“So how are you feeling?”
“O-oh…I’m feeling alright Ms. Bonnie, thank you.”
“You can call me Nicole, or ‘Nikki’ as everyone kept calling me.”
Nicole and Thorax were in Nicole’s private bedroom with Frost resting on her bed. Nicole was busy giving Thorax a private therapy ever since Nicole brought him over to their home-ship as he disguised himself as a potted plant. To make sure that the others won’t get suspicious, she made a little lie that she got that potted plant during their little stay at Canterlot and nobody suspected a thing. Well…not everyone as she sensed some of her friends felt suspicious of that, but she didn’t mind.
Now several weeks has past since the major Changeling invasion at Canterlot, and Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were still in their little honeymoon. The Changelings were out of sight and the princess has to make sure such a mistake never happens again.
Although, thanks to that battle, it made everyone’s opinion on the Changelings negative. However, those opinions didn’t matter to Nicole and possibly the others. Nicole promised Thorax that she’ll help him out of his problems and make him prove that not all Changelings are untrustworthy.
“So…uhh…” Thorax cleared his throat, but still hesitated on what to say. “S-So…what now?”
“….” Thorax didn’t get a reply as he looked over and saw Nicole half-asleep in her chair while she had a white lab coat on her for psychology purposes. Thorax cocked his head to the left with a confused look and called her again.
“U-Umm….Nicole? Nicole? Nicole!”
“Hm?” Nicole blinked as a snort bubble from her nose before looking over at her patient. “Oh…sorry….I was too tired…”
Frost soon gotten up from Nicole’s bed and walked over to Nicole as he began nuzzling her and licking her by the face. Nicole softly smiled before petting him on the head while Thorax watched in confusion.
“Umm…what are you doing Nicole?” Thorax asked in confusion.
“I’m showing affection to my friend, Frost.” Nicole answered, turning to him with a serious look. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re confused upon seeing this, right?”
“W-well…you got me. I…never seen anything like this. Petting a polar bear.” Thorax said with a surprised look. “I-I mean…is this-”
“Part of your rehabilitation system to make you drop all of your habits as a changeling? Yes.” Nicole nodded before looking over her iPad. “You need to break out of your rogue nature in order to match up with your personality.”
“O-Okay…but how?” Thorax asked curiously.
“Pet Frost.” Nicole said bluntly, surprising Thorax.
“R-Really?! H-he wouldn’t bite me…right?” Nicole shook her head as she bluntly stated “Frost isn’t the type to use violence as long as he’s protecting anyone he deems a friend.”
“R-Really? That’s refreshing…” Thorax grinned nervously before looking at Frost, who was laying his head on the floor. Thorax grinned nervously before looking over at Nicole, who nodded before looking through her iPad. Thorax gulped before slowly walking over to Frost and slowly began placing his hoof towards Frost while it was taking another nap. Nicole watches them while she sat on her small computer chair with her iPad still in her hands as Thorax was slowly about to touch Frost’s snow white fur till…
“HISSSSSS!” Thorax began hissing at Frost, letting out a snarl while Frost got up from his nap before growling dangerously at Thorax. Thorax soon gotten back to his senses before looking away, clutching on his chest in pain.
“U-Ugh!” Thorax coughed before turning to Nicole with an apologetic look. “I-I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to…”
“You’re getting flustered.” Thorax looked at her with a surprised look as she continued “Your habits of being controlled by Chrysalis is still lingering within your mind from her Hive Mind control. If you just calm your mind, then maybe you’ll be able to counteract her Hive Mind and you can think on your own in order to not be a violent Changeling.”
“N-Nicole…are you sure?” Thorax asked nervously. “I-I mean…I don’t wanna doubt you and all since you’re the only one to ever listen to me…but, I’m not sure-”
“If you can do this, right?” Thorax looked at her in surprise before nodding to him. Nicole sighed before taking off her glasses and began cleaning them as she calmly continued “Just because you think it can’t happen, doesn’t mean you can’t really do it without experiencing it.”
“Y-you…you really think so?” Thorax questioned.
“Yes…I think.” Nicole answered. “Just try being yourself and forget about your issues. How about we discuss about your social life back at the Changeling Kingdom?”
“Well…” Thorax rubbed his chin in thought, wondering where to start before brightening up on one thing. “Well I have a brother and he and I have a…complicated relationship.”
Nicole stared at him before nodding, implying for him to continue.
“Well…Queen Chrysalis sees him as a real Changeling warrior. While I don’t have the qualifications due to my personality, I was always picked on by the other Changelings. Like when I was young, I would always play around with my action figures till they came and tried to hurt me.”
“Action figures?” Nicole questioned.
“Y-yeah…I know, but it helps calm my mind.” Thorax chuckled sheepishly before he continued on with his story. “But then, my brother would always transform into the scariest creatures you can possibly imagine.”
Nicole hummed for a moment before looking over at Frost, who snorted before resting on her lap as she petted him on the head as Thorax continued on and on.
“And then, after scaring off my tormentors, he came over and forcefully made me slapped myself and told them that they were right calling me a coward.” Thorax sighed. “While that may not be a fond memory, I still appreciate him for saving me at least. Though, while we may be different by personality and status, I still love and trust Pharnyx…though I guess he thinks of me as a traitor…”
“……Ah, I see.” Nicole muttered, looking at her iPad and typing some things in it. “You’re very much different from the other Changelings that we encountered back at the invasion. You’re far too kind to ever be considered dangerous, but thanks to that invasion, many ponies are rightfully terrified and traumatized by your kind thanks to your leader’s selfish decisions.”
“I-I know…I wished she ever turned out to be like this. If only she never took his word onto getting the idea to steal Shining Armor and Princes Cadance’s love.” Thorax sighed, which seemed to grab Nicole’s attention.
“I have heard her mention that many times many weeks ago.” She narrowed her eyes at Thorax and demanded “Who is this he she keeps mentioning?”
“W-well…I don’t think I got his name, and his whole entire appearance was covered in a clock, but I definitely could tell that he had a mask with only his left eye showing.” Thorax described. “And…he had plenty of info about you guys.”
Nicole slightly widened her eyes a bit of surprise upon hearing this.
“So…this being knew us? And everything?” Nicole questioned further, which made Thorax grow a little nervous by the questioning.
“Y-yes…but that’s all I can say. All I know was I was told to transformed into what Chrysalis told me to do based on some pictures of you guys.”
“Pictures…of us?” Nicole asked in confusion.
“W-well…I-I’m sorry, but…” Thorax flinched a bit. “I-I don’t know who he was, or where he got it…S-sorry…”
“No, it’s alright. Whether or not it’s not enough, it’s good enough.” Nicole assured. “Hmm…I’m not sure who this being is, or how in the world do they know us…but maybe…”
“Hm? Maybe what?” Thorax asked curiously. Nicole went silent for a moment before she replied back to him.
“…Sorry…I just need some time.” Nicole answered before giving him a soft smile. “But thank you very much, Nicole.”
“Y-your welcome…” Thorax chuckled, hiding a blush from him. “But you know…you gotta be the first person/pony to ever be this kind and nice to me. But…” He rubbed his hoof bashfully with a somewhat sad look and muttered “But the moment I walked into town in my true form, they’ll instantly see me as a monster and your human friends might try and kill me.”
“No, don’t say such ridiculous things.” Nicole assured, looking through her iPad while Frost laid down on her lap as she continued “Ren is a very kind person, and would try to find a way to believe in others. He’s more of the pacifist type. Mason is very loyal and would try to stay true to those he deemed as friends. Carrie may be small, but she isn’t that violent to hurt anyone unless something breaks her limit. Kaede may act average and kind, but she’s very optimistic in a similar way to Ren. Jamie is very nervous and timid as he doesn’t believe in violence unless its necessary, but has a tendency to listen to others’ opinions. Jack….is quite violent and a brute with a short-tempered fuse, but he’ll soon accept you like he had with us…and Rantaro…while he may be mysterious, anti-social, sarcastic, cocky, arrogant, greedy, and doesn’t like having his time being wasted…I know that he isn’t the type to eventually to hurt anyone…but he’ll do anything for money…”
“Meh, you got that right.” Nicole, Frost, and Thorax turned around to see Rantaro walking out of the elevator with a cocky grin and held three cappuccinos in a small package he held in his hands. Rantaro walked over to them and set them down on the table with a smirk on his face.
“Been wondering what took ya so long, Nikki?” Rantaro grinned arrogantly. “So…got my money?”
“……” Nicole grabbed a cup of coffee before slurping on it. Five seconds later, she turned to him and said “Thank you for the cappuccino, Rantaro.”
“Hello? Got my money? Time is ticking.” Rantaro stated with an annoyed look.
“Wait, you weren’t kidding?” Thorax asked in confusion. “You were…serious about wanting to keep this secret if she given you money?”
“Of course. Money is everything.” Rantaro shrugged nonchalantly before glaring at him annoyingly. “And what are you doing here? Got nowhere to go?”
“W-well…yeah, kinda. I think now Queen Chrysalis deems me as a traitor since I kinda told Nicole about the whole plan. W-well…almost…” Thorax rubbed the back of his head. “Nicole decided to help me out by allowing me to stay around the home-ship.”
“Well not my problem.” Rantaro rolled his eyes before turning to Nicole. “So…where’s my paycheck? Been waiting for several weeks.”
“Do you honestly like getting payed for whenever someone promises you something?” Nicole asked, furrowing her brows at him.
“Well duh, that’s who I am.” Nicole shrugged before putting a finger on the right side of his head. “I’ve been living in this screw-up world that keeps wasting my time every five minutes! Do you know how much I make in a day?”
“…Well, seeing you acting like this makes me feel a lot better in an ironic way.” Nicole stated bluntly, causing Rantaro to roll his eyes before drinking his cappuccino.
After one drink, he gave out a soft cocky grin and muttered “Oh yeah…that’s the spot.”
“Umm…is this coffee?” Thorax asked curiously, gazing down at the latte.
“What do you think?” Rantaro asked irritably.
“W-well…I’m not much of a coffee person. I never drank something like this before.” Thorax chuckled nervously with an awkward smile.
“So what are you waiting for? Drink up.” Rantaro offered, leaning against another computer chair near Nicole’s desk. Thorax stared at him in surprise before turning to Nicole, who shrugged while she gazed at her iPad.
Thorax blinked a few times before grabbing the coffee with her hooves before drinking it. He widened his eyes before smirking in satisfaction as he exclaimed “Oh wow! This taste so good! Is this what coffee tastes like?”
“See? Were you having doubts with us?” Rantaro smirked, which made Thorax chuckled nervously.
“W-well…I kinda, but I was pretty curious to know what coffee tastes like.” Thorax smiled a bit. “I-I mean…I do want to know what it tastes like. I…never tasted anything like this before.”
“Do you even eat anything?” Rantaro asked, picking his ear a it.
“Well…only when we suck up someone’s love, but even without that, but we even eat our own slime, that’s all.” Rantaro and Nicole stared at him as he gave out a nervous smile to them.
“…Your kind is really no fun, are they?” Rantaro asked with a raised brow.
“Yeah…kinda…” Thorax sighed. “But I really want to try, you know. I want to keep on being my own pony. I mean, that’s why I want to change as much as I can.”
“Well good luck to that.” Rantaro shrugged. “But do you really think any of those guys might even try to get along with a guy like you? I mean, what with the whole invasion thing back at Canterlot.”
“W-well…even so, I know they didn’t have a choice due to the Hive Mind.” Thorax stated.
“Whatever, it’s your call.” Rantaro shrugged.
“Don’t act hostile towards him, Rantaro.” Nicole sated sternly. “His heart is quite pure and filled with joyful emotions, of course he isn’t evil unlike his queen/mother.”
“Whatever you say, not my problem.” Rantaro rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m still waiting on my cash. You don’t and I start spilling secrets.”
“Then why didn’t you do so earlier when we agreed to it?” Nicole asked with a raised brow.
“Huh?” Rantaro looked at her with a confused look.
“I study your character for a while, and now you do things early than anyone can anticipate.” Nicole stated, looking through her iPad. “I know that you do stuff like that. In you guys’ terms, you would have said something about our little secret about keeping a Changeling inside of the home-ship and befriending one in the first place after the invasion. So…why didn’t you when I couldn’t pay yet for the past several weeks.”
Rantaro looked away from her for a while with a small scowl on his face before glancing at her annoyingly and said “Jeez…you sure know how to negotiate.”
“I’m a psychologist, so…it’s just my thing to know how to talk to my patients…I think.” Nicole shrugged.
“You know, you too looked very close.” Thorax said, shocking the both of them.
“As if!” Rantaro scoffed.
“N-No…we’re just acquaintances.” Nicole stated, looking through her iPad in a huff. But…a faint blush appeared on her face.
“W-well…I-I guess I wouldn’t know because-” Before he could finish, he let out another hiss which seemed to get Frost to growl and show off his teeth, which seemed to made Thorax flinch while Nicole scratched him underneath the chin, which seemed to calm down Frost. “S-sorry…”
“No need to apologize, you’re still learning.” Nicole assured with a soft smile. “But for now, we mustn’t let the others know much about you yet. So…let’s keep you hidden till the time is right. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll trust you.”
“O-Okay…” Thorax nodded nervously before looking over at the window, seeing it the sun shining brightly. “Say…where are the rest of your friends?”
“Hmm…I guess minding their own business or possibly in the home-ship doing some things on their own. I don’t know…” Nicole shrugged, still looking over her iPad. “But I’m sure they’re having fun.”
“Meh, I don’t care what they’re doing as long as they don’t bother me and my little business.” Rantaro scoffed.
Nicole stared at him for a while before letting out a small gasp. Rantaro narrowed his eyes at him and asked “What?”
“….Nothing.” Nicole shrugged before turning to her patient and said “So now…let’s continue on with our little therapy.”
“Oh…Okay.” Thorax nodded while Rantaro sighed and rolled his eyes before taking his leave.
“I don’t even know why I bother…” Rantaro muttered before walking over the elevator. Nicole glances at him as he waits for the elevator.
“….Hmm…” Nicole hummed in thought, watching him walking into the elevator as the doors closes. “Just….why? Why are you feeling loneliness?”
“Umm…Nicole?” Nicole blinked a few times before looking over at Thorax, who was trying to gain her attention.
“Oh…Sorry. Let’s continue.” Nicole nodded before they continued on with their therapy. But before they could continue further, Nicole let out a small gasp as she witnessed something from her head.
Flashback
“I see…so this the meteorite that crashed land back in California, right?”
Nicole was seen wearing a lab coat and put down a package down on her table as she video-chatting with someone. She waited for a while as she was listening to what the person she was talking to was.
“….I see. I’m still surprise that you would assign me. Then again, my skills of being a psychologist are quite advanced. So…I’ll see what I can do about it.”
With that, she ended her video-chat on her iPad before taking out a faint violet colored meteorite out of the package that was sent to her lab. She tilted her head a bit with a curious look before taking a closer look at it.
“Hmm….it would seem that the mysterious rock that was a part of that asteroid raid from a few days looks pretty alright to me.” Nicole hummed to herself before grabbing the meteorite and…it began glowing brightly as some essence slowly began creeping her body, causing her to wince in pain. “A-A…..AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Flashback Ended
“Ah!” Nicole gasped, showing off her scared look.
“N-Nicole! Are you okay?!” Thorax asked in concern.
“…..I’m fine.” Nicole recovered quickly from her shocked as she formed back a calmed look. “I-it was just some minor headache….but I’m alright. Let’s just continue.”
“A-Are you sure? You looked-”
“Let us continue please.” She furrow her brows to form a serious and stern look at Thorax, who flinched a bit before smiling nervously before nodding as they continued with their therapy together. While they were busy talking, Nicole couldn’t help but wonder what that was. Why did it just randomly appeared?
“Could it have been…our memories? Hmm…interesting…”
Meanwhile
“Are you almost done arranging the clotheslines, Kaede?”
“Yeah, just almost done.”
Kaede and Rarity were too focused doing their little jobs with designing the perfect outline of a skirt that they were making together back at Carousel Bouquet. Right now, Kaede was almost done stitching it while Rarity was checking it over to see if Kaede made any mistakes with it.
With one last stitch, Kaede wiped away a sweat from her brow as Rarity examined the outline with her reading glasses.
“Hmmmmm….” Rarity stared at it for a while before smiling in satisfaction. “I say it looks stellar! I am quite amazed by how well you done, Kaede darling!”
“Thanks Rarity! I guess it was totally worth it to make the perfect outline for more than a hour.” Kaede stretched her back a bit, hearing a cracking sound. “O-Ow…Man, it’s aching.”
“Don’t worry bout that, I’m sure a lovely trip to the spa could work now that we’re done with all the designs.” Rarity giggled.
“That’s a relief! Been a while since I ever been to the spa!” Kaede said in excitement and joy. “I’m so glad that we’re finally taking a break. Been a while since we had any fun since the wedding.”
“I’ll say.” Rarity nodded in agreement as the two walked out of the Carousel Boutique before Rarity used her magic to levitate some keys as she locked the doors from outside. Soon, the two girls began walking through town as Kaede looks around, seeing everypony doing their own businesses as always.
“Jeez, Ponyville sure hasn’t changed a bit, huh?” Kaede joked.
“Well yes, same as usual I suppose.” Rarity sighed before softly smiling. “But even so, don’t you just love the days where it’s always calm and peaceful?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.” Kaede shrugged before smiling. “But the ones I mostly love is trying out new things in life.”
“Really?” Rarity asked curiously. “Well you did say that you worked as a part-time maid, and did an after-school activity about sewing. I mean, how else could I tell how good you were with the dresses and clothing we made for our friends back at the wedding.”
“I know…” Kaede’s eyes sparkled in joy. “You see, I’m the type of girl who wants to try out many things in life. I mean, sure my step-family may have been neglecting ever since my dad remarried my step-mother, but I never gave up. I wanted to help out anyone as I can.”
“Well that there is quite a lovely thing you would do, Kaede.” Rarity praised, which made Kaede rubbed the back of her head with a light blush on her face.
“T-thanks Rarity…” Kaede thanked before humming in thought. “But you know…I always wanted to prove that I’m not useless.”
“Really? Seems to me that you done pretty well to me.” Rarity assured with a grin. “You always help me out on my dresses, and watched over Carrie, and Fluttershy back at that dreadful Changeling invasion.”
“True, but I wanna help you guys fight. I wished I could find something that I’m good at…” Kaede sighed.
“Cheer up Kaede darling, surely that you’ll find a weapon like Ren, Mason, and Rantaro possessed. Besides, I think you’re pretty great with who you are.” Rarity smiled at her friend.
“Huh? You really think so?” Kaede asked in surprise.
“Of course! I think you’re quite an excellent human.” Rarity nodded, which made Kaede chuckled with a smile on her face.
“Thanks Rares! You’re right about that, but still though, my talent on costume-making and such on taking care of others in a way.” Kaede smiled.
“Well ain’t that the truth, darling?” Rarity giggled while the two girls were almost there to the Ponyville Spa. Before any of them could walk further, Kaede brought up a random question.
“Say Rarity, I was wondering about something.”
“Oh? What is it?” Rarity asked curiously.
“It’s about Mason…” Kaede turned to her with a concern look and asked “Remember that little offer Shining Armor and Princess Celestia made? What do you think his decision would be?”
“O-oh…” That seemed to gotten Rarity a bit worried about that decision. She thought for a while before smiling awkwardly at her friend and replied “W-well…I’m not sure. It is Mason’s decision, after all.”
“I know, but for him to get an offer like that. It must be an honor.” Kaede smiled softly as she stared at the blue skies. “Hmm…Mason is extremely loyal with us. He’s an expert cook, fighter, and pretty much…anything a bodyguard for a royal family could do. You know, I think Mason has the talents to be one.”
“True, but at the same time…he would have to leave all of us.” Rarity pointed out, which made Kaede realized that before sighing sadly.
“Oh…right. You make a good point.” Rarity looked over to see a couple sitting down on the table and talking about things before they kissed each other. Rarity sighed happily and began daydreaming about her and Mason on a date. “Ooooh…Mason….”
“Huh? Rarity? What about Mason?” Kaede asked curiously, which seemed to snapped her back to reality.
“W-w-what? O-Oh…it was just something about him.” Rarity coughed nervously before she said “You know…how he has Elena back in his world, right?”
“Oh right, Princess Elena. She was the one who Mason promised to protect with all his life. He gained extremely loyalty and learned to stay on our side, he even tried to buy us time when we tried to go after the Elements of Harmony while he and Princess Luna fought against Queen Chrysalis.” Kaede summarized.
“Indeed.” Rarity softly smiled. “Mason is quite the man of the hour. He is someone to admire. I know that he has a happy life, and I know that he’s already in love with his girlfriend back in your world.”
Rarity sadly smiled upon realizing it. She may love Mason, but he already found his love.
“It’s the truth….I really like him, and if I tried to date him, I would end up stealing him from his true lover. I think it’s right for me to not force him to love me. It’ll be my selfish desire, after all. I want him to be happy…”
Rarity looked over at the sky with a sad smile as Kaede looks at her in worried.
“Hey Rarity…are you okay?” Kaede asked in concern, snapping Rarity back to her senses. Rarity gives her a soft and nervous smiled before replying “No, I’m fine Kaede. Now then, enough talk about that. Let’s head over to the spa and relax.”
“Oh right, sorry about that.” Kaede chuckled. “You just looked really worried about Mason. I was wondering because of how he might leave us if he accepted the offer…” Kaede folded her arms with a sigh. “But you know, we’ve grown quite a little close with each other to become good friends. But for him to just go to that Royal Guard Academy for six whole months…it would be a challenge and we wouldn’t see him for a while.”
“But it won’t be a long good bye. He’ll be back and become a full-fledged Royal Guard just like Twilight’s brother.” Rarity giggled with a soft smile. “I have a feeling that he’ll be someone that’ll always be there to protect us.”
“I have a feeling that you’re right. After all, Mason will always be there for any of us to protect.” Kaede nodded in agreement before they finally arrived in front of the spa. “But come on, no need to worried Rarity. I’m sure we’ll all enjoy a nice dip in the bath.”
“Indeed…also, I think my hooves need some hoof-icures what with today on those dresses we made.” Rarity looked at her hooves while Kaede rolled her eyes as the two entered the spa to prepare a long bath for today. The moment they stepped in, Kaede froze as something began to play in her head.
Flashback
“Ha…ha….ha….ha….” Kaede was running through the halls of a house with a scared look as she was being chased by an older looking woman and her two daughters.
“Go away! Get away from me!” Kaede screamed out as she immediately raced through the halls before running through a door and closing it shut, locking it in the process. Kaede sighed in relief before it began banging intensely.
“Open the door, brat!”
“Yeah! We just want to teach you a lesson about trying to escape!”
“Yeah! We just want our prize money or don’t you wanna satisfy us like you try to do, sis?”
“Leave me alone! I’m not your sister!” Kaede screamed before clenching her hand as she looked down and saw the key she had in her hand. She looked around before seeing a vent in her house. She made a relieved look before stepping over a desk and pulling off the vent bars as the doors began banging again and again as it made Kaede scared again before she climbed through the vent and crawled through it. Kaede doesn’t know how long it took to go through them, but she managed to find another vent that lead possibly away from her stepfamily.
With such force, she pushed the vent opened and gotten out as she sighed in relief before jumping down, face-flat.
“O-Ow…” Kaede muttered before seeing the front door as she raced down the stairs and used the house keys to unlock it, but the moment she placed the keys in the lock.
“Found you, you little brat!” Kaede turned pale as she immediately turned around to see her step mother and step sisters were running towards us. “You are so dead!”
“AHHHHHH!” Kaede let out a scream and closed her eyes in fear till a bright light shined, blocking any vision.
Flashback Ended
“Kaede darling?” Kaede blinked a few times before noticing Rarity giving her a confused look, along with the spa employees. Kaede looked around in confusion before asking “W-what? But…what was…?”
“Kaede, you’ve been standing there for a while now, is there something?” Rarity questioned.
“O-oh…it’s nothing. It was just something I thought of, that’s all.” Kaede chuckled nervously, much to Rarity’s confusion. “Well anyway, why not we just go over and take some relaxation?”
“Well…alright then, darling.” Rarity shrugged as the two of them walked over the desk to pay for their spa treatment. While they were doing so, Kaede couldn’t help but thought what she just saw.
“What…was that? Why was I running away from my step mother and sisters? Did I do something wrong?”
Elsewhere At Sweet Apple Acres
“48….49….50!” With a great leap off the tree branch, Mason landed on the ground with his sweater off, showing off his lean body through his grey undershirt. He stretched his back a little before resting over near a tree to catch a little break.
“Mason!” Mason looked over to his right to see Applejack walking over, carrying two buckets of apples strapped to her back as she held a smile on her face. “Break time’s over, remember? You can stop exercising and training and get back to work.”
“R-right…Okay Applejack.” Mason smiled softly and nodded before getting back up. “Sorry, I guess I forgotten to hear the bell ringing.”
“Nah, it’s fine. Just don’t forget next time.” Applejack assured before walking off. “By the way, you better hurry up with the last few fields. Big Mac is just planning to sell some apples over by the market later on today after you both go and grab your sisters.”
“Right. Thank you.” Mason nodded as Applejack began taking her leave. Finally regaining his breath, Mason got up and gazed at the tree he was sitting down from before and…
“YAAAAH!” With one hard kick onto the tree, multiple apples fell down on the ground. Mason smiled before walking over and collecting the apples, but while he did…
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Mason looked around and began hearing crunching sounds.
“Strange…that almost sounds like…” With narrowed eyes, Mason walked over to one of the trees and looked behind them to see…
“You!” Mason glared upon seeing who the culprit was, eating a bunch of apples in his arms. Jack looked over behind him and saw Mason giving him a stern glare as his mouth was covered with many apples as he mumbled “What?”
“Jack Yamaki…what are you doing? And why are you eating all those apples?!” Mason demanded, his face showing off anger.
With one big gulp, Jack dropped the many apples before stretching his back and scratching his butt before asking “What? I was hungry.”
“Yet you realize that this is an apple farm. The same apple farm that you helped out on when the Flim Flam Brothers came and tried to take over?” Mason reminded, raising a brow while his arms crossed.
“So?” Jack scoffed, letting out a massive burp before rubbing his stomach. “Ahh…that hit the spot.”
Mason gave him a dark glare, which seemed to tick off Jack a bit.
“You do know there’s a rule here on Sweet Apple Acres, right? You ate it, you bought it.” Mason stated sternly.
“Well that’s some messed-up rule.” Jack scoffed, crossing his arms. “It’s alright, I’ll get some of your Ren’s money and pay for it.”
“Leave Ren out of this. It’s his allowance and he can do whatever he wants with it.” Mason stated, glaring at him.
“Hmph! Well it wasn’t my fault!” Jack exclaimed angrily. “I was just hungry!”
“You ate breakfast just two hours ago!” Mason argued.
“Yet it still wasn’t enough!”
“Oh my god! Just how obsessive with food are you?!”
“What do you expect?! I have a massive appetite!”
“Yeah, I wonder why…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“You’re fat and irresponsible, that’s what I mean.”
“What you say?!”
“HEY!” The two turned around to see Big Macintosh stomping over to them with a harsh glare at the boys. “Keep it down you two!”
“Forgive me Big Macintosh.” Mason apologizes before glaring at Jack and said “But I caught him from eating nearly all of the apples at the orchard.”
Big Mac glared at him, which made Jack growled at them and exclaimed “So what?! I was hungry, alright?! I couldn’t get any because I don’t got any dough and nobody would offer me food, alright?!”
Big Mac growled and narrowed his eyes at Jack, who crossed his arms stubbornly.
“So? It was just a couple of apples I ate. You have plenty of them around.” Jack scoffed, earning two glares from both Mason and Big Mac. “…I don’t have any money!”
Big Mac scowled at him with an angry glare while Mason tapped his foot with narrowed eyes that formed into a darkened look.
“Well what the hell am I supposed to do?!” Jack exclaimed.
“Then work here and paid off your debt.” Mason suggested coldly.
“Eeyup!” Big Mac nodded in agreement before huffing and taking his leave. “You ate it, you bought it!”
“Uhhh….” Jack sweat-dropped upon realizing on the scene he was in. “….What the hell did I just get myself into?”
“You gotten a new job apparently till you pay off the debt. Now get to it.” Mason stated sternly, which made Jack grumbled in anger.
“Bastard…” Jack sighed.
With that, Jack had no choice but to pay for the eaten apples that he ‘unintentionally’ ate. He had to take off his overcoat and showed off only wearing his undershirt, but it showed his gut as he and Mason got to work. Big Mac let Applejack and Granny Smith what was up, and…let’s say, Jack’s gotten lucky that Applejack was busy tending another orchard from the other side of the farm. Otherwise, he would have faced her wrath.
Mason and Jack were walking over in front of the orchard as Mason smirked and said “Hmph! You’re lucky that this is the last orchard Jack.”
“Ha! Must be my lucky day!” Jack cracked his knuckles with a cocky grin. “Let’s get to work! This is will be a piece of cake!”
“Trust me, it’ll be hard to get them down.” Mason smirked. “There’s no way someone that husky get them down.”
“Oh yeah?!” Jack growled before running over one tree before tackling the tree, making some apples fall down. “Ha! How you like them apples?!”
Mason rolled his eyes with a soft grin before walking over and knocking out a random tree, making all of the apples fall down, much to Jack’s shock.
“No…how do you ‘them’ apples.” Mason smirked, which seemed to irritate Jack.
“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!” Jack yelled out before he kept tackling the tree from before, dropping some more apples in the process. Mason smirked at him before he went back to work and began using many fighting techniques to take down many trees down. Jack kept tackling many trees to drop as many apples as fast as he could. While they were too busy taking down many apples, they weren’t aware that the Apple Family have been watching over through binoculars.
“Looks like those boys are really going out on work.” Applejack smirked.
“Well those big whippersnapper better pay the debt!” Granny Smith barked, waving her cane around.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac nodded as they watched the two boys racing through the last fields to take down all of its trees.
One Hour Later
After that, the two sat down on the ground with heavy sighs as the two were sweating too hard which was obvious judging how sweaty they are and how all of their sweat gotten their undershirts all sweaty. They were sitting down at a random tree while recovering from exhaustion.
“Ha…gotta admit kid, you got some skills.” Jack chuckled before panting. “Oh man…never been this tired in my life.”
“You know…I’m surprise a guy like you could go as fast as you were before.” Mason panted, forming a smirk on his face.
“Well duh…I…work out…a lot…back in my…world…” Jack grinned before recovering a bit. He patted on his gut and commented “Just because I’m husky, doesn’t mean I can run as fast as any of ya!”
“True…you really surprise me out there.” Mason chuckled before looking at the sky. “Heh…I wouldn’t be too surprise if Shining asked you to join the academy.”
“Huh? You mean that place where you trained as a Royal Guard?” Mason nodded with a soft smile as Jack huffed and said “Heh, you’re right. But I rather not. It’s not a good thing for a guy like me. Once a biker, always a biker.”
“I see…” Mason sighed before looking at the skies. “Hmm…you know, I’ve been thinking on Shining’s offer for a while.”
“What?” Jack asked, scratching his belly.
“About joining in on becoming a Royal Guard. I’m just wondering about that…” Jack turned to Mason with a bewildered look as he asked “What? You’re serious about that?”
“Of course.” Mason nodded with a sigh before forming a somewhat worried look. “But…I’m still not sure about that decision if I should go or not. I mean, I got you guys and Carrie to look after.”
“Hey, I can take care of myself without any of ya looking after me.” Jack scoffed. “In case you forgot, I bypass you four years of age.”
Mason made an amused smile at him and said “True, but you still act like a child with a temper tantrum.”
Jack growled angrily while Mason chuckled to himself before asking “But still, I’m serious about my decision.”
“You’re serious? Why bother?” Jack asked. “Didn’t you say that you’re some bodyguard for some princess.”
“W-well yes…” Mason nodded before sighing. “But we’ve been here for a year now, well…more like you, Rantaro, and Nicole been here for a few months. We know that we’ll find a way to go back, but there’s that possibility that we might not be able go back home soon and it could take years…”
Mason looked at Jack with a sad look and continued “I know that our friends and families might be worried about us…but like Ren once said, we need to believe that we’ll find a home and maybe our lost memories might be the key to search out a way home.”
“Yeah, I bet my old man is probably wondering where the hell I went. He probably sent out the whole Yamaki gang around the country to search out for me…but as a man…” Jack grinned cockily and said “Hmph! I can take care of myself. I’m a biker and heir to the Yamki Biker Gang, so I know how to fight on.”
“No argument there.” Mason shook his head with an amused smile before saying “But still…I’m not sure. I mean, what’s the right choice and what’s the wrong one?”
“Just pick whatever it’s right.” Jack suggested, much to Mason’s surprise. “I-I mean…it’s your choice. You can’t keep relying on anyone to make your decisions. You’re your own person so the decisions must be made by yourself.”
“Huh…” Mason blinked in surprise, which confused Jack.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just that…I’m surprised that someone like you would even say that.” Jack stiffened before huffing away with a light blush and muttered “W-whatever….I don’t care. Just wanna give ya advice…”
“Yeah…” Mason chuckled before remembering something. “Oh yeah, how’s Jamie? Has he been training with ya lately? I couldn’t arrive for our morning training because of my part-time job here on Applejack’s family’s farm.”
“Meh, he came and I have to say, he’s improved.” Jack explained before chuckling to him. “But those marks on his face, it still makes me laugh to this day.”
“True…I’m still wondering where they came from and why?” Mason wondered. “It’s just so weird…”
“Meh, it’s probably nothing.” Mason gave Jack a deadpanned look and asked “How is growing two marks similar to a pony’s Cutie-Mark not nothing to be concern about that?”
“I-I don’t know! Quit questioning me!” Jack exclaimed, which further Mason’s disbelief at that.
“Whatever…” Mason sighed before looking at the skies. “But even so…what am I supposed to do? I mean, I don’t wanna leave Carrie behind…she’s my little sister and I don’t wanna disappoint her.”
“True, you guys always stick together like glue. That’s the whole point with family.” Jack stated before taking out two apples from his pockets before tossing one to Mason. Mason caught it and blinked in surprise upon seeing one of the orchard’s apples in his hand before glaring at Jack. “What? You’ll get paid and you can use that money to pay off the apples while I pay off my debt for eating the apples here. See?”
“….Fine.” Mason sighed before biting into the juicy apple, along with Jack. “Hmm…maybe I’ll give it more thought when the time is right.”
“Well…good luck with that. But…” Jack wrapped his arm around and gave him a noogie. “Ha ha! You’re gonna make the right decision!”
Mason grew a bit irritated on the noogie he was receiving, but couldn’t help but smile and laughed along with his friend till he widened his eyes as something began playing in his head.
Flashback
Mason was seen walking with Elena and Carrie through a clothe store. Mason was carrying tons of bag with clothes on them. They walked through one of the dressing stalls as Elena grabbed one of them and said “Alright, we’re gonna try out the new clothes. Is that alright Mason?”
“Yes indeed Elena.” Mason nodded with a smile. “Good luck you two.”
“Yay! Yay! Come on Elena!” Carrie grabbed Elena’s right hand as she pulled her into one of the dressing stalls. Elena chuckled with her foster sister as the two began changing their clothes while Mason leaned against the wall before he noticed some people walking by as they were looking at him and began whispering about something and that was mainly about him…and his sister.
“Is that him?”
“Yeah, I think so. He’s one of them.”
“To think that he’s the lucky ones to go through with it.”
“Wasn’t there supposed to be some little girl with him?”
“I think so…”
“Yeah well…why is it that he gets to go through it?”
Mason gave them all a dark glare, causing the group of people flinching before running off. Mason looks back at his sister and lover, who were starting to come out of the dressing stall as they were wearing normal clothing that middle-class people wear.
“I say that this may not be my style, but I can’t help but feel like a normal girl in this!” Elena giggled.
“Me too!” Carrie nodded in agreement before turning to her brother. “Hey big brother! Do you think me and Elena look amazing?”
“O-oh…” Mason covered his mouth with his scarf with a massive blush around his face, nearly turning his face red. “Y-you two…look amazing as ever…you two are so stellar as ever.”
“Thank you Mason.” Elena kissed him on the forehead, causing Mason to blush more while Carrie giggled at them before noticing a bunch of people staring right at them.
Carrie formed a concern yet scared look before hiding behind Elena and Mason as she called “Big brother? Elena?”
The two looked at her in surprise before looking at what she was staring at the group of people, who were whispering and muttering to each other.
“Why is the princess with them?”
“Maybe she haven’t heard?”
“Yeah right, she’s harboring one of those who’s immune to it.”
“I guess so…”
Mason narrowed his eyes before turning to Elena and Carrie as he said “Elena, Carrie, let’s go.”
“Huh?” Elena and Carrie turned to Mason with confusion on their faces.
“Big brother? What’s wrong?” Carrie asked worriedly. “I-Is it because…?”
“I-it’s nothing…let’s head back with the rest of our family.” Mason suggested, which made Elena hesitate for a moment before nodding as she and Carrie immediately headed back to the dressing stall and in five minutes, they headed out in their normal attire as they began making their way out of here as Mason held both of their hands.
Mason looked back at the sneers and suspicious looks from the other people, causing him to glare back at him before sighing to himself.
“Why…..Why us?”
Flashback Ended
“Ngh!” Mason winced, much to Jack’s confusion as he ended his noogie and looked at him with concern.
“Hey, what’s wrong with ya? I didn’t even given that hard of a noogie.” Jack stated. Mason shook his head as he placed a hand on his head and replied “I don’t know…it was something I remembered…”
“Huh? Remembered?” Jack asked.
“I-I don’t know…but I’m fine now.” Mason sighed in relief.
“Heh, for a moment there, I thought you couldn’t handle one of my noogies.” Jack laughed, causing Mason to give him a deadpan look.
“No, that wasn’t it.” Mason sighed before muttering “Never mind…”
“Well anyway, I should keep on working with the rest of these trees. Hopefully, I get paid and managed to use that cash to pay off that recently made debt.” Jack scratched the back of his head before making a cocky grin. “Heh, don’t worry…I promise I’ll pay for it.”
“You better.” Mason smirked before getting back up while Jack looked at Mason for a while, noticing his lean build. Mason noticed this before raising a brow and asked “Is there something wrong?”
“Nothing, just that…heh, you got a nice bod there.” Jack teased, nudging him a bit before patting his gut, making it jiggle a bit. “But my gut is a man’s way to be strong!”
“No…it doesn’t.” Mason replied with a blank look. “And frankly…I think maybe you should lose some weight.”
“Hmph! Says you!” Jack scoffed, flexing his arm a bit. “I think ladies will dig a guy like me.”
“The day I see you date anyone, whether it’s a human or pony, is the day I would get sit by you big fat butt.” Mason mused himself, ignoring the growl from Jack. But before any of them could say anything…
“WHOOOOOAAAAAAA!” And just by a second, both Mason and Jack were tackled by a blue blur, landing straight towards the apple orchard, knocking the three, including the one who landed on them, down for the count. But thanks to that unexpected turn, a faint memory began playing inside of Jack’s head.
Flashback
“Are you frigging serious?!”
Jack slammed his fist on a metal table as he was seen speaking to a bunch of men wearing black suits and dark sunglasses.
“You come to MY home, come and tell ME about this lazy stupid-crappy thing about some stupid project, and you all think that’s perfect for us?! No frigging way I ain’t doing this!”
“Sir, please calm down and-”
“Shut it!” Jack snarled and scowled angrily at them. “This situation is already right up my butt and you think that you could make me do what you say! Forget it, I’m out of here!”
Jack immediately turned around and began taking his leave, wanting to forget about this scene and headed out the door.
“Sir wait! If you just-”
“SHADDUP!” Jack screamed, causing the two men to flinch in fear before he headed out of the door and slammed it shut, ignoring the two men’s pleas.
“Hmph…Saving the seeds of hope, my butt…”
Flashback Ended
“U-Ugh…” Jack and Mason slowly got up and looked around before noticing a familiar blue pony laying on top of them. “Rainbow Dash?!”
“W-what the?!” Rainbow Dash immediately gotten up from the ground and shook her head before glaring at them and yelled out “What are you two doing here?!”
“We should be asking you the same damn question as well, Skittles!” Jack exclaimed, sneering at her. “What are you doing landing on top of us! My stomach isn’t some pin cushion for you to just land on!”
“I wasn’t trying to! I just had a misdirection on one of my tricks and accidentally landed here! I wasn’t expecting any of you two to show up and me landing on you both!” Rainbow Dash retorted, glaring at Jack.
“Well maybe you need to pay attention more, Skittles!”
“Why not you not end up whenever I’m practicing my stunts, fatty!”
“Oh yeah?! You want me to come over and fight ya?! I ain’t scared of fighting off a pony, specifically a girl!”
“Oh yeah?! Those are fighting words!”
“Enough you two!” Mason intervened into their conversation before sternly glaring at them. “You two need to stop fighting and just calm down! You’re just making things more worse than usual if you two end up doing this!”
“Hmph! Fine!” Rainbow Dash and Jack huffed as they crossed their arms and looked away from him.
“Oh god…” Mason face-palmed before looking over at the crater they were in. “What am I gonna tell Applejack about this?”
“Oh stop it, she’ll be fine.” Jack shrugged till they heard a loud sound.
“WHAT IS THIS?!” They looked back and saw Applejack and Big Mac staring at the big crater that appeared right in front of them. Big Mac and Applejack stared in horror upon seeing this as the former fainted while the latter glared angrily at them.
“Who did this? Who’s responsible for this?!” Applejack demanded, glaring angrily at the three.
Rainbow Dash, Jack, and Mason widened their eyes upon seeing Applejack like this since they never see the farm pony this angry before. Jack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other before they started pointing at fingers at each other.
“She/He did it!” Jack and Rainbow Dash yelled out while Mason face-palmed and shook his head annoyingly.
“Oh my god…why me?”
Meanwhile
“No way! Seriously?!”
Carrie nodded with an excited grin as the Cutie-Mark crusaders grew overjoyed by this revelation. Today, Ms. Cheerliee gave them a 15-minute lunch break while everypony else were busy chatting with each other. Right now, Carrie and her friends, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were in the midst of talking about what they’ve been through.
“Can you believe it?! Fighting off all those Changelings! You’re surely famous now Carrie!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in excitement.
“Ha! Wouldn’t be surprised that you gained a Cutie-Mark of being a hero!” Scootaloo joked, causing Carrie to nervously smiled at her and replied “Umm…I’m not sure if that’s a talent at all. And even so, I didn’t do anything but cheer on for my friends.”
“Well we may not have seen the whole fight…” Apple Bloom formed a grin and said “But golly, wasn’t it an event? I never would have imagined that Princess Cadance that we all saw was a fake this whole time!”
“Yeah, what a twist right?” Scootaloo nudged her while Carrie scratched the back of her head and said “Well…I’m not sure of that count as a twist at all since she has been rude to me, my big brother, and the others by calling us names and such.”
“Meh, details.” Scootaloo waved it off.
“So Carrie…” Sweetie Belle turned to Carrie and asked “Is it true about your brother given an offer to attend the academy to be trained as a Royal Guard?”
“Oh yeah, Shining Armor and Princess Celestia thought it would be something that he could be good at. Though, big brother has the qualifications to be one considering just how strong and muscular he is.” Carrie explained with a soft smile. “But I’m wondering if he’s still deciding on that.”
“Well he should!” Apple Bloom cheered, nearly falling off her seat as she smiled at her human friend and said “I mean, to be accepted into the Royal Guard Academy is like an honor! He has the talent of a special agent!”
“No, a ninja!” Scootaloo argued.
“He’s actually a bodyguard for my foster sister, Elena.” Carrie reminded them.
“But wait, if he does decides to go…” Sweetie Belle looked at her with a confused and concern look on her face. “If he decides to go to the academy, then that means he’s practically leaving you, the others, and…and….Rarity!”
“Oh…” Carrie slumped down with a sadden look before gazing out at the window. “Yeah, I know that…but I want big brother to keep going on. I mean, he’s always protective me. I wanna be somebody that can take care of myself.”
“What are you saying Carrie?!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in surprise.
“Well…it’s not gonna be long.” Carrie assured with a soft grin. “I mean, it’s only gonna be six months till he graduates and becomes a part of the Royal Guard.”
“But still…! It’s so long!” Sweetie Belle complained, slamming her head on the desk.
“She’s right. I mean, won’t you miss him?” Scootaloo questioned. “If it was Rainbow Dash, I would grow sad and heartbroken that she would one day leave Ponyville and won’t be back for who knows how long if she ever became a Wonderbolt!”
“True, but I gotta keep cheering on for big brother.” Carrie stated with a cheery smile. “Back then, whenever he and Elena were having small dates with each other, I had a feeling that they would be together forever and get married someday and one day, moved into their own home. I was pretty bummed out and depressed that someday it would happen…”
Carrie placed her head on the desk before looking out the window, seeing a baby bird and its mother together.
“So one day, big brother and Elena went over and saw me acting so gloomy. So when I told them on how I feel, they understood and big brother told me something.” Carrie turned to them as she began mimicking her brother’s voice. “Carrie, even if that is true, we would always be there for you. No matter how far or close we are, we’ll be there in by heart. Together from afar in the hearts we are connected.”
“Wow, that’s some pretty emotional stuff there.” Apple Bloom smiled a bit before sniffling.
“Yeah, and I’m not sure if my sister could handle him leaving.” Sweetie Belle added. “I mean, she practically has the hots for your brother, after all.”
“I know, but in a way, Rarity reminds me of Elena.” Carrie said honestly. “I mean, she’s so generous and so kind and would sacrifice anything to make someone happy or solve a problem, no matter how dirty she gets.”
“Hmm…good point.” Sweetie Belle shrugged before asking “So…what are you gonna do then?”
“I’m gonna keep on cheering him on. Besides, I’ve been learning much from big brother a lot.” Carrie giggled. “I’ve learned how to do things like how he does.”
“Well that’s pretty cool.” Scootaloo complimented.
“Well I’m learning how to apple-buck just like my sister and brother!” Apple Bloom stated.
“And I’m learning how to do cooking ‘properly’ or what my sister told me.” Sweetie Belle added.
“I’m planning on getting Rainbow Dash to make me her apprentice! That way, I’ll be the greatest stunt flyer in all of Equestria just like her!” Scootaloo exclaimed in joy, which made the others laughed. As they were laughing, Carrie froze as a faint something began playing in her head.
Flashback
“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Carrie looked outside of the mansion, seeing a lot of people outside of the mansion’s gates as it formed into a mob as they were trying to bypass the gate system to get through the house. Soon, she heard the doors opened as she looked over and saw her brother and Elena walking in.
“Carrie, come on. We need to go now.” Mason said sternly.
“Huh?” Carrie turned to them with a worried look on her face.
“Don’t worry Carrie, our parents are preparing the private jet. We’ll be leaving to one of our summer cottages to stay there in comfort. Don’t worry, not many people will ever find you guys there.” Elena assured.
“Elena, I think that includes you as well.” Mason stated, but Elena shook her head with a soft smile and said “No, I’m not like you or Carrie, Mason. I’m not immune to that virus.”
“I know, but still…you’re still my main concern.” Mason reminded her.
“Big brother? Big sis Elena? Are we…gonna be okay?” Carrie asked worriedly before racing over and hugging them tightly, letting out some tears. “P-Please…tell me that we’ll be alright…”
“Don’t worry…we’ll be alright. I promise.” Mason assured with a soft smile.
“He’s right Carrie…” Elena bend down to her height and gives them a soft smile. “And don’t you worry, I promise that I’ll use my family’s power to find a cure to all of this. That way, everyone can be happy again. Our kingdom is already in ruins due to that meteor impact from the last few months, and this happened…I wanna make you and Mason to live perfect lives.”
“E-Elena…” Carrie cried out softly before hugging him tightly, letting out tears while she hugged her foster sister back. Mason hugged the two of them and smiled softly as they heard Carrie sobbing.
“I-it’s not fair…why?…Why do we get to live?…But not you?”
Flashback Ended
“Carrie? Carrie!” Carrie blinked a few times before looking around, seeing everypony in class looking at her weirdly as she looked over to see Ms. Cheerilee looking at her in worried. “Ms. Carrie Hunter? Are you alright?”
“H-huh? Oh…sorry.” Carrie apologized before letting out a yawn. “Just…tired, that’s all.”
“Oh, I see. Well please don’t sleep in class.” Ms. Cheerilee lectured softly. “Now then class, let’s begin with our next lesson.”
Carrie blushed a bit in embarrassment while her friends looked at her in worried and concern.
“Carrie, what happened back there?” Scootaloo asked in worried. “You’ve been sitting there with a blank look for a while the moment Ms. Cheerilee walked back into the classroom.”
“O-Oh…It’s nothing. I just…sorta froze there.” Carrie assured with a soft smile.
“Well what happened there?” Sweetie Belle asked in worried. Carrie hummed for a while before answering “I’m…not sure. I can’t remember a bit…”
“Huh? Remember?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Maybe next time.” Carrie replied. “I promise.”
“Well…alright.” Apple Bloom nodded as they looked back at Ms. Cheerilee as they listened through their lessons. While doing so, Carrie began thinking on what she saw on what played in her head.
“When….did that ever happened? I don’t remember much at all. Maybe the others knows about it?”
Meanwhile in the Home-Ship
Back there, Ren and Fluttershy are seen in the arcade room at the Round One floor as they were playing a Foosball table that they were able to find. They decided to explore around a bit after Fluttershy finished tending her animals for the day. Ren decided to invite her over to the arcade room and teach her how to play games that are from his and the others’ world.
As they kept playing, Fluttershy managed to score at least one point.
“Yay!” Fluttershy shouted, but it was too soft for it to be heard out.
“Nice job Fluttershy, you done pretty well.” Ren complimented. “I say you’re getting the hang of it.”
“Thank you Ren. I never played games before in my life.” Fluttershy stated with a soft smile. “Well…that’s mostly because I never had that many friends when I was a filly at Flight Camp back at Cloudsdale.”
“Well hey, that was in the past.” Ren reminded her. “This is the present now. You got tons of friends by your side, even me.”
“Tee-hee! I-I guess you’re right…” Fluttershy giggled before hearing her stomach rumbled a bit. “Oh dear…I guess we’ve been playing around here for quite a while that I haven’t eaten in a while.”
“Then why not we head over to the mall area? I mean, we can some salad there.” Ren offered, causing Fluttershy to be surprised by that.
“Y-you really want me to go there with you? L-Like on a date?” Fluttershy asked in surprise.
“W-well…I wouldn’t exactly call it a date. I’m not good with relationships like we are in right now, but I want to try it out for you Flutters.” Ren scratched the back of his head with a smile on his face.
“Heh heh, I-I see…” Fluttershy nodded in agreement with a soft smile and blush on her face as the two began taking leave off of the Round One Arcade, where we found Kodiak laying on a nearby sofa cushion as he let out a long sigh before noticing us leaving.
“Huh? Oh hey you guys, you finally done with your little date?” Kodi teased, causing the two of them to blushed in embarrassment as the two of us shouted “Kodiak!”
“What? I was just asking.” Kodi smiled innocently before stretching his back and said “So what’s up? We headed back?”
“Nah, we’re heading to the mall district so that we can get something to eat.” Ren explained.
“Well I am getting a little bit hungry. Okay, let’s go.” Kodi smiled happily.
“Well I guess I could eat some salad and anything edible as log as it isn’t…you know.” Ren stiffened upon remembering what happened back then. Everypony in Equestria knew about their appetite about eating meat, butit seemed to calm everypony down, well…almost.
“D-don’t worry, we made a vow to only eat food here in Equestria since the food tastes very similar to what we eat back in our world.” Ren assured with a soft grin.
“You don’t have to do that, Ren. We all know you guys eat meat, so why keep eating our food? I don’t mind.” Fluttershy said confusedly.
“But still, I don’t want you or the others feel uncomfortable eating meat in front of us.” Ren stated, which made Fluttershy realized that he had a point.
“I see…” Fluttershy nodded before smiling softly at me. “Well I understand your reasons. Thank you, at least.”
Fluttershy flew over and kissed Ren on the forehead, causing him to blush a bit before chuckling to himself.
“Come on you guys! Let’s go to the mall!” Kodi barked excitedly before racing over to the elevator. Me and Fluttershy looked at each other with amused grins upon seeing Kodiak act like that. Man, he acts as if he’s a little kid…or Pinkie Pie. Oh well, let’s head over and see what we can eat at the food court upstairs. But before Ren could walked through the elevator’s doors, he froze as something crawled up his spine as a mysterious feeling creep up and played something in his head.
Flashback
“……….Hey, wake up.”
Ren slowly awoken from the darkness as he sees a woman’s face looking directly at him. This woman…was very familiar to them. A girl they know…
“U-ugh….what the? Where….am….I?” Ren asked, slowly getting up and finding himself in an apartment.
“Are you okay young man?” Ren turned around and saw a girl looking at him, staring at him with a curious look. “You looked like you were out for a while after I found you across the river?”
“River…?”
“And don’t bother telling me who you are, I know you’re Ren Loodan.”
“Huh?” Ren looked at the woman in surprise. “B-but how did?”
“You’re just like me. Both of our…No, the nine people that were in this project were leaked into the news and showed our identities. So of course I recognized them…especially since I gotten info from some of my co-workers at the foundation.”
“Foundation? Wait, what are you saying?” Ren looked at her with a bewildered look before slowly asking “Who…are you anyway? I haven’t seen the news that much, but I did heard about the project’s info was being leaked across the world, so I don’t know who you are. But if you’re like me, then are you…?”
“Yes…I’m also an immune. For my name…it’s…”
Flashback Ended
“N-Ngh! Ah!” Ren hissed as he held his head in pain. Fluttershy and Kodiak looked back at Ren with shocked looks and ran towards him before they could entered the elevator.
“R-Ren!” Kodiak called, running to his side. Fluttershy flew over and placed a hoof on his forehead and asked “Ren! Are you alright? Do you need help?! Do you have a fever?!”
“Y-yeah…I’m fine.” Ren groaned, rubbing his head before looking at Fluttershy and Kodiak with a concern look. “I-I didn’t worried you guys, right?”
“Of course we did! Why else did we come over and check up on you?!” Kodiak exclaimed.
“R-Ren…are you feeling alright?” Fluttershy asked in concern.
“Y-yeah…” Ren nodded with a soft yet nervous smile. “I’m feeling alright, but right now, I’m just having a minor headache, it’s no big deal. But right now, let’s head over to the mall.”
“Well….Okay.” Fluttershy nodded before they walked over to the elevator and headed upwards towards the mall district floor. While they were still in the elevator, Ren couldn’t help but think what he just witnessed.
“That woman…that woman I saw….that was….No way…is there more of our memories that we originally thought?…No, it’s best not to think too much. I’m sure it’s nothing…right?”
Meanwhile
“Hmm…what about this book?”
“Yeah! That’ll work well!”
Jamie and Twilight were also in the home-ship, specifically in the mall district as they were looking over the book store that they saw the day they first explored this new area for them to explore. Right now, they were off doing their book studies together.
“Hmm…I gotta say, this book looks quite good to be used, right Twilight?” Jamie questioned, looking through one of the science study books that they managed to find through the shelves. “This book here contains college-based scientific and mathematics levels like physics for example. It’s quite a hard course to learn, but I’ve been studying physics back then so I could teach you maybe.”
Jamie let out a small blush as he looked over at Twilight and began stuttering again.
“T-T-That is…if you know physics already!” Twilight giggled at his reaction before replying “That would be something to learn about. Physics is quite a hard core subject, so I never gotten the chance to learn about it. So maybe you can teach me?” She nuzzles him before saying “Besides, it’ll be something to learn something new with you, Jamie.”
“Y-yeah…” Jamie softly smiled at her and nodded. Ever since the Canterlot invasion, Twilight and Jamie’s relationship gotten a whole lot better. From being friends into finding out they have secret feelings for each other, and they’ve been wishing to talk to each other about that subject. And right now seems like the perfect time to talk. Jamie let out a curious look but held a frown as he called Twilight’s name.
“Umm…Twilight?”
“Yeah Jamie?” Twilight turned to him with a confused look.
“Do you…remember much about the Changelings attacking Canterlot?” Jamie asked curiously.
“Yes, we’ve been there, so of course I remember, Jamie.” Twilight reminded him, forming a concern look. “Why…do you ask?”
“Well…there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Jamie said with a worried look.
“Well…there’s something I want to talk you about too.” Twilight sighed as the two took a deep breath and said what they were gonna say at the same time.
“I wanted to talk you about our kiss!” Twilight and Jamie blurted out together, causing the two of them to look at each other in shock as they both asked “What?”
“You first?” Jamie offered. “I-I mean…you know the saying, ladies first.”
“Well….alright. You see…I was wondering if you remember much if we…you know, kiss?” Jamie groaned upon remembering that as he began apologizing to her.
“I-I know…it was terrible…”
“No, I don’t mean that. I meant…do you really mean it? We’ve been friends for a while and yet our feelings started to grow on each other lately…you may not have known it, but while we read books together, shared facts, and do late night research and studying as well as writing down schedules for each day for me….I thought I found someone that I could relate to. Someone who would love similar things like me, and it turned out…” Twilight blushed a bit, smiling over at Jamie. “I did.”
Jamie blushed madly as he began twiddling around with his notebook a bit before looking at her and decided to say something.
“T-that’s…very nice of you Twilight. I-I thought of the same thing too.” Jamie said with a soft smile. “We’ve been together for at several months, and…while I panicked and was distrustful of you all when we first met. All I kept thinking was begging to keep going home and see my family, mostly my sisters and the butlers and maids who works for my father, but after a while…I’ve started to accept living in this place after meeting you all and seeing how you guys were willing to protect anyone, even me. For most people back in my world, they would abandoned me or don’t bother to help me…I was always alone….”
Jamie looked at her with a grin before continuing “But ever since coming to Equestria, I’ve learned so many things a book couldn’t taught me. I’ve learned the many things what this world had and how greatly similar it was, including the holidays you spent here, and mostly…I’ve learned how to make a ‘friend’ and how friendship works. You guys…are my very first friends ever and I’m more than happy to ever be here with you all here today.”
“Jamie…” Twilight looked at him with a slightly surprised look on her face before smiling softly at him. “That’s great to hear….”
She let out a frown as she glanced down at her hooves before looking at Jamie and asked “So…what now? Do you want to continue being friends? Or…maybe become special someponies?”
“W-well maybe….” Jamie glanced away nervously, scratching his left cheek with a blush on his face. “I-If that’s what you want, and your brother does trust me ever since I protected you from the rest of those Changelings.”
“Well he did say so, but imagine his reaction to find out that we’re dating.” Twilight giggled, causing Jamie to stiffened in fear upon realizing that. Twilight noticed before making a soft smile and kissing him by the right cheek and said “Don’t worry…I’ll be sure to convince him. He IS my BBBFF, after all.”
“R-R-Right!” Jamie nodded, still worried about facing Shining Armor’s wrath. “But yeah…I think maybe we could work on a relationship…right Twilight?”
Jamie offered his hand in front of Twilight, which made her smiled and nodded before shaking his hand with her hoof.
“Right you are…Jamie.” Twilight smiled before the two started laughing. While they laughed, Jamie flinched as he placed a hand on his forehead as he gotten the same feeling as the others. A feeling…that he remembered something.
Flashback
“WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”
Jamie was running through the streets as a bunch of people chased after him. He was running through an alleyway before racing through of it and began hearing some screaming and such as he looks over and saw something attacking some of the locals. His face turned pale before backing away, not wanting to be a part of whatever’s happening over there before running away as the crowd of people from earlier were still after him. As he kept running in tears, he accidentally tripped and fell face-flat before getting up and panicked upon seeing the crowd of people surrounding him from every direction.
“P-Please…don’t hurt me. Please…” Jamie pleaded, but the crowd ignored him as they slowly made their way towards him with weapons in their hands. “No….NOOOOOOOO!”
As Jamie screamed, a bright light surrounded him as he ignored hearing the loud screams that were surrounding him.
Flashback Ended
“A-Ah!” Jamie winced in pain, holding his head in pain.
“J-Jamie! Are you alright?!” Twilight asked in worried.
“Ugh…it’s my head. I-I…I think…I remembered something.” Jamie said, putting his hand on his forehead. “I-it was…sorta faint…”
“Huh? You remember something?” Twilight asked in surprise.
“Y-yeah…” Jamie nodded, but before he could say anything else, he saw Ren, Kodiak, and Fluttershy walking out of the food court. “Huh? Is that…Ren? Fluttershy? Kodiak?”
Twilight turned around and noticed them as well, much to her surprise.
“It is them. I guess they’re here to hang out.” Twilight giggled before turning to Jamie and said “Hey, why not we check up on them?”
“Y-yeah, sure.” Jamie nodded before they headed over to Ren and the others were. “Hey, Ren! Fluttershy! Kodiak!”
“Huh?” The others turned around to see Jamie and Twilight walking towards them. “Oh hey dude, Twi, what’s up?”
“We’re doing alright. We just saw you guys over by the book store and just wanted to check up on you guys.” Twilight explained.
“Well we’re doing alright.” Fluttershy assured with a soft smile. “We’re just coming out of the food court. I enjoyed eating that lovely salad and vegetarian sandwich at Subway.”
“Same here!” Kodi grinned excitedly. “Oh man, I wish I could keep eating all day!”
“Kodiak…” Ren shook his head in amusement before turning to Jamie, noticing his Cutie-Mark tattoos on his cheeks. “Oh Jamie, how’s your cheeks?”
“Huh?” Jamie blinked in confusion before touching his cheeks, knowing what he was talking about. “Oh…it’s going alright. I still don’t know why they’re like this in the first place, but it looks like they won’t come off. Now I know they aren’t just planted there…”
“Does Princess Celestia or Princess Luna discovered anything about them?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
“Apparently not, they’re not even sure how did he get them at all.” Twilight shook her head. “All we know is that they appeared after me and Jamie…umm…”
“Shared your first kiss with each other?” Kodi bluntly reminded them, causing the two of them to blush in embarrassment before glaring at the Siberian Husky. “What? I was just saying.”
“Too soon Kodi, too soon.” Ren sighed, shaking his head. “So anyway…what’s the deal with that? It just appeared right out of nowhere?”
“Well…yeah, but before all that, I heard a voice.” Jamie explained. “I can’t remember much what it said, but it said something about ‘I am thou, thou art I’ or something like that.”
“I am thou, thou art I….” Ren muttered, rubbing his chin in thought.
“Well I’m sure we’ll be sure to discover many more secrets about that.” Fluttershy assured with a soft grin.
“Oh yeah, what happened about that smudged up note you guys found? Along with Starswirl’s diary?” Kodiak asked curiously. “Any clue about them too?”
“Well we told them about it, but Princess Celestia allowed us to keep Starswirl’s diary for potential use while they took the smudged letter.” Twilight explained. “And I have a feeling maybe they may true to use any spell to make that letter so clearly for all of us to read.”
“Well that’s a relief…” Kodiak sighed in relief.
“Oh! I remember!” Ren exclaimed, startling the others. “Those words! That’s the exact same wording from the Persona series!”
“Persona?” Fluttershy asked in confusion.
“Persona stands for personality, in other words, who you are really are but hide deep within your heart when facing hardships in life. It’s also a video game series that I’ve played when I was 8. My most favorite is Persona 3, 4, and 5, but Persona 5 is the top of my top #10 video games list for obvious reasons. But those words you just said Jamie are the same ones as that.” Ren explained, only to received even more confused looks from Twilight, Fluttershy, and Kodiak while Jamie was in deep thought of that.
“I think you might have a point there…” Jamie muttered loudly, allowing the others for them to hear him. “It’s…definitely a connection, but I’m not entirely sure if a video game series like you described relates to what happened to me?”
“Well maybe it could be something.” Twilight spoken up, causing Jamie to flinch in surprise as he exclaimed “Crap! Not again!”
“What do you mean Twilight?” Kodi asked in confusion.
“What I mean that Jamie might gained some ability when he gained those cutie-marks.” Twilight explained. “You guys remember on how he brought up a barrier from protecting us from Chrysalis’s magic.”
“Oh yeah, we never did solve that mystery.” Ren nodded before slowly realizing what she means. “Oooh….you’re saying that maybe Jamie gained the same powers as you and Rarity, right?”
“Yep! And maybe we should prove this theory…” Twilight walked over to a nearby bench and placed one of the books they gotten from the book store down on it before walking back to the others. She turned to Jamie with a hopeful smile and said “Well go on Jamie.”
“H-huh? Me?!” Jamie asked in bewilderment. “B-but Twilight…I can’t have powers. I’m just a normal writer.”
“Well true, but we got to least try right?” Twilight smiled.
“She’s right. Go on dude, give it a try.” Ren encouraged with a smile on his face. Jamie looked at them with a surprised and bewildered look before sighing and nodded.
“O-Okay…I guess I’ll give it a try….” Jamie sighed before looking over at the book.
“Now Jamie…” Twilight looked at her friend with a serious look as she began lecturing him. “You need to stay focus. Try to calm your thoughts down and try to stay relax. If you do that, you’ll be able to use your mind.”
“Got it…” Jamie nodded before raising his hand and tried to move the book, causing him to tense up a bit. “Just calm down….just stay calm down and you’ll be able to do anything…be confident. Don’t lose sight on your goal…”
Jamie closed his eyes and began thinking of some stuff he remembered over the course of his journey. The good times he had with his friends and such, and that caused him to make a soft smile on his face. Unbeknownst to them, the book was glowing dark blue as it slowly began rising up, causing the others to gasp as Jamie opened his eyes, seeing a glimpse of his book lifting in the air before falling back down on the bench.
“Whoa!” Kodiak gasped in awe.
“That…was…awesome!” Ren exclaimed in amazement and joy. “Dude, you gained psychic powers!”
“H-huh? I-I did that?!” Jamie exclaimed in shock.
“Yeah you did!” Twilight nodded with a smile. “You were amazing right there! I never knew you had such potential! But I never knew that much that you had such amazing power like that!”
“I’m more surprise that he can even do that!” Fluttershy added with a surprised yet amazed look on her face. “Is it because of those cutie-marks on his cheeks?”
“It must be considering that humans can’t even do that.” Ren stated, still awe by what he witnessed. “Still Jamie, that was so cool! Now you got the powers of the Force!”
“Umm…that doesn’t make any sense.” Kodi sweat-dropped as he gave his human companion a blank look while the other two giggled. Jamie looked at his hands with a surprised look but his face slowly began turning pale.
“AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Jamie let out a blood-curling scream, causing the others to cover their ears. “I-I did that?! I-I can do that?! I literally just did THAT?!”
“J-Jamie! Calm down!” Twilight assured with a soft yet worried smile. “I know this is all too hard to handle, even I’m surprised. But I know that you’re just worried about how you did all that, but you need to stay calm.”
“I-I know, but this is all to take on!” Jamie exclaimed in panic.
Twilight gave him a nervous grin before saying “Well look at the bright side, at least this is some new research that we can take upon.”
“…Y-yeah…I guess you’re right…” Jamie nodded, calming down a bit.
“So you two are gonna research this?” Kodi asked curiously.
“If it’s these two, no doubt about it.” Ren shrugged with an amused grin.
“Well…kinda…” Jamie sweat-dropped a little before smiling at him. “But yeah…ever since that invasion, I’ve been more intrigued to learn more about the mysteries that we’ve been encountering like what does Starswirl’s diary says and why doesn’t anypony than us can see? What does that mysterious letter says? How did we get inside of those pods? And why do I have these cutie-marks?”
“But the more important question is that…why are we here?” Ren added, glancing down in thought.
“Yeah, it’s a real mystery…” Fluttershy nodded in agreement.
“A mysterious mystery that always keeps getting us more mysteries throughout this fanfic.” The others turned around in a mere flash, only to scream in shock along with the one who they were seeing. “Kyaaaaa! Wait? Why are we screaming? Is it a scream party?”
“Pinkie Pie?” Kodi asked in surprise.
“Hi you guys!” Pinkie greeted with a cheery smile.
“Pinkie, when did you guys get here?” Ren asked in surprise.
“Oh! I was at the mattress store, jumping around the mattresses.” Pinkie answered with a bright grin before giggling to herself. “It’s so fun! It’s almost like an amusement park!”
“Pinkie, that’s very dangerous to do!” Jamie scolded.
“Jamie’s right! Why would you do that?!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Because it’s so much fun!” Pinkie answered bluntly, causing the others to sigh. Before any of them could say anything, they heard someone clapping as they looked over to see Rantaro leaning against a wall pillar with Gizmo sitting on his right shoulder, licking on a vanilla ice cream on a cone.
“Huh? Rantaro?” Ren called. “What are you doing here?”
“What does it look like? Taking a small break.” Rantaro answered, throwing a bunch of bits in his hands. “I’ve been collecting tons after ‘helping’ those other ponies.”
“Rantaro!” Twilight scolded. “Stop doing that!”
“I’m a broker, I make good deals with them by paying them info they give me.” Rantaro smirked. “That’s just how business rolls.”
“With you around, no wonder…” Kodi sighed.
“But I don’t get it, why do you love scamming ponies?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
“It’s not scamming, we make deals. Don’t compare me to some low-life con artist like those Flim Flam wannabees.” Rantaro shrugged with a cocky grin. “Look, why am I wasting time with any of ya? You’re all wasting my time.”
“Come on Rantaro, can’t we just talk more?” Ren asked curiously. “I mean…we can be friends.”
“Yeah yeah, keep dreaming kid. Why be friends with the guy who electrocuted you to near death with an taser gun?” Rantaro rolled his eyes, walking away while the others looked at each other and sighed.
“Man…what’s his problem?” Twilight wondered. “I’ll never begin to understand him…”
“Yeah…” Jamie gulped before nodding in agreement. “Though…why bother bringing that up? That was long past, you know.”
“Jamie’s right.” Fluttershy said. “I mean, I’m not sure about him. I don’t think he’s a terrible person, but he’s too hard to socialize.”
“Even so, I’m gonna try.” Ren stated, surprising the others. “Even if he’s stubborn, I still want to help him out. I mean, so what if he almost electrocuted me to death? He didn’t mean it, besides it was aiming for Jack.”
“You…surprisingly make a good valid point.” Twilight blinked in surprise.
“Are you sure Ren? Can we even trust him? We don’t all that much other than his job as being a broker from the underworld or whatever you guys said.” Kodi reminded his human friend.
“Well…true…” Ren scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. “But he’s in the same situation as us. If we keep bonding with him, he’ll surely turn up to be our friend.”
“Oh Ren…” Fluttershy sighed before smiling at him. “But you’re right…I mean, he helped us during the invasion.”
“But didn’t he say that he only did it because he was forced to?” Kodi asked in worried. “I mean, that guy is just doesn’t like his time being wasted, remember?”
“But what if he was lying?” Ren suggested. “I mean, I may not be Nikki, but I have this feeling that he just wanted to help us. I’m sure that he wants to be our friend.”
“That’s an understatement.” Jamie sighed, sweat-dropping a little. “But then again, I’m sure he’ll turn up…”
“Me too Jamie, me too…” Twilight sighed before smiling. “But then again, maybe Ren might have a point. I mean, we used to be anti-social but now look at us.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Jamie smiled softly and nodded in agreement while the others began laughing as Ren added “You guys got that right!”
“Wow, I only showed up five minutes in this story and it’s already gotten this good.” Pinkie mused herself with a bright grin on her face, which the others didn’t bother to ask her about.
Unbeknownst to them, Rantaro was still around as he was hiding behind a nearby store wall before looking away with a slightly annoyed look.
“Tch…way to go to keep wasting my precious time…” Rantaro sighed, glancing away from them before taking out his phone and looked over the photo of him and his father. While he was gazing at it, he flinched as he began feeling a strange feeling in his body as a faint memory began playing his head.
Flashback
“Hmm…Alright, let’s make a deal.” Somewhere out in the desert, Rantaro was over by a market’s back room, making one of his deals for rare items. Rantaro threw a stack of hundred dollar bills to the person he was making the deal with. “I’ll buy that for 10,000 bucks?”
“No, you give me 50,000 bucks.”
“10,000 bucks because I could always reveal info to the police that you were involved in many black-market dealings like what we’re doing right now.” Rantaro smirked, causing the man to feel tense before slamming his fist on the table.
“Oh really? I could kill you right here, right now.” Rantaro shook his head with a cocky grin on his face before saying “Nuh uh uh! I don’t think so. I already gave out several of your clients info and after making some deals with them, they can easily testified for me and against you.”
“Tch!” The man hissed angrily before sighing and accepted the money as he said “Fine…deal…”
“See?” Rantaro chuckled. “Can’t handle it?”
“Hmph!” He scoffed before handing him a black case. Rantaro handed him the stack of money before grabbing the case and began taking his leave.
He soon made his way out of the store with the suitcase in tow before he sat down on a nearby rock and opened the case to find an faint orange colored meteorite in it.
“Hmm….so this is the ‘treasure’ that I’ve heard rumors about? Jeez, meteorites aren’t that rare anymore.” Rantaro rolled his eyes in a huff before picking it up. “Man…guess I was cheaped off by it…”
Suddenly, the meteorite began glowing as an orange essence flowed through his body, causing him to hiss in pain before falling to the ground, having that strange energy flow through his body.
“A….A….AHHHHH!” Rantaro screamed before he began falling unconscious into the brink of darkness.
Flashback End
“Tch!” Rantaro hissed, placing a hand on his forehead with a painful look on his face. Gizmo looked over at his friend from his right shoulder and tilted his head, wondering what was wrong with his partner-in-crime. Rantaro shook his head before noticing his pet looking at him in concern. “I’m fine…just a minor headache.”
Rantaro pulled back his cocky grin and said “Well…let’s get out of here. I just want to go and find something to eat that’ll make our appetites feel good than the boring food they sell in this stupid world…”
With that, the two began taking their leave and went off to find something to eat over by the food court. While Rantaro was walking through the mall district, he couldn’t help but wonder one thing.
“When…did that happened? About buying that meteorite from one of my clients? Hmm…I guess they weren’t joking about having our memories being missing but…how long exactly did we lose?”
Meanwhile
Somewhere in the colder regions of Equestria, a familiar mysterious dark figure was seen flying through the glacier with his arms crossed as he flew through the blizzard.
“Hmm…it’s got to be here…that kingdom. It’s where my creation were taken away after they were sealed by that princess a millennia ago.” Void murmured, looking through the glacier. As he gazed down through it, something caught his eye. He sensed a dark presence within the glacier, one that he’s all too familiar with. “This darkness…it belongs to….Ah yes, it’s been so long…my beloved Umbrum army…”
Void took out one of the small dark crystals out of his cloak before raising it into the air before it let out a dark-green like beam towards the glacier, causing it to open up a giant steep in the cliff, releasing a dark presence out of the ground as he began hearing some loud growling before seeing a pair of eyes appearing in the smoke.
“Who dares awakens me? Who dares break me out of my prison?” Void chuckled to himself before replying “It’s me…I’m sure you recognize me…Sombra…”
“Ah!” Sombra widened his eyes upon realizing who he was speaking to. “W-what? But…where did…?”
“I was in hibernation till I was finally awoken after absorbing the rest of the negative energy from living in this world for a millennia.” Void explained, crossing his arms. “For now, I have some energy left to release you. Now that you’re finally here, you can continue on what you and the others were destined for, right?”
“Indeed I have…” Sombra chuckled darkly before the two of them began noticing something faint was appearing through the glacier. “Ahh…so it seems that it finally returns.”
“’It’?” Void questioned before realizing what Sombra was talking about. “Ah yes….you’re talking about the kingdom you once ruled after killing Princess Amore, right? Hmm…well I’m surprised that it’s still looking fine even after appearing out of nowhere in this blizzard.”
“I placed a spell to make it invisible from a mere pony’s sight that prevents them from seeing anything ever since my imprisonment. But since you released me, the spell is broken. Now…it is time for revenge.”
“Indeed, but if you want to make your dreams into reality that can make it into a shining hope…” Void darkened his face, his left mask eye glowing crimson red. “You’re gonna need to release the Umbrum Army.”
“I know, but with the power of the Crystal Heart…I’ll be able to break through their prison and together, we shall destroy every part of Equestria into darkness. This…is…my…destiny! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Void stared at him for a while, watching Sombra laughing maniacally.
“Yes…good luck. I’ll be of help to you…and I know with your help, you’ll help me create ‘true hope’.” Void chuckled darkly. “This is what you were created for, right? After all…” Void darkened his face with his left mask eye mask glowing crimson red. “I created you…and given you the purpose to fulfill your destiny…”
“….Yes, and I swore that I won’t let you down….father…”
Unbeknownst to them, the two were being watched by a cloaked pony as they looked upwards, seeing both Void and Sombra in the air.
“….Sombra….it’s you…it’s really you…After all these years, I knew that we would see each other…After all…” The pony took off her hoodie, revealing a light violet colored pony with a pale aquatic blue mane as she sadly smiles at them, mainly at Sombra. “A friend would never forget their own best friend…”
To Be Continued