> the Six Heroes
>  by NinjaMare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: A Crazy New Adventure is About to Begin [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifty years ago a scientist by the name of Marvin King had lost everything he valued in life, though it was not his research in the scientific fields. No, this man lost the two people that he cherished and loved above everything else, and those two people were his wife Sasha, and his daughter Kathrine. The fates of these two is what spurs this man to inadvertently create a rift between humanity, and set a course for mankind to inevitably destroy itself.

Marvin King lost his wife when a terrorist group broke into the building she worked at and held her and her fellow employees hostage, however during a peace exchange between the terrorist and the police she was shot in the head when one of her co-workers tried to be a hero, but ended up get himself,  Sasha and four other people killed in the process. The death of his wife shattered Marvin to his core as she was his anchor, Sasha was his pillar of strength to push forward. But without her he didn’t feel like he could go on, yet Marvin’s life was brought down even lower several months later after the death of his wife.

One day Marvin was called by the police in response to a 911 emergency call, which was about his daughter being found in an alleyway, showing signs of being raped. Of course Marvin went to his daughters aide, and after about a couple of hours search, the two men who raped Marvin’s daughter were brought to justice. But the downward spiral of Marvin’s life didn’t stop there. A few days later Marvin was called again by the police, this time while he was at the labs, and it was this phone call that pushed the man over the edge. The police were alerted to a shooting, and it was at his daughters school, and Kathrine were among the twenty students that were killed.

This is what finally broke the man, broke him to the point where nothing in life was worth nothing anymore. That’s when the man’s frame of mind was no longer sane, and started to drastically spin in a whirlwind of demented and dark thoughts, all of which was to blame humanity for his loss in life. And that’s when the scientist spent the next year of his life developing something, something that would purge all of humanity from this world. He experimented and created many things, eventually he came to be creating a bomb that would erase anything on Earth that had the Human Genome. But life seems to continue to mock the man, as after many trials and errors and many failed attempts finally created his weapon, a weapon that would eradicate the plague of the world that took everything from him, but when he activated the machine…it failed. Frustrated even further Marvin was sent into a blind rage, and began destroying his laboratory. But one of Marvin’s old assistants heard the commotion, and after inquiring what he was doing and Marvin fully confessing what he had attempted to create, she stopped him upon learning what he was doing and managed to turn him to the authorities.

Once he was arrested, Marvin was put on trial for accusation of planning on mass murder, to which of coursed he confessed to it wholeheartedly, but he stated that he would be purging all of the evils of the world. As the man spoke about what he was planning, and what his machine would’ve have done, the judge had be placed in prison for clear homicidal and genocidal thoughts, and his clear loss of sanity. However Marvin had other plans. Rather than live the remainder of his life in this horrible world, among people he blamed for his downward spiral in life, the man hung himself in his own cell.

But little did anyone knew, Marvin’s machine did work, maybe not in the way it was intended. But it would spark something to cause misery and strife for all of Humanity.  


~~Modern Day~~

It was the dead of night on a Tuesday, the full moon was hidden behind grey clouds as they rain down on the city below while cars and people traversed the roads and streets to their intended destinations. But as the people and vehicles walk and drive through the roads and streets, one of the more larger buildings in the city center was about to be the prime victim of a heist, and that building was a large bank. Past through the big doors and its vast and darken entrance and front hall, and its desk and counters where people worked and made their transactions, in the inner most vault of the large-scale bank some late-night activity was about to begin.

Emerging from the floor with a buzz and slick sound, a narrow shaft of what appears to be a glowing blue energy emerges from the middle of the floor of the vault. The shaft then started to slowly burn its way through the floor, melting the surface as it makes a clean circle, where the cut-out of the floor dropped through the new hole to a lower section of the buildings foundation, but the cut away piece didn’t even make a sound as it dropped. Then one by one emerging from the hole six black coated figures emerge, one of which was carrying a large back pack while another carried a large duffle bag. Though it appeared that none of them were armed with any kind of weapon. Once the six figures had entered the vault they each looked around to make sure they didn’t set off any alarms.

“Alright guys let’s make this quick.” One of the cloaked figures said as he gestures to the main door of the vault, while the other members of the group nod their heads and started to spread out. The coated figure that just spoke along with the groups tallest member walked over to the door of the vault, while another member left the room and headed towards the main office. Meanwhile two of the members of the group headed back down into the hole, to perform their own task’s. As for the final member of the group, they headed towards the front counter area  of the building to keep an eye out in case someone actually comes up to the bank.

The individual that made their way to the bank’s main office room started to scan the wall, where they spotted a vent on the far left end of the wall. Digging through their coat pockets the coated figure pulled out a screw driver, where upon wielding the tool the figures body then started to levitate up to the vent! The figures body was being suspended in mid-air, with only their feet remaining planted on the floor, all the while the figure began to un-screw the vent’s panel. After removing the last of the screws the panel slipped and started falling towards the floor, but before it hit the ground a floating black gloved hand shot forth and caught it. Placing the panel gently on the floor an eye floated out of the figures hood and began worming its way through the vent, while the rest of the figures body floated back down to the floor, reattaching to the feet that were still planted on the velvet floor carpeting. 

The eye continued to float through the vent till it reached the end, where it came upon another panel. From the outside the figures hands then floated up and entered the vent as well, where they reached the eye in no time and started to undo the panel screws. Though this time one of the hands had a more firmer grip on the panel so it wouldn’t slip. Once the panel was removed the eyes and hands entered the office room, where they floated to the door and unlocked it then opened it where their coated owner entered the room, while the hands and eye floated back into the figure, reattaching & reinserting themselves in their original posts. Walking over to the main desk the figure sat down at the chair of the big desk on the far end of the room, and started to fiddle around with the laptop on the desk.

“Alright boys I’m logged into the system, and the alarms for the vault should turned off right…now!” The figure said in what sounded like a baritone British voice, signaling the two members in the vault room to begin their part in this heist. “I’m also going to see if I can log into the camera system, and start deleting any footage of us.”

“Rodger.” The first member of the group said as he and the other coated figure stood before the vault door, where the figure then outstretches his right hand which started to develop what appeared to be a haze of heat, then a seven foot long beam of glowing blue energy appeared in the blink of an eye.

“Let’s get to work.” the figure said as he spun his new creation around for a few seconds, before thrusting it into the vault door. Leaving only a foot-n-half of the beam remaining in his hands.

The beam easily pierces through the vault’s entire frame, melting through its thick metal composition like it was butter, causing it’s burning parts to slowly ooze out as the beam begins carving through. It didn’t take more than a minute or so for the beam to carve through the vault door, and once the task was done the figure wielding the shaft removed it and then started to cut little cavities in the far sides of the door. After making the indents in the now cut through door, the figure then ‘sheathed’ the beam by having it fade out in a wisp of blue fire. With his work now done the beam wielder stepped aside to allow the taller coated figure to step up, who was rolling their shoulders before popping their neck & knuckles, then after stepping up to the door the taller figure’s body started to grow a few feet in size, threatening to tear the cloths off their body. But after reaching nine feet in height the figure then slipped their hands into the indents that their partner had made, then with a strong grasp the figure then easily pulls out severed piece of the door where they then tossed it to the other end of the room. Which obviously caused a very loud and pronounced bang.

“Jesus Christ Steel! Could you be any more louder, cause I don’t think the people outside heard you.” the voice of the figure in the main office said over the groups personal intercoms.

“Quiet Circus.” The tall figure, Steel, said before walking into the vault with the other person.

“Time to clean out our bank account Plasma.” Steel said with a little chuckle before removing the duffel bag, and starts putting the stacks of money from the shelves into it.

“You really need to stop trying to make catchy one liners.” The other individual, Plasma, said as he also starts filling up his backpack with stacks of bills.

The two continued to work in silence, stuffing as much money into their bags as they can. Meanwhile back in the office, the one that was called Circus was watching everything from the camera footage, seeing his friends looting the vault, and their look out doing his job. But when he looked towards the lookout, Circus saw him get tense before reaching a hand up to his hood.

“We got some cop looking dudes coming up to the door, and they definitely don’t look friendly.” The lookout said over the intercom.

“We’re already stuffed to the brim, so let’s bail.” Plasma said from his side of the intercom as he and Steel made their way towards the hole and stood bye.

“Agreed.” Circus said before reaching a hand up to his ear.

“Snap it’s time for that pick-up.”

The coated figure who left the vault room via the hole came walking into the office where Circus was, and after placing a hand on his shoulder, both vanished in a burst of yellow light and a snapping sound. Both Circus & Snap then re-appeared in the vault room where Steel & Plasma waited. The other two members of the group re-joined the others, and once they were all present, they all placed a hand on the one dubbed Snap, and again in flash of yellow light they all vanished in thin air.

No sooner then they group had vanished, two police officers unlocked the doors to the banks front entrance, and started to make their way to the back of the building. The pair walked into the room and once they got a look at the cut open vault door, as well as the hole in the floor they two officers figured out what has transpired here, they started to investigate the room. A few minutes later and the bank was swarmed with cops, a majority of whom were surrounding the building from the outside, while a small group headed down the hole and checked out what was down below, as another group checked the interior of the vault. But like several other cases these two officers have been a part of, the vault was nearly emptied a good amount of its contents. And there were no visible traces of prints or any clue that could direct the police on who committed this crime.

“Another clean heist.” One of the officers said as he looks through the empty bank shelves while his partner looked at the hole that was carved through the floor.

“And whoever these robbers are they’re well equipped.” The female officer said as she runs a hand over the rim of the hole.

“To even cut through this floor, with little effort, they must have some top-quality equipment.” She then looked up to the camera off in the corner of the room.

“How much do you wanna bet they hacked the security camera’s?”

The older male officer didn’t say a word, and instead head for the main office where upon entering the room he walked over to the desk, and when he inspected the lab top sure enough all of the camera footage has been tampered with. All footage that may have caught the criminals was deleted, and erased. Silently cursing under his breath, the officer left the main office to rejoin his partner, and continued to investigate the area to see if this time they could find SOMETHING that would lead them to whoever had committed this heist.


~~~~~

Far off on the peers of New York, in the more abandon and isolated areas of peer and in one of the large warehouses, the sound of a popping snap echoed throughout the large room of building, where the six coated figures now stood in the darkness.

Once they have appeared in the room, each of the coated figures headed to a different section of the building easily navigating through the darkness, but the darken atmosphere was literally lighten up when one of the figures flipped a switched turning the light on. Now that the building was lit up on the inside the various items inside could be seen much clearly from various chairs, a large couches, a nice big plasma TV with every set of game stations and platforms sat with literal bookshelves of games and DVD’s boxing around the TV. One by one each of coated figures started to remove their coats, gloves, and masks they were all wearing, and revealing who they were underneath.

The first figure was a young Caucasian man who appeared to be entering his twenties. His eyes were a dark brown color, his head of brown hair was really shaggy and has a few strands of dirty blonde mixed in, he was also mildly built in terms of his body type though not quite muscular, but not skinny as well. The shirt he was wearing was black in color but has a lion image stitched on its front, while also wearing a crown on its head and the word ‘Pride’, the young man was also wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and pair sneakers. The second figure is a very tall African American young man around the age of twenty-two, and his eyes were nice shade of green, and his black hair was done up in neck-length dreadlocks. Unlike most of the other members of the group, this young man was more muscular than all of them, in fact, he was the most strongly built out of the group. In terms of clothing all of them wearing blue jeans, though this particular man was just wearing a simple grey tank top, along with a pair of boots.

The third individual was an average height Latino teenager almost entering his twenties, his skin was a nice shade of light tan, which paired with his dark brown eyes, and his styled hair was a nice charcoal black color. out of the group this particular young man was probably the skinniest, but he still had some definition of muscle on himself, though his most outstanding feature was the tribal tattoos on his forearms. Aside from his own jeans, this young man was wearing a very dark red shirt that has some white letters stitched on it, which was power spelled in Spanish. The fourth member of the group was another Caucasian young man, around the same age of the Latino member but with head of blonde hair, and actually having two different colored eyes, his left being blue & his right being green. This young man was really lean and fit, built more like a runner, or a gymnasts. And aside from his plain brown shirt, the teen also had a silver chain necklace, and a few rings on his fingers.

The fifth member was a young man of very light complexion, his hair being brown but has a hint of red mixed into it, and his eyes were a nice shade of light brown. His shirt was also black, but on the front the words Star Wars was plastered on it, while an image from the first movie was plastered on the back. In terms of fitness, he was mostly the same as first member of the group. The final sixth member of the group was the second tallest person among them all, with black hair covering the right side of his face, covering one of his two deep blue eyes. While this individual wasn’t as muscularly built as the second member, he comes fairly close in being the most well-built. As for distinguishable shirt, this young man was wearing a dark green shirt with a Mt. Dew logo on it, and his own jeans appear to be rather worn out.

Once the lights were on and the group had settled down, two members of the group headed over to the main ‘living room’ area, and flopped onto the couch and recliner chair before turning the TV on to a random channel. As for the two members that looted the vault they headed to the ‘kitchen’ area, and started to count out their haul. The fifth member of the group head to the section of the building, which was constructed into a bathroom area, and started to take a nice hot bath. As for the sixth member, he just walked up a small flight of stairs to the second floor, and just collapsed onto a hammock near the wall and turned a smaller TV on, before getting ready to play a game. Back down in the kitchen area the two looters continued to count the stacks of bills, separating them in their respective piles of denominations.

“So how’d we do this time?” the odd-eyed teenager asked the two at the kitchen table…as his head hovered close by and looked over the piles of money, while both his arms and a single eye was in the kitchen and making a sandwich.

“So far I got a million counted.” The point man of the group said before looking over and staring at the floating head, not being disturbed by the sight at all.

“Mind grabbing me a bottle of Dr. Pepper Circus?”

“Sure thing.” the teen, Circus as he was addressed as, said before the eye in the kitchen looked towards the fridge, where the right arm floated towards and pulled out a bottle of the desired soda drink, then floated over to his friend.

“You need anything Steel while I’m in the kitchen?” the floating head asked the taller individual, dubbed as Steel, who just shook his head as he continued to count out the money.

“Nah, I’m good for now.” Steel said before putting down his fifteenth bundle of money amongst the stack of fifty bills. Circus’s head then floated back over to where his body was and re-attached it to the neck with a soft pop sound.

For the rest of the night each of the young men did their own things, and was basically just resting up after last night and the day prior. Yet while the group was busy doing their own thing, outside the old warehouse looking through one of the many windows that wasn’t boarded up, a scrawny looking person in a black coat then lowered himself from the window and made a dash towards the city. Running through the back allies of the city, and following very vague and strange symbols painted on several building walls and other surfaces, the hooded figure entered one of the abandon underground train stations and followed the tracks.

Several minutes of running through the darken tunnel the person passed through empty cavernous halls and tunnels, until he entered another station but this one was filled with other people. The people in the station were all dressed up in either suits, or normal street clothes and were scattered around the large station, and either were running around or talking to one another, while also moving large crates with fork-lifts and other objects by hand. Some of the people were seated at tables on the far end of the station, masks covering their faces while also messing around with chemicals and other kinds of substances, making whatever kinds of items they were assigned to make. The cloaked figure then ran up a flight of stairs, before stopping in front of a door with two large men in front of it, each holding assault rifles and eyeing the hooded figure.

“I need to talk to the boss.”

The hooded figure said in between breathes. The man on the left reached up to the left side of his face, and fiddled with an intercom and after a few muttered words, the man opened the door and allowed the hooded figure to enter the room. As the hooded figure entered the room he looked around the small room, which gave the hooded figure a mafia vibe as his eyes scanned the room. That’s when the figure spotted the person he was looking for sitting at the sole desk at the right side of the room. the individual was a well-dressed man who appeared to be in his forties or so, with a pair of armed men standing on each of his sides, as well as a women holding a small file holder in her arms. The well-dressed man looked up from the papers in front of him, and looked at the hooded figure as he made his way to the front of the desk.

“Well Samson?” the older man said as he stared at the figure with a firm look.

“They are the one’s boss.” The figure said in a slight nervous tone. “I’m certain they are the people that have been stealing your money, from YOUR banks.” Samson said as he was able to catch his breath. The old man just smiled as he leans back into his chair.

“Then I think it’s about time I have a talk with these youngsters.” The old man said as he stood up from his chair, and made his way to the office’s window and look down at his people working

“Maybe I can persuade them to join me. After all, it’ll be good to have some young blood around…especially those with powers.” The man said in a low voice as his eyes start glowing with a violet hue.
> Chapter 1: the Old Man [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The city of New York is considered one of the main hubs of the US, as many cultures thrive in this one section of the states. Various types of businesses go on in this city from restaurants, banks, flea markets and etc. But like most cities around the world, crimes are committed almost every day, and in the last year a string of un-solved bank heist’s have been on the rise. And little did everyone know, the master minds of these bank heists, are just a bunch of run-away teens & young adults.

Far off in the docks of the city, in a run-down section of the peer a lone storage building stood among rusted freighter crates and other run-down buildings, the six young men that call it home were just waking up. In the section of the storage house that was fitted to be the main sleeping area, the six run away’s were slowly stirring from their sleep, and were slowly getting out of bed, with a few of them doing so in their own unique way.

The lean bodied odd-eyed teen of the group, Circus as he was called, slowly rolls around in his bed while bits and pieces of his body detach from him, and flop onto the floor. The blonde-haired teen only awoke when his head rolled off the bed, and landed face first on the carpeted floor. Being shocked awake Circus’s head floated a few inches off the floor, before shaking it and started to re-collect himself. Once he had put himself back together, the teenager then began slowly making his way to the restroom so he could shower, but not fully in a normal way. Walking to the edge of the sleeping loft the odd-eyed teen was lifted into the air, before slowly floating his body over to the living room area, where he hovered above the ground and stood still while stretching, as his left behind leg shambled their way over to him. Once the legs had re-connected to the rest of Circus’s body, the young man then walks the final length of the building to restroom.

As the disassembling teenager walks into the rest room, a popping snap sound echoes slightly through the building, where in the kitchen a flash of yellow light appeared which had the youngest of the group standing in front of an open fridge, and was grabbing some ingredients to make breakfast. But as he closes the fridge and headed over to the stove counter to make breakfast, the sound of splashing water hitting the floor caught his attention. Looking over his shoulder the Latino teenager saw the second tallest person of the group, start to form his body from a puddle of water that was on the floor. The tall black-haired light skinned youth made his way to the living room’s couch, stretching out his body while yawning before circling around the couch and flopping onto it, where he turned the TV on. And the moment that the device was on it had the news playing, and it was discussing last week’s bank robbery.

“—and the police still don’t know who these robbers are, or where they could be found. With every new lead they seem to un-cover, they are lead astray instead with false trails, or simply come up empty handed.” The news anchor said which brought a tired smile to the young man’s face

“Looks like we’re still in the clear boys.” The young man said as he yawns again, and stretching out his body once more causing a few popping sounds to occur. “Hey Snap, what are you making?”

“Omelets and pancakes.” Snap responded as he was in the process of dicing up some onions, green peppers, and other vegetables for the egg dish.

“Sweet! Can you add extra tomatoes to my omelet?” Snap simply responded with ‘Sure’ and continued to make breakfast for the crew.

Soon enough the other three members of the group also started waking up, and began walking down to the main floor. The one that was called Plasma, was heading towards the kitchen to make some fresh coffee, and grabbing a cup of it once it was made. As for Steel, the tall African American of the group, he just walked over to the recliner next to the couch and sat down, while the last member of the crew grabbed one of the kitchen areas chair’s, and sat down next to the living rooms own table.

“So what’s everyone’s plan for today?” the reddish brown haired young man asked as he just relaxes in his chair, listening to the TV as background noise while enjoying the smell of cooked food.

“I’m just going to stay here, and relax.” Steel said as he just sat in the recliner. The young man then looked over to the one lounging on the couch, who was already back asleep and snoring away happily.

“Plasma, you got anything planned for today, or are you just going to kick back here.” The young man asked as he watched Plasma come walking into the living room, and sitting on the other side of the living room table.

“Not sure yet.” Plasma said before taking a sip of his coffee, humming in delight as he drinks the dark liquid.

“I’d figure I just wing it, but I might head out and just look around town.”

As Plasma and the other two awake members talked, Snapped had finished making everyone’s breakfast, just in time to as Circus came out of the shower and the young man on the couch woke up and they all started to eat. But little did this rag tag of misfits know, their day is about to be flipped on its head. After everyone had finished their meals, they each took their turns in the shower to freshen themselves up, and continued to relax around their hideout for the next few hours. But as noon came around…a knocking sound came from the front door, causing each of the six young men to immediately jump to their feet in surprise. Nobody should even be anywhere near their hideout, or even suspect that they were even living here as they went to great length to ensure that, they even sound proof their hideout so any excess noises they made wouldn’t alert anyone.

Another knock came from the door, and all six of the young men just looked at each other with unsure expression. Eventually Plasma started to walk over to the door, where he slowly opened it just enough to look through, but when he looked through the crack he saw that there was an old man standing there. He was about 7’ft tall, covered in a lavish brown trench coat with a pair of dark grey khakis and a brown fedora, he also held a cane in his left hand. The old man’s face was slightly wrinkled, but he still looked fairly good for a man his age. But there was just something, off about this old man. As if something just told Plasma he wasn’t just some regular old geezer.

“Hello there young man, may I come inside?” the old man asked in a soft-spoken Italian sounding voice.

“Only if you tell me how you know of this location, and knew someone actually lived here.” Plasma said as he kept most of his body hidden, and silently signaling to the others with hand gestures to be prepared.

“Of course, I’d be happy to explain things to you…Mason Pierce. Or should I call you, Plasma?” The old man said with a cocky smile as his eyes narrowed wickedly. As for Plasma he just was slacked jawed. No one outside the group knows his name, as he’s never interacted with anyone else aside from his crew.

“Now, would you let me in. It’s quite cold out here.”

Probably against his better judgment, Plasma slowly opens the door and allowed the old man to walk in. But as he steps into the old warehouse, the other members of the group looked really intense, as if all their nerves were on edge. As the old man made his way over to the living room, he continued to look over the inside of the makeshift hide out, looking at all the stuff that dotted the room. And when his eyes focused on the other five young men of the building, they all stayed in a defensive posture, Steel even grew in size slightly as his skin began turning a metallic silver coloring, and the reddish brown haired adolescent flicked open a lighter, and created a fireball floating in his palm.

“Now, now boys.” The old man chuckled as he sat down on the couch, just as the dark haired young man walked over to where Snap was standing. “There’s no need to be so defensive, I only came to talk that’s all.”

“Well we still want to know how you know of this location, and know someone actually lives here.” Plasma repeated his previous questions as he stood before the old man. “And more importantly, how do you know my actual real name?” the old man gave a small smile.

“I have many eyes & ears in this city boys. Eyes and ears that many over-look, and all who answer to me.” the old man said as he leaned back into the couch.

“And thanks to these eyes & ears, I’ve learned so much about you boys for the past few months. Who you are, and especially what your mutations are.” Each of the young men narrowed their eyes at the old man, their suspicions growing.

“But that’s not why I came here today boys. No, I came here to offer you a proposition.” The group all gave each other odd looks before they all looked down at the old man, who just kept his confident smile.

“You came all this way, to talk to us, about a proposal?” the dark haired young man said as he crossed his arms across his chest. The old man simply nodded.

“I’m sure you boys are very aware of the group known as, Enigma?” Each of the young men’s eyes widen as they heard the all too familiar name Enigma.

“The criminal ring that does illegal weapons trafficking?” Circus asked, to which the old man nodded his head again.

“The group of mobsters & gangsters that deal in drug dealing & human trafficking?” Steel inquired, which again the old man nodded his head.

“The very same.” The old man simply said.

“And the reason why I bring them up, is because I work for them. Or more accurately, they work for me.” the tension in the warehouse started to become thicker as the six young men really started to tense up.

Enigma, a gang of criminals, thugs, and back street dealers that pretty much deal in everything, and have a large influence in the underground. Only those who look to hard into their activities, desperate enough to seek out their help, or simply dragged into their work, know about these people. Not even the police force try to take on these people, unless they wanted to end up dead, or have their lives both personal & professional, to end in fire and despair. 

“So what does the leader of the Enigma want from us?” Snap asked as he tried to hide his own trepidation, as a very powerful man was sitting right in front of him.

“Right to the point. I like that.” The old man said as he leaned forward a bit as he clasped his hands together.

“Basically, what I want from you six is to become my new lieutenants. The ones to help look over operations, and deal with those who let’s just say, wish they’d never done so in the first place.”

“So you want us as your hit men?” The fireball wielding young man said as he flicks his lighter open and close as he listens to the old man.

“Precisely.” The old man said as he points the butt of his cane at the six.

“You six have done a great job in stealing from the banks in my territory, and I’m not even mad about it. In fact, I’m actually quite impressed.” The old man then stood up and walked behind the couch into the wider expanse of the warehouse, with the six young men walking in behind him.

“I mean just look at all the stuff you had gathered here, and all in the span of a one year after coming to this city. Very impressive indeed boys.”

“But just imagine it, the things you could have if you worked for me. You could have anything you want, and no one would even care, and you wouldn’t have to worry about the authorities catching you. Or the government for that matter. In fact, they wouldn’t even TRY to touch you. You’ll have all the money to spend you could ever want, have all the things you could wish for, and many more.” The old man then turned to face the six young men, a hand slowly being out stretched as his smile started to grow in such away, it would make the Cheshire cat envious. 

“So, do we have a deal?”

The six young men looked at each other, questioning expressions etched on their faces. Do they take this offer? It would make their lives somewhat easier, and it wasn’t like they cared for the, normal, people anyway. So why should they care what happened to them if they got in their way, if they worked for the Enigma…and yet…why should they take this offer. The reason they banded together, was because they trusted no one, no one except each other as they come from somewhat similar backgrounds. And while the option of having access to easy money, and have something to occupy their spare time in between heists, and not have to worry about many things in their lives. One thing stands true to the six, no matter what they do.

“No.” Plasma said which caused the old man’s smile to crinkle if ever so slightly & his hand to twinge.

“If you do know us as much as you THINK you do, then you’d know we don’t take orders from anyone, and the only people we trust, is each other.” Plasma said all in a firm tone.

“Plus, the business you and your boys deal in is not for us.” Plasma then held his right hand off to his side where he then created a 5’ft long shaft of compressed super-heated plasma, while his friends readied or activated their own powers.

“Now get out. Of. Our. Home.” The young man said while pointing the tip of his weapon at the old man who stayed in his slight bent over posture, his smile now gone while his dark brown eyes were looking at the six with what appeared to be a neutral expression.

“Is that your, FINAL, decision?” Each of the young men nodded their heads in unison, the old man then gave a disgruntled sigh as he stood up straight.

“Pity.” The old man said in a hushed tone as his eyes gained a glowing violet ambiance to them, before Plasma vanished along with a piece of the floor he was standing on. Each of the other young men looked to where Plasma was and started to panic.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FRIEND!?” Steel shouted as his whole body grew to become 10ft high and turned to steel, but even standing before such an intimidating figure the old man simply stood his ground.

“Well since you denied my offer, I must get rid of any evidence of our meeting. Who knows, you might try—”

Steel then closed the distance between him and the old man, and was ready to utterly smash him into the ground with a clenched fist. Ready to turn him into nothing more than a red stain on the floor. But like before in a mere blink of an eye, Steel and bit of the floor he was standing on just straight up vanished as well. A pair of flying fists came rushing over to the old man actually catching him of guard, striking him in the chest and gut and sending him flying a few feet back while coughing out in pain. Circus then sent the rest of his body vaulting through the air, before spinning in mid-air and out stretching his right leg, ready to deliver a sweeping kick to the old man’s head. But once again Circus vanished in the blink of an eye. Now enraged that three of their group was just, removed from right in front of them, the remaining three young men readied themselves for a fight. While the old man slowly got up from the floor.

The young man with the fireball rushed forward, his small ball of fire turning into the size of a car, while the dark haired young man’s body turned into a mass of boiling hot water, and Snap teleported behind the old man and was ready to deliver an axe kick. But just as they were half way to their target, the old man’s eyes glowed more intensely, and all three of them vanished without a trace. Now that the six young men were gone, the old man stood up and started to straighten out his clothes, as well as dusting off anything that blemished it, while the glow in his eyes slowly fading away, before he knelt down to grab his cane.

“Such a waste of talented youths.” The old man said before reaching into his coat, and pulling out a cellphone. After dialing a number, and waiting for only a few moments, someone answered the phone.

“Yes sir?”

“Turns out those boys weren’t exactly what I hoped for.” The old man said in a very disappointed voice as he walks back to the door of the warehouse before stepping outside. “Oh well, perhaps we’ll try our luck with the next candidate. And Samson.” 

“Y-yes sir.” The person on the other end gulped as he gave a shuttering reply.

“Be sure that the next people you scout for our enterprise are more, agreeable.” The old man said in a clearly threatening tone as his grip on his cane and phone tighten.

“I’ll be s-sure they’re m-more to your s-standers.” The old man then ended the call before returning his phone to his inner coat pocket, and made his way back to his main base of operations for his next meetings.


~~~~~

Today was certainly not what any pony was expecting of a wedding day, especially having a city-wide invasion of a numerous force of an unknown nation, and having the bride be swapped with the tyrannical queen of said invasive force.

But with the skepticism of a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, who noticed that the princess that was being married to her brother was not the same pony who she used to know, she was able to rescue her old foalhood friend. But even after rescuing the true princess of love, Twilight and her friends still had to contend with the invading force and their queen. Yet the group could only do so much against a literal army, before they were inevitably captured. However while Twilight and her friends were defeated, the princess of love and Twilight’s brother were able to repel the invading force when an unknowable force took them both over.

After the invasion was repelled the wedding proceeded as planned, and now Twilight, and her five close friends Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and finally Rainbow Dash were enjoying the after-wedding party. During the final hours of the after-wedding party as it was turning from noon to dusk, Princess Cadence & Shining Armor were in the midst of doing a slow dance, while both of Shining’s parents were on the side-lines watching them with bright smiles as they nuzzle into one another. As for Twilight and her friends, the six mares were just relaxing at a table, eating some food as they both watch the other ponies enjoy the party, and just talking.

“Well, it may have started out with a rocky start, but I think we can say that tonight the wedding ended on a good note.” Rarity said before taking a small bite out of her piece of cake, while her friend Pinkie sitting next to her, just slapped her face onto the plate and devouring her own slice.

“Yeah! I’m really happy that Princess Cadence & Shining Armor were able to get hitched, instead of having Shining Armor be brain washed by that mean old Queen Chrysalis.” Pinkie Pie blathered after pealing her face from the plate, and swallowing her slice of cake.

“I’m just glad that no pony got to hurt during the wedding.” Fluttershy said before she took a small bite of her own slice of cake.

“And now, we can just kick back, and enjoy the party.” Applejack said as she took a swig of her cider.

But just as the farm pony said those words everypony in the courtyard, including the dancing newlyweds heard something, a sound like a small explosion of fireworks. Everypony then started to look around for the source of the sound, but then a chunk of rock came falling out of the sky and slamming into the table Twilight & her friends were sitting at, and causing all six mare’s to jump away. Then everypony looked up to see something else come falling down, but before it reached the ground it was caught in a golden aura, and was brought to the ground carefully over to Celestia. But before she, or any pony else could even look at what the princess caught properly, something heavy came falling out of the sky and crash into the ground, creating a large crater in the dance floor and creating a shockwave that knocked a lot of ponies off their hooves. Twilight and her friends along with the other princesses headed over to the crater, and found a massive thing laying at the bottom of the hole, its skin reflecting any light source that was shining onto it.

“What the hay is going on!?” Rainbow Dash half-shouted as she looked at the large metal thing in the crater, before her ears perked up and directed her eyes back up to the sky. Where she and the others saw more creatures and pieces of rock come falling down. “Seriously?”

“Quick! Catch those creatures before they get hurt!” Celestia called out which spurred various ponies in the courtyard to action.

Two pegasi guards took flight and caught one of the creatures, while one of the unicorn guards blasted the falling rocks out of the sky. Twilight caught one of the creatures before it came in contact with the ground, but the sudden weight of the creature & its momentum nearly caused her to falter for a second. Cadence & Shining Armor were able to catch the last two creatures in their own magical auras, and bringing them both down to the ground safely.

“Please tell me that’s the last of ‘em.” Applejack prayed as she looked around, and seeing no more falling objects, or creatures. Which thankfully there were none.

“Thank goodness, now what in Sam hill just happened?” the orange pony said as she looked at the creature in Twilight’s magical grasp. “And what in tarnation is this—or these things supposed to be?”

“I don’t’ know Applejack.” Celestia said as she carefully places her creature down, and started to help Luna lift the large metal one out of the crater, before watching its metal coating fade away as it shrank in size. “But whatever they are, they look like they need medical attention.” Celestia then looked over to one of the earth pony guards.

“Fetch us some stretches so we can carry these creatures to the medical wing.” The guard saluted before running off to fulfill the order he was just given. As everypony waited for the guard to bring help and the stretchers, they all looked upon the odd and yet fascinating looking creatures with curious looks, with the odd silence being broken by Celestia.

“Well this day just keeps getting more, and more unusual doesn’t it?”
> Chapter 2: Promised Development & What’s To Come. [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Throughout his entire life, Plasma has never felt such immense pain such as this kind that was coursing through his body. Every joint in his body felt as if a steel compressor was crushing them, while his spine felt like he was hit by a runaway train then proceeded to grind him under its wheels, and his head felt like it was going to explode from a continuously buildup of pressure throbbing in his skull. Cracking his eyes open ever so slowly, which was an effort in of itself, Plasma was able to open his eyes and immediately his iris’s contracted as the bright light of the world stung them. But determine to see what has happened to himself and his friends, Plasma pushed past the pain in his body, head and eyes and started to look around his current location. As Plasma was slowly pivoting his head around, feeling the soft pillow under his head, all he could see was that all of his friends were laying in separate beds, and each of them appear to be in the same state as he was.

“Just what the hell happened to us?” Plasma painfully croaked, his throat feeling raw and dry. “Guys? Are any of you awake?” Plasma waited for a moment to see if any of his friends were awake as well, and after a minute of silence his friends started to let out their own painful groans.

“God my body feels like complete crap.” The dark-haired young man groaned before he starts coughing.

“You’re not the only one that feels like crap Wave.” The fire user said tiredly.

“To be fair Burner, I think we all feel like crap.” Circus responded as his head throbbed with a sickening pain.

The other members of the group either groaned or complained their response to Plasma’s initial question. Seeing as all of his friends were alive, in great pain, but still alive Plasma slowly turned his head back to its initial position and just stared at the very high ceiling. For several long silent minutes, the six young men just laid in the ridiculously soft beds they were on, trying to recover from whatever that old man did to them, but as they thought back to the old man another train of thought brought a few different questions. How did they ended up in what appears to be a hospital, and more importantly who were the ones that brought them here? But something else collectively came to the six friends, if they were indeed in a hospital then sooner or later someone is going to learn what they truly were. Which could lead to all of them to be in even greater danger.

When roughly an hour has gone by the six young men started to feel less drained, while the immense pain their bodies were feeling was starting to fade away at a gradual pace. And after another hour or so, the group were able to move around in their beds, or even sit up without feeling their bodies ache or pulse with pain. But even though they had recovered, none of them were ready to start and try to walk around just yet, and just continued to relax and just let their bodies recover fully. However the six friends started to hear voices coming from the far end of the room, and the group instantly started to worry about who was coming, but they all decided to go back into their prone positions in bed to act as if they hadn’t waken up. The voices gotten louder as the owners entered the room, but all six of the young men noticed something else was prevalent among the voices. They noted the multiple clopping sounds on the tiled floor as the people entered the room.

“By the sun, a week has passed, and these creatures are still unconscious.” An older sounding male voice said.

“Goes to show whatever happened to these six was a real big deal.” An older female voice said, before the sound of something scribbling over something else could be heard.

“Did the blood test’s reveal any results?” at this question, each of the six stiffened and started to mentally panic. If these doctors have indeed ran a blood test, then they’ll also discover their mutated cells…and that could lead them to…

At this point more rational thought was dismissed and swept aside, as panic surged in the six young men’s minds, and each of the six jumped to their feet ignoring the pain that their bodies still had, and were about to make a mad dash to the exit. And from the surprised gasps from the people in the room, they seemed to have really spooked them, but the six were even more surprised and spooked at who they saw. Or more accurately, what the people actually looked like as they looked at what was in the room with them. The six young men saw that the people in the room were actually two small bright blue, ponies, or some kind of small equines wearing what look like hospital attire, with mouths agape & eyes widen with shock and fear. Not giving the situation a moment to think over and question, the six headed straight for the door and just ran past the two startled equines.

“No wait! Stop!” one of the equines shouted at the six, but the young men did not heed their words. “Somepony stop them before they hurt themselves!”

“Just run guys!” Steel shouted through his labored breathing.

“No need to tell us twice!” Wave shouted back as he was running behind his taller friend. “But what the hell is this place, and what were those things!?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, let’s just get the hell out of here!” Burner said as he ran to the front of the group as they all continued to run down the hall they were in.

“You there! In the name of the crown stop!”

The group turned to look behind them, and they all saw a small platoon of golden-armored equines running after them, with the two ponies wearing white coats galloping alongside them. The group did not stop when the equines yelled at them, instead they only ran faster. But the equines were catching up with the group, so to buy them time and distract their pursuers, Burner reached into his jeans pockets and pulled out a book of matches and after lighting one of the matches Burner quickly spun in a circle. Which in the process created a large wall of fire from the lit match! Once the wall of fire was created the group rounded a corner and kept running, that is until they entered a large hall where dozens of armored equines stood, and all of them were looking at the six with shocked expressions. Much like the group was doing as they looked at the dozen or so armored equines that were in front of them

“Crap.” Snap said under his breath. That’s when the group heard the clopping of hooves coming from behind them, and that’s when they saw the equines they ditched earlier finally catch up. “Double crap.”

“Please creatures.” The female equine said as she took a moment to catch her breath before inching closer to the group. “We’re not going to hurt you; we’re trying to help you.”

“How do we know you’re not just trying to trick us into thinking that?” Burner said as he held the match book in his left hand and was ready to spark another fire.

“We’ve had you in our care for a week creature. If we really had ill-intent, then we would’ve already done something.” One of the armored equines said in a rather harsh tone, which just made the six be more defensive. A smaller female equine then smacks the back of the head of the one that just spoke.

“Not helping Steel Hoof.” The mare said in a hush voice. After the little awkward moment, the older stallion doctor coughed into his hoof before speaking.

“In any case, rest assured we only have good intensions sirs. We only wish to help you.”

The six looked apprehensive at the doctor, and at the now two dozen armored equines that were surrounding them. Seeing how they were clearly not in their world, as the group was standing face-to-face with talking equines in gold armor & doctor coats, whatever the Old Man did to them clearly has something to do with their current situation. But before they could even come up with some form of plan, or even try to comprehend the full extent of their current situation, the pain that they were suppressing finally caught back up and caused them all to buckle and drop to their knees. Both the doctors quickly made their way over to the six young men, and started to check them over.

“Quick bring us a medical bag!” the older female doctor said to the guards, causing two of the winged equines to fly off.

“The pain supplements must’ve worn off. Now carefully colts, lay down slowly and we’ll take care of you.” Plasma sighed and did as the mare suggested.

“Do what the mare says guys.”

The other five members of the group followed Plasma’s example and did as they were told. And as for the guards the doctors told them to return to their posts, as their presence only seems to agitate the six, the guards complied and started to leave the large room. Once the majority of the guards had left the hall, the doctors begin treating the six once the two winged guards had returned, pulling out pills for them all to take which when they took them they started to feel more at ease. But the medical bags weren’t the only thing that the winged equines brought. When the guards came back to the hall, the group saw a large white horse with both a horn, and wings, and a mane & tail flowing in a non-existent wind trot in a moment later.

“Doctors how are the creatures?” The taller equine asked in a soft motherly toned voice as she trotted up to the group and the two medical equines.

“They seemed to have recovered for the most part, but they’re still not a hundred percent healed.” The older stallion said as he just finished checking over Wave’s body, and checking his vitals. The tall white equine then walked over to the group and looked down at them with a soft caring, yet worried expression.

“How are you feeling dears?” she asked in a warm tone.

“I’d definitely been better.” Circus said as he looked the mare over, studying her carefully. “Can you tell us who you are, and more importantly where we are.” The mare sat down on her haunches and smiled at the group as she spoke.

“My name is Princess Celestia, and you six are in my castle in the capital city of Canterlot.” the mare, Celestia as she addressed herself said before giving the group a more inquisitive look. “Could you tell us who and what you all are good sirs?”

“We’re called humans for starts, and as for who we are…” Steel said before looking at his friends, catching the briefest of nods before looking back at this equine princess. “My name is Steel. And these are my friends. That’s Plasma, Burner, Circus, Wave & Snap.” As Steel introduced himself and his friends he noticed that the princess seemed to be puzzled, or uncertain about something.

“Forgive me but I feel as if those aren’t your real names. The way you said them, it sounded they were more like a, alias than an actual name.” the white mare said to Steel.

“No hard feelings you majesty.” Circus said as he looked over to the princess while the female equine was gently massaging his arm, which felt pretty good even with her hard hooves. “But we don’t give our real names to those we don’t know, trust, or respect. Plus we’ve been going by those names for so long that they became our actual names now.”

“But you can trust us.” Celestia said to the blonde haired young man, but that’s when Burner sat up and looked directly at the princess.

“We don’t know you or your people, we have no idea where we are, and right now we have no one we know we can fully trust. Except each other.” Burner said before laying back down, and missing Celestia’s slightly hurt expression, but that’s when Plasma spoke up.

“But we will give you and your people the benefit of doubt, and trust that you are going to help us. After we are fully healed…then we’ll see where we’ll go from there.” Celestia then gives a small smile to Plasma as she started to stand up.

“Very well then. I can sense that you all have trust issues with others, but I will show you that you can trust me, and my little ponies.” Celestia then gives a small bow before walking back out of the hall, just as a few guards returned with stretchers so they could carry the six humans back to the medical room.


~~~~~

Elsewhere in the lands of Equestria, over a vast swamp that had small gouts of fire erupting from the ground, the air above the darken marshes were rippling like the disturbed surface of a body of water. Then the rippling’s started to became more intense, till they became so violent that a small explosion of light, and a large, fractured crack appeared in the sky, where an object came falling out of a newly created gaping hole. It was hard to see what the object was as it covered in fire and lots of debris, like chairs and shattered remains of large pieces of machinery. After a minute of free falling, the flaming object and debris eventually made contact with the ground, where they all started sinking into the dark muddy waters of the swamp.

The water rippled for a time as all the objects sank to its murky depths, but the surface of the water broke again as something came bursting out. The object was a large figure that was coughing horribly as it splattered in the water, but the figure ceased its wild flailing and started swimming over to the shore bank, where it then started to haul itself out of the water. Once the figure had clambered onto land the figure collapsed on the ground while it started coughing. The figure was massive in size, easily reaching well over eight-to-nine feet tall, its body was wearing an old wore out trench coat, dull grey jeans, and boots. All of which clearly had seen better days, especially since they were drenched in water and mud from the bank. But the most prominent feature of the figure was its head, which looked like the head of a large reptile, or even a dragon. The head was bulky in structure, but narrowed down as it went down to the snout. On top of the head were four curved back horns with the outer horns being bigger, and along the back of figures neck & head to its crown, was a folded back frill which’d twitched every so often.

Once the creature has stopped coughing, and has filled its lungs with air it slowly rolled onto its stomach and just laid there in the mud for a few minutes, but soon the figure got up onto its hands and knees. Its piercing golden amber eyes then scanned its surroundings, seeing the putrid swamp trees and muddy grounds with little vegetation scattered about, as well as seeing the small puffs of fire burst from the ground. Slowly getting to its feet, the lumbering giant slowly made its way through the swamp, searching for anything that looked like shelter, or a place to hide. Or even someone that could help them… that is, if anyone will help a freak like himself. The figure continued to stumble through the swamp, his eyes continuing to scan the area looking at the dreary and dark marshlands, and the creatures that scurry away from him. Even other animals fled when they saw it. But why wouldn’t they, it is after all a monster.

“Well what do we have here sisters?” a gravely feminine voice spoke out from the creatures left, and when it turned its head the figure saw a fairly large chimera-like creature made of a tiger, a goat & a python make its way over to it.

“Looks like some kind of dragon if you ask me.” the goat head bleated as it looked the figure up and down, and noticing that it was being rather skittish.

“But why would a dragon ever come here?” the snake tail hissed as it coiled to the front of the body.

“Look.” The creature said as it slowly backed away, its voice shallow and slightly horsed from the coughing.

“Please leave me alone…I don’t want to hurt you.” the creature said as the fin along his head and neck slowly un-furled, and the edges of his eyes slowly turning red. But that’s when the creature’s body started to shutter and shake, as if he was standing in a blizzard.

“What’s the matter with you? Why are you shaking like that?” the tiger asked as she slowly approaches the creature.

But after taking only a step towards the creature, all the fur on the chimera’s body stood on end, and all of their eyes widen, and their pupils shrunk. Even the tigers & goats ears folded back, as they watched the creature shake more vigorously and violently, and watched as the fin fully extended up. Then out of the blue the creature then unleashed a resounding roar, his voice deep and thunderous voice echoing throughout the swampland, and causing the chimera’s whole body to shake with fear. The beast even hunkered down to the ground as if they were a scared animal. The creature then shambled and stumbled for a bit before dropping to his hands & knees, and the fin on his head is now fully extended and revealing its bright red coloration. The creature the slowly rose its head up, but now had a slight hunch to his body, while deep rumbling growl reverberated from it as its now bloodshot eyes glared at the chimera.

“S-sisters, perhaps we should leave.” The goat pleaded with the other heads.

But before either the tiger or python could say anything, a loud feral roar much like that of a dragons echoed across the expanse of the swamp, and was so loud that the chimera almost went deaf. And the chimera wasted no time in turning and attempted in running away.

However the python had a front view of the creature and watched in horror as it ran after them on all fours, its red eyes glowing with murderous intent, while its mouth wafted bits of fire as he chased after the chimera. While the chimera ran for its life they knocked over any passing trees to try and slow the creature down, but he just rammed right through them turning them into splinters. They even tried to use the fire spurts to distract the creature, but like the trees the creatures just barreled through them with little issues, even allowing his clothing to be burned and singed, but he hasn’t slowed down one bit. Instead, he was only gaining on the chimera, close enough to nearly bite the python head off the tail, thankfully for the chimera the creature missed. Although the creature didn’t give up and even unleashed a stream of fire which bellowed over the chimera’s body and the path in front of it, causing the mud, trees, and the chimera to be set ablaze. All the while the chimera screamed and roared in utter pain. After unleashing the stream of fire the chimera was left nearly burnt alive, but was still clinging onto life.

Yet the creature didn’t relent and leapt unto them and immediately clamped his jaws down on the goat’s neck, and effortlessly ripped her entire head off the main body. Roaring out in even more pain the chimera tried to knock the creature off their back, but the creature had a death grip on the chimera’s fur and the creature continued to tear at the chimera’s body, its sharp claws ripping the beast’s flesh. The python tried to fight back by biting down on the back of the creature’s neck, but the moment she did all of her teeth broke, and the creature quickly spun around to grabbed the snake’s throat. Then cleanly and brutally ripped it clean off the entire body! The tiger head screamed and roared in pain as she flailed around, and actually managed to spin her body enough to knock the creature off her, and even swiped a claw at the creature with her large nails scarring the scales of the creatures face & neck. Unfortunately even taking an enraged claw to the face, or even been smacked off and crashing into a tree didn’t deter the creature. It quickly recovered and got to its feet where it took a deep inhale, before unleashing another torrent of fire that engulfed the chimera again. As the beast cries out its final wails of pain as the flames devoured it, the creature just shambled over to the burning body and just tore right into it. Devouring the still flame coated beasts body.
> Chapter 3: Introductions. [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Along the train tracks leading up the mountain towards Canterlot, a train was huffing and puffing along as it climbed up the mountain. In the third car of the train sat Twilight Sparkle and her circle of friends, all of whom were being summoned to the castle by princess Celestia, so they could be introduced to the six creatures that fell from the sky. Which was great for Twilight because ever since she saw them her mind has been buzzing with questions, she wanted to know who and what these creatures are and why did they come to Equestria. And if there were possibly more of them and many other questions. And while the unicorn was excited to see these creatures again, her friends were mixed on the whole thing, even as they departed from the train and were making their way through the castle, to where Celestia would meet them before they would meet the strange creatures.

“So Twilight what do you think these creatures will be like?” Applejack asked as she followed behind her violet friend while the rest of their friends followed behind them.

“I’m not sure. But from what Princess Celestia said in her note they’re rather, reclusive. And they don’t seem to trust any pony.” Twilight replied as she and her friends started to climb a flight of stairs.

“Not even the ponies that are helping them?” Fluttershy asked as she looked at her friend with a questioning look.

“Apparently. They don’t even leave the medical room unless they do it in pairs, or as a whole group.” Twilight retorted.

“Seriously?” Rainbow quipped as she hovered over her friends while Twilight nodded. “Wow, they seem really paranoid.”

“You can’t really blame them Rainbow Dash.” Rarity said as she and the others reached the top of the stairs and continued on their venture through the castle. “The poor dears obviously went through a terrible ordeal, and I’m fairly certain they’re the only members of their race in all of Equestria.”

“Well I hope the party I’ve been planning for them for the past week will lift their spirits, and don’t worry girls, I remembered to pack my party cannon this time.” Pinkie Pie bubbled as she bounces beside her white-furred friend.

“Well we’re about to see for ourselves what these creatures are like.” Twilight said as she re-adjusts her saddlebags while making sure not to jostle the inkwells and other supplies she’s stuffed inside them.

Walking through another one of the halls of the castle the ponies continued to trot along, following Twilight’s lead as she guided her friends through the castle halls. Luckily, Twilight has been to the medical wing several times whenever she went to visit her brother whenever he got hurt during training, or his old superior officer decided to go hard on him and the guard during their work outs. Soon enough the six ponies came upon the final length of their little castle trek, and as they rounded the final corner they saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna come out of another hallway, talking amongst themselves till the princess of the sun noticed Twilight and her friends.

“Ah! Twilight you’ve made it, perfect timing.” Celestia said as she approached her student, and nuzzled her for a brief second.

“It’s good to see you again Princess.” Twilight replied as she accepted the nuzzle before she looked over to Luna, who gave the unicorn a small smile as Twilight bowed her head. “It’s good to see you as well Princess Luna.”

“And you as well young Twilight.” The midnight alicorn said as she gave a curt bow of her head. “Are you all ready to meet our otherworldly patients?”

“E’YPPER-RONIE!” Pinkie Pie all but belted as she bounced into the air, her excitement causing her friends to giggle and roll their eyes while dawning knowing smiles.

“Then follow us.” Celestia instructed as she and her sister took the lead.

Twilight’s group followed after the two princesses as they made their way to the medical wing, which they reached within the span of a few minutes. When the group had reached the medical room and proceeded to enter it, the eight mares could hear very joyful talking going on, and when they actually entered the room they got a good look of the creatures. All six of the bipedal creatures were gathered around a table close to the left side of the room, and they appeared to be playing some sort of card game with a trolley of food and drinks next to the table. The group stood a few feet from the table of creatures, and since they were now close up to them Twilight & her friends noticed just how big they are, especially the dark skinned one as he looked far bigger than Celestia.

“Alright boys, show your hands.” The dark brown haired one of the group said as he flipped his cards face up, followed up by the others. Once the cards were flipped a bunch of moans and groans came from five of the creatures, while one of them leaned back in the chair with a smirk on his face.

“Read ‘em & weep boys, full house!” the blonde hair creature said, causing the other five creatures to groan and slap their cards onto the table, while the winner of the game began gathering up the bits on the table.

“So whose up for another game?” the tanned skin one of the group asked as he started to shuffle the deck.

“Actually we might have to put our game on hold.” The dark brown-haired creature said as he looked directly at the ponies. “We got company.”

The other creatures turned in their chairs to look at the ponies, and almost immediately their happy and cheerful demeanors just faded away. And now they’re looking at the ponies with either a neutral expression, or something that looks like a slightly annoyed look. Twilight and her friends actually felt a little off putted by the sudden change in mood, but this is why she & her friends are here, to help these creatures feel not so jaded or guarded around ponies. And help them open themselves up so that they didn’t have to feel as if they are among untrustworthy ponies.

“Something we can help you with?” the reddish brown haired creature said in a rather rude tone as he looked at the princess, before looking over to Twilight and her friends. “And who are they?”

“This is Twilight Sparkle, and her friends from the nearby town of Ponyville.” Celestia said as she moves behind the mare’s. “And my little ponies these are the humans Plasma, Steel, Wave, Snap, Burner & Circus.” Celestia said as she used a wing to gesture to each of the humans as she called them.

“And to answer your question Burner, we’ve asked them here to help you acclimate into our society, as well as hopefully to help in showing that we wish to be your friends.” Deciding to take the initiative Twilight stepped forth to begin introductions.

“Hello sirs, as the princess said I am Twilight Sparkle, and I am a student of Princess Celestia. And these are my friends.” Twilight said as she stepped to the side to allow her friends to step forward and introduce themselves.

“Howdy ya’ll, mah names Applejack. Pleased ta meet ’cha.” The farm pony said in a cheerful tone as she tips her hat, but none of the humans seemed to react at all. Seeing as how her introduction didn’t seem to get much of a reaction Applejack stepped to the side to allow the rest of her friends to greet the group, which prompted Rainbow to zips forward and strut her stuff.

“The names Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria and future Wonderbolts Captain.” Rainbow said as she does a few aerial loops before striking a pose, which only got deadpan stares from the humans. Surprised that the humans weren’t wowed by her proclamations Rainbow tried to amaze them by doing a few more tricks, which was possible as the room was quite spacious. But still, the humans were not impressed. That’s when Rarity stepped forth and gently brought Fluttershy up with her, while Twilight pulls back the stupefied cyan pegasus.

“Hello darlings I am Rarity, and this is Fluttershy. Do forgive her for her timidness, she’s very shy around others she doesn’t know yet.” Rarity said simply while Fluttershy gives a small smile and a small wave. The blonde human actually gave a small smile in return and actually waved back.

“If you don’t mind me asking, do all of you wear clothes often?” the fashionista asked as she looked at the clothes that the group of humans were wearing, and to Rarity’s surprise the humans actually responded by nodding their heads, while the black haired one actually spoke in a polite tone.

“Yeah but since we only have the one pair, we had to get new clothes made by the royal tailor. Except he doesn’t really do good work for none pony bodies.” After hearing this Rarity took the opportunity to try and form a connection with the humans.

“Well my dears you are in luck.” Rarity said in a very confident tone. “I’m a clothes designer, as well as a tailor. And if you would allow me I would like to make you some clothes.” The humans took a moment to look at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation, before looking back to the unicorn.

“We’ll give you a shot.” The dark haired one, Plasma as Celestia introduced him as, said with a gracious smile which made Rarity very happy and gave a courteous bow and moved back with the others along with Fluttershy. And just as the unicorn and pegasus joined the others--

“HELLO FUTURE NEW FRIENDS!”

Pinkie Pie screeched at the top of her lungs as she jumps over her friends, as music just started to play out of nowhere, which actually surprised her friends and even the princesses. Pinkie Pie then went into a very peppy musical number which was her typical greeting to new ponies, but as she landed on the final lyric and slid into a final pose Twilight saw that the humans just looked at Pinkie with an assortment of dumbfounded reactions. Which was a valid response Twilight thought for any creature meeting her excitable friend for the first time.

“And to commemorate our new friendship, I’ve got a fully stocked party cannon ready to give you your first party!” 

But just as Pinkie pulled out her cannon from behind her, Twilight watched as a claw just came flying out from the group of humans and pushed back the cannon a few inches. But what really caught the ponies attention, even the princesses, was the fact that the claw wasn’t connected to anything! Twilight looked away from the claw, looked up at the table, and saw the one called Circus having one of his arms stretched out, and it was missing its clawed appendage.

“How about no to the party.” Circus said as the hand started floating back over to him, and reconnects with his wrist. Needless to say all the ponies were shocked at what they just seen, and yet, Twilight quickly recovers from her shocked state and immediately shifted into her scholar mentality.

“How did you do that!?” Twilight asked as she made her way to the forefront of the group, a piece of parchment and quill at the ready. And then to hers and the others ponies surprise, and horror, Circus then separated his own head from his body where it then slowly floats over to the unicorn, and stares right at her.

“You mean how I do this?” Circus asked with a sly smirk, to which Twilight just slowly nodded her head as she kept eye contact with the floating head with a clear expression of shock & awe etched on her face.

“This is my power, Body Manipulation. I can separate any part of my body in any way I can imagine.” Circus demonstrated by separating his arms from his body and then separating them in various ways. Then the pieces of the arms then spun around in a ring formation, before re-assembling themselves and then crossing with each other.

“And as you can see, I can freely manipulate every piece of my body, as long as they remain in a certain area of another body piece.” Circus said as he reconnected his head & arms back to his body, while Twilight wrote vigorously on the piece of parchment she held in front of herself. The unicorn then looked up at the other humans with a now more curious expression as she spoke up.

“Do all of you have a special power!?” Twilight excitably asked as she looked at the group, and she wasn’t the only pony whose curiosity was piqued by this question.

The group was surprised as all of the humans confirmed that each of them did in fact, have a special ability or power unique to each of them. The ponies were then treated to a special showcase, as they all watched each of the humans demonstrate their powers. Wave showed that he can actually turn his body into water, and started to zip around the room, before vaulting over the group and turning back into his normal form while perfectly landing back into his chair. The ponies were startled when Snap suddenly vanished in a small burst of light, and a snapping sound, and started to appear all around the room in fast flashes of light, show that his power was teleportation based. Now in Equestria teleportation is one of the most difficult spells for unicorns to learn, let alone us as you not only need the ample amount of magic to use it, but also the knowledge of how to use the spell initially and safely as well as where you intend to go. So to see this human perform rapid teleportation’s as if they were nothing, was truly amazing.

After Snap reappeared back at the table amongst his friends, the tallest human Steel stood up from his chair, and started to grow in size while his skin turned to a shimmering metallic silver color. Seeing the giant human was certainly intimidating, and even when Steel shrunk back to his normal height and lost his metal coating, the ponies still felt a slight twinge of fear for the human. As Steel sat back down, the ponies then looked over to Plasma as he just out stretched his right hand, and watched as a 5’ft long shaft of blue fire form in his hand. When the shaft was created Plasma showed his control over it, as he started spinning it around in his hand and controlling its size by shrinking it and elongating it at will. After Plasma finished twirling his weapon around and held it in his hand like a knife, the ponies watched as a strand of blue fire started to waft off the small shaft, before watching it burst into a flaming orb that was the size of a full grown pony as it floated over Burner’s raised left hand. Then from the orb of fire a giant flaming snake started slithering out of it, and started to coil around the humans before it raised its head up and stared down at the ponies. Who actually curled up under the snakes gaze. The snake then withered away until it was only a small flame, like a candle light, and float over to Burner and just floated in his now lowered palm.

“This is incredible!” Twilight blurted out as she started to write down everything that she just witnessed.

“All of you have such unique and incredible powers, and are totally unique from each other. Like a special talent.” Twilight said in an excitable voice.

“Must be pretty cool to have super powers!” Rainbow commented as she looked at the humans and started to wander what they could do with their powers. But all she got were some rather depressed looks from the humans as they just stared at the table.

“There’s nothing great about having these powers.” Burner said in a low tone as he clenches his hand, snuffing out the little fire in his palm.

“What do you mean? These powers of yours make you each unique.” Celestia said as she approached the table.

“…not if you burned your house down, and killed your own family with your own power.” Burner said as his clenched fist tighten turning his knuckles white as it starts to shake a little, which caused the ponies to look at Burner with confused, as well as slightly terrified looks, while the other humans just looked down casted.

“When I got my powers I set the entire house on fire, and burned my family to smoldering husks. It just happened when I blew on the candles of my ninth birthday cake, and caused flames to spew from the candles and burned everything around me down. It was beyond my control but ever since then, I was looked down on as a monster.”

As Burner finished telling a little portion of his life, and when he first got his powers, all of the ponies were shocked to hear this. But before they could fully process everything they just heard; the others then started to talk about their powers. Wave scared his family nearly to death when his body suddenly, and uncontrollably started to turn into water which he said they thought he was literally melting away, and then grotesquely reforming that they left him to the whims of their government. Snap said that when he was playing with an old childhood friend of his, he accidently teleported both of them fifty feet into the air, and then started to randomly just teleport around till they crashed into a building. Leaving his old friend greatly wounded and left in a comma. 

Steel gained his power when he was fighting bullies that were picking on some of his old friends, but he ended up breaking most of their limbs and almost killing two of the kids. Circus’s situation was similar to Wave’s, in that his body just continued to separate un-controllably, and like Wave, Circus’s family thought he was a monster and abandon him. And finally for Plasma he nearly decapitated his own sister when they were playing one time, and because his power was also flame based he almost burnt his own house down, but the damage was already done and his family gave him up to the authorities, and then the government itself. Each and every one of the ponies were just utterly speechless at what they had just heard, all of the humans had just told them how their powers only seemed to cause them grief in their younger years.

“I think this little visit is over now.” Plasma said as he and the others got up from the table, walked past the group of ponies, and exited the room.

As the humans left the room the ponies seemed to understand a small portion of why the humans were, reclusive. They probably thought of themselves as dangerous individuals, and because they were either abandoned or feared by others because they had no grasp of their powers. Which could also explain why they don’t trust anyone that isn’t amongst their exclusive closed circle, as they feel that only those who knows what they went through could be trusted and understood.

“Clearly, these humans have had a rough life before coming to Equestria.” Luna summarized as she looked up to her sister who nodded in response.

“Indeed.” Celestia said in a slight somber tone.

“Well, now that they’re here, we can change that.” Pinkie Pie said with a cheery amount of optimism.

“We can help them feel better, and help turn their sad frowns up-side-down. And show them that all of us can become friends!” The ponies nodded in agreement with what Pinkie had just said.

“Question is though, how do we go about doing this?” Twilight questioned as she tapped a hoof on the floor, before the group of eight ponies tried to come up with ideas in how they could help the humans feel more at ease, and show them that they can indeed trust them not to fear them. As the group of mares bounced ideas off of each other, Twilight looked to the exit of the medical wing and hoped that she and her friends could indeed help the humans.
> Chapter 4: Conflict on the Horizon. [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday’s introduction with the humans didn’t go as planned as the ponies expected, as the ponies learned why the humans were reclusive in trusting the ponies. But they weren’t deterred in their task in helping these humans feel at ease and safe in Equestria. And to ensure this, the ponies believe that they had come up with a rather good plan to start getting to know the humans, and help make bonds with them.

Today Twilight was going to meet the humans and try to learn a little bit more about them, getting to know more about each of the humans as individuals, and make personal connections with them. Unfortunately, Twilight’s friends couldn’t stick around for this and had to return to Ponyville, so the unicorn would be spending the first few days alone with the humans. And in all honesty, Twilight was rather excited as she not only would befriend creatures from a different world, but might be able to document about said other world, and the creatures that live there. As well as possibly learn the root of the humans pain, and then help them overcome it. However in order to even start this idea of theirs, Twilight would have to find the humans first. After walking through the west wing of the castle the unicorn made it to the north wing where the humans were moved into a large chamber yesterday, and as she walked up to the door Twilight gave it a few knocks and patiently waited for one of the humans to answer the door. But after a few minutes go by, and no one has answered the door, Twilight knocked again but again after another few minutes of waiting Twilight got no answer. So deciding to go against common curtesy for privacy, Twilight took a quick peak into the room.

But just as she was about to open the door, a small tremor halted her action. Looking around herself for whatever could cause the tremor, Twilight didn’t notice anything or could see what could cause the tremor, however a brief flash of red & yellow light caught the unicorns eye when she glanced at a nearby window. Moving over to the window where the light came from, Twilight looked out and saw that down below in the guards open training field, she saw two of the humans fighting each other. From appearance, and use of powers, it would seem that Steel & Burner were having some kind of sparring match, however unlike the guards they seemed to be going all out, and actually attempting to hurt each other rather than make the other submit. As she looked down from the windowsill Twilight could see a collection of guards just sitting on the side lines, and appeared to be either be watching or actively cheering on the fight.

Concentrating her thoughts Twilight teleported herself down to the training field, and appeared behind two guards and who were so engrossed in watching the fight, that they didn’t even notice her literally popping out of nowhere. After teleporting into the training field, the unicorn nearly jumped out of her skin when a massive wave of fire just rose up from the floor, and came crashing down onto the field as a roaring tide, burning and searing the dirt covered floor. Yet when the flames vaulted back to Burner, Twilight saw Steel just standing there in the burning area, his metallic body searing red hot and seemed to be totally unharmed. The unicorn then watched as Steel then thrusted his right arm into the ground, piercing it like a spear of hot iron and slowly pulling it back out, and somehow yanking out a large rock that was the size of two full grown stallions right out of the ground! Twilight along with the guards all collectively ‘awed’ at the display of raw strength, and watched as Steel proceeded to throw the large rock at Burner. But the fire controller just launched himself into the air with powerful jets of fire, effortlessly dodging the attack yet allowing the rock rocketing towards the far wall. Though before it could do so, or any pony could do anything, Snap just appeared on top of the rock and disappeared with it in a flash of light. Twilight and the guards then saw Snap re-appear standing beside the other humans, with the rock sitting by his side.

“Try not to destroy the place to much guys.” Plasma called out as he continued to watch the others from the opposite side of the field.

“Right.” Both Steel & Burner said before they continued with their sparring match. When the two humans continued on with their little sparring match, Twilight then looked over to a nearby guard and approach the mare.

“How long have they been sparring like this.” The guard turned to look at the unicorn with a surprised look before calming down and answering Twilight’s question.

“They showed up around an hour or so and asked if they could also train with us, and when we said yes they just started, and we’ve all been watching them since then. These two have been fighting for about ten or so minutes now.” The guard said before a bright flash of light caught hers and Twilight attention, and saw a large fireball crashing into Steel which he swatted away by back hoofing it into the sky, where it dissipated due to being hit with such force.

“Alright guys I think it’s time we take a break.” Circus called out to the two brawlers before they all started walking off towards the exit, while thanking the guards for letting them spar in their training area.

Steel reverted back to his normal self while wiping away sweat from his forehead, while Burner used his power to fully snuff out any lingering fires on the training field, while Snap teleported the large rock back to the hole it was ripped from. With help from Steel in making sure it was situated correctly. Once that was over the three joined the others, and started to make their way out of the training field. Twilight then made her way around the guards and headed straight for the group of humans, and as she got closer to them she spoke up to get their attention.

“I see you guys were having a morning work out?” Twilight said to the group who all turned to look at the unicorn.

“No worst then our usual work outs.” Wave said as he started walking backwards as the group continued to walk through the hallway they all entered. “You’ve should’ve seen Plasma try to use his Burn Saber on me.” Wave snickered which got a chuckle from Plasma.

“To be fair, while I wasn’t able to hurt you in your water form, you can’t do much against my Burn Saber either.” Plasma said through his chuckling. Twilight is actually happy to see these humans be in a rather happy mood, as yesterday she only saw the humans being stand off-ish, guarded, and maybe slightly jaded. So to actually see these humans be happy was a nice change.

“So Twilight did you need something, or were you just enjoying the show?” Circus said as his head floated in front of Twilight after detaching from his shoulders. The act of seeing a floating head was still nerve wracking for Twilight, but she quickly shook it off before responding to the question.

“Actually I was wondering if I could do an interview with each of you, so I can get to know you all better and the world you came from.” The humans then looked at each other with slightly confused looks.

“You want to interview us, like a journalist?” Snap asked as he tilted his head.

“In a way, yes. I believe it would help us not only to form a connection, but also to help you all open up and show you that we ponies really do wish to be friends.”

The humans turned away from Twilight and looked at one another for a few moments, as if having a silent conversation with each other. A moment later the group looked back to Twilight and agreed to the interview. Once the agreement to the interview was consented Twilight followed the humans to the dining hall, where they were going to get something to eat and relax after their workout. As the group made their way to the dining hall, Twilight listened in on the humans conversations with each other, which was mostly about how they were feeling being in a new world, and being surrounded by ponies. And speaking of ponies, Twilight noticed that the guards they passed kept a curious gaze on the humans, while the nobles seemed to just sneer or turn their noses up at the humans, all the while strutting past the group. The unicorn figured this would happen, she wasn’t proud of it, but her fellow Canterlotian ponies are usually not very accepting of none ponies, and from what she’s seen of the passing nobles they were living up to their reputations. But the humans either’d just ignored them, or didn’t even notice them.

Eventually the group made it to the dining hall and Twilight just made her way to the table, having already eaten before she left her own room, after taking a seat at the table Twilight just watched each of the humans gather food, and she just seemed fascinated in how they did so. Unlike ponies who used their hooves or mouths to gather goods, or hold objects, the way the humans hands did all the holding and gathering interested the unicorn. They looked so delicate, and dainty compared to any other creatures with hands or claws. Twilight then started to look over the humans entire bodies, marveling at their tall and lean builds and wondering on how it would be like to walk on two legs. The humans then came to the table after a minute or so, and took a seat around the table with half of them on Twilight’s right side, and the other half sitting on her left.

“So.” Plasma said as he looked at the unicorn, who was already laying out parchments, her inkwell and levitating a quill in her magical aura. “What do you want to know first.” Twilight thought about it for a moment before something came to mind.

“What is your world like?” Twilight asked and after chewing on a piece of orange Steel spoke up as he peeled the rest of the fruit.

“What part do you want to know?” the tall dark skinned human asked.

“How about your culture. What’s human culture like compared to ponies? I’m sure the princesses told you a bit about our world while you all recovered.” The humans nodded in unison as they each ate some variety of fruit.

“Well to be honest, there’s not much of a difference between our cultures, aside from a few small details.” Snap said before taking a bite of a sandwich he had instead of the apple he held, sighing slightly as he began to chew.

“What kind of differences.” Twilight inquired.

“Well for one thing, the gender ratios aren’t so skewed.” Wave retorted as he finished off his banana. “From one of the books the princesses gave us, you guys have a ninety percent female to a ten percent male ratio. How do you guys continue to prosper with so little guys to, you know, knock up mare’s and have kids with?”

“W-well…” Twilight hesitated as her face went slightly red. “Doctors have tried to figure out why our gender ratios are so skewed, as well as trying to figure out how to rebalance the genders. But the most common way that ponies work around it is…is where two mare’s…” Twilight’s face grew redder and redder as she continued to try to explain how her species continue to thrive.

“One mare has a spell, or use a potion, to give them a temporary, phallus.” the six humans just looked at Twilight who was now so red in the face that she could pass as a tomato, not exactly all to comfortable talking about such things, as it was pretty embarrassing.

“So mares have to grow their own dicks to do the business, if there isn’t a stallion around?” Burner bluntly asked after a silent pause in the conversation. Twilight closed her eyes, before giving a small nod. “Well that’s one way to work around it.”

“Can we please not talk about this, it’s pretty embarrassing.” Twilight pleaded as she was never comfortable talking about such lewd or improper things with any pony, the humans nodded in agreement as the unicorn shook her head to remove the topic entirely from her mind.

As the group started to get into the interview, Twilight continued to ask the humans questions, one question was about the politics of their world but all she got was a few basic details, as none of the humans were into politics. But Twilight also noticed something strange as the humans rushed through this question, as the statement was ended in a rather ominous tone. Especially when Circus made a rather unpleasant commented about their government. Another topic that was touched was of course, magic. Twilight wanted to know what human magic was like, but all she got was that human magic was just illusions and stage crafts, with references to cults and other sources in fictional books, or just being part of a fantasy based genre of media. Twilight was a bit disappointed that humans didn’t have magic so she could learn them, but she quickly got over her woes and continued on with the interview.

Throughout the morning some of Twilight’s follow up questions either didn’t get any satisfying answers, or gave her mind blowing revelations like how Earth was basically a world-wide version of the Everfree forest, where the weather, animals, and plant life all function and prosper all on their own without any pony aiding or controlling it. Yet what really made Twilight happy was seeing that the humans were genuinely smiling, and seemingly enjoying their time in talking with her. Hopefully, this really does help the humans see that she, and other ponies really do wish to be friends as well as being trustworthy.


~~Elsewhere~~

Far off in the eastern most end of the Apple families orchard, a trio of fillies were trotting along an old worn out dirt path all of whom looked defeated and downtrodden. The fillies were a group of friends called The Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they’re not especially in a good mood. For the past few weeks, the fillies have done all sort of crazy stuff, from being assistants to ponies working stalls, trying to be bakers, and many other things in order to get their cutie marks. But like always as it seems, their efforts were in vain, as their latest attempt to earn their cutie marks which was trying to be furniture sales ponies, didn’t go so well. Especially when the group started to really go overboard in how they try to sell things to ponies, to the point where they scared all customers away and the manager who allowed them to help out asked them to leave.

“Well that was another bust.” Scootaloo moped as she slowly propelled herself on her scooter as she kept pace with her friends.

“Don’t worry Scootaloo; well find out what were good at. Some day.” Apple Bloom said as she trotted next to her friend and patted her on the side.

“Maybe we can try something else.” Sweetie Belle said as she was about to suggest another idea, except all three of their stomachs growled and grumbled. “But first let’s get our lunch boxes from the clubhouse, and take a break.” The other two fillies agreed with the little unicorn.

Along the way to their clubhouse, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all thought back on today’s misadventure, and how rough it was for them. It reminded them the time they tried being assistants to both Aloe & Lotus the week before, though that time they were actually doing pretty well and surprisingly to them they actually didn’t break or ruin anything! But at the end of their brief work period they still didn’t earn their Cutie Marks. Both spa sisters were sad for the fillies and thought that they would have made excellent spa ponies, though the sisters decided to congratulate the three for doing an excellent work; and gave the three foals a good amount of bits for all their hard work. When the Crusaders have reached their clubhouse as they recollected about past adventures, they all noticed that the door was left open, and that on the ramp leading up to the clubhouse was a thin trail of some kind of red paint. Yet something else caught the fillies attention as they looked at the ramp. Next to the trail of red paint were some kind of drag marks in the same color red, but what really caught their eyes was some strange looking prints. To Apple Bloom the prints looked like Wynonna’s paw print, but with five longer lines stretching out from the central paw pad.

Following the trail the Crusaders slowly climbed up the ramp to the door, and nudged it open ever so slightly, but what they found inside was something that they never saw before. What the three fillies were looking at was some kind of large strange-looking creature. It was laying on its side, curled up, and was wearing heavily tattered and torn clothing, and everything was covered in red. Which the Crusaders soon realized that the red trail, & prints wasn’t made from paint, it was all blood. Blood that was pooling on their clubroom floor from the large, possibly injured creature.

“What is that!?” Scootaloo whispered as she and her friends continued to look at the thing in the middle of their clubhouse.

“Ah don’t know! Ah’ve never seen anything like it.” Apple Bloom said as she started to feel sick as she looked at the blood that was covering the floor.

But while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were terrified of even seeing the creature, Sweetie Belle felt sorry for the creature as she saw the blood and heard the soft whimpering coming from it. Then to the surprise of the other fillies Sweetie Belle trotted passed her friends, who tried to stop her, but the little unicorn continued to trot up to the large creature. And really seeing just how big the thing was compared to herself. Circling around the creature Sweetie Belle came face to face with the creature, which had the head of a dragon, well at least a head that looked like a dragon, but the rest of the body didn’t look like anything she thought a dragon would be like. Or anything else that the filly could think of.

“Sweetie Belle get back here!” Scootaloo pleaded as she tried to look over the giant creature.

“Girls I think its hurt.” Sweetie Belle said as she looked over the creature, but when she looked back at the creatures head, she saw the eyes starting to flutter open. The unicorn gasped slightly and stuttered back a few paces, as the piercing amber eyes of the creature looked at her, which conveyed such sadness and fear that the filly could actually feel it. That’s when she was further surprised when the creature spoke to her.

“Please…g-get away f-from me.” The creature said in a very sad, almost scared, or even terrified voice that trembled and stuttered. The little unicorn felt her heart ache that such a large creature sounded so frighten, and approached it cautiously. Not noticing that the fin on its head started to shutter, like it had a very bad twitch.

“Don’t worry mister we’re not going to hurt you.” Sweetie Belle said in the most gently and calming voice that she could give as she sat before the creature, but it seemed her remark only made the creature more upset, and the fin started to extend up a slightly.

“No, y-you don’t under—” The creature stopped in mid-sentence as it clutched its head, while also groaning in pain.

Sweetie Belle slowly backed away from the creature as it started to fidget and shiver un-controllably, and his pained groans becoming feral sounding snarls. Then, the creature reared up on its legs, his back and head crashing into the roof of the clubhouse, and unleashed the most terrifying roar that destroyed the roof of the little building, as the fillies ran away screaming. But as the creature ceased its roaring, it started snarling as its eyes slowly moved to where the fillies were, as a puff of fire exited his snarling maw. Then in one big jump into the air, the creature landed a dozen or so feet from the fillies before it started chasing them. All the while its eyes glowed red with hunger and bloodlust.


“RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!”

> Chapter 5: the 6 Vs. Dragonface. [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s been roughly about an hour or so since Twilight has started to interview the humans, and in that short amount of time the unicorn has learned quite a lot from the them, even getting to know each of the members a bit better. It was hard and sad to hear about how they were all abandon by their families, and how they had to live on the run when everyone else found out about their powers. Twilight was also heartbroken to hear that where the humans are from, that people that are the same as them are ostracized and feared because of their powers, and are treated like monsters. And are even sought out and killed to ensure that they couldn’t get the chance to abuse their powers. But it was ridiculous! Why should people be imprisoned, or even killed, just because they have special powers and might have a chance to use them for evil intent, instead of encouraging them in using them for good. Aside from the humans backgrounds and how they eventually met up, Twilight learned more things about the human world at least the good qualities that the group tried to focus on, and from everything she was being told the human race certainly has made some amazing advancements.

“Alright gentlecolts I think we can stop here for now; I really do appreciate you all agreeing to this.” Twilight said as she started to pack up her scrolls, inkwells, and quills, and while the mare was packing up she was happy that the six humans were actually being comfortable around her so much, so they were actually loosening up and being more friendly.

“You know I thought you all would be far more reserved when I asked you to this interview, but you’ve all have been very cooperative.”

“It's not that hard to think about it.” Circus said as he juggles an apple around. “When it comes to humans it takes a bit for us to open up, but it helps when we’re talking to a pleasant person. Also, it’s hard not to when we have a cute girl to talk to.” Circus said with a sly grin and a small chortle, which caused Twilight to blush and get flustered as she almost fumbled with an inkwell.

“Circus, stop messing with her.” Wave said with a small smile as he looked to the blushing mare. “Sorry about Circus’s little joke Twilight, he likes to think he’s the funny man of the group.” The unicorn shook her head as she tried to calm down.

“No it’s fine. I’m just not used to being called, c-cute is all.” Circus was about say something but a stern look from the others made him stop.

While the humans started talking amongst themselves, and Twilight was recovering from her little blush she started to take note of the humans personality as they all talked. Plasma was one of the three more relaxed and composed of the group, but he also seemed the more reserved member of the six. At least that’s what Twilight could glean from the human. Steel was like Plasma in being fairly relaxed and composed, but he did seem to have more boisterous moments when he really gets talking. Wave was certainly the most friendlier and more outgoing of the group, and Twilight peg him as the most dependable one of the group, there was just this air around him that gave the unicorn that sense. Circus was obviously the joker of the group, probably why he picked the name he now used, but he was a delight to talk to always trying to show the bright side to most of the stuff that was discussed. Snap was the third relaxed and calmer member of the group, but he did seem a little shy as he didn’t talk as much as the others. Then there was the last member Burner, and while he was as talkative and engaging with Twilight, something about the way he spoke and acted gave Twilight an impression of just being angry or annoyed. Whether it was true or not would have to be cleared up later.

Just as Twilight finished packing her saddlebag, and the humans were just chatting with each other, something came slipping from under the closed doors of the dining hall. A wisp of smoke came flying into the room, wafting its way over to the table where it materialized into a scroll, and floated in front of the violet unicorn.

“Whoa! What was that?” Plasma asked as he looked at the scroll that Twilight caught in her magic.

“It’s a letter from Ponyville.” Twilight simply stated.

“But how did it get here?” Steel asked as he looked at the door, expecting to see something else to just come and fly in.

“I have an assistant in Ponyville who can send messages from where he is, to any pony that he knows after using his fire breath.” Twilight said as she un-rolled the scroll and started to read it. But as she started to read what was on the parchment, her expression quickly changed from her cheery smile, to a panicked and frightful expression.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?” Twilight heard Snap ask but she was so taken back by what she had just read that she didn’t answer right away, but after a silent minute the unicorn spoke up.

“This…this can’t be…Ponyville is under attack!”

After stuttering to even say those few words, Twilight all but ran out of the dining hall and headed towards the nearest balcony that would allow her to see Ponyville. And as she burst out of the room, and galloped through the halls, the six humans followed after her. Twilight continued to gallop through the halls of the castle, almost ramming into maids, butlers, guards, and even a noble as she looked for the nearest balcony that she could see Ponyville from. Eventually she found a suitable balcony that was facing in the direction of the town, and once she stepped out onto it she could instantly see smoke and what looked like fire emanating from the town.

“NO!” Twilight quietly whispered as her hooves against the railing tighten as her eyes started to water. Eventually the humans had caught up to the mare, and when they looked to where she was looking to they saw Ponyville set ablaze, and even saw a pillar of fire erupting from the buildings. 

“What the heck is going on down there?” Burner asked as he watched the wafting clouds of smoke drift from the buildings.

“I don’t know, the scroll says the town is under attack!” Twilight lamented as she just stood there on the balcony, her eyes tearing up before a few drops started to fall.

“I have to get back to Ponyville, but a train won’t make it in time, neither will a carriage. And I can’t teleport that far!” As Twilight was prattling off and pacing back and forth and idea came to her mind, and she immediately rushed over to Snap.

“Snap!” Twilight said in a panicked voice while looking up to the human. “You can teleport to the town from here in one go can’t you?” the human then looked to where the town was, and seemed to be studying the distance in his mind. After briefly studying the distance Snap looked down at Twilight.

“Yeah I can make that jump, and let me guess you want me to teleport you to the town.” Twilight then developed a hopeful smile.

“Yes please. Please, take me to Ponyville I’ll do anything you ask if you do.” Twilight pleaded as she wrapped her forelegs around the humans waist.

Snap turned to face his friends to wonder if he should do this, after all, why should he help them. True Snap and his friends were warming up to Twilight, but they were still only associates, even if Twilight believes they are friends. However, could they really stand by and just watch the ponies in that town suffer, and endure their town and homes be set on fire as whatever it is attacking the town continue to do so, when they have the capabilities to help them. The only reason they use their powers is to steal things, hurt people if they think deserved it, they were far from anything to be called heroes. So should they really act like heroes in this situation? Especially when the ponies have their own military force. But still, this little unicorn who is waiting for an answer, and giving the humans a pleading look was begging for their help.

“Alright I’ll do it. Just, stop with the face please.” Twilight all but smiled and wrapped her hooves around Snap’s stomach, and hugged him. “And don’t worry about doing me any favors, we’ll help your town out.” Snap said as he petted her head.

“Thank you!” Twilight gratefully said as Snapped looked towards his friends.

“Alright guys huddle up, and hang on to me.”

Each of the humans placed a hand somewhere on Snap’s shoulders, or back, while Twilight kept her forelegs wrapped around his waist. Then in a blink of an eye the entire group vanished in a flash of yellow light. A moment later, high above the town of Ponyville a flash of yellow light appeared, and Twilight found that she and her six human friends were high up in the sky, and were now currently free-falling. Naturally, the group was a little thrown off from being teleported into the sky, however Twilight was way more thrown off than the humans.

“AGH! WE’RE SO HIGH!” Twilight screamed as she quickly latched onto the nearest human after reappearing in the world, who happened to be Burner who wrapped an arm around her.

“Shit, I off shot it!” Snap chastised.

“Well in retrospect, you didn’t get a good look at anywhere specific in the town!” Steel shouted as he grabbed Burner as he held Twilight close as she continued to scream.

“Grab on to me guys!”

With Circus gathering everyone up by using his power, the humans quickly grabbed back onto Snap, who then teleported down into one of the streets of the town that he could now see more clearly. Thanks to the bird eyes view that his slip up granted him. But when the group appeared in the town, and recovered from the momentum change they were able to see just how bad things were. Ponies were running around screaming everywhere and were trying to hide in the none burning buildings, and speaking of said buildings they were all engulfed in flames like giant bonfires. The group then noticed that the sky was growing more darker, and it wasn’t due to more smoke filling the sky, instead they saw clouds being pushed in by pegasi who then started to bounce on them, causing the darken clouds to rain down onto the burning town.

“What in the world happened here?” Wave asked no one in particular before another group of pegasi flown over them with clouds in hooves, and started to spray rain onto the flames of the closest buildings. But the rain wasn’t strong enough from the small clouds to put out the fires.

“Wave see if you can help douse those fires.” Plasma said as he points at one of the burning buildings.

“Leave it to me!” Wave said before he turned into a mass of water, and then vaulted into a building where Twilight heard him splash around and causing steam to vent from the windows.

“Let’s get a move on guys, help out however you can!” the rest of the group were about to run off and help out in trying to put the flames out, but they stopped when they heard a chorus of voices call out.

“Twilight!” the group turned to see all of Twilight’s friends galloping towards them as they rounded one of the none destroyed section of town.

“Girls what in the hay is going on?” Twilight asked as she met up with her friends half way, with the humans jogging up to them.

“Ah don’t know.” Applejack said worriedly as she spoke up. “Apple Bloom & her friends just came running into town, then that’s where this thing came running after them shooting, and blasting fire everywhere!” Applejack said in a very panicked voice.

Before Twilight could even question her friends on what the thing was, a roaring stream of fire came bursting through a building and was heading straight for the entire group! But right before the flames reached them, or Twilight could even try to put up a shield, she watched as Steel rushed to the front of the group, and transformed into his larger metallic form and used his entire body to block the fire. The group un-covered their eyes and watched as the flames bellow past Steels hunched over body, while his metallic body started to glow white hot. As the stream of fire continued to ram into Steel Twilight and the others grouped up closer, so that they wouldn’t get burnt by any wild flicks of fire, but as the now massive human continued to act as a shield they could hear him groan in pain the fire grew more intense.

“Oh no Steel!” Rarity cried out after Steel cried out in pain.

“Hang in their big guy!” Rainbow Dash called out as she wanted to help, but the fires that were rushing past them didn’t leave much of an opening for her to leave and help out.

‘Damn, this fire is hot, it’s even hotter than the flames that Burner can use!’ Steel mentally groaned as he tried to withstand the intense flames. ‘I don’t know if I can…withstand this…’ Just then a sudden burst of very cold water came crashing down onto Steel’s body, rapidly cooling him off before creating a wall of water in front of the metallic human

“Steel are you alright!?” Fluttershy asked worriedly as she tried to examine the human, but even after the rush of water his body was still too hot to touch without burning.

“Yeah I’m fine, but damn that fire was hot.” Steel groaned as he looked behind himself at the group to confirm his state. “Thanks for the save Wave.” The group looked past Steel and saw that the wall of water then formed the head of Wave.

“No problem man, besides I’m more suited to handle fire than you are.”

The flames eventually stopped and withered away, until nothing more than a deep burn scarred crater was burned deep into the ground, leaving a blistering carved path. Wave & Steel quickly reverted back to their normal human forms, and now that the flames were out Steel was checked thoroughly over by Fluttershy who was still worried about his condition. Pinkie rushed over to Wave to see if he was alright, but he just waved her off and said he was fine. But things weren’t over yet.

A deep and menacing roar erupted from behind the buildings that the flames came barreling from, and when the group turned to go see the source of the roar the smoke obscured the objects form, but the group could make out that the thing was standing up right, and it seemed to have a pair of wings on its back, but the smoke could be distorting its form.

Whatever the creature was it let out another terrifying roar, and like the last one it was so loud that everyone had to cover their ears, but the sheer volume was so intense their heads still pulsed with pain. After the creature roared it continued to walk till it made its way through the smoke, but as the figure passed through the vail of smoke, Twilight and her friends were utterly stunned at what they saw. Standing half a yard from them was a large bipedal creature, easily as tall as Steel when he transformed, and was covered in badly torn up clothes that were also set on fire, but the creature didn’t even seem to notice that it was on fire. But aside from its horribly mangled clothes, the fire that was clinging to it, was its large dragon-like head that had an extended fin on the top of its head…and its glowing red eyes that were glaring right at the group.

“No way!” Twilight heard Plasma shutter as she turned to look at him, and saw that not only him but the other humans all had an utterly blown away expression plastered on their faces.

“It can’t be.” Circus said as his mouth slowly hung open.

“How is he…how is he here?” Snap muttered.

“Wait!” Rainbow said as she looked between the stunned humans. “You guys know that thing?” The cyan mare asked as she pointed at the lumbering giant creature as the building it came walking out of crumbled behind it.

“It’s…that’s…” Burner tried to say but stumbled before he and the other humans spoke up.

“Dragonface!” All six of the humans said in unison.

“Dragonface? Who is he, and how do you know him?” Pinkie asked worriedly as the now known Dragonface, was coming closer, but before any of the humans could say anything the group watched as Dragonface came vaulting towards them as he roared again!

“Oh no you don’t!” Steel shouted as he transformed and clashed with Dragonface, both slamming into each other and started to wrestle with each other.

“Twilight you and your friends keep everyone else away from here, we’ll take care of Dragonface!” Plasma shouted as he created his Burn Saber and the rest of the gang prepared for a fight.

“Now go!”

“Come on girls let's leave the humans to handle this, while we help the towns ponies!” Twilight said as she galloped towards the un-destroyed half of the town while her friends chased after her. But as she left the humans behind, she looked behind her at the fight group and silently prayed that her new friends would be alright.


~~~~~

Just as the ponies left the area, and the two giant men continued to wrestle with each other, the rest of the group of young men joined their metallic friend in fending off Dragonface. During the tussle, the dragon headed man opened his large mouth and clamped his jaws onto Steel’s head, where he then unleashed a massive torrent of fire directly onto Steel’s face! But before Steel’s face could possibly be melted away, Wave came in and slammed right into Dragonface’s head causing the giant human to stumble backwards, while his head was smothered with ice cold water and dousing the fire wafting from his mouth. Plasma then came lunging at Dragonface’s left side, and unleashed a series of fast sword strikes with his burn saber, burning through what little clothe Dragonface still had, but his body only received minor burn marks on his tough skin.

‘Damn it! my Burn Saber didn’t even leave a scratch on him.’ Plasma mentally jargoned as he lashed out one more time, before backing away when a Steel was swung towards him.

Steel was then let loose and sent flying into another building, smashing through the wall, and causing it to collapse right on top of him. Wave was trying to stop the flames from erupting from Dragonface’s mouth, but the intense flames power was too much for him, and was also blasted away and was about to crash into a different building. But before he did so, Snap appeared right next to Wave and teleported away before placing his friend next to where Circus was, before he launched himself into the air and then rocketed towards Dragonface, slamming into his back before bouncing off him. Snap then teleported to a very heavily stocked wagon full of bricks, and then warped it into the air above Dragonface where Circus’s hands grabbed it, and forcibly smashed it over Dragonface’s head. But the giant man didn’t seem to even feel the bricks, or Circus’s tackle and just ran over to Circus’s body, but the disassembling young man just separated his body into smaller pieces and floated them past the giant.

As the fighting continued Steel eventually recovered from his throw, and barreled out of the remains of the building and towards Dragonface at full speed, ramming into the dragon-head man and pinned him to the ground and started punching him. But the barrage of punches were cut short when Dragonface grabbed Steel’s right arm, and pivoted his weight so now he was pinning Steel to the ground, and started to try and rip the young man’s head off by biting it. Snap then appeared next to Steel’s legs and teleported himself & Steel above Dragonface, where Steel again slammed into older human. And as the two continued to wrestle with each other, Dragonface was about to unleash another torrent of fire onto Steel, but two streams of compressed water slammed into the dragon-headed human. But the water strikes weren’t the only attacks that struck Dragonface. Plasma leapt at him and lashed out at Dragonface’s back, and was actually able to damage him. A barrage of fireballs also slammed into the large man, and Burner was about to launch what looked like a torpedo made of fire at Dragonface, but stopped when the man unleashed his own fire breath at Wave.

“OH CRAP!” Wave shouted as he went to transform into water. But just as the flames were nearly close to roast the young man, the flames curved off course and headed over to Burner, who was gathering all of the fires around him creating a massive fireball in the process. “Thanks for the save Burner.”

“No problem Wave, but you and the guys need to steer clear. I’m gonna dunk this moffo with his own fire!” Burner said before he looked over to where Snap currently was.

“Snap, I need a lift!”

“Coming right up.”

Snap then vanished in a flash of light, and teleported right behind Burner and in another flash of light the pair appeared right above Dragonface. But it appeared that Dragonface had caught onto their plan, and was aiming his head up at the pair and unleashed another stream of fire directly at the duo. Snap vanished and appeared where Circus was, while Burner was left free fall towards Dragonface while collecting more of the mutant’s fire, increasing the size of his giant fireball till it was the size of a large tank. As Burner was half way to Dragonface, Steel, Plasma, and the others started to run till they judged that they were at a safe distance, and watched the event that was about to unfold before them.

“Sorry that I have to do this Dragonface, but I’m gonna have to bust your face in to stop you!” Burner shouted as he readied to slam the fireball into the giant man, who just continued to fuel the fireball with his own fire breath attack.

When Burner was just a few feet from Dragonface he slammed the massive fireball right on top of Dragonface, crushing him into the ground before the flames no longer could be maintained in its spherical form, and erupted into a massive pillar of fire that roared into the sky. Piercing the cloud line and smoke clouds that hovered above the town. All the ponies in the town then screamed out in terror, and duck under anything to hide in or under, when they heard the fireball explode and watched the pillar of fire pierce the skies. And from the force of the attack the south end of the shopping district was reduced to smoldering rubble and debris, as the pillars immense heat just washed over them, but the town wasn’t the only ones being burnt by the attack. The rest of the humans didn’t get as clear of the blast radius as they thought, so each of the humans were struck by the searing heat wave and started to be covered in minor burns. A minute and a half of nonstop bellowing flames and intense heat, the pillar of fire eventually faded away and left a massive twenty foot wide crater in the middle of the street, with Burner dropping on the edge of the crater and baring equally bad burns as his friends. As for Dragonface, Burner saw that he was laying un-conscious in the middle of the flaming crater, with all of his clothes burned away. Slowly getting up after being blown away from the explosion, Plasma and the others managed to get to their feet and walked over to the crater, and also saw the unconscious body of Dragonface’s heavily burnt body.

“We need to restrain him. And fast.” Burner panted as he was helped up to his feet by Snap and Wave.

Steel then looked for anything that could re-strain Dragonface, and found some steel piping from a broken stall, as well as chains that weren’t badly damaged or even melted away. Steel then started to wrapped Dragonface in chains and using the pipes to cuff his wrists and ankles, while Plasma used his power to weld the pipes together with the chains to ensure Dragonface couldn’t break free. As the humans were finishing in restraining Dragonface, the ponies emerged from their hiding spots, and saw the level of destruction that was before them, looking over the charred up shopping district. Just as Twilight and her friends trotted over to the young men, two chariots came flying in and both Celestia & Luna looked on in horror at what has happened to the town. Before any pony could even utter a word, Circus looked to them and spoke.

“You better have a really, really, and I mean a REALLY, strong jail cell to keep this guy locked up.”


~~~~~

Two hours have passed since Dragonface rampage in Ponyville was stopped, and the town was in the process of rebuilding itself, and the ponies that were injured were being taken care of. However the ponies in Ponyville were now all on edge, some of them haven’t even left their still standing hiding spots as they were to afraid.

While the town and its inhabitants were working to rebuild the town, with the aid of the royal guard, Twilight, and her friends along with the humans were brought to Canterlot, where the humans were being treated. While Dragonface was placed under the most strict security measures the princess have ever implemented, and brought to the jails and placed inside the most durable prison cell it had. For the six valiant heroes they were taken back to the medical wing to be treated, and while they did managed to avoid most of the more damaging blows, they still sustain some horrible injures. Including the horrible burns they received from Burner’s final attack. Actually the most injured of the group was Steel, as he was directly engaging with Dragonface’s intense melee and fire attacks. Normally Steel is highly resilient to such attacks, however he does have his limits, and Dragonface just had so much power that he practically made Steel’s resistances and durability almost redundant.

“YEO-OW!” Steel blurted as one of the two nurse treating him applied a salve to his back. “Damn that stuff really stings!”

“I know it hurts sweetie, but just bear with it for a bit longer.” The little earth pony mare said sweetly as she gently applies the salve with a cloth. As for the other humans, they were just getting a few bandages, and few treatments, while the princess’s & the element bearers stood to the sides and watched them.

“I’m still amazed that a single creature could cause so much damage to all of you, and to the town.” Celestia said as she looked at all the humans in the room.

“Dragonface is like us, another human with a mutated power. He’s also one of the oldest living Un-Naturals from Earth, and is on the most wanted list worldwide.” Circus said as he sits up straight on his bed, while the pegasus nurse continues to wrap his torso with bandages. “And he’s earned the reputation of being one of the most dangerous Un-Naturals in the world.”

“Why is that?” Luna asked the group. “From what Twilight and the others have told us, you said you know Dragonface.”

“Well yeah, there isn’t anyone back home that doesn’t know him.” Wave said as he looked at the princesses. “When you earn a reputation like Dragonface’s, it’s not that hard to have everyone know who you are.” Waved finished as the unicorn nurse finished wrapping his hands in bandages.

“And its far worse than what most believe.” Burner remarked as the unicorn nurse treating him finished dressing the burns on his chest.

“What could be worse than burning down half the town?!” Rainbow asked as she gave the group a questionable look. The room immediately went quite as the humans all looked at the hovering pegasus, their eyes like dead fish. That’s when Burner broke the silence.

“…how would you like it if the thing your famous for is going feral at the drop of a hat, and reducing your home town to ashes…and eating not only your family but everyone that gets in your way.” Every pony from the princess, Twilight, and her friends, to even the medical staff, all felt a chill run down their spines as they all looked at the humans with horrified looks.

“H-he ate…his…f-family?!” Fluttershy asked in horrified stupor, her eyes growing moist as she shuttered at the thought of actually…

“According to the news he at his mother, father, two brothers and sister. Along with his aunt & uncle… everyone in his small town.” Plasma said in a leveled yet sadden tone of voice. “It was all over the newspapers, and articles were wrote about it, there were even pictures of the whole incident.”

“And ever since then he’s been on the run for the crimes of burning down towns, cities, and eating everyone that he comes across, all because he has an unstable mutation.” Snap added on. “Journalist and many investigators have tried to find him, but if the latest articles are true, Dragonface has spent the last thirty years of his life secluded away in deep forests & mountain regions, only being spotted whenever he goes berserk and unleashes his fire breath.”

“Thirty years. He’s spent all that time, alone.” Pinkie Pie asked as her mane & tail went limp as she continues to hear this tale of the elderly human.

“Yeah.” Wave said somberly. “And there are many more Un-Natural humans like Dragonface who are in hiding. Some out of shame out of what they’ve done to others already, while others are just too afraid of what they might do, so they hide themselves away.”

“But there are those who exploit their powers, and do whatever they want with them.” Steel finished, wincing again at the stinging sensation coursing over his body.

“…and what about all of you?” Applejack asked. “Did you all have such hard ship growing up?”

“…” none of the human’s spoke up, just opting to just sit on their beds. But eventually, Plasma broke the silence while turning to face the ponies, a sad defeated expression on his face.

“Yes.”
> Chapter 6: the Days After [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days have gone by since Dragonface’s attack on Ponyville, and like the previous days the town was still horribly scarred. The roads and buildings of the eastern to the southern end of the town, were still burned and heavily chard. Many of the towns ponies were left homeless because of this destructions, and many were made jobless when their stalls or work places were set up in flames, which will took months to not only to rebuild but also get back everything that was destroyed.

As both the towns ponies and guards were back to work in rebuilding what has been destroyed, Fluttershy & Rarity trotted through the burnt shopping district, where the atmosphere was still as tense as the day of the attack, and most of the towns ponies were still frighten. Most of the ponies that were locked away in their homes that weren’t destroyed have come out of hiding, but they were just as on edge as the others, afraid that another human like Dragonface would appear and attack them. The town was just full of fear and anxiety that it made the two mares feel even more depressed. But they weren’t the only ones that were affected by the attack. The humans were also not feeling the greatest as they were still recovering from the fight they had with Dragonface, as well as having to make sure that the afro mention elderly human was restrained so he couldn’t harm any pony.

“Rarity, do you think the boys will be alright?” Fluttershy asked as they exited the shopping district, and headed to the west side of town.

“And do you think Dragonface is alright as well?”

“I’m not sure Fluttershy. On both accounts.” The unicorn said as she shook her head.

“I’m sure the boys will be fine, but as for Dragonface…I’m not sure.” Rarity thought back to where she & her friends, along with the princess, went to go visit the elderly man and see how he was doing after spending time with their new friends getting patched up.

But upon seeing him as they entered the most secure area of the dungeons, they all looked upon the elderly human with sadness, as he was shuttering like a scared foal in the corner of his cell. He couldn’t even look at the ponies, or speak properly to them when they tried to talk to him. In fact the only thing he was saying to any of them, was how sorry he was and telling the mare’s to go away before he hurts them. The princess’s tried to help him open up, even Pinkie Pie tried everything to help him not feel so sad, but it was clear that this human was to mentally & emotionally scarred that he couldn’t function properly. The ponies times with Dragonface ended suddenly when the human started to scream in pain, and started to wretch as he rolled on the ground in agony, and then when the ponies were about to open the door to his cell he suddenly become as he was before, a feral animal and nearly incinerated all of them when he unleashed his fire breath. Thank goodness Celestia was able to teleport all of them to safety in the nick of time, but the dungeons were basically reduced to nothing but a blistering fire pit. Not even the royal guards could venture down into the dungeons, as the heat from the searing surfaces of the dungeon were so hot that just being near the entrance was like being near the mouth of a volcano during its eruption. After that incident, the ponies were forced to leave the old man alone, but the princesses had assigned a specialist to try and help the old man, and perhaps with time Dragonface will be healed of the scars placed upon him.

“I’m afraid it may be too late to help Dragonface.” Rarity said sadly, feeling that the elderly human was too far gone to be helped. As the pair continued to venture through the town, they came across Applejack as she was hauling some lumber with Burnt Oak.

“Good evening Applejack & Burnt Oak, how are you two doing today?” the white unicorn greeted as she and Fluttershy approached the two earth ponies.

“Not too bad miss Rarity, although I can’t say the same for town hall. It’s one of the buildings that got hit really bad, and needs some major repairs.” Burnt Oak said as he continued to trot onto Town Hall.

“But don’t you worry ya’ll. We’ll get Town Hall back up and going lickity split.” Applejack said with a small smile as she followed after the old black stallion.

“I’ll see you girls later at the train station when the boys get here, kay.”

“Alright Applejack, just be careful not to hurt yourself while repairing the building.” Fluttershy said as she waved her friend goodbye, and continued to follow Rarity as they patrolled the town, looking for any pony that needed help.


~~Canterlot~~

In the streets of Canterlot Plasma and his friends were following Celestia as the group made their way to the train station, with a patrol of guards trotting beside them while garnering confused, baffled, and surprised looks from all of the ponies that the group passed by. As the small group continued to walk through the city streets, the humans watched as the ponies bowed to the alicorn after they recovered from their baffled states, while some of the ponies just looked at them with confusion. It was probably because none of them were expecting to see one of their rulers walking with them. The guys even caught a few of the nobles, or the more stuck up ponies amongst the crowd, where they gave them the stink eye or some other kind of rude gesture. But they just brushed it off and continued to follow the princess, but as they followed the alicorn they took the opportunity to look around the city, as so far the only places they know of in Equestria was the castle, and a half destroyed Ponyville.

So far the group of humans weren’t exactly impressed with Canterlot. The buildings didn’t look as grand as the tall buildings, or massive complexes of the ones of New York, sure the city had a fantastical and whimsical feel to it, but it just looked a little to, cartoonish for them to find it anything else. Not only that but the whole city was just primarily white with little accents of colors to break it up, the collection of swirling purples, yellow, and light blues along the whites gave the city a candy castle aesthetics. Stopping in the midst of the group, Burner looked back to the castle with a conflicting looking expression on his face.

“Burner, what’s up.” Steel asked as he stopped and looked at his friend, who answered back after a bit of a delay.

“Do you think something should be done about Dragonface?” the rest of the group stopped in mid step and looked back to Burner, the guards following them also stopped and looked at the red-haired human.

“What do you mean Burner?” Plasma asked his friend, sounding very concerned about what his friend might be trying to imply.

“I mean, should we leave him like that. A blubbering mess that could go insane at the drop of a hat, and try to destroy the city.” Burner said as he turned to face his friends. “Shouldn’t we, you know, end his suffering?” the guards were shocked to even hear this, even Burner’s friends looked very surprised by what Burner had just said. But out of all of them Celestia herself looked the most surprised.

“You mean kill him, so he doesn’t hurt anyone, or himself, again?” Circus asked, which Burner just nodded to his friends inquiry. “You do remember we don’t kill ANY, Un-Naturals. We might fight, but we don’t kill those of our kind Burner.”

“I couldn’t agree anymore Circus! And I believe we may be able to help him.” Celestia said as she looked directly towards Burner in particular as she continued on. “With proper care and mental treatment, I believe our doctors will be able to help Dragonface, help him control his powers and his mental instability.” The rest of the group looked from Celestia back to Burner and saw that he still looked unconvinced.

“Then whatever these doctors of yours tries better work.” Burner said before he started to look around himself, looking at the city streets, and every pony that was walking through them.

“Otherwise this city will be a mass graveyard of burned down buildings, and charred bodies of innocent ponies.”

Plasma nor any of his friends said anything to Burner’s final statement, because what he said had some merit of truth to it. As they all looked around themselves and took what their fire wielding friend said into consideration, if Dragonface would somehow, someway get free…then this city would be reduced to blistering rubble. They all then looked over to Celestia, and she looked far more conflicted as if she was trying to not accept what Burner had just said, and suggested they should do to Dragonface, while also being compelled to take Burner’s words into consideration. A moment later and the group continued the march to the train station, but the mood amongst them was significantly less pleasant than when they left the castle.

Once the group had boarded the train and sat in the royal car, it took about an hour and half before Celestia and the six humans arrived in Ponyville, and when they exited the train the still saw that everything was still a wreck. Even from where they were standing they could clearly see that everything was still horribly destroyed. The group then notice that Twilight & her friends were at the station and talking to a few other ponies, sounding as if they were giving advice or discussing what needs to be fixed. After talking to the other ponies, Twilight and the others moved away from the group, where Twilight trotted up to Celestia and the pair nuzzled each other, while the guards approached Twilight’s friends, and began to discuss what they can do to help. As for the six humans they just loitered around the station, before walking up to the edge of the platform and looking back out into the town, and really seeing the level of destruction that happened, as well as seeing the state that the ponies were in. All of them looked so depressed, or utterly scared out of their minds even as they work to fix their town.

“It’s just like Regina all over again.” Circus said as he ran a hand through his hair sighing sadly as he watched the ponies at work.

“Yeah, except Regina had fire fighters, and that Un-Natural that could cause rain storms.” Snap said as he leaned against a pillar, scanning the area in front of him.

“So why did we have to come here again?” Wave asked once Twilight & Celestia finished talking, and the pair turned to walk towards the group.

“The original reason we brought you here was to show you the sights, but as you can see some parts of the town are still being rebuilt.” Celestia said but before she could continue on, Pinkie Pie decided to try and brighten up the mood.

“But luckily Sugarcube Corner and places in the north and west district are still intact, and I think that everypony could use a break. And with that break, I can finally throw you your welcoming party that can double as a lifting up every ponies spirits party!” Pinkie Pie said with all the excitement and energy that everypony was used to seeing of her. But while the ponies were looking forward to the whole thing, none of the humans looked pleased with the idea of having their welcoming party. Instead they all looked at her like she said something stupid, or unreasonable.

“Is she serious?” Burner said as he pointed at Pinkie, while looking at the other members of both their groups, his tone of voice slightly bringing Pinkie’s excitement down.

“What’s wrong with having your welcoming party right now?” Applejack asked as she was genuinely curious. “Any other creature would be happy to have a party thrown by Pinkie, so why do yall humans look so, opposed at the idea?” Applejack asked the young man, but before any of them could say anything Plasma began walking till he was standing by the steps.

“This town was just the sight of an attack, by a mentally unstable and a very powerful Un-Natural human. And was where WE—” Plasma said as he turned to face the group, gesturing to each of his friends. “—just fought said guy which caused even more destruction. And these ponies still look like they’re expecting another attack, and looked ready to run and hide at the slightest loud noise.” Plasma’s point was proven when a single brick slid of a moving cart and clattering against the dirt road, and causing twelve ponies to either duck, bolt, or run for the nearest hiding spot, or cry out in shock.

“They’re all still on edge and scared. I doubt a party would change that, even if you try to cheer them up…they’re still surrounded by destroyed buildings, burned, and scarred streets, and that massive hole where we finally beat Dragonface.” Plasma then turned back to face the town.

“The only thing we should do is help in rebuilding this town, and try to make everyone less tense.”

The rest of the young men felt the same way to what Plasma had just said before turning to the ponies. All of the ponies, from Celestia, to Twilight and her friends, and to the small platoon of guards, all looked at each other with a sense of understanding. What Plasma said was true, a party wasn’t going to fix everything, and right now, it really didn’t seem like the right time to throw one. Because even if they did have one it would distract them from their worries until they were faced with the problem again. Pinkie did deflate slightly, but once she realized that Plasma words had merit, she agreed and decided to put the party on hold till the town was back in shape. The entire group then went into town to help out with the reconstruction, with the six humans lend a hand in rebuilding, as they were partial to some destruction of the town, especially the giant hole in the town square. And as Plasma’s group aided in rebuilding the town with Twilight’s group, and the guards that traveled with them, Celestia reboarded the train and headed back to Canterlot.


~~Earth~~

The sound of gun fire, shouting, and what sounded like bestial snarling and screeching could be heard in the main room of the Enigma’s house of operations, and down the abandon tunnels leading to the hidden base. The guards and some of the workers were fighting something that looked like a human sized animal, a creature that was covered in matted dark brown hair covering the majority of its body, with what looked like sharpen spines or quills lining its back, which were being fired everywhere which were striking various fighters and workers. Some struck some of the guards either in non-vital spots, or in vital locations causing them to cry out in pain. Aside from the spines, a foul-smelling odor could be smelled everywhere the thing leapt, and jumped around as it lashed out at the men and women trying to stop it or even kill it. The smell was so awful that some of the workers and guards passed out, or started to feel gravely sick & nauseous.

While the chaos was happening down on the main work floor, high up on the second loft of the base, looking down at everything with a visibly displeased expression was Edward D. Johnson, or more commonly known as Enigma. Turning away from the chaos that was occurring down stairs, Enigma looked down at the cowering man before him, being held by two of his personal guards.

“I thought you would bring me someone better, Samson.” The old man said to the cowering man who was visibly sweating buckets, and a very panicked expression etched permanently on his face.

“Someone who wouldn’t cause me such, anxiety. Someone that could be one of my newest lieutenants.”

“S-sir I swear, I t-thought I did good, I s-swear!” Samson sputtered as she shook in place, the guards trying to keep him in place.

“I-I thought you could control him like the G.W.S.F does!”

The noise from down below grew even more hectic causing Enigma looked over the railing, his eyes slightly widen as he saw a small swarm of what looked like rats, scurrying around the furry humanoid creature, and swarming onto anyone that got close to it. Running along their bodies biting, nipping, and tearing flesh off of them everywhere they could get. The bestial creature continued to lash out at the workers and fighters, even tearing an arm off one of the workers, and having two fighters be struck in the face with quills piercing their eyes and throats. Then the creature looked up to Enigma, its glowing red eyes peered up at him, snarling before letting out a hissing screech as it lunged at the crates near the loft. It then started scaling the crates before leaping into the air, claws, and fangs at the ready to rip & tear into the old man. Two of Enigma’s guards readied themselves for a fight, but the old man just looked at the thing with a blank expression, before his eyes glowed with a violet light, and then in a split second the creature vanished into thin air.

With the bestial human now gone Enigma turned to look back down at his work force, and saw the rats go limp and appear to be knocked out, where those who were mostly unharmed started to gather them up in plastic bags while others started to treat the injured. Turning away from the downed rats, and his guards and workers recovering from everything that just happened, Enigma turned back and looked down to the shaking man, who looked about ready to pass out. Enigma then waved a hand at the two guards away, leaving him and a terrified Samson on the loft.

“I’m sure you realize how, displeased, I am with you Samson.” Enigma said as Samson just remained in his kneeling pose on the ground.

“I promise sir I won’t disappoint you! Never, never ever again, I swear on it!” Samson pleaded as he looked up to Enigma with a horrified pleading expression.

“I know you won’t Samson.” Enigma said in a cold voice as he looked down at the man, who seemed to have slightly calmed down as a nervous smile grew on his face. “Because you’ll never get the chance to disappoint me, ever again.”

And just like that, Samson was just gone, vanishing into thin air. Groaning slightly Enigma began making his way back to his office, ready to try and relax from this mess, and as he entered his office his secretary was waiting for him with a tray in hand. The tray held a cigar and a single glass of bourbon. Taking the cigar in hand the old man made his way to his desk, sighing as he lights his cigar and turning his plasma TV on to his favorite program.

“We’re going to need a new errand boy.” Enigma said as he looked over to his secretary who was standing just off to the side. “Be sure to find a far more competent one this time Masquerade.” The woman gave a small nod of her head before speaking.

“Of course sir. I will find someone who will prove to be more useful.” She then place the tray on the desk before she left the room, leaving Enigma to relax alone in his office as he smoked and took sips of his beverage.
> Chapter 7: What Shall We Do Next? [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several more days have passed since the six humans came to Ponyville to help in fixing the town up, and with their help as well as the force of royal guards that came down to help, more than half of the destroyed east and southern districts was rebuilt. It helped to have magic users among the guards, towns ponies, and Twilight herself in aiding in the re-construction of the buildings at a faster pace. During the rebuilding of the destroyed buildings some of the affected shop owners decided to do a total remodel, like the owner of Fidget Wheels Gag & Prank shop now being turned into what would be a giant wizards hat. 

However while the town of Ponyville was being rebuild at a good pace and getting back on its feet, things up in Canterlot weren’t going so well. Dragonface’s treatment with a specialized doctor assigned to the task in helping the old human, which Celestia hoped will help him, has gone nowhere over the week he’s been in custody, and the constant shifting from blubbering sad man to feral wild animal has become quite hazardous. As Dragonface either came close to killing the doctor and guards assigned to him whenever he went feral, and setting the dungeons ablaze for a couple days. It also didn’t help that his bloodcurdling and horrifying roars echoed throughout the castle, making it difficult for anything in the castle to go on without having to cover their ears. Even the citizens of the city could hear the roars, and it was causing them all great unease and causing some rumors to be spread about what was really going on inside the castle.

During the days when Plasma and his friends came to Ponyville to rebuild the town, Twilight was called back to Canterlot for some kind of important test, which apparently Twilight was blowing out of apportion so her friends, and a little dragon named Spike went along for the ride. Mostly to make sure Twilight doesn’t have one of her freak out moments, from what the guys have heard, is quite a lot. So while Twilight and her friends were gone, Plasma and his friends were left alone in the mostly restored Ponyville, and instead of returning to Canterlot they actually decided to spend some time in the town, and even away from each other aside from sticking as a group or as a pair. They were starting to feel a bit more comfortable around the ponies, that they don’t need to be so guarded around them.


~~Steel~~

After leaving the inn the humans got to stay in, after Princess Celestia had a word with the owner with the assistance of a big bag of this worlds currency, Steel started walking around town after having breakfast of a vegetarian omelet with biscuits. And as he walked around the town he was getting some mixed responses from the ponies, either having some saying hello in a friendly manner, or just looked at him with unease intrigue. While walking through the town mostly wandering around aimlessly, Steel ended up leaving the town behind him and was now walking along a dirt trail, which was leading to what looked like a farm after a fifteen minute walk. With his curiosity now triggered Steel decided to investigate the area. Hopefully, the farmers there aren’t as private, or trigger happy as those on Earth.

Reaching the front gate of the property Steel started to examine the area, and whether it was because of this worlds natural cartoonish like aesthetics or some other factor, the farm looks a lot more charming then the ones back home. And it wasn’t just the buildings, the fields of crops and animal pins all had their own charms to them, and speaking of the other animals that Steel could see, there wasn’t that trade-mark barnyard animal stink floating around. If anything the property smells like freshly baked goods, and scented candles that had a fruity aroma. 

Another thought came to Steel when he noticed the other animals, why do ponies have farm animals anyway? It wasn’t like they’ll eat them or anything like that. Would they? Afterall, who really knows what otherworldly alien ponies actually eat.

“Um. Excuse me?” A childish voice called out causing the young man to turn to search for the source, his dreadlocks whipping about as he looked.

That’s when Steel heard someone clearing their throat, which caught his attention and making him look down, and found three very small fillies just staring up at him. And when Steel thought small, they were really small. While most adult ponies he’s met so far would just barely reach above his, and his friends, waist line these fillies barely reached up to his knees. Deciding to kneel down so the fillies didn’t have to look so high up, the three fillies flinched away from him as he did so, but they quickly regained their confidence, and stood their ground as Steel lowered himself. Or at least the tiny yellow one with the bow in her red mane kept her confidence, while her friends stood off just behind her.

“Are you one of those humans mah sister was talking about?” the filly asked with a slight stutter in her voice. After mulling over what the filly had just said, and seeing that she had a southern twang to her accent, Steel seemed to have figured out who this filly was.

“Your Applejack’s kid sister?” Steel asked the little filly.

“Yeah.” The filly simply said. “Mah names Apple Bloom, and these are my friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” The unicorn and pegasi peered out from behind Apple Bloom and gave a small wave.

“So are you one of those, humans?” Sweetie Belle asked as her big green eyes looked up at Steel with childish wonder and curiosity.

“That’s right little missy, names Steel.” Steel announced as he looked down to the three little foals before him. “Just a hunch Apple Bloom, but I take it this is you’re families farm, ya?” the filly nodded her head.

“Yeah. Ah live here with mah sister, mah brother & mah grand mare.” The little yellow filly said as she perked up. “But where do you come from?”

“Did you come from a faraway country?” Scootaloo immediately jumped in before Steel could answer, but the young man just chuckled slightly before shaking his head.

“Not really, but I guess in a very odd way, I guess I do come from a faraway place.”

The fillies seemed confused at Steel’s words, but they didn’t seem to mind all that much as they quickly began asking Steel a myriad of questions. Like all kids, their curiosity knew no bounds when they found something interesting to them. As the small group chatted away, Steel answering whatever questions the fillies had, and boy howdy did these fillies had some questions, ranging from if humans got something called cutie marks to whether or not humans can use magic. And while Steel said he has no magic, he did showed off a bit of his power by just transforming his hand to steel for a second, before shifting it back to being normal. Which only furthered sparked the fillies curiosity towards him.

Several minutes of talking to the fillies, another pony came along and interrupted the groups talk, and the pony was an old looking green mare who was probably the fillies grand mare she mentioned earlier. The mare introduced herself as Granny Smith, like the apple, and offered the fillies and Steel a good ol’ fresh apple pie with glasses of milk to have while talking, rather than just standing around near the entryway gate in the sunlight. Plus that pie did sound mighty tasty, so Steel followed the eager fillies & old mare to the farm house.

“So big fella, how long you’se planning to stay in Ponyville. Could probably use a strong look’n feller like you come next harvest.” Granny Smith asked as she gives Steel a second plate with another slice of pie on it.

“Not sure actually, my friends and I are just visiting for the time being.” Steel said honestly. It wasn’t like there was a way to go back to Earth cause whatever that old man did, was probably irreversible. 

But would Steel even want to go back to Earth? That was something both he, and his friends thought about for the last few days. So far Equestria seemed so much better than Earth, with no normal people to try and hide from, government suits looking for them, or having to deal with any other Un-Naturals who abuse their powers. The ponies made it very clearly that they wanted to be friends, even if it was only Twilight & her friends, even the princess seemed at the moment who all appeared content to help them. But should they? How would they even live in this strange world of talking ponies, they were nothing but crooks and thieves back home, with very limited education about anything since they were forced to live on the run. How would they earn a living?

“Steel!” Sweetie Belle’s voice snapped Steel out of his thoughts.

“Huh? What, what’s going on?” the young man asked when he looked over to the filly.

“You seemed to be lost in thought their young feller, is everything alright?” Granny Smith asked as she rubbed his back, trying to comfort him. Steel didn’t answer right away but after a few seconds and letting out a sigh he spoke up.

“I’m not sure.”


~~Circus~~

“Mrs. Cake we got another order of cinnamon rolls, and a dozen of lemon cupcakes for Blossomforth!” Circus cried out to the kitchen from the front counter.

“Coming right up Circus!” Mrs. Cake called back.

When Circus woke up today, and had nothing but a small plate of toast and eggs, he was practically out the door and was blindly exploring the town. And since he left the inn to explore the town, now that it was more or less put back together, and the ponies were not as tense anymore, Circus was pleasantly surprised in how the town actually operated. Out of the group as a whole that got spirited away to Equestria, Circus was the most curious and fascinated about this new world, after all they went from a world of humans & Un-Naturals to a land of short talking ponies, which could do various forms of magic.

Although as he was venturing around the town, Circus certainly gave a few of the ponies a good fright, as seeing a human soar through the sky while his feet ran along the ground after the body was certainly strange. Especially when Circus started floating his head around to get a better look at stuff while not moving his body for the most part. But after a good ten or so minutes, Circus ceased using his powers and started to wander around normally, which helped the ponies in not gawking or being weirded out by him because of his powers. Guess even in an alternate world of talking magical colorful ponies, Circus was still looked at as a strange thing when using his powers, though not as harshly in this world. Guess there were somethings that are just universal.

Amongst his aimless wandering and meeting some of the ponies, Circus stumbled into the west district of Ponyville and came across a building that would make the witches house from Hansel Gretel jealous. The building itself was quite big, possibly around two or three stories tall, and it looked like an very elaborate birthday cake. Entering the building to see what it was about, Circus was pleasantly pleased to see it was some kind of a bakery, or something like a confectionary shop. And when he entered the shop and the two owners saw him, they were pleasantly surprised to see him as it turns out these two ponies, their names being Cupcake & Carrot Cake, were the ponies that Pinkie Pie worked for. And were the ones that cater to most of the random, sporadic, or thought out planned parties that the pink earth pony throws on a whim.

Circus soon got to know the two ponies rather well, and they were really pleasing to be around, but as he remained around the owners the more that they started to remind him of his parents, before he got his powers. But the little conversation between the three after they formally introduced themselves, was interrupted when a small crowd of ponies came into the shop, however the crowd only grew bigger as time went on, to the point that it was too much for the couple. Unfortunately, Pinkie wasn’t around as she was out at the moment making deliveries, so Mr. and Mrs. Cake were left to fend for themselves. Until Circus said he’d would help in taking orders, while the Cakes work on prepping, cooking, and packaging any orders they got.

“Here we go, one order of cinnamon rolls, and a dozen of lemon cupcakes.” Mrs. Cake announced as she places the packages on the counter, where Circus grabbed it and handed it over to Blossomforth. Who was adorably licking her lips in anticipation as she takes the package from Circus, and ever so carefully placed it on her back between her wings. 

“That will be, 40bits.” Circus correlated after scouring the price sheet Mr. Cake gave him moments ago before he started helping, the mare produced a bag of bits from under one of her wings, and carefully jiggled a small pile of bits out of the bag onto the counter.

“Thank you!” Circus says happily as he slides the bits into the register.

“Thank you for the treats!” Blossomforth responded gleefully before trotting out of the now empty shop. After almost two and a half hours of non-stop work, Circus sat down on a small stool to catch his breath.

“Phew. Now that was a rush.” Circus sighs as he wiped his forehead as Mrs. Cake then comes out of the kitchen with a nice cold glass of lemonade.

“It would’ve been harder if you weren’t here to help to run the counter.” The mare said as she offered the glass to the young man who took it and down it in a few big gulps.

“I must say Circus you’re certainly a good worker. Honestly if Pinkie Pie was here, I’m sure it would’ve taken a bit longer to help out those ponies.” Mrs. Cake said in a somewhat annoyed yet apologetic tone.

“Why? Is Pinkie a bad worker?” Circus asked as he placed the glass on the counter.

“No she’s a good employee. But she can sometimes get a bit, distracted.” Circus chuckled a little at that as he could understand Mrs. Cake plight, as he has a fairly good grasp on the pink mares behaviors from his own interactions with Pinkie.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Don’t get me wrong dear, I love Pinkie. Bless her good heart. But I do wish she would be a little more focused or, mature and not get so distracted when on the clock.” The blue mare said after trying to come up with the right words to convey her feelings towards the mare in question.

“But never the less, Pinkie Pie is a hard worker when it counts.”

“Well that’s good to hear. Pinkie does seem to give off this very…”

“Yes. I know what you mean dear.” Mrs. Cake finished, knowing exactly what the young man was about to say.

While Mrs. Cake and Circus continued to talk about the excitable pink mare, Mrs. Cake told the young man how she adores Pinkie Pie and often times treats her more like a daughter, rather than an employee. Though there are times when Mrs. Cake feels like she could do with less of the pink ponies limitless bounds of energy, especially when Pinkie has one of her, moments. The pair were interrupted in their break by another group of customers trotting in, although this time there were a lot more foals than adults this time around. Time to handle another wave of customers.


~~Plasma~~

It’s been nearly three weeks since Plasma and his friends were sent to Equestria, even though they were unconscious for one week out of the three, but since then things have been a flip flop of activities. Especially the last few days, what with the conflict with a well-known Un-Natural and helping in rebuilding the town he half destroyed, while also getting used to being around the locals and having the natives of the town not fear them. For the most part over the course of the reconstruction the ponies of the town have gotten used to Plasma and his friends, and the young men have gotten used to being around so many of the ponies.

Today though Plasma was aimlessly wandering around until he left the town, and as he wandered about enjoying the peace and quiet Plasma tried to collect his thoughts on past events, and what he and his crew should do. As he wandered beyond the borders of the town, the young man took in a breath the fresh air, and listen to the sound of nothing but the pure tranquility of the wilds, with birds chirping and leaves rustling about. But even with the tranquility of his surroundings, and in his aimless walking while trying to gather his thoughts, Plasma noticed that he had walked up to and was now standing at the edge of a pretty gnarly looking forest. It kind of looked like the woods that he himself had to hide in after he had developed his powers more, and began living the life as a runaway teenager & crook.

With the woods peaking his curiosity the young man decided to take a trip into the woods. Entering the woodlands Plasma actually started to feel more at ease, as the forest was nice and cool with the added quietness of this place was really making Plasma feel more calm & collected. But the eerie silence of the forest did give the young man a slight chill, but it wasn’t too bad as he recalled his time hiding in forests when he was a pre-teen, surviving till he and his friends were able to come together and make a place for themselves at their old base. 

Continuing his walking about in the woods by following a fairly treaded path, Plasma started to wonder what he and the others should do. After all they were all just a bunch of thieves and criminals by all measures of the law, with limited schooling and self-taught street smarts Plasma was unsure if he, or the others would be able to function in proper society. And even if they could and possibly make some kind of life here in Equestria, another thought came to mind. And that other thought was about finding a way to go back to Earth, or if it was even worth trying to do so. Then again if they would go back to Earth, then they would head back to a place that is basically a nightmare just waiting to happen, cause one moment you could be just fine, but one slip up and you’ll be taken away by the governments tasks force that was made to hunt down any Un-Natural. But Earth was still their home planet, and while it was un-likely, there was always a hope among the hidden Un-Naturals that things will work out.

Whilst in the midst of thinking on how to proceed in what he and his friends should do, the nice quiet atmosphere of the forest started to lose its tranquility, as various animalistic noises started to make their presence now known, some of the noises were just birds and small animals, nothing to worrisome. But there was the occasional noise that clearly belonged to something that was more, un-friendly or dangerous. Plasma was then alerted when the sound of large animals were moving in the underbrush, to which the young man mentally prepared himself for a fight, as his right hand developed a bright blue glow, with wisps of blue fire wafting from the palm and the fingers.

“So much for my little stroll.” Plasma said to himself as the forest started to become noisier and noisier, it was like somebody set of a maximum-security prison alarm.

“And I think I might have overstayed my welcome here.”

Plasma then started to make his way back to the forest entrance, which shouldn’t be too hard as he hasn’t traveled to far into the woods. However it would seem his attempt to leave the forest was going to be delayed, as  something emerged from the forest and blocked his path, like they were being birthed from the very foliage of the forest itself. The creatures that now stood before the young man looked like wolves, but as stated they were made out of the various debris of the forest, and like their flesh & bone counterparts they were not exactly friendly when confronted with a stranger. And something told Plasma that these wolves weren’t just going to leave him alone, and let him walk out of the forest. In fact, the biggest one of the pack of nine wooden wolves stepped forth, snarling, and creaking as green drool and a foul moldy smell emitted from its gnashing maw.

“I’m not really in the mood for this.” Plasma spoke out as he summoned his Burn Saber, the act of doing so caused the wooden wolves to back away, yipping and yelping in fright as the area around him started to glow blue in the dimly lit forest surroundings. Even the larger pack member was barking in fright as it gnashed its wooden teeth.

“If I were you I’d run off now, unless you want to be made into kindle.” Plasma warned as he pointed his Burn Saber at the larger wooden wolf, intensifying it more which caused it to glow brighter and seem to vibrate and generate more heat.

The wooden wolves actually started to slowly began to walk away from Plasma, still snarling and growling as they kept their glowing yellow eyes on the young man. But they eventually melded back into the forest till it looked like they vanished completely. Not wanting to take any risks of being ambushed, Plasma kept his Burn Saber active, and used it as a torch to lit up the path ahead. Although the walk back out of the forest seemed to be longer than he thought, and as he was walking along the path and scanning the area, he could occasionally see the wooden wolves on the edge of the Burn Saber’s light, and they were still keeping their eyes on him the whole time, which was making him feel a little uneasy.

Then out of nowhere as Plasma continued to walk down the path, small pouches were being thrown out into the underbrush where he saw blue powder started to fill the area. That’s when he started to hear what sounded like ragged coughing from the wolves, before seeing probably the most ridiculous things ever thus far in his life, maybe. One of the wolves started to convulsively sneeze like someone with really bad allergies, but each sneeze had the wolf blow out pink bubble from its mouth and snout. Another wolf started to hiccupped so hard it was vaulted high into the trees, where Plasma heard branches break as he watched the wolf come tumbling back down, and immediately get sent back up into the trees with another hiccup. Then the big wolf probably had the most bizarre, and possible the most hilarious, thing to happen to it, which was having its huge bulky wooden frame shrink to the size of a chihuahua, while its head was still the same size. Now the off-portioned wooden wolf was stumbling around, and was knocking into everything until it tripped over an uprooted tree root, and flop onto its back. Its tiny body flailing around as it barked in a panic.

The other wolves of the pack also started to develop strange afflictions that left Plasma pretty baffled at what was happening to all of them. Before he could come to any kind of conclusions of what the hell just happened, the sound of something walking towards him caught his attention. Spinning around in the direction of the sound Plasma aimed his Burn Saber and was ready for a fight, but when he turned to face where the sound was coming from he saw what was coming towards him. Stepping into the light of his fiery weapon Plasma saw what looked like a pony version of a zebra, with a mohawk, golden rings around its neck and one of its forelegs, a saddlebag on its back, and a small smile on its rounded face where it spoke in a mature feminine voice.

“Fear not good sir, for there is nothing to be concerned.” The zebra said as she stood a foot from Plasma as he looked down at her with a curious expression.

“I take it you are the cause for, this.” Plasma suggested as he gestured to the oddly afflicted wooden wolves, to which the mare before him nodded her head. “Well then, I thank you for helping me out Miss…”

“Zecora.” The mare said as she raised a hoof which Plasma took in his other hand and shook it.


~~Snap~~

There was just something about sky & cloud watching that Snap just found so relaxing, just watching the fluffy sky mounds drift by and change shape was just therapeutic for him. Even back on Earth whenever the gang weren’t going on any jobs he loved warping up to the top of their hideout, and just cloud watch to unwind. He even wonders at times what it would be like to be a cloud, or be able to fly through the sky at times. He actually wished he was given a flying based power, granted his power does allow him to ‘soar’ through the sky by teleporting to different locations in the air, it still wasn’t really flying. But he still wished that he could fly through the air, like one of the most well-known Un-Naturals to ever be in the news, or have video footage of them spread across the web.

“I wonder how Red Hawk even gets himself dressed.” Snap mumbled to himself as he continued to gaze up at the sky.

“I mean, those wings of his are huge, how the heck does he put shirts on?” Snap stated as he thought back to the latest image that was taken of Red Hawk that he had seen by a very determined journalist.

“I hope the rumors about the guy trying to show that not all Un-Naturals are threats, and maybe one day we could—” Snap was interrupted from his personal thoughts when the sound of something falling pretty hard caught his attention.

Tilting his head back a bit, which was a little hard as he was laying on the grass in the Ponyville park, but with a little wiggle-room Snap found the source of the thud. It was a pony. A mare in fact with a coat of mint green fur, with a pale white mane, with a camera slung around her neck. The pony noticed that Snap was looking at her, and she gave a sheepish smile and a nervous chuckle before trying to pick herself up. While the mare was righting herself Snap vanished in a flash of bright yellow light, and reappeared in the same spot he was just laying on, but was now standing up instead. And when he looked back down to the pony, her face now held an expression of shock and curiosity, maybe a bit giddy as well instead of nervousness.

“Hi?” Snap said to the mare who didn’t respond right away, and just continued to look up at him with that astonished and amazed look.

“Um, miss? Are you alright?” Snap asked as he walked over to the mare, who finally snapped out of her stupor and very excitably raised a hoof.

“Hi, my name is Lyra Heartstrings!” the mare said in a VERY excitable voice while she kept her foreleg outstretched. “You’re one of the heroes that helped save Ponyville from that weird dragon thing, right?”

“Y-yeah, I’m one of those, heroes.” Snap retorted shakily while taking the mare’s hoof in his hand and then shaking it. “Names Snap, nice to meet you Lyra. So what brings you out here?”

“I wanted to see if I can take a picture of you! I’ve been trying to get one of each of the heroes, but you’re the first one I’ve come across with today. So can I?” Snap couldn’t help but mentally chortle at this mare, after all a complete stranger is acting like a fan girl and is asking for a picture of himself.

Snap agreed to the picture which Lyra quickly took after grabbing her camera. Once the mare got her picture Snap watched as she somehow pulled a book out from behind her, which confused him for a bit but just quickly passed it off as weird pony magic. The unicorn then placed the picture in the book, which afterwards Lyra then started to ask a rapid fire of questions to the young man, like what Snap is, where did he come from, and how he was able to teleport without having a horn? As for Snap himself…

‘This mare is just as inquisitive as Twilight…but maybe a bit more, enthusiastic.’


~~Burner & Wave~~

Off in the country side on the outskirts of Ponyville fire and water clashed with each other, furious flames collided with frigid waves causing steam to vent and vault from the crashing forces. In the field Burner and Wave were sparring with each other, with the former creating various fiery aberrations like snakes or humanoid shapes, while Wave had both of his arms transformed into fluid columns of water. After waking up the two friends spent some time just wandering around the town, mostly to see how the ponies were faring, but as they wandered about the two friends each started to taken in the severity of their situation. What were their lives going to be like now with them being stranded in this new world?

“—all I’m saying is that we should just stay here, that way we won’t have to hide and worry about being found out!” Burner said as he was dodging Wave’s watery punches, while constantly lobbing fireballs at his friend who either dodged them or evaporated them, which Burner would re-create more to replenish his ammo supplies.

“Not arguing on that Burner.” Wave said as he dodged another volley of fireballs, before turning into a spiraling column of water and then lunging at his friend, who surrounded himself by a swirling dome of fire, which Wave then bounced off the dome and even extinguishing a good amount of it.

“But how are we supposed to go about and live out in this world. Cause how would we even go about doing it.” Wave asked as he formed back into his human form.

“I mean for god sakes we were bank robbers Burner, and we thrifted and stole stuff that costed hundreds of dollars, and it’s pretty clear these ponies don’t look to kindly to those who did what we’ve done for years.”

“Yeah, none of them looked particularly happy when we told them what we did back home, after the fight with Dragonface.” Burner said as he remembered the very soured and disappointed expression on all of the mares faces when he and the others explained to them what they did for a living, but then their expressions shifted to one of understanding and even pity. That’s when Burner was knocked to the ground during his remembrance when Wave slammed into him as a rolling wave.

“My point still stands; what do we DO to ensure we can actually have a good decent life here?” Wave asked as he went back to human form as Burner sat up and used the fire to try and dry himself off faster.

“…I don’t know.” Burner solemnly said as he finished drying himself off, with steam wafting off of his body as he remained sitting down.

The pair have been at this debate on whether or not they should stay in Equestria, or should they find a way to go back to Earth throughout their entire sparring match. If they stay in Equestria they wouldn’t have to hide their powers, or fear of being taking away to some kind of lab to live out their lives of becoming lab rats, or simply rot away in their cells. And even with the group knowing a little about this worlds actual social structure, how would they go about trying to find actual legitimate jobs to support themselves! Would the ponies hire any of them for work, especially if the pony in questioned learn that they were crooks back home. Would they really give them a chance?

Not only that, but this world doesn’t seem able to accommodate to the six completely, like the lack of access to meat or other essential stuff that they would need to have a balanced diet. Granted they could just hunt for the meat that they would all need, they all learned how to do that before they finally made a home in New York.

There’s also the lack of modern-day convenience, plus, they know how the human world worked, so they could blend in and have some kind of an established life. But here, they would literally have to start from square one in how to integrate with pony society. The pair eventually stopped their debate on whether or not to stay or go back to Earth, when their stomachs let out some pretty loud grumbles. While the breakfast the inn keeper made was really good, especially the pancakes that were better than any of them could make, it wasn’t all that filling. Strange on how the stuff ponies make looked and are basically the same stuff they would make themselves but are not as filling. The guys then started to make their way back to town while making idle conversations as they do so, and as they were cutting through the park they found a rather amusing sight, they found Snap sitting on a bench with a mint green unicorn who was asking several questions all at once, and seemed unaware of his annoyance.

When they approached the two, Snap introduced the mare as his new, friend, Lyra Heartstrings who was now looking even more excited that Burner and Wave spoke to her as they introduced themselves. After getting to know the mare a bit, Snap and his new friend Lyra joined the pair to get something to eat. The group got even bigger when Plasma came walking into the park where they all stood, but he wasn’t alone as he was talking to a zebra, who was talking in rhyme for some reason. As the group made their way into the town they eventually came upon Steel, who had a trio of fillies trotting about around his feet, and talking about all kind of things they can do to earn something called their cutie marks. The entire gang decided to have lunch at Sugarcube Corner at the suggestion of Lyra and the fillies, where they found Circus helping the owners out with Pinkie Pie. And with all of the humans now in one place Lyra’s eyes have become wider and wider, and when Circus was added to the little get together she basically collapsed.

“Someone might want to get this mare some water.” Steel said as he carried the passed-out mare to a nearby table, where the group sat down, and started to wait for their order of cakes and other such treats.


~~Elsewhere~~

Manehatten, one of Equestria’s largest cities and is where most ponies in the nation live, other than the other major cities that boarder the edge of Equestria’s coastlines. Now amongst the major cities of Equestria, including Canterlot, Manehatten has garnered some rather unpleasant reputations for itself over the years, most of which is that the ponies of the city are not as kind or as inviting to others or even each other. As they all are to caught up in their own lives and enterprises to care about anyone else. But as of recently within the city the ponies have started to gossip, as within the past few days strange things have started to happen. Reports of ponies going missing, or being misplaced and then being found later with bite and claw marks has started popping up. There have also been reports of ponies finding scratch marks on their back doors, especially those who own or work at places that sell food and other supplies and goods. One pony even sworn that she saw what looked like a small pack of rats exit from a building, all with packets and non-packed foods in their mouths. Something weird is happening in this city.

Today though Manehatten was having a scheduled rainfall to help wash the city clean, and as the rains continue to fall down and wash over the buildings and streets all the ponies sought shelter till the showers were done. But down in the southern district of the city a stallion was running through the rain, using his suitcase to cover himself to try and keep dry. Yet the rain was the least of the stallions worries. Because as he was running through the back streets back to his apartment, running through the rain the stallion was being pestered by a small pack of rats that were nipping and biting at his legs.

“Get away from me you little pests!” The big burly stallion shouted at the small group of rats scurrying after him, while rain continued to shower down on him and his assaulters.

One of the rats actually managed to lunge at him, landing on his left haunches and started to bite at him. Upon being bitten the stallion gave a loud yelp, and actually leapt forward and tossed and rolled on the wet floor, but this just caused the other rats to swarm and started to bite him as well. The stallion continued to roll and thrash until he managed to slam into a few nearby garbage cans, causing them to fall and clatter which scared the rats to screech and scatter, giving the stallion time to knock any rats off himself and run into a nearby condemned building. Slamming the door shut before backing away the stallion leaned against a dusty counter, panting and bleeding from all the bite wounds that covered his body.

“Phew! Finally, damn things just wouldn’t quit.” The stallion grumbled as he kept leaning against the counter as he tries to catch his breath, and waiting for the rains to stop and hoping that the rats will be gone by then. But as the stallion rested he started to notice something. A foul smell was in the air.

“AH! That smell! It reeks of rotten eggs and skunk fumes!” the stallion then shambled away from the desk and headed over to a wall where there were a few chairs still stood. Taking a seat the stallion rested as he looked himself over, seeing that while the bites were indeed bad they weren’t life threatening. His attention then turned to look at the decrepit building he found himself in, seeing a few holes in the walls and ceiling, and even hearing something crumbling somewhere in the building.

“The city really needs to take down these old buildings.” The stallion commented as he waved a hoof in front of his face, trying to get rid of the smell. But as he sat in the chair the stallion did not notice that from a hole that was above his head…a pair of sharp clawed hands reached down from the ceiling. Until it was too late.

“AGGGGGH!” the stallion screamed as he yanked from his seat and into the hole, where the sound of bestial screeches echoed…accompanied by the sound of flesh being torn and blood being spilled.
> Chapter 8: Decision [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another bright and sunny day for the town of Ponyville, which was again in a bustle of activity, especially at the Humble Inn where the six humans were hanging out in the inn’s lobby. All of whom were just casually drinking glasses of water, or whatever other kind of beverages that the inn had in stock, while talking amongst themselves. And as the six sit around the table in the farthest corner of the lobby, they have a discussion about what they should finally do, from stay in Equestria and actually live a peaceful life, or try to find a way to go back to Earth where they at least know the world, and are familiar with. While also hoping that things for them and their fellow Un-Naturals will finally change for the better. Though if the group was honest, the idea of not having to hide from the government’s hunting force and live as simple crooks, but as actual people with normal lives did sound pretty appealing. And the ponies of this world appear to be incredibly welcoming and friendly, once they got used to them all. Also there wasn’t a sure fire guarantee if there was a way for them to go back to Earth, or if it was actually a good idea in the first place.

“Alright guys, I think we can all agree that this place is a lot better than Earth.” Plasma stated confidently to his friends who all nodded in agreement.

“True dat, this place already feels like a better place to live. Heck, most of us even found some kind of jobs if we sticked around.” Steel said as he takes a big swig of his glass of lemonade.

“But the question we’ve all been dancing around is, do we want to stay here in Ponyville and try to make a life here, or try somewhere else?” A momentary silence filled the lobby after Snap made his statement, which the group than started to weigh out their options, as the sound of ponies going about their day played out in the background.

“Well I know I’d rather live in a place like this where we don’t have to hide, or risk having the Collectors get called on us and taken to one of their Storage Facilities.” Wave said as he remembers seeing the aforementioned mechanical behemoths on one encounter, and shuttering as he recalled what that machine did to another Un-Natural that he and his crew met a long time ago.

“I agree with Wave and luckily for us we don’t have to worry about Collector’s anymore.” Circus interjected as he down the last of his iced water.

“We may know how things on Earth work, but here we don’t have to constantly watch our backs in case something turns up and just wrecks everything.”

“Circus is right guys. Plus we’ve been lucky so far with how we lived our lives back then.” Burner said as he lightly slapped his left hand on the table.

“And if our encounter with the old man from Enigma was anything, I think it was our luck finally giving out. So I think it would be better to make the best out of this situation for us.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement to Burner’s words, though they did wish they could go back to Earth and give that old man a much deserved ass kicking for messing with them.

“I guess we’re all in an agreement then guys, we stay and try to work things out here.” Steel said with confidence as a small smile spread across his face.

“But what do we do for income? We can’t exactly resort to robbing banks again.” Wave pondered aloud as he carefully jostles his glass of orange soda in his hand, but whilst the water mutant was deliberating on what kind of legitimate work he could do the others spoke up.

“Well I won’t have to worry about employment, the Cakes said if I stick around they’re willing to hire me, as they’ll need the extra help whenever Pinkie Pie does one her random parties, makes preparations for actual scheduled parties, gets roped into some weird adventure or just when she has one of her, moments.”

“Moments?” the group asked in unison as they all looked at Circus confusedly.

“What do you mean by moments?” Wave asked his blonde friend for more details, purely out of curiosity.

“I’m not sure what, moments, Mrs. Cake was implying but apparently these moments can be, radical.” Circus simply  said as he was thought about the offer more intently now. “But at least I have a place to start working.”

The group continued to talk about what they should do if they were staying in Ponyville. Steel informed the others that he could probably work at Sweet Apple Acers, as Granny Smith said she’d happily hire him for when the harvest starts, as well as any other work she can think of around the farm for him to do. As the group continued to talk amongst themselves, and come up with ideas on where they could look for those who weren’t offered jobs to find employment, and maybe search for someplace for them to call their own home. Instead of just living in the inn forever. While the group as coming up with different ideas on what to do, they all heard the door to the inn opened up with the ring of its door bell, and when they looked to see who came in the six young men saw Celestia, Twilight, and her five friends trot in and immediately made their way to the sitting humans.

“Ah good you’re all here.” Celestia said as she and the others approached the group, who turned in their seats to face the group of ponies fully.

“Hey there Celestia, actually we have something we want to discuss with you.” Plasma said to the princesses which caused her to tilt her head to the side slightly.

“Oh, and what’s that.” Celestia curiously asked as she and the other mares looked at Plasma as began telling the princess of his, and his friends decision.

“We’ve decided to stay here in Equestria, and maybe live here in Ponyville rather than to try and find a way back to Earth.” The ponies quickly developed very happy and thrilled expressions, especially Pinkie Pie as she looked like she was about ready to explode with joy, which kind-of scared the six humans due to the fact the pink mare was also shaking like bottle rocket ready to take off. Though given what they have seen of the mare’s own hyper active personality, and from what the other ponies have told them of her, this was quite common.

“Well this is certainly a surprise.” Celestia said as she stood before the six un-naturals with a bright cheerful smile adorning her muzzle.

“But if this is what you six want, then I will help you all in any way I can to ensure that your new lives are acclimated well.”

“Much appreciated princess.” Circus said as he went to grab his head, and then tipped his head like a hat to the princess, getting a giggle out of her and the others all of whom were no longer disturbed by Circus’s ability.

The ponies then gathered around the group of humans, and they started to ask them what their plans were, from where they were going to live to what kind of jobs they were thinking of trying to get hired for. And while Steel and Circus informed the ponies of their possible jobs, which were being confirmed by both Pinkie Pie and Applejack, the others were discussing with the rest of the ponies in trying to figure out what kind of jobs they could do. The conversation of the group shifted from finding work, to where the group would end up living when Celestia asked the group if they would live in the inn, or find their own place to live in. The guys informed the princess that once they get their finances squared, they’ll eventually find someplace to live in. Celestia understood and even said she will speak to the mayor of the town about finding a plot of un-claimed land, and arrange to have a house build for the six humans once they have everything figured out. The six humans apricated the princess’s offer and took her up on her proposal, but with the town still partially destroyed it was probably going to be some time before the guys will get their own place.


(Canterlot)

All the way up in Canterlot Castle, the Royal Guard were making their rounds around the castles ground, and its hallways keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Especially since the wedding event had only happened a short while ago, not to mention the sudden appearance of the six humans during the end of the day, then the strange arrest of the dragon-like creature that has been causing much discord in the castle. And in the city as well with his constant horrifying roars and wails frightening everypony, as well as the constant fires he creates when he loses his sanity. The fires were so intense and destructive, the jails of the castle now just looked like the inside of a dormant volcano. Luckily Celestia and her sister were able to fireproof the jail cells before they were utterly damaged beyond repair.

While the majority of those in the castle believe that this dragon creature is a lost cause, the princesses still believed that he was still worth saving. So the creature was assigned a psychiatrist who specialized in traumatized patients to try and help him, although so far the doctor assigned to Dragonface hasn’t seem to be making any progress, as the big behemoth continued to act either as a wild animal, or a paranoid frighten foal. Yet the doctor wasn’t going to give up on the mental damaged human! Even though Dragonface hasn’t been as cooperative as most ponies would believe, the doctor has been able to make a little progress, and this little bit of progress and faith that the elderly human was able to be saved from his own self-loathing and despair. So today the doctor was going to try something else, something that he hoped will save Dragonface.

“Doctor do you really think this new method will work?” the doctor’s assistant asked the older unicorn stallion, as she and the doctor headed down into the dungeons to try and help Dragonface with his mental trauma once again. And maybe help him try to control his powers.

“I’m positive!” the doctor said enthusiastically as he looks through the several books he has levitating around himself while the pair trotted down the steps.

“I believe if we use an Adaptive Mind Reading spell we might be able to predict when Dragonface’s primal urges kick in, and then help him to fight through it with Fortified Mind magic to help him withstand those impulses.” The stallion continued to spot out various methods to help Dragonface that he has come up with over the past few days as they entered the jail.

“If you say so sir, but I’m starting to think that this Dragonface is beyond help. He seems to be in a very deep pit, with no way to climb out of it.” The nurse said as the pair started to make their way towards the humans cell.

“Well we can’t just leave the poor creature in the state…he’s…in.”

The doctors words slowly died down as he and his assistant looked towards Dragonface’s cell when they reached it. Both the doctor and nurse saw that the area around the jail cell was completely destroyed, the cell door was broken from the inside out with its reinforced bars bent and snapped, the several dozen chains shackles inside the cell were also snapped and broken. Some of them appearing as if they were melted. Then there was the cell itself. It’s interior looked as if somepony used an incredibly powerful fire spell, scorching the rocky floor, walls, and even the ceiling, which was quite frightening for the two ponies as they were told by princess Celestia that she placed a fire ward spell on the cell. So even if Dragonface used his intense and brutal fire breath, all the fire would be contained in the cell, and will be undamaged. But the fact that the two ponies were looking at a scorched and destroyed cell, without any sign of Dragonface around made the ponies hearts start to quickly race and rise.

Then as the two ponies just stared at the destroyed cell, a soft shuffling clattering sound then caught both ponies attention, causing their widen and scared eyes to look to their left. When they fully turned to face the direction they only saw the darken hallway, which they also took notice that had all their lamps destroyed, causing the hallway to look pitch black. That’s when the ponies nearly had a heart attack at what they saw next. The ponies saw small pieces of broken royal guard armor scattered about, all of which as well as the floor were covered in red stains. The sound that caught their attention again perked up through the deathly silence of the jail, but this time it was getting closer to the pair and the ponies couldn’t move an inch, as they were to frighten to move as the noise got closer and closer. Even if their brains were telling, no yelling at them both to run and hide.

Then from the shadows of the hallway the clattering shuffling was followed by a new sound, a low rumbling growl, along with heavy breathing. And something scrapping against the floor. A moment later and the towering visage of Dragonface emerged from the shadows of the hallway, his maw & teeth caked red and dripping with blood while strands of fur stuck out from in-between each of his ivory spiked teeth, and the body of a royal guard stallion in his clutch. But the ponies fears turned to utter horror when they looked up to Dragonface’s eyes, eyes that were filled with primal hunger.

*growling snarl*


(Ponyville)

The Humble Inn’s lobby was still filled the chit-chat and voices of both Twilight’s friends, and the group of humans as they continued to talk. Though the conversation has shifted from looking for jobs, and worrying about a permeant place of residence, and railed into more common and random conversations. Celestia and Twilight were talking with Plasma in learning a bit more about each other’s worlds, with the former wondering on how people from the humans world develop their powers, and what influences it. Applejack was talking to Steel about the ins and outs of running the farm, what chores and tasks they all do, basically everything that the tall man was going to need to learn if he was going to work on the farm. Fluttershy and Rarity were talking to Snap and Circus about clothing, as well as the two youngest members of the humans making a deal with Rarity to supply them with new clothes. Rainbow Dash seemed to be trying to get Burner tell her stories about when he and the others were bank robbers, but the fire wielder was fairly cryptic or not very engaging with the mare, which was starting to miff Rainbow Dash a little. As for Pinkie Pie and Wave…

“For the last time Pinkie, you don’t need to throw an official welcoming party. Or plan in advance for our ‘getting a new house’ party.” Wave said as he tried, and failing, to calm the pink mare down from her excited tangent that she’s been in ever since the group told them that they were staying in Ponyville. Although it would seem it was an act in futility as the pink pony was being aggressively stubborn in her act in throwing the crew a party of some kind.

“Come on Wavy you and your friends have denied me in giving you all some kind of party.” Pinkie argued back at Wave’s remark about not being able to throw a party celebration.

“You’ve shut down my initial welcoming party, and the welcoming to Ponyville party, and the ‘Hooray Our Town is Re-Built’ party! That’s three parties! Three parties you’ve denied me!” Pinkie wailed before lunging at Wave with full force and wrapping her forelegs around the human’s waist as she wails.

“DON’T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!”

As Pinkie wailed about her blight of not throwing a part, Wave starts trying to pry Pinkie off him while the rest of the group of eleven laughed, chuckled, or giggled in some compacity at the sight of the two. Eventually Wave finally managed to free himself by turning into water, and slipping out of Pinkie’s grasps and rushing to the other side of the lobby. But Pinkie would not be deterred so easily and began chasing the bouncing rush of water around, causing the group to laugh even harder as they watched the duo.

“She’s really enthusiastic about giving us a party no matter what isn’t she?” Steel remarked as he continued to watch the pair with a smile on his face.

“That’s Pinkie for ya. One way or another, she’ll throw you some kind of party. Even if you say no.” Rainbow Dash said as she started to hover around the whole group, watching her friend trying to grab onto Wave, but unable to hold onto him while he’s in his water form.

The cheerful atmosphere continued on for a bit before being abruptly interrupted, when they all heard the door to the inn just burst open and frantic hoof steps came galloping towards the lobby. The ground then saw Luna came rushing into the lobby, scaring the owner and receptionist of the inn, and the other ponies along with the humans. Luna looked at the group, and they all saw the look of sheer panic that was plastered on her face.

“Luna what’s—” Celestia started but was cut-off when Luna all but shouted.

“DRAGONFACE HAS ESCAPED! AND HIS ON A RAMPAGE IN THE CASTLE!”

The entire group fell silent before they all ran outside, and looked up at Canterlot Mountain where saw even from a great distance, plumes of smoke emitting from the capital city. Wasting no time Celestia teleported to the city, quickly followed by Luna who forcibly brought Twilight & her friends, and the six humans. And when they all arrived in Canterlot castle, they all saw the level of devastation that the castle was in. Flames & smoke were flaring & wafting from what look liked every window of the castle, several holes could be seen made in the castles walls where even more fire & smoke bellowed out. Like a smelting forges in the process of refining minerals.

The group saw that guards were scrambling about and try to contain the situation, with a large force at the castles main gate and keeping the citizens at bay, while others helped those in the castle bring them outside. But the majority of the guards were hard at work in trying to put the fires out, and thankfully the pegasus guards rushed to gather as many clouds as they could, and turned them into rain clouds so that they could try and snuff out the raging fire. but as the ponies were at work, and the group just stared in total dismay, everyone then heard the sounds of ponies either screaming, or making some kind of battle cry, which was then followed by monstrous roars!

“What happened here!?” Fluttershy shrieked in fright as she covered her hears from the horrible roars, while continuing to look upon the horrible state of the castle. That’s when Fluttershy and the other ponies watch princess Luna, and the six humans run head long into the blistering inferno within the castle.

“Whoa! Wait for us guys!” Rainbow said before bolting off after the group, before her friends and Celestia followed behind her and the group of humans.

The group continued to run through the burning halls of the castle, seeing the whole interior of the castle scorched, and ever last bit of furnishing & nick-knack that littered the halls being destroyed. They first made their way to the stairway leading to the dungeon, which was now a blistering inferno again. But what really shook the ponies were the bodies of burned, ripped, and torn royal guards that were laying on the steps and roasting away in the fire. The sight of the dead bodies didn’t bother the humans that much, but for Twilight and her friends along with the princesses, seeing their fellow ponies ending up in such a state, caused a sense of dread to wash over them.

“This is horrible.” Was all Twilight could say before another powerful roar echoed through the halls, then seeing a column of fire burst through one of the castles walls.

The group watched as the fire rushed past them, there were three guards in the stream of blistering fire, before they were reduced to smoldering husks with their armor turning white hot and melting around their husks. At that point all of the ponies lost their collective composure and screamed out in horror, while the charred and burned bodies fell to the floor and clattered about the rubble. Yet the group was about to meet another fearsome sight, as a moment later the image of Dragonface came trudging into view, partially nude and caked in blood and fire as he came walking out of the hole in the wall. Steam and flames wafting from his muscular body, which was heavily scared, while pieces of his shackles and chains clung to his arms, legs, and his neck. Dragonface then turned to look at the group, his slit bloodshot red eyes focused squarely on all of them.

The six humans made their way to the front of the group, with Steel & Wave at the forefront and transforming into their alternate forms, Burner was gathering the surrounding flames around them all to create two massive fireballs, Plasma wasted no time in creating his Burn Saber, though longer and much more bulkier as he got into a battle ready stance, while Circus & Snap readied themselves for the fight ahead.

“Princess, you, and the others try to find any survivors. We’ll handle Dragonface.” Plasma said to both Celestia and Luna before their ears were assaulted by a third booming menacing roar, before Dragonface lunged at the group. Hands and mouth bared as fire wafted from his open maw.

“LEAVE NOW!”

Plasma shouted as Steel lunged at Dragonface and once again locked himself with the draconic humanoid, though this time Wave came in and assisted and aided Steel in shoving Dragonface back through the hole in the wall. The ponies did as the humans suggested and ran away from the fight, and scattered through the castle to look for any survivors.

“I hope the guys will be alright.” Applejack said as she turned the corner, losing sight of the humans.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine darling, but right now we need to see if any pony is in trouble!” Rarity said as she fully galloped through the castle, avoiding the fires as the group separated. Applejack gave one last glance over her shoulder towards where the group had just stood before hearing guys shout in the distance.

“Alright guys, let’s do this!” Applejack heard Plasma shout out before all of the humans yelled in unison “YEAH!”


~~~~~

Dragonface was able to wrestle Steel off himself, but as the metal coated human was knocked away Wave came in and immediately went after Dragonface’s head, trying to prevent him from using his fire breath. Steel recovered from his throw and tackled the draconic humanoid again, and tried to pin him to the floor. But Dragonface grabbed his dreadlocks and with all of his strength pulled Steel off him, and then swung him around like a ragdoll. Thankfully, Snap appeared right on top of Steel, and in flash the two were standing a little ways away from the fight, but they quickly rejoined the battle. As the pair jumped back into the fight, they had to quickly dodge when Dragonface unleashed another torrent of fire, but Burner was able to divert the flames away from everyone while trying also trying to contain the fire around them, so they don’t spread further. But he wasn’t able to contain all of the fire, so as the unaffected rampant fires continued to flare and run wild the rest of the group had to avoid the flames.

But the fires and Dragonface weren’t the only things the six humans had to watch out for, they also had to watch out for the debris that was falling from nearby walls and the looming ceiling, whenever Dragonface or Steel caused pieces of the structures to fall from their places. While Dragonface was being distracted by Steel, Plasma, and Wave, Circus was flying around the group and lashing out with a barrage of projectile punches and kicks, not enough to actually cause damage to someone like Dragonface. But it was just enough to provide a distraction so his friends can continue to get the jump on the elderly Un-Natural. Snap also contributed to the distraction by teleporting to large chunks of the walls and ceiling, and then blinking them to Dragonface where they would drop onto him, or have the old man be thrown into them. throughout all of this Dragonface has tried to swipe at Jessy and Snap out their air and take them out of the fight, puffing out bursts of fire or simply swiping at them with his large hands, but Circus’s & Snap’s greater maneuverability allowed them to avoid all of Dragonface’s wild attacks.

While the two free roamers were distracting Dragonface, Steel was able to attack the draconic humanoid from behind and wrestle him into a submission hold, but even with his enhanced strength the elderly Un-Natural was still stronger than he was, and was able to easily shrug the steel bodied human off himself before quickly turning around and clamping his jaws around David’s head.

“Not this time Dragonface!” Steel grumbled before wrenching the jaws off his head, just enough to remove his head from the crushing jaws, and deliver an uppercut to the old man and actually causing Dragonface to be vaulted a few feet off the ground and over a dozen or so feet. 

As Dragonface was knocked into the air, Plasma & Wave lept high above him and went in to deliver an attack, with Plasma using his enlarged burn saber to actually deliver a decisive slash, followed by Wave with his right arm turning into a blade of highly compressed water. Both bladed attacks swung with everything that their users could dish out, and managed to delivering a strong enough blow to actually leave a crossed scar across Dragonface’s chest, but neither attack did any lethal damage, but it was enough to weaking the old man. Dragonface’s skin was just far more tougher and sturdier than it looked. After dealing their strikes Dragonface quickly struck back and lashed out at Wave, but he was able to turn into water to avoid the attack, while also being able to counter attack by engulfing Dragonface’s hand and using it to actually punch the large draconic humanoid in the face!

With Dragonface now distracted by having a water covered fist punching him, Steel was finally able to pin Dragonface to the ground and putting him into an arm lock, causing the large Un-Natural to thrash around as he tried to pry the steel coated human off himself. He even went into the crocodile death roll to try and fling Steel off, causing both him & David roll around and crash through several more walls!

The others tried to stop the pair from rolling around, but they were un-able to match Dragonface’s strength in trying to fling their friend off him, or Steel’s attempt to wrestle the old Un-Natural into submission, so they were unable to stop the pair from literally rolling through wall after wall, till they both barreled down to ground level by smashing through a wall leading outside, and end up crashing into the moat below. The rest of the group followed after the pair, jumping out of the wall and landing in the moat with, where Dragonface & Steel were still wrestling each other.

“This isn’t going to be easy Plasma.” Burner said as he gathered more fire from the castle above him, creating several large balls of fire, ready to fire them at Dragonface when he spotted an opportunity to do so.

“Yeah I can see that.” Plasma retorted before lunged out of the way when Dragonface let loose another stream of fire, which barreled through another wall of the castle.

“But we gotta do what we can, and stop him before he literally brings the whole castle down!” the rest of the guys followed Plasma’s lead when Dragonface was finally able to toss Steel off himself, and readied to run rampant again.


~~~~~

In another section of the castle, where rain clouds poured heavy rain to wash away the fires engulfing the castle, Celestia and the others were able to locate various ponies that were trapped, and get them to safety outside of the castle. Throughout all of the mares searching for survivors, and trapped injured ponies, they all heard the roars and rumbles of the fight that the humans were having, and from the commotion that was being heard it was not an easy fight.

“Alright, I think that’s everypony in the castle whose were still alive.” Celestia said as she looked at the surrounding ponies around her in a protective force field from maids, butlers, castle staff, and any guards that weren’t badly injured. Even the animals from the royal gardens were gathered up, all of which looked down right terrified at what was going on around them.

“Princess what should we do now?” one of the not injured royal guard asked the alicorn, before another stream of fire roared into the sky, scaring the ponies greatly.

“I want the royal guard to establish a perimeter, keep the civilians away from the castles boarders, and keep an eye on the survivors.” The royal guards saluted and did as they were instructed.

“What about us princess?” Twilight asked her mentor on what they should do next..

Before Celestia could instruct them, the group was interrupted when a guttering roar echoed through the air, scaring the castle staff as well as Twilight & her friends. The six mares and the two alicorns then immediately raced to where the roar came from, which was nearly on the other side of the castle and when they found where the fight was occurring the ponies saw the level of destruction that was caused in the process. At the moment Circus had his limbs coiled around Dragonface’s neck like a snake, while Steel was trying to keep the larger Un-Natural’s arms pinned behind the old man’s back, there was also a mass of water—which was most likely Wave—wrapped around Dragonface’s muzzle, keeping it clamped shut as to not unleash more fire. As for Burner, Snap & Plasma they were nowhere to be seen as far as the ponies could tell, but after a small flash of light the group saw Plasma & Snap with various of none melted metal pipes and other metallic objects in their arms.

“Alright guys get ready to bind his hands, then his ankles, and his mouth!” Plasma said as he used his burn saber to weld the pipes and pieces of metal together, making an incredible crude set of shackles and make-shifted chains to restrain Dragonface.

“I see you lot have things under control.” Celestia said in a slightly relaxed tone, thinking that the danger had passed, and the threat was contained, but she and the others were still weary of the elderly human. But when Celestia looked back towards the group, she started to noticed that the struggling between Dragonface and the others seemed to have died down a bit.

“Don’t come to close, things aren’t over until we bind him.” Snap warned as he tries to help Plasma in finishing the restraints, but as they were making the last of the combobulated shackles, they all noticed how much quieter it had gotten. That’s when Circus spoke up

“Guys…I think it’s over.”

Everypony and human looked over at Dragonface, and saw that the frill on his head was slowly folding back, and the look in his eyes started to soften, losing their blinded wild fury and shifted to a look of confusion & regret. Circus removed his coiled limbs from around the elders neck, Wave released his maw and reverted back to his normal state, as well as Steel letting the old man go as he shrunk in size. Once he was free Dragonface went slightly limp, dropping to his hands and knees before his eyes started to wander around, looking over the courtyard and everything else, and everyone around him. As Dragonface’s eyes wandered they made contact with Celestia’s, and in the briefest of instances when their eyes meet only for a second, Celestia could tell in an instant that this being before her was no longer a wild destructive beast. He was now just a tired and broken man, in every sense of the word. Dragonface then looked over to the castle, seeing the ruined state that it was in from its crumbled walls to the fires being snuffed out by the heavy rainclouds being used on them, and the bellowing pillars of smoke wafting into the air.

“…I…I did t-this…didn’t I?” Dragonface asked no pony in particular. His voice sounding very old. Old and tired, as well as full of sorrow and regret. That’s when the ponies saw a sense of realization in the man’s eyes, he then clasped his hands over his maw, before looking like he was ready to throw up. That’s when Dragonface looked at the ponies causing the humans to rush to their side, but their fears of an attack were unfounded, as the old mutant just looked at them with wide moisten eyes.

“I ate…your people!” Dragonface said in a low voice, more as a question than a statement. “I killed your people!?” Celestia took a step forward, but was stopped by the humans before she spoke.

“Yes. You did.” Celestia said to the large human, causing him to look even more regretful as tears started to swell in his eyes before trickling down his scaly cheeks.

“No! No, no, no, no, no! Not again.” Dragonface mumbled to himself as he pressed his face into the ground, his clawed hands grasping his head, his nail nearly tearing into the frill that was now deflated against his scalp and neck.

“I did it again.” The large Un-Natural groaned before he started to silently ramble on, continuously muttering his remorse as he wallows in the water of the moat.

“Dragonface…” Celestia said as takes a few hesitant steps forward again, before being stopped by Plasma as she now stood a foot from the crying human. “I know this isn’t entirely your fault—”

“BUT IT IS MY FAULT!” Dragonface roared, causing Celestia and the group to cover their ears as they jumped back in surprise.

“It’s always my fault! I can’t control my powers; I always end up destroying a town or a city I pass through. And the lives that I’ve taken…there is no excuse for any of them.” Dragonface bemoaned as he vented his frustration & sorrow as he openly wept and cried, his tears draining into the moat as he wallowed in his despair.

“I am tired of hearing the voices of the people I killed, seeing the carnage I cause replay in my head every time I close my eyes over and over again. I’m just…I’m just tired of all of it…” Celestia again approached Dragonface, reaching out a hoof to help the human up as she gives a hopeful smile.

“Then let us help you Dragonface. I’m confident that with time we can help you control your powers, and help you to forgive yourself from the woes that haunt you.” Celestia said sincerely as she inched just a bit closer to the mutant, this time with Plasma allowing the alicorn do what she was attempting to do. The large Un-Natural released a shuttering breath before uttering something.

“No.” he said as he looked up to Celestia with a dreaded expression plastered on his elongated face. “No more pain…no more suffering…for anyone. It all ends now.”

Before Celestia or any one else could interpret what Dragonface meant, in a quick motion not allowing for any pony to even react, Dragonface reached up to his head grasping it by his horns with his hands, and snapping his own neck in one quick & forceful twist! 

All of the ponies screamed in horror as they clearly heard bone breaking, while watching Dragonface’s head be twisted around till it was facing backwards. The large body of the now dead mutant then toppled backwards into the moat, flopping down into the water before it just laid limp in the shallows, leaving every pony absolutely shocked & horrified. Celestia most of all was the most horrified. The only ones who didn’t seem to affected by what had just happened were the six humans, but while they did not audibly displayed their shock, they all turned to look away from the dead body as they lowered their heads, and placed their right hands over their chests while their other hand balled and clenched.

“Wh—why did he do—that!?” Celestia asked in utter bewilderment as she stared at the now dead body, unable to comprehend on why any living thing would consciously kill itself. She then felt something touching her withers, and when she looked to see who it was she saw Plasma standing beside her with a remorseful look on his face.

“This is how it is for some of our people Celestia.” Plasma said as he turned to look at Dragonface’s body. “They believe their so far gone, or are so horrible, and simply incapable to handle things in life and their powers that they just, end it.”

“But we could’ve helped him! We could’ve have saved him from himself, and show him that he didn’t have live like that anymore.” Celestia blubbered as she too started to cry for the loss of a poor tragic being, Plasma didn’t respond right away, but when he did, his next words would forever linger in Celestia’s mind for all time.

“…you can’t save everyone princess, especially if they don’t want your help because they believe they are beyond redemption and salvation.”
> Chapter 9: No Rest Yet [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several days have gone by since the incident in Canterlot where the conflict with Dragonface ended, and from what the six humans heard from Twilight after the incident involving the old Un-Natural, Canterlot Castle is still going under re-construction, and the families of those who were killed during the whole thing were still grieving for their losses. Even Celestia and Luna were still feeling somber about the whole ordeal, not just because of their home being nearly destroyed, or the lives of many of their guards and castle staff had died, but they were also still heartbroken that Dragonface ended his own life. The six humans also still felt bad for their fellow Un-Natural, as they knew what he was going through, and did wish there was another way for him. Over the course of the following days when the group returned to Ponyville, the group have marginally recovered from the events in Canterlot, but the humans could tell that Twilight and the others were still dishearten about the whole thing. During the few days when the group returned to town, the humans managed to find themselves steady employment after looking around, and with Twilight and the others helping them in getting hired. Or actually having ponies of the town approach them and offer them jobs.


~~~~~

Steel decided to take up Granny Smiths offer to work on the farm, and even gotten a room to live in down at the Apple Families house, and almost immediately proven to be a great worker to the family on his first day. It was interesting for Steel to see how Applejack, & her big brother Big Mac got the apples off the trees, just by kicking them. He was honestly surprised that the siblings didn’t seem affected by the act of fully kicking a tree, or that the tree itself doesn’t show signs of being damaged. When Applejack challenged Steel to try bucking the trees, Steel accepted the challenge and gave one of the trees a sweeping side kick, and the moment that he kicked it all of the apples started falling off of the trees branches. In another challenge Steel really surprised the two ponies when he used his power, and with a simple hardcore stomp on the ground, caused twelve nearby trees to lose all their apples. Needless to say, the Apples were able to gather their namesake fruits a whole lot faster than usual, and have more free time. Aside from gathering apples Steel also helped out around the farm, from doing chores, help in gathering crops from the fields, and handling any repairs that need to be done.


~~~~~

While Steel began working down at the farm, Plasma still lives at the inn until the six’s own custom-made house was built. And when it came to work, it was actually one of the towns ponies that approached him, and offered a job. So for the past two days Plasma has been working at the towns local general store, which was called Barnyard Bargains, and his boss Filthy Rich seems to be a pretty fair and decent guy to work for. At least for the time being. The only major problem that the young man had while working at the store, was Filthy Rich’s wife and daughter who frequently came to the store to check how things were going, both of which were just great big drama queens and the type of people that you’d just want to really punch in the face. the two of them were just so grading to be around, as they made passive-aggressive comments towards any customers that came in, or towards Plasma himself. So the young man tries to avoid the pair as much as he could, it also helped that Filthy Rich was quick to scold his wife and daughter when their foul attitudes rose up.


~~~~~

It was no surprise that Circus decided to work at Sugarcube Corner. In fact, when the Cakes learned that the humans were looking for work, they basically offered the job when Circus came in for a muffin one day. Now the blonde haired human lives at the bakery, and actually shares Pinkie’s room which was perfectly alright for the pink mare, as she basically described the whole situation as a permanent slumber party. And despite the room not being big enough for a second bed, Circus just uses his power to separate portions of his body, and places them around the room. With his head laying on the spare pillow on Pinkie’s bed. Aside from his living situation, Circus proved to be very useful whether he was manning the front counter and dealing with customers, or in the kitchen learning and helping with the baking. Circus even taught the Cakes & Pinkie on how to make various treats from Earth. Humans maybe a bit jaded and judgmental, but they know how to make awesome pastries.


~~~~~

Much like Plasma, Wave also still lived at the inn despite even having Twilight offering him her guest room down at the library. When it came to work Wave was approached by a blue earth pony stallion named Noteworthy, who heard that he was looking for a job, and offered him one at the little store that he works at, which was a music store that has on-and-off employees for the most part. But he was offered a full-time employment if he accepted. Wave decided to accept the offer and started working down at the music store, and over the course of the past few days he met the other employees who turned out to be all mares. One was an earth pony that could pass as a British girl named Octavia, then there was a white unicorn that looked like she’s trying to be a DJ’s mascot called Vinyl, and the third employee was actually Lyra. And needless to say when that mare learned that Wave was going to be working at the shop, Lyra became another permanent employee. Whether this was good or bad is up in the air.


~~~~~

Unlike Wave who declined the offer, Snap was more than happy to take Twilight’s offer to live at the library, which made the unicorn very happy. Though the first night wasn’t exactly a quiet night, as the unicorn still had so many questions to ask about the six, and their old world. As for Snap finding work, it was actually Lyra who offered him a job when Wave told her the situation that he and his friends were in. Well, not so much as offer a job, but pointed Snap in a direction where he could get one. Lyra brought the young man to a small candy shop in the midst of the towns shopping district, which is owned and operated by Lyra’s friend and housemate, a cream colored earth pony named Bonbon. At first the mare was a little un-certain about the prospect of hiring Snap, but after a small trial period Bonbon agreed to hire him, and the two started working together. And while his new boss was a little stiff and a bit formal, Snap could tell that she’s a good person.


~~~~~

Lastly there was Burner. Surprisingly to everyone, he was actually living with Fluttershy at her cottage, and it was even more surprising to learn that it was actually Fluttershy who offered him the free room. Now of course Burner wasn’t exactly thrilled about all of the animals that lived at the cottage, especially when various critters kept poking, prodded, and studied him. the worst of the animals was Fluttershy’s pet rabbit, Angel Bunny who kept a close eye on the young man, like he was waiting for Burner to do something terrible. But the cottage was certainly a nice and quiet place, when the animals have calmed down enough, or Fluttershy asked them nicely to leave him alone. When Burner went out to look for work he seemed to be the odd one out, as he couldn’t find anything, or has had a pony offer him a job. But on his second day a mare offered him a job as a waiter at the local restaurant called the Prancing Pony, which Burner accepted and did his work dutifully. Though he still seemed a bit standoff-ish around the ponies of the town, which still made a lot of them feel uneasy around. him


~~Present Day~~

Today was the seventh day since the six humans have started their jobs and making plans for their new lives, and so far things have been going rather smoothly, and the six were actually enjoying the state of their new lives greatly. They didn’t have to hide any longer from the general public, or risk having been found by the Collectors, or being taken to one of the many facilities to be housed and caged like rats for governmental experiments. It was still hard for them to try and get used to living in this new world of talking equines, as they were still adjusting to being around these four feet tall multi-colored talking ponies, who had such human-like qualities to them. But it’s just something the guys will have to get used to, and who knows, maybe one of these days the six could possibly—

“What did you say Circus?! You’re honestly thinking about hooking up with a mare?” Wave asked with a clear shocking tone in his voice, and sharing the same dumbfounded expression that the other four guys around him and Circus were wearing on their faces. Circus just shrugged his shoulders before speaking back up.

“Well it’s not like there’s any human girls in this world, and I doubt any of you want to remain single for the rest of your lives, right?” Circus asked the others getting mixed mumbles, and nods from his friends who still looked a bit apprehensive to what Circus was implying. “Plus you can’t deny that the mares are pretty cute.”

“There’s no denying that fact.” Steel said before taking a bite of his egg salad sandwich. “I mean it’s like they evolved to be biologically cute.”

“Yeah but…can you guys really find one of these mares attractive enough to date one, and maybe one day…you know.” Snap commented as he left his question up in the air, causing all six guys to wonder in how would dating a pony would be like. Or even going further than that if an actual relationship with one progressed far enough?

“We’ll cross that bridge when one of us comes to it.” Plasma remarked as he shook his head of a weird image that was forming, which the others nodded their heads to.

“In the meantime though let’s just try to get by, and try not to get fired from any of our jobs, yeah?” the other chuckled at Plasma’s words while nodding in agreement, or giving some other form of affirmation. Burner then turned away from his friends and looked up towards Canterlot, a questioning look starting to develop on his face.

“How do you think things are going up there?” Burner asked no one in particular as the others looked from their park picnic table towards the far off mountain city.

“Who knows. Twilight says that things are coming along fine, but nothing concrete on how the ponies up there feel.” Snap said before finishing off the veggie burrito with stir fried vegetables in it. After swallowing the food, Snap groaned as he runs a hand through his hair.

“Man I really miss eating meat, I don’t know how vegetarians can get full on just this stuff.”

“You know there is a forest nearby that we could go hunting in.” Steel simply stated, while pointing at the Everfree forest that’s literally a stone’s throw away from the park they’re all sitting in.

“But won’t the ponies have a problem with us eating meat?” Wave asked sounding a bit cautious about the prospect.

“They’ll just have to get used to it. Cause wither they like it or not, we need meat.” Burner simply said as he gets up from his spot at the table. “You guys gonna join me.”

The rest of the guys looked at each other for a brief moment, before they all nodded in agreement. Whether or not the ponies would be alright with this, the six humans needed their intake of meat, though it has been a while since the group actually had to haunt something, which was a few years when they first ran away from their homes, and met up while on the run from the Collectors and the government.


~~Canterlot~~

A myriad of ponies were hovering around the entrance of Canterlot Castle, watching the guards and construction ponies working on the holes in the castle walls, and as well as any infrastructure damage, but they were also trying to get any information out of the guards. But the guards weren’t saying anything to the ponies. As for the castle itself, it was nearly fully re-built with having the holes being fixed, and any halls inside the castle were almost finished in being renovated. While the re-construction of the castle was still underway, Celestia and Luna were in the midst of finishing up with various letters, half for members of family of any deceased ponies, and the other half was for funeral arrangements for said deceased ponies. And while the kill count was only twelve ponies that weren’t either burnt or mauled to death, there were many more ponies that were missing among both the castle staff & royal guards. All of whom Celestia assumed were the ones that Dragonface had ate.

The aged alicorn was still in a distraught and sadden state, not as bad as the first few days after the incident, but her mood was still down, and the private funeral for Dragonface didn’t help Celestia’s emotional state at all. She still felt that Dragonface could’ve been helped, and showed that he could have a more peaceful life in Equestria. He could’ve have been saved from himself, become a more mentally and emotionally healthier being, and not be afraid of his powers. But after witnessing the old human actually take his own life, not even hesitating to do it, the alicorn still couldn’t get the image of Dragonface twisting his head, and breaking his neck out of her mind! But what really made the old Unnatural death even sadder, was what Plasma said. His words echoed in her head whenever she thought about Dragonface.

“You can’t save everyone princess, especially if they don’t want your help because they believe they are beyond redemption and salvation.” Celestia sighed as she fold’s the last letter to the funeral hall, before teleporting it to its specified destination. Once the letter was sent Celestia just sat there at her desk, and stared at her hooves. As she sat there and staring at her hooves the solar princess didn’t notice that the door to her office being opened, or that somepony was trotting up to her, she only took notice when she felt the intruder nuzzling up to her.

“Sister. How are you feeling?” the voice of Luna asked as Celestia turned to look at the midnight alicorn, a small frown etched on her face before she leaned into her sisters nuzzling.

“I am not entirely certain Luna. After this whole, debacle, I am unsure how I feel.” Celestia somberly said as she removed herself from her sister. “It’s just, never have I come across ANY creature that would willingly end its own life. I just, don’t know how to fully handle that.”

“I feel your dismay sister. Never have I witnessed such a thing as well, but…” Luna lamented as a calm breath left her as she tried to collect her thoughts.

“We cannot dwell on past events we can’t change; all we can do is move forward and ensure atrocities such as this never happen again.” Celestia took a sharp inhale before slowly letting out a steady breath while she rubbed her face with one of her wings.

“You’re right Luna. Thank you.” Both sister smiled at each other before nuzzling one another again. And just as the pair were about to leave Celestia’s private office the door exploded open.

“You’re majesties!” a pegasus guards mare came flying towards the two royals, followed by another pegasus who was a stocky and somewhat chubby stallion, both of which had rather worrisome looks etched on their faces.

“What’s wrong my little ponies?” Celestia asked the two pegasi as they skidded to a stop in front of the two royals, with the stallion catching his breath while bowing.

“Names Cover Headline, reporter for the…give me a minute to catch my breath.” The stallion, Cover Headline, wheezed for a minute before managing to recompose himself and continued on with his introduction.

“Sorry. My name is Cover Headline, I’m a reporter for the Manehatten Trumpet news agency. And I’m here because I believe there is a monster lurking in the city!” both sisters looked at each other with slight worried expressions before looking back to the two pegasi.

“What do you mean by monster? And do you have proof?” Celestia asked and instantly the stallion nodded his head before he began rustling through his saddlebags.

The stallion then fished out a folder and offered it to the alicorns, where Luna took the folder in her magical aura and upon opening it found letters, letters of missing ponies, accounts of odd sightings throughout a district of the city. And two photographs of large clusters of rats with something, else amongst them. Neither sister could tell what the odd thing was while they were studying the picture. It was certainly big that much is certain, but other than its overall mass, its features were bearably visible due to the picture being very blurry, or not in focused. But one thing was very clear, the glowing red spots in the picture were probably the creatures eyes. and they gave both alicorns a tiny chill course down their spines.

“Headline? What is this, thing?” Luna asked as she kept the folder levitated between her and her sister, who was still studying the pictures, and reading over the letters.

“We don’t know princess. But I, along with two of our other free-lance photographers, caught sight of this thing in the downtown district. And as you look through the notes, and this map of Manehatten—” Cover Headline said as he pulled out a map of the city from his saddlebags, which had various redlines and circles drawn in a tight cluster in the district in question.

“The sightings of this thing, and the missing ponies, all converge on this section of the city.”

“What do you think sister? Should we investigate?” Luna asked her sister who nodded in response.

“Yes.” Celestia said as she neatly places everything back into the folder, and offered it back to the stallion. She then looked at the guard mare. “What is your name my little pony?”

“Feather Squall ma’am!” the mare said professionally as she saluted to the alabaster princess.

“Feather Squall, I would like you and one other guard to investigate this matter. Mister Cover, can you provide aide to the selected guards for this assignment?”

“Of course princess, besides, I can’t let this whole thing slide by on my watch!” the stallion proclaimed as he also saluted to the princess, which Celestia nodded in thanks before calling any & all guards in her immediate vicinity to gather around her. And within a minute only one guard was close enough to answer the summon and showed up before the princesses, who was then briefed on what the mission she was asking them to undertake.


~~Manehatten~~

After the briefing in Canterlot Cover Headline and Feather Squall headed off to Manehatten, accompanied by their new partner, an earth pony stallion named Dusty Trail, and after an hour and a half of traveling by train the trio have made it to Manehatten. Once they have docked at the train station they all immediately went to the downtown district where these sightings, and reports of missing ponies were congregated were focused in. Following the map, and the letters that listed the specific locations, the three ponies were currently checking the neighborhood that had the most sightings of the supposed monster and the missing ponies. The neighborhood wasn’t as rundown looking like the ones they passed along the way, but it wasn’t exactly a hot spot with activity as there wasn’t exactly a lot of ponies out & about, which was pretty good in hindsight. Because when news of a monster kidnapping ponies, said other ponies no longer left their homes or traveled in this district as the day went on.

“So Cover, where are we going exactly?” Dusty asked the pegasus as he followed behind the two winged ponies.

“We’re heading to the last reported sighting, and hopefully we can find a clue or something for the princesses.” Cover said as he, and the two guards rounded a street corner, and were immediately hit with a foul smelling odor.

“OH MY CELESTIA! What is that—URG!” Feather swallowed the bile that made its way up to her mouth, as her nose was hit with the smell of rotten eggs that’s been marinated in skunk juices, and left in the boiling hot sun to rot. And it was just as bad for the stallions as the mare, as they tried to cover their noses to block out the smell.

“Is this a normal smell in the city?” Dusty asked as he tries to keep his nose plug. Cover shook his head while using his wings to try and keep the smell out of his own nose, which was becoming an act of futility.

The ponies then heard something, probably a trash can, get knocked over from the end of the street. When the ponies looked to where the sound came from, which indeed was a trash can, they saw the briefest of shadows swoosh by the adjacent wall. Thinking that they might have saw the monster, Feather & Dusty leapt to action, with Cover following behind them, and the trio headed down a cramped alleyway as they chased after the shadow. And as the ponies were going through the alleyway they continued to smell that horrible smell, challenging them to keep whatever they had ate for breakfast in their stomachs. But as the ponies exited the alleyway, and galloped down the left lane of the street, a pair of glowing red eyes watched from a nearby storm drain before vanishing into the murky darkness.
> Chapter 10: the State of Things [Edited]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and her friends were all standing before Canterlot Castle, seeing that it was now fully restored to its glorious state. Yet even seeing the castle rejuvenated to its former glory, none of the ponies could feel any sense of joy or relief, as the memories of the events that took place there always crept to the forefront of their minds. The memories of seeing the castle on fire, walls destroyed and screams of ponies filling the air, and seeing the bodies of dead ponies scattered about the rubble and became black charred corpses. Then there was the suicidal incident involving Dragonface…the images of the elderly Un-Natural grabbing his horns, and then violently twisting his head around and snapping his neck where he then fell into the moat of the castle. Everything that has happened here at Canterlot Castle would be something that none of the ponies will ever forget. Entering the castle the six mares made their way through the winding halls towards where they were asked to meet Celestia and Luna, and as they traversed the halls they examined the interior of the castle while they small talk.

“Twilight do you know why the princesses called us to the castle?” Fluttershy asked her friend feeling a little un-easy about being summoned out of the blue, as for Twilight she just shook her head.

“I’m not sure Fluttershy, the message didn’t exactly specify anything in particular, but I’m sure she’ll explain things once we reach her & Luna.” Twilight said as the group continued to trot through the halls.

“Do you think we should’ve brought the boys with us; we could’ve used their help if this is serious.” Rarity asked her friend, also feeling uneasy about this sudden summon, and the way it sounded didn’t particularly settle very well the fashionista.

“I think the guys have enough on their plates dealing with trouble in the past few weeks. They deserve a little break from everything that has happened.” Twilight replied to Rarity’s question. The violet unicorn then looked over her shoulder and looked right at Applejack.

“Speaking about the guys, how is Steel doing down at the farm AJ?” the farmer game a pleasant smile as she recounted the young man’s performance so far.

“He’s doing pretty good, certainly is a hard worker that’s for sure.” Applejack said confidently as she continuous to trot along.

“Actually he might be a little too good. All it takes is one good simple stomp when he gets bigger, and he clears out twelve trees easily. In fact Ah think we’re actually ahead of schedule on our harvest for once!”

The ponies started to talk about how the guys seemed to adjusting to their lives in Ponyville so far, and how the towns ponies were also adjusting towards them, which by all accounts were going pretty well. It was no surprise to hear that Pinkie liked working with Circus, he was not only a good employee to work with his power making things easier, but he was just a delightful person to be around. Aside from Steel and Circus the group heard that the others all seem to be liked by towns ponies that they were working with, although there was one thing that the ponies still noticed about the group of humans. And that was that the guys were still a little stand offish towards them all. They all still used their alias names instead of giving the ponies their real names, and even though the guys were talking to the ponies more and were being nice they all could still feel like they were still not really being truthful about themselves.

However the girls remembered that they have trust issues for non-Un-Naturals, even with the six mares being as friendly and as helpful they could be, they understood that the humans are still adjusting to their life and working to open more to the ponies. But it does make the ponies slightly crossed that the humans don’t trust them as much as the they do. Eventually the party has made it to designated meeting room where Celestia & Luna were waiting in, and when they all entered the room they saw both alicorns looking a little worried, and were having a hushed discussion as they sat around a table. Which was covered in several pieces of paper, and what looked like pictures scattered about. But when the group opened the door and took a step into the room, they both looked towards the six mares, and put on small smiles as they addressed the six mares.

“Oh good you all made it.” Celestia said to the group as she ushered them closer to the table.

“Is something wrong princess, you both look a little worried?” Twilight asked as she and her friends approached the table the two princesses were at, where their smiles faltered as dreaded sighs escaped them.

“Recently we’ve received reports that ponies in Manehatten are disappearing, all with sighting of some kind of, monster being in the area.” Luna elaborated to the group as then presented one of the pictures that was on the table to the group.

“And we were hoping that perhaps Fluttershy could tell us what it is?” The shy pegasus took the picture in her hooves where she and the others started to look it over, but the only thing they see is what looked like a blurry image of some kind of slim bodied creature darting into an alleyway.

“It’s hard to tell what it is that I’m looking, I’m not even sure what it is?” Fluttershy said before apologizing to the princess for not be helpful as she gives the photo back to the midnight alicorn.

“So what’s going on here princess, is some creature in Manehatten kidnapping ponies or something?” Rainbow Dash asked as she leaned over the table, getting a nod from both Celestia & Luna.

“That appears to be the case.” Celestia responded to the pegasus question, who flew up into the air as she smacks her forehooves together.

“Well then what are we waiting for, let’s go take care of this girls!”

“Hold on a second Rainbow Dash.” Celestia warned the eager pegasus.

“We’ve already sent an investigation team to Manehatten to investigate the rumors, they will track down the creature and search for the missing ponies. The reason we called you all hear was to be on stand bye, for if the creature proves too difficult for the guard, we would like you to re-locate the beast.”

“You can count on us Princess!” Twilight said confidently which was followed by her friends each giving their own gesture, which both princess thanked with a gracious smile and nod of their head. “So when did the investigation party leave and start their search?”

“Actually they—”

Before Celestia could begin explaining things, he door to the meeting room just burst open and cutting Celestia off and scaring the eight ponies, but when they looked who charged into the room, they all gasped in shock at what they saw in the doorway. Laying on the floor of the meeting room heavily panting, body bleeding and pooling on the floor, was a female pegasus royal guard. Her armor has been smudged with something along with blood, and had small scratches scrapped all over the helmet and body armor, but it was her back that was the worst off. As everypony could see that it had five long claw marks carved into the armor, that had blood splattered on it with the pegasus’s wings looking haggard and damaged. Her mane was also an absolute mess, not only that she reeked of something foul smelling like a mixture of a skunk and rotten eggs, but what made the ponies rush over to her was the fact that her right foreleg was gone! When the group gathered around the mare, and Celestia held the guard in her forelegs, they all saw that the leg looked as if something just RIPPED clean off her body!

“Feather Squall what happened!? What did this to you!?” Celestia asked worriedly as she uses her magic to stop the bleed while the pegasus tried to speak through her labored breathing.

“Princess I’m sorry, b-but they…they…” Feather Squall tried to speak and explain what happened to her, however she was clearly not in stable condition to talk as she looked ready to pass out, but that didn’t stop her from trying to explain what happened.

“We found the missing ponies, but…”

“But what? What happened Feather?” Celestia asked calmly as she applies the medical spell, and watch as Feather’s eyes started to tear up as she explains what happened.


~~Flash Back~~

  Feather Squall and her two companions, Cover Headlines and Dusty Trail, were following on what could’ve been a lead to their investigation into the missing ponies, as well as the reports in sightings of a strange creature that could be tied to the disappearances. The trio of ponies continued to follow their lead, and the horrid smell, to where they thought the creature was. But every time they would get close to the source of the smell, the thing scuttles would scuttle off at the last minute, continuing the chase. This act repeated several more times before the ponies come upon a old abandon run-down looking motel, which they got a stronger whiff of the foul smelling odor, as well as seeing various rodents scampering about the street. 
 
“Do you think this place could be the creatures den or nest?” Dusty Trail asked as he moved to approach the door of the old building which was busted down and hanging on the hedges. Cover Headline was about to follow the larger stallion, but he was stopped by Feather Squall who placed a hoof on his shoulder.
 
“You stay here Cover; we’ll handle it from here.”
 
“Fat chance missy! This thing is in my city, and I want to be part of the group that kicks it out.” Cover said defiantly as he gently brushes off Feather’s hoof.
 
“Cover we’re here to investigate, not—”
 
“AGH!”
 
  Both Feather and Cover were silenced when they both heard Dusty Trail cry out from inside the building, where the sound of what could be dozen of chittering creatures came from beyond the door. Both ponies slowly made their way towards the door, and again were assaulted by the foul odor that they’ve been following, though the closer they got the more pungent and prominent it became, to the point where the pair were nearly gagging whenever they had to breath. They entered the motel with Feather taking the lead, wings splayed out in a warning manner and a quick way for flying if she need to, while Cover wasn’t as prepared as the guard was, he was still ready for anything that might suddenly jump out and attack them. The lobby of the motel was fairly decent in size, and wasn’t that to run-down or broken in as the outside would lead to believe, but the pair of pegasi noticed that Dusty’s helmet was on the floor near the front counter…with a small splatter of blood on top along with what looked like a slash mark.
 
“Where’s Dusty?” Cover asked Feather nervously while he and the female guard searched the lobby, before something came falling down in front of the ponies…which turned to be dismembered leg caked in blood!
 
  Both Feather & Cover slowly tilted their heads up to looked at whatever was above them, and when they looked towards the ceiling they saw what happened to Dusty, as their own blood ran cold, and their eyes widen with horror. The large muscular stallion was being gnawed on; flesh & armor being chewed & ripped by a monster that was hanging from the roof by a foot claw and tail coiled around a sturdy beam. As it ate away at Dusty’s body, with strips of flesh and blood falling to the floor along with scraps of metal, while clawed hands manipulated the body, both Feather Squall and Cover were on the verge of panicking and alerting the monster to their presence, but remarkably they managed to withhold their screaming as they just stared at the monstrosity.
 
“Cover, we need to leave! Now!” Feather said as quietly as she could to her fellow pegasus, to which Cover silently nodded his headed and started to back away slowly, neither pegasus taking their eyes off the monster as it feasted. But while both pegasi slowly made their way back to the door, something caused the minimal silence of the building to be disturbed.
 
“OW!” Cover shouted as something bit him. Feather turned to tell him to be quite, but stopped when she saw him with four fairly big rats scurrying all over him and biting at him, while he tried to swat the pesky rodents off himself. “Get ‘em off, get ‘em off, get ‘em off!”
 
  Feather immediately sprang into action and swatted at the rats with her hooves, knocking them to the floor or slamming against a wall. Just as Feather Squall slapped the last rat away, a heavy thud petrified the ponies before the heard a chittering snarling sound. Cover watched as the monster contorted its body straight wise, and latched all claws onto the roof, and was now looking right at the two pegasi. It’s glowing eyes trained on both of the frighted ponies, as blood dripped from its narrowed maw of sharpen teeth and claws, as the quills on its back rattled softly. Only one thing entered both their minds as the seconds ticked by before the brief eerie silence was broken.
 
“RUN!” Cover & Feather screamed in unison as they bolted towards the exit as fast as they could, while the monster shrilled and lunged at the ponies. Bloodied claws & fangs ready to strike as it launched itself off the roof towards the two ponies, while a swarm of rats burst from the walls of the building, closing in on the pair as a darken tide.
 

~~Present~~

As Feather Squall finished recounting the events that she barely escaped from, both the princess and element bearers all looked upon the mare with more horror and worry than before, as they female guards eyes flowed with tears.

“I tried to save him princess, I tried to save him…but the swarm of rat’s got to him first and dragged him away…before the monster tried to get to me.” Feather blubbered as she started to weep and cry more profusely.

“I couldn’t save him…I couldn’t do anything.” Celestia used a wing to comfort the pony as she held the guard close, like a mother trying to comfort their child.

“You did what you could Feather, but for now you need to try to rest.” Celestia then looked to her sister with a worried and concern look. “Luna could you fetch one of the doctors.” The midnight alicorn only nodded before she vanished in a flash of cerulean magic.

“What should we do princess?” Twilight asked her mentor while wiping away the tears of grief and horror from her own eyes after listening to Feather Squall’s report.

“I need you to send a message to Plasma. We may need his and the others help, this has become more dangerous than I initially thought.”

“Wait I thought we were going to handle this?” Rainbow said in mild surprise but before she could say anything else Applejack chimed in as she wiped the last of her tears away.

“Dash look at what that critter did to this mare, and she’s a trained Royal Guard. We may be able to handle our own in a fight, but this—” Applejack pointed towards Feather who was still covered in Celestia’s magical glow, who was managing to close the wounds covering the guards body until help arrived.

“I don’t think we can handle this. This ain’t your average run of the mill creature…this thing is smart. And it also seems to have an army of rats at its beck and call.”

“Well yeah but we out number it six to one even with its little rat army, plus Twilight can just use her magic to capture it before it even does anything. And no offense, but there is no way that thing could ever catch me.”

“Never the less Rainbow Dash, your friend has a good point. That is why I want the humans to accompany you to keep you all safe.” Celestia retorted to the pegasus confidence in the groups chances against whatever this creature was.

The group was split in what they should do about this whole situation, well, most of the group was of the opinion that this maybe something that was over their head. Rainbow Dash was the only one who thought that this wouldn’t be much of a challenge, and she even compared it to when they all were dealing with the changelings, though she was completely ignoring the aspects of plausible injury from a wild unknown creature. But regardless, Twilight jotted down a message for Plasma as her teacher suggested, asking him and his friends to come to the castle to discuss this whole thing. Once the message was written Twilight levitated the message to Celestia, who then used her magic to send it to Spike via the messaging enchantment she shares with him.


~~~~~

Sometime has passed since Feather Squall managed to make it back to Canterlot Castle, and reported what has happened to her and her two companions, Twilight, and her friends along with the princesses waited for Plasma and the other humans to arrive in Canterlot, where they would then inform them of situation that they are facing. Eventually the group was alerted to the humans arrival in the castle, when a guard brought the group of humans to where the ponies were waiting for them. When the humans joined up with the ponies, they began telling the six Un-Naturals what has been going on in Manehatten, and what has happened in to the investigation team sent to look into the strange disappearances. And as the ponies told the six young men they noticed that while they looked concerned, none of them appeared to be as affected heavily in the event that they were. Eventually Celestia finished with the recounting of events that has transpired, and awaited for the humans input in aiding them in this endeavor.

“So basically you’re asking us to help you in dealing with this strange monster in the city situation, who seems to be the source of the number of disappearances. Is that the jest of it?” Burner asked the princess as he stood in front of the ponies with a disinterested look on his face.

“Yes. We would be grateful if you could help us in this situation.” The six humans looked at each other for a moment as if they were having a silent conversation with one another, but after brief moment the six humans looked back at the ponies before Burner spoke again.

“No.” the young man said flatly and bluntly to party of mares. To say that the ponies were shocked, even taken back by the reply, would’ve been an understatement. Celestia especially out of all the ponies was shocked by Burners response the most, and the collective look on the other humans in agreement.

“B-but why!?” Celestia asked the human confusedly. She honestly thought that the humans would help them, and if she were honest, she would rather have the humans handle this dangerous situation instead of Twilight and her friends.

“Look princess we feel really bad for you and your ponies, but this doesn’t involve us directly.” Wave began to say to the princess.

“We’re trying to start over in your world, and actually have a comfortable life for once. So the last thing we want to do is go out and fight monsters, besides you have your royal guards can’t you send them instead?”

“I understand this, but I fear that without your help, more and more ponies will be hurt, or worst. And this creature is unknown to us so we can’t be sure what it’s capable of.” Celestia said wholeheartedly as she tries to sway the humans to help.

“So instead your sending us in because we’re not your ‘precious’ little ponies.” Burner said in a rather rude tone which the other humans were not exactly pleased with.

“It’s not like that I assure! With your powers you could not only stop this from happening, but whatever else may pose a threat to Equestrian. With great power comes great—”

“DON’T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!” Burner all but shouted at Celestia causing her to flinch back, and making the other seven ponies gasp in shock, even the other Un-Naturals were a bit shocked. But they recovered from the sudden outburst as Burner continued.

“Just because we have these powers doesn’t mean we’re super heroes, or have or want to be heroes! We’ve already had to deal with Dragonface, which was a personal issue to US because we know his pain. But THIS, this is a completely separate issue, and we’re not your toy soldiers that you can order or try to persuade into helping you, princess!” Burner’s outburst left the ponies speechless at what they had just heard, and it seemed that the other humans were also unsure what to say to this whole thing, but they ultimately agreed with what Burner had just stated.

“Look Celestia, we’re grateful for what you have done for us…but that doesn’t mean you can ask us to risk our own lives to handle dangerous stuff like this. Let alone going after a monster and thinking we will come out of it without a scratch.” Snap said as he tried make the whole situation clear to the princess, while also gesturing to the still lingering scars that all of them still bared after tangling with Dragonface.

“B-but…I thought we were friends?” Pinkie said in a slightly sadden tone as she looked up to the six young men who aside from Burner, looked a little heartbroken. “And friends help each other.” Circus then spoke up to Pinkie’s statement.

“Pinkie I hate to break this to you…but we’re not friends.” the ponies gasped again, Pinkie more so as her mane wilted slightly.

“If anything, we’re acquaintances at best. We haven’t been around you long enough, or got to know you all well enough to actually be called friends.” Rainbow Dash then gritted her teeth as she looked up to the humans with a clearly angered look.

“So that’s it huh! After everything we’ve done for you guys, you’re just going to ditch us like that?!”

“What do you mean by that Rainbow?” Steel retorted to the pegasus as he stood in front of the group.

“Last I checked neither you, nor your friends have done something for us. We were the ones that decided what we should do, we were the ones that found ourselves jobs, and we were the ones who choose to live in this world without you or anyone else asking us to.”

“And what about the princesses treating your injuries? Are you just going to forsake that bit of kindness and not return the gesture.” Rarity remarked to Steel, which Wave responded to before the others could.

“We appreciate that the princess did all that for us, but that doesn’t mean we’ll just gladly accept a task that could end up with us getting hurt, mortally injured or even killed.” Wave the gestured to the rest of the group as he continued on with his remark.

“We’re not indestructible trained warriors or super heroes. Sure we can fight with our own powers and everything, and if you think our fights with Dragonface says otherwise, it’s not, if anything they were like a street fight.”

The meeting room transcended into an eerie silence after Wave spoke. The ponies looked incredibly sad and hurt, and possibly even a little betrayed? While the humans remained resolute in their stance in not being called to arms soldiers to handle dangerous tasks. Celestia managed to regain her composure, but a sense of remorse could be seen on the princess face as she knows she has no right to have the humans handle, or do anything she has asked them to do. The six humans just want to have a peaceful life, a life that was taken away from them on their own world. Asking them to do something that has a high chance of plausible injuries as grave as Feather Squall, and expected them to just blindly oblige wasn’t fair to them.

“You’re right.” Celestia said as she looked at the humans with a more calm and composed look, as well as a look of understanding and realization.

“I shouldn’t have made the assumption that you’ll do something so dangerous on our behalf, just by my say so or because you fought a previous threat that was more personal to you than us. None of you are under my authority or jurisdiction, so you don’t need to feel obligated to do anything for us. I am sorry for trying to make you feel like you did so.”

“I’m sorry this whole meeting didn’t turn out as you would like princess, but this is just how we feel.” Plasma said in response to Celestia words.

“It would seem we will have to come up with a new plan in order to deal with the vermin, sister.” Luna said to her fellow princess who nodded in response.

“But how are we going to handle the monstrous rat creature, with its agile movements, razor sharp quills, and army of rats at its command how will we approach this.” That’s when the humans perked up after hearing what Celestia had just said. Plasma then looked towards the table that was just a foot from the group and noticed the pictures on it.

“…mind if we see those pictures?” Plasma asked the princess which made the ponies look at the group with confusion.

“I thought this didn’t concern you guys?” Rainbow remarked in a slightly bitter tone.

“Dash.” Applejack said to her friend as to not start anything. Both Luna & Celestia briefly looked at each other, before Luna decided to allow Plasma and the others to look at the pictures. Walking over to the table Plasma and his crew looked at the pictures that were on the table, and as they all looked everyone in the meeting room heard Snap gasp as he quickly grabbed a single photograph.

“Snap? What’s wrong?” Applejack asked the human as she looked up at him. The other humans gathered around the young man, and they all looked shocked at what they saw.

“Vermin.” Was all Plasma said, and by the way that he said it caused the others to suddenly get riled up. Plasma then looked at the princesses. “This is the monster you wanted us to deal with?”

“Uh, yes. Yes it is?” Celestia slowly said still looking at the group with a befuddled look. But after seeing the reaction the humans had towards the photo, and Plasma’s response to said picture that’s when a thought came to her. “Is this another, Un-Natural?”

“Yeah.” Steel said as he looked down towards the group of mares.

“I know we just said we wouldn’t be doing this because it didn’t concern us, but this—” Steel pointed to the picture that Snap was still holding in his hand. “This changes things.”

“So, you’ll handle this?” Luna asked the humans with trepidation, which the humans collectively nodded, but that’s when Plasma then looked to the others.

“Wave, I want you to come with me on this one, we should be enough to stop Vermin.” Wave nodded to Plasma’s statement before the group’s leader turned to look back at the ponies. “Tell us where he is, and then we’ll deal with him.”

Celestia then used her magic to summon forth a map & a quill, before circling where Feather Squall and her departed party encountered Vermin on the map of Manehatten. Once Plasma & Wave saw where they need to go, they were about to leave but were stopped when Twilight and Applejack insisted on going, and they didn’t seem to be taking no for an answer. The two humans agreed and allowed the two mares to come along, but they were to be their guides to their destination and nothing more. As the quartet left the room the others began making their way out of the room as well and make the trip back to Ponyville, while Snap just teleported the rest of the human’s back to Ponyville, leaving the princess alone in the room now having to wait for the final report on this strange case.
> Chapter 11: Ending His Suffering
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponies of down town Manehatten were leaning out of their windows, or stopping on the side of road and one the sidewalks, watching as Twilight and Applejack trot down the street with Plasma and Wave walk past them. the group was following a copied version of the map that the first group used, and were heading to the location where the, ambush, happened.

“…so.” Twilight uttered as she looked over her shoulder at the two humans. “What are you two going to do to this, Un-Natural?” she asked timidly, not sure if she actually wanted to know. neither of the two humans said anything, and just continued to follow the two mares, a focused look on their faces.

“Just take us to where Vermin is, and leave him to us.” Plasma said grimly.

“Y’all aren’t going to—”

“Just leave him to us.” Wave repeated as he transformed his hands into water, and Plasma’s right hand produced a foot-long blue fire shaft sticking out. Both mares clamped their muzzle shut, as they just continued to follow the directions that were jotted down on the map.

The group walked and trotted in silence, as they continued to maneuver through the down town section of the city, and as they continued the group started to notice less and less ponies being outside. In fact, every time they see a pony, they would only see them for a brief moment where they practically, lunged through the doors of their home, and slam them closed before hearing various locks click. Now that the group were the only ones in the streets of the down town district, they noticed just how, ominous the area was, especially with the clouds starting to be pulled in by the cities weather team.

Continuously walking through the streets, the group eventually made it to the general area where Feather, and her group were ambushed by Vermin. Looking around, the group started to look for anything, tracks, or the rats that seemed to connected to the Un-Natural. But so far they couldn’t find anything. Or at least, that’s what they thought. As the group headed deeper into the maze of buildings, a figure hiding in the shadows was skittering around, ducking from one dark spot to another. Always out of sight from the group. But the figure noticed that two humans seem to know they’re being watched, and looked ready to spring into action at any moment.

“There it is.” Twilight said as she pointed at a lone building at the end of the street, with the door completely torn off, and the windows boarded up.

“Wave, you stay here and keep them safe.” Plasma said to his teammate who nodded in response as he transforms his arms into water.

“Plasma…I’m not sure what yer planning on doing, but…” Applejack said as she took a step forward. “If you stop Vermin, we could probably help him, like what we tried to do with Dragonface. So try not to rough him up to much.” Plasma didn’t say anything as he ignited his Burn Saber, and walked into the abandon building. Leaving an ill foreboding silence among the ponies.

Entering the building the horrid smell immediately assaulted Plasma, but he pushed passed the rancid and foul smell, and started to wander around the lobby of the building…immediately finding the devoured bodies of Feather’s teammates, with a few rats lingering around them. waving his Burn Saber around, the rats chittered and skittered away from the bodies, leaving them for Plasma to set them on fire by sticking them with his weapon. As the bodies burned, Plasma gave a small bow and prayer, before heading deeper into the building looking for Vermin, using his weapon as a make-shift torch to light the darken halls. However there was no sight of the rat human, just more signs of small clusters of rats, and even a few bats, but Plasma continued to venture deeper, and deeper into the building.

“Where are you?” Plasma muttered to himself as he checked each room, only finding rodent droppings, and some bones of other ponies. No doubt from the ponies that went missing. “I know you’re in here.”

The light from the weapon starting to become the only source of light in the building now, the clouds outside blotting out the afternoon sun, and the boards restricting any rays of sun that sneak past the clouds. Heading further down the current hallway of the floor he was on, Plasma failed to notice the lithe, and sharped claws of a humanoid figure emerged from a hole in the ceiling. Once fully emerged, the figure used its sharp claws to cling to the roof, and slowly followed behind Plasma, its glowing eyes trained solely on the young man below itself. The figure slowly reached down with its left hand to try and deliver a quick strike, silencing the target before he could react.

Spinning around quickly Plasma lashed out with a wide swing of his weapon, creating a fiery trail of heat behind it, as the Burn Saber nearly cuts Vermin’s hand off! Leaping back, the rat humanoid screeched as it landed on the floor, its fur & quills bristling.

“…so it is you Vermin.” Plasma said as he got into a battle-ready stance.

“I gotta say…you look much worst in person than in pictures. Then again, I guess that’s what happens when the government gets their hands on you, and tries to make you a hunting dog.” Vermin chitters and snarls at Plasma as it walks side to side, looking for some kind of opening.

“You don’t even understand what I’m saying to you right now, do you?”

Vermin’s answer to Plasma’s question was just to spray several dozens of its quills at the young man, which were quickly cut down by blinding swings of Plasma’s Burn Saber. Vermin screeched and launched another volley of spines, but they to were cut down, but, the volley was to distract Plasma so that Vermin could leap to a nearby wall, and bounce off to lunge at Plasma. But the humanoid rat was meet with the end of the Burn Saber, which turned into a 8ft. long pole of blue fire, and was sent crashing through the wall, while also setting Vermin’s face on fire. Vermin rolled around on the floor as it scrapped at its face, smoke and blue embers wafting from its face. letting out several dozen high pitched screeches. Plasma walked through the hole in the wall, looking down at the agonized Un-Natural rolling on the ground, while changing his weapon from its staff mode, back to its neutral sword mode.

“I’ll make this quick.” Plasma said as he angled his Burn Saber at Vermin.

However just as Plasma aimed his weapon, Vermin made a wild charge at the young man, sending the both of them crashing back through the wall, and landing hard on the floor. But the combined weight, and force of the crash, caused the floor to give way. But it didn’t stop Vermin from lashing out with claw strikes, or bites, but Plasma wasn’t going to be an easy prey. Turning his Burn Saber to the size of a knife, he was able to cut through Vermin’s right hand, completely severing it from the wrist, and causing Vermin to screech more before the pair landed on the bottom floor. Ending up in what looks to be a destroyed kitchen. Vermin screeched out in pain as it held its severed limb, before running off further into the building, busting down one of the kitchen doors. Plasma meanwhile rose to his feet, recovering from the fall rather quickly.

“Plasma!” the voice of Wave called out as Plasma rubs his head, Wave sounding to be on the other side of the collapsed wall behind him. “You alright in there man?” 

“Yeah Wave, I’m fine.” Plasma then re-ignited his Burn Saber before looking in the direction where Vermin ran off to.

“Do you need help!?” Twilight cried out.

“No!” Plasma shouted back to the others outside.

Walking to the door Plasma was about to step through, when a small swarm of rats erupted from the shadows. Small fangs and claws ready to tear into Plasma, but with a quick motion, Plasma reduced every rat into a burnt piece of chopped meat, while also cutting through the door way. After cutting down his thirtieth rat the swarm ended, leaving Plasma to walk into the back room of the building, where more bones and still decomposing bodies laid among ruined furniture and bits of the condemned building.

As the light from the Burn Saber lit up the room, Plasma could fully see the partially devoured decomposing bodies of the ponies, most of which were adults…but some were that of fouls. The sound of something swooshing through the air pulled Plasma out of his observations, before having a few spines being lodged into his leg and shoulder as well as his side.

“Fuck!” Plasma cried out as he wobbled from the impact of spines, and trying to pull them out.

But that’s when Vermin lunged and tackled the young man, feverishly slashing at the young man, who used his arms to try and shield himself. Vermin then clamped his jaws around Plasma’s right arm, its sharp teeth cutting flesh, and the strength of the bite nearly breaking his arm! Crying out in pain, Plasma quickly ignited his weapon, and used his Burn Saber to stab Vermin in the side, causing him to lurch up and cry out in pain, fully exposing his underside. Taking the chance, Plasma swung his weapon, the thing blade of super-heated blue flames cutting Vermin’s chest open, causing the beast to topple backwards, clutching the wound, and crying out in great pain. Dispersing his weapon, Plasma clutched his nearly broken arm with his free hand, before lightning up his grip as pain shot through the entire limb.

‘Damn it! I…think he almost shattered the bones completely.’ Plasma thought as he tried to get to his feet. But just as he got to one foot, Plasma felt a hand grab his forearm, and helped him to get to his feet.

“Damn man, he really fucked up your arm Plasma.” Wave said worriedly.

“Yeah he did. Nearly broke it in half when he bit down.”

Plasma said as he, and Wave looked over to the downed Vermin, who was now just laying on the ground. weakly panting as its chest still bared embers and burnt flesh and fur. The two young men heard two gasps from behind them, and when they turned to face the sources of the gasp, they saw the horrified looks on both Twilight’s & Applejack’s face. the two mare’s weren’t just looking at the beat Plasma, or the defeated Vermin, no, the two ponies were looking at all the dead bodies and bones. Tears began to flood the two ponies eyes, each going off to a different part of the room, un-able to look away from the sight. Never has either of them saw so much death than right now.

“Land sakes.” Was all Applejack could say as she just stared at the half-eaten body of a small colt…which quickly flashed to an image of a half-eaten Apple Bloom, which caused her to lurched to the side and throw up whatever she ate today.

“Wave…take the girls back outside…” Plasma said to his friend, before pushing off Wave, and looking at Vermin. “I still have something to take care off.” The Burn Saber was re-ignited as he walked over to Vermin, while Wave rushed the girls out. But before they left the room Twilight spoke up.

“Plasma. What—what are you going to do?” she asked with an obvious tone of dread in her voice as she watches Plasma make his way to Vermin.

“…I’m going to put him out of his misery.” Plasma said as he stood directly in front of Vermin, who could only weakly look up towards him, hands still clutched to his chest. Blood slowly oozing out of the gaping hole in his chest.

“But why!?” Twilight shrieked as she pushed past Wave. “We can help him! He doesn’t have to die like Dragonface, we can give him a chance at a normal life!” both Wave & Plasma stood stiffly still for a brief moment, before Plasma spoke up.

“…he can’t be normal again Twilight. He’s…broken. Physically, and mentally.” Plasma said as he slowly raised his weapon, the blade tip pointing squarely at the gaping hole on the beast’s chest.

“The people that hunt Un-Naturals turned him into a feral animal, unable to think, or even remember what it was like to be human. All because they thought they could use him as a weapon against people like us.” Plasma took in a deep breathe before continuing. “Vermin has killed many people, both normal humans, and Un-Naturals…even ate most of them.” the young man then turned to face Twilight, a look of guilt and sadness on his face.

“Can you really have a normal life after all that?”

Twilight couldn’t answer, she just stood there, head hung low as her eyes scrunched up as tears flowed through her eyes. Wave’s watery hand gently guided the unicorn to his side, where she & her friend were lead out of the building. Leaving Plasma alone with Vermin. He then raised his Burn Saber and held it over Vermin’s chest, directly over where the heart should be. Giving a silent prayer, Plasma struck Vermin’s heart, causing the humanoid rat to screech out, weakly flailing its arms before stopping. Smoke and embers slowly drifted off the body as the weapon slowly disappeared, causing the light in the room to vanish…but just as the last remnants of the Burn Saber vanished, Plasma could’ve sworn he saw Vermin give a gracious smile. Before his head slumped to the ground.

“May your next life be far more blessed than this one, brother.”

Plasma then left the room, limping slightly as he walked, holding his injured arm as he leaves Vermin’s body in its final rest place. Exiting out of the building Plasma saw that both ponies were still crying, with Wave trying to comfort them, but the mares seem unresponsive. Looking up away from the mares, Wave looked at Plasma who just looked exhausted, as well as slightly depressed. Sighing, Plasma walked the final few feet, as rain started to fall from the looming clouds over the city.

“Let’s go home.”
> Chapter 12: Some Peace & Quiet - Pt. 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days have gone by since the incident in Manhatten, and things have been rather, tense, for the humans and ponies. Ever since Plasma and Wave came back to Ponyville, and told the others what happened, especially when Plasma told the others what he had to do to Vermin, they all seemed to agree that it was the right thing to do. Although Circus was more upset about the decision, as prefers to not kill others, especially other Un-Naturals.

As for the ponies they were horrified of how many ponies were eaten, especially how many foals were among the bodies. Poor Pinkie and Fluttershy cried buckets when Applejack told them how many foals were eaten. Things have calm down since then, somewhat, and hopefully things will stay that way for the ponies, more so for the humans.


~~~~~

Morning came to Ponyville, and on the edge of the town a large new house has finally been built, the six humans were all still fast asleep, except Steel as he had to get up early to help down at Sweet Apple Acers, and Circus as he had to help the Cakes open shop, and finally Snap working with Bonbon and her candy store.

In the living room of the house, laying on the couch and just lavishing in the peace and quiet, and the warm atmosphere, was Wave. The young man was wearing some sweats and a simple shirt. As he laid there on the couch the young tried to think of what to do today, work was out of the question because Noteworthy had to close to go visit his uncle in Trottingham, and the other employees that work there have appointments, and concerts to do.

“Morning Wave.” Wave said as he walked into the living room, a cup of hot coffee and a cinnamon roll in hand.

“Morning Plasma. What are you up today?”

“Nothing much. Just visited Sugarcube Corner, and it’s pretty jammed packed.” The young man said before taking a bite out of his cinnamon roll, before washing it down with a swig of coffee.

“I’m sure Circus can handle himself, even if Pinkie is working with him.” Wave remarked as he just stares up at the ceiling.

“Actually Pinkie isn’t there.” Plasma said after another bite of cinnamony goodness, while Wave quirked a brow at that statement.

“In fact, from what Miss. Cake said, our little group of mares have gone all the way to Canterlot for something.”

The two continue to just chat away as they just kicked back. Soon enough the rest of the gang began to wake up, and make their way down to the kitchen to make something to eat. As the group made their breakfast, Burner had to leave to help at the Prancing Pony restaurant, and left once he made a few pieces of toast, and a bottle of apple cider.

Speaking of getting to work, once he’s finished his cup of coffee and cinnamon roll, and a small plate of eggs, Plasma had to leave to begin his shift at Barnyard Bargains. Leaving only Wave the odd one out of work for the time being. After about another hour of just kicking back on the couch, and reading a book that he borrowed from the library, Wave decided that he’d go search for something to do. Since Equestria doesn’t have the modern day forms of time consuming entertainment, as Earth does, Wave and his friends had to find other ways to occupy their time when they’re not working.

Leaving the house Wave made his way to town, to see if he can find something to occupy himself, maybe look for somebody to hang out with. As he wondered around town, Wave was greeted by passing by ponies, or ponies who were at their stalls, some of them even offered a free sample of some of their newest food item to test for them. even after almost being in this world for about a month, Wave still finds the ponies…almost overly friendly demeanor jarring, sometime. When compared to humans, who don’t overly open up to random people, these ponies are very open, perhaps a little more so for Wave’s personal taste…but that’s probably because how he personally views humans. unless you earn their trust, and become their best friends, humans tend to be a little guard and not as open with other folks.


But he was slowly starting to come around to how things have turned out.


Wave eventually wondered out of town, and was now walking a path that trailed around the town, and the country that surrounded the town was quite a lovely sight. The fresh air and nice cool breeze was really refreshing, and the landscape was a nice change from the big city, although the bright colors of this world does tend to lessen atmosphere for Wave. As he thinks this array of bright colors took away from the spectacle, since everything looked like a picture in a book. But the watery young man’s attention turned away from the country side, and began focusing on a red building that was coming into view, which looked like a vintage schoolhouse from pre-Colombian days. Continuing his stroll down the path Wave got a closer look at the building, and large sign off to the side.

“Ponyville School. Teaches from Elementary to High School level education.” Wave said out loud as he read the sign, before looking to the building. “So this is where the foals go to school in—”

“Look out!”

Wave turned to his left where he heard a pre-pubescent voice cry out, before seeing a bright red ball soaring through air, and heading straight for his face. normally, this would end up with Wave to have his face sting for a bit, while being knocked on his ass, or shamble backwards, but his instinct saved his face from such a fate by turning his head into water. The ball sunk a few inches into his watery head, before being stopped dead in its tracks. His rand hand then reached up and plucked the ball from his face, where his head reverted back to normal, allowing him to look to a small segment of the backyard of the school, where a hand full of foals were staring at him. a look of pure dumbfounded bewilderment etched on their faces. Wave then made his way over to the fence, ball in hand, and foals still staring up at him.

“This belong to any of you?” Wave asked as he shook the ball, but none of the foals said anything. Shrugging his shoulders, Wave’s arm turned to water, and stretched down without him having to bend down as he places the ball in front of the foal at the head of the group.

“Make sure you don’t play around to roughly kay; you could hurt somebody.” Wave said to the group of eight foals as his arm went back to normal, and began walking off. But he didn’t get to far from the school house, as a small voice called out.

“Hold on mister!” turning back to look at the foals, Wave saw a small yellow filly walking over to him on her side of the fence, the other foals following behind her. “You’re Steel’s friend, ugh…Wave, right?” the filly asked.

“Yeah, that’s me. But how do you know mine, or Steel?” the filly stood on her hind leg, forelegs gripping the top beam of the fence as she smiled up to the young ma, as he looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Cause he’s been working down at mah family’s farm.” That’s when a bolt of realization struck Wave.

“Oh! You must be Apple Bloom, Applejacks little sister.” The filly nodded. One of the other foals, a grey coated pegasus colt with a swept back black mane then spoke up as he hovered over the group.

“How did you do all that?” the colt asked as he looked from Wave’s head, to his arm. “How did your head, and arm turn to water like that? Is it a magic spell or something?” the other six foals began repeating the question.

“It’s not a spell, it’s my special power.” Wave said as he raised his left hand, and turned it into water, where he changed its form into several different shapes. The foals marveled at the sight, except for a pair of earth pony fillies near the school house, watching with not so impressed looks on their faces.

“I can turn my body into water, and use it anyway that I can think off.”

“Like how?” a dark pink earth pony filly asked as she walked to Apple Bloom’s side.

Wave then turned his whole body into water, and become a swirling column of water, before appearing in the shape of an adult pony made out of water. The foals were all very excited to see the spectacle. Wave then decided to wow the kids some more, by leaping high into the air and turned into a large watery bubble that floated in the air, before coming back down and creating a large splash that the foals thought would get them…but they didn’t get splashed. Instead the foals watched as all the water started to merge back together, before the watery mass turned into a large snake, then a lion that gave out a gurgling roar, before transforming back to Wave’s original form.

“Wow.” The eight foals said in unison, as Wave developed a small smile. “That was so cool!” the orange pegasus filly of the group said.

“Eh, it wasn’t that impressive.” The group turned to look at one of the two foals by the school house, who upon closer inspection from Wave, looked to be pretty snobby. “Sure turning into a ‘puddle’ is cool, but that’s all he can do.”

“Oh really?” Wave said to the filly, and idea forming in his head, while the foals looked at him curiously. “Can I have that ball I gave back to you?”

A white unicorn filly then used her magic to levitate the ball over to Wave, who took the ball in one hand and gently tossed the ball up, the foals watched the ball but quickly looked back to Wave, who turned into what looked like a cannon. The foals—including the two by the school house—watched as the ball came back down, floating into the barrel of the cannon where they saw the back end of the cannon start to boil, like a kettle left to long over an open fire. The cannon then pointed skyward, and with a sound akin to something striking water, HARD, and the foals watched as their ball was lunched hundreds of feet into the air. The little ponies were amazed how high the ball was shot, and when the ball came back down the foals watched the ball be caught by a large watery hand, where it was brought down back to Wave.

“How did you do that?” the pink filly ask, finally approaching the fence. “If you can turn into water, then how could do that. Don’t you need fire to shoot a cannon?”

“Do guys know how a geyser works?” the foals nodded. “That’s how.” Wave simply stated before handing the ball back to the foals. The group of foals, especially the pink one, were about to question Wave more about his powers, but the bell of the school rang.

“Alright kids time to return to class.”

The voice of a older mare called out, causing the foals to grumble, while Wave got a look at the mare. She was about Applejack’s height, and her coat was maroon, while her neatly combed mane and tail were a shade of pink like Pinkie’s, but with a single high light of bright pink running down the center. When the mare turned to face Wave, and his little entourage of foals, he saw that her large eyes were a nice forest green color, and that her adorable muzzle was in a ‘O’ as she looked surprised to see Wave.

“Hello there.” the mare said as she approached the fence, where Wave knelt down to be somewhat eye level with the mare. “My name is Cheerilee.”

“Hello.” The young man simply said. “My name of Wave, nice to meet you.”

“I’ve heard of you from some of the other ponies in town, you’re supposedly from another world right?”

“That’s right. but my friends and I decided to stay in your world, it’s a lot more peaceful.”

The two continued to talk to one another, with the foals eventually telling their teacher what Wave was capable of. Course the teacher was interested in seeing Wave’s power in action, so the young man showed the teacher and foals more aspects of his power, like turning his arm into a highly pressurized water blade that chopped off a few branches from a nearby tree, and even showing that he can boil or chill down his watery form at will. After the little meet and greet, and demonstration of power, Cheerilee took the foals back inside the school house to finish the day, but before she did so she, and the foals waved and said goodbye to the young man. Who waved back and watched the foals, and their teacher head inside the building, before leaving the building to continue to look for something to occupy his time.

“That was a nice trip.” Wave mumbled as he began making his way back into town, leaving the school house behind him. “Now…let’s see what else I can find to spend my time.”
> Chapter 13: Some Peace & Quiet - Pt. 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Down at Sweet Apple Acers, the trees in the west orchard were being shaken and rumbled, as the ground shook with great force. With the arbor jig that the trees were doing, with each thunderous ground shake, the trees loose their crimson jewelry of apples which fall into the various baskets placed at the trees roots. Trotting around the trees and inspecting the baskets, and after seeing that the trees were bare of fruit, and the apples looked un-bruised, the two ponies turned to look at the towering metal skin giant.

“At this rate we’ll be done before it even reaches noon.” Applejack said as she trotted up to Steel, before patting him on the knee. “You really are a life saver Steel.”

“E’yup!” Big Mac said as he began loading the filled baskets into the wagon.

“Glad to help.” Steel said as he reverted back to his normal state, pushing back his dreadlocks behind his head. once his dreadlocks were brushed back, the young man looked down at Applejack, a slight concern look in his eyes. “How are you feeling AJ? Still a little shaken from what happened in Manehatten?” the farmer gave a small shutter as she thought back to that day, and what she and Twilight found in that old building.

“I’m…fine. For the most part at least, it’s just—”

“Not used to seeing that much death?” the farmer nodded.

“Nothing like that ever happens in Equestria.” Applejack shuddered again as she imagines her little sister among the bodies in Vermin’s lair. “But what I still can’t believe is that thing…was like you and your friends.” Steel gives a knowing sigh as he scratches his head.

“That’s the thing, nobody knows what powers they’ll develop till it matures, and sometimes whatever power the person gets ends up dooming them.” Steel said in a somber tone as he looks up at the sky. “Vermin and Dragonface just happened to end up with a power that they just couldn’t handle.”

The conversation on humans and the fate that their possible powers may bring them, was interrupted by the sound of a bell dining, singling to the two farm ponies and Steel, that an early lunch was ready for them. the trio then made their way to the farm house, where the smell of apple fritters and apple pie lured the hungry workers, but it wasn’t just pleasant pastries for lunch. There was a spread of sandwiches—flower free—a large bowl of mixed green salad, and a nice small bowl of dill pickles for Steel. The guy loves dill pickles. Once everyone has got their own plate of salad and sandwich, along with a fritter, the group sat on the picnic table outside, enjoying the nice weather as they eat. As they ate Granny Smith came trotting out with a pitcher of fresh ice cold lemonade, on her back with a few glasses.

“Whose up for a swig of lemonade?” all three workers said ‘Me’, getting a chuckle from the old mare as she dishes out the glasses, before pouring them their drinks. “Well Steel mah boy, how’s you liking being here in Equestria so far?” the old mare asked after pouring the young man’s drink.

“Definitely better than back home.” Steel said before taking a small sip of his drink, then munching away on a pickle.

“Well that’s good to hear. And you’ve certainly been a big help around the farm sonny.” Granny Smith then took her seat at the table, and began eating her own lunch. As the group continues to eat, making idle chat to help pass the time. “By the way sonny, have you found yourself a good mare yet?” the old ponies question caused Steel to nearly choke on his salad, and Applejack to nearly snort her drink out of her nose.

“What makes you ask that?” Steel questioned the old mare.

“If you’re sticking around permanently, I’d figure you’d be pretty lonely for ya. Even if you got your buddies and all, life would be better if you got yourself a lady friend to keep you company.” Steel blushed, more because of the awkward situation that the groups lunch has turned into, but even then…

“…I’m not quite sure if I’m ready for a partner.” Steel said as he scratched the back of his head.

“And why not?” Granny Smith asked. “You’re young, fit, and plenty reliable—”

“That’s not it Granny Smith.” Steel said as he cut the old mare off. “I just don’t know if I’m ready to, converge. If you know what I mean.”

“What do you mean sugarcube?” Applejack asked, genuinely curious about Steel’s statement.

“Well me and crew have only been in your world for about, two weeks or close to it, so…coming from a world where there were women around…finding a mare equally as, attractive. Is going to take a little more time to get used to.”

Applejack seemed to get what Steel is trying to say. If she was brought to another world, and decided to stay, she would find it hard to transition from finding the other race’s male, attractive. Although, ever since Steel and his friends decided to stay in Ponyville, and that he’s been working with her at the farm, Applejack has began to see Steel as appealing. His tall muscular form really strokes her in the right way, as she always did had a thing for stallions that have some muscle on them, as well as being very dependable.

The conversation then steered away from about Steel’s love life, or lack thereof, to other topics as the group finishes up their lunch. But as they continued eating, Steel started to wonder if whenever the time comes up, will he actually date a mare? Or even try to build a life with a mare? Thoughts like these never really came to Steel’s mind even when he had the option to date a normal girl, as he was more focused on not being caught by the government, or by their giant robotic units, the Collectors. But since he’s in a more safer world, and if a mare was interested, he might be able to actually have a relationship, even if his partner walks on four legs. Once lunch was over with, and the dishes were cleaned up, Applejack and the others went back to gathering up the apples from earlier, and bringing them to the barns apple cellar.


~~Sugarcube Corner~~

“Circus could you hand me the brown sugar and cinnamon.” Miss. Cake asked the young man off to her right, who was mixing up a fresh batch of coffee cake batter. Without answering Circus’s left hand detached from his body, and floated over to a cupboard and grabbed a bag of brown sugar, before bringing it to the mare then floated back to the cupboard to grab the bag of cinnamon.

“Thank you dear.”

“No problem.” Circus said in a dreary tone, something that the older mare took notice of.

“Circus, is everything alright? You been quiet ever since breakfast.” Circus stopped his mixing and let out a small exhale.

“Ever since Plasma and Wave came back from that little venture to the big city, and told us what happened, I guess it’s still bugging me.” Circus said as he turned to look at the mare, leaning against the counter. “I just don’t like hearing about other Un-Naturals being killed, it just…I don’t know, it just always gets to me.”

“Don’t worry dearie, if you don’t want to talk about it, then you don’t have to.”

“It’s not that it’s a sensitive subject or anything, It’s just…a lot of Un-Naturals—” Miss. Cake cut Circus off by patting his leg and giving him a comforting smile, the pair then decided to drop the subject and go back to finishing up their prep work.

After the afternoon rush came down to a crawl, and ponies were busy at their own work, Circus decided to take a walk around the town, and even though they didn’t continue to talk about the topic, Circus was still feeling a little gloomy about the fate of Vermin. The young man, as well as his friends, never liked hearing about an Un-Natural being killed, as the event is usually a celebration back on Earth whenever it happens. And the feeling is only worst whenever the group hears about an Un-Natural being killed, by another Un-Natural, which is an even rarer event. Shaking the unpleasant thoughts out of his head, Circus continues to wonder around town till his stomach started to grumble. Looking around his immediate vicinity, and saw the Prancing Pony restaurant across from him.

“Hope they got things other than hay and other pony foods there.” Circus quietly says to himself as he walks over to the building, where upon entering the establishment was meet with—

“Oh, hey Burner.”

“Hey Circus.” The brown haired human said to his friend. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing really, just thought I stop by for lunch.” Circus said to his friend. “You got any open tables?”

Burner nodded and brought Circus to a table near one of the windows, and as the two humans made their way to the table, a few of the ponies inside watched them past by with varying degrees of interest. Some of the ponies who aren’t from Ponyville watched them with greater interest, studying them like they were the most fascinating book in the world, one pony in particular off in the farthest corner was really interested with them. reaching the table Burner simply gave Circus a menu and wondered off to the kitchen, to get a drink for his friend something to drink, thankfully this world has the same drinks as they had on Earth. Circus was studying the menu to see what there was to eat, seeing a variety of different vegetable dishes, salads, and even some dessert and soft drinks, and surprisingly some dishes with fish in them.

As he continuous to think of what to eat, a gentle tapping sound causes the young man to glance to his right, and saw a pony looking at him. the pony was a light brown unicorn mare with a dirty blonde styled mane and tail, with a pair of black half-moon spectacles nestled on the ridge of her snout.

“Is there something I can help you miss?” Circus asked the mare that was looking up at him.

“Forgive me, I don’t mean to stare.” The mare said as she adjusts her glasses with her golden magic. “It’s just, I’ve studied every type of creature that exist in the world, but I’ve never seen you or your friend.”

“Well that’s understandable, since we’re from another world.”

“Another world?” Circus nodded to the mare, who seemed to have a small flash of realization. “Wait…are you one of those strange creatures, that came out of the sky during princess’s Cadence wedding?” Circus’s head floated off his body, and hovered in front of the now shock mare, all the while giving a cheeky smile.


~~Earth~~

Enigma was wondering through the streets of London, flanked by two men each wearing a trench coat, and appear to be looking for something. one a foot taller than the old man with short brown hair, light tan skin and glowing yellow eyes. The other man is of similar stature, but his complexion is of a darker skin tone, and his hair is long and unruly, his dark brown eyes focused and yet fidgety scouring the area.

“Sir if I may ask, why are we in London?” the brown haired man said to his boss as they continue to waltz through the streets of Whitechapel.

“We are searching for someone that I hope we can recruit for our takeover of—”

The sound of a woman screaming causes the three men to jump in fright. After collecting themselves, the three men ran to where the screaming came from, and upon reaching the end of street the three men saw the source. Staked to the side of a building, like the lord Christ, was a woman’s body, guts ripped straight out of her stomach and stringed about her body and the wall. Enigma and his two henchmen also noticed that the woman’s head was severed from her body, and that the flesh on her arms were ripped off to expose the muscle and bone…but what truly caused the following silence, was the large wings and halo painted on the wall. All made from the blood of the woman’s body.

“It would appear that we are on the right track.” Enigma said as he looked to his left. “Rabid, can you sniff out the one whose done this?”

The shaggy haired man took in a deep inhale through his nose, which he started to pick up various scent trails, but one got his attention, and that was the smell of blood. Not only was the scent emanating from the body, which was starting to have cops come riding in to check up on it, but it was leading the trio of men away from the crime scene. Maneuvering through alleyways, Enigma and his other henchman follow the one called Rabid, his nose occasionally sniffing the air. And after about a few minutes of following the scent of blood, the group came upon a rather unsuspecting building, where they could hear a voice from the backyard, which gotten louder and more clear as they made their way to the fence. Where the door was busted down and a large red hand print slathered on the door.

Entering the yard the trio saw the source of the voice, kneeled over a pool. The figure was a rather scrawny person, even under the somewhat baggy clothes he was wearing, they three men can tell he was really skinny. His clothes comprise of a loose jacket, a pair of dark blue jeans, but the sleeves of the jacket seemed to be torn, or ripped off. As they approached the figure, the three men heard the person talk more to himself.

“Another master piece…but there was still more to do, I could’ve made her better. Make her really shine like a real angel.” The figure muttered to himself, his voice young sounding…and clearly, deranged.

“But soon I will show the people that despite their—FILTHY LIVES OF HATERED—they can be works of beautiful artwork!” Enigma cleared his throat to get the young man’s attention.

The figure slowly rose to his feet, where the three men saw something being pulled out of the water, and when the figure turned to face them, they saw what came out of the water. Large muscular pitch black arms, as long as the young man himself who stood at 5’ft tall, slumped to the ground, where large hand laid palm up…with foot long razor sharp shining black claws extended out of the fingers. Enigma and his men looked away from the impressive arms, and looked up to the figures face, where a nearly pale face with a head of matted dirty blonde hair, and hollow looking blue eyes gazed at them. a twisted smile slowly growing on the young man’s face.

“And it would seem, I’ve found my newest pieces of art!” the deranged Un-Natural gleefully said with a wheeze of excitement, as he made his way over to Enigma and his men, arms being dragged behind him before being raised into the air.

“Now come to my loving embrace, and I will make you, beautiful.”
> Chapter 14: New Arrivals! New Arrivals!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

London was in a state of hysteria, as police cars were driving through city streets, or walking along the curbs, all of them on the search for one man. A man who’s notoriety was growing at a rapid pace. And this man has been running amok throughout the city, reciting terror, and fear into the populace…and like the mass murderer of old, this new devilish man has taken up a name. And that name is…Ripper the 2nd. And for the past four months, Ripper the 2nd has been leaving dreaded, horrifying displays of what he calls…art, for the populace to see and bare witness to. And he show’s no signs of stopping his macabre artwork.

In an old abandon church building, Enigma and his two henchmen were sitting on a few chairs, as they watch their ‘host’ work on his latest form of, art. They listen has flesh was being smoothly cut, or ripped and teared. Blood dripping down to the wooden floor, and the squelching of organs being moved around. A foul odor has started to permeate the air as the body decomposes, but the smell doesn’t seem to be a hindrance to the old man’s host, in fact…he seems to be revealing in the foul stench. The group have been in the church for about an hour, or so, and during that time Enigma has been explaining to the Un-Natural his plans for him. But the young man seems to be willfully ignoring the old man’s words.

“…well?” Enigma says to the younger Un-Natural, sounding slightly irritated.

“Do we have an agreement?” the old man says as he taps the bottom of his cane on the wooden floor, trying to get the Un-Naturals attention. But the young man just continues to ignore him, as he seemed to just be thoroughly engrossed into his work.

“—Now to really bring out the lustrous glow of your face, to really show the filthy sacks of commonalty what TRUE beauty is, and how they can only dream to be like you. We add a dash of blood red by making careful incisions!” Ripper says as he continues with his work on the body of the middle-age man.

“Are you even listening to me you raving psychopathic…freak!” Enigma shouted at Ripper with barely contained anger. “I didn’t travel half-way around the fucking world to recruit Un-Naturals to help me with my plans, just to be ignored as a mentally challenged freak of nature turns a corpse into a piece of garbage art!”

The young Un-Natural remains un-responsive to Enigma’s ranting, seemingly un-fazed by the old man’s attempts to garner his attention, and continues to just ramble on as he worked his craft. A frustrated animalistic growl came from the unruly haired henchman to Enigma’s right, as he bolted to his feet, as his eyes and teeth change to become more, bestial. Taking in a deep breath, the unruly haired man roared at the young man as he spoke in a very enraged voice.

“Unless you want me to turn you into my newest chew toy, and leave your corpse to rot in a gutter, you will answer when our boss talks to you meat bag!” Rabid snarled his fingers become more hairier, and his nails turn into thick black claws.

Ripper ceased his mumbling and ranting, his clawed hands stopping in mid-laceration as they’re coated in blood with the entrails entangled along his fingers. The younger Un-Natural turned to face the three men, showing his front to be blood-soaked, his demented eyes showing great interest and even a little mirth, as his mouth slowly turned into a grin. A very unsettling grin. The simple act of seeing the young man looking so hopefully gleeful of Rabid’s threat, and the slow movement he was making towards the three men, caused them to take a step back as they feel a shiver run down their spines.

“You would truly do that?” Ripper asked, his voice still sounding hollow, and yet it has a touch playfulness to it. 

“Will you be able to elevate me to the height of immaculate beauty that I strive for?! Strive to make all in this rotten sad world to?!” Ripper says as he raises his clawed hands, the blood soaked blades shimmering in the afternoon light. “Then come to me. Come and let us both become grand works of, ART!”

Ripper screams as he slams his hands onto the ground, sending him vaulting towards the three men, his screaming evolving into manic bouts of laughter. Rabid was about to engage the crazed young man and make good on his promise, but his colleague prevented the clash as he ran to the front of the group. Guardna stood in front of Enigma and Rabid with a serious expression on his face, while his eyes glowed yellow with power, before a 10ft high and wide dome of pale yellow energy surrounds the trio. Ripper collided with the dome of energy with a sudden ‘smack’, causing the dome to ripple from the impact. But the sudden mid-air collision didn’t stop Ripper, as he begun to violently slash at the dome of energy, his sharp claws causing it to ripple with each strike, and the force of each blow causing strain on the middle-aged man as he tries to maintain his shield.

“What do you think you are doing you degenerate?!” Enigma demanded as the crazed Un-Natural raises both hands, and attacks in an X formation. Causing a powerful shockwave to ripple across the domes surface. “We had an agreement!”

“I signed no contract old man; I made no such dealing. I only agreed to see what you can offer me…” Ripper says with a crooked smile as he raises his right claw, the fingers flexing, and the claws seem to be getting sharper.

“And you three will go well with my latest masterpiece!”

The pulled back limb snapped forward like a spring loaded gun, the arm swinging forward with great momentum, so much so that the 2ft long black claws pierced through the dome of energy. Guardna buckled and cried out as his concentration on the dome broke, causing him to fall to the ground and allowing the manic young man ready to strike with his left arm. Already pulled back like a cocked gun, ready to tear the three men to minced meat. But before the manic man’s left arm sprang loose, Enigma’s glowed purple and then in a split second, Ripper disappeared in the blink of an eye. Once Ripper was gone the three men gave out sighs of relief, while their bodies loosed up after being tense during the whole event.

“It seems I just have the worst of luck when it comes to recruiting new Un-Naturals.” The old man said as he walks over to a chair, and sits down to regain his strength. “First those un-reasonable youngsters, then that mutated ratman Samson brought…and now this.”

“Where did you even send that lunatic anyway boss?” Rabid asked as his features revert back to normal.

“I’m not sure actually.” Enigma says as he runs a hand through his short hair. “I wasn’t actually thinking of where to send him, I just used my power to get him away from me.”

“So in other words sir, for all we know, you just sent him to core of a volcano or outer space.” Guardna summarized.

“Precisely.” Enigma says as he stands up from the chair. “Let’s leave this wretched place, the stench is starting to make me nauseous.”

The two men agreed with their boss, and left the church without delay. But as they left and entered a nearby alleyway, the three men stopped as they saw several cop cars stop in front of the church, and began to inspect it. the three men hasten their retreat to leave the city, if not the whole country. As while Enigma is feared in the US, his reign of influence and power is limited everywhere else.


~~Equestria~~

Trottingham was always known as a humble city, where ponies were probably the most hospitable than anywhere else in Equestria’s boarders. 

In one of the quaint neighborhoods, a little earth pony filly was playing by herself in her backyard. The foal was a light brown colored earth pony, with fuzzy a mane and tail of a darker brown with some golden highlights. As the filly was playing with her toys, having a model of Daring Doo tackle a dragon, which collapsed on a bunch of diamond dog soldiers, the fillies ears perked up as she heard something on the other side of the fence. It sounded like a small popping sound, that was followed up by a loud ‘thud’ and kicked up gravel.

Trotting up to the fence, the filly pressed her ear against it and heard…painful moaning. Looking around the fence the filly found a small hole and peeked through it, seeing a large creature laying on the floor, dirt covering its body, and blood on its small claws.

“Mommy!” the filly cried out as she ran to the house.

“Mommy!” as the foal entered the house, the little pony saw her mother galloping into the backroom. Her mother was an earth pony as well, but her coat was burgundy while her mane & tail were lavender in color. The mare was also wearing a small pair of red reading glasses as she looked down at her daughter who lept into her forelegs.

“Hazel, honey? What’s wrong?” the older mare said in a panic as she held her daughter. “Why are you screaming dear?” the filly looked up to her mother with a worried look, making the older pony even more confused and anxious about what’s going on.

“There’s a creature outside, on the other side of the fence.” Hazel said as she gestured in the general direction of the fence. “And…I think its h-hurt!”

The older mare placed Hazel on the floor and walked over to the fence, her little filly following behind her. approaching the part of the fence that had a door, the mare un-hitched the latch keeping it closed, and opened the door just enough to allow her head to slip through. but as she leaned her head out and looked down the back alley path, the mare saw the injured creature her daughter said was there, and quickly opened the door and made her way over to the creature. Which looked at her with small brown eyes, showing fear as it weakly backed away from the mare.

“P-please…” it’s voice was so fearful, and looked so timid, that it made the mare’s heart ache. “D-don’t hurt me! I beg y-you!” the mare eased her way over the creature, who kept scooting away from the mare. Till it’s back knocked over a few garbage cans, causing it to jump and fall to its side.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” The mare said sweetly and calmly as she inched closer to the terrified creature. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help.”

“Help?” the creature said confusedly. “You would…h-help me?” the mare gives a warm comforting smile as she nods.

“Do you think you can stand up? I don’t think I can carry you inside the house.” The creature tried to stand, but fell on his stomach and gave a ‘oof’ as he toppled over. “Alright I’ll take that as a no.” the mare tapped her chin for a second before an idea came to her.

“Wait here, I’ll see if I can borrow a wagon from one of the neighbors.”

As the mare trots off to see if she can get a wagon, the creature behind her slowly rose to his feet, his eyes solely trained on the poor pony. A manic smile growing on his face, as his arms twist and change into monstrous forms, with bladed nails as the creature loomed over the mare, like an ever growing shadow…


~~Ponyville~~

The Everfree Forest was certainly a bustle with activity today, as deep within the woods, a pack of timberwolves were chasing down their latest prey. A prey that’s been able to escape its fate for about five minutes now.

One of the wolves attempted to pounce on the prey, but it looked over its shoulder and with a quick blow from its mouth, the wolf was knocked back by a blast of air. The prey then leaped over a fallen log taking in a deep inhale as it did so, and when the wolves jumped the log to continue the chase, the creature let out the breath it just took…and created a powerful vortex of wind that sent the arbor wolves flying back a good half-yard. After letting out all of the held in breath it had, the being the wolves have been chasing dropped to its hands and knees, gasping for air as it tries to catch its breath properly.

After a minute, give or take, the figure shakenly rose to its feet. Wobbling around as the adrenalin was leaving it, causing its body to loose its tensed up state, putting it in a drained state as it tries to walk. Luckily, there were plenty of trees around for the being to lean on for support.

Walking for another twenty or so minutes, the being finally manages to walk out of the Everfree forest, revealing his disheveled and haggard form. All of his clothes were torn or ripped to the point of being rags, barely hanging on to each other. Cuts, bruises, and other injures could be seen through the gaps, and holes of his torn up clothes. The worst of which was his left eye that looked really swollen, and was a not to pleasing purple color, almost boarding on black. When the figure emerged from the forest and saw the outline of Ponyville in the distance, tears started to form in his one good eye, as he hobbles his way down the dirt road, and hoping that someone would help him.

But after only taking a few steps, the figure dropped to the floor. Dirt and dust being kicked up as he laid limp on the road, the fatigue of the past few days, and everything that has happened to him finally catching up. leaving the figure to weakly try and move, but ultimately being unable to and just remain limp on the road.


However…it would seem lady luck has not left him. Not yet at least.


“Whoa!” a raspy voice said as s blue hoof pokes the unconscious figure. “Looks like we got ourselves another one.”
> End of Volume 1 - Chapter 15: My Name is...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was just now high noon in the town of Ponyville, and things were taking an interesting turn. Just an hour ago the towns local speed flyer Rainbow Dash found something, another human that was laying outside the Everfree Forests boarder, but the poor fella was in horrible shape. Looked like he was just in a hectic fight for his life. After taking the poor guy to the hospital to be treated, and looked after, the pegasus made her way back to town to gather up the other humans. So now the six humans were on their way to the hospital to meet this newcomer, with their pony friends tagging along to also see this new human. Hopefully, it wasn’t another Un-Natural with an out of control power.

“So you found another person like us?” Steel asked the cyan pegasus as they, and the other members of their groups made the venture to Ponyville General Hospital, where a supposed seventh human was being treated.

“Yeah, and the guy just looked like he just went through Tartarus and back.” Rainbow said to the group as she flies just a little ways in front of everyone. “I mean dude was all beat up, covered in bruises and scars, and his clothes were pretty much rags.”

“Poor thing, he must’ve had a rough time alone.” Fluttershy said as she fluttered about the group.

“Well who ever he is, at least we can help him get back on his feet.” Plasma said as they closed in on the hospital. But as the group continued to walk, Applejack seemed to be deep in thought about something. 

“Hey can ah ask ya’ll a question?” the group looked at the farm pony as they continued to walk. “Aside from you six, the only other humans that we’ve seen were all male, especially when they’re like you.” the other ponies and humans looked gave the farm pony a curious look.

“Yeah, and?” Burner asked as they continued to walk.

“Well I was just wondering; how many human mares have powers?”

“Oh, that’s what got you all curious.” Circus said as his head floated to be a foot in front of the mare. “Well AJ, to answer your question, yes. There are female humans that have powers like us, however, find a human woman with powers is VERY rare.”

“Why’s that?” Rarity asked.

“I’m not sure how it actually works.” Wave said in reply to the unicorns question. “But from what I remember the incident that caused the Un-Natural Outbreak, or G-Day as its more commonly called, caused some kind of mutation in the human DNA strand. But it has a weird condition.”

“And what condition is that?” Twilight asked, now very curious in how the cultivation of powers work. Wave then continued just as the group closed in on the hospital.

“The mutation affects the DNA strand, but for some reason the male chromosome acts as a, reactionary substance or something. So when a kid reaches the age of eight or ten, the mutation finally becomes potent enough to cause a someone to develop a power, however the chances of a kid actually developing a power one out of ten chances.”

“I see.” Twilight muttered. “So, what about female humans? You still haven’t answer the original question.”

“Well Twilight its like this.” Plasma said as the group stopped just outside the doors of the hospital. “If the odds of a boy getting powers is 10% out of 100%, its lower for a girl to develop powers because they don’t have the right genes for the mutation to develop one, close only being 2% out of a 100%.” The ponies looked shocked to hear this.

“Well if that’s true, then, there shouldn’t be to many Un-Naturals that have to go through life like you all, right? especially if the odds to even being one are so low.” Pinkie’s words seemed to only garner some defeated, or poor looks from the six young man.

“You’d think so.” Plasma simply said as the group entered the hospital.

As they finally entered the hospital, the group asked one of the ponies at the front desk where they asked one of the receptionist where the new human is, and after the mare told the group what room to look for they set off to find the new arrival. Climbing stairs and traversing hallways the group passed by many hospital staff, and patients who took a moment to look at the passing humans, even if they were now a common sight in Ponyville a lot of ponies still find themselves in awe when they see the six humans. after climbing their fifth slight of stairs, to which Burner commented on ponies really need elevators, the group finally made it to the floor they were looking for, however unlike the previous floor this one was virtually empty.

There were no ponies, be they hospital staff or patients, there were a few nurses trotting at the back of the hall, but other than them there were no other ponies. Walking down the hallway the group of twelve found the room they were looking for, room 506, and upon entering the room they found the new human stretched out a larger bed. With a nurse and doctor pony checking up on him, as the human laid nude on the bed, with a blanket covering his lower half.

“Oh, hello I didn’t hear you all come in.” the doctor said as he adjusted his glasses. “You know for tall walking bipeds; you humans can move around pretty quietly can’t ya.”

“Thanks, I guess?” Steel said to the pony.

“So, how is the new arrival?” Plasma asked as the doctors picks up a clipboard.

“Well aside from heavy exhaustion, the human has some mild broken bones, some bad scars and a few bruises that were pretty bad. But luckily the bones weren’t too badly damaged, so we have been able to set and heal them.” the doctor then flipped the page on the clipboard as he continued on.

“The scars and brises however will take a little more time to fully heal. Some of the scars showed signs of infection, so we had to treat those immediately, and it seemed that the infection had mended fairly well, but we will need to keep an eye on him before we’re certain he’s fine.”

As the doctor talked to the humans, the ponies gathered around the bed to get a better look at the new human, while not getting in the way of the nurse who was treating one of the scars on the humans arms.

Like the others, this human was also fairly big in size, though he didn’t seem to be as bulky or well-built like the others. In fact he seemed to be really scrawny, almost like Circus. However this new human has features that remind the group of Burner, same skin, and hair color, although it seems this humans arms are a darker color than his body. Speaking of his body, the mares noticed that his chest is a bit more broader than what they expected for a more, skinner human like this one to have.

“Poor fella really got roughed up out their in the wilds did he?” Applejack commented.

“Believe me, he looked worse before you all got here.” The nurse said as she finished stitching up the scar on the arm. “We had a whole crew of ponies in here, checking blood pressure and type, see if our treatments work on him, honestly I didn’t think we’d be able to do much for him.”

“Well at least he’s in good hooves now!” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah! Plus we get to have a new friend in town! And this time, NO PONY OR HUMAN—” Pinkie looked at the group of humans who looked back at her. “IS GOING TO STOP ME THIS TIME!”

“Pinkie! Keep your voice down, this is a hospital.” Rarity warned, but it seemed the pink ponies raving roused the human to consciousness.

“Wha-what’s going on?” the human asked as he tried to move, but he the ponies noticed that he could barely budge. “Why can’t I move?! What’s going on?!”

“Whoa, whoa easy there buddy calm down.” Plasma said as he made his way to the bed. “Your in safe place man, no one is going to hurt you.” as the de facto leader of the humans group it to the side of the bed, the ponies noticed the worried and shocked look on his face.

“P-Plasma!” the human said in shock, almost sounding alarmed and frighten.

“Do I know you?”

“H-How are you a-alive, I thought Mr. Enigma g-got rid of you?!” the ponies of the room noticed a subtle change to the humans demeanor, as they all looked on edge, ready to just jump into a fight. Plasma himself looked like he was ready to just incinerate this human. Honestly, the ponies were starting to feel a little scared.

“…you know Enigma?” Plasma asked, his voice leveled, but the ponies could tell there was a level of warning in his tone of voice. The other human visibly looked frightened, but he still responded.

“Y-yes.”

Plasma’s right hand instantly shot out and grabbed the human by the neck, and with surprising strength lifted him up into the air, where his Burn Saber was created in his other hand and the tip pointing right at his face. naturally, the ponies in the room are both terrified that Plasma just immediately went on the attack on a defenseless injured person, but are also the fact that aside from Plasma…the other humans in the room looked like they were ready to kill this injured human. And almost instantly, Twilight and Applejack both remembered what happened in Manehatten, and didn’t want to see or hear a repeat.

“Plasma put him down!” Twilight shouted as she tried to pull the humans weapon bearing arm away with her magic, but Plasma’s arm didn’t budge.

“You stay out off—”

Plasma was cut off when the human in his hand managed to take in a big gulp of air…before letting out as a powerful gust of air slammed into him, and everyone else in the room. Causing them to be slammed into the back wall with great force. While the ponies were disoriented by the sudden attack, the six humans recovered rather quickly, and quickly restrained the other human via Circus and Wave tying him down, while Plasma and Burner primed their powers to be used in case the human tried anything.

“Wait!” Applejack cried out. “What in the blooming blazes is with you guys, why are you attacking the poor fella?!”

“Because this guy apparently worked for the bastard that sent us here in the first place.” Steel said as he cracked his knuckles

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked as she and her friends want to know why the humans are acting so aggressively.

“His boss Enigma tried to recruit us to join his industry of illegal arms and drug selling, as well as slave trading normal humans.” Burner said as he held a fireball at the ready. “And when we said no to his offer, the old man used his power on us, which we thought just…erased somebody from existence.”

“B-but that doesn’t mean you have to hurt him, because of what his boss did!” Pinkie tried to reason with the six humans.

“Still doesn’t matter as he helped the old man, so he’s just as guilty.”

“No wait!” the other humans pleaded as he tried defend himself. “I’m not part of Enigma’s crew anymore, he used his power on me to! that’s why I’m here!”

“And where did you end up exactly?” Circus asked as his head floated in front of the human. “The six of us were in the same area, so where did you end up?”

“I ended up in some dirt town I don’t know how far away, but there the ponies chased me off thinking I was kind of monster that wanted to attack the town. So I ran away and traveled for miles in blistering hot weather, while be chased by coyotes and other animals in the damn deserts. But that’s when I got lost in this forest where fucking monsters live, and chased for me until I finally got out of the fucking place.”

The group of humans seemed to have simmered down, if only a little bit, but at least they seemed to have calmed down a little. Circus and Wave let the human go, allowing him to catch his breath and grab the blanket to cover himself. Steel, Burner and Snap also backed down as they cooled down, but Plasma still had his fiery weapon aimed at the human.

“So, your boss decided to get rid of you like us, not send you here to spy on us?” Plasma asked but the seventh human shook his head.

“No.” he simply said. “I disappointed Enigma and botched up my latest task for him, so he…decided to get rid me so I wouldn’t mess up anything again.” The leader of humans seemed to accept the strangers response, and dispelled his weapon, but he still held a stern if somewhat threatening look.

“Just because you had it rough doesn’t mean we’ll just trust you right away, you did after all worked for the guy that sent us here.”

“Wait a minute Plasma, that’s not fair to—”

“No!” the stranger said as he manages to get to his feet. “I was the person that brought Enigma to them, and thought they would work with us in the criminal underworld. If I was in there position, and that happened to me, I would be untrustworthy as well.”

“Glad to know we see eye-to-eye on this.” Plasma said to the stranger. “By the way. What’s your name?”

“…Samson.” The stranger said as he sat down on the bed.

“So you still go by your given name, and not a Un-Natural handle.” Snap said as he crossed his arm.

“I couldn’t give it up, it’s literally the last thing my family gave me.” Samson said as he clutched the blanket tightly in his hands. But his started to groan in pain as he curled into himself, causing the doctor and nurse to rush to his side.

“I think we’re done with visits today, for now, we need to make sure that Samson is alright.” The doctor said as he tried to pronounce the humans name as he, and his assistant helped the human to lay down.

The group then left the room, and proceeded to leave the hospital. But as they traveled down the hallways and stairs, the ponies noticed that their human friends still seem to be, on edge. Though none of the mares said anything, as they all thought that maybe they just needed some time to fully unwind, after the little incident they just made in the room. But hopefully the six Un-Naturals will come to accept the new human, as he’s just like them, a lost soul in search of a better place. At least that’s what the ponies hopped will happen.


~~Trottingham~~

Song used for ambiance and background: Circle You, Circle You.
(English – Ashe)

Little Hazel and her mother laid in the corner of their house, both tied up and gagged…covered in small cuts and scars. They weren’t severe wounds, but the two ponies still bleed as tears flowed from their eyes, as they watched the creature in the living room disembowel Hazel’s father. When the creature attacked Hazel’s mom, the mare obviously cried out in panic, and when the large earth pony stallion heard the commotion he came out to see what was going. And upon seeing his wife pinned to the floor by a monster, he attacked…but that’s when the mare and filly saw nothing but red.

The commotion from the fight also drew other ponies from nearby houses, only to cut down and butchered like lambs to the slaughter! After the seventh neighbor came to see what has happened, the creature bind Hazel and her Mother Cinnamon Grill, and allowed them to watch as the creature went about its macabre work. all the while singing a chilling and eerie song.

Time to spit and shine, show the folks a good time
Bring them down to the ball where we all will have a ball
And smile!
For all are all happy to see you, yes they’re all glad to see you
As they know that its time, time to show them what true beauty is!

As the deranged creature sang the two ponies watched as the creature large muscular arms, and blade like claws carved into Hazel’s fathers dead body, causing blood to flow to the floor. And watching as entrails are lifted from the corpse, and placing them methodically around the table. But it wasn’t just senseless carnage for the sake of spilling blood. The foals mother knows that this creature is making each cut, every slice of flesh in a particular manner…almost as if…as if it was trying to create art.

Here they come everyone, strolling down the winding halls of life
Look upon them and be in awe, as these wonderous souls are absolutely stunning
Look upon them sirs, and witness they immaculate beauty
Such wonderous beauty, oh such marvelous beauty
True beauty through deaths design!

Hazel and Cinnamon tried to escape their bonds so they could try and escape from this horrible monster, but the ropes tying them up are strongly knit and it hurt them as they struggled. But there seems to be a ray of hope. Something sharp rubbed against something sharp, carefully grabbing the object in her hooves the mare began carefully cut through the ropes, that is until a splatter of blood splashed onto her and her daughter, causing both to scream.

“Naughty, naughty little ones.” The monster said as it turned to look at Cinnamon, seeing the twisted and deranged smile and look on its face. “There’s no need to cut your bonds my dear, as your fates do not align with these ones.”

“Y-you won’t k-kill us?” Cinnamon asked worriedly. The monster shook his head.

“This is a new world, a world full of potential for the finest of arts!” the creature says joyously as he raised his blood soaked claws. “But I do not know this world, or its wiles, so I needs to know who lives here…so then I can apply my crafts more effectively.”

“Please sir, let us go, we won’t tell a soul about this!” Cinnamon said in a frantic state, more afraid that her daughter would be to traumatized by this creature. However the creature just clicked its tongue, while waving a claw.

“And why would I let you leave? You’ll just miss out on all the marvelous pieces of art that will create. By turning these poor dullard souls…into glorious artistry! And besides…” the monster then lurched forward towards the pair, looking Cinnamon up and down as his predatory eyes scanned about.

“I might have other uses for such a lovely creature like yourself~”

Cinnamon could only shutter at what the creature could mean, while her cheek was gently caressed by a blood soaked claw. The monster then chortled to itself as it made its way to the table, and continued to work on it’s, art. Leaving the poor mother and her foal quivering in the corner, and do nothing but listen as claw ripped, and cut through soft flesh. And the monsters horrible song.