> Spirit of the Church
>  by Vision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1. The forgotten key. (Edited by Haloboy11721)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ah... I love Comic Con. Wonderful place to spend your time and money. But this one was special. This time I had a costume. And for the record it was an amazing costume, I spend almost Two hundred dollars making it. Sure it’s not that much for a good costume, but every dollar I put into the mask, coat and heart was earned with some hard work at MacDonald’s. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you what costume I made! It was a costume of the Church Grim from a game called 'Year Walk.'  And that game is god damn beautiful and scary. A Masterpiece of indie-horror, it uses dark and scary creatures from Swedish folklore. That game has a special place in my heart. That’s why I decided to cosplay the main “spirit” of that game.

But let`s go back to the topic of Comic Con. The funny thing was that only 10 or so people recognized my character. But many others took a photo with me anyways. Maybe it was like that because the game came out almost 5 years ago.

When I got tired of walking between the stands of big games and comic companies, I began to move towards merchandise stands, my inner fan of Doctor Who asked about a sonic screwdriver, while the other part of me, a fan of My Little Pony was wondering about a figure of Starlight Glimmer. One stand, In particular, captured my gaze with its big variety. There was a gravity gun from Half-Life 2 with changing between blue and orange lighting, Amnesia`s lighter, Necronomicon right out of H. P. Lovecraft`s novels, Jotaro`s cap straight from JoJo`s Bizarre Adventure, Applejack`s hat from My Little Pony, River`s journal, Indiana`s whip, Star Track`s badge and ma-a-any other stuff. Even the merchant was dressed as the merchant from Resident Evil.

As I got closer, the merchant said. ”Come here stranger. What`re ya boin?” perfectly copying voice from the game.

That got a little chuckle out of me. “You have some talent dude.” Giving him a thumbs up I was still wearing the mask, so no one could really see my emotions.

“Why thank you mister! So, how can I help you?” He said motioning his hands to the merchandise.

I think a minute, and then see something sparkling in the light of the stand decorations. It was a Church Key. The key from the Year Walk.

“How much for the Church Key?” I asked pointing at metal looking key.

The merchant looked at the object I was pointing out. “Ah! This little thing. Well it a handwork bronze key with a silver chain so… I think it`ll be something around 40 dollars. But, just because you have an awesome costume of Church Grim, I'll sell it to you half-price. How`s about that?” He said showing me the key a bit closer, so I could look at the details.

‘Whoa. That’s pretty cheap.’ I thought looking closer as he presented it to me, the bronze key, which its handle looked like a goats head without facial features, and small horn`s. ‘Yeah. It’s a great deal. Why not?’ I thought picking my wallet out of the inner pocket. “Yes please.” I said excitedly giving him twenty dollars, and taking the key from him, and instantly put it on.

The moment the key touched my chest, the world around me began cracking like framed picture glass. As cracks filled the space of the building where Comic Con was held some pieces of our dimension started to fall into the white void filled with black stars and almost invisible white clouds. Being in a state of shock, I dare not to move a centimeter from where I stand.

As the void grew, continuing to absorb my plane of existence, stars started to form figures of some weird constellations I didn`t recognize. As I became alerted by weirdness and coolness of things that were happening, the last pieces of the floor I was standing on fell into the white nothingness and I lost my consciousness.

=========================================*****============================================

Twilight Sparkle was sitting in her Friendship castle, specifically at the throne room alongside with her pony friends: Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike the Dragon that was the only one that wasn`t a pony and Starlight Glimmer. Together they were discussing yesterday’s party in honor of Starlight`s victory over the changeling race. Of course it wasn`t her sol victory, it was also a victory of newly crowned king of reformed changeling race -- Thorax, newly popular traveling magician -- Trixie Lulamoon and last but not least newly redeemed and regained trust Spirit of Chaos -- Discord.

Laughing and friendly chatting was filling the big blue and purple crystal room. The early evening sun was filling the room with warm orange light. Everything was wonderful, everything was right and good. But then… Something happened.

With a black spark the Cutie-Map turned on shattering the happy conversation. The colors of the map were dull, and the cutie marks of the main six ponies started floating over a black dot, in the depths of the Everfree forest.

The Butter colored pegasus with a pink mane ‘eeped’ and dived behind her throne. Everypony else was in shock looking at the map with terrified expressions.

The grave silence enveloped the room for what seemed like an hour. Until Princess Twilight audibly gulped and said.

“W-well, I think this m-mission can wait until t-tomorr-row morning.”

Everypony agreed with her and began to depart to their homes.

=========================================*****============================================ 

 ‘Damn. What did I drink last night? That hangover I didn’t bear since 4th semester at university…’ that was my first thought when my mind awoke. I tried to open my eyes, but almost immediately regretted it, as harsh orange light blinded me. Another regretful thing I did, was moving my hand to block the light. Because of genial soreness of my body, even slightly moving was painful.

Cursing under my breath, I began sitting upright on something that felt like a cold stone floor. Only when I was sitting, my eyes slowly started opening.

I was inside of some very old ruins, which looked like some big church hall. All benches were covered in plants and mold, half of them were broken and rotten. Stone floors were cracked, and in some places trough, it grew grass and even some trees. Half of the ceiling was also on the floor looking like small hillock with all the grass. I was sitting under an altar, it was under a hole in the wall that, some time ago, was a circular window. Then I looked to the church entrance where there wasn’t even any rubble from where the wall was. Outside I saw a scary looking stone walls that once were houses, behind them was a forest, it was looking like a green sea of leaves. Then my gaze focused on a mountain. With…

“…what?” I almost silently croaked with my dried throat. Looking on the side of the faraway mountain. “Impossible…” I said with my voice sounding a little better.

I was looking at Canterlot Castle and a city beside it. I couldn’t believe it, here it was. I was sitting here staring at it. For hours. Then, after I accepted the fact I was transported into equestrian by a fucking key, I found out that it was daytime. Mid-morning to be precise.

“Well. At least I`m in the middle of nowhere during daytime, and not night.” I said extending my hand to scratch the back of my head. “Wha-AAAAAHH!!!” I cried out as I touched a horn on my head. Then I began to grope my facial features little by little. I had a muzzle, some floppy goat ears, and two small horns. Then after a little pause, I opened my black cloak to see…

“Oh fuck no…” There was a beating heart. In the hole of my chest was a beating heart. “Oh shit!” I said loudly as I closed my cloak.

“I`m a fuckin Church Grim. But not folklore version, oh no… I`m the game version, that means…” I say as I starting to move my hand in the air and with a black spark, a mirror appeared in my hand, that for some reason had four fingers instead of usual five. ”Oh great, so I definitely am a spirit with a cosmic power.” I say, slowly turning the mirror around, to see my reflection. The snow-white goat with pearl white eyes were looking at me from the mirror. “Yep. Definitely a goat with cosmic power.”

I stand up straight. “Okay, I'm definitely going to meet some famous ponies. That’s the first. Second, I need to prepare myself to not freak out by it. Third, with this cosmic power, I could concur the world, or I could help ponies. I guess I will help them, because I don’t want to end up in stone. Fourth… Hmmm. I need a believable backstory, just not to tell everyone… everypony, that I`m a human. And finally fifth, make some friends.” As I thought up (the plan of my new life here, I was floating circles inside the church.

After a little meditation, I scanned the surroundings with my 4th dimension vision, to see the history of this small church centered village. It was built by unicorn pilgrims, that came here when the wendigos ruled the land. The main building was the church of sun and moon. And yes, they did sacrifice the goat and the earth pony while they were building the church, apparently, they had a legend about Church Grim spirit. Then wendigos came, then they died, then the forest came, and only then was the unicorn village abounded. That was before Canterlot was even built. ‘This place must be thousands of years old. Huh’ I stopped in midair. Then thought for a little while.

“A-ha!” I yelled as a brilliant idea of my origin came up. ”This is going to be foolproof. Now to my image!” I said pointing up and then teleported into the church.

=========================================*****============================================ 

“Maybe… Hmmm. I think I should go with the mysterious dark entity. My looks are really appealing to this personality. So yeah why not.” I said smiling. “Oh.. It’s already evening.” My gaze fell to the sky. There I saw something heading my way.

“Huh. Looks like I’ve got my first visitors.” I say disappearing in the shadows of the ruins.

“RAINBOW DASH DON’T FLY OFF AGAIN!” yelled frustrated purple alicorn princess. “Why does she fly off all the time.” She grumbled under her breath.

“I'M NOT FLYING OFF, I'M JUST LOOKING AROUND US!” cried the cyan rainbow-maned pegasus. Then she stopped in midair and then harshly dived back down to the group, covering everyone in dust. ”Girls! From the sky, I saw some ancient ruins, that way!” she pointed her foreleg (towards the left of the group.

“Why the map sent us to this dreadful, horrid place, is beyond me, and for what? to find some dusty stone ruins?” said the white unicorn with a dark violet mane.

“Stop complaining, will ya Rarity? By the look of the map, Ah could easily tell, that somethin` evil woke up in `ere. And ya' know very well, that we can deal with that.” Said the orange mare with a blonde mane and wearing the stetson.

“I`m sorry Applejack, darling, but that forest`s atmosphere of despair is putting me under unbearable pressure!” said Rarity, putting one of her front legs on her forehead in a dramatic manner.

“Me too…” quietly noted Fluttershy.

“Aren’t we all?” said Twilight, giving Fluttershy a comforting pat on her back.

“Not all of us! I'm enjoying our adventure so far!” Pinkie cheered excitedly, bouncing in the front of the group.

“Okay, Maybe not ALL of us.” said Twilight, smiling gently.

Then they entered a clearing, where they immediately saw smoothed with the time old stone ruins of what once was a village. They walked in awe between verdurous stone walls of what some time ago were houses. Then Twilight figuratively exploded.

“All of these ruins have the delayed aging spell of pre-alicorn era! This village is at least a two and a half thousands years old!” she said bouncing excitedly, as the group moved to the main building. “And look at this! Church of Sun and Moon! I can’t believe it! From buildings like this unicorns moved the sun and the moon! Starswirl hasn’t been even born yet! Everfree forest hadn't even grown! This is amazing! I need to document every single rune I find in here!” Twilight practically yelled and hurried inside, but was stopped by a powerful tug by her tail.

“Twilight, Ah hate ta break it ta ya, but don’t ya remember why are we `ere?” said the farm pony looking the princess in the eyes.

“Sorry Applejack, but this is just an amazing archaeological finding! Not many things are known about that time period, and with these buildings right here, we can fill in the gaps in recorded history! But. I guess you right, for now we should focus on our mission here.” said the alicorn, while getting up.

“…why do you think the map send us here girls, what do you think?” said shy pegasus looking from behind her mane, as the last sunlight went out with the setting sun.



“T̢o͞ m͘eet̶ ́m̷e̷, ͢I ͢s̶upp͡ose.̀” said the dark voice from inside of the building as two white glowing eyes came to life in the darkness of the church.

End of part one.
> Chapter 2. First encounter. (Edited by Haloboy11721)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was holding in all my laughter with as much might as I could, and didn’t fail. ‘Oh my lord! Their faces! They're full of pure fright and terror, and I didn’t even show myself yet! He-he, evil voice does its thing. This is going to be great.’ I started slowly floating from the shadows of the church in the light of the moon. The moment I floated out of the shadows they jumped almost five meters away from the entrance. I could feel their fear, their stressed heartbeats. I could see the drops of a cold sweat on their faces. But then Twilight pulled herself together, more or less. and took a pose of a unicorn warrior pointing her horn at the enemy. ‘Oh-ho! This is going to be interesting.’ I thought as she started to speak.

“By the names of the rulers of Equestria, I, Princess Twilight Sparkle order you to s-state your name, and your business in this country!” she says with a serious look charging her horn.

‘Oho-ho! She uses her royal status more than she does in a show! Ha-ha, bossy Twilight.’ I thought while looking deep into her eyes. And she looked away! For just a second, but she looked away. Purple-butt was still terrified of me.

“I̧ ḱno̶w̸ who͢ you a͟re.̕ ͜El̕e͘m͡ent͡ ͝of ͡m͢agi͟c.̢ I̕ ̀knǫw al̶l͜ about y͠ou͡.” I say without moving my mouth with my sinister voice. They all flinched at that. I think I overdi) it a little. Fluttershy was on the edge of crying, Pinkie`s mane was flat, but she looked determined, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight took protective poses, Rarity almost fainted, but caught herself and magically pulled an enchanted hairpin from her mane, that then turned into... rapier!? ‘I like this Equestria more and more.’

“Oh y-yeah?! And w-what do you can possibly know about us?” snarled at me Rainbow Dash.

“F̕or e̕x̧amp̵l̛è,̕ ͘Ĺoya͜lty͜, I ḱnow t̴h̶a̸t ̶ýou s̕e̷c̨ret̵ly̧ ̡c͝h́an̨ged͟ you͠r͘ numbe͡r̶ wit͞h̡ ̸a br͟own̶ ͡s̢t͟al̨li͟on on ͏t̕h̴e Yo͢un͡g̢ Fli͜er͞ Comp̕etiti̷ơn.͞ Yo̵u̕ ̨di͏d̵ ͟it ̸out o̢f fear ͠t̕hat͟ yo̴u c̛a͝ņ ̀n͞ot p̡er̵form ͝a̢ ͞So͟ni͝c ̕Rài͘nboo̶m.” I said slowly pointing at her. Her friends looked at her with quizzical expressions. ‘AHAHAHAHAHA. They didn’t know! She didn’t tell them!’ I thought and almost snickered. By Dash`s nervous laugh, everyo- pony, understood that I was saying the truth. That scared them even more.

“By the na-“ started Twilight, but I sharply turned my head in her direction, silencing her.

“I ám͡ ̀a͜n ̀ent̕it͡y̵ ̷tha̛t̴ c͡al͘l̸e͘d Çh̨urc͠h Gri͝m̕,͏ a spi̕r͠i̶t͠ ͏th͘at̡ ̀gu̷ar͞d͞s͢ ̀thè ͢c̢hu͞rćh f̴r͠om ţh͟ie͞ve̛s̨ ̛and ̷dis̸a͏s͠t͠ér̸s̶.” I said motioning my hand towards the building. “̀Bu͏t ͏for so̡me r͠éas̷on I h̸a͟ve ̢b͟e̸en a̡w̧o͡k̡e̸n͟ ͝o̧n͜ly no͘w̵.͞” I said slowly moving to the group, but they immediately jumped backward keeping the same distance with me.

“C-could y-y-you please s-speak with less c-creep-p-py voice, p-p-p-please.” whispered Fluttershy. I turned at her direction, maybe a bit too sharply. She ‘eep’ed and dived behind her friends.

I cough a little, then proceeded to speak in a deep voice with a hint of wisdom, similar to the one, storytellers have. “Yes, Kindness. I believe I can.” This time I was moving my mouth. 'I think I went a little too far, with the whole "Scary looking entity." thing. Fluttershy almost in tears…’ I was starting to feel bad for them.

“Th-thank you.” I heard her whisper.

I allowed a little smirk to appear on my muzzle.

“W-wait, if you were awoken only now, how could you know about all of us?” said Twilight titling her head a little.

My little smile disappeared immediately. ‘Oh crap. Oh, crap! How did I even forget about this? Wait. I know!’ I thought, and then said “I have a power of vision. I can see the past and future, Magic.” and then thought. ‘At least I didn`t lie to them.’

“You can see the future?!” cried out Pinkie with her mane puffed to its original size. “Oh can you see what I get on my next birthday, or what Gummy will get, or will there be any-“

“It does not work this way, the future is not constant, it`s ever-changing because of decisions you make.” I raised a finger, “But! I can see a passes that the stream of time may take.” All I got in return was five quizzical expressions. But I think Twilight understood what I meant.

“So, basically the time is like a river? And different decisions is similar to canals and turns it my take?” she says as I nod. “So… What are you in it?”

“I am a leaf, that follows the river.” I say closing my eyes for a moment.

“That`s all mighty interestin`, but the map called us `ere for a reason. So, forgive me for mah blunt question, but are ya evil?” I turn to Applejack with a raised eyebrow, but before I could answer she goes, “Now don`t get me wrong, the last time the map called us all in the one place we lost our cutie-marks and got captured by brainwashed cultists.” Everypony visibly winced on that sentence, ‘Huh, in this Equestria they were not just locked in a room for 24 hours, something happened.’ I thought as farm pony continued, “But now, the map leads us into Everfree forest, ta meet some scary looking spirit with some weird powers, ya know how it looks for us?” she stepped closer, I nod. “So, are ya evil or are ya not?”

“I am not, as you say, evil, Honesty. But I’m not good either.” I said bluntly. ‘Oh, they all tensed up again.’ I thought as Twilight flared her horn with what I assumed was a battle spell, and every pony else taken their fighting poses, the only exception is Fluttershy. ‘I need to get them relaxed a little, or I will become a pigeon toilet.’ “But to ease your feelings, I do not plan on taking over the world any time soon.” I finished my sentence.

We stayed like this for what felt like an hour, and then Twilight stopped her spell.

“Twi, what are you doing!?” Rainbow Dash hisses through her teeth.

“We need to ask the Princesses about this one girls. They got more experience with this than I do.” answers Sparkle. “We need to take him with us to my castle, and wait for the Princesses there.”

“Darling, can you tell us how are you going to bring him there, without any chance that he will try something?” asked Rarity, pointing her rapier at me.

Purple princess flared up her horn. “Simple.” she said, and teleported us all away.

=========================================*****============================================

After the bright pinkish violet flash, the village fell into the dead silence once again. Rotten remains of the church were once more filled with darkness. But this was no ordinary darkness. It was somehow blacker, scarier… Even deadlier. And it filled the building fully, it began to spread, like oil slick on the surface of the ocean. It spread further and further, until the whole ruins were black, and then… Hundreds of white glowing eyes opened in this darkness.

Then a single word echoed in the forest breeze.
“Hunger….”
> Chapter 3. A Royal Conversation. (Edited by Haloboy11721)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the glow around me died down, I found myself inside the grand hall of the Friendship Castle. Looking around the hall, I saw seven mares talking to each other standing beside the windows, through which I saw the early morning sunlight. ‘Huh. That means I lost my consciousness when I was teleported. But does this means that lost my connection with the church?’ I thought as I got up and tried to walk towards the little group. But stopped as I felt a sharp, painful pull on my spiritual energy. As I took a few steps back, I noticed that I was in some sort of magic circle, with runes, lines and figures. If I haven’t changed into the cosmic goat thing I would have absolutely no idea how it works, but now, with, apparently preinstalled, magical knowledge, I soon realized that this magic circle was somewhat similar to the Faraday cage, but instead of only protecting outside or inside from electric and magnetic fields, it also had magical protection. And it was really advanced too. Even if I am a cosmic being now, I could dispel it, in a few minutes or so.

“Ah, you're awake!” I heard Twilight says with a hint of relief. “Sorry about that, but I had to put you in a suppressing circle for our safety. We all still don’t know if we should trust you just yet.” She said rubbing the back of her head. “But I do have good news for you! In a few minutes, the princesses will arrive and we will determine your true intentions for Equestria. Until then, I would like to ask you some questions about your magic. If that’s okay with you.” As she finished I was already halfway through dispelling the ‘faraday’ circle.

“You indeed can ask me a few questions.” I say, but cut her off as she tries to ask the first question. “But only if you will answer the same amount as mine.” She nods. “And I will ask first.” She hesitates for a moment but then nods again. “Good. Is this magic suppressing circle of your design?” I say pointing my finger down.

“Well yeah. Discord and I were working on them together, exactly for situations similar to yours. I mean Discord was an evil spirit before, so I asked him for help. What about it?” she asked, as I finally dispelled the circle.

“I can say that this circle is very impressive. You did an amazing job, for an alicorn this young.” She blushed a little.

“But you need to improve the locking runes.” I say as circle burns in the white flames. It captured the attention of all mares and dragon, as I harmlessly step out of the circle. “You all also need to be more relaxed, because I do not have any ill intent, neither towards you or your country.” I said looking down at the scared Twilight.

Then my spider senses (or is it supposed to be goat?) kicked in, in a second I brought my hand in front of my face and caught the magic beam that Starlight shot at me, as she shook out of her shock. I absorbed the magic from the attack and slowly turned my head to her. Glimmer`s eyes widened and then I felt her delicious fear. ‘Excuse me, whaaaaaat?!’ exploded in my thoughts, as I tried to remember the article on Swedish mythology, about the Church Grim. I remembered, that they fed off some concrete emotions. They fed on Hope, Fear, Happiness, and Sorrow. But for some reason, the fear was most delicious of them. ‘Damn, my eating habits are worse than the changelings before their reformation.'

I thought, frowning.

Then, in a flash of light, that was as bright as the sun, The Two Royal Sisters appeared in the center of the room, by this I mean right in front of me. As the princesses opened their eyes after their long-distance teleportation, their gazes locked on me. ‘Huh, I'm taller than Celestia.’ I thought as her eyes traveled from my chest to my face. Her eyes were slowly widening, while Luna was looking at me with a hint of curiosity.

That continued for a few moments, until I said “Greetings Princesses.” and slowly bowed a little.

They both were a little surprised, maybe because I didn’t move my mouth again? Or maybe because my voice didn’t come from me, but from every direction at once? In either way, they were surprised.

“Greetings to you as well.” Said the Sun Princess, turning to her student. “Twilight, it is good to see you too as well. But, would you mind telling me why you wrote that he was in a magic suppressing circle?” She asked her student.

“W-well, he was, Princess. But, somehow he broke out of it…” said Twilight, eyes nervously looking between me and Celestia.

Princesses’ eyes widened, as she understood that I, all by myself, turned off her ex-students spiritual trap, from the inside. I got a spike of fear from Celestia and a spike of curiosity from Luna.

“Interesting… I thought that we cleared our realm from such spirits.” whispered Luna to her sister; even I almost didn’t hear what she said.

“What do you mean by that princes' Luna?” I said as the room visibly darkened. ‘Maybe it’s because I fear that they will kill me too?’ I thought as I backed up a little from them all.

Then all attention got centered around the princess. “Wait. You saw spirits like him before?” Asked Sparkle, looking deep into the eyes of her teacher, as the latter`s ears slowly moved to the sides of her head.

“Well. Yes, Twilight. My sister and I battled similar to him spirits a year after Discord got imprisoned the first time.” She says as everyone looked at me, and then taken defensive poses. Celestia and Luna were just standing there, continuing the explanation. “After a year of Discord`s rule, the boundaries of our realm has grown weak, and in some places, it tore. My sister and I traveled the world, guided by the elements, closing holes and banishing creatures and spirits that found their way in. The most noticeable and irreversible change was the Everfree.” Everyone gasped, excluding me. “It slowly grew around the rift, protecting it, and the creatures inside the forest. But then, Church Grim that had a wolf appearance revealed himself to us, and guided us to the rift. To the small village with the church of Sun and Moon.” Everyone visibly tensed, and I think Twilight gulped, and I thought. ’Huh. That’s funny… I didn`t see anything like it when I scan the environment with my “past vision”.’

Luna continued. “We battled many evil spirits that horrible night, until Diralium managed to close the portal from the inside… Many ponies of our army didn`t make it out of the village.” She hung her head down. “That is why we sealed that region with a complex spell that prevented anyone from entering the village or looking in its past, for exemption of the ones knowing its exact location.” She said as I thought. ‘Oh. That explains some things.’

“Does it mean, that you are not going to destroy my spirit?” I ask cautiously.

Everyone turned to me.

“If you do not give us a reason to do so, then, no we are not.” Said Luna with a little smirk on her muzzle, as room visibly brightened.

‘So I do have an emotional bond to the world around me.’ I thought calming myself down.

“But it doesn’t mean that you are free to go wherever you want.” States Celestia extending her wings. “You will remain under watch of my former student until you will prove us, that you have no ill intentions towards our little ponies.” She said and then turned to a little shocked Twilight. “I trust you, to make him familiar with our world and its laws, Twilight. You did very well for your first encounter with an unknown spirit.” She started charging her teleportation spell along with Luna.

“Princess wait! What do you mean ‘I did well’?” She asks her former teacher.

“It’s a story for another time. Farewell princes' Twilight.” She said smiling, and in a bright flash, they both teleported away.

There was a pause for a few minutes, until Applejack politely coughed and excused herself, because the farm couldn`t harvest apples all by itself. Then everypony found an excuse to leave, after everyone left the hall, the only ones that remained were Twilight, Spike, Starlight and of course, I.

Twilight broke the silence first. “Hey um… Church Grim? What`s your name?”

‘Huh. My name… I can’t call myself by my human name anymore.’ I thought for a second and then answered. “You can call me Alaras. Alaras Grimmus.” They were just looking at me for a moment. “… Or just Grim or Alaras.”

“Oookay… Grim, let me and Spike show you to your room.” Said Twilight walking towards the door, and then turning around. “Spike!” She called out again breaking the little guy out of his stupor. He ran to twilight trying to not break eye contact with me.

I sigh deeply placing my right hand on my face. “If my form is so terrifying to you, I can alter it.”

“You can?” Said Spike and Starlight at the same time.

“Spike! Starlight! It`s extremely impolite to say something so-” Twilight started to say but I cut her off.

“It is quite alright, princess. You are my host, and it is not right for a guest, to make its host uncomfortable.” I say and in the bright white flames my appearance changes. Now in my place stood tall slender unicorn stallion with a long-horn, white coat, white mane and gray eyes, wearing a black cloak with sleeves that covered his body. “Is it better?” I then said in the bored tone.

Twilight looked at me wide-eyed, inhaled deeply, and ruffled her wings. “Yes…” she said cringing a little, then continued walking towards one of her castle rooms.

“It is alright, really. I am supposed to be terrifying. That’s how I, for the lack of a better word, eat.” At this, they suddenly stopped.

“What did you say?” Said purple princess turning to me.

“My kind of spirits feeds off the fear, along with the hope, love, dreams, and happiness of others” I say bluntly.

That makes them even more nervous, bringing me a little of a fear essence to feed upon.




===============================*****===================================




When we finally got to my room everyone left me alone to settle in. My room was two times bigger than my Earth one. It had a big square bed, an armchair, a study desk with a stool, an empty bookcase and closet, and finally a wall mirror. Midday sunlight was shining through the two symmetrically placed windows on the wall opposite to the door, making the crystals shine in the soft light. In short, the room was beautiful and had everything I might need. The only thing I might complain about, it had no bathroom.

‘But do I even need to use the bathroom?’ echoed through my head.

I jumped on the bed.

Lying on my back I thought about today. Well, technically about my two days I was in Equestria. ‘Its good to know, that I will not be turned into stone or sent to the sun in the foreseeable future. It’s also nice to know I will be making friends.’ Then I frowned. ‘But now I need to understand how I exactly know all these things about my new improved self.’ I closed my eyes.

When I opened them I was lying in the white abyss filled with black constellations and gray clouds of stardust. “Huh. So that’s how I access this realm.” I mumbled.

I was hearing a heartbeat, coming from underneath my cloak. I opened it and looked at my heart. And then it struck me like a lightning. “The heart of a Church Grim!” I exclaimed, remembering the line from that one game encyclopedia. ‘It goes “if you were to touch the heart of the Church Grim it is believed you can see Creation itself”. So apparently my heart became an artifact of ultimate knowledge.’ I smiled, and then immediately frowned. ‘Which I don’t know how to use correctly.

'I don’t exactly want to poke it to gain knowledge.’ I sigh making the world appear again.

I fixed my clothes hiding the heart within my cloak as someone knocked on the door, no I will not use the term "anypony" or "Somepony" because they are both racist.

“Come in.” I replied in a bit cheery voice, I will not play a mysterious cosmic creature while I am in a pony`s body. I will make an excuse a bit later.

“Hi… Alaras.” Said Twilight walking in. “I, uh, wanted to check on you, um, to see if you settled in…” She trailed off looking quizzically at my smiling self.

“Yes, the room is pretty nice.” I say, the smile never living my face. “Though, the bookshelf is empty, but I guess I would fill it with books in a few days.” She was still looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “Is something wrong?” I asked, bringing purple alicorn from her mindscape to reality.

“Oh! Um. It’s just that, you act so differently than before. It’s kind of strange.” She answered feeling a bit better.

“While I do enjoy ‘taste’ of fear and sorrow, happiness and hope are much tastier. So I decided to be a livelier person, or a pony, as you say.” I said sliding from the bed to standing position.

“…Well. It’s good to hear!” She smiled in return. “I actually wanted to show you around the town, so you can properly introduce yourself.” Twilight said opening the door, invitingly.

“Oh! Of course.” I said walking through the door. “I would love to see the place.”

And with a click, the door closed, leaving the room empty.




===============================*****===================================




The town was indeed a pretty one. Big, wide streets contrast with small side streets and alleyways, that showed just how the town grows so rapidly. This was also shown by the buildings on the main street that conveniently ended up at up the town-square and the marketplace. We visited the most recently built part of town, it was opened up a few days ago with new shops and most of the new houses were sold. Yes Ponyville was a town, and a fast growing one, its growth and its popularity among tourists was rising faster and faster since the defeat of Nightmare Moon, that was six years ago, yes you heard that right, SIX years ago! (And just two years after that village grew enough to be called a town.) By this time Ponyville is 3 times bigger than it used to be. I was shocked too. Not by the fast growth, but by the fact it’s all actually made sense! And did you know that Ponyville had two cinemas? What about a mall? A theater? Museum? Even a freaking “Burger Prince”! And there`s more! Being a town with a Princess of Friendship as a head of it brought many different races in town, streets were filled with the many colorful species! There were the diamond dogs, desert cats, few dragons, zebras, donkeys, mules, griffons and much more! I will not be surprised if this “town” will be the new capital of Equestria in a few decades.

I was walking all day with purple-butt, explaining pony society, norms, rules, and telling me the history of the town and about the future plans, she was willing to introduce magic powered trams to population of growing town in a few years.

I didn`t even notice that the sun was down and Luna`s moon was slowly rising. It was finally that time, when interesting things started to happen. Instead of a quiet and sleepy town, there were hundreds of small carnival lights, streets were filled with street musicians, actors, and artists of many cultures and countries. Many people were walking on streets, softly chatting in cafes, carelessly spending time with the happy smiles on their faces.

The town square stands and market were closed and moved away, freeing space for a fresh and new "Trixie`s magic show", with fireworks at the end.

In other words, it was Luna`s dream finally come true.

Ponyville was the great town to live in. And only after full excursion did I realized, that I wanted to stay in this town. Live here and watch it grow.

“Are you all right?” I heard Twilight ask.

My mind snapped into place, we were sitting in a cafe not far away from the town hall. I realized that I was crying. I was happy.

“Yeah… Never been better.”

I said smiling, slowly biting my tasty vegeburger, as tears magically evaporated from my coat.

Twilight rolled her eyes in a friendly manner at the display of my unusual magic. “So, you really liked the town?”

“Yep.” I said chewing on my burger. “I would be happy to stay in such a nice place.”

Twilight glanced at the watch on the wall. “Oh! We should hurry up (and get back to the) castle.”

“Um why?” I asked suspiciously.

“Oh, um, I promised Spike I would be home at 11 p.m. at tops. It's already 10:43.

“Oh! Alright, let`s hurry.” I said finishing my vegeburger.

Twilight packed her unfinished food and we moved out towards the castle, Where we were greeted by complete darkness and loud whispers.

‘Wait, this situation seems familiar… Oh, oh no it is a-‘ my train of thought was rudely interrupted by a multitude of loud screams and many voices.

“SURPRISE!!!”

The main castle hall was filled with almost a hundred people, decorations, banners, tables with baked goods and drinks that were about to collapse by weigh of said goods. It was a Pinkie`s brand surprise party. How did I know it? Come on it started with a loud “surprise” and all the banners read “Welcome to Poniville Alaras Grimmus!” Also, said pink pony was jumping up and down saying. “Were you surprised? Were ya? Wereya wereya?”

I chuckled. “Yes Pinkie, it was a great surprise.” I answer with a soft smile. “Come on everyone! I`m finally here so…” I looked at Pinkie, who smirked at me.

“LET`S PARTY!!!” We yelled together as the crowed cheered.




===============================*****===================================




Deep in the Everfree forest, a pack of timber wolfs was hunting. They were pursuing a small target filled with magical energy. That’s what was important for them. The magical essence that's contained in the blood and flesh of every creature, that was their food source. Then they lost the smell and sight of their target in an area that was filled with ruins of an old village.

The Wolfs were moving slowly, without a sound, searching for a small embodiment of the sweet and tasty magic.

Soon, one of the wooden beasts found something in a corner of a small, almost destroyed house. It was a crying foal with gruesome injuries around his neck. They resembled deep cuts with a black, blood-like substance liking from them on the ground. His face was hidden behind his hooves.

When all the wolfs came to the foal, snarling and growling, wanting to restore their magical resources, the foal stopped crying.

Slowly his hooves dropped to the ground.

The Timber wolfs backed off in fear because instead of a face of a scared to death foal, they were greeted by empty eyes sockets and an unnaturally wide predatory grin filled with sharp deformed teeth.

A moment later, there were no timber wolfs in the area. Only broken twigs and branches stained with a black substance, which then retreated back into the “foal” and swarmed inside him through the eye sockets and his maw.

After that, silence filled the air, as the darkness covered the village once again.

Then through the maw of a monster hundreds of voices spoke as one.

“It’s not enough. They had no flesh.”
> Chapter 4. Magical After Party.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Waking up was chore, even with my new improved by comic powers physiology, also the process itself was complicated by my apparent hungover, which I got because of certain mischievous spirit, who joined the party after the kids and their parents grown too tired to further participate in the fun activities, provided by the premier party pony -- Pinkie Pie herself.

I remember her being a bit angry at the self-proclaimed spirit of chaos, for not joining the festivities on time, but after he explained his reason to Pinkie, she gave Discord a big hug, thanking him for his his apparent thoughtfulness.

‘What reason he gave her?’, you may ask. Booze, lots of extraordinary, even by Discords standards, booze, which can render any immortal drunk, and, as of now I feel this particular sensation, give them a hangover.

It felt like my magical power was really drained from my spirit, making its conscious experience a dull ache, the placement of which was conveniently located just over my brow, a little below the unicorn horn I still had on my pony skull.

At this point I grew tired of this painful throbbing in my head, I just refilled my magical reserves from my plane of reality by simply scooping raw magic with my hoof, all done with my eyes closed.

I would’ve dabbed on it, if this particular gesture wasn’t such old and cringy meme.

However, because now I was feeling better, my mind decided to bring an end to this thread of thought by slowly opening my eyes, to see were my drunk past-self planted my fine pony plot to sleep.

“…”, I said when my newly acquired vision painted an image of my surroundings.

I was lying on the foyer ceiling of the Friendship Palace, while underneath me ponies and other kinds of creatures were sleeping in fluffy cozy piles, some softly snoring, some silently breathing in and out, hugging others, as if they were warm pillows, in drunken sleep. I spied a cute scene here and there, until I found The cute scene of mismatched noodle-dragon coiling around a yellow fluffy pony, both smiling in their sleep in each others arms and hooves. ‘Here this two went further then friendship then…’, I happily thought, taking the mental snapshot of this wonderful scene.

Oh and what scene it was…

This dark room of the Palace was filled with flying dots of light, as if they were fireflies of all colors of the rainbow and beyond, lazily drifting through the large open space of the room, each and every spec of light glistening in the reflections of polished crystal walls and ceiling, giving it a bluish tint and smoothness, as if they were far away…

It looked and felt, like I was in space, watching stars and galaxies float around me, ever changing and ever lasting.

I felt at peace. 

I guess all that magic I, and no doubt Discord, lost needed to go somewhere…

I never thought alcohol could be enchanted like this.

“Enjoying the view?”, unmistakable voice of Discord whispered right into my lift pony ear, which flicked like cat ear does in this situation right after.

“Yeah…”, I answered as quietly, “You made booze yourself?”, I asked him in turn, not even turning in his direction, still transfixed by the view around… well, below me.

Nether the less I sensed his annoyance at the failed scare.

“... No”, he said, “One satyr owed me a few favors, so I decided to take some of his ‘drinks for all kinds of things’, or so the slogan said”, he slithered beside me like a snake, being at two places at once of course, “I actually have no idea how to make enchanted drinks. Only a few immortals do.”

“... Huh.”

We stayed silent, observing the beautiful chaotic display of older magic until the ponies below started to wake up.

When Fluttershy was up, Discord disappeared from my side down below, helping her to get other ponies going, some of which stayed for a bit to enjoy the scenery.

Twilight was in her study mod, probing the glowing specs of light for magic signatures and taking notes, while spike was taking a flash-less photos of the room, some of which he sent by a dragon breath to someone, I suspect that they were for Luna.

Pinkie cleared up the area from the trash and other things left from after party, while Applejack and Rainbow placed wooden benches around the hall, so visitors could come in to sit and watch this amazing display. Rarity also helped, by closing up all windows with teleported here by Starlight stylish blinds, to stop the light of the late morning from coming into the room.

It was fun watching them work around the wonderful phenomena, so anyone can enjoy it, before the magic dissipates.

And after, a bit of time, I found myself strangely full, I guess the happiness of many creatures, that visited this event, now appropriately named Star Dust, worked quite nicely for my spiritual hunger, so I decided to join Twilight in her study room.

I walked down the wall, to the bemusement of some Desert Cats, which I finally recognized as Abysinians, and then walked toward the steps of the hall, and going up to the second storey of the Palace.

After walking for a bit I finally found the room where I felt Twilight’s magical signature the most. And then I knocked.

“Come in!”, I heard her say loudly through the door.

So I stepped in, smile glued to my face.

“Hello there”, I said happily, “I didn’t think me getting would be a cause for such an event”, I joked, to which Twilight snorted, “But anyways, I see you decided to look into the enchantment?”

Twilight then looked up from her notes, placing a pencil behind one ear, smiling softly, “I did”, she simply said, pointing her hoof at the scattered on an ordinary oak table pages filled to the brim with magical formulas, “I think I know how to make this light spell to last longer, by sustaining itself on ambient magic”, she then sighed, “But I don’t think I will be able to give them this wonderful ever-changing colors.”

“Oh…”, I mouthed silently, and then thought a bit, browsed through the library of the magical knowledge, and then came to a simple suggestion, “Did you thought about mixing in a little bit of the chaotic magic into the color spell?”

She groaned, “I did. But I cant cast it.”

I rose my eyebrow at that, “Element of magic can’t cast magic?”

Her muzzle scrunched in the frustration, “I can’t because I’m an Element of Harmony, not of chaos”, she looked me in the eyes, “I’m afraid it will affect my connection to the Elements.”

My eyebrow rose further, “Aren’t the Harmony == balance between the chaos and order?”

She froze, mouth opened half-way to retort, but her eyes widening in realization.

After a few seconds Twilight slowly turned to me fully and slowly uttered four words,

“You. Are. A. Genius.”

What followed next was an eight hours straight study session, filled with revisiting the old philosophy books and elder scrolls (hehehe) on magic theory.

Apparently ponies, after the rule of Discord, banned almost all chaotic activities in the country for a whole ten years, because of the constant fear, that if anything chaotic happened ‘The One with Chaos’ will be freed from his prison. That’s when the control over the seasons and animals started.

The system actually was much deeper in control over the ponies lives, to a time when one goes to a toilet!

But it was quickly scrapped after the land started to dwindle, almost allowing Discord to be free, so he’ll restore the balance of magic.

This whole debacle was the reason for ponies to see chaos as evil in their lives. But it softened considerably in last five hundred years or so, which allowed the Spirit of Chaos to successfully reintegrated into the modern pony world.


So, I would say, this was a very productive day.