The Beginning

Chapter One: The Beginning - Written by ChaosHarlequin

Lance sat at his computer, logged into Facebook, typing away at some immature comment. He really hated those. Especially when they were about him or anyone he cared about, which it was. Sure, it was just a Comment, but it didn't help the Fact that the more Popular guys at School had decided it would be hilarious to beat him up. His left Rib felt like someone had broken it in multiple places, and his eye was swollen as heck. He was bleeding when he'd gotten Home, but he'd managed to fix Himself up before he passed out. He didn't want anybody to know that he'd been bashed. Lance looked at the Screen again, feeling the anger fill him.

That Lance guys is a creep, apparently he watches My Little Pony. What a Loser! =P

Posted at 5:30 PM, Today.

Lance balled his hands into fists, and was seconds away from putting his fist through the screen when the status updated. Luckily, his best friend Turns was nice enough to stick up for him. Turns and Lance had been friends all the way through High School, and they'd always stuck up for each other, through thick and thin, Lance would always be Loyal, and Turns would always make everyone crack up into hysterical laughter, including Lance. Lance was the cool, calm one, who was almost way too sporty, and got a lot of chicks, but never dated them. Lance had lots of admirers, due to his Cross Country Record of running 2 Kilometers is 25 minutes. Yeah, it was unbelievable, but he somehow managed to do it in that time. Lance thought back to that day, and remembered.

He was sweating brutally, perspiration rolling around all over him, but the wind was what kept him going. He loved the feel of it and always wished he could just grow wings and fly off into the Sky, relax on some clouds. Lance knew he couldn't go any more, but then something amazing happened. As he stood there, a Rainbow streaked overhead, at a speed that he thought he could match. As soon as he saw it, he felt something push him to chase it, and he did. He sprinted for 800m straight, towards the finish line, and all the while he kept his mind focused on one thing. That if he was fast enough, he would be able to catch that rainbow, and whatever caused it. The people at the finish line were amazed to see the fifteen year old streak past them at a seemingly inhuman speed, following a rainbow. He didn't stop until he lost sight of the rainbow, which had disappeared into the woods. The woods, right behind his house.

Lance was shocked back into the present as he heard a knocking at his front door. He wondered who it could be, as he was sure all of his friends were busy. Lance stood and looked at the screen, noticing another post.

He is not a creep, you're just retarded. You shouldn't be such an ass to him.

Posted at 5:45 PM, Today.

There was Turns, sticking up for him like always. Like Lance, Turns was a party animal, but instead of picking up and chilling, he was the skilled bastard standing at the turntables, ripping out the best beats like it was nothing. Lance and Turns were both capable of making anyone fall for them, except for one difference. Lance looked down for a second, a hint of confusion in his eyes. Sure, they were both good at picking up, but Lance was sure Turns would never hook up with a dude. I mean, sure Lance was wasted as fuck, but seriously? He tried to keep it a secret, but almost everyone found out. That's how shit works, right? You have a secret, it'll fuck you over. That one encounter had given Lance a reputation, and although all the Girls loved him to death, sometimes there would be the awkward gay guy wanting to get into his bed. He hated it so much sometimes, they all expected him to fuck them. Even the thirty-five year old pedophiles.

Another round of knocks at his door made him focus. Lance would just go down there, and yell his head off at whoever the hell was knocking on his door. He wanted to be alone right now, to contemplate what the heck he liked and what he didn't. He basically wanted to do a Kung-Fu kick out the window and land on the person below, but he controlled himself, just like he was taught to by his Family.

He walked down the stairs, grumbling and cursing under his breath. His dark brown hair matted against his head due to him just getting out of the shower. His dark blue eyes, which were imbued with tiny, sparkling droplets of gold, registered barely anything as he walked down the stairs. His shirtless torso was well muscled, and no doubt whoever it was, if they knew him, would either assume or figure out that he had just had sex. Lance opened the door to find Turns standing there, in the rain. Why he was there Lance had no idea. no idea at all. Lance quickly pulled his friend inside, with a weird glance.

"What the fuck man, standing out there in the freaking rain, I'm going to laugh my ass off if you get sick. You little douchebag". Lance said the last sentence in a lighthearted tone, not really letting on that he was worried at all. "So why the hell did you come here, anyway?" Turns looked at him with a grin. "Dude, you KNOW that I needed to show you my new mix, but hey, sorry if I 'interrupted' you, or anything". Turns said that with a massive smile plastered to his face. Lance knew just what he meant. In fact, Lance had been busy, with a Girl. She'd left a few minutes ago and Lance'd had a quick shower to was the sweat and other, fluids, off of himself.

Lance pointed upstairs. "Meet you in my room, I'm going to put some clothes on. As turns rushed up the Stairs, and Lance went into the closet downstairs, he heard someone else knocking at his door. Lance quickly put on his jeans and a white T-Shirt, then went and answered the door. He opened the door, and standing there was another of his friends, Will Takura. In the soaking rain, but not for long. Lance threw him inside as well, and pointed for him to go upstairs. In the next twenty minutes, everyone was in his upstairs room, and a beautiful rainbow had appeared. Lance looked at it as a reminder of his run, and suddenly felt the anticipation set in. Anticipation for what? How the heck did Lance know? It didn't matter. Sure, it was raining like a bitch outside, but Lance knew he and his friends would be fine to leg it to the concert.

Lance leaped up the stairs and shouted for his friends to hurry up and get ready or they'll miss it. Turns and Will were downstairs first, then the others arrived. As they left the House, the rain pelted down. They were suprised to see that the Rainbow lead right to their destination. "Well that is convenient, I mean it is pretty co-". Lance cut whoever said it off. "Guys, if we don't fully leg it, we'll be late". Lance gave them his usual 'I bet I can beat you there' grin and dashed off, but instead of following the path, he followed the Rainbow.

The memories flooded through him as he began to pick up speed, leaving the others behind. Lance was definitely not prepared for what happened next. The rainbow suddenly curved down, splitting into pieces and forming a circle around him and his friends. Lance was about to tell the others to grab hands, but then the ground fell away, and they were thrown into a purple whirlpool of confusion.

Lance reached out to grab Turns, but Turns was sucked away, then so was Will, then the others, one by one. Lance was left alone in the Whirl, trying to get a grip on the situation, but he felt himself changing. He looked down and say grass, looked up and saw sky instead of a hole, and then it all went dark.

ChaosHarlequin: Remember to comment people, and stuff =D

The Awakening Part I: Dark Star (Lance)

Written by ChaosHarlequin -

The grass was nice, soft and lush. Surely it would be green, I mean, since when was dead grass ever this nice? Lance tried to open his eyes, but for some reason they wouldn't obey him. Open, nope, yes, nope, yes, nope, yes ,nope. It was a never ending tug of war between two separate parts of his body. eventually his brain won and his eyes gave in. They popped open fast, and he was confronted by a horrible sight. Sure, the Grass actually was green, but it was what was on the grass that was obviously out of place. Blood, lots of blood, it looked like someone had gotten twenty whales and blown them up. For some reason a song he liked a lot, Rainbow Factory, suddenly popped into his head. His thoughts reeled around the chorus for ages, as he lay there on the bloody grass. He felt odd, splayed out on the grass in a weird position, he felt the need to move, which he did. He tried to stand, but fell over immediately, due to all of the blood everywhere. Lance swore under his breathe, and decided to look around some more. The first thing he saw when he turned around was a corpse. Sitting right there, beside him, entrails laying all over the place. It's heart was still pumping blood the gaping hole inside it, and the torn flesh of the corpse seemed to be crudely cut with either some massive claws or a butcher knife. Hopefully it was the latter. The eyeballs dangled from the eye sockets, spilling putrid puss everywhere, attracting flies and insects alike. The worst thing was, it looked like the poor bastard had been raped before, or after, it's death. Then it clicked. that wasn't a human, it was a.....

The shock of the situation hit Lance like a freight train, and he automatically fell onto his ass again. He looked at his hands and feet, which were replaced with hooves. He knew something was wrong. A tuft of chocolate colored hair fell onto his face and he quickly pushed it away. He wanted to see what he looked like, and he was hoping to whatever was out there that he was still whole. He looked back at the deceased pony, and noticed more things. It's intestine had been wrapped around its neck, and it's jaw was completely gone, it's tongue flopping in plain view. It's teeth were yellow and broken, and it's head had obviously been smashed with a blunt object, as Lance could see inside it, the brains, blood and everything else was visible. The legs were twisted and bent at odd angles, angles that could never be natural. Another thing that seemed odd was that it's heart was missing, in it's place was a single feather of purest jet black, with red crosses patterned onto it. The blood was dry and sticky, and there was mold coving parts of it's body. Creatures already inhabited it's body, and Lance could only look away.

He closed his eyes tight as they could go, butt it still didn't work. So he decided to face it head on. He stood, on four legs instead of two this time, and realized one thing. There were a lot more corpses, all of them different, but all of them shared the missing heart replaced by the feather. Lance felt his knees threaten to buckle, but as he was about to fall, something hit him from behind. Lance had been in his fair share of fights, and he immediately engaged fight or flight mode, rolling into a position that would allow him to quickly launch himself at his attacker. He prepared to lunge when he looked up at the face of his opponent.

Those hauntingly beautiful rose colored eyes. The brilliant rainbow mane and tail, the pale cyan fur and the outstanding mark, a cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt shooting out from it. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, in front of him, glaring with hate and obviously ready for a fight, was the one, the only, the fastest Mare in Equestria, Rainbow Dash. Before Lance could say anything, she leaped at him, and he only just managed to roll out of the way. As soon as he stood up, Rainbow was charging back towards him. He decided to go on the offensive this time, and sidestepped just as she passed him. He grabbed for her tail but he missed. He needed to slow her down.

It took a while to think of how to slow her down, mostly due to the fact that she was throwing all of her charges at him. She obviously didn't care who he was, she wanted him in the Ground, and Lance intended to find out why. As she went to charge him, Lance ducked under Rainbow, and as soon as she was above him, he launched himself up, grabbed her wings and pulled her to the ground. She was struggling a lot, and she got a few good hits on him, but Lance managed to hold her down long enough to knock her out with a simple choke hold. After doing this, he sought out a way to tie her up.

He ventured into the Jungle and eventually found some nice, tough looking vines. He was about to grab another vine when there was a sudden pain in the back of his leg. He turn around to see a very tired looking Rainbow Dash laying there. She'd obviously dragged herself all the way here to try and escape, found you, then decided to bite you. You really didn't want to kick her, after all, you did really like her, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Something crashed through the canopy and landed a few feet away. Lance turned to see a very real monster, and it looked like it wanted Rainbow Dash. Not just wanted, but WANTED. The look of pure hatred mixed with lust in it's eyes made Lance mad, and then there was Rainbow herself, barely able to move, now Lance noticed, due to a spike sticking into her chest, above her heart. Her eyes begged him to help her, and he knew what must be done.

The Beast took a step towards her, it's dog like features reminding Lance of Cerberus. It constantly had droll pooling in it's open jaw, and the spines on it's back were obviously the same that had hit Rainbow Dash. Lance took a step forward, but the beast suddenly spun and shot five darts at him, he manages to dodge most of them, but a broken one had pierced his arm. A type of pain shot through him, the type that caused you to instantly fall to the ground and lay still, because if you moved you would die. The Beast, satisfied with it's job, returned to stalk towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow's eyes closed for a second, when they reopened they showed nothing. At least she was going to try and keep her dignity. The dog thing lifted her up, but she still kept eye contact with Lance. The dog being grinned, as if it was going to do unspeakable things to her. It changed her position into one that looked like it would be able to...

Lance's mind raced, and as he watched, a single tear fell from Rainbow's eye. That was the last straw. A sudden rage burst through Lance, and a name flashed through his mind.

Suddenly the paralyzing effects of the dart were gone, and Lance stood. In his most powerful voice he shouted. "Oi, shit fer brains, put her down and fight me, or are you a cat instead of a dog?". Somehow the creature understood him, and it tossed Rainbow aside like a rag doll, instead turning on what it now saw as it's main target, it's biggest threat. The only thing that overcame the poison and challenged it head on. The Beast growled, and then lunged. Lance did the same, but instead of running, Lance unfurled his previously hidden wings, and leaped into the air, crashing right into the beast. He knew the only way to stop it was to.... kill it.

Lance landed on the beast hard, causing it to fall off balance and hit its head into a rock While the thing was stunned, Lance looked around. he found a suitable weapon, a long pole made of what seemed to be a strong wood-like material. Lance grabbed it and held it in a slightly awkward handhold. I mean, he had no fingers to grip it with, but that's not what he want to do with the stick. He found a sharp stone and quickly smashed it into the stick, causing it to look like a spear. Lance liked Spears. He liked Lances even more though.

The beast was angry now, not only had it been completely owned, but the annoying Stallion was now wielding a weapon. The Creature decided to just charge and see what happened, and it did just that. The Young Stallion didn't even flinch when it ran at him full speed. Just as the beast was about to sunder him in to billions of pieces, the Stallion leaped, throwing the spear straight down, through the creatures spine. The Creature gasped, still alive, but unable to move. The Stallion was smart, that much was obvious. The creature was in heavy anticipation for a heavy beating, and Lance obliged.

Lance walked over to the Dog and gave it one good whack to the face, followed by around fifty seven more rapid ones. All the while he was yelling again the horrid yelps and cries of the beast. The beast was in so much pain, both from the Stallion and the spear stuck through it's own spine. The Stallion kept beating it's head in until it felt finished. All the while yelling angrily. Things such as:

"What? You can dish it but ya can't take it?"
"How dare you even try and do that to her!"
"Just wait until i find whoever sent your sorry ass!"
And he went on and on and on and on and on until he was finished.

When Lance was finished, the beasts face was a bloody mess. Broken nose, torn off skin, squashed eyeballs dripping juices onto the ground. And just to be a troll to whoever sent it, he ripped it's jaw off and cut it open with it's teeth. Lance ripped out it's heart and put the feather in it's place. He grinned and chuckled to himself. "Man, the Big Bad is gonna be so pissed when he finds out I trolled him like this". Lance stood to see Rainbow Dash looking at him in amazement, and obviously the effects of the poison were wearing off. Rainbow had pulled herself over to a nearby log and layed herself against it, letting out barely audible sobs. Lance took a step towards and, happily finding that she wasn't going to attack him, proceeded towards the Mare he liked so much.

Lance sat down beside her and put his hoof on her 'arm' as he would call it. As soon as she felt his touch, she stopped crying, whipped around and slapped him across the face. Then she pushed him to the floor and straddled him. She was fairly light, and Lance knew he could easily throw her off, but she looked kind of confused and she wanted answers. Lance opened his mouth to speak when she punched him again, in the same spot earlier, which made it hurt so much more.

"If anypony's going to be asking questions, it's ME, got it?"
Lance nodded. "Okay then, why did you fight it, why go through all that trouble when you're one of them? Unless you're a selfish Demon who wants to present me to Chaos yourself. So tell me, if you're one of them, why did you do it?" Lance smirked and then, out of nowhere, a burst of laughter burst out of his mouth, which he quickly clamped closed. He looked at her, and couldn't help but pass off a smart comment. "You know, you're cute when you're angry". Rainbow went to punch him, but he twisted and she was winded as she hit the ground, and then Lance pinned her. A grin spread across his face.

"Why did I fight that monster? Well, I'm sure as hell not going to let him do anything to the famous Rainbow Dash am I? That wouldn't be very cool of me". Lance stood up and let Rainbow stand. She eyed him wearily, and slightly blushed. "Well, erm, thanks. I didn't need your help though. I could've handled it". She looked away as if she was going to say something else, but before she could, Lance spoke up. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. D'ya mind pointing me in the direction of the closest town?". Rainbow looked up and locked eyes with Lance, a smirk growing on her face. "Sure, you mean Ponyville I'll take you there. But only if you can keep up!". With that, Rainbow Dash took off, and it took a second for Lance to realize that he'd just been challenged to a race. a grin slid it's way across his face, and he quickly ran after her. "Oh trust me Rainbow Dash, you won't lose me that easily".

Lance caught up to Rainbow pretty easily, after all, it was a footrace. Lance smiled at her as he passed, and she responded by speeding up herself. They were evenly matched, both having incredible endurance, and almost supernatural speed. Except for one thing. Lance was still under the effects of the poison, which hampered his speed. Boy, was Rainbow in for a surprise when he beat her to Ponyville. Rainbow looked over at Lance and asked him what his name was. Lance thought for a moment and then replied.

"Dark Star."

ChaosHarlequin: AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.
Remember to comment, rate and other stuff. =D

The Awakening Part II: Turns

Written by DJpinkypie, Edited by ChaosHarlequin.

Confusion was the first thing he felt, other than the throbbing pain deep in his skull. Turns couldn't help but look around even though the dim light hurt his eyes somewhat. ‘Oh man that must have been some after party last night’, he thought to himself as he went to rub his temples with his..... HOOF!? “Oh man is that a hoof? This isn’t supposed to be there!”. Turns had started to panic, had he been turned into a horse or something with hooves?
Someone or something must have heard him. The next thing he saw was a pink pony standing in the door way of the room that he was in. “Well of course you have hooves silly, you're a Pony”. The odd pink pony said, Giggling all the while.
"Wait I know that voice, the Pink fur, the crazy hairdo. No way this isn't happening, it's impossible, yet here she is talking to me". Turns thought, his mind racing. “Hey, erm, what is your Name?” Turns asked the pink Pony.
"My name is Pinkie Pie silly, what's yours?” the pink Pony responded gleefully.

“My name is Turns.” Was all that he could reply with. In all honesty he was speechless and rather awestruck that this was happening.
“So are surprised to wake up here? Are you?”
“Well you could say that, but where is here anyways?” Turns asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. Judging by the scenery and the colors he could almost guess, but still there was something off kilter so he had to be sure his assumptions were correct.
“You're in Ponyville of course.” Pinkie resounded almost as soon as she heard the question, “Only Twilight said this isn’t the Ponyville that you would know of. There was something terrible that happened.”
“I’m sorry but how do I know I’m not just dreaming?” Turns couldn’t help but to ask this question. He was expecting to wake up at any moment. “Ouch, ok I’m not dreaming, but wait that means this is all real, Wait you said this wouldn’t be the Ponyville that I remember, what did you mean?”

“We better wait until we see twilight and the others before I explain much more but lets just say it not a big huge party here anymore, in fact its been a while since I’ve had a party here at all.”
‘Wow that bad huh?’ Whatever must have happened it must have been a doozy.
“So um is there a mirror I can look in since i'm a pony now I want to see what I look like.” Turns asked anxious to change the subject.
“Oh sure follow me.” Pinkie pie said. She began to lead him down the stairs, to a bakery. "Oh my god I’m in Sugarcube Corner!" he thought to himself as the couple trotted towards the Pinkie Pie mirror room.
“Here you go!” she exclaimed in her usually cheerful voice as the entered the room. “Ill just leave you for a little while, I’m sure you have a few things bouncing around in that noggin". She said as she closed the door behind her leaving Turns alone in the room.

She was right he had quite a few questions for her but he wasn’t sure if asking Pinkie Pie would be the best person to ask, nah better to ask twilight, or better yet wait for it to be explained to me, I wouldn’t want to seem rude I am a guest after all. Still turns couldn’t help but find some humor in the situation, ‘Hey at least I can say I woke up in pinkie pie’s bed’
All joking thoughts aside turns decided to look in the full body mirror at the far end of the room. Turns was a slender figure but not without muscle of his own. His pelt, if that was what it was called, was a dark pink color, his mane a jet black just like his real hair.
As turns stood there pondering he couldn’t help but think back to the events of the last time he had seen his friends, they were running off to a concert following a Rainbow that just happened to be going the same way the Concert was. It was fun to challenge Lance to a Race, even though Turns knew the only way he would beat him is if he had a broken leg, and it was not the case this time. He remembered something happening, and then darkness. The next thing he recalls after that is waking up with this damn headache.

Turns was brought back to the world by a knocking at the door. “Turns we need to get going, are you alright in there?” He recognized pinkie’s voice almost instantly.
“Yeah I’m fine.” Turns replied stepping away from the mirror, “So where are we going?”
“Well I think its about the right time to go see my bestest friend twilight.”
“Cool, lets get going then.” Turns said excitedly I cant wait to meet everyone else. “Do you know were my friends are?”
“Oh I'm sure they are with their other elements.”
What elements. What did she mean by elements? Oh well he would find out soon enough. It was time to meet the rest. Why was he here what had happened to this place, and most importantly exactly what was he going to do?

The Awakening Part III: Country Smash (Keith)

Written by AshtonSSG.

Keith woke up in a barn, which wasn’t an unusual thing, be he had never be in this barn before.

It had an odd atmosphere to it, nothing like he’d ever felt. Everything was different, the way things looked, smelled, felt.

I think what stuck out most was that I couldn’t remember what had happened.

“Where in Tarnation am I?” he laid on the dirt and looked around for a moment.

He looked down at himself, only to notice that his hands and feet had been replaced with hooves.

“Hey, now what’s happening here!?” Keith stood up, quite surprised within himself on how well he could stand and walk in this new body.

“What is this? Where am I?” he asked himself these questions over and over again, pacing up and down the barn.

The barn had a few animals inside, but all the doors and windows locked, but some holes in the roof let enough light in so Keith could see.

He looked over, the see his white cowboy hat, something he always wore. He trotted over and put it on his head. He felt somewhat relieved inside.

Outside the barn was many a tree, full of apples, quite a sight to see. There was also a family, A brother, two sisters, and a grandmother, who all lived on an apple farm.

Applejack was standing right outside of the door. She was headed in to the eggs from the chickens, until she heard Keith voice from the other side.

“Well how did somepony get in there? All the doors and windows are still locked, and there ain’t no way they got up on that roof.” She put a hoof to her chin and thought about it.

“Well, he don’t sound like he’s doin’ anything. I’d better go in there and see what’s up.” Applejack started to unlock and open the door, and Keith heard it.

“Hello? Who’s there?” Keith tensed up, having no knowledge of who or what could be on the other side.

But, instead of what he expected, in front of the open door and stood a orange coated pony, with a defined figure. The only thing she wore was a cowboy hat, much like his. From out and under the hat flowed a long golden hair, brought down to a ponytail.

“Hey there, Sugarcube!” she smiled and asked Keith. Even though she knew it was a little foggy on how he got inside the barn, she still showed complete kindness. “Now tell me, How’d ya get in here, pal?”

“Well…Umm…I’m not really sure, Mam.” He looked down and kicked the dirt, and frowned. “I was home, and then something happened…and then I woke up here.” “Well, what’s your name?”

“Country Smash.” He told her. “Country Smash? What in the hell made me say Country Smash? My name was Keith…our maybe it was Country Smash? I’d try to say Keith, but it would come out Country Smash. and now that I think about it, my actual human memories are somewhat muddy…I could remember certain things, but they didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m guessing that Country Smash was my pony name.” he thought to himself.

“Well Country, we’ll see if we can find you some help. Here, follow me.” Applejack headed out of the barn, with Country Smash right behind.

They headed into the house, which gave off a strong scent of assorted apple goods. The house itself had a very country presence, much like his house did, or at least what he could remember of it. The décor of the house was very southern, which pleased Country.

Applejack sat in the main room, and Country also took a seat. “Now Country, you said you couldn’t remember anything?” “No, mam. I just remember waking up in the barn out there.” “Alright, Sugarcube, were gonna figure this out.” Applejack left the room the room, but soon came back with three other ponies, all different shapes and sizes. A small yellow filly jumped over to him and shouted, “Howdy! How are ya?” The small little filly continued to ask questions far to fast for Country to ask, until she was stopped when Applejack stuck a hoof in here mouth. “Sorry…She likes to meet new people.”

After Applejack scooted Apple Bloom over to the side, an elder pony walked over to him and told him, “Young man, Applejack has told us what happened, and will get you help. But you can’t think on an empty stomach, and it’s late anyways. Please tell me you’re going to stay here and join us for dinner?” Country told the sweet old woman he say, but where would he go had he said no? He had just woken up on the dirt in a place he’d never been before.

They soon sat down at a table, and ate a pasta dinner. Country wondered what food ponies would eat, since he could somewhat remember eating meat quite often when he was human. It was just a normal pasta, but everything had a hint of apple, just a pinch of apple, or the secret ingredient is apples, and oddly enough it was quite satisfying.

They sat around the table after dinner and talked, but Country just sat and listened until Apple Bloom asked…”So, how’d you get your Cutie Mark, Country?” His cutie mark as Acoustic Guitar, but the image seemed quite familiar to him. “Now, Now, he may not remember all this.” Country sat and thought for a minute and said, “Actually, that story is actually something I can make sense of. You said that a Cutie Mark shows what your special talent is? From what I can remember, a lot of the images I see of me holding a guitar like this, and from what it sounds like, I’m singing Country Music, with a lot of people around. So I guess that my special talent is country music.” Applejack looked at him and smiled, “Well, I think your name makes a lot more sense now. Do you think you could remember the guitar?” “Maybe, I could try.”

Applejack had walked over to the Bigger Red pony, who hadn’t talked much at all that night, only saying scare words when he did speak. He left up the stairs, and came back with a Guitar, and handed it to Country.

Country Strummed, and it made noise. Country the placed his hoof on the Fretboard, in all the right places to play a few chords. “See, look! Sounds like you still know a thing or two!” Applejack told him.

Country continued to play some chords for a few minutes, but soon he started to play small pieces from songs, until…”Well, this may be something I know better than I thought.” Granny Smith looked over at him and told him, “Your special talent is something you never forget. You see this Cutie Mark I’ve got here? I was the best darn apple baker around when I was your age, and I still am.” She smiled.

After that was told to Country, something surged through him. “Thank you Granny Smith, now if you don’t mind, I’d like to play you a little song I wrote.” Country Cleared his throat, and began to strum.

“Autumn's almost over, the gentle winter's on the way. Still, I sit here on this balcony, and smoke my brain away. Waiting on that phone to ring, wondering which day that it will be…”

Every pony became very quiet and focused in on Country, and watched the stars dance in his eyes.

“Oh Baby, I pray one day you'll go back home, To the warmth of the ponies you know back home, And leave all the pain you've felt from me, here in Saddleveil.”

“Oh you were just a young girl, and I swore I could change. Every day that you forgive me, is just another one you'll waste. You came here in search of something true. I hope like hell your searching isn't through.”

He sang the Chorus again, then said these words…

“It's hard to think that everything around her, to know that won't be happy ever after…”

He sang his Chorus one more, then finished his song.

“Hmm…I don’t remember the song going like that. When I thought it in my head, it was the original…or was it? I still can’t remember, maybe my brains making things into a pony language, so it’s better understood here…if this is even MY brain.” Country thought to himself.

“My, My, Country, that was Beautiful!” Applejack told him. “Thank you, Mam, but it is awfully late, and I’ve had a long day. You wouldn’t mind to show me to my room, would you?” “Oh, of course not Sugarcube!” Applejack trotted out of the the room with County, showing him upstairs into an empty room.

“Well, here we are, this is where you’ll be sleeping for the night.” Country walked over to the bed, and laid down, only to feel all comfort the bed gave him. He sat up and looked at AJ, “Why thank you Ms. Applejack, But…may I ask you something?” “Sure, Hun.” “You’ll still be here tomorrow, right?” Applejack stopped and gave him a funny look. “Well I ain’t going anywhere, but why do you ask?” “Well Ms. Applejack, ever since I arrived here, you’ve already taken me in for the night, and you barely know a thing about me. I trust you. I don’t know anything about where I am, and I want you to show me…but most of all, I want to get to know you, Applejack.”

Applejack smiled at him and blushed, “Yes, Country. I’ll be here tomorrow, and we’ll talk, I’ll show you around, and I’ll tell you about myself. Country, you’re a gentle and kind pony, much like me, and that’s why I trust you. I want to know more about you too, but tell me this… You’ll still be here tomorrow, Right?”

“Yes, Mam.”

The Darkness is where they Hide

Dark looked around, it was extremely dark in this Cave, but Rainbow had told him it was the quickest way to Ponyville. Sure, Dark was happy to be here, with the Mare of his dreams, but he couldn't stop thinking about his friends. Hopefully they would be alive and unharmed. Turns was a fairly good fighter, being slightly stronger than Dark, but Dark was sure he could easily avoid all of his attacks. Keith on the other hand, well, Dark didn't know. He'd never seen Keith fight or anything, so Dark just assumed that Keith wouldn't be able to handle himself, but he could always be wrong. Adjusting to being a Stallion was actually pretty easy. The sad thing? He couldn't hold onto things very well, which meant that he couldn't use swords or anything like that. Or could he? Dark didn't know if he could quite yet, so he decided that he would hold things in his Mouth until he did.

"So, Rainbow, are ya sure that this is the quick way?". Dark was slightly nervous about being in a Cave, considering the Beast in the Forest earlier. Dark was sure it wanted to... "Damn, I need to get off this thought train, it's driving me nuts" Dark thought to himself. His head was clouded with visions, thoughts, and on top of that, every step he took, it felt like something was hunting him. Numerous times throughout his and Rainbow's journey through the Cave had Dark heard something hit a rock, or heavy breathing, or something else like that, and Dark didn't like it. Dark looked over at Rainbow, barely visible in the nearly nonexistent light. He was about to say something when a blade whizzed past him, well, it would have if his shoulder wasn't in the way.

The Blade was lodged right into his left shoulder blade, in the ball and socket joint that connected his arm to his shoulder. The blood spurted out almost immediately, exploding in a fine, red mist, showering both Dark Star and Rainbow Dash with crimson liquid. Dark nearly cried out in agony, but felt that if he did, Rainbow would think he was weak and abandon him, so he kept his jaw clenched shut and focused on not showing any emotion. Rainbow leaped back as she realised what the heck just happened. She gave Dark a look of curiosity, then turn and looked in the direction that the blade had come from. There, standing over them, was another Stallion, and it seemed like it knew who both of them were. Rainbow yelled up at the figure, asking what the heck it was doing, why it decided to throw a freaking knife into her friends shoulder. Rainbow looked at it harder and noticed that it didn't look like any Demon she'd ever seen, so it must just be a crazed Stallion that snapped due to, well, Chaos.

Dark Star looked at the wound, inspecting it, not even really minding the blood that had now coated the walls and his mane, tail and body. He stood up on two hooves and tried to turn, only to find something was holding him back. He pulled himself as hard as he could, but he couldn't budge. He turned to Rainbow and realised. "Rainbow, this thing is attached to something, and I know that some-". He didn't even finish his sentence before the Stallion glaring at them tugged brutally on the cord that Dark only now realised he was holding. Dark heard a crunch, followed by a slight snap as he felt the top of his humerus pop out of his shoulder socket. The skin tore and bone jutted out, the force of the tug sending Dark flying, and eventually he smacked into the ground with a sickening thud. His arm was pinned under him, whilst his working arm fumbled to push him up, but the pain was too great, and as soon as he moved, the knife cut deeper into him, sometimes scraping the bone. Dark grunted in pain, even though on the inside he was screaming, thrashing around and making the pain even worse.

For Rainbow Dash, who's life had just been saved by the Stallion who called himself Dark Star, there were two courses of action. One, she could just run off, save herself the injury, and betray him. Or she could do the 'right' things, and get up there and smack the shit out of that Masked Stallion. Rainbow was about to rush up there when the bastard tugged on the knife, ripping a massive gash through Dark's arm and pulling the bone out of place. Which in turn sent even more blood everywhere. Rainbow was over it. She leaped up, unfurling her wings as she did so. She flapped them when she reached the highest point in her jump, which accelerated her through the air. She thought of tackling her opposition, but that would probably cause even more damage to Dark. So she did something that even she didn't think she would ever do. She raced over to the cord, and as the Stallion pulled on it, she tugged it in her direction, which basically meant that the pony with the strongest will won, and the better endurance. Dash was sure she had this in the bag, when she felt something whiz past her ear. It was another of those blades, and Rainbow wondered where the fucker was pulling them from. She kept pulling, and as she was sure she was about to win, the rope behind her slackened, and she barely had enough time to duck before it sliced the air over her head. She looked down at Dark Star in amazement, after all, it took guts to pull out a knife, and she was sure that he was feeling faint, there was way too much blood around.

Dark tugged again, finally jerking the knife free with a sickening tearing sound. The Knife still had pieces of him on it, but it wasn't too bad. What he was really worried about was the fact that he couldn't move his left arm at all, and that there was an obviously crazy Stallion up there, and it had attacked him and Rainbow Dash when they weren't expecting it. Dark was angry, but he couldn't really attack the stallion when his arm was completely mangled. He didn't even know if he could walk properly any more.Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rainbow Dash charge at the Masked Stallion. She tackled right into him, and sent the both of the crashing to the ground. As soon as it was clear who was on top, Dark ran over, but as soon as he did, something happened. The Stallion bucked Dash in the stomach, sending her flying way too far away for that kick to be natural. Rainbow hit the wall with a cracking sound, but she flipped herself around and kicked off of the wall, dashing toward her target. Dark Star followed suit, basically racing her to the Stallion. They both leaped at the same time, giving the Stallion a chance to kick one of them, and he decided to kick Dark, just to be a prick. His hooves hit Dark's left shoulder, basically destroying the mess of blood, flesh and bones that was already there. Dark impacted into the wall, and felt something tug at his consciousness. He was about to pass out when he realised something.

Rainbow hit the Stallion once again in the face, and then again. Sure, there was a mask there, but it was starting to crack now and Rainbow felt like she was smashing something under there. She hit the fucker again and heard something snap. Yes! She'd broken it's nose, or something. Hopefully it would be enough to kill it. Rainbow was about to crack it's mask when Dark Star called out. She turned angrily toward him, and he motioned to the Stallions mouth. Rainbow looked, and in it's mouth was a rope, which was connected to a lever. Rainbow realised what was going to happen. In it's last dying breaths, it would pull the rope, then the lever would activate. And the-

Rainbow's thoughts were interrupted by something grabbing her from behind and throwing her off of the Stallion. She looked to see Dark standing over it, and then he did something she would later yell at him for doing. Firstly, Dark removed the mask, and the face was unidentifiable. Something was off, and Dark could feel it. He turned around, looking at Rainbow, and then he did the silliest thing ever. He kicked the Stallion in the face, which jerked the rope free, which pulled the lever, which caused the Roof to Cave in. Rainbow stared at the Stallion, and even though he looked a year older, she was pissed. "What the hay did you do THAT for? Are you CRAZY? Seriously? I mean, we might di- wait, why are we still standing here? Let's go! MOVE IT MISTER!". Something told Dark Star that it would never end until she'd gotten all of her anger out.

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Ten minutes later Dark and Rainbow were outside. It was sunny at first, the brilliant, beaming sun shot straight down onto them, blinding them and stopping them from looking around. Dark's eyes adjusted fairly quickly, but still looking directly at the Sun would still blind him. Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. She turned to Dark and gave him a quick look over. "Well, you look like you need some help there. Anyway, since we're out of that stupid cave now, and into the AWESOME open Fields again, which aren't covered in blood, I can fill you in about what the hay is going on here. Before I start though, I need to know something first". Rainbow paused, looking at Dark with an expression that showed him that she wanted him to ask her 'What'. Dark looked at her, half covered in blood and with a scratch here and there. Dark looked at his shoulder, bandaged up with, obviously, bandages. Luckily Rainbow had been carrying some with her, so he hadn't lost too much blood, but he still felt faint and couldn't move his left arm at all. He looked at the Mare in front of him and asked: "What?"

Rainbow grinned a smile that sent ripples down Dark's spine, in a good way. Or at least that's what he thought. "You think you're man enough to handle it?".

HarlequinKnight: =D Comment, Watch, Track, etc. The Party's about to get started! >8D

Relizations

Three streets outside of Sugarcube Corner were dark. It was night time by the time that he and Pinkie finally left the bakery. Most of the other buildings had broken walls and shattered windows. But one thing bothered turns the most. The dirt roads of Ponyville were riddled with debris, Mr. Cake had given Turns some special horseshoes to protect his hooves from the debris. The entire town seemed desolate; everything was covered in a layer of what looked like soot. Almost as if the town had been visited by an angry dragon, but that couldn’t have been it. There were no destroyed buildings, no claw marks on the ground, not even a trail were the tail would have been drug behind it.

Of everything that tugged at his demeanor was the change in Pinkie as they left Sugarcube corner and begun down the side alleys leading towards twilight’s library, her previously cheery attitude was replaced by one of seriousness, the fun loving pinkie was being suppressed by something in the air, something unidentified by turns. She was right though this was not the Ponyville that he remembered. What was usually bright and beautiful was eerie and dark, foreign gray and the feeling of overwhelming sadness seemed to emanate from everywhere. Pinkie was not her usual self, her skipping had ceased and was replaced by a careful trot.
Her eyes were kept forward at all times. She instructed turns to remain out of the direct sunlight of else “they” would get him. Turns did not ask, nor did he want to. In all honesty he was kind of afraid to ask.

They had made it half way down the streets when Pinkie drug him Into a small shack like structure on the side of the street.

“Shhhh, they are here.” Pinkie whispered into his ear.

“Who…” was all turns had the time to say before getting a particularly dirty hoof in his mouth.

Then he saw the figure at the other side of the road through a crack in the wooden walls. It looked like a pony from afar. Then as it got closer it transformed, its head was grossly similar to that of a spider its fangs dripping with what looked like saliva, of it could have been poison, turns wasn’t sure whether or not spiders here were poisonous. Its body was almost as long as the alley it stood in easily at least the length of the building that they were hidden in and black as night. Its legs were long and thick two had what looked to be clawed appendages and the others looked just like a dragons hind legs.

“What is it?” Turns asked as quietly as he could.

“It is one of THEM” she replied the fear in her eye was evident, this worried turns greatly never had pinkie been afraid of anything.

“I know this one.” She continued, “He was the one that attacked me behind Sugarcube Corner.”

“Wait so things actually attack you? I knew things had changed but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Turns replied.

Then came the squeal, that horrid sound that came from behind them was horrendous. It was something akin to a young foal being slaughtered. It striped Turns of his security instantly causing to tense up ready for a fight that was sure to come. Pinkie on the other hand was just as calm as she could be, this puzzled him she acted as if nothing was happening. Whatever it was that was standing outside the building must have heard the sound as well for it immediately turned back to its semi-pony form and headed for the entrance of the shack.

“How fast can you Gallop?” Pinkie asked him as the creature approached the entrance of the door to the shack.

“I’m still not quite used to being a pony to tell you the truth,” Turns replied to her, “But I think that if it came to that, it doesn’t look like they can move that quickly.”

Just then the creature took a look to its side at another creature thing similar to the first but smaller in stature. It was the first to enter the shack. Turns and Pinkie tried desperately to remain as silent as possible but Pinkie accidently knocked over a small glass bottle that shattered the instant that it hit the floor of the shack that they were in. The first creature immediately launched itself at Pinkie. She leaped out of the way extremely fast but was struck by the second creature knocking her to the ground.

Turns was the next one to react, slamming himself into the smaller of the two creatures using his brute force to snap its legs in half. It screamed and lashed out at him with his other legs but to no avail. Seizing the opportunity pinkie immediately drew her knife from her saddlebag and sliced the through of the smaller creature ending its life like it was nothing. The second one immediately went for turns hind legs with its claws ripping open a long serrated cut along his flank through the center of his cutie mark. Despite being wounded by the sharp claws, Turns used all the strength he could muster and charged at the creature before it could react. He slammed as hard as he could mustering all of his strength and lowering his shoulder to hit the creature on the side of the head. The creature must have lost consciousness because it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Once again pinkie didn’t hesitate to end the larger creature as well.

“We need to get out of here now there will be others soon.” She yelled at Turns, “If we don’t go now we will be creature chow!” She exclaimed as turns was obviously a little shocked by what just happened.

“What the fuck is going on here.” Turns mind was on a whole different planet until he felt a hoof slap to the back of the head.

“Twilight will explain later but for right now we need to be galloping the hell out of here!” Pinkie said the anxiety was obvious. So turns just nodded in agreement and followed her out.

Trotting through town was dangerous every now and then pinkie and Turns would have to hide in the shadows or in decrepit buildings to avoid more of the creatures that were hunting them now it seemed. They must have seen their fallen friends and figured whoever was responsible must still be near.

It was in a shack that Turns came across a stairwell leading down into what looked to have been an old club. It was hard to tell there was hardly any light but for turns there was no mistaking the dance floor he had seen many different ones but he knew them when he saw them. Pinkie had stayed behind in the main room keeping watch while turns went to explore. The club must have been pretty popular there were still unopened bottles of very expensive looking alcohols. Turns decided to go behind the dusty bar to sample some of the equestrian booze.

Then he saw her. she was Lying there behind the bar. It was Vinyl Scratch, one of his favorite ponies as a child. She looked as if she were asleep so Turns gently nudged her shoulder with his hooves to try and wake her. He knew that he should have walked away right then and just let the mare lie there, But he made the mistake of rolling her over and what he saw made his heart drop. Her body was mutilated even in the dim light turns could see that her horn was broken. What sickened him most of all was the look of terror she still had on her even in death she was mortified. Upon further inspection of the body Turns could tell her last moments were not pleasant ones, she had been raped and after that had been gutted and hastily sown back together to look as if she were some freakish ornament. Her pelt was now a light red around her stomach area were the blood had dried on it. Turns found in the chest cavity were her heart should have been, a small black feather. Upon seeing this turns had to look away he could not stand the though that one of his childhood friends had been put through this pain and torture.

Turns walked solemnly back up the stairs to were pinkie was keeping watch. He was careful not to startle her lest he were to be impaled by the rather large knife that pinkie had found. He could not help but cry at what he had just found and pinkie saw it instantly.

“Look Turns I know this a sad place and all but please don’t cry I promise as soon as all this is over that I’m going to throw you an awesome party.” She said in an attempt to cheer him up but it was to no avail.

“Pinkie you should come with me, you should see this.” Turns was able to cough out after his sobbing had subsided a little.

“Ok.” She replied

Turns led her down the stairs and towards were the body of the famed DJ was lying. He motioned for pinkie to go ahead. His stomach began to turn even being near this hellish place. He could not take a step closer lest he lose his lunch.

Pinkie did not like what she saw either instead of tearing up like she did she instead rolled the body back over and said what looked to Turns to be some sort of a prayer though he was pretty sure that’s wasn’t what it was. When she walked back over to turns she asked him, “You knew who she was didn’t you.”

“Yes I did, she was very special to me, In my world people would think I were crazy if I were to tell them this but seeing as this is your world I suppose it’s alright.” He began. “You see if it weren’t for Vinyl there I would have never become a DJ. She was one of the things that inspired me to become a DJ. Seeing her here like this.” Turns began to cry again he could not help himself the tears came like a rives and would not stop no matter how much he tried.

Pinkie pie only wrapped Turns in a warm hug.

“Hey Turns can I tell you something. We didn’t bring you five here by accident we looked at who would be able to help us the most. And I knew from the start that I would fall in love with one of you.” She whispered sweetly into his ear.

“You did?” Turns managed between sobs.

“Yeah I did, and with what just happened you showed you have a lot of love and compassion and now that I know there is a pony out there that wont hide things from me. I think I know which one of you I fell in love with the most.” And with that she planted a long loving kiss right on turns mouth.

The embrace and the kiss had Turns thoroughly confused but he did have feeling for pinkie as well, after all she had saved his life. And she nursed him back to health after the incident that brought him here in the first place.

“Hey Pinkie, I love you too.” Was all turns could say as a reply. Their embrace lasted a couple hours. They just sat there in each others arms not wanting to move. For that time they both forgot what they had just seen. The carnage and the horror washed away in the embrace of the mare. Turns longed for this feeling to never go away. It was there and he clung to it as long as he could.

They slept in that place that night deciding to finish their journey in the morning. Pinkie said it was far too dangerous to go at night anyways.