I had my eyes closed most of the night, waited until I could feel the sun on my face, and I opened them again. My hands were on the back of my head and had my legs crossed. Although the sun wasn’t the first thing I actually felt today, oddly enough. I mean, who would have thought Rainbow Dash would actually get up this early to go manage the weather.

“Yo dude, wake up!” she started prodding my face with a hoof.

I opened my eyes instantly and gave her with an irritated glare. She was looking at me with a confused and slightly fascinated look. She was wearing a black hoodie and short shorts. I could tell she wasn’t wearing anything under her hoodie, because of the detailed outline of her bra on her chest.

“How the hay did you get up here?” she asked.

“With a great amount of difficulty?” I replied smartly.

She shot me an unimpressed look. “No, don’t avoid it like that. How. The hay. Did you get up here?”

“I flew.” I answered her honestly.

“You don’t have wings...” she snarked back, sounding unimpressed.

“That’s what you think.” I remarked with a smirk.

“Ugh fine, but I’m going to need to get you down from here so I can remove the cloud.” she stated, grabbing the sides of the cloud with her forehooves.

“No need.” I replied and stood up.

She looked at me strangely before I looked down at the ground and her eyes followed. She seemed to connect the dots but before she could say anything, she then noticed me missing from the cloud after raising her head. She panicked and looked down and saw me plummeting to the ground and quickly gave chase.

The ground however, had other plans as I landed on my feet without so much as a grimace when I hit the ground. I started walking forward before Rainbow Dash quickly landed to my left and almost dropped her jaw in surprise.

“WHAT THE HAY!” shouted Rainbow in my ear.

“What?” I asked with mock confusion.

“HOW ARE YOU NOT IN PAIN?!” she exclaimed with an awed expression.

“Well first of all, I only fell and it’s nothing to worry about.” I replied still snickering.

“Hey, this is important!” she placed her hooves on my shoulders and turned me toward her so I could look at her serious expression. “Whatever it is, I want to know so I don’t have to deal with breaking my wings when I mess up on really hard tricks.”

I thought for a moment. "How can I get something out of this arrangement? I could simply hand her the horseshoe and make another when I get back, or I can withhold the shoe and ask her to do something I’d find entertaining for it."

“Hmm, I’ll give you the secret when I think of something in return I want you to do. Deal?” I asked holding out my hand for a hand shake.

“DEAL!” she took it and shook hard. “What do I need to do?” she inquired with a challenging grin.

“Not sure yet, but I’ll think of something. Don’t worry about finding me for my answer, because I already know where you live and as you can see I can find a way to knock on your door.” I motioned to the high cloud.

“Ugh fine… wait are you going to blow me off?” she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

I grinned a little wider now. “No, I don’t think I will. Besides I don’t really have much to ask for right now. I mean I only just got here yesterday, and I already beat up most of the bullies so I can’t have you do that. Then again, I can ask you to do something absolutely stupid for some short term entertainment. Though, I doubt that’ll help either of us in the long run.” I explained looking a little more serious.

“Right I gotcha.” she crossed her hooves over her chest.

“Anyway I’m sure Twilight will want to make sure I didn’t get mugged in the night. I didn’t go to the library, you know.”

“Wait, Princess Celestia told you to stay with Twilight? You know I was expecting her to ask you to stay with Applejack like she did with David.” she elaborated to me, but looked at the cloud I was previously sitting on.

“Ok, that’s interesting. I guess she doesn’t trust me as much as David, but considering my background I’m sure I can quell many of Twilight’s unstoppable ramblings about random scientific things, that Celestia surely doesn’t want to hear about.”

“Princess.” Rainbow glared at me.

“King Oden.” I retorted with a smirk.

“Princess Celestia.” Rainbow remarked with a growing grin.

“Oden.”

“Princess Celestia.”

“Oden.”

“Celestia.”

“You didn’t say Princess.” I smirked at her.

“Wa-AAAUGH!” she facehoofed at her own foolishness.

“Hahaha. Anyway, I’ll leave you to your clouds. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of work to do to clear them up easily.” I noted, inspecting the still partly cloudy skies.

“Nah, I’m the fastest Pegasus in all of Equestria! I can take care of this in ten seconds flat.” she boasted.

“Then I’ll leave it to you. Goodbye.” I replied, beginning to walk to the library.

“See ya!” she shot off into the air.

I opted to ignore her flight path and set my sights on the library that was a little more than a city block away from me. Although I didn’t get far when a voice found its way wiggling into my head.

“Just a bit of warning. There’s a dragon heading toward Ponyville.”

“Wait what?!? Did you do that?”

“No, dragons tend to attack towns because they believe they’re better than ponies. In fact they get away with burning down settlements every year. At least two cities are attacked, and some ponies lose their lives. It’s usually this reason why ponies didn’t trust humans. David experienced his first dragon attack a year ago.”

“So, do you want me to kill it?”

“Well, you can if you want. Though you’ll have to expose your secret Terrarian bloodline to do so.”

“Well I guess now is the time to become Oden, of the Red Rose Empire.”

“If you wish to expose yourself to the world on your second day then go ahead. I won’t mind.”

“Prepare to be amazed Peddler.”

“I shall watch with interest King Oden.”

“Which direction is it coming from?”

“South.”

I looked at the sunrise and found east. I then looked to the south and started to head around the buildings in that direction. Some early-morning ponies saw me and gave me a wave. I waved back, of course, and continued on my way without any other interruptions. Alleyways were the paths I had to take when I was going off course from the south. I’d find myself weaving through houses as if I were evading someone. And to be honest, evading is what I wanted to do right now. I felt as if I didn’t want to reveal myself as Oden, the king of the Red Rose Empire and Creator of my own world. But I already told Peddler my plan and I felt that I’d best stop the charade now or… no. I’d best be known as Troy for now. The second human that changed Ponyville’s future forever.

I found myself on the edge of town overlooking an open field. An occasional cluster of flowers and a lone tree dotted its landscape while I witnessed humanoid ponies walking in groups to picnic locations throughout the small park. I looked up in the air and noticed I had lost track of time, the morning was still young, but not as young as I thought it was. I looked around and saw at least two groups of ponies that looked like families in the early morning wishing to enjoy breakfast together in the morning sun. I chose to separate myself from them and find a place squarely in the middle of the field, below the lone tree.

I walked up to it and put my hand on the short, but strong oak tree and admired every detail about it. I turned around and sat cross legged below the tree and closed my eyes. I let the world's noises and sights drain around me, while I entered a blissful state of mind.

“How long until the dragon arrives?” I asked Peddler.

“The afternoon, actually.”

“Ok so, I guess I have a lot of time considering the time I got up. Why is the dragon doing this? I mean why not just leave the ponies alone?”

“Because it’s more of a rite of passage. To attack a village, is like showing you’re a capable member of society. Of course I’ve given Celestia this knowledge of attacks beforehoof and she sends out guards in response. They all kept dying, so I stopped giving her predictions.”

“Couldn’t she just evacuate the town?” I asked.

“No, the dragon will then move on to another target if there are no ponies in it. But it might leave a some fires anyway.”

“Well, that’s depressing.” I commented.

“Indeed.” replied Peddler and he went into a moment of silence. “I’d like to discuss the process of adding me to your Empire.”

“You want to become part of the Red Rose Empire?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me, can you create an illusion around your universe to act as a form a symbolism?”

“Yes, I believe I can make a permanent image of color on the outer surface of my realm. What do you wish for me to create?”

"The image of a rose. A red one if you wish. It can be any other color you wish but it must be a rose. " I paused to think a bit. "Although, if you want to get creative you can use any other flower. Just as long as you claim to be part of the… actually I don’t really have a name for the group. The Red Rose Empire is just the name of my nation in my universe. But I guess The Garden is a better name for the group."

“Wish to brainstorm together?”

“I think I had a name for it earlier only I forgot… one moment…” I took my time to think about the conversation I had with Isis before I left. “…Uh yeah, I don’t know.”

“The Garden seems like a good name. It show’s we’re a community, but it also makes us sound separate from each other. Like individual plants.”

“We’ll need to become a larger community. How would I convince other divines to follow The Garden?”

“By convincing them it’s worth their while. Some need convincing to follow someone. Others need to like their sense of character, like me. Others want something in return for becoming part of the group. Like a promise to protect them, or power.”

“I’d promise to protect the divines that chose to follow me. I’d protect you in a time of need as well.”

“Thank you. I’d like for my flower to be blue when I create the illusion.”

“You don’t need to tell me about your flower, unless you want something other than a flower.”

“Very well.”

“Oh, you mentioned other groups last time we spoke about divines. Can you tell me what they are?”

“Well yes. There are several that have a rather large influence, and the splinter groups that are growing in size every century. The Noble Order is a group of powerful divines that banded together in response to Conquer’s... conquest. They vowed to protect each other and ask for more to join them. I’ve turned them down because my world isn’t wanted by Conquer, so he doesn’t try to attack me. Besides he’s currently licking his wounds from the last conflict he had.”

“Last conflict?”

“Game Lords is another group you should know about. They have only one Divine, and their entire organization is made up of spirits that protect worlds they travel to. In fact the divine named Stratagem, is the founding member of the group and he is one of many divines that have a physical form such as yourself.”

“He what? I thought a physical form was rare amongst divines.”

“Whoever you’ve been talking to must be without the right sources. Many divines have a physical form. Even Conquer has one of his own.”

“Wait so that means…” I thought back to my world.

“What?” asked Peddler.

“Well, I’m going to have to speak to a deity of mine.”

“You have a deity?”

“Isis.”

“Oh, I know that entity. Although your information is incorrect, for she is a nature spirit.”

“Not when I’m done with her.”

“Oh, I understand. What use does she have to you?”

“She will balance my food chain on my planet. I have major changes that I wish to attend to when I come back.”

“Understood. Now onto the signals to look for in the multiverse. The Noble Order has an illusion spell to show they’re a part of the order, it looks like a yellowish golden mist around their universe and it’s the only real indication that a divine is a part of the organization. The Game Lords and their single universe have a blue mist. You’ll find that other mists or even symbols will arise in the multiverse when you look for them.”

“I didn’t notice any when I looked.”

“You must have just been sensing the multiverse itself. When you stop hiding yourself, you’d see it like you could see the worlds now. In fact, I believe I should create the rose illusion now while it’s on my conscience. Simple enough to do… done.”

“That fast?”

“Did you think a little light show would take years? I chose a red rose shape. It’s more of an outline of the flower with the respective colors to each part of the body. Nothing more complicated than that.”

“Interesting. Anyway how long till the dragon comes?”

“I think you should worry about the currently approaching ponies.”

“What are they here for?”

“You’ll find out.”

I kept my eyes closed as I sat cross legged with my back up against the tree. Soon a small group of ponies came into my sensing field and walked by me without incident. I noticed one gave me a confused look, but didn’t say anything. I thought Peddler was messing around with me before I noticed another small group heading straight for me from in front of me. They were approaching painstakingly slow; each was watching my movements, as if expecting me to lunge at them at any moment.

I noticed that the group was made up of three ponies that I didn’t recognize. I did notice that if I stood up I would be taller than them by a full head leading me to assume they must be either children or teenagers. They were all mares, so I assumed they were going to either commit to verbal assault or blame me for any physical violence if I defend myself. Although, I couldn’t know for sure who they were or what they were doing considering their body structures, faces, and colors were foreign to me. Two were unicorns and one was an earth pony. The earth pony was on the right while the unicorns were in the middle and on the left of their formation.

They were at most a meter away from me when they stopped. I was still unfamiliar with any of their faces and assumed they must be either journalists or ponies from town. I waited for them to speak up, but they kept giving each other nervous glances and the mares flanking the one in front started whispering words of encouragement to the one in the middle. I assume they were each close friends.

“Ask him.” the unicorn on the left whispered.

“N-no, you ask him.” ordered the middle unicorn.

“He’s not even awake yet.” replied the unicorn on the left.

I took in their features while my eyes remained closed. The middle unicorn had a red mane with a grey coat and wearing a green t-shirt and really tight blue jeans. The earth pony on the right was wearing tight black jeans with a red hoodie. Her mane was yellow with a silver streak running through it while her coat was a light pink, she was actually pretty cute. The unicorn on the left had a lime green coat and light blue hair. Her attire was a buttoned white shirt that was a little see through so you could see her bra, but you’d be distracted by her cleavage too much to pay attention to it.

“U-um, are you awake?” asked the red haired unicorn who was between her friends.

“The whole time. I assume you wish to speak to me?” I replied without opening my eyes or smiling.

“Oh, umm well…” she fumbled her words timidly, and smiled. “C-can we join you?”

“Don’t see why not.” I answered with a small smile to make them more comfortable in my presence.

They glanced at each other and sat in front of me. They all had their legs crossed like mine, and our positions made our knees created a square. The two on the left and right were facing each other while I faced the one in front of me. At this point, I opened my eyes to see the small group of three. My vision was blurry and after a bit of adjusting, I was able to see clearly. I saw that the sun was beginning to reach the noon and I began to worry. Although the one in front of me with the red mane spoke up and I pushed the threat of the dragon to the back of my mind for the time being.

“Um, what’s your name?” she asked with a nervous smile.

“Troy.” I responded.

“My name is Bright Stars.” stated the red maned and grey coated unicorn in front of me.

The pink earth pony to my right spoke up. “I’m Sugar Swirl.”

The green unicorn with light blue hair to my left spoke up. “I’m sexy.” she gave me a wink.

“UGH!” both her friends groaned in frustration.

“Hahaha! Ok ok, my name is Tala(Rose Peddle)” she stated with a strange echo in my mind.

I know she called herself Saundra Clemens, but for some reason Rose Peddle came into my mind. I knew immediately what that was though. Little miss Rose Peddle is a spirit. I could feel her energy and it was similar to Isis’s, only hers was directed toward desire. She was drawing energy from her friends and her reserves were larger than my Perceived magical reserves. I could tell she believed she had control over me. And that word Sexy was filled with spiritual power of suggestion. She’s trying to get me to trust her through my lust.

But I know her trick.

“Nice to meet you, Rose Peddle.”

The unicorn in front of me spoke up again. “What about me?” pouted Star.

“Nice to meet you to Star.” I grinned at her playfulness. “Ok, so what do you girls need?” I asked making sure I glanced at Tala.

“Well…” Star started and paused trying to collect herself.

“Tala is a spirit of lust, isn’t she?”

“Yes.” responded Peddler.

“How do I deal with her?”

“Figure it out.”

“D-do you want to be friends?” she asked hesitantly. Her friends both facehoofed.

“Sure.” I replied with a nod. “But I feel as if you want more than just friendship from me.” I gave her a knowing gaze.

She looked nervous and started fidgeting. “W-well. Yeah, I guess.” she avoided my gaze while I beamed at her.

Tala spoke up, “She’s a bit shy.” she received an irritated glare from Star for her efforts.

“I can tell.” I said giving Star bedroom eyes. She flushed red in response.

“Oh um, oh my.” she tried to find something to say.

To my left I could see in my peripherals Tala was raising an eyebrow at me. She was the spirit of lust and desire, and she couldn’t feel my lust for anyone. I knew she started trying to scan me with her powers only to be stopped by the barrier that my realm created to hide my power. I thought more about my realm's ability to sense my emotions and needs for a moment, before I was brought back to the present by the ringing of a large church bell in the distance.

All the mares including Tala started to panic and look up at the sky for an unseen threat. I quickly realized that the bell was the early warning system for threats against Ponyville. The ponies got to their hooves quickly and started to run behind only Tala lagged behind when she realized I wasn’t coming.

“Come on, there’s a dragon coming!” Tala warned.

“I’m going to face it.” I replied standing up.

“W-what!? Are you crazy!”

Her friends were out of earshot by now, and all the ponies have evacuated the field. I could hear distant screaming in Ponyville as ponies scrambled for places to hide or ways to get out of danger. I slowly walked toward Tala until I was a meter from her.

“I knew the dragon will come from the south, so I waited here before it would come.” I told her with a serious expression.

“You can’t fight a dragon! You’re only human!” she exclaimed anxiously and looked as if she was about to leave without me.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” I replied calmly.

“What? I don’t-”

“Celestia asked you to learn more about me, didn’t she? Or are you acting on your own?”

She held a look of confusion. “Troy, what are you talking about?”

“Your name is Tala, your power is desire and lust.” I remarked, giving her a small frown.

She relaxed considerably, but she held a look of suspicion and she scrunched her eyebrows, giving me a glare.

“What are you?”

“Something a little more powerful than a spirit. I’d shake your hoof to know more about you, but then that’d mean I’d know everything about you. And you’d probably just make an excuse to not touch me right?” I grinned.

“…What are you?”

“You’ll know, when I want you to.”

I heard a sound like two massive wings just pumped kilos of air downward and I felt the wind a few seconds later. Tala looked up in fear… apparently spirits can be killed by mortal means, otherwise she wouldn’t be afraid. I saw a green dragon with a tan underbelly fly overhead, oblivious to the two beings below him. Before I was able to crystallize his heart however, he flew out of casting distance.

“You know.” I noted to Tala dryly. “I was planning on intercepting him before he got to town.”

I put on my wings from my inventory and spread them as far as they would go. Tala looked at me with a bit of awe. I pumped my wings hard so I’d fly up into the air and into the tailwind of the dragon. At first the tailwind's slipstream made me go faster, but then as I caught up, it became more challenging to fly when I reached the dragon's speed so I flew out of the tailwind and tried to close the distance. I wasn’t close enough to stop the dragon from spitting fire all over much of the market where humanoid ponies were gathered, but dispersing. All the pegasi have either taken to the skies or hid behind a cloud.

I was met with confused stares by pegasi that were behind the dragon when I passed them with my unnecessarily large wings. Although I did hear my name called several times as I was closing my distance to the dragon. I was almost within casting distance before a rainbow blur got in front of my path.

“TROY STOP!” Rainbow Dash screamed in front of me forcing me to halt. She was wearing the same clothing she was this morning.

“Rainbow, I’m in the middle of something!”

“I don’t care if you secretly have wings! You can’t fight a dragon!”

“Rainbow, out of my way!” I tried to move her aside, but she backed up and stood in my way.

I dove and tried to go under her but she still blocked my path. I knew going around her would be pointless so instead I thought quickly and pulled out the lucky horse shoe. I pulled her hoodie forward and dropped the horse shoe down her neck, where it got caught in her bra. Her face flushed and was about to hit me when I cast crystal storm on her wings and she fell to the ground.

I knew my wings wouldn’t be able to take me to the dragon fast enough before it burned down more of Ponyville, so I opted to recreate my crystal dragon form in the air. My body was surrounded by crystal energy and the form of the dragon was built out of purple crystal before being enchanted by cursed flame. My dragon from was complete, and I pounded my wings toward the green dragon that was tormenting Ponyville.

I opted not to get the dragons attention and barreled toward it with all the speed my crystal wings could give me. I opened the jaw of my crystal puppet and snapped down on the wing of the green dragon and I climbed to a higher and higher altitude. I figured fighting a dragon as a dragon was rather silly, and decided that letting my dragon explode would be more damaging. I activated a chemical reaction that normally happens when making a crystal bullet explode on my crystal storm and it detonated in the air.

*BOOM*

The crystals shot out in all directions except inward where I was and they melted away as they got farther from me. The dragon that I detonated next to started flapping its wings feebly and I noticed several lacerations across its scales that went down to the flesh below. And that was a good foot into the scale.

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!” shouted the dragon, as it tried to dash toward me with its mouth open.

I crystallized its mouth before it could blow any flame at me, and I used my crystal storm again to crystallize its muscle tissue and hold it in the air. It was able to move, but its muscles were moving so much it was getting difficult to encase them. It then bit down on the crystal in its mouth and easily broke it.

“Oh right, dragons eat diamonds.” I thought to myself.

It breathed an orange flame at me and I chose to ignore it as my crystals began to spread and cease up the muscles more and more, before the dragon could only move almost drowsily as it fought my influence. My crystals began to cover the decreasing size of its lungs and stopped the torrent of flame. It looked at me fearfully and my crystal storm began to close in on its heart. It was at this moment I realized something.

The dragon didn’t have a red aura.

“Peddler, do I have permission to kill the dragon?”

“No.” he replied simply.

I was confused as to why he would allow me to kill it earlier, but not now. I cut off my crystal storm spell from my magic reserves and the green crystal began to quickly dissolve and allow the dragon to breathe. Which it did happily and panted as it leveled out from falling due to the lack of force holding it in the air. I then spread my wings and let it catch the air as I slowly went down with the dragon. He leveled out and looked at me with a fearful and ashamed expression. I slowly dropped down until I was level with the battered and cut dragon, and I lazily flapped my wings to keep me aloft and level.

“W-why did you stop?” he asked fearfully.

“I’ve chosen to spare your life rather than end it”

“…What do you want from me, Master?” he bowed in shame.

“Master? Peddler what is he talking about?”

“You could have killed him, but you spared his life. His dragon code says he must serve you until the life that you spared is over, or someone else does something as meaningful as sparing or saving him.”

“Oh, I getcha.”

“I demand that you not serve me, but instead take this single command from me.”

“I have to treat you as my new master. It’s the dragon code.” he replied shamefully.

“Then as your service to me is unneeded, for I have so many that already serve me I demand you take a single command that you will follow for the rest of your life in an act of the service to me.” I called to him.

“Depends what it is my master.” he respondedrespectfully.

“Never attack another settlement for the rest of your days, and claim that you’ve been defeated and spared by the great lord Oden!” I told him.

He thought for a long moment before nodding. “It’s a trade that is acceptable to the dragon code. I will honor your command for the rest of my days, lord Oden.”

“Good. Now leave and never return. Not even to ask for more commands.”

He didn’t respond, but opted to instead go into a partial dive and fly off to the south, albeit feebly and wounded. I spread my wings to their full length and stopped flapping and slowly glided downward. I realized that even if I were to continue like this, it would take several minutes for me to reach Ponyville so I chose to bring my wings to my side and fall down. It took twenty seconds for me to hit the ground and even in front of the library too. Ponies came out of hiding and looked at me with no shortage of amazement. Those that watched the display were shaking in equal parts fear and amazement.

I looked around as a crowd began to gather around me. I scanned the crowd for anyone important that would be there and I actually found a new entity that was more powerful than the mortals. Tala wasn’t in the crowd, but I felt another presence similar to her. Although before I could locate such a being it began to dissipate and seemed to stop existing entirely. But I was sure that it was just hiding itself. Now all I need to do is find the pony that I can’t sense. I walked down the street toward the edge of the crowd where I felt the energy last and used my senses to find the pony that didn’t belong.

The crowd parted as I hid my energy once again, so the entity couldn’t sense me when I get close. The crowd began to follow me and I realized that the only pony not following me was the one walking away from me. I picked up my pace and the pony I was following turned down an alley way that I also went down and found nothing. I used my senses to find even the gaps in energy and I realized that the spirit or god or whatever was beside me. Only I couldn’t see them. It was like I was a medium and I felt a dead spirit standing beside me.

I reached out to my left without looking to my left and I grabbed the shoulder of an invisible pony. It yelped in surprise and became tangible. I saw the crowd begin to poke their heads around the corner and I quickly pulled up a crystal wall to block their view. I then placed a ceiling and another wall on the ends of the alley way so we’d be completely cut off from the outside world.

“So.” I noted to the pony beside me. “You want me to introduce myself first or do you?”

The pony was a mare with a tan coat and a blue mane. Her hair was tied in a bun and she looked a little elderly because of it, despite how young she looked. I’d say she was in her twenties. She was wearing a blue skirt and white t-shirt. It was plain, but it actually looked pretty good on her.

She looked around nervously. “I-…I’m Nara. I’m the spirit of wonder.” she finished shyly.

“I am Oden, a creator and divine. I have a kingdom called the Red Rose Empire. Your divine Peddler is a friend of mine.”

She looked at me like I just became the most demonic thing on the planet. She backed herself up against the wall and stared at me, like I was about to deal the final blow and end her eternal life.

“Why do you fear me? I just want to know why you tried to avoid me.”

She looked away, relieved. “I-I-I’m sorry I-I’m just... I-I don’t know how to deal with this.”

“Maybe I can help?” I smiled.

“W-well y-you a-are the p-problem.” she answered my question meekly.

I raised my eyebrow. “Then, I won’t bother you anymore. Use your invisibility again and I’ll leave you alone.”

“O-ok. What about the crowd that followed you? Wouldn’t they get suspicious when I disappear and you’re the only one here?”

“Well I have a way around that.” I grinned. “Trust me.”

Author's Notes:

Editor's note: This whole first conversation can be summed up as such: "That's what she said!"