> Sephiroth, The One-Winged Angel of Light
>  by Zedfire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue, Falling From Grace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Sephiroth P.O.V.]

Pain.
This is something I, Sephiroth, have been all too familiar with since my birth, where I would be experimented upon by several scientists, particularly one named Professor Hojo, who wished to reach a place called The Promised Land. However, I did not know of my true origins at first, the only thing that the scientists would say was that my mother had died during my birth, it was, admittedly, a half-truth. My mother had indeed died, but not during my birth like I had been told, instead, she had died long before anyone discovered her, at least, to my knowledge. When Mother was first discovered, they decided to call her JENOVA, and also thought that she could be revived, but alas, she could not. Instead, thinking that they could play god, they took her cells and began several experiments, such as fusing them with humans and other organisms among other barbaric experiments. They had all failed until I had been born, I was the first and, to my knowledge, only successful experiment that involved Mother's Cells. I never knew about it until I came across the files during a mission to the town of Nibelheim pertaining to my creation, titled; Project JENOVA and my own personal files, which were titled in a sub-folder; Project S. It tore me apart, knowing I was a monster, knowing I was not an ordinary SOLDIER, knowing I was the result of a twisted experiment for a bunch of fools! It was too much for me to bear, until I heard the voice of Mother call me, showing that even in her catatonic state, she was still alive, she guided me through my unbearable pain and led me to doing what I felt was the most righteous thing I had ever done; slaughter the entire populace of Nibelheim, then burned it all to the ground. And to think, I was instrumental in ending the Wutai war, conquering the last free nation on the planet and had been declared a hero as a result; I was made a legend! But I was then pursued by my former allies throughout the course of several... days? Months? I didn't remember. I also constantly clashed blades with them and exchanging moralities, I tried desperately to win them over to my side, but they wouldn't listen to me. Now, here I am, literally stabbed in the back by one 3rd class SOLDIER named Cloud, oh how that name makes me angry. I had survived several life threatening injuries and had tanked fire from a dragon without so much as batting an eye. On the other hand, the SOLDIER who had fought alongside me that day, Zack Fair, had taken the same thing and fallen in the same instant he was consumed by it. The injury I was taking now, it surpassed that incident and far more, I had been hurt on a few occasions, but never like this! I was outright impaled! I believe it was called the buster sword, the weapon I was impaled with, but I was never sure, either way, I was certain that even with all my prowess, I was certainly going to die. I had fallen down a shaft for quite some time, I didn't know precisely how long, but I knew that I was most likely going to die, at the end of this shaft however, I saw a bright glowing light heading towards me rapidly. I calmly closed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest, accepting my fate as I should. I felt myself falling for several seconds, then a feeling of weightlessness, it is rather hard to describe that feeling. Then I was falling again, this time hitting something on the back of my head, then I faded into unconsciousness, letting myself fade into whatever awaited me on the other side of this slumber.

[Fluttershy P.O.V.]

I hadn't been awake very long, I had just gotten a bit of breakfast in me in fact, I had never heard any sound like the one I heard on that morning. It is quite literally completely indescribable, to me at least, I'm sure there are lots of ponies out there capable of finding a similar sound. Anyway, I jumped in surprise, so high in fact, I was surprised that I didn't hit the ceiling when I jumped. Wondering what it was, I slowly looked out of a nearby window, that faced where the sound came from, and saw something I had never, in all my years alive, ever seen before. Whatever it was, it looked extremely tall, possibly more so than Princess Celestia herself! It was wearing some kind of long coat, I assumed it was a trench coat, that was opened in the front revealing 2 leather straps wrapped in a crisscross 'X' fashion with a metal plate that rested underneath. The coat looked to be made out of a substance similar to leather, I was never sure what it was exactly. On its feet were a pair of boots, which came up to its knees, 2 metal rings each on where I assumed the calves were, I also noticed that on the shoulders were metal shoulder pads, with the sleeves going directly into black arm coverings that wrapped around the being's claws, with a metallic ring on each wrist. Its mane was a sight to behold as well, it was long, more so than any pony I had ever seen, I think it might have been comparable to Princess Celestia's own mane. There were also two bangs in the front, thick and long, coming down to about below its own chin, it was all colored a bright silver. When I first approached, I noted that it didn't seem to notice me, as though it didn't realize just how close I was to it. I even tried poking it a few times to elicit a response of any type, none of them worked, it just stayed absolutely still, more still than what should have been natural. I then noticed a massive wound to its stomach area, it was about as wide as the waist, roughly two feet wide at the most. Sticky red blood was slowly seeping out of it, staining the grass underneath the being, I realized in that instance that if I didn't do anything, this being was surely going to die. So I galloped as fast as I could inside and grabbed all my medical supplies, then I bolted back outside, heading straight for the being. I set the supplies down beside the creature and immediately got to work, I first took off the beings clothes that were around the wound, making certain that they wouldn't get too stained by blood. Then, I wrapped the wound itself in several types of bandages, tightly so that no more blood could escape. Once I was certain that the bleeding had stopped, I carefully moved him into my own home and placed him gently on my couch. I then realized that I had accidentally left his own belongings outside, so I immediately went back out and placed the clothes I had removed on my back before I noticed something; a sword. Not just any kind of sword mind you, it was extremely long, the blade being 7'2 all on its own! In total, it was 8'2 overall, far too long for any pony to wield at any level of strength. Either way, I personally brought it into my own home along with the rest of the being's clothes, hoping that whoever I just saved would at least be thankful for it at worst.