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The Pony Weapon

by Mario Hyrulia

Chapters

Short Lived Escape

It is a dark and foggy night in the royal city of Canterlot. With the inability to see more than a few metres ahead of you before being blinded by darkness, most ponies would I agree it would be impossible to find anypony during a night like this. Unfortunately, on this very night, the call of pursuit has been commanded. Four of the castle guards, each dressed in shiny golden armour and a spear in their hooves or magical grasp, walk down one of the seemingly lonely stone streets together. Each of their eyes study whatever surroundings they can make out, searching for their target.

“Wait,” one of the guards of the group speaks, “can’t we just look tomorrow, we have a pretty clear description of the stallion, it shouldn’t be that hard to locate in the light of day. Morning’s already gonna come in an hour.”

“It was an order from the princess,” the leader replies, “not like any ordinary chain order that’s given to only a hoofful of us. Princess Celestia has addressed this pony as a top-class threat and as we speak, entire royal guard is on patrol throughout the city. This is clearly not some one-shot criminal the police just lost.”

“How dangerous can this pony be? With the four of us, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

“It might not be so easy,” a third guard retorts, “my brother was on patrol on the South end of the city when the pony came from, wherever it came from. He told me that he saw and heard the pony smash through an entire row of buildings along a street.”

“The pony did what?”

“The pony entered one of the seven shops lined up along the street, each made of brick and stone, and came out of the last on onto the adjacent road.”

“Oh…”

“Will you guys be quiet?” The fourth one barks, “The pony we’re looking for probably knows were here and will probably avoid us.”

“Or maybe he might smash us to bits like the rock and brick of the-”

“Don’t be such a coward.”

“All three of you,” the leader demands, “tone it down a notch. We each should be aware of how powerful of a threat this stallion may become, but also keep vigilant.”

“Yes sir.” The three other guards reply. After a minute later of silence and walking down the street, the sound of a window shattering rings breaks the quiet and causes the four guards to snap their attention to it.

“That sounded like it came from the left road ahead!”

“Is it him?” the more nervous guard of the bunch asks.”

“Not sure, you,” The leader points his hoof towards the guard to his left, “come with me to investigate.”

“What about me and this other pony with me?”

“Keep walking, this may just as well be a ruse to lure us away from him.”

“Yes sir…”

“Yes sir.” the nervous one’s now partner responds. The leader and his partner soon take off towards the source of the sound, leaving the last two guards alone to wonder. After passing an intersection a few metres ahead, the duo find themselves confronted by brick walls ahead of them and their sides.

“An alley?”

“Seems so. Best we turn back now, nopony’s hiding here.”

However, the guard’s proven wrong a second later by the gruff, yet young sounding, voice of a stallion coming from right above the sentries’ heads, “Really? If all of her guards have become this incompetent…” Before the mysterious stallion continues however, the cracking of stone can be heard above, soon followed by a loud thumping of hooves at the entrance of the alley. “…then I’m vastly more surprised that this place hasn’t burned down than the fact I escaped.” Turning around, the two sentries come face to face with the pony they’ve been looking for. A large and muscular, yet sleek, Earth pony with a coat of red stands before them. His mane and tail are a frowzy mess of pitch black hair, with the back of his mane sporting a long flowing streak of silver hair, almost touching the stone floor. A black harness can be seen on his chest with five unknown sticklike objects attached to the back of it. With his shallow grey eyes staring deeply into the guards’ eyes, fear begins to build inside the two.

“It’s you.”

“It is. At least that’s what I assume, seeing so many guards out here in the streets tonight. Tia must certainly know I have escaped. I hope at least…”

“We have been sent by the princess to capture you and return you to her custody at once.”

“Can’t she do it herself instead of being a spineless wimp? I seek no quarrels with you, as long as you let me be. This is a matter between me and Tia, and her putting you in trouble’s way instead of her is pathetic.”

“She said that you had a thing for mind games. Well guess what, it isn’t working on me. Either come with us easily, or we’ll have to do things the hard way.”

“What mind games? What I speak is merely in truth and logic. This propaganda she’s feeding you is making you weak to the truth of reality and the future. Stand aside now, and let me fix that.”

“No way. Partner, let’s fight this stallion…”

“Wait.”

“What?”

“You…”

“Me?” The other guard hesitantly asks.

“Yes, you." The mysterious stallion nods. "Do you wish to fight me?”

“What?”

“Do you wish to fight me?”

“Well, I am the princess’ guard so,”

“If you don’t wish to fight me and get injured, I will not fight you. You have a wife and foals to tend with your fatherhood after all. I am a pony of honour and respect.”

“Wait, how did you…”

“There are a lot of things I know about you just by simply looking at you. If you don’t desire to bet your health fighting me, I understand.”

“…I guess…”

“Moron!” The first guard harshly barks, “Don’t be an idiot and fight!” Lifting his spear into its stabbing stance with his magic, the unicorn guard then dashes at the red pony. In an instant’s notice, one of the objects from the pony’s back hovers off and in front of the spear, holding it off in a lock mere centimetres from the red stallion’s stoic face. The object, as well as its four duplicates still attached to the harness, turns out to be long, thin, curved swords of metal. The sparks that emit from the two opposing weapons grinding reveal tiny grooves and patterns in the flat part of the slick blade. The nervous guard standing behind his partner drops his jaw in shock.

“There’s no magic aura, he’s an Earth pony, how is this possible?”

“I don’t know!”

“There’s a reason Tia wanted the entire guard…” The mysterious pony cryptically replies. The spear soon begins to bend and crack down the middle, much to the guard’s surprise.

“He may have some special abilities, but can it outmatch this?” The unicorn guard disappears in a flash of green light before reappearing behind the onlooking partner. The large spear then snaps with two and the pieces fall to the floor. With the flick of his horn, the red stallion and his unveiled sword are enwrapped in a green aura and are lifted several inches from the ground.

“What a cowardly and most pathetic thing to do…”

“Says the one being captured by said ‘coward’.”

“Oh really?” The four swords attached to the stranger’s back lift into the air despite the unicorn’s telepath magic and charge towards the guards. The onlooker holds his spear to his chest with his hooves and closes his eyes in panic as the sharp swords charge at him. However, the blades arc around him at the last second and each wedges itself underneath each of the unicorn guard’s hooves. The swords then flick upwards at a fast pace and wide angle, launching the white stallion into the air a couple of metres. His magical influence breaks, and the red pony drops back down to the ground on all four hooves. The first blade that was unveiled then charges at the falling rival and stabs itself between the guard’s belly and his armour strap underneath. The sword then pierces the brick wall at the back of the ally, pinning the guard to it a metre above.

As the four blades hover upwards and slowly approach the unicorn, the trapped pony soon begins to squeal in terror and cry out, “Please! Don’t hurt me!”

“Coward…” The red stallion’s head then turns to the other guard, still shivering with her weapon at his chest. Gently, the mysterious stallion taps the guard on the shoulder, prompting the sentry to open his eyes towards him. “I respect you sir. Perhaps we can spar sometime in the future to help build your self-security about fighting.”

“T-th-thanks?” he stutters.

“Don’t be scared. After all, I have no reason to hurt you-” The Earth pony’s left ear twitches as he stands there in silence.

“S-sir?”

“You!”  Out of nowhere, the stallion then leaps over the guard and his four free blades rush over and behind him into the darkness. Four loud metal clangs are heard from the shadows, followed by a large white battle axe bursting from the fog and smashing into the rock below. The axe lifts back up by a golden aura surrounding it, causing the guards to smile upon seeing the heavenly glow. Soon, a white alicorn with a flowing fluorescent mane emerges from the fog behind the axe in her hold.

With a very stern look on her face, she gives a long glare at the red pony next to the pegasus sentinel before speaking, “Relv…”

The red pony, now known to the guards as Relv, calls back in a very calm, yet strict tone, “Tia…”

“You’ve aged well…”

“So have you. Quite a lot larger than when we first met, and quite a lot has happened. It’s been a long time since we’ve last seen each other this close, at least a thousand years from when I last counted.  I see that you are still very sloppy with the technique in your axe after all these years though.”

“How did you manage to escape my confinement?”

“You know me better than this. You’ve known sooner or later that I’d best all of your traps and defenses.”

“I’ll rebuild it all from scratch just to keep you away from the innocent lives of my kingdom.”

“Oh Tia, after all this time, you are still too incompetent and senseless to face me. You’ve surrounded your weak temple with weaker subordinates instead of structuring yourself stronger, not preparing yourself for when the earthquake comes and wipes it all out.”

“You’re the earthquake in this cruel analogy I presume?”

“No, I am the one who desires to make the temple stronger, but you see me as the earthquake, and try to remove me. An impossibility you have made for yourself.”

“I almost forgot ponies back then talked like this…”

“I am not the villain you make me out to be, Tia.”

“It’s Celestia now, Princess Celestia. And your ways of ‘making things better’ are completely morally wrong!”

“Ethics you mean, I have no morals, I follow no ethics. All they are hindrances to true progress and survival. Deep inside, you know that I’m right.”

“Relv, you are not! I will not allow you to stand anywhere near my ponies and hurt them.”

“And what’s going to stop me?” Relv’s four blades hover back to him and aim their pointed tips towards Celestia’s head. “Certainly not you. You know how powerful I’ve become.”

“You’re right. You’re too strong…” Slowly, the white alicorn and the red Earth pony approach each other, each growing more and more distaste for each other. With their weapons still primed, it is only until they were a few inches away from each other before stopping. “You’re too much of a weapon for me to handle...”

“So just let me be…”

“I will let you be,” Then, without any hesitation or room to process, Princess Celestia places her horn on Relv’s forehead and encases his body in her golden aura. “…under the care of somepony that can handle you!” One by one, Relv’s blades drop to the ground with a loud clang as their owner twitches uncontrollably from his rival’s magic. His pupils begin to fade away and his body soon stops resisting to the powerful magic. Finally, after a minute of pressing her horn on his head and forcing her magic into him, Celestia steps back and starts to pant, letting the large red Earth pony’s unconscious body gently drop to the cold stone ground. The unicorn guard pinned to the wall then uses his magic to teleport back down, leaving the sword jammed in the alley brick and stone.

“I’m sorry my princess,” he pleas, “I tried to fight him off, but he quickly overcame me. I was too weak to use magic during the time and I couldn’t remove the sword that was holding me in place for some reason.”

“It’s fine. I underestimated how truly strong Relv had become and sending you guards was a mistake.”

“Princess, I should also inform you of this. My partner, the one watching from the back corner of this alley, he refused to fight alongside me against this 'Relv'.”

“He didn’t fight?”

“I’m sorry!” The nervous guard yelps in panic, “I have a wife and foals, Relv left me alone as long as I didn’t fight him. It was the only option I had!”

“Don’t beat yourself over it. Relv’s words have caused many ponies to turn against me at some point. I’m just glad now that we can finally settle this matter.”

“What did you even do to him?”

“Well, while Relv was doing his training in confinement, I did a little of my own in case if he’d ever returned. The spell I have casted onto him is a special mind control, one that can’t be broken by any means to normal ponies.”

“Will it stay for Relv? He was able to levitate those swords of his without any magic, so his mind must be strong or something.”

“True, he has an enhanced mind and many other… quirks… to him. However, the worst thing that could happen is that a little of his old personality and… quirks… will show without command.”

“So, what are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to give him to a pony that I know for certain can not only keep him from causing damage, but maybe even reform him.”

“Who?” The two guards ask.

“None other than the Element of Kindness herself…”

A New Companion

It is still an early morning in the land of Equestria, yet already the sun’s bright beams begin to wake the neighboring town of Ponyville.  The beige houses sprung to life upon contact of the rays of day as the multicoloured ponies that reside inside them wake up. Unicorns, pegasi, and Earth ponies, all eating or skipping their breakfast, and leaving their homes into the light of a new day to do their normal routines. A smile can be seen on each of their faces as they pass by each other and make new friends nearly every day.

However, it isn’t all rainbows and sunshine on this particular day. At the outskirts of the town, at the edge of the mysterious Everfree Forest, stands a small cottage. Inside that cottage rests a small yellow pegasus mare by the name of Fluttershy. Her large blue eyes are half-open, her wings are loosely folded to her sides, her long pink mane and tail are frizzy and uncombed, and even her fur felt frowzy on the pony’s skin. Not awake, not asleep, just lethargic and deeply entranced in thought at this moment on her bed. A small groan exits the mare’s small mouth as she continues to lie in her bed.

“I’m so…. so…. bored.” She quietly moans. A small tap bumps the back of her head in a rapid succession, prompting the pony to turn her head to whatever’s causing the knocking. It is a small white bunny with an impatient look on his face. “Oh, good morning Angel. Sorry, I’ll get your food ready.” Slowly, the mare pulls off the cyan sheets from her body and crawls out of bed with a small wobble upon landing. She then heads downstairs into the main room with the rabbit in hot pursuit. Fluttershy uses her wings to hover up to a tall shelf with several boxes of various raw food items. She pulls out a large blue box with a carrot labeled on the front and carries it back down. There, she opens the lid and pours the small baby carrots into a ceramic bowl, followed by Angel leaping into the bowl of carrots and quickly eating them.

“Well, this is fairly, dreary…” One of the bunny’s ears perks up upon hearing her comment. “Oh, I don’t mean to complain. I love taking care of you guys. It’s just… I kind of miss having Discord around.” The other ear perks up as well, followed by Angel giving a confused look at Fluttershy. “Sure he was loud, and a bit rude, and broke stuff in his sleep, and made a mess that I had barely idea how to clean up… B-but the point is, he always made every day interesting. I guess with him now living… somewhere, I guess things have gotten slow.” Upon finishing her thoughts, she looks down to see that Angel has stopped listening to the yellow pony and went back to his carrots. “I miss having a companion.”

A loud knocking soon erupts from Fluttershy’s wooden door, prompting her to go and see who it is. “Yes?” Opening the door, Fluttershy is shocked to see who’s on the other side. “P-p-princess Celestia?!”

“Yes,” the tall white alicorn calmly replies, “it is I.”

“What are you doing here? And so early on that matter? Did Rainbow Dash do something?”

“Ho, ho, no Fluttershy, no need to worry yourself,”

“Oh,”

“For now…”

“What was-”

“Anyways, I have come to you for a very special task, one that I am certain you will accomplish.”

“What is that?” Celestia then turns to behind her and calls out to an unseen follower.

“Relv, come by me.” The princess steps aside as the red pony known as Relv steps forward and in front of Fluttershy. The mare is immediately intimidated by his presence and deadpan look and winces back a hoofstep.

“Who’s that?”

“Fluttershy, this is Relv. He is a highly dangerous pony that has a very deep history with Equestria. A long time ago, he threatened the safety of our entire kingdom. He committed many crimes and nearly destroyed any resistance in his path. The lives of many were shattered in his wake, and executing him was impossible. So I had him imprisoned in a super prison I built just for him and it managed to keep him sealed away for many years.”

“What happened then?”

“Last night, he managed to escape my capture and attempted to continue to destroy Equestria. However, by this time, I was able to cast a mind control spell onto him to stop his attempts and control him. He now follows my every command, and soon he will follow yours.”

“Well that seems to have worked. But why do you need me?”

“He is too powerful for me as a ruler to handle. I cannot allow myself to become corrupt and abuse his abilities. This is why I need you. Seeing as how you were able to reform Discord, I’m hoping that not only can you responsible keep a hold of Relv, but also reform him to the good ways of our kingdom.”

“So wait, you’re giving him to me as a servant?”

“In basic terms… But I wouldn’t use that language to describe it.”

“Sounds a bit… invasive…”

“It may seem invasive, but I rest assure you, for this pony, it need to be done.”

“So how long is Relv going to live with me?”

“As long as you see fit, contact me when you believe he’s been reformed.”

“Okay.”

“Any other questions?”

“What did he do before getting captured?”

“Oh… I almost forgot…” A large brown book hovers up from behind Celestia’s back and over Relv, landing in front of Fluttershy with a loud smack. “Here are the entire criminal records of Relv. Run through these if you encounter any problems with Relv and stop him before he causes any damage.”

“This is even bigger than me.”

“Also, I wouldn’t advise reading this at your spare time. A lot of those records contain some very violent crimes that would make you sick.”

“Okay…”

“Anything more?”

“No.”

“So, are you up for the task?” Fluttershy hesitates before answering, lifting her gaze from the large book to the Earth pony in front of her. He hasn’t moved a muscle ever since stepping forward.

“Could this be the pony?”

“So Fluttershy?”

“I guess I can do it.”

“Thank you. It means a lot for me. Relv,”

“Yes Princess Celestia?” The stallion replies sharply, scaring Fluttershy with the intensity of his stern voice.

“Listen to Fluttershy and do as she commands, just as you’ve been following my command. You cannot take orders from me anymore.”

“…”

“So Fluttershy, say hello to him,”

“Um…” Fluttershy nervously speaks to the tall figure, “Hello… Relv…”

“Hello Fluttershy.”

“Okay…”

“Don’t be so nervous,” Celestia replies, “there shouldn’t be a problem. I have faith in you.”

“Okay. Bye Princess Celestia.”

“Oh, and one more thing,”

“What?”

“If he starts to… act out of place, be sure to command for him to stop. Don’t listen to anything you aren’t comfortable with.”

“Okay…”

“Farewell, and good luck.” With a flick of her horn, Celestia disappears in a burst of yellow light, leaving Fluttershy with Relv.

“So, Relv.”

“…”

“Please, come in.” Quickly, Relv marches into the center of the room with Fluttershy, stepping over the book on his way. Fluttershy then closes the door and sits in front of the stallion with Angel still eating his carrots by her flank. “So…”

“…”

“How are you?”

“89% fully set.”

“Uh…” Suddenly, a loud grizzly roar echoes across the entire cottage. The front door swings open with a loud smack as a large brown bear charges into the room, gritting his yellow teeth as he approaches the two ponies. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Relv’s five swords detach from his back and aim themselves at the bear in midair. The bear begins to cowardly whimper and backs up. Angel flees to upstairs, ditching the three carrots remaining in his bowl. Relv, now also gritting his teeth, rapidly turns around and approaches the beast with his hovering swords ahead, ready to strike. “Don’t hurt Harry!!!” Relv and the blades stop and the red pony changes his glare back to his stoic look. “Harry wasn’t going to hurt me! He was just looking for some company.”

“…”

“Apologize.”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy.”

“Not to me, to…” Fluttershy’s wide eyes then catch glimpse of the hovering swords as she now actually notices what’s going on. “How are- You’re an Earth- No magic- What are you doing?”

“Positioning the swords in a countering position.”

“No, no. I mean-I- First put those things away, you might poke an eye out.” Swiftly, the blades hover over Relv’s back and shift themselves in each of the black scabbards on the stallion’s back in unison.

“…”

“Wow... How do you even do that?”

“Electromagnetic Telekinesis.”

“What does that mean?”

“I use electromagnetic waves emitted from my mind to manipulate the swords.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“…”

“So, you control those swords with some sort of magic?”

“No.”

“Anything else?”

“…”

“Oh… This is awkward…” A grizzly shrill ruptures from the corner of the room. “Oh, you Harry. Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. I hope…”

“…”

“Relv, sit next to me.” The ponies head towards the green soft and sit beside each other. Fluttershy, now even more curious about her new partner, begins to examine him. “So… I can’t really ask him about that, electric thing, I’d lose my mind trying to figure it out. I should start with something simple. Where did you come from?”

“Maria’s Hospital in Canterlot.”

“Where did you live I mean?”

“The prison created by Tia.”

“No, I mean before that.”

“The Barracks of the Royal Guard.”

“The barracks?”

“…”

“Okay, not so great communicating skills…”

“Can you maybe expand on your answers?”

“I can.”

“Okay, so you said you lived in the barracks?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you expand on your answer like I commanded? Commanded sounds so mean…”

“You didn’t command me.”

“Oh well… Relv, expand on your answers, please.”

“…”

“So, you were in the royal guard barracks?”

“Yes, at the age of nine, approximately 583277777 minutes ago, I entered the Barracks of the Royal Guard. There for the first three years, I slept for seven hours from 2300 to 0500, ate breakfast for thirty minutes from 0500 to 0530, trained basic for five hours from 0530 to 1030, ate lunch for thirty minutes-”

“Okay, stop. I’m sorry, I can barely keep track of what you’re saying. Maybe I should have you meet some of my friends. They might be able to help you control your speech.” Fluttershy hops from her seat and heads to the open door. “Relv, come with me.” The red pony hops from his seat from the chair and follows behind Fluttershy as they exit the cottage. “We should also explain some ground rules as well. Follow them.”

“Yes, I-”

“Please don’t continue.”

“…”

“Rex, I’m glad that you’re here.”

“Yes Princess Celestia, it’s been a few years.”

“How’s Manehattan?”

“Great, but I still don’t understand why you called me here.”

“It’s an issue that’s I’ve been dealing with recently.”

“You mean…”

“Yes, that type of issue.”

“Wait, is it something to do with that pony that nearly tore up Canterlot.”

“That one. I have taken care of him, but there’s this underlying feeling that I can’t get rid of.”

“But how does he-”

“It’s a very long story, one that goes very deep into my past.”

“But why didn’t you summon a therapist, and not just an old guard like me?”

“Because Rex, you were one of the closer ponies of my recent life. I couldn’t think of any other pony to consult other than you.”

“I guess. I can try to help.”

“Thank you.”

“So, when did this pony first show up?”

“Relv, that’s his name. Anyways, he started in the guard long before we cross paths…”

Setting the Rules

“Relv,” Fluttershy states gently, “The first rule that we should set is that you don’t pull out your swords in front of anypony.”

“…” The red stallion remains silent as the two walk across the vast grassy plains.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Second rule, no using excessive force. You could’ve just talked to Harry and not scare the living daylights out of him.”

“…”

“Third and hopefully final ground rule, no injuring other ponies, animals, plants, or anything of the like.”

“But that would create a significant chance of you getting injured or killed.” Fluttershy stops in place from the unexpected response.

“Wait, did you actually respond to me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Wait, remember what Celestia said if Relv said or did something out of place. Relv, don’t question me. Ponyville isn’t dangerous and you don’t need to hurt anypony to protect me.”

“…”

“I’m sorry if I sounded mean.”

“…”

Fluttershy lets out a disappointed groan before resuming her walk. “Back to this it seems.” Now a little behind her new companion, Fluttershy begins to focus on the long stands of silver hair on Relv’s mane as it swishes back and forth in a mesmerizing manner. With the sharp contrast of the silky hair to the rest of his black tangles, it becomes nearly impossible to ignore. “I like your mane. Is the silver part an extension?”

“No.”

“It isn’t? Then what is it?”

“A collection of mutated hair caused by irregular aging.”

“What do you mean by ‘irregular aging’?”

“I have a unique chemical that runs through my veins that gives me agelessness.”

“Please tell me more.”

“One of the side effects caused by the chemical’s small leakages in my blood causes a long white hair to grow from my head once every ten years.”

“Wait, then judging by how many hairs you have, you must be at least a thousand years old! Where did you get this chemical that made you live this long?”

“The Royal Laboratories of Scientific and Magic Studies.”

“Were you a scientist as well as a soldier?”

“No.”

“Then what were you doing there?”

“I was a member of the royal guard in service to Tia, so I had to accompany her for her studies.”

“Who is this Tia?”

“Princess Tia of Equestria.”

“You mean Princess Celestia?”

“That is her alias.”

“Did you know Luna?”

“Yes.”

“Even before she became Nightmare Moon?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. I certainly know that Twilight will love to talk with you. Do you have any other special abilities other than your, kinesis-thing and agelessness?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me one of them?”

“I have the ability of quadrangulation.”

“What’s that?”

“Quadrangulation is the ability to sense everything in a four dimensional plane.”

“I think I’ve heard Twilight talk about something similar involving three dimensions. What’s the fourth?”

“Time.”

“Wait, are you saying you can see into the past?”

“Yes, and the future as well.”

“You can see into the future?!”

“Yes.”

“What’s going to happen to me in the near future then?”

“You are going to stop five metres ahead and pluck a rose from a nearby bush.”

“I am?” Fluttershy looks to her right to see a rose bush now a metre ahead. She darts towards it and gasps. “These are lovely. Of course I would stop to pick one of these.” The yellow pegasus reaches her head into the bush to grab the stem of one of the red flowers with her mouth, only to get a thorn stabbed into her tongue. “Ow!” She pulls her head from the bush and opens her mouth, revealing the now stuck thorn to Relv. “It hurts! Can you help me remove it?” Fluttershy asks in a slobbery lisp.

“I can.” Relv then continues to stand stiff for a while.

“Agh! Command! Relv, remove this thorn!” Relv quickly takes hoofstep closer towards the squealing pony. Out of nowhere, the Earth pony then delivers a strong, yet painless, uppercut into Fluttershy’s lower jaw, followed by a quick painless pound into her chest. Fluttershy, now in discombobulation and shock, spits out the thorn upon her chest being punched and wobbles back a few steps. She quickly regains her standing however and she quickly becomes enraged for the stallion’s actions. “What was that for?!”

“It was a non-harmful and quick method of removing the thorn from your tongue.”

“But did you have to punch me twice to do it?”

“Yes. The first upon your lower jaw was to temporarily shut down your nervous system and loosen the thorn. The second was to cause your lungs to contract and for you to spit out the thorn.”

“Couldn’t you have just pulled it out with your hoof, or even your mouth. As awkward as it would’ve been, I’d prefer that over being punched.”

“No. It would have broken the third rule you have given to me. You do not feel any pain, do you?”

“No, I’m just a bit diz- Wait, did you just ask me a question?”

“Yes.”

“So, do you know how to talk properly, as in like what I’m doing?”

“Yes.”

“Then why haven’t you done it before? And why did you just now?”

“Limitations of Tia’s mind control prohibit me from speaking in the common tongue unless by command. The reason I am now is because it is not an absolutely effective mind control spell.”

“Celestia warned me about Relv speaking out of command, but for now, it doesn’t seem to be that bad. Well… Relv, speak properly.”

“Yes Fluttershy.”

“Let me see if it really worked… You look good.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank goodness, I was started to get sick of asking you questions just to get a three word response from you.”

“Thank you as well for relieving my speech.”

“Although, I do wonder… Why did Celestia’s mind control stop you from talking normal. Must be an unseen side effect of the spell I guess.”

“No. Celestia made sure that the spell included speech limitation for me.”

“Why?”

“She fears the risk of me corrupting you with the ideals I had before being put under the spell.”

“Oh. She did say you were dangerous in the past. But don’t worry, I will make sure that you’re reformed and understand the true magic of friendship.”

“As you wish.”

“Now that we have taken care of your speech and the thorn, please get me a rose.”

“Yes Fluttershy.” Relv walks around Fluttershy and in front of the rose that she was trying to pick. The middle sword from Relv’s saddle hovers out and quickly slices into the bush, launching the rose into the air. He then grabs the flower with his hoof as the sword swiftly returns to its hold. Relv turns to Fluttershy and presents to her the red blossom, prompting the mare carefully grabs it with her hoof and tucks it into her long pink mane.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome Fluttershy.” The two soon restart their trek as they begin to walk towards Ponyville.

“Relv,”

“Yes?”

“That whole thing about you punching me to remove the thorn… Where did you learn that?”

“In prison, my chamber sported a vast library of books that I learned from and practiced techniques on the guards during my escape attempts.”

“I never heard of a prison with a library.”

“The prison was a specially made pocket dimension that Tia created to hold me alone and keep me in secret, whist also being able to visit me.”

“How did she do that?”

“Chaos magic most likely.”

“Maybe, however, I don’t get something…”

“What is it?”

“Why did Celestia create such a prison for you alone? Why did she have it include a large library? Weren’t you a dangerous criminal?”

“I was. At this moment, I still don’t understand why either.”

“Maybe we can ask her some time later. Hurry along, we’re almost at Ponyville.” As the two make their way over a rolling hill, the town of Ponyville comes into view ahead of them. “We should start at Rarity’s.”

“He was outstanding in the royal guard when he became seventeen. By far the best performing pony I have ever seen. His speed, reflexes, power, brain power, all were impossible to be matched by any other pony.”

“Impressive.”

“It was only a matter of time for my parents to assign him as Luna’s and my personal close-range bodyguard.”

“You were like, a teenager at that time?”

“I was sixteen and Luna was fourteen.”

“Okay.”

“And, well, being at that age, there was plenty of reason for… some, feelings to come around…”

“Passive aggression?”

“Wha- No!”

“Oh! You mean you had a thing for Relv?!”

“It’s well justified. He was charming, wise, loyal, liked similar things that I liked,”

“Like what?”

“Reading, writing, science, magic, dancing, excitement, he would sometimes join me and Luna when we were playing around the castle.”

“Did Relv have feelings towards you?”

“I don’t know. I was too scared to ask him if he liked me or not. Would he say yes, no, think I was weird or something, it was all too scary. Luna didn’t seem to have any particular feelings towards him, more like a half-brother. He was a great, young pony. Although now, when I look at Relv, I can never see the old him inside.”

“He sounded like a nice stallion, what made him turn to evil?”

“During my studies in science, Relv would always join me at the laboratories. He’d help me with my work when the teachers, tutors, and professors weren’t looking and even sometimes did entire projects by himself for me out of his own sheer interest. He didn’t really receive that much of an education in the barracks, so to him, this was a college opportunity, albeit a secret one. We were two peas in a pod when it came to science, and it was the closest I could ever find myself with Relv. After our studies and late at night, I would have Relv join me in the labs in secret to do our own experiments and actually connect. One of those nights however, we discovered something, something that would by the beginning of Relv’s spiral into darkness.”

“What was it?”

“A mutagenic chemical that… Oh no…”

“Oh no what?”

“I forgot to tell Fluttershy to command Relv to not unleash his powers!”

“That doesn’t sound good…”

“Well, let’s just hope and pray that Relv doesn’t begin unleashing them without Fluttershy’s command. My mind control spell might not have been that strong on him as I initially thought and he could be slowly breaking from it if he starts using them.”

“How much time do you think it will take for him to break free after using these powers?”

“He shouldn’t be able to fully escape Fluttershy’s command. I made that very clear when preparing the spell. As long as Fluttershy has a strong hold of him, he shouldn’t be able to unleash any of his stronger powers.”

“Okay, okay, so we don’t need to panic. Much at least… How about we continue to talk about Relv’s downfall.”

“Yeah, maybe that will ease my mind.”

“Okay, so you were talking about this chemical…”

“Fluttershy, I have faith in you, don’t let him loose…”

Meeting Friends

As Fluttershy and Relv approach the brightly coloured boutique before them, the bongs of the clock tower far away ring ten times. The duo approaches the front door and enters with Fluttershy taking the lead, sounding off a small bell as they fully open the door. Relv closes the door behind them, causing another jingle from the yellow bell.

“Hold on,” a mare’s voice calls from behind one of the purple show curtains, “I’ll be right with you.”

“Hey Rarity,” Fluttershy replies to the unseen pony, “I have somepony for you to meet.”

“Oh, Fluttershy,” A white unicorn walks out from behind one of the curtains. Her curled purple mane and tail gently swish along with her movements as she approaches the two with a smile on her face. “And who is this stallion?”

“This is Relv. He’s going to be living with me for a while.”

“Oh,” Rarity gives a subtle wink to Fluttershy with her face turned away from the stoic stallion. “How did you manage to catch a stallion like this?”

“No, Rarity, not like that. Princess Celestia’s having him live with me to reform him. He was a dangerous criminal before she’s placed a mind control spell on.”

“Well I must say, he is quite a dashing rouge, though his mane could use some work and that harness he has can use a small touch up.”

“That’s beside the point. We’d come here to help teach Relv about friendship.”

“Well the, you’ve come to the right place. As you know Mr. Relv, I, being the Element of Generosity myself, I am quite a purveyor of such arts of friendship…” As Rarity continues her lecture, Fluttershy notices that Relv is beginning to break his solid stance as his right ear begins to twitch and his eyes begin to squint.

“Relv is something the matter?”

Relv immediately barks, “Move!” Without a moment to act, Relv shoves Fluttershy away from the door and turning around. The wooden door burst open with a multicolor blur charging into the room. Just before it runs into Relv, the red Earth pony quickly raises his hoof and stomps it into the front of the object, stopping it in place. A cloud of dust erupts before the mysterious blur is revealed to be three fillies, a red wagon, a blue scooter, and several clocks strapped around the collection with rope.

“Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo?”

“Are they active threats?”

“No they are not!” Rarity chastises behind Relv.

“…” Relv doesn’t listen to Rarity and instead begins to stare down the three fillies right in front of his face, all in shock.

“Did you not hear me?”

“No Relv, they’re friendly. Sorry Rarity, I forgot to tell you that he only listens to me.”

“Oh, so he’s that kind of stallion…” Memories briefly flash in Rarity’s mind of her experience with a stallion from a party a long while ago.

“No, well, I don’t think he’s that kind of stallion you’re thinking. I’m not really sure.” Fluttershy’s attention then returns to the small ponies still being examined by Relv, though the look on his face has lightened up. “Girls, what were you even doing?”

“We were trying to see if we can get time traveling cutie marks.” The orange pegasus mutters, frozen stiff at the iron glare of Relv.

“Or maybe an engineerin’ cutie mark.” The yellow Earth pony adds.

“Or maybe even a rope-tying cutie mark.” The white unicorn filly replies.

“This feller’s bigger than my brother…”

“And a lot more scary…”

“Sir,” the pegasus filly stampers “Can you please stop staring…”

“Oh, I forgot,” Fluttershy sheepishly speaks, “Relv, at ease-or whatever means quit staring at them.”

“Yes.” Relv sternly answers back. His hoof lifts from the vehicle and his glance turns to Fluttershy. Upon leaving eye contact with the red pony, the three fillies collapse onto the floor with a gasp for air. The three then grab their makeshift time machine and charge out the door in a silent panic.

“You see that Relv has quite a bit to learn.”

“Well,” Rarity hesitantly replies, “…we should start with the basics…”

“What would the first step be?”

“I don’t even know where to start looking at Relv. He’s aggressive, he’s brooding, he’s very quiet, he might have trouble dealing with foals based on that scare he gave my sister and the other two,”

“He’s not all that…” Rarity quickly raises an eyebrow and grows a skeptical look on her face. “Okay, he is.”

“I don’t see a problem,” Relv responds, nearly scaring Rarity, “I show no weakness, grow no dependents, and display my presence clearly.”

“Well, that may be good and all in a more, threatening, environment. But here, you… uh… you… overawe…”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake, let me tell him.” Rarity demands.

“It’s just, I don’t want to be mean to him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll put it to him gently.”

“O-okay. Relv, please let Rarity speak to you and talk to her.”

“Good. Now Relv.”

“Yes Rarity?” Relv responds.

“You’re scaring everypony and quite frankly you look like a bully with a poor sense of fashion.”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy snaps.

“I said gently didn’t I?”

“This isn’t helping Relv.”

“Rarity’s correct.” Relv retorts.

“What?”

“I’ve trained myself to intimidate all, no matter the environment. I did this to further my previous intentions before being hit by the spell.”

“Well then, I guess we’re going to have to break your training. Any ideas on what to do Rarity?”

“Well,” Rarity replies, laying a hoof on her chin as she thinks, “Perhaps we can show Relv generosity by having him help me with a suit I’ve been working on for a client.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Relv, help Rarity complete the suit.”

“I shall.” Relv replies before entering the door at the back of the main room.

“Hey!” Rarity yells, “You don’t know where it is!”

“He might actually,” Fluttershy quickly replies. Soon a couple of hoofsteps can be heard above them.

“How did he-”

“Quadra-a-something, it’s some weird super power he has.”

“But how is he going to do the sewing? My tools are made for unicorns.”

“He… has some other abilities.”

“I better hurry up there right now before he ruins anything.” Rarity rushes upstairs to the room where the suit and Relv and is terrified of the sight before her. Soon a loud scream can be heard from where Fluttershy is.

“Oh no…” Fluttershy rushes up as well, only to find Rarity hiding behind the doorframe outside the room Relv is in. “Rarity, what’s going on?”

“What is he doing in there?!”

“Relv?” Slowly, the yellow mare pokes an eye around the doorway to see Relv peacefully sitting in the middle of the room with all sorts of activity happening around him. His hovering blades are floating above his head and slice through flying pieces fabric as he is levitating a pair of sewing needles and using them to sew the sliced pieces together. Meanwhile, his hooves are handling what appears to be the suit before him with his eyes generally focusing on them with a squint.

“What sort of dark magic is this?”

“It isn’t. At least, that’s what he claims. He’s using some electric magnet ability to control his swords.”

“Those are not swords, those are saws, big saws.” A pair of separated white sleeves then fly past Rarity and Fluttershy’s faces and slam into the wall behind. “Hey! He’s destroying the suit!” Now furious with Relv, Rarity darts around Fluttershy into the room. “Relv, quit destroying my... suit…” There, before her very eyes, Relv is holding a now complete suit in his hooves. It is a black, dark red, and white tuxedo with a poufy collar and a long tailcoat. Golden bejeweled buttons ran along the middle and even a white rose is perfectly placed at the chest. Fluttershy follows behind Rarity and both are immediately in awe of the creation.

“Relv, you did this?”

“Th-this is perfect! Not one stitch out of place, not one fault in proportion, the sleeves are perfect, simple, yet complex, you even managed to make it look like it came from the time my client wanted. How?”

“Simple,” Relv humbly responded, though he was never really expressive, “Having first hoof experience in such clothing, it was only by combination of instinct, my studies in prison, and my knowledge of various materials that I made this from.”

“How were you able to get the fabrics so clean cut?” Rarity’s glance turns to one of the hovering swords as her horn begins to glow. Soon, the unicorn’s face begins to scrunch and sweat starts to pour from her forehead. “What the…”

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asks.

“I can’t, seem to get, a grip on this thing! It’s like it doesn’t actually exist or something…”

“It does,” Relv responds, “at least in the physical sense.”

“What does that mean? What’s with these swords?”

“They are made of a metal with an anti-magic spell casted onto them, used to make the walls of my prison. I tore them down and sharped them into blades that only I can manipulate.”

“You seem awfully open with your experiences in prison. Kind of disturbing…”

“Well Relv, at least you helped Rarity.” Fluttershy speaks. “You’re being generous with your skills and sharing them with other ponies. It feels good to be generous, right Rarity?”

“Yes, it most certainly does. Thank you for helping me.” The unicorn mare then begins to whisper in Fluttershy’s ear, “Please tell me that he won’t be blathering about his prison times often, it’s creeping me out,”

“That might be a work in progress.”

“Well, this has been a most, unique day. How about you find somepony else to introduce Relv to?”

“Okay then. Goodbye Rarity.”

“Goodbye Fluttershy. Goodbye Relv.”

“Come along Relv, we should visit Twilight’s next.” Gently, Relv places the tuxedo on the floor, gets up from his sitting position, and follows Fluttershy as they head downstairs and out of Rarity’s boutique.

“What is with that pony? So fascinating, but so creepy... I just hope Sweetie Belle doesn’t run into him again.”

The clock tower chimes eleven times as Fluttershy and Relv reach town hall, three quarters of the way to Twilight’s palace.

After mostly being quiet for the walk, Fluttershy decides to break the silence and begins to speak. “So Relv, did you like helping Rarity out?”

Relv responds in his usual deadpan tone, “No.” The yellow mare freezes in place for a second before continuing her stroll, taking a moment to process what he just said.

“Wait, what? You didn’t like helping her make the suit?”

“Correct.”

“Why? You seemed so into it and it was a lovely tuxedo you made.”

“You commanded me to help create the suit.”

“It was to help show you what generosity feels like. How else were you to be generous?”

“There are a multitude of solutions. The best one being for me to critique Rarity’s sloppy needle work, her inability of choosing the correct materials, and her blatant disregards to functionality,”

“That doesn’t help her. That would’ve only hurt her feelings.”

“It would’ve been better in the long run. Now that the suit has been created, ponies will have higher expectations of Rarity. However, she will not be prepared for those expectations, and will become dependent on me. Not only will this damage her honesty and self-esteem, but it will also rot potential growth in her field of work and make her more susceptible to failure if I were to no longer be around.”

“My, I’ve never heard you say so many words in one response… But that’s not the point. The point is that this isn’t a warzone, so why are you being so aggressive over just one suit?”

“Instead of improving the lives of ponies, my action has damaged the well-being of the future. I have disobeyed against my initial code, and you allowing me to freely speak, just makes me able to show my disgust for this.”

“Your code?”

“The greater good, for the greater number, in the greater time.”

“What does that mean?”

“I do what is the best action to help the greatest number of ponies in the greatest expanse of time that my actions will affect, no matter if it is unfavorable, unethical, or unmoral.”

“Princess Celestia said you were dangerous. Is that true?”

“It is. However, only to a certain set of things am I dangerous. She has blinded herself from my true intentions and sees me as an attacker for everything…”

“I don’t like where this is going. He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, but I feel so uncomfortable, insecure, talking about this. He’s making Celestia look like the bad pony, but that isn’t true. Is it? No, I should stop. Remember what Celestia said, his former self must be manipulating me or something...”

“…I am the necessary-”

“Relv, please stop talking about your past code. The princess says that you were dangerous to Equestria’s future. She’s wise, she knows what’s right for her ponies.”

“…”

“Maybe Twilight can help you out.”

“Fine.”

“I feel so guilty now, yet relieved at the same time.”

“We’re here.” Fluttershy and Relv stop walking as Fluttershy’s starts to focus on what’s in front of her again. Now, towering before and above them, is Twilight’s palace, a huge, purple, crystal castle, dwarfing every other building in its vicinity. In front of the two ponies stand a pair of giant doors into the castle. Slowly, it opens to reveal a purple alicorn mare and a pink Earth pony, exiting the massive structure side by side. The two duos meet face to face as the doors close behind them.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle. Hello Pinkie Pie.”

“Hello Fluttershy.” The purple alicorn known as Twilight states.

“Hi Fluttershy! Hi stallion who looks like he wants to beat me up!” The pink Earth pony known as Pinkie cheerfully exclaims.

“Yeah, who are you Mr.…”

“Relv,” Fluttershy responds.

“Wait, that name… Celestia sent a letter to me this morning about a pony named Relv that escaped from prison- Hold on, are you the pony…”

“…that was given responsibility to reform him? Yes.”

“And he’s…”

“…under my command? Yes. Oh, that reminds me. Relv, you can talk to Twilight and Pinkie.”

“I should’ve figured. Celestia’s letter was vague, but I should’ve known she meant she was giving him to you. So, what are you doing here? Introducing him to everypony?”

“Well, just you, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Spike,”

“Spike’s out of town.”

“He is?”

“Yeah, he’s out at the Crystal Empire to go ‘discount’ gem shopping.”

“He does like gemstones.”

“Yep,”

“Another reason we came to you is because we could use your help in reformation.”

“Sure, like what?”

However, before Fluttershy can respond, Pinkie darts up to Relv’s face and exclaims, “Maybe we can turn that frown upside down!”

“That looks more like a scowl.”

“Nah, looks more like a poker face.” The pink pony then jumps onto Relv’s back with her hooves resting on the sheathed swords, causing Fluttershy is become paranoid.

“Uh, Pinkie,” Fluttershy states, “I wouldn’t do that…”

“Why not?” Pinkie reaches her front hooves over Relv’s head and presses them against his cheeks, with Relv remaining stoic throughout this physical contact. “He doesn’t seem to mind.” Pinkie then attempts to force the red stallion to change his expression to look like a smile. However, she soon finds that his cheeks are stiff in place, unable to move, and she eventually gives up and sits down on his back.

“Pinkie, I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“Oh come on, you’re no fun Relv. Smile!”

“…Nope…”

“So Flutter,” Twilight says, trying to resume their previous conversation, “what can I help you with?”

“Well, Relv has this ideology. He says that is was the reason Celestia saw him as a threat. Relv, restate what your code was without going into detail.”

“I wonder how ridiculous it’s going to sound.”

“The greater good, for the greater number, in the greater time.”

“’The greater good?’ Wait, you’re a utilitarian?”

“What does that mean?” Fluttershy asks.

“Utilitarianism is the belief that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority, regardless of ethics. It is a highly debated idea, with many ponies either believing in it or strongly against it.”

“So wait, if so many ponies follow this philosophy, then why is Celestia so concerned about you Relv?”

Relv responds, “She sees me as a threat because of how I execute my ideals.”

“How do you then?”

“Unlike all of the political bigwigs that serve in government and most other ponies that sit around that debate, I take action and do what is needed.”

“Hold on just a second, I’ve glanced at some of your records a while after Celestia sent me the letter.” Twilight retorts, “You commit crimes that do not help in anyway. It’s practically evil.”

“It is a necessary evil to perform in order for the ponies themselves to actually take action and further society. Not just have the words of debates fly through their ears and never give it a second thought.”

“Necessary evil, my plank! Murder is not necessary!”

“Um, Twilight, Relv,” Fluttershy sheepishly mumbles.

“What?”

“Can you two please talk about it more quietly. I’m not really all that comfortable listening to this. It makes me think things that scare me.”

“It’s okay. Celestia said that Relv’s a master of mind traps. Just ignore his senseless blathering. What he’s saying isn’t right.”

“Really?”

“As a friend, you can trust me. Pinkie, can you please chat with Fluttershy while I have a little discussion with this pony and teach him a thing or two.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!” Pinkie cheers before hopping off of Relv. The pink mare and the yellow mare then start to walk away as Twilight and Relv’s voices fade into whispers.

“Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy asks, “What do you think of Relv?”

“A bit boring if you ask me. He just stands around, talks, like a statue that can talk.”

“Do you think Relv has a point to his, utili…”

“Utilitarianism? The idea itself, I’m not too sure. But from I heard from Twilight as she was talking to be about the princess’ letter, the way he ‘takes action’ is very bad. What about you?”

“No! Yes… I don’t know…”

“Wait, didn’t you say you didn’t like Relv’s talking about it.”

“I don’t. It makes me feel all insecure inside. But the way he’s told me about his ideas, I can’t stop thinking about it. What if Relv does have a point?”

“If thinking about it makes you unhappy, then just don’t think about it. How about you alone go to the Crystal Empire and help Spike with his shopping. Shopping always takes my mind off of things, as well as cooking, and babysitting the Cake babies, and parties, and shiny objects…”

“Okay, I guess that can work. Though, I will have to take Relv with me, he’s a bit, untamed at the moment.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!”

“I wonder if Twilight’s done talking to Relv.” The two mares look over to where Twilight and Relv. They see Twilight angrily shouting into the stallion’s face while he remains just as expressionless and calm as before. “That doesn’t look good.”

“You know, I always wondered if you could cook eggs with Twilight’s head when she’s angry, but I would never make her angry,”

“Pinkie, come on.” The two ponies quickly gallop to the arguing pair, regaining the ability to hear what their saying.”

“…For the last time!” Twilight screams, “Stealing a hundred bits from an open window is not right!”

“They never left the window open again after that. I have protected the household from a potential burglar or murderer.”

“Back to the beginning of this whole thing again!”

“Twilight,” Fluttershy gently exclaims.

“What?!”

“I think its best that Relv and I go, thanks for your support though.”

“No, how about you command this stubborn pony to believe what I say?”

“No.”

“But why, he is so difficult!”

“Commanding him to just believe in friendship isn’t the right way of reforming him. It’s all about progress, learning, experiencing. As we’re making connections with Relv, he’s seeing the magic of friendship and how it truly feels to be part of it.”

“Humph, fine. He’s yours anyways.”

“Goodbye Twilight. Bye Pinkie. Thanks for trying to help.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye!” Pinkie squees. Fluttershy and Relv leave the two friends behind as they set of towards their next destination.

“I hate that stallion.”

“Maybe I can challenge him to play Go-Fish with me the next day.”

The following walk to Applejack’s place of residence felt like an eternity for Fluttershy due to the complete silence between her and Relv.

“Twilight and Pinkie are right.” Fluttershy thinks to herself, “I have to take my mind off of what Relv’s saying, even if it does get boring. Why did I ever even let him talk?”

A distance voice calls out ahead of Fluttershy, “Howdy!”

This is soon followed by another voice, “Hey Flutter!” Fluttershy breaks from her train of thought and finds herself and Relv right at the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres, the home of Applejack. In front of her stands an orange Earth pony in a cowpony hat and a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.

“Oh, hi Applejack and Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy replies, “I want you to meet a new friend. This is Relv. Relv, talk to them.”

“Well howdy there Relv,” Applejack announces as she and Dash approach the duo, “You’re a mighty tall fella, even bigger than my brother.”

“Thank you,” the red pony responds, “I take it you’re a friend of Fluttershy as well.”

“Absolutely partner,”

“I see…”

“Hey Relv,” Rainbow Dash exclaims as she hovers around the stallion with her wings. “Cool mane and harness you got. Do you know where I can get those?”

“No.”

“Oh…”

“What are you doing here Dash?” Fluttershy asks.

“I’m here to help AJ and the rest of her family harvest apples for cider season coming in two days.”

“That’s nice. Can we help?”

“That would be gre-”

“Oh shucks, I couldn’t,” Applejack interrupts, “I don’t want to put you two in for so much work. We still have most of the trees unbucked.”

“Don’t worry,” Fluttershy responds, having a bold idea now manifesting in her head, “we’d be glad to help.”

“You sure?”

“Certainly. Actually, Relv here might be a bigger help then you might expect.”

“He is notably muscular for a stallion…”

“It’s not just muscles that make the pony. Relv, help Applejack take down apples from the tree. Show her your true capabilities.”

“Yes Fluttershy.” Relv calmly responds. He turns to his right and walks in front of one of the hundreds of apple trees still having apples locked in their branches. His head bends down to face the ground below.

“Wait for it…”

The red stallion raises his front right hoof several inches from the ground before shouting, “Unleashing Power #1,” A small golden glow soon appears from under the skin of Relv’s raised hoof.

“Wha-”

“Strength!” Relv then slams his hoof into the ground, causing a massive earthquake upon contact with the dirt below. Everything within a kilometre radius of the ground pound shakes violently, even the air appears to be trembling. A cloud of dusk quickly blankets the area in a matter of moments after the punch and along the rattling of the earth. The three mares scream in terror whilst Relv remains perfectly still despite the chaos erupting all around him. Thirty seconds of pure anarchy wash over the area before finally settling down. With the ground and dust settling down, the three friends look to see Relv and the forest of trees. The trees have nearly become barren, with only several branches of leaves still remaining. The ground below the trees is now blanketed by a sea of autumn leaves and apples, as far as the eye can see currently. And Relv, still having his now non-glowing hoof deeply imprinted into the ground, remains motionless and silent as the land of Sweet Apple Acres calms down. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are frozen stiff in shock, still trying to process what has just happened.

Soon, the silence is broken by Rainbow Dash quietly speaking, “W-w-w-w-what-t-t-t… w-was… th-t-th-that?”

“I-I-I-I have no idea…” Fluttershy terrifyingly replies. Relv then breaks from his position, turns, and approaches the girls, all slowly backing away from him. As their eyes make contact with Relv’s greys, their pupils immediately shrink to almost a pinpoint. The yellow mare’s eyes start to water in terror as she timidly speaks to her companion, “R-Relv, don’t hurt us…”

“I won’t.” He calmly responds, sounding as if nothing had just happened.

“W-what d-did you even do?”

“As you commanded, to help Applejack with her harvest and show her my true capabilities.”

“I thought it was just going to be the swords and the time stuff…”

“But that isn’t my truest of capabilities, only a side effect of the usage of them.”

“Only a side effect?!”

Suddenly, Applejack starts to mumble to herself, “This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening…”

Soon, a deep stallion’s voice yells out from within the destroyed section of the farm. “What the hay is going on?!”

“Oh no! This is not happening… This isn’t my brother… This is all just a hallucination…”

“Applejack, have you seen the farms? Some giant earthquake came from nowhere and destroyed nearly half of the orchard!”

“No it’s real!” A red Earth pony stallion then walks out of the orchard and sees the girls cowering before Relv.

“Hey you!”

“Big McIntosh!” Quickly, the stallion known as Big Mac runs in between the mares and Relv, snorting in the stranger’s face in the process of staring him down.

“I may not know what just happened, but I do know a threat when I see one. . Don’t you lay a hoof on my sister and her friends. ‘Cause if you do, I’ll hit you with some many rights, you’re going to beg for a left…”

“Wait, Big Mac!” Fluttershy screams, snapping out of her frightened state and running between the two stallions. “Relv didn’t mean to do it!”

“He did this? What?!”

“Well, I mean, he did mean to do it, but that was out of a misunderstanding. The point is he’s friendly… kinda…”

“…”

“McIn-”

“He. Did. What?!” The slightly smaller stallion’s eyes shrink in as well and his face begins to contort into a blank stare.

“Um… the whole, earthquake thing, to help you with the apple harvest. Hehe, at least it worked right and nothing too important was damaged, I think. Please, still don’t be mad…”

“…”

“Are you still mad?”

“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. He did not do this. This did not happen. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.”

“It di-”

“Nope. Nope. Nope. I refuse to believe it. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope!”

“Uh… Relv, I think it’s best that we leave. And as we’re going to the Crystal Empire, I demand you give me an explanation for what you just did.””

“Quite,” Relv replies, “their defiance to the existence of the previous events will expire in 72 hours or 24 hours with the proper therapy.” Fluttershy turns towards her friends in order to say goodbye to them, but finds them still frozen in shock.

“Well, goodbye Applejack, Rainbow, Big Mac. Hopefully you’ll feel better tomorrow.”

A small breath escapes from Dash’s mouth and enters Fluttershy’s and Relv’s ears, “So… awesome…”

“So wait, let me get this straight, you and Relv created an unknown magical chemical and decided to inject it into Relv?”

“We didn’t have test subjects back then. And besides, Relv was willing to lend his support to our studies.”

“Okay, just sounds a bit dangerous…”

“Anyways, after the injection, he received a humongous strength boost in his muscles and bones. We were both completely astonished when he was able to lift an entire metal brewing cauldron from the ground with ease. His bones became as strong as solid metal, virtually indestructible,”

“And this became his power?”

“Sort of, the chemical never completely entered his bloodstream, as well as every other sequential power, only small traces of it leak in and give him his regular super strength, kind of like a volcano. If he wanted to unleash the full power of it and have it actually enter his bloodstream, he’d just have to give a verbal summon and mentally activate the injection.”

“How strong would he become if he were to unleash this power?”

“During an investigation of one of Relv’s many murder charges, an autopsy revealed one pony’s skeletal system to be completely shattered. From a single punch of Relv’s unleashed power, every bone in the victim’s body was broken.”

“Whoa…”

“That’s why I’ve been so nervous about Relv out now. If he were to unleash this power, somepony could get seriously injured or even be killed.”

“I see.”

“Back to the story… After seeing Relv become so powerful, I decided to have the chemical injected into me as well. However, instead of growing super strong like Relv, my bones nearly became hollow, and they’ve stayed like that to this day. I could never find a way to reverse the effects or even understand why it happened to me and did the opposite for Relv.”

“You have osteogenesis imperfecta? I would’ve never known.”

“How do you know that medical term, let alone pronounce it.”

“Comic books, there are a lot of weird characters these days.”

“I see… But anyways, that’s why I have the royal guard to this day. I cannot risk my health and the future of Equestria. After discovering that my bones were weakened, Relv made me promise never to experiment on myself, and let him be the only test subject of our private studies. And from that night onward, till the day of his betrayal, he never left my side.”

“I’m so sorry for you.”

“Thanks for your support, but I’m afraid the damage has been done.”

“Wait, you said that he had ‘multiple’ powers.”

“Yes, during our private studies, we would alter our initial strength chemical and formed different chemicals with different powers each. I injected each one of them into Relv, in different areas of his body, giving him as vast variety of great powers.”

“How many?”

“In total, there were forty two of them. However, we were only able to study forty one of them.”

“What happened to the forty second?”

“…I prefer not to talk about it for now.”

“Okay. So, what are these other powers like?”

“Speed, stamina, regeneration, electricity, electromagnetism, and… I can’t really remember most of them that well...”

“Are they any ones that might be, uncontrollable if they were unleashed?”

“…foresight, quadrangulation…”

“Anything he could use to escape?”

“Oh no!”

“What?”

“Telekinesis, telepathy, magic altercation, anti-magic!” If he starts using his more basic powers, and soon works his way to the stronger ones, he can break himself free of the mind control!”

“What can we do about this?”

“I have an idea, I’ll send a letter to Fluttershy, warning her about Relv’s powers immediately.”

“But how will it be sent to her before anything bad happens?”

“Don’t worry, I know just the pony, or should I say, dragon to help. That should take care of it.”

“Then what?”

“Then we should continue our chat. Everything should be fixed from there.”

“You’re the princess, you know what you’re doing.”

“Thanks Rex.”

“No problem. And besides, we haven’t even gotten to the part where he turns.”

“I really don’t want to talk about that part, but if I’m going to get over these emotions, I’m going to have to tell him.”

Day in the Market

The loud whistle of the train roars behind the yellow mare and her companion as they leave the train station at the edge of the Crystal Empire and walk down the road ahead of them.  Everything in their sight is made of crystal, from the tiny blades of grass, to the massive castle in the far distance, to the large and fancy buildings, to even the ponies that walk along the gemstone streets. Everything glimmers in the sun‘s limitless light, without a cloud in the sky to shield against the light.

“…So that’s what that super powerful punch was?” Fluttershy asks Relv, continuing from their conversation in the train. “It was some chemical you were injected with for an experiment by Celestia."

He coldly replies, "Yes."

"Quadrangulation was one of them right? What are these other types of ‘powers’ as you put it.”

“Correct, but you’ve only seen its leaked strength. Unleashed, I see everything. My other powers include speed, stamina, mental processing, multitasking, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste,”

“How many do you have?”

“Forty two.”

“That’s quite a lot of injections. Did it hurt a lot?”

“Only the first eight times, then I got used to it.”

“What’s your strongest one?”

“Power #42: Night-”

“Fluttershy?” A young male’s voice sounds out from ahead. On the side of the road, in front of a large marketplace, stands a small purple dragon with a wicker basket in his claws.

“Spike!” Fluttershy exclaims back. “Hurry up Relv, I want you to meet Twilight’s closest friend and assistant, Spike. Talk to him.” Quickly the two ponies gallop towards Spike, stopping a metre away from him.

“I didn’t know you were coming to the Crystal Empire as well. And who’s the stallion with you?”

“I just came by here to relax and to introduce you to Relv here. He’s going to be-”

“Relv?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, Celestia send Twilight a letter regarding a pony named Relv. So… You’re-”

“Looking after him and reforming him, yes.”

“Huh, I was expecting him to look a lot scarier to be honest, and a cutie mark on him. No offense Relv, you still look cool with that mane thing going on.”

“None taken,” Relv calmly replies.

“Have you talked to Twilight yet? If you did, what did she think about you?”

“She hates me.”

“Oh… That was a bit, sudden.”

“Spike,” Fluttershy asks to the baby dragon, “can we join you in your gem shopping?”

“Sure, but I’m just looking for one more at this point.”

“That’s not a problem. Relv could probably help you find it. Relv, please use your, quadrilateral to find the best gemstone in the market.”

“It’s quadrangulation. Follow me.” The trio soon take off into the bustling market area. They walk past several rows of tents, seeing the various items being sold by the various ponies.

“Thank you.”

“Quardangu-what?”

“One of Relv’s… special talents,” Eventually, after a good minute of walking, they finally stop in front of a seemingly normal tent with a light blue pony running it. In front of him on the desk rests a massive green crystal in the shape of a diamond.

“Hello sir,” Spike says to the shop owner, “is this your best gemstone?”

“Why yes it is,” the clerk responds, “best one in the market I can say for certain.”

“I can confirm for that. Look at the size of this thing.”

“And thick as well.”

“How much is it?”

“For you young lad, I’d say a hundred bits.”

“Oh! I think I might still have that much left.” Rapidly, the dragon reaches into the gem filled basket and pulls out handful by handful of golden coins, dropping them onto the counter before reaching back in. After several minutes of digging, Spike thinks he has pulled out every last coin from the bag.

“Sorry sir, you seem to be ten short.”

“Drat…”

“Allow me.” Relv responds, revealing ten bits from his open hoof.

“Oh thanks Relv!”

As Spike finishes his transaction with the shop owner, Fluttershy leans her head next to Relv and whispers to him, “Where did you get those bits?”

“Thirteen shops behind us, from an open bag sitting on the front counter.” Relv whispers back.

“You stole them?”

“It is only fourteen bits, a tenth of what was in the bag.”

“Why?”

“The owner of the shop is going to notice her loss of profit and will actually secure the bag the next day, stopping some ponies from stealing all of it.”

“But stealing is wrong, you could’ve just told the pony to secure the bag.”

“She wouldn’t of taken my advice, at least until she’s robbed from all of it.”

“How did you even take them in the first place? You were walking the entire time, not stopping for a second.”

“Electromagnetic Telekinesis,”

“Oh yeah, you can do that thing with metal, like your swords and the sewing needles from Rarity’s.”

“Correct.”

“But that isn’t an excuse for stealing. Don’t steal!”

“Is everything okay?” Spike asks as he walks towards them with the gem in both of his claws and the basket sitting on top.

“Oh, yes Spike, everything’s fine, nothing to worry about.”

“Okay. Thanks Relv for helping me find and buy this thing. Hey, got an idea of what we can do next?”

“There are several things we can-” Relv attempts to reply.

But before the stallion could finish his idea, Fluttershy immediately interrupts him, “-We should go dancing! I heard several ponies talking about a dance party somewhere in the market on the way here. Yes, dancing. Relv was probably going to suggest ‘robbing open bags’ or something like that…”

“Okay then. Follow me.” Immediately, the red Earth pony starts walking off away from the shop, soon followed by Fluttershy and Spike.

“Must be that hearing power he has.”

“Fluttershy,” Spike says, “aren’t you afraid of dancing in public?”

“Oh, well, it’s all part of the reformation process I have. Idiot me, why did I say dancing of all things…”

“Okay.” After several minutes of quiet walking, the three come across the dance party on a street on the edge of the marketplace. Celtic music booms as at least a hundred ponies, both crystal ponies and non-crystal ponies, dance to it in the street. From stamping their hooves, to dancing with their partners, everypony seems to be in sync with the upbeat music created by a band of ten ponies with various instruments in the center of all of it. “That’s a lot of ponies…”

“Come on Fluttershy.” Spike then drops off his things into a nearby bush and runs into the crowd of ponies and begins to dance with them. Fluttershy takes a moment to swallow her fear before also entering as well. Making her way to the less crowded portion of the mob, she takes a moment and looks back to see Relv, still quietly standing outside of the dance party.

“Relv, don’t you want to dance?”

He simply replies, “No.”

“Well okay, at least he won’t see me when ponies soon block his view. No, wait, he still has that seeing thing.” As the music starts to picks up, Fluttershy slowly sways from side to side in a stiff manner, too afraid to do anything dramatic or draw attention to herself. Her eyes dart everywhere as she grows more and more paranoid of anypony watching. “Is he looking at me? Is she looking at me? Are they looking at me? Did somepony laugh at me? Oh…” Slowly, the pegasus stops her dancing and crotches down on the road, attempting to avoid being seen at all. She covers her eyes and begins to quietly whimper as her paranoia consumers her thoughts for what seems like hours. A hoof then gently taps her on the shoulder, prompting her uncover her face. She sees Relv looking over her with the same still look he always does, but this time however, Fluttershy thinks she notices something in his eyes as he’s looking into hers, perhaps pity. “Relv,” The stallion lifts his right hoof in front of her, gesturing for Fluttershy to take it. Slowly, Fluttershy grabs Relv’s hoof with her right and she gently gets up from ground. “What are you doing?”

“Dancing,”

“But I never commanded you to. To be honest, I don’t really feel like dancing myself.”

“Do you want to?”

“Yes but, everypony’s probably looking at us. I can’t do it. Besides, I’m not good of a dancer anyways.”

“You are.”

“How do you know?”

“Your muscles, your mind, your eyes, they tell me that you can.”

“They should also be telling you I’m too scared.”

“Perhaps you require some support.” A small smile appears on the mare’s face as confidence begins to pulsate through her body.

“Relv, will you please help?”

“Yes Fluttershy.” Leisurely, with their hooves still locked, the two ponies start to circle each other, gradually picking up speed to that of the beat. “Desire to take a step up?”

“I guess so. Nothing too fast please. I feel so brave now! But why? Is this Relv doing something to me?”

“Follow me.” With the duo still circling, Relv begins to add some quick side steps and small jumps. Fluttershy then attempts to replicate what he did, only to miss the third sidestep and stomps on Relv’s hoof. However, the stallion’s face remains static, showing no pain from the mistake.

“I’m so sorry!”

“No need to be.”

“Can’t you do some nerve thing to make me dance better? This has to be humiliating!”

“I can. However, I must advise you, the art of dancing is all about progress, learning, and experiencing, as with other things. Perhaps you should, try again.” Fluttershy tries again, only now failing to time the small jump properly. She ends up smacking into Relv’s face, creating a very loud slap in its wake.

“Sorry!”

“No need to be.” Eventually, after many tries, Fluttershy soon perfects every move and becomes synchronized with Relv’s movements. The mare’s small smile grows into a wide grin as she becomes one with the party. “This is so much fun! Isn’t this fun?”

“Perhaps,”

“What does that mean?”

“It mostly depends on your preferences.”

“How about your preferences? Is this fun to you?”

“…Yes…”

“Really?!”

“…Yes…” Time seems to no longer exist to Fluttershy as the two partners continue dancing with the party. She is enjoying herself now more than ever before over the past few days. After several loops of their perfected routine, Fluttershy thinks she notices a small smirk growing on Relv’s face. She then begins to note that his pupils have grown a little and his face appearing less tense. Finally, the music begins to die down, and the world of time soon returns to Fluttershy. The band starts to pack up their instruments and the crowd of ponies split up to go back to whatever business they have to attend to, leaving only Fluttershy, Relv, Spike, and a few other ponies left. Spike, now being able to see them, rushes up to them.

“Hey Spike, how’d it go?”

“It was awesome!” Spike proclaims, “What about you two?”

“Well,” However, before she continues, Fluttershy looks back at Relv, noticing that their hooves are still together. In one swift motion, she bashfully pulls her hoof away from him and into her chest. “It was fine, nothing much happened.”

“Well, okay then. Ready to go back to Ponyville?”

“Sure.”

“Just let me grab my things an-” However, before Spike can finish his sentence, a queasy feeling erupts in his stomach. It travels to his mouth and forces itself out, causing Spike to belch out a scroll onto the crystal road.

“A letter from Celestia?”

Spike then grabs the paper and unrolls it. He clears his throat and then begins reading it out loud to Fluttershy and Relv,

“Dear Spike,

Please read the following to Fluttershy: Fluttershy, I have forgotten to inform you about Relv’s powers. You do not need to know what they are, and I’m not sure if he has already unleashed them yet. But that does not matter. The point is that they are dangerous if he uses them more and more. I request, no, I command that you command him to never ever unleash them. I have great faith in you to keep control of him.

Your royal highness,

Princess Celestia.”

“She wants me to command Relv to not unleash his powers?”

“Apparently. I’m not sure what they are, but I wouldn’t question her.” Slowly, she turns her attention to Relv, whose smile and gentler face had disappeared as soon as the party ended.

“I don’t want to though. I’m so curious about his powers. Maybe they can even be helpful. Ooh! I know what I can tell him. Relv,”

“Yes?” The red stallion replies.

“I command that you never unleash your powers unless I command otherwise.”

“Yes Fluttershy.”

“Good, that’s been taken care of.”

“Uh, Fluttershy,” Spike hesitantly asks, “I don’t this this is exactly what Princess Celestia wants.”

“I’ve seen Relv’s powers. They can be useful if used right. And besides, it’s not like I’m going to be using them.”

“Okay… I guess I’ll send a return letter confirming that you did it…”

“Thank you.”

Suddenly, a mare’s voice can be heard screaming from the far distance, “Help! The bank’s been robbed!”

“The letter has been sent.”

“Good. Now, how about we get back to your story?”

“Quite. After his forty second experimental injection, we were unable to properly see what it did. An immediate call came for all military personnel to defend Canterlot from an invasion of satyrs. I was kept inside the castle while Relv fought in the field alongside his fellow hundreds of sentries. However, I was able to peek from one of the tower windows and used a telescope to watch him, making sure he wasn’t hurt. The fighting continued for weeks, with shifts then becoming developed to horde off the seemingly endless pour of enemy troops. Occasionally at night, I was able to sneak out of the palace and meet with Relv while he was off his shift on the frontlines, and both he and I were growing more and more tired of this war. Finally, after five weeks of fighting, Relv had enough of it and decided to unleash his powers, despite our previous promises of not using them for violence and not revealing them to the public.”

“Did he win?”

“We won alright. Unleashing only fifteen of his powers, even sometimes unleashing them all at once, Relv decimated the satyr army in less than a fortnight. Our military and the rest of my family both discovered and became astonished at Relv’s abilities. They all wanted to know how he became so powerful so that they could become just as, if even more powerful than him. However, things were seen very differently from Relv’s side. Instead of a gift that could advance the world by possibly thousands of years, Relv saw his powers as a weapon. He became a weapon, the means to an end that he desired.”

“What was it?”

“Total utilitarianism… by force…”

Morals and Powers

“Help! The bank’s been robbed!”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy exclaims, “We have to stop the robber responsible before he gets away!”

“Two stallions, one mare, all Earth ponies,” Relv sharply replies, “I can stop them.”

“Best I come along with you to make sure you don’t hurt anypony. Take me with you and go.”

“Grab onto my back.” Relv immediately begins a fast trot towards the screams of the distressed mare. Fluttershy quickly hovers up and lands onto Relv’s back, tightly wrapping her front hooves around his neck and squeezing her hind hooves between the black sheaves.

“Spike, meet us at the train station!” Relv’s quick trot then rapidly accelerates into a fast run, faster than any pony Fluttershy has even seen before. The pegasus’ vision becomes a blur as the duo charge down the streets of the Crystal Empire, making hairpin turns and dashing around and over ponies whilst still keeping their ridiculous speed. “I think I’m going to be sick…”

“Currently two kilometres away from targets,”

“You can locate where they are now right?”

“Correct.”

“Can’t you use your swords to stop them in place?”

“No, not in this current state.”

“What does that mean?”

“Without my quadrangulation, telekinesis, and electromagnetism powers unleashed, my leaked amount of power won’t provide enough range to properly track them. Add to that, the crystals that make up this city are interfering with my abilities.”

“Well we can’t unleash your powers, princess’ orders. Just keep chasing them as you are now.”

“Currently one and a half kilometres away from targets,” As the pair of ponies speed down the busy roadways, bystanding ponies are blasted by a powerful surge of wind in Relv’s wake. Windows lightly crack and even the purple road behind Fluttershy breaks from the powerful hoofsteps of the stallion. “Currently one kilometre away from targets, they are now insight.”

“Where?”

“Ahead.” Fluttershy squints her eyes forward above Relv’s head and sees three colourful figures in the far distance.

“I see them and the money! How much time before we can reach them?”

“Two and a half minutes.”

“Great!”

However, Fluttershy’s moment of joy and adrenaline come to a screeching halt as the screams of a colt echo into her ears, “Help! Somepony, help!”

“What?” The yellow mare looks behind towards the castle of the Crystal Empire in the distance. Focusing as hard as she can, she sees a small brown figure hanging from the balcony high above the ground. “Relv! A colt’s in trouble at the castle, we have to save him!”

“I can’t right now.” He responds.

“What?”

“You can fly over to the castle and save him while I follow your command and catch these robbers.”

“No! I wouldn’t be able to catch him, he’s at least several kilometres away.”

“Seven and three quarter kilometres, you can catch him in time if you go right now.”

“I’m not you, I can’t do it.”

“Yes you can.”

“No I can’t.”

“Currently a half kilometre away from targets, several more hundred metres and I’ll be in range to use the swords.”

“Relv, turn around and save that colt!”

“No, it is better that we catch these felons now.”

“Turn around now! I command you!” A low growl escapes from Relv’s breath as he pulls out a blade from a sheave. He stabs it straight into the ground ahead of him and he grabs onto the hilt with his front hooves. He swings from the sword and performs a pinpoint 180o turn, then letting go and launching himself and Fluttershy in the direction of the castle with his sword quickly returning to its hold. As Fluttershy and her companion draw closer and closer, the screams of the child grow louder and more audible.

“I can’t hold on for much longer!” The brown colt screams.

“Don’t worry, we’re coming! Relv, how close are we?”

“Six and a half kilometres,” Relv responds, “more than enough time.”

“He’s going to fall soon. We might not make it at this pace!”

“We will.” Another shrill from the foal is heard, causing Fluttershy to bite her lip in fear.

“Is there any way we can go faster?”

“I can unleash my second power. However, I require clearance by your command.”

“Maybe Relv’s right, maybe we can catch up to the foal without unleashing a power like Princess Celestia wants. She knows more about them than I do…” Fluttershy then sees the small colt loose his grip on the balcony and falls an inch before catching back on with only one hoof now. Several screams of mares and stallions can be heard as the foal struggles more so than ever before. “No, the risk is too high! Sorry Celestia… Relv! Unleash your second power! Save that foal!”

“Unleashing Power #2: Speed!” In the matter of a second, Relv’s speed suddenly multiplies tenfold, causing a massive boom to rupture and echo across the entire kingdom. Fluttershy almost loses sight and her consciousness as now everything transforms from a blur to a single shape. She tries to speak to Relv, but finds her voice nonexistent at this speed. However, the one thing the mare can make out is a small golden glow slightly above where Relv’s first glow occurred. Meanwhile, the streets of the empire shatter into pebbles, the windows all shatter, and even the buildings rumble from the wake of destruction Relv’s speed is causing. Upon reaching an intersection, Relv sees a convoy of wagons crossing the next one. Without a moment to hesitate, the pony leaps onto the side of a building. He then jumps to the other side of the street and higher onto another building. Finally, he makes one more leap across and lands on top of a building. He then runs across the rooftops, still continuing his supersonic speed. Fluttershy on the other hoof, still clutching onto Relv, starts to feel sick and finds herself nearly barfing from the extreme forces thrashing upon her body.

However, while there still is a kilometre of distance between the duo and the palace, the child completely loses his grip on the balcony and begins to fall. Relv sees this and yells behind at Fluttershy, “Break his fall!” Relv quickly leaps off of the rooftops as one of his swords reveals itself once more and stabs into the road below. Grabbing the hilt mid-fall, Relv then proceeds to swing around it. He loosens Fluttershy’s grip from his chest and catching her in his hind hooves. Upon completing a full rotation, Relv then launches the yellow pegasus from his hind hooves, launching her body straight ahead at an even greater speed then Relv’s second power unleashed. With the colt falling rapidly to seemingly his demise and Fluttershy’s nearly unconscious body soaring across the street, four seconds of utter suspense and tension fills the air. As the brown foal is only a metre above the ground, Fluttershy shows up from seemingly nowhere and causes the colt to land on her. The two bodies now joined hurdle away from the onlooking crowd and crash down a kilometre away from the castle before coming to a skidding halt.

The crowd on ponies that were watching the foal’s struggle quickly runs towards where he and the currently unknown pony have landed. They discover it is a yellow pegasus, unconscious from her violent crash. And locked in her hooves, the mob finds the brown colt, alive and healthy. They cheer at this wondrous sight as well as the child. One of the mares of the crowd, a grey unicorn, pushes her way through to the child and pulls him from Fluttershy’s grasp and hugs him tightly.

“Bumpkin!” She exclaims in joy as tears flow from her eyes.

“I’m sorry Mom,” the colt cries, “I was teleporting without supervision, don’t be mad at me,”

“Don’t be sad, you’re safe now.”

“Who even is this pony?” A crystal stallion asks.

“Yeah,” a crystal mare replies, “she just came rocketing out of nowhere and saved him.”

“Like a superhero!”

“Not even super would fit. Her speeds were ridiculous!”

“Is she even okay after that landing?”

“Is she even alive?”

“Move aside.” An unknown voice calls from behind the mob. They look to see Fluttershy’s companion, peacefully standing in patience.

“Do you know this pony?”

“I said move.” Hesitantly, the crowd of ponies parts to make a path for Relv. Slowly, he walks along the given path and looks over Fluttershy’s unconscious body.

“Is she going to be alright?” The mother of the foal asks.

“…Yes. Go now.”

“But I want to thank her for saving my child.”

“You can do that later. Now go all of you. I require solitude if the mare’s going to recover quickly.” Although mostly skeptical, the mass of ponies surrounding Fluttershy back away and either head back to whatever they were doing or spying on the duo a distance. Relv then carefully turns the sideways body onto her belly and examines the right side that had skidded on the road. It is red all over, with flesh and blood staining her side, her wing, and the ground below. The wing is bent backwards and mangled with most of Fluttershy’s feathers on the wing fallen off. As Relv gently pokes at the inside flesh of her torso, a small gasp of pain escapes the pegasus’ mouth. “Fluttershy,”

“It hurts,” the mare whimpers. Tears begin to pour from her tightly closed eyes. “It really, really hurts…”

“Most certainly, broken wing, pierced lung, intense internal and external bleeding, ten broken ribs, and a concussion,”

“I-I’m d-dy-dying,”

“No, but you will be paralyzed for two years.”

“I-I-I need to go to a hospital… I-I need help…”

“I can help you.”

“Y-you c-can fix me?”

“Yes, however, I will require clearance by your command to unleash Power #12.”

“F-fine, release your twelfth power and help m-me,” Gently, Relv rests his left hoof below Fluttershy’s broken wing and in the middle on the massive scrape, causing Fluttershy t wince and give a small scream of pain.

“Unleashing Power #12: Regeneration!” A golden glow begins to emit from Relv’s left hoof as Fluttershy starts to feel tingly inside. Barely opening her right eye, she looks back to see her flesh visibly grow back. Her destroyed wing twitches and snaps before retuning back to its natural state. Feathers, fur, and skin soon grow back as well. A loud series of crackles are then heard from inside the pegasus with the last of her fur growing back across her torso. In only five minutes, Fluttershy is fully healed. Upon Relv then removing his hoof, the yellow mare carefully gets up and properly examines her side. Shock and awe overwhelm the pony as her jaw drops into a large gape.

“Relv, you did this?”

“Correct.”

“Impossible… Then how did you do this?”

“I combined my leaked telepathy, leaked telekinesis, and unleashed regeneration to influence a mass regrowth your cells and bonded them to their proper locations.”

“So I’m fully healed?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you…”

“No thanks required.”

“No really, I want you to know how much this means to me, both this and saving that colt. By the way, where is he?”

“Away with his mother to their home.”

“They didn’t stick around?”

“They did for you, but I had to shoo them away.”

“Why?”

“I couldn’t reveal my abilities to them.”

“What? What are you talking about? Your powers are amazing! You’re practically a real life superhero, saving countless lives and influencing many young ponies to be like you. Come on, we can find that mother and foal and tell them about you.”

“I suggest not.”

“But why?”

“If I were to reveal myself as a hero to them, they’d soon build dependence towards me instead of developing their own raw abilities.”

“Don’t you want the love and attention of thousands, maybe millions of ponies?”

“No. I would be risking their future from a threat they can’t handle themselves if they depended on me.”

“What type of threat? And if you become the hero, can’t you take care of it yourself?”

“I don’t know. It might be a great beast, a disaster, or even amongst your own. It may even be possibly me. I do what I must, and be the necessary evil to prepare the ponies of today and the future for whatever comes. I have already struck my limit, and when I inevitably die from a stronger foe, I want the future to be strong as well and be ready to face it.”

“What?”

“I chose to become the necessary evil to bring the greater good, to the greater number, in the greater time.”

“You mean, the murders, the stealing, everything in that giant book. That was all intentional by you to be this necessary evil?”

“To an extent,”

“But why? What about yourself? You could be loved, have many friends, live a great life. Don’t you want to be happy?”

“Yes, but that has been reduced to a mere instinct. I sacrifice my own happiness for the prosperity of millions of others.”

“But… But… I-I don’t want you to be sad being evil.”

“What you want is only a command away,”

“Well…” Fluttershy pauses and thinks to herself, contemplating whether to do it or not. Relv patiently stands next her for minutes as she thinks.

Soon however, the mare’s train of halt becomes interrupted by Spike calling out to her, “There you two are!”

“Spike,” Fluttershy replies, now noticing the baby dragon running towards them carrying his things, “aren’t supposed to be at the train station?”

“I was, but then I and many ponies around me heard this gigantic boom and felt this enormous shockwave that practically destroyed the train station windows. It was fairly close to where you guys were chasing those criminals, so I went there to check to see if you two were alright. As I got where that boom happened, the entire portion of the empire was practically in ruin! Windows were busted, loose items and ponies were flung everywhere, even the road looked like it had suffered an earthquake!”

“Oh no…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“So, I followed the destruction and I found you guys. Do either of you know what that was?”

Fluttershy frantically places her hoof over Relv’s mouth while she responds, “No-no-no, no clue at all what caused that, didn’t even notice.”

“Okay… But did you guys catch the thieves.”

“We, didn’t really,”

“What?”

“We were about to catch them,” Relv replies, pushing away Fluttershy’s hoof in the process, “but then she commanded me instead to rescue a colt falling from the balcony above.”

“You saved a foal, that’s awesome! So now that that’s taken care of, why don’t you continue the chase after those robbers?”

“I can’t. I lost their whereabouts shortly after Fluttershy redirected me.”

“You could use some detective skills or something like that,” Fluttershy responds, “can’t you Relv?”

“I can.”

“Good. Find the burglars, arrest them, and then head back to my place. I’m tired and I don’t think I’ll be much help to you.”

“Me too,” Spike adds, “Goodbye Relv. Good luck to you.”

“Celestia, what did Relv do after his powers were discovered?”

“After the war ended, he refused to unleash his powers again. I tried to reason with him, but he didn’t listen. We argued for days, debating on the usage of his powers and how they can help. There I found out he was a total utilitarian. My parents tried to force him to reveal our secret experiments, but he was even more silent to them. He slowly became a loner, leaving the guard whenever he wanted to do something.”

“What was that something usually?”

“Crime. He robbed, murdered, injured, kidnapped, and corrupted many ponies, unleashing his powers at many instances. It was only a matter of time before this negatively affected the image of the royal guard, the image of our family, and even the military moral. We could never catch him, even when he returned to duty on some days. It almost became a second life for him, with one life being a guard and the other being the most wanted criminal in all of Equestria. One night, I had enough of Relv’s terrorism and headed towards the lab to recover my experiments, in hopes to create the super substances for the guards to stop Relv. However, when I looked inside the laboratory, Relv was there, destroying all of our research. At that moment, my anger had reached its pinnacle, as I found myself fighting against him.”

“Who won?”

“It was a long fight that lasted till the morning, and Relv ended up winning and fled the castle to continue his crime spree. I was unconscious, bloodied, bruised, had several broken bones, and even a massive gash in my chest. You could still see the scar that I keep hidden beneath my chestplate.”

“Mind if I?”

“Sure…”

“Holy divinity! It’s huge!”

“You should’ve seen it when my parents and sister found me in the lab. They were utterly destroyed, thinking for a while that I was dead.”

“How long did take for you to heal?”

“Physically, seven months. Emotionally, it still hasn’t been healed. I was betrayed that night, I was betrayed by the pony I cared most for, the pony I considered my friend, the pony that stuck by me at all times protecting me...”

“Are you crying?”

“…”

“It’s okay, we’re all alone. Do what you must.”

“…Rex…”

“What?”

“The worst thing about our fight was that it wasn’t even the worst thing that Relv did to me and my family.”

“What did he do?”

“Unleashed Power #42…”

Essence of Kindness

Back at Fluttershy’s cottage, the yellow pegasus and her white rabbit friend are sitting on the couch, reading the massive book of criminal records. Fluttershy’s face appears to be turning green as her mind attempts to recreate the events described in the book.

“We’ve been reading this for half an hour now,” she nauseatingly moans, “and it’s been over an hour since I left Relv to look for the ponies who robbed the bank. Maybe he won’t be back for a while.” The sound of the front door creaking bursts into the mare’s ears, prompting her to look over and see Relv quietly walking in. “Relv, is it true that you destroyed the entire skeletal system on a pony in one punch?”

“Yes.” He says.

“Oh… that’s a bit, unnerving. At least those powers will be put to good use. Say, did you catch those robbers?”

“No, a unicorn has involved itself by removing all of their traces.”

“Oh. But they’ll be caught eventually right?”

“No. Without several of my powers unleashed, the detectives won’t be able to locate them. And even if they did, the money would’ve been passed on to either the regular market or an underground crime ring.”

“Well, on the bright side, we saved that foal from falling.”

“…”

“Relv?”

“…”

“Relv, is something wrong?”

“…Yes…”

“What? What is it? What’s bothering you?”

“…We should’ve taken care of the criminals instead of turning around and saving that colt.”

Fluttershy gasps in horror before barking back, “How dare you! We had to turn around or else he would’ve die. You were wrong when you said I had enough time to catch him before we turned around. You’d let that innocent pony die over money?”

“Yes. With most of the bank’s holdings gone, the bank could shut down. This will eventually be leaving many families with very little and several starving in the streets. Letting one foal die, especially one without the willpower to hold on, is better than letting many more suffer and die sooner for it.”

“He’s just a foal!”

“Think of all of the hundreds of foals that will starve due to your stupidity.”

“My stupidity? Just because I saved a life, that makes me stupid?”

“And destroying the lives of many more? Yes.”

“The only pony that’s destroying any lives is you! Look at this book. How many murders have you committed?”

“1,247.”

“Me on the other hoof, I haven’t killed even a fly. Who sounds like the better pony now?”

“Me.”

“Why? I want to hear this.”

“Because, most every murder I have performed, I have improved the lives of many more and even saved some.”

“Oh really? How about this one: The victim is Clover Field, leading royal high-grade weapons manager, the father of national hero Connor John. Justify that.”

“Clover was about to use his weapons arsenal to destroy Griffinstone out of prejudice, using his wealth to cover the entire event up. After I killed him, his son swore vengeance to me and he took his father’s position. He soon discovered his father’s plans. He shut them down, and donated a large sum of it to a vast number of charities.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes.”

“So, what you said back at the Crystal Empire was not just loaded statements to buy my trust, but actual changes you caused to help others?”

“Yes.”

“Well… I’m still not happy about your attitude. Be proud of yourself that that foal is safe and his family is very happy.”

“I’m proud of myself for saving the foal.”

“Wait, no! I didn’t mean it like-gah… I wanted him to understand what I wanted him to feel, not just have him simply repeat it. Relv, I’m sorry. I said it like a command instead of having you learning.”

“…”

“Please, don’t be like that. I really am sorry. Maybe we can try again with this kindness thing. Want some cookies?”

“No.”

“I promise you’ll like them. Just give me a second.” Fluttershy then darts into the kitchen and runs back, balancing a plate of chocolate chip cookies on her head. She slides the plate off and onto the table and returns to her seat on the couch. “Sit next to me.” Swiftly, the red stallion walks over and sits himself between her and Angel, much to the rabbit’s discomfort. “Eat some cookies with me please.” Promptly, Fluttershy and Relv reach over to the plate and grab a cookie each. Fluttershy takes a small bite from hers as she watches Relv swiftly shove the cookie in his mouth and swallowing it whole. At first a little surprised and grossed out, the mare soon gives a little giggle before talking, attempting to ease his usually tense tone, “Relv, you’re not supposed to swallow the cookie whole, you’re supposed to bite it. Follow my lead.” Relv grabs another cookie as he watches Fluttershy nibbles another bite out. He then follows her lead by copying the very tiny and rapid nibbles before cutting an exact hole shape as hers. Fluttershy laughs as she watches this very powerful stallion repeat her very meek and cute demonstration. “Yeah, something like that. Do you like it?”

“Yes.”

“Very good. By the way, during the dance at the Crystal Empire, I thought I saw you smile.” Although Relv doesn’t respond to the mare while he’s taking another nibble from his cookie, Fluttershy notices that his ears twitched and his pupils shrunk a little. “Do you like to dance?”

“Yes.”

“Did you dance often back then during your times as a guard?”

“Yes, I was often invited by Tia to join her and not just stand as her bodyguard.”

“Why do you call Celestia that anyways?”

“It was her name before acquiring the title of ruler of Equestria.”

“I see. Was that dance you taught me similar to how you and her danced back then?”

“Yes.”

“You’re really good at it. So wait, there’s one thing I haven’t figured out, how did you go from her personal bodyguard to this criminal status?”

“Upon receiving my powers, I used them to better Equestria. Her parents and Tia didn’t approve of my actions.”

“Oh, the, criminal records came and all of that…”

“Prison... Yes…”

“I’ve very sorry for your loss. I wonder what you were like before you became this.”

“Even I have forgotten most of my past life. I did so intentionally for knowledge, power, and what is truly important.”

“Memories are important. They teach you valuable lessons, remind you of special ponies and why they are so special. You still have those memories.”

“…”

“You remembered the time you and Celestia danced, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Will you remember the time when we danced?”

“Most likely,”

“Good. I like that, not just for your reformation, but also as a friend.”

“A… friend?”

“Yeah, I consider you a friend. You may have, and are still doing, some bad things, but that’s okay. I want you to be a better pony, I want you to be happy with friends. Haven’t you ever had a friend?”

“Yes, only one though, before my change anyways,”

“Who was it?”

“Tia. You know, you are a lot like her.”

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“Did you… have any special feelings towards her? Like, I mean, did you… Like-like her?”

“No, I knew my position as a bodyguard.”

“Oh… Not even while dancing with her at the parties?”

“There may have been a subconscious thought or two, but I wouldn’t really know.”

“Did it hurt when you and the princess parted ways?”

“No, except for, one moment,”

“What was that?”

“The moment I unleashed Power #42-” Before Relv can finish, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike, burst through the open door and circle Fluttershy and Relv.

“What’s going on?!”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight declares, “we heard what happened in the Crystal Empire.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, and we know that Relv was what caused a quarter of the city to be destroyed.”

“Most of us did anyways…” Spike thinks to himself.

“We’re here to make sure that Relv doesn’t get into your head.”

“We’ve seen the damage he can cause.” Applejack states.

Rainbow Dash replies, “Nothing safe should be going any faster than me, especially if it’s coming from an Earth pony.”

“And he’s ghastly abilities and ruthlessness,” Rarity adds, “We wouldn’t want a thug to hurt you dear.”

“Hehehe,” Pinkie giggles, “Look at the funny way he’s eating that cookie.”

“Is he in check?” Twilight then asks.

“Don’t worry,” Fluttershy calmly answers, “We’re taking things one step at a time.”

“Spike told me you ‘restrained’ his powers just before he began to tear up the city,”

“I did, but when the foal was in danger, I told his to simply unleash one single power to save him.”

“Did you tell him or did he suggest it to you?”

“He, well, I asked him how we could go faster.”

“That’s probably how he works, he waits for you to ask him for help, he suggests something that’ll make him one step closer to breaking the mind control, and you buy into it.”

“That’s not true. Right Relv?”

“…” Relv doesn’t respond at first.

“Relv? Right?”

“…No. Slowly, my true self is breaking out of this spell, but will never be free. My true self wants to be let loose. I want to be let loose.”

“No, no, no, don’t give our friends the wrong idea. Remember, the dancing, this cookies, all of that. You still enjoy that right?”

“Ye-”

“Don’t deny it,” Twilight interrupts, “he said it himself. If we don’t do something about this now, he’s going to trick you into letting him go, and he’ll cause havoc to all of Equestria.”

“What if it’s for good reason?!” Immediately, Fluttershy shoves her front hooves into her mouth as she bashfully slides down to the floor, realizing what she just said out loud. “Uh oh…”

“You didn’t just say what I think you just said…”

“I-I-I-”

“Fluttershy,”

“Yes…”

“Are you considering that Relv’s criminal deeds are actually good? If you are, we’ll have no other choice than to take forceful action.”

“…”

“Flutter, be honest. Relv could be using his mind tricks on you. We can help save you from making a terrible mistake.”

“…No, what he did was wrong.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. You can all go now, Relv and I were about to make a breakthrough.”

“Okay… Girls,” Slowly and hesitantly, the five mares and Spike walk out of the cottage, each giving an aside glance at the duo upon leaving.

“I can’t believe it… I lied right to their faces… Relv, I don’t feel so good. Relv, are you-” Fluttershy immediately turns silent as she looks back to the red stallion. His face has become soft, his grey pupils have grown quite larger, his mouth is subtly quivering, and the bottoms of his eyelids are becoming moist. “…Okay?”

“The moment I unleashed Power #42…” The stallion speaks.

“Relv, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Relv replies in his stoic tone, though heavy breathing managed to escape with those words.

“Relv, can I ask you what happened?”

“…Yes…”

“You may not like to talk about it. I can see it. But maybe I can help you resolve this problem you might be having. What happened?”

“After my latest fight with Tia…”

“…My parents sent our entire military on the hunt for Relv. They didn’t want to take any more risks of Luna, me, or anypony else getting hurt. It took a week’s time, but eventually, we found him.”

“Where did you find him?”

“Well, we didn’t actually find him. He came to us in the castle. The guards heard the news and promptly surrounded the room my family and Relv were in, the dining room to be exact.”

“What did he want?”

“He said he simply wanted to talk with my parents. At first, they agreed and they started to debate over Relv’s freedom from law enforcement and his new activities. It didn’t take long for it to escalate into arguing, even causing my dad to shout at him. Then, all of a sudden, one of the guards snapped at hearing Relv continuously denouncing my father and he broke into the room, soon followed by every other guard from every other doorway into the dining room. My father made my mother, Luna, and I stand back in the corner as he as well joined the assault to take down Relv.”

“How many guards were there?”

“At least two hundred, all armed with spears, swords, pikes, crossbows, shields, everything.”

“Did Relv fend them off?”

“Yes. He unleashed several of his powers, wiping out entire waves with single swings of his hooves. Even when he was hit with an arrow or got cut with a blade, he acted like nothing happened and kept on fighting. My mother held Luna and me closer and closer as more and more guards were flung from the brawl. Finally, after several minutes of fighting, it came down to my father and Relv. Most of the guards were too injured to keep on fighting, some even unconscious. Luckily however, my father had a secret trap set for him. A large barbed metal electrical net was hung in each of the castle’s chambers in preparation for Relv’s return. A guard sprung the trap in the dining room, launching the net onto Relv in the middle of the room with the rest of us safe from it. Relv screamed in pain as electricity sparked all around him and the sharp barbs pierced his skin. He couldn’t move and wasn’t even able to think straight with the net entangling him. Now I know that was a terrible idea.”

“Did Relv unleash the forty second power?

“Yes, when Relv finally had enough of it, he yelled out the verbal command. Immediately, his fur and flesh turned black, his eyes completely turned red and glowed. Quickly, my parents threw me and Luna into the adjacent kitchen and barred it shut with their magic. They then looked at us through the door windows as the entire dining room began to darken with an unknown mass growing in the center of it. I watched in terror as my parents disappeared behind the pitch black. I-it was the last time I ever saw them.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You can cry.”

“Th-the next thing I knew after Mom and Dad disappeared, the entire castle shook viciously. Luna and I avoided flying kitchenware and parts of the ceiling collapsed. I then heard a monstrous roar from the dining room, one so loud and beastly, I lost my hearing for several minutes. I sometimes even have nightmares to this day where I hear that roar. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of chaos, the shaking stopped.  Relv’s final power appeared to have been wearing out. When Luna and I looked up at the door windows, all we saw was a wall of red, as if somepony had painted all over it. I told Luna to stay back while I investigated,”

“What did you see?”

“When I opened the door, I was immediately met with a small pool of blood pouring around my hooves and into the kitchen. I was disgusted upon it’s warm sickly touch, but that only flared my idiotic and fearful curiosity. Horrified, I looked around in the dining room, only to see every wall of the room was as red as blood. The ceiling was cracked above and the floor was bent downwards and was filled with the crimson paint. I couldn’t see any of the guards that were still in the room, the net appeared to have vanished, and my parents were nowhere to be seen.”

“What did Relv even do?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know what that power was. But that monster murdered my parents! They never did anything wrong, they loved Luna and me, they were the greatest rulers of Equestria, and he took them away from me! I have been scarred for life as well as Luna from even hearing about what happened, all because of Relv! I-I-I will never be able to forget what I saw that day, and I’ll never be able to forgive him…”

“Celestia, I-I’m so sorry for you, and Princess Luna.”

“…”

“She’s on the floor swimming in her own tears. What can I do?!”

“…”

“Celestia? Is there any way I can help you?”

“D-do, you hear the roaring right now?!”

“No, no, just calm down. This is making me so nervous!”

“My parents will never come back! How am I supposed to calm down?! I practically set their demise, I am the creator of that monster!”

“Remember Cloud Thunder? That one guard that helped you defeat that monster several years ago and, well, didn’t make it back?”

“…”

“It wasn’t you’re fault that he died. He loved you and gave is life trying to protect you, he saw you as a great leader. The same is for the case of your parents. You never intended for Relv to turn sociopathic like that. So don’t beat yourself up for Relv’s actions.”

“You do have a point…”

“Exactly, just breathe in and out.”

“…”

“So wait, what happened to Relv?”

“I don’t know exactly… When I entered the dining hall, and realized that my parents were, no more, I saw Relv standing in the middle of the room. Shoulders deep in blood, I was shocked to see he was… crying…”

A Weapon’s Story

Back at Fluttershy’s cottage, Relv is now stiffly laying his body down on the couch with a shuttering Fluttershy sitting by his head, having just told the story of when he unleashed his forty second power.

“You-u-u killed Princess Celestia’s mom and dad?” She whimpers in terror.

“Yes, but I didn’t mean to,” Relv stutters, “I didn’t mean to shed the blood of the innocent, and especially to those worthy to live like Tia’s mother and father. That blasted net, and my inexperience with my stronger powers, I look back at that day and shame myself. To still day, I still don’t know what my forty second power truly does, and I’m never going to find out. I promised to myself I’d never unleash it again.” The yellow mare then notices a single clear tear rolling down Relv’s cheeks, she knows now that he is completely serious.

“What happened after that?”

“I cried. Knowing what I just did, the true crime I have committed out of idiocy and anger, I cried. Tia soon came from out of the kitchen and saw me. I could tell just by the look of her eyes, she was terrified, furious, miserable, and many more depressing emotions. Slowly, she walked up to me, and soon also began to cry. We cried together for minutes on end, Luna meanwhile left the kitchen through another doorway to get help. It was only a matter of time before whatever was left of the barracks to show up and take me away.”

“For his crimes, Relv was going to be sentenced to death.”

“Did he escape?”

“No, I saw that he was genuinely sorry for what he did.”

“However, instead of being executed, Tia decided to let me live.”

“Why?”

“I don’t truly know. I was sentenced by her to eternal imprisonment to a pocket dimension designed to be a prison.”

“I ordered him to be imprisoned at the Interdimensional Containment Unit for Treacherous Enemies. A special prison designed by Star Swirl the Bearded to restrain any and all dangerous ponies. There, I could safely check on Relv to see if he’s okay without him causing any trouble. I didn’t want any harm to come to him back then, I still had feelings for him that I couldn’t perish from my mind.”

“However, I would’ve rather taken the death option if I was a lesser pony.”

“Why?”

“The prison, it taunts you.”

“At first, I came to the prison on a weekly basis to check on him and maybe talk with him. Sometimes, during those first months, I’d bring somethings to make his cell area more comfortable. I included a library, some pillows, and other small luxuries.”

“Weren’t you mad that he killed your parents?”

“I was, but for some reason I felt pity for him still.”

“She’d come every week for four months and bring me small luxuries from the outside world. Everytime she came, it reminded me that there still is an exit, a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope, hope was what made the prison so much more tortuous than death. I rotted there over the centuries and looked to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. It seemed so easy and simple for Tia to walk in and out. And like shipwrecked ponies turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many would have died trying to leave. I learned there that there can be no true despair without hope. And with that hope, I tried, I tried, I tried, and I tried, to break out of that prison. Each time, I drew a little closer to freedom, feeding me more of that self-destroying hope.”

“He’d attempt to break free day after day. Each time however, he’d end up being tossed back to his chamber more bruised and beat up than before. He’d always be caught in a trap or surrounded by guards that watched over the prison.”

“Were you ever involved in some of his escapes?”

“I was taken hostage on several occasions, but in the end, Relv always was recaptured and sent back. I started visiting him less and less as the stakes grew higher and he grew more desperate. And each time I visited since then, Relv changed more and more. A long silver strand of hairs grew from his mane, his body became much more muscular, and he eventually adopted a harness and swords that were impossible for us to remove from him.”

“Even when Tia stopped visiting me that often, hope still clung to me. I used the library she gave me and occasionally updated to memorize everything about biology, geology, psychology, geometry, chemistry, history, and philosophy. Using my powers and raw strength, I used parts of the prison walls I’d punch out to craft my swords. I trained while making hundreds of thousands of escape attempts over hundreds of years, perfecting my technique, my knowledge, my strength, and my powers. I never did let go of that hope for a second. Eventually, instead of letting it destroyed me, I destroyed it, and turned its shattered remains into the fact that I would escape.”

“I should have seen the signs that he was going to escape sooner or later. He drew closer and closer to the exit everytime he tried to escape. But while I was dealing with the loss of my sister and my new duties to the kingdom, I couldn’t attend to the matter.”

“When was the last time you visited him before he escaped?”

“When was the last time Celestia visited you before you escaped?”

“Two years ago, I was five sixths away from escaping before being caught again. Then, she came to visit me outside the door to my cell. She told me that Luna has returned from being Nightmare Moon to her normal self. Tia was quite joyous.”

“Was that all?”

“No, she then proceeded to read me a book, a fictional one.”

“Why?”

“You read him a storybook? Why?”

“I was in a good mood after having my sister return, so I decided to see Relv. After his last failed attempt of escaping, as I looked into his chamber, I saw him throwing a temper tantrum of all things. I felt sorry for him then, so I decided to read to him the book I brought along, in hopes of calming him down. It is called ‘Treasure Kingdom’. Almost immediately, he stopped his fit and was sucked into my narration of the story. And, for a moment at least, I thought I saw a twinkle in his eyes, the twinkle that was present in the old Relv I knew as a friend.”

“She read me the story, from front to back. She seemed unusually passionate about it, despite the incredibly high risk of me taking her hostage once more. I could’ve even done it on the spot in the blink of an eye.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“He was almost mesmerized by the book as I read.”

“Couldn’t he just break open whatever was separating you and him since he had become so strong and took you hostage, or worse?”

“He could, but he didn’t. He may be putting up this tough stallion act and maybe even adapted himself into it, but inside, there was still that little stallion that was my friend. Now though? I’m not sure if he’s still in there.”

“Finally, after countless numbers of attempts, eliminating the tortures of hope, and perfecting every aspect of me. I was finally ready to escape. With the prison fully repaired and a full staff of guards set, this would be the ultimate test to see if I am ready for the world.”

“Did you make it in one piece?”

“No, I lost all four of my legs and was decapitated twice, but I still escaped and was able to promptly repair myself.”

“I heard the news that Relv escaped the entrance to the pocket dimension prison in a matter of moments and immediately sent the guards after him.”

“I found myself in an underground cavern system beneath Canterlot and had to dig my way out.”

“I knew he was searching for me.”

“I wanted to talk to her and make my presence known.”

“How were you caught again after your actual escape?”

“I was slightly disorientated after initially surfacing, due to the new layout of Canterlot and my body still recovering from my escape. The guards were coming so I had to hide. Then she came and casted her spell onto me.”

“We searched high and low until we eventually found him hiding in an alleyway.”

“How did you even detain him, let alone place a mind control spell on him?”

“After facing off a few guards, I snuck up to him and engaged him in small banter. While he was still weak and distracted, I quickly placed the spell onto him before he could properly react.”

“And now here I am.”

“And now here he is.”

“Trapped,”

“Controlled,”

“A freelancer that wants to help,”

“A betrayer that has turned into a monster,”

“The necessary evil,”

“The purest of corruption,”

“The Black Paladin,”

“The Weaponized Demon,”

“I don’t know why she kept me alive.”

“I was an idiot for keeping him alive.”

“I wanted to save everypony.”

“He wants to destroy everypony.”

“Only now I have been restrained to your command.”

“He will break from his mind control sooner or later. And when that happens, I’ll be ready for him.”

“That’s everything that has happened that has leaded me up to this point.”

“Relv…”

“What?”

“Your voice, have you been able to talk freely for a while?”

“Yes. Tia’s spell has grown weak after all of that that has happened. However, it still hangs on to your will.”

“Do you want me to set you free?”

“Yes.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I have no power to force you otherwise. You could shut me up forever at this very moment, and turn me into that thoughtless machine that you first encountered.”

“Rex, thank you for coming to help me. You’ve given me insight on what I should’ve done long ago. Please, go back to Manehattan. I don’t want you to get hurt when this goes down.”

“Celestia, wait. What is killing Relv going to solve?”

“It will remove one of the most dangerous threats from Equestria and I’ll finally avenge my parents.”

“You said it yourself, he was sorry-”

“He was sorry. Now? He’s probably proud of it, as well as all of his other crimes. Now go.”

“But what about-”

“I said go! I don’t want you to die because of my problems.”

“Alright, I’ll go back to my duties in Manehattan. Just think about what you’re doing. Who’s life you are going to end? Will you be able to kill him? What’s going to happen to not just you, but to everypony else when this goes down? And what would your parents, as well as others close to you, think of you? Me? I suggest that you give Relv a chance and actually talk with him again.”

“…”

“Goodbye Princess Celestia. Good luck…”

“…”

Set Free

Now, Relv is sitting up straight on the couch and has returned to his stiff, emotionless expression facing towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy slowly bites her lip staring back at Relv, now having a choice to make.

“What do I do?” She mumbles, “He’s dangerous, but he has good reason to be. No pony would like him free, but he wants that hate in order to help them. He could never experience happiness set loose ever again, or he could be happy with me. Would he be happy, being trapped? Everything’s telling me not to listen to him, yet at the same time everything’s telling me to listen to Relv… Relv, what can I do?”

He calmly responds, “You can either command to set myself free, or not and have me as your loyal servant.”

“Would you be happy if you were with me?”

“Possibly, but I wouldn’t be able to make many others prosper and live in the future.”

“Do you, consider me your friend?”

“I’m… not sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“I see you as my master, therefore, I cannot truly distinguish you as a friend or not.”

“I mean, if you had that spell never casted upon you, yet we experienced the same events together, would I be your friend?”

“No. I think…”

“What?”

“This mind control, I just can’t think straight.”

“Are you sure it’s the mind control that’s doing this?”

“Certainly…”

“What if he would’ve wanted to be my friend, but couldn’t due to that whole ‘dependence’ thing he’s against.”

“…It must be the mind control.”

“Relv,”

“Yes?”

“If I were to set you free now, what would you do?”

“I would continue on my quest and follow my code.”

“What would you do first specifically?”

“I’d most likely locate those bank robbers from the Crystal Empire and return the money.”

“Most likely?”

“This mind control, as weak as it is against me, limits my emotions and self-awareness. I’m not certain what exactly how I’ll feel and how I’ll understand the true gravity of the events I have experienced under your command.”

“What about Celestia? What will you do with her once you’re free?”

“Most likely outcome, I’d attempt diplomatic discussion with her once more. If Tia refuses my efforts, I will simply continue on my ways.”

“What if you become angry at her and lash out? I mean, I don’t want her, or any of my friends to get hurt.”

“I should have my code withhold any emotions that may come.”

“I guess that’s good. So, should I let you free? Should I let you commit crimes across Equestria and do whatever you feel is for the greater good?”

“Yes.”

“…” Fluttershy exits her seat and begins to nervously pace around the large book, taking small glances at the thing and imagining the contents inside. “All of that and more will happen if I set him free. But from most of those crimes, more ponies will be happy and ready for the future. What will Celestia and the others think of me? A traitor, of course, there’s no arguing that. They may never want to see me again! I could go to prison, maybe even that dimension prison Relv was sealed in, and have that hope thing destroy me! What will happen to my animal friends? Angel, Harry, Barry, Mr. Beaver, who will take care of them? Maybe setting Relv free was a terrible idea from the start?”

“…”

“However, think of all of the ponies that Relv can help once set free… The griffons from Griffinstone, Rarity, the shop owner, the ponies of the Crystal Empire that rely on the bank, they all were helped by Relv even though his actions were considered evil. And now, in this day and age, and with Relv now fully trained and prepared, who knows how many he can help. He may be evil, but he is a necessary evil, a good kind of evil. If giving up my own life as I know it means helping thousands of ponies and setting my friend free, then I’ll take it.”

“…” Powerfully, the pegasus stops in front of Relv turns towards his face, giving a very serious look to his just as seriously face.

“Relv, I command that you free yourself from Celestia’s spell. Be free, be the pony that you want to be, helping others by being the evil required!”

“…”

“Relv-”

“Unleashing Power #31: Anti-Magic!” A small glow appears from Relv’s back left leg as the stallion begins to twitch. His eyes snap shut and he soon begins to scream in pain as his mind becomes bombarded. His memories shatter into new ones, his train of thought derails and places itself onto another track, his senses restart with a powerful jolt. Fluttershy fearfully backs away as the red Earth pony continues to scream and twitch for a minute. Finally, he stops moving and slumps onto the couch, breathing deeply with his eyes still closed.

“Relv, are you okay?”

“…”

“Relv?!”

“…Tia…”

“Relv? Are you alright? Now I need to get help?” Slowly, the red stallion opens his eyes and gets off of the couch, facing away from Fluttershy and towards the door.

“I’m fine. Thank you for freeing me.”

“Y-you’re welcome. So you’re going to get those robbers now?”

“No.”

“What?”

“Right now, there’s nothing I want to do more than make her pay.”

“Princess Celestia?! No!”

“She tore away everything I held dear to me. I was being orchestrated by an idiot, and then by a slightly smarter idiot. I now see everything that has happened to me, every wasted second of my precious life. I became a slave, no, worse, a slave with no mind. I was good as dead before you set me free. For what Tia did, for nearly destroying me, I’m going to make her pay.”

“You don’t mean-”

“I’m going to kill her, and I’m going to enjoy it. My code can wait. I’m now angry, angrier than anything imaginable, and I am not one to get easily angered. If there any last shred of happiness I’ll have, it’ll be watching her blood paint every brick of the castle!”

“Relv, don’t!”

“I’m no longer your slave, stay away from me if you want to live.”

“Relv!”

“Unleashing Power #2: Speed!” In a matter of moments, the glow that shown from the last time he unleashed his second power returns. In the blink of an eye, Relv vanishes from Fluttershy’s sight, leaving behind her windows shattered and the front door torn from its hinges.

“Relv! Oh no!”

Meanwhile, outside of Town Hall, Twilight and the others that visited Fluttershy’s cottage are peacefully walking together.

“Are you sure Fluttershy’s not going to side with Relv?” Rainbow Dash asks the group, “She did seem kind off, iffy.”

“She may have been a little off,” Applejack retorts, “but she is an honest pony.”

Spike immediately disagrees, “She did lie to me about Relv unleashing his powers.”

“Well, except that one time.”

“What if Relv was using his mind tricks on her?” Rarity exclaims, “He could be using her to keep us from finding out his evil schemes.”

“Maybe we should go back and check on her,” Twilight declares, “just to be safe.”

“We don’t need to.” Pinkie replies in her usually chipper tone.

“Why?”

“Looks like Relv’s coming to us fast, with Fluttershy following way behind.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t look really happy, maybe angry.” The other five quickly turn around to where the pink pony is looking in the distance and see Relv charging at them at rapid speeds, tearing up the ground behind him.

“That looks like what Relv did at the Crystal Empire.” Spike proclaims.

“Maybe they’re just exercising.”

“Relv!” Fluttershy screams from far away from the six friends, “Stop! Don’t hurt Celestia!”

“Or not…”

“He’s broken loose!” Twilight exclaims, “Quickly, group together, he’s coming right at us!” As the friends follow the purple alicorn’s orders and group together, Twilight’s horn glows purple as she sets a wide magic shield in front of them. “Ha! This thing’s a kilometre wide, he’ll never get pass it.”

Relv sees the massive shield as he enters the town of Ponyville and without hesitation, he yells out, “Unleashing Power #38: Atomic Altercation!” A small light glows from his back left shoulder along with his Speed light as he comes within a couple of metres of the shield and the oncoming ponies and dragon. Instead of colliding with the shield, Relv’s body instead phases through it, much to Twilight and the others’ shock. Still maintaining his outrageous speed, Relv then phases through the huddle of ponies and continues his charge towards Canterlot. The six freeze in shock for a moment to contemplate what just happened.

“What… was… that?” Twilight stiffly states. Her horn soon stops glowing and the shield immediately disappears.

“Relv!” Fluttershy screams once more, soon reaching her friends in her pursuit of the red pony. Upon hearing her voice, the six snap out of their shock and turn their attention to her.

“What did you do?!” Twilight angrily barks.

“I-I-I… I had him remove the spell…”

“You did what?! Do you not realize what you just did?”

“All he wanted to do is help and I can see that his reasoning is solid! I didn’t think he’d be that angry at Celestia and-”

“Wait, what is he going to do to Celestia?”

“He’s going to kill her if I don’t stop him!”

“How do you plan on doing that? He just phased his entire body through a magic shield and us!”

“I-I don’t know. I think if I can get him to listen to me, I can set things straight and-”

“You’ve just did the opposite of that, you’ve let him loose! Girls, Spike, we’re going to Canterlot and stopping Relv before he hurts the princess.” Quickly, Twilight and the others join in a huddle as her horn glows once more.

“Let me join! I can stop him!”

“You’ve already caused enough damage! When we get back, we’re going to have a very serious discussion with you.”

“But-” Before Fluttershy can finish her response, a bright purple flash temporarily blinds the pegasus. Upon regaining her vision, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike have all disappeared. “…I didn’t mean for him to hurt her…”

“That’s it demon. The guards have told me that they’ve seen you blazing across Ponyville and coming here as I speak. I’m ready for you, you monster. I’m ready to avenge my parents, to save Equestria, and to end the suffering I’ve had of being betrayed by you. I knew that you were going to break free real soon. It’s been less than a day practically. That’s the type of demon you are, a fast one, a violent one, a manipulative one, the worst type of demon there is. I'm now glad you set yourself free, I now more than ever so want you to be here. It doesn't matter if you use all of your powers against me or attempt to talk me to your side, I’ll win this fight! I've proven my point that I'm right…

…Actually, now that I think about it, you’re no different from anypony else, all it takes is one special day to turn the most normal of ponies alive into something of the likes of you. That's how far the world is from where I am as well, just one special day. I believe I know that special day, am I right? I know I am. Why else would you become this demon? You had that one day that drove you to use your powers to force your beliefs. Only you won't admit it, you have to believe there's some point to all this harm you’re causing. I mean what is it with you? What made you what you are? It was the day, you stopped the satyr army. All those lives you saved, it gave you that rush to use them on us, to turn time itself into an enemy. Something like that... something like that... happened to me. You know, I told you…

…The day I defeated Discord with my sister, several years after you were imprisoned, was my special day. The rush of saving all of my ponies, I couldn’t help but to bathe in the attention and shoved my sister aside. I believed at that point that me being the prime focus of attention is what the citizens required. With her already destroyed sanity after you turned evil and the death of her parents, I accidently prompted her into becoming Nightmare Moon. My point is I went crazy when that special day happened to me. I admit it! Why can't you? I mean you’re not unintelligent, you must see the reality of this situation. You still think that this stealing, this killing, this evil, the use of your abilities, is required by you for my ponies to enforce this twisted version of utilitarianism that you have concocted? Why don’t you see it…

…But, what if I’m seeing this wrong. What if… what if you did have that special day, but you didn’t turn corrupt? What if instead it gave you inspiration to use your powers for this greater good you believe in? You were right when you said that debating doesn’t go anywhere. We still are arguing over these many, many years. Why can’t we stop arguing and fighting for once, and make up? You still believed back then when I loved you as you still do now. As do I…

…I want to talk with you now. I want to listen, I want to understand, not argue like we have before. Please come back with a merciful heart, I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you. Relv…”

Relv Unleashed

Just outside of the castle of Canterlot, hundreds of guards are lined side by side on top of the walls, in the courtyards, and inside every watchtower, all armed to the teeth to take on the incoming threat. As a small red blur known as Relv can be seen on the other side of Canterlot by the first watchtower, a loud horn blasts from the tower, soon followed by other towers sounding their horns. With the echoes of the large horns reaching the castle every sentry primes their spears, pikes, swords, shields, horns, knives, wings, and crossbows. Relv slows down and stops upon reaching the moat and the raised drawbridge into the castle. He then takes moment to examine each of the guards above and the ones approaching him from behind.

One of them on top of a wall yells, “Relv! You are under arrest! Surrender now or we will resort to using deadly force authorized by the princess!”

“…”

“Did you not hear me? Put your hooves behind your head, now!” The Earth pony follows the guard’s command and slowly places his front hooves behind his head, letting his chest drop to the stone street.

“Pathetic this all is,” he finally speaks, “she knew that I have escaped Fluttershy’s control, that I’ve escaped the guard over a thousand years ago, and have escaped from a prison worse than Tartarus, and yet, she still puts you all to die? Listen, all of you, I am not in a good mood. I am very well angry at your princess for bringing me down to such a low level. I will not hesitate to kill any one of you that get in my way. Lower the bridge if you value your life.”

“No! Seize him!” The front five guards of the ground team lung towards the downed stallion. Relv’s swords quickly levitate from their sheaves and charge at the guards. The thick blades slash at their throats, causing the five sentinels to drop dead onto the road. The rest of the guards on the ground fearfully step back as a pool of fresh blood spreads from in front of them.

Relv then roars in pure rage, “I warned you all!”

“Fire one!” Upon the guard’s command, thousands of arrows, spears, and bolts of magic are launched at Relv. Using his hovering swords, Relv deflects the projectiles coming from all sides in a rapid succession, jumping around to avoid any stray arrows. In a matter of moments, the initial bombardment ends, with Relv not breaking a single sweat. Thousands of broken arrows, bent spears, and burn marks litter the ground around the stallion. “Fire two!” As another volley of magic, spears, arrows fly towards Relv, the stallion lowers two swords flat in front of him. He quickly jumps onto it while his three remaining blades deflect the oncoming projectiles. He then hovers himself up towards the top of the wall. Several arrows and bullets of magic hit him in the process, but he eventually makes it. Leaping off of his sword platform and onto the stone wall with several guards on it, Relv is immediately bombarded by melee weapons and more projectiles. He promptly engages them, fighting multiple guards at once and punching each one out with his swords swooping around him and fighting the others. One Earth pony guard comes at him with a shield. Relv punches the shield. It quickly back off and smacks the wielder in the head, instantly knocking him out. A pegasus charges at Relv with blades attached to his wings. The pegasus flies over him and stabs him in the back with one of the wings. Relv doesn’t react however, and instead slams the guard into the ground, knocking him out. Relv then swings his body and flings the guard into another guard armed with a pike, launching the two off the wall. A unicorn guard comes up from behind and uses his magic to grab Relv by the neck. He levitates the fighter a metre in the air and proceeds to choke him.

“Unleashing Power #30: Magic Altercation!” An upper part of Relv’s back right leg glows as the hazel aura around Relv’s neck disappears. It reappears on the unicorn’s neck as he is lifted up, chocking on his own magic. The spell quickly disappears as the guard drops back down. Relv then bucks the guard with his hind legs and launches him into ten more behind him, sending them all falling from their stance. Relv looks ahead to see many guards sneaking by his three swords there and charging at him, then behind to see more passing around the other two swords and over the fallen guards.

“We got him now!”

“Unleashing Power #22: Electromagnetism!” A part of his lower right leg quickly begins to glow as the guards draw closer. Soon, hundreds of spears, swords, pikes, and shields fly from their wielders’ grip and towards Relv as they are now controlled by him. Quickly, they form thick metal cocoon as Relv encases himself inside it. The guards stop in shock and awe, now having to figure out how to get inside it.

The leader of the guards, and the one who was shouting at the stallion before, makes his way to the front of the masses with a sword still in his telepathic grip. “What the…”

“Unleashing Power #29: Hyper Strength!” Inside the metal shield, the center of Relv’s back right hip glows as he punches both of his front hooves onto the stone wall below.  Upon his hooves smashing into the stone, the entire town of Canterlot begins to shake violently. The thick wall tumbles, crumbles, and transforms into dust within seconds. The steel cocoon falls down with the wall, followed by the hundreds of guards screaming as they all plummet down to the ground ten metres below. In only a minute, the entire outside wall completely turns to dust, with only a few hundred bricks remaining in its wake.

The earthquake soon comes to a stop, as Relv crawls out of his now destroyed shield. He looks around to see hundreds of unconscious and dead armoured and bloodied bodies sticking out of the enormous dust pile. Moans of pain can be heard by the few surviving ponies amongst the carnage. Screams of terror can be heard echoing from the town of Canterlot. As Relv examines the destruction he has brought, still in his fury. “Look at this Tia,” he mutters, “this is what you brought.” As Relv continues to think out loud, the leader, still alive and clinging to his sword, digs out from the dust and sneaks up behind his target. Relv’s ears twitch as the sifting of the broken rock enters his hearing. He quickly turns around, only to be immediately stabbed through the chest and out the back with the guard’s sword.

“Ha!” Relv gives a gasp of pain and wobbles as his pours from his wounds and drips from the hilt. However, he quickly regains focus strength and gives the guard a powerful head-butt, killing him.

Hastily, Relv grabs the blood-soaked hilt of the guard’s long sword with his hooves and yanks it out before shouting, “Unleashing Power #21: Hyper Regeneration!” Immediately, his stab wounds begin to heal, as well as his other injuries received before. His swords gently hover down as he’s healing and pry out the arrows still embedded in his body as Relv looks up to the castle. “You create your mental barriers, I destroy them. You build your walls, I destroy them. You send your minions, I destroy them. All you can now have is yourself, and I will destroy you. You will pay!”

Inside the throne room, Celestia and four guards are gathered together. Two of the stallions are crying profusely over the loss of their comrades while a third one is talking to her, “He’s destroyed the wall and disabled all resistances setup. We have no idea of the casualty rate. The city is going in panic over the earthquake, and he’ll be here to get you any second now. What will we do?!”

“I don’t know!” The princess nervously exclaims, “I know he wants me dead. I’m sure of it by the extreme lengths he’s going. I’m not sure if I can pacify him. So our only option is to either disable him or kill him.”

“How?! He tore down the entire castle wall with hundreds of highly trained armed guards on it!”

“I-”

Before Celestia can finish her sentence, a stallion’s voice can be heard shouting behind the dual doors on the other side of the room, “Unleashing Power #1: Strength!” Suddenly, the massive doors fly from their hinges and crash onto the floor midway across the chamber, unleashing a massive cloud of dust to blanket the room. It quickly fades however, as the white alicorn and her four bodyguards look to see Relv at the doorway, fully healed and his long swords circling above him in a pinwheel motion.

“Relv!”

“Tia!”

“We got you!” The fourth guard shouts. Quickly, the four sentries pick up their spears and charge at the Earth pony.

“Don’t!” One of the guards reaches Relv first and attempts to jab him with his spear. Relv slides around and punches the guard in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. He then grabs the spear and stabs the sentry in the neck as he’s turning to face upward. Two more guards approach side by side and forward their weapons at him. Two of Relv’s swords fly forward and knock their spears aside. Two more blades exit their idle animation and bash the sides of their heads and bonk them together. Now with them temporarily disoriented, the final sword flies forward and slit their throats, causing them to instantly drop to the floor on top of the first fallen guard. Finally, the fourth guard reaches Relv and chucks his spear at him. Relv dodges it and punches the guard below the chin. He whips his long silver mane around his throat and tightens it around, causing the guard to choke. Relv then backs up as one of his swords sets it hilt below to stretched silver strand. The sword immediately flies upwards, whipping the guard’s tied throat upwards and killing him on the spot. Relv then flips his mane towards the side, freeing the corpse from its hold and launching it through a stain glass window, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Slowly, Relv returns his attention to Princess Celestia, only to see her standing in front of the throne in shock of how quick and brutal his attacks were. “Y-y-you… You murdered them all!”

“Yes, and now there’s only you.” The red stallion then begins to slowly walk to her, returning his blades into their pinwheel motion beforehoof.

“W-what happened to your code? Th-they were all innocent, e-even the guards on the castle wall!”

“I’m angry Tia… My code would’ve never even lived on if I wasn’t set free. You nearly caused the suffering of millions in the future. You’ve brought me down to the lowest of the low. I always thought you were a better pony, one with actual standards. But now, now I see that you’re nothing but scum.”

“Relv, I’m sorry! I want to talk to you, and not just argue. I want to listen to you for once after all of these centuries!”

“No, no more talking. Just what you wanted, a fight…”

“Please, have mercy!”

“Fight me!”

“No! What would killing me accomplish? Think about it!”

“Fight me now! I want the sight of your blood spilling to be my final and greatest happiness!”

“You’ll regret this, I know you will!”

“Fight me!” Just as Relv is only a couple of metres away from Celestia, a bright purple light bursts from between the two. As the light dies down, the two see that it’s Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. The six break from their huddle and face towards Relv, all with serious looks on their face.

“Twilight?!”

“Don’t worry Celestia,” Twilight exclaims, “we’ll stop him!”

“Don’t, he’ll murder you all!”

“Not if we work together.”

“You best listen to Tia,” Relv harshly responds, “this is between me and her.”

“Not on our hourglasses, girls, surround him. Spike, protect the princess.” The five others give a quick nod and immediately run to their positions.

With the five mares now surrounding Relv from all sides and Spike standing in front of Celestia, he reacts fast to this engagement to fight by yelling, “Unleashing Power #5: Multitasking!” Immediately, his five swords separate and each fly out to a separate target. They swing and slash at their opponents, who rapidly dodge each of their rapid attacks. As that’s going on, Relv continues his slow walk towards the princess and now Spike, increasing his speed as he draws closer and closer. Celestia looks down at the baby dragon to see his battle stance slowly break into a panicking shielding position with his arms. However, Relv’s increasing pace is broken by the sound of shattering glass behind him. He takes a glance back to see that Rainbow has left through the broken window with her perusing sword blindly following to attempt a sneak attack on Relv. “Unleashing Power #28: Quadrangulation!” As Relv stands there to regain Rainbow Dash’s bearings, Princess Celestia takes this moment and uses her magic to reveal two white fancy battle axes, bathing in a golden aura of magic, from behind the throne. She hovers them in front of her and Spike as the red stallion regains focus on them. Relv notices the axes and attempts to grab them with his mind. One of them breaks from Celestia’s control and soon follows Relv’s command, the other however, stays locked in the princess’ power. “Ivory…”

“That’s right! You want to die? Fine!” Celestia barks, the two axes lung forward and clash into each other, generating sparks as they grind. “Fight me!”

“Let’s see if your technique has improved…”

“Spike, run, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Spike promptly listens to the orders and runs behind the throne. The two massive blades separate before striking each other in rapid succession, altering angles at each swing. Relv’s axe dodges Celestia’s defensive swing and swipes it across the room at Celestia. She quickly leans back as the tip of the axe gently rubs the front of her neck. The princess then lungs her weapon at Relv and attempts at a frontward chop. Relv catches the blade between his hooves and performs a backflip to avoid Celestia’s attempt of completing the chop. He quickly jumps onto the axe as Celestia brings it back to her. Relv then jumps from the axe and tries to punch her in the face. The white alicorn dodges it by bobbing her head to the right. Quickly, she then rolls away just as Relv’s axe swipes down into the floor just where she was standing. The two clash their weapons between them, back up, and clash together again, this time, putting each other’s in a lock. Celestia takes this moment to think of a strategy.

Relv sees this and loudly proclaims, “Unleashing Power #27: Telepathy!” Upon hearing this, Celestia breaks from her thinking and focus to avoid Relv seeing what she’s planning. However, as Celestia tries to take her mind off the fight at hoof, Relv uses this to his advantage and leaps over the grinding axes, grabbing Celestia by the neck upon landing. Celestia immediately resets her focus on the fight, now discovering it was a trick. She lowers her horn directly at Relv’s face and fires a strong bolt of magic, exploding upon impact. The two rivals fly backwards from the blast, with Celestia hitting her back against a stone pillar and Relv landing just in front of the two locked blades. The two take a moment to look at each other. Relv sees Celestia’s face has become burnt and is starting to sweat profusely. Celestia sees that Relv’s face has been greatly damaged with a large bloody tear on his forehead. However, Relv’s face begins to heal itself quickly as he stands up and charges at Celestia. Without having enough time to recover, the princess panics and uses her magic to lift a section of the floor between her and Relv upwards, creating a thick wall between them.

“Please hold up, please hold up…” Suddenly, a grey light flashes right beside the white alicorn and a second Relv soon emerges from it, armed with a second silvery metal battle axe. “Oh no…” This new Relv immediately delivers a devastating punch to the grounded Celestia’s face, causing her to lose her magical grip on her axe. The first Relv notices this, breaks the lock, and brings his axe to his side. Celestia quickly regains herself from the surprise punch and teleports away just as the first Relv shatters the floor wall with a strong swing of his axe. She reappears behind her ivory axe and watches as the two Relvs give each other a brief nod. The new Relv slowly walks towards Celestia while the first goes to where the new one appeared.

“Unleashing Power #37: Time Folding!” In an instant, the first Relv with his axe disappears in a flash of grey light, leaving the new one as the now current Relv.

“Time travel, I should’ve known…” The two rivals prime their weapons once more and charge at each other. However, Celestia jumps and performs a front flip above Relv while her ivory axe dives underneath the red pony. It jabs his back legs, causing him to trip over onto his back. Celestia lands ahead of Relv’s tripped body and quickly turns to face him. She then firmly places her right hoof on Relv’s upturned belly and her left hoof on his dropped axe to hold them in place as she sets her axe’s sharp edge over Relv’s neck.  “Any last words?” Slowly, she raises the weapon a metre in the air. She looks down in hopes of seeing fear on her archenemy’s face, only to become infuriated with his unchanged disgusted expression towards her.

As she violently swings down the axe to deliver the finishing blow, Relv shouts, “Unleashing Power #34: Absolute Regeneration!” The white axe slices down through Relv’s neck, and upon hitting bone, blood was already seeping from the cut left behind the staff.  However, while the axe is still cutting, the front part of Relv’s neck immediately heals over. Relv raises his neck to let Celestia complete the cut, only to have it repaired the moment the weapon exits his body. With her axe now lodged in the stone flooring of the throne room, she immediately places her horn on Relv’s head and attempts to cast the mind control spell on him again. Relv’s body quickly becomes engulfed by her magic once more. However, just as it seems that Celestia will win, Relv screams out, “Unleashing Power #31: Anti-Magic!”

“Wha-” Like glass, Relv’s golden aura shatters as the large Earth pony backs his head away from the princess’ horn, only to quickly return and deliver a powerful head-butt onto her skull. Celestia screams in pain as she’s launched back several metres by the smash. A loud series of cringeworthy snaps echo across the chamber as the weakened princess brutally lands headfirst onto the floor. Relv gets up and looks back to see the mares still stuck fighting his swords. He looks to the throne to see Spike passed out, most likely from seeing Relv’s gross decapitation. He then turns back to his crippled opponent and levitates his battle axe to his side. He slowly walks up to the gasping mare and examines her side-laying body. Her squinted eyes are oozing a couple of tracks of blood, her mouth is slowly breathing and coughing at the same time, her chest is expanding and contracting very slowly, her chestplate and shoes are heavily scratched and cracked all over, her mane and tail have become heavily ruffled, her crown has been launched half a metre away from her head, and all across her fur and flesh were cuts, bruises, blood stains, and even a large bleeding gash over her scar, from the first time she fought with Relv.

“You have improved, I must admit. You had me used three powers, just to take out you alone. But, you were never truly a match for me. However, now I shall have my revenge, and have your blood paint every brick of this castle! And I will enjoy every second of it!”

“W-why?” Celestia chokes, “I-I th-thought-t we were f-fr-f-friends… R-remember… a-all the g-g-g-good t-times we had?”

“…”

“W-what a-ab-about Luna?”

“She will have to take control of Equestria, pray that she’ll be a better leader and take my actions for teaching.”

“S-she’ll never-” Before Celestia can completely respond, she enters a coughing fit, spewing some blood and spit from her mouth in the process.

“Let’s end this!” Quickly, Relv raises his axe above her neck.

However, just as he’s about to swing, a familiar mare’s voice screams out at the top of her lungs, “Stop!” Relv looks to where the voice came from and sees Fluttershy rapidly approaching him and Celestia. She then dives between him and the princess, placing herself right below the metal axe. Panting, she proceeds to yell at him, “Don’t kill her!”

“Get out of my way…”

“If you want to kill her, you’re going to have to kill me too Relv!”

“This isn’t your fight. You have nothing to do with her. Now get out of my way…”

“You said I am a lot like her yourself. You danced with me just like you’ve danced with her.”

“Gr… Just get out of my way…”

“What about your code? All of those guards you killed out there, think of the families you have destroyed Relv! Killing Celestia will only make things much worse for everypony, especially Luna!”

“Shut up, and get out of my way Fluttershy…” Gently, he grabs the yellow pegasus by the wing and drags her aside, only for her to quickly go back to her position.

“Never!”

“Fluttershy, get out of my way…” He reaches out for her again, only to have his hoof struck back by hers.

“Relv! Think! I know you’re angry, but still, think about what you’re doing!”

“Shut up Fluttershy! Get out of my way!”

“No! I will not-”

“I! Said! Get!” Enveloped in rage, Relv brutally grabs Fluttershy by the throat and checks her aside, unintentionally smacking her into a stone pillar. Relv resets his weapon. He swings it downwards, only for it to suddenly stop it with the edge of the blade caressing Celestia’s neck as an incredibly faint sound enters his ears. He looks to where the sound to coming from to find it’s where he tossed Fluttershy. His bloodlust abruptly ends as he sees her slumped down on the cold stone floor, facing away from him, weeping. Slowly, the red Earth pony walks towards her, stopping with his head shadowing her fallen body. He looks over the mare’s side and sees her face moist with tears, noticing a large red bruise just below her closed left eye. “Fluttershy…” She doesn’t respond and continues to sob in both physical and emotional pain. As Relv looks over the sight he has created, memories flash before his eyes, memories of him and Celestia over a thousand years ago, crying together. Relv then looks over to Celestia, still grasping onto life, then back to Fluttershy. As the gears in his head turn, Relv’s face begins to soften and his eyes begin to water. “What have I done?” Gently, he nudges Fluttershy’s back with his hoof. “Fluttershy, I-I apologize.”

“No you’re not!” She sobbingly barks. “I thought we were friends! I thought you were a pony I could trust! But you’re nothing but a monster!”

“I-I didn’t mean for my emotions to overtake my-”

“Just leave me be…”

“But I’m-”

“Leave!”

“…sorry…” Relv takes a hoofstep back from the yellow pegasus and looks at his surroundings once more, from Celestia’s mangled body, to the crying Fluttershy, to the now destroyed throne room, to the five friends still battling his swords, to the outside world with the fallen wall and Canterlot. ”By everything, what have I done?!”

“…w-why…” Soon, Relv sets his sights for the door and immediately starts galloping to it. His swords stop swinging at the mares and quickly follow pursuit of Relv. Now free from the danger of being sliced, Twilight and the others watch in confusion as Relv runs out, before setting their attention to Fluttershy and Celestia.

The Hades Timberwolf

“Fluttershy,” the black alicorn of the night, Princess Luna, firmly speaks, “You are aware of what you have caused?”

“Yes,” the yellow mare replies in remorse, looking around her cottage to avoid direct eye contact with the princess in front of her.

“In all of its entirety?”

“Maybe not…”

“Six hundred and sixty six guards killed, five hundred hospitalized, the entire castle wall obliterated, trespassing, breaking and entering, assault on Princess Celestia with intention of murder, and so many other crimes, all committed by Relv because you allowed him to, during Timberwolf Season as well.”

“I didn’t mean for him to do it. I didn’t think he was going to become that angry at Celestia.”

“I know, I know you would never want to bring any harm to her nor anypony. But as the courts will see it, you’ll be held responsible and be punished to five life sentences in prison at the least.”

“Can’t you do anything about it?”

“I wish I could, and even Celestia, as badly injured as she is. However, as princesses, we have to make hard choices, whether we like them or not. As long as Relv is on the loose and doesn’t take full responsibility for his actions, you will be. I’m sorry Fluttershy. The best I can do is let you be here for about an hour before your trials.”

“Thank you, I’ll try to make the most of it. I’m sorry about your sister. I can barely imagine how you feel right now.”

“Furious at Relv, scared of having to take over while Celestia’s recovering, depressed that something so bad had to happen to so many innocent ponies… Even I can’t keep track of them all.”

“How will Canterlot even recover after Relv’s attack?”

“I don’t know myself, I’m still trying to figure out how plan the first step. A one-hour war just happened with the magnitude of a one-year war. Hopefully the courts will be able to have something planned out.”

“I feel so ashamed at myself… How badly hurt is your sister?”

“She can’t move, but she can talk. Doctors say that for all of the broken bones, blunt trauma, and damaged skin tissue, it would most likely take seven months physically. Mental recovery can’t be determined at this moment. However I don’t think she will be able to get live past this, took her forever just to get over…”

“Your Mom and Dad?”

“…He told you didn’t he?”

“Yeah,”

“Yes. That was a very scarring moment for all three of us. Celestia, Relv, and me, I wonder if he feels the same way now.”

“Princess Luna, how did you feel towards Relv, before he turned?”

“Me? I mostly just saw him as my sister’s and my bodyguard. My sister however, was another story.”

“Did she like him?”

“Much more, she was in love with him. Dancing, reading, studying, she’d always bring him close to her side. And well, let’s just say that her secret diary had some very detailed thoughts.”

“Did it hurt when Relv changed?”

“It hurt to watch my sister weeping in her room after Relv went rogue. Seeing her so broken down, I wasn’t sure how to help her.”

“What about Relv’s utiti…”

“His ideals? He never really spoke, more doing things, so I never really had the chance to understand what his intentions were. Now that I do… I guess it sounds good in concept, but the way he executes it, I just can’t find myself supporting him.”

“…When you became Nightmare Moon, and was banished to the moon, did you ever think about Relv?”

“I did for a while before I forgot, considering he was well secured in prison as it seemed. Anymore questions?”

“One more, but I’m not sure you’ll be able to answer it.”

“Try me.”

“Do you know why Celestia prevented the execution of Relv?”

“I’m not too certain myself. But, seeing and hearing about how so many ponies were very close to her before they died. Maybe, maybe she wanted somepony like Relv to be with her as time continued on while I was gone. I don’t really know, that theory may just be some stupid idea.”

“I guess-” The loud scream of a mare interrupts Fluttershy’s thought. The two mares inside the cottage look out of the windows to the cloudy outside to see ponies stampeding towards Ponyville with a few dark creatures stalking from behind.

“Timberwolves!” Quickly, Luna and Fluttershy fly outside to get an overhead look of the creatures. Each thrice as long as a normal pony, made entirely of wood, and sporting a pair of beaming green eyes, even looking at one sent shivers down Fluttershy’s spine.

“Why are there so many? There’s like fifty of them, all heading towards Ponyville.”

“I have no idea! There shouldn’t be this many grouped together like this. Timberwolf Season usually only has fifteen wolf packs at most.”

“As strange as this is, we can still manage this right?”

“I hope so.”

“Look! Here comes help!” Fluttershy points ahead of the pack of wooden wolves at a set of six multicoloured ponies in the distance, changing towards the fifty Timberwolves. The duo flies closer to see that it’s Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. “Girls!”

“Fluttershy and Luna?!” Twilight calls back, “What are you two doing here?”

“Not important right now. We’re here to help.”

“Alright then…” Luna and Fluttershy soon join alongside the team of friends as they ram headfirst into the armada and wolves and begins fighting. Applejack uses her hind legs to buck and shatter the beasts one by one. Rainbow Dash rapidly circles five Timberwolves, immediately creating a small tornado and tearing the creatures apart. Pinkie Pie pulls out a blue cannon from her tail and fires it into the face of an oncoming wolf, blasting confetti in its face. It ignores the pieces of coloured paper and continues its march, growling as it draws closer to Pinkie. The pink Earth pony gives a small shrug before pulling out a large steel bat from her fluffy tail. She smashes the bat between the eyes of the Timberwolf, causing it to burst into pieces. Twilight and Luna, side by side, fire solid beams of powerful magic into the rush of monsters, incinerating them upon touching the bright purple and black rays. Rarity uses her magic to lift the Timberwolves one by one high in the air and dropping them, shattering upon impact. Fluttershy helps Spike jump onto the snout of one of the wolves and uses his claws to climb his way to the throat. There, he slices through the neck region and decapitates the wooden wolf. It falls and collapses upon hitting the ground.

In a matter of minutes, the number of Timberwolves drops from fifty to only one. The girls and Spike, all now happy with their progress, take a moment to stop fighting and cheer. However, their premature celebration comes to a screeching halt as the ground vibrates beneath them. They look back at the lone Timberwolf, nervously walking forward towards them. The ground then jumps. Birds soon flee from the trees in the Everfree Forest ahead of the team and fly off into the sky. The ground jumps again, prompting the eight ponies to grow paranoid.

“That doesn’t sound good…” Applejack remarks.

“Whatever that is, it’s big.” Twilight adds. As the earth below shutters more and more often, the last Timberwolf stops moving and clutches onto the dirt below. He’s showing signs of panic by rapidly moving its head. “Girls, get ready for-” However, before she could finish her statement, an enormous bellowing roar erupts from behind the trees of the forest behead and almost lifts the ponies from their hooves. A monstrous, black, smoky arm then bursts from behind the trees and stamps onto the Timberwolf, making it disappear beneath his giant claw.

“That’s not big…” Rainbow Dash exclaims, “That’s colossal!” The eight watch in horror as the rest of the black beast reveals itself by walking out of the forest and rising from its crouch. It is a large pitch black Timberwolf with purple flames and smoke emitting from its bulky body, three sets of pearly white teeth and a pair of dark green flames for eyes. The tip of its snout brushes the grey clouds high above as it howls. “How are we going to fight that thing? No, what even is this thing?”

“I’m not sure. There was some old prophecy about something called the Hades Timberwolf. That would explain the sudden mass attack if it was the alpha of this pack…”

“That second question was rhetorical. How do we kill it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’ll go down like all of the other ones. Just fight him like you would a very large Timberwolf.” Applejack trots up to one of the large paws of the beast and prepares to buck. However, upon kicking the leg, Applejack’s hind hooves immediately catch on fire. The mare screams in pain as she runs away from the beast while attempting to put the fire out.

“I got this!” Rainbow Dash then zips over the team and begins to rapidly circle to Hades Timberwolf. A large dust tornado soon forms and traps the creature inside, stopping his slow walk. The flaming wolf examines his surroundings before opening his mouth and breathing out a burst of purple flames. The abnormal fire seeps into the column of swirling wind and turns the entire cyclone into a tower of fire with Dash still circling inside it. Within seconds, the column fades away, leaving behind a stone statue of Rainbow Dash on the ground and the Timberwolf, who promptly continues his walk. Twilight and the others see the frozen pony and rush towards the stone structure.

“Rainbow Dash!”

“…help…” the statue stiffly responds.

“Don’t worry Dash, we’ll figure something out to free you. But for now, we have to stop the Hades Timberwolf from reaching Ponyville.”

“But how?” Rarity remarks, “That thing’s breathe just turned Rainbow into stone!”

“We still have some options. Luna, help!” The two alicorns quickly take off into the air and catch up to the Hades Timberwolf, now only a few kilometres away from the town. The duo flies in front of the beast’s snout, they aim their horns between the creature’s green eyes, and both fire a ray of magic. However, the massive wolf isn’t affected by the attack, having the magic merely become absorbed into the dark smoke. “It isn’t even slowing down! We can’t physically hit it, we can’t use weather, and magic won’t even affect it!” As the two alicorns end their beam attacks, the Timberwolf opens its mouth and breathes out another wave of purple flames. Twilight quickly reacts by casting a bubble shield around her and Luna. However, the shield doesn’t work as the flames turn the purple shield to stone as well, trapping Twilight and Luna inside as it plummets to the ground, shattering upon impact. The rest of the girls and Spike run over to the broken rock ball and help Twilight and Luna out of the wreckage.

“And other ideas?” Rarity frantically asks.

“No. The Hades Timberwolf’s just too big, too powerful, and we’re just not ready to handle such a creature. Let’s face it, Ponyville’s doomed, as well as any other place that thing wants to go.” Fluttershy looks at the black beast walking over her and the others as the gears in her head spin.

“What if…” the pegasus mumbles.

“What if what?”

“What if Relv was here? Maybe he can take the Hades Timberwolf down?”

“Are you crazy? You saw what he did when you let him go, he tried to kill the princess, us, and injured you in the process. What makes you think you’ll be able to convince him to help us? How will you even find him?”

“It’s a hunch.”

“Fluttershy, Relv might kill you. I don’t want to risk that happening.”

“That Hades Timberwolf will kill us sooner or later. I’m going to look for Relv, despite the risk,” Fluttershy then takes off in flight and heads towards the Everfree Forest.

“Why do you trust Relv so much?!”

“He’s my friend!” As the yellow mare enters the thick of the forest, the rest of the team looks back at the beast, thinking about what to do next. Princess Luna however looks back towards the forest.

She thinks to herself, “Is Fluttershy going where I think she’s going? Is that also where Relv is? Maybe I can help them…”

“Here we are again it seems. Most of my body’s broken, my mind is a wreck, the outside world’s dying, and you on the loose, doing whatever you please. You attempted to make amends with me, but I rejected you, only to regret sometime down the line. Many ponies that were close to me are once again unintentionally destroyed by your rage caused by me. Is this what must be whenever we’re together, must this vicious and immature cycle that we don’t want continue? I’m sorry that I have forced you to destroy innocent lives, lives that you would’ve never truly touched, despite your behaviors. Maybe I should let you free, just as you wanted. Maybe all of this time, you knew that this was the right way and wanted to prevent this cycle. I’m sorry Relv…”

True Friendship

Fluttershy is now running through the thick forest, continuing her search for Relv. As the clouds above the tops of the trees darken, so does the entirety of the forest. However, the young mare doesn’t slow down and continues dashing between the trees and over bushes. Soon, she stops upon reaching a small stream of water and slowly follows it upstream. With a moist breeze flowing across her fur and the small blades of grass brushing her hooves, Fluttershy finds her enjoying the sensations as the smooth flowing of water sounds in her small ears. Eventually however, she comes across a small waterfall with a familiar red pony sitting at the rocky edge of the steep, staring aimlessly downstream with his casually stoic face.

“I’d figure you’d be here,” Fluttershy calmly proclaims before flying up and sitting next to him at the cliff’s edge. “I usually come here as well to calm down and escape whatever’s stressing me.”

“I see,” Relv sternly replies, “However, right now, I suggest you stay away from me.”

“But I need your help.”

“No, I am no longer your slave. And besides, I am not in the mood to do anything right now.”

“Relv-”

“Go away now, before I inadvertently hurt you again.”

“Relv, please, listen to me! You made a mistake-”

“What mistake? My technique was perfect, I intended to kill Celestia and stop anypony who was in my way, and I nearly succeeded. The only thing that stopped it from being perfect was you. However, my self-restraints are lowering and if you don’t get out of here now, I will kill you.”

“No, not your fighting, but your emotions Relv. You-”

“I said go…”

“Relv, I-”

“I said-”

“Relv?” An older mare’s voice interrupts him from behind. Fluttershy looks behind to see Princess Luna standing there.

“Luna…”

“What happened to you?” Before she finishes her response, Luna quietly sits down next to Relv, opposite of Fluttershy. “You used to be this very self-controlled pony, never snapping even when my parents yelled at you. Now, you can’t even talk to somepony without going on a murderous rampage. Why?”

“I don’t know…”

“Even before you turned, when you were Celestia’s and my bodyguard, you were always so calm.”

“If I recall correctly, yes,”

“And Fluttershy,”

“Wait,” Fluttershy asks, “what are you doing here? How’d you even find us?”

”I came here to help calm Relv down in case your efforts wouldn’t end well, you may be onto something if Relv’s capable of taking down the Timberwolf.”

“Thanks, you came just in time,”

“And how I found you? Celestia, Relv, and I also came here long ago to escape our woes as well.”

“You did? That’s how you were able to find me and Relv?”

“Yeah, you can see why. It’s so peaceful out here.”

“I guess. Wow, even the royal sisters visited this place? I thought only I really knew of this waterfall. Wait, Celestia and me… We both have a lot in common to Relv, like I remind him of her way back then. She was also the one who gave him those powers, and was partially responsible alongside him for everything that happened after that… What if, looking at me, Relv’s reminded of all the bad things that happened?”

“Relv, any idea why you’re like this?”

“No,” he stiffly responds.

“Wait,” Fluttershy protests, “I think I know what’s going on. Relv,”

“…”

“Relv, the reason you’re becoming this uncontrolled pony is because of me.”

“What?”

“Looking at me, you remind yourself of Celestia, all those centuries ago. Both the good and the bad times, those memories still linger in your head. When you’re reminded of the bad times, you get angry at yourself. You want to forget those times you messed up, both unleashing your forty-second power and your recent attack on Celestia. So your mind subconsciously wants to destroy me and Celestia to get rid of this anger. You’re angry Relv, you’ve said it yourself.”

“Perhaps I am… I’m angry at myself for failing my mission, for letting myself succumb to Tia’s spell. After thousands of years preparing myself to set Equestria’s future, a simple spell manages to get me. Perhaps I never was, and never will be the Black Paladin like I wished this entire time.”

“No Relv. You can be the unsung hero you want to be. You’re still a pony though, and every pony experiences anger. You may not like those bad memories, but they do teach you valuable lessons. Remember the techniques you perfected to escape prison? How many captures, how many failures, how many memories of you not achieving your goal were made during your times there?”

“Tens of thousands,”

“Did you ever get angry?”

“Once… Just once…”

“Why did you get angry that one time?”

“I was an idiot ran into a hidden spike trap when I was so close to escaping, when hope quickly returned and sparked inside me.”

“Did you ever fall for that trap again?”

“No,”

“You see? Those bad memories, the ones that can make you angry, can still help you. You just need to not release your anger.”

“How then do you propose?”

“Think about the good things that came from those times. You didn’t fall for that spike trap ever again and escaped right?”

“Correct…”

“Now how about Celestia and me? Think about the good times we had together.”

“…I guess there was the dancing that I enjoyed…”

“See? You don’t need to be angry at those memories and the ponies in them.”

“There is something I still don’t understand though…”

“What is it?”

“Why? Why are you and Luna doing this to me? I killed six hundred and seventy-two guards, hospitalized five hundred and one more, and almost killed your princess, your friends, and you. Why do you come to me now with sympathy and wanting to help me?”

“Because we’re friends, and friends help each other through their issues.”

“Dependence…”

“Well, yes, there is that, but in the end, what would you rather want? Do you want to forever be mad at yourself and end up hurting thousands of innocent lives, or have a friend help you prevent it?”

“But what if I end up creating an emotional connection with you, and it ends up costing the lives of many?”

“You already have. Me, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Spike, and so many others, you’ve created some form of emotional connect. It’s unavoidable for you to connect with the ponies you’ve interact with, whether it be things you like, things you don’t like, or knowing their relationships with others.”

“It would interfere with my code then if that’s the case.”

“If it is, then it is. You can’t escape it, just like your memories and your anger. What you can do though, is that you can use these connections you make to be happy. Seeing the lives you help make better, wouldn’t it be nice to smile with them?”

“But what if my interactions appear negative to them? What about my necessary evil?”

“You could find happiness in yourself, knowing that the ponies affected by those actions will be safe in the future.”

“Perhaps, maybe I can still be the evil Equestria deserves.”

“So Relv, are we friends?” Gently, Fluttershy outstretches her hoof across to Relv.

“I've got to hoof it to you, you've played by all the same rules that I follow. I’ll take your advice,” Promptly, the stallion reaches out his hoof and shakes hers. “And be your friend.”

“Thanks. I’m so glad that you’re back.”

“I am as well, to be honest.”

“What about me?” Luna asks, “Are we friends?”

“It appears to be.” Relv then turns to face Luna, only to notice a large bleeding cut slightly above her wing. “What caused that?”

Luna then quickly remembers the threat at hoof and immediately gasps, “The Hades Timberwolf! I nearly forgot about him! Relv, we need your help. Some monster is approaching Ponyville and we can’t stop it!”

“Is this why you truly came for me? Just to get me to take care of some beast for you?”

“No Relv,” Fluttershy quickly responds, “we came for you because I believe in you. This is a threat that we can’t handle yet. If there’s anypony with the ability to take on challenges far beyond their time, it’s you friend.” A booming roar soon echoes from Ponyville far off in the distance and behind the wall of trees to where they’re at.

“1,500 metres tall, canine, incendiary breathe with stone-like properties, ghost-like in living stature, and very hungry. This is something way beyond this time. I’ll take care of this monster, let’s go.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you for helping me recover, you truly are a good pony.”

“You’re… welcome…” Quickly, the trio leaps from their seats, with Fluttershy and Princess Luna opening their wings and flying back to Ponyville, and Relv landing on all four hooves and running along beneath them. “Wait, Relv, can you unleash your second power?”

“I can do much better. Grab me.”

“Luna, grab onto Relv!” Frantically, the two mares swoop down and wrap their hooves around the outermost sheathes of Relv’s swords as the Earth pony prepares to unleash a power.

“Unleashing Power #38: Atomic Altercation!” Relv makes an immediate left turn and charges forward, phasing both him and the two mares through the many trees of the forest, beelining towards Ponyville. “Unleashing Power #2: Speed!”

“Good luck Relv…”

The Final Restraints

As the trio of heroes exits the forest, they see monstrous beast deep within Ponyville, ripping apart houses with its teeth. Relv begins to exit from the surge of his second power as he gallops across the fields. Drawing closer to the town, Fluttershy and Luna notice a line of six stone statues in front of the town, all standing in defensive positions.

“Relv!” Fluttershy exclaims, “They’re our friends over there, frozen!”

“Hop off.” Relv immediately responds. The two mares follow his orders and fly from his back as Relv turns towards the frozen friends. One by one, Relv runs past each of them and hits them, breaking them from their stone imprisonment. He punches Twilight below the chin, jumps over and kicks Rainbow Dash’s back, slides under Applejack and head-butts her stomach, slams his side in Pinkie’s snout, draws a sword and bashes the hilt at the back of Rarity’s neck, and tosses Spike up into the air with his mouth and lets him fall back down onto the ground. Upon being set free, the six gasp and stretch their stiff limbs, unknowing of who just freed them and how Relv then quickly turns back towards the Hades Timberwolf tearing up Town Hall.

“What just happened?” Twilight turns and asks her now freed friends. Fluttershy and Luna soon reach them.

“Girls! Spike!” Fluttershy excitedly cheers, “Relv’s come back to help!”

“What?!”

“Look!” Fluttershy quickly points to the black beast behind Twilight’s shoulder. She and the others look back and are shocked to see the red stallion running towards it.

“Oh my…” As Relv comes within only a few metres from the massive best’s hind leg, his five swords draw from their holdings and charge forward, stabbing the dark flesh of the monster. The enormous wolf grunts in reaction to the swords and looks back to see his new adversary. The Hades Timberwolf then opens his mouth at Relv and breathes out a wave of purple flames with a powerful roar. Relv’s blades quickly return in front of him and immediately begin rapidly circling around each other, fanning the flames away from the pony. As the beast finishes his fire attack, the swords then dart into the beast’s mouth and slash at his throat from the inside. As the Timberwolf howls in agony, Relv runs around to its front legs and latches himself onto a large flaming claw.

He quickly yells out, “Unleashing Power #12: Regeneration.” Immediately, the flesh of Relv’s front heals faster than the damage caused by the dark purple fire. The Hades Timberwolf soon spits out the five swords and lifts his paw towards his face, feeling the stallion grabbing onto his claw. With the wolf’s leg now level, Relv quickly leaps onto the paw and runs along the flat flaming surface to the main body. The beast reacts quickly by raising his other claw in attempts to slash at Relv. However, just as the second set of claws charges down to Relv, Relv’s swords return and each locks a long black claw in place, giving their wielder just enough room to make it to the torso. Relv soon climbs his way to the back of the massive beast’s neck. However, the Hades Timberwolf breaks free of the blade lock and begins to roll onto his back.

Relv realizes, with the beast’s sleek flesh, he would lose his grip and fall down to the stone floor and quickly be crushed by a single step. “Unleashing Power #24: Force Control!” As the black beast finishes his roll onto his back, Relv doesn’t fall off, rather, begins to stand as the effects of gravity on Relv reverse, pulling him towards the monster. Using his gravity altering abilities, Relv leaps on the top of the Hades Timberwolf’s head and summons his swords to him. One by one, he rapidly stabs a blade deep into the top of the beast’s head and pulls it back out for another stab. Boiling black blood starts to burst from the stabs and coats Relv in it. A slight groan escapes the stallion as his unleashed power of regeneration begins to wear off with now the blood damaging more than he can repair. “Unleashing Power #21: Hyper Regeneration!” The Hades Timberwolf roars in even greater pain and quickly rolls back up to his normal standing position. Relv also returns himself to dealing with the effects of normal gravity and quickly prepares for his finishing attack. “Unleashing Power #29: Hyper Strength!” With a slam of his hoof into the stabbing area, the massive beast roars out once more as begins to fall down. However, the Timberwolf instead springs his body back upwards, sending the force of the punch back to Relv, launching him into the air and past the clouds. With several seconds of Relv’s disappearance, the Hades Timberwolf soon returns to his mission of attacking Ponyville as if nothing had happened. A minute passes before Relv finally crashes down onto the outside hills, creating a large crater in his wake. The stallion quickly gets up and is immediately greeted by the mares and Spike at the edge of the steaming hole.

“What happened?” Fluttershy frantically asks.

“That beast’s too big. I wasn’t able to inflict any damage to the brain to kill it. I clearly underestimated it, both in physical and mental capabilities.”

“Mental?”

“That thing’s intelligent, I can sense it.”

“So what now?”

“Perhaps I can destroy it on the inside. Stand aside.”

Relv runs back in front of the Hades Timberwolf and yells out, “Unleashing Power #17: Electricity!” Electricity soon begins to spark on Relv’s hooves as he expected. Two of Relv’s swords quickly hover to him. Hastily, the red stallion rubs his front hooves on each other the swords, causing electricity to spark from them as well. The two weapons then soar towards the face of the Timberwolf and stab each of the wolf’s flaming eyes, causing the beast to roar in pain. The gigantic rubs his eyes with his paws, removing the swords in the process. It looks down to see Relv standing in front of him. Furiously, the beast charges with his open mouth aimed at the stallion. Just as the teeth begin to clamp shut, Relv leaps in between the razor sharp fangs and crawls down the monster’s throat. Although being extremely dark and filled with boiling blood, Relv navigates his way through the beast’s black insides and swims to the inside of the monster’s heart in a couple of minutes. He mumbles to himself, “Let’s see how you tick…” Gently, Relv places his hoof on the inside wall of the heart, feeling its slow pulses. “Unleashing Power #15: Clock Geno-Mutation! Unleashing Power #18: Blood Pressure Control!” In a matter of moments, the density of the blood flowing around Relv lightens dramatically and the heart increases its pulsing rate exponentially. Relv soon hears heavy breathing coming from the lungs as well as a groan from the Hades Timberwolf’s mouth. As the pulsing of the heart reaches its climax, Relv slams his electrified hooves into the heart wall. Immediately, the entire heart becomes struck with electricity and stops pulsing. Eventually, the beast’s blood stops flowing as well and begins to grow cold. Outside, the mares and Spike watch as the Hades Timberwolf collapses onto his side, no longer moving.

“Relv?!” Fluttershy screams out in concern. She runs over to the fallen creature’s mouth and looks inside, only to see darkness beyond the rows of teeth. “Relv, are you okay-” A large amount of black blood suddenly bursts from the beast’s mouth, almost hitting Fluttershy, soon followed by a familiar figure crawling out of the darkness, completely dry mane to hoof. “Relv! You did it!”

“It seems so.”

“What did you even do to it?”

“I gave it a powerful cardiac arrest.”

“So Ponyville’s saved?”

“There have only been a few causalities here, but other than that, it should recover quick-” Relv’s reply is cut short however by a low grumble coming from the massive wolf.

“Relv…”

“No… Run!” Relv frantically grabs Fluttershy and runs away from the beasts mouth now starting to move again. Upon reaching the edge of town and the others, the duo nervously look back to see the Timberwolf come back to life. As the beast stands up again, it arches its back and roar more triumphantly than ever before.

“It’s not dead?!” Fluttershy, Rainbow, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Luna, Pinkie, and Spike exclaim at once.

“Yes. It’s just too big and powerful for even me!”

“We’re all doomed then?!”

“Yes… Unless…”

“Unless…” Fluttershy responds, “…Unless what?”

“I have a hunch, a hunch on how to finish this thing. However, I will require all of you to get as far away as you possibly can.”

“What are you going to do?”

“First, I’m going to anger him. If my guess is correct, the determining factor of whether I win or not is who has the most of their intelligence remaining.”

“Relv, you’re not going to-”

“The only way I’m going to take this monster down is if I become one myself. Now get away, all of you!” The others listen and run back towards the Everfree Forest. After watching them run for a while, Relv returns his attention to the Hades Timberwolf and slowly approaches it.

As Relv’s five swords return to him, Relv looks upwards at the face of his nemesis to find that he is as well staring at Relv. The massive Timberwolf unleashes a mighty roar. Relv positions himself at a defensive stance. After a minute of stillness and staring, the black beast makes the first move by charging forwards at Relv and raises his front legs. As the claws charge down to attack however, two bright flashes of grey light suddenly burst next to Relv’s sides with two other Relvs emerging at them with their hovering swords covered in black blood. The ten new swords quickly fly up to the claws and lock each one in place, halting the monster’s attack. The first Relv’s blades quickly join in, with two stabbing into the wolf’s flaming eyes, two slashing into the palms of the creature’s paws, and the last one soaring into the mouth and slashing at the insides of the throat. The Hades Timberwolf screams in pain as his flesh is being torn and his blood is spewing out onto the ground. The first and second Relv on the first’s right turn to see the third Relv on the first’s right looking back at them. The first two quietly nod, prompting the third to charge forwards at the beast. While the third Relv runs below and behind the monster, the original and second Relv bring their blades back to them. Slowly, the first Relv then goes to where the second appeared and the second Relv goes to where the third Relv appeared. As the Timberwolf’s right paw free and having the slashing blades removed, the beast furiously opens his mouth wide at the two standing Relvs and prepares for another fire attack.

However, as the purple flames burst from the beast’s mouth and approach the two, the Relvs immediately shout, “Unleashing Power #37: Time Fold!” Just as the fire is about to hit them, the two Relvs immediately disappear in flashes of grey light, back to where they appeared as the second and third Relvs. The remaining Relv soon reaches the rear of the beast and summons his blades to his sides.  He then stabs the buttocks of the flaming beast with his swords at once. The Hades Timberwolf, now roaring in pain, furiously turns back towards Relv and performs another flame attack with his head low to the ground. Relv avoids the fire attack and runs up to the beast’s face. As he leaps into the air and raises his hoof in a punching position, he yells, “Unleashing Power #1: Strength!” He then strikes his glowing hoof right at the tip of his rival’s snout upon landing, leaping off afterwards and returning to the ground on all four hooves. The Hades Timberwolf howls in agony as he viciously raises his head and backs away. Relv also backs up as well with his swords returning to their sheaves. The two stare at each other once more and slowly begin to circle each other.

“Tia,” Relv thinks to himself as he stares down the green embers of the monster’s soul, “I made a promise that I would never unleash my final power, both to you, me, Luna, your parents, and everypony else that died that day. However, as I stand here, against this might foe, I have no alternatives. When push comes to shove, I must shove. I’m sorry to have broken this promise, with it also shattering the final bond that stands between us. However, the memories will remain. I will still be regretful of my actions the day I killed your parents. Pray however, pray that what I shall do will make up for my failure. If it doesn’t however, either it being that I die, or if whatever is unleashed takes control and destroys everything, I want you to know something. I want you to know and remember for all time, of the fond moments we had together. Even if you yourself must destroy me, remember the pony I want to be remembered as. I’m sorry Tia. Farewell…” As Relv finishes his thoughts, the Hades Timberwolf furiously roars at him, impatiently waiting for the final bought. Gently, Relv stops moving and bows his head to the dirt ground below, closing his eyes in the process. “Unleashing Power #42…” The top of his chest soon starts to glow with a golden light. He face begins to turn into a scowl, baring his teeth and grinding them before instinctively screaming, “Nightmare Formation!” Upon finishing his roar, the golden glow of his chest quickly turns into a black shine. Soon, Relv’s body starts to twitch and spike and pulse in paint. His body soon begins grows incredibly larger at an exponential rate, causing his harness to break off and fall onto the ground. His teeth all sharpen into fangs and turn blood red. The silver portion of his mane grows exponentially longer and turns into a very dark red. His eyes roll over to the back of his head and turn into a glowing pair of bright red lights. His fur grows and darkens into pitch black. His flesh hardens to rock. His hooves start to grow and contort into massive claws with sharp red pointed nails. Now standing slightly larger than the Hades Timberwolf, Relv’s transformation comes to a finish. Everypony watches in shock and awe as they gawk at the massive reptilian and pony hybrid monster that has now appeared.

“Relv!” Fluttershy shouts from afar, “Is that you?” The Timberwolf doesn’t take mind of the transformation however. Furiously, the smaller beast roars at Relv’s face. However, the wolf’s roar is cut short by the monstrous Relv howling back into his face with a much greater roar for several seconds. The flames and smoke of the Hades Timberwolf fly off of his body with the sheer power of Relv’s roar. Onlookers quickly cover their ears and are dragged back by the shockwave of sound. Even Fluttershy and the others beyond the outskirts of town are blasted back an inch or two.

As Relv finishes his roar, the two giants charge at each other and slash at each other’s faces with a single swipe. Dark red blood spews from Relv’s sliced cheek and mixes with the Timberwolf’s black blood. Relv backs away from the wolf’s second swipe and lunges forward. He bites down into the Timberwolf’s neck, creating a loud series of snaps in the process. The Hades Timberwolf shakes Relv off however and breathes a wave of fire. Relv raises a fist at the fire and blocks it from hitting his face, encasing his claw in stone instead. The pony then raises his encased fist and smashes it into the wolf’s face, causing the stone to break in the process and free his claw. Relv tries to go for another neck bite, but is dodged and the Hades Timberwolf takes the moment and bites Relv in the neck. Relv attempts to shake his enemy off, only to be shoved down on his side onto the ground. The Timberwolf’s bite grows harder and harder as Relv frantically flails. However, Relv quickly notices a large building above his head. He swiftly grabs it and smashes it into the Hades Timberwolf, loosening his jaws. Relv quickly frees himself and stands upright as his nemesis is recovering from the smash. The pony grabs another building in his claws and smashes it against the wolf’s forehead. The Timberwolf backs up for a second before quickly charging forwards. Relv charges as well and the two monsters bash their heads together, locking each other in place. Eventually, the humongous Timberwolf wins and causes Relv to fall onto his back. Relv retaliates by delivering a strong kick into his rival’s chest. His rival’s unfazed by this blunt attack however and proceeds to claw at Relv’s stomach, tearing apart his flesh and causing blood to spew across Relv’s body.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy and her friends scream. The scream soon makes its way to Relv, causing his left eye to see and notice them. Relv soon sees the absolutely terrified face of Fluttershy as memories of him and her flash through the innermost parts of his mind. Relv’s attention soon returns to his rival as another spike of pain surges through him. He quickly grab’s the wolf’s head and carries to over to his. Using all of his might, Relv smashes his skull into the Hades Timberwolf, causing it to fly backwards and crash onto the ground. The stallion regains his footing and proceeds to slam his side into the Timberwolf, smashing him into Town Hall and destroying it. The pony backs away a step from the destruction and the fallen wolf and gives a triumphant roar. However, the Hades Timberwolf immediately gets up and gets into Relv’s face and blasts a fire attack directly into Relv’s mouth. Dizzily, Relv backs up and wobbles around from the attack. The Timberwolf then charges at the dazed pony with his mouth wide open for another bite. However, just as the wolf is about to bite into Relv’s neck, Relv snaps out of his faked daze and grabs his rival by the jaws and holds the beast under his face with his mouth wide open. The Timberwolf tries to resist, but Relv promptly breaking his mouth wide open with a very loud snap. Relv then aims his mouth over his nemesis and breathes back the fire attack with a mighty roar, back into the beast’s mouth. The Hades Timberwolf squeals in pain with the insides of his mouth and throat turning to stone. Relv lets go of the upper jaw and grabs the chest as he bites down onto the neck. Finally, using the last of his strength, Relv rips off the head of the Hades Timberwolf from the body, killing his rival. Black blood rampantly spews from the head and neck as Relv lets go of them and lets them hit the ground with an earth shaking thud. Now drenched in both his own and his enemy’s blood, he raises his head towards the sky and gives a triumphant roar, even greater than the last one. Fluttershy and the others cheer for Relv’s success as they scream and bounce around. Upon finishing his roar, Relv turns to look at the cheering party. His vision begins to darken however, as Relv starts to lose consciousness. He can feel his body shrink and return to normal as his other senses die out. The pain from his wounds soon blank out, followed by the sounds of the girls’ cheers dying away and his vision.

“I did it Fluttershy… I did it Tia…”

Recovery

After what seemed to be an eternity of darkness, Relv’s vision slowly begins to return to him. His eyelids carefully pry themselves open, causing an immediate surge of bright light to strike him and temporarily blind him. A small pin of pain promptly follows in the back of his eyes as Relv’s senses soon return as well. Soon, small waves of pain rumble in his chest and a numb feeling at his neck. Soft, cotton cloths are then felt along his back and around his neck, followed by a cold fluid next to his chest pain. Recovering from his blindness, Relv opens his eyes and sees that he’s in a wooden room with a fireplace to his right and a window bringing daylight inside above the head of what appears to be a bed. Carefully, the red pony places a hoof to the numb area of his neck to find it wrapped in medical bandages.

“What the…” he mutters to himself.

A mare’s voice quickly responds to Relv’s groan from the other end of the bed, “Relv! I’m so happy you’re okay!”

“Fluttershy?” The Earth pony pulls his head up from the pillow and sees Fluttershy hovering over his stomach, holding a clear creamy substance in her hoof. His eyes follow the leg to his stomach. It is bruised and covered in dried red and black blood, with three enormous and deep slashes embedded in the middle of the bloody mess. In a second, Relv realizes what Fluttershy has and will do. “No need for that.”

“What? This disinfectant? I’m just going to help you not get infected and bandage your wounds. I already took care of your neck. Those bite marks that monster gave you were horrific. I’m surprised you were even able stay alive after that, let alone taking it down.”

“I acknowledge your efforts of gratitude, but I prefer you don’t. My leaked regeneration will repair the damage in time.”

“But you could get sick.”

“Let me be then, my repaired tissue as well as the rest of me can grow more natural immunity to infections.”

“Please Relv? I want to thank you as much as I can. Just let me have this moment.” The stallion looks up from the exposed wound and into Fluttershy’s enormous and deep eyes, feeling a slight sense of guilt in the back of his mind. “Please?”

“If you so desire.”

“Thank you.” Gently, the yellow pegasus’ hoof presses onto the massive gashes and slowly strokes each of them, letting the disinfecting juices seep throughout all of it. Relv’s face tightens with pain and agony, but remains overall stiff and indifferent throughout the entire procedure. “Sorry if that hurt.”

“No need to worry.” Then Fluttershy flies over behind the edge of the bed and pulls out a roll of medical bandage warps from it. Placing one end at Relv’s side, Fluttershy gracefully starts to wind it over and under Relv’s arched torso. Meanwhile, Relv looks behind where Fluttershy was and sees his harness, still holding his five swords, handing from an open door. “Did you carry my harness all the way back here?”

“It wasn’t easy, that thing is way heavier than is looks. But with a little help from AJ and Rainbow Dash, we managed.”

“I’m impressed.”

“You are?”

“Each of those swords weighs twenty-five kilograms.”

“They look a lot lighter when you hover them. Aw, shoot.”

“What?”

“I forgot the scissors.”

“Allow me.” Quickly, one of Relv’s swords emerges from its sheath and hovers right next to Fluttershy, causing her to flinch.

“Eep!”

“Apologies.” The yellow mare regains air stability and carefully lifts the white roll over the upturned blade.

“This is kinda what I mean…” She then slides the extended cloth down on the sharp edge and slices it apart from the bundle. There she proceeds to tie the new end into the multi-layered wrap around Relv’s chest.

“What are you going to do now? You don’t have to follow orders, don’t have any grievances with anypony else I hope, and not to mention your recovering from the recent battle that nearly killed you. Will you be sticking around Ponyville?”

“Most likely not, both Ponyville and Canterlot require some time to repair before I can challenge it. I won’t be much help with me stabbing a small knife in an already massive slice.”

“So, where will you be going?”

“Not entirely certain. I’ll need to perform some research of today’s times before taking any actions.”

“But you will come back?”

“Depends if I’ll be required to return back here for some reason or another.”

“Would one of those reasons be to say hi to me, or any of our friends?”

“Most likely not,”

“Oh…”

“One thing I am curious about though… How have your friends reacted to all of this?”

“…”

“I see they’re still not happy with you setting me free and that you’re also scared of going to prison.”

“Wait, wha-”

“Your facial movements and how your grip of the bandages has tightened told me everything.”

“Luna said that if the courts don’t have proof that you were completely responsible for your outbreak or catch you, it’ll be a giant sentencing for me.”

“I see… I’ll take care of it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to attack the courts.”

“I’m not.”

“Relv,”

“Yes?”

“What was it like when you unleashed that final power? Nightmare…”

“Nightmare Formation,”

“Yeah,”

“Well, for starts, very painful throughout the entire ordeal, both in transformation and in combat. I also felt very stupid, aggressive, angry, animalistic, being more instinctive in everything I did without any self-conscious thoughts. It didn’t help that all I saw was red and black.”

“Were you scared of going out of control?”

“Before, yes, during the fight however, the thought never slipped into my train of thought. Fortunately that beast gave a worthy enough fight for me to quench my bloodlust long enough for the power to wear off.”

“What if you did go out of control?”

“As Nightmare Relv, I wouldn’t be able to stop, not for thousands of years until something stronger came along and destroyed me. But by then, all that suffering and destruction I would’ve brought, ponykind probably wouldn’t have lasted. As my normal self, I would be destroyed, ashamed at myself for letting this happen, and feel complete sorrow for every life I destroy.”

“Well, at least you didn’t right.”

“Perhaps, however, maybe somewhere out there. Out there in another world a lot like our own, I didn’t stop…”

“Don’t beat yourself up for something you didn’t do. Be happy with what you actually did.” A loud banging on the houses from door is then heard by the duo. “Oh no…”

“What?”

“It’s them, the few guards remaining to take me away. Stay here and heal while I sort things out.” Frantically, Fluttershy flies down to the front room and opens the door. Immediately, she is greeted by two large white stallions in their golden armour. “Can I help you?”

“By order of the royal courts,” one of the sentries proclaim, “we have come to take you and Relv to prison for your treason against Equestria.”

“I didn’t mean for something bad like Relv’s attack to happen.”

“We’re sorry,” the second guard sternly scolds, “you can tell it to the judges. We don’t make the declarations, we enforce it.”

“Well your enforcements are some of the poorest I have ever seen…” A stallion’s voice calls from the corner of the front room. The three ponies at the door look back to see Relv, with his harness back on his body, slowly walking up to them.

“Excuse me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? This mare’s merely been a pawn that I controlled in my escape, much to Celestia’s idiocy. Behold… Unleashing Power #27: Telepathy!” Relv, now standing right beside Fluttershy, dramatically turns to her and raises a hoof to her forehead, shaking it in the process. Fluttershy gives an awkward look in response to Relv’s movements.

The first guard suddenly exclaims, “He’s mind controlling her! I can sense it!” Relv then breaks from his gesture and slaps the first guard with the back of his hoof, dizzily knocking him aside. With the wide gap now between the two stallions, Relv runs right between them and runs out into the Everfree Forest.

“Quickly!” the second guard commands, “After him! Notify the courts that it’s all Relv’s fault!” Quickly, the two sentries follow in pursuit of Relv into the forest and out of Fluttershy’s sight.

Confused at what just happened, Fluttershy takes a step back to the door and thinks, “Relv wasn’t mind controlling me. Twilight said telepathy doesn’t work like that. So how did that guard sense… Oh… Relv, you clever stallion.” The mare then looks back out the door to where Relv disappeared into the thick of the forest. “Well, goodbye Relv. I hope we can meet again as friends.” Fluttershy soon starts to feel her eyes water as she continues to stare out, imagining seeing Relv run away. “Good luck friend…”

“Luna told me what happened out there in Ponyville. She told me in great detail of you becoming some super-creature and fighting the Hades Timberwolf, saving Ponyville as well as most of Equestria. I’m happy for you Relv. I’ve had my own encounters with several great beasts, I told you that for certain. Now knowing what that final power is, brings both great joy and despair in my heart. I fear that you may use it and inadvertently destroy innocent lives, yet I know that you’ve learned never to take it likely from the first time you used it. At this moment, you may be running from the law as of this moment. Do so, I have come to understand what you want. You want to keep us vigilant, to advance our efforts to end the true, ultimate evil and suffering of all and bring joy and prosperity. I may not agree with your views at times, but that’s what you want. Because you’re the evil Equestria deserves, the evil for us to pursue. So the law will continue to hunt you because you want to take the hunt, you want us to try harder, and advance us all as one. You either die a hero now or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. You intend to act as the latter, but never bring harm to the truly pure and innocent. So in the end, what are you? Are you a hero? Are you a villain? Or are you something else? A while ago, I kept asking myself why I didn't end you. And now I know the truth is, I let you live, because of you. Because I believed in you, deep inside, that you were still a good friend and companion to be at my side for the ages. Though false as I come to see it, however, I realize what I was coming to understanding you. Now I realize that the only way we can be together is if we’re enemies. But we see ourselves enemies with a common goal, a goal to help the world we live in. I didn’t know how to accomplish it before when I became the ruling princess, I was put in charge of a kingdom filled with ponies of all shapes and sizes, and I couldn’t change them anymore than I could’ve changed this kingdom greatly for the better and bring honour to my family. At least, that's what I used to think, until you fought me, all of those times throughout the ages. Maybe... Maybe I can give them something to strive for to help this kingdom. Maybe you can give them something to strive for. You’re not our hero. You’re not our villain. You’re a silent guardian. You are a watchful protector, a paladin of darkness to counter the light. May we clash together as the centuries come and go, fighting as one against each other. Relv, the Black Paladin.”

Farewell

A month passes by with Relv absent from Ponyville. Fluttershy has come to terms with the departure of her companion and has since returned to her normal life while Ponyville repairs itself. One day, Fluttershy decides to take a casual stroll in the Everfree Forest late at night. With the sky clear of clouds and the stars and moon shining brightly, the yellow mare can clearly see ahead of her as she aimlessly walks around. After an hour of walking, Fluttershy eventually enters into the area with the small creek with the waterfall. Memories pass in her head of her, Relv, and Luna sitting side by side at the edge simply talking to each other. The mare slows down and stops as she reaches the edge of the small cliff with the stream flowing to her right.

“I’d figure you’d be here,” a stallion’s voice calls from behind. Recognizing the voice, Fluttershy excitedly looks back to see Relv standing there, as apathetic as ever before. His body is now completely healed and the bandages are gone.

She cheers, “Relv! It’s been so long, I was starting to miss you. How have things been going?”

“I’ve started on my code and I’m keeping it going strong.”

“That sounds nice. Have you gotten in any trouble?”

“I have ten bounties placed on me, all with at least ten thousand bits.”

“Oh, so you’ve been busy…”

“How’s Ponyville?”

“We cleaned up that Hades Timberwolf and are nearly finished with reconstruction after your big fight.”

“And Canterlot?”

“Guards are being hired consistently and the castle’s repairs are halfway finished.”

“Luna? Tia?” Fluttershy giggles upon hearing the names. “What?”

“Sorry, it’s just cute how you still call Celestia that. Regarding the princesses through, they’re fine. Luna’s taking charge of publicity while Celestia’s still recovering. Would it be too much to ask for you to go over and do that regenerating thing to her like you did to me?”

“Yes, it would be too much. It would be much better for her sake if her body recovered more naturally and she’d take this time as discipline to better her combat skills.”

“I guess.”

“How about your-our friends? I can see that they’ve forgiven you.”

“Am I that easy to read?”

“Yes, but not as easy for most others I’ve encountered.”

“Thanks… I guess… But yes, my friends did mostly forgive me for letting you go, seeing as how you stopped that Hades Timberwolf and that they think I was slightly mind controlled.”

“Did the ponies who run the media honestly believe the guards?”

“Yeah, your telepathy really gave them a convincing story.”

“You figured it out… I’m impressed. In all honesty, you’re one of the most surprising ponies I have come across throughout my entire life.”

“Thank you. So what are you doing here?”

“I saw that you were coming back here and I’d thought I’d pay a little visit to sort a few things out. Meditation, gaining some information, a bit of training, and some words to pass around.”

“Words?”

“Yes, first off,” quickly, Relv reveals one of his swords between him and Fluttershy. The pegasus notices that it has a letter tightly wrapped around the cloth hilt.

“A letter?”

“Yes, to Tia. Would you please deliver this to her in the means you seek necessary.”

“Yeah, I could get Spike to take care of it.” With a shuffle of the sword, the white letter pops out of the hilt and in front of Fluttershy. “What’s the letter about?”

“Personal matters for between me and her.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“So what’s the second thing about these words you want to pass around?”

“To you Fluttershy, I have an important matter that you need to be aware of.”

“Okay…”

“Fluttershy, you and your friends have become a threat to my code. And if my code is threatened, everything is threatened. I have developed a connection with you, a connection that can possibly result in your life, my life, or anypony else’s life being taken away, maybe even all options at once. As such, to try and divert the risk, I’m afraid I cannot allow myself to interact with you if it isn’t following my code. So I’m afraid to say, this will be my final genuine visit to you as a friend.”

“What? But, we… I see. Well, it was great being with you, at least, when you weren’t on a rampage.”

“It was… enjoyable… being with you as well, despite the violations carried onto my mind at the times.”

“Will you remember me?”

“Yes. A bright, strong, impressive, young mare once taught me a very valuable lesson about memories. I’ll both remember that teaching and her for the rest of my days.”

“Well, goodbye Relv. Hope we see each other again someday.”

“Farewell to you as well Fluttershy, though my wishes of seeing you or not are currently undecided.”

“I understand, bye.” Relv then turns around and starts to walk away from Fluttershy and back into the thick of the wood. However, just before he completely leaves her, Fluttershy calls out, “Wait, Relv…” He stops, turning his head for the corner of his right eye to see her. “Will we see each other again?”

“I don’t know for certain… There could be the very chance that I may come back to kill you, and completely sever my weaknesses. Or worse, for your sake, I may come back to train you to kill me when the time comes. I pray that never happens.”

“Oh…”

“Farewell."

Dear Tia,

It has been a month since our last encounter. And during that time, a lot of things have happened. I’ve been busy to say the least. Whenever I walk into a heavily populated area these days, ponies would point at me and call me the Black Paladin. I know that either you or Luna had a part in my public name, and I’m content with your actions in doing so. However, one thing I must ponder however, is that are you happy? I’ve read the news, and for some reason, you talk as if I’m a supervillain, but you act in that I’m something Equestria needs. It is as if you have come to the terms of who I am, yet you still pursue me. I guess hundreds of years can bring forth the most unexpected things. I’m curious of what would happen if we were to see each other again. Will we argue? Will we fight? Will you die? Will I die? Will we both die? Will we make peace? Will we relive the days before? Will we even cross paths again? I know not certain. One thing I know for certain however is that the memories will forever live though my unknown number of remaining days. I will always remember you, Luna, Fluttershy, her friends. And your parents, whom I shall forever regret murdering. May your reign prosper for the good of all, Princess Celestia.

The Black Paladin,

Relv

“I see you enjoy that name…”

“Princess Celestia.”

“Oh, guards, I didn’t notice you came in.”

“It was only just now. We apologize for scaring you.”

“It’s fine. What’s going on?”

“It’s the Black Paladin, he just robbed a mall in Manehattan, stole about ten percent of their calculated profits.”

“Oh,”

“But here’s the odd part, on the run from the guards, he took an erratic path throughout the city and the guards lost track of him. Where the guards stopped chasing him however, was in an old warehouse, where the notorious Chariot Killer was found dead on the floor. He apparently died due to a very recent stab through the heart.”

“I see.”

“We don’t get it, how did this serial killer, who has evaded capture from us for a year, end up being found dead after a failed pursuit of the Black Paladin?”

“It baffles me as well at times.”

“Your Highness, the Black Paladin’s been on the lose for over a month, causing crimes left and right and evading capture all over Equestria. Yet for some reason, whenever we chase him, we find a criminal put to justice. There have been tons of crimes committed by him in such a short time, yet the crime rate appears to be dropping. What do you have to say to this?”

“Must be a very strange coincidence or something else,”

“Any change in our plan of action to stop Relv.”

“No, he’ll be caught sooner or later.”

“You sure?”

“I can sense it. Anything else?”

“No your Majesty.”

“You are free to depart then.”

“Yes Princess Celestia.”

“Oh wait,”

“What?”

“When you do catch Re-I mean the Black Paladin, please bring him to me alive. Do no harm to him, take him to the room I am in, and leave us two alone.”

“If I may ask… Why? He’s a dangerous criminal, and leaving you and him alone in the same room, he might very well kill you.”

“I have a suspicion he won’t. I just want to talk with him before you send him off to prison. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes your Majesty.”

“Good, farewell sir.”

“Farewell to you as well Princess Celestia.”

“Farewell, Relv...”

“Farewell, Tia…”

Bonus: Relv's 42 Powers

1) Strength

Multiplies Relv's strength tenfold.

2) Speed

Multiplys Relv's speed tenfold, with his max going slightly beyond the speed of sound.

3) Stamina

Multiplies Relv's stamina tenfold.

4) Mental Processing

Multiplies Relv's mental speed tenfold, being able to react being shot by a sonic cannon at point blank range.

5) Multitasking

Allows Relv to focus on ten different targets as much as a single target with this power unleashed.

6) Sight

Multiplies Relv's range and resolution of his vision tenfold.

7) Hearing

Multiplies Relv's range and clarity of his hearing tenfold.

8) Touch

Multiplies Relv's nerve sensitivity tenfold.

9) Smell

Multiplies Relv's smelling sensitivity tenfold.

10) Taste

Multiplies Relv's tastebud sensitivity tenfold.

11) Agility

Multiplies Relv's agility tenfold.

12) Regeneration

Multiplies Relv's leaked regeneration tenfold, usually used to heal from large cuts, bruises, burns, scars, sprains, and minor impalements.

13) Energy

Multiplies Relv's biological energy tenfold.

14) Energy Conservation

Allows Relv to require less energy when performing activities.

15) Clock Geno-Mutation

Allows Relv to self-mutate DNA to perform differently, either in speed or function.

16) Energy Generation

Allows Relv to produce more biological energy without requiring more fuel.

17) Electricity

Allows Relv to release his own biological energy from his skin.

18) Blood Pressure Control

Allows Relv to change to pressure of his own blood manually, either to lessen bleeding or to absorb an attack.

19) Immunity

Allows Relv complete immunity from any harmful bacteria, viruses, poisons, ingested acids, or natural sickness of any other sort.

20) Mono-Cellular Control

Allows Relv to change DNA for each individual cell of his choice.

21) Hyper Regeneration

Multiplies Relv's leaked regeneration hundredfold, usually used to heal quickly from broken bones, severe impalements, extreme temperatures, acid, and even replace organs with a little more time.

22) Electromagnetism

Allows Relv to channel his biological energy in electromagnetic waves with frequencies of his own choice.

23) Atomic Sensory

Allows Relv to feel an object's structure to an atomic level.

24) Force Control

Allows Relv to either redirect forces or even transfer energy, making the force into another energy.

25) Quantum Sensory

Allows Relv to feel an object's structure and indicate any changes that happened to it and what will happen to it in ten minutes at maximum.

26) Foresight

Allows Relv to see about ten minutes into the future or past at the maximum.

27) Telepathy

Allows Relv to sense what someone within three metre proximity is currently thinking.

28) Quadrangulation

Allows Relv to know where everything is within a kilometre radius and what will happen in the area ten minutes both ahead in the future and the past at maximum.

29) Hyper Strength

Multiplies Relv's leaked strength hundredfold.

30) Magic Altercation

Allows Relv to either redirect or refunction any magic within three metres of him.

31) Anti-Magic

Allows Relv to eradicate all magic within three metres of him. However, this does not eradicate the presence of magic after the power has been unleashed. (That means that unicorns/alicorns can still perform magic afterwards.)

32) Time Bending

Allows Relv to perform two actions in the same instance of time for five seconds, as long as one atom of his body in one action is touching another in his other action. To outside observers, it looks as if Relv's body is splitting into two identical bodies still connected.

33) Space Bending

Allows Relv to skip at least five metres of space within a single instance of time. Whatever atoms that are present to where Relv teleports to will be teleported over to his initial position before the skip.

34) Absolute Regeneration

Allows Relv to preserve his body for at least ten seconds, regenerating whatever bodily tissue is damaged as long as it has room to grow. (This being said, the only way to actually counter it is to perform a complete decapitation that keeps the head separated from the rest of the body by a solid wall.)

35) Impenetrable

Allows Relv to make all of his atomic structure impervious to any piercings, cuts, and damage and still be able to function and move for ten seconds.

36) Telekinesis

Allows Relv to manipulate objects with his mind.

37) Time Folding

Allows Relv to skip an hour ahead or behind in time. Whatever atoms that are present to where Relv time travels to will be teleported over to his initial position before the skip.

38) Atomic Altercation

Allows Relv to manipulate any object within his body and touch down to the atomic level. This can allow him to phase through any object or make any object impervious, including liquid, gas, and plasma matter.

39) Time Manipulation

Allows Relv to either add or remove ten minutes of time at maximum within a five metre radius to his body in a single instance of time.

40) Subatomic Altercation

Allows Relv to manipulate any object within his body and touch down to the subatomic level. This can allow him to literally turn lead into gold by reorganising the protons, neutrons, and electrons making up the object. This can also be done with liquid, gas, and plasma matter.

41) Agelessness

Allows Relv to preserve the age of every cell of his body, making him impervious to any time manipulation or magic spell that can alter age.

42) Nightmare Formation

Transforms Relv into Nightmare Relv, a 1,600 metre tall dragon/pony hybrid with currently unknown abilities. However, is has been noted that Relv has less than half of his IQ while in this state.

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