//------------------------------// // Day 9 // Story: Alternate to Magic // by smirker //------------------------------// The next morning comes and Walker, Runner, and Sprinter have breakfast, the door flies open and they see Princess Luna enter, "Walker? Are you here?" Princess Luna asked, she sees him and flies to him, the ponies outside notice Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack trot into the house to see what was going on, "Let me see your body." Princess Luna said, and Walker walks forward, the six mares gasp when they see claw marks on his chest and back, "My stars, it's the same wounds you received in your dream last night." Princess Luna said, "Wait, what's going on, Princess Luna?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Walker was having a nightmare last night, and I noticed I was able to see his dream and enter it, so I did, and Walker was being attacked by this bipedal creature, it was pitch black, like a shadow, it attacked him in his dream, I tried to zap it away, but my magic went right through it." Princess Luna replied, "Of course it did, that was a soul of the dead." Sprinter said, "I beg your pardon." Princess Luna said, "What you saw there was a Shadow, they are souls that have already received damnation, but they escaped from the underworld and come back to the world of the living to haunt them, their pitch black form represents their malice, the more malevolent they were when they were alive, the stronger the Shadow will be." Sprinter replied, the mares look at him with widened eyes', "I sent a letter to Princess Celestia about the souls and afterlife yesterday." Twilight Sparkle said, "Yes, I read it as well." Princess Luna replied, "We have several enemies because of our powers, the Shadows is only one of them." Walker said, "What are the others?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Liches, the Revived, the Undead, and the Possessed." Walker replied, "Explain what they are." Princess Luna said, "Liches are in every world, they are evil creatures that absorb souls and trap them." Runner replied, "The Revived, Undead, and Possessed are people brought back to life, usually in the form of skeletons." Walker said, "What's the difference?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Revived is when a skeleton is brought back to life by its own soul, Possessed is when it's controlled by another soul, and the Undead have no souls." Walker replied, "So, what do the Undead do?" Applejack asked, "Unless there is someone to direct them, they attack everyone and everything on sight." Runner replied, the mares become uncomfortable, "There's more, the Possessed are also living people, if that happens to be the case, then the person possessing them can transform their body however they wish." Sprinter said, Rarity screams, "I can't imagine that, somebody take control of me and modify my beautiful body, it's the worst possible thing. Worst! Possible! Thing!" Rarity said, "Anyway, that's about all there is, we're a busy trio." Runner said, "Well, let's go, we all have things to do today." Princess Luna said, and they all leave while Walker, Runner, and Sprinter have breakfast. Twilight Sparkle was in her castle and seeing Sunset Shimmer, "You saw the Void in Walker's mind, right?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah." Sunset Shimmer replied, "What did it look like?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "It was so weird, the entire place was light blue, and there were these black landscapes floating in the air like Cloudsdale." Sunset Shimmer replied, Twilight Sparkle writes it down in a book, "Did you see anybody there?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "I saw a guy who called himself Spirit." Sunset Shimmer replied, Twilight Sparkle's attention was caught, "What did he look like?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Like a person from the world I'm staying in." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Describe him." Twilight Sparkle said, "Kind of tall, blue shirt, blue pants, blue belt, blue gloves, blue boots, blue trench coat, his hair is short and black, he has fringes as bangs instead of being completely straight like yours, his skin was like a peach color, and his eyes are light blue, but he sometimes has dark blue and orange fire in them." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Fire in his eyes?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah, they appear sometimes." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Okay, tell me, did you also see what kind of powers Walker and his guardians have?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah, I saw Walker teleporting." Sunset Shimmer replied, "We already know he can do that. What else can he do?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Believe it or not, but he can actually command those dead souls to act under his orders." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Really? That's amazing. What else can he do?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "I also saw him make these skeletal hands come out of his front hoofs, it looks like he can use those to grab ledges and pull himself towards them." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Wait, skeletal hands?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah, like the hands and forearms of the people in my world, but it's made from bones, one thing that caught my mind in particular is that the bones were black instead of white." Sunset Shimmer replied, "I see, what else?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "I don't think you're going to like this next one." Sunset Shimmer replied, "What is it?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "I saw Walker close his eyes and reopen them, and his vision changed, everything was dark blue, people were light blue, and objects were just blue, but that's not the problem, the problem is when he uses that vision, he can see through walls, ceilings, what's inside our saddlebags, and what could be inside people's pockets, he can also read other people's feelings and heartbeats with that vision, he can use it to see who's watching him, too, and lastly, if we have any hidden injuries on ourselves, he will see those as well." Sunset Shimmer replied, Twilight Sparkle freezes in place with shock, "You're saying that he can see through walls and ceilings with that?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah, he can see what's inside your saddlebag, too." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Well, I don't think he's used it, I mean, I cast the spell to see and hear the world how he sees and hears it." Twilight Sparkle said, "He probably knows, so he's choosing not to use it." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Probably. What else can he do?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Well, we haven't seen him do this, but he can open portals between this world and the Void with his mind at anytime." Sunset Shimmer replied, "So, that means he can go there anytime he wishes, that's pretty nice to know." Twilight Sparkle said, "He has three more powers, Twilight, the first one is he can summon any weapon he wishes at will, and since the weapons are spiritual in nature, they weigh nothing." Sunset Shimmer said, "Weigh nothing? I'll have to see that for myself, what are the other two?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Well, the next one is using spiritual energy as a weapon, he has a total of four abilities." Sunset Shimmer replied, "What are they?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "The first one allows him to summon four of these round heads that float in the air, they go to his nearest enemy begin swarming their target and attacks them." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Summon round heads? How do they attack people?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Well, if I had to take a guess, they're either draining someone's soul out or biting them, I'm not sure." Sunset Shimmer replied, "What's the second power?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Walker can change himself into a soul form, he is completely invincible when he's like that, he can't harm others either unless they're a soul themselves." Sunset Shimmer replied, "So he can change to a ghost, good thing I cast that spell, or he'd be invisible to us." Twilight Sparkle said, Sunset Shimmer chuckles, "The third power allows him to summon these flames that spin around him, you can't get close to him at that time, or you'll get burned." Sunset Shimmer said, "I'm sure a magic spell can counter that, what's the last one?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "He can shoot a stream of fire out of his hoof, that's the strongest of his four spiritual abilities, I also saw in his memory with it being explained, Sprinter said orange flames are stronger than dark blue flames." Sunset Shimmer replied, "I see, what's his last power?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "You won't believe it." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Go on, tell me." Twilight Sparkle said, "Walker can transform into this alicorn-like fire creature." Sunset Shimmer replied, "What?! Walker can change into an alicorn?!" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Yeah, it looks like an alicorn, and as tall as Princess Celestia, but it has what looks to be bat wings instead of Pegasus wings, and when he's in that form, all of his powers and abilities become ten times stronger." Sunset Shimmer replied, Twilight Sparkle becomes speechless, "Anything else?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Nope, that's all." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Well, are you leaving?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Not yet, I'll stay here a bit and watch Walker and his family." Sunset Shimmer replied, "Alright, well, that's all I wanted to know, thanks for your time." Twilight Sparkle said, and Sunset Shimmer goes outside while Twilight Sparkle proofreads what she wrote. Runner was running and the foals follow him, they run slower than usual as well, "Why did you all slow down for?" Runner asked, "Those four people there with you are in the way." a colt replied, "Don't mind us, we just do our jobs." Runner's Passive said, "Yeah, you'll just go through us." Runner's Aggressive said, the foals try and pass through the four, "See, we're basically ghosts, too, since only Walker, Runner, and Sprinter are supposed to see and hear us." Runner's Optimist said, "Say, what's it like serving Spirit?" a colt asked, "It has its ups and downs." Runner replied, "What's one good thing about it?" a filly asked, "Watching my family." Runner replied, "Watching your family?" the filly asked, "Yeah, I can only think about what kind of pranks my dad would play on my son if I didn't." Runner replied, and he has a thought. Walker was sitting at a table and trying to contact Runner and Sprinter with an Ouija board, he spells out Sprinter's name and his ghost appears, Walker smiles while he looks at Sprinter, "You're adopted." Sprinter said, Walker begins to cry while Runner appears behind him, he slaps Sprinter on the back of his head with his front right hoof while Sprinter laughs. Runner comes back to reality and looks at the foals, "Well, anyway, let's keep running." Runner said, and they all run again, "Let's keep going a bit a longer than usual today." Runner said, and they all do, the foals quickly get tired since they were running as fast as they can, "Remember, everypony, pace yourself, don't run as fast as you can, or you'll tire yourself out before you're even close to the end." Runner said, they run a bit and go farther into the woods, they go around a tree and run back. Runner stands and looks at his students, they were all panting and sweating, "Can you all keep going?" Runner asked, the foals shake their heads, "Alright, go on and rest then, we'll continue when you all recover." Runner said, and he sits and waits while the foals pant heavily. Sprinter shows his students how to do jump kicks with their hind legs, the students try it but hurt their thighs by stretching them out too far, they groan in pain as they fall to the ground, "Give it time, everyone, it'll get easier as you practice, as for now, let's stretch a little." Sprinter said, and they do, the pain in their hind thighs' went away, they finish after a few minutes, "Um, Sprinter." Ocellus said as she trots to him, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I can't focus while seeing her like that." Ocellus said as she points her front left hoof to Optimist, who was laying on the ground, "Sorry, you'll just have to ignore her." Sprinter said, "I can't, the way she's laying on the ground looks like she's about to lose her life at any second." Ocellus replied, "Don't worry, she won't, she's just like that because my view on the world is not very positive." Sprinter said, "Well, be more positive, Sprinter, I can't bear to see her like that." Ocellus replied, "Anybody else bothered by it?" Sprinter asked, "Kind of, yeah." Sandbar replied, "Yona distracted." Yona said, "Sorry, Optimist, but you're going to have to go out of sight." Sprinter said, "Okay." Sprinter's Optimist replied, "No, be more happy, Sprinter, so she can be all happy and full of energy like the other two." Silverstream said, "That's going to be a lot harder to do than you think." Sprinter replied, "Come to think of it, we never did learn about the background of you and your family." Gallus said, "Trust me, my background is better off not known." Sprinter replied, "You did something bad, didn't you?" Smolder asked, "Not exactly, it's the environment that I was raised in." Sprinter replied, they all hear Pinkie Pie behind Sprinter and he turns around, he sees her trying to hold up Optimist, "No, don't fall, stand up, please." Pinkie Pie said, "It's alright, I'm fine." Sprinter's Optimist replied, "No, you're not, please stand." Pinkie Pie said, and she begins to cry while Optimist just lays on the ground, Sprinter turns around, "Well, let's just continue." Sprinter said, and he teaches his students more punches and kicks. Walker sits in class and works while the souls in the class converse and distract him and the others, Walker sees his classmates covering their ears', "Miss Cheerilee." Sweetie Belle said, "Try to ignore them, I'm honestly having trouble focusing as well." Cheerilee replied, and they try but could not, the foals growl while trying to focus on their work. Walker works but he hears something to his left, he looks at the window and sees nothing, so he closes his eyes and reopens them, he sees eight light blue figures coming, he looks and sees they looked like earth ponies. Walker stands up and summons his sword and pistol, the windows break to the left break. Cheerilee and the foals scream when eight stallions break in, Walker runs to them and he sees all eight of the stallions had glowing light blue eyes', which told him they were possessed. One stallion opens his mouth and shoots fire out, Walker jumps over it and shoots him in the head with his pistol, the stallion falls over and his soul appears in the air, Walker absorbs it by holding out his front left hoof. A second stallion opens his mouth and he had a long tongue, it wraps around Walker and pulls him forward, he summons blue flames around himself that spin counterclockwise and burns the stallion, he absorbs his soul as well. Three stallions join their hoofs together and form into an earth pony that was three times bigger than an average stallion with twelve legs, three tails, six eyes’, and three heads, it runs after Walker while it destroys the floor, he teleports onto the back of its neck and stabs the center head, he shoots the left head and then teleports to the right head and stabs it, it falls over while three souls came out of it and Walker absorbs them. The next stallion grows tentacles and snakes out of his back and wraps around Walker to constrict him, he grunts and quickly changes to his soul form to escape, he changes back and shoots a stream of dark blue and orange fire out of his front right hoof, the stallion screams as he burns, his soul comes out and Walker absorbs it. The next stallion grows light blue and black wings out of his sides, he begins to fly but Walker quickly makes a black skeletal arm come out of his front right hoof and pull him forward, Walker shoots him with his pistol and absorbs his soul. The last stallion charges towards Walker, he holds his sword out and ends up cutting the stallion from his collarbone to his waist, he turns around and Walker sees him grow teeth in his cut and it changes to a stomach, he stands on his hind legs and the stomach opens, he tries to eat Walker but he just shoots him and absorbs his soul. Walker sees more souls outside and jumps out of the window, Cheerilee and her class go to watch him. The ground erupts and skeleton ponies come out, Walker changes his sword and pistol to a big double-edged broadsword that was about sixty six inches long and twelve inches wide, Cheerilee and her class look on with opened mouths and wide eyes at the sword. Walker swings the broadsword around like it was nothing and attacks the skeleton ponies, they break apart and their souls appear out of the destroyed skeletons to continue fighting Walker. Walker grunts when he gets hit by zaps, he sees several skeleton ponies shooting beams out of their foreheads, he summons a two-handed rifle in his front left hoof and fires at them and destroys their skeletons, their souls appear to fight him. The ground bursts open and more skeleton ponies appear, Runner and Sprinter appear to help Walker, but it made more skeleton ponies appear, they look and see Pegasi souls appear in the air. Sprinter holds his front right leg up and makes several pony souls appear, he holds his leg out and the souls go over to attack the enemies. Walker and Runner make four round heads appear to attack the skeletons and souls attacking them while Cheerilee and her class stand back and watch with fear, the flying Pegasi begin to fly down to attack them and Runner and Sprinter make shotguns appear, they fire scattershots and the souls turn into light blue flames, Runner and Sprinter absorb them into themselves. Walker swings the broadsword around to destroy the skeletons and souls around him, he looks and sees the residents of Ponyville coming over, Rainbow Dash flies down to fight the skeletons and destroys them, their souls come out and begin beating her, she grunts every time she was hit, she tries kicking one soul, "Huh? What the?" Rainbow Dash asked, she tries hitting the souls and saw her hoofs pass through them and did not harm them, the souls begin to beat her up and she grunts from each hit, Walker swings the broadsword and destroys their souls and absorbs them while Rainbow Dash pants, "You okay?" Walker asked, "I'm fine." Rainbow Dash replied, and Walker looks and sees the souls Sprinter summoned were falling as well. Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer try shooting their magic at the skeletons and souls, the skeletons get destroyed, but the souls were unharmed, "What the?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Our magic went through them." Starlight Glimmer said, they try again and their magic go through the souls and have no effect on them, the two stand there in stunned silence. Walker, Runner, and Sprinter finish off the skeletons and souls there and Sprinter dismisses the army he called forth, the three see the ponies of Ponyville around them, "What were those ponies who broke into the school?" Cheerilee asked, "The Possessed, they're after me." Walker replied, "What about those skeletons?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Revived, they were brought back to life by their own souls." Runner replied, "You all could've called me over to help with the possessed ponies." Twilight Sparkle said, "I'm sorry to say this, Princess Twilight, but usually when someone is possessed, that's it, they're gone for good, the only way to free them is to kill them." Walker replied, the ponies gasp, "You mean... there's no way to free them?!" Scootaloo asked, "When someone is possessed, they are trying to fight to regain control of their bodies with their willpowers, but usually, their willpowers are not strong enough to win back control over themselves, so no matter how hard they try, they cannot be free." Sprinter replied, "Well, don't kill them, I'm sure a spell can free them." Twilight Sparkle said, "I doubt such a spell exists." Runner replied, "Then we'll have to create one." Twilight Sparkle said, "Even if you do, the spell will not work on them." Sprinter replied, "Why not?" Starlight Glimmer asked, "Souls are not physical bodies, that is why your magic works on skeletons but not on souls." Walker replied, "Ugh!" Twilight Sparkle said, "I'm sorry, but that is the way, I'd appreciate you all's help, but it's best if you leave the souls of the dead to us." Sprinter said, "But you guys attack them directly." Twilight Sparkle replied, "That's because they are genuinely malevolent souls, there are some good souls as well." Runner replied, "You all can at least offer your friendship." Rarity said, "Offer our friendship? You're joking." Walker replied, "No, we're not, friendship is magic, Walker." Twilight Sparkle said, "In this world, in the other worlds, it's not magic at all." Walker replied, "What do you mean it's not magic?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Exactly what I mean, friendship is not valued in several other cultures." Walker replied, "What is it to them?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "A concept, something we use just to stay on good terms with others." Walker replied, "WHAT?!" Twilight Sparkle asked, "We're wasting time, let's take these souls to the Void to receive judgement." Sprinter said, "Take me with you three." Twilight Sparkle replied, "Sorry, but we can't." Walker replied, "Why not?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "Spirit just doesn't allow anyone into the Void, let's go." Runner replied, and Sprinter opens a portal with his mind and the three were about to go, "I wanna meet Spirit." Pinkie Pie said as she dashes to the portal and tries to jump in, but she gets electrocuted and screams, she gets shot back afterwards, "As I said, Spirit doesn't allow live people into the Void, only us three can enter." Runner said, "But I wanna meet him." Pinkie Pie said, "You won't." Walker replied, "Where do the souls you get go?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "We take them to this guy just called The Judge, he judges the souls, and they go to the afterlife, you never meet Spirit during that time." Walker replied, "Let's go." Sprinter said, and the three go to the Void and the portal closes while Twilight Sparkle seethes with rage. A light blue and white portal opens in the middle of Ponyville and Walker, Runner, and Sprinter come out and the portal behind them closes, "Should we really bring the creatures of the other worlds here, dad and granddad?" Walker asked, "It's probably best not to, since friendship is meaningless to some of them." Sprinter replied, "I doubt they'd adjust to this world, especially the ones with the warrior cultures." Runner said, "What about the first three creatures we met, the harpies, vulcans, and onis?" Walker asked, "Walker, you know full well that an oni won't fit in this world, and will cause a lot of chaos for Princess Twilight." Runner replied, "It'd still be funny to see, though." Walker said, they hear screams of excitement and the souls of mares run to Walker and begin touching and hugging him, he sees Runner become very uncomfortable, "Hey, dad, who are these ponies?" Walker asked, "All of the mares your grandfather dated when I was a foal." Runner replied, he hears the ponies scream in shock while he saw Sprinter smiling, "SPRINTER!!" Rarity yelled angrily as she ran to him, "No! Shame on you! You should know better not to date more than one mare!" Rarity said, "I only dated one at a time." Sprinter replied, "No! It is wrong to go from one mare to another, I can only imagine how many hearts you have broken." Rarity said, "Broken? He didn't break our hearts." one mare said, "Yeah, we just dated and broke up when the spark was gone." another mare said, "So, none of you were hurt by breaking up with him?" Rarity asked, "No, we were the ones who broke up with him." a third mare replied, "Wait a minute, I actually don't recognize some of them." Runner said, "Some of them, I dated before I had you, Runner." Sprinter replied, Rarity glares at him, "You had a son, yet you continued to go out with other mares?" Rarity asked, "I had two jobs at that time, so I needed somepony to foalsit Runner while I was at work." Sprinter replied, "Why didn't you hire a foalsitter?" Rarity asked, "There weren't any in the area Runner grew up in." a fourth mare replied, "I really hope your son didn't do the same thing." Rarity said, "Nope, I only loved one female pony, and only her, she and I grew up together as kids." Runner replied, "Don't give your grandson any ideas, Sprinter, dating one lady, breaking up with her, and going to another is one quick way to anger her." Rarity said, and she walks away while Sprinter's ex-girlfriends continue to rub and pat Walker, "You look just like Runner when he was a foal." a fifth mare said, Walker smiles and blushes, "Alright, ladies, that's enough, my grandson has to do his homework." Sprinter said, and the mares disappear while the three head home, Walker finishes his homework and he goes to bed, Runner and Sprinter go to bed hours later.