"You won't be going anywhere until you answer our questions."

I don't think I have ever envisioned myself being held down by Shining while Twilight's holding a sword to my neck. The guardian siblings proved to be so much of a tandem that I was far too easily overwhelmed by their abilities. One thing I've noticed was that Twilight's way of fighting seemed a lot more forward than what I'm used to. Normally, she'd teleport behind or use her magic to launch a distraction before shoving me aside. But instead of doing any of that, she was just as formidable being a front-up combatant.

And even her body showed the part. Her legs were more muscular, her body was smaller and slender. The one eye she could still use was keen to locate any weakness on my body. Meanwhile Shining appeared to be much more of his standard self. Even if his mane was cut shorter, he maintained that tactical edge. However, there was much sadness in his eyes, far more than what I had grown accustomed to seeing.

Still in a compromising position, I lowered my voice and spoke slowly. "Okay. Whatever you want to know, you can ask me."

The duo looked towards one another before Shining deferred the line of questioning to Twilight. "Where are you from?"

"A world not like yours. But I was summoned here by monsters and rescued by ponies. From there, I dedicated myself to service to show gratitude."

The two appeared unconvinced, Twilight continued her interrogation. "So if I were to say that I trusted this information, who would vouch for you here?"

"No one. And if you feel like my life isn't worth keeping, then it's only understandable."

Shining then added. "And you don't care if we take your life?"

"My life was dedicated to show gratitude for the ponies that took me in. If I can't serve Equestria the only way I know how, if I can't even find my way home, then it's only meaningless."

Twilight started to inch the blade against my neck. "And since when have you ever gotten intimate with me? I don't even know you."

I began to think out loud. "Yeah, I suppose that wouldn't happen if this is some other dimension. Regardless of me, what are we looking out for, captain?"

The two glanced back at one another again, shrugging before the blade was removed from my neck. "Who's the captain?" Shining asked.

"Isn't it you?" I asked.

The young stallion lightly chuckled. "Ha, I wish. I'm Staff Sergeant Shining Armor."

Twilight, didn't bother assisting me as the bindings on my limbs had become undone. "I'm Corporal Twilight Sparkle."

"And I'm from a completely different Equestria." I stated, wringing at my wrists. "In mine, Shining Armor was the Captain of the Royal Guard before he got promoted to Brigadier General."

The stallion smiled a bit. "Well, some high praise there, I must have done something right to shoot up the ranks like that."

"You were also married to Princess Cadance."

Again, there was confusion on the siblings faces. "Who's Princess Cadance?" Twilight asked.

With each time they looked at me like I was weird, it only confirmed to me that I was in some alternate timeline or parallel universe where something had gone wrong or differently. The only way I'd know exactly what was going on was to work my way to the answers. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She and Shining Armor got married to each other─"

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is dead." Shining said flatly, causing me to freeze in place, grasping at my chest. "The prized pupil of Princess Celestia, her adopted niece, was killed when King Sombra returned along with the Crystal Empire. When she was sent to claim her birthright, she was ambushed by his forces and she was made an example of his cruelty."

"They sent back her head along with a declaration of war." Twilight added quietly.

I didn't even want to get up from where I was sitting, I was even trying to barter with my brain over how much alcohol was still lingering in my system. Hell, the thought of Cadance even being dead to start off with was something along the lines of absurdity to me. "Cadance is... dead?"

"It was one of the events that started the Crystal War."

"You guys had a war?" I asked, still recovering from the news I just received.

"There's only been the Crystal War. We're still fighting King Sombra and his forces. And before you ask, Canterlot is the front line."

Well that's some shit. "So what's the front like now? I see the uniforms have changed up a bit from the whole chunky metal armor I usually see."

"That armor is only for Princess Celestia's forces, her personal battalion." Twilight quickly explained. "We are the draftees, the home-front guards, we protect the citizens of Equestria, provide assistance during evacuations, and assist from the rear lines by whatever means necessary."

I looked over to Twilight. "How long have you been in service?"

"It's been seventeen months I've been on the reserve. But it's only been a month since Sombra's forces started their attacks on the city."

"How are the girls?" I asked.

"What girls?" She replied.

"Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack? Those girls, they're your friends." The long awkward silence she gave me was more than an answer. "You don't know who I'm talking about, do you?"

"The only ponies I know are my mom, my dad, and my brother."

I felt sad for the rugged young mare, almost wanting to hug her. But I also kept in mind that if I were to violate her personal space, it would more than likely result in a sword embedded in my neck. "I'm sorry. I just thought that since you were Princess Celestia's student that you..."

I stopped myself short of completing my sentence, letting the silence choke me out. But the room didn't stay quiet for very long, as Twilight replied to me in a somber fury. "Me, a student of Celestia!? If I wasn't any kind of trained, I would've drove my sword down your stupid throat! My even trying to be Celestia's student is the main reason why my face is the way it is now!"

"I-I'm sorry─"

She continued to chastise me for my words. "Do you want to hear a story of young little Twily? Little stupid Twily tried to be a student thinking she could help the princess raise the sun. But whoops, she had a huge issue with her magic deformity. And as a result, she tried to crack that egg open with all her might to fail the first time. But then she came back encouraged that she had the power to give it a second go. Oh, and keep up with this little piece of the plot; little Twily had bangs. So she tried her best to ace the second time around, thinking if she used all her magic in one go to pry that egg open, she'd be set. But she didn't have control of her magic and it ran hot on her horn. So guess what happened with little Twily, her magic burned her mane and some of her coat, she nearly cooked one of her eyes, and she was deemed too unstable to practice. Dream over, reality ensues. And her father keeps saying things to make her feel better, while paying thousands in medical bills to keep his daughter from not being able to live a normal life. Years of counseling and endless bullying later, I join the guard. The war starts. And that's all she wrote."

Shining walked up to his younger sister, only to get swatted away as she walked to the window. "Since then, Twilight's been adamant on defending the home front, to protect mom and dad."

"In my eyes, that's all who matters. I don't have time to waste the tears I have left in my one good eye. So I don't depend on others, I don't ask for the attention of others. I only depend on my family and myself." Twilight interjected one final time before going back on watch.

Even if I wanted to hug her more than ever, I still maintained a safe distance from her as I spoke. "I can understand where you're coming from. When I was younger, I got bullied too. And if I didn't feel like talking to anyone, I just stayed locked up in my room. My dad would yell at me to join the family, but I didn't want to associate myself with a bunch of people who would easily be considered as normal." I then took a step towards the young mare, still maintaining a safe draw. "But the Twilight in my world, the you in my world, was different."

"Do I look like I give a shit about what your Twily did for you in your world? I'm my own Twilight Violet Sparkle, so you can shove it."

I continued. "In the Equestria I'm from, you passed your test on the first try. You cracked that dragon egg open and got something like a little brother in Spike. You became a student of the highest marks in everything except for home ec, which you used Spike to pass because you wanted to learn more spells. You made some acquaintances in school, moved away to Ponyville to continue your studies, gained five other friends, saved the world countless times. That dragon you hatched, he helped Princess Cadance and Shining Armor put away King Sombra. And that one event showed Celestia how ready you were to go higher. You finished one of Starswirl's spells and all those events earned you a princess' crown. You gained a little crush on a crystal guard."

"Oh, and I'm sure everything was just peachy for her." Twilight replied sarcastically. "Spare me."

"It wasn't easy, Twilight. You, the other you, she fought a magic-stealing centaur and lost her home in the battle. She had to deal with greedy politicians trying to get one over on her. And then she found me, which created a shitton of problems for her, because she and I started to click in ways we didn't even think possible. Shining and I had a feud, and you didn't care because the only thing you wanted me to do was to stand by you because no one else would. You and I decided to break the rules one day, and we just did what lovers do. And we got in trouble for it, I was sent to fight some arimaspi, and you were worried if I came back dead, the politicians had it set up where you'd dissect me... Yeah, it gets a little weird."

"You went from talking about her to talking about me again." The young mare said, finally turning away from her watch to stare me down.

"Because I know what's inside you, Twilight. Yeah reality is a bitch, but that doesn't mean we can't change our course for the better. Even now, you don't want to say it, but you couldn't bear to see a single day without your BBBFF." Twilight's expression widened, her eyes opening wider while I spoke. "And yeah, it's a little weird to read a book and kiss a cantaloupe like you're kissing the main character of your favorite novel. But that's you." Her face started to flush red as she started to walk towards me. "And even though you worry about the smallest detail of the smallest detail of the smallest detail of things, you only want to make sure everything's perfect when the truth of the matter is that you don't have to be. You're not one to practice perfection with your looks, so don't try to be that way with everything else in your life."

Twilight once again grabbed the sword and planted the blade against the back of my neck, forcing me to lean down to her. The mare quietly whispered at me. "Who. Are. You?"

"Your... ex-fiance."

"Ex?" She whimpered.

"You broke off with me because the politicians were doing everything in their power to cut me off from you, even assigning me to deadly deployments that labeled my chances of survival less than ten percent. And it's because of you why I continue to fight, you took me into your heart, and your home, gave me a place to lay my head when I didn't know how to get back to my own world. You even showed me how it felt to have my first girlfriend, my first time. And I know you wanna lop my head off right now for talking too damn much, but I still see the beauty inside of you."

"Even past these scars?" She questioned, easing her weight on the blade.

"If anyone asked me if I had the opportunity to show you how I feel, I wouldn't let them see me living without you."

The grip on the blade tightened once more. "Sweet, but doesn't answer my question."

I reached out for her, nearly touching her face, I turned back to Shining. "Uh, do I have your blessing to touch your sister, not like in a sexual way, but in an affectionate one?"

Shining stormed out of the room. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just going to be on watch. But you two do what you do, just don't hurt her or I will come to kill you."

"Noted." I replied, finally placing my hand on her face. While there was not much in the way of fur, her mane was a tad coarse, rough from a lack of upkeep. The muscles of her neck tightened as I felt her tense against me. Her eyes glared meanly as I got on my knees to further embrace her features. She didn't seem to mind my getting closer to her, but she did show signs of blushing. She tried her best to keep her eyes locked on me, but after some time of staring back at her, she glanced away. I placed my forehead against her horn, causing her to gasp with surprise. Holding her like this, my hands on her cheeks, the only difference I felt was that of a scar.

But everything else still felt the same, even if her physique was a bit smaller. The mare shook unsteadily.

"Are you scared?" I asked her.

"Terrified." She replied shakily. "I don't even know you. And you make me feel so... different."

"I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable."

She shook her head. "Please don't stop making me feel this."

Before anything else could transpire, Shining broke the door wide open and hollered. "Sombra's forces incoming! We need to get to the battlements!"

Twilight woke out of her trance and felt a tinge of sadness roam throughout her chest as I broke away. Shining stared at us for a second before urging his sister to move. She stood silently, unmovable while she whimpered. "You're not meant to be here." Shining and I quietly stared at her while she started to back away from me. "Everything you said, everything you told me, I saw it."

Shining glanced back to me. "What did you do?"

"Nothing outside of putting my head against hers."

Twilight started to cry painfully, letting the tears run freely from her eyes. "Why do you have to exist, only to show me what I can't have?"

I wouldn't be able to answer her question as the next thing we felt was the sensation of something large crashing into the castle. While I stumbled to keep my balance, I walked over to the window to see a volley of flaming pots of oil along with fiery arrows crashing into the ground below. As each cauldron landed, the flammable tar dispersed far and wide, catching many a building ablaze. And as the skyline of the city started to burn, I felt my knees grow weak out of fear and horror.

Shining pulled at me. "Hey! You said you're a guard, right?" I nodded in rapid succession. "Okay then, let's get moving!"

As soon as the three of us ran out of the room, a large boulder crashed into the castle, cutting us off from one of the access points to the throne room. We ran around to see the damage it had done, almost entirely destroying the hallway. The only thing that seemed to be safe was the internal walls facing away from the windows. I looked back to check the hall behind us, already seeing that the way around would take significantly longer. I then felt on my neck the pendant Celestia gave me and held it up to see if it held any power. It did, more than what I thought it would. I quickly took it off of my neck and held it to a nearby wall. And as intended back home, the devices triggered and the wall collapsed open to allow us a direct passage to where we needed to go. "Shining, Twilight, with me!"

The two gawked while I pushed through the webs and assortment of bugs blocking the way. The stallion questioned me. "How did you... When was this..."

Twilight finished off her brother's thoughts. "How did you know about this and where to go?"

I continued to hold the pendent up in my hand, pushing through the small passageway towards the throne room. "Princess Celestia gave this to me so that I could quickly gain access to protect and escort her. Kinda came with my promotion."

"What did you get promoted to?" Twilight asked.

"Your brother Shining promoted me to Captain of the Guard."

The white stallion replied flabbergasted. "I DID WHAT!?"

"Long story, will explain later."

Finally reaching our exit, I held the pendent up to the wall, watching as the bricks fell out of place to reveal the hallway adjacent to the royal throne room. The three of us looked as the chaos of guards scrambling around to gather their weapons. Those who were coming in were holding wounded guards on their backs. Others were bloodied and leaning against the walls. Shining glanced back to me. "So now what, captain?"

"Me!?" I exclaimed.

"Well you sure as hell didn't convince me that you were lying about anything you just said. So I'm respecting the rank! What's your orders!?"

While the feeling of giving Shining and Twilight orders felt completely foreign to me, I continued to act my part. "Get inside that throne room, secure the princess, lead her to safety! Anyone gets in our way, you are ordered to kill on sight! All opposition are to be treated as hostiles! If hostiles are present within the throne room, you are cleared to engage! MOVE!"

The three of us barreled towards the doors, bashing the huge doors open.

I was running at a full sprint when I saw how the world changed at the snap of one's fingers. I looked behind me to see an empty hallway with an assortment of gooey webs hanging from the ceiling. and looking back forward, my eyes just then started to process the grim truth of where I was. I was inside the throne room, but much of it was changed.

Green gooey webs hung from the ceiling with several cocoons hanging high above. Within them, I saw the vague faces of several guards. Some of the pods were even stuck on the walls, holding several unmasked guards and maids. There were so many faces that I had recognized passing throughout the castle, even faces I didn't truly like. Even Count DuMonee was a mainstay in one of these pods, he even appeared to be suffering in his attempts to escape. I couldn't see Twilight here, but I did see Shining Armor.

He was very weak, the brightness of his cocoon indicating that he was very close to expiring. There was a blank expression on his face, almost as if he had completely given up on all hope. The stallion's eyes wandered to me before trailing back to despair. He had already resigned to meet his end, and there would be no saving him... even if I tried. Operation QueenSave had shown me that.

And even with all of this, that was not the most harrowing thing I've seen to date.

When I had seen it with my own eyes, I grew terrified. Initially, I could say nothing. Walking closer to the throne, I saw a cocoon, the brightest there ever was. As I approached, I saw the high princess resting within. But she was not as I would normally see her. She was in such a dismal state, the flesh oozing off of her bones. Her face had the same expression as Shining Armor's but hers seemed eternal; moreso, it was. Her mane turned completely gray, her eyes glossed over, the bones in her neck and chest exposed, her jaw unhinged as she stared into the nothingness beyond.

Celestia is dead, long live the queen.

The voice echoed throughout the room. My eyes zoomed around the room, trying to source out what individual was speaking. My answer soon revealed itself as a changeling with a smaller green mane emerged from one of the cocoon racks in the ceiling. Her legs and head was contorted in such a way where it could be easily misconstrued as broken. She leapt from the ceiling and landed in the center of the room. Her head was still turned upside down when she landed, causing me to shudder and stumble at the unnatural motions. Turning her head upright, she proceeded to walk towards me.

"You are obviously no pony. Now tell me what you are and I may decide on whether or not you will be of use to me."

I looked back to the dead princess and sighed complacently, knowing that I had to lie myself to see freedom. "I suppose I am a wandering roach, trying to find it's way back home. In the meantime, I could be of use if I'm allowed to return."

The changeling appeared unconvinced. "And what use would a monkey creature be to us?"

I glanced around and sighed desperately. "I could help you find more of the ponies."

"AS IF!" The changeling cackled. "YOU help US hunt down the remaining ponies of Equestria!? You'd be useless!"

"How would I be useless in finding ponies?" I questioned.

"Because her royal majesty Queen Chrysalis has already massed her forces into the Everfree Forest, to hunt down the last of the pony tribes! And judging from the army she amassed for the task, she's probably well on her way to dispatching Chieftess Zecora!"

I wanted to drop the act and quickly find my way to the Everfree Forest. I at least wanted to try and find her, but that choice would offer little towards my desire to remain upright. Instead, I had to swallow all of my desires to adhere to my survival instincts. "But I may know exactly where she is located."

"So do we!" She replied proudly. "We know where they are, their strengths, weaknesses, their defenses, and we even have infiltrators to give us the exact location. There's no arguing how useless you are to us. For all I know, judging from the way you walked up to my seat is a clear indication that your allegiance was more to those ponies than anything else."

"You're mistaken." I lied.

"Then prove how little you care for them." She ordered. Tilting her head, she used her green magic to yank one of the ponies from a cocoon and laid them before my feet. She even managed to pull out Shining Armor and stand over him with a disgustingly cruel grin. "Now, feed on this creature. If you care not for them, you would hold no hesitation to find a means to butcher this pathetic lump of flesh."

I felt sickened. I was already on the verge of vomiting when I saw how Celestia was treated. And even the mere idea of her remains being a beanbag chair for this changeling made me vehemently angry. Several changelings started to crawl from the dark cracks and crevices within the room. Suddenly, there were at least two dozen of them. And I was without weapons or technology to hold any advantage. So I attempted to do what I could to play out my lie. "Not a problem, my species is known to eat equine meat in some parts of the world."

"Then please indulge." The leading changeling snickered.

"However, we tend to cook our meat." I explained, hoping to buy some time to not have to give a live performance of me eating a pony, let alone Shining Armor. "And there is apparently no trace of fire for ages."

The changeling groaned. Displeased, she gave instruction to her lackeys. "Find me some firewood, build me a pyre so that I may see this pony cook!"

While she was giving out her orders, I looked back to the despondent Shining. His eyes once again trailed back to me while his mouth opened and closed repeatedly, almost as if he was trying his best to say something. I placed my hand on him, noticing his breathing was barely substantial enough to constitute as living. His eyes then wandered back to the throne, his hoof extended weakly towards the fallen ruler laying in state.

"L...o...n...g....... l...i...v...e......." His breath then trailed off with one final attempt of speech. "T...w...i...... f...a..i...l...e...d...."

His hoof fell to the ground completely limp. his pupils dilated widely to indicate the little light he saw ceased to exist. My eyes started to water as I watched the stallion finally fade from this hideous reality to the sweet call of the beyond. It was too much for me, I quietly leaned my head against the stallion and wished him peace with tears rolling down my face.

The changeling leader took notice. "As I should've known."

The other changelings came in with the requested firewood and bowed their heads towards the changeling leader. "We have what you requested."

"I suppose I will have to see to this feast myself. In the meantime, I see a fresh helping of love within this creature!"

The changelings all around me hissed, forked tongues greedily flailing as they circled around me. One didn't hesitate to jump on me while my back was turned towards them. I jumped back up to my feet and fought it off quickly before I was inevitably swarmed by the rest of them. In the midst of the chaos, I could hear a voice speak. "Vice Queen Pupa, what shall we do with this one!?"

"Case him! FEED!"

As I was trying to move my arms, I realized that my limbs were being suspended in some extremely thick goop. And the more that I struggled, the less strength I had in my arms and legs. So they quickly crawled over me, spitting on me and wrapping around my body until the world around me turned an algae green, the fluid they surrounded me inside of quickly seeped into my mouth, oozing into my lungs. I felt like I was drowning, the intake of fluid hurting as I was forced to breathe it all in search of oxygen. The panic my mind registered was enough for me to flail in pandemonium, hoping to claw my way out of this quickly-forming cocoon.

But I failed to do so in time. I lost all energy to resist, and inevitably lost all consciousness.

Regaining my sense of awareness, I woke up in what appeared to be a prison cell. The dark, damp cell was only illuminated by torchlight, but only by an ungracious amount as the torch was sitting down the hallway. I placed my hands flat on the ground to push myself back on my feet, only to be tugged back down to my knees. I tried to reach back to feel what was on my ankles, but my other arm was tugged as a result, causing me to completely fall over to my side. My hands grasped at their wrists, just then noticing large iron bands cuffed around them and chained to the ground. The chains locking me in place were held in a large metal hook on a heavy metal slab. And it too was anchored in place.

No way I'm moving.

I leaned to my side, hoping to alleviate some of the discomfort of being placed in a device that was clearly meant for equine containment. To add to my misery, I also discovered a foul smell too pungent to ignore. Though I was unsatisfied with my current circumstances, I came to understand my lack of a choice would only allow me to endure the suffering... that and finally take a moment to think about what was happening.

I walked out of the bathroom into a war-torn Canterlot. Shining and Twilight were guard reserves. Twilight failed her magic exams and burned herself as a result of one of them. She couldn't live a normal life outside of bullying and constant medical care, so she joined ranks to prove to herself to be anything but powerless.

Changing venues, I'm suddenly in a changeling infested Canterlot where there are no guards left to defend Celestia. She's dead on her throne, Shining dies in my arms, losing all hope and thinking I would eat him. He resigned to that fate without a second thought, just eager for death to take him out of his suffering. I'm then captured.

And now I'm here. If the first world's villain was Evil King Sombra, the second being Queen Chrysalis, then who's world would this be?

While I was thinking, the sound of armor clattering and rattling gave me an indication that there was company soon approaching. It would appear that my answer would not have to wait long before being answered.

I continued to lie on the ground, facing the iron bars that only served as a second layer of confinement.

Two ponies, one unicorn and the other a pegasus with a fitted assortment of tools and a torch, approached the doors of the cell. The unicorn was the first to speak, her voice appearing to be snobbish. "Ugh, what in the moon's name is that ugly thing?"

The second voice was completely distinctive, beyond recognizable. "A creature that was located in the forest. I was ordered to bring it here and inspect it further."

I called out to the pegasus guard, practically filled with hope. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy, how did you get here... and what happened to you?"

The mare's wings unfurled, revealing a pair of midnight blue bat wings reminiscent of those worn by Princess Luna's midnight guards. But instead of shying away from me, she seemed to anticipate conflict and readied herself for a fight. "I don't remember giving you my name to speak so casually, monster! How did you know who I am!?"

I was then reminded that this was another alternate world, one that Princess Luna seemed to have controlled. At least I was feeling a little more comfortable in the mind than what these chains would allow physically. "Oh yeah, that..."

What I saw next, put me on edge as the yellow pegasus pulled out a barbed whip. The very item she held in her possession appeared to be too cruel of a tool to use on any creature to simply tame them. Instead, it more resembled a weapon. With a single flick, she let the whip crack through the iron bars, the tip barely grazing the very tip of my nose. "Who sent you, creature!?"

I grew disheartened again, confirming that this was not the Fluttershy I knew. "You sweet thing, what happened to you?"

The unicorn replied quickly. "Should Trixie unlock the cell?"

"No. It's better to keep my distance, I don't know what this creature is capable of." Fluttershy replied. "And for the moon's sake, can you please stop with the third-person bullshit?"

The unicorn grumbled back, rolling her eyes. "The sooner you stop cursing at everypony, maybe Trixie will consider it."

"Fuck off." Probably the most jarring reply I've ever seen Fluttershy give. After the brief exchange, she turned her attention back to me. "Creature, state what you are and your reason for being here?"

"And what if I'm afraid to tell you─" She wouldn't even give me any time to finish my sentence before the whip cracked against the ground before my nose. After a moment, I finished my retort. "...Because you wouldn't understand and then proceed to beat me senseless."

Fluttershy smiled with a hauntingly icy shimmer in her eyes. She replied in what could be considered her normal voice. "Oh my, a poor creature who doesn't know any better is scared of being hit. Why whatever should I do to make you feel better, Mr. Monkey Creature? Should I pet you, and feed you, and give you love?" He mood suddenly shifted as she unleashed a maniacal cackle. "What do you take me for, a sappy fuck who can't do anything but hide behind her mane and tucking her tail between her hind legs?"

"That's all you ever did when we first started off." Trixie muttered.

"Four yeas ago, Trixie. And you were still calling yourself 'Great and Powerful' while every stallion practically had given you many great and powerful facials since then. You're more of a traveling performer than your dad."

The light blue unicorn mare kissed her teeth and walked away from the hyper-aggressive pegasus. "Whatever, Trixie doesn't have to take this from you. Just get your rocks off beating helpless creatures like you always do."

"Better orgasms than you'll ever have, bitch." She said, returning to her administrative abuse of power. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, teaching dumb creatures their place."

"You are nothing like the Fluttershy I know." I said with a measure of disappointment.

The whip cracked against the floor once more, hitting the cobbled floor of the cell, splashing dirt and dust in my face. "Oh, and what were you expecting from me? Hugs, kisses, or maybe even some flowers."

"At this point, I don't know why I even bother." I replied, starting to become irritated from the awkward position I was forced into. "just tell me who's ruling the joint."

"Who else, the Empress of the Night, Nightmare Moon."

...Damn, so it is Luna. "Empress, what happened to Princess Celestia?"

"Oh her?" Fluttershy asked as she feigned her niceness for a split second before reactivating her usual cruelty. "Well she only got what was right and fair. Since she banished Nightmare Moon to the moon for a thousand years, it was only right for her to be banished in turn. If you're hoping to have an audience with her, then maybe it's better to wait for the sunrise." She gave me a smug smirk. "Oh and spoiler alert; that won't be for another thousand years."

Well it's admittedly a better fate than the last world, doesn't make it any better of a situation to leave me in. But at least I could somewhat bear the idea of Luna being in charge. However, this version of Fluttershy isn't one I'd like to be around. I opted to probe for more information. "Okay, so if Celestia's banished, what about the Elements of Harmony?"

The whip she held didn't crack as it plopped in front of my face. "The Elements of Harmony? Why I thought those were forbidden to be discussed. What does a mangy creature like you know about that?"

"I know Celestia used them to banish Nightmare Moon for a thousand years. And I do know that there are six ponies who are capable of using it's magic."

The pegasi started to giggle, holding and hugging herself with a grim sense of satisfaction. "Oh, you just brought back sooooo many good memories."

"Memories?" I asked.

The mare swiveled her head back down towards the hall, calling for the blue unicorn that accompanied her earlier. "Trixie, keys, now!"

"Trixie says go fuck yourself!"

"Fluttershy says she's gonna put you in one of these cells for insubordination of the Empress' personal tamer." She replied, now giving me more information about herself. "NOW GIVE ME MY KEYS!"

The unicorn came into view, grumbling and mocking Fluttershy's voice. Begrudgingly, she tossed her the keys. "You're lucky you have rank."

"You're welcome." She said before opening the cell door and tossing the hilt of the whip on top of my neck. As she approached, the corners of her mouth tilted upwards slowly, the flickering torchlight causing her features to distort greatly. "So you wanna know about my favorite little toy?"

At that point, I was already becoming convinced on why Discord was so passive when it came to her. "By toy, you mean a pony you broke?"

"A devoted follower of Celestia's teachings and lessons. We had completely erased many of her students over the course of the four years Nightmare Moon has been in rule. Oh I can remember the names of each one I tortured. Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Moondancer, Starbright, Wishing May, Sunburst, Sunset Shimmer to name a few."

My chest was already feeling pain as I heard the list of names. Somewhere in my mind, I decided to prepare for the worst. "What of Celestia's niece?"

"The first to be taken care of." She answered bluntly before putting the hilt of her whip against my cheek. "But then, there was this one little bitch who thought she could cause a little bit of a insurrection to have the elements gathered, so she snuck inside the palace to try and take the elements from under the Empress' nose. But little did she know that Nightmare Moon was prepared for every eventuality. So as a result, she was given to me to be dealt with." The mare then moaned quietly as she pressed her lips on the hilt of her whip. "Now that I think about it, I tortured her in this very room."

"So what happened to her?" I asked, starting to feel my skin crawl a fair bit.

"You should ask her for yourself. She's right behind you." She said happily, almost as if she was speaking like the Fluttershy I had grown to know. She tossed her torch on the ground beside me and turned me around to where I was facing the wall, where a decaying corpse sat, suspended from her forelegs. The coat was far too deteriorated for me to identify it's color, the skin was peeling off in places as maggots crawled from the eye sockets. Lumps of flesh and meat hung rotten from the bones. The smell I talked about earlier was certainly from this.

But the mane, her mane... "Who... was this?" I asked, distraught and welling with grief.

The pony laughed as she pointed to the corpse hung on the wall. "Oh, she wouldn't stop talking about how good will prevail over evil. So, I showed her what little her goody-two-horseshoe self could do. After all, if 'righteousness can beat anything', then maybe it had a chance of escaping, right?"

My heart collapsed as quickly as my body did. My stomach tried to climb out of my throat, my eyes grew from misty to oceanic, the sickness in my chest consumed my entire body, leaving me with visions of the past as the mare talked.

I remembered the day I woke up to see her lying next to me in the morning.

I remembered the time her brother told her about what I had to deal with in the bathroom when I first came around, the look on her face as she laughed at my expense. Even as I initially thought it to be a bit rude, I took no issue in seeing her smile so widely.

The night after our argument in the throne room, I found myself toeing that bold red line with her. I remembered blowing into her neck, her forelegs coiling around my neck. When I kissed her there, she almost mounted me with a long-abandoned fury. She loved being tickled there, kissed there, worshiped there.

I remembered the day she pleaded with Shining, begging him not to kill me when he found us about to break our boundaries with one another. She was passionate in her attempt to save my life, so effective in the way she spoke that her brother complied out of his love for her.

I remembered the moment she walked me into the place where her old library was. I remember stepping on the broken glass, navigating the wreckage before coming up on some old books, long burned and exposed to the elements. And in spite of the pain of knowing this was her home once before, she still smiled at the many memories she had there.

I remembered the time I watched her cry when I professed my feelings for her as I was sparring with Shining Armor, the look of timid embarrassment and overwhelming joy while she wiped her eyes, trying to stop the joyful tears.

Even if this wasn't the real world I was used to, the feeling of her scarred face rings fresh on my hands. The warmth of her head touching against mine while she wondered if I was serious about my feelings.

A maniacal cackle filled reverberated throughout the cell while the yellow pegasus jerked and flailed irrationally, her wings extended in full with a pulsing desire. Her face was twisted into madness and her eyes were as devoid of life, much like the corpse that hung on the wall. Her haunting laugh, her broken hysteria carried on for quite some time as the image before me sank in. And then, she finally stopped to recover her breath, fixing a lock of her mane that fell over her eyes during her laughing fit. While the pegasus mare panted, caressing her whip against the nape of her neck, I started to control my despair and realize that the Twilight hanging lifeless against the wall was not the Twilight I was going to possibly return to. I placed in my mind the reality I wanted to return to and focused in on that. I continued to phase out the yellow pegasus walking past me, looking up to the wall in lustful derangement.

"Twilight Sparkle, you may have not been the one to break me in, but you were the one to break my passiveness. It's too bad you've been rotting for a month. Otherwise, I'd kiss you." She then took a gander at my exposed back. "I wonder if you'll give me the same experience."

Even if there was the distinct finalization that my fate would be set here in this cruel hell of a dimension, there was very little I could do but mentally reject the idea that this existence was real. And if it was, Twilight is dead, everyone I knew and love was probably either dead or conformed to some twisted evil variation of themself. But if there was one thing I had faith in right then and there, it was that it didn't matter what I'd saw as long as I got to feel nothing but the thread of hope that this world was not the one I'd be confined to. In short, nothing else matters. "You know what, okay. Go for it."

The yellow pegasus looked down at me with a deadpanned expression. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, go for it. I mean you're gonna beat me anyways despite what I say. Knowing you, you're probably going to keep going even if I swear my allegiance to your overlord. It won't change anything, you'll just treat me like I'm some toy and forget about me when you find the newest thing to put under a quick stress test."

The mare laughed out of disbelief. "And you won't care if I hit you? You're fucking nuts!"

I clenched my jaw, waiting for the painful beating, that initial strike. "Oh I know it's gonna hurt, but it still won't change anything no matter how hard I try. I'm chained to the ground with my ass in the air, so what good is me trying to resist going to do other than cause more harm to my wrists? So just do your thing so I can suffer in silence when you leave."

My spine arched as the searing pain across my back, my fists clenched tightly while I tried to instinctively reach back to block any other hits. But remembering the chain on them, I lowered my head and shuddered while the pain stung for the longest time. Even the cold breeze I felt in my back indicated that I was struck so badly that my back gained a long wound where the whip once sliced at my flesh. Clenching my eyes shut, I awaited the next terrible blow.

But it never came.

"...It's no fun." Fluttershy groaned quietly, sounding quite displeased. "You're no fun. It's different when you're whipping away at some random animal, at least then you get to see the fear in their eyes as they're beaten. Or the retaliation some of them have when you strike them one too many times. Even when I started doing ponies, they'd all question me why I'm so cruel or so mean. I even get an occasional cuss-out like them telling me to go fuck myself and I get to tell them how often I do while they'll never get to watch. There's even the few preachy types I break in a day or two, they make me feel so good when I sink my whip in their hides!"

The pegasus mare, in a single motion, neatly wrapped the entire whip around her neck before she spat at the wound on my back.

"But you, to give up so easily, to admit defeat so early... you're not even worth my time. And I thought too highly of you. The moment you mentioned the Elements of Harmony, I said to myself how much fun this was going to be since I figured you had the same kind of fight that bitch had over there. It's no fun when you don't fight back."

From there, the only sounds I could hear was the hooves of Twilight's murderer disappearing from my proximity, carrying her whip and torch in tow. The iron bars of the prison were sealed once more as the pair of guards started conversing down the hallway. "Not satisfied with your new project, Fluttershy?" Trixie questioned.

"No point in trying, he already broke himself. Pathetic creature." Fluttershy spat harshly.

The other mare gasped at the other's response. "Wow, Trixie would not have guessed you'd be so out of the mood."

"How about I whip you to put me back in one?" Fluttershy asked.

The unicorn quickly declined the offer, their voices fading as they left the hall altogether. "Trixie will pass, though I heard rumors of a pony showing up with a dragon upstairs."

"A dragon? That sounds like a challenge."

"Fire proof, lava proof, piercing-resistant scales, oh you'll have your work cut out for you."

Even if I couldn't stand the smell, or bear the pain I was in, I still placed my head in my hands and comforted myself by thinking of the wonderful times we spent together. Just the thought of her facing such a lonely death made me realize how much I wanted to protect her, to love her, to hold her, to do anything to be able to make her happy, to set her free. That was probably the first moment I ever cried out of both sadness and frustration, seeking to do better by her and for her. And I seethed on the thought of having to degrade myself to the worst of nightmares and towing the riskiest of red lines.

Mental fatigue took it's toll on me, sending me to a most uncomfortable sleep.

A powerful shaking on the ground I slept on had jolted me awake. I jumped up to my feet when I had realized that the earthquake was anything but normal. Instead, it was the sound of a monster's footsteps. While I was hidden in the depths of what appeared to be the Everfree Forest, I could look up to see a crimson sky filled with smoke. Immediately, my mind told me that this was probably the result of a forest fire, which in that case would yield deadly results for me staying around. And I could even see the fires approaching from the side of me.

That was until I had realized that 'fire' was moving a little too quickly.

The curtain of fiery light ran as widely as I could fathom, but the huge wedge of energy stopped just a yard short before dissipating into a small sliver of light, flickering out of existence before revealing it's path of destruction. In a place where trees damn-near choked all light from the sun, I could see the sky as if I was standing at the treeline leading to an open meadow. Stepping beyond the hiding grace of the trees that remained, I felt completely powerless upon seeing a scar so deeply gashed into the land. And behind that scar, there stood a creature of titanic proportions.

It's hair was as white as the untainted snow, matching the beard on it's demonic red face. On it's head was a pair of horns larger than two stories each. The rest of it's upper body was black with the exception of it's huge red arms. The black of it's body then tapered off to a smoke gray taurian lower half. It's fetlocks was completely silver to match the band around it's neck and the ring in it's nose. And seeing this creature had already told me more than what I needed to know about this world.

Point blank: everyone's probably resorted to living underground if they weren't already dead and gone.

It's black eyes, bright gold pupils, dialed in on me and the satanic creature bore all of his humongous teeth. It's voice boomed far louder than any arimaspi. "And what little insect do we have crawling from my rocks?"

I nodded once before turning around to run, only to have another curtain of energy slice the land behind me. Even the wind from the blast cooled the whipping wound on my back. I glanced around slowly, to see that a valley similar to the one I was short of falling into earlier had formed a mere yard behind me. I was practically left standing on a single island, not a single tree hiding me any longer. And for the first time in a while, I shook with genuine fear, far too afraid to die. I fell to my knees and started praying up to God. "Father, in your son's name Jesus Christ, I humbly come before you as meek and unworthy as I am. I come before you today to beg you for the forgiveness of my transgressions. I asked that in seeking your face that I would─"

The creature took steps the size of city blocks making it's way over to me before I could even take my next breath. The creature then leaned down and stared at me with it's unholy eyes. "How amusing, it seems this creature is even capable of offering prayers to a deity, much less practicing a religion." It placed a claw directly under my jaw, producing so much strength in so little motion that my jaw and head were locked into forced silence. And the worst part of it was the creature was actually exercising tremendous restraint as to not pop my head off. "You are vastly different. But now that I have your undivided attention, tell me what you are, little roach."

The creature pulled it's claw from under my chin and I answered, stumbling to the ground. "...Human. I am a human."

The centaur put a hand to his own chin, running his fingers through his gargantuan beard. "Human? Human..." His face suddenly brightened as an imaginary light bulb popped over his head. "Ah yes! Humans! Why I haven't seen one since the days of old. They even threatened to cast me into the abyss along with six others. I believe it was Starswirl and his company that had accidentally summoned one of your ilk."

The fact that he knew about humans at all intrigued me as much as it sent unrelenting terror flowing through my veins. "But humans don't exist in this world."

"Oh no, they don't, not anymore. I crushed that being with the back of my hand... I don't remember the name it told me, pity. It will be as forgettable as you will be."

"W-w-what are y-you?" I stuttered.

The centaur started to summon a tiny ball of light between it's horns. "I am the one who cannot be conquered by mere ponies. In fact, I cannot be conquered at all. For these ponies, I am GOD. But you will have the honor of calling me LORD TIREK."

No way... The guy who destroyed Twilight's home... This thing... Monster... She fought THIS THING!?!?

The tiny ball about the size of a marble soon expanded to consume that of an entire house. The magic it used shone as brightly as a miniature sun. And with a grin, Tirek announced to me with his booming voice. "Now you shall entertain me! Flee for your life!" He didn't have to tell me twice while I ran like hell to hide in the forest, his voice still punching through the greenery. "Run human! You don't want to die, do you!?"

Busting a full sprint out of my arsenal, fueled by adrenaline, I tried my best to make my way to whatever cave or hole I could find. But the large curtain of energy came crashing into the world around me, striking up rock, mud, and trees alike like a child digging around in a garden. My heart raced to keep myself from losing any speed. The air at my wounded back ran cold while hot streaks of magical energy carved valleys and mountains all over what was once the Everfree Forest. One blast had even landed a few yards short of where I was running towards, sending a large rock barreling towards me.

I then shielded my face, expecting the worst.

But instead of facing my end, I ended up finding my arms covered in lemon-flavored custard. I looked at my arms, expecting them to be broken and my life to come to an end, only to find that an empty pie tray was at my feet. I stood up, only to lose my footing upon finding out the ground below me was a glass pathway covered in soapy water. I landed face first into the walkway, getting a good mouthful of soap, making me writhe with disgust of the bitter taste in my mouth. I stuck my tongue out of my mouth, hoping to scrub the taste off of my tongue.

While I did just that, I could see in the distance a pair of alicorns being rain around in a circle. Behind them was none other than Discord on a unicycle, giggling at their misfortune while their horns and faces had been lathered in paint. I tried to reach for them, to call their names, only to fall to the ground once more.

Instead of my face being lathered in soap, it was covered with dirt and dust. I pulled up from my messy fall and saw an entire field where trees once stood. And I was in the midst of a world where the air was far from clean. The smoggy air made it almost difficult to breathe. I couldn't even take three breaths without coughing and covering my nose.

I heard the sound of a work whistle blaring in the distance, indicating to the citizens of a small industrial town over the hill to appear from their houses. Foals and their parents alike appeared dismal and despondent, marching out slowly to the sounds of their day being brought to a halt for a commercial to play over the town loudspeakers.

In an instant, I could see a stampede of ponies filling the streets to be the first in line for the item advertised over the town loudspeakers. Also in the midst of the chaos came a quick rush of disclaimers spoken too quickly to immediately understand.

While the chaos ensued in the streets, mares and stallions shoving and hitting each other to be the first in line, I let my eyes lead me towards one of the billboards hanging high above. It was a pair of yellow unicorns with peppermint-candy manes holding their hooves to an unimpressive machine that just looked like a regular desk fan with a few colorful buttons added for 'functionality'. My eyes then located a much smaller sign at the end of the road leading towards the town.

"This is Ponyville?" I asked myself. Instead of the whimsical little town I had gotten used to seeing, this place looks like south-side Detroit, minus the skyscrapers looming in the distance. I started coughing again, my eyes watering from the dust in the air. I closed my eyes and started covering my face over with my shirt.

But now the hustle and bustle of the town had gone dead silent. And instead of the distant cries of people trying to get in a line for a product that was predetermined to not meet advertised expectations, it was only the wind howling against my ears. The wound on my back stung as I quickly pulled myself from my shirt and reached for my back, only to realize there was nothing around me.

There was literally. Nothing. Here.

No signs of life, no single trace of beings scouring the place, not an ounce of green, or blue, or red, or even the sun. There was nothing, not even the mountains stood as prominently as they once did. The sky was a drab beige and brown, consumed by the dust that threatened to remain evermore. This Equestria was a wasteland.

There were no victors, no villains to stake their claim, it's was a world that once was.

Two worlds I stepped into like I was walking through a door, two worlds I slept into, two worlds where all I did was cover my face and were suddenly transformed. It would be easy to believe that I could walk through another door and find my way home, but there was no door to welcome me. I could try to sleep it off, but who's to say that something wouldn't come and snatch me up like a dust storm or a tornado. And it wasn't like I could just close my eyes, count to ten, and the world suddenly change back to what it once was. I didn't have any clue on what to do. So I just sat still, waiting and hoping that things would suddenly change.

But after what felt like an eternity, I sure as hell didn't show up anywhere else. The wind was still howling in my ear, the scar on my back still burned, and the sight of Shining's death, Twilight's scar still rang fresh in my mind. Even the taste of soap had persisted on my tongue. Nothing had changed anything I had experienced already.

I looked around, trying to see who was talking to me, I found no one. I promptly put my head back down.

I ignored the statement, writing it off as my mind playing games on me.

"Because I somehow pissed off God?" I muttered under my breath.

The voice then chimed back. "Not quite. But it is a reason beyond your understanding."

I got back on my feet, frustrated that nothing had changed around me. So I screamed into the windy wasteland. "THEN STOP FUCKING AROUND AND TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO KNOW! PLEASE! OH PRETTY-FUCKING PLEASE! I REALLY DON'T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE!"

Suddenly, a light appeared in the far distance, a flash of white before fading into nothing. The voice called out to me again. "That flash you saw, that plays a significant part on why you are here now. This, every vein of opportunity, is what you needed to see for yourself."

"But why? Why make me suffer!?" I asked loudly.

The voice softly replied. "I am sorry that the words you visited were not to your liking, but that was the intention of the one who willed it. And now you will understand why you went on this journey with her."

"With who!?" I asked.

A flash of light appeared directly in front of me, blinding me so intensely that I had to cover my face to hide from it. But in that instant, the wind stopped. And instead of a wasteland, I was standing in a dark cave, looking back at an opening to see nothing but a strange ethereal glow from beyond the exit. I turned around to see a white tree with six jewels embedded in it's branches. My eyes widened at the magnificently incredible sight. Five of the six jewels shone with a faint glow, while the one at the center had illuminated the entire cave on it's own. Initially, my eyes couldn't handle the light until they had time to adjust to the brightness of the room. But that was when I saw it.

A magenta jewel sitting at the center of the tree resembled the most prominent star on Twilight's cutie mark, it was the same star that I saw on the stained-glass artwork of Twilight in Canterlot, it was the jewel that sat above her head when she fought off creatures beyond her normal capabilities.

The voice spoke again. "Had you not noticed that she was the main one you kept seeing?"

"Yeah, for only two worlds." I replied bluntly. "I wouldn't quite call that an epiphany."

"But how much of her has been placed inside of you?" The voice asked. "Just how much do you think she gave to you to see you well?"

I was going to say not much initially, but I had to reconsider my answer once I started thinking back to the days we started talking to each other. The tree pulsed with an intense light, focusing in on the star embedded in the tree. I could see in one of the facets an image of Twilight hunched over me, crying and screaming while her horn glowed a corrupted black and green aura. Purple streams slithered from her eyes as she looked at the very unsettling visage of myself, staring at the ceiling lifeless while my body was cut into an unholy mess, my jaw slightly ajar. She hollered to me at the top of her lungs as her horn kissed my forehead. "It's not over, you can still come back! Please don't leave us! You have so much to see, so much to live for! Live for me, please, just this once! I know it feels good to leave me here, but don't! I promise I will never hurt you again! Please Nondis, I'm so sorry!" Next was the sound of the EKG monitor flat-lining to her horror. Her wings dropped as she slumped off of my body, lying motionless while Mel walked over her and motioned for the other doctors to get my body moving to another room. The doctors and Mel took me, fading out of sight while Twilight's hoof reached out in vain.

But even after that, much had remained unclear to me. "I still don't understand any of this."

The voice finally gained a visible form. The image of Twilight showed before me, wearing only a smile as she extended a hoof towards me. "What is within you is the very essence of the friendship she cultivated with you as well as her own. Only now it has started to breathe it's own life inside of you."

"What are you saying, I'm pregnant or something?" I questioned, still very much confused.

"In a way, yes." She replied. "But it isn't just her magic that breathes inside of you. There is also the magic of others long offered, some as recent as the past day. Others forced upon you by various means. However, inside of you stirs a potential... one that others closest to you have observed. And it has changed you. You may remember the times when you were still recovering from the bouts of nosebleeds. It actually started then, but now there are things that have changed within you as a result."

"How?" I asked. "What about me has changed?"

"You are stronger than you know. You have grown faster, as you have experienced in this ordeal. You have even gotten taller. Though they are marginal changes, they lead to something larger for you."

"So what are you trying to say?" I questioned.

"What I am trying to say is that you have an ability not known to your species dwelling inside your mind, your body, and your spirit. It is dormant, but you can choose when to awaken this power."

"So what, I get some magic mcguffin or some random deus ex machina now?" I replied sarcastically.

"Perhaps it should be better to ask you this, how often have you needed to go to a doctor?"

I started to count off the top of my head all the doctor visits I had taken, and it started to wander into the double digits before I just started laughing at myself. "You're fucking serious?"

"As real as the wounds you've suffered through. But you are not the only human with magic imbued in your system. Any operation that required a substantial amount to drastically alter the condition of one's own body, those effects may linger for months or even years. But in your case, it has been given to you in overabundance. In other words, the magic you took on to repair your body is now substantial enough to maintain it's own cycle. Even now, it works to speed your recovery, increase your tolerance to certain things, and even enhance some of your senses at times."

I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but I still had a searing scar on my back that served plentiful as proof. "So... I can use magic now is what you're saying?"

"Not quite. It's a lot of borrowed magic within you, mainly that of an element bearer's. But you have to realize that this isn't a pass for you to just jump into a magic kindergarden course and learn how to levitate pencils at your disposal. You must learn this magic on your own before you can start casting it. There will be others to help you along the way, but only you can identify with your own magic flow."

As I was listening to her speak, I started to hold my hand out and point at a small object on the ground. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on that object to pick it up. But my efforts gained no ground.

"It will take some time getting used to it, but do not worry if you aren't able to tap into it immediately. And it is also important that you do not overexert yourself in your attempt to cast anything, you will risk self-harm."

Right when she said that, my mind trailed back to the world where Twilight explained how she had gotten the massive scar on her face. She did mention something about her magic overheating and causing her mane to catch fire. So I quickly understood what she meant by that. "Okay, so control is key."

The phantom image of Twilight stopped smiling, this time giving me a stern frown. "And a word of precaution. All magic is not good magic. There are many things that should never be pursued. And this power may only prove to feed on your own greed, causing you to become corrupt. So know that if you are to ever step out of line, magic is not always merciful." She turned around to the tree and tapped her hoof on the magenta star at it's center. "If I am called to stop you, then you will be erased from this world and the others. So don't lose control, please. It would only make her sad."

Before she could disappear into the tree, I called out to her. "Just to clear things up, I'm only here because of Twilight's magic, right?"

"That and the bond of friendship between the two of you." She corrected quickly. "Or rather, a more potent magic that the two of you share."

"And what's that!?" I asked while the phantom mare completely evaporated.

Once again having no form, her voice echoed throughout my mind. "Maybe it is better to open the door behind you and discover the answer to that on your own."

The tree finally stopped glowing as brightly, leaving only a glowing doorway behind me. Upon looking at it, there was no handle or knob for me to grab on to. I placed my hand on the flawless white wood, my fingers almost glued at where a knob should be. And as I pulled back, a bright light filled my eyes.

I stood in the doorway and looked out of the bathroom nervously. Looking down at my feet, I saw the familiar sight of clean marble floors instead of a dirty floor filled with maps and papers. I almost expected to kick a can as I walked out, but I heard nothing but a single voice to the left of me.

"Get a move on! Saturday or Monday, doesn't matter. You gotta get back on the grind."

I saw Shining Armor standing next to my bed, still holding another bucket of ice water. I quickly walked over to him and grabbed the bucket and dumped it over my own head to make sure I was feeling the cold harsh reality of my being here again. I then grabbed my phone off the nightstand and checked the time. 11:39 A.M. "You mean to tell me I went through hell and high water for one fucking minute?"

Shining, appearing confused, tapped me and whispered. "Do you... need a day off?" I said nothing as I nodded my head. The young prince... let me say that again for my own sanity... the young prince Shining Armor grabbed his buckets and started to walk out of the room but not before summoning a business card to my nightstand. "That's the office of my personal shrink, drop by anytime."

"Will do." I mumbled before making a subconscious decision to book a trip to Ponyville.

I had to take some time to process everything that had happened. When I had gotten a good look at myself, I saw a few cuts on my arms, but nothing substantial other than the mark on my back which stung at even the slightest adjustment. I opted to wear a black long-sleeve shirt to hide any evidence of my previous situation. By the time I had finished doing everything I needed to do and spend most of that hour trying to pick up random small items using nothing but this supposed magic circulating in my system, I walked over to the portal room and slipped through to Mel's apartment. She was there, ultimately getting ready to browse the web with her secret friend sitting on the pillow awaiting a battery change. Naturally, this prompted some awkward laughter and a snide remark or two before I informed her I was in between the exchange from Canterlot and Ponyville. From there she tagged along with me to my apartment and we slipped through to our desired location.

The first thing she wanted to talk about since I ran by her apartment was what all happened on Thursday with dad, being she had gotten word from talking with Stanton. I told her that Chrysalis had escaped and tried to take my place in everything except for learning how to aim a gun at a moving target.

Again, very appreciative about that.

When we finished that subject, Alex called me on my phone to check in. I answered the phone quickly, having a question in mind while his name popped up in my head and on my screen. "Yo!"

"Nondis, what's up?" My brother asked boisterously on the other end.

"I'm fine, How about you?" I asked.

He gave an exasperated sigh as if he was fresh on his lunch break. "I'm good. Dad wanted to know if you were busy tomorrow."

"I'm more surprised he didn't call me for that."

"Same here. Guess he got the hint on how busy and hectic your life can be." He said before gulping something down.

"That still doesn't sound like him." I answered with a light chuckle.

"I know, right? You sure on whether you picked up the right 'dad' or some random changeling?"

I groaned out of feigned misery. "That's dad, he probably sniffed out Chrysalis before she could do anything with him. Probably why she was trying to kill him."

"Still can't get over that one." He replied. "When he told us that, I was about five minutes away from finding the sniper rifle you had."

Personally, I think I would've went looking for it on my own. But she had already been long gone by the time we found it. Either way, she's not getting nearly as light of a welcome if she pops up again. "Yeah, but what's dad trying to do?" I asked, quickly trying to change the subject, considering the events from the past two days.

"I dunno. I think he's trying to have a Sunday dinner someplace."

In other words, dad's asking me to break out of my palate famine and into the world of a beautiful Texan-style beefy renaissance. "Oh cool. Sign me up, I'm all vegan'd out anyhow."

"You're on a diet?" He asked.

"Let's just say the princess made it mandatory, and i'm not down with cutting beef out of my diet just yet." I replied. "Besides, I'm tired of eating nothing but oatmeal and drinking vegetable juice."

"Great. I'll give him a call and tell him you gave the thumbs up."

While it almost appeared as if he was going to hang up, I quickly spoke up. "Hey, one more question."

"Yeah me and dad were just talking abo─oh wait." To my surprise, he was actually shifting the subject matter before I interrupted him. "Oh yeah, yeah! Sure thing."

In silence, I let my mind linger on the words that were spoken to me in my trans-dimensional journey. Finally, I found the courage to bring about the question I wanted to ask since his name showed up on my screen. "Do you think I've changed in any way?"

He then stated the obvious. "Um, you lost a fuckton of weight."

"Not like that. I mean do I look different, subtracting all the scars and other bullshit?" I specified.

"Well... not by much. I think you might've gotten a little taller. But that's just the mythical college growth spurt."

"Okay, maybe I should ask it this way." I said, trying to elaborate further towards what I wanted to discuss with him. "Have you noticed anything about me that might have been out of the ordinary?"

"Dude, there's hardly anything ordinary about you nowadays. But if you're speaking from that standpoint of doing what you do and all that other jazz, then not really."

"So nothing that causes alarm?" I inquired.

Alex froze for a second and then shifted his tone to a more serious one. "What's wrong with you Nondis, now I'm worried."

I walked over by the portal and sat next to it while I spoke. "I might have gone on a little trip earlier today. And long-story short, I might be a bit shaken on some stuff, but at the same time I might have a little more than what I bargained for."

"Did something happen to you? Did you get diagnosed with something?" He asked, growing even more concerned.

"No! Well... maybe... yeah. Yeah, but it isn't really... uh... bad, per se. But I think because of this little trip, I might have found out something about myself."

Mel, who was completely invested into our conversation, grabbed my phone from me and placed Alex on speaker as she asked the question for him. "What trip? What trip did you take that has you thinking all of this?"

I tried to grab back my phone, only to find Mel resisting by putting my phone inside her bra. I groaned, knowing I wasn't even going to reach there for it. "If I explained it to either of you, you wouldn't understand because... it's hard to explain."

"What's so hard to explain?" Alex asked over the phone.

"I dunno. I don't even know how the hell this happened. I'm confused by it and I'm the one who lived the experience! Even now I'm trying to piece this shit together so that neither one of you will think I've gone batshit insane. And even if you say that you won't think I'm insane, you'll still think I'm insane." I pleaded, trying not to go too much into detail over what all I've experienced.

Melanie, who already didn't like me withholding information, threatened to hold my phone hostage. "You better start explaining or my right tit is going to be the only place your phone stays from now on."

"Wait, what?" Alex asked, understandably bewildered. "What the hell did I miss again?"

I slowly shook my head, trying to find a way to explain the situation. "Okay, have either of you two been someplace where you swear you experienced days of time, only to look at your clock and see that hardly any time had gone by?"

"Mrs. Pearson's trigonometry class?" Mel replied, referencing a high school teacher we had back in eleventh grade, notorious for having such a boring voice to effectively put an entire class to sleep.

"Oh, you had her too, I forgot." Alex said with a deadpan tone. "We used to call her class sleep hall because we had her first thing in the morning."

At least I found something akin to an ice-breaker. "Okay, now imagine you're in her class, you take your test, you go through an entire chapter of material, you take another test, and then you get assigned homework. Now after all of that, you look at the clock on the wall only to notice that one minute had gone by."

The young woman giggled. "Oh yeah, that sounds like Mrs. Pearson's class."

"Great." I said, getting ready to change up the scenario. "Now imagine all of what I just said being replaced by alternate timelines of what would happen if the so-called 'Villain of the Week' took over the world. I'll put it in this order. Say the first thing that happens is that Stalin popped out of his grave and the Soviet Union reassembled to declare war on the United States, then there would be the timeline where Hitler won the war and the U.S. was turned into a Nazi state where they actively hunted down resistance factions, then let's say the Confederacy won the Civil War, then the War of 1812 intensified into a conflict where Britain had submitted every possible avenue of destruction to recolonize the country, then a world where Discord succeeded George Washington for the presidency, then a timeline where the citizens were unsatisfied with the taxes Britain issued out on the colonies but remained complacent in the situation, and finally a world where World War III had already finished with mutually assured destruction being realized."

Mel shuddered at the thought of only one of the potential realities I mentioned. "Ew, I couldn't imagine looking in my history book to see Discord being the second president of the country. Talk about the entire country going to pot before it even gets started to become something."

"Yeah, now imagine getting to see all of that in what could be considered as 'one minute'. Insane, right?"

"Hey, you said it, not us." Alex replied.

"Well it was insane, even... scary." I said, my mind flashing back to the sight of Twilight's corpse and the smell of her decomposing body. Just lingering on the thought alone made me nearly throw up. I instinctively activated my gag reflex and slapped my mouth shut to prevent myself from spilling more details than what Mel was willing to see.

My attempt to save face didn't go unnoticed. "Nondis, you okay?" Mel asked walking up to me, about to put her hand on my back.

I waved my hand, humming through my fingers as I swallowed whatever had managed to find it's way up. "I'm fine. Changing subject." I quickly answered. "Either way, when I had gotten to the end, I was sent to this weird-looking cave with a magical talking tree inside of it. And from there, it told me that some things about me have changed... permanently."

"Like what?" Alex questioned, sounding worried.

Mel wasn't so eager to move forward with my answer just yet. "Hold on a second, a magical talking tree? You went on a journey and it somehow ended with a tree? A magic tree? That also spoke to you?"

Alex also took the moment to realize how farfetched that concept sounded. "I'm not gonna lie, I swear you were taking drugs. But I didn't want to say anything because you asked us not to."

I shrugged in response. "I get it. Moving on, I might have a few questions to bring up to a certain magical authoritative figure. I swear even the smallest thing I experienced felt too real. Hell, it was."

Mel grabbed at my arm, trying to pull me to my feet. "Okay, come on up here. Let's evaluate what happened."

I kindly fought back while giving her a brief warning. "Mel, I'm still a bit nauseous. Can we please chill out with that?"

"Well, what's causing you to be nauseous?" Alex questioned over the phone. "Did you eat something bad, something ain't work right with you, thoughts on Thursday?"

"Don't wanna talk about it. I'll puke if I do." I expressed rapidly, trying my best not to mentally bring up the gruesome details of my ordeal.

Mel quickly ran across the portal and grabbed a garbage pail from my bathroom and placed it in front of me. She knelt down beside me. "It's going to be okay, Nondis. I promise you're going to be fine, just as soon as we find out what's wrong with you."

Meaning well, she gave me a light brush on the back, aggravating the incredibly fresh whip mark across my back. I arched my back away from her hand, my fists clenched shut while my fingernails dug into the palms of my hands. My arms seized up while I let out a pained groan. "MMMmmmph─Please don't touch me there!" I yelped, trying to rock the reactivated sting away.

Rightfully concerned, Mel jumped back up and noticed the intense discomfort I experienced. Bypassing my consent, she yanked up my shirt from behind and saw the open wound on my back. "Nondis, what the hell!"

"What?" Alex asked, becoming all the more worried for my sake.

"WHO DID THIS TO YOU!?" She questioned angrily.

Meanwhile, I petitioned with both her and myself. "Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me─" My mind already knew the answer to that, and it brought back up some unwanted memories, causing me to reach for the pail and drop my head inside as I unleashed hell, just as much if not more than what I had gone through. The memories of the others and their tragic fates made me a little more invested in cleaning my stomach on top of recovering from a massive hangover. It was way too much than what I was able to process all at once.

Mel, adamant in seeing my condition, stood me up and pleaded me to get to someplace more comfortable so that I could be treated. She looked down at the phone still buried in her bra and spoke to Alex. "Alexander, your brother is sick. I think you need to take the rest of the day off. He's not looking good."

"It's just a hangover, I can manage." I offered, but to no avail in convincing the woman that I didn't need immediate medical attention.

It was already too late to convince Alex of anything, he had already hung up. Meanwhile, Mel was trying to walk me out of the room. I insisted to her that I could walk on my own, and stressed that she didn't need to help me. I even showed her I was capable of walking on my own power.

But I wasn't quite prepared for what happened next.

Voices from down the hall amplified until the doors of the room swung open. Twilight smiled as she and Spike had entered the room, at least she did until she saw me stumbling towards the door. She asked quietly. "Nondis, I wasn't expecting you here. How are you today?"

Memories of my seeing her chained to the wall, long dead and decayed, stormed throughout my mind as I expressed my gratitude and relief in the only way I felt I could truly express it. "You're alive... Praise God."

I had lost all feeling in my legs, the world swirled around me until it had turned a lifeless gray, and finally a dark black as I collapsed to the ground without any bearing or sense of self. Mel screamed my name as she hung over my unconscious body. Twilight, seeing me pass out galloped at my side as Spike ran beside her.

Coming through the doorway was another purple pony, a lighter shade as she took notice of the dysfunction taking place. "Yikes! What happened here!?"

Twilight tapped against my chest, hoping that I'd respond in some manner. "Nondis, you okay!?"

Mel didn't waste time on giving orders to act on. "Twilight, let's get him to your bed. And lay him on his side."

Two Hours Later...

My eyes slowly crept open to discover myself being in a comfortable bed. Just from the fact that my feet weren't dangling over the bottom edge indicated that I was definitely on my mattress, which also meant I was in Twilight's room. I was also robbed of all feeling in my right arm as my body was resting completely on it. I turned over onto my back, forgetting I had gotten whipped earlier in the day. And thanks to that quick jolt of pain, I jumped up to my backside and looked around to see a small bowl to my left filled with bloodied towels and antiseptic. I reached for my back, quickly discovering I had no shirt on and feeling a few bandage pads on my back to conceal the wound.

Alex walked in from the hallway, holding an iPad as he apparently came straight from his job. He was on the phone with his wife before his attention was brought to me. "Honey, I gotta call you back. I'll get these numbers worked out while I'm here."

Still waiting for the blood to flow in my arm, I had to wait before moving my fingers. "Alex, what are you doing here?"

"Mel said you weren't doing too great. When I got in, all I saw was her patching up this really deep gash in your back. Now of course, you're gonna have to explain why you have that gash in your back and how you ended up being so sick."

Almost like clockwork, Mel came in from behind him with a vaguely unfamiliar face poking through the door. The unnamed mare walked beside her and held an assortment of medical supplies. "Well you're up and at it again." Mel said with a quiet frown.

I felt my fingers tingle as the blood flow started running through them properly, allowing me to move them more. But my mind was more focused on the look on her face. "Did I do something wrong?"

Mel angrily replied. "Um, hello? You keep getting hurt and I don't know what the hell happened to you! You're telling me stories about what all you saw and how it affected you, but you keep not giving us specifics! And I'm stressed out of my mind because my best friend who I love is constantly getting hurt with no rhyme or reason for it all!"

"Ditto." Alex cosigned. "The only thing I heard that was substantial was the words 'magic talking tree' and you hurling your guts out. And as soon as I get here, the first thing I hear about you is that you looked at Twilight while giving spiritual acknowledgement while advertising she was alive. That, I know for certain, ain't you unless you're completely desperate. Since when have you prayed?"

"The only thing I want to know is what all happened to you, because that gash on your back isn't the only thing you had on you, you had smaller lacerations on your arms, mainly the bottom of your forearms. I just saw these tiny cuts but you had some rocks and gravel inside like it was shrapnel." Mel then explained.

I took a second to think of what could've happened that would've caused wounds like that to occur. I looked at my arms and turned them over to see the aforementioned cuts, mended to and stitched completely shut. "I don't get it. I don't think I was any explosion..." By the time the word 'explosion' came out of my mouth, my mind flashed back to the massive curtain of energy completely carving away at the earth, demolishing parts of the Everfree Forest. "Ooooh okay, it's coming back."

"Good, cause we need to know details!" Mel demanded strongly. "I can't keep helping you if you don't tell us anything."

The unnamed pony stood beside my brother, making a comment of his height. "Wow, I never really got to say this the first time, but you humans are really tall." Alex glanced back at her, almost with abject disapproval. The mare meekly stepped back and turned the conversation back to me. "Righty-o then. So what all did you do? I remember seeing you last night in the elevator at the Sun Cryst, and I remember some lady stepping on the elevator with a whole lot of wine. I think it was for that Hooves-for-Humans gathering you were trying to find."

By then, I started to recognize the mare from last night. "Better question, who are you again?"

The mare chuckled nervously as she rubbed her forelegs together. "I remember telling you that Twilight and I were friends way back when. Yeah... that was pretty much a little filly's tale I told to get by."

I rolled my eyes, now realizing that I wasn't the one holding back stories. "Okay, so who are you and what are you doing here now?" I asked, starting to assume myself back into guard-mode.

"I know this may seem a bit devious, but I should probably start from the beginning." She said before taking a deep breath. "See there was once this village I was─"

"Nutshell, lady. Keep it there." I urged.

"Geez, captain hard-ass." The mare scrunched up as she muttered to herself before concluding. "In short, I was over a village to the far northeast of here. Twilight and her friends came around and messed that up for me. So I pretty much ran around her and her friends, just to plan out my revenge."

"Revenge?" Mel questioned.

"If you were doing something that had Twilight and her friends in go-mode, no doubt you probably did something VERY ILLEGAL." I spoke gravely.

"I did." She confessed quietly. "But I'm willing to make amends for my mistakes, to atone for my actions. And as a result, I'm willing to put myself aside and do what's better for everyone else around me, what's better for Equestria. Let's just say I've learned what the world would turn into if she and her friends destinies were altered. The world becomes this gray dusty mess."

There was a brief period of silence before I jumped on my feet, rushing to her with probably the most angry scowl on my face since I came close to ending Chrysalis. "SO THAT WAS YOU!? YOU DID ALL THAT SHIT!?"

The mare apologized once more. "I'm sorry! I didn't know what the problem was all about until Twilight showed me for herself what she was experiencing."

I continued to lash out at her, surprising Mel and Alex with my sudden aggression. I didn't even pay attention to who was even opening the doors behind her. "OOOH BITCH, I WANNA KILL YOU! GIVE ME ONE GOOD FUCKING REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T END YOU FOR BEING AN X-CLASS THREAT!"

"Stand down, Nondis." Twilight ordered, coming into the room. She walked beside the lavender unicorn. "I know Starlight did some things today that could've hurt us, but─"

"Oh I'm so sorry, sweetheart! I'm not listening to you! Bitch gotta go! She made my day hell on earth!"

Twilight then stepped in front of her, sprawling out her wings in defense of the lavender unicorn. "Well let me tell you about my day! How about you go through some strange place, one after another, after another, to stop someone from altering a specific event that defines your own destiny and that of your friends!"

I stepped up to her, arguing back. "Well let me tell you something funny I found out in my day of somehow jumping between timelines like I'm Dr. Who."

Twilight stepped back for a second. "Wait, timeline jumping?"

"Yes, Twilight! And each one had a different story to tell. One universe, you failed your entrance exam, TWICE! You fucked up your face the second go around because you somehow burned your mane and half your face, so you became a guardian reserve, just in time for a war to break out."

Twilight then whispered to herself. "King Sombra, the Crystal War."

"Oh, and let me tell you about another fucked-up timeline where there are changelings everywhere! Meanwhile the heir apparent proceeds to use Princess Celestia as a bean bag chair, she's literally in decaying pieces and Shining Armor dies in my arms before I get wrapped like a fucking burrito in a changeling cocoon!"

"Chrysalis' take over of Equestria." She muttered, before whispering to me. "Nightmare Moon's world?"

I stopped being angry long enough to see the shock on her face. Meanwhile, she started to see the sadness in mine as I knelt down to hold her face, shaking my head in silence before I could speak. "You chained on the wall in some dark dungeon... rotting. Ba-b-baby, I-I can't see you like that again, okay? My heart can't take it."

The mare backed away in shock. "Whoa, whoa, wait, I'm dead there?"

"Yeah... and Fluttershy had turned cruel, truly cruel... If you wondering about the cut on my back, I can say she's very accurate with a whip. And you would've said the same in that timeline, she killed you there and left you to rot inside the cell I was in."

Twilight sat on her haunches with disbelief. "You've experienced everything I've went through."

I stopped her from saying anything else. "Oh and another question, how the ACTUAL FUCK do you fight an eighty-foot centaur, AND WIN!? I know you said Tirek had destroyed your home and shit, but HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT FIGHTING SATAN HIMSELF!? He held my entire jaw shut with just the very tip of his fingernail like I was some sort of insect. I found God trying to not get killed by that guy because he was having a FIELD DAY in the Everfree Forest!" I turned to Mel, holding up my arms. "Wanna know how I got these scars, because I thought when his blast came short of atomizing my entire existence, he blew some rocks my way and I thought I was going to take the high road to the great by-and-by. That's why just the moment before that, I had gotten on my knees and prayed to God that I'd at least get a once-over before dropping me off in hell."

"Are you serious about the height thing, or were you just over-exaggerating?" Alex questioned.

"Bro, I will never complain about fighting an arimaspi again." I said before turning to Twilight, pointing at the mare behind her. "And you need to make up your mind on if you're gonna fight me to defend her. Because if you are, then I'm not even going to touch her with a ten-foot pole, no matter how pissed off I am right now."

Twilight simply smiled back at me with a warm kindness as she stuck up for the unicorn. "I know she did a lot of messing up, and trust me I can quickly say how bent I was on trying to exact revenge at one point. But in the end, it only resulted in wasted energy and depleted magic. And I tried talking to her for so long that I thought I was going to be caught in some infinite loop of trying to save the destiny of me and my friends. But I realized that if talking couldn't get her to realize what she was doing was wrong, then I had to ultimately take her with me to see for herself how bad things had gotten."

The pony then spoke out for herself. "And I know what I did was bad now. I can admit that my being selfish over something in the past had a hoof in how I wanted my vision to be for the future. I just wanted everypony to be equal, no less talented or skilled than the other. And yes, I wanted to hide the fact that I would end up being more powerful than everyone else because I felt good having that power. But it doesn't give you everything you need."

Twilight continued to defend the mare. "Starlight Glimmer may not be perfect, but I did manage to catch her before she followed a path she couldn't recover from, much like how I have to stop you from making the decision to be vengeful right now. After all, haven't I stood between you and a certain someone who nearly put you to sleep?"

"What happened with us is different, Twilight." I argued.

"And what's happening now shouldn't be any different from then." She rebutted.

"Except that I had to suffer because I'm magically bound to you. Like it or not, that's just it. I don't fucking get it worth a damn, but that's apparently the bullshit excuse I was given." I retorted, unmoved from my position.

The princess stood for a second before flying to meet me at eye-level. "Look at me, Nondis. I know how much these things can hurt, and it hurts too much to fight through it, but I do. And if you're bound to me like you say you are, then you'll acknowledge that I would want her to learn a different way of living. She's my responsibility and my student, and destiny dictates that for us right now because we made our choice to be different. If it wasn't meant to be, then wouldn't you think that I would've been forced to make that ultimatum on my own?"

"She's your student?" I asked blankly.

"From today on, yes, just like you and Spike are my responsibilities. I don't mind taking a student for friendship's sake, it's in my title."

Starlight cleared her throat. "Well egos and aggression aside, I'm honored to be a student to the Princess of Friendship." She looked to me and then said. "And for you, I'm sorry that you got involved in this, and judging from what you described to her, I'd like to think you pretty much saw all the really gritty stuff I'm sure she didn't get to see. But I wonder how you managed to get sucked into all those worlds."

"My magic's bound to Twilight's for some odd reason." I answered openly. "At least that's what the talking magic tree told me."

The young mare then appeared bewildered. "Talking... magic tree???"

"It had Twilight's cutie mark on it." I answered.

"THE TREE OF HARMONY SPOKE TO YOU!?!?" Twilight exclaimed, almost shouting the ears off of everyone in the room.

Mel then grabbed me and turned me to her with a question of her own. "Now I don't mean to interrupt you two lovebirds, but I could've sworn the words 'your magic' came falling out of your mouth."

"You remember all those medical operations I had to go through in order to stay alive? Well apparently I had a lot more than that one time to repair a whole bunch of shit, and I was told the magic endowed to me for medicinal purposes had lingered enough in my system to where it started to cycle itself and sustain for even longer. The more I got hurt, the more I got treatment, the more magic was added to the equation, the more the magic cycles around."

Alex laughed as he felt the explanation to be too absurd to be believed. "So what you're saying is that this 'magic' inside you, like a car, had a starter ignition switch. Now all of a sudden, it's on and you've got a charge going like you're a battery hooked into a circuit with an alternator?"

"I probably couldn't even put it any better than that." I shrugged. "I also got an ominous warning saying if I got out of pocket, I might just get my ass banished to the moon or some shit."

Twilight picked up a blank scroll and a quill, throwing it to her dragon assistant. Spike wasted no time jotting down notes as he recalled all the details I spoke of. "Human undergoes extensive magic treatments for health reasons, resulting in latent mana residue. Bound by Twilight's magic to Twilight. Human absorbs magic and body recycles mana content for further use... information plausible. Human capable of casting ability... information unknown. Human capable of channeling... information unknown. Human capable of self-sustaining cycle... information unknown."

Both Starlight and Twilight stood on either side of me with curiosity and excitement in their eyes. Starlight was the first to throw out some ideas. "I think this falls under Mage Meadowbrook's Conservation Theory."

"It couldn't be. This is more like Starswirl's Law of Tertiary Mana Manifestation." Twilight replied, holding my arm out to her.

"Or maybe even a derivative of Silver's Law of Transference." Starlight said with a lot more enthusiasm, holding my other arm to herself. "Do you think he can conduct a channeling of two magic circuits individually or simultaneously before passing each one through to the other party?"

I just stared blankly at the unicorn like she was speaking some foreign language I had never heard of. "Uhhhhhh─"

"What if he absorbs it?" Spike questioned.

"Uh, what if he explodes?" Mel asked. "None of this sounds safe."

Alex was seemingly the only one that really spoke what I was thinking. "What if he's not willing to find out?"

Twilight didn't pay my brother any mind as she giddily hovered above my eye level, holding my arm still. "Nondis, if what you say is true, then this is REVOLUTIONARY! It could mean that humankind could learn the spells and trades of unicorn magic, or maybe even earth pony magic at a minimum! You're pretty much dying to find out what you've got going on, right!? C'mon, what's a few experiments over the next four hours?"

"Four hours?" I asked squeamishly.

"Be lucky she didn't dedicate an entire day to you, otherwise you'll be going through everything between electric shocks to pies in the face." Spike muttered, waving his quill around as he spoke.

"WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA, SPIKE!" Twilight cheered, not even giving me a chance to speak up. "We'll spend all day tomorrow just to get him acclimated to his magic! We'll even order in some food while we observe!"

"Does that include pizza or takeout?" Starlight questioned.

Twilight looked back at me with some strange steely devotion, eager to get the proverbial whip cracking. "BOTH."

"I'm. So. In." Starlight replied, prancing in place. "This will be the perfect first test for me as your student!"

Mel finally got her foot in the discussion. "Hold on for a minute." She started to warn the other two. "Now if you're gonna start doing all of that mess, maybe it would be best to have a HUMAN medical supervisor to give you advice on how far you should go. If Nondis gets hurt, I'm probably going to put him on restriction from visiting pony-world for a while, his job be damned."

"Deal!" The two unicorns shouted in unison.

I finally yelled at all the girls in the room, namely at Twilight. "Excuse me, girls. You remember that lab-rat designation I was scared of having when I first got here? Well don't call it a comeback because it's always been there!"

Twilight flew over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I promise nothing bad will happen. If anything, I'm more afraid that this will alter you in a negative way. So just consider me anxious to see what this is all about for you. I mean it is exciting because of scientific discovery, but another part of me is wanting to know if your body can handle something like this. I remember when you first got interested in magic. Now I really do want to see you answer all those questions you had for yourself, at least get to understand what it is we're dealing with."

"I get it, but a lot's changed since we started going out." I muttered.

"Well at least my focus isn't on getting you hot and bothered this time." The princess giggled as she whispered in my ear before speaking out loud again. "This is for science, for real this time."

"You said that the first time we got in trouble, 'for science'." I recalled.

"Well you can't say my theory wasn't right. We kept going."

"Yeah, and you were pretty much the reason why I stayed as long as I did when I finally had a choice to go back home." I said, also having flashbacks to the first world where I saw the other iteration of Twilight and remembering that emotional punch to the gut I had when I saw another Twilight hanging dead on the wall. "I want to be able to protect you. For real, this time."

"And you will." She said tenderly, placing a hoof to my cheek while looking into my eyes. "So let's get started."

Over the course of four hours, my arms and legs were strapped to a variety of neurotransmitters, completely unable to comprehend whatever the hell was going on. They even gave me some weird crystal globe and gave it to Mel. While she held on to it, the two observed the item with the anticipation that nothing would change it's appearance. They then gave it to Alex, expecting much of the same. But an interesting thing happened as he held it, it clouded up a very minuscule amount which indicated that there was some 'residual radiation' caused by a spell cast on him. He then elaborated on the one time Celestia turned him into a pony.

Practically everyone in the room was stunned to silence at this revelation.

Twilight then noticed the item around my neck and asked me to set aside the pendant Celestia gave me. Twilight didn't levitate the crystal globe like she would with anything else, rather holding it for herself. And as she held it in her hoof, it appeared to be a storm brewing inside of the ball, consuming it until the ball colored itself an opaque gray and started to glow to the same color of her magical aura. Starlight did the same, the result was no different save the color of the glow.

At last, I was given the orb to hold. I held it out in front of me for a few seconds, seeing nothing coming up differently than Mel's result. But as those few seconds went along, the ball started to cloud up, becoming the very image of a thunderstorm. I grew interested in the development and swirled it around to see if the imagery would change, to no avail. It took half a minute, but I watched as the orb slowly began to solidify it's color to a solid gray. My eyes expanded as the orb started to glow white before quickly becoming clear.

I stared at the orb, wondering if that was all it would read for me. Thinking that something had gone wrong, I gave it to Twilight to fix the issue, where it glowed just perfectly for her. She then gave it back to me, and the same process occurred. Unfortunately, I would not know the color of my magic, that would probably be something I'd have to figure out. I asked them if my magic color had anything to do with my personality, but they answered no. To my disappointment, that was all for that particular stage of the initial experiments.

Other experiments included me holding my finger to each Starlight's and Twilight's horn. She sent a signal through to Starlight, who then sent one to Twilight. While I wasn't aware of what that was for, she explained to me that I was doing it to see how conductive my body was when it came to magic. Mel brought up the fact that human bodies are capable of conducting electrical currents, which in turn negated the whole purpose of that experiment being nothing more than a moot point. In short, it was twenty minutes of wasted time.

Next up was a test of the effects a buffing spell would have on the human body and how long a spell would last in terms of it's effectiveness. Alex also offered himself to be a subject, resulting in him being a controlled variable since magic─despite very small traces from Celestia's experiment─was virtually non-existent in his system. Mel denied in wanting any part of taking a step on some hastily-gathered clouds and offered only to take notes. Twilight, being the sole caster I could trust, hit us with a cloud walking spell slated for ten seconds of use. Alex's buff wore off after four seconds, indicating that the lack of magic circulation caused him to not hold the spell for as long. Meanwhile mine lasted for just as long as she prescribed it to be. The result concluded that buffs would last longer on a human exposed to what Mel called 'cycled magic radiation' in comparison to what she simply called 'magic exposure'.

Another tidbit of information, I was actually just as tall as Alex barefooted, which means I'm close to being the tallest member of the family. Mel also pulled up some bone work from when I had gotten back from the arimaspi mission, information she kept to herself in secret. Meanwhile Twilight took a trip to the Ponyville Hospital to gather some X-rays from when I had gotten admitted initially from the mugging I received by Caramel. Though damages were vastly different, they showed a slight yet substantial difference. The image of my first hospital visit reflected my bone structure prior to six months of stay, showing normal signs save a broken nose. The other image highlighted some key changes such as the bones becoming thicker and longer. Mel calculated the difference in bone mass to be around seven percent. She also accredited those adaptations to being further accelerated by my change in diet and how much magic got put into me during those repair operations.

Even if growth spurts can occur in college, it is unlikely to occur with a four-to-five inch difference with such a disparity of density between a few months of time. As far as Mel was concerned, my extended stay here has allowed these changes to alter my physiology in various ways. From what we could gather in the four hours, all I know is that I've got magic in my system, I've gotten as tall as Alex if not taller, my bones are a little stronger, and some parts of me might have changed in the way they work.

The time wound down to the final hour and Mel had discussed her finals schedule with Twilight, citing why her appearances have grown so scarce as of recent memory. Alex made it known that we were going to have lunch with dad after he finished attending his church service in the early afternoon, which put a damper on Starlight's spirits.

As I was saying my goodbyes for the day, I gave Starlight a stern warning, telling her that if she did anything like that ever again, I wouldn't hesitate to have her arrested on magic abuse and assault charges. Spike and I just looked at each other and walked away. I hopped back to my world and came back to Mel's apartment and made my way back to her room, where her little friend was still left out on the bed.

I laughed at her one last time before she threatened to shove it down my gullet to give me a taste of her pent-up frustration. I kindly rejected the offer and vouched for a leave, where she practically shoved me through the portal back to Canterlot. And as soon as I got back, I started to sit on my bed before I suddenly remembered the exact reason why I ran out of the bathroom to begin with.

After all that bullshit, and I haven't even got my uniform jacket back... or so I thought.

Turns out there was a box sitting on the foot of my bed with a small unopened note on top. I went to open the letter, reading it aloud to myself. "Thinking of you while I had it. I hope you think of me next time you wear it." I popped open the box to see my uniform jacket neatly folded in a plastic sealed bag with another note sitting on top of it. "P.S.: Wear this as is the next time we meet, you will know where." When I grabbed the sealed bag, another note was sitting at the bottom of the box. "P.P.S.: Don't wash it." It read with a pair of lips imprinted at the bottom of the note.

I popped open the bag and sniffed my uniform to make sure nothing strange had happened, and sure enough there was a distinctive musky scent coating the jacket. I held the coat with an awkward disgust while reducing my contact with it to as much as a finger before laying it out in front of the window, hoping to get some fresh air running across it to negate the smell.

That second, I took into account of how quick she was to get me drunk and realized that moment she bit my lip, that was her way of saying she wanted nothing more than to ride me till she falls off. I moved the box off my bed and saw an unopened manila envelope, addressed to me with the same handwriting as the other notes. "Okay, you are something else, Blue Royal." I muttered while my mind screamed 'Crazy stalker bitch' in bold letters. Satiating my curiosity, I hopped in my bed, ran my fingers past the seal of the envelope and rummaged through the items inside.

Gazing through the contents of the documents, there was a picture of an older unicorn stallion with a cobalt blue coat and a bronze-colored mane. On the pages of text, I read a list of accusations noting some serious offenses that could easily land him in a prison cell. Among those charges were the following: Money laundering, insider trading, perjury, racketeering on the behalf of a pharmaceutical company, engagement in a prostitution ring, overseeing an illegal gladiatorial operation, and apparently some false testaments he made under oath in a court case from a year prior.

"Pretty serious allegations."

My heart jumped as I instinctively reached for the gun under my pillow. I looked up to see Blueblood standing at the side of my bed before I had to take a sigh of relief. "Dude, don't do that. You almost got yourself killed."

"Must I be a victim of some errant weapon discharge as opposed to being smothered in a sea of mares? I think it would be better if I went out by means of the latter."

I glanced back at the envelope and questioned the prince. "Wait, how did you know about the─"

He levitated the envelope and held each individual page up in the air. "Glue, my naïve human. I used glue to reseal the envelope and laid it out underneath the box that was delivered to you earlier today. I also grabbed the envelope from the back of your pants as you came stumbling through the door in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Never thought I'd see a human completely inebriated at three in the morning hoping to not pass out before he got in his bed. It amazes me that you managed to walk back here without finding some battlement to jump off of."

"Why would I jump off a wall?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe it would have something to do with the painful rejection your mother had given you over the course of the week. Who's to say that you're not emotionally damaged from that little endeavor?"

I stared at the prince with a stoic expression, more from my desire to throw a shoe at him. "I think my say on that is a resounding NO. So sad to disappoint."

The prince chuckled with retort. "Not at all. I'm more pleased that you managed to find the fortitude to not do that while drunk. Usually alcohol is a prominent contribution to the whole suicide process. But I did smell some interesting musk-perfume combination on you, I take it that you got lucky."

"Even if I did, I'm not one to share stories." I replied.

"That's too bad. I'm still curious of the exploits you and Princess Troublemaker got enraptured with. Is she a moaner, a screamer, or one of those who gives you nothing while─"

"Not up for discussion, Prince Blueballs." I replied, remaining quiet on my personal experiences.

The prince childishly pouted as he collapsed the papers together. "How unfortunate. And here I thought we were building a friendship, you and I."

"With all due respect, I can't trust you any further than I can throw you."

The prince then shrugged with indifference. "Of course, who would trust a politician?"

"Blind partisan voters." I replied.

"I wasn't voted into royalty, remember?" Blueblood said as he gave me back the envelope. "I earned my marks. Of course I chose a life of being Celestia's student. Though those points aside, I am who I am because I like to play dirty. If you want something done, you're going to have to wear a blemish."

"We already talked about this. I said I was on board." I reiterated.

"Just a friendly disclaimer to present before you start your way, that was all I was doing." Blueblood stated. "After all, your reputation will take a hit someplace. Even your personal relationships will be affected─"

"I got my warnings already, from all sides. I'm ready to move on."

Blueblood then tapped his hoof against the envelope. "In that case, you understand that what she's asking you to do is to carry out an unlawful arrest, no warrants, no search, just off the hunch of some pieces of paper. You're going to do this and it will be a demerit to your record... unless..."

"Unless we meet up and she gives me more information." I answered.

Blueblood went digging through the box and saw the uniform jacket sealed away in a plastic bag. As soon as he opened it, his eyes bucked wide open and his head cocked back. "Oh yeah, and please feel free to dry-clean this before some mares get an idea of what you're doing out in public."

"Wish I could, but I got a note telling me to do otherwise."

The prince smirked as he sat on his haunches, his tail almost wagging while he buried his nose into the uniform. "You know what she wants, right?"

"And I know I'm not gonna like it."

"Haven't Shining told you the importance of servitude in negotiations? You don't have to like it right now, you'll like it once you get started because it's just in our nature. The only thing is that you let it pass, only when the ends have been achieved is where you tally up your losses, so don't go around regretting anything." Blueblood said before he stopped sniffing the bagged uniform. "You'll only end up with nothing if you don't dedicate yourself. You don't gamble and pull out of the tournament when the cards get rough. You finish what you've started, to whatever end."

I stared back at the blond-maned prince. "What if I lose the very thing I fought for?"

"Then you will have gained everything that you stood for and more." Blueblood quoted. "Prince High Charity once claimed that statement." And then his voice became dismally serious. "And after reading up on that piece of parchment Shining brought back from the mountain, I know why he felt that way."

While Blueblood walked over to me, I noticed that his sniffing fit had caused him to become somewhat aroused. "Uh... dude, your thing is─"

He whispered in a low voice, ignoring his own decency. "Celestia's mouth is bound shut from the fear of enduring the hell she took upon after the law was passed. Her punishment was far too cruel to put into words. While she may say nothing, I know she intends to hide this from Luna, even to her grave. And I know you're doing something you don't like and something that Celestia would wholefully disagree with, but trust me when I say that you are the closest to a reincarnation of Prince High Charity as we can get. And on that note, you are the only ray of hope she has in over half a millennium."

The prince walked away, still displaying a modicum of his arousal as he stopped before the door.

"So while Princess Troublemaker is the object of your affection, I need you to do this for all of us, for Celestia. Give her the freedom she once knew prior to her sister's banishment, the freedom she deserves."

"...It's not just for her." I added quietly. "I don't know if Shining's told you this, but he has a daughter he's fighting for now, a family with Cadance."

The prince nodded with acknowledgement. "I am aware. One of my wives informed me of that two days ago. I am doing my part to aid them in the legalities. If there's any amendment made to include the young one into that process, then I will fight to strike it down." He said before muttering to himself. "If Count DuMoneé lived to know of this, I'm sure he would've passed the inspection himself."

I did a double take and stared back at the stallion. "I'm sorry, what?"

The prince frowned deeply as he whispered quietly. "These stories go deeper than you're ready to know, boy. Try growing up a little before you start digging."

The stallion then teleported out of sight, surprising me with the fact that he was capable of performing that spell. Meanwhile, I'm left in the silence of my room thinking to myself out loud.

"Exactly what did he mean by that last statement?"

Sorry guys. I know I said I would be done with this one in a few weeks. And in all honesty, I was pretty much sitting on 19k words when I had a bit of a schedule overload. The reason for it, I had to travel to my sisters' graduation (twins btw). I didn't anticipate how much money I needed to make the flight and accommodate for the food and stay. Go figure, I ended up OVERSAVING and left to a vacation with more money than I would end up spending.

But the vacation was much needed, I got to leave to the place of my birth and talk to family members I haven't seen or talked with in three years. The change of scenery was healthy, the sights were nice, and I felt rejuvenated when I came back... only to end up as busy and overbooked as I was before I left. So it took a while before I could jot down those final details.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the question on mind for many of you:
"Magic? Are you shitting me?"

To be fair, I tried to allude to his interest in magic very early on with the intent to bring him to that very subject with the anticipation of being a user on his own. And as I started to dwell on the idea, I also realized that the physics of one world was different in many ways to the other, and it would ultimately cause the human body to adapt to those changes.

I also had to research a few topics (that I was not too fond of reading for a while) regarding the human body and its adaptability to certain things. I.E.: If a bone is broken so many times in succession or a hair is pulled so often, the cells will stop multiplying and repairing the part in question. There's also the matter of a disease introduced to a indigenous tribe, it would negatively affect the individuals until sometime down the line where the next generation would grow an immunity towards it (still not a good thing to see people succumb to illness though).

So what would happen if a certain active drug completely foreign to the human body lingers for a while with repeated introductions? Side effects start to occur that will affect the body's anatomy and/or physiology, sometimes even creating mutations in the subject's genetic code.

Now if that comes to be, what would happen if you were exposed to those things in such low quantities on a daily basis? Add in the fact that someone undergoes this medicinal treatment so often to repair bones and tissue, it starts to cycle through the human system in two ways; either it harms you biologically or it mutates into an adapted trait.

I took on the possibility of both and came out with the implementations of healing magic to a human body, and it came to be more of an adapted trait (cooking meat overtime to render the purpose of one's appendix as obsolete) as opposed to a biological danger (much like succumbing to radioactive fallout or exposure). However, magic will have a similar half-life cycle to that of radiation unless absorbed or disenchanted.

TL;DR: Overexposure to pony world physics and magic causes side-effects.

...Okay, nerd mode deactivated. See you all next chapter and thanks for sticking around.