> Equestrian Revelations
>  by DuskApproaches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where am I?

I sat up and looked down at my arms. My scars were gone and my missing finger was back.

Great, I thought. I'm dead. Oh well, that doesn't matter. I seem to be in a forest. Obviously, the first thing to do would be to leave. I got up and started to walk. Quickly did I realize that I have absolutely no idea where I’m going. Is this what the afterlife looks like? The outlandish appearance of my surroundings suggested that maybe there is going to be dragons and unicorns.

I made out my general direction by looking at the sun's position in the sky. I was still deciding which direction to head in when I heard commotion in the west. It was hard to hear, but it was close so I ran as fast as I could to the source of the disturbance. It didn’t take long for me to see what was happening: A giant-flying-lion-thingy about 3 metres tall was fighting a much smaller flying creature. Gee, there seems to be a lot of flying creatures around here.

I slapped myself to focus on the situation. The fight was a bit one-sided. It was mostly just the lion-thingy attacking the horse-thingy. In any other situation, I would be inclined to help the underdog so that is what I did. I dashed behind the lion hoping to get a surprise attack. The lion, however, perceived this movement much quicker than I expected and turned to face me. He swiped both his claws at me, but I managed to dodge them with ease by evading to the left and right avoiding each swipe. Then he tried to step on me. I immediately dodged this by executing a forward dive. I was now under the chest of the lion and turned onto my back. I kicked upwards into the connecting point of the rib cage. This caused the lion to get up on its hind legs.

I saw an opportunity in his tactical error. I quickly got up and pointed my elbow at the point the rib cage ends. I balled my hand on that arm into a fist. With my other hand, I pushed my first hand forward and the rest of my body followed. All of the air in the lion’s lungs where knocked out the moment my elbow made contact causing the lion to bend forward.

I swung both my arms to my bottom right and my body followed. The force from my arms gave myself enough strength to spin my body in a sideways somersault in the air. Halfway through the circle I extended my right leg. The heel of my foot hit the top of the lion’s head. There was a lot of recoil from the kick, but I managed to land and balance on both feet.
The fact that the lion stopped moving made it obvious that it was now unconscious. After further analysis, I noticed that the lion had a scorpion tail and a bat’s wings. What the fuck!? Man, this’s lion’s mom must have fucked every animal in the animal kingdom. I guess the top of the food chain can do that. Why does it feel like I forgot something important? Oh yes, I had to save the flying horse.

I turned around to look at the horse. I could tell that the horse was much more afraid of me than it was of the lion. I guess that is only logical. I approached the horse-thingy. It tried to fly away but its wings were injured and it couldn't get itself off the ground. I studied it and i asked it 

"Sup?" 
> Chapter 1: Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m THE Rainbow Dash - the bravest, fastest, and most awesomest pony in all of Equestria! Why am I frightened of this puny creature? Why? My friends and I have faced countless enemies worse than this! No way I should be frightened! Ok, I'll admit it; I am a little frightened. Okay, I’m terrified but I have a very good reason. First, one of my stunts ended with me smashing into a manticore. I wasn’t able to escape fast enough because manticores have wings which had slipped my mind. That wasn’t the worst part, though. The worst part was when something else showed up. It was a strange creature. It seemed to be quite weak appearing to be a wimp without muscles. Boy, was I wrong. It was nearly 2 metres tall and clad in some simple clothes. It stood upright on two legs instead of four. With its other two legs free, it seemed to be more acrobatic than most four-legged creatures I know about. It didn’t seem to be dangerous in any way so I didn’t really pay any attention to it. In addition, I was getting attacked by the manticore. Did I mention that part yet? Anyways, the creature ran up to the manticore from behind and the manticore noticed. I was sure that it was done for. There was no way that a creature as wimpy as that could have been any stronger than I am.

Well, now I know that Twilight had a point when she told me to not judge a book by its cover. The creature dodged all of the manticore's attacks without breaking a sweat and pummeled the manticore with ease. Whatever this creature is it took out a full grown manticore with hardly any effort at all! The scary part is now it is approaching me! I shouldn't be frightened but I am. This creature hardly poses any threat. I kicked a dragon in the face before, why am I scared of this. Perhaps it was because of how naturally this creature has defeated the manticore. It seemed as if it has done this a thousand times before. 

The creature was now less than a metre away from me. It was staring at me like a creep. If it was a pony, I would probably have thought it was a pervert or something. But since it is one of the most violent creatures I have ever met, I immediately disregarded that thought. The creature said something but I was in too much of a panic to hear what it said.

“DOUDRHUTMIIHUVPERVERFURFRENFSWHCNAESIERYTEJUUATVITHTEEERMNTORFH-“ I stammered in response.

“Okay, before you keep talking like that, I would like you to know that I have absolutely no idea what you just said. Are there others like you that talk this fast or did the lion-thingy hit you in your head or something?”

Its tone seemed quite casual and not really as evil as I expected. How does a voice sound evil anyways?

“I’m sorry,” I responded. "I'm not sure what came over me."

“Oh good, your brain is okay.”

“All right, now I'm not scared but offended! My brain is working perfectly! That only happened because you scared me!”

“How did I scare you? I saved your life. If anything, you should be happy and thankful.”

It is kind of hard to argue with his logic.

“Well, you did just take out a manticore. It's only natural to be fearful of a predator higher up the food chain.”

“A manticore, huh? Is that what it was called? It looked like a lion...well, lion-thingy.”

Maybe what this creature lacks in intelligence it makes up in strength.

“Oh well,” he said distracting me from my thoughts. “Maybe we can get to know each other better later. First, let’s get into a town or something. I'd rather not stick around in this forest awaiting to be attacked again.”

“Ah, yes, of course. I need to get my wing treated. Come with me and we'll both go to Ponyville.”

Perhaps I am trusting this creature too easily. I don’t even know what it is yet as I've never seen a two-legged creature quite like this one. It deserves my trust - it saved me. I got up and we began our walk but, before I took even two steps I heard a familiar voice.

“What the hay!? what’s that thing? LOOK AT WHAT IT DID TO RAINBOW!”

Applejack was now charging to attack my saviour. Oh, for Celestia's sake!

Without hesitation, Applejack leapt at the creature. As I suspected, it dodged Applejack’s attack. Applejack kicked at the creature only to miss and hit thin air. I don’t know what she was thinking when she did that. Shouldn’t I do something about this situation? Maybe but I thought it was funny to watch Applejack flail around wildly. Yeah, I should probably stop it.

“STOP!” I screamed causing both Applejack and the creature to trip over themselves and fall down on one another.

I managed to explain what happened to Applejack. Applejack thought that the creature was mind controlling me and decided to attack it again. I had calm her down and explain that he wasn’t mind controlling me. She insisted that that’s what somepony who was being mind-controlled would say and attacked the creature a third time. I sat her down and got her to believe me after a conversation that felt like it lasted a few hours.

We decided to go visit Twilight since she is the biggest egghead I know. She would be able to help this creature out.

Twilight had no idea what the creature was and, without hesitation, attached wires to him to determine his species. The creature, itself, without hesitation tied Twilight to her chair with her wires and stated that maybe he could just tell her. That sounded like a much better idea to me though the attitude of this creature was concerning. I had to hold Applejack back as she was ready to take another swing at the creature. Maybe Twilight wasn’t as smart as I first thought. But she is the only pony in this town who has ever finished school beyond a pre-school level. Wait a second! Twilight was the only pony in this town with a level of education worthy of being mentioned. Oh, for Celestia's sake! This town is retarded.

The creature noticed Twilight's ability to levitate books.

“Wait, you guys have magic?” The creature asked Twilight.
||
“Wait, you don’t have magic?” Twilight asked the creature.

Well, this conversation is going well. Twilight and the creature parrotted each other making my mind wander back to the topic of our town’s education…

In the midst of the conversation, the creature remarked that he was a 'human.' At least we had one question answered and rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of how long it took Twilight to get this information. Twilight stopped the conversation midway in talking with the human about the need of clothes. She instead began to click her hooves together like she found an interesting test subject.

"This human is most fascinating. Judging by its physical appearance, he should not be very strong. But, if Rainbow Dash was not lying, which I doubt she would be, he has bested a manticore in combat. The manticore is one of the most powerful and feared species of the forest. I was, at first, certain that this human was reliant on magic during combat, but he was surprised that we were capable of magic meaning he relies more on physical capabilities. I want to know everything about this human and its world. It would probably make for an interesting book. I know Spike would be able to write it while I run experiments. There’s no way I’m going to write the book while testing. Writing is the assistant’s jobs."

Best leadership skills ever, I thought to myself letting out a snort in response.

“So, tell me about yourself,” Twilight asked the human. “What do you do?”

“You mean like a job? Well, I’m a soldier...I was anyways.”

“You were? Why did you stop?”

“I died. I think that’s how I ended up here in the first place.”

"In theory, that does make sense as a possible explanation. After all, you know nothing of our world. How could you purposely go to a place you have not heard of? Well, let’s go visit Princess Celestia. Perhaps she knows of why you came here.”

“Who would that be?”

“I think her title gives that off. She rules the land of Equestria. She is also my mentor and I look up to her with much respect.”

“I’ll try not to make you look bad then.”
> Chapter 2: Princess's Approval 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In company with this magical pony, Twilight, we approached a castle whose location was bizarre. One could only assume this is where the royal princess we were seeking resided. Well, this castle looks nice and all, but who was the idiot who decided that building two-thirds of a castle on an almost vertical side of a mountain was a good idea. It seemed like it was going to fall any minute. Oh well, I shouldn’t question the architecture of something that’s been around for a few thousand years.

Twilight and I walked towards the main gate. The gate was guarded by two soldiers. I had expected the palace to be more heavily guarded. As soon as I got to about 10 metres away from the door the two guards pointed their spears at me.

“STAY BACK FOUL BEAST!” shouted one of them.

“Okay, now my feelings are hurt from that insult,” I replied.

“Woah, dude! It can talk!” the white one told the black one.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious!” The black one replied.

“Woah, dude! Are you promoting me to captain now?” the white one asked in hopes of gaining rank.

How does someone so stupid get a job protecting royalty? The princesses must not have many threats to justify this sub-standard level of security.

“Hey guys,” Twilight jumped in.

“Woah, Twilight. Didn’t see you there, dude. Woah, like yeah, you can like, come in.” The retarded guard then proceeded to open the gate by pulling on it when there was already a big sign that said 'Push'. The other guard muttered something about how much his life sucks.

When we walked in, the court was in session so we decided to just stand back and wait. I noticed that there were two princesses. One of them was white with a  flowing multi-coloured mane of cool colours. The other was smaller with a blue coat and a mane with colours that resembled the night sky. Remembering what Twilight told me about 'cutie marks', I noticed that the cutie mark on the white one was a sun and the one on the blue one was the moon.

“Hey, Twilight. What’s with their cutie marks? Do they control the sun and the moon or something?”

“Actually they do. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you that part.” 

Thank you, Twilight. You continue to meet expectations in giving vital information, I thought to myself.

A few minutes later, the court was over. We approached the two princesses. Twilight was about to say something but I began my speech before a word escaped her mouth.

“You must be the most revered, Princess Celestia. Twilight has told me so much about you, my noble lady,” I said bowing before the princess in a most gracious manner. “It is such a great honour to meet you.” 

Twilight opened her mouth again but I kept talking.

“That was most certainly a wise decision you made in the court today, if I do so say myself. But of course, if what Twilight said was true, it would be foolish of me to expect any less from one so noble. Knowledge is gained by age, and it seems that in your case, so is beauty.” 

I have no idea what the court was about.

After some more random compliments given to Princess Celestia, I noticed that I had put in a good impression of myself shown in the smile that formed on her lips. However, Princess Luna looked rather upset with expessing this with a frown and so I began on her.

“And the elegant Princess Luna, with a mane that splendidly beholds the beauty of your night sky and its stars.” 

I’m pretty sure that dying made my persuasion skills decrease. Either that or I could not find many metaphors because I’m just simply not used to pony terminology or social habits. After about twenty or so minutes of complimenting and worshipping, I ended my speech. Although that wasn’t my best, it still worked. Celestia was considering if she had use for me and Luna was blushing.

“Okay then,” Twilight said. “I believe you have already received my letter about him.”

“Oh yes, right,” Princess Celestia replied. “I’m hungry. Let’s go discuss the matter over dinner.”

“You’re always hungry,” Luna whispered in a voice that was small but purposefully loud enough for Celestia to hear.

Nonetheless, we exited the court and made our way to the dining room finding ourselves before a huge feast - for ponies.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Celestia asked me.

“Well, this is hay. I don’t really eat hay,” I told her quite bluntly.

“What do you eat?” Twilight asked curiously. “I didn’t ask you about that, yet.”

“Do you have any meat?” I asked.

The entire room stared at me as if I just brutally murdered their princess with a salad fork. Oh dear, this is not going to end well. What was I thinking mentioning I eat meat in a room full of horses? I feel really stupid right about now.

“You eat meat?! As in the flesh of animals!? This THING is dangerous to us! We should execute it imme-“ A white pony with a blue mane stated before he was cut off by Celestia. 

I need to remind myself to kill him next time I see him. Yeah, there's a good thought. I might have some meat in due time, after all.

“Silence! This is a good man with good intentions. I will not have you judge him based on something he is not in control of.” 

Gee! Good intentions? I didn’t even say that part. I guess my compliments worked after all. A first impression is always the most important for that’s the one that initially takes hold.

“No, we do not currently have meat. We usually don’t keep a large supply since the locals don’t eat meat. Even though we used to have a supply, the last group of the nobles from the Kingdom of Griffons cleaned it out.”

I’m quite happy she said that. That meant that she was accepting of my diet. Twilight and Princess Celestia began to discuss what to do with me. I just sat there and ate apples from the middle of the table. A few minutes passed and it seemed that the princess’s conversation with Twilight was over so I nodded and pretended to be listening.

“I know you have no idea what we were talking about,” Twilight said catching me red-handed.

“In result of our discussion, I have decided to dispatch you into Ponyville. Twilight is quite interested in you, and I will take every opportunity to feed my protégé’s curiosity. The mayor will be announcing your presence sometime this week. As for your need for meat consumption, there is no way that Ponyville will condone a meat supply and it would not be practical to have it just for one resident. However, I will permit you to hunt in the Everfree Forest. You will need a job since you were a soldier. I might have use for you in the royal military. What was your position and rank?”

“My rank was commander but I didn’t have any troops of my own because of my position. In the army, I was a spy who was dispatched into the heart of the Japanese bases to extract intel or assassinate important figures. I died during a mission to assassinate the general of a base located quite far off from the main army. It almost worked but I had one miscalculation. One of the traitors to my army switched sides and climbed the ranks of the opposing force. Having made it to the rank of lieutenant, he always had the general's ear and complete trust. One day, he saw through my disguise. The dire situation spiraled downhill from that point...and here I am.”

“That’s quite a story. We aren’t currently in war with anyone so I doubt your talent will be used if you joined our military.”

“It’s alright. I’ll find my own job.” 

A stallion wearing a terrible suit and a fucked up hat came in.

“Your majesty, the chariot is ready.”

“Well, you guys better head off now,” Celestia said with a smile. 

Fitting in was a lot easier than I had expected and I’m happy that it is.  

“I must ask, Princess. I am a new species quite different to yours. How are you so calm about this?” 

Oh gee, did I have to ask? Damn me and my curiosity.

“Well, everyone was alright when Discord was revived and moved in. Can’t see how you could be any more trouble.”

Ah, right, Discord - The spirit and embodiment of chaos and disharmony. I heard about him from Twilight. Apparently, he had made the clouds rain chocolate. Suddenly, a song got stuck in my head.

Chocolate rain. Some stay dry and others feel the pain. Chocolate rain.

“Wow,” Twilight said as we approached the chariot. “I prepared a whole speech about why the princess should allow you to stay with me. I didn’t even have to say a word.”

“Here are some words that come from experience, Twilight. It does not matter what is true; what matters is what others think is true.”

“Wow,” Twilight chuckled. “Quite the philosopher aren’t you? An iron fist and a silver tongue. What else are you hiding?”

Balls of steel, I thought to myself.


> Chapter 3: Elemental Magic 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, what are we going to do first?” I asked Twilight.

“I am going to teach you how to use magic,” she said enthusiastically. 

Her confidence made it seem as though it would be an easy thing to do. Perhaps it wouldn't be too hard.

“First, I’m going to teach you about the different types of magic. All three types of ponies use magic, but these types of magic are different. The magic of Pegasi is known as feather magic. It is used to enable flight and prevent you from being effected by gravity while in the air. The Unicorns use raw magic. Raw magic is magic in its most basic form. Our horns enable us to manipulate the temporal effects of magic, itself. Earth pony magic is known as earth magic. Earth magic is the most lazily-named magic and it gives the earth ponies a closer relationship to the earth and the circle of nature.” 

Twilight said a bunch of other stuff but I wasn’t really listening.

“So, what magic do you think I would be capable of using?” I asked Twilight though not expecting a straight answer.

“I would probably assume that you would use raw magic. The usage of raw magic is the only one that you are not born with. Since you were not born with any magic it would probably be the only one you are capable of learning.” 

That actually made sense. Twilight was a lot smarter than I first expected. Maybe learning magic from her wouldn’t be too hard.



[/hr]

3 hours later



[/hr]

Every book in the entire library was scattered across the floor. Twilight had been making me read every spell tome in the library. None of these books were useful. Twilight tried to get me to tap into her magika storage. That plan ended up setting my hair on fire. Then, Twilight tried to create feather and earth magic and planting it into my body. That plan ended up setting my hair on fire again. It seemed that her magic was extremely flammable. Twilight is now curled up in a ball on my lap and crying. I felt kind of bad for her. But I also felt bad for myself since I’ve been lit on fire several times.

Twilight finally calmed down after I told her how she wasn’t able to teach me magic because I was just not capable and how it wasn’t her fault at all.

I stepped outside the giant tree house to get some fresh air. It was raining. Best luck ever. I looked up and saw pegasi moving rain clouds around the sky. I believed Twilight when she said the pegasi changed the weather, but I never thought she meant it so literally.

“Looks like a storm is coming,” Twilight said. 

No shit, Sherlock, I thought.

“Sure does,” I replied.

“Be careful of the lightning,” Twilight called out to me from the house.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. The chances of the lightning actually hitting me are one in a million.” 

I think I might have jinxed myself. Right on cue, I got struck by lightning. However, this did not feel like electricity. It felt like energy; it felt like strength. When it was over, new instincts seemed to have been planted into my brain. I held up my arms and, by thinking of it, the electricity within me flowed around the outside of my arms. I opened my hand and created a ball of purple electricity. I moulded the lightning into various shapes until it looked like a tiny Twilight.

“I’m sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong!” a voice came from above the cloud. 

When I looked up I saw a grey Pegasus with a yellow mane looking down at me with the cutest eyes in the world. In fact, I wasn’t sure if she was looking at me at all. One eye was pointing up and the other was pointing down. She was facing me and that was good enough for me.

“It’s quite alright. In fact, could you do that again? It’s for an experiment,” I told her.

“Are you sure?” she asked with a confused look on her face.

“Yeah, don’t worry as I’m sure I’ll be fine.” 

I was not sure I was going to be fine.

The Pegasus shrugged and jumped on the cloud which created a bolt of lightning somehow. I felt the electricity rush through me and it felt good. I was now in a full body armour of raw electricity. When I looked at my back, I noticed that I had newly-formed folded wings which were - sure enough - made of raw electricity. I spread my new wings feeling the tingling sensaton of raw electric energy coursing through my back area. My wings were a lot larger than that of both Princesses' wings. They were about ten metres long each. The brightness of my wings attracted a lot of attention from the townsfolk. Some were scared but most were fascinated.

“Was the experiment successful?!” The grey Pegasus asked me.

“Yes, actually. It went quite well,” I responded to her.

The Pegasus smiled and flew away with the worst flight balance and orientation skills ever.

I released my mental grasp on the wings letting the armour and electricity flow back into my body. I turned around to see an extremely surprised Twilight behind me.

“That was incredible! It was elemental magic! it must have been!”

“What’s elemental magic?” I asked her even though the answer was pretty obvious. She just seemed like she really wanted to explain it.

“Elemental magic is a legendary magic that hasn’t been seen since the age of the frost giants. That was thousands and thousands of years ago. There are many books concerning this type of magic, but most of them were based plainly on theory. Elemental magic is a magic that grants the user control over the basic elements that the world is based upon. What you have just demonstrated was electricity-based elemental magic. As you have noticed, you were able of getting electricity to respond to your will and take on many forms.”

“That was certainly...informative,” I said feeling ecstatic by these change of events in not being lit on fire again and finally harnessing magic.


> Chapter 4: Meeting the Mane 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, Applejack!” I called out as I walked over to her apple farm.

“Howdy,” she replied. 

Her american country accent was still annoying, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it one day.

“Sorry fer trying to kill you the other day, pardner,” Applejack said apologetically. “We sure got into quite a tussle, didn’t we?”

“It’s alright. I would have probably done the same,” I said nodding in agreement.. 

Saving face, I hesitated to tell her the whole truth; I wouldn’t have attacked someone without knowing who they were and if they posed a real threat. What kind of a baseless maniac attacks or kills others without questioning the given situation?

“So, Applejack? There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“What would that be, sugarcube?” she said making me cringe on the inside with that last word.

“How come you have a giant farm but only grow one type of crop?” 

This question has been bothering me for a while now. As far as I know, Apple Acres was the only farm in ponyville. The Ponyville markets are full of other fruits and vegetables. So, where do they get them from? Do they need to have them imported from other parts of Equestria?

“Well, ya see outsiders of Equestria seem to ask that a lot. My family here owns a large series of farms across Equestria. All of the farms specialise in producing only one type of crop so that all of the crops in Equestria will be of top quality. We figured that - if ponies had special talents - the best use of those talents would be work they can specifically relate to,” Applejack was quite perceptive and logical. I had misjudged her since the time we first met.

Applejack was the element of honesty and, overall, a nice pony. We became quick friends despite her pre-emptive murder attempt



[/hr]

So far, today was a quiet day. I went to work, left work, and basically did nothing after it. I sat on a cloud at the near edge of the atmosphere. Having wings of elemental energy sure comes in handy. The air was thin but the view was great. I looked down at the lands below. Twilight’s books helped me understand the geography and politics of this land called Equestria. I recognised the countries below me. There was the country of griffons simply known as the Kingdom of Griffons. There was the changeling country in the far east known as Khagix Khanate. There was the country to the north in which I still do not know its name.

“Sup,” said a voice surprising me so much I almost fell off my cloud. I looked to my right and saw Rainbow Dash sitting beside me.

“Oh, hey, Rainbow. What’s up?”

“The sky,” she replied pointing her hoof out to the surrounding area before she started laughing hysterically.

That was no doubt the worst joke I have ever heard.

“Why aren’t you laughing?” Rainbow asked me

“Because that is the worst joke I have ever heard,” I replied flatly.

Awkward silence ensued with Rainbow Dash eyeing me with a look of confusion.

“So, how’s Wonderbolt academy?” I asked breaking the silence.

Rainbow Dash started going on and on about how the academy is so awesome. Although I wasn’t exactly listening, I could tell that she was using the word awesome every two seconds from the lack of variety in the ways her mouth was moving.

She had been talking for awhile now. It has been less than a week since last time I asked and here she was running my ear off for about 20 minutes now. She must be really ambitious in carrying this much enthusiasm. I heard that the academy training was hard enough as it was albeit Rainbow Dash practiced flying in most of her free time.

“Hey, HEY! Are you even listening!?” Rainbow Dash yelled snapping me out of auto-pilot mode.

“Of course I am,” I lied wondering what she had said. 

“Then what did I just say?” 

Did she just read my mind? Yeah, I think she just read my mind.

“You were talking about how awesome of a coach Spitfire was,” I replied in hopes of getting off easy. 

I think I got it right seeing as to how she relaxed a bit. It’s hard to guess what someone said based solely on intuition, but Rainbow doesn’t really talk about too many things.

“I guess you were listening after all.”

I sure dodged a bullet there. An extremely slow moving bullet but a bullet nevertheless

We sat there enjoying each other’s company as we watched the sun go down and the moon come up. On many occasions, I stay awake through the entire night looking up to the stars above. Luna’s work is beautiful.

“Well, I’m gonna head home now. Wanna crash at my place tonight?” she asked in her carefree manner. 

I really have been hanging out with Rainbow a lot more since I arrived. I think that as far as Rainbow is concerned - I’m her brother.

“Why not,” I responded accepting the invite

“Race you to my place,” she said as she took off leaving a trail of rainbows in her path. 

Her flying skills and seemingly unlimited stamina was truly envious. I have no doubt that her ambitions will be fulfilled. I smiled, spread my wings of elemental energy, and took off after her.



[/hr]

Twilight told me to visit Rarity to get some new clothes. Since I have a completely different figure than the locals, Rarity was the best choice in tailoring expertise. I don’t have any other choice if I want to get some new clothes. But I didn’t really mind considering Rarity was the element of generosity after all. I’m sure we could be friends.

I knocked on the door of her little shop and waited. After a few seconds, a white pony wearing more makeup than a twelve year old girl who listens to Taylor Swift opened the door.

“Hello, how may I he- OH CELESTIA! DARLING, YOUR CLOTHES ARE SIMPLY HORRENDOUS!” Rarity dramatically exclaimed. 

Generosity my ass. She hurt my feelings. I guess she was right, though. I’m just wearing basic training pants and some handmade shoes. My shirt got messed up after mastering the fire portion of elemental magic. With no other choice in gaining new clothes I stepped into the shop and let Rarity take my measurements.

“This,” Rarity said as she pointed at an outfit on a mannequin, “is your casual outfit.”

I was surprised. I had the impression that Rarity could only make formal clothes. Once again, I judged a pony too quickly. Rarity showed me about 5 other outfits she made for different occasions. They included formal, casual, formally-casual, exercising, and formally-exercising.

Talented was an understatement in her fashion abilities.



[/hr]

I knocked on the door of the little cottage near the forest. My timberwolf needed a check-up and other veterinarians just kinda got scared and ran away. There is nothing scary about a timberwolf. It’s just a bunch of sticks held together in the shape of a wolf. Its breath smells bad, though.

There was no answer. That didn’t really surprise me that much. She was probably hiding under a table because of the sound of unexpected knocks. Did I just make fun of Fluttershy? Now I feel really bad about myself.

“Hey Flutters, it’s me,” I called out to her.

The door opened slowly.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t know you would be visiting,” her pupils narrowed as she looked behind me. 

I never knew how ponies could control the size of their eyes. Isn’t the pupil part of the eyeball and how they move it separately? Maybe I’m thinking about the iris.

“Don’t move!” she frantically said in a high-pitched and squeaky voice. “There’s a timberwolf right behind you.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s Moon Moon (bun dum tss). He’s kind of the reason I came here.”

“Oh, okay. Umm, not many people are able to tame timberwolves. I guess I was just surprised,” she said calming down.

“I didn’t actually tame him. He just kinda...liked me and became attached."

We went inside the cottage. Fluttershy did some checks on Moon Moon while the rest of her animals just kind of hid away in various locations like the cupboards. Fluttershy really had some interesting animals. They ranged from mice to bears. I wonder how she was able to keep constant supervision on all of them at the same time. There were at least 50 animals running about her cottage when I first walked in. She performed surgery on Moon Moon by removing some weak sticks with fresher ones. 

It was fascinating watching her work. She made her job look simple and did it with such grace that could only come from a combination of practice and natural talent.



[/hr]

I met Pinkie Pie the same way other outsiders met Pinkie Pie. I think that’s enough information to figure out what happened...


> Chapter 5: Revelations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been a year now and my life in Ponyville is quite normal. I have become something I never imagined I would become - an everyday citizen. Every day, I would get up and go to work only to come back home and pass the time in my friends’ company. I thought that this was all there is; all there was to life for me. Never have I been so wrong.

I sat on the roof of my cottage letting what was left of the day pass away. I had built one quite close to Fluttershy’s. The calm, peaceful, and serene atmosphere is very much enjoyable. I closed my eyes and listened to the elegant song of nearby birds. 

Only to be interrupted by a Pegasus smashing into me.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t know what went wrong,” said the Pegasus in a familiar voice.

“Hi, Derpy. When did you become a mailmare?” I asked regaining my senses.

“When I got fired from the weather team,” she said glumly. 

I guess we all knew that that was going to happen some time.

“I have a letter for you!” Derpy exclaimed happily while handing me a letter. It was a strange letter. It was a navy blue envelop with no writing on it. After examining it, I noticed that it was magically sealed and that I was the only one who could open it. This was enough proof that it was important.

“Thanks Derpy,” I said putting a muffin on her nose. 

I have a pouch of emergency muffins now as Derpy encounters happened too often.

Derpy focused both eyes onto the muffin and flew off into the Everfree Forest. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t her destination, but she was too distracted to care. After she left my view, I opened the envelop. It simply said, “meet me at the eastern porch of the canterlot palace at midnight.” It didn’t say who it was but I think I had an idea. I spread my electric wings and started slowly making my way to the palace. It was quite early but the city was especially beautiful at this time of the day.



[/hr]

I landed on the porch as instructed and leaned against the wall. Having an appointment at midnight didn’t bother me that much. I was pretty much nocturnal anyways. After a few minutes Luna emerged from inside. So Luna sent me the letter? My instincts were correct. Luna looked at me with stern eyes much like one of regal birth.

“Thanks for coming on such short notice. Please come in.” 

Naturally, I did as she said. The inside of the porch was her bedroom. It was not decorated too much. Just a simple bed, a closet, and some paintings on the walls. Her room was quite empty aside from the aforementioned items.

“You are probably wondering why I asked you to come,” Luna spoke with her chin raised. 

I didn’t need to reply as she knew the answer.

“First, there is a secret I have not told you yet. You did not come here by accident. I brought you here. I have been watching you ever since you were promoted in the army.” 

Well, I didn’t expect that.

She continued.

“I had a problem I needed help with and ponies were not going to be any help whatsoever. Why have I chosen your kind, then? Why have I chosen to bring a human? Your kind has something that mine lacks. Your kind has a natural curiosity and reflex to question the world and what they’re told. A pony would hear the general opinion and quickly accept it as the truth. However, a human would think and question. This is how your kind has managed to develop this far in terms of technology and science. Your curiosity and ambitions are your kind’s greatest power but it is also your greatest flaw. Ambitions and greed fogs a human’s judgement. You are different. You are an inquirer and yet you are also balanced. Your curiosity and ambitions do not cross paths with your selflessness and care for others.“

“Thanks, I guess,” I replied. “But I still do not understand why you need me.”

“But of course. Although you adapted to Equestria, there are some things that you still do not believe, correct?”

“Yes.”

“What would some of these things be?”

“Firstly, I have never believed that you and Celestia controlled the movement of the sun and the moon. Even after your realistic demonstrations, I was not convinced. Secondly, I always thought there was something unnatural about the cutie marks. I don’t think that any creature would have their destinies sealed from birth. That would mean that they would spend a small portion of their life finding their destiny. Then what? What they do for the rest of their life is pretty much decided.”

“This is exactly why I chose you. You didn’t believe in the rising of the sun and moon because of your kind’s natural curiosity of life leads to scientific theories to prove that our ability in moving the sun and moon is possible. You have such strong beliefs that you would not accept the positive gain of cutie marks. You do not accept this though all those around you have one and accept it gladly. Also, your persistent intuitions and doubt have made you continue to question its very concept. But your self-control has caused your questions to never be asked.”

Luna is a genius. She must have planned all of this years before. It is simply incredible that she is able to see things so critically.

“Well,” she continued. “The other reason is that you are brave and stand up for your beliefs and are strong enough to do so. You have proven yourself to be exactly what I needed in your first year of stay here which is why today I will tell you that both of your doubts are correct.”

Wait, what?

“I and Celestia have never controlled the sun and moon. Celestia made that up to stay in power and so that our subjects would obey us. The cutie marks are actually a magical seal that Celestia has created. It is a seal of destiny. The seal automatically sets one’s destiny at birth and becomes visible only when one realises. Usually, when a person, such as yourself, notices the seal they would recognise it as such - a seal. But it is so common that ponies just simply accept it.”

“You sound like you are against this,” I said. “But yet you allowed this to continue. Why?”

“Because I have tried to convince Celestia…” Luna said this turning away. “...that is how I got a sentence of one thousand years on the moon. But now, I have found someone who can accomplish something I couldn’t. My people are living in so much pain that they do not mind anymore. I need your help.”

I looked down and thought of all of the information I had just received. I believed Luna. I wanted to help her people. I wanted to stop Celestia. But how? How am I to accomplish this?

“Alright, Luna,” I began. “I wish to take up your cause.”

“Thank you. You don’t know how long I have prayed for your answer to be that.”

“Okay so, wait. Who do you pray to? Aren’t you basically like a god or something?”

“Shut up! You know not of what you speak!” Luna yelled turning to face me once again.

“I’m sorry… Anyways, we need to gain recognition. The only way such a big change could occur is with others involved. This change would only be able to take place if the ponies of Equestria heed the cause, agree, and support it.”

I turned around to think but instead locked eyes with Celestia.

“Huh...I didn’t really mean this kind of recognition.”

Celestia gave off small short-lived laughter.

“So, Luna, did you not learn your lesson from last time. Do you think that this man will change anything?” Celestia said with due confidence.

I saw fear in Luna’s eyes as she backed up behind me. This was a side of Luna I have never seen. She always seemed so fearless and so sure.

“Well, since you are not going to learn I will send you to a place of permanent banishment the living only know at their life’s end.”

I saw Celestia’s horn start to glow. Was Celestia about to kill her own sister? Surely, she would not do that. Celestia wouldn’t do that, right? Unfortunately, I think she is going to go through it. I can’t sit here and do nothing. Luna is counting on me, after all. This is no time to have doubts hold me back. What is happening is happening and I am going to stop it.

I put my left hand on Luna’s head. I pushed my right hand in front of me giving off a heavy amount of my magika. The electric magic in my right hand created a small circular barrier which imploded quickly resulting in Luna and I to dematerialise into electricity and be transferred to the closest cloud missing a blast from Celestia’s horn.

This was one of the first powers I’ve learnt. It allows me to take the form of lightning and materialise after touching the ground from a cloud in the form of a lightning bolt. I called it ‘Lightning’s Path’ since that is what occurs when I activate the power.  

I looked down onto Ponyville from my cloud. I set my destination to right outside Twilight’s library. Within a second, both Luna and I were there. Luna had passed out. I quickly grabbed Luna hoisting her onto my shoulders and went inside the library before the ponies inside could come to their senses after the shock.

“Hello Twilight,” I said. “You are probably wondering why I’m carrying Luna on my shoulders. I will explain everything once you and Luna gather the other elements.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Twilight asked eyeing my chest.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“There is a giant cut across your chest.”

I looked down and realised that she was right.

“I’ll be fine, just hurry,” I said calmly. 

AHHH, FUCK, AHH, I’M DYING, AHHH. I’m sure I wouldn’t even feel it if Twilight didn’t tell me. AHHH. THE PAIN. 

So, basically I didn’t manage to dodge Celestia’s attack completely, well, at least she missed my nipples. I should really get my body up to the same speed as my brain.

I painfully lowered a waking Luna from my shoulders.

A few moments passed in pure agony.

“Thank you all for coming,” I said still calm despite the searing pain in my chest.

“Of course, darling!” Rarity said. “And since you brought Luna it must be important.”

“Thank you again. This is quite a long story and Luna knows it better. So it is better that she explain to you why we are here,” I said still in much pain but calm as a gentle breeze.

A few minutes passed.

“I understand what you are saying. But there is absolutely no way I would ever believe you. Even if I did, I will not betray Celestia no matter her choices,” Twilight said. 

Twilight’s response was solid. It was what I expected of her. She was Celestia’s protégé and worshipped the sun princess. Rainbow Dash had different thoughts on the matter.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. It is unfair that ponies can’t choose their purpose in life. It is unfair that Celestia has deceived us all this time. I will join Luna and fight for her cause, ” Rainbow Dash proudly stated. 

Rainbow Dash was more open minded than Twilight. Despite the fact that her range of knowledge was still smaller, she was better at reasoning and thinking logically.

Applejack put in her two cents.

“Ay don’t care what Celestia did. Equestria is happy under her rule so ay ain’t gonna do anything that might change that.” 

Applejack was never one for change. She thought that if something was good there was no reason to risk making it worse by trying to make it better. Better safe than sorry is what she always said. 

Surprisingly, Fluttershy spoke up next.

“I cannot believe that Celestia would do this to us. I will join Luna and her cause. I refuse to have Celestia as my leader.” 

I could hardly believe it when I heard this come out of Fluttershy’s mouth. She was always so timid and afraid. I always knew she had courage inside of her. I never expected this though.

“Gee, I dunno. Everything seems alright. I’m going to stick with Celestia,” Pinke said unsure about the whole thing. 

Pinkie is Pinkie. Pinkie will always be Pinkie. Pinkie will always be the simple-minded Pinkie who is happy about everything.

“I will join Luna. Celestia is blocking out the adventure that life has to offer,” Rarity said elegantly. 

Rarity was always the philosopher. She saw beauty in everything and can’t stand it when it is not being shown. She has a sister, though. What will she do about her?

“If you are not with us you are against us,” Twilight stated coldly. “We are friends but we cannot remain so if you threaten Celestia’s ways.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said. “But I have made up my mind and so has the rest of us.”

We five walked out of the library and away from the town. I got everyone to place their hand on me and I prepared to perform Lightning’s Path again to remove us from Equestria.

“This is the last chance for you three to turn back.”

“I will not turn back though I’ll miss my animal friends,” Fluttershy said. 

I like this determined side of Fluttershy. It shows her true potential.

“Very well,” I said as I created a barrier of electricity suddenly realising I still had pain in my chest.


> Chapter 6: A Good Start
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we are; the only part of the continent without inhabitants. You didn’t think Equestria was the entire world, did you. Equestria is but a country with many regions such as Appleloosa, Manehattan, and the Crystal Empire. To be more specific as to our location, we are in a thin forest between Equestria and the Northern Territories. Coming here was a good choice mainly because of how close it is to the big-league countries without being in harm’s reach.

“So, what are we going to do now?” asked Rainbow Dash making me realise my tactical error. 

I really should learn to know what I’m doing before I do things. So, here we are now in the middle of nowhere with no plan whatsoever. I did tell Luna that we need recognition. That’s probably a good start. In addition, It would probably be a good idea to start by first getting recognition in other countries. We cannot accomplish our goals by ourselves.

“First,” I said. “I’m going to take a trip to Khagix Khanate. As far as I know, Khagix does not have a good relationship with Equestria. Therefore, convincing them to join our cause should be an easier start than most places. Second, I need some of you to return to Equestria. All of you are quite influential to the inhabitants of Equestria and I have no doubt that many will be willing to follow you. Also, I think Rarity has to talk to her sister.”

“We just got here and now we have to go back?!” Rainbow exclaimed with frustration in her face.

“Is that seriously what you are complaining about right now?” Luna asked Rainbow. 

Hey, look, Luna learned how to use the word ‘you’. Luna turned her attention to me.

“Look, don’t you think that you are doing things a bit quickly?” she inquired.

“Not really,” I replied. “No, I think I’m going at a fast enough pace if I don’t want Celestia to throw me into the sun.”

“I guess you’re right. If you are going to visit Khagix Khanate, you should probably also visit the land up north. They would be extremely helpful allies.”

“I don’t know,” I said cautious of the Northern territories. “It would be difficult to convince a country that Equestria has never had connections with since it was built.”

“That is correct but they have a good standing with the northern dragons.” 

I didn’t know that but the idea of northern dragons does sound quite familiar. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be called Skyrim. That would mean that the other lands of Tamriel are somewhere here too like Vvardenfell, High Rock, or Cyrodiil. My thoughts were cut off by a short-tempered Luna kicking me in the face.

'I guess I deserved that,' I thought as I rubbed my jaw.

“So what’s your plan anyways?” Rainbow asked me.

“Well, I’m planning to go try and convince Queen Chrysalis to join us. Then I’m going to fail miserably expecting that the queen is going to brutally murder me and I will be reincarnated as an extra fluffy bunny rabbit majestic in ways nature intended.”

The look of confusion on those around me was priceless. Then, I heard Rainbow Dash say Luna had kicked me too hard. Fluttershy, on the other hand, looked at me smiling as if hoping this change of events would come to pass.



[/hr]

I marvelled at the sights below me as I sat on a cloud going towards Khagix Khanate. I wonder how the others are doing. I’m sure they’re fine. What could possibly go wrong? Lightning’s Path is pretty much useless where I am since I can’t see the Khanate too well so I can’t really put a target anywhere.

After 4 hours of floating around, I finally found it. It was actually quite a magnificent country. I had expected it to look more third-world or like a giant cave with the information Twilight gave me about the changelings. It seems that my suspicions are always wrong. Anyways, I formed a small barrier of electricity and dispersed into the clouds. I looked at the country. The large building at its heart was obviously the castle. I spotted an open skylight in the middle of the building. Since the skylight is in the middle it would probably be the royal court. I set my target there.

I noticed a great tactical error. The skylight was on the second floor of the castle. Instead of landing in the royal court I landed in the royal bedroom. This would be hard to explain. I looked around at the furniture appearing quite simple for royalty. I looked behind me to find a bed with Chrysalis on it. Oh well, good bye world. I guess I’ll see you again as an extra fluffy and charismatic bunny rabbit. Wait, was Chrysalis crying? Even if she was a second ago she is now calling for the guards. Wait, she’s calling for the guards! Fuck me!

On cue, a small squad of changelings in full body armour appeared and pointed their spears at me. On reflex, I made a small circular wall of ice around me blocking all of the spears. The guards pulled out their spears and were preparing to attack again when Chrysalis called them off. The guards disappeared in the same way they appeared.

“Sorry for the attack. You must be the one with the elemental magic everyone is talking about,” Chrysalis said with unexpected sadness in her voice.

“Yeah, sorry for randomly appearing in your bedroom in a bolt of lightning. I was sure that this was the royal court...wait you know about me?”

“I have many spies in Equestria and not without good reason. I doubt that you are here without good reason either. What drives you to visit me today, the most revered and reviled Changeling Queen?” she asked never taking her eyes off me. 

She is taking this better than I thought. Perhaps she respected me for my abilities. I’m sure that if she is as power hungry as everyone says she wouldn’t give up the chance to recruit me.

“I have come to ask for assistance.”

“And what would that ‘assistance’ be?” 

I was about to tell her when I remembered something I’ve learned. It is a lot easier to get help from a person whom you have previously helped.

“You seem a lot more troubled than I am. My needs can wait. What might you need help with?”

She looked down with an obvious sad look on her face. Perhaps I didn’t make the best decisions. But if the situation is big enough to trouble her so much, then helping her solve it would improve my reputation greatly.

“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she said after a long pause. 

That’s a good start.

“But if you tell anyone else about anything that happens in this room I am going to hunt you down, drain you drier than sandpaper, kill you, revive you, kill you again, travel to the afterlife, kill you once more, then down your spiritual essence using a drinking straw. Do I make myself absolutely clear?” she cautioned in a not so subtle threat. 

Remember when I said that’s a good start...scratch that.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” I promised. 

I wonder if I can keep this secret...probably not.

“So, this is basically what happened-

Apparently Chrysalis has sent her personal guard into the heart of the Kingdom of the Griffons. There seemed to be hints that the kingdom was preparing an attack on the Khanate. Well, either she was discovered or she is two months late. I am to go find her and bring her back. Or I’m going to find her dead body and Chrysalis is going to cry for 2 days and then kill me.

“Don’t worry my queen, I promise to return with her by my side.”

“Do not make promises you cannot keep; a promise is an unpaid debt.”

“I promise to return with her by my side,” I repeated. 

This caused her to give a small smile and close her eyes for much needed restful sleep as I left her room. Contrary to common belief, false hope is in fact better than no hope at all. I went downstairs and got a small piece of paper with a sketch of how Chrysalis’s personal guard looked. Chrysalis must have some telepathic connection with the royal guard if she could brief them of my mission so quickly. It seems that the changeling’s name was Chao and she was of the female gender. Weird name for a female if you ask me.

I had found the griffon kingdom a while ago actually. But I figured I probably shouldn’t go in until night time. My appearance was quite…unique to say the least. With the close relationship the griffons have with Celestia, I’m probably already notorious. And since I’m most likely the only human in the world right now, I doubt it would be too hard to spot me.

Elemental magic included more elements than the original five that the Chinese philosopher came up with. The elements included light and darkness. The element of darkness was easy to use. A small amount of magic would be able to merge myself into the closest shadow. Light included two parts. The first part was bending light. As everyone knows, what the eye sees is limited to only the light that is reflected into it. So if I am to bend the direction and colours of light, I will be able to make myself look invisible or like anything else. However, my form doesn’t change so anyone will still be able to touch me. Here’s a tip, you don’t see what is there, you see what you are told is there. The second and final part of light magic is creating light. I try to avoid doing that because it takes a lot of effort and is quite inefficient but I still use it as a last resort in a dire situation. 

Magic is stored in a certain place inside every living being. A unicorn has magic in its horn. A pegasus has magic in its wings. And an earth pony has it in its bones. I, however, have magic stored in my blood. The only way to create light is to channel enough magic at a fast enough speed so the raw power from the magic will glow. When I am creating light, I am just forcing the speed and flow of the magic in my bloodstream to increase so that my bloodstream glows so-to-speak. If it’s not obvious enough, it’s pretty fucking hard to do that. Have you ever made your bloodstream glow? Try it; its hard. 

Hiding inside a cloud for about 13 hours really sucked. But I did take an 11 hour nap so I really just waited for 2 hours. It was that time of the day where the sky was still pitch black but the sun was ready to rise anytime soon. This is the time where the night guards are most fatigued but have not yet been replaced by the day guard. This is the perfect time for an infiltration.

I blended myself into the large shadows the castle cast in the dim moonlight. I discovered two possible entrances to the castle. Number one is the front door which has over 100 guards in the first 100 metres and if I am spotted I will die immediately. The second one is the sewer entrance which smells like shit and is filled with shit but guarantees me a safe and fast entrance to the inside of the castle. Hmm, front door it is.

I peeked inside the front door observing about 200 guards filling the main hallway. I spotted a small hallway at the end of the royal court. If I can get there the rest will be easy. Then, maybe I can avoid getting killed at the hooves of the lovely Changeling Queen.


> Chapter 7: Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peeking inside the front door, I estimated about 200 guards occupying the main hallway. I spotted a small hallway at the end of the royal court. If I can get there the rest will be easy. There is too much light for me to hide within the shadows. But all of the light appears to be coming from one place; the chandelier in the middle of the room. It is hanging by a thick but old chain suspending it from the ceiling. If I could find a way to break that chain, I would be able to cause both a distraction and enough darkness for me to sneak past.

I formed a short ice bow in my left hand and a frozen arrow in my right. Ice was always a good weapon when being spotted is not an option. Ice melts with time and heat. It also leaves no trace whatsoever in activity. I aimed my bow at the top of the chain. I had one chance: if I hit, I would get through; If I miss, I will alert all of the guards on duty. The odds were bad, but they were the only odds I had. I pulled my arrow back far enough to hit the target with ample power albeit not too far to maintain the direction. 

Holding my breath, I let the arrow take its course.

I let out my breath as the giant metal chandelier came crashing down. Everything went better than expected. In the ensuing and chaotic commotion, I walked past the guards with silent footsteps.

“What the hell just happened?” asked one of the griffons soldiers.

“The chandelier just broke...maybe because of the rust,” another one said.

I walked down the hall with my head low and my steps soft. This was quite a big castle smaller than the Canterlot castle but still quite big. If only there was a way I could know which way to go. I turned left at the next corner and saw a sign. It had various names of rooms and arrows next to it. I saw ‘Interrogation Chambers’ and an arrow pointing right. I guess it wasn’t that difficult to find after all.

Scratch what I just said. It sure is difficult to find the interrogation chambers. I have been walking for at least half an hour. The arrow should have been specific because there were many more turns than the near coastal streets of Tianjin. That reminds me, I kind of miss Tianjin. I wonder how my family is doing there.

“HALT INTRUDER!” 

Huh, I guess there were guards back here after all.

“I DON’T CARE HOW YOU GOT IN HERE BUT YOU WILL NOT GET PASS ME! I WILL D-“ And that’s when I decided that it’s too early in the morning for this. I grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall.

“BITCH!” I shouted quite irritated. “DO YOU THINK WE ARE EQUAL!?”

I walked past him still with no clues in knowing where the fuck I’m going. Who designed this place? it’s like you need a map just to get to the end of a hallway.

Finally, a door! Maybe now I can get somewhere. 

I crouched down and took a look at the keyhole. This was one of those heavy duty locks with a mechanism so heavy it would be able to break a key if the key was inserted too quickly or slowly. This is going to take a long time to pick especially since the only solid object I had was the ice I was able to create. 

I looked at my options: I could get enough water into the keyhole to lift the mechanism and then freeze the water. I could use the old fashioned way and just create some lockpicks and a screwdriver. But it was highly unlikely that ice was strong enough. Hmm, I could burn screws that attached the lock to the door. That could work. I put my left hand onto the handle to keep it from moving while I burned the screws with the other hand. I was surprised when the handle moved.

Looks like the door wasn’t even locked...that was a waste of time.

I stayed in my crouched position as I opened the door. This was the most vital part of my mission. Attracting any attention here would result in my death either by the claws of a griffon guard or by the hooves of the changeling. There were no candles in this room. However, my eyes adjusted to the dark quite quickly and the sun was starting to rise over the horizon. The room was filled with prison cells but all of them were empty. That’s strange...if she wasn’t in here where else could she be?

I heard an opening door at the end of the room. I rolled to my right and hid behind the walls of the prison cells. A griffon walked into the door at the end of the hallway. He walked across the room and into one of the prison cells and locked the cell door. Did he just lock himself in prison? That’s weird. I heard another door opening inside the prison cell. I took a few steps forward to peek into the cell. There was a door inside the cell. And the door to the cell is another security measure to ensure no one without permission opens that door. Quite brilliant architecture if you think about it.

The lock to the cell was quite easy to pick. There were only rods inside the lock and the springs were quite flexible. However, the keyhole was quite small. Regular lockpicks and bobby pins won’t be able to fit. Good thing I learnt how to create ice two months ago! Really does come in handy. After a few pushes and pulls the lock opened with a small creak. I carefully opened and closed the door behind me making sure not to make any sound. 

The next door was slightly harder to open. This door required a device of a unique shape to be placed onto the knob and spun around a certain number of times. I have seen this lock only once on earth. I only opened it by killing the american soldier with the key. However, I could not form ice in my hand back then. I created a small rectangle with various strips of texture on one side. I also covered my fingertips with ice so my body heat does not melt any part of the replica key and ruin the form. I pressed the ice into the concave shape carved into the knob of the door. 

I put my left hand onto the knob and started to give it a small tug while turning the key clockwise. I heard a small click and pulled the knob back as hard as I could. The fact that the knob was unlocked but the rod was still in the door contradicted and snapped the rod. I pulled the door back little by little making sure not to attract attention.

I opened the gap big enough for my right eye to look inside. It was a little dark but I could see a figure restrained to the wall by several chains. I blinked several times to focus my vision. When I got a good look I noticed that the figure was in fact a changeling - Chao. Chao had many noticeable injuries all over her body and a few scars from lacerations that were left untreated. Her injuries were not too major and none were even close to being lethal. But if changeling anatomy was somewhat close to human anatomy than that would mean that all of the injuries hit all of the nerves. Her torturer must have really known what he was doing. 

Her torturer...oh right, I just saw him walk in. I scanned what little part of the room the small opening in the door allowed me to see. He walked towards Chao closer and woke her up with a claw swipe to her face. A few drops of blood left the scratches as Chao weakly lifted up her head and opened her eyes before quickly closing them again.

“Wake up, Sunshine. I have a great day planned out for us,” the griffon said with a malicious grin on his face. 

He went over to a small drawer and opened the first shelf, took out a short whip, and began to approach Chao. I had planned to wait a while longer for the griffon to leave, but I was not going to allow anything more to happen to Chao. I opened the door and slowly walked in carefully placing each foot’s heel first as to not make any sounds from my footsteps.



[/hr]

I cannot remember how long I have been in here. Was it weeks, months, or years maybe? At first I counted the days hoping to be rescued. That day never came. Perhaps Chrysalis decided to leave me here for failing. The exact reason didn’t matter now. Starting from the first day when I was imprisoned… they hurt me. Every day, he would come in the morning and leave at night. Every day, he would come in and he would hurt me. He claimed he wanted information. He claimed he was ensuring the safety of the land and her people. At first I screamed. I would scream and I would cry. 

I would beg. 

But no matter what I did - all he ever did was smile at me. Not a warm or sympathetic smile but one of pure ecstasy and enjoyment. 

Then I talked.

I told him everything he asked and then some. I told him of our Khanate, of our politics, of our military, and of our queen. He continued to come in the mornings. 

Except, he stopped asking questions. 

He would come in, torture me and then leave. He never intended to gain answers to those questions he asked. He never needed an answer. He just needed an excuse. But now, he doesn’t have one, but he doesn’t care about that anymore. I never thought it was possible when other changelings talked about it. I thought pain was not something anyone could ever get used to. I had proven myself wrong.

I woke up to sharp talons striking the left side of my face. I looked up at the griffon. ‘The physical form of evil,’ I called him. I never called him that out loud. I never called out to him at all. I didn’t believe today would be any different than all the other days. I heard him walk towards the drawer and remove an object from it. I wonder what he would be using today. I heard the footsteps approach me. I tightened my muscles hoping to dull the sharp pains that would soon come. 

Instead, something unprecedented happened. 

I heard a quick *whap* like the sound of two soft objects colliding. Then, a scream that lasted for only one second before hearing something fall to the floor. Had he dropped something on himself perhaps? Then I heard another footstep. This footstep was different, there were no clicking sounds of the claws touching the floor. Had a changeling finally come to rescue me? I froze as I felt something stroking my mane. I stiffened even more when I opened my eyes. In front of me was a strange creature. Certainly not a changeling. A changeling needed an example or template of what to change into before changing into it. 

This creature; I have never seen or heard of before. He did not have fur like the ponies and griffons. But he possessed a long mane which was tied back behind his head except for some parts that he allowed to hang over the front of his face. He wore clothes...strange...why did he wear clothes? The clothes offered no protection from physical damage but perhaps the weather. What was the use of the clothes other than protection from the weather? The creature was so strange but yet so familiar. That’s when it hit me. I had been told of a new powerful being in Equestria before I had been sent to the Griffon kingdom and captured. This must be him. My eyes went wide in shock. He was loyal to Equestria which was loyal to the griffons. But he did take out my torturer. Why was he here, though? it doesn’t make any sense. I calmed down a little when he smiled at me - a real smile not like the smile of the griffon.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked me while maintaining his smile. “Please say yes. Chrysalis would kill me if you weren’t.”

Chrysalis hadn’t abandoned me. I was so happy I almost began to cry.

“Anyways,” he continued. “I checked the griffon. Couldn’t find the keys to unlock the chain. Any idea where they might be?”

“I don’t know,” I said with what strength I had left. “I suspect they don’t even have it anymore.”

“What do you mean?” he asked with a serious face.

“I don’t think they ever intended for me to leave.”

“That’s alright.” 

What did he mean by that? 

“I don’t plan on allowing any of them to leave either,” he said with an ever growing smile.

His tone was constantly changing. It was friendly, comforting, and menacing. However,  the same expression remained on his face. My thoughts were interrupted when he put both of his hands onto the chain and tightened his grip. The blood veins in his hands glowed blue as ice started spreading onto the chains. Then the blue-blooded veins turned red as the ice melted quickly and the chain snapped.

“Well, Sunshine,” he started. “Let’s get out of here so we’ll be home in time for breakfast. I have a great day planned out for us.”


> Chapter 8: The Exit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, can you walk?” asked this strange creature; whom I remember being told long ago was of the ‘human’ species. He needed to know my physical condition seeing my battered, beaten, and almost broken body.

This question was a lot harder to answer than I expected. My entire body ached. But I could feel my hooves. That would be a good starting point to determine my physical capabilities. How hard can walking be? Just put one hoof forward, then put it on the ground. However, instead of putting my hoof forward, I put my face forward and fell on the ground.

“Soooo, I’ll take that as a no?” remarked the human revealing a slight frown.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. Probably just forgot what it feels like to walk from not moving for so long.”

“Wow, one usually doesn’t forget to ride a bike but you can forget to walk. The brain works in mysterious ways,” he said turning the frown into a slight smile.

What’s a bike? I thought before catching sight of the unconscious griffon on the floor. “So, what did you do to him?”

“I used an ancient technique that was invented by my ancestors passed down from generation to generation. No one except for those in my bloodline know of it. All those who have seen it are dead...you didn’t see anything did you?” he said tilting his back with suspicion written on his face.

“No, I didn’t,” I said disregarding the threat but still curious. “Tell me about the technique.” 

I was intrigued. Perhaps - if he is the only human on this world - he will not have children which means he’ll have to pass it on to others. Perhaps he’ll pass it to a certain changeling that I have known since birth.

He laughed a little.

“There’s no technique! That was joke,” he laughed in a most annoying - but pleasing - manner. “I just gave him a swift kick in the balls.”

Balls? That’s strange. There isn’t any part of the body that are balls. The only spherical shapes are the eyeballs and the… oh, that’s what he meant. Were they that sensitive? The large amount of foam coming out of the griffon’s mouth told me that it was. I should keep this in mind.

“He’s still alive. Are you going to finish him?”

“Good guys don’t kill,” he replied. 

He bent down and put one hand above the griffon. The blood veins on his hand gave off a small glow as a dense white mist came out from the palm of his hand and engulfed the griffon.  The mist cleared a few seconds later and the griffon was frozen in a perfectly shaped ice cube still able to frantically move his eyeballs. He picked up the block of ice and tossed it out the nearby window. We both stuck our head out the window and looked down as the block of ice hit the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces.

“Fortunately,” he started. “I am not a good guy.”

I doubted this statement considering he saved me from much pain and misery. He turned to me and smiled. Not knowing what to do I smiled back.

“Now,” he said. “Let’s get out of here before the other guards show up. The scream from the griffon probably alerted some of them.”

He reached his hand out to the doorknob but, before his hand made contact, the door swung open and smashed into the wall revealing a griffon in full armour on the other side.

“Why does this always happen to me?” the human muttered.

“Halt!” the guard shouted pointing his spear at my saviour, “you will come with me right now!”

“No.”

“But I’m holding a spear to you.”

“Still no.”

“But...I can kill you if I wanted to.”

“But you won’t.”

“Yes I will!”

“No you won’t.”

“I’m telling you right now that I will kill you!”

“More like you’re going to kill me with empty words.”

The look on the griffon’s face went from confusion, to frustration, back to confusion, and then to absolute anger. The griffon recklessly jabbed at the human with the spear which he dodged with ease. He grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled it out of the griffon’s grasp. Before the griffon could respond, the human swung the spear in a full circle forcibly landing the blunt side of it on the griffon’s head. It knocked the griffon down but he did not lose consciousness. However, there was now a dent on the griffon’s helmet.

The griffon rose to his claws and pulled a small dagger out of his armour. The human countered that action by creating a gigantic blade in his hand that was significantly larger than himself. The griffon looked at it with wide eyes before dropping his dagger and running off.

“How did you do that?” I asked. How much magic would it take to form such a large weapon in such a short time?

“Do what?” he asked me with the blade disappearing in his hand.

“Make the sword.”

“It’s quite simple actually - I didn’t.” 

I wanted to ask him what that meant but he turned around and walked into the hallway the griffon came from signalling me to follow him.  Naturally I followed. The way to the outside was strangely silent and lonely. There were no guards whatsoever. They must have heard noise from the griffon earlier or seen the ice drop from the window.

“Chao?”

“Yes?”

“Stay alert. They are planning to either trap or ambush us. Maybe both. Stay close to me and tell me if you see any movement at all.” 

I obeyed for there was little choice. I moved closer to him until my head was touching his torso. We moved carefully and quickly through the tight halls of the castle. Finally, we found the exit. I was so relieved when he opened the door and we were greeted by a flash of light.

“STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!” roared a distant voice. 

Well, so much for being relieved.

There were twenty soldiers surrounding us on the front and twenty more from behind. On the top of the castle, a row of griffons pointed their bows at us. At this point, I was scared for our lives but the human’s expression still hadn’t changed. In fact, it hadn’t changed much since I met him. It’s like as if he was not capable of having emotions. That could very well be the case for all I know.

“I have a very good reason for why you should not arrest us,” the human spoke up. 

Was he trying to reason with them? That’s impossible. There’s no way they were going to free us no matter what they were told.

“Number one,” he said raising one finger in the air. 

I couldn’t help but wonder what he was going to say.

“Because you fucking can’t!” 

After finishing the last syllable he immediately slammed his hand onto the ground creating a circular barrier of ice around us that only had one small opening on the top. I heard hundreds of arrows, spears, and other weaponry assault the wall of ice. Although there were many cracks and the wall was starting to fall apart, it endured the assault long enough for the human to put his hand on my head. I felt a jolt of electricity go through me which was immediately replaced by a feeling of freedom.

I looked around at this time to see the castle from where we had been moments ago. But it was very small. That meant that… oh shit! Oh fucking shit! I’m a few kilometres up in the air. My heart would have started pounding, but I couldn’t feel my heart. In fact, I couldn’t feel any part of my body.

What is happening? Where are we? I thought. 

I jumped on the inside when I heard a familiar voice.

We are in a cloud. 

I knew who that voice belonged to, but I realized that I was hearing this voice not from the outside but inside my mind.

You can hear my thoughts? I mentally responded feeling a bit awkward from this ethereal communication.

Yes and you can hear mine.

I can’t feel my body. What are we?

We are the electricity in a cloud before it goes down in a bolt of lightning. Look down, you cannot see colours and time does not move. This is what the lightning sees.

That was a little too much information to take in. I am electricity now? How does that work? My fear of heights really isn’t helping me with this situation.

Would you rather return to your normal form? 

I guess he noticed my panic.

Yes, please.

Very well. 

Just like that I saw a spark with an outcome of me sitting on top of a cloud. I was so relieved to see my hooves again. But I started panicking again as soon as I looked down.

“Chao?”

“Yes?” I answered.

“Why do you have a death grip on my arm?” 

Did I? I looked at my front hooves. Huh, looks like I did.

“I’m afraid.”

“No shit you’re afraid. What are you afraid of? Those griffons can’t see us and they’re not going to even bother looking up here when we were just down there.”

“I’m not afraid of that. I’m afraid of heights.” 

He stayed silent for a while.

“What the fuck? You have wings. How can you be afraid of heights if you have wings. That’s a like a fish that’s afraid of water or a rat that’s afraid of land.” 

Memories of my childhood flashed before my eyes.

“Hey, are you crying? I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you...I was just surprised. I didn’t mean any of that. Being afraid of heights is totally normal. I used to be afraid of clowns. Clowns are so scary with their white makeup and red lipstick. Who the hell decided that’s funny? That’s creepy as fuck. Wait, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“I’m alright. I just remembered how people used to tease me about that when I was young.”

“Well, I can certainly see why… WAIT WAIT WAIT, I DIDN’T MEAN THAT! Don’t start crying again!”

This human might have saved me, but he is quite an asshole...a friendly, kosher, and polite asshole.


> Chapter 9: Return 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We sat on the cloud for quite a long time. I insisted that we use his lightning teleportation or, whatever it was, to leave the area. He, however, insisted that a bolt of lightning in a sunny day would be sure to attract attention. As much as I didn’t want to stay up here, I must admit that he was right. Something about my rescuer bothered me.

“I had a question I wanted to ask.”

“And what would that be?” he replied raising a suspicious eyebrow in a sarcastic tone of voice.

“I’m not saying that there are problems with our queen’s judgement…”

“But?”

“Why has she not sent anyone to rescue me before you?”



[/hr]

The question was a difficult question to answer. My answer to the question was going to make a big impact on Chao. This is the kind of question that drives us to seek life’s answers with existential reasoning. What is the Matrix? Ah...I got distracted again. Anyways, what was I doing? Oh, right, Chao’s inquiry.

“Well, the answer is quite simple.”

“What is the answer then?”

“She did.”

“What?”

“She sent many changelings. Whether it was to rescue or send reports of your status. None of them were successful.”

She was staring at me with wide eyes. Should I tell her I was joking and replace the truth with a lie. That would be a safe choice to make. But there is a reason people take risks. Risks don’t mean there is going to be a bad result. A risk is something that might not only conclude as a bad result but sometimes a good one. The safe path, itself, only has a neutral outcome. In my situation, I think that risking the bad result is worth the possibility of obtaining the good one. She wasn’t responding so I decided to speak up.

“I trust you know of the Ning Squad.”

“Y-yes?”

“Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“They died.”

“They died?”

“They died trying to find you.”

Tears were forming in her eyes again. Except this time I did not deny what caused her to cry. I merely put an arm over her shoulder. She was not the type of changeling one would expect to be a bodyguard of royalty. She did not possess the stubbornness that guards normally possess in that role often requiring they give up everything for the safety of their queen. She was also quite sensitive. Most guards have little to no emotion. That helps guards uphold their dutiful obligations and responsibilities above all other matters. 

This proved to me one thing: Chrysalis did not appoint Chao as her guard because she was talented at being one - but because of more personal reasons. My judgement told me that I should not start guessing and wait for the answer to turn up eventually. Chao was still quite upset. It was my fault but all I wanted to achieve was for her to obtain the facts that she deserved to know. I didn’t want her to be upset. I don’t want her to be overly distressed. So, I formed a plan to get her mind off it.

“Well, now that I’ve answered your question perhaps you could answer mine.”

“What would you like to know?” she said letting the tears subside.

“Changelings feed on love. Love is like a changeling’s nutrients, correct? So - unless the griffon I killed earlier was secretly your boyfriend, wasn’t really torturing you, and you were into some kinky bondage and submissive acts - you probably didn’t receive any love. Anyways, my question is… if you didn’t receive any love, how did you survive this long without food?”

What the fuck did i just say?

“Um, well, love is hard to get. So changelings have evolved so that we hardly need any food to survive. Lack of food makes us physically weaker and we can feel the hunger burning, but it does not kill us.”

“So, you must be starving then.”

“Well, yes.” 

That’s the answer I was hoping to get. Now for the next part of my plan. 

“But I’m sure that Chrysalis will find a way to ge- MMPHF!” 

And just like that, I cut her off by putting my hands onto the sides of her head and pressing my lips against hers. Was doing this necessary to make her feel better? Probably not but I had other reasons.



[/hr]

After about half an hour the griffons gave up their search and went back to the castle. Griffons seemed to be quite impulsive according to my observations and intuition. Griffons lacked dedication to their work and are good at doing it only if they want to be. The chance of this happening is pretty much never since it only took half an hour to give up a search; A search in the surrounding areas of their only prison looking for the person that killed one of their prison guards. Oh well, who cares? It’s time to go home. I lift up my right hand and wind started flowing from it.

“I wish I could do that,” the changeling beside me said.

“Can’t you turn into a propeller or something?”

She gave a cold stare returned in kind with my own smile.

The trip back to the Khanate was a lot faster with Chao helping me fly the cloud - as a propeller. Well, the first five minutes of it anyways. After that she fell asleep. I can’t blame her, though. She deserved some sleep after what she had been through.

I looked down at the castle. I was about to go through the skylight again when I remembered what happened last time.

“Hey Chao. Wake up.”

“Huh? Did I fall asleep? “

“No shit you fell asleep. Come on, we’re here.”

“Great. I’ll just- HOLY SHIT WE’RE HIGH UP!” 

This is starting to get annoying. Like they say: ‘sometimes push comes to shove’, ‘you gotta do things the hard way’, yadda yadda yadda.

“So, how do we- AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” 

Well, the best way to overcome your fears is to face them head on. I looked down from the cloud. Actually...maybe pushing her off wasn't such a great idea after all. I jumped down from the cloud and followed after her. She was falling slowly due the pressure on her wings, but she was still screaming loud enough for the changelings below us to look up. I grabbed her and forced electricity out of my back.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“We’re not moving anymore.”

“Oh.”

We floated down gently like the single petal of a flower...a petal that is surrounded by a barrier of electricity with enough voltage to power an apartment building that is. In a very short time, we landed on the ground.

“Still afraid of heights?” I asked Chao.

“No.” 

That’s good. I guess my plan actually worked.

“Now, I’m afraid of falling.” 

Huh, never mind then. My plan failed miserably.

We walked up the stairs to the castle. The changeling guards turned their heads in our direction, each raising an eyebrow, smiled, and went back to their original positions. Looks like I was starting to gain respect. With a push the doors of the castle swung open. Before I could do anything, Chrysalis tackled Chao to the ground. Not sure where from though. It was a touching sight watching Chrysalis hug Chao like she was squeezing out the last bit of toothpaste from- I think I just ruined the moment with my stupid similes. It still made me happy to see Chrysalis hug Chao and… kiss Chao… and touch… Huh? Maybe if I back away slowly they won’t notice my leave.


> Chapter 10: Guard
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stood outside the door of the bedroom looking into the window beside it from time to time. Chrysalis and Chao were talking to each other with Chrysalis’s wing over the smaller changeling. Chrysalis stayed with her until sleep finally overtook Chao. Chrysalis then made her way out of the room but not before giving Chao a peck on her forehead. The door soon opened and I stood up straight to walk beside the queen.

“Chrysalis, there is a question I wish for you to answer.”

“Hmm?”

“Why is she your personal guard?”

From what I saw, it looked more like Chrysalis was protecting Chao than Chao was protecting her.  Chao didn’t act like a guard to her queen with Chrysalis. The relationship was more symbolic in that of a child and her older sister.

“She’s- she’s a good guard,” Chrysalis stammered trying to find an excuse.

“Chrysalis, we are both aware of the fact that that’s not true.”

“Are you insulting her?”

“And now you are trying to change the subject to avoid the question. What answer requires so much secrecy?”

“There’s something you need to know.”

“And what would that be?”

‘I fucking hate you.”

“I get that a lot.”

Chrysalis reluctantly revealed the story to me.

Chao never had a lot of self-esteem from the day she was born to today. In school, she was the one everyone picked on. Chrysalis never had a bodyguard or ever needed one. She saw Chao in the crowd and realised what this young changeling needed. She needed respect from the other changelings. What would get more respect than being in the second highest ranking position next to the queen? As for her mission into the Griffon Kingdom, changelings started to think that Chao was useless due to the fact that she rarely had things to do in general. Several changelings walked into her castle with suggestions and nominations for who should really be her guard. There was a small rumour that the Griffons were planning to become hostile to the changelings. Since it did not seem like a threat at the time, Chrysalis sent Chao in to prove her abilities assured she would return with word of success. However, the rumours were small only because of the large amount of effort the griffons put into hiding the hostility.

I never had a chance to inform Chrysalis of the reason for my visit. But Chrysalis needs to spend some time with Chao right now so I’m going to wait a while longer. Chrysalis had prepared one of the vacant bedrooms for me. I walked into the room and looked out the windows. The sun was setting. I usually slept at the break of dawn. The night was a great time to do some of my… activities. However, I have not slept in two days and was feeling tired to say the least. I took off my shirt and lay onto the bed. The sounds around me became muffled as sleep overtook.  

My eyes opened to see a bush in front of me. I looked down at my hands. A black silk glove with the knuckles cut off was on my left hand. In addition, the ring finger was removed since my real ring finger has also been ‘removed’ a while back. Rumours were I lost it in close combat, when in reality, one of my comrades forgot to turn on the safety. I instantly realised where I was: Florida, USA, 15, November, 2035, World war three. World war three...this concept still makes me laugh. Ever since humans discovered killing, wars were fought for different reasons; for religion, freedom, or peace. People say that the good guys always win. They do not because they are the good guys. They are the good guys because they win. Every war results in the same way: deaths, destruction, chaos, but never peace. And war, war never changes.

This was the day I traveled across half of the world from Asia to North America for an assassination mission. I am to go into… someplace and kill someone. I don’t remember. I didn’t read the briefing. I used my knife to take a look at my reflection. I had long hair. Not as long as the one I had currently in equestria but still quite long. Soldiers are required to get a crew cut but I was told to let my hair grow out so I could easily stay hidden in public. 

I had two scars on my face. One vertical one on the left side of my lip and a crescent-shaped one right above my right eye. I liked these scars. Not because they looked cool or some stupid excuse all the kids getting hit by cars are using, but because they reminded me of whom I am. A knight in shining armour is a knight who has never had his metal tested; a warrior with undamaged skin is a warrior who has never had his mettle tested. 

I patted my clothing to check if I have my equipment. Silenced semi-automatic pistol in my shirt, small multipurpose buck knife, short two-sided dagger strapped to my thigh, and last but not least, a plaster wood bow and 14 thinned arrows on my back. My comrades used to mock my constant usage of old weapons. But they were silenced when they realised that my accuracy with a bent bow was higher than theirs with a bolt action sniper rifle. It’s a little overkill, but it’s always a smart idea to be prepared for the worst.

I made my way into the building quite easily. After all, this was a memory and I know what to do. I made my way to the third floor without triggering any alarms. There was a person guarding the door to the staircase. Since there was no way to sneak past him, I did the next best thing. I pulled out my dagger and pointed it at his face but not touching.

“Hey, faggot!”

“Wha-,“ A sqidge was heard as he turned his head into the tip of my dagger. It was extremely simple but effective. The funniest part is that I learnt to do this from the kids in primary school who would hold up a finger and tap a friend on his shoulder. Now I need to find a way to hide the body so that no one will find out until I finish my job.  

I lift up his legs as I dumped him into a nearby trash bin.

Close enough, I thought.

I found my way to my target’s office. I carefully pushed down the handle and opened the door. My target was facing the opposite direction and organising some files on his desk. I stood up and, with my dagger in hand, I broke into a sprint. I didn’t care if he heard me now. Even if he heard me it would be too late. At the last second, I jumped. Time slowed as my target turned around and removed his headgear. I realised that it was in fact a woman. Not any woman - it was princess Celestia. I was still in mid-air when she raised her hand and a small ball of fire was forming. 

Well, that’s not good. That is most certainly not good. A wave of fire and heat pushed me into the air.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the sky. The bright blue sky of noon time. I leapt to my feet and looked around me. I was at the top of the Canterlot castle. I turned to where princess Celestia was facing me. She stood there wearing plated armour with a slight tint of purple and golden rims. She held a broadsword in her right hand. Despite its weight, she was handling it with ease. As for me, I was wearing the training outfit Rarity made for me a few years back with some modifications such as the thickened left shoulder pad and removed right sleeve. The dagger in my hand had become a fencing sword. 

Oh wow, this feels like an old spice commercial. Look at your man. Now look at me. Look at your man. Now back to me. Look down at your hand. Your knife has become a sword. Now look back up. You are now on the rooftops of the Canterlot castle.

That was a bad time to get distracted. I barely dodged as Celestia swung her sword at me. Each one of her swings followed up with the next getting faster and faster as she went. My body was unable to keep up with her movements and I had to resort to blocking with my blade. She took one step forward each time she slashed at me to make her attacks stronger. When she slashed downwards, I put one foot onto her blade and pushed it into the ground. I tried to release her grip by butting her head with the grip of my sword. She quickly moved up her left hand and grabbed my sword. Unsurprisingly, she was much stronger than me and pulled my sword out of my grasp and tossed it off the castle. Well, that sucks.

With the same hand she grabbed my neck and pushed me to the edge. The only thing keeping me from falling two kilometres downwards was a stone wall only up to my waist. Some bricks shifted slightly. Something tells me the wall won’t hold for much longer. The wall broke and I fell with it. Sometimes I hate being right.

“Only mortal,” Celestia said as she let go.



[/hr]

I sat up on my bed and rubbed my eyes. Dafuq was that? I need to stop going to bed on an empty stomach.


> Chapter 11:Wood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The position of the sun outside the window hinted at my rising to a late morning. I got up off my bed to find a set of clothes resting on the nightstand: long loose pants and a tight flexible sleeveless shirt. They must have tailored this set in respect to my previous ensemble. I tossed on my outfit and put on my shoes. I was about to open the door when Chao preemptively opened it for me. She wore a look of surprise in meeting face to face with me not expecting the abrupt encounter.

“Hello, how are you today?” I greeted her trying to break the silence.

“Um…” she said. “I’m great! And it’s all thanks to you!” 

The edges of her mouth were pointed out and not up. Also her eyebrows were slightly scrunched together and her eyes were not completely open. This could only mean one thing.

“What do you want from me?”

“…”

“Well?”

“How did you know that-“

“-that you wanted something from me? You made it pretty obvious as if pondering a question. Anyways, let’s talk on the way down stairs. “



[/hr]

“So, you never did answer my question.  What do you want from me?”

“Well…”

“God damn it, Chao. Just tell me.”

“...I want you to teach me how to fight.”

Well, that’s new. Especially coming from Chrysalis’s personal guard.

“It’s alright if you say no, I-“

“Don’t worry, you wish to do what I do and know what I know. That’s great. Tell me when and we’ll get started.” 

What am I getting myself into? I can’t teach. I could barely teach that 10 year old how to play piano. I taught the kid so well that he forgot how to tie his shoes making better ‘music’ in falling down stairs than he ever did with 88 keys...why am I thinking about this while going down stairs?



[/hr]

“Glad you could join us for breakfast,” said Chrysalis as we walked into the dining room.

“If you eat love, why do you have a dining room?”

“It’s mostly for guests.”

“So you set up breakfast just for me then?”

“For you? What a ridiculous notion. Four ponies arrived earlier and I, Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings may be heartless but can be a humble host to visiting guests. You will find that friends of my friends are always welcome in the changeling empire, allowed to walk these halls and enjoy commodities only offered to allies,” boasted Chrysalis displaying a sly grin.

“Good morning,” said Luna as she walked into the room followed by Fluttershy and Rarity.

“MY WORD! DARLING, THOSE CLOTHES ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS!” 

That was certainly not something one would expect to hear from the element of generosity. I sure hope that the changeling who made it was not present.

I heard a changeling behind me excuse herself and walk into the washroom. Within seconds, muffled whimpering came from the same washroom. God damn it Rarity! You had one job.

“Rarity?”

“Yes, darling?”

“You just made the first changeling you ever talked to cry.”

I was about to ask her to go and apologise when something tackled me to the ground.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? DID YOU SERIOUSLY LEAVE ME IN EQUESTRIA!?” 

What a wonderful reunion between a man and his talking wooden wolf.

“I’m sorry. I was going to get you and then I...well there was this thing a-and then I had to go and I...I’m sorry please forgive me.”

She growled but got off me. Not before landing a hard kick to my chest. If this was a while back, I wouldn’t mind that much but she grew and so did her strength. I saw her walk into the corner and stare at the wall. This was not the best way to start the day.

“Did that timberwolf just talk?” Rarity asked in shock..

“Not the biggest concern right now,” I  said wincing in pain.



[/hr]

“I’m sorry, please talk to me.”

“…”

“You’re making my heart hurt.”

“…”

“You’re giving me heart complications.”

“…”

“Please, I love you.”

“…”

This exchange of a one-sided conversation had been going on for a rather long time. Most of the ponies and changelings in the room were watching us at the beginning, but now most of them stopped giving a fuck going about their daily business.

“Come on, give me one more chance.”

She moved for the first time in two hours slowly turning around to look at me. The look in her eyes made me realise something I always knew but never noticed. She was not my pet, she was my friend. And I took something I never deserved for granted - her trust. God damn it, this sucks.

“I’m sorry. I truly am and it’s not that I don’t care about you. I care about you more than I care about myself. Well, I don't really care about myself anyways. But still, I didn’t do any of this for myself. Actually, I’m not going to come up with any excuses because I have none and they probably won't be of much use to me anyways. I’m not going to attempt to justify what I did because I can’t. I just hope you can forgive me.”

“…”

“Please?”

“Fine. One. More. Chance…”

“Thank you so much, that’s so- AHHHH!”

If it wasn’t obvious enough, her kicks were really fucking strong delivering the last one with enough force to leave two painfully sore bruises.



[/hr]

The morning was slow. Time crawled along at an agonizing pace as each and every changeling and pony present asked me how I learnt to talk. Sometimes, I wish I was never taught how to talk so I didn’t have to answer these stupid questions.

“So, Moon moon-“ Fluttershy began

“Actually,” the human cut her off, “the first thing she ever said to me was that Moon moon is a retarded name and that I was retarded for thinking it up.”

“Not like I was wrong. My name is Talon now. We came up with it together. He thought it suits my character,” I responded interjecting my own opinion on the matter.

“I see...that name would be a better fit for a wolf,” Fluttershy said holding a hoof up to her chin pondering the name’s suitability. 

No shit, what the fuck is a Moon moon? Fluttershy continued on with the question she had been meaning to get an answer to.

“I wanted to ask you; he told me that you liked him and you both became friends right away. How did you happen, Talon? If that’s okay with you, of course.”



[/hr]

I move silently but quickly through the thick forest using my natural camouflage to hide myself from my prey. My prey was strange; I had never seen that kind of creature before. I am still very young and inexperienced. But I have seen most of the forests’ creatures and this one is not even close in appearance to any of them. It is currently crouching on a branch with a bow in hand. He is doing exactly what I’m doing - hunting. Except in his case, he was the predator. Unpleased with the small number of visible animals, he holstered his bow and jumped off the branch landing with a quick roll. I got ready to pounce on him when he did something that made me freeze in my tracks. He talked… to me.

“Look, I know that you’re there and you are going to attack me. You can continue if you want to, but I’m going to tell you that I’m not your casual prey.“ He turned around. “You can fight me, but I will fight back.”

He did not look very strong. He had thin bones and a small amount of muscle. I was sure that I would be able kill him quickly and easily. But the look in his eyes told me different. He was a warrior. He was strong. He was confident and not without good reason. Something told me that I should respect him, that I should learn from him. I walk out of my cover and towards what used to be my prey.

“Hello there, you look smaller than all the other timberwolves. A little friendlier, though. That’s a good thing. Anyways, how are you?”

“…”

“Huh, well you can’t talk in my language. I can’t say that’s surprising. I don’t know why I was expecting an answer in the first place. But I know you can understand me so I’m going to keep talking.”

I followed him as he walked along. What he said and the way he talked did not make him seem like a predator. Those spoken words gave me the impression of one who is not only a warrior but a little bit more. A warrior is fierce in battle, but a great warrior is fierce in battle and gentle in times of peace. There was a lot I could learn from him. I promised myself on that day to accept him as my teacher and respect him as so.



[/hr]

“This retard here is one that I have come to respect. He deserved that respect in many ways despite how much I hate his foolish behavior,” I responded to Fluttershy.

"Gee, thanks!" I heard my friend mutter rubbing his sore chest.

“That sounds lovely. I’m sure you’ll both continue to be the best of friends. Just try and go easier on him next time,” Fluttershy whispered leaning in close so I only could hear. 

Turning her head slightly in my friend’s direction, whom was still in pain, she gave me a furtive wink.

> Chapter 12: Teach
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, have you told Chrysalis why we visited yet?” Luna asked me. 

She tried to keep our reason for coming to the changeling empire subtle in case I had not briefed Chrysalis. I am thankful for that since I didn’t say a word about it.

“Nope, why don’t you do the honour?”

“Considering the present situation and your continued successes, it is presumed most wise that you shou-”

Before she could continue, I turned around to swan dive out the nearest window. Too many bad memories in politics. We were on the first floor so I didn't get very far. But it still had the intended effect exhibiting my desires to not enter debates and negotiations and the fact that I don't give a shit. However, it also made me the center of attention with both Luna facehoofing and Chrysalis reeling in laughter.



[/hr]

I leaned against my canine, lumber friend. We were sitting beside a lovely campfire. It was lovely mostly because a fox slowly roasted over it. Everything looks lovely when it’s cooking a dead animal. Even the old radiator I used to barbeque my chicken because the oven wasn’t working. It still surprised me how a radiator - barely able to heat a room - was able to cook food.

“Hey, Talon?”

“What?” she replied turning her wooden head to face me.

“How do timberwolves eat?” 

That was a question I always meant to ask. Timberwolves are basically skeleton structures made up of wood. Yet, when they eat, the food just seems to sort of disappear in their mouth.

“Well, first of all, we are held together by magic like every other living thing in this world. However, our physical bodies are slightly more dependent on it.”

“Yeah, no shit. Get to the point.” 

Upon saying this she kicked me again. The kick was softer this time but my ears were still ringing.

“Anyways,” she continued making sure I noticed her scowl, “food gives you and us energy. For us, energy equals magic. So, basically my food is transformed into the magic used to hold my body together.”

That actually made a lot of sense. It surprised me how much logic was used to construct a world of rainbow-coloured ponies and wooden animals.

“Hey guys!” a voice called out to us.

I think I know who that voice belongs to lifting up my head in time to see Chao standing before us.

“Um, what are you doing?” she asked us observing our little campfire. Well, no point lying to her here.

“I’m cooking a fox that I-“ Talon delivered a swift kick to my temple, “-we caught.”

I took a few moments to regain my senses.

“Anyways, what are you doing here?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you did promise me that-“

“Oh yeah right, sure. Come with me to find some flat ground and we’ll get started.”



[/hr]

“This looks good.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Shut up!”

*Slap*

The three creatures who are of completely different species sat together in a circle.

“So, you want to learn to fight. That is the easiest thing to learn next to how to chew. However, learning the most effective means to fight is quite difficult. First question: do you wish to learn unarmed martial arts or weapon arts?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course not. I’ll teach you unarmed. It's easier. For you at least, you can just change into whatever weapon you want to wield. First, I’m going to teach you about the concept of yin yang.”

I gave her a speech I had given to many people before; the concept that there is always bad in good and that there is always good in bad. Good and evil are like the seasons. It goes round and round and never stops. Everything has some good and some evil. Nothing is grey but there is always a patch of black in the whiteness. Chao just kind of sat there and nodded once in a while. I wonder if she understood anything that I was saying. At least she did not cut me off by saying that this has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Yin yang is foundation of what I am about to teach her, for she must learn to realise and control the good and evil of her actions. I phrased this speech differently to fit the one member audience. However, I ended it with the same sentence as all other times; use the good portion of everything to its potential and use the bad portion to your advantage. I wanted to stall the lesson as long as possible, I didn't feel like doing any physical work for today. 

“Now, I will teach you about fear. Like everything else, fear is both bad and good. On the left hand, fear will blind your judgement and give you the urge to flee. On the right hand, fear will sharpen your senses and your reflexes granting you ease in escaping danger. Being fearless will give you more confidence making thinking easier. However, if you are fearless, you will become ignorant to the consequences of your actions. You must choose whether to be fearless or to be fearful. At first, people think of fear as a bad thing. However, it is not a bad thing. Whether it’s good and bad, like everything else, is dependant on how you use it.”

She probably has no idea what I’m talking about.

“Hey!” I felt a kick hitting me square in the back. “HEY!” 

Now, why is it whenever I try to have a serious conversation someone has to ‘kick’ up a fuss?

“Where’s the food?” came a voice from behind me.

“…” 

Well, shit. I left that fox slowly roasting over a campfire. Even if the wildlife doesn’t reclaim it, it’ll be darker than charcoal and harder than rock.

“You suck.”



[/hr]

“Okay,” I said as I clapped my hands together, “you are probably bored from all of the talking and just want the opportunity to hit something.”

“No, what you said was really interesting.”

“Be honest.”

“I’m twitching out of boredom from your stupid speeches and I still don’t know how to punch someone after two hours of your so called lessons.”

“That’s better...oddly specific and hurtful.” I put a hand up to my chin. “but better. Still, the lessons would only seem useless today. If you remember them though, the knowledge could come in handy for you in the future.”

She randomly exploded into flames. Certainly not something you would expect to see everyday. Well, not at home anyways. Seems pretty normal here. However, what happened next was not something one would expect to see here either. She became human. A familiar human to be precise. But how would she know what a ‘she’ looks like. In fact, how would she know what any female human looks like. It’s not as if there are a lot of human girls running around in Equestria… Wow! I am really lonely.

Then, it hit me. She must have found the pocket-sized magazine I kept hidden in my jacket at the time when I was brought here. Everything I had on my body was brought here. That includes half a pack of cigarettes, a sock (I have no idea how that got in my pocket), and a magazine that I have because, um, the articles were interesting and the editorials were delightfully informative. No, it was porn. Anyways… although I’m not proud of it, the magazine has done its part in keeping my sanity in check, muscles relaxed, and tension released. Without it, I might have bucked a few horses. Huh, that’s a disturbing thought. Wait, buck? Am I using that word now? This place is getting to my head. Staring at Chao’s new form, I became unsure how to proceed with the lessons both out of embarrassment and appreciation.(not to mention erection)