Two thousand years ago, in the middle of a beautiful morning, a lone guard walked through the garden maze. He waited patiently for the princess to be done talking to the Statue of Discord as she always did. It had only been a year since Discord’s imprisonment, and she would always take time to visit him. His reign over the land had lasted one thousand years and now he was defeated.

As the guard continued to wait, a mysterious figure walked up. The figure had a shadowy look to him. He walked to the entrance. The guard saw him and yelled for him to stop. “Stop right there. Nopony is to bother Princess Celestia right now.”

He didn’t listen, so the guard charged forward. The figure simply looked at him with a glare. The guard caught sight of the glare and kept charging forward. Then something the figure said stopped the guard instantly. “Bow.”

Uncontrollably, the guard stopped and began to bow down against his own will as an unknown force pulled him down. “What is happening?” said the guard. His body quaked in agony as he tried to fight it, but the unknown force began to pull stronger.

“I said BOW,” the figure repeated. The force that pulling became even stronger. Finally, the guard could fight no more. It felt like the space around him was being bent. The figure looked into the entrance and saw the princess talking with the statue. “Hmm, seems brother is busy talking with that mare. Oh well, I’ll talk to Discord later.” The figure then looked at the guard as he pulled out a letter. “Meanwhile, listen guard. You are to give this to Princess Luna. Tell her I will be waiting avidly for her reply.”

Once the letter was placed on the ground, the figure disappeared in shadowy smoke. And with him so did the unknown force that had been pushing on the guard. The guard fell to the ground unconscious. The last thing he saw was Princess Celestia running towards him as she saw him fall.

******

‘F’ slowly woke from his dream. He found himself on a bed in the infirmary ward of the titan airship. He slowly looked around as he lay there. For some reason, he was unable to move. Soon he heard voices in the other room.

“So this device I made from the crystal should show us a mini version of the map, and show where those three orbs are at all times.” said Doctor Whooves.

“Good,” answered Flash. “I’ll hold on to it.”

Their voices began to grow quieter as everything was going silent. Once no sound could be heard, the light in the room began to dim as the shadows in the room began to move on their own.

‘F’’s eyes widened as he saw the shadows slowly uniting into an all too familiar, shadowy figure. He tried to move or give some warning to anypony, but ‘F’ couldn’t move at all. Entering was somepony he knew all too well. Entering the room was Father.

“Do not be alarmed ‘F’. I am not here to harm you. And besides, you know very well I can’t leave her side. I sent my astral projection. You’re probably wondering, why am I here. Well, I sensed Cult Race. But don’t worry, it seems he has left already. Now back to what you were doing. Oh yes, dreaming.”

Father clapped his hands and everything began to blur, as ‘F’ return to slumber.

******

And so the dreaming continued. In the same garden walked the same guard only now he was older and wiser. He wore the robes of a royal advisor. It was long sleeved, in particular, the left sleeve was longer than the right. In fact, the entire limb could not be seen. He also had wrapping on the left side of head. He walked until he saw the shadowy figure once more. “You,” he said as he held up his left sleeve and pointed towards the figure.

The figure spoke “Well, well it’s been over a thousand years since our last meeting, Fre--”

“You have no right to speak that name to me,” he interrupted him.

“Oh, that’s right. You go by ‘F’ now, don’t you?”

“Yeah, what of it?” ‘F’ answered as he pulled his left sleeve down rather forcibly.

“In a way, I’m glad to see that you're back in Celestia’s good graces. Well, most of you,” he noted this as he stared with an angered look upon ‘F’’s left sleeve. “I thought you would have had him removed long ago.”

“That’s not the point R--”

“It’s Saruman now,” he interrupted ‘F’.

“Hmm, you changed your name again as well? How many times is that now?”

“Fifty-two,” Saruman answered. “Of course when you live as long as I have, you tend to lose count a few times.”

“Alright then ‘Saruman’. Why are you here?”

“I could ask you the same thing ‘F’. But if you must know, I’m here for Luna.”

“Nightmare Moon is imprisoned. And that is where she will stay.”

“Luna,” he said with slightly raised anger. “is meant to be home with her sister.”

“Don’t you mean with you?” ‘F’ questioned. Saruman laid his face down and let out a small chuckle.

“Despite your assumptions, I only want what is best for Luna.”

“Which to you is back by your side.”

“Fine, see it as you shall. I will not argue with somepony who stole his immortality,” he retorted back to ‘F’ with a smirk. “You know, it’s strange that you would become the new royal advisor since you and I both know what happen to the last one.” Saruman noted as he once again looked at ‘F’s left sleeve, this time with more anger. “Is he awake?”

“He always is. However, I managed to find ways to--” Suddenly ‘F’ was interrupted by a filly that ran up to him.

“Great grandfather, great grandfather! I have wonderful news,” she said as she ran up to him. “The princess has offered to make me her personal student.”

‘F’ turned to her and kneeled down placing his right hand over her mane. “Oh, that’s wonderful. You go tell your parents.” Saruman looked perplexed at the little filly. Soon the little filly ran to go tell her parents the good news. ‘F’ stood back up and looked at him. “What is going on in that mind of yours?”

“Is it me or does she look a lot like--” Saruman stopped himself as a certain princess walked up to them. ‘F’ turned, but then the dream began to clear once more.

******

‘F’ woke up. He could see Father’s astral projection was still in the room. The projection seemed to be listening to Twilight's voice on the other side of the wall. “Hmm, it seemed my brother Discord has been captured by a group called the Forest Rebels, and Twilight has decided to lead a search party to find them.” He looked back at ‘F’. “You have done well in training her. But you still keep too many secrets from her.”

“I have to. You know very well what happened last time somepony told the truth about my curse.”

“Ah yes, Celestia’s death. But that was of her doing, not mine. There’s no reason to blame me or yourself for what Princess Burning Star did.”

“Like it matters to you, you monster.”

“Oh, that was uncalled for ‘F’. How about I make the next dream even worse, by having you remember the day you met your poor little student Flash?”

“No….” ‘F’ tried to fight it, but couldn’t as the world blurred once more.

“Now shall we finish these nightmares.” He finished as he clapped his hands.

******

A new dream began. ‘F’ was walking through the Everfree Forest. His left sleeve had been twitching uncontrollably for days. So he thought if he got some fresh air he hoped it would calm him down, but the sleeve was still twitching.

“What is with you? Why have you been so erratic lately?” ‘F’ questioned as he looked at his left sleeve.

Suddenly they were bothered by an interruption. ‘F’ heard a voice from behind him.

“‘F’... I need your…. help,” the voice said faintly. He turned to see where the voice was coming from, only to see a yellow pegasus with a white mane. He was wearing a torn up lab coat and he had something hidden under a cloth. ‘F’ knew instantly who it was.

“Richard Sentry?” he said as he rushed over. He grabbed Richard as he fell. “What happen Richard? Tell me!”

“I’m sorry. I betrayed your teachings. For years now I have been secretly working with Saruman on a project called the Ryu Experiment. It involved the dragon egg that Princess Luna found millenniums ago. The twisted experiments...I couldn’t take it anymore. So I ran, and now,” It was at the point that ‘F’ noticed several broken bones all over his body.

“Richard, you're badly injured. We need to get you some help, right now.”

“No, it’s too late for me. Saruman has sent ‘him’ after me.”

“You mean--” but ‘F’ was quickly interrupted.

“Yes him, you know what that means. My family is already gone. I was only able to get my son out of there.” Richard unveiled what was under the cloth. It was a young colt asleep. “This is Flash Sentry.” He handed his son to ‘F’. “Please, ‘F’, you were my mentor in the Cult of Light. I ask you now to be his mentor, too.”

‘F’ took the colt from his old student. He then placed his student down and took a step back as Richard continued. “Saruman has a plan to set Nightmare Moon free. He plans to execute it in three years time. Please ‘F’, forgive me for listening to that shadow.”

“I forgive you, old friend.”

“Now go. He will soon be here. I don’t want my son to be here for this.”

Doing as his old student asked, ‘F’ quickly ran out of there with the young colt. As soon as they were out of sight Richard slowly got up and tried to run the other direction, but was stopped by an all too voice.

“Well, where do you think you're going?” ask the assassin that was following him. He landed from the sky, pulling in his moth-like wings in the process.

Richard looked at his assassin. Knowing full well there was no escape, he instantly knew what to do next. “I’m going to kill you Cult Race--”

“STOP.” Cult Race said as his prey instantly froze as he caught sight of his eyes. Time had stopped around Richard. Moments later time resumed, as Cult Race stood there with bloody bone knives in his hands and blood spurted in all direction from Richard’s body as it was ripped apart piece by piece.

******

‘F’ woke up from the final dream only to see Father was gone. And Twilight was now in the room. “‘F’ you’re finally awake. What were you dreaming of?”

“Nightmares,” he answered as he sat up.

“Oh, I see. You’ve been out for the remainder of the month. We left the Sky Sanctuary just a few hours ago. My training is over with and we just dropped off Cheerilee near the CD ruins. We received a message that Discord has been captured, Flash, Big Mac and I are going to rescue him.” Twilight was about to ask about the nightmares, but then ‘F’ quickly decided to change the subject.

“I heard that Cult Race showed up while I was out.”

“How did you--”

“Thin walls.” He interrupted as he didn’t want them to worry over the fact Father was there without them knowing. “Anyway, Cult Race. If I remember correctly, he used the Glare on you.”

“The Glare?” Twilight questioned.

“Yes, the Glare is a master spell that can only be performed by a very few strong magic users. Even I can’t use the move properly. It condenses a certain form of magic on a certain point.”

“I see,” she said as she brought up a notepad and quill.

“The Glare acts differently based on what kind of magic is being used. Cult Race is a master of light magic. Light magic in its strongest form can bend time, combined Glare, which condenses a magic to a certain point. Together this allows the user to bend time like a bubble around the enemy. The drawback is he has to keep eye contact with the target at all times”

“So that’s what happen.”

“Tell me, Twilight what did he do?”

Twilight put the notepad down. “He stabbed his hand through my chest.”

“Is that all? He was being merciful.”

“Merciful?” she quickly questioned, with tears in her eyes. “How was that merciful? And how can I still remember it?”

“Well, you can still remember it because memories are the only thing not affected by time bending, I mean look at your body. Ever since you left the time bubble of the Sky Sanctuary, you reverted back to you original age, yet the memories you had in there are still there in your mind. As to you other question, Cult Race has done a lot worse in his time of killing.”

“You sound like you know him,” she questioned rather quickly.

“Yes, truthfully I do. He is an immortal assassin who has been around since the rise of Discord’s reign. He has been hired by many groups throughout the millenniums from the A.N.T.I. to the Cult of Light.”

“Wait, you mentioned that group one time.”

“Yes. I was once one of their highest members. The Cult of Light was formed by a descendant of the Order of Light.” ‘F’ lifted his right arm and grabbed his left shoulder, as it ached, before continuing. “But unlike the Order, the Cult of Light was highly racist. I only stayed with them due to their access of the ancient technologies.”

“Okay, well that one mystery out of the way. But you said Cult Race was being merciful. You mean you’ve seen him do worse.”

“Yes.”

“When?”

‘F’ took a deep breath. “Twilight, I know you know about the royals and the secondary royals. But nopony told you what happen to their families.” Twilight’s eyes widened. ‘F’ saw her reaction and continued. “That right, your alternate's parents, Trixie’s parents, Rarity’s parents and many more. Even Flash’s parents were among the victims. They were all killed by Cult Race. And he didn’t just simply kill them.” He took another deep breath. “He ripped them apart. Cult Race hunts for the thrill of killing and to him, it does not matter who or how many. That’s the reason they call him the Killer of Millions.”

The two continued to talk until they arrived at the Massive Everfree Forest. ‘F’ tried his best during the entire conversation, to not talk about the dreams or the fact that Father was there earlier. He still believed that Twilight was not ready for everything, despite what Father said.

******

Meanwhile in the Massive Everfree Forest. A certain yellow pegasus mare walked up to her leader. “My leader, King of beasts, as strange as it may sound, we have more intruders approaching in a blue box.”

The leader of the Forest Rebels simply sat there in his throne. Not much could be seen of him as he rolled his fingers up and down. He spoke. “A blue box? Is this supposed to be amusing?” he questioned. She did not answer. He lifted his hand and continued. “Fluttershy bring them to me, broken or not. It does not matter to me, but alive.”

******

Twilight and the group stepped out of the titan airship. They had landed on the outskirts of the ruined Ponyville. Big Macintosh looked to his old hometown as he clutched what he had hidden under his armor - memories of old he tried to ignore. Twilight looked at him and realized that this must have been hard on the big guy, but then she saw his face. It was motionless.

She tried to ask if he would be okay when she was stopped by a small argument back on the ship. She quickly ran inside to see what was wrong. She came up to the Doctor and Derpy who seemed to be talking to the ship again. She had seen them talking to the ship a few times like it was alive. “What's wrong Doctor?” she asked.

“I don’t know. She seems to be irritated by something.”

‘F’ walked up to them. “How about you and Derpy stay here and work on it? Try to see what is wrong.”

“Okay, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Alright, meanwhile I’ll be exploring the town. Twilight, you, Flash and Big Mac go explore the forest. We need to find out where the Forest Rebel’s base is. Once you have figured out where it is, contact me with a small dark magic flare spell.”

“Okay.”

After that, she ran outside the meet up with the others. ‘F’ went to walking through the town and the Doctor and Derpy went to working on the ship. And at the same time unknown to the two, a strange shadow sneaked out the doorway.

******

Twilight, Flash and Big Macintosh looked around. The entrance looked exactly how Twilight described it. Several trees were covered in plunder vines. Twilight felt a chill going down her spine as they stepped closer. She remembered all the hopelessness the forest filled her with.

They stepped inside. The chill got worse. They had to hurry up and find the Forest Rebel’s base. They made their way to Twilight’s map. Twilight ran up to it. “Wow, how did we find it so fast? I must have run for hours when I was in here before.”

“That’s no surprise, Twilight. This forest plays tricks on the mind. You could wander for days and not even know it.”

“Then how are we getting through so easily?”

Big Macintosh stepped forward and took a stance as if ready for battle. He spoke. “Simple. She's happy to see me.”

“What?”

Suddenly trees began to ruffle as several enemies approached. They were wearing black robes and hoods. They jumped through the trees with such speed it was like they weren't even ponies at all, moving more like cats. There was at least a couple dozen of them and they all wielded shurikens and kunai.

“What are they?”

“Ninjas.”

******

‘F’ walked through the ruins of Ponyville. A distinct shadow was still following him. He kept walking. He soon came up to the treehouse library. “Okay, we are far enough you can show back up now.”

Suddenly Father’s astral projection rose up. “So you knew I was still there?”

“Of course I did. But why are you still here, Saruman?”

“Why else? To talk to you. With Discord under his watch, I can’t go talk to him. You are my only choice for answers.”

“Answers to what?”

“This alternate timeline that Twilight is from.”

“What do you mean?”

Father took a moment to take a breath. “Is Luna free from Nightmare in her timeline?”

“Yes.”

“Am I with--”

“You were not mentioned anywhere near Luna.” ‘F’ interrupted him. He saw the annoyance in his eyes. “However, she did mention somepony named Nightflare. Does he sound familiar?”

A smile crept forth to his face. “Yes, he does.”

******

Twilight, Flash and Big Macintosh got ready as the ninjas charged them. “Fight hand to hand,” Flash ordered.

“Easier said than done,” Twilight said as she dodged a swing. Two ninjas jumped towards her. She ducked and rolled, then kicked into the two, knocking them into the air. She then jumped and flew, knocking them into the trees.

Meanwhile, Big Macintosh swung his big arms, knocking down a few of the ninjas. More ninjas jumped on top of him. Soon they piled him to the ground. “Big Mac!” Twilight called out.

“Don’t worry, he can handle himself,” said Flash. Big Macintosh knocked them off quite quickly.

At the same time, Flash was quickly surrounded by five. “Hmm, easy.” One enemy in front of him threw a fist forward. He leaned to the left as he started to use his lightning fast movement. One tried to attack from the left. He saw this and then caught the fist that he was dodging and sent them into the enemy on the left. The one to the right jumped forward. He purposely continued to lean to the left until he fell and sent his legs up, kicking one leg between the legs of that one and his other foot into the enemy's face. The other two were taken by complete surprise by his moves, which to them it looked more like a blur. Before they could even react, he used his hands as he fell to push himself into a spin in the air. His legs flew about, knocking them into the ground. He finally flipped back up and landed upright. "See? Easy!"

“Oh sure. When you use that lightning speed it is,” Twilight said in annoyance as she landed.

“Enough banter. She’s here.”

“Who?”

Suddenly the trees began to move on their own. The plunder vines began to retract. Big Macintosh turned and looked right at Twilight. “Send a distress signa--” But before he could say the rest, he was grabbed by the feet by the plunder vines.

******

‘F’ and Father were still talking when Derpy ran up. “‘F’? Twilight has sent a distress signal.” She instantly stopped as he saw Father there. “What is he doing here?”

“Don’t worry, Derpy. It’s just an astral projection of him. He's been following me since I left the ship.”

Father looked at the mare, in particular, her eyes. “Hmm, your eyes...they seem familiar.”

“And what do you mean by that?” she quickly questioned.

“I really shouldn’t be saying this, but Night Fright has a test subject with similar eyes.”

Her lopsided eyes widened in horror. “Dinky?”

“Is that that one’s name? A cute little gray unicorn filly? Oh, I do believe she has a few sisters, too.” He saw the fear quickly growing on her face.

“Enough,” said ‘F’. He knew that Derpy was weak-minded and such words could easily break her.

“Fine. Do with the intel as you will. Meanwhile,” he looked back at ‘F’. “You may do as you please with the intel on Nightflare as well. Whether you want to tell Twilight the truth about him is up to you.” After he was finished, he took his leave.

Derpy fell to the ground. Doctor Whooves ran over and saw her in tears. “Derpy, what happen?”

“We just received news that your children are alive. But under the painful watch of Night Fright.” He walked over to them. “Come on, we have to rescue the rest of the group. Her guard should be down with them captured. She’ll most likely be taking them to her leader.”

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anypony, one of the video screens on the ship had started to blink. On the screen could be seen the faint image of a unicorn.

******

Author's Notes:

Well a lot of stuff we got in this one, from a look into 'F' past, to new things brought to light. Plus a little mystery involving a unicorn.

Anyway Thursday I'll post the next chapter.