fos has up his sleeve..." Now I was interested.

I turned to the goddess with anticipation, "So, what is it? Are deadly monsters are going to be thrown in with us?"

"Sadly no," she explained, "it's something much worse. He's going to—"

A loud horn blew from the arena and I knew it was time. "Whatever it is, I'll handle it," I announced.

As I started to walk into the passage that lead to the arena, Solana called out to me, "You are not a child any more; do not let your anger blind you."

I turned back to the goddess and bowed respectfully. "Anger is more powerful than arrogance..."

The crowd roared as I waited to be summoned into the arena. I hid my knife in my sleeve: I wouldn't need it right away anyways. Whatever Fos was planing was no concern of mine. I would overcome whatever he was planing because I would see Celestia again.

A loud horn erupted from the arena and the gate in front of me opened, revealing a large ring of sand and stone. The crowd exploded as the gates fully opened and the order for the two combatants to step into the arena was given. Walking through the newly opened passageway, I made my way to the center of the ring and stood patiently for the order to fight to be given.

Across from me was my opponent, Lumo. He was a young, light red dragon, standing at around the same height as me, maybe a bit taller. He wore a belt with a long sword hanging to his side, as well as a smirk that could make even the most patient of people upset. His arms were crossed, his chest puffed up, his wings extended, and his eyes were closed. Such a closed off stance would let me have the first hit.

"Gods and goddesses! Demigods and minions! It's the match you've all been waiting for!" came a vibrant voice, echoing all around the arena and sending the crowd into a state of pure excitement. "The radiant Lumo verses the Demon Ape!"

I rolled my eyes at the announcement. Cut to the chase already, I thought. I may be partially immortal, but this build up and denouement is unnecessary, childish, and a huge waste of my time.

"But first, the great Fos has changed the rules for this particular match! Please welcome your leader!" the announcer said.

I glanced back to the crowd to see Fos stand and motion for the crowd to settle down. They followed his demands and the arena grew suddenly silent. "As you all know," the god started with a voice that could control a raging inferno, "today is a very special day! Today marks the day that the last titan was sealed in Tartarus!" The crowd let out another cheer in celebration of his words.

This fact was true, they were sealed on this day many millennia ago. The titans were the fathers and mothers of the gods, as well as the most powerful beings in existence. They're the ones who gave the gods their power, much like how Demigods receive their power from the gods. The first time I heard about them from my master, I was very intrigued about this power giving relation. However, it was strictly forbidden for anyone to study the titans.

"And because of this fact," Fos continued, "I believe a small change in rules for our best fighters is necessary!" The crowd roared in agreement, making enough noise to drown out my thoughts. I glanced over to my master, who sat beside Fos with a dark look on his face. We made eye contact, and after a few moments Fos began to speak again. "For the last and greatest match of the day... there is only one rule: to incapacitate the other using any means necessary!"

The crowd shook the arena with it's cheer, and under this I chuckled to myself. Fos has just sealed his student's fate... I thought. I looked back to the lizard standing in front of me, and he stared right back with bright, sky blue eyes. Although we hated each other, I could tell that he wanted the same thing I did: to destroy his opponent. "Are the fighter's ready?!" the announcer called. We didn't move, just stared at the other with hate.

"Fight!"

The crowd let out a massive roar as... nothing happened. The sound of the voices slowly died down to nothing, to complete silence. A gust of wind blew past us as our eyes never left each other. We waited patiently for 15 minutes for the other to make the first move. "Well?" Lumo said mockingly. His arrogant voice echoed throughout the arena like a gong in a canyon. "Are you going to summon your weapon? Or is the 'Great' ape incapable of doing so?"

I heard a few chuckles coming from the crowd. "...no, I can't," I admitted, making Lumo smirk, "But I don't need it for a mere worm." That shut the crowd up and wiped the smirk right off of Lumo's face. "Tell me," I said with a smirk of my own, "do you like games, Lumo? I quite like them myself." Lumo glared at me and put a claw on his sword as I raised my right arm and seemingly grabbed the air. The air around my hand rippled and tore as I pulled it over my body, bending the light away from it.

It was a simple invisibility spell that Lumo could counter, but hiding myself wasn't the purpose. I bit my right thumb, breaking the skin and giving me some blood to work with. I spread my blood to the tips of my fingers and closed my hands in front of me as Lumo drew his sword. I could feel a small ball of matter forming in the center of my palms, and I opened my hands to find a white, liquid like sphere. "Did you know that I made a game for myself to help me train?" I asked. The ball left my hand as I tossed it towards Lumo.

"I call it Miracle Matter."

The sphere suddenly elongated into a large spike, barely missing my opponent's neck and impaling the wall instead. Lumo dodged to the side as the ball rapidly tried to impale him. As this happened, I turned my back and walked to the wall of the arena, drawing magic circles all around it with my blood. I took quite some time, but I managed to finish in time to watch the last bit of my spell torment Lumo.

Miracle Matter is a lot like the blood wire spell in the sense that it is magic taking physical form. It uses the fundamental magic elements to form basic attacks. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem to most, but the rate at which these attacks are launched is enough to render someone immobile. I could produce something small and weak, like the sample I gave Lumo, right off the bat. However, making a larger and more powerful batch of it would require a lot of time and mana that I didn't have. It didn't matter though, I only wanted to tire Lumo out.

The Miracle Matter was now spitting ice at Lumo, making him roll and dodge more than he'd ever done before. Luckily, he managed to breath fire on the sphere, melting it's icy form and exposing the blood red core. He ran with a battle cry and struck the core with his sword, shattering the core into a million shards. My enemy planted his sword in the ground and leant on it to rest as he panted lightly. I scowled at this and ran to him.

He must have forgotten about me because he was shocked when his sword was pulled from underneath him by my blood wire spell. He fell to the ground, but I managed to reach him in time to punt his head which sent him tumbling away from his sword. Lumo quickly recovered, but I was already upon him as he stood.

I threw strike after strike at him, but he expertly deflected each of them. I managed to get him closer to the wall, however he was just out of reach of the spell. Drawing my dagger, I swiped at Lumo suddenly and caused him to leap back into the wall in surprise.

A smile graced my face as I dropped my knife and quickly reached out towards my opponent and clapped my hands together. Channeling the magic I had sealed in the walls, I summoned two marble arms to enclose Lumo into the wall.

The arms did as commanded and confined a shocked Lumo. He struggled against them and managed to crack them, but they would hold. After all, this spell was created by my master to seal demons that now reside in Tartarus. I began to turn towards Fos, but my gut told me otherwise. That was too easy, I thought. Lumo loves to mock his opponents while fighting them, so why—

Using my blood wire, I flung my bone dagger back into my hand and held it in a reverse grip as I spun around to block. Lumo swung down with his sword and I managed to deflect it just in time to leap away from the following horizontal swipe.

Lumo's arrogant laugh echoed in my ears as he ran at me. "You aren't as stupid as you look!" he yelled as he swung at me again and again.

I dodged and deflected the strikes, but my back hit the wall suddenly. Scowling, I leaped up above Lumo's next strike and up onto the wall. Beginning to run along the edge of the wall, I looked down at the dragon below following me closely.

"Let's see how well you take this!" Lumo raised his claw and pointed the palm of it towards the wall just in front of my feet. Suddenly, I felt the air tremor violently with magic and the wall beneath my feet gave way and collapsed.

I fell to the ground hard, but managed to use my momentum to get to my feet. However, I didn't have enough time to block Lumo's claw colliding with my face, sending me flying across the arena and into the other wall. I felt the wall crack from the collision, as well as a few of my bones.

Beginning to stand, I looked up to find Lumo looming over me. He suddenly smacked the dagger out of my hand when I tried to strike at him, and grabbed me by the throat and pinned me to the wall. I felt the tip of his sword poke against my heart. If he pierced that, I was dead.

"It's a shame that those cute little mares won't be able to swoon over you again," he began, "but don't worry, I'll take nice care of them when you're dead." My fists began shaking in anger, and I desperately tried to punch Lumo, but to no avail. I began imagining Celestia and Luna crying silently, waiting for someone who would never return.

"Who knows? Maybe when I'm good friends with them, I'll fool around with them before bringing their lives to an end." I could feel my rage building and building until I felt a slight pressure on my right index finger. I pulled my finger in and there was a loud explosion followed by Lumo tumbling towards the center of the arena. I fell to the ground and looked at my hand.

There was a white pistol with the same sun insignia that was on my pocket watch. I looked to my left hand and found a twin black pistol with a moon insignia on it. I looked up to Lumo, who was beginning to stand, and smiled at my good fortune. "It seems that won't be the case, Lumo." I said as I stood upright. "Not now—" I twirled the pistols and slammed the tops of the guns together, both barrels pointed at Lumo "—not ever!"

The battle began tolling on the both of us. We became exhausted very quickly and I needed to end the battle quickly if I wanted to keep my new ability secret to the rest of the school. Lumo swiped at me and I guarded using my pistol in a reverse grip. He then brought his claw to my face for a punch, but I leant away enough for it to miss. There was a sudden clank of metal on the ground and instinctively I looked at the sword that had been dropped. When I looked back to my opponent, it was too late.

Lumo pushed past my left eye lids and tore out my eye.

I tumbled back in agony and let out a blood curdling shriek of pain as I placed my hands over my left eye socket. Tripping over my own feet, I fell to the ground and quickly scrambled to my knees. The crowd roared all around me, no doubt to Lumo holding the eye up as a trophy.

I looked at my hand with my remaining eye. It was covered in my own blood and it was shaking violently. As I continued to look, I noticed that my depth perception was practically gone. H...how? How am I suppose to fight like this!? I thought. I'll die here... and then he'll... he'll...!

My previous rage was replaced with something different, something more familiar: despair. My skin began to feel like it was frozen solid, but my blood was boiling. The shaking stopped, and soon I was completely still. Managing to stand slowly, I turned to Lumo with an expressionless face, staring. Noticing me standing, Lumo picked up his sword and ran at me and brought it down on me with the crowd cheering him on.

*TING*

The sounds died right then and there with Lumo's hope. Without thinking, I caught the blade with my right hand. Lumo tried pulling it back, but it was firmly in my grasp. I pulled the sword slowly to my side, bringing Lumo right in front of me. I looked up right into his eyes and found pure horror. Lumo screamed and leaped back in shock and fear, and I knew exactly why.

My remaining eye was blood red and my skin was bleached as white as snow.

The sword dropped from my hand and on to the ground with a clank as I stared into Lumo's eyes with nothingness in my soul. I took a step forwards and Lumo turned and ran for the gate. To Lumo, I appeared in front of him in an instant, but to me it was only a short walk. He tried to take a step back, but tripped over himself and landed on his ass and looked up at me pathetically. "W-what are you!?" he screamed.

My hand shot forwards and grabbed his neck and hoisted him up into the air in front of me. Lumo choked and fought against my grasp, but to no avail. I could feel his despair flowing into my being. It was euphoric. Lumo suddenly kicked me in the face in hopes of freeing himself. I brought him down to eye level and brought my lips close to his ear.

"Despair."

My free hand tore through his abdomen and out his back, causing him to gasp and try to yell in pain, but his voice caught in his throat and instead he vomited blood all over himself. I tore my hand out as quickly as I put it in and threw the pathetic worm in front of me to the ground. I stepped slowly next to his head and placed my foot on his forehead.

However, before I could crush his skull in, something collided with the back of my head, knocking me unconscious.

Chapter 5

View Online

The air was turning colder and frost began to cover the grass. I could see it up ahead: the city of crystals. Dark clouds loomed overhead, no doubt pouring it's contents onto the inhabitants. I hope they're all alright... I thought. If Lumo touches them... how should I kill him? Decapitation? No, too plain...

"It's too bad nobody's there, then," my servant telepathically spoke. "This place is full of projections... but I think some of them aren't the lizard's." I hummed in thought. If that's true... then who else is there? Another enemy? I thought. "Perhaps you should report this to your Master, Master."

"No, let us continue. Whoever it may be, Zero can see them through me."

(Age: 357)

I sat on my bed staring down at the small, brown book laying on my lap. It had all of the information on what happened that day.

Subject: Zero Two

Confirmation of Soul Synchronization: Positive

Current Soul Synchronization tiers: 2

Known abilities: Improved physical and magical strength, toughness of hide, and loss of pain receptors

Current control of Soul Synchronization: Unstable

Other notices: Physical changes seem to be made to render opponent incapable to fight. Current changes: loss of skin colour, white of eye turns blood red, pupil turns black.

The door to my room closed, but I didn't look up to see who it was. I was too busy rereading certain words over and over again. Soul Synchronization. Toughness of hide. Unstable.

Eye.

My hand went to the eye patch covering my left eye socket. It was white with a symbol of a red eye embroidered on it. Behind it though... was nothing. Just a hole where my hopes of ever being accepted could be mourned.

There was a knock at the door, and someone walked in. I couldn't pry myself from the book to look and see who, but I felt no danger as they walked in. I could only sense fear. "Hey..." Scarlet's voice ventured quietly, "feeling better yet?" I didn't respond. How could I? Soul Synchronization is the reflection of the godly part of their soul. My Soul Synchronization gave almost everyone in the arena horrifying nightmares for a month. And that form is supposed to be an image of my soul.

"Guess not..." she sighed. "Well, that's alright. It takes time for all wounds to heal. In the meantime..." Scarlet dug around for something in her bag and threw it onto my lap, right on top of the brown book. They were files regarding a mission that required an extermination of one "Sombra" in the Crystal Empire. I looked up at Scarlet with disbelief. "The gods said that the one who took this mission would have to be incredibly strong, and have unwavering loyalty to the gods. Every single one of them said that you'd be perfect."

I was in utter shock. "H... how? And why?"

Scarlet giggled a bit. "Fos did say there weren't any rules. So, you did technically win." Looking back down at the file, I looked over all of the documents. I was confused, however. They kept saying that Sombra had an accomplice, but it never said who it was. "There's something else I should mention..." Scarlet said cautiously.

Looking up from the papers, I found that Scarlet had adopted a dark look. "Who's assisting the target?"

Scarlet looked down and began rubbing her leg. "...About four months ago, Lumo disappeared. It's suspected that he's working with Sombra to obtain an alicorn horn. You know what that means... right?" I did. An alicorns horn is one of the most powerful magical catalysts in existence. If someone were looking for one, they were up to no good. However, that fact did not scare me. It was the fact that Celestia and Luna were the only targets.

Putting two and two together didn't take a long time. "I accept. When do I leave?"

"Now, actually," Scarlet said with a smirk.

(Age: ???)

It had been a long time since I had first visited this place: the Crystal Empire. It was looking good, aside from all of the projections running around. No black, corrupted crystals everywhere, no Sombra, no nothing. Well, that obviously wasn't true or else I wouldn't be here, now would I?

I strolled down the rain-soaked street looking at the aftermath of the mayhem that happened not to long ago. There were several bodies of soldiers lining the walkways. A sad sight, yes, but with life comes death. One day, I too will fade away into nothingness, I thought. Continuing towards the castle, I found that up ahead there was a battle in progress.

Approaching from behind a line of guards, I stopped within several feet of them. Past them were creatures native to this land: several small chimeras and a large basilisk. I raised an eyebrow. I can see what he means... these aren't Lumo's normal projections, I pondered. What could this mean...?

"H-hold the line!" one of the guards yelled in front of me. It was of no use however, their line was retreating and breaking at several places. One of the guards eventually backed up into my leg, to which he found utterly terrifying. His neck slowly craned over to look at me, and when he did his face paled.

"I'm not the one you should be looking at, now am I?" I asked the guard.

He whipped around just in time for a chimera to pounce him and knock him to the ground. It tried to bite his throat out, but I bent over and picked it up by it's head before it could. It struggled in my grasp for a moment before I got bored of it's shenanigans and crushed it's head in my hand. It's blood when everywhere: on me, on the guard, and on the ground.

Secretly scolding myself for getting cloak covered in blood, I looked back to the guard. "Would you like assistance?" His mouth opened and closed stupidly as he tried to formulate a response. Eventually, he just ended up nodding very quickly, leading me to chuckle. "As you wish..."

Stepping over the guard, I walked to his place in the line, and suddenly the monsters stopped their advance. "Curious," I said out loud, gaining the attention of everyone nearby. "You bleed, unlike most projections and you aren't like Lumo's normal projections... so who is your master, I wonder?"

The first chimera leaped at me. Retaliating, I used my blood-wire spell to grab it and use it's momentum to send it smashing into the ground on the other side of me. I then sent it hurling towards another large group of chimeras, crashing into them and toppling or killing all of them.

On my other side, another chimera leapt at me. Using the hand I hand't used for the spell, I drew one of my guns: Fusion, the white, sun-crested annihilator. All it took was a pull of the trigger to shoot the beast with a blast of pure, magical energy, disintegrating it into nothing. A couple more pulls, and a few more of those creatures were dead. I pulled out Fusion's twin sister, Dark Wraith: an ebony assassin with a waxing crescent moon on the hilt. A few more pulls from both did the trick and made quick work of my enemies.

Lowering my guns, but not sheathing them, I turned back to the guards, who's expressions didn't change from the last I saw of them. "Now then," I started, "where are the princesses?"

"Uh, hello?!" my servant interrupted telepathically. "I told you, nobody's home! Let's just kill them and get on with skinning that lizard!"

After that moment of apparent silence, one of the guards spoke up. "P-princess Mi Amore Cadenza is in the palace! She's fighting a creature with powers unlike we've ever seen!" he spoke.

"...who?" I asked, honestly confused about what he was talking about.

"You dolt! Remember the briefing?! There are two more alicorns now!" my servant chimed in.

"Ah, of course. How silly of me to have forgotten. Well, I can't blame myself! Tia and Lulu are the only ones that matter anyway."

"Your Master would kill you if he heard that."

"No, he would praise me for knowing the truth."

"I-is he talking to himself?" one of the guards had asked another.

Ignoring the guards, I turned and walked towards the palace. I sighed. "Why is there always someone else trying to kill my target? It's annoying when I have to knock them out and fight at the same time..." The palace gate was blocked by large debris from the battle. It seemed like the gate had partially collapsed in on itself. Sheathing Fusion and using my blood wire spell, the debris flew over my head and into a nearby building with a flick of my wrist.

"Say," my servant spoke up as I walked into the castle, "I'm almost done the resealing. After the mission, could we get some of that absolutely delicious substance that Scarlet gave me after one of her missions? What was it called again?"

I shuddered at the thought. "...Ugh...Peanut butter..."

"Ah, yes! How could you possibly hate it!? It's absolutely phenomenal!" he exclaimed. "How does one fit all that flav—"

His thought was cut short as something whizzed past my head into the wall behind me, destroying it completely. Looking behind slowly, I found that the previously damaged entrance way was now severely lacking in existence. Turning back forwards, I found the shooter quite intriguing. They were a hooded figure — much like myself — with a black cloak, and raising a similar black gun to my own.

Shrugging, I shook my head. "I'm a little disappointed. The head of this grand invasion missing they're first shot? Imagine that," I taunted.

"I didn't miss," she spoke in a deep and serious tone. "The entrance was my target."

"Not one who to enjoy a little chaos brought by more uninvited guests?"

"The last guest I was expecting has just arrived."

"Fancy that," I said, a little intrigued. "What about the princess? Wasn't she the whole reason for this?" I stalled as I slowly raised Dark Wraith to my new enemy.

"You mean her?" she said as she raised one of her arms to show a pink alicorn hidden under her cloak. I could now see that she was a dragon, dark purple in colour. "Partly, but now I'm done with her." The dragoness threw the princess on the ground in between us. I noticed that her horn was missing, and that she had sustained some severe injuries.

"Never really cared for the other two: I don't want her, but I do want the horn you have."

"Finder's keeper's."

"Something's telling me that you're not all talk, but I'm considering ignoring them."

"Only one way to find out."

Oh, she was asking for it. I was about to pull the trigger, but then a commanding voice sprung from my pocket. "Enough!" my master called out. "Retreat with the princess, my servant! Nothing else matters!"

My company suddenly burst out laughing. "What's the matter, Zero!? You think your prized lapdog can't handle the heat!? Do you concede?!"

"Yes," he responded suddenly. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

It seemed that my opponent was also surprised by this turn of events as well. After a huff of frustration, she lowered her weapon, and I followed her example. I trusted my master enough to know he had a good reason for this. Soon after, she turned and walked further into the castle, leaving me alone with the princess.

I crouched down next to her as I sheathed my second weapon. Taking out my knife, I cut my finger and drew a healing circle on her belly. Then I carefully pumped a bit of mana into the circle to heal her wounds. Heaving her over my shoulder, I began to figure out where I was going. I pulled out a small, red gemstone from my pocket and held it up to my face.

"Mission successful, but the target left,' I explained.

"You are upset," my master stated rather than ask.

I was silent. It was true that I was angry at my master for not allowing me to terminate such a cocky target, but there was something else that was heavy on my heart. "I request a permanent station in Equestria until my target is destroyed — and before you ask, you know why."

"I must agree with the young master," my servant called out through our telepathy. Although a three-way telepathic link was enough for the three of us, talking through a communication gem was necessary for surveillance. "The newest alicorn will be next target if she is still looking for horns. No doubt Solana's daughters will pull the purple one close to them for her protection. Not only that, but —"

"Darkmatter," I warned sternly, "my personal affairs with them have no matter with the mission at hand."

Silence reigned for an eternity before a new voice emerged. "White," Solana's voice echoed out of the gem. I was surprised that she had used the nickname given to me by Scarlet after my first visit to the Crystal Empire. "If you are going to do this, I must ask that you keep everything you did after you left a secret. That includes Sombra and... me."

"It will be done, M'lady."

"Then go."

I pocketed the stone and snapped my fingers. A tear appeared in thin air and opening into an empty, black void.

"I can't wait to finally meet them," came Darkmatter's voice from behind me. I turned and found a black and white, monochromatic version of myself holding the pink princess. Although he looked like me, the whites of his eyes were yellow, the skin on his body was several shades of black and grey, and colour scheme of his clothing was the opposite of my own. Instead of focusing on white and red, he was more oriented around black and yellow. Maybe it wasn't the complete opposite, but it was close enough. After all, our clothes were meant to represent our being.

I had an objective view of the world and of our missions, whereas he liked to be laid back and carefree. However as with him being a mirror image of myself, we shared some things in common, such as our fighting style. "I mean, awake this time," he quipped. "Although, I'm a little sad I won't be getting peanut butter."

"Is the breach to Tartarus sealed?" I questioned.

"Yea, yea," he said waving off the issue.

"It would be wise to not use that tone with me, Darkmatter," I warned.

"Oh c'mon, boss!" he said, looking away and scratching his head. "We're off the hour now, right? I mean c'mon! There's no way we are!"

"Our mission is to protect the Princesses now," I began as I walked over to the rift, "so cut it out before I cut you from the payroll."

Darkmatter groaned as we walked through the rift. "I don't even get paid..."

Darkmatter was absolutely dumbfounded by my frustration at the situation. I had blood all over the front of my cloak, and there was absolutely no time to clean them! I was livid that I had to see my two friends in this condition! Not only that, but the powerful aura caused by my anger was causing the locals to faint! This was absurd!

"You're causing a scene, you know," Darkmatter said, trying to hide his face behind his hood. That irritated me even more, since the hoods were enchanted to cast an impregnable shadow over our visage.

"Damn my foresight! Failing me at the most crucial moment!" I seethed as we passed through the new castle gates in Canterlot. Suddenly, the gates closed behind us, but I payed it no mind. No doubt Tia and Lulu saw us as a threat. They were setting a trap.

"Are we really going to just... you know, walk in?" Darkmatter said with concern.

"Yes," I answered bluntly and angrily. "Even if they do attack, we have the upper hand." I motioned to the unconscious pony under my servant's arm as we walked into the castle.

"Ah, right," he said with distaste, "because that's going to convince them we're on their side. Threatening their friend and family."

"I will kill you, you know," I growled as we strolled into the obviously empty throne room.

"And I'll just keep comin' back to annoy you further," he said with what sounded like a grin.

I rolled my eyes as we were suddenly surrounded by several heavily armed guards. We, of course, stopped and waited for the real threats to come out. The princess duo themselves ported in front of us, right in front of the throne itself. They were sporting their personalized armour and weapon: Tia had golden armour wielding a halberd in her magical grip, whilst Lulu had purple and black armour with a warhammer at her side.

Some other ponies I didn't care about entered, but I payed them no mind as they shouted something I didn't hear. My attention was solely on the sisters in front of me. Their haunting eyes bore down upon me with the weight of the planet. I could hear their voices in my head, shouting that I wasn't there for them, shouting how it was my fault that Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, how I wasn't their friend anymore, but their sworn enemy.

My hands began to tremble: I was overcome by guilt and fear at the mere sight of them. I thought I could handle it, but it turned out I couldn't. Luckily, my faithful servant intervened.

"CONGRATULATIONS!!!" Darkmatter boomed with convincing joy.

I jumped at the sudden vigor of my servant. "What are you doing?!" I seethed over our telepathic connection.

"You are our one millionth opponents!" he shouted, ignoring my question completely. "As such, you've won a fabulous PRIZE!" One of the new ponies — the pink one — said something about how they were so lucky. "That's right, my dear! This prize is one in a million, too! It's your very own ALICORN!" he shouted, holding up the pink princess.

"Cadence!" the purple new pony yelled with horror. I turned to the voice to find the newest princess: Twilight Sparkle. The other ponies were her friends: the elements of harmony.

"INDEED!" Darkmatter shouted mirthfully. I looked over to the sisters to find that Luna was absolutely appalled by what was happening, but Celestia was staring directly at me with a strange look upon her face. "And with the low, low price of dropping your weapons, we'll even throw in our protection against the assailant of the Crystal Empire ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!"

As the pink one cheered at my servant's contradictory statement, I reached into my pocket. Celestia tensed at this and prepared to strike.

I flashed my pocket watch.

The clang of metal hitting the ground caught everyone's attention. Celestia had dropped her halberd on the marble floor. "Lay down your weapons," she ordered in a quiet, but stern voice. Luna looked like she was about to protest, but quickly followed her sister's gaze to me. Celestia whispered something I couldn't hear, and Luna's confused look turned into a frown as her warhammer dissipated into thin air.

"But princess —!" Twilight Sparkled protested.

"If this being wished to kill Mi Amora Cadenza, he would have already," Luna explained. "Thy presence sets all of us on edge, good sir. Perhaps a name to lighten our worries?"

"Z— White," I corrected my self. I was still uncomposed it seemed. "Call me White, and this is Black. We are representatives of a higher cause."

"Black" handed over the pink princess to Twilight Sparkle, who glared at him with the power of a librarian. Darkmatter shrugged it off like a mosquito bite as he rejoined my side. "Perhaps we should discuss what has happened without the presence of commoners?" he suggested.

Celestia walked to Twilight and whispered something in her ear, to which she nodded curly and ran off with her friends and the pink princess. "If you'll follow us, we'll take you somewhere we can talk." With that, Celestia moved towards a door to the side of the room with her sister in tow. We followed at a distance, through the halls of the castle and into a small negotiation room with a large table and several cushions to sit on.

"Guards," Celestia began, "please leave us to talk to these beings alone. It's for your own safety," she added as one of the guards began to protest. It took a moment for the guards to reluctantly shuffle out of the room, but as soon as the door closed behind them, the atmosphere in the room became thick with tension.

A full minute passed without any of us saying a word. I began to feel oppressed by the tension and my own guilt for being gone for so long. It was too much for me to bare and thinking of something to say wasn't yielding any fruit either.

I soon became aware of a noise in the room: Darkmatter began to hum a particular tune, and in the silence it roared like a horn, ruining the mood.

In anger, I found myself smacking my servant on the back of the head. "Ow!" he cried as he rubbed the impact point. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For being an idiot and ruining my train of thought!" I lied.

"Like hell I did!" he said angrily. "We're telepathic, remember?! I can see what's goin' on in your head!" He suddenly turned to my two friends with a vigor I was afraid of. "You see, my young master here feels so~ bad that he abandoned you and left—"

I jumped at him and knocked both of us to the ground as I tried desperately to cover his mouth and stem the stream of words. In the process, I knocked both of our hoods off, revealing our faces. "Oh?! So you do have a death wish!"

A tendril suddenly shot out of his chest and threw me to the other side of the room. "And he thinks you're super hot, too. I mean, your way out his league!"

"Help! I'm being slandered by someone who's afraid of large bodies of water!" I fibbed.

"Am not!" he shouted, sitting up as he did so.

"Are too!" I retorted, sitting up as well.

A sudden howl of laughter caught both of our attentions. We looked to find Luna lying on the ground, rolling in her mirth as Tia looked at us with disbelief. "I don't believe it," she lamented over Lulu's laughter, "they're us."

The Flower of Despair

by Free2424

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5