Prologue (Better)

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Well then .... I’d might as well get things started, and what better way to do that than to introduce myself? Hello there whoever you are, and welcome to my flashback! My name is Dust and I will be your tour guide and memory donor for this trip down memory lane. Just so you know, this is a small glimpse of my past that should happen every now and then, but it usually only happens when something jogs this old brain of mine. I'm not sure if this is a form of P.T.S.D or some kind of psychological glitch, even though the later wouldn't surprise me after all these years, but oh well..

One more thing: this is where my small journey of knowledge started, so not much will be revealed about my past, but it should be either really interesting, or very depressing. Also, if you are wondering what jogged my memory, it will be explained later. Anyways, here we go!

It was a Saturday night at my friends’ and my hangout spot in the woods that we built when we were younger. It was a decent sized shack, one story tall and the size of a small house with some small furnishings that we all contributed. After a little while, we got electricity running to it so we could run a TV, record player, and a console. We eventually brought over one of my friend's old pool table and some old couches. There was also a fridge for drinks and a cabinet for junk food. We were celebrating a few things; being that Alec got back from being overseas, Josh finally got accepted as a welder at U.S. Steel, Jimmy finished his degree in mechanics, Chad was going over to Japan to do Chad things, and I finally finished my Master’s in weapons/armor design and moving on to my bio-mechanics degree.

Jimmy was a bit of a redneck/stereotypical American. He had blondish hair with green eyes. His southern drawl fit quite well with his height, at about 6'11", as he was built like a farm hand. He always wore jean-jacket vests (they were jean-jackets until he ripped off the sleeves), and a pair of, you guessed it, jeans with oil stains and a pair of cowboy boots and a Chevy hat. Even though he was huge, he was a gentle giant who was fun to talk to and relax with.

Chad was an otaku who was that one friend you had that knows everything about old games and watches tons upon tons of anime. He had blonde hair, brown eyes, and was a little bit overweight, but not by much. He stood at about 6'2" and had some Japanese in him; the eyes were what gave it away. He usually wore some kind of retro shirt and a pair of sweatpants, along with a pair of sneakers. He was rather nice to be around, though he was a HUGE critic, had very colorful language, and grunted often ... for some reason. But hey, he was a great friend.

Josh was that one friend that constantly made you face-palm at everything they did. His jokes were bad, his thought process scrambled, and was just a big sigh, if you know what I mean. He had reddish-blonde hair with light blue eyes and a Scottish red beard. He stood at about 5'9" and was wide bodied, but he was built like a truck. Short though he may be, he packed heat. He usually wore a T-shirt and a pair of black jogging pants with brown work boots. Josh might have been a weird one, but if you needed someone to back you up in a fight, he'd probably hit the person before you did.

Alec was the type of guy that everyone loved, though he mostly hated everyone else and showed it often. He had anger problems and was a bit unpredictable. If you saw him, he'd either hit you first, tackle you, or insult you... or something in between. He was a blast to hang with and for some reason, when he was around me, he was more... extreme, I'd like to say. He had black hair, brown eyes, and a black goatee. He and I were about the same height, at 6'6", and he was built like what he was: a soldier. Alec usually wore a long-sleeved black shirt, with his army uniform, military boots, and a scarf. He was a fun and interesting person to be around, and was my right hand man.

Then there's me. At the time, I was a quiet but tactical person that always seemed to bring out the worst in others (not much has changed there), and I always had outrageous ideas, and was a little crazy when it came to my thought process. I had medium length blonde hair and a striking pair of cold, death-blue eyes. I usually wore a shirt of some sort, along with my London-styled black jacket, with a pair of jeans and black boots. I stood at Alec's height, 6'6", and have a deep voice with a slight German accent. I had a skinny build, but underneath my clothing, there was muscle. I was the neutral friend that, for some reason, drew the group together. I didn't entirely understand that, but oh well.

Jimmy and I were playing pool while the others were playing some games over at the TV, with some jazz playing in the background. Alec was kicking some ass as Sub Zero. Again. Chad seemed to be doing some Chad things while Jimmy was kicking my ass at pool when suddenly the front door got busted down. Alec went soldier mode and pulled out his SR and ducked behind the couch. Josh went to do the same, but was too slow and got nailed with a .12 gauge slug. Around this time, Jimmy and I were behind the pool table we had flipped over. Jimmy got out his Glock 17 and I grabbed my sword, which was something I made. I have a hobby in blacksmithing, so I made a medium-sized katana that had a black blade and platinum hand guard and pommel. Jimmy hopped up and opened fire on the intruder, but all I heard was bullets hitting armor plates. When I heard that, I yelled at Jimmy to get down, but it was too late. He was shot promptly and fell over onto me. He had a hole in the left side of his chest with his left arm hanging on by mere tendons.

I was shocked to say the least, but it was not the time to panic as I looked up and saw the shield I made for Alec on the wall, which happened to be bulletproof. At that, I sheathed my sword, grabbed Jimmy's Glock, and checked the clip, which had three rounds plus one in the chamber. Then I looked at Alec and motioned my head at the shield and signaled him my plan to make my way over, but I'd need a few seconds. He nodded and shot a few rounds at the guy to drew his attention.

I used the time he had bought to grab the shield. Once I got it, I turned around and finally got a good look at the intruder. He was wearing full armor plating with (what I'm guessing to be) a bullet proof mask. He held a Mossberg 500 shotgun and had a bible strapped to his hip. Once he saw me, he took a shot at me. I blocked with the shield and ducked down quickly. I strapped on the shield and made my way over to Chad. The guy shot at me again, which was useless, considering I had this huge-ass shield. But he tried. I got over to Chad and saw him on his cellphone. He told whoever it was our location and to hurry. I think it was the cops. I told him to get behind me so we could regroup with Alec. He did, and we started our way over to Alec.

Chad lagged behind a bit, and that was all that crazy asshole needed. He hit Chad directly in the side. I tried to get to him, but I got grazed on my right side with the shot that hit Chad in the chest. The intruder, seeing this, started yelling crazily. "DIE, SPAWNS OF SATAN!!!".

WTF? What’s wrong with this guy? After that, I pushed my right arm on my side to slow down the bleeding, and continued on my way over to Alec. Once I got over to him, he asked me if I was alright. I told him I’d survive (which is ironic, now that I think about it). Alec asked me if I could take some shots while he reloaded. I nodded and waited for the click sound that a shotgun makes when one starts the reload process.

Once I heard it, I popped up and took some shots. I fired two shots and hit plates both times. My third shot hit his hand, and my fourth shot hit him in a weak point I spotted in his armor: his left thigh. The man cried out in pain, but remained standing. Once this happened, Alec took his opportunity and rushed the guy. He rammed right into him and pinned him to the wall. It seemed like Alec had the upper hand, until the crazy son of a bitch got a hand free. Before Alec could react, the man pulled out a trench knife and plunged it into the left side of Alec's chest. Alec stood there for a while, until he finally started to fall to the floor. When I saw this, something just... clicked... inside me.

Then I heard it ... or should I say, HIM. "HeheheheheHahahahaHAHAHAHA!!!!!" I started to laugh uncontrollably. I slowly got up from behind my cover, still laughing, and slowly drew my blade, looking at the ground. I suddenly lifted my head and made eye contact with intru .... no. Not an intruder. He was a "Muurrrrdddeeerrrrrrreeerrrr". His eyes widened when I made eye contact, and he quickly pulled out a small silver cross, held it up to me, and started mumbling prayers. That was when the one I heard earlier spoke, but more clearly this time. He spoke just two simple words, but those sparks really caught fire in myself.Those two words.

"DesTROy HiM!".

I immediately rushed after him at an impossible speed. I mean, I crossed a twenty foot gap in what seemed like a few milliseconds. Once I reached him, I used my momentum to drive my blade into him, through the plate armor, and pretty much nailed him to the wall. When he realized what happened, he quickly drove his knife into my heart .... but I just kept on laughing. I never even processed it. The killer then said, "God please have mercy on my soul, and save me from this demon!".

At that, I stopped laughing and just gave him a grin, saying, "Sorry, I don't forgive you," in a calm tone. I reached my hand back, which was then orbited like an atom by runes that only I could see. The man just stared at my hand as I slowly moved it towards him and, right before it touched him, I said one last thing. "Trust me; after this, there will be nothing left!" I made contact with his head, which started to disintegrate into dust, before the dust vanished into nothingness.

I was laughing again while watching him slowly vanish, but then I felt something touch my leg. I looked down and saw... Alec. He looked up to me and said, "Dust, look at yourself. Look in the mirror and wake up. This is not you. Don't let me go out seeing my friend turn into a monster." I looked up at the full-body mirror on the door and saw... a beast. There was something there. It had warped smile on it's face and a knife in its chest… but the eyes were... neutral. They contained immense power. They had both the potential to create and help, but also the immense overbearing power to destroy all in their path. Those eyes contained a glowing red star with two circles of glowing red runes that spun ever so slowly. Behind that was a glowing, cold blue background that was a little duller than the red star and rune.

I was shocked at what I saw... and the monster looked how I felt. It lost its wicked smile and looked surprised and scared. It took a while, but I finally figured out that this monster... was me. I then closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, I looked back in the mirror and the eyes were gone, with tears running down my face. I looked down at the knife in my chest and grabbed it. I prepared myself for a lot of pain and blood... and death. I worked up the courage to pull out the knife, which I did. The pain was excruciating, but there was no blood, and I was alive. Looking down, I was astonished. The wound was closing! I stared at where the wound used to be and could only say one thing before passing out.

"No..."

That was over ten thousand years ago. Now I start to come back to reality and take another look at what triggered this memory. I was standing in a doorway to a small shack as I looked inside at the occupants. To the left of the doorway were two equine-looking anthromorphs. They were sitting on a rather fancy-but comfortable looking-couch in front of some sort of entertainment center. There was what looked to be a TV and game system on it, along with a record player. The two beings got up and looked at me, one looking curious while the other was giving me a death glare.

The curious one was pink. She was about 5'4", not including her horn. Yes, she had a horn, along with wings and a tail. Her body had an hourglass look to it and she was at least a D cup if not bigger. She had a pink, purple, and gold mane. What? Anyways, she had light purple eyes and a flawless face. A blue shirt and a pair of yoga pants were worn on her frame. I could tell she had a deceit sized mana pocket, but it was only one-fifth of the way tapped.

Then there was the one that looked more pissed than me when someone takes my chocolate milk without asking. She stood at about five-foot-six, and was graced with a beautiful nightshade-blue coat. Similar to her partner, she also had a horn, wings, and a tail. Her body had a more built look to it, but she still retained the type of figure every man wanted. She was about a C cup, and had a nice pair of blue diamond eyes. She, like the other, was also gorgeous, but she had three-fifths of her potential unlocked, and it was large. I thought her hair showed this, as it appeared as though the night sky resided in it, even though it was up in a ponytail (no pun intended). Her choice of clothing was a baggy red shirt with some pajama pants that had game controllers all over them.

Upon seeing me, the blue one launched at me, using her wings to gather momentum. I saw this a mile away, and side-stepped right at the last second. Once she was slightly past me, I brought my right hand around, grabbed the back of her head, and slammed it straight into the ground, using her own power against her, which promptly knocked her out.

Once I stood back up, I felt a presence behind me and rapidly dropped back down. The pink one flew over me, hitting the wall. While she was dazed, I put my hand on her head and activated my magic, whispering,"Sleep," and used a very efficient and powerful sleep spell my one and only (living) friend taught had taught me. She immediately dropped to the floor, unconscious.

I stood back up once again and looked around the rest of the room. In the back left hand corner there was a purple one of these things, with a book on the ground in front of her and her hands over her mouth in shock. Over to the right side of the room there was a pool table with two more beings. One was a white version of the other three, but she was taller and sported a pair of wide eyes. The other was . . . interesting . . . to say the least. She was like the ultimate chimera.

The purple one had, well, a purple coat and wore a one-piece pink pajama outfit. She had dark violet hair with a hot-pink stripe going through the left side of it. She too had a horn, wings, and a tail, and was approximately anywhere from a B to a C cup (I think she was still growing), and stood at about five foot. She wasn’t as built as the blue one, didn't have the hourglass shape of the pink one, and had the build of an average London woman. Her eyes were a dull but pretty violet. Her mana pocket was very substantial, but only had about one-eighth of it tapped.

Now, the white one was certainly different from the others. For starters, she was at least six-foot-two, with hair that appeared to be made of the sunrise itself. She had-you guessed it-a horn with wings and a tail. She had magenta eyes and was wearing sweatpants and . . . a bra. She is an E cup by the way. She had a normal build . . . unless you look closely. Then you would see the muscle hidden beneath the alabaster fur. Her mana pool was the second biggest here- not including myself- and it was tapped four-fifths of the way, though it was weakened somehow.

I’d have to investigate that later.

Then there was the . . . unique . . . one of the five. She was six-foot-six (neat, my height) and had gorgeous snow-white hair. She had one antler (four point, still young.) on the right side of her head and one blue, curved-back horn on her left. Her body was a whole spectrum of colors. Her head had a grey coat that went down to her shoulders, and the color of her torso was gold. No, seriously. It was metallic and everything. She also happened to possess an impressive pair of Double Ds. Her right arm was that of a griffon (yes, I know my mythical creatures), with the feathers on the arm like that of a golden eagle with talons the color of cream, ending in black tips. Her left arm looked to be that of a panther, and a black panther at that, which was pretty cool. On her back were two wings, one that was of a purple wyvern, and the other that looked to be a light-orange pegasus wing. Her right leg was that of a hydra, with emerald green scales and blackened tips, while her right is that of a dragon with light pink scales, enhanced with a shimmering gloss. However, both legs seemed to have the same set-up as a human leg. She owned a tail that looked quite like it belonged to a blue kirin, complete with a tuft of white fur at the end. Her eyes were one of the most striking things about her, though. They contained white pupils and red irises, surrounded with bright yellow scleras, which shone beautifully . . . WHOA! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT? . . . uh oh . . . ANYWAYS, she had one small fang slightly poking out from underneath the left side of her upper lip. A white tank top with blue jeans and a pair of rainbow socks showed off her build to be that of Debella, and trust me, I have seen that divine figure before. Also in her possession was a gigantic mana supply, partially sealed by a user of similar magic to hers.

After making these quick observations, I saw the purple and the white ones’ horns surround themselves in purple and gold runes (to anyone else it looks like a purple and gold aura), while the unique one remains just giving me a puzzled expression . . . it's really cute. Anyways, purple and white were charging up their spells; purple seemed to be a freeze spell while the white one charged up a light blast. Both spells were extremely easy (at least to me), and wouldn't take much to dispel, but I needed to nip this problem in the butt, so instead of dispelling their spells, I just cut them off from almost all of their magic. I left enough for them to live, of course.

Their spells stopped dead in their tracks, and their eyes widened in shock. I finally took the opportunity to speak. "Is that really how you treat people who were just thrown into your universe by a magical, skin bound book that they bought from a shady magical pawn shop owner?" Just when I thought their eyes couldn't get any wider, they became diner plates.

"Did ... did you just talk?" said the purple one with a stutter in her voice.

"Yes, yes I did." I said as I walked up to the blue one. I kneeled down and went to pick her up, but . . .

"Touch her, and I will end you right there." said the white one, giving me an even more intense death glare than before.

"One, I'm going to pick her up and take her to the couch; two, I'm not hostile until others are hostile towards me; and three, you can barely move with your magic sealed as much as it is," I picked the blue one up bridal style and carried her over to the couch. I checked her head and saw no external damage and I felt no soft spots on her skull, which was good. Completing that, I went over to the pink one and picked her up. While I was walking over to the chair purple was in, I saw their expressions. White was angry, but under that anger I saw defeat. Purple looked like she is going to piss herself, and was shaking like a leaf. But Unique was . . . smiling?

It was interesting, but I made my way over to purple in her chair anyways. Once I was in front of her I said, "Could you move please? I need somewhere to set her down," I asked this as politely as I could with a kind smile. Her shaking stopped a little, but not completely.

"O-Okay." mumbled out purple. She got up and went over to white's side. I set pink down, curled up into a ball on the chair (it was a big chair). After that, I stood back up at full height and turned around . . . to see two beautiful red pearls staring right into my ARGH! STOP IT BRAIN, THAT’S NOT ALLOWED!

I was blushing a little, but didn’t back up, which she didn’t do either. "Who are you?" she asked with her head tilted to her left. Two horse-like ears I didn't see before tilted also. The right ear was pointing straight up while the left ear pointed down. Damn that was cute. Her voice was hot, too. Fuck.

After observing once more how cute she was, I answered, "My name is Dust, and, just to get a future question out of the way, I'm a human. Now, who might you be, beautiful?" Shit. Why did I say that?

Her cheeks instantly flushed with a shocked look, with which she replied with, "Well- uh - he he-" she started rubbing the back of her head and averted her gaze "-well, my name is Pandora, and I'm one of the two last draconequi. The other is my father, Discord, god of chaos," She then slightly chuckled.

"Hmm. I would like to meet him one day," I replied with a smile. The scary thing was, it was a true smile. I hadn't had one of those since the last time I saw my best (and only, living) friend. "May I ask who the others are?"

She smiled and jumped back a bit and spoke with a very happy smile. It was that kind of happy smile that you knew indicated that they were going to say things freely and without care. "Well, the the blue one on the couch is Luna or Lulu, princess/goddess of the night and co-ruler of Equestria, alongside sun ass here," she pointed at the white one who glared at her, "Her real name is Celestia, and she is the princess/goddess of the sun. The pink one is Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadence for short. She is the princess of love, ruler of the Crystal Empire, and a huge door mat. Finally, the purple one ready to piss herself over there by sun ass is Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship, who also happens to have the hots for one of her friends! That about covers it!" She finished with a cute smile and a head tilt with her eyes closed.

After all that, there was only one thing on my mind after I processed everything: I like her, don’t I?

Chapter 1: Damn it ....

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Author's Notes:

Hello readers! This chapter and the next one (maybe) are going to be a little slow. I'm trying to give you some knowledge on the characters and their personality's. A lot of your questions are still left unanswered, but all in due time.

But I have a question for you the readers, in this chapter I do something and go into detail about something and not into something else into thee begging (You will know what I'm talking about). I want to do this more and make the concept of this thing more scientific and better explained through my own ideas. I personally like a story with detail. My question is what do you think? If a good bit of you say go for it there will be some chapters dedicated to it in some way that is still taking place and is relevant to the story.

Sincerely,

Dontaskaboutit

Edited by dawn seeker

After the introductions I stood there for a few seconds before I started to look around for something to drink. After a second or two I spotted a magic fridge or the more technical term magia glaciem unit which is nothing more than a box with a ice enchantment with a gem that acts as a receiver for a transmitter somewhere that most likely siphons off mana from the planet and transfers it to the gem that then powers the enchantment. If you are wondering what it looks like it is just a simple stand up refrigerator that is white. The only difference is that it has a floating blue gem about the size of two fingers put together on the top.

But seeing this setup scares me a little in the terms of this world's advancement in the scientific field. Even though this fridge uses magic, magic is still a form of science since it is a manipulation of matter and the energy called mana, to achieve a specific goal or to work for some sort of function, and I am quite fluid and versed in this field of science since I spent many, many, MANY years studying it and all other forms of science. I saw earlier that they had a game console and a Television, BUT with magic those are two easy to accomplish feats. I would get into how that is easy to accomplish but I don’t want to bore you, so moving on to my fears. This fridge has the most inefficient setup when it is much easier, and less wasteful, to use a direct current setup, which means the transmitter that uses up a lot of mana to both keep itself running, keep the runes and spell working, and transmit the mana, plus mana is lost on the way to the receiver, this whole system just uses up too much mana to achieve the specified goal. But the direct current only requires the item and receiver to do all that at a lower cost.

Now you might be thinking, “A planet has a unlimited mana pool, and therefore can not be depleted, so why are we even having this conversation?” well for most planets I would tell you good job, you get a A+ and a gold star, now make sure you study for the midterm! BUT that only applies planets that have a spinning core, and if my observations are correct this one does not. Since I got here little over two hours ago ( Including my one hour and forty five minutes of wandering before I found this place) the clouds outside have not moved, the sun has not moved an inch, and finally my compass does not work (yes, I have a compass). That is bad. But seeing that there is still life here the inhabitants have found a way to deal with this. But with this stuff and this ‘transmit - receive’ style of mana supply, they are draining the planet's pool, and fast. (Note to self: Gather information on this topic later. Maybe I could help them, or at least the planet.)

I went to the ‘refrigerator’ and opened it up to see what was inside. In the background I could hear Pandora, Purple (Yes I know her name but Purple is what my mind labeled her to be called.), and Celestia talking. Well it sound like Celestia and Purple scolded Pandora, while the draconequus had no fucks to give.

Inside the ‘fridge’ was a assortment of beverages. Daffodil Dew, Ponspi, Canterlot Original, and many more sodas I did not recognize. I kept skimming the unit until I found something great. Something amazing. Something so out of this world that I am on the verge of tears. What I found was the liquid of GODS … chocolate milk!

It was a gallon (Imperial system check.) of chocolate milk with a red cap (Whole milk maybe?) that was halfway empty. Right next to it were drinking glasses (Keeps them cool I guess?). I grabbed one and poured myself a glass of the divine fluid. After that I stood back up with my glass and turned around to watch Purple and Celestia yell at Pandora (who still looks like she does not care.) in a hush-hush tone. Even though they thought they were being quiet I could still hear them load a clear.

“Seriously Pandora what in the name of Faust were you thinking! Not only did you insult me and everypony-” Celestia was saying before I interrupted.

“Everybody.” I corrected.

“... What?” she turned around and asked spooked and confused.

“Nothing just talking to myself. Carry on.” She stared at me for a moment before turning back around and continuing her hushed scolding.

“... -in this room. Not only that you endangered yourself and the rest of us by not helping us fight him.” scolded Celestia.

“Who attacked first? Hmm, Oh, that’s right Luna! What did he do? Yes, haha, how could I forget, he defended himself. Damn, better lock him up in Tartarus for that one!” replied Pandora with very thick sarcasm.

Purple decided to join in, “It does not matter! He could have hurt somepony!”

“Somebody.” I corrected for a second time.

Purple turned around and looked at me with a curious expression and said, “Excuse me, what do you mean by “somebody”.”

I politely smiled and said “Oh nothing, just correcting your terminology.”

Purples right eye twitched “Excuse me, I'm sorry but I could’ve sworn you just said you were correcting me?” asked the mare. (Oh no, not someone who thinks they're never wrong.)

I deadpan at the response “Yes that is exactly what I said. You and Celestia keep using the terms “somepony” and “everypony” and I’m going to go out on a limb here, but you probably use “pony”, “ponies”, and “anypony” too. All those terms are extremely racist, especially since you live in a world with multiple sentient species. The correct terms to use for this type of world are “somebody”, “everybody”, “everyone”, “someone”, “anybody”, “anyone”, and any term that can describe multiple species at once like “people”. Seeing that you don’t use terms like these leads me to believe that you either didn’t know about any of the other races until recently or you have a racist society.” I explain in a monotone way ending with a sigh.

By the end of my little lecture Purple looks like she is about to blow a gasket “HOW DARE YOU CORRECT ME! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU-”

I cut her off knowing just what to say to end this “Muffin button.” I say in a childish way with a childlike informative tone.

Her anger instantly turns into confusion “What?”

Now it’s time to bring it home, “What?”

She then develops a thousand yard stare and stops talking, a clear sign of her mind shutting down and rebooting. I smile with victory. (Works every time.)

I take a glance to my left and spot my image on a mirror. After so many years my image has changed a bit. I still look as young as ever, but my once dirty blonde hair is now a metallic silver from both time and extensive magic use. My eyes were also the same cold death blue, but also thanks to using magic for so long, they glow blue when it gets dark, but usually they were covered up by my Alucard esc sunglasses. I had long ago replaced my London style jacket with a Gothic Victorian black trench coat with a gray tee shirt underneath. My pants were just a simple pair of faded black jeans with sigils placed on the knees. There purposes is to reinforce the knees (you’d be surprised by how often they will rip when in battle.) and provide protection and style. I had on my brand New Blackhawk tactical boots. Finally on my left side was that same sword I made all those years ago.(But with a few special enchants.)

I look back to the group address the other two, “Okay while her mind is rebooting, one I will answer almost all questions when everyone awakens. Second, if you promise me Celestia, you may have your magic back.” I then reached over with my right hand and put it on the guard of my sword, and with a flick of my thumb, brought the blade out just far and fast enough to cut my hand. Then I used some magic to hold the wound open so my healing factor does not close it back up. I then reach out towards Celestia waiting for her to shake my hand.

She stared at my hand in mild shock and then slowly looked back up at me “What is this?”

“Shake my hand and fulfill your end of the promise.” I said with a kind smile.

“And what promise would that be?” she asks with a defensive look.

“I promise to give you your magic back, as long as you never use any of your power against me.”

“Okay, and why did you cut your hand?”

“Oh, this is just to enforce the terms of the promise.”

“Which are?”

“I will give you back your magic, in exchange you must promise and shake my hand that you will never use your power against me, to do so will result in you being stripped of said power until I decide to remake this very promise.” I said, still with a kind smile.

“So I have to make a deal to get MY magic back!” she said with a bit more volume.

“Who tried to incinerate me with a spell so hot it could almost match the sun in kelvin for no reason?” I say with a more neutral expression taking its place upon my facial features.

She looked down at the ground in shame with a sad expression with her ears splayed back “Okay …. But you have to include Twilight's magic to.” she reached out and shook my hand.

*Celestia P.O.V.*

“Deal.”

I thought about what he said and bowed my head in shame. I’m a princess for my mother's sakes, I’m suppose to ask questions first! I reached out and grabbed his hand with mine …. and nearly fainted.

My breath left me, the air was cold to the point it felt unreal, and my chest felt like it was full of lead. My heart stopped and so did my thoughts of everything but what was happening. My vision went black and white and I saw a tall being clad in faded old black robes with its aged skeletal hand on ours slowly wrapping a chain around them. When it was all the way around it tightened around our hands to the point I thought they would break and in an instant, it was over and everything returned to normal.

*Dust P.O.V.*

Well that went well. This one didn’t pass out from fear, but she looks like she just seen a train wreck with one train full of puppies and the other baby pandas. I let go of her hand and let the wound on my hand heal, which it did almost instantaneously. She quickly retracted her hand and held it close to her with her other hand and asked “W-W-What did you d-do?”

“Oh nothing much, all I did was make this promise binding, so if either one of us breaks our promise they have to keep to their side of the promise.” I say nonchalantly. then I heard some groans coming from both the couch and chair. I put down my glass of awesomeness and walk over to the blue one designated as Luna to check on her to make sure she hasn't suffered and unseen damage while Pandora went to Celestia’s side.

Luna was slowly regaining consciousness after our little ‘tussle’. I walked over to her and place my hand on her head. when I did she flinched back, but did not verbally respond to the action. Her eyes opened and after a few seconds of blinking she saw me. Her eyes went wide (no memory loss, that’s a good sign) and she tried to jump back but the couch she was laying on got in her way. I grab her shoulders “Easy now, you don’t want to get back up to fast, you took quite a shot to the head. Just calm down I’m not going to hurt you, the proof being you're, A.) Not chained and B.) Still alive.” once she calmed down I let go of her and stepped back. “How do you feel?”

She tried to get up but she immediately grabbed her head and hissed, “My head hurts a little but we should be fine stranger.” She replied while rubbing her head softly.

“That’s good, at least you’re durable.” (as durable as a German engineered tank). I looked over at the chair where Cadence, on the chair, is finally waking up from the sleep spell. She gets up and rubs her right eye with her right hand while yawning with her left arm in the air stretching. After stretching she smacked her lips together a few times and looked around the room. She had a confused look when she saw Purple standing as still as a statue and Pandora looking at Celestia’s hand flipping it over while Celestia talked about what she saw. Then her eyes skimmed over to Luna finally sitting up on the couch, she smiled when she saw that, then her eyes eventually fell on me.

“Eep!” *crash*

(Keep a straight face Dust. Come on you can do it!!!) a smile was slowly working its way onto my face after that. After she saw me she fell off the chair, rolled a few times, and then crashed into the pool table. Now she is upside down with her hair in a mess, and everyone, even Purple, is staring at her while this deafening silence hangs in the air.

But that didn't last long.

“HAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHA!!!” Howls Purple.

“Hehehehehe.” chuckles Pandora while her and I go over to help the poor girl.

“Pfft!” goes Sun Butt as her terror instantly turns into amusement while she tries to stifle her laugh with her hand.

“Owww” is Luna’s response to the loud noises around her.

I simply smile and help the poor girl up. “Are you okay Cadence?” I say as I help get her to her feet.

“Yea I’m okay … how do you know my name?” She says while backing away from me.

I point at Pandora “She told me.”

“Guilty as charged.” confirms Pandora while raising her hand up half way.

Cadence stops in her tracks, “oh.”

“Okay, as said before, now that everyone’s up, it’s question time and I have only one for now. What’s four princesses and a daughter of chaos doing in some building in the middle of a forest?” I ask as I sat on the chair Cadence was previously sleeping on. I then used magic to teleport my glass of chocolate milk in my hand. If you are wondering how that looks, just imagine the glass just appearing in my hand, no flash, it just appears. I spent a day figuring out how to do it without the flash and succeeded.

The four mares and one draconequus either came closer or just turned towards me. Luna and Cadence turned the couch around to face towards me, and then they sat down and relaxed a bit. Celestia sat on top of the pool table and then crossed her legs and arms. Purple just brought up another chair from across the room and then got herself situated.

Pandora came over and sat on the right armrest of the chair I was on, She then crossed her legs, giving me a nice view of her toned legs under the jeans, she then put her left arm along the top of the chair and responded to my question, “Well we are all here because even though we are important and can have everything and anything we want, we like to get together every now and then in this secret hideout and just hang out without having anyone around to bother us. We don’t get to come here often with my father checking up on me every hour on the clock, and with the princesses doing their duties, so you're lucky we were here since there is nothing around here for miles.” she says while taking my glasses and wearing them herself. “How do you see with these on! It’s like looking through solidified fire!” I chuckled a little and answered her while squinting.

"My eyes are really sensitive to light thanks to a few past mistakes I can’t reverse. I got those glasses from a friend who made them for me. They filter out most light to the point everything looks like a decently lit room for me. May I have them back? This hurts and it’s hard to see.” I ask with my hand held out as I looked up a little at her.

She then had a ‘oh’ look on her and then she put them back on my face herself .... giving me a good look of her breasts … she is either really oblivious or she’s doing it on purpose. My money's on the later. “Thank you. Now that my question was answered, ask away!” I announce with a smile. Purple’s hand shot up like a rocket. I point to her. She then teleports a piece of paper and …. oh no … I hope that quill and ink well is just for looks.

“What are you?” she asks with her … quill at the ready.

“First off no written documents on my answers.” I then snapped my fingers and the paper and quill disintegrate.

“BUT-”

“No buts! Second, I am a human, a race of extremely intelligent, but very violent and dangerous species.” I answer with a neutral expression. everyone but Pandora gulps while she just chuckles a little. Celestia was the second to ask her question.

“Do all humans possess the same level of magic you do. I can’t sense your magic but just from what you demonstrated you have very high magical abilities.”

“No. No humans, nor almost anything for that matter, have the same level of magic I do. But there are some beings, human or not, that posses a … gift similar to what gives me my abilities.” I then felt Pandora playing with my hair.

“What gift is that?” asks the being playing with my hair.

“The gift-” I close my eyes and focus on making my magic radiate. I felt the familiar sense of pressure in my eyes, the glorious, intoxicating pressure. I then open my eyes “-is a stigma.” the others gasp as they see my eyes. If you are wondering the once cold blue eyes .. are still there but they now glow. In front of them is a rune. The rune is impossible to copy, trust me I tried, it consists of a red star with shifting red sigils in the five arms of the star, then there are two red rings the go through each arm of the star. In between the rings is a slowly spinning ring of magical symbols and sigils from many different realms and forms of magic that change every time that pass through the arms of the star. Finally outside the outermost ring is another ring of symbols and sigils, but this ring is a constantly changing and evolving stabilization ring that passes through the tips of the arms to control and contain everything within that ring.

“I myself hold the last Alpha stigma in existence, but there are many other stigmas in existence. Some give there bearer full control over a specific school of magic, I know of a few with said ability, and I’m best friends with one. Other stigmas can give a being future sight, the ability to turn living things into mana, dream walk, mind control, see lifespans, see the makeup of any piece of matter and energy, memory transfer, and many other abilities. Every stigma though is unique. Even though two fire stigmas are fire stigmas the two beings that bear them have a different gift given to them by the stigma, but both users get the same drawback. Every type of stigma has a drawback depending on the stigma. A good example are those with a Lino Doue stigma, which give the user the ability to devour any intelligent species, like you, and turn it into mana, increased strength, and a limited healing factor depending on what they ate. The drawback is they eventually start to crave the flesh of their own kind and they are easily angered. Another example is the stigma I possess, the users of the Alpha stigma gain an understanding of all magic and can easily learn anything just from observation and they can read at a very rapid pace, but the downside of this power is …. the power itself. Alpha stigma users are very unstable. They are nothing more than a weapon of mass destruction waiting to go off, hence why they are killed on site or awakening. The Alpha stigma, and many others, are only awaken or discovered when the bearer has seen something highly tragic personally to them. When a Alpha stigma user awakens … that day is usually the last day they live. They go mad and start destroying everything around them and eventually themselves because of the power overload. If they did survive their awakening they are a ticking time bomb and could snap at any moment. That is a Alpha stigma user's burden. I know of one user whose burden is the hatred towards him of almost everyone and everything around him. But sometimes some users get stuck with a double curse …” I finish while bowing my head in sorrow and letting the stigma power down. A single tear falls from my eye, and that tear is made of blood. Why? Because I have no more tears.

Silence lingered in the room. No one talked or even moved until … I felt myself be gently embraced by two arms and wings, one arm with feathers and one with soft black fur. One wing of soft skin and the other soft orange feathers. Neither one of us said a thing she just held me while I calmed myself down … is this what a hug feels like? It’s been so long .... it helps a lot.

I finally calmed down and raised my head but Pandora did not let go, “*sigh* Okay next question.” after a few minutes Cadence finally asked the dreaded question.

“How did you get here?”

“.... Damn It….”

"I already feel sick."

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“.... Damn it ....” I say aloud. I bring up my hands a rub my face a bit and sigh. This is a LONG story … to me at least. I look up at the ceiling and drift off in memory.

______________________________________________________________________

I hopped out of the portal, barefoot, with burns on my feet. Why? I fought a fire spirit and my old ass mind forgot to put the fire ward on my god damn feet! Anyway I look down at my feet and sigh, “Time for new boots I suppose.”

I teleported to my home in United States, Pennsylvania. It is a old farm house passed down to me by my father thirty two years ago when he passed away. I have enough money here to buy a continent if I wanted to, but this house has been in the family for many generations and I guess I’m its final owner. I walk into the back door and go through the kitchen into the dining room and stop for a second and look at the mantle … there they are my four crazy freinds immortalized in a single piece of paper with ink. I can’t believe that happened only sixty years ago here … it happened so much longer ago to me … I light the candle on the mantel with my magic. I don’t believe in any religion, I just do it because they were all fire bugs. I walk away and turn on the holodeck in the living room and turned on the news the date was December twenty first, two thousand and seventy four …. only five years since I left huh? That means she is still alive … I’ll have to visit her after I get new boots. How old would she be … Eighty two .... the same age dad died.

I left the holodeck on, since it broadcasts through the house, so I could hear the news and what I had missed. I turn around and head upstairs and make a right and entered the master bedroom. I went to the closet and get out a new pair of boots. This happened a lot more often than you think when I was here. As I was stringing on the new pair of Black Hawk Tacticals I heard something on the news that brought a smile to my depressing face. “ This just in Dr. Anna Lynn ****** has just announced that she has discovered a way to travel between solar systems in less than one year and is planning to build the Jump Port to do so, and it should be done by next December! Here she is now! Do you have anything to say Anna! “Hehe, just mom I love you and uncle if you're out there … I finally did it … thank you for believing in me.” I smile at what she said … my little Anna finally did it. Anna is my niece by the way. Me and her got along ever since she was young and she always watched me work. After she hit age seventeen she decided she wanted to follow in my footsteps as a scholar and scientist to advance the human races technology. She decided to go down the space route, which I still helped her in, to the point I molded her into a problem solving machine.

I reach into my jacket pocket and walked back downstairs to the holodeck. I got out my phone and went into my contacts. I selected the one named Bear and clicked dial. I put it up to my ear and watch the holodeck.

On it I hear Requiem For A Tower, one of my favorite songs and smile. Anna's eyes go wide and she quickly get out her phone and tells everyone to shut up. She answered “Hello?”

I smile a bit more softer when I see a tear come down her face, “Good job Anna Bear, good job indeed.” I then hang up. On the holodeck I see Anna take the phone away from her ear crying … but with a smile. She then puts the phone away and walks over to her vehicle and drives off.

I put away my phone and then walked back into the kitchen. I head right and go to the cubert. I grabbed a wine glass and then summoned up some wine I got from a friend, that is almost more than a thousand years old. I poured some and then dismissed the bottle of wine. I sit back against the counter and sip on the sweet, exotic wine. I take a deep breath … the next thing on my list is not going to be easy and then the thing afterwards … that's going to be even harder.

I finished off my wine and washed the glass and put it back. I went back into the living room and turned off the holodeck. Nothing good was on. I walked back to the dining room and blew out the candle. I go out the back door and lock it. I looked out at the beautiful landscape and untouched land that has been in the family for generations. Not many places like this exist anymore. I breath in the cold air and relax … it’s been so long. I imagine the spot I need to be and teleport there.

I port to a open field area where the field is aligned with tombstones … an area, no matter how long I live, that I will never forget where I need to go. I walked for about three minutes until I found the four graves I was looking for. “Sup assholes.” I say to my deceased friends. “It has been quite awhile, for me at least, I just wanted to stop by before I head back out. Chad you would have loved where I just came from! That was the most anime like dimension I have ever been to haha! But that fire spirit was insane so … ya. Oh, I come bearing gifts!” I summon up four objects that I know my friends would love. “For you Jimmy a Dwarven sphere engine.” I use magic to imbed it into his gravestone. The sphere was about the size of a large marble, but it could power about ten trucks, with nothing more than a power source like a mana gem, for about five years before needing to be refilled. it is a fantastic piece of technology. “The next is for you Josh, a Dwarven axe.” the axe was a one handed francesca style axe that is made out of the special metal the Dwarves use. I could never understand the composition, or even what they used to make the metal, but it is on par with my enchanted blade. I brought the axe back and used magic to weaken the stone and drove it in, now there is a axe sticking out of Josh’s headstone. “This is for you chad. It took me awhile, but I found a universe with decent anime that was on dvd. This one resembles Rosario + Vampire a lot except the main character is a Elf that looks kinda like Link.” I took out the dvd and then embedded it in his gravestone. “And finally for you Alec.” I unsheath a sword. It is a short sword with a blue blade with distinct markings in a foreign language that says ‘To risk a limb, is to be a friend. But to risk a life, is to be a brother.’, the handle is a crimson red with the hand guard and pommel pure silver. “This is a sword given to those of the great warlords of Armada. It is only give to those who died in battle to protect a fellow warrior, or to someone who almost died doing the same act.” I channeled magic through the blade. I then brought it up and then drove it into his tombstone ‘Sword in the Stone’ style. The magic, just like the other items, infuses the sword with the stone so it can not be removed.

I step back from their graves and look at what I’ve done to them. “Hehe, it looks right to me … good bye again my friends.” I walk away from their graves and head to the next set. On my way I listen to the sounds of my home world, my home universe. The sound of the snow falling and crunching under my feet with the mana rivers connecting all the planets and galaxies into one big web of energy that synchronize with a calming humm. All the unused, pure, raw power that seems to envelope you while you’re here.

In my admiration of my home plain I ended up at my destination. I look slightly down and I see them, “ Hi mom, hi dad.” I sit down in between there gravestones and put my hands on both “ Have things been good? I hope so. For me I have been doing good. I’ve learned a lot from my travels … and I even made a friend … I hope you are happy with that since you two always got on my ass about that.” I chuckled a little. “I haven't seen him in a long, long while though. It’s probably only been five years for him since that is the odd kink the D.A.A.U.R spell. For the everlasting life of me I can not figure out how to fix that without having constant portals to keep the timelines in link! And that can't be done because of the risk factors involved. Even if I put some in my H.O.M.E, but that is really hard to do since I made it using a active black hole … maybe make a second H.O.M.E using less dangerous means. I mean, BLAH! There I go rambling on again, hehe I never grew out of that did I?” I got up and stretched out with a grunt. “Well mom, dad I gotta go, I still have one more person to visit,” I bend down and kiss the tops of both headstones, just like I have done for many years.”love you both.”

I take a few steps back and then fired up my tracking spell and set it to find those that share my blood down to my mother and father. After three seconds I get a hit, close my eyes and instantly teleport to it.

When I get there I hear a constant beeping … and I then smell alcohol … no. I open my eyes and gaze around starting from my right. Theres a heavy oak door with a stainless steel handle (pretty odd considering todays day and age.) with a heavy lock above it. The walls are painted a soft purple with matching chairs in the corners. I look straight out from where i'm standing and see a beautiful view of a mountain range (hard to come by these days). I then look to my left … and my heart stops. There's a heart monitor along with IV bag connected to a aged women. Her hair is brunette color with some grey hairs here and there, a lot like what happens when you don’t dye your hair for too long. Her face has some wrinkles, but she still looks to be around forty or fifty. Her eyes are shut but I already know there color a gorgeous emerald green that you could never forget even if you wanted to. she was small but not super small around four eleven or five four, but don't let her size fool you, she will kick your ass. Ha, I should know she is my sister after all.

I walk over to her bedside and brush her hair back with my hand to get it out of her face. She stirred a bit and eventually opened her eyes. After a few seconds they settled on me. Her eyes widened. She surprised me with her speed and hugged me in a split second. It took me a moment to recover but I eventually hugged her back. “Hey sis hows it going.” She realed back from the hug with a smile … that instantly took the form of a look of anger and she slapped me with enough force that would leave a mark if it was not for my healing factor! “AGH, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU OLD HAG!!!”

“FOR LEAVING OUT OF NOWHERE YOU IMMORTAL SOCIOPATHIC PRICK OF A YOUNGER BROTHER!!! I MEAN WHAT THE HELL I'M IN MY 80’S AND YOU HAVE A NIECE WHO ADORES YOU AND YOU JUST LEAVE!!!” she yelled at me with the stubbornness that is in our blood.

“WELL EXCUSE ME FOR LETTING MY CURIOSITY GET TO ME!!! AND WHO ARE CALLING A PRICK YOU BITCHY NAGGING SUCCUBUS!!!” I called her the name which she hated.

“FUCK YOU!!!”

“FUCK YOU TOO!!!” I intelligently retaliated and flipped her off.

“I MISSED YOU YOU KNOW AND SO DID ANNA!!!” she screamed back with tears welling up in her eyes.

“WELL I MISSED YOU TO! I MISSED ANNA TOO, SHE SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME SUCCESSFUL!!!”

“YES SHE HA-” I interrupt her yelling with a big hug with many tears in my eyes.

“You idiot do you know how long it’s b-been for me! Because I lost track after ten thousand years, I don't even know how old I am! I have d-d-destroyed myself in so many ways and I have forgotten so much, but have learned so much more! Hell I have forgotten the names and faces of almost everyone from this universe and many others, but I never forgot about you or Anna, everyday you were in my thoughts, no matter what I was doing, where I was, or what spell or war I was in the middle of YOU TWO were always in my thoughts sister. You know I love you both.” I say while hugging her with so much force she cant even breath, but I can't stop. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her and my body is not responding, but she just ends up endearing it in her old age and grunts while hugging back.

After a few more seconds I let go and wipe the tears out of my eyes “Sorry about th-”

“SHHH, don't apologize I understand.” she smiles and I smile back. That’s the thing about my sister, even though I’m so old around her I’m nothing but a child. She has that effect on me, probably because of when we were younger I relied on her for emotional support so much that she is practically my second mother. We just sit there for a few minutes just enjoying eachothers presence in the silence. just listening to each other breathe and exist.

“Dust … I have somthing to tell you … and then something to ask you.” she says with a small smile … but it’s a cross between sad and happy.

I ignore the sadness and say “ Yes sis, what do you want?” with a smile while holding her hand.

She looks directly into my eyes with that smile and tears “I’m dieing Dust-” My heart stops and my blood runs cold. I knew it would happen one day but … not on the day I come home. “Old age caught up to my along with my stomach problems. I’m giving out, our blood might give our family the ability to look younger that we are, but on the inside we are a wretch.”

I don’t cry, I never do when someone I know is dieing or they are dead. I find It useless, but my monotone panic shows my feelings. “ I could extend your life and heal you. I just need a dragons heart, tree of life bark and a apple of eden, maybe even add some phenix tears to some lady of the lake water and combine it with the spell to slo-”

“Dust!” She say firmly interrupting my train of thought. I look at her with wide eyes, “ Please stop. I don’t want to be healed, or saved, or made immortal either by science or by magic. Dust I want to die. You and me are very similar, you know this. So if we really feel the same and think the same, and have the same old fashioned train of thought, then you should know why I don’t want to be saved … and what I want you to do my shinigami of a brother. You promised me this very long ago, that if I asked, and if I am in the right mind, you’d do it.”

I take a deep breath and then exhale “I also said then you have to have a reas-”

“What do you think the reason is! I’m in pain and I’ll be dead in a two months anyways, I just want to make the process quicker.” she said with a voice crack.

“What about Anna. What will she do because we both know I can’t stay here.” I ask her the serious question being imposed here.

“That is the second thing I want to ask you … I know you can’t stay here for long since you’d be on the run and can’t learn much from here so you’d eventually go insane, well, more insane then you already are. You crave entertainment so much you’d go against all morals and rules of creation to get it. You’d eventually destroy everything around you including all life in this universe. You are like a god of neutrality, never picking sides or abiding by rules set for you, or even morals that others look down upon. You don’t discriminate or harm out of anger, but you do it to learn and teach others. This is your greatest asset bud, but also your greatest flaw. For these reasons alone, and there are many others, you can’t stay here.” She puts one hand on my cheek and I lean into it and grasp it with my own hands. “ But I ask you to give Anna a way to keep her on her feet, a reason to go on, a enterprise to run a nurture further.”

“You want me to give her my company and possessions here don’t you?”

“Yes. You are going to leave, and don’t say you won’t, and even if you come back you will leave again. You have no need for them, so hand them down to the one person that could take care of the house and be your worthy successor. Please do this, as my final wish.” she smiles happily with tears running down her face.

I close my eyes in thought but it doesn't take me long to weigh the options and pros and cons “Ok.” I use my magic and summon up my will, the copy that left everything Anna. I have multiple copies that would leave it to the others I deemed worthy, the only problem is my sisters wish and also I forget who the others are in the first place. I place it in a safe that is in the room, I know Anna knows the code it is her safe after all. I look back at my sister with my expressionless look. “Are you ready sis?” I Ask with a emotionless tone. You can call it my natural safeguard I perfected over the years to deal with hard feats such as this.

She closes her eyes and lays down “Yes.”

I walk over to her and brush the hair off her forehead. I look and my sister and think back to all the fun times and hardships we have been through together. You’d think i would hate to do this but … I happy to. I get to give my sister rest, a rest I’ll never get. Yes I am sad to see her go but I’m glad at the same time. She deserves rest, she has worked hard in her life, and she has dealt with me! Ha! That's enough to give anyone a peaceful send off. I lean down towards her forehead, and give her a simple kiss on the forehead. Once my lips connected, her body went cold, her breathing stopped, and the heart monitor flatlined. The Kiss Of Death, a spell only known by a few, and for good reason. Just one kiss, anywhere, to end a life. I just sat there staring at her lifeless body brushing her hair-

“DUST!!!!”
____________________________________________

I jump from the sudden shouting of my name. I look around and see all being in the room looking at me worriedly. “What!? What’s the matter!?” I ask with urgency in my voice.

Pandora grabbed my shoulder and asked “Are you alright?”

I give off a single laugh. “Yes, I’m fine, why do you ask?”

“There is b-blood coming from y-your eyes.” Say Cadence shakely.

I reach my hand up and touch my face and yes, there appears to be blood coming from my eyes like tears.

“I’m fine, just a little tired that's all, it’s been a long day for me. Is there anywhere I could bed?” I respond with a reassuring smile while I use magic to rid my face of blood.

“But the question-” frantically blurts Purple.

“Twilight, he needs rest.” interjects Celestia.

“But, but, bu, okay.” says Purple while putting her head and ears down.

“You could room at me and dads castle! I’m sure he’d love to meet you!” offers Pandora.

“That sounds lovely, why don’t we go now?” I ask whistle standing up.

“Okay, just give us a moment to change.” she responds with a wink and a part of her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. It was serpent like by the way … and the look was pretty cute as well.

I give her a thumb up and turn around to give them privacy. I hear some rustling and the sound of clothes being moved a manipulated on the women. Fifteen minutes later (Holy hell that took way longer then it should have!)

“Ok we are done.” signaled Luna. I turn around and see the five women in some very casual outfits … at least I think there casual. Luna is wearing a red T shirt with what looks like a anime esc design on it (I will be so happy if there is anime here!). She also has a pair of white and blue basketball shorts on in conjunction with silver and blue slippers on (Well … that's interesting.)

Twilight has a more librarian look to her. She was wearing her hair down, brushed back behind her ears, and has on a white collarless dress shirt. She then has on a long blue skirt and black dress shoes. In addition she has earrings that were just purple six pointed stars.

Celestia has a small gold tiara on her head with pearl earrings (Hmmm, how old is she?) with a red bolero jacket. Underneath that is a yellow v neck shirt with a pearl necklace. She has on a pair of jeans that were were tight and showed the form of her legs and some gold slippers that had a ruby in them.

Now Pandora … I’m not sure on what to think on what she is wearing. She has on a grey hoodie that comes down to her hips with the hood up with her horns going through it, and a small spiked collar with her tank top underneath. On her hips is a studded belt that is running through her pants and hanging off on her left. Her tight pants look to be made out of different shades of black and grey leather material patched together with a pair of boots that match the colors of her legs. Also her fingerless gloves match the colors of her hands as well. (Can’t say I completely agree … but I don't hate it at all.)

Cadence was the simplest out of the bunch. She’s wearing a frilly sky blue sundress with a modest sapphire necklace with a gold chain. Her shoes are slippers that matched the color of her dress. Finally her hair is up in a ponytail and she has a gold ring on her finger. Again not the most dressed up of the bunch, but she can pull it off.

I clap at them with a smile and say, “You all look very nice and casual. I expected you to get super dressed up because you are royalty and a child of a god, but I’m glad that you didn’t.”

Celestia chuckles and responds with “Weekends are our days off so we tend not to get dolled up that much.”

“I understand, one time I ruled a Kingdom until a new king could be selected and I had to wear the robes and crown and have on jewelry and the whole nine yards. So anytime I had a moment to myself I walked around in nothing but my underwear and socks.” I sympathize with a sigh.

Celestia quirked a brow at that response “You were a king once? Why are you not one now?”

I look at her with a bored expression “Yes, I was a king several times and those are stories for another time. Also the reason why I’m not one now is because I don’t want to be one. I have no desire, and never did. All those times were when I stepped up to keep kingdoms with potential afloat. Now then let’s get a move on.” I say while clapping my hands together once.

Pandora jumps up to me and leans down slightly with her hands clasp behind her back “ Alrighty!” She then stands back up straight and lifts her right talon up in the air and flicks her fingers.

There is a big flash of light, and I can already say two things. One, ow, my eyes. Two, I already feel sick.

"Hello Chaos."

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*??? POV*

On the world of Equis, there are many countries: Griffonia, Kitsunan, Draco, Nymphalia, Land of Fairies, The Great Elvish Empire, Equestria and many more.There are also beautiful lands in and around these countries as well, containing, mountain ranges of marble, an untamable forest of mystery and wonder, volcanoes of molten gems, and other unfathomably wondrous sights.

But that is not where we are heading.

We are going to a land where there is nothing more than scorched earth and sand. A place where water is no more. Somewhere anyone who enters never finds their way out … unless they find the center of that wasteland.

In the center of this cruel environment rests an anomaly. There is a kingdom where cotton candy clouds are everywhere and some of them are raining, but not normal rain this rain is a delectable substance known as chocolate milk. The air lingers with the scent of peppermint and poison joke. The bees are... abnormal, to say the least. They are huge and have lime green bodies with electric blue stingers. The birds are strange too. They have mohawk's that are made of purple fire. The trees are upside down and flouting, and they have ..... faces on them. I would go on but if I did this would never end.

This abnormal area in the most unlikely of places is the Kingdom of Discord.

Don’t freak out, he is running it legitimately. Constitution and all.

This is a land where discrimination is out the window. All are welcome in his court, and all beings are equal, from Nymph to Elvish, it does not matter, they all are aloud in the kingdom that is based off freedom and fun.

But of course there are some rules, but most of them are just common sense. Here is some examples, No killing of fellow discordian, No stealing, No treason, No ice cream cones in your back pocket, and finally DO NOT touch the chocolate milk on the kings thrown. See, just common sense.

Now in the middle of this area is an … interesting castle. This was no ordinary castle. Some of it was made of red and purple marble and other parts are made of mountain. The pliers are not symmetrical in any way. The pillars spiral, twist and loop all around and change shape every week. The cracks of the castle were inhabited by vampire fruit bats and squirrels with bird wings. The wings have multicolored feathers that alternate color. And the owner of the castle had a pet crocodillly named Fletcher in the trench surrounding the castle.

In the throne room of this castle there was a flash.

*Dust POV*

Well *thud* that had to be the absolute worst teleportation I had ever had the displeasure experiencing. The flash was too much for my sunglasses to handle, it also made me feel very noxious to the point where I would rather smell a perfume kitty than experience this again. Right now I am on the floor rubbing my eyes, while trying my hardest not blow chunks everywhere. Seriously who taught that girl how to teleport!

After rubbing the pain out of my eyes I open them to see five confused beings looking down at me “Are you ok?” asked Cadence with a hint of worry.

I keep a look of calm and respond with “What. The hell.” then my inner agitation gets to me and my look turns into one of slight anger and my voice turns a little harsh “Was that!”. They all visibly flinch.

Pandora starts to chuckle nervously while all the others still have confused looks on their faces “That was a teleportation spell…”

“That was a terrible teleportation spell.” I say without concern “Actually that was most likely the worst one I have ever experienced, and trust me I’ve pissed off fairies before, and when you piss off fairies, they do terrible things to you.” Until you cover them in iron dust.

I get up up start dusting myself off from being on the floor, as I am doing so Celestia responds to my comment on the teleportation spell “Well I taught her that spell and I have to say Pandora that was your best one so far.” I finish dusting myself and turn around to see Celestia hugging a rather sad looking Pandora.

I scoff at Celestia’s comment “One: if you did teach her that spell, you have to be the worst teacher to ever exist. Two: I’d fail you in a second if I was your teacher. Three: Don’t feel bad Pandora.” I walk up to her and pet the top of her head “You were just taught wrong, that’s all.” she loses her frown and smiles while leaning into my hand.

I then felt like someone within the room was very ticked at me at this moment and it turns out it is Purple “HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE PRINCESS’S TEACHING ABILITIES!” she came up to me and grabbed my jacket and pulled me down to her face level with pretty surprising strength.

“Twilight stop!” boomed Celestia and Luna.

Purple turns her head to them “NO I WILL NOT LET SOME RANDOM PONY-”

“Person.” I cut her off with a shit eating grin that was meant to piss her off, and it worked like a charm.

Purple’s head slowly turns towards me with her right eye twitching and a few strands of hair coming out of place. Her eye then stops and nothing happens for a few tense seconds. Well tense for everyone else, funny as hell for me. Runes start encircling her horn with what looks like to be a pure force spell, and a relatively strong one at that, but highly flawed compared to others. After about three seconds she releases the spell.

*BOOM*

“TWILIGHT!” Screamed everyone in the room as the spell hit the right side of the throne room wall and blew an eight by eight hole through it. They all start running towards the hole except for Celestia who runs up to Twilight and grabs her shoulders while she shakes and yells at the poor girl.

I’m just sitting on a throne in the middle of the raised platform (raised about six feet) at the end of the room watching this all play out. While that is happening I finally take a moment to scan the room we are in and take in its unique design. Leading up to the throne is an Alabama crimson carpet with forest green trimmings. The floor tiles are four by four and they are alternating between black and white. Scattered around the room are chess pieces. (Ooo me likey.) On the walls are multiple banners all depicting a different creature, even some I have never seen before. The walls themselves are different colors of marble, granite, metal, and gemstone each acting like a background for each banner to have the utmost contrast to the color of said banner. The throne I am currently sitting on is very comfortable with the bottom cushion being red and the back being brown. The headrest was grey with a black stripe going down the center. The right armrest cushion was lion yellow color, and the left was brown towards the back and eagle leg yellow towards the front. The right side of throne itself was made out of a bright emerald and the left a light brown stained oak wood. Overall weird but comfortable.

I turn my attention back to the five women and I now see a very pissed off Pandora. They are yelling back and forth at each other. I’m not really paying attention to what they are saying and I’m paying more attention to their body motions to see if there is a similar pattern to the females of my home plain and the ones here. The reason why I want to do that is to figure out the differences in their society to see if maybe wherever I am is an shatter universe. A shatter universe is a easy way I can label a universe that has similarities close to mine, but it still has many differences. I call them shatter universes because it is like shattering a window, and then throwing pieces of broken mirror into the mix. The broken window represents the see through differences and the parts you don’t understand, while the mirror pieces represent the parts you can see in yourself and your own home plain.

Ok now back to the confrontation between Pandora and Purple. Purple is raising her hands and she has a angry look on her face while standing really defensively with her legs spread out. Ok assertiveness is a check. Now Pandora is looking very intensely at Purple while running her hands through her hair while they are balled up. after that she starts making a chopping motion on her open left hand with her right and stomping her feet at the same time sending magic tremors through the ground. (Ok, she is more pissed than I thought.) Purple takes a few steps back, looking ashamed and rubbing her left arm while averting her gaze. (Hmmm, didn’t take you long to submit.) After that out of nowhere Purple goes on thee aggressive looking directly into Pandora’s eyes and getting up in her face, all the while Pandora has her right talon curled into a tight fist with a multicolored aura surrounding it. (Shit, this is about to get ugly. I need to stop it but how?) I think of multiple ways to stop this oncoming storm. I could announce myself as ok, teleport between them, or even prank them and redirect their anger, but the more I think about it, the more all of these won’t seem right to me… wait… ohh yes that is exactly what I will do. In all my years I never got a chance to do this but this is it.

I stand up from the throne and spread my arms while cupping them slightly. I made sure they are just perfect to get the best reaction out of the five women. When I knew they were perfect I brought my hands together with mild force, *clap*, *clap, *clap*, *clap*. I slowly clap making the perfect sound that echoed so nicely through the room with a smug grin plastered on my face, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. I start dramatically walking down the platform towards them, clapping all the while.

Celestia and Luna mouths went agape, Cadence eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hands, Pandora just stares at me… that concerns me a bit. She just looks… blank. Almost as if she is deciding something. Hmm, strange. But… Purples face is priceless. Mix pissed, shock, sadness, and fear into a cocktail and it would only be worth a third of her expression. I love this. This is why I do things all dramatic, like this for example. It gets the best reactions out of others.

I keep walking and clapping slowly until I walk right up to Purple and give one last loud *CLAP* right in her face, and that one, final clap echoed beautifully. Purple flinched and took a step back. I smile a bit more and flash my canines. The significance of my canines is… well ever since I was young my teeth have always been weird. I have extra sets for example, every tooth is sharp and pointed, hell even my molars are. My canines though are more fit to be in the maw of a wolf or even a dragon, that is why the stick out so much. Well after I flashed my strange teeth it must have activated a predator- prey instinct within her because she booked it behind Celestia (What’s with those two?). “The-there's no way you could survive that blast!” she said in a panic.

I cross my arms and give her I stern look “Why not?”

She then pointed at me “You were hit with a point blank raw magic blast,” why is it every time she says magic it pisses me off. It’s as if she says it like she does not understand what it means. She then emphasizes her confusion by saying “It. Doesn't. Make. Sense.”

I was about to retort but something interesting and unexpected happened… Pandora busted out laughing “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA *inhale* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” she just kept laughing and laughing and I laughed a little too, only because hers is contagious and cute. “Twi, what’s the fun in making sense? HAHAHA!”

That stopped me in my tracks. What’s the fun in making sense, what’s the fun in making sense, what’s the fun in making sense?

I was in the middle of my daily chess game with my long known enemy/teacher when suddenly, out of nowhere, this oddly dressed elf popped in with a cane and suit that looked like it belonged to The Count of Monte Cristo, the anime version too. The elfs hair was black with hints of white hairs within and it was cut in a short mohawk, which is odd for a elf since they usually have flawless white or blonde hair. His eyes were yellow where there should be white and black, and the rest was a sickly red. His skin is grey and he is smiling with one stray, long fang tooth on his right side. His cane is gold with a gold bust of himself on the top. On his right hand is one, lone, gold wedding band. Finally his entire ensemble was completed with an olive green cravata.

I sit there along with my teacher and stare at him. After a while of staring at the elf I had to ask the question I already knew. I turned to my aqwatnince and asked “He’s related to you isn’t he?”

The being I know gave a sigh and rubbed his face with his bony hand, he then takes a drink of his rum and responds “Yea, yea he is… sadly.”

The elf summons a handkerchief and starts to dab his eyes with it “Oh big brother, you're so cruel. acting like that towards your younger, more handsome, brother.” he then throws the handkerchief and looks towards me stroking his chin. “Who are you… *ding*” a light bulb appeared over his head “OH!” he looked at his brother and pointed at me “He’s the, oh ho ho this is so good!” He then started to laugh mumble on about things I did not understand.

I chuckle awkwardly and lean over to my associate “Is he ok?”

*sigh* “Ya, he just likes to not make sense, but I wish he would at times.”

“Oh, but dear brother of mine… what’s the fun in making sense!?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and grunt in pain. Damn these flashbacks. I look back up, and once again, I have two beautiful orbs in my field of vision. “Soooo… how did you survive?” she asks cutely.

I give her a genuine smile… and I was going to reply until a familiar voice did so for me. “Oh, it was quite simple dear. When princess rage quit here fired her death beam our new acquaintance here teleported to my throne and watched the rest unfold until he saw how you were about to rip Twilight a new one, and decided to intervene, in quite the classy way, I might add.” I look back up to the throne and see a being similar to Pandora. His head, along with the rest of him, looked more animalistic than the others. His head was like that of a horse and its features were one antler and blue unicorn horn. (Four point… with filled down points, he is trying hard to hide his age.) His face has two bushy white eyebrows and a white goatee with grey fur on his head. His body is long and slim, like that of a snake, with a mild brown color. His right arm is a yellow lions paw while his left is a griffons talon and arm that has tightly packed brown feathers and yellow scales. On his back are two wings. One looks like a purple bat wing while the other is a teal pegasus wing. The creatures right leg looks like that of a green hydra while his left contrasted it greatly with the brown goat leg and hoof. His tail is a red kirin tail with a nice white puff at the end. But out of all this homoge of appendages there are only two I cared about: his eyes were yellow where there should be white and black, and the rest was a sickly red, and he is smiling with one stray, long fang tooth on his right side. (Hello there, blast from the past.)

“Daddy!” announced Pandora as she ran towards the odd creature.

“... what.” I ask as my brain crashed, which does not happen ever. I… like the daughter of an… Primary Entity. She also likes… me. He did not interfere… and she likes me.

The reason I’m crashing is because of what this means, but I have to make sure first. After Pandora and her dad hugged he popped down in front of me and held his hand and introduced himself with an irish accent “The name’s Discord lad, King of this here area of the world, who might you be?” he asked like he already knew the answer, which he does, but I should answer anyways to not raise suspicion.

I put on my best ‘nice to meet you’ face and introduce myself “ My name is Dust, nice to meet you sir Discord.” I reach out and shake his lion paw with my right hand. (Hmm, this is so much more awkward when both participants are acting out there ass.)

“Time for supper then, join us Dust, you’ll enjoy it I promise you.” he said as he let go of my hand and put his talon over my shoulder.

I look at the talon, then the ground and sighed “Well…” I look up and see Pandora with her eyes closed while looking down with her fingers crossed. damn it. “Fine, as long as the chairs are comfortable!” I point at him with my right hand while hearing Pandora ‘yay’ and fist pump.

He then ported to the middle of the room and clapped once and we were all in a moderately sized dining room that looked like it belonged in an old farm house… like mine. “Ok, ok everypony-”

“Everyone, please. Everypony sounds highly racist.” I say with some sincerity. The mannerisms here annoy me.

He looks at me a smiles “Well… thank you for bringing that to my attention. I rule a nation of equality amongst all races and I never noticed how racist I was being. Thank you Dust.” He then sat down and all of us did as well. Discord sat at the head while Celestia sat at the tail. on the side closest to the main exit sat Luna, Cadence, and Purple. On the other side was me and Pandora. I was sitting closer to her father. After we all got situated some elvish (*sigh*) came into the room and placed alot of different herbivores food down… then a beautiful piece of meat in front of me.

My eyes widen in surprise “Ophiotaurus meat, fancy.” I cut off a piece and take a bite, not caring about the grossed out looks I was getting from the ponys.

“Well from the looks of those teeth of yours, I could tell you don’t eat plants, haha!” Answered ‘Discord’ “The reason why it’s ophiotaurus meat is, well, it’s one of the few creatures here that does not talk.” And? I’ve eaten dragons, and they talk.

I went back to eat after giving my attention to ‘Discord’ and I see another fork on my plate, trying to get my food. My head quickly turns to my left to see the fork belongs to Pandora. We stare at eachother, with her trying to be cute while I’m dead serious. “Take your fork off my plate.” I sternly say. Her ears go down and she takes her fork away looks back at her plate. I wait a little while but eventually “Now ask and you shall receive.” she looks back at my smiling face with confusion.

“Umm, may I have some?” she asks coyly.

“Sure!” I cut off a healthy chunk and put it on her plate. (I don’t need to eat, It is more of a comfort thing really. Don’t eat, I have pains in mien stomach, but that’s all it is, pain.) “Sorry if I scared you a little, I’m just a firm believer in manners and all that. I’m old like that, haha!” It’s true, I believe all should have proper, or at least, basic manners. The multiverse would be a better place.

Realization dawns on her face “Oh I’m so sorry, I completely forgot! It’s been a exciting day, but that is a terrible excuse.” she puts her hands on her face and shakes it back a forth.

I laugh, actually laugh at how much she is worrying herself “Hehe, it’s fine! Just don’t make a habit of forgetting, or you’ll end up like me.” I point my left thumb at myself. She laughs at that and waves a dismissive talon at me.

“Come on, you make yourself sound so old!”

“You have no idea.” I smile and then overhear Celestia and ‘Discord’s talk.

“You are cornering yourself Celly, the other countries are becoming restless with you. They are saying you only care about your own ideals and that everything you and you ‘friendship bergad’ as they call it, preach is false.” He leans forward “ they asked me to help them either convince you to change or… ‘help’ them with you.” he leans back again and takes a bite of.. paper. Hmm, ok.

The grip on Celestia's fork increases “Well they do not understand the reasons my country is so airtight and cut off from most of them. They are dangerous to the order I have established in Equestria.”

“Wait what?” I asked quickly hearing one of my triggers.(Order.)

Celestia’s head snapped to me and Discord clapped “ Ooo, good, we can get a outside view on this from someone with no side to take.” (More like I don’t take them.)

“OK I need details. Let’s go.” I reply moving my hand in a ‘come here’ fashion.

Discord noded “Alright that’s fair. You see Dust there are many different races and countries here on Equis but one of the strongest is equestria run by Celestia and Luna here.” He points his thumb towards them. “The reason why they are the strongest is because of their purpose and location. When it comes to their purpose, their purpose is important because they can control the sun and the moon, also their ponies have abilities to control the weather and crop growth. They have magic as well but they are not the strongest users. The next thing that makes them so strong is the location of the country. Equestria is located at the best possible area on this planet. When it comes to almost anything, Equestria has it. Gem mines, gold mines, silver, iron, salt, copper, large amounts of fertile land, massive woodland areas only being outmatched by fairies, large amounts of crystal and marble and much more. In this world's economics Equestria is the power house.”

Interesting… “Ok so what’s the problem?”

Discord sighs and puts his face in his talon “ The problem is they harbor so many important materials that some countries need, but they are closing off their borders and exports. The countries that needed trade to work properly are falling and the other super powers are angry for their choice and brought me in to talk about it earlier, they told me to convince Celly and Lulu to reopen borders and export or join them to take over their country. I want to remain neutral on this, but I’m the only other being on this world that can control the night and day cycles.” He then leans back on his chair and crosses his arms and closes his eyes “So in the end, their decision controls my actions.”

Ok this just got heavy. I was right about this planet, it’s dead, and that the inhabitants need to take care of, and control parts of it to survive. But I did not think that the responsibilities were so limited. “So you are saying that the ponies are the only species that have the ability to control the weather, plants?”

“No, other species can, but the ponies can do it passively.” replied Discord.

Ok next problem is the country's importance. Equestria sounds like it is the world's number one supplier of everything. If it gets taken over by multiple countries it will eventually lead to more conflict. Hmm, no matter the direction, there is no where safe from the shit that will fly if this country falls.

I cross my arms and close my eyes “No matter what, Equestria can not fall.”

“Haha, see Discord! My-” said the porcelain women before I interrupted her.

“So Celestia, reopen all borders and exports, also boost your trade and increase resources.” I reopen my eyes and look at her.

She stares in shock “What?”

“You heard me. You and your sister have dug your country in a trench in the middle of no man's land. Right now you have the world against you, along with a being of chaos. No matter your resources, no matter your numbers, against the power simply leaking off of Discord, you don’t stand a chance. Also if you stop, so does the world around you. This world's economy needs Equestria. But if you want to, go ahead! Do it. Close your borders. I don’t care. It won’t be my head on a pike in the end.” Everyone is silent after that. I finish my food and ask where my room will be.

Pandora jumped up and said “I can show yo-”

“That will be fine dear.” said Discord in a fatherly tone, “I will show him.”

Pandora's ears went down and she sighed “Fine…”

Discord snapped back to me with a smile “Ok let’s go. Arrivederci!” He snapped his talon and we were teleported to a room.

As soon as I felt the floor I put my arm up to his neck and pinned him against the wall. He tried to struggle but eventually gave up when he remembered my control over the magic of others. He put his smile back on “Hello Dust.”

I stared straight into his eyes with my stigma activated “Hello Chaos.”

Can't say I hate it.

View Online

I look directly into the smiling eyes of Chaos with my destructive eyes of power. I was looking at him coldness and hate from all the shit he has put me through, but he was looking at me with glee. I eventually get sick of it and through him to the side, when I did he summoned a cushion for his hodgepodge body to fall on. “Change into you humanoid form please, I can’t take you seriously looking like that.” I say with a sigh. I take a look around the room. The carpet was a very lovely crimson with a Greek alpha symbol in the center in gold. I walk up to one of the walls and touched them, they were black with a chalkboard like texture. There was a few more doors around the room. the furniture was nice. The couch was black with silver trimmings, the style was mid eighteenth century Italian placed on the right hand side of the room. On the left was some objects from home. A custom gaming PC with a flat screen sony TV with surround sound speakers. My old setup. I walk over to the back of the TV and see a cross dimensional electromagnetic wave rune probably used to receive signals from my world. Finally the bed, it was king sized with white sheets with dream catcher runes sewn in with black silk. This was placed on the wall parallel to the door. There are no windows in this room, just how I like it.This room took time to make. Alot of time, even for a being as powerful as Chaos.
This was planned.

“You’ve figured it out already, haven’t you?” I looked back and see Chaos in his normal form lounging in the air slightly bobbing up and down.

I lift my legs up in the air and cross them in a meditative fashion. I'm sitting in the air looking at Chaos… and then I pinched the bridge of my nose and sigh heavily, “You planned all this didn't you? You knew I would not be able to resist that book.”

He chuckled slightly “Yes, and the look on your face proved it.”

I open my eyes and look at him in very slight shock “You were the old man,” *sigh “I should have known.”

After leaving my sister for the final time I decided to make one last stop in Germany. I’ve scoured this globe for artifacts and knowledge, and I thought I found them all. Hell I own Excalibur. But this one shop in the middle of nowhere in Germany always seems to have something new I don’t have. The shop was very simple looking. It was about the size of an average Gamestop but made entirely out of wood. The entire place looks rundown and the wood is rotting. the shingles are made of bark and falling off. The left window is broken and covered with a sheet while the left has half broken neon open sign. The entire place looked like it had less than a year left to stand, but… it looked like this for the past sixty years.

I walked inside, closed the door and saw the entire place was empty. I smile slightly, wondering how the owner ever got any business. I lifted my left hand up to my mouth and put my thumb in between my right canines and bite down. Yes, the sweet taste of iron, sodium, and the magic running through my veins. I used my magic to keep the bite open before it healed. I touched the tips of all the finger on my left hand and turned towards the door behind me. On it was a x in chalk with the words, ‘Put hand here’ written above it. I placed my hand on the x and then removed it to see the x was gone. Then I reopened the door.

Inside was a brand new place. It was still as small as before, but everything was of much higher quality. The wood was no longer rotting and was now brand new zebra wood. Shelves lined the walls with all kind of miscellaneous items and ingredients. The floor was like a chess board, it being black and white squares. the ceiling was an entire diagram of the world with certain points on them that were markers for where different types of magic originated or evolved. farthest away from me was the check out, but instead of there being a big desk with a cash register, there was a big chest and a old dusty rocking chair.

I take a big whiff of all the artifacts within. “Ohohohoho, hey geezer! I smell something new in here!” I announce I hear some rustling in the back and then a cane hitting the ground repeatedly.

“You bet your immortally young ass there is!” out of the wall came a old man who was cosplaying the old man from Zelda.

“Really Delveen, the old guy from Zelda?” I ask with a blank look.

“Hey I was thinking John De Lancie but my voice sucks.” he explains while he goes and sits down in the rocking chair. “So what has my best customer been up to? Haven’t seen you in years.”

“Exploring, dimension hopping, fucking around in other universes, etc.” I say as I start to browse.

“Heh heh, in more way than one I bet!” Delveen howled.

“Maybe… maybe not.” I smile slightly at him. I kept looking around while catching up with my favorite merchant. I stop at the book section and see the same stuff that was their before I left… except for one. The book was about the size of a school textbook and there was nothing unusual about it… well as unusual as a book bound in multiple types of skin could be. There was many types on here including human, dragon, unicorn, orc, elf, hell hound, demon, … even god skin was on this book. I touched it and felt the power simply leaking off of it. I pick it up and I activate my eyes and see the knowledge just surrounding the book to protect it. I need this book. I go to open it before I was promptly stopped.

There was an old wrinkled hand on mine, “Sorry not allowed before you buy it.” Delveen said with a serious tone.

I looked at him curiously “Why is that?”

“This book contains corrupting power in the form of endless knowledge of all magic, and scientific knowledge. It is said whoever reads it with go insane with power.”

I laugh “Me, the guy with absolute power be corrupted by absolute power in a different form? Really Delveen?”

He laughs himself “Sorry man rules are rules.” he said pointing at the center rune that lit up the floor of the establishment. The point of the rune is to enforce the rules he set.

*sigh* “Fine.” we walk over to the rocking chair and the chest. Delveen sat down while I put the book on the chest and it melted into it. On top of the chest molded into the word ‘zahlen’

“Well, for limitless knowledge I need something of equal or greater value. That’s why I haven't sold it yet, but you must have something after all your travels.”

I put my hand to my chin and thought hard, until I remembered my pride and joy invention. I reached into my pocket dimension and grabbed what I was looking for. My hand came out clenched softly, I then put its contents on top of the chest.

“What is this?” asks Delveen in confusion.

“My offer.” On the chest was a bird… made entirely of metal. it was silver with slight platinum trimming and was about the size of a marble. It was not active.

Delveen scratched his head when the chest molded around it slightly, which means it is adequate payment. “This bird is dubbed Clockwork, and it is a machine I specially designed to consume and adapt. This has the ability to consume and other machine, computer, etc, and copy it. But after it copies it, Clockwork enters stage two and improves upon it until it is perfect for its purpose. It is the ultimate complex computer and machine. It even has an AI.”

*whistle* “That is good… I’ll take it!” The chest completely consumes Clockwork and then in its place came the book. “Have fun.” Delveen smiled as I picked up the book.

“I will.” I say calmly, but on the inside was raging emotions between depression, regret, and excitement. I then walk out the door. On the other side was good old nature. I look behind me to see the shop was gone. I shake my head with a smile and glanced at what I bought. “Let’s see what secrets you hold, hehehe.” I opened the book, and everything went black.

Some time later I woke up in the middle of the woods… but I did not know where I was. I stood up and looked around, the book was gone. *sigh* “Time to start walking.”

I start rubbing my temples in pure irritation because of this bull shit Chaos keeps putting me thru. I look at him and see him poking at Clockwork in his hand, still deactivated. I ask again “So were you Delveen?”

He stops poking at Clockwork and looks at me like a deer in headlights, after a moment he spoke up “No, Oh no no no I was the chest!” he exclaims proudly.

I put my right hand on my forehead and bring it down with a groan, “Why am I not surprised… also where’s mein book?” I ask in annoyance.

He smiles in what looks like delight, “Oh big brothers got it in holding for you, but since you don’t have it, you can have little Clocky here back in consolation!” he tosses the mechanical piece of art towards me. I stop it mid air with my magic and gently levitate it into my hands, “I could never figure out how to get the little bugger to work.”

I reached on the back of Clockwork where there was a little indent, I reached into the indent with my fingernail and flipped up a wind up key and winded it several times until there was a click that racked the machines body making it twitch until it fully opened its glowing green eyes. He opened and closed his mechanical lens a few times and eventually stood up in my hands and acknowledged me with a small songbird screech, and a nuzzle. I go and scratch his head with my right pointer finger and he bends his head down in delight and acceptance. After I did that he put my pointer finger in his mouth and put light pressure on it and started poking the tip of it with his metal tongue playfully, “You're hungry, huh?” I reached into my pocket dimension and grabbed an old TI-82 calculator and a laser pointer. Clockwork perked up when he saw them and tensed up while crouching. He shaked his butt, his eyes turned from green to yellow and then he jumped into my other hand that was holding the two items. When he got on top of the calculater he sunked his talons into it. It started to spark and the slowly broke down until there was nothing left. He then grabbed the laser pointer and broke it down as well. After he was done his size changed slightly. He was no longer the size of a marble, and he was now the size of a cockatial. He screeched in happiness while I chuckled.

“... You could have included an instruction manual you know.” Says Chaos looking very jealous and crossing his arms. Then his demeanor changed quickly, he got very serious (Which is very unlike him.) and looked me straight in the eye, “Ok then Dust, time to get down to why I brought you here.”

My eyes harden with intrigue and slight confusion. Chaos, the one I know and deeply wish I could murder with a rusty spork, has a reason for doing something. “Chaos are you okay? I could have sworn I heard you say you had a reason for this?” I smile at him.

“This is not a time for jokes Dust! I’m serious about this. I brought you here for my daughter's sake.” He put his hands behind his back and started to pace back a fourth, “She needs help Dust, serious help. Her powers are not something I can teach her! She is not pure chaos like me… she has a side to her i can’t help her with, hell I'm struggling enough to teach her about her chaotic side! I didn’t learn how to use my powers, I just knew how to use them!” He threw his hands up into the air and then plopped down onto the bed and put his hands in his face. “*sigh* Her other side though… her other side could only be taught by two others, her mother, and her mother's killer.” He looked up to me with a look of remembrance and regret.

I inhale sharply and exhale slowly out my nose “Chaos, I don’t want to talk about the death of Harmony right now. You know I killed her because she was going out of control. She was trying to get rid of almost all the other Entities of Existence, and also me. I don’t know why your wife changed so suddenly, but she did and she was a threat.” my eyes locked on to Chaos and his own eyes and I saw hate, acceptance, and some I didn’t expect to see, guilt.

“Brother was right, you are heartless.” Chaos stood up from the bed and walked up to me. Merly inches separating us. “I know why my wife changed.” My eyes widened, i was going to say something but before I could he spoke again, “If you also want to know, you must help my daughter first.”

We both stared at each other blankly, neither one of us faulting in any way, shape, or form. I know what he is trying to do, and most likely it will work. Hell it has worked already, I’ve been trying to figure this mystery out for years. Why Harmony changed. “You better not be lying to me Chaos… what do you want me to teach her?”

His mood changed drastically! He was back to his old self, most likely because of his madness. He jumped back a few feet and started clapping, “Good show boy! That’s the spirit! Now I want you to teach slash help her with a few things. First is her magic, it is very rare, so rare almost non of her kind exist!” he said with glee.

I looked at him curiously “What do you mean?”

“She has a Stigma!”

“...” I would be lying if I said I didn't think he was lying. I walk over to the couch and sat down. I’m not totally shocked, after all I have met other stigma users, but here is my problem… CHAOS HAS A DAUGHTER WITH A STIGMA!!!

I here Chaos chuckle, “I saw that! Don’t worry just because there is a Stigma in the family besides my older brother. Everything will be fine as long as she can learn to control it, and her mind… “ Chaos faltered slightly at that last part, he regained his composure but he could see that I caught him

“I saw that as well Chaos. What ales Pandora’s mind?”

He slowly puts his back to me and summoned his cane in his right hand, “That is something you will find out on your own, but I will give a hint!” he lifts his cane up a few inches off the ground, “You were right with your theory, the power within us decides what we are like.” he slammed the cane down and vanished in a flash of light.

I lie back in the couch and look up at the ceiling and recap what just happened. I bought a book from my favorite item shop and appeared in the middle of the woods, walked into a random hangout house, and met five new beings, four alicorn ponies and one draconequus, Stuff happened, went to a castle, met ‘Discord’, had dinner, learned about the kingdom of Equestria’s potential fall because of its leaders, ‘Discord’ actually turned out to be Chaos, no surprise there, got Clockwork back, can’t have the book back yet, and it turns out I was brought here by Chaos to teach his daughter how to use her power and be her shrink… pretty normal day.

I use my magic to float over my keyboard, headphones, and mouse, “Clockwork, can you turn on the computer? Also don’t eat it.” Clockwork nodded and flew over to the computer and landed on it, he leaned over and pecked the power button. The computer came to life with its red LED's. I grabbed the remote next to me and turned on the TV and then put it on HDMI2, the screen flashed on with my computer's browser, “Time to relax with a game of League.”

“DAMN IT!!!” I take off my headphones and throw them on the couch, “Fucking Satan worshiping Yordle!” I get up off the couch and walk over to the door and open it with my right hand, “Come on Clockwork I need to get a drink.” he flies over and lands on my shoulder.

The corridor was pitch black. But with a single flick of my fingers my sun glasses came off and everything looked fine. “Now where would i find the kitchen…” i shrug and go right. I look around and see that Chaos took inspiration from the Romans in terms of architecture. It is nice… but he most likely did this for me since I can only take so much ‘unique’ architecture.

*CRASH*

That sounded volent.

I speed up my pace, “Clockwork track that noise to its origin.” Clockwork nods and takes off. Follow him I start to prepare myself with a spell to let me see life form energy. Interesting spell by the way, it works by sending out my own personal mana into the environment around me, and enhancing my eyes to detect it. Everyone has a different mana, and two different manas don't like to mix well unless both lifeforms are in sink. So what ends up happening is a form of ‘magic echolocation’ where your own mana comes in contact with another lifeform it reacts and glows to counter it.

Anyways, after casting the spell and scanning the area two things were discovered. One, there are a lot of plants here. Two, there is only one other, non plant, being in this corridor, and by the way my mana is reacting to theirs, they have two unique types, which means they never learned to fuse their mana together like mine. This fact tells me they are a rare case, and that peaks my interest.

*BUMP*

I grab my nose in slight pain, since I just ran into a fall full force while speed walking! Only bad thing about the spell I just casted is it makes almost all objects around you be the equivalent of clear glass plans!

I end the spell and look over to Clockwork and see him hovering in front of a door and cocking his head at me in what looks to be confusion. “Don’t look at me like that.” I walk up to the door he is in front of and, well, looked at it. Now you might be wondering why I am just looking at the door… it’s because of how chaotically perfect. The grain of the wood is all twisted and warped, but every board used in the glue up is exactly the same. Interesting.

I put my ear up to the door and listen… there is lots of movement, I can hear the sound of furniture being moved around, along with the sound of struggling… and crying. The crying doesn't sound panicked so I know there is no physical altercation taking place. It just sounds like the cries of an emotionally upset female. I should just leave it alone and find the kitchen… but curiosity kills the cat. “Clockwork, go back to the room, and try not to eat any of the machines, ok?” Clockwork nodded and landed on my shoulder, he gave me a few nuzzles and then took back off. “Alright lets do this already.”

I grab the doorknob with my left hand and slowly open it, to not alert whoever is inside. I quickly learn that my old mind is old since i forgot to put my glasses back on. After getting blinded by the fucking lights inside I quickly put my glasses back on to relieve the pain. My eyesight quickly restores and I see something, well, how do I put this into words? I’ll just describe it instead.

Inside was a room that seems to be in near perfect order. The carpet was grey, cut perfectly symmetrical, with wine stains evenly distributed on it. Each stain looks the same. The walls are soft blue with black stripes. The ceiling was the same as the floor. The furniture was punkish with a black sofa with a spider web pattern on the right side of the room, and the same thing but color swapped on the left. On the floor where two broken red vases, that explains the the noise. on the opposite side of the door was a bed with red silk sheets and dark pink pillows with skulls on them space evenly away from each other with two twisted wood nightstands on each side, presumably the ones the vases were on. Finally in the dead center of the room is an black and gold trimmed entertainment center, with one television on both sides, there are also many small doors that most likely have other electronics inside them. But the most interesting thing in the room was a female draconequus in a black babydoll chemise nightwear with dark pink lace. But no matter how attractive it was the tears, frazzled hair, and struggling to move the entertainment center was a turnoff.

“Pandora,” she jumps and turns around quickly, her eyes are puffy and red “ are you ok?” she quickly tries to straighten up her hair.

“I-I-I’m alright *sniff* just rearranging things, n-n-no worries!” she forced a smile and closed her eyes while cocking her head to the left to try and look cute… to bad everything else makes it hard to focus on the cuteness.

I walk up to her and put my right hand on her left shoulder, she flinched slightly at my touch, After that I spun her Around and placed my right hand on her right shoulder and my left hand grabbed hers. I then walked her over to the right sofa and sat her down on the right cushion, at this point she is looking at me with slight shock and confusion. “ *sigh* Pandora, don't lie to the Devil for he is the king. I rarely ask anyone if they are ok. I normally don't give two shits if you are depressed, dyeing, or even trying to commit suicide. One I will tell you to see your shrink, the other I will just make the process quicker, and the final I would ask you what do you want to kill yourself with. I am a heartless, cold wanderer, as some would call me, and I don't care about anything or anyone, unless they strike extreme interest with me, and I them. You are interesting to me Pandora, I'm sorry, but I wont be leaving you alone anytime soon because of that. I WANT to talk to you, I WANT to know you, and I WANT to help you. Now, you tell me what's wrong, and I will help you. I will be here for YOU.” I squeeze her hand and rub her back and give her a true, calm, smile. In all honesty, everything I said was true. Chaos went on about the book, and riddles, but all he had to say is she has a stigma, and that the stigma is affecting her personality. That alone was all I needed to help her.

Well she must have known I was being honest because the water works went into fifth gear, and the simple gentle gesture of reassurance I was providing got turned into a full blown hug and cry into my shirt deal. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze firmly. I found this… odd. I normally never have anyone react like this. I’m not used to this.

Can’t say I hate it.

"So, how can I help you?!"

View Online

So here I am, holding Pandora, while rubbing her back, with her crying into my shirt, for ten minutes straight. While she is crying I keep thinking about this room. It’s very… orderly, by my definition at least. This room holds so much harmony, and yet chaos is everywhere. I don’t why she was trying to move that entertainment center, it is in the dead center of the room, at least it looks like that to me. But, maybe it’s not to her. I grasp her shoulders and gently pry her off, “Pandora.” putting my right pointer finger under her chin and lifted her head up so her eyes meet mine, “Please stop crying, it’s unbecoming of you.” I smile gently and soften the look in my eyes to try and calm her down. She responded with a slight chuckle and used her left paw to wipe her eyes, after that she looked straight into my eyes, even though they were puffy, they were still breathtaking and the smile she was sporting made her look even better. “Now, tell me what’s bothering you.”

“Well… that entertainment center over there is very off. For some reason, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get it perfectly center! I’ve been trying for hours!” she looks over to it and tries to stand up but I put my hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

“Whoa, slow down there hot stuff.” She blushed slightly at that, “I don’t see anything wrong with its placement at the mome-”

“Of course you don’t see it! Neither do I! But I can, I don’t know, I can just… FEEL that something is wrong. I felt it as soon as my dad brought it into the room earlier. He said it was a gift for me from him, but after weeks of getting this room just right...” She starts to tear up again.

“Hey what did I say about doing that?” I got a handkerchief from my H.O.M.E and wiped her eyes, “Now, why are those vase’s broken?”

She got a little upset, anger this time. “Because of that!” she pointed to the entertainment center, “It’s all because of that! As soon as my dad brought it into the room, hugged me, and left the room, everything has felt so… so-”

“Out of order? Kinda like the chaos and harmony went out of balance?”

“Yea... yea that’s a good way to describe it. After that brand new EC came in without any marks or scratches I felt like I had a little voice in my head telling me to fix it, next thing I know I’m pushing it around with two broken vase. I don’t know why my dad did this, he knows that I have this problem!” she starts rubbing her temples.

I know exactly why he did this, to get my attention. “Well I could help yo-”

Her eyes flashed with golden light, and very briefly I saw the symbols for chaos and harmony, overlapping each other in her eyes, “Really!?” she grabbed my hand and got VERY close to my face. After a few seconds I responded.

“... yes.” also yes, I’m most likely blushing. What the hell is wrong with me! I have never felt like this before, and I’ve been alive for longer than even I can remember!

“Yay!” what happened next surprised me. She grabbed my head and brought it down quickly to her chest, hugging me, while suffocating me between two firm yet soft holy grails. Good thing breathing is more of an instinctual habit, than a need for me.

After the hug she jumped up with a spring in her step, while I tried to calm down the spring in my pants. Ok now, dead puppies, kittens, old ladies, damn it’s not working. Wait… kissing the elf king, and there it goes. I stand up and rub my hands together and then clap, “Ok, where do you want me to push it.” I walk over to the side of the entertainment center that was facing the door and put my hands on it.

She started pacing around it, like a wolf circling its prey looking for a weakness in the form, “Very slightly push it.” I did as she said, pushing it about one inch forward from my position. “To much, too much, bring it back.” I brought it back about a centimeter this time. For about a hour and forty five minutes, I was doing this repeatedly, good thing I can’t get tired physically. after so long she closed her eyes and gave orders until finally, “ Ok there! Keep it there, it’s perfect!” she opens her eyes and I walk towards my right between the the entertainment center and the couch, as I was stretching I was tackled by Pandora. We landed on the couch with a soft plop. The mix matched beauty was hugging me with a good amount of force, but not enough to hurt or squeeze the air out of my lunges. As she comfortably hugged me she was also giving me… surprisingly nice nuzzles. I didn’t mind the actions at all, in all honesty I liked them. She lifted her head from my neck and looked at me with tired eyes, “Thank you.” she then scooted down my body and lied her head down on my chest, while wiggling a little until her body was on the rightmost part of me and on the couch. After that she wrapped her right leg around my legs, she stopped moving after she put her right arm on my torso and sighed comfortably.

“Uhh, what are you doing?” I ask in a confused tone.

“Going to sleep. Why do you ask?” she replies innocently.

“Because you're lying on me while locking my legs with yours.”

“That’s because I want you to stay, *yawn*, please, will you?” she rubs her head up against me… damn.

“*sigh* Fine.” I click my fingers and get rid of my shirt, jacket, sword, and shoes. I keep my pants because I feel more comfortable when I relax in them. I also keep my socks on as well because of a habit I’ve had from age one. Finally I take off my glasses while casting a P.B. (Pitch Black) spell and put it on a six hour timer.

I just lie there while Pandora falls asleep. The thing that sucks about this eye problem of mine is that it makes it hard to sleep since, even if I close my eyes, everything is still bright as it normally be with a decently lit room. But after many, many years of this, I’ve gotten accustomed to it slightly. I don’t require sleep, but I like to, because I get to say hello to my… well I guess he is a lot like a brother/teacher to me. Death.

I reopen my eyes to see the ruined plains I’m so accustomed to seeing. The grassy fields of swamp green and soggy gay brown, all withered with flowers of dark blues and desolait grays. The sky is black and the air is cold, the only light being the ashes that fall from the clouds that plum from the aged stone of a volcano in the background. I breath in the air and smell nightshade and hemlock, along with the smoke. I stare at the center of the plains and see a table, the table. It’s made from mahogany died ebony with red granite trimmings, the chairs were the same.

I walk over to the table and took a seat and blinked. On the other side of the table appeared a tall, lanky man in a black suit with a white dress shirt, a dark gray tie, and silver horse cufflinks. His hair was a pale off white and it was long enough to touch the back of his shoulders, his skin was a greyish white but young looking. His eyes are a vibrant orange, glowing almost, with lost of age and wisdom inside them. Finally on the side of his chair was a scythe made of vertebrae and and a bone blade, just by looking at it it feels me with both curiosity, dread, and acceptance.

He was holding his head with his left thumb and middle finger on his temples. He looked stressed out as he was writing in a black book bound in leather with multiple others that looked the same. he was using a silver quill.

I lean back in my seat and sigh “That looks like fun D.”

He chuckles slightly and with sarcasm he responds with “Oh yea, fixing the mistakes of my reapers is more fun than burning out my eyes every day with potassium nitrate.” he threw down his quill and started rubbing his face with his hands and then leaned back and supported his head with his left hand with his right elbow on the armrest “ But I can’t blame the guy, he was attacked by trappers after all.” He then looked straight at me, “ So you're going to be teaching my niece to control her power and mind… I find it ironic since you tried to help Harmony before you did the inevitable, That’s why you agreed to help Pandora isn’t it? By helping her you can try to fix what you failed so long ago.” He then smiled at me with a knowing look in his eyes.

I slowly clap my hands “Oh boy, The Great All Knowing Death strikes again! What next are you going to do, talk about how I got over my sister's death so easy? Or maybe how things have happened so quick around me, for example how in the span of a day my sister died, ended up being tricked by Chaos and sent into a new world, meeting royalty, ending up in Chaoses castle, and finding out Pandora has OCD, magic personality affliction, and she is a order stigma owner.”

He laughed, no howled at that “ Well I can explain all that. One, you have already accepted the death of everyone around you, two you are highly manipulative and can trick just about everyone around you, and play with them to the point they are like puppets, and three you're highly observant. The thing is you forgot the fourth thing that happened, heh heh.” he leaned forward placing his elbows on the table and grabbing his left fist in his right hand and lowering his head so his hands were in front of his mouth.

I mimicked his actions “ What did I forget?”

“Oh nothing too big, just the fact you seem to be drawn towards my niece.”

I recoil at that “ What!? What do you-, I just meet-”

“And she seems to like you as well. Come on stop acting like such a child, just admit you like her and get over this hurdle like all the others.”

“Those feelings don’t happen in a few hours!”

“ They do if you two are meant for eachother.”

I pause my thoughts and rewind “ What the hell do you mean? I just meet her.”

“Why do you think Chaos and Harmony never told you about her?”

I leaned back again and started rubbing my chin with my right hand while my right elbow supported me “ I’m not the best when it comes to socializing and I’m ok with children for only short periods of time before I get fed up. I mean they are nice and easy to manipulate, but eventually they just get boring and annoying.”

“ Do you know how entities are made? They are either born from two other entities or they just appear, but only one version of them exist. That is how me and my brothers, and my wife Life and her sisters came into the picture. Pandora was the creation of the Harmony and my brother porking each other like wild animals, like my son Purgatory. Their hasn't been a ‘pop up’ one of us in a long time until… well you don’t want to know your true age so, a long time ago.”

I start laughing at that “ Yea I’m an entity! And you're a mortal.”

“I’m being serious here Dust.”

“Then why are you telling me this now? Why wait all these years?”

“Pandora was the final test. We tend to be highly attracted to each other, but we only fall so fast for the one we deem right, usually our opposites or the one the multiverse deems equally as important. Now, she isn't attracted to her father so that only leaves you. You're probably thinking ‘why me and not some other entity’ well we have tried with both you. You have met other entities but never felt attraction to them, neither did she, so that means you both count as your opposites. She is Order, the perfect mix of chaos and harmony, but even I don’t know what you are. It has to be something that used to be wild and uncontrollable that has not had anyone assigned to it, and trust me, many laws and natural actions go unaccounted for.”

“This is why you siblings rarely talk to you, you never let any banter happen, you know what the other person is going to say before they get the chance to ask.” I put my head down on the table to attempt to take in all of this. What’s with this day? Also whoever is trying to get into my subconscious is going to be in for a rude awakening “So why does Pandora have both chaos and harmony? I can understand her having harmony but not chaos, it’s her father job after all.”

“Chaos is weakening.” I raise my head and look at him in slight disbelief, “ It rarely happens, but we can lose our power, not all, but mostly the important bits that are needed to do our job. I suspect Harmony dying may be the cause of his power lose… or Pandora being born. But I can’t give you all the answers, you’d get mad at me if I did.” he stood up and started stacking the logbooks, “ By the way, be ready for today, Chaos wants you to meet some VIP’s from that world.”

“Well that went by quick.” I stood up and stretched, the world around me was slowly being enveloped by darkness, “ I wonder If I will still be Pandora’s hostage when I wake up?”

D stops stacking the books “Wait, what?”

“Bye”

I wake up, yawn and stretch, not feeling anything on top of me. I re-summon my glasses and put them on before opening my eyes. Looking around I saw Pandora in a yellow bath towel, cleaning (mostly dusting) with wet hair. Over by the door were two trolleys, one had food (lots of meat, bacon, hamburgers, eggs) the other just had a normal breakfast of pancakes and some fruits. I sit up and lift my glasses while I rub my eyes.

“You’re up!” after I placed my glasses back in their correct orientation, I looked over and saw Pandora bring over the two trolleys and sets the one with the meat in front of me. She sat on the right of me and started eating.

I shrugged and took a bite of the bacon and found it to be cold, “You waited for me to get up before eating?”

“Yep! I know you like manners so I thought this would make a good impression on you.” she then rubbed her wet head up against my head in a show of what I believe to be affection.

I chuckle and snap my fingers, reheating our meals, “ Thank you for that. now let’s eat so we can get on with the day, because I have a feeling we will need the energy… “ we started eating and made small talk, you know about the weather, plans, the fact she was in nothing but a towel, the food, yesterday, etc. Half way through the meal I felt something brush up against my left arm, and then I noticed there is something wrapped around my waist. I looked down and saw her tail around me with the tip brushing up against my left arm. Why did I not notice this earlier? I’m usually highly paranoid, but for some reason, even with my heightened senses from years of watching everything, and everyone around me, I did not notice her tail… and for some reason I’m relaxed with someone else in the room. I’m never relaxed unless I’m alone in a room with only one entrance and no windows. But for some reason with her I feel… fine. I look to my right, “ Do you find this odd?” I ask questioningly.

She looks at me with a curious smile and tilts her head to her right, “What’s odd? Everything feels fine to me.” her tail shifts a little, not tighten, just getting more comfortable… for both of us.

“That’s what’s odd, we just met each other yesterday, but yet nuzzling, being half naked in front of each other, eating together, talking like we have always been around one another, sleeping right next to each other, this instant trust, and finally the affection… do you not question that?”

She scratched her head a little and then shrugged, “It feels good. Just… natural, and I like it! I like being around you. My mind is usually focusing on everything out of place around me, every perfection and imperfection, but with you around… my mind is clear, and I don’t want to regress.” her tail tightened protectively.

I was actually surprised by how protective she got just from the thought of us simply separating, but I also saw her fear. She fears her obsessions her powers gave her, but in her eyes it was a curse. But with me around it makes everything better. It makes no sense unless my aura is fixing her imbalance with balance… and her aura is fixing my paranoia and coldness. I’m actually being nice to someone expecting nothing in return! I’m not manipulating her, or trying to control her. The only way this big of a change can happen so quickly, in such a short amount of time is if… nope, just nope. “Hey where’s the shower?”

She lifted her talon and snapped, then on the left side of the room appeared another perfect door exactly like the one on the entrance. “Over there, towels should be under my bed, i will get you one.” she went to get up but I stopped her.

“No need, I’ve gotten really good at using my magic to be lazy.” I smiled and stood up, before being brought back down by her tail. She then grabbed me and and wrapped her arms around me while rubbing our noses together.

“I hope we get to spend more time with each other…” she said in a lo- I mean caring tone.

“Trust me, we will. Your dad and uncle want me to be your teacher, to help you with both mind and magic, but don’t get excited for every other student I have ever had ended up, hating me, fearing me, turning into me slightly, developing a personality disorder, suicide that one time, PTSD, and many more things. Pretty much, you have been signed up for something that has a small chance to make you, or completely destroy you. Are you up for that?”

“Well if you're the teacher, I think I will be alright, also, you know my uncle?”

“It’s a long story, but to sum it all up he is someone I go and banter with. Now, may I go to the shower without being held hostage?” she chuckles cutely and lets go of me.

“Get back soon…” I chuckle and shake my head slowly back and forth and stand up, making my way to the shower, I walk up to the door and grab the handle and turn it opening the door, I walk in, but before I close the door I look behind me. I see Pandora standing up while turned away from me… dropping her towel… I then shut my eyes and quickly shut the door.

*Inhale* *Exhale*

“Not going to ever forget that ass… *sigh*” I open my eyes to see a all white shower room with white octagon tiles all over the entire room. The shower was black and silver tub with a rain shower and was placed on the far side of the room. it was about ten by ten with a slightly smaller shower head, eight by eight. On the far wall above the tub slightly were two knobs, probably for water control. Finally there was a mirror on the door behind me and a drain in the middle of the room.

I snap my fingers and get rid of the last of my clothes, use the pitch black spell, and walk over to the shower. Using my magic I turn the knobs and test the water with my hand, I keep messing with them until I got the temperature right, scolding but not boiling. I step in and hiss at the burning pain, but eventually my body adjusts. “*sigh* What the hell… D can’t be right… but he is never wrong… all the signs are showing that our souls are… well… they are not matching wavelengths, but they are fixing each other. Any imperfections are fixed when we are around each other. She just accepts it, most likely because her father has taught her to give in to her emotions, which will make my job teaching her that much more difficult. An emotional stigma, is a destructive one. I’m going to have to put a limiter on it like I do with all the stigmas I meet… the Gleipnir seal. I got Gleipnir after I found Fenrir and freed him from it.

I walk out of the portal and immediately cast a heat spell, fuck it’s cold! I look around and see a ocean behind me with thick white fog on the surface. In front of me were grey jagged rocks the size of the Rockies from the looks of things it looks like they are surrounding something… something big. “It’s been awhile since I used my childhood tree climbing skills to good use.” I start my way up one of the rocks, using magic to reinforce my skin so it won’t get cut up. I might heal quick, but I still feel pain. After what felt like a hour of climbing I got to the top of one of the rocks and promptly scan the area “Ok this is an island, lots of rocks and skeletons, a mountain sized malnourished black wolf in the center, lots of water, broken chains… wait, what?” I look to the center and I see something I have never seen before, a HUGE wolf as black as the void, but its bones are showing through it's skin, like it hasn't eaten in a long while.

I draw my blade and jump down, increasing my speed as I fell staying close to the rock, before I hit the ground I drove my swords blade into the rock and put my hand on the back of the blade and slowed myself I stop with my feet hanging a few inches above the ground. I lift my sword with some force and dislodge it from the stone. I hit the ground gently and sheath my sword. I walk over to, what I suspected to be, the wolf’s corpse. His paws and torso were bound in a gold, silk rope that is tied off to a chain about four to five inches thick which was under a massive boulder… hmmm, this sounds familiar. A great black wolf of great size being bound by silk rope and thick chain, “Damn what’s the myths name… The Binding of- damn old brain remember! The wolf's name, Furor, Furios, Feurnir-”

“Fenrir... *growl*” says a very deep, and very hoarse voice behind me. I look in its direction and see a giant eye looking at me. It was the same color as fire. “Who are you, a new god! *snarl*”

“Holy shit your Fenrir… I don’t know if I should be happy, nerd out, or be in shock.” I say in aw.

“ANSWER!!!” he roared and the ground shook.

“No I’m not a god. My name is Dust, I’m a traveler, and I guess I’m in Asgard.” I start walking so I will be in front of him, instead of behind him so he won’t have to look back.

He squints his eyes and hums, “I sense no deceit in your words, but a lot of undermining, and yes this is my own desolate ‘home’ in Asgard. Now why are you here, Dust the ‘traveler’.”

I shrug “I just ended up here.” I kick up my legs and make an invisible platform under myself “Now why should I free you?”

He reeled back in shock, and then got angry and growled, “Don’t toy with me! First you you start hovering in the air, and then ask me as to why I should be free!” he starts foaming and the mouth.

I start playing with the Ulfberht sword in my hand, “Well since I just got the sword, formally stuck to the roof to your mouth, out as a show of my willingness to help you.”

He opened his mouth and ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth until he found the hole and kept licking it, “It’s gone… but how? You never came near my mouth, what sorcery is this!” he bellowed in shock, and I think some slight fear.

“Well I used my magic to destruct it out of your mouth and then reconstruct it in my hand, childs play to me… by the way I’m a mage. Now what can you do for me.” I say deconstructing the blade again to examine it more closely at a later date.

Realization struck his face at that moment, “You can free me… If you do I will give you whatever you ask of me. I need to be free… I need revenge.” he bowed his head to me. “Please, I beg of you, and I never beg.”

I scratched my chin then clicked my finger and placed my feet back on the ground, “Alright, I will free you, but, you owe me your soul after Ragnarok, and you must help me convince the other beasts to do the same.” I hold out my hand with my palm facing away from me, “Do you accept?”

He stared at my hand and thought, then he slowly leaned into it with his nose. For a brief second the world turned black and white, with the air getting colder, while a reaper bound our souls in chains and linked them. After that everything went back to normal.

I retracted my hand, “Now let’s find out how to get rid of this rope.” I walk over to his front paws and activated my stigma, and nearly went blind in the process. “Wow… this is the strongest seal I’ve ever seen.” I start deconstructing the magic to break it down into base parts to learn its makeup to see how I can break it.

Fenrir chuckles at that, “It was meant to be unbreakable, it’s the only thing that can hold me back after all!” he said with so much pride I nearly choked.

“Well hate to burst your bubble, but it is one of the weakest ropes I have ever seen. The only reason you can’t break it is the enchantments on it, they absorb all force and power exerted onto them and then seal it, weakening the owner of the power until the rope is untied. Even If I try to cut it, my sword would dull, even with all of its enchants. but luckily I can destroy it! But I have a short window to do so, let’s get started!”

I grabbed the rope and start channeling any anti magic spells I know… the pain was excruciating, like my soul was in a blender while I have my dick slowly skinned with a rusty scalpel. But I persevered until I got my opening, a small, almost unseeable hole in the enchant, after I saw that the rope disappeared, and Fenrir took a VERY deep breath.

His muscles started to gain form again, and his shriveled form stated to fill out, but not completely, his bones still showed, he has strength, but is still malnourished. “FINALLY I’M FREE!!!!!!!!” he bellowed as the ground under him shattered creating a creator as he stood to his full height. turning around he looked at me and lowered his head so we were mere centimeters away from each other, “How?” he asked.

“Well-” I stumble and put my hand on him for support, “Give me a moment.” I stand there leaning on him.

He squinted again, “You hurt yourself to free me?”

I nod, “Ya a little.”

His eyes focused and hardened, “Get on!” he lied down.

I start waving my hands in defiance “No, no, I will be fine.” I then buckled over, “Ok, maybe I will take you up on that offer.” I climb on top of his head and lied down. “Oh, I broke Gleipnir by making a hole in the magic surrounding it, then deconstructed it into small particles, which I roughly re weaved into a spell, I will perfect it at a later date. Now about Ragnarok… “

That was the start of that adventure, but that’s not my main focus. This world is dying, Chaos is one of its rulers, elves exist here, I have emotions I can’t control for someone I just meet that wants to give in to her’s, I have to teach her… and I’m apparently an entity!

“Hey, Dusty!” Pandora barged into the shower room, good thing I casted that spell, “I can’t see a thing in here.” she said slowly making her way into the shower room.

“Whats up Pandora?” I ask wondering why she was in here.

“I forgot to give you the shampoo, now where are you?”

I used my magic to grab the shampoo from her paw, and then made a path of light going from her to the exit, “Thank you, now can I take a shower?”

“Awww, can’t I join you?”

“What? No. Why would you ask that?” I ask while opening the shampoo bottle and pouring some in my hand. I then lathered my body, and hair with it, washing off the previous day.

She slowly starts to stalk forward “Because, the closer I am to you the better I feel~!” She purred.

The lights flicked on and the water stopped, I looked at her and saw confusion, but I know why. After all when someone goes from soaking wet and naked to fully clothed and dry in a split second. I might like Pandora but she has to compete with my magic. I then look at the rest of her and whistled. She was wearing a red and black striped, form fitting shirt with a V neck that was revealing, but not to much. She had on a silver necklace with a ring on it. The ring had yellow and blue crystals that spiraled, and it seemed familiar. She wore a jacket that looked almost exactly like mine, except it was more form fitting and slightly long tail and cuffs. Her pants were grey jeans, and like everything else, formed to her well. She also wore black slippers with grey socks that matched her pants.

“Hmm your clothes look familiar… I think it's the jacket.” I say while walking out of the shower.

She snaps out of it and follows me out the shower room door, “Your clothes look like the same ones from yesterday.” she snaps her fingers and the door to the shower disappeared.

I walk to the main entrance and open it, holding it for the woman behind me, “I have a signature look.” she has no problem using the magic she got from her father. I mean it’s rough but she can use it with no strain, so that means she needs lessons to control the magic she got from her mother. But she will need a stress test first to find her limit, and to reveal her stigmas primal state so I can place the Gleipnir Seal on it. The process is painful and it has killed a Gaia stigma user at one point… but she is stronger than that student. For some reason it hurts to think about putting her through that… what she will see… what she will feel… what she will have to do… *sigh*. The worst part is she believes it won’t be that bad.

We get out the door and I followed her lead. She went left. “The meeting room is this way.”

I furrow my brow, “Why are we going to the meeting room?”

She grabbed my right arm and held it as she walked, pushing her bosom against it, “My dad and my friends told me to bring you there!” she replied cheerily.

“Well lets stop at my room before we go, I need to get Clockwork.” I say changing course to my room.

“What’s that?”

I smile, “You’ll see.”

We make it to my room. I open the door and call out, “CLOCKWORK!” and out came the little sucker, flying around and making tweeting sounds that sounded like rubbing two pieces of metal together really roughly and in quick succession. I also noticed he was bigger… “What did you eat?” he was the size of a hawk now.

The this surprised me, “What did you eat now?” got reflected back at me.

“You ate my microphone and speakers you little shit!” I said half angrily and half playfully. I have a lot of speakers and mics in my H.O.M.E. but these ones had sentimental value to them.

The what do you know, “You ate my microphone and speakers you little shit!”

“Ok that’s enough. Now I would like you to meet Pandora.” I nodded my head in her diffraction, “And Pandora this is Clockwork.” I held my hand out in his direction. Clockwork then flew over to her and landed on her shoulder. Now I have a bird on Pandora's shoulder while having her head on my shoulder. “I think he likes you.” I say as we start moving again.

She giggles, “I like him too.” we keep walking for a good ten minutes talking about magic and how much she currently knows of it. She knows a multitude of spells taught to her by her friends, the princesses, and her father and many aunts and uncles. Fire spells, ice, mind spells, augmentation, reality manipulation, and something I was surprise she knew, a advanced time spell called Redo. To sum it up, it turns back time for a few second, ten max, it can cheat Death if used right, but for most users to get the max time out of it would drain most of their mana. This is good, now I know what her current potential is.

“Here we are!” In front of me was a pretty simple looking twelve by ten double door made of oak with heavy brass handles, and two minotaur guards standing on each side. interesting. They were dawned in plate steel armor, with some engravings of a draconequus in the center with a ruby and topaz were its eyes are. Around it was multiple different creatures ranging from ponies to elves and woodland creatures all playing and having fun while the draconequus watches… with a human with wings plated with gold hugs it from behind… *sigh*. I flash my stigma and see protection and strength runes surrounding the minotaurs originating from the gems and gold. Protection from the gold, and strength from the gems. “You can let us in boys, this is who they are expecting.” ordered Pandora. They nodded and each opened a door.

Inside was a room of white with pillars of marble, and gold trimmings. In the center was a long black table with multiple chess boards set up on them. At the very end was Cha- sorry I mean ‘Discord’. “Hello Dust, glad you joined us! Sit at the end there, my daughter can sit next to you as well!” he snapped his talon summoning a red velvet and ebony oak chair, just like all the others. “Now let me introduce everyone here. This is Magice, the wendigo leader!”

To his right stood a six foot, elderly looking, ghostly pale stallion with an equally pale long beard and long mane. He looked expressionless but behind his blue eyes lied judgment and patience. He was dressed in extremely thick furs ranging from all different types of arctic animals. On his belt was a worn, but fancy looking, axe made of bone and some sort of black metal. He also wore a blue and pink ribbon tying his long mane back and out of his eyes. He nodded and sat back down.

“This is Zar’day, the tree ant elder!”

To his left stood an eleven foot tall human looking being made of wood and bark. His eyes were a glowing green with a lighter green pupil. He had eyebrows made of braided twigs with grey and green leaves. He had a beard made of moss and grass, and hair of vines that went down to his upper back. He wore nothing but a simple necklace made of different leaves encased in amber. “Greetings.” he said in a gravelly, well used voice and then sat down in a huge chair.

“Next to him is Flock, the griffon king!”

On the tree ant’s left stood 4 foot proud looking gold and red Gryphon. His throat bared a huge, deep scar and he was dressed in richly fine clothes, almost as if he was vainly attempting to show off his race's wealth. He kept switching his amber eyes between me and Celestia on the opposite side of him, when he looked at me he seemed like he was trying to earn my trust, but when he looked at her, it was like watching a snake hunt a rat. On his head dawned heavy golden crown that almost looks like it's a part of his feathers. “Hello newcomer, welcome to our world.” he said with a cocky, proud, and mid pitched voice. sounded a little russian as well. He then sat down.

“You already know Celly,”

Who was now wearing a gown that was yellow at the top and stated fading to white as it went down the dress. She also wore a sun locket with an orange gem in the center and a gold tiara with a purple gem in the center.

“so meet the one next to her, Chronos, the elven ruler!”

When I saw this… thing here, i wanted to growl like a rabid dog and get rid of it. There stood a six foot one male monstrosi- I mean elf. His skin was a flawless porcelain and he had bright blonde hair that was completely straight and tied up in a ponytail, the tie was black. He wore robes of yellow and white with a silver sash that had different runes on it, all holy restoration runes made to protect and heal, but the heal runes are constantly on… ha. He had on a gold wedding band and a small crown made of silver with one onyx peacie in the center. He had on a disapproving look. On his back was a simple broad sword, but it was enchanted to hell and back. “Welcome.” he said in a monotone slightly deep voice.

“Now next to Flock is Emperor Nemean.”

Standing up was a six foot eight, completely ripped silver lion with a fade black mane that was braided and very long. He wore nothing but a gold arm greave that had a lions head at the shoulder and was detailed with other lions lining up in front of it like an army. On the same arm was an enchanted gauntlet that was also made out of some black metal and was shaped like a rams head on the knuckles. He also wore a brown leather studded skirt with a red undercloth. On his right hip was a gladius. His left eye was a faded murky blue grey, like what happens when you go blind, but his right was a strong royal red. He then walked up to me with a strong, powerful look in his eyes and stood about an arm's length away. We both started into eachothers eyes, challenging eachothers will, after a minute he smiled showing his teeth and stuck out his hand/paw, “Well met stranger. I like what I see in you, you're powerful, brave, and stand up for yourself, but you keep your circle of acquaintances small, but your enemies are many. You are intelligent and manipulative, but you only use your true power when it is needed. I’m going to enjoy having someone like you around.”

I grab his wrist, and he does the same to mine, “The same to you as well, its nice to meet someone who can read others with such accuracy, now it’s my turn. You’re someone who has seen many things, from the hardest of battles, to the birth of civilizations. You have lived a long time, most likely one of the oldest here. But you are not immortal, you can be killed, it’s just no one has succeeded because of your strong hide. Your leadership skills are unmatched, everyone around you instantly feel pride to be in your commanding presence, but that is also because you treat them like family instead of subjects or enemies. You like war and puzzles as well, most likely to keep your mind sharp. We have that in common, don't we?”

He laughed, patted me on the back, and walked back to his seat and sat down.

“That went well. Now next to him is Apex, The current pack leader of the wolves! He is still young, but his entire species wanted him to lead them.”

Now next to Neiman stood a five foot four, untamed and untested looking, silver wolf with dark highlights that stood out from the rest of him. He wore only simple pants leaving his upper body free from any form of clothes. His messy and unkempt mane had a single eagle feather tied to one of his locks. His eyes are a mix of red and yellow, and they truly showed his youth. “Hello sir.” he said with the voice of a teenager.

“How old are you boy?”

“Thirteen sir, and before you ask, yes I can make big decisions.”

I smile, “Good, but that’s not what I was going to say. I was going to ask if you get any free time to be a child?”

He scratched his ear, “Yes and no, but I have a job to do.”

I nod in understanding and he took his seat.

“Now next to Chronos is Nava, the nymph queen!”

Standing was a five foot nine, elf-like woman with green skin. She wore a rose colored lingerie like dress that showed off her feminine looks and hourglass curves, and double D’s. Simple, but effective, she looked like sex with class. Her hair was a crimped dark black. Her eyes were also a dark brown with a constant look of attraction, like she was trying to lure me in, to put it simple, she is a nymph.

“Let’s get along, Dust~” she cooed with a sultry voice that pulled on the strings of my inner male instincts… she’s good.

“Yes, let’s” I nod, and she sits.

“Now next to her is Fairy Lord Eboron!”

Standing on the table was a two foot ten, cream skinned fairy. Looks like he is from the leprechaun tree from his proportions. He had rich, Irish green eyes and the smile of a con artist, gold canines and all. He had black nails and kinda large hands for his size, like most of his kind. His ears were long and pointy, much different from the elves ears. His suit was a nice pinstriped tulip blue and dark green with a blue tophat with a dark green belt with a gold buckle. He also had a nice white undershirt and black bowtie. On his fingers were gold and silver rings that looked like they told a story, but I had a hard time understanding it, going to ask him later. Since he is the first pair of feet I could see, he wore black shiny clods. If there was anyone in this room I was more nervous about, it would be him. Fairies have ridiculously strong magic for some fucking reason. They could even match an average stigma user in power. “Hello there, we all must come as quite a shock, but don’t blame us, Celestia was the one who made us all flock.” he said in a cheery irish voice. “Don’t worry, we will be nice, or we will all pay the price. Discord told us to take heed, or you will do a harmful deed…”

“Well if that were to happen, you have the best chance out of everyone to survive, haha.” I joke knowing a leprechaun’s craftiness. He then laughed and stayed where he was.

“Next is the behemoth next to Nava, Faas kenlik do tiid, the dragon King!”

Through the huge balcony window came a dragons head, about the size of the room I was given… so that explains the size of this room. He looked aged and battle worn, but very wise and regal. His scales were black with a bronze center, but they were few and all that was under them was a gold skin. He had great ivory white horn s that curled like a ram. His eyes were a piercing blood red. “Ahnok rovaan... Zu'u mindok bok fod Zu'u koraav nii, vos mii tun un onikaan ahst zuspein zahtiid, waan hi vis mindoraan zey tol los.” he spoke in a rumbly, aged voice.

I smile at the sound of the dragon tongue, “Ov zey, mu fen.”

“Hmmm, interesting.”

“That’s my line.”

Discord clapped “Alright almost done, now next to Apex is Eve, The kitsune Empress!”

Now off to the right stood a five foot eight woman with red fox ears and nine red tails. Her skin was a pure white and her hair was black and was long, going down to her mid back. She had two locks tied with red ties in the front on each side of her head, with the back hanging freely down. She is wearing a black kimono with a dark purple trim and belt. It had a pink falling cherry blossom design I couldn’t tell her bust size because of the kimono, but from what I can see she is a C cup. Her eyes were a bright orange and were captivating. She bowed with a smile, then blew me a kiss, and giggled.

I smile as well, “Why thank you, I am honored to receive such a gift from a creature as lovely as you.” her face quickly flushed and she used one of her tails to hide herself. She is old, but yet she gets flustered by such a simple complement… either she is good at playing her part, or I’m not the only elderly child here besides ‘Discord’.

I felt something wrap around my leg and squeeze VERY tightly. I wince slightly and act like I’m rubbing my eye so I could look down without raising suspicion. I end up seeing Pandora's tail squeezing the hell out of my leg. But when I looked back up I move my eyes in her direction and she seemed fine… after so many years I still have a hard time understanding females of any species.

“Alright, we only have two more left, no next to Eve is Chrysalis, queen of the changelings!”

Standing at about six foot two was a bug like version of a pony with short dark black fur and light green catlike eyes. dress in an long free flowing earthy dress that speaks volumes on her maturity, looks, and grace. Hanging on neck was a gold heart pendant with small green emeralds that form a flame on the hearts center. Her mane was long and was a mossy green with some black and blue mixed together. She has big bug wings and sharp fangs that show. “Well you sure are interesting aren't you?” she said in a multi tone voice that was… nice.

“Why would you say that?”

She chuckled, “I can feel the emotions of everyone in this room, I can taste them to, but for some reason I can’t sense anything from you… you are either dead, a machine, or really good at locking things up. Since you are talking and you don’t seem like a machine you are just good at hiding yourself. So Dust what might you be hiding?” She ask sitting down with a triumphant grin.

I laugh at that, “ I just find dealing with emotions to be a chore, I also don’t like others knowing what I’m feeling or thinking, it gives too much of an advantage to beings like you.” I give her a look that said ‘you will never win’ but she kept her composer and that shit eating grin pissed me off… so you taste and feel emotions, well I can enter and fuck with minds. Keep it up and you will suffer for it.

‘Discord’ uncomfortably chuckled “Ummm… well let’s move on to the final introduction. If you look to your right you will see next to you Strong Heart, The Minotaur Lord.

Next to me was an eight foot tall grayish blue Minotaur bull clad in bronze, spartan like armor and wore no arm greaves. Doing so showed off his ridiculous arm muscles. Seriously, he is a BEAST! His arms are covered in tattoos that cried ancient battle curses, runes and art all mixed together to tell a story, and be of use. Scanning them with a flash of my eyes I find they essentially weaken the enemy's mentality, inducing fear, paranoia, and insomnia. If they happen to escape by any chance they will be cursed with crippling PTSD and at a later stage, suicide… damn. But to allies it’s different, it will boost morale, increase split second thinking, heightened senses, and gives a pain resistance. SH, you are built for war. His horns were sharp and were strangely an ivory color. Now finally his eyes are dark in color nearly pitch black. “Stand with me.” he said in a Braum-ish voice.

I raise an eyebrow at the request but I do so and step to my right a few feet and he did so as well. We were now in front of each other, “May I ask wh-” I was cut off when he grabbed me in a bone obliterating hug!

“HAHA, welcome to these lands strange mage! I hope to share many tales with each other and drink our body weights in spirits together!” he bellowed with cheerfulness. He then let go and I fell to my feet.

“Damn big guy, uncle, uncle!” I rub my back and laugh, I actually like him so far. He is a kind giant.

He then grabbed me again this time putting his arm around me and grabbing my right shoulder with my left side connecting with his right, “Imagine it, sitting in bull bar with hardest liquor, chating our tales and chanting our songs of adventure!” he said while slowly bringing his outstretched left hand from right to left.

“Sound like a blast, by the way I can regenerate my injuries quickly, but I can still feel the slowly breaking ribs and right humerus, no may we sit down and get through this so we can make your plans come true?” I say, trying to appeal to reason.

He grabbed his chin and looked down and hummed in thought, “Hmm, you make a good point, and I do feel something cracking… alright then, later we will do, what the children say? Oh yes Hang Out!” he let me go and I hissed when he patted me on the back. After that we both sat down in our respective seats.

“Alright that’s everyone!” announced ‘Discord’, “Now then, Dust, Celly here had some concerns about you and came to me with them, so to appease her I called a meeting-”

The elf interrupted, “You kidnapped us.” he said bluntly crossing his arms and giving Discord an unamused look.

Discord shrugged, “Same thing. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I called this meeting of the world's most influential leaders so we may discuss these concerns and banish them! Or just make things worse.” he shrugged again, “Now while you were on your way here we brought up topics that everyone wants addressed, like how you are going to be training my daughter, you past, your motives, who you are going to side with, if you are evil, what are your tastes in the opposite sex, what you eat, your power, your intelligence, where did you come from, what you truly are, are you a good lover, if you're married, how old you are, and many, many more questions like that! Now then, what do you say about answering some questions?” he said while making a question mark over everyone's heads but Pandoras and I.

I take a moment and rub the headache in my eyes while contemplating why this shitload of information and events is being dropped on me in such a short amount of time, for it is starting to aggravate me. I mean stuff usually happens quick around me, but holy hell the amount and scale of it all in only a day and a fourth is way more than I’m used to! I sigh and inhale deeply while clasping my hands together on the table and promptly exhale, “So, how can I help you?!”

"Time to begin!" finally.

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“So how can I help you?!” I ask while wondering why that sounded so familiar. I look around and see them slightly disturbed by the way I said that. I look around trying to see who was willing to speak first among them. The nymph raised her hand. like a child in a classroom… a nice sight, a nostalgic one to say the least. I look straight at her and sit back in a less intimidating manner “Go ahead Nava.”

She smiled “Are you married or in a relationship of some sort?”

I wasn’t expecting that, but the tightening around my leg is something I did expect after hearing the odd question… but I guess it’s not odd coming from a nymph, “Not currently , I tend to steer away from such things as romance and relationships since I’m not the… easiest to get along with, and my sense of humor is dark and down right disturbing. It is actually so bad and I limit myself so much, I only have one friend in the multiverse, he is a former student that was already dark when I met him, and that dark part of him grew under my watch. He gained so much power from my teachings… most of my family is dead except for my niece who I gave all of my earthly possessions to so she would be set for when I left for the final time.” I respond, certain parts more emotionless than others. I disturbed myself slightly with that response and the others seemed off put as well. Pandora's tail also went from a death grip, to a gentle caress with a comforting rubs and movements that felt like… pity and empathy. Nemean then raised his hand/paw. I nodded.

He crossed his arms and leaned back “What is your trade?”

I simply scratched my chin, “I like to think of myself as a teacher. Also a scholar of the arcane, philosophical, and technological nature. I’m also a decent leader, but I retired from being a king.” I say while shrugging.

Once Celestia heard that she raised her hand and asked a du- I mean reasonable question, “Yes I was for a good one hundred and seventy two years until I raised and taught the broken race, so what brought them to their knees would not ever be possible again. I taught them improved mathematics, shared the knowledge of a proper warfare that would decrease the casualties and increase their chances of winning ten fold, especially since the others around them are nowhere near their level now. I gave them… ‘ideas’ for new technology, teaching them the basics so they could solve everything else on their own. Didn’t want to give them a gigantic tech boost so instantaneously, it would just do more harm than good. I also had to take care of their economy, by completely establishing it from scratch no less! That’s how broken they were! But in the end, before I left, they were a powerhouse, and my successor was hand picked by me, and I raised him as my own son his eyes were a form of a stigma, one meant for knowledge of alliteration, and I hand taught him how to alter time in a way. He could stop it, look back on his mistakes, go back two minutes, or even extend his life. I helped him master this so he could always look back on my teachings, or even catch his mistakes. Making him to be the best he could be, a heir to surpass his…” I stop for a moment to catch myself from crying actually, believe it or not. Everyone in the room looked at me with confusion as to why I stopped, I inhale a deep breath, then exhaled “A heir to surpass even his father. The one who raised him. He is not from my seed, but he lost everything at a young age, and I took him in as my own…” Virgil… you might not be my most perfect masterpiece, but you are my best decision and my number one source of pride. even though I’m not with you at this very moment, my teachings run threw you like the blood in your veins, and that is what makes you my son! I hope you make my reign a disgrace in comparison to mine, “Good luck, boy.” I whispered under my breath.“Alright, who’s next!” I say clapping my hands, causing a few to jump at my random outburst.

Flock asked without raising a talon, which aggravated me a bit, “Who’s side are you on? Not to be rude, but we all need to know if you are a friend, or a foe.” he asked with an arrogant attitude.

I made sure disgust was within my voice when I replied “Well you were rude, to speak to me you WILL raise your hand, you WILL watch your tone, and you WILL never be a friend of mine. I’m on no one's side but my own and my students. I follow my own code as to my reasons to help someone, and that is all I’m going to say on the subject. By the way, just a reminder, if you don’t raise your hand next time, you can go fuck off! Respect your elders boy.” many had faces of shock from my outburst, but Strong Heart, Nemean, Faas, and Eboron just crossed their arms and nodded in agreement.

Flock then got up out of his seat and walked up to me snarling. He then got in my face and was about to speak before I cut him off and drew my blade quicker than he could react while putting my left hand on his neck.

“Get the hell out my face, or I know what I will be having for dinner later on tonight…” we both stare at eachother with pure aggression in our gazes. after a few seconds he huffed and promptly exited the room, slamming the door on his leave. Silence lingered in the room after that confrontation.

Then Neamen spoke up, “With every second that goes by, I wish you were my family, for you are someone who I would be happy to call brother… maybe even father.” he said looking straight at me with a smile.

I look back at him with a raised eyebrow, “Don’t know how to take that, but ok I guess? Now that the arrogant self centered prick gone-” I sheathe my sword and adjust my glasses, “ How about we get back to business.” Apex then raised his hand, “Shoot kid.”

“What are you going to be teaching Pandora? Is it anything we need to be worried about?”

“Well i'm going to be passing on my wisdom to her along with helping her master the arcane arts and any special abilities she may have. Thank you for asking a decent question and being polite about it. It’s funny, a grown adult has no manners while a child does, heh.” the fairy king then raised his hand. I lift my left hand towards him, signaling him to speak.

“So then, in thee end, you gave up all in your den?” he asked. Damn leprechauns and rhymes.

“Yes. I gave my niece everything I owned in my original dimension. The family house that has been passed down through generations, my company, all my stocks, all the family heirlooms, even my blueprints for new technology and weapons. Everything except what I gathered from my travels on Earth and other dimensions to gather artifacts.” I elaborate.

He grinned put his hands behind his back, “To your son a kingdom, to your neacie an empire, yet from what it sounds like, you've set worlds on fire.” he then pulled out a gold coin and flung it towards me. I caught it with my right hand, “ With you follows creation, yet it’s all from destruction, so tell me, in our world, what will be your final production?”

I looked at the gold coin in my hand, engraved on it was chaos emblem, but the other side way a yin yang symbol to represent harmony with the yin being made of silver and the black made of onyx, “Well When I give gifts, they will never be lost or forgotten. Yes, I do tend to leave destruction in my wake, but that’s because creation can't win you battles, unless your creation brings pain and destruction, and from the ashes of destruction will be creation. A never ending loop. Both are two very important pieces of the puzzle when it comes to understanding everything around you. But sometimes creation comes before destruction, but in the end it’s up to all of you what I leave behind me. Either scorched earth,” I put the coin in my hand and squeezed then held out my hand, palm side down, “Or streets of gold.” I opened my hand and there was a flash and loud sounds of coins hitting the table and ground.

When the light died down it revealed millions of gold coins, from all different makes and kingdoms. Many looked around in wonder, even the elf looked perplexed. But Faas and Discord were gently laughing.

The elder dragon looked at me and nodded towards my requesting to speak. I nodded back then he spoke, “You have great power within you, Lahzey. Power that I can feel radiating off of you, like heat from a volcano. Discord and Eboron can feel it to.” everyone turned their attention to the dragon, “I said you have great power, but both of us know that’s an understatement. Your holding unfathomable amounts of raw energy, raw magic energy, and it feels like it just keeps growing. If mana was limited, you would be hoarding it, leaving none for everyone else. Your even draining it from all of us as well.”

“What?!” asked Celestia, Nava, and Chronos.

Chronos then stood up, “So you're saying this stranger is draining our power from us?! We need to stop him!” he said with urgency, or as much urgency an elf can put in its voice.

Everyone started to ramble on except for Faas, Discord, Pandora, and Eboron. Faas then shouted “FUS!!!” my ears and everyone else's were ringing from the shout, “Now if you would let me finish speaking before jumping to conclusions, you would have heard he is not doing it on purpose. Isn’t that right Dust.”

I nod, “I have a lot of power, but there are aspects of it which are out of my control. My constant mana drain and storage is one of them. Simply being around me makes you weaker because of it, and if I could stop it I would.” I elaborate.

“Yes, so I want to know, how are you not burning up because of it? A body can only hold so much power before destroying itself.”

“I am.”

He looks at me like I’m mad as a hatter, “You are…”

I nod “Yes, I am burning up as we speak.”

The room goes silent everyone just looking at me like I don't understand what I just confirmed.

I stick up my right hand, only extending my pointer finger, “To elaborate, I am always burning up, but I can’t die, and I have a healing factor. Since I can’t die, the backlash can’t kill me, and I’m not in ‘flames’ because my healing factor heals me quicker than the flames can engulf me, but that’s just passively. If I start activating my magic, the ‘flames’ get ‘hotter’ and more ‘violent’. You might even experience that if you ever see me fight.” I put my hand back down. “Alright next question.”

Chronos raises his hand.

“Go ahead.”

He looks straight at me with an accusing look in his gaze, “Why do you hate me?”

Nava immediately said, “Chronos being as paranoid as usual.” many started to chuckle except for Discord and Chrysalis, the later started getting restless.

Strong heart took notice of her distress, “What’s the matter Chris, go some ants in your dress? HAHA!” he joked while patting her on the back.

She slapped his hand away “Stop touching me you insolent bull, and stop calling me Chris!” She flipped, yelling in his face.

Neiman spoke up, “Whoa Chris, what’s got your pantys in a bunch?” he asked sounding confused.

She started rubbing her face, “I don’t know, all of the sudden a wave of hate and anger flooded the room and I think it’s affecting me! Grrah!” she growled.

I interrupt “Oh no, he is totally right, I hate him and his entire disgusting race. Oh and I’m letting my emotions flow, that’s the wave you feel.” I confirm with a smile.

Everyone ceased laughing and chatting.

“May I ask why you hate my race?”

“Gladly. I’m a very, very, very old being. I’ve seen a lot, and I have gone many, many places. My nickname is actually wanderer. In all my travels, no matter where I go all elvs are the same. Cold, heartless, and narcissistic. THEY are gods, THEY are superior. all others should serve THEM. It sickens me. So no matter where I go, nine times out of ten I must exterminate them. Just like I did for my kingdom.”

My eyes are closed… I can’t see what's going on around me… but yet I can. The smell of the fires licking the buildings around me. Constantly burning away and cleansing the land of their existence, and their bodys. I still hear the screaming. The crying. The fear as my hounds hunt down the last of them and consume their flesh and souls as fuel to continue the hunt. The feel of the pure power, my power, coursing through the air enchanting the fire to collect the raw materials and give them to me in my vault. I feel my magic collecting the blood of his people. I can taste it. The blood in the air. The taste of revenge. Revenge for slaughtering and enslaving those they deemed lower than them.

“Why…” I hear behind me in a defeated male voice. I open my eyes and see the castle of the elven kingdom crumble, and disappear as the flames consume it. I them look behind me to see a five foot nine elf with white hair, golden eyes, and light blue skin. He bore a crown, chipped and tarnished, missing the emeralds once held in it. He bore robes that were once white and gold, now brown, black, and crimson. He has tears on his face while caressing the body of his nine year old son, and the head of his wife. “Why… You lied to us. Made us believe you were a god sent to aid us in our efforts. But it was all a ploy. One to invoke a false sense of security that we couldn’t lose… then when we were getting weaker, you ensured us we would win. Then you wiped us out. You went from a God to a Devil. Killing everyone no matter gender or age. You sent your hounds from hell after the runners, and your men of metal and lightning to fight our armys… no it wasn't a fight, because they never stood a chance. Your constructs obliterated them with their strength and their… multi shot cannons. Then you kill my family in front of me… why?”

I simply answered with, “Your actions came with a cost, and this is your payment.”

He looked up at the sky, smiling while in a daze “Gods, Licht, Himmel, please tell me this is a dream. If not…” he looked at his family’s remain “w-why did you condemn us.”

“They're dead.” He looked up at me. “When I came here, the humans you were trying to eliminate were the first beings I meet here. They told me everything. Even about the gods you worshiped and where they lived, so I paid them a visit. All I found were bones. Even so called gods have lifespans.”

“W-what, but I heard them, they told me to cleanse everything for the elves!” he cried and shouted.

I shake my head with a smile, then looked directly in his eyes and spoke, all the while my magic flared and all the blood of the elves started to flow to a orb above me, “You were wrong, Trezeat, fifth heir to the Elven throne. Everything you heard were just the the voices of a mad king. Delusions that appeared from your own twisted views. No gods, no spells, nothing, but your own inner desires that you couldn't differentiate from your own thoughts. So you say it was the gods who told you, and followed through, slowly getting worse as time went on. Soon your madness started to consume your entire people, and soon the entire world.” Finally the orb of blood was complete above me, about the size of a house. I then moved it about eight feet above the ruined king of elves. He looked up confused, then his eyes widened in panic as chains of cold fire and silver came out of the ground and locked him in place.

He started to struggle against the chains “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?” he bellowed.

I just look at him and calmly say, “ I won’t call you good or evil either, for they are nothing more than a point of view. But your actions do interfere with my philosophy. I don’t even think I can truly blame you either. I need to do more research on the matter, but I believe this stuff is just in your races DNA. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this, and definitely not the last. Heh, I mean, I’ve been to thousands of different dimensions and universes, and in each one the elves are the same. There are a few good ones, they just have mental conditions that differ them from the rest of you. A few even helped me and now live with all the others. Do I trust them? No, but that’s normal for me. Do I think they will do anything harmful? No, for I will be sticking around for a while after this. I never do this, but that’s why I am doing it. I never did it before. To be a king! So as my first action of being a king, I will keep my people safe, and execut you. So Trezeat, king elves, I hereby sentence you to death, by drowning in the blood of your people. Do you have any last words?”

He sneered at me, “May you die the most miserable death Devil! May your family suffer from your own weaknesses!”

I chuckle at his words, “One could only hope…”

“I then proceeded to drown him in his own races blood, and went on to rule the kingdom I named Pantheon. Then after so long I left leaving it in the hands of my son Virgil and his elven lover, Lux.”

Chronos got up and slammed his fist on the table, “You're a monster!”

I close my eyes and shake my head “Heh and to others I’m a saint. It’s all a matter of perspective elf, now sit, you’re making a fool of yourself.”

Chrysalis then spoke up, “There has to be more to it than that, all this anger and hate I’m feeling from you… I feel like I’m about to destroy the planet right now! The anger you're giving off is… suffocating to say the least! WHAT ELSE HAPPENED!!!” She bellowed.

I looked at her slightly annoyed, but I knew it was just the emotions I’m giving off that’s making her this way. “I am allowed to keep my secrets, and If I want to tell you I will.” she simply started to growl at that, while crushing her chairs armrest by squeezing it, making Strong Heart jump, and eyes widen.

I then get up and stretch and start to pace around the room. “Alright, one more question, then I want to postpone this meeting. I’m getting bored.” When I took a scan of the room, all I saw was shock on everyone's face. Except Pandora, who showed something worse, fear. I don’t know why my chest hurt when I saw that, but it did. It feels akin to the pain I felt after my son saw my power for the first time…

Celestia raised her hand slowly, “Yes Celestia?”

She coughed into her hand, “You are going to be teaching Pandora correct?”

I looked at the women in question, “Yes, that’s correct.” all I saw was fear in the poor girl's eyes.

“Do you think she will be your successor. I mean… you sound like you are strong, and you will one day retire... “ She trails off into silence.

I close my eyes and laugh. I walk to the door and stop with my hand on the handle. I looked back at the room, “Trust me when I say, she could be, but she has a lot of competition.” I open my eye’s, “Come Pandora, you seem to have questions regarding my actions, I will explain myself.” she quickly looks to her father, hoping to have him tell her to stay, but he simply smiles and gestures for her to go along with me.

“Don’t worry dear he won’t hurt you, unless it is a part of your training. You have nothing to fear from him. Now go, shoo!” he chuckles as she gets up and walks to the door I'm holding open.

We both walk out of the room and down the hall. She was keeping a good distance of four feet away from me. After a few minutes of walking around aimlessly, just trying to let her calm down.

She then spoke up “O-ok, I think I understand why you did what you did, but why were you so cruel about it?” she said shakily.

I scratched my chin, “Well, to put it simply I am a teacher to the very end no matter who it is. Sometimes you need to be cruel to teach some lessons.”

She was silent for a while then stopped moving. “May I ask why you agreed to help those people, even though you say you don’t pick sides?”

I stopped moving as well. I then turned around and walked towards her. I stopped in front of her with a very serious look on my face. She started to shake slightly, looked at the ground, and closed her eyes. Her eyes then shot open after I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight while holding her head to the crook of my neck. “I helped because the elves killed something important to me, and her last words were for me to save everyone from the elves. That girl was one of my students. I might not show it, and it might be hard for me to do so, but I care so much about my students. I would even dare say I love all of them. Even though I always ask for something in return, I just do it to teach my students that nothing is free, and everything comes with a price. In all honesty, I’d do almost anything my students ask of me.” I let go and turned around and started walking to my room. “Come, we need to prep for the first part of my curriculum.”

I heard her run to me to catch up, back to normal, “What’s that Dusty?”

I looked at her and said “Sweet merciful Buddha, what the hell did you just call me!” I swear I just heard Harmony.

“Dusty, I nicknamed you, is that alright?” she asked cutely.

I slumped a little, “ *sigh*, fine, but I hope you know acting cute won’t save you when I start teaching.”

We reached my room, “Now,” I put my hand on the doorknob, and looked directly at her, “Time to begin!” finally.

"I wonder if she hates me yet?"

View Online

“Time to begin!” I open the door and walk into the room and held the door for my new student. She walked in, the magic lights flicked on and I shut the door behind her. When she looked around the room, she started to tap her fingers on her leg and started to grind her teeth. Probably because of how non symmetrical the room was. I put my hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry we won’t be in here for long, and eventually you will learn to control that feeling. Now let’s go to my H.O.M.E!”

She started to shake her head slowly yes, but then she looked directly at me, “Wait, what?” she did her normal, and adorable head tilt of confusion.

“Watch.” I walk to the center of the room, close my eyes, and take off my glasses. I then turn around and canceled all the lights in the room.

Her breath increased, “Dust, what are you doing?” she asked.

I chuckled and opened my eyes. I saw her face perfectly as she gasped. This was the first time she has seen my true eyes afterall.

I seen her fear and her curiosity at the same time, “W-w-what’s wrong with your e-e-e-eye’s?” she reached for the door handle, too bad there is no door there anymore.

I clicked my fingers and my eye’s flashed as I gave her the ability to see in the dark with a quick spell, she blinked a few times then rubbed her eyes, “Don’t worry my student, you have nothing to fear from me or my eyes, this-” I pointed to my eye’s, “-Is my ability, the Alpha Stigma. One very similar to your own Order Sigma.”

She furrowed her brow, “What do you mean? I don’t have anything of the sort! See, look at my eye’s, they look nothing like your’s!” she exclaimed.

I chuckle, “Because it is still dormant, that’s why. Your stigma is the cause of all your suffering, Pandora. Even though it is dormant, it’s power wants to be released, and the side effect of the build up is the problems you’ve been having. It is affecting your personality and altering your mind in ways you can't control. My stigma tries to do the same, but I only give into one of it’s demands, and doing so makes it easier to deal with.” I explain. “But don’t worry, we're going to change that.” suddenly a black and white fiery portal springs open behind me causing Pandora to jump. She was about to ask a question, but I had a feeling about what it was, “This portal leads to one of the only universes I can stay steadily connected to without causing harm to what's inside. Kinda hard to do so when the entire thing is dead.” I chuckle a little knowing what’s coming next.

Her eyes widened, “Did you…” she asks while pointing to me.

I shake my head, “No, it died off naturally. Everything got too old and eventually got to the point where everything just stopped. Light, magic, life, everything. The raw materials were still there, so I started the process of breaking them all down, still happening as we speak It takes a while to do so, you know with so many planets and dead stars that are nothing more than balls of metal now, or black holes, or barren wastelands, or balls of ice, or- never mind. But anyways, I've turned it into my own universe through the use of remaking a mana generator on a large scale by reactivating the cores of dead planets and placing them in a amp rune pattern and using the raw materials to start making the unit in which we will be.” I signaled her over to me with a hand gesture, “Let’s go.” she nodded and walked over to me slowly, but right before she walked into the portal I grabbed her shoulder and halted her, “Just know, after you walk through the portal, there is no turning back, no jokes, no flirting. In there I am strictly your teacher. I will be harsh, I will force you to keep going, you will go through pain and pleasure whether you want to or not. The power you gain will hurt at first, but eventually it will feel amazing and intoxicating. In there, you will hate me. You will even try to kill me. They all do. The trials are hard, the first lesson being one of the hardest. You can die in there. I will try and keep that from happening, but it's happened in the past. Now after all that.” I put my hand under her chin and lifted her head so she was looking directly into my eye’s. “Do you still want to go through with this.”

She responded with “Yes, absolutely.”

I harden my look “Are you su-”

She then firmly said, “YES!” pushed me away and walked through the portal.

Hm, I must have gotten on her nerves. That was really out of character for her. Or it may have been this room. No matter, I need to stop thinking like that now. I’m her teacher after I enter that portal, and I need to put her through hell. I need to teach her how to control her abilities. But first…

I walked through the portal and ended up in a glass box. I saw Pandora looking around at… nothing. Just a vast empty void… or so you can see. I walk up next to her, “Amazing isn’t it.” I calmly say with my hands behind my back. She slowly nods. “Wanna see something even more wondrous my student?” I ask her. She looked at me and nodded again and kept looking around.

I put on a slight smile at her curiosity, then started to do what I told her. I put on a pair of glasses and the put my glasses on Pandora.

She was confused by the action. “Um, Dust… I can’t see.” she deadpanned.

I chuckle “Oh trust me you will in a second.” I spread my hand out, parallel to each other about three feet apart and made a barrier sphere and drew out all that was inside, making an empty void. I then started to make an artificial gravitational field in the center by adding some high density iron and spinning it at a rapid speed, adding energy as it went along. I then added some elements, Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, and a few others. They started to go to the center and revolve around the iron, and it started to build up heat until finally it started to perform the nuclear fusion I was looking for. “There we go, a small star…” I smile at my creation.

I take a look over at my new student and see shock and awe on her being “I’ve never seen one up close before… how? How did you do this?” she walked a little closer to get a better look.

I give her a nice smile and close my eyes because of the god damn pain! “This is what happens when you mix magic and science. In all truth, once you know the composition of something and you have the material, you can make it. Something you will learn.” I then made two portals, both going to the same place, on each hand and slam them together. It reappeared above us, such a small little light… until I started feeding it more, and more, and more, and it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Until it was the size of a sun about to go supernova, and that is exactly what I made it do. I put a shield around us that could withstand almost any force, and set the star off. We still felt the force of it, but GREATLY reduced. Pandora fell on her butt and I grunted from the blast. I sped up time outside the shield and watched the beautiful light show with my student. The light hitting the different dead planets so far away as the light kept traveling. Red planets, brown, yellow, blue, white, black so many colors all bouncing off of eachother. The remains of the star spreading out, looping, colliding, burning everything in its path. The light would have been blinding, but the shield I placed around us greatly reduced the incoming light intensity as well. Before anything else could be created, like a black hole, I sent out a deconstruction spell to break the remains down. The light kept going on even after I restored everything to normal, that energy carried on. Still lighting up the dead universe where we reside… I take off my glasses and take hers off as well. “Well then, that was fun, but we must start you education in the arcane arts. The sooner we do, the better off you will be.” she nods, completely speechless, but with a smile on her face.

The glass box we are in changed into a cream colored, ten by ten room with a walnut colored oak door on one wall with a brown trim around the room. The door had MANY arcane runes on it. Most of them were protection runes, but there are some more… unique ones. Two were cage seals, meant to keep in dragons and dark constructs. Another was a enhancement spell to increase durability while within this room. But the greatest one on the door was the jaw bone dagger stabbed into the center of the rune of life. The blade of Kane… The First Blade. With it and my knowledge I created a rune that would allow none to die while within this room, a failsafe so past casualties could be avoided. It took a lot of searching to find it. I turn to Pandora, “You ready? You are about to go through lesson one. I will give you the books you need, the tools, and the ingredients. After you learn what you need from reading you are going to set up the runes and safeties. Then you need to make the pillow you will sit on. Ok?”

She was fine until I mentioned the pillow, then she got a confused look. “Don’t ask about it, you will learn when you read your work. Now follow me.”

I close my eyes and open the door and walked in a few feet. *Inhale* ah the memories. I smell smoke, lots of it. I can hear the hollow crackling of demented flames eating away at something that cannot be destroyed. Yet the flames cannot stop, so it’s a never ending conflict between the two. I can also hear and smell water, splashing and falling. Metal is in the air as well… Iron, mercury, copper, even some cobalt and nickel. They are all so pungent. The air is also supercharged. Both with electricity and elements. Hell, if it wasn't for the spells on this room Pandora would have died from poisoning and electrocution. Blood also… so much of it. All from past mistakes on my part. Wood is also in the air along with pollen and earth. One side of the room feels hot, like someone started to burn down an entire town. Feels nice though, reminds me of all the wars I took part in. But with the heat I can feel something dark and hollow… just darkness. Now the right side of the room… Ice. Pure, unforgiving cold. I’ve been many places, even the home of the frost giants in Asgard, all the way to the frozen planets in this universe, and this room, on that side, is still ten times still is colder. Again, those enchantments help a lot. I hear sparking. Electricity bouncing about. I then hear a roar and Panora scream and hide behind me while Clockwork fly’s off.. I smile, “Sparky, she’s fine.”

I open my eye’s and they come face to face with a big blue eye made up of electricity. It back away to show the rest of its head. His head was massive, about the size of a full size car. It’s made up of red lightning like most of its body. He is styled like that of a english dragon with two curved horns. Spikes are running down his entire body and his tail ended in a double blade axe head. But the most noticeable thing on him were his wings. They are a beautiful light blue. The electricity arcing slowly along the angelic electric feathers. Body of a dragon, wings of an angel.

“Umm, Dust? What is this? I know it’s a dragon, but I’ve never seen one like this...” she said getting braver, moving out from behind me and to the side of me.

“I would be surprised if you did! Sparky here is one of a kind. I don’t know what his gender is, or if he even has one, but I’ve just been labeling him a male.” I shrug, “It’s been working so far.” I turn around to face her. “Also if you don’t know why he is talking like a normal dragon would, he is far from a normal dragon. He is a construct created by one of my students during their first lesson. He can talk, but he needs to learn how to feel first. Poor thing was created without emotions and with as much intelligence as puppet on strings. I’ve been teaching him but the process is slow. He has learned a few emotions, joy, anger, greed, boredom. You know, the basics.” Sparky grunted and flew off, and I saw Pandora’s face widen up with curiosity and amazement. She walked past me and deeper into the room, I turn around and smile at the memories left within this room.

First thing to catch my eye was the giant tree all the way on the other side of the room that was on a raised platform… the tree is on fire. The tree is white and yellow with long branching limbs, all bearing apples of silver and gold. An exact copy of the norse tree of life. Main differences, one this version can not be destroyed. Nothing at all can destroy it, not even me. The second is the hole in it were Sparky resides. The tree can’t be destroyed, but it can be altered, it was by my son Virgil. The final difference was that it was on fire at the top. Black and blue flames engulfed the top of it. You see these flames burn everything they touch, and I mean anything. But the tree can’t be destroyed. But the flames destroy everything. The two being in an eternal conflict. I find it funny to think about. This tree and those flames represent my students perfectly. They are strong, indestructible beings, yet their power is always eating away at them, the two locked in an eternal conflict. Surrounding the large tree is a body of water. If you listened closely you can hear the sound of a waterfall. That waterfall is located directly behind the tree and it is actually a portal that it constantly dropping water that falls off the top platform that the tree is on were another portal is located. I look at the center of the room and see a nice clean circle made of Myrddin tiles. Myrddin tiles are a type of tile made up of white runestone sheets with a philosopher's stone in the center of it polished with water from the lake that resides his body, The Lady’s Lake. They will be the tiles that she will use as her ‘black board’ for the chalk. In the center of the circle is a bunch of books, fabric and ingredients, along with tools and molds. Clockwork was standing on the stack of books Surrounding the circle is a trench filled with mercury that always kept below boiling. Actual tons of mercury, it wasn't to hard to obtain, but lining the trench with the tiles took some time, after all each one must be hand made and placed. I look to the left to see molten metal all formed into a ball suspended in the air with white hot spikes surrounding it, orbiting it with all the points pointing inward. This side of the room was also shrouded in darkness with the only light being the metal, with the shadows being impenetrable to light. Between it in the pathway to the center was blood from a god that has been turned solid and lined the pathway and circled the center. Don’t worry, it’s for the lesson. I look to the right and see ice of all colors. Blue, white, black, yellow, red, purple, everything. In the ice center is a titan! Yea, that student had a lot of potential. I’m not sure what titan it is, but it looks cool… and it’s made of light! Underneath it is a pool of dead demons… they were alive at one point, but they died when the lesson ended, so I preserved them and kept them there. Lining this side was a gold looking chain with silver and gold thin rope weaving through the center of the links that looped around the center as well and joined with the god blood. The next thing on the cei-

“Dust,” there goes my train of thought, damn it.

“Yes Pandora.” I ask giving my attention to my student, seeing her picking up one of the books in the center (Dictionary of norse symbols and runic patterns).

“What is all of this!” she say while flailing one of her arms in a circle, referring to the room.

“This will be the room for lesson one!” I say teleporting to her and tapping her forehead with my pointer finger.

She rubbed her forehead and asked while putting the book down, “And what would that be teach!” she said sarcastically.

I got close to her face, nearly touching noses and looked directly into her eyes with my stigma flaring, “Lesson one, you will learn to hate me.” I say in a cruel tone. I get out of her face and put on the most unemotional expression I could, “You see all of this pilled up here? There are multiple ingredients and tools here all for you to use. Along with thirty five books. Five are dictionaries of terms and symbols in case you don’t understand some of what is within them. One is an instruction manual for the main spell, it will tell you what you need. twelve are crafts books, seven are rune books, and the last ten are diarys with tips and tricks written down by those before you. If you find something that could help a student in the future write it down on a blank page. Your job is to learn everything you can from the books, make what you need, and create the rune for the ritual. While you are doing that I’m going to be in a different room. do you understand?” I ask as I start to walk to the door.

I hear her laugh, “Don’t leave this won’t take long! My dad taught me a spell That can transfer knowledge within a book directly into my mind just-” She snapped her fingers and nothing happened. I could only guess she had a confused look on her face when nothing happened because she snapped again, again, again.

I snapped my finger to get her attention, while i’m still walking away, and held up one finger, my pointer finger, “Get to work Pandora.” I say with an unamused tone as I opened the door.

I walked through it and right before I closed It I heard her yell, “You asshole!!!”

I chuckle to myself and looked ahead of me and saw a hallway of doors. All leading to different rooms in this ever expanding place I’ve created. I walked up to the fifth one down to the right and went in. I look around and see my collection. Artifacts, weapons, special tomes, tablets from ancient races. I got em all. Think of a story, religion, myth, anything really and I most likely got it. I got the Holy Grail, sword of the archangel Michael, Excalibur and its sheath, Arondite, the Aegis, and The Bone of Ullr just to name a few. I look down the LONG room and saw a coat rack and teleported to it. I summoned a few mirrors behind me I took off my jacket and hung it up. I looked into the mirror and blinked and my shirt was gone. I look at my body. Not to much muscle, a fairly athletic body, and skinny, but healthy skinny. But there are some marks on it. Like the mark of Kane on my right arm, the seal of sin on left arm, and the mark of madness on my breastplate.

“Even though you were beyond mad before you got that, isn’t that right Dusty old boy!” I look in the left mirror and see a version of me with wild messed up hair and different runes cut into his skin. I sigh at the sight of him, “What!? Are you upset to see one of your oldest voices, Jester? I mean I know I’m always talking to you but you rarely get to see me, and vise versa! And it’s not like you don’t enjoy doing this with me, you love to argue and banter amongst yourself! By the way, I like the lass you got with ya, quiet the spirit that one is, could use a few tweaks to the mental department, not crazy enough, but for being a totally different species, *whistle*, she is fiiiine!”

“Why don’t you just shut the hell up you fucking no good imbecile!” I look at the mirror in front of me and see me with short hair and the mark of Kane glowing on his arm.

Jester laughs, “Aww, what’s wrong did someone piss in Akuma’s cheerios, because you're not that cheery you old fart.”

Akuma growls, “Who are you calling old, you are only a few years younger than me! I wish I could rip your throat out, grraaa!”

“If it’s any consolation I’m older than both of you.” I look to my right and see a version of me with combed back hair, a smile, with the Alpha Stigma flaring at full blast and different spells and enchantments floating around him.

Jester laughs, “Look who decided to show himself, ‘Sir Cocky I’m Godyington’.”

“The name is Alpha.” he said angrily.

I spoke up “Whoa calm down their, anger is his thing.” I say as I point to Akuma.

Jester clapped and put up his hand, “Good one, high five!” and we preceded to do so.

Alpha closed his eyes, grabbed his nose and sighed, “I really wish I was the only influence on you Dust, you’d be much better off with just me, rather than having this Loki reject, roid rage, and all the other annoyances within that messed up head of yours.”

Akuma laughs once at that, “I highly doubt that, you're worse than me.”

I nod in agreement, “Ain't that the truth, at least Akuma shuts up, and Jester at least has good timing. But you, you never stop. You are highly counterproductive always saying things like ‘Let me take control.’ or ‘ Just let loose, be free! Show them what a true god looks like!’, and it is very annoying and distracting.” I deadpan at the last part.

He lifts his hands and slowly formed them into fists and yells in frustration, “BECAUSE YOU COULD DO SO MUCH MORE THAN BEING A MERE WANDERER, OR A GOD DAMN TEACHER TO WORTHLESS BEINGS THAT DON’T DESERVE IT! YOU COULD DESTROY EVERYTHING AND RECREATE IT IN YOUR OWN IMAGE IF YOU WOULD JUST LIST-”

Jester interrupted him, “Blah, blah, blah, I’m soooo powerful!” he taunts “Hahahahahaha, yea right! You are only powerful if you have big guys green light, if not you're as useless as a major in philosophy, nothing more than a thought!”

I speak up, “Hey, a major in philosophy isn’t completely useless! It’s good entertainment when you're bored and you are trapped in a room with nothing to do but think.” Jester made a so, so gesture with his hand, Akuma shrugged, and Alpha just did breathing exercises.

Alpha took a really deep breath, and exhaled, “Why Dust? Why do you encourage him?”

I laugh, “It pisses you off.”

“Plus I’m good! I don’t cause him many problems, and I help him have fun without having to resort to building something or integrating others for knowledge! I’m his friend instead of his crutch. Unlike you and Akuma, who just cause him problems and grief!”

“HEY! Don’t put me in the same league as the god wannabe over here, at least I make an attempt to be quite!”

“Haha, but it always fails doesn't it Akuma?”

“It’s not my fault that everything is infuriating and so easy to get rid of!”

Alpha pinched the bridge of his nose, “It’s because you can’t stand stupidity, yet you're the dumbest out of all of us, correct?”

Akuma grunted, “Yea, but you're the most unliked out of all of us.”

Jester laughed, “Good one Akuma, next up is the third grade comebacks, right after we finish our current kindergarten edition!”

Alpha retorted, “At least I don’t act like one!”

I put on an expression of uncertainty, “I wouldn’t exactly say that…”

“Well who are you to talk, we are in YOUR head!”

“That only means you are an unfinished product that is missing parts, while I am the finished product, which means you are not as perfect as you think you are.” I retort with a smug grin. He just turns his back and crosses his arms. I decide to get to the point “So why are all of you here right now, you only do this when you are concerned about something, like with my past student that harnessed electricity, and the dark mage who I later befriended, along with a few others, but that was usually only one of you, not all three, what’s going on?” I get rid of the mirrors and standing their were ethereal versions of the reflections. I went through Akuma and walk down my prize room to find what I was looking for.

They started to follow me, and they all were silent as I walk over to a set of rings. One I got as a gift from Chaos, and the other is from Harmony after I… killed her. I put them both on. Chaos on my right, this ring being made out of solid mercury that was colored copper with black obsidian chaos emblems embedded around randomly. Harmony is on my left, This ring being just pure angelic silver, very plain, but the unique thing about it was the raw harmonic energy it gave off. If you are wondering why I am putting these on, it’s for my students safety. Mana comes in one form and it is turned into different types. If she takes in pure mana, like what I have flowing around here, she could end up converting it incorrectly under stress and cause backlash that could end up doing permanent damage to her inner current (which is a lot like your circulatory system for your body, except this is in your soul.) and once she leaves that room, she will drop dead. Don’t want another dead student on my consciences. I hear Jester cough to get my attention.

“Dust, we are worried about you on this one. She is different, all jokes aside.”

Akuma then spoke up, “She is the daughter of two, not one, but two Entities!”

Now Alpha comes in, “Plus, you are getting a little bit too close to her too quickly.”

I walk over to a shirt made of hide from the hide of a black arts dragon. It can nullify all magic. I will wear this because my attention will be preoccupied with her mind to focus on protecting myself. “Your concerns are meaningless. I will be fine and so will she. So what if she is the child of Chaos and Harmony? I will still be on top if things go wrong.”

I could feel Jesters smile, “Or if they go right~” everyone else sighed.

“And to address my romantic feelings I have towards her, I know those are dangerous, but maybe it’s time… I mean I have been alone for a while, because of my fears of outliving a partner and possibly hurting them if I break dow… when I break down. But having a partner could have benefits, like not having to talk to myself and having someone to help me when I do break. Also maybe start a family and finally give Virgil a mother. Another good thing would be I could settle down an-”

All three interrupt me and say at the same time, “You know that last part is a lie.” they all deadpan.

I sigh, “I can dream that one day i can beat my addiction to learning everything.” I summon my jacket back on to me. “But I really feel tha-”

Alpha interjected, “You would be marrying into the entities Dust. You would have to see them on a regular basis Dust. You would end up breaking even quicker as a result, no matter what you do, no matter how advanced you are, and no matter what you learn or how much power you obtain, even if you did the ascendant spell, you're still human Dust. You already ignore your age because knowing that alone would send you over the edge! You will be their end, and they know it.. only a few of them can even interact with you without trying something to get rid of you! Plus Death is so cryptic, saying you are one of them, when you don’t even know why! He is most likely against you as well, and you are just too blinded by the knowledge he holds and could give to care if he is trying anything!”

I turn around and look at them all, and notice Akuma has a sad and soft look on his face, “We are not meant for love Dust. Bounding with others… we are not meant for it. That student you call friend bonded with you and came out more fucked up than he already was, and that is saying something. We are meant to endlessly wander until… well whatever happens, happens. WE, can’t change that fact… not unless someone else tries to do it for us, and forces us. Pandora is a sweet girl, and she has a lot of potential, but you should wait, she if she is strong enough to handle you, do this for her safety. You owe her that.” he ends with a sad smile as he fades away.

Jester pats my back, “But remember you're her teacher before her lover, ok? Don’t make any more moves unless you are outside of this room.” he then walks a few feet before fading away.

I look over at Alpha he just shakes his head, “Even though I disapprove of it, go. Do what you're good at, the only thing you can beat me at, your job! Go, teach the spawn of both Harmony and Chaos, and the scattered remains of a former Alpha Stigma.” he made a go away motion with his hand and disappeared.

I stand there and think on what they said… and I shake my head and laugh. I walk to another stand that held a robe as white as an angel's feathers, undr it is a plaque that reads ‘Robes of Eris’ I grabbed it and folded it into a square. I make my way to the door and leave this room, when I walk out the hallway was back to a ten by ten room, with the door to the room Pandora is in opposite to me. She should be done by now. You see time in that room passes much quicker than outside of it. It’s been about a week for her in there. Good thing I included a mini fridge with food and a cot for her to sleep in. The waterfall should be good enough for her to bathe with, if she did her work she could easily make soap for herself. Also she could replicate her food supply along with change them into different forms. I just hope that Sparky and Clockwork were enough company to keep her from going crazy from no outside contact… maybe I should have included an A.I unit to keep her company… No matter, but I do wonder one thing. I smile.

“I wonder if she hates me yet?”

"Explain."

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Pandora POV

I Laugh at him, “Don’t leave this won’t take long! My dad taught me a spell that can transfer the knowledge within a book” I picked up the book labeled Dictionary of Norse rune patterns and terms, “directly into my mind just-” I snap my fingers, expect a flash that signaled the spell going off and knowledge to be flying by within my head… but nothing happened. I tried again, nothing. I kept trying but nothing is happening! It's like I don’t even have magic, WHAT'S GOING ON!!!

I hear a snap that was not my own. I look over at Dust and see him holding up his pointer fing… he touched my forehead with that finger… and now my magic doesn’t work… “Get to work Pandora.” he says in a monotone voice.

He took my magic, HE took my magic, HE TOOK MY MAGIC “You Asshole!” I Scream at him as he goes through the door and shuts it.

Ohohoho, I’m pissed! He has the bucking audacity to take MY magic without asking! WHY!? How am I supposed to do anything without my- “Why is there a piece of paper falling in front of me?” I watch the piece of paper fall until it landed on the ground. I look at it, wondering how it got their, judging if it is safe or not. I drop the book I was holding on it and jumped back, expecting it to explode (like one of my dad's pranks) but nothing happened. I deemed it safe and picked up the book and the paper. I placed the book back on the table and looked at the paper to find that it is a note.

Hello Pandora,

Welcome to the start of lesson one. This is most likely the one you will hate the most, and the one you will learn to hate me during the process. You will be spending one week here studying the books within the room. You must learn everything within them. After that you will use the final book and piece together everything you need for this process. After you make what you need you must then use the chalk you made to make the runes you need to make the bigger rune where you will put the pillow you made in the center, where you will sit when we start the process of awakening your stigma.

By the way you have limited supplies as well to last you one week. Underneath the table is a mini fridge with two days worth of food. Also underneath is a small foldable cot for you to sleep in. As a second part of this lesson is to put some of the extra knowledge you learn within these books to work. You will use the extra chalk and ingredients to make transmutation circles and change the extra ingredients into copies of the food in the fridge. Inside the fridge is notes on the composition of the food, and written on the bottles are that ingredients composition. The soap will be easy to make as well since I gave ingredients for it as well. All the water you need can be found in the large pool at the base of the tree you see. If you are wondering how you are going to get up there, just stand on the illuminated platforms to get across the mercury trench and to get you up to the raised platform for the tree. DO NOT touch anything except what I gave you and what I said you can touch, for example the water and the tree. Everything else is dangerous.

Now get to work, and learn all you can, I will see you in a week's time.

-Your teacher, Dust.

My eye twitched a little in anger, he is right, I’m already starting to dislike him. I go and check under the table and found what he was talking about. I dragged out a folded bunch of metal that was very heavy and a tied up mattress that felt like it was filled with feathers.

It took me a while but I finally found out how to unfold it. The fold part of it was held in place with this metal pin of sorts. I unfolded it and put the mattress on it and sat down… and it didn’t hold. It bent down and touch the tiles. Why is this making me feel so stupid! I got up and took the mattress off and put it back into position to try and figure out what’s wrong.. I then noticed the hole I took the pin out of was still open. I replaced the pin and put the mattress on top and tried it again, and it held! Ok, with that out of the way I opened the fridge and found some… I’m not sure? I recognized some plants like carrots, lettuce, tomatoes (gross), and some broccoli. ALso bread, some small jar of this cream colored stuff, and a packet of some kind of meat that say’s Jerky on it. There are some empty glass bottles as well with corks.

I felt a little thirsty and decided to get some water. I took the bottles and made my way over to the tree. When I got close to this ‘trench’ he was talking about, one of the tiles lit up. I slowly walked towards it. When I finally walked on it a bridge went across the wide trench to another lit up tile. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t shock me. I stepped on the metal bridge and discovered it was safe. I made my way to the other lit tile. This one surprised me though, it took me straight up when I stepped on it! I almost dropped the bottles! Once the platform reached the top I regained my balance and looked out over the water… wow. This… it’s so beautiful. The water is crystal clear and sparkled with the light of the fire above. Underneath the water clean river stones and gems. Even some of the tree’s roots could be seen under the shallow water, but it wasn't to shallow, if I wanted to I could be sitting in the water and have it come up to my shoulders. Also in the distance I think i can hear a waterfall and I definitely see mist coming from behind the tree. “Well that’s good to know.” I start filling the bottles with the clear liquid and I cap the bottles when I’m done. I make my way back down to the center area, grab a book, and start my ‘Homework’.

3 Days Later

I slam the last book shut and scream as loud as possible. Sparky roared as well and Clockwork, I’m not sure why, I must have set them off. This is annoying as Tartarus! I just now finished reading these damn books, I’m hungry and only have a few things left to eat, I haven’t showered with soap for three days, and this room is starting to piss me off! Nothing is even, there is no balance, THE FEELING WON’T GO AWAY! Even though my mind is pounding from knowledge intake, my body shaking from this room, my stomach growling, skin crawling, all I can think about is him… Dust. He left me here. Just left me. I don’t even know if he is coming back. I’m scared… dad why, *sniff*, “W-w-why did you send me with t-thi-i-is being.” I curl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep.

I wake up… I think? I’m not sure. It’s cold, yet it’s hot. I can hear myself move, yet I can not see it. I can taste… I’m not sure. Just everything from dirt to flowers. From blood to rocks. I can also feel everything at once, all my emotions. Anger, love, happiness, sadness, joy, everything but one emotion dominated me the most, hate. Hate ravaged my mind. But all this, everything I feel it’s not mine! But it’s so overwhelming! I get on my knees and put my hands on my face and groan loudly from the load of senses.

After it died down I looked up and saw, knowledge. Thoughts, actions, symbols, magic, everythings. It was all going by so fast! I tried to shut my eyes but couldn’t, so I then try to cover them, but my arms wouldn’t move. “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” I scream, with my head starting to feel like it was going to burst at any moment. I started to cry. “Make it stop! Please someone, MAKE IT STOOOOOP!” but it only got worse.

Dust… I saw little squares, almost like windows that showed him talking to many others, all around my age, some younger, but none seemed to be over twenty five. One showed him talking to a young boy, hair silver like his, who was clad in a blue and red leather coat with a black and blue under shirt. Dust was smiling while on one knee with his hand on top of the boy's head messing up his hair by shaking his hand back and forth, the boy was smiling with eyes that kept changing color and the symbol in their center kept changing shape. Next window showed him in a different, older looking jacket with a being encased in red and blue lightning while gold chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around it. The next window showed Dust with his back turned to the window wearing a different pair of boots standing next to another being, but this one wore a deep black robe with birds sewn into them. This one was on his knees while they both gazed at a battlefield torn apart. Dust then puts a hand on the beings shoulder.

There's so many. Why is this happening!

Then everything turned black, I was alone again in the darkness around me… but then a figure appeared made of lightning, then another that kept changing shape, so many appeared, all of different colors sizes and shapes. It was like a never ending sea of colors.

Then one appeared in front of me made of black flames with blue ones for eyes. It held out it’s hand. I look at it for a while and grab it, expecting to be burnt, but all I felt was some warmth. It then spoke, '' I know that it is hard young one, I know what's it like falling into despair but never let such things stop you......the road before you will be long and all so very hard.....you choose this fate because deep down inside you know you can survive this trial, it will be your will that will see you through the end. Remember the books there contain the answers, the book's, Dust said that everything you need is in the books.”

He stepped back, I think it’s a he judging by the voice, And then the constantly shifting one stepped forward. “Hey there! You must be the new pup to be added to the pack! Ha!” why does this one remind me of Dust so much, “Well I guess it’s nice to have a new sibling to add to this nuclear, spontaneous, messed up magical family! You see Dad-” dad? Is he talking about Dust? ”- has a weird way of doing things, they are actually really fucked up, and you will hate him for them, even I hate him for the way he taught us, but deep down I still love him as my dad, and even though only one befriended him, hopefully you will befriend him two, after all he has been through, he deserves it. But if you are a female… well to put it simply, try to get to know him, deep down he is a lover, and if you can touch his heart, you won’t regret it when he returns the feelings.”

After that the others told me similar things, some words of encouragement, other tips on doing the things for this lesson, they all sounded helpful and kind, even the ones with the rough voices. But they all had something in common, all except the first to either hated or just did not care for Dust, some even wanted him dead. It was… disturbing to say the least. After they were all done, everything flashed white.

My eyes flashed open. I noticed I was lying on the cot with a book in my arms. I was sweating and my breathing was heavy. I look down at the book in my arms… it was the one I was reading before I fell asleep. I sit up and look at the cover of the book, “Student Journal… I remember one of the voices in my dream telling me a spell involving this.” It told me to get a pinch of mage salts and put one grain in each of my eyes. I look around the room and rested my eyes on the ingredients that were left in the room. I get up and walk over to them and I started to look at the different bottles that had salt like substances in them. “Bone salt, sea salt, dragons salt, shadow salt… ah! Mage salts!” I pick up a small glass bottle filled small blue grains of crystal. It had a cork on top of the five by five jar and two tweezers hanging on the sides by magnets crudely glued to the jar. “Well this is going to hurt… here goes nothing.”

I remove the cork and set it down on the table. I take one of the tweezers and get one tiny grain of salt. I do the same with the other one. I look closely at the grains I will be putting in my eye. They were small, about the size of sand, but unlike sand they look smooth. They are blue, but it looks like something is moving inside them. My ears droop. “Well here goes nothing…” I lean my head back and put both tweezers above my eyes. “Ok, three, two, one-” I released the pressure on the tweezers. I flinch as the salt drops in my eyes. I hiss while throwing the tweezers to the ground and quickly rub my eyes. “Damn it, this stings!” I rub my eyes for a minute and then open them slowly.

“Wow…” Symbols, spells, text, it’s everywhere! I smile slightly at the beauty. Unlike in the dream they were all still and artfully colored. I keep looking around the room looking at it all, until my eyes landed on the book I was holding earlier. I walk up to it and pick it up and I see a little blue X hovering above it. I squint at it and touch it. Text appeared detailing what was in this book… and what was apparently casted on it. One spell made sure it would be the last to be read, others were all recordings that only appear while dreaming and while in distress, and what do you know another spell puts the reader into distress. I chuckle at it and take another scan of the room with my new ‘sight’. “Well, time to see what I can find to help, haha.” I chuckle (cutely) and went about the day.

Seven days later

I stand up and wipe the sweat off my forehead, “Ah that’s the last one!” I look around at my work, all written in Titanas chalk all on top of freshly polished Merlin tablets while the symbols are outlined in magic infused gold dust chalk. Just like the book instructs. I walk over to the recently cleared ingredients table and pick up the piece of vanilla and strawberry cake and take a bite savoring the flavor.

It’s been a few days since I had that dream, well it was not really a dream, more like a collection of messages sent to me telepathically through the spell encoded on that book. Anyway, since said dream I went all around this room looking at the different messages and tips. Some I could not get to, since they were in the more dangerous parts of the room, and I had to use the mage salts a few more times since they had a varied time span.

Through the notes I have learned so many things. In truth they were nothing more than instructions that were already in the books, but the difference was the memories attached to the notes! Having both a written version and a step by step visual tutorial really helps things go by quick. I’ve learned to make cake and other foods out of ingredients simply containing similar elements. I’ve also improved my runes, and even though I have yet to test it, my normal magic through these notes as well. One of them showed me a way to transfer the normal, hand written runes into spells that can be memorized and casted, I've memorized a few already, I’m just waiting to test them later.

I grab a bar of soap I made and start to walk to the waterfall so I can wash off. I carefully walk around the carefully drawn runes as to not disturb them. After a ride up the rising platform I make my way behind the tree and find the waterfall. Staying on the pathway on the edge I undress. I then go into the surprisingly warm water and sit down and relax. This weeks been hard. Sparky hasn’t been a real problem, but trying to keep clockwork from eating the fridge has been tough. Also my first few attempts at making food was… not the best, but after a while I made something edible. I mean I’m learning a lot here, and even though I was upset at first I’m happy now. Though I have many questions.

Who am I learning from? I haven’t seen Dust in a week and it has me worried, but what has me more worried is when he returns. Can I trust him? For some reason my dad does, but he knows things that I don’t… have they met before? It would explain a lot why my father would let some strange creature for seemingly no where with immense power just take his daughter away for so long.

What do I think of Dust? I’m not sure. From that story he told he sounds cruel… but he he killed those elves because they were doing the same to everyone else. He also seems different in here, he just seems more serious, which is the complete opposite back at the cabin and my father's castle. There… I think I like, no I do like that side of him. For some reason I’m drawn to him. It’s like I just can’t stop thinking about him, yet I’ve only known him for a short while. I felt like this from the moment I saw him… it all just feels like I’m not in control. I just want him all to myself! When he flirted with Eve I wanted to incinerate her! I mean when it happened with Nava I could stand it because she is always like that but Eve, EVE!

I went under the water and screamed.

I came back up and gasped for air. Why am I getting so worked up about this! I mean I don’t even know if he likes me the same way back… does he? He is really nice to me, and I catch him looking me over often. He also stares too… plus when I’m in distress he comforts me. He also didn’t seem to uncomfortable when I walk close to him, or even when I wrapped my tail around him, that’s practically asking him out and he didn’t deny it, he actually seemed to give into, and enjoyed it. Of course he could have not known the meaning behind it… but what if he did? We also slept on the couch together practically naked… did that mean more to him? What about his culture and courting rituals? Has he been try to get with me this entire time as well? Maybe aunt Lust would know… I need to call her at some point.

I stand up, deciding that i soaked for long enough and went back over to the path way to pick up the bar of soap. Once I had it in my grasp I lathered my body with it, making sure it got deep into my fur, scales, feathers, and pretty much any other form of hide on me. After that I started to scrub my hair.

After I was done with that I walked back in under the waterfall and rinse off. I get back out of the water and went to the pathway to… then I heard a door open… the only door in the room.

And I felt instantly PISSED!

I walk into the lesson one room and close the door behind me, I didn’t need to lock it, when the lesson starts she can’t get past me, and no one else is here. I look at the center room, and saw everything she had to do done. The runes were made, food as well (huh cake), but what was weird were the mage salts, they were almost gone… they always need to be replaced after each student, I wonder why?

“YOU ASSHOLE!!!”

I look up and see Pandora on the raised platform all wet… and completely naked. I smile and quickly cover up my eyes while chuckling. I hear her get on the hydraulic elevator and then make her way over to me… and she slaps me. “WHY THE HELL DID YOU- *omph*!” I thought the Robes of Eris at her.

I peek through my fingers while still smiling, “Cover yourself up,” I clicked my fingers and her fur and hair was now dry, “and we will go over your progress.” she quickly puts on the robe, and when she covered herself with them, strapped and belts attached themselves around her so they wouldn't fall off. While this happen I walk over to the center platform and look at the runes that were all drawn out.

I feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn around and look at Pandora with her arms crossed, and glaring at me like it would kill me. “Why did you leave me here?!” she asks through gritted teeth. I can also see her fur standing up on her neck.

Actually with that look and those robes she looks even more attractive than befo- STOP! Why are my thoughts like this! For me to even remotely tolerate someone I need to spend weeks getting to know them, not fucking two days! Ok, I just need to forget about it until I can talk to Lust. “Are you angry at me?”

Her glare hardens, “YES!”

I turn around and walk over to the exact center of the platform. “Do you hate me?”

“Yes! No… maybe? I don’t know!”

I reach the center and turned on my heel, ruining the center rune marks.

I see her face Is now one of complete shock, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!”

“They're wrong. All of them are wrong. They are sloppily drawn, too big and in the wrong orientation. Also the center rune is transmutation, not arcane.” I blink and all the runes disappear.

She ran over to me and tried to tackle me, but I made myself ethereal and she ran right through me. I then teleported her and I to the main path way and turned her head to the platform with one hand. Everything previously in it was now gone, and now the proper runes circle is all laid out. “All of my students get it wrong, even one’s with prior training, only one came close to it, and that was my own son. So don’t feel bad, this was a beyond master tier runic formula. Now go to the center and we will continue the lesson.” I give her a little push on her back towards the center.

She stumbles slightly then stops, she turns around while rubbing her temples, “So you mean all that work I did, all the blood, sweat, tears, headaches, chalk dust, everything… it was all useless and for not?”

“Yes.”

“...” she turns back around and walks to the center.

I clap my hands, “Alright! Time to explain this part of the lesson!” I snap my fingers on both hand spawning a gold and green tinted aura on my left hand, and a jagged looking quickly flashing multicolored aura on my right “I’m going to put you through physical, mental, and spiritual hell! You’re going to be casting this spell.” In front of me a runic array pops up, “This spell is simply made to be a painful waste of mana. It will give you the effects of magic backlash, without killing you, maybe… probably… anyway! I’m constantly going to be feeding you mana, that is what this aura is. This mana is chaos mana and harmonic mana, the reason why I’m feeding you this mana is because regular mana could have negative effects on you while we do this. Reason why is because your going to be drained quicker that you could even possibly replace and convert at the same time. I’m also going to be in your mind causing havoc. Nightmare's, repressed memories, jumbling of thoughts, you name it, I’m going to be doing it. All in all, this is going to hurt a fuck ton and awaken your dormant Stigma in its primal state, and when that happens it will be bound so you don't end up completely destroying everything around you and yourself. Any questions before we continue?”

She looked a bit nervous, “What will I learn from this?”

“You will be learning all of your weaknesses, and increasing your overall mana pool, while learning something that will help you when you have magic backlash. To put it simply, it sucks, and the best way of toughing out the pain is with something that sucks worst. putting yourself through it. But the two most important things here is to unlock your full potential, and make sure it is NEVER seen again.” I take off my glasses and carefully place them down next to me. Once I’m back to full height, I start my side of the ritual. and the entire room starts to glow, almost as if light has started to shine from everywhere, even the air. Sparky retreats back into the tree, and Clockwork follows. My hands start to be engulfed in a black abyss, and all the light starts going into it, almost as if entering a black hole. hundreds of light streams start going into them, and from within you could see both rings radiating beautifully. Avoiding looking into her eyes, I tell her “Cast the spell when you're ready.” I could tell she was unsure, then she looked directly at me, and her entire posture and demeanor changed. She went from a very defensive stance, like she was scarred, to this now very confident and offensive stance. Clever girl must has steeled her resolve. She held out her right hand, and use her own magic, copied the template I made for her, she took a deep breath, blew it out, and activated the magic. Last thing either of us heard was as I quickly looked into her eyes, was her first cry, a harmonious melody, a loud crack, and the sounds of chains.

(???)(Pandora’s POV)

My eyes shot open immediately, and I found myself… in my old bed? What? Why am I here. I look around at my old room, when I lived with my mother. It was very dark, but the cracked door let in enough light for me to make out the details of the room. It was all white with gold and platinum edgings wherever they were needed. I sat up on the bed parallel to the door. I look at both sides of the door and see two toy boxes with the same stuffed animals on them, sacked the same way. Just how i liked it. The floor was a white carpet that had a very plush feel to it, that was mom's idea…

I hear the door open, letting in more light. I look over and see her… “Mother.” I say on the verge of tears. She was beautiful, just how I remember her. Her hair is long, going down to her lower back in its glistening golden glory, as dad would say. The wings on her back used to be a bright white, but now they are an abyssal black with gold trimmings. Her face was soft and gentle looking, with silver eyes that held love and calmness within them. I was so happy to see her, until I look at her clothes. No longer did they hug her body's form, but now they were ripped, tattered, and stained with blood, her own. I can’t even make out their original colors. Her skin was cut, burned, damaged in some way, or just gone. “Mommy…” I say in both joy and fright.

(Pandora’s Mind)(Dust POV)

“Wow, I honestly didn’t expect this, I had no idea she was in the castle that night.” I say to myself and Alpha.

“The bitch Harmony probably masked her presence from us and the hounds. Since it was not our main objective to search and destroy everything we didn’t even think of scanning the castle for any types of concealment magic.” Alpha says with a snarl, directed at the memory of Harmony.

“True… also watch your tongue Alpha, or do I need to send you back with the true me again?” when I said that I could feel his uneasiness, trying desperately not to show fear.

“I don’t know why you defend her so much, after all she was a-”

“Traitor.” I shake my head, looking on as the figment of Harmony went over and hugged her daughter, Pandora weeping, uncaring of the light alteration spell casted in a bubble around her, to make her unseen, the only reason why we are seeing it is because she noticed it but didn’t give it any mind back then . “ But she couldn’t help it, something went wrong. I have a theory now that I think about it…” Harmony now casted a sleep spell on Pandora, but it didn’t have an immediate effect. Growling was heard and Harmony quickly turned around to sense two hellhounds. She got into a battle stance, only for one to appear to her left and bite into her side. The other two latched onto her arms, and started dragging her away. Pandora tried to move, tried to reach her mother, even call out to her, but the spell placed by said mother was too strong. She was too tired to move, too tired to hold her eyes open, and too tired to speak.

“Haha, so persistent, even at such a young age… I guess some never grow out of some things!” shrugged Jester.

“Indeed, now let's insert some of our memories into the mix, shall we?” Suggested Alpha.

“Yes, let’s give her a first person view…” said Wrath.

“*sigh*”

(Pandora’s POV)(Dust’s memories)

What was that! What happened! Mommy, are you ok mommy! It’s so dark…

…

Wait what’s that light?

Suddenly everything got really bright, and felt really, really hot, and the pain, it is indescribable. My eyes adjusted and all I see is my old home in flames, the most crimson flames I have ever saw consuming the surrounding buildings that belonged to my mother's Angels. How, they are all made of marble! My head turns to the left without me moving it on my own and I see… oh no… please stop...

So many… so many dead. From keepers to arch, they are all gone, all either burnt, hanged, or impaled on their own spears. WHY!? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! My eyes closed and my head started to shake from side to side. A growl was heard and against my own accord, my body turned around, and I look down to see my mother kneeling. She was cut up with bite marks, and blood coming from her mouth. The feathers on her wings were gone, burnt away. My mouth started to move, but I couldn’t hear anything coming out of it.

My mother looked up with deadpanned look, “Look I don’t need one of you lectures right now, I was cocky, I thought I could win, and OF COURSE they sent YOU to deal with me. They will regret this… I was trying to save them…” she said looking down with her eyes half closed, defeated and sad.

My mouth moved some more.

My mother growled and looked at me with a snarl, “From what? From what?! I was saving them from YOU!”

Lips moved again.

“Giving them a quick, easy passing was the best option! If only they seen what I saw in my vision! You are…” she started to cry, hiccuping in the process, “You’re a monster.... we see the multiverse as a masterpiece of our own making, but you…. you see it as a playground, just one big sandbox with hidden treasures, secrets, you don't care what you disrupt, and even if we ask you to stop, you ignore us to feed your own seven sins! I just wanted to save them, save them from the pain of have their entire existences work torn apart before their eyes…” her head dropped again, hair cover up her weeping face.

I felt a wetness run down my face, but even though I was crying, these didn’t feel like my tears. It was a while before I sucked in air, and said another unheard sentence.

“*sniff* We were… we were close, almost as close as I would be with my brothers…”

My body knelt down, any limb in my line of sight is blurred out by a black cloud of some sort. what happens next is unexpected. My two forelimbs wrapped around her in a tight embrace. She is shaking, and so am I. I leave go and rose back up. and took a few steps back while wiping my eyes. My right forelimb then shoots out, and the pain I feel only escalated, I feel so hot, yet freezing at the same time, and I also feel like I was about to shatter like glass at any moment, and I felt as heavy as a mountain, yet I still stood. A silver, dull grey, and black cloud starts to appear around my mother in a circle floating around her. The cloud looks to be constantly shifting, shining in some places when the light hits it just right. It’s actually a captivating thing, seeing it shift, and shimmer…

“I have one last thing to say, before you end this.” My eyes close in expectancy. “Thank you for freeing me...” After That my fist closes, and my eyes open.

My mother screams a scream that can only come from true pain. One so horrible that I can feel them. They pierce my ears, my skin, all the way down to my bone. I see her body disappearing starting at the arms and legs, and working inwards, being destroyed by the storm of grays and blacks. Her face was one of terror. I want to go and help her, i'm struggling to do so, but my body won't move. I try to avert my eyes, but they stay fixated on the see before me, and when she is gone, everything is consumed by darkness.

(Dust’s Mindscape)(Dust’s POV)

“And now she is wallowing in her own depression,” Wrath turns to me with his arms crossed, “ you're slacking.”

“For once the brute is right, what the hell! You held back most of the pain, actually almost every emotion from her! That one little scene could have set her off like a Zippo to powder keg!” Alpha complains, like always.

“Or, you know, could have just let her hear your voice, or name. “ continues Wrath.

I shake my head and look at her curled up into a ball in the back of my mind. “It’s not time for her to know.”

“Or you just haven’t boned her yet and you want to wait until then to tell the truth.” comments Jester leaning on my back.

I stumble forward, actually a little shocked. “WHAT!” I exclaim, “Who the hell do you think I am!”

“A lair.”

“A player!”

“A fool.”

I start clapping. “Thanks for the support.” I say in a deadpanned tone. “Anyway, her father asked me not to tell her yet. You already know this!”

“Ya, ya, so what do we do now?” replies Jester with a wave of his hand.

I scratch the back of my head, “Now we just connect her mind a body again while mixing the two memories together until she breaks. It may take a while but-” One of my Hellhounds walks out of the darkness. It stands on all fours around five or so feet from the ground to the top of it’s head. It’s not the Alpha, which is much bigger, but it’s the third biggest, which are the guardians of my H.O.M.E.

It sits down in front of me and leans its head forward to me. I rest my hand on the top of its head and hear, ''Hell Hounds!! Go forward and inform Dust that I have returned.....with company we have need of food and rest for our journey was long.''

“Visitors, Yay! Also Alke is back! Woohoo, he was always my favorite!” exclaims Jester, clapping madly at the news.

“What the FUCK does he mean by ‘company’ Dust…” growls Alpha.

“You know exactly what it means Alpha.” I say.

“I’M GOING TO BREAK THAT LITTLE SHIT!” bellowed wrath.

I laugh, “Well let’s get this over with so we can though him through the wringer, shall we?”

They all nod in agreement.

“And this marks the one hundred and thirty second time we made her go through killing her mother.” deadpanned Jester, obviously bored sitting on the ground.

Alpha hummed, “I will say, she is a resilient one.”

Jester flopped on the ground, “Ya, but the resilient ones usually have had a lot the exploit and go off of since they were hardened, but we actually had to INSERT one of our memories because of how boring her life was!”

Wrath just roared, “Can you just connect everything already!”

I just sigh, “Fine” and with a flick of my fingers, I connected every part of her mind. Including all the outside pain.

After that my view of her was gone, meaning her stigma is awakened.

“About goddamn time!”

(Binding Room)(Dust POV)

I come back to reality, slightly disoriented as always. After all , keeping track of me, Wrath, Alpha, Jester, Pandora, my memories, Pandora's memories, recreating said memories, sharing them, casting several spells all at once, and making sure she doesn't clock out is VERY stressful on the mind. My eyes come back into focus, and I see the rune still going off, but Pandora was not on it.

“Look up dimwit.” said Alpha.

I do so, and lo and behold, there she is, at least there IT is. Hovering in the air was the awakened form of the Order Stigma. I can say, without a doubt, that i'm stunned. The reason why I’m stunned is the simple fact that, even like this, she is still gorgeous. Where fur once was, was now a beautiful golden light that felt like it set everything it touched right. The tree behind her seemed to grow and become more symmetrical as time went on, along with the everything else the light touched seemed to give into the light, the light I know well, one that I know so well just feeling it made my mind actually relax. The light of Harmony.

But then there were all the other parts of her that were not fur, and in there place was a black void that has little bits of different colored streaks and dots within that are constantly shifting and moving, stopping for no less than a second or two before moving on. Coming off of those parts every now and then were similarly colored tendrils that continually lashed out at the objects in the room, distorting the walls and making them ripple like the surface of the ocean, making the elevator start flying around the room, summoning a water golem at the base of the tree, and even trying to distort the tree. This is what you would call the touch of Chaos, one of the most potent alteration abilities in existence. If it touches something, it will instantly change, and most of the time they can't be changed back, BUT this was a special case.

It seems like both the Light of Harmony, and the Touch of Chaos are fighting each other. Whatever the light touches, the tendrils lash out at, and vise versa. So interesting…

I would love to study this more, but by the sounds of all the bickering behind me, my student and the unwanted guests he brought with him are currently in this room. Gotta make this quick.

I get rid of the rings, transferring them back to their proper place. Since she is now sustaining herself and I do not need to anymore, and I need my own mana. I call to the chains on the sides of the path and hold them. I start to send specific pulses of primal mana through them, making them glow red from the sheer heat. Primal magic is the most unpredictable and volatile of all magic, and the most common form of mana. Runes form around the chains, not touching them, but orbiting them, some moving faster than others, all of them ready to activate when called. I summon a reaper to help with the next process, connecting the chains to my own soul.

What my students don’t know is that not only do the chains bind them, but they are all connected to my soul. The chains work by draining the raw power from a being, weakening them and keeping them from escaping if the chains are pulled. But these chains also drain mana, and if you can’t regen or absorb mana fast enough, being bound by these chains can easily kill you. So to bind my students, I must also bind myself, but that really isn’t a problem for me, not in the slightest. Does this make me weaker? Yes, but since I’m always gaining power, it’s hard for the difference to be noticeable. The only notable thing about it is it lowered the amount of spells I can cast in quick succession for a while. The chains, when connected to me, are treated like a spell constantly being cast, and I already have multiple spells being constantly casted already, so adding another on top of the list limits me until I can make up for the loss. Which takes a while, a long while.

The reaper I summoned reaches out to me and slowly pushes it’s hand into my chest, me grinding me teeth as it happens. Having your soul ripped out hurts, especially when the one doing the ripping needs to search for your soul because of how many are within you. Breath escapes me as it finally found my soul and grips it and starts removing it. Pandora shot a tendril our way, and it pasted right through the reaper, not even affecting it, and hit me. But thanks to the shirt I’m wearing, it did nothing. The reaper finally removes my soul.

My soul is… interesting to look at. The color is astral blue and abyssal black, kind of looking like a nebula in the far reaches of space back home. But that was not the interesting part. What most would find interesting is the numberless chains coming of of it, each connecting to one of my students. And now it’s time to connect another.

“It’s time. Wrath, Jester, Alpha, hold her down!”

The three of them appeared around her, all taking the form of a wraith. Alpha brings her down using the chains of Hades. After she reached the ground she easily broke the chains thanks to the Touch of Chaos, but Wrath quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her in place while Jester started wrapping the chains around her he ended it by wrapping it around her neck like a collar. They disappeared and the chains quickly tightened around her, her screaming in pain as they buried themselves in her flesh and soul. Her powers started to dissipate, but the stigma was still in it’s feral state, time for the last step. My grip tightens on the chains as I clash them together, fusing the two ends. The reaper then grabbed the chain and stuck the end into my soul, and linked it inside of it. I felt a great amount of power quickly leave me and there was a flash of golden light, which I quickly tried to block out by covering my eyes.

When the light faded I looked over at Pandora who was on her knees with her back straight staring at the ceiling, before she started to quickly fall. I teleported over to her and quickly caught her, resting her head on my lap. I look down at her and smile. I feel pride that she survived, and I have yet another student to teach, and improve, another stigma to study, and maybe something a little more…

I brush her hair back, out of her face and behind her head, so I could see her clearly. Once I did I noticed the chain around her neck. I touch it, and quickly retract my hand, feeling it drain a bit of my power. So this is what was left over for her. See, after the binding process, something is left over, weather that be scars, chain links, tattoos of chains on the wrists, something is always left over, but this is the first time I’ve seen a chain collar left behind. Well, there is a first time for everything. I just hope this whole thing didn’t scar my new student to badly. Speaking of students…

“So the Prodigy returns!” I exclaim as I lay eyes on one of my greatest students, and best friend, Alkeyore Blood-raven, the bearer of the the Hades Stigma. He normally has dark hair but I guess the spell we placed on him was dispelled (And I can guess who did it.) and it was now white as winter; his skin was covered by ash blue fur; draconian, bat like wings where upon his back; two long twisting horns gave him the look of a devil, and his normally ember eyes were replaced by his stigmas true form. He had on his black, raven clad robes, even though I will probably need to fix them later thanks to the spell being destroyed.

On his left was a shocked and stunned Alicorn and chimera, looks like a draconequus… actually it looks like ‘Discord’... but I know that’s not Chaos, because Chaos is trying to be stealthy in the corner with shadow magic right now. Hmm, and the Alicorn, along with the blue one on his left looks familiar as well. In his arms is a Kirin and underneath the blue Alicorn is a smaller, darker version of the big one… it’s a dark arts user as well, a natural in fact! Going to have to study it.

I floated my glasses over to me using telepathy and put them on. I stand up and the room shifts to something akin to a log cabin back home, fireplace and all. I walk over to the bed in the right hand corner and place Pandora down on it, and then covering her up while tucking her in. I snap my fingers and the Kirin in Alke’s arms was put into the bed in the left hand side of the room.

I turn around and smile at my friend Alke (nickname I gave him after I forgot his name for the twelfth time in a row.) and gave him a friendly hug, after all it’s been a few thousand years since I last saw him. I feel him return the embrace, also happy to see me, for he hasn't seen me in five years. I’m so happy he is back, I have so much to share with him, the knowledge I’ve collected, the sights I’ve seen, tell him about my son, my kingdom, my ups and downs, I finally have someone to talk to! (“But First…") I remembered the others in the room and my blood starts to boil, he KNOWS the one rule of this place, NO outsiders, and he brought with him multiple. The strength on my hug increases and I hear cracking and popping from within him, and he tenses up while grunting in pain, and I only have one thing to say to him,

“Explain.”

Magic is MY Domain

by Dontaskaboutit

Prologue (Better)

Chapter 1: Damn it ....

"I already feel sick."

"Hello Chaos."

Can't say I hate it.

"So, how can I help you?!"

"Time to begin!" finally.

"I wonder if she hates me yet?"

"Explain."