As Volthoom was being carried out of Canterlot by the disguised changeling warrior he reflected on the bond he developed with the flutter ponies.

Thousands of years ago in Flutter Valley

After he tried and failed to convince them he wasn’t a god he just went with the flow, it was awkward when they made a feast for him only for him to tell them that he didn’t need to eat, drink or sleep but he ate all the same. That day he learned that at least he still could taste food and drink.

During the months that Volthoom spent in Flutter Valley he learned that flutter ponies rarely leave the Valley, they prefer to stay in the forest, which they had a very powerful and deep connection with. They also had the ability to sense emotions of those around them and that's how they knew it was safe to be near Volthoom, they didn’t feel any ill intent from him

During this time Volthoom also met another race that lived in the Valley, the breezies, which to Volthoom were simply miniature flutter ponies with slightly longer limbs, they were sometimes known as fairy ponies because of that. He used the White Light of Life to feel all living beings in the Valley and beyond the mountains surrounding it and he felt at peace.

But that piece was shattered by groups of mercenaries, poachers and slavers. Volthoom felt their emotions, their greed, lust and selfishness, he wasted no time in either killing or driving them off of the Valley. He was told that both the inhabitants of Flutter Valley were very sought after as pets and slaves, especially by the griffons and diamond dogs sometimes even by dragons and pony nobles. Then he asked why they didn’t fight or why there wasn’t some kind of protection or defense in place to keep the invaders away. They said that most flutter ponies and breezies were peaceful and didn’t like to fight.

Volthoom trained the few that wanted to protect the Valley and defended it from anyone that tried to harm its inhabitants and soon enough rumors of a “God of Light” protecting Flutter Valley spread throughout the continent and the land overseas at the east. The only ones to ever enter and leave the Valley alive were the ones who had no ill intentions towards its inhabitants or those that Volthoom let go to spread rumors, all others were either cast out or slain.

Almost a year after his arrival Volthoom received a visit from the rulers of Equestria. Apparently, Flutter Valley was not part of Equestria because flutter ponies followed the “Will of the Forest and the Land” instead of the law of any ruler, that was why they refuse to become part of Equestria. It was also the first time he saw the royal family of Equestria.

King Luminous Sky was a 10ft tall alicorn with a sky blue coat and a mane/tail with shades of red, orange and yellow wearing a golden greek battle armor with red cloth, his body was muscular like that of a Spartan warrior.

Queen Lush Meadow was a 9ft tall alicorn with a light green coat and earth brown colored mane/tail wearing a dark green greek dress, she had an athletic body that only made her voluptuous curve more appealing.

Princess Celestia was a child who had a pink mane and a white coat wearing a light yellow dress that was similar to her mother’s.

Princess Luna was a child who learned how to walk recently and was holding her older sister’s hand, she had a light blue mane/tail and a dark blue coat, she was wearing a lilac dress like her sister’s and her mother’s.

They came to visit the Valley when they heard of Volthoom, so they came to the temple that the flutter ponies built for the protector of the Valley.

Fun fact flutter ponies could make plants grown in the shape of a house using their magic, Volthoom suspected that they had a powerful connection to The Green and that was what allowed them to hear the “Voice of the Forest”.

The Royals entered Volthoom’s house and saw him floating in the lotus position meditating. He may never reach the same level of power as the original Volthoom but he will make sure to never become as emotionally unstable as the original.

“Greetings, what brings a King and Queen to my humble abode?” asked Volthoom.

“Greetings, we heard many rumors about you, ‘God of Light’,” said Meadow in a respectful tone.

“Indeed, we just came to see if the rumors are true,” said Luminous and by the tone of his voice, he was not impressed.

“So, I am what you expected?” asked Volthoom as remained floating in the lotus position.

Before any of them could answer Luna managed to get closer to Volthoom without their parents and sister noticing, but to Volthoom this was normal, foals tend to be curious about him because of the “pretty lights” on his body.

Luna managed to jump and use her wings to land on Volthoom shoulders and hold onto his head.

While the parents were wary of what Volthoom might do and Celestia was embarrassed for letting Luna get away from her because she was distracted Volthoom did nothing and let Luna have fun looking at his inner light. Eventually, she got bored and flew to her mother, who took her in her arms.

Over the course of that day, the King and Queen conversed with Volthoom and eventually left after seeing that he wasn't a threat to Equestria.

For years Volthoom continued to protect the Valley until one day that he felt an energy similar to the Emotional Spectrum coming from the north. He flew over Equestria and eventually reached the Crystal Empire, a place that like Flutter Valley tried to remain independent of Equestria, so they created the Crystal Heart to keep the blizzard at bay. When Volthoom arrived outside of the dome that was the magical shield he could tell that the barrier was powered mostly by Hope and Love.

As Volthoom was walking towards the barrier a group of crystal guards came out and surrounded him just before they pointed their spears at him, but that didn’t stop him. As he kept walking forward the spear of a guard started to sink into his body, the guard was so shocked that he didn’t even notice that there wasn’t any resistance as the spear pierced Volthoom’s body.

It was only when the hand of the shocked guard started to sink into Volthoom’s body that he concluded that the intruder wasn’t suicidal he was phasing through the guards, the advantage of having a body made of pure light.

Once Volthoom was behind the guard the group came back to their senses and tried to stop him, they tried to grab him, tackle him, harm him with swords and spears even magical shields and attacks, not a single attempt worked and Volthoom kept walking as if nothing was wrong. At some point, one of the guards left to inform the Queen of this development.

When Volthoom was near the center of the city and the source of not only the barrier keeping the blizzard at bay but also the source of the burst of emotional energy he felt a tall crystal unicorn mare got in his way.

The crystal unicorn mare was 9ft tall, just as tall as Queen Lush Meadow and Celestia after the latter reached adulthood, she had a light pink coat and red mane/tail with curls in the end while wearing a light blue high neck princess dress with a yellow heart on the belt. That was Queen Amore ruler of the Crystal Empire at the time.

“Who are you and why have you invaded my city, stranger?” asked the Queen with a cold tone while she prepared a spell to defend her people if needed.

“I was called here,” answered Volthoom.

“By who?” asked Amore.

Instead of answering with words, Volthoom simply pointed forward.

“I didn’t call you here, stranger,” said Amore.

Volthoom just resumed his walk toward the center of the empire.

“That is your last warning, stop right there!” ordered Amore as she charged her spell.

Volthoom didn’t stop so she fired the spell, which took the form of a beam of energy, he didn't want the ponies behind him to get hurt, so he raised his right hand, palm facing forward, and absorbed the spell.

Almost every form of energy was mutable and interchangeable so converting her magic into the energy of the Emotional Spectrum and absorbing this energy wasn’t easy but it was possible and thankfully he was able to do the conversion slowly, slow to him since he was thinking at the speed of light. He phased through the shocked Queen and stood in front of the spinning Crystal Heart in its pedestal.

“I heard your call,” said Volthoom to the Heart.

The Heart stopped spinning and Volthoom sat in lotus position floating on the same level as the Heart. He concentrated in the “colors” of Love and Hope, which caused his veins/nerves to become a mixture of light blue and light violet almost pink in color as tendrils of mist made of those colors came out of his body and touched the Heart, which caused the Heart to shatter.

Amore lost hope when she saw the Heart be destroyed before her eyes and was about to order the guard to start the evacuation. She hoped that Equestria’s rulers would accept them in their borders as refugees but stopped herself when she noticed two things, the first was that the barrier didn’t fall, the second was that the fragments of the Heart were floating.

Volthoom using his hands started the process of fixing each individual piece of the Heart before putting it in its proper place. It was almost hypnotic the way he would reach out and pick a piece in the air without looking and the moment he touched a fragment it would flash many colors before being put on the pedestal.

It took about two hours to reassemble the Heart and the moment the last piece was put in the right place the cracks disappeared and the Heart was whole again.

“Now you can fulfill your purpose without fear of breaking,” said Volthoom gently as he caressed the Heart with his right hand as one would a lover.

After that, it took the rest of the day to explain what happened to Queen Amore but in the end, Volthoom had to teach the crystal ponies how to properly use emotional energy. And it didn’t take long for the crystal ponies to see him the same way the flutter ponies did but he didn’t mind, to him what matters was their safety it had been his priority since he took upon himself to be their guardian. And It was only a few years later that his light faded for the first and hopefully last time.

A umbrum unicorn usurped the throne of the Crystal Empire and crowned himself King Sombra. And when Volthoom arrived there the King and Queen of Equestria were busy holding Sombra’s umbrum army while the princesses fought against Sombra himself. The battle attracted the attention of the windigos, the Queen and King were about to be overwhelmed when Volthoom did something stupid, he tried to used the White Light to repel the umbrums.

The White Light was made by all emotions both positive and negative, sensing the negative emotion both forces converged on Volthoom and because neither one of the three had a true physical form they ended up merging. Both the windigos and umbrums invaded Volthoom and feasted on his light until nothing remained and without the White Light of Life only the Black Darkness of Death remained in him, which not only ended up devouring the windigos and umbrums in return but also it took over Volthoom.

The veins/nerves and eyes of Volthoom became pitch black, visible through his gray skin. It was this moment that Luna and Celestia manage to banish Sombra into the ice, but not before Sombra banished the Empire with him. Lush Meadow and Luminous Sky sensed the presence of Death coming from Volthoom and knew that if they didn’t stop him all life on Equus would die.

Before Volthoom lost himself completely to The Black both alicorns created a rift in the fabric of reality and used their magic to attack Volthoom to push him through the rift.

But Volthoom managed to resist, so the King tackled him and got him at the edge of the rift but just been in contact with the Avatar of Death caused his body to rapidly age, had he been a normal pony not even dust would have remained by that point.

The Queen saw this and immediately did the same to help push the still unresponsive Volthoom over the edge, unseen by the royal couple his black ring broke into five pieces, one fell into the snow, one flew to the south, one went to the west, one remained with Volthoom and the last piece came in contact with an unsuspecting and unconscious Luna.

The rift closed just before Luminous fell on the ground just a dry corpse at that point and before Meadow could hit the ground, as her body aged too much and was too weak to support itself, she was caught by Celestia.

“Mother don’t worry we can fix this, somehow we will find a way,” said Celestia in desperation.

“No *cough* *cough* it’s too late for me just *cough* just promise me one thing,” asked the dying Queen and her daughter nodded as she tried to remain strong in her mother final moments.

“Be there for your sister, *cough* my only regret is that I won’t *cough* live long enough to meet my grandchildren, goodbye my little sun,” said Meadow before she closed her eyes.

Celestia held the body of her mother as she cried and for the first time in her life, she felt hatred and her eyes became red with a vertical slit, not unlike that of a dragon.

The Void

Without the whole black ring, Volthoom's connection to The Black was partially broken and he regained his senses, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. He saw the void outside the universe and it broke him, whatever was left off when he was human had to be abandoned for him to evolve and survive in this place. His body made of light didn’t allow him to pass out or die in this place because death did not exist here, so he adapted simply because there was no other choice.

The fragment of the black ring dissolved into a goo-like substance and traveled up Volthoom's arm over his shoulders and down on his right arm and once it reached his right hand the goo covered the Phantom Ring and sank on its surface, which made the silver ring slightly darker. While this was happening his mind was putting itself back together to Understand the environment he was in, even his body of light and now shadow would eventually dissipate in this “place” and scattered in its “currents”. It was only the Travel Lantern inside his chest that was keeping him together since it was a “tool for infinite exploration”.

The Travel Lantern was made to explore time, space and beyond, thus allowing inter-universal travel through the Void but Volthoom never attempted to use it because he knew that without experience in navigating in the multiverse he would be forever lost in its infinity. The lantern kept its user alive until a destination is reached but in a journey without a destination, the lantern would keep him alive indefinitely.

While floating he saw the iron lich turned dragon in his quest to destroy the Cryx, he saw the CEO of Hyperion and a version of Faust in a mechanical body, he saw Pokemon among ponies, he saw users of the Omnitrix, saw monster born of deadly viruses, he saw a headless suit of armor with the power of alchemy, he saw a biomechanical monstrosity that wanted to rule all creation and so many other realities.

Once Volthoom was able to have coherent thoughts again he saw cream-colored wings covering him, looking behind him he saw a seemingly giant cream-colored alicorn with a red mane, not a biped alicorn like the ones in his universe but a quadruped, this was the SysAdmin Fausticorn.

“It seems you don’t need my help to survive here, but can you get back to your universe on your own?” asked Fausticorn.

Volthoom just shook his head in response as he was still unable to form word much less communicate them in the Void.

“Very well,” said Fausticorn as her horn glowed and Volthoom disappeared.

Volthoom’s version of Equus, unknown amount of time later

Volthoom landed on the same crater he fell all those years ago still weak from adapting to the massive infusion of Void energy. Not long after that, someone came to check on what was going on.

“Volthoom! Where have you been?!” said Wind Drifter as she came down to the center of the crater and landed beside Volthoom.

“For how long was I gone?” asked Volthoom noticing that Wind Drifter looked slightly older, but that wasn't helpful since the aging process of fairy ponies and flutter ponies was not consistent. It really depended on the strength of their connection to The Green.

“What? How can you not know? It has been 5 years,” said Drifter.

Before any of them could say anything another presence made itself known when they felt a great deal of hatred directed at them, more specifically at Volthoom.

“YOU!!” said Celestia after she landed not far from Volthoom with her eyes changed from magenta to red with a vertical slit.

“Hide Drifter, she wouldn’t listen to anyone in that state,” said Volthoom while he stood up and faced Celestia.

As soon as he said that, Celestia teleported in front of him and started to strangle him.

“It’s your fault! Because of you, my parents are dead! Because of you I had to banish my own sister!” said Celestia and as the venom in her voice made itself known, her multicolored mane was starting to become bright yellow, blue and white. In the end, her mane looked like the volatile plasma of a star ready to burst with too much energy.

Volthoom was too weak to do anything as he felt his throat be crushed while he laid on the ground with Celestia straddling him but he could deal with the pain since it was nothing compared to what he felt in the Void, besides he didn’t need to breathe.

“I felt it inside Luna, the same energy that killed my parents five years ago, your energy,” said Celestia.

Noticing that strangling him wasn’t working she used her magic on him, while she charged the spell she would punch him as hard as she could then unleash the spell. After doing that many times she was panting and the area around them became glass and the crater was bigger and deeper.

Celestia became so frustrated with Volthoom indifference that she poured every ounce of power she had left and unleashed everything on Volthoom. The result was something akin to a hydrogen bomb being detonated, Volthoom unable to keep his concentration as his mind was still recovering resulted in his body dissipated as his consciousness was moved to the Phantom Ring.

Celestia was the only one left on the charred and glassed soil of the ground zero, with her blind hatred and rage subsiding she finally looked around her, at the consequences of her actions and if she was standing she would have fallen to her knees. Where once was a fertile and peaceful valley was now a desert of sand, glass and rocks, some of which was still glowing with heat. She single-handedly destroyed Flutter Valley and its inhabitants.

Feeling an immeasurable guilty, Celestia cried maybe Luna’s change wasn’t Volthoom’s fault, seeing that she let herself be consumed by hatred and anger as well, a situation not so different from her sister. Maybe the sliver of Volthoom’s energy in Luna just brought out what was already there.

The alicorn came here to investigate a ripple of power she felt, but when she saw Volthoom all the negative feeling she bottle up resurfaced with a renewed intensity and she snapped.

Either way what is done is done and now Celestia will spend the rest of her possibly immortal life with the guilt of knowing that she was the one responsible for the extinction of an entire race and the murder of a being so unique and wise that had so much to share, that maybe he wasn’t himself when her parents died, that maybe, much like herself and her sister he lost control for a moment and because of that paid a heavy price.

The monarch only moved when she felt it was time to lower the sun and raise the moon but it was just her body going through the motions, her mind was too busy trying to process the events that transpired. With her tears wetting the glassed soil her attention was caught by a glint near her, on the ground not far from her she saw Volthoom’s ring as it reflected the last ray of the sun before setting.

This ring was his focus, Celestia never knew how old Volthoom was, he already had this look on him that it made it seem as if he had given up on returning to his home as if he was lost and didn’t know how to get back.

Volthoom came to Equus around the time Luna was born, but for all she knew he could be as old as an elder dragon or more before falling from the sky, he was wise and taught many things to not only her and Luna when they visited him in his temple but also to the crystal and flutter ponies and even to her parents.

That was one of the reasons why Volthoom's supposed betrayal hurt so much, Celestia didn't know what those moments meant to him but she cherished those moments, he was her teacher, her first crush and so much more. She picked the ring to put on her finger as a way to remember him but the moment the ring was on her finger she felt a surge of energy, her magic and something else flooded her body.

Celestia felt anger, love, hope, fear, greed, compassion and so many other emotions with such an intensity that she almost went mad while the ring flashed a myriad of colors, a color for each emotion, and tendrils of energy lashed out destroying her surroundings even further. Using all of her willpower she grabbed the ring and pulled, the ring flashed a strong green color before coming off of her finger.

The alicorn just laid on her back, heedless of the awkward position of her wings, she panted as she never felt this exhausted in all her life, she barely lasted few seconds with the ring, the fact that Volthoom wore it all the time spoke volumes of his power and discipline. Once recovered she got up before she looked at the ring, it was too dangerous to fall in the wrong hands, extending her wings she took off to the new capital of Equestria, the newly built city of Canterlot.

While flying the monarch saw the devastation she caused, she could even see the bones of few ponies holding their loved ones, she could only imagine their last words as they accepted their end and gave up trying to run. She could imagine the despair of the parents knowing that their children will die with them.

“Never again,” said Celestia to herself.

The only living alicorn on Equus vowed that from that day on she would make sure another tragedy like this one would never happen to her little ponies, it might take a thousand years but she promised to make sure that not only her little ponies were safe but also that her sister would have a place to return to, a place to call home.

Unknown to Celestia a few flutter ponies survived, horribly scarred physically and/or mentally, by hiding either underground or in Volthoom’s temple, their lives were saved by the crystals that were filled with energies that Volthoom taught them how to make and use.

The survivors knew that Volthoom was still alive, it might take more than a thousand years but they will free Volthoom from whatever prison the Sun Tyrant had put him in, but first, they need to recover, learn, grow and evolve. Once they were ready and their lord was freed he would lead them again.

On the next day, Celestia had a box crafted to contain the ring, to make sure it never fell into the wrong hands and unknowingly imprisoned Volthoom, whose mind was still recovering inside the ring.

Author's Notes:

Some of the stories mentioned:
Casting a Shadow by Ssendam the Masked
And Then There Were 10...Er...67 by shagohad12
I Will Hunt You Down by -TGM-
Ten Against One by DJSkywalker
A new world, a new mind. by Thadius0
Headless, not Heartless by Thadius0
Handsome Jack's Return by Architect of Realities
A Lich Of Metal And Souls. by ShadowsInTheDark
Playing The Villain by Northern Desert
A New Wheel by Northern Desert
Monster is as Monster Does by Weapons_X