(A/N: Alright people, so here is the next re write of Chapter 2. As you can see, the Chapter name has been changed, but it fits the bill now. Okay, now on to the show!

CHAPTER TWO: MEMORIES

The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.
-Tryon Edwards

I just don't know what went wrong!
-Derpy Hooves

The Everfree Forest, Equestria, 2nd Year Anno Harmonia

Lyra slowly came into awareness, snuggling up in the bed sheets for warmth.

“Mmmm... Good morning, Bonny” she whispered, reaching out to pull her special somepony into a breakfast nuzzle.

Her hoof groped in mid air for a moment, and then fell with a dull ‘clop’ onto the rock-hard root of a tree…

…wait, what?

Lyra’s eyes flew open and she drew breath sharply as the memories of last night came crashing back. The human, her ‘foalnapping’, and their sudden flight from the hospital. Breathing deeply to try and calm her sudden panic, she slowly looked around and tried to piece together her situation.

She was, indeed, still inside the Everfree Forest, the human’s mud-stained ‘poncho’ draped over her to serve as a makeshift blanket. Celestia’s sun was just visible overhead, peeping through gaps in the thick, enmeshed foliage. Morning dewdrops sparkled on leaves and flowers, lending everything a strange, shimmering beauty.

Then she slowly looked down, towards the human. He was standing with his back to her in the small clearing they had camped out on the edge of. In his hand was what looked-like a snapped-off treebranch, about half as long again as one of his arms, and he was putting it through a strange series of motions, sometimes tossing it high overhead to catch after it made several mid-air rotations, at other times spinning it in his palms with incredible speed and skill.

Not for the first time, Lyra glanced at her blunt hooves, and flexed them at the ankle joint, envying the privilege of digits.

‘Oh, the things I could do to Bon Bon with hands…’ she idly thought to herself, a grin half-born of lecherousness and affection spreading across her face. ‘…I could make her squeal…well, squeal more than I do already.’

The thought of her candy-sweet marefriend however only led her back into her current predicament, and looking back up she once again focused on the human and his strange exercises. The pattern of tosses and twirls seemed random at first, but eventually she noticed a pattern; every so often, he would bring the stick smartly to his side, one end resting against the floor, or buttress it against one shoulder, cupped palm supporting the base.

‘He looks like a guardspony on parade, drilling with spears and swords…’ she suddenly realized, thinking back to all the times she had passed by Canterlot Castle during the Changing of the Guard. ‘Is he…is he a warrior?’

It was an alarming thought. After the debacle that was the changeling invasion of the recent Royal Wedding, most of Equestria had gone into a state of paranoia, fearing everypony and anypony could be an insectile invader. It had taken the full deployment of both the Solar and Lunar Guard, and their reservists, to various hotspots across the country, to restore the peace and reassure the population that the threat of Queen Chrysalis and her hives had passed. Shining Armor himself had been sent on an immediate tour of inspection in Ponyville as soon as his honeymoon had ended (and boy, that must have pissed Princess Cadance off to no end) , and it had been quite a shock for Lyra to see just how much Twilight’s sweet, slightly dorky BBBFF had grown into such a commanding presence. At the wedding, when both he and Lyra herself were not under the googly-eyed influence of Chrysalis, he had been much the same colt she remembered from their youth, but in his armor of office, scouring Ponyville and the Everfree for possible pockets of changeling resistance, he had been an intimidating sight.

It was the same feeling, of immense strength tempered with years of training, that she now sensed radiating off the human as he practiced with his stick. Seeing how gracefully he handled it made her nervous, for the first time, of just how deadly his hands could be with their amazing fingers wrapped around the hilt of a weapon.

Troubled, and wondering if it was best to try and make her escape before he noticed she had woken, she rolled to one side, and came face-to-face with the severed head of a Timberwolf. For one heart-stopping moment she stared into the animal’s cold, dead eyes, and then she screamed aloud.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhiieiee!”

The head, lying neatly on the forest floor, bloody sap pooling around it, did not react to her shriek. Chest heaving, Lyra slowly reached out with one hoof and bopped the decapitated object on the snout, as if to confirm this was not a nightmare.

It was wood. Solid, dead, wood. Lyra herself was ready to scream again when she suddenly heard something go ‘scrunch’ in the litter beside her. Slowly, she turned, to see the human towering over her.

His ‘stick’, she could now see, was actually the dead Timberwolf’s tail.

“Well...” he said in his deep voice. “I suppose there’s worse ways to wake up.”

Lyra yelped and rolled away from him, her coat fluffing itself up in an instinctive attempt to intimidate him by making herself seem larger. Suffice to say, it didn’t work.

“H-human!” she squealed in fright, backing away from him as she did. “Uh…good, good morning…”

Before she could say anything else, she felt her plot reverse into something large, heavy, and sticky. Dreading what she would find, she slowly swallowed, turned her head, and saw that she had inadvertently located the rest of the timberwolf’s corpse. More of the creature’s deep-red ichor was now smeared over her flanks, lending her cutie-mark a rusty patina.

“Ah…ah…ahahah!” she began to babble, eyes shrinking into pinpricks as she burst out in terrified laughter, only for the human to step towards her, pick her up, and stare sternly at her.

“Ambassador Heartstrings!” he barked, stunning her into silence. “Get it together, right now!”

*

London, England, 2020 Anno Dominae

“Ambassador Heartstrings!” someone roared. “Get it together, right now!”

Heathrow Airport was chaos given physical form. Jets crowded nose-to-tail along the taxiways, fighting and jostling for access to the runways. Helicopters were crammed into gaps between the airliners, rotors roaring in readiness for flight. Anyone with a portable radio would have found every aviation frequency jammed with angry shouting as pilots and Air Traffic Control argued over which aircraft had priority.

Amid the chaos, people flowed between the flying machines like a living flood, British and American servicemen directing them onto waiting flights.

“It’s not enough!” sobbed a mint-green unicorn, standing to one side with her cream marefriend. “There’s not enough room for all of them!”

“I said pull it together Ambassador!” snapped her bodyguard, a burly man wearing the uniform of a US Marine. “You’re one of the few Equestrian allies these people have. They need to see you strong in this moment.”

“Ponies!” one group of refugees screamed in their direction as they passed, words heated and angry. “Thieves! Murderers! Merry-go-Round toys!”

“Are you sure it’s really us they need to see?” Bon Bon snidely asked, stepping aside as a hurled bottle smashed into the jetway beside them. “I don’t understand, don’t they see there’s no need for this pain? If they just allowed themselves to be ponified they’d not have to suffer any of this. There’s plenty of room within the barrier for everypony, and they’d never have to worry about anything ever again!”

“If you’ve lived here all this time and not found the answer for yourself, then I doubt you ever will, Bon Bon” the soldier replied coolly.

It was Operation Neon Exodus, the final evacuation of the United Kingdom. To the south and east, beyond the suburbs of Hounslow and Richmond, the Equestrian Barrier stretched right across the horizon, slowly swallowing the center of the city that had once governed the British Empire. Some evacuees, already airborne, could only watch in horror as the pink wall of effervescent energy swallowed the London Eye and the gothic majesty of Parliament. With a colossal pealing of bells, the clock tower commonly referred to as Ben Ben groaned in a final death-knell as its foundations crumbled, before the towering structure collapsed backwards like a sinking ship, vanishing into the dimensional void. Moments later it was followed by Westminster Abbey, worldwide seat of the Anglican Church.

Slowly, unemotionally, the whole of London was being wiped away. Where the Great Fire of 1666 had failed, where Hitler’s Blitz had bombed in futility, the ‘magic’ of Equestria was permanently erasing over two thousand years of history. By the end of the day, the city that the Romans had named ‘Londinium’ would cease to exist. Hundreds of miles away, the opposite front of the Barrier was encroaching on Berlin, where the US Air Force was spearheading a similar evacuation.

Everything in between, most of Western Europe, was already gone. Paris, the City of Lights, had been extinguished forever. The European Parliament had been dissolved along with the rest of Brussels, and Rome, although not built in a day, had fallen in just hours, along with Vatican City.

It had been a slow process, one lasting months as the Barrier had slowly expanded. Diplomatic appeals to Equestria had been met with stony silence or saccharine platitudes of ‘this is only what is necessary, it’s for your own good’. Physical attack against the barrier had also failed, with everything from gunfire to missiles simply disintegrating in the field of arcane energy. Even the forced de-orbiting of the International Space Station onto the heart of the dimensional junction, what had once been the Swiss city of Geneva, had made no scratch or breach.

The only option left was to run away, across the Atlantic, to North America. At the barrier’s observed rate of expansion, Canada and the United States would not be in danger for between two and three years.

Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough time to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.

“Word from the City!” someone shouted, and a soldier pushed through the crowd, carrying a handheld radio. “The King’s convoy was intercepted by the PER on Kensington Road! Where’s Prince William?”

“En-route from Windsor Castle with his family, coming round on the Eastern Perimeter Road now!” replied a sergeant of the Royal Marines, yelling to be heard over the howl of engines. “Why? What’s happened to King Charles?”

“The…the report was incomplete, but…but…”

“For Heaven’s Sake man, report!”

“The…the entire convoy was Ponyfied, including His Majesty and the Princess Consort.”

“Then the King is dead…” replied the sergeant, before spinning on his heels and directing his attention towards his unit. “Long Live King William!”

The men took up the cry with a shout, proud even on the brink of defeat, before he led them off to secure the newly-promoted Monarch. Lyra, ears hanging despondently beside her head, could only watch as they ran in the direction of the expanding Barrier, now only six miles away and advancing at a remorseless walking pace.

Then, her eyes saw several dark pinpricks against the light of the barrier, high in the sky and advancing in formation. Rearing back in surprise she pointed a free hoof upwards with a shout of alarm.

“PEGASAI!”

“Lyra, Bon Bon” their guard grunted as he took the safety off his rifle. “We have to go, it’s not safe here.”

*

Equestria

“We have to go…” the human said, almost to himself, as he stirred the embers of the campfire with one of the dead Timberwolf’s legs. “It’s not safe here.”

“Uh-huh?” Lyra replied leadenly, unsure of what to say and unable to pull her gaze away from the severed limb he was slowly fire-hardening.

Eventually he noticed to focus of her attention and waved the leg towards the rest of the corpse.

“You’re wondering about this, right?” he said nonchalantly. “I went to…ah, ‘relieve myself’ in the night. Came back to see the bastard sizing you up as a possible meal.”

His cadence suddenly turned slightly lyrical, as if telling a nursery rhyme. “Looking to gobble up a pony, in one fell swing...”

Shaking his head he began to chuckle softly. Lyra stared in disbelief, recognizing the words as Zecora’s personal telling of the Legend of Nightmare Moon. After a few more seconds tempering the wood in the fire, the human lifted the glowing tip out and regarded it thoughtfully, the firelight reflected in his dark eyes. “Well, let’s just say I managed to take him out before he got you.”

Turning towards her he grinned, exposing his teeth. Lyra felt her breath catch when she saw the sharp canines and incisors positioned towards the front of his mouth, but then remembered that, according to her own research, humans were omnivorous. But not in the manner of pigs or rodents, no. There was a special term for it…

‘Hunter-gatherer…’ she suddenly remembered, her eyes wandering to the Timberwolf’s decapitated head. ‘Like the Griffins; intelligent, adaptive predators that use tools and the environment to achieve the kill…’

“Thank…you” she said at last. Terrifying master of the food chain he might be, but from the sound of things she owed him her life, and her thanks. “How...How did you manage to kill it without waking me up?”

“It’s amazing how single-minded carnivores are when they are about to make a kill.” The human replied idly, as if discussing the weather schedule. “Though I really didn't expect the head to fall off after I snapped the...uh....neck?”

“It is made of wood.” Lyra pointed out, relieved to feel a little of her usual contrariness coming back to her.

“I didn't know that at the time. I thought it was a regular wolf.” The human rolled his eyes, before silently beginning to twist the claws out of the severed limb. Lyra, for her park, could only gape at his supreme indifference to the fact that he had taken down one of the Everfree’s Apex Predators.

As she stared, she finally noticed a detail about him that had eluded her until now. There, on his shoulder, was what was surely a cutie-mark, one more intricately beautiful than any she had seen on any pony.

It portrayed an eagle perched atop a large sphere, behind which could be seen a large anchor. Tipping her head Lyra took in as many details as possible. The eagle’s wings were spread in a gesture of pride, and in its mouth it carried a banner, on which were emblazoned two words.

‘Semper Fidelis’ she mouthed to herself, recognizing it as Old Equin, the lingua franca of the old Unicorn Kingdoms. ‘Forever Faithful.’

Wondering at how he was marked in the dominant language of magic and spellcasting (another mystery amongst many), her attention finally shifted to the sphere, which was surely a depiction of a globe. It was an unfamiliar hemisphere, one dominated by two counterweighted continents that were joined together by a narrow isthmus.

“Is…is that Earth?” she said at last, pointing with one hoof.

The human, who had been trying to grip some of the timberwolf’s claws between his fingers, turned to glance down at his own shoulder, and frowned, as if offended.

“Yes…” he grunted. “North and South America. Pretty much the only landmass left where the Barrier has not made landfall, unless you count Australia and Antarctica, but no-one ever does. Ha!”

Suddenly, he stood and began dusting himself off. “Okay, time to get out of here.”

“Hold on a minute!” Lyra barked out. “So, everything you told me last night, all of that was true?”

“Of course it’s true.” The human rolled his neck, the sound of cracking bones causing Lyra to wince. “I can't make that kind of stuff up. Now come on, we need to get out of here before the Solar Guard come for us.”

“Wait! Why would they come after us?!” Lyra asked in surprise.

“Because, notwithstanding the fact that I technically kidnapped one of her subjects, the two of us reunited are perhaps the greatest threat to Celestia’s plans to dominate Earth,” the human answered. “Just look…the fact that I’m standing here, breathing this air, proves that all her crap about humans being unable to survive in Equestria without ponification was an utter lie. Her mistake in bringing me here could be the event that topples her entire house of cards!”

Pausing in full flow his expression hardened, and he turned down to regard Lyra with a stern glare.

“And I swear, Lyra, for raping your memories, for faking your death, for all her crimes against humanity and ponydom alike, I’ll make sure it’s the last mistake the Royal Bitch ever makes.”

And there he was again, going off about her apparent ‘death’. Well, enough was enough.

“Alright, tell me this. How did I...uh...‘die’?” she asked, putting her hoof down. “Because even with Princess Celestia’s level of magic, I’m pretty sure either myself or Bon Bon would have noticed something as important as my departure to the Great Hereafter!”

“Petrifaction” he replied bluntly. “You were turned into stone.”

“Oh!” Lyra started. “Well, that possibly makes sense. They say petrifaction is just like falling asleep, and then you wake back up as soon as the magic is…”

“…and then an angry mob smashed you into rubble” the human finished, cutting off the rest of her sentence. “Bon Bon was chained in place and forced to watch, before they did the same to her.”

“Wha-wha…” Lyra stammered, frozen in horror, before regaining control of her body and narrowing her eyes. “No! Just, NO! There is no possible way that Celestia, Princess Celestia, would allow something like that to happen, let alone forcing a special somepony to watch the…the murder of their loved ones!”

“SHE DID!” the human shouted aloud, the force of his yell laying Lyra’s ears flat along her head. “She murdered millions of people, with the barrier, and her potions, before she even got to you. All of Europe, and massive chunks of Africa and Asia, millions killed so that she could…reshape them in her own image!”

“Well, what’s wrong with that!” Lyra screamed back. “From what I’ve seen, humans are just angry, abusive, bloodthirsty psychopaths! Why wouldn’t you be better off as ponies?!”

The second the words left her mouth she realized she had gone too far. The human, ‘stick’ in hand, shoulders rising and falling with every angry breath, stared at her for a long, furious moment. Slowly, she began to edge way.

Then he laughed softly, low and dark, like the distant roll of approaching thunder.

“You sound just like Bon Bon did, before Heathrow…” he said, before straightening upright and beginning to once again repeat his strange drills, tossing, catching, spinning and presenting the club he had fashioned for himself.

As he did, he began to speak aloud, as if reciting from memory. “The power of the Amiomorphic Spell is not to be denied, but for all its ability to reshape the form of a pony, it is incapable of true metamorphosis. For a short time, a unicorn might know the joy of flight, or an earth pony the grace of magick, but these transformations are, by the decree of natural law, a temporary state. To effect a permanent change in any being’s innermost alignment, which arises from the magic of the soul, would require a vile ensorcelling of that same soul, a disfiguration and violation so blasphemous, so abhorrently contrary to the truths of Harmony, that it sickens me to even contemplate the possibility. Know this well, my little ponies...”

“Starswirl the Bearded…” Lyra said at last. “You know your classics.”

“I should do” he replied, eyes focused on the blurring motion of his hands. “You introduced me to his writings…and the Daring Do novels.”

He sighed, and turned his head slightly so that he could just perceive her at the fringe of his vision. “When the Ponification Potion was first announced, it seemed like a blessing. An end to disease, to pestilence and disfiguration, all contained in a scant few ounces of magical goop. The only cost was our opposable thumbs. Honestly, my first reaction was the hope that I might be a Pegasus…”

Then he glowered. “But then, the more insidious changes made themselves known in the first ‘newfoals’. They were different, in ways beyond the physical. You saw it in little things at first – they could no longer swear, and always seemed happy, particularly when the subject of Equestria came up. Then they began changing their names to something ‘more pony’, and started to proselytize on behalf of Celestia and Ponyfication, regardless of what they had believed before, or why they had made the choice to ‘go pony’. Give it six months or so, and you’d not be able to recognize the person they once were, in the pony they had become. By that point most of them had quit their old jobs, abandoned their old interests, foresworn their old culture, even cut off ties to friends and family who refused to Ponify. The majority eventually emigrated to Equestria with not a backward glance. That was when the barrier began to expand, and Celestia showed her true colours. She was stealing us, like a thief in the night…robbing us of our friends, our family, our history, and our entire world.”

“That’s…that’s terrible!” Lyra exclaimed, a shudder running through her at the implications of what he was saying.

“Oh, it got worse” he seethed. “Some ponies, and people, decided that it wasn’t enough for the Barrier to force people to either ponify or die, but that the right thing to do was accelerate the process. They called themselves the PER.”

“P-PER?” Lyra asked.

“Ponification for Earth's Rebirth!” the Human spat. “A terrorist group that goes around forcing humans to change into ponies. Their favorite tactic was Potion-bombing. They called it ‘Equestria’s grace’. I called it ‘rape’.”

Lyra shuddered at the venom in his words, and then realized that he had stopped drilling, and was instead staring at her, pointing with the stick as if it was some sword of destiny.

“You were the one that ousted them, Ambassador Heartstrings” he said coolly. “Celestia publically denounced the PER, while she was actually accepting their members into Equestria with full pardons, secret ponifications. You revealed her duplicity, and publically acknowledged what the potion did to humans; wiping away their very essence, their spirit and very soul. You stood before the cameras of the world to vocally disown Equestria as your home country, and to confirm that regardless of whatever she said, the Solar Tyrant’s goal was the conquest of Earth. Many other ponies escaped from Equestria to join you in founding the PHL. Other organisations, like the Human Liberation Front, were initially wary of you, and their hardcore membership, the supremacists and fringe-wing bastards, still refuse to see any pony as anything but enemies. But you managed to prove your worth to many humans after Thunderchild, and your death made you a martyr, even among those who did not trust you.”

Lyra looked at the ground, unsure if what he was saying was true. She looked back up to examine his face, seeing the sincerity burning in his eyes like a righteous fire. Then she spun on her hooves and began the trek back to Ponyville, head held high.

“Hey?! Where you going?!” the human yelled in surprise. “We need to head away from Ponyville and the Canterhorn, not towards them!”

“No.” Lyra said firmly. “If what you said is true...Then I need to see for myself.”

“You still think I'm lying!?” For all his strength, the human looked hurt at this.

“No...” Lyra said, her stride faltering for a second before she pushed on. “I believe you...but there is no barrier surrounding Equestria. Across the Eastern Ocean lies the Griffin Kingdoms, and the San Palomino Desert and the Badlands border the south. You can just see the desert mesas from Canterlot on a good day, and the mountains of the Frozen North in the opposite direction. And last I checked, none of them had been replaced by a dimensional void! At least...I don't think so.”

She turned and looked back to where he still stood in the clearing. “Look, I'm confused too, but one thing is definite in my mind. You said Twilight Sparkle is the enemy, but I’ve known Twilight since I was a filly and I know that’s not possible. She’s a gifted, socially awkward and very headstrong pony, but despite that, she’s one of the best friends you could ever have.”

‘And she’s the Element of Magic’ Lyra added to herself. ‘If magic equals friendship, if true magic stems from Harmony, then ergo, Twilight’s gift is not only magic, but the essence of friendship, or harmony, or empathy, whatever!’

“The Twilight you described to me last night is a raving egomaniac!” she continued. “Confident, arrogant, full of herself, and the head of a cabal of terrorists, not the six mares I know. She’s like a parody of the real Twilight Sparkle, and I refuse to accept that they are truly the same pony. There’s something going on here, yes, but it’s not what you think it is…”

Her breath expended, Lyra trailed off, directing as pleading a look in his direction as possible. The human grimaced and looked away, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers against his biceps.

“Please…” she implored. “You said I was the first pony to speak the truth, so please believe me now.”

“Argh...fine!” he grunted, reaching for the mud-stained remnants of his poncho. “But so help me, Heartstrings, if we get caught I will cut your head off just to deny Celestia the privilege.”

Lyra smiled and nodded her head, hoping that the threat was his version of a joke.

“Don't worry!” she said, trying to force a bright note of optimism into her voice. “It’s still early in the morning, so nopony will be awake at this time.”

Then, as Lyra watched, he tore the poncho in two, and fashioned one into a sling with which to carry the Timberwolf's head.

“What are you doing?” she gagged in disgust.

“Getting supplies if this turns into a fight,” the human explained. He made a fist, and Lyra felt herself turn pale as she realized that the Timberwolf’s claws, gripped between his fingers, now projected forward like spikes.

“And what is a…a head going to do in a fight?”

“Well, the sight of it alone was enough to shut you up. How would you react if it came flying at your own face?” the human smirked toothily as he hefted it across one shoulder. “I’m the Headless Horseman, and this is my flaming pumpkin!”

With that, the two of them started off down the rough track towards Ponyville, the human still carrying his stick braced across his chest, occasionally giving it the odd twirl and toss.

“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked at last.

“It’s how I remember” he replied flatly. “Who I am, where I come from, why I fight…”

“Okay. Well, please remember that you promised to trust me.”

“Oh I will, for now. But if this does turn into a fight, I won’t hold back.”

“Heck,” he added, a little too enthusiastically for Lyra’s taste. “If I get lucky and this turns into a free-for-all, I might even get a chance to take Sparkle out.”

“Umm...” Lyra replied, managing an awkward grin. “From what I heard, Twilight blasted you straight through a wall when you arrived in town.”

“I was distracted” he replied defensively.

“By what?”

“I was in the middle of trying to take Rarity's head off.”

*
The Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville

Twilight yawned and smacked her lips as she woke up from an uneasy night’s slumber. Slowly, she looked around and felt a smile blossom within her.

All her friends lay around her, sleeping soundly next to each other in the library’s main room. Rarity was cuddling Spike to herself as she slept, the young drake looking like he was in a private heaven as he hugged her back. Applejack and Rainbow leaned lightly against one another, sometimes wincing when they touched on one of their injuries, but still dreaming soundly. Fluttershy and Pinkie looked comfortable, although how Pinkie had managed to get into a sleeping position on top of and across Fluttershy’s own back was beyond Twilight’s reasoning. Fluttershy herself was oblivious, head curled up on her hooves and making soft whistling sounds as she slumbered.

‘Even her snores are graceful!’ Twilight marveled as she quietly rose to her feet and carefully moved among the mares that had become as close to her as family. Her good mood faded however as her eyes alit on the injuries her friends had sustained during yesterday’s fight. Word was that the human had escaped custody in the hospital shortly after she and her friends had left, taking some Canterlot doctor as a hostage. Twilight and her friends had volunteered to help mount a search, but the town guardsponies had insisted that, Bearers of Harmony or not, the six of them needed to rest.

Feeling a twinge of pain in her back, Twilight could not help but agree with that sentiment, even as she reflected sadly on how quickly an otherwise perfect day had fallen apart.

‘Dear Princess Celestia’ she began to write, having taken hold of a quill and parchment from her writing desk. ‘Although you may have already been made aware of recent events in Ponyville, I have news of an uncertain and possibly grave nature to report to you…’

*
Ponyville Park, Yesterday

“C’mon Twilight!” pleaded Spike. “It’s a beautiful day, why’ve you always got to have your snout buried in some mouldy old book?”

“It’s not some mouldy old book Spike, and even if it was I would treat it with the respect it deserves” Twilight replied primly, before clutching the volume in question to her chest and squealing in delight. “It’s the newest Daring Do novel, and I managed to get the first copy in town! Rainbow Dash was so jelly!”

“Yeah yeah” Spike replied, rolling his eyes before directing his attention to the newest member of the Golden Oaks family, the infant phoenix he had recently taken in. “C’mon Peewee, I’ll show you the sights. It’s your first time visiting the park after all.”

Twilight smiled fondly as the young dragon walked away, Peewee perched on his shoulder. Finally assured of a moment’s peace, she lay down on her belly, and turned to the first chapter of ‘Daring Do and the Fallout Quest’, by the acclaimed authors Kay Kat and Somber Bush.

‘If I’m going to tell you about my adventures as Daring Do…’ she read aloud. ‘I’m going to first have to tell you about pithbucks…’

Then, she blinked and squinted at text, struggling to make out the suddenly blurred words. She felt woozy. Did everything suddenly taste purple, and why was her horn aching?

Magic…somewhere a massive spell was being cast. Nearby, yet somehow, far away at the same time. Everything seemed skewed…sideways, or twisted up. Her eyeballs felt like they were being pulled inside-out.

“Uh...Twilight?” she heard someone say, and attempting to turn to face them she only succeeded in rolling onto her side, as if she had several flagons of hard cider in her. Spike was standing in front of her, his head tilted to one side in confusion. Peewee was mimicking his posture.

“Twilight…all the other unicorns are acting kinda…dopey…are, are you alright?”

“Magic…” she managed to force out, sweat beading on her brow. “Incredible, magic…”

Then, as quickly as it came, she felt the spell gradient peak, leveling off into a steady, stable mandala. The symptoms of thaumic overexposure almost immediately abated, and she struggled to her hooves, the latest adventures of Daring Do forgotten.

“Come on Spike!” she yelled, quickly levitating the drake onto her back before she took off running towards Town Center.

“Twilight! What's wrong?!” Spike shouted as he tried to keep Peewee held safely against his chest.

“I don't know. But there’s a lot of magical energy manifesting in town. Look at all the unicorns!” she replied, and Spike looked around to see all the unicorns either lying sprawled on the ground, or turning like weathercocks in the same direction as Twilight.

“How much magic are we talking about?” Spike asked.

“A lot!” was all Twilight could manage as she galloped past the Hooves couple, Derpy and her husband, the renowned theoretical physicist Time Turner. “Like off the end of the meter lot! But it’s so strange! I feel like I should recognize this energy signature, but at the same time it feels so alien!”

Finally Twilight hurtled into the Town Square, homing in on the source.

“Where is it? Where are you?” She muttered, one eye twitching as she turned in circles.

“Uh...Twilight.”

“Not now Spike.”

“Twilight.”

“Come on, where are you?”

“TWILIGHT!” Spike screamed, forcing Twilight to give him the benefit of her attention.

“WHAT?!”

“Look!” he shouted, grabbing hold of his surrogate sister’s head and turning it towards the centre of the square, where a speck of octarine light burned brightly just above eye level. Then, before Twilight could appraise it, the pinprick expanded with a crackling roar into a large, shimmering nimbus, large enough to drive the Friendship Express through.

“Amazing...” Twilight breathed, eyes wide as she took a step closer. “A stable trans-material portal. But trans-mat spells require immense reserves of power to perform...so who made you-EEK!”

Twilight abruptly jumped back as something came tumbling out of the portal, landing in a crude roll that left it standing upright on two legs. The bipedal being groaned as it staggered away from the portal, before flopping onto its back and staring dumbly up past the scattered clouds.

“Blue…” it muttered. “Not seen blue sky in a while.”

Twilight ignored his rambling for a moment, summoning all her magic to try and ‘spike’ the portal, tracing it back to its point and pony of origin.

“Come on, come on, where are you from?” she muttered, before growling in frustration when the portal abruptly collapsed back into a singularity and winked out of existence.

“Ponyfeathers!” she seethed, before turning back to see the creature still lying on the ground and moaning in pain.

To her horror, Spike was slowly approaching it, Peewee chirping from his customary perch on the dragon’s shoulder.

“Hey....are you okay?” Spike enquired, gently reaching out to touch it with the tip of a claw.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, everything she had ever read about first contact with exotic species crashing through her mind in a panicked torrent. “Get away from it! You don't know what it is capable of!”

Her horn glowed, capturing the baby dragon and dragging him back to her. Then her blood ran cold as she heard the newcomer mutter her name.

“Spa…Sparkle?”

The word was loaded with enough dread to sink a ship. Abruptly the being sat up, staring at her with mixed emotions.

“Um....sorry…” Twilight said nervously, realizing that her words might have offended the creature. “I didn't mean to-”

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” It screamed, masculine voice deep and threatening.

“Wait! You're hurt! We can-AH!” Twilight's eyes suddenly burned as the creature hurled a scoop of dirt into her eyes. Through the pain and tears, she could just see him scrambling back up into the same bipedal posture he had assumed on arrival.

“I SAID STAY AWAY, YOU GOD DAMN KILLER!” the being screamed, bolting away from Twilight while she tried to clean her eyes.

“Twilight!” Spike rushed to steady her.

“I’m…I’m okay, Spike. Where did he go?” Twilight's horn glowed as she placed Spike on her back, Peewee having flown away in fright.

“That way!” Spike pointed, and Twilight galloped off in hot pursuit, only to turn the corner and see that the creature was fleeing straight towards the Everfree Forest.

“Wait! You can't go in there!” Twilight grimaced, momentarily panicking. “Ah, um, yes!”

Clenching her teeth she shaped a quick spell and hurled it at the fleeing animal in a bolt of indigo energy. The magic connected in a violet flash, but to Twilight’s shock it only caused him to momentarily stumble in his flight.

“What was that?” Spike asked in surprise.

“Lethe’s sleeping spell, it was suppose to put him to sleep!” Twilight said numbly, shaking her head and bursting back out into a gallop. But for all her health she was a scholar, not an athlete, and although a fast sprinter, she knew she could not maintain this speed for long, where the being was already nearing the end of town.

Then her ears pricked up as she heard a familiar pair of voices approaching.

“Well Dash, Ah’ve gotta say those are some mighty fine specs. I dunno though, kinda makes you look like a bit of an, oh what’s the word…’egghead’.”

“Egghead? Ha! It takes a real pony to wear these in public! Real mares aren’t afraid to…”

“Applejack! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled, seeing the two ponies coming around the corner. Dash was wearing a cumbersome hooves-free headset that allowed her to read the new Daring Do novel on the go, and Applejack was mercilessly teasing her over it.”

“Oh, hey Twi’, whas’ gotcha up in such a tizzy?” Applejack started, before the indigo unicorn rushed up to them and pointed towards the fleeing being.

“Girls! Creature! Catch! Danger!” she panted, trying to convey everything that had happened between breaths.

Both mares turned in surprise towards where she was pointing, finally seeing the creature, which had come to a halt just at the edge of Ponyville, hands on its knees and chest heaving. Then it glanced over its shoulder as if checking for pursuers, eyes zeroing in on the three of them.

Twilight decided there and then that, to the end of her days, she would never forget the look of shock, followed by inexpressible rage that plastered itself over his features.

“YOU FUCKING CUNTS!” he roared aloud, before abruptly launching himself back in their direction, charging like a locomotive turned loose.

“Whoah nelly!” Applejack exclaimed, shoving Twilight out of his path while Rainbow dropped her headset, spread her wings and shot off in a vertical takeoff. As the creature hurtled up to her, Applejack planted her forehooves in the ground, spun around and lashed out at him with a powerful buck.

The attacker however wanted none of that. Dodging Applejack’s kick he leapt off the ground and, planting a foot in the orange mare’s back, used her as a springboard to fling himself up at Rainbow Dash. As the farm pony was mashed into the ground the biped flew through the air and tackled the cyan Pegasus, dragging her back onto the hard ground.

The two rolled around for a bit before the creature managed to pin Rainbow on her stomach in a submission hold.

“Hey! Get off of me!” Rainbow shouted, struggling to throw off the angry being, but unable to lift his weight.

“Rainbow, stop struggling!” Twilight shrieked. “He’s got you in a hold! Quit fighting and he won’t hurt you-”

There was a sickening pop, and Twilight saw Rainbow’s eyes widen in shock before she suddenly began to scream in pain.

“My wing! He popped my wing!”

“Let’s see how well you fly ‘Dashie’,” The being hissed in rage.”When your wings are nothing more than tattered stumps!”

He began to pull on her second wing, causing Rainbow to cry out, her frantic efforts to throw him off only worsening her agony.

“I’m a comin’ Dash!” Applejack said, struggling up and throwing herself straight back into the fray, but not before another wet pop announced that he had managed to dislocate another wing from its socket.

“My wings!” Rainbow screamed, before collapsing into wordless howls of pain. Twilight, frozen in horror when the being had demonstrated his horrific capacity for violence, suddenly found the use of her legs return to her, and horn glowing she galloped up to administer an anesthetic spell to the grounded Dash, Applejack having rolled the attacker away.

“Ah-ah, ah…” Rainbow sobbed as the pain abated, before noisily sniffing back the worst of the tears. “Thanks Twilight!”

“Don't thank me yet. That was only a numbing charm; your wings still need relocating.” Twilight explained hurriedly, her horn glowing once more as she tried to hurl the same spell at the monster currently tussling with Applejack, only for it to splash ineffectively across his back in a flicker of energy.

“Gah, somehow he’s resistant to magic!”

“Don’t worry Twi, he’s all mine!” Rainbow snarled, running straight at the wrestling duo and ignoring how her wings now flopped uselessly at her sides. “Get help!”

Applejack was breathing heavily, trying desperately to wrangle herself on top of the angry being currently trying to pin her. But his claw-like appendages gave him the advantage in the tussle, enabling him to hold down her forelegs in a manner no pony could.

“I got your back AJ! Take this!” Rainbow screamed, trying to spin and buck the creature, only for him to roll sideways, using Applejack as a living shield. Dash’s hooves powered into her friend’s gut, the blow powerful enough to cause AJ to vomit up her breakfast.

As Applejack fell aside, breathing weakly where she lay in a foul puddle of half-digested apple oatmeal, the being stood up and gave her a brutal kick in the ribs.

“Merciless whore! How’s it feel to be on the receiving end for once, Miss Applejack Smith!? Is honest pain too much for all your lies to take!?”

“Hey, studly!” Rainbow shouted, galloping up and hurling her full weight into him. “We’ve got a word for bullies like you here! Glue!”

Splaying his feet the creature took the brunt of her attack, and then with a feral grin he seized hold of one of her damaged wings, clutching it like a handle.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Rainbow yelped as fresh pain burst through the numbing veil of Twilight’s spell. “Hey! HEY! STOP!”

“FUCK OFF, BLUE BITCH!” he roared as he spun, dragging her around like he was cracking a whip with her wing, before he hurled her away at Golden ‘CT’ Harvest’s nearby carrot stall, causing it to collapse in a avalanche of wood, trapping Rainbow underneath.

Bruised and beaten, Applejack struggled to get back onto her hooves, when he gave her another cruel kick, knocking her back on her side.

“You’re so proud of your legs” he laughed darkly, causing the steadfast pony to quail in fear. “How’d you like try living the rest of your life without them.” Dropping onto his knees to straddle her back, he began to lay into her hindquarters, claws clenched tightly and pounding her flanks and thighs remorselessly, causing her to cry out in pain.
“No, please stop! I need those to support my famil-AIEE!” she shrieked as he brought his elbow down hard and she heard a bone snap like dry twigs.

“Then its fair play!” he roared between blows. “You took my family, so I’ll deprive yours of you!”

Another bolt of magic slammed into his back from behind, with just enough force to knock him away from Applejack.

“Ha!” crowed Twilight, newly returned with reinforcements in the form of the other Bearers of Harmony. “Now GET AWAY FROM OUR FRIENDS!”

The dangerous glow of her horn caused the being to hesitate for a moment, just enough time for a normally timid Pegasus to drop down into the street in front of him.

“How dare you...” Fluttershy whispered, her wings flaring and her eyes growing huge and dark as she stared at the aggressive creature. Taking off with uncharacteristic confidence she flew directly at him and hovered in his face, one hoof planted right in his chest. “HOW DARE YOU HURT MY FRIE-ark!!”

Twilight and Rarity stared in horror, unable to move. Although the menacing biped was unable to look away from the soul-piercing depths of Fluttershy’s eyes, he had managed to bring his hands up and wrapped them around the buttery pegasus’s neck, clenching furiously in an attempt to choke the life out of her.

“Get out, of, my head!” he grunted, sweat rolling down his brow. “Get. Out. Of. My. Head!”

“Ne….ne….no!” Fluttershy gasped, refusing to break the Stare even as she struggled for breath. “Not…until you stop, hurting, my friends…”

“Never…” he growled, eyes bloodshot and face flushed. “It’s you, or me, Flutterbitch. I’ve dreamed of this moment, for years. How does it feel, to be trapped, like the rest of us, in a vice with no escape? Tables finally turned, bitch. Now, you, are, going, to, DIE!””

Fluttershy’s hooves flailed weakly against his chest. The two were locked in a stalemate of wills, and sooner or later one of them would have to yield.

It was Fluttershy. Starved of oxygen, her eyes rolled back in her skull and she fell limp in his grasp.

“Yessssss…” he hissed as the Stare was broken, tightening his grip as if trying to pop her head off. “YESSSS!”

“HEY, BRONY!” a new voice suddenly screamed, as Pinkie Pie somehow sprung up between Fluttershy and her attacker, balancing a whipped cream pie on her hoof. “LEAVE THAT MARE ALONE!”

With a mighty swing she splattered the pie into his face, only for him to jerk forward, head butting her right between the eyes, but dropping Fluttershy in the process.

“That's not nice!” Pinkie protested as the force of his blow hurled her back, eyes rolling. Landing in a pink blur, she suddenly produced a huge gunmetal blue piece of artillery as she rolled back onto her hooves. “Now say hello, my little friend!”

The being cleared his eyes, only for them to widen in surprise when he saw the big blue Party Cannon aimed straight at him.

“Surprise!” Pinkie whooped, slamming a hoof down on the trigger, firing the cannon and sending the being flying through somepony’s kitchen window in a blast of confetti and party favours.

“Pinkie! That was amazing!” Twilight marveled as she rushed to help Fluttershy.

“Amazing is what I do- DUCK!” Pinkie forced Twilight to the ground as a razor-sharp bread knife came flying out of the broken window, embedding itself into a lamppost right where Twilight’s head had been moments before.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie, fucking pink annoyance non-pareil!” the being growled, scrambling back out through the window. “Confetti, Pinkie? Tut-tut. You should have brought your A-Game, because this time I am going to snap your spine, like a damn candy cane!”

“Can't we be friends instead?” Pinkie ducked his fists while Twilight teleported away, transporting Fluttershy to safety with her. “My name is Pinkie Pie, hello! Oh, but you already know that. Hey, how did you know my name anyways? You don't have to be a big meanie you know? We can all be friends and play A-Games toge-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” The creature roared as he lashed out, the bellow startling Pinkie, but not enough for him to actually land a hit on her. “Is that what you call war? Friendship? How about genocide, or isn’t there a word for that in Equestria!?”

The pink party pony began ducking and weaving between the blows, seemingly contorting like taffy, but her happy smile was quickly vanishing. First her expression morphed into concentration, then panic when his claws began to brush at her coat. Finally he managed graze her across the cutie mark, four red welts of blood puncturing the three balloons that marked her special talent. Pinkie yelped in pain, and the moment’s distraction was enough for him to deliver a mighty haymaker that left her sprawling on the floor.

Panting from exhaustion, but managing a triumphant stance, the being raised his leg over Pinkie to crush her skull, when a rope sheathed in a shimmering field of magic wrapped around him, pinning his arms and causing him to topple back on the hard cobblestones.

“So undignified,” Rarity stated, horn glowing as she manipulated the rope with her skilled telekinesis. “I must say, ropeponyship is more Applejack’s field of skill, but as the old proverbs say, it takes a beauty to bring down the beast.”

Trotting up she smiled and pushed up her mane, batting her eyes as winsomely as she could manage. “Now, would you kindly remain still so that we might discuss this like civilized ponies?”

“Rarity…” the being seethed contemptuously, before he flexed his arms, straining against the rope. “I am not, and I will NEVER be, a GODDAMN PONY!”

The weak stitch knot that Rarity had tied him with began to pull open under the strength of his exertions. Narrowing her eyes she lit her horn and took a hold of the rope, trying to restrain him further, but found her magic unable to keep a hold of him, as if both he and the hempen line were covered in butter.

“Oh dear…” the stunned fashion pony said, before backing off in full-fledged retreat as he managed to free his arms.

“Wrangle him, Rarity!”yelled a limping Applejack. “Ain’t you a proud, magical unicorn?”

“I can't! My magic is slipping off the rope!” Rarity backpedalled further, fear etched onto her face. “Twilight, darling, assistance please!”

Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to indentify a spell to stop this seemingly unstoppable beast. Then her thoughts flashed back to how her spells had managed to knock him around, even if they failed to have any other effect.

“That's it!” she exclaimed, before teleporting to Rarity’s side, just as the creature freed itself and attempted to kick the fashionista in the face.

“Hey, you!” Twilight yelled, drawing his attention. “Meet my friend Sir Isaac Neighton!”

She hurled another bolt of magic at him, but this time a levitated rock was cradled in the spell, and the force of the impact was enough to knock him on his back.

“Smartass little mother…” he seethed, trying to pull himself upright.

“Ha!” Twilight yelled in triumph. “You might be resistant to magic, but you’re not immune to the laws of motion! Now TAKE THIS!”

Horn blazing, she seized hold of the wreckage of the carrot stall pinning Rainbow Dash, and flung it at the creature, the combined mass of wood and vegetables driving him through the side of an unfortunate dwelling.

“I…I…” Twilight panted, before flopping on the ground in exhaustion. “I think that did it.”

“Darling, that was simply incredible!” Rarity gasped in delight, before warily eying the devastation before them. “If a little crude.”

“Yup! That was some smart thinking, Sugercube.” Applejack added, tendering gauging the extent of her injuries. “You okay there Rainbow Dash?”

“Do I look alright” Rainbow, now liberated from her prison, wept as she cradled one of her wings. “Just look what he did to me!”

“Aw shucks, it’s just a dislocation. Lookit me, broken leg and all. Now we just needa getch’ ourselves up to the hospi…”

They all froze at the sound of broken wood shifting, Slowly they turned to see the being pulling itself free of the wreckage. He was breathing deeply, struggling to walk through the rubble.

“You think you won...” the being gasped, his breathing short and shallow. “I know how to die, too! And I’d sooner die than change...”

“What?” Twilight and her friends began to take several steps back as he staggered towards them. “What are you talking about!?”

“You will not change who I am...”the being growled, yanking the bread knife he had hurled earlier out of the lamppost it was embedded in. “I was born as a human being...”

Twilight’s mind faltered as the ‘hew-man’ grasped the knife with both claws and raised it over his head, his face set with grim determination. Then she realized what he had in mind.

“NO!” she screamed, hoof outstretched.

“…AND I’M GOING TO DIE AS ONE!” he roared, attempting to plunge the knife into his chest. But then, blade glowing, the knife was yanked out of his grasp. Twilight, horn glowing and face scrunched up in concentration, slowly floated it away, struggling to maintain a grip against the lingering touch of his strange resistance to magic.

“No…” the human moaned as the blade drifted away, low to the ground and, blade elevated upwards. “You won’t rob me of the right to die true to who I am!”

Hurling himself forward he made a desperate attempt to throw himself onto the knife. At that moment, Twilight collapsed from over-exertion and the knife, no longer magically suspended, fell harmlessly onto its side, while the ‘hew-man’ only succeeded in planting his face in the ground, knocking himself out.

Battered and bruised, the six friends stared at the unconscious creature for a long moment, before Applejack summed up what everyone was thinking.

“Okay...Now what?”

*

Golden Oaks Library, the present

‘Your faithful…if confused student, Twilight Sparkle…’ Twilight finished the letter surmising yesterday’s events, before sighing and gazing out of the window, where the sun was slowly rising into the sky.

'Too early' she yawned. ‘I’ll ask Spike to send the letter when he’s woken. Actually, a little more sleep sounds good about now…’

But before she could lay herself down beside her friends, someone knocked at the door. Groaning, Twilight made her way towards the entrance porch.

“Urgh...who is it?” she groaned quietly.

“Twilight, it’s me, Lyra!” the voice on the other side said. “Please open up, before someone sees.”

“Lyra? Argh....it’s too early…” Twilight muttered. “Wait, what was that about being seen?”

“It’s about the human!” Lyra exclaimed.

Muttering angrily and preparing to give the self-proclaimed ‘anthropologist’ a piece of her mind, Twilight took a breath and opened the door.

“And what would you know about...the...” her voice faltered and her ears flicked back in fear as she saw a familiar figure rising tall and dark behind the minty unicorn.

“The word you’re looking for is ‘Human’,” he finished for her, leaning forward with an unpleasant grin.

“Twilight, we have to talk.” Lyra said quietly.