Martin pointed at the street with a still shocked expression. Springing forth from the concrete were apple trees and bits and pieces of different buildings of varying architecture were littering his front lawn.

Shining Armor walked up to what looked like the top of a tower, “This looks like one of the spikes on The Statue of Freedom’s crown.”

Sortitus swore under his breath, “It seems my estimate for the convergence was off. It has already begun!”

Luna glanced at the aspect, “But why hasn’t it reached Ponyville or Canterlot yet?”

Sortitus looked at the reddening sky, “The areas susceptible to the convergence vary depending on location. It’s all a matter of time now.”

Rainbow cracked her knuckles, “Then lets shifts into turbo and find that portal!”

Sortitus stopped her for a second, “do not be too hasty. I’m not sure what the convergence could be doing to all of your abilities or to just all of us individually.”

Pinkie Pie looked at Martin, “Hmmm, Martin why don’t you try flying.”

Martin jumped before Sortitus could object and hovered at level with his roof then plopped onto the ground causing a grunt of pain.

Luna and Rainbow then spoke in unison, “Not good.”

*

In Ponyville Lupe was waving the stone in the air back and forth as it seemed to glow one second and stopped the next, “I think it’s broken.”

Rarity examined it, “Nope. I still sense whatever magic is inside of it is working at full capacity. The problem is you’re not doing it right.”

Applejack looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Ah suppose you know what the right way is?”

Rarity blushed in embarrassment, “Well…I didn’t say that.”

Cadance glanced at both of them, “Arguing isn’t helping the situation girls.”

Celestia nodded, “Indeed, we must double our efforts,” she looked at the sky and noticed the clouds blackening and the sky steadily becoming a volcanic red, “Time is running out.”

*

Shining Armor was slowly waving the stone in a horizontal sweeping motion as Rainbow groaned, “Found anything yet?”

Shining spoke while still looking at the crystal, “Nothing yet…wait a minute.”

*

Lupe held the stone up, “I got a signal!”

*

Rainbow Dash sighed, “Finally, how far and what direction?”

Shining Armor pointed, “Due east.”

Martin looked in the direction, “That’s downtown though, it’ll be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

Shining Armor held the stone up as a statue of Celestia appeared behind him, “Not if you have a metal detector.”

*

Alan was gradually releasing bolts of electricity from palm to palm, “Hey.”

The group looked at him as Alan lowered his hands, “My charge was just subjected to the dimmer switch.”

Aequivalere was puzzled, “It seems that the convergence of the two worlds has most likely halved your powers along with Martin’s.”

Alan was not too happy with this revelation as they reached Rarity`s Boutique. When they arrived at the location the stone was glowing as bright as a miniature sun.

Lupe pointed at the door, “This is the place.”

Aequivalere approached, “Excellent.”

Rarity approached both of them, “Then close it and be done with it.”

Aequivalere shook his head, “We cannot until the others have arrived at the other side.”

*

They others at that time were hoofing it in the direction as the stone began to glow brighter and fade occasionally only for it to brighten as they corrected their course. As they ran they began to notice more Equestrian culture was appearing around them along with the occasional frightened pony which in turn caused several humans to become greatly frightened. As they ran and neared the anomaly, Martin suddenly clenched his shoulder in pain.

Twilight motioned for the others to keep going as Twilight caught her friend, “What’s the matter?”

Martin spoke through gritted teeth as he broke out into a sweat, “My shoulder feels like it’s on fire!”

Twilight moved his hand and gasped. Under the fabric of the shirt was a black glow that was steadily beating.

Martin noticed it, “What’s wrong with me?”

Twilight thought for a second, “Martin, wasn’t this the shoulder that Phobos hit with his sword?”

Martin nodded as she moved the fabric aside and pressed her hand to it with shut eyes. However as she did this, black electricity arched to her hand causing her to yelp in pain and go limp in Martin’s arms.

*

Twilight looked around the twisted looking living room of Martin’s Equestrian home with shock and awe only to be distracted by somepony clearing their throat. She turned her head and noticed Martin…or something that looked like him leering at her from an armchair.

Dark Martin approached her and placed a bone like claw under her chin, “Mama don’t like nosey children.”

Twilight screamed as the claw began to sink into her skin.

*

Twilight snapped out of her trance and crawled away from Martin in fear, “WHAT WAS THAT!?”

The glow dimmed slightly but didn’t leave as Martin helped the trembling woman to her feet, “Twilight what the hell happened?”

Twilight shuddered at the memory, “Something is inside you…something…evil and vile. But it seemed so familiar.”

Martin stared at her, “You saw him too didn’t you?”

Twilight slowly nodded making a sigh arise from Martin, “Then at least I know I’m NOT crazy.”

Twilight gestured for him to follow her as they ran to catch up with the group.

They soon found them staring at a white hole that was imbedded in the side of the alleyway they had all arrived in. As they stared at the hole they noticed that the other group was staring back at them with relieved faces.

Sortitus approached the hole, “Alright, let’s close this thing.”

Shining Armor passed the stone to Sortitus as Aequivalere held his toward the portal on the Equestrian side. Soon a resounding boom was heard accompanied by a white flash and the portal was shut…except for one small thing.

Cadance looked down at her new form which was garbed in a white dress gown as she stumbled from the sudden shift in proportion into her husband’s open arms, “Whoa…this is new.”

Shining smiled, “Don’t worry, it’s all about finding your center of balance.”

Everypony cheered in victory as Rainbow flexed her left arm, “Once again we have saved the world from jeopardy.”

Alan and she both embraced causing surprised stares from everypony as Alan smiled, “Yeah…forget to tell you all.”

Fluttershy pointed up, “Um I don’t mean to interrupt but I don’t think our worlds in jeopardy at the moment.”

Everypony looked up as the temperature increased and the sky literally began to burn as a hole opened up. Soon a large shape erupted into the sky shedding a large dark shadow accompanied by embers which rained down. The shape was a massive flaming bird with feathers of ash and eyes of the brightest flame. Every crease on its body along with what seemed to be cracks glowed with internal fiery heat.

A screech was heard from its maw causing every civilian and pony alike to run for cover as a blast of pure heat and fire erupted from its open maw and scorched a line of the city before it.

Martin covered his ears, “I DON’T GET IT WE CLOSED THE PORTAL!!!”

Sortitus yelled back as another jet of flame scorched another section of the city, “THE HOLE MUST HAVE JUST GOTTEN JUST BIG ENOUGH TO ACCOMMODATE HER!!”

Alan then let loose a yell, “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUU…..”

*

Meanwhile in Antarctica

An eskimo looked up as a loud, “UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!,” was heard.

*

Alan breathed, “UCK!’

Martin looked at him in surprise, “Vegeta rage much?”

Alan panted, “Sorry.”

Sortitus looked up at the sky only to yell, “WATCH OUT!”

Sortitus threw up a barrier as a jet of flame hit the block they were on as they all noticed Averius turn her attention to just them specifically.

Celestia looked to the rest of them as she raised her hand and her entire being began to glow white as her irises became fiery red accompanied with her hair becoming literal fire as she fired a ball of condensed light, fire and magic at Averius which caused the great beast to cringe in pain and anger as she prepared to fire a second jet of flame. Lupe looked at Sortitus who was still providing cove as Celestia hurled more magic projectiles at Averius.

Sortitus yelled at the rest of them, “I CAN NOT KEEP THIS UP FOREVER!”

Aequivalere nodded, “Understood.”

He then quickly ported the rest of the group except for Sortitus, Luna and Celestia to appear behind the massive fire bird on the ground as Aequivalere fired another ball of energy at the bird. With Twilight, Rarity, and Alan pooling in their own attacks causing Averius to become attacked from both sides.

Martin looked up, “it’s not working.”

He then looked at the sky as his eyes widened. The hole Averius had come through was still open and churning with energy.

He then ran to Aequivalere, “Can the stones close the ANY anomaly?”

Aequivalere looked to the sky, “OF COURSE!”

Martin took the stones from the aspect and ran into the scorched land before him. Lupe looked after him and followed close behind him.

Martin stopped in the middle of the intersection as Lupe cleared him some room with her telekinesis as Martin produced the stones and examined them. As he did, the burning sensation reappeared with more ferocity which he ignored as best as he could.

Lupe looked at him, “What’s the plan?”

Martin pointed at Averius and the portal respectively as he spoke, “Get that back into that and shut it,” he then clinked the stones together, “with these.”

Lupe then pointed something out, “How are you going to do that?”

Martin then sighed, “Didn’t get that far yet.”

Lupe looked up as Averius noticed Martin and the stones and inhaled deeply and breathed a much larger jet of flame. Martin looked up with wide eyes as the flame engulfed both him and Lupe.

Everypony present then yelled, “NOOOOOO!!”

The rest of it was caught in their throats when they saw the fire being pushed back from the two humans. Everypony noticed that Lupe seemed to be pushing it back with a large cone of solidified air which shocked them all.

Lupe yelled over the roar of the flames as the heat singed her hair down to shoulder length, “GET MOVING!”

Martin bolted away under the jet of flames as he ran toward Sortitus’s location as Lupe yelled over the fire, “I’VE BEEN BURNED BY WORSE BITCH!!!”

Martin approached Sortitus as he quickly stated while pointing at Averius, “How good is your aim!”

Sortitus smiled as the aspect levitated him only for Martin to tell Sortitus, “Hit her with everything!”

Sortitus nodded as he hurled the human toward Averius and both he, the princesses, his brother, and all other magic users present fired complete beams of power at the giant avian forcing her backwards into the hole against her will. As Martin was closing in the burning became unbearable as he yelled in both agony and determination as he was almost touching Averius.

Averius was halfway through when Martin hurled toward the open hole and yelled, “SEE YOU IN HELL!!!”

Martin tossed both glowing stones into the hole and shielded his eyes as the hole snapped shut with a cataclysmic smash hurtling him toward the ground like a bullet. He noticed for a fleeting moment a shape and voice during his decent.

A women with fire colored hair that was waist length with parted bangs wearing an ash colored cloak with kind yellow eyes and a youthful face smiled at him and spoke in a kind voice as the upper half of the great firebird began to fall with him and burn up, “Thank You.”

Martin uttered a quiet, “anytime.”

He then yelled out as he began to fall toward the ground….then appeared on the ground unconscious in a flash of white.

Everypony looked up in amazement as the upper half plummeted. The amazement soon turned to fear as it began to burn bright and flare with flames.

Lupe looked at everypony as her frightened face turned to one of steely determination, “Get behind me.”

Then like a nuke the upper half exploded in a tsunami of white hot and blue flame. Time seemed to stop as Lupe stared at the explosion, in the back of her mind something clicked as her pupils dilated to their maximum extent. In that instance the explosion was smacked into and was suspended in the air by a massive invisible barrier as everyone gasped in amazement as the explosion was slowly dissipating. The barrier ruptured as the flames cooled and smacked into Lupe hurling her into Fluttershy’s arms.

Lupe’s eyes opened and saw that her clothes were slightly singed and she had ash on her as did everypony else, “I’m not burned.”

Fluttershy looked at her, “how is that possible?”

Sortitus raised his hand, “That’s not important now. All of you get to Martin’s while I and Aequivalere fix the damage on Earth.”

*

An hour passed and Martin showed no sign of waking up much to Applejack’s sadness. She was reassured that at any moment he would wake up with a smile on his face. Everypony else was sitting in the kitchen waiting for their turn at the shower as Rainbow banged on the door.

Rainbow yelled into the bathroom, “Rarity hurry up! SOME of us have to use the shower in this century!”

Rarity responded with her humming a tune causing Rainbow to groan in anger.

She was about to break in and drag Rarity out by her hair until she heard Pinkie yell, “MARTIN’S AWAKE!”

Rainbow ran downstairs but stopped halfway when Applejack began to back away from Martin who was smiling maliciously at her with completely black eyes.

Before anypony could react, Martin grabbed AJ on either side of her head causing her pupils to shrink as she collapsed in unison with Martin who followed afterwards.

Twilight checked them both with a look of surprise when the magic scan was complete, “I don’t believe it.”

Cadance looked at her, “What is it?”

Twilight stood in astonishment, “Martin’s somehow managed to both pull in and link Applejacks mind with his own.”

Alan looked at her worried, “Can she be pulled out?”

Twilight shook her head, “It’s a rock hard connection. If I even attempt a separation I could leave their minds in a permanent state of limbo.”

Fluttershy was worried as well, “what do we do then?”

Twilight sighed, “The only thing we can do, wait and see. The only way they’ll be separated is if the one who caused it reverses it.”

Alan looked at her, “Twilight, you know what did this don’t you?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes and I think I now know what IT or more accurately WHO and WHAT it is.”

*

Applejack was standing in the foyer of Martin’s Equestrian home and was frantically looking around, “MARTIN! SORTITUS! TWILIGHT! CAN ANYPONY HEAR ME!!!”

A chuckle was heard behind her, “A screamer eh? I like that in a woman.”

Applejack slowly turned around and was face to face with Dark Martin who flashed her a toothy grin with fang like canine teeth as his completely black eyes changed slightly. Blood red rings appeared in both of his eyes where his irises would be and glowed menacingly.

Dark Martin chuckled once more as the pony backed into a wall, “Don’t worry my dear I don’t bite…hard.”

Dark Martin raised both his eyebrows a few times only to be booted in the crotch as AJ ran out toward the front door as Dark Martin yelled, “AND into rough play GOD YOUR SEXY!!!”

Applejack threw open the door and dropped into blackness as Dark Martin’s laughter followed her all the way down.

*

Martin awoke inside of the same mirror he was thrown into by his doppelganger banging and yelling soundlessly in his attempt to escape.

The end of this inferno is next.