> Archangel Michael visits Equestria
>  by Kama and Hallie
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> Chapter 1
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Beyond the reaches of time and space, beyond the concept of the third dimension, beyond even the limits of the infinite and endless multiverse, lies a place made of pure light and filled with bliss and purity known by many different names, but there are some who know it by the name of Heaven. This place beyond all Creation where the Creator Of All resides welcomes those who have moved on from their mortal dimensioned bodies to a higher plane of existence to return to where their Creator originates and can experience the very best of what their Creator can offer.

Of course, the passed-on remnants of these mortal creatures of the lower status of existence aren't the only ones who reside in this plane, there are also other beings who have lived here since the beginning, entities of a much higher power, concept, state of being, and who's purpose of existing is to carry out the will and duties of their Lord and Creator, some know them as the Malakhim, Malaikah, or Angels. One of these angels is considered one of if not the highest-ranking of them all, who is known by the name of Mikha'El, or Mika'il, or as most call him: Michael. He was God's warrior and the caretaker of the natural order, and he proudly awaits every single one of his Creator's orders because of his undying love for Him. He usually received orders to fight off his archenemy, the entity known as the Devil, Iblis, or Satan, and the forces of evil and malevolence that go against the wishes of his Creator, sometimes he was ordered to protect the followers of God and those in need from danger by Satan, or to take care of the natural order of the universe such as keeping the lands of the Earth fertile by making it rain. This time though, he was going to be given a rather unusual duty.

Michael was resting upon the spot he usually resides to watch the ongoing events throughout the multiverse, all of them happening at different points in time, different dimensions, different universes, different timelines, all of them happening at the same time in front of his eyes. Suddenly, his closest fellow angel, Gavri'El, otherwise known as Jibra'il or Gabriel, approached him bringing news, as is his purpose.

"Hi, Mikha'El. The Lord has requested your presence, says He has a special task for you." Gabriel said, pointing one of his six hundred wings toward where he's supposed to go.

"A 'special' task? Well, this should be interesting. Thank you, Gavri'El." Michael said.

"Of course, I pray that your task may be a successful one, like always." Gabriel said, whispering at the last part. And with that Michael left Gabriel behind.

Michael approached the Throne of God, eagerly awaiting his command, fulfilling his purpose. Michael always felt that he was the one closest to the Creator, both literally and figuratively, which is why he was always the proudest and loyal to the Lord that always made sure everyone else will follow His word, much to the annoyance of the other angels, but that never concerned Michael. With that, the Lord spoke to Michael.

"Mikha'El, I have a special task for you. You are to visit the planet known as Equus, where you shall go to the land of Equestria, there you shall visit the ruler of Equestria: Twilight Sparkle. She is currently in a lost and confused state in her rulership of her country, facing dilemmas and problems someone like her in that position would obviously go mad. I need you to go down there and guide her through her hardships until whenever the crisis is averted." the Creator explained.

However, Michael was surprised and a little confused about the task. "I'm sorry, my Lord. But are you wishing me to assist ponies of all things? We barely ever interact with the planet Equus, and they seem to be functioning well without our assistance, they have been able to fight the demonic forces of evil with ease and little hardship since by the looks of it they have learned to control the energies within and outside of them to make 'magic', so I'm sure that a little disturbance of mind is nothing they can't handle. And guiding? My duties are usually to protect leaders, not help them solve their little political dilemmas, don't you think You should just let their guardian angels deal with something like that? At least I think they have guardian angels, considering how lucky they seem at escaping doom." Michael explained.

"I know that your task may sound strange at first, but this is something only you will be able to do. She's a kind and just ruler who really relies on the strengths of socializing and relationships, and very often sees the light and bright side of things in the darkest of situations" God explained.

"Are you sure Gavri'El isn't the one you want to send, they both sound pretty similar and could get along well?" Michael asked.

"Are you really going to spend the rest of our time questioning My request? Trust me, Mikha'El. I'm sure that this task will not only help her a lot but could also be very beneficial to you as well." God answered.

"Well then, thank you, my Lord. It will be done immediately. I have never refused a task from you." Michael replied.

"Well, of course. Because you can't actually..." God gestured at Michael, which Michael obviously understood.

"Yes, right. Alright, I'll be there." Michael said.

And with a flash of light, Michael departed from Heaven, down into the multiverse. He arrived at the universe he needed to be and within a moment, he saw the world of his destination. He looked down upon it, as his size was much bigger than the planet was at the moment, it was a good thing that nothing could see angels unless they revealed themselves to them. With that, he was ready to begin his task for real, until he heard a voice that stopped him in his tracks.

"Why, hello there, Michael!" the voice said, coming from the void between the stars near him, then the speaker revealed himself.

"What are you doing here, Satan? It's not our time yet and this is neither the time nor place for your presence to be required." Michael said to the enemy of him and the Lord's creations.

"Oh, I was just doing my usual devilish routine when I heard that our beloved Archangel Michael is going to be tutoring a bunch of horses of all things! Haha, I mean I couldn't believe it at first, has good old Michael really lost that much hope in the Lord's other creations that he had to stoop low enough to preach to horses? Not that I'd really blame you, most of them are completely hopeless, especially humans. Well, not entirely, I hear they're starting to really like me a lot more than you guys." Satan taunted.

"Wait, how did you hear about my task? I just left Heaven a moment ago." Michael asked.

"News travels fast, or did it travel slow? How long did it take to reach me, anyway? 3 seconds? A million years? I don't know, time isn't really a concept I delve into too much." Satan wondered with a smile. "Regardless, I was surprised to hear you guiding animals. I mean look at them, do they really need your constant preaching? And from the looks of it, they seem to be some of the more pure creations of God, more than others at least. Good news for me! Gives me more room for sweet temptation, see what they're hiding under that sugar-coated exterior they have." Satan said looking down on the world in front of them.

"You may think you have the upper hand by tempting all of the Lord's creations and by attempting to exasperate me right now, but in the end, those who fight for the side of God will always prevail. It has been foretold since the beginning that I am the one destined to defeat you, and that you are destined to be defeated, and no silver-tongued temptation or empowering of dark forces is ever going to change that." Michael replied.

Satan suddenly shook himself as if snapping out of a trance. "Sorry, what? I was too busy thinking about how 'tempting' and 'attempting' actually rhyme. I mean, they both almost mean the same thing but for different purposes. It sounds catchy as well, 'attempting tempting'. Hehehe." Satan pondered, which added to Michael's disdain.

Michael has always felt a certain feeling of wrath whenever his nemesis was around, ever since he had disobeyed and spat in the face of his Creator and Michael had to drive him out of Heaven, ever since then all he did was disturb and assault all the creatures of God for his own amusement and 'duties' as he says. The Lord and a lot of others keep saying that Satan is a necessary part of the universal order and that his presence was just as important as his and God's. But Michael never saw things that way or understood that view, when he sees Satan he only sees an obstacle that must be destroyed, it was his destiny, after all, to destroy Satan during the End of All Things. But he couldn't destroy Satan, even if he wanted to, since it was 'not the time' yet, and that his duty at the moment was to assist a creature of God, not to battle his adversary. Even though angels all have their own thoughts and personalities, they lacked free will, so unless their Creator tells them to do something, they lack the ability to take actions of their own. So Michael had no choice but to persist and continue his duty while Satan was around.

"Leave me be, Satan. You have no business here, and I must continue." Michael said one last time before decreasing his size and descending down to the planet, there he observed the land before him. He could see the location of his destination, a castle, and city on the side of a mountaintop, where a waterfall was flowing from. He could see a quaint little town near the mountain where a tree-shaped castle made of crystal. In these two locations, he could see the residents who were multicolor tiny horses that came in three different forms: the unicorns, the winged ones called pegasi, and the ordinary-looking earth ponies, once in a while he'd see a creature of a different species. Everywhere he looked, the land was filled with nothing but good weather, healthy fertile lands, and inhabitants filled with peace and joy, sure this place was nowhere near the beauty of Heaven and he knew that it's still filled with sins and darkness in some shape or form, but he liked it nonetheless. Michael didn't know why he ignored this world for as long as he did, this seemed like someplace he would enjoy spending time in. Then he was reminded why him being here can also be dangerous as well.

"My, my. This land is wonderful, isn't it, Michael?" Satan said, descending down from the sky, also observing the land around him.

"It's Mikha'El..." Michael growled. He always disliked when people called him an alteration of his original name, it took away from the meaning his name had.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You know, I must say this place has a tad too much peace and happiness, not to mention it's way too colourful. I think someone needs to tone it down a notch, and by a notch, I mean a lot. Honestly, this place almost makes me sick." Satan said with a grossed-out tone.

"Satan, do not get any ideas with interfering with the lives of these creatures. Don't forget that I will be here to stop you if you try anything." Michael threatened.

"Well, I don't think you can. Your duty is to help their ruler deal with her petty little problems, not to go around fighting me to save a bunch of random citizens." Satan said.

"No, but since they're Twilight Sparkle's citizens, their situation will make it her business, which will make it my business. And if what it takes to help her is to eliminate you, then I will gladly do so if necessary." Michael explained.

Satan could do nothing but stare blankly for a split second at Michael's solution, while Michael just stared back smugly and triumphantly at Satan. "Ah, I like it when the Lord doesn't make his orders too specific." Michael thought out loud.

"Oh, well, no matter. This isn't the only country on this planet, There are tons more I can have fun with! I'm particularly interested in the Dragon Lands over there, it brings back fond memories from when I was in Heaven." Satan explained.

"Yes, very fond." Michael grumbled. "Also, Dragon Lands? You seem to know a few things about this world, have you been here before?" the angel asked.

"Eh, maybe I helped spread some dark magic here and there. I don't know, don't really have many memories of this place." Satan thought.

"Alright, I've had enough of you. I must proceed to the city of Canterlot, and converse with this 'Twilight Sparkle'. I just need to figure out how to approach her."

"Alright, you have fun, Michael." Satan said mockingly.

"It's Mikha'El!"





In the throne room of the castle of Canterlot, sits a purple alicorn turned into the new ruler of Equestria named Twilight Sparkle. She has been the ruler of Equestria for no more than less than a year, and she has seemed to get the hang of it, mostly anyway. Recently, Twilight has been facing a lot of obstacles for both her royalty life and her personal life. It's like the superheroes in Spike's old comic books where they have to juggle between their two personas. On one hoof, Twilight had been dealing with making sure there's no tension between the kingdoms, the new laws, the renovation for Canterlot, her new students, the help to fix the cities of her kingdom, and other kingdoms. And on the other hoof, her friends have been wanting to spend time with her, having sent many invitations to her for a special occasion between them, but she had to decline every time due to her being very busy the past few months, they've barely even had their annual meetings of the Council of Friendship. Her friends told her not to worry about it since what she was going through was more important and they shouldn't have been bothering Twilight in the middle of her Princess duties, but that didn't make Twilight feel any less guilty.

Twilight went through all the papers and files of her current duties, and she was feeling exhausted, something she rarely said about reading. She has practically lost track of time, when she checked the clock, it was already time for the sun to go down. Suddenly, someone came through the door.

"Hey, Twilight. You doin' okay?" Spike asked.

"Oh, hey, Spike. I...have I been in here all day?" Twilight asked, feeling her eyes starting to droop.

"Yeah, didn't wanna bother you. You were in a really focused state, hehe." Spike chuckled. "By the way, I heard that Applejack is having her Apple Family Reunion in a few days, Rarity's getting a contract for the expansion of her fashion business, and Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich have got together, isn't that great?" Spike said enthusiastically.

"Oh, Goddess..." Twilight moaned, faceplanting into her throne's armrest. "Oh, Spike. What am I going to do? I feel like I'm missing every important event that my friends clearly want me to go to. What if I miss too much, what will they say to me next time we meet up? What about the rest of Equestria and the other kingdoms? If I focus on this too much I might screw up my duties, and they'll think I'm a bad leader."

"Woah, Twilight! Pull yourself together! We spent so much time preparing for the day of your coronation to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen! Discord even brought back three villains for you, I'm still kinda ticked off about what happened." Spike lectured and said quietly during the last part. "And I'm pretty sure the Princesses wouldn't have picked you if they didn't think you would be the best choice, and everycreature seems to love you, so any bad things you're thinking, that's just your stress talking. C'mon Twilight, don't make us go through this again, I thought we were past this." Spike reassured his big sister.

"Y-yeah, you're right, Spike. I'm just overreacting. Gosh, what was going through my head?" Twilight asked herself.

"You're just exhausted Twilight, and it's almost nighttime anyway. Let's just lower the sun, raise the moon, and deal with this stuff tomorrow." Spike said.

With that, Twilight put her files and papers away and walked over to the balcony to raise the moon. After all that is done, she walks back into her chambers. But after a few hours of lying in her bed, she found that she couldn't sleep, so Twilight decided to get out of bed and take a midnight walk, dismissing her guards when she exited. She walked through the Gardens of Canterlot, and on her walk she saw the labyrinth where they first met Discord, the spot they celebrated Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding, and the Sculpture Garden, where she could see the spot Discord used to be, and the statue of Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow off in the distance. 

Truth be told, Twilight didn't know why she was thinking the way she was. She kept telling herself to stop feeling guilty and worried and that she was already past feeling scared and stressed about her princess role in order to go to sleep, but nothing worked, she figured maybe calming herself down by walking around can get her to sleep. Yet it still didn't work, at this point, she just hoped the walk exhausted her to sleep. Her mind continued to wander to places she wish it didn't, what if she missed too many important things with her friends? What if she lost the calm, confident leader demeanor and reverted back to her old ways, and end up making an irrational decision that could ruin her life, her friendships, and her country? Twilight hit herself with her hoof to stop her mind from continuing, but then suddenly her internal battle was interrupted by a strange sensation in the air. 

Twilight looked around her and felt as if there was something forming high above her. Suddenly, a bright light appeared that looked like some sort of portal that nearly blinded her, then out of the light appeared something that nearly frightened her to death. Out of the light appeared some sort of being that was larger than anything that Twilight has ever seen, it was so big that the sky was nearly blocked from her view. The creature(?) had around 8 wings, a pair to cover its head and top part of its body, another pair to cover its hind limbs and lower part of its body, and the other two pairs to fly, making the creature look like nothing more than a giant mass of wings with no visible body. The freakiness didn't stop there, the wings were apparently covered in eyes! Something that Twilight never imagined any natural creature would have, and it had one giant eye in the center of its body where the wings didn't manage to cover, the eye was the only visible thing in that open spot since it was completely shrouded in darkness. Surrounding the creature was a bright blue and purple fire-like light that almost made it impossible to see clearly, making the creature look like it was on fire.


Then, the creature spoke. "Twilight Sparkle, be not afraid! I mean you no harm. I am the Archangel Mikha'El, I've been sent here by our Lord to guide you through your troubles!" 

Its voice was unlike anything Twilight ever heard before, it was hard to tell whether the creature was male or female since its voice had no trace of the traits of a male or female voice, and it also sounded like a male and female voice talking at the same time. The voice sounded big, stern, and glorious, but also calm and reassuring, in a way that made Twilight calm down a little.

Looking at the creature almost made Twilight scream her lungs out and run away, yet she didn't do either of them. After a while, she was able to feel her hooves again and got back up, never taking her eyes off the giant winged creature.

"Y-y-you're here to...guide me?" Twilight blurted out with all the effort she had, having a hard time believing what was happening to her right now.

"That is correct. I have been tasked with assisting you with any problems you are having until whatever your troubles are at the moment will be gone, and I will be by your side until my duty here is finished!" the creature explained, and it seemed as if it was bowing down to her, which she wondered how that was even possible considering how enormous it was.

Twilight was still confused about the situation. "Wait, wait. What is this? Who sent you?" She asked in utter disbelief.

"Our Lord, the creator of everything, the one who made the universe and allowed you and I to exist." the creature replied. Twilight couldn't believe the creature's explanation, the creator of the universe sent it to help her? That was just an idea she couldn't wrap her head around. She didn't even know there was a creator of the universe, other than beliefs of very ancient pony societies. She could feel her brain start to overload, so she decided to stop her thoughts. She looked at the creature again.

"What did you say your name was again?" Twilight asked.

"My name is Mikha'El. One of the highest-ranking of my order of the Lord's servants." the creature explained.

"'Meeka L'? Alright, how about we, um...wait 'till the sun comes up tomorrow and we can uh... discuss this later?" Twilight said, wanting to take a breath from this crazy experience.

"Of course, Princess. I'll appear to you once you have awoken, and remember, if you ever need me just pray to our Lord and ask for my assistance, and I shall be there immediately. I'm sure our relationship will be an interesting one."
> Chapter 2
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Twilight managed to sleep last night...after a while, it was hard to fall asleep after witnessing something like the one she did, but somehow she successfully went into a calm slumber. Now that she woke up, she was having a hard time deciding whether or not what happened to her last night was a dream or not, the experience certainly did feel very real, but she was probably just seeing things as a result of her exhaustion the other day. Because c'mon, a giant multi-winged light creature sent by the creator of the universe to help with her princess problems? That was too crazy to believe, even for her. Twilight quickly brushed away her thoughts and got up from her bed, walked to her balcony, and raised the sun to start off the new day. But right when Twilight finished raising the sun, a sudden burst of white turned blue and purple light exploded in front of her forming a swirling mass of enormous wings finally the chaos in front of her took shape and she immediately recognized who it was.

"Good morning, Princess Twilight. It's a pleasure to be serving on this fine morning that you...apparently made happen." the giant winged creature from the previous night said, whose large size blocked out the sunny sky she just raised.

"Meeka El?! You're real?! So last night wasn't some crazy dream?!" Twilight sputtered out in disbelief. 

"Fortunately not." 'Meeka El' replied both deadpan and joyfully.

"B-b-but how?! How could something like you even physically exist?! It doesn't make any...!" Twilight hyperventilated.

"Princess, calm down. I know you're scared and confused but I am only here to help. Now take a deep breath...and relax." Meeka El instructed. Twilight was still confused out of her mind, but decided to listen to the creature and did what he(?) said,  so she took several...actually hundreds of deep breaths until she finally calmed down.

"Uh, well then...I-I'm sorry that I acted so scared. I must've said something or reacted in a way that bothered you." Twilight apologized, worrying she might've offended the newcomer.

"Oh, it's alright. I get that a lot, practically every mortal I meet was terrified half to death when me and my kind confronted them." Meeka L explained. "Actually, truth be told, I'm surprised at how quickly you got used to my presence. Some could take months oryears just to recover from the sight of us." the creature continued.

"Really? That long? Well, I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my life, you're definitely one of the weirder things I've seen, no offense. But I've been seeing weird things all my life, so...I guess something like you isn't too unexpected." Twilight explained as well, grinning awkwardly at 'Meeka El', unsure as to how he would respond.

As Twilight hoped he would, the many-winged sky-sized creature seemed to understand. "That's good news to me, makes my job a lot easier than most, I don't have to spend most of my time getting the individuals of my duties to calm down from seeing me." he explained.

"Ah, well then...um, how about you meet me again after breakfast when my princess duties for the day will start and then we can finally discuss things properly, actually get to know you, and...maybe introduce you to my friends." Twilight considered.

"Your friends? Princess, we angels reveal ourselves to the people we were tasked to interact with, we don't just reveal ourselves to whomever we want unless we absolutely have to." Meeka L explained.

"Oh, well...my friends are an important part of my life and my career, so I'd say you can show yourself to them." Twilight said.

"Hm, well I suppose I'll consider it. But revealing myself could be quite a risky move, you don't really know if your friends would really take my presence kindly. Unless I take a different form, but I don't know if I would want to do that." Meeka-El explained with two of his wings crossed in front of him.

Twilight gasped as she heard that. "Can you actually change your form? That's great! You can just look like a regular pony until they're comfortable enough with you and not get scared when you reveal yourself!" Twilight thought happily. "Oh, wait. Thorax did the same thing, we didn't take it well until Spike stepped in. Unless I did what Spike did..."

"Princess, it's alright. I'm not too fond of changing my form, I only do it when I have to walk amongst mortals and disguise myself amongst them for a specific task. I'm proud of the way the Creator made me, so I think I'd like it better if I stuck with my real form." Meeka-L explained.

"Alright, I understand. I mean, my friends have went up against giant dragons, shadow ponies, and all sorts of crazy stuff, I'm sure they can handle you." the purple alicorn said. "Speaking of your form, you're incredibly huge! Is nopony else able to see you, I don't hear any gasps or screams from up here?" Twilight asked.

"As I said, we're only visible to the ones we reveal ourselves to. To anyone else, we're completely invisible." Meeka...whatever his name is answered.

"Oh, interesting. Well, hopefully, you decide to reveal yourself to my friends. Oh, I'm running late! Better have breakfast quick so I can start my day." Twilight said with a smile.

"Of course, I'll leave you to your morning schedule and I'll return once you've prepared yourself." the 'angel' said. And with a blinding flash, he warped into thin air. Twilight just stood alone on her balcony watching the landscape of Equestria no longer blocked by a mass of eyes and feathered wings. So she took one last look and one last breath and went off to eat.





Michael stared at Canterlot after momentarily conversing with Twilight Sparkle and waited for her to finish her morning routine, just taking the scenery in and appreciating all the things the Almighty did to create all the wonderful universes he's been to. He could see Twilight walking toward the dining hall, he could see the shops of the city opening up for the day, everyone opening their window to let the sunlight into their homes, all while the morning sun brought its light to illuminate the land, it was the little things like this that reminded Michael how proud he was to be serving the closest to God. Though this blissfulness didn't last long, as out of the rays of the morning light appeared the one he didn't need to see today.

"Good morning, Michael!" Satan said after forming out of the light of the star last seen before the sunlight hit.

"Gah! Satan, you're still here?! Why did you appear out of the light of that star?" Michael asked, pointing one of his wings to the point his rival manifested from.

"Well, some do call me 'Son of the Morning' or the 'Morning Star', so might as well live up to that name for once right?"

"Yes, very funny. What in God's name are you still doing here?!" Michael asked frustratingly.

"Why, you didn't really think I would leave such a goldmine of a planet that quickly, would you? I mean there's just so much I can do with this place." Satan replied gesturing to the world around them.

"What have you been doing while I was watching over Twilight Sparkle? You didn't try anything I would really dislike, did you?" Michael asked again with a warning tone.

"You dislike everything I do, Michael. And relax, I haven't done anything to the ponies...yet. I was roaming the world seeing what it has to offer, a lot of interesting places and species, but nothing that has grabbed my attention as much as this place. The dragons and the griffins are some of my favourites, they're all openly bitter and sinful so tempting them and fulfilling their desires shouldn't be too hard. Yaks, also easy to figure out, though I wonder if any temptation could actually get through their unbelievably thick skulls. There's also these cats, dogs, zebras, and parrots or something but I didn't really pay too much attention to them, didn't spark my interest. Now the hippogriffs, changelings, and ponies...now that's a real challenge, right there." 

Satan then pointed toward the horizon in the direction where the place called Mount Aris is located. "The hippogriffs already live in a safe and peaceful haven so getting to them might be tricky, maybe causing tension and a civil war between the sea dwellers and the land dwellers should do the trick." Then he pointed toward the changeling kingdom. "The changelings are hard to figure out since they already went through a living hell of starvation and totalitarianism, and they seem to be enjoying life to the fullest right now. But there might still be a little prejudice going against them, so a little whisper here and a wish grant there will get them to show their dormant violent side." Then, Satan pointed to the land they were above. "Now the ponies have most of my interest, they all act like they're pure and colorful and happy and...nice. But you can clearly tell they have something to hide, they're the most advanced, civilized, intelligent, and possibly powerful species on this planet! And they're practically worshipped among the other kingdoms, you can't tell me they won't have some of an ego. I'm betting that these horses, including that precious princess of yours, actually take some sort of pleasure at having authority over all the other...lower species. All I need to figure out is how to get them to release that deep dark desires of theirs, and when they do it will be so glorious!" Satan laughed.

"You can try, I doubt you'll be able to get through to them that easily. They've dealt with the likes of you before, and if things get out of hand, they'll...and I'll be there to stop you." Michael taunted. 

"Good luck with that, because I figured out your loophole won't work. Your orders were to guide the princess, not fight for her or protect her, so you won't be able to do anything if things do get out of hand." Satan explained.

"I can simply guide her on how to defeat you." Michael shot back.

"Heh, that is if those horses will actually be able to defeat me, which I very much doubt and I'm pretty sure you know won't work too." Satan shot back as well.

Michael just stood there in silence, and then turned away. "No matter, I'll prevail. As I said, they've dealt with the likes of you before. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be as far away from you as I can."

But Satan spoke before Michael could leave. "Speaking of the likes of me, I should probably tell you something. During my travels, I've noticed a chaotic presence around here. I found out it was a creature called a draconequus named Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony he calls himself. Apparently, the most powerful creature around here, more powerful than the two princesses who raised the sun and moon, caused quite a bit of trouble here a few times as well."

"Oh, really? And have you actually met this Discord Spirit of Chaos?" Michael asked with doubt.

"Not yet, but I'm planning to. I hear he quite likes tea and some pegasus called 'Flutter Shy'. Giving you a heads up, never know what he might throw at you, could be a challenge." Satan explained.

"Ha! Are you trying to scare me? This 'Discord' just seems like some sort of petty prankster who only seems powerful compared to these ponies. He won't be anything I can't handle. If there was a being here powerful enough to go up against me, I'm sure I would have noticed." Michael shrugged.

"We'll see, never know what a world like this could throw at us, maybe there are things powerful enough to block your angel senses. But you do you, Michael." Satan shrugged back.

"I am one of the closest beings to the Almighty! if something like that existed, I would have known already. And for the 666,420,068th time: It's Mikha'El!" Michael scolded.

"Whatever you say, Michael." Satan replied monotonously, but with a slight smirk.

"IT'S MIKHA'EL!" Michael yelled.

"Yes! Haha, I did it! I can't believe you fell for that, hahaha!" Satan laughed hysterically.

"What are you...oh, you degenerate!" Michael's anger grew even more.

"Haha, goodbye for now!" Satan waved before bursting into flames and vanishing into thin air.

"Rrrgghh! I know you're still listening, and if see you interrupting my duties again, my patience will have reached its limit!" Michael shouted despite nothing being in front of him. 

"And when it does, I will try to find a way to end you even if it's not our time yet." Michael muttered to himself before disappearing in a flash of light.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight sat in the dining hall with a plate of pancakes in front of her, but she has barely eaten it yet. All that was on her mind since she left the balcony and sat on the dining table was the 'Meeka El' creature she kept seeing. Her mind was just filled with questions about this creature, still having a hard time fully processing what was happening, luckily it didn't get to the point where she was a nervous wreck. Who is this creature? What is this creature? Why or how does it look the way it does? Where did it/he come from? Who exactly is this 'Creator of the Universe' he keeps mentioning? Why is he even helping her? Is what he's saying true? Can he actually be trusted? So many questions are rushing through her head at the same time that she wants to be answered, and she's getting a little impatient. She told Meeka L to let her have breakfast first and then meet her afterward, but now she's kind of regretting it. The questions in her head are becoming too much for her to handle that she feels she's gonna start talking to herself. Then she remembered Meeka-El saying something about 'praying to the Creator' and he'll show up, Twilight doesn't know exactly what she's supposed to do or if it'll even work, but she supposed she'll at least try. But then Spike came into the room.

Spike yawned. "Good morning, Twilight. Didya get some good sleep last night?" Spike asked walking towards the table.

"Oh, uh...yeah, I think I did." Twilight said unsurely.

Spike flew up to his chair and sat down, staring intently at his plate and the table. "Boy, what are we gonna have for breakfast today?" Then Spike looked up towards Twilight, noticing her face. "Hey, Twilight. You okay? You seem a bit...confused." Spike pointed out, unsure of what exactly was the mood planted into his big sister. 

"What? Oh! Am I? Oh, it's nothing! I was just...thinking about today's duties, y'know. Lotsa stuff I left out yesterday and lots of stuff coming in today! Good thing I got some good relaxing sleep last night and absolutely nothing weird happened, haha." Twilight responded awkwardly.

Spike just stared weirded out for a moment. "Twilight, what's going on? What were you doing? Did you actually get sleep last night?" Spike asked a second time.

"Uh...yes, I did, eventually. But, uh...before I went to bed I uh, met someone...interesting." Twilight answered hesitantly.

"Met someone? At that hour? Who was it?" Spike kept on asking.

"Um...I don't know if I should tell you. You'll probably just think I'm crazy, haha." Twilight said nervously.

"Crazy? Twilight, we've seen tons of weird stuff that we would've considered crazy, I'm sure I won't have a hard time believing whatever you have to say." Spike reassured.

"Okay, here goes. I was walking in the gardens last night when suddenly there was a bright light and this really enormous creature that was so big he blocked out the sky and was just a mass of wings and eyes suddenly appeared saying that its name is the 'Arch Angel Meeka L", or 'Meekha El', or  'Mika-El', I don't really know how it's pronounced! He, it, whatever it is said that apparently he was sent by 'The Creator' who according to him created the entire universe, to help me get through my troubles and guide me on my princess duties. I thought it was all just some crazy dream but then he showed up again right after I just raised the sun in front of my balcony and naturally I was freaked out and he told me to calm down so I told him to meet me after breakfast because honestly, I don't know what to do about him right now!" Twilight explained and yelled at the end, breathing heavily afterward.

Spike just stared at her wide-eyed and blinked a few times before speaking. "Um, Twilight? Are you sure you actually got any sleep last night?" the young dragon asked.

"Ugh, of course you wouldn't believe me. I mean, listen to me right now..." Twilight moped in defeat.

"Oh, no, Twilight, it's not that I don't believe you. It's just that I'm uh...a little lost." Spike said. "I mean you said that this thing was covered in bright light and was big enough to block out the sky, even at that hour, don't you think somepony would've seen that?" Spike asked.

"I asked him the same thing, he said that he can only be seen by the creatures he reveals himself to. So, right now, I'm the only one who's able to see him. I asked if he would reveal himself to you or my friends and he said that he'll think about it." Twilight explained.

"So this 'Ark angel...Meekuh L'? He only wants to show himself to you? What's up with that? Is he afraid ponies are gonna shun him or something? Like we did with the changelings?" Spike asked with a tone of suspicion.

"No, definitely not. I mean, he's probably as big or probably bigger than this mountain. And I'm just guessing, but he looks like he's pretty powerful, and he's probably interdimensional, so he's definitely not worried about a bunch of ponies saying or doing bad stuff to him." Twilight thought.

"Then why is he hiding himself?" Spike asked again.

"He says it's for our sake because most creatures won't be able to handle looking at him. According to him, some creatures could take months or years to recover from the sight of him." Twilight explained.

"Uh-huh, but you seem to be doing perfectly fine...kinda." Spike said, skeptical about that claim.

"Well, I said that it's probably because I've already seen tons of weird stuff so he kinda fits right in with the rest of them." Twilight chuckled.

"But, Twilight...how do you know you can actually trust this creature? I mean, he just suddenly appears out of nowhere saying he was sent by the 'creator of the universe' to help you, you've only met him twice in a very short amount of time in the span of like, what? Six hours? And the only things that point to him being trustworthy is telling you to calm down and saying he's an 'angel'.  Is what he's saying even true? You don't even know what he's supposed to be." Spike explained.

"Jee, I don't really know, that's why I'm planning to ask him some questions. Hold on, you actually believe what I'm saying? I thought that you thought I was just completely crazy!" Twilight said in shock, feeling relieved as well.

"Well, um...I'm not too sure yet, Twilight. I did think that you were just having your crazy hallucinations from not getting any sleep and stressing out, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. But what you're describing sounds pretty weird, and you're usually right about these kinds of things, so something clearly happened. But it does still sound crazy, so I really gotta see it for myself." Spike said.

"Uh...wow, Spike. I'm actually quite surprised about how you took that. I thought it was gonna go way worse. Meekha El did say he's gonna show up later once my princess duties have started, he also said that if I ever need him, I should 'pray' to the 'Creator' and I guess ask them to get Meekha El to show up? I guess then I can also ask if he could reveal himself to you and certain others." Twilight remembered.

"Really? Well then, I guess I'll try contacting our friends, ask them to come here since according to what you said, he's gonna show up again." Spike said while preparing to get off his chair, forgetting the fact he was supposed to have breakfast.

"Oh, no, Spike. You really don't need to. Our friends are probably busy and I really don't wanna bother them with something we aren't even sure is rea..." Twilight tried to stop Spike before she got interrupted.

"Twilight, if you really are seeing a giant mountain-sized winged creature from another dimension saying that he was sent by the 'creator of the universe', then I think our friends need to know. I mean, we're not even sure what he is or why he's actually here. He traveled all this way just to help you with your princess duties? That does sound nice of him, but sounds kinda odd, don'tcha think?" Spike insisted.

"Right. Then you do that and I'll get started for the day. Hopefully I won't bring them here for nothing." Twilight said worryingly. 

"Calm down, Twilight. Even if it isn't real, at least they can help you ease out a little." Spike reassured as he flew off his chair to find a quill and scroll.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm gonna head up to the throne room, and you can catch up with me once you've grabbed our writing equipment."

"Of course! Meet ya there!" Spike waved.





Michael hovered above an isolated piece of land where he can assure there will be no distractions, and hopefully would not be bothered by Satan most of all, though he knew there was no hiding from him. Luckily, his enemy hasn't shown up during the time he was here so that probably meant that he was off being busy doing...the things he usually does. But that wasn't Michael's concern at the moment, he was busy thinking about what he was going to do with Twilight Sparkle's troubles and duties, and if he should make himself known to other ponies than her. Angels have revealed themselves to more than one person before obviously, but only if they were required to do so, and his duties were only said to be with Twilight Sparkle so he was feeling a bit conflicted. Being an angel, he was incapable of making mistakes, but that doesn't mean he couldn't accidentally do the wrong thing or make things worse if he followed his orders too strictly. So he decided to ask confirmation from God, to see if he should do what he's considering to do, and how he should do it.

Michael closed his eyes and focused his mind directly on speaking to the Almighty, and asked what he wanted to ask, and a moment later, a portal appeared in front of him. On the other side was none other than his closest fellow angel, Gabriel, who looked at him with his star-eye surrounded by hundreds of white wings also covered in eyes.

"Why, greetings, Mikha'El." Gabriel greeted full of kindness and happiness. 

"Greetings to you too, Gavri'El. I take it that the Lord has sent you to deliver His message for Him?" Michael asked.

"Yes, He did. He's currently very busy with other things at the moment, so he's asked me to speak to you for Him instead. He already informed me of everything I must say and the answers to every question you might ask. I don't know why He just doesn't do it Himself considering time doesn't exist up here but that might mean He's very busy." Gabriel explained.

"Yes, best not to talk about it too much. So anyway, as you know, I was wondering about what to do in my task. Specifically with Princess Twilight and if it's a good idea to reveal myself to the other creatures I wasn't assigned to." Michael started to ask what he was attempting to ask in the first place.

"Ah, yes, that. Well, the first question is simple: Just do some normal helping. You know, help her with her duties, give advice, help solve her problems, make sure she doesn't make a wrong decision or do anything rash, just normal things." Gabriel explained.

"Okay, yes, I figured." Michael replied.

"For the second one, I think youshould reveal yourself to the other ponies, they are her friends after all, and from what I've heard, the princess seems to hold her friends in such high regard and therefore important to her life and career, so they'll obviously be important to your task. So yes, they should know." Gabriel explained further.

"But should I use my true form or should I disguise myself in order to not make them lose their minds?" Michael asked again.

Right, that one is a little more complicated since it's hard to say what'll happen, but I think I know what to do. I think you should reveal your true form to them first, you know, so they are aware of what exactly they're dealing with, the power of God and all. Then maybe, if you absolutely need to if not most of the time in a normal situation, you can just take their form so they can be more comfortable to be around you." Gabriel suggested.

"I don't know, I'm not too keen on changing my form. But if it gets the job done, so be it." Michael replied. "And I pray things will go smoothly, that is if Satan doesn't show his face again."

"Satan? Wait, is he down there?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh, right, I didn't mention. Apparently, Satan heard of my mission and decided it would be a good idea to bother me in the middle of my duties, and he's really starting to get on my nerves." Michael explained his situation.

"Wow, well, better keep an eye on him, Mikha'El. You never know what he might be capable on a world like the one you're on." Gabriel warned.

"Eh, I'm sure the inhabitants of this world will manage fine. They've dealt with the likes of him thousands of times, so he shouldn't be too much of a problem." Michael shrugged.

"If you insist. Oh! Speaking of which, that planet you're on sounds quite lovely from what I've heard. I haven't gotten any tasks from the Lord other than my usual Heaven patrol, so I was wondering...would you be so kind as to take me down there one day, just to see what it's like. I heard that you said to the Almighty that I would fit down there quite well." Gabriel asked.

"Oh, uh, um...sure! Why not? But right now's not the best time. So if I ever get the chance, I'll make sure to ask the Lord to allow you to come down here." Michael assured.

"Why, thank you very much, Mikha'El! I very much appreciate it, I can't wait! Now, I apologize, our communication must end now, and I have to get back to greet the newly arrived souls at Heaven. See you later!" Gabriel bid farewell happily.

"I bid farewell to you too, Gavri'El." Michael said kindly but also tiredly. And with that, the portal closed.

Michael turned away from the direction the portal was a moment ago and exhaled heavily. "Good Lord, so many more things happening to what should've been a simple task. I pray that this situation doesn't get too out of hand."
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight walked into her throne room and then sat on her throne, she never really thought about how Celestia had to spend a lot of time just sitting in a big chair. Oh well, whatever it takes to run the country properly, you gotta put your subjects first. A moment later, Spike came in with all the scrolls, ink, and quill, and sat down in his chair beside Twilight's throne. 

"Alright, got everything prepared for today here." Spike proclaimed.

"That's good, so should we write the letters?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, we should. By the way, I think we should also send some pegasi guards to bring them here." Spike suggested.

"What? Why?" Twilight asked.

"It'll get them here faster than them coming here on their own, plus it lets them know what we're dealing with is important." Spike explained.

"But, Spike...we can't just randomly send a bunch of guards to Ponyville telling them to come that quickly. What if they're busy or something..." Twilight tried to brush away that suggestion.

"Twilight, for Celestia's sake! This letter's gonna let them know the guards are coming. Not to mention if you're having some stress troubles or if you really are seeing a giant winged alien claiming to help you, I think our friends should know and come immediately." Spike replied.

"Uh...yeah, you're right. Sorry I acted so worried, Spike. You go ahead with what you're doing." Twilight said with regret.

"Of course, sorry I snapped at you. But someone's gotta snap you out of it before something bad happens." Spike said.

"Heheh, I know, Spike. I really gotta get it together, I can't deal with Equestria's problems if my mind is like this. All that's up here right now is this whole thing about Meeka El, hopefully we can resolve it as soon as possible." Twilight thought.

"Yeah, hopefully." Spike responded.





Elsewhere, in the town of Ponyville, not too far from the capital of Canterlot, a cyan pegasus flew through the air toward the center of the town, meeting up with four other ponies on the ground. The cyan pegasus known as Rainbow Dash carried with her a scroll of royal origins, and she soon discovered her four other friends had the same kind of scroll with them too.

"You all got the message too, huh?" Rainbow asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Sure did. Surprised ta see you here last, Dash." the orange earth pony mare with blonde mane named Applejack said to her rainbow-maned friend.

"Eh, well, I was in the middle of taking a nap when this letter popped outta nowhere!" Rainbow Dash said defensively.

"Did your scrolls also just appear out of thin air? It was a good thing I watched before any of the animals could chew on it." the yellow pegasus named Fluttershy asked her friends.

"It did, I was in the middle of making one of the cakes for my daily parties when the scroll just appeared and dropped into the batter, good thing I didn't start mixing yet, or else everypony would've been eating paper-flavored cake, and nopony likes paper-flavored cake." the pink earth pony known as Pinkie Pie explained with a very fast pace.

"Ah did too, had to dig through some mud from plowing to get it." Applejack explained.

"So it says that Twilight needs to see us immediately because she's dealing with something very serious and shocking since last night and she needs us to hear about it and help her about it." the white unicorn named Rarity repeated the contents of the letter she and her friends received earlier.

"That's what it says." Rainbow Dash commented, half-mocking Rarity.

"Oh, dear. I hope it's nothing too serious." Fluttershy hoped worriedly.

"If Twilight's calling' all of us together, ah bet it's somethin' serious." Applejack replied to her yellow friend.

"Not to mention it also says we're going to be escorted by the royal guard, so it seems she's really in a hurry." Rarity added.

"Yeah, Rares, I think we all got that." Rainbow said.

"Look, here it comes!" Pinkie pointed toward the sky, where a chariot pulled by two pegasus royal guard was lowering to the ground towards them.

The chariot lands, seemingly big enough to fit five ponies in it. So the five mares got on the gold chariot and the chariot took off to the air once more, turning back to the direction of Canterlot.

"Whatever Twilight's calling us for, it better be worth it." Rainbow said.

"Well, even if it's not, at least we get to visit her again." Fluttershy commented.

"I know, I missed her too. I just hope it's not one of her breakdowns she makes seem more of a big deal than it actually is." Rainbow replied.

"C'mon, Dash. We all know Twilight's already past that for a long time now." Fluttershy reassured.

"Yeah, you're right. Twilight's different now, she's not the same nervous wreck we knew back then." Rainbow said with a smile.





After the trip, the five mares arrive at Canterlot and enter the palace and make their way to the castle's throne room. When they arrived at the door, the guard opened the door but did not let them enter yet, informing the princess of their arrival first. From what the five mares could see from the door into the room, Twilight was looking through a bunch of scrolls with Spike and a subject of hers. Even though Twilight was staring intently at the scroll in front of her face, it was clear something else was on her mind.

"Your Majesty, your awaited guests have arrived." the guard spoke.

Twilight looked up from her scroll. "Oh! Of course, bring them in." Twilight told the guard.

The guard stepped aside to let the five mares walk into the throne room, Twilight gestured to her subject 'that will be all, you may leave' and the pony stepped out of the room.

"Hi, there, girls. Thank you so much for coming, hopefully it wasn't a bad time." Twilight said apologetically.

"Eh, it kinda was. But it don' matter, it's jus' nice ta see ya, Twilight." Applejack responded.

"Oh, thanks, Applejack." Twilight said with relief.

"Twilight, darling. Whatever is the matter, you seem like you're worried about something, are you not well?" Rarity asked with concern.

"Uh, I'm fine, Rarity. It's just that...I saw something really weird last night, and this morning." Twilight said.

"Really? What was it? Was it something bad?" Fluttershy asked getting more worried by the second.

"Um, not really. Actually, I don't know. It's hard to say. It sounded good, but I don't know if I should think it is yet." Twilight tried to respond.

"Alright, jeez, tell us what it was already, Twilight!" Dash exclaimed.

Twilight looked more nervous now and looked around her as if to make sure nopony else was listening, then looked to Spike who gestured her to continue. "I hope you won't think I'm crazy, or I hope I'm not actually crazy." Twilight said.

"Oh, of course not. If something's wrong we'll help you no matter what." Fluttershy said supportively.

Twilight looked reassured after hearing that and took a deep breath to prepare. "Alright then,..." Twilight then explained to her five friends everything that happened to her within the last 12 hours, what she saw in the garden and on the balcony, the creature itself, who and what it said it was and where it claims to have come from, and while she was explaining her friends just listened so intently trying to catch up and comprehend what their now royalty friend was trying to say. After Twilight finished, her friends all stared at her either confused, baffled, awe-struck, or slightly doubtful. 

"Woah," Rainbow said. "Really?"

"It's true, I was really confused too. Actually, I still am." Twilight replied.

"A giant winged creature the size of uh mountain? How tha hay did nopony see that?" Applejack asked, kind of considering the option of Twilight being sleep deprived.

"Well, as he explained to me and I to Spike, he can only be visible to the creatures he's supposed to present himself to, so to anyone else he'd be invisible." Twilight explained to her farmer friend.

"And he says he serves the creator of the universe?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, apparently there is one." Twilight answered not believing the information as well.

"Wow, hopefully if everypony learns about that it won't start any bad fights among us." Pinkie suddenly said, causing her friends to look at her weirdly.

"Hey, Twilight. Are you sure you ain't seein' things after bein' exhausted from las' night? Ah mean, you can see some crazy stuff when yer head ain't workin' properly." Applejack asked. 

"That's what I thought at first, but now I'm sure what I saw was real. It's just too weird for me to have come up as a result of stress and exhaustion." Twilight explained.

"Yeah, I thought the same thing too. But Twilight's usually right about these kinds o' things, so even if it's not exactly what she's saying, there's definitely something going on." Spike added, which made the five mares in the room murmur and nod in agreement with each other.

"Okay, so...you said this guy's sent to help you right now, right?" Rainbow Dash asked to make sure. "So there's gotta be a way to get 'im to show up, right? I mean, kinda hard if you had a mountain-sized alien who could disappear to Celestia knows where and not be able to call him when ya need him." 

"Actually, he did tell me what to do in case I need him. Follow me." Twilight answered, gesturing her friends to follow her to the balcony, where she stood nearest to the edge looking toward the sky.

"So, uh...what exactly are you supposed to do?" Rainbow asked from behind her.

"Um...I think he said I'm supposed to pray to his lord and ask him to send Meeka El to me." Twilight attempted to explain to the best of her abilities.

"Pray? So you just have to wish him here?" Rainbow asked, still confused with Twilight's explanation.

"I guess. I'm thinking it's some sort of telepathy kind of thing, but I'm not too sure." Twilight answered.

With the explanation out of the way, Twilight sat down on the balcony floor, closing her eyes and putting her two front hooves together. She sat there in silence while her friends just stared at her, some confused, and some looking around waiting for something to happen, but it was just quiet for the moment. Suddenly, a bright white light appeared out of thin air in the sky in front of them, and a mass of blue and purple wings swirled out of the light and eventually formed into a more defined but still not comprehensible figure that fit the description Twilight gave. Twilight was not exaggerating about the creature's size, it truly was bigger than the mountain and it almost blocked out the sky from their view. It was surrounded by giant blue and purple wings covered in eyes which made the pegasi cringe, and it was engulfed in light the same color as its wings, and it looked down on the ponies and the young dragon with one big central eye that almost didn't look like it's made from the same stuff a normal eye would.

Before any of them got a chance to scream or run away at the sight of this otherworldly creature whose form alone defied all laws of reality, it spoke to them. "Heroines of Equestria, Guardians of Friendship, be not afraid! I am not a threat to you! I have been sent here to offer guidance to your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I am the Archangel Mikha'El, the Warrior of the Lord, and adversary of evil." the creature explained, basically answering the first questions they would've asked if they had the courage to speak at the moment.

The only one who seemed unfazed by the giant winged creature's presence was Twilight, who they remembered had seen this creature twice before. "So that really is how you introduce yourself to any creature you meet, isn't it?" the purple alicorn pointed out.

"Yes, it is. My tasks would've been unnecessarily longer if I didn't say those exact kinds of words to those I encounter, not that just saying those three words helped the situation too much, anyway." the creature explained looking down at the alicorn who is infinitely smaller than it, speaking weirdly casually as of between close acquaintances.

The five mares and young drake all grouped together, utterly shocked and terrified by the creature, except Pinkie Pie, who was freaked out but not to the same degree as her friends and stared with a sense of awe. The others were just futilely attempted to wrap their heads around the very existence of the creature in front of them, like how could such a creature even exist? This creature just seemed too impossible to even be alive, maybe that whole 'being from another dimension' thing sort of explained that question. 

After a while, the mares and the young drake started to calm down very gradually, but never took their eyes off the creature. Eventually, one by one, a pony reacted to the situation that wasn't fear. 

"Wow!You'resocool!Myname'sPinkiePie!Whatwasyoursagain?I'msoexcitedtomeetyou! Whatexactlyareyousupposedtobeagain?ShouldIthrowyouaparty?IthinkIshould!Buthowwouldyoufit?What'syourfavorite...?" the pink mare continued to ask faster than any of them could understand, so she was eventually ignored, not that any of them were paying any attention to her at the moment anyway.

Fluttershy was surprisingly the first one to step forward and walk up to the creature and start saying the same things Pinkie was saying, but in a manner which they could all actually understand. "Wow, you're amazing. What did you say your name was again?" 

"I am Mikha'El." the creature responded.

"Meeka L, my name is..." Fluttershy tried to introduce herself properly before the creature interrupted.

"Actually, you and Twilight Sparkle are pronouncing my name wrong. It's Mikha'El. Not to much emphasis on the 'I', there's an 'H' after the 'K' and it's 'El', not 'L', it's all one word but the 'El' is also still its own separate word."

"Uh...Meekha El?" the two mares attempted to say his name more correctly, also shortening the 'ee'.

"Close enough, but not quite. You still have to shorten the...er, actually, just leave that aside. As long as you try to to pronounce my name correctly and not purposefully pronounce it wrong, it will be fine."

"Why would we purposefully pronounce your name wrong?" Fluttershy asked.

"Because there are some out there who would." the creature 'Meekha El' said grudgingly, seemingly talking about someone, or in its case, something that it knew.

Suddenly, a cyan form flew toward the creature, it was Rainbow Dash, who looked like a mere mosquito near the creature. "What are you?! Who are you working for?! What do you want with Twilight?! You better not be trying anything weird! Are you trying to destroy Equestria or something?!" 

"Keep calm, Rainbow Dash. I told you I mean no harm, I have only your best interests at heart. And even if I was sent here to destroy your world, I wouldn't have agreed to it, if that would actually help in my case. Not to mention, one of my duties is warding off malevolent forces." 'Meekha El' answered.

"Alright then..." Rainbow Dash responded, relaxing but still being wary. "Ohmygosh, your wings are awesome! I barely ever see wings this colorful! Byt jeez, they're huge, and there's so many of them. How do you manage to fly with eight wings?!" Rainbow asked, immediately forgetting her worries.

"Actually, I only use four of them to fly, the other four I use to cover myself. And even though I do use them to move around, their main purpose isn't to fly, but to present my holiness and authority over others." Meekha El explained.

"Still, must be hassle handling those babies." Dash said. "Wait, are those actually eyes on your wings?" Rainbow asked noticing the eyes along Meekha El's wings, who all looked in her direction when she pointed them out, which almost made her shriek and fly away fast enough to cause a sonic rainboom. 

"Oh, right. And those eyes are supposed to represent our all-seeingness and wisdom." Meekha El added.

"Wait, cover yourself? But why?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, I bet you would look just as beautiful as your wings are." Rarity finally spoke up, after it took a while for her to get used to the winged creature.

"Eh, beauty is subjective depending on what beholds it. I cover myself out of respect for the Lord, and to make sure that no lower beings I come across get burned to ash within seconds by the mere sight of me." Meekha El explained, causing his peers to stare shocked and wide-eyed.

"Well, I suppose that answers that question." Twilight chuckled nervously.

"Your lord? Y'mean the one ya serve? The one that sent ya here ta Twilight in the firs' place?" Applejack asked.

"Of course, and it's not just my Lord, it's our Lord." the winged creature explained.

"Our lord? Why would he be our lord?" Applejack asked again.

"Creator of the universe, remember?" Twilight answered.

"Oh...wait, really?" the farmer blurted out, still not understanding.

"But...why did he even send you to guide me? You don't seem like someone who would help any creature on this world, let alone me." Twilight asked.

"To be honest, I also haven't the faintest idea why the Almighty has tasked me with guiding you, considering this kind of work isn't even the duties I perform. My job would usually be something like protecting you from any big threats that would harm you and cause big problems for everybody else, not help with smaller problems. But if the Lord wills it, then I shall perform it." Meekha El explained.

"So you just go along with whatever your leader says without question? Even if you don't know what it's for?" Twilight asked again.

"While we may not know the purpose of our duties sometimes, we do know for sure that whatever the reason the Lord has, it is a good reason. And even if the duties might not sound good at first, it will be soon after we perform them. It's sort of like you with the former Princess, Celestia."

"Uh...well, I guess I can see what you mean. But bad? Whaddya mean? You don't mean that you've..." 

"Destroyed other creatures? Yes, we have. We've destroyed demons, help destroy cities and kill thousands, I didn't really participate in all of them, but still. But it was all for good reasons, those we destroyed have already caused plenty of destruction so I guess we were doing a favour. " 

"Yeah, but thousands?"

"Look, Princess. Things my kind has done things that might sound bad, I never really wanted to go with them since I don't believe the Lord's creations should be destroyed for the mistakes of a few, but it is what it is. And we are not here to discuss the morality of my kind, we are here to help you, and you should be the one we focus on right now." Meekha El reassured.

"Just don't let your kind destroy Equestria just because some jerks caused bad things to happen." Rainow told Meekha El sternly, causing her friends to chatter in agreement.

"Yeah, sounds mighty wrong fer ev'ry creature in the world ta die jus' because some easily fixable mistakes took place." Applejack backed up her pegasus friend.

"Haha, don't worry. There's been nothing that would cause your entire world's destruction...not yet anyway. I have appreciated the beauty of this world, and my fellow angel who's also very of very high authority seems to have taken a liking to your world, so I'm sure you'll be fine." Meekha El reassured.

"Speaking of your kind, you still haven't answered my question. What are you supposed to be?" Rainbow asked.

"I told you, I'm the Archangel. It means I am the Chief of Angels and their commander." the creature explained.

"Well, I admit. You're not exactly what comes to mind when I hear the word 'angel'." Rarity said.

"Ya got that right." Spike added, looking at Rarity.

"Yeah, we get that a lot, don't worry." Meekha El said.

"By the way, are you a guy or a girl? 'Cause I honestly can't tell." Rainbow asked, looking closely at the creature.

"Um...neither." Meekha El answered, this time being the confused one.

"Oh, so you're non-binary? Well, I haven't really met any non-binary creatures that much but I'm sure..." Twilight said in a friendly tone.

"No, I am not non-binary! I mean I literally do not have a gender, because me and my kind are above such things, it doesn't exist where we live, and we do not need to have one in the first place!" Meekha El explained in an oddly frustrated tone.

"But the, how are we supposed to address you. I don't want to call you an 'it'." Twilight said.

"Well, most refer to me in masculine terms so you can address me as 'he'." Meekha El answered.

"Okay, I'm glad we got that out of the way."

"Yes, I think we have conversed long enough now. I will leave you for now, report back to the Lord, and I will meet you again when you need me, which should only be in a few hours. Oh, and I should probably warn you. The entity known as Satan or the Devil is roaming your world at the moment, and he is never good news. He can appear as anyone, and he may not seem like a threat at first, but trust me when I say that nothing good will come of his presence, so keep a wary eye out." Meekha El explained before disappearing into thin air, leaving his peers as confused as they were when they first encountered him.

"What? Wait! What do you mean?" Twilight asked desperately at nothing.

"Did he seriously leave us without explaining something like that?!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael went to an isolated space to be left alone and decided to contact Gabriel again and report what just happened so Gabriel can report to the Lord. Gabriel was one of the closest angels in Heaven to Michael, the other being Raphael, but he wasn't as much of a talker as Gabriel was, but he was better at listening and making him feel better, though he was usually busy with either helping others or waiting for the moment he should blow his trumpet to signal the End Times. Actually, now that Michael thought about it, he wondered why the Creator didn't just send Raphael instead since this task seems like one that was made specifically for him. Maybe he could invite Raphael over some time, in case he needed help, which sounded strange since Michael was the Archangel Michael, the commander of the Heavenly Army and caretaker of the universal order. But none of that was important right now, all he needed to do was report to Gabriel and get back to helping the Princess so he can get back with his duty, no use pondering about things that only took up precious time. So Michael prayed and a portal opened up in front of him, revealing Gabriel in Heaven awaiting his call.

"Greetings, Mikha'El." Gabriel greeted in his usually friendly and formal manner.

"Yes, yes, greetings, Gavri'El. Listen, I have just done exactly what you told me to do just now." Michael rushed the introductions to explain.

"You revealed your true form then took a form they'd be more comfortable with?" Gabriel asked.

"Uh, no, I haven't done the latter part yet. I've only just introduced myself." Michael explained.

"Alright then, did they take it well?"

"Well enough, I suppose. Though they took a little longer and they're obviously still not too trusting of me, I mean, why would they? I've been dealing with creatures who know or at least have some knowledge of our existence for so long that I've forgotten what it was like to deal with those that know practically nothing of us." Michael said tiredly.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure it'll be fine, they'll get used to you soon enough." Gabriel reassured.

"Why thank you, Gavri'El. You know, I was just thinking of Rafa'El just now, I haven't spoken to him in a little while." Michael said.

"Huh, you're right, I've barely interacted with him so far. Oh, maybe you should also invite Rafa'El to that world too, I'd bet he'd love it there, it seems like the perfect place for him to spend time in considering what you've told me about it." Gabriel said excitedly.

"Yes, I'll bring you down here someday, but I think it's best these ponies take it one at a time, and I have to concentrate on my duty right now. But I'll make sure to find the right time." Michael reassured.

"Of course, Mikha'El. Your duties are of utmost importance. Oh, before I leave, have you seen or heard any sign of Satan down there?" Gabriel asked.

"Satan? Oh right, oddly, no. For some reason, I haven't been able to detect any sign of him at all on this planet. That could only mean one of two things; he has found a way to avoid my detection or he has actually left this world for good. But the latter's too good to ever be true, so it's obviously the former." Michael deduced.

"Huh, that is odd. Well, better watch out, if he manages to avoid detection it means he's doing something that he really doesn't want us to find out, which isn't like him most of the time. But don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle." Gabriel reassured.

"Yes, yes, I know. You've told me many times." Michael said a little frustrated.

"Apologies, I'm only good at the speaking part, I'm not too good at the 'making you feel better' part as Rafa'El is." Gabriel apologized.

"It's alright, Gavri'El. The only thing important here is getting on with our duties. So I think I'll end our conversation now. God bless you, Gavri'El." Michael said his goodbyes.

"God bless you too, Mikha'El." Gabriel said his goodbyes as well before the portal closed, leaving Michael alone once more.

The Archangel sighed. "First Satan, then Gavri'El, and now possibly Rafa'El are getting involved with this world? If this continues, Equus might just turn into another world where the inhabitants praise and worship us and the Lord, and I'm not sure if that would end up being a good thing or a bad thing. Oh, Lord, please don't let anything bad come to this world because of my duty. Actually, wait, something bad already did come to this world, and I can't tell what he's up to! Urgh, better look into it later, right now I should be getting back to the Princess." Michael said frustratingly, before disappearing into thin air.





Back in the Palace of Canterlot, the six mares and the young dragon are sitting in the throne room discussing, or in their case, bickering about what happened on the balcony. A lot of them were freaked out, confused, and debated on what's going on at the moment.

"Who the hay was that guy talking about? Satan, was it? What's dangerous about 'im?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"I don't know, Dash. But I guess if Meekha El's  warning us about it, we should be looking out for him." Twilight attempted to answer, her mind being confused from attempting to focus on all her friends' confusions.

"Twilight, Ah gotta say...are ya sure ya can actually trust this feller?" Applejack asked a little hesitantly.

"Uh...well...he does seem to genuinely want to help, and other than appearance, nothing about him seems to suggest anything bad." Twilight tried to answer, seemingly having a tiny bit of doubt in the back of her mind.

"But, Twilight...this is a giant mountain-sized creature who may or may not have come from another dimension who claims ta have been sent bah tha creator of tha universe that jus' suddenly appeared outta nowhere sayin' he's been sent ta help ya without any explanation or proof if what he's sayin' is true or not. Ah'm jus' sayin'." Applejack explained.

"Applejack, we shouldn't be so quick to judge. We've been wrong about new creatures we met many times, and they've turned out to be very misunderstood because we just became afraid of them at first sight." Fluttershy tried to reassure her friend.

"Yeah, but not everythin' that we don' understand yet always means 'misunderstood', Fluttershy. Sometimes firs' instincts are correct!" Applejack argued.

"Well, Applejack. I am a little worried about that creature, but I think Fluttershy is right. We shouldn't judge Meekha El too quickly, we've only just met him after all." Rarity took the yellow pegasus's side.

"Rares, yer not jus' sayin' this because o' his fancy wings are ya?" Applejack asked with her eyebrows raised.

"What? Of course not! Such a ridiculous accusation, Applejack." the unicorn chuckled nervously.

"Ooh! What if we throw him a Get-To-Know-Eachother Party so we can see if he's a meanie or if he's actually nice!" Pinkie Pie randomly chimed in, in which her friends just stared at her confused and immediately ignored her input again.

"Miss Pie, I do not think that a party is a precise option to go with during a situation like this." Rarity brushed off Pinkie's idea.

Twilight got everyone's attention and got everypony in the room to cool down. "Girls, girls, please. No more arguing. Look, Meekha El is gonna return in a while, at least, according to him, so let's just leave those questions for when he returns, just...don't harass him with them. Also, does a giant interdimensional creature who's a servant of the creator of the universe even celebrate parties?" Twilight wondered.

"I'm afraid we don't." a familiar voice suddenly spoke, which scared the ponies in the room as they tried to look for the source.

When they looked up, they saw the creature Meekha El appearing from a light portal on the throne room's ceiling, descending down toward the ponies. His size was now significantly smaller than before, but still big enough to fill the throne room from the floor to the ceiling, and still looking down on them like a foal looking at ants.

"Meekha El! Oh, I'm sorry. Have you been listening to what we're saying?" Twilight asked nervously.

"It's Mikha'El. And I'm an angel, so yes, I always know what you're thinking and saying." Meekha El answered, which caused the ponies to become nervous and scared. "So, shall we get started already?"
> The Story of Satan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heaven, sometime around the Beginning

"Mikha'El, c'mon! Are you really gonna kick us out because we said some bad things about them?"

The entity commonly known as Satan, in the form of a great red dragon, whose size is larger beyond any mortal comprehension, and has wings big and powerful enough to shift the cosmos and tail could shift the stars, stood directly in front of the Gates of Heaven, behind him was his army of the others who joined his cause, and behind them was the Universe, and they all looked defeated. In front of the wounded and nearly defeated rebels was the Army of the Lord, where a legion of angels stood in front of the gate looking down on them, inching closer toward them so they backed up toward the gate that lead down to the physical realm. Behind the army of angels stood their commander and chief, the Archangel Michael himself, glaring at Satan both angrily and victoriously, with his blue and purple wings flared out, his radiant light of the same color surrounding him, and the legendary weapon, said to be one of the most powerful artifacts to exist, the Flaming Sword, who's star plasma-like flames and supernova-like energy surrounded it that made it a force to be reckoned with, floated by Michael's side, being held by an unseen appendage.

"Yes, thou hast disgraced the name of our Lord! Thou hast refused to respect His creations and wishes, and thou hast let thyself be consumed by thy own pride and letting thyself believe that thou can go against Him and even let others follow thy delusional path. Thou art no longer worthy to stand before His grace and presence, nor art thou longer worthy to enter this realm of which He hath made His home! Thou shalt be banished to live a life of uncleanliness and shame!" Michael announced with anger in response to his enemy's protest. Behind him, Gabriel and Raphael came to witness the unfolding events, and while not as intense as Michael's, they also looked at him with anger and disappointment.

"Disrespected him?! Did you really expect me to go along with that ridiculous command?! They're organic, material, insignificant, they'll be gone in the blink of our eyes, and they're so unimportant compared to even the other smaller things the Lord has created! We on the other hand are powerful on a cosmic level, aren't limited to physical or dimensional rules as they are, and could pretty much erase them with a thought if we wanted to, so why should I bother bowing down to them?!" Satan continued to protest.

"Because disrespect against the Lord's creations is disrespect against the Lord Himself, and thou hast made that perfectly clear when thou decided to not show respect and show allegiance to them! And thou art wrong in thy reasonings as well, for one of the things the Lord hath taught me, is that even the smallest and insignificant of things can make all the difference." Michael answered, he and the other two archangels preparing an attack that will ward them off for good.

"But...actually, you know what? Why am I even doing this right now? I'm done talking with you. Screw you, Mikha'El! You were always an asshole anywaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!" the entity in the form of a red dragon shouted as Michael unfurled his wings revealing his blinding true form which would have incinerated any lower-level beings and blasted energy so powerful that it nearly burnt off Satan's dragon wings and blew off the dragon and his angels out of Heaven and down to the multiverse, where they resided for the rest of their existence.





The Garden of Eden, 4000 BC

Two creatures called humans named Adam and Eve were walking around the Garden of Eden, heading in the direction of the Tree of Knowledge, where Satan, now in the form of a strange serpent, watched and waited for them. When Adam and Eve arrived at the tree, the serpent slithered down.

"Why, hello, Adam. Hello, Eve." Satan greeted.

"W-Who are you?" the woman asked.

"I'm just a little friend just as curious about our universe as you are. You would like to know more about all the wonderful things the Almighty has created, don't you?" the serpent asked.

"Why I do, actually." Eve answered nervously.

"Well, that fruit over there seems to be a nice way of finding out, it seems. I mean, this is called the Tree of Knowledge, so what better way to learn about all the secrets that you're unable to find out at the moment than to get it directly from the source?" Satan suggested.

"But...we're not supposed to eat from the tree, God has forbidden it." Eve said.

"Did God really say 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan asked in a sneaky tone.

“No, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" Eve explained.

"'You will die' is right, die to know more! Just think, once you take a bite out of that fruit, you won't just be two ignorant creatures walking around a garden not knowing what goes on out there, but actually be wise to the workings of reality, you'll even have the knowledge to a strange thing called 'morality', or as some simpler folks call it: 'good and evil'." Satan persuaded the couple.

"'Good and evil'? What's that?" Eve asked, while Adam just stared with a confused look.

"Oh, I'm afraid it's a little difficult to put into words. It's an abstract concept that can't be put into words, and I'm afraid the only way of understanding it is to already know what it is." the entity disguised as a serpent hinted toward the dangling piece of fruit. But Adam and Eve still looked hesitant, so he decided to give one last push. "Just think, once you gain some of that sweet, juicy knowledge, you'll become as wise and immortal as the angels, you might even become as wise as...the Almighty Himself." Satan continued, his voice shifting to a very disturbing yet alluring tone at the end.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to know. It would be nice to know just a fraction of what God knows." Eve said to Adam.

"Attagirl, now taste some of that wisdom. Sure it might only be just a small portion of wisdom out of the infinite ones the Creator can offer, but it will change you forever. And I promise, once you've gained a little teaching from that fruit, we're gonna have a lot of fun together."

Later on, after the Lord has banished Adam, Eve, and Satan from the Garden, Satan watched with amusement as Adam and Eve now walked the Earth on their own, their lives and the future of their kind changed forever. Suddenly, Satan got a visit from an unlikely visitor, the very being who cast him out.

"Mikha'El! How long has it been? Because I literally can't tell." Satan greeted with false warmth.

"What have you done here, Satan?" Mikha'El asked with anger in his voice, clearly already knowing the answer to his own question.

"Oh, I just suggested to those two lovebirds to get educated a little. The Lord wasn't happy, though I knew he was already aware of what was going to happen. I mean, why else would he put such a forbidden tree out in the open where anyone could just take that damn fruit." Satan jokingly answered.

"You have once again defiled the wishes of the Lord! It wasn't good enough for you to disobey him and disrespect His creations, now you have to ruin their perfect lives and set them down a dark path as well?!" Michael scolded.

"Damn, you didn't listen to a single word I said, did you? I think it's a good thing those two hairless apes gained a little knowledge, adds more colour to their lives don't you think?" Satan brushed off Michael's accusations.

"You still have ruined these perfect creations of God! And now they have to live millennia's worth of war and suffering all because of you!" Michael accused again.

"Oh, there you go again. Answer me this, your Lord is omnipotent and omniscient, is he not? So if that's the case, why did He put that Tree out where they could easily eat from it, or why didn't he stop me from encouraging those two creatures into doing so, when he could have done so at any time?" Satan dared the archangel to answer. Michael attempted to answer but ended up not knowing what to say. Satan could tell Michael knew he was right deep down, but refused to admit it. "Quite a headscratcher, isn't it? I'll leave you alone to ponder over it." And with that Satan disappeared, leaving Michael alone with his thoughts.





Heaven, 2100 BC Earth time

Up in the realm known to some as Heaven, the Almighty Creator watched one of His favorite creations to exist, a human named Job. The human had one of the best lives a creature of his species could ask for, a peaceful life, a big family, and he was loved by the people around him, and he kept thanking his Creator for everything he had. The Creator was rather proud of this particular human, there was barely anyone in his world like him. The Almighty was then joined by the Archangel Michael, and most surprising to the latter, Satan himself. God and the Devil then had a talk between them, mainly concerning the human in question, while Michael was left out just listening to them and glaring at the Devil with anger and caution.

"This human is really like no other, he has a perfectly good life for his kind's standards, nothing too bad, and he genuinely praises Me every day. That doesn't happen too often, you know." God said.

"Big deal, Sky Daddy. You really think that that little cretin actually believes and loves you unconditionally?" Satan shot at the Creator's statement.

"I don't think so, I know so." God simply stated. To anyone else, this statement doesn't seem all too impressive, but to someone like Satan and Michael, it says a lot about the Lord.

"Oh, really? I've seen this particular case millions of times, literally. Nothing is ever genuine or sincere when it comes to humans, there's always a catch when something nice happens. You might see him all happy and thanking you and praising you and acting like you're the best thing ever, but take something good away and you'll see him for what he really is, he'll start cursing your name and hating you and do an immediate one-eighty on his opinion of you and those around him. I know, I've observed married couples and wealthy individuals who lost all their riches." Satan taunted.

Contrary to how Satan anticipated, God seemed completely unfazed by his taunting, which he should've seen coming. Even after all this time, Satan still thought God would be as easy to break as any other mortal creature he came across, and he will never stop until he sees that moment unfold before his eyes. Michael on the other hand became curious as to where Satan was going with this accusation of his, knowing it couldn't lead to anything good. Unfortunately for Michael, unlike his Master, he wasn't all-knowing, so he won't be able to see what anything Satan does would lead to, that's good news for Satan, though.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I need to ask, what is he doing here?" Michael asked the Lord. "I thought it was agreed that he wasn't welcome here anymore!"

"Oh, come on. A little visit never hurt anyone." Satan said in a way meant to mock his rival.

"Except when the visits are from you!" Michael shot back.

"Calm down, Mikha'El. I invited him here, it's necessary for him to know what goes on as well. Anyway, what are you trying to propose?" God asked, knowing the answer.

"I wanna try and make that little ape's life miserable, I'll take away everything he has and cares about, slaughter his friends and family in front of him, and put him through pain unlike any he has felt or ever will feel again, and once all that happens and he starts to bad-mouth you and reject you as hard as I have, it will be a glorious moment for me." Satan announced.

"Ha! As if the Lord is going to simply agree to your little scheme! Do you really think Him so gullible that He would simply let you torment that man just so you can prove a point to Him?!" Michael scoffed at how the malevolent entity actually thought he was going to go through with his plan.

"Alright, I'll accept." God said.

"What?!" the Archangel shouted in disbelief.

"Excellent, now for the terms. When I win, I shall have complete control of the man's soul, and I could maybe use this as practice for the other prophets to come after." Satan proposed his plan.

"And when I win, I shall give him twice the fortunes and happiness that he has right now, and make sure he lives a peaceful and blissful life until the end of his days on Earth." God added to the deal.

"B-but, my Lord! You already know that Iyyob is loyal and faithful to You, why must You agree to this...to this...simpleton's deal?!" Michael pleaded, trying not to call Satan anything worse in the presence of the Lord.

"Look, Mikha'El. I already know that Iyyob will prevail, and Satan will not succeed in his plan. But sometimes you need to realize that sometimes bad things are just as necessary as the good things to happen because without bad things, nothing good will ever flourish. So yes, Iyyob is faithful to Me, but the bad things that'll happen to him can serve a good cause for others in the future of his world. You'll learn this someday, Mikha'El, and it'll make you wiser than ever." God lectured to the angel closest to him, which didn't comfort the latter all too much, but he accepted.

"I...yes, my Lord." Michael finally spoke, and the Lord left him alone, knowing he needed some space.

Then, Satan approached Michael from behind and whispered to him. "Looks like that's another point for me, Michael." Satan laughed sinisterly as he left Michael as well and went down to Earth. 

Michael wasn't a stranger to the Lord doing things that the beings below him would consider bad such as punishing and taking lives, which Michael himself was never too comfortable with, but he knew would be for a good reason. But in this case, it was Satan who convinced God to let him torment those creatures, which Michael couldn't accept, and just left him furious at Satan even more.





The dark corners of the Multiverse, one day earlier...

Satan sat on his self-proclaimed throne where he watched everything going on in different worlds, different universes, different times, and timelines to pick out which one he or his legions of demons shall target next. He has sent millions of demons to each of them and has even placed some forms or avatars of himself throughout some of them as well, but he hasn't found one that was worthy of his full presence to come there. That is until he heard one of his demons come up to him and tell him some interesting news.

"My lord, we have heard some news concerning Michael that I think you'll want to hear." the demon said.

"Really? What is it this time?" Satan replied, feeling both curious and uninterested concerning news about his old rival.

"We've had word that Michael has been sent by God to the planet Equus to help some horse princess solve her personal and political problems." the demon said on the brink of laughter.

"Wait, seriously? Horses? Haha, what has gotten into the mind of old Man Upstairs this time? Equus...isn't that the world filled with tiny colourful ponies that have magic powers?" Satan asked.

"Yes, exactly that one!" the demon confirmed while laughing.

"Wow, I haven't heard from that world in so long. He's really tasked with helping with politics and inner whining? That doesn't seem like a duty the Michael I've known would perform, sounds more like something Raphael or a guardian angel would do, or maybe a demon would help out with."

"Have you actually been to that world, my Lord?" the demon asked.

"Not directly, I think. I've been involved with a few things here and there with it but nothing too major. Oh, I've got to see this for myself, this could be a perfect chance to fully explore that world, and torment Michael again. His duty obviously won't involve me anyway." Satan said, then disappeared from his throne and left the demon alone.





Equus

Satan arrived in the space outside of the planet he was headed to, and he saw Michael looking down at the world in front of him, and surprised him with his presence. After entering the planet and having a little banter, he abandoned Michael to go explore the world on his own. his eyes ever so watching anything he thought could make great temptation or torment material that could certainly cause some trouble, which is what he was hoping to see. The Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was practically the center of the universe around here, and she was currently dealing with some political and personal issues, which would obviously cause a lot of stress, and from Satan's experience, stressful creatures are the easiest to break. If he caused trouble throughout the land, all that trouble would all lead back to Twilight Sparkle since she's heavily involved in the world's affairs and it'll dump a lot more problems into her mind, and he'll finally break the princess and cause Michael to fail his task. It was ingenious, he thought. Apparently, three incompetent buffoons had the same idea that nearly divided Equestria, but is now trapped in stone. But Satan was different, he was a one-entity-legion, and when he wants a job done, he'll get it done, even if the outcome isn't what he always wants.

As much as he was excited to see everything of this world, he was also sickened just looking at it. At least with Earth where the humans lived, it was at least perfectly clear they were just trying to pretend their world was nice and had a nice balance of being miserable and horrific for him to enjoy it. Here, it was so overly sweet, the inhabitants, well, most of them anyway, actually believed this world is a near-perfect place to live, and it seemed like they did everything in their power to hide the darker aspects and history of the world to make it seem as overly bright, colorful, and innocent as they could. Sure, he knew those dark aspects were there, but they didn't stand out as much as he wanted. Well, that was gonna change soon, because on the other hand, this world being as happy and cheerful as it is provided him with more things to work with.

First, he should decide who he was gonna go after first. The ponies were the most obvious candidate since they practically ruled this entire world, but maybe he should start a little small before he went after the biggest piece of the pastel-colored cake. The easiest ones to influence were the griffins and the dragons, after all, he did take the form of a  dragon when he rebelled against God. It would be like playing a game, where every level got more challenging, which would add to the excitement. 

Naturally, he chose the dragons first, since they'd be the easiest to figure out and tap into, they already had greedy, narcissistic, and violent tendencies anyway. He went down to the Dragon Lands, where he found out they were ruled by the Dragon Lord Ember, who was strangely enough, female. Must be one of those "rare occasion of a female in a male-dominated position and society" he saw so many times. Apparently, she became Dragon Lord after she befriended a little dragon named Spike who was raised by ponies his whole life, so she made an alliance between the dragons and the ponies who mostly avoided each other for millennia. While not completely accepted by everyone yet, the dragons did start to warm up to the ponies coming into their lives, even if it was at the cost of their typical tough and aggressive demeanor. Keyword being "not everyone", so there's still plenty of dragons he could persuade against what's happening to their culture. All he needed was to pick out one who would be able to set the domino effect in motion.

Then he spotted the perfect candidate, a loner dragon who was extremely hostile to those around her and disgusted seeing the dragons around her behave more and more like ponies. She clearly had a very hateful look toward ponies, having been harassed and abused by her family and the dragons around her for being weak and being avoided and nearly killed by the ponies she encountered when she was little. She also had a very strong sense of pride for dragonkind despite her upbringing, maybe seeing the authority other dragons had over her and how terrible ponies were might have caused that. But her backstory wasn't too important for Satan at the moment, all that was important is that she was already hateful enough for him to use her, so Satan got to work right away. 

He saw the young dragon girl walking off to mope on her own in a barren rock field with a few lava streams surrounding it near a large cave, so he took the form of a smaller and less significant version of his red dragon form when he warred against Heaven and hid in the cave. When the young dragon sat down on a rock, holding her head up with a hand and her elbow on her leg, and did nothing but throw a few stones here and there while just thinking angry thoughts to herself, Satan spoke to her from inside the cave behind her.

"Hello there, Fang." Satan spoke in a loud, deep, whispering voice which made Fang jump and look behind her in fear but in an aggressive stance ready to fight. Satan then popped his head out of the cave.

Satan's dragon form was blood red with a light yellow-light red underbelly, he had black goat-like horns, a very snake-like tail, fangs and tongue, fiery eyes with pupils that looked like a deep dark abyss, and his body was large and strong but at the same time looked skeletal and on the brink of death after being put through torture.

The young female dragon calmed down a little after seeing the source of the voice she just heard but didn't make her any relaxed. "Who the heck are you?! I've never seen you around here before." she yelled in an angry tone.

"Oh, I'm just an old traveler who has been to many places. I might not be known around here, but there are some places out there who know me all too well." Satan answered purposefully vaguely.

"You know what, I don't care who you are! Get out of my spot and leave me alone, old man!" the drake commanded.

"Oh, don't worry, I will. But before I do, I couldn't help but notice your dislike toward ponies and the advancing dragon culture." Satan said with a calm and inviting voice.

"Yeah, I know! I hate how dragons are acting nowadays, so what?! Are you gonna be another one who lectures me on how the new ways are better and 'lead to a more peaceful life'?!" the young female dragon named Fang kept pushing the one talking to her away.

"Oh, don't be mistaken. I dislike the new ways too. I remember how dragons used to be a feared and powerful force with nothing that could stand in our way, priding ourselves in being such a mighty and awesome race that our names would be used as warnings or representing destruction and doom." Satan announced with pride dripping from his voice.

"Wait, really? You agree with me? Yes! Finally, some dragon who sees what I see! I am one hundred percent with you, we used to be so awesome. Now we've stooped down to the ponies' level and became a bunch of prissy losers who insist on making friends." Fang said with disgust at the end. She has significantly calmed down from how she was a minute ago and became someone you could actually talk to.

"Exactly, there should be a way you could restore dragons back to their former glory." Satan suggested, making sure her train of thought went exactly where he wanted it to go.

"There is, but the only way I can get the other dragons to take me seriously and actually listen to me is if I take the Bloodstone Sceptre and become Dragon Lord, but it's in that pony-loving bitch Ember's claws." Fang said, her hate and anger growing.

"You could take it from her." Satan suggested.

"Huh? I wanna, but everyone's got her back and she's a pretty good fighter from what I heard, I can't see a chance I'll be able to take it from her. It's pretty much hopeless at this point." Fang said, unsure if she could actually succeed.

"How dare you doubt yourself like that?!" Satan scolded loudly, which scared Fang so much she actually fell on her back. "You are a dragon! You mustn't mope about while whining about your unpleasant situation, you fight for what you want and you take it no matter what!" Satan motivated the teenager.

"Yeah, you're right. What am I doing? If fighting or even killing that pony-loving bitch is what it takes to make dragonkind as great as it was, I'll fight for it, to the death if I have to. No, I want too!" Fang got back up to her feet and stood confidently, contrasting her hunched and tired look from before.

"Exactly, and just think...once you get that sceptre and become the Dragon Lord, you shall be able to command every dragon with a single word and turn them back to the great and fearsome kind they once were. Hey, why stop there? You'll be able to destroy the ponies who caused your kind to stoop this low in the first place, and maybe you'll be able to expand your greatness to other kingdom's and species, then you can finally show those damned ponies and every other creature that dragons are the ones who's boss!" Satan said, as in a motivational speech.

"Yeah! We gotta show everyone, including dragons and especially ponies just how much we're capable of!" Fang announced loudly, her confidence growing dangerously higher with every word that comes out of Satan's mouth. "But first, I gotta figure out how to get that stupid stick."

"Well, you could try and get a few dragons to join you. There's bound to be some who think alike to you. Then there's getting rid of Ember, I think it's better you challenge her to a duel that every dragon will see, that way you can show your authority to them and you'll be able to get some on your side whether you lose or not." Satan planted more ideas in the young drake girl's head.

"You're right! I'm gonna challenge that bitch, and I'll show her and everyone what a real dragon is able to do and put the ponies' influence in its place! Right?" Fang announced, turning her back to the giant red dragon in the cave and toward the big mountainous rock where the Dragon Lord usually stood. But when she turned back to the red dragon, he was gone. She was just left wondering how something like that could disappear without making any noise but decided to forget about it and set her eyes on the prize.

From a distance, Satan had transformed back to his previous invisible-to-mortals form and watched the young dragon fly off from a distance above her. "Hehehe, and now we wait." And while he waited for the results, he decided to go and look for the next victim.





Later that day, Satan went to the other kingdoms and picked out the weakest and easily influenced individuals he could find, but that would still make a great impact. Tempting the creatures of this world was gonna be a little trickier than he initially thought it would be since they all had perfectly good lives and they all seemed nice to each other for the most part, which made the whole temptation thing a bit trickier to pull off when most of them have everything they could possibly want or need. 

He initially thought the griffins would be as easy to tap into as the dragons considering how similar they were, but it turns out it was quite the contrary. The griffins had very miserable lives before this, now ever since they formed a proper alliance with the ponies, their lives and previously rundown kingdom had begun to improve, so they didn't have as many weaknesses as he thought they would. There is one glaring flaw they have that they and dragons have in common: greed. Greed is a sin that he and some other demons designed specifically for it has specialized in and is quite possibly the easiest one to tap into since it's easy to feed and difficult to escape from, once you feed someone's greed it will keep growing until it consumes not only the sinner but all those around them as well, which was a perfect option for Satan to use.

Satan took the form of a raggedy old griffin whose features were hidden by a tattered old black cloak and sought out the greediest griffin he could find. He found one who was down on his luck, barely able to do anything, and mostly just spent his time collecting any bits he could find or earn through his job that he barely even does. Satan approached him and handed him some of the rarest gems and most valuable gold and silver pieces in the entire world, which the sour griffin immediately took after a few seconds of simply staring in awe at them. Satan then suggested that if the griffin actually got off his tail and did something he'd keep earning more and more that he might become the richest griffin in Griffonstone since King Guto himself, and he might even expand to other lands and take all their riches for himself as well. This actually got the griffin moving, taking the riches Satan gave him and plans to put them to good use and kickstart his own empire. It would seem like a stretch at first that this seemingly unimportant griffin could do something so big so quickly, but it would surprise somehow much someone can get done in a short amount of time if motivated properly.





With that, Satan went off to the next kingdom, this time it's the hippogriff kingdom. The hippogriff kingdom was located at some giant rock by the sea called Mount Aris, it was also under it too. Apparently, the hippogriffs had to live underwater for a period of time to survive an invading tyrant called the Storm King, so they had their domain in both the land and the sea. The hippogriffs and later the changelings were going to be tricky to figure out how to bring out and exploit their darkest desires, but that was what made it fun. But what could he do with the hippogriffs? His first idea was to cause a civil war between those who chose to live in the ocean and those who chose to live on land, but there was absolutely zero tension between the sea-dwellers and the land-dwellers. He needed to cause something that was guaranteed to cause tension. But what? He observed the hippogriffs and the seaponies, barely able to find anything he could really use, they were all so peaceful and happy that there was barely anything negative to point out. He needed to make sure he could get as many kingdoms to ruin because if not, his plan to break Princess Twilight and cause Michael's task to fail would...well, fail. 

Satan decided that the best way to cause tension between the hippogriffs and the seaponies is to cause that tension himself with a more direct approach. He possessed a group of pony royal guards who were stationed nearest to Mount Aris and burned down a large number of their homes and the trees around the mountain, and blew up a significant portion of the ocean below, and he made sure every single inhabitant saw what he was doing. Once he was done, he released his victims from afar and watched everything that happened afterward. The mountain and the sea surrounding it were in ruin, smoke and fire coming out from a lot of places, and many were injured from the ordeal. Naturally, this caused a lot of anger from both the leader and the citizens, furious as to how the ponies suddenly decided to attack and destroy their home. Some decided they should give the ponies and their princess a piece of their mind, but others thought it was merely a group of rogues and they shouldn't cause conflict from the acts of a few after the ponies have done so many good things for them. This lead to there being a division on how to handle the problem, with some even getting physical and violent when discussing which option they should take. Satan just watched with glee, for he has killed two birds with one stone, or in this case, a pony and a hippogriff with one stone. In all honesty, he wasn't actually expecting his plan to work all that well, but he was glad it did anyway.





Satan then headed over to the changeling kingdom, which was the last really important non-pony kingdom he decided to target. This one had the same problem as the hippogriff kingdom, in that their lives are too good to find any significant flaws, their lives actually improved from their previous unpleasant and almost miserable ones when the queen was in control, who he found out got turned to stone by the previous Equestrian rulers and some creature named "Discord", he'll have to find out more about him later on. He initially had the same idea of causing a civil war between those who chose the new ways and those who liked the old, but that plan was immediately thrown out the window since there was barely any "old ways" changelings anymore, so he decided to go with the other same idea he used on the hippogriffs and seaponies, which is cause conflict between the changelings and the ponies, that way the problems will all lead back directly to Twilight Sparkle. He possessed a group of royal guards again and burned down and destroyed a significant portion of the hive, making the changelings lose everything. They all turned to their leader, King Thorax (weird how an insect hive leader is a male) and all asked him to say what to do about the ponies, and then got quite angry when he didn't know how to answer since he's close friends with them.

Satan was quite satisfied with how much he got done in one day because soon enough all those little seeds he planted will grow into a giant poisonous oak that will consume everything and infect those around it. It was all coming into place. First, the surrounding kingdoms, tomorrow...the ponies.





Equestria, earlier that day...

After meeting up with Michael again and doing a little childish taunting to the Archangel, he decided to look into this "Discord" character. He was apparently the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony as he told Michael and was almost like a god among mortals, but he knew Discord wouldn't be a match for him. It was all just a matter of finding the creature, which was a little tricky since barely anybody knew where he lived, so he decided to call and summon this Discord himself. He sensed Discord's presence in the world, and Discord could sense his. Then Discord appeared before Satan, though none of them could tell if it was Satan's doing or Discord's. 

"Greetings, Discord." Satan greeted sinisterly.

"It can't be...Satan?!" Discord couldn't believe who was in front of him.

"The one and only." Satan presented himself.

"B-but...what are you doing here?" Discord asked, a hint of fear creeping in his voice.

"Merely seeing an old friend of mine, actually enemy but that's not important. I've heard that you are quite the troublemaker here, ruled over the ponies like a god once. Wouldn't you like to relive that glorious feeling, of having no pony strings attached to control what you do?" Satan offered.

"Ah-ah, don't think I don't know what you're doing, Satan. I've foolishly accepted a deal like the one you're offering, and it did me no good. Doing whatever I want is not worth losing my friends again. So sorry if I wasn't as big a fool as you probably hoped me to be, but the answer's gonna be no. So why don't you go back to wherever you came from and torment some other fools in another world." Discord refused.

"Hm, such a pity. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." Satan sighed, then opened a portal showing Fluttershy on the other side.

"What are you doing?" Discord said, getting worried again.

"Take a good long look at her, Discord. Do you care for her?" Satan asked.

"If you lay one wing on her, I swear I'll..." Discord attempted to threaten the Prince and Darkness but got interrupted before he could finish.

"You'll what? Stop me? Destroy me? I think we both know perfectly well that I'm way out of your range." Satan taunted, as Discord got grabbed, restrained, and choked by an unseen force, clearly coming from Satan. "In case you haven't noticed, there's conflict brewing in the other kingdoms, and once they grow big enough they will all lead back to Twilight Sparkle, which means it'll also involve her. And I'm sure there's a high possibility it could end in blood." Satan pointed at the yellow pegasus on the other side of the portal, oblivious to the fact she's being watched.

"I can make sure she stays out of harm's way and no danger will ever come near her, but you'll have to do everything I say until I'm gone. If you try to go against my wishes, the deal will be off and I'll make sure that every danger possible will hit her, I can make that butter-coloured little whore burn to a crisp with just a thought, and I'm sure you don't want that to happen. So what do you say? Do we have a deal?" Satan extended his wing burning with a black flame on it.

Discord was unsure what to do but ultimately decided that if Fluttershy survived she could still be a glimmer of hope if something bad happens, and he'll still have a friend left. So Discord extended his claw and shook on it with Satan, who's. black flames spread to Discord's limbs. "Just keep Fluttershy safe, and don't hurt her friends if you can."

"Oh, don't worry. As long as you don't screw anything up, she'll be perfectly fine."
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the throne room of Canterlot, five mares, a dragon, and an angel gathered around the Princess of Equestria. They all looked through Princess Twilight's scrolls and duties for the day and discussed with her what could or should be done, well, actually only one of them was helping, the others were still too busy staring at the one helping to be capable of doing anything more. The one doing the helping wasn't of too much help either as Twilight had hoped, Meekha El did do a good job at assisting Twilight and giving ideas and suggestions on every issue she was given, but it was clear that he didn't really know what he was doing all that much. 

"It says here that we need to finance some of the schools, renovate the banks, and respond to some complaints citizens are having about the newly established laws in their areas, and that's just some of the few things to do today. You've got any ideas?" Twilight asked the angel while she thought about how to handle the issues.

"Well, you could try...sending money? Fix it? Change the rules? Ugh, what am I doing?! I don't know how to do this at all!" Meekha El finally snapped and turned away from Twilight.

"You're more clueless on this than I am, aren't you." Twilight said, unable to really feel angry at the multi-winged creature's outburst.

"I kind of am. I'm a warrior and a caretaker, politics aren't exactly my strength." Meekha El admitted, feeling a little disappointed in himself.

"A warrior? So you're like a soldier or something?" Rainbow Dash asked, it was the first time somepony spoke besides Twilight and the winged entity of light.

"Yes, a commander, to be precise. I lead the Heavenly Armies and guard the creations of the Lord." Meekha El answered bluntly, not in too much of a mood to answer so many questions.

"Woah, cool! Have you been in a lotta cool battles?" Rainbow Dash asked, actually interested to learn what this alien creature did.

"Uh...I lead my forces in the War of Heaven when we fought the Great Red Dragon." Meekha El answered.

"'The great red dragon', you guys fight dragons?" Rainbow Dash got more curious.

"Y'know, dragons aren't actually that bad once you get to know 'em,..." Spike tried to explain which was followed by a nod from Fluttershy before Meekha El spoke up again.

"No, it's not an actual dragon. It's Satan in the form of...Urgh! Can you all stop asking me unimportant questions that don't even relate to the issue at hand?!" Meekha El scolded rather fiercely, but it didn't get the response he hoped for.

"Hands?" Rainbow asked with a confused look.

Twilight gasped happily. "You've met humans too?!" She asked giddily, which only got Meekha El glaring at her frustratingly, which made Twilight wince when she realized what she was doing. "Sorry, I'll just take that as a yes."

Twilight went silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "How come the 'Lord' would send you out of everyone else? You clearly aren't the best on dealing with...rulership duties."

"I told you, Princess, I don't know. I'm simply doing as the Lord commanded me to do." Meekha El answered with a tired tone.

"What exactly were his exact words?" Twilight asked again.

Meekha El sighed before answering. "Well, He said: 'Mikha'El, I have a special task for you. You are to visit the planet known as Equus, where you shall go to the land of Equestria, there you shall visit the ruler of Equestria: Twilight Sparkle. She is currently in a lost and confused state in her rulership of her country, facing dilemmas and problems someone like her in that position would obviously go mad. I need you to go down there and guide her through her hardships until whenever the crisis is averted." the strange-looking angel repeated the words of his master in a really weird tone, he sounded almost like a voice recording, which made the ponies and the dragon an uncomfortable feeling.

"Uh...okay, then. Maybe you don't actually need to help me with my princess duties, maybe you just need to help me with personal stuff and leave the princess-y stuff to me?" Twilight suggested awkwardly.

"Well, your princess life seems directly tied to your personal life so I thought that helping you out with your political side might help." Meekha El said. He turned to the others in the room who are still staring at him. "Is my form disturbing your state of mind?"

The mares and the dragon just stammered and talked over each other while looking at one another to figure out what to say, then Pinkie Pie stepped in front of them. "It's not your look that bothers me, it's the fact that you guys apparently don't celebrate parties. How can you ever get by without any parties once in a while, are you not allowed to have one?" Pinkie Pie asked sadly.

"No, Pinkamena Pie. We angels do not have parties, we've had a few celebrations once every million eons, but we don't have parties." Meekha El answered, forcing himself to satisfy the pink pony's curiosity.

"But why?"

"Because our purpose is to carry out divine commands, not to have fun. I suggest you stop your questions there, you won't be able to understand." Meekha El said trying to not show frustration.

"But we wanna know more about you, like what's it like where you came from? Do you have any friends? What's this 'creator of the universe' like?..." Twilight wanted to ask, even preparing a quill and scroll, but Meekha El shot her down.

"Princess, I'm sent down here to guide you, not answer questions every five seconds. Also, don't you have some duties to fulfill?" Meekha El pointed to her enormous pile of scrolls that nopony noticed were there until the winged alien pointed it out.

"Oh, right!" Twilight frantically got back to going through her checklist.

"There is one thing I gotta ask, I swear it's not gonna be a waste of time." Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Alright, but only this one. Any other questions you should save for yourself until I'm not doing my duties." Meekha El said.

"Who's this 'Satan' guy you were warning us about, you kinda left with no explanation." the cyan pegasus asked.

"Oh, right, I probably should've explained that. He's a malevolent entity who's come to your world to tempt the inhabitants to commit sin and bring the Lord's creations down to his level." the angel explained.

"And you said that he's a red dragon? What kinda dragon are we talkin' about here?" Spike asked.

"I told you, he's not actually a dragon. Satan has the ability to take any form he pleases that will help him achieve his goal, and he can be anywhere at any time, so be careful." Meekha El continued.

"'Take any form', you mean he can shapeshift like a changeling?" Twilight asked as well.

"Uh...yes, like a changeling. He's very good at psychological manipulation, so even if he says things that sound kind and reasonable, he's only saying what you want to hear, and just his words are enough to make any creature do what he wants, so don't listen to him." Meekha El warned.

'But how will we be able to tell when he's around?" Applejack asked.

"You'll know it somehow, that's something not even I can explain to you." Meekha El answered anticlimactically. "So, Princess...do you need me to help with anything else?" the giant alien turned to the purple alicorn.

"Um...no, I don't think so. I think it's better if I handle something like this on my own." Twilight answered with an awkward smile.

"Are you sure? You look like you could still use some help." Meekha El said doubtingly.

"No, I'll be fine. You just go and leave the princess stuff to me."

"Alright, if you insist. When you need me again, just pray." Meekha El said before disappearing.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to send him away right now, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"I don't know, Spike. He doesn't know how to do this kind of thing, so let's just do it ourselves. Besides, it'll be easier to focus now that he's not around." Twilight said.

"We still don't a hundred percent know if we can actually trust that feller." Applejack chimed in.

"And what about that 'Satan' guy he mentioned? Shouldn't we deal with him considering how dangerous Meekha El said he is?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"We can't really deal with him considering we don't know anything about him besides what Meekha El told us, we don't even know what he looks like or where he is. Heck, he said that 'Satan' is a shapeshifter, so finding him with zero information other than who he is and what he can do, not to mention he's probably on the same level as Meekha El, it's pointless." Twilight explained.

"Why doesn't Meekha El deal with this 'Satan' himself if he's so dangerous?" Rarity wondered.

"Yeah, and does anypony find it odd how much he emphasizes about orders when doing something?" Dash asked as well.

"I don't know, girls. Look, I wanna know about Meekha El as much as any of you, but he's clearly not interested in answering questions in the middle of his duty. So why don't I just deal with the duties for the day, then we can study him more when I'm done?" Twilight suggested.

"Alright, then. Do you want us to help you with them, we'd be happy to keep you company." Rarity asked who was joined in by the other mares with big grins on their faces.

"Thanks, girls. I'd love that, but I think it's better if I deal with the princess duties myself. I wouldn't wanna get you girls into any more trouble than necessary, and you obviously have other things to do, so why don't you just go home and I'll inform you if anything comes up." Twilight said.

The other mares wanted to argue, but they knew Twilight was insistent about what she said, and they were actually busy before Twilight called them over. So the mares said their goodbyes and left for home leaving Twilight and Spike alone in the throne room, now they were ready to actually officially start the day.

At first, the day was going normally, a little difficult but still normal. But as the day went on, more duties kept being added to Twilight's to-do list for the day, which was already crammed in the first place, now it was starting to interfere with each other. Then more news came in, and then ponies of all kind kept coming in insisting on seeing her, from aristocrats, bussinessponies, and even lowly citizens came in trying to discuss a problem she has to take care of, something to help them with, or somewhere she needs to be. Twilight was slowly losing the ability to think straight as her subjects kept pouring in as quickly as they left, they were ceasing her from doing the other duties she was supposed to do, she could barely hear what their problems were anymore. Now, an entire crowd was trying to force itself in and Twilight couldn't make out what they needed to see her for, all Twilight knew was that she couldn't take it anymore, and needed a moment to herself, so she ordered the guards to close off the doors and tell the subjects to see her later. Once the guards did that and she could hear ponies complaining from the other side of the door, Twilight took this moment to go somewhere she could be left alone, and she went to her balcony.

When Twilight went out to her balcony, she was surprised to see that the sun was setting, meaning it would soon be time for her to raise the moon as well. Has it really been that long? She practically lost track of the time of the entire day, so much has happened to her in such a short amount of time. There were a lot of problems going on in Equestria that needed her fixing, and on top of that, a giant winged alien showed up out of nowhere and refused to say anything about himself. Twilight just hunched over the railing and looked down on the land in front of her that was bathed in orange light from the setting sun, and behind her, a dark blue sky and cold black clouds were creeping over, but Twilight was mostly focused on herself. She was just so confused as to how to take in everything that's happening, how will she get through them, and most importantly...

"What am I gonna do?" Twilight sighed and planted her face between her forehooves that were grasping the balcony's railing. Then Twilight gasped in shock when she heard something respond.

"Good question. I'd say enjoy the view for a little while." the voice answered. As Twilight turned, she saw a tall and well-built pegasus stallion sitting on the balcony's railing like a bird, but his pose was like that of a lion. The stallion was blackish-grey with yellow eyes, and a red mane, red tail, and even the feathers of his wings were red despite the limbs of the wings themselves being black. Speaking of his wings, they were pretty large, almost Celestia's size, complimenting the fact that this stallion was taller than most.

"W-who are you? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, nervously at first but became sterner during the second question.

"Oh, I'm just passing by, honestly." the pegasus stallion answered plainly.

"Look, if you want my autograph or report something to me, can you just wait and save it for later? 'Cause I'm not in the mood to see anypo..." Twilight told the stranger.

"Oh, I'm not here to do any of that! As I said, I'm just passing by." the stallion reassured. When Twilight turned away and just rested her head on the balcony railing again to look at the horizon, the pegasus spoke again. "You know, I can't help but notice how down in the dumps you look. Princess duties getting the better of you?"

"Yeah, kinda." Twilight answered, exhaustion present in her voice.

"You know, I'm no expert on politics, but I think you're being a little too passive." the pegasus stallion said.

"What are you saying?" Twilight's ears perked up as she turned to the stallion, finally giving her full attention to the stranger.

"I'm saying you're going too easy on your subjects, by letting other ponies tell you what you have to do for them you're essentially letting your own country make you their bitch." the stallion explained plainly as well.

"What?! But a princess's duty is to serve their country and do what's best for her subjects, what on earth makes you think you can just say that about me?!" Twilight scolded.

"That is true, but...I've heard some wise words that I think you should hear as well; "If you let others walk on you, they're gonna walk on you for the rest of your life". You're one of the most powerful creatures in all of Equestria, at least fucking act like it. Show your subjects that you are their leader, not their servant." the stallion motivated a little harshly.

"W-well...I guess..." Twilight stuttered, starting to think there was a point in what the stranger was saying.

"Celestia made the same mistake before you, her powers did the thing to keep her subjects in line and let them know who they're dealing with, but she went too easy on her enemies. She just trapped them somewhere for a thousand years which not only did nothing but delay the inevitable of them escaping, but just made them more dangerous since they had a thousand years to hold a grudge and plot their revenge, so those could be considered idiotic decisions."

"But they all served a good purpose at the end, we brought Luna back, Discord became reformed, the Crystal Empire returned, I became a better princess, and it brought me and my friends together." Twilight reasoned.

"Yeah, but making sure all those bad things won't happen would've had to rely on the fact that there would be somepony like you and your friends to fix it, and Celestia trapped them a thousand years ago so she would've had to rely on chance that somepony would come in and fix them for her. She might've been safe since she got to dump all the responsibilities on you, but what if you don't find your own star pupil and or successor to make sure she'll fix all your past mistakes and take over for you? You'd kinda be regretting not being too good at finishing problems yourself."

"Well, then what do you suggest?" Twilight asked.

"You gotta show to both your subject and those who oppose you that you are not to be taken lightly and that you deserve every ounce of respect they're able to show." the pegasus stallion said.

"But they already have plenty of respect for me, I saved them multiple times, made Equestria a better place, and brought us and the other kingdoms together!" Twilight said.

"You can do as many good deeds as you want, Princess. But everyone will look for a reason to screw you over and turn you into their personal punching bag. Even when you started having the word Princess in your name they all think they can treat you badly and make you do whatever they want by taking advantage of your kindness for them. You need to show them who's really in charge around here! You saved their asses multiple times, and they should act more grateful for it and start giving more than just empty praises, you should try being more stern once in a while, then you can have a calmer life for you and your friends." the pegasus stallion lectured.

"M-maybe..." Twilight mumbled and looked away from the pony talking to her. While she still didn't agree with what the stallion was telling her to do, in the very back of her mind she was actually considering what he was saying. It did feel nice that someone other than Spike was around to tell her some motivational words that she needed to hear, it was such a strangely nice gesture from a pony she's never even seen before. 

Then, something clicked in the alicorn's head. "Wait...are you..." Twilight asked nervously, but when she turned to face the strange pegasus stallion again, he was gone. The balcony was empty with just Twilight on it once again, and she was just left alone with her thoughts.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Twilight sat in her throne room preparing to perform her duties for the day. Later, she was joined by Spike and in the afternoon by her friends who came back from Ponyville to help her as they promised. Twilight still hasn't told them about what happened on the balcony yesterday, she wanted to and felt she needed to, yet there was something holding her back from saying anything, but she didn't know what. Her day today went as how it did yesterday, the only major difference being that Meekha El wasn't around, she wondered what he does when he's not accompanying her, an interdimensional giant winged creature like that. It was kind of a good thing he wasn't around to help, then her friends could actually help her get some work done, she knew if they were by her side, she had nothing to worry about.

She figured her main focus today after getting the more minor duties out of the way is to hear what all those mobs of ponies trying to barge into the throne room were trying to tell her, considering she wasn't really listening when they came by yesterday. Would they even wanna come back after how she just ran out on them yesterday? The sight of the princess running off in a time of crisis would surely tick some ponies off. So Twilight prepared herself, Spike, and her friends to answer some of her subjects' distress calls for the day, and she told the guards to bring in immediately any subjects from yesterday or those who had the same problems as yesterday.

To her surprise, today wasn't just ponies who came in, but some creatures of the other kingdoms as well, some of which were the six students from the School of Friendship, and they all looked pretty worried. From the Dragon Lands, it was Smolder and Garble, telling her that a dragon named Fang gathered a bunch of dragons to join her cause and challenged Ember to a duel in order to overthrow her, and the rebel dragon won and claimed the Bloodstone Sceptre, and she might try to overthrow the other kingdoms if she wasn't dealt with quickly. 

From Griffonstone, Gallus, Gilda, and Gabby said that a greedier-than-most griffin named Geralt was gaining huge amounts of wealth impossibly fast as if they were suddenly handed to him, and his wealth not only made him take over all of Griffonstone, but the surrounding areas as well, and he was making life more miserable as he squeezed every drop of money and property of value from the citizens and destroy the living conditions around them for his growing personal empire, and this was all in the span of two days which shouldn't even be remotely possible.

From the Changeling and Hippogriff kingdoms, there was Thorax and Ocellus, then there was Silverstream, Terramar, and Skystar, as well as some citizens from each of their kingdoms. They claimed that some of the Royal Guards had attacked and burnt down their kingdoms, leaving them in ruin and practically leaving them homeless, which Twilight just simply couldn't believe. Twilight claimed she didn't have anything to do with what happened and she never once ordered any Guards to go to the other kingdoms, the creatures who knew her fully believed her and simply asked to clear up the misunderstanding, while the citizens just accused her and thought she was lying.

Even the Kirins came in, which Twilight had to admit she almost forgot about. Autumn Blaze claims that the Nirik have gone out of control and have burnt down the entire forest and she couldn't figure out why, there must've been some outside force that interacted with them and caused an emotional imbalance, and they showed no signs of stopping.

Then finally, the ponies spoke up, among them was Sandbar who was accompanied by Yona and his family. Apparently, the dragons and some other creatures have started burning down farms and towns on the edges of Equestria, forcing a lot of them to have to immigrate to other bigger towns. The ponies have started rallying together to ward off other creatures from Equestria, and that rally was growing in numbers as they speak.

Hearing all of this, Twilight actually became a little thankful she ran out before listening to all of these reports because she might've snapped if she stayed. Twilight was having a hard time processing the sudden humongous bad news that suddenly happened, and an even harder time figuring out what to do. She calmed herself down for a moment and reassured herself that this situation has happened before when Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow tried to turn the ponies against each other, and if they got through that once, they can get through it again. Her friends all looked pretty worried themselves as to how things have been completely fine a few days ago could suddenly go to disaster in such a short amount of time, Rainbow and Applejack even started to wonder if these had anything to do with Meekha El considering they all started happening after he showed up, or that "Satan" guy that he warned them about since these did fit the bill with how Meekha El described him.

Twilight reassured her friends with the exact words that went through her head a moment ago, which gave them the necessary boost they needed, and Twilight spoke up to calm down the subjects in the throne room in order to give themselves a moment to think about how to deal with the situation. Fluttershy and Spike considered talking to the troubled creatures, but Twilight had a feeling that they weren't in any mood to engage in conversation with the creatures they're opposing, not to mention that saying the same thing to them last time was probably just going to irritate them and cause more trouble. Pinkie Pie gave her usual solution, which was to throw a party where every creature got together and let the fun cause the tension to die down, which everypony knew wouldn't do any good since being near each other might cause more tension, not to mention one of the times she did this had no effect. Rainbow wasn't really the best at dealing with these kinds of situations so she had nothing to say. AJ and Rarity were busy just trying to get the crowd from erupting into panic again, and Twilight had a feeling they wouldn't have anything to contribute anyway.

At this point, Twilight and her friends admitted they were pretty much clueless as to how to respond at this particular moment, though something felt off about their cluelessness, it felt as if something was holding back their train of thought from functioning so they won't be able to do anything, it was a strange conclusion, but that was definitely what Twilight felt was happening. The purple alicorn thought about asking somepony else for help, maybe she could contact Celestia and Luna and ask them for help, they most likely know more and have dealt with situations like this. Have the former princesses even heard about what was happening? Something like this seems like something they would notice and help do something about. 

Suddenly, all the noise around Twilight ceased, when she looked everything was still going on as it was before, but she couldn't hear anything. She was still watching the world around her, and the world around her was still watching her, yet she felt as if she was suddenly locked out and completely alone at the moment. 

"Feeling lost, huh?" a familiar voice spoke. As Twilight turned to who was speaking, she felt shocked to see who it was. It was her, but more regal and divine, more princess-looking. She had glowing white eyes and was surrounded by a purplish-white aura, encompassing her divinity, yet for some reason, it felt off.

"A-are you...me?" Twilight asked her more heavenly-looking clone.

"You could say that." her doppelganger answered vaguely. After remaining silent for a few minutes, the clone spoke again. "Look in front of you, Twilight. What do you see?".

"I see subjects and friends that need my help, why?" Twilight asked back, worried where this question would lead to.

"Exactly. They desperately need it, and they need you more than anything else in the world right now. Now, look at yourself." 

"Me?"

"Yes, you. What are you seeing yourself doing right now?" the clone looked at her this time.

"I'm trying to figure out how to help them, but for some reason, I can't. This shouldn't happen, this should be something I can easily figure out, but I just feel completely helpless right now, and I don't know why!" Twilight answered in devastation.

"You are, aren't you? These creatures are relying on you to fix a very serious problem they're having, problems that could decide the fate of their kingdoms. If you keep on being like this, what are they gonna say about you? What are your friends and acquaintances going to think after you've shown yourself to be incompetent and clueless after everything you've done and everything they've done for you? They watched you grow up into a beautiful, powerful, and responsible grown mare, and this is how you'll repay them in a time of need? By acting like a helpless little filly?" the royal-looking doppelganger asked.

Twilight sighed, her confidence growing smaller. "You're right. What's happening to me? Why do you look like that anyway?" Twilight finally pointed out her clone's appearance.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I am what would happen if you instead of sitting on your ass wondering what's the right thing to do, you simply just got up and...did something. the clone ominously answered. The answer was vague, yet Twilight knew what she was hinting at.

"You mean like...what the stallion from yesterday suggested." Twilight's worries grew.

"Exactly, Twilight, exactly. Simple words are clearly not going to solve this issue, these creatures have clearly grown too stubborn for any words to enter their heads, and in these kinds of situations, the only thing that'll get them to listen to you is...action." the regal godlike doppelganger continued sinisterly.

"I'll have to show them my strength." Twilight said, lifting her head up.

"Yes! And these ones in front of you are the perfect ones to start with!" the other Twilight pointed to her friends and all the subjects who stood before her. "If you can strike fear into their hearts, you can do it with anyone!"

Twilight's head drooped again with her eyes closed as she put on a stern face. "No...NO! I won't do that! This is wrong! A ruler who rules in fear is no ruler! That's something I learned from my experiences!" Twilight refused loudly.

The regal and godlike clone simply remained silent and stared at her for a moment, then chuckled at Twilight's answer. "That's a shame. You can pretend to refuse my option all you want, but soon you're gonna see you'll need it, and you're gonna regret you didn't accept sooonnnneeerrrr...." the clone's eyes and mouth turned black as her beautiful and whimsical form melted and rotted away before Twilight's frightened eyes.

Suddenly, Twilight could hear the world around her again, seeing her friends and her subjects in the throne room desperately calling her name and trying to get her attention, and when she looked, her clone had disappeared. Twilight had no idea what happened, but she decided it wasn't important and turned her focus back to her subjects, but before she could say anything, the doors of the throne room slammed open.

Every creature's attention now turned to whatever opened the doors, which made them all cease their loud clamoring. Standing at the throne room's entrance was a tall and grand-looking white unicorn stallion with a wavy and royal looking blonde mane and tail, wearing a white tuxedo with a red tie, one might've confused him for Prince Blueblood for a moment, but this stallion somehow looked even more dreamy and handsome, as well as better built and taller. He radiated such a bright and warm aura, and he put on a confident face but also a warm and reassuring smile.

"Greetings, everycreature! Fear not, for I am here to help!" the stallion greeted loudly and proudly.

"Who are you?" Twilight asked.

"I am Morning Star, I have come from a very long family line. I came here to Equestria as soon as I could after I heard the news of what was happening here, and I'd like to assist with the solving of the conflicts happening here, I have quite a bit of experience in politics." Morning Star explained.

"Oh, I'm so glad! We could really use some help around here, maybe you could also give me directions along the way." Twilight smiled, relieved a window of hope appeared.

"Eh, well...thing is, no offense, Princess Twilight...I would insist on you leaving this to me since from what I've heard you've kind of been avoiding your duties, and that hasn't really made anybody happy." the stallion newcomer said, causing the creatures in the room to mutter in agreement with each other, while her friends and acquaintances just stared worriedly of what this stallion was gonna cause.

"W-What?" Twilight muttered, fear and worry creeping into her voice again.

"You've pretty much been doing nothing and the situation is constantly getting worse, I'd say it's better to let somepony who will actually take immediate action to deal with the issue." Morning Star continued, the creatures in the room's mutterings of agreement growing louder. Twilight just noticed, but this stallion really had a presence that told whoever beheld him to agree and follow, it was kind of scary, to be honest. He also looked strangely familiar, but why?

"Yes, you know what, Princess? I think we should just let this stallion deal with this since all you did was sit around and turn us away as our homes burnt down to the ground!" a pony in the crowd exclaimed, whose words pierced Twilight like a blade, and the other ponies, as well as the changelings and hippogriffs, started shouting in agreement with the pony and shouted more accusations at her.

All of her friends simply stared in shock at the audacity of the crowd. "Hey! You better watch your mouth, buddy!" Rainbow Dash shouted, she and some of Twilight's other friends glared at the accusing individual.

"Everypony, everycreature, please! There's no need to use harsh words on the princess like that, she obviously also had other duties to take care of, even if she could've helped fix this sooner." Morning Star exclaimed at the beginning with a calm and sympathetic voice but muttered loudly and coldly at the end. "So why don't we all just discuss what to do and leave the princess to...clear her mind. She obviously needs it." the unicorn stallion reverted back to his warmer tone of voice. 

"If you ask me, she's done enough of that already." one of the creatures in the crowd said as they prepared to leave the throne room. Applejack had to restrain Rainbow Dash from flying over and teaching the crowd a lesson.

Suddenly, the stallion looked back at Twilight, staring at her with his one blue and one black eye with a smile, but it wasn't the warm sympathetic one he put on this whole time. He whispered to Twilight, and even though he was practically on the other side of the throne room, Twilight would hear what he said very clearly, and it seemed only she could hear him. "What a shame, Princess.

"Uh-oh, twitchy tail!" Twilight heard Pinkie exclaim, but she just ignored her as she wasn't interested in whatever random nonsense Pinkie Pie was blabbering about. 

She couldn't believe what was happening, her subjects were turning away from her for this random stallion who just came out of nowhere, strange ponies kept appearing to ruin her status as princess, and she and her friends practically had every idea of what to do sucked out of their heads. What was happening? This was like a nightmare with no rules or logic except to torment her in any way. She had to do something, but what? A memory popped into her head as she knew what her only option was, but she was hesitant if she wanted to do it. Luckily, something appeared to stop her from doing anything else.

A flash of blue and purple light appeared at the ceiling of the throne room, which caught every creature's attention. Twilight stared in shock, then saw Pinkie Pie sitting down clamping her forehooves together in prayer, who then opened her eyes to take a peek, and she jumped up in glee.

"Yay! It worked!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed giddily.

Out of the light, a silhouette of a tall and large pegasus stallion appeared, and as the light dimmed down, the form lowered down to the ground. The pegasus stallion had a very well built body, he had a mane and tail that was like fire, his body was royal blue and his feathers were royal purple, his cutie mark was a squiggle of lines that the ponies don't recognize, and he even wore a red robe atop silver garments and horseshoes.

"Meekha El, is that you?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, and here I am, Princess." the pegasus who turned out to be the strange alien creature she's been seeing answered and bowed his head.

"Why do you look like this?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, after what happened the past few days, I spoke to Gavri'El and the Lord and they told me to take this form most of the time from now on, might make my job easier." Meekha El explained.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Smolder asked among the creatures who didn't want to leave.

"I am just someone who is tasked with momentarily assisting the princess." Meekha EL answered the young orange drake.

"'Momentarily assisting?' Your job is just helping Princess Twilight for a little while? What was that light show about just now?!" Gallus asked the question going on in every creature's head right now.

"I assure you it's of no importance..." Meekha El answered again before noticing someone in the room. He stared at the white and blonde unicorn stallion with a face full of anger and hate, the stallion stared back with a worried face, but he seemed to be smirking underneath.

"What...are you doing here?!" Meekha El exclaimed loudly.

"You two know each other?" Ocellus asked.

"Oh, boy. This doesn't sound good." Thorax muttered timidly.

"What am I doing? I'm just trying to help these poor helpless citizens who are going through a time of great hardship. The question is, who are you to ask?" Morning Star shot back at the now pony angel.

"I am the one assisting the princess, so I should be the one asking you that! You also forget I am technically also in command of you!" Meekha El shouted.

"Woah there, let's not get ahead of ourselves there, Mikey." Morning Star casually brushed off the angel pony's statement.

Meekha El just stared blankly at what the unicorn stallion just said. "Are you serious right now? As if the other name wasn't bad enough, now you need to demean it even more?!" his anger growing more.

"'Mikey'?" Applejack asked confused.

"Wait, how did he know his..." Rarity asked as well.

"Kind of out of the question, sister. I'm kinda in the middle of having to attend to these poor creatures' needs, not babble with you lot." Morning Star gestured to the creatures in the room.

"Wait a minute...you caused all this, didn't you?!" Meekha El accused, causing quite some ruckus between everyone in the throne room.

"What a ridiculous statement! If you were in this room earlier, you'd have known that the cause for all these problems were rogue citizens and possibly rogue royal guards, I've never been to any of those places." the unicorn defended himself.

"Are you saying this guy ordered those royal guards to burn down Mount Aris and the Changeling Hive? But why?" Terramar asked.

"Exactly! What proof do you have of such accusations? I was never in any of those places, and I only just arrived. Why should we trust what you say, anyway? We don't even know who you are!" Morning Star said before Meekha El got a chance to answer the young hippogriff. 

"Oh, I don't need to bring any proof, because you're gonna say it." Meekha El said, which caused Morning Star to actually show a hint of worry on his face.

Meekha El flapped his wings and levitated himself to the air, closing his eyes and clamping his forehooves together in prayer, once again garnering the attention of the creatures in the room. "By the power of the Lord, the Father, the Almighty, the Creator of All, the Alpha and the Omega, the One who is, was, and ever will be, I command you to reveal yourselves before these creations of His, and to leave this world immediately!" Meekha El shouted in a commanding tone, extending one of his forehooves forward. 

Morning Star shut his eyes in anticipation of something coming, but after a few seconds of silence, he opened his eyes again, looking around the room for something to happen. "Nothing happened." he said flatly.

"W-What? What's going on here?" Meekha El asked himself, panic creeping into his voice as he stared at Morning Star then at his own hooves.

Morning Star then gasped excitedly. "Oh, no! Could it be that...someone has abandoned you?" the unicorn stallion asked with glee.

"N-No! You're wrong! It's not true! His help just isn't arriving immediately." Meekha El attempted to deflect Satan's words but was so overcome by shock, that he couldn't really think clearly.

"Jeez, this guy sounds like a complete nutjob." one of the ponies in the crowd said, which was followed by laughter from the crowd.

"Everyone, please, we must not laugh at him. Let's just go already, the princess and this stallion are obviously not well, I think it's best we...leave them to their thoughts." Morning Star gestured the crowd to take leave, then shut the door to the throne room once he and the crowd have left, leaving Twilight with Meekha El and her friends.

"I-I'm sorry about what happened, Twilight." Thorax attempted to comfort the purple alicorn.

"Yeah, that wasn't cool." Sandbar said.

"I don't understand...why didn't anything happen?" Meekha El muttered loudly to himself, causing every creature in the room to look at him.

"Dude, what were you doing back there?" Smolder asked.

"I was trying channeling the powers of the Lord in order to take command of him and banish him." Meekha El said, a little angry.

"Was that who I think it is?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, that was Satan himself! He was undetected for the past few days, and he finally decided to show his face again! And believe me when I say that I guarantee he's the one who caused all this!" Meekha El answered.

"But why?" Twilight asked again, which Terramar gestured as the question he was also asking earlier.

"Clearly he's trying to get me to fail this task by trying to break you. If he manages to bring the lands to ruin, it will become a burden on your soul that will slowly crush it, and once it breaks and you succumb to his temptations, that's when he wins!" the angel explained.

"How awful, why would he even do such a thing?! Twilight never even did anything to him." Rarity exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's his game, Rarity. Collecting souls by tainting them with sin and dragging them down with him." 

"Why didn't you do anything then? Why did you have to channel your creator's powers and give up instead of using your own powers?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I wasn't just channeling, I was asking the Creator for permission and asking for help." Meekha El answered the cyan pegasus.

"Why didja have to ask for permission, couldn't you just do it yourself?" the pegasus asked again.

"Because I can't, if the Creator doesn't instruct me, I can't do anything." 

"Is this one of those soldier things where you can't disobey your commanding officer? Because since you're tasked with guiding me, I think it's safe to say that while you're here, you can follow my orders." Twilight suggested.

"No, I can't, Princess. I mean that I do not have free will! I'm practically useless if I have to do something that is not part of the current objective the Creator has given me!" Meekha El explained loudly and a little irritated, which caused some of the creatures surrounding him to take a step back.

"You mean you're like...a drone? Like a robot?" Twilight asked.

"I guess you can put it that way. This is the problem I've been dealing with the past few days, Satan immediately showed up to screw up my duty and this world, and I'm powerless to do anything about it! Now look at what's happened!" Meekha El gestured to the door. His statement gained some sympathetic looks and two empathetic looks from Thorax and Ocellus who understood the feeling.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, Fluttershy, thank you for the gesture but I'm afraid not. Once the Creator has set his mind on what his creation's going to be like, that's how it's gonna stay for all time." Meekha El answered, which made the yellow pegasus feel worse. "Don't feel bad for me, I'm proud to be the way I am. It has allowed me to serve my Creator unconditionally and maintain his perfect creations of the universe." the angel said proudly with a smile.

"But you just said it like it's the worst thing ever. I mean, living without the ability to choose and having to live by the commands of the one who created you sounds really bad." Sandbar said.

"I appreciate all your concerns, really I do. But I have never had a problem with only living by the Creator's commands, except now. This is a time I'm needing his orders, but when I was asking for it back there, there was simply...no answer, and I couldn't do anything." Meekha El explained.

"Jeez, I'm sorry you're going through such a tough time, Mikey." Rainbow said, putting a hoof on the angel's back in an attempt to comfort him, which earned her a glare from the blue and purple pegasus stallion when he heard what she was calling him. "Uh...sorry, dude." Dash chuckled nervously as she pulled her hoof away.

"I must take a momentary leave and speak to Gavri'El, I won't be long. Princess Twilight, let me help you ease your worries and negative thoughts before I leave, it's the least I can do after failing to get rid of Satan." Meekha El got up and touched Twilight's forehead which made Twilight become overcome with a strange feeling of calmness as she felt the stress in her head lighten significantly, he didn't make her worries disappear but he certainly eased them by a mile. Then Meekha El disappeared in a flash of light.

"Uh...Princess Twilight? Who were those guys? What's going on?" Silverstream asked, fear and worry apparent on her face.

Twilight wondered if she should bother explaining, and decided they deserved an explanation after the weird things that just happened. "It's kind of a long story..."





Michael reverted back to his original form and contacted Gabriel with the portal they always used, and Michael skipped greetings and went straight to the point.

"Gavri'El, something's happened. Satan finally showed up again!" Michael started his explanation.

"Really? What has he been doing?" Gabriel asked.

"He is bringing the kingdoms into total disarray, breaking them apart and causing conflict among them! He's trying to break Princess Twilight's spirit in order to make me fail my task."  

"Oh no, that's terrible! What are you going to do? Satan wasn't a part of your order, wasn't he?"

"Unfortunately, he wasn't. I tried praying to the Creator to give me the order of getting rid of him, but there was no answer!"

"Really?!"

"Yes! I'll have to get someone else to come down here and deal with him. But who? Uri'El? Yeshua? Hey, maybe you could ask the Creator to send someone down here." Michael said to his fellow angel.

"Uh...I'm afraid I can't do that, Mikha'El." Gabriel said nervously.

"What?! Why not?!"

"You see, it's not just you, every prayer relating to you or your current duty have all simply been...ignored. The Creator just wasn't answering any of them. Sorry, Mikha'El, but I can't do any more than you can right now." Gabriel explained.

"Oh, God in Heaven, why is this happening?! What am I to do?! Alright, calm down. This must be some sort of test by the Lord in order to let me learn to find solutions for myself." Michael reasoned mostly to himself.

"But Mikha'El, the Lord never tests angels, that's not what we're made for." Gabriel said, worried for the well-being of his angel brother.

"Well, how else do you explain what's going on here?! You don't think the Almighty had...cast me down, do you?" Michael asked full of fear.

"Considering you still have your angelic form and that you're still able to speak to me, I'd say you're still fine." Gabriel answered.

"Phew, you're right. But still, what am I to do?! Satan's still out there and he's going to make things worse! If I only had free will I would've kicked his arse straight to the deepest, darkest corners of Hell!" Michael said angrily before an idea struck him. "Wait...free will...Gavri'El, I have an idea!" Michael's confidence showed up again.

"Mikha'El, what are you thinking?" Gabriel asked nervously, feeling this idea wouldn't be a good one.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What?! But Mikha'El, how would you do that? Why would you do that?" Gabriel asked panicky from the other side of the portal.

"I simply ask, she gives and I'll take it, simple." Michael shrugged.

"But that's impossible! You can't just take it away because I don't think it's something that can even be taken in the first place, it's literally impossible! And even if you do succeed, it's a cruel act! You mustn't do such a thing to a creation of the Lord!" Gabriel argued.

"You think I don't know that?! Why do you think I'm doing this in the first place?! Because there is already a cruel act going on around here, and if I do nothing about it it will only get worse! If I fail to protect and save the creations of the Lord, I don't know if I can ever forgive myself. The princess doesn't know what to do, I don't know much about this world's politics, but I do know how to help it. Besides, we've lived without it for our entire existence, a short while shouldn't be too much for them." Michael argued back.

"Well, they aren't us, Mikha'El. I hope you find a solution, I really do, but this simply isn't the way to do it." Gabriel said with a more calming voice this time.

"Well, I suppose you have a better idea on how to resolve this situation?! What would you rather do?! Choose a difficult but hopeful solution to save this world, or let it crumble down in front of someone who worked so hard to improve it to become better than it ever was?! Would you want that to happen?!" Michael said rather aggressively, which actually managed to surprise Gabriel.

"Er...w-well...b-but, Mikha'El..." Gabriel stammered, trying to find an answer.

"Look, I must return to my duties. I promised Princess Twilight that I wouldn't be gone long, so I'm afraid I must end our conversation right now." Michael said, preparing to close the portal of communication.

"Mikha'El, wait...!" Gabriel exclaimed before the portal was closed and Michael could finally focus again on his duty, and this time with a newly hatched plan to go along with it.





Meanwhile, Twilight had just finished telling every creature who demanded an explanation what was going on, but knowing that didn't put them at ease. 

"Wait, you're saying that Equestria is being visited by two big, powerful interdimensional aliens? And one of them might be causing all these bad things to happen?" Ocellus asked, unable to believe what she's hearing.

"And one of them helping Princess Twilight?" Yona asked as well.

"Well, then we gotta do something about these guys if they're the ones causing all this!" Gilda suggested.

"How would we even drive off a couple of giant winged aliens made of light?" Gallus asked.

"Wasn't that blue guy a warrior, and he's helping Princess Twilight? Can't we use him to fight the evil guy off?" Skystar suggested.

"But he just said he can't, he said something about not being to do anything unless he's told to, remember?" Sandbar reminded the hippogriff princess.

"Oh yeah, that's right." 

"Say, Twilight, you got any ideas for this?" Thorax asked, and everyone in the room turned to her.

"I'm not sure, I think I need to contact Celestia and Luna, they'd know something about creatures like them, and they've banished many dark villains before, so they'd most likely know how to deal with this." Twilight answered. "Spike, grab a paper and quill, we need to write to them immediately!" the alicorn ordered the little purple dragon.

"I'm sorry, Twilight. But I'm afraid that's out of the question now." a voice suddenly said from somewhere in the throne room, behind the crowd of creatures that stood before Twilight, she saw the tall serpentine figure of Discord, who was standing with his head drooping in shame.

"Discord?! What are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked, shocked by the sudden appearance of the draconequus. 

"Where the hay have you been all this time?!" Rainbow Dash asked loudly.

"Why are you sorry? Did something happen to Celestia and Luna?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, Satan happened, and I was involved." Discord confessed shamefully.

"WHAT?!" all the creatures in the room exclaimed in disbelief.

"What did you do to them?! How many times do we have to go through this, you...?!" Rainbow Dash yelled, preparing herself to teach the draconequus a lesson.

"Discord, what happened?" Twilight asked sternly this time.

"W-Well..."





Silver Shoals, one day earlier...

Celestia and Luna rested on their balcony enjoying the afternoon sun, they couldn't believe how good it felt to finally be free of all the responsibility that weighed down on them for more than a thousand years...well, Celestia anyway. After everything they have been through, this retirement felt more than earned, and they'd get to enjoy life much more differently now.

As Celestia was basking in the sun while enjoying her drink and Luna was reading a book, a shadow suddenly dawned on them, as they looked up they saw it was the hovering form of Discord. Celestia was (sort of) glad to see him again, though it was strange how he simply appeared instead of entering with his usual chaotic and flashy ways.

"Why, hello there, Celestia. Hello, Luna. Lovely...uh, weather we're having today, huh?" Discord greeted with a wide grin. Though something was off, his cheeriness seemed forced, trying to not show anything wrong.

The two alicorns of night and day got up from their seats to greet their guest. "Um, why hello, Discord. Is something wrong? You seem a bit...off today." Celestia pointed out.

Discord simply just dropped his fake smile and replaced it with a very nervous and scared face, this time he forced his mouth shut in order to make sure no word will pass his lips.

"Discord, what's going on?" Luna asked cautiously, sensing something's wrong.

Discord lifted his previously drooping head. "I'm sorry..." Discord said sadly as he snapped his eagle claw and caused spiked shackles to appear and grab the alicorns by their hooves and mid-sections, and the spikes were on the inside of the shackles, which caused tremendous pain and bleeding when they locked in place.

"Discord, what are you doing?! This isn't funny!" Celestia yelled as she and her sister momentarily shrieked in pain from the sudden feeling of iron and spikes clamping down tightly on their skin. It seemed Discord didn't find it funny either, as he had no enjoyment on his face and not to mention that this was not his style of doing things.

Suddenly, a dark figure came out from a sudden burst of black flames that appeared out of thin air and revealed itself to be a giant winged creature of demonic characteristics, and the two older-than-most alicorns had a feeling they knew this entity.

"Don't worry, sisters, it's not supposed to be funny...for you anyway." the demonic multi-winged creature with two pairs of red and black feathered wings and two pairs of dark red dragon/bat wings and eyes all around said with a gleeful mocking tone.

"Satan, we've been warned about your presence once a long time ago." Celestia said with anger shifted from a shocked face. The alicorns didn't know too much about this entity, only that he was the biggest bad news their world would receive, but since they never saw many signs of him or anything else similar to him they never really put him to mind anymore.

"We just didn't think something like you would ever dare show its face in a place like Equestria." Luna taunted, attempting to intimidate the demonic entity.

"Oh please, dear, stop. You overestimate yourselves too much. A world like this was bound to get my attention sooner or later, I'm actually surprised it wasn't sooner." Satan answered smugly.

"And Discord, you're with him?! Have all your years with us meant nothing?!" Celestia scolded in anger and disappointment, which caused Discord to be unable to look at her.

"Oh, they have, Celestia, don't worry. Very much, as a matter of fact. I even had to resort to blackmailing and threats just to get him on my side, a very low level for someone like me to stoop down to, but as long as it gets the job done I suppose I can let it slide."  Satan said plainly.

"Job? What are you doing here?" Luna demanded to know, who was also joined by Celestia.

"I'm simply accompanying my dear friend, Michael on his duties on this world, as well as...setting up challenges for the Princess" Satan answered with a sinister undertone.

"If you've touched even a hair on Twilight, you will regret this..." Celestia attempted to threaten the giant winged abomination.

"Don't worry, I haven't touched her...yet. But I probably won't need to, because madness is going to happen to her before I even appear to her, once I arrive in all my glory there it'll only be a matter of a few more nudges. And you wanna know the best part? Dear old Michael's not going to be able to do anything about it since I was not a part of his orders, so he'll just be forced to stand there as the beloved Twilight Sparkle shall descend into the prisons of her own mind and maybe even rise again as Equestria's most fearsome ruler, time will tell. But I know that it's going to be glorious." Satan explained to the two alicorns, who were becoming more afraid by the minute.

"And why is Discord with you?" Luna asked.

"I brought him with me as a sign that the time of the peaceful Equestria you and Twilight Sparkle worked so hard to build will soon come to an end, and I for one can't wait to see that happen." Satan answered.

"You'll never win, Satan! You may think that you have the upper hoof now, but Twilight and her friends have dealt with your kind before, and believe me when I say she will defeat you!" Celestia threatened the demonic entity, but the only reaction she got from him was a bored expression and a yawn, indicating he's heard this kind of speech millions of times before.

"Yes, yes, 'she's strong', 'defeat me', I know, I know. Maybe she'll defeat me, maybe she won't, but whatever happens, I'll still have my fun and I'd still get my job done in some way. So maybe don't try to predict things a little too early,  Sunbutt, or else you might embarrass yourself if it turned out you were wrong." Satan mocked as he brought himself closer to the former sun princess's face.

"So I think it'll be better if I put your little actions to rest so you can see what happens with no distractions from fighting back." Satan added to the two alicorn sisters.

"You can try to lock us away in any prison, but sooner or later we'll get out, either by Twilight or by ourselves." Celestia warned.

"Lock you away? Haha, perhaps you misunderstood what I was saying. You're not getting locked away anywhere, you're going to see what happens!" Satan hissed as he touched both the alicorns' forehead with his wingtips and made them go into a mind-controlled paralysis, as their consciousness was sent to the back seats of their mind but they'll still be to see what happens before their eyes and feel whatever happens to them.

"That's better. Oh, maybe I could add a little touch." Satan said as he made steel blade appear and pierce every spot on the alicorns' bodies that would cause the most pain but won't kill them. After he did so, he relished in the internal screaming of their mind as they were praying for Twilight to succeed, he always did enjoy when mortal creatures put up a fight, even in their most vulnerable.

"Is that it?" Satan heard Discord's voice from behind him, he honestly forgot the draconequus was still there. "Is that all you needed me for? As a way to intimidate the ponies?" Discord asked, becoming more sad and angry the longer he was around Satan.

"Yeah, kinda, and to use your chaos magic, I like it." Satan answered plainly.

"Well, then why do you need to go to such lengths trying to get me on your side by using threats?! You seem to be able to do anything fine on your own!" Discord shouted.

"Actually, I do need you for one thing."





The Crystal Empire

Shining Armor and Cadance sat on the throne of the Crystal Empire with Flurry Heart by their side, their kingdom still untouched by the growing mayhem outside. Satan and Discord watched from the ceiling, making themselves invisible so that no pony under them would notice two creatures who otherwise would be the center of attention the moment they showed their faces.

"Um...what exactly does this have to do with me?" Discord asked.

"I want you to use that 'reversing personality' finger touch that you told me about, if it worked like a charm on Twilight and her five stooges, it should work like a charm on these two lovebirds as well." Satan answered, staring intently at the prince and princess of the Crystal Empire.

"Uh...if you say so." Discord simply said, not wanting to argue with the entity who was holding his and Fluttershy's life on the tip of his wing.

Discord then made himself visible in front of the royal couple which caused quite a shock from the two, they had to make sure Flurry didn't act up from their reaction to the draconequus's sudden appearance. The crystal guards went into attack position when they heard the prince and princess's yelp, but Cadance immediately told them to back down after she saw who it was.

"Discord! Hi, what are you doing here?" The pink alicorn asked.

Discord said nothing but instead lifted his eagle claw and lion paw in the air then placed them hardly on Cadance and Shining Armor's forehead, pouring his magical influence into their brains. The two royal ponies' colors then turned into a more greyish, bordering on black and white tone, and their eyes went numb as if they were being hypnotized. After Discord lifted his claws and released the royal couple from his touch, he made himself invisible again and went up to watch what unfolds by Satan's side. After a few moments of silence, the alicorn mare and the unicorn stallion regained consciousness and when they observed the world around them, they immediately started acting violently and hatefully. Cadance yelled at her own daughter for crying and cast her aside, while Shining Armor told the soldiers of the castle to prepare an attack on the city, he was then joined by his wife who wanted to make sure the destruction of the kingdom after she looked down on it with hateful eyes.

Satan just laughed at the sudden turn of events while Discord just stared in horror at what he had just caused. "Boy, those two really know how to do things together, don't they? You know, on any other day, I would've considered what we just did as cheating since it's more fun to watch them corrupt themselves than causing it for them, but for this, I'll excuse since your powers are pretty incredible. Hehe." Satan laughed, ignoring the fact that Discord was not listening to a word he was saying.

Soon, a massive outbreak happened in the city of the Crystal Empire, as soldiers who didn't refuse their orders attacked their own civilians, much to their own regret. While that was happening, the empire's own prince and princess were destroying the homes of the city, as their previous love for the kingdom they ruled over had been taken away from them.





Twilight and the other creatures in the throne room just stared in horror and disbelief from the revelations of Discord's story, their situation was bad enough but after hearing what the draconequus had to say, they knew it was getting really bad. After a few moments of silence, somepony finally broke it.

"How...how could you do this?! After everything we've been through, you're still gonna work against us?! Satan's gotten to Celestia and Luna, then Cadance and Shining Armor, and you just stood there and did nothing! And now...now..." Twilight yelled then faltered at the end as she began to choke up, tears forming in her eyes. Her friends with the exception of Fluttershy glared at him with anger and disapproval.

"I'm...so sorry, Twilight. I just hoped that by assisting Satan, it would keep Fluttershy and you guys out of harm's way if anything bad happens." Discord attempted to explain, knowing full well it wouldn't help his case.

"Keep us out of harm's way?! What about the ones you helped Satan take down?! What about the rest of Equestria?! Are they out of harm's way?! J-Just go away." Twilight turned away from Discord and everyone else to hide her face from them.

Discord wanted to say more but knew that it wouldn't do him or anyone any good since Twilight's obviously in no condition to converse at the moment. So Discord just bowed his head in shame and closed his eyes, he opened a portal and disappeared through it in order to leave the princess alone.

Meanwhile, Twilight was on the brink of tears hearing about what happened. She felt more lost than she did the past two days, she could feel her spirit being crushed from all the bad things happening around her. Spike and the five mares as well as the other creatures in the room could do nothing but stare sympathetically at her. Spike tried to step forward to comfort his older sister but was interrupted by a flash of blue and purple light.

Out of the light, the multi-winged form of Meekha El hovered downwards, he seemed to not have been bothered to change into his pony form at the moment, which caused quite a bit of fright by the creatures in the room who haven't seen him yet.

"Fear not, Princess. For I have arrived with a solution!" Meekha El announced with a grand voice.

"Meekha El, please leave me alone. I don't wanna see any..." Twilight said weakly, so distraught that Meekha El's presence didn't garner her attention anymore.

The angel suddenly placed a tip of one of his wings on the alicorn's forehead and removed just enough of her negative feelings to give her the strength to listen to what he had to say. "Please, princess, I think you'll need to hear this." Meekha El begged.

Twilight hesitated for a moment, but got up and moved closer to the angel to listen. Meekha El then spoke to her but did so in a way that only Twilight could hear while the other creatures heard nothing but muffled whispers.

"What the hay are they saying?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know, I think they're just leaving it a mystery to us to create suspense." Pinkie Pie responded.

"Yeah, ah ain't gettin' nothin'." Applejack answered as well.

"What is that thing?!" the mares heard one of the creatures in the room exclaim, it was probably Garble.

"Uh, yeah. That's the blue guy you all saw earlier." Rainbow Dash tried to answer the question obviously the other creatures had.

"That's what he looks like?!" Smolder exclaimed.

"I've never seen any creature of his kind before." Ocellus said confused.

"Yeah, don't worry. We pretty much couldn't believe it at first as well." the cyan pegasus mare said.

"You need me to what?!" they heard Twilight exclaim as all the creatures in the room shifted their focus back to Twilight.

"You just need to surrender it to me for a moment, it will fix all our problems." Meekha El reassured.

"What if it doesn't work?!" 

"It will work, I just know it."

"What if you can't return it? What happens to me? We don't know what'll happen if we do this!" 

"I know, but don't you think it's worth a shot? It's better we explore all our options than to do nothing as the country burns."

"I...I...Leave me alone, I need to think about this for a moment." Twilight told the archangel.

"But...as you wish, Princess." Meekha El wanted to argue but decided it better to do what Twilight said, so he disappeared in a flash of light.

"Twilight, what did he say to you?" Spike asked the princess, he and her friends shared the same concern for what was going on with their friend.





"Satan! Come out and show yourself! I have something to say to you!" Michael called out in the empty space of land he was on, attempting to summon his enemy. Then, in a swirl of black fire and wings, the Devil himself appeared before the Archangel.

"Alright, Mikey, what's going on here? You just called me over, you've never done that once in the eons we spent as enemies, so something must be up." Satan said, actually intrigued with what was personally going on with his old enemy.

"You better believe I have something to say, because I have finally figured out a way to cast you out of this world and all the others once and for all!" Michael announced.

"Another one of your ideas? Well, make it quick, I've got other things to do." Satan said, uninterested in whatever the angel was going to say now.

"We both know that I don't have free will, therefore I am unable to perform any actions outside of my predetermined task by the Lord." Michael began his explanation.

"Yes, I know. Can you just tell me where you're going with this?" Satan demanded, already growing bored.

"But what if I could simply...obtain it from another?" Michael asked hypothetically.

Satan stared dumbly at the question. "I'm sorry?" he blurted out, this time actually intrigued by what the angel was saying. 

"And my current duties are to guide and assist Princess Twilight Sparkle, maybe I could simply...guide her into surrendering it to me. And once that happens, I shall no longer be restricted to only following God's specific orders." Michael continued.

"Hold on, hold on, time out. Am I hearing you correctly? Are you seriously suggesting the idea of...taking a living creature's free will?" Satan asked, disbelief present in his tone.

"You heard me correct, Prince of Darkness." Michael confirmed.

"Bahahahahahaha!!! Wait, you're serious? You?! The merciful and powerful Archangel Michael's seriously considering the idea of taking the free will of a lower life form?! Hahaha, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" Satan laughed hysterically at the fact that Michael was being completely serious about his plan.

"Oh, come on, Mikey! You can't seriously be stupid enough to think that will work! Don't you even know what free will is? Being the supposed 'closest angel to God'? It's a privilege that He gave specifically to his creations of lower status so they can live their embarrassingly short lives as how they choose, it's not something that can be taken away! That's about as stupid as saying 'I wanna steal God', it simply cannot be done! How come I'm the one who has to explain this to you?!" Satan explained as he continued laughing.

"This is a world with endless possibilities, Satan. Believe me when I say I will succeed. So before that has a chance to happen, I'm giving you two choices: You can either stop what you're doing, fix the mess you made and leave this world immediately, or you can remain here and make me deal with you. It's entirely up to you." Michael said.

"Please, Michael. Are you listening to yourself? At this point, you're just desperate. I feel bad, honestly. So no, I don't think I will leave." Satan gave his answer.

Michael chuckled. "I was hoping that would be your answer. Very well, you made your choice. I shall see that you shall be dealt with once the time has come."

"Fine, you can keep trying out your ridiculous theory. But if it fails and your task also fails, make sure to invite me over so I can see you crying to God, I'd love to see it. Haha!" Satan laughed as he disappeared in a sudden burst of black flames, leaving Michael alone.

"We'll just see who'll be crying at the end, you filth of all Creation." Michael muttered as he also disappeared in a flash of light.