> Kesho Saga
>  by ScapeDragon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I: The Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It’s not easy living in the Crystal Empire as you would think. Especially if you were me. A non-crystal pony with a menacing look. I’d be scared too if I was normal. I’ve never noticed the stares when I was younger. But now as an adult, it was clear that something was off.
Even as a child, some try to keep their distance from me. Afraid of me for, whatever reason. Thankfully my younger self was too ignorant to notice. I spent most of my years at an orphanage, till I got too old for it and had to find my own place. I got lucky with the cheap house I got.
Life went on after that, going through the same thing over and over again. I wake up, work, walk, home, dinner, then sleep. There are some differences at times, but they only really happen once in a rare while. What never changes though, are those damn eyes from others.
I try to never let it bother me, let life go on as if it’ll all go away like a bad stomach ache. But I said that three years ago, and nothing has changed since then.
I’ve always imagined leaving this place, going off somewhere else like Canterlot or Manehattan. But I would never have the bits to do that. As fun and great as the idea sounds, it’s just another dream. And those things don’t exist. This place would forever be my home I guess, no matter what…..and things will never change.
Or so I thought. 
What started as a normal everyday cycle, was actually the start of something new, and very dangerous. I left my small home earlier than usual to try and maybe get a donut for breakfast before work. As I was walking to the donut shop, I started to feel a little light headed. I thought maybe it was my body just saying in a new way that I was hungry, but even after my donut stop, it stayed with me.
I made it to the shop that I work at, hearing the bell attached to the door ring as I entered. The shopkeeper, Bell Blue, was already there shining up the counter for the day. I gave her a good morning while she gave me one back, rather lazily if I might add. Eh, she was probably just tired. I ignored it and went to the back of the store to clock in and get suited up for the day.
Bell was probably one of the only few ponies to look over how different I was. Mostly because I’m just another worker to her. In fact, I’m her only worker. The cyan maned crystal pony doesn’t like working with others all that much. And I was the only guy in town that would take the job.
Once I got ready, I headed out holding a sign saying “Pop Shop” wearing a costume of a comedic dog. I’m not sure how this dog is a good mascot for a hobby store, but the kids really like it. It also gives me a job where ponies don’t see me and fear me. Bet it makes Bell Blue happy.
The headache stayed with me, but I just kept ignoring it, thinking that maybe all I needed was a nap and it would go away. Unfortunately it got worse and worse as the day went on. Didn’t help considering my job requires me to move around a lot like some kind of doofus. At one point, I had to go inside and sit down, feeling really exhausted. I went to the back room and took off my giant goofy head, breathing heavily. It felt like I was going to explode, and I couldn’t stop it. My hooves held onto my head as the pain got worse. I even let out a small yell in pain.
Bell got worried and came over to see if I was okay. She helped me out of my suit and noticed that I was sweating much more than usual when I wear that thing. My black short mane was soaked in sweat, and my grey coat was damp.
“Kesho,” the blue coated mare asked feeling worried. “Are you okay? Are you sick or something? You should’ve told me if you were feeling sick. Or better yet, just not come in today.”
“I…” The words were a pain to get out. “I guess it was worse than I thought….s-sorry Bell.”
“It’s fine you idiot. Just, just get home. Get some rest and medicine and stuff.” She helped me stand myself up till I could keep it together on my own. “The store can live without Popinski the Dog for a day.”
“O-Okay…I’ll see you tomorrow Bell.” She gives me a soft goodbye as I clock out and head home.
The walk home was agonizing. My head was pulsing at an insane rate. My stomach began to cramp up and I just couldn’t move. I fell to the ground holding onto my head asking whoever was around to make it go away. Ponies crowded over me, shocked to see that the outcast was having a freak out.
I had my eyes closed the whole time, but I could hear them. At first, they were whispering things to one another confused and scared. A few called out to me actually wanting to help. Then I heard them screaming. Running away. Shouting in fear.
I also heard something else, like a single voice that stood out from all the rest. His voice was deep, threatening, dark. He told me to wake up. To rise from the ground and stop acting like such a coward. That my time is now, and that I must fulfill my destiny. As his son.
I woke up from the shock of that last message. I looked around seeing black crystals circled around me. The sky changed from a bright day, to one of gloomy clouds. I stood up feeling a bit groggy, but kept myself up. I walked out of the ring made of crystals and saw more of them nearby. Even some seemed to have gotten into the buildings. And destroyed them. There weren’t any ponies nearby where I was. I looked around and saw more crystals around, slowly emitting small amounts of dark magic.
I don’t know what could’ve happened. Who would do something like this? And how is it that I’m still alive after all that? I keep walking to the direction of home trying to see if anybody was around, but I truly was alone. Almost felt like I was the only one in the Crystal Empire.
I walked near another crystal, this one much larger than the others. As soon as I got passed it, I could feel its dark magic filling me with immense energy. It was an extremely painful process, feeling like it was forced to enter my body. After the process, I felt myself feel better than before. I was even able to walk normally. Could it have just healed me? Can dark magic do that?
It took me a while, but I finally came across three ponies nearby. Ignoring what pain would come if I try to run I rushed over excited to finally see ponies around. Unfortunately, they didn’t feel the same when they saw me.
“It’s him! It’s the freak!” They shouted quickly running away from me. “Stay away from us!”
I was stunned to hear them say things like that. They’ve given me glares before, but never shouted anything like that before. Never truly shouted out their fears.
“Hey wait a minute!” My hoof shot up, asking for them to come back, but instead, they did something else. A black crystal wall was raised in front of them, preventing them from escaping. This terrified them as they quickly fell back and scurried to try and run away from both the wall and me.
There was no way I did that, right? I can’t do something like that. I’m no unicorn. Just some….pony. Obviously some coincidence that happened when I raised my hoof. Yeah, that has to be it!
I ran away from the scene so that I wouldn’t look any worse than I did now. More black crystals were around and now they were blocking the roads. Frustrated, I growled yelling at the wall to move. Next thing I know, a dark magical blast came out from my forehead and blasted the wall down. I stopped running, completely shocked by what just happened.
Magic….came out of my forehead? How did it….am I a….a unicorn? I touched my forehead and felt something that was never there from the start. It was a horn. A horn……h-h-how? This was terrifying. My hoof ran up the horn to make sure that it truly was what I thought it was. And yeah, it was a horn alright.
I couldn’t take it anymore. My body fell to the ground feeling defeated. Desperate for help, I just shouted and called to anyone who would help me. I shouted my name, saying that I needed help, any kind of help. I would take it, just someone come help me right now!
And I got it, in the form of a group of royal guards. They came to my aid, or so I thought. Last time I checked, you don’t point your spears at ponies you’re running to aid.
I looked up and saw them looking at me like I was some kind of criminal. They kept their spears pointed at me as if they thought I was going to attack. They all had different emotions on their faces. Ones of anger, ones of fear, and ones of disgust. The guards kept their position as they all surrounded me. I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen next. My body wouldn’t move. Were they going to kill me?
But then, the head of the guards came, suited up in his gold and purple armor. Shining Armor.
I’ve never seen the guy this close before. Just from a distance. And now here he was, dressed for a fight and looking at me with such serious eyes. Honestly, I felt a little small compared to him.
He gave me a stern look. “Kesho,” he addressed me. “You are hereby under arrest for attacking the Crystal Empire and its citizens.”
It took me a while to say something, being much too stunned by what he just said. Attacking the Empire…..? “Wh-What? What are you talking about? H-How did I-,”
“We got numerous reports stating that it was you who began to attack the kingdom with all these dark magical crystals.”
“No! It, it couldn’t have been me!” But….then again, it might’ve been me. After what I just experienced…..and what happened before I woke up. Oh Celestia…..no….. “No. You’ve got all wrong….” I could feel myself losing breath.
Shining Armor looked like he didn’t believe me. “I’ve noticed you’ve grown a horn since the last time I saw you.”
“Wait, how do you know me?”
“You’re the only pony in the Empire with such a shadowy coat, and who isn’t a Crystal Pony.” He sighs. “Look, ponies saw what you did. They saw you cause all this destruction to the town. You’re lucky nopony was horribly injured or worse.”
“I told you, I didn’t do this. I wouldn’t hurt anyone!” The yelling just got the guards more alert ready to poke me with their sharp spears.
Shining Armor signaled for his guards to stand down as he continued talking. “Kesho. We must take you in. This is something that can’t be ignored. We….” He struggled to continue with his sentence, “we think that it would be best.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t mean to do any of this. Nopony got hurt. Why should I be arrested? This was all just a horrible accident……an accident I had no control over. At all. This can’t be happening….it just can’t!
“Y-You can’t do that…..” I told him.
“I have to Kesho,” he replied. “For the good of the Empire. And its ponies.”
I couldn’t decide what to do. Sh-Should I…..should I do it? Do I deserve to be locked away for this……


TURN YOURSELF IN: For the good of the Empire? Maybe it is. To have me away where I can’t hurt anypony else…..

REJECT CAPTURE: No way…I can’t get caught. They’ll lock me up forever. I should….run. Run as far away as possible.

> II: The Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It took me a while to get my thoughts straightened out. After all, so much has happened in what was supposed to be just a normal day living in the Crystal Empire. What was once a day of me going to work and heading home due to a headache, is now a full-on invasion caused by none other than the only standout from the Empire. Me.
And now, Shining Armor and his royal guards are here to save the day by putting me in jail. Probably to rot so that no more dangers can threaten their homes and loved ones.
Like I’m going to let that happen.
I took one look at him, looking clearly upset. He was awaiting to see if I was going to say something.
“Screw…. you.” I told him in a very dark tone. Shining Armor was quite surprised to see such a response come from me, especially with how I was just seconds ago. But could you blame me? I was extremely upset. And now I finally got the guts to say what I really meant.
I wasn’t the reason for any of this happening. For all we know, somepony could’ve cursed me or something or is framing me. That could be likely since I’m such an outcast here. But they didn’t want to hear it. They’re all too busy panicking to even give me my chance to say something. Thinking that putting me away will make all the bad stuff go bye-bye.
Shining Armor just frowned hearing me say that and sighed defeated. Then motioned for his guards to come and get me. Of course, I wasn’t gonna have any of that.
“Back off!” I yelled in fury. As I should’ve known, whatever power I had, it reacted to my rage. Large black crystals surrounded me as they popped out of the ground. The crystals shoved the guards away sending them flying back or even just tumbling back. A hoofful of them were freaking out over what they just saw, now afraid that my powers were being unleashed again.
But being a leader, Shining Armor was only surprised for a second before regaining his cool. He ordered his guards to take me. By force.
I quickly got up from the ground and dashed out of that scene, going in the only opening the guards left in their formation after that attack.
“After him!” I heard Shining Armor yell as the guards quickly regrouped and chased after me.
We ran back down the streets I just walked down. They tried blasting me with their magic, but they kept missing. I wanted to lose them so I kept thinking about more crystals popping up and getting in their way. And wouldn’t you know it, it actually worked. I looked back and saw crystals popping up as the guards just ran into them with a loud slam. Another wall was made only this one covered the whole road blocking the rest of the guards from reaching me. It was assuring to know that this power had my back.
Whatever this power was, it was also gonna help me get out of here. I needed to find the best way out of the Empire in general. No doubt even if I lose the guards, I’ll be a wanted stallion here. So the best thing to do is to get the first train ride to somewhere that’s not here.
My first thought of spotting the train station was to get on a roof and scope it out. And as soon as that popped in my head, I saw myself leap into the air by some strong force. I panicked for obvious reasons and soon felt that I was back on a floor. I say “a floor” because it wasn’t the ground. It was on a building. No doubt this came as a huge surprise to me, causing me to panic more. I thought maybe I just learned flight. But when I looked back at where I was just at on the ground, there’s a crystal about my height from where I was standing. It looks like it gave me a lift. A big one at that.
When the guards caught up, I quickly hid behind a barrier on the roof. I could hear those loud grunts giving orders and directions and running off. They might’ve known I was just there since the crystal that boosted me up was still on the ground. But I doubt they know what it was used for.
After that, I looked to see if I could spot the train station and saw it not far off. And it looks like despite all that happened, it’s still running. In fact, there’s an entire section of the Empire over there that looks like not a single crystal hit it. Even a few Crystal Ponies are still acting casual. Good to know that not everything here got hit by the accident.
Using my new crystal leaps, I should be able to get there faster. Maybe even get there without being spotted by the guards. I got myself ready for another big assisted leap as I quickly thought up the move and leapt off the roof. Only for the stupid crystal to not pop out.
I immediately noticed how fast I was falling and yelped in terror as I plopped onto the ground hard. To be honest, I was expecting myself to be dead or horribly injured. But the fall didn’t really hurt as much as I would think. Yeah, it hurt still. But not enough to stop me from reaching the train station. I quickly stood back up feeling a bit woozy but quickly shook it off. There was the still the matter of getting out of here.
Not sure why that time my crystal powers didn’t work. They were fine a while ago when they got me away from all those guards. And I was really trying this time too. Which kind of sucks even more.
No doubt sooner or later some guards are gonna start showing up here. I needed to find some way to cloak myself from them. Some kind of disguise….. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything good near me, so I had to settle with a large newspaper I found on top of a garbage can. I kept it with me unfolded for now, ready to pull it out and pretend to read in case any guards showed up.
As hard as I may try to not attract any attention, being the only standout in this place makes that pretty difficult. Everypony is bound to pass a glare at me at some point. Even if it’s for just a split second. When I started seeing more Crystal Ponies, I got more worried about attracting attention. And I’m sure word got around about me being the prime suspect for the attack. No doubt that I’m gonna get caught at some point if I don’t hurry. 
I opened the newspaper up and tried to act casual by walking and reading it at the same time. But I think ponies know that I’m faking because there was a huge coffee stain on a section of it. And it was noticeable on both sides. A little grossed out, I threw the paper aside and just continued walking.
The train station was in my view from down the street and I could easily make it if I hurry. Unfortunately, it was too late as the train was beginning to deport. I tried to speed up so that I can get some chance at catching it before it was too late.
Sadly, I already was.
Before I knew it I bumped into something like an invisible wall during my walk. I backed up from it obviously startled as I saw Shining Armor and two guards slowly walk towards me from behind. Shining Armor’s horn was glowing showing that he was the one who made the invisible wall. No doubt one of his famous magical shields.
He looked at me upset. “Kesho,” he yelled at me. We can’t allow you to cause any more panic than you’ve already have. You need to be placed under arrest!”
I couldn’t believe he was so eager to try and capture me. All I wanted to do was go home and get some sleep, but instead I get chased across the Crystal Empire by some relentless guards. That’s how I wanted to spend my Tuesday.
The three royal guards slowly walked towards me. The two non-important ones got ready to try and capture me while Shining Armor kept the shield up to prevent me from running away. There had to be something I could do in order to escape this situation. I just need to find some way to pass this shield. And the only way to do that, is to get rid of Shining Armor’s magic.
When that thought popped up in my head, my horn began to glow. The guards took notice and panicked a bit backing up. Shining Armor grew more upset seeing it and his horn grew brighter. I looked behind me for a second and saw the shield becoming more visible. It also became not a wall anymore, but a sphere. With me in the core of it. There was no time. I had to act fast.
My horn sparked black bolts as Shining got ready for the attack. His shield closed in on me giving me no chance of moving, but I didn’t need to. The magic from my horn shot out and broke the shield as if it was a glass window and my blast was a baseball. Both me and Shining Armor were shocked by this and he was too stunned to dodge the blast from hitting him right on his horn. He yelped in pain and fell back with his two guards panicking and calling out to him. They lost focus on me and rushed to him to see if he was okay.
With Shining Armor taken out, the shield went away and it gave me freedom to move again. The last thing I saw before running off were those black static making baby crystals that seemed to have attached themselves to his horn. I honestly wasn’t trying to kill him. I just wanted him to stop with the spell. So….it could’ve meant that I wanted to….no! I can’t think like that what the heck?!
It was obvious however that the small amount of Crystal Ponies around us did see what just occurred on the roads as they began to run away from me. Even as I headed to the train station, their screams kept ringing in my ears. When I got near my destination the train was slowly taking off. So I had to ride it the only other way.
I ran beside the train trying to figure out how I did that Crystal leap from before. The train was picking up speed with me looking like an idiot jumping repeatedly during the chase. I was running out of train to catch up to as we headed out of the Empire and into the cold. The cold breeze of the outside hit me like a hoof sandwich.  Though despite it being much colder out here than in the Empire, my body took it like it was just a casual breeze.
There were only a couple carts left and I had to get on now! I yelled in frustration trying my hardest to do that leap again. And it worked. A crystal popped up below me pushing me up high in the air. This was the only chance I would get of escaping as I quickly cling on to the side of the train scrambling to climb up. With all my might, I pulled myself up onto the train with a loud groan.
I lied on my back panting from all that just happened. It felt so good to finally have some time to relax. Granted, it was on the roof of a moving train but right now I’m really not in the mood to be picky.
How could I do something like that? I just terrorized a bunch of crystal ponies and attacked the royal guards. Not to mention, I was probably responsible for damaging a large part of the empire….. And I seriously hurt Shining Armor….the princess’s husband……
What am I? 
Am I some kind of monster? And what was with all the crystals and growing a horn. Is there something about myself that I’m missing……. There’s just…..no way this is real. But seeing where I was now….yeah, it’s real alright.
A thought popped up in my head as the train left the snowy region of Equestria. No doubt the guards saw me escape on this train. They might be waiting for me at the next train station. If I wanted to keep up with how well this is going, I needed to get off this train. Of course leaping off the top of a moving train is more scary than anypony would think. I stood up trying to keep my balance as I waited for something soft to land on. We were passing near a forest and I saw some trees and bushes that I could jump on or land on.
My pep talks to myself were…kind of helping. I knew I could do it if I just timed it right. As a nearby tree was coming by, I got ready to leap. With one final “you can do it” to myself, I leapt at it and stretched out trying to grab onto it. Unfortunately my timing wasn’t as great as I originally thought. I missed it by a lot and fell to the ground rolling and making all sorts of thud sounds.
The rolling stopped finally and I could easily say that that hurt like crazy. I tried to stand up feeling the pain in my gut and chest. Thankfully, I didn’t feel anything broken so it wasn’t as bad I originally thought.
I slowly walked away from the train tracks and headed into the woods trying to find a place to rest for now. I’ve never actually been in the woods before so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. There were more animals around than I expected and the sounds a couple of them made did kind of make me nervous. All I wanted now was to find somewhere I can maybe sleep for the night.
Not sure if the woods were a good place to sleep in. I think the animals might think otherwise of an unwanted visitor. I quickly left the area before anything threatening would show up. But I still needed a place to rest for the night. Some kind of shelter. Preferably one with a bed. But could I find one here?
Apparently, yeah.
There was a cottage up ahead. One that looks well designed. The front yard of it was even made well. It had a little river and a small bridge going over it. I was surprised to even see something like this here. No doubt fate was smiling down upon me.
But why would I think that? Obviously someone lived here. One of the windows had a light on. Trying to avoid detection, I stealthily approached the window and saw inside a yellow Pegasus mare making dinner. So much for a free place to sleep in.
But then again…maybe if I could just explain my situation to her, she’ll let me stay for just a night. I just wanted a good rest. And I was desperate to try anything. So why not try the whole asking to stay? I approached the door and gently knocked on it clearly showing how nervous I was about this plan.
The mare opened the door slowly, with a gentle smile on her face. That immediately went away when she saw me. Before I could say what I wanted to, she let out a loud squeal and shut the door on me. I was too stunned to say anything. I know I look a little scary but is that really a good reason to shut the door on me like that. Didn’t even give me a chance to say something. Talk about rude…
I sighed from what just happened feeling slightly depressed from it. Looks like I have to think of something else…..


	CAMP IN THE WOODS: Looks like I’ll have to rough it up in the woods. I really hope I don’t get mauled by a bear in my sleep.
	


AGGRESSIVE APPROACH: I’m gonna sleep in that cottage. Even if I have to approach her in a less….nice manner.
> III: The Dream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As much as I would love to sleep in a warm bed in a warm home, I couldn’t do that to the mare. It’s bad enough I spooked her, I don’t really want to bother her again. She seems…kind of fragile.
So I decided to trot back into the woods and try and make a camp for the night. There had to be a spot somewhere where I don’t have to worry about getting attacked by any of the creatures that live here. But something tells me that that’s not gonna happen. Instead, I just picked a spot I thought looked good enough, then thought maybe my crystal powers could help.
I could use them to make a tent. Or at least something close to a tent. I tried activating my powers, focusing real hard on making crystals pop out and make a pyramid shaped tent. Unfortunately, my powers were choosing now to un-cooperate. I could hear something chirping and hooting causing me to panic as I worked on making the tent. It must’ve made me lose focus because it just wasn’t’ happening.
As easy as it would have been to use my powers to help make sleeping out here not so bad, I had to figure something else out. But what…..
I looked around and saw a large tree nearby with a cave like hole underneath it. I smiled seeing something close to being a home. There was obviously a rush to get inside seeing such luck like this. Once in the cavern of the tree, I saw some leaves and mucky dirt inside. Not the ideal place to rest, but maybe a good place to stay hidden from creatures and predators.
Of course the gaping entrance needs to be fixed. I sighed, one more time trying to see if my crystals would work with me, and lucky enough, they did. I pulled the crystal wall up and stopped just a little before it could reach the top so that I could at least get some air. And I’m sure no creature big enough would fit in such a small gap.
With not a lot to work with, I decided to finally get some much needed rest. I gathered up a pile of leaves and used them as a bed while avoiding any muddy parts to lie on. Once that was done, I lied down, closed my eyes, and just wished for today to finally be over.
Who knows, things may be different tomorrow….
I guess once I fell asleep, something odd happened. I was no longer in some hiding spot built under a tree. Instead, I was back at the Crystal Empire.
There is honestly no explanation as to what the heck just happened? How in Equestria did I get here all of a sudden from where I just was. I stood up in a panic and scattered about the roads. 
I knew there was something up when I noticed soon that I was the only pony around. All the buildings were empty and everything was pretty quiet. Not sure what could’ve happened.
Suddenly, there was a loud ruckus down one of the roads to the side of me. I could hear angry chatter and saw a crowd of furious Crystal Ponies holding torches and pitchforks. I could hear them call out to me, yelling at me, calling me a monster. They sped down the road at a frightening pace causing me to freeze up. I tried to run away but tripped before I could dash off.
They glared at me with intent to kill. I had no choice in this scenario. I called out to my powers to rise up and stop them. And in reply to my plea, my crystals rose up from the ground, and pierced every single resident. Every pony there, halted their actions and lied limp. The attack didn’t faze me. Even seeing that they were basically dead now, I couldn’t feel a shred of regret. But as I got closer to the crowd, I saw ponies that looked like they didn’t deserve such a brutal end. Ponies that were much too young to even know what was going on. 
My body collapsed to the ground, horrified at what I just did. I don’t know how I could’ve done something so awful. Or how even for a second, I could feel something like…satisfaction from this. This was terrible! This wasn’t me! I roared into the sky out of anger until I needed to breath.
Then, the ponies in front of me, along with the crystals just turned to dust and blew away, never to be seen again. I heard something behind me. As if somepony just came back from a flight and landed. The cool breeze of the wings was quite big. I turned around and was surprised to see who I saw.
Princess Luna.
She gave me an intimidating look looking unpleased. If Princess Luna is here, then does this mean that I’m dreaming? But this feels so real. It has to be real. Then again, that does explain why everyone just turned to dust all of a sudden.
“I see that you are confused Kesho.” She spoke in a more regal voice than I expected. “But do not worry. I am not here to harm you.”
“Really?” I sighed with relief. “Thank goodness. That’s a load off my back.” I fell back and just lied on the ground. “I really don’t want any more trouble after today.”
“I would think so. I heard that there was quite a commotion at the Crystal Empire.” Damn. Well I guess it’s no surprise that the word wouldn’t get to the other princesses. “And that the main reason is because of an intimidating grey coated stallion.”
“Er….” I didn’t know what to say next. “Oh he uh, sounds like a real jerk I guess.” I facehoofed at what I just said.
She kept her serious look the whole time. Just looking at me. Then turned around, still looking at me. “Come, I think we should talk.”
Not sure where this is going, but I don’t think it would be such a good idea to refuse. I ran to her side as we took a stroll around the empty Crystal Empire.
“Kesho,” she started. “may I ask you something?”
Do I have a choice to refuse? “Go ahead Princess Luna.”
“When did you start experiencing this power of yours?”
“It just happened today. Like this is the first time I’ve been able to do something like this. The whole, crystal summoning thing….”
“I see. So then it is true. Your powers have been awakened.” I was a bit confused when she said that and I suppose she noticed. “Kesho, do you know anything about your childhood?”
I rub the back of my head. “To be honest, not really. I only remember small parts of it. Like the fact that I was in an orphanage and that most ponies were kind of scared of me.”
“I see. Hmm, I wonder if he planned for that to happen. Tell me, do you even remember anything from before the orphanage?”
“Not really.”
She didn’t like that answer. I could tell from her sudden frown. “Would you like to know?”
This kind of caught me off guard. “Wait what? Is there something I’m not really getting about myself?”
“That’s correct.”
Okay, this got me really curious. “Wait, are you serious? What is it? You have to tell me!” I didn’t know I was getting loud, so I quickly tried to relax. “I-I’m sorry if I raised my voice. I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay Kesho.” We stopped walking right next to the barrier that separated the Empire from the cold winter of the arctic. “There is something that has been kept a secret from you for a long time now. And I feel it best if we told you now.” She took a deep breath. “You, are not like any other Crystal Pony. Or any pony for that matter.”
I got a little scared. “What do you mean? Of course I’m a pony, just look at me. Maybe not normal….I mean I did kind of grow a horn out of nowhere. B-But still, I’m not some…like monster or anything. A-Am I?” I look down at my hooves thinking about what I just said.
Luna continued her explanation. “Your powers come from another pony. One that’s heart was of nothing but pure darkness and hate. He was once the former ruler of the Crystal Empire. His name, is King Sombra.”
I looked at her stunned, then tilted my head. “Who?”
She lost her footing hearing me say that then looked at me confused. “You haven’t? But every Crystal Pony knows who he is.”
“Um, I thought you said I wasn’t like any normal pony. Doesn’t that include Crystal Ponies as well?”
“But you have no knowledge of him whatsoever?”
“No. I’m sorry Luna.”
She thinks for a moment. “Then let me start from the beginning.”
Suddenly, there was something outside in the snow. A dark menacing looking pony with metal gauntlets, a metal crown, and a red regal cape. I almost thought for a second that his neck was metallic, but that was just armor. His eyes looked like they were leaking out some kind of green smoke, and his mane reminded me of Princess Luna’s but was nothing but pure black. The black mane and tail…and grey coat, are almost exactly like mine.
Princess Luna must’ve given me some kind of visual to look at while she explains everything. “King Sombra once ruled the Crystal Empire, long ago. He was a relentless ruler enslaving all the Crystal Ponies in the Empire. My sister and I couldn’t stand by while the poor ponies were being treated so awfully. We tried to save them and end King Sombra’s reign of terror. But we didn’t expect him to take the entire Empire down with him.
“After he was defeated, King Sombra cursed the entire Crystal Empire causing it, and all of its ponies, to vanish. If he couldn’t have his Empire, neither will anypony else.” She told this whole story as images outside played throughout the whole thing. Like I was watching a movie.
“Sweet Celestia…” Was all I could say hearing her tell me that. “That’s horrible….but then, what about me? What does that….monster have to do with me?”
She didn’t hesitate to answer. “You are his son.”
My jaw dropped and my eyes opened up as much as they can. My body froze up, and I was utterly speechless.
I tried to get some words out: “Wh-What the heck are you talking about?! How is he my father?! That doesn’t make any sense!”
Princess Luna held up a hoof to halt me from talking. “I still have more to explain. Three years ago, King Sombra and the Crystal Empire returned and as we feared, he wanted to regain the kingdom. Luckily, he was stopped before that could happen. And we thought that would be the last we heard of him. That is, until you came along.”
“You’re making it sound like I’m the bad guy now. What’s up with that?” 
“While Sombra was locked out of the Crystal Empire, he must’ve known that with what he was up against, he wouldn’t win the battle ahead. So he devised a back-up plan. To create a being that he can use to fulfill his so-called destiny of taking the Empire and ruling it with an iron hoof. A pony he could easily manipulate to do his dark deeds. A pony that he can use in order to be brought back. A pony, like you Kesho.”
Shocked, I stopped walking with her and held a hoof to my forehead. “I can’t believe it…..I never knew anything about this. Why was I not told about any of this before?” 
“That was our fault Kesho. We didn’t think something like this would happen.” She looks down. “We thought we could come up with something before your powers were activated. Unfortunately, we ran out of time.”
I sighed frustrated. But then, something clicked inside my head. Something that didn’t make any sense to me. “Wait, wait, wait. You told me that Sombra came and made me three years ago. Yet here I am, not as some kind of foal. I’m an adult. And I do have memories of being a child. What’s up with that?”
“We assume Sombra didn’t create you by normal methods Kesho. Sombra must’ve also manipulated your mind during your creation. Giving you false memories of a life you never had. Tell me, did you ever return to the orphanage you grew up in?”
“No….I didn’t. It wasn’t really one of my favorite places. So why bother going back to relieve good times that never really existed.”
“If you did go back, they would’ve told you that they had no record of you ever being with them.”
“N-No way….” The more I hear her talk, the more frustrated and angry I got. “This can’t be happening….it’s not really happening. Why is this happening?!” I began to tear up.
Luna just looked at me with that same stupid neutral face.
“Damnit answer me!”
“Can you answer me first Kesho?”
“What…? What do you want me to answer now?!”
My yelling didn't affect her look. “What will you do now?”
I got more angry. “What do you mean what will I do now?! You know where I am right now?! I’m in some dirty forest napping on leaves and muck hiding for my life from killer animals. I ran away from home where I’m a wanted criminal now! And I still have no control over these stupid damn crystal powers! There’s nothing else for me to do!”
She still looked at me the same way. “That’s not what I meant.” I was a little confused by what she meant. Then we stopped walking. “Fork in the road.”
“What?” I stopped with her as now there were two paths in front of us. Odd thing were not only how the paths looked, but by the fact that it seemed like we were no longer in the Empire anymore. 
On one side, I saw a path with luscious green grass with trees filled with all kinds of fruits. It looked pretty sunny when I looked down it. And the pathway looked like any other.
On the other side I saw a golden pathway with piles of bits to the side of it. The sky was more into a sunset setting, but the sky looked a tad more red than usual.
Luna spoke up again. “One path leads to Health and Happiness. The other leads to Wealth and Power. Which way should we go?”
Huh? “Wait, you want me to choose? Right now?”
“We have to in order to continue our walk. Now lead the way Kesho.”
I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of test. If so, I’m guessing she wants me to choose the path that I believe is right. But that raises the question as to which one.



HEALTH AND HAPPINESS: I wonder what it would feel like to be happy for once. It’s been so long I can’t remember.


WEALTH AND POWER: Being rich doesn’t sound like a bad idea. And I'm curious to see what kind of power they mean.

> IV: The Mare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My view gave each path a look before I closed my eyes thinking what I should do next. I wasn’t sure whether this was a test or not, but if so then I should go for the right answer right? Then again, maybe I need to do what I believe is right. And that would be….going down the path of health and happiness. After all, those fruits do look mighty tempting. And I am feeling kind of hungry. I started walking down that path ignoring the other one.
“I see,” Luna uttered behind me. “So that’s your choice.” Her tone seemed rather surprised. I turned around to see if she was making any easily readable facial expressions only for me to see that she’s completely vanished. Not even a trace of magic or feathers were left behind.
“Princess Luna?” I looked around calling out to her. I’ve noticed that the second path seemed to have vanished completely as more grass, trees of fruits, and sunny days seemed to surround me.
“Kesho.” Princess Luna was calling out to me from the sky getting spooked for a bit. I looked up thinking I could see but just saw a blue sky with clouds and a sun. “When you awaken, go find Princess Twilight Sparkle. I believe she can help you in your current situation.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle? If I recall, she’s the Princess of Friendship. And she wants me to look for her. Doesn’t that sound kind of hard? Well, I don’t really have any other plans so I guess I should try and do this one.
But first, I think I need to go down this path. Luna made it seem pretty important on which one I choose. And looking down the path, I can see something in the distance. There might be something special I need to either get or see. So I gotta hurry before this dream ends.
I trotted down the path trying to reach the end of it. But it didn’t take long for me to get distracted by all the delicious fruits surrounding me. Trying to be quick, I climbed up some conveniently placed ladders on the trees to get the fruits and took some for the walk. I couldn’t even tell this was a dream anymore from how juicy and delectable these fruits were. The deliciousness of the fruits kept me distracted from continuing the path, but at one point I grabbed a tomato. Biting into one, the juices squirted everywhere getting on my chest and face. I’m pretty sure these things aren’t fruits, let alone grow on trees.
After that, I went back to focusing on walking down the path and getting to the end. Once I made it, there was some sort of cabin there. It had a beautiful garden and a white fence surrounding it. The fence door was unlocked so I just pushed it open with ease. I couldn’t help but come closer to the flowers and smell them, getting this strong sense of relaxation just by doing so.
I got curious as to what or who was inside the house. So I stood back up and went to the front of the door knocking on it.
“It’s open!” The sudden happy voice caught me way off guard. I was a bit hesitant to come inside not recognizing the voice.
I slowly opened the door with a soft push. The inside of the home was quite nice and clean. There was a beige and brown carpet center of the living room with a two-pony sofa beside it. A shiny coffee table seemed to be on my right as if somepony pushed it there to make room for the carpet. A tall lamp stood next to the sofa and a picture of some type of beach was hanging above the furniture. To my left was an entrance to another room and on my right looked like stairs.
“I’m in the kitchen love!” It was that voice again. I still couldn’t recognize it as anyone I know. And I was rather shocked to hear her say something like love. Nopony has ever called me that before. And she said it with such joy that I couldn’t help but smirk a bit.
The voice came from the left side entrance. Curious as to who she might be, I went over there rather quickly and looked forward seeing a mare standing in front of the counter. It sounded like she was chopping up veggies or fruits from the sounds I heard. Her body was unidentifiable as if she was wearing a cloak over her fur, making it almost impossible to tell who she was. She probably didn’t know I was right there now so I decided now to speak up and finally say something.
“Um…” I seemed nervous for some reason. “H-Hey.”
“Hello dear.” She said rather calmly as she turned around to face me. As her face was finally going to be revealed, I could see around us that the dream was slowly vanishing in a bright white light. The light ran up her body quickly before I could fully see her face. Instead, all I got was a warm smile from her before everything just disappeared into the light.
As the light ate up everything, I blinked causing the blank setting to vanish from my eyes. Next thing I saw was a mare with a worried expression on her face looking at me. I immediately recognized her as the mare with that cottage from last night. Quite a coincidence for me to see her again.
I quickly sat up surprised to see her here. The action also seemed to spook her making her back up from me in fright. I rubbed my head trying to be fully focused after just waking up. Looking around, I noticed that I wasn’t in my spot that I was at last night. In fact, that large tree big enough to sleep under wasn’t anywhere near me now. Don’t tell me I was sleepwalking the whole time….Good thing I didn’t wake up in any river or anything.
“Um, excuse me?” The mare spoke up. She looked a little nervous talking to me. I don’t blame her. It’s only natural to be afraid of a guy that looks like me. She took a seat in front of me and pulled off a satchel she had on. She opened it up and dug inside it pulling out three carrots. “Here.” She held them out to me and kept her eyes on the ground.
I was a bit confused as to why she was giving me these. “Um,” I tried to find the words, “why are you giving me these?”
She still looked down. “I could hear your stomach while you were sleeping. You sounded really hungry….”
Now that she mentions it, I am pretty freaking hungry. All that food I ate in the dream was suddenly gone from my stomach. The hunger was coming back up angrily and I couldn’t help but quickly swipe the carrots from her and scoffed them down quickly. She eeped from me swiping the food and looked more nervous now. I let out a soft hum of delight and noticed her expression.
Feeling very awful about how I went about doing that, I just quickly wiped my lips and cheeks from carrot bits and put on my best smile. I looked at her and spoke: “Thank you for the food. I didn’t realize how badly I needed it till now.”
This got her to relax a bit more and actually look at me now. “Y-You’re welcome,” she said sheepishly.
“Hey,” I started, “if you don’t mind me asking, how did you find me?”
“W-Well, you’re sort of right next to my house.” She moved aside revealing her cottage not too far away from her.
I facehoofed myself seeing that I just came back from where I was last night.
“Did you come to my home last night because you needed a place to stay?”
I didn’t think it would be that obvious. “Y-Yeah. Yeah I was gonna ask if I could stay for the night. I don’t really have a place to stay at right now.” Realizing how bad this situation looked, I got nervous and tried to say something. “I-I wasn’t sleeping in your yard or anything I swear! I stayed at a tree that I could sleep under. I must’ve sleep walked or something I sw-”
“Oh dear! I’m so sorry!” Her sudden apologizing made me jump. “If I knew that I would’ve let you stay. Oh but how could I have known! I was the one who slammed the door on your face. You barely even got a chance to say anything….”
I had to say something to make her feel a little…okay. “Hey um, it’s alright. You don’t have to apologize. I know I can be a pretty scary guy. It was natural for you to react that way.”
“That’s no excuse….” *She frowned despite me trying to comfort her.
As much as I wanted to continue trying to fix her mood, I didn’t have much time. Princess Luna told me that I had to find Princess Twilight Sparkle when I woke up. And right now I have to go find her. In case I forgotten, the Crystal Empire authority could still be hunting me down.
“I’m sorry Miss.” I stood up completely getting ready to leave. “I really am thankful for the food you got me but I have to go. I sort of need to find someone.”
“You do?” She looked at me curious.
“Yeah….hey, um, do you happen to know where um, Princess Twilight Sparkle resides in? I know it’s an odd question to ask but I-”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle? I know where she is.” She stood up as well. “She lives in the castle at Ponyville. It’s a town not too far from here.”
Whoa! Talk about lucky. “Do you mind if you can maybe show me the way? I mean if its not too much trouble.”
“Of course!” A small smile showed on her face. “It’s the least I can do after making you sleep out here.”
That’s not true. She already did enough giving me food to eat. She doesn’t need to do anymore. But I do need the help. And I am very thankful for that as well. I gotta repay her somehow later on.
The two of us headed out to the town to go see Princess Twilight Sparkle. The first minutes walking was a bit awkward. The two of us were silent the whole time. And even though she was supposed to lead me to town, she didn’t really take the lead all that much. She stood only an inch ahead of me. If this wasn’t just some single path we were on right now, then I would’ve been confused as to what direction she would head next.
There was something I still haven’t quite asked yet. And neither did she.
“Excuse me,” I walked beside her to make this conversation feel more natural. “I never asked for your name. So er um, what’s your name?”
“U-Um...” She sounded a bit nervous. “Can you say your name first?”
Hmm? That’s a bit odd. No doubt she’s a very shy mare from how she’s been acting. I guess it wouldn’t hurt for her to know. I mean, I’m sure I’m only heard about in the Crystal Empire. Ponies outside of there probably never even heard of me.
“Kesho,” I answered with a smile. “My name is Kesho.”
“Kesho?” She repeated. Then she smiled too. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m um, Fluttershy.”
Fitting name. “Fluttershy huh?” She nodded her head. “Nice to meet you too.” Exchanging names seemed to have gotten her more relaxed, but she still seemed a tad uneasy.
“Kesho,” she said rather softly. “I hope you don’t mind me asking but, why do you need to see Twilight?”
Crap. I probably should’ve planned on being asked this. Princess Luna wasn’t really specific on why I should go to Princess Twilight Sparkle. Maybe she was going to help me with the whole Crystal Empire fiasco? But I couldn’t tell Fluttershy anything about me being a wanted criminal there. No doubt she’ll freak out and run off. Maybe even tell the authorities….
“I er...” I tried to think up a lie fast. “I have a very important message from her from Princess Luna. It’s top secret and for her ears only so I can’t say much about it. I’m sorry.” That whole time, I was trying my best to act as professional as possible. A serious tone and pose and everything. I honestly felt really stupid.
“Oh my goodness!” Her tone made me hope that that didn’t spook her that much. “We should get you to her quickly then. It must be urgent if she didn’t use Spike to deliver the letter. We must hurry!” She opened up her wings and flew on ahead. From how I said that, I know it seems like she was moving faster now. But honestly, she kind of wasn’t. She was moving at the speed of a casual Sunday jogger.
I jogged after her to catch up, and it didn’t take any longer for us to finally reach the town. Looking at Ponyville, it seemed more like a downgrade from the Crystal Empire. The buildings weren’t as big and the ponies weren’t shiny. Not to mention that it seemed a bit quieter than back home. Wonder if that’s because not many ponies live here.
Fluttershy landed in front of me and smiled looking back. “Here we are,” she said. “Ponyville.”
I didn’t want to feel or sound disappointed seeing the town. “Wow, it uh, looks amazing!” I lied.
“We’re almost to Twilight’s home. Follow me.” She went a bit slower as I followed after her. There was no way a princess could be living in a small town like this right? I mean what would she be doing here? Princess of Friendship…..hmm….
“Here we are.” Fluttershy halted at the front of what looked like a huge tree house. Seeing the building left me in complete awe. The place was huge! Like it was towering over the rest of the town. Not to mention how it so greatly reminds me of the crystals back home. Despite living in what seemed like a normal town, this truly was a castle.
Fluttershy knocked on the door casually catching me off guard.
I don’t want to point out, but I did panic seeing her do that. “Wh-What are you doing?”
She looked back at me confused. “Well how else is she going to know that we’re here?” She even said that casually.
“But we can’t just walk up to a castle and knock on it. Who knows what could happen?
And as if on cue when I finished my sentence, one of the doors opened up slightly revealing a purple mare with a…very odd mane cut. At first I thought it was Twilight Sparkle, but then I noticed no wings on her back. I was way too nervous to speak up feeling more like Fluttershy in this scenario.
Fluttershy smiled seeing the mare. “Hello Starlight,” she greeted. “Is Twilight here? She has an important visitor.”
The mare known as Starlight looked at me as if inspecting me for something. No surprise that she would think ill of me. “Do you mean him,” she asked back. Fluttershy nodded her head in response as she motioned for me to introduce myself. This is making me feel like I’m the shy one now.
“H-Hi there,” I said awkwardly. “I’m looking for Princess Twilight Sparkle. Please, I must speak with her about something urgent.”
“Oh?” Starlight sounded a bit surprised. “What is it?”
Figures she would ask that too. Eh, I already lied once, why not lie again? “I’m sorry but this message is for her ears only. I hope you understand.” Starlight didn’t like the answer looking at me suspiciously. Fluttershy noticed and tried to reason with her.
“It’s okay Starlight,” she assured. “Kesho isn’t up to anything bad. Trust me. And trust him.”
This seemed to have worked. “Well…” Starlight said, “I would let you in to see her but you’ll have to wait till she gets back.”
“Gets back,” I asked confused. “She’s not home?”
Starlight shook her head. “No, she’s out for the day. Something happened at the Crystal Empire yesterday. A large attack it seemed.”
“Oh dear!” Fluttershy squeaked holding a hoof to her mouth. “Wh-What happened?”
“I’m not sure. We weren’t filled in on all the details but whatever happened, it must’ve been horrible. Shining Armor got hurt.”
The news got Fluttershy to gasp scared and it made me completely tense up bad. They’re talking about me….at the Empire. All that chaos I caused. How I…hurt Shining Armor…. No way! I couldn’t have hurt him! I just hit him with a blast and that’s it! He’s a tough guy….I’m sure he’s alright. Not like the attack put him in critical condition or something….right?
“Hearing that her brother got hurt,” Starlight went on, “must’ve motivated Twilight to get there as quickly as possible. She didn’t pack up or even take the train there.” And of course he’s related to one of the princesses. Let alone the one that I need to ask for help! “Thankfully Spike was able to get to her before she could leave. Hopefully he can comfort her in her time of need.” Damn, the more I hear this, the more I feel depressed.
“Sorry sir,” Starlight apologized. “You sure you can’t leave a message or anything? Is it really that important?”
I was a bit hesitant on what to say next. “S-Sorry….I can’t.”
Starlight sighed. “I understand. You can come back tomorrow, I’m sure she’ll be back by then.”
“Alright,” I replied dully. “Thank you.” I trotted off feeling rather defeated. I could hear Fluttershy’s wings flap as she followed after me.
“Kesho!” She called out to me not that loudly. “Please wait up!” I stopped trotting and let Fluttershy catch up to me. “Um, I’m sorry this didn’t go well. And that you traveled far from Canterlot to deliver that message only to have to wait here.”
I stopped her before she could say more. “It’s okay Fluttershy listen. I’m really grateful for all you’ve done for me. Especially after just meeting me for the day.”
The two of us just stood there silent after I said that. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do next. Could I really meet up with Princess Twilight Sparkle now? She’s gonna hear about all the bad things I did in the Crystal Empire and what I did to her brother. There’s no way she’s gonna wanna help me now….
Crap I don’t know what to do….
“Kesho,” Fluttershy unknowingly interrupted my train of thought. “Since um…it doesn’t look like you really have anywhere to stay. You could um…” she paused for a bit swinging her hoof back and forth. “Stay at my house for the night.”
No way…I couldn’t. She’s done so much. I can’t…. “Fluttershy….I can’t do that…..you’ve done enough. I feel like I’m abusing your kindness right now.”
She shook her head quickly. “No, it’s okay Kesho. I don’t mind.”
The fact that she was willing to do this baffles me so much. Why would she be acting so nice to me? Nopony has ever been this nice to me…and yet the mare I meet for one day, after scaring, wants to help me as much as she can…..why?
“Fluttershy,” I said wanting to know. “Why are you being so kind to me….?”
She looked a bit nervous. “It’s just that,” she started, “you seem like you need some kindness in your life.”
I was caught off guard from what she said. “Wh-What?” Does she know.....what I am? Or have any clue on what I've been through......
All she did was smile softly at me as she gently took my hoof and guided me back to her home. I guess she was able to tell how much I wanted to say yes but couldn’t. I'm guessing she's also starting to feel more comfortable around me being able to just drag me freely to her home. I feel guilty abusing all her kindness like this. I feel like Fluttershy is perhaps too kind for her own good…
I may have a peaceful night tonight, but tomorrow is gonna be a problem. How will I be able to talk to Princess Twilight Sparkle about all this if she’s gonna come home hating me for what I did…. I could just leave town tomorrow morning and think of something else. Hope that Luna will chat with me in another dream and help me with another plan.
I don’t know….is following this plan still a good idea?



VISIT TWILIGHT TOMORROW: Luna said Twilight could help me, and I should trust Luna. Tomorrow I’ll go see Princess Twilight Sparkle. Maybe with Fluttershy by my side things won’t end up horribly.


LEAVE TOWN AT DAWN: The plan has failed. I need to get out as quickly as I can and try to think of something else. Or get Luna to tell me something else to do that’ll help.

> V: The Attack
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To think that just a few days ago, I was back at the Crystal Empire, living life as I always did. Would just wake up and get ready for work, go to work, come back home, and do whatever I want. Which was usually nothing. But in just a couple of days, things are already changing so much.

These crystal powers have changed my life completely, throwing my life off its usual course. Causing me to attack my home, run away into the unknown, and question my very existence. I never expected something like this to happen to me. I never expected myself to be the son of the tyrannical ruler, King Sombra.

Thankfully, I did get some help from the Princess of the Night Luna with my current situation. She wanted me to find and talk to Princess Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately by the time I got there, she wasn’t home. She was at the Crystal Empire checking on the damage I caused, and on the brother that I hurt.

Was it a smart idea to still try and talk to her? I’m not sure. Perhaps it was, because there was someone who might be able to talk to her. The pegasus mare who let me stay with her for the night. I was a bit skeptical about staying with her. But she insisted……and I really didn’t want to sleep outside again.

It was quite odd being her guest, mostly because I’ve never been one before. She was willing to make me dinner and offer me a bed. The dinner made me feel bad enough so there was no way I was taking her bed from her. I insisted that I sleep on the couch and thankfully she didn’t fight me too hard on that. It felt so weird being treated this way…..I didn’t know whether to like it or not.

Should I? I mean her pet rabbit seemed really upset with how Fluttershy was with me. The little guy even tried to lock me out of the house. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the smartest choice to believe that there was a pony trapped in a well somewhere. Okay that mistake is on me.

But enough about that experience, right now I had something important to do.

Fluttershy and I were trotting into town heading for Twilight’s castle ready to discuss important matters. Though the whole time, I was very nervous about it. I had no clue on what I was going to say to Twilight, or what to even ask her? Would she really know something about me? Maybe she could help me get rid of these powers before something even worse happens?! That would be amazing!

“Kesho?” Fluttershy tapped my shoulder gently to make me leave my trance. I was so busy thinking about these questions that I didn’t notice how odd I’ve must’ve looked. I felt my mouth was slightly open, making a smile and I was just staring straight. “Are you okay? You’ve been acting strange.”

I was confused. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well, during the walk you looked really scared. I can see the sweat that was coming down the side of your head. Then you began to smile, but it sort of….kind of….um…looked unnatural?”

I blushed a bit embarrassed. Must’ve not realized my facial expressions during the walk. I really was thinking off the distance unaware of even myself.

Fluttershy must’ve noticed my embarrassed state because she began to apologize quickly. “Oh sorry! Did that sound mean? I didn’t mean to sound mean. Maybe I just thought that because I um only saw the side of your face. It probably looks nicer in the front.”

Her apologizing needed to stop. “Fluttershy wait. I wasn’t offended or anything really. I probably did look quite odd. It’s just….” I rubbed the back of my head. “I’m just nervous about talking to Princess Twilight.”

Now she was the one confused. “But you talk to Princess Luna right?”

“Huh?” Oh right! I um, have a message for Twilight from……Princess Luna……..damn it. “Well it’s different talking to er, another princess. I mean I know Princess Luna for a while now, but this is the first time meeting Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’m really nervous.”

 	Fluttershy just smiled softly at my response. “Don’t worry Kesho. Twilight is a really nice pony. You don’t have to be so nervous about meeting her.” She gave me an assuring smile which did make me feel a little easy about this. Maybe things would’ve worked out better if the circumstances were different, but unfortunately with the things I did, she may not be too happy with me….

As we got closer to the town, the two of us noticed something different about it. Even I knew that this was definitely out of the ordinary. Large purple crystal walls surrounded the whole town trapping anypony who was inside.

Fluttershy and I looked at the setting in horror. Okay, there was no way that I could’ve caused something like this! Right? Fluttershy would’ve said something, she would’ve been terrified of me if she saw me leave and cause this? R-Right?

We could hear the ponies in the town screaming in terror making both of us tremble. Clearly something in there was terrorizing them, and we had to find out what!

I quickly rushed away with Fluttershy trying to stop me. “Wait Kesho,” she called out to me. “This might be dangerous!”

“Fluttershy,” I started as I reached the wall, “we have to help them!” She may not know it, but I can help them. If I can just regain some control on these powers, maybe I can get rid of these crystals. I began to focus on the wall, trying to create some kind of dent or hole big enough for me to get through. But nothing was happening. “Damnit!”

“Kesho!” Fluttershy called out to me from above. “I’m going to try to find my friends! Stay here!” She tried to fly over the wall thinking she could. However as soon as she tried to cross over, sparks of purple magic came from the crystals and zapped at Fluttershy causing her to yelp in pain.

“Fluttershy!” I called out as the magic sparks pushed her away and caused her to fall back down to the ground on my side. I acted quick and ran under her to catch her before she hit the ground. A quick grunt left me as I caught her in my hooves, panicking. “Fluttershy! Are you okay?”

She rubbed her head and opened her eyes a bit. “Ow,” she commented, “that really hurt.” I was too focused on trying to figure out a way to get through this wall that I didn’t comment on how quickly she blushed and flew out of my hooves.

“We need to find another way in,” I said.

“But there doesn’t seem to be a way,” Fluttershy said back. “Unless there’s a secret entrance somewhere we can use.”

To go around the wall to spot one would take too long. By then who knows how much damage would be done to the town, or its townsponies. The only way we can get in quickly is if I can just make our own kind of doorway in. But doing so, Fluttershy would surely realize that there’s something more to me than just some guard pony.

…Damnit, I have to do it.

I closed my eyes and began to focus on bringing down just a part of the crystal wall down. Not sure what Fluttershy was doing since I was too focused on doing this to notice her. The image of the crystals slowly sinking back into the ground was the only thing on my mind. As they descended down, I could feel this sense of hope inside me. The kind that tells me I’m doing it, and doing it right.

“Kesho! There’s a spot we can go through!”

I quickly snapped out of my focus hearing Fluttershy and the first thing I saw was just the same crystal wall as before. Confused, I quickly turned left and right to figure out where Fluttershy’s voice came from.

“Over here,” she called out to me from my right. I quickly rushed over and saw that the crystal wall did indeed sink back into the ground giving us the entrance we needed to enter Ponyville. It worked, just not perfectly like I had envisioned. Thinking this was only for a limited time, the two of us went through the entrance with a fast leap and with perfect timing too. Once we landed inside, the crystals immediately shot back up back into their fence position. The two of us looked back feeling a bit queasy seeing how close we were to getting skewered.

“Good,” I panted. “We’re in.”

Fluttershy and I looked around to see that the town was in a panic. The ponies were running off in different directions screaming and trying to get away from something. The two of us tried to stop someone to figure out just what was going on. Unfortunately nopony had the time to do it. Instead, we just ran along with another pony and tried to talk to them.

“Hey!” I spoke up running alongside another pony. “What’s going on? What’s with the crystals? Why is everyone in a frenzy?”

The pony looked a tad annoyed at me trying to talk to him, but he still answered: “Crystal monsters! Crystal monsters are attacking! Run! Run!” He gained speed as he ran on ahead. I stopped along with Fluttershy as she heard what he said as well.

She just looked at me confused and a little scared: “Crystal monsters?! Is that what he said?!”

I nodded my head. “Yeah. He did. Guess that would explain the crystal wall around the town.”

Suddenly, we saw something come into view from behind a building. It almost looked like a pony, but it wasn’t. I mean its body was in the shape of one, but it looked so jagged and shiny. It appears to be completely orange and had glowing red eyes. When he spotted us from the corner of his eye, he began to run towards us like a madpony.

Fluttershy pointed out that the creature was coming right towards us. I quickly told her to get behind me, but to be honest….I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to fend off this thing. I prepared myself for pain until something tackled the side of the crystal creature. It appeared to be a large cart that rammed into the creature only it didn’t roll towards it, more along the line of soared into it. The cart slipped off of him as the crystal creature was nailed into a building. Pieces of crystals slowly began to drop off of its body.

“Whoa,” the word just walked out of my mouth from the surprise attack. I turned to the direction of where the blast came from and saw Starlight standing there with her horn glowing. She looked at us relieved.

“Oh thank goodness you two are alright,” she said running over to us and hugging Fluttershy.

“Starlight,” Fluttershy began hugging back, “what’s going on? Everyone is in such a panic!”

“Fluttershy, to be honest, I’m not sure what’s going on either. These fake crystal ponies began terrorizing everyone and when I ran out to check on what’s going on, I noticed the huge wall surrounding the entire town. Nopony can get in or out!” A thought suddenly came to her. “Hey wait, how did you two get in here?”

“There was an opening we could go through,” Fluttershy answered. “I was hoping we could still use it to evacuate everypony, but it sealed back up after we went through.”

“Hmm,” Starlight began to ponder. “That does seem a tad odd.” I looked a little nervous seeing how much thought Starlight was putting into the idea.

 	Just then, a swarm of purple crystal hooves popped out from under the ground grabbing onto us. The three of us were completely caught off guard letting out a gasp of panic. We tried to shake them off and ripped their grip off of us, but then more of them came at us from behind some of the buildings as if drawn to us.

I panicked and tried to activate my powers to attack the oncoming bad guys. I didn't care about keeping my identity a secret seeing how close we are to big trouble. I tried to close my eyes and focus on summoning some kind of crystal attack, but I guess I was panicking too much to make anything happen.

Fluttershy quickly turned to Starlight and told her: “Quick! Zap them away!”

Starlight grunted still trying to get out of their hold. “I can’t hit them with magic,” she stated. “Their crystal bodies only absorb the attacks! That’s why I hit that last one with a cart!”

“Then get another cart,” I yelled back panicking.

“Do you see one around” Starlight asked clearly annoyed. “I still have one idea though! The only choice we have right now!” Her horn began to glow bright and I could feel a tingly sensation. However the spell was halted by someone blasting Starlight’s horn with magic causing her to cry out in pain.

Fluttershy and I called out to her seeing the attack and looked ahead to see who was responsible for it. Walking towards us was a tall slender yellow unicorn mare wearing a fur cape and orange armored chest plates and shoulder pads. Her short black mane was swished to the front surrounding what appeared to be a horn made completely out of a purple crystal.

She gave the three of us a smug smirk. “Now now now Miss Glimmer,” she started. “We can’t have you and your friends teleporting away so easily seeing how much of a pain you’re causing my pawns.”

The orange crystal ponies finally reached us and held us down forcing us to bow to this mysterious mare. She looked pleased seeing us in such a position. Starlight began to regain focus looking up at her with a face of anger.

“Who are you,” she asked.

The mare kept her dark smile looking at Starlight. “My name is Glare Steel,” she answered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in the flesh Starlight Glimmer.” She then turned to Fluttershy. “And of course the most popular Element of Kindness Fluttershy.” She then swatted her hoof at me. “And some guy.” I just frowned hearing that. She didn’t even look in my direction.

“I’m actually quite glad that I was able to run into the two of you,” she perked up. “Maybe you can help me out!”

Starlight was confused. “Help you out? For what?”

“Why to find the pony I’m looking for of course! Very popular as of late. Heard he caused quite a lot of destruction at the Crystal Empire and I just had to meet him! You may know him as the son of King Sombra himself.”

The girls were surprised hearing that come up. I did the same so I didn’t look so suspicious.

Fluttershy asked: “What do you want with him?”

“Now now Missy,” she booped Fluttershy’s nose. “Curiosity skinned the pegasus.”

Starlight growled: “Don’t touch her!”

Glare looked at Starlight annoyed. “Don’t worry,” she focused her attention on Starlight being up close to her face. “I won’t hurt a hair on anypony’s manes anymore so long as you just tell me where you’re hiding Sombra’s kid.”

“What makes you think he’s hiding here,” Starlight countered.

“Don’t give me that crap!” Glare snapped pulling Starlight by her mane causing her to grunt in pain. “I know he’s here. Someone like that is bound to end up in your girls’ hooves. A kid like him is right up your alley! After all, it’s like your job to reform monsters right? You know first hoof don’t you Starlight?” She smirked winking at Starlight.

This just got Starlight more upset. “He’s not here. You’re just wasting your time.”

“Is that so?” Glare’s horn began to glow. “Well then I hope you don’t mind if I keep tearing this town apart to see if you’re telling the truth.”

“I’m not going to let you,” Starlight yelled at her trying to get up only for the crystalized ponies to bring her back down.

“I know you’ll try you very powerful unicorn you. So I need you out of commission for a while.” Small black rocks surrounded her glowing crystal horn as she leaned it towards Starlight’s horn. Starlight tried to struggle out of the grasp of the crystalized ponies but she couldn’t get out. One of the crystalized ponies held her head still so that both her and Glare’s horns were almost touching.

“Please don’t do this,” Fluttershy called out.

“As much as I love hearing someone weak beg,” Glare sighed. “This has to be done.”

No! I can’t let this happen! If that spell is what I think it is, then Starlight is going to suffer the same fate as Shining Armor! I have to stop this!







INSULT HER: I can’t let Starlight get hit with something like that! I need to move Glare’s focus to me!

ATTACK HER: She’ll never see it coming. One crystal rising up from under her and boom! She’s finished.  
> VI: The Surprise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey! Fatso!”

The sudden insult caused Glare Steel to completely halt the process of her magic spell. The aura went away from the crystal horn and the small bits of black crystals dropped to the ground and dissolved into dust once they hit the ground and quickly blew away from the gentle breeze. Glare felt like someone just poked her in the butt with a pencil considering the look on her face. I think I even saw her twitch her eye a bit.

She immediately turned her attention to me walking over and staring daggers at me. “Keep Starlight occupied for now,” she told the orange crystalized ponies as one held a hoof over her horn ready to flick it if Starlight were to try anything.

Glare stood over me with a serious look on her face and one of her servants forced my head up to look at her.

It only took one insult? Really?

“What did you just call me,” she asked, “you little pest.”

I had to put on a brave front. I know Fluttershy and Starlight are probably confused as to what I’m trying to do but it was the only thing I could think of that would keep Starlight safe from harm. And cowering away from Glare now would just make her go back to trying to zap Starlight’s horn.

“Y-You heard me,” I got the words out. “I called you fatso.” I added more to the insult by sticking my tongue out at her like some kind of child.

She frowned strongly seeing that and her left eye began to twitch again. Without any warning, she slapped me in the cheek really hard causing a loud clap to be heard. I couldn’t help but let out an ow from the hit as my cheek quickly stung red from the pain.

“You dare to call me something so vile you piece of trash?!” I had no clue it would only take one word to get her over the edge. “I think I’ll kill you first before I get back to work.” She held my chin up with only one hoof now and took a good long look at me.

“Wait a second,” she started, her expression quickly changing to confusion. “You look…familiar. Like I’ve seen you before. But how can that be?” She moved my head with her hoof examining my head from every angle. Once she finished, she smiled darkly at me. “It’s you isn’t it?”

I looked at her honestly confused.

Her grin got wider as she was confirming it more and more. “Yes, it is you. Quickly!” She told one of the guards: “show me his cutie mark!”

“Hey wait!” Now, the reason I was in such a panic is because there’s something about my cutie mark that I’m really quite ashamed of. And that’s….well, I don’t exactly have one. I’m ashamed to say that I’m a full grown stallion and yet I still don’t have a cutie mark so it’s always embarrassing to bring it up at times. I’ve even learned how to separate the hair on my tail so that both my flanks are being covered. And the idea that somepony, despite being a horribly evil pony, is going to see it made me sort of freak out. Just natural instinct I guess.

Glare went over to my flank to spot the cutie mark and was just completely silent for a few seconds. She then came back up to where I can see her clearly and stared at me again.

“You look like him,” she started, “but your cutie mark….it’s different than I thought.”

Her comment left me in shock. “What do you mean,” I asked blabbering. “I don’t have a cutie mark.”

“Don’t be an idiot. I can clearly see it on your flank. The large batch of crystals. The cutie mark of Sombra’s son.”

She couldn’t be serious…..did I…did I just get that recently? I haven’t even noticed!

“Although,” she went on. “I was honestly expecting to find a four year old or something. Not some fully grown stallion.”

“Huh?” I said confused.

“And that cutie mark….something is off about it.”

“I was told the crystals on your cutie mark would glow red, but these ones, are glowing blue. Tell me, why is that?”

I didn’t know how to respond to her. Heck, just a few seconds ago I just barely realized that I was given a cutie mark.

“I…I don’t know.” It was the only thing I could say at the moment. It was the truth.

She didn’t like the truth.

She held a sharp crystal up to my neck growling. “Are you or are you not Sombra’s brat?!” She yelled at me gritting her teeth. “You better stop messing with me right now!”

“Listen to me,” I tried to get the words out without sounding too scared. “I have no idea why my cutie mark is like that. I didn’t even know I had just gotten one. But believe me when I say…” I had to say it at this point. Even with Fluttershy and Starlight looking at me. “I am…King Sombra’s son.”

She just looked more upset hearing me say that. “If that’s true, prove it then. Do something only Sombra’s kid would know. I want you to summon a black crystal.”

“What,” I foolishly said.

She slapped my other cheek this time making me wince in pain. “Damnit I wanna see you summon a black crystal! Only those with Sombra’s blood are able to do something like that! Show me you can do it damnit!”

“Okay! You want to see it?! I’ll show you!” I closed my eyes and focused hard on summoning the crystal. I even made sure to summon a small one cause I’m sure even that would suffice. But nothing was coming out. Not even a pebble sized one.

Glare immediately lost her patience after half a minute and I could feel her get up in my face. “Hello?! I’m waiting here pal!”

I tried to block her out having my eyes still closed and focusing on that crystal showing up. Unfortunately, nothing was happening.

“You were just messing with me weren’t you,” she growled. I suddenly felt something press against my neck causing me to open my eyes to the sight of Glare holding a blade up to my throat. “I don’t like it when ponies think it’s funny to mess with me! You better show me something or so help me I’ll cut you to pieces!

Could I…can I really do this? This power just seems to come and go now. Even when I want it to come out the most, it won’t budge. And now because of my screwup….

Wait, what’s that?

Glare heard it too along with her group of crystal soldiers. They all looked behind her and saw a cart rolling towards them, squeaking from its wheels. The cart had a blue and yellow paint job and looked kind of like a treasure chest. I looked over to see Fluttershy and Starlight’s reactions to this, and they looked more surprised than confused.

“What’s this,” Glare asked very annoyed. She trotted up to it rather quickly and punched the top thinking that would pop it open. Surprisingly it did.

The top popped open and this pink pony hopped out of it giving out a healthy and loud: “Surprise!” Her mane and tail were super poofy and she had this huge smile on her face.

Glare was taken aback by the sudden positive attitude radiating from this new pony. Even the crystalized ponies backed up startled. Clearly not amused, Glare went back to standing her ground.

"Who are you,” she growled. “Answer me!”

The pink pony smiled and hopped off the cart and stood in front of Glare giggling. “Hi there,” she greeted Glare. “It’s so good to meet you Miss Glare! I see that you’re having a good time!”

Glare was taken off guard by the positive outlook the pink pony had. “Wh-What? What are you doing here? Go away!” She seemed a tiny bit scared now.

“But I haven’t given you the proper welcome party to your visit here in Ponyville!” She smiled brightly making Glare more nervous.

“Welcome party,” Glare repeated confused.

“Why of course! That’s why I brought this!” She smiled brightly as her cart shot off a splash of confetti and streamers firing it up in the air and making it rain down upon everything. The confetti and streamers cover the crystalized ponies as they just stand there taking it. Glare was totally taken aback quickly brushing all that stuff off of her.

“I am so confused right now….” To be honest, I’m with Glare on that.

“What’s wrong? Ooh! I know what’ll make you happy!” She dug into her cart-chest and pulled out a few gifts all wrapped up neatly in little bows. All this sudden randomness was just leaving Glare speechless every time.

Glare pointed at the gifts stuttering: “A-A-Are those for me?”

“Of course silly! This is your welcome party after all!” The pink pony set the gifts aside and went back into her cart-chest, this time pulling out a large yellow and white cake. “And what’s a welcome party without cake?” She cheered stretching out the last part of her sentence.

As soon as Glare took notice of the cake, her eyes sparkled. “Wh-Whoa. That looks…really good.” I could see drips of drool slowly drop from the tip of her bottom lip. It was like she was trying to hide her excitement or something. “Is…is that…please tell me that’s ice cream cake.”

The energetic giggling pink pony nodded her head. “You bet!” Her cart then spat out a table which landed neatly next to the two as she set the cake down on it smiling. Then she neatly went behind the cake and got a slice from it holding it up to Glare who licked her lips at having the slice of cake so close to her now. “There you go! Dig in!” Glare hesitated to take the slice of cake, perhaps because she thought that this could be some kind of trap.

“No,” Glare reeled her hoof back holding it up to her chest. “I-I really shouldn’t. I mean, I couldn’t. Right?”

The odd behaving pink pony just giggled hearing her. “Oh don’t worry! You can just have one slice! Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” She smirked winking at Glare who was still a tad unsure if she should. Looking to her left and right, she smiled at the slice of cake taking it with her magic and happily eating it. Her eyes began to light up and a loving hum comes out of her after just one bite of it.

“Oh my goodness,” she praised. “That tastes so good!” Glare begins to dig into the slice of cake humming harmonically in joy. The crystalized ponies went over to Glare, probably thinking that something was wrong with her. Well, except for the three crystal ponies that were holding me, Fluttershy, and Starlight down still.

But that didn’t matter. The crystalized pony holding Starlight was suddenly thrown off of her by some rainbow blur. The one holding Fluttershy got wrapped up in something that looks like cloth as it pulled it off of her. And the one holding me down was suddenly pulled off of me like it was nothing. I turned around to see what happened to it and it looks like someone was able to hogtie him.

I looked around to see who caused it only to get motioned by a mare wearing a cowboy hat telling me to get over to where she was. I quickly nodded my head a little nervous rushing over to her.

“Good, you’re outta there,” she whispered as I got to her.

I was a tad confused. “Who are you,” I asked first. “Are you going to help us?”

She nodded her head and smiled motioning for me to look behind me. I turned around back to where Glare and her crystal ponies were and saw that they were still pretty distracted by the party they were having.

Glare’s humming could still be heard, like she wants it to be known that she loves burying her face in that cake. I wasn’t sure what the plan was that this girl and that pink pony had. Was it to just kill her with kindness or something?

Once Glare was finished with, pretty much the whole cake, she licked the large tin that was holding it.

The pink pony giggled seeing how Glare was acting. “Enjoy the cake?”

Glare just smiled like a school filly. “Of course,” she said with glee. “My I haven’t had something that delicious in ages!” She smiled brightly before looking down at the empty cake tin again and frowning. “I…I ate all of that?”

“Huh,” the pink pony looked a bit confused. “Well yeah!”

She grunted sounding a tad frustrated. The energetic pony in front of her noticed that Glare’s attitude was changing so she attempted to save the day for her.

“Hey look! For you!” Suddenly the pink pony pulled out a gift wrapped up in a nice bow from the cart-chest. “A welcome gift!”

Glare’s smile came back as she was in awe at the gift in front of her as she quickly took the gift and ripped open the top eager to see what’s inside. All of a sudden, something shot out of the box and spooked her. The colored paper snakes leapt up and then lied on the ground as Glare just looked completely shocked at the sudden surprise. Even the pink pony was a bit taken aback.

“Surprise?” Clearly the pink pony had no clue this would happen since that last sentence seemed to have a question mark at the end of it.

I could hear Glare’s heavy breathing as the gift box she was holding started to have sharp crystals pierce through it. She completely crushed the box and threw it aside spooking the pony in front of her.

“How dare you,” she yelled. “How dare you! Do this! To me!” She raised her hoof up only for the fake snakes to quickly wrap around her hooves very quickly and pull her down to the ground. “Ach! What the?!” One of the snakes quickly wrapped around Glare’s horn. “No! Stop!”

From the corner of my view I could see Starlight come out with her horn glowing like before. Clearly she had something to do with those snakes wrapping around Glare.

The pink pony sighed seeing this. “And we were having so much fun too,” her hair dropped down a bit. “Rainbow, I thought we were going to use the cute sun hat as the gift.”

“Sorry Pinkie,” a mare with a rainbow mane and tail walked up from behind me and towards her and Glare. “But she was kind of destroying the town.”

“Rainbow is right Pinkie,” Starlight started. “She needed to be stopped.” The Pinkie pony didn’t smile hearing that.

Does Starlight know these two? And that one mare that-

“Glad it’s all over now,” the pony wearing the cowboy hat said heading to the group. “Y’all alright?” She asked that looking at me.

I was surprised. “Huh, oh yeah! Y-Yeah we’re fine.”

Out from my right was Fluttershy walking up to everyone along with a white unicorn mare with a stylish purple mane.

“Is it really over,” the unicorn mare asked.

“Take a look,” Starlight pointed out seeing as how the orange crystal ponies were quickly retreating and the wall surrounding the town was sinking back down to the ground.

Glare saw this and growled. “Cowards! All of you!”

“Sorry we didn’t get here sooner sugarcubes,” the cowboy mare said. “We had to make sure everypony in town was somewhere safe.”

“It’s alright Applejack,” Starlight smiled.

“What are we going to do with her,” the purple maned unicorn asked pointing at the frustrated Glare.

“It should be pretty obvious,” the one I believed was called Rainbow said. “But I don’t think that’s what’s important right now.” She then turned her attention to me.

I looked at her confused before realizing what she meant. “Wh-What?”

The girls all looked a bit concerned and confused.

Starlight stepped up. “Hold on Rainbow Dash. I know this might look bad, but we can’t jump to conclusions yet.”

“You heard what that crystal unicorn said,” Rainbow Dash started. “He’s Sombra’s son! He’s going to do exactly what Sombra tried to do and take over the Crystal Empire! Maybe even all of Equestria!”

“Kesho would never do that,” Fluttershy blurted out loudly. Everyone looked at her making her a bit nervous, but she went on: “Kesho is not that kind of pony. He would never do that.”

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash started, “you just met the guy yesterday. I don’t think you have a great idea on who he is.” This caused Fluttershy to frown.

“But he did save me just then,” Starlight began. “Glare would’ve done something to me and my horn if he didn’t stop her. And he almost got hurt in the process.” She looked at me looking a tad upset. “You could’ve gotten seriously hurt Kesho!” I flinched hearing her yell at me. “But, thank you.” I looked up at her and saw her give me a soft smile. That made me smile too.

“Girls,” the purple maned unicorn started. “I just had a thought.” Everyone looked at her. “If this young stallion is supposed to be King Sombra’s son, and the Crystal Empire was attacked by a stallion with crystal like magic. Then, aren’t these two incidents related?”

I was really hoping that whatever she said would’ve helped my current situation. Instead, it just made it worse.

“You did that,” Rainbow Dash asked me looking very upset.

“Kesho,” Fluttershy said looking scared now, “d-did you?

I was getting way more nervous than I thought. I could barely let my words get out. “G-Girls wait, please you have to let me explain. I-I never meant to hurt anypony. I was scared! I didn’t want to get locked up! Please you have to believe me!”

“You seriously hurt Twilight’s brother,” Rainbow Dash yelled at me.

“Th-That was an accident I swear!”

“Rainbow stop,” the cowgirl started. “You can’t go off like that.”

“Well we have to do something with him right,” the purple maned unicorn started.

“H-Hold on,” Fluttershy said loudly.

All of them began to argue with one another about how to deal with me. Well, except for the pink pony who I think was just singing a song. Couldn’t quite make out what she was singing what with all the arguing happening.

Suddenly, I saw a glow coming from behind the girls. A magic glow. That’s when I remembered that Glare was still technically lying down right behind everyone. I looked at Starlight’s horn and noticed that she wasn’t holding the snakes with magic anymore. So no doubt she could easily rip that prank snake apart with her crystal magic.

She was going to attack us while we were all distracted! Talk about a cheap shot…

Damnit! Powers! Don’t fail me now!






DEFEND EVERYONE: If I can just focus hard enough, I can create a wall and protect everyone from the attack. I....I can do that, right?


BLAST HER HORN: If I learned anything from Glare, it’s that shooting her horn will stop the spell before anyone can get hurt. Hope I got good aim.
> VII: The Visions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was not a time to fail. Not when everypony is at risk of a horrible fate.

Glare was going to blast everyone and they didn’t even know it. They were too busy arguing with one another. I have to stop it before it’s too late.

I could feel time slow down as I quickly ran through the group of mares getting ready to go through with my plan. As soon as I got through the confused girls I quickly raised my front hooves up and focused as hard I could to create a wall to protect everyone from the incoming magical blast.

The last thing I saw was Glare’s intense face and her brightly glowing crystal horn. Her hooves were still tied up but not her horn. That’s when I suddenly saw a huge crystal wall pop up from the ground blocking the huge blast of magic. I could feel myself hold the wall up and steady as the magical blast was trying to destroy it. The burning sensation on my forehead was quite unbearable but now was not the time to whine.

The large magical blast created a large cloud of smoke from the aftermath as it covered the whole area. As soon as I no longer felt any pressure on the wall, I released it causing the wall to fall apart into large chunks of crystal before dissolving into dust.

Once the smoke was cleared, the girls gasped seeing that Glare has suddenly vanished. I couldn’t believe that she was able to escape considering the fact that she was kind of hogtied.

Rainbow Dash quickly flew over to where Glare was only seeing the ripped fake snakes was all that was left. “Where did she go,” she growled.

“Darn it,” Starlight cursed. “She got away.”

“We have to find her and fast,” Rainbow Dash was about to take off but not before the cowgirl stopped her by grabbing the rainbow tail.

“Hold it right there Dash,” Applejack started with tail in her mouth. “Don’t go running off without a plan.”

Just then, I fell down to my knees feeling really exhausted.

Fluttershy noticed this and hurried to my side. “Kesho,” she called out. “Are you alright?”

I tried to keep my focus, at least long enough for me to reply back to her.

Starlight came over too, worried as well. “Did that take a lot out of you Kesho,” she asked me.

“I,” the words tried to get out. “I’m really exhausted….head kind of hurts….I think I wanna take a nap….” That’s when I just fell down to ground, closed my eyes, and felt myself lose consciousness.

I couldn’t remember dreaming anything during my sleep. Instead it just felt like I was alone with my thoughts. And there were quite a lot going on with it at the time. I was so confused as to who that mare was that attacked Ponyville. And why she wanted me. Not to mention those weird powers she had. I didn’t think anypony else had magic that could summon crystals like that. Able to summon henchponies and create entire walls that can surround and trap a whole town.

C-Can I do that too?

“You can do that. And so much more.”

That voice….what was that?

Suddenly, I began to see something. As my vision was slowly returning to me, I could see something I didn’t expect. I saw myself walking through a forest, having no real control over where I was going. The forest seemed much darker and ominous than the one I got lost in when I first came here. My sight looked over to the left and right and saw that walking beside me were two of those orange crystalized ponies. Seemed like they were acting like my guards.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. Last time I was with these things they tried to kill me. And now they’re just casually strolling by me. What gives? Wait, could I have been captured by them? But how, and why can’t I move? This doesn’t make any sense. This must be some kind of nightmare. If so, I’m so mad at Princess Luna right now.

I continued to trot ahead till I got to what appeared to be a cave. I could hear drips of water echoing from inside and as I reached the entrance, the entire cave lit up. The walls were aligned with what appeared to be shiny white crystals. Each one separated specifically from each other.

Before anymore can happen however, my vision was starting to become clouded in nothing but darkness. I lost sight of the brightened cave and saw nothing but black again.

But it didn’t last long. My vision came back only this time I was somewhere else. I appeared to be surrounded by a ton of apple trees. Like before, I wasn’t in any control over what I was doing. I appear to be rushing over to an apple tree blasting off a branch from it with a purple magical blast. I quickly hurried over to the branch and ripped off one of the apples from it. Then munched on it eagerly. Once the core revealed itself, I tossed it away and got another apple and began to eat that one as well.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. I didn’t feel like eating anything nor felt my mouth taste any apples. This all felt so weird. Could this be a dream? If so, does that mean Luna is here?

Luna! You in here?!

The scene of me eating apples in an apple field vanished in a cloud of darkness. And soon I found myself in another setting.

This one appeared to have me moving quite quickly. I took notice of the moving plains passing by me and saw that there was something odd about how it was viewed. It looked like I was seeing through a panel of glass. It was confirmed when I moved my sight to see what was in front of me. It looked like a pair of seats facing towards me. I then was forced to look to the right and saw somepony wearing a uniform pushing a cart full of desserts.

I watched the pony trot by with his cart of sweets and immediately took notice of the pony sitting in the next booth of seats. I couldn’t believe who I was looking at but there was no doubt it was her. That size, the wings, and the horn. It was her.

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

No idea what I was doing on a train with her but just seeing her so close to me made my heart tighten. I thought for sure she was going to do something to me, whether it be violent or not but she couldn’t. Not when she was sleeping like that sitting next to some kind of small creature I couldn’t make out.

I had no idea what was going on, or why I was looking at this? Was this some kind of insight into the future? A nightmare fueled by my paranoia? Some kind of test?!

The vision slowly faded away again and soon I was back again in the darkness of my thoughts.

“Wake up!”

My eyes shot open from the violent shout. I quickly sat up panting from the sudden loud noise and from what I saw. For a second there, it almost looked like a pair of glowing green eyes were staring right at me in anger. But it happened so quickly it was hard to tell.

I felt uncomfortable with my coat all sweaty now, and with everyone in the room looking at me with a panicked or worried look.

I woke up immediately seeing Fluttershy, Starlight, and a couple of the girls that were there when Glare tried to kill us all. There was the one with the fancy purple mane and the one with the cowgirl hat.

“Kesho,” Fluttershy quickly rushed to my side. “Are you okay?!”

“What happened,” Starlight asked. “Is something wrong?”

“You gave us a quick scare there sir,” the purple maned unicorn commented.

“I don’t think he meant it Rarity,” the cowgirl said.

I looked around wiping the sweat off my forehead and neck. “Wh-Where,” I began. “Where am I?”

“You’re at the Princess’s castle,” Starlight answered.

“Wait what?!” I looked around noticing the crystalized walls and large amounts of décor in the room. “Wh-Why would you bring me here?!”

“You needed rest,” Fluttershy answered that one. “And the castle was the closet place to us that had a comfortable bed.”

“You all carried me over here?”

“Actually, it was just Applejack,” Starlight giggled pointing at the cowgirl.

“Your mighty welcome,” she smiles tipping her hat.

“O-Oh!” I blush embarrassed. Didn’t think a mare could be that strong. Then again, she did wrestle down and tie up one of those crystalized ponies so she must have quite the strength.

“Um, Kesho was it,” I think her name was Rarity, asked.

“Yeah?”

“May I ask what was it that caused you to wake up in such a panic? Your head is covered in,” she cringed, “sweat.”

I sighed remembering what I saw right before waking up in this room. “Something….bad.”

“Bad,” Fluttershy repeated a bit scared.

“Y-Yeah.” That’s when I remembered something. “Wait! Are you all alright?! Glare, she attacked all of us with that magical blast of hers!” I quickly looked around. “Where are the other two girls? The one with the rainbow mane and the pink one?”

“Kesho, relax,” Starlight assured. “All of us are okay thanks to you. You made some kind of crystal wall to block the blast and protect us.”

“Thank you for that,” Applejack said smiling.

“I will admit that was unexpected,” Rarity stated, “but truly, thank you.”

“N-No problem girls.” I felt a bit flustered getting slight praise like that. Especially from mares. “But what about the other two?”

“They went to go ease up the town,” Starlight answered. “No doubt a lot of ponies are shaken up from that attack.”

“Y-Yeah. I’ll bet….”

“Don’t worry though!” Starlight looked a bit nervous. “I’m sure everything will be alright and everypony will be calm. This isn't the first time the town has been attacked.”

“I hope so….” I frowned at the thought of how much total damage she caused on the town and on the residents.

“I hate to bring this up,” Rarity started as all the girls and myself focused on her, “but is it true? Are you, Sombra’s son?”

The girls looked a tad nervous at first hearing that, but then they all looked back at me. I knew they wanted to hear the truth, and I’ve already said it once before. Now I just got to confirm it.

“Yes,” I told them. “I am Kesho, the son of King Sombra. That, is the truth.”

The girls stayed silent taking in what I just admitted. They all looked kind of…worried, or scarred, or nervous, or basically anything negative right now.

“And you attacked the Crystal Empire,” Starlight asked in the silence.

“Th-That was an accident…..” I replied weakly. “I swear I didn’t want to hurt anypony. I was just, scared. I used to be just some pony in the Crystal Empire that stood out all the time. I would wake up, go to work, then come home and barely do anything. I didn’t expect my life to turn out like this. And I didn’t want to get locked up for something that just happened out of nowhere….

“I’m truly sorry for all the damage I caused, but I can tell you right now. I’m not a monster. And I never meant to hurt anyone….”

The girls stayed quiet hearing everything I said. Till two of them spoke up at once:

“I believe you.” It was Fluttershy and Starlight. I was surprised to hear them both say that.

“I believe you too sugarcube,” Applejack said taking her hat off and holding it to her chest.

“As do I,” Rarity also threw in. “I don’t think somepony related to someone like King Sombra would do all those heroic deeds that you did. But you proved me wrong.” She smiled.

“Heroic deeds,” I asked confused.

“Well shoot, yeah!” Applejack gave me a smile as well. “You did save all of us from Glare’s blast.”

“And me,” Starlight began. “When you got Glare away from me before she could use that spell on my horn.”

“And,” Fluttershy stated smiling, “I’m guessing you got us into the town in the first place by making part of the wall go down.”

I blushed rubbing the back of my head. “Y-Yeah, Yeah I um, did do that. Not perfectly but…” I chuckled a bit embarrassed.

The girls only giggled seeing my reaction making me feel more embarrassed.

“You’ll still probably need to talk things over with Twilight though,” Starlight added.

“Y-Yeah, yeah I know.” I said feeling slightly unconfident.

“Don’t feel too worried Kesho. I’m sure things will be okay. Twilight’s not one to hold grudges.” That made me feel a little more confident. I guess.

At that moment, we heard something loud. Like a giant door opening.

“Sounds like Pinkie and Dash are back,” Applejack said.

“Lets go see how things went with the townsponies,” Starlight said as her, Applejack, and Rarity got up and were heading out. “Do you think you need more rest Kesho?”

“I-I think I’ll be alright,” I assured her. Starlight nodded her head and then headed out with the other two.

I climbed out of the bed and staggered a bit touching the ground. Fluttershy stood by me and helped keep me straight.

“Please take it easy Kesho,” she worried. “You might still be exhausted.”

“Don’t worry about me too much Fluttershy. I can manage.” I pulled out a smile to tell her I’ll be fine but I don’t think she completely believed me.

Suddenly, someone popped up at the doorway.

“Fluttershy!” It was Rainbow Dash. “Hurry! Something’s going on with the map!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked rather confused. “What is it? Is it a friendship problem?”

“Just hurry! I can’t explain!” Rainbow Dash quickly flew off leaving both me and Fluttershy a little confused and worried.

“What’s going on,” I asked.

“I don’t know,” her tone definitely told me she really didn’t know.

“Here, go see what it is. Don’t worry about me I’ll catch up.”

“Are you sure Kesho?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine. Go. It sounds really important.”

She looked a little unsure, then she nodded her head. “Okay. But don’t rush! Please take it slow. And don’t worry if you don’t know where we’ll be. We’re in the room with the biggest door right down the hall on your left.”

“Got it. Thank you.” I smile as she goes off and I slowly try to follow after her. It took me a while to figure out what room they’re all in, but soon I saw a single large door was opened. Seeing as how all the other doors were closed, I knew exactly where they were. As I got closer to the door, I could hear them talking over one another.

I entered the room seeing this huge amazing place. There were all these large glass stained windows surrounding the room. In the center of the room hanging from the ceiling looked like some kind of chandelier. But it looked to be made of wood and had these lights on it. I couldn’t precisely tell what they were supposed to be though. Underneath it were seven chairs surrounding a large circular table. On top of the table looked like some kind of playset. But it looked, odd.

The girls didn’t notice that I was in the room now as I walked closer to the table. I looked over it and saw that there was a whole layout of Equestria set up on their table. The whole thing seemed to be some kind of magical hologram. Looks like a map layout that ponies would buy when they’re playing that confusing tabletop game. Only this is no mat.

There was something else that stood out about the map. Above a part of the map, there were four crystals hovering over. One was green, one was purple, one was orange, and one was black. The area they were over appeared to be Ponyville.

“Oh hi Kesho!” I jumped a bit hearing the sudden greeting from that pink pony from before. I looked to my right and saw her sitting right there. “Happy to see you’re awake!”

“Th-Thank you,” was all I could think of saying. Then I remembered I wanted to ask them something. “What is all this?”

“This is the Cutie Map! We use it to find out where in Equestria are there friendship problems and then we swoop in and help save the day!”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that Pinkie,” Rarity added in.

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Pinkie replied back casually.

“Okay, so then those crystals,” I pointed at them. “Does that mean they’re friendship problems there?” The girls all looked at each other unsure.

“That’s just it,” Starlight said. “We don’t really know what’s going on with the map. These crystal markings have never showed up before.”

Applejack spoke up now. “Yeah. Usually when the map’s calling on us, our cutie marks flash and they show up on here instead of those crystal things.”

“What are the crystals hovering over,” Fluttershy asked. “They’re all so close to each other.”

Pinkie leaned in and looked at them closely. “Ooh! I got it! We got one over the Everfree Forest, one over Sweet Apple Acres, one that’s really really close to the train station in Ponyville, and one right over this castle!”

A forest? Apple, acres? A train station? Those three locations…..something feels like it should be ringing a bell.

Wait, and one over the castle?! The one we’re in?!

“This is starting to get weird y’all,” Applejack commented.

“I agree with Applejack,” Rarity put in. “Something doesn’t seem right.”

“The four crystals….” Starlight let the idea wander a bit, then she looked at me and her eyes went big. Then she went on: “Could that black crystal be because of Kesho?”

“Wha? Me?” I was a bit taken aback.

“Yeah that would make sense,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “A black crystal right above the castle? It only makes the most sense that Sombra’s kid would be causing that. Especially with him standing right there.”

“Hey!”

“It’s alright Kesho,” Applejack assured. “She’s not saying that cause you’re gonna cause trouble, right Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash just looked away casually and whistled which made Applejack sigh. “We’re saying that this could maybe give us a hint on what in tarnation is going on.”

“I think I might have an idea,” Starlight spoke up again.

“What is it,” Rarity asked.

“That mare, Glare. She’s like Kesho. She has crystal magic just like him, just like Sombra. And if the map is telling us where Kesho is, then maybe it’s telling us where Glare is!” The girls all looked at each other pondering on the idea. “She couldn’t have gotten that far after her failed attack. She could still be near here. We can stop her before she gets away!”

“But then why do we have three other crystals on the map here,” Rainbow mentioned. “Which one is supposed to tell us where Glare is?”

“Hmm, I’m not quite sure. But I think to find that out, we need to split up.”

“You sure that’s a good idea,” Fluttershy asked a little scared.

“It’s the only way we can save time.”

If what Starlight said is true, then that could mean that Glare is being marked by this map and we can really catch her this time. Question is, which crystal is supposed to represent her location?







	GO TO THE EVERFREE FOREST: Even looking at it from this map I can tell that this forest has some serious eerie aura on it. She’d be taking a risk hiding there. But then again, she has crystal magic.

GO TO SWEET APPLE ACRES: That is one huge piece of land! And it’s all apple trees! It would make for the perfect place to hide!

GO TO THE TRAIN STATION: The train station huh? Could she be making her escape? If so, we got to stop her fast!