I landed in the Everfree after a few hours of gliding. Damn, I was high up. Really didn't help my cause when I messed up the landing. I mean, seriously, I had never gone parachuting, let alone in a freaking flight suit!

After recovering, I set out to find my base of operations: Zecora's hut.

It wasn't that hard, considering the animals mostly left me alone, probably because I smelt of dragon blood. I mean, if you could smell it, would you want to piss off the guy who killed a dragon? Yeah, neither would I.

Anyways, I eventually found the hut, just had to look for the poison joke and go from there. What I was surprised to see, however, was a few guards standing by the entrance to the hut. I snuck up to them, and before I could do anything, another guard peered out of the doorway. He started talking to the pair of guards that were standing watch.

"Why did Celestia send us out here again?" one of them said.

"Because, Private, she wants to make sure that that biped is dead," another guard said.

"Well, Sergeant, I'm pretty sure he's dead," the private said. "If he didn't show up last week, he's not showing up this week. I mean, seriously, it's been a month since she reported him gone. Last time, she said he reappeared after a day. If he was alive right now, wouldn't he show up?"

So I'd been 'dead' for a month? I guess that's what happens when you lose a body. I mean, she destroyed it! Right as she was smashing my statue, I could feel an immense heat! She must have completely slagged me. So, why didn't I just go into a temporary body? Last time I 'died', I was able to use one of the other characters. The alicorn was damaged at the time, so that's that. But what about the elf? And where was the DM?

Right then, something happened that I had been hoping to see for a while. My d6 was glowing. I immediately took it out and whispered to it, "What's up, big guy?"

I can't reach you to well. Something's been keeping my contact to you severed. You're lucky I'm able to do this.

"I understand that," I whispered. "So, what happened?"

Well, she destroyed your body. Completely and utterly destroyed it. Sadly, you dropped the dice when you were petrified, so I couldn't pull you out of reality before you 'died'. You're lucky I was able to even craft you a body after what happened!

"By the way, thanks for that," I whispered. "You said something about keeping you from contacting me?"

Yes. You see, the dice should have automatically gone to you, sending a message with them. Instead, someone else grabbed them.

"Celestia...."

Not exactly. You see, something is corrupting her, making her do its bidding. It's like as if there's another copy of me here with their own champion. Someone is using her as a proxy, spreading its taint with it.

"But how?" I asked in a hushed tone.

I don't know how. This.... THING is covered in void magics. These void magics are keeping me from doing anything to it. That includes finding out who they are. It's like an admin was brought here, but something's off about it. An admin would have seen me, or at least said hi. Whatever it is, it's purposely trying to stop me, and by extension, you. You need to find out who it is on your own. I'm sorry, but it'll be hard to contact you from here on out. I'll try and warn you of danger if I'm able, for now, you might want to KO those guards and claim the item I left for you before I was cut off.

"Right," I said. 'Cut off'? Who has the power to cut off the DM? No one should be able to do that! If I'm going to find out who this is and take them down, I'm going to need help. But first, I need to find out who. And before even that, I need to get my dice back. The first step to that, is to get back Fluttershy and the rest of my team.

I watched the guards for a few more minutes before jumping out and attacking them. I smashed the two door guards’ heads together, getting a strangely satisfying clang sound and knocking them unconscious. The third guard that was inside, heard the noise and came running out to investigate, only to come running to me where I smacked his head into the ground, then the door, and then the ground again, knocking him out, too.

“Celestia’s finest my ass,” I said as I entered the hut. Everything was where we left it, save a few ingredients. I looked around and came across the table where my friend, Renkinjutsu used to work, finding a few smoke bombs on the table. I took the smoke bombs before continuing to look around. I eventually came across a book that Zecora had left out on the counter. I remembered this, it was that special cures book. If I can get to her again, she might want this. Right before I took the book, however, I realized that I had no way to carry it. In fact, I had no real way to carry anything properly. I should have asked Avarice for a backpack. Oh well. I know Zecora left a spare saddlebag around here, anyways.

After a few moments of searching, I found the bag and promptly put the smoke bombs and the book of cures into it before closing the latch and beginning the search for what the DM had left me. It took a few more moments before I stumbled across a glowing blue ingot. I could only wonder what it was, ‘cause when I touched it, it obtained the circuit board pattern and disappeared. Must have absorbed it to upgrade something. I wonder what.

I took this as my signal to leave the hut. As I left, I noticed that the guards had somehow gotten themselves into the position of spooning each other. Noting that I still had my iPhone on hand from before Avarice had teleported us to the mountain, I took out the phone and snapped a picture. I just wish I could have left them a copy of it, it would have been hilarious.

I put the phone away and refocused myself and continued on my journey.

As I neared my destination, I started to notice that the path that I had taken during my trips to the old castle in the Everfree was now littered with more rubble than it usually was… which was none…

I rounded a small corner, around some trees and bushes, only to find that the area had been leveled. Where there once stood a mighty castle that had stood for a thousand years as a testament to time, now stood a hulking pile of rocks, dirt, and dust. I could only assume that Celestia, with her newfound power, had come and destroyed this ancient monument. I felt sad to see such a sight, while at the same time I cursed her and her name. She had destroyed the one building that had my access to my safe haven: The Soul Society. I was going to retrieve my…. my friends…..

No….

No….. I couldn’t give up because of this. My friends were counting on me, and I wasn’t about to let them down.

That organ had multiple ways to get to it, plus it was underground. This all looks like she did it from the outside. I started looking for a secret door, a path, anything that could lead me to the organ. It was only then, that I remembered one of the places I had found a passage way to while I was messing around with the organ.

The Tree of Harmony.

I booked it to the tree, only to see most of my pathway blocked. Celestia had thought of almost everything. But she wasn’t counting on me having new powers, or a special flintlock.

I cocked my gun and aimed it at the obstacle in my path. I pulled the trigger and the resulting impact of the ‘super’ bullet destroyed the offending thing. I was now free to continue my on my path.

When I reached the tree, however, I was shocked to see all of the statues of the Elements of Harmony that Celestia had petrified. Not only that, they were moving.

Twilight’s statue looked like she was really unhappy about something, probably not being able to cast magic. Rarity was ‘crying’. Pinkie was lying on her stomach with her legs spread out and her face a look of total defeat and sorrow. Applejack was slumped over in a corner. And finally, Rainbow Dash had an angry face and was slowly trying to flap her stone wings.

Rainbow Dash was the first to notice me. She proceeded to run over to the others and tell them what she saw, and immediately the others became more active, more happy. It was at this point that I noticed that they all had a gem on the back of their necks…. ones that looked like their cutie marks. Had Celestia put the Elements of Harmony into the statues?

Twilight was the first to walk up to me….. Well, more like she pounced me and knocked me onto my butt. I could hear sobbing sounds from the poor petrified pony.

“What happened?” I asked, partially knowing the answer.

“Celestia petrified us,” Twilight said. “She said that we had all become tainted, that we had lost our focus. She said that we lost our ideals from ‘The Being’ and proceeded to use a powerful spell on us. Then she brought our statues here, destroyed the castle, and then shoved the Elements into our necks before sealing us up in here.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “If only I had been there sooner, maybe I could have changed the outcome. Now she’s all-powerful and it’s all my fault.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Pinkie said. “None of us saw it coming. Just be glad you have friends to help you.”

“You’re right, PInkie,” I said. I do have friends to help me, and I’m going to go get some more of those friends.” I started feeling around the wall for a passage. It took a few minutes, but I eventually snagged something on the wall. I pulled at the wall with all my might before giving up and taking out my flintlock again. I cocked it and fired, opening up the wall to the passage into the room with the Organ to the Outside.

“It’s time to go get my friends,” I said.

Author's Notes:

So yeah. I'm tired again, but here's a chapter. Expect me to start dying down a bit on the frequency of these updates, 'cause doing one every day is tiring as Hell. Plus, school is starting to get in the way. I mean, I have projects to work on, and I just did a concert at school. I have another later this week, even! Jazz is fun to play, but my fingers are dying from playing on my bass for so long... even if I do only have a few songs and there are other bass players (Don't judge me, when I get a piece, I take it). Hopefully next week I'll be okay, 'cause I have next week off from school.

Anyways, this is Music Mod, the tired author and musician, signing off.

P.S.- In other news, anyone want to do a crossover? I'm pretty much always open, so just shoot me a PM if ya want to.