Nick ran like his life depended on it. One thing that was multi universal it seemed was this one saying. Hell hath no fury like a women scorned.

“Get back here!!” Trixie shouted after him. After his little disappearance act week ago she had been scared shitless. The only way he wouldn’t be able to communicate with her was if he was asleep, which he never was, or if he had been knocked out. When he hadn't answered she had been terrified, especially when they couldn’t find him anywhere. Needless to say Trixie and Silk had essentially grounded him, and had not let him out of their sight.

“Oh come on Trixie!! I said I was sorry!!” Nick said dodging an attempt to grab him.

“Sorry doesn’t undo the HOURS OF PANIC AND WORRY!!!!” Trixie shouted.

“You’ve had me on lockdown for the past week!!” Nick said running for the city gate.

“You were heavily injured!!” Trixie shouted after him.

“I finished recovering several days ago!!” Nick countered.

“And you have been a brat the entire time!!” Trixie shouted.

“You know better than to leave cookies unattended!!” Nick said and tripped.

“You're mine!!!” Trixie said pouncing on him, only to hit the ground when he teleported away.

“Ha!” Nick laughed, only to be tackled by Silk, or rather have her latch onto his side quickly and making him lose his balance long enough for Trixie to knock him off his feet.

“Now you're coming back with us.” Trixie said hugging his chest.

“Come on now Trixie, I think he’s had enough.” Iron chuckled as he walked up to them, “he needs to get back to training. He is going to need it severely.” Iron said seriously.

“I am? why? “ Nick asked as Trixie and Silk got off of him.

“I’m taking you to someone that can train you far better than I, at this rate it won’t be too long before you’re at my level.” Iron said.

“Really? Wow. how long will that take do you think?” Nick asked getting up.

“About six or seven more months, roughly the time it will take to get to this guy.” Iron shrugged.

“Sweet. Now, where were we?” Nick asked.

“We were in the middle of swordsmanship training.” Iron asked.

“Ah, right. Hey iron, do you think you could teach me how to dual wield?” Nick asked.

“Hmm, that’s more of an advanced style, you're not quite ready for it yet.” Iron said.

“Damn.” Nick said pouting.

“Just be patient, duel wielding is incredibly difficult, if you start trying to learn it now you’ll be even worse off than when we first started, wait until you master wielding just one for now ok?” Iron said.

“Alright…” Nick said.

“Now what?” Trixie said turning to Silk who simply shrugged.

“What is that? What the fuck is that!?” Nick said pointing over to a manticore walking calmly on the path to town.

“Huh, not often you see a domesticated manticore.” Iron said looking and the manticore walking past them. Several griffins with spears flew over and surrounded the manticore. The manticore stops and gets into a defensive position knocking it's unconscious rider off waking him.

“Halt! You cannot bring this beast within one hundred meters of the city.” A guard said.

“Fluffy? Hehe Fluffy won’t hurt nobody, silly pigeon.” The rider said pointing at the guard taking a drink out of a gourd of sorts.

“Get lost you drunk.” The guard said kicking the rider. As soon as the griffin’s foot made contact with him he grabbed it, pulled and slammed the griffin into the ground. The other two guards rushed him he dodged out of the way of the second one and under the swing of the third one. The second one thrusted his spear at the rider only for him to dodge and grab his arm. He spun and slammed the second one into the third one before throwing him over his shoulder. The third one came back and thrusted his spear at the rider, only for the rider to catch hs arm and break it. He smacked the guard with his gourd, slammed him onto the ground and body slammed the guard and took a drink from his gourd.

“Miss horse lady was nice to give me some vodka, I need to remember to return the favour…” He said. The first guard came back and swung his sword down at the rider, the rider backflipped off of the guard he was on and dodged two more swings before falling on his back and kicking the first guard in the face. “Hehehe… Birdies are always so grumpy.” The rider said laying on his back.

“So uhh, we just going to stand here or….?” Nick said looking at Iron.

“Technically they attacked him, he has the right to defend himself.” Iron said looking at Nick.

“Well should we just stand here and do nothing?” Nick asked.

“Looks like he has everything under control.” Trixie said watching the rider wipe the floor with the guards.

“Hey!! It’s the monkey boy the horse lady told me about, hi monkey boy!!!” The rider said getting up and stumbling over to him.

“Ummm.. excuse me?” Nick said looking down at him. He was an orange fox like creature, he had one tail with a white tip. He wore dark orange monk robes and had a large necklace with a small orb in it.

“Big horse lady asked me to find you. She said you were nice and on an adventure, so I thought I would tag along. I like adventures.” The rider said.

“I what? You can’t just-” Nick started only for the fox to put a finger over his mouth.

“Shhh… I’m coming along.” The fox said.

“Forget it Nick, once a Kitsune makes up their mind, only Inari himself can change it.” Iron said with his hand over his face.

“Whatever.” Nick said throwing up his hands and leaving

“So, what’s your name?” Trixie asked.

“My name is Kenzin, a pleasure… hey stop being three ponies, you're making me dizzy.” Kenzin said before falling over. Fluffy walked over and sat next to his master.

“Hi their Fluffy, I’m Silk.” Silk said fluttering over to the manticore. The manticore made some slight growling noises and a few meows.

“Really, that must have been very scary, but you're alright aren't you big guy?” Silk said petting the large creature.

Celestia sat on her throne with her legs crossed and her fingers folded. She wore an annoyed scowl on her face as she looked out the window towards the everfree forest. It had been about two weeks or so since she sent in two of her best agents. She had been growing more and more worried as time went on, she had been grooming Twilight for years for any different things, she even planned on having her carry on her line of princes.

Sure she would have to arrange the marriage even if it went against her will, but is she had Twilight carry the next generation of her line before she ascended, or that was more of an if she did depending on how she returned to her, the next generation would be sure to wield power almost equal to a first generation demi-god. Speaking of demi-gods, she looked up and smiled as one of the only two stallions she trusted walked into the throne room and bowed before her.

“Blueblood, a pleasure. How have things gone in the everfree?” Celestia asked.

“Absolutely dreadful, the filthy beasts would not stop pestering me. I was able to retrieve the artifact, but I fear it may not be in as good a condition as you were hoping for.” Blueblood said snapping his fingers, summoning two guards holding a large chest.

“Let's hope it isn’t another decoy shall we?” Celestia said standing up from her throne and walking down to the chest.

“Indeed, I think I might have gotten a decent sized scratch from one of the hidra guarding the place.” Blueblood said looking at a small scar on his arm

“I told you you should have brought some guards, my magic in your line’s blood is starting to thin. You’ll need to have another pony infused with my magic to keep it strong.” Celestia said breaking the seals on the chest and opening it, only to frown and punch the empty chest to splinters. “Damn it, just another dud.” Celestia said walking back to her throne and taking a seat.

“Speaking of such, have our agents recovered my future wife? I want to continue my line before she starts to wrinkle.” Blueblood said eager to get his hands on the mare. He had been waiting for several decades for her to mature in hopes of finding a worthy broodmare. Her magic was almost on par with his, and she was very well endowed in all the right places. He wanted to take her soon before she starts to wrinkle naturally.

“Unfortunately the latest report didn’t bring up much of note. And it’ll be at least another week before we get an update.” Celestia frowned.

“Honestly if they are so incompetent to retrieve one mare why do you pay them so much?” Blueblood scoffed.

“They are ranked as two of my top agents. That's why, but you have a point. They should have returned with her by now.” Celestia said looking out the window.

“Send me, my hounds could track her down if you have something with her scent on it” Blueblood said “and it's not like I can’t go into the other nations.”

“Hmm, that is a good point, very well, but you're also to retrieve her familiar, dead or alive I do not care. At this point it’s to dangerous to keep unchecked, bring it here in shackles or just bring me it’s head. I don’t care which.” Celestia said.

Twilight cried in fetal position as another illusion played. Every night a new one had been added to the loop. Things she couldn’t believe, things she couldn’t comprehend. The benevolent mother figure she had studied under since she was five doing unspeakable acts, giving unspeakable orders, and watching those things happen over and over along with contradictions to everything she had learned about the world outside of equestria. She just wanted it to all to stop. She refused to believe any of it, none of it could be true, this wasn’t the celestia she knew!!

At least that's what she wanted to believe. Unfortunately the images were to real, to acurate to be faked. Nick had never been to Chanterlot, tartarus he hadn’t even been to equestria outside half a night in ponyville, that did NOT go as planned.

“This can’t be happening, please!just make it stop!!!” Twilight pleaded.

“Alright, how about we take a field trip then.” Zangetsu asked walking through the now blank wall.

“W-What?” Twilight asked timidly.

“You have been a very tough nut to crack, but thankfully you are a smart mare, even if you are not Immune to ignorant bullshit. Though that isn't entirely your fault” Zangetsu said, “so i’m offering you a deal, Nick can Take you with him on one of his trips to chanterlot now that his magic network is back to normal.” Zangetsu smirked.

“Astral projection!! That can’t be, it's only a myth it isn’t possible!!” Twilight shot up unable to believe him.

“Really susceptible to ignorant bullshit.” Zangetsu said shaking his head.

“Hey!!”

“Tell you what, if I’m lying, then you get to go free, but if i am right, you have to make a donation to the Zangetsu is always right foundation.” Zangetsu said holding out his hand.

“The what?” Twilight said.

“The Zangetsu is alway right foundation, you see I’m one of the lucky few individuals that is completely immune to ignorant bullshit!!” Zangetsu said smiling.

“Just get on with it.” Twilight deadpanned.

“Right, you see Nick has been growing a bit impatient with your stubbornness so he has decided to take you along with him on his next trip to Chanterlot. He wants you to see first hand what he is finding there, his skill is getting good enough that he can take a tag along, and I get his body for the day.” Zangetsu said.

“If I wake up with herpes i’m tossing you into the river.” Nick said glancing at Zangetsu as he walked in through the wall.

“Oh trust me, Herpes is the least you’ll have to worry about.” Zangetsu smirked making Twilight shiver at his tone.

“Aaanyway, do you accept?” Nick said holding out his hand

“I…” Twilight said looking at his hand.

“If you still don’t believe me after this, I’ll let you go, under the condition that you do not bother me again.” Nick said.

“...alright.” Twilight said taking his hand. As soon as she took his hand they shot upwards, she looked down to see they were several hundred meters above the ground. Twilight latched onto his side and began screaming.

“Shut! The! Fuck! Up!” Nick said covering her mouth. Twilight gave a meek nod. Now, let me go and hold my hand, you’ll be fine.” Nick said.

“Where are we?” Twilight said looking around.

“We’re just above Ombsbeak.” Nick said. Their surroundings quickly changed however as Nick dashed to chanterlot with Twilight screaming her head off as she was pulled behind him… and continued to scream when they stopped.

“Shut it.” Nick said quickly.

“Yes sir.” Twilight said shaking.

“Good. Now then. Where are we?” Nick asked.

“C-chanterlot!!” Twilight shouted happily.

“Right.” Nick said looking at the mountain to their left, now remember, no one can see hear, smell, taste or touch us.” Nick said.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Look at your hand, we are astral projecting right now.” Nick said. Twilight did as she was told and found that her hand was transparent.

“How..?” Twilight asked.

“Fucking magic.” Nick said bluntly.

“Right, now can we get this over with? I know none of what you’re showing me is real, none of it can be. It goes against everything I was ever taught.” Twilight said glaring at Nick.

“Whatever.” Nick shrugged before flying over to the castle. They entered and hid behind a pillar near the end of the throne room as they watched Celestia smirking at a brocken Fancy Pants.

“I think he should be of no issue by now. Bloody scalpel made sure to carve the lessons in rather deep, no pun intended.” Celestia said giggling at her unintended joke. It seemed like Nick and Twilight had arrived just in time to watch them leave with the husk of a stallion. He didn’t speak unless spoken to, his eyes looked like that of a corpse, and he his once tall proud stance was replaced with a hunched timid stance, as if he made one wrong move he would be mutilated. Over all, he looked dead inside.

“There’s no way Celestia would do such a thing.” Twilight said closing her eyes and shaking her head.

“You're seeing this in real time! How can you still not see through her!!” Nick said looking at Twilight.

“This is obviously an illusion. You think I’m an idiot? When you're little demon invaded my mind he took all he needed to replicate the castle. This isn’t even the real Celestia. And to prove it when I get back I’ll pay Fancy Pants and his herd a visit and he will be perfectly fine, and happy serving his herd as any good stallion would.” Twilight said giving Nick a dark look.

“You're really that stupid aren't you?” Nick muttered shaking his head.

“Alright, how about this then?” Nick said pulling her with him into the dungeon.

“Why are we down in the servants training quarters?” Twilight asked looking bored.

“Try the slave breaking dungeon.” Nick said as they started passing the cells with bruised and battered individuals.

“You aren’t fooling me, this is ALL fake. The servants quarters are for other races who wised up to the savage lands not under Equestrian rule and wanted a better life. It's a clean compound under the mountain ment for reeducating them, or in some cases just educating them period, to our ways, to know who their betters are and what the consequences of breaking our laws on them are.” Twilight recited what she had been taught.

“What?! And you think i’m fucked up enough to make this?” Nick said.

“You're a foreign male. You were brought up under less than proper morals. It's one of the reasons I need to get you back to equestria, so we can break you of these unhealthy habits. But of course I’m not one to do things without research. Tell you what. When WE get back I will personally show you the training compound. And if I can’t get you there myself, I’ll take a look for myself just to be sure.” Twilight said.

“How about I show you more of sunwhore?” Nick said before Twilight slapped him.

“DON’T. YOU. DARE.” Twilight said her fur turning white, her hair bursting into flame and her eyes turning red. Nick’s eyes widened for a moment at this.

“So that’s it then. Shes infused her with divine magic.” Nick said looking at her with a look of realization.

“I….What?” Twilight asked looking at Nick strangely.

“I think we're done here.” Nick said as they disappeared back into Nick’s body.

“This isn’t good.” Zangetsu muttered.

“Are you ok Nick? You’ve been rather quiet all day” Trixie said looking at him.

“Hmm? Oh, no I’m not Nick.” Zangetsu said through their mind link. At hearing the foreign voice Trixie backed away from him wide eyed.

“W-Who are you? W-What did you did you do with Nick?”

“Uuuhhg, what the blazes happened?” Kenzin said holding a hand to his head.

“You got drunk, beat up a few guards joined our group, then passed out.” Zangetsu said looking over at the hungover Kitsune.

“Well, shit. Did they attack me first? Or do I have a bounty?” Kenzin asked.

“They attacked you first, you're fine.” Iron said walking up to the group.

“Dad, this isn’t Nick.” Trixie said pointing at Zangetsu shakily.

“You needn’t worry, Nick is out at the moment. I am his Tulpa, I have his body for the day, or for now with what we just learned.

“And what’s that?” Iron asked.

“Is no one else concerned about this?” Trixie said on the verge of freaking out.

“Why should we be? It’s just a tulpa, hell it’s a common practice for Kirin to have them to fine tune their magic precision. Hell I would have been surprised if Nick didn’t have one.” Midnight shrugged, while also taking note of this development.

“Huh?!” Trixie said looking over at the lounging Kirin.

“I once tried to make one myself, but unfortunatly they require a lot of attention, and didn’t have the time back then.” Iron nodded,

“So what did you learn?” Buckbeak said jumping from his cloud.

“It’s about Twilight. Over the past week we have been showing her things from Canterlot, Nick's been making astral projection trips to the place to dig up dirt on celestia in hopes of turning Twilight against her, and it would have worked, but it seems she has been infected with Celestia’s divine magic.” Zangetsu explained.

“This makes things difficult then.” Iron said stroking his beard.

“What do you mean she's been infected?” Trixie asked cluelessly.

“Well, when you spend enough time around a deity it can have…. Certain effects. If it isn’t the one that created you, if one created your race, then your alignment with your race’s regional creator will dissipate and be replaced with the new one. After that you’ll start to be flooded with their divine magic. This takes a long time to have a signifigant effect, it’s why most deities rotate shifts in who their personal guards are every few months, but with Twilight it’s different. She has been studying under Celestia for years while in close proximity to her, often times while Celestia was using magic on or around her.” Iron explained.

“And there are only a few ways to undo this. The easiest would to be to find another deity to expel the magic from her, but seeing as that's very unlikely, the only one that could undo the magic, would be Twilight herself.” buckbeak continued.

“And this could prove risky, on one hand, she could see everything in person and have her world rocked, and not in a good way.” Zangetsu said wiggling his eyebrows at Silk.

“EEP!!” Silk squeaked before hiding behind Trixie who shot Zangetsu a glare.

“Anyway, Celestia, from what we understand, has given Twilight a warped life. Hiding her shortcomings and crimes and glorifying her beliefs into Twilight with a metaphorical sledgehammer. This alone would have been broken over time or with Nick and Twilight’s trip to Canterlot via astral projection. But unfortunately Twilight assumes it to be an illusion. And when Twilight called Celestia Sunwhore, she went into a rage shift that brought out the divine magic build up.” Zangetsu said.

“Yeah, that’ll do it.” Iron nodded.

“Anyway, unless we can figure out a way to get the magic out of her, it needs to be shocked out of her by showing her the real Celestia in person. And even once we do remove the magic she would need to see Celestia’s actions. Otherwise she would just be an annoyance rather than a zealot.” Zangetsu finished.

“I might be able to get rid of the divine magic.” Kenzin suggested.

“You could?” Zangetsu asked.

“Wouldn’t be easy, but if we could bring it out of her, like with a rage shift, then i could summon my avatar and latch onto it. Though we might need to do this a few times. I’m not only a single tailed Kitsune, unless one of you has at least twice as much magic as the Kirin over there, my avatar would only be just have as many tails as me.” Kenzin went on.

“Hmm, Nick’s magic is far stronger than Midnights, even with the marks limit. How strong would a nine tailed Kitsune be? I doubt Nick’s magic could add an additional eight tails, but he might be able to add one or two.” Zangetsu asked.

“Hmm, well a nine tailed Kitsune is roughly the equivalent of a thousand one tails at weakest. And my magic should be about on par with midy hear.” Kenzin stated pointing a thumb at Midnight.

“Then how much magic would Nick need to get your avatar up to four?” Zangetsu asked.

“About as much magic as ten of me.” Kenzin shrugged pulling out his gourd and tried to take a swig, only to find it empty, “damn, anyone got some wine or something? I’m out.” Kenzin asked looking around.

“Doubt you could handle my mead. It’s almost lethal to most other races.” Iron said shaking his head.

“Meh, whatever.” Kenzin said pulling out a pocket watch, “needs some fine tuning…” Kenzin said taking a look at the time and seeing the hands moving too fast.

“Kenzin, focus. You said you might be able to take out the divine magic if Nick gave you enough magic?” Zangetsu said.

“Yep. how did I join your group again? It's all a bit to blurry and I’m not drunk enough to remember.” Kenzin said looking around for answers.

“You walked up to Nick, called him a monkey boy, said some horse lady said we were on an adventure, and joined to go with.” Trixie said.

“Oh, yeah!! I do remember a horse lady saying something about a monkey on an adventure. Well, here's to new traveling companions!” Kenzin said pulling out a smaller gourd with some water in it.

“Even still, with her upbringing, she will still need to see these things in person.” Midnight said.

“It’s to risky, we need to keep her away from Celestia, she would no doubt undo what we’re about to do, and keep a tighter hold on her. She is a very powerful asset to Celestia, and we can’t risk just letting Twilight go back to her.” Iron stated.

“That’s why I’m taking her.” Midnight stated.

“What?” Iron said looking at her with a hardened glare.

“Don’t worry, I can handle her. This Lunar staff is an amazing Magic focus. See this? It’s freaking Platinum! Both the crescent moon and the winding bits around the staff are platinum with BLANK RUNES!!! And the wood of the staff? Freaking ebony with an indestructibility enchantment!! This thing would sell for millions!! Whoever sold this to Nick had no idea what they had. With this, lil Twilight ain’t got shit on me.” Midnight said bouncing the staff in her hand.

“So you plan to take her and bring her back?” Zangetsu asked getting a nod from Midnight, “be careful then, she is no joke after all.” Zangetsu said.

“Their back. Kenzin are you ready?” Zangetsu asked.

“Can it wait until this hangover passes, just kind of starting to hit me.” Kenzin said holding up an hand to his head.