It was Night time on the beach, I was trying to sleep, but I was having trouble. I turned over for what must have been the 50th time before sighing quietly and getting up, I summoned my armour on and stepped out of the tent. The clock on my H.U.D. read about 3 in the morning, there goes my planes for a good night’s sleep. With nothing better to do I began walking on the beach, I eventually found Vuur Koningin and Mirror-verse Teridax, stood at the edge of a forest looking out to sea.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked, Vuur shook her head whilst Teridax scoffed.

“Makuta are beings of shadow” Teridax said “we do not need sleep”

“whatever” I said, after a while I began to notice a presence behind me, I could see a mass out of the corner of my eye, it was hard to make out, but it was large.

“Guys” I said in a whisper “don’t turn around”

“You felt it too?” Vuur asked, both myself and Teridax nodded slowly “What is it?”

“Large” Teridax said “powerful with emotional magic and shadows, powerful enough for me to sense it”

“Don’t…move” I whispered, I could feel something trying to probe my mind “and whatever you do don’t turn around”

“W-what is it?” Vuur asked.

“Mental conditions are caused by irregularities in genes, correct?” I asked.

“Obviously” Teridax said.

“What if I told you they weren’t just caused by genes?” I asked “ever see something in the corner of your eye, shadows without any apparent cause. The feelings of being watched, hair standing up. Ever get the feeling there was something under your bed?”

“Ghosts?” Vuur asked.

“Worse” I said “psionic demons, and one of the worst is right behind us, tell me, have you gotten the sudden urge to carry out repetitive tasks?”

“No” Vuur said.

“Then why are you tapping your feet?” I asked, looking at her feet, which were tapping rapidly “don’t say anything, don’t turn around”

“What are you going to do?” Vuur asked.

“I’m going to do exactly what I just told you not to” I said, before whirling round to find myself face to face with a large, winged being with five heads and wielding a staff, this was a demon that could induce O.C.D. “Why are you here?”

“Why is anyone in this plane of existence?” it asked, its voice was rasping, and sounded like multiple voices speaking in a whisper “no one knows for sure, not even higher beings”

“Don’t give me the philosophical crap” I said, walking over and staring it off “you know what I mean, why are you on this planet? This is way out of your usual territory” the demon let out a chuckle.

“I’m merely exploring this new universe” it said “just like you and your friends” at this moment Teridax turned and scoffed.

“I am no friend to him, demon” she said, the demon responded by knocking me back with a swipe of its staff and spreading its wings out as its eyes began to glow red. Shadow energy began to flow around the demon before shooting towards Teridax, who merely drew her staff and dispelled the attack

“You will bow before me, shadow caster!” the demon said, Teridax began to chuckle.

“Your shadow plays are impressive, demon” she said, running a talon-like finger up the length of her staff before sending forth a bolt of condensed dark energy at the demon, sending it sliding backwards “but never forget who the one true master of shadows is, compared to me your power is like a child throwing a tantrum in front of a dragon”

“What are you?” the demon asked, Teridax began walking towards the demon as it began backing away.

“Who am I?” she asked, as black and red energy swirled around her “I am the shadow that consumes all light, the fear that conquers entire armies, the anger that drives the most complacent person to murder, the hatred that burns in the hearts of men, the power that all beings crave, the darkness in the night. I AM TERIDAX!” and with that, she unleased a massive blast of dark energy at the demon, sending it fleeing into the woods with a banshee-like screech, Teridax snorted before walking off.

“Shit…” both myself and Vuur Koningin said at once.

*the next day*

I was laid on the beach with Autumn whilst the kids were all playing, Ruby and Garnet had really settled into the role of adoptive older brother and sister. I thought back to my first year on Terra, when I was training to be a reserve guard. It was about half a year after I’d first arrived, and Prince Blueblood had announced plans to imprison all changelings responsible for the invasion without trial.

Before I start recalling what happened, an explanation of the Equestria political system is required. There are two major political parties in Equestria, The Royalists; who are led by Prince Blueblood and believe that governmental affairs should be handled entirely by royalty, and the Parlamentalists; who are led by Fancy Pants (who, during my time in Canterlot, I became good friends with) and believe that Equestria should be ruled by royals, but with a parliamental body controlling economic affairs, laws, and the like. On the whole, their House of Commons is similar to the British House of Commons; it often leads to rather lively debates and jokes at the expense of opposing party. Due to me being friends with Fancy Pants, I managed to convince him to let me into the Houses of Parliament to try and convince the ponies not to go through with the plan to imprison changelings.

*3½ years ago*

Fancy Pants stood up to the speaking area, amongst jeers and laughs resulting from a joke that one of the opposing party members had made.

“And now” he said “a friend of mine, who whilst he is not a member of this parliament, has some rather good points to make on the aforementioned matter” he then sat back down and nodded to me, I stood up and walked towards the standing area.

“Thank you” I said “now, let me give you two good reasons why we should not allow the imprisonment of Changelings without trial. First of all, this sounds like in time it will become very similar to a certain event that happened on my world roughly 70 or so years ago, do you know what happened? One country began imprisoning believers of a certain religion without trial into concentration camps, where they faced appalling conditions, forced labour, guard brutality, and we can’t forget, mass extermination via a slow and painful death” the opposing side began exclaiming indignantly.

“ORDA! ORDA!” the honourable speaker called out, eventually the room quietened down “If you would please proceed”

“Thank you” I said “they called this event ‘The final solution to the Jewish question’ which eventually resulted in the deaths of close to 6 million people, now, I can’t help but take note of the fact that Prince Bluebloods proposal is titled ‘the final solution for Changelings responsible for the invasion of 1002 that are still residing in Canterlot’, now if that doesn’t seem suspicious, then I’m a chimpanzee” the Parlamentalists chuckled at my quip, I sat down for questions from the opposing side, a pale blue unicorn mare stepped forth.

“Hang on a minute” she said “I do believe you once said in a scientific interview that your species shares 99% of its DNA with chimpanzees, so whilst you might not be 100% chimpanzee, you’re still mostly chimpanzee” the Royalists burst out laughing as the mare sat down. I’ll admit I also chuckled slightly at her quip.

“If you would please retract your statement insinuating that the guest is a Chimpanzee” the honourable speaker said, the mare stood back up.

“Because I respect you, honourable speaker” she said “I retract my previous statement” she sat back down and I stood up.

“Another reason why we should not allow this plan to be accepted is because there is too much room for corrupt misuse” I said “the imprisonment of changelings without trial is not only against one of the basic rights of a sentient creature, it would also mean that Blueblood need merely point at someone he doesn’t like, let’s say for instance Fancy Pants, and say that they are a changeling, that person would them be imprisoned without trial, a perfect way for Blueblood to remove political competition, bear in mind that this is someone who when faced with the mere risk of getting cake spattered on him, will prefer to hide behind the mare he is trying to woo rather than take it, as we humans say; ‘like a man’” the Parlamentalists burst out laughing, whilst the Royalists jeered. Blueblood’s expression was a mix between anger and embarrassment.

The next week they vetoed the proposal, and after that the Houses of Parliament requested I attend further meetings to provide a neutral viewpoint on these kinds of matters from the perspective of someone from outside the nation.

I was shaken from my musings by Minion walking over.

“Vuur” he said “I’ve just had a brilliant idea” both Autumn and myself raised our eyebrows.

“Go on” I said cautiously.

“Skydiving” he said, Autumn promptly spat out the drink she was halfway through swallowing and went into a coughing fit.

“You can’t be bloody serious” she said once she had cleared her throat.

“Come on” he said “it’ll be fun, we jump in one of the dragons, fly up to 15’000 feet and jump out, we can just adapt some wings to stop ourselves from becoming Toa pancakes. And we can do it multiple times” I thought for a moment before sighing.

“Ah, what the hell” I said, giving a shrug “I’m not immortal, might as well enjoy life” Next Chapter: Chapter 25 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 29 Minutes