“Humungousaur!” the great creature bellowed into the air.
Twilight and the other girls backed away in fear as the creature roared deeply into the castle walls, nearly shaking the entire foundation. At long last, the beast stopped and began to swivel its head around to look over its surroundings. Out of nowhere, the ponies hear this: “Hey you big meanie!” The girls all looked to see Pinkie was kicking the monster’s foot. The beast looked down at the party mare with a raised eyebrow. Pinkie glared back at it. “What did you do with our friend?” she demanded of the creature.
The beast got down on his knee and lowered his head down into Pinkie’s line of sight. With a deep voice, he spoke, “Terribly sorry about that.” The girls, including Pinkie, blinked. His accent was reminiscent of Canterlot Nobility as well as the fine chaps in Braytain. “I am truly sorry if I interrupted your meeting with dear Benjamin, but I cannot stop a transformation midway. Please accept my dearest apologies.” He bowed his head and then stood up, his height was easily twelve feet, dwarfing the six mares. “Oh, now where did I put those?” he said while rummaging over his scales and then the pockets on his sash. “Ah ha! There you are!” He pulled a beefy hand out of one of the pockets, revealing a pair of… glasses? He placed them right on the bridge of his massive nose, making them look like toy glasses for a Santa Hooves doll. “Can’t see a blasted thing without my glasses.”
“Um, excuse me, sir?” Fluttershy whispered.
“Hmm?” the creature said, lowering himself back down. “Did you say something my dear?”
“Um, yes!” Fluttershy squeaked. “I was wondering, who are you? If you don’t mind me asking that is.”
“Not at all, my young mare,” he said while gently patting her head. Fluttershy nearly backed away in fear, but the petting felt too good to resist. Twilight was almost certain she purred a little, before pouting when the creature pulled away his hand. “I am Humungousaur, or Hum for short.”
“Hum?” asked Rainbow with suspicion.
“Why yes, I do so enjoy to hum!” He began to hum a jolly tune as he began to walk down the hallway. He seemed to be admiring the castle as he sang his tune. “Oh, the architecture here is most astounding. I don’t think I have seen such beautiful work in all my years. Oh! Is that a library? Jolly good for me!” He rushed forward, causing the mares to bounce and vibrate from Hum’s massive footsteps. They ran after him as fast as they could, to find the monster already flipping through one of Twilight’s many history books.
“Um, what are you doing Mr. Hum?” asked Twilight, a little worried that he would damage her books.
“Oh, apologies, your highness,” he said with a bow. “I am afraid I let my curiosity get the better of me. I could never resist a good book, especially one on all the history that I have missed over the millennia. ‘Tis truly glorious to be holding a book in my hands once again!”
Rainbow slumped. “Great, the big guy’s nothing, but an egghead! I was hoping he would be awesome.”
Hum chuckled a little, looking up from his book. “I have heard from many that I am ‘awesome’, though I am not as brutish as my counterparts.”
“Wait, you know about the other voices?” asked Twilight.
Hum nodded in confirmation. “Oh yes, we are all quite aware of one another. Many of my compatriots are nothing, but brutes who desire nothing but destruction. I, for one, would rather learn more about Equestria and its culture, instead of burning it to the ground.”
“So, there’s the meanie Rath and you’re the smart Hum?” Pinkie asked while summing things up. “What about the others?”
“Curious little ones, aren’t you?” he commented with a wry smile. “Very well.” Hum closed his book, though he marked his place and set it on a nearby table. “Allow me to reintroduce myself; I am Humungousaur, the voice of Knowledge. From the sound of things you have met one of my brothers already: Rath, the voice of Anger.”
“What do ya mean ‘voice of Knowledge and Anger’?”
“Each one of us represent different aspects of Benjamin’s personality that split many, many years ago. Though there are some us he tolerates, Benjamin is quite happy trying to make us all disappear. All we have ever wanted are bodies of our own and now we have them, to an extent.”
“You only have a physical body when Ben transforms, right?” Twilight asked to confirm.
Hum nodded. “Yes, dreadfully so. Benjamin is a dear boy, if not a few cards short of a full deck. I urge you, please be simple with the boy; he’s not as smart as he looks.”
“He didn’t look all that smart to begin with,” AJ commented.
Hum flashed her wry smile. “Exactly my point. Now, you wished to hear of my fellows. Well after Rath and myself, there is Echo Echo, the voice of Power. He reminds me a little of our rainbow friend here,” he said pointing a massive finger at Dash. “Cocky, powerful, stubborn, but most of all he thinks he’s the most important thing in the world. Be careful around him.”
“The next would have to be Brain Storm, the voice of Superiority. He likes to think of himself as the voice of Intelligence, but Superiority fits much better. He’s a stuck up ‘genius’ with a massive ego that dwarfs Echo’s. Be extremely cautious around him, and whatever you do, don’t insult his intelligence; his ego maybe a farce, but his power is quite real. After, we have the most sadistic of the group, named Goop, the voice of Laughter.”
“Ooh! Like me! I’m Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter!”
Hum nodded in comprehension. “Yes, I do see a few similarities with Goop, but I do not think for a second that you two are the same. I highly doubt that you consider everything, even life itself, to be a joke.” The ponies went quite. “Yes, Goop isn’t afraid to even take innocent lives if he thinks he’ll get a good laugh out of it. He’s very uncouth and deplorable, be careful around him.”
“I seem to be noticing a pattern, darling,” Rarity said. “You keep telling us to be cautious of each one of you, why is that?”
Hum gave a hearty chuckle under his breath. “It would be quite unbecoming of me to not warn a lady, let alone six ladies, of impending dangers! How could I live with myself if I did not properly warn you of what my ‘brothers’ are capable of? Why the very thought is so dreadful, that I cannot bear to think of such things.”
Rarity beamed at the dinosaur-like creature. “Such a gentlecolt,” she commented with a giggle.
Hum smiled and pretended to adjust an imaginary bow tie. “I certainly try to be. Continuing on, we have Swampfire, the voice of Nature. Most of the time, I would consider him to be close to our Apple friend here,” he gestured to Applejack. “Close to nature, cares for his seeds and loved ones, but is incredibly fierce when what he cares for is threatened. He is an alright fellow, but um… did ponies ever fully start controlling nature? Such as weather?”
“Yeah…” Rainbow said waringly, due to Hum’s hesitant voice.
Hum in return stuttered a little. “Oh, oh dear. I recommend that you keep your pegasi friends away from Swampfire; he has always been against anyone or anything controlling nature. He’ll grind them up like corn seed, as he would say.” Rainbow and Fluttershy both gulped.
“Um, would he be mad at me? I’m an animal caretaker,” said Fluttershy.
“Hmm, depends; do you allow your animals to return to nature or do you control them?”
“Oh no! I would never think of controlling my animal friends. I just care for them when they are sick or injured, they decide themselves whether to stay or go. I could never force an animal to do something they weren’t comfortable with.”
Hum nodded in thought. “He might not be angry about it, but I would still advise caution. Moving on, Chromastone, the voice of Honor. This chap is the only one of us who actually dedicated himself to the Sisters. He is a soldier, bound by honor and duty, willing to lay his life down for such goals. He has his faults, but Chrome is an otherwise fair fellow. Not even he would follow someone blindly, thankfully. Another fair fellow would be Cannonbolt, the voice of Balance. A meditative one, he is. Always keeping himself calm, but you know what they say about the quiet ones. He’s got quite the temper, we all do come to think of it. Just try to be peaceful with him and be kind, he’s a sensitive chap. The second-to-last ‘brother’ of mine would be Big Chill, the voice of apathy. If I could sum up BC in one word, it would be tactless. He has absolutely no tact at all, not to mention he’s fairly selfish; only ever interested in what he gets out of something. He’s an icy fellow with a frozen heart, that’s for sure.”
“Wow, your brothers don’t sound all that nice, except a couple of them,” Pinkie commented.
Hum sighed dejectedly and nodded. “Yes, though we have been able to work together on occasion. Especially against that horrible Discord fellow. He was the only thing we were all in agreement on in wanting gone. Glad that he is frozen forever in stone.”
“Um, about that…” Twilight started, but a bright flash interrupted her. From the flash came a creature that seemed to be made up of other creatures in no pattern at all. This was a draconequus, a unique creature only known by one name: Discord.
“Did somepony call for me?” he shouted gleefully after appearing. Discord looked around at his pony friends with a big, bright smile and then turned around. He came face to face with a wall of muscle. His eyes slowly made their way up to the head of Humungousaur, causing the draconequus. Hum growled at the creature quite threateningly.
“DISCORD!!” he yelled menacingly. Discord shrieked and fled away behind Fluttershy.
“What is he doing free?!” Discord shouted from his hiding place while Hum moved closer. “Keep them away from me!!”
“Your little urbane jokes won’t save you this time, Discord. I shall smash you! I shall grind you into powder! Prepared to be crushed!” Hum smashed a fist into his open palm. The girls noticed that Hum’s appearance had slightly altered, becoming slightly taller with scaly plates that seemed like armor on his shoulders and a crest on his head, even his tail now had had spikes protruding from it.
“Hum, wait!” Twilight called out.
“Settle down there, partner!”
“Cool it big guy!”
The three girls were doing their best to keep Hum from advancing on Fluttershy and Discord. “Stop!” Fluttershy demanded of him. Hum stopped and stared down at the pegasus, unamused. “Discord is not a bad pony anymore! He’s changed!” Hum raised an eyebrow and looked to Twilight, asking a silent question.
Twilight nodded. “Yes, Discord has been introduced to the magic of friendship and now works for Celestia and Luna as a magical confidant. He is also considered an honorary member of my castle’s court. He is our friend, please don’t hurt him.”
Hum turned back to Discord and stared at the draconequus for a few silent moments… before bursting into a hearty laughter. “Ohohoho! Discord has been tamed! By the very creatures he once sought to control! That’s poetic justice, irony, and karma all in one! Ohohoho!” Hum was literally laughing like Santa Hooves now, holding his belly his hands as he bellowed. He wiped a tear from his eye, while Discord gave the monster the stink eye.
“Wait, why is Discord afraid of you?” asked Rainbow.
“Ah, that would be the showdown we had before the Sisters sealed him away. It was quite exhilarating, it was. Ben tricked the draconequus into transforming him into our tenth brother, where Discord was forced to fight all of us in our shared mindscape. We all had a good shot at that monster.”
“You still didn’t have to make me suffer!” Discord whined at Hum.
Hum crossed his arms with a glare. “None of us have control over any other. That was Voiceless’ decision to put you through the torture; not any of our own.”
“Voiceless?” questioned Twilight.
Hum nodded. “Yes, Voiceless. The tenth brother, Alien X, the Voiceless. He has never once spoken, though we all knew he existed. None of us are exactly sure of what his purpose is, though there is one thing we all know about him.”
“Whas that?” asked AJ.
“It is that he Understands. He seems to possess a vast knowledge of how everything in the vast multiverse works, strange enough as it is, though not surprising based upon his species.”
“What is Alien X?”
“Alien X is a celestialsapien. A being of the cosmos. Celestialsapiens are known to be unmoving creatures that decide the fate of universes. Voiceless, however, is certainly not unmoving, being quite capable in a fight, almost to a deadly point. He is rarely used, though, as his power is far too great. Voiceless is the most powerful being of us all, if not the entire universe itself. He needs not of words, instead focuses on his actions to speak for him. Certainly an odd chap.”
“Yes, that one was truly painful, but I was referring to the other one,” Discord said, paling at the memory. “So much awfulness.”
Hum raised an eyebrow. “Other one? What other—Oh!” Hum’s face went blank, seemingly recalling something. His expression turned fierce and he glared at Discord. “You just had to bring up him. Well, don’t ever do that again! That one is gone forever, destroyed by the Elements of Harmony because he was truly evil and despicable. Never speak of Fear again!”
“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!” Discord went back to hiding behind Fluttershy.
“Who or what is Fear?” Twilight asked, suddenly curious.
Hum sighed. “Voiceless was not always considered one of us. There was another, Fear. We do not speak of him anymore as he was the worst of us all, equally hated by the rest. Fear was selfish, cruel, and truly evil. He was willing to do anything to have a body of his own, attempting to take over any soul he could find. It was not until we were sealed by the Elements that he was purged from us for being truly evil. We will speak no more on the subject!” Hum’s tone forced Twilight to end the conversation there, despite her curiosity growing.
Then, once again, the omnitrix began to blink and emit a warning sound. “Aw, well it seems my time limit has been reached,” Hum commented. He removed his glasses and stored them back in the pouch he had found them in.
“What do you mean your time limit?”
“Each transformation only lasts for roughly fifteen minutes. It’s a safety measure, you should ask Benjamin any other questions as I only have a few more seconds. One last thing, do take care of the boy. He may seem happy, but until he patches thing with the princesses, I doubt he will truly be happy. Fare thee well, fine maidens!” A burst of red light spread over Humungousaur, with Ben taking his place a second later.
**********
I opened my eyes and started to look around the room frantically. “Girls? Girls! Girls, where are you?!”
“Right here!” Pinkie said while getting right in my face.
“Gah!” I yelled as I fell on my rear. “Pinkie?! Don’t do that!” My anger dispersed a moment later and I hugged the candy-like mare. “Oh thank gods you’re okay.” I pulled back a little with a worried expression, also noting the others were right near me. “Please tell me none of you are hurt. I couldn’t forgive myself if you got hurt because of one of the voices.”
“Nonsense,” Rarity said with a small smile. “Hum was a fine gentlecolt.”
“Hum? Oh! Humungousaur; yeah he’s a good guy. He say much?”
“He told us a brief description of your other voices and said to take care of you because you’re not as smart as you look,” Twilight summed up.
I deadpanned and slumped. “That one and his veiled insults. Stupid fancy dinosaur.” I lifted myself up and smiled again. “Well, at least none of you got hurt.”
“Save for my pride,” said a familiar voice on my shoulder. My eyes widened and I slowly turned my head to see Discord wrapped around me like a snake.
“AAHH!! Discord!” I shouted in fright and surprise.
Discord just waved my outburst off. “Yes, yes. I’m free and I’m on your side now. Isn’t that great Benny?” His smile was sickeningly sweet.
I glared harshly at him. “DON’T call me Benny! Ever! Only two were ever allowed to call me that and you aren’t one of them.”
“We already went over this,” Twilight sighed. Wait, we did? When?
“Huh?” I replied, my anger fading for the moment of curiosity.
“We told all of that to Hum, don’t you remember?”
Oh, that’s why. “You told it to Hum? Then, no, I wouldn’t remember that. Hum and the others have their own emotions and memories that are separate from mine. Just like real people, we can’t read each other’s minds, thankfully.”
Twilight blinked. “Oh. Well, long story short, Discord was reformed a while back and he is one our friends as well as friends with Celestia and Luna.”
I stared at Twilight in shock, then turned back to Discord, who simply smiled and waved, with the same look. “Dude, you got whipped!” I laughed out, bursting a gut on the hilarity.
Rainbow broke into a laugh as well, caught up in my joke. “Nice one,” she said offering me a hoof bump which I returned strongly. Discord didn’t take to well to my joke, muttering something about stupid humans, and disappeared in a bright flash. Suddenly, I was overtaken with the feeling of exhaustion, even to the point of yawning.
“Oh man,” I said while I stretched tiredly. “I don’t know about you all, but I am beat from today. Anypony mind showing me to a bed?”
“Oh, no problem, Ben,” Twilight said with a smile. She started to trot off down one of the halls. “Follow me, I’ll take you to your room.”
“Sweetness!” I replied and scurried after her. I followed her down several halls, though we walked in silence for a time. “This palace is kinda empty,” I commented, based on the lack of, well, anything. The place was quite barren.
“Yeah, it’s a new castle. Only a few weeks old. It just kinda… appeared,” she admitted sheepishly.
Honestly, a castle appearing out of nowhere was a new one on me, but I had definitely seen stranger. “Huh, must get kinda lonely here.”
“At times, but I do have my children to keep me company when my friends are too busy.”
“You have kids?!” Now that was a shocker. She didn’t look too much older than twenty. Wonder what her secret is.
“Yes, Spike and Nyx. I’ve raised Spike since I was ten and I adopted Nyx a few years back. They can be quite the hoofful.”
“Wow, must have been difficult, especially with how young you are.”
“Spike was a little much, but I had a lot of help with him. Nyx, however, well, that’s a story all on its own.”
“You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. Continue!”
“Well, you see, Nyx is actually Nightmare Moon reborn.”
“Nightmare who?”
“Oh,” Twilight said while looking like she just realized something. “That’s right. You were sealed before Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon.”
“Is that a bad thing?” This mare is confusing me!
“Nightmare Moon was an evil monster that tried to take over Equestria and make night last forever.”
I stopped walking right there with my eyes wide. “What?! No! There is no way Luna went evil! She promised! And the Luna I knew would never break a promise.” I didn’t mean to be harsh with Twilight, but this was way too much.
“I-I’m sorry, but it’s true,” she stuttered out.
I took in a quick breath to calm down. “Sorry, lost the happy. But the happy’s back! Sorry, Twilight, but without some proof, I am not going to believe that Luna turned evil.”
“Well, she’s not evil anymore.”
“Picture or it didn’t happen,” I said resorting to the oldest denial trick in the book.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Fine, but you’ll see the truth someday.” We stopped outside one of the many doors in the palace and Twilight opened it. Inside was the equivalent of a master bedroom, even had a four poster bed and personal bathroom. Score!
“Awesome!” I said while walking in and examining the rest of the room.
“This will be your room from now on. I hope you get a good rest, Ben. There’s a lot to do tomorrow and you’re going to need it just to put up with Nyx and Spike. Goodnight Ben,” Twilight turned out the door and began to leave.
“Thanks Twilight, and Goodnight!” I called to her as the door closed tightly shut. I took off my green jacket and hung it on the corner of the bed. I threw myself on to the covers and laid out, eagle style. I looked up to the ceiling with a smile, though it was slightly forced. As I started to fade into sleep, I whispered out one last thing. “Goodnight Tia, Lulu. Big Brother’s home.”