#12

After the small distortion of physics and compliments from the ranching pony, we headed to the drop point and delivered the apples to many places around Ponyville. For every bucket of apples we dropped off, Applejack collected a few coins. These must be the "Bits" Luna mentioned. After all the deliveries, we took a rest on some benches in the center of the town. My mind was still telling me it was still gonna rain but my body objected to that idea as sweat poured down my face. I turned to look at Applejack who was also having a hard time with the climate.

"Hey, so what was the rush for?" I asked looking up to see we were about an hour past noon.

"Yeah…sorry bout that, I didn't think we could make it, but ya somehow managed to get the apples rounded up in minutes," She was tossing a "Bit" up and down with her hoof trying to distract herself from the heat.

"Yeah? Well, it was fun running around with you," I said complimenting my experience with her. She quickly stopped the coin on her hoof and pause for a moment before looking up to me with a set of "cute eyes"

"Really?"

I gave her my infamous "Do you really need to ask?" smile and flicked her hat upwards with my thumb.

"Yeah," A small blush emerged from her cheeks, she seemed to fidget around with the coin on her hoof and have a small moment with herself.

"She was cute, then again, they're all cute," I thought to myself. I couldn't deny that I felt something towards these ponies but this is the type of stuff that I would get verbally assaulted for…Then again, I don't live in that world anymore.

After a few minutes of resting on the benches something quickly pierced my mind, I didn't know what it was but it was enough to make me jump off the bench and frantically look around the area I was on.

"Ben? What's wrong?" Applejack asked standing up as well and looking around, I didn't know how but I felt that same feeling that someone is gonna attack from somewhere, except I didn't know from where this time. I continued to look around but at a slower pace but still couldn't seem to get the location in my head until…

"BEHIND ME!" I quickly turned my body around to face the presence but all I saw was a strange array of colors as a strong force forced me to the ground. I quickly fell on my back as I felt something heavy on my chest and a bucket make its way on over my head, blinding me from seeing what was on me.

"WHAT HAVE LYRA AND BONBON TOLD YOU!?"

I felt those words bounce around in the bucket making my face cringe with agony as I tried to understand what was being asked. I quickly moved my hands up to the bucket and lifted it slowly, slowly revealing a pony with the same punked mane as before. I stared at her for a few seconds when I slowly began to make out a large figure behind her. It didn't take long for both of them to quickly become clearly visible, Vinyl was standing on me with a face that only represented she demanded answers and behind her stood Kusanagi, his face only showing pure evil, his eyes were wide open and in his raised hand he held his wooden sword that was covered in a with his dark essence.

My eyes quickly blinked wide-open as I saw the sword quickly swipe down. Without a millisecond to spare, I grabbed the pony with one of my hands and pulled her towards my chest as I quickly lifted my torso and reached my other hand out to catch the sword. The sword collided with my hand and a huge pain jolted through my body as I tightly gripped the sword.

"AHH! NOT AGAIN!" I yelled in intense pain as slowly I began to see pints of blood drip from my hand down my arm and onto the ground, in all my agony I didn't notice I had let go if the pony that I was holding on to. I looked up to see Kusanagi, his face showed all the disbelief he could muster up as he quickly lifted the sword off my hand and put it away behind his back and knelt down my side.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING TRYING TO CATCH THAT?!" He said grabbing my hand firmly and squeezing it tightly. I stared at his eyes as they turned completely white and a huge amount of his dark aura surround my hand. I didn't know exactly what he was doing but it seemed to completely alleviate the pain and stop the blood from gushing out, this continued for about half a minute. I looked up at him when his dark aura stopped surrounding my hand, his hands were still on mine but his grip was slowly weakening and his head was looking down at the floor as sweat drenched him completely, he huffed a choppy breath every second. He had somehow taken a toll for what he did.

After a few seconds, he quickly threw himself onto his feet but it was obvious that he couldn't stand well. I looked at my hand to notice how it seemed to have not taken any damage, not even a scar was present, just a cut glove with a smooth piece of skin under it. I quickly looked up to Kusanagi who was trying to give me a straight look but just couldn't, almost immediately I stood up to face him, my face representing worry. He slowly reached his hand out and shook his head.

"Don't worry…about…about…oh shit…" He muttered as he burst out a large amount of blood from his mouth, as his eyes became blank.

I quickly threw my body to catch him as he leaned forward unconsciously. He was completely out. I turned my body and looked at not only the two ponies in front of me but at the whole town of ponies staring me down with mixed emotions. It didn't take long for some familiar ponies to emerge from the crowd, Twilight, Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Flutters, Lyra, and Bon Bon: they were the only ones to actually come close.

"WHAT HAPPENED!? They all asked in unison, I didn't have any time to waste and quickly gave my own orders.

"Twilight can you teleport us all back to your place? NOW!"

"Yes!"

I hated having to yell at her but right now I had someone dying in my hands and I was not about to let that happen now or ever, it's happened way too many times before and now it would begin again if he dies. It didn't take long for every pony near us to become wrapped in a purplish glow as we began to disappear one by one.

Poof*

Everything came into vision as I quickly looked around for something to lay Kusanagi on, the nearest thing was that sofa I sat on when I first got here and placed him there. He was still motionless but the energy he was giving off said he still had some life in him. I looked around at the ponies, they all showed signs of worry and confusion. I knew they wanted answers as well but there was no time for that right now.

"Twilight, do you have some type of healing magic like Celestia does?" I asked hoping for the best but hope became smothered when she looked down and replied briefly.

"No…"

My face immediately turned to Kusanagi who was still dripping blood from his mouth, I walked over and used his shirt to wipe away the blood. I didn't know what I was gonna do anymore as I slowly began losing hope and gripped tighter to his shirt and clenched my teeth together as memories began to jump back into my mind.

-Back in the days-

I saw all the graves I had to place one rose on, more than a thousand. More than a thousand soldiers in front of me, some still crying, pleading to go back to their mothers and fathers. Others holding in their hands a picture that summarized their life before this war. I walked past all these people begging for mercy as I emptied rounds into the injured enemies that were down alongside my allies. After many empty magazines and dismembered limbs all over I caught up to this one soldier: Rookie class Roger. He was shaking violently as he held in his hand his small diary, the diary of his whole life in the war. I sat down beside him and took the book from his blood-stained hands. He managed to pull off this famous smile that had got us free meals in 6th grade and sometimes got us an extra meal in the barracks as his head fell back hitting the dirt beneath him. I could feel my imaginary tears go down face as I ripped off his dog tags and looted him of all the twelve pictures he had of his family and us. I quickly put them into the diary and placed everything into a compartment in my vest.

"Maybe…one day… I'll be able to cry out all the tears I didn't cry today," I said as I stood back up and left him behind as I began to walk away.

"I promise to read it one day, my dear friend,"

-Back to the present-

"I won't let anyone die anymore," I whispered to him as I brushed away those memories and lifted my head to face Kusanagi who was still motionless. I felt emotions drop as I stood back up and balled my hands.

"LUNA! CELESTIA!" I yelled causing every pony to shiver in terror. I desperately needed them now especially since they were the only ones I could resort to now. After a few seconds, two bright flashes of light filled the room, causing me to nearly jump off the floor as I quickly turned to them. I felt all the pain I was feeling disappear as I saw the two ponies of light and darkness appear.

"You called?" Luna asked in a casual way before quickly changing it upon noticing our reactions.

"Is something wrong?"

"Yes!" I said moving aside to let them see K in his state, Luna immediately gave a horrified expression as she noticed the large amount of blood that stained his shirt. Celestia also showed the same feeling but her expression was that of a confused anger.

"Can you do something? Please!" I pleaded, staring at them both worried and faithful. They both gave each other a small glance before getting back to me, they seemed to have a small thought on what's going on.

"Ben…we can't" Celestia began, but I wouldn't accept any of this demon shit anymore, I couldn't allow any more deaths to haunt me.

NO! I WON'T ACCEPT THAT! I NEED HIM ALIVE NOT DEAD!" I yelled at them causing them to look at me as if I had gone insane, I wouldn't blame them considering the situation I was in but my actions were reasonable to me.

"Please, I've seen too many deaths already, I don't want to see another…so please, just this one time," I begged, hoping I could convince them to do something. They gave each other another glance before I heard two ponies speak.

"Please Celestia, even if he is a demon, he isn't who you think he is," Flutters said getting next to me and placing her hoof on my leg. I could see that Celestia was being pushed towards doing it as she showed signs of regret.

"Yeah, he really ain't bad, just a tad bit over enthusiastic," Applejack added placing herself on my other side, a small smile grew on my face from all the support the ponies gave.

"Thanks," I whispered looking back up to Celestia, she closed her eyes for a brief moment before looking up at K. Had she been convinced?

"Sister, I know you don't want to but if you don't do this, I fear all of Equestria might be doomed," Luna supported, nearing K and using her magic to move his head side to side, observing his physical structure.

"Fine… I trust all of you to know what you're doing," She said as he started working her magic on K, she didn't enjoy doing such a thing. My face lit up with joy upon seeing her work her magic on him, and all the worry diminish when I saw Luna smile at me from a distance, indicating that everything was going to be okay.

After a few seconds of watching Celestia perform some magic on K, it became clear that he was going to awaken at any second. His hands became fists and his legs spasmed as he immediately opened his eyes wide and leaned forward panting strongly. We all quickly flinched away as he took a moment to catch his breath.

"(Heavy breathing)"

"Kusanagi! Your back!" I yelled in about as much joy as I could conjure up, him living was a crucial part of my life. He didn't hesitate in looking up and letting out a few chuckles, he seemed to also express a joy of some type.

"Of course I'm back, I wouldn't leave without getting to kill something first,"

"You're still the same too,"

"What was that?" Celestia asked walking up to K with a look that only showed her distrust in him. K looked up to her with a smile as he tightened his fists causing her to tighten her frown.

"Hey look, it's the other princess, damn…didn't know you were so…"

"Shut it K, you should be thankful she brought you back from being a corpse," I said interrupting him from finishing his "compliment". He looked up to me and nodded his head in agreement as he began studying the room of all the ponies. His eyes darted back and forth between ponies until he stopped on one and aimed his finger at her. It was Vinyl.

"You… come here!" he demanded. I carefully observed what he would do considering he was trying to slice her earlier. Everyone had the same silence I had as we all stared at Vinyl getting about as close as possible, her eyes refusing to look at him. I couldn't tell if she was scared or sad I got hurt because of her; I hope that isn't it. K raised an eyebrow, noticing that she didn't look up even at such a close distance, he reached his hand down and lifted her head. K immediately whacked the back of his head with his free hand.

"Damn it…I can't believe I tried to…damn it," He said letting her head go, she held her head up high this time as she stared at him, confused and curious. I walked up to his side and looked at all the ponies in the room and noticed that they were just as equally confused and curious except the ones who already were introduced to K, they just looked with a more or less happy expression.

"I don't usually say this but I'm sorry I tried to end you, I sort of broke my vowel to not injure ponies," He said shaking his head and looking down at his hands, "Well, time to start all over I guess."

He looked up to see all the ponies staring him down and stood up causing Vinyl to quickly move backward, away from his feet. I felt her back into my legs making me kneel down and comfort her. She smiled almost instantly when I rustled her mane playfully, she still looked as beautiful as when I first met her.

"Hey ya, don't worry about K, he maybe a little crazy but he's friendly," I reassured her, she didn't doubt a single word and neared closer to me, making me a little anxious and the lustful eyes she was aiming at me didn't help.

"What are you trying to do?" I playfully asked, she hadn't given me this look before, it intrigued me. She smiled a little wider and used her magic to redirect my head to look towards K, who had an insecure smile going on as he looked around at all the ponies. I sighed and looked back at her nodding my head once.

"Yeah, you're right, be right back," I said as I stood up and walked up to K. I placed my hand on his shoulder making him slip out a few chuckles as he lifted his head up high with confidence. I gave him a small pat on his shoulders and let him tell on. I took a small moment to look at all the ponies in the room, they all switched their sight between me and K multiple times. K quickly let himself fall back onto the couch and play with his dark magic.

"Hey there, I'm Kusanagi, Ben's demon…"

He went on to explain himself in the most detail possible, better than I would have described him. As he went on about his role as my demon, he got some looks of amazement from all the ponies even Celestia seemed interested about him. I couldn't quite understand half of what he was saying since my attention was pulled in by Vinyl when I remembered one question: WHAT HAVE LYRA AND BONBON TOLD YOU!?

"So yeah, I'll try to not hurt ponies again, just stay on my good side and we should be fine, and just an FYI I nearly defeated the most daring bunny ever…Fear me!" He ended, amusing most of the ponies with that last joke.

I stared at the huge number of ponies that were giving me and K looks of amazement. K, who had a smile going on, stood up and placed his hand on my shoulder. He chuckled a little before placing his other hand on his forehead and giving a farewell salute.

"See ya!" He said as he lowered his hand but before he disappeared into me, he whispered a few words.

"Take care of "Pretty Eyes" over there."

"Don't worry, I will,"

Gone*

I looked up the ponies who all still had their amazed looks on their faces. I smiled and scratched the back of my head in all the craziness that had just happened. I had no idea how crazy my life was going to keep on getting but I guess I'll find out now.

I quickly felt a strong breeze hit me as Dash braked sharply in front of me and with probably the happiest expression in the room. I looked at her as she put out a hoof towards me with her eyes closed but her smile representing everything that she wanted to say. I had no idea why she would reach her hoof out but almost by instinct I raised my fist to hit it against her hoof. She opened her eyes and giggled as she retracted her hoof, leaving me with a heartwarming feeling.

"Hey! Haven't seen you all morning, I stopped by Flutter Shy's and Applejack's but you weren't there," She excitedly greeted. I gave her my own look of amazement: Did she not just see K introduce himself?

"Yeah, I was a little busy with morning, sorry about that." Her awkward happiness wouldn't leave, it seemed to be stuck on her. I didn't take long in noticing she had something else she wanted to say, her look gave it away.

"Is there something else you wanted to say?" She instantly reacted with another burst of excitement, quickly nodding her head up and down. Her over-excitement was not that surprising considering its Dash but it still raised a small alert in my mind.

"Okay then, what is it?" I asked, as expected she become over-joyed and opened her mouth to speak. All that came out was an "I…" as Celestia moved in to gain my attention. It worked.

"I'm sorry but I need to speak to Ben…Privately," She said enveloping me in another glow. I looked up to Dash, here mouth remained in the same awkward position from being interrupted. I raised my hand and gave a small goodbye to her as everything started becoming extremely bright, I squinted my eyes tightly hoping to see something beyond all the light.

"Celestia!? Where am I? Where are you?" I asked looking in every direction but all I saw was saw more light, I appeared to be in some dimension of light. I began walking at a small pace taking every step cautiously, not being able to see and walking on light is as unsafe as it sounds. I continued a little more before coming to the realization I wasn't getting anywhere like this.

"Celestia!? Where are you?"

I received no answer. I began to become a little frustrated and impatient, I didn't like what was happening anymore, I thought we were going talk but instead, I'm walking a light filled dimension aimlessly.

"Hey Ben, use some of this," A distorted voice spoke.

I quickly turned around to see who was talking but nothing presented itself, I searched a little more but nothing was seen through the blinding light.

"You fool, use my magic to darken this place a little," The same voice restated. My sight was immediately grabbed by my hand that was surrounded by the same dark aura as K's. I stared at it carefully moving my fingers cautiously, seeing the dark aura being to pulse. I looked straight ahead and raised my hand up with the palm facing north. In nearly a split-second my whole body became surrounded by the dark aura and all the light vanished, plunging this dimension into a state of darkness. The one thing that came clear after that was my eyesight was impressive in the dark, I could see nearly everything I wasn't seeing earlier: The sun, the bed, a huge number of embers, and among all this stood Celestia who looked about as angered as I've ever seen her. Everything was dark except her and the few things I saw. I turned my body to face Celestia's and began making my way to her. At about midway there I was instantly halted by her fire like main and tail that caught me off guard. She seemed to have become hostile and wasn't allowing me to come closer.

"Retract the darkness you have placed!" She demanded from her place, I hated the idea of bringing the blinding light back but I didn't want to anger her even more. I slowly lifted my hand to the sky and focused on my palm. In seconds, the darkness began violently flowing back into me through my hand and surrounding me once more. Once I was completely enveloped in it, I looked up to see the bright light reappear but this time the light had no effect over me, the dark aura seemed to not allow the light to enter through it. I started moving from where I was to her, this time she wasn't as hostile but kept her defensive stance. I walked up to about 3 feet away from her and looked at her, the dark energy still pulsing strongly.

"Hey, Celestia…" I greeted casually trying to lower her guard. She kept her cautious look on and didn't look like she wanted to be smart talked right now. I decided to lose the idea of trying to get her calmed down and headed straight to the point.

"What's wrong Celestia?" I asked expressing concern in my voice, this time it had an effect on her, her body returned back down its original form. I stared at her amazed by her transformation. What is this?

"You're wrong!" She yelled with regret being shown by her new formed tears that refused to stream down her face. I felt like I was caught between a hard decision here, my feelings were starting to become jumbled again. I could feel the dark side become embraced by my feelings as it began to increase in power.

"I don't know what you mean!" I strongly stated causing her shake her head in disapproval and come back at me with a more harsher reality.

"A demon isn't something you can house! You have to understand that a demon slowly eats away at everything you love and sooner or later it will plunge us all into darkness!" She yelled as her tears finally began to stream down her face, I could reason her with her feelings but I couldn't reason with mine. I knew she was leading up to the ultimate decision but will never be prepared such a choice.

How would you know?"

My voice altered back to that of the darker one, I lost control of my body, but I could still observe my actions and think properly as non-active soul. K had taken my body over once more and this time he was more serious than he had been with her earlier. His look gave a whole new meaning to anger.

"You…YOU…YOU THINK I'M A DEMON ON PURPOSE!?"

Celestia flinched away quickly upon hearing K's voice emerge from my mouth. Her terrified look gave away how surprised she was, I would be as equally terrified in her position. K's breathing was quick and heavy as he began to verbally defend himself.

"I WAS CREATED FROM THE HATE WITHIN BEN, YOU HAVE NO REASON TO INSULT ME AS A DEMON IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MY PAST WAS LIKE!" He yelled with his dark aura radiating insanely quick from him. Celestia looked down with wide eyes, she seemed to have made a realization as she quickly looked up and opened her mouth to say something but K wasn't listening to her anymore.

"I hope you realize your mistake…"

I quickly felt my body obey me as I placed my hands out to stop myself from hitting the invisible ground. I stayed down for a few seconds pondering what I had heard: The hate within me? Celestia seemed to also ponder her own questions as I stood back up and gave a wobbled a little, switching between mind and body seemed to leave me in some sort of a dizzy spell. Once I managed to stand straight I couldn't see the dark aura around me anymore and my eyes began to squint as I tried to make my way towards Celestia's last known location.

Upon nearing, I could see that she was crying, the light reflecting off her tears gave it away. I was still walking towards her, I couldn't tell what I was gonna do once I got to her but the answer hit me directly when I felt my body hit against something. I felt myself fall back along with the one opposite of me.

"Celestia!?"

"Ben?"

I did my best to look ahead of me but nothing appeared I didn't know what I was looking at as I neared my face in that direction. I began to crawl on my fours to see if I could find Celestia somewhere and not trample over her. I continued my search, it didn't take long before something bumped my nose I stood still but the one on the other side retracted itself away.

"What are you playing at crawling like that?"

"Well I can't see through this light, and I don't want to trample you…so yeah," I said as I placed myself in a sitting position. Despite not being able to see, I could tell Celestia was incredibly near me, it was this feeling again. I instantly realized she had moved from in front of me and was right by my side, sitting down next to me, it clicked in my mind she was somehow resting.

"Celestia, I may be unable to see but I can tell you're right next to me,"

She didn't move, I took another second to realize she was near to resting her head on my shoulder.

"It's not a bad thing though…" I said reaching my hand out, wrapping it around her and pulled her in for a hug. I didn't know much about love but I knew that a hug always makes things better for both the giver and receiver. I knew I had done something right when I felt her head finally touch my chest and rest there.

"Hey won't the others worry if we're gone too long,"

"Time has stopped in the other world, we can stay here a few more minutes,"

I smiled gently and closed my eyes to avoid going blind…

I guess I'll enjoy the moment,"