(5)
Darkness commenced to slowly fade from Zack's eyes as his vision was blurred still and his memory disoriented. He could hear some muffled hoof steps stepping on a hard surface behind him, the constant clopping echoed in his obstructed ears. He felt as if he was being dragged, his legs being pulled by some unknown force grasping his ankles. His strength was weak, his thoughts obscured, and yet his body was relaxed in a strange way. He could make out some vague objects with his slowly recovering, unfocused eyes as he was towed passed the fogged shapes. He seemed he was in a torch lit, stone hall, the air was getting colder as he was being pulled deeper into the passageways; he kept passing these odd looking doors to his left and right, the corridors were tight around him in this hallway, which made him feel a bit claustrophobic.
Just as soon as he was getting comfortable in his sedated and confused state, his body turned drastically and was thrown into one of the doorways like he had passed before. He fell flat on his stomach and had banged his head against the frigid, solid stone floor. Needless to say, his comfort and sedation dissipated away. He then heard the door creak behind him and slam shut. The door was promptly locked behind his weak body, hearing only the locking mechanism and the jingle of some keys; he continued to lay on the floor, too weak to get up or even look around.
A heavy voice from behind him echoed, “We’ll deal with you later.”
Hoofsteps were heard once more walking away from cell he was thrown in. The steps grew quieter and quieter until there was nothing but silence. A slam of another door was heard in the far distance in the long entryway, and total silence assured him he was alone and far from comfort. Zack blacked out again, with no clue or idea what was happening or what was going to happen to him.
__________
Zack awoke in a strange pasture with the sun shining down and the feeling of grass between his fingers. He sat up straight with a quick push off the earth and rolled himself onto backside all while wondering what had happened to him. He took in his new surroundings slowly. Zack appeared to have woken up in the same field he was teleported to when he arrived in Equestria. With that realization, the cold sweat of fright became prevalent on his forehead.
Zack panicked and thought, “This can’t be happening, what’s going on anymore?” His thoughts raced on reasons of what was happening to him, his blurred eyes shot to the heavens and noticed an ethereal sight conducting above him. Thousands of stars were sailing like comets in the sky, along with the sun. Flashes of light and darkness blanketed the field Zack was in whenever the sun would enter and leave the horizon in its rapid orbit. Zack felt something underneath where he was sitting and looked down, the grass around him was dying and leaving nothing but the cracked and red earth behind. The trees in the distance were dying and burning to smolder, the rivers and creeks dried up and the sky steadily became cloaked with a blood red, misty tint. Everything around Zack was dying, except for him; he stood up, eyes no longer blurred and witnessed the death of Equestria. The air around him thickened, the stars above him begun to gradually slow down and the bright colorful world he had grown passionate about was turning into a wasteland of dust and ash.
The stars stopped and in a blink of an eye, Zack was present below a tall, slopping hill with the maroon sun immobilized atop the hill. Ash particles fell around him, burning bits of his skin from what he could see, but did not feel. Zack’s ears could pick up the sound of the faint cries of people; their cries of terror and death, almost as if a slaughter was taking place nearby. Zack's head rose and his eyes met with four undefinable looking ponies, each with blazing manes and eyes, looking downward back at Zack. He couldn’t tell their faces, but could see the colors of their coats, their eyes, and their flaming manes.
One was a white coated pony, with purple piercing eyes and a long, golden fiery mane and tail which was longer than the other pony’s manes and tails. Another was a red coated pony it seemed, it possessed blue flaring eyes and a deep red, burning mane and tail which matched the blood soaked skies above. Another, much larger than the rest, was a jet black coated pony, its eyes burned with a white light and its mane was ignited with a silver fire, its mane and tail was shorter than the rest, but appeared sharper and intensely more scorching. Lastly there was white, almost pale looking pony without a mane and tail, but its deep crimson eyes were like beams of light, the brightest and most terrifying of them all.
Each stared directly at him, taking a second to judge him it appeared to Zack. Then each spoke with a thunderous and earth shattering voices that harmonized into one grand and terrifyingly powerful.
“Son of Eternity, Zachary, wielder of The Prevailer, the Ivory Chambers shutter your name. The Foreseer cannot see your destiny, for it is tied to an unknown realm between space and time. The divine ones cannot judge you, for you are your own judge. It is your choice to watch if this world becomes consumed in fire and ash and dust. It is your choice to save this world from the evils it births. However, know this, false savior. He who wields destiny itself cannot even control it, for destiny is its own, the last secret of the universe. Even the gods cannot predict the end, for they fear it as well. Even gods must die, Zachary, Son of Eternity.”
As soon as those words left their mouthes, a great wave of heat and air swept over the ponies, the hill and Zack. The ponies skin melted instantaneously when the heat wave struck them from behind, and their skeletons blew away like dust in the wind. The hill was flattened and Zack stood unfazed by the event, perfectly still, though not by his own will. Once the hill was flattened back into the ground, he saw Canterlot in the distance; the towers along the mountain side shown brightly, but over head loomed a terrifying object. A fiery comet plummeted toward the castle and struck the the mountain itself. Silence ensued as the ball of fire submersed itself into the city; upon impact, a bright red light engulfed Zack’s eyesight, blinding him with a fierce intensity. Then as it faded, a great wall of fire and earth cascaded toward Zack. He was paralyzed by an unknown force and he felt his body disintegrate as the wall of death fell upon him.
Zack screamed in horror as his eyes came to to a new sight. He frantically looked around, he was still in the dark jail cell, but his entire body was naked and wet. He turned to see a unicorn magically holding an empty bucket in the air beside him. Another unicorn guard came up towards the other soldier with some long, ragged brown cloth.
“The Princess is ready to see you.” Zack was tossed the long robe and he tied it around his naked, wet self. Zack’s memories flooded back to him, the last thing he could remember was running through the royal garden and a unicorn guard teleporting in front of him.
Zack felt the knot on the back of his head and shuddered as he spoke, “How l-long has it been... Wha-what time is it?”
“Night fall, you had been out for a few hours,” one guard promptly said.
Zack then realized he had forgotten all about Pinkie Pie, he clamored, “Where is she? Where is the filly, my friend?”
The unicorn guard approached Zack, urging him to get up. “She’s fine! Now move!”
Zack stumbled as he took to his feet. He wobbled and slowly followed the unicorn out of the bleak holding pin. When Zack entered the hallway he found himself encompassed by six pegasus guards with spears aimed straight at Zack’s head. A unicorn guard bound Zack’s wrists with a chain. He looked at each of the pegasi and stepped onward down the hall, following the unicorn guard ahead. The spear handling ponies hovered around Zack, keeping their spears steadily on him while rotating around him as he walked through the stone corridors.
Zack hoped that the Princess was a merciful ruler and would understand Zack, and perhaps even let him live. On the other hand, Zack had the other idea that if this was the way the rest of the ponies felt about Zack, either being scared of defensive in his presence, then Celestia would no doubt have him banished from the land, or worse, executed. Zack’s mind was conflicting within itself with multiple thoughts and worries; he worried about Pinkie, his own life, the Princess, and that hyperrealistic nightmare he had just had. Still, his confusion was overbearing him more than the rest of his troubles, and the desire to know why he was here was only one of two of his major complications, that and the safety of his new friend.
__________
The guards took the soaked prisoner up a flight of winding stairs while the unicorn guard ahead of Zack was levitating a torch in front of him to light the way. He set the torch in a metal holder situated on the wall and opened a large wooden door revealing a more delicate, brighter lit hallway. Zack assumed he was now inside the main level of the castle and out of the dungeons.
They made their way out of the staircase and into another hallway with high ceilings. The room was a much larger hallway with carpet and tile floorings. Chandeliers hung above the hallway and stain glass windows in the high corners of the walls beamed in moon light which graced the floor. Victorian era paintings of other ponies and marble statues of busts adorned the edges of the floor space and walls along with small wooden tables and mirrors set above them. Zack had noticed many open doorways in the hall, at least a dozen leading off to different rooms and parts of the castle, it gave a sense of how massive the citadel really was.
As the guards and prisoner made their way down the network of halls and chambers, Zack looked up to spot a small filly in the distance of another hall they were entering in the corner of his eye, peeking out of a doorway. He immediately thought it was Pinkie, but when he gave closer inspection to it, the filly quickly jolted back in the doorway and slammed the door shut. All Zack could tell was that it wasn’t Pinkie, because the filly he saw was purple.
They finally made it to what appeared to be the main chamber. An even larger ceiling hung above their heads as they entered the large, marbled floored room. Zack saw that in front of them, the ceiling spiraled upward near the edge of the expansive room, he thought that they must be under one of the main towers. Two thrones were situated in the corner of the room with a red rug leading the way to them; each bore an emblem on each seat, one bearing a sun and the other a moon. The room was decorated in gold and silver furnishings, large, and arching windows overlooked the lush, night veiled land of Equestria. You could see for hundreds of miles through the viewing points of the glass windows. Zack had never noticed before, but the expanse of stars were incredible, he had never seen so many stars in his life. As Zack was zoning out once more, the guards stopped his pace and they waited there, patiently for the Princess to arrive.
An eerie silence fell over the room. Each guard was looking around, almost as if inspecting the place to see where the Princess might be hiding. Zack then heard a noise coming from another hallway attached to the throne room they were in. A growing sound of a pony’s clopping came down the marble halls. Zack expected to see the Princess walking in with a royal stride in her step, but instead he saw the purple filly he had seen earlier enter the chamber with her eyes closed, head held high and a wide grin across her face. Zack noticed that she was a unicorn with a symbolic looking star cutie mark on her flank. Her short cut, dark blue and single violet streaked mane and tail fluttered about as she skipped into the chamber. She opened her eyes to see Zack looking back at her and her expression changed from glee to horror as she let out a squeak in panic. She scrambled backwards back through the doorway she entered and trembled at the sight of Zack while her eyes peered at him at a safe distance around the corner of the door.
A sudden flapping of wings was heard coming from the castle ceiling where the tower was located; upon this noise, the guards knelt down on one knee in anticipation. Zack saw the large, white mare hover down from the open ceiling and onto the floor of the chamber, his eyes were overcome by the powerful and majestic pony. Her mane and tail flowed like a gentle river as it bore an array of colors as beauty as the rainbow. Only one single, light magenta toned eye gazed at Zack. The pony appeared different than the rest, besides being much taller and mane and tail ever flowing. She possessed a large, pointed unicorn horn and large, eagle like wings.
“Whatever mixed breed of pony this is, it must be a powerful creature,” Zack pondered. His eyes darted downward, avoiding her observing eye.
The Princess motioned a certain look with the leading unicorn guard, he nodded and response and told the others, “Unbind the creature.” The guards untied Zack and trotted backwards, out of the room with their heads still bowed to the Princess. The regal pony looked slowly over at where the purple unicorn filly was hiding, peering at the strange, two footed being.
She nodded a motion to her as well, but the purple pony gasped, “But.. but...” The Princess rose her head and gave a stern look at the filly. A look of grief swept across the young mare’s face as she turned and left the chamber, closing the door behind her. She turned back toward Zack and smiled, Zack was at a loss of emotion, he didn’t know whether to smile back or not to. Her horn glowed and so did Zack’s rags and soon they morphed into fitting clothes; however Zack was still focusing on Celestia, pondering on many questions to ask her.
She responded softly to his confusion, “Welcome. I’ve been expecting you–whoever you might be.”
Zack’s eyes widened, he had heard that voice before in some way he couldn’t remember at that moment. He searched his memory and discovered that her voice was what he heard through the television set before he was teleported here in Equestria. He wondered if she the one that brought Zack here. He stayed cool and collected though, hiding his emotion of shock and anxiousness before her.
She proceeded, “May I have your name?”
“Zack...,” he disposed, “You must be Princess Celestia?”
“I am,” she responded.
“Why have you brought me here?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that?” Her expression changed to a quizzical appearance.
“You know what I mean, you brought me here. You’re the one I heard before you zapped me here to this place.”
“You did? I was the one you say who brought you here? Where are you from?"
“I’m from Earth.” Zack stopped and sighed, he emphasized, “I heard your voice talk to me in my apartment before I was sucked into some sort of wormhole. I then woke up in Equestria. I came here to get some answers on how exactly I got here... and I thought you might have those answers.”
“Well,” she postulated, “I’m sorry to say... and I know this is hard to believe... but I never teleported you here. Whatever you heard, wasn’t me. I’m not sure why you’re here, but you’re here for a reason.”
“And what might that reason be?”
“Let me first reiterate the tale of my existence in this land, so you have a better understanding of what I'm about to tell you; most ponies know this fable by heart, but being that you are not a pony, I will explain this. I do not know the secrets of this universe, or of my existence itself, but once me and my sister established ourselves on this planet, we were given one divine rule, to raise the sun and the moon, to keep the flow of time constant and the laws of the universe in harmony. My earliest memories are vague, but I remember seeing the birth of the universe alongside my sister, and from there, nothingness, my memories of everything else in between then and when we arrived on this planet has been darkened by an unknown force I do not comprehend.”
Zack asked, “Where is your sister?”
She answered after a long breath, “My dear sister, Luna, was corrupted by... something, that wanted her to take full control of the moon and turn it forever night. As the tale goes, the ponies cherished and played in the day time, but shunned and slept in the beautiful night, which made Luna bitter over the fact that no pony enjoyed the night as much as the day. One day, she refused to lower the moon for the sun to rise. I could not defeat her alone, we were both equally as powerful as the other. Through the magical artifacts known through ponydom as the Elements of Harmony, I banished her inside the moon by forcing the sun to overlap the moon, creating a portal inside the moon where I flung my sister into.
I wish I could have saved her another way, but this is the tale the ponies are told. What they do not know is that Luna was corrupted by... something. Evil, destructive, malicious, torture some, it fed off her soul like a parasite. No magic I possessed could help her, not even the Elements of Harmony at the time, for I know not how to use them properly.
Though let me now explain why you are here. This world is full of mysteries, great secrets of the ancient times. I felt your presence enter this world, I knew something... different was walking among the ponies, something not of evil, but not of peace as well. I waited for you, for I knew an intelligent being such as yourself would find me.”
She began to walk around Zack, analyzing him. “Your body, it has some sort of invisible force around it, much like me and my sister; except your’s is different, other worldly. Our unicorn magic cannot affect you, very strange.”
Zack censured, “So you’re just as confused with me being here as I am? Well this is just perfect, isn’t it?”
Zack ran his fingers through his hair as he took a couple steps forward, peering up at the stain glass window, noticing that his hair was dry now.
“What do I do now,” he asked himself, faithless and hopeless in his tone
Celestia walked up behind him and looked up at the glass as well. “I’m just as confused as you are... I have been for a some millennia now. What is my purpose, why am I here?” She bent her head down and with a sigh wondered aloud, “Why must I be immortal?”
Zack turned to her and replied, “Immortality, I’ve always looked at it as a curse really.” Zack turned to look up at the stain glass again. “People back where I live, what we call humans, use to talk about wanting to be immortal. To us, it’s a myth, only in fairy tales and folklore is immortality looked upon as a blessing. I may just be looking at it from a pessimistic point of view, but seeing not only loved ones die around you, but the world you live around die as well, that is something no grief or sorrow can express. I feel so sorry for you, at least you have someone to comfort you.” The two looked at each other and met eyes–both were about the same height Zack had realized.
“I wish my sister was here now... but she will return, it is prophesied. In a few short years, I will release her from the moon during the Summer Sun Celebration, when the galaxies are aligned only once every age. She will still be corrupted, but hopefully, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony will rise and sap her of her power, restoring her former self.”
“Who can possess these elements if you cannot?”
“One’s chosen by the Foreseer, wielder of destiny.”
Chills ran down Zack’s spine, his dream had told him about this, ‘Foreseer’ deity, he held back his emotions and asked, “Who is the Foreseer?”
She turned around facing another stain glass window, this glass panel had different artwork on it than the rest. Near the bottom was an orb with six gems in it, above that was a white sword with some sort of rune writing engraved in the face of the blade. Above this was the two sisters and finally above them was a vortex of light and clouds, where alicorns were flying around and into it.
“The Foreseer is a nameless, faceless, divine judge who resides in what the ancient texts of the old world calls, 'The Ivory Chambers'. What is believed in these ancient texts is that this god judges all creatures who pass from this world to his through death. There, the Foreseer judges whether the good deeds of the life in which they lived out weigh the bad. If they have been deemed unworthy, they are banished into the Void, a realm of shadow and loneliness where they will hover forever, lost and alone. But if the are deemed worthy, they will enter The Everlasting Lands, a realm that is only described as, ‘A never ending field of hay, blue summer skies which stretch into infinity and boundless happiness and merriment with your friends and loved ones.’ Only a handful of ponies keep and know these secrets, me being one of them. We do not wish for this world to know about the previous one, but instead be happy, live life, and love.”
These things said in his dream began to make sense to Zack, he asked, “What is of this old world?”
“I do not know. I came with my sister when world was reborn, new life had begun in the form of ponies. The old world is lost to me, I have found only ruins and scrolls telling me of what I told you, vague answers to deep questions.”
“I can understand you and your sister wanting to know these things, and am glad no other pony or creature besides me knows of this ancient world or the Foreseer. Panic would surly ensue if something like this got out... but why tell me these things?”
She turned toward Zack and gave a smile, “Because you are different, you are special, you are not from here, and for that I thank the Foreseer or whomever sent you here. I know you are destined for great things. I’m not sure what you will do, but you will change Equestria, something tells me you will. You are no mistake, Zack.”
Zack had a sudden thought. A rekindling memory he had forgot to ask Celestia in the beginning of their meeting, he turned to her and asked, “I had completely forgotten, but as you know, I never came here alone. A small, pink filly was with me and we were separated by your guards. Is she okay? Where is she?”
She looked away and closed her eyes, she focused intently as her horn glowed yellow again. A beam of light traveled out of her horn and onto the floor away from them. The beam created a ball of light and in a flash of brilliance, a pegasus guard was teleported in front of them. He looked around confused as to what had happened; he turned to see Zack and the Princess and immediately bowed and wiped the bewildered emotion off his face for a stern one.
“Yes, my Princess!”
Celestia assaulted, “How dare you lock up a filly in my dungeon! A place for thieves, murderers and traitors! I expected more from the captain of the royal guard!”
“Bu-but, my Sovereign! She was attacking the guards, we had to detain her somehow!”
Celestia exploded, “She was a filly! A young mare! She was scared! I don’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“I’ll release her immediately, Ma’m!”
“You will! And you will lock yourself in that jail cell in her place! Shame on you! It appears we’ll be needing a new Captain of the Royal Guard. Perhaps the young Shining Armor will use better judgment than you.”
The now displaced Captain stammered, “B-but, he’s so young!”
“Go now, release the filly and bring her to me and my honored guest!”
The terrified decommissioned guard walked backwards, bowing his head and replying, “Yes ma’m. Understood. Will do. As you command...” He left the room and sprinted down the hallways to the chamber. The young, purple unicorn filly entered the far doorway she left in when Celestia turned her away.
“M-miss Celestia, miss? May I enter, I need to tell you something.” She soon realized that Celestia was next to the prisoner, untied and smiling back at the unicorn.
She gasped; Celestia laughed and said, “It’s alright, Twilight Sparkle. He is a friend.” Upon those words, she slowly walked up to the strange creature known as Zack. Twilight shuddered in his presence.
Celestia asserted, “Twilight, this is Zack. And Zack, this is Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student and protégé.”
Zack knelt down and stuck out his hand, “It’s a pleasure, Miss Sparkle!”
She stepped backwards, nervous at first, and fearful of Zack’s odd looking ‘hoof’; but with a sudden change of mood, she took a leap of faith. She stepped forward, stuck her hoof out, shook Zack’s hand and replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, sir!”
“Now what were you going to tell me about,” queried Celestia with a grin.
She looked back up at Celestia, with wide eyes and a beaming smile across her face. “It’s Spike! He said his first word! I didn’t believe it at first, but he did it! He said, ‘gems’. I guess he was hungry!” Twilight giggled along with Celestia, Zack was at a loss again as to what was going on in this conversation.
“Oh,” Celestia chuckled, forgetting Zack had no idea what they were talking about. “you must be so confused right now! Spike is Twilight Sparkle’s pet dragon; you should see him sometime, he’s such a cutie!”
The thought of dragons in this new land enthralled Zack, he had always liked dragons as a kid from the books he had read. Now knowing that they actually exist in this world made him a little giddy, but once again, he held his emotions back and wore a warm hearted smile instead.
He responded, “Sounds great, can’t wait to meet him!”
“Well you’ll have to wait till morning anyways, I just put him to bed, he’s fast asleep!”
Celestia looked towards Twilight and entreated, “Isn’t some filly I know suppose to be in bed by now? It’s a school night, you know?”
Twilight cheerfully responded, “Of course! I’ll be off to bed now, goodnight Miss Celestia, goodnight Mister Zack!” Zack and Celestia waved her out of the room as she trotted off.
Zack had to ask, “Any other young person–err, pony, would have fought with you about going to bed. She seemed rather happy to do so.”
“Well, she is different than other fillies. Besides being very intelligent and loving to learn knowledge for her age, she is very obedient.”
Fascinating, I was never like that when I was a child,” Zack chuckled.
A sudden cry was heard, which echoed through the castle corridors. The two’s attention were focused now on the doorway the noise had originated from. Two unicorn guards entered, wrestling to keep the pink filly under control. Pinkie still had the bag on her head to try and calm her down, but it wasn’t working too well.
Pinkie screamed, “Where are you taking me now? What’s going on? Where’s my Zack?” The two guards released the filly and took the sack off her head. Her eyes were filled with tears, her hair was even more frizzier than it usually was, her face was red due to a mix of crying and anger, and she panted for breath. She glanced about the chamber looking for any sign of Zack, almost blind to the fact that Zack and Celestia were stationed directly in front of her at the end of the room.
“Pinkie,” Zack shouted, “I’m okay.” She paused and stared Zack directly in the eyes as he knelt down and opened his arms wide with a smile of acceptance across his face. She ran to him and jumped in his outstretched arms.
“Oh Zack, I missed you so, so much! I thought I would never see you again!” Pinkie began to sob deeply, she could no longer hold her tears back, it was mix of joyful sorrow and past worries.
Zack squeezed her close to him and mused, “It’s going to be alright, Pinkie Pie. I’m alright. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
She pushed off of Zack a little and looked into his eyes, her beautiful, cerulean eyes still filled with tears. “Oh, don’t worry about me... I’m a big pony...” she smiled and fell back into his arms, crying into Zack’s shoulders.
Zack picked her up as she held onto his neck, still crying into his shoulder and turned toward Celestia to whom he had totally forgotten about. To his surprise, she was crying a little too at what she saw. The guards were in the corner of the room with their heads bowed in shame at what they had done to the poor pony.
Pinkie pulled her head up out of Zack’s shoulder again and saw Celestia smiling at her, Pinkie hadn’t even noticed her until then.
“...Hi... Miss Royal Princess ma’m.”
“Hello, beautiful one.” She turned toward Zack after her response to Pinkie and said, “I will have special sleeping arrangements for you and your friend tonight, up in the Western Tower.”
“Thank you... so... much... " replied Zack with a warm smile and tears forming in his eyes.
__________
The two were lead up to the tower by Celestia where they entered a magnificent suite. Pinkie hopped into the room and jumped for joy on the bed. The tower loft was rounded and windows were on nearly every side of the room. Celestia walked up to the pony sized feather bed, and with her unicorn magic, doubled the size of the bed, pillows and sheets. Zack opened the glass doors in front of the bed to find a porch, situated high above the castle town. They were in the highest tower of the castle, which gave a beautiful view of the partying city below, the countryside beyond, and even the few lights from Ponyville in the distance. A cool wind blew against Zack’s skin, refreshing his senses.
Zack looked upward and admired the heavily dotted, starry sky, and noticed the bright, white moon. The craters formed a mare, which wasn’t too surprising for Zack, but still an amazing sight seeing an entirely new moon then what he was used to. Celestia joined Zack on the porch to admire the surroundings as Pinkie had fallen into deep sleep already on the bed–her hyper activity conquered.
Celestia looked over at Zack and acknowledged, “You both deserve this, after what all Pinkie had told me on the way up, it sounds like you two had some adventure.”
“Yea, it was something...” Zack leaned on the railing of porch, looking off beyond the mountains.
Celestia continued, “I think it would be best if you stayed here at the castle with me... and for Pinkie to go live in Ponyville, under my protection and watch. You will be able to see her once in awhile, but she needs to live the life a normal pony should."
Zack, almost as if he knew what she was going to say, responded, “Of course, that’s the right thing to do. I completely agree with you.” Zack was a little saddened by this, but tried not to express that emotion before Celestia.
“The world isn’t ready yet to see you, maybe in a few years, but for now, I want you to stay here with me, so I can teach you and Twilight. Of course, I want you to learn more about the world around you unlike what I’ll be teaching Twilight, unicorn magic; I have a library in the south wing of the castle you can study from.”
Zack didn’t respond, he was in deep thought about something Celestia couldn’t tell by his physical appearance. She continued after a moment of silence, “I also want you to perform some tasks for me, some selected missions that I want none of my ponies involved with.”
“Like what did you have in mind?”
“Diplomatic issues mostly, and whatever else is a problem at the time. I feel as if this would broaden your perspective of the world around you.”
Zack turned back to Celestia and smiled, “I’ll do it. As long as one day, I can walk the streets without ponies being in fear... And... to one day live in Ponyville."
“Of course, Zack.”
The two looked out into the night blanketed landscape. Zack didn’t care to have all his questions answered at the moment. He knew that someday, everything will be answered. As for now though, he had a purpose, he had made himself a new life in a new world. Everything was going the way he wanted, and he couldn’t be happier for his situation, and Pinkie Pie’s.
__________
In the harsh, white desert, night had fallen in this strange, dark world. A single, black pony stood alone in the shadowy wasteland, looking toward the horizon with tears in her eyes, watching her home planet rise once more. Luna was her name, the banished sister of Celestia. She lowered her head and sighed as she knelt to the ground to meditate once more.
She heard something behind her though, a cry of the wind. She knew there wasn’t wind on the moon and stood up at once. She turned to see a small vortex of moon dust forming behind her and had no idea what was going on.
“Who are you,” she shouted, using the Royal Canterlot dialect. She spoke again after no response, “I command thee! Who are you?” The gray moon dust formed a strange looking creature, it was a surreal being that had incredible detail.
It spoke with a cunning sly, “Hello, Nightmare Moon. Do I, an old friend, not get the proper salutations? Where are your manners? And I thought you were raised in royalty.”
She knew exactly who he was now and replied to the devilish creature in a regular voice, “I thought we turned you to stone?”
“Ah, you see, there’s your first problem. You fail to realize how influential chaos can be with creation. It’s a silly paradox if you think about it.”
He slithered around her in his phantom-esque body of dust. “You see, one cannot have life without disorder, even the Foreseer knows this. My body still resides within that stone prison you created, but my spiritual essence lingers on! Where there is harmony, I will bring chaos! Where there is a forest, I will bring the fire!”
“You know nothing about the Foreseer, no one does!”
“Ah, you got me there, sister, my folly appears to be showing out in the nude.”
Luna questioned, “Why are you here then, Discord?”
“Though I cannot do much, I can appear for short instances and rekindle old works of mine that have been touched by me, if you know what I mean.”
He turned directly into Luna’s face, his dust particle eyes had a faint yellow glow to them.
“I know you felt it.”
Luna stepped back, “Felt, what?”
“It! A new presence in the world below, a unexplainable magical being has entered your bright and ‘peaceful’ former home.” Luna took a second to concentrate, she then realized something had changed on her planet, a new energy emitted from it.
“What is it, ” Luna questioned the surreal draconequus.
“Well I don’t know, just thought you wanted to know that another being like us is walking around that little, pretty planet over there, with no reason whatsoever. He’s certainly not evil, yet he doesn’t appear to have any peace in him as well. He’s no pony, thank goodness, like we need another one of those stumbling around, taking up space.”
Luna turned toward Discord, horn glowing brightly and her body in an offensive position. “Watch it, Discord! Those are still my people, and I love them, even if they think I’m evil!”
Discord tilted his head, “Sure you do.”
The moon dust creature formed a clock out of moon dust next to him and cried, “Oh, look at the time! I best be leaving, I can’t drain all of my power bickering with the likes of you, Nightmare Moon.”
“Don’t you dare call me Nightmare Moon again!”
Discord rushed over to her and placed one of his talons on the tip of Luna’s horn. His eyes grew brighter as she was stunned in place, her body glowing with a black, ebbing pulse.
“Good, good... let the disharmony flow,” Discord growled.
Luna’s body changed back into her bitter, evil self, the one ponies had recognized as Nightmare Moon. Discord pushed her unconscious body back when the transformation was complete, letting the low gravity of the moon pull her above the white desert.
Discord turned, facing the rising planet and directed his words toward the celestial body. “Whoever you are, walking around down there, I will find you, and put a stop to you.”
He let out a roaring laugh as he dissipated and became dust again, his spirit leaving the moon.
(End of Part 1)