//------------------------------//
// XXXV. Retrogress 
// Story: Replicated Wanderer 
// by QuartzScale 
//------------------------------//

Star Swirl snored at the table fully inebriated and loss to the haze that was alcohol. I left him to rest off the eventual hangover. He had gone at length about a lot of things I was surprised he was willing to share. He even talked about siring a child that lived further north in a small village out of the way. He didn’t share their name or gender which while making me curious didn’t make me want to go out of the way to find out. 

That didn’t deter me from heading out of his secret sanctum and head up through the halls. As far as I was concerned the next problem was probably close to rearing its ugly head. Nana was already pouring through the available data we had.

As soon as I hit the main hall though I was immediately on guard. Vicious Aegis was there… standing near the door. 

“You’re late.” He stated without much care in his tone, harsh and withering.

“And you’re rude so I guess we’re even.” I shot back just as quickly. He snorted but kept his tongue in check.

“Follow… Puddinghead apparently wants to speak with you.” He growled as he turned to lead the way. “Stupid pile of scrap…”

He muttered the last part under his breath but I didn’t try to call him out on it. It wasn’t worth the effort and even Harpuia pointed out how tactically bad it would turn out… for either of us. I followed at a brisk pace though made sure he wasn’t trying to lead me astray. Apparently he didn’t… which meant that him becoming this post wasn’t a product of nepotism or buying his post. He was legitimately good at his job.

“Get in.” He stated opening the door. I stepped in and he slammed it behind me. I was too fast for it to hit me but I was glad it missed. I probably would have broken the door.

Puddinghead stood at the top of the little stage where the leaders congregated when they weren’t in meetings. Platinum’s chair was still empty since she had deigned to give Concerto her full attention to make ruling the Crystal Empire an easier transition.

Around her was Clover who looked no worse for wear and Cookie who stopped their conversation when they heard the door slam. I didn’t catch their conversation but I felt it was serious if they all stopped the moment I entered the room.

I had been gone about four days before I was attacked by that Celestia wannabe. It had been five days since I was gone making my projected week disappearance moot at this point. An annoying setback but until I got my hands on any metal I was incapable of doing much more for my base.

“X, a pleasure to see you after so long. Please, please regale us with your travels.” Puddinghead called out. The jovial tone in her voice was roughly skewed by the grimace she wore. The act of smiling was merely a facade that hid deeper troubles ahead.

“I didn’t go much of anywhere. I’ve been working on a project I wanted to get done. Didn’t get to finish but I’ll do something about that later.” I admitted but kept it vague. I wanted to have something to show for it that wasn’t a book of spells from another world. I hid that in the lockbox with the laptop as well in Star Swirl’s secret study.

“Good. Good, that’s great. And how were the thestrals? I take it that was taken care of?” She changed the subject seemingly not caring about what I was doing. Her mane was a frazzled mess and I’m certain that the pudding on her head was going bad.

“From now on they’ll be working under Luna when she is ready. Their leadership is in shambles though from the machinations of Corundum’s final plan.” I wrung my hands together. Had I had flesh and bone hands I would be cracking them.

“Corundum, yes Corundum is a problem. Especially his red crystals. Those are the real threat.” Puddinghead danced in circles with her words.

“Cut to the chase.” Cookie stated breaking the small banter Puddinghead had been instigating.

“Fine. Look, X, we have a problem and those red crystals are the problem. We know where each shipment was sent but we haven’t seen much change… until now.” Puddinghead started before turning to Cookie.

“About twelve hours ago a deer walked out of the forest east of here from a settlement known as Thicket. They were badly cut up and bleeding from head to hoof. One of his antlers had been torn out as well and jabbed into his flank. It was a wonder he didn’t bleed out before but you know what they say about the zeal of life being too great an opportunity to waste.” Cookie quipped but she wasn’t smiling.

“He didn’t survive, did he?” I cut off any more comments to cut to the chase.

“No. Despite our best efforts he lost too much blood and our spells weren’t having much effect on him. When he passed we found a red crystal embedded on his body. It was cracked and shattered which means it probably didn’t activate right. Hurricane saw to its destruction immediately when it was found and the body was cremated before it could be used for golem research. And no we didn’t know his name. He didn’t give it only mentioning something about Sequoia.” Cookie finished her though the disgust on her face evident.

“Sequoia is the current ruler of Thicket and one of the deer responsible for pushing us out of the forest. He has made it clear that we are a threat and while he is right to some extent, this, this is far beyond what he was capable of.” Clover brought up.

“As much as I’m loathe to agree, Clover is right. Sequoia was never this monstrous. Even the few skirmishes we had with them never got this brutal. And this was on his own deers. He wasn’t this way. The presence of the red crystals leaves us to believe that they’ve either been possessed by the remnants of Corundum’s soul… or they found a way to use them for their own power.” Puddinghead announced while pacing back and forth in frantic worry.

“So you want to deal with the problem before it becomes a worse problem then? Simple enough… but what’s the catch?” I stopped my train of thought.

“The only back up you’ll have is a thestral who apparently works under you.” Puddinghead blurted out.

“A mare? What about Flint and Stand?” I pointed out though low key enough that they weren’t sure of my tone. 

“They are being trained by Hurricane for some extra measures.” Clover answered calmly though the slight edge on his voice made me question what they were going through.





“Move it maggot! Hurry up!” Hurricane shouted as both Stand and Flint were marching along a deserted plain with large boulders strapped to their backs.

“Ugh…” Flint let out while Diamond held up a little sign that read ‘Go Big Brother! Go!’ on it. 

“Guh…” Stand answered in kind though he didn’t have his own cheering squad.

“You have one week to make yourselves presentable for this endeavor and I will not tolerate failure. Now ten more laps and move before the moon rises maggot!” Hurricane shouted as his lance released a charge of electricity out into the heavens.

“I hate this…” Flint muttered.

“As do I… “ Stand seconded as they continued to rush along with their laps.





I stood still for a moment slightly feeling as though I was missing something. It was this little waggling thought in the back of my mind that I was missing something funny. It was the human half that mostly railed on this thought but the robot half gave a sixty seven percent chance that we did indeed miss something funny.

“How long?” I asked almost absentmindedly. 

“One week.” Cookie muttered clearly dissatisfied with the time management.

“Too long. Where is she? We need to move nowish.” I felt my buster unlock and I switched into my Falcon armor for the trip.

“Uh… here I am.” A small squeak appeared from behind the curtain. It was the same thestral from Hollow Shades whom I told I needed to join me for a job.

“Good to see you again then, Sacred Glade, right?” I intoned to the squeak which made the white coated mare with the light lavender wings wince when I didn’t turn to her.

“Yes… yes reporting for duty, I suppose.” She grunted slightly but kept her head tall to avoid looking weak at least from when I turned to face her.

“She said you picked her out for a job, if I’m remembering correctly?” Puddinghead inquired clearly trying to get an answer.

“Yes. A project of mine. I’m trying to see if it will work but until I see more data I’d rather not spoil it.” I politely answered keeping my frown level and light. There wasn’t a need to make them understand my position until I had my pieces in place.

“And you’ll share when?” Puddinghead pushed harder clearly not liking the answer I gave.

“When Platinum and Hurricane return. That way I can have you all present along with the Pillars to push my proposal.” I answered diplomatically as my stare harshened. 

“Good to have a time stamp on that then.” She muttered under her breath. “Go forth then and see what you can do about this. Chances are we may have to mobilize our forces if things go awry.”

“Noted. C’mon Glade. Let’s get you up to speed for now.”





We left the room and while he didn’t say anything the seething from Aegis made it clear how he felt. I didn’t even notice him until I turned the corner towards the main hall and front door. When I saw his eyes I gave him a smirk that showed that he wasn’t even a concern. He bucked a pillar causing a few cracks in it which made me laugh.

“He scares me. A lot.” Glade whispered fearful that he was standing behind her.

“He’s a waste of hot air. Don’t worry about it at all.” I mentioned leaving that thought behind.

“Didn’t you see his eyes. He wanted to do something bad to me.” Glade pushed but kept her eyes leveled forward.

“Yeah. I taunted him before we left. He knows that I would fight back now. I won’t throw the first hit mind you but I will finish it.” I chuckled at the thought not because I enjoyed it. I found it funny in the grand scheme of things.

“You’re crazy.” Glade leveled her gaze at me looking worried.

“Yeah. But with the plans I have I need to have some level of insanity otherwise I wouldn’t make it in this world. It’s not always the best measuring stick for success but it keeps me fighting towards a better future.” I casually explained. I was for lack of a better term insane with trying to make a multicultural organization out of this world at this moment because of how horrible every creature thought of one another. Corundum made it difficult to fathom even succeeding.

Still, from a certain point of view, maybe it made things easier. Since he was meddling with the world as it is now I was always in a position of power to make things like this work out. Corundum was an oppressor of epic proportions. Even his soul oppressively sought to push his agenda of golem superiority. I was both the greatest success he could ever hope for… and the worst enemy he could ever fight against.

“Where are we going first? I doubt we could just get to the forest anytime soon.” Glade spoke up breaking my thought process.

“No. We’ll make it by tonight.” I clarified which made her give me a strange look.

“How? I doubt you could - eep!” I picked her up under my arm and as soon as I jumped out the door the engines on the Falcon Armor roared.

Zooming out I could tell Glade was now clinging to my arm for dear life. I don’t think she really realized how safe she was next to me rather than behind me. I was also certain I heard something about crazy pegasus flyers… but I wasn’t one so they were most likely talking about someone else.

We traveled due east deviating slightly south towards the Everfree territory. The sounds of ‘eeee-ing’ terror echoed through the skies.





Discord was interested. A very rare instant to be sure but even he found what the regular peons of the world did in their free time somewhat amusing. Though he wasn’t sure how to categorize this. 

The Deer King, in all his glory, was partially golemized. His legs were crystallized in a green sheen and his antlers which were once bone now were tetrahedral lances branching out in different directions. The strangest and most morbidly interesting thing was that he would stab his horns into one of the corpses of supposed traitors and they would slowly be drained of blood. The blood would then be channeled into magic betwixt the lattice work of crystals he called his horns.

With a snap, Discord became a deer with mismatched fur and near broken horns. Playing up the part he stumbled into the king’s presence.

“My liege! Terrible news! Awful, dreadful news even.” Discord, now in deer form, called out.

“What? More traitors? Let them come. My horns thirst for more. Also don’t interrupt me when I’m enjoying myself Thatch!” Sequoia growled out.

“No, not that! The ponies have mobilized their weapon. That X creature is on his way here now!” ‘Thatch’ exclaimed causing the king to pulse blood magic all around the room.

“X!X!X!” Corundum’s voice broke through only for Sequoia to shake his head clear of the influence. “Prepare my loyal guards for their service, now!”

“Right away, sir!” ‘Thatch’ mock saluted, but if Sequoia noticed he didn’t care.

Discord left a message drilled into the deer’s heads around him, literally. There was a small hand drill that metaphysically drilled into their heads. No wounds but plenty of deer were now wondering why they had orders when the King hadn’t spoken to them.

“Time to inject a little chaos…” Discord giggles as he bled into the shadows and watched from his vantage point.