Chapter 1: Prelude

Chapter 1: Prelude

“Dusky, you are hereby banished from the land of Equus for crimes against the races of dragons and ponies!” Princess Celestia’s decree rang across the silent room.

An ash-grey unicorn colt of about 9 years of age struggled from his place between two golden-armored guards, a dull gold tail thrashing around in anger. A ragged black cloak just wasn’t able to cover the symbol of a cloak with stars dotting it adorning his flank. A golden band around his spiraling horn suppressed his magical abilities.

“Let me go! I did what was needed!” He called out in a slightly accented voice alluding to a foreign nature, attempting to pull away from where the guards were leading him.

A white unicorn with a blue mane, Captain Shining Armor, stepped up from his place near the Princess. “To normal ponies, ‘what was needed’ wasn’t the murder of 37 innocents!” Shouts of agreement began to erupt from the crowd of guards, and Celestia called for silence.

“Staying here will only lead to more violence. As of today, you will live our your life in an alternate world, where you will have no need to hurt anyone further.” Dusky began to writhe even more furiously. One of his eyes and part of his face were covered in heavy burn wounds, closing the eye shut, but the remaining golden eye burned with rage.

“How could you call them innocents after what he did to my people? My tribe? My brother?! Those… dragon-lover ponies deserved to die for associating with-”

One of the guards holding Dusky struck him across the back of the head, and stars filled the vision of the criminal. He held back a whimper of pain, and his struggles ceased for a moment before continuing at full strength.

“Let the banishing commence!” A guard pulled a curtain off of a tall object to reveal a large mirror, silver-studded with a strange milky property to the glass surface. Celestia’s horn glowed for a brief second, and the glass turned into a swirling vortex of colors.

The guards began to drag Dusky closer to the mirror, quite obviously a portal now, and he resisted the entire way. However much he pulled himself away, he was no match for the strength of two trained guards, and he soon found himself within a hoof-length of the vortex.

“Dusky… I’m sorry it has to be this way, but you’ll find peace in this new land, I’m sure of it. Away from-”

“Yes, away from all your… enemies.” A deep voice rang out, drawing attention to the sole dragon in the room.

Nearly reaching the ceiling of the chamber, his light blue scales only slightly stood out from the shadows, and long horns drooped down across the sides of his head. Dragon King Torch leered down at the much smaller pony, who froze for a moment in the glare of the titan before doubling his efforts to charge him. Torch stomped a foot on the ground, and bent his head down to stare into the eyes of the pony who had slain those under his rule. .

“We would simply hate it if you needed to be taken back to our labor camps, like we wished, or even-”

“I’LL BE BACK, AND YOU’LL ALL PAY!” Dusky shouted, his lip curling in hatred. A small grin grew across the great dragon’s face, and a puff of smoke drifted out of his nose and he huffed in amusement.

“We’ll see, little pony. We’ll see...”

“Dragon King Torch, I ask that you not antagonize the criminal further.” Celestia stepped forward, causing Torch to bow his head and step back.

“As you wish, Princess.” Although Torch seemed to be finished, Dusky continued to glare at Torch even as the guards pulled him forward further.

Celestia raised her head before the prisoner, pointing a hoof at him with trace amounts of rage in her eyes, and began to repeat her earlier verdict. “Dusky Dune of the Lower Glade, I banish you from the land of Equus for all eternity. You are condemned to live out your life far from that which you wish to harm. We hope that in time you will come to accept these conditions and live peacefully in your new home. Guards… send him through.”

The guards surrounding him pulled him closer to the strange mirror. As they forced him closer, he began to hear odd whispers and a strange pull towards it. “W-What is this? Where am I going?” He cried out, and the noises intensified.

Six unicorns surrounded the mirror, and with their horns aglow six runes of varying colors lit up on the mirrors frame. A red mist began to leech from the runes, creating a rather ghostly aura that stripped the strength from his bones and sapped his will.

In the moment before he was tossed through, it felt like the mirror knew he would be entering whatever it held inside it. His mind began to fray as the lure of the mirror took hold, not too unlike what had haunted the forests of Dusky’s home. The feelings were gone with a burst of pain as a hoof connected with his butt, sending him flying through the portal. A bit rough for a colt as young as he was, but he had committed atrocities unheard of in Equestria for the past… well, almost forever, so it wasn’t unexpected to the battered unicorn colt.

And then Dusky entered the mirror.

A feeling of suction swept across his entire body, and he felt the strange sensation of being pulled and twisted in impossible directions, his body contorting and shifting as the rainbows spiraled past him in the void between worlds. His bones cracked and reformed as his skeletal structure changed, and his flesh bubbled as fur melted to accommodate his new alien genes. None of it hurt, but it wasn’t exactly pleasurable either. The pressure came to a head, and a light appeared in front of him. For a moment he was weightless, like a newborn bird learning to fly for the first time, and then his body met a hard concrete floor.

Dusky tumbled across the steps, the bright light around his new location blinding him. He groaned and tried to stand up. However, his new appendages didn’t make that easy; he now had a fleshy growth at the end of each changed hoof, with the front two having five flexible tendrils and the back two… well, they were covered in strange objects, but through shakily moving them around he could feel five short stubs on each “hoof”.

Dusky slowly tested out his new form, spending the next couple of minutes learning to stand. His body seemed able to balance itself on just the back two legs, and he was soon able to jerkily stumble around. The second he was able to stand, he rushed to where he had come from.

Before him rose a statue of a pony, bereft of a horn, wings, or a cutiemark. Choosing to ignore the irregularities for now, he set his sights upon a mirror embedded in the base of it. He traced the rim of it with his new appendages, finding that it was slightly warm to the touch. He tapped the mirror itself, and his finger sank through the surface into space beyond. Encouraged, he began to fit his entire arm inside, but once he got up to his wrist it froze, and with a painful push he was forcefully ejected from the portal.

“DAMNIT CELESTIA!” He shouted to the world, his voice slightly hoarse but otherwise unchanged. Taking a moment to glance around and at himself with his one good eye.

Dusky was dressed, the feeling of cool cloth comforting to him in the hot air around him. A garment consisting of a dark gold material wrapped around his upper half, holes allowing for his upper limbs and neck to move freely, and ended about where his new, modified hips began.. Another garment, this time dark grey, stretched down from his hips to his knees, allowing for plenty of easy movement. Black object covered his lower former-hooves, and it took him a moment to recognize them as shoes. Growing up, Dusky’s tribe hadn’t had easy access to modern luxuries, and shoes were seen as a non-necessity.

He glanced in the mirror; its swirly quality had faded, leaving a clear surface where he could easily see his face. Dusky’s skin was grey as ash where it showed, and his rather long gold hair fell down to his shoulders in messy clumps. Angry red splotches covered his left eye and parts of his cheek, the skin retaining an odd stretched and strained quality, and the eye remaining clamped shut. He’d been able to open it in the past, but eyesight from that eye was blurry and it hurt to open it, so he just kept it shut since the…incident. Hopefully, it would heal in time. If not, well… he’d deal with it.

Now that he was gone from Equestria, probably for good, Dusky felt…actually, he was still really angry. For the time being, he felt a bit disconnected from the situation, as the inevitable uncertainty and fear hadn’t set in yet.

There seemed to be nobody around as of yet, but Dusky knew that could change, so he picked a path and made his way down a street to the right.

As he staggered forward, the first creeping tendrils of uncertainty began to advance in his mind.

Making a plan always calmed me. Okay, so what do I have? Nothing to trade, or money if this place has any. One pair of clothes, weird as they may be. No place to sleep, so I’ll find an alley or park or something, I’ve done it before. No food…that’ll be hard, but I could always beg or steal, it’s not too difficult. Ponies, or whatever I am here, usually take pity on younger kids. Now I just need to get my bearings and find out exactly where I am.

As Dusky took a left and left the grounds of the building he came out near, another creature crossed his path. This one looked to be the same type of creature as him, standing bipedal like a minotaur, yet her skin was a fair orange color. A stetson hat sat upon her head, and she appeared to be about the same height as Dusky. She gave him an odd look as he stared at her in curiosity, and continued walking past him. Dusky shook off his shock and vaulted forward, walking towards her.

“Hey, wait! Can I ask you a couple of questions?” The girl turned at the question and cocked an eyebrow.

“Uh, sure. What d’ya need?” She spoke with a thick southern accent, which was foreign to Dusky’s ears.

“I’m kinda…new here. Would you mind telling me where we are? And what that building with the pony statue is?” Dusky asked, hoping it wouldn’t seem weird.

The girl’s eyes were drawn to his eye, and Dusky saw her take a step back as she took in the scars. She turned to face him completely and smiled nervously as her demeanor changed completely. “Oh, new here? I’m Applejack, by the way. Nice to meet ya!” She stuck out her hand, and Dusky replicated the strange gesture. Applejack grabbed it and yanked it up and down in an apparent variation of the hoof bump. “Anyway, ya probably know this but we’re in Canterlot. Not the biggest town, but still pretty large. Right now, we’re super close to the Sweete Shoppe, a really nice cafe! That place back there’s Canterlot High School, which you and ah’ll be goin’ to in a couple’a years. By the way, how old’re you? And what’s your name? Ah'm twelve” Applejack cocked her head, stepping closer.

Foggy froze for a moment. He'd only been alive for nine years back in Equestria, but apparently these creatures matured slower. Capitalizing off of their similar height, Foggy grasped at her age. “T-Twelve. I mean, I’m twelve, and my name’s Dusky; Dusky Dune. Thanks for all the help!” Eager to get out of the conversation, Dusky pivoted and walked in the opposite direction that she was originally going in.

“No prob! We're the same age, so I’ll probably see ya in school when summer’s over!” Dusky heard her call but didn’t look back.

School? Yeah, right. I’m basically an undocumented immigrant here. How would I be able to register for a school without documents?
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Dusky continued his walk in the hot summer sun, stopping only to drink from any public water fountains he crossed. He tried not to stray too far from the school, as that was where the portal was, and after asking around a bit (pretending that he was looking for a friend), he found himself outside a small homeless shelter. He’d been living in one for a little while before he was banished but left after only a few days. The one in this version of Canterlot looked crowded, to say the least. The building itself exuded a grimy aura, and the sidewalk leading up to it even looked cracked and broken. It stood two stories high, with large clouded windows.

Dusky hesitantly crept up to the dirty brown door, and with a twist of his hand, it opened with a creak. Dusky jumped at the sudden noise, then steeled his nerves and moved inside.

The interior of the shelter was brightly lit, fluorescent bulbs embedded in the ceiling. The lower floor was all one large room, with countless bunk beds set up in rows. A staircase led to the upper floor, and the sound of running water emanated from past it. A tall purple-skinned woman with short red hair met his gaze from a desk near the door. Dusky walked up to the desk and gave her his best puppy-dog eyes.

“Excuse me, lady, would it be okay if I stayed here for a night or two? My parents are out of town, and I lost the key to our house. It would only be the one night until they get back, and I’m super tired. Pleeease?” He whimpered, false politeness layered thick in his voice.
The lady sighed, seemingly convinced. “Of course you can stay here, kiddo! If you need anything at all, just let me know!”

Score! Dusky internally celebrated, nodded at the woman in thanks and walked past her to a bed in a far corner. Lying was all too easy, Dusky had found out. Everyone in Equestria had been so… trusting, nothing like back home. He hoped everyone here was so easily manipulated, it would make his life much easier.

He had no belongings, so his bed was much simpler compared to the other beds covered in shopping bags or filled with haggard men and women. He sat down on it and contemplated his next move,

I should probably take a shower here, and snag a toothbrush and a few essential toiletries. As for a place to sleep, they’ll call someone to get me if I stay here for too long. In the morning I’ll look around to see if there’s a good place.

A raucous laugh came from a corner, and an obviously drunk man stumbled into the bed next to Dusky.

Here’s to a new life…

This is gonna suck.

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Fire. Consuming, scorching, burning. Previously a means of warmth, of safety. Of shelter.

Now turned to a killer that ravaged the small town.

Cries rang out through the air as Dusky staggered across the streets he once walked with pride, now covered in ash and the rubble of broken homes.

“M-Mama?” He cried out, but no answer met his ears. The only sounds were the crackling of fire and the wails of his people dying.

Dusky broke into a run, dashing through ruined streets and jumping over fallen trees that had once characterized the village. He passed the ruins of the old farmhouse where the nice donkey had lived, past the schoolhouse he’d only spent a few years in, even past the lumber yard, only burning stumps and fallen trees left.

He skidded to a halt in front of his house. Fairly untouched, somehow. He raced forward to open the door, then paused.

The door… trembled. The entire house shook for a moment, and Dusky jumped back as it exploded.

The young pony was sent flying from the blast, burning pain racing through a leg caught in the blast. He staggered to his feet, and froze as a loud thump sounded behind him.

Dusky turned shakily to stare into two enormous, glowing red eyes.

He jerked awake with a gasp, sending a blanket flying and nearly banging his head on the roof of his car. His heart raced a mile a minute, and his breath came out in short gasps.

I haven’t had that nightmare for a while. Damn, now I’m not going to be able to fall asleep again, that sucks.

He checked the time on his cheap, battered cell phone, which read 3:25.
Ugh, now I’ve got to find something to do for the next few hours until school. Maybe…
“Foggy? What’s going on?” A voice sounded from the passenger seat.

Oh damn, I must have woken her up. “Uh, sorry Scootaloo. I… I woke up suddenly, and probably woke you up too. Just go back to sleep, and I’ll wake you up for school.”

The purple-haired girl nodded sleepily. “Okay.” She turned the opposite way, and soon her breathing slowed into the rhythms of sleep.

The troubled teen sighed and laid back down in the seat of his car. One would think that since his banishment, he’d be able to live a normal life. Nope, not for him.

First of all, he was homeless.

It made sense, after all. He’d been banished from Equestria with a total of zero bits, nobody to look after him in this new world, no legal documents, nothing. He’d lived with a nice old man for a while, but that was in the past and he refused to think of that time now. Now he lived in his battered old truck with a friend of sorts, a girl named Scootaloo who he’d met in his old alley before he got his truck. He was 17 now, it’d been almost an entire five years since he’d been banished. Four of those were spent on the streets or in his car, and only one was with the old man. Due to a lack of funds, he hadn’t had his hair cut often, so it fell in a shaggy mop down to his shoulders. Usually it was tied back in a messy ponytail, but today it just fell free. His face was rather scruffy, and a rough beard was starting to form as he hadn’t had a chance to shave in a while. The gym’s showers and bathrooms could only do so much.

Second, his name wasn’t Dusky anymore. He’d… taken on the identity of a boy about his age with a similar skin color named Foggy Horizons. He knew the old Foggy was long deceased with little coverage on his death, so it was easy to simply slip into the role. He’d been able to go to school since his change, and the mantle of Foggy Horizons became his life.

Dusky was long since dead. Only Foggy remained, and he would be stronger for it. That was how the world worked; the bigger and stronger thrived, while the ants and mice of the world struggled and perished.

But every once in a while, an ant managed to take down a lion.

And Foggy wanted… no, he needed to be that ant.

Foggy let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, feeling it crystalize in the cold air above him. It was the middle of fall, and he was definitely feeling it now. His part-time job at Pizza Pal’s Pizzeria wasn’t enough to make him able to afford gas to power the car’s heat through the night, so all that covered him was his dirty winter coat and a fraying blanket. Scootaloo was smaller, so she was able to bundle up in a smaller but better-maintained blanket. Foggy spent most of his sleeping hours rather cold, but he’d be out of this world before it got really cold, hopefully. The window was lowered a crack, just enough to let cold air in to stop them from suffocating

Still, the coming days until his hopeful return would be wracked with cold. It wasn’t quite the chill of winter yet, but it was enough to make him uncomfortable.

Now that he thought about it, he’d had a pretty shitty life since he came to the human world. Homelessness, poverty, the constant ache for revenge, and other various troubles. Sure, there were periods of less difficulty, like living with the old man, but now thinking about that time left a bitter taste in Foggy’s mouth.

It would all be worth it in the end, though. The next cycle was almost upon them, and if their plans went accordingly, he would be back in his true body before the sun set tomorrow.

All of his work, all of his careful planning and deals made, all of his had almost come to fruition. All those hours spent in the science lab during lunch, training his body in the gym, working furiously in his car after school and between work shifts, all that time planning his sweet, sweet revenge… it would all be worth it.

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Foggy breathed out, a cloud of smoke following it. The nicotine from the cigarette held between his fingers sent a rush of pleasure to his brain, and he felt the pressure of the day fade away as his entire body relaxed.
Smoking wasn’t something Foggy was exactly happy about, and using a lighter honestly terrified him, but it got him through the day. He technically wasn’t legally allowed to, so he snuck off to the janitor’s closet or the bathroom whenever he needed a smoke. The day had been particularly stressful so far; he and Sunset Shimmer, his partner in crime, had skipped their first three periods to iron out the plan; Sunset would travel through when it opened up tonight, grab the artifact, and get out. He, Foggy, would simply sleep and wait until the next day, when she would use it for her plans and help him get through. He needed her for her influence, and she needed him for his knowledge on this world and his ideas. The entire thing had been his plan, after all, once he’d heard of the ‘Elements of Harmony’. A silly thing, they were, but with power untold.

Without him, Sunset wouldn’t have a clue of what to do. She used to be a pampered student of that devil Celestia, and all those spell ingredients and work that Foggy had struggled to attain and complete in the Lower Glades was done for her by servants. Foggy was used to needing to make plans fast and act quickly, and while Sunset had other strengths, without him she would be rather helpless in his eyes.

While Sunset had resources and money, due to the fact she’d come through the portal with a sack or two of literal gold coins and jewelry, Foggy had ideas.

And in the right hands, that was more powerful than wealth any day.

With a snort Foggy threw the stub of his cigarette down and stomped it out, turned on his heel, and exited the small closet. He couldn’t waste too much time; he couldn’t afford to get kicked out of school with the way things were. If he did they’d look into his life and find the broken mess of his “family”, and he’d be sent to a foster home far away faster than he could say “Canterlot.”

And maybe, just maybe, deep down Foggy couldn’t help but need to learn more, to become more powerful.

Because as everyone who was anyone knew, knowledge was power.

Well, combined with brawn in this world, that was. What was the point in being smart if you anytime you tried to use your smarts you got beat down? Back home in the Lower Glade unicorns traditionally trained their bodies, but that was just because anyone not fit enough died in the forests. Here though, the nerds were bullied and the popular or strong reigned supreme.

Here, Foggy thrived. He wasn’t the most liked, and he didn’t have the friendship that Equestria saw as so vital, but he had his mind and his body. They rarely failed him, and in the end he would win. He had to win.

And now all he could do was wait.

Patience is a winning man’s skill. And I don’t intend to lose.

Chapter 2: A Hot Mess

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Chapter 2

Foggy’s day had started just like any other. Wake up, eat whatever expired or leftover food he could find with Scoots, drive to school, do most of his homework in or before class, probably get caught, etc. What he didn’t expect to happen was feel a deep vibration in his pocket.

A text? Who would text h-

Oh. OH.

Sunset went through the portal last night! How had he forgotten?! Sure, she’d told him that he wasn’t needed for that step, but to completely forget? He frantically pulled out his dingy, worn phone and checked the screen.
Three messages from Sunset Shimmer, it read. A lower notification warned him of Increased levels of energy emitting from area 1.

Yeah, Foggy was actually pretty good with tech. He’d managed to create a small radar that would just detect levels of electrical energy near the portal and a few other places. A simple receptor, paid for by Sunset of course, transmitted data to his phone directly. Pretty useful, and it showed that Sunset indeed passed through, and returned via, the portal. Surprisingly, there was a third surge; someone was in the process of following her back! The transition was not instantaneous, so it would be an hour or so until she popped through.

Foggy was not happy that he wasn’t there for it. He’d been thoroughly assured that nobody would notice for a few days at least, letting him sleep easy. Apparently, Sunset had at least partially failed. He would have to have a… talk with her later.

Back to the texts. The first one simply read “Going in. Let you know how it goes later.” Simple enough. Second one was “I’m back. Get your ass down here, we have a situation.” A bit more worrying, something definitely went wrong. The final one said “Meet me by Cranky’s class after first period.”

Needless to say, Foggy very nearly broke the law multiple times getting to school as soon as possible.

“Uh, Foggy? Why’re you so tense? And why are we going so fast?” Scoots was obviously confused as to the rush.

Foggy took a long drag of a cigarette, leaning his arm out the window. “It’s nothing, kid. Just something very important happened last night, and something went wrong and I’ve gotta knock some skulls around and fix it.” Scoots quieted down, subdued by his fierce tone.

He’d thrown on his only pair of clean clothes; most of his winter clothes were all dirty though, so he just threw on a slightly-too-large grey hoodie, a gold basketball jersey for some team he’d never heard of, and old jeans to combat the cold. He wore his sunglasses everywhere, so they were a necessity to complete the slightly grungy look. Foggy tried his best not to look like a classic homeless person, but some days he just couldn’t help it.

The two got to school well before the bell, and Scoots vanished the moment they entered the bustling school. Foggy himself skipped first period, favoring just heading straight to the aforementioned hallway, finding it empty. He leaned against the wall, checking his phone here and there for any updates. Whatever followed Sunset through the portal had finished entering the human world, and he could no longer detect where they were. He waited until the bell rang, and within a minute he saw the familiar leather-wearing girl heading towards him. He stalked up to Sunset, anger visible in his stance.

“Sunset. What. The fuck. Happened last night?”

She turned, and gave him a fake smile. “Well, I got the artifact.” She paused.

“Well… where is it?”

“That’s the thing. It went through the portal before I did, and that girl Fluttershy got to it before I did. And I worked so hard to dismantle her social life, too…”

“Hold up. You lost the artifact that your entire plan depends upon… to Fluttershy? The timid girl who’s terrified of me? Easy, I’ll just go take it from her. She’s too much of a wuss to stand up for herself.”

“It’s not exactly that easy. You see, this Element of Harmony looks exactly like the Fall Formal Crown. So, I snagged it and switched the two, so they wouldn’t know. There was a tiny dragon or something in the room-”

Foggy’s eyes burned with rage. “A dragon, you say. What size? Age? Capabilities? Appearance? Tell me more about this dragon, please.” His voice was thick with sarcasm at the end, but beneath it all his desire to know his quarry was genuine.

“Calm down, man. It was tiny, like a hatchling. Purple, and I don’t know what it can do but probably not a lot. Anyway, so I somehow tripped on a lamp or something, I’m not quite sure, but the owner of the Element woke up and chased me. I ran back, but it went through before me. Because the artifact looks like the Fall Formal crown, Fluttershy thought it was, and… well, she turned it in to Principal Celestia.”

“WHAT?!” Foggy roared, drawing a bit too much attention from the students roaming the halls. He quieted down and moved closer. “You lost the crown?!” This was…less than ideal. He could still try to make the jump with whoever followed, but that was highly hypothetical. “Okay, okay. There must be a way to get it back. I haven’t gone to the Formal since my first year, but I know you have. What is there to know that could help?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that you never go. Why is that?” She gave him another fake grin, a hint of malice behind it.

Foggy sighed. “I’m not the most liked around here, as I’m sure you’re familiar with. I went the first year, but I stole some guy’s wallet, and he found out, and well… he had some bigger friends, and they took it back and some other things with it. That’s when a lot of the rumors about me being a weirdo and a scumbag started circulating. They’re kinda true, but still. I just kept my distance after that, and it’s worked out fine so far. Anyway, answer the question.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. I win like every year so it’s not a problem at all. The elected winner gets the crown, so once I win I’ll just use it then and there. Shouldn’t be difficult at all.” She glanced past him at something in the hallway.

Foggy turned as well to see Fluttershy standing there, timidly watching them. When their eyes met she squeaked and turned away.

“Hey, Fluttershy! C'mere for a sec.” Foggy called out, walking forward and relishing the way she stopped dead in her tracks and shook with fear as he rested a hand menacingly on her shoulder. “Relax, we just want to talk. Yeah, just a talk.”

Fluttershy weakly nodded and turned to face them, keeping her eyes down.

“So, you think you can just take the crown like that? You couldn’t have waited a couple minutes or anything?”

“I-I’m really sorry… I just found it and thought I should give it to her. I didn’t know you had dropped it.”

Sunset stepped forward, and Foggy let her take the lead. “Well, I did. I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything! You shouldn’t pick up things that don’t belong to you.” At this, Foggy resisted a chuckle. He and Sunset weren’t the most morally correct duo, and she was lecturing timid Fluttershy on the subject?

“I-It doesn’t really belong to you either,” Fluttershy whispered.

Aha, good one. Finally starting to grow a backbone? That might be a problem...

Sunset slammed her hands into the lockers on either side of the poor girl, and Foggy cracked his knuckles.

“Excuse me?!” Sunset shouted, and Fluttershy sank to the ground.

“N-nothing…” She mumbled, near tears.

Oh, never mind. She’s as shy as a newborn fawn.

“That’s what I thought. It’s as good as mine, and you know it. You really are pathetic; it’s no wonder all your friends are stray animals.”

“How dare you speak to her that way?!” A new voice exclaimed from down the hall. Foggy turned in surprise to see a girl he’d never seen before; lilac skin with two-tone purple hair and a strange dog at her side.

“What did you say?!” Sunset retorted, her face twisting in anger.

“We gonna have a problem here, new girl?” Foggy took a step forward, his hands curling into fists at his side.

“I said, how dare you speak to her that way!” The two girls marched forward to face each other, glaring daggers at one another. Surprisingly, Sunset’s frown turned to a sleazy smile.

“You must be new here. I can speak to anyone anyway I want.” She turned and focused her ire on a passing student, who jumped into a locker in fright as Foggy glared at him as well. Sunset walked off, leaving Foggy to lurk behind in the shadows.

Fluttershy and the new girl spoke for a moment, but his attention wasn’t focused on something as small as that, instead taking in all the new information and failures of the day. His attention only snapped back when Fluttershy leapt towards the new dog, his street instincts kicking in at the sudden movement. He relaxed when she only pulled out a dog treat, but still scoffed at her.

“Probably a damned dragon-lover.” He muttered under his breath, not catching the sharp look the new girl, ‘Twilight’ apparently, gave him.

He waited until their discussion ended, and Twilight dashed around the corner. “Hey new girl! Wait up a second.” She slowed her pace, and turned to face him. He looked down at her through his dark sunglasses, and she instinctively shrunk in response to his intimidating presence. “You may not know this, but Sunset Shimmer is in charge around here. If you make trouble for her, then I gotta do something about it, if you catch my drift. Whatever you have against her, just drop it. It’s for your own good.”

And with a narrowing of his eyes, Foggy walked to first period.

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The school day until lunch passed fairly fast, with Foggy finishing up tweaking the blueprints for his project in class instead of doing his work. He’d be gone before he graduated, anyway.

The only remarkable event happened during the last class before lunch, which was math in his case. He just sat in the back and worked on a plan for what to do next. It mostly just entailed him meeting the new girl at lunch by the portal and trying to jump through.

He’d lifted his head to give the appearance of doing his work when he noticed the new girl staring at him. She, Fluttershy, and some athletic girl named Rainbow Dash all had class together with him. Foggy kept his distance, as he didn’t really know them, but Rainbow Dash was one of the ones who was mostly immune to bullying. However, she had a deep desire to be “cool”, so he’d used that to his advantage in the past.

Anyway, he glared at her enough to make her look away in shame, but a few moments later she turned to her new buddies, the aforementioned duo, and unsubtly jabbed a finger in his direction. The two turned to look at him as well, and he scowled in their direction.

Foggy decided that he would use his honed skills of being a sneaky scumbag to listen in, if only for the sake of knowing what he was getting into.

Rainbow was speaking when he managed to hear them. “That’s Foggy Horizons, he’s Sunset Shimmer’s henchman of sorts.”

That was totally untrue! Sure, he did a lot of the more physical threats (or would it be promises?) and beatdowns, but… woah, actually now that he thought about it he was pretty henchman-esque. He’d need to fix that…

Rainbow continued. “He mostly does her dirty work; roughing people up a bit, threatens people physically, all of that stuff. Nobody likes him at all, not even Sunset! Everyone does what they can get away with, ‘cause Shimmer won’t let people openly slander him, but here and there she doesn’t really mind.” Okay, that part was true.

Fluttershy piped up shakily. “Um, he’s not the nicest. I f-found something this morning Rainbow, and gave it to P-Principal Celestia, and he was super mean to me about it!” Foggy was very pointedly staring at the worksheet in front of him, but he imagined her lip trembled with fear.

At this, he felt the hot glare of an angry girl burning into his head, and he glanced up to meet Rainbow’s gaze as she melted a hole through his face with her stare. He simply smirked and gave a sarcastic wave, returning to his work.

They didn’t do anything to him in class though, and it was definitely, totally just a coincidence that he left class really fast and nearly ran to his usual spot.

----------

During lunch he did something different than sitting by himself, as he always did. Everyone knew not to disturb him during his work, mostly through a promise or act of pain. So, his corner was free for himself. He never really ate lunch at school; a combination of a lack of money and (though he’d never admit it) a desire to give more to Scootaloo. He got hungry, sure, but after school, he went to work and his boss always gave him the leftovers from various customers.

Today, though, was different. He’d gotten Scoots to anonymously give Twilight a note telling her to go to the portal/statue at lunch.

After a few minutes of waiting impatiently, the girl stumbled out of the building, the strange dog peeking out of her bag.

“New girl! Over here. Mind if we talk for a second?” He gestured with a smile, and she nervously made her way over to him.

“Uh, what can I help you with? Oh, you’re that guy! I’ve been meaning to talk to you; are you from Equestria too? And aren’t you supposed to be mean? Why are you being so nice?” She practically beamed with excitement at meeting a fellow ex-pony.

“Sorry, we got off to a rough start. Sunset runs things around here, and she bullies everyone; it’s terrible! How about this; if you do a little something for me, I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Okay?” Inwardly Foggy smirked at his little bit of acting. After so long of manipulating and pulling the strings of those around him, it finally came in handy when he needed it the most.

Twilight grinned at him. “Sure! What do you need?”

“Well, I just need you to stand right by the portal and close your eyes for a second.”

She tilted her head, confused. “A bit odd, but it couldn’t hurt, I guess. Sure!” She did as he asked, and Foggy smirked. After so long, he might be going back! He took a deep breath, positioned his feet...

And tackled Twilight into the portal.

She let out a soft eep as they passed the threshold, and the familiar rainbows surrounded them. Foggy let out a victorious yell as they continued tumbling through the beams of light, successfully venturing past his previous boundaries. Twilight began to land soft blows on his back and try to extricate herself from the situation.

A large grin stretched onto his face. His bag held the prototype for his master plan, but if he waited until it was finished Twilight would be turned against him. The warm nothingness of the portal seemed different than his entrance all those years ago; it was like soaking in sunlight on a hot beach, something he hadn’t had many chances to do.

For a moment, in the comfort of the portal, he almost felt like he was back in his mother’s hooves again.

Then the pleasant light changed to burning fire.

Heat arced through his blood as he felt himself being forced back, Twilight with him. All he could do was not scream out as the burning pain intensified.

For a moment Foggy’s mind flashed to another time of similar agony; pulsing through his eye and the entire right side of his face.

She seemed to suffer no ill effects, continued to attempt to push away from him as he writhed in agony. He let go of her in favor of wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to forestall the pain, and with that he popped back out of the portal, crashing back down on the concrete with a sick thud. His entire body felt crispened, his hoodie smoldered, and his entire head ached. Twilight dashed away from him, grabbing her bag and stopping a good twenty feet away.

“What is wrong with you?!” She yelled at him. “What was that f-”

“Get away from her!” Another voice screamed out, causing Foggy’s head to pound even harder. He managed to pull himself into a sitting position, his pain fading to a dull throb in his skull. Clutching his head, he shakily stood. After a moment he shook his head to clear it, landed his hands at his sides, and glanced around.

Before him stood Rainbow Dash, with both Fluttershy and Twilight behind her. Rainbow’s eyes were narrowed in anger, and Foggy glared back at her in full force.

“You think that just because you’re the henchman of Sunset that you can threaten one of my friends and do god knows what with the other?” She spat out, bringing her fists up into an offensive stance.

Foggy cracked his neck. “You wouldn’t understand. This goes beyond you. You want a fight? You’ll get one.” Still slightly disoriented, he surged forward to attack.

His first swipe was deftly dodged by Rainbow, but her blow landed in his ribs. Propelled by the weight of his attempt, Foggy body-checked the slightly smaller girl, sending her stumbling for a moment. Taking advantage of how off-balance she was, he slammed a kick into her leg.

She surged back up without another moment wasted, and glanced a blow off his shoulder. Foggy responded with an uppercut that was dodged, causing his fist to slam into the stone statue.

“OW!” He yelled out, still managing to dodge her next swipe while cradling his bruised fist. Using his larger, bulkier stature, Foggy advanced upon Rainbow with rage in his heart.

That hurt like a bitch! She’s gonna pay for that…

He leaned forward and shoved the smaller girl, sending her sprawling on the ground. He kicked her in the side, causing her to wince in pain.

“Face it Rainbow, you lost. Just give up-”

However, Foggy didn’t anticipate how quickly she could recover. The moment after his kick connected, Rainbow darted up, swift as lightning, and sucker punched him in the right eye.

For a moment it felt numb, and then hot pain lanced in where the fist had landed. He stumbled back, his sunglasses very much broken from the impact, and just in time remembered to cover his eye to hide the burn scars. Although some people had noticed, they were mostly covered by the shades, and the majority of the school were still unaware, including Rainbow. She’d hit the same eye that had the distorted, stretched skin of the scars around it, which had caused a quick flare of pain. He couldn’t really distinguish the two through the stinging pain of the punch, though.

The fight was obviously over as fast as it had begun, with Rainbow as the winner. Foggy crouched low, cradling his eye as it pulsed in agony. He could already feel it begin to swell. That… was going to leave quite a mark.

“Not so tough now, are you?” Rainbow crowed victoriously.

Foggy sneered at her through his pain, managing to stand up, grab his bag with his bruised hand, and don a spare pair of shades from it’s front pocket while covering his eye and its surrounding skin with his palm. “Oh, this isn’t the end. I’m still good for another-”

“Stop! Just… stop.” Foggy whirled around to blearily see Scootaloo staring at him with an indiscernible emotion on her face.

“This doesn’t involve you, Scootaloo. Just let me teach this punk a lesson, then-”

“Can’t we just let it go for now? Please? Dash?” She looked past him at Rainbow, who seemed confused by her intervention.

Foggy sighed, and with it all the tension in his body flew out, leaving only an ache in his eye and hand, scorching pain all throughout his body, and a strange sadness deep in his bones. “Fine. I’m out of here. This isn’t over, fuckface.” He snatched up his bag, glared daggers at Rainbow Dash the growing crowd, the latter of which clearing a path for him as he stormed into the school.

“Y-Yeah, that’s right, leave!” Rainbow called out behind him, but Foggy was no longer in the mood for fighting. His head hurt, his eye ached, and his smoldering clothes brought back some rather unpleasant memories. He just wanted to go back to sleep, but he had work right after school. Ah well, no rest for the weary.

All the while, he didn’t glance back to see Scootaloo watching him with a mournful expression.

---------

Foggy found solace in a small deserted courtyard near the edge of the school campus. He eased himself onto a chair at a shaded table, and dropped his head into his hands.

How did everything go so wrong today? First Sunset failed her task, then Foggy found out he couldn’t get back the way he wanted. Then he got beat up by Rainbow Dash, of all people?! Good thing he kept a spare pair of sunglasses in his bag in case the first pair got lost. It had happened before, and he certainly didn’t want a repeat of that.

Still, today had been a hot mess.

Why was the world out to get him? All he wanted was justice. He wasn’t the bad guy here. He would get through that portal, and they would burn for it-

“Hey.” A quiet voice called out to Foggy. The injured teen turned to face the intruder, tense and ready for a fight, but relaxed somewhat when he realized who it was.

“Hey, Scoots.” He grumbled, motioning towards a chair near him for her to sit in. The two were fairly close, but Foggy knew that if it came to it, he would leave her behind without a thought if it meant going him.

And knowing that didn’t even scare him a bit.

“So, all done talking with your hero?” Foggy muttered, as Scootaloo took a seat across from him.

“Uh, I brought you some ice, for that bruise you got.” She held out a small ice pack, probably borrowed from a friend’s lunch, and Foggy snatched it. He tore off his sunglasses, eliciting a small gasp from Scootaloo, and pressed the ice onto his eye. The numbing pain was nearly euphoric for Foggy, whose eye had been constantly throbbing.

“Thanks, I guess.” He grumbled, turned towards Scootaloo. She simply nodded at him.

Scoots was used to his angry demeanor, and it rarely fazed her anymore. She just… understood him in a way almost nobody else did. They were both homeless and without families, after all.

“Is there something you need?” He drawled, noticing how she remained to hang nervously about in the courtyard with him,

“W-Well, would you mind not attacking Dash again? You’re both really good friends to me, and I hate to see you fight…”

Yeah, more like you don’t want to pick a side. Neutrality is cowardice; action is bravery.

Still, Foggy relented. “Fine, but tell her to stay out of my way. If she antagonizes me, the only thing I’m giving her is a knuckle sandwich. Okay?”

Scootaloo practically bounced in happiness. “Thanks so much! I’m just glad you two aren’t going to keep fighting.” Scootaloo turned and dashed out of the courtyard, leaving Foggy to sulk in silence.

I got careless. It won’t happen again. The subservience of the students has made me lazy, I need to hit the gym again, and soon. Maybe after school tomorrow…

“Hey, how’s the big fighter of the day?” A voice rang out from the door. Foggy growled and turned his head to see the familiar leather clothes of Sunset at the edge of the courtyard.

“How’d you find out so fast?” Foggy grunted, and Sunset sauntered forward to take a seat across from him.

“I’ve got my connections. Being well informed is the key to success, isn’t that what you said?” That was correct, one of his prime philosophies was to stay in touch with the world around him. “Anyway, nice job getting beat up. I thought you were supposed to be my enforcer?” Sunset chuckled.

Foggy’s eyes narrowed in anger. “First off, I’m not some sort of pet to you. Our relationship is that of symbiosis, don’t forget that. Without me, you wouldn’t be half as successful as you are now.”

Sunset laughed and poked him in the shoulder, watching the way he hissed in pain. “Relax, I’m just joking. We’ve done a lot for each other; I wouldn’t just throw it all away now. Cmon, I’ve got some cream in my locker for those bruises. Nothing we can do about that bruiser on your eye, though…” She stood up and began to make her way out of the courtyard.

Foggy stood to follow her. His glasses would conceal most of the bruise, as they did with the stretched skin of his burns, but the skin around the black shades was still a deep shade of purple.

You know, I can come back from this. Simple bruises and some heat aren’t going to stop me. I’ve been to jail, for crying out loud! I’ll be ready, and stronger than ever now.

And when I get through that damned portal, the world will have hell to pay.

Chapter 3: Pizza

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Chapter 3: Pizza

“Welcome to Pizza Pal’s Pizzeria. What can I get for you today?” The smile on Foggy’s face was strained and most likely obviously fake, and the huge, puffy black eye was rather visible behind his glasses. But the customer before him didn’t seem to notice or care, so the transaction went fine.

“Your pizza will be ready in about 15 minutes, sir. Please take a seat and we will bring it to you as soon as-“

RIIING! RIIING! RIIING!

Foggy’s phone blared from his pocket just as he was about to finish talking.

“Uh, my apologies sir, please take a seat.” Foggy reached under the counter and pulled out a sign reading ‘On break, be back in 10 minutes’ before heading to the employee office as soon as possible and picking up the still-ringing phone.

“What?!” He snarled, not taking the time to read the contact as to save time.

“Foggy, good to hear you. I’ve got dirt on that new girl, Twilight. She’s decided to run for Princess of the Fall Formal! Can you believe it?!”

“Sunset, what does this have to do with me? I’m at work right now, you made me take my break early.” He grumbled. Ugh, now I’m gonna have to take my cooking shift earlier too. Damn.

“Oh, sorry.” Sunset didn’t sound sorry at all, what a pain. “Well, you run that social media account for me where you post the dirt on everyone I don't like, so would you be a dear and make a video with these clips?” A text binged in from her with a few video and picture attachments. “That’s all I need from you right now. Oh, wait, there was something else too.”

“Hm?” What else did she want now?!

“I heard Twilight’s getting pretty popular with some of the students at CHS. If that video doesn’t work, I hear there are decorations being put up in the gym tomorrow. Find something that could make her fall from popularity, eh?”

Foggy sighed. “Yeah, I can do that. You know what, how about you do something for me too?”

A brief pause. Then, “what do you need?”

A grin crossed Foggy’s face. “I’m gonna need a new set of test tubes and a box of .20 gram airsoft bullets. Oh, and a pair of thick gloves. That should do it.”

“Consider it done,” came the cool response. “I don’t know what you need it for, and I don’t really care. Your plans have never really interested me anyway. You go melt a bunch of rocks, and I’ll be running an empire, have fun with that.”

Foggy actually grinned. “Ah, witty as ever. Well, these ‘rocks’ are going to save my life, so who knows? Anyway, my breaks almost over, I got to go. I’ll find something to do about those decorations.”

“And you’ll have your materials tomorrow at school. See you then, Foggy.” A click sounded, marking the end of the conversation. Their banter was something Foggy enjoyed, and while most of it was just jokes and witty replies, he always found an underlying truth in it all.

Oh well, his rocks and compounds were enough for him.

A fist pounded on the door to the kitchen. “Foggy! Get in here so I can go on break!” One of the chefs was impatient, obviously.

“Fuck off, I’ll be there in a sec!” He yelled back. His ‘exciting’ life of sabotage and intrigue at CHS was put on hold for the moment due to the simple problem of being understaffed. They were just above the number they needed to function, but in order to do so they needed Foggy to rotate from kitchen, to register, to waiting; even delivery here and there.

After all, pizza waited for no man.

Alas, his day would prove to have more challenges to come.

On his next shift at the register, someone he never expected to see there walked in.

“Twilight Sparkle, how the hell did you find it where I work?” He growled out, on edge now.

“Simple really, I just did a search and went into-“

“What do you want? You obviously came here for a reason. You want to mock me? Laugh at me? ‘Cause if you do, you’ll find I’ve got a lot of bite to match my bark.”

Twilight visibly wilted. “Oh no no no, I’m just here to find out more about you. I never knew there was someone else here besides Sunset; Princess Celestia didn’t tell me anything about you. So how did you get here, and why do you want to go back so bad?”

Foggy chuckled hollowly as his voice fell to a whisper. “Sparkles, what would you do if I told you that you were speaking to the biggest mass murderer pony in the history of Equestria? Does that answer your question?”

Twilight’s face turned ashen, and she stumbled back. “Y-You… what?” Words seemed to fail her.

“Yeah, I’m not one to hide things like that. Probably got covered up, anyway. If I told you why I did it, you wouldn’t even believe me. Anything else?”

With a look of terror, Twilight Sparkle turned and fled.

Well, that was much faster than I expected…

----------

“And… done!” Foggy exclaimed, victorious. He’d been hunched over his phone at a table at the gym for the past half hour or so, taking advantage of his membership and the benefits that came with it. He’d managed to compile the video and picture files from Sunset into a rather disconcerting compilation, complete with background audio of him telling everyone why not to vote for her; pretty darn good for a half hour of work! It was currently processing; in but a few minutes, it would be uploaded to MyStable and YouTube.

He glanced at the clock. It was almost midnight, so almost nobody would see it until tomorrow, but it would be there for when they woke up.

Foggy ran a rather large MyStable page, one dedicated to the propaganda of his and Sunset’s campaign. He was her manager of sorts; any complaints or requests of any kind went through him first. A YouTube account of his had most of the same videos as well, with a few exceptions.

By the time school started the next day, the video would already be viral.

Foggy turned off his phone and yawned. It was getting rather late, and Scootaloo was already sleeping in the car. It was about time he headed out, too.

Ugh. Guess I’d better take a shower first, I smell disgusting!

----------

Foggy felt… disturbed. Something was going on in his school, and he didn’t like it. He’d just gone out for a smoke in the janitor’s closet to calm himself and ease the ache of his eye, when he got a strange feeling that something was wrong.

Is that… music?! As if confirming it, the strange sound began to boom louder and amplify, reaching even Foggy’s dusty closet with its volume.

Foggy scoffed and put out his cigarette before laying his hand on the doorknob to go teach whatever punk decided to blast their speaker a lesson. As he did, however, the knob turned on it’s own and the door opened, bright light flooding the dimly lit closet. A hand grabbed Foggy’s ratty jacket, and pulled him forth into the too-bright light.

“Cmon, let’s go. Everyone’s distracted by their little show, so it’s the perfect time to trash the gym.” Sunset’s voice whispered as she began to drag him along. Foggy’s eyes squinted and he began to shamble with her as his vision returned.

“Sunset, you couldn’t have just texted me? You had to actually yank me out of that closet? Hardcore, Sunset, hardcore.” He joked, eliciting a small laugh from the girl. Their meetings weren’t without humor, although anyone else most likely would’ve taken offense to most of their jokes.

“Yeah, yeah, hurry up. There’s only so much time, and I took the liberty of making a few fake photographs of Twilight trashing it beforehand.”

Foggy’s brows rose in surprise. “Clever thinking, Sunset. Now, let’s get to it.” They arrived in front of the gym, and one of Sunset’s ‘minions’, Snails, opened the door for them.

From his bag Foggy drew a baseball bat, and the rest of the crew just brandished small tools or boards.

“Come on, let’s get to work.” With Sunset’s decree, the four of them began to utterly wreck the gym. From the tables to the banners, nothing was left untouched.

After his banishment, Foggy had had times of… anger, of rage. Breaking things never seemed to help, but this? The quiet swoosh of his bat and the way everything went flying as he hit it was strangely therapeutic. Time faded into a whirl of smashing, breaking, and stomping random items as the Party Planning Commitee’s hard work turned into nothing but rubble and strewn wreckage.

Foggy would’ve felt bad, but it was all for good in the end. If this helped him get home, he would do it in a heartbeat.

By the time they were done, the entire gym was wrecked. Tables lay broken on the ground, fragments of the disco ball littered the floor, and chairs were tipped over and shattered. Sunset had originally been concerned about it being too much to not have the formal that night, but Foggy had convinced her to let them wreck it so she could lead a cleanup after school to gain support and seem genuine in her efforts.

Foggy may have gone a bit overboard; in the heat of the moment he may have smashed open the disco ball hanging from the ceiling, but in the end it was all done, and as a result he was feeling the most relaxed he had in weeks,

“Good work, team.” Foggy puffed, stretching his back as he carefully zipped away his bat in his ratty bag. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here before anybody sees us.” With that, the four of them swiftly exited the gym, and immediately made their way to Principal Celestia’s office, with Foggy lurking behind a few steps.

It was strange. There was an air of… joy? Happiness? Pride? Well, there was something in the air, obviously, and it was infecting everyone coming from the cafeteria. Everyone seemed less scared of Sunset and he for the time being.

Uh oh, that didn’t bode well. Maybe something was needed to assert their dominance? Ah well, maybe later. As much as Foggy loved a good fight, his eye was still swollen and aching, and they had more important matters to attend to.

They passed by Twilight and her little gang, which seemed to have expanded to encompass the entire group that Sunset had worked so hard to tear apart. Hm, another possible problem.

As he passed her, Rainbow Dash smirked at him, eyes trained on the beautiful shiner she’d given him. He wordlessly snarled at her, whipping his head forward as soon as they were out of view.

After what seemed like forever, they finally reached the office. Sunset knocked twice, and to his surprise Vice Principal Luna answered the door. Maybe that was good for them, though; she was known to be more… extreme in her punishments.

“Vice Principal Luna, something terrible has happened! Come see, quickly!” Without a word they began to race back to the gym. Rather pointless in the end to have gone in the first place, as they could have just waited by the gym, but Foggy didn’t dwell on that.

As they crashed through the door and saw the damage, Vice Principal Luna gasped in horror.

“Isn’t it horrible? And after Pinkie took so much time to make it look so beautiful, too…” Fake teardrops began to fall down Sunset’s face, and she wiped her eyes and shot Foggy a grin underneath her arm.

‘Yeah, it really was beautiful. It’s a shame Twilight Sparkle did this, I really thought I’d go this year because of the decorations,” Foggy mused, earning a sharp look from the Vice Principal.

“What makes you think Twilight Sparkle did something like this” Luna asked them, a look of concern etched on her face.

“Well, I’d hate to be a snitch, but… you see, a friend of mine likes to do some freelance photography, and he showed up to the gym early today for a photoshoot for some girl, and… well, he managed to get these. I couldn’t get much else out of him, though.” Foggy pulled forth from his jacket a small manilla folder, and handed it to the Vice Principal. He was fairly good at playing the part of an innocent bystander, enough to apparently convince Luna.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I’ll see to it that she is dealt with right away. Good day to you both. Oh, you too, Snips and Snails.”

“Bye Mrs. Luna!” They chorused as the Vice Principal exited the damaged gym.

“Well, quite a good day of destroying school property, eh? The Foggy-Sunset duo isn’t half bad when it comes to getting things done!” Foggy clapped a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, and she quickly shook him off.

“Yeah, now all we have to do is wait until Twilight gets taken out of the game! Then the crown will be mine- erm, ours!”

“And don’t forget it,” Foggy finished. Ah, quite an easy task in the end, getting Twilight in trouble.

It almost seemed… too easy.

Uh oh, Foggy was getting an itch. Those never meant good things were coming.

Oh well, how bad could it really be?

----------

“Welcome to- goddamn, it’s you. What the hell do you want now?” Foggy glared at Twilight’s group in the Pizzeria. Well, more specifically Rainbow Dash.

“Well, we decided to get some good ol’ pizza before the dance because the food’s always terrible. So, I found out where you worked, and here we are!” Rainbow waltzed forward and tipped his uniform hat up a bit. “Ooh, the big tough bully’s just a pizza guy now, eh?”

“Shut up before I beat your face in.” Foggy stated shortly, before turning back to the group. “Ugh, what can I get for you today?” He bit back his pride; he couldn’t afford to get fired, after all.

“We’ll have two large cheese pizzas and a large pepperoni, please.” Rarity answered.

“Fine, go take a seat and they’ll be out in about 15 minutes. That all?”

“Uh, we’ll have five chocolate milkshakes, and…” Applejack threw a dirty look at the purple-haired girl, who he faintly remembered was named Rarity, “and a glass of lemonade with two lemon slices in it.”

Foggy sighed. “Very specific, okay. Will that be all?”

In lieu of a response, the group just nodded. They paid before moving out of the way, and Foggy was free to take the next customer’s order.

Ugh. Now I have to deal with Sparkle and her crew of crazies, just great.

A few minutes later Foggy carried out a large tray with their six drinks piled on it. “Alright, here’s your drinks. The pizzas will be out in 10-15 minutes.”

“How much do they pay you to wear that silly hat? It’s obviously not enough,” Rainbow sniped. She was right, though it pained him to admit it; his work uniform consisted of a white apron with a smiling pizza slice on it, with a red hat with the same logo.

“Wow, look ladies and gentlemen, she’s smart enough to make a joke, but not enough to realize that I don’t care.” Foggy gritted his teeth. “Damn, first you all clean up the gym before we can, then you show up to my workplace? Now that’s just petty.”

“Haha! So you admit to trashing the gym! I knew it was you all along!” Rainbow kicked him in the shin, eliciting a small hiss of pain as it aggravated an earlier wound from a rather necessary fight.

Flash Sentry walked sullenly away from the principal’s office. He’d just been turned down by a rather attractive girl, even after helping clear her name! Not a very good start to the day…

A hand grabbed his shoulder and slammed him into a locker. He instinctively lashed out as he was twisted around to face his assailant, managing to slam a foot into the attacker’s shin hard enough to leave a bruise. Flash cringed, waiting for a blow, but when one never came he opened his eyes to stare into the face of Foggy Horizons.

“Flash Sentry, you just had to play the hero there. You know this counts as going against Sunset and I, right? And you know what happens to people who mess with us.”

“I’m not afraid of you!” Flash spat in his face, quite literally. A glob of saliva rolled its way down Foggy’s face as his smirk turned into a grimace.

“Oh, now you’re gonna have to pay,” Foggy whispered as he tightened his grip on the struggling boy in front of him. With his hands full, he drove a knee into Flash’s stomach, causing him to double over in pain. “I’m not going to cripple you or anything, I’m not a monster. But make sure you remember this next time you try to cross us.”

Flash was an athlete with aspirations to join the Guard some day, so he was relatively fit. Foggy, however, had been honing his body in the gym for the past few years, so he had a distinct advantage over Flash. With one hand he gripped the front of Flash’s jacket, lifted him into the air, and tossed him into the middle of the hallway.

“Let this be a lesson to all you who wish to cross us.” Foggy called out to the small crowd that had amassed. “I won’t tolerate-”

“This isn’t over yet, Horizons!” Flash shouted as he swiftly stood up, and in one smooth motion tackled Foggy’s leg, the one he had previously kicked. The two tumbled to the floor in a flurry of punches and kicks, with the crowd unable to see who was winning.

“Alright, break it up!” A male voice called out from the hallway, and the gym teacher Bulk Biceps strode down the corridor and easily picked up both boys. Dangling from his hands, they snarled and swiped out with fists towards one another, but they just couldn’t reach each other.

“Now, now, settle down or we’ll have to take this elsewhere. You two, I don’t want to see either of you fighting again, now get to class, everyone!” And with that, he released the two, who both promptly fell to the floor, gasping for air as they recovered from the fight.

As Foggy stood up he noticed Bulk Biceps standing between them with a wary look, so all he could do was send Flash a nasty glare and walk to class with his pride semi-damaged.

Foggy shook his head as the memory passed. “Okay, I never said we trashed the gym! We were just going to clean it up after school, except you all decided to do it during school hours, so congrats to you,” Foggy said sarcastically.

“Still, you look pretty dumb in that outfit,” Rainbow remarked as she raised her phone and snapped a picture.

Just walk away, Foggy, just walk away...

Roughly 15 minutes later, Foggy walked out with three trays of steaming-hot pizza balanced perfectly in his hands, a result of a few years now working the job.

“Alright, here’s your pizzas. Anything else, or will you all finally let me get back to work and leave me alone?” Foggy grumbled.

“Hm, how about we see that shiner I gave you?” With a jerk of her wrist, Rainbow yanked off his sunglass, sending them tumbling to the table below.

And while in certainly did show off the deep black and blue swollen eye as a result of Rainbow’s punch, Foggy’s stretched skin and marks from his burns all those years ago were in full visibility.

His entire right eye was permanently squinted a bit, giving him an odd feral look. The redness of the burn had mostly faded, but what remained was possibly even worse. From the bridge of his nose to almost his ear, a large, almost circular portion of skin above his cheekbone looked similar to a hide stretched over a tanning rack; striated lines marred its surface, and the skin carried just a hint of red, in contrast to the usual grey.

All in all, it was not a sight one would want to see before eating pizza.

Foggy calmly reached down and put his glasses back on, but the damage was done.

“U-Uh, what was that?” Rainbow asked, obviously shaken a little bit. “Did I do th-”

“Not everything is about you, Rainbow Dash. And no, that’s old. I’d appreciate it if you stop prying into my medical history, and I’ll get fired if I don’t help you, so again, leave me the fuck alone or I’ll beat your face in so much it’s concave.” Foggy growled out, turning and haughtily making his way back to his counter.

“Nice to meet you!” Pinkie called out as he retreated, only receiving a brief grunt in response.

Well, that sucked. Now they’ll probably tell everyone I’m horribly disfigured or something, and then the whole school will know. Creepvine knows I’m already not liked enough around here, the last thing I need is some rumor about a medical condition. Maybe-

“Foggy!” His manager called out from his office. With a groan, Foggy put up the ‘on break’ sign and made his way over to the office. There was nobody else at the Pizzeria besides the girls, so it didn’t really matter anyway.

“Sorry boss, I’m here.” Foggy said as he shut the door behind him.

Pizza Pal was a rather friendly man, with bright red skin and rather deep green eyes hidden by equally dark green hair. He wasn’t the tallest man, standing shorter than Foggy, but his personality more than made up for it. He swivelled in his chair to face Foggy with a grin.

“Hey bud, so there’s a bit of a virus going around right now, and all the other delivery guys who should be on duty are sick. Sooo, would you mind taking the next load of pizzas out to the houses?”

“Pal, I’m pretty tired and I’ve got an important dance thing tonight, are you sure there’s nobody else who could do it?” Foggy groaned, rather exhausted from all the work and planning. “I’m only on for another hour or so; it’s like 4:30 now, I get off at 6, and the dance is at 7:30 tonight.”

“Pleeease? I can pay you time and a half, and you can get off at 5:30. It won’t take an hour and a half to deliver all those pizzas!” Foggy mulled it over in his head. Time and a half would be nice; Pizza Pal was one of the few who knew about his ‘housing situation’, and he was nice about it. Foggy got all the pizzas people didn’t show up for or didn’t pay for, and he had to admit that pizza tonight sounded better than the soup kitchens he and Scoots had gone to for the past few nights. Granted, if it all worked out tonight he wouldn’t really need the money, but leaving Scoots with nothing was heartless.

Foggy wasn’t a monster, after all.

“Fine, give me the car keys so I can get going.”

“Great! The pizzas should be on the counter near the kitchen.” Foggy nodded and left the small office after being handed the keys to the delivery car.

He shouted for one of the kitchen workers to man the counter, while he took off his apron and stuffed it into his work locker. Foggy fixed his hat upon his head and left the restaurant, the familiar bell chiming behind him as the door closed.

“And where do you think you’re going?” An accusatory shout sounded from down the road. He turned his head while walking to see the girls in the process of walking away from the restaurant as well, with Rainbow Dash glaring at him while Fluttershy and Twilight pointedly looked away.

“To deliver pizzas, what else would I be doing right now?” He snarked back, actually confused for once.

A brief pause. “Oh. I thought you would be going to like, steal a car or something like that. Twilight said you’re a criminal!”

“Hm? Yeah, now clear off before I steal your car. Obviously you think I’m such an evil person, so it should be easy for me, right?” Foggy remarked, sparing no more time on them. He continued on his way to the car, unlocking it and dropping the pizzas into the passenger seat before getting in the driver’s seat himself.

“Hey! Wait! What are you and Sunset going to do tonight? It’s all useless, Twilight will beat all of you!” Rainbow shouted at him from across the parking lot, but Foggy just chuckled.

“Yeah, right. What’s her plan? Use the power of friendship or some crap like that? Now leave me alone!” WIth that, Foggy ignited the engine and started on his route.

I don’t get paid enough for this...

Chapter 4: Necessary

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Chapter 4: Necessary

“Almost...done…” Foggy muttered to himself wearily as he pulled away from the last house. It has been a rather long hour or so, delivering pizzas across town, but in the end, it was done. Now all that was left was to drive the car back to the Pizzeria and help Sunset finish her preparations for the dance tonight.

RIIING! RIIING! RIIING!

Again, his phone seemed to buzz every time he was at work. Luckily, the car had a Bluetooth speaker gadget, so he could simply push a button and speak without needing to use his phone. Lucky for him, because the cigarette clamped between his fingers and hanging out the window would’ve complicated things otherwise.

With a sigh, Foggy checked the number, finding that he recognized it. He pressed the button and spoke. “What is it now, Shimmer?”

“Ah, Foggy… there have been complications. Celestia extended the ballot submission to tonight because of how trashed the gym was and how a lot of people are changing their minds, and.. well, there’s a lot of people who like Twilight now.”

Foggy swore. “Shit, what’re we going to do about that?”

“Well, I may have a solution. Canterlot isn’t the most well off neighborhood, so a lot of the kids wouldn’t say no to money.”

“Bribery, eh? Not the best option, but it’s something. Better pull out your golden fund for this…”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Sunset said rather nervously.

A brief pause, before… “Sunset. Please don’t tell me-“

“I’m almost out of money, okay?” Sunset whispered quickly. Foggy groaned and slammed his head onto the car wheel.

“Really? You had a sack or two of literal gold coins. Where did all that go?”

“Well, paying for an apartment isn’t cheap, and I like to look fashionable when I can. Leather isn’t cheap, you know.”

“Sunset, Sunset, Sunset… where am I going to get enough money to bribe a bunch of students? Can’t you just sell some of your stuff?”

“Well, not before tonight. It’d take a few days to find a buyer if we want enough to bribe enough people, so that wouldn’t work.”

Foggy ran a hand through his hair with one hand anxiously. Before he could respond, he had to swerve as he was nearly hit by another car.

“HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING, ASSHOLE!” He shouted at the other driver, an older man who flipped him off. “Damn old folks, probably can’t even see the road in front of them.” He muttered, a small laugh from Sunset answering his shout.

“So, any ideas on how to get the money? If not, we might be able to think of a different way, or just steal the crown, but I’ve got an uneasy feeling about those girls.”

Foggy scoffed. “Yeah, right, they’re just girls! What could they do that would defeat us? Become friends with us?” He laughed at the idea.

“Actually, knowing Equestria that might not be impossible.”

Foggy sobered up instantly. “Oh. Well, I might have an idea.”

“Really?! What is it?” The excitement and hope in Sunset’s voice were almost palpable.

“I’ve done some pretty bad things in this world, and I’m rather adept at theft. I could head down to the poorer sections of town and see what I find and who I can ‘liberate’ a couple hundred from. The police report would take a day to find me at least, and by then we’d be already in Equestria. Sound good?”

“Whatever you need to do to get us home, do it. I’ll meet you in front of the school before the dance. Don't be late, okay?”

“Sunset, do you really think I’d be late to the thing we’ve been working towards for years now?”

“...fair enough. Just be there, or else I’ll have to use one of my less favorable backup plans.” Her voice was devoid of concern when she spoke, something Foggy noticed with no little amount of alarm.

If she leaves without me… no, what am I saying? This is Sunset we’re talking about; cruel, manipulative, but not a betrayer. I’ll be fine.

Right?

Foggy shook his head, clearing his thoughts as quickly as they’d come. “Yeah, I’ll be there with whatever I can get. See you then.” Foggy pressed the red ‘end call’ button and slumped in his seat, massaging his head with a free hand as he took in the information.

Ugh, where am I going to get enough cash? There are only so many things I can do…

All I have on me is a can of pepper spray and a switchblade so that rules out an armed robbery of a shop. Not like I have anything other than that airsoft gun, anyway, but it’s back in my truck. If we’re going to do this, I can’t afford to waste time.

I don’t have enough savings to be enough to bribe a single student, let alone the entire school! That only leaves me with one choice…

I’m going to have to rob somebody in the streets.

—————

The late September winds pushed white clouds across the sky, painting a picture of beauty and innocence in the early evening air.

Foggy, however, waited patiently in an alley outside of a general store in the seedier parts of town, carefully scanning each occupant as they exited it for who to steal from.

One of the first things Foggy had learned living on the streets was how to choose targets. Criminals didn’t just pick anyone or any place; there was a careful consideration that went into every action, something Foggy still used even in his ‘safer’ life.

For example, he’d chosen Vendor’s General Store for a reason. Simply put, it contained everything one could need, from canned food and cigarettes to fur coats and cell phones.

It was also one of the only places in the less police-infested part town that one could purchase those items usually restricted to the upper class, like the aforementioned fur coats and expensive jewelry.

Nobody would ever rob it, though; the owner, Supply Vendor, was known to be associated with one of the larger gangs in Canterlot, the Thunderhooves, and if anyone messed with him they were found either shaking and delirious in their house or rotting in a dumpster.

That didn’t mean Vendor minded mischief going on outside of it, though.

Due to the goods available, it was often frequented by wealthier citizens of Canterlot who lived near it, usually the wives of gang members or even the occasional ‘noble’ who wanted a discount on their usually expensive items. So, all Foggy had to do was wait for one of those wealthier women to come by, rob her of all her money while holding her at knifepoint, and book it back to Sunset in time to go through the portal.

Simplicity itself, right?

Now all that was left to do was scan the crowds leaving the store. Something Foggy was rather good at; he hadn’t robbed too many people, but winter was cold in Canterlot and he did what he had to do.

His eyes passed over an older man, dressed in mismatched clothes that were obviously too big for him. Foggy deduced that he was impoverished, shown by his ragtag clothes and the bag of canned beans he clutched close to his side. Foggy respectfully looked away from him, instead tracking the next possible victim. After all, Foggy had once lived and slept on the streets, and he knew that making eye contact with paranoid, possible feral men never ended without a fight.

The next possible victim was a woman, with two kids clutching to her arms. She looked rather middle-class or lower, due to her fraying scarf and the obviously cheap clothes of her children. No use robbing someone who was barely getting by with kids as it was. One of the kids looked up at Foggy as they passed, and he quickly tightened his grey hood around his face, masking his identity.

He waited a few moments, and out from the store walked an optimal target. Female, dressed in extravagant white fur and brandishing a fat purple purse. Her lilac skin was without marks, and her long green hair looked well-kept. Foggy chuckled.

She’s the perfect target! This’ll be easy-

Foggy’s internal thoughts froze as a hulking man stepped out from the shop as well, following behind the woman in an obvious escorting fashion. With the appearance of the bodyguard, Foggy ducked back into the alley, all thoughts of attacking her gone.

She’s guarded; damn, that sucks. She would’ve been easy to take from. Now I have to find someone else… fuck.

After waiting a few minutes to make sure the bodyguard and his charge had left, Foggy poked his head back out to survey the streets. Nobody really hung around this part of town, so the streets were mostly empty, save for the occasional person walking hurriedly with their face down and hood up.

That just meant fewer witnesses for Foggy, which was always good in his book.

He waited for a few more minutes, silently scanning the figures that walked out of the store, usually alone in their endeavors. From the young man with a wandering eye to the elderly woman in a wheelchair, none of them caught his eye as someone who had enough money on them to be useful to him.

Then, after a total of about twenty minutes waiting, a sufficient victim walked out, noticeably alone. She was rather short, with strangely familiar orange skin that Foggy couldn't quite place, and deep blue hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. She wore expensive leather clothes, stamped with one of the more luxurious brand names. A small white purse hung at her side, with a large black wallet just peeking out.

In other words, nearly perfect for robbery. The only better thing would be if she didn’t have a cell phone bulging out of her pocket, but that was just wishful thinking.

Now, Foggy had to act quickly or she would be away.

He waited until she passed him in the alley, skulking in the shadows, before briskly walking out the moment she passed. “Ma’am? You dropped something.” He called out to her, digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out the item he’d prepared for this encounter a half-hour earlier: a crisp 20-dollar bill, the remnants of his last paycheck that he’d gotten recently.

She turned, and something in her violet eyes was familiar to him, again, but he just couldn’t place it. That wasn’t important, though; what was important was that she took the bait.

And she did. She turned, not a trace of suspicion in her eyes. “Oh, thanks! It must have fallen out.” She obliviously drew closer, nearer to the alley. While Foggy’s left hand held the bill outstretched, his right hand grasped the can of pepper spray sheathed in his back pocket.

The moment she crossed the boundaries of an arm’s length, Foggy’s right hand shot forward, can of pepper spray in its grasp. His left hand swiftly pocketed the bill and drew a small switchblade from his other pocket, brandishing both at the woman.

“If you fucking scream, you’re in for a world of hurt. Now, come with me.” The woman gaped at him in terror, the words failing to register in her brain. Foggy waited a moment, then jabbed the knife in her direction. “Well? Come on, I haven’t got all day; step into the alley.” With a sudden jerk, the woman nodded furiously and made her way into the alley, eyes locked onto the knife the entire time. Foggy followed her, glancing around to make sure nobody was watching.

“Okay, so this is how it’s going to work. You give me all the money you have on you and whatever expensive things you have, and you’ll walk away without getting sprayed and stabbed. Do you understand me, or do you need to be shown what’ll happen if you don’t do what I say?” Foggy growled, adrenaline rushing through his body.

Foggy loved the feeling of being truly alive; whether in a fight, robbing someone like now, or even when he pushed Twilight through the portal. His mind cleared, his senses sharpened, and he felt like he could sprint a mile without stopping. He wasn’t a huge fan of doing whatever activated an adrenaline rush, but in his life, it had become more than necessary.

“Do you know who my boyfriend is? You’re dead when he finds out.” The woman snarled, but the fear in her eyes told Foggy that her tough demeanor wouldn’t last long.

“Don’t know, don’t care. Now, hand over the purse or I’ll take it from you after leaving a few holes.” Foggy grunted. Why should he care who her boyfriend was? The only people who mattered in this part of Canterlot were gang bosses or drug dealers, and he wouldn’t be around long enough to face those consequences anyway.

“Okay, okay, just don’t hurt me, alright?” The woman gave in, her obvious fear of the weapons he held far outweighing her desire to keep her purse. She held it out shakily, and he snatched it with the hand holding the knife. After all, if she ran he could spray her from a distance and then move in with the knife.

Foggy wasn’t a murderer, in his eyes at least. He was a deliverer of justice, and Equestria had not seen the difference between those two. Still, he wasn’t here to kill anyone over a wallet; the most he would do was rough her up a bit if she ran, and frighten her enough to make his point.

Foggy combed through the purse with one hand, the can of pepper spray remaining outstretched, pointed directly at her face just in case. From what he gleaned from his cursory glance, the purse was rather fancy, with a small mirror inlaid in the interior side. There was a small plastic bag containing various makeup tools and items. These were rather unimportant items on their own, but what carried true value was the thick, black leather wallet tucked away in a side pocket. He grinned as he closed the purse and tucked it beneath his jacket.

“Alright, lady, beat it before I beat you. And if you tell anybody what happened here, I’ll find you, and you’ll be-”

“Well well, what do we have here?” A voice called out from somewhere behind Foggy, and ice ran cold through his veins.

Shit. This just got way too complicated.

Foggy turned away from the woman, who promptly dashed away a good 50 feet. Facing him were three figures, one of which he recognized as a rather rough gang leader, Snow Slice.

Snow was the benefactor and leader of the Phantoms, a small but well-known gang that had taken residence in the impoverished streets of Outer Canterlot. While Foggy didn’t know too much about Snow himself or the gang as a whole, he did know that they had a reputation of being ruthless.

“Oh, did we interrupt something? Well, usually I’d let it slide since I’ve got a soft spot for kids, but that’s my girlfriend you’re stealing from,” Snow ended with a snarl. The two cronies, both older and snaggle-toothed men, leered down at Foggy with amusement in their eyes.

Now, Foggy was a rather proud individual, but even he knew that a purse was not worth his life. So, he did what any reasonable person in his situation would do;

“I’m so sorry, I’m just so hungry, I only wanted enough for a hot meal or two!” He threw himself to the ground, clasping his hands together and looking pleadingly up at the gang members. One of the cronies faltered in his glare for a moment, but a look of reassurance from Snow resumed it.

“Ha, nice try kid. We heard everything you said, about how you were going to… what was it? Take her purse and leave her with a few holes? No, we can’t let that slide, sorry kid. Get ‘em, boys!” With the decree, the two minions jerked forward, leaping at Foggy while drawing sections of broken pipe or baseball bats to use as a weapon.

Hearing the command to attack, Foggy wasted no time in raising the can of pepper spray from its place in his hand up to the height of the men’s noses and pressed down on the button to spray, at the same time as he jumped to his feet and high-tailed it out of there. He valued his life way more than some dumb purse or his pride, so he tried dashing away as fast as he could.

When he pushed the button, a thick cloud of red sprayed out of the small can, choking the air around one of the men. Foggy felt his eyes begin to tear up just from the proximity, but the man took the brunt of the attack. He immediately began to cough furiously and frantically paw at his face with one hand, dropping the bat he was holding and eventually staggering away to breathe.

The other man was too far to the left to be severely impacted by the cloud, and Foggy only had time for one quick blast. As he dashed away, Foggy could hear the panting of breath and the clatter of feet close behind him. He tried to run faster, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins wasn’t enough.

He had almost made it to the next alleyway over when a heavy blow struck him across the side of the head, sending him tumbling to the ground in a pile of hurt. A second strike landed across his ribs, courtesy of the pipe held by the unharmed man. Foggy curled into a ball, covering his head with his hands until the man hoisted him up by his hoodie, his ears ringing with a painful hum.

This isn’t good, I’m literally helpless here. What should I- no, what can I do?

The cold, cold evening air burst across Foggy’s face as he hung in the air, gripped by the back of his jacket by the man. He shut his eyes involuntarily as the man’s hot breath washed over him when he leaned closer. Foggy had to force himself not to gag; his attacker’s breath carried the harsh, stinking scent of fish.

“Well now, you’ve made things complicated. We were going to just take your stuff and rough you up a bit, but now… now you’ve attacked my men and caused a scene. Tell me, what do you think we do with people like you?” Snow laughed, casually walking forward to stand ten or so feet away from where Foggy lay limp in the man’s grasp. The man holding Foggy reached over with his other hand and grabbed at his hair, painfully pulling his head up to face Snow.

“Well… let’s just say we make sure they don’t go blabbing off to any cops.” Foggy heard through the ringing in his ears. He blearily opened his eyes to see the last thing he ever wanted to see in a situation like this.

Snow had a gun.

It was a handgun, and albeit rather small, but a gun nevertheless. Strapped to his side, Snow had a hand laid on it, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. And as Foggy began to involuntarily shift away from it, in one slow, slow motion Snow carefully lifted it out of its holster, raising it and pointing it at Foggy.

And Foggy found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

A wave of primal fear swept through him. Sure, he’d seen guns before and had even practiced shooting with the airsoft gun that was so essential to his plans, but he’d never had to stare down a very real firearm while being held in place by another man. There was something about the gun that simply terrified him, and Foggy had been in very dangerous situations before. Hell, he’d had to fight his first troll with nothing but a bow and a dagger before he was six back in the Glades. There was an age difference between humans and ponies, but still: he’d even been chased by a hungry manticore!
But the gun… the sheer notion of it unsettled him. The ability to stand hundreds of feet away, and kill someone with but the pull of trigger? With a bow, properly aiming and even drawing the bow was difficult without years of training, and there was always the chance that the wind would knock it off course. But with a gun, and at this close range? It was practically guaranteed to hit him.

Luckily for Foggy, the gang leader didn’t seem too intent on killing Foggy, as the firearm wasn’t pointed at his head. Instead, it directed itself at his shoulder. A non-lethal shot by itself, but it would hurt like a bitch and probably wouldn’t be the only shot he’d receive.

Holy fucking shit, I might die here. If you can hear me, oh Holy Three, please don’t let me die here.

And if I do, please give my brother a proper burial.

Valuing his life far more than his pride, Foggy decided that begging might work in his favor. “Please, don’t hurt me! I really need to be somewhere tonight. It’s the most important thing that will ever happen to me, and I really need it to go well. Take my money, take everything I have… hell, even take what’s left of my eye, but please just let me go.” He pleaded. “I’m just a kid, I only needed this stuff for food anyway. My ma’s really sick, and I need to go help her or else she might die.” He added in a few lies as well, hoping they would sway Snow in his favor.

Snow hesitated for a moment, the gun drooping slightly. For a moment Foggy felt hope burn in his stomach like a ball of fire, starting small but growing larger with each second of silence.

Then Snow grinned like a shark, all teeth and malice. “You’re good, kid, almost got me there for a second. But I’m better. Sorry kid, you messed up big time here.”

And Snow pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Foggy gritted his teeth and shut his eyes as the trigger was pulled, and the bullet impacted into his shoulder with a sick thwump. In the first few seconds, all that was felt was the feeling of something pass through him and a strange wetness on his shoulder.

Then the pain flared bright, hotter than the flames that gave Foggy his scars.

Foggy let out a pained groan, his hand automatically coming up to cover the wound. By the feel of his back as well, it seemed that the bullet went in one end and out the other. A clean shot, and something Foggy would have been grateful for if he wasn’t in agony.

“That one was for stealing from my girlfriend and attacking my friend.” Snow casually remarked, sounding like he had just observed that it was raining instead of having just shot someone. He lifted the gun again, and Foggy cringed away from it, the fear and pain pulsing through him again.

BANG!

Another impact, this time below the stomach. The bullet pierced deep into his gut, and the deep tearing sensation in his groin didn’t bode well for Foggy. The pain intensified, and he was left nearly writhing in anguish as he was roughly dropped, collapsing into a ball on the ground.

“And that one? That was for lying to me. What do you think, boys? Has he learned his lesson, or does he need a third-”

A police siren began to wail, sounding rather close. Very close, in fact.

“Shit!” Snow hissed, turning away from Foggy to face the opening of the alleyway. “It’s your lucky day, kid. We’ve got to skedaddle, boys!” The three gang members clumped together and moved past Foggy, leaving with a parting kick to the ribs.

For a few moments, Foggy was alone in the alley. Quite possibly bleeding out, exhausted, and in a lot of pain.

He forced himself to his knees, and then shakily to his feet, leaning against the alley walls to support himself. A trail of blood followed him, and he knew the woozy and sleepy feelings building up inside him were not good, not good at all.

“Hey, is someone there?” A voice called out from the mouth of the alley. Foggy turned his head just enough to see a blue-clad officer, who immediately began making his way down to him at the sight of the wounded youth. “Hey kid, are you okay? What happened?”

This day can’t get any worse, can it? If they take me to the hospital, they’ll probably find out about the real Foggy’s death, and then it’ll be all over for me. I hate to say it, but I’d rather take my chances escaping here than get taken in by this cop.

Foggy staggered down the alley, turning at the intersection ahead. The officer began to jog after him, obviously concerned now. Foggy glanced around desperately for something, anything he could use. His pepper spray and knife were on the floor way back there, and he had no intention of going back for them. In his desperate search, his gaze finally alighted upon the section of pipe wielded by one of the thugs, presumably left behind in their flight. With the hand not placed against one of his wounds, Foggy hefted up the pipe, pressing up against the wall.

The second the officer turned the corner, Foggy lurched into action. He pushed all his weight into the blow, sending the rusty pipe crashing into the skull of the officer. The man dropped like a rock, tumbling to the floor and taking the pipe with him as it fell from Foggy’s shaking fingers.

His hand found its way to his pocket, frantically pulling out his phone and unlocking it as he staggered along the alley’s wall.

“I need to call Sunset. I need to call Sunset, holy shit.” Foggy muttered deliriously as he forced his legs to keep going as he grew weaker by the second. His head began to spin dangerously and he was finally forced to stop, crashing down next to the fire exit of a building. He pulled a large covering for the fire exit off of the ground, and pressed the cold fabric- too cold, just like him- against where the bullets entered and exited his body.

The shoulder wound wouldn’t be too much of a problem. While it sure hurt like hell, it was small and the only real danger was infection.

The gut wound, however, was the real problem. Deep inside his body, he could feel a strange torn sensation, like something inside him was broken. Blood poured out of it at a rather steady rate, and while the cover helped stem the flow a bit, his life essence was being drained at a rate that would not prove to be safe at all.

He was already feeling woozy and disoriented, and he estimated that in a few hours or so he might be dead. A gut shot was not the fastest to die from, and he wasn’t losing too much blood, but infection would set in quickly and without medical attention he would quite possibly die.

Through the haze, he managed to hit Sunset’s contact on his phone and start a call. He desperately put the phone up to his ear, awaiting the moment she responded among the beeps of waiting.

After a few moments… “Foggy, do you have the money? What’s going on?”

“Sunset. Sunset. I need your help.”

A brief pause. Then, “Uh, with what? You sound delirious, are you okay?”

Foggy managed to laugh, a hacking sound that sent pangs of pain wracking through his body. “Sunset, I’ve been shot. Twice, actually. I need you to come to the alley behind Soft Bed’s Apartments. I… I don’t think I can make it much longer.”

“I-what?! You got shot? Did you call an ambulance?”

“That’s the thing… I kinda can’t for an important reason, which is why I need your help. You know, work some of that Equestria magic with those potions or whatever you have.”

A longer pause this time. Foggy almost thought she had hung up until he heard a… a laugh?!

Yeah, a rather triumphant laugh.

“Well, this is even easier for me. You see, you’re a bit too violent for my tastes, you’d just get in my way back in Equestria. So, it’ll be so much easier having you out of the way here.”

Foggy gaped at the phone, in shock. “F-Fuck you, Shimmer! I thought we were partners, but I guess we were both just using each other.”

“Hm? You were using me too? Good job being sly about it, but that’s what’s getting you killed in the end.”

“Sunset, you can’t just leave me here! I-I’ve done so much for you, for us, and this is what I get back?”

“I would say sorry, but I’m actually not. So, goodbye, Foggy Horizons. I hope it goes swift for you.” A soft click marked the end of the conversation. Foggy groaned and rested his head back against the wall.

I am going to die.

The thought was surreal; after all this, after all the training and work and careful planning, this was how he was going to go? Bleeding out in an alley? He’d expected going out in a blaze of glory, taking down a horde of dragons with him, but this? This was just shameful.

I am going to die.

Oh Creepvine, this wasn’t how he wanted to go. His brother was still out there, not yet laid to proper rest, and he would stay that way if Foggy didn’t make it. All the strength was sapped from his bones, leaving him shivering in the cold and growing darkness. His eyes blinked, dazed and out of focus.

I am going to die.

Scoots would take care of herself, like she had until they found each other. She wouldn’t understand why he never came back; she’d probably assume he ran off to leave her and everyone behind. They’d find his body in a day or two, a few people from school might come to his funeral, everyone would be a bit shocked but secretly glad that he was no longer a menace.

Foggy wasn’t a perfect hero, and he knew it. In all the stories he’d heard as a colt in the Lower Glades, heroes were knights in shining armor that saved maidens and drove back evil, like the Holy Three. Now they were true heroes, not some kid who wanted to get revenge on a bunch of dragons.

He knew he just didn’t have it in him to be like the real heroes. He was too angry, too sad, too… confused. He used to be such a thoughtful and happy colt back when his tribe still lived, but ever since the attack he was changed. Since that fateful night, he’d been gripped with visions of grandeur and rightful revenge. The innocent colt Dusky was gone, and Foggy Horizons took his place now.

Foggy felt his vision begin to darken as the pain intensified, and the sleepy feelings grew. Oh, he was so tired. He just… wanted to… fall asleep. It would be so easy, too. Just close his eyes and let the darkness take him, and he’d finally get to rest.

And all his resolve was slowly fading, and his consciousness with it.

Before Foggy fell into unconsciousness, he couldn’t help but notice how pretty the stars beginning to blanket the sky were.

----------

A half hour or so later, a battered and bruised Sunset Shimmer pulled her way out of a smoldering crater. Tears filled her eyes, and she began to weep, lamenting at the wrongness of the actions she had taken for the past two and a half years.

She cried for all those she had hurt, all those who had lived in fear of her tyrannical rule at Canterlot High School, even for those who had worked for her and been forced to abide by her rules.

She wept for those six girls she had worked so hard to wrongly keep apart, ruining their friendships with but a few text.

But most of all, she shed tears for someone that for all she knew was dead. Someone who had been with her for the past two and half years, teaching her how to fit in and helping her achieve her goals. Sure, he had been using her as well, but he wouldn’t have betrayed her.

Sunset Shimmer cried for Foggy Horizons, and the world began to pour rain, as if weeping for him as well.

Chapter 5: Aftermath

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Chapter 5: Aftermath

The rain poured down into the streets, and thunder boomed overhead as a bicycle desperately zoomed across the road. Its rider was already rather drenched, but the motive driving her to pedal so hard outweighed the want to stay dry.

Foggy is dying. Sunset was still rather shocked at that fact. While she was-used to be- a manipulative demon who wanted to conquer her homeland and enslave her school, she never wanted anyone to die. That was more Foggy’s lane, although she knew he had some delusion of justice mixed in.

Sunset still remembered the burning, cleansing light that had purified her. It had hurt, a lot actually, but now she had a strange mix of both peace and sorrow deep within her. She’d emerged from the crater that the light had caused, tears dripping down her face, and deeply expressed her apologies to Twilight and her friends. But after a moment or two, the realization hit her.

Foggy had been literally shot- and she had just left him to die! Who knew if he was even still alive?! The thought made her hands tremble as they gripped the handlebars of the bike, her knuckles white. He’d told her the location, and the apartment complex was only about ten minutes from the high school, so she’d grabbed Rainbow’s bike, the owner of which had been rather suspicious, before quickly explaining and dashing off. AJ was supposedly driving by later in her truck, but she would have to have Mac bring it over first.

As she rode into the storm, Sunset let her mind mull over what she knew of Foggy Horizons.

Sadly, the old Sunset had not taken too much of an interest in him, simply capitalizing off of his desperation to get back to Equestria to get him to do her dirty work. They’d been somewhat partners, both of them needing each other to succeed, but in the end, it was Sunset who’s plan came to fruition first.

She knew he was a criminal from Equus who wanted revenge for his family, notably his younger brother, and hated dragons. Sunset hasn’t asked him too much about his history in Equus, but she presumed that dragons did something to his family. He apparently lived with an old man, but he hadn’t mentioned him in too much detail. Foggy worked at a pizza restaurant and was oddly friends with Scootaloo, one of the freshmen at CHS.

He was a bit gruff, dirty, and rather rude, but deep down Sunset thought he was just… misguided. Sure, defending a killer was a horrible thing, but ponies weren’t supposed to be killers at all. Their brains weren’t designed to support hate and anger, and too much would cause a ‘break’ of sorts. Guilt and trauma were mostly unheard of in Equestria, and its main threat didn’t come from its own inhabitants.

At least, Equestrian ponies weren’t killers.

There were ponies who lived outside the borders in other countries and their own pony nations. After all, what were the odds that Equestria was the only place where ponies lived as a majority? Those ponies weren’t brought up with the safety of a nation guarded and led by two goddesses, and thus life was harder.

Humans were different, too. As Sunset had seen in her two and a half years in their realm, humans could hate. Canterlot High School was not a happy place to be, the main reason being Sunset and Foggy’s regime. But outside of their influence, there were fights most days, arguments, and crime in this world was an actual problem.

Nevertheless, ponies weren’t designed for hate. On occasion, they were corrupted, like Sunset and supposedly Nightmare Moon was; for Sunset, she had found the mirror and it had whispered promises of grandeur, of power, of alicornhood until she had dared to question Celestia. She regretted the break between herself and her mentor, but it was too soon to go back and fix what had been broken.

But the fact that Foggy was so willing to take revenge, to kill… that was worrying. Maybe it was just his upbringing or something that happened long ago.

Or maybe it was something else?

Shaking off those darker thoughts, Sunset turned back to the task at hand. She was thoroughly soaked, and her legs were tired from furiously pedaling across the slick road, but she forced herself to keep moving. After all, someone’s life was on the line! She removed one hand from the handlebars to clutch a small, warm bundle in the pocket of her leather jacket, something which she hoped would help Foggy.

If he was still alive, that was.

Finally, after what seemed like a year of pedaling, she swerved the bike into the parking lot of the apartments, nearly smashing into a pole, before coming to a quick halt and leaping off. She immediately spotted the alley he had mentioned, and dashed over to it, grabbing the brick edge with one hand and using it to turn herself on the slick concrete. The rain was really coming down now, turning the world into a haze as visibility dropped further.

And there he was.

Foggy was lying on his back, a good two-thirds of his body sheltered underneath a tarp, seemingly used to cover a fire exit when not in use. One grey hand poked out of his worn hoodie to clutch the blanket to his body, hidden from view. He wasn’t moving-why wasn’t he moving?

Sunset dropped to her knees next to him, hastily pulling the tarp off of him. She forced herself to peel the remnants of the blood-drenched hoodie and shirt off of his cold, cold figure to see the extent of the damage he had sustained.

Overall it was less than she expected. She wasn’t a medical professional by any means, but he said he’d been shot twice for Celestia’s sake! There was a lot of blood, but it seemed that one of the wounds, the one to his shoulder, was relatively benign. The majority of the blood was from the gut wound, placed just below where his pants started (something she blushed at, despite the circumstance), which she faintly remembered from a science unit would lead to a long, painful death by infection if not treated within a certain time limit. Actually, most mortal wounds needed treatment within the ‘golden minutes’, of which she was sure had long passed. Realizing she didn’t even know if he was still alive, Sunset leaned down further and pressed two cold fingers on the side of his throat, where the pulse could normally be found.

His skin was damp and cold there, her fingers squishing into the soft flesh where the neck and head met. She focused for a moment and paused her examinations of the rest of him to concentrate solely on finding a pulse.

Thump…Thump…

Sunset sat back with a sigh of relief. The pulse was weak, but at least he was alive. That meant he could be saved, albeit with almost definite consequences. She didn’t know exactly what the potion would do to him, as it was designed for pony biology, but it would probably at least do something minor.

She tore the bundle clutched between her jacket and her stomach from its hiding place, and began to quickly open the small, ornate brown box, the lid popping open to unveil a small glass vial with a deep red liquid sloshing around inside.

Back in Equestria, Sunset had been fascinated by potions. They were just so versatile, and useful! Need to see in the dark? Brew a Nightengale potion! Forgot to sleep because you were studying so much? Easy, a quick sip of a Rejuvenator potion would fix that! Everything had a price, though; usually, healing potions required a lot of sleep after consumption as the body adjusted to the accelerated healing. Despite this, Sunset found that keeping a Mana potion on hand during the more draining magical experiments was always handy. Potions were also divided into tiers; the first tier was the least powerful but the simplest to make, while tier four usually took days of preparation but could produce extraordinary results.

The Tier III Regeneration potion once hidden in the bundle was one of two she’d packed in the emergency bundle she’d brought on her journey to the human world. The other one had been in her school locker back when she’d first begun to rise to power; this was before she got all of her blackmail, back when all she had was Foggy to enforce her threats. Someone, she still wasn’t sure who (but the signs pointed to Rainbow Dash!) had managed to get into the vent system that connected all the lockers and poured white paint on all her stuff. The staff had found the mess before Sunset did, and they told her they had to throw away everything, including the vial. Anyway, she’d saved the potion just in case she really needed it before she got back to Equestria, and it was a good thing she did. Wasting no more time, Sunset uncorked the vial and lifted it with shaky hands to Foggy’s cold lips.

Using one hand, she gently pried open his mouth, his jaw giving no resistance. The other hand oh-so-slowly tipped the first few drops of the potion into his mouth. As each drop passed his slack lips, she carefully massaged his throat, inducing a swallow here and there so the potion actually entered his system as he couldn’t exactly consciously swallow at the moment.

As the potion dripped down his throat, a faint hissing sound filled the air. Thin lines of steam rose off Foggy’s bare chest as the skin around the injuries began to bubble. Still unconscious, Foggy shuddered as the two holes in his body slowly started to knit themselves together. Skin reformed where it had been lost, grey flesh filled the crevices in his body that the gun had torn, and ever so slowly his breath steadied.

Sunset let out a deep woosh of a breath, nearly collapsing onto Foggy’s chest with sheer exhaustion. The day had been pretty awful for her, to be frank. Sure, she realized she had done wrong and wanted to fix that, but it wasn’t every day that one learned they’d ruined countless lives to achieve a goal that had taken them years to accomplish, only to be beaten by a group of girls and then possibly befriended by those same girls.

Oh yeah, and learning that your best friend had nearly died.

So all in all, it could have gone better. At least she had a chance to make things right now with the girls.

Foggy, thought? Hopefully, he wouldn’t let their years of collaboration fade just like that, but she had been pretty horrible to him in that last call. Maybe they could work something out?

As the rain poured down harder around her and Foggy’s limp form, Sunset rested her head on Foggy’s chest and let the now-steady thump, thump of his heart calm her. His body felt so thin beneath her; muscle had built, but she could feel his ribs prominently. Why was he so thin? Come to think of it, she never really saw him eat much at school.

The screeching of tires filled the air as a car pulled up near where her bike lay. A faint click of a car door opening met Sunset’s ears as she blearily looked up, shivering and hunched over Foggy, to see a familiar red truck.

“Sunset! Where are ya? We brought that first aid kit that ya wanted!” Applejack’s voice sounded, and in a moment the blonde-haired girl came into view, clad in a raincoat and clutching a white box and a few umbrellas. When she saw Sunset in her soaked jacket and Foggy unconscious, she immediately rushed over, checking Foggy’s pulse and heartbeat.

“S’okay, he’s alive.” Sunset murmured, unstrapping one of the umbrellas and opening it, a rather welcome reprieve from the rain. At this, some of the tension left Applejack and she sat back for a second, letting Sunset drape a thick blanket from the first aid kit over Foggy’s prone form. “We need to get him inside and warm. Applejack, I know you probably hate us and don’t want anything to do with us, but please. I… I can’t just let him die out here.”

Applejack reluctantly nodded. “Yer right, ah won’t let anyone die if ah can help it. Now, let’s get him into the car and we’ll drive back to Sweet Apple Acres, sound good?”

Sunset frantically nodded, slipping her arms beneath Foggy as AJ grabbed his legs, and the two lifted him up, which was a bit easier than she expected. Again, why was he so light?

Amidst the downpour, the duo carried Foggy to the truck, where they laid him down in the back. AJ hopped in the front to drive after sticking Rainbow’s bike in the bed of the truck, while Sunset sat in the back with Foggy, resting his head in her lap. His long, dull gold hair spilled onto her soaked pants as the engine started and the car vibrated softly. The car slowly pulled out of its parking spot, and Sunset let out a breath of relief as they left the grim alley behind.

As they drove the silence became deafening, so Applejack broke it after a few minutes. “So Sunset, how did this happen in the first place?”

Sunset gulped. “W-Well you see… he was going to steal from someone, I think. He’s always been a bit more street-smart than me, and we needed to bribe students to vote for me, so I asked him to get the money for me somehow, and I guess the only way he could was to rob someone. It obviously didn’t go well, if whatever happened to him is any indication. H-He called me a little while ago and told me he’d been shot, and well…” Sunset trailed off.

Applejack twisted in her seat and looked at Sunset sharply for a moment before turning back to the road. “And what, Shimmer? Ah already don’t really trust you, but Twilight told us to take a chance on ya. Whatever it is, I’m sure you’re sorry for it and you can do what ya can to fix it.”

Sunset steadied herself with a deep breath. “Well, I left him to die. I told him that he’d just get in my way back in Equestria, and I just hung up on him.”

The car was quiet for a second. Then, “Ah admit that was pretty rotten. But ya did save ‘im, and ah’m sure that’ll count for somethin’. And look at ya, you’re in shock! You ain’t a killer, Sunset, and whatever you did in the past is simply that. It’s in the past, and what matters most is what you do in the future. Okay, sugarcube?”

Sunset wiped away the tears threatening to blur her vision. “O-Okay, AJ.” Nobody had ever said anything so sincere and kind to her since she came to this world. Foggy had been gruff, and while she knew they had somewhat of a bond, she always feared he might betray her and they rarely hung out when they weren’t working on a plan.

Maybe having friends wouldn’t be so bad after all?

----------

The car arrived at Sweet Apple Acres as rain was still pouring down. They rushed inside, Foggy being brought in over AJ’s shoulder in a fireman’s carry. The other girls were all waiting there, but none save for Fluttershy seemed very interested in Foggy, and she only because of her instinctive desire to help those hurt. The two walked off to set him down in a cot in the barn.

The girls all crowded around Sunset as she walked in, hair and clothes plastered to her body, and all of them broke into questions.

“Where did you go?”

“Are you going to try and take over the school again?”

“Oh dear, whatever happened to your jacket? Is that blood?!”

“Do you want some apple pie? It’s fresh from the oven!”

Sunset shook her head, overwhelmed. “One at a time girls! Okay, I’ll just answer them in order. I went to find Foggy, who I left when he got hurt. Not my best move, but I’ll do what I can to make amends. I’m not trying to pull anything or take over the school; I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but please trust me. I was a terrible, terrible person before you girls saved me and I want to fix that. Uh, yes, it’s blood, but it’s Foggy’s. He should be all fixed up now, though. And yes, pie sounds great! I haven’t eaten since before the dance.” The girls took a moment to digest her answers, and a brief silence hung in the air before Rainbow piped up.

“Why should we trust anything you say? You ruined our relationships with each other!”

Rarity stepped forward and laid a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Dear, Twilight asked us to give Sunset a chance, and I think she deserves it.” The rest of the girls chimed in with assent, and Sunset’s shoulders sagged with relief.

“Thanks, girls. You won’t regret this!” A warm feeling blossomed in her chest, and a grin began to creep up her face.

Pinkie darted up to Sunset and wrapped an arm across her shoulder. “Good ol’ Principal Celestia told us you could start on cleaning up the school tomorrow, so tonight we can par-tay!”

Sunset stifled a laugh. “What for?”

“Well, it’s a Yay-We-Have-A-New-Friend-Who’s-Not-A-Demon party, silly! Classic stuff, it’s a staple of every friendship.” Pinkie giggled, letting go of Sunset and bouncing over to her bag to take out amounts of party supplies that shouldn’t have been able to fit in there.

“If you say so, Pinkie.” Rainbow deadpanned, before turning to face Sunset.

“Shimmer, I don’t fully trust you but if Twilight thinks we should give you a chance, then who am I to argue?” She stuck out a hand, and Sunset gratefully shook it. Rainbow grinned at her, which was reciprocated with a small smile from Sunset.

This might just end up to be fun!

----------

Fire curling against a green landscape. Once great trees burning with orange flame. Wooden houses and shacks lighting the sky with the inferno.

A colt, staring in terror at the sky through one eye, where what seemed to be a god to him at the time wheeled in the cloudless sky.

Shouts and screams of ponies everywhere dying, burning, running as the flames grew higher, roaring hungrily as they consumed everything in their path.

The colt watched in shock as a Pegasus launched itself into the air, its wings beating furiously as it tried to escape from the inferno. The colt remembered her; she was a nice mare, and ran the apothecary he and his father had sold rare herbs from the depths of the Glade to. Her eyes wide with terror, she made good distance before a dark shadow in the night appeared behind her.

The colt wanted to scream, to tell her to watch out, but before even a gasp had escaped his lips a burst of fire lit the dark sky, and the only remnant of the nice mare was a limp shape falling, falling, falling to the flames below. A roar of triumph lit the air, and the colt shuddered, turning away from where the monster lurked and dashed off to hide behind a somehow untouched cart.

He hunkered down beneath the cart, curling into a ball when he felt hidden enough. One hoof gently rubbed his eye, where the scorching pain had only intensified since he had been burned. His other hoof patted the satchel on his back- not even his, just another orphan, without that which owned it. Just like him, without his parents.

As he stroked the worn fiber, he felt an object inside the satchel. Slowly turning it over, he dumped out the contents. There were a few mundane objects; a small sack of bits, a charred apple, a quill, and a vial of ink. But there was also something else.

A dark orb, seemingly made of black stone, sat before him on the dusty ground. As he examined it, he seemed to hear… whispers? Whispers just eluding his ears, so that he could feel their presence but not understand what they were trying to say. He looked closer, and his eyes caught a faint glimpse of runes as they shimmered in the firelight. Entranced despite his situation, the colt reached out with a shaky hoof and prodded the sphere.

A sudden chill wracked his body, which was strange because fire consumed everything around him. The orb began to glow with a dark light, somehow drawing in the shadows of the cart into it, sucking in all the darkness and exuding it as a strange mixture of light and dark.

All of a sudden, the colt felt a strange pressure on his mind. It felt like a knife was stabbing into his skull; except… it felt deeper, on a more mental level. He groaned and clutched his head, writhing in agony as the pressure increased. His brain felt full to the brim, and it almost felt like something was pushing into his mind itself, forcing his brain aside to make room. He let out a whine as the pressure reached a peak, and in a flash it faded.

The colt collapsed, expecting to feel exhausted, but it felt as if the pain had never been there. Of course, his eye still felt excruciatingly painful, but his head itself felt rather untouched. He glanced up to look at the orb, only to find that it had vanished. And yet, the whispers only grew louder. And now… now, he could understand them.

They whispered of power untold, promises of great wealth and untold magic that would be at his command. But beneath them all, a single voice, deep and slow, rang out.

“Child, what is it that you want?”

The colt whimpered, scared and hurt. His hoof massaged his eye as he curled deeper into a ball, trying to escape the loud beats of wings as they grew closer and closer.

The ground shook and dust was shaken up, clouding the air as the monster landed outside the cart. A low growl filled the silence as the colt clutched the satchel to his chest.

“I just-I just want to see mommy and daddy again.” He whispered to the voice, not knowing if he spoke aloud or just in his head.

The voice turned triumphant. “Then let the eternal power of the Abyss flow through you, and you shall bring them back to this world.” With a loud sucking sound the colt vanished, just in time as fire flooded the cart, blackening and burning until there was nothing left.

Not even a trace of Dusky, and as fire consumed the rest of the village, it was like he had never even existed.

----------

Foggy sat up in the cot, sweat pouring down his face, before realizing he was not beneath a cart, waiting to die..

Wait, where the hell am I?

He looked around, and the snorting of pigs caught his attention. He seemed to be in a barn, lying on a small cot in the corner. He relaxed for a second as he realized he wasn’t in any immediate danger, lying back on the cot.

Let’s see, how did I get here? The last thing I remember was…

Sunset.

Foggy gritted his teeth, savagely shaking his teeth as he remembered.

She left me out to die. I’m going to have a very long talk with her about that when I find her, different world be damned..

As if realizing his brush with death, Foggy’s hands rushed to his shoulder and abdomen, feeling for a moment to find his wounds, and finding none.

Wait… what?! I know for sure I got shot twice. Where did the holes go?

Deciding to get answers somewhere, Foggy swung his feet to the side of the cot and heaved himself up, his legs unsteady after sleeping for so long. At least he got to sleep on an actual mattress for once, instead of his car’s seats. Finding a pair of sunglasses in his pocket, he quickly donned them before heading out.

Foggy hobbled his way to the door, regaining his balance by the time he stepped into the lush grass outside. His feet, still clothed in his worn shoes, squished in the mud as he made his way to the large house surrounded by apple trees,

So, Sweet Apple Acres. That means either Applejack or one of her silly ‘friends’ brought me here. Sunset probably passed through the portal, so I need to find out exactly what happened and make a plan.

When he reached the house’s door, he knocked twice and waited. After a moment, it opened, and Foggy was greeted by the sight of Apple Bloom.

“Oh, are you looking for Scootaloo? She’s not here right now, sorry.” Apple Bloom had at first been apprehensive of him, but Scoots had explained that they were cousins, which was a total lie, but she had come to simply be neutral in her attitude toward him.

Foggy huffed. “No, I’m here for your sister. Could you tell her to come to the door?” Actually, now that he thought about it, he probably should check in with Scoots. She might not know what went down last night.

Apple Bloom nodded and left, closing the door behind her. While he waited, Foggy searched his pockets for his phone, thankfully finding it still here, and gave Scootaloo a quick text telling her he got caught up in something and that he was sorry he couldn’t check in beforehand. She had a key to the car, so she was probably fine. A quick ‘“it’s fine” was the reply, and Foggy put away his phone just as the door opened again, this time with Applejack standing in its frame.

“So you’re awake.” She muttered as she glared at him through narrowed eyes. “I assume ya want to talk to Sunset?”

“She’s here?” Foggy gaped in shock. That means… her plan had failed? All their work, gone to nothing. At least he could still give her a piece of his mind.

“Yeah, c’mon in. And don’t touch anything, I know how much of a creep you can be.” Applejack closed the door behind him as he entered the house, still eyeing him suspiciously.

“Relax, I’m not here to rob you. I just… is Sunset really here? She failed?” Foggy asked, following AJ deeper into the house and up a staircase.

“Yep, she’s here alright. We stopped her after she became a demon, an’ now we’re tryin’ to be friends with her.”

“A demon?! Damn, that Element really must have worked wonders. Anyway, what happened? I know for a fact I should be at least bandaged right now, and my body is unmarked!” Foggy’s voice rose, but a sharp look from Applejack quieted him again.

“Well, ah think Sunset can explain it better than ah can. Here we are!” She stopped before an unmarked wooden door, and knocked twice. “We were havin’ a bit of a party last night, and most of the girls stayed here for the night.”

The door opened and Sunset stood before them, her hair frizzy and eyes blinking blearily at them. “Hm? What is it-oh.”

“‘Oh’ is right, Shimmer.” Foggy growled out, clenching his fists.

“Um, Applejack, do you mind if we could have a bit of privacy to… discuss some things?” Sunset requested, opening her door further.

AJ narrowed her eyes at Foggy. “Alright, but if ya need anything just holler.” She walked off down the hall, and Foggy stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.

“Foggy-” Sunset started, but Foggy cut her off.

“Save it, Shimmer. Tell me what happened last night.” Foggy ordered, and Sunset nodded.

“Well, Twilight got elected to be the Princess of the Fall Formal, so I had to use Snips and Snails to steal her dog Spike, and we used him as leverage for the crown. We fought back and forth for it, but I eventually got it and used it. It’s kind of hazy, but I know I turned into a she-demon and tried enslaving most of the school, and Snips and Snails got turned into demons too. I’m not sure how all that happened, but it did, and the girls had to defeat me. They used some pony power, and I turned back into me, and now I just feel… sad, I guess. I don’t feel like I want to enslave anyone or conquer Equestria or anything like that. I have to fix what I did, and I’d like to start with you.” Sunset finished, and Foggy stood silent for a moment, taking it all in.

“Sunset, I literally almost died last night because of you. And now you want me to just forgive you, like it never happened? I don’t know how it worked in Equestria, but in the Glades we didn’t just forgive. This is… I need to think. I need-”

“What’s all the noise about, Sunset?” A raspy voice sounded from the door as it opened, and Foggy turned to see Rainbow Dash yawning and rubbing her eyes. She froze when she saw him.

“Sunset, this guy bothering you? Girls, get down here!” Rainbow called out, before advancing on Foggy.

“What, you want to fight? I’m not going to go down as easy as I did last time.” Foggy moved into a defensive stance, and Rainbow raised a fist before Sunset leapt between them.

“Please, don’t fight. Not here. Rainbow, Foggy and I were just… talking. Yeah, we were just talking. What happened before the portal closed was-”

“Wait.” Foggy’s blood chilled. He’d- He had totally forgotten about the portal. “Are you telling me that the portal, my one chance of getting back, is closed?! For the next two and a half years?”

Sunset shakily nodded, and Foggy groaned. “Do you have any idea of how long I’ve waited? It’s been five years, Sunset. Five. Years. Five years of waiting, planning, scheming, and doing awful things just to get home, and now you’re telling me that you messed it up? Oh, I am so going to get you-” Foggy was cut off by Rainbow’s fist flying into his jaw. He reeled back, and turned on her.

“Oh, you want a beatdown too? I’ll gladly give you one; I’ve got nothing to lose now!” He roared, jumping at her. He was stopped, however, by a flash of orange and a pair of arms wrapping around his shoulders, yanking him back.

“Hol’ on there, partner, no fightin’ in this house!” Applejack grunted as she heaved him away, surprisingly rather easily. Foggy struggled for a moment before reluctantly falling limp.

“Fine, fine. But this isn’t over, Shimmer. You just cost me my retribution for my brother.” Foggy huffed, before spinning around and storming off, down the hall and to the door.

When he reached the door and yanked it open, a hand fell on his shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?” Rainbow accused. “We won’t let you get anywhere near Sunset, you creep!”

“Stop talking like I’m the bad guy here! Justice needs to be served, and nobody else is going to do it!” Foggy retorted, shaking off her hand and slamming the door as he left the house.

He stormed down the dirt road, shoving his hands in his pockets.

I need to get out. I need time to think. I-I can’t breathe here. There’s only one place I can go to relax and find what I’m looking for.

Everfree National Park, here I come.

Not Everyone's a Hero

by Rainwalker12

Chapter 1: Prelude

Chapter 2: A Hot Mess

Chapter 3: Pizza

Chapter 4: Necessary

Chapter 5: Aftermath