> A True Mother > by cccvvvttt > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: The Trial > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Trial The events took place right where they left off "So, what do you want to do today, sweetie?" Twilight asked, finally finished with unpacking all of the stuff she packed. Zachary, in response to this, put his chin up in thought. He had never really been a Canterlot before, and the whole place was beautiful. Something that Zachary rarely saw in his world. He then set his eyes on a park that was nearby. "Can we go to the park?" Zachary asked, pointing out the window. Twilight had been to that park many times before, that was, until she moved to ponyville. "I think that's the perfect place to go, we can even have a picnic ." Twilight said, wrapping her left wing around him, and pulled him into a light hug. Twilight let out a warm smile, as she felt the young child lay his head on her chest. The child that she grew to love over the past month, the child she truly considered her son. Spike was like a brother to him, but Spike and Twilight always saw each other like a brother and a sister. "Hey, are you guys in.... Awww, that's so adorable...." The voice of Rarity said, as Twilight and Zachary turned around, to see the mane six there, all with the same type of smile. "I'm.... I'm not crying!" Rainbow Dash said quickly, trying to quickly remove her tears of happiness. "I said I wasn't crying!" They all giggled at her little outburst. "What's the matter, Rainbow?" Twilight asked playfully. "Too cute for you?" She then pulled Zachary into another hug, and nuzzled his cheek. "Fine, it's too cute..." Rainbow Dash said, with a defeated sigh. "Don't tell anypony else, that I thought it was too cute, or I will deny it." They all nodded at Rainbow's request, and Twilight looked down at Zachary. "Would you like them to come with us?" Twilight asked. "I would like that, mommy." Zachary said, as he hugged her yet again. Her heat melted at the gesture. She then looked back at all of her friends. "Are you girls alright with that?" Twilight asked, and they all nodded. "Anything for my little cutie!" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly bouncing up to them. "It would be so much fun, we'll.... Wait, where are we going?" Twilight giggled. "We're going down to the park, for a picnic, you know, the one near the castle." Twilight said, pointing out the window, at the place where the park was at. They all looked down, and they had their mouths agape, due to how beautiful the park looked. "I used to take Spike down their a lot when we were living here." "Hey, where is he, by the way?" Rarity asked, now only noticing his absence. "Oh, he's helping Celestia with some paper work that she needed to catch up on." Twilight said. "Well, that's very nice of him, to help out the princess." Rarity said, with a light smile. Twilight looked back down at Zachary, still with that warm smile on her face. "When do you want to go?" Twilight asked, making Zachary go into thought. "I guess now, if that's alright." Zachary said. "Of course it is." Twilight said, and looked back at her friends again. "If that's alright with all of you, that is?" Twilight said. "Of course it is, darling." Rarity said. "I don't think any of us really had any other plans today, right?" The all nodded. "Alright then, let's go." Twilight said, levitating Zachary onto her back. They all left the room, and walked down the long hallway. As they walked, Prince Blueblood walked by as well. When he saw the human child, he shook his head in disgust. "Can't believe they would love such a creature as that...." Blueblood said. "Awwww, he's so cute!" A voice from behind him said. He turned around, and saw some of the maids, who were adoring Zachary. Bluebloods mind clicked. "Everypony seems to think he's cute, I could use this, maybe...." Blueblood said. It was just like with Rarity and the grand galloping gala. Meanwhile, they were all still making their way to the park, chatting among themselves. Once they were out of the castle, they made their way to the park, which wasn't very far, pretty close to the castle. "We're here." Twilight said, as they took their first steps in the area. "Would you like to get off now?" Zachary nodded, as Twilight leaned down, so Zachary could get off of her. Once off, he looked at the park, with amazement in his eyes. He had never seen anything as beautiful as he did in his world. "This is so cool!" Zachary said, with an astonished voice. Twilight smiled. "This kid has the right idea." Rainbow Dash said. "Come on, lets go find a good place to set up." Twilight said. They all found a good spot, that was on a hill, with a tree growing out of it. They all sat down, and started getting everything set up for their picnic. Everypony was helping in some way. Once they were all done, Twilight turned around, and saw Zachary, who was looking down the hill. "Zachary, are you okay?" Twilight asked. He was leaning on the tree. He tried his best to turn around. "It... It hurts again...." Zachary said. Twilight knew what he meant. Ever since they left the hospital, he has been having pain in the area where he was shot at. They would come at random, sometimes they would go away on their own, but the other times, Twilight used her magic to try to ease the pain. "Do you want me to use my magic?" Twilight asked, with a concern look. "No..... I think it's going away now." Zachary said, as his pained expression slowly began to disappear. Twilight was growing more concerned for him, as everyday passed. She thought about taking him to the doctor, which she did, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him either. "Alright..." Twilight said. They settled down the red stripped blanket. She sat down, and patted the spot next to her, indicating Zachary to come sit next to her. He did just that, and Twilight wrapped her wing around him. They got out the small basket that they brought with them. "What type of stuff did ya bring?" Applejack asked, as Twilight levitated the materials out of the basket. "Sandwiches, apples, that kind of stuff." Twilight said, as she gave everypony and human one sandwich and one apple. They sat there in peace, eating their meals. Twilight looked down at Zachary, and smiled as she saw him take another bite out of his apple. "Thank you, mommy." He said, with a smile. "You're welcome, dear." Twilight said. Once he was finished with the tasty and juicy apple, he put his head on Twilights chest, falling asleep in the process. The mane six let out another "awwww" as they saw the tiny figure slowly moving his chest up and down with his breathing. "Hey Twi, how's the little feller been?" Applejack asked, and Twilight smiled. "He's been making a lot of progress." Twilight said, taking a quick look at the small figure again. "His voice doesn't trail of like it used to, he doesn't ever really have any trouble with talking to other ponies anymore, and I think his mental trauma is no longer present, though he does now have a fear of hospitals, mainly because of the reason he went to the hospital in the first place." Twilight then put on a worried expression. "That's good...... but why do you look worried?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight sighed. "There's something wrong with him." Twilight said, causing her friends to gasp. "What could possibly be wrong with Zachary?" Rainbow asked, now hovering in the air. "If there's a pony giving him trouble, I will-" "No, that's not it at all." Twilight said. "He.... He's been having these random bursts of pain in the area he was shot in." She lowered her head. "I've been using my magic to try to ease the pain whenever he has it, but I fear that wont always work." She sighed again,. "Why don't you just take him to the doctor?" Applejack asked. Twilight looked at her, with a sad look. "I've tried that too, but they can't figure out what's wrong with him either." Twilight replied. They all looked at Zachary, each one had great concern in their eyes. "What should we do?" Rarity asked. "The poor darling doesn't deserve to be in any sort of pain." Twilight nodded in agreement. "Your right, but the only thing I can do for him right now, is heal the pain whenever it comes." Twilight said. "I really hope that we can-" "Hey, is that Princess Twilight?!" The voice of a pony shouted. They all looked in that direction, causing Zachary to start to stir a bit in his sleep. "It is! Look, she's with that human child!" Another voice said, causing more and more ponies to come. "Mommy..... What's going on.....?" Zachary asked, rubbing his eyes. The crowd of ponies gasped at the name. "Did he just call you his mother?" One pony asked. "How long has he been doing that, or is this is first time?" Another one asked. The group was getting closer, and Twilight could tell this was making Zachary uncomfortable. Suddenly, one of the ponies ran right up to Zachary, levitating a notepad and a pencil. "What year where you born?" The pony asked. He was suddenly lifted back by Twilight. She then used a spell to mute Zachary's hearing, as she was about to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. "Everypony stop! Your making him uncomfortable!" Twilight shouted, them growing silent. "No questions, no camera's, and no crowds! We already have a lot to deal with!" At that, everypony ran off in a different direction, while her friends just stood there, stunned. Twilight unmuted Zachary's ears. "Why did they all run off?" Zachary asked. "No reason, guess they got bored." Twilight said, with a giggle, as she rubbed Zachary's back with her wing, again." They wont be bothering us anymore." Her friends nodded in agreement. "Yeah..... Bored...." Applejack said. She was a terrible lair. "Come on, lets get back to the castle." Twilight said. They all began to pack up there things. Pinkie was surprisingly quit through out the picnic, until now, that is. "Hey Zachary, didn't you tell us your birthday was on June 10th?" Pinkie asked, with enthusiasm. "Yes, it's on June 10th, why?" Zachary replied. Pinkie giggled. "Juuust wondering." She said, with a smile. Zachary was confused, but he just shrugged it off as Pinkie just being Pinkie. The rest of the day wasn't very interesting. Once they were back to the castle, they just hung out, doing whatever they wanted, and what not. Luna's night was beautiful, as it was filled with star's, and of course that bright shining moon. Twilight, The Mane Six, Spike, and Zachary, we're all heading back to their rooms. They just had dinner with a two Princess's, and they all talked about what they did that day. Spike, after helping Celestia, went into Canterlot to see some of his friends that he hadn't seen in a while. After doing that, he came back to the castle, and he stayed in their room, reading some of his comic books. Celestia and Luna were mostly busy that day, talking with other ponies, going to meetings, and all those other boing things. The meal they had for dinner was hay burgers. Unfortunately, Zachary couldn't digest hay, and they had to find that out the hard way, so he just had a PBJ sandwich. After dinner, they were all walking back to their rooms, Spike was sharing a room with Twilight and Zachary. "I'm....... Tired........" Zachary said, with a tired tone in his voice. "Do you want to rid eon my back?" Twilight asked, and Zachary shook his head. "No, our room is right there, right?" Zachary asked, pointing a finger at one of the doors. Twilight looked at it, and realized he was right. The room was right there. "Yes, that is our room, actually." Twilight said, opening the door to said room. Once they were inside, Zachary went to the bed, and jumped right onto it, getting under the covers. Twilight giggled. "Well, someone is really tired tonight, aren't they?" Twilight asked, and Zachary just nodded his head. "We have a busy day tomorrow, so you should get as much rest as you can." Spike said, with a yawn. "That means me too." With that, he plopped into his basket, and nearly instantly went to sleep. Twilight looked back at Zachary, and she saw Zachary had a worried expression on his face. "Zachary, you're not hurting again, are you?" Twilight asked, and Zachary shook his head. "No, I just really don't want to see John again." Zachary said, shuddering at the memory of being shot. Twilight walked up to him, with a reassuring smile. "It's alright, Zachary. I know how you feel...." Twilight said. She never wanted to see John again, as he greatly effected her too, after he shot Zachary. "But if we don't go tomorrow, they might never be able to lock him up, and he might be free again." Zachary didn't want that to happen. "I.. I just don't want him to hurt me anymore." Zachary said, and Twilight gave him a sad look. "I know you don't, and he will never be able to hurt you ever again, not even in the court." Twilight said, giving Zachary a light hug. After the hug, she looked down at him. "Would you like to sleep with me tonight?" Twilight asked, and Zachary shook his head. "No thanks, I'm good." Zachary said. "But if I have a nightmare..." His voice trailed off. "Then I'll be here, you have no need to worry." Twilight said, giving him a light kiss on the head. "Goodnight Zachary, I'll see you in the morning." With that, she went to her bed, and turned out the lights. Zachary rested his head on the pillow.Never can hurt me again, John....... Zachary thought, as he went off into the dream realm. The Next Day.... "This trial is now in session!" The judge said, banging his gavel down, as the rest of the ponies, and they two humans made their way into the court room. Spike would have come, but because he didn't really have anything to do with this, he was not invited. Zachary was next to Twilight, while John was in ropes, had no lawyer to help him, nothing but the tight ropes around his hands. He gave Zachary a dirty glare, which caused him to flinch. Twilight noticed this, and glared back. "Don't worry, he can't do anything." Twilight said, with a reassuring smile. "Alright then." The judge said, as the lasts of the ponies sat down. "Lets start by asking a few ponies up to the stand, may Twilight Sparkle come up to the stand first please?" Twilight nodded, then looked back down at Zachary. I'll be right back, don't worry." Twilight said, and Zachary nodded his head in understandment. She got up from her seat, and went up there. "Thank you, your honor." "My pleasure, Princess Twilight Sparkle." The judge said. "Now, it's my understandment that you found Zachary behind your library, lost and alone, is this correct?" Twilight nodded her head. "Yes, this is true." Twilight said. "Care to explain the events happening after this?" The judge asked. Twilight nodded her head, and began explaining. "After that happened, I let Zachary stay at the library for the night, making sure he was warm and comfortable." Twilight started. "The next night, the defendant, John, came to my library, with his wife, and he had a gun with him, and he was going to try and shoot me!" The judge gave her a curious look. "What does this "gun" do again?" The judge asked. "It's like a bow." Twilight said. "It has these little things in it, that when you pull the trigger, they fire out, and whatever that little thing hits, can either be really hurt, or worse..." This got a gasp out of the crowd. "Has John ever used this gun on anypony or creature?" The judge asked. "Yes, he has, actually." Twilight said, pointing at Zachary. "He used it on Zachary, nearly costing him his life." This caused an even bigger gasp from the crowd. "Do you have any evidence to back this up?" The judge asked. "Yes." Twilight said, as she then levitated something off the table she was sitting at, and handed it to the judge. "This medical records came from the day he came to the hospital." The judge read what was on it. Patient 32. Has hole in the side of his torso, came from a tiny arrow, as we call it right now. Came from a gun. Condition: Stable, however, unsure on how to heal wound. The judge gave a quick glare at John. "He still has a little scar from it." Twilight said. "He also gets random surges of pain because of it, too." The judge nodded. "Thank you for your words, Princess Twilight. You may take your seat." With that, Twilight went back next to Zachary. "Next, can Rainbow Dash come up to the stand?" Rainbow nodded. "Sure thing, Judge." Rainbow said, as she hovered to the stand. "When was the first time you meet Zachary?" The judge asked. "The first time I meet him was back at Twilights library." Rainbow said. "What was he doing at that time?" The judge asked. "Well, when Twilight came to get the door, he was upstairs, and then he started to play a song on a piano thing." Rainbow said. "What was this song called?" The judge asked. Rainbow didn't know why he wanted to know that, but she went along with it. "It was called Theme Of Laura Reprise, or something like that." Rainbow said. "He was really good at playing it too." The judge nodded. "When was your first encounter with John?" The judge asked. "He was at Twilights library, and he was going to try and shoot Twilight!"" Rainbow said. "I had to stop him, so I flew up to him, and gave him a buck to the face." The judge had a thought. "How did you know he was going to try to shoot Twilight, and how did you know what a gun was at that time?" The judge had a curious look. Rainbow looked back at Zachary. "Because he told us, your honor." Rainbow said. "He told us how John would hurt him everyday for no good reason at all! He also told us what a gun could do, and believe me, I've seen a gun get used before." She gave Zachary a sad look. "Thank you for that, Rainbow. You may go back to your seat." The judge said. Rainbow nodded, as she took her seat next to Twilight and the rest of them. "Next, can Applejack come up to the stand." The judge asked. Applejack nodded, as she came up to the stand. "Thank you, yer honor." Applejack said, as she sat at the stand. "Miss Applejack, do you know why John was abusive towards his son?" The judge asked. Applejack huffed. "John ain't Zachary's real father, he is his foster father." Applejack said, bringing another question to the judge. "Why was Zachary in the foster system in his world in the first place?" The judge asked. "His real mother died, and his father was locked up." Applejack said. "The reason he was abusive, was because he wanted revenge on Zachary's father for accidently causing the death of his daughter, Ah think." She looked at Twilight, and she gave her a nod, indicating that she was right. "Do you have any evidence to back this up?" The judge asked. "Well.... No, not really." Applejack replied, with a nervous look. "Thank you, miss Applejack, you may return to your seat." Applejack sighed, as she went back down to sit next to her friends. "It's alright, even if you don't have evidence, you have witnesses." Twilight quietly told Applejack. She gave her a smile. "Thanks Twi." Applejack said. "Can Miss Rarity come up to the stand?" The judge called out, and Rarity went up to the stand. "Here, your honor." Rarity said. "Rarity, tell me what you think of Zachary." The judge said. "Zachary, why he is a little angle." Rarity said. "Even though he isn't a pony, he is still so sweet and kind. Sure, he may have had a rough start because of John, but he's doing better now." She gave Zachary a light smile. "What do you mean by "Rough start?" The judge asked. "Well, because of what John did to him, he was so shy." Rarity said. "Twilight told us that he would stare out the window, he would lose his voice a lot, and other things, and it's all because of him." She then pointed a hoof at John. "Can you tell me more about John?" The judge asked. "Well, John is a human, who thinks it's alright to hurt little children like Zachary, and they think that they can get away with it, but they can't!" Rarity said. "I don't know how John was capable of doing something like that to a child, but he deserves to be locked up, forever!" The judge was shocked at her sudden outburst. Even Twilight managed to keep her cool, and she was basically Zachary's new mother. "Thank you, Rarity, you may take your seat." The judge said. Rarity nodded, and went back. "Will Fluttershy come up to the stand, please?" A little eep came from the table, as the bright yellow Pegasus came up to the stand. She was nervous. "No need to be nervous, Fluttershy." The judge said. "I just want to ask you some questions, is that alright with you?" Fluttershy nodded her head, as she sat down at the stand. "Fluttershy, what did you think when you first met Zachary?" The judge asked. "Well.... When we first met him, he was all alone..... The ponies in ponyville thought he was a monster..... But just by looking at him, you could tell that he was innocent..... And not some evil monster...." Fluttershy said. "Why do you think the ponies thought he was a monster?" The judge asked. "Well, nopony has ever really seen a human before...... So I guess they all just assumed that he was one......." Fluttershy said meekly. The judge could tell that she didn't want to be up at that stand anymore, but he had another question he had to ask her. "Do you think John is a monster?" The judge asked. "Of course he is." Fluttershy said, no longer with a nervous voice. "But if he is a human like Zachary, how can he be a monster?" The judge asked, before realizing what he said a little. "No offense, of course, sorry...." Fluttershy had an answer. "It's not the appearance, or the way anypony looks that makes them a monster, it's the actions that they do." Fluttershy said boldly. "Wow, thank you Fluttershy." The judge said. She gave him a light smile, as she walk back to her seat. "Can Pinkie come up-" "Already here!" The pink mare said, causing the judge to nearly jump out of his seat. He regained his composer. "Alright, Pinkie. I understand you love to throw parties, right?" The judge asked. "Yep! Party's are amazing, and I love to throw them with all of my friends!" Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. "Have you ever thrown Zachary a party before?" The judge asked. "Of course I have! I've thrown him four parties!" Pinkie said. "The first one was for his amazing talent with the piano, the second was a welcoming party, the third one was an adoption party, and the last one was a glad your better party!" The judge was shocked at this. "Would you ever throw John a party?" The judge asked. "The only party I would throw for him is a "Goodbye, hope you never come back" Party, and he wouldn't even be invited!" Pinkie said, giving John a disapproving look. "That's all I need to hear." The judge said. "I find the human John, guilty. Thee might not be enough evidence to show he was abusive, there is defiantly enough evidence that he did try to murder Zachary. If Princess Celestia could, she should decide his fate." Celestia nodded in agreement, as she walked down from where she was sitting. "John, as punishment for what you've done, and for attempted murder, you shall be turned into stone!" Celestia said. "Murder is an act never to be performed in Equestria, so for that, you'll never be released from your stone prison!" "But, you can't do that!" John protested. "I have a life, you know!" Celestia gave him a dirty glare. "Well, maybe if you didn't use your life for evil purposes, then maybe this wouldn't be happening to you!" Celestia shot back. "But how do we know if that Twilight pony wasn't abusive?" John asked, pointing a figure at Twilight. "Hey, I don't hurt other's like you do!" Twilight said. "Well, maybe you didn't physically hurt him, but how do I know you didn't "Touch" him?" Twilight was confused. "What do you..." Twilight then knew what he meant by that. "I WOULD NEVER!" Zachary looked up at her, confused. "What did he mean by that, mommy?" He asked. "You don't need to know right now, maybe when your older." Twilight quickly said, calming herself. "Oh, now your calling her you mom?" John asked. "She's a pony, she can't be your mom, you little insignificant waste of-" "ENOUGH!" Celestia shouted, stomping her hoof down. "You no longer have permission to speak! You will be turned to stone tomorrow! Guards, get him out of here!" Celestia said. The guards nodded, as Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid Carried him away. Though, TriforceAndroid used to be a inmate, he wanted to turn his life around, so Celestia turned him into one of the royal guards. "You will pay for this! You will, and I'll make sure of it!" They were out of the courtroom now. "I will kill you! Every single last-" "Oh, would you shut up?!" Cloudy Arrow said, as he punched John in the gut. "You little-" john said, trying to move, but the guards wouldn't let him. "You deserved that, to be fair." TriforceAndroid said, as they carried him away. In the courtroom, Celestia looked at The Mane Six. "Girls, if you don't mind, can one of you go back to ponyville, and get the elements so he can be turned into stone?" Celestia asked. Rainbow hovered in the air a little. "I will!" Rainbow said. "I'll go as soon as we leave this building, and I can be back here in like an hour!" Celestia smiled at the rainbow maned Pegasus. "Thank you, Rainbow." Celestia said, as everypony else besides the mane six left. "I must go now, I hope you all have the good rest of your day." With that, Celestia teleported away. As the rest of them left the court room, Twilight noticed that Zachary was looking down at the ground, and she had an idea why. "Zachary, you know what John said wasn't true, right?" Twilight asked. "I will always be there, and I will always be your mother, even if I didn't give birth to you." Zachary smiled. "Really?" He asked, and that's when the rest of them got into the conversation. "Of course she is!" Rainbow Dash said. "The rest of us are like your family, and were the coolest one around." Applejack got into the conversation next. "Yeah, if ya ever have a problem, you can come to me, Twilight, or any of us." Applejack said, with a warm smile. "That ruffian John, is a liar, but he wont ever be able to lie to you again." Rarity said, with a smile of her own. "Yeah, don't worry, we'll always be here for you." Fluttershy said, then pinkie came up. "If you ever need any cheering up, then just come to me, and I can turn that frown upside-down!" Pinkie said, with a bright smile. Tears of joys leaked from Zachary's eyes. Thank you..." He said, as they all got into a group hug. They stayed that way for a while, then they broke it. "Mommy, can I sleep with you tonight?" Twilight smiled at him. "Of course you can." She said, as they all left the court house, each with bright smiles, knowing John would never be able to hurt them ever again. > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Celestia's sun rose over Canterlot, Twilight, along with her friends, where sleeping in their own rooms. Twilight had Zachary snuggled up against her chest, with her forelegs and wings supporting him in a hug. They were both still asleep, however, and so was the rest of them. Twilight was slowly beginning to awake from her sleep, as her eyes opened, and her vision came back, blurry at first, but soon becoming more and more clearer. She looked down, as she felt something brush up against her chest. She saw the small figure of Zachary, sleeping there, without a worry in the world. Twilight smiled, as she rubbed her hoof and wing on his back. Twilight raised her head a bit, so she could look around the room. She saw Spike, who was also still sleeping, in the small little basket that he came to love sleeping in. She also saw the empty saddlebag that they had packed for the trip, that was now lying there, with nopony else paying any mind to it. Zachary began to also awake from his long rested sleep, as he looks up at Twilight. "Good morning, mommy." Zachary said, whilst rubbing his eyes in the process. Twilights heart melted at the small act, as she gave him a light kiss on the forehead. "Good morning, my little angle." Twilight said, with a smile. "How did you sleep last night?" "I slept really good, mommy, and I didn't have any nightmares." Zachary said, with a small smile. Twilight giggled, at his cute expression. "That's good, did you feel any pain in your side area?" Twilight asked, and Zachary shook his head. "No, I didn't. I slept through the entire night." Zachary replied. Twilight smiled at him, giving him a small rub on the back with her wing again. "Well, todays the day, Zachary..." Twilight said. "It's now time for John to face his punishment." Zachary looked down, and looked at his hands, which where now folded together. Twilight noticed that something was wrong with him. "Zachary, what's wrong?" Twilight asked. Zachary looked up, with a sad smile. "I'm glad that he can't hurt me anymore, but...." Zachary looked away for a second. "I don't really want to watch him get turned into stone." Twilight knew how he felt. He didn't want to have to face him ever again. He didn't want to face the monster that destroyed his life, while nearly taking his life in the process. "Then you wont have to." Twilight said, with reassurance in her voice. "You don't have to watch him, if you don't want too." Zachary looked down again. He didn't want to, but he felt like he had to, to get closure. "I feel like I should watch him, just so I can be sure." Zachary said. Twilight was unsure if she even wanted Zachary to see another living being turned into stone. "Are you sure about this?" Twilight asked. "Because like I said before, you really don't have to..." "Yes, I'm sure. I don't want to, but I need to." Zachary said, looking down once again. Twilight gave him the warmest smile she could muster. "That's very mature of you, Zachary. I'm proud of you." Twilight said, as she began to get up from her bed. "Let's wake up the other's, and go get breakfast." Zachary nodded. "Did Rainbow Dash come back from ponyville yet?" Zachary asked, with a curious look. "I think she came back earlier, after we all went to bed." Twilight replied, with a smile. Zachary nodded. "Okay!" Zachary said. Twilight let out another smile, as they heard a yawn coming from behind them. They both turned around, only to see Spike, who was now raising his upper body, and rubbing his eyes as he did so. "Spike, I didn't expect for you to get up this early." Twilight said, with a playful smile. "I've been up earlier, Miss Princess." Spike replied, with a mocking tone. She laughed a little at this. "Fair point, Mr. grumpy pants." Twilight said, as she looked back at Zachary. "I think we should get our other friends, and get us some breakfast, what do you think?" He just nodded as a response. She then looked back at Spike. "What about you-" She was cut off by Spike. "Of course, lets get going right now!" Spike said, as he exited the door. They both laughed, as they both got up. Zachary changed out of his pajamas, while Twilight just brushed her hair. Once they were both done with getting ready, they left their room, and started to make their way down to the dinning hall. "Hey guys!" The raspy voice of Rainbow Dash called out. They turned around, and saw the cyan Pegasus, along with their other friends, who all had looks of happiness. "Hey, Rainbow." Twilight said. "How was your trip to ponyville?" Rainbow smiled. "I got them right here." Rainbow said, as she pulled out the elements that rested in her saddlebag. Twilight gave her a warm smile. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash." She said, still keeping that warm smile on her. "Come on, we'll go get some breakfast, and then we'll ask Princess Celestia when John gets to be turned into stone." They all nodded in agreement, as they continued their walk. As they walked, they saw another pony walking by. Prince Blueblood. "Hey guys!" He said, with a happy tone. Twilight looked back at her friends, with a confused look. They all shared the look. "Hey Twilight, I've heard about how you adopted a human, and I just wanted to say that you did a good job." She stared at him, with a look of uncertainty. "Um...... Thanks?" Twilight replied, still not sure what to make about this. "Alright, I'll see you guys around." Blueblood waved, as he made his way back down the hallway. They all just stood there, confused, except for Zachary, due to the fact that he never meet Blueblood before. "He seemed nice." Zachary commented. "Yeah, a little too nice." Twilight said, now with a look of suspicion on her face. Zachary looked up at her, his face was now showing confusion. "Why wouldn't he be nice?" Zachary asked. "That ruffian of a prince disrespected me, humiliated me at the Grand Galloping Gala, and only thought for himself, and not for the other's around him." Rarity said, with a huff. "Yeah, none of us are a big fan of him." Twilight said. "Oh, that makes sense...." Zachary said, as he turned back around. "Well, I hope that we can still get breakfast." Twilight giggled a bit. "Of course we can, sweetie." Twilight said, as she placed her hoof on his shoulder. "Let's go." With that, they made their way down the hallway once more. The walk only lasted for about five minutes, as they finally reached the door to the dinning room. The door was guarded by two Pegasus ponies. "You may enter." The one, Cloudy Arrow, said. "Thank you." Twilight replied, as she, and her friends went inside. Cloudy Arrow looked at the other guard, TriforceAndroid. "Bluebloods behavior was a little off today, don't you think?" Cloudy Arrow asked, and TriforceAndroid nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he usually doesn't act all nice, he's mostly a smug." He said. Cloudy Arrow nodded with agreement. "I think we should keep a close eye on him." Cloudy Arrow said. "Yes, I agree." TriforceAndroid said. He turned away, before something else came to his mind. "Hey, have you noticed all of those ponies that were acting weird recently?" "Yeah, it's very odd." Cloudy Arrow said. "Some of them have even spoken lies about Princess Celestia." "We need to figure out what's going on, and why this is happening." TriforceAndroid said, as they both nodded. They would start investigating after their shift ended. Meanwhile, in the dinning room, Celestia, The Mane Six, and Zachary, we're all at the giant table that Celestia had. Luna would have been there, but she was asleep due to her nightly duties. "Zachary, I've heard that you liked pancakes, is this correct?" Celestia asked. Zachary nodded. "I love pancakes!, there one of my favorite food." Zachary said, with a small smile. "Well, we got our chiefs to cook you some of the best pancakes in all of Equestria." Celestia said, with a smile herself. "Really? Thanks." Zachary said, with a tone of gratitude in his voice. "Do we all get pancakes?" Rainbow asked. "Of course you all are, what else would you have for breakfast?" Celestia asked, with a playful look. "I dunno." Rainbow responded. "Hey, Princess Celestia." Twilight said, getting her mentors attention. "I was just wondering when we were going to turn John to stone?" Celestia's smile turned into a frown. She sighed, as she looked at Twilight. "John did more than what we had thought during his time near ponyville." Celestia said, with a sorrowful look on her face. "What do you mean by that, Princess?" Twilight asked. Celestia gave her a look of sadness, before she levitated a piece of paper over to her. "What's this?" Twilight asked, as she began to read the paper. Missing filly Name: Cherry Bloom. Age: 7 If found, please return her to this address: As Twilight read the paper, she began to recognize who the filly was. The filly was the one that went missing a while ago. The one Twilight and her friends help to look for, but came up with nothing. That was, until they found what was left of her. It was a horrible day for ponyville to find that out. "Yeah, I remember. We helped look for her, but what does she have to do with-" Twilight cut herself off, as she remembered the filly was found in the forest, and that's where John was staying before he was taken into custody. "You don't mean...." Celestia slowly nodded her head. "Last night, John was angry that we where keeping him in the dungeons, and he said he would do the same thing to us as to what he did to that filly..... That's how we found out...." Celestia said. Everypony gasped, as some of them felt tears stinging in their eyes. "How...... Why would John ever do anything like this?" Twilight asked. "I know he was evil, but this..... This is just too much." Celestia nodded. "Yes, and with a crime like that, we now got to extend his punishment. Celestia got up, and walked over to Twilight, and out her hoof on her. "You need to send him to the moon." Twilight let out a gasp. "Wait, the moon?!" Twilight asked, and Celestia nodded once again. "Yes, Twilight, but that's not all." Celestia said. "He will also be turned into stone, however, his stone prison will break within two days of him being turned into stone, and without any air to breath with..." They all let out a gasp. "That will kill him, though!" Twilight said, with uncertainty clear as day in her eyes. "Yes, it will, but in the rules...." Celestia said, pulling out a large book. She sat it down on the table, and flipped through it until she found the right one. "Any creature that kills another, must suffer a similar fate." They all had there mouths agape. "Princess, are you sure......?" Twilight asked, and Celestia nodded. "Unfortunately, yes, but believe me when I tell you, that if there was another way, then I would take it." Celestia then got out another sheet of paper, this one had some drawings on it. "You see, when a pony gets killed by another, than the evil that is inside that ponies heart will spread through out Equestria, making other ponies do the same crime, causing Equestria to fall into chaos." Twilight, with the rest of her friends, just stood there, in shock. "Wouldn't turning him into stone solve the problem?" Rainbow asked, and Celestia just shook her head. "Even if he was trapped in stone, his evil and hatred would still leak out, and would still infect the minds of many. It would take a year for him to infect some minds, and those minds would effect other minds." Celestia explained. "He can't be on the moon for a long time either, or else his evil might effect my sister's mind, and you all remember the last time that happened." Celestia took a small break , before continuing. "We can't do it here, otherwise the pony that did it would have be killed too, and so on, so forth, but if were not the direct cause of death, then we wont be affected by it." Celestia said, looking at the mane six. "If you send him to the moon within stone, than he would be on that moon for two days, then the stone will break, and you know the rest....." Celestia looked down. "It is the only way, believe me, I have seen this type of things happening in Equestria before. It's rare, but the first time it happened, the pony that did it had his hatred effect some others, causing them to do the same thing as well. After all of that was dealt with, that was their penalty for doing it." The mane six all looked at each other, as they all nodded. "We'll do it, Celestia.... Just as long as we're not the one's directly doing the act." Twilight said, with a look of worry. Celestia gave her a reassuring smile. "You're wont be the direct cause of it, I promise." Celestia said, as some of her waiters came in, with all of their breakfasts ready. "You breakfasts, Princess." One of them said. Celestia nodded. "Thank you, my good sirs." Celestia said, as they all walked back into the kitchen. They all mostly ate in silence, with only one of them saying something every so often. Once they had all finished their meals, they all got up, and got up, with Twilight still having a question in her head. "When will we do this?" Twilight asked, and Celestia looked at her. "Whenever you like, as long as it's done by the end of the day." Celestia said, and Twilight looked at her friends. "What do you say, girls? Do you want to do this now and get it over with, or do it later?" Twilight asked, and her friends all had the same answer. "Right now." They all said, and Twilight nodded. "Alright, we would like to do it now, please." Twilight said, looking back at Celestia. "Alright then, please follow me." Celestia said, as they all went to the dungeons. They walked through a hallway in the castle, then down a staircase that was hiding behind a door at the end of the hallway. As they made their way down the staircase, the walls became less and less shinny and beautiful, and started to turn in cracked stone. "This is creepy......" Zachary said, causing Twilight to wrap her wing around him once more. "Don't worry sweetie, mommy isn't going to let anything happen to you..." She said, with the best comfort in her voice that she could muster. The mane six looked back, they all had look's of: "nawww" on their faces, but the didn't say anything. As they made their way to the bottom, they saw a hall of some dungeons, with all the ponies in their for some reason. Some of them had robbed other ponies, others had vandalized or destroyed property. As the mane six and Celestia walked by, they all gave Zachary a weird, confused, look, which made him uncomfortable. Twilight once again had noticed this, and gave those ponies a glare, which made them back off. "This way, we're getting close to his cell." Celestia said. Twilight looked in her direction, with confusion on her face. "Hey, if John's staying here, why are the other prisoners looking at Zachary like they never seen a human before?" Twilight asked. "That's because they haven't." Celestia said. "We keep John in a secret cell so that no other prisoner can look at him, he doesn't even deserve that much in my opinion." They all nodded in agreement. As they got closer to the cell John resided at, the more they could hear the mumbling of someone. His cell was heavily guarded by two guard ponies. "You two may leave now." Celestia said, as they both bowed, then left. They walked up to the cell, the one that was the furthest away from the other cells in that room. Once they got up to the caged door, they saw him. John, who was looking down at his hands, mumbling. He noticed the ponies that where watching him. "Oh, look who decided to come back...." John said, with a deep, unsettling tone, which caused Zachary to flinch back in fear, and John noticed this. "What's wrong, little brat? Afraid of me, a big, scary, monster that not even you so called mother can protect you from?" This made Zachary flinch back further, but he stopped, once he felt Twilight's wing softly wrap around him. "This mother is going to make you, the monster, go away!" Twilight said, as she stared down at John, with a look of hatred in her eyes. "Your not even his real mother! Your a talking pony, you probably don't even truly love him." John shot back. That's when Zachary had enough. "A mother is someone who loves you, and will always be there for you, and Twilight has done all of those things, and you haven't!" Zachary said, looking up at her. "Twilight has loved, protected, and cared for me ever since I got here, which makes here my true mother." He hugged Twilights leg. They all had looks of joy and happiness on their faces, except for John, While Twilight just let a few tears of happiness fall from her eyes. "Thank you Zachary, so much." She said, as she pulled him into another tight hug. John just huffed at this. "Fine, so maybe she does care, that still wont make me go away....." John said. Celestia gave him an annoyed look. "How about going to the moon? Is that suitable enough for you?" Celestia shot back, with anger an annoyance clear in her eyes. "Really? Send me to the moon, wow like you could actually do that." John said with sarcasm. Celestia growled at him, but then quickly got her composure back, and as soon as she did, she stared at john, with a serious look. "You will be turned into stone for two days, and sent onto the moon. Once those two days go by, your stone prison will break, leaving you to be on the moon." Celestia said. John had a feeling that she wasn't lying, and gave her a look of panic. "Wait, but... But I'll die up there!" John said, and Celestia nodded. "I didn't want to have to do this either, but you actions of killing that young filly and nearly killing Zachary cannot go unpunished. Your evil can affect the minds of other in Equestria, and I can't let that happen." Celestia said, as she stared at John once more. "But.... But...." John said, but he was cut off by Celestia. "I'm sorry, John, but you brought this upon yourself ." Celestia said, as she used her magic to open the door. John tried to run, but was caught by Celestia's magic. "Let me go!" John shouted, but Celestia wouldn't let him go. "No, we're going to the gardens to turn you into stone, then we'll send you off onto the moon." She said, as she, along with the Mane Six. As they walked by, the prisoners looked at Celestia, confused at what she had in he magical grasp. It looked like the younger one to them, except it was bigger. They left the dungeons, as they mad their way to the garden area. As the walked, Celestia had a surprisingly hard time controlling the figure that she was so desperately trying to keep together. "Would you hold still? Your not making this any easier for me, or for us." Celestia said, still having a tone of annoyance. "Well, you about to turn me into stone and send me to the moon, how do you think I feel?!" John asked. Celestia just rolled her eyes, as she tightened her magic around him, not allowing him to struggle anymore. Zachary looked up at John, who glared back at him. "I hate you so much, you little abomination, that I can just-" John was cut off, when he felt a small sting coming from his side. Twilight used her magic to shut him up. "Don't ever call my son that ever again." Twilight said, with a growl. "That wont be too hard, considering you wont be here for much longer." John glared at her, but said nothing, because he knew that she was right. Finally, after a long and obnoxious walk had ended, they were in the gardens. John was now tied up once again, by two of the royal guards. "Mr. John, you are here by guilty of the murder of Cherry Bloom, and the attempted murder of young Zachary. As your punishment, you must go to the moon in stone, and within two days of being up there, the stone will break, leaving you up there, with no food, water, or anything. Not even the air you need to breath with." Celestia looked back at the mane six. "Whenever you all are ready." Celestia said, whilst backing up away from them, to get out of the fire. The mane six were all wearing there elements, and Twilight was wearing her crown thingy. She looked back at Zachary. "Zachary, you should stay back, I don't want you to get caught in the blast." Twilight said. He knew what she meant, and he began to back up, not so far that he couldn't see it, though. He still wanted to see it. "Alright girls, anything you want to say, before we do this?" Twilight asked, and they all nodded. Applejack was first. "John, Ah can say that yer the most rotten apple Ah've ever seen. You brought this on yer self." Applejack said coldly. "Yeah! Your the worst type of creature ever! You only care about yourself, and you don't even care about somepony special like Zachary. It's your lost." Rainbow Dash said. "i do not feel bad about doing this to you, you ruffian!" Rarity said. "I would shoot you to the moon with my party canon, but that wouldn't work, so this is the next best thing!" Pinkie said, with a cheerful voice. "I did feel sort of bad for you........ If you didn't try to kill Zachary, and if you didn't kill that filly..... This wouldn't be happening to you." Fluttershy said. Now, it was Twilights turn. "I know why you did the things you did to Zachary, I can say that revenge isn't the answer for your problems." Twilight said, as she walked back a little, and wrapped her hoof around Zachary. "My son wont be hurt by you anymore. I hope you use your last two days to think about how much you affected Zachary's life, but if it wasn't for you...." Twilight looked at Zachary. "Then he wouldn't be here, with his true family, so that's the only reason I don't completely hate you." She then nuzzled Zachary, as they all once again "awwwwed" at this. She finally looked back at John, who now had a little smile. "Does.... Does that mean I wont go to the moon?" He asked, and Twilight shook her head. "Zachary is the best thing that ever happened to me, but that still doesn't excuse the crimes you did. You tried to kill Zachary while he was in Equestria, and you killed that filly." Twilight said, as she walked back up to where she was standing. "Is everypony ready?" Twilight asked, and they all nodded. Their elements began to glow, as the magic of them began to lift their bodies into the air. Twilights eyes turned pure shinning white, as a Rainbow shot out at John. The rainbow made direct contact with him. It was the worst pain he had ever felt. He screamed, as his body was slowly turned into stone, but his screams where unheard. As soon as his entire body was turned, it shot up into the air, and crashed on the moon. Luckily, they had Luna rise her moon a little so they could do this. That was that. John was gone. They went back to the ground, as a tired looking Luna came out. "Is it done, dear sister?" Luna asked, and Celestia nodded. Luna then used her magic to lower the moon that was hiding from everypony else. "Can I please have my rest now?" Celestia nodded, as Luna then went and returned into the castle. Zachary was looking at the spot where John was turned into stone. "Zachary, we didn't scare you, did we?" Twilight asked, and Zachary just shook his head. "No..... I'm just happy that you think I'm one of the best things that happened in your life." Zachary said, with a happy smile. Twilight smiled back, as she yet again pulled him into another light hug. "You are truly, and you will always be one of the best things that ever happened to me." Twilight said. "Wow, those two are like hug buddies." Rainbow said, as she looked at them. "But.... It's still too cute for me..." She said, as she sniffed a tear back. They didn't notice the dark figure, that was hiding behind the wall of a castle, watching them. "That pony.... is too close to him.... Need to get him away from her...... To please him...... Need to get him, away from the rest of them. Never to be seen by them or the princess's ever again.....!" > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight, along with the Mane Six, and her son, were all making there way back into Canterlot Castle. They had just sent John to the moon, only for his stone prison to break within two days, and for the lack of air to slowly take his life. In retrospect, he deserved everything that was going to come to him, but they still couldn't help but to feel a little guilty and sorry for John. "What do we do now?" Zachary asked Twilight. She looked back at him, with a small grin on her face. "Well, I was thinking that since we're still in Canterlot, we could go and meet my parents." Twilight suggested. Zachary nodded his head in agreement. "Okay, that sounds fun." Zachary said, with glee in his voice. He had meet Twilights parents before once, when they came down to ponyville to meet him. They seemed nice enough, but they seemed to be nervous about meeting him at the same time, so Twilight had to reassure him that everything was cool with Zachary, and that he was a nice kid. "Well, I suppose you girls wouldn't like to come too, would you?" Twilight asked her friends, already knowing that Princess Celestia wouldn't be able to make it, due to her duties. "Yeah, that sounds like it would be 20% cooler." Rainbow said, with a tone that sounded like she was cool with the idea, yet a little nervous. Rainbow hadn't really met Twilights parents before. "I wouldn't mind, if you don't mind, that is...." Fluttershy said, with her usual kind and polite voice. "Ah got nothin else ta do." Applejack said, with a small smile forming onto her face. "Ah'd love to meet your parents, Twilight." "That sounds marvelous, darling." Rarity said, also with an exited, yet nervous look, that was similar to Rainbow Dash's. "I'm in! It sounds super duper fun!" Pinkie said, with her usually energetic voice, as she bounced up and down off the ground. Twilight smiled, as she knew she could always count on her friends. "Thanks girls, I really appreciate this." Twilight said, with a grateful smile. They were getting near the small bridge that was over the lake, though it was still a good distance away, but as they walked, Twilight noticed that Zachary was holding his side, in the same place where he got shot at. "Is it hurting again?" Twilight asked, and Zachary just replied with the nod of his head. Her horn began to glow, as she pointed it at his side, and the bright magic made it's way to Zachary. As it made contact, all the pain that Zachary was feeling suddenly disappeared in a flash. Zachary gave her a smile, as she smiled back. Rainbow, however, had a look of concern on her face. "Hey Twilight, I'm no doctor, way too cool for that, but don't you think he should have stopped feeling this pain by now?" Rainbow asked, and Twilight nodded. "Yeah, it should be gone by now, but for whatever reason, it isn't." Twilight said, as she looked back at Zachary, who was looking up at the sky, with a curious look. He wondered what John was thinking about right now, if he could still think at all. "This is very concerning." Celestia started, as they were almost to the bridge. "Even though we don't know a lot about humans, I don't think that one like Zachary should still be feeling the pain after the-" She was cut off, when the bridge that they were about to walk on collapsed out of nowhere, causing the everypony and the human to jump back. "What the, why did the bridge collapse?" Twilight asked, as she was in shock from what happened. The two guards, Cloudy Arrow, and TriforceAndroid quickly made their way over to them. "Are you okay?!" Cloudy Arrow asked, with great concern in his eyes, and TriforceAndroid shared the same look. "We're fine.... That was just unexpected....." Celestia said, as she looked back at her companions to make sure that they were safe too. "What caused that to happen? I mean, some of the workers just got done refurbishing it." TriforceAndroid said, still with that shocked expression. "How could it fall apart so easily?" "Maybe it's just that those ponies are terrible at their jobs." The voice of Blueblood said, as they all turned to look in his direction. Cloudy Arrow sighed, as he despised Blueblood, along with TriforceAndroid. They both only saw him as a spoiled, rotten prince who only thought of himself, and not the other well beings of ponies, though lately, he has been being nicer around certain ponies. "Greetings Blueblood, what are you doing here?" Celestia asked, and Blueblood put on a look of concern, which he could easily fake. "I was just soooo concerned, because the whole bridge falling, it could have hurt poor little Zachary..." Blueblood said, turning his gaze over to the small child. He soon realized that he was disregarding all the other ponies that where around him. "Of course, I'm glad that your all okay too, wouldn't want anything bad to happen to two of the princess's of Equestria." Blueblood said, with an uneasy smile. "What about the hero's of Equestria, aren't you glad that there alright too?" Cloudy Arrow said, giving Blueblood a suspicious look. "Look, I'm sorry that you where all nearly injured in that accident, alright?!" Blueblood said, losing his temper a bit. "Blueblood, you must calm down." Celestia said, as she gave her nephew a glare. "You can't loss your temper like that, alright? If you want to be the prince of this land." Blueblood nodded. "Yes, I understand, auntie." He said, as he looked back at Twilight and Zachary. "Say Twilight, I'm sure that you're going to be really busy today, you know, being the princess of friendship and all, so why don't I watch over Zachary? I'm sure your really busy." Twilight was stunned at the sudden offer. Blueblood was not at all good with kids, in fact, he was terrible with them. Plus, he wasn't exactly the most trustworthy pony out there, considering the way he treated Rarity at the Grand Galloping Gala. "Sorry, but I already have plans today to do with Zachary, I don't really have any duties of being a princess right now." Twilight started. "Plus, I think that one of my friends could watch him, like Rarity or Applejack because, well no offense, but there more experienced than you are." Bluebloods anger began to boil, but he calmed down, as to set a good example for Zachary. "Well that's fine, I guess, but if you need my help with him, don't be afraid to ask." He said, as he trotted off back inside the castle through the other door. "Well, that was weird." Twilight said. "Why is he being so nice to Zachary? He's never nice." They all nodded in agreement, even Celestia nodded with them. "My nephew just, well he thinks that because he's royalty, he's better than everypony else, when that's just not the case at all." Celestia said. She did really care about her nephew, and she loved him with all of her heart, but if his behavior doesn't change soon, then he wont be fit for the prince of Equestria. "We should get back inside, and get ready to meet my parents." Twilight said, and all of her friends nodded in agreement. As they began to walk through the other building, Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid just stood there. "Hey Cloudy." TriforceAndroid said, getting his friends attention. "Yeah, what's wrong?" Cloudy asked. "Well, Blueblood wasn't out here when the bridge fell apart, and the bridge breaking didn't really make that much noise, so he couldn't have heard it from inside the building." TriforceAndroid said. Cloudy Arrow's mind clicked, as he realized that he was right. "Your right, you don't think that he, planned that, to hurt the Princess's, do ya?" Cloudy asked, and TriforceAndroid gave him a not so sure look. "He wouldn't want to hurt Celestia, but that probably isn't the same with Twilight Sparkle." TriforceAndroid said making them both confused. "But why does he want to hurt Twilight-" Cloudy Arrow stopped talking, as it clicked in there heads. "Twilight is the one closest to Zachary, and Bluebloods been nice to Zachary..." TriforceAndroid said, now with full suspension clear in his voice. "Bluebloods trying to get Zachary away from Twilight!" They both said at the same time. "Wait, why would he want to do that?" Cloudy Arrow asked, and TriforceAndroid shrugged. "I don't know why, but whatever the reason is, it probably isn't good." TriforceAndroid said. "Yeah, we can't let that happen, Blueblood would be a terrible father!" Cloudy Arrow said. "Plus, Twilight's already been such a great mother to him, that just taking him away from her would be a bad move." TriforceAndroid nodded with agreement. "Come on, we should try to find more evidence, so we can prove that this is what Bluebloods trying to do." TriforceAndroid said. "Lets go!" Cloudy Arrow said, as they both ran inside the castle at a slow, but not in a way that would make them seem out of place at that moment. They were going to get Blueblood. Meanwhile, on the moon... John was frozen in cold, hard stone. He couldn't move, breath, or hear. The only thing that he could hear, was the thoughts trapped deep in his mind. How am I still alive? This is impossible, I should be dead, but how am I still alive? He knew that he was trapped in stone, and was in space. As he sat there, waiting for something, anything to happen, he soon got thoughts on revenge. As he went into his twist, sickening fantasy's The first one he had, was where he was in a room, with the mane six tied up, hopeless to escape. As they were tied up, there was only one of them tied up to a chair in the middle of the room. "Hold on Zachary, mommy's coming." Twilight said, with clear panic in her voice, as she tried to get out of the ropes she was tied in, but to no avail. Zachary was whining, as they heard the footsteps of John growing near to them, along with something metal clanking to the ground. "Hi there." The clearly mental John said, with a smile, as he was caring a axe in his hands. Zachary looked at him, now with full tears streaming down his face, as John got closer to him. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Twilight shouted, as she tried harder to get out of the ropes. Zachary stared John in the eyes, as if begging him to stop, but he wasn't going too. He lifted up the axe, and brought it down, as Zachary looked away. The sound of something sharp going through skin could be heard, as the sharp cry of Twilight, and the mane six were heard. "NO, YOU MONSTER!!" Twilight said, as she now let some tears of her own fall to the ground. "Your turn...." John said, with an evil grin, as he walked towards them. If John wasn't turned into stone right now, he would be having the biggest smile he ever had in a while. However, due to his vision being blocked, he couldn't see the small black light around his chest area growing bigger and bigger. Soon, John stopped his thoughts, as he felt his legs again. What the... John said in his mind, as he felt feeling in his upper body as well. Then, his vision came back to him, and he gasped, as he realized what had happened to him. He wasn't stone anymore. He bean to panic, as he hold his breath, to try and conserve air. There has to be something I could do, and maybe I can get help. John thought, as he felt his lungs getting tighter and tighter. Ge watched, and looked for help, but there was none. No one was coming for him. As his lungs got tighter, he put his hands over his mouth, as he felt like he was about to explode. He had tears falling down his cheeks, as he had his last thoughts. Soon, John's arms lowered, as a look of shock was on his face. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, as a little bit of blood began to come out of his mouth. His lungs had exploded inside of him, causing his last moments to be the most painful he had ever felt in his life. John, the child abuser, John the horrible monster of a human, was no longer alive. Twilight was in her room, along with Zachary and Spike, as they were just about to leave for Twilights parents house. As they were leaving, they saw there other friends ion the hallway, waiting for them. "Hello girls, ready to go?" Twilight asked. "Ready than I'll ever be." Rarity said, still having a look of nervousness present on her face. "Don't worry, I think you'll like my parents a lot." Twilight said, as they all walked out of the room. Spike was glad to be out of there, due to the fact that he didn't go to Johns sending to the moon. So, he went back to the room, and waited for Twilight to return, which she finally did. "Are you excited to see your grandparents again?" Twilight asked Zachary, and he nodded his head. "I can't wait, they were so fun last time." Zachary said, with excitement in his voice. She giggled. Even though he has been through so much, even though he has been through abuse, nearly getting killed, the pain of knowing that his real father killed his human mother, he still manages to be that sweet innocent little boy that Twilight found a month ago. She was truly proud of him. They continued their walk, as they made their way out of the castle. The day was beautiful out, as ponies walked around, enjoying their days mostly. Some of them had smiles on their faces, other's had frowns, and a group of them just looked plain annoyed. "So, Twilights parents are cool, right?" Rainbow asked Zachary. "Yeah.... They were too me, anyway." He replied, with a reassuring smile. He knew Rainbow was a daredevil, but he also knew that in the month she had known her, she can be nervous about certain things. Twilight however, began to notice something as they walked. Some of the ponies weren't walking around, like the usually were, making some of the streets seem empty. "Hey, is it just me, or does it feel like some of the ponies are missing?" Twilight asked, and they all shook their heads. "Not really, why?" Applejack asked, as Twilight gave here a look of uncertainty. "Well, some of the ponies that /I saw everyday when I used to live in Canterlot.... Are gone and....." Her voice trailed off, when she noticed that there where papers. They were at a distance, but Twilight could still see bright, red letters on them that spelled out Missing. She ran up to one, and picked it up, and saw that indeed, there was a pony missing. "Girls, some of the ponies are missing." Twilight said. "More like a lot of them, look!" Rainbow said, and pointed to the right. Twilight gasped. To her right, where some more missing posters, of different ponies. As her eyes scanned the posters, they shrunk as she recognized two of them. As she walked up to the two, her worst fears where confirmed. The missing poster was of Twilight Velvet and Night Light, both of her parents. She gasped, as the world around her seemed to fall apart. She could only look at the poster, as her friends were looking at her, confusion on their faces. "Twilight.... Are you okay?" Spike asked, which snapped her out of her staring contest with the poster. "My Parents...... There Missing..." Twilight said, earning a gasp from everypony else. "WHAT?!" They all shouted, still in shock over what they just heard. Twilight sniffed, as she took a look back at the posters. "Yeah, missing...." Twilight said, as she began to let the tears break from her eyes. She never thought that this would happen, it just seemed like a thing that happened to everypony else, but never happened to her. However, that just was not the case here. As she wetted the paper with her tears, her friends, along with Spike and Zachary could only stare at her, with sadden expressions plastered on their faces. None of them were really sure what they could do, whether they should go up to Twilight, or to just let here rinse out her eyes from the large amounts of tears. My parents.... They were always there for me.... Even in my time of need.... What do I do...? Twilight thought to herself. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when she felt a small little arm wrap around her back. She looked, only to see Zachary, who was hugging her, with comfort. "We can find them! I know we can...." Zachary said, trying his best to make Twilight feel better, and it was working. I have a child now too, and if I was missing, I* would want to see Zachary again, my little boy.... I have to find my parents! Twilight thought to herself, as her tears came to a halt. She looked down at Zachary, and gave him a soft, yet determined look. "Your right Zachary." Twilight said, as she placed a hoof on Zachary's shoulder. "We can find them, and we will find them." Now with determination, she levitated Zachary onto her back, and walked back to her friends. "We need to find my parents. Maybe the pony who took them, took all the other missing ponies as well." They all nodded in agreement with her, but soon gave each other confused looks. Applejack looked at Twilight. "Um, where do we start exactly?" She asked, not at all sure where to start. "The best place would be my parents house." Twilight said. "They might have left something that could be a lead." They all gave a nod of confirmation. "Well, lets get going then!" Rainbow said. They all walked to the house, to find out what exactly happened to her parents. > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Canterlot... Celestia's sun was shinning down upon the city of Canterlot, as a few ponies were doing their daily errands. Two ponies where making there way to the local library. The names of these two ponies, were Cloudy Arrow, and TriforceAndroid, two of Celestia's most royal guards. "Wait, so why are we going to the library to look for Blueblood?" TriforceAndroid asked his partner, who looked at him with a clever looking smile. "Blueblood says that he hates the library, right?" Cloudy Arrow asked, to which TriforceAndroid nodded his head. "Well, one day I caught him leaving the library. He never goes there at all, not even if Celestia asks him too, he must be hiding something there." TriforceAndroid realized he was right. He heard that Blueblood was going there nearly every single day. "Your right, that makes a lot of sense, lets go." TriforceAndroid said, now with enthusiasm. "We weren't going to stop, but okay..." Cloudy Arrow chuckled, as their destination slowly came into view. "Whatever Blueblood's doing, it can't be worse than what that John human did to Zachary." TriforceAndroid said, looking at Cloudy Arrow. "That's his name, right?" "Yes, that's his name." Cloudy Arrow replied, looking at his partner, with an unreadable expression. "In my opinion, John deserved what happened. He should have never came here in the first place, and he should have never done what he did, even if it was for something like revenge." He took a breath, before continuing. "It took that human child so long to recover, I heard that the element's of harmony had to help him through all of that, like giving him therapy sessions, and you know, just trying to talk to him, to get him to think that it wasn't his fault which it wasn't. Nopony should ever have to go through such pain, and nopony should ever cause that type of pain either." Cloudy Arrow said, taking in a breath of air. "Crimes like that are unheard of in Equestria, but I guess that's something that other humans in that world have to go through... But.... I can't help but to wonder why other ponies have been disappearing either....." TriforceAndroid said, looking down at the ground with a sorrowful expression, due to the fact that one of the ponies he was close too had disappeared, and the fact that Zachary went through so much pain, and the possibility that's what humans go through everyday, but he soon shook those thoughts away. "Anyway, we're here..." Cloudy Arrow looked at the direction the library would normally be in, and saw the building, but he noticed something in the window. Blueblood was in there, and he was just about to walk out. "Triforce, hide!" Cloudy Arrow shouted in a half whisper, as they both hid behind a random bush that was luckily there. As they hid, a certain spoiled prince came out of the building, looking happy, like he just accomplished something. "What are you up too......?" Cloudy Arrow asked himself, his voice trailing off as soon as he could no longer see Blueblood. This was their time to strike. "He's gone, let's go!" TriforceAndroid said, Cloudy Arrow nodding his head in agreement. They got out of their hiding places, slowly, but carefully as to not get poked by any of the branches that were also hiding in the bush. When they finally got out, they faced the direction of the library, before going towards it, sprinting full way. "We're here, let's get inside." Cloudy Arrow said, TriforceAndroid nodding in agreement. They entered the building, still in their guard suits. Once the librarian noticed them, she put a smile onto her muzzle. "Welcome to Canterlot library, can I help you guards with anything?" She asked, with a pleasant tone of voice. "Yeah, we we're wondering what Prince Blueblood was doing here just now. What was he doing?" Cloudy Arrow asked, and the librarian quickly replied. "Oh.... He was just.... Picking up some books! Yeah.... That's it....." She replied, her tone being replaced with a nervous, shacked tone. TriforceAndroid gave her a suspicious look. "We didn't see Blueblood with any books..... Are you lying to us....?" He asked, making it obvious that he was onto her. "Wh-what? Why would I ever lie to a royal guard, such as you-yourself?" She replied, in a quit nervous tone that Fluttershy normally spoke in. "Ma'am, we need to have a look around this place, just to be sure that the prince hasn't been up to anything bad since he was here." Cloudy Arrow stated, and in return, she just nodded her head slowly. They then walked further into the library. There were halls of shelf's, each stacked with all sorts of different books, from adventure, to comedy, you name it. "Is it just me, or was their something up with that librarian?" Cloudy Arrow asked TriforceAndroid, who nodded in response. "It's not just you, there IS something up with her, and I tend to find out what..." He said, as he looked back at the librarian, who had returned to reading her book. "Well, it could have something to do with Blueblood..." Cloudy Arrow said. "I guess we're going to find out soon." They made it to the first hall of shelves, where they began to start their search for clues. They went through all the books, trying to find something, whether it was in the books themselves, or just behind the books on the shelve, they had to find something on why Blueblood was acting the way he was. In another area of Canterlot.... Meanwhile, there was another group of ponies, who were searching for something different. They were searching for the missing parents of Twilight Sparkle, who more than anything else at that moment, wanted to find them. They had been searching for hours, and yet, they just couldn't come up with anything to find. Their search had started at her parents house, when they didn't find anything that could help them there, they looked at locations that were close to her parents home, like an alleyway, and other things like that. However, sadly to them, their search came to a close when everypony started to get tired, and they weren't able to come up with anything. "Twilight... We've been searching all day." Rainbow Dash commented. "I don't think that we're going to find anything right now... We should look tomorrow." Twilight looked back at her, with tired eyes, but she knew that Rainbow was right. They had been looking all day, and she herself was starting to get tired as well. "I guess.... I guess your right..." Twilight replied, as she let out a sigh of sorrow. She really wanted to find her parents today, she HAD to find them today, but she guess that just wasn't happing, not today anyway. "Come on, Twilight." Spike said, placing a claw on her foreleg. "Lets get back to the room." She in response, just slowly nodded her head. Mom.... Dad, wherever you are.... I'll find you soon... Twilight said to herself in her thoughts, as they all made their way back to Canterlot castle. She let Zachary climb onto her back, and as they walked, Twilight couldn't help but to let out a smile, as the child who was beginning to fall asleep on her back. Even though my parents are missing.... I'm still grateful to have him.... Twilight said, growing a small smile, before frowning a bit. But..... These ponies just can't all disappear without a reason, somepony must be taking them, it happened to my parents, I wont let it happen to my friends, or Spike, or even Zachary. She turned around to him once again, still in his sleeping form. "I'm so tired.... I could just fall asleep right here if I wanted too....." Rainbow said, as she yawned loudly. "Yeah! Me too!" Pinkie said, with her usual hyper active self. "But your.... Never mind....." Rainbow replied, sighing as her voice trailed off. There was no point of arguing with Pinkie. "We're here." Rarity said, as she pointed a hoof at the large castle itself. Twilight looked up at it, grateful to be back there, but worried to ask Celestia if she or Luna knew anything about what was going on. As they reached the inside of the castle, so did two other ponies, however, these one's were guard ponies. "I can't believe that we couldn't find anything at the library!" Cloudy Arrow said, annoyed at the fact that there was not even a single trace of Blueblood in that place. "We'll have better luck next time, alright?" TriforceAndroid said, as he too was disappointed that they couldn't find anything at all to help their case. "Let's just get back to the castle, I guess..." Cloudy Arrow said. As they walked, another pony was coming up to them, and that pony was prince Blueblood. "Hey, how are my two favorite royal guards doing?" He asked, putting on the fakest smile that you would ever see in your life time. "What do you want, Blueblood?" Cloudy Arrow basically growled at them, not wanting to have any sort of contact with the spoiled prince standing in front of him. "I'm just wondering if you heard that Zachary kid say anything about me, you know, how cool I am, and what not." Blueblood replied, and the facial expression the two guards put on, were both disgust, and yet, they were trying to hold back some of their laughter. "You think your cool?" TriforceAndroid asked, trying his best to hold back his laughter in that sentence. "Yes, of course I think I'm cool, I'm a prince, after all." Blueblood replied, breaking the guards will to hold back there laughter, as they both just let it out right in front of him. "Your... Not that cool, Blueblood. If you were, then you wouldn't be mean to everypony, now would you?" Cloudy Arrow said, causing Blueblood's face to contort into anger. "You will not say such things about me, you peasants ! I'm the nicest prince in all of Equestria!" Blueblood shouted. "If that were true, then why did you just call us peasants?" TriforceAndroid asked, as Blueblood just stared gaggers at him as a response. "Forget you two, I have better things to do then to just talk to you." He said, as he walked away from the two guards, as they looked at each other. "Blueblood is going to do something, isn't he?" Cloudy Arrow asked, with a sigh, and TriforceAndroid just nodded his head in agreement. "Come on, lets see what he's going to try and do." He said, as Cloudy nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, in the castle, Twilight was walking back to her room, Zachary still sleeping on her back, and Spike walking by beside her. "That was a cool dinner." Spike said, as he rubbed his stomach. Twilight smiled at him. "You might of eaten a little too much, Zachary hardly ate at all, he was so tired when we woke him up." Twilight giggled a bit. "Hey Twilight!" A voice called out from behind them. They both turned around, only to be greeted by Prince Blueblood, who was walking towards them, with a somewhat happy look on his face. "What do you want Blueblood?" Twilight asked, annoyed at him for interrupting their walk back to the room. "Zachary is such a cool child, isn't he?" Blueblood asked, with a nervous smile on his face, trying to not look nervous. "Yes he is," Twilight replied. "I should know, I am his adopted mother." Blueblood nodded in agreement. "Yeah, too bad he doesn't have a father." Blueblood said, as he sighed, then looked down at Twilight. "I want to "help" you raise him. "What?!" Twilight and Spike said in surprise, trying to keep their voices down as to not wake Zachary. "Yeah, I mean, he can come to Canterlot on the week days, and you can have him on the weekends and-" "No!" Twilight said, growling as she said that. Blueblood was taken aback by this. "But, but why not?" He asked, causing Twilight to stomp her hoof down. "Because I don't trust you with him!" Twilight replied, doing the best to keep her voice down. "After the way you treated Rarity at the Gala, and the fact that you are extremely spoiled, I can't trust you with him! Why would you even want to do this task anyway?!" Blueblood took a few hoof steps back against the wall. "Because... Because I think it would be cool to watch over a kid that's a different species?" Blueblood had hoped that this would work, but all he was awarded with a scowl from Twilight. "No chance, Blueblood." Twilight said, and looked down at Spike, who was giving Blueblood a similar look. "If I ever needed someone to watch him or take care of him, it would probably be Spike, or one of my friends." That's when Spike decided to speak up. "Yeah, I wouldn't ever trust you either, sorry but your just not good at these types of things, I guess..." Spike said, with a half apologetic look, but the other half was annoyance at the fact that Blueblood was still bothering them. He huffed, with a defeated sigh, he began to walk away. "Fine, it's your loss anyways..." Blueblood said, and with that, he just began to walk away. "Well, that was weird- OW!" Twilight was cut off, when she felt a small sting coming from inside the back of her neck. She turned around, only to see Blueblood, who was still walking away, though he was pouting about his defeat with Twilight Sparkle. "Twilight? What's wrong?" Spike asked, concern over taking his voice. Twilight rubbed the back of her neck, making what was left of the stinging pain disappear. "Nothing, just felt a little pain in my neck, though I wonder where it came from..." She replied, looking at the sleeping figure that still resided on her back. "Anyway.... Lets just get back to our room." Spike nodded, before he noticed something. Twilights friends were missing. "Hey Twi... Why aren't your friends with us? They're on the same floor that were on...." Spike asked, Twilight already having the answer to his question, replied. "They came up before us, remember? They're already in their rooms, and their probably already asleep." Twilight said, as she and Spike continued their walk back to the room. Once they finally got to their destination, they opened the door, leading them into the room that belonged to them at that moment in time. "We're... Here...." Spike said, he too was getting a little, well not a little, but really light headed. "Zachary has the right idea... I think I'm going to go to bed now....." He yawned, as he walked over to his basket, and rested his body upon the small mattress. "Good night Twilight..." With that, his body went into shut down mode, as he went into the realm of dreams. "Good night to you too, Spike." Twilight said, putting on a smile of her own, as she then turned to her bed, and walked over to it. She placed Zachary down on his left side on the bed, as she too crawled in with him. "Good night... Mommy..." Zachary said, though he was still mostly asleep. It was just like one of the nights they shared together, he said the same thing, before they were thrown into the nightmare, in which they escaped from, luckily. "I love you too, sweetie..." Twilight said, as she placed a wing onto him. She gave him a light kiss on the forehead. "Mommy loves you too...." After that, she too fell into the lands of dreams. Hours later... Zachary began to stir in his sleep, as his body began to get feeling once again. He moved around his bed, as he sat up, then looked around. He saw Spike, who was sound asleep in his bed. The sun was rising, as the light went through the window, and revealed the spot next to Zachary's. It was empty. "Mom....?" Zachary tried to call out, but got nothing but the silence as a response. He was confused, so he got up and walked over to Spike. He pocked the sleeping dragon, as he too began to awake from his restful sleep. "Uh.... What is it?" He asked, as he rubbed his eyes. He noticed Zachary looking down at him, with a concern look on his face. "What's wrong?" Zachary looked behind him. "Mom is missing." He said. This got Spikes attention. "What do you mean she's missing? She was here just last night, how could she be gone?" Spike asked, and Zachary just shook his head. "I don't know... Should we check downstairs?" He asked, and Spike nodded. "Yeah, she just might of gotten up early, or something." He said, as he got up. They walked out the door, and into the main hallway. They walked, into the got into the main dinning hall, and saw Twilight's friends, along with Celestia, but there was no Twilight. "Have any of you seen Twilight?" Spike asked. "Yeah, we couldn't find her anywhere..." Zachary said, as he looked at her friends, with concern in his eyes. They all looked at each other, with an uneasy feeling rising inside of them. "Sugarcube.... We haven't seen her all morning..." Applejack said. Zachary had a look of worry on his face "Then... Where is she....?" He asked, with a concern tone. Nopony at that table knew.... > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was missing. She had been missing all morning. Nopony knew where she was, or even how she disappeared. It was like she was just taken from the night, forced out by something. But nopony knew what the something was, and that was making her friends, her number one assistant, and her six year old adopted human son very concern for her safety. The Princes Of The Sun, along with the mane six, the human child, the baby dragon, and the two royal guards that were investigating Blueblood, were all in the throne room, trying to think about what could have happened to their friend. "She wouldn't have just ran off in the middle of the night without telling us!" Rainbow said, whilst hovering off of the ground. They all nodded in agreement with Rainbow, as Zachary spoke up ever so slightly. "Where is she then...?" He asked, in a shaky, quivery voice. He was very worried for her, he wanted her to be okay. After all, she was the one who saved him from John, and gave him a new and wonderful life to live in Equestria. Cloudy Arrow looked at him, with a concern for him, knowing everything he had been through,and knowing that he didn't deserve anymore heartache. "Don't worry kid, we'll find her, promise." Cloudy Arrow said, with the best comforting smile that he could muster. Zachary, in return, nodded his head in understatement. That's when Celestia decided it was the time to speak up. "I too am deeply concerned about Twilight's disappearance, but we must go off on what we know." Celestia said, as she looked at both Spike and Zachary. "You were the only two who shared a room with her, did she seem to act strange, or off in any certain way?" Zachary shook his head. "I don't know, I think I fell asleep after dinner." He said, with an apologetic look. Celestia noticed this, and gave him a soft smile. "It's alright, young one. I do not blame you." Celestia said in a soft, caring tone. She then turned to Spike, now putting on a more serious look. "Did you see Twilight doing something suspicious?" Spike shook his head. "No.... But there were some weird things that did happen last night..." Spike said, and Celestia raised a brow. "What happened last night, Spike?" She asked, with curiosity in her face. "Well, last night, we ran into your nephew, Blueblood." Spike began. "He was acting weird again, this time he wanted to have Zachary live at the castle on the week days, and have him live with Twilight only on the weekends." Zachary looked at him, shock in his eyes, and Spike noticed this. "Don't worry, she didn't agree." Spike said, which made Zachary calm down a bit. "Anyway, after Twilight refused to do so, he walked away, but then she felt a sharp pain come from the back of her neck. Then..." Spike then had a sorrowful look put on his face, just like Zachary's at that same moment. "Then she just vanished! I didn't see her this morning, and I don't know where she could be, and I'm so worried about her!" Celestia herself was now having a feeling of sadness wash over her, as she too missed her ex-student, and her friend, and she more than anything wanted to see her again, just to make sure she was alright and safe. "Thank you for that, Spike." Celestia said, as her face turned stern once again. "That does sound like something my nephew would do, but the reason for him being so nice to Zachary, is even beyond me." She closed her eyes, and turned to her thoughts for a solution that could lead them to Twilight. "What should we do now....?" Fluttershy asked, while rubbing her forearm. Celestia got an idea on where Twilight could be, or where a lead to her whereabouts. It was so obvious, that she was even shocked that she didn't see it before. "Well, first off, we should check Canterlot library." Celestia said, as she put a hopeful smile onto her face. "She probably either went there, and hasn't come back yet, or she left something there for us to find, to lead to where she could be." They all nodded in agreement. "Alright then, let's get going!" Rainbow said, as they all nodded in agreement. Celestia got off of her throne chair, which made TriforceAndroid walk up to her. "Princess, please forgive me, but don't you think that you should be watching over the castle?" He asked, looking up at the goddess herself. "I didn't really have any plans for today, so Canterlot should be safe right now." Celestia said. "Besides, as long as I'm still in the city, things should be fine." TriforceAndroid nodded with understatement, as he turned back to the group. "Alright, let's check out the library." He said, as they all nodded in agreement. They all began to walk out of the castle, when Blueblood walked right into the room with them. "Oh, hello there." Blueblood said, as he put on yet another fake smile, one that they could easily tell was fake. "Have any of you seen Twilight? I have been looking all over for her." Cloudy Arrow shook his head, while he walked up to the spoiled prince himself. "What do you want, Blueblood?" He asked, in a sort of a low growl. He was still suspicious on the odd way that he was acting. Blueblood put on an innocent look. "Me....? I just want to know where Twilight is, to ask her something important about Zachary right there." He replied, pointing a hoof at the child. "No Blueblood, you're not going to "Watch Over Zachary" Or whatever it is that you want to do." Spike said, as he too walked up to him. "Excuses me, but are you Zachary?" Blueblood asked, with his snooty tone returning to him. "That's right,m your not! So why don't you stop being rude, and let him speak for himself." Zachary started to fell tension rise inside him, as he didn't want to do or say anything that would offend the prince. "Well, um...." Zachary said, as he looked down at his shaking hands. "I..... Think I should wait until Twilight gets back, to see what she thinks about this....." Hearing this made Blueblood huff with defeat. "Fine, but I'm coming to look for her with you guys." Blueblood said, with an annoyed sigh at the end of that sentence. "Nephew, are you sure that you want to come?" Celestia asked, with a look of worry on her face. "I mean, you don't really like the library, and that's the place were going to try and look for her first." "Yes, I'm sure!" Blueblood said, now having a smile form onto his face. "If I wasn't convinced before, than I am now." The mane six looked at each other, not really sure what to make of Bluebloods strange behavior. "Okay then...." Rainbow said, as she rubbed the back of her head, with uncertainty. "Lets.... get going then, I guess...." They all were getting unsettling vibes from Blueblood as they made their way out of the castle. Even Celestia thought that he was up to something suspicious, but shrugged it off as him just trying to be nicer. "Well, we can defiantly keep our eye on him from here now... which might not be such a good thing." TriforceAndroid said to Cloudy Arrow, who nodded in response. "Yeah, well, maybe we'll be able to find something at the library this time around." Cloudy Arrow replied, with a hopeful look in his eyes. I hope that we can find something there... He thought to himself, as they continued their walk down into Canterlot, where not a lot of ponies were out, only a few were roaming the streets. Zachary looked down at the ground as he walked, still with a sorrowful expression. Why would Twilight just leave like that without telling anypony? Maybe she just went out for something, and hasn't come back yet.... He thought to himself, as he put a warm smile on his face, however, it didn't last very long, as he came to another realization. But she's been gone all morning, and now it's past noon. Where could she be? He kept to himself as they walked, nopony was really talking with each other, as there wasn't much to say at that moment. However, there was one pony who noticed Zachary's behavior. Well, more like a dragon. "Zachary...." Spike said, as he got closer to the human child, who's emotions were crystal clear. "Believe me when I tell you that I know how you're feeling." Zachary looked at him, still with a sorrowful face. "You... You do?" He asked, and Spike nodded. "Yeah, I've been Twilight's number one assistant ever since I was born." Spike said, with a soft, yet a bit of a crackling tone. "She always treated me like her own little brother, even if time were dark, or tough, she always pulled through for me." He put on a hopeful smile once more, as he looked at Zachary. "She always pulled through for me, she will definitely pull through for you too." Zachary gave Spike a look of happiness, but uncertainty. "Are you sure?" He asked, and Spike nodded once more. "Of course she will." Spike started. "She does consider you her son after all, so she will do everything she can to get back, where ever she is." He stopped for a second, putting on a small grin. "That is, unless she just went on a walk or something, and we're the ones over reacting." They both laughed at this. Celestia heard them from where she was walking, and smiled. That would be rather silly if that were the case. She thought, before another serious thought came to her mind. But.... With all the ponies going missing, it's just too hard to tell whether she is just doing something, and forgot to tell us, or if she was somehow taken by a monster..... Or worse.... Celestia shook those thoughts away. She couldn't stand the thought of losing her faithful student, and her friend that she spent those years with, watching her grow up into the alicorn princess she is today. We'll find you soon, Twilight... Celestia said in her thoughts, as the others were in they're own thoughts as well. Even though Spike had helped calm his nervous thoughts and his uneasiness, he still was worried about Twilight, but then he thought about what Spike said. We might just be over reacting..... whatever that means.... Zachary thought to himself, trying to make himself feel better, and it was only working a little. I hope we find you soon, mommy. Please- His thoughts were cut off, when he felt a sharp pain come from somewhere in his body again. In the same place he got shot at once again. He stopped, and put his hand over his wound. This time, it felt different. He didn't know why, but it was the same type of pain that wouldn't go away, unless Twilight used her magic to numb it enough so that he couldn't feel it. "Are you alright?" Celestia asked, and as she did, the pain just went away. They all gave him a look of concern, except Blueblood, who only gave him a look of confusion on why he was in pain. "I'm.... I'm fine....." Zachary said, while taking in some breaths. "The pain went away....." They all had looks of worry on their faces, all except Blueblood, who was thinking about other things. That pain should have went away by now, why is he still having it? Celestia thought to herself. She just didn't get, the best doctors there couldn't even figure out what was wrong with him. She stopped thinking about Zachary's situation for a moment, once she saw that the library was in sight. "Well, here we are, the library." Cloudy Arrow said, pointing his hoof at the building itself. It was a beautiful one, most like the other ones in the city of Canterlot, the only difference is this one if filled with books. No surprise there. "Let's go find Twilight!" Rainbow said, as she flew up to the building, and landing on the ground, allowing her access to the door. They all went in after her, and they all began to start looking around the library for clues. "We should spread out. That way, we can find clues for Twilight, since it doesn't seem like she's here." Celestia said. They all had a look of defeat, as they realized that she was in fact not here, but they knew that there could be something here that could lead them to her. "Blueblood, you can be with my two guard ponies." Celestia said, causing a low groan from the both of them, though she couldn't hear it. "Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Zachary can be together." They all nodded in agreement. "Fluttershy and Applejack, you may come with me." They all nodded, as they walked over to the princess of the sun. After that, they all just began to spread out over the library. "Come on, kid. Lets check over there." Rainbow said, as both Zachary and Pinkie went over to that area. As they were checking out that area, the others were checking out other areas in the library. Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid were keeping there eye on Blueblood, as he didn't really seem to care about finding Twilight, and Celestia's group was looking at a whole bunch of other things. "Mommy, I miss you...." Zachary said to himself, as he looked around the library with Rainbow and Pinkie. As he looked, he found a book, one that he recognized. It was a book that Twilight read to him often, and it was book that he enjoys quiet a bit. "We'll find her, don't be sad." The voice of Pinkie said from behind him, causing him to jump a little. "Pinkie, you scared me!" Zachary said, and she giggled. "Sorry, I have that effect on other ponies." Pinkie said, as she looked at the book that he was holding. "What's that book you got there?" Zachary showed her the title of the book, and Pinkie giggled again. "Oh yeah, I know that book." "Yeah, Mom read it to me a lot, I think its a really good-" Zachary was saying, but stopped once he felt something. It wasn't painful, but it was weird. It came from the side of his head, like it was drilling its way inside, though it didn't hurt. "Is something wrong little guy?" Pinkie asked, as his face went blank. Rainbow noticed this, and came over to see what was wrong with him. "Kid, are you alright?" Rainbow asked, but to now avail. He couldn't see them at all, or even hear them. All he could see, was the faint, static filled image or Twilight Sparkle, his mother. "Zach.................Wh.............re......................u................................f.......................Plea........Resp.................Made................e.................dis..........r...................Wi...............B...............yo............" Suddenly, Zachary came out of his sudden confusion, causing him to fall back into a bookcase that he was behind, having some books fall over in the process. "Zachary, are ya alright?" Applejack asked, causing Zachary's head to snap up to look at her. "I saw Mom...." He said, while rubbing his head. They all gasped, Blueblood getting a look of uneasiness on him. "Did she say anything? Anything that could lead us to her?" Rainbow asked, and Zachary got a nervous expression on. "She tried, but I couldn't hear her." Zachary said, with a sad look. "That's alright, Sugar-cube, but we need to still find her." Applejack said, ash she looked at the bookshelf, in the place where all the books fell off. There was a door behind it. "Woah, why is there a door right there?" Rainbow asked, and they all shook their heads, as none of them knew. "Lets move the bookshelf, and find out." TriforceAndroid said, as him and Cloudy Arrow moved the bookshelf out of the way, which was easy, due to the fact that there were no others around it. They were right, there was a hidden door behind it. "Why is this hidden?" Rainbow asked, and nopony really had an answer for that. "There's only one way to find out...." Cloudy Arrow said, as he walked up to the door, which opened with ease. "Lets go" With that, Rainbow, Cloudy Arrow, and Zachary made there way in first. SLAM The door all the sudden slammed shut behind them, causing them to turn around. There was barley any light in there, but there was enough to see that the door was slammed shut. Locked. No matter how much they tried, they couldn't get the door opened. "Are you alright?" Celestia asked, and Rainbow pounded on the door. "Yeah, were just locked in! Can you get us out?" She asked, and the sound of someone using there magic was heard through out the hallow room. "No, this door is magic proofed Celestia said back, trying to get the door opened once more, but failing at doing so. "Is there another way you can get out?" Cloudy Arrow looked behind him, and saw that there was another door. He could easily open it. "Yes, Princess." Cloudy Arrow replied. "Good, go through it, and see if there is another way out. I'll see if I can get the librarian to open the door." Celestia said back, as Rainbow, Zachary, and Cloudy Arrow heard he walk away. They turned back to the door, and they slowly made their way in. However, Zachary was getting an uneasy feeling. Like there was something in there, that should be left alone........ But they had no other choice...... But to walk in............. > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What are we going to do?" Rainbow asked, mostly to herself, however Cloudy Arrow was quick to respond. "Well, Princess Celestia gave us orders to try to find another exit, so I'm assuming that we do that." Cloudy Arrow said, before he looked down at his hooves, a thought coming to his mind. What if Blueblood had been going through this door when me and TriforceAndroid saw him come here? It would make sense, after all. When TriforceAndroid and him first looked in the library, they couldn't find anything that would make Blueblood seem suspicious, but now, it appeared that they found something. "Well, If we should go find another exit, why haven't we started that?" Rainbow asked, getting impatient. Cloudy Arrow shrugged, as he pointed a hoof down the long dark hallway that was waiting for them. "Probably because we don't have anything to light our way, Rainbow." He replied, looking around the ground to see if he could find anything at all that would shine out the darkness, and light up their path. Meanwhile, Zachary was just standing by himself, not really wanting to interfere with what Rainbow and The Guard were doing. All he could really think about, was if Twilight was alright, he really hoped that she was, and he would do anything to find her, and be with her again. I miss you, mommy, I hope that we find you soon... He said to himself in his thoughts, which were soon cut off by the sound of Rainbows voice. "Aha! I found a lantern!" She said, pointing a hoof at the wall, which had a hook that was holding the said lantern. Cloudy Arrow walked up to it, and grabbed the handle with his hoof. The lantern was one of those ones where you needed oil for it in order to light up. This however, would make it so that even the smallest mistake could make it a dangerous hazard. "We have to be extremely careful with this." Cloudy Arrow warned, as he picked up the nearby oil on the ground, and used it on the lantern, then he lit it up, causing a bright orange flame to come out of it. "There we go, now that we can see, lets go." Rainbow just let out a nod of agreement, as she looked at Zachary, who got the message, and started following the both of them into the dark abyss. As the walked down the hallway, they all started to notice weird things about it. First off, it was way more linear than most hallways that you would find in Equestria, it was so linear, that Cloudy Arrow, Rainbow Dash, and Zachary had to be in sort of a line in order to fit in the hallway. Other things like it was nice and clean, it would be shiny if it was in sunlight, which wasn't normal for an underground hallway, which would most likely be dirty, old, and falling apart, but this one wasn't. It also wasn't helping with the fact that the hallway was cramped. "It's way too cramped in here!" Rainbow complained, as she did her best to not walk into Cloudy Arrow, who was also having some difficulty holding the lantern in his mouth, trying to have it not hit against the wall. That would be bad if that happened. "Why would somepony build a hallway like this?" Cloudy Arrow asked himself, though his voice was muffled because of the lantern. Zachary mostly kept to himself, although he did agree with both Rainbow and Cloudy about the hallway. It was way too linear. "Where's an exit? I can't take this any longer!" Rainbow kept complaining, but her calls were ignored by the other two she was with. As they continued, the light lit up more and more of the hallway, which in return, gave away the position of a door that was slightly opened. "Huh, what's that?" Zachary asked, pointing to the small door. Rainbow looked at the door however, she was too big to fit through it, no matter how much she tried to get into the enclosed space. "I can't fit through here!" Rainbow said, as Cloudy Arrow slowly put his lantern onto the ground, as he walked towards the small door. He also attempted to fit through the small space, but just like Rainbow, it was to no avail. "Why is this small space so... Small?" Cloudy Arrow asked himself, clearly frustrated that he was too big to fit. Rainbow suddenly had an idea, that involved Zachary. "We may be too big, but Zachary isn't." Rainbow said, pointing her hoof at the young child, who had a shocked expression on his face. "Me? Why me?" He asked, looking worried. "What if something happens to me? What if I get hurt really badly? What if-" His rambling was cut off when Rainbow came up to him, and placed her hoof on his shoulder, giving him a smile of confidence. "You don't have to worry about any of that." Rainbow said, as she looked back at the3 door. "I wouldn't let you go inside if there was something dangerous in there, plus if there is, then we'll be here to get you out of that danger." Cloudy Arrow just nodded with agreement. Zachary looked up at the rainbow maned Pegasus, with an unsure look, but then he gulped down all of his fears, and nodded. "Al-alright then, I'll go." He said, as Rainbow once again smiled at him. "Alright, you should take the lantern in there, but be careful, alright?" Rainbow said, as Zachary picked up the brightly lit lantern, and slowly made his way through the small door. "If somethings wrong, just howler." Cloudy Arrow called, Zachary already making his way into what appeared to be some sort of room, that was a filthy mess. Papers were scattered everywhere, most of them were wet from an unknown source. In the middle of all of that, rested a small notebook. It looked like it was from the human world. Zachary, still trying to be careful, walked over to the notebook. "What do you see in there?" Rainbow called out, making Zachary jump up a bit. The shock of the unexpected call slowly disappeared, as he picked up the notebook, and did his best to read the title of it, though he still wasn't very good at reading. Twilight however, was helping him with that. "The dairy of John......" Zachary read out loud, as he heard only silence as a response. Rainbow and Cloudy Arrow were shocked by this. There were no ponies that were named John, and the only two other humans that came to this world, were Melissa and John, but if this did belong to the real John, then how did it get here? "Can you bring it out to us?" Rainbow asked, making Zachary make his way out of the small room, still being extremely careful with the lantern that was in his hands. Once he was out of the small area, he handed the notebook to Rainbow, who also read the title. She knew that Zachary wasn't lying, as it said the exact thing that Zachary read. "This is John's diary." Rainbow said. She realized the date that was on it, was dated all the way back to 1977. Johns childhood. Rainbow opened it up, only to have Cloudy Arrow put a hoof on her. "Rainbow, why are you reading his journal? There's no reason too, he's on the moon." Cloudy Arrow said, as Rainbow shrugged his hoof off of her. Some of the pages in the beginning seemed to be torn out, but there was still a good amount left to read. "I just want to see if there was any other reason why John was such a jerk, that's all." Rainbow said, as she began to read the badly written handwriting that was done by John when he was younger. 1977 Dear Diary, My name is John, and my mommy is helping me write this, so I don't make any spelling mistakes. Today was a good day! I found a pretty pocket watch. Mommy says that it has a lot of gems on it, and that the one that's purple is her favorite one. I'm keeping it safe in a box, so that no one tries to take it. My mommy talked to my great grandpa, who said he made the watch, and sold it to a detective, but he doesn't know how it got here. Mommy has to go now, so that means I can't write for now. I'll write back to you later. After Rainbow finished reading the diary entry, she looked at Cloudy Arrow, and Zachary, who just had looks of uncertainty on there faces. Cloudy Arrow decided to speak up. "It seems that John... Wasn't always the monster he is made out to be." He said, and Rainbow nodded in agreement . "Yeah, but the child that wrote this, isn't the same one that hurt Zachary, or is the same one who murdered that filly. This one is different." Rainbow said, as she looked down at Zachary, who had a look of uneasiness just by hearing that name. "I wonder if there was a different reason for hurting him, than just his father causing Johns daughters death." She flipped the page over to the next one, and saw that he wrote this one a few years later, the ones coming before it were once again ripped out. This was around the time he was ten, by the looks of it. Rainbow read the next entry. 1983 Dear Diary, My mom has been gone a lot. She doesn't come straight home after work anymore, instead, she goes to the bar. She still tries to be nice around me, but I can tell she blames me for all of the debt problems we have. If only I didn't get into that stupid accident that made me go to the hospital. We might have to move out of this house soon. Rainbow, along with the others were shocked to hear this. They thought John was just a hateful human being, who did all of those things to Zachary, just for some revenge. However, it didn't really seem like that was the case. In fact, there was probably more to John that what meets the eye. "Wow...." Rainbow said, shocked at this. They were all speechless. They stayed that way, until Rainbow broke the silence. "there's a lot more entry's in here, lets read a couple more." They didn't seem to care about getting out anymore. They just wanted to know what happened to John when he was younger. They were about to find out. 1986 Dear Diary, I hate myself. I hate my life! My mom hates me! She blames me for all of are debt problems, she blames me for her drinking problem! She blames me for everything! Why did it have to come to this?! I re-read the entry I made when I was five. When my mom actually loved me. She doesn't love me anymore. She hates me now, and I blame myself for everything that has happened to us. I feel like all my mental sanity is flowing down the river. I have no friends, no one to care for me, I have nothing! I've started hearing voices, voices that just tell me that I am just a worthless pile of garbage, and that I would be better off if I was dead. I guess maybe I should listen to them.... After that next part, rainbow couldn't help but to feel a sting of guilt stab through her chest. He was alone, he felt like he had nopony at all. "I can't believe we sent him to the moon, to his death, all because he just felt unloved." Rainbow said to herself mostly. "Rainbow... How many more entry's are left?" Cloudy Arrow asked, and Rainbow flipped through the pages. "Only two more left. We should read the rest of them, to see what else he went through." Rainbow said, as she began to read the next entry. 2015 Dear Diary, I love my life again! It took a while, but I really do love my life again. I've started a family with the most beautiful girl in the world. Her name is Melissa, and we have a wonderful daughter named Angela! My therapist told me that what happened wasn't my fault. I no longer have thoughts about death or suicide. Melissa is taking our daughter to an amusement park to ride on some of the rides they have. I wont be able to go, however due to business. I hope they have a great time! Rainbow stopped reading, as she looked back at the two, with concern in her eyes. Zachary, who mostly stayed quit through out the readings, knew what happened at that amusement park that day. They all knew, even Cloudy Arrow knew, due to the fact that this story spread all over Equestria. "There's only one more entry in here...." Rainbow said, as she flipped to that page, and began to read what was on it. 2016 Dear Diary, I've lost everything. Everything in my life is gone, just taken from me, because my stupid wife took our daughter on that ride..... My daughter is dead. She died because I wasn't there for her, just like I wasn't there to help out my mother with her drinking problem, just like I wasn't there for her when she was on her death bed. I've betrayed my family. Those voices came back again, this time they're saying that something should be done about what happened to my daughter. They're saying that even though I can no longer get anymore revenge on the man who took away my daughter, I heard that his son was put in the foster care system. The voices are telling me to get him. The bring him home with me. They're telling me to hurt him. I feel myself losing more sanity as the days pass on. I can't keep the voices under control. I'm not meant to be in control. The voices are, and I'm going to let them control my mind and body. I'm going to do whatever they tell me to do, because I don't see any reason in living anymore. Rainbow was utterly shocked. She knew what happened to John. He was powerless to fight against the voices that were darkening his mind, and in the end, he just let them control him like a puppet. John didn't die on the moon. He died a long time ago, when he let those voices consume his mind, and eat at his mental sanity. Every one that was in that room, felt guilt for him. There was nothing they could do for him now, though. "Come on, guys. Lets find another way out of here." Rainbow Dash said. Neither Cloudy Arrow or Zachary had any reason to argue. They took the book with them, to show to the rest of their friends later. They needed to know the truth. They walked in the cramped up hallway was mostly quit, except for the hoof steps and footsteps on the ground. They were all having different thoughts, they were mostly similar, but they each were different in their own way. "Hopefully we get out of here soon," Zachary said, as he looked around the hallway. No longer was it clean and shinny if in the sun, but now it was rusted, dark, and gritty. Not only that, but it slowly started to get less and less linear. This was good for them, because now they could all fit perfectly. "This feels a lot better." Cloudy Arrow commented,loving the feeling of having more room. Rainbow was about to reply with something, but stopped when she heard a door slamming open in the distance behind them. They all turned around, with shocked, yet curious looks on their faces. "What was that?" Zachary asked. They at first thought it meant that the others managed to get the door opened, but they couldn't be more wrong. They heard the sound of hoof steps running towards them, at a very fats pace. They all started to get a bad vibe from all of this. "Come on, we should see who that-" Rainbow was cut off, when she heard saw something teleport right in front of them. It was a dark, shadowy figure. It looked like a unicorn, however, it was blacked out, and seemed to be featureless. It pulled something out from somewhere in it's body, and threw it at them. Thanks to the extra room, the managed to dodge the failed attempt if an attack. They saw glass shatter on the ground , as some sort of liquid was glowing. That glow was all too familiar to Cloudy Arrow. "Oh no." He said, panic growing in his voice. "What? We can take this pony on!" Rainbow said, as she was ready to fly towards the pony, but Cloudy stopped her. "no, don't get near it! It has sleep poisons with them!" Rainbow recognize the name from Twilight. It's something that intoxicates you, making you do weird things, before you eventually fall asleep for a long period of time. When you wake up, the effects are still there. "Run!" Rainbow shouted, as they all turned the other way, and ran in the other direction. Cloudy didn't care about the lantern hitting the walls anymore, he just needed to escape. Eventually, a door came into sight, as they got closer to it. They made it, and Rainbow basically had to shove Zachary inside. He made it in, however, the door was made of a heavy marital, which nearly slammed shut , if it weren't for Rainbow holding it with her hooves. The door wouldn't budge anymore, no matter how much Rainbow and Cloudy Arrow tried. Zachary was trying to get the door un-jammed as well, to save Rainbow and Cloudy Arrow. The dark figure appeared from behind them, holding two sleeping poisons. "No!" Zachary shouted towards the dark pony, as it threw the two potions, that made direct contact with the back of their heads. They were stunned, before they fell back, the door got un-jammed, as it closed, getting locked. The shadow pony pounded on the door, trying to get it opened, to no avail. Eventually, it stopped, leaving Zachary in a teary mess. He cried out his heard, as he felt like all of his emotions were leaving his body, except for one. Guilt. The guilt he felt. He felt like he failed his two friends. He felt like he failed everypony. Including his mother. "I-I'm so sorry...." He said, while sniffling the rest of the tears away. Once he did, he turned around. Not having the lantern, the only source of light, was coming from a table, that had a book on it. Zachary, seeing nothing else he could do, walked up to the book, and tried his best to read the title. Plans of Blueblood. "Whats this?" Zachary asked himself, as he opened the cover of the book, and saw words on one page. 1-5 Terminated Ponies 6-9 The Plans Zachary could defiantly read what it said at the top, as he opened the book. What he saw, horrified him. It was the pictures of ponies, all that went missing. Almost all of them had one word written over them in red. "Terminate" Zachary knew what that word meant, as he saw words under the ponies pictures. Some of them said. "Important Ponies" or "Ponies that are in the way" However, there were a few that didn't have the red word over them. He heard a lot of bad things about those ponies. There was one he recognized, that he heard a lot of bad stuff about. He was starting to wonder if those were true. "Wait-" Zachary said, as he flipped through the book, before finding what he was looking for. "Twilight Sparkle." "Terminated." "Important Pony" He could fell a gasp escape his throat, as he felt his whole world crumble around him. Did Blueblood really do that to her. Was she.... No, she couldn't be. She was still out there, somewhere. He remembered that there was a section with "The Plans" Zachary quickly flipped to that page, and read what it said. Step 1: Terminate all the ponies that are important, including Celestia and Luna. Step 2: Use dark magic to take their magic. Step 3: Rule over Equestria as the new king. Zachary let out another audible gasp, as he realized it. Blueblood took all of the ponies that were important, as in good at magic, and all the ones that were in his way. He got did something with them, took them somewhere, where he didn't know. His mom was still out there, but her magic might already be gone. "What I'm I going to do?" Zachary asked himself. He all the sudden jumped in surprise, when he heard the loud banging on the door again. The lights on the table began to flicker, until the room turned into nothing but darkness. Zachary could no longer see anything. Something pounded against the door again, causing Zachary to jump back, with tears. Then, the door slammed open, as the sound of hoof steps came running towards him. He didn't have anytime to dodge, as the thing grabbed him, silencing his screams. A few moments ago.... "What do you mean there's nothing you can do about it?!" TriforceAndroid asked the librarian, who just shrugged. "I don't know how to get that door opened. It hasn't opened in years, and there is no other exist through there." The librarian replied, looking at Blueblood nervously. He didn't seem to care at what was going on. "Can you please at least try?" Celestia asked, and the librarian shook her head. "Sorry, but the answer is no. I'm not allowed to go back there." She looked at Blueblood, who seemed to be focusing on Triforces head. "Well, maybe we can- AHHH!" He screamed in pain, as he felt a rush of pain go through his head. The thing Blueblood struck Triforce with, also struck the rest of them, who were powerless to do anything about it. They all screamed, even Celestia screamed with pain. Their screams soon came to an end, when all their bodies went limp. "Thank you for helping me out with that." Blueblood thanked, as he went over to the ponies he made faint. He looked at the librarian, who was still having a nervous look. "Now, since I can't go through that door, I'm sending in my dark pony to go through it. If it brings back Zachary and the other two, then I wont do anything to you when I take over." The librarian nodded, with nervousness. Blueblood smiled, as he focused his magic, then he used the teleportation spell to go back to the castle. He needed Zachary. He would do everything to get Zachary. It was his time to rule Equestria. Forever........ > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few days ago.... Luna's moon shinned down upon Canterlot, as many of the residents were peacefully sleeping in their beds. One of them, happened to be the princess of friendship, Twilight Sparkle. Though she was not sleeping in her own bed, she was sleeping in one of the beds in Canterlot castle, the place where Celestia, along with her sister lived at. Twilight was not alone in the room, as she had her assistant Spike, and her adopted human child, Zachary sleeping in the same room with her. She had her wing placed softly, and with protection around her sons body, as they both peacefully slept. Twilight's sleep was cut short however, when she hear the noise of the bedroom door open. Due to the fact that she could be a light sleeper sometimes, she could often wake up to the slightest noise, even though most of the time she had a hard time waking up to such things. She rubbed her eyes, as she got up slowly, trying her best not to wake up the sleeping child next to her. "Who's there....?" She asked groggily. When her vision came back in full force, she could see the darkened figure of a unicorn pony walking into the room. Once that unicorn walked into the light of the moon, Twilight could easily see who it was. It was prince Blueblood. "Blueblood! What are you doing in her?" He just chuckled as a response. "Oh Twilight, you have made a terrible mistake, yes you have indeed." Blueblood said, laughing quietly. "What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, before shaking her head. "Get out! We're trying to get some sleep here!" He in response, just shook his head in disagreement. "Oh no Twilight, you got this all wrong. It is you that will be leaving this room. In fact, you wont even be able to use your body after I'm done with you." He said, making Twilight even more annoyed than she had to be. "Stop it, or I'll say to Celestia that you wouldn't leave us alone, and then you'll get punished." Twilight said, in a low harsh whisper. "Hey, do you remember that pain you had in your neck earlier?" Blueblood asked, causing Twilight to be stunned. "What...? How did you know about that?" She asked, still annoyed. He just smiled, as his horn lit up, causing green magic to come out of it, and to flow into Twilight's neck, in the same place she felt that pain in. She gritted her teeth, as she felt herself loose control of her own body. Soon, she fell off the bed, causing Zachary to jolt up. However, him being extremely tired, he fell back to sleep. "Good now, don't wake up Zachary, be good and stay there, I still want you, and nopony else is going to have you." He said, as he levitated Twilight out of the room, and into the dark abyss that were the hallways. He was taking her in a place nopony could find her, until it was time to use her. Present day Zachary woke up to a loud noise, that also caused him to jolt up in surprise. As he looked around, he could see that he was in the castles throne room, however there was something different about it. It was in a darker color, and instead of the two thrones that were there for both of the princesses, instead there was only one, and the pony sitting in that throne was none other than Blueblood. "Why hello there Zachary, it's nice to see that you're up." He chuckled, before putting on a serious face. "After your three day nap." This caused the young child to drop his jaw with surprise. "Wait, I've been out for three days?!" He asked, with a shocked expression on his small face. "Yep, and I, being as great as I am, decided to look over you." He said, putting on a fake sadden look. "It's too bad that your mommy couldn't be here to do that. What a shame..." Zachary quickly got up, and gave an angry look at the rotten prince. "No, you're the one who took her away!" He replied, feeling his anger growing stronger and stronger by the second. "What did you do with her?! Give her back to me!" Blueblood once again let out one of his cursed chuckles. "Oh, silly child. You can't have her back, you belong to me now, and you will never see her again." He responded, before continuing. "In fact, I got Celesta, Luna, and most of the ponies you've met down in Canterlot dungeons, except for you." Zachary seemed confused more than anything. "So why did you keep me up here? Why didn't you also put me in the dungeons?" Zachary asked, and Blueblood chuckled. "Isn't it obvious?" He asked, Zachary just being silent for that. "It's simple, you're popular in this world. The only human that has been here. Everypony knows your story. You had a great family in your homeland, then your dad looses his job, and so does your mom. Then, he kills your mom, making him go to this jail place in the human world. You get adopted by two of the most horrible humans ever, and Princess Luna makes you come here. You nearly get killed by getting shot by the one named John. Do you see my point now?" Zachary still didn't understand, and Blueblood let out an annoyed sigh, whilst putting a hoof up to his face with annoyance. "You can make a good name for myself, you knucklehead!" Blueblood shouted, causing the young child to flinch back a bit. "I need you to say how much I helped you ever since you came here, how I'm such a great pony to be around, and how I'm better that Celestia or Luna could ever hope to be, it's that simple!" Zachary looked shocked, but then he put on a brave face, as he walked closer to the snobby prince. "You think I'll ever do that?! Help you after everything you have done?! Forget it, I would rather die than do that!" Zachary shouted, while staring daggers at the prince. He sighed, as he looked at the two royal guards that he had taken control of. "Fine, have it that way. But just so you know, now the citizens will have to suffer from your mistake." Blueblood smirked, as he lifted a hoof, pointing to the exit of the room. "Guards, round up the ponies of Canterlot. They don't deserve to have any sort of freedom. Take them to the dungeons, and make a few build a statue of me or something." The guards left without saying anything, due to Blueblood using the same spell he did on Twilight. "What... What are you going to do with me?" Zachary asked timidly. Blueblood let out a smile, as the door to the throne room creaked open, as the both looked. It was the same shadow pony that had taken him from the hidden library underground. "I'm extremely bored, so I want you to fight this dark pony. If you win, then I'll throw you in the dungeons with your fellow friends. If you loose, then I'll throw you in a dungeon without your friends." Blueblood said. Zachary wasn't much of a fighter, but he turned around, and raised his fist up, ready to defend himself from whatever it was. "Oh, and there's a catch as well...." He shinned his horn, as the darkness around the pony started to disappear, revealing the pony under it. The pony caused Zachary to freeze. It was Twilight. His mother. She still had some of the shadow around her eyes, her eyes no longer being lavender, but instead a horrifying green glowing color. Her body twitched unnaturally, as she made her way over to the small child, who was now horrified. "M-mommy...?" He asked, while trembling with the sudden fear he had in his heart. She just walked closer and closer to him, as Blueblood laughed. He had to fight his own adopted mother. A few moments ago... Cloudy Arrow felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, as his vision started returning to him. At first, it was blurry, but then it started to get more clear and clear, as he began to recognize the figure above him. The figure was of another pony, who he knew as TriforceAndroid. "My head, ugh..." He said, starting to get up slowly, as the pain he felt grew less and less. As soon as he got up, he began to wobble around, as if he had a long night at a bar. "Whoa dude, take an easy. You've been out the last fey days." TriforceAndroid said, as he reached out a hoof, which Cloudy gradually took. "What happened...?" He asked, rubbing the back of his still aching head. "Blueblood happened." TriforceAndroid replied. "He has Princess Celestia in one of the other dungeons, and he put a thing around her horn so that she can't use any of her magic! Blueblood probably took over Canterlot!" Cloudy Arrow gasped, as he looked around the dark dungeon. "We've got to find a way out of here then!" Cloudy Arrow said, before remembering the other elements. "What about the other elements? Can't they help us?" TriforceAndroid shook his head no in response. "No, I think they have been taken into the other cells. We're on our own right now." He said, as he to began to look around. "We need to escape from here, and take down Blueblood!" Cloudy nodded in agreement, before he remembered somepony, or more like some human. "Wait, what about Zachary? Is he here?" Cloudy Arrow asked, and TriforceAndroid sadly shook his head. "No, he's with Blueblood. I don't know what he wants with the child, but whatever it is, it can't be good." He replied, as they both suddenly heard a pair of hoof steps coming their way. This gave Cloudy Arrow an idea. "I have an idea! Quickly, hide in a dark area!" He harshly whispered, and TriforceAndroid did just that. As the guard came closer and closer, Cloudy started to act like he was in great pain. He started to groan and make a lot of noises, indicating that he was in pain. "Help me..." He said, as he was holding his side. "You got to get a doctor..." The guard, who was under Bluebloods control, had no idea if he should try to help the inmate, or just keep walking. He thought of the words Blueblood had told him Make sure that our 'guest's are in good health. I might need them later for them to do my bidding. The guard knew that something was wrong, so he levitated one of the keys he had around his neck, and unlocked the cell. "This better be important...." He said, as he walked in to examine Cloudy. As he was doing so, he failed to notice the figure coming out of the darkness. The figure slowly came up to him, with a hoof raised. "I don't see what could be wrong with you. You're fine-" He was cut off, when he felt the hoof make contact with the back of his head, powerful enough to knock him out. Luckily, he had his helmet removed, due to that being the only way that Blueblood could control them. They grabbed the key, and left the cell, locking it so the guard couldn't escape when he awoke. "There, now he wont be a problem any more." TriforceAndroid said, as they both walked down the hallway. They passed many cells, most of them were empty, but they stopped at the ones that had familiar ponies in them. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! All of you!" Cloudy Arrow exclaimed, as he saw the two princesses and the mane six in the cells, the ones that had horns had something around them that didn't let them use magic, and the ones with wings had them tied together. "Cloudy Arrow, TriforceAndroid...... How did you get out of your cells?" Celestia asked, showing signs of weakness in her voice. "We tricked one of the guards. We need to get you out of here!" TriforceAndroid said, as he walked towards the cage. "No, forget about us." Rainbow spoke up, starting to stand. "You have to go and get Zachary, and you have to take down Blueblood." Cloudy Arrow shook his head in disagreement. "No, we can get you guys out of here, we can't do it without you." Cloudy Arrow said, as he tried get the cell opened with his hoof, but failing at doing so. Celestia looked at her two guards. "You have too, I'm sorry, but Blueblood has the key to this cell, and it wont open without it." Celestia explained. "I believe in you two, I don't know why he didn't brainwash you two, but it's up to you two now to get Zachary, and to stop Blueblood. I can't believe my own nephew would ever do this to me, but he did, and he made it very clear. I just wish I could see it before we ended up here..." Celestia said, looking down. Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid looked at each other, before looking back. "Blueblood has the entire royal guard under control, right?" TriforceAndroid said, He remembered when Cloudy Arrow was still knocked out, he heard him talking about it with Celestia and the others. "How are we supposed to defeat him, and get Zachary if he has power like that?" Celestia had an answer. "Try to find Princess Twilight, or try to get a message to the Crystal Empire to help us." Celestia responded, before putting on a soft smile. "You two are some of my best royal guards that I have, I know you can do this. Quickly, go up to where ever Blueblood is, and then free us after he is no longer in power." She was right, Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid were two of her best guards. They knew they had to do something. "Alright... We'll try...." TriforceAndroid said, as the both of them began to walk further down the hallway, receiving a lot of words of support from the mane six and the two princesses. They walked until they found a staircase that lead upwards into the castle. Once they were inside the castle, there was something different about it. They could sense it. It seemed darker than usual, and there were other weird vibes that it was giving off. "Come on, lets go." Cloudy Arrow said, as they both walked down the hallway. Neither of them had their helmets on, so it was easy to walk past the other guards, as they pretended to be hypnotized, which worked well for them. "We're do you think he is?" TriforceAndroid asked, looking around the area. They soon spotted the throne room, and heard an all too familiar voice in there. "He's in the throne room.... Why didn't we try that before...?" His question did not receive an answer, as he and Cloudy Arrow walked up to the door, as the heard the voice of a young child. "M-mommy...?" The voice said, and the both of them knew that voice. It belonged to Zachary. "He's definitely in there!" Cloudy Arrow said, as they both of them rammed through the door. As Blueblood was about to watch the fight between mother and son, he was caught off guard by the sound of the door being forcefully opened. He looked and saw that the only two guards he didn't take control of, were there. "What the- How did you escape from the dungeons?!" Blueblood demanded, and they both chuckled at that. "It wasn't that hard when you only have one guard down there." TriforceAndroid said, wile looking at Zachary, and then gasping at what he saw. He saw the unnatural form of Twilight, who was looking down at her son. She had no control over herself. "What have you done to Twilight?" They both shouted, and Blueblood just shrugged. "I don't know. I guess she finally had enough of the stupid child, and now she wants to get rid of him. It's as simple as that" Blueblood said however, Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid didn't believe such lies. "You're a liar! Twilight wouldn't ever want to get rid of him! You brainwashed her!" Cloudy Arrow claimed, pointing a hoof at him. "Let her go right now!" Blueblood shook his head, as he walked down from his throne. He had gained so much power from the last three days, that it also blinded him. "If you want her back, then all you have to do, is defeat me." Blueblood said, with a smile that could make the bravest pony cower in fear. "Not like that will happen. You're no match for me." He said, as he charged his horn, and shot a beam at them. They both dodged it, as they knew that they had no other option, but to fight him. Meanwhile, the possessed Twilight walked up to Zachary, growling lowly as she did. He backed up, knowing that Twilight would never do this to him. He didn't want to fight her, because he knew that she was still inside there somewhere. He just had to get her out. "Mom, I know your still in there somewhere, please.... Come out, this isn't you...." He pleaded. It seemed to get to her a little, but she shook her head, and gave him a look of anger. I'm not your mother.... It said, as she lit her horn, and blasted magic at Zachary, who quickly dodged the attack. "Mommy, please! I'm your son! I'm your son! I love you mommy. Please...." He said, putting sadness in his voice. The darkness detached itself from Twilight's body, for just a second. "Zachary....?" Twilight asked, before the darkness latched itself back onto her. The smile Zachary got when he thought he snapped Twilight out of it, slowly turned into a frown, as the possessed Twilight ran up to him, with the intent of doing something very bad to him. Cloudy Arrow and TriforceAndroid were also trying their best to defeat Blueblood. They attacked him, trying to apprehend him, but failing at doing so. Blueblood had really gotten more power. "Blueblood, stop! You know this is wrong!" Cloudy Arrow said, as he dodged yet another one of his attacks. "I don't care! Your opinion doesn't matter to me, I will make sure that all of you suffer, I don't care about anypony else." Blueblood shouted. His words were true, he did only care about himself, and he did isolate himself from most other ponies for his life. That's why he lived in the castle, his parents wanted him to make friends, and they though Celestia would hep with that, but no matter what, he just always wanted to be alone, and he wanted power. "Blueblood, if you continue, then we'll have no choice, but to hurt you." TriforceAndroid said, but his words bounced off of Blueblood, as he charged at him. Triforce, in defense, punched him when he got too close. He fell back, and he landed on his forehead. As he did, a loud CRACK rang out, as the two guard ponies had an idea of what just happened. Blueblood got up, and what they saw shocked them. His horn had a large crack down the middle, meaning he could no longer use his magic. "What have you two done?!" He demanded, but then he was quickly brought down by Cloudy Arrow, who apprehended him, and for good measures, punched him in the face. TriforceAndroid also came up to hold him down. Zachary was pleading with Twilight. He refused to fight her, and he wasn't going to fight her, but she had no control over herself. That fact alone made Zachary shudder. "Mommy... It's me! Please.... stop.... I love you.... You saved me from John..." Zachary said. He could tell Twilight was doing everything she could to fight the darkness. She was trying everything she could to fight off the darkness. Zachary knew he just needed a little more before she was free. "Mommy..... you mean everything to me..... please... fight it.... I know you can- ARGGGG!" He suddenly shouted with pain, however, it didn't come from the possessed Twilight. Instead, it came from Zachary side, a little bit of blood coming out. He felt so much pain, that he collapsed, yet despite that, he still tried to get Twilight to snap out of it. "Mommy......" He said, his vision blacking out. Suddenly, he felt magic come into contact with him however, it wasn't painful. Instead, it was warm, welcoming feeling. He could still feel the pain , but he could feel it slowly heal. He looked up, and saw the darkness that was attached to her was above her, and Twilight was using the healing spell that she would use whenever he felt the pain however, it seemed like it wasn't working like how it was before. Twilight had tears streaming down her eyes as she used her magic to try and heal him the best she could. It seemed that the pain he had was somehow fighting back against her though, but she was but she was not going to give up. She grunted, as she kept focusing her magic on him. Zachary then suddenly could no longer feel the pain, and he also felt something fall out from his side. It was the shards of a bullet. The same bullet that Zachary got shot with. Once Twilight stopped using her magic, the darkness above her flew around the room, before it finally disappeared, not being able to find another host worthy of it. Twilight rubbed her head, as she spotted her son, who was slowly beginning to get back onto his feet. "Mom.....?" He asked. Twilight let a few tears fall from her eyes, as she ran up to Zachary \, and pulled him into a tight hug. "Zachary! Are you okay?" She asked worriedly, and he just nodded as a response. "I'm so so sorry that I did that to you. Can.... Can you ever forgive me?" He nodded his head in response. "Of course I can, you weren't in control of yourself, but when you saw me in pain, you got control back." Zachary said. It was true. Twilight did get control back after seeing her son in pain. That's something a true mother does. "I love you mommy..." Twilight smiled, as she rubbed his back with comfort. "I still love you too, and I always will...." Twilight said, as she continued to hold onto him. She looked down at the ground, and saw the bullet shards. "No wonder you were in pain, the doctors forgot to remove this." Zachary didn't care about that right now. He gotten his mother back. Zachary's birthday..... Zachary, who was now seven instead of six, was walking to Sugar-cube-corner with Twilight. Everything was back to normal, Blueblood was thrown in prison for his crimes. Since nopony died, he didn't need to have the same fate that John had. Twilight smiled down at the young child, who was walking close to her. He had no idea about what was to come. "Why are we going to Sugar-cube corner?" Zachary asked, as Twilight once again smiled down at him "You'll see, it's a surprise." Twilight said, as they finally reached the bakery. Once they stepped inside, there was a loud SURPRISE from the crowd. Zachary jumped, but when he saw all the ponies that he had met there, and the banner that said happy birthday, he smiled. "This is for me?" He asked, his smile growing bigger as the crowd shouted yes. Twilight levitated a present that was hiding behind her mane, and handed it to Zachary. "Happy birthday, Zachary. I hope you like it." Twilight said, as Zachary suddenly pulled her into a hug. "The best present I got was you, mommy." Zachary said. This made Twilight's eyes leak tears of joy, as she hugged back. "The best present I got was having you as a son." She said, as they both hugged. This was Zachary's best birthday that he had in a long while. He was happy to live in Equestria, and he always would be. The End