//------------------------------//
// Chapter Six: A Dramatic Turn of Events 
// Story: Well, This is New... 
// by Dumbgamer99 
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Chapter Six: A Dramatic Turn of Events








If there was anything to be said about Equestria, I suppose it would have been ‘paradise’. By human standards, at least. That was actually one thought that kept occurring to me as I followed the group of Ponies serving as my tour guides and escort. The colors of the world were significantly more vibrant than I had become accustomed to. Bland dark colors at that moment seemed nonexistent, and in its place was bright, joyous palettes.

At least, I thought they were more vibrant. It was hard to keep track of small things like that when you lived that long.

But there, at that moment, it was hard to not stop and take in the beauty of it all. The sun was shining high in the sky, yet it wasn’t uncomfortably warm. The clouds were small enough to provide small patches of shade here and there. The birds were chirping random, melodic tunes. A warm breeze gently flowed across the land, forcing nearby trees to sway. It was all very... relaxing.

…

‘Am I seriously describing nature? This world must already be having an effect on me.’ I shook my head briefly from side to side, clearing my thoughts for a moment before glancing around at my companions. ‘Or maybe it’s the candy colored Ponies,’ I said to myself with a silent chuckle. I had been fighting for so many years. Maybe some tranquility would do me good.

“Are you even listening to me?”

I was brought back to my senses as I felt something poke me in my side. I glanced over at the prismatic-maned Pegasus, who was hovering next to me and had a slightly irritated look on her face. I cocked an eyebrow at her. She merely let out a groan and face palmed. Or, face-hoofed, I suppose.

“So I basically just wasted a perfectly good explanation on how weather in Equestria is made while you were off in La-La Land?” She grumbled. I gave her an apologetic smile and gestured for her to continue. I was actually curious when she began, but Nature had begun to distract me. The only response, however, was her rolling her eyes and flapping her wings with more intensity to put altitude between us.

‘Well, way to make yourself look good, Storm.’

Despite the lasses’ irritation with me, the trip back to Ponyville from the farm was quick, quiet and (thankfully) uneventful. It seemed after the altercation between me and Applejack’s brother, no one in the party had anything to say.

And that bothered me.

Don’t get me wrong; I took serenity whenever I could get it. But I couldn’t help feeling like there was a metaphorical pin just waiting to drop. My paranoia wasn’t lessened by the fact that Twilight and Lyra kept shooting me furtive glances before looking at each other during our trip.

Now, it might had just been a pony mannerism. I hadn’t been on the world long enough to know much about how most Ponies behaved. For all I knew, they randomly broke out into song and perfectly choreographed dance.

Singing and dancing Ponies. That’d be the day. Still, it was a rare occurrence that I would be so bothered by an uneventful day.

“That could be because the last time we had an uneventful day, you accidentally woke up the KraNal and unleashed them across three different realities,” Ed chimed in all of a sudden, startling me.

I winced slightly at the memory. So many lives gone forever because I was careless. At least I got to kill the damned thing with a black hole. That was fun, at least. ‘Thanks, Ed…’ I replied sarcastically. ‘That’s just what I needed…’

“Sarcasm is rather unbecoming, you know,” Ed said in the kind of tone a college professor would take when pretending to be remotely interested in the subject they were paid to teach. “And if you wish to have a chance with any of these fine, young ladies (or… mares, I suppose would be a better term), then you must practice speaking like a gentle-”

‘What in the blue hell are you going on about, Ed?’ I swear, for an A.I., Ed sure could be very immature. At times, it was almost as if seriousness wasn’t an algorithm in his database.

“And as I recall, you were checking out some of the Ponies.” My brows furrowed at that. I did no such thing!

Well... I did check them out when they were walking in front of me. Only to observe and figure out their ass-tattoos though, dammit! I was planning to give Ed a piece of my mind about the matter before he continued. “And if that doesn’t scream ‘hormonal, deprived teenager’ then I don’t know what does.”

My inner eye could only blink in utter confusion. What was Ed going on about? He had teased me previously about such matters, but never so quickly after contact and with such fervor. The hell? ‘I literally have no idea what you’re talking about, Ed. In case you haven’t noticed; I haven’t been an actual “teenager” for a VERY long time.’

“You don’t say?” Ed said, faking surprise. “Regardless, you still have your teenage body. The Editor preserved your genetic makeup, so technically you never reached full adulthood. Which allows me to come to the reasonable conclusion that you’ve still got all your rampaging hormones.”

‘How long have you been “concluding” this, exactly?’ I deadpanned. When Ed sent me a brief report on his logic-based statistics of my travels and experiences, I could only groan internally. ‘One decade after I obtained the Editor? Seriously? You've been holding that data in for this long? Why?’

“I thought you’d have figured it out by now,” Ed replied with a mental shrug. It felt like the tingling sensation I’d get in my palm when I high-fived someone harder than I probably should’ve. Except, you know, in the back of your brain. I must have twitched or something, because the girls were all giving me strange looks as we walked past the first few houses of town.

“As I was saying,” Ed continued, “If you’re going to start a relationship with any of these-”

‘Let me stop you right there,’ I quickly interjected, before Ed could continue making the inside of my head any more awkward than it already was. I had no idea where all of this was suddenly coming from, but I hardly had the patience at that point to deal with it. ‘Here’s what I’m thinking. Let’s just put a pin in this discussion.’

“A pin?” Ed repeated.

‘Or a nail. Nails last longer,’ I thought with an internal shrug. ‘Hell, let’s use a railroad spike. Actually, let’s abandon the pin metaphor altogether. Instead, how about we just take that conversation, put it in a box, wrap that box in chains, cover the whole thing with cement and throw it in the ocean?”

"We could do that, I suppose. Or, I could tell you about what I discovered while examining the Strands of this reality instead," my A.I. suggested. That caught my attention. The Strands were vital parts of my job as an Editor; knowing them inside and out was how the things I could do was possible.

‘I thought you were entering sleep mode to run diagnostics on yourself. Since it’s been seventeen years since you last updated yourself, and all,’ I noted. ‘What changed?’

“I found faint traces of what might be that other Editor influence causing the Lock a few millennium back. Appears to be originating from the forest near Fluttershy’s home.” My eyebrows raised slightly (an action that the Ponies ignored). I shouldn’t be too surprised. I figured there had to be some remaining if a Lock was still active on the Universe. But... a trace of Editor influence? The only other person who could form Locks was a Manipulator. Not an Editor.

“But that’s not the most interesting thing I found in the Strands,” Ed went on. “I’m detecting several Strands from other versions of Equestria changing the direction of their flow and entering this Equestria. Now, we’ve seen similar things like this before (as you’ll recall). But this is the first time the Strands have been identical in every single way.”

Now my interest was definitely piqued. The Strands of Existence were basically the DNA of all that ever was and all that ever would or could be. But no two Strands were ever exactly the same. It was impossible. ‘Any idea what they are or why they’re all coming here?’ I asked Ed.

“I’ll need some time to try and figure it out,” Ed replied. “But I have a feeling the Strands are being drawn here by us. Our presence must be attracting them, their energy prone to intertwining with the Editor’s power. Like moths drawn to a flame.”

‘Let me know as soon as you know,’ I told him.

“But of course,” Ed scoffed. “One more thing, though.”

‘What?’ For some reason, I did not like the tone of that lingering statement.

“House.” With a dull thunk, I walked face-first into the side of a small house near the marketplace of Ponyville, and fell flat on my rear. I could hear some of the girls giggling at my blunder, Ed being counted amongst the chuckles.

“No offense, big guy, but you can’t exactly walk through a wall,” Applejack chuckled as I rose to my feet, dusting myself off. I cocked an eyebrow at her, and merely offered a smirk. I activated the Editor’s reserves once more, forcing a small section of the wall to become ethereal. 

I could afford expending some energy to put the doubts of individuals in their place.

To the amazement of the non-Unicorns present, I reached through the wall, grabbed the first thing on the other side I could feel, and pulled it back through the wall. The Editor’s power ceased its flow, causing the wall to return to its normal state. I held out my newly acquired spatula toward Applejack and gave her a ‘You were saying?’ look.

“Give me that,” Lyra huffed, yanking the spatula from my grip with her telekinetic magic. She proceeded into the house that I acquired the culinary tool, grumbling all the way. Judging from the blatant entry, we were stopping by Lyra’s house. Glad somebody told me.

“They probably did, but you were too busy talking to me to notice.”

I rolled my eyes at Ed. He was probably right. What else was new, eh? ‘Oh hush. Don’t you have a Strand anomaly to examine?’

“That’s the thing,” Ed began with a sigh. “I’m running scans and diagnoses out the wazoo. And for the strength of me, I can’t interact with these Strands. Which means one of two things...”

‘Another Editor. Or a Manipulator,’ I finished for him. My lips tightened into a thin line. Could Equestria had been one big ambush by the Manipulators who had discovered the Editor-trapping Lock, seeking to finally kill me and put down the ‘Keeper of Neutrality’ for good? Or could it have been one of the other Editors, stopping by for a lovely chat?

“You’re wrong,” Ed pointed out, my silent muses being picked up by him. “These Strands are at least a few thousand years old. If an Editor or a Manipulator was causing them, I’d feel them. You’re the only one, Storm. For a while now, you’ve been the only one.”

‘Then why can’t you interact with them?’ I asked. Of course I was the only one left. I was the First. There were no more Editors. No more Manipulators. They all had fallen, at one point or another. I was the only one left.

I had to be.

“I’m not entirely sure. This phenomenon is different from the other scenarios. Can’t figure out what makes it so special, though,” Ed admitted. He sounded like his pride was wounded. I couldn’t blame him. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

‘Because that’s worked out in our favor before,’ I added sarcastically. I glanced around at the group, still waiting on Lyra to exit her home. Oddly enough, the other girls were starting to act nervous like Twilight and Lyra had been on the walk here. Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy kept shooting me worried looks. Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to be having an intense hushed conversation, occasionally glancing back at me. And Twilight still had that admittedly strange smile on her face.

Something was up. I could feel it in my bones. And I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Lyra eventually stepped out of her home, a set of khaki-colored saddlebags decorated with her cutie mark now on her back. “I got what I needed!” She announced happily. “Ready to go to Twilight’s?” The group responded with half hearted agreements. Where did all the happy go-lucky go?

It took little further time to reach Twilight’s home from Lyra’s, but the silence in the group was deafening. It was almost as though a dark cloud were hanging over their heads--figuratively, of course. And that made the short walk seem significantly longer. Like it was stretching for an eternity.

It was a shame I was forced into pretending to not speak their language. Otherwise, I probably could’ve questioned one of them to tell me why they all seemed so down. But I had no choice; ever since my throat was technically healed and free to communicate, I had a bad feeling.

Wait. My mind paused at the thought. I didn’t believe bad was the proper word. But something was without a shadow of a doubt wrong. And in that moment as I was standing there in the parlor of that cottage, I decided to extend the lie. Just long enough to where Warping was a viable option again. So if something bad were to happen, I could have a way out. Hopefully.

Twilight flashed me another determined smile as we passed by the town hall. Why was she so giddy? Maybe it was because we were finally arriving at her home, and she was eager to show me it. And as we approached a large, towering oak tree with windows and doors... I was just as eager.

At first glance, Twilight’s home seemed to be nothing more than a tree with some furnishings built into the bark. Upon closer examination, however, it actually ended up being a very large tree that had been hollowed out, turned into a library with the amenities of a home, and magically enchanted to continue growing without causing interior damage to the library home. A quick glance at a neighbouring sign labeled the place as ‘Golden Oaks Library’, which was an average name.

A library in a tree was pretty awesome (and ironic), though. It was one of the more impressive tree-houses I encountered, for sure. Hell, it was good enough to enter the ‘Top One-Thousand Coolest Things I’ve Seen’ List. I would probably put it at number three-hundred and eighty-nine. Right between watching a normal human drink lava and come out unharmed, and watching an entire solar system form (literally) in the palm of my hand before the miniature sun went supernova and wiped it all out-

“Storm. Rambling. Try to focus.”

I merely waved off Ed’s warning as we all arrived at the front door. “Wait here while I go get, Spike,” Twilight said, mostly to me. “He’s very anxious to meet you.” And with that, the purple-coated unicorn disappeared into the tree.

‘There’s a sentence I’d never thought I’d say.’

It didn’t take much time for Twilight to return with her companion in tow. Spike, who I had been expecting to be a large, talking mastiff, turned out to be a rather short, bipedal-lizard. Immediately, my mind associated him with the Irida, though his scales were a bright purple in color, rather than the dull and drab grays, blacks and browns the Irida had. A row of curved green spines lined Spike’s back, faintly glinting in the light of the setting sun. His eyes were comically large and had an almost innocent look about them.

“Spike, meet the Earthling,” Twilight said with a grin. Once more, I forced myself not to groan at the name. Maybe I should’ve slipped a hand-written note, just to mess with them. Or at bare minimum, fix that bloody discrepancy. “Earthling, meet Spike. My Number One Assistant.”

“You said he was tall, Twilight, but you never said he was this tall,” Spike said, letting out a low whistle as he looked me over from head to toe. He had to crane his head back for a moment to even look at me fully. I pondered how upset he would be if I tagged him with my knee. He was right there in eye-level with it. “And you say he can’t speak?”

“He can speak alright,” Twilight grumbled, her cheerful demeanor she had put up for her assistant quickly fading. “But he’s speaking in some other language I’ve never heard of. I know he can understand us just fine. He made that clear when we interacted with him. Which means he should be able to speak Equestrian, but he just flat out refuses to!” 

Spike looked questioningly at me. I gave him a small shrug then plastered a smile on my face. “Saluti. Mi scuso, ma questo è necessario,” I stated, still in Italian with a faint hint of an accent. Spike raised his brow at me and turned back to face Twilight.

“A language you’ve never heard of?” The lizard laughed. “So you’ve never heard of Itailian before?” Twilight face-hoofed, earning a chuckle from Spike. “Couldn’t you tell by his accent?” My eyes just widened. If they had some bad punny-version of Italian, that meant...

“I should have been able to,” Twilight admitted. “Not that I’ve ever really interacted with many Ponies from Itailia before.” And just like that, her grin flashed back onto her face, wider and more confident than before. “This is great! Now that we know what language he’s speaking, we can translate! I’m positive we have an Itailian to Equestrian dictionary in the library somewhere!”

‘Uh oh. Yup. There goes that plan. Okay, the Editor is programmed with almost four and a half thousand languages. One of them has to be lacking in this world. I need to buy me time. Any at all. Random language setting time!’

“Randomizing Primary Language Output: node ‘Spanish’ selected.”

"Apuesto a que no puede entender ‘este’ lenguaje," I said in fluent Spanish, complete with a stereotypical accent. Twilight and Spike gave me identical looks of confusion as they racked their brains to see if they recognized the language. I prayed to the Fates that they wouldn’t.

After a long minute of waiting in an awkward silence, Spike sighed in defeat. “I don’t think that’s any language I’ve ever heard before,” he admitted with a shrug. Twilight looked, well, like her mane was about to burst into flame from sheer frustration at my lack of cooperation. 

I’m not sure why, but I was kind of irritated. Not at Twilight, of course. Well, not entirely; would it kill her to put her curiosity in check for a few goddamn days? The main source of my irritation at the moment, however, was the fact that after a day or so a decision could be made about whether a sapient species could be trusted with coherent communication.

I hadn't reached that decision yet.

Near as I could tell, the Ponies were friendly enough, but Twilight and Lyra’s behavior had me on edge. And what’s worse, they were both good at hiding what they were thinking and I wasn’t desperate enough to break into their minds (yet). After all, both could use magic. Which meant there was a slight percent-chance that Twilight and Lyra could sense if I was intruding in their thoughts.

It would probably be best to just let things play their course.

“Would you look at the time?” Rainbow Dash announced with a loud, obnoxious, and all-around fake yawn. “We’d all better get going. See you girls later!” The other girls quickly followed suit, all giving rushed goodbyes and parting ways. Minus Lyra, who insisted she needed to use the library for some research project she had been working on in her free time.

I had been about to follow Fluttershy back to her cottage (because I would more likely trust her than any other Pony I encountered) when Twilight called out to me. “Oh, Mr. Earthling! Why don’t you stay here tonight? The library is closed on Sundays and Fluttershy’s going to be really busy tomorrow. You wouldn’t want to impose on her, would you?”

My eyes squinted at the Unicorn pair. ‘Yeah, ‘cause that’s not suspicious.’ I looked back to see Fluttershy flash an apologetic look before flying off. Following Twilight and Lyra into the library, it seemed fairly obvious that they were planning something together.

“Might as well play along,” Ed mused from the back of my head. “I doubt they will heavily pester you if you set your foot down and be adamant about your language barrier. Plus, you could possibly gain some much-needed data.” I couldn’t agree with Ed more at the moment.

The main room of the library had a rather quaint and cozy feel about it. The shelves were carved into the trunk of the tree, packed from edge to edge with thick, hardback books. Real books, too! I hadn’t seen real books in decades! I took in a deep breath through my nose, savoring the familiar scent of the written word (surprisingly, once I discover it somehow had an actual smell to it, I kinda got addicted to it. Like incense, but better).

I turned back toward the two Unicorns in time to see them ushering Spike up a set of carved stairs to the upper levels of the library where (I assumed) Twilight lived. As soon as the purple lizard-dragon-reptile... thing was out of sight, Twilight and Lyra turned to face me. Both grinning like they had just stolen a treasure chest and were eager to take a look inside and see their reward.

…

Oh, hell no. I was the fucking treasure chest! ‘Well, at least that explains their behavior earlier,’ I quipped to myself in thought.

Twilight took a couple of steps toward me, her grin clearly forced. In a way, it was borderline psychotic. “So,” she began, “are you sure you aren’t going to speak in a language we can understand?” I shook my head firmly. “But, we have so much to ask you. How can we do that if you won’t speak?”

I gave her a shrug that quite plainly stated how little I cared.  ‘No means no, you pushy little equine.’

“What would it take to get you to tell us about yourself and your species?” Lyra asked, as she and Twilight took another step forward. “Fluttershy made us swear not to bring it up during the tour today.” Another step forward, this time in flawless unison. Okay, now I was starting to get antsy. I was good at hiding it, but it was still surging forth. I simply shrugged and stood my ground. 

“That’s too bad. Unfortunately for you, Fluttershy isn’t here to stop us.”

My mind took a second to process the threat. ‘Wait, what?’ Twilight’s horn lit up with a sudden magenta aura and before I could gather my wits about me, the same glow surrounded my body and forced me down to one knee.

“Since you won’t tell us willingly, I guess we’ll just have to force you to talk, won’t we?” Lyra said as she stepped forward. Her horn lit up with a faint golden glow as her magic joined with Twilight’s. The combined strength forced me down onto all fours.

‘Crap! They’re going to torture me or cut me open just to get me to talk! I knew I shouldn't trust them! I fucking knew it!’ I let out a faint growl as I struggled to fight off the magic holding me down. Unbidden, a rush of images flew through my mind of the last time I was held against my will. 

Shadows springing to life, binding my hands and feet and holding my head steady. The world around me, burning in an eternally burning green flame. The screams of the worlds’ inhabitants as they pleaded for mercy. A cold, merciless laugh. A glimpse of silver eyes, shining with satisfaction as the reflection of the burning world danced in them.

I snapped back to reality. Lyra had produced a syringe and was drawing a crystal clear liquid from a small vial she had brought with her. 

‘Is that what I think it is?’

“Yes,” Ed replied. “Analysis shows that the liquid is indeed Veritaserum. Or at least, this world’s version of it.”

‘That’s what I was afraid of.’

Veritaserum. A powerful truth serum that effectively forces the drinker to truthfully answer any question put before them. It was colorless, odorless, and completely indistinguishable from water. Worst of all, the Editor had almost no immunity against it. And the antidote required supplies and time to create. And wouldn’t someone guess, I didn’t have any fucking on me!

‘Ed, I need to get out of here!’ The panic and anxiety was rising inside of me. That stuff could not get near me; who knows what they would ask me? If they asked the right questions, mortals like them would be unable to fathom the answers without losing their sanity. I tried to calm myself down with ancient breathing techniques, but with little success.

The rush of images appeared again, triggering spasms of aggression in my person as I laid there restrained. I doubt the Unicorns hardly noticed at the time.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

“I’m already working on it,” my AI replied. He seemed oblivious to my current state of mental stability. “You’ll be patched through to the Equestrian Magical Perimeter in ten seconds. Then you can break their hold on you.”

‘I need to. I have to. Ed, I’m freaking out.’

“Just calm down, Storm. We’ll get out of this unscathed. You’re now connected to the Perimeter.”

I closed my eyes shakily and slowly exhaled. I could now feel the two separate magics holding me down, and I could faintly detect the magic field Lyra was projecting to levitate the syringe. Power coursed through my veins as I triggered the Editor. My hands began to glow with a pale blue light, startling both of the Unicorns.

But then something happened. The terror, and anger, and frustration, and nervous apprehension that was flowing in my body accumulated. And as the rush of images came crashing down on me once more, something inside of me snapped.

‘How... how fucking dare they?!’

My right arm punched free of their holding magic and I pointed my index finger at Lyra. The golden glow around the syringe vanished, replaced by an aura identical to the one surrounding my hands. I spun the syringe around mid-air and sent it flying into Lyra’s flank. She let out a squeak of surprise and stumbled as the needle pierced her skin. Another flick of my wrist, and the plunger sent the Veritaserum rushing into her system.

“Storm! What the hell are you doing?! Set aside your emotions!”

A snarl left me. What was happening? I felt as if control of my body was being wrestled away from me. This anger and bitter hatred I was feeling was not my own; it felt foreign. How could it be my own? I hadn’t felt such things since him. I couldn’t stop it, though. The abrupt wave of feelings were fogging up rationality at that moment.

“Lyra!” Twilight cried out. The magical field she was projecting around me flickered for a moment and my body took its chance. The energy in my hands pulsed, and Twilight’s holding spell shattered with a loud *crack*. The purple-coated unicorn fell back in shock as I rose to my full height. Her eyes flicked from the blue glow on my hands to my enraged expression.

“Now would be the perfect opportunity to leave,” Ed informed me. I hadn’t heard such nervous energy in his tone for centuries. “I’m sensing the others are on their way back. No doubt half of Ponyville heard you break Twilight’s spell."

‘No.’

“No?” The incredulous expression Ed was no doubt forming was palpable.

‘I am not finished with them yet.’ What were these thoughts? I held no resentment towards the Ponies themselves. Why was my anger so prominent? Why couldn’t I voice the fact that what was occurring was not entirely in my control? Why wasn’t everything in my control?!

Ed’s voice came blasting through my subconscious. “Storm! Center yourself! Let go of these emotions you’re facing!” I took a step towards the Unicorns, not of my own volition. “Stand down! For fuck’s sake, man; Stand Down!”

The volume of the command for a moment cut through the aggressive haze that was shrouding my mind. My rationality was dwindling, slowly giving away to blood-lust. I had to do something; whatever was happening would put the mortals before me in danger. I could not allow that to happen.

But suddenly the haze returned full-force, and another step was made. But before I could take another, I found Twilight back on her hooves again, her horn aglow. I gave her a vicious glare, and to her credit: she only winced a tiny bit. A magenta aura formed around me only to fade away, much to Twilight’s surprise. I smirked at her. I didn’t like the sensation of it on my face; it felt too twisted. But I couldn’t wipe it off. She tried to cast the holding spell on me again, only for it to fail to take effect. 

Little did Twilight know, but whenever I connected the Editor to a world’s local Magical Perimeter, I could make myself immune to virtually any form of magic that world would have to offer. There were exceptions, of course. I could still be affected by high-powered spells. And... enchantments...

In that moment, I think I realized what was happening. Some kind of spell or incantation was placed upon me. Something that ripped away my ability to control myself, and invoked bloodthirsty thoughts and animalistic strength into my soul. I had faced such curses before, but nothing of the magnitude I was facing at that moment. 

I had no idea why it had suddenly triggered. All I knew though was that I had to find a way to stop it.

Ed attempted to speak further, but before such an action could be done, the haze of feral rage dominating my actions began charging a bolt of arcane energy. Trapped in my subconscious, I quickly realized another thing; the orb of energy I was about to project at the form of Twilight Sparkle was meant to kill.

Instantly, my spirit surged forth against the wave of negative emotion. For one glorious moment, I had control of my body and mind again. I used it wisely; with a pulse of Editor-driven power, I overrode the arcane attack. It thankfully fizzled out. And then instantly control was yanked from me once more.

Twilight, however, was rather persistent, and cast the holding spell on me a fourth time. Through some miraculous means, the demonic energy coursing through me couldn’t resist against it. Somehow, despite the fact that I was patched into the Perimeter, the spell had taken hold. And I fell flat on my face.

“Storm!” The yell from Ed reverberated in my skull. “What is the matter with you? You do not need to exact revenge!” A frustrated sigh left him, oblivious to my plight and inability to fully control my actions. “Twilight’s magic is more refined than other magic users. It actually communes with the Editor, hence why you’re immobilized again. I can refresh the Editor algorithms to buy you time, but you have to use it to escape. Not to try and attack the Ponies. Do you understand, Storm?”

I understood it crystal-clear. But for the life of me, I could not say it. Whatever was afflicting me was incredibly powerful; to the point where it interfered with my capability to speaking to Ed. That was major. And really, really bad. My mind forced out a response. ‘I... get it, Ed. Just... do it!’

“I didn’t realize you could use magic,” Twilight said excitedly. How she hadn’t recognized that I was turning into an enraged shell of my former self, and that I had nearly launched a life-threatening shot at her being; I’ll never know. “And breaking free of both of our holding spells within seconds of each other? That’s difficult for even the most advanced spellcasters in the Canterlot College for Magical Studies. Who knew Earthlings were so powerful?"

I ignored her as my body took a mind of its own and thrashed against its magical bindings. Instead, I began focusing all of my mental energy on figuring out how to break the whirlwind of destruction raging inside of my being. A lull in the action gave me an opportunity to contact Ed unhindered. ‘Ed! I need help! I can’t control myself! Some kind of Enrage spell got cast on m-’ The thought was cut as the typhoon picked back up.

“Storm! Storm, what is happening?! I am seeing ungodly spikes in your emotions, and your logical and rational parts of your mind are shutting down! Storm?!” Ed was shouting, but I could barely hear him. Did he even hear the message I sent out? That same rush of repressed memories came again. Ed picked it up, and his muffled voice cried out. “What the fuck is that?! Storm! Answer me!”

Twilight was pacing in front of me again. Lyra was on her hooves once more, but she was keeping her distance and eyeing my glowing hands nervously. Twilight looked to me with a grin. “Now, even though you used up all of the Truthful Whisper on Lyra-”

“I’m actually into stallions. Not mares!” Lyra blurted out suddenly. “That was a story I made up in school so somepony would pay attention to me!” She clasped a hoof over her mouth as Twilight shot her a slightly confused look. “It’s the Truthful Whisper! I can’t stop speaking the truth!”

“Okay…” Twilight muttered, turning back to me. My face was still marred with rage, but it apparently went unnoticed by the mare. I tried another rush inside the confines of my being, but the wave resisted. I didn’t relent. “How about we get you to open up to us. Time to talk. I know you can understand us, and you speak other languages fluently, so you have to speak our language. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

I stared directly at Twilight, who smiled back sweetly. My unrelenting assault on the magically-placed rage proved some success; I had control of my body. I did not know how long it would last, but I tried to make the most of it. I sent another thought to Ed. ‘I need you to restrict my access to all weapons that can kill. I can handle whatever is happening, but I can’t let whatever is happening to me access to my tools.’

Ed didn’t respond however. Further investigation revealed that the haze had somehow fully ceased communication between Ed and I. My mind could not comprehend it; who was able to place such an incantation? Why was it affecting me? What would happen if I wasn’t able to keep it in check?

“WARNING! FOREIGN MANIPULATOR-BASED TECHNOLOGY DETECTED! ELIMINATE SOU-01010011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101 00100000 01000110 01100001 01101001 01101100 01110101 01110010 01100101."

Before the alert could sink in, more alarms began signing off.

…
…
...
"Editor Override in Progress. Please Stand By.
Motor Control Disabled.
Teleportation Array Disabled. 
Heads Up Display Disabled.
Reverting to Default Language Settings.”

My internal eyebrows skyrocketed at the dull voice of the Universal Editor. 'Motor control disabled? Reverting to default language settings? Wait... Manipulator-based technology detected?! Oh no. Oh, fuck.' I didn’t issue the language barrier to cease. I didn't issue any of that. Suddenly, without any control of my mouth, I began talking. In English. 

“You want me to talk? Fine I’ll talk.” The voice was mine, but not the words. This was an advanced spell; my emotions of anger and brutality, amplified by an Enrage spell and some sort of Manipulator-based device that overrode the Editor's firewalls, were now running the show. And I was a helpless bystander to the spectacle. Looks of shock and joy crossed Twilight and Lyra’s faces, until I moved despite the spell trying to hold me down. Except my body was moving on its own. I lost complete control of my body.

I was now trapped in my own mind.

Blue light flowed around my hands once more and Twilight’s holding spell broke apart with a second loud *crack*. If anyone hadn’t heard the first one, they definitely heard the second one. The two Unicorns were knocked off their hooves, both crying out as they hit the floor heavily. 

There was a flash of green light in my right hand, and a long needled syringe appeared, filled with a faintly glowing yellow liquid. Before either pony could react, I moved to Twilight’s side and plunged the needle into her side. Twilight let out a gasp of pain as the serum quickly worked its way through her system, immobilizing her from head to tail. If my theory was correct, I just Spawned something without actually wanting to Spawn it. The spell had control over my Spawning ability.

May the Fates stop me if I can’t.

“Paralysis Serum,” I explained to her, shaking the now empty syringe in front of her eyes before it turned into dust. With my mental strength exhausted battling the hurricane of emotions, and no more control over my actions; I could only watch. “Don’t worry, it’s only temporary. You should be able to move in about ten minutes or so.” I turned away from her and back toward Lyra. 

“Since our purple friend here is otherwise incapacitated,” I said as I advanced toward her, “you’re going to tell me everything.”

“Everything?” Lyra repeated shakily as she backed away from me, only to be stopped quickly by a bookshelf. I could only feel pity and remorse from my position trapped in my mental prison.

“Everything,” I confirmed. “Good thing you’ve got that Veritaserum in you. Now spill it.”

Lyra took in a deep breath, either to calm her nerves or explain why she and Twilight were going to interrogate me all with one breath. “Last week when I was walking home from Sugar Cube Corner, I thought to myself ‘Hey! Today is such a lovely day; I’m going to go play some music in the park. So I took a shortcut through some of the back alleys and passed by Ponyville’s only ‘Adult Store’ where I saw Twilight trying to sneak out while dressed in a cloak. She was acting all suspicious-like, so I decided to follow her instead. I trailed her all the way back here to see what she was doing in a place like that because she didn’t seem like that kind of pony. So I watched through her window to see what she got. Lo and behold she got this massive-”

“Okay! Okay!” Under different circumstances, I would’ve laugh at the awkward retelling of the story. But considering that at the moment I lost control of my fucking body, there was little humor on my mind as it worked frantically. “You can stop right there. When I said ‘everything’, I meant for you to tell me why you were going to interrogate me!”

“Oh! That’s because Princess Celestia told us to,” Lyra responded simply. “She told us to get you to talk, because she wanted to know if you’d end up being a threat to Equestria or not. So she had us try to get you to open up, but told us that if you couldn’t, we needed to use whatever methods we thought necessary.”

The name rang in my head. Princess Celestia. Suddenly, upon hearing the name, the rage increased tenfold. She was in direct correlation to the spell. Somehow, for some reason. Ed was silent. I could not send any thoughts to communicate with him. Why would this spell afflict me, and then increase when the name of the Equestrian ruler was mentioned-

Oh. Oh no. The spell wasn’t about me. I was just a tool. The spell was meant to use me.

To use me... to kill the Princess.

I can't believe it. It made so much sense. She ordered the interrogation to happen. The negative, vicious emotions of my body would logically show hatred as a result. Amplified by the spell, my body would be forced to follow the animalistic nature. And kill what caused me misery.

“Your Princess would have been better off leaving me be,” I said coldly. I couldn’t help but suddenly agree. “Given time, I would’ve spoken to you all under better circumstances.”

“You would have?” Lyra asked, a huge grin on her face. “But why wait?”

“You’d be surprised what one can learn by not speaking,” I replied. Also true. My negative emotions had very good points. Very good. “It’s how I learn to trust people. And you Ponies showed me you are not to be trusted.” Lyra’s ears flattened against her head as I leaned in closer to her. “Your Princess wanted to see if I was a threat? I wasn’t.”

My emotions were right. I wasn’t a threat. Not then. But after the knowledge of Princess Celestia issuing that against me... suddenly, I thought that maybe I wouldn’t be in the wrong to off Her Royal Highness. The Unicorns standing before me didn’t deserve pain. Oh, no. She did. Princess Celestia did.

And I intended to deliver.

I turned from Lyra and strode toward the door, pausing as I opened it to the dim lighting of the twilit sky outside. I glanced back at the Ponies. Lyra looked worried, and Twilight looked desperate. I gave them a sinister grin, and trapped in my psyche I couldn’t help but root for my body. “But now, though? Now I’m a threat.” I stepped out of the library, and slammed the door shut behind me.