I waited cross-legged in front of the library for an hour. By then, the amount of ponies that were secretly watching me had increased tenfold, and I found myself the center of attention. Being a small town, rumors get around quickly I assumed. It took this whole hour for most anthropomorphic ponies to show up. Two guards that I recognized also showed up to stop any violence from happening, after they caught wind of the rumor.

“Divine.” I stated to the divine.

“Yes?”

“I might ask you to keep those two guards from interfering with what’s about to happen.”

“I knew you’d need my help soon.”

“Hehe. I guess you were right.”

I noticed that the guards seemed almost uncomfortable with where they were. The more experienced one didn’t show it, but the younger one began to get nervous and try to get his attention. After a few exchanges they flew off and didn’t return.

Just in time too. I felt Steel Builder coming up behind me with a tomahawk. I wondered why they had tomahawks and weapons for the public if hunting wasn’t allowed, but I ignored that question and concentrated on his location behind me. He quietly scooted closer and closer until he was 2 meters behind me. He still had his blue jeans and white t-shirt and red jacket.

“Your sneaking skills are impressive.” I thought out loud, startling him. “But I warn you, I don’t need my eyes to see. You should know this by now, after I dodged that crossbow bolt without looking at it.” I stood still, not reacting to his presence in any way. “Sit in front of me and we may begin.”

“W-what do you want from me?” he said nervously.

“I want a conversation… will you give me one?” I asked him calmly.

He seemed hesitant and put it tomahawk in his belt. He walked around my right and stood in front of me contemplating something.

“If you want to kick me I’d advise against it. You know I never intended to fight you now and to ask for one is a bad decision.”

He scowled at me and threatened, “Yeah, well what if I wanted to fight you?”

“Then I’d defend myself. But I think now is a good time for a cool-down. If you want to fight me again, how about we fight tomorrow when we are well rested. I won’t deny a good fight if I could.” I smiled at him through my closed eyes.

He hesitantly sat down a meter from me and I opened my eyes and let them adjust to the light.

“It’s pretty bright.” I commented.

He took that as a signal to lean forward and swing at me while he was on his knees. I easily caught it with my left hand and read a lot of information about him.

“Calm yourself Shambles. I don’t want to fight you.” I remarked to him calmly.

He however looked horrified and asked, “H-how do you know that nickname?”

“Your father told me.” I replied to him somewhat cryptically.

“M-my father’s dead.” he announced with disbelief and a small amount of fear.

“And so is your mother. But don’t worry about what they think of you. They love you unconditionally, and they wish me to make you a better stallion. Even if you don’t take my advice, I’m convinced I could still do it.” I told him.

“Clever.” noted the divine in my mind. “Using something so dear to him to trust you. His parents actually do love him unconditionally.”

“I know. All parents do, unless they never did love their children. His past screams loving parents that were lost to him.”

“I-if you can talk to them. What are their names?” he asked skeptically, his intent betrayed with a hint of worry.

“Longbow and Flat Finder.” my response came with a neutral expression.

His face held a look of shock, but quickly calmed and scooted closer. As if he trusted me a little more. I looked back around the area with my eyes this time and saw several things my senses weren’t able to reach. Several pegasi humanoids flew above the buildings and looked down on us. I also noticed the two familiar guards were returning and saw both Steel Builder and I sitting in front of each other. The younger tried to approach, but the more experienced guard held him back, giving us a scrutinizing look.

“How did you do that?” Steel asked me.

“My connection with the world is very strong. I can easily access information through any object or creature with a simple touch.” I lifted my left hand and gave him a wave.

He looked horrified. “Y-you read my mind through touch? That’s creepy.” he growled giving me a hateful glare.

“Why do you not like humans?” I asked him casually.

He seemed hesitant, “You know already…”

“I do. But I want to hear your reason.”

“…You guys are invaders in Equestria. Y-you’re here to destroy us and take our mares…” he finished lamely.

I couldn’t hold my stoic expression after that, and burst out laughing. “HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” my sudden laughter caused all the other ponies watching us to flinch.

“WHAT’S SO FUNNY!” he snarled with rising anger in his voice.

I tried to cover my mouth with my hand from the wave of laughter that was assaulting my ability to socialize. Of course I calmed down and gave him sly smile. I wasn’t sure why I found that funny, but I did and I don’t regret laughing at it.

“You actually don’t fear humans what so ever. So there is no reason why that would be your answer. You don’t really believe all that bullshit, because you made it up. Not only that… you just want followers. People that will side with you because they believe us humans are inferior. David made his way seem too different from any other humans, so he gets free reign and no one really questions him. Now with me here you have a new chance to ignite another flame against humans, with you at the head of the pack.”

He scowled at me in return.

“You know I’ve been creating followers before you were born. If you want to create a group of people you want to follow you, I can teach you how to do it.” I told him with a smirk.

“…Why are you doing this?” his question came with a raised eyebrow.

“Because I’m bigger than you, and you know it.” I told him with a serious expression.

“You’re not better than me.” he challenged.

“Prove it.” I shot back.

“Uh…” he thought hard and then looked at me with a victorious smirk. “Who’s the co-ruler of Equestria?”

“Luna.”

He scowled at me. “That’s Princess Luna monkey.”

“Do you want me to wipe your mind?” I started with a scrunched eyebrow. “I can do it. I can make it so you revert to infancy and you’ll be drooling for the rest of your life. I don’t even need to touch you to damage your mind that bad.” I let the threat linger in the air.

In actuallity I knew perfectly well that I REQUIRED his touch to do anything to his mind. That includes everyone else I wish to force my influence over.

He looked at me with fear for the first time and exclaimed, “Y-you wouldn’t. Princess Celestia will stop you and you’ll be executed!”

“You mean Celestia, the silly little sun goddess that is so weak, she can be defeated by a simple Iron sword?” I retorted. “Listen to me now, and never forget what I will say.” I waited for him to calm and listen intently. “I’ve been in front of the most powerful being in all of the known universes. And I know a lot of them. Oden has not only created his own universe himself, but as a Creator he also plays the part of the divine.”

“Celestia’s still more powerful.” he challenged.

I rose my hand as high above my head. “This is the pecking order.” I leveled out my hand to form a horizontal line a foot above my head. “Creator.” My hand lowered to eye level. “Divine.” I lowered my hand to chin level. “God and Goddess.” I lowered my hand to the height of my chest. “Deities.” I lowered it close to the ground. “Spirits. Celestia is a spirit of the sun and so is Luna, for the moon. Oden is a Creator and a Divine. There is no question Oden can defeat your little Princesses.”

“Yeah, and where are you on that scale?” he shot back, giving me an uninterested look.

I smirked and raised my hand to the level of a creator. He gave me an unimpressed look. I held out my hand toward him.

“I can also send information and allow you to feel what I feel.” I smirked as he rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand.

The first thing that he saw was a great sight of all the multiverse. And he felt the exact location of the Red Rose Empire and its size. His jaw began to drop when the distance to that location came into perspective and even as he felt it his mind couldn’t imagine the scale and range of such a place. In fact I actually feared that the feeling would kill him so got my own mind to filter the information so his won't become overwelmed. Then he felt my power. He felt it radiating off of me and his face went from awe to horror. He slowly removed his hand from mine and never took his eyes off of me.

“…Oden...” He whispered to himself.

I checked the surrounding humanoid ponies to make sure none heard him say who I was and I nodded to myself in satisfaction. Steel Builder took it as a confirmation that my name was Oden, and he slowly rose to his feet.

“I prefer to be called Troy while I’m here. Troy happens to be the sight of a very ancient and legendary battle.” I put my hand on my chin and thought more about history. “Huh… humans have a violent history. Good thing I’m a Terrarian, you know?” I joked to him and him only.

“I-I… why are you here?” his reply finally came.

“David. I’m wondering if I can bring him with me. I want to expand my Empire, and hopefully one day it will come here. Celestia knows I’m here for David, but she believes I’m a follower of Oden. And frankly, I’d like to tell her otherwise before I leave.”

“Q-Question… I-if that’s ok, lord Oden.” he stuttered with a slight bow.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“W-why me?”

“Why not?” I smirked.

“W-well wouldn’t you expect me to tell everypony who you are?”

“Maybe. But then again I kinda want you to spread my beliefs. I want you to change and not be so judgmental. You’ve committed your last hate crime this day, and I hope it stays that way.” I stood up so we’d be eye level with each other.

“Y-...yes Oden. I’ll learn to be forgiving.” he replied looking slightly to the left to avoid looking at me directly.

“Good. Maybe your first step towards redemption should be apologizing to all those you’ve hurt or insulted in some way. I saw your mind, so you have some work cut out for you. I’d like you to first apologize to David for any misconceptions about his origins, and any trouble you’ve caused.”

“B-but what if he doesn’t accept my apology?” he paused for a while, and looked down at the ground.

“Forgiveness is a two way street, Steel. You may not believe apologizing is worth it, but when you clear your name, you find yourself so much more approachable to other ponies.”

“Hey, I’m not saying I don’t believe apologizing is the right thing to do, but the whole idea that I have to apologize to people I hurt is…” he trailed off and crossed his hooves. “Scary.” he finished weakly.

“Why?”

His sad reply came simply, “Because I’ve hurt them, and they might want to hurt me.”

“If I know ponies, they won’t hurt you after apologizing. But if they do consider it as them blowing off steam or something. I’m sure a bruise or two isn’t going to kill you.” I assured.

“I know but. It’ll hurt.”

“Man up.” I deadpanned.

“What?” he confusedly asked.

“Oh, stallion up?” I replied mirroring his confusion.

“Oh ok.” he looked a little nervous.

I analyzed his posture and his facial features. I concluded that he may not exactly be entirely convinced he was wrong, but is possibly doing it out of fear of me. Or at least doing it to stay out of divine trouble.

“Give me your hoof.” I hold out my hand.

“S-sure.” he put his hoof back in my hand and I read his mind.

He actually was against apologizing because of the ponies he’ll have to apologize to. He’s afraid of ridicule and would rather not confront the ponies at all. He doesn’t have that much prejudice towards humans, but he was only using that fear to gain power. He’s actually a bit like me, only unskilled and without likeability. He can change all this if he was to confront the ponies that he hurt. If he chose not to, then he’d likely fall back into the same routine of ridicule and manipulation of other’s fears that plague the Ponyville community. I let go of his hoof and our limbs fell to our sides.

“Now what you don’t know is that I was spreading a rumor that I was going to change who you were by the end of the day. Notice the ponies around us right now.” I stated while looking to the crowd.

He turned around and saw the hundreds of ponies that were watching them that he surprisingly didn’t notice before. I found that actually pretty unbelievable that he wouldn’t see them, but I’ve become numb to my surroundings before and missed details at times.

“Y-you organized this?” he asked looking back at me with an incredulous look. “How’d you do that?”

“I told you I’ve been doing this longer than you have. I’ve been messing with people’s minds when I was only ten years of age. The ability to organize this was a simple cake walk, considering what I am and who I talked to. I just spoke to a small group and they spread the word like it was the next biggest thing.” I told him with a sly smirk.

“Uh, no divine power?” he asked.

“Please, when you’re me you don’t need power to get people to do what you want. But without it, it takes significantly more time.” I stated. “A rumor is easy to spread. I’m sure you know how easy considering you’ve been doing it for a while now.”

“Oh. Right.” he scratched his cheek avoiding looking at me.

“Well, I’m sure you’re busy. And I’d like to meditate for the rest of the day after I find Twilight Sparkle.” I told him.

“Oh uh, ok. Bye I guess...” he replied awkwardly.

“Have a nice day. And remember the agreement.”

“What agreement?”

“Oh right, I didn’t tell you the punishment for not apologizing.” he gulped nervously at my malicious smirk. “I’m going to imprison you in crystal, and use your dead body as a fond memory of this world when I leave. If you haven’t followed through with any of your apologies that is.”

“Y-you woul-. Yes you would. Ok I agree.” he nodded his head quickly and walked quickly off to my left.

I watched him go and crossed my arms as I began to scan the crowd. Some ponies looked nervous as my eyes passed them, but most seemed not to care and go about what they were doing. Although my eyes reached a pony I didn’t realize that was in the crowd. None other than Twilight Sparkle herself was stomping down the street toward me. A few other ponies decided not to leave thinking this would be interesting and I would actually agree with them. Twilight stopped a foot in front of me and looked me dead in the eye with a rather intense glower. Her gaze was so intense, I thought she’d hit me when she got into range. Although I didn’t flinch when she stopped in front of me.

“What. Happened?” she demanded.

“We had a talk.” I told her truthfully.

“About what?” she crossed her hooves across her chest, which pushed her tits closer to her body.

Not quite sure why I noticed that.

“Beliefs.” I replied semi-honestly.

“What kind of beliefs?” she still seemed convinced I was up to something.

“On the rights of intelligent creatures. I also gave him an impressive pitch about powerful beings that I think, he may have taken to heart. My last bit of advice was to ask forgiveness and apologize to those whom he wronged. Hopefully he’s on his way to find David.” I answered thoughtfully.

Twilight’s glare softened but her frown remained. “…Who are you?”

“Strange. Steel Builder asked the same thing.” I told her with a blank expression. “But unlike you...” I smirked. “I gave him an answer.”

“Don’t make me message the Princess.” Twilight threatened.

“Not like it will do you any good. Your Princess had nothing on Oden. If I die by her hand or am imprisoned, Oden will come and punish her.” I retorted.

“Who’s Oden?”

“He’s more powerful than a god. And several times as powerful as Celestia.”

“That’s Princess Celestia to you, buster.” she clarified, pointing an accusatory hoof at me.

“I don’t recognize her rule. But I’ll follow her laws. Our conversation was rather dull and uneventful. She didn’t even let me begin my argument over certain aspects of her laws. Even Oden let me bring up issues I found in his laws. And he’s a god. Many more times as benevolent as your Celestia.”

“Well, that’s probably because of your position in politics.” she threw a deadpanning look at me.

“I remember having an audience with him as a child. My parents were simple farmers as well, so I didn’t really have a standing in the community. All you needed to do is have a reason to speak with him and something important to talk about, and you can see him. Even though I was a child, I brought up excellent points and even though I was untrained and he could easily see the flaws in my logic, he was impressed that someone at my age could bring up a real world issue and offer a solution.”

Twilight tilted her head and raised her eyebrow. “What did you talk about?”

“Oh fuck ummm...”

“Drought.” chimed in the divine.”

“I spoke of a drought in…” I put my hand over my mouth in thought. “I think the southern flower fields.”

“Flower fields?” she asked with an unimpressed look.

“We are the Red Rose Empire. Our warrior ways are also paired with our understanding of beauty and passion. Most artists from our empire excel in symbolism and architecture.” I replied finishing the lie with a solid and unchallengeable culture fact.

“…” Twilight was silent, but seemed to be thinking behind the neutral gaze she was giving me. “You’re really hard to predict.”

“To be fair, you only just met me.” I gave her a warm smile.

She chuckled. “True. Although in the first day, you’ve done a lot during it. Do you know where you’re staying?” she asked with a small smile and backed up to stop invading my personal space.

“Actually, Celestia-”

“Princess!” Twilight tried to correct me sternly.

“-said that I was going to stay with you. And she personally expressed her wishes to see me lose my way to your library.” I finished with a smile.

“With me!?” Twilight exclaimed in shock. “B-but. UGH! Fine, I’ll take care of you.” her eyes shot open with realization and retorted, “Wait, she would never ask a pony to get lost!”

“Well, if you wish to think that way about her then you can.”

I noticed the only thing left of the crowd earlier happened to be only a few remaining ponies. Most of them had left while Twilight and I stayed just outside the library where no one could hear us. She gave me an irritated look and headed toward the front door of the library.

“Come on, let’s go inside. It’s almost six and the streets are dangerous when it’s dark.” she ordered to me, pushing open the library doors.

I looked at the sun which was now beginning to pass just over the horizon and give way to the moon's demands of the sky.

“Why did you tell Steel Builder about who you were, instead of Celestia?” asked the divine.

“That’s Princess Celestia, to you.” I mused.

“Indeed. But why?”

“Because Celestia doesn’t try to hurt me. And the divine command of Oden is a very influential tool to changing one's perspective of things. Even though I basically ordered him to stop being cruel to those that are different, he believed it was a good idea himself. His case was more trying to become something he didn’t want to. It’s a typical case of a simple schoolyard bully that grew up into the real world, and his only way to get by was to fuel his need for power and dominance.”

“You know he had the red aura around him. You could have easily just killed him and let me deal with his spirit.”

“But then there’d be one less puppet for you to play with. And he’s one of the main characters in this puppet show.” I responded cryptically.

“You coming or are you going to stare at the sunset for a few more hours?” came Twilight’s voice from my left.

I looked at her and she was standing in the doorway of the library leaning up against the door frame with a grin on her face. I smiled back and looked back at the sun that was beginning to change the color of the sky to orange.

“I think I’ll stay outside. I find the night air comforting to me.” I told her giving me an excuse to find a even more comfortable cloud to sleep on instead.

Not that I needed sleep.

“But you’ll likely get mugged in your sleep. Or pick-pocketed.” she stated with a worried expression.

“Not like I can’t defend myself.”

“Well, I worry for other ponies actually.” she deadpanned, but gave way to a grin shortly afterward.

“You can tell Celestia I ran off in the night to do some 'shifty things.'” I returned her grin.

“Princess.”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and walked off into the distance.

“You know your way back, right?!” Twilight called after me.

“Yeah!” I yelled my confirmation back.

I kept walking until the sun was completely down, and then I scanned the sky. Today was partly cloudy and I was sure I’d find a nearby cloud for me to sleep on. I equipped my wings and flew up high and scanned the horizon. I easily found a cloud for me to sleep on and lay on my back. I reequipped my Lucky Horseshoe and closed my eyes. Even though I didn’t have the wings on, I was still able to lay on the cloud without it giving out from my weight.

“I suspect a higher power is at play here.” I spoke to the divine.

“Indeed he is.”

“Want to talk?”

“Yes. What about?”

“What you think of me.”

“Well, you’re a very good con-artist if I were to give you an analysis of your character. You pretend to worry, when I can clearly sense the lack of love within your heart.”

“You could sense that?”

“Yes I could. All divines are able to do that. But I must admit, I’m entertained by your performance this day. I find it refreshing to be able to aid someone who is worthy of it, and play a direct part in a story I normally have no control over. Or have no right to control.”

“I’m glad I made someone happy. How’s Celestia’s opinion of me?”

“Let me think… or ask.”

“Ok…”

He was silent for a few moments until he broke it.

“She was seriously considering making you disappear. In some mysterious and amazing way. I already knew she didn’t like you, but I didn’t think she would have so much anger for your disrespect toward her. You need to be careful when dealing with creatures like her.”

“But then you’d be bored out of your mind.”

“I don’t have a mind.”

“Power?”

“Sounds right.”

“Ok, so I pissed off a sun goddess. Have yet to meet her sister. Befriended the human I guess. Rainbow thinks I’m cool enough to hang with, although she didn’t seem as spunky as she normally is. Learned monkey is a derogatory term… oh and I pissed off a sun goddess.”

“You said that already.”

“Unlike you, I have flaws. Oh man, I hate being in character. It’s fun but when you start believing you’re Troy who is a follower of Oden it’s kinda… awkward.”

“Then stop being a follower of Oden, and become Oden. I don’t mind your name running around freely in myths legends and history. Actually by now I’ve learned a lot about you and I trust you enough to be ok with it, if you start a religion in your name.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Well that’ll be weird. I don’t think I will. But I’ll accept your friendship if that’s of any value to you.”

“Well… all right, I’ll be your friend.”

“I still don’t know your name.” I told him.

“I don’t have one.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not part of a group. Usually divines have names when they need to be addressed by a standing in the realms. Your name is fairly new and unnecessary, but the fact that you are actively engaging with other divines qualifies you for a name. I suggest you get your universe in order before revealing yourself to the whole multiverse.”

“How will that go down, if I may ask?”

“Becoming part of the multiverse? Well first your universe will expose itself in the outer cluster where no one is supposed to be. Everyone will notice your strange universal placement and might ask questions amongst each other, but a few important groups will use divine ambassadors to speak to you.”

“Ambassadors?”

“Yes. Some leaders of groups or high members of multiverse groups will try to speak to you. You may deny conversation or speak with them one at a time. They will respectfully wait their turn to speak to you as well, to show good will. Although…”

“What?”

“There’s this one divine named Conquer.”

“Lemme guess. He’s a warmonger.”

“Yes he is. He has five universes in his control, after converting the deities. Every universe needs a balance of gods and spirits. You happen to not need this balance and you can continue existing and creating without either of these, because of what you are. But I suggest you have a large army of nature and man before you expose yourself to the worlds… especially if you wish to resist Conquer.”

“Well, he will be the first divine I’ll actively try to have a beef with.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“How so?”

“He’s stronger than you. But if you wish to destroy him you’ll have to go to four worlds and bring forth the spirits and gods to turn to your side or fight for power over their element.”

“Is it possible to just outright destroy a universe?”

“Yes, but it requires a lot of power and a large vessel to contain it.” he explained to me.

“Like what?”

“Well, you are a creator. Make one up.”

“I like you more now.” I snickered in the real world. “Oh, and since we’ve spoken what’s your name? Unless you wish to remain neutral.”

“No… what’s the name of your empire? The Red Rose Empire? I will be…”

“You’re naming yourself after my empire? I’m honored.”

“Yes… Peddler.”

“Peddler? That’s a nice name. I will refer to you as Peddler as of now. But it doesn’t have anything to do with flowers.”

“My trade will be gardens. I will ask Celestia to start flower fields as major crops and work to making Equestria beautiful. As you say, you desire symbolism.”

“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot. In return I feel I must protect you if ever you act for me.”

“Is that a deal?”

“I’d rather not deal, as I know what that entails. But think of it as an act of good will.”

“…Very well. Enjoy the night, Oden.”

“Enjoy the multiverse, friend Peddler. It will soon be very active with events that may decide the fate of both of us.”

Author's Notes:

I'm sure some of you who read the comments at the end of each chapter (specifically mine) would know something's up with what I'm telling them. Now you don't need to go back to each chapter to figure out what i've been saying to everyone because I'm going to tell you all right now.

Chapter 21 will be the end of what you thought this story was all about. Hell I didn't realize exactly how ambicious I was with crossovering everything you guys asked me to. to be honset if I do that then the next step will be continuing this story for....40+ chapters.

And I'm sure I could have made those chapters interesting XD

But in all seriousness I'm going to deal with major issues with my current cast of characters. Mainly Puppet Master/Oden. It's come to my attention that he's become too powerful and now looks like a complete super hero. I'm going to convert him to a completely Political figure considering how well you guys reacted to the chapters with discusion in them.

You still reading this? Good!

I'm planning on doing something to the story itself that will completely change the roles each current character plays. And I'm introducing more characters. WAY more characters. But don't worry they have their moments in which they do meaningful things to progress the story and they become memorable with time.

But unlike the first story I'll have names that I worked on with my editor and in my free time. They will be introduced in the second longest chapter I've ever written starting at 8.000+ words and the rest will be (hopefully) 4000-5000 words of pure character development and improvement.

If you're still reading it means you truly care about what I have to say and I love you for that. I'm actually going to disguise this apraisal as another informative paragraph so people who go to the bottom won't think anything of this and move on. But after the chapter twenty-two this story will become very Lore like. I've actualy become inspired to do something like this and I'm happy to start of an entirely new adventure that I'm sure you will all love. However this may mean the only pony you hear about is Rainbow Dash for at least four chapters.

But don't worry about the lack of ponies because the characters themselves are very well developed by me rather than Oden's character that seems to be jumping between a bipolar personality to a tripolar personality to a fixed one and back again in an impossible cycle of stupidity and multipersonality disorder. So I'm basically putting him in a spot where he will forceably play only one or two roles and still have some of him left over to make it look like he's not a new character. Now please put the key word Triangle in the comments below if you read this whole thing. Even if you don't have anything to say after that I'd love to see how many of you guys actually care about what I say and that you'd listen to me ramble on about potentially boring things.