Yeah, take that you stupid cyborgs! POW! POW! POW! Look at you, dropping like flies to those humans! How pathetic can you be? Very, that's how much so. If I had a nickel for every one of you Terminators that falls so easily to the human resistance, I'd be . . . uselessly rich. Meh, not like I care anyway; I'll just take something if I want it. Nothing can convict me; insert evil laugh here.

Well, looks like they're done fighting for now. Better check on the rats . . . I see they're still sleeping soundly. I wonder what would happen if I never raised the sun for them. Would they stay asleep forever? Would their bodies know when to wake up in the absence of sunlight? I do wonder what Luna was thinking when she wanted to plunge Equestria into eternal night. If only I could read minds . . . should I rope in Luna and ask her? Nah, only eight at a time.

Alrighty then, I'd better raise the sun for them. Okay, make this as dramatic as possible, Aza.

Sunlight shone through the window on the second story of Golden Oaks, bathing the bedroom where Twilight and Sandy slept in a golden luminescence that continued to grow as the sun rose higher above the horizon. Eventually, the light reached the sleeping faces of the mare and the squirrel. Twilight was immediately woken up and cracked an eyelid open, closing it again in response to the bright sunlight shining in her eye. Sandy, however, wasn't jostled and instead stayed deep asleep in spite of the sunlight shining onto her eyes.

Twilight stayed in bed for a few more minutes before stepping over the bedside and walking over to the bathroom to take a shower. She hadn't a clue whether the running water would still work, but figured if it wasn't she could always either try to fix it or wash off in the swimming hole outside of Ponyville, assuming it existed in this Equestria. She stepped into the shower and used her magic to pull the lever for hot water. To her immense relief, water shot out of the showerhead and onto her. With a small smile, Twilight levitated a loofa and soap from the nearby shelf and started cleaning herself.

The lavender unicorn furrowed her eyebrows and scowled, but said nothing in response. The last way she wanted to start the morning was converse with the omnipotent sadist. Instead, she continued scrubbing away at her body.

A moment of silence followed before Aza replied. "Finally gonna talk, eh? Alright, yes?"

Twilight levitated some shampoo over and squirted it into her mane. "Do you honestly believe any one of us would care to make idle chitchat with you?"

Another moment of silence followed before Aza's reply. "I'm afraid I don't quite follow you."

Twilight replied while rubbing the shampoo into her mane. "Aza, only people on some level of friendship with each other strike up casual conversations. If you think any of us sees you as a friend in any capacity, then you're sorely mistaken."

Twilight took a moment to rinse out her hair before answering. "You are, and always will be, an enemy." She stepped out of the shower and levitated a towel over. She continued while drying herself off. "You've taken us from our homes, put us in multitudes of danger, and pitted us against each other all in the name of your 'experiment'. Don't bother playing nice to us, because we know it's a load of horseapples."

There was a pregnant silence as Twilight finished drying herself off and hung the towel back onto its rack. It wasn't until she'd returned to her room, where Sandy was still asleep in bed, and pulled a book off the shelf to read that Aza finally responded.

"But," Aza continued, "there'd be many benefits to seeing me as a friend instead."

Twilight stopped, then looked straight up in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Think about it, Twilight. You can befriend everyone I pull into my experiment to your heart's content, but they are merely pawns; expendable and almost totally worthless. A queen, on the other hand, has vast power at its command because it's closer to the master than the pawns. Should you regard me as a friend, you can expect to receive a queen's power in turn, so to speak."

Twilight took a moment to digest all it'd said before snorting and returning her attention to the book. "Even if a pawn becomes a queen, it's still just a playing piece."

"That is true," Aza replied, perfectly neutral in tone. "But would you rather be a weak pawn whom can easily be taken out, or a queen whom has the best odds of surviving?"

Twilight said nothing, but the slight downcast look in her eyes told Aza she'd gotten the message crystal clear. "Anyway," Aza said, "take time to think it over after you're done patching things up with Celestia. Speaking of which, Yugi and Samus are on their way over right now to help with that."

That last part gave Twilight pause. She set the book down and turned to look upwards again. "Pardon?"

"Yugi and Samus hatched a plan to force Celestia to reveal her true motives for requesting the Alicorn Amulet last night. Together with you, they plan on enacting it at Sweet Apple Acres, which also happens to be where my newest participant is currently pigging out on all the apples."

"You heard me correctly, Twilight Sparkle. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch cowboys and space aliens duke it out."

It didn't answer, to which Twilight growled in annoyance. She levitated the book back onto the shelf and rushed downstairs, the loud clopping of her hooves somehow managing not to wake Sandy. Just as she reached the stairs' landing, a knock sounded on the front door. Twilight used her magic to open it, revealing Samus and the pharaoh.

"Yeah, I know." The lavender unicorn rushed through the door past them. "C'mon, we need to find Aza's next victim ASAP and let them know what's happening." She began running in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

Samus and the pharaoh looked to each other for a moment before taking off after her.

Being awoken by the sun's light was something Princess Celestia hadn't experienced since before the day she assumed command over it. In essence, her own internal sleep clock told what time morning would start. To that end, waking up like a normal pony would felt weird to the solar alicorn.

The sun's light pierced through Celestia's room's window and shone on her sleeping face, waking her instantly. After getting over the weirdness of not having brought forth the day, she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She then got out of bed and, after stretching her legs a bit, proceeded to take a shower. On her way, she mulled over what had happened the previous day, especially how things were between her and Twilight when she'd left Ponyville.

I hope Twilight has forgiven me wholeheartedly by now, she thought while stepping into the shower.

She, Twilight, and the pharaoh stood at the front gate of Applejack's home; Twilight just wished the orange mare herself was there. On their way there, she explained to the others how Aza told her of their plan to interrogate Celestia on her true motives for requesting the Alicorn Amulet. When she asked what the plan itself entailed, Samus and the pharaoh explained how Samus would use Honesty to make Celestia answer their questions truthfully, but only if Twilight really wanted to know her teacher's motives. Twilight answered that she did, and thanked the two for their assistance in patching things up between her and Celestia.

Of course, their plan took a backseat to finding the new arrival and informing them of what was happening, as well as asking if they'd be willing to aid in overcoming whatever challenges Aza threw at them.

"Yep," Twilight replied, using her magic to open the gate and hold it open for them. They stepped through, to which Twilight followed and shut the gate. "Aza said the person it roped in was eating the Apple family's apples; we need to stop them, then let them know what's happening."

"Alright," the pharaoh replied, "let's split up. If any of us finds him/her, bring them back here and wait for the other two to return."

"Actually," Samus replied, "how about if I go fetch Celestia while you two look? Just to save us some time."

Twilight and the pharaoh shared a look before returning their gazes onto her. "Um, Samus," Twilight said, "Canterlot is miles away, up on that mountain." She pointed to the Canterhorn, alongside which they could just make out the sight of Equestria's capitol city. "How are you supposed to make it there . . . well, 'today'?"

The green visor of Samus' helmet hid the wry smile she adorned in response. "Normally, I'd just use my ship." She briefed a glance skyward, her frown also hidden behind her helmet's visor. "However, I do have another option to work with." She patted the legs on her Power Suit. "One of the upgrades in here is what's called the Speed Booster. True to the name, it quadruples my running speed after enough acceleration is built up." She glanced in the Canterhorn's direction. "I can probably get there in ten minutes, then be back with Celestia after another thirty, since I'd have to ride on her back for the return trip."

Twilight stared blankly for a moment before turning to the pharaoh. "What do you think?" she asked him.

"It's a sound plan," he replied. "My only concern is that something might happen to you on the way, to which we'd be powerless to help you."

Samus waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about me. I've trekked planets by my lonesome which boasted some of the most hostile conditions imaginable; compared to those, this will be a walk in the park."

Both Twilight and the pharaoh mulled this over for a moment before nodding their agreement. "You'll know where to find Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked.

"The giant palace, I'd assume." Twilight nodded again. "Then I know where to look." She went back through the gate and stretched her legs a bit, readying herself.

Samus nodded. Twilight and the pharaoh watched as she then broke out into a light jog, which quickly picked up speed as she began running. Then, in a split second, a yellow ethereal trail in her image appeared behind her as the Speed Booster was activated and Samus shot off into the distance. Twilight and the pharaoh were able to follow her for only a few seconds before she disappeared from sight.

She could give Rainbow Dash quite the run for her money, Twilight mused internally.

Twilight nodded and the two of them took off in separate directions across the orchard.

"Well, looks like Twilight left," Sandy mused out loud as she eyed the empty bed across from her.

She'd woken up just a scant few moments after Twilight left Golden Oaks. Waking up naturally and not by the sound of an alarm clock was something the squirrel only experienced at the end of hibernation back home. It then occurred to Sandy that it'd been a long time since she'd even stepped foot on dry land back home, yet the sensation hadn't felt alien to her at all since yesterday. Then again, her tree dome did count as dry land in a way, so that was most likely the reason why nothing felt different.

Sandy took a moment to rub the sleep out of her eyes before getting out of bed. After stretching her body for a bit she proceeded to take a shower. Upon finishing and redressing, she decided to pass the time waiting for Twilight to return by browsing through the library. She descended the stairs and made way to the shelves upon shelves of books lining the oaken walls of Golden Oaks.

Let's see here . . . Modern Spellcasting, nah . . . Art of the To Do List, don't rightly need it . . . HUMAN-wait a minute!

Sandy pulled the oddly titled book off the shelf and examined the front cover. Her eyes widened in surprise at the name of the book's author.

She opened the book to one of the first few pages and took it over to a nearby chair. She sat down and began skimming through each passage. The more she read, the more her eyes widened and her jaw slackened. Even though she was only skimming each page, Sandy could make out boatloads of detailed and intrinsic text describing humans and their history on Earth. The level of detail in the book was so great that Sandy was sure Twilight had help in writing the book. Looking back to the first page, Sandy's suspicions were confirmed when she read the dedication note.

For Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and my #1 assistant, Spike. Thank you for helping me write this masterpiece of literature; you're all the best friends an egghead like me could ask for.

Sandy relaxed. She was about to respond when she remembered the book held in her paws. It made clear to her that humans were pure fiction in Equestria, born out of the collective imagination of Twilight and her friends. She didn't know what that meant for humankind's existence, or whether it was even something to worry about since Aza made it blatantly clear the multiverse theory was true, but the last thing she wanted was to cause distressful awkwardness for any of the group's four humans by showing them Twilight's book.

Sandy stood up and returned the book back to its place on the shelf. More knocking sounded.

The front door opened, to which James Bond entered. "Well hello, Ms. Cheeks," he said, shutting the door behind him. "Is Twilight not here?"

Sandy sat down and shook her head. "She weren't in 'er own bed when Ah woke up; Ah figure she up an' left fer whateveh."

"I see," James replied. "Ah well, I was hoping she could show me where I could wash my suit; it's getting too dirty for my liking." He walked over to an adjacent chair from Sandy's and sat down. "I suppose we could make idle chitchat until she returns."

"Sure, Ah guess." Sandy crossed her legs and began twiddling her thumbs as she looked downcast. "So, what's on yer mind, James?"

James quirked an eyebrow. "Are you okay, Ms. Cheeks? You seem rather . . . antsy."

"Well, why shouldn't Ah be?" She looked all around the library, as if searching for some anonymous threat. "After all, we're in constan' danger."

"True," James replied, "but you're especially so now, and the inside of your helmet is fogging up with sweat."

He was right. Sandy could feel sweat running through her fur and see the fog forming on the inside of her helmet. Grumbling to herself, Sandy proceeded to remove her helmet. She then placed it on a circular table in between their chairs.

"Anyway," she said, a slight irritable tone lacing her words, "Ah asked y'all a question."

James stared blankly for a second before nodding. "Indeed you did. For my answer, I'll say I've been thinking about what should happen back home if I die here." He crossed his legs and looked up in thought. "I suppose MI6 won't care either way when they have eight more 00 agents at their disposal, but I'd still like to think I'm invaluable to them."

Sandy blinked. "Y'all really think yer boss won't care if'n ya jus' disappeared 'thout a trace?"

James smiled a cruel smile and shook his head. "There are times when I think she'd rather me die in the line of duty then return to HQ and make advances on her colleagues." He looked back at Sandy. "If I don't make it back home alive, odds are more people would be happy than saddened."

"Oh, okay." Sandy relaxed a little. "Fer a second there, Ah thought y'all had a death wish."

"Perish the thought, Ms. Cheeks." James stretched a bit before continuing. "In all honesty, I find it very amusing to see my boss get so worked up whenever I rustle her jimmies."

The door opened to reveal Frank who looked quite worse for wear; his eyes had plainly visible bags under them and were only half open, while his hair was unkempt and messy. He waved his hand to Sandy and James and spoke.

"Hey guys, is *yawn* Twilight here?" He took a step into the library, staggering a bit as he tried to keep his legs from falling asleep. "I want to talk with her about something."

Sandy and James shared a look before Sandy replied. "Sorry, Frank, but Twi wen' out fer somethin'. No idea wha' though, since she didn' leave a note r' anythin'." Her face fell into one of concern. "Are y'all 'right, Frank? 'Dja not get any sleep 'er somethin'?"

"Yeah," Frank replied as he used one hand to shut the door and the other to rub some sleep from his eyes. He closed the distance between them, working extra hard to keep himself balanced. "I was up most of last night thinking about something, which is why I wanted to talk with Twilight."

"Well, Ah'm sure y'all are welcome ta hang out here 'til she gets back." She raised a curious brow. "What 'dja wan' ta talk wit' her anyway?"

Frank took a seat in the only unoccupied chair and shook his head. "Don't worry about it; I just want to ask her if she could help me with something."

Sandy and James shared another look. Before anything more could be said, however, yet another knocking sounded from the front door.

All three turned to each other with befuddled expressions. The knocking sounded again, and this time Sandy noticed something odd about it. Rather than a couple of moderate taps, it seemed whoever was knocking was instead lazily pounding their appendage against the oaken wood door. This coupled with their lack of response confused the group of three, almost to the point of unnerving them.

Sandy was about to get up and open the door herself before James shot up out of his seat and pulled his Walther PPK from its holster. He motioned for Sandy and Frank to stay where they were as he approached the door. The MI6 agent cautiously closed the distance between himself and the door, taking careful baby steps so as to not alert whomever was knocking. He held his gun out, poised to fire should the need arise, but also in such a way that he wouldn't accidently shoot them if startled.

As soon as he reached the door, James put his ear to it and listened. While he didn't expect to be able to hear much of anything, instinct said to use all of his senses when searching for possible threats. Hearing nothing, James reached for the doorlock and ever so carefully unlocked it. Then, with a gentle push, he swung the front door open.

There was nothing there. Sighing, James lowered his gun and was about to turn around when a flicker of movement in his eye's corner caught his attention. Squinting his eyes in its direction, James watched as a humanoid figure in front of a nearby house lumbered its way around, staggering with each step taken. It looked to be wearing human clothes, but James was too far away to make out any specifics. Then, another figure appeared from around the corner of another building, identical to the first. Then another. And another. In just a few moments, Ponyville went from almost deserted to bustling with activity by these . . . these . . . . . .!

"James?" Frank asked, standing up to which Sandy followed suite. "Is something wrong?"

Without a single spoken word, James quietly closed the door and turned around. He began walking toward the stairs leading to Twilight's room, gesturing with his head for them to follow. Sandy and Frank briefly shared a worried glance before following him. Once they reached the stairs' landing and James sat down on Twilight's bed, his facial expression completely blank, Sandy and Frank strode over to the balcony.

Stepping out onto it, Frank and Sandy peered out over the town of Ponyville, curious as to what had apparently unnerved the British spy so much. Looking down onto the grass streets of Twilight's hometown, Sandy's eyes went wide and her pupils shrank to the size of pinheads, whereas Frank's eyes just narrowed in recognition of what he saw.

"And in Golden Oaks, weighing in at an averaged total of 450 lbs., we have Sandy Cheeks, Frank West, and an apparently out-of-commission James Bond. And throughout the rest of Ponyville proper, currently weighing in at 1200 lbs. but ever-increasing, we have zombies!"

Twilight ran blindly through the vast orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, her hooves pounding against the earthen ground as she swiveled her head around in search of Aza's newest victim. All she had to go on was that this new victim was male and that he was pigging out on the orchard's apples. Despite the situation at hoof, Twilight still felt a sense of responsibility for keeping her friend's, alternate version or not, produce safe from thieves. She knew whomever Aza had dragged into its experiment was likely lost, confused, and wanted food badly, but that didn't give him the right to take what belonged to this Equestria's version of Applejack. Not that Twilight had any intention of berating him for stealing, again given the situation, but she did intend to make clear to him that Sweet Apple Acres' apples were off limits not just to him, but everyone whom Aza roped into its experiment.

All the while she ran throughout the orchard Twilight wondered what the new participant would be like. With the entire multiverse at its disposal Aza could, quite literally, pull in anything anyone could imagine. Knowing this, as well as the sadistic universe's apparent fondness for humans, Twilight realized she could possibly meet her original character from her HUMAN series, Warren Zaccaro. The idea of meeting the character she created, face to face and in person, gave Twilight a momentary pause in her running. Would he be exactly like she described him? How would he react upon hearing she created him in her own universe? Would he freak out and have an existential crisis? Would he understand the multiverse theory? Twilight remembered how she'd written Warren as having a neutral, apathetic viewpoint towards almost everything, but she wasn't sure if that included 'meeting your god'. Twilight gave an awkward grin at the thought of being looked upon in such a light; her modesty made it impossible to enjoy such idolization of her person.

Twilight was pulled from her meta musings by a shuffling sound coming from behind a tree up ahead of her. Knowing it had to be Aza's newest victim, Twilight ceased her gallop and began tip-hoofing onward so as to not startle him and risk getting attacked should he be armed and dangerous. Once she came within a few meters of the tree, Twilight called out to him.

A slight shiver traveled down Twilight's spine, but she kept her brave face and called again. "I know you're there! Who are you!?"

Once again there was silence. The fear Twilight felt grew ever stronger as she began fantasizing what this new person was like. Was he a ghost? Invisible? Shy? Was he waiting to ambush her when she came too close? All of these theories and more flashed through the lavender unicorn's mind while she tried mustering the courage to continue onward.

Suddenly, a groaning sound resonated from behind the tree, startling Twilight a bit before she raised a curious brow. "Um . . . are you okay?"

Her fear now subsided, Twilight cantered up to the tree, fully curious as to who/what was behind it. Looking around the bark, her eyes widened at what she saw. Leaning against the tree was a figure humanoid in shape but naught in anything else. Its skin was light gray and it had a spiky blue mane. The arms were abnormally long and ended in black clawed hands, one of which clutched the thing's stomach as if in pain. The mouth was big enough that Twilight could fit her entire head in, and she cringed at the sight of the razor sharp teeth it hosted. The creature was wearing what appeared to be a black leather outfit, with rings on its fingers and pierced in its left ear, and a belt with a skull-shaped symbol on the front. What especially unnerved Twilight, however, were the stitch marks around its neck, as if the thing's head was chopped off and then sewed back on.

The creature turned its head to her, and Twilight recoiled a bit at the sight of the thing's eyes; they were yellow with red pupils like Discord's, except not mismatched. The creature opened its mouth, revealing bits and pieces of apple stuck to its teeth.

Twilight got over her shock and took a moment to relax herself before answering. "You kept making sounds; I followed them." She looked up into the tree above them. "Hopefully, Applejack won't notice anything."

Twilight looked back down at the creature, who adorned a creepy smile despite his confusion. "I bet you have a plethora of questions, don't you?"

The creature stared blankly for a moment, which only served to unnerve Twilight due to its face, before replying. "Yes, I do. Care to answer them?"

Twilight smiled wryly. "It's going to be a lot to take in, but I can answer most, if not all of, your questions in less than a few seconds."

Twilight charged magic into her horn. "Just stand still and don't panic." She leaned her horn towards the creature's forehead. "This won't hurt a bit."

The creature was cut off as Twilight's horn made contact with his forehead. A surge of new memories flowed into its brain at a rapid pace. Every single image, sound, sensation, and more that Twilight experienced between first waking up in the blackness and the present time was copied and transferred to the creature's mind. Once done, Twilight took a moment to relax her brain of the accompanying aches after performing such an intense spell. The creature, meanwhile, stared blankly again as he processed all of the new memories Twilight imparted onto him. After a few moments he looked down at her with the same creepy smile as before.

A corner of Twilight's mouth lifted into a smile. "You will too, now that you're here." She lifted a hoof in greeting. "Now that you know all of our names, would you mind telling me yours?"

The creature shook her hoof with his free clawed hand. "I'm the Shinigami Ryuk."

A chuckle sounded from Ryuk, eliciting a confused stare from Twilight. "How about if I show you?" Ryuk broke away his hand and lifted it up to Twilight's forehead. "You're not the only one who can impart memories onto others, Twilight."

Ryuk placed his hand onto Twilight's forehead, just below her horn. In an instant, Twilight felt a rush of memories course through her brain. In no time at all, she knew everything about Ryuk; his past, his purpose, everything. And what she learned paralyzed her with fear.

As soon as Ryuk removed his hand from her head, Twilight scrambled backwards on her hooves, putting about five meters of distance between them.

Singularity

by Razalon The Lizardman

Universe Of The Dead