//------------------------------// // 2: A Singing Djinn // Story: Djinn of Equestria // by morbiusgreen //------------------------------// June 20, 1463 of the Common Age Opheda swore once more as another blackberry plant dug into her, getting brambles stuck in her short fur and her saddlebags. It was early evening, now, and her legs and hooves were extremely sore from the past two days of walking and running towards the land of Griffonstone where she hoped to get passage on one of the Trans-Celestial Sea clipper ships to a city called Baltimare. She’d only managed to pack a few of her clothes and a few bits of food she’d had saved in her room for snacks. Those bits of food were already almost gone, and she’d resorted to looking for food on the pathway towards the path the Guto River dug through the mountains. Beside her, said river flowed peacefully towards the ocean, its water being the source of her hydration the past two days and nights. Due to the lack of plants on her side of the river, she’d been growing hungrier and hungrier, trying to ration what little food she had, but it was growing harder to find any kind of berries or even grass. Blackberries were everywhere on the path, but they weren’t ripe yet and wouldn’t be for another couple months yet. A splash from the river caught her attention, and she looked over just in time to see a fish tail diving into the water. Despite everything, her mouth began to salivate at the thought of a fish. Deer could sometimes eat meat in a pinch, but Opheda still felt partially nauseated at the thought of eating another living creature, even if they were just fish. It wasn’t particularly sanitary, either. Looking up at the sun, she saw it was just about to dip behind the mountains, meaning that the temperature was just about to drop very quickly. She lifted her horns up and pulled her large brown cloak and hood out from her bag. She stopped as she rearranged her cloak to cover both her and her saddlebags, which by now were feeling too light. She pulled out her map and opened it up, looking at it in the last light of the sun before it vanished. She looked around her, then back at the map. If her observations were correct, she would be just a bit more than halfway to the pass which would lead her directly to the port at Griffonstone. That is, if the map she had was still accurate. The deerfolk had not had many dealings with outsiders since their Golden Age, so the map she stole from the Temple of True Accord could very well be completely out of date. She quickly put the map away, then shivered as a sudden cold breeze from the direction of the mountains overwhelmed her. She pulled her cloak closer to her body just as her stomach began to growl. She waited until the breeze passed before she opened her bag and searched through it for some small morsel to eat. To her relief, she pulled out a small bag of nuts she’d packed, which she opened and began slowly chewing, savoring the slight saltiness, stopping occasionally to quench her thirst in the ice cold river. As the sun continued its downward march towards the horizon, the moon behind her began taking its place in the heavens, the large dark shape of the unicorn still very visible on its surface. The sky above her began to turn all colors of the sunset, yellow, orange, red, purple and dark blue on the eastern horizon. Opheda found the temperature dropping at such a considerable pace that she almost considered setting up a camp for the night. However, being as stubborn as she was, she forced herself to press onward. When the sun finally had descended past the horizon and the blazing summer constellations came out, however, she knew she had to find a small spot where she could curl up, start a fire, eat some small dinner and sleep for the night. She’d had plenty of experience in that area, especially since the area around her village was so safe that her mother would allow her to have solo camping trips as long as she stayed within walking distance of the village. The wind began to pick up and she lit up her horns, creating a dim glow around her which she used to attempt to find a secluded spot on the small cliff nearby which would provide her with some protection from the wind. To her relief, she found a small entrance to a cave near the path. The interior was large enough for at least three deer to sleep comfortably, and it looked as if it had seen previous habitation from travelers if the long cold remains of a fire pit were any indication. After placing her belongings down in a corner of the cave that was out of sight of the road, she gathered up as many dry sticks, leaves and branches as she could, carrying them back to her home for the night. She did this at least three times until she had a good pile of them stacked neatly near the entrance of her temporary cave. After carefully assembling her fire, she set it ablaze, and soon the cavern was alight with the warm ruddy glow of her campfire. As she ate a bit more of her nuts and some berries she’d plucked along the road earlier, her mind began to wander. She stared into the fire, carefully chewing her pitiful dinner as she thought back to the Temple, back to her life as an Acolyte. It had been her dream to become, at the very least, one of the Priestesses in the Temple. She had worked so hard to be accepted into said Temple, and when she’d been accepted it had been the happiest day of her life. A day which now had been for naught since she had failed and been denied her chance to move to the second stage of her training. Angry and bitter tears fell down her cheeks as she thought back to the last words she’d said to the Priestesses… “No, I can do it! I know what went wrong! I was so close! Please! Give me another chance! High Priestess, please! I beg of you!” “My child, Tharos is correct. You have failed this test. You must repeat your studies and aim to work on your concentration.” “Buckshit! This is complete and utter buckshit! You’d give somedeer like Livalia a chance but not me!? FUCK YOU!” Her heart had shattered that day. It wasn’t her fault she’d lost concentration! Nodeer believed her when she said she could see things that no other creature could reasonably see! Just a dream, they said. Just your mind playing tricks on you, they said. She shook her head, wiping her tears away. No, she thought, I wasn’t just seeing things! I know what I saw. I know what that bipedal creature asked for: it wanted help! She raised her hoof angrily and brought it down on the ground, causing a large explosion of dust to rise from the impact point. “Fuck them all!” she snarled, more tears pouring from her eyes and down her cheeks. She hit the ground a few more times, but each time was weaker than the last as her anger slowly ebbed away. “Fuck them all…fuck them…fuck…” And then she sat up, looking down at the ground, which had begun to blur thanks to her tears. She openly wept. Wept for the loss of her dream. Wept for the loss of her Matron, Maerise. Wept for the loss of everything. “I hate this…I hate this so much!” She buried her head in her hooves, sniffling as she continued to weep. “Now this is a sight I never thought I’d see,” a deep and rich female voice said from the entrance of the cave. Quickly on alert, Opheda looked up sharply at the source of the voice, only to gasp at what she saw. To say that the creature before her was a deer was putting it mildly. Opheda had never seen such a deer in her life. Four lime green legs and flank which faded into yellow, orange and red the further up her body the fur went. Her lime green eyes looked directly at Opheda with concern and worry, much like Maerise had once looked at her whenever she had gotten into a magical mishap. Her horns were large and spoke of many years of growth and experience, but that wasn’t the most interesting part about her. There were what appeared to be leaves hanging from her horns, almost like they were tree branches. Her ears and tail also each had a leaf-like shape. Opheda stood, glaring mistrustfully at the intruder to her cave. She lit up her horn and a nearby rock began to levitate. “Get out,” she snarled. The strange deer stopped, raised one hoof, and gave Opheda a disarming smile. “Calm down there, young doe. I’m not here to raise any trouble. I’m just passing through and when I saw your campfire, well, I was about to ask if I could share its warmth and glow with you.” Opheda hesitated. She’d never heard about or read anything about such a strange looking creature before, and for all she knew it could very well be a trap. She stiffened and moved the stone backwards to throw it. “And how do I know you’re not going to rob me or murder me in my sleep, huh?” The unusual doe frowned a bit. “Are you not an Acolyte of Unitas? Have they not taught about me before?” Opheda kept her focus on the intruder, but she thought back to the brief history lessons she’d been taught before entering into the magic classes she’d been qualified to take. Most of it had been on the Golden Age of the deer and on some of the major historical events that took place during that era. She tried to remember anything that might have indicated the existence of a strange doe that resembled a forest during autumn, but she came up empty. “Nothing that I can recall,” Opheda said with a glare. The doe sighed and shook her head. “A shame. Back before the time you deer know as the Era of Strife, I was known by many names. The ponies knew and still know me as The Great Seedling. Dragons know me as The Giver. The deer, however, know me by my true name: Verbana.” Opheda’s eyes widened at a sudden memory that filled her memory. She was once more back in her room, sitting at her desk and reading along with her former Matron in a deer book of myths that sprang up during the Golden Age. One was of an immortal doe who had suddenly appeared in a little hamlet on the edge of the deer’s former territory near a large cavern. She was said to have unusual abilities which granted her the power to bless the land around her to produce vast quantities of crops, which was a blessing to said hamlet since they were in dire straits. For years, the strange doe, who called herself Verbana, blessed the land around the small farming hamlet with year round crops which would miraculously grow up in a fraction of the time it would take normally. This led to the small hamlet growing into a village as farmers from nearby communities immigrated there. Soon, it became a town, then a bustling farming city. However, the farmers began abusing Verbana’s power and all but demanded she make the farming ground more fertile. It got so bad that one day Verbana disappeared, never to be heard from again. Despite this, the ground around the town, which had named itself Vervain, remained remarkably fertile for years, but without Verbana there to maintain it, the soil eventually returned to the state it had once been in, causing the downfall and abandonment of Vervain. Maerise had said that this was an old fawn’s tale that was meant to teach a lesson: never take anything for granted, especially if what you take for granted is another individual who is helping you, because if you do that blessing you take for granted is likely to vanish. Opheda had read a bit more about the myth of Verbana, but didn’t find too much about her save for a few passages that described a belief that the life bringing doe was based off of some real deer. “You can’t be Verbana,” Opheda said, coming back to reality. “She’s just an old fawn’s tale.” The doe claiming to be Verbana simply sighed and slowly sat down in front of the fire. “I suppose after eighteen hundred years, my existence would be relegated to a fawn’s tale,” she said with a sigh. As she said that, a small green orb began forming on one of her horns. Opheda watched in awe as the orb grew larger, turning from green to red. Opheda watched in complete and utter astonishment as the apple grew. Verbana’s other free horn glowed a luck forest green, her magic surrounding the now red orb and plucking it from her horn. The apple this Verbana grew looked ten times better than any other type of apple she’d seen, and her village had a small grove of them which were tended to by their best apple farmers. Verbana took a bite of said apple and sighed. “It makes sense, I guess. Memories of those of you who are mortal are finite, after all.” “Whu…I don’t…I just…how?!” Opheda asked, completely stunned by what she just witnessed. Verbana continued eating the apple, but split it in half with her magic and hovered the untouched half to the younger doe. “Here you go, little doe,” she said, “you look completely famished.” Opheda briefly hesitated. This Verbana could easily have poisoned this apple, but when she took into account the fact that she herself had taken a bite, it put the young doe at her ease. She took it in her magic and took a small bite. Maybe it was due to how bland her food had been for the past couple of days, or maybe it was something to do with just how the apple formed, but the flavor exploded in her mouth. It wasn’t sickeningly sweet, but it was definitely sweeter than every other apple she’d ever tasted. She dropped the rock and began eagerly devouring the fruit, its juices flowing down her cheeks as she scarfed every last bit of it down. Even the seeds had a sweetness to them that she hadn’t tasted in any other apple seeds she’d had before. To her surprise, when she finished, she was completely full, her hunger satiated completely. When she looked back at Verbana, the strangely colored doe was staring back at her with a warm and tender smile. “I take it you enjoyed my apple?” she asked. Opheda nodded. “I’ve never seen or heard of magic that could do that before! How’d you do it?” Verbana closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She exhaled slowly, and replied, “Back where I’m from originally, this kind of magic was pretty common practice.” She opened her eyes and Opheda could see a look of sorrow passing over her face. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can teach anydeer, or even anyone, how to perform such magic.” “Oh…” Opheda’s ears flattened in disappointment. “I see…” Verbana perked up a bit, smiling once more at the former Acolyte. “Don’t look so distraught, my young doe. We all have our gifts. I have mine, and I’m sure you have yours. So there’s no need to be upset.” Opheda’s ears perked up a bit at her words of encouragement. “Thank you…and my name is Opheda, by the way.” Verbana smiled warmly. “Well then, Miss Opheda, I hope it’s alright if I stay the night before we part ways tomorrow.” Opheda felt a bit of suspicion rising in her, but something about this Verbana projected that she could indeed be trusted. Opheda relaxed slightly, but wasn’t foolish enough to lower her guard completely. “I…suppose that’s alright,” she said hesitantly. “Where are you going, anyway?” “Griffonstone,” she explained. “There’s a train there that I need to take to my final destination.” “I’m going there too, actually,” Opheda said without realizing it. Despite that, she still continued. “There’s hopefully a ship there I can take to cross the Celestial Sea.” Verbana looked at Opheda curiously. “You’re heading to Equestria? How come?” Not wanting to share her real intentions, Opheda shrugged. “I got some time off from school and wanted a change of pace,” she said. It wasn’t quite a total lie, but it was all she was willing to share. Curiosity, however, got the better of her and she asked, “Where are you going?” Verbana smiled. “I’m actually heading there myself. There’s something there I’m looking for over there.” “Do you have any particular destination in mind?” Opheda asked. “Well…there was this one place up north that I’d visited once, long…long ago,” Verbana said. “It was one of the greatest empires of its time, but it’s since vanished off the face of Equus. If I’m lucky, I might just find something among the ruins there.” Opheda’s eyebrows shot upwards in surprise. “Wow…that’s just…that’s impressive,” she said. “Um…best of luck to you then, Miss Verbana.” Verbana chuckled and waved her hoof. “Drop the miss, please. Just call me Verbana.” “Oh, um, sure,” Opheda said. “Good. And what about you?” Verbana asked. “Any particular destination in mind?” She’d been actually thinking long and hard about that ever since she’d run from the Temple. The maps she’d seen of Equestria were presumably completely outdated, and there was no way to tell just how much had changed since the most recent was made. She did, however, know the name of at least one famous city that was still standing and might be a good place to start her search. “Well, probably Canterlot.” Verbana nodded, still smiling. “The royal capital city, eh? A good choice for a visit. I would be careful, however. Ponies can be a bit skittish when it comes to other species like you and me.” “I think I’ll be alright,” Opheda said, somewhat confident in her own magical defenses, “but thanks for the advice. And to answer your earlier question, I mean, you can stay, as long as we can travel together tomorrow.” Verbana beamed widely. “Of course! I would love to have a traveling companion, even if it is for a brief while!” Opheda chuckled. “Then it’s settled.” With that, she yawned and stretched. “I hope you don’t mind if I turn in early tonight. I’m completely wiped out.” Verbana shook her head. “Go ahead. I’ll keep the fire going until you’re asleep.” Opheda nodded gratefully, grabbed her sleeping materials, set her bedding down and snuggled up close to the warmth of the fire as sleep slowly overtook her… June 21, 1463 of the Common Age It was just before dawn, but even so, Maerise slept poorly as she had the last couple of nights. She’d tossed and turned, the guilt of what she’d done, or failed to do for her own charge coming back over and over again to bite her in the rear. She would constantly dream about the last time she’d seen Opheda and couldn’t forget the look of pain and betrayal on the young doe’s face. And she couldn’t forget the last words she’d said. Fuck you. Those words had shattered Maerise’s heart. She’d been in charge of taking care of Opheda, and she’d failed even that. She hadn’t taken Opheda’s claims seriously, especially when it was something as outlandish as the claim of her being able to see faraway lands without the Third Eye. Nodeer had that pure connection to Accord, not for many many generations. Even so, she should have at least tried to take Opheda a bit more seriously. She’d not exactly had an easy time in the Temple. Her studies were all over the place, her magic was barely enough to pass any of her classes. Almost like… She quickly sat up, eyes wide in alarm. “Almost like there was some other magic holding her back,” she gasped. Immediately, a lesson she’d learned many years ago came back. The story of Arseleon the Seer. Arseleon had been an aspiring mage during the height of the Golden Age. He’d grown up in a small town (which had since been renamed in his honor) and dreamed of becoming a mage. He went to the Royal Magic Academy, but his magical training had gone poorly since he was unable to concentrate on learning the lessons the right way, instead looking ahead and practicing magic way ahead of his levels. This caused him to get into many different magical accidents until finally, when one resulted in the permanent injury of a fellow classmate, he was drummed right out of the Academy. He would wander the country for years afterwards, continuing his practices of magic until one day he was resting underneath a tree when he saw his very first vision of a mugging in a nearby town. Confused and concerned, he rushed to the nearby town only to discover the victim had been unconscious ever since the brutal attack. When Arseleon insisted he knew who the attacker was, the town guards grew suspicious of him, especially when his description of the attacker matched one of the wealthier nobles in said town. He was promptly arrested and tortured until they could wring a confession out of them, which they were unable to do. However, they released him when it was discovered that the very same noble had mugged another deer, only this time the deer he mugged was a powerful mage who mangled his body up pretty severely. Not only that, but when the first victim finally woke up and described the perpetrator, it matched the description of the noble. Arseleon was given plenty of restitution money by the noble’s own father and even given a house in the city, which was where he lived until the day of his death. Word of his newfound ability spread throughout the land and he was visited many times and paid hefty sums to locate missing fawns, property and more. His one rule, however, was that he would never use his powers for spying on other countries, and this was one rule he never broke. Maerise stared at the moon for a bit, recollecting the story over and over in her mind. Opheda’s own troubles with magic sounded eerily similar to Arseleon’s own. To be able to control Clairvoyance took the majority of anydeer’s magic, leaving them weak in many other areas of their magical control. She slowly lay back down, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried once more to sleep. She was so distraught she didn’t see two very distinct things happening around her. Right around the moon, four stars moved directly towards it, and when they crashed into the orb, not only did the image of the unicorn in the moon vanish entirely, but four brand new craters formed. That, and the piercing ice blue eyes of the spirit known as Evasia, watching over the sleeping form of the Priestess… Deep within the Everfree Forest, on the shores of a small pond, a zebra shamaness meditated, standing on one hind hoof with the other extended at an angle parallel to the ground. Her forehooves were touching in a meditative state. Her eyes were closed as she listened to the sounds of nature around her. Pure, untamed nature, just as it was meant to be. The wind, untouched by pegasi, flew through the trees. Birds in nearby trees sang their songs to one another, calling for a mate, defending their homes or just idly chatting. The canopy above was so thick that the sunlight of the early morning still had yet to breach it. Despite the lateness of the rising sun that first day of summer, the shamaness was a mare of habit. She would rise before the dawn for her daily run around her set path in the forest, then she would stop for an hour of deep meditation just before the sun rose. Only today, the sun was late in rising, so she meditated longer. The eastern sky was glowing now, and the shamaness deepened her meditation, as she was wont to do near the end of her meditation sessions. It helped to clear her mind, and on occasion gave her special insights into the world around her. Thanks to years of training, the shamaness had become more attune to the ways of the forest, sometimes being able to sense what was happening on the far side. This was how she was thrown out of her meditation. Jumping in alarm, she fell onto her back as her senses collided with a powerful magic completely unknown to her. She’d sense the different magic of many different ponies in her ten years within the forest. The disciplined multitalented power of a unicorn’s magic, the robust magic of an earth pony, the feathery wisps of pegasus magic, and the somewhat dark magic wielded by the elusive and rarer eutherians, more commonly known by the derogatory term bat pony. In all her years, she had never come across a magic as powerful and as strange as the one she felt on the pathway. It was even more powerful than the magic of the ponies around it combined. She couldn’t even begin to describe it. It had the power to rewrite reality as the owner saw fit, but in a strange way, it felt restrained by something. Getting to her hooves, the shamaness turned towards her house, fear growing within her. As she ran silently through the forest, she detected two unicorns, two pegasi, two earth ponies, and two of a type she’d never encountered before, but which had elements of all three main pony races blended within them. The magic of the interloper lingered behind, as if stalking the group of ponies. However, as she grew closer, she realized that the interloper was too close to not be seen, so she had to alter her hypothesis. Perhaps a prisoner of some sort? Or perhaps the interloper was just lagging behind them? The shamaness had to know. If this interloper was a danger to the ponies, she would use all the tricks in her arsenal to stop him. She took a right turn, heading back to her tree cottage. There were plenty of potions that could temporarily paralyze anyone with high levels of magic. The shamaness only hoped that hers would work on whatever that creature was… There was silence around the former throne room as Celestia, her recently returned sister Luna, and the brand-new Bearers of the Elements watched the Djinn. Celestia herself had just welcomed him to the real world, but even then nopony dared to say a word. However, they did each have their own thoughts. Celestia waited patiently for the human-turned-Djinn to make a move. She also began to wonder why she was so invested in his safety. Could it be perhaps that since he is so similar to my sister in terms of his suffering that I am so eager to help him? True, his story had tugged heavily on her heartstrings, and she had made a vow to save him, but why had she felt so strongly about it? She shook said thoughts away. No, he is a creature in desperate need of help. There must be a way to break him free permanently and not temporarily. But how? If the Elements can only do a temporary job, what kind of magic would be needed to free him? Luna, having recently returned to the world of Equus, simply stared in confusion at the strange clothed long-haired bipedal creature in front of her. Even before she was banished, she knew next to nothing about the mystical creatures known as the Djinn. They were said to be as powerful as Discord himself and that they granted wishes, but that was all she knew. However, more importantly, she was tired. Mentally and physically. Being trapped in the moon meant that she’d been constantly asleep for those thousand years. However, if what her sister said was true, then this being had been imprisoned in whatever he had come out of for an equal number of years. She wondered why her sister was so insistent on his rescue and decided that it would be a good first subject for later conversation. As for the Bearers, they all had their own differing thoughts on the creature before them. Twilight, not knowing much about the Djinn, was herself excited. There was a new creature who could be studied, and somepony with new types of powers! She couldn’t help but be ecstatic. His mane was even moving like her mentor, so she immediately concluded he must be overflowing with power. And if Princess Celestia wanted to save him, then he probably meant no harm to anypony. When she looked at the Djinn more closely, however, a shudder went through her entire body. There was a look in his eyes that seemed to match that on Princess Luna’s face: a blank expression. No emotion whatsoever. She was never too good at reading ponies, but she could see he wasn’t well. She’d read a few books that described a medical condition known today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and even in the alien’s face, she could see, if briefly, a sign of it. He’s been trapped in here for as long as Princess Luna was trapped on the moon…oh Celestia… In that moment, she started to pity the poor creature. The same couldn’t be said for one of the newly crowned Bearers, specifically a pegasus mare by the names of Rainbow Dash, the Bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Despite having grown up in the pegasus metropolis of Cloudsdale, she had been living in Ponyville long enough to be protective of its citizens. She’d been there when the news about Notebook became known to the entire town. Despite the apparent hush up attempt, she’d heard enough. She’d even overheard the official report on the gruesome details about the way Notebook had died. Now, seeing the creature responsible for the horrific death of the, admittedly, odd pony, she subconsciously made a promise to keep a very close eye on this creature if he managed to stay in Ponyville. Applejack, the Bearer of the Element of Honesty, was similarly a bit suspicious of the creature in front of them. Being a Ponyville native, she’d actually met Notebook a number of times. She’d always had her muzzle in a book and was one of the previous tenants of the Golden Oak’s Library before the current librarian, or rather, the ex-librarian. Applejack had been tending to her family’s apple cart when Notebook had come running through the town, yelling giddily about having met the Djinn of the Everfree in pony. The farm mare had been told these stories by her parents before they passed away, but when she grew up, she put away foalish things. She just dismissed the story outright. However, when Notebook had died in one of the most gruesome ways possible, Applejack knew something had to be up. She still hadn’t believed that she’d met this Djinn, at least, not up until the present. She looked closely at the weird looking creature, specifically its, or his, face. She couldn’t really tell just from looking, but there was something in his features that told her this being wasn’t quite the same mean spirited and cruel Djinn as the stories made him out to be. Otherwise, why would the Princess of all ponies stick up for him? She would keep an eye on him, of course, just to be on the safe side. She had her family and friends to protect, after all. Rarity, the Bearer of the Element of Generosity, was more interested in the clothes of the Djinn in front of her than anything else, especially at first. She’d heard the rumors about the Djinn of the Everfree since she was a filly and always dismissed them. Upon seeing that this creature was indeed a real being, all she could focus on were the unusual garments he wore. If the rumors were true and this creature had indeed been trapped wherever he’d been for almost a thousand years, then the clothes he wore were presumably the only ones he had. She began trying her best to think of what kind of suits and clothes she could design for him, but when she finally looked in the face of said Djinn, she almost recoiled. There was absolutely nothing in his expression. It was a complete and total blank. Life hasn’t been generous to you at all, has it, she thought briefly. Pinkie Pie, the Bearer of the Element of Laughter, wasn’t laughing at all. Not because of what happened to Notebook, since she’d made her peace with the death months ago. No, she was focused solely on the brand-new potential friend in front of her. And a magical wishing Djinn, no less! She could do so much with him! They could plan the biggest bash in all of Equestria! Why, with his help, they could spread laughter all around the world! Everypony needed to laugh, after all! However, when she looked closer at him, she saw no smile on his face. Not even a frown to indicate that he was sad. There was almost nothing there. Just a deep blankness. He must not have smiled in so long, Pinkie thought, putting on a thoughtful face. Welp! New mission, Pinkie Pie! Time to make a thousand year old magical Djinn smile! Fluttershy, the Bearer of the Element of Kindness, while normally a reticent pony, was looking into the eyes of this ancient creature. She loved all types of animals, but she also knew better than to assume that this Djinn was like her animals back at her cottage. This Djinn might have resembled the drawings of apes she had seen in one of her copies of Equus Geographic in their foreign specials, but he was clearly as intelligent as a pony. Despite her initial fear of the Djinn, something inside her screamed that he just needed somepony to talk to. If he’d been stuck in that horrible looking place for a thousand years, surely he just needed a friend, right? To the surprise of everyone there, she took a step forward. That brief movement was enough to cause the Djinn to lock eyes with her. Fluttershy stopped, fear gripping her as she saw his blank expression slowly morph into confusion. Rainbow Dash, seeing this, tensed up, wings unfurled and ready to attack the Djinn, but when Celestia put a wing out to stop her, the prismatic pegasus pushed her wings back. Fluttershy kept her eyes on the strange being before her. He was somewhat sitting up on his elbows now, just keeping his eyes on the yellow pegasus. Half a minute passed, with nobody moving a muscle. Finally, Fluttershy bolstered up what little courage she had and took another step forward. Then, when the Djinn made no move, another step was taken, and another, and another, until she was within a foreleg’s distance of him. She stopped and slowly sat down on her haunches. To those ponies who knew Fluttershy well enough, seeing her this bold was a massive shock to them. They had no idea she could be this brave, especially when she was so quiet and introverted. Rainbow Dash was antsy, not trusting the strange new creature still, but she could feel Applejack’s hoof standing on her rainbow tail to keep her from doing anything stupid. Applejack felt similarly to Rainbow, but as she was the oldest of the group, she was keeping her thoughts to herself and trying her best not to jump to any quick conclusions despite her experience telling her that this Djinn was dangerous. Rarity was a bit nervous now. Despite her own thoughts about the Djinn, seeing her spa buddy and friend approaching somecreature so apparently dangerous wasn’t something that exactly gave her the most comfort. She was extremely tense, waiting for the pin to drop. Pinkie Pie, who knew how shy Fluttershy was more than most other ponies, could only smile wider and mentally encourage the butter colored pegasus to extend the olive branch to the Djinn. Twilight Sparkle, not knowing just how shy the new Bearer of the Element of Kindness was, just watched with more curiosity than anything else. Celestia and Luna, both having more experience in life, inwardly tensed. Even Celestia was unsure how Damian would react to the unusually emboldened reticent. Feeling strangely emboldened, Fluttershy slowly extended her hoof towards the Djinn. She didn’t say anything, just gave him a very small and, hopefully, reassuring smile, one she used whenever dealing with a nervous or scared animal. She kept on holding it out even as the Djinn looked down at it, his confusion only growing before he slowly looked back up to her. Fluttershy let her smile get a bit wider before finally opening her mouth. “Um, hello…My name is…Fluttershy. What’s your name?” Silence reigned for a few seconds as the Djinn’s eyes widened slightly with surprise and possibly recognition, although how he could know her, not even Celestia could say. Looking back at the extended hoof, then back at Fluttershy, the Djinn finally moved once more. Leaning on his left elbow, he slowly extended his right arm towards the hoof, extending the digits that the magazine she read had called fingers. Even now, she could see the extreme similarities between this being and an ape. However, she knew he wasn’t an ape. He was just very similar. She held her ground as he took the hoof in the palm of his hand, then closed his fingers over her hoof. His hand, as she knew it to be called, was warm to the touch, if a little bit dirty. Dirt never bothered the animal loving pegasus since she had to deal with it every day when tending to her animal friends, so this wasn’t anything unusual. The Djinn bowed his head slowly in greeting, before opening his mouth. Time slowed down a bit as Fluttershy took a good long look at his teeth. The first thing that stuck out to her were the four sharp incisors, two on the top and two on the bottom. At first, her heart began beating heavily when she assumed he was carnivorous, but when she looked closer, she saw flatter teeth meant for chewing plants. She slightly relaxed when her brain immediately identified him as an omnivore. Finally, the Djinn spoke. “My name is Damian Price. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fluttershy.” Despite having heard his voice before when he was telling the Princess to leave him be, hearing it this close almost automatically put her at her ease. She was surprised just how smooth and calming his voice was. He still didn’t smile, but unless she was mistaken, he did look a little less depressed than he had before. Almost like his emotions were at least temporarily lighter. Fluttershy continued smiling at him as she replied, “It’s my pleasure too, Mr. Price. And you can call me Fluttershy. No need to use Miss.” He slowly sat up and released her hoof. A part of her was a bit reluctant to let his hand go, but she still put her hoof down. He cleared his throat a bit, then faced Fluttershy. “You can call me Damian, then,” he said. Slowly, he turned back to the rest of the ponies in the room. “I know all of you have questions for me, and I especially know that you have more questions than can fit in an encyclopedia, Twilight Sparkle,” he said while giving said purple unicorn a brief glance, “but before I answer any questions, there’s one thing I would very much like to do.” Celestia stepped forward, looking down at Damian. “And what would that be, Damian?” she asked warmly, giving him her normal, radiant and caring smile. Damian slowly stood, then stretched his arms high to the sky, then he bent down and touched the tips of his shoes. The ponies watched these series of motions with confusion, but made no moves against him. When he finally stood back up, he looked at Celestia. “Just this.” And with that, he was surrounded by the unusual green mist that was apparently the source of his magic. He began slowly rising off of the ground, a slight look of surprise appearing on his face. “Hmm…” Rainbow Dash wasn’t able to take it anymore. She shot forward and grabbed the Djinn by his collar. “What are you planning on doing,” she snarled. However, to her surprise, he just gave her a bemused expression and tilted his head. “Just like in the fanfictions,” he muttered, throwing the pegasus off guard. However, before she could say anything, he continued, looking at a wisp of magic surrounding his hand. “I can use my powers for personal use still, but is it only within the confines of the old castle?” He had a somewhat inquisitive tone in his voice now, one that Celestia recognized as being similar to the type Twilight would have whenever she was thinking to herself. A golden glow surrounded Rainbow Dash, pulling her away from Damian. Celestia’s horn was glowing, and she did not look too happy with the pegasus. However, Damian’s mind was elsewhere at the moment as he began hovering towards the open door. He held up his hand once more, and a burst of magical mist flowed from it up into the sky. And music began to play all around them. The ponies tilted their heads, all of them surprised by the sound that echoed through the air. A piano began to play, echoing through not only the entire room, but the forest as well. The strange melody sounded like it came from every direction. However, when they saw the Djinn landing in front of the open door and look out at the ruins, they all followed him. Celestia was the first to come up next to him, looking down at him. She saw his eyes were wide as he took in the early morning sunlight which poured over the forest and ruins before them. As the piano continued to play, he walked around the ruin, looking not only at the fallen pieces of stone, but at the forest itself. Celestia remembered just how dark it had truly been for him in his prison, so she wasn’t surprised that he was drinking in the sight around him. His eyes were closed, his breathing deep and regular, and his magic surrounded him constantly as the piano stopped. He then started to sing, and his voice echoed throughout the ruins. “We will sing together, "and the mountains will hear our call… "And we will raise our voices! "Remembered forever, the land of Equestria…” The music crescendoed, and Damian quickly flew up into the sky, a dark green mist forming around his neck and moving down, solidifying into a thin black cloak which blew in the wind. Curious as to what he was doing, Celestia flew up after him, keeping up with him as an entire orchestra began to play from every which way. She could hear deep drums, string instruments and horns playing. She couldn’t find the source, however, but when Damian began singing, her focus was back on him. “We will dance through the country, “and the night and the day will be one. “Side by side, we will unite “as one mind, as one soul, the name of Equestria.” He looked down at Luna, who was staring up with the rest of the Element Bearers. He pointed towards her, then at Celestia when he sang the next verse and referenced them. “Oh, Luna's night full of bright stars “with the moon shining down on the land. “Celestia's summer skies, “to guide us, to lead us, in ruling Equestria.” As the music swelled, he looked up to the sky, then shot off with an incredible burst of speed. Celestia chased after him, worried that he might try something foolish. He stopped as he reached cloud level, hovering there briefly. Just as Celestia reached him, however, he shot downwards, heading directly towards the ground in front of the castle. As he dove and Celestia quickly followed, he began to sing the final verse. “We will live in joyous laughter “with the love and the trust that we share. “And the world will know the good times. “Glory and honor, the Land of Equestria!” The orchestra vanished, only to be replaced with a piano solo. At the very same moment, a massive explosion of rainbow color shot out from where he was in what Celestia could only describe as the mythical sonic rainboom. A bright rainbow streak engulfed his hair and left a large streak in the sky as he began slowing his descent towards the others. The piano solo began to fade away as the melody quickly became only an echo in the ruins around them. As the sonic rainboom swept across the sky, the entire group stared at the Djinn who landed softly in front of them, his temporary cloak vanishing into a dark green mist. The rainbow color that surrounded his hair slowly faded to its normal light brown color, and as that happened, the long streak of rainbow vanished, dissolving into the wind. He looked at each mare in turn, finally finishing with a glance at Rainbow Dash, who was now staring at him in complete and utter shock. His gaze, however, did not linger as he stepped aside. “I believe we have a place to go. Lead on.” Celestia, somewhat exhausted from chasing Damian up and down, walked beside her sister as the two walked behind the Bearers of the Elements who were talking quietly among themselves, sometimes occasionally looking back at either the Princesses or Damian, the latter of whom was walking a few hoofsteps behind the Princesses. For the most part, Celestia noticed that it was Fluttershy who was watching the human, a look of concern on her face. She smiled proudly at them all, not only for saving her sister, but for being able to break Damian out of his horrid prison. She put one wing around her weakened sister, who had been reduced to the size of a normal pony thanks to being separated from her curse. It would take months, but her magic would return her to her former size and strength. For the time being, however, she needed rest and recuperation in Canterlot. As did the Djinn lingering behind them. She looked back and saw that he was hovering off the ground once again, looking at the trees around with some slight curiosity in the perpetually blank face he had. Damian reached out and took a large branch in his strange magic. He tore it off and stared at it curiously, looking at the moss on one end and plucking a few leaves off of it, looking at them as though examining something he’d never seen before. He even took a small bite out of the moss then a few of the leaves before dropping it to the ground and making his way to another tree to repeat the process. And Celestia realized he probably hadn’t seen anything like this before. His first impression of her world had been absolutely horrible, the stuff of nightmares, and she would devote herself to not only reacclimating Luna to the world, but helping Damian in adjusting to his new home in Canterlot. And yet, he had sung in such a peaceful and serene voice. And his magic could create music from thin air and amplify his voice to be heard everywhere. And he had the ability to create a sonic rainboom. There was clearly a lot to this creature. More than met the eye, even when the eye showed clearly so much power in such a divided and broken creature as this human turned Djinn. Clearing her throat, she called out, “Damian, would you like to join me and my sister?” Damian looked over slowly, then dropped another branch on the ground, swallowed what was in his mouth and flew towards the two. He landed on Celestia’s left, looking ahead at the scenery. She could tell he was drinking in every detail. Holding up his hand, she saw him summoning a glass of brown liquid, which looked suspiciously like chocolate milk. He drank it slowly, then tossed the glass aside when it was empty. The glass shattered then dissolved into his signature magic. Luna, on the other hoof, looked over at Damian with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. “Pray tell, sister, what manner of creature be this? We cannot believe it is a Djinn, not if the old portraits are to be believed.” “Oh, I forgot you started out talking fancy,” Damian said, turning to observe Luna carefully. “Huh…without the Helm of Shadows, you actually look quite lovely,” he added. “I wonder how you’ll look after you regain your powers and your mane and tail does what my hair and your sister’s mane and tail does?” Luna frowned at Damian’s behavior, turning back to Celestia. “Doth this creature have no manners?” “He’s been locked away for as long as you were, my sister,” Celestia tried to explain. That caught Luna’s attention, and she looked back at Damian with renewed interest. “Truly? Our sister doth not jest?” “About a month after you were banished, I was summoned and imprisoned in the Djinn’s Prison,” he said nonchalantly, “So yeah. Not quite a thousand years.” Luna studied Damian closely, despite being still smaller than the biped. “We had not thought to meet such a creature, but we did expect thy kind to be more…monstrous in appearance.” “Lulu!” Celestia said harshly, “that was rude!” “Nah, from what I know about Djinn from your old library, she’s right,” Damian said dismissively. “They’ve got some pretty frightening depictions. Look.” He held up his hand and suddenly a book flew into his hand. He opened it up and displayed a black and white ink drawn image of a monstrous looking bipedal creature with claws for feet, a face blank of any features, a dark hood and cloak over said face, and impossibly long claws and bat wings behind its back. “Pretty terrifying, isn’t it?” And with that, he tossed the book aside, causing it to fall onto the dusty road with a loud crash. Immediately, Celestia heard Twilight freeze ahead of them, then she turned back and galloped over to the discarded book. She picked it up reverently, brushing it off before she whirled on Damian. “What was that for?!” she shouted at the Djinn. Damian’s eyebrow was raised briefly, before he had a look of slight realization. “Right…I’m out of prison now. It won’t go back like it did before. Duh. You’d think I’d remember that, but I guess old habits are gonna die hard. For the brief time I’m free, that is.” Silence filled the forest as the mares around him took the time to think about that brief caveat of his freedom. When using the Elements of Harmony to free a Djinn, it was only temporary, after all. Finally, Celestia broke the silence and asked, “How long do you have?” Damian pulled out a gold coated pocket watch and looked at it. “Huh…it’s working finally.” He pulled up his sleeve and looked down at it. Celestia saw black writing on his right wrist, some of which seemed to be changing with each second. “I’ve only got about four years of freedom, it seems,” he said as he rolled his sleeves back down. Celestia’s heart fell at that. She’d heard the maximum had been five years, but apparently this Djinn wasn’t that lucky. “Four years…I see,” she said somberly. Damian shrugged. “I wasn’t even expecting that much, but come on. Those girls just got the Elements. You think I knew how to summon stuff at the snap of my fingers when I came here?” He snapped and a strange box appeared in his hand. It was white with green dots on it, and a stylized logo which read Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on it. Immediately, the pink mare, ironically named Pinkie Pie, was right in front of Damian, looking at the box and drooling. “Oooh! What’s that?!” she asked eagerly, sniffing at the box, “Smells deeeelish!” Damian shrugged and opened the box, revealing a dozen simple glazed donuts. He took one and bit into it, then lowered the box down to Pinkie’s level. The pink pony took one immediately, shoving it in her mouth. Her eyes widened and she shuddered. “Mmmm…” Damian held out the box, letting it float in the middle of the crowd. “Have some,” he said, flying back up to the trees, leaving the box of donuts hovering on a cloud of his dark green magic. Celestia, curious, took one of the donuts with her magic and brought it towards her, but Twilight jumped up. “Princess, no! What if it’s poisoned?” “Ah have ta agree with Twilight on this one,” the farmer mare, Applejack, said, looking at the box suspiciously, then back up at the now distant Damian. “Nah, they’re not poisoned,” Pinkie said. “I’d know. Truuust me.” Celestia saw her shudder, as if she was remembering something. She jumped up and grabbed another donut, stuffing it in her mouth. “So tasty and fresh…” Celestia simply chuckled before she took a small bite. She was surprised at how evenly the glaze was spread across the pastry and how fluffy the donut itself was. She resisted the urge to follow Pinkie’s example and stuff her face, but she did eat it a bit faster than she normally would. She dabbed at her face with a hoofkerchief and smiled. “They’re quite delectable,” she said. “Freshly made, too.” The cyan pegasus, one Rainbow Dash, slowly approached the floating box. “Well…if you say so, Princess…I’ll trust you.” She took one of the donuts, looking suspiciously at it before taking a bite. Her eyes widened and she smiled before devouring it in three massive bites. “These…are…awesome!” she exclaimed. Eventually the others, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and her faithful student Twilight Sparkle took one. Even Luna, with some prodding from her sister, took one as well. Soon, they were talking about the taste in their own various ways. Twilight was wondering what this Krispy Kreme place was, theorizing that it was some place in a bigger city like Manehatten or Vanhoover. Pinkie was talking to herself, wondering how she could replicate them. Rarity, who enjoyed the taste, wondered just how many calories the donut was and worried about working it off. Rainbow Dash had taken as many as she could, stuffing her face before Applejack said something about her developing a new addiction to these donuts just like her addiction to apple cider. Applejack said they were pretty tasty, but she still preferred the donuts from Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy just had a happy smile on her face as she daintily ate, and Luna praised the craftsstallionship of the donuts themselves. Once the donuts were completely gone, the box vanished in a small puff of Damian’s magic, dissipating quickly like smoke, which floated back up towards Damian and slipped carefully back into his body. Celestia watched this carefully, wondering just what the magical significance of this was. Damian looked down at just the same moment and locked eyes with the ruler of Equestria. He gave her a polite enough nod before slowly moving downwards towards the ground, landing a few trots away from everypony else. He shoved his hands into the pockets of the hoodie he wore and continued looking around the forest. Celestia slowed her pace and let Damian catch up to her. He seemed so entranced by the world around him despite not quite showing it with a smile that he hardly noticed when the alabaster alicorn put one wing around him comfortingly. Once he seemed to catch on to what had just happened, he slowly looked up at the princess, an eyebrow raised curiously. “Your Highness? Is something wrong?” he asked inquisitively. She shook her head, radiating warmth directly towards him through her wing. Warmth that he, presumably, had not felt in a thousand years from anypony. “Nothing is wrong, my young Djinn.” To her surprise and relief, he snorted. “I guess when compared to you, even I would be young,” he said, but he didn’t seem to retreat from her. Instead, he moved slightly closer to her, taking a deep breath and exhaling. He held up his hand, and that same type of bottle from before appeared in the dark green mist. He popped the bottle open and took a drink, then, to her further surprise, offered it to Celestia. “Want a sip?” When she caught the bottle in her magic, she half expected it to be full of an incredible amount of magic. However, all she felt in her telekinetic grip was a bottle. A simple glass bottle with a strange red and white logo that read COCA-COLA MEXICO. She lifted it to her lips and took a small sip. Flavor unlike anything she’d ever tasted exploded in her mouth. She quickly downed the rest of it without a second thought before remembering just what Damian had said. Just a sip. Extremely embarrassed at her lapse, she slowly lowered the now empty bottle. “Damian, forgive me, I didn’t mean-” “It’s alright, your Highness,” he said calmly as he held up his hand and took the glass. The interior was suddenly filled with the fizzy beverage once more, and he took a large swig. “I got this.” She smiled a bit despite herself, pulling the human (she wanted to think of him as that instead of a Djinn) closer to her. “Damian, I will do everything in my power to help you. I promised myself that a year ago, and I won’t give up.” Damian nodded, and leaned against Celestia, suddenly looking very tired. “It’s a lost cause,” he said with a small shrug, “but I won’t stop you.” The two continued walking onward…towards Ponyville, and towards their own destinies… June 22, 1463 of the Common Age Cerberus’ Claw was a rare sight in the desert regions of Saddle Arabia. The myths about its formation dated back to even before the widely accepted Common Age calendar. It was said that before the desert overcame the land which would eventually become known as Saddle Arabia, an earth pony farmer had been tending to his crops in his fields one late summer afternoon when he found a large crack in a hill on his property. Mere minutes later, the earth below had opened up and massive streams of lava began shooting up into the sky, causing the farmer and his family to flee as his home and crops were completely destroyed. The ashcloud from this eruption was so thick it blanketed the skies of a few nearby cities for weeks. It was believed that this volcano was part of the reason why the desert which now encompassed the country was formed, since plants died due to the massive clouds of ash which kept spewing from the increasingly growing volcano. The eruption lasted for twenty years until finally ending, leaving a massive towering mountain in its wake. It would take at least a hundred years before anypony would dare set foot on the Saddle Arabian landscape, establishing trading companies such as Marecca, which were founded near one of the larger lava flows where precious gems and minerals were mined from the rare volcanic activity. Cerberus’ Claw was also chosen as the site for a prison for the most dangerous of Saddle Arabian criminals due to the existence of what was known colloquialy as The Pit, a massive vertical shaft which moved downwards from the large volcanic crater at the summit. According to the first ponies to explore it, it led down to a vast labyrinth of empty lava tubes which dug so deep into the bowels of the volcano and even further that it was next to impossible for anypony to escape from, especially since any form of magic somehow was nullified within The Pit and its tunnels. Criminals of the highest order were forcibly lowered in and the entrance sealed with layer after layer of spells to keep the prisoners from making their way out into the world. The use of The Pit as a prison for dangerous criminals had, however, since been phased out of use with the advent of more sensible and ponane means of criminal punishment. The sealed entrance to The Pit had remained sealed, but the magical barriers placed on the entrance slowly faded over time. The last seal had broken over fifty years prior, but even so it would take a great effort for anypony who might have still lived in The Pit to lift the physical seal since it had been buried by decades of rock slides from the sides of the volcanic crater. Had anypony tried to visit The Pit, they would have found the interior a much livelier place than even they would have imagined. Deep beneath the surface of Equus, right where the magma chamber had once been, lay the underground city of Thanatos. Unlike most cities, the houses and many other buildings had been carved deep into the sides of the former magma chamber, each connected by bridges made of magically enhanced sinews and bones of the deceased, a custom that had gone back centuries. Almost every building in the city had been carved out of the chamber walls. Having been built mostly by hoof within a former volcano, the buildings had been carefully constructed so that they would be able to withstand even the most destructive of any earthquake that struck. As the chamber was too far away from the magical drainage of the volcano itself, the few unicorns who lived there were able to provide them with artificial light by pouring their magic into the ceiling, which glistened with all kinds of gemstones. Earth ponies tilled the volcanic ground and managed, with the help of unicorns, to grow some semblance of crops while the pegasi utilized the small amount of water vapor in the air to create rainfall. Air from the outside came in through small fissures which led to the surface, but despite that, the air in Thanatos was perpetually somewhat stuffy. There was, however, one building standing tall above the ground. The crops that the denizens of Thanatos had planted surrounded this tall crystalline spire. Near the top, a massive spherical stone lay, but what nopony knew was that this stone was hollow. And it was where a specific unicorn mare stood in front of what could only be described as an altar. There were twelve stands facing the large carving of an ancient magic circle on her stone wall. Three of the stands were filled with the gemstones from the Alicorn Amulet, the long and slender crystal taken from the Staff of Sacanas after the beige mare brutally ended the pathetic Storm King’s life, and the multicolored sphere from the Griffon’s Idol of Boreas. Each was glowing very dimly with their own inner light. Nine stands remained empty, each with their own unique shape which would perfectly fit the gems to which they belonged. The mare looked up at the magic circle and grinned when the first three inner circles began to fill with a bright green liquid aether, illuminating her own green eyes and filling the empty room with its glow. “Three down, nine to go,” was all she said as her horn lit up with its magic. A brief flash later, all that remained of her presence was the hoofprints she had left in the dust.