//------------------------------//
// The Awaited Reunion 
// Story: To Protect and Serve 
// by iMan203 
//------------------------------//

The Awaited Reunion

We spent about two weeks in the streets of Manehattan, helping repair any damages and enjoying the company of the soldiers and guards who were now freed from their goblin watch duties. Almost everypony walking the streets came to know us by first name because of the announcement sent out to the citizens. The letter notified everypony that the goblin dangers had been lowered significantly and it was safe to walk about the streets of Manehattan and continue daily life. At the end of the letter a sincere thank you from the mayor listed our names and a well drawn picture of what we looked like. Ponies started to pick up on this, along with our unusual uniform. At times it's pretty hard to walk the streets as a crowd gradually grows around us while we travel from one place to another. The city itself was a huge town and was complicated to travel through. After about four days of walking around the area, we became accustomed to the streets and knew our way around decently. Every few days we all took a break from the big city and went out to the underground lake at night for a swim in the steamy warm waters. The lake was like a lukewarm bath due to a pocket of lava flowing quite close to the surface. The gems around the mine were probably from the receding lava pocket, solidifying in all different colors and shapes from their relatively new forming within the rock. The cavern was very peaceful and illuminated well even in the middle of the night due to the bioluminescent fungi growing in the cavern. The fish in the lake were also unusual, surviving in such high temperatures of water in a cave system. 

On the last night we spent down there before we left, a small goblin had emerged from his own little island of the lake to speak with us. The only reason he hid from us the last few times we were down is because he only thought we would slaughter him without question. We had just arrived down the hole of the well and started to swim and enjoy ourselves when the little green goblin emerged from the island vegetation and made his presence known to us. He only watched us from his island cautiously and did not say anything, trying to avoid seeming dangerous in any way. We went off on our own activities for a little while before somepony noticed the goblin laying out on his little beach. Bronze Hammer had taken to a mound on the beach that was unusually warm from the lava pocket and was nice to bury yourself in the mound and relax. Silver Dust had been with the amulet, learning about the different plants and fish around the area. Tiki was island hopping, going around the walls and shores of the islands and beaches around the lake, exploring the cavern and everything it had to offer. If the Pegasus found something unusual or interesting, like a strange fruit from an underground bush, he would bring it to Silver and the amulet to learn more about it, like if it was edible or not. I had been swimming through the deep waters with the fish, island hopping as well as I was swimming. We all did what we did for a while until Tiki had landed on the small island of the goblin watching all of us and our actions cautiously. 

"This one's a bit small, I think I might've missed it last time we were here..." Tiki mumbled to himself, alerting the goblin laying on the beach.

"Hello Pegasus! Welcome to my home." The goblin grunted in the friendliest voice he could make of. 

"What? Who are you?! You're lucky I don't have my swords on me!" Tiki yelled, fluttering into the air to keep a distance from the voice. 

"I do not wish to harm, this is my home and I won't cause trouble." The goblin grunted again. 

"Ironclad! You missed one when you scorched the caves a few weeks ago!" Tiki yelled to me as I crawled from the water, weeds clinging to my tail.

"Alright, lets see how bad it is..." I mumbled, catching my breath from my last underwater journey. 

"It's just a regular goblin, but I thought we cleaned this place out the first time!" Tiki yelled. 

"Please, do not hurt me! I have done no wrong!" The goblin yelled.

"You've done enough, working for Blunt Will!" Tiki shouted.

"I took no part in his plans for Equestria!" The goblin argued. 

"Alright, I guess we can't kill him, he hasn't done anything wrong yet." I said.

"But how do we know he won't do something wrong later? We have to arrest him at least." Tiki argued.

"I'm not the only one, there are more like me! More that did not want to be part of Blunt's doings! We never wanted to hurt any of the ponies." The goblin pleaded.

"So what happened? Why did the rest go along with him? Why did the goblins all group together and try to rule Equestria?" I asked.

"He was very convincing, claiming the ponies had outcast the other creatures of Equestria and that they needed to fall!" The goblin explained.

"*Cough* Adolf Hitler *cough*" Tiki grunted. 

"Alright, I'm going to talk to Princess Celestia about this, maybe we can straighten things up and bring your species into the light of things." I said, whacking Tiki in the wing for joking about a human remark. 

"My name... You may address me as Grim if you wish..." The goblin said, slowly crawling back to the vegetation of the island.

"Grim, we can't stop fighting the goblins until we eliminate the sources of dark power threatening Equestria." I explained.

"This is true, you must prepare yourself for the last battle, it will be harder than the other two combined. When you destroy one source of power, its energy flies to the next closest crystal and adds to the other's power." Grim explained.

"So you're saying the last crystal is going to have the power of the other two combined?" I asked.

"Even worse, Blunt Will can be resurrected at full power if the energy is released from the crystal and not fully destroyed by a stronger source of power." Grim informed. 

"I'm extremely grateful that this information was given to me before I resurrected Blunt on accident. " I said.

"Just as long as you know what is going on in the land, you need to stop the slaughter of regular goblins and destroy Blunt Will's power." Grim said with relief.

"Now, tell me more, about your kind and why they don't live throughout Equestria more than they do." I said.

I took Grim back to the main beach where the well hole was located. The other three ponies gathered around for a story to be told as Grim explained the history of the goblins. Thousands of years ago, when the creatures of Equestria took form, goblins had branched off from the dragon race somehow and took there own form over time. As time continued, goblins took on their own adaptations, losing the ability of fire and exchanging scales for hair and skin. The species never began with wings and their arms and legs only took on more distinct form from their ancestors. To this day, goblins all carry dragon blood in their veins, which made them a very valuable commodity about 5 centuries ago. After a hundred years of being hunted for an easy source of dragon blood by many creatures, mostly pony poachers, goblins started to hate the things around them and become naturally vicious to protect the survival of their kind. Powerful beings like Blunt Will took the job of protecting the goblin kind too far by trying to overtake Equestria. Fighting back was an expected thing from the hunting and such, but conquering the lands around them had gone too far. Princess Celestia tried to negotiate peace, but the poachers and their illegal practices drove the goblins into a state of rage and hatred. The goblin wars broke out and Blunt Will was defeated shortly after, driving the rest of the goblins into far away lands where ponies dare not venture. Conditions where never well and the hatred from the goblin race only grew. Some goblins had branched off from their group, living more secluded, or with a small group of similar goblins. These individuals no longer held a grudge against the ponies and had hope of amendments with the rest of the world. 

After the story and a bit more relaxing underground, I took Grim back to his little island. I asked him if he would accompany us on our journey through Equestria, but he declined and thought it would be safer to stay under ground in solitude until Blunt Will was destroyed completely. Grim had faith in our group and wished us the best of luck as we continued our journey. We climbed out of the well late in the night when nopony was wandering the street and the moon was high in the sky. After walking back to the place we were staying, everypony climbed into bed and started drifting to sleep. It was only seconds before each of us drifted off and didn't wake up when we heard two familiar voices outside of our window. 

"Brother, if you keep tripping over me like this we're bound to get caught!" The familiar voice whispered harshly.

"I'm sorry, but we had to choose the night of a new moon? It's pitch black out!" A similar voice replied.

"It's you two! I'm coming for both of you!! You won't escape me!!" I yelled as I burst open the swinging window in our room and jumped from the third floor without thinking.

"Run, brother! They're onto us!!" Flam yelled out.

"I can't believe Ironclad jumped from the window..." Silver mumbled, looking down onto the street where I had landed.

Tiki soon flew out and followed my lead down the street while Silver flashed Bronze and himself out the window and down to the street. I had landed on my hooves hard after a single flip through the air. I didn't have time to worry about what I had done to the sidewalk, brushing chips and slabs from my legs and cape. We all continued down the street in a group pursuing the Flim Flam fugitives. 

"We only did it for the money! Nopony actually got hurt, right?" Flim said over his shoulder as we trailed them down the street.

"Oh, you've caused a lot more death than there needed to be! You're going to pay for supplying such machines to such enemies!" I yelled.

"Please, no! We can pay off our debt! Just don't send us to prison or kill us!" Flam yelled.

"I'm probably going to do both after you indirectly killed all of those soldiers and spent the counterfeit money over the last few months!" I said, forgetting that its been close to a year since they first escaped our clutch.

"Few? We're practically out of cash!" The two brothers both yelled over their shoulders.

"Lets just finish this! Tiki, take them down!" I yelled. 

"I've been waiting for you to say something." Tiki said, raising the arrows in his bow, taking aim for the legs of the two stallions running through the streets.

The arrows landed directly into the back right hoof of each of the two stallions, causing them to fall over and lay in place as we caught up to their position. The twin stallions were laying on the floor as we approached them, cringing in pain. I slowed down to a walking pace as I came up to the mustached pair. Silver Dust came up and removed the arrows from the ankles of the two stallions, patching up the holes left by the arrows. Bronze fastened the two stallions up with a bit of rope around the legs. The moon was black in the sky as we walked the two mustached ponies to the Manehattan police center. Not much was said as the two brothers faced their defeat. It didn't take long before we reached the police station. There was a single deputy sitting at the front desk, dozing off occasionally from the lack of activity at the time of night. Not much was said as Flim and Flam were locked in a cell for the night by the drowsy deputy and the rest of us went back to our complex. When we got back Tiki flew up to shut the window while the rest of us went back to join him in the room. Everypony laid their heads down on their pillows and fell asleep.

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It was early morning when we were all awoken in the hours of dawn by a message I received through my flaming sneeze. Everypony jumped from their beds as flames danced through the air and the note flew up and bounced off of the ceiling. 

"What the BUCK?!" Tiki yelled out in a frenzied panic.

"Alright... I'm awake now, lets see who sent me what..." I said drowsily.

"For the eyes of The Lord of Bliss to read..." I read aloud, "your next stop through your tour of Equestria will be in Canterlot. I have taken the liberty of reserving train tickets for the four of you and hope to see you at the train station by tonight. Also, I shall continue to address you as an equal to myself, and not one of my subjects. Your new role of an elemental lord will be recognized among us, Lord Bliss." 

"You've really got to get a new nickname, you don't want people calling you the Lord of Bliss do you?" Silver Dust asked rhetorically. 

"What's wrong with it?" I asked in return.

"Well it's a bit... Queer I guess." Silver replied.

"Eh, you're right. I guess if anypony thinks of something else, just bring it up to me." I said. 

"So our next stop is Canterlot? When do we have to leave?" Bronze asked.

"About an hour. We should probably pack up and head off right now." I suggested.

"Oh, come on! We've got plenty of time!" Tiki argued.

"Yeah... I'll be ready in a little bit." Silver said flatly. 

We all packed our things and started off for the train station. Eating along the way, we took one last look around Manehattan before we left the area. We weren't going to return in a long while so we enjoyed whatever sights there were before leaving. The sun was only breaking the horizon, but the tall buildings were keeping the rays of light from shining among the gloomy streets. Not many ponies were up and about, but the few who were waved us off as we came closer to our destination. The train station was lit dimly by the rising sun, still filtered by the streaking clouds on the horizon of the morning sky. It only took about 45 minutes to reach the train station, the rest of the time was spent clearing our tickets to the staff and such while waiting for the train to arrive. There was practically no real waiting after we were completely ready to board, since the train had arrived while we were being cleared by the mare behind the stand.

"Oh! You four know the princess personally I take it?" The mare had asked.

"Yes, in fact, we do. Did the tickets give it away?" I replied.

"I haven't seen many of these types of tickets, but this is the town that they appear the most, the personal escort tickets." The mare said. 

"Huh, I bet they have a lot more in Ponyville than anywhere else." I said. 

"That's what I've heard, too. The princess has a group of close friends somewhere in Ponyville." The mare replied.

"Yeah, Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends." I explained.

"I'm guessing you know them as well?" The mare asked.

"Yeah, we know a lot more ponies around here than you would imagine." I chuckled.

"Alright, well it looks like your train arrived, better not keep the princess waiting!" The mare said as the gate opened to the train. 

We all walked toward the unusually small train. Princess Celestia must have reserved a personal ride for the four of us to take to Canterlot. Everypony boarded as I followed them all up to the back. The stallion attending the door gave a strange motion and look to the mare standing at the counter. I turned around to glance at the attendant at the window as she quickly turned around to return to her work. We boarded the train and started to move off for Canterlot. 

"Ironclad, take a break! It's just a train." Bronze said, glancing over to myself.

"I'm not sure if we should trust this ride, I don't feel right." I said, staring out the window.

"What's there to worry about? It's a personal train sent by Princess Celestia!" Tiki said. 

"I know, but we're also going pretty fast, it's worrying me." I said nervously. 

"You also left the station 20 minutes early." The voice of the amulet rang out.

"What?!" Everypony said in unison.

"I thought we were all aware of this." The amulet said.

"Ok, I'm getting a bit sketched out, too." Silver said.

"I haven't heard of a royal transportation system that was off-timed until now." I said.

"Alright, I guess just keep an eye out for anything else suspicious." Tiki said in a ludicrously relaxed voice.

"While you guys do that, ah'm gonna go talk to the conductor of this train." Bronze said.

"The conductor will be a bit reassuring, as long as he's as sane as everypony else around us." Silver said. 

"As long as we even have a conductor up there!" I said jokingly.

"Don't jinx it! We've got no idea what will happen at this point." Tiki said.

"I think we're all just worrying over nothing." Silver said.

"There's no conductor, how crazy is that?" Bronze asked, returning shortly from the other room.

"I BUCKING TOLD YOU!!" Tiki said, lunging on top of me as a joke.

"The train's probably controlled by magic or something, let me take a look at the controls." I grunted, pushing Tiki off of my chest.

I went into the conductor's room, looking over all of the levers and gears in different places. I noticed that there was a long red lever that seemed jammed all the way forward and bent into place. The coal fire running the train was overflowing with coal, and when the fire started to burn down, more coal fell in. I didn't see any form of magical element in the room, but I had also noticed a gripped lever laying on the floor and a spot of ripped wires where a lever belonged. Putting it all together, I realized this was an act of terrorism or attempted assassination. The throttle was jammed forward and the brake was ripped out, the engine was being fed coal automatically and it wouldn't surprise me to see a bomb strapped on the back door right now. "We need to get off, now!" I yelled. The train was heading up to a ridge hanging off of a cliff on the left side. I saw that trying to take the turn in would result in the cars flipping off the track and into a rock wall. The force would total the train and the remains would slide down into a dark gulley. There was only so much time to react, so we went with our usual escape plan. We hadn't planned it or anything, it just came to us like it had on other occasions. Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer ran to the back and burst the door open as they flashed from the platform onto the ground behind them. Tiki just flew off and joined the other two on the sidelines as I sped off up the hill. It was either now or never, I could either jump off a speeding train cart or sit through a train wreckage. Either way I knew I would survive due to my tough physique and magical energy. I decided to save myself the climb out of a dark gorge and jumped from the caboose, landing on the edge of the track as the few small train cars hit the side of the cliff and rolled down the hill into the gorge. Within five seconds of the fall, an extremely large fiery explosion blasted into the sky from the gorge as a rigged bomb went off from detecting the wreck. I thanked my decision to jump off, as I'm not so sure if I would've survived that, even considering my physical conditions. 

"Guys, I think somepony wants us dead." Tiki said, staring into the flaming train wreck in the gorge.

"What? Are you sure this wasn't just a little accident?" Silver replied sarcastically. 

"Save the comments for the princess, we have to get to Canterlot by tonight. Lets hoof it before another train comes speeding down the tracks." I said.

We ran swiftly down the train tracks with the thought of if another train came down the tracks. There was a  rock wall on one side and a cliff on the other, no way to dodge anything coming either way of us. We continued to run at a pace, since we wouldn't be able to continue very long while sprinting. Thankfully, no trains came down the railroad as we were running along. I thought that maybe the missing train had caused somepony to close off this route up to Canterlot, giving us time to head up without worry. I didn't know if this was true for sure, considering that the rigged train probably didn't belong to the palace, so I disregarded the thought and continued to run with the others. Back in the human world, I had been on the high school cross country team. I was well built for running and only became faster with training. These skills and such had carried over to this dimension. I knew that because most ponies in this world weren't fit to run miles uphill for long periods of time. I think the only ponies I know who could keep up with our group were Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They both proved this in the episode of the iron pony competition, although I'm not sure if the competition even took place yet in this dimension. I knew that the other three weren't exactly the laziest of guys back in the human world. We all invested a lot of time into video games in the human world, but when we weren't playing, we were out being active. I knew that Silver Dust and Tiki were good runners because of their paintball training, and Bronze Hammer was a farming country boy to the bone. I'm pretty sure Bronze would be a hulk if he replaced all of his guns with a knife when he went hunting. Now that the topic comes to me, I wonder if Bronze missed hunting much, I knew you couldn't do it anywhere in Ponyville. I'm pretty sure everypony missed something from the old world, something that you couldn't do here because of its violent or inappropriate nature. 

Once again, losing myself in thought, I've passed time by like it was nothing. We ran all the way to Canterlot and approached the train station. Tiki had yelled something down to us, which snapped me from my day dreaming. I looked up to see the platform of the train station, with 6 familiar characters standing at the edge of the station. They were walking away from the station, as if they were giving up on the chance of us showing up by tonight. As we started running over the hill, one of the six looked up and ran towards us. Rarity had sprinted toward our direction, surprisingly enough. Applejack followed and then the other four at the sight of the four of us coming over the hill. Sparing the conversation, everypony walked back to the train station, completely out of breath from the run, more us than the 6 mares. 

"Spit it out already! Tell us everything!" Rarity demanded.

"It's... Been a long time." Tiki panted out.

"Ah think a nice slow walk back to the castle will help y'all recover from that mighty run up that hill." Applejack suggested. 

"Good idea, show us the way." I said.

"Oh somepony please tell me the details! I want to know everything that happened while you were gone!" Rarity yelled out.

"Well, our train was rigged, pretty much. I can explain the rest of our journey when we sit down and rest a bit." I said.

"Rigged?! What are you talking about?" Twilight asked.

"Well, there must be somepony who wants us dead, the train was set at accelerating speed with no braking mechanism. We jumped before the cars ran into the side of the cliff as the bombs rigged on the bottom went off at the bottom of the gorge." I said plainly. 

"That sounds horrible! Are you all ok?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, we all got off ok, but I doubt that'll be the worst thing that'll happen to us." I said.

"That's true, if somepony wants you dead, there's bound to be more plans of assassination in the future." Twilight said.

"We should probably warn Princess Celestia about this." I said.

"We'll have plenty of time to talk to her when we arrive at the castle." Twilight said.

"I don't plan on talking much tonight, I'm ready to sleep for the next few days as it is." I chuckled. 

"You can sleep all you want after tonight, but first you're spending time with us before you go to bed!" Rarity chimed in.

"Maybe you could help me sleep a bit better tonight, its been a long time since we've seen each other." I winked to Twilight.

"Oh. I'm going to be much too busy tonight! I have important planning to do with the Princess for the Crystal Empire!" Twilight said nervously.

"Alright, I'll let you go tonight." I said, ignoring the reaction.

"Well I won't keep you from the others, you should go greet everypony else!" Twilight said.

"Pinkie! Fluttershy! I've missed you both so much!" I yelled out to the only other two ponies not distracted with the others at the moment.

"You owe me answers, mister!" Pinkie yelled angrily as she hugged me tightly. 

"It's true, I do owe you answers. The ponies with those answers will find you soon enough, I put them on the right trail." I said, smiling. 

"You look more like a dragon every time we see you..." Fluttershy said, walking behind the group.

"It's only the outside that changes, I'm never going to change on the inside!" I said, running over to hug Fluttershy before she could fly into the air. 

"Oh! It's ok, you really don't have to do this, I'm fine with a..." Fluttershy mumbled before I cut her off.

"Nonsense! You're my favorite pony to hug! Aside from Pinkie, your mane is so soft and fun to snuggle with!" I said, holding onto the shy yellow mare. 

"Mine smells like cotton candy!" Pinkie said loudly, jumping up and down along side of the group. 

"I'm so glad that you like my mane, but can we stop hugging and catch up to the group?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, let's get back to the castle." I chuckled. 

It was a good walk through Canterlot before we reached the castle. The sun had set and night swept across the town in an instant. Lights along the street lit the town dimly as few ponies still walked the town at night. We approached the castle gates as the night guards stood aside at our presence. We all walked into the palace, looking over the sights. Everything was familiar to me from my first visit to the palace, but the other three hadn't been inside the castle before. We entered the main room shortly. Princess Celestia was sitting upon her throne with a smile on her face, glad to see our group once again. 

"Greetings to you, my four best soldiers!" Princess said to us.

"Good evening princess." I said as we all bowed to her presence.

"There really is no need for the courtesy, Lord Bliss! I should probably be the one bowing to you, if anything!" Princess Celestia chuckled at the idea.

"Please, Princess, there really isn't any need! Until I become an all powerful being, I'm one of your subjects!" I replied.

"Alright, if you insist. Maybe you could ask your own equals for some help on the transformation." The princess suggested.

"I'm not sure, I could just wait for it to happen on my own." I said sheepishly.

"Oh, but you could always ask! I know that one of your equals is in this very room right now." Princess Celestia said. 

"What?!" Everypony said almost simultaneously.

"Curses! I knew the secret would get out soon." The amulet upon Silver Dust echoed.

"Come now, Lord Power! Have you not introduced yourself to your new equal?" The princess asked jokingly.

"No, but I guess I'll have to do it now..." The amulet grunted.

"Keep the collateral damage to a minimal." The princess added in.

The room soon exploded with energy from Silver Dust's amulet as a large, white, snaking shape soon took form. Lord Power, the controller of magic itself, emerged from the gem and took physical form in front of all of us. He also had the downy fuzz along his head and neck, running down his back and puffing out from his tail. Power didn't seem to have much of a torso or limbs. He was also missing wings, but none of these things were needed, since the being was pulsing with raw magical energy. Even being over 15 feet long, the snaking dragon lord could hover in mid air from his magical energy. His body snaked around the room, whipping around objects and curling through the air. The energy released from the transformation lingered in the air like cement, weighing down on all of our shoulders like rocks being dropped on our backs. With glowing white eyes, Lord Power made contact with me. My eyes sparked as his own eyes returned to their regular white shade. 

"I've watched you for some time now, you're energy force has manipulated much since our first meeting point. You're ready to make the final transformation." Power said to me.

"We aren't rushing anything? It isn't going to hurt if we do this?" I asked nervously.

"Well, considering it hasn't been done before, I'm not sure. Nothing bad should happen, it will just take time." Power explained.

"Alright, let's begin tomorrow morning, I am ready for whatever challenge I am put up to." I said eagerly.

"Why wait? Off to the afterworld!" Power said.

One of the smaller water fountains started shimmering as a misty portal was opened from the water. Lord Power dove into the pool of water through the portal in an instant and disappeared from the room. I soon followed him through the portal into the afterworld. As I fell through the wormhole I saw a streak of blue fly past my face, with white, gold, and different shades of blue in the mix. I disregarded the shape darting past me, considering I was jumping through a portal into the afterworld. I didn't know what the portal would or could do, so there was nothing I could accurately make out from it. I went down through a deep pool of water, surfacing onto the other side of the portal in a small pool of water in the misty grass field I once visited before. There was no fog and I could see to distances incomprehensible by my mortal mind. I saw different creatures all living together in different areas. I saw oceans, forests, rivers, deserts, everything. It was all in front of my very face at the same time, yet it almost felt unreal. I managed to turn my head away from the magnificent sight to cast my eyes upon another. 6 dragon lords were floating in front of my face, smiles upon their muzzles. I saw Desire somewhere in the middle of the six, along with Power centered in the middle of the group. Four of the other dragon lords floating in the air weren't familiar to my eyes, but I felt like I've met them before, as if we were all close friends that knew each other from the inside out.

"We have all agreed to the terms of what shall soon happen." Power spoke out.

"Due to the imminent situations, your final transformation will have to be assisted to occur early. We will also assist you in the quest to remove the last source of dark power that taints our land." Power continued.

"If you focus hard enough, you do not need to ask for names or such. You already know all of us through the universal power well of the afterworld." One of the dragons spoke out.

Power, white dragon of magic.
Deceit, black dragon of honesty counterbalance.
Mutiny, yellow dragon of loyalty counterbalance.
Rage, crimson dragon of kindness counterbalance.
Sorrow, purple dragon of laughter counterbalance.
And Desire, green dragon of generosity counterbalance.

The names flowed through my head and everything I needed to know came to me. While the other 6 were preparing for the transformation, I was thinking about the future, and what I saw before I came out of the visions. I saw our last battle, the crystal will be destroyed and Blunt Will falls to our power, only after great struggle of course. I see my future form and the things to come of it. The last thing I saw was Twilight, tears flowing from her eyes. I didn't only see it but felt the emotion. I could feel the separation, the loneliness. I soon realized that it wasn't her feelings, it was mine. The only thing I felt from Twilight was regret. Before I could look into what had happened to us, a strange tingling feeling of magical energy swept over my body and I blacked out.  

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"What happened...?" I asked groggily. 

"The transformation worked. With the power of six of us, we manipulated your fountain of magic so that one of us could morph your physical form to better fit your magical form. From what we felt, you should be in near perfect unison to your magical energy." Power explained.

"Do I have access to my full magical capability?" I asked.

"There's only one way to find out, lets go back to the mortal world, you and I." Power said. 

"How much time has passed in that world? Weeks? A month?" I asked.

"Well, you blacked out for quite some time, I think about 15 years had passed." Power said.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked nervously.

"More or less, it's been about 12 to 15 years." Power said, agreement spreading along the other five dragon lords.

"Can we do a bit of time travel?" I asked.

"Anything of your imagination is possible if you know the spells, but time travel is considerably more energy consuming." Power said.

"Is that a problem? Is there a limited energy pool?" I asked.

"Oh no, the energy rebuilds and multiplies like a living thing, its just complicated to use an energy consuming spell such as time travel." Power explained.

"What if all 6 of you did it together?" I suggested.

"...this hasn't been tried, its worth a shot." Lord Rage admitted.

"Everyone take position then, I'm going to try one way or another. I can't go back after 15 years..." I said solemnly.

"We understand your mortal attachments, let us begin the process." Power said.

The feeling of magical energy floated through the air as electrical sparks of magic flew and a ring started to engulf us all. I stood in the middle as a fountain of the energy while the other six stood around me and focused the energy into a time bending ring. The spell worked flawlessly as I was warped through time and space back to Canterlot. I shot out of the portal back into the room with Power following behind me shortly. We both laid on the ground as everypony looked around us. Confused looks encircled us.

"Well? Did it even work?" Tiki asked.

"It worked much better than I expected." I replied.

"It almost looked like you two bounced right off the water!" Silver said.

"The time spell worked much better than usual, judging from these reactions." Power said to me.

"Yeah, not to mention my new appearance." I said excitedly.

"Oh my. Something must've happened re-entering the mortal world through a time warp. You're back to your original state of appearance." Power said disappointedly.

"You're kidding right?" I asked irritatedly.

"Take a look for yourself, I can only notice small changes about your inner magical appearance. That's about it." Power said, warping back into Silver Dust's gem. 

"Son of a... All that time was just wasted then." I said angrily into my reflection of the pool.

"It's alright, we will still have enough power with the elements of harmony combined with their counterbalances to destroy the crystal and Blunt Will." Power echoed from the gem.

"All of you get some rest for now. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." Princess Celestia said to us all.

Everypony returned to their rooms and fell asleep as they fell into their beds. Applejack and Bronze both shared the same bed in another room. Tiki and Rarity were also granted a private room in the palace. At first Silver said he would just stay here with me, but I insisted on spending some time with Rainbow Dash. I knew they wanted to, even though Rainbow Dash didn't want to show any mushy feelings to her friends. In the end, Rainbow and Silver both got a room to themselves for the night as I fell asleep. Before I drifted off, Pinkie and Fluttershy both came into the room to spend the night with me. The two mares slept in different beds that were originally meant for the other three stallions. Twilight was busy, as she claimed to be. She had been up late that night working on plans she had to make. I don't know the details to what had happened since I had fallen asleep soon after Pinkie and Fluttershy showed up. The last thing I remember was a light blue dragon, his green eyes shining from the shadows cast over his body.

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We were all back in Ponyville, at sugar cube corner. I was enjoying a milkshake with Pinkie and Fluttershy. The other three ponies of my squad were missing, but I didn't bother asking why, I don't even remember how I got here in the first place. My milkshake wasn't it's usual yellow, it was more of a pinkish red, and the cupcakes laid out on the table shared the same tone of color. The textures of the cupcakes were very unique and intriguing. I asked Pinkie what her new recipe was, and she responded with "pony cupcakes." I thought it was just a clever nickname for her recipe until she told me it was made with 100% natural ponies. The look on her face started to twist as I darted my eyes around the room nervously. Nopony was anywhere to be seen, and Fluttershy had disappeared. Pinkie slowly walked toward me, asking me if I wanted to help her make another batch. I started to back away towards the door, until I heard Fluttershy's voice scream out from somewhere. I ran toward the screaming past Pinkie. I melted the lock off of an old rusted metal door and broke through it immediately. As I started down the stairs, I looked over my shoulder to see Pinkie Pie directly behind me. She had a twisted smile on her face to match her flat, straight mane. The pink mare shoved me down the flight of stairs and I tumbled down into a dark room. Fluttershy's screaming was louder as I looked around, my vision becoming dark and blurred. I saw pink and red everywhere from a single lightbulb swinging from the ceiling, bringing light to the dark, rusted room I was in. My vision continued to blur as a pink shape came over me and I blacked out. The last thing I heard were horrid screams of agony and pain. I didn't need vision to know what happened.

I soon woke up in my bed with a cold sweat running down the back of my neck. I was in the castle room with Pinkie in one bed and Fluttershy in the other. Both mares slept peacefully as my heart rate calmed and my breathing normalized. I didn't know if it was a side effect of something, but I had just experienced a horribly vivid nightmare. Because of my unusual power and certain acquired abilities, I feared that it could've been a look into the future. I sparked a bit of magic into my vision to see around the room a bit better. Nothing was out of the ordinary and I noticed the energy and light of the sun through one of the walls. It was beginning to rise up to the horizon, not breaking the surface of the land just yet. I estimated another few hours of sleep before the rest of the group woke up. Still feeling uncomfortable and edgy from such a vivid nightmare, I laid back into my bed and tried to sleep. I was soon stopped and almost jumped from my bed as I felt the presence somepony in the same bed as me. I darted over quickly to see Fluttershy slowly making her way around to my bed.

"What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost, you poor thing..." Fluttershy said compassionately. 

"It was worse than a ghost, but it was only a dream." I said shakily. 

"I learned that it's especially hard to recover from even a dream sometimes..." Fluttershy said softly.

"I've also learned that over the years of dreaming." I replied.

"It really helps to have something to hold after such a dream. Usually Angel is around to comfort me when I need it, but he didn't come along with us..." Fluttershy said disappointedly. 

"Why? Did something bad happen? Did you have a nightmare, too?" I asked.

"It wasn't a bad one, I can go back to sleep easy enough. I won't keep you up anymore, try to get some sleep." Fluttershy said, walking drowsily back to her bed.

"It's only a few hours before sunrise, but you can sleep with me if you want. I really did have such a bad nightmare..." I said, thinking back to the images in my head.

"Oh... Ok, I guess if it's only just a few more hours." Fluttershy said, coming back to my bedside.

"At least it's a large bed, there's enough room for both of us." I said, laying back into bed.

"It helps a lot more when you're hugging somepony, that's the point." Fluttershy said, climbing onto the side of my bed.

"Alright, if you insist. Sleep well, Fluttershy." I said, rolling over and grabbing the Pegasus in my arm and soon falling to sleep.

Those few hours went by fast as the sun rose over the horizon and lit the land of Equestria with it's shining beams of light. I woke up from the last few hours of sleep I got, thanks to Fluttershy. I don't think I would've been able to fall asleep again by myself after such a nightmare. Pinkie Pie was still sleeping in her bed, unchanged since last night when she fell asleep in that position. As I moved toward the edge of the bed, Fluttershy stirred and woke up with me. Before she could say anything, I signaled her not to wake anypony by speaking. Although It's not like her delicate voice could wake anypony in the palace, not even Pinkie Pie, sleeping just a few feet from my own bed. We both got up from the bed and walked out into the hall. Applejack and Bronze Hammer were out in the hall with Twilight, who looked as if she hadn't slept all night. Fluttershy and I joined the group and went out to the dining hall in the early morning. Some of the night guards were getting a snack before leaving their shift. We all went and got breakfast from the rows of meals being served from the cafeteria staff. After eating silently, the rest of the group came into the dining area to get breakfast and talk about everything that Rarity wanted to know. 

"Don't worry darling, we've all been reading your letters, just tell me what happened in the portal." Rarity demanded with a smile. 

"Yeah, tell us all what really went down, how long were you in there?" Silver asked.

"Well, I was temporarily transformed into my draconian form and granted an infinite pool of energy. The effects didn't stay while I came back through the portal. The only way I could come back at the same time I left was with a time spell. I was in there for 15 mortal years and had to travel back through time. " I explained.

"That's fascinating!" Rarity said.

"It really was, I met the six elements of disharmony, if I had to call it something. There are six counterparts to your elements of harmony, all with different looks, abilities, and personalities. The only real difference between you all were your appearances. Everything else correlated perfectly." I continued.

"You should introduce us to your new friends some time." Tiki said jokingly. 

"I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that soon when we go hunting for that last source of dark energy." I said seriously.

"It's gonna take all of them magical powers to destroy this crystal?" Bronze asked.

"It's not just a crystal, its Blunt Will himself. When we destroy this last crystal, he will have all the power he needs to be resurrected in his own flesh. The dragon lords are going to intervene with this and prevent the unbalance of energy from emerging into their world." I explained.

"Now don't go and push yer luck! Stay safe around that crystal!" Applejack said to the four of us.

"I'd rather see mahself fall than the rest of Equestria." Bronze said.

"Alright, I think I've done all of the explaining I need to, I'm going to head into the main palace to start our day." I said, finishing my platter of breakfast.

"I don't think he'll be able to handle it!" Rarity whispered roughly to the other 5 mares as I walked away.

"Somepony has to tell him at some point! We can't just drop it on his shoulders at the last possible moment!" Twilight whispered back.

"He's a tough pony! He'll bounce back from it if you give him some time." Rainbow Dash chimed in.

"Is this about the crystal?" Silver Dust asked.

"No, it's much worse than that." Fluttershy said.

"I'm thinking that if he takes full form, it wouldn't hurt him as bad as it could if he learned about this right now." Twilight said.

"Just tell me what I've gotta say to him!" Tiki said loudly.

"Keep your voice down! It's much more complicated than that." Twilight said.

"What's all of this about?" Bronze asked.

"It's the only thing that can actually hurt him. If we do this at the wrong time, something horrible could happen. He might not even be able to fight Blunt if he knew!" Twilight explained, a tear running down her face.

"Ah'm guessin' the best time to break the news would be right after the fight." Applejack suggested. 

"That's what I was thinking." Twilight said, sorrow tinged in her voice.

"Sweet Celestia... You're all joking, right?" Silver said in a shocked tone of realization. 

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"Are you ready, my loyal subjects?" The princess asked.

"We are ready." The four of us said in unison.

"We have located an unusual source of evil power in the southwestern fields of Equestria. It's the least settled area of the land and a perfect place to house a larger army..." Princess Celestia said informatively. 

"We'll head out as soon as possible, princess." I said.

"Good, I expect you all to leave by today and deal with the problem immediately. I hope you know what the last crystal foreshadows of?" The princess asked.

"I know exactly what we're up against. I have a plan." I smirked.

"I hope you know what to do, the fate of everypony in Equestria rests on your decisions." Princess Celestia said solemnly.

"Everything will go according to my plan, we'll prepare to leave before noon." I said.

"If you need any assistance, just talk to any of the staff around the building. Don't be a stranger!" The princess said to us as we walked out of the main room. 

Everypony was in the guest room we were staying at, packing their belongings and saying their goodbyes. After my group had packed, most of them split up and said their more personal goodbyes to their lovers. Silver and Rainbow Dash took a walk through the gardens of the palace. Tiki was in Rarity's room, assisting her with the packing. Applejack and Bronze were somewhere else in the palace, alone to themselves for the last time until this whole mess is cleared up. I was to myself for these last moments in the castle, packing my things and preparing to leave for the southern fields of Equestria. I knew Twilight was very busy here in the castle with everything going on and all, so I decided to leave her be until we returned to Ponyville and everything was calm again. The sound of footsteps lingered through the hallway as I put the last of my things into my endless pockets. Luna walked past my door as I was walking out. She smiled and winked my way before I could reach the doorway and say something to her, but she was gone as I turned the corner. I didn't have time for any games or hide and seek, so I just walked the other way to find the other three. 

I didn't have to do any looking for long. Everypony was in the entrance room of the palace. The mane 6 were packed to return to Ponyville and the rest of my squad was ready to head out for the source of evil located in the southwest fields of Equestria. After being dismissed by Princess Celestia, we walked out the door and started our walk. Striding through the streets of Canterlot, memories came back to all of us. I was thinking back to when this world was only a TV screen for us. I remember the first time I watched the show, the feeling I had seeing the characters along with my friends and the brony community. We all thought about our old lifestyles and the struggles we fought through each day that came with our brony lifestyles and rituals. I thought about all of the friends we could've had in this world with us, but there wasn't enough time or planning to put it into action. The lab explosion was a moment of good timing, like Desire explained to us, but it prevented any of our friends from joining us in a world where pain caused by others was non existent. Everyone dedicated to ponies could've been here with us in this world, but something happened. We were cut off from the humans, and it was for the best. The past is behind us and we must move on, this universe has accepted all of our presences we are lucky for this. I was snapped out of my concentration of thought as we reached the path down from the mountain.

"This will take much too long, let me just warp us all there." Power echoed from the amulet.

"Go ahead, I'm ready for it." I said, stopping at the edge of the trail. 

"Alright, I'm going to need some help from your power source, maybe Silver's, too. Do you remember how to manipulate other ponies' energies like we taught you?" Power asked. 

"I don't remember any of you teaching me that, but I feel confident on being able to do it..." I said unsure of myself.

"Good, the training we did paid off well, then." Power said happily. 

"Is this good enough?" I said, focusing the surrounding energy of everypony into a semi-physical form.

"That's perfect, I can warp us to the fields now." Power said, morphing the energy source into a bubble around our group.

Time and space twisted and changed around us. Loud noises and extremely bright, vivid colors encircled us and sunk into our heads as our physical bodies were vaporized and reassembled in another part of Equestria almost instantly. It was a memory jolting experience from our first trip and how the same exact experience occurred when we traveled between worlds. I don't think anyone with a commercial simulator from the human world experiences this on such a scale because only their consciences are warped into a man made simulator. Our consciences were warped through a simulator into a fully developed dimension, somewhat parallel to our original universe. Now we just warped through time and space in physical form, restructuring somewhere else in Equestria. Because it wasn't completely mental based, we don't suffer from such horrible migraines. After centuries of time travel and teleporting, an alicorn such as Princess Celestia or any of the dragon lords have become accustomed to the feelings. 

We came out of the portal in a field of deep green, tall grass. Tree line could be seen in the distance on one of our sides and the beach could be seen on the other. The water was a clear light blue color, tinted orange by the glow of the setting sun. The sky was a golden orange color due to the setting sun on the western coast of Equestria. Even though it felt like an instant of warping, we took all day to get here. There wasn't a massive pool of energy at our use at that moment, so we went off of whatever I had within myself and Power, along with Silver's energy. There was enough to go around to make an instant warp to this location, but something was sucking the energy around the land and interfering with the flow more than anything. We didn't want to risk any mistakes or errors in the spell, so we used an easier, less dangerous approach. 

After a bit of looking around, we ran to the beach to take a quick swim. With the sun setting, we came out of the water and went to work. Silver and Bronze went out to gather firewood while I pitched our tent and Tiki went looking for a fresh water source. I dug out a good spot for a fire pit and positioned some large rocks around the pit to avoid fire hazards in a grass field. I decided that the smartest thing to do was to clear a patch for our camp. I focused my energy to burn a ring around a small area of the grassland to be cleared. I raised the temperature as everything in the area started to singe, catch fire, and soon blow away in the wind. I pitched the tent and set up a fire pit for our group. Silver and Bronze soon returned with a good pile of fire wood from the forest. Tiki came back with his pocket filled with water. It was an ingenious idea to carry water in an endless pocket, but risked the chance of every single item in the same pocket getting soaked by the water. Luckily, nothing was touched by the pool of water Tiki had picked up as he dumped it all out into a large kettle we found in the area. 

There was a large amount of appliances like the kettle littered around the area. Some of it was either broken or rusted out, but other pieces seemed newer and barely even used. We had plenty of water from Tiki's pocket, so we washed out the kettle and filled the rest with water. Everypony got a spot around the fire pit, even Power took a physical form and joined us in the socialization. He had his dragon form, except he was pony sized and fit well around the fire place with us. The only way to pull off such a small physical form is from using all of his energy from the warp spell and not being able to regenerate it because of the disruption of energy somewhere in the area. We had the kettle filled with water and boiling over the fire when we realized that we had nothing to cook and had no idea why we were boiling water. In the end, Silver decided to toss in a jar of a special herb that Zecora gave him that day when we left Ponyville. It supposedly had good relaxing properties and a sensational taste. This was no lie, as we drank the entire small kettle full of tea. The taste was a strong, sweet taste of something I couldn't put my mind to, but I felt like I've had the taste from somewhere before. I kept thinking about this, but became drowsy after a while and just decided to talk with the rest of the group. 

"We all know the plan tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're going to find the crystal and Power will summon the other elements of disharmony to eliminate the power within it." Silver said. 

"Yeah that's it, then once we get this over with, we'll be back in Ponyville before you know it!" I said excitedly.

"Back to the days of relaxing and hanging out with our favorite group." Silver said.

"We never really had days like that, we've been working ever since we came to Equestria." I said.

"That's true, so I guess we finally get to relax and do what we want when we return to Ponyville." Silver said.

"We finally get to live normal lives as ponies when we return!" Tiki said.

"Well, ah've still got a lot to do with Applejack." Bronze chimed in. 

"Yeah, I've got tons of work with Rarity, now that you bring it up." Tiki said.

"I just can't wait to get back to Twilight, I've almost forgotten what love feels like after being gone for so long." I said.

"We should just totally tell him." Tiki whispered to Silver.

"I'm going to grab another log for the fire. Come help me out, Tiki." Silver said hastily. 

"Alright, let's go." Tiki said, following Silver out to the edge of the forest. 

"We can't tell him! You know what everypony else said would happen!" Silver whispered harshly.

"He needs to know. We have to explain to him what's really going on." Tiki said.

"We can't drop that on him before a fight like this!" Silver argued.

"We also can't drop something like that on his shoulders at his weak point after the fight!" Tiki replied.

"We have to wait until tomorrow, when everything has passed over!" Silver hissed.

"No, if we tell him then, it will crush him! If we told him right now, when he's at his toughest point before battle... I think he can pull through it." Tiki said stubbornly. 

"...now that I think about it, if you said that differently, it would make sense. Bronze will be the deciding vote." Silver said.

"Agreed." Tiki replied, flying back to camp.

We were all sitting around the fire quietly as the blueish flames danced around the pit and radiated heat from the blaze. I lit the fire myself, which gave the flames a strange blue tint while they burn hot on the logs. Power was laying around the open side of the fire where we didn't put any seats to sit on down. Tiki and Silver were rushing back from the edge of the forest. They didn't come back with any wood, only a simple question for Bronze to answer.

"Bronze, do we tell him, or not?" Tiki asked.

"...No, definite no, wait until later." Bronze said, realizing what the question was about.

"Tell me what?" I asked suspiciously. 

"It's nothing, we can tell you after tomorrow." Tiki said.

"Oh, it's about Twilight, isn't it?" I asked.

"No, the question isn't even for you." Silver jumped in nervously. 

"Just tell me now before I get the answers out of you guys some other way." I said jokingly. 

"It's about Twilight." Tiki sighed.

"Go on." I said slightly anxiously.

"You two... Can't be together. I'm not sure why, but it can't happen." Silver said.

"There's more to that? ...right?" I asked, as my heart sank down through my chest at the sentence I heard.

"There isn't much more, but I know that you shouldn't worry about it." Silver said reassuringly. 

"Yeah, it isn't you, Twilight was just as sad when she was talking about it." Tiki said hastily.

"And that's supposed to reassure me? I have no answer to why! Even worse, Twilight is equally upset about what's happening!" I said irately. 

"You had to mention Twilight's reaction..." Bronze said to Tiki, face hoofing himself.

"It's only a few days! You'll know soon enough what's going on from Twilight herself!" Silver said.

"True, I just hope we can still manage to speak to each other. Something serious is going on, if it wasn't me and it wasn't her who caused this breakup..." I drifted into thought, and soon into sleep as I passed out on the ground from the tea I drank a short while ago. 

"Huh, I guess the tea really was effective after all." Tiki said.

"Yeah, maybe if you drank more than one cup you would feel it." Silver replied.

"Ah'm not sure about y'all, but ah feel the tea workin' just fine. Ah'm goin' to bed." Bronze said, yawning shortly after he spoke. 

"I will stay out here for the night. See you all soon tomorrow morning." Power said softly on the other end of the fire.

Power used his magic to levitate me closer to the fire and turned my face away from the blaze as everypony else went into the tent. If I was to sleep in the tent that night, my internal fire would make the room into an oven. It was warm outside already, and fairly damp due to our close location to the beach. Everypony soon fell asleep after the news was broken to me. I'm pretty sure I would've never been able to sleep if the tea hadn't knocked me out. I'll know soon enough what was going on.

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The next morning came smoothly and early. I woke up next to a still burning fire. My magic had kept it blazing throughout the night. It was early dawn, the sun wasn't over the horizon and the stars still barely dwindled in the pale sky. Everypony was still sleeping, aside from Power, who was staring at me intently. I knew he didn't sleep all night, but it probably only felt like minutes had passed by through the night. When you live for thousands of years, time can pass by incredibly fast if you lose yourself in thought. I have acquired this ability since entering Equestria all that time ago. It's been forever since we came to this world. 

One thing I haven't kept track of is time. We've been so busy lately that we haven't been able to monitor many other things. We've worked ourselves to the bone some days and lazily relaxed most of the others. All of theses days have been spent doing the same thing. We've been serving the princess on her last command to us. Once we finish this fight and return to the princess, we will either receive new orders or be dismissed for the time being. 

My mind returned to Ponyville and what awaited us there. Our mansion has been mostly vacant for so many months, aside from Crisco caring for it on the weekends that he wasn't cooking for fancy ponies. Pinkie Pie would usually be at sugar cube corner, serving goodies and such to the many ponies that enter and exit daily. I probably upset her pattern of work majorly when I brought up some disturbing memories from her childhood. That'll soon be solved, as I took the liberty of interjecting on a conjuration spell of one of the pink gypsies. I told them about their long lost daughter and what she was up to. They were overwhelmed to hear that their daughter was still alive and went straight to Ponyville as soon as they could. We were probably going to miss this happy reunion, but I bet Pinkie would be more than happy to tell me the details of what would happen. Everypony would be glad to see us and tell anything they thought would be even remotely worth talking about. We would be sitting around for days on end telling stories. It'll be so nice to see everypony again, especially Twilight.

That name struck an arrow through my heart and spilt my dragon blood all over the grounds, I felt like I was losing all of my energy with Twilight not being with me. It was going to be tough to adjust. I haven't a clue to what went wrong. The feeling of myself doing something wrong was pulling at myself. I felt like Twilight was repulsed by my draconian form. It could be because of my absence from Ponyville, I know how she can be paranoid sometimes. I'm probably the one being paranoid, but I can't help the empty hole in my mind that Twilight won't be mine anymore. I feel like my energy is seeping out of this hole and chasing after her. My thought was broken by a voice. I looked up to see the sun rising higher in the sky and the daylight shining down on everypony. The fire next to myself was out and smoldering in the sun. It felt like time had jumped right over my head during my daydreaming. 

"Who's ready to fight and go the buck home?" Tiki asked. 

"Ah'm ready to end this and take a mighty long vacation!" Bronze laughed as he stretched out from the tent.

"It'll be so nice to live normally after this." Silver added in.

"Don't get your hopes up too soon, we still have to fight." I said, coming out of my trance.

"It will be very tough. We will need the help of all 6 elements of disharmony to bring down such a dark force. I've felt the power of yourself, Ironclad. The bliss of the land has granted you power equivalent to all 6 of the elements of harmony, combined with Princess Celestia herself. Your well of magic is truly amazing, if we could only find it's full potential." Power explained to us.

"We'll find it soon enough. Bring in the elements and any other ponies we need if more power is needed." I said. 

"No, your power is practically spilling from your mortal body, it shall happen today, I just don't know when." Power insisted.

"Ok, whatever you say! Let's head out before the sun gets too high in the sky." I said, walking off in whatever direction I first glanced to. 

After Power located a trail to follow to the powerful dark energy, I turned to follow the rest of the group and set off for the final battle. We didn't actually follow a physically defined trail, but a leak of energy coming from a coastal plain not too far from our area. It most likely looked similar to our location, but it was on a peninsula and the path was mostly forest. As we walked, the energy got stronger as everypony could physically detect it's presence. I could follow the path because the energy in the air became visible to my eyes. We continued walking through the forest, only mumbling a few things between each other along the way. I could feel the nervous energy coming off of each member of the squad. We were all thinking of the future. I could feel everypony thinking about the battle and the possible outcomes. Not all of us may leave for Ponyville today. We could lose somepony along the way, even more than one could fall. We would be playing this battle out very carefully, it wasn't just another goblin raid any more.

We were getting close to the area of interest. At the end of the peninsula was an old abandoned lighthouse with an eerie purple light coming from the top. It was mid day, but the crystal center looked as if it was shining darkness across the land it looked upon. Goblins were laying about, ready to get up and fight. We were at the edge of the strip of land going over to the lighthouse. Dark clouds lingered in the distance as the crystal's power fluctuated and pulsed darkness across the land, stretching farther in diameter with each pulse.

"We need to destroy this thing as soon as possible." I said quietly. 

"We need the other 5 lords of disharmony." Power replied.

"Let us bring them forward and engage in the battle of the ages." I said eagerly.

Our energies combined into one portal, colliding with the energy coming off of the crystal, drawing attention to our location. Raw power clashed in the air, causing heat and parts of the universe itself to shudder and reassemble shortly after. This was extremely dangerous for mortal ponies. If one of these shudders were to hit them, they would be instantly melted and reassembled wherever the place of impact was. This wasn't controlled energy, which meant that they would be reassembled in which ever way the pieces came back together. Energies collided as the 5 dragon lords started to enter the mortal world. One by one, claws grasped the edges of the wormhole as each of the lords slithered from the afterworld. The portal grew larger as their power helped fuel our own and sped things up. The energy released off of this also helped to repel the dark energies back to the lighthouse and off of the land. 

Goblins rose from all directions, mostly from the peninsula. Heavy booming sounds could be heard from the distance as a black warship in the horizon unloaded a broadside of highly explosive shells onto the peninsula, eradicating many of the goblins rising and preparing for an attack on us. The rest of the goblins coming from the forest and the beachside were slaughtered by the dragon lords or myself and the others. The only thing left was the crystal and a few straggling goblins lingering along the coast. As I looked over from the last goblin I slashed down with my sword, the ship sailed off into the distance over the horizon. The original copy of the goblin clones created by the crystal had emerged from the lighthouse. Stumbling over to our side I kept everypony from mercilessly slaughtering the creature and brought him at our side. I knew he didn't want to fight any longer and told him to wait in the area. After seeing him run into the forest, I went back to focusing on the threat at hand.

"It's time we ended what we should have stopped a very long time ago." Mutany yelled out viciously. 

"You thought you could end me so easily." Blunt's voice echoed out.

"It's too late to make a move, he's already capable of physical form." I said gravely. 

"Strike while we can!" Rage shouted mightily.

A streak of red flame flew from Rage's mouth as the rest of the colors flew and brutally attacked the crystal. The gem shattered into pieces and the blackness of the energy was consumed by flames. Dragons took shape in each streak of fire, eating away at the darkness viciously in a primal carnage of light, fire, and magical energy. The fire died down and the dark clouds of a storm rolled over the island. The light of the sun was blocked from our view. One speck of blackness survived, unbreakable by the powers of the dragon lords themselves. This darkness grew larger, and rapidly. It started taking shape in the center, as shadows leaked from the corners of the shape across the ground and over the lands. Once it got to a certain point, the shadow exploded over the land and soaked into the ground for miles. Screams and hollers of pain echoed through my head and across the land. The last scream I heard was of Twilight. It was so realistic, I could've swore that it was right in front of me. Small tears rolled down my face as the blackness pierced me and the image of Twilight's heartbroken face haunted the back of my mind. My eyes were shut as blackness crept through my body, consuming me from my hooves up. Before it could reach over my legs, I heard a voice yell out.

"Don't give up! We need you! We all need you! I need you!" Twilight yelled out, standing in a grassy field along with the other 5 elements. 

"I never stopped loving you, and if you give up now, you'll never know what happened. You deserve to know the truth more than anypony!" Twilight said, tears running down her face.

The sky was blackening as the wind picked up and streaks of lightning flashed through the sky. Armageddon itself seemed to sweep over Equestria as Blunt Will took physical form in front of my very eyes. His appearance was more slouched and dark. True evil was spread over his face as the shadow that formed him failed to leave his body. Carrying a massive black club, he raised it in his hand and pointed to me.

"You will fall this day. The land belongs to me." Blunt said, pure black evil chording with his voice. 

"This land will not be yours, for I will not fall to you." I said, feeling the hole in my soul being patched by Twilight's words. 

"This was a very anticipated reunion for us, Lord Bliss. Do not think that I am not ready to make you kneel once more." Blunt's hideous voice echoed.

"I have power in friends, power in friendship. I'm fighting for everypony in Equestria, good or bad. Friendship is magic and I can feel the full power running through my body." I said strongly, listening to the voices of the ponies everywhere, even from the afterworld. I'm fighting for all of them. 

"I won't just take one of your friends from you. I'm going to take them all this time!" Blunt screamed, throwing his club on top of my head. 

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Everything went black for a split second. I was in Ponyville with all of my friends around me. I hadn't forgotten where I just was and what I was doing. I went into a slightly panicked state of mind. Nopony was around the town and everything had blackened. I wandered the streets for a bit until I approached Twilight's house. Inside the library, two dead bodies of the residents were there. Spike was mangled on the floor and Twilight's body was bloodied on her podium. I couldn't run, I couldn't react. It was almost as if someone else had control over all of my actions. I forcefully looked down at my hooves to see blood across them, along with my chest and neck. My sword was at my side, stained with blood. I continued through the streets, seeing all the dead bodies of the ones I used to know and love. 

Sugar cube corner was filled with bodies. Pinkie's body was laying on the top, with her twisted expression on her face from the dream I had a few nights ago in the palace of Canterlot. Blood stained the floor and walls as the pink shade of the store faded into black and the shadows continued to spread. Everything went hazy again as I felt myself drifting to another place. 

I soon found myself at Fluttershy's cottage. Animals were everywhere, dead from starvation or brutal beatings from her other pets. In the back, I saw the mare laying dead on her bed, her mane was chopped and torn. Her tail was also mangled and stained with her own blood. I couldn't stop myself from walking over and examining the body, but I looked away as she was turned over. 

Rainbow Dash's body was completely maimed. Her wings were severed from her body, as if they were ripped off by hooves. Her legs were broken in many places and her mane was all one bloodied red color. I stopped and felt myself able to speak once again. I held back the urge and was spoken to instead.

The whole Applejack family had been decapitated as the blackness killed off the orchard and shriveled all of the trees to dried up twigs. I felt as if I was the only one in this world and that I had caused all of this to happen. 

Rarity's boutique was ransacked and her body had been wrapped in a dark cloth, stained red from a single wound made by a blade that was plunged through her heart. I looked over all of these bodies so heartlessly. I wanted to react and I felt myself doing so, but in a different way. I was confused with the feelings I was experiencing. This upset me, but I couldn't be upset either. It was confusing and I didn't have time to think it over, I was just thinking of the images I saw. 

"This is your future. My defeat only leads to these outcomes. Think about your moves wisely, dragon lord." Blunt whispered into my mind.

"This is a lie. You don't hold the power to see into the future, and even if you could, I know that you would change the look of the outcome." I said angrily.

"You know nothing! There is no time for you to decipher what is real and what is not! I do not even care if this is real! It's only a distraction." Blunt chuckled evilly to himself. 

"How long have I been gone?!" I asked.

"Long enough for this outcome to occur, you don't even know if this is reality or not!" Blunt began to laugh maniacally. 

"You're a twisted being... I'm going to kill you, avenging the deaths of all that you hurt." I said. 

"Will it be worth it? Just give up, join your friends in another world. You can all be happy there, to yourselves." Blunt suggested. 

"When I get out of here, I'm going to..." I was cut off as I felt a strange power overcome myself. 

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A bright light burst at the point of impact. Blackness originally enveloped the impact, but a stronger magic repelled the attempted attack. A mere fraction of a second passed, but felt like days of suffering. I didn't care, though. I was ready to suffer a thousand deaths and wounds to protect my beloved friends. I felt nothing and only focused on one thing. The impact of energy on my head shook my core energy and loosed something from myself. My physical form split into pieces as white light shined through and something incredible emerged.

It was a smooth blue dragon. The torso was thin and long, but very defined and muscular. The arms were long and scaly with long fingers accompanied by gleaming black talons. The legs weren't exactly as long and resembled more of a form of a wolf. Tho foot was long and thin with large, narrow toes. The talons on the feet were shorter and more curved. There was a single toe along the back of the heel with a large curved talon that allowed for grabbing items if needed. The legs and arms were long and thin, but more muscular near the body than the hands and feet. The muzzle of the creature was long and thin, with fine teeth filling the jaw in a perfect row. The tongue was a triple pronged snake tongue, dull pink in color. The eyes radiated different shades of green, as if the color of the green was pure magic flowing from the eyes of the beast. Similar to the other dragon lords, a white fuzz ran around the head and neck of the beast. It flowed like a tuft of could in the sky, almost perfectly resembling an actual cloud. Two tufts hung from the side of the jaws of the beast, resembling long side burns of white cloud, streaked with blue and gold. The tuft of cloud fuzz was also streaked with blue and golden colors, running down the back and tail of the dragon. Fuzz covered the entire top half of the beast, only baring scales on the pale beige underbelly of the snaking dragon. The tail was long, thin, and looked delicate, but was very strong. It almost doubled the length of the head and torso of the dragon as it whipped around in the air like the breeze of wind in the sky. A smaller tuft of white cloud ended at the tail, seeming as if it was only hovering after the tip, and not actually attached to the tail. Wings were attached to the body, also covered in fuzz on the top so that the wings remained hidden as they were pressed against the backside of this beast. They spread out long, but surprisingly lacking in width or thickness. It didn't matter, they were only used for quick propulsion and acute control while in the air. 

This was me.

My true form had taken shape, my cutie mark was gone, but I wasn't pony anymore. The impact of the magical force of the club shook out my magic core and released the power from my mortal body. I was now immortal, a god among my own friends. I didn't have time to think about it much, as I grabbed my sword  floating through the air next to me. The physical exertion of magic from my body caused me to hover through the air uncontrollably. I could've floated away into the sky if somepony pushed me off the ground. My sword had grown in size with my own look. It had stayed proportional to its original dimensions, but almost tripled in size. I no longer needed to carry it at all times. I could summon my weapon whenever I required it, and required it now as I took hold of it with my tail and thrust the blade through Blunt Will. The blade pierced his side and came out at an angle. Black liquid poured from his side and vaporized as it floated in the air. It was dark magic spilling from his body. 

"This is for everypony you hurt." I said, slashing the sword across his legs.

"This is for everypony you planned to hurt." I grunted, dragging the blade across his chest, spilling more blackness into the air. 

"And this is for everypony. Every single soul there ever was and will be to exist, every single soul you threaten at this moment." I yelled, thrusting the sword into his blackened chest.

"Your blade will not hurt me." Blunt chuckled. 

"Then I will bring you down with my own true power." I grunted determinedly.

Instantly, Blunt shot into the sky through the clouds. My Draco-vision was tracking his energy and I spread my wings and shot up to chase him. I left the ground with such force that I almost blew over everypony on the ground, kicking up a storm of sand and dirt mixed with sea water. The sky itself was blackened. There was no sun and only an evil red moon. The sky was engulfed in blackness, not a star to be seen anywhere, but the sky wasn't the limit. Blunt came at me with his weapon as I parried it with my sword. The clash caused space and time itself to shudder and dissemble the physical world slightly. He came at me again and another shudder shook the sky. 

"You cannot parry him! These shudders will destroy Equestria!" Power roared up to me.

Blunt came in for another strike and missed as I whipped my my wings through the air and darted to another location in the sky. Shooting up behind him, I threw my sword through his shoulder and released fire from my gullet. The magic infused in the fire was so dense it almost melted the dark magic from the beast. A large, rough hand reached over my neck and threw me through the sky. I recovered shortly and shot up to him again. Stopping inches away from him, I released a massive burst of fiery energy that lit up the sky and ground as if the sun itself had been present in the sky. Blunt Will showed in his true form, blackness no longer engulfing his body. The evil soon recovered and took over again. This gave me a strange idea.

I grabbed the dazed evil Blunt Will and threw him down the the peninsula once more. Coming down like a nuclear warhead, I smashed my foot onto his body and shoved him deep into the ground. With rushed manipulation of the energy around me, I induced the 12 elements of harmony and disharmony to release their power and strike at the evil. Magic was hurled through the air like a physical force and struck the two of us directly from above. Blunt Will showed as himself once more as the evil was subdued into a condensed state. I raised my sword, and with a strike of lightning in the distance, I brought it down, severing the connection between this dark energy and it's host, Blunt Will. 

Clouds subsided, the sky turned blue, the sun came out, and everything returned to normal. Everyone was forced back onto the ground from the explosive release of energy that occurred from the separation and destruction of the energy. With no host, the dark energy source had no living space. It jumped along the ground, searching for a host and progressively losing all of it's gained power. The ball of darkness jumped at my throat and attacked my body. The force hit me weakly and singed into nothing as my force of magical energy around my body had vaporized the parasite. The only thing left was an old, tired goblin laying in my hands. 

"You've stopped the nightmare... 500 years... I owe you everything." Blunt Will said, in his normal voice. A normal voice such as mine or anypony else's.

"The only thing you need to do is rest. Go to sleep and I will visit you soon." I said, closing his eyes and gently laying his head to the sand of the beach.

"Words... Cannot describe..." Silver said in awe.

"It's over everyone, its finally over." I said softly. 

"All of you, come with us." Power said.

Using my massive energy pool, we were all warped to the afterworld.