Eren and his friends were encased in light once more, which faded away to reveal them standing in the court inside Hunter’s lair. The faces of the ponies, humans, as well as both dragons were visibly haunted by the violent spectacle they had witnessed. Grisha, on the other hand, looked more somber about the ordeal.

“What was the purpose of this?” Twilight sobbed. “Why did you show us that?”

“Please,” Hunter softly begged, “forgive me. I understand how traumatizing that war looked, but understand that Luna and I had to experience that firsthand. We could clearly hear the battle shouts from the palace, we could smell the blood wafting through the trees, we could feel the wrenching in our guts as we were left to wonder if Luna or I would be killed. Nothing you saw could compare to what we had to live through.”

“What about Aurora and Solar?” asked Spike. “I’ve never even heard of them, and they were Celestia and Luna’s own mom and dad for crying out loud!”

“Certainly you and the rest of the ponies of your time have not heard of this story. Celestia and Luna did not dwell on the sacrifice of their mother and father during their rule, and over time, the memory of the war, as well as Solar and Aurora themselves, faded into obscurity.”

“But what does this have to do with the titans?” asked Eren. “How can something from another world affect us here?”

“To answer your question, Eren, everything. For hundreds of years, Celestia and Luna both ruled over Equestria in an untainted period of peace. The ponies loved Luna as they did Solar and Aurora, and as we grew older, we relocated to caverns underneath the palace. For a long time, it seemed that peace would continue on… until the grudge that nearly killed Luna resurfaced.”

“Huh?”

Hunter walked towards the third crystal in the rotation, breathing fire upon it and casting the humans and ponies once again in light.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The humans and ponies regained their sight to see themselves in a dark, dank dungeon. The torches and the moonlight from outside was all the light that could be provided. The cells on both sides of them were all empty, but at the end of the hall, there was one cell that was occupied by a single pony. Eren cautiously approached, getting a better look at the pony’s features.

It was a stallion with a deep, blue coat and a black mane and tail, a gleaming pair of sais for a cutie mark. His body was beaten and scuffed as he sat patiently inside his cell, breathing through his lips to entertain himself. The others ponies couldn’t understand the meaning of this flashback.

“Who is this?” Armin wondered to himself.

“He was an assassin,” Hunter explained, his echoed voice the only shred of his presence in the hall. “It seemed that while some ponies were happy with their newest rulers, many still held a grudge, him included.

“This is Gleaming Blade, a killer for hire. He was sent by a then-unknown party to assassinate Luna in cold blood inside the palace. His efforts were valiant, but nevertheless, in vain. After failing to complete his mission, he gladly accepted imprisonment, knowing that being put inside of a cell and being fed each day was better than being preyed on by the public upon release.

“Despite several interrogations, the stallion would not betray the ponies who sent him by revealing their identities or location. It seemed that he was set for life. Until…”

Just then, the back of Gleaming Blade’s cell exploded outward, frightening him and making him run to his barred door for safety. Before he could make it, a large draconic hand reached in a grabbed Gleaming Blade, pulling him out quickly as the dragon who carried him flew off, flying away from the castle and towards a forest further down. The

“Hunter?” Twilight questioned.

“Oy!” Eren shouted, running to the cell. “Where’s he taking him?”

“Eren!” called Mikasa.

Before Eren could make it to the bars, the room began to fade away as if it were dissolving into dust. As Eren ran to the cell door, it faded away with the rest of the hallway, making him trip and fall to his stomach. The dust swirled about the area around the humans and ponies, revealing a black void in its wake. The dust began to settle once more, forming another location. There were trees all around them in what was a decently large clearing.

“Now where are we?” asked Annie.

The sound of flapping wings was heard above them, leaving both Armin and Twilight to look up.

“Everyone!” Armin called. “Look out!”

The humans and ponies looked up to see Hunter descending down with Gleaming Blade in his grasp. They all moved to the edge of the forest while Hunter landed in the center of the clearing, pinning the terrified Gleaming Blade with his hand.

“Where are they?” Hunter asked him, seemingly unaware of the humans and ponies surrounding them.

“W– Where are who?” trembled Gleaming Edge.

Hunter pressed on Gleaming Edge’s body, causing him to groan and yell in pain.

“Who sent you to kill Luna?” demanded Hunter.

“You won’t do anything,” Gleaming Edge taunted. “You should know how much trouble you’ll get in with Celestia if you kill one of her prisoners.”

“You should have thought of that before trying to kill my master.”

Gleaming Edge’s eyes shrunk, his only attempt at a bluff called. Hunter’s hand pressed further down as Gleaming Edge’s eyes went red with the lack of oxygen and his teeth gnashed down to tolerate the pressure in his ribs.

“Alright!” Gleaming Edge relented. “I’ll tell you! There’s a small village southeast of here! They all live there in this secret society thing. I just met their leader and a few of their hoofsoldiers and I was paid, that’s all I know!”

Hunter’s eyes relaxed as Gleaming Edge cooperated.

“What is the address?”

“There’s a tavern in the town with a red-mug sign hanging above the door. They meet there every night, and if you hurry, you might be able to nab them all in one go!”

Hunter stared deep into Gleaming Edge’s eyes, taking his words in carefully. At that moment, Hunter gently began to let his hand off of Gleaming Edge. Before the stallion could squeeze out, Hunter grabbed him, preventing his movement and making him uptight once again.

“What…” stammered Gleaming Edge. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to let me go now?”

“Why?” Hunter said, his angry scowl returning. “Whoever said that I would spare you?”

“What? No! No, you can’t do that!”

“As I had said, ‘You should have thought of that before trying to kill my master.’”

Hunter’s hand squeezed as tight as he could, crushing Gleaming Edge’s body as blood seeped through his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. The humans and ponies clenched their teeth, repulsed by the sight of Hunter relinquishing the stallion’s mangled body. Hunter observed his hand, looking at the blood and bits of flesh and organ that dripped off to the ground.

The forest began to dissolve again, the particles quickly reforming to the square of a small town. The humans and ponies stood in front of a building with a sign featuring a red mug filled with cider with the head frothing at the rim. From behind, Hunter walked up to the tavern, a murderous intent in his glare. Ponies around the town, each dressed in peasant clothing, ran for their lives as the dragon got closer.

The humans and ponies parted to make way for Hunter as he stood before the tavern. With one quick swipe, Hunter forced the straw roof of the building away with the back of his hand. The ponies sitting or standing inside looked up fearfully at the dragon looking down on them.

“Leave,” Hunter simply ordered.

The ponies darted for the door, galloping as fast as they could away from the building while Hunter awaited for them to be a safe distance. The sound of a trapdoor opened from the back right corner of the room, which Hunter quickly turned to see. A stallion pony looked up at Hunter, frightened by his appearance over him.

“Quick!” he shouted down the hole. “Everyone get out!”

Hunter had already breathed in, and as he lowered his head inside the tavern through the roof, a plume of fire shot out of his throat and into the trap door, engulfing the inside of the tavern with flames as well.

The ponies were in shock as they heard the gurgling or high pitched screams of the ponies under the tavern floorboards. The humans watched around them as ponies hid out of Hunter’s possible sight, shivering in fear as Hunter continued to breath fire and decimate the tavern, the fires spreading onto the buildings next to it.

With another burst of fire from Hunter’s mouth, the fires spread over the entire town in an ethereal, unnatural way, cloaking over the humans and ponies watching. All of them winced and grunted as they shielded themselves from the brightness of the fire. When the fires sounded like they had extinguished, they all uncovered their eyes to find themselves in a brightly lit cavern by a circular, stone stage similar to the court where the humans and ponies stood.

In the center was Hunter, his arm and legs chained to the stone by iron shackles. Hunter pulled fiercely at the chains, his eyes welling with tears and low-pitched whines, fighting to keep from crying.

“Hunter was caught?” Armin wondered. “By whom?”

Luna looked up at the imprisoned Hunter, remembering it well. Just as Armin’s echo faded away, the sound of clopping hooves entered inside. Stepping into the moonlight that poured through the domed top of the cavern was Luna, looking just as young as the one who was standing beside Twilight, looking extremely flustered and furious.

“Luna,” Hunter gasped, “what am I doing in chains? What is happening?”

Luna’s horn charged bright, and a crescent-shaped aura whipped itself across Hunter’s face, jerking him to the right. Hunter weakly got up, scared, hurt, and confused by Luna’s anger.

“Do not talk to me unless spoken to,” Luna ordered with minimum volume. “You seriously don’t know why you’re down here like this?”

“Luna…” wheezed Hunter. “I beg of you, tell me!”

“Let me read what you are charged of.”

Luna’s horn charged once again, making a scroll poof into existence and float in front of her face. With a clearing of her throat, Luna began.

“The murder of over nineteen ponies by dragon’s fire, the true amount of which is still pending upon whether the others the royal guard managed to save will succumb to their burns or not. This is not all, there is also the murder of the convicted assassin Gleaming Blade that we found in the forest, as well as property damage. Not only was the tavern you incinerated destroyed, the fires spread to three buildings to the left and right of them, destroying one and causing extensive damage of the other two.”

Luna’s scroll disappeared in a puff of dark-blue smoke as she looked back at Hunter, who looked betrayed by the charges against him.

“What is that look on your face?” Luna asked sternly. “Do you deny these claims?”

“No,” Hunter responded, “I don’t, but…”

“Then why do you look as if these charges are false.”

“Luna, don’t you see? Those stallions were the ones that attempted to have you killed. If they continued living, they would have continued trying to assassinate you until you were truly dead.”

“And as we proved with Gleaming Blade, we won’t allow them the chance.”

“They will always have a chance as long as they live! You must kill the ones that survived immediately, or your safety will be in jeopardy.”

“You’re wrong! Because of your actions, I already am in jeopardy. If the ponies find out that a dragon under the command and responsibility of myself, which they will find out eventually, killed almost two dozen ponies in cold blood and nearly burned down an unsuspecting town to do so, the peace my sister and I have been trying to keep for three centuries will come crumbling down upon us.”

Hunter shook his head, not wanting to believe the words.

“No…” he begged, “it’s not true. We… we can tell the people who died… and what they tried to do… to you… I’m sure they’ll understand if they lis–”

“ENOUGH!” Luna boomed, silencing Hunter instantly. “If I hope for mine and Celestia’s rule to continue in the peace that we’ve been keeping, I’m afraid I have no choice…”

Hunter quivered in his spot as Luna sighed, ready to deliver her verdict.

“…I must banish you.”

Hunter was devastated, creating a silence that left not a noise inside the cavern, not even the slightest echo.

“What?” Hunter queried. “You… you can’t banish me…”

“I most certainly can,” responded Luna. “However, I cannot trust that you will not leave me or my sister be here in Equestria, so you shall be banished… someplace else. Sister.”

At that moment, Celestia walked into the room carrying two large, but polished wooden barrels. She was followed by about half-a-dozen guards that were dark gray in color and wore purple armor in place of gold. They were all unicorns, and they each carried a barrel as they and their princess circled the outside of the stage where Hunter sat.

“Sister,” Luna ordered, “pour.”

With popping of a cork from each of the barrels, Celestia and the guards dumped the contents of the barrels into the stage, filling it up and making a large pool.

“What…” Hunter stammered. “What is this?”

“It is plasma,” explained Luna. “We extracted these from the clouds and are using them for your quick transport away from here.”

“No…” he growled, his fists clenching, “I won’t let you! No matter where you send me, I will find you!”

“I’m afraid that will be impossible. The place I’m sending you is not of this world. As a matter of fact, I know not where you shall be sent. But I no longer care. If Celestia and I hope to survive the ordeal that your actions caused, you must be removed from our lives. Goodbye, Hunter.”

As the humans and ponies continued to watch, Hunter’s rage began to increase, slamming his fists into the plasma and splashing it on him and out the side of the stage. With sad, tearing eyes, Luna blasted a spell into the plasma. Then, Hunter’s body fell limp onto his stomach.

Luna backed away, leaving Hunter to lie motionlessly as she left him, his eyes running tears down his cheeks. The real Luna watched Hunter’s desperate and apologetic face as he began to cry, making her eyes moist once again.

“Luna,” wept Hunter. “I’m sorry. Please, stop this…”

Luna walked to her sister and touched her horn to her sisters, causing them to glow bright white.

“No!” moaned Hunter, still weak in his paralysis. “Luna, I love you!”

Luna choked a sob as her and her sisters horn reached peak brightness and shot a bright beam at the plasma. The entire room was covered in a bright light as the humans and ponies shielded their eyes.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The loud blast of Celestia and Luna’s spell faded quickly, allowing the ponies and humans to look back around. They were back inside the chamber in Eren’s basement, still inside the court. The real Hunter stood still, glaring at Luna, who was weeping as she looked back in Hunter’s eyes.

“I see,” Armin surmised. “When she sent you away, she must have sent you here… to Earth.”

“It’s the same way we were sent here,” Twilight responded.

“Yes,” Hunter said, his sights still on Luna. “As a matter of fact, I spent a lot of time in this world wondering why you didn’t just kill me then and there instead of leaving my fate up to chance.”

“Because,” Luna answered, trying to keep her serious demeanor and sport a brave face, “I didn’t want to kill you. I knew that you could have easily been sent to a world where you would have died, but I still hung on to that chance that you’d still be alive… out there… somewhere.”

“And so would your absence of guilt,” Hunter snarled. “I bet you feel much better now that you see me alive and in the flesh, don’t you?”

Luna sniffled as she looked at Hunter angrily.

“But how?” Eren asked. “How can you possibly be the cause of the titans?”

“So now,” began Hunter, “we reach the last half of our story; my time on Earth and the creation of the titan menace, and how it all began… with an unlikely friendship.”

Hunter walked towards the fourth crystal in the rotation, breathing in and releasing a stream of fire at it, covering the room in light again.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The humans looked to find themselves inside of a massive room inside of a cave, the faint glow of countless crystals that lined the walls faintly giving off just enough illumination to see. Hunter lied down on a bed of crystal, sleeping with a despondent frown on his face. The real Hunter appeared beside the humans and ponies to look at himself.

“When I woke up in the cave,” Hunter said, “I did not know how much time had passed or where I was. And although I was alive, I could not celebrate. My home, my family, my life… all gone away now. All I had was myself and the crystals that I had woken up to, which I assume were formed when I landed inside this cave. I did not dare venture out into the open world. I did not know which dangers lied beyond the caverns, and I did not want to find this out through my own demise.

“Yes, I was alone. Yes, I was miserable. And yes, I wanted to die every day I was awake and still alive. The only reason I continued to live was that I had hoped. The thing that you humans hold so dear when you’re out fighting titans; I had it too, and with it, I knew that something would come to me. That was when I met someone special to me…”

Sounds of tumbling rocks came from behind the group, and as the humans and ponies turned to see the source of the noise, Hunter watched as his past self was woken from his slumber, also looking up at the source of the sound. A faint light could be seen approaching from the pathway of the cave, leaving the humans and ponies to wonder who it was.

Emerging from the pathway was a human male in his mid-thirties holding a lit torch. His clothes consisted of a thick fur coat and thick pants along with a pair of boots. While his hood covered a good portion of his face and ponytailed black hair, Eren and Twilight gasped at the sight of it.

“What is it, Eren?” Mikasa asked.

“That man…” Eren spoke. “Why does he look so much like… my dad?”

“Because he is your father, Eren,” Hunter answered.

The other ponies and humans visibly shocked by this, turned to look at Grisha next to them and then the face of the person entering into Hunter’s lair. Grisha upon seeing Hunter before him, fell to his back and shouted in fright, his hood falling behind him and revealing his face fully. Despite the wizened features and facial hair on Grisha, the resemblance of Grisha and the man in the cave was uncanny.

“How long ago was this?” Annie asked.

“About one-hundred-and-fifty years ago,” responded Hunter.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Wouldn’t that make Grisha, like, a hundred-and-seventy-years old?”

“About that, yes.”

“How’s that possible?” Applejack questioned. “I know dragons are known to live long lives, but humans? I know Grisha looks old, no offense…”

“None taken,” Grisha flatly replied.

“…but he can’t be that old, right?”

“Normally, no. The average lifespan of a human is around seventy-five years of age. However it was our friendship that provided him with his longevity.”

The Hunter in the vision looked at Grisha cautiously, but inquisitively. As the dragon continued cocking his head, the cave began to fade, and Grisha and Hunter dissolved to dust as their dust swirled closer towards each other as the cave began to reform. Hunter and Grisha were now sitting across each other with a large fire between them, Hunter periodically huffing a small flame from his nostrils to keep the fire alight.

“While Grisha and I were wary about one another upon our first meeting,” explained Hunter, “having never seen the likes of each other before, over time, we had become friends and talked to each other about our pasts. I told him my story, the same one I told you, and he told me his.”

“Tell me!” Eren demanded. “I want to know about my father!”

Hunter looked at Eren intently, whose own face pleaded for answers.

“Hm…” pondered Hunter. “Very well. I suppose it could bring clarity to the story. Your father was born Grisha Blomkvist, a doctor by trade even in his past life. About fifteen years before we met, Grisha was enlisted as a surgeon during a great war fueled by trivial grievances that ravaged the earth. After experiencing such a long period of death and gore, he had retired his profession and went on to become an explorer as a means of escaping civilization.

“After years of traveling, he stumbled upon my cave. After he had told his story, and I told mine, it seemed that we had one thing in common: we knew.”

“Knew what?” Twilight asked.

Hunter looked at Luna once again.

“That the world is a cruel place,” he answered.

Mikasa and Eren gasped, knowing the phrase full-well.

“We both decided that war and senseless killings were crippling both our worlds. I knew that I could no longer help my world, but I could still save his, which I suppose would be my own too.”

“For your information, Hunter,” barked Luna, “our world has prospered in your absence, and we didn’t have to shed a single drop of blood to do so.”

“If only these humans could also be so civil, and their world had enough magic to calm them like Solar and Aurora did long ago. But of course, things can never be so simple. Despite my appearance, Grisha also assured me that the humans would hunt and kill me before they would accept me. If we wanted to change the world, we would have to create something big.”

The others remained silent, knowing that this was where their true questions lie. The cave changed once again, with Hunter and Grisha fading to different positions. While Hunter lied down in the back of the cavern and covered body over his right arm, Grisha sat at a small, wooden table with nothing more than a microscope, a few slides, a pair of tweezers, and a beaker of boiling blood underneath a flame.

Eren and Armin both noticed a giant, draconic thumb sitting next to Grisha at the table. Eren looked cautiously as a small pool of blood formed under where Hunter laid over his arm.

“What is happening?” Eren wondered.

“I had explained to Grisha that dragons,” continued Hunter, “like all living creatures, had magic within them. While humans, to whom magic apparently seemed foreign, must have little magic within them, I explained that dragons had a certain ability that would make our goal more obtainable: their ability of rapid growth and regeneration.”

Spike and Twilight gasped, knowing what Hunter was going on about.

“It’s been said that when dragons experience periods of extreme coveting or desire, they grow in size and age rapidly. Using his extensive doctorial abilities, Grisha said he could grant humans this power themselves to use in their aid to create the perfect world for humans to live.”

“Wait…” Twilight gasped, suddenly realizing it. “Kill all the titans… move the boulder… grab the spoon… kill Annie…

“Spike want…” Spike added. “Want to save friends…”

Hunter smirked as he looked to Twilight and Spike.

“It seems you have experienced such an event in the past,” Hunter said. “Quite interesting how much us dragons and the titans have in common when you think about it.”

“No…” Eren stammered. “No way…”

“So titans are related to dragons?” wondered Armin. “How can this be?”

In the illusion, Grisha grabbed the tweezers off the table and reached them into the beaker. With a squeeze, Grisha pulled out a lengthy white string and a piece of crystal the size of a large pebble out of the beaker, laying the blood soaked pieces on the table.

“Using genetics from my own body,” Hunter said, “as well as using the crystals that were with me inside the cave, we created a formula that would give a human the transformation capabilities that a dragon hand while giving the human the magic necessary to transform and return to normal when they pleased.”

Grisha grabbed a needle from a bag sitting next to him by his stool. Placing the needle inside the blood mixture, he pulled back the plunger, bringing some inside the barrel.

“We knew what we were risking mixing human and dragon genetics,” Hunter explained, “and we did not know what would become of Grisha when he tested this, but he was confident enough to test it on himself. Despite this, the formula could not have been more of a success.”

Grisha took the needle and placed the tip just behind his neck. With a loud huff, he pierced the needle into his skin and pressed down on the plunger. As soon as the plunger could no longer go in, Grisha fell limp onto the floor, gasping like a fish out of water. As he began to stop breathing, his body began to glow brightly until it exploded into light, leaving the humans and ponies to cover their eyes.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The light faded away and the humans and the ponies found themselves inside the chamber once again. Hunter continued looking straight into the eyes of the humans and ponies before him.

“While Grisha seemed to take the form of a creature more… primal than he,” continued Hunter, “the creature he took the form of became in essence the perfect hunter. Intelligent, thick, durable fur and flesh, quick-healing abilities, as well as prolonging his aging, he gained the power of a dragon.”

The others were still in shock over the revelation of such a phenomenal discovery.

“But what about the others?” asked Twilight. “You have this cult working for you, but what about the thousands of titans roaming about? Where did they come from? And what about the titans that make up the walls? How did you gain so many followers?”

“Such astute and valid questions,” Hunter complimented. “Each one having just as valid an answer.”

Hunter walked around to the fifth and penultimate of the crystals by the fifth pillar. With a hard blow, flame poured out of Hunter’s mouth and onto the crystal, shrouding everyone in light.
________________________________________________________________________________________

When the light faded, the humans and ponies looked to find themselves back inside the cave between Hunter and Grisha and a large mass of about hundreds people. Twilight and Armin observed the people standing before Hunter in absolute awe. Twilight observed numerous injuries on several of the people, including amputated limbs, eye-patches, and deep cuts on the body. There were also a handful of people dressed in clerical robes.

“These people…” Twilight observed. “They’re veterans from that great war. And the religious.”

“You gathered people that were already in great despair and doubt and made them your followers,” spoke Armin.

“Quite the sharp ones you are,” Hunter complimented. “Our first gathering was meek, but it was a start. Over the next ten years, Grisha and the ones we had already gathered traveled to all corners of the world to tell them our plans and the world we wished to create.”

As Hunter continued his explanation, dust flew about the cave towards the back of the first group of people. As the dust flew up and about, it formed into more people as the group continued to grow behind them from the dust. Twilight noted that some of the people within this group were also women.

“As with the first gathering, most of the people we brought back were veterans from the war, religious fanatics who assumed the end was nigh, as well as widows who lost their loved ones in the war. Having had a much wider expanse to travel to, our numbers grew from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands. It was then that we created the Revelations to create utopia for the future.”

The entirety of the cave faded away, as well as Hunter, Grisha, and their new followers. The scene changed to a village in a stage of destruction. Buildings were burning, the streets were littered in broken wood, scattered pottery, glass, and cloths, as well as people running for their lives, screaming in terror. Standing over the town were two titans, each with a human in their hands as they pulled them into their mouths and devoured them.

The humans, while mesmerized by the sight, the ponies were terrified by it, huddling towards each other and watching the chaos unfold.

“Using similar techniques, we transformed about half of our gathered humans into the titans,” resumed Hunter. “You might wonder how these titans differ from Eren, Grisha, Ymir, or Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie here in that they can freely transform. Their titan formulas were created using higher quantities of the crystal that allowed them to keep their human forms and their intelligence.

“The others’ formulas were given just enough crystal to be able to transform, but the limited magic made it so that the humans affected could not return to human form, as their bodies permanently fused inside the necks of the titans.

“While their forms reduced their intelligence significantly, it also made the titans look like their own separate species as opposed to a hideous creation of man and dragon, keeping my existence further in the shadows. Nothing the humans had at their disposal could stop them. It was beautiful in a way.”

The others continued to watch the scene until it too faded in a menagerie of color and light, only to reform into a large, vacant field. Before the humans and ponies, a long line of humans stood beside each other, scanning out as far as the eye could see. Each one of them, being both male and female, stood beside each other, their arms outstretched to the people next to them while their legs were set wide apart. The humans and ponies were both surprised and slightly repulsed to see that each one of the humans in the line were stark naked, their anatomies clearly seen by them.

“T.M.I.!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “T.M.I.!”

“Could this be…” Twilight pondered.

“After several years of the titans attacking the world,” Hunter explained, “Grisha wanted to conduct an experiment. He said that the titan uprising was certainly a horrific blow to humanity, but he was convinced that humans would learn something from this, so he wanted them to be sealed away from the titan threat and see if they could better themselves as a people as a result.

“So another large number of followers were sent to close off much of the land within the center of the continent, and then closed off three more areas within.”

“I knew it…” Twilight muttered.

The sounds of tiny metal clicks could then be heard around the humans and ponies, and they all turned to see that they each were wearing a ring on their right index fingers, a hook pulled out from the side of it much like Annie’s ring.

With each of the humans slashing their thumbs on the hook, the line of humans all began to glow a bright yellow. With a massive burst of vapor, the humans grew fifty meters in height, creating a literal wall of Colossal Titans. Before the humans and ponies could easily see the titans before them, the titans began to glow and soon exploded in a bright burst.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The humans were brought back to the chamber, each one of them stunned once again by the new information given to them.

“So that’s how the walls were created,” Armin reasoned. “Unbelievable…”

“Yes,” agreed Hunter, “it took many resources to create this wall and it took many of our men and women to do it.”

“How did you even make enough of that formula for all of your people?” asked Twilight. “Not every blood type is compatible with others, so to do transform each person individually using their blood and Hunter’s nerves, that would have taken many years.”

“Yes, it might have. But Grisha’s blood just so happened to be compatible with all blood.”

“Huh? So Grisha has Type O blood?”

“Yes,” Grisha answered. “During the war, I would sometimes resort to transfusing my own blood into the soldiers to prevent them from dying as I operated on them.”

“Each day,” Hunter resumed, “Grisha would donate about a pint of his own blood to use in creating the formula. I had no qualms in using my body for his work; an extremely small price to pay for the sake of the world. With the additional crystal, the humans in their titan forms could render enough magic to harden their skin to the thickness of a dragon’s scales, and could also fuse together with others to create the wall that has protected humanity for all these years.

“After the wall was created, we gathered survivors from all over the world to live in the sanctuary of the walls that we claimed to be built by human hands as to keep our secrets even more shrouded in shadows. Many of the travelers were picked off by the titans, but enough came as to make home of the districts that were placed north, south, east, and west of each wall. Although their support wasn’t as strong as it was now, the remaining men and women that hadn’t become titans became the members of the Wallist religion.

“Later on, to study the society that he created, Grisha lived another life as a doctor under the name Grisha Jaeger, translating my own name into a now dead language and adapting it as his surname.”

Eren and Rainbow Dash gasped in shock.

“So…” Eren sighed nervously, “my name was adapted from this bastard?”

“Of course,” Grisha spoke. “Humanity did not seem to fully better themselves, even within the safe haven that we created.”

“Yes,” agreed Hunter, “there was the Military, namely the Scouting Legion, who bravely ventured forwards to hunt off the titans, using highly-technological weaponry that proved to effectively combat the titan threat, there were still the Garrison, and of course, the Military Police.

“While the Garrison slowly slipped into sloth and vice due to not having to fight the titans themselves, the Military Police dove head first into it, their location within the inner districts allowing them to live safe and comfortable lives. The people were no better. Those within the aristocratic inner districts proved to be entitled, frigid people ruled by their own fear and paranoia, as you could clearly see in your trial, Eren.”

Eren grunted, remembering the event well.

“Of course,” continued Hunter, “there was crime within each wall by the citizens as well, not just in Sina. Theft, murder, unfair distribution of wealth, human trafficking,” he said, looking right at Mikasa, causing her to gasp, “it was clear by this that humanity had not changed their ways. In fact, it was the murder of Mikasa’s family and her subsequent kidnapping that led Grisha to allow me to make the decision to gather Reiner, Bertolt, and Berik and lead them to attack and destroy Wall Maria, now using the human’s final stronghold as a cage. Finally…”

Hunter walked to the sixth and final crystal at the sixth pillar of the court. Hunter breathed fire upon it. The ponies and humans covered their eyes even before the light could cover them.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The humans and ponies looked to find them high in the air once again, looking down over Shiganshina. However, there wasn’t a single living human left within it, only dozens of titans that roamed the streets looking for any survivors that they had missed. As they looked upon the fires upon many of the roofs and the ruined buildings, the group began to get lowered towards the ground, finding themselves sinking into it as if the ground was merely an illusion.

Lowering further down, they found themselves lowering into the torch-lit interior of the cavern, specifically into the court where they were originally standing upon. However, the court wasn’t littered with crystals as it currently was and there were six holes dug into the floor in front of the pillars supporting the court. Upon lowering themselves to the floor, they saw as Hunter appeared from the shadows. The others looked carefully at him, unsure if he was real or an illusion.

“After the deaths of Mikasa’s parents marked the final straw in humanity’s redemption,” the Hunter that approached finally spoke, “Grisha and other members prepared for the fall of Wall Maria by constructing a new lair for me so we could be closer to the humans and their affairs as opposed to the caves where Luna and Celestia had sent me.

“We moved all of the crystals, the materials for creating the formula, and the people who remained at the caves to tend to me, to Shiganshina through a hidden passageway about a mile south of Wall Maria, where we have remained ever since.”

The area of the cave began to glow bright, but before the light brightened to absolute whiteness, the illusion of the cave began to fade into bright dust that flew towards where the last crystal was placed, revealing the real cave where the humans and ponies saw the crystals lying about the floors and embedded inside the floors. The last of the dust flew into the crystal bringing the room back to normal.

“Why must you and the soldiers continue impeding my progress so?” Hunter lamented, “Despite proving to you how much of a lost cause your species have become, you not only fight to kill off the titans, but you also fight to preserve your pathetic species.”

“You’re wrong!” Eren shouted. “Sure, humanity is filled with corrupt, cruel people, but there’s a lot of good people too! Mikasa, Armin, Conny, Sasha, Historia, Levi, Erwin, Hanji, Petra, Auruo, hell, even Jean! They’re all good people that you want to kill off like dogs! These ponies came to our world to help us because they knew as much that this species was worth saving! If you think killing everyone that doesn’t agree with you is going to solve anything, then it shows that the only pathetic one here is you, Hunter!”

Hunter stood still, contemplating Eren’s words. He then smirked, unnerving Eren and the others.

“I’m pathetic?” Hunter questioned. “I watched my master’s mother and father sacrifice themselves to prevent their daughter’s death!”

“My mother was trapped under our house and was killed without a fighting chance!” shouted Eren.

“I was banished from my home because I wanted to protect the one I loved!”

“I banished you because you put my sister and I in danger!” Luna barked.

“I fought tooth and nail for over one-hundred years to ensure absolute peace on Earth!”

“And we’ve spent just as long to ensure our survival…” Mikasa responded.

“…to ensure our undeniable right to live…” Armin responded.

“…and we’ll continue fighting to ensure that we still can,” Eren yelled, “with or without me!”

The ponies uplifted by their friends’ defiance, stepped forwards to their sides. Grisha suppressed every conceivable urge to call the ponies back.

“Hunter,” Applejack began, “we’re awful sorry about how life turned out for you…”

“…and we understand how you want to make the world a better place…” Rarity spoke.

“…but we won’t let you create it on the backs of thousands of innocents…” responded Twilight.

“…especially when lots of those people are our friends!” added Pinkie Pie.

“So no matter how hard you try and stop us…” Spike continued.

“We’re going to keep fighting until we win!” Rainbow Dash finished.

“Um…” Fluttershy hummed. “What she said…”

Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Spike, and the ponies stood strong before Hunter, who looked at each of them bemusedly.

“I see,” Hunter sighed. “Very well. Reiner!”

Keeping his act up, Reiner stepped behind Eren and locked his arms back behind him in restraint.

“Don’t move a muscle,” Hunter warned, scanning his gaze to each of the ponies. “If you try and resist, I’ll kill each and every one of you without hesitation. Now, Reiner, snap his neck for me…”

Eren gasped, looking behind him as well as he could. Before Reiner could hesitate too long to reveal his true colors, a voice broke out, stopping everything.

“Stop!” shouted Historia, stepping out in front of Eren and the ponies and putting herself between them and Hunter.

“Historia,” Hunter cooed. “I find it strange that you of all humans would stand in defense of these humans, especially with your frail nature.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve learned better. I had good friends to teach me the worth I had, something that you or your cult never did! All they ever did was tell me how the world would be better if I wasn’t born. The soldiers and the ponies all cared for me; they were grateful for my existence. It wasn’t even until Ymir, the barbarian from the town in the northern snowy mountains, that I realized my self-worth. I owe her my life, and I’m going to make sure I live it fighting you and the titans in her honor.”

“Historia…”

“No! I’ve made up my mind! You and your fucking cult can go burn in Hell!”

The ponies and humans stood dumbfounded by Historia’s brave stance. Even Hunter looked somewhat moved by Historia’s words.

“Very good,” Hunter sighed. “I needed to make an example of someone…”

Hunter put his arm up, sticking his index finger out and dragging the claw along the stone floor. Historia, realizing what would happen, clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes, but stood absolutely still. Hunter lifted his hand and finger up in the air, and with a quick swipe to his left, his claw wiped out a large chunk of the front of Historia’s neck, spraying her blood and flesh off to the side.

The humans and ponies dropped their jaws and shrunk their eyes as small as they could go as Historia fell limply to the ground, blood pouring to the floor. Ymir trembled in Bertolt’s arms, her shivers transforming to near-incontrollable struggling to break free.

“HISTORIA!” screamed Ymir, breaking free from Bertolt and running to Ymir’s side.

Twilight, Reiner, and Luna also ran to her side sliding to their knees to try and help her. By the time they and Ymir got to her, they were horrified to see that it was already too late. Historia’s face was pale and lifeless and her body didn’t move a single muscle. Unbeknownst to Hunter, Grisha looked down at Historia’s body, clenching his fists tightly. Fluttershy cried over Applejack’s shoulder while Spike hugged Rarity’s leg, sobbing with her.

“You fucking bastard!” Ymir wailed. “You killed her and she did nothing wrong!”

“She defied me,” Hunter simply explained. “She paid the price, just like you soon will.”

Reiner’s tears flowed freely from his eyes as they dripped into the blood pooling around Historia’s body. His fists clenched tightly and his face contorted into pure fury.

“You might as well add three more there,” Reiner growled, standing up and facing Hunter with extreme anger.

Annie and Bertolt ran up and stood beside him. With perfect synchronicity, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie drew blades out from their sheaths on their operational devices, standing guard over the remaining humans and ponies. Hunter sneered, enraged by his warriors’ treachery.

“Annie,” her father called sadly, reaching out for her to return.

“Make it four,” growled Grisha.

Hunter now looked stunned, surprised to see his long-time friend before him.

“Grisha,” Hunter hissed. “What do you think you are doing?”

“Finishing what we started.”

“Dad…” Eren gasped.

“Grisha,” Hunter spoke, his confident smile returning, “you never struck me as someone to make quick, irrational decisions. Do you really believe that your impromptu treason is going to succeed?”

“Hmph,” Grisha chuckled, “who said that my treason wasn't planned?”

“What?”

“Ymir never stole the titan power for herself. I staged it so she could take it and take revenge for the home that your titans took away from her. I even bred a group of abnormals to find and assist her in her personal vendetta.”

Hunter’s seething frown and fiery glare did nothing to stop Grisha’s speaking.

“As for Eren and his titan powers, I personally did not want to involve him that deeply in this war, but being the inextinguishable spirit that he has, as well as you killing his mother and my beloved wife, I was left with no other choice. I also granted him with the powers of the coordinate to ensure the Military's victory. As a matter of fact, they're outside Shiganshina as we speak, ready for the command to siege the city.”

Hunter’s rage was uncontrollable now as his mouth grew bright with a red glow.

“Carla sends her regards,” Grisha whispered, raising his hand to his mouth.

Before Hunter could blow his dragon’s breath, both Grisha and Ymir put their hands inside their mouths and bit down, glowing bright yellow. Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie moved out of the way as both Ymir and Grisha burst with light, blowing them and the other humans and ponies backwards. Hunter was forced to shield his face and halt his fiery attack. The light finally faded, revealing Ymir’s titan and the Beast Titan in their place.

“Luna! Twilight” shouted the Beast Titan. “Take the others and get out now! The final battle has begun!”

Luna and Twilight quickly charged their horns, pulling the ponies and living humans, including Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, and her father close to them. Both of their auras around the ones they grabbed converged, forming a bubble around all of them.

“DAD!” called Eren before the bubble became too thick to see through.

The bubble soon burst, leaving an empty space where they had stood. With the others gone, the Beast Titan felt safe to face Hunter with Ymir’s titan by his side. Hunter crouched down, awaiting their first move, snarling as he did. With a running start, the Beast Titan charged at Hunter with Ymir’s titan lunging straight at him, starting the final battle of the war.