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I - Take The Plunge2,419 words
II - A Present From The Shaman3,652 words
III - Slayed the Beast... But Scolded For Saving the Fair Maiden3,788 words
IV - Let Insanity Reign2,600 words
V - A Savior, Songs, And A Sacrifice3,630 words
VI - A Prisoner Seeking An Escape5,788 words
VII - The Human, The Reaper, And The Raver2,375 words
VIII - Planning A Concert 2,317 words
IX - Get Down With The Sickness2,861 words
X - Through The Fire And Flames5,086 words
XI - The Fastest Flier's Favor6,614 words
XII - Toying With Weapons3,358 words
XIII - Belly Of The Beast3,330 words
XIV - Creature Of The Night3,473 words
XV - A Day In The Life5,708 words
XVI - The Trek (Return To Canterlot: Part I)2,663 words
XVII - A Chat With Royalty (Return To Canterlot: Part II)5,482 words
XVIII - The Plan (Jace Arc: Part I)2,328 words
XIX - Quite A Bombshell (Jace Arc: Part II)2,259 words
XX - No Brakes (Jace Arc: Part III - Final Part [READ A/N FIRST]) 2,564 words
XXI - Painful Bonding (Praxis Arc: Part I)3,668 words
XXII - Here... Was Where My Troubles Began (Praxis Arc: Part II - Final Part)4,199 words
XXIII - If Ya Can't Take The Heat.... (Slightly Revised)7,910 words
XXIV - A Night To Remember5,929 words
XXV - Encores and Rants3,866 words
XXVI - Potential Parenthood5,162 words
XXVII - The Truth-Telling in Tartarus4,130 words
XXVIII - Resurrection2,123 words
XXIX - The Price That Victory Comes With6,709 words
Epilogue: Letters and Final Farewells6,331 words
Author's Note100 words

XI - The Fastest Flier's Favor

XI - The Fastest Flier's Favor

"I have seen your heart... and it is mine."

Praxis spun around to face who had spoken in so malicious, gruff, and deep of a voice and went wide-eyed. The hideous sword with the eye that Insanity had launched into the now-black ground of his mind was the only thing that seemed available in this otherwise vacant place.

"W-what do you mean?" Praxis questioned fearfully.

"Every single memory and emotion you experience is witnessed by me, fueling me... making me more and more powerful by the night, when you rest your pathetic little head," the blade rambled on, the slit for a pupil contracting and dilating as it spoke. "But recently, I'm beginning to feel some sort of... powerful buildup. It's unusual. Unhealthy, even, like plaque in the arteries."

"Aaaaaand why are you telling me this?" Praxis asked, trying to sound braver than he really was. In truth, he was terrified out of his wits at what the scheming blade had in store for him. The sword cackled its demonic cackle, obviously relishing in its host's despair.

"Well, seeing as how you are the only thing that is in my path... why not take some from me?"

Praxis shook his head "No" in such a violent way, he was surprised he didn't get whiplash. The sword only gave a laugh at how ridiculous the satyr looked as he declined its offer.

"No? You dare defy me, you fool? That insolence only infuriates me!" The slit contracted in anger as a bolt of black lightning shot out from the eye and hit the satyr squarely in the chest. He fell to his knees in the excruciating torture that ensued. He could feel his insides twist and writhe, like he had swallowed live snakes. His heart was now hammering at a tremendous rate as he shut his eyes and roared in agony. He could feel his teeth become sharper, black talons growing as the brown fur became black, his hair becoming white. His tan skin became decorated in black tribal markings, the Curse Seal on his navel pulsating as fast as his heart. His brain felt like it was on fire as the pain progressed. The lightning stopped, ending with a small explosion and blowing Praxis several yards away from the sword, rolling and tumbling farther from his parasite. He was too battered and beaten to get up as the transformation undid itself as quickly as it began. The sword just laughed in satanic delight.

"Do you not understand, whelp?" it said evilly. "No one EVER says no to me... in this realm, I call the shots... I am the one who controls you, like a puppeteer and his marionette...." And with that, the sword shot another bolt of dark magic at the ground before Praxis when he arose. The solid surface became as thick as molasses, still retaining its tar-like hue. Praxis felt his hooves sink slowly into the ground, like he was in the middle of an onyx-colored pool of quicksand. His knees went in, his livestock ankles almost snapping in a twig-like manner from the unnkaturally powerful pressure of his subterranean tomb. He was down to his midriff, his ankles finally shattering like glass, his screams of pain reverberating across the realm. As his knees broke from the pressure, Praxis was already at his neck in the "quicksand", its pressure crushing his chest and making it near impossible to breathe. He almost passed out from the unendurable agony and his earsplitting screams, Insanity's sword laughing maniacally the whole time.

His head went under.

"*Gasp!*"

Praxis awoke abruptly, the golden light of Celestia's rising sun sinking into his room through the makeshift window, striking him directly in his eyes.

'Really? Even in this world, the sun still had to be some godforsaken alarm clock of douchebaggery?'

He tried to rise and wipe his forehead of the chilly perspiration that had accumulated there, only to be stopped in the attempt, a heavy yet comfortable weight pressing down on his stomach and legs. He raised his head to look at what was obstructing him, and was taken aback at the sight before him. Applejack, who seemed to have gotten cold in the middle of the night, had suddenly decided to sleep with him, her head resting directly on his chest, giving off minuscule snores as she squirmed slowly into him in an attempt to receive both warmth and comfort. She had even brought her blanket with her, draping the both of them in what little warmth it could provide.

'Don'twakeupdon'twakeupdon'twakeupdon'twakeup-' he mentally pleaded as he slowly slipped out of the hammock from under her. She seemed a little distraught when he finally came free, like she was a puppy dog separated from her companion, silently grunting as she squirmed a little bit more. He gave her mane a small stroke and, stealthily, gave her a brief kiss on her temple. The fidgets and grunts of anxiety began waning as soon as his lips pecked her fur, a small smile of contention escaping her mouth as she slept on. She was oblivious to the sound of Praxis' hooves quietly clopping on the wood of the stairs and floor as he went downstairs.

'Huh? He's gone?' Praxis mused, almost overlooking the love-seat behind him. He turned to see that Jace, who obviously spent the night, had vacated the two-pony chair. Praxis went over to the love-seat and saw that Jace had left him a note on the coffee table adjacent him.

Dear Praxis,

Went to go get some exercise. Probably gonna go visit Vinyl Scratch later and make more music. Gotta make a living somehow, right? See ya later on in the day.

~Jace.

P.S.: I saw Applejack's empty love-seat when I woke up. Bow-chicka-wow-wow...

Praxis face-palmed as he read the postscript, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Damn it, Jace," he hissed, putting the note back on the table. He stepped through the grass curtains that served as his doorway and out into the crisp, sharp air of dawn that filled his nostrils and cleansed his mind of the nightmare he witnessed. This reason was not the only one that explained why he escaped from his bed and sojourned into this temporary outdoor cloister of his.

No, no, no... there was another explanation at hoof....

Applejack....

That enigmatic display of affection she and him had been made a part of....

'That's weird... she doesn't have feelings for me, does she?' he pondered as he took a seat next to Big Macintosh's grave. He proceeded to mentally beat himself, attempting to convince himself that an idea like that was ludicrous. 'She only came up and slept in my bed because it was cold, Praxis. That's it. In her eyes, you're just a friend.' The success of his self-convincing was salt in an open wound. He sighed, the exhalation being one of minor sadness.'A friend... and nothing more.'

"I need a bath...."

He closed his eyes for a brief period of time, listening for some sort of flowing body of water nearby. His left ear twitched slightly several seconds later as he picked a splashing sound about a minute's walk away to his left. He got up and walked towards the destination. The sparkling surface of a quaint river stood before him a couple yards away, the shade of the trees darkening the scene. He removed his jacket and undershirt and tossed them onto a small boulder. He ran towards the edge and jumped in, diving through the cold surface of the water. He reemerged a couple of seconds later, shaking water out of his ears. He swam back and forth through the water in an effort to wash all the grime, ash, and dirt that blanketed his body. After thoroughly washing his hair and fur, he stepped out of the makeshift bathtub and furiously shook the water out of his fur, ensuring that his lower half was dry. He wiped his face and torso with his undershirt and paused at a rather peculiar fact. He gave his undershirt a whiff and raised an eyebrow: it didn't smell bad in the slightest. Praxis wasn't even sure what it smelled like. It seemed to smell like...

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

He donned the undershirt and jacket once more, eyebrow still raised at this bizarre fact. Once he was redressed, he followed the path back to his house. He walked back to the door and went to pass through the split grass curtains... only to be stopped. His intentions were to go back to sleep.

Strange... he didn't feel tired at all. That little dip in the river seemed to have blown new-found energy into him. He withdrew his hand from the evergreen shroud and walked away in the other direction, towards that great, grassy, green plain that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

"Guess it's time for a little bit of exercise," he told himself, taking a leaf out of Jace's book. He stepped out onto the plain and basked in the early morning sunlight. He took a deep breath, got in a starting position down the length of the field, and ran.

He started off rather sluggishly, almost tripping over his hooves, but was gradually picking up speed as he dashed through the field, the wind stinging his eyes as he got faster and faster, arms behind him as he leaned forward to get more acceleration. His hooves were only a blur as a small clutter of boulders started to come into view. He dodged, spun around, and leapt over them, all the while trying to regain the velocity he had lost in his attempts to evade the stone obstacles. He slowed down after a couple minutes, his hooves unsettling the dirt as he skidded across the grass. He turned around and started retreating to the spot where he began.

"Perhaps a little bit of a challenge?" He inquired, jumping on each boulder and hopping from one to the other, throwing a few flips and spins here and there, only stopping when he nearly crashed into one of them. He leapt through the air, hooves lazily revolving in a windmill motion as he made his descent to the grass. He picked up speed again, the landscape only resembling a mere blur, the adrenaline causing him to pay no mind to the resistance that slowly increased as he accelerated more and more, as if some sort of wall was barricading him.

And then-

*BOOOOOOOOM*

'Whoa! Either I have REALLY bad gas, or....' Praxis looked behind him and hollered in delight at what he saw.

A large black and brown ring of clouds had appeared in the middle of the field, rapidly stretching outwards and fading away as it expanded. Praxis noticed that he was trailing a streak of brown and black behind him. He had just shredded the sound barrier to pieces and was moving at sonic speeds across the field.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!" cheered Praxis, shooting through the field at wind-shattering speeds. After a moment or two of joyous sprinting, he was contemplating on ending it. He tried to slow down by sticking out a hoof as a braking system.

Not that smart of an idea.

The second he put his hoof down, a massive and impregnable wall of air had halted him in his tracks. He plowed into it and fell hard on his back onto the grass. That crash with the air wall had hurt a bit, rendering him slightly worn out. He lay spread-eagled in the luscious green foliage and plucked a blade of it from the soil it grew from, curiosity coursing through his veins. That's when it hit him: he hadn't eaten in almost twenty-four hours, ever since he got back from the Dream Domain - which Jace had told him was known as Markarth, he had been too nervous to eat before the performance in Ponyville, and he was too caught up with burying Big Mac's corpse to even bother with fixing himself some food. He gave it a skeptical stare before dropping it into his open mouth. He was shocked when he discovered that the grass blade tasted rather like a potato chip, yet so much healthier than the actual thing.

In his ravenous stupor, he got on his hands and knees and orally attacked the grass, scooping up large amounts of it into his mouth. Oh, how magnificent it was as it sent pangs of satisfaction onto his tongue and into his empty belly! He could eat it all day if he wanted to, like some sort of strange and animate lawnmower, plucking every single blade of grass from this field!

But alas, he had to bring it to a halt, lest he go insane from his gluttony and actually destroy the whole field. He got back up onto his hooves and swallowed the large wad of grass in his mouth before he cracked his back, neck, fingers, and elbows. He brought his flute to his lips and playing a bar or two of Beethoven's "Für Elise". The large brown patch of earth where he had ripped out yesterday's lunch, dinner, and today's breakfast was slowly becoming green again as the bars progressed. When Praxis ended his last bar, he glanced down at the patch of earth and was glad to see that it had reverted to bearing grass. It was as if it was good as new, almost as if he hadn't inhaled all that foliage in the first place.

"Whoa-ho-ho! That. Was impressive!"

Praxis spun around and saw a particular cyan Pegasus pony fly down from her cloud palace and land a few feet behind him. Rainbow Dash, while looking rather hungover from sleep, disguised all that with awe and a rub of her eyes.

"You really think so?" said Praxis.

"Hehe, yeah! Didn't think you could be that quick, Prax," the athlete told him. He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his scalp and grinning widely.

"Heh. Thanks, RD. I'm pretty fast, but... I didn't think I was fast enough to ACTUALLY pull off a Sonic Goatboom like that," he said, not paying enough attention to his words and how they sounded when his imagination took over and said them for him.

"Sonic... Goatboom?" Dash brought a hoof to her mouth at the ridiculous word, stifling a fit of oncoming laughter. Sadly, her efforts failed. She fell to the ground, guffawing raucously as she rolled to and fro upon the grass. Praxis began to snicker a bit at how silly his made-up word was as well. The snicker soon evolved into loud laughter as he too collapsed to the ground and laughed with the Pegasus pony.

It had been a few moments until their laughter had died down. They got up off of the earth and brushed away the dirt that had clung to their fur.

"You, uh... Y'got any free time today?" asked Praxis, hoping that he could become more acquainted with the mare for a couple of hours or so.

"Um... Nah. Not really. I have to help round up more water for Cloudsdale later on today: they've almost ran out, so we gotta take care of it before they DO run out," she answered, miffed that her schedule was filled up.

But then an idea struck her like lightning.

"Say... a couple of the Pegasi are down with the feather flu, so I guess we don't have the wingpower to get the water up to Cloudsdale. But... do you think you can help us?"

At that offer, Praxis wanted to explode with delight. He wanted to just tackle her in the biggest hug he could give her and accept her favor with great gusto. But reality - or as real as this world could get at the moment - was calling, and it was for him.

"I... but wait. Don't I have to be a PEGASUS to do it? Last time I checked, I'm wingless," he informed her, turning around and pointing at his back, obviously void of any appendages of flight whatsoever. "I'm more flightless than Scootaloo."

"Heheh," she giggled. "Forgot about that, hehe... Sorry... hold on a minute, you're bucking fast! You can run over the water like it's nothing... can't you?"

"Hmm... I dunno... it's worth a shot, though. Do you wanna test-run that theory?"

"Sure! Follow me!" And Rainbow rocketed away without another word.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Praxis called to her as he went in hot pursuit, catching up with her in a matter of seconds.

"OK, now that's just weird! NOpony is supposed to keep up with me, but you did!" Dash told Praxis when he materialized next to her. The two were zooming across the landscape at high speeds, the trees of the Everfree and the clouds up above resembling nothing but blurs again.

"Allow me to rephrase that for you!" Praxis called, his patented 'Grammar Nazi Mode' activating at her unintentional usage of unexceptional grammar. "It WAS nopony! Now it's noBODY!"

"Oh, whatever, you egghead!" she retorted with a wry smile, going even faster than before in an attempt to outrun him.

'Oh, two can play at THAT game!' At that thought, Praxis willed himself to accelerate, his hooves kicking up dust as he picked up speed again. After a few seconds, a vast lake loomed into view, the rippling surface of it shining in the light of the sun. 'Alright... here goes nothing!' He shut his eyes and looked away, all the while running head-on into the lake.

After a few moments, Praxis decided to open an eye and looked down, only to receive a couple sprinkles of water into his eye. He glanced at his hooves and almost went giddy at the sight. They were a blur once more, moving at such speeds that they didn't seem to sink into the depths of the cool drink below. He whooped again at his achievement, arms thrust in the air in victory as he finally got off of the monolithic lake's surface.

"Aww yeah!" Dash hollered, flying alongside him and admiring his accomplishment. "THAT'S what I call awesome!"

They arrived at their destination: a large dirt track path like a track field in the outskirts of Ponyville, right next to an immense reservior, which resided under a massive cloud facility high above all of them. Only about ten or twenty Pegasi had gathered in the field to stretch their limbs, or discover their current wingpower.

But to Praxis' dismay and fury, a certain unicorn was there to measure the cumulative wingpower of the other Pegasi. A unicorn with an amethyst coat, indigo mane and tail with hot pink and purple highlights, and a sextet of six-sided starbursts for a Cutie Mark. Twilight Sparkle took notice to Praxis and tried to make herself as small as possible next to her assistant Spike.

'I can't believe her,' he mentally seethed, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was balling up his fists. 'If it hadn't been for her... none of this would've happened.'

Rainbow Dash picked up on his anger and lead him away from Twilight. The two speed demons traipsed through the somewhat small group of Pegasi. Many of them waved hello to Dash, and a fortunate few hoofbumped with her. Almost everypony got antsy in Praxis' presence, due to that musical performance he, Jace, Zeke, and Vinyl Scratch performed. They said hello, waved at him, and gave him either hoofshakes or hoofbumps.

"Hey, um, Mr. Praxis?" a voice said to him from behind. He turned around and spotted a rather familiar mare. She had a light lilac coat and a very pale sky-blue mane and tail - the former tied up in a pink hair bow, and her Cutie Mark, a trio of gray-bodied dragonflies implanted upon her flank.

"Yeah?" he told Flitter, his anger fading away at the sight of her as she crossed one foreleg over the other in bashfulness.

"Um... Hi. I'm Flitter. Me and my friend Cloud Chaser were at that concert last night. You were VERY good, you and your friends, and Cloud Chaser REALLY loved your performance. She really wanted to see you, but she's got a bad bout of the feather flu today," said Flitter.

"Oh. My condolences. I hope she gets better," said Praxis, getting onto one knee and patting Flitter's shoulder. The lilac Pegasus had a grin spreading across her face, like his touch was golden.

"I hope so, too. Anyways, the real reason was because I wanted to ask you something," continued Flitter.

"Shoot."

"Can I... can I please get an autograph for me and for Cloud Chaser?" she hastily and hopefully asked.

"Um... sure, I guess. Why not?" Flitter's eyes lit up at his agreement, and she immediately pulled out two slips of paper and a pen from some sort of pocket on her left flank and handed them to Praxis. He placed the slips on Flitter's side and signed his alias in graffiti-like handwriting on each one. When he finished, he handed the slips to Flitter, who beamed widely as she examined them.

"Praxis... Moradov? That's your last name?" she inquired as his surname caught her eye, her question being answered with a nod from the satyr. "That's pretty cool. Sounds Imaneian, or Hoofghanistani." Then her excitement returned. "I can't WAIT to get this to Cloud Chaser! She's gonna FLIP! Thank you!" And she "pocketed" the papers before walking away to practice her stretching.

"Hey, Praxis! Catch!" Rainbow Dash called to him, throwing him a pair of goggles from a cardboard box adjacent from her. The strap got caught on his right horn, like it and the goggles were tools for a game of Horseshoes.

"Ten points!" he called to Dash, who gave a chuckle at his joke. He cleaned the goggles's lenses onto his permanently-clean jacket and equipped them, the light of the sun - which was now a little higher in the sky than before - played with his retinas through his thick glass protection.

Two Pegasi caught his eye (Author: yes, my rhyming skills are freaking ill. You see what I did there?) One had a yellow coat the hue of butter, with a rose-pink mane and tail; the other had an storm-gray coat with a blonde mane and tail.

"PRAXIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!" cried Derpy, who bolted at him and tackled him to the ground in the biggest hugs she could give him, giving the loudest bleat he could exhale as he hit the dirt. "YOU MADE IT!"

Unbeknownst to her, she was unintentionally throttling him with how tightly she was embracing him.

"Can't... breathe!" Praxis wheezed painfully, struggling in the attempt to come free. He finally detached the wall-eyed pony from off of him and got up, breathing heavily to regain the sweet oxygen he missed dearly in that span time of forty seconds. Fluttershy glided over to the trio.

"H-hi, Praxis," Fluttershy greeted sheepishly, helping Praxis onto his hooves. "It's nice that you could come."

"Thanks, 'Shy," Praxis thanked, rubbing the spot on his chest where Derpy had charged into him as if she were a battering ram. "I'm glad I can be a part of it, actually."

"A-a part of it?" the bashful Pegasus asked. "What do you mean? That is... if you don't mind me asking."

'She said it! HNNNNNNNNG!' He mentally squealed, resisting another squeeze-Fluttershy-as-tightly-as-possible fit.

"Well, a couple of the Pegasi are out with the feather flu, so I'm here to help with getting the water to help."

"Whoa, you can do that?" Derpy asked, fascinated by how the satyr will do it.

"Well, yeah! Just who the hell do you think I am?" he answered with a question as he prodded his chest with his thumb in pride.

Rainbow Dash agreed with him on that claim by adding, "Heck yeah! He's pretty darn fast. But not as fast as me." She stuck her chest out with pride at her boasting. Praxis looked at her through uninterested eyes, arms crossed and left hoof tapping the ground in impatience.

"Try me," he dared.

"Oh, so you think YOU'RE faster than ME?" Dash said, obviously annoyed by Praxis' antics.

"Oh, honey, I don't THINK. I KNOW."

"Oh, it is SO on!"

"No, it's NOT on. Because I don't need physical proof for that claim."

"Huh?" Now Rainbow was bemused, curious as to what Praxis meant by that.

"Lemme explain: when you perform the Sonic Rainboom, which is when you break the sound barrier and move at sonic speeds, you are going at about... what, 790 miles per hour? Maybe more or less, depending on the air pressure created by the temperature." The Pegasi, which had now increased in number, was accumulating near the scene of the arguing mare and satyr. "But, you can only perform the Sonic Rainboom when you're flying at a downwards angle, letting gravity provide acceleration for you. Flying upwards would drastically take a hit on your speed, so that would be out of the question. I performed a sonic boom without WINGS. I RAN... and I broke the sound barrier. So not only is your argument extremely bucked, but in the end, I become the victor."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped, the crowd of Pegasi bluntly "ooh"ing at his solid fact. She was incredulous, not because of Praxis' extensive vocabulary, but because he struck a valid point: she could only perform a Sonic Rainboom when she was flying downwards, with gravity assisting her in the attempt. Any other method of it would be rather futile.

"Aw, ponyfeathers."

"Oh, quit'cho fussin'," deadpanned Praxis, patting Rainbow Dash on the shoulder. "You're still the fastest flier. I'm just the fastest runner, is all."

"*sigh* Let's just get this water up to Cloudsdale."

"Sure thing, lemme just get my wingpower determined." And he reluctantly walked to the starting line of the track, right next to Twilight and Spike, the former with the wingpower-measuring windmill, and the latter carrying a long scroll of paper, no doubt it being a list of all the Pegasi who have their wingpower already determined.

"Let's just get this over with," Twilight mumbled gloomily. Praxis responded with a grunt as he got into a starting position again. "Go."

He took off down the path, wind whistling in his ears as he turned and drifted along the curb, kicking up dust as he skidded, using his left hand to keep himself from falling. He picked up more speed as he travled down the path, slowing down to drift once more along the massive curb. He pulled out of his drift and bolted full speed ahead, the mach cone from earlier forming around him again.

*WHOOSH~*

Praxis whizzed by the minuscule windmill, whose fan blades revolved out of control and shot out from its companion like a shuriken from a slingshot. The blades spun viciously as it flew into a nearby willow tree, and taking Spike's scroll with it as the fan broke into little pieces on a willow, a sharp wooden shard embedding itself and the scroll into the tree.

"T-twenty-three point eight!" wailed Twilight, who had rolled out of the way to avoid the fan blades' wrath. She checked the meter, just to make sure. "Praxis got twenty-three point eight wingpower!" Spike waddle-ran to his scroll to scribble Praxis' head and write his wingpower.

"What?"

"No way!"

"How is that even possible?"

"YEEAAH!"

The murmurs of doubt spread like wildfire, and Praxis was the match that had started it. The question stood before them like a giant stone wall: how can a wingless creature get that much wingpower, and in one run, no less?

"Hold up, hold up, hold up!" Dash interrupted, holding up two front hooves to quiet the crowd. "It's cool! Only four Pegasi are out with the flu, and he easily covers all four of them! Plus, we've improved in our wingpower, and he can run on WATER. So what's the big deal?"

"How do YOU know he runs on water, huh?" an ash-gray stallion questioned from the large audience.

"Duh, yeah! How DO you know?" another stallion, this one orange, added stupidly.

"Because I've SEEN him do it, Score and Hoops! Now zip it!" Rainbow spat viciously.

"Enough!" Praxis bellowed, holding up his hands this time to silence the audience. "Can we just get this over with?" The crowd gave him their undivided attention, curious as to what he had to say. "Now listen up, everypony. You know the drill: 800 wingpower. No giving up, no goofing off, and no doubting yourself halfway through, because if you do, I swear that I will belt the pony responsible, alright?" He punctuated this serious promise by launching his fist into his open palm. The message seemed to have gotten through to the ponies, as they gulped and nodded nervously at the sound of his fist striking his hand. "Now get into positions, everypony. Cloudsdale's got rain to make." He began cracking his neck again, a few of the ponies wincing at the sound of bones popping into place.

"Dear God, it is hot out here," he murmured, the sun's heat beating down on him like ten thousand fists. He removed his jacket and hanging it up on a nearby tree branch. His flute glistened in the bright rays of the sun's light upon his pitch-black undershirt.

"O-oh my," Fluttershy mumbled, blushing as red as a beet.

"W-what?" Praxis asked self-consciously. "I don't have a scar or something, do I?"

"N-no!" the timid Pegasus had burst a little louder than usual. She took notice to her blunder and shook her head. "I-it's not that. It's just...."

"That you're RIPPED!" Dash finished.

"What the hell are you tal-?" He stopped in mid-sentence, looking down at his figure. He went slack-jawed at the sight.

His usually scrawny arms were void of their stringiness, replacing that attribute with large bicep, tricep, and forearm muscles. He lifted his undershirt up a bit and looked at his abdomen, eyes raised in glee as he witnessed six quadrilateral lumps on his belly. He gave one of them a prod with his finger and felt the toughness of stone on them. He removed his undershirt entirely and saw that his pectoral muscles had grown larger.

"Whoa. Ho...ly...crap, I am buff," he said, giving a whistle at his new body. He looked over at the three Pegasi: Fluttershy was still blushing as red as a radish, glancing away when she felt his eyes on her; Dash was slightly awestruck; Derpy was pressing her hoof onto her nose, a little bit of blood trickling from her nostril and tainting her gray fur with scarlet. 'Hmm... I wonder....' He looked down at his chest and concentrated on it, giving it the longest stares he had ever given anything or anyone. Sure enough, after several minutes of concentration, his left pectoral jumped up a couple centimeters. Then the right one. Left, right, left, right, a paradigmatic scene of bizarre motions and slight eroticism.

"Coooool!" he said before he giggled idiotically at this new and immaturely-frivolous discovery. "If only my gym teacher were here, man!"

"Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked, tumbling to the floor in a statue-like stance as her entire face shone crimson.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang," drawled Dash, her jaw descending lower with every second that passed by.

"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" cried Derpy, the blood flowing from her nose was now gushing out like a severed fire hydrant. The spray of blood only lasted a couple of seconds, ending when she plowed her head into the ground like a frightened ostrich. A couple of the ponies couldn't help but laugh at Derpy's silly act, a few wiping away a tear or two of joy.

'Um... since when the hell did my life become a manga?'

That's when he was painfully brought to mind a horrific twenty words.

"Well, seeing as how you are the only thing that is in my path... why not take some from me?"

He looked down at his stomach again and saw something that didn't mean good news in the slightest. The Curse Seal, which was just three shapes on their heads, were adorned with strange markings that had seeped out of it. The markings seemed tribal-like, swirling, jutting, and curving at random angles.

The Corruption was spreading.

"Uh oh...."

"Everypony ready!?" Rainbow Dash announced to the crowd of Pegasi and Praxis, all of whom had gotten into seven massive lines right in front of the reservoir, which had an even larger windmill than before to calculate their cumulative wingpower. They all roared their concurrence. Spike blew an immense wooden horn to signal the start.

*BOOOOOOOOM*

"Whoa! Already?!" Dash said in awe. Praxis had gone at sonic speeds only seconds after the sound of the horn, and he was already swirling around the reservoir's surface at a dizzying rate before the Pegasi ponies could even go at their full speed. He pulled his mask over his face to shield it from catching any water. He looked to his left and saw water droplets rising from the surface and into the air.

'No holding back. No giving up. Give it all you've got, man!'

"YEEAAH!" a voice yelled from above. Praxis looked up and caught a glimpse of the ever-hilarious and muscular form of Heavyweight, his puny wings giving him enough propulsion to join him and the other Pegasi. Praxis held back the urge to laugh and pushed himself to go faster. The ascending water, which had only consisted of droplets, was now a thick stream as he glanced around him and saw a flurry Pegasi on all sides, swimming around him like he was caught in a technicolor blizzard.

"475 WINGPOWER!" Praxis could hear Twilight scream to the Pegasi.

'C'mon, guys... c'mon!' he mentally willed the crowd.

A problem arose, however, when the upward flow of the reservoir's water was ebbing away and was sinking back into the reservoir. Somepony wasn't giving their all.

Then the impending inevitable happened.

One of the Pegasi had collided with another, and like the dreadful domino effect, all the other flying ponies toppled to the ground, a rather unfortunate few plummeting into the drink below. Praxis got out of the reservoir and shook his hooves dry, livid at who could be the culprit.

"Alright, who's the Celestia-forsaken moron who did it?" he asked, doing his best to keep his voice level.

"It was that one!" A black stallion called out, pointing at a tall silver Pegasus with a shock of yellow in his red mane and tail and a shooting star for a Cutie Mark. "He flew into me and knocked me down!" Praxis calmly walked over to the perpetrator.

"What's your name?" he inquired.

"N-Nova," the stallion replied shakily.

"Nova? Let's see you grit those teeth."

"Huh? Whaddaya me-?" Nova didn't even have time to finish his sentence before Praxis cocked his fist back and plowed it directly into his cheek in the span time of a second. The crowd gasped in shock as they watched the silver Pegasus skyrocket into the air and spin out of control before landing in a heap a couple yards away. Praxis' hand was almost hot enough to emit steam from the speed he had launched his fist at, the knuckles slightly bleeding from the blow to Inferno's face.

"W...why would you do that, you bucking moron!?" he shouted as he got up, spitting out a loose tooth onto the ground.

"I told you, didn't I? I swore that if any of you gave up, goofed off, or just started having doubts about yourselves, I'd personally hit the pony responsible,'" he reiterated. "Ya snapped out of it yet?" Nova nodded. "Good. Now come on, young one. We've got water to deliver."

"OK, try again," Rainbow Dash announced to the crowd. In no time, the crowd had gotten into their seven lines and began once more to raise the water. Praxis didn't bother to create another sonic boom again: two was already one too many, and what would the ponyfolk think when a third one went off?

In a matter of minutes, the Pegasi and the satyr had lifted all of the reservoir's water into the sky, shooting up into the enormous fortress of Cloudsdale like some aquatic tornado into the air and sloshing into a large cloud basin on the edge of the city. The participants had slowed down and cleared out of the now-empty reservoir, cheering and celebrating uproariously. Praxis climbed up out of the ditch and laid on the ground next to it, breathing heavily, coated in a thin sheen of perspiration. He felt a heavy object thud upon his belly and looked up at it.

Jace and Vinyl Scratch were standing next to him, the former having dropped Praxis' messenger bag on him.

"Nap time's over, P," said Jace, pulling the Calling Card out from underneath his hoodie and giving it a tap on its thick glass with his fingernail. "A god wants you to pay him a visit."

Author's Note: Shout out to Frees for wanting to draw the upcoming sequel's cover art! And because he has decided to turn down the reward (he doesn't like OC ponies), that reward is still up for grabs. The first person to find the two Gurren Lagann references or the Disturbed reference win!

Aaaaaand GO!

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