> Shout At The Devil : Welcome to Equestria
>  by Bucket of Skies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Introduction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is this the real life? Please tell me this is fantasy. I’m not gonna tell this story about me getting caught in a landslide Rocky. I escaped that reality.
You were the one who had to go full on Code Cliffhanger the last time. We gotta resolve it somehow with the rest of our experience on this crazy vacation.
I know, but these people don’t like me. What’s the point of it all?
What are you talking about Brim?
If no one likes what you do, what is the point of it? If all you work for is gonna be doused by other people because they view it otherwise, why go through the motion? It’s a waste of human time that could be used to better benefit mankind.
Oh now you’re getting all philosophical on me? Do you even hear yourself right now? This is just some sort of excuse to not want to talk about this part of the story.
IT IS A DARK PERIOD FOR ME IN THAT STORY! AND I USED TO LIVE IN HELL.
Oh Good Grief! Fine, I’ll do you a solid later if you just suck it up for this part of the story.
Fine. I’m not gonna enjoy it, but this solid better be worth it later when I ask for it.
Anyways, if you followed where we left off, things had gotten pretty crazy. Things were already crazy all together with the road trip we had taken before hand, but when we got to my girlfriend, Sunset Shimmer’s  hometown of Canterlot, it really got to a point of insanity. 
Not everyone can say that they were almost killed by some old crazy former priest and also meet their musical hero about the same trip they went on.
Yeah, and on top of this, we were suddenly transported through a magical portal to a whole new place. Not just teleported, but also transformed into ponies. Well, almost all of us.
Shut up right now! We’re not gonna talk about it until later!
Alright fine. But now we were in a whole new world to explore as a part of our road trip. As far as I could tell, our road trip turned into an adventure. Almost like some twisted kid’s show.
Yeah, a show that is watched by greasy men when it is targeted for little girls. They probably do nasty things with the toys of that show like putting it in a jar and..
Brim!
What? Too soon of a joke?
Just start the story Brim.
Right, here is the theme song or something.
> Chapter 1 : Welcome to Paradise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What happened to my body!”, I exclaimed to Sunset who was calm about this whole ordeal.
“Rocky, I know it’s a lot, but you need to calm down.”, Sunset urged me putting her hoof on my shoulder.
I fell over again losing balance trying to stand on my hind hooves. 
“How can I be calm?! I am a horse!”, I hysterically blurted.
“Technically a unicorn.”, Sunset said jokingly, trying to lighten the tense mood.
“Unicorn, Horse. What difference does it make?! I’m not a human anymore! Where is my body?”, I said almost hyperventilating.
Sunset walked over to me on the ground and helped me up with some magic aura from her horn. I stumbled over as I tried to stand again only to fall on my now front hooves. Funnily enough, it felt more natural and less difficult to stand in this position.
“It’s nowhere Rocky. Right now, this is your body. We’re in an alternate world where everypony is a pony. Well, most of them. But that’s not important. The important thing is that you are still alive and well. Just well, a unicorn. Thank Celestia you weren’t a Pegasus.”, She explained to me.
I managed to catch my breath and speak more calmly.
“Okay, where exactly are we?”, I asked.
“We’re in a land called Equestria. My real hometown being Canterlot, but in this universe. Right now we’re in Ponyville, inside a castle.”, Sunset explained.
I gave a visibly confused look hearing all these places. Canterlot was the only one I heard before, but in this universe was completely faint to me. If it is confusing for you, I’m sorry but this was exactly how I was feeling in this exact moment.
“I can see it’s a lot to process, but right now we gotta get out of this old library.”, Sunset urged me.
“Yeah, let’s get out of- wait...where’s Brim?”, I asked looking around.
It hadn’t occurred to me when I landed that Brim was nowhere to be seen in this old library. By now, he would have told some weird quip to me as I woke up, but there was nothing of that kind.
“He must’ve landed a little bit further than you. I’m sure if we look around we can find him somewhe-”, Sunset said before being interrupted by a loud, familiar groan.
“..Oh my head!”, Brim’s voice groaned out from under a pile of books.
“Brim! Are you okay?”, I said trying to get used to walking on all fours.
The books rustled a little bit more until a figure rose from it. It was stout, and rather grizzly looking. I backed up from the fear of what I could imagine what Brim was turned into. All I knew for sure was that Brim certainly was not a pony.
Once my eyes came into focus on the figure, I picked out a large goat with yellow eyes and red colored fur like Brim’s devilish tone. He had two large black horns and a small black beard underneath his chin. Soon after rising, I could see his eyes focus on us with a look of confusion. Both Sunset and I were lost at words with what he was.
“You…..you-”, I tried saying to Brim.
“I must’ve hit my head really hard because I see you guys as two small unicorns.”, Brim said lifting his hoof on his head.
By this point, he felt his horns with his hoof. A look of shock went through his face as he moved his hoof down to examine it. He bounced back with shock.
“What in the actual Hellfree forest!?”, Brim said turning around to examine a reflection of himself,”No! I can’t be!”
“You're ...a goat!”, Sunset answered for me.
“Oh God No! Oh this is so many degrees of messed up! And I lived in the Hellfree forest! Wait, why am I saying Hellfree forest? I mean Hellfree forest. Ahhh! I can’t speak straight!!!”, Brim panicked.
“What’s the matter?”, Sunset asked him.
“‘What’s the matter’? I’m a goat in some universe where in the other one I ate goats like potato chips. I pretty much did cannibalism on myself!”, Brim said suddenly turning green in the face.
“Brim, it’s gonna be okay. It’s all new to me too.”, I tried calming him.
He suddenly gave a small gag.
“I’m gonna hurl. I’m gonna-”, Brim said before turning over the table behind him to vomit. 
“Oh good grief!”, I said looking away as he did that.
After he finished, I wiped off his beard before looking back at us. 
“I swear after this is all over I’m gonna be vegan. Oh Buck me! What? Why am I saying different words than I am trying to say?”, Brim said visibly confused.
Sunset suddenly stepped forward to help Brim out.
“That’s, something I think I should discuss now that we’re all here, specifically for Brim. In this world, words are not discussed here simply as an evolutionary thing. Instead, we substitute different words in place of them.”, Sunset tried to explain.
“So what are you saying? We can’t swear here?”, he asked.
“Yes, but not really?”, she said nervously smiling.
“Oh mother bucking fish balls in a cog blocking sorting!”, Brim exclaimed throwing his hooves in the air.
A part of me chuckled at his attempts to try and swear in this world. He looked at me with an angry look on his face.
“Oh Buck off Rocky! I’m already going through an existential crisis finding out I am what I eat.”, Brim said. 
Then for no reason at all, I realized that I no longer had my glasses on me. Yet, I had near perfect 20/20 vision. 
Ha! You have the vision of a horse. Try to avoid that nickname motherbuck- OH ARE YOU KIDDING ME IT WORKS IN NARRATION TOO?!
Anyways, I kept that thought to myself and continued trying to piece together what was happening now that we were here.
“So, what now?”, I asked Sunset.
She opened her mouth to speak but then gave a realization look on her face.
“I ...actually don’t know. I’m typically here for an important life threatening event going on in Equestria or in your world, but never unannounced.”, she nervously said.
“You’re kidding me, right? You mean to tell me you wanted to take us here, yet you had no plan at all with what to do here!?”, Brim angrily asked. 
“It was all last minute okay. Rocky wanted to have our trip last longer and well ...this came to mind.”, Sunset explained.
“You ditch! You made me have a bucking cannibalistic episode and-!”, Brim said confronting her before I got in between them.
“Guys! Let’s just try and calm down while we figure this out. Sunset knows this place better than either of us, so it’s no use trying to start a fight with her.”, I said to Brim.
He gave a humph before backing down. I then turned over to Sunset.
“Now, where do we start?”
“Well, the first thing we need to do is find Princess Twilight and tell her about this situation. Maybe I can catch up with her after a long while.”, Sunset explained.
“Princess Twilight?”, Brim asked.
“She’s a close friend of mine who got me out of a dark place.”, she explained.
“Of all the universes we could have gone too, why did we have to go to pony fairytale land?!”, Brim frustratingly said.
Before I could ask her more about her friend, a loud door opened from above us. We all turned in the direction of the door opening up with a small green light coming out of it. I felt uneasy anticipating what was coming out of that door. With a hard breath of anticipation, I was met with a small looking  purple dragon with some small muscles.
“Who’s there! You don’t want to be stealing from the royal- Oh, its you! My goodness I was about to burn you to a crisp Sunset.”, the dragon said.
“Spike!”, Sunset said running to hug him. 
Brim and I looked at each other before looking back at Sunset. 
“It’s been so long Sunset! Twilight will be thrilled to see you.”, the dragon said.
“Uh, timeout. Who is this?”, Brim asked.
Sunset turned around to face us after letting go of Spike.
“Guys, this is Spike. He is the royal advisor to Princess Twilight.”, she explained.
“And the one who had been taking care of the castle library since the very beginning.”, Spike explained.
“A dragon as a royal advisor? Hard to say if it is better or worse than the political environment back home.”, I said jokingly.
“And, who are they?”, Spike asked Sunset.
“They are my friends from the other dimension. Rocky Pebble, the unicorn and best stallion friend ever. And then Brim, the goat.”, Sunset explained.
“A goat?! He isn’t one of those evil ones from the Hellfree forest is he?”, Spike asked stepping back in fear.
“Wait evil? Who told you I was evil?! I mean I am sorta evil, but not in the sense I am sensing from you. I literally just got here and i’m being threatened for being evil.”, Brim said cocking an eyebrow.
“No no! I didn’t mean to offend you assuming that. It’s just that we have had a few issues with some goats in the Hellfree forest nearby.”, Spike said apologetically.
Trying to diffuse the tension, Sunset stepped in.
“Is Twilight around?”, she asked.
“Not currently. She is off attending to some royal business in Canterlot, but you’re more than welcome to stay a while until she arri-”.
“No, I think these two will be staying a while, I’m going to go back home through the portal I came in. Maybe gonna become a vegan when I arrive home.”, Brim said walking back into the mirror before hitting his face against it.
I looked back at him with an angry look to his comments.
“Are you sure he wasn’t the goats from that forest?”, Spike asked Sunset.
“No, It’s nothing. I’ll just have a few words with him behind this mirror.”, I answered for her taking Brim by the horn. 
I took Brim behind the mirror to talk about his attitude to this new place. He gave a small groan of pain as I tugged his horn to pull him aside.
“Ow! What is your problem?”, Brim asked.
“What is your problem?!”
“What are you talking about Rocky?”
“Can you at least give this place a chance? We haven’t even been here five minutes and you are already planning to leave.”, I told him.
“Rocky, I hate fantasy worlds. It’s all too happy and giddy. Personally, I’d much rather eat myself for the rest of my life than spend another second in this way too happy wonderland.”, Brim said.
“Don’t be so cynical! Just give this world a chance. This is Sunset’s true hometown. Granted, it’s a lot of information to take in, but I’m willing to put out enough work to get used to this new place for her”.
“Ugh, you’re so bucking cheesy its unbearable! Fine, I’ll give it one day and one day only. After that, I’m going back to sit in the hot car till you get back. At least I can entertain myself by competing in a death battle with the kids to see who can survive the longest. A true car battle royal, if you will.”, Brim said.
I cringed a little at the thought of that, but gave a sigh of relief to get him back on the idea of this new adventure. I gave him a nod as we both walked back from behind the mirror to meet with Sunset and Spike.
“Alright, let’s give,’Ponyville’, a chance. I don’t see myself getting out of this world because I have no way to get back home.”, Brim told them both.
“Great! I’ll shall get the word out to Princess Twilight about your arrival. You guys can hang around town until she gets back.”, Spike said, making brim cringe at the word Princess.





After getting a brief talk from Spike on the way out of the library about the history of the town, we were finally let loose to the wonderful town of Ponyville. If you asked me about what it is like, I would say that it is exactly what it sounds like.
They wouldn't ask of course since they know a thing or two about this place already. 
What?
Er nothing. Just a hunch I felt.
"Wow, this is your old home. It is beautiful. ", I told her standing on the steps of the castle to the town.
"Yeah. I always have a place in my heart for Equestria. ", Sunset said looking off in the town.
"Hold up, I just realized something. ", Brim spoke up.
"What?", I asked.
"Since this is technically an alternate universe, wouldn't that mean we would run into our animal version of ourselves?", Brim pointed out.
“It is possible, but that is unlikely to happen since we don’t exactly know where your alternates are. It would be a one in a million chance to run into them here.”, Sunset explained.
“Works for me.”, I said shrugging.
We walked down the steps right into town. One thing that I noticed right off the bat was how truly diverse a town could be just by looking at them as ponies. Not only in color, but in size, stature, even eyes to an extent. The only similarity I noticed was that everypony, including me, had a little picture on their rear. They all had a variety of some sort, making them unique. Sunset explained it to me that they were a representation of their character and personality called a “cutie mark”. My cutie mark was a familiar sight to say the least. Remember that tattoo that appeared the night brim came into my life? It was that only slightly modified to be appealing to well, a technicolored horse, unicorn or pegasus.
“Ugh, please tell me there is a place to get a drink around here. All these bright colors are giving me an eyesore.”, Brim said rubbing his eyes.
“Can you try and stay positive about this place for five seconds?”, I told him looking back.
“Fine. I’ll be more positive. I’m positive that this place is giving me an eyesore and I need a drink. And a smoke.”, he said sarcastically.
“I don’t think that they have that here in this world.”, I assumed.
“Actually, we have a place that is close to that. It’s not proper ‘drinks’, but it’ll do well for what Brim needs.”, Sunset explained.
We walked around the corner to find a bar called “PT’s”. For some reason it was very familiar. Like I had been there before.
I walked over to the door and reached for the handle. Sadly, I didn’t realize it until I saw that I couldn’t open the door with a hoof. It wasn’t till then when I realized how truly great fingers are for functions. Sunset laughed at me as I tried to open it with a hoof.
“I’m going to have to teach you how to use that horn someday Rocky.”, she joked with me as she used her magic to open the door for me.
“Ha! You have to rely on your marefriend to open doors for you. Loser!”, Brim said walking past me.
I rolled my eyes at his remark and followed behind them both inside. As we walked in, I smelled the sweet smell of juices in the air. It definitely wasn’t the alcohol smell that I was used to smelling in a regular bar. Maybe that was this bar’s charm since it was part of a different place.
Brim looked around to find a stallion with a small pipe in his hoof. How he was able to grip it is a mystery to me. Unexpectedly, Brim threw himself at the stallion and grabbed his pipe.
“Hey! That’s mine!”, the stallion said.
“Forget you! I need this a lot more than you!”, Brim said before taking a hit of it.
He let out a loud cough as he spat out a large cloud of bubbles.
“What is this?! This isn’t real smokes!”, Brim said tossing it back at him.
The stallion got up and walked away in anger from Brim ruining his pipe.
“Stupid goats!”, he said before exiting the bar.
“Oh now that was uncalled for! What a little ditch.”, brim said before looking back at us.
“You’re not about to cause trouble in my bar are you?”, a familiar voice from behind me said.
I turned around to see a unicorn with a small curly mane. Then I saw his fur. It was a similar color to a very close friend back in the original Manehatten. He looked very much like…
“Biff Bottle?”, I asked him with a surprised tone.
“That’s my name. You definitely don’t need to wear it out. Now I asked you three a question: you’re not about to cause trouble in my bar are you?”, he asked us again.
“No, we aren’t. That is just a friend who is new around here and doesn’t know the rules of town yet.”, Sunset answered before for passive aggressively looking at Brim.
I was too busy with the realization that I was meeting Biff again, only this time he was a bartender unicorn. This definitely put me in an uneasy feeling knowing that people I knew in the other world are nearby in this world as well. Kinda confusing to explain, but then again my situation was confusing to begin with.
“Hey, you look like you could use a drink. You must’ve seen a ghost or something. I’ll make you a specialty.”, Biff said before walking away.
“Well, looks like we already have you a new friend in Equestria!”, Sunset said putting her hoof on my shoulder. 
“This is so heavy. What was it like for you Sunset?”, I asked her sitting down at the stool.
“What was what like?”, she asked me sitting next to me.
“Coming to a new world. Specifically my world. Was it as scary as it is for me running into familiar faces but not knowing how to react and such.”, I explained.
“Well, I’m not really too keen on my past since well, you know what horrible things I did so long ago. But after I got over my anger and wanting power like I thought I was promised, I realized that that world and Equestria aren’t so different. Especially with running into the other Twilight back at the Friendship Games.”, Sunset said.
“I’m sorry, the what?”, I asked confused after hearing something that ridiculous.
“A bit of a long story. I can explain it another time.”, she said before booping my nose with her hoof. I didn’t really like it that much to be honest.
“Alright. Here is my specialty cider.”, stallion Biff told me handing me a glass.
“Thanks.”, I answered.
I forgot about how I had hooves again, as I got my hoof up to try and grab it only to have it pushed away from me. Sunset laughed at me again as she used her magic to lift the drink up to sip it before handing it to me to sip. Right off the bat, I knew right away that this wasn’t an alcoholic beverage. It was probably the sweetest thing I had ever tasted, leaving me with somewhat of a spastic state for a moment before calming back down.
“My, what is that?”, I asked Sunset.
“It’s a type of sugar mixed in. Since you aren’t used to that body, it may be a bit strong on making you like Pinkie.”, Sunset explained.
“That one friend of yours who had a ton of energy”?
“Yeah that's her”.
“I always thought she had something wrong with her with how you described her.”, Brim said still puffing bubbles.
“Brim!”, I said to him turning around.
“Don’t look at me like that. You know for a fact that you thought she had something mental going on up there. After all, even Sunset had seen inside of her head and didn’t know what to say.”, Brim said shrugging.
“Still, it’s not right to make an assumption about her.”, I told him.
“Those ‘assumptions’ can sometimes discover things that can save lives you know.”, Brim said crossing his hooves.
“She doesn’t have anything.”, Sunset settled for us both.
“She doesn’t have anything that you know of yet.”, Brim added.
Sunset gave a small sigh before drinking more of the cider. We talked more and more as we were at that small little bar. More specifically about Sunset’s life here in Equestria. She talked a little bit about how she was this old princess's student for the longest time before she went through a rough time. But thankfully it was all the good memories. Even when she first returned back to Equestria to fix an issue going on in Canterlot high, all she talked about was all the good things.
She even managed to try and describe how to use magic with my new horn in simple terms. Something to do with focusing on an object and wanting it to do a certain thing. It sounded a bit complicated to me, but of course I wasn’t from this world so it made sense.
Dummy, you can use the force in our world. It’s the same thing.
What force?
The force! You know, the thing that surrounds us all or some bull schtick. 
What?
Ugh! You guys have no sort of respect for old movies.
Anyways, we talked a little bit more and even got to talk to unicorn Biff. for the most part, he seemed pretty much identical to the one back in Canterlot. The only thing that was different was that he was more of a stickler when it came to rules in the bar. Not that the other one wasn’t either, but he was a lot more stricter. Especially with repeat offenders that we saw try to come back into the bar.
As we were talking, Sunset’s satchel she wore with her began to light up with a green light.
“Whoa! What’s going on with your bag?”, Brim pointed out.
“Looks like I’m getting a message from Spike. Sent it through fire.”, Sunset explained.
“And somehow your bag is still intact”?
“Look, Equestria has a lot of unexplainable magic.”, Sunset said pulling out a note that is badged with a seal.
She opened it up with her magic and then closed it before putting it back in her satchel.
“What is it Sunset?”, I asked.
“Spike sent us a message. He said that the princess is back.”, she explained.
“Great! Now we can go see this pony that you have been talking about that you love so much.”, I jokingly said to said to her.
“Oh hush. Don’t get jealous of my close friend.”, she said with a smirk before kissing me on the cheek.
“Whoever this pony is, she better be worth this entire trip.”, Brim said snarkily getting up from the stool.
“That “pony”, is the new ruler of Equestria. That means you will need to behave in front of her.’, Sunset told him.
“That you said she was an accepting type. You can take a demon out of the Hellfree Forest, but you can’t take the Hellfree Forest out of the demon.
“This is gonna be something else. I can predict it.”
> Chapter 2 : First Impressions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can we pick this story up a notch already? I want to get this done so I can move on to something that is less horrific for me than this. 
We’re only one chapter in. 
And that’s one chapter too many. Just thinking about being the creature I ate the most gives me chills.
Whatever, I’m gonna keep going with this. We made it to the castle with Sunset giving Brim more and more lectures on how to act with her friend who was the princess of Equestria. To be honest, I didn’t think for a second that Brim would listen to any advice that Sunset gave him. If that’s me knowing Brim to well as a friend, sue me.
We knocked on the door to let whoever was behind the door that we had arrived. Brim was bickering about the advice he was given.
“I’m sorry, but you saying that I can’t make snarky quips is like telling a dog not to sit and be cute. It’s against my nature.”, Brim whined.
“Well you’re not exactly yourself right now are you? Just don’t do anything to upset her.”, Sunset told him.
“I’m a goat! By now, I have already upset others. Even that pink dragon who thought I was a bad goat.”, Brim defended.
“Well lets just calm it down a minute since we don’t know her yet. Well, almost all of us. You did say that she was tolerant of others since she was the head of that friendship school.”, I interjected. 
“The top friendship school. So she knows how to deal with others who are typically rude.”, she explained.
“The only friendship school you mean. Why the hellfree would you need a school about making friends? Seems like a pretty basic concept anypony could understand at birth.”, Brim pointed out.
“It’s something to unite a community together.”,  Sunset explained annoyed with Brim’s cynicism.
“It’s lazy writing, that’s what it is”.
“Oh now you want to mention the ‘author’ in this?”, she said sneering at Brim.
“Not the author, just another set of lazy writers.”, Brim explained. 
The door finally opened up with a guard behind it. One thing I noticed about the guard was that he wasn’t a pony. He wasn’t a pegasus either. It was instead some bird, lion hybrid creature.
A Griffon. You donut.
Right, a griffon was the guard. He gave us a look that let us know that he was expecting us for the visit. With a nod, he let us into the castle for us to once again walk down the long hallway to the throne room. When we made it to the large door, the guard pushed the door and poked his head inside.
“They are here Princess Twilight.”, the griffon said.
“Thank you Gallus, you may go now.”, the voice said.
He walked right past us both and motioned us that it was okay to walk in. Letting Sunset lead the way, Brim and I followed behind her before stepping into the most glorious looking room I had ever been in. Inside was a large set of grandioso pillars leading up to a large throne were a semi larger unicorn-pegasus hybrid sat. When I say semi larger, I mean it in a sense that she looked to have a lot of power and prowess as a ruler. Yet, she still seemed to have that soft side of her based on her soft smile she gave us as we walked in. There she was. Princess Twilight Sparkle
“It has been far too long Sunset. I’ve missed you so much.”, she said stepping down from her throne. 
Sunset ran over and hugged her.
“I’m sorry for the sudden visit Twilight, but let's just say I needed to revisit a second home.”, she explained.
They embraced for a little while longer before Brim tapped me on the shoulder to whisper in my ear.
“Are you really sure she is the one for you? Out of this entire trip, she has already hugged two other creatures.”, Brim whispered.
“They’re old time friends Brim.”, I told him.
“Yeah. Me and Lucy are old time friends, and we still don’t get that close. Mainly because the other one hates my guts.”, Brim said.
“And who are these two that you have brought with you?”, Princess Twilight said looking at us both.
“Uh, my name’s Rocky Pebbles. Let’s just say Sunset and I are very close, and this is Brim.”, I explained.
“Well it is very nice to meet you two. For once it is nice to finally meet somepony who isn’t a clone of themselves in the other world.”, Twilight said.
“Wait what?”, I asked.
“Oh nothing. Just a memory I had with a similar situation like this. Except this time it wasn’t by accident. Anyways, it is finally so nice to find a goat who isn’t causing problems with the kingdom.”, Twilight said looking towards Brim.
“Excuse me?”, he asked leaning back.
“Well, not to mean any offense by it, but we’ve been having a few issues with goats in a neighboring forest and thats been-”, She tried explaining before Brim interrupted.
“No no, I'm convinced that there is a huge prejudice against goats here! I haven’t been here for more than one day, and already some ponies have a problem with me. Yet, I don’t say how much I dislike them. Cause I have a little bit of bucking decency!”, Brim fired back.
“I didn’t-”
“Since you want to make assumptions because I’m a goat, how about I make assumptions about how you eat since you are somehow bigger than most ponies here. You probably down cake like it’s a-”, Brim said before Sunset whispered in his ear angrily.
After the brief explanation from Sunset, his eyes widened from realizing what she truly was.
“Oh. That makes so much more sense.”
The room was quiet. After all, Brim was just about to full on insult the princess. Though I would assume she wouldn’t punish Brim, it would still be awkward for the rest of this visit in the kingdom.
“Well, so much for first impressions.”, I awkwardly said with a goofy smile.
“So, have you been up to anything interesting?”, Sunset asked Twilight.
“Well, besides dealing with some local issues in the kingdom, I have been working on something really special. Oh, that reminds me! Do you happen to have the book that you used to write those letters from Canterlot?”, she asked.
“I do. Why do you ask”.
“I can explain on the way.”, Twilight said before walking towards a door on the side of the throne room.
“Am I the only one with a bad feeling about this?”, Brim whispered to me.
“She isn’t going to do anything to you.”, I told him.
“Not that. A bad feeling that something is about to happen.”, Brim explained.
“When do you ever not have a bad feeling with someone new?”, I rhetorically  asked him.
“Fair point.”, he said as he followed behind.






We entered a large room on the opposite side of the castle filled with all sorts of old artifacts. Some looked to be a couple hundred years old, while some looked brand new to the display boxes.
“Over the past couple of years since I took to the throne, I have been collecting as many artifacts to represent the elements of harmony in a museum I am making for the castle. I want to display the full history of the elements of harmony, so every little artifact counts. Including your notebook.”, Twilight explained to Sunset.
As she explained this, we walked by a display case with a huge cannon with pink wheels.
“Uh, question. I know you just said that every single artifact counts for the history of this uh, ‘friendship gang’, but how the hellfree does a cannon tie in to this?”, Brim asked.
“That is Pinkie Pie’s party cannon. Oh, I forget that you aren’t from around here.”, Twilight said.
“No, I think I get the jist of who she is from stories. Would you say she is a bit out of her mind?”, Brim said looking at Sunset.
Right before she could answer, a worker pony came out of a door to a chamber nearby.
“Princess Sparkle, the harmony room is ready for final testing.”, the worker said.
“Wonderful! You can be the first to see the main attraction at the museum.”, Twilight announced.
“What is it”, I asked.
“In this room lies all the elements of harmony.  Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic. They helped defeat beings that threatened Equestria. Which are also on display. Anyways, in this room, a pony can experience a ray of magic given off from the elements of harmony. Kind of a fun idea if you ask me. Especially for the little ones.”, Twilight explained.
“And it’s somehow safe?”, Brim interrupted.
“Well, that’s what we’re going to find out. So far it has been a success. Only issue is that it loses power.”, She explained.
“You don’t have enough magic to power it properly?”, Sunset asked.
“Not since our issues with the Hellfree forest cost us a large amount of some artifacts to be stolen. To be completely honest, you were lucky enough to make it here.”, Twilight said.
“Are you ever going to explain what the issue with my kind is? It’s starting to make me more iffy that you aren’t as nice as Sunset describes you.”, Brim asked her.
“It’s not anything against goats. It’s more what they have against Equestria. You see, Hellfree forest is a place where most goats live. They are not particularly the easiest to try and invite to our town to include in our harmony of all cultures. Partly due to the history of Equestria casting them aside due to their leader trying to obtain a large majority of land for themselves alone. It never became a problem until some of our artifacts wound up missing and ended up there. But when we went to investigate, the forest was gone. All that remained was an empty grass field. Yet, we still receive reports of goats returning to the empty field with more and more artifacts.”, Twilight explained.
“Sounds like you might have your solution of where they are if you received reports of goats turning up there.”, Brim quipped. 
“But it’s finding out how to get into Hellfree that is troubling us. Until we find a true solid solution to enter the forest, we must wait. But let's forget about that, we have a room to test.”, Twilight exclaimed.
“Actually, I think I’m starting to side with Brim’s idea of the room not being safe enough yet.”, I said nervously.
“I’m sure it will be fine Rocky. I’ll be there with you.”, Sunset reassured me.
“Great. We can all die together if it somehow goes wrong.”, Brim added.
We walked into the room with six crowns circling around a small statue of six ponies, including a younger version of Twilight. The room looked to have been modified heavily for withstanding some of the magic that was given off from the crowns.
“Here it is. The elements of harmony.”, Twilight pointed out.
“Kinda smaller than I imagined. You sure these aren’t the replicas?”, Brim asked.
“Don’t underestimate them. They were the ones used to help defeat the evil creatures who threatened Equestria. Some were even turned to stone with this.”, she explained.
“Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it”.
“So how does it work? Obviously it wouldn’t be safe to use the actual spell.”, Sunset asked.
“It’s very simple. With a push of this button, a small fraction of the magic will be released in the room by surrounding it with the rainbow power. It will be relatively harmless if something were to go wrong.”, Twilight explained. 
“Sounds simple enough.”, I said.
“It is. But without further adieu, let's give it the final test.”,  Twilight announced as she pressed the button.  

“These are gonna be my last words and I’m going to regret it.”, Brim said as the crowns started up.
“I thought that you couldn’t die.”, I told him.
“We’re out of the world I’m used to. Who knows what can happen to me here”.
As the magic reached its peak, the crowns whined and shot a beam of rainbow magic around the room. It beamed with bright and vibrant colors only for a second before becoming a mixed blodge of colors. After a few seconds, the beams died down to leave the room in a weirdly dark state.
“Um, shouldn’t the magic spectacle be more of a….’spectacle’?”, Brim sarcastically asked.
“It must need some more tests. Oh well, guess the magic can wait for another day.”, Twilight said.
“There won’t be another day here in Equestria.”, a mysterious female voice said from the shadows.
This made my spine tingle as I felt the presence of somepony or something lurking in the shadows. I stood close to Sunset to try and feel safe.
“Who goes there!”, Twilight said taking a powerful stance.
“Do you really think that teaching the world about friendship and kindness will save them from evil? Will it stop the darkness that lurks behind every bright ray of happiness?”, the voice asked from another direction of the darkness.
Brim suddenly perked up.
“That voice. There’s no way.”, Brim said to himself.
“Heh, no. For there will always be darkness. And in that darkness is the despair we’ve felt being casted aside for years and years. There have been far too cowards who lack the grit to try and show the rest of the world the suffering we’ve been through. But that changes now,” the voice said before a figure the same size as Twilight walked out of the shadows.
Out came a dark feminine goat with horns as sharp as spears with eyes that could cut like a razor. In between her horns was a dark aura of magic holding the elements of harmony, as the ones in the chamber faded away to dust. She held an evil grin as her eyes locked onto us.
“And it changes with me.”, the feminine goat said standing menacingly
“Lucy?! Is that you?”, Brim exclaimed aloud. 
The goat widened her eyes with a hint of confusion.
“Oh my Lucy, It is you! What are you doing in this universe?”, Brim asked stepping towards her.
“Brim, I-”, I tried stopping him before he continued talking.
“I mean if you wanted me back so bad, you could’ve called a little sooner if you asked me. A bit weird how you’re bigger than me in this universe.”, Brim said stepping closer.
“Brim wait!”, Sunset tried warning him.
“Guys, relax. I know how to deal with crazy exes. How the hellfree do you think I managed to real this one back if I didn’t? So, why don’t we catch back up with our famous tongue danc-”, Brim said before being strangled by the magic that this evil Lucy was giving off.
“Brim!”, I exclaimed.
“Let him go Lucynious!”, Princess Twilight said threatening to use her magic.
“Heh, as you wish.”, she said with an evil grin.
“Oh Lord you are an equally horrible goat in this world!”, Brim raspily said in her grasp.
Lucyinous took Brim and threw him out of the room and into the museum with violent force. Sunset went to step forward with Twilight to try and take a stance.
“Whatever your plan is, it will not work”, Twilight declared to Lucy.
Lucy let out a loud chuckle.
“Oh darling, it’s working just as I planned.”, she said menacingly.
Before we were given a moment to act, the aura around Lucy’s horns let out a burst of energy that knocked Sunset and I back. We were only a few feet away from each other, but we were okay for the most part. I lifted my head to see how Princess Twilight was doing
Still standing tall, Twilight stood her ground as she went to cast a spell causing a beam of energy to flash from her horn like a bolt. The beam launched towards Lucy for a second before she disappeared for the moment. Before Twilight could look around for where she disappeared off to, a beam struck her from above. The room went bright for a second as Twilight tried to fly away from the magic that was casted onto her. When the light dimmed, I was horrified to see Princess Twilight frozen in stone.
“Twilight!”, Sunset screamed out.
Lucy was floating around in a magical field above Twilight. She was about to cast a spell on the now frozen princess until Sunset ran towards her and shot a ray of magic at her. The beam grazed her shoulder, causing her to turn back towards us.
“Well, looks like I have enough time to take two for the price of one. You’ll pay for that!”, She said lunging at Sunset. 
When Lucy landed, a dust of air knocked Sunset off her hooves. Lucy was getting ready to attack Sunset. I had no way to know if my horn could do anything, but I couldn’t let Sunset suffer the same fate as Twilight. Looking around, I found a rock. Somehow, I managed to grab it with my hoof and throw it at Lucy. The rock managed to hit her in the eye, causing her to scream in pain before turning to me with the angriest look upon her face.
“I’ll eat your soul for that!”, she yelled out as she ran towards me with her sharp horns.
I screamed out in fear. For the moment, I saw my life flash before my eyes as I drew the thought of me being impaled by an evil goat. But before she got within a few feet of me, a loud bang was heard in the room as a stream of projectiles hit Lucy. She then turned her direction to the side where the noise came from.
“Yo She Witch!”, Brim said appearing in the doorway holding the pink cannon we saw earlier.
He gave it another grip of the string to ready it for another shot.
“Let’s go!”
Lucy let out a scream of anger as she charged at Brim with full force. Brim stood his ground and walked forward. He let out a battle cry as he began firing the cannon at Lucy. What Brim was shooting Lucy with was a bunch of confetti. Surprisingly, it was stopping Lucy in her tracks with the power of the party cannon. Saying that out loud just made me realize how truly absurd that sounds, but I’m not from that world so what do I know.
For a second, it looked like Brim was able to defeat Lucy. Then as Lucy backed up against the now frozen Princess Twilight, she beamed a blinding ray of light in the room. When it was dim enough to finally see again, we were shocked to find that Lucy had disappeared with the statue of Twilight. All that was left was the burn marks from the magic that was fired in the room.
“Rocky! Are you okay?”, Sunset said trotting over to me.
“Yeah I’m fine. Where did they go?”, I asked.
“I don’t know, but we need to find Spike.”, Sunset said helping me up.
“And just like in the real world, you would always run away as soon as I would get the best of you.”, Brim shouted tossing the cannon to the side.
Right before we could get our bearings, Spike burst through the door with two guards at his side. His face to witnessing what he saw through the door spoke all the words I could imagine would be said. Of all the ones in the room to speak first, it had to be Brim.
“Ah, look who finally showed up. Equestria’s finest guards showing up right as the princess just got captured. Oh was that too fast? Let’s start from the beginning…”
> Chapter 3 : Prepped up and ready to go.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh this isn’t good! This is not good at all!”, Spike exclaimed in the throne room after our explanation of the situation.
“Well no schtick! Your princess is gone and now you can take the throne for yourself.”, Brim said sarcastically. 
“How bad of a situation is it Spike?”, Sunset asked him.
“It’s really hard to say, but now that Lucy has Twilight’s magic as well as the elements of harmony, there’s no telling what she is capable of.”, Spike explained.
“But wasn’t the elements of harmony used for friendship magic or something like that?”, I asked.
“Not exactly. While they can create magic, they can also cause destruction in the wrong hooves.”, Spike explained.
“Good grief!”
“Well what can we do to stop Lucy from her plan?”, Sunset asked.
“I’m not so sure. We can’t really do anything since we have no way of finding where the Hellfree forest is. And our scouting teams have gotten nowhere in finding out how to get to the forest.”, Spike explained shrugging before his eyes widened for a moment,” however, I think I may have an idea on how we can find a clue to the forest”.






We followed Spike back into the royal library where he was flying high to reach some books on the top shelf. He flew back down to put them on the table in front of us. He quickly flipped through the first book frantically turning pages before getting frustrated and moving onto the next book.
“Are you sure you know what you’re looking for in these books?”, I asked him.
“Oh please. Over the past couple of years while Twilight had been ruling over Equestria, I made it a personal goal of myself to read through all of these books at least once. So far, I have read every book here at least 47 different times.”, Spike said confidently.
“Wow, I would’ve thought you would’ve had more responsibilities as a royal advisor.”, I said.
“I’ll be honest, it’s a bit over hyped. Ah, here it is! This might be able to help us.”, Spike said, showing us the page he found.
On the page was some writing and an ancient looking artifact. The most distinguishing feature of the artifact was the horn-like structure along the top.
“Legend states that there is another way to reach the Hellfree forest. And it is with this artifact that it can not only show where the forest is, but also a way to reveal it permanently. It is called the Capra Vesta.”, Spike explained.
“How come nopony has ever found it before?”, Sunset asked.
“Ponies have found it before. The only issue is that they never make it back.”, he explained.
There was a brief silence in the room as the thought of all those who tried to seek the artifact set in. If we were to do this, all our lives would be at stake.
"But, I think that with the three of you working together to get this you can make it out alive.", Spike said.
I looked over to see what Brim thought of this until I realized that he wasn’t in the library with us. Before I was able to call out his name…
“Whoo, I just spent the past ten minutes making out with a weird bug pony hybrid statue and realized that you guys had shifted rooms. What’s shaking? Can the guard handle this situation?”, Brim asked looking all proud.
We all gave him an annoyed stare as he looked surprised.
“Well buck, am I the one who kidnapped the princess here? I’m just asking about what is going to happen and everyone here is looking at me like I committed a war crime.”, Brim defended.
“What we were discussing, is a plan to try and rescue the Princess.”, I told him with an annoyed look.
“Cool, what are you two gonna do”?
“This involves all of us. Including you Brim.”, Sunset said.
“Whoa whoa whoa! This wasn’t in my terms in services. You said that after today we would be going home. And if time here is similar to the other world, it’s about to be dinner time.”, Brim argued.
“Well, we didn’t expect some evil being to kidnap the princess. Yet, here we are.”, I told him.
“Nope, you guys can deal with this world that I care so little about. Not after it made me have an existential crisis.”, Brim said walking away to the mirror.
“Are you being serious right now?!”, I yelled at him.
“Yes. I am being serious. Forget this world, I’m going home.”, Brim said before running face first into the mirror.
Spike rose up from the desk.
“Without Twilight, the mirror doesn’t have enough power to send you home. You’re pretty much stuck here until we can get her back.”, Spike explained.
Brim placed his hoof on the mirror and gave a long frustrated sigh.
“If Lucy manages to take all of Twilight’s magic, all of the pony kind could be at risk. We can’t stop her without you. You’re the only one who could possess the magic of the Capra Vesta  to find the forest. Now will you help with our plans?”, Spike asked him.
Brim gave a small chuckle of insanity.
“I’m going to kill this author. When I get out of this world I will kill him.”, he said before turning around to face us again,”Fine. If anything, I’ll do it out of pure boredom of things to do in this world”.
“Great! Now we’ve got a head start on this journey.”, Spike said.
“Yes, but this means now we have another problem.”, Sunset said.
“What is it Sunset?”, I asked her.
“It’s about you. If we’re going to rescue Twilight, you need to learn how to use your magic.”, she explained.
“Well, I could learn overnight. I don’t see an issue there.”, I said.
“You don’t understand. Most unicorns from birth can take years just learning how to immerse light. Even the spells that are needed, I didn’t even learn until much later before I moved back to Canterlot.”, Sunset explained. 
I gave a disappointed look to the realization of how much I would really need to learn in order to start on this journey. It didn’t hit me until then that I was capable of doing magic. I just had no clue on what to even do.
“But, I think since Rocky here isn’t a colt, he could do it much faster than them. I mean I hope he has the motor skills to do something productive with that horn.”, Brim said, booping my horn.
“It’s a bit of a stretch, but I think Brim might be right about that. It could be possible to teach him the basic spells you think would be required for this. I think overnight he could do at least two spells. Maybe three if we can squeeze it in with no breaks.”, Spike said.
Sunset looked at me.
“Do you think you could handle this for the night?”, she asked me.
I looked back up to her. 
“Whatever it takes to save your friend.”, I said.
“Great. You can use this library as a training ground for the spells. I must go to attend some royal business for the princess. So please don't destroy anything while I am gone. I’ll be back in the morning to send you off on your journey.”, Spike said walking out of the room.
The room was now empty with the three of us sitting at that one table. Without any haste, Sunset walked over to a set of books that looked like it would be useful for training me to use my magic for the first time.
“We have a long night ahead of us. Let’s just get right into it.”, Sunset said, opening the book to the first page.






In the course of several hours, I managed to learn how to do only two spells. One was how to use telekinesis to lift things.  I couldn’t even do it very well. Even with a small piece of paper, I couldn’t keep  it in the air for more than a few seconds. However, the one that I was really good with was using my horn to illuminate light. It was a huge pain to try and learn, but once I figured out a way to do it, I could never forget it.
What I was learning now was something a little bit more dangerous. Because of the threat, Sunset thought it would be best if I learned to use attack spells as a weapon. There are plenty of other spells that could’ve been used for me to learn, but the one that Sunset thought would be best for me was essentially like a fireball that came out of my horn. It sounds a bit crazy, but how do you think I felt trying to learn it?
For the next hour or so, I was really struggling to try and even get a single beam out.
“This is hopeless. I’m never gonna be able to do this.”, I said in frustration.
“It’s okay. Don’t give up now. You just gotta focus on trying to do the spell.”, Sunset tried encouraging me.
Brim was sitting off to the side eating an apple.
“We’ve been here for hours. Is it really that difficult to think of firing a ball of energy so hard that you end up doing it through a horn?”, Brim asked sarcastically.
“I’d like to see you try.”, I told him.
“I’m just saying. We’ve been here almost all night and all you can do is lift up a paper and essentially become a flashlight. “, Brim said
“Progress is progress”.
“Guys, we need to focus. Rocky, what do you feel like you are struggling with on this spell?”,Sunset asked, trying to get us to focus again.
“It’s everything with this spell. It feels way too similar to the illuminate spell. You’ve seen me accidentally do that instead of the attack way too many times. I just can’t differentiate between the two.”, I explained.
“What if you tried to think of it like flashbanging somepony in a bathroom stall? That’s a way I would think of it.”, Brim said, taking a bite of his apple.
“If he does think of it like that, it will blind somepony.”, Sunset explained.
“Really? Now I wish I turned out a unicorn instead of a goat. Would’ve given me something to do instead of waiting for Rocky to get good at something that most ponies his age have already probably learned.”, Brim said snarkingly.
“You’re horrible. Now please be quiet so I can try and think of a better way to explain it to Rocky.”, Sunset said.
She pondered for a moment before getting an idea.
“Ok, have you ever thrown a ball before?”, Sunset asked me.
“I’m sure every kid does”.
“Well, imagine doing the illuminate spell to a very large degree. Then use the telekinesis spell in conjunction with it and the spell will work.”, She explained.
“But I’m not good with the spell to begin with.”, I told her.
“You don’t need to do it for long. Just imagine really pushing it forward for a second and then let gravity do the rest.”, Sunset explained some more.
“This still sounds complicated.”, I said.
“I know, but it’s a start. Just try it and see what happens.”, Sunset encouraged me.
I gave a small sigh before looking at the books that were being used as targets for me. Not a single one of them fell over in the two hours I had spent trying to do the spell. This time, I was hoping to change that.
I took a stance and began the process of trying to muster up the spell. I closed my eyes to imagine that beam of light that Sunset told me to think of. I felt its energy emerge from my horn as the magic began to flow. Right there, I began to imagine taking that beam of light and shoving it forward with the spell I had learned a little while ago. The amount of imagining I was doing was causing a heap of sweat to drop down my forehead.
Then out of nowhere, I felt the energy launch away from me and disappear. There was a loud blasting noise as it happened. It made me jump before opening my eyes. I looked over to Sunset to see that she had a somewhat shocked face. Looking at the books in the target range, I saw they were still standing. I began to feel disappointment before looking at Brim, who was sitting with an equally shocked face while holding what looked like an apple set on fire.
“You did it!”, Sunset exclaimed with excitement.
“And almost killed me in the process! Learn to bucking aim!”, Brim said tossing the apple to the side.
“I really did it!”, I said now smiling with excitement.
“I told you it would work if you just focused.”, Sunset said.
We looked back at the books that were still standing.
“Well, almost. You just gotta get into the habit of opening your eyes when doing spells. Brim is right about you needing to aim, but we can do that a couple more times tonight.”, Sunset said.
“I have to do it more?!”, I exclaimed.
“We have to get it consistent for tomorrow. It could get very dangerous.”, she explained.
“But it’s so late already. I’m starting to get tired.”, I said in protest.
“Yeah, I almost fell asleep eating this apple until Rocky gave me a wake up call.”, Brim agreed.
“I’ll tell you what. If you can hit three of these books, we’ll call it a night and rest up for tomorrow. Deal?”, Sunset asked.
“Deal.”
“Alright, let's get prepped up for tomorrow”.






The rest of the night was a series of trial and error trying to hit the targets until I was finally able to hit them dead on. By that point, we were all beat and ready to get some rest. We didn’t get much sleep that night in the library, but it was enough to feel energized for the morning after. 
 We were patiently sitting in the library waiting for Spike to come back from his royal business. We decided to make some small talk about this world and the creatures in it. More specifically, Brim was.
“So, you’re telling me that the bug pony was one of the most dangerous queens in this place?”, Brim asked. 
“Yes. That’s why they put her in stone. To keep her from lashing out again. Along with the other two to stop them as well.”, Sunset explained.
“Yeah I get that, but since this world is all about friendship and rainbows and all that other garbage, do you think she could’ve been turned?”, Brim asked.
“What exactly are you getting at?”, she asked.
“I’m just saying, with the right guidance from someone like me, she could turn out alright.”, he explained.
“Brim, I think they froze her into stone because she deliberately chose to be evil and not make any friends.”, I chimed in. 
“My kind of girl. Or mare? This is really confusing to try and find a difference between the two.”, Brim said.
“You’re a pig!”, Sunset told him.
“No, I’m my own food in the other world. I hate pork.”, Brim said.
The doors to the library opened up with Spike following right after. He looked like he had rushed from some important meeting to get us going on this journey. 
“Sorry I’m late. Ponies were asking about Twilight and where she was. It is not easy trying to come up with an excuse on why she couldn’t show up to a certain event. Anyways, is everything ready with Rocky?”, Spike asked.
“Yep, he should be good enough for this plan that you have.”, Sunset told him.
“Great. Follow me and I’ll tell you along the way”.
> Chapter 4 : The Quest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m liking this pace, but I wish it was much faster than it is now. Can we just skip to the end?
No, we need to have an explanation of how we got to the end. Just hang in there. We’re almost halfway done.
We better be. Otherwise our next adventure is going to be me putting you through a struggle.
Anyways, we were following Spike outside of the castle along the back way. He led us to a trail that went deep into a forest and a large mountain off in the distance. It looked so menacing that it could probably shoot a spike into my chest without even stepping towards it. 
“Now there is no telling what could be up there guarding the Capra Vestra, so you need to be prepped for that.”, Spike explained walking towards the trail.
“I think we should be fine with that. We were able to help Rocky out with defending himself.”, Sunset explained.
“Good. That means we have one less problem to deal with.”, he said.
“What else could be a problem for us going up a mountain? We could probably take down whatever is up there guarding the stupid book.”, Brim said.
“It involves you Brim. When you manage to get the book, you will be the only one to use it. You need to say a certain spell when using it.”, Spike explained.
“Alright. Sounds simple enough. What is the spell?”, he asked.
“Revelare unt silva caparum.”, he said.
“Okay”.
“Now say it.”, Spike directed him.
“Revelare unt silva caparum.”, Brim repeated.
“Now again.”, Spike said.
“I think I got it okay!”, Brim exclaimed.
“I’m serious. You need to say it correctly for it to work. If you say it incorrectly there can be some major consequences.”, Spike warned.
“I’m Brim, I can manage to pull this one off. When have I ever been wrong in my judgment in control over a situation?”, Brim asked me.
“Well, that one time with Lucy almost taking you away from me.”, I reminded him with a grin.
“Besides the one that I probably could’ve gotten out myself.”, Brim clarified.
“That’s the only one I could think of.”, I told him.
“Look, the point is Spikey, I got it. I typically have it six out of ten times.”, Brim said confidently.
“Those odds don’t make me comfortable.”, Spike said with a disconcerting squint.
“Still greater odds than most situation’s your princess has faced before.”, Brim said.
“Make sure he can say it before you reach the top of the mountain.”, Spike said to Sunset.
“I’ll try to get him to say it. He kind of does his own thing.”, She explained.
Spike handed Sunset her satchel. It was filled with the book she always kept in it, as well as a large canteen of water and a few snacks.
“Well, this is goodbye until you guys get back. Please be safe. You’re Equestria’s last hope.”, Spike said to us.
“I really hate that term. I think I would be the last choice to be Equestria’s last hope.  How about just Equestria’s reserve?”, Brim suggested snarkingly. 
“It’s just a title to inspire you all.”, Spike explained.
“Not when less than a day ago I would have cared less about this place.”, Brim said.
“That’s not important Brim. Let’s just get on with it!”, I told him.
“Right. To be continued!”, he shouted at Spike.
“Good grief”, I said walking into the forest with Sunset and Brim.
“Let’s look at the bright side Rocky. The sooner we can get the Capra Vestra, the sooner we can get back and hopefully save Twilight before anypony can get harmed.”, Sunset reassured me.
“But it’s the part where most ponies that don’t make it back that scares me the most.”, I told her.
“You still have a lot to learn about the magic of this world. Life or death situations are around every corner. As long as you got me by your side, you should be fine.”, she said, giving me seductive eyes.
I was so moved by her looks I decided to lean in to kiss her…. right before Brim interrupted
“So, it’s gonna be a long journey ahead of us. Why don’t we play a game to pass the time? I spy perhaps?”, Brim suggested.
“Ugh, this is going to be a long journey. I can tell.”, I said.
“Exactly. All the more reason to play. I’ll go first. I spy with my little eye something green…”






 One thing that I couldn’t have imagined when taking this journey was how long of a walk it would be going up to the mountain. In a matter of a few hours, we managed to get about halfway through the forest. Brim tried to lift the mood by playing games, but there is so much I Spy I can take when the only thing we could see in the forest were trees and bushes. 
Another thing I discovered was that I was hungry. Maybe it was because it was a new body for me, but I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I scarfed down a whole apple. I could now understand the phrase,”Eat like a horse”, a lot more clearly. 
We trotted on and on for a couple more hours until we had finally reached the bottom of the mountain. Both Brim and I were tired. Sunset on the other hoof, looked like she could go on for days and days.
“We’re only halfway there. If we can hurry, we can be there by nightfall.”, Sunset said.
“Sunset I like your dedication, but you’re at an eleven and I’m on empty. Can we slow the buck down?”, Brim asked with a tired tone.
“We haven’t been walking that long.”, Sunset said.
“I have to agree with Brim on this Sunset. I love and support you and all, but I need to rest.”, I said.
“Alright fine. But only for a few minutes. We can’t risk any lost time.”, Sunset agreed.
Sunset used her magic to hand me the bag that held all of our snacks and water. I managed to use my new magic to catch the bag. It was getting better along the way of this trip. It wasn’t perfect, but it is much longer than what I was doing when I first learned telekinesis. 
“You’re getting there. It’s only a matter of time when you become a master at spells.”, Sunset pointed out to me.
“Yeah”.
“That magic better be used to change the elements of this world. I’m so bucking thirsty.”, Brim said, taking out the large canteen of water.
With his hoof, he took the canteen and began gulping on the water. His gulps started off small before becoming more delayed in size as he pushed the canteen back further and further. He finally finished the gulp by slamming the cap on the now hollow canteen.
“Did you seriously just drink all of our water?”, I asked him.
“Yeah. Why? Did you want some?”, Brim asked back.
“That was all of our water for this entire walk. We haven’t even gotten up the mountain yet.”, I reminded him.
“Ah it’s okay. You’re an animal in the open. If animals in the other world can drink water from any hole they find, you can too, horse face.”, Brim advised.
“Don’t call me a horse face! You’re the one who managed to eat himself”.
“Okay now you are going way too bucking far! Say that again and I’ll beat your-”, Brim said before suddenly letting out an uncontrollable goat noise.
Sunset looked at both of us arguing and let out a small gasp when she heard his bleat.  He was equally as surprised as she was. Brim had put his hoof over his mouth. From the looks of it, it seemed like he had no control over himself when he made that noise.
“I will be willing to lose this argument if you promise to not mention the noise i just made ever again.”, Brim said nervously.
“Agreed.”, I responded.
“Can you two focus? We have to get to the top of this mountain if we are going to save Equestria from Lucy.”, Sunset said sternly. 
“Alright, jeez. Let’s get a move on before she turns into a demon herself.”, Brim said.
We had gathered all of what we had left from our break and finally embarked up the mountain. I felt more and more nervous the further we got up, and we hadn’t even walked for more than five minutes. There was just something about going up a mountain and not expecting whatever was up there. Like there could be a dragon on top of the mountain that could rip me to shreds. Or maybe an evil spirit that haunts the-
Stop foreshadowing this chapter and get on with it!.
Right. Anyways, we trekked on up the mountain. By this time, the sun was starting to set for the evening as our journey continued on. The same feeling of uneasiness was still going through my mind, only now I could rest easy knowing that whatever was waiting for us at the top wouldn’t attack us now. As we were trotting up the mountain, Sunset suddenly stopped walking. This was really off for her because of how eager she was to get a move on up this mountain to save her friend.
“What’s wrong Sunset?”, I asked her.
“Shh.”, she said quietly, suddenly looking more diligent than ever.
I looked around to try and find what was bothering Sunset. Despite me looking around, something was hiding.
“We’re being followed. We need to leave right n-”, Sunset said before a mysterious voice interrupted
“You and your friends lost little pony?”, some anthropomorphic red cat with an eyepatch said in a threatening way. 
I knew something was off. I had a bad feeling about this.
“We aren’t looking for any trouble. We are just trying to get up this mountain.”, Sunset tried to explain to this mysterious cat.
“Ah you seem to have a misunderstanding. You are making trouble here.”, the cat said, jumping down from a rock.
“I have no idea what you are talking about”.
“Ho ho ho boy. You see this fellas?! We got some fresh meat on our turf!”, the cat shouted out before giving a signal.
Suddenly, a gang of evil looking cats appeared all around us. They all looked to have been in a few skirmishes to the death. One looked like it had just murdered somepony with its claws.
“Look she’s telling the truth. We can leave here as soon as we can.”, I tried saying to get out of this predicament.
“Oh no. You see, that would be very unfair. If we made an exception with you, that means the next set of ponies we would need to make exceptions with. And I really don’t like skipping out on dinner for days on end. “, he said, lurching closer,” Speaking of which, it’s dinner time boys!”
The band of cats began cheering in a loud roar. I began gulping in nervousness to what would happen next.
“Don’t worry guys. I got this.”, Brim said suddenly stepping forward.
“You look nice and stocky. You’ll be a great meal for tonight.”, the cat said, taking out a small dagger.
“Oh hold on a minute. Your shoe’s untied.”, Brim pointed out.
“What are you talking about, I don’t even wear sh-”, the cat said looking down before Brim used his back hooves to kick him in the face. 
He fell back from the sheer force of Brim’s kick. Brim himself was surprised with how powerful it was.
“Hey, maybe we don’t need magic to solve our problems! Violence seems to work!”, Brim pointed out looking back at us.
“Kill them all!”, the cat said, throwing the small dagger towards Brim.
The band of cats began pouncing at us from every direction. Sunset was able to deflect most of them with a powerful blast of magic. I stood behind her out of fear of getting mauled by this dirty cat gang. While she was able to stand her ground, she managed to get scratched by a rather large cat.
“What are you doing just standing there Rocky!? Do something!”, Sunset shouted at me.
In all this chaos, I forgot that I could also fight back with magic of my own. With as much focus as I could, I tried to remember the way I made the light spell work. It wasn’t helped out by the fact I was in the middle of a gang attack of a bunch of angry kitties.
Brim had fallen on his back next to me as he continued his skirmish with the head cat.
“Come on Rocky! Use your magic before they cut off your horn and use it for their advantage!”Brim said, struggling to hold back the leader.
“You’re not helping me by shouting at me!”, I told him, losing my focus on the spell.
“JUST DO THE BUCKING SPELL!”, Brim yelled out before moving his head to the right to dodge the cat’s blade.
“Okay okay!”
I took a deep breath as I zoned in on the light spell in my mind. Within a few seconds, I felt the spell come to presence. It’s intensity was further fueled by the amount of chaos around me. Like I remembered from the day before, I began imagining to push it forward in a direction. I opened my eyes to aim for the cat that was on top of Brim. One my target was set, I closed my eyes and tried to let the energy move forward.
Then in an instant, I felt the energy launch.
I opened my eyes to disappointingly still see the cat on top of Brim. Only this time, he had completely stopped fighting to focus up to the sky. I looked up to see the beam of light I launched from my horn into the air. It had such a large shape that it looked like it could level a field. The beam of light struck the top of the mountain, causing the land we were on to begin shaking.
“What did you do Rocky?”, Sunset asked me suddenly.
“I-I don’t know. I just did the spell like you said to do it before.”, I explained to her.
Suddenly, the rumbling began getting more and more rigorous as the top of the mountain began to show a cloud of dust moving towards us. 
“It’s a rock slide! Scatter boys, Scatter!”, the head cat panicked, running off into the opposite direction of the cloud.
“Did you cause the bucking apocalypse?! What did you do?!”, Brim asked me, getting up from the ground.
“I don’t know!”, I exclaimed.
“We need to find a tunnel to avoid this rockslide! Come on!”, Sunset yelled out before running up the mountain.
Brim and I followed after her. As we were running, I tried my best to look for a cave for us to dive in to avoid getting crushed by the rockslide. I had never ran as fast as I did before in my life. 
The rocks were getting closer to us as we ran for our lives searching for a cave. I was beginning to worry that all hope was lost in finding a place to duck.
“There! I hope that’s a cave!”, Brim pointed out.
Off in the distance, there was a small opening. It looked like it could hold for this rockslide.
“Oh good grief!”, I yelled out as I looked up to see one of the rocks land near me.
“Come on Rocky! You can make it! Just run and don’t stop!”, Sunset yelled out next to me.
I kept my bearings and ran on towards the cave. The wider the opening of the cave got, the closer I felt a little bit more relieved in making it. However, more and more rocks began to fall around us as the rockslide was about to hit us head on. Sunset was able to make it into the opening first, but she stood inside and waited for us.
“You guys are almost there! Hurry!”, Sunset shouted at us from the entrance.
“This might be a bad time, but you want to race?”, Brim asked while running next to me.
“Are you bucking kidding me?! We’re about to be crushed by rocks and you want to have a hoof race?”, I shouted at him slightly disgusted.
“It would spice up our death’s a little more interesting to know we went down racing”.
“Just bucking run so we can make it to the cave!”
Right as we were close, the majority of rocks began crashing down as the rockslide began to pass over. Larger rocks began bursting with debris as they came crashing down. Luckily for Brim and I, we were able to slip into the cave at the very last second. As I entered last, a large boulder came crashing down behind me, blocking the way we had come in. It was dark for the moment before I used my light spell to cast some light on the situation. 
“Oh good grief!”, I said assessing the situation we were in.
“You better be careful with that thing! I am not about to get caved in because you don’t know how to work that horn!”,Brim said, taking a step back.
“Let’s calm down for a moment. At least we weren’t eaten by those cats.”, Sunset said, trying to disarm the situation.
“Great, let’s trade the cats for whatever cave beast lies in this cave. Sounds like a fair trade to me.”, Brim snarkingly said.
“We don’t know that. Lets just try to get out of this cave. It sounds like the rockslide just passed over us. Can we blast this boulder away?”, I asked Sunset.
“It’s too risky. I don’t mean to sound like a downer about your magic, but it’s too unpredictable. One blast could cause this whole cave to cave in.”, Sunset explained,” However, if we follow this cave, we’re bound to find a strong point where we can safely blast our way out”. 
With a goal in mind, we followed Sunset down the cave to try and find a strong point to blast our way out of. The eeriness of this cave seemed to bother me, but not as much as it did Brim. Every couple of seconds, Brim would get a sudden chill.
“Are you okay?”, I asked him.
“Yeah I’m fine. I just have a really weird case of chills. I don’t understand it, but I feel something. Or wait, someone?”, Brim asked.
As we kept walking, we approached an opening that had a bright orange light coming from outside of it. At first we thought it was a way out and that was the sunset before it went dark, but then as we got closer, it got warmer. We walked out of the small cave way to approach a stone walkway surrounded by lava and eerie stone carvings. The heat of the lava was intense.
At the very end of the stone walkway was a mysterious figure in a cloak. We began to cautiously walk towards this figure. Then suddenly….
“I’ve been expecting you all.”, the figure said as it turned around to reveal itself as another goat.
This goat gave us so much of a scare that we began to get ready to fight again.
“We’re taking that book. Whether we have to go through you or not.”, Sunset said sternly to this goat.
“It is not my job to fight those who seek the Capra Vestra Sunset Shimmer.”, the goat said.
“How….How do you know who I am?”, she asked. 
“It is my job to know all who try to seek the book. You managed to get passed the trap towards the top of this mountain.”, the guardian goat said.
“You mean to tell me that the scroll wasn’t at the top? Gosh I am going to kill that dragon when I see him again!”, Brim exclaimed.
“So, the rockslide wasn’t caused by my attack?”, I asked him.
“When the mountain feels a magical presence, it’s response is to cleanse the mountain by destroying a part of itself in order to protect the book. You managed to trick it into saving yourselves from the attack Rocky.”, he explained.
“So where is the book?”, Sunset asked him. 
“It is right here.”, the guardian said, lifting his hoof to point at the edge of the stone walkway into the lava.
We all looked at each other confused before the guardian spoke.
“To seek what you so desperately crave, you must quench this book's hunger and fuel it’s source of dark goat magic. For it demands a sacrifice.”, the guardian explained.
“What do you mean by sacrifice?”, I asked him.
“He means one of us.”, Brim said with his eyes widening to the realization. 
“You mean, one of us has to die for this book?!”, Sunset asked Brim.
“It’s true. In the other world, if someone wanted to try and gain demon powers for a limited time, they needed to make sacrifices at a specific time at a specific place. And that’s if they were mentally strong enough to handle it. In short, one of us has to go down if we are going to save Equestria.”, Brim hollowly explained. 
“No no, there has to be another way. Right Sunset?”, I asked her.
“I-I-I don’t know.”, she said, suddenly shaking.
I came to the realization of what she was thinking about to cause her shaking.
“No! I won’t let you do this!”, I said standing in front of her.
“I’ve done a lot wrong in my time here. The princess may have forgiven me for that, but I can’t. This is the best way I can fix this.”, Sunset said sternly.
“No, listen to me, You don't have to do this. We can figure something out and-”, I tried telling her before Brim interrupted.
“Stop. I know what to do.”, Brim said slowly stepping towards the edge where the guardian stood there waiting.
“Brim what are you-”,
“Stop! Don’t worry about me, I got this.”, Brim said before facing the guardian once again,” Tell me guardian, who made this place and why?”
“Over a thousand years ago, my ancestors built this place as a safe haven. A place where they felt they could be safe from the dangers of the outside world. Before all of this, the place was covered wi-”, the guardian said before Brim had kicked the guardian into the lava, making him scream in agony.
Both Sunset and I looked at Brim in horror.
“What? He said it needed a sacrifice. He didn’t say who to sacrifice though.”, he nonchalantly explained. 
The cave began to shake as the lava had begun flowing around in the pit below us. Sunset and I had fallen over while Brim stood tall. The lava was stirring so vigorously that it began to chip away at the walls around us.
“What’s happening!?”, I asked him.
“I don’t know!”
Suddenly the cave began to blast a blinding light. The room sounded like it was crumbling to pieces. I reached for Sunset to hold her tight as I could as the cave around us was going through all of this chaos. Then suddenly, everything stopped.
Were we dead? Not yet.







I opened my eyes to see what happened. Sunset was still in my hooves thankfully. The cave around us was no longer there. We were now on top of a different mountain that overlooked all of Equestria. Right below the cliff was Ponyville. It was a simple downhill trot away.
Both Sunset and I got up on our hooves to overlook the cliff. I guess the stir of emotions over the past couple of situations got to us as we looked into each other's eyes and began kissing each other. Her kiss was very passionate, like she almost didn’t want to let go of me.
“Hey! Love birds!”, Brim shouted at us.
We both suddenly stopped kissing  and blushed as we turned to see Brim holding a large book.
“If you two could stop kissing for a second, we could actually save some ponies!”, Brim told us.
Gathering ourselves, Sunset and I ran over to Brim.
“Is this it?”, I asked him.
“Looks like it. Have you seen a book that has a picture of a evil looking goat on the front?”, Brim said.
“We got it! We now have a chance to stop Lucy. All we need to do now is say the words to get it open.”, Sunset said looking at Brim.
“Uhhhhh.”
“You remember the words right?”, Sunset asked him with a bit of doubt in her voice.
“Yeah I remember it…..mostly.”, Brim explained.
“That’s not too assuring”, I told him.
“Look, I can get it down. Watch.”, Brim said taking the book with a hoof,”Revelare unt silva…..captain!”
Nothing. Brim stood there awkwardly holding the book hoping it would do something.
“Revelare unt silva……...caper”, Brim said a slightly different time,” Okay, third time's a charm, Revelare unt silva……..caparum!”
Suddenly the book made a spike stab him in the hoof.
“Ow! You mother bucker!”Brim said, dropping the book.
“Are you okay?”, I asked him.
“Yeah I’m fine. The book tried to sta-OHHHHHHHHH!”, Brim suddenly began shouting as his eyes widened.
“Brim!”, Sunset exclaimed.
“I CAN SEE EVERY EQUATION! OHHHHHHHHHH!”, Brim said before collapsing.
“Brim! Brim, are you okay?!”, I said as I ran over to him.
Suddenly, Brim rose to his hooves.
“Wow! I suddenly know every piece of goat spells and their origins!”, he said frantically.
“Wait Brim slow down we don’t-”, Sunset said before Brim gasped.
“I can bring all the bad things censored in this world with this spell?!”, Brim said before luminating some red magic from his horns to cast a spell”, Holy fuck shit it actually fucking worked. No more of this implied swear bullshit!”
“Brim wait a second!”, I tried telling him.
“Wait, that means-”, Brim said before spawning a cigarette in front of him to smoke,”Oh sweet Nicotine! I missed you so much!”
“BRIM!”, Sunset and I both said to get his attention.
“Wait up guys one more, there is one that sounds so cool. Spawnattackus. Sounds like an awesome movie villain.”, Brim said before launching a huge beam of light that traveled down the mountain we were on.
Then suddenly, a loud boom struck from down below. We all ran towards the edge of the mountain to see what was the matter. As we had feared, it had come from Ponyville. There was smoke coming from it as well as some screams. Then off to the side was a small army of goats marching from a portal where the boom had been blasted from.
“What….did...you just fucking do?!?!”, Sunset said in shock, looking down at her town.
“I don’t know. I’m just gonna let the end credit music of this chapter do the rest.”, Brim said equally shocked at what he did.
“Wait what?”

 
> Chapter 5 : Defense *clap clap*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without any haste, we all rushed down the small mountain to reach the inflamed Ponyville. Brim was trying to figure out what had happened with the spell he had casted as we were running down the mountain.
“I don’t understand. I thought it would be like some cool blast like Rocky’s.”, Brim explained as he was running.
“Maybe if you had listened to us and stopped blurting out random spells the whole damn town wouldn’t be in the mess that it is in.”, I scolded him.
“You gotta admit, that cursing spell is useful now.”, Brim said, trying to look on the bright side.
“Can you please shut the fuck up!”, Sunset told him angrily.
“Alright fine!”
We managed to get down to the castle where Spike and a bunch of guards were frantically waiting for us to get back. The town was starting to burn down as smoke appeared from behind the castle. 
“Spike! Are you okay?”, Sunset asked him coming to a screeching halt.
“I’m fine. What the hay happened up there?”, Spike asked.
“We got the spell book.”
“And? What went wrong? Did he not say the spell right?”, Spike asked.
“He did but well…”, I nervously tried explaining.
“But well what?!”, Spike frantically asked.
“The spell didn’t fucking work! I got a bunch of other spells. All it does is reveal all spells in the goat history.”, Brim exclaimed.
Spike widened his eyes upon hearing what Brim said.
“Did he mean bucking instead of…...fucking?”, Spike asked.
“Look, that's not important. What is going on in town?”, Sunset asked, trying to steer back to the town under attack.
“We don’t know. One second I was trying to address that the princess wasn’t around and that everything is fine. Then the next second the entire Hellfree forest army spawned from a portal above and started attacking the town.”, Spike explained.
Sunset and I slowly turned to Brim.
“What? Why is everypony suddenly looking at Brim?”, Spike asked.
“I….may have accidentally caused it.”, Brim explained.
“You what?!”
“Look hear me out. If you were given the amount of power I was given, you’d probably go a little bit overboard right?”
“Well, can you undo this!? A bunch of ponies are probably dying out there!”, Spike said frantically putting his claws on his shoulders in a panic.
“Easy, your bad dragoness! I don’t think that would be a good idea since that one I did because it sounded cool. Some of them I know, some I don’t. I knew the ‘bad things’ spell because I needed a fucking cigarette.”, Brim explained.
“Oh this is hopeless! Without Twilight, the elements of harmony are going to be useless to defend against this attack! All we have is this psycho goat who doesn’t even know what the…..fuck he is doing!”, Spike suddenly exclaimed.
“Wooo! First time swearing! Knew that this place would be a whole lot better when you add swearing.”
“There’s gotta be something we can do. They can't attack forever can they?”, Sunset suggested.
“The royal guards are trying their best, but they’re constantly being overwhelmed.”, Spike explained.
“Well there is your first problem. Your royal guard sucks. I would have fared better than them in this attack.”, Brim said.
“That's it! Maybe with your new found powers you can fight them off.", Spike exclaimed perking up.
“Uh, I was just joking when I said that.”
“If the other six could fight off evil changelings years ago, you could do it to goats.”, Spike pointed out.
“But we don’t have the Elements of Harmony on our side.”, I chimed in.
“But, You have your magic and whatever spells Brim has in his new repertoire to fend off the Hellfree goats.”, Brim said.
“You did launch a pretty powerful blast while we were up there.”, Sunset reminded me.
“Great. Now we have to do the guard’s job of killing these invaders.”, Brim announced.
“Oooh, we don’t use that word around here.’, Spike said wincing.
“You’re kidding me right? You literally just said ‘fuck’ not two minutes ago. All of a sudden ‘kill’ is the one word that gets me in trouble?”
“I didn’t even know what that word meant. Look just don’t say it like that.”
“And say what? ‘Silence, mutilate, brutally bash them in’? I have a whole list of-”
“We don’t have time for this Brim! Ponyville is under attack!”, Sunset said, trying to get Brim to focus. 
“Alright. Let’s go kill these motherfuckers!”





We rushed from the castle to the center of Ponyville where a majority of the goats were attacking. Sunset had managed to blast one that was on top of a random store out of existence.
“We’ll split up so we can better our chances of fending them off.”, Sunset said. 
“Um, are we not going to address the fact you just killed one nonchalantly?”, I asked her.
“You get used to it when fighting off threats. You and Brim take this side of the town. I’ll run over to the other side to help out the guards.”, Sunset said.
“Wait, what if I miss my shot and they attack me?”, I asked.
“Then you better hope Brim is a good friend of yours in hurrying to save you. I’ve got to go. Stay safe!”, She said before running off.
“But….it’s Brim we’re talking about.”
“Awesome! Two bros fighting off an evil army together. What a way to go out fighting.”, Brim said patting me on the shoulder with his hoof.
Right as he said that, a group of goats bursted out of the window of a nearby building. Thankfully they weren’t as large as Brim, but they were definitely not ones you would want to mess with. 
“General Brim?!”, one of the goats said.
They all had a bit of a shocked expression like they never would’ve predicted Brim would be there.
“Yeah my name’s Brim and also- Abra Carva!”, Brim said before blasting them with a spell that made them disappear.
“What was that? How do they know who you are?”, I asked him.
“Oh I don’t know. It’s not like we’re in an alternate universe or anything.”, he said sarcastically.
“Okay fair point.”
“Hey new plan. I’m gonna split up and take one side of town to try out some spells. You got this right? Great see ya.”, Brim announced.
“Brim wait Sunset told us to-”, I said as Brim teleported somewhere else,” stick together”.
All of a sudden I felt a great surge of fear with the threat of being killed by a goat. Before I could try to get my grips on the situation, I heard some pony behind me let out a loud scream of terror. I turned to see a large goat hovering above a much smaller mare. The goat looked like he was ready to scorch her to ashes with his horns. It was time to nut up or shut up.
Using the trick Sunset taught me, I quickly conjured up the spell to attack. With my skill with the spell improving, I was able to launch my attack the quickest I had ever launched it. It was a direct hit, nearly blasting the goat a couple of feet away. The innocent mare got up onto her hooves and turned over to me.
“Oh thank you sir! I felt my life flash before my eyes.”, the mare said.
“It was er, nothing. Now get out to someplace safe. I don’t know how long these goats plan to attack.”, I told her.
Without questioning it, the mare ran off to safety. I was able to save a mare's life from the jaws of death. Not many people who turn to ponies can say that. As I was basking in the moment, I heard a loud noise come from behind me that startled me. So much so that I had instinctively fired my magic attack at the source of the noise. Whatever had made that noise wasn’t hit directly, but was instead crushed by the debris from above falling from me damaging a support beam. 
I decided to investigate further to make sure that what I took out was down. I moved closer to the fallen debris and used my levitation magic to lift up the bricks that crushed the being that was hidden. I had expected to find a goat that was hiding in the shadows waiting to attack me, but I was so far from it.
When I pulled the bricks and debris off, I found a stallion who looked exactly like me when I first caught a glimpse into the mirror. He had his head split open, leaving a trail of blood to flow down his face. Next to him was a shattered pair of glasses similar to the ones I wore in my other universe. 
The realization caused my legs to feel like jelly as I felt a massive weight hit me in my chest to what I did to my alternate self.
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god!", I exclaimed to myself.
I heard a faint noise of magic from behind me, but I was too shocked with my accidental deed.
"So I was able to fight off my portion of troops, how's it going over here?", Brim had asked me casually. 
"I….I...I-", I shuddered.
"Three goats you killed? I don't speak roman numerals."
"Oh good grief I think I'm gonna be sick!", I said suddenly feeling faint.
"What the fuck happened?"
"Don't you see it?!", I said pointing out the clone of me lying dead in the debris. 
"Oh shit! Well looks like Sunset was wrong about it being highly unlikely to find you here.", Brim said looking at the corpse.
"How can you be so calm about this?! I just killed myself!", I reiterated.
"Well, technically not really. You're still alive and breathing."
"This is not the time to joke around with your Hell humor Brim!"
"Look how about we move on from this. I came back to tell you that Sunset needs our help with getting some of the stragglers out of here. Let's go, we don't have time to waste!", Brim told me before running off in the opposite direction.
I didn't want to stare at my own dead body any longer so I agreed to follow him. But before I could get far enough away, I let out a few soft sobs as I said a goodbye to my other self.
"I'm so sorry."





We met with Sunset not long after where she was held up assisting some of the royal guard with getting ponies to safety. The guards were behind some rubble that they were using as cover to fend off the hellfree army. Sunset was helping out an older mare who had been injured in the conflict.
“There you are. I was worried something had happened to you.”, Sunset said to us as we approached.
“Well, something did happen to Rocky, but not really. I can explain it later. What stragglers do you need us to blow to smithereens”, Brim answered for me.
Before Sunset could answer, a loud boom echoed from behind the defenses. An ominous light followed the boom as the entire town was now in a shade of red light. All three of us went over to the line of rubble to find a yellow aura of energy where the goats were running into.
“Look! I think they’re retreating!”, Brim pointed out.
As the final goat from behind the line went in, the aura began to grow larger in size. It shot out menacing flames before showing the familiar face of Lucy. She looked to have a look of threatening stature.
“This is only the beginning of what’s to come for all of Equestria! It is inevitable. You will all suffer the same fate we all did as you casted us aside like we were nothing to you. The day of darkness is coming. Without your precious princess to save you, you will all drown in the darkness of Hellfree magic. The goats will rise again! And there is nothing you or your friends can do to stop it. Let the darkness in!”, Lucy said from the aura.
The aura began to fade away as the town around us began to come back to it’s natural lighting. There was black smoke where the aura once was in its place. As the last phrase Lucy said echoed out, ponies had gathered around and murmured in fear.
“There’s no way this can be real!”, a pony shouted.
“Our princess would never let herself get captured.”, another one said.
“What are we going to do?!”, a mare panicked.
The other questions soon joined together into a massive panic in the streets about what’s to come. The hysteria was rising as more and more ponies began to speak irrational ideas of the end coming.
Before the panic turned to a riot, Brim used a spell to grab all their attention with a loud boom.
“Can we all calm the fuck down? It’s not like you guys haven’t been through this type of danger already. It’ll fix itself I think.”, Brim said.
A stallion spoke up.
“And why should we trust you? We were just attacked by your kind!”, he said.
“Quite frankly, I wouldn’t even trust me. But how about trust these two dorks beside me. They can fix this situation.”, Brim said pointing to us.
The crowd began to murmur with doubt.
“Sunset, please say something. I’m losing their attention.”, Brim whispered to her.
“Look, there is no easy way to say this. We are in a bad situation. Like a really bad situation. But wasn’t the invasion of Queen Chrysalis a bad situation? Wasn’t Nightmare Moon a bad situation? Wasn’t Lord Tirek taking away all the magic a bad situation? They all were bad situations. But we remained optimistic to stay on top. Even though the odds were against us, we always managed to come out victorious.”, Sunset told the crowd of ponies.
The doubt from the crowd slowly deteriorated as Sunset told this speech. They looked unto Sunset like she was the hero of the day.
“Yes, Princess Twilight may be in captivity. But so was Princess Celestia and Luna. Even without their help, Twilight was able to overcome those odds with the help of her friends. That's what I plan on doing here for her, with my closest friend’s help.”, Sunset said looking back at us.
Suddenly, the crowd began cheering as they felt inspired to feel calm about the events to come.
“God Damn! Your marefriend is a multi-tool.”, Brim whispered over to me.
“What?”, I asked him confused.
“A receptionist, former crown thief, and a motivational speaker. What else has this mare done that we don’t know about?”, he explained.
“You know what, I think I may have to agree with you on that thought now that I think of it”.
Sunset stepped back towards us.
“That should be enough to calm them down for the moment.”, Sunset told us.
“That was incredible.”, I told her.
“It really wasn’t hard. You just had to do the exact opposite of what Brim was doing.”, she said, shooting a look at Brim.
“Oh hush, you probably have clout here that gave you an edge.”, Brim responded.
Right as we were talking, a royal guard had approached us.
“Sunset, Spike needs you back at the castle immediately. We may have found something we could use to our advantage to find the Hellfree forest.”, the guard said.
“Let’s not waste anymore time then. Lets go.”
> Chapter 6 : The one where the gang interregates a goat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The majority of the royal guard were busy repairing most of the damage that the Hellfree goats had done in their attack. A few of them were escorting us back to the castle to show us what they had found.
“Was anypony seriously hurt in this attack?”, Sunset asked the guard.
“Unfortunately, quite a few. Including a lot of our stallions. We’ve rushed them to the nearest hospital. Hopefully they can recover. But on the positive side, there were no ponies found dead.”, The guard said.
Him saying that reminded me of the travesty I had made earlier. I shuddered at that image, but I was doing my best to tuck it deep deep down where I wouldn’t ever find it again.
“Spike requested you came as soon as possible. When the guards found something, Spike was frantic to get into contact with you all.”, the guard said.
“What did they find?”, I asked.
“I’m not sure. All I know is that it is related to this attack.”, he explained.
“It better be a portal to the Hellfree forest so we can get this over with. That way I can go home.”, Brim said.






We arrived at the castle only a few minutes later. While it wasn’t the main target for the attack, it still sustained a lot of damage from some of the stragglers as the guard had explained.
Upon walking through the main entrance to the castle, Spike had greeted us with a not so positive attitude.
“Oh jeez. Twilight is not going to be happy about this when she gets back.”, Spike said examining a fallen pillar.
“What have you got Spike?”, I asked him.
“Well, he managed to fall so far behind that the guards had caught him.”, Spike explained.
“I’m sorry, him?”, Sunset asked.
“Yes. In the midst of this attack one of our finest guards managed to capture one of the goats that took part in this attack. He is in a cell in the castle.”, he explained.
“Wow. One of your guards actually achieved something. It’s only a matter of time before they can solve problems without help from a magical group of friends.”, Brim said sarcastically.
We followed Spike downstairs to a dark room filled with some cells. At the very end was one lit cell guarded by two guards.
“We’ve been trying to get him to talk, but he’s been very reluctant to answer any of our questions.”, Spike explained.
“Is he not talking to anypony?”, Sunset asked.
“Fuck yous all! This would technically be a war crime for injuring a goat and then holding him a cell without medical treatment.”, a voice from inside the cell screamed out.
“Not exactly in the nicest ways. I figured since Brim was a goat he could get something out of him about where the Hellfree forest is.”, Spike explained.
“You expect Brim to be the voice of reason to get this goat to talk?”, Sunset asked him.
“Yes.”
“The one who accidentally caused the attack to happen.”, I reminded Spike.
“And also the one who could care less about the place that made me have an existential realization of what I ate back in the real world.”, Brim chipped in.
“Look, our town was just attacked. I have no idea what to do without Twilight and I’m desperate to get her back to stop this mess.”, Spike defensively said.
“Well, considering what’s happened anything could be worth the information at this point. We can try something with this goat.”, Sunset said.
“Whatever you can get out, get it out fast. I have a bad feeling about the times ahead with the message Lucynious gave us earlier.”, Spike said before walking away.
“Looks like we got ourselves an interrogation on our hooves. How do you want to go about it with this goat?”, Brim asked.
“What do you mean, how do we go about it? I think we just go in there and ask the goat where the forest is and we go from there.”, I said.
“You obviously don’t know devils, or in this case goats. They won’t give up something just because you ask them to. You need to beat it out of them. Or torture them to the point of wanting to die again.”, Brim explained.
“We are not going to do that.”, Sunset said.
“I’m just saying if you want to get answers to what we want, we need to do this like good cop and bad cop. Only the bad cop also happens to know how to use torture devices to get ponies to confess.”, Brim said.
Sunset and I both ignored Brim’s advice and decided it would be best to try and make it easy on this goat by healing him just a little bit, but not enough to fight back. We figured if we made him feel just a little bit of comfort, he might give up the location. Seemed like a good idea.
We walked over to the cell and told the guards to leave us for the moment as we tried to talk with this goat. As soon as they left, we walked up to see the goat. He was a little bit smaller than Brim, but a lot more gruffed up. His horn and front hoof were damaged. As well as a scar on his right eye. Whoever he was, he has seen a thing or two.
“Who the fuck are you? ”, he said to Sunset and I before noticing Brim,” Lord Brimstone?”
“That doesn’t matter who we are. Tell us who you are and wher-”, Sunset said before the goat interrupted.
“Why aren’t you killing them, Lord Brimstone? You have always told us that goats are going to be the superior species by any means necessary.”, the goat said to Brim.
“I hate to break it to you kid, but I’m not the Lord Brimstone you are describing. I mean, yes I am Brim but not really. Look, this shit is really confusing.  Lets just say I’m the Brim helping these guys to save this place.”, Brim had explained.
“No, that can’t be true. You were there when you ordered the attack.”, the goat explained.
“Lord Brim was the one who did the attack?”, Sunset asked him.
“What's it to you bacon hair? You fucks lock me in a cage, injure my horns and legs, and expect me to give you answers for everything just because you have some clone?”, the goat said.
“Look why don’t we start from the beginning. Can you at least tell us your name?”, I intervened.
“Well at least you have some decency to ask my name before you treat me like shit. My name’s Anthrax.”, he said.
“So wait, you’re saying that ‘I’ did the attack?”, Brim asked him.
“Yes, you were planning the attack just before the day of wreckoning.”, Anthrax explained.
“Wow! Talk about an unlucky coincidence of doing the spell at the same time as my other clone doing it as well. Almost as unlucky as a coincidence with Rocky’s clone.”, Brim said.
“Wait what?”, Sunset asked Brim.
“That’s not important Sunset.”, I told her, trying to change the subject.
“Let’s get this back on track. Where is it?”, Brim asked Anthrax.
“Where is what?”, he asked.
“You know what we’re asking about. You’re going to tell us before-”, Brim said in a threatening voice before Sunset interrupted.
“What Brim is trying to say is that if you want to be healed from your injuries, you need to give us something we need.”, she explained.
“Are you kidding me? And you guys are apparently the ones  who claim to be the friendliest of the bunch.”, Anthrax said, clearly annoyed by the situation.
“Look, we can make this better if you-”
“No! You entitled fucks claim to welcome every creature of the land, yet you left us in the dark for years upon years. Even now, you could easily heal me. But no, you instead want to hold me hostage so I give up my hideout for me to get healed.”, Anthrax scolded us.
“You attacked us!”, Sunset fired back.
“Well maybe you needed to be attacked to show how you aren’t the superior species you claim to be.”, Anthrax said.
“Look, how about we calm down and just talk it out.”, I said trying to diffuse the tension.
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore. You can all burn for tomorrow when Lucynious uses your pathetic princess’s magic to set fire to those who oppose her.”, Anthrax said before sitting back in the darkness of the cell.
We all took a small huddle outside the cell to discuss the situation we were in. 
“Well that could’ve gone smoother. Good grief I never expected that much hostility for a goat.”, I said.
“I did. No one in Hell is a nice devil. When are you ever gonna listen to the one who knows devils well enough?”, Brim told us.
“Well at least we now know what Lucy’s plan is with Twilight and the elements of harmony. But not where to look to try and stop her.”, Sunset said.
“Are y'all ready to finally listen to me and my tactic of the bad cop off the chains?”, Brim asked us.
“What choice do we have?”, I asked Sunset for her opinion.
“Not much. Whatever you gotta do, do it. Just don’t get violent with it.”, Sunset told Brim.
“Oh goody. This won’t be violent at all. I just need you to get a hold of some things Sunset.”, Brim said before leaning in to whisper some things into her ear.
She looked confused with what Brim had been telling her to get.
“Are you really sure that will be it to get what we need?”, she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Absolutely. Devils hate it, so goats shouldn’t be that much different.”, Brim said.
“If you say so”.
Sunset had walked out of the cell room.
“What are you up to Brim?”, I asked skeptically.
“Oh nothing. Just something so torturous and painful that Anthrax here will give up anything in order for it to stop.”, he explained.
“You’re sure of it?”
“Rocky, I have been a demon for hundreds of years. This will make this goat want death to make it stop. I am more than sure of it.”, he said.
“It better work. No telling what’s in store for the days to come.”, I said.






Sunset had come back with a cart covered with a large table cloth over it after fifteen minutes of being away. It looked like whatever she was pushing on the cart must’ve been a hassle to push.
    “Your plan better work Brim. You have no idea how hard it was to find specifically what you asked for.”, Sunset said after pushing the cart towards Brim.
“It will. Your ‘agonizing work’ won’t have been done in vain.”, Brim said before turning the cell,”Let's get this son of a bitch to talk”.
All three of us walked back to Anthrax’s cell. He was quick to try and dismiss us from getting information out of him.
“I already told you all to fuck off!”, Anthrax scolded us.
“We aren’t finished with you yet.”, Sunset said sternly.
“I already told you that I’m not gonna give anything up.”, he said again.
“We’re asking you nicely before we have to use whatever Brim has in mind to get that location out of you.”, Sunset warned him.
“Ah bite me.”, Anthrax responded angrily.
“Okay I’ve heard enough. Time for the bad cop to come in.”, Brim said, pulling the cloth off of the cart.
On it was a large record player with a set of earmuffs and one shiny looking record. Brim had then pushed the cart forward towards the cell. Anthrax took one look at the cart and then back at Brim with a confused look.
“You plan on serenading me to death?”, Anthrax said sarcastically.
“I’m gonna ask you one more time, goat to goat, to give up the Hellfree forest before it gets six hundred and sixty six times worse for you.”, Brim told him using his magic to put the record spinning on the player.
“Worse? How could my situation possibly get worse than it already is?”, Anthrax said.
“Alright. You could’ve made it easier. This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you.”, Brim said as he dropped the needle on the spinning record.
The music began playing some wild opening lyrics that were heavily harmonized with multiple singers. Soon afterwards, some vibrant synthesizers began playing as some drum beats began. But that's when I noticed Brim started to put on the pair of earmuffs. As that happened, Anthrax began to uncomfortably sweat. Brim was wincing slightly while letting off an entertained grin.
Shortly after the song’s chorus began, Anthrax began screaming bloody murder as he tried to cover his ears with his hooves.
“Dear god it’s so terrible! Please make it stop!”, Anthrax pleaded.
“This won’t end until you give us what we want!”, Brim shouted over the music.
Anthrax let out screams of agony for the next few minutes until the song had finally had stopped.
“Please, I beg you to stop this torture. These lyrics are horrible!”, Anthrax begged Brim.
“Nah. In fact, how about we loop these lyrics over and over again until you eventually squeal the location out.”, Brim said as he used his magic to place the record player needle near the halfway point of the record.
“NO!”
The chorus began playing over and over again until Anthrax began sobbing from the amount of torture he was being put through. I could now understand how messed up torture with music really was.
“Okay I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Just make it stop!”, Anthrax screamed out.
“And that was the magical phrase that needed to be said.”, Brim said before lifting the needle off of the record,” Now where the fuck is the Hellfree Forest?”
“It’s...it’s in the old pet cemetery. Near Timber Wolf Forest.”, Anthrax said while still in traumatic shock.
“You expect them to let us in if we knock? Tell us how we get in there!”, Brim demanded.
“You need....the magic spell to get through the barrier by the catacombs. Uver Alix. Then you’ll be able to walk right in.”, he said, sounding weak.
“Great. Thank you for your cooperation.”, Brim said before taking off his earmuffs.
“So that's it? I won’t have to be subjected to this torturous song?”, Anthrax asked desperately. 
“Sure kid. I’ll stop playing the song. I’ve seen enough torture for one day.”, Brim said before walking towards the guards,” I feel he has hurt both your feelings with all of his toxic behaviours. So play the record as many times as you like”.
With my eyes wide open from the visual of the goat screaming in agony, I looked over at Sunset who was equally as horrified as I was
“Hey Sunset, can you make a reminder with me when we get back home?”, I asked Sunset.
“Go ahead.”, She said.
“Remind me to never piss off Brim ever with his goat experience.”, I told her.
“Noted”.





“So where do we stand?”, Spike had asked us.
“It looks like they have their hideout near the Timber Wolf forest. They are hidden with a magic spell that can only be used by goats.”, Sunset told him.
“Of course! It had to be the location where it is most dangerous to venture. I’ll get the guard to prepare an attack right aw-”, Spike said before Brim interrupted.
“I hate to interrupt you, but have you seen what they did to this place and the guards defending it? You stand no chance against Lucy.”, Brim told him.
“Well then what do you suppose we do? Lucynious is planning to attack Equestria tomorrow. We need to come up with an attack plan.”, Spike asked him.
“Brim is right. Lucy is a powerful goat. She could easily use her army and her powers to wipe us all out if we attack her head on.”, I told Spike.
“She can’t be invincible can she? Didn’t you have something that angered Lucy when you were with her before?”, Sunset asked Brim.
“Are you asking if I had a kryptonite for Lucy?”, Brim asked her.
“Well surely you had to have something to make her go away.”, Sunset said.
“Uh, no. Lucy stayed away from me because she thought that I was a pig for wanting sex more often than she did. But I will say this, she was allergic to honey.”, Brim explained.
“Honey? Why that of all things to be allergic to?”, I asked him.
“Something to do with it being a holy food that lasts forever. Ironic since she technically couldn’t die in our world because she was already dead.”, Brim explained.
“Well that’s great that you probably have a weakness for Lucy, but that still doesn’t solve our plan of attack!”,Spike exclaimed.
“What if we didn’t have a plan of attack and instead we do some sneaking into the place?”, Sunset suggested.
“There’s no way that would work, would it?”, Spike asked.
“Well us demons are smart, but not smart enough to suspect a sneak attack since the gateway to Hell can only be accessed by demons. It is a possibility that it could work.”, Brim concluded.
“But how would we manage to pull something like that off? Surely they wouldn’t have to leave Hellfree forest if they have stayed hidden for so long.”, I asked.
“Not unless they needed to come out for food. If what Anthrax said was true, the Hellfree forest is in a magical barrier. That means that there would be no way for them to get food because they don’t have access to sunlight or water inside a magical barrier of that magnitude.”, Sunset explained.
“And if I know me like I already know me…..AHA! I think I have a plan to blow the roof off this place.”, Brim exclaimed.
Brim used his magic to spawn some small figurines of goats and ponies, as well as a cart and a bush.
“Knowing from my experience in Hell, we eat a lot. So much so that we always have a demon deliver food to us from the outside world everyday. Sort of like a pizza boy stuck in the same job forever.”, Brim explained.
“What does this have to do with your plan?”, I asked him.
“I’m saying that it shouldn’t be too different from Hell. So the plan is we hideout near that cemetery, wait for the goat to come out of the barrier, we take him out once he manages to gather enough food to head back, and then we can take his clothes and pose as him to get in.”, Brim proposed while demonstrating it with the figures.
“But what if they recognize you as Lord Brimstone?”, I asked.
“They won’t because I have this!”, Brim said holding up the Capra Vestra.
“What makes you think that that book even has a disguise spell?”, Sunset asked him.
“It’s a book about dark magic and how to use it. It’s going to have a spell to pose as someone else. I’ll find it in the time we wait for that delivery goat to come out of his hole.”, Brim explained.
“As for taking on Lucy?”, Sunset asked him.
“Hmmm. That’s gonna be tricky, but…”, Brim said before turning to Spike,”How quickly can you have the royal guard collect honey?”
“Uh, I mean it might be a stretch but we can get some honey within a few hours if we can talk with Fluttershy. Why?”, Spike asked.
“We’re going to need a lot of honey. Like a lot to drown a pony in.”, Brim said.
“I’ll get the guard on it as soon as possible.”, Spike said before rushing to the end of the hall to alert the guard captain.
“I never would’ve expected that from you.”, I told Brim.
“Expected what?”, he asked.
“That you would even have a plan to save Equestria. I thought you hated this place.”, I said with a smug smile.
“Oh please! This place could suck a fat one for all I care. I’m just making it more interesting with high stakes on the line.”, Brim said dismissively.
Sunset let out a small chuckle as she walked up next to me.
“Sure you don’t care about this place.”, she said sarcastically.
“I’m only doing this because your friend that got captured is kinda sorta hot. Not like that statue of the bug lady I made out with earlier. So many sexy holes.”, Brim jokingly said.
Spike had come back from talking with the guard.
“It’s all set up now. The honey will be held at the apple farm for now.”, Spike told us.
“It doesn’t matter, as long as one of us can teleport the honey to our location when we get there for the fight against Lucy.”, Brim said.
“I can manage that.”, Sunset said.
“Perfect. Now that leaves you Rocky. Just eh….. don’t die.”, Brim told me.
“Sounds easy enough.”, I told him.
“Great! Princess Twilight! We are coming to the rescue!”, Brim exclaimed aloud.
> Chapter 7 : All In
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was all set up. The guards had gathered all the honey in Ponyville at the farm. I don’t remember how much it was, but it was enough to drown a pony in it. We had gathered up all the supplies we needed and said our goodbyes to Spike.
“Bring her back home. It all rests on you now.”, he told us.
“We’ll do our best with what we have. Celestia knows this plan is crazy enough already.”, Sunset told him.
“Just remember, the honey is at the apple farm.”, Spike reminded us.
“Okay. I got that.”, she said.
“Good. Now go. We don’t have time to waste.”, Spike said.
“Wait what?! You mean to tell me I had to repeat that damn spell three times but she doesn’t have to repeat anything? That’s messed up!”, Brim exclaimed.
“Just let it go, Brim. We have a world to save. Not having to repeat ourselves is the least of our concerns.”, I told him.
“Easy for you to say. You haven’t had a single responsibility on this trip yet. Actually, I’m giving you one now. Remind me when we finish the job to never suggest a road trip ever again.”, Brim told me.
“Okay whatever. Can we just-”, I said before Brim interrupted.
“Say it.”
“Brim, we aren’t going to do this right now!”, I said.
“Say it and I’ll let it go.”, Brim said.
“Okay, I will remind you that we aren’t going on a road trip again.”, I said slightly annoyed. 
“Now say it one more time.”, Brim said with a smug look.
“Oh my good grief!”, I said, putting my face to my hoof.
Spike looked over at Sunset.
“You have some really dysfunctional friends.”, he said to her.
“But they’re my dysfunctional friends that I love.”, Sunset said.






We finally had gotten our bearings together and finally left for the cemetery near Timber Wood Forest. We were given a map and some food for us to eat as we hid out by the cemetery. Sunset had warned us to be careful along the way about staying on the trail to not attract the wildlife, but well…
Let’s just say it wasn’t my best idea to take a piss on a tree filled with wolves made of wood.
But despite the slight altercation with the wolves, we made it to the cemetery safe and sound. All we needed to do now was wait till the end of the day for a goat to come out for food. Thankfully, this gave us all the time to prepare for the battle to come.
As usual, I began working on my spells for attacking. They were becoming a lot more precise and accurate with each shot. Along with that, I began to hold things with my telekinesis spell longer. I was even able to move objects around and even throw them. Not that it would help me, but it was something neat to come with my spell practice. 
Sunset was doing what she says she would normally do before a life or death situation; taking a moment to breathe before slowly meditating. Not that out of the ordinary, but Brim on the other hoof was completely different. He was deep into reading the book to try and figure out how to do all of his spells right before going deep into the Hellfree forest. Maybe it was because I’ve never seen him read anything longer than a pack of cigarettes, but I never would’ve expected Brim to be so fast into reading this book of spells. It worried me that he wasn’t fully learning these spells.
“You gonna slow down there and learn the spells?”, I asked him.
“Oh please, half of these spells are the same way I do them outside of Hell. The only spell that I considered a ‘challenge’ is a spell on how to make a sentient clone of someone else.”, Brim said putting the book down.
“Oh really? Then do the disguise spell.”, I challenged him.
“Alright fine. Hey! Bacon bits!”, Brim said to Sunset who was deep in a meditative state. 
“Huh? What’s wrong?”, she said looking like she had come out of a nightmare. 
“We need you to see if I’m able to disguise without any suspicions. You mind helping out since you know Rocky the best?”, Brim asked.
“Uh yeah sure.”, she said still recovering from her trance.
“Are you okay Sunset?”, I asked her.
She didn’t respond. Whatever she was seeing in her meditative state seemed to have haunted her. She stood silent before Brim got her attention again.
“Hey Sunshine! You gonna say if I’m doing it right or just stand there?”, Brim said again.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Do your thing Brim.”, Sunset said looking like she had come back to reality for a moment.
“Alright. Here goes nothing.”, Brim said before using his horns to muster up some magic.
A bright orange aura surrounded his body. Soon all we could see of him was the circling aura around him shrinking and changing shape. It started shaping into the shape of another pony. Then after a brief flash, Brim had turned into me. It was right down to the mark on my rear with how accurate he was able to get it.
“Well, how do I look? Do I look like this jagoff who thinks I don’t got this?”, Brim asked her.
“Well, not in the voice, but that is almost spot on.”, Sunset told him.
“Oh right I almost forgot, ahem”, Brim said before speaking in my exagerated voice”, Do I sound like the jew unicorn you love to fuck?”
That managed to get a chuckle out of her at the expense of me being made fun of. But it did snap her out of her anxiety like state. Whatever it was that bothered her was something serious.
“Well I think I got this down knowing I can fool one of you. This mission should be a piece of cake. Hell, we might even be back home before breakfast tomorrow.”, Brim said confidently as he shifted back to his goaty form. 
“Let’s not get too cocky. We still need to be careful. Especially with taking on Lucy. Who knows how powerful she is now that she has Twilight.”, Sunset told Brim.
“You’re asking me to not be cocky? It’s like asking a baby not to be such a kickable object. It’s against my nature.”, Brim said.
“Dude.”, I told Brim disapprovingly.
“What? Am I the only one here who gets the uncontrollable urge to punt a baby across a room?”, Brim said, throwing a hoof up.
There was a long and uncomfortable silence between me and Sunset as we looked at each other to confirm what he just said.
“Pussies. Anyways, what are we gonna do for the next few hours while we wait for this goat to come out of the closet?”, Brim said before plotting down onto a tree stump.





We spent the rest of the day talking and pretty much preparing for the inevitable fight we were going to face. Some time after the sun went down, we began to hide out behind the stump Brim had sat on by the side of the large catacombs. Brim had predicted that the goat would come out at any second.
Right as he said that, the catacombs began shaking and beaming red energy on the front of it. A goat with a cart had emerged from the catacombs with a large cart. Some voices spoke from inside the catacombs, but they were inaudible to hear.
“I’ll get your damn melons later. If you fucking ask me again I’ll force you on food duty like you did me.”, the goat said to the voice before the portal closed.
“Ha, looks like you were right bacon. They do come out for food.”, Brim whispered quietly.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get him.”, I said before Brim put a hoff on my chest.
“Not yet.”, Brim said.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t feel like having to search for the food for this jagoff, that's why. We’ll have to wait for him.”, Brim said.
We sat there for a little while longer waiting for him to come back. As we were waiting, I noticed that Sunset had that worrying look again. It wasn’t as bad as before, but the situation seemed to remind her of what she saw in her meditative stance.
“Alright. I think he’s on his way back. I’m gonna go pistol whip this fool and steal his look.”, Brim said before sneaking off behind a tombstone.
“Finally, a moment alone with Sunset.”, I thought to myself as he left.
I figured it would be best without Brim being around to figure out what was bothering Sunset.
“Hey. Is everything okay, Sunset?”, I asked her.
“Yeah, I uh…”, She said before trailing off to look down at the ground.
I put my hoof next to hers to comfort her.
“It’s okay. You can tell me if something is wrong.”, I said, giving her a comforting smile.
She looked up at me.
“Rocky, I saw something that-”, She said before she was interrupted by the sound of a wagon pulling up to the catacombs. 
The goat had returned with a cart that was filled with a mountain of food. Everything from carrots to hay was in the mix. I even think there was some garbage thrown into the mix. It looked massive. Definitely enough to feed a whole secret society of goats living underground.
As the goat was about to open the portal, Brim lurked behind him quietly.
“Hey fuck face!”, Brim said to him.
As the goat turned around, Brim hit him on the head with his back hooves to knock him out.
“Out like a ‘has been’ rockstar on coke. The coast is clear guys!”, Brim exclaimed to us. 
We came out from behind the stump to meet with Brim and the goat. 
“Well he went down. Looks like he might be out for a while.”, Brim said before turning into the goat.
“How can you tell?”, I asked him.
Brim lifted his head up to reveal a large bump on the part of his head where Brim had kicked.
“Last time I checked goats only had two horns, not three, If my magic fails, at least I got two legs that can do some serious damage.”, Brim said, taking the final touches to disguise himself as the goat.
Brim had walked off to go tie him to a tombstone just in case he would wake up before we would be done. I still have no idea how he did that since he never once practiced a telekinesis spell.
I used to date the devil herself. I needed to be good at tying things down if I was ever gonna have a ‘good time in her bedroom’.
Anyways, Brim had managed to sound pretty close to the goat from earlier when he talked to the goat from inside the Hellfree Forest. All we hoped for now was to fool enough goats to get past and get to Lucy.
“Alright. I think it's all set. You two get in the back and hide under the pile of food while I work my Brim charm on these fools.”, Brim told us.
“You remember the spell to get through the barrier, right?”, Sunset asked him.
“Of course I do.”, Brim said confidently.
“Then say it.”
“Oh my Lucy! I am not about to repeat myself for the god damn reader again!”, Brim said slightly annoyed.
“What reader?”, she asked.
“Will you two just get in the back of the damn cart and let me do my thing?!”, Brim said sternly.
We both listened to Brim and hid under the pile of food. We managed to use some hay as a support to hold up a small makeshift ceiling in the cart so it wouldn’t be completely tight in the food. Sunset laid across from me in the pile. We could at least look at each other for a few minutes before the shit would really hit the fan.
“Good grief, here we are. All alone together in a pile of goat food to sneak into an evil forest. Not the road trip I was expecting when-”, I said before Sunset planted me with a deep and passionate kiss.
Something about this kiss let me know that this was connected to what she was trying to tell me earlier. After a little bit, both our lips parted.
“What was that for?”, I asked her.
She took a deep breath before answering.
“I saw something in my meditation. Something that horrifies me about this.”, Sunset said in a serious tone.
“What did you see?”
“I don’t know how to describe it properly, but it felt like some sort of premonition. I saw Lucy killing you and Brim before wiping out all of Ponyville.”, Sunset said with a slight tremble,” And I don’t want it to happen. But I’m worried because it felt so real and…”
I kissed her again as she began to trail off to calm her down.
“It’s gonna be okay, Sunset. We’re not gonna go down without a fight. I promise you we’ll make it home safely.”, I comforted her.
She took my hoof as she looked into my eyes.
“Just don’t try to be a hero in this okay.”, she told me.
“I won’t if I don’t need to.”, I told her.
For a moment we rubbed our foreheads next to each other to get one last solemn moment with each other before we went in. That was of course until….
“Hey Bacon and Rocko, you guys ready for me to go into Hellfree?”, Brim said from outside.
I looked at Sunset to confirm that she was ready. She gave me a nod to let me know she was ready to go into the forest. 
“It’s now or never, Brim!”, I told him.
We felt Brim pull the cart towards the front of the catacomb. The cart had rattled to a halt as Brim approached the wall of the catacomb. 
“It’s our last chance to turn back if you think it’s too much.”, Brim warned us.
We didn’t answer him to let him know we were ready.
“Alright, time to go all fucking in. Uver Alix!”
A loud thunder shook the place as the stones of the catacombs began to move by themselves. An ominous energy came from the opening. In the opening there stood two goat guards, most likely the ones the goat we knocked out was talking to. They held spears as they stood in front of the large wooden doors to get into the forest.
“About damn time. What took you so long, Sigil? I am starving.”, the goat guard on the left told Brim. 
“Oh uh, you know. Shit happens when you go outside in this disgusting world.”, Brim said in Sigil’s voice.
“What?”, the guard on the right asked in a confused voice.
“Oh you don’t know? The food here always gets harder to find with all the damn wildlife hogging it all. Especially those ponies. Now if you’ll excuse me I got food to deliver”, Brim said nervously.
“Hold up a minute. Something isn’t right.”, The guard on the left said before walking next to the cart.
“I’m pretty sure what I collected was right. I picked them all out myself.”, Brim said nervously.
Sunset and I held our breath in silence as the goat walked over to the cart and reached inside for some of the food we were in. His hoof just barely missed my face as he grabbed a piece of corn and pulled it out of the pile.
“You picked out the wrong corn again! I told you to look for the red corn. The yellow ones give me gas!”, the guard said with an aggravated tone.
“Oh that? I told you. Those damn animals keep taking them away and shit. I hate them. If you want I can go back and-”, Brim said before getting interrupted by the left guard.
“Forget it! I’m already starving. I’ll just remember to kick you in the skull the next time you don’t find the red corn. You can go in.”, The guard said. 
The guard on the right pulled down on a chain that opened up the wooden doors. They swung open behind them. Brim took the cart and walked right past the guards. Before the gates closed, the guard on the right shouted out something.
“Hope to see you at the orgy later before the raid of Equestria!”, the right guard said.
“Yeah you too!”, Brim said with Sigil's voice before switching back to his own voice quietly,”Suckers”.
At last, we were inside the one place that had eluded Princess Twilight for years: the Hellfree forest. Surprisingly it wasn’t as torturous as I had imagined it, but it still wasn’t a nice place. The forest was a series of broken down brick homes next to trees that looked like they were battered and scratched to oblivion. The air felt really humid. It was almost like the air had no way to evaporate the water because of the dome surrounding the forest that it was a constant pest to breath in.
The forest glowed from a crimson light source in the middle of the town. And that's where it stood; the large monolith of a castle sourcing a bright orange light for all the Hellfree forest. It looked menacing enough to strike upon those who look at it for one second too long with its spiky and war-like appearance.
“There. That’s where Lucy must be keeping Twilight.” Sunset pointed out.
“Well, no shit. It’s the only huge thing in this town and Lucy was kind abig the last time we saw her. No need for intuition on the situation, Sunset.”, Brim said quietly as we walked past a gang of goats that were fighting. 
“Let’s just get to the castle so we can check it out.”, Sunset told Brim.
We walked further into the center of town to find the front of the castle being fortified by a large fence with spikes on it. Right behind it was a large stage. From the looks of it, something was about to happen in the Hellfree forest.
Right as we walked up, a large gong rang across the forest. The whole town gathered near the stage in a mob-like nature. 
“What’s going on?”, I asked Brim.
“I don’t know.”, he said.
Suddenly, the familiar red boom of energy struck the stage as a yellow portal opened up. From it, Lucynious emerged to take the stage. She wore a crimson crown on her head with all of the elements of harmony. The crowd of goats cheered as she stood before them
“It’s her!”, Sunset said from the cart.
“Shut up! The reader read it the first time.”, Brim told her quietly.
“Hellfree! Hear me!”, Lucy announced before receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
They were rowdy to an almost war-like style. Lucynious lifted a hoof to quiet them down.
“For years, we’ve been left in the shadows by the very creatures who claim to be for acceptance. Who claim to be the ones to promote inclusion and order. Little did they realize that they were becoming the hypocrites that all of Hellfree recognizes and despises.”, Lucynious exclaimed to the crowd.
“Heh, that rhymed.”, Brim said before I kicked him,” Ow! It’s just a rhyme asshole!”
“That all changes tomorrow. When we lead the attack onto Ponyville. With the magic I have gathered from their ‘elements of harmony’ and their weak Princess Twilight Sparkle, we will be unstoppable!”, She announced to make the crowd cheer once again.
“It all starts with Ponyville. If they haven’t turned tail and run, they will learn what it feels like to be left in the dark, permanently. They will be the example we set for all of Equestria to bow before us!”, She proclaimed.
“Oh my god.”, Sunset said with a horrified tone.
“It’ll be okay, Sunset. We’re going to end this together.”, I comforted her.
“That all happens at dawn, but tonight we celebrate! Let this home shake as we prepare for a new dawn for all Hellfree kind. We shall reign supreme!”, Lucy announced before using her newfound magic to fire off a firework.
The crowd of goats went berserk as large speakers appeared from the front of the stage blasting heavy metal music. Lucy had disappeared through her portal as the celebration began in the center of the Hellfree forest. Goats were drinking, dancing, some even fighting. They were ready to take on the world.
“Go! While the whole town is distracted!”, Sunset told Brim from inside the cart.
Brim had pulled us into a side alleyway where we could dump the cart and  make up a plan. Brim still in disguise, used his spell to show his real face when we got out of the cart.
“Well, look on the brightside. We got a timeframe of when they will attack, so we can know when we need to hurry the fuck up.”, Brim said optimistically.
“We need to get into that castle.”, Sunset told us.
“But then what? We have no clue where Princess Twilight is.”, I told her.
“I can use my magic to sense her presence. But that won’t help us get her out.”, She explained.
“What do you mean? I have my goat magic. I could break her out of there like a pinata.”, Brim suggested.
“Not without the Elements of Harmony. Without it, she is stuck as a statue. You and Rocky need to figure out a way to get that crown from her.”, Sunset told him.
“Great, looks like we’re going to have to split up. Who could’ve predicted that?”, Brim said sarcastically.
“But how are we going to get in?”, I asked. 
“I have an idea for that. But, it's gonna require impeccable timing.”, Brim said before walking down the alley to the castle wall.
Right as we saw the weak spot in the wall he was alluding to, a firework went off from the center of town.
“I’m gonna blast a hole in this wall. If you sync up the timing right, the explosion can be masked by the sound of the fireworks. Just like in the video games that nobody cares about.”, Brim said, taking a stance.
“Alright, I’ll let you know when to fire.”, I told him as I looked in the direction of the fireworks.
The timing couldn’t be too early or too late. Thankfully, the one thing I remembered from high school was that light travels faster than sound. All I needed to do was tell him to fire as soon as the lights went off. Sounds easy right?
“Hold it.”, I told Brim as a rocket launched in the air.
It soared up high, leaving a trail of sparks behind it. Then suddenly, it stopped. This was the moment. Right as it exploded…
“Now!”, I yelled out to Brim.
Right on cue, Brim launched a beam of energy that penetrated the wall with such violence. It was perfectly masked by the firework explosion. We were in. Now came the fun part.
“Alright, I’m going to look for Twilight. You two search around for Lucy and try to find a way to get the Elements of Harmony off of her. I’ll use a portal to message you when I find Twilight.”, Sunset told us.
“Alright. Be careful!”, I told her.
“Same to you both. Now go!”, Sunset said, taking off in the opposite direction.
Without haste, Brim and I ran inside the castle. While a lot of the goats were in the middle of the forest partying, we still weren’t safe. There were still guards patrolling around every corner. They held spears like the guards we encountered before, but now they had a fire tip to them. 
Brim and I were pinned up against a wall waiting for a guard to pass.
“So, you got a plan?”, I asked Brim quietly.
“You’re asking me whether I have a plan for a life threatening adventure?”, he asked me.
“You know Hell better than anyone. Where would Lucy keep a precious item like that?”, I asked him.
“Well, if it is a piece of jewelry, which the Elements of Harmony are, it would most likely be by her bed. If I know her giant castle of a home she has….”, Brim said before pondering and pointing in a direction near some stairs,” It’s gonna be up those stairs and to the right”.
“Are you sure?”, I asked him.
“No, it’s only a feeling.”, Brim said sarcastically,” Yes I’m sure it’s up the stairs. I lived with the bitch for a couple hundred years”.
I looked over to see a large amount of guards by the stairs.
“It’s too risky. We’ll have to find another way up stairs to not alert the guards.”, I told him.
“Not to worry, I got a plan for that.”, Brim said before pulling out the Capra Vesta,” I just hope this spell works”.
Using his magic, Brim had conjured up a blue beam that formed a clone goat in front of us. Brim had put some touches to it to make it look more feminine and lewd. Once he was done, he stamped his hoof and took control of it with his magic.
“Boom! I just conjured up a fake goat from thin air. And now I’m about to use my feminine to clear us a path.”, Brim said with a smug look on his face.
“Oh good grief.”, I said to myself.
The decoy walked around the corner to stop at the middle of the corridor. It began posing sexily. 
“Hey kitties.”, it said in a sensual voice.
All the guards noticed and took attack formation down the stairs to confront Brim’s decoy.
“What are you doing here? This is not an area for you.”, the tall guard said, pointing his spear at the decoy.
“Mmmmm, that's not important, baby. What is important is that its the night before our rebirth and I feel like having some real, naughty fun.”, the decoy said before winking at the guards.
“Well uh, y-y-you still can’t be here. If Lucynious finds out about this-”, the tall guard said with a stumbled voice before the decoy interrupted him.
“What’s the matter? You chicken to have a little fun with a bad, bad doe.”, the decoy said real sensually.
“U-Uh no! In fact, guards! Stand down. She isn’t a threat to us.”, the tall guard ordered. 
They all stood down. Some of them even had the same look of dumbfoundedness the tall guard had for this decoy’s looks. Whatever Brim was doing, it was working surprisingly well.
“That’s more like it, baby. What do you say we take this someplace a little more private for you, me and your friends here to have a little fun? Perhaps that past cellar door right there.”, the decoy proposed, pointing to the large, stone door.
“Yes, but that’s-”, the tall guard said before the decoy grabbed him down south and made him moan before continuing”,- the dark dungeon where we keep the prisoners”.
“Perfect. They can watch us. Unless of course, you’re chicken.”, the decoy doe said before letting the guard go.
“Of course not! I’ll lead the way.”, the tall guard responded by leading him and his men to the door.
“Almost there aaaand...boom!”, Brim said quietly from behind the wall as his magic stopped.
“Oh I love me a billy who can lead. We’re gonna have so much fun.”, the decoy doe said, as she began following the guards down.
As the door closed shut, Brim and I rushed out from behind the wall to make it to the stairs.
“Holy shit! That was amazing!”, I excitedly said to Brim.
“I know! I didn’t expect that to work.”, Brim said as he followed behind me after locking the door.
“What’s going to happen now?”, I asked him.
“I managed to keep that decoy moving on its own until it finishes off the rest of those guards. When it’s done, it will completely vanish like it was never there. But thankfully that door locks from the outside, so they won’t be getting out anytime soon.”, Brim explained to me.
“Perfect. That gives us plenty of time to look for Lucy and get the Elements of Harmony off of her.”, I said looking back at Brim.
“That’s the idea.”, he said.
“With all these guards out of the way, nothing can stop us no-”, I said before I ran straight into someone.
I fell back to have Brim catch me. By the time I got my bearings, I got a full glimpse of who I just ran into. It was a goat very similar to Brim. In fact, it was Lord Brimstone. The only difference between Lord Brimstone and regular Brim was Lord Brimstone had black metallic rings around his horns. 
He stood over us with an evil look that told us that we had made a huge mistake. 
“Oh, son of a bitch!”, Brim said as he caught me from behind.
 

 
> Chapter 8 : Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Who are you?!”, Lord Brimstone said while starting to conjure up some spell.
I was speechless to the situation. This was a goat who we had no clue was capable of. Especially since he was a leader of the Hellfree army.
“Oh sorry, we’ll be quick. If you can show us the way to the Elements of Harmony we’ll be out of your horns.”, Brim said before tugging me out of the way of Lord Brimstone’s spear he threw at us.
Lord Brim’s spear struck the side of the stairs. He took the spear out of the stairs and aimed it at both of us again.
“You’ll be dead before you even set hoof on this floor.”, Lord Brimstone said before throwing the spear at us again.
The spear flew past my head, barely missing Brim in the process. Lord Brimstone was definitely not the goat to mess with. In the process of the scramble, Brim had managed to hit the evil lord with a spell that hit his horn. Lord Brimstone’s left horn ring  had shattered from the spell Brim casted.
“You’ll pay for that!”, Lord Brimstone scolded him.
“Sorry, I left my wallet in my other world. And I don’t have any money.”, Brim said before launching a spell at Lord Brimstone.
As Brim and Lord Brimstone fought, I tried my best to help out. I conjured up the spell I used to attack. I fired my shot at Lord Brimstone, but missed and struck a painting on the wall. Lord Brimstone managed to pin Brim up against the wall and pulled out the spear next to him.
“Any last words, you insignificant stain?”, Lord Brimstone said to Brim.
“Yeah. I got one: Yoink!”, Brim said before using his hoof to snatch Lord Brim’s other ring on his horn.
Doing so made it easy for him to break free as Lord Brimstone tried to get it back before Brim tossed it down the steps. The two of them fell down the stairs, with Lord Brimstone losing his cape in the process. As they came crashing down at the bottom of the stairs, both Lord Brimstone and Brim were fighting on the ground with their hooves. The biggest problem was that I couldn’t tell them apart from each other. 
I rushed over to try and figure out the situation. I noticed that Lord Brimstone’s spear was at my hoof. While the two of them were distracted, I used my magic to hold up the spear and aimed it at both of them. Both of them froze in their tracks when they realized the situation we were in.
“Woah woah woah! Take it easy, Rocky!”, One of the Brim’s said.
“Hey! Don’t listen to this one! I’m the real Brim!”, The other Brim said standing up next to the other one.
“Oh good grief!”, I groaned in total confusion.
“Listen to me. I’m the Brim who came into your life after you drank ‘Shout at the Devil’ whiskey.”, The Brim on the left said.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s just using a spell to get into your memories and pretend he is the real one when he is not. I’m the only one who can say that I shaved your pubes in your sleep the second night of us knowing each other.”, The Brim on the right said.
“Bullshit! That wasn’t you, it was me!”, The left Brim argued.
They continued arguing more and more to a point that it became annoying.
“Can both of you shut up?!”, I scolded them.
They both stood silently as I continued pointing the spears at both of them.
“Now, I’m going to figure out which one of you is the real Brim. First question, who did we help out on our trip to Canterlot?”, I asked them.
“Giddy Lee!”, both Brims exclaimed. 
“One at a time. What happened when we went fishing in Hoovesiana?”, I asked them.
“We were attacked by some crazy rapist hillbillies.”, the Brim on the right said.
“Really? This is the information you’re using to figure us out? Shit that happened a few days ago? You’re a real master detective”, the left Brim said.
“Look I’m trying my best! I’ve never had to deal with two clones before.”, I exclaimed to him.
“Look at me, Rocky. You know it’s really me. Just make the right choice.”, the Brim on the right said. 
“If you choose that Brim, you’ll be killing us both.”, the other one exclaimed.
By then, I had no clue which Brim was which. It was really like flipping a coin and hoping it was either heads or tails. I had to make a choice quickly. We were on a very short time schedule.
“Alright. I know which one is which.”, I announced.
Both Brim’s stood quietly as they waited for me to make my choice. I pointed at the left Brim.
“Come on Brim. Let’s finish off Lord Brimstone.”, I told the left Brim.
“Oh good! Now we can kill this fucker.”, he said walking up to me.
“Bet you can’t wait to scold the author on that one.”, I told the left Brim.
“What author?”, he said.
Right as he said that, I drove the spear right through his chest. Blood had spurted from his mouth and chest before he collapsed to the floor. He was dead. I looked over to the only remaining Brim standing.
“Well I’ll be damned. You know me so well that you used the one thing I haven’t ever explained to you against a fake me. I’m flattered.”, Brim said.
“I still have yet to learn of him.”, I told him.
“Ah, I’ll tell you later once this is all over. Now come, help me hide this body before any more guards see.”, Brim said.





We managed to dump Lord Brimstone's body into a wine barrel outside of the kitchen next to Lucy’s room. For some reason, Brim decided to wear the cape that Lord Brimstone was wearing.
Can you blame me? Capes are cool.
We walked in as quietly as we could into Lucy’s room to search for the Elements of Harmony. 
“Look in that drawer on the left side of the bed. I think it’s the bottom drawer.”, Brim directed me.
I opened it up to find that the drawer was completely empty. To double check and see if Brim had made a mistake, I opened and searched through every other drawer. Only thing I could find was some books, gems and a bottle of some clear liquid.
“It isn’t in here. Are you sure that Lucy keeps it in a drawer? If I were her, I would think to put it somewhere a little less conspicuous.”, I told Brim. 
“Well thank Lucy that you aren’t her. Otherwise we would’ve been done with this story in less than one chapter. Move over, let me have a look at the drawer.”, Brim said before walking over to look. 
Brim put his hoof in the bottom drawer and felt around it.
“Of course, she’s a clever girl.”, Brim said suddenly.
“What?”, I asked.
“She made this drawer have a secret compartment. It's nice and hollow. I knew she was one to hide things in places that seem normal.”, Brim explained.
“Great, that means she has a key somewhere. Guess now we got to look for-”, I said before Brim interrupted me by smashing the bottom of the drawer.
“Or we can not do the most cliche story element of finding a key and just smash the shit open.”, Brim said.
Brim and I looked inside to find the elements of harmony in the crown that Lucy had been wearing. Still in perfect condition, and prime for the taking. 
“Jackpot! Now let's get out of here and find Sunset before-”, Brim said before suddenly turning over to face the noise coming outside the door,” Shit! She’s here!”
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! What are we gonna do?”, I asked frantically.
Brim looked around and pointed at the closet just by the door. 
“Here, take the Elements of Harmony and hide in there!”, Brim commanded.
“What are you gonna do?”, I asked him.
“Don’t worry about what I’m gonna do, just hide! I’ll try and figure something out. Hopefully she doesn’t know that we iced Lord Brim. Now go!”, Brim said.
Doing as he said, I took the Elements in my hooves and ran into the closet to hide. As I shut the closet door, Brim had reached around to grab some rings to put on his horns. He was able to put some on at the last moment before the door opened. Lucy emerged and stopped at the entry.
“Lord Brimstone! You must’ve received my messenger.”, Lucy said to Brim.
“Yeah. Came here as soon as possible. Just as the messenger directed.”, Brim said, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible. 
“Good. We have some things to discuss and do before tomorrow morning’s attack.”, Lucy said walking up to Brim.
“Sure thing. What’s up, Lucynious?”, Brim asked her casually.
“Oh please, we’re behind closed doors, Brim. You need not to call me Lucynious. Not for what we’re about to do.”, Lucy said getting closer to Brim.
“Um, what is it we’re about to d-”, Brim asked before Lucy leaned in to passionately kiss him.
The two made out for around ten seconds. With Lucy taking off Brim’s cape in the process. Whatever was gonna happen next, it needed to be away from the door so I could escape and try to meet up with Sunset. 
The two finally finished making out.
“Things have been going so well for Hellfree. I want to celebrate in the way that we both do on one of those days.”, Lucy said before reaching up to the top of her bed to pull down a compartment. 
What came down was a wall of various whips, toys and other kinky leathers. Brim’s eyes had widened to the sight of the toys. Lucy had walked over to the bed and bent over on the bed, lifting her rear up.
“I want you to ravage me. Make me hurt like the dirty slut I am.”, Lucy said sensually.
“You want me to hit you? With one of these whips?”, Brim nervously asked her. 
“I’ve been horny for the past few days since we kidnapped Princess Twilight. You know how horny I get when I manage to gain a lot of power. And I want you to spank me as hard as you can, Lord Brim.”, She said reaching her hooves over to the other side of the bed as she bent over.
Brim had suddenly snapped out of his trance and got back on track.
“Uh for sure! I’m gonna blindfold you so you can’t even have a moment to prep when I dominate you.”, Brim said reaching over for the blindfold before winking at me to try and escape while she was blind.
“Oh you know how much I love it when you-”, Lucy said before Brim covered her eyes with a blindfold and gagged her with his hoof.
“Shut up bitch! I’m the Lord now! You’ll only answer when I say so!”,  Brim said, taking one of the whips with a spell,”Reader, if you think I’m not going to enjoy this, you’re god damn wrong”.
“Who are you talking t-”, Lucy said before letting out a loud moan of pleasure as Brim smacked her rear with the whip.
This was my chance. As quietly as I could, I emerged from the closet. It hadn’t occurred to me that the floor was made of wood until it creaked when I set my hoof on it. Lucky, the sound of the whip cracks and Lucy moaning was able to mask it up. I began to tip toe my way to the door. 
In the process of me carrying the Elements of Harmony carefully, I managed to run into a small pillar holding up some Hellfree artifact. The pillar tipped side to side as the artifact tipped over. I felt my heart drop as it fell down. Thankfully at the last minute, Brim was able to catch it and put it back with his magic without making a noise.
“Get the fuck out of here!”, Brim mouthed at me silently as he planted another whip smack to Lucy’s rear.
I quietly sneaked up to the door and opened it with my magic. Thankfully the sound of Lucy moaning and shouting masked up the loud creaking of the door. All was going well and according to plan, all we needed to do now was not fuck u-
“Have you gotten the Elements of Harmony from Lucy?”, Sunset said from a portal that suddenly appeared in front of me.
Not the place or the time to spawn a portal like that. I fell back from fear and dropped the Elements of Harmony on the floor, making an undeniably loud bang. The room suddenly went quiet before Lucy took off her blindfold perked over the bed to see me. 
“What the Hellfree?! Who the hell do you think you-”, Lucy said before Brim took a pair of handcuffs and cuffed her to the bead frame.
“Sorry I know it’s rude to leave your partner handcuffed to a bed before they finish, but you’re kinda a bitch.”, Brim said to Lucy, sweeping up the Elements of Harmony before running out the door with me following behind.
“BRIMSTONE!”, Lucy yelled out in anger from the room.
“What is going on?”, Sunset asked from the portal.
“You kinda bursted in at the wrong time. That's what’s going on.”, Brim said, annoyed at the possible situation he missed.
“Where are you? We have the elements.”, I told Sunset. 
“I'm in a dungeon downstairs. I don’t know how long until guards notice, so please hurry.”, Sunset told us.
“Oh trust us, we’re hauling ass after managing to handcuff Lucy to her BDSM bed!”, Brim exclaimed.
“What was that?”, Sunset asked confused.
“Don’t worry about it, it's gonna be a fun story on the way back home. Bye!”, Brim said before closing the portal.
“How much time did you buy us before she breaks free from those handcuffs?”, I asked Brim as we turned a corner.
“Twenty seconds at most. The last time I did this as a joke, she managed to rip the chain off the handcuffs and stabbed me with some broken glass bottle.”, Brim said before a loud boom echoed from the room behind us,” And I think this Lucy managed to break free in ten seconds”. 
Not wanting to stop for a second, Brim and I ran for our lives as we looked for some stairs that led down to a dungeon. Lucy had been on our tail for a few rooms. When we managed to find a room with a large door and a spiral staircase, Brim closed it behind us and barricaded it with some large boxes. Lucy had slammed into the door with full force. It didn’t even budge. She then began shooting spells at the door, slowly whittling away to get to us.
“Hop on my back!”, Brim told me.
“What? Why do you-”, I asked confused.
“We’re being chased by an evil goat that is trying to kill us! Shut the fuck up and hop on my back so I can jump down the stairs!”,  Brim demanded.
Not wanting to see Lucy gut me or Brim, I hopped onto Brim’s back before Brim took off running to the edge of the spiral staircase. Brim took a massive leap and fell down the spiral staircase. When he landed, he let out a grunt before falling down to his knees. I hopped off his back as he went down.
“Are you okay?”, I asked him.
“Yeah yeah, I’m fine. I just need to make the reader think that this ‘injury’ has meaning. Just go find Sunset.”, Brim said getting up.
“What are you gonna do?”, I asked.
“We’ve been running for the past five minutes, and I had to carry your fatass jumping down the stairs. I need a ciggy break. Now go!”, Brim said before using his magic to spawn a lighter and cigarette. 
I ran into the dungeon with the elements on my back and my face looking forward. The dungeon had a dark glow that could strike fear into any knights who would dare enter it. Yet, here I was running into it not even thinking of what would be in it looking for Sunset and Twilight.
As I ran further, I saw Sunset in the distance. She ran up to me as she saw me.
“Rocky! She’s over here! If we can hurry we can get her out now.”, Sunset said.
“Alright, let's go. We’ll have to meet Brim when we ge-”, I said before being cut off by a bolt of magic from behind us.
“You’re not going anywhere you insignificant stains!”, Lucy said with blood dripping from her front hooves.
She began to slowly walk towards us.
“There is nothing you can do to stop our cleansing of Ponyville. And if I have to kill you all in the process, so be it.”, Lucy said before launching a beam of magic towards us. 
The beam managed to strike right in front of Sunset, launching her back into the wall and knocking her out.
“Sunset!”, I called out to her. 
“And I’m going to make your death the most slow and painful. And then I'm gonna rip that crown from your dead hooves and destroy Ponyville.”, Lucy said slowly walking towards me with a spear covered in acid. 
I began backing up in fear. My heart began racing as she drew closer. In panic, I began firing all the spells I could to stop her. She managed to deflect them off of her like it was nothing. I began to feel my life flash before my eyes when she lifted her spear up to throw at me. 
Right before she could throw the spear, Brim came up from behind and tackled her off to the side. He managed to knock the spear from her grasp to the floor. Brim was now face to face with Lucy.
“Why you annoying little shit, I’ll gut you for that!”, Lucy said.
“That’s mister annoying little shit to you.”, Brim said before spawning a metal pipe to use as a weapon.
The two stood for about a second before Brim stepped forward and swung at her with the pipe. She ducked out of the way and blasted him with a small bold that barely missed his side. Before Brim could get a chance to attack, Lucy had tackled him to the ground and got on top of him. It looked like Lucy was going to try to stab Brim with her horns. Right as Lucy brought her horns down, Brim used his front hooves to catch her head right before her horns could harm him.
“Tigerstyle!”, Brim said before taking his back hooves and flipped Lucy over his head.
Brim rose to his hooves.
“What the hell are you doing? Get the princess out of that statue!”, Brim yelled at me.
“What if you get into trouble?”, I told him. 
“Relax. What’s the worst that can ha-”, Brim said before he suddenly got stabbed from behind.
My heart stopped as a blade had come out of Brim’s chest. Blood had shot out of his mouth as his eyes had widened. The blade was pulled out from behind and made Brim drop to the floor, revealing that Lucy had used her magic to throw a sword that was nearby. 
I called out his name as tears began coming out of my eyes. I ran over to his body, not realizing that I had dropped the Elements of Harmony behind me. I dropped down to his hooves and cradled my best friend as I wept. Blood was all over the stone floor where he layed. It looked like this was for real.
In my moment of grief, I failed to realize that Lucy had grabbed the Elements of Harmony from behind me. She had put the crown on her head and began beaming some magic around her. I began backing away from here as she walked closer.
“It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be the first pony to experience what I’m going to do to Equestria.”, Lucy said menacingly with an evil smile.
I backed up further and further until my back was up against a wall. My heart was racing a thousand miles per hour as she began casting a spell.
“And now you’re going to end up like your friend here; dead.”, Lucy said before taking a stance.
For a moment I thought that this was it. I was about to die by the hooves of an evil goat and there was nothing I could do about it. My best friend was slain right before my eyes and the girl I love is next. All of Equestria was about to be doomed to the rule of the Hellfree. I began to close my eyes to prepare for my death.







“I’m not dead”, a mysterious voice said from behind Lucy before the sound of something cocking followed.
Lucy turned around to see Brim walking once again with a cigarette in his mouth and holding a double barreled shotgun with his magic.
“I’m Brimstone, bitch!”, Brim said before swinging his shotgun towards Lucy’s head.
Brim had hit Lucy so hard that it not only knocked off the Elements of Harmony off her head, it also broke off one of her horns. Lucy let out a painful yelp as she stumbled over to the side. 
“Kiyaaa!”, Brim screamed out as he fired both shots of his shotgun towards Lucy.
The shots sent Lucy flying all the way across the dungeon into a stone statue. The impact managed to shatter the statue like it was a bunch of toy bricks hitting the ground. Brim had grabbed the Elements of Harmony and blew away the smoke coming from the barrel of his shotgun.
“Who’s next!”, Brim yelled out.
“Brim! How are you alive?”, I asked him with a relieved tone.
“I’ve been alive this whole time, Rocky.”, Brim said.
“But, you were just stabbed from behind. I saw you die!”, I told him.
“Correction, I was just getting off my ciggy break. You saw the decoy goat I formed earlier die. I managed to teleport that doll back and reshaped her to look and act like me while I finished smoking.”, Brim said. 
Brim was going to say something else but I interrupted him by running over to hug him. He was caught off guard by this.
“Uh, you have a girlfriend, Rocky. She’s right over there. She could wake up at any moment and think that you are actually pretty fruity.”, Brim said.
“Please don’t do that ever again. Do you understand me, Brim?”, I told him.
“No promises, but sure.”, He said, returning the hug.
Right as we were having a bromance moment, Lucy had stumbled from the debris of the statue she had crashed through. Blood was bleeding across her face from where her left horn used to be. 
“You… you have been a horn in my side for the last time.”, Lucy said angrily out of breath.
“Huh, you look tense. Have you been a little less horny as of recently?”, Brim smuggly said.
That joke made me chuckle a little bit.
“I am going to fucking rip out your tongue for that!”, Lucy guttarally screamed out at Brim.
Her anger caused her skin to all of a sudden burst into flames. She was now covered by her own flames like a blanket. Suddenly she leaped over at us. When she landed in front of us, it knocked me onto my back from the force of her landing. 
“Damn, you look pretty hot when you’re angry.”, Brim joked once more before lifting up his shotgun.
Right as he went to pull the trigger, the gun had clicked but didn’t fire.
“Oh shit I forgot I fired both shells earlier.”, Brim said before being tackled by the enraged Lucy.
Brim was using his gun to keep Lucy from burning him. Right before the gun could melt from the heat, Brim found Lucy’s weak spot and decked her in the eyes. Lucy had fallen back again before facing Brim again.
“You are really getting on my nerves!”,Lucy said, grabbing her eye.
“And you have fallen into our trap.”, Brim announced.
Lucy had given Brim a confused look. Right at the last second before Lucy could do anything, I managed to open a portal above her. It had taken all my strength to conjure the portal and hold it open long enough. By the time Lucy realized what was happening, it was too late. The pile of honey began to fall on top of Lucy. She was fully submerged inside of it before trying to move once again. The flames coming off her body began to harden the honey like cement. As she tried to attack Brim, she began slowing to a halt before being an ambered goat. 
I was out of breath by the time I closed the portal.
“Did….did we do it?”, I asked Brim out of breath.
“I think we did. “, Brim said.
Before I could do anything else, I remembered that Sunset was knocked out. I ran over to Sunset. She was still knocked out from when Lucy had attacked her. 
“Sunset! Sunset, wake up!”, I said, shaking Sunset.
Her eyes slowly opened as she began breathing again. She blinked a few times before rising up slowly.
“What happened?”, she asked.
“We did it, Sunset. We won!”, I told her.
I helped her up with a hoof. I helped her walk over to where Lucy stood in amber. I was now convinced that he had successfully defeated Lucy. There was no way she could break out of there. Not without help of course.
“Oh my god. Oh my god, you managed to defeat her!”, Sunset said.
“Yeah, we did.”,  I told her.
“You don’t understand. I was so worried that my nightmare would have been true. It was all so real.”, Sunset said with tears of joy in her eyes.
“I told you we would make it.”, I told her, putting a hoof on the side of her face.
Sunset and I locked eyes with each other once again. Maybe it was the moment that we had managed to make it out of a dangerous situation together or that she was relieved, what we did know was that we were caught up in the moment. We both leaned in to kiss each other.
Right before we could even touch lips, Brim had interrupted us by kicking the amber that Lucy was encaged in, shattering it along with Lucy’s head into a million pieces. Blood had splattered all over me and Sunset.
“Good Grief, Brim!”, I reacted.
“What? We have to be sure that she is gonna stay dead. What better way than to shatter her head like ice?”, Brim defended.
All of a sudden, the dungeon began shaking violently. Parts of the walls started to fall down revealing the outside. We looked to see that the dome surrounding Hellfree was collapsing. In some way killing Lucy was also killing the Hellfree forest dome.
“We need to get out of here now!”, Sunset said.
As quickly as she could, she formed a portal below the stone prison Princess Twilight was in. The statue fell into the portal.
“Quickly, let's get to Ponyville before-”, Sunset said before a piece of stone had pushed her into her own portal, shutting it when she went in.
“Sunset!”, I called out to her.
“Come on! We’ve got to get the hell out of here before we get crushed by this dome!”, Brim said, grabbing me by the hoof. 
Brim and I made a dash for the opening in the wall to outside the castle. There was mass panic in the streets as goats were making a beat to the exit. Not many of them cared that I was there, many of them were too focused on not getting crushed by the debris coming from the dome.
“You have the Elements right?”, I asked Brim.
“Of course I do. Let's just get out of here!”, Brim said as we started running towards the entrance of the town. Because so many other goats were trying to leave, the crowd was too thick to push through. 
“Rocky, look! We can take that shortcut!”, Brim said pointing off to a beaten path of burning buildings.
“That way is too dangerous. We got to push on through this cro-”, I said before seeing a goat get crushed by thousands of other goats making a run for it in the crowd,” The burning buildings will do”.
We both passed through the first building that was on fire. The smoke was so thick that it was almost impossible to see through. Luckily, Brim and I were able to make it through the first building and start passing through to the second. We were making it through to the exit a lot quicker than if we were able to make it through the crowd. 
Right as we were passing through the fourth building, I started hearing some music playing behind me. I thought it was just adrenaline kicking at first until I realized that the music felt really real. I looked over to see Brim carrying both the Elements of Harmony and a speaker playing some heavy metal music.
“Really? You have to do this now?!”, I asked Brim as we were running.
“I like setting the mood! We’re escaping from Hellfree. The song is called- ah forget it! You’re no fun!”, Brim said tossing the speaker off to the side. 
Right as we were leaving the final building, we finally had an opening to jet for the exit without being trampled. In fact, there was no one in the way at all. Brim and I took off running from the building to the exit. Right as we were in the home stretch, the forest shook violently one last time. The shakes were so intense that it caused Brim to drop it as we were running. At the same time, the shakes were enough to cause the rest of the forest to start collapsing from behind us.
Catching Brim off guard, I screeched to a halt and ran to go grab to the Elements.
“Rocky what are you doing?!”, He panicked.
“Just make it to the exit!”, I yelled back at him. 
I made a bolt to go pick up the crown of elements. Thankfully I was able to make it in time to grab it. However, I stopped to witness the center of the Hellfree forest dome collapse. The dome began to fall before me. That was my cue to run like hell to the exit. 
As I was running for my life, the world behind me was crumbling right behind me. Bits and pieces of the dome were falling beside me in the process. Brim was waiting for me at the exit. He had a look of fear seeing the chaos ensue from behind me. I realized that I needed to run faster when a large chunk of the dome landed next to me. As more and more chunks landed near me, I ran as fast as my hooves could take me.
Right as I made it within jumping distance of the exit, I made a last second dive to the exit. I managed to tackle Brim in the process and managed to make it out into the cemetery we were in when we first arrived. The entrance made a loud boom as dust shot out from the entrance to the now buried Hellfree forest. By pure luck, We had done it.
“Good fucking grief.”, I said looking back at the entrance.
“Uh, Rocky. I think we have a bigger issue to deal with now.”, Brim said nervously.
I looked up from the ground to see all the goats of Hellfree staring right at us with the Elements of Harmony at hoof. This is going to be swell...