Check Mate, Maxwell (Revised)

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Wilson considered himself a man of science, that was, until he listened to a voice on the radio. The voice was dark, demanding, but it caught Wilson's interest, so he listened, he obeyed. He had created a door, a door that changed his life, the voice was eager to send him in. Wilson hadn't really thought of the repercussions of listening to this voice, but when he did, it was too late. He pulled the lever to activate the machine, the sound of gears, steam, and grinding can be heard. What waited inside of the door, was darkness, Wilson decided not to enter, But it would be for science!, he thought.

"GO NOW" The voice said, Wilson stepped forward.

A pair of pitch black hands sprouted from the floor beneath him, and grabbed him. The voice was laughing, mocking Wilson's stupidity, soon Wilson was gone and his new life started on an Island he soon named, Disambiguation,which meant Absence of Light.

-----

Wilson had just completed his third challenge Maxwell had given him, and Maxwell wasn't happy about it. Maxwell got desperate, offering riches, mercy, and even eternal life. Wilson didn't buy it, this was all Maxwell's fault, Wilson had a happy life on Earth, this wasn't Earth. These challenges were tough, Wilson had to fight through pain, suffering, insanity, and starvation. Everything that Wilson had to do would cause his body to undergo muscle failure. That hurt, but the more it happened, the stronger Wilson became. Maxwell had noticed this, he became so desperate for Wilson to stop, he tried to engage in peaceful conversation. Maxwell told Wilson about how sorry he was, he didn't buy it. Maxwell told Wilson about how we was miserable and in pain, he didn't buy it. Maxwell offered to be friends with Wilson, he declined the offer. Maxwell told Wilson about the other people he brought to this Hell, Wilson didn't know what that was supposed to do, but he was angrier with Maxwell. But right now isn't the time for complete flashbacks, Wilson had things to do.

-----

Wilson shivered in his Puffy Vest and adjusted his Winter Hat, he resisted the urge not to scrape the frostbite on his frosted hands. Back on the "Sandbox" world, Wilson had used up almost four days tracking a Winter Koalaphant to make the Puffy Vest. He shaved several Beefalo, sharing his razor wasn't the best idea, maybe some Beefalo had fleas? His beard kept his chin and cheeks warm, glad that he hadn't shaved in a long time. Maxwell just HAD to make this world permanent winter, didn't he? Yes, he did actually, Wilson was almost done. The Divining Rod he had held began to go wild again, and Wilson tightened his grip on it.

"Alright, t-the next piece must be close" Wilson breathed, tracking for the next piece to continue this adventure. After a few minuted of walking, Wilson heard low growls and harsh breaths. It was too deep for Hounds to arrive, and definitely not Krampus or some Beefalo. Wilson stopped and tried to look passed the rushing snow, seeing nothing, Wilson shrugged and continued on.

"I wonder what that was, better hurry up" He said, picking up the pace. The Divining Rod was at the point of exploding, and the recoil of it threatened to hit Wilson in the head. Wilson saw a circle of evil flowers, smiling, he moved over them to see a ring thing. He could feel the immense head-ache coming on just from being near the flowers, so he grabbed the item and bolted out of there. He had remembered where he had to build the machine, and he headed that way. The low growling had returned, and it was much closer to him, in front of him, in fact. He stopped and his face paled, he could see a silhouette of a large creature coming for him.

"Holy crap! What is that?" He asked himself, from asking that question he knew that Maxwell had to be smirking, rubbing his hands together mischievously like he always did. Wilson found himself immobilized by fear, the giant came closer and closer, it was in his full view now.

"Oh no…" Wilson said, the beast roared and raised it's arms to strike. Wilson made a B-line towards the other direction, dodging the creatures swipe. This was something Wilson hadn't seen before, and as always when he sees something new, he must draw it in his notebook and give it a name, FOR SCIENCE! But it definitely wasn't the time for science right now. He ran, the creature running for him, he could always fight it, but it really wasn't recommended. Wilson scrambled around for safety, maybe he could run inside of a MacTusk igloo? Not gonna happen, he searched around in his backpack for something useful, he felt his Blow Dart and he smiled. He grabbed some sleep darts and loaded the tube with them. He quickly turned around and fired at the giant. It didn't fall asleep, Wilson whimpered and tried again, nope. It caught up with Wilson and smashed the ground, making Wilson fly forward and land in the snow. He hit his back on a poorly placed rock and yelped in pain, the monster approached with aggressiveness and roared again. Wilson fidgeted in his position and reached for his bag, he grabbed his walking stick and began to move away from the monster. The beast was faster now that Wilson was injured, it caught up and performed the same act as before, Wilson landed on the cold snow again. He landed next to a green object, then something sparked. That shape, the small head, the feathers!, Wilson thought, he grabbed it and his suspicions were confirmed, it was a pan flute. He took a deep breath and played it soothingly, the one-eyed creature began to wobble and it's eyelid was slowly closing. It fell to the ground in a deep sleep, Wilson sighed in relief and stood up. Since he had the time to, he took out his notebook and drew the monster that was laying in front of him.

"Hmmm, it has one eye, and has a similar body structure as a deer walking on its hind legs… how about, Deerclops?" Wilson thought about the name for a second and smiled, he wrote.

Deerclops, an interesting combination of a Deer and a Cyclops.
Size: About 28 feet tall
Diet: Meat, and ???
Very Hostile
Recommended to NOT take head on
Kiting may be optional with good gear
Pan Flutes are recommended

Wilson closed his notebook and followed the tracks that the Deerclops made to get back on track the build the machine. He did not take long to find what he was looking for, he moved some of the gears out of the way that were scattered everywhere when he took on some Clockworks. He placed all of the 'Thing' items in the correct places, and what happened wasn't the usual. Maxwell had sprung from the ground, landing in front of Wilson.

"THAT IS IT!" Maxwell screamed, stomping his foot into the snow. Wilson took out his Ham Bat and frowned, Maxwell had looked exhausted. He had bags under his eyes, and his eyes were a bloodshot red, he was slouching like mad. His hygiene had gone poor, his nails were un-cut and dirty, and his hair wasn't the normal gelled back and fancy type. His coat was ragged and smelly, like he had been diving in dumpster trucks.

"It's over! Maxwell, I've defeated you! Give up or i'll kill you, right here, right now" Wilson shouted, Maxwell growled and stepped forward and grabbed Wilson.

"LISTEN YOU SNIVELING PEST, I'M DONE PLAYING YOUR GAME, YOU WON THIS ROUND, BUT HOW ABOUT A PERMANENT CHANGE IN SCENERY" He threw Wilson to the ground, he landed on his face and he looked up. Wilson struggled to stand up, he scrambled to his feet and Maxwell summoned a pure white portal in front of him. It began to suck Wilson inside, but he ran away from it.

"YOU CANNOT RUN AWAY, THIS IS THE FINAL ROUND, I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DONT GO!!" That was a lie, in his state, Maxwell couldn't kill Wilson. Wilson had never trusted Maxwell, so he would never jump into that portal. Wilson stabbed a spear into the ground to keep him from being pulled towards the portal. Maxwell screamed in anger and he snapped his fingers, a roar could be heard in the distance. Wilson looked behind him and through the snow, what he saw could've given him a heart attack. There were all of the boss monsters that gave him trouble, all together. Four Tree Guards, six Spider Queens, two large rock-like rhinos, which Wilson hadn't seen before, and a Deerclops came running towards Wilson. When Wilson didn't instantly budge, Maxwell snapped his fingers again, when Wilson had felt a massive pain in his head, he knew what Maxwell did. Wilson's heart was racing, TerrorBeaks and Crawling Horrors began to rise from the shadows. Wilson began to see red, his mind playing all sorts of tricks on him in this insane state. It was the most terrifying experience of his life, he saw Pigmen being executed and being hung from trees. That creepy music box began to play, shadow hands creeping up from almost all sides, he couldn't see straight and he clutched his head. He finally gave in, he moved as fast as he could towards the portal.

"Say pal….you don't look so good" Was the last thing he heard before falling into the portal.

-----

Wilson fidgeted in his sleep, whining and groaning from the nightmares. He slowly opened his eyes, it was always the same shit. He awoke in some random forest, he had to find supplies and not starve, as usuall. He was to exhausted to stand up, he just looked around with boring eyes. His lips were dry and chapped, and his limbs were sore. The only thing he could do was breath, function, blink, move his fingers and toes, and think (But not straight).I wonder what Maxwell did this time to spice up the "game" and make it more "fun". He probably turned all of the land into swampy marsh. Wilson internally winced at that kind of world, that would be true hell. The only thing that was familiar in this place was his notebook, it lay next to him, almost begging to be opened. With enough strength regained, Wilson grabbed the notebook and decided to entertain himself by reading it for the 9001st time. He opened the first page, which was about Butterflies, and then Rabbits, and then Crows. The sight of these creatures soothed him, they were the nicest of the nice. He turned the page again, which was about Pigmen. He smiled at the drawing, it was really good, he didn't even draw it. He met a Pigman named Gallapagos and he drew a picture of Wilson and some other pigs who obliged to pose for it. It was pretty much Wilson's real family on "Disambiguation", they treated him like a Pigman. When he met the pig king, Wilson gave him a Gnome and 4 cooked meat, which he appreciated very much. After reading the book for a few minutes, Wilson decided he'd get going.

"Alright, time to get started, I suppose" Wilson stood up and stretched out, observing his surroundings at the same time. Wilson realized that this wasn't the normal island he was normally on. When you are on "Disambiguation", you get this vibe that tells you that you are in danger, but this place seems too, peaceful. Something fishy was going on, and Wilson was going to find out what it was. He trekked through the forest, it took to long, that was another sign of something not being right. Wilson started having thoughts, like whether he escaped from the island or if this was….Earth. Wilson couldn't help but giggle at the thought of being back on Earth, Humans talking, walking, and socializing with one another. Maybe he could visit his family again, it's been over six years since he last saw his family. Wilson had two brothers and one sister. His brothers, Christopher and Terence, had been much younger than Wilson, he was nine when Christopher was born and he was fourteen when Terence was born. His sister, Brandy, was older than him though, she was twelve when Wilson was born. He's not sure if he'd really be able to see them again, but it was a beautiful thought. Wilson kept moving toward the way he thought was out, he saw some sunlight seeping through the bushes up ahead.

"The way out! Finally!" He ran over to the edge of the forest and took a deep breath and closed his eyes. This place really felt like Earth, and he wanted to savor every moment. He mindlessly moved forwards, he looked over at a nearby village, yup, this was Earth.
He was a bit skeptical about the fact that, instead of normal homes that were to be seen in modern society, the homes had a hut-like appearance and thew him off a bit. Wilson also was nervous, Maxwell had sent him here, there could be some kind of trap just waiting for me to walk into it. A bead of sweat made it's way down Wilson's face, he calmed himself and moved on. He cautiously moved passed the patches of grass and he become more aware that there may be no danger up ahead. He let a small smile creep up on his face, and he let his excitement get the better of him.

Wilson jumped up in excitement, in a way that would be embarrassing if anyone else saw. He sprinted towards the village, cheering and laughing, he's never been so happy in a long time.

"It's good to be back, my lovely Humans!!!!! I've never been soo excited to finally see some peop-pe-p-p-p- PONIES?" Wilson went slack jawed, there were vibrantly colored ponies everywhere. Has something changed while he was gone? He didn't know, but this was certainly very weird. He froze and stared at the ponies staring back at him. His eyes widened when he saw some with wings and horns. He felt his heart shatter and he fell to his knees at the sudden realization.

This.Wasn't.Earth

His sadness turned into anger, and he clenched his fist and punched the ground in an uncontrollable rage.

"RAAAAAAAH, WHAT THE Fffffffff…..DARN YOU MAXWELL!!!!!!" He slammed his fists into the ground, ignoring the physical pain. Many of the ponies began to back away, and some began to whisper and say. "Someone get the guards!" Wilson tried to control himself, but this was a total mockery, his hoped were so high, and then they were choked by a splintered hand and cut multiple times, and then they were dipped in salty lemonade buckets. Pretty weird, right? Yeah, Wilson thought that way sometimes. Wilson saw a purple pony approach him with two white ponies with lavender armor. The purple on spoke up,

"Excuse me, um, sir, but you'll have to stop that shouting, you're making ponies nervous!" She said sternly, "And, if it's not to much to ask, what are you? And why are you so upset?" Wilson didn't have time to be bombarded with questions, he wasn't shocked or scared, being on a foreign world wasn't new to him. He was breathing heavily, he wiped his face from tears, and stood up. He was much taller than the pony, when they saw that, the two white ponies stepped closer, to protect the purple one. Wilson took a deep breath. He fixed his collar and and cleared hi throat, making himself look more professional.

"My name is Wilson P. Higgsbury, at your service" Wilson gave a small bow, "Sorry for, yelling and scaring everybody, I'm just not exactly the happiest Being, Creature, Homo-Sapien, Human, Scientist, MadMan, Survivor, Ape, Monster, or whatever you want to call me , right now"

"Would it help if you talked about it?" Twilight asked, always being open to help one another.

"Well, grab a chair, it's a long story"

It's A Long Story

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"Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle" Twilight said to Wilson. Wilson shook her han-hoof and nodded.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Sparkle" Twilight thanked Wilson and told him to follow.

"So, Wilson, you wanted to talk about what has got you down? If you want to, I have a library that we can talk in" Twilight gave a small smile and looked at Wilson. She had never seen anything like him, he was very tall, and he had almost no fur. His head and face had fur, but his arms didn't seem to be covered it fur the same way his head seemed to be. He had something comparable to claws, like Spikes, his mane was crazy and sort of spiked. He wore clothes and held a small notebook, she'd have to ask him about that later. What really peaked her interest in Wilson was when he called himself and scientist. Did they already have something in common? What are the odds.

"Thank you, that would be nice, I haven't seen a library in years." Wilson followed Twilight through the village of ponies, Wilson, being a foreign creature, got weird looks every now and then. They engaged in small talk and multiple conversations as they walked.

"So, Wilson, where are you from?" Twilight asked, looking at Wilson in interest. She looked at her guards and tilted her head a couple of times, they got the hint and they stopped following Twilight and Wilson. Wilson cleared his throat and scratched his beard.

"I'm from another planet called Earth. Or, if you want to be specific, United States, Colorado in the Elk Mountains. I lived alone there for years, I decided it would be best to isolate myself while doing my crazy experiments, so I don't harm anything" Wilson scratched the back of his head and waited for Twilight's response.

"What kind of experiments did you do? If it's okay for you to tell me" She said, smiling and ruffling her feathers. Wilson thought about an experiment that wouldn't creep Twilight out, or give her an uneasy feeling. He smiled when he thought of one that really took a large chunk of life… out of his life, you could say.

"Well, one experiment was really a question, it was, "If a tree falls in a forest, and no one's around, does it make a sound?"" Wilson said, Twilight looked like she was thinking about the question. It really got her interest, it was a very good question at that.

"Did you find out whether it does or not?" She asked, raising her eyebrow and looking at Wilson.

"Yes, I did. You see sound is just a technical detail and merely a matter of perception, because of that, someone has to be around to hear it, yes. But counting that sound is a manipulation of air waves bouncing off of each other then nobody has to be there for a sound to exist." Twilight's jaw fell slack and stared at Wilson, that was a great look at it really. She was surprised that he actually had a logical answer.

"Wow! That's really impressive! How long did it take to come up with that answer?" Twilight asked, moving closer to Wilson. He didn't mind, it was probably just a self-conscious reaction to being interested in something. He thought about that question for a moment, and he looked down at the pony.

"About… 3 months" He said blankly, Twilight gasped and mouthed "wow" as she walked. Wilson cleared his throat.

"Now, I have a question for you" He said.

"What is it?"

"Through observation of this village, I see that you are the only one with both a horn and wings, why is that?" Wilson gestured to Twilights appendages, she nodded and complied to answer.

"I am an alicorn, which means I have both horn and wings, and alicorns are princesses" She said, trying not to sound full of herself. Upon hearing that she was a princess, Wilson's eyes widened and he stopped. Twilight looked back at him in confusion, Wilson dropped to one knee.

"Um, it's a pleasure, your highness" Twilight was surprised, he was such a gentlecolt. Twilight didn't want to have him start bowing and caller her princess all of the time though.

"Wilson, you don't really have to do that, I don't really have my friends do that kind of stuff" Wilson looked up at her and regained his composure. He tapped his chin for a while.

"I'm your… f-friend?" He asked slowly, looking quite hopefully at Twilight. She smiled.

"Of course, I think we have a lot in common, and you seem pretty nice, so yes. We are friends" Twilight said, nodding. Wilson couldn't help keep away the large smile on his face. He hasn't really been considered a friend from anyone in years, except from the pigmen.

"Thanks, I really appreciate that, Twilight" Wilson said, they had just arrived at the library Twilight brought up. Upon Wilson's further observing, it was a tree, the library was a tree! He liked the concept of it, but the image of a Treeguard filled his mind with unease. The dark, skinny pines, and the soulless features on it's face, it gave him a headache just at the thought of them. They entered, and a small purple dragon was in Wilson's view. The dragon stared at Wilson and he stared back.

"Twilight, who's your friend?" Said the dragon, he pointed to Wilson.

"Spike, this is Wilson, Wilson, this is Spike" Twilight said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Spike" Wilson said shaking Spikes claw.

"Likewise, Wilson" Spike scurried away upstairs, probably into those comic books again. Wilson was very impressed with how the inside looked. The books were clearly organized very well, and the room had a peaceful feeling to it. He inhaled deeply to smell the aroma of lavender and vanilla, Wilson was starting to like it here.

"Make yourself at home, in fact, you can just stand there and smell the place all day if you want" Twilight teased, Wilson chuckled.

"Sorry, Twilight" He pulled out a chair and sat down," Shall we?" Twilight nodded and sat directly across from Wilson, levitating a notebook and quill in her magic. Wilson cleared his throat,

"Okay, where shall I start…" He thought for a moment and began. Twilight was eager to hear his story.

"Alright, it all started when I was in my home…"

Hours upon hours have passed, Wilson told every detail about his "Adventure". Twilight wrote down every detail on the paper, she never lost interest. Wilson was trying hard not to have a mental breakdown while talking about some things, but he calmed himself so he doesn't make a scene. Upon arriving at the end of his story, Wilson was almost in tears, though he tried not to show it, he was extremely heart broken. Twilight noticed this, she didn't know how exactly how to comfort him, but she did do one thing.

She hugged him

Wilson gasped at the gesture, he was surprised.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, I don't know if I can know how you feel, but I do feel sorry for you" Twilight said, she sighed. Wilson smiled and hugged back, a few moments passed.

"Thank you, Twilight, that means a lot to me" He said, breaking the hug, blushing a little bit. Twilight returned to her seat across form Wilson, shifting and levitating her notebook again. She cleared her throat.

"Now, I have a question" She said, grabbing Wilson's attention.

"What might the question be?"

"If, Maxwell, sent others on that island, will that mean they will arrive here too?" Twilight said, Wilson pondered that question for a moment.

"I really don't know, Maxwell is unpredictable and chaotic, he might send them, or he might not, but we'll have to wait." Twilight nodded and wrote something down on her paper. She had finished up writing all that she needed.

"Wilson, do you want to go outside? Maybe I can show you around town, and show you my friends!" Twilight asked with eagerness. Wilson stood up and stretched.

"That would be rather nice, shall we?" Twilight stood up and Wilson opened the door for her. Thew walked out together and Wilson took in some fresh air. The lush color of the little village was nice, the lovely flowers and simple homes.

The freshest air and where peace shall roam.
Colorful ponies and bright clouds.
A timid volume, not too loud.
Beautiful scents of crispy treats.
Oh boy, that thought of having sweets.
I awoke lonely, I awoke poor.
This lovely pony, opened her door.
The scent of lavender, I told my story.
She was a librarian, so you could say she was a beautiful chapter.

"Wow, I hope that wasn't corny" Wilson said out loud, blushing from his poetic thoughts. He realized he was staring at Twilight the whole time.

"What was corny?" Twilight said.

"Oh nothing, it was nothing" Wilson's blush deepened.

"Are you okay? You look a little red there" Twilight asked, showing some concern.

"No, I assure you, Miss Twilight, I am rather okay" Twilight shrugged it off and Wilson made a sigh of relief. Wilson looked up and saw a small rainbow trail making it's way towards them, he cleared his throat.

"Um, Twilight, there seems to be a spectr- OOOOOF" Wilson was tackled by an unknown creature. Twilight gasped.

"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing!" Twilight yelled, levitating her pegasus friend off of Wilson. Wilson dusted himself off and glared at the pegasus.

"Well, Twilight, it looked like he was thinking about harming you because he was staring at you" Wilson hid is face from them, Twilight just raised her eyebrow and sighed.

"Rainbow, that really isn't a reason to assume that he was going to harm me, besides, you shouldn't really be assuming anyway" Twilight scolded Rainbow Dash for the next minute. Wilson stood up and breathed heavily, Rainbow Dash looked at him in sorrow.

"Hey dude, sorry for tacking you and stuff" She held out her hoof, "My names Rainbow Dash, the fastest and most awesomest pony in Equestria!" Wilson shook her hoof, but he didn't agree with anything she just said. Wilson didn't like people like that, full of themselves and cocky, super competitive and bragging about everything.

"it's a pleasure….. Miss Dash, and I suppose I could forgive for the….. defensive act" Wilson kept himself calm, normally, he would act pretty negative if he was tackled for a silly purpose like that. He wouldn't fight, but he would definitely be angry, he didn't want to get any dirtier than he had to be.

"Now, Rainbow Dash, we were about to go for a walk and I was going to show Wilson around, wanna come?" Twilight asked, Wilson mentally disagreed.

"Sure, Twi, seems like fun" Rainbow Dash said, they walked through town. They saw a crowd formed around something, the three moved to get a closer look. Wilson gasped, there was a bone. But not just any bone, it was dark and scaly, it had a fleshy eye protruding out of the top of it. The eye was closed, it's long eyelashes parked close together, the lids were a maroon red. Wilson ran to it and smiled happily, it was an Eye Bone, and he knew just what it would do.

"Wilson? What are you doing, it could be dangerous!" Twilight said, stepping forwards.

"Not at all, Twilight, in fact, what it down is beyond helpful…. and pretty adorable" He ripped it out of the ground, everypony gasped in surprised. The eye opened instantly and began to start at Wilson, the dark, slightly dilated pupil shaking. It had red lines across it's eyeball, but that was normal for an Eye Bone. It stared intently at Wilson, suddenly, everyone heard the sound of boinging. Everyone was dead silent, except for Wilson, who was practically squee-ing in delight. To every ponies surprise, there was a small creature come towards them. It was furry and maroon colored, it had some dull teeth overlapping it's bottom lip. Saliva was dripping out of it's slightly opened mouth, and it had small, bent horns on top of it's head. It's legs were striped and stubby, it made it look cute and lovable. It was panting and bouncing as if it had not a care in the world. Wilson couldn't contain himself. He ran up to if and smiled in happiness.

"CHESTER!!!!!! <3"

Memory 1: Chester, My Boy

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Wilson ran for his life, a familiar warm, glistening liquid poured out his arms and back. Chester was not too far behind him, bouncing as fast as possible. It had all started with a trap, an accident, and poor timing.

-----

Wilson stepped on the damp, hard dirt just after a thunderstorm during they night. It had came morning not to long ago, his best friend Chester, always up and cheerful to spend another day with his friend, his owner, his father, Wilson. Chester couldn't communicate with Wilson using speech, or writing. Chester was a simple and cute being, not having much too care about…. accept Wilson. Chester would use different body languages to "speak" to Wilson, whether it would be rapidly bouncing in one spot, or licking Wilson to get his attention. When Chester sensed danger, as all animals do, (But Chester wasn't really an animal, he was a cute lil' demon-ish chest), Chester would either plow the ground with his tiny horns, or stomp his stubby little legs into the ground. Wilson took a while to really understand Chester, Chester could think, very well actually. Chester thought about a lot of things, like holding things for Wilson and cuddling with Wilson and just Wilson in general. Chester wished he could do more than that, he always thought that sometimes he was useless. Chester would see how Wilson would become injured, depressed, and near death. What could Chester do about it?

Sit there and watch

This irked Chester too no end, why was he so useless? Chester always thought about that when Wilson was asleep. Wilson would sometimes shuffle in his sleep, and Chester would know what that meant. Wilson had endless nightmares, nights upon nights he's be whimpering or groaning in his sleep. One night, Wilson had woken Chester up, the small chest-like creature was heartbroken. Wilson had red eyes and dark circles around them, there were damp stains on his face.

Wilson had been crying

Chester knew this, he crawled over to Wilson and snuggled up against him. Wilson smiled and hugged Chester, letting the erratic fur tickle his face. That was all Chester could do, sure, he cheered Wilson up, but did that really solve the problem? No, of course not, Wilson would still have bad dreams.

One day, Wilson had made Chester stay at base camp, so Chester got an idea. Arguing with the Eye Bone that had been Chester's outlet to be alive, Chester finally broke free of the Bone's strength. The Bone always advised Chester to stay close to it, so the Bone used telepathic power to force Chester to stay put, if he needed to. Chester ran off into the grasslands, the bright green colors filling his view. Chester gathered as many flowers as he could bear, and scurried back home. When Wilson had came back, there were flowers all around the camp. Wilson smiled and hugged Chester, Chester had a plan to help Wilson.

Night had come, and Chester stayed awake to see some results. For the passed few nights, Wilson had never squirmed, shuffled, or cried in his sleep. Chester was happy, the flowers had definitely helped Wilson's problem.

-----

Wilson and Chester awoke happily and ventured off deep into the island. Chester hadn't been sure of what Wilson had been looking for, but it sounded something like.

"It's about time we headed for the….. what was it? Bishops!" Wilson exclaimed, Chester had no clue what that meant. Wilson ran into some pigs along the way, they were happy to see Wilson alive and kicking.

"Alright, I'll see you guys soon, remember! Every day! Check on my camp! Don't want Krampus getting sneaky!" Wilson shouted, walking backwards and waving. Chester saw it, Chester jumped up and down, yapped his mouth to make noise, he bounced towards Wilson to stop him.

It was far too late

Wilson had bumped into a spider nest, but not just a spider nest. A Spider Queen…. nest. Chester scolded himself for being so slow, Wilson gulped and watched the Spider Queen rise from her sleep in pure terror. He put on his Football Helmet and began to run, he ran for his life. He was running for what seemed like forever, dawn had come, and the spider were restless and were still behind Chester and Wilson. Wilson saw a unnaturally thick patch of grass, easily being able to conceal Wilson from the spiders, making them go away, not being able to find him. He quickly ran inside of the patch, and ducked down. He realized something, there were four tall, radish objects in the grass with him. His eyes widened in fear and he stood up slowly. There were Killer Bee hives threatening to launch bees. He stepped away slowly and ,

Snap!

There was a snapped twig on the ground, the Killer Bess rushed out towards Wilson, surprising him and stinging him with extremely sharp stingers. Wilson was in no position to fight this group of bees, he was low in hunger and his Ham Bat was beginning to fall apart.
Killer Bees were fast, they caught up with Wilson and stung him again, in fear and pain, he scrammed and bolted to get away from them. Wilson ran for his life, a familiar warm, glistening liquid poured out his arms and back. Chester was not too far behind him, bouncing as fast as possible. Chester knew he may die, unless Chester did something, but what could Chester do about this? Wilson let some tears fall and sped up, the bees weren't that far behind. Chester thought about what he could do, and it came down to one thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfQpCbvO02g

Play

Sacrifice

Chester jumped up as high as he could and started to purposely annoy the angry bees. He shook his head rapidly to push them while they were in the air, soon, they had enough. They targeted Chester, they began to attack him all at once, Chester didn't have a way of expressing pain but if he did, it would be screams and cries. Wilson turned around, his heart stopped, he began to run to save Chester. Chester made a noise, that noise connected with Wilson, it said,

"Go, save yourself"

Wilson reluctantly backed away and began to walk away from the horrifying scene. Wilson watched in pure sorrow as his friend, his pet, his Son was ferociously attacked by these Killer Bees. Wilson could watch any longer, he turned to run away, as fast as he could, he began to cry and wipe his face. Wilson had to look back one more time,

Chester just lay there, bees gathered around him. Wilson knew what had happened.

Chester had died

Wilson returned to his camp immediately, nighttime was just around the corner. Wilson grabbed a Bedroll and laid down.

Wilson cried in his sleep

Old Friends and New

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Everypony watched in confusion as the human hugged an scratched the creature. Twilight heard him refer to it as, "Chester", which made her curious. Wilson laughed as his companion licked his face, snuggling against him in excitement. It was very cute, really, Twilight heard a few "aaaaaawes" from the crowd.

"Wilson? Do you know this… creature?" Twilight asked, walking towards the two. Wilson multitasked in giving Chester some attention, and answering Twilight's question. He looked over at her.

"Absolutely! He's an old friend of mine, his name's Chester!" Upon being mentioned, Chester bounced in the air a couple of times and spun around. He hopped towards Twilight and, much to Twilight's dismay, gave her a long, slobbery lick on the face. She recoiled and shook her head to get the saliva off of her. Some ponies giggled and Twilight had to just give a small smile. Chester then bounced towards Wilson and licked him, again, Chester then layer down in front of Wilson and fell asleep extremely fast.

"He must be exhausted from the transportation, I know he feels" Wilson said, sitting next to the sleeping chest. Wilson saw a large pink blur appear in front and behind him ,then back in front of him again. He gasped and fell backwards, a pink pony had just…. teleported in front of him.

"HItheremynamesPinkiepiewhat'syournameohthatssillyIalreadyknowyournameit'sWilson!" The pony said, practically putting her nose on Wilson's. He was surprised at the sudden outburst of words at such a fast speed, not even a single breath taken.

"Hello there Miss… Pinkie Pie, it seems you'd be rather hyper today" Wilson said, standing up and shaking her hoof. Pinkie Pie's smile grew… impossible!

"So, you're the new pony in town! Oh boy! Before I go, what's your favorite cake flavor!" Wilson thought for a moment and smiled.

"Um… Cinnamon Swirl?" Wilson half asked, half preferred. Pinkie nodded and ran off. Wilson was at a loss of words, he just looked over where the pony had left and slightly shook his head.

"Oh, don't mind her, she's just being Pinkie Pie" Rainbow Dash said, flying up to Wilson. Wilson just nodded and began to pick up Chester.

"I'd better get him someplace safe, do you mind if he slept at the library? He knows better" Wilson asked hopefully.

"Of course, just as long as he's house trained" Wilson deadpanned and looked at Twilight. He chuckled a little and smiled.

"Twilight, he doesn't do that stuff, he doesn't have…. you know" Twilight's mouth formed an 'o' and she nodded. Wilson began to walk back towards the library, he'd meet Twilight and Rainbow Dash back on the street. It had been a quiet uneventful walk, ponies were minding their own business and Wilson minded his own, Chester just slept through that whole thing. He opened the door to the library and placed Chester down on the couch, he smiled and threw a blanket over him. Wilson felt, uneasy all of the sudden, that strange feeling that something was wrong. He'd gotten this feeling before, when he was on the island, but what did it mean? He heard a small, evil laugh emanate from behind the couch. Wilson swallowed hard and steeped forwards, he slowly looked behind the couch… nothing.

"Boo" A voice said.

"Gaaaah!" Wilson screamed, he fell behind the couch and quickly stood up, he saw a tall figure. The coat was black and furry, long, skinny arms accompanied the sleeves. The light hit the figure, Wilson's eyes widened and he gasped. His face had pure hatred on it, grinding his teeth, Wilson spat.

"Maxwell" Wilson didn't want to even see his face anywhere.

"I'm glad you're so happy to see me, pal." Maxwell snapped his fingers and he appeared in a floating chair, in front of a floating tea pot and tea cups. "Care for some tea?" Maxwell said sarcastically, Wilson had never seen Maxwell pull something like that off before. It was like Maxwell's power has increased ever since he's been here.

"Lets cut to the chase, Maxwell, what do you want!" Wilson wasn't having any patience for this scumbag. Maxwell smiled and floated to the floor, his eyes burning into Wilson's.

"I have a proposition for you, how about this, I'll let you go back to Earth, but you'll have to do some things for me in return" Maxwell said. Wilson put on a look of confusion, he was actually offended that Maxwell would think that would work.

"Have you grown stupider, Maxwell? Or do you just assume that since you are so much mightier than me, I would fall for that? Did you give up your brain for some new powers!" Wilson yelled, clenching his fists tightly. Maxwell huffed.

"Fine, live here with those disgusting ponies instead of on Earth? Think about your family, think about your experiments, I'll even let you take Chester with you!" Maxwell said, rubbing his hands and smiling. Wilson began to sweat, he's always known not to bargain with Maxwell, but this was VERY tempting. Wilson couldn't shake the thought of him being on Earth again, and his family, he longed deeply for both, for such a long time. Wilson cleared his throat and pulled on his collar.

"That's a very tempting deal, and I would agree but-"

"EXCELLENT!!!!" Maxwell grabbed Wilson by the neck and clutched his arm. Maxwell burned Wilson's arm and smiled, Wilson screamed in pain, waking Chester. The door to the library opened, and Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked in.

"Wilson! Are you sti-" Twilights ears drooped and she went into defense mode. Rainbow Dash charged at Maxwell. Maxwell realized this and teleported away, Wilson was dropped to the floor with a thump and he groaned. Chester bounced over to sit defensively next to Wilson.

"Oh my Celestia! Are you okay, Wilson?" Twilight said, running over to him. She knew who that person was, Twilight frowned in thought of Maxwell.

"Yeah dude, are you alight? He looked like he was going to kill you!!!" Rainbow Dash said, flying over Wilson and helping him up. He slouched on the couch and beads of sweat rolled down his, now pale, face. His whole body was steaming, his left arm, more specifically, it was a dark red.

"T-thank you…. but I think I-i'm okay" Wilson breathed, being carful not to touch his arm.

"What did he do to you!" Twilight asked in concern, she had a glass of water in her magic. Wilson grabbed it quickly and gulped at it. He sighed and set the water down.

"He was going to bargain with me, and when I was going to decline…. he just, did this" Wilson gestured to his burnt arm, Wilson had dark finger prints on his neck. He rubbed his neck and groaned.

"I am going to get some medical supplies, hold on" Twilight said, walking inside of a hallway. Rainbow Dash sat down besides Wilson and looked at his arm.

"Hey, Wilson, what are those markings on your arm?" Rainbow said, pointing to his arm.

"Huh?" Wilson looked at his arm, he gasped at the development. He stared at his arm in awe and surprise, all of the 'thing' parts to Maxwells machine were branded onto his Wilson's forearm. Wilson lightly rubbed them, they were like tattoos, but they were hot. They were vertically aligned on his arm, and the one closest to his inner elbow was the darkest. Twilight walked in with a medical bag and looked at Wilson's arm from afar. Her eyes widened, Wilson had told her about those items.

"Are those the parts to that machine you told me about?" Twilight asked, setting the bag down, she grabbed some ice packs and burn gel. She rubbed some of the magical substance on Wilson's arm, instantly making the red go away. She grabbed an ice pack.

"If you can still feel some pain, just hold this on your arm." Wilson nodded and glared back at his arm. What does this mean? Am I going to have to travel everywhere to find these things? How will I know that i've found one? Where should I start, will I ever get home?, these thought filled Wilson's mind. He couldn't stop staring at the marks, his head began to hurt, there were voices telling him to stare. The pain increased in his head, he clutched his head to make the voices shut up. He closed his eyes tightly, he saw white eyes staring back at him in the darkness of his eyelids. They were mocking, and intimidating Wilson. He groaned and shook his head, the eyes were not fazed. They began to float closer to him, like they were sliding on ice. Wilson opened his eyes in fear, he let out a scream and ran towards the nearest corner. He stared at the pitch-black, four legged ponies staring at him. One began to fly towards him, the other was walking towards him.

"WILSSSSSSSSON" One said in an unsettling tone. It's head turned as it said his name. He screamed at them to make them go away, the flying one reached him. It touched his shoulder and he recoiled in pain, he rushed passed the two and barged through the wooden door. He ran outside, screaming and looking for safety. He looked back at the grey tree, the two beasts were running towards him, the only recognizable thing Wilson could see was…. Chester. The puppy-like companion bounced towards Wilson, Wilson grabbed Chester and ran as fast as he could.

"WILSSSSSSSSSSSON!!!" He heard them shout, the pitch of the scream tore at his ear drums. Wilson hollered in pain and dropped Chester, covering his ears at the annoying ringing her began to hear. Soon, his mind couldn't take it, Wilson became drowsy and fell to the ground and closed his eyes. Letting the white, soulless ones get as close as they wanted.

-----

Wilson was laying on…. nothing. He just lay there, as if he was floating. Everything around him was black, he couldn't see anything, it was just a dark void. He suddenly had the strength to stand, so he did. His feet hit the air and a white platform appeared below him. He began to walk forwards, another white platform formed on the other. He kept walking and walking for hours upon end. He came across five white doors, each had a 'thing' piece on it. He looked at his arm, the highest piece up was the Metal Potato 'thing'. He walked towards the door with the specific 'thing' on it, he clutched the knob and twisted. A quick surge of light at blasted out of the door, Wilson was sucked in. He was suddenly looking at some sort of vision, or epiphany, it showed a first person view of something running through a forest. It looked like the forest Wilson awoke in, the runner kept running at an extremely fast pace, all of the trees and such were just small blurs in the view. The runner had arrived at a destroyed castle, he ran into the caste and the large white light had appeared again. Wilson was blown out of the door and launched off of the platforms, Wilson just endlessly fell into nothing.

-----

Wilson shuffled in a soft, warm cushion. He slowly opened his eyes, the darkness of the room was good. He didn't want light burning his eyes, he squinted and looked around. Wilson was in the main room of the library, he was laying on the couch with a blanket and a glass of water sitting on a coffee table. Chester was snuggled into the blanket next to Wilson, small, cute little snores emanated from the loyal companion. Wilson yawned and secretly and silently got out off of the couch. He stretched his arms and legs out, he scratched his beard. What was that vision I had? Did it mean something?, Wilson bombarded himself with questions, picking up his glass. He sipped on it and set it down, he walked over to the window. The curtains were closed, Wilson lifted them up to look beyond them.

"Oh, it's dark out, must be nighttime. Gee, night is super bright here, I can actually see out there." Wilson whispered to himself. He moved over, back to the couch. He slid back into the covers with Chester, putting his face against his soft fur. he might as well get some sleep, he'd have a lot to discuss with Twilight.

A whole lot

Brief Interrogations

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Chester nudged Wilsons shoulder, Twilight had brought the Princess and her friends over.

"Chester, are you sure he's ready to wake up?" Twilight said, remembering the frightened outburst Wilson had yesterday. Chester nodded happily and bounced on Wilson's back, making feint "boing" noises as he did so. Wilson stirred in his slumber and groaned, he subconsciously reached a hand over to scratch the head of his active companion, who was currently jumping on him. Wilson slowly opened his eyes and saw Twilight, along with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and some other ponies.

"Oh! Um" Wilson stuttered, quickly standing up and making sure his outfit was even and dapper. " I wasn't really expecting some uh, company" He said, bowing. "My name is Wilson P. Higgsburg, at your service." Wilson forced on a smile, he wasn't very awake.

"It's a pleasure, Wilson" A white pony said, Wilson admired her hair, and the accent.

"Howdy partner! You sure did put on quite a show just yesterday, didn't ya?" The orange one said, tipping her hat. Wilson covered his face in embarrassment. The next one to speak up was a yellow pegasus.

"Um, hello, my name's Fluttershy" She said, Wilson raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry… what was your name?"

"Wilson, this is Fluttershy, Fluttershy Wilson" Rainbow Dash said, finishing for her friend. Wilson saw a large, white pony walked forward, with a peaceful smile on her face. Wilson remembered what Twilight had told him about ponies with both a horn and wings.

"You must be a princess, in that case." Wilson got on one knee, "It's a pleasure, your highness"

The ponies, accept Twilight, seemed to be impressed with the act of respect. The Princess smiled and cleared her throat.

"I am very pleased to hear that, Wilson. I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, Princess Twilight has told me many thing about you" Wilson looked at Twilight in confusion, she just gave him a sheepish smile and tried not to make eye contact.

"So, I take it you're all here to talk about my…. scene?" Wilson said, sitting on the couch and petting Chester.

"Well, that was one thing I wanted to a ask you about" Twilight said, her face showing concern.

"Well, I can explain what happened." Wilson took a deep breath, "Well, after Maxwell had burned these onto my arm, there were voices in my head telling me to stare at them, and they were emitting some kind of dark energy, much like Maxwells. This energy really effects me, it gives he headaches and causes me to go insane and begin to see hallucinations, I don't know why, but it does. Ever since I was on the island, there were many things that emitted this energy, like the darkness, cursed flowers, rain, and the large variety of monsters and beasts." Wilson said, scratching his beard.

"But if that is true, then will you always go… crazy? Because those markings are on you" Twilight asked.

"As long as I don't stare for too long, but I have a very serious question" Wilson said, his voice, serious.

"What is it?"

"While I was passed out, I had some kind of epiphany. I walked through a door with this on it," Wilson pointed at the Metal Potato thing on his arm, " Then, I saw the forest I woke up in, then I saw an old castle , after that it stopped and I woke up" Wilson said, "Do you know what that castle was?"

"Yes, that was my old castle, also my sisters" Princess said, stepping forwards. "Maybe it must be where that marking on your arm is, do you know what it will do?"

"Yes, all of these pieces, combined altogether will create a machine that creates a portal. I don't know where it will lead, but it may be my ticket to my home" Wilson stated, sighing.

"I'll help" Rainbow Dash said, raising her hoof. Everypony looked at her in confusion. "What? I'll help Wilson find these pieces, he misses his home"

Wilson smiled and was filled with joy, he's never had such willing friends.

"T-thank you, Rainbow Dash!!!!" Wilson said, waiting for everypony else's answer.

"I'll go" Twilight said.

"Me too!" Pinkie said, bouncing happily. Chester looked over at her and bounced over to her, and then right next to her, copying Pinkie's antics.

"I'll help ya" Applejack nodded.

"Indeed, I will assist as well" Rarity said.

"Oh…um, I'll go….I guess"

"Yeah! But, how do we get there?" Wilson asked.

"We've been there plenty of times, we know where to go" Twilight said.

"Twilight, my dear, I must be going, Luna and I have to attend a meeting" Celestia said to Twilight, Twilight nodded.

"Goodbye, my little ponies" In an instant, the tall princess was gone in a flash of light. Wilson covered his eyes and shook his head. Wilson had no clue where this adventure would be going, but it wouldn't be easy. Knowing Maxwell, there were probably huge challenges awaiting for Wilson and the others. Wilson still didn't know, will the machine bring him home? Back on the island? Or was Maxwell going to use it for himself, either way, Wilson had to find these pieces. Twilight and the others had decided they would begin this adventure in four days, enough for Wilson to explore this town some more, and get to know the ponies better. Wilson had taken Chester and went for a walk.

"Well Chester, this will either be a start to an awesome adventure, or a start to a terrible one." Chester bounced up and down in agreement. Wilson had walked into some shopping center, tents and stands were set up. Wilson moved through the crowd of ponies, he was like a giant compared to them, they just barely got to his hip. Princess Celestia was another story, she was just as tall as Wilson. He got some stares, when Wilson looked back at the pony staring at him, they quickly looked away. Wilson had been making sure Chester stayed in sight at all times, Wilson bumped into something. A large amount of chairs were suddenly falling everywhere, Wilson covered his head. Wilson groaned and mentally cursed at himself, letting the chairs fall on him.

"Oh come ON! There's this thing called, WATCHING WHERE YOU'RE GOING" A male voice said, Wilson stood up and dusted himself off.

"M-my apologies, let me clean th-"

"No! I don't want your filthy paws making things worse!" He said aggressively, Wilson was taken back by the weather inappropriate comment.

"There is no need for petty insults, this would be much easier if you just let me-" Wilson was cut off again.

"I said NO! These chairs were VINTAGE, VINTAGE and now look at this, they're all over the place!" Wilson grew angry, the commotion was causing Chester to bounce all over the place.

"It wouldn't BE all over the place right now if you let me help YOU pick them up! It's that easy!" Wilson shouted, pointing a finger at the stallion. It was rude to point, but it was also rude to be a stubborn asshole to people. Chester bounced a little to close to the angry stallion, what happened next made Wilson go bonkers.

"Get this THING away from me!" The stallion shoved his hoof into Chester's face and pushed, very hard. Chester flew back and made some inaudible squeak, or whine of some sorts. Chester landed on his side, he struggled to get up, but his back let was hurt. Wilson growled and loomed over the stallion.

"YOU DO NOT TOUCH HIM, EVER!!! YOU ARE SO LUCKY WE ARE IN A PUBLIC AREA, OTHERWISE I'D HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A STICK!!!" Wilson yelled, making the pony walk backwards. Wilson really wanted to knock this stallion out, just a simple hook, that was all it would take. Plus, there would be a nice black eye along with it, and pain, all of the pain. The feud was interrupted by rapid heavy breathing, and low growls. Wilson and the pony looked at each other, they weren't making the noise, Wilson looked over by the forest. He stared at the forest, the breathing and wheezing and growling became louder and more frequent. Wilson looked…. then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Hounds…" Wilson whispered, everypony was dead silent, this sound was obviously new to them. Wilson's eyes widened an he took a step back, he whispered again.

"Hounds…" Wilson saw some bushes shaking at the edge of the forest, he squinted. He saw four hounds, one of which was a Red Hound. Wilson picked up Chester and walked backwards.

"EVERYONE IN YOUR HOMES, THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM!!!" Wilson shouted, causing a stampede like he just shot in air next to a herd of gazelles. Wilson didn't know if he could deal with the hounds, he had no weapons, no armor, no nothing. He though of ways ho could fight them, maybe with his fists? Not in a million years…

"Think think THINK!" He shouted to himself, running the opposite direction of the hounds. They were fast, bulky, and always craved for meat, Wilson meat. Hounds could easily eat a pony, it would be super easy. The size of a mare is about the size a Hounds mouth could open, so one chomp and the pony is gone. Everypony had disappeared into their homes, Wilson rounded a corner in a alleyway to think of a plan. He had some things to work with, a metal trash can with the lid, a ball, a half-used roll of duct tape,sticks, some tacks, and a weight. Wilson stared at the items and smiled, he instantly went to work. He could hear the hounds sniffing and searching for Wilson hiding spot. He had to hurry, he went as fast as he could, sometimes the thing he was holding slipped out of his hands he was going to fast. In a matter of minutes, he was done, and nothing was too complicated. Wilson walked out of the alley, his confidence was about 20% higher, he searched for the hounds. Instead, the hounds found him first, they appeared in front of him almost as soon as he reappeared in plain sight, maybe they weren't good at hide-and-seek. Wilson had tore some of the ball's rubber fabric off and tied the handle of the trashcan lid to his arm, making a shield he didn't have to hold with his hands. He got the tacks and stuck them inside of the weight, the weight was some kind of foam, so the tacks could go in. He taped a bundle of sticks together to make a more sufficient handle, he then taped the weight to the end of the sticks. He had a shield, and a mace, Wilson was so proud.

He stood his ground and stared at the hounds, he waited for one to make a move. This was unusual, Hounds just dive right in, but this time, they waited. Has everything grown smarter or more powerful? Maxwell had new powers, and now Hounds aren't so foolish? Let me guess now every single tree will be a Treeguard? Whatever, one of the hounds growled and charged at Wilson, he raised his shield and it slammed right into it. Wilson pushed forwards and made the hound slide back, he swung his mace and ht it on the side of the head. It cried and scrambled back to it's comrades, Wilson began to sweat. This time, one of the hound went to the other side of Wilson, he mentally cursed it for doing so. He had to directions to deal with now, the front hound dived in and so did the back one. Wilson blocked the front one, but the back hound bit down on his calf. He wailed in pain and he whacked the hound as hard as possible, he then bashed the other one with his shield. He moved to the left, making the hounds NOT be flanking him, now they were in from of him again. He decided to take action, he charged with his shield and swung. The hounds dogged the attack and rebounded with one of their own. They all ran at him at once, he could only block two, only two of them, the others would kill him. He decided to run the opposite direction, his feet pounded on the hard dirt as he sprinted away. They were still faster than him, he made an instant stop and let them run by him, not being able to adjust to such an instant yield. He ran towards them now, being behind them was an advantage. He grabbed on one of the hound's tails and puled back, making the hound cry and flail around. Wilson raised his mace and, with all of the force he could muster, brought it down onto the hound. It made a high pitched howl and then fell limp, Wilson let go of it's tail and stepped back. The other three were not happy about their dead comrade, the Red Hound howled. Some smoke was coming out of it's mouth, before Wilson could react, it blew a large ball of fire out of it's mouth. Wilson's eyes widened and he had nowhere to go, the fire would burn right through his shield, and it was too large to be avoided by foot. Nowhere to run, Wilson thought he would never be so happy to hear that voice.

"WILSON!"

Birds and The Bees, and The Dogs That Want to Kill You

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"Wilson!" Twilight yelled, galloping towards him as fast as she could. She concentrated her magic and teleported Wilson away from the fireball. Wilson was relieved, without Twilight, this could've ended badly, he would've gone down in….flames. Once Wilson was clear of the fireball, he stood up and looked over to Twilight, who was currently making her way towards him.

"Twilight!!!! Thank you!" Wilson said, smiling and looking over at the baffled hounds.

"Don't mention it, what are those?" Twilight asked, panting and pointing at the growling beasts. Wilson looked at them for a moment, soon they would realize what had just happened and find Wilson again, he didn't have much time.

"They're hounds, the red one being the pack leader, they hunt for me more times than I can count, and they're fierce. Also, they've gotten a lot stronger." Wilson said, looking at the hounds, who had just looked at him. The four hounds instantly made a mad dash towards Wilson.

"Look out!" Wilson grabbed Twilight and moved her out of the way, the hounds ran fast, they were already close enough for a nice chomp. Wilson set Twilight behind a stand and he ran out in the middle of the road to fight the hounds. Twilight could help, and she ran out with him.

"Wilson! I can help! Trust me" She said, standing next to Wilson with a determined smile on her face. Wilson gave a small smile and nodded, he licked his lips and wiped off a bead of sweat form his face. It was now a two-on-four battle, one of which has super magical powers, so this would be easy. The three hounds charged at once, Wilson raised his mace, the dog was bashed with Wilson's shield. He brought the mace down, the hound rolled over and dodged it.Gah! They're so clever now! I liked it better when they were stupid and pushy!, Wilson thought. The hound growled and it's comrades focused on Wilson, Twilight charged her horn and blasted at the hounds. What happened next surprised her, the beam of energy dissolved into the hounds' fur, like they were absorbing it. The hungry beasts howled in praise, they had just gotten an energy boost.

"Uh, Twilight, what just happened?!" Wilson said, beginning to back up. Twilight was dumbfounded, they had just ignored the magic like it was a mosquito trying to bite into a rock. She had no explanation for it, either, which made the situation worse.

"I-I don't know how they just…" Twilight couldn't think straight. The hounds seemed to grow in size just a little bit after they howled, Wilson's eyes widened at this development. They were feeding off of Twilight's magic, how is that possible? Wilson always used magic to kill hounds, and now they can absorb it? They were closing the distance between the two, growling and yapping in excitement. Wilson thought he was done, he was about to die, until he saw a familiar rainbow blur in the sky.

"Rainbow Dash!" Wilson shouted, the rainbow blur smashed into the four hounds like a cannonball. The hounds whined in pain as they were piled together form the impact. Rainbow Dash was on top of the pile, she was quickly standing up and beginning to fly over to Wilson and Twilight.

"Guys! What the hay is going on! What are those!" Rainbow shouted, the hounds were recovering fast.

"No time to explain, we've got to deal with them first." Twilight said, Rainbow nodded in agreement. The red hound was charging a fireball again, this time Wilson took advantage of the time it wasted. He ran up to it, fats, the other three hounds were trying to protect it. Rainbow Dash punched the left hound in the eye, making it flee backwards and give a loud cry. Wilson charged through the group and bashed the red hound with the mace. It quickest closed it's eyes and it's body went limp in a flash. He then turned around and kicked the hound that Rainbow had damaged, it fell on it's side, helpless. Wilson held it down with his foot, and then he struck it with his mace. There wasn't much blood, the hounds' fur was thick and dark, so blood came out, but it wasn't seen very well. Only one hound was left, the one that had drawn the most energy form Twilight, based by it's size. It was about three times the regular size, and it was menacing. It pounced on top of Wilson, it let out a loud bark. It was going to bite down on Wilson's head, but a thick, scratchy rope was suddenly wrapped around its neck. The user pulled on the rope and, surprisingly, the hound was pulled off of Wilson.

"Get off of him ya' big varmint!" Applejack shouted, pulling the hound. It barked more and flipped over, pulling the rope, and Applejack. It ripped the rope off of itself and launched Applejack into a wall, it growled and ran towards her. Rainbow Dash quickly flew over to Applejack and picked her up, flying up high to get away from the hound. The hound barked at Rainbow Dash, and chased after her. Wilson and Twilight were following behind it.

"Twilight! You think you can levitate me on it?!" Wilson asked, still running behind the large hound.

"I could try!" Twilight said, her horn emitting a purple glow. Wilson felt a tingle around his body and he assumed it was Twilight. In a flash of light, Twilight had teleported Wilson onto the beast. Wilson felt a bit dizzy when it happened, but he regained his composure and gripped onto the hounds fur. He slowly pulled himself towards the head of the hound, grunting with each pull. It was like riding a bull, but the bull was as fast as a pegasus. Once he was on the head of the hound, he stabbed it's eye with his mace. It let out an ear piercing cry and it reared onto it's hind legs. It began to run towards the forest at an even faster speed that before, Wilson was holding onto it for his life. Once it arrived at the forest, it was still running, and when Wilson opened his eyes to look forward, he saw it. From his view, it looked just like the epiphany, everything was a blur because the hound was going so fast, and Wilson just knew the hound would soon arrive at the castle. He held on for a few more minutes and the hound stopped. Wilson flew off of it's back and landed hard on the cold, damp ground beneath him.

"Ouch, why did it stop?" He asked himself, he looked up and saw a bridge. The hound grew exhausted, the sun was slowly setting, and it had been running for a long while. Wilson was getting tired himself, he wanted to go to bed. He couldn't, he could get lost in the forest if he tried to go back, he could go in the castle though…

"Hmmm, I suppose a quick look couldn't hurt." Wilson said, looking at the sleeping hound. He wondered if it was going to attack him again later, it could happen. Wilson took a deep breath and stood up, eyeing the old wooden bridge. He took a small step on the first plank, the bridge creaked in disagreement. Wilson quickly took his foot off of the plank, and stepped back.

"Come on Wilson, it's just a bridge. You can handle this" He said to himself, taking another deep breath. Wilson grabbed onto the side roped and slowly walked across the bridge. He gulped and looked down, regretting that not to long after he did. Wilson didn't have many fears, but the one thing he did fear was heights. He wobbled across, the bridge turning and shaking. Wilson held back the puke that would soon spew out of his mouth, but at least no one was around to see. When he made it to the other side, he could feel dark energy looming over the whole castle. It was an uneasy and uncomfortable feeling at that, Wilson grew nervous.

"Alright, maybe I can find a piece here" Wilson said to himself, he walked closer to the castle. He pushed open the broken, ragged doors and a large gust of cold wind blew at him. He shivered for a moment and saw that it was as dark as hell in there. He remembered an easy technique to making a torch, he did it all the time. After collecting some simple items, he made a torch, and slowly walked inside. The torch wasn't powerful, but it got the job done in killing off the darkness. There was another fear, the dark, this absolutely terrified Wilson. He didn't like to talk about why, just thinking about it made him think about...

Wilson's footsteps echoed through the ravaged, scarred halls and rooms. There wasn't a sound in there at all, only Wilson's breathing and steps, it was eerie. Wilson switched the arm which held the torch, his turned around and frantically darted his eyes around. He felt something tug at his shirt, this has happened before, but this wasn't Disambiguation, so it was even scarier.

"Who's there!" Wilson shouted, his voice booming through the halls. He heard footsteps from behind him, he quickly turned to look... nothing. It was crazy, how could someone live in this castle? Wilson knew who could, Maxwell. It was a fat chance though, Maxwell preferred a tall chair in a blank room. Just then, Wilson bumped into something, he turned around and stared at the tall chair looming over him. His torch was fading, he made a B-line towards the way he came in, he was lost. He didn't know it was possible, he was walking the same direction the whole time, so turning one-hundred eighty degrees would work, right?

"Guh, nope" Wilson sighed, he desperately tired to save his light. He didn't even close the door, and it was closed, so the light would've poured in from the moonlight, but no, it was closed. He found a set of stairs, he decided it was time for an ascent, the first floor was boring and creepy. He walked up the stairs at an old woman's pace and a piece of the step crumbled under him.

"Oh no!" He said as he slipped and banged his chin on the edge of the step. He growled in pain and rubbed his chin, puttin ghis torch closer to the stairs to see. He walked more...and more.... and a little more, he began to hear humming. He got that uneasy feeling again, the humming was of a child's and high pitched. Then he heard another voice, humming along with the little girl, he hid behind a curtain when he realized that someone was heading his way. He didn't dare to try to get a look at the being that were humming. He heard tiny footsteps and a, how do you describe it, high pitched humming. It wasn't exactly humming, but as if something was emitting energy and it was so strong it made a noise. It reminded him of a ghost, a ghost... ghost.... those things that attacked him when he dug up a grave... ghosts. His eyes widened, he hated those things, but was it really the kind of ghost he thought it was? It took a while for them to get far enough for him to look, but before they were entirely gone.

Wilson sneezed...

He heard the footsteps stop, and he knew they were looking right through the curtains. Wilson mentally cursed at himself for a silly and cliche' way of giving away his position. He heard the footsteps begin again and a voice.

"Abigail, did you hear that?" The voice called out, a cute, calm one too. The energy humming stopped, and the cold air in the room left. The little girl made an "aaaaw" sound, as if disappointed.

"Come back Abigail, I'm not done playing with you"

The Clockwork Castle

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Wilson began to sweat, his pursuers getting awfully too close for his comfort. The tiny footsteps stopped and he felt something tug at the curtain, he held his breath. Suddenly the curtain was ripped from the ceiling and Wilson yelped in surprise, there was a crimson ghost angrily looking at him. It was getting ready to attack Wilson, he ran to the left, the ghost appeared right in front of him. He fell to the floor and pushed himself with his feet in panic. The ghost was slowly floating towards him, still glowing red. Wilson covered his face and turned away from his attacker, he heard that same voice.

"Abigail, stop!" The voice said, making the ghost turn back to it's original white color and float away from Wilson. Wilson peeked through the gap between his fingers and saw a little girl walking towards him. He moved his hand away from his face and looked at her, she had a white shirt on with a red skirt, white shoes and blonde hair.

"Excuse me, mister, who are you?" She said. Wilson slowly stood up and dusted his pants off, he took a deep breath.

"Hello there darling, my name is Wilson, and what is a little girl like you doing in this scary dark castle!" He said, looking around.

"Dark? Scary? It's not that dark" She said, Wilson raised an eyebrow,It's not that dark? Does she have night vision?, he thought.

"By the way, my name's Wendy!" She said, giving a small wave. Wilson smiled and once again looked around.

"Okay, but really, what are you doing here?! It's not safe here" Wilson worried, Wendy tapped her chin.

"Well, I woke up at a big door, and I opened it and now I'm in here, besides, it can't be that dangerous if I have…" Wendy stopped.

"What's wrong? You alright?" Wilson asked.

"N-no! I'm okay, it's nothing" She stuttered, waving both of her hands back and forth. Wilson shrugged and sighed. He totally forgot what he was doing here.

"What's that on your arm? Mister Wilson?" Oh that's right.

"Oh, this, it's just a …. tattoo!" He revealed more of his arm to Wendy. Her eyed widened and she gasped, she tapped her chin again.

"I've seen those before! They were on that island I was on!" Wendy said, pointing at Wilson's arm. Wilson's expression instantly turned into one of hatred and anger.Really, Maxwell! A little girl! What the heck were you smoking!, Wilson thought, his face heated up and the felt like finding Maxwell and punching him.

"Wilson, what's wrong?" Wendy asked, raising and eyebrow. Wilson snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Wendy.

"Nothing, I'm fine" Wilson said plainly, looking at the hall behind him, he swore he heard something. Suddenly the floor beneath them began to shake and rumble.

"Gah! What's that!" Wendy screamed, falling over. Wilson grabbed Wendy's hand and led her to the wall. The both of them supported themselves with the wall and they waited for the rumbling to stop. Wilson heard giant, quick footsteps from the same hallway, he stared down there for a few seconds. Which was enough for him to make out the large, mechanical beast running at them.

"Wendy! We have to run!" Wilson picked Wendy up and began to run the opposite direction, the beast was much faster than Wilson, and he knew that by experience. He looked behind him for a second and saw that the clockwork machine was charging dangerously close. Wilson knew the beast as a Clockwork Rook, Rooks looked much like rhinos, and the snout was the shape of a castles battlement. Much like the chess piece. It gained on them and Wilson couldn't just run anymore, he had to evade. Holding Wendy tightly in his arms, Wilson dove to the side and landed on his back. The Rook ran right by them and Wilson took this chance to ran back down the stairs, and out that door! He had to hurry, Rooks could make hard turns if they wanted to, so it wouldn't be hard for it to begin charging his way again. Wilson panted as he sprinted for the steps, upon reaching them, he quickly began his descent. He was praying for the steps to NOT fall under his feet again, he reached the bottom and ran forwards. He slowed down though, because he heard a familiar croak of gears in front of him. From the faint light coming from the windows, he could see a tall, one eyed, slender figure appear before him, Wilson backed away in fear. It was a Clockwork Bishop, once again, taking the form of a chess piece known as the bishop. You know, the one that can only move diagonally? Wilson could see it charging a lighting bold from its head, he turned around and made a B-line for the steps again.

The Rook was still up there, it had ignored Wilson, probably knowing he would run into one of the Rooks peers. Wilson couldn't risk getting shocked by lighting downstairs, but he could take the risk of running upstairs and finding a different path to go. He ran up the stair again, and realized that the Rook was waiting for him, it was the first time Wilson had made eye contact with a Rook. It was just standing there, waiting for Wilson to ascend completely, it could kill him in one hit, Wilson would be launched down the stairs and suffer from broken bones or death. He stopped in the middle of the staircase, looking at the Rook, Wilson heard the Bishop bouncing towards the steps. He had no plan, no weapons, but one chest plate or armor. Will that save his life? Probably not, Wilson needed a savior or something. Suddenly, that same ghost from before appeared in front of the two, if faced the Rook and turned red. It charged at the Rook at extreme speeds and pushed the beast backwards, the ghost struggled to keep it from running towards us. It gave us a look that said, "Go now!". Wilson ran up the rest of the steps and moved passed the ghost, not looking back, he tried to find a route to a different room. He zoomed throughout the halls and checked for a way out, he found some spiral stairs going down.

"Well, better than nothing" Wilson sighed, he began to, very carefully of course, run down the black steps and all the way to the bottom.

"Wendy, are you okay?" Wilson asked, looking at the little girl in his arms.

"Yes" Was her reply.

"Good"

-----

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight stared into the everfree forest.

"We have to go in there and find Wilson!" Rainbow Dash said, getting ready to zoom in.

"RD's right, we don't know what it could do to Wilson" Applejack chimed in. Twilight acknowledged her friends and agreed with them. The three began rushing towards the forest, the hound was easy to track, it had visible prints and it had destroyed the plants in it's path. Soon after the departure, the three saw the hound just sleeping soundly in front of the old castle, next to the bridge. It snorted loudly and sniffed the air in it's sleep.

"Uh oh, is it-"

"SHHH" Applejack shushed Dash, the hound fidgeted and rolled over. It slowly opened it's eye and stared at the ponies. It snorted loudly and growled. Rainbow took a defensive stance as it stood up on all fours, towering the three. It walked in place and circled the ground, like a dog would, then it lay back down and closed it's eyes. This sprouted looks of confusion from the trio.

"It's not gonna att-" Rainbow started, the hound growled.

"What is it gro-" It growled again.

"It wants you to be quiet" Twilight whispered, Rainbow Dash gave a sheepish smile.

"Let's try and get across that bridge without disturbing it" Twilight said, tip toeing around the sleeping beast. Well, only Applejack went across the bridge, the other two having wings and all. They reached the doors, Rainbow pushed on them, wouldn't budge. Her and Applejack pushed on it, nope. Twilight tried to force it open with magic, try again.

"What's up with this door!" Rainbow said, agitated.

"Maybe there is something on the other side blocking it" Twilight said, tapping her chin with a hoof.

"Hey! Wilson! You in there!" Rainbow shouted, hovering a little above the ground. Suddenly, the sound of a lock was heard.

"When did these doors get a lock? I don't remember a lock" Twilight said to herself. The door slowly creaked open, in the crack of the door was a head consisting of one eye, and a light bulb thing on top. The Bishop stared at the ponies intently, as did the ponies stare intently at the Bishop. The Bishop was getting annoyed, not mainly by the ponies, okay, a little by the ponies. It was annoyed because no one understood it's warnings, everybody knows that staring is the Bishops warning to go away, right? No, not right.

"Hey, buddy, maybe you wanna let us in? Or we're gonna have to make ya!" Rainbow threatened.

"Rainbow Dash! Don't say th-" The Bishop stepped out of the castle all the way and stood as tall as it could. It looked at Rainbow and charged a bolt, the ponies stepped back.

The Bishop released the bolt directly onto Rainbow's skull, who immediately fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Clocked In

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The Bishop released the bolt directly onto Rainbow's skull, who immediately fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Applejack and Twilight both reacted differently, Applejack charged at the Bishop, Twilight ran towards Rainbow Dash. Applejack tackled the Bishop to the ground at an alarming rate and punched it in the face. The Bishop, not being very efficient in close range like this, tried to retaliate, but to no avail. Twilight was making sure Rainbow Dash was okay, calling her name, and checking for a pulse.

"Rainbow Dash! Can you hear me! Rainbow Dash!!!" She called, no answer. Dash did not have a pulse, she probably didn't have a life anymore. Twilight prepared for a defibrillation spell, and she placed her horn on Dash's chest, and charged the spell.

ZAP

The spell made a zapping noise, but it seems to have not gone towards Rainbow.

The Bishop, practically on the verge of dying from Applejack strong hits, was suddenly powered up by a strong bolt of electricity. It launched upwards, knocking Applejack off of it, it's broken parts were slowly welding back together. The bulb on it's head glowed brighter than ever, and it shot a continuous stream of electric energy towards Applejack.

"Oh shoot!" She yelled, running and dodging away from the electricity. The Bishop was hungry for revenge, it would be served on a shocking level. Twilight looked up at the two, she wasn't sure who to help, Applejack, or Rainbow Dash. Twilight stood up and charged a magical blast towards the Bishop, it also shot a beam and the two beams collided. Applejack saw this as a clear opening to attack it while it was focusing on Twilight. She took a running stance and charged at it, The Bishop was far from stupid though, it's robe like coverings was spread out on each side of the Bishop, creating mechanical wings. It took to the skies, avoiding Applejack completely, Twilight was caught off guard and wasn't paying attention to the electrical beam overthrowing hers. She was blown back and her horn was severely burned, electricity was dancing around the base of the horn. Twilight struggled to stand, but she found a way, she charged up her horn again, but was soon shocked by electricity.

"Gah!" She yelped, raising her hoof to her horn, and touching it. Her hoof was zapped has if her hoof had been covered in water, then rubbing and outlet. Her horn was rendered useless, every time she tried to use it, she would get shocked, shocking, isn't it?

-----

Wilson held Wendy's hand and led the way through a dark(although in Wendy's eyes it wasn't dark)hallway full of amor sets. Wilson had to try very hard to even see, he almost had a heart attack many times when the only thing he'd be able to see was a spooky set of amor in front of him.

"Wendy, you alright?" Wilson asked.

"Yes, Wilson" Wendy exaggerated her reply because Wilson asked if she was okay every five minutes. They kept walking, almost as if this was one of those infinitely growing hallways. He took a deep breath to calm himself, he felt a head ache coming on. The two kept moving forwards, until Wilson stopped.

"What's wrong Wilson?" Wendy asked, tugging on his shirt. He slowly looked back into the darkness that they came from.

"That armor set back there looked very similar to a-" Wilson stopped as he heard the sound of an accordion, multiple accordions. Many mechanical, horse headed, creatures began to bounce towards Wendy and Wilson.

"Clockwork Knight" Wilson breathed, slowly backing away from them with Wendy's grip on his hand tightening. They were making good progress, no sudden movements, slow moving, and staying calm, that is the guide to not pissing off the Knights. Wilson kept waling backwards while they watched him closely, he hit the end of the hallway. Of course, when he didn't want it to end. His eyes widened and frantically looked for a way out, he couldn't fight them, they'd pummel him to death. He couldn't run through them, running is enough to piss them off. He began to breath heavily in fear, and Wendy hid behind him as much as she could. Wilson backed up completely against the wall, his hands pressing against multiple bricks, and pushing them in. The wall suddenly began to shake and slowly move down, making and opening. The Knights took this as a threat, and charged at Wilson, he decided he wouldn't wait for the wall to finish. He helped Wendy climb over it, then he began to climb, one of the Knights bashed his foot, causing him to wail in pain. He made it over the wall and it suddenly began to close back up, the Knights, not being able to climb, just watched it. But before it was completely closed, one of the Knights stretched it's accordion like body all the way, then move it's body back down. This released a thick, white gas that made it's way through the crack of the opening.

"That....was close" Wilson said, taking a breath.

"We got lucky though, Wilson." Wendy added, staring at the wall. She saw a white gas slowly making it's way towards them. She tugged on Wilson's shirt. "What's that Wilson?" She asked, pointing at the gas. Wilson raised one eyebrow and looked at the wall, he stared at the gas.

"I don't know, where did it come from? Stay here" He ordered, Wendy didn't move. Wilson walked towards the white gas and hesitantly reached out too it. The gas enveloped his hand instantly, suddenly he couldn't move his hand anymore. It went very numb, like he sat on it for a whole day, but he couldn't even move it. He began to back up, he grabbed Wendy.

"We've got to go, this stuffs dangerous" He said, looking at his numbed hand.

"What happened to your hand?" She asked, Wilson looked at it, it was a crimson red.

"Oh shoot" The gas made it's way closer to the two, Wilson saw how it grew in size and speed. "Let's go Wendy!" He said, leading her down another hallway. They were fast walking, like in the sport or whatever, Wilson could barely remember. He didn't think they needed to run because the gas wasn't that fast.

"Woah!" Wilson screamed, falling to the ground, his left leg being unable to move. The gas was right behind them, getting faster by the minute.

"Wilson! Get up!"

"I can't! My leg!..." Wilson's whole body was becoming covered in the gas, Wendy grabbed his hand and started to drag him.

"Wilson, you're too heavy!" Wendy said, trying her hardest to get him out of the gas.

"Just go Wendy! It's not lethal! Go on ahead, maybe i'll catch up?" Wilson said with a fake smile, Wendy nodded and began to run the other direction. Wilson could no longer move at all, he could only breath, blink, and his organs could function(thank goodness for that).

-----

Wendy ran until she couldn't see anything behind her anymore, she ran out of breath and took a break. She sat down on a stone slab and wiped the massive amounts of sweat from her eyes. She looked from left to right, and sighed heavily. She was alone, she hated being alone, and Abigail wasn't here with her. Wendy decided to shake it off and continue on her, what seemed like, endless journey down a loooooong hallway. Not much occurred on this long walk besides, small earthquakes, rumblings, some strange sounds, and rumbling. She came upon a large, metal door, which many sounds erupted from the inside. Wendy put her ear up onto the door, and there were a lot of males screaming and cheering for something. She pushed to hard on the door, and it opened, Wendy stumbled inside and fell flat on her face. She wiped the dirt off of her and looked up and saw that she was in some kind of colosseum, like those ones where the knight would fight an angry lion. It wasn't the colosseum that caught her eye though, it was that all of the seats were occupied by a bunch of Maxwells.

"What the..." Wendy said to herself, standing up and looking around. Suddenly, all of the lights shut off and one light was on her. She was starting to get scared. A large voice came out of the speakers.

"Welcome all, to Maxwells Chess Fighting Colosseum! Your knight for this battle is the great and powerful! WEEEENDYYYY!" The voice yelled, all of the Maxwells cheered, throwing their popcorn in the air. Wendy was visibly shaking in fear, not stepping out of her position. A cart, full of weapons, armor, and accessories was rolled out to Wendy. She knew all of these were way to heavy for her to even carry, so she just grabbed a small dagger at the bottom of the cart.

"HER WEAPON OF CHOICE, A DAGGER!!! HOW DARING, HOW BRAVE" The announcer stopped, and a tall figure appeared in front of Wendy, it was Maxwell.

"How interesting" Maxwell said, smiling at the cowering child. A microphone poofed into existence, and Maxwell grabbed it.

"Today! Wendy will be fighting for TWO prizes, rather than one, but she can ONLY choose one!" He said, looking at Wendy. "Prize number one is...."

A light suddenly came on and it shined on a beaten and bruised Wilson, hanging above a boiling pot of water.

"The life of Wilson! Prize number two is..." Maxwell reached into his jacket and pulled out an object. "The precious... The glorious... and most of all, THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM OF ALL!"

"METAL POTATO THING!"

Battles on Both Ends

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Twilight had no more ideas, could she lose? Possibly, did she want to lose? Absolutely not, could she tolerate a loss? A big nope. Twilight was losing though, and she had to think of something fast. The, now winged, Bishop was flying around and chasing Applejack. Twilight looked around, saw Rainbow Dash, some trees, the bridge, and the hound.

"Wait a minute... the hound! That's it!" Twilight quickly began to trot over to the bridge, "Applejack, distract that thing!"

"That looks like what i'm already doin'!!!" Applejack shouted, rolling to dodge a volt. Twilight licked her lips and wiped a bead of sweat off of her face, she slowly crossed the bridge. Once she made her way across, she approached the, enlarged, hound, who was still sleeping soundly. She cleared her throat and nudged it's shoulder, it fidgeted and growled.

"You need to wake up, I need your help!!" Twilight said sternly, staring at the hound. It slowly opened one eye and stared back at her, it blew some fire out of it's nose and growled again. "Get up! I need your help! Please!!" Twilight yelled, desperately needing this thing to assist her friends. It opened it's second eye and got up, stretching out and lightly howling. It sniffed Twilight briefly, and looked at it's surroundings, it saw the flying Bishop. It stared to angrily bark at the Bishop, it's mortal enemy. The Bishop heard the barking and stopped to look at it, it began to fly over at it. Seeing the rivalry, Twilight stepped out of the way, not trying to get tangled into the fight.

"What'd ya do Twi?" Applejack said to herself, watching from a far. The Hound jumped across the bridge and took a fighting stance. The Bishop hovered in the air, a fair distance from it. The Hound charged first, fire streaming out of it's mouth, it curled up into a ball and rolled towards the Bishop. With the fire surrounding it, it looked like the hound turned into an angry ball of fire. Twilight didn't know how this happened, but the hound jumped up in it's flaming ball form,reaching the same height as the Bishop, and slammed into it. The two hit the ground in a flaming ball. The ground beneath them had become engulfed in fire, Twilight didn't know something could possess such fire power, literally. The bishop and the hound began rolling in the fire, the bishop being mostly affected by the fire. Bishops had a natural resistance to fire, but, ice though, they hated ice. The hound mercilessly bit down on the mechanical chess piece, swallowing each part that fell to the hounds powerful bites.

"Wow, I guess the hound could help, but I think it can stop now" Twilight said to herself, she didn't want to step in and stop it in fear of being inside it's stomach, just like the Bishop. Soon, the hound stopped eating the bishop and lay down in it's original spot.

"Thank ya' fer doin' that uh... hound buddy" Applejack said, lowering her hat. The hound just licked Applejack sloppily, leaving her covered in slime. Twilight took this chance to rush Rainbow to the hospital, Applejack stayed at the castle. Applejack didn't know what she just got herself into by staying, but if Wilson was in trouble in there, she'd have to help. Applejack opened the castle doors and peeked inside, her eyes darting back and forth. She called Wilson's name a few times, checking if he was close by or not. The earth pony walked inside and found a torch lying on the cold stone beneath her.

"Wilson must've dropped this or somethin', so he's definitely here" Applejack said, re lighting the torch. She walked towards the steps and found a large, mechanical rhino busted up and beaten on the floor. "What the hay is this?" Poking the Rook's cold, metal body, instantly bringing her hoof back. Applejack walked around it, watching it as she did. She slowly looked around, she swore something just pulled on her tail. Walking up the crumbled steps, she followed the huge footprints that lead down the hall.

"What the hay got itself in here" Applejack said, to no one. She continued a long and, pretty boring walked down a dark and boring castle. She heard the sound of an accordion playing, and it was getting closer. Applejack braced herself for being attacked, crouching down. One half broken knight came out of the dark, bouncing it's way down the hall.

-----

Wendy was shaking in place, she hadn't ever had to do something like this. The Potato thing was really important, and Wilson was too. But, the Potato thing could get her home, but...

"Gah! Wendy come on, you've got to save Wilson, he can help you" She said to herself, her grip on the dagger tightening. She slowly walked down the arena, taking her place on a pedestal. The Maxwells munching on popcorn and cheering, staring at Wendy.

"Now! Our brave warrior shall fight the dangerous, the terrifying, the mighty! DUKE ROOKTRON!!!" Maxwell announced, causing the other ones to cheer wildly. Wilson groaned and slowly looked at Wendy, his head dropping back down in his weakened state. Wendy had no idea what a Rooktron was, it sounded ridiculous, and evil. The ground began rumbling, all of the Maxwells were forced silent. The large, bolted and chained doors opened slowly, revealing a walking giant. It had the head of a clockwork rook, and a human -like body, made of the same material. Wendy was on the verge of releasing two different liquids, and that would be embarrassing. The tears from her eyes began to pour out as she doubted herself. Maxwell, smiling all the way, grabbed a mega horn and said.

"Let's get ready to rumble!!" The statement caused more cheering, and for the rooktron to charge at Wendy. She screamed and ran the other direction. The rooktron stepped on the weapons, making them fly everywhere like a wave of pointy lethality. Wendy dove to the ground, avoiding the weapons, but an axe still cut her shoulder on it's way past her. She clutched her shoulder, and rolled out of the rooktron's stomping radius. Wendy forced her tears away, she couldn't cry, if she did that, she wouldn't be able to fight. She was determined to defeat this monster, even though it seemed impossible. The rooktron roared, almost pushing Wendy to the ground as she ran. It began to charge at her.

"This is getting pretty intense! Let's see what she does next!" Maxwell shouted. Wendy ignored the burning pain in her legs, and just kept going. She noticed levers on 6 pillars, and she ran towards those. The rooktron slammed into the wall, it's horn becoming stuck. Wendy took this opportunity to see what the levers were all about. She grabbed the handle, and pulled it down. The pot of boiling water opened up and let out some of the fiery liquid. Wendy's eyes lit up, and she tried to get the rook's attention.

"Hey! You big oaf! Over here!" She called, the rook stomping the ground in anger. It let out another ear crippling roar and ran at full speed towards the defenseless Wendy. She waited for the right moment to pull the lever, right when the rook was under the pot.

*Chink*

Boiling water spewed out and covered the rook, the steam coming off of it's body, which began to quickly rust. Wendy didn't think it would work like that, but it was good enough. After that, the rook shot out a thick stream of water through it's mouth. Quickly adapting to it's now wet parts. Wendy rolled out of the way, the stream hitting the wall. Some droplets landing on Wendy, causing her to wince slightly. The mechanical beast clutched the pillar in it's rather dull claws and threw it at Wendy. She barely got out of the way, the force of it knocking her to the ground. She banged her chin on the cold dirt, she hollered in pain.

"Ooh, that's gotta leave a mark!" Maxwell announced, the other ones cheering. Wendy spit some dirt out of her mouth and stood up. The rook was staring at her, waiting for her move. She was looking around for a new strategy, the bladed weapons were still jammed into the wall. There was one weapon that wasn't stuck in the wall though.

A bow.

Wendy ran for the bow, grabbing it quickly and rushing for the half empty quiver on the ground. The rook fired another stream of water at Wendy, it dried itself out of it quickly though. She put the quiver on her back, she used to do archery back home with her cousins. She grabbed an arrow out of the quiver and aimed for the rooks eye. It was just a light bulb, so it could easily be broken, but she had to be accurate. As it got closer, Wendy's shot got clearer, but it was risky to do it so close. Exactly when the rook reached for her, she let go of the string, releasing the arrow into the air. The arrow pierced the rook's eye instantly and it roared. The beast clutched it's eye, grabbing the arrow and throwing at on the ground. The other one was blinking, as if showing a sign of danger. Wendy, in a more confident state, ran over to the downed rooktron. She grabbed the dagger she chose, and climbed onto the rook. She stabbed the other eye, the rooktron flipped over, trying to smash Wendy beneath it. She dove off of the rooktron before it was laying on it's back.

"Yes! I did it!" She shouted, glee coursing though her veins. The rooktron began to violently shake, and light was pouring out of the cracks of its steel armor. Wendy stared for a moment before it clicked in her mind. It was going to explode, she dove behind a pillar and covered her ears. Many pieces of steel plates flew by her as the rooktron blew up. The pillar shattered into little stone pieces and a steel slab slammed into Wendy. It pinned her to the ground, she tried to lift it off of her, but to no avail.

"Uh oh, looks like little Wendy is stuck! How will she claim her prize?!" Maxwell said.

This is bad

Decisions, Decisions

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Applejack stared down the hallway, watching as a limping machine wobbled towards her. She grabbed the closest thing to her, some rusty gears and trinkets. She threw them at the Knight, it flinched away from her. It slowly lowered it's head, examining the objects Applejack had thrown. The knight ate the gears, an annoying crunching and grinding sound emanated from the knight. Applejack watched with curiosity, raising her eyebrow, she was good at that. The knight finished chewing and made a soothing high pitched noise and it's bounced towards Appjeack, rubbing it's head against her cheek.

"Woah, little fella, don't get too close" The knight backed off and waited for Applejack to do something. She rubbed her cheek, the rugged steel causing slight cuts. "Sooooo, I'm just gonna go now, lookin' fer my friend" She walked away from the knight. Confused, the enthusiastic little machine followed her, stopping when she'd look back. Applejack was getting agitated the more she listened to the accordion it played as hit bounced.

"Why are ya' following me?!" She shouted, her echo running through the castle.

"Indescribable Accordion Note" The knight said, bouncing to Applejacks side, she sighed.

"Fine, come along" She groaned.

-----

Wilson slowly regained his consciousness, his body pushing him to just fall asleep. He groaned as he forced his head up, looking around the arena. His mouth was dry and his eyes were extremely heavy. His vision was just a blur, only seeing a large tan spot. He tried to move his arms, but they were chained up. His legs dangled lifelessly, but he could kick them a little. All he remembered was a bright light, pain, and that's it. His head hurt, and that was never a good thing, but over the years he got used to it. He heard Maxwells voice, something about Wendy and stuck and prize. Wilson didn't know what he was blabbering about. Wait..... WENDY??? Wilson tried his hardest to see straight, and when he did he saw Wendy stuck under a piece of debris. His throat hurt, he could barely speak.

"Wendy" He muttered feeling the drowsiness take him over, and he closed his eyes.

-----

"Maxwell! This isn't fair! Get this off of me!" Wendy screamed, pushing the pillar weakly.

"Fair? Who said anything about things being fair? I know I didn't" Maxwell chuckled.

"But I defeated the Rooktron! That's all I had to do!"

"You did defeat it.... oh well" Wendy was about to snap, she wanted to go up there and choke him. Too bad she couldn't fly, not yet, at least.

"Which one do you want?"

"What?"

"Wilson, or the Potato?"

Wendy thought for a moment.

"Wilson... I choose Wilson" She said. Maxwell snapped his fingers, Wilson fell to the ground. Maxwell then floated out of the arena through his door, and all of the Maxwell copies disappeared.

"Where are you going! Get this off of me!" Wendy hollered, flailing her arms. The giant door shut and Wendy and Wilson were left there. She wasted her energy attempting to move the piece of debris. Wilson watched weakly and tried to stand up to help her, but he was drained. Wendy groaned, she wasn't getting anywhere, soon she would die from dehydration.

*Knock Knock*

Both Wendy and Wilson looked over at the metal door, the knocking started again.

"Wilson? You in there?!" Applejack hollered, pushing on the door, it slowly creaked open. Wendy stared at the opening door.

"Help!!" She called out, Applejack poked her head inside. She saw Wilson on the ground and Wendy stuck underneath a piece of pillar.

"What in the..?" She said, running towards the two. Wilson smiled a bit and slowly raised his hand, greeting Applejack. She lifted him up and placed him on her back, a bit heavy. The clockwork knight bounced inside, gesturing to Applejack if he could help.

"Go on ahead" The knight squealed and bashed the debris in half. Barely let Wendy free though.

"Awww, c'mon!" Wendy still failed to push the rest off. The knight used his legs to slide the pieces off of her, playing a silent tune to himself. He lowered his head, Wendy grabbed onto in and climbed on the chess piece. "Thanks, bud"

"We really have no time to talk about what jus' happened, Rainbow Dash is in serious danger!" Applejack said, Wilson nodded his head.

"Just, can we g-go" He said weakly, pointing towards the door. Everyone else agreed to this and began to head out.

The old, dark, scary castle was now a mechanical factory by now. The doors were operated by gears, steam shot out of everything. As if steampunk just took over. Everything outside of the arena was well lit, Maxwell gave this whole place a make over. Clockworks wandered around the entire place, not becoming aggressive with the small group. Bishops gave glares every once in a while, but that's only because of their nature. It was pretty beautiful, the robotic game pieces looked...happy. The damaged knight was reluctant to even leave, looked like heaven to him. At the giant front door, there were to Rooks, each with flashing gold armor and spiked horns. Definitely intimidating to anything around, they sized up Wilson, Applejack, Wendy, and The Knight. The doors slowly opened, revealing a stone path just outside. Man, Maxwell works really fast.

"What in tarnation happened here?" Applejack asked, turning towards the rook for an answer. The rook gave a low horn sound, then a growling sound. The knight seemed to understand that language.

"Indescribable accordion notes"

"Long, drawn out horn"

"Indescribable accordion notes"

"Lets just go, yeah?" Wendy suggested, smiling at the rook, who seemed to smile back, but it was hard to tell. The knight huffed and turned towards the door, bouncing outside.

After following the path, at lead straight into Ponyville. Convenience at its finest level.

"C-can you take me to the l-library? Please" Wilson asked.

"Sure thing, Wilson, shouldn't be long."

"Thank you"

In the distance, a slight boinging noise could be heard. Chester has arrived, as subtle and silently as ever. He picked up his pace when he saw the state Wilson was in. It made him angry, seeing his father like that. He growled at Applejack and snapped wildly at her.

"Woah! Little feller', calm down!" She exclaimed, Chester pushed her. Wilson rolled off of her back and onto Chester's.

"Chester! That was not very nice, she was h-helping" Wilson scolded, the pup blew a raspberry at Applejack. The pony scoffed and dusted herself off. "Sorry about that, he's super defensive, he'll fight anything when he's like this"

"It's okay, I understand, I should go check on RD, she got hit pretty bad by that flying thing" She ran off, maybe she was upset by what just happened.

"Chester, you know that was not okay, mister" Wilson said, Chester let out a strange noise, somewhat of a giggle.

"Can we go to that library, I'm tiiiiiiired!" Wendy shouted, they got moving.

Upon reaching the tree, the knight opened the door, Spike was there.

"Oh! Wilson! I was wondering why Chester had left so quickly, are you okay? Who's your friends?" The curious little dragon asked. Too many questions all at once, made Wilson even more exhausted.

"I'm fine Spike, and this is Wendy, and a Clockwork Knight" The two, upon being mentioned, greeted Spike. Spike got blankets for the group, they all looked pretty tired.

"Twilight should be here soon, she had to go to the hospital because Rainbow Dash got into an accident. That's what she told me, anyway" He finished setting up a mini couch for Wendy to sleep on. She thanked him and drifted into deep sleep in a mere ten seconds. Now it was just The Knight and Spike.

"Sooooo, where are you from?"

"Indescribable accordion notes"

"Oh, that's pretty cool, what was it like?"

"Indescribable accordion notes"

"Sounds great! But why are you all, bashed up?"

"Indescribable accordion notes"

"That's sad, can you be fixed?"

"Cheerful, yet still indescribable accordion notes!!"

"Aaah, sounds complicated, I think it can be done, don't worry. Hey, maybe I can fix you!"

"Loud, cheerful, and still indescribable accordion notes!!!!"

"Sure thing! Y'know, you're a pretty cool guy"

Enter: Clockwork Arc: The Clockwork Palace

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With all of the horrible things that happened in a span of one day, Wilson was exhausted. It was pretty much worse than what he experienced on Disambiguation. Sure, he had friends that could form proper sentences and understand him, but everything that is happening is awful. Everything that used to live on the island is coming here, to Equestria. Maxwell gave them extra powers and abilities to make it worse. Hounds got smarter, bigger, badder. They absorb magic and come up with strategy, rather than just running into battle like madmen. Overall, it was still amazing, it made no sense, but it was different. Wilson added a new breed of hound to his notebook.

Equestrian Hounds
Height: Approx 4'5" Tall, 5'7" Lengthwise
Nature: Very Hostile. Smart, yet reckless at times. Stronger in packs
Avoid at all costs
Can absorb magic, Hit it in the eye

He finished writing, closing his pen and sighing. All he wanted was Earth, but it was so hard to get it. Sometimes he thinks about suicide, yeah. But that's no way to go out. Everyone he's ever known thinks he's dead already though, what's the point of living? Wilson questioned his reason for still being alive. Maybe it was the thrill? Winning a tough fight? No, getting hurt wasn't pleasant, but getting hurt, getting back up and winning was pleasant. This is a weird place for this all to happen, a colorful pony wonderland. How did Maxwell find this place? Wilson would never know, but he wasn't kidding about the change of scenery.

"What is Earth like now?" Wilson said to himself, his grip on the blue and white notebook tightened. Last he remembered is the announcement of a DSi or something. His radio never picked things up properly, but that was all he heard. Maybe there are flying cars and self-tying shoes like in Back To The Future. That was Wilson's favorite movie. He thought about all the great things about Earth, it's like he was trying to make himself cry. He couldn't stay on that subject for long, he'd miss his home even more. Instead he pondered on what he'll do while he's here, y'know, besides hunting the key components to his escape. Wilson wanted to meet Princess Celestia again, he's never met royalty before. Besides Twilight. Suddenly a thought struck him, did he ever retrieve the Potato Thing at the castle? A bead of sweat slid down the side of his face.

"Crap." He whispered, mindful of the others in the room. Wilson remembered that Wendy had to make a choice between him or the piece, maybe she didn't make the right choice. The Potato could be gone forever! That thing was the only thing Wilson cared about in this world. He thought about that, was it really the only thing he cared about? Finding the pieces? That's really messed up considering he wouldn't be alive without Twilight, or Rainbow Dash. He didn't want to make extremely close friends and have to make leaving a second thought when or 'if' he found the parts.

"This is going to be waaaay more complicated than I thought"

He made his way off of the soft couch, careful not to wake Chester. Wilson searched for a bathroom, finding the door, he opened it. The conflicted human repeatedly washed his face with large amounts of water from the sink. After a few minutes he twisted the knob, turning off the cold water. Wilson just stood there, examining his arm. Staring at the 'Things', something was up. The Metal Potato 'Thing' began to blink with a red-orange light. Wilson's eyes widened, reaching to touch it with his unoccupied hand. It stung, like, a lot.

"Ah, what in god's name in going on?" He said, before spotting a trail of dots, the same color as the Potato 'Thing' leading out of the library. Raising one eyebrow, he followed. Wilson knew exactly where it was headed but for some reason he could not stop himself from going. Completely ignoring the chilling air Wilson allowed himself to be controlled by the trail. It led into the Everfree Forest, and back where he had experienced so much pain just hours ago. It was a stupid plan. He hesitated to keep going, but that was an even worse plan. Right when Wilson had started to turn around, back to safety. A sudden headache pounded at his skull. He clutched his head, gritting his teeth and shaking in pain.

"GO!! BACK!!" An echoey voice shouted from nowhere. Wilson screamed back at it. It made the situation worse, the voice shouted again and Wilson watched as his veins in his arms turned completely black. Then he lost control of his body and, once again, he began to follow the glowing trail. The further into the journey he went, the more the headache went away. By this time, it's all Wilson wanted, no pain.

A little while later he made it. By now he had full control of himself and was fully aware of where he was. The Clockwork Palace. Was scribbled into a withered sign. Sighing, Wilson slowly walked up to the gate. Two golden rooks stood in front of him, making low growling noises. Wilson just stared at them not saying a word.

"State your business here, strange man." The left one said, it's monotone, groggy voice surprising the strange man.

"You? Can speak? English!?" Wilson half shouted, mind boggled at the new discovery. The two rooks looked at each other, then back to Wilson.

"It's NOT English, it is Clockwork-ish." The rook on the right said. It's voice was a bit higher than the other one's, a younger one? Maybe?

"Well, if my language is English but we say the same things it's basically English, but whatever..."

"STATE YOUR BUSINESS OR LEAVE HERE, NOW" They said in perfect unison. Wilson covered his ears half way through. After he recovered he cleared his throat.

"I am just visiting?" He gave a sheepish smile and shrugged.

"We don't let people in if they're "Just Visiting", okay? Now you can leave!" Left rook said, lowering his head so his horn almost met Wilson's face. Wilson backed away.

"Okay! Okay! I'm looking for an object called the, 'Metal Potato', heard of it?" The two rooks narrowed their eyes at Wilson.

"Why do you, a stranger, want to know where that is? Hmm?"

"Well, I need it, for, my way to get back home" Wilson rubbed his arm nervously.

"No..."

"What?"

"You can't have it!" Left rook shouted.

"Why not? Just let me in and I'll ju.."

"It's the core of the palace, if you take it this whole place falls apart, it's like a generator. It fends off the dangers of the Everfree forest and provides unlimited power for this place" Right rook said, stomping his large foot on the ground. Wilson didn't say anything, he just stood there. Thinking. He can never get that Potato, it's impossible. Plus he'd be destroying an entire palace and endangering many of these mechanical wonders. Not to mention they can speak and think now. It's quite fascinating, yes?

"Well, if I promise that I will not steal your precious core, will you let me in so I can at least look around?" Wilson said with an ear to ear smile. The rooks looked at each other then looked at Wilson, then laughed... Wilson was left confused as they hollered .

"Trust us, even if you tried to steal the core you'd be dead within seconds! Look at you! You're scrawny and puny!" The right one said, still laughing along with the left one. He didn't know why, but that actually hurt Wilson. He looks down at his arms, pale and skinny, he flexed them. Not even close to a noticeable change. What kept his hopes up was that they didn't say no to him looking around.

"Yeah yeah, does that mean I can go in?"

"Yes, BUT if you do anything to cause a disturbance you will be immediately escorted out, as well as put on probation from entering the city for three days. Got it?"

"Of course, I will do my best to be good" Wilson said with a fake smile. It was fake, but, y'know, reassuring. The rooks side stepped and blew their horns. The two large gates opened. As he walked in he nodded at the rooks. The place was absolutely astounding. Wilson couldn't keep his jaw up it was so great. The place was bustling with activity as every kind of clockwork piece minded their own business and did their thing. It was pretty nice. Wilson awkwardly walked in the middle of the road, catching the eye of every person in there.

"What is that?"

"Is he an alien?"

"Tourists already?"

"I don't like him"

"He lost or something?"

"What a beautiful creature!"

"Is he from the Everfree?!"

Did they know he could hear them? It was kind of weird being the center of attention like this in a completely foreign place. Especially when your clockwork kill count is higher than it should be. None of them were appearing hostile in any way, so Wilson was somewhat chill right now. It took a while for everyone to realize there was nothing to look at anymore and they all went back to talking, working, blah blah. He admired the simple homes built in a line all way across the city and there were so many of them, organized in rows. He saw a two Bishops nuzzling each other affectionately on a bench. Cute. He wasn't sure if they had genders or not, but it was a possibility. There was an extremely large castle situated in the middle of the entire place. It was taller than it was wide, basically a giant spire extruding from the ground. It reminded him of this place he'd read about in one of the books at the library. The Crystal Empire, was it? Maybe Maxwell needed some inspiration to create this? Meh, Wilson would never know, unless he asked. The potato "tattoo" on his arm began to blink again.

"Oh no, not this again, it's going to force me to try to take the potato! I will either die or....... die" Wilson said, looking back and forth frantically in a heated panic. The trail led into the spire, no way in hell he's intruding into royal spaces. He might get something worse than death! He had no choice, if he turned around to leave he would just be forced to go, AND be given a massive headache. Maybe he could like, fight it? He wouldn't want to try it here and make a scene in front of everyone.

"Crap, the headache is starting... what to do?" Wilson said to himself, scratching his chin.

This can't end well...

Preparation

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It was about seven o' clock in the morning and the sun was just in the right position to shine through the through the curtains in the library. Chester, the living monster chest was woken up. He scooted up a little bit to nuzzle Wilson, and to get out of the light. He found nothing, Wilson was gone. Chester sat there for a moment pondering.

Where could have he gone

Chester crawled off the couch and bounced around the library. Once he realized that Wilson was not here. He went into a silent panic. Chester sniffed the floor for tracks, he needed to find Wilson before he got into more trouble! The scent led out of the library which is what Chester had expected. He wanted to leave silently but there was a bell on the door that rung when the door would open. Made sense because this was a public library, right? Chester doesn't see anyone looking for books here, ever. Sighing, or what sounded like a sigh, Chester opened the door and listened as the bell rung. He didn't make another move until he was sure no one was affected by the annoying sound. Chester took another step out of the door, but of course, nothing can go his way.

"Chester? What are you doing up?" A sleepy Spike muttered. The dragon rubbed his eyes slowly and yawned while cracking his back. "It's only seven o' clock, you should get some more rest"

Spike walked over to Chester to try to pick him up, which only led to Chester picking him up, placing him on his back.

And running.

"Woah! Hold on C-chester!!!" Spike screamed, grabbing onto Chester's horns. Spike had never seen Chester run before, boy did he run fast. "Where are we going!! Chester answer me!" Chester ignored him, he followed the trail Wilson had left, something was odd about the smell of it though. He thought having Spike would be good because dragons can breathe fire and stuff. Fire = Protection! Right? Also Chester had seen Spike make things teleport with his fire! He thought it was amazing, so that also means he can teleport Chester out of danger! Selfish? Spikes face was hitting tree branches has they went though the forest, Chester felt kind of bad. He slowed down a bit and signaled for Spike to get off.

"Chester! We're in the middle of the Everfree Forest! Are you crazy? We need to get back home quickly!"

Chester shook his head violently and started to bounce towards the old castle. Spike was conflicted on what to do, walk all the way back, or just stay with Chester. Through lots of thinking, he decided to go with Chester. They were closer to the end of the forest than they were the beginning so it was the best choice.

"You mind telling me where we're going anyways? Since you dragged me out here and all..." Spike said, a hint of aggravation in his voice. Chester turned around and looked at Spike. He lowered his head to the ground and stabbed his horn into it. Then we wrote a 'W' into the cold dirt.

"Wumbo? Oh! Wumbology! You came out here to study Wumbology!" Spike said, nodding his head. Chester shook his head. He jumped on the letter a little, egging Spike on to keep guessing.

"W-W-Wilson?" Chester nodded rapidly. Spike raised an eyebrow.

"He wasn't back at the library? Oh no. Shouldn't we get the girls to come help us!?" Spike exclaimed, pointing back where they came.

Chester just started hopping to his destination and Spike followed. Soon they both saw the giant, golden city before them. The pair slowed down a little.

"This wasn't here before, how can a city just pop up out of nowhere?" Spike didn't get a response. "Y'know it would be nice to have a partner that could talk..."

----

Wilson spoke with the intruder in his mind. He tried to convince it to go away, to leave him alone. At least for now.

"YOU MUST GET THE POTATO, FOOL" It hollered, causing Wilson vision to fail for a moment. The headache was getting intense now that he managed to piss off his intruder.

"Okay! Stop shouting at me!" Wilson said, hitting his forehead with his fist uncontrollably.

Luckily he wasn't out in the open as he argued. He found an alley they could duke it out in. Wilson walked out of the alley and rubbed his head where he had hit it. Looking over at the castle, he smiled evilly. Before he walked right over he checked it out for a little. Looking for entrances, exits, and other things worth noting before the one-man heist began.

"Hmm, two bishops on each of the four towers next to the castle, two rooks standing at the main entrance. The thing is littered with windows, but they're really high up." He examined. The voice in his head shouted at him to hurry or else. Wilson nodded and walked up to the main entrance.

"REALLY? THE MAIN ENTRANCE?!!!" It shouted.

"I don't see a better way to go" Wilson whispered, he wished he could shout. The two rooks at the door stopped him.

"Go, you have no business here" The right one said.

"THAT INSUFFERABLE RUNT, MAKE HIM PAY FOR DISRESPECTING YOU!!!"

Wilson turned around to respond to his..... friend.

"Stop shouting at me! I can solve this on my own" He said, frowning. "Now, guards, I understand I may not seem like I do, but I have very important business here!"

They narrowed their eyes at Wilson, waiting for him to continue.

"I have to...." He didn't even know an excuse.

"FORCE THEM TO LET YOU IN, OR I WILL MAKE YOU TRY"

Crap.

"Sorry for bothering you, sirs, I must go I don't have any business here after all, ehehehehe..." Wilson smiled sheepishly. He ran as fast as he could away from them. They just watched in confusion.

"Crazies these days.."

"Yup"

Wilson ran back to the alley, breathing heavily from the run. He ignored the pounding headache as he lowered himself to sit down. He took a moment to catch his breath before speaking.

"If we are going to get this potato we need to be smart and work together, okay? If you force me to do idiotic things I will die or be sent to jail. Then we will never get the potato and bam you ruined everything." Wilson said sternly. The voice didn't say anything back, that's a first. Wilson enjoyed his first moment of silence ever since he left the library, closing his eyes. Wilson thought to himself, thinking of everything that has happened ever since he got here. He remembered meeting Twilight, being slammed to the ground by Rainbow Dash, and fighting some hounds. He lingered on the hound fight, he made some pretty badass weaponry out of junk. Wait a minute. Wilson looked over at the trashcan to his right, standing up. He approached it, he placed his hand on the lid and opened it.

Nothing.

"Aw" He whispered. He left the alleyway, taking the lid with him. If he was going to take this Potato he needed to be prepared, even though it was close to a suicide mission. He strolled around town, looking at all the markets. "Parts", "Food", "Jewelry", "Build n' Repair" were some of the wonderfully named shops he saw. He entered "Build n' Repair" to take a look at what was in there. There was a bell above the door to signal that there was a customer. Wilson saw all sorts of equipment and weapons, as well as tons of gears and broken legs. Some of the junk he even recognized, it made him oddly happy.

"What can I do for ya sir?" A knight in a gray apron said behind a counter. He was wearing goggles and had some grease stains on his torso. Some kind of grease monkey? Eh?

"Oh, I'm uh, just looking around"

"Well okay, call me if you need anything, sir" The knight bounced into another room without another word. He was gone before Wilson could respond.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE, GO GET TH---"

"Shut up!! Just, please! Shut up! Why are you in my head anyways! Go AWAY!!!!" Wilson shouted. He began to sweat really fast, apparently screaming at yourself takes a lot.

"I AM THE VOICE OF THE POTATO, I AM THE CURSE THAT HAS BEEN PLACED UPON YOU! IF YOU WANT ME TO GO AWAY SOOOO BAD! GET THE POTATO!! HOW HAVE YOU NOT REALIZED THIS YET! I THOUGHT YOU WERE A SMART SCIENTIST!"

"W-what? You ARE the potato? Well I guess that would explain why the tattoo would only light up when you spoke or did something to me"

"FINALLY YOU GET IT, YOU FOOL"

"Okay, jeez, sorry" Wilson kept perusing the shelves. He thought about getting some of the stuff.

"Hey, voice in my hea- Potato voice?" He said.

"WHAT?

"I don't have any money to buy these things, and I will NEED them to get the potato" Wilson said. He was expecting, "MAKE THE MONEY" or "WHO CARES" but, he didn't know why he didn't expect this.

"JUST STEAL THEM! YOU'RE NEVER COMING BACK HERE AGAIN ANYWAYS" Wilson stood there, his eyes widened.

He hated to admit it but, he had a point. Plus, it's for a good cause. The cause being this entire place being out of power and stuff. Was it really the right thing to do?

"WHO CARES IF THEY LOSE POWER, THEY ARE PESTS!

"You can read my thought now! Not cool!" Wilson was worried if he'd no longer have his own space to think.

"I CAN ALWAYS READ YOUR THOUGHTS, YOU FOOL. THAT TWILIGHT PONY IS WAY OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE BY THE WAY."

Wilson's face went a deep crimson and he didn't respond. He just kept looking at the available items he'd eventually steal. After grabbing a cart from the corner of the room. He filled up to the brim with tools, weapons, junk, and other useful things he'd need. After he'd finished he stared at the door. Maybe he could just make up the money somehow?

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR SECOND THOUGHTS GOOOOOOO!!!! It screamed, causing a slight headache.

"OKAY! SHUT UP!" Wilson replied. The look of anger on his face went away when he saw the store owner approaching. Crap. He kicked himself for yelling, and stalling. Things couldn't ever just go perfectly.

"GOD DAMMIT NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! DEAL WITH HIM, NOW!"

Wilson began to sweat again.

"Sir, are you okay? Woah! You're purchasin' all that? Boy, my lucky day hehe" The owner smiled a little. Pff, yeah, purchasing.

"Follow me to the counter so you can buy em', okay?" The knight said. He bounced away from Wilson and rung the bell as he hopped passed the door. Wilson was thinking of ways to get out of this. If he ran out the door now the knight would notice and chase after him and probably get help from other civilians. So basically there was no way out of this besides putting everything back or... Wilson shook his head to stay away from that thought.

"OOOH. WILSON, MY BOY, DID YOU JUST CONSIDER KILLING HIM? KEEP THAT ATTITUDE UP AND WE WOULD GET ALONG MUCH BETTER HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" The voice mocked him. It was right, he did just think of that. Wilson would never bring himself to do it, however. Without a word he pushed the cart up to the counter. The knight began to pick up the items and bag them, he must've knew the prices of each one because he didn't look at the price tags at all.

"HEHEHEHE, LET ME HELP YOU OUT, WILSON!"

"No, go away"

"AAAW, YOU KNOW YOU NEED ME, LIKE YOU SAID IN THE ALLEY, WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER"

"I said NO! Stop it"

"YOU WONT REMEMBER A SINGLE THING, I PROMISE! WOULD I EVER LIE TO YOU, PAL?"

"Okay, first off. Don't call me pal. Second, yes, I think you would lie to me. And THIRD, I WILL remember you telling me you are going to do it so basically I will always know what happened!"

"HE'S DONE PACKING THE BAGS, I'M DOING IT RIGHT NOW!!!!! MUAHAHAHA!" Wilson vision began to blur and his head started pounding.

"NO DO-" Was all Wilson could shout out loud before he lost control. His veins turned black and the whites of his eyes followed suit.

"Sir! Are you okay? What's wrong with your eyes!?" The owner said. He started to flee.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!? PEST!" Wilson's new, echoing voice shouted. The veins in his arms swelled with black fluid before they bursted. The sticky substance flew everywhere, and it hit the target. The knight was stuck to the wall, pinned by the black ooze.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HEL-"

Wilson held his mouth shut with one hand. He used the other to rip the knights torso open before tearing out it's gears and pipes brutally. The shattered accordion emitted sour notes as it was demolished. The entire floor was littered in metal pieces. After he had his fun he placed all of the broken parts of the Knight onto the shelves. He looked like spare parts, which got a laugh out of Wilson. The black gunk retreated back into his veins with ease.

"I THINK MY WORK HERE IS DONE" Wilson said, grabbing his bags. He walked out the door, looking back into the shop. It was like nothing just happened. Wilson walked all the way back into the alleyway and placed the bags down. Control was soon to be given back to Wilson's real self.

His eyes returned to normal, his veins became blue, and Wilson was able to feel alive again. Just before he opened his mouth to say something he passed out. He lay in an awkward position on the ground, already drooling down his cheek.

"GROSS, YOU CAN THANK ME LATER, I SUPPOSE"

Cancellation

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Spike and Chester wandered mindlessly around the city. They both thought it was strange that there were no guards at the front gate, so they just walked in. Chester lost Wilson's scent and now they were just keeping an eye out for him. The two even asked around for him and they got some pretty good leads, surprisingly. A bishop said he went towards the castle, but another said he saw him going inside of "Build n' Repair".

"We should check out "Build n' Repair" first Chester, it's close by" Spike suggested. Chester nodded and waited for Spike to lead the way. Looking back and forth, the dragon chuckled. He just chose a random direction and hoped his luck was good today. It took quite a while for them to actually find the darn place, but they got to have small talk which was nice. Even though Spike couldn't understand what Chester said, he nodded in agreement to every sound he made.

"Alright, here it is, lets go" Spike said. He opened the door for Chester and bounced on in. His face instantly got stuck in some yellow caution tape. Spike did the same, not realizing it was there. Chester emitted a high pitched cry in dismay, not liking the feeling of the tape.

"What is this here for!?" Spike shouted. He struggled to pull the tape off of him, was it supposed to be super sticky?

"Hey! You cannot be here, this is off limits!" A knight said. He was wearing a blue vest that had a golden badge on it. A baton was strapped onto his waist and he was a but bulkier than the other knights outside. The knight came to help Spike and Chester get the tape off of them.

"Thank you, sir. But, why can we not go in?" Spike asked, rubbing his chin. The knight raised one metallic eyebrow for a split second, before sighing.

"Well, the owner of this shop has gone missing, and we may have a potential culprit. Right when he came into town someone goes missing, coincidence? I think not! Anyways, you two run along now, this is adult business."

Spike frowned and turned around to open the door. Chester leaped out and waited for Spike. The dragon's eyes went wide.

"Wait! Can you tell us if you see a friend of ours, he came here maybe a few hours ago. He's tall, has spiky hair, and has two arms on his sides, like me! We are already hot on his trail, but just in case you see him, tell us. Okay? Thanks!"

The knight looked almost excited for some reason. He told spike to wait there. He walked over to two rooks that had golden armor and spikes on their horns.

"Did you hear what that dragon just said?" The knight asked.

"Yes we did, he described the man we told you about earlier. No doubt that he did this." The left rook replied.

"If we follow him, he'll take us right to him! Then we can catch him and lock him away."

"Sounds like a perfect plan. Not to mention we was pretty suspicious first time he came."

"How so?" The knight said, raising one eyebrow again.

"Well he wanted the Metal Potato. So if we get him now he can't get close to it."

"Wow, lets get going!"

Spike saw the knight approaching with two large rooks, he got nervous. They didn't say anything but they just walked out the door.

"Spike! Lead the way to your friend!" The knight said, smiling at him.

"O-oh! You're coming with us? Cool, more help!"

The group walked towards the castle, like that bishop told them. They each looked around as well for good measure, chances are he wasn't even in the castle. He had to have been nearby, Chester got the scent back. He hopped faster ahead of the group, he took a right down a dark alley. Everyone exchanged glances before continuing, not trusting dark alleyways.

----

"WILSON! WILSOOOON! WAKE UP SOMETHING IS APPROACHING US!" The potato warned, shaking Wilson's mind out of a dream. He blinked his eyes a few times then rubbed them. Wilson yawned loudly and scratched his back.

"Someone's here? Well who?" Wilson asked, squinting his eyes at the small outline. As it got closer he figured out who it was.

"Chester? Chester!! Come here boy!" Wilson held his arms out wide. Chester jumped into Wilson's chest and they embraced in a tight hug. "How did you find me, Chester? It's quite a long way from Ponyville!" He said, squeezing Chester's furry cheeks. Spike ran up to Wilson.

"Wilson! Why are you all the way out here? Y'know Chester dragged me all the way out here to find you! Now that we have can we go back to the library? I'm hungry!" Spike bombarded Wilson with words.

"I don't think he'll be going back anytime soon, boy" The knight said. He stared at Wilson, who became nervous.

"And who are you?" Wilson asked, pointing weakly. The knight chuckled.

"I am Detective Bernard W. Hunter, or, Your Worst Nightmare" He emphasized that last part. The two rooks from behind him stepped forward, revealing themselves. Wilson's eyes widened and slowly reached for Spike and Chester. The two groups stared into each others eyes intensely.

"Now, Detective, as much as I'd like to stay to listen to your ar-" Wilson quickly stood up and placed Spike and Chester in the cart full of junk. He grabbed the handle and sprinted the other direction and out of the alley.

"Dammit! Get him!!" The detective shouted, he grabbed his baton with his mouth. The rooks charged after Wilson, steam coming out of their horns. Wilson didn't look back, he ran as fast as he could towards the exit. The ground was becoming sloped, and soon enough the cart was almost dragging him since it gained so much speed. Wilson heard the sound of large footsteps getting closer and closer.

"W-w-wilson!!! Run faster!!" Spike yelled. The rooks were right on their tail, Wilson had an idea. He quickly jumped inside of the cart, looking back at the rooks. The three were going faster because they were still going downhill. b

"DON'T LEAVE, JUST LET ME FIGHT THEM! IF YOU LEAVE HE WON'T GET THE POTATO!!!"

"Not happening! We will come back! Trust me!" Wilson said back. He could make out the voice in his head mumbling something, he waved it off. The rooks seemed to pick up their pace. Soon enough they would catch the group, luckily the exit was close. Nothing could ever go the way they wanted it too. The heavy metal gates began to close!

"Shoot shoot shoot!!!" Wilson panicked. He thought quickly for a moment and pick up Spike and Chester again.

"Woah! warn me before you do that!" Spike yelled over the loud stomping of the rooks. Wilson nodded apologetically and took aim. He hoped his aim was on point because he couldn't settle for a miss. Before Spike realized what Wilson was doing he had already been thrown into the air. The small dragon flew towards the closing gate, Chester followed behind. Not only did this ensure that they'd get away, but it relieved some weight off of the cart. Wilson's speed boosted tremendously and he smiled. The rooks were slowly inching farther away from him, rather than closer. The gate was almost closed!

"No! No! Go!" Wilson screamed. The gate was too low for him to go through while he was on the cart. Last minute he jumped forward and landed UNDER the gate. Chester and Spike ran fast to pull on his shirt to get him out of the way.

SLAM!!

The gates finished closing, it made a huge sand cloud from the impact. Spike and Chester began to cough. Waving his claw to clear the dirt, Spike looked around for Wilson. He let out a huge sigh of relief when he saw the man laying on the ground. His feet were pressed up against the gate.

"Phew. Close call there" Spike said.

"Tell me about it" Wilson said in between breaths. Chester scooted next to Wilson and licked him across the face, twice. This got a reaction out of him but he didn't say anything. The three just sat down in front of the gate, Spike and Wilson leaned their heads against it. After a few silent moments, Wilson saw his cart still going. It went right into the forest, he chuckled a bit and stood up.

"We should get going, you two. Twilight's probably turning the town upside down looking for us." Wilson said. He popped his shoulder and sighed.

"Haha, yeah she's probably going crazy right now. You know? This was pretty fun, dangerous, but....fun" Spike said, smiling at Wilson. He returned the smile.

----

The walk back was uncomfortably peaceful, when has the Everfree Forest been peaceful? Spike and Chester said extra close to Wilson during the walk, it may have been peaceful but it was really dark. The largely spanned trees blocked the sun's light out completely, giving predators an edge when hunting. Wilson swore he could see large, green eyes looking at him through the bushes. It made him paranoid, it made him think of the invasive white eyes that haunted, stalked, and scared Wilson while he was on the island. He never really figured out what they were, they only appeared in the dark, when he was going insane. Which, for him, was a pretty common thing. He couldn't shake the feeling of them being here with him, but the color of the eyes had changed. Just like everything else that came here as well. Wilson reached inside the cart and grabbed a spear. Without a word he stopped moving.

"Wilson what ar-"

"SHHHH" Wilson snapped, interrupting Spike. Spike lowered his head and stayed quite. They stood like that for at least five minutes, Chester or Spike were not brave enough to make a sound.

"THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU" The voice taunted, chuckling.

"Shut up"

"YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE. YOU THOUGHT LEAVING THE ISLAND WILL LET YOU ESCAPE YOUR FEARS?"

"I said shut up!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE IN DENIAL, WILSON. FACE YOUR FEARS AND THE FEARS WON'T FACE YOU, EVER AGAIN"

"I SAID SHUT UP ALREADY!!!" Wilson shouted. He charged into a nearby bush and swung violently, the leaves scattering about. He would hit something hard every so often and when he did he hears a cry of pain. It didn't faze him, he was a mindless animal by now. He screamed as he swung, showing no mercy to his victim. Spike and Chester sat there, waiting for Wilson to calm down. When he did, he saw what he was hitting. Laying before him was some kind of wooden dog, it was still alive! It's body was torn apart by Wilson' savagery.

"Oh no, what have I done" He whispered. Wilson knelt down on one knee to comfort the creature. It growled ferociously at him, snapping at his hand. It kept growling until it eventually died, it's cold body lay limp in the even colder dirt. Wilson just stared at it.

"I killed it." He said. His tone, dark and gloomy.

"YOU DID GOOD, WILSON. YOU FACED YOUR FEARS."

"That wasn't even my fear! Why do you keep-" Wilson was cut off by growling. He looked down at the wooden dog, it wasn't even alive. Standing up, Wilson held on tight to his spear. He looked over at the cart, then at Spike and Chester. Where was that growling coming from? He searched the area around him briefly.

"Uhh, Wilson?" Spike said. Fear evident in his voice.

"Yeah, Spike?"

"B-behind you..." Spike whispered. Slowly, Wilson turned around. There they were, six Timberwolves beginning to surround him. He didn't know what to do, he just waited. One moved an inch closer and Wilson pointed his spear at it, another did the same.

"They're going to kill me" Wilson said to himself.

"NONSENSE, THESE ARE WEAK CREATURES. WEAKER THAN THAT STORE OWNER, HAHAHAHHA!!!"

"Not helping"

A timberwolf leaped at insane speeds at Wilson. He held up his spear and got ready for a battle. It was an extremely unfair fight, be he'd do all he could.

"TEAR THEM APART!!!!!"

Critical Failure

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"TEAR THEM APART!!!!!"

Wilson jabbed his spear into the attacking timberwolf, it landed right in his eye. The beast gave a high pitched cry and retreated to the back of the pack. Wilson then grabbed a fistful of dirt, threw it in their faces and ran. His heart was pumping faster than his legs were moving. Along the way he picked up Spike and Chester. Wilson left the cart behind, the trees would get in the way if he tried to push it through. Thinking back it was probably a waste of time to throw dirt at them, but it caught them by surprise.

"I am so done with running!" Wilson said in between breaths. The chase was hot, and the timberwolves were way faster than Wilson. He felt one barely bite on his shirt, but it let go. He started taking sharp turns to throw them off, it worked until they found out what he was doing. Wilson noticed that some of them weren't behind him anymore. Either they gave up or they were trying to trick him, he just kept running. Seeing how the odds evened out just a little, Wilson stop abruptly and kicked his leg back. It slammed into a timberwolves face and it reeled back in pain.

"Ah ha! Gotcha!" Wilson shouted in victory. There were only two more that were present, which is good. They both jumped at him at the same time, Wilson placed Spike and Chester behind him. When the wolves reached him he ducked and they flew right over him. The two almost landed on Spike. Wilson turned around and grabbed one by the neck and threw it hard against a tree. The other one looked like it wanted to flee, until it gained a boost of confidence. Wilson could hear twigs and leaves crunching around him, he realized he fell right for the trap.

"Spike! Chester! Run!!!!" He shouted, pointing them out of danger. While he was distracted the timberwolf bit down onto his foreleg, Wilson screamed. Spike and Chester were reluctant to run and leave Wilson behind. Wilson fell to the ground, his leg in much pain. He wrestled with the wolf, receiving splinters on his hands and legs repeatedly. The rest of the pack had arrived, at least six of them. Wilson overpowered his attacker and snapped it's neck, which the rest of them timberwolves didn't appreciate. They all began to growl viscously, too bad foam wasn't coming out of their mouthes, it would have fit. Breaking the staredown, on of the wolves cried out and fell on top of the others. Wilson's eyes widened, he looked at the cause of this.

"Chester!" Wilson said, smiling a little. He realized this was the chance to take them down! As the wolves struggled to get up, Wilson looked around frantically for something heavy. After a few second he'd found a pretty good rock to smash some stick monsters with. The pack had just got up and they were just as confused as the other.

"DIIIIIIEEEEE!!!" Wilson screamed, he ran at the closest victim. He brought the rock down onto it's head and it was completely smashed. The debris flew everywhere, Wilson had to cover his eyes so he doesn't get something in it. Not lingering too long, Wilson continued his massacre. He smashed the next wolf with ease, not before the rest of them began to attack. Luckily he had Chester there to help him out, he rammed his horns into the side of a wolf. Then Wilson kicked it's snout and let go of the rock right above it's head. He heard Chester make a weird noise, Wilson looked over and saw a wolf putting Chester in his mouth!

"Chester! Let go of him!!!!!" Wilson charged to defend Chester. A wolf clamped it's jaws down on Wilson's calf, which slowed him down. Another one bit his arm, Wilson grunted and used on hand to reach for the rock.

"It's gone!?" The rock had disappeared out of thin air. Wilson struggled underneath the two wolves and wiggled his arms and legs. He heard a wolf cry in pain, the pressure on his calf had gone away. Spike had the rock in his hands, breathing heavily. Wilson mouthed thank you, and flipped around to pin his assaulter down. Slamming his fist into it's face, ignoring the intense pain from splinters. Quickly, Wilson returned to helping Chester with his predicament. Wilson kicked the wolf in the face, it whined in agony but did not let go of Chester. Wilson grew frustrated at it's stubbornness, and kept kicking. It took the beat like a damn champion, and it continued to bite onto Chester, making him squeal and wriggle.

"Gosh darnit! Let...go...of him!" Wilson screamed between kicks. Finally, the timberwolf ceased his assault on the helpless little living chest. Chester feel to the ground, panting and making high pitched whines to express his pain and adrenaline. We was actually bleeding, Wilson had never seem him bleed before. Of all of the beating Chester had taken, and all of the injuries he's succumbed, he's never bled before.

"Ch-chester, you're bleeding?!" Wilson said, shocked. The blood was pouring out extremely fast, and it was a dark brown color. Spike had taken notice of this too.

"Wilson, we've got to get out of here and take him to a hospital or something!" He exclaimed, tugging on the human's shirt, which was pretty banged up. There was still one timberwolf left, which seemed to had run away in fear of dying next.

"YOU SHOULD SAVE YOUR DOG FRIEND, WILSON!"

"He's not a dog! I think, or well, nevermind I don't have time for this!"

Spike looked confused, and looked at Wilson.

"I never called him a dog, are you okay?" Spike asked.

"Nothing! Nothing! Lets go"

Wilson picked up Chester, who by this time has fainted, or so Wilson only hoped, from blood loss. Luckily the cart was still nearby so the three backtracked to it and Spike and Chester sat in it. Wilson ran as fast as he could through the forest, ignoring the leaves and branches slapping his face. He was in no condition to even run, his leg was messed up and he'd basically lost as much blood as Chester. Wilson knew he had to do this or else they'd all probably die out here.

In not much time at all, but it seemed like forever to the injured folk, they had reached the brightening end of the eerie forest.

"Wilson we've got to hurry! I don't think Chester has much time to wait any longer!" Spike yelled, trying to egg wilson on.

"Shut up, Spike! Just....SHUT UP!" Wilson replied, his eyes were watering and his throat hurt. Spike reeled back in shock and looked down at himself. For a split second Wilson felt really bad about snapping so suddenly, but he ignored it. He'll apologize later, yeah?

"Chester, boy. You doing good in there? Please, Chester, I can't lose you again!"

Chester gave no response, but he twitched his little front legs. Wilson would have been more happy to see that if the cart wasn't almost full of blood. Spike had scooted to the very edge of it to not be soaked in it.

Wilson had made it inside of Ponyville and charged through the crowd of active ponies. They barely could react to Wilson's extreme speeds and had to dive out of the way. Spike noticed this and started shouting.

"Out of the way! this is an emergency here! Everypony out of the way!" He swung his arms outwards, as if that'll make them move faster.

Wilson's vision was blurring and he was very fatigued, but he just wouldn't let himself stop. His legs were wobbly and his head could not stay upright. Wilson felt himself slipping away from consciousness. He suddenly just dropped to the ground, the cart was left moving on it's own. Spike shouted and leapt in front of the cart to stop it.

"N-no, Chester, I-I'm so sorry..b-" Wilson passed out. He sure as hell hoped Spike would get help, quick, Not just for Chester anymore because Wilson's injuries got worse on the way.

-----

Wilson sat at the tiny table in the middle of the black room. He looked at the two tea cups and one large tea pot on the table. He wondered who was going to drink the other cup, but until they arrived he wouldn't dare begin to drink his. Instead he just thought about irrelevant things. One of them was that he had a hospital gown on, he didn't know why, or how, but it was comfortable enough to not complain about. Another thing is how there was a very quiet beeping in the backround. He could barely hear it echo on all sides of this room, almost as if it had been much bigger than he knew.

".............., ................?" Wilson said words, but he couldn't hear them. He raised one brow and tried again. ".... ..........., ........ ..., ..?"

This was odd, Wilson gave up trying to hear himself, he could do that in his mind anyways. It began to get boring waiting for his guest, or his host, so he took a sip of his hot tea.

"It's Earl Grey, you like?" A voice spoke up, Wilson looked around. He also hated Earl Grey tea, so why did he like this one? Wilson shook his head and placed his tiny cup down. A figure began to walk in the darkness, it was darker than the darkness? He could see it's silhouette, even in this "lighting". He began to think it was Maxwell, but instead it was a weird looking being. It had mis-matched limbs and one big tooth, Wilson was about to move away from it in fear.

"No, please, sit" It urged. Reluctantly, Wilson pulled his seat out again and sat down. The hybrid, dragon thing smiled and took his seat. He took a long sip of his tea, so long that Wilson would really call it a sip.

"Ahhh, that's the stuff" The draconequus cleared his throat. "Now, Wilson, I understand you're whole predicament, yes I know who Maxwell is and I know what he's done to you"

Wilson raised a brow, and waiting for more.

"And I urge you to NOT retrieve the pieces he's tempting you to retrieve"

What? Who is this guy to tell Wilson what to do? Wilson thought about what he had said for a whole minute.

"... ... ...?"

"Who am I? Oh of course I forgot to introduce myself, how rude of me." Discord vanished in a mere millisecond. Confused, Wilson just waited for this thing to come back. He was going to take another gulp of his tea, but he saw two yellow eyes inside!

".... ... ....!?" Wilson shouted, throwing the cup on the table. The eyes fell onto the table and the table grew a mouth.

"I am, Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony" The table said, while it slowly formed back into Discords normal form.

This sounded way too familiar, chaos? Disharmony? This guy is a carbon copy or Maxwell for sure. Or maybe he is Maxwell?

".... ....... .... .. .......!"

"Wilson, I am NOT Maxwell, thank Celestia for that. He is pure evil!"

What? The "spirit of chaos and disharmony" is calling someone else pure evil? That doesn't make any sense at all. Wilson's head was beginning to hurt, bad news.

"I mean, can you believe that guy? I know I'm really not one to talk, but honestly..." Discords mood visibly changed.

"I fear for Equestria so long as he exists..."

Wilson didn't know what too say, except for some questions.

".... .. .. ........? .. ... ....?"

No response. Why?

".......?"

Wilson watched as the beeping became much louder and the room was getting whiter. He covered his eyes and groaned.

"Wilson?"

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes!"

Resting Period

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"Yes! I can hear you, please quit talking so loud!" Wilson said, covering his ears with his dry palms.

"Oh, sorry"

Was that Twilight's voice? Wilson's eyes opened up and they darted around the room.

"N-no no, my fault, it's just I'm cranky when I wake up from unconsciousness!" Wilson stammered, his mouth was extremely dry. That was a weird thing to say. Twilight had brought Wendy, Spike, and the rest of her friends here, minus one. Just to see Wilson? He found the source of the beeping that bothered him so much, heart monitor, of course.

"We're glad you're back from the dead, dude!" Rainbow Dash said, lightly punching Wilson's shoulder. Wilson smiled for a brief moment, then he looked at the heart monitor. Rarity yanked Rainbow Dash's tail, then they began to argue, very quietly.

"I was...dead?" He asked. It got pretty awkward, really fast.

"Yes, Mr. Wilson! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the monitor beginning to beep! I thought we'd lost you for sure, it's way too early for that!" Wendy shouted. She looked almost flustered, or truly afraid Wilson was going to be gone forever. She hugged Wilson tightly, Wilson didn't take her for the touchy-feely person, but she is a little kid. "I can't lose someone again" She whispered to herself.

"She said it, partner. Y'know, Spike was the one who got help, he ran all around town screamin'" Applejack chuckled to herself. Wilson looked down at himself, ashamed.

"Spike..."

The dragon was already looking at Wilson.

"I'm so sorry I snapped at you out there, it wasn't very appropriate of me to do so. Just know I'll make it up to you"

"It's totally fine, Wilson. I understand you were pretty stressed out at the time, I could see it. I'm still your pal"

"What exactly happened out there, Wilson, Spike?"

The dragon and human looked at each other, smirking and sighing deeply.

"It's a long story" They said in unison. The six were not amused. DeJa Vu.

"Then you better get to explaining now, huh?" Rainbow Dash added.

"Right, I'll start" Wilson replied.

-----

"Speaking of which, where is Chester?!" Wilson said, a look of concern on his face. They'd just barely gotten to Spike's entry into the story, and it was about to be cut short. Everyone seemed to look at Spike when this question was asked, and he dropped a bead of sweat. He sat and thought for a moment, scratching his chin.

"Well, you see, it's a bit strange, but..." He started.

"But what?" Wilson asked, raising his arms.

"He kind of ran off?"

"Wha-"

"I tried to call him back! I swear! But he just ran off, his bleeding wasn't as immense anymore, too" Spike explained. Wilson has seen this happen before, many times actually. Chester would get really hurt, then shake it off and run away for a while. He'll be back soon.

"He'll be back. He's done this before" Wilson said. This put Spike at ease, he didn't want to be responsible for completely losing Chester.

"How can you be so sure, darling?" Rarity asked, "Surely you'd want to at least go out and look for him, no?"

"No, Rarity, he'll be fine. He only does this when he gets really hurt, whether emotionally or physically."

"So, kind of like, when you get mad at your mom so you lock yourself up in your room?" Rainbow Dash added.

"Yeah, I guess you could put it that way, too"

Twilight had been mostly silent through this entire visit, even Fluttershy had put in a word or two pretty often. Twilight was just sitting there. Wilson felt like asking what was wrong, but he felt like it wasn't the place. Or he wasn't the person to do it. Wilson wondered why her friends haven't taken any notice to this.

"So, should I continue with the explanation?" Spike asked. Everyone, except Twilight, nodded. "Alrighty, lets see, where was I?-"

"Chester was taking you into the Everfree Forest" Fluttershy said.

"Thanks"

-----

About an hour had passed, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy had said their goodbyes and went on their way. It was only Twilight, Wendy, and Spike in the hospital room with Wilson. But Wendy had been curled up on the couch completely knocked out. Light conversations between the truly remaining three were the only events at this time. They'd discussed the princesses, government on Earth, and the history of Equestria.

"Wait, did you say...Discord?" Wilson butted in. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, why, do you know him?" There was a hint of concern in Twilight voice. Wilson sat in silence for a brief moment.

"I wouldn't say know him, but he came to me while I was unconscious."

"Really! What did he say!?" Twilight half-shouted. Spike was equally as curious as to what Discord wanted with Wilson. Who, once again, sat in silence, thinking back to his tea time with Discord.

"Well, he told me that hew knew all about me and how I got here and stuff. And he said that he thinks Maxwell is pure evil" Wilson stopped and looked at the two. He took their silence as a green-light to continue.

"Then he got really, I mean really serious and said that he fears for the fate of Equestria so long as Maxwell is here." Twilight and Spike's eyes both widened in fear and curiosity. "Also, he told me I should not find these things" Wilson gestured to the 'things' burned onto his arm.

"Did you ask him why he was so cautious of Maxwell?" Twilight asked, by this time her little cute notepad was out.

"No, I woke up before he could really explain anything, but he sounded really sincere about his warnings. But I don't know if I want to give any mind to them"

"Well, why wouldn't you?" Spike asked. Twilight's eyes peeked up while she was still writing, waiting an answer.

"I mean, I just met the guy and it's kind of suspicious that the spirit of chaos and disharmony would be warning me about Maxwell. Maxwell is just that, chaos and disharmony!"

"Wilson, we've reformed Discord. Meaning he isn't so chaotic and disharmonious anymore, it may seem like an odd thing to accept. But it's true" Twilight said, placing a hoof on Wilson's knee.

"I just don't think I can really stop hunting these pieces. Twilight, it may be my way home."

"Well, m-maybe that's just what Maxwell wants you to think" Twilight covered her mouth quickly.

Wilson knew she had a point, and he felt kind of stupid for actually thinking his home was right around the corner. It was a very large task at hand, too. Traveling to god knows where to find these pieces? Somebody could get hurt, and somebody did get hurt. Wilson really wanted the best for himself and these ponies, but he couldn't help but really believe that the pieces were the way out. It is such a tempting offer.

"You're right, Twilight. It was silly of me to really think I would get to go home just by doing Maxwell's bidding."

When you put it like that, it's depressing. Twilight kind of felt bad for shutting Wilson down, she could tell he longed to go home.

"Don't worry Wilson, I know you'll get home sooner or later." Spike said, smiling. Wilson smiled back, but he didn't believe that. You can't just wish for something, then it happens. You have to make it happen, and in times of uncertainty, like this one, most of the time it's wrong to try. Wilson was just stressed out, he was in a foreign place, he felt like just a nuisance to Twilight, and now he's been possessed by inanimate objects.

"I'm sorry I dragged you all into my problems. I've dealt with Maxwell alone before and I'll do it again." There was a silence.

"Really?! There's no way I could let you do that!" Twilight exclaimed. She looked directly into Wilson's eyes, smiling. "If you're really going to do this, I'm doing it as well"

Spike nodded in agreement.

"Same here, you're our friend, we can't leave you alone. Where you go, we go" Spike added.

Wilson didn't know what to say, it hadn't been long since he's known them, but they were still comfortable enough to call him a friend? He couldn't believe they would support him so much, his eyes started to tear up.

"Thank you so much, the both of you"

"And I'm sure the rest of the girls would be up for it as well."

"Can I come too? Please!" Wendy asked. The three at the bed looked back at the couch.

"Wendy, how long have you been up?" Wilson responded.

"Like ten minutes."

"Oh, well, I don't know if I feel comfortable with you coming on these dangerous trips" Wilson admitted. Spike was probably around the same age as her, but he was a lot tougher from what Wilson had seen and could breathe fire!

"Come on, I can defend myself! I promise! I have Abi-" Wendy stopped, and she looked away.

The three looked at each other, something was wrong.

"Wendy, what's wrong?" Wilson asked. She didn't answer for a while, instead she just sighed.

"I'm going for a walk, see you guys later..."

"Wait, Wendy! Talk to us!" Twilight called out. Wendy ignored her and shut the door quietly. Wilson thought it was a funny coincidence that her and Chester have both run off. Wilson had a gut feeling she'd come back and explain why she so suddenly left the room. There was an odd silence in the room, not like an awkward one, but one that almost was needed. Wilson sighed heavily and leaned back into his soft, cyan pillow. Spike and Twilight eventually began to talk to each other, while Wilson retuned to his own thoughts.

-----

Wilson had fallen asleep during his peace and quiet session. Spike and Twilight left a note, saying "get well soon" and they retuned home and will come back tomorrow morning. Wilson smiled when he read this and placed it back on the desk he found it on. He wanted to get up and walk around the room, but his leg was too banged up.

"It can't be that bad anymore, right?" Wilson said to himself. Hopefully it really wasn't as bad as it originally was, if magic was a thing here, magically healing his leg should have been the way to go. Or so Wilson thought. He lifted up the silky, and noticeably old blanket and looked at his ruined appendage.

"Oh my..."

Wilson couldn't believe it, it looked even worse! It wasn't bleeding profusely but it seemed to have grown in size.

"HAVING A HARD TIME HEALING? SORRY ABOUT THAT!" The voice screeched. Wilson cringed at the random outburst of extremely loud speech.

"C'mon, tone it down in there! And what do you mean you're sorry?" He asked, rubbing his already aching head.

"THERE IS A DOWNSIDE TO POSSESSING YOUR BODY, YOU KIND OF LOSE A LOT OF YOUR ABILITY TO HEAL NATURALLY. SO THE CUT WILL ONLY GET WORSE AND NO AMOUNT OF STITCHES WOULD HELP. IN FACT, I'M SURE STITCHES WOULD MAKE IT WORSE BECAUSE, AS THE CUT INEVITABLY GREW DUE TO REASONS BEYOND ME, IT WOULD TEAR THE STITCHES OFF." The potato bantered. Fear in Wilson grew, this cut was just going to get worse!

"Well, get out of my body! Stop possessing me! It should be your choice, right?" Wilson said.

"NOT EXACTLY, I'M BOUND TO YOU BECAUSE OF THE CURSE MAXWELL HAS LAID UPON YOU. I WILL ONLY GO AWAY AFTER YOU COLLECT MY PIECE!"

Amazing! This is a lot worse than Wilson ever thought it would be. So he guessed that each piece would have it's own downside to having in his mind. But what could really be worse than no healing?

"So I really have to get your piece huh?"

No response. Whatever, he's too loud anyways.

"Potato, do you know what the other pieces are like? And maybe what they will do to me?"

"SORRY, I CANNOT SAY. IT'S AGAINST OUT CODE"

Code? What code? Did Maxwell have them sign a Terms and Conditions sheet for this? Totally not cool.

"Oh, that's fantastic. Also, why haven't you been bossing me around and you're really apologetic. Don't tell me you actually like me now" Wilson teased. There was no answer but, his head got a sharp moment of pain.

"Okay, okay, I'll drop it"

"GET SOME REST."

"That's more like it"

Don't Starve!

by Tee Sion

Check Mate, Maxwell (Revised)

It's A Long Story

Memory 1: Chester, My Boy

Old Friends and New

Brief Interrogations

Birds and The Bees, and The Dogs That Want to Kill You

The Clockwork Castle

Clocked In

Battles on Both Ends

Decisions, Decisions

Enter: Clockwork Arc: The Clockwork Palace

Preparation

Cancellation

Critical Failure

Resting Period