A/N: Ok, quick thing, before we start, I’m gonna start using 1st Person POV for Noctis, occasionally switching to Die, and I’m also coding Noctis, Die, both siblings, Luna and Celestia’s speech.

Die woke up with a start, her heart pounding. It was the same dream she’d been having ever since they’d found out what had happened in Nibelheim. It was always a replay of the battle between her and Akumu, except he didn’t hesitate with the final blow. She always woke up before his blade reached her, though each time it came just a little closer.

Is it a sign? Is Akumu coming back? Or is it just a bad dream? And what’s with my body, it feels so strange.

Die tried to get up, but the second she got to the edge of the bed she fell flat on her face in front of the mirror. Her room wasn’t very large, but it was well furnished. As she tried to get back up, she finally noticed herself in the mirror, and she froze. Staring her in the face, was the pegasus from her vision. Die raised her head, and the pegasus did the same. She pushed off the ground, the pegasus followed suit. Die turned her head away from the mirror to face the rest of her body. Sure enough, she had somehow turned into the pegasus from her vision, except the mark that had been on its flank wasn’t there. She started breathing and counting to ten in an attempt to calm down.

What’s going on here? Why am I a pony? Ok, gotta stay calm, gotta stay calm. Gotta change ba-

Die was cut off by a sudden surge of energy coming from all over her body being released in a bright flash, and she instinctively closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her human self in the mirror again.

What the hell was that? All I did was think about being human again and-

She smacked her head as the realization hit her.

I guess I have to will myself to change. Can’t believe it’s that simple. Well, now that I’m no longer freaking out, I guess I should go take a look around. Right after I see Celestia and Luna about this. Maybe they can tell me what’s going on with my body.

Die stood up and walked out the door, heading straight for the throne room. She knew Celestia would be there, she wasn’t sure about Luna, since she didn’t see her before she went to her room.

Wonder if she’s still looking for Noctis. I hope they’re alright.

Upon reaching the throne room, she saw both Celestia and Luna talking to a strange blue pegasus with a dark brown mane and tail. The trio didn’t seem to have noticed her, so she made her presence known with an exaggerated cough.

“Ah, Die, glad to see you are awake.”

“Thanks, princess. So who’s that guy? Is he your boyfriend or something?” She teased as she walked towards them. It had the desired effect, both Luna and the mystery colt were blushing profusely.

“Come on Die, can’t you go five minutes without teasing me?”

Die stopped in her tracks, recognising the voice instantly.

“Noctis? Is that really you?” She asked, taking several shaky steps towards him. He merely smiled, and suddenly, there was a bright flash. When Die opened her eyes, Noctis was standing in front of her, grinning. Die stood there for what seemed like hours before charging her brother and embracing him...
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I laughed as Die hugged me, she’d never once acted like this before. She was always too proud. I guess being separated for a few days just made her worry that much about me. I turned to my head towards Celestia and Luna, who were both holding back giggles.

“Uh, Die? You can let go now, It’s not like I’m gonna die. Besides, Celestia and Luna have something to tell us.”

She let go, blushing at the fact that she’d hugged me, and in public. Granted we were siblings, but that didn’t make her feel any less embarrassed. She tried to change the subject rather quickly.

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, you said that the Princesses had something to tell us?” She inquired, looking at the two.

“Yes, we know you transformed last night as you slept, Die. We want to explain why.” She said, her expression stern and serious.

“Ok then, I’m listening.” Luna began the explanation for us.

“When we found the celestial orbs, they gave us the power to manipulate the sun, moon and stars. What we didn’t tell you is that before we found them, we were regular earth ponies. The orbs gave us our powers, but they also allowed our bodies to adapt so that we could control these powers. If we had tried to use them as earth ponies, they would have overwhelmed and destroyed us, so the orbs took the traits of unicorns, and pegasi, and implanted them within us, turning us into alicorns and making us immortal. Tia, would you care to finish?”

“Gladly Luna. In your case, because you weren’t even ponies, and because the orbs were permanently bound to you, your bodies adapted in a different way. The orbs themselves turned you into ponies. Were they not bound to you, they would have made you pegacorns, a simple cross between a pegasus and a unicorn, at the very least, and alicorns at the very most, though the latter would have been very unlikely. They also made it possible for you to return to your human forms by willing it. Has our explanation been satisfactory?”

Die and I nodded, and Luna began speaking again.

“Now, we have a request to make of you both, Noctis and Die. Captain Shining Armor of the Solar Guard has left for his honeymoon with Princess Cadance, and we wish for you to help tr-” She was interrupted when a dark grey pegasus, with a light brown mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a sword coated in shadows, burst in, his eyes widened in fear.

“Shadow Steel, for what purpose do you interrupt us?” She bellowed, and he shrank back for a moment.

“Forgive me, Princess Luna, but I just returned from a scouting mission, and I saw something you needed to be made aware of immediately.” He was panting from exhaustion, and he looked ready to keel over at any minute.

“Then speak, Shadow Steel. What is it that you saw?”

“Yes, Princess. As I was scouting the outskirts of Canterlot, making sure there were no changelings left in the area, I came upon a small metal hut.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Please continue.”

“I got as close as I could to the hut without being close enough to get spotted, and I saw something outside it, sleeping.”

“Well, what was it Shadow Steel? What was this creature you saw?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know what it was. It was sleeping ten feet off the ground, and what it was sleeping on, was pure darkness. The darkness itself surrounded the creature, so I couldn’t get a good look at it.”

Celestia and Luna took a step back upon hearing this, while Die and I just shared a worried look.

“Thank you Shadow Steel, we shall deal with this immediately. You may go, as it is clear that you need to rest.”

“Thank you, Princess.” He walked off, barely managing to keep his balance as he left the throne room. Celestia turned to face us.

“Noctis, Die, I hate to ask this of you, but could you search the area in which Shadow Steel found this ‘hut’. I know you can handle this if it turns violent, whereas the Solar and Lunar guards may not be able to do so.”

Die and I smiled. “No worries Celestia. After all, If anyone can handle themselves in a fight...It’s us! The SOLDIERs of Night and Day!” Celestia and Luna smiled warmly.

“Then go, we have faith in you.” Die and I nodded and turned to leave, but Luna stopped me. “Noctis, please be careful. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

I just smiled, and gave her a salute, and she blushed a bit, before I left with Die, who was smirking at me.

“Noctis, you totally have the hots for Luna, don’t you?”

I nodded slowly, a light blush forming on my cheeks. “Yeah, but I can’t tell her, I tried, but I just couldn’t.” Die just punched me lightly on the arm.

“Quit being such a baby. If you like her, just tell her. I could see it from here, she likes you, so just go for it.”

“But what if others don’t like it if she has a relationship outside her species? What if they start to shun her because of it?”

Die slapped me, hard, leaving my cheek stinging like crazy. “What the hell Noctis? Why should it matter if others aren’t accepting of your relationship? If you like her, and she likes you, what the hell does it matter?” Her eyes were filled with anger, and I realised she was right.

God, I am such an idiot. I shouldn’t be afraid to tell her how I feel just because some don’t approve of our relationship, if it gets that far. Besides, if she does like me, then I should be happy, not worried. Anyway, it’s time to get going!
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It took us about an hour to get ready, but only five minutes to find the area in which the metal hut was located. As he said, there was a creature sleeping above the hut, on a platform of what looked like pure darkness. I turned to Die.

“You think it’s the result of some sort of Shinra experiment?”

“Doubtful, how would Shinra even make it here?”

“Don’t underestimate Shinra, Die. Who knows what they’re really capable of.”

“Fine. I’ll confront it face to face, you sneak up around back. If it looks like I’m in trouble, then you know what to do.”

I smirked. Same old Die, if things go bad, go all out and kick some ass. I proceeded to make my way around the hut, being careful not to be seen, while Die walked straight towards the hut...
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The moment I started walking towards the hut, the creature woke up, saw me, jumped off the platform and ran straight into the hut. I noticed two things about it. One, it had a symbol on its chest, a circle with a line through it, and its eyes were different colors, the left was gold, and the right was brown, which meant it wasn’t part of any experiments involving mako, though that didn’t mean Shinra wasn’t involved somehow. I heard voices, meaning someone else was in there with it.

If they are with Shinra, they’re gonna wish they’d never come here.

I stopped a few metres away from the house. just as the creature came out, and I finally got a good look at it. It was some sort of monster, like a dragon. It had a long black head of hair, and it was wearing strange clothes on it’s lower body. It’s upper body was completely bare, no fur, no scales, nothing. It had feet like a griffin, and large black wings. There were spikes on its shoulders and it had horns like a bull, only longer, on its head. It had some sort of scarf that looked as if it was made of black flames around its neck, obscuring its face from view.

It was accompanied by two humans, one female, and one male, who was limping slightly. The female was the same height as the creature would be without the horns. She had red skin, green hair, orange eyes, and she was dressed in rags, with cloth sandals on her feet. The male was wearing a muscle shirt, but it looked to be made of some sort of strange material I’d never seen before. His pants were made of the same material, and they kinda looked like pajama pants. He wasn’t wearing any shoes, but I could somehow see that there was air surrounding his feet. His eyes were green, and they were slanted. His hair was short and blonde. His skin was somewhere between tan and caucasian, and he was sort of muscular. He was actually kind of cute.

AGH! Focus, Die. Don’t get sidetracked. We’re here to make sure these guys aren’t a threat!

I was a little surprised when the creature was the first to speak.

“Greetings, wonderful day isn’t it?” It, he, shouted, the voice was undoubtedly male. I didn’t care, all I cared about was making sure he and his friends weren’t a threat.

“Let’s just cut to the chase. Who are you, and what are you doing here? Did Shinra send you?” I said coldly. I couldn’t afford to let emotions cloud my judgement, just in case they were a threat to this world. There was no way in hell I would let anymore innocents be harmed.

He looked at me with, confusion? and replied "The first two I can answer. I am Lumos, Demon of Balance, and these are my friends, Clare and Ventus. To answer the second question, I was training and I lost control of my power, next I knew, I was a few miles south of here. The third question I must respond to with one of my own, who, or what, is Shinra?"

A demon? That’s new. And those two are his friends. But the last one, who is Shinra? Ok, he’s either lying on that one, or he’s been living under a rock his entire life, or something.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. Everyone from my world knows who the Shinra Electric Power Company is. They’re responsible for making an energy source using mako, our planet’s lifeblood, and for creating SOLDIERs, their ‘living weapons’, as we’ve been called. Now don’t lie to me. Did they send you to eliminate me and Noctis, or just to bring us back for a public execution? Cause either way,” I drew Taiyo no me with my left hand, and charged the solar materia embedded in my right arm, “Shinra’s gonna be disappointed.”

The whole time we were standing there, darkness was being exuded from his scarf, and from his pants. I didn’t know how, but I didn’t care.

Lumos, as he called himself, face-palmed. “You think you’re on your own world? This...is going to take a while to explain." He said as he sat down. "Would you kindly put away your blade, and that... orb thing? Now that I think about it, why is it glowing, anyway? It looks like an ordinary crystal, yet it seems to have some form of magic in it...it’s a lot like my metal, actually."

The girl, Clare, stared at Lumos angrily. "Are you kidding me?!?! She pulls a sword on you, and you don't even LOOK at it?! Seriously, if you won’t be prepared, I will be." She pulled a blade off her back and took a battle stance.

Lumos jumped between us, "Calm down, deep breaths, Clare, deep breaths." He turned to face me again. "Sorry about this, she gets like this sometimes."

I glared at him, but I complied and slowly sheathed Taiyo no me. “She’s smart then. When someone pulls a weapon out, you either run or get ready to fight. That’s how you survive. As for your earlier statement, I know I’m not on my world, Celestia and Luna already explained things to me. I just assumed Shinra found a way here and sent you after us. I still can’t be sure you’re not with them. And the ‘orb thing’, as you call it, is the solar materia. It enhances my abilities even more than the mako and JENOVA cells inside me, plus it lets me draw strength from the sun itself.”

"Oh, OH!" The other guy, Ven, said, "I think I finally understand some of what you’re saying now," He turned toward Lumos, "She seems to be from whatever dimension Final Fantasy is from."

The hell is Final Fantasy?

Lumos gave him an ‘are you serious?’ look. "You sure?"

Ven shrugged, "There is always a possibility, plus it would explain most of what she said."

"...Fair point," Lumos faced me again, his demeanor extremely calm. "I think there has been a slight misunderstanding. You see, I ended up on this world months ago, due to a situation I would rather not talk about, my travel across the void caused other humans to cross, oddly, each one I caused got an... ability of sorts, just as I can control darkness, as you can see."

I looked at the darkness swirling around him, and I thought of something.

If he can control darkness, then what can his friends do?

“I see. Well, I wield solar magic, and my brother, Noctis, wields lunar magic, thanks to the solar and lunar orbs. We can also channel it through our blades,” I drew Taiyo no me again, though I placed it in the ground, “Though we still don’t understand everything about them, or their limits. And two more things. What kind of powers do your friends,” I gestured towards them, “have? And just what is this ‘Final Fantasy’ crap you mentioned?”
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I was watching them talk from behind the house. I saw the darkness around the guy with the horns. Lumos, was that his name? Anyway, I could make everything out easily, but as they talked, I started to feel strange. The voice I heard in the wasteland returned, but this time, every time it spoke, I felt weak.

‘Noctis...’

“What do you want this time?” I whispered.

‘I want to end all life in existence, Noctis, and thanks to the horned one’s darkness granting me strength, I can do just that...’

“Screw you. You’re not taking anything. I’ll stop you, Die will stop you!”

‘So naive. How will you stop me, when you’re about to become a prisoner of your own mind...’

I tried to make a retort, but suddenly, I lost control of my body. It felt like my soul was still there, but someone else was in control. My body started to darken...
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Lumos sighed, "If I told you what 'Final Fantasy' is, it would likely lead to you questioning your own existence, and possibly an end to all worlds."

He then clapped his hands. "Now, to answer your question, Clare can use Gravity based powers, she can control the effects that gravity has on anyone, in any way. As an example, she can make gravity go up, down, left, right, and so forth, as well as changing how strong it is, it can be focused on a single person, or on a whole area. Ven here," He gestured to Ven, "Can control the wind, such as creating whirlwinds, flight, creating blades of air which can then be shot, said blades would be invisible, as they are only air. I have three abilities, the first is to create an odd metal, such as that which makes up the cabin, and our weapons, this can then be enchanted, and only those who have either created the item, or the enchanter, or enchanters, can touch it. My second ability is darkness control, I can not only create shadows, but also create semisolid armor, like that I'm wearing, or the platform I was napping on. My third, and final power, is the exact opposite of the second, light control, which is almost the same in what I can do, these, in combination give me control over the metal I make, known as 'twilight matter,' which even I cannot fully control, the metal itself will attack anyone who it doesn't recognize as its creator or enchanter. If you don't mind, I have a question of my own now. You keep mentioning this 'Noctis' person, who is he, and while I'm at it, who are you?"

I facepalmed, realising I hadn’t introduced myself. “Die. My name is Die. And Noctis, as I may or may not have said before, is my older brother. Both of us are ex-SOLDIERs, 1st Class. And if you’re wondering, he’s somewhere around here, waiting, ready to go if you try anything. And as for the whole ‘questioning my existence’ thing, I’m in a land of talking ponies after apparently being caught in a giant explosion, at this point, I doubt anything else you say will surprise me.” I smirked.

No matter what he says, I won’t be surprised. No way in hell.

He turned to Ven and said, with a bit of a worried look, "Should we risk it?"

Ven looked at Lumos with a calm expression, though I could see the worry in his eyes, "That's up to you."

He sighed, and scratched the back of his head, "Well, I suppose we can blame her if it causes a paradox," He turned to me again and said, "Final Fantasy is a series created by a company called Square Enix. The series itself has at least 12 or so games, there may be more, but I don't know, I've been away too long to know, it takes place in... I actually know very little about it myself, Ven played it more than I did, I only played a bit of number 7, in which you play as a young man named Cloud Strife, an Ex-SOLDIER member, who is selling himself out as a mercenary. The 'materia' you mentioned are often found in the game, there are five main kinds: magic, command, summoning, support. The big bad guy of the game is named Sephiroth, according to most, he seemed to have a certain respect for Cloud and considered him unequal in power. He turned evil after realizing he might be a monster created by something called Hojo." He looked me in the eyes, gauging my reaction. "Does that answer your question?"

A video game? So in their world, mine is just part of a video game? Meh, Weirder things have happened.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’ve heard stranger things that have turned out to be true, except Hojo was a person, not a thing. He was a Shinra scientist. And did you say Cloud? He was never in SOLDIER, though he was friends with one, Zack Fair. Before the Nibelheim incident, Sephiroth and Zack were our idols. We joined SOLDIER because we wanted to be as strong as them. After what Sephiroth did, and after Zack was killed, by Shinra no less,” I spat the name as if it were poison, “We decided that the next mission we took on would be our last, that we no longer wanted to be part of an organization that so willingly killed without remorse. Turns out, he wanted us to destroy a village filled with civilians.”

I took a deep breath. “It was the Nibelheim incident all over again, except this time it was being sanctioned by Shinra. Instead of following orders, we evacuated the villagers and prepared for the army we knew Shinra would send. Noctis engaged them first while I finished helping the oldest and the youngest escape using a series of tunnels located nearby. Afterwards, I got there just in time to save his ass from a helicopter.” I chuckled, recalling how I took it down just as he was about to. “Afterwards, we finished off most of the Shinra troops, three more copters appeared. Noctis took two down, but the third fired an experimental missile, loaded with mako, at us. We took a risk, combined the powers of the solar and lunar orbs, and fired at it. The explosion destroyed everything, and dumped us in this world.”

He just stared at me for several second, eyes wide open, before Ven broke the silence.

"Wait, if the explosion sent you here, what’s to keep it from sending others here too?" He had a look in his eye that I couldn't quite tell if it was fear for the majorities, or fear for his friends, or just him being excited by a chance to fight all out against something, but judging by the way his muscles suddenly tensed, I'm going to assume it was the third.

“It’s pretty simple. The solar and lunar orbs brought us here, they just used energy from the explosion to do it. The shinra troops, not so lucky, since the orbs were only targeting us. And even if they didn’t do anything, we would’ve been ok. Turns out, we’re immortal. Can’t die of age, can’t be killed. Or so Tia and Luna say anyway.” I grinned.

“So anyway, you wanna meet my brother? Hey, Noctis, you can come out now!”

I heard something coming from behind the hut, and Noctis stepped out, except something was wrong, with him. His skin was as black as pitch, and his pupils were sharp, his eyes glinting with malice. His blade was drawn and pointed towards us, and he was sneering at us. I was frozen.

No, it can’t be. Not him. NOT HIM!

I took a step back, and everyone looked at me, confused.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW!”

‘Noctis’ looked at me, and smiled maliciously. “Aww, what’s wrong Die? Didn’t you miss me?”...