A lot of boring stuff happened before something of interest came around, so can we skip that, Twilight? No? Can’t I just mention it and be done with it? What do you mean, that defeats the purpose of these meetings? But all of these things don’t add anything worthwhile to this recount, why do you insist on making me go over it?
You just like listening to my sexy voice, don’t you? I can see your blush loud and clear, don’t deny it. Should I record it for you so you can listen to it twenty-four-seven? Sure, pretend to take notes all you want, I can see the desire for that a mile away. Okay, okay, enough with the teasing. Just let me skip over the boring stuff, please? Thank you.
So, as you know, Applejack and Rainbow started their whole competition thing and managed to get the last place in the race for their constant sabotage. Then we have the whole birthday debacle with Pinkie Pie where she went crazy, that was slightly interesting. What else happened? Oh, the Diamond Dog thing. Good riddance, if you ask me. Don’t give me that look, you know they deserved to be buried alive. You have seen the skeletons down there, right?
Wasn’t my best moment, but you know how I get around you and Rarity by now. I would raze this world to the ground to make sure you are safe and sound. The other girls, too, of course. No, I don’t care that I sound like a monster, these talks won’t change a thing about how I feel about this.
Anyway, there was that thing with your owl and Spike being jelly, but that barely had anything to do with me, so I will skip that too. Then Sweetie Belle and her friends all asked us where we got our Talent Marks from, but you all know that story by now, skip it I will. I think that is everything, for now, let’s get to today’s tale.
Celestia and Luna arrived to put us through our paces in a more specialized way. The girls were a bit miffed with me hiding these legendary, and very awesome, weapons from them. And there were quite a few heated words about the things I had done in Manehattan.
Something about, how could you? What were you thinking? Have you no remorse? Well, suffice to say I had a lot of apologizing to do, but help came from an unlikely source. Celestia and Luna.
Celestia actually had stopped the argument between me and my friends, stating that while the things I had done might not have been morally good (or even legal), it had prevented worse things from happening. I was actually on parole now, had to do community work, and all that jazz. But considering what else I did, my sentence was a mild one.
Equestria had some seriously messed up laws about what is considered a heavy crime. There was, for example, a law that stated you could use lethal force if you had evidence someone just murdered someone. You just needed to fucking suspect them and... ugh... In the case of the robber in the bank, I could have just said that I feared Sol might have been lethally poisoned by an unknown venom at the time and be done with it.
Don’t get me started on the more asinine laws pertaining to civil rights. There was a reason why nobles could get away with some things other citizens could not. Like buying an orphanage and converting it to your summer vacation home, throwing all the kids out into the cold. Not that anyone tried that and got away with it, it’s just an extreme example.
Rainbow was mad at me for withholding the information that I was the mysterious vigilante, but thankfully she got over it quickly. All of them actually listened to my reasoning on why I did what I did and that somewhat helped to smooth things over. It wasn’t like everything was as if nothing ever happened, but we learned how to deal with our differences like the adults we all (mostly) are.
It might have helped that Celestia and Luna admitted to having killed in the past before and were willing to do so again for the good of everyone living in their country.
That started a Q&A session between the sisters and my friends, where they basically answered with the same things they had told me while I was in Canterlot with Lux.
The topic of my reincarnation came up and that made things a whole lot more awkward for me. Celestia mentioned Twilight might also be a reincarnated person, but she would have to undergo some testing to make sure. She could just be a descendant of someone Celestia knew in the past and look similar to that person. Both of them could have had the same Talent Mark, Celestia admitted, as she didn’t know the actual mark of the person she was referring to. Something about them never showing it to anyone.
A scraggly old man popped into my head. Gaudy robe, long beard, a ridiculous hat, and magenta eyes with a wrinkly face. Nah, there is no fucking way she was the Gandalf wannabe reincarnated, was there? It must be a coincidence, in no way could I have found myself back into my original reality with the same people surrounding me that surrounded me as when my previous versions lived.
Anyway, the training started with another assessment of our progress. Most of us were now able to defeat one clone of Luna’s mirror image spell with varying degrees of difficulty.
Fluttershy, on the other hand, was now able to call upon the abilities of her familiar. Brightpaw was a heavenly fox, and those were some of the strongest spirits to ever be summoned. With his help, Fluttershy unlocked a similar form of her familiar in humanoid shape. Well, more like her new form had inherited some of Brightpaw’s characteristics. She grew larger, had two fluffy fox tails attached to her spine, cute little fox ears on top of her head, and flames spewing from her fingertips in a mesmerizing display of power.
Of course, she ripped the mirror clones apart without issue, at the urging of Brightpaw and Luna to start the fight and not apologize for what she was forced to do by them.
Luna and Brightpaw corrupted her with power, I swear to my mother. Sorry Mom, but I’m sure you would agree if I told you about the change in Fluttershy’s demeanor.
Fluttershy and Brightpaw got extra specialized training by Celestia after that. Celestia was the one that would be able to teach her more about the fire she now commanded. And she wasn’t the only one that got trained by Celestia personally. Twilight was a no-brainer but with my increased strength and magic power, Lux needed some much-appreciated lessons in control. Gone were the days I could levitate things without breaking them, my magic was unwilling to be restrained in ninety-nine percent of the cases.
Sol, on the other hand, was forced to learn aerial combat. Needless to say, that was a very bad idea and ended up as a complete failure. Whatever it was with my wings, they were next to useless if I decided to fight in the air.
I learned quickly that my armor on both of my bodies was the next level shit. Only something of equal toughness to them could pierce them. Common iron weaponry couldn’t even scratch them. But considering this world was basically a fantasy world, there still were enough metals, or even woods in some cases, that could beat the shit out of me.
When you lived in a world where adamantium, mithril, and orichalcum were some materials you could find with a little dedication, one must imagine what the rarer substances were capable of. And the thing with the wood? I was not kidding about that. There was actually an easy way for someone to turn regular wood into something called mystic wood. It wasn’t on the level of my armor but came dangerously close.
That made actual battle mages, or even war mages, all the more scarier to fight against for me. Those were prone to use magical weapons, after all.
The metal my weapons were made out of was the same as my necklaces, star steel. The rarest and most hardest to work with metal to ever be discovered on this planet. And there were only two people in the entirety of time memorable that knew how to forge it into different shapes, that being two long-deceased previous versions of myself.
Bummer that I didn’t have their memories, it would have made me able to modify these weapons to be a bit more modern. Unless I could build a time machine and go back to make them show me how to work with the metal, I would have to get by with what I had.
Beyond the combat training, both of the sisters made all of us study the ley lines of the world. A complex task I wasn’t sure of how it would benefit most of the girls. They must have a reason for going to such lengths for something that didn’t make much sense for everyone. Twilight was told not to give us the answer to that question, as it was part of our little test.
The secrecy made me go crazy searching the whole library, even the disturbing books down in the basement. I didn’t find an answer between sleeping, eating, and getting the life beaten out of me.
By now, Rainbow could swing her long daggers around so fast, you wouldn’t even notice something hit you. You would just go like, oh, where is my arm? Then it would already be over.
Rarity was a deadly mistress of a storm consisting of blades and needles. If you somehow managed to fight your way through her defense, she would swiftly bring you down with the unassuming staff. Her defense was only beaten by Applejack.
The shield of that woman was nigh impossible to break through. Whatever she did, she could intercept any kind of attack, you would think she turned into Rainbow Dash. And Applejack knew how to use that shield as a weapon, too. Together with her sword, she was either the perfect offense or the perfect defense.
Nothing needed to be said about Pinkie and the giant hammer she swung casually around like it weighed nothing. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, could touch her due to her Pinkie-Sense. Not even Rainbow Dash with her supernatural speed. Pinkie just knew where to stand at the right time and in the right way.
The expert opinion of Celestia and Luna said that Pinkie could overthrow the world if she wanted to. I didn’t doubt their assessment for one second. The only thing able to stop Pinkie Pie is either the cold dark void or an eldritch abomination. Or another Pinkie Pie. Even then I wasn’t so sure that would stop her. One could never be sure about that girl.
Then, there was Twilight.
Twilight, the magnificent girl that she was, had enough power to basically be a walking magical nuke. If she put her mind into it she could level entire mountains with the help of her wand. And with a little bit of setting up. It goes to show that with the little boost I got from my forced surge I could put up a shield that could withstand an assault from her for a few milliseconds if she used everything at her disposal.
Part of my specialized training was conjuration magic. Illusions fell also under that category, but what was more important, so did the conjuration of food! I could make my own friggin’ food, how cool was that? It wouldn’t last for more than fifteen minutes if not eaten, but that was hardly a downside in my opinion. Of course, it wasn’t actual food, but it tasted like it and returned a good amount of energy to the one eating it.
One might think you would only get back the energy you consumed by conjuring it in the first place, but that wasn’t the kind of boost I was talking about. The food merely sped up the intake of mana for example. It was a great way to regain some energy back after a long day of training. The advantage is that you could give the food to someone else.
I was quickly declared the portable fridge by my friends. I didn’t mind and it was nice to give my friends another reason to get over the little feud we had about my morals. A little bit of food united nations in the past, so why couldn’t it do the same for a group of friends?
Besides conjuration magic, I learned a few minor spells from the abjuration category of magic. Abjuration was basically a school of magic that encompassed things like barriers and banishment, or even negation of magical effects. I could basically banish all the dirt and grime sticking to my bodies at the end of the day. Nifty spell, but not that useful for combat.
Well, now that I think about it, I could potentially banish a specific substance from my body. Should I ever get poisoned again, and have the thing that poisoned me, I could purge it from my bodies. If I wasn’t very specific in what I wanted to purge, there was the possibility of me injuring myself to the point of no salvation. So, no playing around with that.
On the other hand, I could probably figure out a way to create a magic nullification spell, but that was very advanced magic. I probably would need years to get to that point, if I were to be honest. It was basically the same concept as enchanted rings suppressing the use of magic by the wearer, just with a wider application.
Barrier spells weren’t only shields. Technically, you could count doorsteps as a naturally occurring barrier against magical beings. Well, against magical beings like Brightpaw, those had to be invited into the home. If they weren’t invited, they would be severely weakened while they remained in a place they were uninvited to.
Depending on what the being asking for an invitation is looking for, they could take a gesture like putting a little bag with a lost tooth underneath a pillow as an invitation to get in and appropriate the offering. Yeah, tooth fairies existed in this world, go figure.
Barriers could also be used to prevent outside elements from interfering within the enclosed space. For example, if a gas was leaking, a barrier spell would prevent it from spilling out. Or if you had a personal vendetta against the wind and wanted to prevent your hair from whipping around in the breeze, a barrier spell was the solution to that.
Frivolous uses of magic, you gotta love that.
Anyway, seeing that my talent with magic made me better at everything combat-related, Celestia pumped even more knowledge into me about how to best maim, injure, and kill my opponent. Obviously, I was only allowed to use those in a lethal dose against enemies of the state and/or life itself, or non-sapient beings if I really had to.
Meaning, I could eradicate the monsters in the Everfree to my heart’s content and she wouldn’t tell me no~!
After what felt like an eternity of training, we were back to our normal lives and with that all the little things that came with it. Like, the next crisis that needed to be averted.
A month of highly intensive training did wonders for the body, I had to say. I was sure we could handle the little situation we were on our way to without any problems.
Applejack did her weird thing with the tree in the last compartment of our train while the rest of us had to sleep crammed into the little bunk beds. It didn’t improve our mood at all, and while some of us were content with what we had, Rarity and I were a bit mad that Applejack put a friggin’ tree in a single bed compartment.
She could have at least warned us beforehand of this long trip, so we could have booked better compartments for the train. What made it worse was the constant chattering between the girls staying up all night talking about nonsense.
How was I supposed to get any rest tonight? And even after Twilight declared they would get to sleep, they started the conversation back up. Something about Fluttershy being a tree, don’t ask me.
Being fed up with this crap, I shouted for them to shut up and clammed my pillow against my head in the hopes to muffle out their voices. That did the trick, Spike and Rarity thanking me for hammering the message home if a bit rudely, and I finally found myself in the dream realm.
As my cozy little pony self, I have to say. It has become a normal thing by now when I fell asleep. Luna was confused the first time she stumbled upon Lux as a little pony, but a quick explanation had her ignoring the fact that I was seriously messed up in my head that I wanted to be a little pony forever.
No, I’m just kidding, I told her it was a side-effect from the poison joke and Luna took that as an answer and went with it.
“How are you doing, my little pony?” the voice of Horse God reached me. Or as she was also known: Spectrum, my Goddess of a mother.
“The girls were annoying, I couldn’t fall asleep. Sorry for having made you wait,” I answered back. Mom gave me a loving nuzzle in greeting as I sat beside her, staring down at the planet below us. “Can’t you teach me a sleeping spell? Then I could fall asleep even with them making a ruckus.”
“You know that I already told you it would only give you a dreamless sleep, why do you continue to ask?” she asked me in puzzlement.
“I could always try to change it so it wouldn’t make it dreamless, you know...” I pouted. “They wouldn’t stop talking until I had to scream at them. Please?”
“My child, you don’t even understand a fraction of the non-combat related spells I tried to teach you upon you insisting you would be able to learn them, what makes you so certain this time will be different?” she reminded me, nudging me with a hoof. I just huffed and sulked in silence. “Don’t give me that, you know it won’t work.”
“Fine, it was worth a try,” I acquiesced. “You know, half the times I don’t understand why I’m able to learn things like conjuring food so easily. Other spells cause me to struggle with no end like the organizing spell I tried to learn from Twilight, or even the gem finding spell from Rarity.”
“My, and here I thought you were smart,” Spectrum giggled. “Do you not see the application of reenergizing yourself with but a few bites in combat? The food you conjure is not limited to bread and water, my dear.”
“What?” I said flummoxed. “But how would I be able to make use out of that during combat?”
“Not during combat, silly. Every battle has opportunities to get away for a few moments, does it not? I thought you were an avid player of video games on Earth? I seem to remember seeing you be quite obsessed with one particular one, what was it called again? World of Warcraft?” she mockingly pretended to think. Oh for the love of all things holy, my mother was making fun of my choice of entertainment in my previous life! How embarrassing...
“...” I muttered indignantly under my breath. This couldn’t be happening, what did I do to deserve this? I promise I’ll eat all my vegetables, just make it stop! Spectrum giggled at my expense, enveloping me in her wings.
“My, my. Here you are, too embarrassed to speak coherently. I couldn’t be prouder as your mother,” she said. “I missed such interactions with my children. Ever since I was cut-off from the physical realm I have been so lonely.”
“More like loony,” I teased back and we both giggled.
“Yes, I suppose,” she admitted, not even denying it. Someone that has lived for so long without actual contact with living beings must have had some periods of their life they went over the deep end. “But I have you now. I was quite pleased to discover you could reach me here. It seems my little gamble paid off in that regard.”
“What gamble?” I asked, intrigued.
“As I brought you over here into this reality and made your bodies, I deposited you in one of the few places that had the necessary chaotic nature for the spell to work. You are a being of untold potential, my child. A true masterpiece. I learned quite a few things in your reality.
“A little bit of chaos my other creations lack, a smidgen less order, and voila! Here we have you, resisting the influence of the seals in such a way that I am able to speak once more to one of my children without using enough magic to tear down the very fabric of reality,” she explained, a wide smile stretching across her muzzle. Putting my hooves around her neck, I gave her a tight hug and she returned it gladly.
“I guess those seals aren’t just sealing away something terrible, but also you?” I asked. Mom sighed, rather reluctant to explain that. She must have slipped up quite a bit because it seemed she hadn’t intended to let me know that little tidbit.
“Yes, my very existence is the last defense the world has against my brother. But keeping up this defense requires for me to be removed from the picture as well. My brother...” her voice got suddenly quieter as she mentioned the estranged family member. My uncle now, I guess. What a complicated family, man. “We had differing ideals as we searched the cosmos for anything interesting. He wanted to rule over life with a heavy iron hoof, while I wanted to give the life we found a few nudges here and there. Watch as they grew to be better than they were before, live among them, and find happiness. But then he started creating these abominations, apostles of an apocalypse to usher in the end to everything I worked for. He was a spiteful stallion and he didn’t like how the ones I blessed praised my efforts, while the people under his rule revolted, trying to escape his grasp.
“So, I did what had to be done. I sealed away my own brother within the deepest hole I could find, binding him down there while my three children created the first seals. Without me being here, it would have been simple for him to break free. He was always the stronger one of us, but I was smarter than him. I have no idea what changed him so much from the caring stallion to this mockery of a brother, but I couldn’t stand by and let him continue with the things he did.
“In time, he began to use champions in order to whittle away at his imprisonment and I answered in kind. The first champions I sent against his agents were but mortals from the world you see before you. They at some point had enough contact with chaotic energies so I could reach them from here. I could only talk to them once for a limited amount of time, so it was understandably difficult to get them to believe me in a timely fashion for me to talk them into doing what was necessary.
“Those few first attempts all failed, and the state of the world progressed to get much worse. Then, I found you. Well, your very first incarnations. They were born in a chaotic place, not unlike the Everfree Forest. They could listen to my guidance, sometimes even see my form down on the planet below. But they, too, were mortal. And so, you perished to one of the greatest evils to ever walk that planet, being made to serve every whim of it in its quest to bring down every seal. Celestia and Luna were just mere children at the time, and my very first attempt to create children after I was confined to this place. Moonlight and Sunfire were meant to guide them in my stead, seeing that I could not reach them.
“During the time they had together with my children, they were able to teach them the things they needed to know. They got to know about me, too. With the help you provided, they learned about the sacrifice their mother had to make, but never received the motherly affection I was so desperate to give them. The role of parental figure went to Starswirl, Moonlight, and Sunfire, but I could not fault them for that.
“And because they perceived the perishing of their mentors as my fault, for not being there for them when they needed it most, they thought I had abandoned them. Which might as well be as close to the truth, I guess. I just hope with your return they will find it in their hearts to forgive me one day.”
This... this was majorly sad, I had no idea what to say to that. Tears dripped down on all our faces, my mother’s tears falling down onto my manes, while my tears stained her coat.
I had no idea... There were no words to describe this accurately enough.
It made sense. The reaction of Celestia and Luna. They saw their dead parents in me, how could they not? How there was no mention of mother anywhere but at the Everfree Castle. How they were confused when I told them that mother was sorry about what happened, seeing that Sunfire was their mother figure.
I had failed them in the past. Spectrum had failed them in the past. We were both sorry for what happened, but Celestia and Luna solely blamed Spectrum for it. She couldn’t have intervened even if she wanted to and I was probably doing something stupid to try and save the world. Most likely even against every demand, wish, and protest Spectrum, Celestia, and Luna made for me not to go out and sacrifice myself for the greater good. Fat load of good that did me.
I was the one that should be blamed here, not my mom. Not our mother, no. It was me that was responsible for what I did in the past, even though I don’t remember it. If Tia and Lulu ever find out the truth that I was now their sibling, I would give them a piece of my mind.
They did not go around blaming someone not responsible for something I was foolish enough to do.
My dream ended on a solemn note that night, which made me especially cranky the next day. The girls were confused about how both Sol and Lux were so snappy with them at the same time, but they didn’t take it personally, thankfully.
Hopefully, they would take the few times I replied simultaneously as a weird twin thing, instead of jumping to outrageous conclusions. We weren’t that far from our destination by this point, so I hoped I would get my mood back to the usual friendly, if not slightly snarky state.
That went out the window, died a burning death, and fluttered away like dust in the wind. The train began shaking and we all looked out the window, breakfast completely forgotten.
Outside the window were what I recognized as native Americans, riding on horses herding a group of buffalo alongside our train compartments. Once more, they were forced to ram against us, as the people riding on the horses made the gap closer between them and the train. Frowning, I thought this couldn’t end up in a good way for us if they continued doing that.
“Oh! Look, they’re doing tricks!” Pinkie said in glee. We all looked to the man that now rode on a buffalo, standing upon its back. A girl, not that much older than Pinkie if I had to guess, followed up and like some acrobats in a circus, the man gave her a lift and threw her up on the roof of our train car.
“Whatever they are doing, we have to stop them. Rainbow, with me,” I said, frowning harshly. There was no way I would sit here and do nothing. She followed me up on the roof. While Sol and Rainbow ran after the girl, Lux stood up there with bow at the ready, looking out over to our attackers bringing in the herd of buffalo closer again.
“Stop with this madness, now!” I shouted out at them, but they returned with a battlecry as the answer to my demands. Very well, then. If they wanted to play rough, I would return in kind.
Nocking an arrow, I shot off a warning shot. It didn’t make them reconsider their approach, though. Another shake went through the train, and I almost fell over the edge. This was too dangerous, I thought to myself. A few more bumps like these and the train would derail.
A whistling sound was heard from where Sol and Rainbow had followed the girl and that gave the signal for them to actually try to do just what I feared. They came in with way too much momentum for me to stop them in time should I have tried to take out their mounts.
And so, I jumped. Like in slow motion, because I know you like these kinda moments, don’t you Twilight, I seemed to float there for a moment while the train tipped over.
Through the window, I could see your shocked faces as I had no idea if any one of us would make it out of this alive. I’m sure you were just as afraid as I was. Who wouldn’t be?
Well, of course, we did survive. Elsewise we would not be here talking, but let me spice it up a bit, please? Thank you. I swear you interrupt me too much, can’t you just sit there quietly like a good psychiatrist? Yes, yes, you know I love you very much, now shut up.
Anyway, there I was, on my way down to certain doom. A group of native American looking people that had no qualms with trying to kill my friends, a whole herd of buffalo beneath me ready to trample me to death, and no other option than try and land on one of them and learn how to ride in like ten seconds.
Good odds, I have to say. If they had no problem with derailing a train, then I would have none with shooting down the mount of the man riding in the front and put a stop to their whole operation before they could try anything else.
The arrow flew true, striking down the poor innocent horse, causing a funny to watch, but pretty dangerous, domino effect making them try to avoid a painful tumble by swerving away.
A few were unfortunate enough to fall and be trampled to death. Yeah, it looked gross as hell. I just managed to avoid the same fate as I clung to the big animal as if my life depended on it.
I had no friggin’ idea of how to make it stop.
Well, I had one, but I’m sure that would end the same way as the poor sods caught in my little revenge. They probably deserved it, if they could just casually derail a train full of people that had no part in this for no reason.
I wish Applejack was here with me, she would know what to do with this herd. Trying to jank on the horns of this mighty animal just resorted in it snorting in disdain at the pest sitting on it. A harder jank made it jerk to the side.
Okay, here goes.
Pulling hard to the side, I was successful in making it turn until I was going back towards the train. Once there, I mustered up a bit of willpower and screwed my eyes shut as I jumped and curled up on myself. The buffalo I was riding didn’t seem in the mood to stop anytime soon, so the emergency exit it was.
The breath got knocked out of my lungs as I rolled around. Feeling dizzy from the sudden changes from looking at the sky to the ground and back to the sky, I eventually came to a stop.
And I promptly puked my guts out, so there was that.
My body was aching all over, but it wasn’t as bad as the way my muscles and bones felt like during the training session with Celestia and Luna. Now that was true torture, I don’t think I would forget that anytime soon. Everything was hurting constantly as we were subjected to the sadistic tendencies of the sisters. Even places I didn’t know could hurt were burning like hellfire. Nothing could compare to that pain, and it showed as I quickly got over the little ache I was feeling now.
Stumbling a few times, I made my way over to the train. I had to hack away a bit at the dented metal to get into the mangled mess the train had become.
“Twilight? Rarity?” I shouted out, carefully moving around the mess on the ‘ground’. Light spilled in from the windows up top, but it wasn’t a great help as smoke began to muddle the sight a bit. “Applejack?! Pinkie?!”
No answer came back.
Crap. If they were unconscious, that would mean I would have to carry them out fast. Where there was smoke, there was fire. And with fire came a timer on the lives of my friends. I have to hurry before it is too late.
Ramming my shoulder into the stuck door to the next compartment, I heard a voice shout from the other side. It was Applejack, she was alive! With a bit more elan, I managed to break through to the other side.
Fluttershy was sitting with her back against what was previously the floor, blood flowing down from her head. Her gaze was a bit vacant, she was probably in shock. Next to her were the unconscious forms of Twilight and Rarity. Applejack was standing by them holding up a collapsed part of the train, preventing it from crushing our friends.
Not too far away, was the bleeding form of Pinkie. A piece of wood managed to pierce her leg in a turn of unfortunate events. Whatever her Pinkie-Sense told her to do, it seemed this was the least bad outcome for her.
“Ah need yer help, Sugercube!” Applejack told me, grunting from exertion. “Fluttershy ain’t responding too well, could you move Twi and Rares away from there? I can handle Fluttershy on my own, but not all of ‘em.”
Nodding, I went and did as I was told. Dragging the seemingly fine ladies out of the way, Applejack shoved Fluttershy out of the way with her, as the heavy part fell down where they previously were.
“Do you know what happened to the rest of the people on the train?” Applejack wanted to know, but as she saw my grimace, she knew it was not a pretty thing to recount. Let’s just say that the few mangled corpses I saw on the way here were lucky to only have died that way. Some were entirely unrecognizable by torn up pieces of the train shredding them into grotesque caricatures of their former self.
“Ah see...” she murmured quietly.
“We have to get out of here,” I told Applejack urgently, getting her to think about our survival instead. “The train is about to burst into flames, I guess the engine up front is causing that. Can you carry Twi and Rares? I’ll see to Shy and Pinks, okay?”
“Just hurry,” she answered back, already moving to bring them out the way I came from. The compartment where the tree was in was missing, and with it were Sol and Rainbow. Whatever happened to them, my male half must have been knocked out in the process. It was agitating me fiercely, not knowing what happened.
The smoke got thicker as I moved Fluttershy along in front of me while being careful with how I carried Pinkie. It was a tedious process of moving them through the doors and around the corpses scattered on the ground. Fluttershy needed me to guide her to climb the small ledge the door had become and it wasn’t exactly easy to maneuver Pinkie in a way that I wasn’t further injuring her.
Then, the friggin’ fire caught up to us at the other side of the compartment we had just crawled through. Frickity shit, fuck my life. With a bit more urgency, I shoved Fluttershy faster forward.
“Sorry, my dear,” I apologized, even though she was probably too out of it to register it. “But we have to hurry a bit more.”
Fluttershy was getting a bit more responsive and cooperative with the sudden hurry. It seems the instinct to preserve her life was still in working order, then. We barely managed to reach the last compartment we had to go through as the fire was spreading faster.
Applejack was quickly back in after depositing Rarity and Twilight a safe distance away to help me with our friends. With her help, we managed to escape the burning wreck relatively unscathed.
“Have you seen Spike?” she asked me, making my heart skip a beat.
“He wasn’t with you, and neither was he in the other compartments,” I answered back, dread rising in my chest. The only other place I could think of was the compartment with the tree that got stolen. I told her about my thoughts, but it didn’t give us that much relief. There were still the people that took it in the first place, and if Spike was with them, there was no saying what they would do with little Snakeboy.
“What do we do now?”
“Well...” I said, starting to think. “We have to somehow get to the town with our friends in tow. Find a doctor, that is pretty important, I guess. Somehow find a way to locate Rainbow, Spike, and my brother. Then find out what the heck is going on and why some people riding on horses just tried to kill us. And get something to eat, I’m famished.”
“Well, let’s start with the first thing on the list. You stay here with the girls, while Ah go get Braeburn and a doctor, maybe also find a car or something else to move them with,” she said. “Ah’ll be back soon, Ah promise.”
“Very well, I’ll wait here for you and try my best to treat their injuries.”
With that said, she left me here, the train a good distance away from us and the heat of the sun staring down my neck. Staring at Pinkie, I grimaced at her leg. This wasn’t going to be pretty, that piece of wood couldn’t stay in there forever.
Ripping out a strip of cloth from my favorite shirt, I prepared myself mentally. I’m sorry for what I have to do, Pinkie, but you will thank me later for this. I wrapped the cloth around her leg a bit further up from her injury and then removed the intruding object. It resisted at first but got out in the end with a wet ‘Shlick!’. Moving fast, I improvised a tourniquet with the piece I just removed from her leg, and before I pressed down on her wound, I made sure there wasn’t anything else in it that broke away.
Judging by the grimace that appeared on her face, she didn’t like me putting pressure on it. I wasn’t the best with the first-aid stuff we had to learn and I only remembered so much of it to put it to use here. With Fluttershy still not entirely there, it would have to do.
About an hour or so later, I heard the telltale sound of hooves approaching. Turning, I saw Applejack and what was most likely her cousin within a carriage, a ratty old man sitting behind them. The doctor, if I had to assume.
We got quickly to work, placing Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie on improvised beds. The doctor did his thing with them, checking for anything we might have missed, while I guided Fluttershy over. Her injury on the head had already stopped bleeding, she would hopefully be fine in the end.
Braeburn told us of what was happening lately in their start-up of a town while we rode back to the town. I had no idea what to make of it, to be honest. Bandits were trying to raid the town, the natives were trying to get the settlers to leave the land, and the settlers were just trying to start a new life. Apparently, the bandits were also harassing the natives, so that escalated the situation to what we were subjected to. An all-out war between the three parties.
Where was I, the Wild West?!
With all the violence around here, one would think someone would have sent for help by now. Not that I think I would have gotten out of coming here on the behest of Celestia if someone would have asked for reinforcements, I generally was of the opinion that a little warning would have been nice to get beforehand. Then we could have had a safer trip, at least.
The settlers were in a tight spot, stuck between the bandits and the natives. They were trying to fight back but weren’t very successful in it. Those that could fight were called upon to defend the people, crop, and orchards, leaving them stretched thin across all fronts.
The bandits had a good amount of fighters on their side, making them an even bigger threat than the tribe that roamed the lands like nomads. They also had the weapons to harass, mutilate, rape, and kill their victims if they didn’t comply with their demands.
And then, there were the natives. For whatever reason, they had a vendetta against the settlers. I mean, I could guess they were mad their lands suddenly had more people setting down shop but was that really a good enough reason to start killing people? The way Braeburn explained it to us, they also blamed the settlers for the bandits that started appearing.
Last, but not least, there was me and my friends. Understandably, I was furious with getting sucked into this mess. What originally started as a way to contribute to the frontier town, turned out to be a giant death trap. And we were stuck in it now if we wanted it or not.
After we arrived in town, Applejack and I brought the rest of the girls into the inn that had to function as an improvised hospital now. The rooms were stuffed with injured men and women, all of them wrapped in a varying degree of bandages. It was a piteous sight to behold, truly.
Suffering everywhere the eye could see. The situation was even worse than Braeburn described it. Not even children were spared. My heart broke as I saw a kid, bandages around a stump at the end of where the elbow was supposed to be.
A man missing an eye, a devastated woman staring blankly ahead, a mother crying with her daughter sitting by a man struggling to breathe, a bear of a man missing a leg and a few fingers, and the worst of all, a woman with a jagged scar over her previously pregnant belly.
What monsters could do this?
There was no way I would leave this town without bringing down divine punishment on those insolent enough to cause such evil. Those that acted in such a way had officially forfeited their lives and nothing would save them from my burning hatred. Vengeance will come for them, this I swear.
Around that time, my other body woke up. Tied to a friggin’ pole in the middle of nowhere. Hearing a groan from behind me, I tried to turn my head to see who it was. The form of an unconscious little boy with green hair was to my left, while I heard Rainbow Dash start to make a fuss about being restrained to my right.
The poles were arranged in a triangle fashion, all of us looking outwards and away from each other. Trying to get my wrists free was a futile effort, my mobility was entirely restricted by the rope wrapping around my torso and arms. They weren’t that gentle with how they left us here, as I could feel my arms threatening to pop out of their sockets if I moved in the wrong way.
Great. Just what I needed. I wasn’t enthusiastic about staying here too long, certainly not when some kind of scavenging animal finds us. The midday sun was beating down on us and the poles offered me no protection against the rays. Hopefully, Spike would be able to burn through his bindings with his dragon’s breath and free us before we cooked in our own juices.
“Dash?” I shouted, gaining her attention.
“Sol!” she answered back, her voice happy and relieved. “We have to do something! I think I saw some kind of dog in the distance. Do you think you could break your bindings?”
“Of course there is,” I muttered angrily. Probably a coyote, maybe even a hyena. Do hyenas live in Equestria? If Equestria was the equivalent of America back on Earth, they certainly wouldn’t. But what with greek monsters being here and whatnot, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do actually live here. “Sorry to say this, Rainbow. We might need to wait on Spike for our grand escape.”
“Okay, no biggie,” Rainbow said. “We just wait until the animals gnaw on our bones, then. You know how long the guy could sleep for if no one wakes him up, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but how do you propose we go about this? Shout all day long until our voices are hoarse? We are more likely to attract a predator with that than wake up Snakeboy,” I shot back, grunting. Breathing wasn’t easy, it seems the natives learned their lessons from making their restraints too light on the captive.
“Are there any rocks around where your hands are?” she asked. “Maybe something else you could use to either cut through your bindings or throw at Spike to wake him?”
“Let me see,” I said. My hands were thankfully free enough to roam the ground. There was something there, but it wasn’t a rock. Trying to see what I picked up, I almost let the little skull fall. That thing wasn’t from anything intelligent, that much I could tell. Probably from some rodent that perished there.
“Sorry, Spike, but little Speedy Gonzales has to wake you up now,” I silently apologized to the boy not too far away from me and with a careful swing, launched it at the side of his head.
“Wha?” Spike snorted awake, looking around confused.
“Wakey wakey, Snakeboy,” I snarked. “You are too late for school.”
“I don’t go to school, what are you talking about?” he shot back, irritated. “Why are we tied up in the middle of nowhere?”
“Beats me,” Rainbow answered him. “Could you use your fire to burn through your ropes?”
“Oh yeah, sure. Just let me set myself on fire, what a great idea,” Spike said in irritation. “Any other smart ideas you guys have?”
“No, but it is either that, or we get out of these ropes in a coffin,” I admonished him. “Now get to burning or those dogs Rainbow saw will have an easy meal.”
Spike grumbled and tried to breathe in deeply. When he couldn’t take any more air in, he turned his head around to the side and let loose a green flame. He grimaced as the magical flame licked at his side but soon enough the ropes snapped open.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Spike said, dancing away from the still burning restraints.
“Okay, there is a dagger at my waist, think you could get it out?” Rainbow said. Spike nodded and went over to her. Prying away at the ropes, he found the hidden dagger where she pointed it out to him. After that, it was a simple thing for him to free us.
Finally breathing easily, I stretched out my abused arms in relief. Now then, where do we go from here? It was hard to tell in which direction my other half was and I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to find a map of the area so easily. We were on our own for now, it seemed.
“You don’t have any paper with you, do you?” Rainbow asked Spike, and probably me, but we both answered in the negative. “Damn, we could have sent something to get us some help.”
“Can’t you fly over to the town?” I asked her.
“I don’t know, I have had this major headache since I woke up, I’d rather not risk leaving you guys and get stranded where no one would find me,” she answered. There went that option, then. Better stick together for now then. I wasn’t so sure I would make the trip through this heat either. And Spike wasn’t an option as well, he was tiny in his dragon form.
“Which direction do you think we should go?” Spike asked us. Rainbow looked at me and I stared back at both of them.
“What?” I asked, confused. “Why do I have to decide?”
“Because you have this weird habit of finding your sister in the weirdest of places without knowing where she was beforehand?” they shot back. Okay, maybe they had a point, but we were in unfamiliar territory here. I had no idea how to find my way back to my other half, and because the sun was directly above us, I couldn’t use the burning ball to navigate either.
“We could pick a random direction?” I proposed. Rainbow rolled her eyes starting to walk opposite the direction where she saw the dog. Smart idea, let’s see where that gets us. No need to tempt it, after all.
“How’s your head feeling?” I asked, just to stave off the monotony. We had been walking for a few minutes now.
“Getting better,” she answered. As we began to enter a large valley surrounded by mountains, we could see a few teepees in the distance. “Stay low to the ground.”
Sneaking around, we saw a few of the natives returning on horseback, bringing with them the animal they had hunted. Maybe we could distract them and steal one of their horses to make our way back to town. Probably wouldn’t help the case with them hating the settlers, but if I had to take sides, mine would be with the ones that were innocent in this bloody war.
Haunting pictures of the scene in the improvised hospital flashed to the forefront of my mind. They didn’t deserve this. I would need to ascertain whether the natives could be reasoned with first, before making a decision, though. They would answer to their crime of causing the death of all those on the train, but if what I learn of their reasons for doing this doesn’t sit well with me, I’m so gonna call Celestia here to enact divine punishment.
After I had my fill of vengeance, of course.
“Let me do the talking, stick close to me, and make no sudden movements,” I told both of my companions. They nodded and we slowly walked up to the camp, hands raised to signal them we weren’t here to cause any harm. Yet.
“Stop where you are, white skin!” a loud voice boomed. “Why have you come here?”
A man stepped up to the front of the gathered crowd. He wore a crown of feathers running down his shoulders, paint was on his cheeks, and a heavy scowl showed us that he wasn’t in the mood for shenanigans.
“We come to negotiate,” I answered, Rainbow giving me a questioning glance. I told her to trust me and turned back to the man as he crossed his arms.
“What could you possibly offer us that your people have already denied giving us?” he asked. Now we were getting somewhere, I had a somewhat accurate guess I could make.
“They have taken your lands, have they not?” I asked, judging by the gesture he made with his hand for me to keep talking, I took that as confirmation for my theory. “What if we could come to a mutual agreement? Judging by how little grows here, you must be in a dire lack of diversity in food, right?”
“What of it?” the chief, I assume, said unconvinced.
“We could provide different things to trade, I’m sure you find the fruits of the settlers aren’t so bad, maybe we could work something out,” I offered. “We are open to your suggestions, name them and we will bring them to the attention of the mayor in the town.”
“You would go so far for people not your own?” he scoffed. “We have no interest in negotiating with thieves and murderers.”
“And what about the people you so carelessly killed on that train?” I shot back, both Spike and Rainbow gave me a look of horror. They must be concerned about the girls if they had no idea about the derailing. I assured them they would be fine and used my little ‘twin connection’ card to give them an answer as to how I knew that.
“Retribution for our fallen,” the chief called back, anger clearly visible on his face. “They murder and rape, pillage our tribes, and you dare defend them?”
“I think you have the wrong idea here,” I growled. Was he seriously going around killing people because he jumped to conclusions? How stupid was he?! “It is not the settlers that do so, those you seek vengeance against are also murdering the settlers in petty greed.”
“Prove it, then. Show us to those that are innocent in your beliefs, and if we find out you have lied to us, there won’t be a town left come the next noon. We won’t settle for less,” he demanded, and I nodded. At least we had a chance to right this wrong now. The only question left was, where were those bandits holed up in? If we couldn’t get rid of them, we might need to find another solution.
Like abandoning the town. An extreme case, but I’d rather have the innocent people safely away from here.
With the temporary truce set up, I asked them if they could spare us some water. We had been wandering around through the middle of nowhere in the overwhelming heat.
At least they were nice enough to give us that much, so together we went on our way to show the tribe that the settlers were innocent in this squabble. I didn’t understand why they didn’t talk first before jumping to violence, but when you have two groups that look similar, it wasn’t that far off they would confuse them to be the same.
Meanwhile, back with Lux, I went about convincing the mayor to agree to talk with the natives so we could end this once and for all. The sheriff was skeptical at first, but both the mayor and the sheriff were willing to at least listen to what they had to say for themselves.
The rest of the girls were up and about by now. Twilight was with me on this, wanting to solve this problem. Applejack was rather reluctant after having seen what became of the people on the train, but for the sake of peace she was willing to give this a try.
Pinkie just wanted to make friends, so no worry there. Rarity was neutral in this, or just undecided, I wasn’t really sure. Fluttershy, on the other hand, was deathly silent about what she thought. I just hope she wouldn’t go and use The Stare or go all fox-demon on them.
Luna and Brightpaw seriously messed her up. I get it, she was next to useless in a fight before, but you don’t have to go and traumatize the poor woman. Sometimes she just had this cold look in her eyes now, and whatever Celestia talked with her about didn’t make it better. She was still the same kind woman from before, I’m sure you agree with me on this one, Twilight, but when it came to someone taking a life she could get even worse than me.
Why do I have to do these sessions and not her? I mean, couldn’t she use them better than me? What do you mean, I’m a heartless monster at times?! You do know what happened to me, right? Whatever. Let’s get back to finishing this, we’re almost through with this tale. God, I need a bubble bath after this.
The negotiations went over like I expected them to go. I showed the chief all the wounded people that the bandits were ‘kind’ enough to leave alive, proving without a doubt that they weren’t the only ones that had a problem with the criminals.
In the end, the settlers were willing to make a path through the orchard so the native tribes could roam the lands again and both were happy that the violence between them would stop. The people from the tribe were willing to let the orchard stay in exchange for food, and everyone was happy in the end.
That left us with one little problem left unattended. The location of the diabolic miscreants that I was going to rot out to the last person. Twilight had an idea of how we could approach this and I was glad to say it worked wonderfully.
“We will play out a mock battle between the settlers and tribesmen. You have said the bandits were all too willing to take advantage of previous skirmishes, right?” she asked the sheriff. He gave her a nod and she continued on. “Once they have taken the bait, we will drive them off and have Rainbow follow them to their hideout from a distance. Then we will go in and detain them, is that agreeable to everyone?”
Most of us in our group gave enthusiastic shouts. I had a bit of a different idea about that detaining thing, but they didn’t need to know that. Not like many would stop me, probably.
And so, we slept through the night uneasily, nervous about the next day. To make this convincing, we had the natives gather their people and try to break the shield Twilight and I would put up for real. They had to look the part and not give away the ruse.
At noon the next day, we heard the sound of a war horn come over the rise in the distance. The townsfolk all went about in a frenzy setting up defenses and looking the part of terrified citizens. Twilight and I set up at the front of the town and did our thing.
Then, the mock battle began. To make it not too obvious that we were probably two of the strongest mages around, we had the shield cracking in no time.
“Get ready, Lux,” Twilight told me and I nodded. Rainbow had already spotted the bandits moving in from the other side of town, so we knew this little ruse was working as intended. The cretins mustn’t be located that far away if they were already here just as our shield ‘broke’ apart.
Two of the natives grabbed our ready arms and put us with them on their horses as we rode to where the real battle would start. The bandits didn’t see this turn of events coming but were just as willing to fight to get what they wanted.
Too bad I was willing to slaughter every one of them. Twilight called out for me to stop, saying that this wasn’t the play. I gave her a cold look and she shut up remarkably fast. All of the targets of my wrath ended up with an arrow through their head, and as their number dwindled, they began to retreat up the mountains to an abandoned mineshaft.
Should’ve known that they would hide somewhere like that. This time Twilight insisted that I wouldn’t be killing any of them as we went to route them out. She neglected to mention that I wasn’t allowed to maim them, though.
That's what I did, too. Twilight was frustrated with me as I severed arms left and right with my sword and began poking out eyes with the tips of my arrows. I had to satisfy my vengeance somehow, they deserved it.
The problem started with Fluttershy, though. Not one of us expected for her to pull out her transformed state and go after the ones only she knew what sin they had committed. It was a weird ability she had inherited from Brightpaw, something called the Heavenly Eye.
“This is a kindness to you,” she whispered emotionless as we all watched her stare down her nose at a terrified man, her hand buried in his chest. Her muscles flexed once and the man cried out in agony. “For your transgression against life itself, I sentence thee to eternal torment in the spirit realm. May the unborn child you murdered feast on your soul.”
I puked, seeing her rip his heart out. What happened to her? How... how could she have turned into this monster from the sweet girl we knew her to be?
I... I’m going to kill Brightpaw for this.
And then I will beat the shit out of Celestia and Luna. How could they think that turning Fluttershy into this was remotely okay?! A small part of my psyche relished the pained screams of her victims, though.
Something was wrong with me, too, wasn’t there?
Never would I have been capable of killing someone before coming to this reality. What was it about this world that changed me so? Since when did murder become an option?
Since I learned that this world had bigger monsters than I could possibly imagine.
That was it, wasn’t it? Celestia and Luna were well aware of this fact. They were born as the perfect guardians of this country, Spectrum told me that was their sole purpose, wasn’t it? What did she make me into, then?
Was I the perfect little killing machine for her? To stop the machinations of her brother she created a monster of equal horridness?
The thought spun wildly through my head. Was she truly the good she proclaimed herself to be? Or was she just as worse as her brother, just in a different way?
The war of Light and Void popped unbidden into my thoughts. It was an eternal cycle in the World of Warcraft franchise. One power would overwhelm the other, until from the Darkness in the Light the universe was remade. When the cycle repeated, the Light within the Darkness would remake the universe once more.
Was Spectrum the Light and her brother the Void?
The imbalance of one thing led to zealotry in that game, would the same be true for this? Could this just be an eternal struggle for power?
“My very existence is the last defense the world has against my brother...”
Those were the words she said right? She... she couldn’t be this monster I feared her to be. Why would she be willing to simply guide the people, if she could just as well force them to do right? Why allow people to make mistakes, learn from them, and not just brainwash them so they wouldn’t need to make the mistakes in the first place?
Because she cared.
She cared for all of life, be it good or bad. She knew the difference it would make if she was just passively guiding the people in a way that didn’t take their freedom away. She was nothing like the Light I jumped to parallels with. That one had no qualms with subjecting the mortal races to its will if it benefited from it in the end.
But why make me in such a way that I was willing to commit such atrocious acts? That I was willing to do what was necessary for the greater good? Or did she actually do that, to begin with?
Moonlight and Sunfire popped into my head at that thought. The way Celestia and Luna portrayed my previous incarnation made them look like they were able to sacrifice anything if it meant success in the end. Even my own life.
It was I that was like this, wasn’t I? It was a very part of my essence, twisted as it might be. That part must have lain dormant for so long, it just made its reappearance when it was most needed. When the very fate of the world rested upon my shoulders once more, it came back to me to give me the very willpower to succeed where I may fail without it.
My morals were my own, and that disturbed me greatly. I was so willing to accept them, that it made me afraid of what I might end up like once this was all over. Would I even be able to recognize myself when everything was said and done?
As I returned from my musings into reality, I noticed I was holding a crying Fluttershy in my arms. All of our friends were too afraid of approaching us and I saw the reason why.
My hands were just as bloody as Fluttershy’s were. While she was able to feel remorse after she left the emotionless state she was in, I just watched in fascination as the blood dripped down my fingers.
How could I not be disgusted by the feeling, when I was disgusted by the mere sight of a sweet innocent girl sticking her hand into the chest of a man? No, I wasn’t disgusted with what Fluttershy had done, but by how she got twisted into this opposite of her. How her morals were turned around so much, she could rationalize the act of taking a life as a kindness.
I was disgusted by how this world turned her into a monster like me.
“Everything will be okay, Fluttershy,” I whispered. “You will see. The monsters can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
And I was disgusted at myself for not feeling alone as the monster in our group. That was perhaps the worst feeling I could harbor at this moment. Relief.
Relief, that Fluttershy was just as bad as me at my lowest.
Are you happy now, Twilight? Have you poked at my shriveled heart enough, that you understand what makes me tick? Or do I need to continue? You know this will only get worse from here on out... Why do you insist on this so much?