Lives Once Saved...

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Writing this now feels silly and REALLY ironic. But they told me to do it, so I will. Whoever is reading this and however you found it, keep these pages. Don't just trash them. Don't burn them. Don't throw them in the wind. Keep them. Close. I am about to tell you my story, from beginning to end in every little detail. My name is Private Jack Himith Halok, or rather, General Jack Himith Halok now, and this is my story...

The dark afternoon sun casted a serene glow through the lush greenery as it set in the cerulean skies. The clouds shone a majestic orange rust and the wind gently graced the rustling red and yellow leaves as the birds sang sweetly in the chilled air. The fish swam smoothly through the crystal clear waters and the squirrels made their small barks and cheerful playing noises. It was a refreshing experience to say the least. I gently walked through the timber, taking in every scent of rose, jasmine, lavender, and daisy along with the sights and sounds.

Then the sound of a gunshot ripped through my fantasy, startling me from my gorgeous dream. I was on my feet in seconds, gun in one hand and the other on my cutlass's hilt. I slowly crept to the opening of my tent. Big mistake. My dear friend, George, hit the ground in front of me, the blank look of death having consumed his eyes. I sighed and gritted my teeth, George and I had one hell of a history. Best friends from birth, as to say. But really it was a from kindergarten up. But the bottom line was that we were inseparable. When I had wanted to join up in the military, he was very skeptical, but I had insisted that he stick with me, even after High School. Oops. I should have let him stay at home with his family. I would mourn him later though, my life was currently at stake. More and more shots rang out and a full on leaden battle was commencing outside my tent. I decided to lay low. Not due to lack of courage, but more of wanting to keep my brains in my head. I stuck to one side of the tent and figured that the best thing to do would be to draw my cutlass that my commander told me would be useless out here, and put it into my right hand as my left held a Desert Eagle 50 caliber handgun. I really am glad I decided to do so, because a second later, I heard the gunfire stop.

A foreign voice walked to the entrance of my tent with two more guys beside him. He shouted something to the men and they entered. One was met with a bullet through the chest and, as I whipped around their commanders shocked figure, I put a blade through the jugular of the second man, sending his blood all over the side of my tent. That was going to be hell to clean up. I quickly ripped the sword out and spun around to kill the commander, but I was met with a Colt M1911 barrel to the face. Second mistake of the night. It was probably jacked from one of my fallen allies or stolen in a raid. It didn't matter either way. I was going to die. I relaxed my adrenaline pumped body as I looked into the barrel and saw the primed lead that had my name written all over it.

"Gotcha." He said, but then as he was about to pull the trigger, he stopped. His face changed to fear and the gun dropped from his shaking hand and into the sand. I raised my eyebrow in curiosity as he fled out of the tent, tripping over himself in the process. I looked down at my hands and my eyes widened in surprise as I noticed a purple glow consuming my body.

"What the?" I said with confusion. I felt the cloth walls closing in around me, dizziness ensued and I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head. The last thing that I remember before the blackness was a lush grass on the back of my head, cushioning my fall.

Must Be Repaid

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"Ah donno, Twilight," A southern accent drifted into my thoughts, reminding me of my home in Louisiana, "It just seems a lil'... strange is all."

"I know, Applejack, "A different, slightly sharper, voice that was void of the country accent floated to my ears. "But this might be our last hope for the war." This, however, caught my attention. My eyes shot open and I sprang up from a small bed, freezing mid-breath.

Before me stood, and I kid you not, two technicolor ponies. Again, let me repeat this, Two. Technicolor. PONIES! I was shocked to say the least. One was a lavender color with a royal blue mane that came down and wrapped around the side of her neck. The hair was streaked hot pink in one area and purple in the other. Her bangs fell around what appeared to be a horn. A horn. A freaking horn. This was a Unicorn. What the hell was going on in this place? The... horn... was parting said bangs nicely at the color pattern. She wore a futuristic battle suit that looked sort of like medieval scale armor, but with bright, cyan streaks under each fold. It was a silverish-grey color and was outfitted with a small pouch on the side that appeared to store ammo and grenades. She had an odd looking weapon that could be considered a gun, for horses.

The other one was a orange pony with a straw colored mane that was put up practically. She wore roughly the same battle suit as the other one, but two laser-guided mini-guns rested on her shoulders, along with a brown stetson on her head. The both quickly regained from their startled composure and the unicorns horn began to glow. I felt a cold, metallic barrel on the back of my head and heard a click. The orange one's mini-guns began to spin up and lock onto me with the lasers.

"We are not going to hurt you. We. Are. Friendly." The Unicorn said carefully and slowly in the same, sharp voice I had heard earlier. She had the air of magic about her. I guess that makes her Twilight. I nearly fainted. They could talk. TALKING. TECHNICOLOR. PONIES! I took a deep breath in attempted to calm myself, it kind of worked.

"You have a gun at the back of my head... And your friend over there has two live mini-guns pointing at me." My deep, yet warm voice said logically. They looked about as surprised as I did when they had talked.

"We needed to make sure you wouldn't freak out and kill us both before we got a chance to explain everything." The Unicorn shot back. They appeared intimidated by me. Strange, considering they were the ones to randomly teleported me here. It didn't matter anyways, I might as well take advantage of the situation.

"Well, you have a LOT of explaining to do." I said and crossed my arms like I was scolding a child.

"You're in another dimension. We are losing a war that could decide the fate of this land. My mentor, Princess Celestia, told me to summon you here." She explained sort of vaguely, only hitting the highlights. Another dimension? Interesting. What was even more interesting is the fact that these equines have a monarchy. I wondered if this 'Princess' was a pony too. But that didn't really register to my mind at that moment, I was focused on a more important thought.

"Oh god... PLEASE tell me that I am NOT a talking, brightly colored horse!" I exclaimed and began to check my anatomy, which, thankfully, checked out to still be human. The orange pony, whom I had guessed was Applejack due to the voices I heard earlier, took a little offense to that statement, but she held her tongue.

"No, you are still human." Twilight reassured me.

"Okay, but how do you know what I am?" I asked in confused relief.

"I'll explain later." She said.

"Alright... But why me?" I asked.

"Pardon?" Applejack asked. Yep, definitely the accent from before.

"Why me? Why not somebody else? What makes me so special?" I asked. I felt the cold barrel lighten its pressure as Twilight sank into memories that were obviously painful.

"I'm not sure," Twilight paused, "Other than the Princess saying that you were the last hope for the war and the greatest soldier in the universe." I have to admit, that made me blush a little. I let the pride sink in a some, but not to much. I don't like being overconfident. It's never gotten me anywhere before but back to square one.

"And I'm not to sure about that one..." I said and rested my bent index fingers' lower knuckle in-between my teeth as I always do when thinking. "I need to talk to your 'Princess'." I said.

"Y'all will get yer chance when this is all over." Applejack's voice chimed in.

"Yes, after we win this war, you may talk freely to Celestia as you wish, but until then, you have to help us." Twilight said with a more determined face.

"And if I refuse?" I asked. I didn't know what I was thinking when I said that. These ponies obviously were my only source to get home. I guess I really didn't feel like fighting whatever they were fighting. The guns barrel pressure was reapplied, which made me decide that I needed to tread carefully here.

"Then we loose the war and everypony dies." She paused and glared up at me, "Including you." She finished we an icy edge that could pierce titanium. I paused and weighed my very unfair options. "Please," She added softly, "We need you." She pleaded.

"I guess I really don't have much of a choice." I said in defeat. Her face lit up like the fourth of July.

"Oh thank you! We have a combat suit and some specially modified guns prepped and ready for your choosing-"

"Wait... How did you have time to prepare that stuff for my specific figure?" I asked, "Being a different species from a different dimension and all." I added. She laughed. I felt the cold metal on the back of my head finally move away and clunk on the wooden table behind me.

"That's simple enough. We use to have human's in this land. They aren't around anymore, though. Ancient history in fact. The only reason that any of us knew that they existed is our head scientist, Lyra Heartstrings. She owned a large history book all about them that she had 'confiscated' from the Canterlot library. It still surprises me that she was able to get in there at all. But that mare can be very sneaky when she wants." Twilight finished with a laugh.

"But how did you have enough time?" I asked again, relaxing a little bit when Applejack finally took her mini-guns' lasers off of me.

"This war has been going on for ten years, Jack. While I trained for the spell to bring you here, the other ponies, namely Rarity, Lyra, and I, prepared for your arrival." She explained. "Now, please, follow me." She said and motioned for me to come. I followed her through a dark corridor and she pushed a button, making a metal door slide open. Light poured in and I had to cover my eyes to shield against the sudden brightness. "Stay here until I say your name." Twilight told me. I was to distracted to form a response, so I merely nodded. She stepped through the blinding light, disappearing in its glow.

"Ponies of Ponyville!" She yelled.

Good lord, that was cheesy. I hope they don't have more towns named like that.

"We have hope for the war! We can change the tide! Our secret weapon has finally arrived!" My eyes finally began to adjust to the light and I saw Twilight standing at a podium. I heard ecstatic cheers erupt from a crowd. "Meet the new general of the Equestrian Royal Army! Meet YOUR new general! Jack Himith Halok!" Twilight exclaimed, stepping aside on the podium as I walked out into the warm sun. I walked up and looked down onto the crowd Twilight had been addressing. A few dozen ponies of different shapes, sizes, and yes, colors, looked up at me in awe and confusion at the same time. One of them caught my eye, however. It was a brown pony with a dark blue mane. But his eyes scared me, they were a bright, icy blue. I swear, they stared straight through my soul.

"What the hell is that thing, Twilight?" A cocky voice sounded from a hovering cyan Pegasus... Pegasus. Yes, they have Pegasi here too, apparently. What was next? An Alicorn? Yes, I was looking to get jinxed on everything that day.

The Pegasus had a rainbow colored mane and tail that ended in sharp points, flowing cleanly down her neck and over her head. She was outfitted in a lighter looking suit and had a shotgun barrel protruding from the chest area. I didn't have the chance to respond to her question as a green bolt ripped past me, nearly knocking my head off. It impacted the wall behind me and left massive scorch marks. Yikes. That could have been me. Things were certainly escalating quickly here.

I whipped my head around to see who or what had fired the bolt to see a blackish-green pony with bug-like wings and a horn. The odd thing is that it was perforated. It had holes everywhere but the torso and face. The legs, tail, mane, wings, and horn were scattered with them, but there was another thing. Its eyes. They were terrifying, and were a bright, icy blue and stared straight into your soul. It was the same pony that I had noticed before. What the hell was it?

"CHANGELING!" One of the ponies in the crowed unintentionally answered my question. Oh. I was kind of hoping that it was friendly, but by that blast, I would say not. The cyan Pegasus sprung into action without fear, firing some kind of laser into the Changelings head. Or what use to be its head before the blast made contact. The thing collapsed into a crumpled heap and Rainbow Dash landed on the platform beside me.

"That was a close one. Now, back to my question. What are you?" She said.

"I am a... human," I continued, despite my nervousness, "A native being from a different dimension and planet. I don't know why it was me in particular that was brought here to help you fight those... Things. But I assure all of you ponies that I will fight." The crowd erupted in cheers. I held up my hand and they all quieted. Nifty. "As long as I know why." I announced clearly.

"Because," Twilight's voice cut in from the side, "The Changelings attacked for no reason. We had no time to prepare or repel the attacks. Few cities remained under our control then and fewer do now. Innocent fillies, colts, and families were slaughtered and torn apart. It was a massacre." Twilight said grimly. Man, this ponies sure had it rough. I felt a pang of anger ripple through my body.

"In that case. Lets go on a bug hunt!" I yelled into the crowd and they exploded in cheers of excitement and happiness. Twilight told me to follow her once more and she led me back into the previous building.

"Why does this place look peaceful, for the most part, instead of a war-zone?" I asked her as the thought hit me.

"I had to come to the only place in Equestria that has yet to experience the harsh war to make sure that I wasn't going to get interrupted in both my spell and my studies." She replied.

"Ah, so that thing back there? Is that what we are fighting?" I asked with the false hope that she would answer 'no'.

"Yes," Oh well, "They are called Changelings. They can shape-shift into anypony that they want too. The problem is that we don't know who to trust. Their only handicap-"

"Are the holes." I finished.

"Not exactly." She said. Oh. Well that made me feel like an idiot. "They all share a hive-mind, which means to be controlled by a single being or mind. Which also means that if we take the bitch down, her brood dies as well."

"What about that rainbow one? It was apparent that she didn't know what I was. You told me that all of you ponies knew about me being human." I said. She laughed, again.

"No," She giggled, "I said that some did. It was on a need-to-know basis. The only ponies that needed to know were me, Lyra, and Rarity." She said and pressed another button. A metal door slid open and we walked through it. "Though, now, it's obvious that everypony needs to know." She said with a light laugh.

She pressed a glowing blue button and the room was lit up from the sides, revealing a multitude of guns lining the walls. They all had the basic handle, trigger, and barrel of a normal gun, but had a futuristic look to them. You know, sleek and black, but with lime green stripes running the length of them in digital lines. They were organized from type and ranged all the way from a massive anti-tank style sniper to the tiniest handgun I had ever laid eyes on. I gazed at them in awe, but my mouth really dropped when my eyes trailed over to the combat suit they had so elegantly designed for me. Bands of metal striped in V shapes across the armor in the moderately same style as the Twilight's. I was stunned as I scanned the jet black suit. The only way any of the ponies would have been able to see me in that thing at night was the fact that neon lime green streaks came up in between the plates. Then my eyes made their way to the top where the helmet was and I frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Twilight asked almost instantly after my frown appeared

"How am I suppose to see out of that?" I asked with confusion while examining the helmet. Like the rest of the armor, it had metal plates and was completely black. But the plates were less spaced out and looked like they could click into place. Holy shit, that would be awesome. What had confused me about my sight was the visor. It came down in the shape of two wide V's and glowed a bright neon green like the rest of the suit. I looked back over to Twilight, who was now smirking.

"Want to find out?" She asked.

"It's what I came here to do." I said with a light chuckle. She laughed and led me to a rounded door and motioned me to go through it after she pressed the button. I obliged and then the door closed rather rapidly for my liking. "Twilight?" I asked with an uneasy feeling.

"Sorry, darling, but you're dealing with me now." A sharp tone of elegance flowed through some speakers in the corner of the ceilings. Damn it, I just couldn't get a break, could I?

Suited Up

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"Who are you?" I asked intimidatingly, trying to look tough.

"No need for the malice, dear. I am a friend." She said with reassurance.

"Who are you?" I repeated, except with a little less intimidation.

"I am Rarity. The designer of that gorgeous combat suit you're about to put on and all of the guns in the other room." She said proudly. I relaxed enough to nod.

"Impressive." I said

"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind. Get out of those ghastly things that you are wearing. I need to get you into your armor before Twilight blows a gasket." She said with a little exasperated drama in her voice.

"Y-You want me to strip?" I asked, feeling a blush creep onto my face.

"But of course, darling! How ever else are you going to get into your combat suit?" She said obliviously. She was acting like it was natural to be naked.

"C-Can you see me?" I asked nervously.

"W-What? No! Of course not!" She said in an outraged tone. I sighed in relief and began to strip down, removing my military uniform that signified me as an American soldier. I folded them neatly and tucked them in the corner of the chilled chamber as its air graced my muscle toned skin that was sword scarred from many hours of practice with George.

"Done." I said as goosebumps began to well.

"Very good." She said then paused. "Now, if you please, step into the chamber." She added and a crack split down the middle of the door opposite of the one I had entered and slid open. A new burst of cold air made the hair on my back stand up. Then a sudden thought hit me. She called my old clothes ghastly!

"Wait... If you can't see me... How did you judge what I was wearing?" I asked. There was a short pause on the intercom.

"I-I was.... At the announcement gathering of your arrival!" She said quickly, her extravagant voice cracking and changing into a flustered tone. I suddenly felt very self conscious about how well these ponies would respect my privacy, mainly due to the fact that she was NOT at that announcement.

"Okay then," I said in an unbelieving voice, not wanting to pry anymore. To be honest, I actually didn't want to know.

"Please, mister Halok, step inside the glass chamber." She repeated with a hint of relief. I quickly walked over to the glass chamber and stepped in. It was fairly large. The door slid shut behind me and I walked into the center of the room where two foot marks were placed.

"Commencing procedure." A female robotic voice sounded in the room.

"Procedure?" I asked with a hint of worry finding its way to my voice.

"Do not be alarmed. Stand completely still. You shall be battle ready in no time." It answered. I obeyed the AI and stood in shock as machinery spun around the room. It looked like a video game. Kind of like Starcraft II, but the armor was sleeker, blacker, and cooler. Each piece of the machinery gripped a chunk of the armor from the battle suit. Not like it had been ripped apart, but more like it had been taken apart skillfully and was now ready to be reasserted to a body. The all came down around me and fit on directly, almost like a second skin. Then plated boots rose up from the ground at my feet and cascaded all the way up, going under the armored plates and then connecting them together. I stood in awe at how light it was. Seriously, it was like a second skin!

"Procedure complete." The voice sounded as the machinery spun back up into their previous spots.

"Wait? What about the helmet?" I asked in confusion.

"There is a small blue button on the inside of your collar. Press it." The voice instructed. I looked around the suit and found it in no time, but I also found a small red button on the opposite side.

"What does this red one do?" I asked.

"Await Miss Rarity's instructions for the use of said button." The voice answered immediately. "In the meantime, press the blue button." I pressed it after a shrug and heard a click. I felt metal begin to click its way up my neck and to my head, forming to its shape and size. Yep, it was freaking cool. At first it was nothing. Just blackness, then two bright green slits lit up and an image of the entire room was projected into the helmet, making it look as though I were looking through my normal eyes.

"Whoa..." I said in amazement. This technology was way more advanced than anything I had ever seen. How did a society of ponies create such massive advances, more importantly, how much time did it take? Oh well, answers were going to have to wait. The door to let me out opened and I walked through it. Looking up at the speakers, I got an idea.

"Hey, Rarity?" I asked.

"Yes?" She replied instantly.

"How do I look?"

"Simply magnificent, darling!" She exclaimed. I smirked in victory. "Why are you smirking like-" The realization must have finally hit her. "Blast! You win, darling. I can see you." She came clean, "But, if it makes you feel better, I liked what I saw." She added in a seductive tone. Or not so clean. There was an awkward pause. A pony just flirted with me. The thought ran through my head multiple times before it actually registered. "Go on, dear. Twilight is waiting." Her voice found its way to me again. I breathed a sigh of relief as the door in front of me slid open to reveal a smiling Twilight.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed in awe, "You look awesome in that armor!" She added with glee, "Now, you see the wall of weapons, choose three, then meet me at the shooting range to test them out." She said, gesturing to the weapons. She trotted out of the room with a skip in her step. She was oddly cheerful for a creature in warfare. Not like it mattered, but whatever. It was good to see her happy.

I looked around the room and saw three different categories to choose from and five guns in each. Next to them were ammo pouches and belts. I scanned through the area of combat rifles and picked out one that looked closest to my M16 that I was so fond of. I took out the clip to examine the bullet type, but was surprised by the neon green light fading from the gun and into the rounded magazine. I furrowed my brow in confusion and turned the clip upside down, shaking it to see if anything would fall out. Nothing did. I shrugged and inserted the clip back into the gun, but instead of a click, there was a charging sound and the gun lit back up.

"Interesting..." I said and secured the gun to my back. As it clicked into place, a loading bar appeared. It read 'loading HUD', then a computerized image of the gun appeared in my helmet and its stats with it. From fire rate to weight, accuracy, and range. It was a fairly balanced gun. For what it lacked in range, it made up for in accuracy and fire rate. Its weight was about the same as my M16, so hopefully this wouldn't be to hard to figure out how to use. It's name was The Grim Reaper. Awesome. I tried to sweep the image away, but nothing happened. I frowned.

"Hey, computer. How do I get rid of this image?" I asked.

No answer. I should have expected that considering that I was no longer in the suit chamber. Then I got one of those weird ideas that you only get when you are either high or desperate. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused really hard on the image moving away. I would have looked constipated if my helmet was off. When I opened my eyes I gasped in surprise. The image had gone. It just... Disappeared! Holy shit, I couldn't believe that worked. I felt like a little kid discovering candy for the first time. With a grin, I grabbed an ammo pouch and secured it to my waist.

I walked over to the section of snipers. Their elegant design was unmatched by any of other guns with engravings and decals of beauty. I marveled at them for a minute, but finally selected a medium-large sized sniper. I clicked it onto my back and examined its stats. This particular rifle was named the HF 50, or Hail Fire 50 caliber rifle. It was a semi-auto rifle with precision accuracy, but it wasn't exactly the lightest of guns. But, not the heaviest either. It naturally had a large range effect due to it being a sniper. I smiled and willed the image away and let out a small chuckle at it again. I wasn't going to get over it either.

On my way over to the handguns, I picked up an ammo belt. I picked out medium sized one and clicked it onto the side of my thigh. It stuck there like a magnet held it in place. Its stats, along with an image of it and its name, popped up. The Grave Digger. Kind of morbid, but I liked it. The description for fire rate said 'As fast as you can pull the trigger'. I liked that too. It was accurate enough to where it would hit anything that I was aiming at. I willed the image away and sighed deeply in satisfaction while picking up a few clips and attaching them to my opposite thigh. I exited the room and began walking down the hallway. Then I stopped in my tracks when I remembered something kind of important. I didn't know where the shooting range was. Okay, so it was really important.

"H-Hi there... You must be Jack, w-welcome to Ponyville." A sweet and quite voice said from behind me. I turned and saw a yellow Pegasus looking up at me. She was in a full combat suit like the other ponies, but she only carried a small hand--- Hoofgun on her side and had a red plus sign painted on the flank of the suit with three butterfly's behind it.

"And you must be the medic. What's your name?" I asked gently. She was about a head shorter than me, along with the other ponies, so I crouched a little to become eye level.

"F-Fluttershy." She said, trying to hide behind her rolling, pink mane.

"I'm not going to hurt you, we're on the same side." I said with a warm and comforting smile. "I just need to know where the firing range is. Twilight has to be getting impatient with me." I added with a light chuckle.

"It's down the hall to the left." She said, her icy blue eyes peeking through the mane. Blue eyes. Icy blue eyes. Why was that so familiar? I tried to shrug the thought off and I nodded to the pony.

"Thank you, Fluttershy." I said and got back up. I turned around and started walking towards where she had told me to go. But the blue eyes invaded my mind again as it wondered. Why were they so freaking familiar?... Then the thought hit me. My eyes widened and adrenaline kick-started my heart. I snatched the handgun from my side and snapped it around. The Pegasus had now changed and was black, its wings were bug-like and holes were scattered all over its body. Its horn began to glow a mucky green and it shot a green bolt of magic at me. It scraped a piece of the armor as I made a timely dodge. The brunt of the force scorched the wall behind me. Yikes. It hissed at me and I pulled the guns trigger, sending a bullet, or whatever they fired, into the changelings skull. Instead of the crack that I was use to, the gun made a, much quieter, fum sound. The Changelings body stood there a moment, as if in shock, then shuddered and crumpled lifelessly to the floor with a thud. Twilight came running, or should I say galloping, into the hall at top speed.

"Is everything-" She cut herself off when she saw the body on the ground, "Seems like you have the situation under control."

"Yes, it was posing as your medic, Fluttershy." I said back, reloading the handgun.

"How did you know?" She asked with confusion.

"What?" I asked, equally confused.

"How did you know it was a Changeling?" She added that last little bit of information.

"It had bright, icy blue eyes that sort of... Pierced your soul. Just like the Changeling that attacked at the speech." I said. Twilight frowned in thought.

"Now that I think of it... Chrysalis was the only Changeling that had green eyes... While all of the others had the same icy blue that you are talking about." Her eyes widened in glee. "Oh thank you, Jack! You may have just saved many lives!" She jumped with joy.

"But wait... Aren't ponies eyes sometime naturally blue?" I asked. She stopped and frowned again.

"Not as bright or as icy as the Changelings... I will inform the ponies of this development immediately." Twilight thought aloud.

"Go find Pinkie Pie, get her to show you around. I'll be in Headquarters at any point in time if you should need me." And with thought, she began to trot down the hall.

"Wait," I called. She stopped and looked back, "What does this 'Pinkie Pie' look like? Where and how can I find her?" This made Twilight stifle a laugh.

"You'll know her when you meet her. As for where and how to find her, just walk outside, she will find you." She said very vaguely. She started to trot off again, giggling and laughing at my question. She sure had a habit of forgetting to tell me where things were.

I was left alone in the hallway, very confused, I might add. I sighed deeply and walked outside. A gentle, cool and refreshing breeze that only Autumn knows graced my skin in the very few exposed parts of the suit. Otherwise it had a temperature controlled gel layer on my body that I was in charge of. The warm sun shone through the leaves over overhead trees and everything looked peaceful and beautiful. Until I noticed something that made the hair on my back stand up. This was the exact place from my dream... Everything was perfect. But real. It looked odd too. Like an animated reality. This dimension had was warm, bright, and colorful. But it lacked any vivid details such as hair follicles and the visual texture of an iris.

I sat down on a cartoon-like bench and scanned for whatever would give me a clue to the whereabouts of this 'Pinkie Pie'. I sighed and look down in defeat, shaking my head slightly. Then the scent of cotton candy drifted by, invading the helmet and my nostrils. I furrowed my brow in confusion and rose my head up, looking around. Then I caught a glimpse of pink sitting on the bench beside me.

"Who ya lookin' for?" A sweet, sing-song voice said from where I had glimpsed the pink. I snapped my head to the voice and saw a hyper pink pony with a puffy pink mane smiling brightly at me. She wore an eye patch with a scar under it and beaten battle armor that was chipped in places. She looked rough and less new than the other ponies. Yet she had an air of friendly fun about her.

"A pony named 'Pinkie Pie.' Twilight told me to come and find her so she can show me around." And hopefully back to my quarters. I need some time to think. And sleep. During all of the 'excitement', I had forgotten how tired I was. After all, I was asleep in my tent before I was so rudely awakened by Arab gunfire.

"Really?" She said and looked at me strangely. "I'm Pinkie Pie!" She exclaimed, jumping up from the bench. Oh joy. "We've been walking together since you got outside."

"What?" I asked with worried puzzlement, searching my memories for what she was talking about. I found nothing, so I just stared at her with confusion.

"Well, you've been walking. I've been bouncing behind a few meters!" She said with another massive smile. This one was an odd-ball, but she made me want to laugh, so I did. "Come on! Twilight said to show you around." She pulled me up from the bench with her hooves. To this day, I still wonder how she had done it, but she was really strong. I could tell by how fast I was actually pulled up.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as my stomach lurched from the sudden movement.

"I didn't hurt you, did I? Oh, I'm so sorry!" She said with complete sincerity in her voice. She dropped to her knees and put her hooves together as if to beg for forgiveness. Just when I thought a pony society couldn't get any weirder.

"Pinkie." I said and kneeled down on one knee, putting my hand on her puffy mane."Its okay, I'm fine." I assured her with a gentle smile. Her face lit up like I had given her the best news in all of Equestria. For all I knew, I had. She jumped up and smiled brightly.

"Yay!" She exclaimed, reverting back to her hyper and happy state.

"Pinkie! Jack!" Came a voice from the side of us that I recognized as the cyan Pegasus that killed that Changeling at the speech. But her voice was urgent. She quickly flew to us and screeched to a halt.

"Dash? What's wrong?" Pinkie asked her friend.

"You two need to get to the war room immediately." She formally reported. There goes any chance of sleep.

"What? Why?" I asked with irritation that wasn't meant to come out. I needed sleep more than I knew.

"The Princess has requested us." She said with a slight glare.

"Wait, I thought that Celestia would only talk to me after the war was won?" I asked her.

"Well, you obviously don't know your Equestrian facts. We had two Princesses. One to raise and lower the sun,
Celestia, and one to raise and lower the moon, Luna. You are going to meet Luna." She said, giving me another tidbit of helpful information.

"Alright then, lead the way." I said, softening a little.

"Duh." 'Dash' said and motioned for us to follow. She floated in front of a bouncing Pinkie Pie as I trailed the bouncing pink blob of hyper.

She lead us through the town quickly. The ponies of the town just walked and talked like nothing was going on. Like there were no Changelings endangering their existence. They ran stalls of pretty much everything you could want or need. Food, clothes, jewellery, exotic items, weapons, etc. The only sign that war was an issue were the guards outfitted in battle suits carrying the same advanced weapons as me, except theirs were made for hooves, not hands. Also, every civilian carried a less advanced weapon. Other than that, this looked like a normal, happy society of ponies. Though, normal probably isn't the best word for describing talking, multicolored ponies. But, hey, who am I to judge?

"So, Jack, what were you doing before Twi zapped you here?" The rainbow maned Pegasus interrupted my train of thought nonchalantly. Small talk. I guess ponies did it too. My memories flew back to the end of the barrel of a Colt M1911 and the bullet that was going to kill me. I wondered if I would ever see one again. The gun, I mean. "Hellooo? Anyone home?" 'Dash' asked with slight sarcasm as she poked my head with her hoof.

I swatted at it in irritation and said, "Yeah, I'm here. Before you guys 'interrupted' me, I was about to die. I was staring into the black abyss of a guns barrel. The thing that would have ended my story. But, I was suddenly surrounded in a purple light, which I'm guessing was Twilight's magic, and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was here. And greeted by more guns. In my face. Everything was explained, that Changeling attacked, I got suited up, killed my first Changeling, found Pinkie, you said the Princess needed us, and here we are." I said to Rainbow and Pinkie. Pinkie's mouth was agape in wonder and excitement as I had told my story. Changing emotions and gasping once in awhile, at first, I thought it to be sarcasm, then dismissed the thought when I saw the that she wasn't joking. Rainbow just nodded with a lightly worried expression.

"So, we saved you seconds before death. It seems like you owed us anyway." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but then I woke up in a different dimension." I countered. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." I said with no intended pun. Pinkie burst out in laughter anyways, making Dash lightly chuckle.

"Hey, we're here." Dash said and landed. She walked up to the door of a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, like gargantuan, tree and knocked in a pattern of four three times, instantly reminding me of Doctor Who. Damn, I was going to miss that show.

"Your Headquarters is a giant tree?" I asked with skepticism showing in my voice.

"Yep!" Pinkie said with a delighted jump.

"Wait until you see the inside." The Pegasus said with a knowing wink and smirk as the door swung inward.

Explanations and Preparations

View Online

We were greeted by two armed guards in a small white room. This place was guarded. But small.

"Is this it?" I asked disbelievingly. Dash responded with a laugh.

"Not even close." She said. That gave me reassurance.

"General Rainbow Dash. Lieutenant Pinkie Pie." One of the guards nodded them through the security check with his deep, commanding voice. He paused when he got to me and smiled. He bowed his head in respect. "General Jack Himith Halok."

"Nice to meet you. Got a name, soldier?" I asked with a friendly tone. He hesitated, not knowing whether or not he was suppose to be friendly with me. But he gave into the temptation of getting to know his general a little better.

"Nice to meet you as well." He said, raising his head, "My name is Mist Free." He said with a little more meaning to his words instead of his 'all business' voice that he had previously.

"Jack! You coming?" Rainbow asked from the other side of the small room. I turned to her.

"Yeah, be right there." I said and turned back to Mist Free. "See you on the front lines." I said with a smile. he nodded.

"Is that a promise?" he joked. We both let out a light chuckle and I turned back, walking over to Rainbow and Pinkie.

Dash smiled and put her eye up to a screen on the side of the door for what looked like a retinal scan. The door beside it beeped twice, clicked four times, then hissed open. Inside was an unbelievable sight. Remember when I said huge? That was an understatement. I stood with my mouth agape as I looked in upon the hundreds of storage towers with digital green lines running through all of them. Many Unicorns were wearing white lab coats and hustling about with tablets floating beside of above them. Some were standing in front of the towers and moving their hooves over the floating tablets, looking very pleased with themselves. There were Pegasi guards that hovered alertly above and Earth Pony guards who's eyes were darting everywhere for even the slightest sign of trouble.

"Security sure is tight around here." I said while looking at an automated turret that was hanging from the ceiling.

"Well, you know, this IS the most important place in Equestria." Rainbow replied with obviousness. Obnoxious obviousness. This Pegasus knew that I was her superior, but she made it very clear that I would need to earn her respect and prove that I was good enough to save this place. And I admired that. "None of the Changelings even know that it exists." She said.

"What about those today?" I asked.

"Spy's. It's good that neither got the chance to report back, thanks to us." She said with a smirk as we weaved our way through the advanced technology. We went by unnoticed by the Unicorns, but the guards kept very watchful eyes on us.

"Pinkie, you've been awfully quiet." I said.

"I have to be.... Well, boring here." She said quickly with an anxious tone. Her blue eyes darted around the room while she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She looked like a deprived crack-head. She really needed to let her hyperness out. We came up to another large metal door and Rainbow Dash pressed a small button.

"Voice, retinal, and security questions must be answered before proceeding." An automated, female voice said. Rainbow Dash put her mouth up to the screen and spoke clearly.

"General Rainbow Dash." Her tomboyish voice rang through the speaker. It beeped twice and clicked once. The screen changed and a picture of a large, violet eye that was Dash's materialized. She leaned her eye up to it and a green lighted grid escaped the screen, scanning her naked eye. It beeped twice more and there were two clicks. The screen changed again and a question mark appeared. "This one's kinda personal. You guys mind?" She said, motioning for us to turn around and walk out of whisper distance.

"Go for it." I said. Pinkie and I turned our backs to her and walked a few steps to escape earshot. For whispers anyways.

"What do you think it is?" Pinkie excitedly chirped so fast that I almost didn't catch what she had said.

"Not sure. You know her better than I do, not to mention, I don't like getting into private business." I said with an airy tone. Pinkie scrunched up her nose like she was thinking.

"Yeah, I suppose." She said with disappointment, clearly bored.

"Hey guys, come on." Rainbow's voice reached us after another beep, then a click, then the sound of the door hissing open.

We turned around and walked into the main room. The ceiling towered up high and curved up into a dome-like structure and had more of the digital green lines running through it. They rose up to the top of the center of the massive roof and descended down through a large cybernetic tube, feeding a gigantic terminal that projected a huge image of a landmass with holograms of different technology and pony soldiers on different places. Some places were blue, others yellow, but most of them were red. A few flickered between red and yellow and yellow and blue.

They were wall labeled. A quick skim told me that Ponyville, Hoofington, and Apploosa were blue, which I guessed meant safe. Manehattan and Cloudsdale blinked from yellow to blue while Las Pegasus and Fillydelphia blinked from yellow to red. The only completely yellow one I saw was Saddle Arabia. There were to many reds to count. Though some of them did have names. Such as Stalliongrad, Mexicolt, Baltimare, etc. That couldn't be good. Jeez, did every town have a horse pun to it? And was it just me, or did the towns sound almost exactly like the ones back home. Except these had horse puns. I guess their Princess has a good sense of humor. But something caught my eyes as I scanned it over once more. Once city was black. Just completely and utterly jet black. There were no soldiers, weaponry, vehicles, or even enemies. I looked up for a title and read it aloud.

"Canterlot." My voice still echoed across the stillness of the massive room.

"I see that you take interest in our once proud capital city." A dark, majestic female voice sounded through the room. A tall, winged Unicorn stepped out of the shadows and strode up to me. Seriously?! She was at least a foot taller than me (only be her horn), making her two feet taller than the other ponies. Her coat was a midnight blue and her dark blue mane flowed out, twinkling like a universe of stars. It was stunning. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie pie kneeled before her. "Tis' a shame that not many pony-folk care about it anymore."

"I'm not a pony. Plus, it seems they have more to worry about than one city." I said back. Both Rainbow and Pinkie shot me a look of surprise.

"So you are not." She said and paused, taking in my figure with an unamused and unimpressed look, "And so they do..." The dark Alicorn smiled lightly. "I am Princess Luna. My sister, Celestia, and I use to rule this land before the Changelings attacked." Now the kneeling made sense. "General Dash, Lieutenant Pie. At ease." Geez, they even gave commands like us. The midnight blue mare lightened up and gave them a friendly smile. They smiled back.

"Where is your sister?" I asked. Her face darkened instantly. I hated killing the moment, but I needed answers.

"She is... Away. But will return when the Changelings are defeated. The queen, to be more precise." Luna said with hesitation.

"Away?" I questioned.

"Yes. Away." She answered with brisk, regaining her royal composure. So much for answers, she wasn't going to give me anything. She turned towards Pinkie and Rainbow. "Please retrieve General Applejack and Medic Shy." She said.

"I'll get Flutters." Rainbow said about the same exact time that Pinkie had said,

"I'll get Jacky!" So I guess they were agreed. They laughed and exited the room with haste. Confusion crossed my face and I gently tapped Luna on the shoulder.

"Yes?" She asked after turning to me.

"Twilight said she would be here. Where is she? If you requested her, I figured she would be here by now." I asked. A flicker of a smile showed on the Lunar Princess's face.

"In the back, talking with Rarity." She explained. A shiver was sent down my spine from the pang of fear at the name.

"R-Rarity?" I asked with worry. Luna furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Yes. What worries you?" She asked.

"She flirted with me. Outright." I said and dropped my head. I could swear I thought I heard her stifle a small laugh.

"Pay no mind to her flirtatious manner." She said with a light smile, "She does that to all of us." She added. I sighed in relief and returned my head to its previous location, untensing.

"Good. Not to be insulting, but ponies aren't exactly my type." I said with a chuckle.

"Who knows, they might grow on you. They have a habit of that." Luna said, smiling lightly with a bit of nostalgia.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, how did you guys develop such amazing technology in a matter of ten years?" I asked. She chuckled a little.

"We had technology even more advanced than this before the castle fell. We just never introduced these breakthroughs to the public for fear of my little ponies turning on each other or succumbing to greed and obsession. Desire and opportunity can be a terrifying combination, so we simply took away that opportunity. Much like, say, leaving your home unlocked while you are away. But don't think we kept everything from them. We gave them tools to help farm, cook, heal, and even entertain. We just never gave them anything harmful." She explained.

There was a long pause of silence as Luna looked like she was debating something in her mind. All of the other ponies soon filed into the room. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and, lastly, a pure white pony with a deeply royal purple mane. Probably Rarity.

"I called you all here to tell... Show you what happened to Celestia." Luna said suddenly, to us all. This came as a blatant shock to the others. "Canterlot was once the capital of all Equestria. A shining gem that gleamed brightly in the center of the world." She said, looking down at the map with a fragile smile made of amazing memories. "It's streets were lined with expensive shops, noble mares and colts, fillies of all ages. It all led up to the magnificent Canterlot castle, with its soaring turrets, massive dining tables, and its vast, beautiful gardens filled with rare and gorgeous plant and wild life. In the spring, the gardens would bloom and fragrant smells were picked up by cities as far away as Stalliongrad! And its vibrant colors rang out sharply from the gold and white of the castle itself." I was awestruck as the beautiful images being described danced through my mind. I am sure that it boggled the other ponies minds as well, but I did not dare look away from the deep blue Alicorn. Then I thought of the question that she had originally asked.

"That sounds beautiful. But what happened to Celestia?" I asked. The question shattered her smile and she snapped out of those wondrous memories. She now looked at the city's black dot with the cold fury of the night.

"Chrysalias. Chrysalias happened." She said, "It's to painful to repeat through words. Come." She said and motioned for me to come closer. "Do not worry, this will transmit through you all. It will feel... Strange." She said and leaned her head down, a small, midnight blue orb forming at the tip of her horn. She finished the leaning and touched my forehead with her horn.

Canterlot Castle: 10 Years Ago

The ornate palace throne room appeared in my vision along with the Lunar Princess, who looked much younger in the eyes, a younger looking male Unicorn who's mane was blue and sported a brighter blue streak through it, and a powerful looking pearl white Alicorn, who I assumed to be Celestia. The male Unicorn was outfitted in a medieval type of armor that was golden and purple. His white fur was matted with sweat as he spoke quickly to the two Princesses.

"Celestia, the Changelings are over running us! We don't have much- AGH!" The Unicorn's face contorted in pain as a green bolt blew through the back of his chest, then went blank as he fell to the tiled floor with a dull thud.

"Shining!" Celestia cried to her fallen friend. There was no response from the Captain of the Royal Guard as he lie there in an expanding puddle of his own draining blood. Luna had tears forming in her eyes as shock gripped her features.

"Well, well, well." A mocking voice clicked as its owner strode casually into the royal room. She was as tall as both Luna and Celestia, but was perforated. Her wings had a bug-like look to them and her pupils were in the shape of a serpent's. She had fangs that longed for somethings throat and a dull, aqua mane. "It kind of hurts to see him go..." She taunted, "After all... He was so... Tasty." She smiled malevolently, licking her lips with an evil spark in her eyes. A fiery rage exploded inside the Goddess of the Sun. Her eyes glowed a dangerously white hot fury and she turned to her shocked sister with her mane aflame.

"Take Shining Armor's body back to Ponyville. Give him a proper burial." Her rage was so great that her tone had doubled in might and she was using the ancient Royal Canterlot Voice. "We shall deal with this pest!" She seethed. Luna nodded and flew to Shining Armor's limp body.

"I'm sorry..." She said as a tear tinkled onto his golden armor. She grabbed the back his breast plate with the mouth and flew at an oil-stained window. A green bolt flew by her head and hit her destination. It shattered to pieces. She flew through the gleaming, rainbow colored glass with her eyes closed to avoid unwanted blindness. She teleported to the Golden Oak library of Ponyville and lied Shining Armor's body gently on the floor.

"Princess Luna!" A happy voice chimed, "How nice to..." Twilight Sparkle trailed off as she opened her eyes to see her brother's bloody body. Tears sprang into her eyes as her mouth fell open in disbelief. "H-How... Wh-What ha-happened?" She asked in shaky horror.

"Chrysalias. I am truly sorry, Twilight Sparkle. But I must go help my sister, she has rage-shifted. We will be back with Chrysalias's head." Luna said sincerely then teleported away. She reappeared back in the throne room and saw Celestia and Chrysalias flying around and expertly dodging each others magical blasts. Finally, one of Celestia's blasts knocked Chrysalias to the ground. Celestia was quickly on top of her.

"For thou's crimes against the world of pony-kind. We hereby sentence thy to death!" The Goddess of the Sun seethed at her fallen opponent.

"Celestia!" Came a familiar voice. A scared looking Twilight Sparkle now lie at Celestia's hooves. She faked an emotion of tragic sadness. "How could you let her kill him? My Big Brother Best Friend Forever?" Fake tears welled in her eyes. That was the last straw for Celestia. She softened and her mane returned to its normal, celestial color and wafted in a nonexistent breeze. Worst of all, she hesitated. Chrysalias blasted her at point blank range, sending her flying to the wall. Chrysalias shot up and was on top of Celestia, back to her normal, blackened form.

"Your kind heart was your downfall." She said.

"You won't get away with this!" Celestia spat.

"Shhh, sweet Celestia," She mocked, "You talk to much." She aimed her horn down at Celestia, who's eyes were no longer boiling with rage. They were filled with pain as she faced her death with as much dignity as possible. Luna tried to jump in and help, but was caught in a green bubble of magic.

"Tsk, tsk. Do not interfere with a fight in which you are not included." Chrysalias teased. Luna hit the bubble and blasted magic at it, but it was to no avail. Tears of helplessness streamed down her face and matted her midnight blue fur. "Goodbye, oh Princess." Chrysalias said sarcastically. She touched her horn to Celestia's and Celestia's mouth fell open and her eye's rolled back into her head slowly as the life drained from her body.

"Nooo!" Luna screamed as her eyes started to flood with blackness. She threw a massive bolt of wild magic at her cell and it shattered. In a feat of rage, she bucked Chrysalias into the wall on the opposite side of the throne room. She grabbed Celestia and teleported back to the Golden Oak library were Twilight wept profusely over her brother's body. She snapped her head towards the sisters when they arrived.

"Celestia!" Twilight gasped through tears.

"Twilight..." Celestia breathed painfully, "I... I don't have much time... Look for the books hidden by a perception field. There should be two. Luna will teach you how to detect such things... Summon a human by the name of Jack Himith Halok.... It should take you fifteen or so years to master the spell... Please... He is our last hope..." She sighed one last breath and fell back limply Luna and Twilight cried into each others manes as a wisp the color of Celestia's mane wafted through an open window and to the doomed city of Canterlot. The scene faded to black.

Present Day

I found that hot tears were streaming down my face as Luna nook her horn away. All of the other ponies shared a saddened expression, but none more than Twilight. I had the overwhelming urge to hold Twilight until it was all better. Of course I didn't, for obvious reasons. These may have been colorful ponies, but their not-so-happy history had been revealed to me. To say the least, I would never look at them the same.

"Twilight... I'm so sorry." I said and put a hand on her shoulder, "But do not fret. Chrysalias. Will. Pay." I uttered the last part menacingly. She smiled as best as possible through the depressed tears.

"Thank you for the consolation." She said with a warm smile. Then what she said when we first met crossed my mind.

"Wait... You said that she told you that I was the greatest soldier in the universe?" I said.

"Heh, heh. About that..." She laughed nervously, "It was something to calm you down, and persuade you to fight for us..." She said, bowing her head in shame. "I'm sorry that I lied." My gaze and heart both softened.

"There was no need for lies, Twilight. It's alright. I'm not that angry with you." I said.

"Wh-When do we fight?" A tiny voice squeaked out. All of the ponies looked up at Fluttershy with surprise at the brave question. The surprise was short-lived as each of them smiled in determination.

"Yeah! I really want a piece of Chrysalias now!" Rainbow Dash said with confidence. "Besides, I can't let Shy take all the fun." She said playfully and nuzzled the yellow mare with affection. If it wasn't clear to me before, it was now. They were a couple. A cute one, in fact.

"Quite! We must get her out of the beautiful castle. I can't dare to imagine what atrocious decor she has erected!" Rarity said, stamping her hoof in outrage. I guess that was her way of saying 'Lets kick ass and take names'.

"Ah'm with Rarity! Ah am thinkin' it's bout time to give ole Chrysie tha boot!" Applejack said

"Yepper Lepper Pepper! Lets kick some Changeling booty!" Pinkie said joyfully, making Applejack giggle lightly.

"Well, I think that since we have our secret weapon now..." Twilight trailed off, looking at Luna with puppy dog eyes. The Lunar Princess let out a light laugh.

"Very well. The frontal assault of Canterlot Castle shall begin at dusk tomorrow!" Luna announced.

"I'll mobilize the troops and get everypony ready for the battle!" Twilight said excitedly and rushed out of the room, mumbling something about strategic positions.

"We might as well help her out." Rainbow said with a shrug. All of the others except Rarity nodded.

"I simply can't, darling. I have to set up weapons and armor." Her airy, but elegant, tone flowed as she trotted towards the exit. The others didn't argue with her. Probably because they needed weapons and armor. They exited the room to round up all of the ponies. Luna and I stood alone in the room in silence until a new question came to mind

"Why is the city black instead of red?... Assuming red means enemy." I asked. Luna sighed deeply.

"After Celestia was killed, Chrysalias took over the Canterlot Castle...She.... She... She destroyed the city... It use to reside on top of a mountain... I guess she didn't see it fit for living in, so she broke it from said mountain and she is, and has been, using it as her Base Of Operations. She disgraces the throne." She said with chilling hate.

"What about Celestia? You said that she would return after we killed Chrysalias. How can she do it if she is dead?" I questioned.

"When Chrysalias murdered my sister, she used a spell that sucked her soul from her body. Instead of passing to the sun, she is trapped inside that accursed creature, being fed on." Luna said with overwhelming malice, then lightened up slightly. "Celestia's body is being preserved and when Chrysalias is defeated, I shall cast a soul trapping spell. Celestia will be returned to her body, but significantly weakened. That is what this is for," She said and held up a bottle of blackish brown liquid, "It is called Ambroci. It heals all magical abilities, restoring the wielder to full power." She explained. I nodded lightly.

"That's some powerful stuff. You guys should be unbeatable?" I asked the statement to verify it.

"Not exactly," She said, "The plant that Ambroci comes from is found on the farthest corner of Equis, our planet," She explained quickly when she saw the look of confusion at the new word on my face. "and only blooms once in a century. It is very rare and I only possess two bottles. For very special occasions and drastic measures." I nodded. I looked back towards the map with another curious gaze, and caught another name. Whinnyapolis. I sighed. Then my gazed drifted towards the farther reaches of said map, and I caught another black city. The Crystal Empire.

"Luna? Why is that one black as well?" I asked. She looked down with a weary sigh.

"It was another major city. Canterlot near paled in comparison to its beauty. And that is why the Changelings hated it. They hate beautiful and majestic things. They hate them because they are jealous. And to answer your question, it was obliterated. It is now but a dead crater covered in snow." She said sadly, but then brightened up. Or put on a fake smile. "Now, you've had quiet a long day. I'll show you to your quarters. You're going to need all the rest you can get for the upcoming battle." She said with a friendly (Or fake) smile. She had no idea how right she was. Finally, one of these ponies got it.

"That would be wonderful." I said with an over-exaggerated sigh. A midnight blue aura gripped me and I felt my stomach lurch forward as I was teleported. I hit the bed face first and sunk into the soft mattress, letting out a blissful sigh.

"I'm glad they have beds in this dimension." I said with a light chuckle. Nothing like some humor before bed. Its good for the soul. That was a dreamless night of deep sleep.

~~~

I awoke in the morning with a groan. "What time is it?" I groggily asked the figure who's presence I had seen.

"Three o'clock. In the afternoon. You've got an hour to get ready and two to get to Canterlot. Be quick about it, your troops need a leader." A familiar take-charge-and-organize tone rang out. I slipped out of the bed and heard a loud clunk as my feet hit the ground. I must have slept in my battle suit. It was so comfortable that it had felt like a second skin. Rarity really was good at this sort of thing.

By 15 minutes, I was on a carriage that rocked gently in the breeze, with Fluttershy sitting next to me and Luna and Twilight sitting beside each other on the opposite side. Army training really pays off when you need to be quick. The structure was inclosed, but you could feel that it was in the air, probably being pulled by some Pegasi guards.

"Luna?" I asked, breaking the tense silence. Fluttershy squeaked and tensed farther as if i had startled her. I probably did. "Why didn't you and Twilight just teleport there?" I asked, partly wanting to know, but also wanting to get rid of the ear piercing silence.

"Because, we would be a great deal weaker and would be of little to no use against Chrysalias or her servants." Luna explained. I nodded and looked off to the side.

"Doesn't that helmet ever get uncomfortable?" Twilight asked after a pause. I didn't even notice that it was still on. This thing really was like a second skin.

"Why of course not!" An over-dramatic voice that I instantly recognized came through the speakers of my helmet. Fluttershy wasn't the only one to jump at the unexpected noise. "I designed it for maximum comfort!"

"Rarity?" I asked, irritation creeping into my voice.

"Yes, darling?"

"Are you able to hear everything around me?"

"And see everything you do." She confirmed playfully. That sent a rather large shiver down my spine.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself-"

"Greatly."

"But I would like for you to respect my privacy and personal space." I said with a hint of annoyance mixed into my formal tone.

"Aww, boo!" She teased, "You're no fun. Fine." She finished airily. I heard a light click and sighed in relief. I guess that was the speakers being disabled.

I looked for the little blue button on the inside of the collar. I quickly found it and pressed it. The helmet clicked down off of my face and down the back of my head. A random shiver was sent through my back. I suddenly tensed it involuntarily with a sharp intake of breath in surprise.

"Gah! That was... Odd..." I said as my muscles started to relax.

"Yes, helmets have that effect on us as well. You'll get use to it." Luna said, "It's another reason we like to keep them off."

"Also, they aren't too great for stealth operations." Twilight said. I swore I could've heard a pony huff in exasperation, but I didn't see anymore ponies in the structure. I pushed the thought down quickly.

"Might I ask why?" I said.

"I-I c-can sh-sh-show you... If that's alright." A timid voice squeaked from next to me. I had almost forgotten Fluttershy was there. I seemed to be forgetting a lot lately.

"That would be very much appreciated. How very kind of you." I said with a smile. I saw Twilight and Luna lightly smirk at my comment, but thought nothing of it. Fluttershy stood up.

"Helmet. On." She clearly commanded, while at the same time keeping her small voice. Her helmet rose from all directions of her armor, folding onto her fur like a tsunami. When the last bit of metal clicked into place, the eyes opened and glowed a brightly pale yellow that matched the Pegasus's coat color.

"Whoa..." I said in slight awe. She was now fully decked out in a combat ready battle suit. The only things that flowed from it were her mane, tail, and wings. "That makes sense. Giant glowing eye's don't really get along with sneakiness." I said with a chuckle. Twilight giggled lightly and Luna stifled a laugh. I could even sense Fluttershy smiling lightly under her helmet.

"Helmet. Off." She said. It retracted in the same way it had formed, but, you know, in the opposite direction. She shuddered lightly as her back muscles contracted. "I really don't like the helmet." She said shyly and sat back down, her muscles relaxing. I couldn't blame her. It was pretty strange when you took it off. It didn't hurt. It just felt...Well... Strange.

My mind began to wander, after all, there wasn't much to do. Before I knew it, we were stopping at a large encampment about three miles out from the disheveled ruins of a once mighty city. Canterlot. Even from this distance, I could see massive black spires and a rubber like material stretched from tower to tower. It was perforated just like a Changeling. We all piled out of the carriage, Luna first, and let her lead us through the camp. Ponies were rushing about, prepared for the battle ahead. Some were determined, some were nervous, and others looked lustful for battle. As if they were going to charge in spear first and kill all of the Changelings single-hoofedly. It was truly a sight to behold.

I spotted an unlucky male stallion about the age of eighteen who had a deep brown mane and a lighter grey coat. He looked like today he should've just stayed in bed. He wasn't watching where he was going. He bumped into me and was knocked off of his hooves by the sudden impact. Luckily, I saw it coming at the last second and braced myself.

"I am terribly sor-" He cut his British accented apology dead in shock. His face begged for mercy. I smiled warmly and held out my hand to help him up.

"It's alright, soldier. Accidents happen." I said with a light smile, "Just keep them off the battle field." I said with a sly wink. He hesitated at first, then smiled and hit his hoof to my palm. I gripped it tightly and swung him up.

"Will do, General. Thank you." He said and continued with was he was doing, but with a smile.

"The first step to taking back Equestria lies in kindness and friendship. Perhaps Celestia was right about you." Luna said. I felt a small bit of pride well in my chest. Again, keeping it a lower than it wanted to be.

"It's good to keep up troop moral. They need a leader that they can trust, instead of fear." I said. Luna nodded, finding my words very pleasing and relatable.

We continued through the large encampment briskly without farther interruption. We came to the middle of the camp, were a massive tent stood with the symbol of an Alicorn that's colors were split down the middle on either side of the entrance. On one side, it was a pearly white that matched the coat of their former sun goddess while the other side was the midnight blue of Luna's coat. Half of a cartooned sun in a white circle came out from behind Luna's side and a crescent moon in a dark blue circle came from behind Celestia's side. I recognized the crescent moon as the image painted onto the armor on Princess Luna's flank.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the symbol.

"It's the emblem of the Royal Equestrian Army. And if you're wondering why my cutie mark is on Celestia's side, it's to show unity of our army." Luna answered as we entered the tent. Fluttershy had dematerialized and was nowhere to be seen. I just assume she went to see her other friends before the battle.

"Cutie mark?" I quizzically questioned their word choice and definition.

"Yes. It tells a pony his or her special talent. I now raise the sun and the moon, but I use to only do so with the moon. That is why my cutie mark-"

"Is the moon." I finished for her. She simply nodded, dodging my question about why they call it what they did.

"Alright. This is were we part ways for now. I will see you on the battlefield, Jack." Twilight said with a friendly smile, "In the meantime, check around the camp, interact with your soldiers, give them some confidence, and most importantly, make some friends." Twilight threw the options around and smiled nostalgically at the last one.

"See you on the battlefield." I said and nodded with a smile. I turned around and exited the large tent. I looked around. "Now, where to go first..."

Friends Through Bloodshed

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I saw a large tent with a red cross on it in the distance, away from everypony else. The word 'Hospital' crossed my mind. It wasn't as massive as Headquarters, but it was still pretty huge. I walked over to it and entered through the front flap. Empty white beds occupied the space near the walls and were lined up neatly all the way to the far end. Yep. Hospital. Or as close as you can get to one in the midst of a battle. I shuddered at the invading image of what this place would look like after said battle, regardless if we win or not. I quickly buried it along with as many disturbing or unsettling thoughts as possible.

"You're very curious about something so serious." A foreign voice rhymed from behind me. I spun around and saw a zebra that was, at most, a few inches taller than the other ponies. She wore golden rings all down her neck and front left hoof. She also had two large ones for ear rings and her mane was styled to that of a mo-hawk. She had a very mystical look about her, to say the least. There was something else about her that was different. Something that was... Missing.

"You're not wearing a battle suit?" I asked, furrowing my brow as I came to the conclusion.

"I will not be on the front line. I shall be helping wounded soldiers to once more shine. So that if we fail today, we can jump right back into the fray." She explained.

"Ah. My name is Jack." I said, extending my hand in greeting.

"Yes, I know your name. But mine is Zecora. Nice to meet you, if its all the same." She rhymed again.

"Why do you rhyme?" I asked.

"Is it a crime?" She answered with a sly smile, rhyming my words. It made me chuckle lightly.

"I have to admit, I walked right into that one." I said. "Anyways, nice to meet you. I'm glad that somepony treats me as their equal instead of their authority." I said with a smile.

"Any day. Now, you should be on your way. I must prepare for the battle's aftermath and you must show the Changelings your wrath." She said and continued into the tent to put some finishing tucks into the bed sheets. I nodded and exited the tent. I looked around to find anything interesting to explore, but it was to no avail.

"Look out!" I heard a dopey voice call down to me. I looked up just in time to see a blonde maned Pegasus, in full freaking armor, with greyish blue wings falling out of control at me. This is going to hurt. My eyes widened in shock; I didn't have time to move out of the way. She crashed into me with a thud and I was thrown off of my feet.

"Oof!" I grunted as the wind was knocked out of me on impact.

"Oh my!" The voice said worriedly, "I'm so sor-... What the hay are you?" She asked with confusion. I rolled my dazed head over and blinked several times in an attempt to focus my blurred vision. It worked. The greyish blue Pegasus, who had removed her helmet, was staring at me with one eye. I furrowed my brow in puzzlement as I tried to focus on her other eye, which was wandering everywhere. I don't know what made me think this, but I thought that if I could catch the pupil with mine, it would focus in. I guess it was the random knock to the skull. Oh well, it didn't work.

"I thought all of you ponies knew who, and what, I am." I said back, still a little bit dazed.

"I don't." She said. Then her eyes widened as she realized who and what I was. "Oh gosh! I really am sorry! You must be Jack! The human that everypony has been talking about." She apologized as I got up and brushed myself off while shaking my head to clear it. "My name's Ditzy! Ditzy Doo!" She greeted with a bright smile and a hoof extended. I shook it and then she added, "But most ponies call me..." She paused and frowned a little bit. "Derpy." A slight disdain crept into her voice. I frowned slightly.

"That doesn't seem very nice." I said, then smiled again. "I think I'll call you by your real name." Ditzy lifted her head and smiled lightly.

"Hey Derpy! How's the eye?" A taunting and obnoxious laugh came from the side. Whoever it was, they couldn't see me because of the open tent flap. So, naturally, I got an idea.

"Ditzy, act like you're talking to yourself!" I urgently whispered with a devious grin and slipped under the tent before she could protest.

"Yeah, uh, um..." A stupider voice stuttered, trying to find the right insult. "Stupid eye!" He found it. I was disappointed to say the least.

"Come on guys..." Ditzy said in a hopeless tone. "We're about to have a battle." She tried to make up a logical excuse to get out of the bullying. It sounded like she had been in this place before, no doubt she had.

"Yeah, guys. We're about to have a battle." A third, smoother voice mocked. I snuck around and crept out from under the other side of the tent behind them and saw three larger, male Pegasi closing in on Ditzy. The middle one had a dark blue coat and green mane while the right one had a yellow mane and a red coat. Lastly, the one on the left had a black coat and a blue mane.

"We can't go into battle like this." He said. The the bottom of his armor slid open and something dropped out. I knew exactly what it was and what they planned to do with said... Organ... But my mind wasn't wanting to accept it. The other two followed the leader. I stood in a shocked silence as the closed in on her. This was escalating just a little to quickly for me.

"Nooo..." Ditzy tried to protest, but it was a helpless sounding one. Like she had been through this many times already. In my book, one time was to many. I came up behind them with my most serious face on and cracked my knuckles loudly. Their armor instantly shot up around their members and clicked shut. Ditzy's eyes widened in happiness and hope sparkled in them.

"What do we have here?" I said.

"Nothing but us friendly Pegasi, sharing a conversation." The leader said nonchalantly while still facing away from me. I scoffed disapprovingly at the lie. He whipped around, expecting to see another male pony, but their eyes widened and even their leader momentarily lost his cool as their eyes trailed up to my face.

"Is there a problem?" He asked with his cool returning.

"There are three things I hate most in life. The third being fake stupidity while the second is real stupidity. And your friend over there looks chock-ful of both." I said, then looked down menacingly after glancing at the red and yellow Pegasus, "The first and foremost, is rape." I said with venom. A spark of true anger flared within me. They all put a hoof forward to intimidate me. I laughed and stepped forward twice, towering over the three. This made them retract.

"Don't be hasty..." The leader said with a frightened chuckle.

"How often?" I asked without backing down.

"Three times a week." The red and yellow one blurted out in fear. The leader hit him in the head with a hoof. It seems that I was right in pointing him out as the stupid one. "Ow! Sorry, I blurt the truth when scared..." He embarrassingly admitted. I was shocked by the frequency of said... actions... But did not let it show on my face. It was way to often.

"For how long?" I asked in a deep growl.

"Th-The past y-year!" The stupid one blurted again, this time earning an even harder hit to the head.

"Hey, pal. I don't think your buddy can loose anymore brain cells before he goes into a coma." I said, not being able to pass up the chance to insult him.

"Yeah!" The stupid one said, then realized what I had said. "Hey!" He shouted in offense.

"And he proves my point to boot! This is priceless." I said with a cruel chuckle. Maybe I took it a little to far, but these guys were about to rape a defenseless mare. They deserved every bit of my verbal insults. And maybe more.

"Anyway, you've been doing this to much for to long. If you ever lay a hoof on her again, I'll have your heads on my wall." I threatened very seriously. Their pupils shrank to the size of pea's on a dinner plate as they turned and flew away as fast as they could.

"Thank you... I won't forget this." Ditzy said with a very happy smile.

"Don't mention it. It was definitely a pleasure." I said, "Why didn't you tell any of the other ponies?" I asked.

"They... They threatened my filly... I couldn't let them hurt my daughter like that." She said. Anger flared in me again as I balled my hands into fists.

"Cowards." I said. Her eyes widened as she realized something.

"Dinky!" She shouted in worried fright and shot off in the direction that the three Pegasi went. My helmet suddenly clicked up over my head.

"What's going on? Is this thing malfunctioning?" I asked the air. I didn't expect a response, but I got one.

"One of my machines, malfunctioning?! Of course not, darling! I can remotely control the suit from here." Rarity explained.

"That's unsettling." I muttered.

"I just heard everything and I believe that it would be a splendid time to tell you about another feature of your armor." She said, ignoring my comment. "A very nifty and useful one at that. One the opposite side of the blue button for raising and lowering your helmet, there is a red button. Press it." She instructed through the speaker. I searched for the small button and found it quickly. I pressed it and felt two large objects click out of the back of my suit, then droop down.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Wings. Now, this is going to sting a bit..." She warned in a manner that told me this was going to hurt. A lot. Before I had time to react, two white-hot needles pierced my back and began to send shots of fire through the nerves and bone in my shoulder blades. I cried out in tortured agony, but then the pain disappeared. It was like popping you arm back into it's socket after having it dislocated. Except you had to multiply the initial pain by ten. But I gained a new feeling. New appendages. I flapped the wings a few times, gaining some air. I began to steer through the wind in the direction that Ditzy had hurried to.

"Thanks, Rarity. Even if it was utter hell for a few seconds." I said.

"Anytime, darling." She replied. I soon came upon a smaller tent with an image of bubbles tattooed onto it. There was a movement from inside and then I heard Ditzy let out a muffled scream, followed by a fearful feminine voice saying "Help, mommy!" Anger flooded and overwhelmed me. I gripped my hands into fists and shot down in front of the tent. I heard familiar voices inside.

''Not so tough when your big oaf isn't here to protect you, huh?" The smoother male seethed. "And now, to attend to sweet little Dinky..." He said malevolently.

"No! Take me instead! Just don't hurt her!" Ditzy cried. I burst through the flap of the tent to see two of the three male Pegasi from earlier crowding an almost eighteen year-old mare who looked terrified while the stupid one pinned Ditzy and was about to rape her. But they all froze when they saw me. A moment of tense silence settled.

"Ditzy," I spoke, my voice rattling with bottled anger, "That was unbelievably reckless." I said. My eyes shot over to the three Pegasi, who were backing away in fear. "As for you three... I wasn't joking back there." I said and felt the anger finally explode like a supernova in the sky. I dashed forward and grabbed the leader by the throat, only to be bucked in the side and out of the tent. For a second, my world was a haze. It was like I had downed a rather large bottle of champagne.

''You're not taking us down so easily." The black and blue one said.

I rolled my head over to see the stupider sounding one kick Ditzy one more time before the tent flap fell again. Big mistake. Rage once more overwhelming me and I threw my body off of the ground. I punched the Pegasus that knocked me out of the tent dead in the muzzle before he could react. He cried out in pain and flew to the ground, holding his bleeding muzzle while looking at me through fear-filled tears. I walked over to him and drew my handgun. His eyes begged for mercy, but today was not a day for such things to a monster like him. I pointed the barrel at his head.

"I stay true to my word. You are no different from those Changelings. Cum stain." I spat coldly. His pupil dilated in horror before I put his brain into the ground with a laser blast.

"Cobalt!" The leader shouted what I guessed was the name of the black, blue, and now red Pegasus in saddened fury.

He shot forward and hit me in the chest with his hoof, sending me flying again to the ground. Luckily, I had secured my handgun. He jumped on top of me and started to punch my helmet in rapid and blind rage. As his hooves flew at me, tears formed in his angered eyes. I felt something pop and blood spewed on the inside of my helmet, then a rush of more painful agony ran across my face as error messages and caution lights popped up on my Heads Up Display. I flung my fist into his ribs and threw him off of me.

I clicked my helmet off and a miniature pool of blood splattered onto the dirt. I reached up and took a deep breath. I snapped my nose back into place and a fresh wave of pain rushed through my face. Then relief. I wiped the blood from my nose and walked over to the crumpled heap of the leaders body. I probably cracked a rib or two with that punch. Oh well, it wouldn't matter in a few seconds anyway. I grabbed my handgun once more and pointed it at his head.

"No!" The stupid sounding one yelled. My head had a split second to turn before I was bucked in the side again, this time with significantly more force. I hit the ground pretty hard with an enormous amount of pain erupting from my side. I tried to cry out in pain, but couldn't find the air. My dazed head rolled over to see the crippled leader flying away in the sun. I raised my hand that was still holding the Grave Digger to fire at the fleeing Pegasus, but it was kicked away and my hand crushed under a hoof. This time, however, I did find the air to cry out in agony. I even coughed a few times, tasting copper. No, tasting blood. He smiled in triumph, but it was momentary. He looked up and his victory was quickly changed into a nightmarish defeat.

"For thy's crime's against pony-kind, I sentence thee to death." A cold, yet majestic voice that I knew well (and was really glad to hear) said.

"No!" The terrified pony cried out and tried to fly away, but was shot in the back of the head with a midnight blue bolt. He hit the ground with a thud and stayed there, painfully still.

"Jack!" Twilight's voice rang out and I felt her slid next to my body. "Fluttershy! Get over here quickly!" She shouted.

"No." I croaked out. "I-I'll be fine. Take care of Ditzy and her daughter." I coughed some more blood onto my battered armor. I tried to get up, but only made it halfway before horrid pain forced me back to the ground.

"No way! You're our last hope!" She said.

"Then I can't be bed ridden. Use magic or something on me! Just help Ditzy and Dinky first." I said with urgent seriousness. Twilight momentarily paused, searching her mind for something to use against my logic. She found nothing and looked back in the direction that she came from. She nodded at who I guessed was Fluttershy. I was proven correct when she flew over me and into the tent.

"Twilight Sparkle. Stand back, I shall heal Jack." Luna's voice floated to my ears.

"But Princess, what about-?"

"I have the Ambroci." Luna interrupted the lavender mare. I was suddenly surrounded in a teal aura that lifted me off of the ground and turned me in the direction of Luna, who's horn was glowing the same color. "Focus on your injuries. We will need the fullest amount of concentration we can get to heal your bones and organs." She said. I closed my eyes and focused on the pain in my body. I heard a loud crack followed by many snaps and cracks. I screamed in tortured agony as pain pierced my senses so badly that black spots materialized in my vision. Twilight caught me on her back when the blue aura vanished.

The pain was brief, like the wings, but so much more intense. I almost passed out. Honestly, I would rather die than go through that shit again. My eyes fluttered open as Twilight laid me on the soft grass. A good, but tingling, sensation lingered on the area's of my injuries, but the pain had been obliterated, quite brutally at that.

"Can't stay out of trouble, can you?" Twilight joked as I got up from the ground and brushed the dust off of my freshly repaired suit.

"I could, but what fun would that be?" I said with a smirk. It earned a laugh. Then I decided to focus on more important things. I turned to the Princess of the Night. "Luna, one of them got away. The leader. He was dark blue in the coat and had a light green mane. He was also a Pegasus." I reported. "We have to find him, and until we do." I paused and looked back at Ditzy's tent. "I recommend we take her and her daughter into special protection."

"We'll send search parties out. Of course, we will get Ditzy and Dinky both back to the medical tent. After all, Zecora is a better healer with more equipment than Fluttershy." Luna said and put on a gentle smile. "It's good to see that you have made a friend. Even under the horrid circumstance, I am proud to call you my friend." I let a smile flicker across my face for a moment.

"I need to go and check on her. After that, we'll win ourselves a war." I said confidently as I turned around and walked to the entrance of Ditzy's tent. I lifted up the flap and ducked under the top of it. Fluttershy was wrapping a few places in bandages and had Ditzy wearing a gauze pad over her left eye. She smiled when her good eye locked onto me and Fluttershy looked up, doing the same.

"Thank you, Jack. You are the best friend a mare could have. And I have only known you for a few minutes!" She said with a laugh in her slightly hoarse voice. Then a light lavender colored Unicorn with a blond mane strode out from the shadows with a suave look.

"And you must be Dinky." I said.

"I am." She replied, then gave me a gentle smile. "Thank you. I'll see you on the front lines, Jack." She said. I have no clue why, but my heart leapt into my throat as I looked into her deep, yellowish auburn eyes.

"Th-They are going to put you in protective care with your mother until that mad-pony is caught." I said, fighting an embarrassed blush from my mishap with words. Why did this matter to me? Why did I care what she thought of me? She laughed whole-heartedly.

"Well, they're going to be dragging me then." She said and trotted out of the tent, slightly amused, but still cool and collected. The polar opposite of her mother.

"I'm glad to have such a cool daughter." Ditzy spoke nicely. "She may seem calm and cool on the outside, but you saw her when you came for the rescue." Ditzy shuddered as the memory crossed her mind. "Protect her if she is in trouble."

"Of course. I didn't come all the way out here to save her just to let her die on the battlefield." I chucked and Ditzy let out a light laugh with me.

"Why don't they just use magic to heal you and the rest of the ponies like they did me?" I asked as the thought came to mind.

"Because," Twilight's voice came from behind me as she entered the tent. "Magical healing isn't permanent. Not to mention, it has dangerous consequences to the pony that attempts it." She said, then saw the look of uncertainty in my eyes. Partially from the amount of time I had until those mortal wounds came back and how Luna was holding up. "But don't fret, you have three hours. Luna gave almost all of her power to heal your injuries. Luckily, she had a vial of that Ambroci stuff. She has one vial left. For Celestia after the spell." Relief crossed back onto my face.

"Well... What are we still doing here? We have three hours to storm the castle, kill Chrysalias, and get Celestia back to her body. And so we go!" I said and walked out of the tent with a small smile, accompanied by Twilight, Ditzy, and Fluttershy.

War

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The fly back was smooth, but boring because of the ground-walkers. Aka, Twilight, Ditzy, and Fluttershy. I don't know why the yellow Pegasus chose to stay down there instead of flying, but she just did. Ditzy was grounded because of injuries to her right wing, and Twilight was on the ground for the obvious reason of not having wings. So, I pressed the button that controls my helmet and it slid up over my head.

"Rarity?" I asked into the speaker.

"Yes, darling?" She answered almost instantly.

"Thank you."

"Whatever for?" She asked obliviously.

"The others. I know you can see everything that I can and I guessed that you alerted the others of my danger." I said. There was a slight pause on the other line.

"You're very welcome." The answer finally came.

"Another thing. I couldn't ask this before, because of the situation, but what, exactly, was the excruciating pain when I got control of my wings?" I asked.

"That was the wings connecting to your neurological sensors and bone structure, allowing you to use them as if you were born with said appendages." She said, "Long story short, they are now a part of you." She added.

"Wait, if they are now a part of me, how the hell am I suppose to go home?! I can't exactly show up in a badass suit of armor with wings jutting out of my back!" I said in alarm.

"Calm down, darling. They are detachable. And even if they do somehow get stuck, Zecora and I can remove them via surgery after the battle. Which I am sure you are going to need anyway." She said reassuringly. It was working. Until the last part was muttered, sending a colder than average shiver down my spine.

"Why didn't the other ponies get a set of wings?" I asked.

"They're not so easy to make. They were specially made for you so you could stand a chance against Chrysalias." She explained. I just nodded, hoping she had picked up the positive signal.

We reached the camp within a few minutes, and all of the ponies were ready to charge their enemy. The sheer amount of soldiers was overwhelming. There were massive lines that stretched for half a mile, yet the entire, gigantic army was completely silent. Not even a whisper escaped the mass. It was eerie in a way.

My eyes then cast the the ruins of that once beautiful city, where an army of similar, if not greater, proportions was gathering. I could hear the excited war cries and snarls from all the way over here. And there was about a mile of expanse to charge.

"Ponies of Equestria!" Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice sliced through the silence like a white-hot knife through warm butter. In other words, she was REALLY loud. It even startled me a little bit. The crowd gazed up at their Princess and I. "The time has come to take back our land and our way of life!" I smiled at the enthusiastic, yet hardened faces of the ponies below. "To long have we been fighting against Chrysalias and her brood!" Now the crowd was getting antsy, they wanted payback. "We must let our enemies know that they may take our lives, but what they'll never take, is our freedom!" Luna shouted. No. Freaking. Way. She made a Braveheart ending to her speech! In the exact words! To top it all off, the crowd shouted "Equestria forever!" I thought for sure I would wake up any second and the voices would start talking to me while the doctor pumped me full of meds. "One final fight! Led by Jack!" She pointed to me and then dropped down to the ground where my other friends stood proudly

The soldiers exploded in cheering, but instantly went silent when I held up my hand. I pressed the button to lower my helmet down, sending another shiver down my spine. But I was getting use to it.

"There is something you ponies should know. Before I was teleported here, I was staring death in the face." I saw a few ponies give each other worried looks, but they remained silent. I really admired these guys. "Now, I honestly believe that I, myself, will NOT take back Equestria, nor the throne." There were more worried glances and a murmur of doubt rippled through the crowd. A voice whispered into my ear from my helmets outside speaker.

"I hope you know what you are doing!" It hissed. I smiled lightly.

"You ponies will." I said. Now their faces changed, away from worried and towards relief and confidence. I heard a small sigh of relief through the speaker as well. "You are the will and power of Equestria! I am but one man, who isn't even from this world! Or dimension for that matter." I muttered under my breath before continuing, "You ponies have kept this place alive and resilient to Chrysalias and her Changelings for ten whole years, and from what I have seen, made more technological advances than humanity has in eight-hundred years! So, how I see it..." I smiled lightly at the thought that crossed my mind, "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and brought my fist down with my index and pinkie finger jutting out towards the Changeling army, successfully creating the symbol for Rock and Roll. Although it meant nothing but a hand sign to them, it was something a little more special to me.

The army erupted in ecstatic cheers and charged towards the opposing threat. Pegasi took to the air as the Unicorns and Earth ponies charged forward with the look of pure determination on their faces. I flew in the front of the massive army with Luna appearing at my side.

"Jack. You will need this." She said and her horn glowed in the tell tale teal. I was surrounded in the same aura. It flowed around me like a liquid, then seemed to visibly, though not physically, harden and vanish.

"What was that?" I asked

"A Shield spell. It should reduce any sort of punishment you take that the armor can't." I opened my mouth to reply, but found nothing. So I simply nodded.

"Thank you." I said and turned my attention back towards the battle. Rainbow Dash took control of the Pegasi masses, directing them where to rain hell down on the Changeling hordes strategically while Twilight and the other Unicorns fired a hail of magic and bullets. Applejack charged into the thick of it with her mini-guns spinning out hundreds of rounds of death per minute and Pinkie bounced into the fierce battle while tossing grenades and mines everywhere, being very successful at it too.

I did notice something odd amid the chaos though, the only armor that the Changelings wore was raggedy, mix matched, and patched. They didn't use weapons either, only the magical blasts from their horns. They only advantages they had were that they had both horns and wings as well as overwhelming numbers as well as unlimited ammunition.. For every stallion and mare we had, they had twenty more Changelings. I was really glad they had disadvantages.

I didn't take the time to think to much about it thought, mostly due to the fact that a green bolt singed my eyebrows. Yeah, scary. I instinctively reached behind myself and whipped my sniper out, aiming down the futuristic cyan outlined scope. I picked a random changing and fired. It's leg was severed from its body, but, to my extreme surprise, it grew right back! That explains the lack of armor. Okay, so they had four advantages.

"The head, Halok! Aim for the head!" Luna shouted. I nodded and took aim again, but had to quickly dodged another green blast. I tried again and my laser found its mark.

"This is taking to long." I said to myself in exasperation and clicked the sniper back into it's place after reloading said weapon. I have seen too many shows where the hero got caught in a tight space because he forgot to reload his weapon. I whipped the Grim Reaper off of my back and aimed down it's cyan lined iron sights. I fired off short and controlled bursts towards multiple Changelings, killing them effectively. "Let the bodies hit the floor..." I said with a smile at the old song that played in my head. It was kind of morbid, but it felt right nonetheless.

My eyes darted over to a familiar stallion in the fray. His white coat shined brightly in the setting sun as his bloodstained lilac mane flowed in the wind. He fired multiple shots into a Changeling squad, but that did little. They were on him in seconds. He managed to kill most of them, but one stood above him as he lie on the ground, charging a deadly green blast of energy. The look on his face said it all. He was done. This was over. Then, instead of feeling the initial pain followed by nothing, a warm and gooey liquid splattered onto his face. He opened his eyes completely and saw a bipedal figure silhouetted in the sun, aiming a gun to were the hole in the Changelings head was. A relief filled smile graced his lips.

"Thanks, General!" He shouted to me. I waved my gun in the air.

"Anytime, Mist Free! Try not to get yourself killed and I'll buy you a drink!" I shouted back down.

"I'll hold you to it!" He yelled after a chuckle and jumped back into the fray immediately. I looked around again and spotted another familiar stallion, a grey and brown one. The same one who had bumped into me at camp. He was pinned to the ground with Changeling fangs set into his neck.

"NO!" I cried and shot down in an attempt to save him. I was too late. His eyes rolled in the back of his head as his body went limp. The Changeling removed its dripping fangs from the stallions body.

I tried not to think about what it just did as I slammed into the Changeling and slid across the ground with it hissing in my grip. I brung a fist up into its jaw so hard that its neck cracked. It went limp for a second, but then the Changeling began to twitch. It flung its head up, snapping its neck back into place and bucking me in the gut. It wasn't enough to severely injure me, thanks to the shield, but it would be there tomorrow. I was knocked back onto a body, but I tried not to think about who's it might have been as I drew the Grave Digger from my thigh and planted a blast of energy into the Changelings head, dropping it like a fly.

"Fluttershy?!" I shouted urgently after switching to her radio channel and ran towards my fallen friend, killing Changelings along the way. The medic materialized quietly at my side.

"What do you need, Jack?" She questioned softly through the communications.

"Do what you can for him!" I said, pointing towards the grey stallion. "Don't worry, I'll cover you." I added with a slightly reassuring tone. She nodded and I drew my assault rifle while clipping the handgun back in place. I emptied the clip onto a rushing pack of the beasts and popped it out. I clicked another one into the gun and kept firing into any Changeling that attacked.

"Hey, Jack!" A cocky voice shouted from above, "Special delivery from Rarity! Catch!" I looked up and saw a prismatic tail streaking away from a falling, slender object that had a glowing blue edge from the top to about three-quarters down. After she had killed three Changelings that had slipped by me. I smiled as I realized what it was.

"Death comes in many flavors." I said to myself and caught the sword at the hilt. I swung it to my left, decapitating a Changeling. "Thanks, Rarity." I said through her coms channel as I clipped the Grim Reaper to my back. "That was pretty generous of you."

"But of course, darling." She said back while I stabbed a Changeling in the face. "Nice kill.'' She complimented as I ripped the sword out.

"Thanks." I said, bringing the sword to meet the neck of another Changeling. "Where are you at anyways?" I asked.

"Back at Headquarters." She said as a Changeling head sailed through the air. "I monitor all of the important ponies and give them a heads up if I notice something they do not. By the way, seven o'clock." She said. I round-housed a charging Changeling in the face, sending it into three more of the beasts. I drew my handgun in the other hand and made sure they would not get back up.

"Again, thanks. And how did you know about my thing for swords?" I asked and killed another pair of Changelings.

"I saw the scars. You were brought her with her gun, and upon farther examination, I concluded that the guns from your world could not make those kind of injuries." She explained as another Changeling head hit the dust.

"Ah, yeah. That makes sense." I said. To be honest, I didn't want to know how she had figured that out. I looked back at Fluttershy. She was pumping the stallions chest, and must have been for the whole time, because she looked thoroughly exhausted. My heart sank. "Fluttershy," I gently spoke through her coms channel. She stopped and looked up at me sadly. "He's gone. Go tend to somepony who isn't." I said. The words hurt coming out more than I thought they would. She nodded and left the body there in the dirt. I would mourn him later. You know, if I didn't get randomly teleported to another dimension. Again. Anyways, I had to get to the Queen.

But before I could dash off in the direction of the castle, I felt a blunt object drag across the back of my helmet. Quite brutally too. I heard metal chip on impact as I was sent to the ground with a numb feeling taking over my body. Not even the shielding was able to stop that awful blow.

''Jack!" Rarity called out. I couldn't move, let alone speak.

"You just couldn't mind your own DAMN business, could you?" A familiar voice said. I furrowed my brow at the hint of insanity and rasp in his voice. My eyes fluttered open, but I had been knocked pretty good. So they weren't exactly focused. I felt a hoof on my collar just before my helmet retracted. I was instantly filled with fiery rage as my eyes made out the blurry figure above me. "You thought that you could get away with what you did to Cobalt and Onyx, didn't you?"

"I had to stop you all. One way." I paused, then added with malice, "Or the other. My only regret is not being able to finish you." The stallion above me became more visible and my eyes widened in terror. He had the look of pure and utter insanity etched in his psychopathic smile. His pupils dilated vigorously like someone was turning the lights off, then back on very quickly. Their color had changed too, with every dilation, they switched from a hazel color to a deep, ocean blue. His coat and wings had changed as well, becoming black with a greenish tint to them. He even began to grow a small, perforated horn. He cackled insanely at my shocked face.

"Like the new look?" He asked with taunt.

"What happened to you?" I asked back with a little bit of pity to my voice. His mood instantly erupted in fiery rage.

"YOU!" He seethed a hair-length from my face, "After our little showdown, I was left broken, beat, and scarred! I decided that I had only one option. I went to her majesty, Chrysalias, and she gave me power. So. Much. POWER!" He screamed into my face, then calmed himself down a notch. "So now I bet you're wondering. Am I evil? Your answer," He paused and got extremely close to my eye with his. "Yes I am." He whispered, then cackled malevolently and then began to charge up a massive magical blast.

This was it. I was going to die. For real this time. In another dimension of talking horses. I wondered if I should have just let Twilight blow my brains out back when I first awoke in this strange land. "Any last words?" He asked. A thought came to mind. If I was going to die like this, I had to go out with a joke.

"Yes, just three." I answered with a smartass grin. He, although, was not very amused. I closed my eyes tightly and waited for the inevitable. But instead of the unimaginable pain followed by nothing, I felt a warm liquid spatter across my face. I opened my eyes with confused relief, and saw the hybrids face.

His mouth was agape and his pupils were even smaller than before. I then took notice as to what had happened. A drop of blackish red blood slipped down his face and onto mine. His eyes dilated one last time and became a dull aqua color as his body fell on top of mine. I quickly shoved him off and got up, looking around.

"Looks like I'm the one having to take care of you." A smooth, feminine voice chuckled from behind me. My heart leapt into my throat as I recognized it. I whipped around and saw a lilac Unicorn with a flowing blonde mane walking towards me with a swing in her hips.

"Dinky." I said with a smile, and a slightly dreamy voice. By accident, of course. Why would I do that on purpose? I'm not attracted to ponies. Or their plump flanks... Or their swaying hips... Or their- SHUT UP BRAIN! "Good to see you again, despite the circumstance." I said and shot a Changeling in the face without even breaking eye contact.

"Okay, you have to teach me how to do that." She said with a small laugh.

"That can be arranged." I said with a playful smirk. What was I doing? Was I... Flirting?

"Sounds fun." She said temptingly. Was she... Flirting back? "Anyways, It's good to see that you're still kicking." She said and I tried to thank her for saving my hide, but she held up a quieting hoof. "Call it even, hotshot. You saved me and mommy, I saved your ass."

I spotted a Changeling behind her, making a leap of faith to sink his teeth into an exposed part of the armor on her flank. I dashed forward with my sword and Dinky's eyes widened in surprise as one arm closed around her and the Changeling ended up skewered through the mouth. I held it there for another second before I slung the beast off of the blade.

"You alright?" I asked, still gripping her softly.

"F-Fine." She said in slight shock.

"Good." I said and backed off of her. "I promised to keep you safe," I said, "And that's exactly what I plan to do."

"Th-Thank you..." Her pupils dilated, becoming about forty percent bigger. I smirked lightly.

"Call it even. You saved my ass, now I saved yours. Quite literally." I chuckled. She joined in until a green blast came a breaths-length away from our faces. "Not the best time for this." I said quickly and she nodded.

"Agreed."

"I'll meet you at the castle grounds." I said and turned to dash off.

"Jack! Wait." She said, and, as I turned back around, I was met with an unexpected surprise.

My eyes widened as her lips touched mine. I was in so much shock by the sudden display of affection that I fell into it and closed my eyes. It wasn't tongue or anything, but it was definitely romantic. I know you're probably thinking 'Ew, he kissed a horse?" But whatever, fuck off. I was in another dimension without any other human females for what could be the rest of my life. What's your excuse? We held the kiss for a few seconds, then she broke it. I noticed that she was lightly blushing when my eyes fluttered back open. I couldn't blame her. After all, I could feel the red enter my own cheeks, then flow a little to my ears. That's the Irish. She smirked and backed up a bit. Ditzy was right, under that suave interior was just a big softie.

"I'll see you at the castle, pretty boy." She said, her voice taking back the smooth tone. "And keep that tongue in check. I'll need it later." She said with a wink. She turned around and charged back into the thicket of the fight.

"Well then... That was... Unexpected." I said to myself and let a charging Changeling impale itself on my sword. I started a full on sprint to the castle, decapitating Changelings left and right with the cybernetic blade and even putting a few out of commission with the handgun and a renewed vigor. In no time, with a little boost every now and then from my wings, I had reached the castle grounds. And that's when all hell broke loose.

Defeat In Victory

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Not immediately, of course. It took a few minutes, but hell definitely broke loose. I was the only one to tread the sick looking grass of the courtyard, so I gave my mind a little time to wonder as I sat on the stone steps.

My most romantic kiss was with a horse. Love comes in all the strange places. Take this one for example. With a talking, multicolored pony in the middle of a war with shape-shifting assholes. That would been one hell of a story. This entire experience is going to be one hell of a story to anyone when I get home.

Home. That was another thing. It felt like ages had passed since my 'abduction' into this dimension. I wondered how much time had passed in my world and how to explain to my commanding officer where I was. I could picture it in my head. And it wasn't a pretty picture. Except his face when I tell him about the talking ponies, oh my god, that would be priceless. I probably wouldn't tell him the truth, though. After all, I didn't want to be thrown into the insane asylum. Or as George would so elegantly put it, 'getting shacked up in the whacko-basket'. I chucked lightly at the thought.

"Glad to see you made it." A warm and intelligent voice came from a slight distance away.

"Yes. It would be futile to fight Chrysalias without you." Luna's voice sliced through the air clearly.

"Darn right, it would! Yer our ace in the hole!" Applejack chimed in. I looked up from my spot on the steps of the enormous castle and saw Twilight walking towards me with Luna and Applejack in tow. I frowned.

"You too, but where are the others?" I addressed Twilight with a little worry.

"On their way." She answered simply.

"Do we wait for them, or go in now?" I asked Luna.

"We wait." Luna announced. There was a drawn out pause of tension, so I decided to try and lighten the mood.

"Kill count?" I asked abruptly.

"Ninety-Seven." Twilight said proudly and, to my surprise, without hesitation. Luna let out a light laugh.

"One hundred and forty-three." She said. This time, it was my turn to laugh. Heartily.

"Three hundred and four." I said. Luna and Twilight looked at me with faces that asked 'How the hell?'. Before they could actually ask, I answered. "The walk here was... Eventful." I smirked. Luna and Twilight nodded, satisfied with the answer. Applejack could no longer contain her laughter.

"Five hundred and thirty-eight!" She laughed out. When we gave her an astounded, and slightly worried, look, she laughed even harder and nodded at her mini-guns. We all cracked up at that.

"Whoa! I wasn't the first one here?" A cocky, but confused voice asked from the sky.

"Glad to see that you made it out alive, Rainbow Dash." I called up to her. She landed on the steps beside me, pouting.

"Yeah, but it's still disappointing that I wasn't the first one." She said, "By the way, who was?" She asked. I was about to answer, but Pinkie Pie randomly erupted from the bushes beside me, nearly giving me a heart attack.

"That would be me!" The hyper pink mare sung out and landed on the ground beside Twilight. And now, all hell breaks loose. Twilight gave a light smirk. I caught it, only barely. A second before it happened. It was much to late to stop. Twilight snapped her head towards Pinkie, and my heart stopped when I saw a flicker of blue in Twilight's iris.

"Pinkie!" I cried the warning to little, to late. Her pupils shrunk to the size of pea's and her mouth fell agape in surprise as her eyes widened in shock. Her mane deflated and became a dull, flat, bubblegum color as the Changeling impersonating Twilight fired a magical bolt into her chest.

"NO!" Applejack bellowed in deafening rage. She bucked the Changeling's head so hard that it flew all the way back to the front line, landing in a hole. And thus, the game of Golf in Equestria was invented. The body stood there for a second, then convulsed and collapsed in a black heap.

Applejack clicked her helmet off and dropped down beside Pinkie, small tears forming in her eyes. Pinkie was still alive, but barely. It was a miracle that she was conscious at all. But I guess that was just Pinkie Pie. Even in the end, she fought physics.

"Hang on, sugarcube."

"Applejack..." Pinkie breathed out.

"It'll be jus' fine." Applejack said desperately, her tears growing larger.

"Applejack..."

"Y'all will be better in no ti-"

"Applejack!" Pinkie interrupted again, this time a little more forcibly. But her voice was still incredibly weak. Applejack didn't look like she could accept her friends death. A tear crept down my face. Pinkie's changed into a pained smile of acceptance as she put a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "It will be okay... For you." Applejack began to shake her head. "I'm so sorry... I got careless." Pinkie added softly.

"No..." Applejack shuddered.

"The pain will go away."

"No..."

"Eventually, the wound will heal."

"No..."

"You will find somepony else."

"NO! There is nopony else! You're the only-" Applejack was cut off as Pinkie used the last of her strength to pull her down and silence her with her lips. Man, things sure do escalate quickly here. Applejack fell into the kiss, but tears streamed even more profusely down her face.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one shocked by this move, as I heard a gasp from Rainbow Dash beside me and saw Luna look like she had just been hit with astonishing news. Their lips parted and Applejack slowly drifted up from her marefriends face.

"Sugarcube..." She said in defeat.

"Don't worry, Jacky... I will always be with you." She said quietly and put a hoof on Applejack's chest. "Right here." I didn't care how cliche it sounded, that was freaking sad. Her voice was fading. Getting weaker. It wouldn't be long now. "I'll tell Applebloom, Babs, your parents, Granny Smith, Big Mac, and all of your family how brave..." She coughed a little, "And how amazing of a mare you grew up to be... Now, if you'll excuse me," She put on a light smile, "I have a party to plan... For the heavens..." She breathed out as the vibrant life of Pinkie Pie faded from her body, and her eyes closed. She looked to be sleeping, but we knew better.

"N-No..." Applejack said in unbelieving shock. "No... No, no, no, NO!" She screamed into the air as tears streamed from her face. I felt hot liquid fall from my eyes and I knew, under that helmet, Luna was doing the same. Even Rainbow Dash shared tears at the loss of her friend and the heart breaking scene before her.

I clicked my helmet onto my head to try and get away from it. It didn't work. Applejack brought her hooves into the air, then down onto Pinkie's chest in a desperate, but futile, attempt at revival. My entire being wanted it to work. So badly. Yet, I knew that it wouldn't.

"I-I've never seen her like this before..." Rainbow Dash's voice quivered to my ears through the communications speaker as Applejack pounded Pinkie's chest.

"It's quite unsettling..." I said. I had to assume that the prismatic mare nodded, because she never answered.

Applejack slammed her hooves down one more time before she gave up, or couldn't hold back the flood anymore, and collapsed onto her marefriends body, sobbing loudly and very profusely. That was even more unsettling. But I couldn't exactly blame her for it. She had just lost her significant other.

"Guys!" A book-smart voice called as she was running to the gate. I immediately checked her iris for even a hint of blue, but found nothing. Applejack instantly shot up and pointed the mini-guns at Twilight.

"Stay back! Step even a hoof more forward and Celestia help me, I will grind you to dust!" She shouted as they locked on to the trembling mare and began to spin-up. At least she was honest.

"Applejack." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Stop, it's okay. She isn't a Changeling."

"How d' ya know that?" She asked with skepticism.

"Her eyes are the same purple they have always been." I reassured. Applejack relaxed, but only slightly.

"What's going on here?" Twilight asked, still a bit shaky from one of her best friends threatening to kill her. Applejack dropped her head and stepped to the side, revealing Pinkie's body. Pinkie still had a faint smile playing on her lips. Twilight's mouth dropped and her eyes widened in shock.

"P-Pinkie?" She asked in fake hope. "Th-This isn't funny!" She scolded the body while stamping a hoof. Applejack walked over to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder. Applejack rose her head up and looked into Twilight's shocked and unbelieving eyes with her own tear-filled ones.

"Ah wish it were a prank, Twi..." She said sadly. Tears welled in Twilight's eyes as the fact sank in. She shut them tightly, forcing the tears down as she threw her head into the air.

"FLUTTERSHY!" She screamed. The yellow Pegasus materialized in the entrance.

"T-Twilight? What's wrong?" She asked, then her head trailed down to Pinkie's body. Not a second was wasted as Fluttershy sprang into action.

"Helmet off!" She yelled mid-flight. By the time her helmet was half-way off, she was already preforming CPR. "Damn you, Pinkie, live!" She huffed through sad tears and worked limbs. I think everypony there was a little put off by the vulgarity, including me. You know, minus the pony part.

"S-Sugarcube..." Applejack said, still choked up, but acting bravely. Fluttershy made her no mind. Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. "I-It's over." She said painfully as silent tears streaked down her face. Those words hurt more than anything that had been dished out so far. Maybe it was because of Applejack's acceptance. Luna trotted up to us all.

"Now is a sad time. But we must not let Pinkie die in vain. We will mourn our fallen comrades after the battle is won. But for now, we must move on." She said, trying to cover the sadness in her voice. It wasn't working.

"Luna is right." I said, finally stepping in, "We have to finish this."

"How adorable." A horribly familiar voice cackled out. All of the ponies gasped and turned their attention to where the voice had come from. Behind me. They jumped into a battle-ready stance, helmets clicking over their heads with a barking command. I slowly turned my head around to see a tall, greenish-black Changeling with a sickly aqua colored mane. I quickly followed the actions of my friends.

"Chrysalias!" I yelled and drew my blade. She began to laugh.

"You think something as puny as that can stop me?"

"Well, yeah. I was kinda hopin-"

"FOAL!" She yelled, cutting me off. "This is the great Jack Halok? The 'last hope of Equestria?' You ponies are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here." She mocked. As much as it should have sent overwhelming anger through me, it didn't. If anything, it amused me.

"Shut your mouth!" Rainbow Dash shouted aggressively.

"How about you make me?" Chrysalias teased and shot a bolt at the cyan mare. I threw my wings into action and dashed up to the bolt. With a downward, vertical swing from my sword, the blast was severed and sent to the ground below me. Chrysalias growled and stamped her hoof in a pattern of four. Changelings teleported all around her, at least a thousand appeared by her side.

"Luna? Shy? Twi? Applejack? Dash? You guys take the Changelings." They all nodded. "I'll take Chrysalias." I said, narrowing my eyes in the helmet.

"There is a fine line between confidence and foolishness, Jack." Luna said in warning.

"I know were I stand. Trust me." I said confidently. Chrysalias put a hoof forward.

"Kill them all." She commanded her minions. A sea of black, green, and blue flowed like a tsunami towards us and I readied my blade for combat. It connected with two Changeling necks and their heads were sent flying as four more fell to the Grave Digger. The fight was now full on. Bullets and magic flew endlessly and relentlessly as bodies of Changelings hit the dirt.

I looked over to see how my friends were doing. Not very well. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked thoroughly exhausted and Fluttershy had hidden in a bush, waiting for the first sign of injury. The only reason that I even knew that she was there in the first place was the com chatter. Applejack was fighting full-heartedly, but was being overwhelmed nonetheless. Luna was doing the best out of them all, probably due to the fact that she was a Princess... And an Alicorn. Changelings flew in the air, swirling uncontrollably in a torrent of dark magic. her magic began to rip every one of them that was caught in it to shreds.

I should have been paying attention to my own fight, though. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a hint of green. My head whipped over to the direction of the massive blast. I only had a split-second to narrowly avoid it. I snapped my wings back and the bolt took off a small piece of my armor. Too. Close.

"You scared to fight me man to Changeling, Chrysie?" I taunted a pet name into the crowd of Changelings as I killed a few more. Another blast came from the side, but I was expecting it this time and had enough reflex to completely dodge it. "Just gonna take shots at me from behind your lackeys? Using your own kids as a shield? That's a new low, even for you." I yelled. I needed to lure her out, I couldn't do much otherwise. I noticed something else, though. No more Changelings were charging at me. Not one. They were just flying around me, obscuring my view, but not attacking me.

Another bolt flew, but not at me. I looked at it's destination. A struggling Applejack. She was being pinned down by more Changelings. They were holding her there with no regard to their own lives. They had one mission. Subdue this pony. I flew in to try and stop it, but another blast blocked my way, along with a few Changelings.

"Applejack!" I shouted into her coms as warning. She snapped her head up and spoke softly through everyponies com channels.

"Ah-Ah don't wanna go..." Was all she could get out before the green orb consumed her, exploding in light. Only static came after. Time seemed to stand still. All of the ponies faltered as Applejack's final words reached them. I opened up my own coms channel to the four left fighting... Or rather three fighting and one hiding.

"Applejack has... Fallen..." I said. Rage filled every inch of my body, and by a quick downward glance, I could tell that everypony had the same feeling. They began to fight with full-hearted fury, killing double the amount of Changelings than before. Even the timid yellow Pegasus joined the fray in rage.

"CHRYSALIAS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I saw another bolt of green, but instead of dodging it, I charged forward and cut it clean in half. I kept charging and cut a rather large swath through the Changeling blockade, ripping a hole in it. I burst out of the side and, I am happy to report, took Chrysalias by complete surprise. I slammed into her with my shoulder, knocking the breath from both our lungs. Her green eyes flooded with rage as she snapped to me.

"You're going to pay for that, miserable human!" She seethed and teleported beside me, bucking me in the ribs. I flew a good distance and hit the wall. Ouch. Ouch was an understatement, actually. Agony spiked through my body and I coughed out a little blood.

I silently thanked Luna for that shielding spell. It's saved my life on more than one occasion. I couldn't take another hit like that one, even with the shield. Chrysalias charged forward to hit me in the chest for a finishing blow. My eyes widened and I rolled over at the last second. She slammed into the wall. Too. Close. I kicked off of the wall and sheathed my sword. I whipped the Hail Fire off of my back and aimed down towards where she had impacted. Highest caliber, highest damage. I fired the entire clip of ten into the place where she had smashed into the wall. The building crumpled into a heap of rubble.

"Well, that was disappointing." I said and turned back to the others, who were finishing off the last of the Changelings.

"It's not going to be that easy, boy." Chrysalias's venomous voice came from the dust. I whipped my head back around and saw her standing upright in mid-air. Hovering like humans stand with a thick, cracked, green shield of pure magic in front of her, trailing dust as she moved towards me. I swear, it looked like something out of a badass anime.

"Jack!" Luna's voice flowed through my coms, "Keep her busy until I give you the signal to kill her! I must charge my spell to rescue Celestia!"

"Understood." I said to Luna before turning my attention towards the evil queen. "Good." I smirked at the challenge. I threw my sniper to the ground and whipped the Grim Reaper off of my back. I emptied the entire clip into the shield in its most cracked spot, and, before the smoke had a chance to clear, I unsheathed my sword and dashed forward with an insane amount of speed with the tip of the blade aimed for the, now severe, crack in the shield. Physics and momentum did the rest. I felt the blade pierce the shield all the way up to the hilt as my assault rifle fell to the ground.

"I was hopping not to run you through so easily." I said with a cocky smile.

"Good." Was her simple reply... From above me. The smirk quickly disappeared and my eyes widened before I side stepped, barely escaping her hoof's powerful downward smash. Thank god for adrenaline. The beaten shield shattered completely and rained down, beautifully gleaming in the orange glow of afternoon before it fizzled into nothing.

I leapt back a few steps, getting a small distance between us. "It saddens me that you underestimate me so." She said. Frustration flared. It didn't last long though, as Chrysalias dashed forward. Sparks flared as I rose my sword in a last second defense. I looked down to see that her hoof had changed into a blade. Well. That complicated things. She began to laugh. "Don't even try! I defeated Celestia herself! Twice! What do you think you can do, human!" She sneered.

"Remember what you just said? About underestimating your opponents?" I smirked, "Don't be a hypocrite." I added coldly while kneeing her in the gut. Hard. Her eyes widened and she coughed up a little black blood as the air left her lungs. I took my opportunity and grabbed her hoof where the blade was not. I flipped it over and trusted my blade forward into her chest, running her through. She roared in pain, but ended in laughter.

"The head, Halok." She mocked in Luna's voice, "Aim. For. The. Head." She said with a smirk. My eyes widened as her horn began to glow green. Then I heard a shot from a very massive sounding gun. Chrysalias teleported away and I saw an enormous streak of yellow pass in front of my face where she had been.

"Jack!"

I faltered and my eyes widened. I knew that voice. Again, time seemed to slow, along with my heartbeat, as I turned around to see a blonde-maned mare.

"Dinky! Get the hell out of here!" I screamed as I made my helmet descend from my face.

"Not a chance, 'sir'." She said playfully. Her suave, but stubborn attitude made me feel a little better. A little.

"This is not a game! I won't let anypony else die! Especially you." I added the last part extra seriously. She smirked again.

"You're catching the lingo." She laughed, avoiding my point.

"Aww. Isn't that adorable?" Chrysalias's taunting voice came from behind me. I whipped around to face her. "The human has fallen for the Unicorn." She teased. It was surprising how good she was at reading faces and reactions. And honestly, it was a little scary too. She teleported again. This time, I heard Dinky cry out.

"Dinky!" I shouted in worry filled rage and snapped my body back to her. Chrysalias was holding a gun to the back of Dinky's head. A gun that was big enough to make Dinky not have a head.

"Dinky, Dinky." She mocked my voice with a whine. "What would you do, Halok?" She asked, becoming more serious. "What would you do if I killed this mare?" She taunted. Dinky's cool, suave attitude was now completely abolished. Gone. Zip. Nada. Her face was now filled with fear. Mine, however, was filled with rage.

"Chrysalias. Let her go." I said and narrowed my eyes viciously. I could feel the fire behind them. "Now." I added in a deadly tone. I swear I saw a flicker of fear across her face, but, it didn't last.

"You didn't answer the question. What would you do. If I. Killed her?" She repeated slowly, her hoof getting closer to the discharge mechanism.

"I'll kill you." I said coldly and without hesitation. Then I brought my blade up to where it was just under my eyes for effect. "Slowly." I added with malice. Her lips curled into a malevolent smile.

"I can't wait." she said and slammed her hoof down on the discharge mechanism. Dinky screamed in fear and tears blinded me.

BOOM!

"NO!" I yelled. I felt my heart cave it two with painful sadness, but only for a second.

"Fluttershy!?" Dinky cried out in shock. What? My heart fluttered in hope that Dinky was still alive. I blinked away the tears to see Dinky on the ground. Alive and away from Chrysalias. Relief flooded over me. Then my eyes darted over to where Chrysalias had stood. She was now sprawled across the ground, a smoking gun feet away from her.

Fluttershy stood above the Queen of the Changelings with fire in her eyes. "Stop. Killing. My. FRIENDS!' She started quietly, but finished with a yell of anger that was loud enough to scare a fully grown Manticore away. She brought her hoof down on Chrysalias's chest with enough force to shatter her sternum. If that mattered at all. My eyes widened in surprise at the normally gentle Pegasus's sudden change in mood.

The only word that came to mind was 'Hulk'. Except, you know, she wasn't giant. Or green. A tear of pain forced its way into Chrysalias's eyes as the air left her lungs in an agonized cry. The pain turned to anger and she bludgeoned Fluttershy heavily in the side with her hoof, sending the yellow Pegasus into the stairs with a loud crack.

"Foolish mare!" She spat in malice.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash's voice echoed. The cyan Pegasus was at Fluttershy's side in an instant dash of rainbow. "Don't you even think about dying on me!" She said with tears welling in her eyes. Fluttershy put on a gentle smile as drops of blood crept down her face from under her mane. Her eyes were dull.

"D-Dashie..." Fluttershy called her the pet name, "Tell Scootaloo that..." She coughed a little, "That I-I'm sorry..." She said as tears rolled down her face. Scootaloo? Who was that?

"No! Fluttershy, no... Not like this!" Tears began to run more vigorously down her face than before. "W-We were going to win this war... Win and g-go home... Sp-Spend time together... Grow old together... D-Damn it, Fluttershy, I love you!" She yelled, more in helpless desperation than anger.

"I-I love you... too... Dashie..." She trailed off into unconsciousness.

"Hang on." Dash said and gave Fluttershy a gentle peck on the cheek. She scooped the smaller Pegasus up and bolted for the camp. Loyal to her marefriend until the very end. Admirable.

A massive green blast was fired at the fleeting Pegasi. I dashed in front of it and preformed a powerful upwards vertical sweep with my blade, cutting the blast in two. A piece of metal on the sword chipped. I couldn't keep this up.

"You're not going to kill another pony." I said seriously and looked over to Dinky. "Run. I'll meet you in the camp when this is all over." I barked. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but I narrowed my eyes. She frowned, but nodded and ran.

I looked down to Twilight. "Get her out of here safely. Luna and I can handle this pest." I spat. She put on a determined face and nodded, bolting after Dinky. "Now." I said and turned to Chrysalias. "Let's finish this." I said with a smirk.

"Gladly." She said and charged forward with her hoof now a blade. I side stepped and raised my sword, but faltered at her smirk. "Gotcha." She said. My eyes widened as they looked down to see that she had formed her other hoof into a gun barrel. I dropped like a boulder, with a small boost from my wings, and a shot rang out.

"Too close." I muttered to myself.

"Quick thinking." She said and blew the rising smoke away from her hoof-gun.

"Halok! Now!" Luna's voice shot through my coms. I dashed forward and sparks flew as our blades clashed. I uncliped my handgun from my side and shoved it into her chest, firing a shot.

"When will you idiots-" I slipped my blade down hers and ran her through, only suffering a minor armor chip on my end. "Learn that that doesn't work!" She said, almost in exasperation at my 'stupidity'. I smirked and pulled her to me tightly and removed the gun from her chest without her noticing. I saw a blush run across her face along with confusion.

"I live and learn from fools and from sages. And you, my dear Chrysie, are a fool." I said and pressed the gun to her head. Her eyes widened and her pupils shrank to the size of peas. I pulled the trigger.

"And so..." She said as her pupils dilated, "I am..." Her voice faded as her head fell back. I let go of her body, letting it fall to the ground. As she fell, a massive shock wave emanated from her, causing all of the Changelings that were fighting to fall to the ground. Dead. It looked exactly like when Isildur killed Sauron in the beginning of The Fellowship Of The Ring from the Lord Of The Rings series.

I was so caught up in awe, that I hadn't noticed Luna's disappearance, that is, until she reappeared with Celestia's body. It looked the same as the day she perished. They had kept it well preserved. And why wouldn't they? She was their Princess, after all. Luna's eyes glowed with dark energy as she forced Celestia's soul down into her body. A teal aura consumed Chrysalias and it swirled around the body, reaching deep into Chrysalias. A large white light glowed in the body's horn, then escaped it. It created large, pearl ribbons that shone as brightly as the sun. I hovered down to the ground and landed lightly, sheathing my sword. A massive light show was underway as midnight blue, Luna's advanced magic, to put the rampet pearl, Celestia's advanced magic, into its place.

"Ten years is... A long time to practice!" Luna huffed to the pearly magic as it started to weaken. Strips of light danced fiercely across the sky until the white disappeared into Celestia's body. There was a pause of silence as a weak smile played on Luna's lips, then Celestia's chest began to glow brightly. Luna sighed in relief and collapsed onto the ground.

"Luna!" I cried in worry and rushed to her side.

"Jack..." Her weakened voice said. She floated out a small vial of black liquid with the last bit of her sputtering magic. "The Ambroci... Take it to Celestia." She somehow got out. It looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. Months even. But that wasn't the case. She was simply weak. All that magic had taken its toll.

"But what about you?" I asked after hesitantly taking the vial.

"I... I will be fine... I just... I just need rest is all..." She said and nodded off to sleep.

I got up and began to walk towards the pearl Alicorn. My mind was racing. It was over. The war was won. Chrysalias was dead. Celestia was alive. But this all came at a cost. Pinkie and Applejack, that stallion that I had bumped into at the camp, and all the ponies that lost their lives to the evil hordes. They would all be remembered. I could only hope that Fluttershy and Mist Free had made it. It seemed like an eternity had passed since I had been awoken in my tent at the sound of gunfire, but in reality it had only been a few days. Two at the least.

That was another thing. Home. Earth. After all of this, I was finally going to get to go home. But there was one problem.

I didn't want to.

Call me crazy, insane, ludicrous, etc. But I had nothing left back there. My whole team was dead. All of my friends and even George were gone. I would probably be branded a deserter and coward for randomly disappearing without a reasonable, and sane, excuse as well. I had joined up after high school, so I didn't have a wife. No high-school sweetheart either. And, luckily, no kids.

Then there was Dinky. I had girlfriends before, but this was different. It felt real. But there was one problem. She was a pony. And I was a human. It couldn't work. At least not the physical part. Actually. Maybe it could. The only difference was a little anatomy. It wouldn't really be that different. Sort of like a dwarf or an elf. Not human, but sentient life forms nonetheless. With personality and feelings.

I was halfway to Celestia, who's chest had begun to rise and fall, signaling life, when I heard a few cracks. My eyes widened as torturing agony ripped through my nervous system. I collapsed in a crumpled heap as my muscles seized up and tore randomly.

What had happened? Did Chrysalias manage to survive that? Now, she couldn't have. Then Twilight's words floated back to me through memory. 'You have three hours.' Shit. Ding, ding. Three hours were up. I let out a strangled gasp of pain. It was worse than when Luna had healed me.

"Jack!" Twilight's worried voice reached through my sense-killing pain. I tried to speak, but the pain forced my teeth to clenched. Darkness ate at my vision as a numb feeling started to spread through my body. Enough pain was numbed for me to speak.

"Ambroci... Celestia..." I got out before darkness consumed my pupil and I slipped from consciousness.

The End...

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My eyes fluttered open as I let out a groan of discomfort. I seemed to be laying face-down in an endless black abyss. I struggled to my feet and shook my head to clear my mind.

"Hello?" I asked. I was only answered by my own echo. "Am I dead?" I thought aloud. Again, silence.

"Jack..." A faint, but wonderfully familiar voice came from behind me. I whipped around, but nothing awaited. I frowned in disappointment. "I'm so sorry..." A slow, but methodic beeping began to accompany the voice, "I never should have left you there..." A bright light the size of a doorway appeared in the distance with the silhouette of a mare I knew well.

"Dinky." I breathed and began to walk towards the light. The closer that I got, the louder the beeping and the clearer Dinky's voice became.

"Mommy is okay... She recovered quickly from Limestone, Cobalt, and Onyx's beating." I felt a hot tear hit my face, but it wasn't mine. "I-I'm okay too... Me and Twi got out just fine..." Another tear hit my face and Dinky sniffled. "T-Twi went back for you... After realizing that three hours were up..." I was so close to the light that I could feel its radiating warmth. "Oh, Celestia, please let him wake up!" She exclaimed and laid her head down on my chest as I burst through the light. My eyes fluttered open. They felt like leaden weights, and the harsh light wasn't helping to much. But I forced them to stay open. For both mine and Dinky's sake.

"Dinky..." I groaned out in a hoarse voice, coughing twice.

"J-Jack?!" She exclaimed after shooting up from the stool next to my bed. Her face was of relief and shock, but also hinted at hope.

"Where am I?" I asked her groggily.

"Ponyville. But you are also awake. And that's the one that matters." She replied with a smile and nuzzled me. I lifted my heavy arm and scratched her behind the ear. She seemed to like it.

"You're not out of the woods yet." Twilight's voice came from the doorway. Well, shit. Admittedly, I kind of saw it coming. "You're on life support." She continued into the room and sat next to Dinky. My eyes widened in horror. "You have three options. One, we unplug you..." She swallowed hard, "And you die... Peacefully." Damn. She was the same old Twilight. Straight to the point.

"Then I have two options." I said, making where I stood very clear. "What are they?"

"You can go home.... Or, we can turn you into one of us." My heart stood still. "There is a catch though. To both. If we turn you into a pony, its permanent. We lost the reversal spell ages ago. Never thought we would need it, so we never looked when it turned up missing. If we send you back home, you'll be sent to the exact moment in time before I began my initial transportation spell that brought you here. The Time Matrix will heal all of your wounds and strip you of anything you acquired while you were here." She explained, "Including your memories..." She added darkly.

I swallowed. Hard. I would be at the end of a barrel. Again. And this time, my fate would be a little more secured. Also, I couldn't bear to forget my new friends or Dinky. Especially Dinky. I was actually just getting use to the whole anatomy difference between me and her. Well, it seemed that I wouldn't have to worry about anymore. I laid back against the bed frame.

"Twilight," I looked up at her, then over to Dinky, "Home is where the heart is. As far as I'm concerned," I took Dinky's hoof in my hand, "I am already home." I said with a smile. Dinky looked as if she was going to explode in joyful tears.

"Besides," I added with a shrug, "I don't want to leave you guys alone to rebuild the mess the Chrysalias made." Twilight smiled at my decision. A sudden thought came to mind as she began to exit the room. "Hey, Twi?" She turned back to me.

"Yes?"

"Where in Equestria did you find a spell that turns humans into ponies?" I asked curiously, earning a laugh from Twilight.

"The forbidden section of the Canterlot Royal Archives. Luckily, it was untainted by Chrysalias and her brood." She explained.

"Can I choose between Unicorn, Earth Pony, and Pegasus?" I asked

"Yes." She affirmed with a nod

"Good. Because I'm going to miss these things." I said and lifted up my hands, shaking them a little bit. Everypony in the room let out a small laugh.

"We will change you tomorrow. For now, get some rest." Twilight said with a gentle smile before trotting out of the room, leaving Dinky and I alone.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what made you choose to stay?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Weren't you in the crowd of ponies before the battle?" I asked.

"No. I was with mommy, still answering questions and conversating with Zecora." She said.

"Oh. Well..." I said and paused, wondering which reason to say first. "When I was on my planet. I was staring down the barrel of a gun with no way out. If I went back, I would have been dead." I said. Dinky looked a little relieved that I had chosen to stay here over dying alone, then began to look slightly heartbroken.

"Oh... Was that it?" She asked. I knew what she was wanting. I just wanted to tease her. But, I might as well deliver now. I opened my mouth to speak, but Rainbow Dash sulked into the room. Her once vibrantly violet eyes were dulled and hazy, as well as red from tears. Her wings were folded loosely at her sides and her armor was gone. Her coat was dirty and her mane was matted, looking more unkempt than usual. Her hooves drug on the floor sluggishly as she came up to the bed where I was laying. She looked numb, broken, and dead inside.

"Jack..." She paused and looked down. "She... She's not going to make it..." A tear squeezed itself from her eye and onto the bed sheets. "Chrysalias shattered her ribcage... Half of the bones punctured her lungs and ruptured her main arteries..." Rainbow convulsed, fighting the tears back down, "Sh-She is living on life support... They... They... They're unplugging her tomorrow, before you go home..." A pang of sadness stabbed my heart like a knife.

"Dashie..." That must have cracked the flood gates, because her face hit the bed and she shook with violent tears. "I'm really sorry about Fluttershy... But I thought you knew that I, too, was on life support." I said. She perked up at that.

"What? I knew that you were in a coma for a week, but I had no idea that you were dying..." She sniffed.

A week, huh?

"Did you know about my options?" I asked.

"Options?" She furrowed her brow in confusion. Twilight must not have told anypony anything. I briefly pondered why, but pushed it away and focused on more important things.

"I was given the choice to be unplugged and go peacefully-" I said, but was cut off by the cyan Pegasus.

"Did you..?" She asked in shock.

"No," I quickly answered. She sighed in relief. "The other was to go home. But it would have placed me at the exact moment that I was brought here. It would've been like I never left. Even to me." Her eyes widened.

"You would be looking at death. Again." She finished for me. I nodded grimly.

"The third option was... Shocking to say the least. But I chose it. To stay alive and well in a place where I have friends," I paused and looked to Dinky, "And loved ones." I looked back to Dash, who was mildly confused.

"So, what was it?" She asked. I deadpanned, hoping that it would click. It didn't.

"My final option was to become a pony." I said in near exasperation. Her mouth almost hit the floor in a comical manner. She was to shocked to even speak. "It will happen tomorrow."

"Where? What time? How is it even possible to do that?" She asked rapidly after recovering from the initial shock. Her previous sadness only bit deep within her newly curious and excited violet eyes, and only there.

"No clue," Was my answer, "Though, I do imagine that Twilight will explain everything to you and Rarity so there will be no confusion." I reasoned.

"Yeah, hopefully. Where is the egghead anyways?" She asked.

"She left just before you came it. I'm surprised that you didn't see her." I replied.

"Okay, well, if she comes back," The sadness expanded from her pupil and over her being again, "Tell her that we need to talk." She said and started to walk out.

"Hey, Dash." I said gingerly. She stopped mid-step, still looking towards the door. "It's a nice job you did, getting Fluttershy back. You've gone pretty far, kid. Keep on trucking." She turned back to me with a weak smile.

"Thanks... The funeral for all three of them will be held tomorrow." She said and swallowed hard, "Fluttershy will be... Saved... from her misery tomorrow as well." She replied, "You better be at both." She added and left without another word. There was a pause before I decided to pick up where I had left off with Dinky.

"Dinky, the other reason I choose to stay was because of you. I couldn't leave you alone after all this shit. It wouldn't be fair. Not to mention, I think we Zinged." I said with a light chuckle.

"Zinged?" She asked.

"Love at first sight." I explained. She smiled at the cliche statement. "To be truthful, I was kind of planning to stay anyway. The fact that Twilight found that spell means that our relationship will be smoother and a lot less odd." I said with a light chuckle. Dinky's smile widened. All of this shit must have softened her. I couldn't blame her, after all, she was only eighteen.

"I'm glad you chose to stay." She said and began to walk towards the exit. "Get some rest, big boy," She added, her suave attitude returning. Okay, maybe I softened her momentarily. "You're gonna need it." She said. I hadn't realized just how tired I had been until she left. My eyelids felt like iron. I flipped over and I fell asleep instantly.

~~~

The next day was pretty eventful, and I have to say, I'm really glad I chose to stay. I woke up to the bright morning sun's gleaming rays warming my face as the heartbeat monitor beeped methodically. I sat up from the bed with a warm smile and stretched, groaning in pleasure as my muscles worked out their nightly kinks and my joints popped nicely. I looked around and saw Dinky's slumbering form at the side of my bed. She must have came in earlier of after I had fallen asleep.

They must have pumped me with pain killers, because I didn't feel like shit. That morning was probably the best I'd felt all day. Everything was at peace. Birds gently chirped outside the window sill and the scent of freshly baked bread wafted into the small room. I inhaled deeply. My simple pleasures did not last, sadly.

"You are a very brave man, Jack." A majestic, feminine voice said from the doorway. I turned my head away from Dinky and lazily to the pearl Alicorn entering the room with a warm smile on her face.

"Celestia," I smiled back, "Good to see that you are up and about."

"Same to you." She said and walked into the room. She spotted Dinky and giggled a little. It made me blush slightly. "Already making yourself at home, I see." She said quietly, stifling a small laugh. I let out a light chuckle.

"Yeah. How is Luna recovering?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Well. She drank the last vial of Ambroci that I had hidden away in the archives for extremities." She said.

"Good."

"I just wanted to thank you, for everything you have done for our land. Despite being from a different dimension. You risked your life to save us. You are truly a hero." Celestia said warmly. I let a little pride well in my chest. After all the shit I went through, anyone would.

"You're welcome." I replied with a smile.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" She said, obviously done with the idle chit-chatting. And there went my day. "We will preform your transformation spell in the Canterlot caves in a few moments. I would suggest waking up your 'partner' before we do so." She said with a sly smile.

"Already?" I asked, avoiding the other blush-worthy subject.

"Yes. We have a long, sad day ahead of us." She answered briskly. I sighed deeply and lightly shook Dinky awake. Her eyes fluttered open gently and she smiled when she saw me. She leaned back and yawned while stretching. I heard her back pop a few times. Then she caught sight of Celestia, and froze mid-yawn at smile on the royals face. Her eyes widened and she jumped down, bowing. The pearl Alicorn lightly laughed.

"No need to be formal with me, dear. After all, you are the Prince's marefriend." She said with a sly smile.

"Prince?" I asked with surprise as Dinky rose up and sat.

"Yes." Celestia answered, "After all you've done for us, it seems to be the appropriate action to take. That is, unless you do not wish to be a Prince?" She asked and raised a questioning eyebrow at me.

"What? Yes! It would be my honor to govern this land along side you and your sister." Not to mention, I've always wanted to be a better politicion than those idiots back home. "Though I will be doing more of the repair work. Thank you." I said sincerely. The smile reappeared on Celestia's face.

"It's us who are thanking you," She said, "Now, it's time." Butterfly wings tickled the lining of my stomach. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for the larching teleportation spell, closing my eyes as I did so. But I was greeted with something different. A warm, tingling feeling rushed over my body, and then a chilled air hit me.

I opened my eyes to see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Luna, Celestia, and human-sized purple lizard with green spikes. They were surrounding my bed in a circle with a small necklace on each of their necks. Except Twilight, she sported a golden tiara with her cutie mark as a gem on top. There were gems of cutie marks hanging form the necklaces also, but a bloon was on Celestia's, an apple was on the dragon's, and a butterfly was on Luna's, not matching their own cutie marks, especially the lizard, for he did not have one. But they did match the cutie marks of our fallen comrades.

"What are those?" I asked.

"The Elements Of Harmony. They are the key to changing you." Twilight answered briskly and to the point. I just nodded. The most amazing sight, however, was our environment. It was a massive cavern full of gleaming, colorful gems that reflected images back at us like sparkling mirrors. I felt that my mouth was agape and my eyes were wide.

"Whoa..." I said and closed my hanging jaw.

"Yeah..." Dinky's awestruck voice said from beside me. I hadn't even noticed that she was there until now.

"Dinky," Twilight called, "Come over here, you'll be safe behind us." Dinky took one last look at me and then turned back to Twilight. She nodded and slowly walked outside of the circle, still taking in the sights. "Let's get started, shall we?" Twilight continued.

"Yes. We have a long day ahead of us." Celestia chimed in.

"According to the ancient, forbidden text of Darkwind The Fierce," Celestia and Luna both shuddered lightly at the name. They must have had some not-so-pretty history with this guy. "To change a human into a..." Twilight paused and looked up at me. "What do you want to be?" I opened my mouth to say something, but Celestia interrupted me with some rather shocking, but cool, news.

"He is a Prince now, Twilight. You know what he should be. Unless he wishes otherwise." She said and looked over at me with an eyebrow raised. I returned the favor, but mine was more in confusion than curiosity.

"Yes, of course, Celestia." Twilight said quickly.

"Whoa, wait. What do you mean by that?" I asked with a little paranoia.

"We are giving you another option. Alicorn." Twilight said. There goes any doubt or future regret about my decision. That way I could swim through the air with grace and use magic as I used my hands! I smiled in relief.

"I think that Alicorn would be the best way for me to go." I said. Twilight nodded and looked down at the book.

"Fire swirls in the dark," She began. The room darkened visibly, but Twilight kept steady, "Ravens rise to make their mark. Thou's loyalty was true, so let it be the blessing upon you." Light exploded from the side of me. I looked towards it with wide eyes to see Rainbow Dash's amulet spewing out beams of crystal-like light. She was hovering in the air with her eyes closed and her limbs spread out like a star. When her eyes opened, they were completely white, glowing like the sun. Twilight did not falter.

"With the Elements Of Harmony. Laughter," Celestia's necklace did the same as Dash's, but the alabaster Alicorn stayed grounded as light poured from her necklace and eyes.

"Honesty," The teenage lizard rose into the air as his necklace beamed with light.

"Kindness," Luna straightened and a midnight blue swirl came from her eyes as light rocketed from her adorned necklace.

"Generosity," Rarity floated up as the crystal light escaped her eyes and necklace as well. "And the last element will make this mortal human to an immortal Alicorn. The last element,"

The old tome fell to the floor and Twilight closed her eyes as a beam shot from her tiara into my chest. I gasped in surprise, but it was nothing to worry about. It just felt a little tingly. Light sprang from the other ponies and into my heart in a similar fashion, originating from the amulets. A rainbow coiled around each of them from Celestia all the way to Twilight from both sides. When it reached her, she snapped her eyes, which were now almost blinding white, open and spoke in a doubled over voice, as if she were possessed.

"Magic." Upon uttering that word, a massive, rainbow colored beam shot from Twilight's tiara and into me. My eyes widened as the blast consumed me entirely.

~~~

My eyes snapped open and, again, I was standing in an endless abyss. Except this time, I felt warm and tingly. And the abyss was white; with grey, smoky tendrils fading in and out. And I was standing, not laying. Point being, I wasn't in a coma.

"So, they found another human, eh?" A deep, but friendly voice echoed from behind me. I turned around to face the mysterious speaker, and was greeted by another human.

He was dressed in a solid black suit and an angelic blue tie. Not a single jet black hair was out of place in his perfectly combed hair, which flowed down to his shoulder blades. He held a small, black walking cane with a golden wolf head on top that reminded me of a ring from a certain enjoyable video game that use to be my pastime before joining the military. His eyes were a deep and murky green that were warmly inviting, but also swirled with hidden mischief. His face was creased into a comforting smile as he twirled his cane. He was dressed all business, but had a friendly air about him.

"Not exactly." Was my vague answer. His eyes sparked with curiosity.

"Really? Where did you come from then?" He asked.

"Uh..." I hesitated, wondering just haw trustworthy the man was. As it turns out, I didn't need to. He exploded in laughter.

''Y-You shoulda seen the lo-o-ok on your face!" He laughed out and wiped a humorous tear from his eye. I furrowed my brow in confusion. And worry. But mostly confusion.

When he managed to calm down enough, he explained. "My name is Darkwind The Fierce, but my real name is Azuro. I monitor all of life on Equis. I've been watching you, in particular, very closely. I am here to congratulate, and reward, you. You have overcome endless challenges and suffering to end a war that wasn't even part of your own dimension. And then chose to stay and help rebuild. You are truly a specimen of life that everyone should aspire to be. Honestly, I would call you a savior." He said. Pride began to swell, but I cut it short. I didn't need more, or I would fuck up whatever else I was suppose to do.

"But wait," I said as a question jumped to mind, "If you monitor all of Equis, why are you a human?" This time, he looked at me with genuine curiosity. Then looked down at his body and chuckled lightly in realization.

"You've got it wrong. I'm not human at all. This is just my favorite form. In reality, I am the Interdimensional Lord of Equis. I can transform into anything I like. I even went into the world of Equis one time under the guise of a pony, Darkwind the Fierce. They still use some of the things I invented to this day. Such as the spell that brought you here." He said in explanation. He then bowed with a smile.

"So you stay here and watch over the denizens of Equis all alone? Doesn't it get... Well, lonely?" I asked.

"Nah," She said with a nonchalant wave of the hand, "Being an essence of the dimensions, I can split myself in two. I usually make the other half a dog. I was always fond of the little fur balls." He chuckled.

"So... Where am I?" I asked.

"You don't beat around the bush, do you?" He asked. I shrugged, causing him to sigh.

"You're in limbo."

"Does that mean that I'm dead?" I asked, panic spreading. He laughed again. I'm glad he found my predicament funny, because I sure as hell didn't.

"No, no, no." He assured me. A sigh of relief escaped my lips. "You are unconscious. Right now, the others think this is just a small side effect of the transformation spell. To be more specific about your surroundings, you are on the highway to the dimensions. I have a little surprise for you as well." He said with a sly smile.

"Really? What is it?" I asked with a little skepticism.

"I can return you back to your world. Without harm. George will be alive. Your squad will too. The Arabs will have never found that little camp." He said blandly. It rocked me nonetheless. I went to sit down, and he snapped his fingers, conjuring a red velvet chair that I fell back in. After a few minutes of shock I looked up at him.

"What do you mean? How did they find us in the first place?" I asked, still mildly shocked.

"That would be the doing of myself." He said. I almost leapt from the chair and strangled him then and there. But I didn't. I just clenched my fists. "I did so to test you. To see where your loyalties lie. To see where mankind is and if my brother is doing a good job."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because, Jack, you had proved yourself expendable on Earth. You had a few friends that you would dearly miss if you left, but no one that I couldn't kill without raising suspicion. So I did. I killed them all. And I planted the idea into Celestia's little head that you were the only one to save them from the Changeling horde. It was sheer luck that I was right."

"This is all just a game, Jack. This was a test. You have proved yourself. So this is your reward. You can go home. Free of charge. Like nothing ever happened. You will retain your memories, Equis will be safe, and so will all of your friends. From both worlds. Or, you can stay on Equis with your new friends. Make more memories with them. Rebuild their fair society. You will become an Alicorn and rule Equestria alongside Celestia and Luna."

"But your friends back on Earth will stay dead. You will be labeled AWOL. A deserter. And probably a murderer. Choose wisely, Halok. And don't disappoint." He said. The last part chilled me. But this was it. My ultimate decision. Everyone on Earth would be back if I went home. No casualties. Everypony in Equestria would be safe. But then there was the fact of leaving them. Sure, time would make them get over me. At least for the Princesses and what was left of the Elements of Harmony. Dinky would be a different story. I put my head in my hands and sighed deeply.

''Take your time. This is an important decision." Azuro's voice spoke from above me. I thought back to George. His wife and kid. Irresponsible for having a kid and marrying a woman in High School, but to join the military afterwards. They would be devastated to hear the news of his demise and of their 'Uncle' Jack's rampancy. I had to choose, my friends from one world, or my friends from another. It nearly tore me in two.

To this day, I still think about what life would have been like if I chose differently. My friends. The ones who had endured so much pain. So much loss. So much devastation. Then my other friends. The ones that partied at midnight. Clicked beer bottles together and told dirty jokes by the campfire without a care. I decided which ones would need me more. I stood up and steeled my expression.

"First of all, this whole thing that you did, was a complete dick move." He smirked, "I'm not saying thank you, but hell, you definitely changed my life for the better. I met the love of my life, new friends, ended a war, and brought peace to a torn world. I could have never done any of those things back on Earth. Except maybe the first one. Turn me into an Alicorn. Send me back to Equestria. And, by the way, I won't throttle you if you promise me one thing."

"And what, pray tell, would that be?" He asked. Probably for his own amusement. He could easily overpower me. Being basically a god.

"Tell George's wife and kid that I'm so sorry for what happened. And not to believe anything those bastards in the suits say."

"I'll see if I can manage. Very well, Halok. Goodbye. For now." He smiled slyly. "And by the way... You passed the last test." The air around me began to swirl around with golden particles of magic that tingled warmly. "Brace yourself." He said. I tensed my muscles and bones for whatever was heading my way. I'm glad I did, because a second later, there was a bright flash and the warm tingle quickly turned into a burning heat. It felt like I was taking a high powered shower... In napalm. I screamed and clenched my eyes shut. Soon, it became involuntary and I passed out.

My eyes fluttered open as soon as I felt a gentle breeze rustle the hair... On my neck.

"Ugh." I groaned. My muscles were sore and weary, but I recognized the crystal cavern and the six ponies, plus a teenage lizard, huddled around me. I finally got a sense of direction and tilted my head up, but I noticed something blueish grey on my nose. I narrowed my eyes and was a little surprised to find that the splotch was my nose. I reached up with my hand to touch it, but was greeted with a hoof instead. I frowned in confusion as the top-heavy hoof touched my nose.

"Looks like it worked." Said a weary smiling Twilight. And that was the trigger for me. My memories flooded back in my head and my eyes widened. I shot up from the ground, only to go much farther than I should have. I hit my head on the ceiling and fell back down, rubbing my throbbing head.

"Ouch..." I groaned. This was going to take some getting use to.

"Quit being such a wuss!" Rainbow Dash's cockiness came back into play, but it was more cold than anything. Her hooves wrapped around my mid-section and she heaved, sending me upright.

"Thank... You." I grunted while trying to keep balance on the wobbly hooves.

"You're welcome." She said airily and floated down, looking depressed. Well, depressed for Rainbow Dash. I took a single step forward, and fell into a light, lavender aura. One that was lighter than Twilight's.

"Watch your step, big boy. You seemed to have forgotten that you have hooves there." Dinky laughed playfully.

"Thanks. It's good to see that you've got that cute sense of humor in check." I said with a smile. She scoffed, then laughed, lifting me back on all fours.

"Okay, lets try this again." I said to no one in particular and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, and, as I exhaled, took a step forward. Then another, and another, and another! It felt odd, but still pretty cool nonetheless. Soon, I felt myself speed up to a run, or I should say, gallop, as my confidence grew.

I opened my eyes, took a deep breath, and laughed. I actually, whole-heartedly laughed. I heard a few giggles from back where the ponies were and jumped high. With a few flaps from my wings, I flew through a hole in the crystals and drifted on the hard part of my hooves when I landed, spinning me around in a 180. I took a battle stance and focused. It was time to see what kind of magic an Alicorn was capable of.

I imagined a spiral of energy surging into a speeding ball of light at the tip of my horn that was to be shot from it and smash into the crystal barrier in front of me. I focused all of my energy into my horn and felt a massive surge flow as it left my body. I heard an enormous crack, followed by the tinkling sound of glass... Or crystal. Panting, I opened my eyes to see that a large, silver mass of magic was speeding in the direction that I had came from. It crashed into the far wall of crystal and burrowed half-way through before dissipating. Six surprised ponies, and a rather stunned lizard, peaked out from the side of the crystal barrier that I had hopped, then demolished.

"You... Alicorns... Have some... Awesome power." I panted out.

"Y-Yeah... We do." Luna said in shock.

"What's... The matter?" I said, still catching my breath.

"Nothing... I just didn't expect you to be able to do that sort of magic so... Soon." She said, still amazed. I shrugged, finally getting my breath back with a deep inhale.

"It just sort of came as second nature. It was easy." I said nonchalantly. "Draining," I added, "But easy."

"I suppose that you've got this down." Celestia spoke, "So, allow us to be on our way? This day is going to be long, so we might as well get started. What do we do first?" She asked me.

Is Where It Begins

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"Fluttershy." I answered without hesitation. "We need to get it over with." I saw Rainbow Dash's eyes become glassy as she looked down. I walked over and put a hoof on her shoulder. As she raised her head to meet my gaze, I looked deep into her violet eyes as comfortingly as possible and spoke softly, "It will be okay. She was a hero-"

"Is." Rainbow Dash cut me off with a tear in her eye.

"She is and always will be. She saved all of our asses." I said.

"But at what cost?! She is going to die, and there is nothing I can do about it! I have to just sit there and watch her fade away to nothing! Do you know how that feels?!" She asked with tears breaking through and streaming down her face.

I bit my bottom lip and did the only comforting thing that I could think of. I hugged her. It felt odd as a pony, but right nonetheless. I could only hope that Dinky wasn't the overly jealous type, after all, this was just a friendly gesture. Dash was hesitant at first, but then buried her face into my mane, weeping profusely.

"Yes... I know how it feels to lose a loved one. Maybe not someone that you love in that manner, but I did loose someone very dear to me a year before graduation. I had to go through the same thing as you have to. But it was my brother on the end of that machine. He was the last bit of family I had left. The only other people I cared about were my friends. And those were scarce as well. But I did what I had to and toughed it out with the help of my friends. Sure, it took a little time, some days of just sitting alone, thinking. But I did it. The only thing that I regret is that it made me colder."

"Before he passed, I couldn't dream of harming a soul. Then, after his passing, I graduated High School and joined the military. Within the first week of being deployed, I had blood on my hands. He was one of the men in my squad. He ran into the middle of the crossfire like an idiot. Trying to be the hero. I didn't see him coming. I shot down one of my own people by accident. I looked through his wallet. He had a wife and two kids with another on the way. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst was that I felt no remorse. No guilt. He was dead and I didn't care. His family was going to grieve and my heart gave not a single beat for them."

I inhaled, getting a little ahead of myself. "My point is, give it time. Everyone dies." All of them were shocked at my story. Except Twilight. She looked at me with mutual sympathy. Like she had been through similar. She probably had.

"You aren't so cold now. You cried countless times, and saved us with emotion." Rainbow whispered between sobs.

"Time heals all wounds. Even the frigid ones." I said. She held me and arms length. Hooves length. Whatever.

"Flutters and I... We were suppose to grow old together. Spend time with our adopted mare. She maybe eighteen, but eighteen is still to young to lose your mother..."

"Any age is to young to lose your mother." I said, briefly reliving my own mothers death. Rainbow nodded in agreement.

"Believe me. I know." She said. There was a pause. "Lets... Lets just get going." She said and sniffed, wiping away tears. The walk back down to Ponyville was pretty silent and uneventful, except for the occasional stumble of me getting use to walking and, now and then, Rainbow sniffing up her tears. Although, there was a small side conversation.

"So... How was it?" Luna's voice asked.

"How was what?" I asked back.

"The spell."

"Oh. It went well. It hurt, but other than that, it was just like passing out." I lied. She seemed to accept it with a nod, but a little glint in her eyes told me that I would hear about my lie later. When we reached the hospital, I looked up at the bright sun gleaming from the tinted glass. It reminded me nostalgically of home. I had a brief thought that I might have made the wrong choice, but instantly shoved the thought from my mind because of its stupidity and walked through the doors with the other ponies. A cool breeze drifted by me, rustling my fur as I entered the building. Celestia strode confidently up to the mare at the reception center.

"It's time." Her sadder voice betrayed her royal composure. The mare nodded and picked up the phone, speaking in a sweet voice.

"Room forty-three." There was a pause as the pony on the other end talked through it. "Yes, Doctor, it's time." She said and hung up. "My condolences. Especially to you, General Dash." She said. Rainbow looked up at her.

"How did you know about Fluttershy and I..?" She asked. The mare just smiled.

"I had to look through her records and saw that she had an adoptive daughter. But I also saw that she was listed as a single parent. I asked her about it, and she told me about you two." She said.

"You aren't freaked out?" She asked. The mare just waved a hoof nonchalantly.

"Not in the slightest. I'm not a very judgmental pony." She said. Rainbow Dash smiled genuinely.

"Thank you." She said. The mare at the counter just nodded with a smile. Celestia and Luna led us around a corner and into a small room. I was met with a sight that brought overwhelming sadness to me.

Fluttershy layed in a partial sitting position with a clear mask that was slightly fogged resting over her mouth and nose as her chest rose and fell with the rhythm of the heartbeat monitor. Her mane was sprawled across the gurney and her eyes were closed. We each walked in quietly, taking seats where we could find them. We sat in silence. The only noise being that of the steady beeping of the heartbeat monitor and everyponies breathing.

"I-I'm not meaning to be rude," The teenage lizard spoke up, "B-But, why are we waiting?"

"To give Dash and Fluttershy some final words together." Twilight spoke in her laconic manner, "And we're waiting for Scoots." She added. Rainbow Dash didn't say a word. She just sat there beside Fluttershy, staring blankly at the peaceful looking Pegasus in front of her. Dinky put her head on my shoulder and sighed deeply.

"I knew war had its costs..." She whispered softly, "But I never imagined this..." She added sadly. I nodded and layed back.

"Great victory comes with great costs." I said as Dinky layed her head on my chest and I wrapped my hoof around her, "Even the greatest of heroes can fall."

The cool thing about being a pony is the flexibility. I can do everything that I could as a human. Position-wise, that is. It was actually better than being human. I had magic and could fly. The only downside was a few rearrangements in anatomy.

''Move!" A frantic voice from outside sounded. It was cracked, but clearly female. Everypony snapped their heads to the direction of the door. "I can't miss this!" The hurt showed in this mystery mares voice as something crashed, making Dinky and I sit up. "Sorry!"

The door swung open to reveal about an eighteen year-old orange Pegasus sporting a purple mane that was styled similarly to Rainbow Dash's. Except the tip of the hair curled into a cowlick. She was panting and sweat dripped from her worried face, although it lit up when she saw Rainbow Dash. "Mom!" The orange mare called out and ran to her mother. They embraced and Dash stroked the purple mane of the mare comfortingly with her hoof.

"Shhh, it's okay, Scoots. You didn't miss it. We waited for you." She softly cooed. It seemed weird to me, touching, but weird. Only because I didn't peg Rainbow for the motherly type. Scootaloo cried into her adoptive mothers mane as Rainbow hushed her gently and comfortingly. Scootaloo backed out of the embrace to face Rainbow Dash.

"I-I'm s-sorry that I-I'm l-late." She sniffled out as quietly as possible. Dash put a hoof to Scoots mouth with a weak smile.

"It's okay. You made it. And that's what counts." She said.

"Yes... It is." A gentle, pained voice spoke. Everyponies heads jerked towards the gurney. More importantly, to Fluttershy.

"Shy!" Rainbow said and dashed to her side with Scootaloo not far behind.

"Mother!" Scootaloo cried, "Are you okay?" Fluttershy chucked lightly, the coughed.

"I can't say that I am, honey." She said with a painful smile. She then looked beyond her family and into her friends. "To all my friends, though I love you dearly, I must leave. I won't return either, and for that, I am sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." Twilight said.

"Yes. You are a hero." Celestia's voice spoke.

"Who knows who might have died if you hadn't intervened." Luna added.

"I do." I stepped in. Fluttershy looked at me with surprise.

"J-Jack. Y-You stayed!" She said in surprise.

"Well," I shrugged, "You couldn't expect me to leave you guys high and dry." I said with a smile. Fluttershy chuckled lightly at my joking tone. I walked to the bed and looked her in the eye. "You saved Dinky's life. And for that, I am eternally grateful. I just wish that I could've done more for you." I said with sadness. Fluttershy looked at me, the pained smile never leaving her face as she put a hoof on my shoulder.

"It's okay. I've come to terms with my... Predicament." She said simply. That hit me the hardest. I nodded and backed away before I could breakdown. Besides, it was Scootaloo's turn to get a few words in.

"M-Mother..." Her voice choked.

"My Scootaloo. My brave little filly. You've grown up so much in the past few years. I never thought it would end like this, but hey, life has its unexpected twists. Good and bad. Be brave. If not for yourself, for me. It's okay to cry." Fluttershy said sweetly.

"I'm sorry..." Scootaloo's voice quivered with her head down, "Our last words before we left..." Fluttershy never gave up that pained smile, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I love you, mother! You're not a coward!" She said, hugging Fluttershy tightly and weeping into her rolling, pink mane. Fluttershy just gently rocked Scootaloo in her hooves, stroking her mane softly while sweetly whispering into her ear.

"Shhh, it's alright, Scootaloo. I love you too." She said. Scootaloo pulled back after a few minutes.

"Tell Applebloom and Sweetie Bell... that I finally got my cutie mark..." She said with a painful smile as she revealed an emblem of two ponies ballroom dancing on her flank. I heard Rarity gently sob behind me.

"Don't worry, I will." Fluttershy said then turned to Rainbow Dash. "It's time." She said with finality.

"B-But." Dash tried to argue.

"No buts, Dashie." Fluttershy said firmly, "We knew the risk when we decided to do this. I'm just afraid that I got a little too careless." She added softly. Dash opened her mouth to retaliate, but then closed it in defeat. She nodded and got up, moving towards the plug. Scootaloo wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy.

"I-I love you." Dash said those final words and tugged the cord. The metal plug fell from the socket as time seemed to slow. Scootaloo began to sing softly in Fluttershy's ear as the yellow Pegasus's eyelids began to fall for the last time as her eyes dilated.

"Hush now... Quiet now... I-It's time to lay... Your sleepy head... Hush now... Quiet now... It's time... To go... To bed..." Scootaloo sobbed out as Fluttershy's chest fell for the last time.

Nopony could hold the floodgates anymore. Not even I. Dinky fell into my chest and wept, causing me to weep into her mane. I hugged her tightly as tears matted fur. Event the two Princesses held each other and quietly sobbed. It stayed like that for a few minutes. Then, when everything calmed down, a few ponies clad in their battle armor came in and wheeled the dead mare from the room.

Celestia let out a rattled sigh after some time, then put on a really good poker face. "I-It will take some time for them to prepare the funerals. I suggest that we cool down and collect ourselves before such an activity." She said. Again, her pained voice betrayed her stoney gaze.

"I agree." Twilight said after wiping the tears from her face.

"You guys go ahead. Me and Scoots will catch up..." Dash said with a sad sigh. I saw Twilight open her mouth to retaliate, but I quickly caught her attention and shook my head. I knew Dash had been through a lot. She probably wanted nothing more than to curl up on a bed and just lie there. To forget the world and all its horror and tragedy in a moment of bliss. But the grieving would have to wait. We would be to busy with the public for such things.

Twilight closed her mouth and nodded lightly. We exited the sorrowful room and continued out into the streets. The walk back to Headquarters was as uneventful as the trip to the hospital. If not more so. Only a few recovering sniffles broke the tense silence. The streets were completely deserted, but there were sounds of celebration in the distance. As we neared the Headquarters, the noise continually increased.

"Hey Twi?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"What is that?" I asked, waving a hoof in the direction of the noise.

"That, my dear friend, would be the celebration of winning a war and keeping the savior alive and here." She said with a light smile. I shuddered at that nickname for me and how Azuro had used it.

"Please don't call me the savior." I said. Twilight frowned, but shrugged it off. Soon, the Headquarters came into view. Along with a large crowd of ponies, all waiting with excited smiles.

"Looks like we aren't 'cooling down' anytime soon." Dinky said with a sigh.

"Could this day get any better?" I asked with very obvious sarcasm.

"Only." She groaned. We were quickly greeted by the eccentric crowd. We exchanged pleasantries, smiles, laughs, and even a few victory shots. Well, we say victory shots, but it was more for the loss of our friends. The only thing missing was a certain rainbow mane. Luckily, Scootaloo had decided to show up and put on a smile. Even if it was fake.

"Hey, Halok!" A familiar voice called through a throng of ponies. I turned around to face the white coated stallion with a smile. "How about those drinks that you promised?" He smirked.

"Mist Free!" I said and hoof-bumped him, "It's good to see you survived!" I added with a laugh
.

"Yeah, it'll take more than a Changeling army to get rid of me!" He said. We both shared a hearty laugh at that.

"Hey, bar-pony?" I asked across the bar, "Slide us two mugs of cider and a shot of today's special! On me." I said. The bar-pony smiled.

"Coming right up, General." He said, "And it's on the house!" He slid them to us. With a quick thank you, Mist Free and I were chugging our mugs of cider and telling each other about what happened after I had saved his ass.

The party went on for an hour, though it lacked a certain... Pop. When it finally ended, Twilight and Dinky both had a rosy tint to their cheeks. They weren't drunk, but they were buzzed enough to just relax. Even Celestia had the scent of alcohol on her breath. After the celebrations ended, the massive crowd dispersed, leaving me, Dinky, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike, whose name I had learned in the party, to sit in the main room of the Headquarters. The only illumination was that of the large map that was now completely green. Another sign that we had pulled off the nigh impossible.

A little communication device on Celestia's ear beeped twice, causing her to sigh deeply. "They're ready." She said. That caused everypony to sigh even deeper. We all got up from our spots and moved out of the giant tree. Celestia led us to a spot in the middle of town that was surrounded by the same joyous ponies that had laughed and drank with us. Except, now they they were a lot less joyous.

Their sullen expressions matched their black attire as they stood motionlessly in front of a large monument. On it were pictures of hundreds of ponies. All smiling, laughing, drinking, or just having fun. In front of the impressive monument, which I had made out to be a chunk of one of the Canterlot castle spires, were three coffins. One was pink with two blue and one yellow bloons painted on the sides. Another was orange with three red apples on the sides. The last was a yellow coffin with three butterflies painted across the side.

The first and last were both open, showing Pinkie and Fluttershy's seemingly sleeping forms. But the middle was closed. On top of it was a picture of Applejack laughing heartily. The only reason that it was closed was that there was no body to bury. It suddenly became very clear that the monument was a memorial. I caught sight of a rainbow mane near the front of the crowd, causing me to sigh in relief. The crowd cleared a path for us to the front, were we met up with Rainbow Dash.

"Good to see that you made it." I said. She looked at me through red eyes and smiled weakly.

"It's like you said, Jack. Time will heal all wounds. In one way," She trailed off and looked towards Fluttershy's appearingly peaceful form, "Or the other." She looked back to me, "Thank you."

"For?" I asked.

"The words of wisdom." She said. My lips curled into a light smile.

"It was my pleasure." I said, "I hope they help you like they did me." The funeral went normally. Everything was in order and words were spoken about various ponies lining the monument. It was just like one of the funerals back on Earth. Except, this one was much larger. Then it came time for the eulogies. Rainbow Dash took the stage.

"Pinkie Pie was an... Energetic mare." She said, trying to find the correct words. She must have been letting Scootaloo do Fluttershy's eulogy. "As well as excitable, as I'm sure we all know." A knowing chuckle rippled though the crowd. "But there were some sides that we didn't know about. For example, twelve or so years ago, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and I were all planning a surprise party for her. But she took it badly when we couldn't hang out with her without a good reason. Her mane sort of... Deflated and she went a little insane. But when she found out everything, she was right back to her random old self. Recently, we found out that she had a romantic side as well." There were a few more chuckles.

"Who was the lucky stallion?" A random colt asked.

"I know Applejack was a bit tomboyish from time to time, but come on.'' She joked nervously. The crowd didn't find it very amusing, however. There were actually a few gasps. I frowned a little in confusion. It was starting to look like there were one of those horrid churches that resided in Kansas here. Scootaloo ran up onto the stage with Dash and they both addressed the restless crowd. "As few of you know, Fluttershy there was my adoptive mother. But no, I was not raised by a single mare."

"No." Dash cut her off with an affectionate smile. "She was raised by two." The crowd was silent. A smile of admiration spread across my face. Sadly, it didn't last.

"Our General is a filly-fiddler?!" A surprised mare shouted. A spike of anger hit my heart. For a moment, I thought that the Changelings were back. But no, these were the average, multicolored equine citizens of Equestria. More outraged names were case up at them.

"Stop!" A powerful voice overcame the commotion. "So is your Commander and Princess." Luna said, teleporting on to the stage with a blushing Twilight held tightly to her. The crowd was silent again. But, once more, it didn't last.

Somepony actually threw a tomato in Twilight's direction. I snapped my eyes shut and pictured myself teleporting from where I was, to in front of Twilight as the offending fruit sailed through the air. With a larching sensation, I opened my eyes to see a tomato a few feet from my face. I focused again and caught it with my magic. I slammed it down on the stage and crushed it under-hoof.

"How dare you!" I roared furiously at the entire crowd, "These ponies risked everything! They lost irreplaceable friends and even loved ones! You know why? To protect you ungrateful little shits!" The crowd was getting a little flabbergasted at my choice of words and sudden anger. Which was good.

"They wanted to save and protect you! They sacrificed everything but their lives in order to save you! To make sure you ponies stayed out of harms way. And you repay them like this?!" I said and shook my head, "That is worse than any Changeling. Maybe I should've went home, if you ponies treat heroes like this," I spat coldly. They just stood there, shocked that their hero would address them in such a manner. Though, a few came up to join me on stage.

Those included Dinky, Rarity, the lizard, Celestia, Mist Free, a white Unicorn mare with a badass mane that was colored in different hues of blue, a light blue Pegasus stallion that had a dark, navy blue mane, a tan Earth Pony stallion with a blonde and orange mane, and a grey Earth Pony with an even darker grey mane.

"'Bout time we came out of the closet, eh 'Tavi?" The Unicorn asked the grey Earth Pony with a nuzzle. The Earth Pony merely nodded and returned the nuzzle.

"Ah rightly agree with Vinyl!" The tan pony said with the same accent as Applejack, "What do ya think, Soarin?" He asked his obvious partner. in response, Soarin nodded and kissed the tan stallion. Celestia took her place beside her sister and Twilight.

"B-But love is to be shared only between a stallion and a mare!" A random pony cried out. I flew down in front of him and stared straight through him.

"Tell me, if you please? What is love?" I asked, leaning in intimidatingly.

"D-Don't hurt me!" He said, pupils shrinking in fear.

"I won't. Just answer my question."

"L-Love is something that two things share together that binds them emotionally, mentally, and physically." He answered after a moments thought.

"Exactly." I said and flew back onto the stage. "Love is eternal. In any way, shape, or form, it will always be there. Love is love. You can't stop it and honestly, I don't see how you could want to." I said. It looked like it was working. Which was pretty cool considering most of the narrow-minded idiots on Earth didn't seem to grasp the concept of love or reason.

"It's just... Gross." One stallion said.

"Gross? I hope you have something better than that, because otherwise, you're going to get left behind in the dust of a better society." I said. Dinky trotted up and kissed me.

"That was awesome." She whispered.

"Thanks." I said, "Been wanting to do that forever." One of the ponies in the audience finally spoke up.

"I really can't argue with him when I look at it that way."

"I may not like it, but hell, he has a point." Another shouted.

"Yeah. We'll try to be more accepting. For our own good." Another mare said. A smile spread across my lips.

"Now that we have settled that little issue, let's get this funeral over with." I said.

The rest of the funeral was uneventful, save for the new-found respect towards me from my newer friends. I learned their names as well, the Unicorn was Vinyl Scratch. The grey Earth Pony was Octavia. The tanish Earth Pony was Braeburn, as well as a relative of Applejack's, which explained the accent. And the blue Pegasus's name was Soarin, which I had already learned.

Honestly, the ponies accepting gays and lesbians felt like a bigger victory than when I had killed Chrysalias. Probably due to the fact that I had been trying to reason with arrogant people on Earth for years, but these ponies accepted and tolerated them in a matter of minutes! It gave me even more of a reason to believe that I had made the right choice. When the funeral was finally over, we all filed back into the Headquarters main room. And by we, I mean Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Luna, Celestia, the lizard (I really needed to ask about that), Rarity, Dinky, and I.

"Well, everypony. Today has been eventful. In any way but bad." Twilight said and shot a smile towards Luna, "But I'm sure everypony is drop-dead worn out. I say we retire to bed." All of the ponies, and the lizard, in the room yawned and nodded in response. They all filed into different parts of the Headquarters, which I had assumed to be their bedrooms. Dinky and I stayed in the main room, but I managed to catch Twilight before she had left the room completely.

"Hey, where do me and Dinky sleep at?" I asked her, causing her to smirk.

"Sleeping together, are you?" She said slyly. I blushed intensely and rose my hooves in defense.

"W-What? N-Not li-" I was cut off by Twilight laughing.

"It's alright, Jack. Luna and I are going to the same bedroom for some victory-" This time, I cut her off.

"I can go a lifetime without knowing what you are about to say." I said with a smile. She returned it with another laugh and pointed across the room to a door.

"Go through there and then take two lefts, one right, and there would be your bed from your first night here." She said

"Thanks. And one more thing, what's with the overgrown lizard?" I asked, getting a huff from her.

"That's Spike! My number one dragon assistant." She said.

"Oh. Sorry about that." I said with a chuckle let her walk through an opening that led to where Luna had gone. I quickly walked to the place with Dinky in tow. I followed Twilight's directions, and, sure enough, it led me to the same room as before.

I turned to Dinky and spoke, "Well, I suppo-" For the second time that night, I was cut off. But this time, I enjoyed it. She pressed her lips against mine and backed me to the bed. She broke away with a smirk, but quickly closed the distance again. This time, much more passionately. Her tongue invaded my mouth and wrestled with mine.

She tasted sweet. A little like cherry pie. As she explored my mouth and vice versa, I ran my hooves up and down her curves. I'm not going to go into detail about what happened next, but as you can guess, we had sex. This may sound weird, but it was better than any human girl I had ever been with. Maybe it was just Dinky. Or maybe I'd finally found my soulmate; they say it's the best sex you can find if that happens.

The sleep is the more important part to my tale. As I dozed off after our... 'Entanglement'... And was met with a familiar sight. I was back in the endless white abyss with smokey grey tendrils floating about.

"Hey," Azuro's voice found me, "Remember when I said 'For now'?" I turned towards him and nodded slowly. "Well, here we are."

"I can see that," I replied, "But why did you bring me here?" I asked.

"Because, we have a problem." He responded seriously.

The Big Picture

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There was a long pause between us before I finally spoke up.

"Well, what, exactly, is the problem?" I asked. Azuro rubbed the back of his neck and looked down with a nervous chuckle.

"I suppose I should probably explain what I am and what my species is and does before we continue." He said and took a deep breath, "Well, we are Interdimentional Lords, as you know. But what you don't know is that we watch over all of the universes and possible realities. For example, I am the Interdimentional Lord of Equis while my brother, Tangi, is the Interdimentional Lord of The Circumambulation, or as you would be more familiar with, the realm of humanity. We have little power in what these societies do, however. We can only mentally influence them, save for when we gather enough power to physically appear in the realms. Which doesn't happen often, if at all."

"Then how did you guys get me to Equis from Earth?" I asked.

"That was simple. We just combined our strength and brought you here, to stop Chrysalias."

"But what about what you told me earlier, that I was just a normal human and it was all a test?"

"The latter was a lie. The true reason we brought you here was to stop Chrysalias and her insatiable appetite for destruction. You see, my sister, Gengena, watches over the reality of Hell. The Underworld to be precise." He said, but intentionally avoided the part about me being normal.

"That sounds... Eventful. But what does that have to do with Chrysalias?"

"Gengena planted the seed of destruction in Chrysie's head. You see, spending eternity in Hell kind of fucks up your sanity. Anyways, she corrupted Chrysalias beyond redemption, making the Changeling queen want nothing more than to destroy all sentient life. You see, because she use to be a good ruler. She was just a little misguided and desperate."

"That's bad."

"No shit," He said, getting annoyed with my interruptions. "When you killed Chrysalias, that sort of killed Gengena's plan."

"So, what's the problem again?"

"Gengena became furious that her plan was ruined, so, she took it out on Tangi. She used her rage filled, insanity induced powers to invade the realm of Humanity with her twisted, malicious creatures. There a brave human there, one to stop the outrageous blight. Your great, great grandson. I think some of his friends called him 'Fly', but its irrelevant."

"Well, you guys kinda fucked yourselves there, didn't ya?" I deadpanned sarcastically.

"Not exactly..."

"Wait. What?" I asked.

"No, the space-time continuum works a little differently. But that is beside the point."

"What is the point?"

"Well, if you would let me finish, you would know." He paused. I gestured with my hooves for him to go on. "Thank you, as I was saying, Tangi is dead. However. There is hope for Equis."

"Equis was in danger?" I asked with false idiocy.

"Yes, you moron!" He snapped, loosing his patience with me. He sighed deeply and rubbed the bridge of his nose when he noticed my smirk. "Gengena is going to use her powers that she absorbed from Tangi to invade Equestria and destroy everything that lives there." I sat on my haunches.

"And it's up to me to stop it."

"Not entirely..." He said.

"Would you please just tell me what the fuck is going on?" I asked in exasperation.

"What the hell?" A new voice came in from the side, "Where am I?" It asked.

"That would be him." Azuro said and stepped aside to reveal a human that looked remarkably like I did on Earth.

He had different eyes and hair, but my same cheek bones and jaw line. He had a simple five o'clock shadow and military style crew cut in his lighter black hair. He wore greenish silver armor that had looked like a futuristic breastplate with shoulder guards, but no sleeves. It had two silver lines leading down from the chest, where a green line covered, and ended in a black plate with silver studs embedded in it over his abdomen. The shoulder guards had six distinctive lines running down them for the purpose of decoration.

"Who the hell are you two?" He asked and got into a fighting stance.

"I am Azuro and this is Jack. Though you may find the term Great, Great Grandfather Halok a little more familiar." Azuro stated, making him calm down a little. By confusing him, of course. I leaned in and whispered intensely into the Interdimentional Lords ear.

"I didn't have kids!"

"Not physically." Before I could ask what he meant, he turned back around and smiled at my great, great grandson.

"Bullshit. My great, great grandfather was a deserter. He is long dead. Also, he was a god damn human." 'Fly' answered.

"About that... I suppose I owe an explanation." Azuro said and rubbed the back of his neck.

"You're damn right you do!" Both me and 'Fly' said at the same time.

"Wow... Like great, great grandfather like great, great, grandson." He muttered. "Flynn, I brought you here to have a second chance at-"

"Cut the bullshit." I cut Azuro off instantly.

"How do you know that it's bullshit, little pony?" Flynn asked.

"Because he pulled the same shit on me. He wants us to save a world that I have grown very fond of. A world of talking ponies, much like myself." I said.

"Bullshit."

"Watch it. I'm a century and a half older than you." I warned.

"You're also a pony."

"Which proves my point."

"Do you two want to know what happens now or not?!" Azuro nearly screamed. I think we were pissing him off. Which was fine by me, though.

"Yes!" Flynn answered in exasperation. Azuro breathed in deeply.

"I'm going to send you both to Equestria and you two are to warn the populous of their impending doom and help them stop it." He said and then turned to me, "Jack, I am going to turn you back into a human."

''What? Why?" I asked without thinking.

"You will be able to move more fluidly and have access to more things. You will also be more flexible. It will be a lot more useful the the things you are fighting. Also due to the fact that you're trained with your human form." He said.

"Don't you need the Elements Of Harmony for that?"

"No. You see, I am the most powerful of the Interdimentional Lords. Mainly because I have bided my time and stored power for many centuries."

"Can't you just stop Gengena then?"

"No. I have been using a lot of power recently. I'm almost dry. I will be completely drained after turning you back and sending you both to Equis. Besides, with the power she absorbed from Tangi, she is nigh undefeatable. But she is mortal in her weakened, physical form. If you get the chance to kill her, take it."

"I'm still stuck on the part about talking ponies." Flynn said while rubbing his temple.

"You'll get use to it." I said with a knowing chuckle.

"Alright you two, Gengena is almost to Equis. When you get back, you will have a day to prepare for the demons."

"The what?" Flynn asked with a little fear invading his voice.

"You know more than Jack does about these things and how to fight them."

"You mean that we're going to be fighting those fucking things again?!" He asked as fear took over.

"Yeah. But this time, you'll have allies instead of being on your own." Azuro said. Flynn quieted down, but he didn't calm down.

"Demons? Are you kidding me?" I asked. Both shook their heads grimly. I sighed deeply and held out my hooves to my sides, closing my eyes casually. "Alright. Let her rip. I'm sick of small talk. I have demon ass to kick and friends to protect. Let's get it over with." I said.

"Very well." Azuro said. Massive energy rippled around me. I could feel it coursing through my veins, burning like fire in the deepest pits of hell, filling me with power. Then it stopped. Just as fast as it had begun, it had stopped. When the whole event had passed, I opened my eyes, which were now level with Flynn and Azuro's. I took a step forward and remained balanced.

"Hmm. I guess it's just like ridding a bike." I said with a smile. Flynn still wore a shocked expression.

"Y-You look like me! But with different hair and eyes..." He said with intrigue. It was true, I had longer, flippy, jet black hair and startling silvery green eyes while he had a light black crew cut and hazel eyes.

"You are my great, great grandson." I said with a light chuckle.

"Alright. You guys ready?" Azuro asked.

"As I'll ever be" Flynn said after a deep sigh.

"Can't wait." I said sarcastically. Azuro nodded and flicked his wrist. Golden, glowing tendrils of light replaced the nearly gone smoky grey ones and encircled us. I began to get lightheaded as the room spun around. Well, Azuro and Flynn spun. The room was nothing but white. I felt my legs give way and I hit the floor.

~~~

"Holy Celestia! What the fuck?!" I heard Dinky scream from my slumber. I shot upright in the bed like a bullet and snapped my head to the frantic mare who was looking at me in panic. "Jack?" She asked after she had affirmed my human appearance.

"Yeah..." I said.

"Damn, I think I bucked you back into a human." She said with a laugh.

"That's to much information." A voice groaned from the floor. Dinky flipped over me and had a knife to Flynn's throat in seconds.

"Who the hay are you?!" She exclaimed.

"Get your psycho girlfriend off me!" Flynn yelled.

"Dinky, calm down." I said softly.

"I'll show you psycho!" She screamed.

"Dinky!" I said a little more forcibly, causing her to hesitate. "Calm down. Please get off of him so I can explain." I softened. She shot me a skeptical look, but backed off nonetheless. She sat on the bed, but kept casting dark looks at Flynn.

"Actually, you might want to explain to everypony." Dinky said.

"Yeah, that would be a good idea." I concluded. I pulled Flynn up from the ground and we all headed to the main room. Luckily, we were the first ones up. I looked around and saw a clock displayed on the map.

"Holy shit! It's seven?!" Apparently Flynn had found it too. "Too early."

"Actually, it's a good thing. That means we can call everypony here and explain rather than scare the shit out of them." I said. Flynn opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn't find any words to combat my logic, so he simply shut it.

I searched the room a bit more and found a small, blue button with the word 'announcer' written across the top in block letters. Convenient. I pressed the little button and it clicked, allowing a small bit of static to flow through. "Would Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, and Princesses Luna and Celestia please report to the main room? It's kind of urgent." I said and released my pressure on the announcer button.

"Kind of?" Flynn said with an eyebrow raised.

"I don't want them to freak out just yet." I explained.

"Why would we freak out?" Dinky asked with a small bit of fear. Before I could open my mouth to answer, Twilight's groggy voice came from the side. I always knew she was fast, but damn.

"Jack?" She yawned and rubbed her eyes, "What's the mat-" She stopped dead in her sentence when she saw me. Her face contorted in many different ways, but ended in confusion. "How?!" Was all she could get out.

"I'll explain when everypony gets here." I said. She hadn't even noticed Flynn.

"You don't have a long wait for Luna." Twilight said with a sly smirk. I shook my head quickly as a shudder made its way down my spine.

"Tsk! No mental images for me, thank you." I said. That only increased Twilight's smirk.

"Mental images?" Flynn asked with a worried curiosity. I held up a hand.

"You don't want to know." I said. He shrugged and left it at that.

"Another one? Dude, are you bringing your entire race here or something?" Dash's voice cut across the room as she yawned.

"Morning to you too..." Flynn said sarcastically.

"And why are you human again?" Luna's voice floated from behind Twilight.

"I'll explain everything to everypony when they all get here." I said. Celestia was the next to arrive, she shot both me and Flynn a curious look, but remained silent.

"Oh my stars! How wonderful! Another human! And Jack! It's good to see you back in your human form as well." Rarity said from the other side of the room.

"What took you?" I asked.

"Why, all this beauty doesn't come without time, darling." She answered. I sighed.

"Alright, everypony accounted for?" I asked.

"Now." Spike said from the room that Rarity had just came from. Had they slept in the same room... I quickly shoved the thought down into the deepest recesses of my mind.

"Good... Now, I'm sure you want some explanations." I said. All of the ponies, and Spike, nodded. "Well, you see. Flynn here is my great, great grandson from Earth."

"You had kids?!" Dinky exclaimed.

"What? No! Azuro did something." I said. Everypony in the room, except Celestia and Luna, raised their eyebrows in confusion. Actually, Celestia and Luna looked a little mad at me. "He is the Interdimensional Lord of Equis. He watches over this place and all its denizens. You ponies might know him a little better as Darkwind The Fierce." I explained.

"Darkwind? The same pony who's spell turned you human? How is that possible." Twilight asked. I took a deep breath and explained everything about Azuro and his race.

"...Turns out Azuro had a brother and a sister. His sister is evil and is the one who corrupted Chrysalias." I finished the explanation about Azuro, Tangi, and Gengena.

"I always knew that mare had good in her. Before she attacked and killed everypony, that is." Luna said with a sad shake of her head.

"Now here is the bad news..." I said and rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

"Go ahead." All of the ponies in the room urged.

"Well... You see... Uh... Um..."

"Oh for pete's sake!" Flynn interrupted me, "Gengena is sending demons to come and kill all of you!" He said in exasperation. All of the ponies gasped and their faces filled with fear.

"Yeah. What he said." I said.

"When?" Twilight asked.

"Tomorrow." I stated grimly.

"Damn it! We just won a war! Do we really have to jump back into the fire so soon?" Rainbow said, then lowered her gaze, "I think we lost enough ponies last time..."

"I agree with Dash on this one." Rarity chimed in.

"I wish we had a choice..." I said. Celestia took a deep sigh.

"This time, we are out of Ambroci. So if anypony gets fatally wounded..." She trailed off, not needing to finish the thought.

"Well, what is everypony standing around for? We're use to war. Let's tell everypony and get to preparing." Spike said, breaking the grim silence. Luna nodded and headed over to the announcer, then turned back to us before she clicked the button.

"You might want to cover your ears." She warned. Everypony, including Me, Flynn, and Spike, covered our ears. The lunar princess put her hoof on the little blue button and cleared her throat.

"CITIZENS OF EQUESTRIA! WE DEMAND THY TO REPORT TO THE COURTYARD FOR TERRIBLE NEWS!" Her voice rang clearly, and still much to loudly for my taste. I cringed at the volume of her voice, even with my palms pressed tightly against my ears, it still hurt. I could only feel sorry for the ponies on the other end of that speaker. I let my hands fall and then shook my head to rid my eardrums of the small pain.

"Loud enough?" Flynn asked sarcastically while sticking a pinky in his ear to rid it of ringing.

"It got the job done. I say we have about five minutes to get out there." Twilight jumped to her defense.

"Well then, let's get the bad news over with..." I said with a deep sigh.

Demonic Explanations

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They all nodded and we proceeded out of the doors with Luna leading the way.

"So... Flynn, is it?" Rarity inquired. Flynn looked it her with a questioning eyebrow raised and nodded slowly, "What are we looking at in terms of brutality from these creatures?" She asked. Flynn's face darkened as he looked back down his horrid memory lane.

"The worst. These creatures will tear someone in two without hesitation, and by god they have the strength to. They will massacre families, rip apart parents in front of their kids and vice versa. They wouldn't dare even consider their own lives and would even sacrifice others of their kind to ensure the missions' completion." Flynn said grimly. All of the ponies looked worried now, except Celestia. Her stoney gaze never faltered. But mine did. My face cracked under that fact. Not literally, but metaphorically

"What, exactly, is their mission?" Dinky spoke up.

"To kill and destroy everyone and everything that they lay their beady, little eyes on." Flynn spat. Even Celestia's poker face had cracked on that one. I was a little worried is the point. Okay, really worried. The rest of the, thankfully short, trip was spent in silence. When we breached the door that led outside, we had to blink away the blinding morning sunlight. I heard a few ponies gasp before my eyes finally adjusted to the hundreds of ponies gathered below our balcony.

"We thank thee for doing what we have asked." Luna's voice rang at half the volume from before, which was still a bit to loud for me, but then again, she was addressing hundreds of ponies.

"Why is Jack human again?" A voice rang out. But that wasn't the end. A massive chorus of questions were asked in a very short amount of time.

"Yeah, and who is the other human?"

"What's going on?"

"What's wrong?"

"Yeah, I thought we had won the war?"

"Is Chrysalias back?"

"No." Luna said immediately following that question and silencing them all. "We all have dealt with that pest accordingly." She said, lowering her voice. "All of your questions will be answered in time. But for now, I am afraid our work as soldiers is far from done." Worried murmurs and fear filled glances said it all. "We have been informed of a new threat. One worse than the Changeling horde."

"What?!" A random mare couldn't stop the question from coming out in a startled gasp. "What could possibly be worse than them?" She asked.

"Creatures that inflict a fate worse than death, then kill you without a second thought." Luna said grimly. The ponies started shifting nervously. And fearfully, if I might add. "But do not worry, these creatures are not immortal! They can, and will be, slain!" She shouted. The ponies below seemed to calm a little, though not much. "We have a day to prepare for their arrival. I'll have the information on what we are fighting in the database for everypony to see within the hour."

The crowd dispersed immediately and Luna turned around briskly and led us back through the door.

"I'm impressed, Lulu." Celestia smirked, causing her sister to blush lightly.

"About?" Luna asked, remaining composed despite Celestia's compliment.

"You've taken these ponies to your heart and they have done the same with you." Celestia said, her smirk widening to a soft smile. "I'm proud."

"Ten years is a long time. Especially when you are fighting for your life everyday. I earned these ponies respect and love through war and death. It's nothing to be proud of, my sister." Luna said darkly.

"You may have earned their respect through war tactics and keeping them alive, but love is a different thing. Where is Cadence anyway?" Celestia said, changing the subject.

"Gone." Was Luna's simple reply.

"What? How?" Celestia asked, her smile instantly shattering.

"When you were killed, Chrysalias and her Changelings obliterated the Crystal Empire. It's now just a snow covered crater embedded with gems and bones... Not even one of us could survive something like that..." Luna trailed off with a tear snaking down her face. She quickly shook it off.

"Oh my..." Celestia said and looked down sadly. The central room soon came into view, allowing me to, happily, change the subject.

"So, Luna. How do you plan to get what we are fighting into the database if Flynn here is the only one who has any record of fighting them?" I pointed out the elephant in the room.

"Remember how I showed you what happened to Celestia?" She asked.

"Clearly." I confirmed.

"I can use the same spell on Flynn, but I'll have to reconfigure the spell matrix a little." She said as we entered the massive room.

"Why not use the same spell from the Discord incident?" Twilight spoke up.

"I can only use that if I have their memories inside my mind. And I know next to nothing about Flynn." She said and sat down with everypony following in suit. "Speaking of which, after this little session, I expect a small biography." She said.

"Yeah. Sure. You guys deserve to know me if I am to be fighting beside you." He said nonchalantly.

"Good. Now. Let's begin." She said and leaned her horn to his forehead. A small, teal shock-wave spread over his body, then retracted back into Luna's horn with a small pop. She frowned deeply and then walked over to the massive map. She touched her horn to a small input hole and transferred some more of her teal aura into it. A few, mostly human, things replaced the image of the map.

There was a normal human, except it was covered in blood and didn't have a head. There was another human, except this one was on fire and looked like his skin was stretched as far as it could go across his bones. Then there was a fat one that had half of his intestines hanging out. There was one with a chainsaw and was extremely bulky. The last was an image of a human with sunken eyes that had a suit of armor very similar to the one my great, great grandson was wearing. Also, there was one thing that they all had in common. The label on the top said 'Zombie'. I shit you not. Flynn let out a sigh.

"Those were the first things that I fought. Easy to take down, but pretty hard hitters, so don't get to close unless you have some damn good reflexes. Though, here, they will probably take the form of a pony." He said with nostalgia. And not the good kind. I hoped.

"I'll pull up the next creature." Luna said and shook away the sight from her mind. But something told me it stayed there. A teal aura consumed the image and it disappeared, only to be replaced by a grotesque creature that everybody cringed at. It stood at the same height as a human and was the same shape, but scaly and grey. It had ten tiny eyes spread across its face and some horribly sharp looking teeth. It's hands... Well, more like claws, ended in sharp, eviscerating points. Above it, the word 'Imp' was scrawled across the screen.

"Actually, this is the second creature I faced, in fact, I faced it the most. One good shotgun blast to the face usually did it in. Next." He said and waved his hand. Luna's magical aura enveloped the image and it disappeared, again to be replaced with another horrid creature. This one stood on all fours, had no eyes, robotic back legs, and a upper body that was much to large for its lower body. Its lips were peeled back, exposing its horridly jagged teeth. Above it, the name 'Pinky Demon' was written.

"Third creature I faced in my mission. Very nasty. Super powerful and very durable. Not a fun thing to fight." Flynn said with a shake of his head.

"Do these things get any less... Grotesque?" Rarity's disgusted voice sounded.

"Sadly, no." Flynn responded. "In fact, they get worse." I could physically feel everypony in the room shudder.

Luna's teal aura consumed the picture and replaced it with another. This creature had two heads and two long black tongues (one for each head). It's back was hunched and consisted of two large, tumor-like bloody stumps with retracting barbed bones protruding from them. The creature had five limbs instead of four. It was interesting to see that each hand had a different shape: one was nothing more than a flat stump, one is a pinching claw, and one is a simple human-styled hand. Across the top of it's nasty body, the word 'Maggot' was written.

"You were right..." Rarity said sickly.

"Easy kill, though a bit quick. Don't be fooled by its five limbs, it prefers to walk on two when it gets close. One shotgun blast should take care of it." Flynn said dismissively.

"You seem very fond of that shotgun..." Twilight pointed out the obvious.

"Well, yeah. Extremely effective and plenty of ammo scattered about. Who wouldn't love the thing?" He said rhetorically. "Next." Luna's aura made way for another hideous creature, this one was named 'Trite'. The Trite's resembled spiders, being an upside-down human-like head with several spider-like legs, albeit only six of them. They possessed a cluster of multiple spider-like eyes where the normal 2 human eyes should have been.

"Those little bastards I wouldn't ever waste a shotgun shell on. They attack in swarms and are extremely vulnerable. One or two machine gun bursts should get rid of them." Flynn said strategically. Luna's aura consumed the picture and moved it, making way for another.

"How many more are there?" Dinky asked in horror.

"Eleven..." Luna said with disgust. The next picture was something new. It was a giant, floating head that was taupe in color, had a gaping maw that full of jagged teeth that had fire leaking between them, and has multiple green eyes, as well as some longer, thin tentacles hanging from the bottom of its body. Its brain was clearly visible on the top of its forehead also. Which was really creepy. Above it was scrawled 'Cacodemon'.

"Those things was freaking awful! Always coming out of nowhere and spitting those damned fireballs at you." Flynn said, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "A few well placed shotgun shells will take it down." He said and waved his hand to say next. The next image wasn't as vile, but it was still bad. The word anime kept coming to mind. The creature wore no shirt or armor, but did have a futuristic helmet of a style reminiscent of German Stahlhelme and a pair of camouflage army pants adorned. The creepy part was a huge tentacle replacing its right arm. The name for that one was 'Commando'.

"Ahhh, these sucked. I know they look like zombies, but they have a slightly different origin. They had been human marines before their transformation into brutal super warriors by my old pal Dr. Betruger." The way he spat his name, I didn't need him to tell me that he hated that Betruger guy. "Anything through here takes about two shotgun shells to kill. So if I don't say anything about how to kill it, its because of that." He added.

Luna threw another image up on the screen. It was a large, off-white colored humanoid demon, standing a head taller than a normal human even in a semi-crouched pose. Its elongated arms were both ended in bloody tumor-like bloated hands with huge, inward-retracted claws that fire swirled endlessly around. It was called the 'Arch-Vile'.

"Horrible, nasty, ugly, douche bags! These things are really powerful and durable. They could take about ten of your soldiers on at once and top them all. It takes a shit ton of firepower to bring him down." Flynn informed.

"So, big scary fire demon not good?" Rainbow Dash simply tried to confirm.

"Pretty much." Flynn nodded. He then looked over to Luna and said, "Hey, Luna. You can skip the ones that are only in hell. I don't think that we'll be needing the information from them."

"Why?"

"Because the only reason I went in there last time was to get a super weapon."

"Don't lie to me. You got dragged through that portal." Luna said. Flynn blushed a little.

"Still got the super weapon..." He mumbled. Luna moved to the next picture with a smirk on her face.

The creature was a tall skeleton-like demon armed with a pair of shoulder-mounted missile launchers and the body below the collarbone was covered in a layer of almost transparent skin. It's eyes glowed an unearthly green color and it's armor resembled the marine's chest armor, but was colored red and had tubes and wires connecting with the shoulder-mounted launchers.

"Ah. The Revenant." Flynn spoke the name atop the screen, "Not as bad as that Arch-Vile, but still pretty nasty. Those rockets will blow you apart." He said.

The next picture was that of a fat, sluggish looking creature that stood about two heads taller than a normal human, and its bulk was about two to three times as wide. This monster was also more elephant seal-like or Cthulhu-like than any of the others, giving it a more vile look. Flynn physically shuddered at this creature, which was named the 'Mancubus'.

"Not good at all. Worse than the Arch-Vile, in fact. It takes twice the firepower to take out and is twice as powerful. But there is an upside. It's twice as slow. Including its fiery balls of death." He said, "As long as you can move fast enough and don't get cornered, you can kill it quite easily." He concluded.

The next picture was that of a human baby with insect-like wings, solid black eyes, and arms ending in monstrous, sharp claws. It had no legs, having instead the hind quarters of a fly. Because of the fact that it looked so much like a human infant, it made him one of the most unpleasant and emotionally disturbing creatures yet. At the top, it's name, 'Cherub', was scrawled.

"Evil little bastard. Quite disturbing as well. That is what a human baby looks like, so here it should take the form of a filly or colt." He said, causing the ponies to cringe in horror. "Pick them off from afar. They aren't very durable, so it should be easy. Just don't let them get to close." He finished. The next one was a head-sized flying demon consisting of a human face mounted on a flying rocket engine contraption. Its jaws were torn apart to allow it to open its mouth wider than a normal human could and its teeth had mutated to long, pointy, needle-like teeth. It's name was the "Lost Soul".

"This one was actually not to bad. They attack in packs like the Cherub and the Trite, but they fly like the Cacodemon. They are fairly weak, but sort of fast. You can punch the little bastards out of the air if you wanted." He chuckled. The next one was, thankfully, the last. But it was also the worst by Flynn's description.

It was huge, very muscular, and heavy. A closer examination of its spine indicated that it had a massive skeleton. It had no visible nose and its ears resembled deformed human ears, fused to the sides of its head, which made them look almost like holes. Its obscure eyes were very small and black, located on the sides of the head just above the mouth. It was easily the largest creature shown. The thing was at least four feet taller than a human and two feet taller than the Mancubus. It was named the 'Hell Knight'. Flynn winced when the thing came up on the screen, clearly showing his fear of the creature.

"Now, that, is a truly horrifying enemy. The son of a bitch nearly killed me multiple times. If it wasn't for one of them, I wouldn't have been sent to Hell nor have this baby." He said and rolled up a sleeve from a shirt under his armor. Under the sleeve was a massive, jagged scar that was red around the edges. "One of the bastards got to close to me." He explained. "Heavy fire power is highly recommended if you want to keep any of your troops alive."

"That was the last one." Luna said and all of us sighed in relief, even Flynn.

"Still want that 'small biography'?" He asked Luna cheekily.

"No... I think we have all seen enough. And when I tapped into your memories, I saw everything anyways." The lunar princess said, a small green tint taking over, "Now, if you'll excuse me, nature calls." She said and rushed off to the bathroom. Her retching helped lighten the mood.

"Anyone here feel like they can take these things?" Flynn asked the room. Rainbow Dash was the only one to speak up.

"Every one of them!" She said confidently, "Except maybe that Hell Knight thing..." She muttered under her breath, though she would never admit it. I was lucky enough to hear it in the first place, and the only reason I did was because I was standing beside her. Flynn let out a light chuckle and smiled.

"You ponies are going to be an interesting bunch to fight beside." He said, "I think I like it here."

"See! I told you that they would grow on you!" I laughed

"Or its that there are not demons throwing Fireballs at me every few seconds. At least, there won't be until tomorrow, anyways." He said.

"I'm trying not to think about that." Rarity said.

"Well at least you'll be comfortable in here instead of fighting those things on the battlefield!" Dinky accused.

"Actually, those things can sort of teleport in. It's obvious when they do, but they aren't really keen on sneak attacks. They rely on brute force." Flynn said. Rarity's face contorted in more horror than before.

"Wh-What?!" She asked in panic.

"Do not worry, we will have armed guards protecting you." Celestia's voice cut in. Rarity sighed in relief.

"Thank you, your majesty." She said. I had a feeling that we would need some guards as well, but didn't say anything.

"Flynn, do you have any idea on how they will get here?" Celestia asked him.

"Honestly? No. In my dimension, they came through an experimental portal that Betruger got the egg-head scientists to develop." That caused Rainbow to snicker and glance at Twilight.

"That's a shame." The solar princess said.

"Yeah, I wonder how Gengena will introduce them to this world..." I trailed off and let everypony in the room contemplate that with a retch or two in the background.

Discorded Events

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"Well, what are we going to do now?" Luna said as she walked back into the room, looking visibly better. She wiped a stray piece of vomit away from her fur as she sat on her haunches.

"We prepare and wait." Flynn answered simply.

"Yeah. Can't do much else." Rainbow said, her wings at her side instead of in the air like they normally were. A total contradiction from the Dash that I knew.

"Got something on your wings, Dash?" I asked in friendly curiosity while trying, and failing, to keep the worry from my voice.

"It's just... It's just that I thought that we were done. I thought that by Fluttershy's death, it was over. I thought that I had paid my due's! I couldn't bare to lose Scootaloo! Haven't we sacrificed enough?" She asked.

"More than." I responded.

"Then why do we have to lose more ponies? More family? More loved ones? Risk our lives and theirs?!" She asked in exasperation.

"Because if you don't, they'll die anyway." Flynn retorted darkly, "But they will be torn limb from limb, hung and bled dry, have their flesh sucked from their broken bones, and eaten alive. I've seen what these creatures can do and believe me, they don't know what mercy is." Flynn said coldly. Everypony, except Luna, was taken aback by the brutality described. It definitely ended Rainbow's argument.

"What are you guys doing? Quit standing around! You don't have a clue about what you're in for!" A familiar, but weakened, voice said from the side. All of us jumped and snapped our weapons at the intruder, nine charges and a shotgun pump sounded in the room as we prepared to fire.

Our startling target was a black Earth pony with a mane that flowed out and ended in fiery red and orange tips. Celestia and Luna hesitated, but only slightly.

"Whoa! Is that any way to treat on old friend?" He said with a knowingly sly smile.

"What do you want, Discord?" Celestia said, having resteeled herself.

"Discord?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"Ah, yes, Twilight Sparkle." He said with a creepy smile.

"You look... Different."

"Don't I always?"

"But aren't you suppose to be some fucked up looking mix match of different creatures?" Rainbow asked rudely, though her tone didn't hint at it.

"Miss Dash! How wonderful to see you again as well." He said with cheery sarcasm. There was something about his voice that was extremely familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. "Or should I say, Mrs. Dash. How is Fluttershy?" He asked innocently. Then the voice clicked.

"Azuro?" I asked suddenly before Dash could say anything.

"As you would know me." He confirmed, then gestured to the Princesses. "They, however, know me as Darkwind The Fierce. Which is my current form." He said and then gestured at the other ponies. "But they know me as Discord."

"I don't understand." I said, not even wanting to imagine how Flynn felt as he scoffed. "How can you be here? How can you not know about Fluttershy?"

"I'm here because of Gengena. She attacked me in my weakened state. I barely managed to escape with my life and was forced to come here, powerless. Hence my Earth Pony form." He explained, "But I have been focusing on more important things than the lives of one or two normal citizens of Equis. What happened to Fluttershy?" He asked in worry.

"She's... She's gone." Dash answered coldly.

"Oh..." Darkwind/Azuro/Discord said, clearly crushed by the news. "M-My condolences."

"I've had enough pity." Rainbow said coldly and turned to leave the room.

"Dash." I said, "Where are you going?"

"To teach some kids how to survive." She said without emotion and left. Twilight tried to go after her, but Luna laid a hoof on the lavender Unicorns shoulder. The lunar princess shook her head and said,

"Solitude is necessary at times. As long as it stays in small doses." Twilight nodded in understanding.

"Damn..." Azuro said shakily. "I swear, I'll have Gengena's head for this." He said venomously.

"Um..." I said, not knowing how to phrase the question without it being rude. Luckily, he guessed what I had wanted to ask.

"Shy was my first friend..." He said. Ouch. That really tugged at the heartstrings, but we didn't exactly have time to worry about emotion.

"I'm very sorry." Dinky's voice found us.

"Thank you. But you must be Dinky!" Azuro said, visibly brightening, but never losing the sad look in his eyes.

"Yes." She responded.

"You've certainly had an interesting night." Azuro slyly commented with a wink, causing both Dinky and I to blush furiously.

"I thought you were doing more important things than watching our lives?!" I accused.

"I said one or two normal ones. You two are far from normal." He teased.

"That's not an excuse!" I exclaimed. He shrugged, but kept that smirk on the entire time. I guess it was payback for fucking with him earlier, but still, that kind of crossed the line.

"Do I even want to know?" Flynn asked with worry as the rest of the ponies giggled.

"No!" Dinky and I shouted at the same time, only increasing Azuro's smirk.

"You would know if you got here last night." Twilight said between giggles, causing all of the ponies, except Dinky, to explode in laughter. Even Celestia's poker face faltered in a chuckle, only making Dinky and I blush harder.

"Yes, you really must learn how to keep her quiet." Luna mused, making Dinky and I a deep red shade. Even my ears felt like they were on fire. That must have been my Irish kicking in.

"C-Can we please j-just get back t-to the subject at hand!" I stammered out in flustered exasperation.

"You're welcome to, just not in here, darling." Rarity slyly commented. I felt like crawling under a massive boulder and staying there forever.

"Alright, alright. We had our, well needed, fun. Now, lets get back to Gengena and the demons." Azuro said after his laughter had died down. I silently thanked him as the fire faded from mine and Dinky's cheeks.

"Right." Celestia said, regaining her royal composure. "So, Discord. Why are you here?"

"I told you-"

"Don't lie."

"I'm losing my touch! Everypony can see right through me!" He said, then mumbled under his breath, "If I still had my powers, I would turn invisible." Then he brightened up, "Nah! You've always seen through my tricks, Tia." He said with a nostalgic smile.

"So...?" Celestia trailed off, wanting answers and quickly growing impatient.

"You're not going to like it..." He said and bit his bottom lip nervously. But all Celestia did was chuckle.

"Tell me something I don't know? I haven't liked anything since my captain-. No, my friend, was murdered in front of me." She said, anger beginning to flare in her voice. Azuro just sighed.

"If you really do wish to know..." He paused, then inhaled deeply.

"Gengena attacked me in my weakened state, but I had enough strength to fight her and I did, I fought her and fought her for hours on end, then she brought her lackey's into it and I didn't stand a chance, not like I did in the first place, but this time I knew that I was screwed, we're going to have to build a massive interdimensional portal to let the demons out of the space between dimensions so they don't overload the place and kill us all in an enormous explosion of blood and gore." He said, completely disregarding the rule for run-on sentences. When he finished his explanation, he inhaled deeply again. "Whew. I've recited that in my brain ten times over!"

"So, let me get this straight. You want us. To build a gate-way. For those... Things. To enter this world and reek havoc?" Flynn asked skeptically, yet I could sense the desperation that his assumption was wrong.

"Long story short..." Azuro confirmed with a nervous chuckle. Oh well.

"You're right. I don't like it." Celestia said and put a hoof to her chin in thought.

"You mean we have to bring those creatures here?!" Rarity asked with her typical over-dramatic flare with a little bit of horror thrown in the mix. Azuro just nodded gently.

"That means that our ponies blood will be on our hooves." Luna warned the contemplating Celestia.

"What part of 'kill us all in an enormous explosion of blood and gore' do you not get?" Azuro said.

"The part where I have my subje-. My friends' blood on my hooves." Luna retorted.

"It'll be on your hooves anyway! Well, what's left of them." Flynn said darkly, "I say we build the damned thing so we can have a fighting chance against these creatures."

"It is my sisters choice to make. I shall stand by what she says, even if I do not approve." Luna said, confirming where she stood.

"When did you become a guard dog?" I asked suddenly, unable to control my outburst. Luna shot me a glare that sent the coldest shiver on the planet down my back, but she couldn't say anything. I blushed and bit my bottom lip, cursing myself for letting my tongue get ahead of my thought process.

"Luna." Celestia finally spoke, "These are far from my ponies now. You guided and lived with them for ten years while I was locked away. You shared blood, sweat, tears, and even joy with them. This decision is yours to make." She said. Luna steeled her gaze and looked deep into her mind, searching for the right choice, despite her previous words.

"Luna. Please. Give these ponies a fighting chance instead of dooming them to death instantly." I tried to reason. Luna looked up at me with battle hardened eyes.

"I have seen things you shant dare imagine. I've been at war for ten long years. I have lost many dear friends and even killed. I never want to experience what I have ever again, and I wouldn't wish that fate upon anypony." She said, then softened and averted her dulled aqua gaze to the side. "But if anypony is to be threatened with death, they should at least have a chance to fight for their lives." She said and gulped. "We shall build the portal. Darkwind, is there a deadline?"

"When I said they would be here tomorrow, I meant it. So, yes." He said.

"That's just wonderful." Flynn said, his voice laden with sarcasm.

"So, wait, if you don't have any powers, how are we going to get the portal working?" Twilight asked.

"I may have just a tiny bit more power." He confessed.

"Of course you do." Flynn rolled his eyes.

"Hey! It's not to much. Just, like, a wisp. Enough to give the portal transdimensional properties." Azuro explained, "Though we still need a form of power..." He said and put a thoughtful hoof to his chin.

"Actually, I think I might have the solution to your problem." Twilight said with a smirk. "Though, it may take some convincing..." She added.

"Really?" Azuro asked hopefully. "Anything."

"Dude. I have a feeling that you are seriously going to regret that." I said with a laugh.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

"Because you get to convince Rainbow Dash to help you." Twilight laughed as Azuro went pale.

"Anypony want to lend a hoof?" He asked with a hint of desperation. I shared a laugh with Flynn and Dinky.

"You're on your own, bro." I said, answering for all three of us.

"Quite." Rarity giggled, "Though, it should be fun to watch..." She mused. Azuro shot a desperate glance to Twilight and the two princesses.

"Don't look at us." Twilight smirked, "I learned a while back not to mess with Dash when she is like this. Have fun." She laughed. Azuro sagged his head in defeat and made his way to the door that Dash had exited from. Everyone in the room followed behind him with a silent smirk as he weaved through the, now red scrawled, tech towers. Ponies were gathered around them with grim and paled faces, no doubt from the disturbing creatures that they would soon fight.

"Discord." The aforementioned pony clearly commanded. The massive doors to the outside opened without the necessary access codes. Before I could ask, Twilight did it for me.

"What? How did you do that?"

"Do what?" He asked innocently.

"You know what!" She said sternly, "This is top notch security."

"It just knows better." He smirked with an awfully creepy laugh that sent shivers down my spine. We continued to where Dash said she would be, the training grounds, but didn't find her there.

"Um... Where is she?" Azuro asked.

"I have an idea..." Dinky trailed off and pointed her hoof down the road. There was a rainbow maned, cyan Pegasus hunched over Fluttershy's grave, weeping softly. We all snuck along the road quietly, trying not to make any noise. We soon came within earshot of her.

"H-Hey there, Shy... I missed you... It's almost funny how much colder a bed is when you're missing somepony... Almost..." The depressed voice said and poked at the ground. "Well... Discord came back today... I know you would've been happy to see him, considering he was your friend and all... You know, you saw something in him that nopony else saw. So, I'm going to give him a chance." She said and straightened up, "As soon as he stops stalking me." She turned and smirked at the black Earth Pony. He smiled and held up his hooves in defeat.

"Looks like you got me." He said with a nervous chuckle, "It's good to hear that you're going to give me a chance, because I have some news you're not going to be too happy about..." Rainbow raised a skeptic eyebrow at him. Azuro took another deep breath, and once more explained the situation in the same loquacious manner that he had before, only increasing Rainbow Dash's skeptic eyebrow.

"So... Let me get this straight... You want me. To go get a cloud. And use its lightning. To power a portal that lets demons come here?" She asked slowly and quite disbelievingly.

"Long story short..." He confirmed. I was having a major flash of dejavu. Sort of.

"Um, how about, no!" She said defiantly.

"Dash. Please-" The Earth Pony pleaded.

"No! You're asking me to condemn us to another war!"

"No, I'm asking you to prevent your species's complete annihilation." He corrected, inciting a frustrated sigh from Dash.

"Alright! Fine. But I wont like it." She said.

"You don't have too." Azuro said, his voice laden with relief. Dash... well, dashed, off in the direction of a large cloud formation.

"Hey Jack?" Twilight's voice came from behind me.

"Hm?"

"Why aren't you that curious about things? You know, like weather patterns on Equis, how Celestia and Luna began their rule, the adventures of my friends and I, etc." She asked the very good question.

"Because I already knew." I said simply, causing many confused stares. Except Luna.

"How?" Twilight managed to form the word with her mouth. I opened my own to explain, but was cut off by a chestnut stallion with a spiky brown mane, who had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"Because once a door is opened, it may be stepped through in either direction. And if I'm correct on my history, Luna showed you what became of Canterlot, but you went through her other memories as well." He said in a typical Trottingham accent, then frowned. "Oh blast! Did I... What year is it?" He asked suddenly at first, but ended with innocence. Twilight gave him a look of familiarity.

"Uh... Um... It's 2012." Twilight answered like something from a long time ago sunk in, inciting a sigh of relief from the mysterious stallion. "Oh, and by the way, it's good to see you again." She winked. "And, by the way, avoid a cross-eyed, grey Pegasus with a blonde mane at any costs."

"Ah! Spoilers. Anyways, I'll be off! Allons-y!" He shouted and galloped in the opposite direction. I opened my mouth to shout after him and raised my index finger, but lowered my finger and closed my mouth. I repeated the process twice before shaking my head.

"Nah. Couldn't have been." I said, then turned to a matter closer at hand, "So, it looks like the time period here is very similar, if not the same, to the one in my world." I said, "Neat."

"Wait... So you came from a hundred and thirty or so years in the past, then was teleported here?"Flynn asked.

"No, you came from a hundred and thirty or so years in the future, then was teleported here." I explained.

"What?"

"Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey." I said with a smirk. I could swear I had heard the brown stallion burst into laughter from across town. Flynn shook his head to rid it of confusion.

"So, how do you judge the time period before Equestria?" I asked. Celestia sighed, but answered my question nonetheless.

"The Changelings weren't the first war we experienced." She said, then looked off into the distant sun.

"Long ago, before the Alicorn's rise to rule, and even the sun and moon, the ponies were dictated by a fierce group of Dragons, Changelings, and Griffons known as The Catharsis. One day, the ponies grew tired of their cruel treatment and prayed to the heavens for something to help them. A few month's later, a foal was born. But this was far from the normal Pegasus, Earth Pony, and Unicorn. This was a mixture of the three that seemed to have immense power. His mane flared a fiery crimson and flowed in a nonexistent breeze along with his tail while his pristine, white coat dwarfed even the most lustrous ponies. Taking it that their prayers were answered, they kept the foal hidden away, but one day, when the foal had aged to colthood, he was foalnapped by The Catharsis.

"He was long thought dead, then another hybrid was born. This one having a silvery blue coat and a mane and tail that were black as night, but flowed in the same nonexistent breeze as the colts. These were the first two of five Alicorns. There names were Galaxious and Silver Moon. Galaxious was still unheard of by the town ponies, but they held their Silver Moon dearly to their hearts. Soon, Silver Moon grew up. But she stood two heads taller than the tallest stallion and even stopped aging. The ponies looked to her as a goddess. A bringer of hope.

"Then Galaxious returned. He had caught wind of Silver Moon and, as she had, he had grown up. He raced alone into the town where she was with the intention of crushing her and serving his Catharsis, but when he caught sight of her beauty, he could not do it. They banded together with the ponies, and with the immense power of the first two Alicorns, they overthrew The Catharsis and executed its members while letting the subjects that did nothing wrong go free. Thus marked the first sunrise and the period AC, or After Catharsis." Celestia finished her history lesson that sounded like something that I would hear from Twilight. Rainbow Dash had come back with the cloud about halfway through, but listened intently nonetheless.

"I didn't see that in your memories..." I remarked, turning to Luna.

"Because I had no idea of that either..." She said, "Sister, why did you never tell me this?" She asked

"I did not think of it to be relevant."

"Wait. Shouldn't it be in a common history book?" Flynn asked.

"No. It was irrelevant." I sensed something was wrong. She wasn't telling us something. Before I could open my mouth to protest, Azuro spoke.

"Alrighty! I think it's about time to get this started!" He said and moved out towards the tallest hill in Ponyville.

"You're quite eager." Rarity pointed out.

"Sorry, I don't want to explode." He deadpanned. Rarity huffed, but said nothing back.

"I just hope we can handle them..." I said before shaking my head and following the group to the hill.

A New Comrade

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The ten of us made our way up to the hills zenith in silence, besides the soft treading of hooves and feet across the green grass. I silently feared for what this beautiful land would look like after this fight. Maybe we could stop them before they did any real damage. It was something to hope for at least.

"So, what exactly are we going to need to build this portal?" Dash asked, still holding the rabid storm cloud down.

"Let's see, one pissed off storm cloud, a Pegasus to buck said pissed off storm cloud-" He paused and glared at Dinky, who was stifling a snicker, "Mind out of gutter!" He deadpanned back to us before continuing, "An Interdimensional Chaos Lord with a wisp of power, bait-"

"Wait, wha-" Flynn tried to interrupt, but Azuro cut him off by raising his voice.

"And, oh yeah! A few tons of metal." He said nonchalantly.

"That would have been useful information earlier." Twilight commented.

"What are we suppose to scrap to get that kind of material?" Dash asked outrageously.

"Nothing." Azuro answered. Rainbow Dash threw her hooves out to her bland and quite empty surroundings.

"Right. Because we have such an abundant supply on us." Sarcasm over flowing in her voice. "What are we going to need?"

"A credit card that has no limit." Azuro joked. Rainbow Dash looked thoroughly confused, but Flynn and I let out a chuckle as we got it. "Wait... We have better! An Alicorn." He deadpanned. There was a bright, yellow flash and a very large crash.

"There." Celestia said contently, "Now that we have the proper material, I would suggest we begin."

"Right. But I should mention that the humans on Mars did this exact thing. Yet, only a few of them knew about it." Flynn's voice spoke the newer information.

"Was that Tangi's doing?" Luna asked.

"No. I don't think that he was in the same predicament as we are. He would've told me about it. It was Gengena." He logically pointed out.

"And what stops you from being Gengena?" Spike asked, setting an even more tense mood, "You could just be lying to us all." He accused, causing Azuro to back up a step.

"What? No! If I was Gengena, you would all be dead." He said.

"Betruger kept those few marines and scientists alive." Flynn started his own accusations.

"Oh come on! You too? Seriously? I teleported your ass here!"

"Now hold on, guys," Rainbow Dash spoke up, "I believe him. Call it an instinct, or maybe its just my element kicking in. But this is not Gengena."

"Instinct can't be relied on, Dash." Twilight spoke her opinion.

"I have to agree with Dash on this. I know Darkwind, and this is definitely him." Celestia said.

"I concur with my sister. This is Darkwind." Luna agreed.

"Rarity?" Twilight asked for her vote.

"Wait?! Are you guys actually voting to see if I'm real or not?!" Azuro said, outraged, but ignored by everypony around him.

"I'm going to have to go with Discord's side, darling. It just... Feels like the same pony." Rarity replied nonchalantly, inciting a sigh of frustration from the lavender mare.

"What about you, Dinky?" She asked.

"Seriously?!" Azuro's cries were unheard.

"I don't trust him." All eyes fell on my as my eyes widened and my muscles tensed.

"Looks like you're tie breaker." Twilight said expectantly.

"I... er.. um... Recount?" I asked in desperate nervousness.

"No time!" She shouted, making me even more nervous. I took a deep breath and examined Azuro's face. It was scared looking, but I was more focused on his eyes. He met my gaze and I searched his iris's and pupils deeply for any hint of Azuro. And, luckily, I found one. An age old coldness, but a warming deep inside.

"It's Azuro. I'm sure of it." I stated, causing a sigh of relief from the aforementioned pony. A few ponies grumbled, but quickly got over it. More important things were to be done.

"Now, with that settled. I believe it would be appropriate to begin?" Azuro's rhetorical, yet relieved, voice said.

"Yes. Do you have the blueprints?" Luna asked. In response, Azuro tapped his head with his hoof.

"All in here." He smirked.

"Great. Because that totally helps." Spike said sarcastically, rolling his eyes while folding his arms.

"I believe you are forgetting the memory spell, my dear dragon." Azuro's mocking voice said.

"I believe that would be my job." Luna said, "Everypony here has already taken a stroll through my mind. And don't deny it. I could feel you ponies snooping." She accused, causing a few of us to blush. She then walked up to Azuro and calmly put her horn, which held a small, teal ball on its end, to his head.

After a moment of her searching his memories, she opened her eyes and walked to the center of where we stood. She let eight small, teal ribbons escape her horn and flow into our brains, imprinting our thoughts with the images of blueprints and designs. After she was done, she began levitating the metal to make the base plates.

"Everypony, you may relax while I do this part. We shall take turns in creating this portal." Luna said as she worked. All of the other ponies shrugged and went to converse with one another. I found myself leaning back on the pile of metal with Flynn next to me and Dinky conversating with Twilight and Celestia about the aftermath of our decision. I began to hum the main guitar part for one of my favorite songs from back on Earth, but then was joined by Flynn's voice, harmonizing the words perfectly with the rhythm.

"Hello me ... Meet the real me

And my misfits way of life

A dark black past is my

Most valued possession

Hindsight is always 20-20

But looking back it's still a bit fuzzy

Speak of mutually assured destruction?

Nice story ... Tell it to Reader's Digest!" I stopped humming as his voice ceased.

"Good to see that good music survived the ages." I smiled with nostalgia.

"Well, after the airplane crash that killed everyone in that One Direction band, things just went uphill for the music industry. Lil' Wayne overdosed, Beiber was assassinated, Drake was killed in a gang fight, Mackelmore got AIDS from some underwear that he got at a Thrift Shop, Ryan Lewis got AIDS from Mackelmore after a fling, Jason Aldean died in a freak accident involving a horse, Rebecca Black turned out to be a serial killer and took the electric chair, Taylor Swift was murdered by one of her ex's that got tired of her writing songs about him, the entire band of Sugarland got a fatal form of diabetes, and Nicki Manji got hit by a car." He finished his list of awful musicians deaths. Highly ironic awful musicians deaths.

"It's not a good thing that they died, but at least they didn't pollute the musical world with their auto tuned noise anymore. Seriously, the stuff was just annoying." I said.

"Yeah, but we had our dark days as well. Ozzy finally bit the dust. He lived to be one hundred and forty fucking three, and still made music till the very end. The rest of Pantera and Slayer died off as well as the members of Megadeth and Metallica. Of course, I wasn't even swimming around in my old dads testes when they died, but I listened to their music a century afterward." Flynn laughed.

"That would never get easy to hear." I said and shook my head, "But at least they made their imprint like Beethoven and Bach." I added. Flynn smirked and began to hum Fur Elise. "Damn! You really are my great, great grandson!" I exclaimed with a laugh and patted him on the back.

"Jack. Flynn. I need to use you two for a minute, get over here." Azuro called. Flynn and I shared a groan before forcing ourselves off of the pile of metal. We made our way over to Azuro and the half built machine that probably was going to bone half of the pony race.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"Hold this." He said and pointed his hoof at a hunk of steel that was shaped like the head of a pony.

"So you brought us over here to hold something?" I deadpanned.

"Yep." He simply answered. I sighed and picked up the chunk of metal after a shrug.

"Right. And why did you need me?" Flynn asked. Azuro laughed and pointed to the portal.

"Stand there." He said. Now it was Flynn's turn to laugh.

"Are you fucking nuts?" He rhetorically asked.

"Little. Now stand there." Azuro casually remarked. Flynn sighed, shrugged, then stood where Azuro had told him to. Azuro grabbed a few pieces of metal with his mouth and placed them on various spots, each time calling for one of the magic users to seal it onto the portal. The process continued for a little bit, without him using me or Flynn. But, finally, he picked up the piece of metal out of my grasp with his teeth and called Luna over.

"What do you wish of me?" She asked.

"Float this up there and seal it to the portal." He said and tossed the chunk of metal into the air. Luna caught it with her teal aura and placed it onto the place Azuro had indicated. Teal light shined from the seams, but disappeared as the piece became sealed to the portal.

"Okay, ponies, get ready. I am about to add my last bit of power to the conductor." He announced. "Get behind me." Flynn stepped out of the middle of the portal, only to be pushed back in place by Azuro.

"What the hell?" He asked.

"You have to stay there until the portal opens. It needs a catalyst or it may take weeks to open. Which we do not have, if I need to remind you." He said. Flynn opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it as he realized the gravity of the situation. He clenched his jaw and nodded.

"Ready." He said simply. Azuro trained his eyes on the head of the portal and strained to get that last bit of power out. Dinky burst in laughter and fell back, simply pointing at the Interdimensional Lord and laughing. Azuro started to look annoyed, and swiftly turned to face the Unicorn.

"Hey! You want to do this?!" His irritation showed. Dinky tried to calm down, but couldn't force herself.

"S-S-S-Sorry! Ahahaha! You just- You just looked so constipated! Ahahahaha!" Dinky exclaimed between laughs, incited a few chuckles, even from Azuro himself. Eventually, the laughing subsided and we were able to get back to the matter at hand. Or rather, at hoof.

Azuro turned back towards the head and began to strain again, this time, however, Dinky looked away while stifling another laugh. A small, golden wisp escaped the lips of said pony and gradually floated up towards the metal pony head. When it reached it, instead of going through the lips of it, it flowed into the eye sockets and disappeared into the skull.

"Um... Is something suppose to hap-?" Twilight was cut off by a resounding crack.

"Dash! Buck the storm cloud now!" Azuro shouted.

"Right!" Dash said and kicked the growling cloud, causing it to release a bolt of lightning that struck the portals head. The eyes of the head filled with crackling energy and a bright red, nontransparent aura flowed into the opening of the portal. Flynn looked terrified as the aura came nearer.

"Flynn! Before the aura touches you, jump out of the portal or you will be sent to Hell!" Azuro warned. If Flynn looked terrified before, now he was absolutely horrified.

"I wish I knew that earlier!" He yelled.

"Then you wouldn't have agreed to be in the portal." Azuro said.

"Exactly!" Flynn retorted. The aura was almost at his head, which was turned to make sure that he knew when to jump. When it came time, he leaped from the portal, and put his fist forward, using the propelling force to superman punch Azuro in the snout. To which Dinky and I responded with a hearty laugh and the others with shock. Flynn stood up and brushed himself off.

"That was for not mentioning that little tidbit at the end!" He said, then held his hand down to the Earth Pony that was sprawled across the ground. Azuro looked up at it, then took it in his hoof.

"Fair enough." He said in a nasally voice as he was hoisted up. We all turned our attention back towards the portal as it neared closing. Finally, all portions of the red aura met, or so it appeared so, and a large shock wave emitted from the center, causing all of us to be knocked back about eight feet. I met the ground with an 'Oof' and quickly had the air knocked out of my lungs again as my marefriend landed on top of me.

"Dinky! Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine, you're human body softened the blow." She chuckled as she rolled off of me. I got up and shook the dizziness out of my head, then stared up at the portal, but something was wrong. There was a single space where the red had not met. A small circle. And within it, a single, small strand of human hair floated. By a nearby groan, I could tell that Azuro had noticed it as well.

"Um... What does that mean?" I asked.

"I wish I knew." He said.

"You know, I thought you were suppose to be funny and sarcastic." Twilight commented as she rubbed her head.

"Well, that was before I lost a brother and witnessed a ten year war full of destruction and death." Azuro retorted.

"I know better than most..." She said. The portal rippled outward rather violently, then black energy crackled around the hair and another shock wave exploded from the portal, knocking us all back to the ground. But this time, a bright light accompanied the shock wave. I had to shield my eyes from the light as it expanded outward.

Eventually, it subsided and I was able to view the aftermath. But, instead of a stable portal with a bunch of blood thirsty demons running out of it, I saw something that I less than didn't understand. It was a stable portal with... A twenty year old boy standing in front of it.

"The hell am I?" The newest human asked his shocked audience.

The Demons

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The kid had dirty blonde hair with two parts of his bangs beside his eyes that stretched down to his shoulders and ended in points, but the rest of his bangs rested above his greenish blue eyes in a straight line cut with only two breaks in it. He was wearing a black coat that contrasted greatly against his pale skin and some old, worn out Converse.

"What happened?" Spike's voice came from the side, interrupting my studies.

"I... I... I have no idea!" Azuro said, completely befuddled.

"Interesting..." Luna remarked. The guy just looked utterly confused.

"Where the hell am I and why are there talking ponies?" He asked.

"I'll fill you in when we figure out everything." I said, being the only one to address him directly. "But for now, all you need to know is that you're in a war torn land called Equestria and... You might want to move away from that portal." I warned.

"Portal? What por..." He turned around to view the massive gateway, and quickly stumbled back and fell on his backside.

"This is so awesome!" Twilight squealed with glee as the kid got back up and brushed himself off, "I will have to take him back to my lab and run some tests and maybe even some experiments! Oh, so much to learn!" She showed a side that I had yet to see. Maybe back from her years before the war. It incited a cute little giggle from Luna.

"Whoa, whoa! Experiments? I don't think so, purple butt." He remarked.

"How did this even happen?" Flynn asked.

"Who are you guys?" The guy asked. "What is going on?" His frustrated tone becoming apparent.

"He must have come from that hair!" Flynn exclaimed.

"Hair? What hair?" The guys exasperated voice said.

"It's a possibility..." Azuro said, scratching his chin with his hoof. "Your molecular construct could have mixed with the transdimensional aura and either transported the guy here, or created him..."

"Will somebody please just answer my questions?" The guy asked.

"I have a theory..." Twilight said, "Hey, human. What is your name?" She asked.

"Aiden... Aiden Stein Warlick." He said.

"Azuro, if he was created, wouldn't he not have, or not remember, his name?"

"Hmmm." Azuro paused, "That's a pretty accurate analysis... Let's go with the bookworms theory!" He said.

"The only problem that we don't have a clue as to who he is." Rarity commented.

"You know my name, now I want some answers!" Aiden demanded.

"I'll fill you in on everything later." I said calmly. Just then, the portal began to crackle as the red finally met. For real this time.

"Aiden. Run. There is a town about a kilometer behind us. Find it and tell everypony there what happened and to prepare themselves. You have to trust us." Azuro took charge as the portal rippled and shuddered. We all took defensive positions and aimed our weapons at the crackling portal as Aiden nodded and ran back to Ponyville.

A moment of silence ensued, only our tensed breathes broke it. Then, like a nightmare, a long claw broke through the portal. Slowly at first, finding its way into the world. As half of its twisted, chitin arm was through, it stopped. The claw quickly retreated back into the portal, then an Imp shot out at full speed. Its horrific form speeding at us caused us all to hesitate. Luckily, Flynn had enough experience and quickly gunned down the demon, his resounding shotgun boom echoing through the hills.

There was another moment of silence, then, the head of a 'Pinky' demon emerged and charged. This time, we were prepared and were able to gun the thing down. Though it did take a considerable amount of ammunition.

"If they keep coming one by one, this'll hardly be a challenge!" Rainbow Dash proclaimed.

"Don't jinx us, Dash." I said, keeping a steady bead on the portal. A Wraith teleported behind us, but Spike's ears caught the sound and whipped around. He smacked the Wraith in the face with his claws, causing it to stagger. He took advantage of this and brought his gun up, planting a few bullets in its skull. Two Imps and three Maggots charged out of the portal straight at us.

"Break!" Flynn shouted as two Maggots fell, but the other got through only to swipe at thin air. I aimed at the head and fired, causing it to explode. A fire ball sailed over my head and singed my eyebrows before Flynn managed to gun down the offending Imp. Rarity screamed out in terror, causing me to whip my head around to the sound. An Imp was standing over her, about to maul her, but a certain purple and green blur tackled the Imp to the ground and began to rip it apart.

"Stay! Away! From! My! Rarity!" He yelled as body parts flew.

"Spike!" Twilight's voice called, breaking him out of his rage. He sat there for a second, panting as he tried to catch is breath.

"Yeah... Sorry." He said and got up, brushing himself off. He walked back over to a taken aback Rarity, giving her a once over. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes... I'm quite alright, Spikey Wikey." She said, still shocked by his actions. "I never knew you were so... Protective of me." She said. He chuckled lightly, then gave a smirk.

"You should know better, my gem." He said.

"Hate to kill the moment... Actually, I kinda like it, but we have a problem." Azuro said, then pointed towards the portal, which shuddered again. A small, transparent, floating skull of fire floated from the aura. I looked over to Flynn, who was standing beside Luna. Both were pale.

"Don't let it touch you!" They both yelled simultaneously and stood stock still. We followed in suit as it floated past, when it was gone, I shot Flynn a glance.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"It turns humans... Ponies into the Zombies." He explained.

"Can we kill it?" Spike asked.

"Unfortunately, no. Not with conventional weapons, at least. But, upon study of them, I figure a simple EMP should disrupt them and cause them to fall apart." Luna stated.

"That's helpful." Flynn said.

"Anypony got an EMP on hoof?" Dash asked. All shook their heads, save for Rarity.

"Darling, you should know that I never leave home without one. They scrambled the Changelings hive mind prospect, after all. Pity most soldiers didn't use them for the fact that they would have to go without helmets." She said and pulled out a small, round object that had a single cyan line across it and a button on top.

"Don't use it here. It could disrupt the portal." Azuro warned. Rarity shrugged and put the EMP back into her bag.

"Wait..." I said.

"What?" Dinky asked.

"Why did it stop?" I asked. Noticing that they did not pick up on my meaning, I added, "The demons crossing into our dimension, I mean."

"Not sure..." Azuro said and we all focused back onto the portal. Suddenly, it shuddered and emitted a large flash and yet another shock wave. I was really getting sick of getting knocked on my ass. When I touched down, my head whipped back and struck against something hard, causing my brain to go fuzzy. I lost track of time and saw jumbled images swimming through my eyes. Skulls of fire surging from the portal, Dinky trying to shake me back to the world of the living, and, finally, an Imp stepping over me. I eventually blacked out.

~~~

"Jack! I'm getting tired of waking your ass up!" Dinky's distant, but clearly annoyed voice hit my right before a hoof did. The thought that she was alive renewed me enough to let my eyelids open. Actually, it was probably more of the hoof smack to the face. Dinky was standing over me and we were in a room that I recognized as the Headquarters map room.

"What? What happened?" I asked, rubbing my aching head.

"You got knocked the fuck out! That's what happened." I heard Flynn chuckle.

"How long?" I asked.

"Few hours, not really a big deal." Azuro stated from across the room.

"Not a big deal?! What about the demons? And the flaming skull things that turn ponies into Zombies?!" I said, starting to get a little worked up.

"When we got back to town with you, Rarity discharged her EMP and they all evaporated. The skulls, I mean. The others are holding the demons off as we speak." Azuro said.

"Why is the only one with any experience in here waiting for me? And were is that kid?" I asked.

"That 'Kid' is twenty one." Aiden's voice said as he strolled into the room. He was now wearing the battle armor and carrying a standard machine gun. I also noticed that Flynn had dodged my question, but I wasn't able to ask again because another bombshell was dropped.

"That 'Kid' is also your grandson, Jack." Twilight made her presence apparent.

"Really? Why is all of my family getting caught up in this shit storm?!" I asked.

"How did he get here?" Flynn asked, completely ignoring me.

"The genetic material in your hair mixed with the transdimensional aura, causing a rip in subspace and transporting Aiden here." Twilight explained. While everyone else was gawking at her explanation, she blushed. "You can learn a lot from a few tests..." She said.

"How about we not stand around while ponies are dying at the claws of demons?" I asked rhetorically and jumped up from my place on the floor.

"We were waiting on you..." Flynn commented as we all grabbed our weapons and headed outside. What we saw was pure carnage. Blood was everywhere and ponies were getting thrown around like toys. Innards hung on buildings and pikes as well as a few bodies. Some ponies were fighting hoof to... Claw and some of them were shooting from a distance or even point blank. The worst thing I saw was that there were no demon bodies.

"The demons bodies disintegrate when they die." Flynn informed, reading my mind. It set my slightly at ease to know that we might have been doing something.

"Good to know. Now, let's get out there and save this town." I said, steeling my nerves and letting my helmet fall onto my face.

"Right." The five beside me answered and readied their weapons before charging into the fray, guns ablaze. I drew my handgun and my sword before extending my wings. With a little shove off from them, I decapitated an Imp that was standing over a scared filly. Its body disintegrated like Flynn said it would, starting in the middle with red embers and expanding outwards, letting the remnant ashes float away in the wind.

"Get out of here and to your family!" I shouted at the terrified filly. She nodded and ran off quickly. I turned around to find a Maggot in my face. I responded with three handgun shells and a sword in the stomach. With another boost from my wings, I sliced an Imp in half and planted a few bullets into two pesky Wraiths. I heard a pony cry out in pain followed by an explosion and a really loud roar that sent chills down my spine.

"Mancubus!" I heard a pony shout in warning. Remembering, but not really heeding, Flynn's warnings, I charged at the grotesque creature. It noticed me about the time that I sunk my blade into its fatty exterior.

"You ponies handle the lesser demons! I got this one!" I yelled. The Mancubus's hand/cannon thing came down and almost clipped my right wing. And it would have if not for my reflexes. I boosted up into the air with my wings and planted a few bullets into it, but this only seemed to enrage the thing farther. It roared in annoyance and tried to swat me down with one hand and shoot fireballs at me with the other. I evaded all of its attacks, occasionally slicing it or getting a shot in. Finally, it got so pissed, that it roared as loud as it could, dropping its arms back to do so. I deadpanned at it at first, until I realized how serious the creature was. I gave a rather large pump from my wings and then tucked them in while putting my sword on a collision course for his throat to gain maximum speed. When I hit the Mancubus, I barely felt it, but I traveled straight through it! It gurgled and sputtered a few times, then fell to the ground and disintegrated, leaving only floating ashes. I looked up and found myself face to face with a sickly looking pony that was coated in blood.

"Are you okay?" I asked and reached my hand out. He responded with a grunt and then lunged at me. My reflexes allowed me to quickly dodge and decapitate the offending pony... Zombie. "Whew, that was close." I looked around to see if I could find some more ponies in trouble. My eyes landed on ten ponies that just finished their battles and were all cheering in victory.

Suddenly, the ground opened up and a pale white, humanoid demon crawled out of the fiery place. The ten instantly went back to their fighting stances. They opened fire, but only a few of the bullets got past while the rest were disintegrated. It roared in hate and then raised its hands up, inciting fire to erupt from the ground and consume the screaming ponies. I guess Flynn was right about its power. It was clear that I would have to stay off the ground. With a quick pump of my wings, I was in the air. I fired a few bullets at it when it was trying to attack some more of the ponies, and that got its attention rather quickly. It hissed and pointed its bloated, fiery hands at me, expelling a wave of fire that I dodged easily.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to kill me!" I yelled to taunt it. It roared in aggravation and smacked the ground with its hands. Six demon pentacles appeared in perfect symmetry across the ground in front of it and spawned an Imp from each.

"Fuuuuck." I groaned, cursing my big mouth. I sheathed the sword and pulled the sniper of off my back, proceeding to blow the heads off of two of the vile demons. I fired the third round at the Arch Vile, but it was destroyed by its flames. Multiple fireballs and waves of flame raced towards me. I flew above the first wave of fire and ducked under the other one, but a fireball struck me dead in the chest, sending me reeling. Suit Error. Armor at 87 percent. The message ran across my screen as the breath was knocked from my lungs.

"Damn it." I muttered and spun around, dodging another fireball. I magnetized the sniper to my back and drew my assault rifle. I fired a few rounds into another Imp's face, downing it effectively, but at the price of loosing another 45 percent of my armor to a fire wave. Now a few parts of my skin were showing through the cracks and breaks in my armor. I heard a shotgun crack from below and snapped my attention to Flynn standing over a headless Arch Vile. It was distracting enough to the Imps for me kill the last of the ones that were summoned.

"Thanks!" I shouted down to him, earning a wave. I looked around and noticed that the only demons coming in were the ones coming through our defenses in the front of Ponyville.

"Um, Rarity?" I asked through my speakers.

"Yes, darling?" She answered.

"I noticed that the demons are no longer spawning inside of Ponyville. What happened? Not that I'm complaining, but it is a little confusing." I said.

"Well the pony's here prepared and, along with a special team of high level Unicorns, they studied the patterns of magic that were used to summon the hellspawn and devised a counter spell for it. They only recently finished and were able to cast it along with a counter spell for the Skulls. A few of them are actually here with me." Rarity said.

"Hey there, pretty boy! Thanks for the little speech!" I heard Vinyl's voice call.

"Quite." Answered a stallion who's voice I had not heard yet.

"Yes, well, that was the answer to your question. If you would be so kind as to clear out the rest of those demons..." She said.

"Right." I said and shot down, dodging fireballs, firing shots, and slicing demons into pieces. Finally, I was able to dispatch the last Imp and sheath my weapons. I flew down to the center fortification of defense that was at the edge of the town and met with my friends.

"Jack. Good to see you made it." Octavia said and retracted her helmet from her head.

"You too, 'Tavi." I said.

"Hey! Jacky boy! Whatsup?" Vinyl said as she walked out from a small tent.

"I thought you were with Rarity?" I asked.

"I was. But I'm a Unicorn, that means I can teleport." She explained slowly, like she was teaching a toddler. Then she laughed, "I'm just messing with ya." She said.

"Quit horsing around." Aiden's voice came from behind me before he chuckled.

"Good to see that you're adapting." I said with a laugh.

"The puns are the only thing keeping me alive here, man. I mean, have you seen what they named their towns?!" He joked.

"What's wrong with Baltimare?" Luna asked as she came in from the side. Aiden burst into laughing. Rolling her eyes, Luna trotted up to us and said her greetings.

"Jack!" I heard a good familiar voice before getting tackle hugged to the ground.

"Good to see you too." I said and retracted my helmet. I gave her a quick peck on the lips and we both got up, dusting ourselves off.

"Um, General?" I heard a small voice call to me. I turned around to see the same small filly that I had saved before timidly shuffle her hooves.

"Yes, little one?" I said.

"Thank you!" She said and ran off. I smiled a little and shook my head.

"Kids." I said under my breath.

"General." I heard a deep voice call my name. I turned around to face a Pegasus stallion that was taller than most, but fully clad in battle armor that prevented me from seeing his features. I raised an eyebrow in question.

"We may have a problem." He said and pointed his hoof in the direction of the hill. What I saw, scared the ever-living hell out of me. It was a massive, tank-like creature with the treads and bottom half. It carried a rather large gun that was morphed into his arm like a cannon and the other arm was an enormous claw. It was barreling down the hill, firing its weapon at our fortifications and breaking through the magic shields with ease.

"God damn it..." I said and unsheathed my sword and unclipped my handgun. I lowered my helmet and signaled the others while unfurling my wings and shot off to meet my target. I avoided a downward swing from its massive claw and did a barrel roll to dodge a shot from his cannon. It was hit in the chest with a magical blast from Luna and roared more in anger that we got a shot through than in pain that we hit it.

"That should have blown right through it!" Luna exclaimed in shock. I fired multiple shots from my handgun, but they all seemed to bounce off! I would have to take this a degree higher. Flynn ran over and hopped on top of the treads, planting three shells at point blank into the things abdomen. They caused a small amount of blood to splatter, and a swat from the beast, sending Flynn flying back into the town. He was caught by a random, sparkling aura.

"Don't worry, darling. I have him." Rarity said.

"Thanks." I said and whipped the sniper off of my back while the others distracted the thing. I planted a bullet in its spine, causing it to roar in pain this time.

"It must be impervious to magic! Use your guns!" I shouted down at Luna and Twilight, who had been pelting the thing with unsuccessful magic blasts. I gained the things full attention with that sniper bullet though, and had to dodge quite a few shots from his cannon. He was assaulted from the side by Dinky's massive sniper and quickly turned his attention towards her.

"Oh fuck the hell you don't." I said and, before he could make a move towards Dinky, buried my last sniper round in the back of its head. It stopped moving completely and went limp, inciting me to go and inspect the corpse. I flew down, only for it to jerk up with a roar and smack me with a claw. I flew, and not by choice this time, to the ground and skidded to a stop. The beast roared as a message saying Error. Armor compromised. scrolled across my screen.

"Jack. Take it easy. If a blow from that thing hits you this time, you may need stitches." Rarity's warning came through my coms. I nodded and took an air of security. Mainly because I hated needles. I tried to fly back into the air, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. As it turns out, I had landed on my wings. I cursed my luck and ran into the battle, drawing my sword while doing so.

The monster took notice and fired a shot at me, then turned around, hoping that the explosion would kill me so he could tend to my friends. I put my strength into my legs and pushed off of the ground, throwing my body forward into a flip. Halfway through doing this, I realized that I could fly without wings. The shot exploded under me and propelled my body forward. I was still flipping, so I was able to do quite a few of them before my feet landed on its chest. Momentum allowed me to stay there long enough to plunge my sword into its heart. It gurgled and slowed to the stop, dropping its head down.

I yanked the sword free, and, quite ungracefully, landed on my back. Making the epic move I just did a little less epic. I got up and brushed myself off.

"Rarity?" I asked, looking at my battered armor as a sliver fell off of the main body piece, "I think I'm going to need some new armor."

The Final Battle

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"So, you've defeated my pet. I'm impressed." A mock tone came from the top of the hill, causing Azuro to tense. The voice was doubled over, reminding me highly of The Queen Of Blades.

"Gengena..." He breathed, taking a step back. I stepped forward, bringing my sword to bare as Gengena teleported from the top of the hill to two yards in front of me. her silky, jet black hair floated in the breeze and wake of the teleport, revealing a pale, lightly freckled face with vibrant, crystal blue eyes. She was insanely beautiful. It was a shame she had to die.

"I'll give you one chance," I said, glaring daggers into her, "Go back to hell with all of your demon horde, or we'll make you." I said icily, narrowing my eyes. I got a cold laugh in response. Typical cocky villains. I gritted my teeth and let a low growl escape.

On the bright side, you're not fighting the big boss on your own.

Thanks, brain. But as if on fucking cue, thousands of demos rushed over the hill like a tsunami.

"Jack," Rarity's warning tone came through my coms, "Need I remind you of your lack of armor?" She said, her voice changing to worry.

"I can't back out now." I pointed out.

"No. . . I suppose you can't, but what I can do is air drop you some new armor via Pegasus." She said.

"Right. That'll work." I said with a smile.

"Just stay alive for five more minutes until I can scramble them." She said with a sigh, inciting a smirk from me.

"Have a little faith." I said with mock hurt in my voice. A small boost from my wings, that somehow were back to health (making me thank Twilight later), put me in the air above the rushing demon horde and Gengena. She flashed me a smirk of her own and slowly floated to eye level with me.

"So you can fly AND teleport? No fair." I smirked with mock accusation as we began to circle each other.

"I can do a lot more than that." She taunted seductively.

Nope!

Calm down, Jimmies, you'll be fine.

"Why don't I test that theory?" I said and charged her with a horizontal slash, only to cut into thin air.

"You'll have to try harder than that." Her lips barely touched my ear, but I could feel her smirk as the shivers ran down my spine. I growled and flicked my sword to where she had been, only to be met with thin air once more.

''Tsk, tsk. So testy." She mocked from behind me. My free hand snaked towards my handgun as my sword shot to where she had been, with similar results. This time, my handgun pumped out a round behind me. I smirked upon hearing a startled gasp after the laser met her flesh. I turned to see her holding her bloody chest.

"Dead already?" I taunted.

"No, just fucking with you." She smiled, "Though, that did sting a bit." She teased, then shot her arm towards me as energy flowed through it, letting a bolt that looked eerily like my handgun's round fly towards me.

"So you're one of those villains. Like the ones who spit bullets out." I said with a roll of my eyes, "I might have to kill you souly for that cliche." I added, bolting forward with my sword extended, only to be met with thin air once more.

"You know, you're really starting to annoy me." I growled.

"Aww, poor baby." She mocked.

"Jack! I'm dropping your armor. Also, a little present that you'll find most useful." Rarity's promising voice filled my ears.

"Thanks." I smiled.

"Insane already? That's a shame." Gengena smirked, I didn't even get to have my fun with you." She mock whined.

"You'll have to do better than that to drive me to the wacko-basket!" I smirked.

"Armor coming in, six o'clock." Rarity said right before something slammed into my back. Immediately, the object began to spread out from my back like a tsunami washing over my body until the last armor shard clicked into place.

"Kill her dead, Jack!" A familiar Pegasus exclaimed before throwing an EMP at me and dropping into the demon fray below.

"Thanks, Ditzy!' I called after her before turning my attention to the device she threw at me. "Um, Rarity? What am I going to do with this?" I asked, rolling the EMP around in my palm.

"It' specially modified. I added a few special somethings and got Twilight to enchant it with some of Azuro's dire-" She didn't get to finish, or she did, but I couldn't her over my armor getting cracked. It caught me off guard and, thankfully, didn't hurt too bad. I guess that protection spell of Luna's was still in place. I righted myself and found Gengena standing close to me.

"You wanted me to just let you finish your preparations? Hypocritical, Jacky." She laughed. The name reminded me of Pinkie and Applejack, farther reminding me of just who caused their unnecessary deaths. Cold rage began to course through my veins.

"I suppose it would've been a bit cliche.'' I said with a cough.

"Pull the EMP's pin on my mark." Rarity commented venomously. I attached my new toy to my chest and jumped forward with another slash, only cleaving air.

"Mark!" Rarity shouted. My arms shot up to my chest and pulled the pin. A wave of purple and gold energy passed over the entire battlefield, causing Gengena to flicker back into existence where she had been before the teleportation.

"What the..?'' She asked no one in particular. I smirked and flipped my blade to the opposite hand. I took a swing, carving air until the blade sunk into flesh with a sickening squelch. A cry of pain accompanied mine of joy as she threw herself back, bleeding from a shoulder wound she was holding while her hair obscured her face.

"Not so smug now, are we?" I taunted as black blood slipped from my blade. She started to let out a chilling laugh, throwing me off and sending chills down my spine.

"My blood is black, ya know." She said softly before bolting at me in the blink of an eye.

"Shit!'' I exclaimed, barely bringing my sword up in time to block her fist. It should've cleaved straight through it, but after passing through the flesh, it stopped dead. I blinked in confusion, only to have my incompetence punished by a sledgehammer-style kick to the chest, cracking my breastplate and throwing me back at least twenty feet.

Armor fifty percent.

"Shit." I panted, barely recovering before blocking a another punch with my sword and avoiding a very detrimental kick to the groin. I silently thanked Celestia, then delivered a hard kick of my own. I let out a small gasp upon impact as pain arched up my leg and set my nerves on fire. She laughed and curled her lips into a smirk of victory before slamming me away. I spread my wings against the wind, stopping myself from doing multiple summersaults and bringing my blade to bear from instinctive paranoia. Luckily, she wasn't on top of me. Actually, she seemed to be frozen mid-charge. I raised an eyebrow, curious as to what was going on.

"You have impressed me immeasurably, human." A disembodied voice thundered.

"Oh damn it!" I groaned, "Not another fucking transdimensional asshole. Haven't I been through enough yet?" I asked in rhetorical exasperation. The deep voice just laughed. And quite heartily at that. I was glad somebody found my situation funny, cause I sure as hell didn't.

"No, not just yet. My daughter is out of control." He paused. An object the size of my trunk descended in front of me. It looked like a giant, mechanical, flaming skull with tusks and four glowing red eyes. "Do me a favor and put her in her place for me." He said.

I could feel his smirk as I reached out to grasp the object. The second my flesh made contact with the floating skull, it disappeared, flowing into me and filling me with power. I felt stronger, faster, smarter. . . Invincible. I laughed heavily as my palm caught Gengena's fist. Her eyes widened in shock as my strength flowed. I began to squeeze her hand, crushing the bones and laughing at her cry of anguish. At the time, I didn't care. I felt like I could take on the world, and then some. I looked at her, feeling the fear radiating from her body as insanity coursed behind my eyes. I brought a hard boot into her gut, shattering whatever armor she had under that skin and throwing her higher into the air. With a laugh, I shot up above her, catching her by the throat and bringing an insanely powerful right hand into her ribs, powderizing the bones. She couldn't even cry out as I repeated the process multiple times, making sure to pulverize any internal organs she may have had. I threw her in the direction of the portal, flying to intercept her. She struggled to right herself before being caught by her throat again, by me. I held her high, a bloodthirsty smile on my face.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you here and now." I said with a mad laugh.

"Be-Because... I'm t-the one in control... O-O-Of the de-mons," She coughed out, "A-And I can... Send them back." She spat blood towards the ground. I laughed.

"Sure, cause you'll definitely call them off. I've got a better idea." I smirked and tightened my grip on her throat. I wasn't going to talk about my plan, cause that's how it usually gets spoiled.

"Well it's going to have to wait." She said, color returning to her face as she kicked me away. She must have been fucking with me the whole time. What a bitch. I spun in the air, righting myself and catching a flying fist while blocking a knee to my abdomen. I slammed my forehead into her skull, throwing her back and charging the Lord with malice.

"You can't win!" I claimed, hammering my fists into her ribs and drilling her gut. She responded by grabbing me by the back of my hair and slamming my nose into her knee.

"Want to bet?!" She challenged and kicked me away. I spread my wings and threw myself back at her, recklessly pounding my fists at the demon. I whipped around and sliced my wings at her, succeeding in cutting into her flesh. She staggered back, allowing me to nail her jaw with my knuckles. This threw her back closer to the portal. I slammed my feet into her gut, doubling her over and catching her by the throat. I lifted her up and tightened my grip. She threw her knee into my gut, doubling me over and flying down into the demon fray. I almost followed her, but stopped when I lost sight. She burst out of the fight two seconds later, carrying a struggling, grey mass. I immediately recognized the mass as Ditzy.

"You know, she almost smells like her daughter. . . Though she lacks a certain spice." Gengena commented evilly, lifting Ditzy up in front of her.

"Jack!" She screamed, fear very apparent in her tone.

"Don't worry, Ditzy. You'll be fine." I said evenly, glaring daggers at the demon behind my friend. I got a small, terrified nod from the grey Pegasus in response.

"So sure, are we?" Gengena smirked vilely. I narrowed my eyes, trying to be as intimidating as possible.

"You wouldn't dare." My voice dropped to deadly octaves.

"Alas! You have found my one weakness!" She spoke in faux-desperation, "Not daring!" She melodramatically stated, then began to laugh maniacally. She stopped suddenly, her eyes fixing on me. "You're not strong enough. You never were." She spoke and placed one hand on top of Ditzy's mane and the other on her chin, "And now that will cost your friend her life." She spoke softly and then snapped her hands in opposite directions, cracking Ditzy's neck.

"NOOO!" My cry pierced the heavens. Time seemed to stand still as warm liquid dripped down my cheeks and Ditzy's limp body began to fall, empty eyes seeming to ask me why I couldn't save her. Another cry joined mine, this one being female. A light lavender blur slammed into Gengena, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her skyward. The blur carried with the demon, seeming to beat the ever-loving fuck out of her in midair. After I got over my initial shock, I shot up towards the fight, seeing Dinky wailing on Gengena. I threw myself into the brawl, kicking Gengena hard in the chest and sending her flying in the opposite direction of Dinky. I grabbed Dinky, holding her close as she shook with rage and tried to charge from my grip. A light purple aura encompassed her, making me come to the conclusion that she was holding her self aloft with her pure hate-fueled magic.

"Jack! Let me go! I have to kill this bitch!" Her voice was full of fire, not a hint of backing down.

"You won't survive. The only reason you're still alive is due to the fact that you got the drop on her." I said evenly, despite the war of emotions raging inside my skull. I had to stay strong, for Dinky.

"Little worm caught me off guard." Gengena's voice found my ears. I turned in time to see her spit out some blood and pop her neck.

"Dinky. Get out of here." I spoke fearfully.

"But-"

"Don't you dare argue with me. I lost your mother, and I'm not about to lose you." I stated firmly. She glared, momentarily, then tried to lowered herself back into the fray below. I say tried because, well, Gengena didn't exactly plan on letting her little stunt go unpunished. The demon attempted to shoot down and grab Dinky, but only met with me as I sunk my blade in her flesh. She gasped, pulling it out of herself by kicking off of me. She held the bleeding wound tightly as I tumbled backwards, Dinky catching me and helping me right myself.

"You okay?" She asked with worry.

"Been through worse." I said with a smirk, pulling out of her grip. "Now go, I'll kill this bitch once and for all." I said venomously. She nodded, flying back down into the battle and using her rage to her advantage with flying bombardments of magic.

"So. You and I, once again." Gengena said, grabbing my attention.

"What do you say we end this, you pack up your demons and go, or I will end you myself." I said, giving her one last ultimatum.

"I've got a much better idea. How about I kill you, all these ponies, and take over this planet?" She said, then looked up to the sky thoughtfully. "Yeah, I think I'll do that." Sarcasm dripped from her voice. She shot forward and I intercepted her fist with a palm, still feeling whatever that thing was coursing through my veins. She tried to flip over me, but I countered by slipping my hand to her wrist and flicking her downwards. She sailed through the air, but curved upwards before impacting on the ground, carving a small path into demon and pony alike with the force of her sudden stop. She darted back up to me, attempting to nail me in the gut, but I sidestepped and slammed my knee into her own gut. She coughed, but twisted on a dime and slammed her fist into my face, causing me to sail backwards. I recovered, just in time to see her charging me with her fist raised.

I've had enough of this. I thought and shot my hand forward, slamming it to her neck and lifting her up. She struggled, but it was futile due to the strange power coursing through my veins.

"What are you going to do to me?" Her fear invaded her voice.

"Make you pay." I said and flicked my wrist, sending a resounded crack throughout the entire battlefield. I felt the body go limp and then tossed it through the portal, watching it disappear behind the red aura. I flew down towards the portal, grabbing the metal head in the eye sockets and tearing it off the metal frame. The portal flickered and sent out a massive red shockwave, disintegrating all of the demons that were left unkilled. After the light show was over and all the demons were gone, I gripped the head and smashed it into its metal frame, destroying it completely and tossing it across the planet to regions unknown. I suddenly felt VERY dizzy. I tried to lower myself to the ground, but my head spun and I was blacked out before I even hit the dirt.

The Beginning of a New Life

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My eyes fluttered open… I think. I couldn’t tell due to the fact that it was pitch black. I also noticed that it was getting a little hard to breathe. Naturally, I panicked. What would you have done if you woke up in a dark place and found that it was hard to breathe? Did I mention that I hurt? Like, everywhere. Farthermore, it stunk like rotting flesh and was oddly sticky. As I shifted my body, my skin was pulled to the material. Rubber. Oh god, I was naked. When I got out of there, I was going to kill somebody. After my already shallow breathing calmed, I figured out where I was. A bodybag. Great. I tried brute force at first, attempting to simply explode out of that death-ridden bag. Obviously, that failed. Miserably, I might add. So the next thing on my to-do list was to wonder why the hell I was in the musty sack anyway. I mean, I was obviously still alive. The third thing was to, predictably, call out for somebody.

“Hey! Dickbags! What the hell!?” My muffled and hoarse voice didn’t echo. So I wasn’t in an inclosed space, more good news. “Um, hello!? Get me out of this thing!” I yelled. Nothing. I growled in frustration and amplified my voice, attempting to roll. “It’s getting a little hard to breathe! Twilight?! Dinky?! Luna?! FUCKING AZURO?! ANYBODY?!” I shouted, starting up a snowball style roll to… Somewhere. Suddenly, I felt weightless. The sensation dropped my stomach, but I bent rather hard a few seconds later, grunting in pain as I made contact with some narrow, metal object, which I promptly slid off of and busted my everything on some tile or something. My claustrophobia was getting the better of me. I needed out right then and there. I began to let the fear motivate my body to free itself of its prison, because there is no better motivator than your fear. No matter what, I could not find a way out, nor force one. Now, I’ve faced bullets, lasers, beasts, queens, demons, magic, and even a lord of existence, but I will outright say that being that puny bag with a dwindling oxygen supply made me absolutely terrified.

“What the..?” A voice said from nearby.

“H-Hey! I-In here!” I yelled between hyperventilating.

“How in Tartarus.?!” The voice exclaimed in shock. And now I was seeing spots.

“Doesn’t… Matter… Need… Air…” I gasped as I heard the sound of hoofsteps moving towards the bag cautiously.

Take your sweet fucking time, jackass. It’s not like I’m actually dying here or anything. I would’ve said it, but the fact that I could barely breathe at this point told me to conserve the oxygen. A small blade finally broke through the bodybag, stopping centimeters from my left eye.

“Watch it!” I shouted, fearing for my sight. That was definitely worth the oxygen it cost at that point. The blade retracted to where it hardly broke the rubber and continued down the length of the bag, letting cool air and sweet oxygen wash over me. I sighed in relief and burst from the bag, gasping heavily yet still blind from the sudden, stark light attacking my eyes.

“Thank… You…” I said between gasps, beginning to relax on the cold tile. After a minute, my savior spoke.

“How’re your alive?” The stallion asked in bewilderment.

“I’m gonna work on figuring that one out myself…” I said, rubbing the back of my head as my eyes adjusted. I was finally able to get a look at the stallion that saved my ass. He was a light brown color with a dark brown mane that parted along a horn. It waved over to each side, accenting his groomed stubble and vivid brown eyes. So yeah, he was brown. “I’ll make sure Celestia and Luna get good word of you. Which reminds me, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Doctor Sexy.”

“...”

I shit you not. This assholes name was Doctor Mother-Fucking sexy. Doctor. Sexy. As I tried to wrap my mind around, he continued.

“How in Tartarus are you alive?” Doctor Sexy; oh god, I still laugh when I write that name; commented.

“Um,” I coughed, “I’ve walked off worse?” I shrugged, my voice still in shock at his name. I met Doctor Sexy. Now, I can die happy.

“Let’s get you to the Princess, she’ll be able to work some magic on you so we can figure out what’s going on.” The brown Unicorn said as he led me through the building.

“Weird, I figured your magic would be good enough.” I smirked, dying on the inside.

“Oh no, Doctor Sexy can only do so much magic.” He said, ignorant of my reference. Of course he wouldn’t get it. Fuckin’ ponies, man. As we made our, strangely long, way through the facility, I decided it’d be great to know how the fight went.

“So, how did the battle play out?” I asked.

“Well, after you died, everypony that was alive went to help. We all thought you were dead. No pulse, no breathing, no warmth, and your bones were powder. By all rights, you should be dead with the injuries you sustained. Yet, here you are, still destroying logic and physics.” Doctor Sexy explained. Or rather, complained.

“You don’t sound very happy to see the hero of your race alive.” I said. I know what you’re thinking and fuck you. After what I went through, I get to be a little conceited. With a sigh, he replied.

“It’s not that, it’s that I’m a stallion of reason! And this defies all reason!” He stamped his hoof.

“I use to be a man of reason like you, then I took a Ponyland to the everything.” I laughed.

“Don’t remind me.” He bitterly muttered as we reached a door. “Here we are. This is the door to the main part of the headquarters. The princesses should be inside.” He gestured to it.

“Why wasn’t anypony down here?” I asked.

“Even after ten years, we still hate death.” He said like I should’ve already known. I didn’t feel like arguing with Doctor Sexy, so I shrugged and turned to the door.

“Take a bit of advice, man, lighten up.” I commented and pressed the button. I didn’t even turn around as he scoffed and muttered unpleasantries when the door opened. When it closed, I noticed neither princess was currently inside. Nopony was. I took the chance to find some clothes and think of something epic. A crooked smile curled itself upon my lips as a plan formed within my brain. I quickly looked around for something Pinkie always use to keep in here for some odd reason. Flour. I found it in a random storage closet on the side of the facility and promptly coated myself in it, making me completely white. I decided it was time to move to the next phase of my devious little plot. One darkening of the room later, I found the nearest slanted strut.

Using my old training from Boot Camp, I began to scale the diagonal beam. It was harder to do in the dark, but I managed nonetheless. Atop my perch, I viewed the dimly lit room and smiled sinisterly, playing the scene out in my head repeatedly until I heard hoofsteps and quiet sobbing. I crouched down and waited for the door to open. When the slab of metal slid by, I heard a voice say,

“When did it got so dark in here?” It was Celestia’s, rather hoarse, (Don’t you dare fucking laugh, that pun was terrible) voice. I saw her silhouette walk in, followed by the rest of the gang, minus one human along with one less earth pony and plus one Alicorn… Interesting. Silently wondering where the hell Aiden and Azuro were and who the new guy was, I saw Celestia go for the lights, and immediately stopped her the only way I knew how. With a deep, thunderous voice fit for the gods.

“HALT HEATHEN! DARE NOT LAYETH A HOOF UPON THOSE LIGHTS!” I boomed, causing the crowd below to emit shrieks and nearly jump from their skins. I hopped down, letting flour fly from my body and create an echo image of my falling form in the dark. I was met with a purple magic bolt to the chest mid-fall. So much for that. I flew back and landed against the wall, leaving an imprint of flour against it and coughing heavily.

“God damn, magic is a bitch.” I groaned and struggled to my feet before having a black sword impale the wall inches from my head. I almost shat. Luna was the next thing to consume my vision.

“What art thou, foul creature?” Luna growled, getting a smirk from me. I take it she was still unable to see me, but hell, with those damn satellites on top of her head, I wasn’t surprised that she knew where I was, just not what I was.

“Is that anyway to treat an old friend?” I asked with feigned hurt.

“Jack?” She questioned hopefully, “Celestia, hit the lights!” The Lunar Princess demanded. I should’ve known better, trying to scare two princesses who had a nearly all powerful Unicorn who’s been honed for war for ten years shitless. Yeah, yeah, I’m a dumbass. The lights chose that moment of revelation to flick on, illuminating my shit-eating grin that resided behind a layer of flour that had somehow managed to stay on my face through the blast. Luna smiled widely and embraced me, getting the powdery substance on her coat.

“Are you shitting me?” Flynn laughed from the group.

“How’re you even alive?!” Rainbow darted over to me when Luna let go and wrapped her forehooves around me.

“Been wondering that myself.” I said and pulled back, only to get tackled by a large, furry mass of pony. I laughed audibly, pushing at their rushing forms. “Come on, guys! Get offa me!” I chuckled, eventually giving in to the weighty snuggles. After a moment, they collected themselves. Flynn had moved closer, shaking his head with a smile at the display. I looked around for a minute searching for the mare I really wanted to see. I found her, head hung, standing where the group had been moments before.
“Dinky!” I started making my way towards her, but she did not move. I finally got to the mare I loved and hugged her tightly. Even then, she did not budge. “Dinky, is everything alright?” I asked with concern. I knew it wasn’t, but that was an old habit of mine. Eventually, she looked up at me with empty eyes, glared, then proceeded to slap the ever living hell out of me. With a hoof.

Yeah, I tasted copper.

“Ow! What the-?” I was cut off as she began to taste the copper as well. I melted into the kiss, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Talk about mixed signals.

“Dinky-”

“Don’t you DARE die on me again… Especially so soon after my mommy…” She trailed off, tears forming. I sighed, knowing this was coming.

“Dinky… I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry. I know that it can’t make you feel better, nor bring Ditzy back, but it’s all I can offer. Besides myself of course, but you already have that.” I chuckled dryly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t work. Then again, what did I expect from an 18 year old female who just lost her mother and boyfriend in the course of five minutes? She just looked up at me, empty eyes asking why.

“I was weak, darlin’... I couldn’t save Applejack, Pinkie, or Fluttershy, not even that grey stallion whose name I never did find out…” I said, letting the pent up self pity wash over me. Dinky looked at me sadly.

“No… No, you couldn’t. She said, allowing a tear to freely fall from my face as she embraced me, “But what would a hero be if he was flawless? You’re not a god, Jack, you’re only human after all.” She said with a reassuring pat on the back. We sat there like that for god knows how long, but I finally managed to get words out of my mouth.

“Does this mean I get off scott free?” I chuckled hopefully, causing her to laugh.

“Ohhh Hohh, no. Tonight, you are mine.” She emphasized her point with a sultry wink and a tail flick against my crotch.

“That’s nasty.” I heard Flynn say, sounding remarkably like Cleveland.

“They still have that show?” I asked in moderate surprise. Well, a lot of surprise actually. I can’t believe it was still running so long.

“Yep.” He nodded.

“Oh, cool.” I said, then popped Dinky’s flank and caught a surprised eep, then a sexy purr. God damn, she was hot sometimes.

“I think it’s about time to get to business.” Celestia said, stepping forward and attempting to hide a blush.

“Yes, how are you alive?” Twilight asked the question that quickly got old, clearly interested. I’d say more for my well being, but I knew her, she just wanted the mechanics. “Your insides were jelly when we got to you.”

“I have no idea!” I said with chipper that I probably shouldn’t have had, getting a strange look from every one of them.

“How about we find out.” The new Alicorn said, that being more of a statement than a question. I finally got a good look at him too. Turns out, it was Azuro. Go fucking figure. “I was completely recharged after Gengena’s death, so I’ll be able to take a look.” I guess that explained his new form. He stepped forward as an observation from earlier peaked my interest.

“Hey, where’d Aiden go?” I asked.

“Home.” Azuro simply answered, causing me to frown. Oh well, everyone’s got their own box of chocolates at home. Never know who's gonna stay. Besides, Flynn wouldn’t exist if he had stayed. So yeah, for the best. Azuro’s new horn touched my skull and magic seeped into my skull, shifting through my entire body to root out the source that had saved my life. Soon, it was withdrawn and Azuro looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“My father…” He trailed off.

“Oh! It was probably that guy who froze time and gave me that thingy to kill Gengena.” I said with a nonchalant shrug. Azuro just stared at me.

“What ‘thingy’?” Twilight asked, “I didn’t see you with any ‘thingys’ up there with you.”

“And I don’t remember sending you any ‘thingys’.” Rarity said.

“Can we stop talking about thingys?” Rainbow joked, inciting blushes from everybody who’d uttered the word.

“I donno. It was just some booming voice from the heavens. It froze time, rained down, and floated me some big, flaming, metal skull. When I touched it, it was absorbed into me and gave me some kick ass powers. For one, I felt invincible, for two, I was. It was pretty great. Except that I passed out afterwards.” I said, causing Flynn to nod in recognition.

“I know that skull. I’ve used it a few times, believe it or not. I just thought it was some random demon thing. Apparently not.” He said.

“And you didn’t ‘pass out’, you died.” Twilight corrected.

“Bitch, I’m still here, ain’t I?” I smirked, causing her to roll her eyes.

“Technically you were dead, but my father must have brought you back. You’re a very lucky individual, Jack. This is the second time you should’ve died in the course of only a month.” Azuro commented, making me shrug.

“Yeah, but that shit hurt.” I heard a chorus of face-hoofs, followed by my laughter.

“I think he hit his head when he fell.” Spike muttered, causing laughter by more of my new friends. Celestia strode forward, wearing her ever-motherly smile that could comfort just about anybody.

“Well, it seems to be over now, my friend.” She said, causing me to smile.

“Indeed.” My smiled turned to a frown as I cast my gaze to Azuro, “It better be, anyway.”

“As far as I know, we’re in the clear. Gengena is dead, the Changelings and Demons with her. Her influence has withered and will soon be extinguished, all thanks to you, Jack. You are the hero of every pony still alive, enjoy it.” The Alicorn smiled, “Now, I have to get back to monitoring, you left quite a mess on the highways.” With a flash of his newly acquired horn, he was gone.

“As co-ruler of this nation,” Celestia began, “I hereby bestow upon you the title of, Hero of Equis. Prince of Equestria. Friend of ponies.” Her smile widened. I bowed at my newly received titles. “And I have one last task for you.” I froze, “Write. Write about what happened here. All of the ponies, Changelings, and Demons. Write what you think, what you thought.” She said. I paused a moment, letting my new task sink in. With a nod, I stood.

“Sure, but why?” I asked.

“Because, I figure your planet could use a nice piece of literature. Fact, hidden under the guise of fiction with an unknown writer. A true enigma to the human race.” She said, then added, “Not to mention, writing is therapeutic and all of your actions require documentation.” I smiled and nodded once more.

“You’re correct.” I said and headed back to my room.

That is where I stand. Or rather, sit. Writing about my great adventure in the hopes that you guys can take what I learned to heart. Even in the most dire situations, the most evil villains, the best can come of it. Love and friendship can shine through the darkest of malevolence and obliterate any doubt. These wars have done so much. Both harm and good, but I suppose what it all boils down to is how you deal with the problems. How you handle the evil of life when it outweighs the good and shine through your demons. For your sake and mine, keep these pages. Publish them under the name of “Saacsa”, and keep my legacy alive.

Thank you,

General Jack Himith Halok signing off from Earth, for one final time.

Referance Page (SPOILERS TO MY STORY AS WELL AS THE HOBBIT, DOCTOR WHO, LOTR, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, AND SOUL EATER)

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1: Titanic. Underlying theme of "Must Be Repaid" when he is talking to Twilight. Metaphorically, Twilight sunk his boat with the fact that she stole him from his home to fight a war he had no business in. His name is Jack. And the line, "She finished we an icy edge that could pierce titanium." should've been a dead giveaway.

2: Alien Vs. Predator: "Must Be Repaid". "In that case. Lets go on a bug hunt!" I yelled into the crowd and they exploded in cheers of excitement and happiness.

3: Dead Space 2: Security Suit helmet with Elite Suite body with obvious color changes. "Must Be Repaid". "Bands of metal striped in V shapes across the armor in the moderately same style as the Twilight's. I was stunned as I scanned the jet black suit. The only way any of the ponies would have been able to see me in that thing at night was the fact that neon lime green streaks came up in between the plates. Then my eyes made their way to the top where the helmet was and I frowned." and "Like the rest of the armor, it had metal plates and was completely black. But the plates were less spaced out and looked like they could click into place. Holy shit, that would be awesome. What had confused me about my sight was the visor. It came down in the shape of two wide V's and glowed a bright neon green like the rest of the suit."

4: Montely Crue, Kickstart My Heart: "Suited Up". "My eyes widened and adrenaline kick-started my heart." I mean come on, I could have used any phrase, but I chose that one :P

4 1/2 (Cause I'm lazy and forgot to add this earlier): Doctor Who: "Suited Up". knocked in a pattern of four three times, instantly reminding me of Doctor Who.

5: Turn The Page (Preferably Metallica version): "Explanations and Preparations". My mind began to wander, after all, there wasn't much to do. Original Lyrics: "But your thoughts will soon be wandering the way they always do. When you're riding sixteen hours and there's nothing much to do."

6: Oasis, Champagne Supernova: "Friends Through Bloodshed". I said and felt the anger finally explode like a supernova in the sky. I dashed forward and grabbed the leader by the throat, only to be bucked in the side and out of the tent. For a second, my world was a haze. It was like I had downed a rather large bottle of champagne. Original Lyrics: "Some day you will find me. Caught beneath the landslide. In a champagne supernova in the sky."

7: Pendragon Book Series: "Friends Through Bloodshed". "Well... What are we still doing here? We have three hours to storm the castle, kill Chrysalias, and get Celestia back to her body. And so we go!" I said and walked out of the tent with a small smile, accompanied by Twilight, Ditzy, and Fluttershy. Bobby Pendragon says this before hopping into flumes or doing important things. (If you haven't read the books, I highly recommend you give them a read. They're amazing.)

8: Braveheart: "War". "We must let our enemies know that they may take our lives, but what they'll never take, is our freedom!" Luna shouted. No. Freaking. Way. She made a Braveheart ending to her speech! In the exact words! To top it all off, the crowd shouted "Equestria forever!" ...I really hope I don't have to explain it XD

9: Doctor Who: "War". The soldiers exploded in cheering, but instantly went silent when I held up my hand. When he holds up his hand and quiets things. I'm sure my fellow Whovians remember.

10 & 11: Alice in Wonderland (Movie) and Brutal Legend (Video game): "War". So, how I see it..." I smiled lightly at the thought that crossed my mind, "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and brought my fist down with my index and pinkie finger jutting out towards the Changeling army, successfully creating the symbol for Rock and Roll. Alice in Wonderland should be obvious, but the Brutal Legend one is where he signals his soldiers to attack in the stage battles.

12: Drowning Pool, Bodies: "War". "Let the bodies hit the floor..." I said with a smile at the old song that played in my head. It was kind of morbid, but it felt right nonetheless. Original Lyrics: "Let the bodies hit the floor."

13: Metallica, Broken Beat and Scarred: "War." "After our little showdown, I was left broken, beat, and scarred! I decided that I had only one option. I went to her majesty, Chrysalias, and she gave me power. So. Much. POWER!" He screamed into my face, then calmed himself down a notch. Original Lyrics: "Broken Beat and Scarred. But we die hard."

14: Diamond Head, Am I Evil: "War". "So now I bet you're wondering. Am I evil? Your answer," He paused and got extremely close to my eye with his. "Yes I am." He whispered, then cackled malevolently and then began to charge up a massive magical blast. Original Lyrics: "Am I evil? Yes I am. Am I evil? I am man."

15: Christopher Titus, Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding (Stand Up Comedy): "Defeat In Victory". Or as George would so elegantly put it, 'getting shacked up in the whacko-basket'. I chucked lightly at the thought.

16: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: "Defeat In Victory". "NO!" Applejack bellowed in deafening rage. She bucked the Changeling's head so hard that it flew all the way back to the front line, landing in a hole. And thus, the game of Golf in Equestria was invented. The body stood there for a second, then convulsed and collapsed in a black heap.

17: Doctor Who: "Defeat In Victory". "Ah-Ah don't wanna go..." Was all she could get out before the green orb consumed her, exploding in light. It was the line the Tenth Doctor uttered before he exploded in light, starting his regeneration to Eleven.

18: Aerosmith, Dream On: "Defeat In Victory". "I live and learn from fools and from sages. And you, my dear Chrysie, are a fool." I said and pressed the gun to her head. Her eyes widened and her pupils shrank to the size of peas. I pulled the trigger. Original Lyrics: "Half my life's in books' written pages. Live and learn from fools and from sages. You know it's true."

19: Lord Of The Rings, Fellowship of the Rings: "Defeat In Victory". "And so..." She said as her pupils dilated, "I am..." Her voice faded as her head fell back. I let go of her body, letting it fall to the ground. As she fell, a massive shock wave emanated from her, causing all of the Changelings that were fighting to fall to the ground. Dead. It looked exactly like when Isildur killed Sauron in the beginning of The Fellowship Of The Ring from the Lord Of The Rings series.

20: Offspring, You're Gonna Go Far Kid: "The End...". "Hey, Dash." I said gingerly. She stopped mid-step, still looking towards the door. "It's a nice job you did, getting Fluttershy back. You've gone pretty far, kid. Keep on trucking." She turned back to me with a weak smile. Original Lyrics: "It's a nice job you did. You're gonna go far kid."

21: Hotel Transylvania (So fucking cliche it hurt): "The End...". "Dinky, the other reason I choose to stay was because of you. I couldn't leave you alone after all this shit. It wouldn't be fair. Not to mention, I think we Zinged." I said with a light chuckle. "Zinged?" She asked. "Love at first sight." I explained. She smiled at the cliche statement.

22: The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim: "The End...". He held a small, black walking cane with a golden wolf head on top that reminded me of a ring from a certain enjoyable video game that use to be my pastime before joining the military. It is Hircine's Ring, the one you get from Sinding in Falkreach that allows infinite Werewolf transformations per day.

23: Megadeth, A Tout Le Monde: "Is Where It Begins". "I can't say that I am, honey." She said with a painful smile. She then looked beyond her family and into her friends. "To all my friends, though I love you dearly, I must leave. I won't return either, and for that, I am sorry." Original Lyrics: "A tout le monde (To all the world). A tout mes amis (To all my friends). Je vous aime (I love you). Je dois partir (I have to leave)"

24: Haddaway, What Is Love (Baby Don't Hurt Me): "Is Where It Begins". "Tell me, if you please? What is love?" I asked, leaning in intimidatingly. "D-Don't hurt me!" He said, pupils shrinking in fear. Original Lyrics: "What is love? Baby, don't hurt me."

25: Doom 3: "The Big Picture". "Gengena became furious that her plan was ruined, so, she took it out on Tangi. She used her rage filled, insanity induced powers to invade the realm of Humanity with her twisted, malicious creatures. There a brave human there, one to stop the outrageous blight. Your great, great grandson. I think some of his friends called him 'Fly', but its irrelevant." Flynn, or 'Fly', was the characters name from the books, and this was the beginning of the Doom 3 crossover part.

26: Dragon Ball Z, TFS Abridged: "Discorded Events". "Discord." The aforementioned pony clearly commanded. The massive doors to the outside opened without the necessary access codes. Before I could ask, Twilight did it for me. "What? How did you do that?" "Do what?" He asked innocently. "You know what!" She said sternly, "This is top notch security." "It just knows better." He smirked with an awfully creepy laugh that sent shivers down my spine. We continued to where Dash said she would be, the training grounds, but didn't find her there. When Popo and Bulma are trying to get to the ship to get Goku (I think).

27: Doctor Who: "Discorded Events". "Because once a door is opened, it may be stepped through in either direction. And if I'm correct on my history, Luna showed you what became of Canterlot, but you went through her other memories as well." He said in a typical Trottingham accent, then frowned. "Oh blast! Did I... What year is it?" He asked suddenly at first, but ended with innocence. Twilight gave him a look of familiarity. The Girl In The Fireplace episode, with Madame De Pompadour.

28: Doctor Who (My Doctor Whooves: A Journey fanfic linked into it): "Discorded Events". Twilight gave him a look of familiarity. "Uh... Um... It's 2012." Twilight answered like something from a long time ago sunk in, inciting a sigh of relief from the mysterious stallion. "Oh, and by the way, it's good to see you again." She winked. "And, by the way, avoid a cross-eyed, grey Pegasus with a blonde mane at any costs." "Ah! Spoilers. Anyways, I'll be off! Allons-y!" He shouted and galloped in the opposite direction. I opened my mouth to shout after him and raised my index finger, but lowered my finger and closed my mouth. I repeated the process twice before shaking my head.

29: Doctor Who: "Discorded Events". "Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey." I said with a smirk. I could swear I had heard the brown stallion burst into laughter from across town. Flynn shook his head to rid it of confusion.

30: Nickleback, Rockstar: "A New Comrade". "Right. Because we have such an abundant supply on us." Sarcasm over flowing in her voice. "What are we going to need?" "A credit card that has no limit." Azuro joked. Rainbow Dash looked thoroughly confused, but Flynn and I let out a chuckle as we got it. "Wait... We have better! An Alicorn." He deadpanned. There was a bright, yellow flash and a very large crash. Original Lyrics: "Whatcha need?" "Imma need a credit card that's got no limit."

31: Megadeth, Sweating Bullets: "A New Comrade". "Hello me... Meet the real me. And my misfits way of life. A dark black past is my. Most valued possession. Hindsight is always 20-20. But looking back it's still a bit fuzzy. Speak of mutually assured destruction? Nice story ... Tell it to Reader's Digest!" Exact Lyrics.

32: Soul Eater: "The Final Battle". "My blood is black, ya know." She said softly before bolting at me in the blink of an eye. One word, Corona.

33: The Amazing Spiderman: "The Final Battle". "Alas! You have found my one weakness!" She spoke in faux-desperation, "Not daring!" She melodramatically stated, then began to laugh maniacally.

34: Supernatural: "The Beginning of a New Life". “I’m gonna work on figuring that one out myself…” I said, rubbing the back of my head as my eyes adjusted. I was finally able to get a look at the stallion that saved my ass. He was a light brown color with a dark brown mane that parted along a horn. It waved over to each side, accenting his groomed stubble and vivid brown eyes. So yeah, he was brown. “I’ll make sure Celestia and Luna get good word of you. Which reminds me, what’s your name?” I asked. “Doctor Sexy.”

35: The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim: "The Beginning of a New Life". “I use to be a man of reason like you, then I took a Ponyland to the everything.” I laughed. Original saying, "I use to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee."

36: Family Guy: "The Beginning of a New Life". “That’s nasty.” I heard Flynn say, sounding remarkably like Cleveland.

37: Forrest Gump: "The Beginning of a New Life". “Home.” Azuro simply answered, causing me to frown. Oh well, everyone’s got their own box of chocolates at home. Never know who's gonna stay. Besides, Flynn wouldn’t exist if he had stayed. So yeah, for the best. Azuro’s new horn touched my skull and magic seeped into my skull, shifting through my entire body to root out the source that had saved my life. Soon, it was withdrawn and Azuro looked like he’d seen a ghost. Original lines: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."

Equestrian Wars

by Saacsa

Lives Once Saved...

Must Be Repaid

Suited Up

Explanations and Preparations

Friends Through Bloodshed

War

Defeat In Victory

The End...

Is Where It Begins

The Big Picture

Demonic Explanations

Discorded Events

A New Comrade

The Demons

The Final Battle

The Beginning of a New Life

Referance Page (SPOILERS TO MY STORY AS WELL AS THE HOBBIT, DOCTOR WHO, LOTR, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, AND SOUL EATER)