“Okay, not the brightest idea I had.” I said getting up on my hooves after I had came to. I don't remember how long I was out, or where I was. I pulled magic to my horn to light up the area around us. The gemstones and crystals around began to glint in a multitude of colors. Besides that the remains of the throne room around me. This was... wait, I know this place. This was the crystal caverns under the light side of Canterlot. The same place Chrysalis had tried and to imprison both Twilight and Cadence. So, if my memory was correct I just have to follow their story to get out of here. Let's see... if I ended up here that means... My gaze came across the room to find the markers that Twilight told me. One thing about Twilight is when she describes something she makes you feel like you can see it if you really take in the details. I had to account for all the new stuff around me but I could see where she had blasted the wall to free Cadence. So that means I have to walk the other direction to find an an exit. But the problem was that I was weaponless where I stood. I looked around to find a lot of the armor and weapons warped, bent, or unusable in some way. “Damn.” I said trying to find something to keep on me. Something inside told me that I need to keep something on hand.

“Wait... just maybe.” I said out loud as I looked for a spear or sword to get my hooves on that looked as best. I found a broken spear, that will work, after a bit more of searching I found a short sword that was bent in a ninety degree angle. I nodded quietly at this and began to breathe fire on it, until it began to glow bright red. I then took both my magic and hoof to press the sword down so both ends of the metal that wasn't at the bending point melted into the clasp for the spear. From there I began to magically pound the sword metal to forge myself a makeshift dagger. It wasn't pointed in the traditional way but it was a square edge style dagger. The problem with this was the metal wasn't quenched after my reforging, so I may lose this somewhere down the line. Of course that's something you pick up after watching enough videos on the internet about the damn stuff. That and probably an unhealthy fascination with it as well. I kept the blade floating in my magic while it cooled down. I continued through the crystal cavern seeing the prismatic colors that just blend and mixed through out the walls.

This reminded me much of the same kind of caverns that was under the Crystal Empire's castle. Come to think about it if I get out of here and make sure that everypony is safe I should head up there with Twilight to visit Cadence and Shining Armor. My echoed steps in the cavern was the only thing I could hear besides the sounds of the wind blowing in. The only other thing that I could describe was this overbearing chill that wouldn't leave my body. Like an odd sixth sense that things were wrong, which would be normal after facing that monstrosity that was Chrysalis. Maybe this was just Equestria's way of telling me something was wrong, or maybe after spending a lot of time being here I picked up a knack for these things.

“Shadow you there?” I asked, after a few minutes I didn't get a reply. “Shadow?” Again nothing. “Shadow!” I yelled more to try and get his attention. Of course who I got to answer me was most defiant the one I didn't want to answer.

“Shadow.” Said a very odd voice. It sounded like someone couldn't decide if a voice should be deep or high pitch. On top of that it had a weird echo that started before the words did. “Shadow.” It said again but the second time it wasn't alone, two more voices had joined it. The three quickly turned to nine then twenty seven, from there it just kept increasing as something began to emerge out of the crystals around me. They looked like ponies if their coats were the purest of blacks. Covering most of the top part of their face was a white mask with scratches and marking done in red. The only other detail was that their eyes were just red dots within a sea of black. Their mouths open to show that they had white razor sharp looking teeth as they spoke my other side’s name. I remembered something like this from too many horror flicks, so I took the better option than trying to stay and fight. I high tailed it outta there like my life depended on it, most likely it did.

As I galloped down the cavern tunnel more of those weird ponies continued to emerge from the walls, floor, and ceiling. As I ran to avoid as many as I could, I decide to glance behind me to see a stampede of them after me. All of them looking menacing and ready to attack if they got in range. Lucky for me they were all earth ponies. Of course none of that mattered, as they came out of just about everywhere. I ran throughout that cavern trying to escape the mob of creatures after me. I made it around those caves twice before I found the rail track that Cadence and Twilight had used the cart to escape. The old track looked like it was being held up by just best wishes alone. My path turned towards the rails as I was hoping to at least bottleneck them on the track to help evade most of them. Lucky for me that they may be able to chase and talk. But they are not able to use tactics to prevent my escape. My hooves struck against the wooden bracers of the track as I made my way down it. It seems that they added a metal mess for those that didn't have a cart to ride down it. I began to breath fire ahead of me with as much force as I could to help incinerate the wood under me, keeping it going for an hour. As soon as I gave myself the chance to breathe in for a second wave of flames the track began to give out by the massive weight of the herd of pony shaped creatures behind me. My long shot worked… too well as the rails behind me began to fall out. So I trade one dangerous situation for another one. I will state this as I think I have many times before.

“I am not a smart pony!” I yelled out of my own frustration as I tried to escape. As I made my way down the track I knew that I was fighting a losing battle. The track was rather long and even came to a spiral part way through. So if this continued much longer fatigue was going to set in and I was going to fall to god knows where. The track continued to race under me as the collapsing track behind me was catching up fast. I needed something to give me some time. The spiral part of the track was coming close so I tried something reckless. I jumped to my left to the track further down and tried to jump from curve to curve. I forgot that with the track so close that it began to take down the spiral as soon as I landed on the second inner ring. Two more jumps and I was back down the straight away. All this time I couldn't get this odd feeling that I had forgot something rather important. That was shortly answered when I found myself at the end of the track.

“You've got to be fucking kidding me?” I yelled as I slide to a stop right before going over. Okay, it's official the universe is a damn jerk. With the track falling out coming up fast I had to figure out a way to get myself to safety. I looked around me to find some thing but with the only usable stuff around me was the metal mesh, rail ties, and the wooden bracers there wasn't... wait a minute. I reached out with my magic and began to rip out the metal. I then began to make a makeshift roll cage around me. I used the rails as the main support for the cage and the mesh to surround it. With that done I began to press to get it rolling towards the collapsing track. As the track fell out from under me I began to use the downward slope that the falling track created to keep myself going. Since everything falls roughly at the same time and heavy things falls faster. The roll cage stayed on the track and I used the rails to keep it from jumping the track. As soon as I reached the bottom of the cavern I found myself a hard time trying to stop it. Especially when I was launched into the air from a bent set of track. The cage struck against the wall sending me into the side of the cage that bent in from the impact before it dropped to the ground and rolled back. Until it got to the dent which it stayed on. Several minutes passed as I sat there trying to get my bearings, that and the world to stop spinning.

Once that was done I was able to figure out where the hell I was. Downside was that I was in a cave somewhere under the crystal caverns. I had no idea where this was and I don't remember anything about them from Twilight's stories of her adventures. The cave walls around me looked to be uniformly dug like this was made for something. Even to the point that it looked like the walls themselves were carved to look like stone bricks. Somepony wanted this place to look like the old dungeons that you would find in old adventure games. The path behind me was blocked because of rumble so I had to travel down the only path I had. Even with having an internal furnace in me I couldn't help but feel the cold around me. I could take cool temperatures but I really didn't like the cold. Now that I think about it, I wasn't that cold during the winter. Wet maybe, but not really cold. It was even cold enough that I could see my breath as I exhaled. The tunnel walls were slick to the point that even with the glow from my light spell. The flickering showed me the sheen of light coming from it and the bits of mildew hanging on the walls. Even with the wet walls the dirt floor was oddly dry. My hooves gave a thump as I continued to walk down the tunnel. It opened up to a much larger room that honestly looked like it was ripped out of a sewer system and made massively larger. Within the still water in the middle of it the sewer tunnel a large massive skeleton of some kind of a three headed sea serpent. The bones looked like it had better days as most of them had a darker almost black like discoloration. Looking around I saw that I only had one place left I could go. So I followed the tunnel down further, I watched as waterfalls fell down and joined the larger stream.

All my normal exits were blocked by thick gating that would take me time to focus through. Even with blink I don't think I could get through them without issue. The dull throb from my wing began to set in as the painkillers were wearing off. The tunnel began to spread out in size until it was more a cavern. After a few more minutes of traversing I found a very large building sunk into the wall. Unlike the larger green cavern walls, the building itself was a pale blue. I couldn't help but get a little creeped out by the building’s design. This was almost a spot for spot asylum straight from a horror movie on earth, down to the steel bars on the windows with a Gothic motif. It even had the big imposing wooden door that screams that something is bound to happen. But of course my curiosity got the better of me and I had to check it out. As soon as I got close I saw a large plaque upon the door itself. “Athenaeum” was written on the plaque, which I had no damn clue what it meant. Silently the door opened to a darken room that had soft glowing from different sources. A pool here, a few crystals there, and some stuff I couldn't tell what they were in jars. Even with the glow from multiple sources as well as my horn it took me several minutes to find a light switch. A few minutes more for my eyes to get use to the sudden change in light. Once I was able to see I was rather surprised, well... I guess surprised would be the wrong word. Confused would be a better word as the only thing I could compare this too was a hero from fiction back home.

“Did I just find the pony version of the bat cave?” I asked out loud. To be honest it looked like something directly from it, hell it had the giant penny with a pony version of Abraham Lincoln minted into it. Not even just that, against a far cave wall I could see different tapestries that had a different design in each one. Under them house a three floor set of bookcases. Which wasn't the only bookcases in the whole place. Under the giant penny was a large fountain that had books around the outside of them in there own little shelves. Whoever owned this place would put Twilight to shame in the amount of books that they own. Hell I think this would beat the Canterlot Archives at least twice over. That's just one side of the room alone, the other side had so much stuff on them. Foremost the first thing that caught my eye was not the statue of Starswirl the bearded. But the large painting next to it of a younger Princess Celestia. If I had to stay something about size, if I was seeing the proportions right. She was closer to Luna's size when this was painted. If my memory serves me and after Twilight drilled it into my head, this would be up to or at least just after Luna's banishment when this was done. My gaze dropped to some of the miscellaneous stuff around the painting. Jars, jugs, books, and scrolls are cakes on with years of dust and cobwebs covered the space around me. Most of them closer to the large display cases one of them housed a set of jewelry and a massive gem. It was the other case that really caught my eye. Inside it was a disassembled C-96 m712 Mauser hand gun.

Slowly I blinked looking at this gun... in Equestria... from earth, Germany no less. I finally looked at the little plaque to see what they decided to call this.

A Hue Man Gun, a stronger projectile weapon.

I couldn't help but groan a little at this. Besides that fact that somepony as smart or as I was told and read so to really not be able to call a human anything but that in the correct spelling. Wait... how did they get this gun? Besides the fact that both Grimwand and I were the only ones that knew that spell. Well granted that zebra Grimwand got, the book from knew it. But still... it's a little hard to say that besides the three of us that Starswirl from roughly a thousand years ago would have the same ability. As I continue to examine the gun for a few minutes my spine began to tingle with the very loud roar just coming from the other side of the door I just entered. At first I tried to whip out the make shift knife that I didn't have. I ended up losing it during my roll cage incident.

“Shit!” I said as I tried to find something to protect myself with. My gaze returned to the gun case. Part of me wanted to avoid having to use it, but the logical side said that I really didn't have much choice in this if I really need to defend myself. With a growl I struck the case with my prosthetic hoof to smash it. I quickly got the gun together and even loaded. Which at least lucky for me that the clip was loaded. The only odd part was getting the gun strap to get it on. Since for all logical sense that putting a gun strap under my wing would be a little hard to get to without magic. That and having to feel a gun smack my hind legs just screams bad idea with them still injured as they are. So I mostly had it strapped around my neck and slightly dangled from my chest. I did make sure I had the full clip in and began to find another way out. The way I entered was clearly off limits with whatever was behind it. I saw enough horror movies growing up to tell me not to do that. Granted I did kind of walk into the whole Chrysalis fight, so note to self see if I brought my horror movie collection with me. Trotting throughout this bat pony cave place, I couldn't see some way out that didn't lead into a dead end. I mean I could find a chemistry lab, a library, a bedroom, the bathroom, and quite a few other rooms, but no way to escape this underground cavern. That of course was when I found the big shiny golden door that just so happen to have a bright light coming from under it. Of course it was the only door I haven't checked yet. I mean with the door clearly labeled mirror room, it was most likely a dead end. At this point what did I have to lose?

The door creaked open to show a fairly large round room that shouldn't really fit in the a allotted space. I stepped back out to see that the entry was maybe a few feet away from the door and yet when I reentered, the wall next to the door had more then that in spades. Somepony was playing goofy with the space in here or something. I couldn't help but feel like somepony had seen the Tardis from Doctor Who or something like that. The room inside had a polished purple stone covering each surface beyond the wooden doors that was where I entered and on the other side of the wall. The floor had a carved tile pattern and on the walls beside the doors was full length mirrors with a golden edge encrusted with amethyst gems. I watched the gems cascade in the glow from the furthest end of the room to the one closest to me. I tentatively stepped further into the room as I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew of Starswirl mostly from Twilight and my late night reading. He had pioneered a lot of the spell and magical theories that are used nowadays. But I had read nothing about his work with mirrors or anything of that matter. So to find something like this here really didn't help the whole feeling of unease and dread that just circled around me. Of course what really didn't help was, after a few steps in, the door behind me slammed shut. Radiating shield magic covered both doors making sure that I wouldn't be getting through them anytime soon. To top it all each mirror turned bright white while the gems glowed purple which caused me to be blinded for a few seconds. In which time I thought I could hear somepony calling my name.

“Twilight?” I asked as the light pierced through my closed eyes as I could have sworn that was who said my name. After the light died away and my vision cleared enough to see that nothing in the room had changed at a cursory glance. As to add to the oddity of it all that I couldn't help but feel that I wasn't alone in the room anymore. But for the life of me I could not see any pony in here. Venturing a chance I moved myself over to the other door and tried to see if the shield was nothing more than an illusion spell. Maybe somepony thought it was better to trick another pony that they were trapped. Unfortunately it was indeed shield as the small spark of pain that the shield snapped at me told me enough. “Okay, so somepony wanted to trap ponies in here. But if I was that pony I would make myself a fail safe just in case if I got trapped myself. Now the sixty four million dollar question is where is said fail safe?” I said to myself as I tried to examine each mirror’s frame as that would be my first guess to the location. A curious thing to note is that each gem didn't stop glowing after the blinding white light did as they pulsated from mirror to mirror. After I examined the third mirror, a sound rang out that caused my mane to stand on end. A laugh of not a filly or colt but that of a mare could be heard. I quickly turned around to see if somepony was there, but there wasn't one. That fact alone filled me with fear, especially after the shadow pony creatures from before.

Turning my gaze around the room, it was quickly drawn to a flash of a shadow on one of the mirrors for a split second. Looking behind me I noticed that I was up against the mirror behind me. Every fiber of my being told me to escape this room as the laugh echoed throughout the room once again. It sounded closer to me then it did last time. Just standing there like an idiot trying to find the source of that sound, which seemed to not want to be found. I moved away from the mirror to just get a better view. Oh, I got a better view as I was sent violently into the shield covered door by a mysterious force that felt like a buck to my side. A second passed as I got back to my hooves to see what attacked me, but still nothing was there. I thought about it for a moment and conjured myself a layer of fog on the ground to see if this was a grounded enemy. Nothing stood out to me as the fog remained the inch thickness I cast upon the floor. Okay, not a grounded enemy then. I took up the fog keeping it as level as possible I brought it straight up, much like I did against Shadow Storm to see if I was indeed dealing with a flying combatant, but alas nothing there as well. Was it just some spell in the room? I was sent away from the door by another burst of force sending me on to my back in the middle of the room after almost comically sending my butt up into the air as I slid. What the hell was attacking me? Rolling over to get back on my hooves towards my good wing, I tried to figure out what the hell was assaulting me. That's when my gaze fell right back to the mirrors. Circling around my reflection was a weird looking pony. From what I could tell that it's coat was a very dark purple, almost a dark violet. I could make out where it's mouth should be but it didn't have any opening I would count as one. The thing continued to circle me in the mirrors as I noticed it's tail wasn't pony like at all. Unlike a pony's tail, this one has more like a thicker monkey tail closer to my tail when I'm in my stormed form. Since my tail get's thicker closer to a dragon's tail. In the case of this creature it's tail had what looked like a large five fingered claw at the end of it reaching over the top. At the tip of each claw instead of the dark purple it had some bright yellowish orange colored tip. When I finally got an angle to see the face of this thing. I noticed it had a large red vertical eye. Much like the slit for a cat's eye, in the center of it, being vertical as well. Across the eye it had a large yellow colored cross mark that if you took the center red eye and used the ends of the cross. Make a very sharp looking butterfly like pattern as it's face. Part of me was getting an alien pony vibe from this thing and I didn't like it. It's tail flew down at me and I tried to sidestep it. But being able to make the judge of distance from a reflection is harder than it looks. I stepped into it and was slammed down by the creature’s large palm. After having myself flatten by the creature it decided that I needed to be picked up by my guess it's large clawed tail. It swung me around in a circle before I was tossed into one of the mirrors. The sound of shattering glass was heard followed by a painful screech coming from somewhere.

Shakily getting onto my hooves, I saw the faintest silhouette of the creature in the room with me. I blinked looking at this mass over dark purple as that was all I could make out of it. The main radiantly coming from my back made it a little hard for me to focus on what had changed. Doing what I could I tried to focus enough to fire a fireball at the silhouette but it seemed that this thing was still as incorporeal as before. That slightly changed when the fireball destroyed one of the mirror's opposite to the one behind me. This caused the silhouette to fill in a bit more to the point that I could see it's eye staring at me after it let out another screech of pain.

“So that's your gimmick huh?” I said with a grin. The creature only roared at me which was kind of amazing since it didn't have a mouth to do so. It tried to grab me again but this time being able to see it I was able to jump to the left and make a dash for another mirror while I sent a second fireball at a third mirror. It connected and like before caused the creature to screech and fill in. I turned and bucked the mirror I ran up to shattering it. Four of these mirrors were broken and I could count six left. Before my hind legs came down from the buck the creature was on me and had me in a choking grip with it's tail.

“You won't win.” It growled in a distorted female voice.

“Why? Because you have me in your grip?” I asked, it answered back with slamming me into the ground.

“No, because I won't lose.” It said after it had me back up in the air.

“You forget one thing sister.” I said as I sent magic through my horn.

“What's that?” It asked putting a squeeze on my throat.

“I have a gun.” I answered before I lifted up the gun still in it's holster and fired through it at another mirror shattering it. The creature dropped me as it let out a screech once again. I didn't take a chance and unloaded a round into each mirror causing this creature to fill in more and more. Once the last mirror was destroyed I looked at the thing before me. It's eye was fixed at me as it returned to its hooves, one thing I didn't notice was that it's hooves had small claws on them like my stormed state does. It dashed at me knocking me onto the ground and dropping the gun from my levitation spell. Okay, so this was phase two. It ran up to me and started to rear up to smash it's hooves into me. I was faster sending a stream of flames at it. Unlike when it was incorporeal, this was corporeal and on fire. It thrashed around trying to extinguish the flames. This thing could burn in hell as far as I cared. What I wanted the most was it gone, and I was going to get that as I moved to get my gun. It had another plan as it used its tail and grabbed my hind legs lifting me in the air. I howled in pain as the bandages weren't made to numb this. It began to swing me around in the air over it's burning body until the flung me into the air. I struck against the ceiling before I had dropped onto the ground. The fire continued to engulf the creature before me as the flames turned from the ruby red that it was to a dark purple. I fought to get back to my hooves as my pain run rapid through my body. I needed to end this now if I had a chance to survive. Sending a bit of magic through my horn I was able to point the gun in the air at the creature as it slowly moved towards me. It's eye glowed with the fires of hell that screamed 'dead meat' if it got it's claws on me. It looked up to see my horn and turned to see the gun pointed right at it's fucking head. “Checkmate” I said grinning followed by the ringing sound of a gunshot. I watched the creature fly back a bit as the back of it's head just exploded sending bits of bone, brain, and other bits against the wall. The splatter covered most of the mirrors as I just collapsed there onto my belly.

“I don't think I could handle much more of this.” I said as I brought the gun back to me along with the damaged holster. Once I was able to take what I could only guess was a half hour to breathe I finally got to work on changing out my bandages for some fresh ones. The ones I had were covered in a dark red of my dried blood. As I began to pull back the bandages I was able to really see the extensive damage from being trapped in the tunnels like I had. It seems some of my leg was cut open from the debris which made sense as I couldn't see it at the time. Around the spots there was a massive size bruises like the doctor had described to me. Once I had the old bandages off the pain began to intensify so I had to work fast. Taking the fresh wrappings from my saddlebags which I was still a little surprised I had on me. Once my hind legs were mummified once more the magic in the bandages took in again. Several seconds passed before the pain was completely gone, it seems in that time the body of the creature decided to disappear completely leaving an odd shaped key in the pool of what I could guess passed as green blood. I reached out in magic to pick it up and bring it closer. The key was a fairly simple design. It was a amethyst gem in a diamond shape as a handle bordered by gold the came down to make the two prong teeth of the key. With a few waves of the key, I removed the ichor from it and slide it into my saddlebags. Okay, so I was safe my next task was finding a way out of this room. The door that I could guess lead back was still covered in the shield was still there. The other one... well... was gone.

“That's... I don't know how to feel about that.” I said with a cocked eyebrow. Something was bugging me about it but I couldn't guess. I walked over to it and tried to open it. My hoof gently pressed against, and like nothing was blocking it swung open to show myself in a large library of sorts. Dear god, if Twilight could see this now. I think she would be jumping for joy just at the massive amount of books alone. I looked slightly closer to these books, most of them didn't have titles just symbols on them that I wasn't aware of them. Top with that the large wood stained bookcases was covered in nothing more but dust and webs. Like nopony was down here to dust this in years, correction more like centuries. Magically pulling one of the books from it spot, displaced the dust while some of it just slid down to the floor. Of course this book was rather fruitless as I couldn't even read the book, most of it was complete gibberish. Sighing at this, I snapped the book shut and placed it back into it's shelf. This was really bugging me, I have no idea where I am now. In the city of Canterlot I was fairly good with it as once I've been somewhere I was able to find it again. That and I spent a lot of time going over the map. I've never been here before and I don't know how to get back to where I do know. Really this was scaring me on the inside as I worry about everypony. I'm worried to find out what happened to both my aunts and every other pony.

Even though I hate to admit this, I am worried about Blueblood as well. After the over powered Chrysalis, the shadow pony creatures, whatever roared, and that mirror monster. The back of my mane just stood on end as I keep scanning each row and corridor of this library. Breathing rather hard as I tried to keep myself calm. I couldn't help but get the feeling if I didn't keep my eyes open, I would get attacked from somewhere I wouldn't expect it. Suddenly a sound of something being swung through the air hard, and a pain in my skull caused me to black out.

***---***

“Uh... did anypony get the number of that donkey cart?” I groaned as the world came to.

“Holy shit it talks!” I heard in a very familiar voice.

“Of course I talk? Haven't you... seen...” my voice died at that point as I looked up to see a thin man. Not a pony, not a satyr, but a human being. One that I am very familiar with as he was one of my best friends from earth. To see him here in Equestria blew my mind. I watched him as he stood there with a pipe in his hands holding it, looking at me. He was surprised to find that I can talk, not surprised. I was too when I got here, granted I had amnesia at the time but still. The two of us just stood there, well... technically I was laying there after I was struck in the head while he had a pipe in his hand.

“What are you?” He asked looking at me.

“A... pony.” was all I said.

“Bullshit, ponies don't talk.” He said ready to swing again.

“Here they do.” I shot back wincing as I put up a hoof to block another strike. One that did not come at all.

“Here? Wait... where am I exactly?” He said looking at me.

“Equestria”

“Equestria? What kind of place is that?”

“Well... it's the place we both are. Well that's the name of the country we are in. Currently I would guess we are in a library.” I said as my head began to throb a little worse than before.

“Thank you captain obvious, now tell me something I don't know.” He growled a little.

“Besides the fact you're in a land of magical colorful talking ponies and a lot more weirder shit to be seen.” I shot back as he glared at me for my smart ass answer.“Well excuse me for having a hard time to think. Somepony just tried to cave my skull in with a pipe.”

“Did you seriously just say 'somepony'?” He asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yes I did, get use to the lexicon.” I said as I adjusted myself so I was sitting on my hunches. “How did you get here?”

“And why should I tell you?” He asked.

“Because I know it's not a normal occurrence that a human would show up out of nowhere here in Equestria.”

“So... I'm not on earth. Great, just great. Can something else go-”

“Trust me you don't want to finish that sentence like that.” I said cutting him off.

“And why not? Because this place likes to use that like a horror movie cliche and bite who ever said it for it.” I answered.

“Seriously?” he said skeptically

“Completely.” I answered seriously.

“Lovely, first it was falling through a mirror being cause by shadow horses.”

“Ponies.”

“What?”

“The correct term is ponies.”

“Do I look like I care at this point? Seriously I'm getting bad mouthed about being politically correct by a... pony. What's the world coming too?”

“A mad house?”

“With all this, I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't already shacked up in the whack-o basket.” He said throwing both arms in the air in disbelief. If I hadn't already been in this place for months at this point, I would completely agree with him. “Are those shadow ponies... normal around here?”

“No, they are a recent.”

“Really? Geez, I'm kind of curious on what you would find normal around here.” He said looking around. I took this time to get back on my hooves. Which my hind legs gave a twinge of pain. “What's wrong?” He asked as I could only guess he noticed my wincing from it.

“I had damaged my hind legs before all this started. The spell on the bandages may be running out. Faster than I expected... come to think of, it how long was I out?” I said turning to him with a flat stare.

“Few hours.”

“I see... why did you hit me in the first place?”

“I thought you were like those shadow pony things out there.” He said with a sheepish grin.

“Well as you can see I'm not.” I said as returned to my haunches. My horn lit up with magic as I pulled out another roll to redo my wrappings like before. The whole time Ghost sat there watching me fixing them. Like before with the bandages off the pain came in fast.

“How are you doing that?” He asked watching.

“Magic.” Said as I was trying to focus more on the spell to get this done faster.

“Here, let me help.” He said grabbing the unraveled roll from my magic. He then proceeded to do the wrapping himself.

“ah, thanks.” I said as he lifted up my leg gently from the prewrapped part.

“Anytime.” He said working silently for a few minutes. “So... magic's real?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is it hard to learn?”

“Not really, you just kind of need to ability to do so.” I answered.

“How so?”

“Well... here ponies need a horn to channel the spell through.”

“So is that why yours glow when you were floating this up?”

“Eeyup” I said much like Big Mac would.

“Makes sense...” He said finishing up the first leg before moving to unwrap the second one. “What can you do with it?”

“Well... just about everything.” I said a little through gritted teeth as the pain hit from the unwrapped hoof.

“Everything?”

“Well... within reason.”

“Okay, explain.” he said looking at me.

“Everypony that has a horn can use magic which depending on their special talent. Well help determine on what kind of spells they can learn. Well that is true for unicorns.” I started with as he finished with bandaging my hind legs. “Alicorns from what I was told have a much wider range of spells. They have a more catch all when it comes to magic. The only time a unicorn can have that range of spells is when they have a special talent that is magic itself.”

“How is someone suppose to know what their 'special talent' is?” He asked putting the remaining wrapping into my saddlebag.

“That's partly determined by our cutie mark.”

“Cutie mark... seriously?” He asked.

“Trust me I can't wrap my head around it either. But it's the image one my flank here.” I said returning to my hooves and turned to show it. “As you can see mine is a fireball hitting a storm cloud. Well in my case it means elemental magic is my forte. So anything that is directly done with elements like fire, water, and so forth. I will have an easier time with compared to something other than that.”

“I think I get it. But how does it work?” He asked getting back to his feet.

“Well... fundamentally it's not hard to work out. A spell is like seeing a code and the magic helps decipher it into a way you can understand. For me it comes out to be shapes, for Twilight it's math equations, and for others it could be musical scoring.”

“Twilight? Like those sparkling vampire books?” He said.

“No relation to the books, but her name is Twilight Sparkle.” I said as we began to move slowly away from where ever Ghost had dragged me too.

“Twilight Sparkle? Don't tell me you have an equally ridiculous name.” He sort of asked.

“Firestorm, and I don't find it ridiculous.” I said.

“Okay, sounds better then Twilight Sparkle.” He mocked lightly.

“Hey! That's my marefriend you're talking about.” I said stopping and turning towards him. I noticed that I was probably a good foot and a half shorter than he was. I knew normal ponies were shorter than humans. The time in Max's body and by him help get me a good gauge to the average. So I looked up at him rather annoyed.

“Geez chill, I was just stating my personal opinion.” He said.

“Well you wouldn't want me to insult your girlfriend, would you?”

“I get it, I messed up.” He said looking ashamed.

“Sorry, I'm a little tense with everything happening.” I said before we continued on our way.

“I can believe that.” There was a few moments of silence, where the two of us continued down the rows of books. This place was annoyingly big, and almost seemed endless. It didn't help that our only source of light at the moment was the random torch and my horn with a light spell. “Look... this may sound a little weird but you remind me of someone I knew.” He said and I looked over at him.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Yeah... he was a great guy. A bit of an idiot but still a great guy.” He started and I could hear the depression in his tone of voice. “It's odd, just there is something about you reminded me of him.”

“Why don't you tell me about him?”

“Shit... where do I begin?” He said crossing his arms and gave one of his arms a rub as he thought. As I had pegged it, he began to talk about me. “Honestly, at times he's a little hard to peg down. I can't tell if he was joking just because that's how he is or just to cover up something personal. It took me years to find out about one painful thing in his past. No telling how many others he didn't tell. Don't get me wrong, I loved the guy like a brother but he was really stupid when it came to pain. Even with all that, he wasn't a pushover. The fucker could take beating after beating from those around him, verbal and physical but keep going, he was a stubborn mule like that.” Ghost said and I could see the smile on his face at all this. The fond memories that must have been going through his mind. During this I tried to keep my face neutral the whole time. It's not that I want to be cold to the guy. Guy's like a brother to me, but to him... I was dead. Which would have happened if it wasn't for a stranger fate. I wouldn't lie at how strange it was hearing things about yourself from someone else perspective that thought you were dead. Well in all fairness I am dead there. He went on to talk about some of the moments we had together, including a trip he, knives, and I had to Chicago. About the super spicy pizza that did a number on my system.

“Geez it sounds like he couldn't take the heat.” I said.

“The idiot drank a few pitchers of water before the challenge.” Ghost said with a laugh. I couldn't help but laugh remembering that day, and the month that followed. Let's just say after that pizza ran it's course I regret it for the whole month. Between the stories he told which was rather numerous, I caught him wearing a piece on his belt. Under the black coat he wore with a pair of blue jeans and white shirt, I saw the holster for the gun he had on him. “Noticed it?”

“Yeah, kind of rare finding a gun in Equestria.” I answered back as my own bounced from my chest.

“Really? How many have been found?”

“The two you and I have.” I said holding up my own in my magic while keeping it in the hostler.

“Really?” There was a note of surprise in his voice.

“You're not the only one surprised there. Hell I didn't even know that there was a gun in Equestria until... come to think of it how long was I out?” I asked looking up at Ghost.

“An hour roughly. My watch stopped working since I got here.” He said pulling back his sleeve showing a digital watch blinking four eights with a half second display between the blinks. I noticed a crack crossing from the middle like an impact did it. Much to my guess it's possible on top of magic working in weird ways.

“Okay so about an hour and a half when I found this.” I said as we continued to walk through what just seems to be the biggest or endless library I've ever seen. No matter how long we travel it seems like something was keeping us here. From when I woke up, we have traversed the same corridor. The only thing that changed besides the different books and scrolls on the shelves was the amount of dust and webbing.

“Something wrong?” Ghost asked as he most likely noticed my observing.

“Something isn't feeling right. Besides the fact that we've been walking for a while with no wall in sight.” I said finally voicing what I noticed.

“Is that normal for here?” As soon as that left his mouth I just turned and give him a deadpanned look. “What? It's an honest question, I'm not use to all this magic crap.”

“Fair point, no. It's not normal for a room to loop unless magic was in play. But-” I started as my horn lit up to sense the room around us. Something about sensing is that if the room is bigger than your range which from what I remember Twilight explaining was about three times your bodies natural pools of magic. If the room is larger than that it just fades out at the end. “I don't even sense any walls.”

“Sense walls?”

“Part of my special talent, since most walls are made from natural elements I can sense it even if I'm not looking at it. Sort of like sonar for bats.” I looked around to find anything to help.

“Let me guess not a skill a lot of ponies can learn?”

“Well... sort of. Unicorns can learn it. But if it's outside their normal skill set. It's on the harder side to learn. Alicorns are easier since like I said they can learn and do more magic than a unicorn.”

“So that's why you have a horn and wings right?”

“Eeyup.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“Yeah, trust me learning magic for the first time was not easy.”

“Really?”

“Indeed, it's like fire in a way. Trying to do it with sticks and leaves. Not impossible but hard if you don't know what you're doing. The more you do it the better you get with it. Well... that's how it was with me. Caught on to it like wildfire once I got telekinesis down.” I said with a light smile. I remembered back when a cup was hard to get up off the table. Now I can lift up much more. Turning to Ghost I was quickly knocked forward, slammed into a bookcase that was tipped over from the forces of what hit me. I looked around, and noticed Ghost running towards me. I noticed something behind him. “Duck!” I yelled and Ghost dropped to his knees. Moments later a mass of white something flew over him and passed me. Returning to his feet, Ghost turned and pulled out his gun. I saw what he was welding. A black rhino 60DS six inch revolver was pointed into the dark that I only could see four red eyes looking towards us. They were like if you took the four side of a die but the top two were spread further apart. Something was on the edge of my mind that it reminded me and it was massively countering the sounds of hooves as the eyes slowly got closer.

“My, my, my, and what do we have here?” Said a very alluring female voice.

“Who's there?” Ghost said as his back was towards me. I only guessed that he was keeping his eyes tracked on the four red ones that were coming closer. I tried to get myself out of what I could see now as thick webbing. Thicker than a normal spiders as it was more like string then hair thin. But that didn't deter from how strong it was. Even with the strength enchantment I was having a hard time getting myself free. All the while, what ever it was continued to get closer and closer until I saw it's foreleg come into the light. It sort of looked like a hoof but with more shaggy fur. That's beside the color of it anyway, it looked like it was mainly a brown color with orange strips that surrounded a yellow strip on it. It continued to come into the light as I watched it's forelegs come out next on it's body. The elongated body it had ending in an arachnid's abdomen. Finally it's head came in and it looked like a pony's head. Well to be honest the whole thing looked like a cross between a spider and pony. I mean it had eight legs that all ended with hooves. Granted it was using the two front forelegs as arms like some spider demon from a castlevania game. When she came fully into the light I noticed a few other things besides the whole spider bits down below. She did indeed have four eyes in sets of two. The higher two were just solid red while the other two were much like a normal ponies eyes. All four of them were still red, on top of that her mane was a bright blond that just rolled from before her horn and off the back. And she did indeed had a cutie -mark of webbing that strung into what I could only guess was purple cloth. I honestly didn't want to think about it anymore then I had to.

“Oh, it seems that a pony and whatever you are wanted to play.” She purred at us.

“Stay back.” Ghost said as I heard the telltale sound of the hammer being pulled back.

“And why would I want to do that. I haven't had anypony here to play with in ages.” She said as her horn lit up causing Ghost's gun to be smacked out of his hand by a telekinetic slap. It went flying to the left followed by him not expecting it. He sidestepped with it to keep his balance. This gave her time to bring up her second set of forelegs and bucked him towards me. He fell a little short, landing on the floor and sliding up to the book case.

“You alright?” I asked looking at him as I tried to get free.

“Yeah, but the bitch hit's like a brute.” He said rubbing the spot.

“Mind helping me get free?” I asked as Ghost looked up at me.

“Uh... yeah sure.” With that he pulled out a large knife that I didn't see on him before. He slipped the knife within the webbing and slashed up with it. Doing his best to avoid touching the stringy bindings on me. Once he got enough cut I was able to pull free with a rather sizable mass still one me. I noticed that the spider pony before us had gotten closer during that time with its forelegs up for another buck. Thinking fast I shoved Ghost to the side taking the brunt of it myself. It sent me back into another bookcase. Lucky for me this time I didn't get stuck, just took the wind out of me. Ghost got back to his feet while I tried to get back to my hooves. The pounding my back just took was enough to make me shaky on my hooves. “You alright?”

“I think so.” I said, as I took my first step. Which was a bad mistake, as soon as my hoof moved I crumpled to the floor. Ghost ran over to me avoiding another forward buck from the large spider pony.

“Oh, how touching.” Said the spider pony coming closer. Ghost pulled his gun at her again. “And what's that going to do?”

“This.” Ghost answered back pulling the trigger. His shot was off as it nailed her in one of the three right legs she stood on. It left a nicely sized hole in her leg. She let out a loud piercing scream as she brought up her leg. Quite a bit of blood was pouring out of her leg as she stepped back. I guarantee she was pissed, shit if I was in her place I would too.

“You did not just do that.” She growled moving closer.

“What this?” He asked pulling the gun up. Without a second to act, the spider pony spun around and out of her abdomen fired a large stream of web that caught Ghost in the hand holding the gun. It flung him into a bookcase rather hard.

“Ghost are you alright?” I asked running over to him.

“Yeah, I'm fine but don't take your eye off the spider.” Oh, shit... I turned around to see her up on the two of us.

“Well, well, well, and what should I do with you little pony?” She asked with a menacing glare on her face.

“How about I ask you the same question?” I said grinning.

“Oh? I seem somepony has a backbone. Okay, I will play your game. What are you going to do with me?” She said leaning down close.

“Easy.” I said getting ready, she continued to get close enough to me. Big mistake bitch. “Burn!” I roared as I let out a torrent of flames on her face. She let out a scream thrashing back, knocking over bookcase after bookcase as she tried to put herself out. This only caused some of them to catch alight. This quickly turned bad, as the room became a raging inferno. “Oh fuck me running. I said as I turned to get Ghost out. The bookcase he was pinned to by his hand was at least on the ground. So I used my fangs to cut through and without a thought wrapped him up in my magic.

“Get back here!” I heard the spider pony yell.

“Oh double fuck me.” I said making a mad dash away from the fire and spider. I glanced back to see her gaining on us by running on top of the undisturbed bookcases. A thought crossed my mind before I slid to a stop.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Ghost yelled at me from above me in my magic. Before I brought him lower as I turned and ran at the eight legged pony. Good thing the bookcases were higher than us as we ran under her. She stopped and I could only guess she looked a little confused as she probably about faced to go after us. I took that time to go down two rows and turned back the way I was going to get away. I managed to duck on by before she looked my way. So far, so good, and nothing following us. My escape slowed down until I thought I was safe from the crazy bitch. I think I got a good thirty bookcases down before I heard something rather large boom behind me. I turned to see the spider pony after me again but this time swinging around one of the bookcases like a fucking mace. “Triple fuck me.” I said as I took off at a full gallop.

“Great going genius, got any other bright ideas?” Ghost said.

“Why don't you do it since you're just floating there?” I shot back rather angry and mostly scared out of my mind.

“Maybe I will.” he said looking around for an idea.

“Hey, do you think you could give me a light?” I turned to see what looks like a Molotov cocktail in his hand. I floated up a small fire as he ran the rag in the bottle on it. “Suck on this Spider Bitch!” He yelled catching her in the chest with it after slamming the bookcase again a few feet away. She screamed again before I heard the ringing sounds of his revolver going off. I counted five shots before the sounds of metal hitting the floor. My guess was the casings for the spent rounds. So that would make his a six shooter and him currently reloading.

“Here use mine.” I said floating up my pistol from my holster. Which I am surprised that I still had the thing. He grabbed it and sent a few rounds right at the bitch. I could guess some missed hitting with a deep thud, closer to hitting the wood of the bookcases. Either his aim was off or she blocked it with her weapon. After a bit I could hear the empty clicking of the gun meaning he spent the whole twenty round clip. I needed to think of something, then it hit me like a tank. What the fuck was I thinking? Bringing Ghost closer to me I told him to hold on to me. Of course he grabbed my horn right the fuck away, not the ideal spot to grab, but desperate times call for desperate measures. With that I focused on a teleporting spell that Twilight had explained to me during my stay at the hospital before hearth's warming. I haven't used it once and especially not with a second person in the spell. I tried to think of a few places that may be safe, the first thought was back in the castle. That wasn't a smart idea as I remembered that a good chuck came down after the fight with Chrysalis. I thought maybe in the middle of the shopping district. No, because there is no telling if somepony was going to be where I was going to teleport into. Which Twilight explained that it would be bad if that happened. She didn't explain why just that it was bad. Then I thought about some place safe and I remembered the Canterlot Archives, they were fortified so they would be still standing at least if the castle wasn't. After I locked the place in my head I focused the magic into my horn.

Something I should say about teleporting when your not use to it. The feeling you get is like having your body pulled and pushed at the same time, while your whole world drops out from under you like a trap door. That's just the physical feeling you get, even though it's an instant second you go from spot A to spot B. It feels much longer than it was more like half a minute at most I would say and seeing all that magical color would be nice if your brain didn't feel like it's going through a tennis game on fast forward. That could just be me not use to it yet, compared to the blink spell which is much shorter in the whole preserved time. The feel on the brain doesn't hit during it since my run through Whitetail Woods, it's delayed and it's more like a smack to the side of your head. Other then that the feeling is the same. That being said, teleporting into a room I wasn't familiar with in hindsight was a rather bad idea. I didn't get us in the isles, more like above said isles. Which caused both of us to fall to the ground with Ghost right on top of me. So yeah... pain all around me.

“What the fuck was that?” Ghost yelled in surprise.

“Magic.” I answered as I tried to wiggle out from under him. He got the clue and rolled off, that didn't stop the pain which I found out two very painful facts. One that my bandages didn't teleport with me and two that I was on my last roll. “Fuck me running” I said trying to fight the pain as I reached for my wraps.

“Here let me get that.” Ghost said grabbing it out of my telekinetic hold. “But serious what did you do?”

“Teleported us to somewhere I thought was safe.” I said as he began with my right hind leg.

“Geez, makes me wish I could do magic.” He commented making sure they are nice and tight.

“Well it's not all that it's cracked up to be.” I said as I could feel something running from my muzzle. It wasn't a few moments later that I could taste the copper from my blood.

“What do you mean? Shit! Are you alright?” Ghost said noticing that I had blood dripping onto the tiled floor.

“One of the many downsides to magic. I over taxed my magic, a bloody nose is one of the early signs. I need to rest for a bit to regain some of my magic back.” I answered.

“Anywhere you think would be best?” I looked around to see if I can figure out where we were. Turns out I was rather close to some of the reading spots here. During that time my left leg was being wrapped.

“Yeah, that sign says that there's a reading area over there.” I pointed with my claw in the direction.

“Good, I could use a little rest after dealing with that spider thing back there.”

“You're not the only one.” Ghost finished wrapping up my leg, followed by the pain finally numbing away to move. The only downside was I was too exhausted to move.

“Coming?” Ghost asked as he got to his feet.

“I would if I wasn't too tired to move.” I answered trying to get up slowly.

“Here let me help.” Ghost answered moving so I was behind him. After a bit of awkward moving, Ghost hoisted me onto his back and held my hind legs. “You know you're a lot lighter then I would have pegged you for.”

“I blame it on the magic.” I answered back.

“So what was that back there?”

“What was what?”

“That whole burn bit you did?”

“Oh, the fire breathing bit?”

“Yeah, what the hell was that?”

“Oh... well... it's just something I can do.”

“Can all ponies do that?”

“Nope, just my sub set.”

“What?”

“Technically I'm not a pony.” I started.

“Then what are you?” Ghost asked turning his head to look at me.

“I'm called a drony, which is the short version of dragon pony.” I answered.

“There's fucking dragons here too?”

“Yeah, all different types to be honest.”

“And what? Did your mother fuck a dragon or something?”

“Technically it was more father did the screwing in this case.” I answered, I didn't want to overload him with the point that my body was made magically by some way I didn't even know yet. The only fact that I knew was my mother of this body was the dragon.

“Oddly I could see that.” He said with a goofy grin to his face.

“Mind out of the gutter please.” I shot back.

“Can't help it.” I simply rolled my eyes at that. I already knew he thought in pictures so my mouth just gave his mind the right info for that.

“Anyway as I was saying, a drony can do different things compared to what the dragon's parent's element was. Like a fire dragon would have an offspring that can breath fire, while a storm dragon could take a bolt of lightning and fire it back.”

“Your a fire type then?” He asked.

“No, I'm a round robin of elements. I can do all of them.”

“Geez what did that make your mother the big boss of dragons?”

“Yes.” There was probably a good ten second pause as that got him to even stop.

“Seriously?”

“Eeyup.”

“Okay, I admit that is kind of cool.”

“Yeah try taking a day in my horseshoes.” I shot back rather annoyed.

“Let me guess teased?”

“No just learning all that the hard way.” I said with a shiver. We continued to follow the signs as we made it through the maze like corridors of the archives. I had noticed that a lot of the books, scrolls, and even some of the magical lanterns were knocked down to the ground. The whole floor was mostly covered in it, lucky the lanterns use a magical crystal compared to the other kind. That was screaming fire hazard from a mile away. It made me wonder if this was from just the battle in the throne room or something else.

“Firestorm, mind if I ask you something?”

“You already did.”

“Smartass.”

“Eeyup, but go ahead.”

“Something about you feels... off to me. Like I know you but I don't know you.” He said and looked at me as he continued.

“That's not a question.”

“I know, just... you wouldn't happen have known a Ryhn right? The H spelling of it not the A spelling.”

“I'm aware of him if that's what you're asking.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“Long story short, I'm aware of what you are and of earth. At one point I had found myself on earth by a magical means. I had met Ryhn and well that's about it.”

“You met him?”

“Yeah, sadly I was there when he passed.” As I said that I couldn't help but think about to watching myself die like I did. Ghost remained silent for a little while. My only guess was he was trying to work up the nerves for his next question.

“How... how did he die?”

“In detail?” There was another pause.

“Yes.”

“He was at a small shop when it happened. A rather large person came into the store swinging around a revolver of his own. He held up the store trying to get all the money he could. In the middle of it all, a women started to scream her head off in fright. Ryhn intervened when the guy threatened to shoot her if she didn't shut up. Taking the moment to get close Ryhn threw the guy off by playing like he was helping him before he turned on him. There was a struggle before the guy got the upper hand and fired a round. He dropped to the floor while the guy escaped. He passed shortly after, before he could get any help.” I relayed to him. Just telling it that way left me rather cold inside as I couldn't help but remember everything I had experienced that day.

“Yeah... that sounds like what the idiot would have done.” Ghost said turning somber. “For all the faults the guy had, he was still a good man.”

“Yes he was.” The two of us remained silent until Ghost found a large opening that led into one of the reading areas. This one even had an outcove fireplace for those that want to sit by the fire to read. It seems like the logs were still good to use as well.

“Here we go.” Ghost said setting me down on the floor.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Ah, no problem. It's the least I could do for saving my ass back there.” He said using his thumb to point behind him. I began to pull the books and scrolls out of the fireplace that more than likely fell in during the shaking. After it was all clear I sent a wave of fire to light up the fireplace. Ghost came over and sat by the fire as the two of us just stayed there in silence. Sometimes when talking to someone or somepony, there is always that point that there is a question or a comment either one in the conversation wants to say. But is worried about how it would come out. In my case I wanted to tell him the truth about what happened. Tell him that I was alright, just a little banged up, but alive. After telling him how I died, just felt like I would have been kicking him in the crotch with an Applejack powered buck. Just didn't feel right at all, I should know. “Okay dumb question time, so your part dragon right?” He started, which caused me to shift my gaze from the floor to him.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“Do dragons eat meat here?”

“Some do.”

“Do you?”

“Technically I could eat meat if I wanted. Most dragons however eat gems.”

“Gems? What kind of sense does that make?”

“Well... it sort of does. Seeing how every being in Equestria has a bit of magic to him. Dragon's have the ability to pull magic from gems that they eat. Sort of like adding a file to a folder on a computer. As they grow older that magic helps their development, meaning that said folder suddenly grows to be a program itself. It just takes time which dragons normally have long life spans to do that. As a drony the same sort of applies to me. But it works a bit different from how I figure. See a unicorn as a magic pool that grows with them. Well a drony can add to that pool by eating gems that has magic to them.”

“Okay, seriously I wish I was a drony know. That sounds awesome.”

“I guess.”

“You guess? Dude I mean I could eat gems all day and be super powerful in like a month.”

“Not counting belly aches from over eating and the time to find the gems.”

“Okay Mr. cynic. Seriously how can you not find that cool?”

“Because, I'm not into the whole power trip.”

“Why not?”

“Because that's not who I am. I mean I'm already royalty which I wish I wasn't.”

“The fuck?! Your royalty?”

“Yeah, I'm a prince.”

“So what your father was a king?”

“No, I'm not royalty but linage, I'm one by adoption.”

“Okay, so your adopted by a King and Queen.”

“Nope princesses.”

“What?”

“There is no Kings or Queens in Equestria. The ruling government is controlled by princesses.”

“Wouldn't they be queens?”

“You would think but nope, princesses.”

“Still think it should be Queens.”

“I know, I do too.”

“You know something's bothering me”

“Which is?”

“Besides the whole ponies, dragons, and whatever. You talked about computers.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Well... from what I've seen this place is more medieval times. Computers just seem way out of place for here.”

“You would be sort of right, some places still have that feel to them but ponies do have some modern day things, like blenders, toasters, and so forth. Their computers however are a little outdated compared to earth. They are still in DOS age here.” Ghost let out a whistle at that.

“That's old.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So it's like their technology is lopsided.”

“Very much so, partly because they supplement a lot of it with magic. Which is pretty advanced from what I've read.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they have flying ships kind of like those old JRPG back on earth.”

“Really?”

“Eeyup.”

“Man I wish I could see one of those.”

“Yeah, some of them are pretty massive.”

“I bet.”

“Yeah.” It wasn't long before Ghost's eyes started to droop a little.

“Hey... would you mind if I crashed a little? I haven't had any time to sleep since this craziness started.”

“Go right ahead, I'll keep watch until you get up.”

“Thanks man.”

“No problem.” With that Ghost leaned against a stack of books. Shortly after the sounds of rhythmic snoozing could be heard coming from him. That only left me awake to watch out. With hindsight the fact that an alicorn can't go to bed willingly kind of sucks at times. Honestly I probably could use the rest after the fighting, run around, and the over taxing of my magic. I suppose everypony else is lucky in that regard. I mean yeah when I first got to Equestria I had a somewhat normal sleeping pattern, blunt force trauma, serious injuries, and blood loss aside. It also made sleeping next to Twilight a little boring at times. Don't get me wrong I love laying with her in bed but being unable to sleep normally but every three days sucks. Makes me wonder how Cadence feels about it sometimes. I watched Ghost just lay there with his coat off. He gave a small shiver and I couldn't help but bring his coat back over him to use as a blanket. I wonder what his reaction would be if I told him who I was to him. Would he be happy to know I was still alive just in a different body in a different universe? No... he'd most likely think I was doing it to be mean or to make fun of the memory of me. Probably then walk off to figure his own way out if not put a round in me for good measure. Sometimes life just outright sucks. “Thanks you universe... you jerk.” I whispered to myself as I laid there. Blood continued to drip from my nose as it hitting the tiled area I was laying at. After maybe a few minutes and an ever growing puddle of blood grew. The blood finally stopped running from my nose. After that I just did a little reading... well tried to at least. I'm guessing that some of the text in the archives where from different languages because none of them were understandable. So after a few tries I just cleared an area for me to lay down a bit and rest. My thoughts returned to everypony I knew and my worry about what may have happened to them.

***---***

“Okay, so not what I was expecting.” I said as we exited the archives after what felt like a few hours. Ghost got back up and placed his coat back on. That was followed by another hour of wandering around the maze of archives until we found one of the doors out. Upon opening it, we found ourselves in Ponyville of all places. Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised after the hell trip I've gone through since I got here. So a door with an enchantment linked to another door in Ponyville, doesn't sound too strange to me. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if Twilight could enchant a door like that, or has for that matter. Both Ghost and I came out what looked like a small cottage outside of town, not the same one Fluttershy owns but close. Even from this distance that fog hadn't let up yet. Some patches were thin enough to see while some was almost as thick that I swear that I could punch it like a wall. Come to think about it, since I do have the abilities as a pegasus; shouldn't I have that ability anyway? Never mind not the point here, the point was that even Ponyville of all places looked abandoned. There was no stalls out, no doors open, even the shades were all drawn shut. This reminded me of the first time Twilight saw Zecora, which she had told me one night.

“Is it just me or is this place creepy?”

“Normally it isn't as barren as it is now.” I continued to look around trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. Canterlot is completely empty, the castle is a mess, over powered changelings, crazy shadow mask ponies, crazy labs, weird mirror monster ponies, a crazy spider bitch pony, and now completely desolate Ponyville. It's like a goddamn nightmare after fucking nightmare. Lucky for me even with this damn fog, I was able to get my bearings.

“Could have fooled me.”

“Yeah, just keep it down. I have no idea what's going to come out of the woodwork now.” I said as we make a beeline to the library. So far our luck had held out as nothing interfered with our movements. We got in and I quickly shut the door to make sure nothing came in after us. Ghost was looking around the place with a look of confusion.

“A library... in a tree?”

“So, ever heard of a tree house?”

“Well, yeah. But this is a little ridiculous.”

“So is about half the shit I've seen so far.” I shot back heading up the stairs. I wanted a melee weapon to go with my last bit of ammo in my gun. I knew I had two swords so at least Ghost would have a weapon as well. As soon as I got up to the loft things took a turn for the worse. The whole place looked like a disaster zone. Books, papers, and quills everywhere. Two free standing bookcases were toppled over, and the bed was flipped. This was like if Rainbow Dash let loose a twister in here. After a minute of searching I found my shorter sword and it's sheath. My armor was missing and I already knew the Moon Helm was gone. “Fuck, this place is going to hell and I wish it would not take me with it.” I said a little frustrated.

“Something wrong up there?” Ghost asked from the bottom of the stairs.

“Nothing important.” I answered as I tried to search in vain. My other sword was just missing and I really didn't want to chance being in the same place for too long. After being in the archives for hours, just something told me that I pressed my luck there. So after which I came down to see Ghost shoving stuff into a pair of saddlebags, mainly food and water.

“I figured that we would need some provisions to get through until our next stop.”

“Makes sense.” I answered back as I went to the door. I opened the front door so we could leave and froze. Standing out there was no less than a battalion of those shadow ponies with the white and red masks. I slowly shut the door and braced myself against it. “We may have a little tiny problem.” I said looking at Ghost.

“It can't be-”

“And when I say tiny I mean massively huge.” I said as I pulled the table and bench over to the door blocking it. Even put the wooden pony head statue Twilight likes to keep leaning against it.

“Okay, it seriously can't be that bad.” Ghost said walking over to the window and pulling the curtain back a bit. “I stand corrected.” There was an unnerving level of calm in that voice that put me on edge. He turned towards me and with a flat look. “Does this place have a back door?”

“No but it does have a balcony.” I commented, Ghost got a grin on his face which didn't help my outlooks on our future. “I got an idea.” A few moments later Ghost and I were outside on the balcony looking over carefully so we don't get spotted. Lucky for us they had their attention wrapped on the front door. From what I can see they look like they are waiting for us to go out that way.

“Okay genius, what's the idea?” I whispered.

“Well... I'm just taking a page out of my friends book on this one.” Oh god please tell me he isn't thinking what I think he's thinking. With that he lifted me off the ground onto his back once again by holding my forelegs until my hinds swung to each side. “Something insanely stupid” With that he took a running leap off the balcony and did a mad dash away. Sadly the shadow ponies heard our exit and began to gallop after us as Ghost still carrying me ran in any direction. Over fences, down alleys, and even around a few buildings. Nothing was getting us away from them until I decided to follow up with the same play. I moved my hooves from around his neck to around his chest using my prosthetic claws to hold onto my hoof to hold him in place. Then I fought against the bandages and my left wing popped out still covered in some bandage. Mostly in tatters as I gave my wings a powerful flap. The feeling of using a wing that wasn't completely healed may have been a bad idea, but I couldn't think of another idea. “What the?” Ghost said as he noticed his feet leaving the ground like he was running in the air. My wings continued to flap hard trying to get us more air born. Lucky for me Ghost had us in the same direction as the Ponyville Hospital. With a lot of pain running through me from my wing, I got us up on the balcony of one of the rooms. Our landing not the most graceful as his feet hit the floor with a loud thud. That was followed by me falling off his back onto my own.

“So that's why....” I said taking a large gulp of air to help with the pain. “She suggested I don't fly for a month.”

“Who suggested?” Ghost said turning around.

“The doctor before all this went down.” I said trying to get back to my hunches. I was able to see my wing better through the bandages. Like the doc said, a lot of my feathers were missing and I could see just the skin under it. I think I torn open a bit of it as it had a few rips in it. If I had to guess the skin in those spots are like tissue paper since they had to be regrown. The reason for the doc's suggestion must have been for the wings to act as a resistance to the displacement the wings create to generate lift. With the feathers not there I just did the stupid move to try and fly causing this.

“Oh... that does not look good, help.” Ghost said helping me onto his back. I felt my wing slightly stretched out. We entered the room through a glass sliding door. He shut it afterwards and placed me on the bed in one of the examination rooms we walked into. It wasn't like the beds I normally find myself waking up in the hospital, but it will do. Once I was settled Ghost moved to dig into my saddlebags that were still with me by luck I could only assume.

“Were out of bandages, I used the last while you slept.” I said figuring out what he was going for.

“Ah shit, what are we going to do now?” He asked stepping back. “You don't look like you're in condition enough to keep going.”

“I know I'm not. My wing is hurting like hell and slightly bleeding. On top of that I think my leg wrappings are wearing off. So I'm going to be rather useless real fast.” Ghost nodded looking around. The room itself was a whitewash wall with a faded teal area that was about a third from the floor up. On one of the walls had one of the back lit clips doctors use to look at x-rays and brain scans. There were a few cabinets both above and below, all of them white but the bottom ones had a counter-top of polished black stone. I couldn't tell what it was from my spot on the blue blanket covered bed. Ghost decided to look through the cabinets to most likely find more bandages. There was a few instruments that I could recognized from doctor's visits I've had. But no bandages. Well besides the quick slap over a cut kind but not what I needed.

“What kind of hospital doesn't keep wrapping bandages in each room.”

“Maybe you should try another one.”

“And leave you here for whatever the hell those things were back there to find you? Oh, hell no.” Ghost said turning to look at me.

“Look I know it's not ideal at this moment.”

“Sounds completely stupid if you ask me.”

“But... we don't have much choice. Right now you're the only one that can move without hurting like they've been run over but two semis and a tank.”

“What if something happens?”

“Did you forget I can breathe fire and have a gun?”

“Point.” Ghost commented as he bit his bottom lip. “Fine I will try the next two rooms. If I don't find any then I'm coming back here picking you up and carrying you until we can find some.”

“I can agree to that.” I said trying to get as comfy as I can with my legs throbbing and my wing bleeding. Ghost left and from the look at him, still didn't like the idea. I pulled my gun from my holster that I had moved a little so it wasn't swinging awkwardly as I ran. Keeping my gun at the ready I couldn't help but let my eyes wander around. It was the only thing I could do that didn't remind me of the pain. That's when I noticed the black sheet on the back light. Curiosity got the better of me and I flicked the switch on the light with my magic. The light flickered on showing that it was a scan of a right foreleg. It seems like the pony had a few of his joints removed and fixed with pins, wire, and a few plates, probably a few screws as well. Hard to tell from this angle, but that wasn't a far off guess. I remembered when I had shattered my elbow when I was still human. That thing hurt like hell when I did that just by riding in a back of a car. Just looking at it made me turn my attention to my fake leg. I know it was a modified griffon prosthetic, but it was the only thing that gave me a hand anymore. One I couldn't feel from, and sometimes that bothered me. I mean I could add pressure and not even know it. Sometimes I wondered about how it would feel to have a real griffon claw instead of this thing. That or maybe a claw much like Spike has. Just to be able to feel again with this would be nice as well.

As I looked over the leg I noticed something... odd. Under my hoof I noticed an engraved six pointed star with smaller points between each of the main points, to the top left of it was a diamond, below the star was a thunderbolt. This didn't make sense, those were never there before. It only took me a moment to realize what they were, Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash's cutie marks. Or at least parts of them. But what the hell does that mean? Before I could think about it more Ghost rushed in with a few rolls in his hand.

“I didn't know which ones had it, as they have this funky writing on them.” He brought them over to me so I could take a look. “Can you make heads or tails of these?”

“Yeah, it's not funky script. It's spell script, sort of like the short hand for spells. It allows non-spell wielding ponies to use spells. These have the numbing spell script. The only reason I know that is because I remember seeing these on the one's I have on now.” I pulled the one from my wing that was still intact. The spell script was done right on the point that the bandage fastens to the rest of it. In this case it looked like it was burned in but I knew it wasn't the fact. Spell script from what I could remember from a late night read of Twilight's magic guide from under the bed, a spell imprinted this way takes a little magic to keep it on. Doing so puts a discoloration to it most times looking like it was burned on. The same case went for these, but unlike the one I pulled from my wing. The rolls Ghost had still had the magical glow to, it was faint but there. “Yeah go ahead and wrap my legs. I will take this one and do my wing.” I said focusing magic through my horn, I grabbed the roll and set to work. It wasn't long until I was back onto my hooves moving around. We took the top to do a little pilfering. Mainly more bandages and healing supplies to help us if needed. We found a few more bandages and two bottles of wound sealer, just in case of a cut or gash. Unlike the castle in Canterlot, the hospital was rather clean, almost too clean. Not a speck of dust anywhere, and this place was just as empty as every place else. Something in the back of my head was screaming at me that I should know what's going on, but I can’t for the life of me reach it. We finished looking around and went to find an exit other than the front. If this place was like any other hospital then they should have an E.R. entrance for emergencies.

As soon as we make a right turn from the stairs and past the inside lobby, a sound caught the both of our attentions. It sounded like hooves slowly trotting and something rather metallic scraping against the ground, followed by a second. I turned to Ghost as he did the same towards me. There was a fear in his eyes and there most likely one in mine. What ever that sound was it wasn't good. To our left we saw a door slightly open leading into a dark room. Without a thought the two of us quickly entered and shut the door as silently as we could. All the while those steps got closer to where we were. I noticed how the sound was slightly muffled as we entered the darkened room. So that meant that whatever it was, was not in here. Sometimes the universe gives a saving grace. Ghost and I watched the window carefully keeping ourselves in the dark as the sounds got closer. Then we saw them, two large centaurs slowly trotted past the door. In their hands as they were the traditional ones known back on earth in fantasy books. On held a large sword that it dragged while the other one had a pole. If I had to guess it was a halberd as I couldn't see the blade probably dragging on the ground from the small window at the top of the door. Both of the equine half had a soul crushing black color to their coats as well as their tails. The odd part was that on their flanks they also had cutie marks, one had a skull crushed under a white hoof, and the other had what I could guess a human on a pike with his limbs hanging. The sight of those two cutie marks sent a fear induced chill up my spine. It didn't help that the human half was scar covered tan skin with a few open wounds on them. I couldn't see how bad the wounds where but it was enough to tell that they bleed without care. On their heads was my guess steel pony heads. All rusted and blood splattered, with the eyes of the ponies done in another polished stone. One had white stone eyes while the other had it's polar opposite black, and no pupils in either of them. I couldn't help but gulp and as soon as the sound of it was made. Both centaur creatures stopped and looked at us in a split second like they had hyper hearing. All I could do was mouth the words “Fuck me”

The two of us stood there as silent as we could be. The sounds of breathing was the only thing to be heard besides the clopping of the hooves of those centaurs outside. Lucky for us that they may be able to hear a gulp but breathing seems to be outside their range of hearing. It was odd but honestly I will take what I can get in this. We didn't move one bit until the sounds of their hooves were out of earshot.

“What are we going to do?” Ghost whispered into my ear.

“My best idea is get out of here.” I whispered back.

“And how do you suppose we do that?”

“One of two ways, the front door or we wait for those centaur creatures are far enough away from the emergency doors to book it.”

“And who says that they would stop at the door.”

“No pony, just... we need to do something. If we stay here then we are sure as hell screwed.”

“I think we are already in that department.”

“Just, look. I still don't know what happened, and I'm extremely worried about everypony I know. I'm sure you are about who you care about. So let's just try to get through this one thing at a time. Escape is our biggest obstacle so how about instead of being a cynic, you help come up with an idea?”

“Well... if they have hyper acute hearing. Let's use that against them.” Ghost suggested and I thought about it.

“Maybe if I make enough sound elsewhere then they would be attracted to that.”

“Can you do that?”

“yes, but can be hard to keep focused long enough to do it while I'm trying to run.” Before I could protest I was hoisted back onto Ghost's back. “This could work.”

***---***

“That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever agreed upon.” I said as we ran for our lives from both centaurs. The plan worked only but a second, as soon as the emergency doors opened with a loud as hell ding, like those from a bell. Both creatures decided to come after us at a full gallop. Lucky for us that we were outside at that point and had a whole town to elude them with. Sadly we did forget about the other thing in Ponyville, namely the shadow ponies from before. So now we were being chased by the whole mass of them with the centaurs who was swinging their sword and halberd around knocking a few of them away trying to get to us. Granted they were doing us a small favor by dwindling their numbers. In the grand view of things, I’d rather have the shadow ponies and not the centaurs from hell. Ghost had angled us out of town while he continued to hold me on his back. While he was doing the running, I was doing what I could to deter them. Namely creating stone walls to block the path. Some of them were able to avoid it, the centaurs how ever just plowed right through them like cardboard. I was too busy looking behind us making walls that shot up from the ground to notice until it was too late, the tree canopy above us.

“Hey, not my fault that the hospital had a fucking bell on it's door.”

“Don't care, run!” I said trying to keep an eye on our trailing company. Of course, I should have remembered something rather important. Ghost made a leap over a log before he found his feet going right into a hole covered with branches. This lead the two of us into a long tunnel that Ghost slide down on his ass, I how ever had a belly burn when we stopped. “Ow.” I groaned as we stopped, then remembering I pushed Ghost away and changed the ground so who followed would go right into the pool. Just as I predicted, a whole mass of creatures had followed us and ended up right into the pool. Not even caring what that would do to them, I reached out and froze the top of the water into two foot thick ice wall. I could hear pounding coming from under it.

“Okay, I have to admit that is kind of cool.” Ghost said looking at it as he looked into the ice. From what we saw as I joined him looking. All of them were pounding on the ice from under it. That was until the centaur with the sword stabbed right through it cracking it. “Okay that's our cue to leave.”

“You don't have to tell me twice.” I said as we dashed out our only exit. Coming back into the forest once again, I had noticed we were indeed in the Everfree. “Follow me.” I said as we took off away from the direction of Ponyville and the obvious path that lead there coming from the cave with the mirror pond in it. Two places came to mind that we could be safe at. One was Zecora's and the other was the Castle of the pony sisters. I thought against Zecora's as I didn't want to go in and find her place a mess and the Castle of the pony sisters would be easier to fortify as the only room I could think of was the hold tower I where I found the moon helm. But the biggest thing in all this was time, I needed time to soak all of it in. This all screamed screwed up for sure, but it's been one hell hole after another followed by two more. So running through the forest as we wanted to put distance between us and those creatures. We found ourselves at the wooden bridge that lead to the castle.

“I'm not stepping on that.” Ghost said.

“Why not?” I asked preparing to step on it myself.

“Because one, that looks like if someone of my size steps on it. It's going to break with ease.”

“And two?”

“Two, how do we know this place is going to be safe?”

“We don't but this is the only place away from those Shadow Ponies and Centaurs that I could think of. As for your first issue.” I said with a grin wrapping him in my magic. I floated him before me as I walked behind him on the bridge.

“Okay, that's cheating.”

“Nope, that's just how things are done here it seems.”

“Still cheating.” He whined with his arms crossed.

“And you're still whining.”

“I'm not whining, I'm complaining.”

“And a rose by another name still smells sweet.” I shot back, as we arrived at the other side. I set him down gently on the ground as we made our way to the door. Just like before the castle looked odd. Like a sentry all standing watch over it's contents inside. Every time I see this place it reminds me of the old medieval castles I've seen online. This one as I've seen before was still in ruin, but that's fine. With a bit of magic, I opened the door for the two of us to enter. Just like before the stone work met us in the main entry one of the few places that didn't have it's remaining furniture left. What it did have was the pedestal that held the Elements of Harmony before Twilight and the girls had gotten them. The closer I got to the pedestal, I noticed that it was slid back and where it stood was a set of stairs that lead into the castle's basement. A place I hadn't been to yet, and with the hollow horror feeling I was getting from there I didn't want to.

“Well... let's go.” Ghost said going down the stairs.

“Wait, there's no telling what could be down there.” I shot back standing at the top of the stairs watching Ghost disappear deeper into the darkness of the hall.

“It's better than being out in the open.” He answered back, with that I bit my bottom lip thinking. He did have a point but with everything that happened I couldn't tell if this was going to be bad, or horrifying. My bits was more leading to the horrified side of the spectrum. “Come on, you know what they say. Fortune favors the bold.”

“And misery loves the stupid.” I commented as I hung my head a bit following. Something tells me that this hell isn't over. At least this couldn't get any... wait, what the fuck am I thinking? Of course this fucking thing could get worse. Hell, knowing my luck the fucking statue is going to. My thought got cut off by the sound of stone sliding on stone as the remaining light dwindled to nothing. “shut.” I said finishing my thought out loud. “Fuck me.” I growled.

“Who turned out the light?” Ghost said as I could hear him stepping carefully around.

“Stay still.” I said as I focused and formed a light using my horn. The room came back into the land of the visible with a tint of orange covered everything.

“Much better, what happened?”

“Well, someone decided it was a good idea to go down the steps that is normally hidden by a large stone pedestal. After entering said staircase the pedestal decided to return back to it's normal spot shutting us in.” I said annoyed.

“Well sorry, how was I supposed to know that was going to happen?” He said in a defensive tone as we continued down the stairs.

“Oh, I don't know. After the fucked up shit we saw, you would think that trying to avoid that would be the plan?”

“Okay, so my curiosity got the better of me. It didn't harm anyone.” He said and I could take it anymore. With a flick of magic I gave him a telekinetic smack on the back of the head rather hard. “Ow, what the hell was that?”

“That was a love tap.” I growled. “Minus the love.” As my anger grew, I decided to walk ahead growling as my mane decided to join the fray of light by turning back into it's natural fire style when I'm really angry and not trying to hold back the magic.

“What the hell did I do?” Ghost asked following me.

“Do you need a repeat tapping?”

“Giggity”

“Not like that.” I shot back.

“Couldn't help it.” He said with a Cheshire grin on his face. I don't know what's worse at times, the shit I deal with in Equestria or the shit I had to deal with one earth? It only was a moment before I had my answer... definitely Equestria. “But on a serious note, is that magic causing your hair to do that?”

“Mane.”

“Huh?”

“A ponies hair is called a mane and to answer your question. Yes, it acts like fire but it's still hair. Before you ask, no it doesn't burn just looks like it. Well... depends on how angry I am.” I said followed by me grumbling at all I had to deal with. Honestly I think this was just karma getting me back for all the really bad jokes I made in my... how would I classify that anyway? Old life, or other life? I may have to ask some... pony, fuck. That reminded me that I still haven't seen anypony else that hasn't attacked us since this mess started. With that thought alone dumped a cold bucket of water on my anger and my mane went out. Lucky for us that my light spell was still running, and even more so that we got to the bottom of the stairs.

“Something wrong?”

“Just...” I gave out a sigh before I continued. “I'm worried about everypony, just through all this. I don't know what happened and the more things happen, the more sidetracked I get with finding out what happened. It worries me that I haven't seen hide nor hair of anypony.” I said as continued to move forward in the stone tunnel. Just like the front entrance this tunnel was made of large stone bricks while the floor was smaller stone much like cobblestone in texture. My guess was that they were the normal stone gray like everything else has, granted it was hard to tell with the orange tint from my light spell.

“Hey, I get it. You're worried, hell so am I.” I glanced up at him for a moment before returning it to ahead of us. “Don't give me that look, I am. I'm worried about everyone I left back on earth, especially Sammy.” He said with a frown. I had almost completely forgot that Knives at times goes by the nickname Sammy. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered that I couldn't decide which one to stay with. So more often or not, I would flip back and forth between the two.

“I'm guessing your girlfriend?”

“Yeah... wait. Didn't you say that Twilight Sparkle was your 'marefriend'?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why did you use the world girlfriend?”

“Because I know of earthen lexicon.”

“But you use words like 'somepony' and 'everypony.'”

“So? We are in Equestria.”

“That's my point, why didn't you say marefriend?”

“Because I thought I would use the earthen lexicon, anyway you're deflecting.”

“Oh right... yeah. Sammy is my girlfriend, but I'm not just worried about her.”

“Who else?”

“Everyone I know including Sammy, Viper, my brother, parents, and many others.” He said and I can see the thought of it was taking his toll on him. Which is understandable, I was kind of doing the same every time I thought of everypony I knew. I was distracted before I noticed that the stone walls and floor had changed from the gray I was use to seeing. To a very vibrant violet, with a slight rainbow discoloration to it. Almost like a rainbow of colors were being shined on it. Even more so, that the corridor itself was much larger then was we were traversing moments ago. I turned back for a moment to see that the old gray stone wasn't in sight. Ether was any light behind us which wasn't surprising since I was the one producing it. I tried to fire a fireball into the distance but after a few feet it looked like the darkness swallowed it whole. Ghost didn't notice it as he continued to walk on, most likely lost in his thoughts. I however was not feeling too safe at the moment when the darkness itself could do that to my fire, just screamed something bad this way comes. I stayed on a higher alert than I have been while I've talked to Ghost, even when I rushed to catch up. He didn't notice however, still lost in his worry. The hall around us continued to remain the vibrant violet as I noticed some details in each brick, a sort of scripture to them. I couldn't make it out as I wasn't familiar with it, or really take the time to study it. That was when I noticed that we met the end of the hall itself. Before us was a rather large door made of the same stone as the walls. The only problem was this didn't have a handle or any kind of hinges that I could see. “All this for a dead end?” Ghost asked walking up to it.

“I don’t think so.” I answered as I followed his lead. We got to the door as he put his hand on it. Before any of us could react, the rainbow sheen to it began to brighten engulfing the door. By some magical force Ghost was pulled forward through the door, this followed by me jumping in after. The light around the two of us was almost blinding, I couldn’t quite say if we were indeed moving or that we just went through a portal. Once that world decided that the saturation needed to be turned down to a reasonable level, I could finally make out where the hell we were. We were in some kind of massive, old, training room, from the high ceiling that could put even the biggest sports dome from earth to shame. This was made for ponies and maybe larger creatures. The top of the room was made of the gray bricks in a ring light pattern circling around a large domed light that most likely was the main source of illumination for the room. About half way down from there the gray brick turned to the violet stone that I saw before, in spots first before it took over completely. There was a few free swinging platforms that I could see being hung from the ceiling by chains that seemed untouched by time. Like they where completely new, the platforms I couldn't say as much. They seemed much older and made out of wood that probably wasn't safe to land on. On the bottom of the room, where Ghost and I stood was different structures. Some easy battlement towers, a few simple ramps, and walls littered the room. We couldn't really see much of the walls on the ground floor as the structures obstructed our view. It seems what ever that door did, dropped us nearly dead center of the room. Under us I noticed that the ground wasn't stone, but heavily packed dirt. Reminded me a lot of the old medieval training areas I've seen in movies. Being the first one to come to my senses after the drop off, I had tried to sense anything both in the room and outside of the room. Just like the large library before, my senses faded off meaning that nothing within my range I could tell was coming. At least for now we were safe again, I didn't trust it much as the universe was one hell of a jerk.

“Do you know where the hell that dropped us?” Ghost asked as he got up from his prone spot on the ground.

“No, but I can say we aren't in Kansas anymore.” I commented trying to figure out a way out of here. I was really tired of these magic tricks, besides the whole not knowing where the hell I am. They more often than not left us in danger. God only knows what monstrosity we are going to see next. While I scanned around what I could see, I heard Ghost get up onto his feet, and dust himself off.

“Really which I could have had a better landing.”

“Trust me, that was mild compared to some that I've had.”

“I'll take your word for that.”

“Probably for the wise.” I said, before slowly taking a stab at a direction to go. If we could get to at least the wall, then we could follow it until we find a way out. After a few minutes a sound of something else caught my attention. It was familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. Stopping so I could focus on it more. Even going as far as to reach out with my magic to sense the area around us.

“What's wrong?” He said, probably noticed my gaze as I was scanning around for any sight.

“Shh, I hear something” I said trying to listen. The sound came with a dull thudding in a set of four, and with my magic I could feel something coming. It was smaller than I was but not by much. This put me even more on guard to the point that I drew my sword out, just in case. I didn't want to fire if it was a friendly pony or something of that sort. The sound of it was getting louder and I could make it out more. It was the sounds of hooves striking the dirt as somepony was walking in our direction. Something about the sound was both calming and nerve racking to me. Motioning for Ghost to follow me I stepped back behind some cover just in case this proved to be a hostile creature. After the whole shadow ponies, super charged changeling queen, and mirror creature; I didn't want to take the chance. So I slowly peered out from behind the wall to get a glance at it.

It had a purple coat that had a few bandages on it. Some of them rather soaked crimson like some of mine was. It's mane and tail was a darker purple with an off tone pink, besides the spots where it was either covered in mud or blood. One of it's eyes was covered by a large patched bandaged while her other eye turned towards us to show it was a nice shade of purple. Wait... light purple coat, with a dark purple mane and tail with pink streak. What the fuck was I thinking? I trotted out to get closer with a smile on my face. As I fully turned into view I saw it was indeed Twilight standing there with her mane and tail caked with mud, blood, and probably other things I really didn't want to think about. As well as they both looked like they haven't had a good brushing in weeks. She was also looked she had gone through a fight with a large clawed creature of sorts as she was covered in mostly blood soaked bandages.

“Twilight?” I asked getting closer as her gaze returned towards me. She snapped towards me as I saw her eye go wide. Her worried frown turned into a smile, she moved to say something.

Bang.

The sound of a bullet rang out as I watched in complete horror as a round hole appeared between my marefriend’s large purple eyes. Behind her the structure was splattered with a massive amount of blood. Her body almost in slow motion dropped to the ground before me. My world slowed down to a crawl as I tried to rush over to her. She hit the ground before I could stop it. “Twilight!” I yelled my gaze starting to blur as I held her head. Her large eyes wide looking back at me, hollow and lifelessly. She... she was dead, and she died before me. I couldn't save her, I couldn't keep her safe, and I failed at protecting her. The small padded thuds of my tears as they dripped from my cheeks onto her already blood covered coat as the entrance and exit wounds oozed her blood over her dead body, as well as my coat. I turned to see what had done that and I saw Ghost standing there his gun pointed where he had fired.

“Ghost?” I asked surprise ever present in my voice. He... he had killed my marefriend, he killed the pony I loved, without a thought, without a care, my best friend killed my marefriend in a cold heartless second, and I didn't know why. His gaze turned to me as his hand dropped down with his gaze. There was no warmth in those eyes, nothing of the person he was before. No making jokes, no friendly demeanor, and no caring heart.

“Yes?” He asked in a stone cold voice.

“W-why?” I asked as I was fighting back my tears so I could stare at him to understand why he had killed my Twilight.

“Because Ryhn” I froze right when he said my old name. I couldn't help but stare into those eyes of his when it went from the cold stare to a blazing inferno. “You left us.” He slowly moved closer to me. “Because you left us to grieve over you, while you were enjoying this happy little wonderland of yours. You left us tearing each other apart because of stupid little things, while you sat here enjoying a new life without caring about those you left behind.” Each word was a blow to my gut, in ways he was right. When I got here I was rather... well I can't say happy, but content in some ways. Having amnesia was a bit of a bitch like that.

“But I didn't have my memories because of amnesia.” I tried to defend.

“Bullshit, and you damn well know it.” He said getting closer to the point I was looking up to his hateful eyes. “But let's say that was the case. How about when you remembered? Why didn't you try and tell us you were alright?”

“I thought it was best-”

“That we remembered you as you where?” Ghost interrupted swinging his leg into the side of my head. It send me rolling a few feet away. “So you thought it was best for me to blame myself for your death. Because I had to stop a few times for small things. When we could have been there earlier?”

“How was I supposed to know what was going to happen?” I said spitting out a bit of blood while I tried to get back onto my hooves.

“You could have warned us when you came to visit.” He commented slowly walking closer.

“What do you mean?”

“I saw you at your own funeral”

“Impossible! There is no way you could have known that was me.” I shot back trying to make sense of this.

“Please, I know how you think Ryhn. You wanted to have a clear view to make sure everyone was dealing with it alright.” He said getting closer still.

“But I wasn't me anymore, I was in a different form.”

“Different form, same mind.” Ghost countered before kicking me square in the jaw. This sent me flipping backwards onto my back. He came closer putting his foot onto my chest. “For all this, you still the idiot I know you for. You really didn't think I figured it out? Did you think I was a fool to think that I wouldn't know one of my 'best friends' when I see them?” As he spoke he slowly began to put pressure on my chest causing my bones to slowly creek in pain. “Besides the fact you forgot that you called and told us about meeting yourself.”

“What?”

“Oh yeah, didn't think I knew about that moment at her grave didn't you?” Ghost commented. “You called me telling me that you saw someone familiar but odd at the same time. At the time I didn't think about it until a few weeks later. When I showed up here it all clicked, you fucking bastard.”

“I get your pissed off at me, but why did you kill Twilight?”

“Why? Why did I kill your 'marefriend'?” He asked before an amused look crossed his features. “Why shouldn't I have? You killed my memories of my best friend and you killed your ex-girlfriend. So I thought it was fitting.” He said pointing his gun right at my face. “Now I think it's time for me to kill my ex-best friend.” I watched his finger slide into the trigger and brought it back. Before he had the firing pin all the way back, I used my magic to force his hand up. This caused him to miss my head only by an inch or two. By doing this, it had angered him even more where he picked up his foot and slammed it onto my chest causing me to feel a few ribs creek, probably break. My claw came up and I gripped his leg digging the claws into his leg. This caused him to flinch in pain. Enough to draw the pressure away from pinning me to the ground. With both my prosthetic hoof and magic, I had forced Ghost off me by a few feet. He toppled over onto his back, I used this chance to put get back to my hooves. Easier said than done as pain flared in my chest. If this kept going I know I was going to fall to my friends hand, something I’d rather not do. My gaze went to Ghost as he tried to get up with me slowly backing up to seeing the corpse of Twilight behind him. The way her body fell, it was like she was staring directly at me. This caused a deep seeded beating in my chest as I remembered back in the dragon's den when I had failed her, just like I did now. My... friend, had killed the only pony I cared for the most. Just to get back at me for something beyond my control. He did this for something so petty, and worse he was trying to kill me over it. Something in me twisted as if my brain had became slightly unscrewed causing my sanity to jerk to the right. Just as if someone driving the car and the passenger decided to grab the wheel and turn it towards them all the way. My gaze turned back to my 'friend' as he was dusting himself off. “Okay, I'll give you that it was a rather clever to do that. But playtime is over Ryhn.” He said pointing his gun back at me. He fired a bullet at me as my horn, mane, and tail flared to life. The latter two becoming pure flames as the bullet slowed to a complete stop a few inches from my head.

“You're right about one thing, playtime is over.” I said giving a bit of emphasis on the “is over” part of that statement. Before he could respond to that, the bullet before me turned a completely one hundred and eighty degrees around and fired right back where it came. The force I put behind it was enough to expand the barrel and lock the cylinder in place as the second round in the current chamber was set off. This caused a bit of casing to fire backwards through firing pin of the gun. This went right into Ghost's arm leaving a rather impressive wound in his arm. I had effectively turned his gun into a piece of scrap metal.

“You bastard!” He yelled as his left hand went to cover the profusely bleeding wound I inflicted upon him. The gun was still in his right hand around his trigger finger. But he wasn't holding it in a firing gesture anymore. “You want to play dirty little magic tricks? Well two can play with that kind of magic.” He said as he took his blood covered hand and reached into his pocket. He then proceeded to pull out what looked like a blue gem of some kind. From what I could see that there was a few odd places that looked like the gem was a metal of some kind. The biggest alarm was that the gem was giving off a magical aura to it that engulfed that hand that held it, tinting it a dark midnight blue.

“Don't do it!” I yelled trying to stop him, he didn't heed my warning as he jammed said orb right into the wound. A few seconds passed as it sank into his flesh. It disappeared, but the aura it gave off remained and grew to engulf the arm at first. Then it moved to his chest, legs, feet, other arm, before finally stopping after it had taking over his head.

“Now matter what Ryhn, you will not live to see tomorrow.” He growled as his body began to grow in size. Both in a general sense and in a monstrous sense. The sounds of ripped cloth echoed as his jacket, pants, and undershirt began to rip under the stress of the body under it expanding beyond what he could contain. His shoes did much the same. As I watched his body change before me, I was left with a feeling of fear and of a strong resolve. Ghost's head started to change as his skin started to turn from the normal pale peach skin he had to more an ash gray. His fingers stretched into long claws that went from the ash gray to a devious black. His feet did much the same without turning black at the tips. He grew a large tail and what I could see down his back was a set of steel looking scales that shifted much like a wave. He curled down so his back was arched as two long dark horns grew out of his head. They curved forward before taking a sharper curve back so the points where set pointing away from him. He opened his now more dragon like muzzle to show it was filled with razor sharp and darkened gray fangs. The scrap piece of metal that was once his gun that hung onto his finger began to melt down, before it was absorbed into his body. I didn't see what effect it had but with my luck, it wasn't good. My old friend eyes sat in as his mostly blacken eyes was dawned with a blue ring to mark where he was looking. Honestly I would say it looked cool if it didn't mean I was going to die. He let out a primal roar before he rushed at me with more speed then I would have given his massive almost eleven foot frame credit for. Without a thought my horn began to glow bright enough that it set off a flash that blinded myself. The sound of a crash behind me told me that Ghost was too. I needed to get out of reach of this thing but how? I weaved away trying to avoid hitting anything as my vision was taking it's sweet time to correct itself.

“Damn it where do I go?” I said trying to think of somewhere.

“Ryhn!” Ghost roared behind me, this was followed by the sounds of the structures being destroyed. Great so on top of being faster than I thought it was, it's ridiculously strong too. Fuck you too universe, fuck you right up your pretentious ass. The wall I was just ducked behind cracked and shattered sending me rolling. “There you are.” He growled slowly moving closer to me. The wind was knocked out of me as I was pinned under on of the wall fragment. Oh, I was so totally fucked. He pulled back his arm ready to strike me in the head to end it all. Think damn it, think, there has to be something I could do to safe my... is that? My gaze shot pass Ghost and above him to show me one of the loose swinging platforms that was just being held by one chain. I focused my magic on the chain itself. From what I could feel that one good strong tug was all it needed. So, I did what I could think of was. I applied the needed force which caused one of the links to bend and snap. Ghost looked up in time to see the descending platform, but he couldn't avoid it. The thing came down corner first to nail him square in between his eyes. He had curled down with both of his hands to cover the wound as he let out a cry of pain. This caused the platform to roll back and snap one of right horn which produced another cry of pain from him. I didn't give him a chance to recover as I wrapped the chains in my magic and wrapped his limbs in it. Making sure I get around his neck as well with the upper two chains. Just to make sure it was secure I magically fused the two broken chain lengths together into a makeshift collar. If this didn't stop him it should at least hinder him a bit. The last thing I did was used magic to force him onto his back so I had a chance to remove the bits of wall from me. “You think you're so clever?” He roared before the sounds of splintering word reminded me this fucker could break through walls. I had just enough time to get out from under the wall before he broke the platform into a few good size pieces. Two of which were connected to his arms, so like an idiot I gave him flails to use.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” I yelled as I tried to avoid his attacks. Slam after slam just inches behind me as I put everything I could to stay ahead of him. “You know a saving grace would be nice right about now!” I yelled out in frustration. I'm guessing something heard me because after a few minutes the sound of rumbling came from above me. It seems that out of my anger I yelled just right to cause one of the stone blocks in the roof of this room to dislodge itself right on top of my approaching doom. I turned to see a rather large and impressive stone right on top of Ghost. Okay, maybe the universe isn't a complete bastard. Right about then Ghost decided to push the stone off him with a tail I completely forgot about, right at me. I would retract my previous thought about the universe, still a complete bastard. I was able to dodge the stone barely. But this left me with a second problem. The way the stone slid and the way I dodged, put me into a dead end in one of the structures.

“Playtime is over Ryhn.” Ghost said getting up from the ground. I gulped watching him as he edged closer making sure that I was blocked in. I didn't have the ability in my wings to fly with my one still injured. I didn't want to chance teleporting with blink and end up in a wall. My brain was drawing blanks on what I could do to save myself. I watched as my doom just stepped closer and closer, his eyes glowing in the shadows that swirled around him. Something in me changed, I can't tell what it was but for a brief moment I wasn't in charge of my actions anymore. Before I knew it my muzzle was open and out came not the normal ruby red flames that my fire took, it was dark violet. The flames wrapped themselves around Ghost as he began to let out pained roars, to be honest they sounded closer to screams. I watched in horror as I couldn't stop myself letting the flames burn him. I watched as the flesh melted from his bones, or at least what looked like bones. When the fire died away all was left was ash and charred bones. I stood there frozen in horror as I had just killed one of my best friends.

“No... no.” I started off quietly as I made my way over to his remains. I couldn't feel anything in me but this load of fear, sadness, and deep regret. I couldn't get words out, all that I could do was scream out in pain. My marefriend was dead, and I had killed my best friend. I didn't know what to do anymore, and frankly I could even move anymore beyond the shaking. The image of my best friend was burned into my mind as it played over and over. How could this have happened? I was stuck against a wall then suddenly I let out a breath of fire that I've never done before. What... what did it? I don't know how long I was sitting there staring at Ghost's scorched remains. Tears continued to flow as I had to do what I could. It wouldn't put things right, but it had to be done. Focusing my magic on the velvet stone that make up the structures here. I made a collection of stone slabs to create into two coffins. Fusing the stones took a lot out of me, but I didn't care about that. The worse part was moving the remains of Ghost. It felt wrong moving them in my magic, but it was either that or try to do it with my hooves or mouth. It just felt worse to me even thinking about that. So magic was my only alternative. Once the first coffin was filled with the ash, bones, and surrounding dirt that was scarred with the flames. I sealed it tight, before floating it with me as I slowly made my way back to Twilight's body.

Twilight was right where I left her, if moving Ghost with my magic only hurt. Moving Twilight damn near killed me inside, as I laid her to rest. I made sure the stone that part of her was splattered against was with her. I didn't want to forget even one bit of her. Then I set myself to dig, not with my magic. The only thing I did with my magic to dig was make myself a spade out of a wall. With that I set myself to dig. The dirt gave way to easily to my liking as it should be hard to move. It was what I deserved after what happened and what I did. Once I had two large size holes down. I set Ghost down first to rest in the ground before I covered his hole with what I dug out. When that was done. I turned to the wall and created a headstone for him.

“There lies one of the greatest men that the world and Equestria ever knew. Ghost may you rest in peace, and watch over those you cared about the most. Because you will be missed.” I inscribed into his headstone. Under the words I put a little ball of light that would stay there to illuminate the words to anyone that would find it. I made sure the spell would never dissipate over time. I moved over to Twilight's grave as I set her to rest taking just as much care as I did with Ghost's body. Just like I had done before when I laid her coffin into the ground I had covered her as well. When I placed the headstone down, I began to inscribe it with. “Here lies one of the greatest mares anywhere. A savior of Equestria more than a hoofful of times, personal student of Princess Celestia, one of the best friends a pony could have, and a loving marefriend. You will be sadly missed Twilight Sparkle.” Under her headstone I put a small purple flame with the same enchantment I used on Ghost's ball of light. I felt bad that I had put more on Twilight's headstone then I did Ghost's. It was either that I couldn't think straight after all this or the fact that I wasn't sure I even had the right too. I felt worse that I couldn't give them a proper burial. I know that when this is all over I will have to have Celestia give these two what they truly deserved. While I was doing this, I could swear I could here old pipe organs play as if I was in a church. My ear gave a flick as I realized it wasn't in my head. For a moment I stopped myself from getting up to check out what was making the sound. With a deep breath I turned to the gravestones.

“For what it is worth, I am sorry.” I said to them before I got up slowly. Each step felt worse and worse as I wandered away from their graves. I didn't bother wiping my eyes of the tears as I trotted towards what was making the sound. With all this inside I was bitterly cold at everything. How what ever allowed this to happen, to what put me in this whole situation that make me lose one that I loved and make me kill my best friend. Even more so, I curse myself for not being able to stop it from happening. My mind just kept going in circles as I followed the music to a lone door in the middle of the ground. It was a large wooden door that even had the framing around it. It wasn't attached to anything, just like someone stuck it into the ground standing straight. Circling around it, it just looked the same on both sides, save for a doorknob on one side. All the while the music continued to project from the door as if it was muffled slightly behind it. The only left one option since I looked around the door and such. To open it, so I went to the side with the handle and gripped the doorknob with my prosthetic claws. With a turn it creaked open, as the door swung in to show a large plane of dark purple grass. Much like a field of it as the sky was in a dark tint of a matching shade. But what really drew my notice was the large massively impressive pipe organ some odd feet away and the pony that was playing it. It finally hit me, everything that I had deal with, everything that I was put though, and with everything I head learned up to this point about what happened. I couldn't help it, I just began to laugh. I laughed like everything had finally made sense to me, like the stars had aligned and showed me what was really going on. Most of all, out of all this I finally felt relieved about it for the first time in a long time as I stood there laughing like there was no tomorrow.

-End of Chapter-