> Mizuki
>  by ocalhoun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My name is Mizuki Tanaka, and I'm a bitch. And by 'bitch', I mean I'm literally a she-wolf. And, well, I guess you might as well know... I also mean that I don't take shit from anybody, and apparently that makes me a bitch, especially if you ask anyone in my command when I'm not around.

But I don't mind. I own it. Or, at least, I did. Until one fateful misadventure...







“Stand your ground! Stand your god-damned ground, you fucking cowards!” I leapt up onto the fortress's drawbridge and sliced my sword across the air in front of me, sending out a slash of ki that tore the foul demon Genko's shockwave attack in two, sending it flying away from my troops in shreds. 

And still, those curs were backing away! Disgraceful! They all went through the same training I did. They were all battle-tested. So why were they all wetting themselves just because Genko had a few ki attacks?

It was the stories, I knew. The stories in camp about him being immortal, unslayable, that he could banish anyone who touched him to the demon realm. If only I knew who it was that started those stupid rumors, I'd have his ass on the front line of the assault, not my own. I'd killed plenty of demons in my time. Genko would be no different.

Another blast of ki from the fortress. This time I just ducked underneath it and made a break for the huge steel gates. They were thick, ludicrously heavy, and ornately carved with grotesque figures. What, did Genko think that would be intimidating? I sliced my sword across the crack between the two massive doors, then darted to the side, waiting for what I knew would be coming. “Volley!” I screamed back toward my own lines.

The fortress's gates burst open as soon as the latch was sliced, as I expected. And a hail of repeating crossbow bolts felled the raggedy line of Genko's soldiers who burst out from it, as I hoped. Good. At least Captain Filoktes and his Chukonu archers were still worth a damn.

I ran across the fallen bodies of Genko's malodorous goons, dispatching the few who remained with a few easy slashes. There would – of course – be a trap set in the courtyard beyond, probably an ambush to capture the vanguard of our attack, but one quick glance behind me showed that my bold advance had revived the spirits of my troops. They were swarming across the drawbridge now as Filoktes's archers provided them with cover. Even when another massive blast of Genko's ki came down, they ignored their losses and rushed onward. Finally, a few soldiers with backbones. Maybe I wouldn’t have to do this entirely on my own after all.

Momentum couldn’t be lost, though. If I paused under the gates too long, my troops would pause as well, and as any good commander knows, stagnation is death. 

Sprinting full-tilt, I crossed the courtyard in a flash, arrows from Genko's guards nipping at my heels. I was on the hunt now, and I let nothing get between me and the ugly mansion on the far side of the courtyard. The expected ambush sprung behind me, but I was too fast for them, already past their sloppy encirclement before they managed to rush forward. My troops following behind me could deal with them. I had a date with Genko.

I burst through the mansion door, not even bothering to slash it first. The thin wood shattered and I stumbled into a wide reception room. It was completely vacant – apparently Genko thought nobody would penetrate this far into his defenses. Perfect. A stupid and overconfident enemy is the best kind of enemy to have.

Although I did still keep my guard up for traps, I made the best time I could through the levels of his repulsive mansion. The dungeons below were another big objective for this assault, with far too many innocents there being held and tortured and who knew what else, but that would have to wait for my troops. Getting down there would mean nothing if that fat bastard Genko still lived.

Finally, at the top of the highest tower – how typical! – I found him.

He stood facing away from me, looking out through the tower's window. All I could see was his enormously broad, black-cloaked back. Distant lights flashed in the window in front of him.

I began slowly stalking toward him. If I could catch him unaware...

“I was wondering how long it would take you to get here.”

I froze, but still no threats came toward me, no trap sprung. I took up a long-practiced combat stance and glared at his filthy cape. “If you were expecting this, then you shouldn't have left the inside of your mansion unguarded.”

He turned away from the window and unflinchingly met my gaze with his huge toad-like eyes. “As if that worthless drek of an army was useful for anything other than distracting yours. We both know the outcome will be decided in this chamber. We both know what that pathetic rabble of vermin you call an army will do when they see me holding your head up in the window. Tell me, how fast can they run? How far will the trail of bodies stretch?”

Enough. I wasn't about to sit and chat with this asshole while my troops were out there dying. I leapt forward, swinging mightily with my blade.

His axe darted up to block, and the two weapons clanged together.

I reeled away in pain, the new nick on my sword's blade tearing into my own flesh. The glyphs on it linked its ki with my own, which made it stronger, made it able to channel my own ki, and made it able to heal ... but it also made me share in its pain. With grim ease, though, I shrugged off the feeling. This sword would cut through nearly anything ... unless it was imbibed with just as much ki. Genko must have been as strong – or stronger – than me. I'd underestimated him, and now I was in for a real fight.

Genko jumped for me, bringing his battle axe down in a brutish overhead swing.

Darting low, I slipped through his guard and managed to slice his leg a little before he swung at me again.

The good news: Genko's fighting style was inefficient and slow, probably because he'd never faced a real challenge before, never been forced to train himself. The bad news: He paid no mind at all to the wound on his leg, and it didn't even seem to bleed; he wasn't going to be easy to kill. 

He began stalking toward me, axe high and ready, being careful this time. Even worse news: he seemed to be a fast learner.

But what was I going to do? Give up? Not my style. I feinted to the side, then dove in, blade swinging. I would bring him down, no matter the cost.

The cramped circular chamber filled with the clang of steel on steel, the scrape and spark of steel against stone, the wordless grunts and yells of two combatants too engrossed in the fight to spare any breath for speech. Genko lost his cape and one protruding eye. I lost my belt full of throwing darts and a bit of my left ear. And still we went at each other, battering each other with hastily channeled ki, slicing at each other with our unnaturally sharp blades. I took more hits than I'd like to think about, but I gave him better than I got.

It seemed to last forever, as fights do when you're in the middle of one, but of course it was over in moments. Finally, I stood over the demon, my blade held to his throat. His axe lay shattered next to him. My blood dripped down on him from a dozen wounds, but I held fast. I couldn’t give in to anger – he still needed to talk.

I let the tip of my sword cut into his neck just a little before asking, “Where is my sister?” A twist of the blade opened the tiny wound further. “I am asking you politely. Refuse or tell me lies, and my questions will grow less polite.”

The fucker laughed at me. “What? Tell you or you'll kill me? You're going to kill me anyway, or try to at least.”

“It can be quick and easy, or it can be slow and painful.”

His one remaining eye looked over toward his hand, and my glance followed his. He had something in his hand, a little white-glowing egg. What the hell was that? Where'd he get it?

The moment I saw it, he grinned at me and clenched his fist closed, shattering the egg. I thrust downward with my sword, ready to sever his neck, but it was too late.

Time lagged around us, slowing to a crawl as the light from inside the egg suddenly blasted the room with its brilliance, and from the epicenter of that dazzling blast came an irresistible pull. The whole room and everything in it collapsed inward toward that point. I could do nothing but stare as that stupid thing, whatever the hell it was, pulled both of us into an infinitesimal point that stretched into a long, black tunnel through nowhere.

In a fraction of a second, the tower-top room and everything in it vanished into a spherical void.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was falling, wind whistling through my fur. How had I...?

The memory only took a moment to come, but in that tiny moment, the ground came up toward me menacingly. I barely had time to get ready for impact before I slammed down, scattering a crater of dirt around me. I was stunned, unable to move, unable to breathe, as stones and debris from the tower rained down around me. Huge stones threw up plumes of dust as they hit and shattered all around.

I tried to curl into a ball, to protect myself, but my limbs wouldn’t answer me. A rock – I don't know how big – smashed into my leg, and I screamed, only for my scream to be cut off when another hit my head.


* * *


“Hye! Hye! Kawe pu!”

Despite the little girl's voice, the first thing I became aware of as I came to was the crushing feeling in my lungs. It was a struggle just to draw breath. Then the burning headache, and pains from a hundred other places on my body, all clamoring for attention.

At least I was alive. I peeled my eyes open with an effort of will. They still didn't focus very well, but I could see an orange face with purple hair looking down at me. My eyes cleared a little with a few painful blinks. This was a girl unlike any I'd seen before. Slightly built and winged, and far more colorful than any of the peoples I was familiar with. She wore outlandish tightly-fitting clothes, and looked too cute to be a denizen of the demon realm, though who knew. Maybe in the demon realm, demons looked different. Where was I?

“Who the fuck are you?” I mumbled.

She just tilted her head to the side and looked at me as if perplexed. “Rae uyo koay? Od uyo kseap Shiqique?

I closed my eyes again, too exhausted to worry about this stupid little girl and this stupid language barrier. I needed to focus my ki on healing so I could...

It wasn't there! I tried again, but I only got the weakest threads of ki, barely enough to heal a paper cut. Where the hell was I that there wasn't any ki I could channel?

When I opened my eyes again, she was turning away and shouting, “Mmu... Mi gogin ot og dinf Brinwoa Hads. lelsh wonk thaw ot od!” as she left.

I closed my eyes again, and focused on what healing ki I could manage to scrounge up. Fuck. This recovery was going to take a very long time.


* * *


When I opened my eyes again, there were three figures huddled around me, all speaking in gibberish. One was the orange and purple one from before, but now there was also a yellow one with pink hair, and a blue one with a whole rainbow in her hair. These bright colors were giving me a headache. Or was my headache making me see colors? Fuck.

What had Genko done to me? Where the hell was I? 

I tried to rise, but immediately fell back to the ground again. And what the hell was up with this lack of any ki? Normally, I would have been mostly healed by now, even if I was almost dead. Instead? Hardly any progress.

“Uoy knith hess gingo ot eb yako?” the blue one said.

I groaned. “Why can't anyone in this hellhole just fucking speak the standard tongue? Where the fuck am I that's so ass-backwards they haven't even adopted that yet?”

“Goodness, language!” The yellow one said.

I stared at her and blinked. Huh. So at least one of them could talk properly. “You... you can understand me?” I asked, being much more careful to be polite this time. I had no idea who these people were, but injured and deprived of ki as I was, I was in no position to be picking unnecessary fights.

“Of course.” She smiled. “I can talk to all kinds of woodland creatures. It's my special talent.”

The blue one spoke some gibberish again, pointed into the distance, and the orange one ran off. This place was fucking confusing. 'Woodland creatures'? What the hell was she talking about?

“It looks like you're hurt pretty bad. How about we get you to my cottage and get you bandaged up, hm?”

I nodded slightly. That sounded very good at the moment. It was always a good idea to not die.

“Okay, just hold on. Twilight's coming, and then we'll be able to move you safely. I don't think you're fit to walk, or even be carried, right now.”

I had to agree with that, though I had no idea how she thought the end of the day would help. And it was only late afternoon – twilight would be a long time away still. But whatever. Not like I was in a position to argue. And not like I had anywhere to go either. With no idea where I was, where would I even be going?

The pause in the somewhat one-sided conversation seemed to bother the yellow one. “So,” she said, drawing out the word, “What's your name, and what brings you all the way to Ponyville?”

“Mizuki Tanaka,” I grunted out.

Her eyes went wide at that, and she backed away a little. “Oh my. That's an ... interesting name for a wolf-creature. My name is Fluttershy.”

“Wolf-woman. I won't have anyone going around calling me a 'creature'.”

“Uh-huh...” She paused for a long moment, looking down at me with one eyebrow raised and her hand on her chin. “You do look like you'd normally walk upright, and you're wearing clothes like a person ... but you don't know how to speak, and all the other wolves I've ever seen were animals, so that makes you an animal, right?”

“An animal? Fuck you! You don't know who I—” I coughed, spattering blood over my muzzle. “Fuck.”

“Language!” 

Oh for fuck's sake, what a prude! And the nerve of her, telling me to watch my language after she just called me a fucking animal! Prudes are always like that, thinking they can say any damn thing they want as long as it doesn't include one of their arbitrary list of 'bad words', and thinking that following their stupid rules makes them a better person. Fuck that and fuck them!

I'd had enough of this. “Where's Genko? Tell me!”

“Is ... Genko your mommy, little wolf? Do you want your mommy?”

Oh for fuck's sake! 

Another woman was approaching, being led by the orange one who first saw me. This new one was obnoxiously purple. Good to see more coming, though. Maybe I'd get more out of this new one. I was really starting to have a distaste for this Fluttershy. Like the rest of them, the purple one had wings – maybe they were all some sort of avian hybrid? But their feet were hooves, which would be very strange for any birdkin. And the purple one had a big horn in the middle of her forehead. Really weird. Maybe I was in the demon realm. Maybe the rumors were true ... Genko really could transport people there, and now I was stuck there. I glanced around again. The demon realm really didn't look how I expected it to. It was ... nice, except for the new craters.

The purple one touched down next to me. “Mi Sciprins Whittilg Larksap, dalpees ot teme uoy.”

The blue one shook her head. “Ti dotens pakes Shiqique.”

“Od uoy pakes Lod Shiqique? Nonaffirig? Zebiree?” she asked. None of those words rang a bell. “Lewl, I suges dwe retteb teg rhe ot Treshulft's lacep. Meco no.”

Without warning, she enveloped me in some kind of ki and lifted me. Only it wasn't ki at all. I couldn't feel it! I could only see it and hear it as she floated me off, following the three others.

Great, so now not only was I in the demon realm, not only was it nothing like I expected, but they also had some other completely different form of ki they could use and I couldn't. I was fucking doomed!

Genko would pay for this! ... But would he? How was I going to manage that? Ugh. It's just one thing after another in my life. Just when I think I've got it figured out, fate comes around and fucks me over, just for the fun of it.

The demon things carried me a very long way, and I have to admit, their magic was quite gentle. Maybe they don't like their meat bruised. The whole way, I seethed at what that bastard Genko did to me. Cut off from my army, cut off from everyone I knew, cut off from all the major ki channels, even cut off from... My sword! Where was my sword? I looked all around, despite the pain when I twisted my neck. How could I have let them take me away without—

“Easy, easy! You could damage your spine!” Fluttershy rushed over to me and held my head still. She was surprisingly strong ... or maybe I was just surprisingly weak at the moment. “Twilight, can you hold her still until we get there?”

The purple one nods. “Urse.” And suddenly the weird ki around me was also holding my every muscle, keeping me totally immobile. Great. Now I was really fucked. “Uoy nac elt og own.” As soon as she said that, Fluttershy let go of me, not that it would do me any good. The purple one's ki was strong.

Wait... When Fluttershy spoke, I understood it and the purple one ... Twilight, also understood it. And when Twilight spoke, Fluttershy seemed to understand it, but I couldn't. “Wh— What the hell?” I struggled to turn and look at Fluttershy, but I still couldn't move at all. “What's going on? How come all of them can understand me, but only you bother to talk to me? Who are you?”

“I already told you, I'm Fluttershy. Oh goodness, I think you might have a concussion.”

“But why won't they talk to me if they can understand me?”

She patted my shoulder as I floated. “Oh, silly. They can't understand you.”

“But...”

“Oh... I guess maybe you've never heard of me. Some critters are very surprised when they first find out that there's a pony who can speak to them. It's my special talent.”

Special talent again. Was it some kind of ki, then? Not any kind I'd ever heard of, but who knew. Maybe in the demon realm, there were things like that. And why did she call herself a pony? Besides the hooves, she looked nothing like any horse-kin I'd ever seen before. None of this shit made any sense. Maybe she was right and I had a concussion. A bad one.

But screw this language shit. I had more important things to worry about. Maybe she could help me with that, though. She seemed unusually nice for a cannibalistic demon-spawn. Maybe she would tell me if I asked... “Where's my sword?”

“Your sword? Oh, Scootaloo has it. Scootaloo, show her the sword.”

A big smile on her face, the orange one hopped up next to me and held up my sword. All I could do was turn my eyes to see. That god-damned little thing was so smug and proud to be holding it! “Get your fucking hands off it, you little bitch demon! Give it to me, give it to me right now so I can cut your fucking head off with it!” After a moment, I realized that was probably not the best choice of words for an injured captive to use, but that sword is a part of me – it really gets under my skin to see someone else ... fondling it like that.

“Thwa idd hes ays?” Scootaloo asked, turning to Fluttershy.

“Um, she said, um...” Fluttershy rubbed the back of her neck for a moment, blushing. “She said, 'Thank you for carrying that for me.'”

I sighed. “Um, thanks for that. I'm sorry about the whole cutting off the head comment, I guess. I'm usually not so...” Well, I usually was, actually, but my threats weren't usually so ... impotent or inappropriate.

“I'm sure you're just stressed from your injuries.” Fluttershy smiled at me again, but this time there was a hint of doubt in her eyes. 

Great. If I wasn't careful, I was going to scare off the only demon ... or 'pony', whatever ... here I could actually talk to. Great going, Mizuki, I thought to myself, how's the whole scary bitch thing working out for you? Enjoying it so far?

“Okay, Mizuki, we're almost there.” She remembered my name. I guess I should be grateful. But I didn't feel grateful. For all I knew, these were all just Genko's friends, and all this was their idea of fucking with me before they chowed down.

I floated through some kind of door; I could see the frame of it pass by me. Mostly I could only stare at the roof of this building though, since I couldn’t even turn my head. Still, it looked rustic and small. Probably better than a field medic's tent, but not by much.

I was laid down on a green couch, and then the weird ki released me. I sank into the soft cushions and quickly lost my will to try to get up and fight these so-called ponies. Fuck it. It wasn't like I could fight them off anyway, not in my condition, and not when they'd already demonstrated that just one of them could hold me completely immobile. And these cushions were comfortable. For the first time since Genko cracked that egg, my injuries began to feel a little less painful.

“She looks really bad. I'd better get started on it right away,” Fluttershy said to the others.

They all replied in a variety of their gibberish. I didn't even bother to listen this time. I was already focusing healing ki again ... the little of it I could scrape together.

“Um, actually...” Fluttershy said back to her friends, “Can Rainbow Dash go send a message to Princess Celestia about it instead? I could really use your help, Twilight. If... if that's okay with you.”

“Fo soruce ti si!” The blue one shot out through the door in a flash. Damn she was fast.

Twilight, the purple one, came over next to me, though. Both she and Fluttershy leaned over me. “Do you still remember that anesthesia spell?” Fluttershy asked. Without any answer from her, Twilight's horn began to glow again. Their ability to channel ki must have something to do with those horns... I wondered what happened to the other ones' horns. And what was a spell? What did anesthesia mean?

The feel and sound of that strange ki made me wince again, fearing what might happen this time. But I quickly found myself fading, passing out. Had the blood loss finally gotten to me? Damn... Well, it was an okay life, I guess. As my vision faded to black, I just wished I could have fucking killed Genko before the end.


* * *


Groggily, I opened one eye, then the other. Where was I...? Slowly, the wooden ceiling brought me back to the—

That big yellow face filled my vision. “Oh, you're awake? How are you feeling?”

I jumped up grabbing for my sword – it wasn't there! I— “Ow! Oh Fff...” I collapsed down on the to floor, tangled in some kind of sheet. “Motherfucker that hurts!”

“Language!” Fluttershy said, holding her hands over the ears of a squirrel. After a moment of watching me writhe naked on the floor, she sighed and helped me back up onto the couch. “Please, you need to stay still and recover.”

Looking down at myself, I saw they'd done their best. It still hurt like hell, but not as bad if I didn't move. There were bandages all over me, and one of my legs was in a cast from the knee down. Fuck. Without my ki, I was going to have to heal like some normal person! Being normal was the worst. I looked around again. Well, other than the shitty healing process, not much about me would be normal in this world. Still the worst. Of course, there was that one other little issue...

“Why the fuck am I naked?”

Fluttershy winced, picking up a sheet from the floor and putting it on top of me. She didn't mention the 'language', but I could see the flash of reproach in her eyes. “Well, you were covered with a sheet until you jumped up and started swearing in front of all my animal friends.”

These beasts were her 'friends'? The place was crawling with them, but I had assumed they were just a pernicious infestation of vermin. Whatever. It didn't matter. “But, my things...”

“Um, well, we had to take off you clothes to treat your injuries. And the clothes were filthy and torn, so I had Scootaloo take them over to Rarity's. It's so strange that you seem to care so much about it... Most animals never wear clothes at all. I guess you could, um... You could borrow some of mine until she's done. ... Once you're ready. For now, you shouldn't move.”

I groaned and let my head fall back on the cushions. The mere thought of wearing the frilly pastel clothes this thing had on. And that skirt was way too short for a woman with any self-respect. Come to think of it, the other ones had been dressed very similarly ... just my luck, to be rescued by a bunch of demon whores.

“We... kept your, um, sword nearby. Because you seemed pretty attached to it.”

I glanced over at where she was looking, and there it sat, leaning against the wall next to a bookcase that held more vermin than books. Well, at least I had my sword. Not that I could do much with it at the moment.

The purple one walked into the room from somewhere else, still wiping her hands dry. “Lalifiny shawed pu. wosh rou nitteap? Ho, si hes kawae?”

My eyes narrowed a little. I didn't like this one, this Twilight, they called her. The last thing I remembered, she was using her freaky ki to put me to sleep. I'd thought I was dying. “She didn't ... do anything to me while I was out, did she? You know, while I was unconscious and naked?”

Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth. “No! No of course not! My goodness! Why would you even think that? We only bandaged your wounds. That's it.”

“Well, I don't know who you are...”

“I told you, I'm Flutter—”

“I know your god-damned name already. I mean I don't even know what you are, or what you want with me. Or what she wants with me.”

Twilight gibberished something; it sounded kind of like a question. Maybe I was already beginning to pick up on their language.

“Um, well, I...” Fluttershy bit her lip. “I don't really feel comfortable repeating what she said.”

I glared. “Go on, tell her.”

Holding her hands on her hips, Fluttershy looked back down at me with a surprisingly hard glint in her eye. “You should just relax and rest. I need to go have a talk with my good friend Princess Twilight.” She walked brusquely out of the room, back where Twilight came from, and Twilight hurriedly followed her.

Great, way to go, Mizuki. I kicked myself mentally. Even that hurt! Way to go, you've already alienated the only people here you know, maybe the only ones in this whole place that would ever show kindness. Fuck.

Well, whatever. I could almost hear the two of them talking about me in the next room, but I tuned it out. Not like it would matter anyway, probably. What I needed to do now was rest and focus what little ki I could on healing my thrashed-up body.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke up again – when did I fall asleep? – there was nobody around. Had the aches and throbs from a hundred different places on my body settled down any? Hard to tell; maybe a little.

For the first time since I somehow ended up here, I could finally relax a little. Maybe. I still didn't dare to fully let my guard down, even though there was precious little I could do about it if some kind of danger came my way. Unfortunately, relaxing only gave me more time to focus on the pain. That motherfucking pain ... I had to ignore it as well as I could, there had to be something else.

So, I was in an unknown place, surrounded by unknown things – probably demons – of unknown intentions. I was injured to the point of being a cripple, missing all of my clothes and supplies save for my sword, didn't know the language or customs, and had no chance of blending in with the colorful winged locals. Did that about cover it? Oh yes, and Genko was probably around here somewhere, likely trying to hunt me down this very moment. Well, shit. I could sum up the situation a lot easier than all that: I was fucked.

My quiet, peaceful contemplation of how fucked I was didn't last long, though. The door opened, and in came Fluttershy and Twilight, as well as a third woman, one I'd never seen before. She was much like the other two, but white with purple hair, and oddly she had no wings, but she did have a horn.

Well that was new! And it threw off a lot of what I thought I knew about these people. Did this one lose her wings somehow, or was she born without them? Fluttershy had called the other horned one a princess, so was this one also royalty? The elegant finery of her dress would seem to suggest that she was. Not like I was about to bow to them or anything. I wouldn't debase myself to demons, no matter the circumstances.

I clutched the thin bedsheet close to myself and eyed all three of them with suspicion.

Fluttershy didn't seem to take too kindly to that. She was probably used to more trust and acceptance from her 'critters'. Well, too bad. I didn't know if they were demons, some spawn of demons, or what, but I wasn't about to let my guard down for even a moment.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked.

“No.”

To be honest, I actually was feeling slightly better, but negativity felt good right now.

“Oh, that's a shame. I do hope you're recovering okay. I've never done surgery on anyone like you before.” Fluttershy looked away with a slight cringe, and I almost felt sorry for being so brusque with her. Almost. She gestured toward the new intruder, the white one. “This is Rarity – she's already finished washing your clothes, even mending them a little. Knowing how you probably feel about it, though, I didn't let her do any of the alterations she had planned out.”

Rarity looked away, sticking her muzzle into the air in disdain. The nerve of her, acting like taking care of my clothes was beneath her or something!

That did ingratiate me with Fluttershy, though. Now I did feel a little bad about how I was treating her. Unless she turned out to be a demon, of course.

“And, well, maybe I should just let Twilight explain the next part. She's better at explaining magic.”

Next part? What could possibly be next? And how could Twilight explain anything to me anyway? I couldn't understand a word of anything she said!

The purple one stepped up in front of Fluttershy, and I suddenly got a very bad feeling about this 'next part'. They were all of them smiling and acting perfectly friendly, even helping me out to a large degree ... but something about this wasn't right, and I couldn’t shake the idea that they were all some kind of demons, fucking around with me cruelly before they went in for the kill.

Twilight's smile faded when she closed her eyes and began concentrating hard ... her horn began to glow. And that's when I knew that my bad feeling had been completely justified.

What could I do about it, though? All I could do was cringe away and wait for the worst.

When it came, it was underwhelming. Just a slight tingling buzz in my brain, gone after mere moments. I blinked, looking all around as Twilight's ki attack died down, but nothing seemed different, nothing out of place. Nothing seemed to have changed at all.

Twilight smiled down on me again. “Okay, did it work? Can you understand me now? Bark once for yes, twice for no.”

“Do I have to bark? Yes, I can understand you just fine now that you're speaking...” But wait, she wasn't speaking in Standard, nor in any other of the languages I knew...

“Excellent!” She jumped up and down in glee. “This is amazing! The spell's description didn't say anything about giving the animal the ability to speak as well. I'm going to have to put this one in the journal, as well as send in reports to all the major spell curating houses to—”

“Hey! Did you fuck around with my head?” How did I know their language now? How could I be speaking it so effortlessly? There was only one way, of course, and that kind of ki was of the very, very forbidden demonic kind.

“Language!” Fluttershy shouted, ignored by everyone.

Twilight held her purple hands up in front of her. “Easy, easy. Don't worry, I didn't do anything bad. I just used a quick language-learning spell designed to let animals understand spoken language properly. It's nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” I would have jumped off of the couch if it wouldn't have half-killed me from the pain. “You mind-raped me, you purple fucking bitch!”

“There's nothing wrong with—”

“Nothing wrong with what? Going around inside other people's minds and fucking around with them like you own the place? You are all demons! Get away from me!” I reached for my sword, but it was too far away, and the torn muscles in my arm blared with pain from just that one motion.

Twilight winced. “Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I didn't know you felt that way about it. Here, I'll undo the spell so that—”

“NO!” My shout was near-deafening. “Stay the fuck out of my head! Just stay OUT!”

“Okay...” Twilight – and the other two women – slowly backed away from me, letting a tense moment of silence hang as they glanced back and forth between each other and me.

As the quiet stretched on, though, I began to come to terms with it. Was it really that bad? Yes, definitely. Did it mean they were evil demons? Not really. They completely disrespected all of my boundaries, intruding both on my body and my mind ... but it was fairly evident that they had done so with good intentions, at least. Probably, anyway. They could still just be fucking with me for laughs, but at this rate, that was beginning to seem less and less likely. What would the point of such a cruel joke be? They were putting in more and more effort, and for what payoff? Would they all suddenly burst into laughter the moment I dared to trust them, and then devour me?

What did it matter, anyway? If they were demons set on devouring me, what did it matter if they got a laugh before the end or not? I should probably trust them at least a little, or at least appear to, in order to appease them. If there was a chance that they really were just friendly but misguided, then I had nothing to lose by playing into that.

I gulped. “I... I'm sorry about my outburst. It's just that, where I come from, performing mind magic without the permission of...” Wait, why did saying 'ki' in their language automatically come out as 'magic'? Did they not have a word for ki or something? I tried it again, “Magic, magic, magic.” Huh, weird. I shuddered, my skin crawling at the thought of how this distinction didn't come naturally – it had been put there by someone else. Disgusting.

At the sound of me repeating the same word over and over, Fluttershy shooed the other two away with her hands. “Come now, she's had quite a lot of shock and a pretty bad concussion ... this isn't the time to be putting such stress on her system. If you want to catalog her for your reference books, Twilight, you'll have to come back later when she's feeling better.”

Now that was something I couldn’t argue with, though personally I didn't think I had a concussion. Unless this was all in my mind, which would mean I had a very, very bad one.

As the other two reluctantly left, Fluttershy came back to me. “Now you rest up, Miss Tanaka. You have a lot of healing to do. I'll make some herbal tea that should help with the—”

“Missus,” I corrected her. “Missus Tanaka. I was married ... once.”

“Oh, but not anymore? Isn't that a shame?”

I'd never really thought of it as shameful. I've just always had more important things going on in my life. Any thought of getting married again or even starting a family ... that was just ridiculous. I had an army to lead, demons to slay. And where would I even find a...? I shook my head clear, then immediately regretted it from the splitting pain that rushed in to fill the gap left by those thoughts. 

I had more important things to focus on right now. “Where am I? Who are you people? Where is Genko?”

“My goodness, you really aren't from around here, are you?” Fluttershy paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side ... hopefully deciding which question to answer first. “I've never heard of anyone named Genko, and I know the names of every critter near Ponyville. Who is that?”

Of course she would answer in the least helpful way possible, by asking me another question. “He's a demon, and if you don't know who he is, you can't help me. Where is this place and who are you people?” Best to be direct ... and with the way my sides ached when I took in a deep breath, it would be best not to get caught up in a long conversation.

“Oh, um, okay... You're in my cottage, on the outskirts of Ponyville.” When she didn't see any recognition in my eyes, she added, “In northwest Equestria.”

Still nothing. Wherever Genko's stupid little glowing egg took me, it was somewhere completely outside of anywhere I was familiar with. On the plus side, none of my reading about the demon's realm – as limited as that reading was – mentioned any place called 'Ponyville' or 'Equestria'. That probably was good evidence that this wasn't part of the demon realm.

“And my name is Fluttershy. Those other girls you met are my friends, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, oh, and Scootaloo. She's the little one who—”

“No no no, I know your names.” I actually didn't know all of those names yet, but names weren't important – although at least they didn't sound at all like demon names. “Who are all of you ... what are you?”

“Oh. We're, um ponies. Have you never seen ponies before?”

Again with the pony thing. I shrugged a little, supposing that they really did consider themselves ponies. “But ponies have four hoofed legs, they're not as colorful, they don't have wings or horns or magic, and they definitely don't talk.”

“Maybe you're thinking of horses?”

“They're the same thing, aren't...? Oh never mind.” I laid my head back down on the pillow. “It doesn't matter.” They seemed harmless enough for the moment, even helpful. Or were they? That purple one was a threat, to be sure. She'd already shown the ability to completely control me physically, and she could – and would – at least exert some influence mentally. I shuddered again, thinking of that.

It got very quiet for a little while, until Fluttershy finally worked up the courage to ask, “So, um ... what exactly are you?”

“Wolf.”

“You... You don't look or really act like a normal wolf would. Where are you from?”

“Far away. You've never heard of it.”

The short replies were definitely putting her out of sorts, but again, I wasn't feeling like having a long conversation. And trying to explain where I was from to these people would be a long conversation, I had no doubt. I wasn't even sure if I could explain it.

“Oh...”

The silence hung again, and I let it. Enough with all of this. I wanted more than anything to be back home where I belonged. To be healed again. Nothing felt right here, everything was different. And of course, I felt the loss of ki keenly. If that Twilight had so much ki, couldn't she just heal me? Apparently not, or else she simply didn't want to, which was definitely a possibility for a being who was willing to commit mind-rape.

“I'll, um, I'll just let you rest for a little while then. I'm sure you've been through a lot and you need to recover your strength before answering too many questions.”

She wasn't wrong about that. I would be needing a lot of rest before I felt like answering anyone's questions. I'd already had enough of this place, which wasn't a good sign, since I'd likely be here for a lot longer. Still, as questionable as their methods had been, these people had shown me great kindness... “Fluttershy?” I called out before she left the room, stopping her in the doorway. “I, um... Thank you, for all your help. I'm sorry I've been so difficult.”

She left the room without another word, but she smiled before she did.

Good. It felt good to have someone here I might be able to count on ... maybe. If they weren't all demon-spawn out to fuck with me. Ugh, this was going to be hard.

So don't worry about it. Never one to let my worries get in the way of pragmatism, I shoved it all aside and focused on drawing in whatever little scraps of ki I could, for use in healing. Now that I was farther away, I could tell that all the little bits of ki I could gather were coming from just one direction, back where I'd crashed into the ground. It must have been coming from the stones that crashed through with me ... not exactly an abundant source of ki. No wonder I could barely find any to use.

But there was also one other source, in a completely different direction. Very weak, almost undetectable, but with a completely different flavor. Genko... He was out there somewhere. But never mind, not now. Right now, I needed to heal. I could worry about Genko later.


* * *


Hours passed before Fluttershy came back. At first I assumed this was because I'd offended her with my terse responses to her questions. I almost even felt a little bit bad about that. 

She soon laid that concern to rest, though. “I'm sorry I was away for so long. I do have quite a lot of animals to feed.” She offered a steaming cup, raising it in my direction. “I have some herbal tea that should help ease your pains, if you're feeling up to it.”

Wow, I should never have underestimated these strange people's capacity for kindness. I didn't deserve any of it, but that didn't stop me from nodding my head slightly to accept her offer.

Coming over to me, she sat down on a little sliver of the couch I wasn't using. The cushion barely moved at all when she did – her touch must have been so feather-light and delicate.

When I moved to grab the cup, she gently held down my arm, and I let her. “No, no,” she said. “You need to conserve your strength, and trying to move too much might just hurt you more.”

I let her hold the cup to my lips. She was slow and careful – annoyingly so, as I waited for the warm tea to finally reach me – but when I finally got a taste, I was glad of her caution. The stuff tasted terrible, as bitter as any herbalist's brew I'd ever had. I almost coughed and spit it back out, but I forced myself to keep composure and swallow it down. After all, it wasn't as if I'd never had bitter medicine before, though I'd rarely needed medicine when I had ki to heal myself with. Still, I steeled my resolve, and when she held it up for another sip, I drank deeply, ignoring the almost-scalding heat and the astringent taste that made my mouth feel full of bitter chalk, despite actually being full of hot liquid.

And maybe I felt some need to impress Fluttershy with my fortitude. I don't know why I cared so much about that.

I didn't feel any immediate effect from the brew, but I trusted her enough to think that she would probably not give me anything harmful – or even anything that tasted that bad without providing some benefit.

The thought that I trusted her was strange. Why did I already trust her so much? For all I knew, all these people were some weird kind of demon, and she had just poisoned me... But why would they want to poison me? Why go to the trouble of that? I was already helpless, already completely in their power, both in body and probably in mind as well, if they saw fit. What could they possibly stand to gain by tricking me into drinking awful-tasting tea?

“Feeling any better yet?” Fluttershy asked.

Maybe I would have been feeling the effects by the time I finished if I had drank it slowly. But that would have only prolonged the suffering. Rather than answer her, I addressed the one accomplish-able thing I could think of that actually would make me feel more comfortable and secure. “I want my clothes on.”

She winced. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? I don't think you should be up and moving much for at least a couple days...”

Her caution only made my resolve stronger. Besides, she probably wasn't taking the little bit of healing ki I'd been using into account. I nodded.

“Okay, well... Here, let me help you.” She grabbed the edge of the blanket covering me.

I grabbed onto it myself, holding it down firmly before she could pull it away. “I can do it myself,” I said, “if I have a little privacy.”

Fluttershy stood there and stared down at me for a long moment, her eyebrow slowly rising. But finally, she let out a sigh. “Alright, but I'll be in the next room over there. Just call if you need my help with anything.” Without wasting any time, she rose and left the room, taking the empty teacup with her.

I waited for a little while afterward, just to be sure that she wouldn’t be coming right back into the room for some excuse or other. But she was true to her word, and the door remained closed.

So I was free to get dressed. I was appalled to find that a part of me had hoped I would be interrupted, giving me some excuse to not do it, to just lie here in relative comfort. I quashed that feeling immediately – that wasn't the way I operated, not even when injured like this. I would tackle this just like I took on all my problems back home: head-on and with bull-headed tenacity that could push me through any barrier.

The moment I moved, though, I had second thoughts. The pain was incredibly intense; just the act of moving my arm to throw off the blanket it was enough to make my muscles twinge and contract, which only made it worse. I almost cried out ... almost. I had to choke the sound down in my throat, though. If I made so much as a whimper, that Fluttershy would probably come back in and insist on helping me. And, well, I wasn't accustomed to being helped and I wasn't accustomed to strangers seeing me in the nude. So I had to do this myself.

With fresh resolve, I swung my legs down and stood up, all in one sudden motion to keep myself from backing down from the pain. 

I fell almost immediately, dropping to my knees and barely catching myself with my hands, keeping myself from going face-down on the floor. I yelped in pain – I couldn’t help it.

“Are you okay? Do you need my help?” She must have heard that ... damn it.

“I'm fine!” I growled, pushing myself back up ... only to fall again, my knees cracking hard against the wood floor. Shit! This wasn't working. Grabbing hold of the couch, I tried to pull myself back up on it, but my shoulder gave out, leaving me sprawling against the floor. Lying there on my back, completely nude and helpless, I finally came to the realization: maybe I did need a little help, as distasteful as that might be. I took a deep breath, then faced the inevitable. “... Okay, I guess I could use a little help.”

Fluttershy rushed in – she must have been waiting right behind the door. “Oh my goodness!” She squatted down next to me, forcing me to avert my eyes away from her skirt. “You should never have tried to do this without my help! Now let's get you back on the couch.”

“No.”

“Huh? But you're sprawled out all over the floor – it's terrible!” She reached down and started lifting my shoulders, already trying to help me up.

“No, I—” The pain made me gasp, but I struggled through it. “I'm going to get my clothes on.”

“Oh you couldn’t possibly. Let's just get you back to rest for now, and we can try again when—”

“No, now!” Just because I needed help didn't mean I had to lose my determination. I'd set out to do this, and I would do it.

She looked down at me, blinking. “Oh... Okay, I guess? If it's what you really want...”

“It is.” I struggled to get up again, and this time, with Fluttershy's help, I managed it. She held me solidly around my shoulders, keeping me upright when I couldn't do it myself. It was disgraceful, but it wasn't the first time I'd accepted disgrace in the name of success, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

“Okay now, let's get you sitting down...” She tried to guide me over to the couch again, but I resisted her.

“No,” I repeated. “No, I am not going to sit down and rest. I'll do this on my own if I have to.”

Fluttershy plopped me gently down on the couch, and there was nothing I could do to stop her. I was too weak to resist her surprising strength. Once I was down, she stood over me, holding her hands at her hips. “Now listen here. You are going to sit – not to rest, but so I can start getting you dressed without holding you up the whole time. You will start cooperating and stop complaining, or we're going to have problems. Serious problems. Do you understand me?”

I could do nothing but nod meekly, trying to cover my naked breasts with my hands. To see Fluttershy suddenly grow a backbone was shocking to say the least, and it put me in my place. I remained there, quite in shock, until she returned with my panties and socks.

She threaded the panties over my legs first, and I suffered the indignity of alternately raising each side as she slipped them up over my hips. My dignity hurt more than my wounds, but I endured it. At least I was covered a little more modestly once they were back on. The socks came next, easily since I didn't have to move much for her to roll them up to above my knees. When she picked up my bra, she set it aside. “Let's not put that on until your shoulders are healed a little better. I don't know if they can take the weight.”

I hugged my arms even tighter to myself at that. I'd always been secretly a little self-conscious about how big they were. But I had to give up even that modicum of coverage when Fluttershy raised my arms to put on the loose-fitting top I wore under my armor, leaving my boobs hanging completely exposed to her for a moment while she slipped it over my head. I didn't know why it bothered me so much – she'd obviously already seen all of it. She was probably the one who took all of this off of me while I was unconscious. But still, it felt wrong.

The loose trousers came on next, with even more difficulty than the panties. Fluttershy had to slip each leg in, then stand me up so she could pull the waistline up around my hips.

But once it was back on, I could lie down and breathe a sigh of relief. It felt good to be clothed again. In a way, it made me feel more comfortable and actually even more in-power than before. I felt like I had a little control over my life back, and that was worth it, despite the monstrous amount of pain it cost me. My armor, my bra, and my boots still sat in a neat pile next to the couch, but that was okay. I didn't need them right now.

I looked up at Fluttershy as she gently laid me down. “Thank you,” I said, surprising myself that I was genuinely grateful for her help and understanding.

“Of course.” She lifted the blanket again and covered me with it. “Anything for a friend.”

“We're friends?”

She just nodded and smiled.

So... I had a friend here, apparently. That was unexpected. I still wasn't entirely sure about these people, but they probably weren't demons. This one sure didn't act like a demon, at least. Any demon I knew wouldn't have passed up such a perfect opportunity for a rape ... but Fluttershy handled my vulnerability with gentleness and respect, never doing anything untoward at all. Maybe I could learn to trust these people. But then I remembered the purple one ... my mind had already been violated once here. Could I really trust my memories of what happened between me and Fluttershy? Could I trust my own feelings about it?

I took one more look at her sweet smile. Yes, yes I could trust her.


* * *


As the days went by, the slow trickle of ki I could manage did its healing work. It was frustrating, waiting for it to properly take effect, but I forced myself not to take any more unnecessary risks like I had in getting my clothes back on in the first day. After that day, I took Fluttershy's advice much more seriously, and I do have to say that I greatly benefited from doing so.

I found myself growing more and more fond of her, despite my caution. I knew she was friends with that Twilight, and I knew that it's often very accurate to judge someone by the company they keep ... but I just couldn't stop her from winning me over. Her caring and gentle nature was just so blatant – how could I doubt it?

It was two weeks before she saw fit to take me farther than the occasional trip to the bathroom, and even then, she insisted on possessively holding my hand the whole way.

But as I stepped out through her front door and saw real sunlight for the first time in a fortnight, I couldn't help but think that I was ready to take on the whole world myself, right that moment.

“Take it easy now,” she said as I carefully stepped down across the threshold of her cottage. “Don't get ahead of yourself.”

That's the same thing she said when she was helping me get my boots on. Okay, well, when she was putting my boots on for me. I hadn't really had much to do with that effort, other than enduring a little more pain. It was nothing like as bad as when I'd first gotten dressed, though, so I managed just fine.

“You're really doing very well. I don't know of any other creature that would be up and walking so soon after such terrible injuries.” Despite her compliments, she didn't let go of my arm. 

I wasn't using it for any support, not really. I just kept hold of her to make her feel better about this ... well, to be honest, maybe it did make me feel a little better as well, knowing she would be there to catch me if this little stroll turned out to be too much for me.

Ugh, such a disgrace! To think that I would be brought so low, as to think a simple stroll through a country garden was a challenge. It was disgusting, I was disgusted with myself for showing such weakness. But what could I do about it, other than trying to recover and slowly – agonizingly slowly – regain my ki? Oh, Genko would be in for it when I finally found him. He would pay for what he'd done to me, the pain, the weakness, the lost time ... he would pay dearly for them all when I—

“Watch out now, there's a little bit of a step here.”

Fluttershy's gentle warning snapped me out of it and forced me to pay attention to the path again. Step by laborious step, I was getting better, regaining my strength and confidence, even though my ki was still sorely lacking. Genko's ki would surely be depleted as well, though, and his recovery would be just as slow. The important thing was for me to get up to strength faster than he did, to find him before he was ready.

I stepped over the little bump in the path without any difficulty. It didn't even hurt anymore, not much. “I think I'm ready to see the town now.”

“What?” Fluttershy stopped in her tracks. “You've done well today, but let's not get carried away!

“No, I want to. After all you've told me about it and the ponies who live there, I have to see it for myself. Don't worry about me, I've been through worse.”

She looked at me and sighed. By now, she knew that if I set my mind on something, it would happen. Shaking her head, she put an extra hand on my arm to steady me more. “Okay, if that's what you really want, we'll go. But I want you to take it easy, remember that.”

I would remember that. I'd still get what I wanted, but I would also do my best to listen to her advice. That lesson had been driven home to me enough times already.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly, I had expected more of a reaction from the locals when I finally made my way into their town. Quite a few of them looked at me, sure, but not all of them did, and there was no outcry ... nor any great show of welcome. They just seemed to accept me as another oddity, then go along with their lives as usual. Which was decidedly unusual, if what Fluttershy and her friends had said was true: that they had never seen anyone like me before.

I was beginning to get a better idea of the inhabitants. Some had wings, some had horns, some had neither ... apparently having both was very rare. All of them came in a slightly nauseating array of bright colors, and they seemed to all live peacefully enough. Or was that just a show, put on for my benefit? I wasn't totally sure I could trust them yet. Not even Fluttershy.

If I had expected anything outlandish in their village, I was mistaken. Sure, their choices in decoration were odd, with an overabundance of hearts and flowers and ... horseshoes, of all things. But there was nothing here that would look terribly out of place in a small, if strangely ethnic, village from my world. I'd seen dozens just like it ... though perhaps not so clean and so idealized. And, of course, no village in my world would dare house this many people without at least a palisade to protect them. How could these people be so trusting? Did they have no enemies out in the wilds?

“This is the town square, the center of Ponyville,” Fluttershy said, still leading me by the hand.

She didn't need to do that. Even with the limited supply of ki I'd been able to scrounge access to, I'd been able to heal more than she could guess. The cast on my leg already felt unnecessary. Still, I was grateful to have a guide, and since I didn't quite trust these 'ponies', it would be good to have at least one secret from them. Being healthier than they thought I was could end up being a decisive advantage in a pinch.

“There's the Joke Shop, and the Spa, and the Mane Salon, and of course the Town Hall right in the middle.” Fluttershy went on with her tour even though I was only half paying attention to it. I probably did need to know where things were, but I doubted that a salon or a joke shop would be what I needed to find. She pointed up over the thatched rooftops. “That way is where the Library used to be before Tirek blew it up ... and off behind it is the Friendship Castle – that's where Twilight lives now.”

Wait, so someone named Tirek blew up their library? So they did face threats here ... and yet they couldn't put up so much as a fence around their village? What was wrong with these people?

“Just a little further down the lane, and we'll get to Sugarcube Corner. I have a friend there, and I'm sure she'll want to meet you. Her name is—”

“Pinkie!” A pink woman jumped out of nowhere right in front of me.

I darted – or stumbled, rather – backward, reflexively grabbing for the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. I wasn't even wearing my sword belt. How had I left without it? I hit the ground hard, reawakening injuries I had thought were healed, and Fluttershy's efforts to keep me standing accomplished little more than wrenching my sore shoulder.

“Pinkie!” my yellow friend scolded. “You can't just jump out at her like that. She's in a very fragile state!”

Slowly, I picked myself up. This pink one wasn't a threat apparently. She had just startled me. Perhaps it was for the best that I wasn't fully healed, that I didn't have my sword at hand ... I may have done something I would later regret.

Pinkie paid her no mind. “Are you the new, um... wolf thing? I've never met a wolf thing, and I've never met you, and...” Her eyes went wide, and she gasped. “Ohmigosh! You're in Ponyville a whole two weeks earlier than Fluttershy said you'd be, and I haven't even started getting your welcome-and-get-well-soon party set up!” She jumped up onto the rim of a nearby fountain and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Everybody stop everything!”

Surprisingly, they did stop, every single one of them.

“Emergency party plan epsilon! Go! Go right now!” Pinkie darted off in a blur. 

Everyone else in the town square spent a moment longer staring at where Pinkie had been, then they went back to their business as usual, ignoring whatever orders Pinkie had just given out.

I had seen one other like her in my time, back in my world. He had been a manic buffoon, but a well-meaning one, and ultimately turned out to be quite useful when our forces engaged with the Demon King's honor guard in the high passes of the Herakon rift, but that's a story for a different day. For the time being, I had an overprotective Fluttershy to deal with.

“Are you okay?” she asked, holding me both at the elbow and across the shoulders. “Did you get hurt in the fall? We can go home now if you want. I know Pinkie can be very frightening sometimes – she even scares me pretty often, and I'm one of her best friends.”

“No, no. I'm fine. Go on with the tour.” I needed to scout the territory, after all. I'd been disoriented and helpless for too long already.

She looked at me with heartbreaking levels of concern. “Are you sure? We could finish it tomorrow. You should probably come back home and rest.”

Ah, wouldn't that be nice? To be back home, resting. Not her home... Mine. Not that I'd ever had a time in my life I'd call particularly restful there, but I did find myself with a strange longing for my war tent and my comrades. Before that fateful day in Genko's tower, I would have been happy to curse them all to eat their own guts in the deepest level of the Demon Realm, but now...? Now I missed those feckless bastards more than I'd ever thought I could.

“Mizuki?”

I'd been standing still and staring off into space for too long, apparently. Rather than responding to her, I began walking again.

She hastened to match my steps. “Okay, now we're headed toward the west side of town. Rarity lives over there. How about we drop in to visit her? She's been pestering me to let her design a new wardrobe for you.”

I took the next turn to the left. 

“Or... maybe not then.”


* * *


I grumbled about it when Fluttershy led me back to her cottage, but to be honest with myself, I was more than a little grateful for her insistence. The walk through town had been tiring, more exhausting than any other trek I'd ever made, despite how short and easy it should have seemed. I was disgusted with my own weakness, determined to force myself beyond these feeble limits that bound me ... and it was only because of Fluttershy that I was able to return and rest. I had her to thank for that.

Only, when she opened the door for me, what I found inside wasn't restful at all.

“Su-prise!” Pinkie yelled, right into my face as soon as the door opened. An explosion of confetti followed a moment later, coating me with colorful – and itchy – glitter. When she backed up a little and let us inside, there turned out to be dozens of others already inside, with bright decorations strewn all over the place and a loud machine beginning to play recorded music.

The pink woman bounced, yes ... literally bounced into the middle of the room, then spread her arms wide. “Welcome to your welcome-and-get-well-soon party, um...” Everything froze for a moment as Pinkie's face went blank. “...Whoever you are!”

“Mizuki Tanaka,” I provided for her.

“Gesundheit!” She darted up to me and pulled a plate out of her hair – out of her hair! – and held it up to me. “Want some cake?”

Even though I couldn’t see any curly pink hairs in the cake's frosting, the whole idea of eating hair-cake grossed me out. I backed away slightly.

“Come on... it's gooood...” She held it up to my face again.

“No!” I shouted, too forcefully for the situation, again making everyone there pause and look.

After deliberately allowing for an awkward pause, Pinkie shrugged. “Okie-dokie!” She then proceeded to swallow the whole thing in one go. I fought back a gag.

“Well, my goodness...” Fluttershy stuck close to me, thankfully. “I wasn't expecting a party, but since we're here, you might as well meet my friends. There's Applejack, her big brother and their little sister. You already know Twilight and Rarity, right?”

I glared at Twilight suspiciously. Thankfully, her back was turned, and she didn't seem to sense my gaze on her. “Yeah.”

“Well Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are—”

Pinkie grabbed me by the arm and hauled me bodily into the middle of the room. “How about a dance, huh, wolfie? You look like you'd be dangerous on the dance floor!”

Fluttershy caught up before I could reply. “Oh no, she couldn’t. She's much too weak. And she's certainly not dangerous, not even a little. You shouldn't say that about sapient predators – it's insensitive.”

“I'm not weak,” I said, tearing my arms away from both Pinkie's clutches and Fluttershy's possessively returning grip. Insensitive, she said? Ha! I considered myself extremely dangerous – she was the one insulting me!

“Alright!” Pinkie yelled. “Dance time! Gimme a beat!”

The music changed, got louder, but I hardly noticed. I took one shambling step forward, muttered “Oh shit... F-fuck all of you” under my breath, and then collapsed. A moment later, I was passed out cold in the middle of the improvised dance floor.


* * *


When I woke, everyone was gone and the music was silenced, but the decorations were still strewn everywhere. I was back on the same couch I'd been practically tethered to since I arrived, and for once, I was glad to be there.

It gave me a moment to think, not that I wanted to. Instead of thinking about what happened, I focused on orienting the constant little trickle of healing ki back into my body. I needed all the strength I could muster.

I lost track of time, but it didn't seem like very long before Fluttershy came in to check on me. “Oh good, you're awake. You had me worried!” She rushed over to my side. “It's all my fault! I should have known Pinkie would do something like this, and I should have stopped her before she gathered everyone here. She can be so thoughtless sometimes.”

Letting a deep sigh escape, I looked up at her. “I think she means well, but she's just...”

“Weird?”

“I was going to say ... a little too much for me to handle right now.”

She smiled. “Oh my. You're so polite now.” The smile faded. “I'm afraid you didn't make quite as good an impression on the party guests, though...”

“Well, they didn't make a very good impression on me, either.”

Fluttershy stared down at me until I fidgeted.

“I don't care. Who needs them? Good riddance.”

When she simply got up and walked away without a single word... Now that really hurt. 

Well fuck her, and fuck her friends, too! I didn't need any of them. What I needed to do was simple: find Genko, kill Genko, go home. I didn't need her or her friends for that. I just needed to recover a little more, and then I'd take care of everything myself, just as I always had. There was never anyone else I could really count on, not when it came down to it, so why would I need anyone now? Sure I needed her help getting better – I could admit that much at least. But all she'd really provided was a few bandages and a couch to lie on. It was the least she could do for an injured warrior. I didn't owe her a damn thing.

And I hadn't forgotten about that mind-raping purple one either. If she was representative of Fluttershy's friends, then I wanted nothing to do with any of them. 

No sooner had I settled into a good angry stew over their treatment of me, though, than a new presence was in the room. I hadn't heard him come in or sensed his approach in any way, but then there he was. 

He was tall, very tall, and that was accentuated by the mismatched horns extending from his head. Every limb seemed to be different. He wore a hideous off-brown suit and held a cane in one clawed hand. As he looked down at me, his bushy white mustache and goatee twitched. “You're in my spot.”

The most important thing, though... I could feel his ki! Its energy was sick and twisted beyond all recognition, but I could feel it! The power of it beat on me like the high summer sun. This was a being more powerful than any I'd ever seen.

This being of godlike power ... he cleared his throat and poked me with the tip of his cane.

How could someone so powerful be so petty? I was beyond caring. “Fuck you,” I said, swatting the cane away.

“For Fluttershy's sake, I'm going to ask nicely, but I need you to move. That's my couch you're lying on, and I want it.”

“Girlfriend trouble?” It was a shot in the dark, but...

His eye twitched. “What goes on between me and Celestia is none of your petty mortal concern. Now move!”

“Can't. Too weak.” That was true enough, though it pained me to use it as an excuse like that.

“Ugh, fine!” He snapped his lion-paw fingers, and ... and I was healed!

Hot damn, I was healed, completely healed! The pain was gone, and in its absence I suddenly felt invincible, mightier than a mountain! I was sure I could run with strides a hundred leagues long and jump to each of the five moons and back.

“Ahem.” He poked me with his cane again.

This time, awestruck, I was glad to give up my seat, glad to walk again, free from the constraints of my injuries. I moved to thank him, but by the time I thought to do so, he was curled up on the couch, apparently fast asleep.

As the giddy euphoria slipped by, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity. I had no idea who or what that man was, but this was my ticket out of this too-colorful and ki-poor shithole. With Fluttershy still thinking I was bed-ridden and all of her friends off their guard, this was the ideal time for me to escape. Not that I truly thought they would try to prevent me from leaving ... but that was a possibility.

With this new-found strength and health, though, I'd be able to slip out right under their noses, and they'd never know a thing. Now was the time. I could slip on my armor, grab my sword, and track down the tendril of ki I'd been feeling from wherever Genko was hiding. 

I grabbed the armor first. Underneath it was my bra. Well, I should wear it ... my armor would fit better, and it would keep things in place during a fight. But I'd have to take my top off in order to put on the bra. I glanced over at the man sleeping on the couch, and I caught the glint of his eye watching me through half-closed lids.

Men. They never change. I held the bra up, dangling from one finger. “A little privacy please?”

“To think I would stoop to such a level! You wound me,” he muttered.

I didn't move.

“Oh, have it your way.” He snapped his fingers again, and suddenly the bra was on me, fitted perfectly, though I hadn't moved at all.

I gasped. “Hey!”

“Hey? Hey what? You want me to take it off again?”

I clutched my arms protectively over my chest. “No.”

“Well then you're welcome.”

I stood there with arms crossed a moment longer, then let them fall. “Um, thanks, I guess.”

There were no further disturbances as I gathered my well-worn armor and strapped it on, not even as I settled the sword belt over my hips.

“Going somewhere?” he murmured.

I drew the sword – its ki-channeling power would help me locate Genko more easily. “Yeah. I've got an old friend to meet.” With that, I slipped silently out through the door.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once outside, I made sure to get away from Fluttershy's house as swiftly as I could, not worrying about tracking Genko just yet. The important thing was to get clear before anyone realized I was gone.

I headed into the woods, in the opposite direction of the town. If these people did have ulterior motives for helping me – and I couldn't rule that out – I wanted to make sure that none of them would see me or know where I had gone.

The forest behind her house was strange, and strange in a different way than everything else in this place was strange. This place was dark and alien, full of plants I had never seen before. I made sure not to touch any of them – this was starting to remind me of the wilds back in my world. I had no idea which of them might be poisonous or carnivorous. Best to be cautious, even of the smallest and most innocent-looking ones.

I traveled far, far into that forest before stopping. I knew that underestimating the residents of this world would be a grave error, and I knew they had many unexplained and unexpected powers. Couldn't be too careful. I stopped when I found a reasonably safe-looking clearing, a forest meadow full of a mix of grasses and wildflowers. There was still no way to know if any of those plants might be dangerous, but touching some plants would be unavoidable. At least when they were all jumbled together like this, I could hope that there wouldn't be too many of any dangerous type to be a threat on its own.

Kneeling in the meadow, I touched the tip of my sword to the ground and began to meditate, seeking out the lines of ki I could feel. There wasn't much, of course. In my world, the most difficult part was to sort through the cacophony of individual strands to find the one I was looking for. Here, though, the most challenging thing was clearing my mind enough to even sense the whispers of ki that had bled through when I arrived.

I found the stones from Genko's tower easily enough ... the same ones I'd been drawing on for healing energy since I arrived. Oddly, I could no longer sense the stranger who had come into Fluttershy's house and healed me, even though his presence had been overwhelming when I was close. All the better, I supposed. Without that massive source to block out, I would be much better off searching for my true quarry... And there it was, one faint red strand that could only be coming from Genko himself. It was shielded now, which would prevent me from drawing on it for power, but I could still sense it.

Without breaking out of my trance, I stood upright and lifted my sword from the ground. The inscribed ki on it still worked, and I let it point me toward the source. When I opened my eyes, I stared down the length of the sword in exactly the direction I'd need to go in order to find Genko.

Also when I opened my eyes, I found three wolf-like things circling me silently. They seemed to be entirely made of old sticks and branches, their eyes glowed green, and their breath stank. Well, this place was looking more and more like the wilds I was familiar with, wasn't it? Well, no matter. Even though I had no idea what the fuck these things were, I knew that I'd probably seen worse in my past.

When the first one lunged at me with a snarl, I sidestepped it easily, slashing along its side as it passed. The thing careened past me and crumpled into a heap, and even as it landed, I sliced the second one's head clean off. The third melted back into the shadows of the trees without making an attempt on me.

I turned toward the one I'd slashed lengthwise – it was crawling away on three legs ... no longer a threat.

So I went back to the one I'd beheaded, examining it more closely. Indeed, there was no living creature inside it, neither animal nor plant. All the way through, it was made of nothing more than bundles of sticks. So bizarre ... ancient stories once told of the golems, spirits animating unliving objects... But even in all my travels, I had never seen anything like one, though this must have been of similar kind.

As I stared at it, some of the parts began to glow green like the creature's eyes had ... and they slowly began weaving themselves back together.

I took that as my cue to leave. There was nothing preventing me from beheading it again – these wooden creatures were no match for my ki-sharpened blade ... but this wasn't my fight, and I had nothing to gain from slaying the thing over and over again. Instead, I headed in the direction my sword had pointed out for me. Unfortunately, that was straight back toward Fluttershy's hometown.


* * *


I hesitated at the edge of the forest, unsure if it was wise to reenter the town, even though I knew Genko must be hiding somewhere inside it. The sun had nearly set, leaving the sky burning orange, and surely my absence would have been noticed by now. If my nagging suspicions about these people happened to be correct, they would be on the lookout for me now, ready to recapture me ... and I would be unlikely to get another chance.

Should I wait for nightfall? They did seem to be more active during the day, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Against many of the creatures in my world, I would have an advantage at night – my night vision was better than most creatures. But if these people were demon-kin they would be able to see with absolute perfection in the darkness. Even if they weren't, their ability to see at night could still be better than my own ... I knew so little about them, really. It put me at a major disadvantage. Of course, they didn't seem to know much about me either.

In the end, I did decide to wait for darkness. It would be night soon anyway, with whatever advantages and disadvantages that brought. At least by starting at night, I'd only be dealing with one set of advantages and disadvantages, rather than worrying about whether or not the so-called ponies would have an edge over me in the failing sunlight.

It didn't take long. I set out as soon as the western sky's glow simmered down to a deep purple.

I moved as if I were just another of the lengthening shadows of the trees, dashing silently from cover to cover and around the corners of buildings. There were still some people milling about in the town, but none of them seemed particularly on-guard or alert. They didn't seem as if they were looking for someone. I managed to remain unseen as I penetrated deeper and deeper into the sleepy village.

The sense of Genko's ki still tugged at the tip of my sword, and I followed it carefully. It eventually led me straight to the very center – the town square. 

Quite a few people still lingered there, so I stayed on the outskirts as the darkness slowly deepened and the crowd gradually dwindled. I'd found a convenient bush near the corner of one building, and I wiggled my way slowly into it. From inside its leafy concealment, I could watch the townspeople slowly filter back into their homes. Finally, finally, the last few left and the square was empty.

Still being careful, I edged my way out of the bush and followed my sword again.

Even as I circled the square, it always wanted to point directly at the center – at the building Fluttershy had called Town Hall. So was that where Genko was hiding, then? It seemed far too obvious, far too easily seen ... but then it hit me. Of course he'd go for the tallest building in town. That fucking demon did have a perverse fascination with being as high up as possible, didn't he? So that must be it. And as tiresomely predictable as demons always were ... he was probably in the very top of it, wasn't he?

After one last check to make sure no one was watching, I rushed up to big wooden double doors on the front of the building and sliced through their latch, just as I'd sliced through the latch of Genko's fortress. Things do have a queer way of repeating themselves sometimes, don't they? But this time, I wasn't going to let him drag us both into another world. This time, I would end it.

Inside, everything seemed perfectly normal. A big empty room greeted me, echoing slightly as the doors swung shut behind me. The light was dim and the air smelled stale. If it wasn't for the trail of ki leading me, I would be sure that Genko wasn't here.

As things stood, though, I was fairly sure I knew where to find that fat bastard. He'd be up in the highest chamber ... I only needed to find out how to get there.

It turned out to be much less straightforward than things had been at Genko's fortress. He had obviously designed his own home to accommodate his tastes, but in this place ... in this place, the highest room was largely ornamental, and I had to search through a half-dozen back corridors and storage rooms behind the main stage before I finally found a trap door in the ceiling of a dusty hallway. After going up through there, I discovered a narrow and disused wooden staircase that spiraled up around the back of the building's domed roof.

At the end of that stairway, I came to a small wooden door that – while definitely locked – was quite flimsy and would be no challenge to get through. I paused there, steeling myself for the fight that I would doubtless find on the other side of it. I was almost entirely bereft of my ki powers, but by all rights, Genko should be similarly powerless. It would be down to a purely physical struggle, and I had already proven once to be the master of him in that. Not to mention, I had been miraculously healed of all my injuries, and with any luck, Genko would still be suffering from many of the blows I'd dealt him. This could be an easy victory for me if he was still hurt ... and even if he had found some way to heal himself as easily as I had, I should still be able to take him. I was faster, more agile ... but just as tough when it came down to it. I could do this, even without most of my ki.

After one deep breath to calm my nerves, I slashed the wooden door and burst into the chamber inside ... only to find it completely empty. The room was tiny, a circular chamber that I could cross in just a handful of strides, and it was completely empty, so there was nowhere to hide. The walls here weren't nicely finished and decorated as they were elsewhere; the woodwork was purely utilitarian. The walls had slatted vents in them, providing somewhat of a view of the deepening evening outside. But with nowhere to hide, where was Genko?

I let my sword guide my hand again, and this time it pointed me upward, toward the flat ceiling.

Of course! This must not be the absolute highest room. I remembered seeing the pointed roof of this building from outside. I knew there must be some kind of attic above this room, but as I searched for it, I couldn't for the life of me find any sign of a door leading upward. I did find footprints in the dust on the floor, but even those didn't help me find the way up.

In the end, I just gave up and made my decision. Fuck the element of surprise – it was time for me to kill Genko, and I wasn't going to let the lack of a door stop me. 

A few well-placed slashes of my sword cut through the ceiling above easily, opening a triangular hole just big enough for me. I leapt up and managed to grip the edge of it, then pulled myself up through it, springing up into combat readiness as quickly as I could once I was up there.

And there he was, Genko, sitting at the other side of the little chamber. He rose when he saw me and grabbed the remains of his battle axe ... which now was little more than a steel pole with a few pointy bits of metal on one end. “I've been waiting for you.”

I stared him down. “Ready to die yet, fucker?”

“Not today.” He came at me, swinging the broken axe, and I barely managed to dodge it. If he was still injured, he didn't show it.

It wasn't easy this time. The chamber was very small, with walls that angled up toward a shadowy and distant peak of the roof ... there was very little room to maneuver, which largely negated my advantage in agility. Thankfully, though, Genko's initial lunge and show of strength had been largely for show. The longer we fought, the more evident it was the he still suffered from his injuries. He limped with his left leg, and was always slow to dodge or attack if it meant he had to move in that direction. He didn't seem to be able to lift his right arm higher than his shoulder, and I discovered that there was something wrong with his right eye, since he seemed to have a huge blind spot.

Still, I owed my life to the fact that his broken axe could no longer lacerate – I had bruises and nasty scrapes from it, maybe even a broken rib or two, but he had not managed to cleave me in two as he'd clearly intended. Once I noticed his injuries ... once I learned his weaknesses, I was able to press my advantage methodically, and I brought his fat ass down once again.

This time, I didn't hesitate. I plunged my blade down toward his bloated neck, ready to end it once and for all, but my arm suddenly stopped, held in place by incredibly sticky green goo that shot down from above.

What the fuck? What was going on? I quickly tossed my sword into my off hand and made to strike him again, but another strand shot out of the dim crevice of the roof above and halted me again.

Whatever or whoever was doing this apparently wasn't something I could afford to ignore until after I killed Genko. I stared up into the dark recess above and yelled out, “Who's there? If you interfere, I'll have to kill you, too!”

A deep feminine chuckle came from above, and I heard the sound of enormous insectoid wings beating furiously. A jet-black woman descended from the ceiling; she wore a shimmering bluish dress, which matched the color of her limp-hanging hair. She had strange, sickly-looking holes in her arms and legs, and her fingernails came to wicked points.

“After what happened last time, you didn't think I'd face you again without reinforcements, did you?” Genko laughed from below me, though blood clogged his throat and made it more of a choking sound. He looked up toward the mysterious new woman. “Took you long enough.”

She smirked. “Well, you did tell me to give you a chance to kill the bitch yourself before I intervened. I suppose I had more faith in your abilities than was warranted.”

“If I had my ki powers, I'd have your ass on the rack in my dungeon for that kind of talk.”

She flung a bit of green goo from her fingertips across Genko's mouth, shutting him up. “Only in your perverted little fantasies. If you forget who's in charge here, I'll be forced to—”

I took advantage of their squabbling distraction, dropping my sword again and kicking the hilt as it fell. The woman caught it just a moment before its tip jutted into her face, and it stopped in midair, surrounded by a bright green glow. Only then did I notice the crooked black horn on her forehead. 

She cast my sword aside. “The bitch has mettle, I'll give her that. She will make a fine contribution to my hive.” Before I could do anything else, she hit me with a massive wave of green glue, enveloping my entire body and plastering me against the wall of the chamber. 

I gasped in a deep breath before the next blast of it hit me in the face, but that only delayed the inevitable. I couldn't move any of my limbs, and I couldn't breathe. Thanks to my adrenaline-soaked body and my exertions from fighting Genko, I was soon desperate for breath, my lungs aching for air. But even when I lost self control and started gasping for air, nothing could make it past the thick membrane of green slime across my nose and mouth. I spasmed for a short time, writhing in agony and desperation ... and then my vision slowly went dark.


* * *


When I woke, it was to an intensely throbbing headache and a diffuse green light all around me. I was floating in some kind of thick gel. My first reaction was to thrash violently, panicking at the thought of drowning in this stuff ... but after a moment of struggling in vain against the thick slime and scraping my nails against something leathery and smooth just at the limits of my reach, I slowly began to calm down.

Somehow, I wasn't suffocating, despite my inability to breathe. Something about this stuff was keeping me alive – I was being held captive, not being murdered. 

It wasn't much consolation. I reached forlornly for the hilt of my sword, but of course the scabbard was empty. The fluid I was suspended in was translucent, and the casing around it must have been as well, because I could see a little bit of light filtering through it. By pressing against one side with my legs, I could push myself close to the other side. My view became clearer, but the light was still dim, and I was limited to seeing a couple of blurry silhouettes, one huge and rotund, the other slim. They moved as if arguing with each other, but I couldn't hear their words as anything more than a muffled humming.

Well, I was alive. That was good ... probably. But why were they keeping me alive? I knew that Genko would never have willingly kept me alive unless it was to torture me to death. He was probably smart enough to not even risk that. He would know that no matter the restraints or the security, there was always a small chance I would escape and hunt him down ... and for all his flaws, he wasn't the vindictive type, nor was he as sadistic as most demons. He would have killed me with his usual brutish pragmatism.

So it must have been that woman who had insisted on keeping me alive. It was probably what they were arguing about at that very moment. I hoped vaguely that she'd win the argument and go on keeping me alive. To be honest, though, I wasn't sure I should be grateful. There are fates worse than death, and I had no idea what that woman's plans for me were. She'd said something about me contributing to her hive... That could mean anything from mind-controlled servitude to being a fresh meal for her minions. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of any plan she might have for me that would be at all appealing.

Could I escape? I scratched at the tough membrane around me with my claw-like fingernails, but they just scraped smoothly over the tough, flexible surface without resistance, not damaging it at all. I even tried to bite at it, but I couldn't manage to pinch it enough to get a fold of it between my teeth, and the gel around me tasted vile. Unfortunately, there was no way to get that taste out of my mouth. I checked my boot sheath for the spare knife that should be in there, but Genko and the woman must have found it, because that sheath was also empty. I was out of options.

So ... nothing remained but for me to wait and find out what fate that woman had planned out for me. Should I have seen this coming? How was I to know that Genko would find allies here? Perhaps I should have known. I found friends here, after all.

And I hadn't even considered asking for their help in this. 

Was that my fatal mistake? Should I have gone to Fluttershy for help in my assault on Genko's lair? I wasn't sure what that waif of a girl could do against the likes of Genko and his lady friend, but Fluttershy did have her own powerful friends. The purple one, Twilight, could probably have dominated this fight easily. But I couldn't trust them, could I? Well, come to think of it, how could my situation possibly be any more fucked up if I did trust them? On the other side, I could definitely think of ways my situation might have been improved if I'd had their help. Damn ... I should have thought about all of this before I set out. But I had gone out impulsively, sure that doing it right that moment, going alone, was the only way. One of these days, I'd have to learn to think things through in detail before I took action. That was, if I wasn't going to end up as a mind-slave to that insectoid woman.

From the way the dim light gradually increased, I surmised that it was morning ... sunrise. How long would they keep me in here before revealing my ultimate fate? I didn't know how long I could stand the uncertainty before my sanity would begin to slip. Maybe that was part of that woman's mind-control strategy, a way to weaken my mental defenses before raping my very soul? Shit. I hated being captured, especially when I didn't know my captors' intentions!

Out of nowhere, there came a flash. I was back in Fluttershy's cottage, flopping down onto the carpeted wooden floor with a wet splat. I coughed and puked green slime into her carpet until my throat was finally clear enough to take a breath of sweet, sweet air.

“There,” the mysterious gentleman from last night said. “See, she's perfectly fine. I didn't do anything untoward to her.”

I gasped on the floor, clutching at myself and still struggling to recover and understand what had just happened to me.

Fluttershy held her arms akimbo and stared down her new house guest. “She doesn't look perfectly fine, Discord. Where did you send her? What did you do to her?”

“I didn't send her anywhere! I simply healed her injuries so she'd move off the couch, and then she left with hardly any 'thank you' at all.”

Fluttershy's eyes narrowed, but her body relaxed significantly, and one hand dropped away from her hips. “You're sure you didn't do anything to her? I still remember what you did to Angel Bunny when he wouldn’t give up the couch.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said, miming out the actions with an actual cupcake that conveniently appeared out of nowhere and actually flying up off the couch for a moment.

Seemingly satisfied, Fluttershy turned to me, squatting down next to me. Once again, I had to avert my eyes from her skirt. “What happened?” she asked. “If you don't mind telling me... Where did you go, and how did you end up covered in, um ... that?”

“I—” I coughed again, spitting up a little more slime, then decided to ignore her questions for the time being. It was time for me to swallow my pride and take the plunge of trusting her completely. “I need your help ... you and your friends.”

She seemed not to hear me, instead staring at the puddle of green ooze. After a moment, her eyes widened and her hand darted up to cover her mouth. “It's Queen Chrysalis, isn't it? She's back!”
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It hurt, asking for help from these ... these ponies. But what else was I going to do? I'd already seen that I was no match for that buzzing bitch Genko had teamed up with. Even now that I knew she was there, even now that they weren't expecting me ... how could I fight her without my ki? Genko, I could handle, but there was nothing I could do against her powerful attacks.

Long moments passed before Fluttershy recovered from the near-faint she'd fallen into after she said the name 'Chrysalis', but finally she came back to us. “It is Queen Chrysalis, isn't it? Where is she?”

“Well, she was all black, had insect wings and a crooked horn... Oh, and her legs and arms were full of holes.” I paused, looking up at her. “Is that Chrysalis?”

Fluttershy gulped and nodded.

“Can you beat her?”

A long pause ... and then Fluttershy nodded. “With my friends together, we can handle anything.”

“You and your friends have beaten her before, haven't they?”

“Um, well ... ah... We faced her before, and she was defeated, I suppose.”

That didn't sound particularly encouraging ... but then again, the gentleman next to me was positively raging with strangely-tinged ki inside. Surely he could handle it. I turned my head toward him. “Can you—?”

“Oh no. No no no.” He waved his arms in front of himself. “I was only made free on the condition that I be completely good, and I'm not about to risk that.”

Fluttershy looked up at him with big doe eyes. “We could really use your help.”

He sighed. “Fluttershy, as much as I may like to, you know as well as I that some of your friends are still looking for any excuse to send me back to stone-sburg. And while Chrysalis might be as evil as they come, fighting her would still be a tad too morally ambiguous. I'm sitting this one out.” With that, he snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of light.

Fluttershy took a deep breath and shook her head. “I'm sure he means well. But he can be so difficult sometimes.”

Staring at the spot he'd been before he vanished, I squinted. I wasn't so sure about him meaning well. But maybe that was just a bit of mistrust left from my previous dealings with him ... or maybe it was because I could feel the pandemonium of twisted ki inside him. Still, I was fairly sure I would regret trusting that man ... and despite the overwhelming advantage he might have given our side, I wasn't upset to see him gone.

'Our side'... It was weird to be thinking in terms of 'we' and 'our' again, especially with these beings I hadn't known for particularly long ... at least one of whom had mind-raped me. And yet, I did trust them, or at least Fluttershy, and not just because I was completely out of other options. Okay, so being out of options probably play a big part in it, but I did feel like I could trust Fluttershy.

“First, I suppose we should get you cleaned up...” Fluttershy squatted down lower and made ready to pick me up off the floor.

I rose under my own power. “No... We need to hurry. Genko and Chrysalis probably still think I'm trapped in her cocoon. If they find out I'm gone, they'll know something is up. They might run and hide somewhere, or they might prepare a trap. But if we get to them before they know, we could have a huge advantage. Go! Go get your friends. I'll—” I coughed, hacking up another wad of green goo. “I'll get myself ready.”

Fluttershy's face scrunched up in concern, but she did let go of me. “You're sure?”

I nodded solemnly.

She was about to leave, but as she touched the doorknob, she paused and looked back at me. “Genko? Who is that? I'm sure Twilight will want to know before we set out.”

“He's a demon, from my world.” Grabbing hold of the couch, I forced myself up. “Don't worry. I can handle him if you can keep Chrysalis busy.”

“A... A demon?” Fluttershy blanched as she said the word.

I squeezed some of the slime out of my hair and flung it onto the floor. “I can handle him. Go!”

She nodded and darted out. As the door gently swung shut behind her, I worked on cleaning off my armor, hoping what I said about being able to handle him had been true. Genko and Chrysalis still had my sword – they had all my weapons. The thought of Genko's filthy mitts on my sword made me shudder, but I forced myself to snap out of it. My best chance was a lightning-fast raid with Fluttershy and her friends. Hopefully the element of surprise would give me enough time to grab my sword from wherever he'd put it.


* * *


By the time Fluttershy returned, I'd managed to get more or less cleaned up. I hadn't showered as I'd desperately wanted to – I hadn't even disrobed to wipe myself down thoroughly. I couldn't risk delaying things if they all showed up while I was still in the middle of it. But I had managed to wipe myself down well enough to be suitable, and I'd managed to clear the last of that green slime out of my lungs with a quick session of jogging in place ... that had ended in hacking coughs and a new puddle on the floor. But I was as ready as I was going to get when the door burst back open.

Twilight was the first inside, and I fought to restrain myself from cringing. I needed these ponies to be my allies; I couldn't let my distaste and mistrust show.

“Where is she?” Twilight demanded. “Where is Chrysalis?”

I was already heading for the door. “Come on, I'll lead you straight to Chrysalis and Genko.”

Twilight's ki flung me back onto Fluttershy's couch. “No. Tell me where she is. Fluttershy told me about this Genko. If you're bringing demons to our world, I'm not sure I can trust you. It's better if you just let us handle this.”

“Hey!” I fought my way back up, and to my surprise, her ki allowed me to. “I didn't bring him here – he brought me here! And yes, maybe you could handle him on your own, but you shouldn't have to. He's my problem, and I'll deal with him. You just keep Chrysalis off my back while I do it.”

Twilight paused and thought for a moment as the rest of her friends peeked in through the open doorway. She glanced back at Fluttershy. “Can we trust her?” 

So... everything would hinge on what Fluttershy thought of me. After far too long a delay, Fluttershy finally answered. “Um, well, I guess maybe we could trust her?”

It wasn't exactly an enthusiastic assertion, but Fluttershy's friends seemed to think it was enough. Twilight summoned me through the door with a wave of her hand, and we set off toward Ponyville.

As I led the six of them onward, I tried to explain the situation as well as I could, including a brief description of my world, demons in general, and Genko in particular. I wasn't sure how much of it they believed or even understood, but that didn't matter. I just had to do the best I could to prepare them for what they would see when we found those fiends. 


* * *


Without wasting any time, I led them to the room directly below the Town Hall's highest attic. They knew to be as silent as possible, but their hooves made what seemed like a deafening racket on the wooden floor. Masters of stealth they weren't, but at least none of them was foolish enough to talk, not even the pink one.

The triangular hole in the ceiling was still there, though it had been hastily covered with loose boards. We all stared at it solemnly for a moment.

But only a moment. We'd wasted enough time already. I pointed up at the hole, then counted down on my fingers: three... two... one...

With one mighty athletic leap, I jumped all the way up through those boards, batting them aside as I surged up through the floor and landed on my knees. Immediately, I dodged to the side and grabbed for the corner of the room where I'd last seen my sword. It wasn't there!

But neither was Genko ... or Chrysalis. I frantically searched the tiny room as Fluttershy and her friends heaved themselves up with varying degrees of grace ... but I couldn't find Genko and his bitch anywhere. The deflated cocoon was still here, but there was no other trace of them.

Once we were all up, Fluttershy's friends looked at me, their eyes full of suspicion and doubt.

I shrugged. “Genko and Chrysalis were here! I swear they—”

They surged up through the floor in balls of green fire. Chrysalis hissed and flung green glue from her fingertips, Genko ran at me with his teeth bared ... and swinging my sword!

The tiny room exploded into chaos. It was far too much for me to keep track of. I had my hands full just trying to dodge stray wads of glue from Chrysalis and sweeping cuts from Genko wielding my own sword. How dare that fat bastard lay hands on my sword! How dare he wield it? If I had my ki powers, I could have ended this fight in a second, made the blade turn on him. ...But I didn't have my powers.

And I was out of options. Even though I was much more agile than him, the room was tiny and filled with patches of sticky glue. I was running out of room to run, and I still had no weapon. Genko might be slow, but he wasn't so slow that I was willing to get inside the reach of his – my! – sword to try and grab it from him. Already, one close call had cost me the tip of my tail.

What little I could see of my allies wasn't any more encouraging. A couple of them were already stuck to the floor, and the rainbow-haired one was stuck to the ceiling. Twilight was locked in a stalemated battle of ki-beams with Chrysalis while the orange pony clung to Chrysalis' back, apparently trying to wrestle her ... but only managing to slow her down a little. At least that did slow her down enough to give me and Fluttershy a decent chance of dodging her slime attacks, but it couldn't last.

And it didn't. I lunged to the floor, desperately avoiding both a slice from Genko and a flurry of slime from Chrysalis. I dodged both, but only at the cost of laying myself flat out on the floor. The slime that had been meant for me went on to tack Fluttershy's wings to the wall. I rolled to the side just in time to avoid the point of my own sword being driven down into me; it cut into the floor instead. I was up and running in an instant. I had to take out Chrysalis, then my friends could help me with Genko and—

I dropped to the floor, screaming. 

Genko had jabbed my sword into the inferno where Chrysalis and Twilight's ki-beams met. Alien and incompatible ki surged through it – and surged through me as well. It was agonizing. All I could do was fall to the floor and writhe in pain.

In the distraction, Chrysalis grabbed the orange one off her own back and flung her across the room. Twilight was forced to break off her attack. She managed not to blast her friend, and even to catch her ... before they were both smeared with a wall of slime and pinned in place.

Twilight didn't need to move to attack though. She yelled something about rainbow power to her friends, then blasted out a beam of ki at Chrysalis, and again they met in a deadlock of equal power.

This time, though, Genko was free and unencumbered. He laughed a big, deep laugh that made his gut jiggle up and down. “Can't kill her that way, huh, bug bitch? I'll show you how!” Two big steps took him within range, and he raised my sword high above Twilight's head.

But I'd recovered enough to be useful again. Scampering over to him without even bothering to get off the ground, I latched on to his blubbery leg and sank my teeth in deep. His flesh tasted horrid, but oh how he howled!

Genko moved to swing the sword at me, but he slowed and stared around himself, dumbfounded, as a strand of rainbow light began to connect Fluttershy and her friends. He shook it off after just a moment, then took the time to kick at me with his free leg.

But that wasted time was more than he had left.

The glowing rainbows curled around him and Chrysalis, freezing them in place just before he could bring my sword down on Twilight's head, just before Chrysalis could duck out through the hole in the floor. The beams spun faster and faster, glowing brighter with every rotation. With horror, I saw them begin to circle me as well. I took one last look at Fluttershy and her friends... Even though they were pulsing with the very same power that seemed like it was about to devour me, a strange feeling came over me. I would ... miss them, especially Fluttershy. It hurt to think of losing them, the last friends I had.

It all ended in one blinding flash.


* * *


“Commander! Commander, wake up!”

I opened my eyes with a slow groan, to see Captain Filoktes leaning over me, along with a few of his men. It took me a few blinks before I could see them as more than just a blur ... and a lot more blinks before I believed I was seeing them. I sat up.

We were in Genko's tower ... probably on the floor below the one I'd fought him in, which was now open to the sky above. Genko stood next to me, my sword still raised in his bulky fists, but he was all gray. He was... He'd been turned to stone! I stared and panted for breath.

“Commander, Genko's forces have been routed, save for a few holdouts in the dungeons. Your orders?”

How...? The whole time I'd been gone must have been no more than a few minutes here. How was that even possible? I mentally shoved that aside; no use worrying about it right now.

This time, when I called upon my healing ki, it flowed readily. My strength returned in mere moments, allowing me to stand again, though I did wobble a little. “Stand down and guard the entrance to the dungeons. They'll probably use hostages, so we'll need to use ki to take out their captors without harming the prisoners.” I smashed my hand into Genko's fists, lacing the blow with ki that let me punch right through the stone, shattering his hands away and grabbing my sword back from him. Finally, finally, I held it in my hands again, able to feel the flow of ki through it. I felt invincible with the sudden rush of power. “Break this fucking statue into pieces and grind the pieces into dust. I'm going down to the dungeon to rescue the prisoners.”

Filoktes stared at the petrified Genko. “H-how did you do that, anyway? I've never seen any ki attack like that before.”

I smiled a toothy grin. It never hurt to be a little mysterious to one's subordinates. “It wasn't me. I had help.”