//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 - Salvation, or Suffering? 
// Story: A Scientific Breakthrough 
// by Eruedraieth 
//------------------------------//

It felt like an eternity. Maybe even more than an eternity.

I managed to open my eyes, and I see light again. Dimmed light, but it was better than nothing.

We were still in the cave. I see the Mane Six and Spike lying on the ground, seemingly unconcious. I then look over to where the corrupted one had been. In its place is the form of a human, however.

I managed to somehow get myself standing, with my nerves sending me pain jolts with every movement. I drag myself over to Michelle, and crouch down to inspect her. She's still unconcious, but breathing slowly. I absentmindly stroked her auburn hair, attempting to comfort her. I knew she had brown eyes, but those were closed, and faint smile was plastered on her face.
I whispered to myself, and hopefully her aswell:"It will be all right. I will make you healthy and sane again. That darkness will not be able to consume you again." 

I contact Celestia. "My Princess, I have the human here. She is okay now, but you do not want to know what we encountered in the first place. I will explain more later".

I got a response instantly. "My god, Primal, where are you? Its been two whole days!"

I froze in shock. Two days? It's not an eternity, I guess, but TWO DAYS?

"It's been two days?! Have we been out for that long? I am the first to awaken, but the rest of them are still unconcious. We are still in the cave where we had to meet the human" I answered Celestia.

"I will send for a transport right away. I wish to hear about your encounter immediatly." Celestia said

"Send a squad of guards to come pick us up, too. The tunnel we had to travel through is massive and extremely dark, and it will probably take some time for them to reach us. I am physically too weak to attempt to take all of them anywhere right now, so I shall wait for them to wake up" I said back.

"Will do. Sit tight, my guards will be there shortly" is the last response I got.

What I didn't know, is that Princess Luna herself would be accompanying the squad of guards. Darkness was her element, after all, so she would be able to find us quickly and take us out just as quick.

Eventually I fell asleep, my head placed precariously on Michelle's shoulder, and dreams haunting my rest. Outsiders would've thought of me and Michelle as a couple, but in reality she was my assistant. With a focus on was.

Now I'm on a strange planet, with strange creatures. Over time they became familiar to me, but the same couldn't be said about Michelle. Her first experience was one of fright instead of comfort, causing her to doubt the nature of this world and its inhabitants.

It would be a long time untill she would come to accept this place as (presumably) her new home. I didn't know if she felt the same way about Earth as I did, but if she did, she would feel at home here.

She would, ofcourse, need a place to stay, though. Twilight's library couldn't fit a lot more people in it. After all the hospitality she gave me though, I think a house upgrade would be in order. More, bigger rooms, a dedicated lab, a study, larger library, larger shower, more bedrooms. Once we get back I should talk to Twilight about it. I'm sure she will like the prospect for it. I also have a slight surprise for her when we eventually start the construction of the new rooms...

I noticed from the moment she recieved her constellation mark from me, she seemed absolutely fascinated with it. At first I just passed it off as genuine interest in its function, but now that she knows what it's capable of I think there's more to it. I think she has a bit of a thing for stars and constellations, so the only fitting gift would be an observatory in her own home. How we would be able to keep the structural integrity of the tree intact and at the same time house an observatory was a question for a later date, though.

What seemed like an hour flew past within mere seconds, and eventually I heard voices approaching our still unconcious party.
I dragged myself up, waiting for the batallion to arrive.

"I hope they are allright. From what Celestia told me they had a bit of a fight with the human. I don't know how bad it is" I heard Princess Luna say from the tunnels, her voice echoing through the chamber.

"Princess Luna, we are here!" I shouted in the direction of the tunnels.

After my shouting, I heard the galloping of hooves and a moment later Luna and her guards were standing in the chamber.

"What happened? And who is she?" Luna says, pointing at Michelle.

"That's Michelle. An assistant of mine back on Earth who ended up travelling here along with me. I told her not to try and help me if something happened to me after drinking the solution, but she just refused to listen. Now look at her." I looked down at Michelle, unconcious and a troubled expression on her face. "When she arrived here some sort of nightmare demon attacked her, and she ended up hiding in this cave. The darkness in this cave was, however, a sentient being. It whispered to her, molding her into something horrifying. We were unable to simply incapacitate her with normal spells, so the Elements of Harmony were used" I pointed at the Mane Six, also out cold."But even those were nearly not enough. If not for me finding a black gem on a pedestal in the corner over there and throwing it into the firefight, we all would've died here. When I woke up, I noticed Fluttershy's sign I gave her was still glowing, her channel of restorative powers had apparantly continued to work while we were out, mending us and watching over us."

"That is quite the story there, Primal. I am sure Celestia would want to hear of this immediatly. Guards, help carry the unconcious ponies and dragon, would you?" She then turned to me "Could you take Michelle with you? Your physical strength is a bit more suited to carrying humans, I would believe" Luna said.

I nodded, and carefully picked Michelle's body up from the ground. She's still unconcious, but apparantly knew she's being carried by someone, and laid her head on my arm.

We made the trek back out of the caverns in silence, and headed towards the royal carriage Luna and her guards had used to get here. I sat down in the carriage, taking care to keep Michelle's body in a comfortable position.

We arrived at Canterlot Castle some time later, having idle conversations along the way. Twilight had woken up during the trip. She nearly fell unconcious again when she saw she was in the air all of a sudden, but she managed to hold on. She had looked at Michelle, seeing her unconcious as well as the rest of the Mane Six, and had asked me what happened during the fight. I explained it in detail, and Twilight remained silent after that, obviously thinking.

Celestia was waiting for us on the landing platform. Twilight was carrying Spike now, and the guards were carrying the others while I held Michelle in my arms. Celestia took a quick glance at the Mane six and Spike to check if they were okay before resting her eyes on me and Michelle. "So this is the human we had to find. I take it she should be fine now after your battle?"

"Yeah. I think the darkness had a strong grip on her, so it should take some time before she wakes up" I said. "Is there anywhere I can lay her down to rest in the meantime? My arms are getting a bit tired from carrying her around."

"She can stay in the guest quarters up at Canterlot Palace. The rest of you can too, untill all of you have awakened.Could you bring the still unconcious ponies, human and dragon to the guest quarters and meet me at my private quarters afterwards for a talk? We have a lot to discuss" Celestia said.

I carried Michelle to the guest quarters, together with Twilight carrying Spike and a few guards carrying the rest. We placed all of them unto the beds in the quarters, and the guards left us afterwards.

"What a day. Won't you agree, Twilight?" I said with an exhausted tone.

"It sure was. Im glad everyone is OK, though. Now we just have to wait untill they all wake up" she said.

"Considering you have already woken up, I don't think the rest of the Mane Six or Spike will take much longer. Michelle, on the other hand..." I say with a hint of doubt. "By the way, I have a little gift planned for you. It involves your house and more rooms."

"Oh really? You would do that for me?" Twilight said with a tinge of excitement.

"Ofcourse Twilight. After all of the hospitality you have given to me, it's the least I could do to return the favor. Aside from more rooms though, there are a few rooms in particular which you will most certainly like... It will be a surprise as to what kind of rooms for now, though" I said teasingly.

"Aww, you're no fun. Just tell me what the rooms will be!" she pleaded.

"Nah. More fun to see you begging for it than to actually spoil the surprise. Now let's go see Celestia. I'm sure she would want some answers" I said.

I chanted a rune in the air with mild boredom, letting fate decide what the rune would do. Fate chose for a rune which sparked with flames and followed me around, much to the worry, and enjoyment of Twilight.

"You sure that thing won't set the castle on fire? Why did you cast it, anyway?" Twilight questioned.

"Well I got a bit bored, so I chanted a random rune in the air and let fate decide what it would be. This rune in particular won't set the entire castle on fire, maybe cause a bit of commotion at best. It's practically harmless. I don't really get why this is a rune in the first place" I said.

"Maybe it's some kind of sparking rune to kick-start other runes? If you could turn off the constant sparking and combine it with another rune which caused some kind of flammable substance, you could create a deadly trap. Rune traps!" Twilight said with excitement.

"Too much effort which could easily be combined into one rune which erupts into a collumn of fire. Much easier, and leaves less to be found" I said.

"I guess you are right. Some things are just there to be useless for some reason or the other" Twilight said with a defeated tone.

We arrived at Celestia's quarters, and Twilight knocked on the door. A short "Come in!" sounded and I opened the door for us.

We saw Celestia languishing on a couch in the corner of the room, reading a book called "Creatures of the Dark and Evil". She put down the book when she saw us, and beckoned for us to take a seat in the room. I took a seat in a chair in the far corner of the room, and Twilight sat beside Celestia on the couch. I didn't completely use the chair for what it was supposed to be used for, as I used it as an uncomfortable bed. "You comfortable there Primal? You seem very relaxed in that chair" Celestia smirked.

"This is how I sit in a chair when i'm exhausted. Which was basically my entire schoolperiod. And a few times in my lab, when I just couldn't be bothered."

"Alright, if it makes you comfortable I am not the one to judge. Moving on, I would like to hear how you defeated the corruption inside uhm... Michelle... was it?" Celestia said in an inquisitive tone.

"To put it in a simple, short, and not-boring way, we found Michelle, used a lot of powerful spells which didn't work, used the Elements of Harmony which nearly didn't work and then I found a black gem in the corner which I threw into the Elements of Harmony and the corrupted one's beam, which caused one hay of a massive explosion and taking us all out in the process along with purging the darkness from Michelle" I explained. "I don't want to take credit for saving us, though. If not for the power of the Elements, the gem could not have been shattered in the first place. Not to mention Fluttershy's healing keeping us alive after it."

Twilight blushed slightly at this praise, and Celestia looked at me with an expression of fullfillment. "I suppose a reward is in order. For all of you. I heard Primal had something planned for you, so I will leave that gift to him. I am sure he will make your gift incredible" she said, looking at Twilight.

"He didn't even tell me what he was going to do apart from telling me something with my house and new rooms" Twilight said with an annoyed look on her face, which to me looked really cute. It was fun to see Twilight not knowing everything for a time. "You done staring there, Primal? Or do you intend to terrorize me further?

"Huh, what?" I looked up with my cheeks turning red in embarrassment. "Sorry, I must've faded out thinking about you" I grinned.

Now it was Twilights turn to have red cheeks. In contrast to her purple fur this looked quite funny.

"Could you leave your teasing for somewhere other than my private chambers? It is making me feel quite uncomfortable knowing that you two are being so open." Celestia said with a smug smile.

"Sorry, Princess" Twilight and me said in unison.

"It is quite alright, you two. I am glad to see my student has finally started being socially acceptable." Celestia commented.. 

This drew a blush out of the both of Twilight. Saying something about 'tending to her books', she left the room in a hurry.

Before I could follow her out of the room, Celestia said: "Your payment will arrive as you are used to, tomorrow morning. Enjoy the rest of your day." I nodded, and quickly followed Twilight out of the room, who was headed towards the guest quarters where the rest of our friends were.

We entered the quarters, to find Luna close to Michelle, inspecting her. Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were awake now, but Applejack and Pinkie Pie were still out.

"I am glad the pink one is still out cold. A bit of peace and quiet is comforting sometimes" I said with a chuckle. "I'm also glad the rest of you are awake now. Twilight and I have been awake for a little while now, although i'm not quite sure why we woke up before the rest of you did.

"I woke up when we just got placed into this room. I saw the guards laying the rest down on the cushions and bed, and saw you carrying the human. Did you see that beam, though? It was AWESOME!" Dash said, with a hint of her former self returning.

"The specacular light show was quite something. Shame it was pointed at us." Rarity agreed with Dash.

"I-I'm just glad everyone is okay" Fluttershy said.

Spike ran towards Twilight, giving her a bone-crushing hug the sort of which were usually seen by Pinkie. "You must be incredibly happy to see Twilight again, are you?" I asked Spike.

"Happy does not even describe how glad I am to see my sister being okay" I scrunched my face a bit at the thought of Spike and Twilight being brother and sister, but left it at the face and thought.

While Spike hugged Twilight, Applejack woke up. "Wha happened guys.... Where ah'm ah."

"You were knocked unconcious caused by the sheer force of the black gem exploding. As we all were. The rest of us just woke up earlier than you did, with no real explanation" I said comfortingly.

Applejack nodded, and proceeded to stand up, before asking how the human was doing. "She seems fine. Twilight and I checked her vitals, and found nothing in particular" I said.

Applejack squinted her eye at me slightly, knowing something was up between me and Twilight. "Are you two.. by any chance...?" she asked carefully.

"No, not really."  I responded. " Let's just leave it at that.

All the time, Luna was silent, inspecting Michelle for any signs of the corruption. Then, she spoke: "I fear we might have a slight problem"

The cheer in the room was quickly extinguished, and I had a worried look on my face. "She is alright, yes?" I asked.

"Physically she is fine. Mentally, however..." She looked at Michelle before continuing "The corruption seems to have taken such a huge hold on her that even now she is afflicted by it, after you purged her from most of it. I am not sure if this residual corruption is permanent, or temporary. I hope for all of you that it will be the latter, but only time will tell."

I looked over at Twilight. She looked like she was thinking, hard. "I think there might be a book somewhere about this corruption. I think i've read it before, but i'm not sure what the name of the book was..."

"You mean this book?" Celestia said, suddenly entering the room while levitating a book. The book she was reading in her private quarters.

"Yes, that's the one! You were reading that before we came into your quarters... Is there anything useful in there?" Twilight asked with hope in her eyes.

"There is something in there which could purge it... It is quite dangerous, though. Are you sure you are up for that task?" Celestia asked, but without a hint of doubt.

"Ofcourse, Princess!" Twilight said, confidence radiating outwards from her.

"I had no doubt. Now, for the ritual you will need to gather a few extremely rare materials. I suggest you bring someone along with you, but do not take everyone. A small group travels faster than a big one." Twilight immediatly looked at me. "I thought you would choose him to go with you. Now, for the materials.."

Celestia wrote down a list of materials on a piece of paper which appeared out of nowhere, and handed it to Twilight afterwards. She looked up from reading it, and said: "A Deathlotus? That doesn't sound ominous."

"As I mentioned, the ritual is a dangerous one.It will attempt to fuse the corruption inside of Michelle into an object embalmed with a deathlotus salve, which can be disposed of using a special kind of bonfire. Hence the lunar wood. The Deathlotus can be found in the swamps to the east The object is a mystical flammable rock, which has not been seen around for ages. After the rock is used, burned in most cases, it will re-appear somewhere on Terra sometime later. I have heard rumours of it having re-appeared already, but the location of it is yet unknown. I will share with the both of you what knowledge and rumours I have of it." Celestia said, her horn glowing. She touched Twilights forehead, and then mine. 
I saw images flashing past, and heard a couple of voices talk about "The Rock of the Phoenix", it's name derived from a phoenix's ability to resurrect from its ashes. The voices told of a place called "The Badlands", where the rock was rumoured to be at.

"To make the lunar wood catch fire to burn the rock, you will need a special igniter. Legends talk about an everburning torch with green flames. I heard of the torch being located in a mountain, but I am unsure as to which specific mountain. I only know the mountain is located in the San Palomino Desert" Celestia said.

"For the ritual itself, you will need a crystal focus, one which has the ability to hold the forces of Life and Death. There is only one such focus known in Terra, the "Crystal of Conflict", its location also unkown. Rumours say it was last seen in the Crystal Kingdoms up north. Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire might be able to help you further with it" Celestia said. "Lastly, you will need a siphoning stick, the "All-Consuming Branch". It is said this branch to be located deep within the Galloping Gorge, guarded by something sinister. I will hand you a map with the locations of the materials. Once you have collected all of them, return to me and we will perform the ritual."


(If the image is unclear, have a direct link: Link to the map)

We took the map, quickly remembered the locations, and placed the map in a pouch on my belt

"We should head back to Ponyville first. Prepare for the trips and all that" I suggested.

"Trips? I thought we were going to get all of them in one go?" Twilight asked in confused tone.

"Nonsense. Look at how far apart all of these things are. Not to mention that we don't even know where the crystal focus is yet. No, we will pack for seperate trips to all four directions, and will get the Deathlotus and Rock of the Phoenix in one go. My energy alone is not good enough to teleport the distance to and from those places, so I suggest we travel normally towards where an item is located, and travel back using our combined magic. Besides, we could find out more about where the item is during the trip" I said.

Twilight agreed with my plan, and turned  to face the other ponies.

"Where is Pinkie?" she asked, wondering where the pink earth pony had been.

Pinkie was, however, sneaking up on Twilight from behind at that moment. I saw her from the corner of my eye, but decided to say nothing to allow her to surprise Twilight.

"SURPRISE!" Pinkie shouted near Twilights ear. This caused Twilight to shoot up in the air for atleast 5 meters. I managed to catch her to stop her from falling on the ground.

"My hero!" Twilight said in a damsell-in-distress voice.

"Pff, I could've just dropped you if I wanted to. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for you, I care too much to be able to do that" I said, mildly amused.

"Don't let your care take over your rationale. Could you please put me down, now? I mean I don't mind staying in your arms but I think this is getting a bit heavy for you" Twilight said.

" I doubt it, but fine."  I said, lowering Twilight to the ground slowly. "We should get going now. Could you take care of Michelle while we are gone?" I mentioned to Celestia and Luna.

"We will make sure she's safe here. If she wakes up, I will contact you or Twilight. Have a great journey" Celestia said, Luna nodding in approval.

We left Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with Michelle, and headed to the train station to get back to Ponyville. "Can't you just teleport us back there?" Dash said, annoyed.

We stepped into the train, before I answered: "I can't be bothered. It takes a lot of energy out of me, even though it may not look like it. Besides, I have quite a long journey ahead of me so I'd rather save that energy" I looked at Dash "Besides, nothing more relaxing than a train trip. Come now, I'm sure you out of all ponies needs it the most."

Dash tried to think of a witty remark which probably had something to do with boasting about herself, but didn't manage. Instead, she was just opening and closing her mouth, making her look like a fish. This drew the necessary laughter out of us, ofcourse.

"Oh c'mon! Why me?" Dash said, annoyed.

"The moment you start not having an ego and acting normally when put under pressure is the moment I will stop laughing about you" I said with a grin.

"I can do that!" Dash said, but with pride in her voice,

"Nah, you can't. Not yet, anyway. I can see you are faking it right now" I said, mocking her.

Dash looked at me, defeated. She flew down towards a nearby chair and sat in it, silent. "Good. Now keep that up and you will lose that massive ego of yours in no time. You can be proud of your achievements and skills, but there's something such as overdoing it" I said, having won the battle. She looked at me, guilt in her eyes, but remained silent.

"WHO WANTS A CUPCAKE!!!?!?!" Pinkie shouted, causing everyone to jump up in shock.

"Pinkie! Stop scaring everypony like that!" Twilight demanded, still slightly angry at her earlier shock.

"It's Pinkie. I don't think you can make her stop doing stuff like that" I said absentmindly.

Applejack noticed something was wrong, and queried : "What's wrong Primal? Ya thinkin' of somethin'?"

"Kind of. Trying to figure out what me and Twilight would need to pack for our journey. By the way, Twilight" I looked at Twilight, drawing her attention. "Where do we go first?"

"I think it might be a good idea to get the focus first, since we don't really know where it is. The rest should be easier afterwards. Besides, I think the crystal might need a bit of tuning before it's usable anyway" she answered me. "I'm going to miss the rest of you guys while we are gone. I doubt we will take very long, and since we are going to teleport back anyway, we will see you between trips.

I finally made up my mind about what to pack, and notified Twilight: "For this one we should pack a few supplies to last us the way to the Crystal kingdom. From there we can buy more if need before we head to wherever the crystal is. We can go by train, but I prefer having our own food and drink with us"

"You sure you guys can handle all of it with just the two of you?" Fluttershy asked. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I'm sure of it. Both of us are adept with magic, and should anything happen to that we still have Primal's daggers" Twilight assured.

"Darn. Speaking of daggers, I wanted to ask Celestia to maybe have a new, improved set created for me. From what I can tell these are just simple iron daggers. I'll contact Celestia by mind to ask her about it" I said. I scried for a connection with Celestia's mind, and found it shortly after. "Celestia, I have something I need to ask you for. I could use a set of improved daggers instead of these iron ones. These serve me well, but better tools means better work after all. Could you maybe fix me a new set of some fancy material?" I asked her.

"Hello Primal. Yes, I could get the royal blacksmith to forge some good daggers for you. They will be created from a very rare material, called Elemental steel. This special material has been found centuries ago, but there was no real known use for it untill now. Due to the magical nature of the material, whenever you cast a spell it will overcharge, granting it extra power. It also allows for the siphoning of someone's magic. Whenever the material touches something or someone other than the user, it will drain the magic out of it and bestow it upon the user. These blades will be very powerful, so I suggest you enchant or let them be enchanted in such a way that only you can use them. I will have them ready for when you return from your first trip" Celestia answered.

"Amazing, Celestia. Thanks in advance, and I will return with haste with the item required for the ritual." I closed the connection between our minds, and returned to the physical world. Whenever I would speak to someone in this kind of way, I slightly fade from existence and can't act untill I close the connection. Which is a real worry if it should happen when in a battle.

"You were looking a bit transparant there Primal. You okay dear?" Rarity asked.

"I'm fine, it's just a little side effect caused by connecting with someone's mind, I think." I explained.

"That sounds really strange, but okay. If you say you are fine, then I am statisfied" Rarity answered.

"It means he can talk to someone with just his thoughts. Unicorns are able to use the spell too, but to a less powerful extent, from what I saw. Primal's version seems to cause himself to slightly fade. And I have no doubt he can use it at even longer distances than I could ever do, because of his connection with Earth." Twilight elaborated.

"I don't think we needed the smatypants explanation, but thanks anyway" Dash scoffed.

"Oi, manners Dash. You seem to be rather insulted by me showing your overextensive pride and boasting" I remarked. "Wait a second..." I looked closely at Dash, who in turn lightly backed away from my stare. "I see. You are jealous!"

"No i'm not! Who said I was jealous?" she countered.

"Come on, admit it. You are jealous. And if I'm not mistaken, the jealousy is caused by me meeting Twilight first, and not you. Which is a rather stupid way of being jealous, in my honest opinion." 

" Why would I be jealous of you meeting Twilight first?" Rainbow asked.

" Because if I wouldn't have, you could've boasted about meeting an alien and being the first to become friends." I said.

" I guess...." She said nervously.

The train was nearing Ponyville by now, so we silently sat and waited untill the train arrived at the station. We paid the train fare, and left the station.

"So, I guess you two are gonna prepare for your trip to the Crystal Kingdom now, then?" Dash asked.

"Yeah. We got a lot of materials to collect, so we'd best get started right away" I answered. "Group hug!"

All of them gathered for a group hug. While hugging, I noticed Spike standing away from the group in the corner of my eye. "Spike, when I say "Group hug!" that means we hug, as a group. Which includes you. So get over here and join the hugging." I saw hesitation in his eyes, but the love for his friends got the best of him and he joined in.

"We will see you all very soon, I promise. And with a crystal to boot." I turned to Twilight. "Let's get packin', shall we?"

Each of the mares headed to their respective homes, but Dash decided to accompany us untill the treehouse. I saw that she wanted to ask something, but was refraining from doing so.

"What troubles you, Dash?" I asked.

" I... just wanted to say thank you for pointing those things of mine out to me. You will stay in Equestria, right..?"

"Not this again. Look, i'm not leaving you anytime. Not soon, not later, not ever. This is my home now as much as it is yours. Sure, I will visit my old world again some day, but I definitely do not want to stay there. This place has something... Harmony unequaled in its grace. When you look at Earth, you see only war, pain, grief, greed and death. Sure there are upsides but most of the world is either full of greed and corrupt or at war with some other country. I don't want to live in a world where you have this constant fear that someday your home might cease to exist, just because of a feud between nations. It's pathetic, really. In comparison to Earth, Terra is paradise. And you wonder if i'm going to leave you guys."

"I... I didn't know it was that bad on your old world...." Dash said.

"You didn't, and you couldn't have. I suppose you have never wondered why you had such an easy life untill now?" I said.

"Honestly, I haven't. Seeing someone coming from somewhere as bad as you said it is, it's made me realize that my life is pretty dull and boring in comparison" Dash said, on the verge of crying.

"Hey, come now, your life isn't boring or dull. You fought and defeated both Discord AND Nightmare Moon! I don't dare call that boring or dull. That's more action than a commonner will ever see on Earth. Only the soldiers get to fight on Earth, and they usually kill or get killed with ease. Humans have no magic, so they rely on weapons called guns. They propel a projectile forth at high speeds, usually resulting in instant death to anything it touches, unless wearing bulletproof armour."

"Your world sounds really savage, Primal. I'm glad for all of us and you that you managed to get to this world" Twilight said.

"Enough about me. We've been standing in front of the library for quite some time, we should get going now or risk Celestia's eternal wrath" I chuckled.

Dash flew off, and we headed inside to prepare for our upcoming trip.


WWWWW


Change of Character - Primal Dagger -> Princess Celestia

I was pacing about my room, waiting for news from Luna about the human. She had still been unconcious since Primal dagger and the rest left. I was wondering if the ritual would be needed to wake her up in the first place, but I had read no such thing about that in the book. Then, the door opened to reveal a midnight blue pony. My sister.

"Is she awake? Please tell me she is awake." I said, hoping that it would be true.

"Yes Tia, she is awake. You should come with me and speak to her. You have much more of an influence in calming ponies than I do" my sister said.

"Let us make haste then, Luna. The human should probably be confused by now as to why you left the room."

We quickly headed over to the guest quarters. The human was sitting on the bed she had been unconcious on. Untill now, I had not managed to get a good look at her. She was wearing a plain white shirt with a red blouse on top, with tight blue jeans and black casual shoes, and had her auburn hair tied up in a knot.

"Hello, Michelle. Primal Dagger, or Joshua as you call him, has told me a bit about you. I would like to know a bit more about you, though" I said.

"Where is he? Where did the rest of them go?" Michelle asked.

"They have left to Ponyville, and Twilight and Primal Dagger are on an errand to collect a few materials for a ritual we need to perform on you. You had been corrupted by the darkness residing in the cave you hid in, and after the gem explosion, it was nearly purged off of you. There is a bit of residual corruption however, which has to be dealt with before it manages to infest you again like it did" I explained.

"I didn't hurt them, did I? I didn't mean to hurt any of them, but I just couldn't control myself for some reason. That darkness, as you said, had taken full control over my body I think" Michelle said.

"As far as I know, nopony, human or dragon has been hurt by you. All of them looked pretty healthy, but unconcious like you when me and my guards arrived" Luna said, taking over.

"How long have I been out for?" She asked curiously.

I looked outside to see my sun setting and Luna's moon slowly rising. "Almost three days now. You should be starved, I presume. Let me get you something to eat and something to drink" I offered, leaving Luna with her to fetch some water and a sandwich from the kitchen.

I trotted as fast as I could towards the royal kitchens, the chefs confused as to why their Princess appeared in their kitchen at this time of day.

"Bring me a glass of water and a cheese sandwich, please. And hurry up a bit" I demanded.

The chefs scrambled to fetch what I ordered, and within moments they held out a plate with what I asked for. "Thank you, my loyal subjects." I levitated the dinner plate in my magic, and trotted back to the guest quarters.

I opened the door, and saw Luna and Michelle having an idle conversation about who knew what. I placed the tray in front of Michelle, who gladly accepted the food and drink, consuming it within seconds.

Both of us just waited untill she had finished her meal, before continuing to question her. "May I ask what happened to you to arrive at this planet, and what happened when you arrived on it?" I asked, masking a slight hint of excitement.

"Well, when Joshua.. I mean Primal Dagger drank the liquid rainbow, he kind of fell over. I didn't want him to hit his head on the floor, so I catched him before he could. I don't really know what happened after that. The world just went black, and then I appeared on some hill in this verdant world of yours. When I woke up, I saw nothing around me. But when I just decided that there was nothing, a shadow appeared behind me. It said something, but I can't really remember what. I think it was something like: "Beware, the darkness will consume you". Looking back at it, I shouldn't have been so scared about what he said. His appearance however frightened me, and I ran as fast as my legs could carry. I thought it was chasing me, so I ran towards a cave I saw from on top of the hill. I don't think it was actually chasing me, it was just warning me of the darkness I was going to cast upon myself. I thought I was safe in the cave, but I was proven wrong. I think you might have heard the rest from Primal himself. Nothing else really happened other than the constant whispers consuming me in the darkness" Michelle said.

"You say you ran away from a shadow? Any clue as to what it looked like?" Luna asked her.

"I don't know really. I think it had green eyes, and a mist-like figure of something that looked like a ghost" Michelle said. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I thought it mightve been Primal in some weird way, but the shadow you said had green eyes, not red. This also makes Twilight's description wrong aswell, as she said it had a singular fiery eye." Michelle looked at me, confused. "Primal is the Element of the Assassin. He has an outfit which he has modified to make him look like a shadow, with piercing red eyes under a veiled, smoking hood."

"He is the Element of the what now? This doesn't make any sense." Michelle said.

"Basically, the world you are on now is a sentient being. It has decided that Primal should be someone of importance, a protector of sorts. It might have done the same for you, but I am not sure if it has. Maybe after we have done the ritual we can attempt to explore the possibilities" I explained.

"Why then? Why not now?" she said, and I noticed a strange aura seeping from her.

"Calm down, please. It is for this exact reason that we have to wait untill the corruption has been lifted" I said in a soothing voice. This calmed her down, luckily, and she looked like she was accepting it.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I guess that was due to the corruption. I hope Primal and Twilight find those things quickly, I don't like this feeling..."


WWWWW


Change of Character - Princess Celestia -> Primal Dagger

We had nearly arrived at the Crystal Kingdom, when Celestia contacted me. I quickly asked Twilight to look out for me, and I listened to what Celestia had to say.

"Primal, Michelle has woken up. She looks to be fine now, but the corruption is still affecting her. Please hurry and collect all of the materials as soon as you can. I do not think we have too long untill she snaps again." Celestia said.

I mentally nodded, and closed the connection.

"We should make haste and get all of the materials as quickly as possible. I think we might have to instruct the others to help find the other parts while we head for the rock and the death lotus. I don't want to mentally strain myself too much right now, as I need to save my energy for when we need to teleport back. It will take a lot out of me, I'm sure of that. When we get back, you might have to go on alone if I don't have enough power to conti-"

"No" Twilight stated. "I am not going to go alone to fetch the rock and the lotus. I will use up my own power to make sure both of us make it back. After all, we have to combine our magic in order to teleport back, so if we balance that out we should be equally magically exhausted. By the time we reach Dodge City by train and walk towards the Badlands, our fatigue should be lifted."

"Alright, I'm counting on you. We should prepare to leave the train and head straight to Princess Cadance. I hope she can point us in the right direction..." I said, fear in my heart.


We arrived at the Crystal Empire Palace not too long after exiting the train. I asked a guard for directions to Princess Cadance, but he simply stated the Princess was not accepting visitors right now as she was in a meeting. I tried telling him it was urgent, but he would not budge.

"I am a personal friend of Princess Cadance and student to Princess Celestia herself. I demand that you lead us to the Princess" Twilight said, emitting an aura of authority.

"Hold on, you are Twilight Sparkle?? My apologies, I did not recognize you. Follow me, I will lead you to the Princess myself."

We followed the guard through a maze of halls, and were brought in front of a closed door. "I will open the door and request a meeting with the Princess. Stay close behind me" The guard said.

I donned my armour, but left out the smoke effect and piercing red eyes. I left my hood on however, which caused my face to be darkness. Nopony would be able to see my face untill I removed my hood.

"You sure that's the right thing to wear here?" Twilight asked me tentatively.

"It radiates a slight aura of authority. Otherwise the other ponies in there will just think I'm some sort of commoner while I'm really the Shadow of Equestria. The title requires it" I said.

"If you say so" she said, before following the guard into the room.

I assumed that the guard we had followed had a pretty high-ranking, as normal guards would'nt be able to just barge into a meeting like that. "Permission to speak, Princess Cadance" the guard asked.

"Permission granted. Speak, Crystal General Clavius" A pink alicorn with multi-hued purple and pink mane and tail answered.

A general? We managed to get the attention of a general..?


"These two here requested an audience with you. I assume it is important considering the circumstances" the crystal guard said, motioning towards us.

"That is correct." I spoke with my altered voice. I turned my head towards Princess Cadance. "You must be Princess Cadance. 'Tis a pleasure to meet you in person. I am sure you know of Twilight Sparkle already."

I saw Twilight brimming with happiness in the corner of my eye. I knew a little bit about the relation between her and Cadance, but to what extent was unknown to me.

Princess Cadance addressed the other ponies present: "This meeting will be moved to a later date. I must ask you to leave the room."

The ponies addressed to slowly got up, grabbed their things and left the room, leaving me, Twilight, the guard and the Princess.

When everyone left, it looked like Twilight couldn't hold it anymore. She charged straight at Cadance, embracing her in a tight hug. They then did what looked like their signature meeting: "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" They both shouted in unison, giggling.

Princess Cadance then looked at the confused guard. "You may leave, Clavius."

The guard bowed, and turned and left the room.

I removed my hood, showing my face, and looked at the two giggling mares.

"Oh, sorry. And you are?" Cadance asked.

"Primal Dagger, Shadow of Equestria. Pleased to make your acquaintaince" I bowed shortly.

"Oh, so you are the one I've been hearing about from all the travellers that arrive in the Crystal Empire. They spoke of a shadowy figure that saved them from criminals and burglars. You don't look shadowy or imposing to me, though" Cadance said.

I grinned. "That is because this isn't my full outfit." I donned my hood again, and activated the smoke aura, piercing red eyes and echoing voice. "This is...is...is...." my voice echoed.

"I retract my statement. You do look imposing. Nice smoke effects, by the way" Cadance complimented.

"Thank you....you....you..." I removed my effects and hood again.

"I assume you came here for something other than meeting me?" Cadance asked us.

"Yes! We came here to ask you if you've heard anything about the "Crystal of Conflict"? Twilight asked, taking the lead.

"Why yes, ofcourse I have. It resides in our treasury room. Why, do you need it for something?" Cadance said.

"Um, yes. We need it to perform a ritual to cleanse the corruption inside another human we found" When Twilight said the word human, she pointed at me.

"Ah, okay. Well I can give it to you, but it is one of my most prized artifacts in the treasury. I would like you to do something for me in exchange, something suited to your skills" she said, looking at me. "There is a problem here in the Crystal Empire that involves a certain high-ranking nobleman. He has been going around stealing money from others, and hiring henchmen to deal with the ones who rebelled against him. He is quite the troublemaker, and I would like you to, scene his death. You need to make it appear in such a way that one of the rebelling ponies killed him. I hate having to use violence like this, but he simply refuses to listen to any demands."

"Now that is the easiest job I've ever taken. I can simply poison his drink with a potent poison which the rebellious ponies could get around to making in these parts. Nobody would know, and he would be easily dealt with. While I'm gone, you two can catch up" I motioned to Twilight and her.

"Thanks Primal Dagger, and be safe." Cadance said.

I donned my signature armour, and left the room, causing quite the shock from the guard who escorted us here. "Don't mind me, just passing through on official business....business....business....."

He threw a confused look at me, but left it at that. Cadance had told me where the nobles area would be, and told me how my target looked like. This made my job a lot easier, and I quickly found where he lived. Ofcourse, I drew the necessary confused and startled looks, but nothing too serious. My target was sitting at a table, obviously waiting for something. Perfect, he's waiting for his food or drink. I quickly walked into an alley and turned myself invisible using the power of Air to guide my steps. I fashioned the poison I was going to use, which unfortunately had to be placed in a drink as it was a liquid. My mastery of Water allowed me to perfectly re-create the poison, and I headed inside the building he was languishing in front of, eyes closed and enjoying his soon-to-be last day.

Inside, I saw a yellowish crystal pony with a cup of boiling coffee as cutie mark, who was obviously the waitress. She was just about to walk outside with a tray containing food and drink, obviously directed for my target as he was the only one sitting outside right now. The place was devoid of ponies, other than him. I quickly froze the waitress on the spot, and poured the contents of the poison vial into the drink. After watching it mix and return to its original colour, I unfroze the waitress, who looked around, confused, but seeing nopony or human in my case. She then proceeded to grab the tray and walked outside.

I quickly connected my mind with Cadance's, slightly interrupting a conversation she was having with Twilight. "Princess, the target should be dealt with any moment now. If any accusations are to be made against a yellow crystal pony with a boiling coffee cup cutie mark, make sure these charges are dismissed."

I disconnected again, not waiting for a response, and walked outside at the same moment the waitress walked outside. I looked around and saw nopony in the streets around. Perfect as well. Nopony to witness his death other than the waitress.

The waitress placed the tray on the table, and walked inside again. Just for amusements sake, I sat on the chair next to him, still invisible, waiting for him to take a drink.

He then finally took a sip of his drink. The poison would take a little moment to start working, but just a tiny sip like that was enough.

He started coughing wildly, and his eyes turned a bloodshot red. Then, his body started turning pale, and he choked on the spot. Easy. The symptoms of the poison were quite unnerving, but being versed in death and deceit, it didn't bother me as much.

I quickly burned his body and scattered his ashes, never to be seen again. I then made myself visible again, without effects as to not scare the pony inside the building. I evaporated the drink before I grabbed the tray and walked inside. 

"Miss, there was this random dinner tray outside. I thought I'd bring it inside as there was nopony around to be seen" I said.

"That's strange. There was this nobleman there just a moment ago.." she said.

"I think I saw him walking away. I guess he didn't even bother to pay for his meal, and from what he left of it he left in quite a hurry. The bastard" I said.

"You can say that again. The nerve of that nobleman. I would be glad if he was to simply vanish from this place. He's quite the troublemaker and thief, stealing money whenever he has the chance" the waitress said.

I grinned subtly. If only you knew...

"Well, thanks for bringing the plate inside, Mister..?" 

I had to quickly think of something on the spot, as revealing my real name would be a disaster and could link me to the crime.

"My name is of no concern " I said, hiding my real name.

"Alright. Thanks again."

I turned around and left the building, content with the completed task. I quickly headed back to the palace.


WWWWW


"And then he said: "I do know that. Twilight knows, too", and winked at me!" I heard Twilight saying.

"The job is done." I said, entering the room.

"Ah, Primal Dagger. Thank you for your efforts. Guards!" she shouted.

A guard walked inside the room, waiting for an order from his Princess.

"Could you be so kind as to escort these two to the treasury room. I have allowed them to take the "Crystal of Conflict" with them for an important ritual" Cadance said.

The guard looked at her, confused, but followed her orders. "Follow me, please."

It was a different guard than the first one. He led us through the many halls of the palace, and we stopped in front of an opened ornate golden door. "This is the treasury. The crystal should be somewhere in the middle of the room" the guard explained, leaving us.

"I'm glad we didn't have to make some kind of world-trip through the frozen wastes outside the empire" Twilight said, relieved.

"Me too. Let's grab the crystal and teleport back home after saying our goodbyes to Cadance".

The crystal was indeed in the middle of the room. I carefully took the crystal from its pedestal, and placed it inside Twilight's saddlebag. We then walked back towards the throne room, memorizing the path.


Twilight knocked on the door, hearing a short "Come in" voiced from inside.

We walked inside. Twilight quickly trotted to Cadance, hugging her again. "Thank you Cadance. I will make sure to visit you sometime after all this is over. Or maybe you could visit us in Ponyville?" Twilight asked.

"I would be glad to visit you and your friends in Ponyville again" Cadance answered.

"Princess, could you assist us with teleporting home? We need to gather a few other materials as well, and we are in a bit of a hurry for it" I asked Cadance, who returned a confused look. " I will make a channeling stone into which you can channel your magics. This stone in turn will create the portal back to Ponyville.

I created an ordinary stone, and enchanted it with a special rune before placing it on the ground in front of us. The unicorn and alicorn looked at the stone, and then knew what to do. I saw both of them channeling their magic, and they touched the stone with their horns. I placed my hands on the stone, too, adding my own power to the mix. The stone started glowing brightly, and then it floated up. It started turning quickly in the air, creating a portal.

"I am sure I will see you around again sometime, Princess" I said to Cadance, and stepped through the portal. Twilight hugged her one last time before also stepping through the portal.


WWWWW


We appeared inside the library, much to the shock and dismay of Spike.

"You guys are back already? That didn't take near as long as I thought it would" he said.

"Cadance had the crystal in her treasury room. The only thing Primal needed to do was eliminate a troublesome nobleman, which he did quickly and efficiently." she looked at me, praising me for my work.

I blushed slightly. "Thanks, Twilight. It means a lot to me, hearing that from you."

Twilight then turned to Spike, with a slightly exhausted expression on her face. "Spike, could you be so kind as to gather my friends here? I need to ask them, and you, something important"

Spike looked at Twilight, hoping she would say what that was, but Twilight remained silent. "Okay, where do I tell them to go?"

"Just send them to the library. Me and Primal will rest a bit while you gather them" Twilight said, noticeably exhausted now.

Spike ran out of the library, gathering the rest of the Mane six. Twilight had unpacked the crystal in the meanwhile, when a package appeared on the table in a bright flash. It was signed with my name on it.

"I think I know what this is. These will come in quite useful for our next trip" I said, ripping open the package. 

As I expected, my new daggers were inside the box, neatly placed against each other. The blade was a cool blue, with an intricate pattern on it, infused with magic. The blade itself curved upwards at the edge, ending in a razorsharp point. I quickly enchanted the blades with the required runes for lightweight, pain-infliction and unbreaking. I then turned to Twilight. "Twilight, I might need your magic for this enchantment. It's to bind these daggers to me and to me alone."

"What do I need to do?" Twilight asked.

"I need you to place your hoof on my left hand, channeling your magic through it, to me. I will place the enchantment on the blade with my right hand. We will have to do this for both of the blades."

She nodded, and I placed the dagger on the table, my right hand on top. Twilight placed her hoof on my left hand as she was told to, and I saw her channeling her magic. I felt it flow through my left arm, chest, and then to my right arm. I added my own magic along with hers and placed the enchantment on the blade. We did the same for the other dagger, the magical exhaustion catching up to Twilight.

"Here, let me fix you. I am not as magically exhausted as you are, so I can spare a bit." I placed my finger just below her horn, and channeled my magic through. This reinvigorated Twilight, who looked a lot better with more magic in her. 

"Thanks Primal. I feel better already" she thanked me.

"Let's rest a bit on the couch while we wait for the rest to arrive" I suggested.

I plopped myself down on the couch, having placed the new daggers on my toolbelt, and placed the older ones on the table.

I didn't notice it catch up to me, but I quickly fell asleep.


WWWWW

Change of Character - Primal Dagger -> Spike

I walked over to Rainbow Dash's cloud home. I tried to figure out what was so important that Twilight needed me to gather the rest of the Elements of Harmony, but couldn't come up with an explanation.

"Rainbow Dash! I need you to go to the library, Twilight asked for you!" I shouted upwards, a slight puff of smoke escaping my nostrils.

The cyan mare peeked over the cloud to see me standing there, waiting. "I will go there in just a sec. Need to finish grooming myself" she answered.

"Alright, but don't take too long. I'm going now to get the rest of the girls, see you in a few!" I shouted back.

I walked over to Fluttershy's cottage next. I knew the canary yellow pegasus would be tending to her animals right now, so scaring her would be inconsiderate. I approached the cottage, and waited for the pegasus to finish feeding her animals. She finally noticed me standing there.

"Oh hey Spike, were you waiting for me?" Fluttershy asked.

"I was. I had to ask you to visit Twilight at the library. It was quite urgent" I answered.

"Any details as to why it is urgent? It doesn't seem very... Twilight, to call us like this" she contemplated.

"Not really. All she said was that it's important that you meet her right now" I said.

"Okay. I'll go to her place right now. I assume you are going to get the rest too?" Fluttershy answered.

"Yeah, I should get going. See you there" I said quickly, moving on to sweet apple acres.

The walk there was uneventful, and long. I finally got to the farm, however, and found Applejack working in the fields.

"Hey Applejack, could you come over for a second?" I shouted over at her.

The orange mare paused her work, and trotted over to me. "What's up Spike?"

"Twilight asked me to gather all of you at the library. She said it was urgent" I answered. Applejack tried to scour for any hint of deceit, but found none.

"Alright, Ah'll go over there right away. Ah'll see ya in a bit" she answered. I left her to go to Twilight''s treehouse, and i continued towards Sugarcube corner to fetch Pinkie Pie.

I arrived at the bakery not a moment later. I told her to go to Twilight's home, and ofcourse she was bouncing around. I quickly headed over to the last pony I had to round up.. Rarity.

I hesitatingly knocked on the door of the boutique. The mare I liked opened the door. I thought I had a dreamy look on my face, and Rarity confirmed that.

"I assume you are not here to just gawk at my appearance all day?" she said.

"I...Uh...no? Not really... I..I mean... Twilight asked me to ask you to go to the library" I stammered.

"I can see that there is something you are uncomfortable with. And I can make a guess that it has to do with me" Rarity concluded.

"Yes. Now can we please just go back to the library." I said.

We headed back to the library. I snuck a few glances at Rarity while walking, she didn't seem to notice...


WWWWW


Change of Character - Spike -> Twilight Sparkle

One by one they all arrived at my home. Last to arrive were Rarity and Spike himself. Strange, he seemed a bit nervous...

"Hello girls, you must be wondering why I called you here. We have a slight problem which involves Michelle and slowly losing control and getting the materials we need quickly. I have copied our map of the materials for each of you, and I want you to head to the other locations while me and Primal go for the Rock of the phoenix and the deathlotus. I suggest that Rainbow and Fluttershy head to the Galloping gorge to get the All-Consuming Branch, Applejack and Pinkie Pie head to the San Palomino Desert to find the Everburning torch, and Spike and Rarity head to the Hollow Shades to get the lunar wood. I trust all of you greatly, and I am sure you will succeed. Once you have your item, return to Princess Celestia and bring her the material at once" I explained to each of them.

"Alright, if y'all say so. Come Pinkie, let's quickly prepare for the journey and get a head start" Applejack said to Pinkie.

"I will head to my boutique to pack. Spike, will you join me?" Rarity asked.

"I-I will, Rarity. Give me a second to get some stuff for the journey and I'll come over right away" Spike answered.

"I'm pretty sure we will be the first to get back to Princess Celestia. Isn't that right, 'Shy? Rainbow boasted. Primal shot an evil glare to Rainbow, who immediatly apologised. "Sorry Primal. We'll get the branch and head to the Princess as quickly as possible" Rainbow said in a defeated tone.

When all of them left the library, I turned to Primal. "Well that leaves just us, then. Let's pack our stuff and catch the train to Dodge City. I think we should get the Rock first, and gather the Deathlotus afterwards. The plants might die if we keep them around in those Badlands for too long" I suggested, and Primal nodded.

We quickly proceeded to packing bags. Atleast, I was. Primal was packing lightly by the looks of it, carrying only what was necessary in his pockets.

"You sure you don't need a bit more supplies than that?" I asked him.

"Other than food and drink, which by the looks of it is already provided for, I don't need anything else. If it's a material I can just shape it when necessary. Connection with the Earth and whatnot, remember?" he explained.

He was right. Anything that wouldn't be food or drink he could practically conjure up himself. And with me being the worrywart and triple-checking everything, he was pretty self-assured.

"You are not forgetting anything there, right?" He asked as I checked for the third time now if I grabbed everything I needed. "Maybe you wanna check it just one last time?" he chuckled.

"I have already checked my entire supply three times while you were sitting around, thank you very much" I retorted.

He got a surprised look on his face, and this time I was the one to chuckle. "Didn't expect that, did you?"

"I... That's incredible. You are really efficient, y'know? I like that" he said, praising my skills.

"Thank you! Enough complimenting now, we got some materials to gather" I said walking towards the door, Primal Dagger in my wake.

We arrived at the train station in Dodge City in just a few hours. We were fortunate to catch the train from Ponyville just as it was about to leave. I grabbed the map to check which direction we had to go.

"According to the map we should west untill we find a road which heads south. That should lead us straight into the Badlands. How we are going to find the Rock is a riddle to me" I said.

"Maybe one of the locals here heard about it" he said, walking over to a pony nearby. "Excuse me sir, would you know of "The Rock of the Phoenix?" he asked the pony.

"As a matter of fact, I have. I heard the sheriff in town here knows it's location. Aside from that I just know it's in the badlands. He never told any of us" the stallion said with a sad expression.

"Thanks. I need it to save a life dear to me, and to possibly save Equestria from being plunged into the void" Primal said dryly.

The stallion looked at him with shock, but Primal left him alone and headed straight to the sherrif's office. "I assume you heard me. We got a world to save" he remarked.

I quickly followed him, thinking about what he said. Was Michelle his girlfriend before he came here..? I should ask him about it... just to make sure.

We entered the sheriff's office after explaining the situation to a pony-on-duty. The sheriff himself was sitting behind the desk, twirling his mighty mustache.

"Greetings, sheriff of Dodge City. Me and my friend Twilight Sparkle are on a journey to recover The Rock of the Phoenix. We need it to perform a ritual" Primal told the sheriff.

"I can send my deputy along with you. I'll tell him of the location of the rock, and he can escort ya to it since he probably knows this 'ere area better then you townsfolk do" the sheriff said.

"I guess that'll do. Who's your deputy?" I ask.

A stallion trotted in just as I said that. He's a fiery red, with the same kind of amazing mustache as the sheriff. His cutie mark depicted a deputy's star.

"Howdy. Name's Deputy Star. You're the folk I have to escort?" Star said.

"Yep. Now let's hurry and get that rock, we have something else to gather afterwards" I said.

We quickly headed out of town, to the road I pointed out earlier.


End of part 1