“So, how many Terran humans do you have here?” I asked, glancing around.

Currently seated by one of the fires within the underground camp, I was still trying to wrap my mind around what had happened. It didn’t help that the others were beginning to gather around. A couple of large wooden logs were positioned around the fire pits as makeshift seats. How the hell they had gotten down into the cavern and who had carried them here, I had no idea. Each one probably weighed a couple hundred pounds at least.

Dustin and a dozen or so humans from Earth sat around the fire with me, most of them eating something that I couldn’t easily identify out of crudely-made plates and bowls. Off to the side, a group of Equestrian humans had gathered and were now eyeing me curiously.

“Pardon?” Dustin asked, giving me a confused look over his bowl of gruel.

I motioned around at the sea of humans milling around us. “Not all of these humans are originally from Earth, like us, right? So how many of us are there?”

“Oh…” Dustin paused long enough to finish chewing his food. “Right. Um, last I checked, there were about fifty-one of us down here total. Or was it fifty-two? I don’t remember. Hold on a second.” He turned around and shouted back over his shoulder. “Oye, Rosey! How many of us are there again?”

From nearby fire, a youngish black girl glanced up.

“Fifty-two,” she called back, pushing a pair of broken glasses up her nose. “Honestly, would it kill you to remember?”

“I had other things on my mind when you told me,” Dustin grumbled. Turning back around, he took another bite of his food before continuing. “Anyways, as you just heard, there’s fifty-two of us down here. As for the other humans, I’m not entirely sure of their numbers. More of them seem to arrive daily. They come and go as they please, so there’s no real easy way to count them.”

“Only fifty-two?” I asked, scrunching up my face. “That’s not a lot, all things considered. Truthfully, I was expecting more than that.”

“You were expecting there to be more of us?” one of the Terran humans asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I gave him a bemused look before motioning around at the veritable sea of humans.

He winced. “Ah, I see. Never mind.”

“Fifty-two is a lot in the grand scheme of things,” Dustin said.

“What do you mean?”

“According to our one of our few sources in this strange place, there were originally one hundred of us brought to this weird place against our will,” Dustin said. “Fifty-two out of a hundred is more than you’d think.

“Your source?” I asked, and my mind immediately went back to Lyra. “Who’s your source?”

“This weird-looking pony dude,” Dustin said, making my eyes go wide. “Unicorn with wicked facial hair. He saved several of us from bad situations and brought us here to help keep us safe from other ponies. Nice guy once you get past his cynical outlook.”

“Wait, wait, wait. A pony helped you? Like an actual pony?” I asked incredulously. He said ‘he’, so that rules Lyra out. But still… what? That doesn’t make sense. No ponies know that humans are intelligent except for Lyra.

“Now, wait a second. Settle down,” Dustin said, giving me a knowing smirk, “I know what you’re thinking, and I didn’t trust him either to begin with, but he helped me out of a tight spot and claims he was a human who was turned into a pony when he got here. He’s been trying to track down the other humans and get us all together to figure out a way back home. His name’s Paul.”

“Where did this ‘Paul’ get his information?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “That seems like a very specific number, one hundred humans. How does he know that’s how many of us showed up?” It matches up with Lyra’s statues, but still… how did this new pony learn about that?

“Well, according to him, he was one of the first humans to be brought here,” Dustin said with a shrug.

“And you believed him?” I paused, blinking once before sitting up straighter. “Wait a minute, how does he know he’s one of the first humans teleported here? We all ended up in separate spots, right?”

“I showed up near an ocean,” a female on the log to my left spoke up. “The name’s Courtney, by the way.” She reached a hand out and I shook it. “I was found by a caravan of ponies heading to a large town built on the shoreline. They then sold me, and I was brought to the city just above us.” She pointed up at the ceiling of the cavern, and Canterlot far above.

“I appeared in the middle of a swamp,” another person said. “I just wandered around for a couple of days until this weird pony found me and brought me to her home that was built into a hill. I escaped later that night, took some of her food, and made a run for it. One capture and several trades later, and I arrived in the city above as well. Made a run for it, several humans found me, and they brought me here.”

“I was found in the middle of a forest by a unicorn that wore a cape and hat,” another woman said with a shrug. “I followed her to the nearest town, and a group of armored ponies grabbed me and took me to some place that looked like a pound.”

“Exactly,” I said before anyone else could speak up. “And I ended up in a desert. We all ended up in different places, so how does this supposed human-turned-pony know he was one of the first to arrive? Was someone handing out numbers and I just missed it?”

“What was the date that you were taken?” Dustin asked.

I gave him a confused look. “What?”

“The date,” he repeated. “What day was it when you were taken?”

“It was, um…” I quickly racked my brain, trying to remember. “It was sometime in May, I believe. I don’t know the exact day. They just blur together sometimes.”

“May of what year?”

“2013,” I replied. Blinking, I glanced around. “Why? Did you all arrive on different days?”

“November of 2012,” Courtney said. “Three more days and it would have been Thanksgiving. I was supposed to bring the turkey, too.”

“December 25th, 2012,” the man with the grate-like mask said with a huff. “Merry Christmas to my wife and little girl.”

“December of 2012,” someone else called out.

“October 2012 for me!” came another.

“February of 2013.”

“August 18th, 2012!”

“I was brought here on January 12th of 2013,” Dustin said with a half grin. “One minute I was drinking with my buddies, and the next thing I know I’m in the middle of a river heading towards a large waterfall. Survived the drop, lived off the land for a few months, until I was found by some ponies who brought me to the city above. After a few weeks I was able to escape.”

“But you all arrived a year or so ago?” I asked, earning several nods from the surrounding people.

“Give or take a few days,” Courtney said.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered, scratching my head. “Taken on different days but arriving around the same time?”

“Make sense or not, you are one of the last to get taken,” Dustin said, popping the last of his food into his mouth. “Given the information we’ve gathered between the fifty-two of us, the closest person to you is Drake over there—” the large black man waved at me, a warm smile on his homely face “—who was brought here in March of 2013. So unless our unicorn buddy finds someone else who arrived after you, you are one of the last to be abducted.”

“And what date was your source teleported here?” I asked.

Dustin frowned. “He couldn’t really remember. Said it had been a while, but it was before 2011, of that he was sure. Which puts him nearly two years before the next person to show up.”

Rubbing my temples, I stared into the crackling flames as I tried to process what he had said. Their source is a pony who claims that he’s a human-turned-pony... but that doesn’t make sense. Someone would’ve discovered him right off the bat because he wouldn’t have been able to understand any of the ponies and vice versa… but what if the transformation allowed him to communicate with them? But if he told Dustin all of this, then that means that he can talk with humans. Is he like Lyra, and able to understand both sides? But if that was the case, then he should have figured out that ponies believe humans are stupid. Not to mention the big time differences between us all. Ugh… my brain hurts…

“You okay?” Dustin asked as I grimaced. He gave me a worried look and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, just thinking,” I muttered. “You said that this source of yours was rounding us up?”

“That’s right.”

“And he’s only managed to find fifty-two of us?”

“Um, not exactly,” Dustin said with a wince. “He’s only found fifty-two of us alive.”

I blanched. “You don’t mean…”

“Out of the one hundred or so of us that are supposedly here, twenty-three have been confirmed dead,” Dustin said gravely. “The remaining twenty-five are missing. They’re somewhere out there, we just don’t know where. Hopefully they’re still alive.”

“Twenty-four,” grunted the woman who was missing half of her left arm.

Dustin gave her a confused look. “Pardon?”

“You said that there was twenty-five humans unaccounted for,” the woman said. She nodded at me. “There’s one right there. Twenty-four.”

Dustin’s eyes lit up.

“I suppose you right,” he said. Leaning back on the log, he scratched at his beard as he studied me closely. “Looks like he’s been put through the ringer too.”

I opened my mouth to shoot a rebuttal at him, but just then someone shouted out from somewhere in the crowd. “Max? Maximillian?! Is that you? Max!” The voice was strangely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I had heard it before.

Dustin and I glanced around in confusion as someone pushed their way through the sea of humans, heading in our direction. “Excuse me, pardon me, can I just squeeze through here—thank you, excuse me, sorry.” The voice grew louder as the speaker approached, the crowd parting for them.

My eyes widened in shock as I suddenly remembered where I recognized the voice from. No, i-it can’t be. She’s here?!

Everyone glanced up as a woman finally stepped into the firelight, her eyes locked on me. Her hair was longer than I remembered, brown strands hanging down in front of her eyes.

“Oh my god. It is you,” she breathed before suddenly hurrying forward and throwing her arms around my neck. “I can’t believe you’re here!” Her grip tightened as if she was afraid I would suddenly disappear.

I could only stare dumbly ahead as my ex-girlfriend continued to squeeze the life out of my neck. The last time I had seen her had been nearly three years ago when she had shouted me down in public and stormed off, all because I had casually stated that I didn’t consider golf a sport. To her—one of the major members of a golf team—it was apparently a huge insult. I had tried to apologize, but she had blocked, ignored, and removed me from almost every social media possible, and she wouldn’t answer my calls. I had stopped trying after a week and had moved on. We hadn’t talked since.

And now here she was, hugging the stuffing out of me on a completely different world. What were the odds?

“C-Chelsea?” I finally managed to choke out. She released her grip on my neck and leaned back, nodding happily. “What are… how long have you… what?!”

Her smile faded slightly. “Nice to see you too.” Sitting on the opposite side of me as Dustin, she nestled up against my side and wrapped her arm around mine. “I arrived here almost a year ago… I think. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was lying down in the back of my car to take a nap in between classes, then the next thing I knew, I woke up in this horrible land. I was in a strange forest where I was chased by wolves made of wood.” She laughed. “I mean, come on! Wooden wolves? What is this, a cartoon? I thought I was high until one of them scratched me. Luckily I managed to get away, but then I was chased by a group of ponies. I was on the run for several months, stealing food and drinking out of rivers and lakes. It’s been hard… really hard, but thankfully I was found by a group of these… other humans and they led me here!”

“So, you were pulled to this world too?” I asked softly. “I didn’t even know you were missing…”

She winced, hanging her head. “Well, to be fair, we never really talked much after we broke up.”

“Yeah, I wonder why,” I muttered under my breath, low enough that I was hoping she wouldn’t hear me. Unfortunately, she did.

“Um, yeah, about that,” she said with a wince. “I… I want to apologize for that. I was really, really angry about what you said, and it took me a while to cool down, but when I did, I realized that you weren’t insulting me. You were just expressing your opinion.”

“And it took you three years to figure that out?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Chelsea winced again. “Well, no… but I didn’t know the best way to broach the subject without getting upset again. You usually don’t get angry over anything, but I didn’t want you to think I called you up just to insult you again.”

I felt my right eye twitch. She didn’t care about my feelings. She just didn’t want herself to look bad. Yup, that sounds about right.

“So, what changed?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral.

“I ended up in this place,” she said, staring into the fire sadly. “All the stuff I’ve seen, it got me thinking. I… I didn’t want the last thing I ever said to you to be an insult. Especially not with how close we used to be.” She laughed, although there was no humor in it. “I just never thought I would get a chance to apologize, yet here you are.”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “Here I am.”

Silence fell for a few seconds before the sound of a throat being cleared reminded me that we weren’t alone.

“Ah, young love,” a woman in the back cooed.

“So, I take it you two know each other?” Dustin asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. I glanced up to see most of the people around the fire giving us curious looks, some of them even breaking out into amused smirks. I felt my face heat up, and I tried to scoot away from Chelsea, but she just nodded happily and moved closer to me.

“Yup,” she chirped. “Max and I go way back. We grew up in the same town, went to the same school, and even dated through most of High School until we broke up over something silly.”

“Well, goody for you,” a guy sitting on the other side of the fire muttered.

“You know, I never thought I’d see someone be happy to see their ex again,” Courtney said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, he’s not that bad,” Chelsea said with a shrug. “Although, truthfully, I’m just surprised to see a familiar face here, of all places, even if it is his.”

My brow furrowed at her words. Was… was that an insult?

“I’m surprised as well,” Dustin admitted. “You two are the first people who knew each other before arriving here.”

That caught my attention. “Wait, really?” Upon receiving a nod, I glanced around. “I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Where are all you from then?”

“At least half of us appear to come from some part of the United States,” Dustin said. “Although, there are also people from Canada, Britain, Italy, and one or two from Denmark and Belgium.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his legs. “That’s only those that we know of. The other missing or dead humans could have been from different countries as well.”

“I’m assuming that communication is a bit of an issue?” I asked.

Dustin smiled. “Actually, not really, surprisingly enough. We were lucky. One of the lads from Britain, Ian, I think his name was. Anyways, he speaks French, which takes care of the two girls from Belgium, and the guy from Denmark speaks English.” He shrugged. “The only issue we have is the people from Italy, as only one of them can speak English, but she doesn’t know that much. We’re making do, though,” he said, leaning back.

“Interesting,” I muttered, scratching my beard. It was because of Discord that I had been brought to Equestria in the first place, so it stood to reason that he had brought the other humans here as well. But why the fascination with the US? I mused. If he was just grabbing humans at random, the nationalities would be much more random, right? So why are they so concentrated? Was he looking for something specific? I glanced around at the people gathered around the fire with me. What do all of us have in common? What was he—?

A sudden slap on the back of my head brought me back to the real world. Rubbing the tender spot, I gave Chelsea a confused look. “What was that for?”

“You were thinking too hard,” she said. “I was talking to you and you weren’t responding, but what else is new?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “What did I miss?”

“I was asking what happened to you since you got here,” she said, leaning against me again. “I told you my story, now let’s hear yours! It’s got to be a good one. I mean, just look at that scar.” She pointed at my face. “It looks horrific! There has to be an awesome story behind it!”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” I muttered, subconsciously rubbing the scar running across my face.

This just caused Dustin to laugh.

“No need to be modest here,” he said, slapping me on the back. “Be proud of your scars. We all know how cruel those ponies can be, man. You aren’t alone in that regard.”

“Come again?” I asked, blinking.

Dustin ignored me and turned to a thin, gaunt-looking man who was sitting on the next log over. “Hey, Josh! Tell ‘im what happened to you! That should loosen him up.”

Josh just continued to stare blankly into the flames as he finished chewing. He only had on a pair of tattered pants, revealing his torso which was so thin that you could see his ribs. It wasn’t to the point of being too unhealthy, but he could stand to gain a few pounds.

I eyed him curiously, unable to see any visible scars anywhere on his body.

Josh was silent for a good minute or so before finally speaking. When he did, his voice was raspy and dry.

“I’m not sure the exact date of my arrival, but I arrived in the city above us,” he said, still staring into the flames. “Confused, I wandered the streets for a good few hours before I was captured by several of those unicorn ponies in golden armor. They put me in a cage and took me to a large building where they kept a bunch of other humans.

“It turned out to be a research facility. They experimented on us,” he spat hatefully. “They started almost immediately, too. I was given a collar and placed in this large cage with four other humans. There was nothing else in this cage except for a tall ladder standing in the center of the enclosure. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what it was there for… but I would soon come to hate that goddamn ladder.

“As soon as the experiment started, one of the ponies placed a piece of meat at the top of the ladder. I knew something was up, but I hadn’t had anything decent to eat for a couple of days, and even though the steak was raw, it still looked pretty fucking good. From the drooling, I could tell the other humans thought so as well. Of course you can probably guess what happened next. After the initial squabble, one of the humans climbed up the ladder to get the meat. However, as they began to climb, one of those fucking scientists blasts the rest of us with freezing water. Took your breath away the minute it hit ya.

“It wasn’t a one-time thing either. This continued for days. The same fucking thing, over and over again until the other humans finally got it through their thick skulls that they would only get sprayed when another human climbed the ladder. It got to the point that anytime a human would start up the ladder, before the ponies had a chance to blast us, the other humans would pull ‘im down and attack ‘im. I’m… ashamed to admit that I may have participated in some of the beatings… but that water… that water ain’t right, man. It hurt, it hurts inside to get hit by it. So I attacked ‘im too. Anything to get the freezing to stop.”

At this Josh trailed off, staring into the fire as he shivered at the phantom chill. The two guys sitting next to him shifted uncomfortably, and one put a hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“Anyways,” Josh continued when he finally regained his composure. “After a while, none of the humans would even approach the ladder. Not even when the ponies started to increase the amount of meat or change the type of meat. Hell, they even dangled a female human above the ladder, trying to convince one of the males to climb. However, we knew what was going to happen if someone did climb. They would either get beaten… or we’d get blasted with water. So no human climbed the ladder. No human even tried.

“Then things changed. Apparently we weren’t entertaining enough anymore, because one day the scientists replaced one of the humans. Took him out and placed a new human in. Of course, this new human didn’t know what was going on, so what’s the first thing he did when a piece of meat is placed on top of the ladder? Climbs right the fuck up. Poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.”

“The other humans beat him, didn’t they?” I asked, shaking my head.

“You’re damn right they did!” Josh shouted, causing those around him to jump. “Pulled him right the fuck down and beat the ever-living shit out of him! Didn’t learn his lesson either, the stupid sod. It took three more beatings before he learned to stay as far away from the fucking ladder as fucking possible!

“Then after that, another human was substituted, and the same fucking thing happened again. The first swapped human even joined in the beatings! Didn’t even get blasted by the water once, and here he was, wailing on the poor bastard without a care in the world. This happened again as a third human was replaced. Then a fourth one was replaced, and the same thing happened again!

“By the end of the month-long fucking experiment, I was the only original human in there. I was in the cage with four new humans. Four fucking humans who—without having been sprayed by that fucking freezing water—would beat any human senseless who dared approached the ladder. Even glancing at it earned you a snarl.

“And then they took me out,” Josh finished, throwing his hands into the air. “God help the poor bastard they replaced me with. Fucking ponies…”

“I was in that place too,” another human spoke up. She shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. “They did all kinds of stuff to us. Forced us to run through a maze where the floor shocked you. Dunked you in a pool and forced you to tread water until you pass out. Hell, they’d even inject you with chemicals to see what would happen!”

“Those pastel freaks are fucking evil!” cried out a human listening in from another fire.

“Yeah!”

“And don’t even get me started on when they try and rape you!”

“Yeah, they think they can get away with doing that kind of stuff to us?! Hell no!”

“Eh, I can kinda see where they’re coming from,” I said, closing my eyes and rubbing my forehead. When all the nearby talking stopped, leaving only the gentle murmur of the humans out of earshot, I glanced up only to find everyone staring at me, wide-eyed. Chelsea had even pulled away from me, a look of disbelief on her face.

“I beg your pardon?” the lady with half an arm growled, glaring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you just say you agreed with what those fuckers are doing?”

“What? No,” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I never said I agreed with their experiments. I said ‘I can understand where they’re coming from’.”

“What do you mean?” Dustin asked.

Oops, not good. By his tone of voice, I could tell that I needed to tread carefully.

“Are you saying that it’s okay for them to rape and torture us?” he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

“No. Stop putting words in my mouth. I’m talking about the experiments,” I said. When everyone continued to glare at me, I huffed. “Oh, come on! We do the same thing to chimpanzees back home! Remember? We had that whole thing going on where a bunch of people wanted companies to stop those ‘cruel animal experiments’ because it was evil and inhumane’.”

“That’s different!” someone shouted out.

“How?” I asked. “How is it different?”

“Chimpanzees aren’t human! They’re animals!”

“That’s not an excuse!” I scoffed. “If they do something super intelligent, then everyone goes on and on about how they’re practically human, but when it comes to doing experiments on them, they’re just animals?”

“You’re comparing us to animals?” Chelsea asked, scrunching up her face.

“‘Cause that’s how ponies view us!” I shouted.

Dustin stood up suddenly, a blank look on his face. He reached down and grabbed a handful of my shirt, pulling me to my feet. Keeping a firm hold on me, he glanced around. “Where’s Natasha?”

There was a swell of murmuring before someone finally called out from an adjacent bonfire. “She’s over here!”

Dustin grunted in acknowledgement before dragging me over to the speaker, Chelsea following tentatively.

“Whoa, hey! What the hell?” I stumbled along, well aware that several of the humans were still glaring at me. Unsurprisingly, it was only the Terran humans; the Equestrian humans just had curious looks on their faces as they watched us closely. Just observing, nothing more.

We finally stopped in front of a woman who was sitting with her back to a log, her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked to be in her early thirties, her black hair hanging loosely in front of her eyes. Dirt covered her face and hands, and her clothes had seen better days. She stared blankly ahead of her, her blue eyes dull and almost lifeless.

Keeping a firm hold on me, Dustin motioned down at the woman.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, pulling my shirt from his grasp. When he didn’t answer, I knelt down and waved a hand in front of her face. Her eyes duly followed my hand back and forth.

“What do you want?” she asked weakly, her voice devoid of emotion.

“Are you alright?” I asked, concerned. She looked fine on the outside. There were no scars, and she had enough fat on her that it didn’t look like she had been starving.

She just shrugged before staring off into space again.

Standing back up, I gave Dustin a confused look.

“She wasn’t in the same building as us. There were no scientists. She wasn’t part of any experiments,” he said, his face neutral. “She was bought by a family of four ponies: a male, female, and two children. They fed her, clothed her, and apparently the kids loved her, if them wanting to take her everywhere was any indication.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“From what we could gather from her, she was apparently too rough with one of the kids one time when they were playing around and the parents freaked. The next thing she knew, they took her to a hospital and had her spayed.”

I stood there, staring down at the woman with a grimace on my face. My right eye twitched as memories began to flash before me.

A woman shrieked as she writhed upon the ground in pain, all while a group of ponies laughed in the background. I couldn’t see much from my position in the too small cage, but from what I could see, it made me ill. If it weren’t for the fact I hadn’t had anything real to eat in days, I would have been sick right there and then. After a few seconds a low hissing noise filled the air, followed by the smell of burnt flesh. The woman screamed until she was hoarse.

As the phantom images faded, I reached a hand upon and gently massaged my temple. While it was true that the way Darkflare and his gang neutered and spayed humans was traumatic to both the human being fixed and any sane observers, they were not a good example of Equestria’s veterinarian care. A true veterinary would never perform such an operation on a conscious creature, human or not. And if they did, that was basically animal cruelty. Or would it be human cruelty? Torture? This ‘humans-are-becoming-intelligent’ thing was making things weird.

I was pulled out of my musing by Dustin, who motioned down at the woman.

“You see this?” he asked. “There were no experiments. No scientists. The only reason this happened to her is because a pair of ponies got scared, and now she must bear the mental and physical scars because of it.”

Sighing heavily, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to like this—hell, I didn’t even know why I was about to do this—but I felt like, since I was the only one here who knew relatively both sides of the story, I had to defend my pony friends. Well, only a few were actually my friends, but you get my point.

“Of course they spayed her,” I huffed, opening my eyes and turning to face Dustin, as well as the other humans that had followed us. Angry gazes stared back at me, and dark mutterings started up in the background, sounding like a growing swarm of hornets.

From behind Dustin, Chelsea gave me a disbelieving look. “M-Max, I know you’re all for speaking your mind, especially without giving it any real thought, but there is a time and a place!”

“Look, I know this upsetting, but think about it,” I said, holding up my hands. “If your dog is misbehaving and acting aggressive, what do you do? You have them fixed, right? Hell, it’s practically a requirement when adopting a pet nowadays!”

“We aren’t animals!” someone in the back yelled, their words accompanied by shouts of agreement.

“To the ponies we are!” I shouted back. “That’s how they view us. And up until recently, that was what the humans of this world were. Mindless animals. The ponies can’t understand them, they have no way of knowing that the humans are slowly gaining intelligence, so they continue to treat us as they have for the past thousand years. Do I think it’s a good thing? No. Do I agree with what they are doing? No, I do not. Hell, I was almost neutered myself several times!”

“And yet you’re still defending them?” Dustin scoffed, crossing his arms. “Even after nearly being mutilated, you’re still on their side?”

“Because it makes sense!” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “If you think something is a mindless animal, you’re going to treat it like a mindless animal. Do you blame a wolf for attacking a deer? No, you chalk it up to it being a wolf! The ponies are going to continue to treat humans as animals until such time as they are informed of what is really going on!” More murmurs came from this declaration, although this time not all of them sounded angry. Some people in the back nodded, thoughtful expressions on their faces.

Dustin just shook his head. “So you’re saying if the ponies are informed that we are actually intelligent, everything will be good times and rainbows?”

“Well, no,” I said, rubbing the back of my head, “but ponies aren’t typically violent creatures. In fact, if word gets out that humans can think and feel for themselves, most ponies are going to be horrified by how the humans are being treated!”

“And how would you know that?” a voice asked from behind me.

Turning around, I opened my mouth to answer the woman who was now crouched beside Natasha, only to freeze when I caught sight of her. She was glaring at me, her green eyes hidden partially behind strands of long red hair that fell about her face and shoulders. From what I could see of her face though…

Her face…

As the ponies all around continued to stomp and jeer loudly, the cage door opened and deposited its contents into the pit below. The human flipped through the air, landing on all fours with a soft grunt. Slowly, she began to rise. She brushed her short, fiery-red hair out of her face before giving me a cautious, curious look, her green eyes glinting in the gloom.

Gripping the shiv tighter in my hand, I advanced—

ba-dum

—the steely grip around my neck tightened, sharp fingernails digging into the flesh and drawing blood. From far above, the cheering became louder and louder—the ponies hooting and hollering in perverse glee. I struggled weakly beneath the weight of the human on top of me, trying desperately to gasp for air. As I fought, something wet dripped down upon my cheek, followed by another and then another. Focusing through the haze that was beginning to cloud my vision, I watched as tears streamed down the girl’s face and fell down to mine. Her lips trembled as she continued to squeeze, cutting off my air. I was dimly aware that she was repeating the same noise over and over again, a pleading, almost apologetic, noise—

Wincing, I massaged my temple, never taking my eyes off of the red-headed female in front of me. I fought back the urge to vomit as the memories slowly retreated back into the dark recesses of my mind.

The woman’s look of annoyance soon turned to confusion, and then to concern as I continued to stare at her.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Hey, buddy!” She snapped her fingers a couple of times. “You still there?”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered, glancing away only to look back a few seconds later. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”

“You sure?” she asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. “Cause you’re really starting to creep me out with all that staring.” She shivered. “Seriously, stop it. It’s like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

“That… that isn’t too far from the truth,” I muttered, absentmindedly rubbing my neck as I tried to ease the phantom pain that had sprung up. I continued to stare at her for a few more seconds before shaking my head.

“Sorry,” I said. “You just… you reminded me of someone else. Someone I met a long time ago.”

At my words, she just stared up at me blankly before her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped. She stood up quickly, hope springing up on her face. “W-wait! You’ve met Emily?!”

I jerked back at her sudden shout. “I-I… who?”

“My sister!” she cried, taking a step forward. She paused when I flinched, before giving me a sheepish smile. “S-sorry, it’s just… I can’t believe. Okay, let me start over. My name is Amy Shepard. Emily’s my twin sister. She looks just like me, except that Emily likes to keep her hair short. About shoulder length. You’ve seen her, haven’t you?”

My eyes widened and I felt my heart freeze in my chest. Oh shit…

Unfortunately, she misread my response.

“You have!” A large smile spread across her face. “Oh thank god! We got separated shortly after arriving in this world, and… and I’ve been trying to find her ever since!” She gave me an eager look.

The bright smile on her face killed me. That look of joy, that look of someone who had been begging—praying—for the best, and had just now found a small sliver of hope to hold on to. Like she had been stranded on an island, lost at sea, and had looked up one day to see a ship on the horizon…

...and I now had to sink that ship.

“Oh, I didn’t want to be too hopeful, but she has always been the strongest. Yes!” Amy laughed, pumping her fist in the air. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She stopped cheering and turned back to me. “When was the last time you saw her? Do you know where she is? Is she alright? Where is she?!”

“I… she’s, um… you see...” I stammered, my mouth suddenly dry. My mind raced as it tried to find a way out of this, but nothing came to mind. I could try lying, but that would probably come back to bite me in the ass eventually. Still, how do you tell someone that you killed their sister, even if it was in self-defense?

Rubbing the back of my neck, I opened and closed my mouth several times before sighing heavily. I shook my head before giving her a solemn look. “I… I think I might have encountered your sister over half a year ago, during a, um… human pit fight. She’s... well, she’s…” I swallowed, trying to fight through the feeling of a lump in my throat. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

Amy stared at me with wide eyes, her previous smile no longer present. She stared at me blankly for a few seconds before she gave me an unsure smile.

“Don’t… don’t joke about that,” she said, laughing nervously. “This is my little sister we’re talking about. I haven’t seen her in months. I… I need to see—don’t joke about that!”

I wanted to look away, to not see her pleading gaze, but I was unable to.

“I’m so sorry…”

Amy stared at me, her face expressionless. She remained completely frozen for several seconds before she began to shake her head faintly from side to side. Gradually, her hands began to tremble, as did her legs, and she slowly sunk to the floor. Around us, the other humans were muttering darkly to themselves.

“N-no,” Amy whimpered. Her voice cracked halfway through the word. “No, no you’re lying. You have to be. Not Emily…” She continued to shake her head, trying to deny what I had just said, but unable to. She glanced up at me, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. “You’re just… just saying that because… because...” She choked back a sob before a look of fury flashed across her face. “How would you know? How could you possibly know that, huh?!”

Reaching up, I rubbed my neck again. “I was there. I saw.”

“Wait… you were there?” she muttered, her brow furrowing. “You saw her in a… you were there—” She froze, her eyes widening before she stood up suddenly. The look of hate she gave me caused me to take a step back. “You!” she shouted, her fists clenched in rage. “You killed her!”

“Now, just hold on a minute,” I said quickly, holding up my hands. “Just calm down—”

“You killed my sister, you fucking bastard,” she screamed. Stepping forward, she slapped me across the face, causing stars to explode in front of my eyes.

Staggering back, I winced in pain, the area she had hit already beginning to swell slightly.

“It wasn’t like I did it on purpose!” I shouted back. She swung at me again, but I ducked under it.

“You fucker!” she shrieked. Nobody moved to stop her, most of them unsure of what to do.

“It’s not my fault!” I yelled, ducking another blow. “I didn’t have a fucking choice! They weren’t exactly letting humans walk out of that pit alive!” I pointed at the scar on my face. “I nearly fucking died myself!”

“But you didn’t!”

“Will you just calm down and listen for a sec—”

“Bastard!”

“There was nothing I could do!” I shouted.

“You could have talked to her!” Amy cried. “You could have worked with her to find a way out of there!” She stopped trying to attack me and instead just stood there, tears streaming down her face. “Y-you could have helped her!”

“H-how?” I asked, still keeping my distance. I noted a faint taste of copper in my mouth, and as I ran my tongue over the inside of my cheek, I realized that I had bitten it when she had slapped me.

“I-I don’t know,” she said, rubbing her eyes with the back of her head. “Y-you could have worked together to get out of there! One of you play dead… o-or something. Something other than killing her!”

Grimacing, I spat out a glob of blood before throwing my hands into the air. “That wouldn’t have worked anyways. I couldn’t even understand other humans until a few days ago!” The dark muttering that had been going on in the background suddenly stopped, causing me to glance around. I was met with confused gazes.

“What?” I asked.

“You couldn’t understand humans?” Dustin asked, scrunching up his face. “What the blazes does that mean?”

“That I couldn’t understand humans.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know how to explain it. Up until a couple of days ago, I couldn’t understand what any human was saying. It was just a bunch of chirps and grunts to me.”

“So what changed?” Dustin inquired, his eyes narrowing.

“The hell if I know,” I said, shaking my head. “Celestia had the Elements blast me with their rainbow beam of friendship, and the next thing I knew, I could understand humans again.”

“Elements? Rainbow beam of friendship?” Dustin muttered before shaking his head. “Wait, never mind. Who the hell is Celestia?”

Cursing under my breath for the slip up, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I tried to quickly come up with an answer. When none came to me, I sighed heavily.

“She’s a, uh… tall white pony with both a horn and wings,” I answered. “Got a sun on her butt. Hard to miss.”

I jerked back in surprise as a gasp rippled around the crowd at my words. Dustin just nodded sadly, a knowing look on his face. Chelsea had a look of pity on her face. Why would she feel the need to pity me? What was going on?

“You’re talking about the pony ruler, right?” Dustin said.

It was my turn to be stunned. “What?”

“Big tall pony? White coat and weird mane?” Dustin asked. “Her and her counterpart, the dark one, appear to be the leaders of the ponies. That’s who you’re talking about, right?”

“Y-you know them?” I asked in disbelief.

“Of course we know about them,” Dustin scoffed. “Those two whores are the reason the humans here are so stupid.”

I deadpanned. “Say what now?”

“It’s true,” Amy said as she rubbed her cheeks. She stepped forward, and as she did so I took a step back, keeping my distance. “Those two… things are doing something to the humans.”

“And what proof do you have?” I inquired.

“We’ve seen them at it,” Dustin said as he crossed his arms. “Each morning and each evening the two of them appear on a balcony of the palace, there’s a bright flash of light, and then they leave. Happens every day at the same time. According to Paul, that’s them ‘renewing their mental spell over the humans’, or whatever magicky-bullshit he was spouting. It was hard to understand, but he assured us he knew what he was talking about.”

I stared at them blankly, my mind trying to process what they were saying. Each morning and evening? What could they—oh, son of a bitch. When it finally dawned on me exactly what it was they were witnessing, I had to repress a groan. It was so stupid, so idiotic that it was almost funny. I knew what Celestia and Luna were supposedly doing, but to convince Dustin and the others? This was going to be next to impossible. They already thought I was insane; this was going to make it worse.

Pitching the bridge of my nose, I prepared myself for the backlash. “They’re not… they’re not doing anything to the humans.”

“Sorry, what?” Dustin asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“They’re not doing anything to the humans,” I said again, slightly louder than before.

Dustin gave me an incredulous look. “How do you… what else could they be doing?”

“Um, they… they think…” I paused, swallowing thickly before wincing. “Okay, look. I’m going to be blunt here, and it’s going to sound crazy. They believe that they are responsible for raising and lowering the sun and moon.” Dustin opened his mouth, but I held up a hand to silence him. “Look, I know how stupid it sounds. Trust me, I do, but Celestia believes she controls the sun, while Luna, the dark one, believes she controls the moon. That flash you see is them ‘moving their celestial object across the sky, as is their duty’,” I said, making quotation marks with my fingers.

“‘Moving their…’” Dustin muttered. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

“Look, it’s stupid, I know,” I said loudly, “but that’s what they think is happening. They aren’t trying to suppress the humans. They aren’t trying to make them dumber. Hell, they don’t even know that the humans are smart...ish, to begin with. If they did, they’d be trying to help us.”

This caused Dustin to laugh. “That’s the stupidest—”

“It’s the truth!” I shouted. “They have no clue what’s going on. Look, just give me a chance to talk to them. We have a way to communicate, I’ll let them know what’s going on, and we can work together to fix this! One day, that’s all I need. I swear!”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Amy growled suddenly, glaring at me.

“And why not?” I huffed. “I can fix this!”

“I’m going to have to agree with her on this,” Dustin said, shaking his head.

“Why?” I asked as I rubbed my temples, trying to stave off a growing headache. “I have your solution. Why can’t I leave?”

“Well, it’s like you said earlier,” Dustin said as he crossed his arms again. “They hit you with their ‘rainbow beam of friendship’. That means you are currently under their spell. You aren’t going anywhere in your condition.”

I gaped at him in disbelief. “Oh, come on!”

“Don’t worry, friend,” he said, giving me a warm smile. “None of this is your fault. We’ll sort this out soon enough, and when we do, you’ll be back in your right state of mind.”

“Sort what out?” I asked. “I’m telling you, I’m not—”

A sudden force around my neck silenced me as it cut off my air, a sickly yellow glow appearing around my neck. I gagged loudly before my head was forcibly yanked down and I found myself staring into the enraged face of a unicorn.

“You!” his hissed. “What… the fuck… are you doing here?!” There was a cloud of magic around his throat, and it pulsed each time he spoke. His glare intensified, and the hold on my neck tightened.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dustin approaching with a look of concern on his face. “Paul, what are you doing?!”

“Taking… care of… a problem,” the unicorn wheezed, “that has… been plaguing me… for a long, long time.” He gave his head a yank to the side, and I was suddenly on my back. Reaching up, I futilely grabbed at his magic, trying to free myself, but my fingers just passed right through the cloud.

“Dude, calm down!” I heard someone shout. There was a sharp ‘thud’ off to the side, and I could suddenly breathe again.

Gasping for air, I rolled over onto my hands and knees and glanced up. The unicorn was rubbing his sparking horn while glaring at Dustin, who was rubbing his hand and wincing.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the unicorn growled.

“Trying to calm you down, man,” Dustin huffed. “You straight up attacked him! What the hell?”

“I’m fixing… your mistake,” the unicorn wheezed as his horned ceased sparking. “You should never… have brought him here.”

As I staggered back to my feet, Dustin gave the unicorn a confused look. “What mistake?”

“Do you recall the… anomaly I told you about months ago?” the unicorn growled.

“You mean the one that was messing up your plans?” Dustin asked. He rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, yeah I remember, but what does that have to do with—” He froze, his eyes going wide before darting over to me. “You can’t mean…”

“Precisely,” the unicorn snarled before his horn began to glow again. The pressure returned around my neck and I once again found myself being dragged along the ground.

“This,” the unicorn grunted, lifting me into the air, “is the bastard that’s been causing me so much grief. The thorn in my side. The bane of my existence.” His magic flickered slightly before strengthening again.

“I don’t even, ugh… know you,” I rasped, struggling to breathe.

“The fucking princess’s pet,” he continued, ignoring me. “This waste of flesh is in league with the ponies. Has been since he first arrived here. I tried to get him to see reason in the beginning, but he ignored me and chose ponies over his fellow humans. I didn’t give up though. I tried to save him… but now he’s nothing more than the princesses’ lapdog, doing whatever they tell him to. They tell him to jump, he jumps. They tell him to bark, he barks.” He glowered up at me, his lips pulled back in a sneer. “You’ve all probably noticed it by now. Defending the actions of the ponies, claiming that they don’t know that humans are intelligent. Claiming that we are the ones in the wrong.”

There came several sounds of affirmation for the surrounding crowd, and I noticed with a sinking feeling that everyone was glaring at me.

“Hey! I never said—” I began, only to have the force around my neck tighten, cutting me off.

“A dog, ever loyal to its master. That’s all he is, and that’s all he’ll ever be,” the unicorn grunted. He paused briefly before a dark grin slowly spread across his muzzle. “And what’s a dog without his collar?” The light around his horn flickered slightly before flashing. A black collar, complete with a tag in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark, appeared in the air in front of me. Another burst of magic and it slithered around my neck, wrapping tightly around it before buckling. With that, I was dumped back onto the ground again.

“That’s it, boy. Bark!” the unicorn sneered as I hacked and coughed, gasping for air. I struggled to get to my feet, only to have someone suddenly kick me in the side, forcing what little air I had out of my lungs. Gazing up through watering eyes, I saw Amy glaring down at me.

“Fucker,” she spat before turning and stalking away.

“...not my fault,” I wheezed pathetically. As I pushed myself into a kneeling position, Chelsea moved in front of me. With her hands on her hips, she just stared down at me and shook her head.

“You were always kinda weird, Max,” she said, “but… well, I have to be honest. This has to take the cake.”

“There was a... time you found it endearing,” I gasped, looking up at her.

“Yeah, back when it was funny,” she said. “Now, it’s just… weird. I mean really? Siding with the fucking ponies? How messed up do you have to be?”

I tried to respond, to somehow defend myself from this deteriorating situation, but with the collar restricting my air supply, I couldn’t get the words out before she began to walk away as well. Refusing to let that be the end of it, I staggered to my feet to go after her, only to suddenly be yanked back down onto the ground.

“You’re not... going anywhere,” the unicorn growled, his face inches from mine. From this distance I could see that his coat was covered in sweat. His breathing was coming in heavy gasps, and the magic around his horn was flickering on and off as he held me down. I had seen Twilight in a similar state several times before. She had called it ‘magical exhaustion’, or something like that.

“You’re lucky, boy,” he hissed. “If I hadn’t just wasted a huge amount of magic earlier, I would end you right here, right now...” He trailed off, his eyes becoming unfocused. One of them flashed, the iris becoming a deep emerald green for a brief second before, with a shake of his head, his gaze sharpened again.

“As it is,” he continued, “I don’t have the energy required right now to do so. However, I’ve come too far now for you to just fuck everything up. I cannot—will not—have you running around causing trouble… again. There might be nothing you can do to stop the coming storm right now, but I’m not going to risk it.” Gritting his teeth, the magic around his horn flared brightly and I was lifted bodily into the air by my neck.

As I struggled weakly in the air, his horn flashed again and the rock directly beneath me began to shimmer and undulate like water. The humans nearby quickly backed away, eyeing the rippling ground with confusion and surprise.

“What’s wrong?” the unicorn asked, giving me a look of faux confusion as I stared down at the flexing ground in trepidation. “You look a little tense. A little nervous. Tell you what. How about a nice, relaxing dip to help you calm down?”

With that, he slowly began to lower me.

As my feet came in contact with the ground, they sunk into the rock with very little resistance. I winced at the sensation that slowly worked its way up my legs as I was submerged deeper and deeper into the earth. It was like being dipped into cold jello, except I could also feel the rough edges of the rock pulling and tugging at my pants. The ground was both a solid, and a liquid at the same time. A shiver ran down my spine at the sensation, and I began to struggle again but I was unable to escape his magical grasp.

This continued until I found myself immersed within the ground up to my neck. The unicorn cancelled his magic with little difficulty, the spell practically collapsing on its own. The magic around me disappeared, but before I had a chance to move, the ground hardened again.

“What the…” I frowned, trying to lift my arm but instead found myself unable to move an inch. The rock encasing my body remained firm and unyielding. I opened my mouth, only to be gagged suddenly by a piece of cloth as it wrapped around my head.

“There, that... should hold you,” the unicorn wheezed. “You aren’t going anywhere now. You can stay down here and rule over your new domain. You are now the king beneath the mountain. King of—” His words were interrupted as he dissolved into a hacking cough. Wiping his mouth with a hoof, he gave me a withering glare before he turned his gaze away and shook his head.

“I don’t have time for this,” he growled under his breath.

Dustin approached tentatively, his eyes wide.

“Dude… what the hell was that?” he asked, staring down at me.

“I made it so he couldn’t do anything stupid,” the unicorn huffed. He took a step, only to suddenly wince and lift a hoof up to his head.

“You okay?” Dustin asked, giving him a concerned look.

The unicorn nodded, his eyes closed. “I’m fine.” A pause. “Maybe not.” He sighed. “I used a lot of energy earlier before coming here. That, combined with what I did to this thing—” he kicked the back of my head with a hoof, causing me to let out a muffled grunt “—proved to be a little too much, and now it’s beginning to affect me.”

“I thought you were trying to lay low,” Dustin said with a frown. “What did you do to exhaust yourself already?”

“I had to get away,” the unicorn said. “The Sisters found out what I’ve been up to.” A look of worry spread across the faces of the surrounding humans, but the unicorn held up a hoof. “They don’t know where we are, but we are unfortunately going to have to move our plans forward.”

“How much forward?” someone inquired from the crowd.

“We need to move now,” the unicorn replied. He paused before glancing over to Dustin. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

Dustin exchanged looks with someone who was standing somewhere behind me before shaking his head. “Nah, bro. We’re good to roll.”

“Splendid,” the unicorn said as he massaged his temples. “Then get up there and cause as much chaos as possible. I’ll finish up down here and bring up the second wave. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, we can finish this tonight.”

Dustin gave him a quick salute before turning and marching off. He left my line of sight, but I could still hear him shouting orders. “Alright, everyone up an’ at ‘em! Time to get to work. Grab whatever makeshift weapons you’ve managed to make, and get ready. Stan, get the ammo ready. Tracy, you get the medkits. The Vanguard is taking the lead, just like we trained for. Everyone else follow slightly behind. Remember, if we run into any problems, Tanker is our backup plan…”

His voice was soon lost in the noise that followed as people started to move about. The clattering of metal, the shifting of cloth, and the sound of people shouting at one another filled the air. I couldn’t see any of it, though, as I could only stare straight ahead into the smirking face of that bloody unicorn prick.

“And just like that, it’s over,” he said, only to me. “I played my pipe and they danced to my tune. I pit one against the other, and they all topple. Like a line of dominoes. Checkmate. Yahtzee. Bingo. I win, you lose. Just like that.

“It’s strange though,” he continued, tilting his head to the side. “I’m almost going to be sad when this is over. Almost… but not quite. It was fun while it lasted, but all things must come to an end, no? It almost seems unfair. All things considered, it’s almost too easy. Then again, she never really had a chance to begin with. Not after my contingency plan went into effect. I will miss these little games we played together...

“I won’t miss you though,” he said, sneering down at me.

Unable to speak, I could only growl as I glared up at him.

“It’s nothing personal, I assure you,” he said. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most unfortunate for you, really. To have such bad luck. Almost… chaotic really,” he muttered, frowning slightly. He gave me a hard look before slowly shaking his head. “Truly unfortunate.”

I made a loud, sick-sounding gagging noise around the cloth in my mouth. This caused the unicorn to snort and shake his head. He opened his mouth, no doubt to spew nonsense or insult me some more, only to close it again as Dustin shouted out behind me. “Oye, Paul! We’re ready to go!”

The unicorn glanced up.

“Then go,” he said, waving a hoof, “and good luck to you, my dogface friend.”

“Right,” I heard Dustin say. He paused before speaking again. “Remember, you all stay here while we Earth humans go up, got it?” I heard a low murmur come from behind me, and I saw a couple of Equestrian humans out of the corner of my eye nod their heads. “You come up when he gives the signal, got it?” The Equestrian humans turned to look at the unicorn before nodding again.

“Good,” Dustin said. “Don’t worry. When this is all over, the ponies won’t bother us anymore. Alright. Let’s go!”

Craning my neck around as much as my position would let me, I watched out of the corner of my eye as a medium sized group of humans made their way towards the entrance to the cavern. They were outfitted with crudely made weapons and gear, and most of them had looks of determination on their faces. However, a few looked uncertain, one or two glancing over at me as they left. Unable to call out to them, I could only watch them go until the last of them left my line of sight.

Relaxing my neck, I turned my head back around to face the unicorn again, only to blink in surprise when I saw he wasn’t there. I glanced around, trying to find him, but he was nowhere. The only other creatures I could see from my position were a few Equestrian humans off to the side who were giving me curious looks.

Ignoring them for the time being, I tried to move again, only for the rock encasing me to remain hard and yielding. I couldn’t move any part of my body besides my head even an inch.

I was stuck… in a hole in the ground.

I was stuck as a group of Terran humans went to wage war on the ponies.

There was currently nothing I could do.

And my nose itched.

…

...fuck.

Brass Star was a very confused pony.

And worried. Definitely worried.

Having trained for nearly a decade to be a Human Handler, she’d seen many strange things in her life, most of them human-related. She’d witnessed a human, who had been renowned for her violent temperament, waste away on top of her handler’s grave when the unicorn had passed due to heart complications. She had witnessed a human carry an injured mare over ten miles through rough terrain to receive medical attention, even though said human had a broken leg. She had witnessed a human completely ignore the fact that it couldn’t swim as it dove into a river to save a filly from drowning.

She’d witnessed many oddities from humans throughout her career as a Handler, and almost all of them had been protective in nature. It was almost as if the humans had a sort of sixth sense for danger. Bad weather coming? The humans hunkered down. Flood coming? The humans headed for high ground.

A monster attacking a city, however? That was a different story.

Nopony was sure if it was territorial or some other instinct, but if there was one thing humans seemed unwilling to run from, it was a monster attack. It was guaranteed that after each monster attack, reports would flood in about humans attacking the monster or defending ponies. When a hydra attacked Oakvale, it was a small group of humans that drove it off, protecting the pony inhabitants with their life. It wasn’t just that particular case either. Every time a report came in about a monster attack, so too came the reports about humans protecting ponies against the monsters.

It was almost like the humans had some instinctual need to protect ponies from creatures that would do them harm.

It was part of a Handler's job to know about these kind of instincts and evoke them.

That still didn’t stop Brass Star from being confused and worried when her humans had stopped tunneling and had placed themselves protectively between Brass Star and the ponies that were currently approaching through the dark, a light from a horn illuminating the way.

“What are you lot doing?” she asked, glancing around. “Come on. Back to digging.” She made a loud clicking noise with her teeth. “Come on. Get!” None of the humans moved. They kept staring intently at the approaching ponies. Several had their lips pulled back in a silent snarl.

The hair on the back of Brass Star’s neck began to stand up.

“What has gotten into you lot?” she muttered under her breath, only to gasp when the new ponies drew close enough to see, revealing two unicorns, one of which was very familiar. “A-Archmage?! What are you doing here?”

The Archmage eyed at her blankly, the light from his horn casting shadows upon his face. He continued to stare at her for a few more seconds before he said calmly. “You may leave.”

“W-what?” Brass Star gasped, taking a step back. “But… I’m supposed to be here until this evening, when Amber Rose gets here—”

“There’s been a change of plans,” the Archmage interrupted, his tone unchanging. “You are excused.”

“But sir! We’re almost to the source!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“But sir!”

“Thank you, Brass Star,” the Archmage growled. “Go home.”

Brass Star opened her mouth to continue to protest, only to pause and close it a second later. Hanging her head, she sighed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good girl,” the Archmage muttered.

Keeping her head lowered, Brass Star made her way past the Archmage. As she moved, her humans moved with her, keeping themselves between her and the Archmage. She was just passing the other unicorn when she stopped, her eyes widening. He was dirty gold in color, his mane only slightly darker than his coat. His eyes were hooded, and almost seemed empty, as though the lights were on but nopony was home.

However, what caused her to pause was his horn, which was currently sparking and oozing magic.

Brass Star took a step back, her eyes wide in horror. “S-sir! Your horn!”

“I’m fine,” the unicorn replied emotionlessly.

“But sir!”

“Brass Star,” the Archmage sighed, glancing over his shoulder. “He’s fine.”

Brass Star gaped at him. “Pardon me for saying so, sir, but that is not fine!”

“Brass Star…”

“That is a serious buildup of magic!”

“Brass Star.”

“That can be life-threatening if not treated!”

“Brass Star!”

“We need to get him to the hospital right now!” Brass Star cried, taking a step towards the overcharged unicorn. There was a bright flash, and Brass Star and the humans ceased to exist within the tunnel.

“How... troubling…” the Archmage gasped, the magic around his horn dimming slightly. “To have my vast reserves… reduced to this.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “No matter. We’re almost done.” As one, the Archmage and Golden Ingot turned and headed further into the tunnel.

Reaching the back wall, they paused. The Archmage lifted up a hoof and pressed it against the rock, letting his senses spread out through the hoof and into the earth. He stayed that way for a few seconds before lowering his hoof and backing up.

“About a foot left to go,” he muttered, eyeing the wall critically. The magic in his horn flared slightly as he gauged how much of his reserve he had left.

“It’ll have to do,” he muttered, eyes narrowing. The light around his horn grew brighter. A low groan came from the rock wall in front of him before suddenly, with a loud echoing crack, it collapsed inward in an explosion of rocks and dust. Yellowish-green light shone through the hole, causing the cloud of dust to glow eerily in the gloom. The very air seemed to pulse and hum with some unknown magic.

The pair waited for the dust to settle before stepping through the newly formed hole in the tunnel wall. They emerged into a large circular cavern. It had a dome-shaped ceiling, and the floor had been carved perfectly flat. Misty fog filled the room, swirling and wafting lazily on unseen currents. In the dead center of the room, a large hole was carved into the rock. It was almost twenty feet in diameter, and the yellowish-green light was emanating from deep within its depths. Scattered all around the pit were statues of faceless humans, all carved from blackened marble. They were cracked and withered with age, some missing limbs and heads, while others were nothing more than a pile of broken marble.

“Never thought I’d see this place again, let alone use it,” the Archmage murmured, gazing around at the ominous room. “It’s just as well, all things considered. It’s always good to have a plan B in place for just such an occasion. We—GAH!” With a cry of pain, the Archmage nearly collapsed but managed to catch himself at the last second. Fighting to stay standing, he winced as another wave of pain coursed through his body.

“If this is what dying feels like, then no thank you,” he growled, shaking his head. Turning to Golden Ingot, who was watching everything with a blank expression, he motioned towards the pit with his head. “Well, get going. You know what you need to do.”

Golden Ingot nodded before stiffly making his way towards the pit, working his way through the sea of statues. The Archmage followed, albeit at a more reserved pace.

Golden paused at the edge of the pit and glanced down into its depths. It was hard to tell if the shifting contents within were a liquid or a gas. Whatever they were, they swirled together in a chaotic, swirling mess of glowing substance.

The pair just stood there for a few minutes, staring into the pit, before Golden suddenly dropped like a rag doll. All his legs went limp, his neck flopping back and forth weakly as he toppled head over hooves down into the abyss. He disappeared into the fog below without a trace.

There was a brief second of silence before a flash of white light broke through the swirling gas. Lightning erupted from the pit, arcing across the ceiling and walls of the cavern, leaving dark streaks against the aged stone. A sudden wind billowed around the room, pulling at the Archmage’s mane and tail, and causing some of the statues to collapse. The very room seemed to shake slightly, bits of rock falling from the ceiling.

This continued for several long minutes before fading. The mist began to settle back upon the floor as the light in the pit faded back to a sickly yellow.

The Archmage stared down into the pit with a raised eyebrow.

“Strange,” he mused. “That should have worked. Why didn’t it work? Last time it only… took…” He trailed off, a deadpan look crossing his face as he stared into the pit. Facehoofing, he growled softly. “Added the fuel, but still need the spark.” Lowering his hoof, he watched the glowing mist of the pit swirl around for a few seconds before a small smirk spread across his face. “Well, it’s not like it matters anymore. I was just going to dispose of him anyways.”

His legs shaking, the Archmage moved to stand at the very edge of the pit. Swaying slightly on his hooves, he laughed weakly to himself. “Well, old bean. It’s been fun, but it’s time for this little vacation to end. Ta ta!”

With that, the Archmage closed his ice blue eyes.

He leaned forward, a peaceful look on his face, and began to fall.

Over the edge.

Down into the pit.

As he toppled past the point of no return, his face scrunched up. He opened his eyes, the deep emerald green orbs glancing around in confusion. “What the—? Where am I?” A gasp escaped his lips as he caught sight of what lay before him. His eyes widened and he tried to teleport to safety, only for his horn to spark and flicker uselessly. He opened his mouth to scream, but before the air could escape his lungs, the glowing fog consumed him.

All was still for a moment.

Then there was an explosion, and the cavern was consumed in a flash of yellow light.

Deep within the Royal Gardens, one particular stone statue trembled. A large series of cracks slowly began to work their way across its surface, white light shining from within. The shaking grew worse as the light continued to build up until finally, with a loud crack, the top half of the statue exploded.

A figure emerged from the smoking base of the statue, threw back its arms, and yawned.

“Free at last, free at last!” Discord groaned as he stretched. “Thank me almighty, I am free at last.” His shoulders and neck popped several times as he twisted his limbs about at impossible angles.

“Really, that was some of the worst sleeping conditions I’ve ever had in my life,” he groused, stepping out of the remains of his stone prison. “Zero out of ten. Would never recommend. Seriously, Celestia, you need to get with the times. Stone is so last millennium. Where are the box-spring mattresses? Then again,” he said, reaching back and pulling out a spring that had become lodged in his back, “box-springs are a pain in the back as well. Maybe a nice waterbed, hmmm?”

Working out the last of the kinks in his body, Discord straightened up.

“Oh, it feels simply marvelous to be back home again,” he cooed, flexing his talons. “Not to say it wasn’t fun to play make-believe for a while—” he reached up and pulled a fake unicorn horn off of his head and tossed it over his shoulder “—but now it’s time for things to get serious.”

Pulling a large pocket watch out of… somewhere, Discord flipped it open before consulting it. A pink pony with a beanie cap and swirling eyes stared up at him from the face of the watch, a large dopey smile on her face. Her forelegs acted as the arms of the clock, except they were spinning backwards while stopping and starting at random intervals. That wasn’t the only odd part of the pocket watch, though. Instead of numbers, different splotches of colors lined the outer edge of its face, all of them a different shade of blue or pink.

It must have made some sense to Discord, for he stared at the odd pocket watch for a few seconds before gasping loudly, a look of overly-dramatic horror on his face.

“Goodness! Is it really that time already?!” he cried. “Oh, I’m late! I’m late!” Stuffing the watch back where it had originally come from, he then snapped his claws. A large scroll appeared from thin air in front of him.

“Now then. What have we got left to do?” Discord hummed as the scroll unrolled itself all over the gardens. It hung from trees and got tangled in the bushes as it continued to unroll to impossible lengths.

Pulling out a small pair of half-moon spectacles, Discord perched them on the end of his nose before glancing at the scroll. ‘To-Do List’ was written across the top of the page in large, gaudy letters. The first thing listed simply read ‘Celestia’ with a cartoon picture of her with buck teeth and a dunce cap.

“Let’s see,” Discord said, pulling a quill out from behind his ear. “Ol’ Cake Flank, taken care of.” He crossed her name off of the list. The next item read ‘Luna’ with a picture of a moon with a butt on it. She too was crossed off the list. “Crater Flank, taken care of as well. The Princess’s pet? He’s currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. Darkflare, check. His cronies, check as well. Golden Ingot, check. The Princess of Shipping…” He paused, scratching his head with the quill as he stared at Cadance’s name. After a few seconds, he shrugged and moved on. “Eh, someone else is currently working on that at the moment. Moving on. The Coming Dawn, check. Took care of them earlier than planned, actually.”

He continued down the list, crossing off names in a similar manner as he went, until he reached the bottom. “That should take care of everyone except… for…” Discord stared at the last few names on the list before a large, devilish grin spread across his face. Giving the end of the scroll a flick of his wrist, it rolled back up like a window shade and disappeared in a ‘poof’ of smoke.

“Well,” he sneered, his grin growing until it threatened to split his head in half. “I think it’s about time for me and six special mares to have one last reunion… and settle the score once and for all.”

Just then, the ground began to shake. The surrounding trees groaned loudly, with several of them beginning to list to one side as the ground beneath them cracked and shifted. Yellowish smoke began to snake up through the cracks in the ground. Wafting over to Discord, it surrounded the draconequus before slowly being absorbed into his body. Yellow light began to glow from Discord’s eyes as more and more of the energy emerged from the ground and congealed around him.

As the last of the smoke phased into the draconequus’ body, he just stood there, basking in the feeling. Static ran up and down his body, causing the parts of his body that had fur to fluff up slightly.

Gazing down at his sparking claws, Discord chuckled darkly. “Well, this certainly proves to be entertaining.”

With that, he flapped his mismatched wings before zooming off into the night, cackling madly.

Author's Notes:

Ho ho ho? More like No no no!

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Merry Christmas!!!
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