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3OM: Tartarus and Everfree

by KillJoy

Chapters

Prologue

Ohoh-ho! So, you’ve come to hear a story, huh? I’m betting something with Equestria, lots of harmony, and the peaceful loving with colorful ponies?

No? Molto bene! You’ve come to the right place! This story is not like any other. It deals with inner turmoil, extinction of pony races, and lots and lots of fighting. Some death here and there, but you'd get used to it.

Oh, ponies aren’t supposed to have conflict, you say? Well, not everything is supposed to be rainbows and sunshine, my friends. When something ponies truly believe in is threatened, they themselves will break morals and values in order to protect it. For better or for worse, we find out who we really are when all we have is lost.

Ugh, that sounded a bit cheesy, but yes, ponies do fight. Some more than others... especially one named Graze.

Our story begins with him, the pony of free will...ed consciences. Yes yes, I know it's weird, isn’t it? The stallion came to my university to start a new life, and who was I to deny him that? Princess Luna built this school just for clueless ponies like him. Others, meh, they say they come for “the education on magic,” and I only believe a haystack of them.

Heh, magic... a unicorn's advantage in life, it’s a funny thing, really. The thousands of concepts and theories behind it, the numerous subsets and how we can apply them and so on and so forth-- Trust me, the list goes on forever and I don't have the time for that. But there is one thing that magic and purpose have in common.

It can be found anywhere.

Our tale begins not now in the present, but way far back, eight years ago with a colt named Graze. Our little pegasus was not the most socially accepting of ponies, but he was always a fighter at heart. It was there and then, during school, that he gained this unique sense of right and wrong.

One bully. Three ponies. Two choices. That was all it took.

From the background of the school's yard, Graze dumbfoundedly watched as a filly fell victim to a much larger colt. Watching the scene play out right in front of him didn't sit right with--he had to help that little filly somehow. Searching desperately for something to do, a voice suddenly spoke up, coming from his left shoulder. “Fight for her, you’ll be a hero!”

Another sounded from his right in opposition. “No, you'll get in trouble! Just walk away and don't look back! It’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

These were the respective voices of Kill and Joy, two brothers who could almost never side with one another. Their argument raged on, confusing the colt as to which side to take. Their battle became so intense that the two miniature beings manifested into the mind of their host just so they could duke it out. The two brothers continued to fight, butting heads with equal strength and vigor.

And that's when he got his cutiemark, the spur of the moment gave him some sort of confidence and bravery as he threw caution (as well as Joy) to the wind, dashing headfirst into the fight. The colt’s choice was just, and his venture was successful. Basically, he kicked the pony’s flank to Canterlot and back.

Victorious, the colt arrived at his home, happy and admittedly confused about the two miniature beings that shared his respective shoulders. Graze trotted to his mother and questioned her about some sort of angel and devil, as the two rightfully represented. When he pointed to both, she saw nothing, but simply laughed and responded, "From what you've told me, those are consciences, dear. They are supposed to tell you right from wrong. Keep them close and I'm pretty sure you'd know the right thing to do," she advised with a caring smile, sending the stallion off to his room. "Colts and their crazy imagination," she said to herself with a slight chuckle, watching her son as he made his way up the stairs and down the hall.

And so, listening to his mother, he did as was told, keeping the two consciences very close, listening to every conversation and every decision the two came up with. But as day turned to night, even they knew when it was time to rest.  

As the three slept, hours passed and the stars of the Luna's night disappeared in exchange with the sun of Celestia, bringing something new... something different other than a bright and shiny day. Something dreadful.

On her bed, the mother laid still with eyes wide awake, staring at the ceiling, no new breath drawing from her lips. She just stared and stared. The family didn’t even get a day’s notice. It was just... random.

The colt didn't take it easily, and neither did his sister. The father was quiet.

Aroma, the younger of two, approached her mother's bedside and poked the still body with her tiny hoof. "Mommy, are you there? It's not funny to joke about these things. Please, wake up, you're hurting daddy," the filly continuously begged, nuzzling her mother's hoof.

She knew it. She didn't want to believe it. But she was told anyways. "Melody's dead, Aroma," said the father coldly. "And she's not coming back." Something changed in the father that day— something changed in everypony that day, but he was the most recognizable.

There is a point in everypony’s life when, sooner or later, they must visit the grave of their parents. Graze was eight when he first laid eyes on the tombstone of his mother. Aroma was six.

From there on out, things weren't easy for our little pegasus. Ponies in the town linked the events of the fight to the death of his mother, placing the blame on the colt’s tiny shoulders. From there, the rumors just spread. His mother’s passing became a tale of the alleged superstition that ponies believe in—an old mare’s tale told to scare foals, extolling the horrors of violence, twisted into describing in graphic detail why fighting could only bring nothing but pain and sorrow onto their loved ones.

Years of being treated as a leper passed and the colt finally became a stallion. With the help of Kill and Joy, he managed to whether every harsh comment that came his way. Of course there were one or two stallions that would bring up the sour topic, though it was nothing our little fighter couldn't deal with. Just added to his infamous reputation and his annual hospital bill, that was all.

Finally old enough to strike out for the world on his own, the stallion left his home, his father, and his sister, where he began his search for a new life and an education to make a better name for himself.

One year ago, he finally found himself at my facility in Baltimare— EQU, the Lunar sister's school of magical arts.  

Here is where his life changes.

Introduction to Magic

Plain and simple, that's how I liked it. The irony will forever interest me: I long for simplicity, yet the machinations of my mind are anything but. If I had told anypony I had two consciences that I speak to on a daily basis, they would either laugh, not believe me and laugh, or--my personal favourite--call the nearest asylum and laugh as the stallions in big blue suits drag me away in a straitjacket. They'd consider it best if somepony like me was stuck in there.

Heck, my cutie mark doesn't even belong to me, it belongs to Kill and Joy. When I first saw them, that was my big moment... really. Honestly, what am I supposed to do with an angelic halo sided by a tribal bat wing? If there's a job out there for whatever that special talent is, I'd like to know so I can run to it and beg for an application. But whatever my cutiemark means, it's why Luna built this school... for clueless ponies like me. So, to avoid questions that could put me in therapy or a straitjacket, I did the simplest thing ever.

Clothes.

One black flyer's jacket with a matching pair of  pants, and I’m good to go. Nopony can see my cutiemark, nopony will ask about a cutiemark, and--the best thing of all--no straitjacket.

Now, let me tell you something about magic, since it is practically taught in my school everyday. Magic. Is. Everywhere. We breathe magic, eat magic, sleep magic.

From studies so far, there are three kinds of magic which are interdependent of each other. Let’s start with the simplest of all, the earth pony magic. Now, some believe that they don’t use magic. That is a lie. Just because it is extremely subtle and innate doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. In fact, without their magical connection to the earth, we wouldn’t have the know-how to nourish all the plants that thrive today, much less cultivate them en masse to feed the population. So the next time you see an earth pony, give them a big hug for saving you from starvation.

Next, we have the most tangible, and the most obvious brand of power: unicorn magic. These ponies literally alter the magic around us. Think of their horns as the best swiss army knives ever, accessible with only tons of studying, a talent for magic, and lots and lots of practice. Okay, maybe unicorns are more limited than you think, but because of their horn’s connection to magical leylines around them, a limitless supply of magic is at their hooves!

So, that’s two down-- the deep, simple magic of earth ponies, and the physical, tangible power of the unicorns.

Now this is where things get interesting. You see, while earth pony and unicorn magic both have their own unique quirks, pegasi magic is a near-perfect combination of the two, translated into the sky. Clouds become the earth and the leylines, allowing any pony with a set of wings to manipulate it just as an earth pony would fertile soil or a unicorn would energy channels. Don’t be fooled by a cloud’s fluffy appearance- think of them as the pegasus equivalent to a unicorn horn. Once a pegasus touches them, they instantly become the best magical sponges ever. Unless, you know... the pegasus stops touching the cloud. Then it’s just a cloud that goes poof!

I know I said three different types of magic, but this is also very important... not just very important, it is extremely important to know why you shouldn’t mess with an alicorn. From my studies so far, the most surefire way to determine an alicorn’s strength is to add all three types of pony magic together, and multiply that by approximately one thousand and seven. That’s one pony you don’t want to be stuck in an iron cage with.

But, guess what? I’ve seen all types of magic on the offensive, watching ponies use their special skills and talents to their fighting advantage, and let me tell you... it ain't pretty.

                 

Character unlocked: Graze

Arc One- Chapter One: Nightmares

Stranded. My body shivered, frozen to the bone by a creeping cold, I alone painted this seemingly endless, blank canvas. Laboured breaths drew vapoured heat from my body. With every progressing inch forward, my hooves sunk deeper into the blanket of snow. I was in absolute desperation to find another pony, one that could hopefully provide warmth I so desperately needed. Even time itself seemed to freeze in this arctic wasteland, turning seconds into torturous hours. For miles on end, I shielded my eyes as I fought on the hypothermic winds, struggling to make another metre forward as a breeze of frigid air pierced through my skin. Another gust forced my stomach to compress, shrinking in the presence of the biting winds. The will in my hooves were numb as I fell into the slushy blanket, becoming easy prey for whatever horrid monsters that lurked nearby. I only prayed hypothermia struck me first.

In the midst of what was sure to be my frozen grave, I spotted some... thing, off in the distance, though it was hard to focus, as snow was flung in my face. “H-Help!” I reached out for the figure, shouting only to find myself strained in the task. When I got no response, I laid my hoof to rest to conserve energy, my heart rate slowly decreasing with every fighting motion.

I blinked, and suddenly, the shadow was in front of me, towering over my pathetically disabled form. Despite having been half-frozen, I still managed to pick out a gently curving snout and a prominent bump on its head against the dark shadow it created.

"P-P-Please, h-help," I forcefully repeated through chattering teeth as my body resisted the cold coursing through its veins. With a desperate cry for help, my hoof struggled towards the heat emanating from the mare's coat... or what was left of it. Now, I really wished hypothermia got me first... or a polar bear.

The violent winds abruptly subsided with the storm, revealing the rotted flesh of the cerulean coated mare. The lips of the concealed face moved. 

"You did this to me." Her once comforting voice faded with the wind.

There was something much worse than the sight of flesh eroding in the arctic cold. It was fear... regret... whatever you may call it, it surfaced with a haunting breath on my face. Something, somepony, who defied rest in peace.

Her hoof grabbed mine. Only in curiosity did I follow and hold onto hers. "I'm sorry," my unconscious words begged the stoic figure. The touch seemed oddly familiar, yet unique... well, once you got passed the rotting flesh. "I-I didn't mean to... I was just trying—"

"No, Graze,... you didn't try. You were successful in doing—" Her voice paused, hidden by the ominous shadow, only forcing my heart to pound more as I resisted the sheer cold in the moment. With one trot forward, everything was revealed... every detail of her half eaten decomposed face. On the left, an eye bulged from the rotting flesh, rolling downward to gaze at me. On her right, her teeth clenched, visible through corroded flesh as her inner tissue and muscle tightened and relaxed to pollute the silent air. "—this!"

Hyperventilating and drenched in cold sweat, I shot forward in my bed, lungs desperately gasping for the air they so needed. The ocean-blue wall supported my back as I recovered from the sudden shock from my nightmare. With a final, heavy breath, I calmed my nerves and scanned my surroundings, ensuring I wasn't still imprisoned in my dreadful dream-state.

With a disgusted sigh, I laid my head to rest, my candy-cane colored mane compacted by a dented pillow. Salvaging what minutes I could, I stared in deep contemplation at the blank ceiling above. The Goddesses know I hate Mondays.

I exhaled deeply and blinked hard, trying to force the sleep from my eyes, only to have a miniature pegasus appear to the right side of my head, resting peacefully on his haunches. His features were strikingly similar to my own, all the way from the clothes on his back, to the snowy patch of fur on his snout.

"Restless night, huh?" the concerned pegasus asked, moving to sit on his hind legs for a more relaxed, leveled conversation.

"Yes, Joy," I blandly grunted, profusely wiping the morning from my eyes.

When one of the two has chosen to reveal himself, the other usually lags behind by a few seconds—  depending on the situation. Other than their respective cutiemarks— Joy with his golden halo, and Kill with his tribal bat wing- it was simple enough to differentiate the two by their mane-cuts. The angelic conscience copied my usual style, but the trouble-maker wore his mane long, with a slightly curled fluff at the end which he affectionately referred to as the “Devil's Slick.”

To my left—or where he should have been—Kill, the brother sat on top of striped mane, a hoof supporting his cheek as he curiously asked of my rude awakening. "The same nightmare?"

"The same one," I yawned, twisting my neck with an audible crack to relieve myself of the midnight strain. "How did you two sleep?" I spoke to my miniature selfs safely within the privacy of my own dorm.

"Well, we all know that I just love a good stallion with an asthma attack. They’re like the sounds of the rain forest that soothes my soul," Kill responded, his sarcasm exceedingly high, as he twirled his hooves in emphasis.

Flapping his tiny wings, Joy hovered over to his brother and delivered a disciplinary hoof-smack upside the head.

"In other words, not so great," the angel said in my favor, tossing a strict glance at Kill as both began to relax atop my mane.

Now that I had been sufficiently slapped and sarcasm-d awake, I fell into my usual morning routine, starting with a stroll to the bathroom, ignoring the piles of books and letters that gathered untidily upon my desk— a permanent reminder of my already busy schedule. That just made my morning so much more worse, you won't believe the agonizing pain of the aftereffects of procrastination.

Making my way across the room, I lazily abused the privilege of flight, my icy-cyan wings guiding me through the entrance. "If it's this bad, I don't know why you can't just talk to a therapist," Joy continued, gliding to the edge of the pearlescent sink mere inches below the walled reflection. 

To wash away the dried sweat, I allowed the running water to cleanse and awaken my tired face. With a desperate need to focus on anything, my eyes turned to the mirrored being’s icy-white stain on his snout as the doppelganger's hoof, curiously inched closer to the patch of white fur, something that was passed down from my mother's side of the family. "You very well know why I can't get therapy, Joy. Who knows what they would do to me—or more importantly, you guys," I answered, roughly drying my coat with a scarlet towel. "Besides, a therapist is just somepony you go to, just to listen to your problems, scribble some notes which you can't even see and goes like, 'Mhmm. Mhmm. Yes, I understand. Mhmm, would you like to talk about your feelings? Mhmm, now give seventy-five bits'."

Thankfully, a knocking distracted the pressuring consciences with a high-pitched voice so chirpy that it could only belong to a mare. “Mail’s here!” The voice's unnatural cheerfulness was a far cry from the usual apathy and scorn I tended to incur, wherever I went. Curious as to who could possibly possess such bubbliness this early in the morning, I hovered lazily to the door and flung it open.

Grey coat, blonde hair with googly yellow eyes— I had to admit, she was unusually... cute. “Hi, I’m Ditzy! Are you Graze, owner of dorm number forty-three of the west school wing?” she asked, faithfully reciting the obvious mailmare protocol letter.

“Yup, that’s me,” I nodded, snatching up the parcel and tucking it under my wing. “So, you’re the replacement for Raindrops, huh?” I asked, concerned for my usual mailmare who would endlessly bang at my door as if it was her top priority to piss me off. But this mare? I didn’t actually mind. “You’re new here, aren’t you?” As if it wasn't obvious enough by her meticulous attention to such useless protocol. Ditzy silently nodded in response. “You know you can just sweep it under my door, right?”

Nodding again, she smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her golden mane. “Well, since I’m new here, I thought that there wasn’t a better way to introduce myself other than seeing everypony face to face?” I could only chuckle at her perky response. “And you’re the last pony anyways. Bag’s empty, see?” She smiled, her winged appendage opening the golden-buttoned delivery pouch with pride. “So, yup, that means, one, I did the whole western wing all by myself! And two, because every mailmare must run the entire lap before finishing at her dorm,” she paused for something that I believed was dramatic effect. “You’re my new neighbour!”

Thank Celestia, Ditzy couldn’t hear Kill’s victory lap, screaming and cheering as he performed multiple aerodynamic maneuvers from loopty loops to the infamous barrel roll. If I could just keep calm like Joy, I could probably pull of the most convincing poker face ever. “Hmm, I almost feel sorry for you... I’m your new neighbour,” I received a small chuckle from the pegasus, which in turn, oddly made me smile.

Nailed it.

I could faintly hear Kill and Joy teasing me about love, but thankfully, due to experience, I’ve learnt how to willingly block them out. “Well... wanna come inside for a drink?” As the mare nodded, I motioned a welcoming hoof to the somewhat tidy room. And by “tidy,” I actually mean “looks like it’s been hit by a tornado.”

"Actually, my room has seen better days. I'm just going to put this letter away and we can grab something at the cafe, okay?" I said, hopefully to avoid the train-wreck of an embarrassing situation due to my unkempt room and terrible habits.

"Sure! Sounds fine with me!" Ditzy cheerfully responded, standing right on that spot as my surveillance cameras, also known as Kill and Joy, warned me that Ditzy watched from the backgrounds as I piled the white envelope onto the accumulating stack. "Wow, somepony's holding a grudge. From delivering mail with my mom, nopony ever leaves their mail to collect, unless they’re away or trying to ignore somepony."

"Ha, you know your stuff," I complimented the mare as I tidied the pile of scattered letters. "If you'd like to know," I paused, zipping my jacket half-way up my white vest. "They’re from my dad."

"It looks like he misses you," Ditzy sympathized, obsessing over the ever-growing pile.

"Yeah, that's just how he starts off.” I returned to the pegasus, closing the cerulean door with my striped tail. “With him, it's better to just ignore,” I said, beginning my trot through the barren halls with the mailmare.

A bit of awkward silence here and there, it was obvious that Ditzy was left contemplate on my passing words, only the clopping of our hooves against the ivory, wooden floorboard gave signal that we were both still alive and trotting. Nevertheless, the silence gave my eyes time to wander on the passing window panes, the outsider’s light shining brighter than what it was just a few minutes ago. It was then and there where I could finally reassure myself that I indeed still hated mornings.

“So, what brings you to EQU?" I snapped the mare from her deep thoughts.

“Oh... urhm, well, I heard this was a great place for ponies to start over,” she began, her smile dimming with every passing word. “I’m just hoping to get away from all the bad... the ponies that used to make fun of me for my weird eyes, because sometimes, it’s just overbearing, you know?”

If only she knew how right she was, but I had a decision to make. If I happened to utter a single word of my past, the outcome would be drastic, instantly sinking into the same pit that the two of us so wished to avoid. “But, I don’t see what’s the problem with your eyes. They look perfectly normal to me.” I breathed no dishonesty when I said those words. Maybe, Celestia forbid, she would find out later, but as of right now? Definitely not. But hopefully, when push comes to shove, she’d be a bit more... understanding than other ponies deemed to be about my past.

In the moment of a flash did Ditzy’s smile transition to a much more assertive, unwelcoming expression. “Wait, you’re just trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?” She grunted in disgust, pausing our trot in an instance. “Graze, I already got bullied for these eyes, if there’s anything I don’t need, it’s pity.” Her tone seemed to be on scolding levels. Her eyes, though, those bright eyes were no longer crossed... and I think her message got through to me. She was pissed vex.

“Wow, who said anything about ‘pity’?” I fought back valiantly against the mare, more so for her benefit rather than my safety, which I admit felt at risk. “Look, Ditzy, if I were like those other ponies, I wouldn’t be walking you to the cafeteria, now would I?” The mare retreated from her offensive stance, her flared wings still seemingly untrusting of my likes. "Sorry if I offended, I didn't mean to," I said, giving the final push to reassuringly apologize to the offended mare.  

Her wings furled once more at her sides, she continued her trot ahead, deeply enthralled within her own inner conflict. Not a single word to show acceptance or rejection of my apology uttered from her mouth as we continued our little walk of silent tension.

Thankfully sooner than later, we stood before a pair of chestnut-colored barn doors, the entrance to the cafeteria which bustled with activity on the other side as seen through its smaller, centered window pane. I patiently waited for the mare's first move to enter, but for a moment in silence did she stand still, staring at the floor beneath her as her golden mane prevented anypony from watching.

I don't have time for this, I rolled my eyes with a thought to myself, proceeding to enter through the pair of chestnut doors.

As I touched the wooden surface, that same bubbly voice called out to me and said, “I’m sorry, Graze." The sound of that voice alone brought my foreleg back to the floor, allowing the swingable door to automatically close upon itself. She didn't plan on moving until all she had to say was said, and I didn't plan to venture onward until I heard it all.

"I was just so tired of being the target, the fool that everypony can come to get a free laugh at,” she continued. "The emotional pain was there, just building up for years and years... it became so overbearing that I didn't know what to do with it!" Ah, so that's what she was thinking about. "It just randomly bursted out, you know?"  

It was my turn to have my moment in silence, placing the conversation in a standstill as I remembered previous stallions who brought up the rumors about me. "Yes, I do know... but you're better at controlling it than I am," I admitted more so to myself than I did to her. Left in confusion, the mare tilted her as she tried to get an honest fixate of what I was relating to. "Water under the bridge, Ditzy, let's just all forget about it, okay?" I once yet again opened the cafeteria doors for the pegasus.

She smiled, responded and entered. "Thank you, Graze."

     [Loading Colorful Ponies. Setting Furniture. Animating Baddies. Muffins...]

Chapter Two: The Bet

Ponies. Everywhere.

Luckily for Ditzy and I, we weren't too hungry to willingly corral ourselves into that test of patience in this school we happen to call “a line.” It wasn't really a line, though— just a massive crowd of pushing, shoving and shouting out the vilest profanity they could think of that blocked the entire display of food from the back. Just a hop, skip and a jump, and you're at the front of the line, not risking your life for a bowl of oatmeal.

Unlike the food, there were plenty of seats to accompany everypony and their acquaintances. Tables everywhere were perfectly aligned, parted by the other no more than just a few inches. As ponies sat on their haunches, engaged in breakfast and friendly conversation, as did the mailmare and I.

Resting my head on the table, I sighed heavily, salvaging what minutes I could have before the ringing of the school's golden bell could torture my ears. Through a gaze partially blocked off by hair that fell in front of one eye (though I was still too out of it to bother pushing it out the way) I lazily scanned the cafeteria and the ponies that inhabited it. Everything was as normal as it should be.  

"And if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong," Kill's voice quoted the most pessimistic line in history.

"What's the matter? Hard night studying?" the blonde mare asked, swallowing a bite of her muffin as she heard the sigh that was actually aimed at Kill.

"Ha, I wish." I chuckled at my own misery, rolling my eyes at the irony of that statement, knowing for a fact that I wasn’t as studious as I should be. At the corner of my eye, I spotted a dark brown stallion pegasus— somepony that I really could use a morning without. Bucking Tartarus. Dumbbells, I cursed myself.

"Hey, Graze!" the lone stallion called out as he approached my table. With each nearing hoofstep, my smile withdrew and faded, my darkening expression dragging down the eternal smile on Ditzy’s face. I wasn't very good at hiding my emotions, but I was extremely good at profanities, and through my silent, stoic expression that stared into blank space, I did what I do best—cursing the hell out of Kill for jinxing me.

In fact, I cursed him so much that I could place my bits where my mouth was and say that my mother was rolling in her grave.

"Is something wrong?" Ditzy finally brought herself to ask through the sudden moments of silence.

"Yes," I responded honestly, excusing myself from the table and approached the oncoming stallion. "What do you want, Dumbbells? Can't you see I'm enjoying a peaceful morning?"

"Well, I just came to pay my old pal, Graze, a visit," he said, stressing his body's weight onto me from forcefully resting his hoof onto my shoulder.

"No," I emotionlessly responded.

"No? What do you mean 'no'?" he repeated with a trickster's smile, knowing exactly what I was talking about.

"'No', as in, 'no, I'm not going to'," I answered his rhetorical question removing his weight off of me, shoving his weight off me, brushing off the remains of his coat from my black jacket. 

"Don't play foolish with me, Dumbbells. We go through the same routine everyday, and I assure you, you will forever get the same response," I explained coldly, leaving no room for him to continue his stupid game.

As my undeniable logic hit his ears, his miserable smile receded until somepony in the background caught his attention. "Is that a mare I see? Is she yours? Does she know that you're a bl—" his sentence was immediately interrupted with a firm, alice-blue hoof—my hoof to be specific, impacting his mouth, ensuring he got a refined taste of the 100% cotton my jacket was made of.

As Dumbbell fell to the floor with a thud, I eyed two stallions of orange and grey rise from their seats and drag their chairs off the floor, ready to jump in for their fallen ringleader. All they needed was the signal, and I wasn't going to allow that to happen.

Chats fell to hushed whispers, and whispers decreased to nothing but silence in no time at all. The cafeteria seemed to turn into a morgue as I was unceremoniously thrown into the center of attention. 

"You call them, Dumbbells, and I'll break every tooth in your bucking mouth," I promised. A breath of strained air flared through his nostrils and onto my hooves with a stare that could evenly match a cockatrice. I glared back with a reasoning, smaller force against his pearly whites. "Listen to me, Dumbbells, I've had a rough night, and a very good morning. Do not tempt me to do things we both are going to regret," I forewarned, retracting my hoof from his mouth with enough force to slingshot him back to the floor. "If you dare utter another mean word, I promise, I will break your snout."

Recovering from the fall, Dumbbells wiped the taste of my hoof from his mouth as he spat onto the floor. Now, if you listened closely enough, you could hear the tortured echoes of the university's janitor scream in pain as another hour's worth of hard work was marred by the stallion's spit.

Staggering back onto his four hooves, Dumbbells smirked at me as he approached and leaned in to whisper into my ear. "It's fine, Graze... you don't need to be mad at me, because you have to live with the fact that you're a blank flank."

Those last two words echoed through my mind and snapped the string, the embodiment of my inner peace and tolerance. Joy no longer had a say in this, his voice of reasoning was considered meaningless at this point onwards.

"Yikes, things are going to get a bit rowdy in here," Kill predicted as my actions leaned more toward his side. "Sorry, good old brother of mine," the devil conscience smirked to Joy from his respective shoulder, "but this is my time to shine..."

"Please don't, Kill," Joy pleaded with a bored quip that you could tell wasn't as bothered as it should have been.

"I'm sorry, Joy, but you know our rule. Once Graze leans toward either side, he needs something to act upon, and that at this very moment is me," Kill explained his point, disappearing from my shoulder as he left his twin alone to watch.

With an exasperated sigh, Joy rolled his eyes as a bored hoof supported his cheek, twiddling his golden angelic halo and spoke to himself, "I hate that rule."

"I am not a blank flank," I gritted my teeth with fully accounted aggression in my voice, even though  I kept it low enough for the ears of Dumbbells alone.

"Then, show it to me... in fact, show it to her," Dumbbells pointed a hoof towards the grey mailmare as the two other stallions, Score and Hoops, finally decided to side with their ringleader, seeing him no longer in a state to compromise. "Show her your cutiemark, Graze, or else, I'd let everypony on this compound know.”

"I do feel a little sore from that buck, guys, what do you say?" The creamy maned, middle pegasus leaned to his acquaintances as they cracked their necks and hooves in response. "The odds are three to one... so, you tell her, or we can forcefully get that cutiemark out of you."

"Actually, it's three to three," Kill's voice abruptly pointed out from wherever he had poofed to now. "You've got Joy and me, mostly me," he coughed, "here to back you up!"

What Kill had said finally gave Joy the opportunity to rightfully strike him down and his rash assumption. "Technically, no... we don't count since we can't physically do anything. But, you are right on one thing—we are here to back you up Graze," Joy supported me with a confident pat on the neck.

"So, what's it going to be? Are you gonna show us, or do we have to force it outta you?" the ringleader questioned once more.

Teasingly stalling with a poke of my cheek, I looked up to the ceiling, distracting the trio until I finally came to my choice. "I choose... neither!" I exclaimed with a surprising lunge forward, wings opened wide and a hoof stretched for each stallion of the flock. A flawless surprise attack indeed if you were a pegasi facing only three earth ponies and or pegasi. Too bad I didn’t notice the unicorn in their ranks.

With a jarring burst of light, my body halted mid-flight, held inert in a transparent frame of glowing magic that coated my body, its ends continuously shimmering through the ceiling light of the cafeteria.  "Well well well, I’m not surprised to see you trot down this path, Graze," a shallow voice echoed, cutting through the tension of the cafeteria's silenced atmosphere. Through the crowd of hushed, colorful ponies, the owner of the telekinetic spell appeared, a mighty contrast to those around his dark, greyish-blue coat.

His horn still thankfully aglow, my body floated in midair as he pulled me closer into proper chatting conditions, face-to-face. "Urhm, do I know you, creepy unicorn fellow? We were kinda doing something here, and I was sort of, you know, winning?" I stated, staring upside down, left with the blood rushing to my brain. He was somepony to remember alright—just by his presence and hushed voice alone, he was that kind of pony that'd send your blood crawling— and I didn't think that was healthy considering the fact that I was still vertically flipped.  

"Oh, don't worry, I very well know that you could take on those three buffoons... they are hardly any real challenge, but, I'd say you'd have already learnt your lesson not to fight any ponies. Well, considering the fact that it's a taboo'd curse. Well—" he paused his normal tone of speech, continuing as he progressed with a secretive whisper to my ear,"—that's what the rumors say of how you killed your mother."

My eyes dilated in shock and fear as the scenes of my previous dreaded nightmare slammed into my vulnerable mind, flooding my brain as chills, every bit as frigid as the hypothermic frostbite of last night's dreams coursed through my veins.. "H-how do you know about that? Just who are you?" I tried my best to mutter, caring not for those around me as I stared with piercing eyes through the scarlet shades of the paranormal stallion.

"I'm a Grave pony, but you can call me Grim," he smiled, firmly placing me down on my four hooves, ensuring that I did not trip over. "I know your past, Graze, and everything about you... except for that cutiemark which is more important to me than it is to you, since you plan on hiding it. So, let's have a gentlecolt's deal, shall we? You and I are going to have a little duel after our first Magic class," he glanced at the clock on the wall, "which is in five minutes. I win, you show me your cutiemark. That’s all."

As much as I'd like to not make a scene about my cutiemark, I was still curious as to what my winnings would be since it was a bet. "What do I get if I win?"

"What do you want?" the self-appointed Grave pony immediately asked.

It was indeed my first time of hearing the terminology of a "Grave pony" but yet, I was more curious of why my cutiemark was of such importance to him. With little time to think, I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted both.

"I want two things," I demanded of the unicorn. "Number one, I want to know more of you Grave ponies." He nodded in agreement with a bland 'mhmm'. "And two, I also want to know why my cutiemark is so important to you," I finished creating his side of the contract.

"Hmm, seeing as those two pertain to the same thing, I say—" he paused, reaching out his hoof towards me with a sickening smile. "—deal.”

With caution, I stared at him and his greyish-blue hoof, lending out mine with a thump as we sealed our contract.

"Agh! What the buck did you do?!" I withdrew and flailed my right foreleg in pain of a slight prick beneath my hoof. From what I'd seen, if I wasn't intoxicated, a single drop of warm blood, dead in its center, spiralled round and round the area of my hoof, sinking into its depths once the weird ritual was complete.

"It's called a blood contract, a little something that'd enforce our deal, courtesy of the Graves. See, I have one, too," he showed me his hoof, enduring the pain as that same trickle of blood spiraled and faded into his coat. "By the way, here's a tip, knowing how stubborn you pegasi can be at sometimes. It'd hurt a lot less if you just outright say it," Grim advised, trotting away at the abrupt echoing chime of the school tower's golden bell.

"I guess I'll be seeing you after Magic with Mr. Charge, yes?" he asked, followed up with a smirky chuckle. "Oh wait, you don't have a choice, I almost forgot about that."

"And neither do you," I countered, easily resting my hoof on the floor, slightly put off at the fact that I felt near to no pain from the pricked hoof. I guess it was saving it for later. "Wait, Grim! Before you leave, I'd like to know one thing."

The pony’s ears twitched at the calling of his name and reared his head at me. "It better not pertain to our bet. What is it?"

"If you know that it is against us ponies to fight, the exact reason that occurred... why risk your own?"

With a smug flare of his nostrils and a slight chuckle, he responded, "Because to me, it’s just a rumor," he answered, abruptly leaving the cafeteria with a cast of a teleportation spell, that very same dark blue glow now dissipating to reveal a vacant patch of tiles where Grim once stood.

“What could he possibly know that we don't?” Joy wondered, appearing on his respective right shoulder, leaning off its edges as his brother to his left.

“I don't know, but if it's anything that’s not us, I'd like to hear it!” I couldn't agree more with Kill's words. “Graze, you know you have to win this fight! Not have to, but you need to!”

“I know, I know, guys... and I will,” I hopefully reassured the two brotherly consciences.

"Hey, Graze! What are you waiting on, Magic is in two minutes!" Ditzy exclaimed hurriedly with saddlebags covering her back. "I don't see horns on our heads, let's go!" he flared her wings, galloping past me with a giggle. Without another thought, I followed hot on her hooves to the teacher's class of Magical Science... something I never looked forward to.

New Support Member added to your party: Ditzy (1/4)

Ditzy Friendship Level: 1

Friendship Effect: Focus- During combat, when this member is equipped to your team, you have an additional 15% chance of critical hits!

“And soon, the archives will be complete... all I have to do is win.”

Chapter Three: Magic!

And there he was: Mr. Charge, the largest, meanest, toughest pegasus stallion that I had ever lay eyes on. In front of the class he stood like an alicorn, and his frightening shadow eclipsed over those unlucky victims of the first bench. His bat wings alone defined him as a messed up force of nature that was not to be reckoned with— something otherworldly and DEFINITELY not something you'd not want to question. 

I've heard rumors about those wings. Some ponies said that he was just a normal pegasus once, but grew too big and heavy for a normal pair. Unable to fly with his diminutive normal wings, he got them removed and through a little snippy snippy blood action, implanted a fresh pair of bat wings. Alas, that rumor only lead to more questions such as, "Then who was the first bat pony large enough to own that pair?"

I could go on and on about rumors, but being a target of one, I know they aren't pretty.

He expressed mostly one emotion--something on the lines of stoic and “Don't bother me, or I'd snap you like a twig”-- He probably wouldn't have actually done that, what with harming a student being a criminal offense... but he still probably could have if he really wanted to.

Casting aside all the negative comments about the Magic professor--which I’m sure there were a lot more of--his dress code was along the lines of a gentlecolt and scholar. A black and white suit fitted the stallion perfectly as a precise, accurate definition of his personality--no exceptions of any in-betweens or shades of grey.

"For those of you who don't know me, I am the professor of Magical Studies, Silent Charge," the black and white stallion properly introduced himself, cursively writing his name on the whiteboard with a red marker. "Welcome to my class. I do not expect anything of you, other than to pass my subject with flying colours. My rules are simple and probably the easiest to follow like any other class; No eating, drinking, cheating, cursing, passing notes or any sort of communication in my class or whilst I'm talking. Do I make myself clear?" he asked, his voice alone deterring any would-be ne’er do wells situated around the room.

"Is it some sort of communication if we nod? What do we do?! What do we do?!" Joy frantically panicked, violently shaking Kill who was peacefully relaxed on top my mane.

"I don't bucking know! Just follow the class, and say nothing... nothing at all is probably the bes-"

"Do I make myself clear?!" Mr. Charge shouted abruptly.

"— Worst! Worst idea ever!" Kill finished his sentence in trembling fear, nodding along with everypony else in the classroom without muttering another word.

Yet somehow, Mr. Charge's terrifying introduction failed to move one student into compliance. One butter-coated mare was drained of her will to agree to his terms, a river of tears behind her as she galloped out of the class from the uncalled fright. "Go to your dorm, Fluttershy, and cry it out! My class has no space for the weak. When you're ready to re-enter my course, you may do so by apologizing to the entire class for wasting thirty-seven seconds of their time," the professor of Magical Studies informed the retreating pegasus as his voice boomed down the patterned hall through which the mare hastily escaped.

He gently grasped and closed the door with a swipe of his tail, glaring at us, the rest of his victims, with that emotionless face. Only Celestia knew what’s going through that stallion’s mind. "Well, let's get started shall we?" his gruff voice exclaimed, and horridly enough, too enthusiastically.

Side by side, each student trembled behind their elongated curved desks as the professor paused, taking his time to memorize every detail of our palette of fearful faces. "Now then." Everypony jumped with a yip as Mr. Charge rolled his eyes in bemuse.

"The first thing you need to know to about magic is that it is practically everywhere. It is found in every living being, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and so on and so forth," he explained. Surprisingly enough, I hadn't been totally lost by the teacher's lesson like I normally had. I would have beamed with pride had I not been scared out of my mind.

As each pony furiously began scribbling down notes, the professor continued without a care for the progress they'd made. "Magic works in a similar manner to energy, in that it’s able to be stored and transferred, but not truly created or destroyed. All ponies have magic within them, which manifests itself in specific ways with each pony race. This is mostly obvious in unicorns, who, through use of their horns, can directly influence and control it. This is the most powerful and most visible magic."

I could have only felt the presence of Grim breathe down my neck as the word 'powerful' left Charge's mouth, the paranormal being with a smile so smug that you just wanted to buck it and the pony next to him just for being within his vicinity of tangible smugness.

"Oooh, I can't wait to drag his face in the gravel," Kill maniacally planned as he bucked his hooves together.

"We just want to win, not hospitalize the poor pony... although, he did curse us, so maybe just a mouthful of dirt can do," Joy countered, quickly shaking his head from the matter of violence. "Wait, am I not supposed to be the good conscience?" he questioned his brother, who refused to respond with a quiet, wicked smirk. "Kill, do not play these mind games with me! Ki--"

"Graze!” Charge's voice singled me out from the class, everypony's attention now directed toward my general direction. “Is something the matter, or am I just boring you?"

Buck me sideways. Was I that focused on Kill and Joy?! I mean, I didn't know, but... argh! I was too engrossed by their conversation to notice the giant pony’s attention turn to me.

My heart raced and sweat trickled down the side of my cheek as he awaited my response. I turned to the mailmare beside me for advice, and she just sat there and shook her head with dilated eyes, motioning me with a wing to mimic her movements.

I glanced back at Charge with hidden crossed feathers for luck as I held my breath and denied his assumption with a sheepish smile and squee for that extra push. "Well, don't you have anything to say or are you just going to smile like a retard?" he challenged me with a question to stray from his rules.

I've gotta admit, Mr. Charge did not give one single buck about feelings, and that was something quite abnormal for a pony to do, a creature that believed in the words “friendship” and “harmony”.

It was different. My style. I liked that.

My eyes darted back and forth for an excuse, finally coming to rest on my empty notebook, fresh and clean with those blue lines. Not a single letter written on the page... not even the bucking date. So bringing up his work was probably the easiest way of hoofing myself over with a spin.

One of his eyebrows rose in interest to see how I could've pulled this off. On the outside, I showed him my calm and collected state, brave and courageous toward his critical words... but in my mind? Oh, it was pure chaos to rummage through my inner machinations for a proper excuse.

"Well, I'm waiting, and so is the class, Mr. Graze. I am not a patient pony," Charge warned, standing still on his spot as he forcefully shut the textbook, a slight breeze emitting that gave wind to the front of his slickback mane. His thoughts must have been on the lines of, ‘I wonder if I can hit him with this book.’

Finally, I coughed, "Ahem," and the class dramatically gasped. "My apologies, sir, that shall not happen again." I forced the heavy words through the lump in my throat.

For a moment, he stared at me, and I somehow accumulated enough guts to stare him back with that same look. The two of us created a tension in the classroom so tight that it choked the other ponies, paralyzed in shock and awe as they themselves forgot how to breathe.  

The large stallion made the first move with a deep inhale, clearing his systems through his snout. The class and I were beyond anxious to see what he would've done, bracing for impact as even some took to cowering beneath their desks. The stallion had the voice that matched his build, and by the Princesses, he wasn’t afraid to abuse it.

"A unicorn's strength and use is dependent on the personal talent of the individual, and can be honed with proper practice and study," he broke the dramatic build-up, continuing with the lesson as if nothing ever happened.

What a waste of a good build-up. I could have only wondered what the bat-winged teacher was thinking during our trade of stares. It was for the least, not a stare of hatred, but more of contemplation.

"Well, that was weird," Ditzy spat out her pen from completing her written notes, whispered beside me with a chuckle. "I think he likes you."

"Ewwww, what the buck is wrong with you?" I replied in the same disgusted manner as Kill and Joy who... well, they didn't take it as lightly as I did, pretended to vomit from getting the gist of the imagined scenario, scarring them for life. Those two maybe each other’s opposites, but sometimes, they tend to overreact, which in turn, affects my actions.

Ditzy could've only rolled her golden eyes at my juvenile remark. Still cute, but kinda creepy. "Not like that, you pervert," she hissed with a forceful push to my shoulder. "Ugh, nevermind, we'll talk about it after class, okay? I really don't want to get in trouble," she forewarned, returning to her notes as the professor continued his speech on Magical Studies.

“Pegasi, such as myself, have a fair amount of magical ability as well. This tends to manifest in our ability to alter weather and the atmosphere, which, as previously stated, is also saturated with magic. A fine example would be the ability to create, shape, and walk on clouds. Unlike with unicorns, who can remotely grasp and manipulate objects, this ability requires contact with the cloud formation to manipulate it. That term is called 'Cloud Shifting'," Mr. Charge paused for a few seconds for a breather, giving me just enough time to actually write something down, just in case he decided to go all elementary school on us and check our notes.

“Finally, we have the earth ponies, who use their magic in caring for the land, fertilizing it and growing crops on plantations. This magic is much more subtle and much slower, but ingrained within the earth itself, and eventually into the food we grow and eat. That magic is then transferred into our bodies, creating a sort of energy cycle as earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns alike all expend that energy.”

"Hmm, interesting, interesting... don't you find it so, Kill?” Joy nodded, sitting on his haunches upon the smooth, wooden surface of the desk, engrossed within Mr. Charge’s teachings.

And then, there was the other one, who just like me, wanted to catch up on sleep stolen from him by this morning's rude intrusion. "Kill?" Joy scanned the entire class for his brother, finally spotting the camouflaged pony that snored happily in my mane.

"Wake the buck up, you lazy ass!" Joy scolded his brother while profusely shaking him.

"I'm not an ass... I'm a pony," said Kill in a confused slur, resting in his brother's hooves until the spinning of the room subsided. "Urhm, am I seeing things, or is our pen writing by itself?" Both Kill and Joy then flew towards the possessed black ink pen, examining it as it vandalized my page and turned it into one big blotted mess.

As quickly as it wrote, the pen dropped with a twinkling spark of greyish-blue magic, fading away as the piece of stationary landed in front of me. The page that I just wrote my notes on...

Each and every unicorn had a unique glow through the use of their magic, and this was the second time I've seen that color for the morning. Grim. I hate that stallion so very, very much.

"Urhm, Graze?" Ditzy poked me with a hoof, gathering my attention.

"Yeah?"

"Why does your book say 'Gym' like--" she paused, squinting her eyes as she examined the page, mumbling some words as her grey hoof lightly pecked about the page. "--seventeen times?"

Surprisingly, Ditzy had very good eyesight, a natural talent for picking out those fine details within the abstract. "Hmm, I don't know," I lied to the mailmare, stealing a quick glance at the paranormal pony that sat behind Ditzy.

"Does it have to do with what happened this morning?" she asked, scrunching her face with crossed eyes, bewildered at the fact that she actually knew nothing of what really occurred. "By the way, what was all that ruckus about anyway?"

"I don't know, but that's what I plan on finding out."

With Magical Studies finally ending after two long hours, I found myself before the dark blue, steel based doors of the gym as the golden bell of Luna's clock tower chimed thrice throughout the sanctuary.

I inhaled a deep breath through my snout, placing the bottom of my hoof against the right door, a familiar chill upon withdrawal of touch. "What sorcery is this? It... it feels just like last night!" I mumbled to Kill and Joy, safe to communicate aloud with no other pony in sight.

"Oooo, now I really want to find out! You have to go!" Kill appeared with an excited remark, flapping his wings in rhythm as he hovered above my left shoulder.

"Graze, are you sure you want to do this? It does seem rather ominous... I don't trust that pony. We can just leave, nopony has to know you left without actually fighting him." Joy recommended on my right shoulder, countering Kill's side of the debate.

"I can't leave, remember? The pony cursed me," I reminded Joy. "Whether it’s a a fluke or not, I need to find out," I reassuringly replied, placing my hoof once again upon the frigid surface of the door, making the hairs of my coat stand on end as the ominous chilled feeling coursed through my veins. "I think..."

Would you like to save your game before entering?

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"Heh, it's like ten years ago, remember, guys?" I spoke to both consciences.

"Deja-bucking-vu," said a sour Joy, rolling his eyes as he accepted the loss of yet another internal debate.

"Let's get this show on the road! Wooohoo, onwards!" Kill cheered on, grabbing Joy and disappearing to wherever they'd go when not willingly presenting themselves. "Oh, and don't forget to make an awesome entrance, Graze." Kill left with a reminder.

I reared up before the entrance to the gym, standing on my hind legs and stomped forcefully with a pivot, bucking the doors agape as they slammed against the walls of the facility. "Where are you, Grim?!" I shouted in the light that the barren halls provided, my shadow stretching, becoming part of the darkness that surrounded me. The doors finally gave way and closed themselves, narrowing the beacon of light, consuming my shadow within darkness.

"So, you finally made it," Grim's voice echoed throughout the room. "Well, since you've completed part of your deal by actually showing up--I commend you on that, by the way--I will tell you a little something about us Grave ponies. We are from Tartarus, I'm sure you've heard of there. Great, great place! Quite comfortable, extremely roomy in fact, chilly in the seventh circle and well, you know... dead. Done a lot of things we're not proud of; looting dead bodies, robbing graves, sacrifices, loitering... you know, the things which you ponies basically frown upon," he explained. It would have been intimidating if those things didn't bother me in the slightest. 

"Loitering?!" Kill gasped in shock at the pony’s records of criminal activities. "How dare you trot around the compound through the hours of 10 P.M to 6 A.M!"

"I have a question for you, Graze. Do you fear death?" his question echoed from each corner of the room.

"No, not really... just dying slowly would be rather much a pain," I admitted.

"Hmm, everypony has a fear... us Grave ponies know that for sure. Well, at least we did know what fear was. In our clan, it is through tradition and some psychological magic that our parents forced us to face our fears," the Grave pony could only go on and on about his clan's heritage and traditions and other stuff that I hardly cared about.

"And in Tartarus, there were a lot of things to be afraid of," he continued as I sighed with mild impatience. "If we got a new one, the solution was rather simple, we just had to face it again, and again... and again until we broke through that little mental obstacle. Some little foals didn't make it. Poor things died from anxiety attacks, and others, they didn't have the will to break it, so they suffered from starvation and malnutrition.”

“You know, for kids!” I heard Kill’s witty comment in the background. With a conscience like that, I could have never taken anything seriously.

“And you know what's the best part of this, Graze?"

"What?" I replied in a semi-pissed off tone from his excessive storytelling.

"You're in that very same spell."

Chapter Four: Fear

I alone stood in the abyss.

In a sense, it wasn't considered dark--I could still see myself as I glanced around the void. In assurance, I raised my hoof, a dim, cerulean glow emanating from my coat. Strangely enough, the shades of black from my jacket differentiated with that of the tenebrous surroundings. The contrast was perfect.

"Joy? Kill? Anypony there?" I called out into the isolation of my dream state.

No response from either. "Maybe it's just Grim's spell," I tried to reassure myself in the hope that I'd be reunited with the twin consciences soon.

It was as if I stood on the fabric of space itself--just a void. Grim called this my fear, but there was nothing to fear... just me. Was this my phobia? Loneliness? I always had Kill and Joy to associate myself with, but this wasn't fear, it was just strangely uncomfortable without the two's bickering.

There was no use for me to just stay still and stare into the void of nothingness, that was what Mr. Charge's class was intended for.

With a hesitant step forward, the ground formed beneath my hooves, as if it were pointing the way--though to what, I couldn’t be sure of. The building blocks of the path were made out of cobblestone, forever incomplete without another progressing trot forward. I took no interest in asking "Why?" It wouldn't have mattered either way, since I knew that I wouldn’t get an answer. Nothing mattered at this point, there was literally nothing  existent to worry about except my escape and my consciences.

This path was for the least random... it was specific. It was familiar, and I didn't like that. The only town that I knew of which possessed this trail of cobblestone was mine. Ponyville.

Lamp posts came from the opposite direction of the rising building blocks of the village, dropping out of nowhere. The heavenly beacons shone for a while, their attempts to pierce through the consuming darkness futile. They were just as useless as lighting up the nothingness around me as they were at lighting up a bright summer day, functioning more as pieces of decor than lights.

The path began to wind its way to the right, and I had no choice but to follow it. I came to a sudden pause, taking the moment of tranquility to watch as more of the village's building blocks cascaded into existence, flooding the ebony canvas with a palette of vibrant colors. Dead center in this floating, square district of nothingness was a sight for the sorest of eyes--the petrified mare and her water fountain.

When I was a colt, before claiming this spot as my own--one of the perks that came with the shunning--ponies used to gather around this reared stone character, as they drank from it's surrounding pool to rest and regenerate before heading on home.

As I've said before, this was my place—the only seat where the cold water could beat against your back. But, when mixed with a refreshing cool breeze? Oh, yes, it was set to relax from a tiring day of being a blighted curse on society.

This nightmare provided neither of those luxuries. Everything was dead. The water surrounding the petrified mare was undisturbed, none spurting out of her concrete lips as she herself stood still on that very spot, as destined to until the end of time.

I remembered sitting here, just watching as ponies as they went on with their daily business, acting "natural" in my presence. Once in a while they would stop to stare, only for me to acknowledge, and once again, be ignored. At least they had the decency not to lower my spirits any further... well, not in front my face for the least. But, I do remember having to be "kindly" removed so that another could get a drink on more than one occassion.

The statue never asked any of those things from me—she was a kind and quiet mare, standing gracefully on that one spot, overlooking me with shade and quenching my thirst with the water she provided. She was there for the good and the bad times, but mostly the bad. She never asked anything of me. She was a friend.

I bent my neck to take a sip from her inviting pool, wiping the remains from my snout with the sleeves of my jacket. "Thank you, old friend." I smiled to the statue. "At least one of us is going to make it out of here." I didn't expect a response—she never said anything before, so what should change the ways of a statue?

I bid my old friend aideu and continued with the path that oh-so patiently awaited my hoofsteps at the opposite end of the square. It continues forward without delay, nothing different than before.

The path decided to take another right and once again, the area came to life, more rectangular in shape than the previous. As the cobblestone tiles rose, so did the carts stocked full of the labored fruit of hard working ponies. If memory served me right, this was the Farmer's Market; a highly populated, terrible place for me.

It was here that I was always on thin ice with everypony, always the target of the crowd’s hushed whispers as a colt when passing by to get to and fro school.

The path was already filled, seeing as no other tiles fell from above, giving me liberty to move around and scan the area and look at something other than darkness for a change. I passed two carts with a glance while trotting by, their produce of carrots and lettuce scattered on the floor, flamboyant in comparison to the bland, wooden boards and rusty nails that the carts, and signs that flaked red paint.

A statue rose from one of those missing tiles. It was not as friendly as the water fountain's... and it wasn't as quiet. It stood still, not even with a pose as its eyes stared into blank space. "Have you heard about that colt? Someponies say he brutally murdered his mother," hissed the statue without even moving its lips, her voice hushed as she whispered into the vacant sky.

My ears twitched as those words ignorantly leaving her mouth, halting me in my tracks. "What?!" I shouted back at it. "That's not true! It's a lie!"

"Oh, yes," another pony rose beside her, in consensus with her accomplice. "After he had beat up the other colt, he went for his mother. What kind of twisted pony does that?!"

Was this what everypony said about me?

"No! No! No! I was trying to help the filly!" My words reached out to the ponies in hopes that they would hear my plea. "I would never even think of hurting her! You guys don't understand, it wasn't my fault, I don't know what happened!" I trot between both ponies, shaking them in a desperate attempt to gain their attention. "Please, listen to me! I didn't kill her!"

My cries fell to deaf ears. The crumbling sound of the rising ground brought forth more petrified ponies as they neatly aligned themselves throughout the Farmer's Market, side by side, each helping to spread the rumor. "Everypony he knows would be better off without him," remarked a stallion with a harrumph. "I'm glad I don't have to raise that mess of a colt!"

"Don't talk or even walk near that pony, Big Macintosh. Don't you ever grow up like that, ya hear me?" warned an elderly apple vendor with her mane in a bun to her bulky grandson. "The nerve of some colts, I should talk to his teacher and have him expelled for such violent behavior. He is a bad influence and doesn't belong with any of us!"

"Yeah! We should cast him out to the Everfree!" agreed a pony beside her, Ms. Carrot Top and her nasal voice.

"Shut up..." I forced the words through the heavy lump in my throat as I endured every lashing comment. "You foals don't know anything!"

"Just look at that little freak, I wonder if he has feelings anymore... hmph, probably not. I mean, the little brat killed his mother," accused another lone statue in the streets.

"Shut. Up." My words became stronger and stronger with a reinforced breath of hatred.

"At least his mother doesn't have to deal with him anymore."

And that was the final straw. There was no Kill or Joy to aid or distract me in this... just me as I took on the brunt of every lie.

"Shut up!" I flared my wings with a roar, standing on my hindlegs as I continually forced the gust through quivering lips, chipping away at every statue within the vicinity until there was nothing more to yell at. All of this was just a dream, though... never in Luna's millenia on the moon could I have drawn such raw power in an instant.

I sunk to my knees after my tantrum, stressed and drained in tears as I laid my head against the floor. "J-just please... leave me alone." The tears streamed onto the surface of the cobblestone path, filling the gaps around the sunken multicolored rocks within the concrete. I just laid there and cried... worthless and pathetic... without Kill and Joy, I finally caved in to the pressure of society.

Everypony was right about me being a monster. I had destroyed every statue and every cart in the Farmer’s Market. Chips and slabs of cement littered the street as well as the remains of wooden carts and squashed vegetation.  

Through my sobbing and beaten state, I heard one more voice, a hum... something that I hadn’t heard in a long, long time.

It was the hums of a lullaby... but, how did it go again?

Hush now, quiet now,

It's time to lay your sleepy head,

Hush now, quiet now,

It's time to go to bed.

Now I remember...

Drifting off to sleep,

The exciting day behind you,

Drifting off to sleep,

Let the joy of dreamland find you.

My ears perked up at the song... no, not the song, but the voice... that serene, beautiful voice. I knew both all too well.

Through the emotional strain, I looked up with heavy eyes and saw this one last statue of a pegasus, her hooves reaching out to the air as if she touched the melodic notes themselves, guiding them throughout Equestria for everypony to listen. Her mane was golden, just like Ditzy's. We shared the same cerulean coat, though hers was a bit heavier in shade. She even had the same red-violet eyes... something that used to be a welcomed, complement of a distinct feature--now a curse. The stoned figure before me was just like any other... no colour, no direct outlines, no label. But, a stallion never forgets the first mare he lays his eyes on.

That beautiful mare was my mother, and her name was Melody.

Her song continued, ignoring me as every statue else did. I embraced her by the hindlegs on which she balanced her weight on, grasping the statue and not ever wanting to let go. It didn't matter that she couldn't hear me, all I knew is that I had the chance to say those two words. Two words that I've wanted to say for so long.

"I'm sorry."

My tears had been dried, and I realize I'd fallen asleep by the statue from my weakened state. Only did the flapping of wings awaken me, echoing throughout the void of darkness without interruption as the song came to its end. Another living being, here?

"Graze," I heard my voice call out to me. It was Kill, the same size as me.The merriment in his voice always allowed me to distinguish his from Joy's sternness. But as of now... he was just lost for words. 

What do you say to pony who's just been reunited with his mother, only for you to be the one to part them in such a short time?

Kill hadn't a clue, but he said this.

"Joy's fighting Grim. We have to go. Please."

Chapter Five: Hope

                                 

                                                          The boy is too risky, he feels no fear. 

                                                                                        Perfect.

Joy and I, we didn't feel your presence anymore. We knew something was up, but first thing’s first, we had to ensure Grim didn't get your cutie mark... for whatever reasons.

On the sheen of the Gym's polished floor, my body stumbled to its knees without my presence. Eyes dilated, I stared through space itself as an uncontrollable trembling brought me to the floor, where I resumed my stroke, throwing Kill and Joy to the ground.

"Joy, what happened?! Where's Graze?" Kill frantically panicked, gazing at the side of the lifeless vessel. "Is he dying?!"

"Calm down, Kill, he's not dying!" Joy scolded beside his brother, recovering from the fall. "The body is just going through a nervous breakdown from the sudden removal of a host," the angel explained with a sigh, retrieving his golden halo from the floor.

"So, what do we do?" Kill asked.

"We continue with the plan: Fight as Graze would. Grim said something about him being in his fear, and if I remember correctly, that's somewhere deep in his subconscious... wherever that is. I'd have to look for it," Joy explained, taking command as he was supposed to if such an emergency, being the more responsible and older of the two.

"So let me get this straight, if I am reading you correctly," the mischievous one coughed in hopes that their sibling telepathy paid off. "While you're going through the Map of Machinations, I distract?"

"Yes, you keep up offense until I find wherever Graze has been spirited away to--because you're good at that--and when I do, we switch to defense until you find Graze, got it?" Joy asked for clarification, gripping tightly onto his brother's shoulder, both with discomfort drawn upon their faces. "I know it's--"

"Dangerous? Life risking?" Kill interrupted his sibling.

"I was going to say 'a gamble', but yes... the faster we find Graze, though, the better, right?"

"Hmph, and I'm supposed to be the bad influence," Kill commented as he possessed my body, laying still as he awaited further instruction from a stressed Joy.

"Don't worry, if things get out of hoof, we’ll switch, alright? We are the perfect combination of offense and defense, what could go wrong?" The angel hopefully reassured his younger brother who simply refused to respond, both knowing the consequences of a loss from this rash action.

Sighing in distress, Joy looked up before vanishing, his thoughts on a single, hopeful prayer to the Princesses. He shook his head and said, "We may not be real, but guide us, Celestia and Luna. We know this stallion isn’t right. Protect Graze."

I didn't like the idea.Joy didn't either, but for your sakes, we did it. So far, everything was going according to plan; I played dead--in control of your body--and Grim had fallen for it.

On opposite ends of the Gym, the clothed Grave pony, Grim, sat on his haunches as he spoke a word or two to himself. "Hmph, two minutes is enough time for the spell to fully take over his mind. Oh well, time to gather my winnings."

The stallion then whistled quite an upbeat tune in his victory, something too joyous for the likes of him as he approached my dormant body. Such a happy tune, ruined by the melancholy lyrics of the melody... something quite fitting for a stallion of his likes.

"--So I dug one thousand holes

And cut a rug with orphan foals.

Memories are blurred,

And their faces are obscured,

But I still know the words to this song--" 

He quickly reverted to humming, probably having forgotten the rest of the lyrics.

His body shadowing mine, Grim glared at me, petrified from the effects of his mental straining spell. "Alas, Graze, it was a short battle. I could say that you tried your best, but we all know that's a terrible lie," he monologue’d one of those villainous speeches—the ones where they themselves are too distracted by their own blimp-sized ego to notice the protagonist lining up to drop-kick them in the throat. "Can't say that I didn’t expectthis from a pegasus--such a brash nature of your kind, rushing into battle without a strategy," he continued, releasing a forgotten breath as he shook his head from the expected hilarity of the situation. "And that is why unicorns will always be on top of the food chain, because we can actually think."

Kill and Joy simultaneously rolled their eyes in bemuse at his boring speech. "Have I ever spoken to you guys like that? Like, have I ever lectured you or Graze?" Joy questioned his brother, uncertain of his own nagging ways.

"Yeah, but he's much worse," Kill's voice grunted in emphasis on the last word. "Can we surprise attack him now? I've finally got control over the body, and he's like, right above us. Seriously, he's annoying."

"Be my guest," Joy gave way to his impatient brother.

Astonished, Grim flinched as the still body suddenly came to life with a blink of an eye, being possessed by one of the consciences.

In the moment of a flash did Kill anchor a foreleg to the polished grounds, sweeping Grim off his hooves, tripping the stallion. Suspended in midair, he was met with another hind leg buck to the stomach and launched to the opposite end of the gym. With a sickly smile did Kill observe the stallion whinny in pain, gripping to his stomach, coughing, desperately attempting to recover.

"Yeah, we may be brash, but we're also fast, cunning and drop-dead gorgeous," Kill boasted aloud, pushing off the ground with a flap of his wings onto his hooves. "You see what I did there? 'Drop dead?' The whole Grave pony, death thing?" Grim coughed out the pain as he held onto his chest, recovering from the hit. "Ah, forget it, you'll get the joke later."

With heavy breaths and a death glare--another one to add to the too many Kill had become immune to--Grim asked but one question. "H-how?! How did you escape Paranoia so quickly?!"

"'Paranoia'? Isn't that a fitting name for a cute, harmless spell," Kill bluffed, angering the stallion even more. "Well, you know, when we--urhm, I said that I didn't fear anything, I was actually telling the truth... not even death," he admitted, this time the truth.

Having traded places with Grim, now being the victorious stallion on the offense, Kill progressed through the vacant arena towards his opponent, a slightly more hilarious take on monologuing as he stalled for Joy. Everything was going according to plan. "And also, I don't think gentlecolts--as we said we'd have been--would approve of this rapscallion-like behavior, you know? It's bad, wrong, and unhealthy for our testosterone levels."

Kill raised his foreleg, about to stomp on the stallion's face, without a care for Grim's hospital bill. "Forgive me, but I must keep my promise to break your snout," Kill teasingly said overdramatically with a heavy and false heart.

"You said that to Dumbbells, not me," Grim stoically corrected the conscience, laying on the floor as he patiently awaited his torturous beating.

"Oops! I forgot that a bashful pegasus such as myself is not supposed to be as smart a unicorn, my mistake," Kill shrugged with his wings, rearing up to stomp with aim for his snout.

"Yes, your mistake, indeed." Grim's horn suddenly glowed with a transparent coat of sparkling greyish-blue aura, catching Kill off guard and discharging it square into his chest, blinding him through the immense transitions.  

It really was my mistake, a terrible one on my part... I was too caught up in my own teasing way that I'd given Grim the chance to conjure a plan. He was using his unicorn magic to cheat, teleporting us outside of the gym to evade my attack... but, he'd make one fatal mistake... we were outside.

It had been one of Grim's teleportation spells--though unlike a regular unicorn's quick flash, this particular burst of magic was accompanied by a sickly green haze.

Kill coughed, covering his mouth with the jacket's sleeve as if some sort of filtration system to properly breathe, unsure if the gas was toxic or not. He squinted through the thick, foul air as he came to his knees.

"Grim has taken the privilege of being a unicorn to use nasty tricks to get the edge on us. We can't be too sure with that stallion, Kill!" Joy forewarned within the thoughts of the vessel. "It's time to use our priviledge of flight and free us from this haze!"

Still holding his breath, Kill furiously flapped his wings, parting the thick haze that had nearly brought him to suffocation, diffusing it harmlessly into the air around him, finally regaining his rightful ability to breathe. He desperately gasped, fighting for that luscious, clean oxygen to purify his systems.

Eyes red, set in a daze from Grim's stunt, Kill endured the pain--something akin to shampoo getting in one’s eyes--and attempted to open them. Wincing from the stinging sensation, he laid on the concrete grounds with the sun beating against his back. He finally mustered enough energy and look up.

Before him stood five stallions. All of them, Grim.

"Tag out, Kill. Now!" Joy’s voice echoed with a stern demand. "I know what you're thinking, and this not a mind trick... they are all magical clones of Grim. You're suffering from the vision distortment, not me," the angel quickly presented his reason to prevent the brother from opposing him.

Joy's motion was futile. "But, I can take them on!" Kill fought back.

"Dammit, Kill! Listen to me for once!" Joy scolded his brother. "If you fight them now, you're good as dead... and I can't allow that to happen, you understand me?"

Kill was silent, unsure for the safety of his brother, as was the other. Both wanted the same thing. "I'll hide in a few clouds or something, don't worry... but knowing you, I’d rather hold this body down than lose you to that guy. You very well know what can happen, and there is no reason to act so rash!"

Joy and myself knew that the body needed to have a general consensus to function. 50/50 is how it works without you in place, Graze... so, I had to give in. Ironically, Joy was pretty serious.

A few moments of intense silence between the two brothers, and Kill finally gave into the pressure of his older brother. "Argh! Fine, but just so you know, you’re only five seconds older than me!" He exclaimed, giving control of the body over to Joy as he appeared beside him in his usual, miniaturized state. He could have appeared somewhere else within my subconscious, making his journey a bit easier on himself, but he had chosen to be at his brother's side at first.

With a tight, farewell embrace, Kill left Joy, warning him with these last words. "You make it back alive, you hear?"

For the most, Joy was shocked at his brother's actions. Nevertheless, he returned it.

"Don't worry, I will."

Both brothers knew all too well that if they were to fail of their separate consequences... but a failsafe goodbye never did hurt anyone. It just brought hope.




Chapter Six: Motivation

"And that's what happened so far, Graze," Kill finished his tale, crouching inches away from me on the cobblestone floating fortress consumed within the darkness. I just sat there, inert, silent, embracing the petrified motherly figure, not ever wanting to let go. "Joy is out there. He needs us... he needs you. That's why he sent me here."

"..." I didn't want to leave, and I didn't want to stay... I was lost for words, and the only thing I knew to say was the truth. "Nothing makes sense, anymore... why would you two stay around with me? Everypony knows I never did anything good, anyways. It's because of me that Joy is in that dilemma in the first place. I do destroy everything I touch, even myself."

Now it was Kill's turn to sit back in stunned silence. He opened his mouth in anger, but no words came out. He tried again, but spat whatever he was prepared to say into the endless void, throwing away the sense of being as caring as Joy in the matters of this. It would have only made things worse, but he had no shame in holding back.

"Look how weak and pathetic you are. You really are a lost child without Joy and I." Kill's cold harshness finally began to bleed from his words like water from a slowly collapsing dam. "The day is going to come where we won't be there. Then what are you going to do? Sit there and cry for mommy? Is that who Joy and I have been siding with? A cry baby?!"

Those words struck deep into my core, fueling something nasty to fight back and retaliate. "Y-you don't know anything that I feel! You don't know what it's like to be the blame for everything, the scapegoat for every last little thing that goes wrong! You're just a piece of my mind!" I stuttered as I choked on freshly-formed tears, muttering from the cobblestone that was my only flimsy protection from Kill's penetrating eyes.

I heard his heavy breath release his pent up rage. Only then did I realize that I had made a big mistake. "Stand up like a stallion and look at me, Graze!"

I refused to obey. "Stand up, and look at me!" he repeated with more hate in his words. "I swear to the Goddesses, if you don't move I'll break that bucking statue! It is meaningless to us!"

I knew he would do it. It was Kill—whenever he was given the opportunity, he had no shame in doing anything. I finally rose to my hooves, staring at the doppelganger before me. "What do you see?" he asked.

Candy cane mane, light cerulean coat, black jacket, red-violet irises... and that very same blotted patch of white on my snout. "I see me," I finally responded.

"Good, now that you're watching me-POW!-" Kill bucked me straight in the jaw, dropping me like a stone to the floor. "How dare you tell me in front of my bucking face that ‘I don't know anything that you feel’?! Huh?! How dare you!" His voice echoed throughout the ruins of Ponyville as well as the darkness... it took a while before the echo had come to an end, but the sheer intensity of his voice carried on for miles on end. 

I had come to realize that emotion was the strongest quality inside this seemingly endless abyss.

As if the mother scene wasn't enough, Kill had pushed me to the verge of insanity with that one. Literally—my own mind was attacking me. "Yeah, rub that cheek and listen to me well, you ungrateful, lonely brat," Kill hissed. "Do you know what Joy and I have to deal with everyday?"

I shook my head. "I thought so. Let me be so kind, for once in my life,” he rolled his eyes, “to clear your little head of this whole 'We don't know anything' dilemma.

"Every. Bucking. Day. Joy and I have to remove the 'bad thoughts'. Do you know what the bad thoughts are, Graze?"

I shook my head, once more, waiting in fear for the answer. "The bad thoughts are the mean ponies. The bad thoughts are Ponyville. The bad thoughts is your oh-so secret suicide--your escape--and the worst of all, it is her!" He pointed his clothed hoof to the statue. "Everything here is your fears--the exact same things that we do our best to repress each and every day in order to keep you sane! We are your sanity, and you have yet to realize that!"  

I was shaking now, trembling in disbelieving anger at Kill's words. "W-why would you repress the thoughts of my own mother?!" I questioned, needing the reason as to why they'd remove the one thing I was so desperate to see.

With a heavy burdened sigh, Kill paused to reminisce on that one stressful day of work.

"One day, because Joy felt sorry for you, we decided it would be a bit healthy to allow one memory to flow by... what a terrible idea that was, considering how much of a raging, hormonal juvenile at the time. Things escalated quickly, and you turned into a nervous wreck in no time, randomly breaking down in tears for hours upon hours-- just like you are right now! That is why, vessel, we repressed those memories; because it doesn’t only hurt you, it hurts us!" Kill had answered every single question, keeping his cool until now. I heard the pain and malice in his voice. His voice! For the first time ever in my life did I hear Kill sob.  

"A-and you know what's the worst part?" he shuddered angrily, forcing down the heavy lump in his throat, trying his best not to give in to the emotions. "You have no faith in us... that's why all these are your fears! Faith is the only one thing that can defeat fear, and you're just here, waddling in your own self pity! I now know why Joy was so desperate for me to come here."

Through the moments of silence that followed, Kill's words had sunken deep into my skull. "Why is that? Why was Joy so desperate?" I wondered out loud.

It took Kill a moment to muster the strength in order for a proper response. I  trotted to his side and laid a comforting hoof over his shoulder, a guide to tell him that everything was going to be okay.

"Because, my brother had the ability throw away the common sense and believe in me, no matter how much of a screw up I am. And I had faith in him to be alive when I get back, to fight as I would. Right out there in the real world, Joy is risking his life to keep a secret safe for a pony who he knew had no faith in him. But guess what? He always had faith in you, and I now know what Joy knew... once those fears kept on showing up, I realized that you never had a single solitary ounce of faith in us."

Kill, still trying to sort this whole mess out as much as I was, sucked in a deep breath and shook the imaginary weight of all this unsettling emotional drama off of his shoulders. He was never good at this sort of thing. "That's why you needed us working overtime, to fight your fears for you. He really is the saint of the three of us, that brother of mine,” he spoke in his regular voice. “I would've dumped you right then and there, as I can right now," Kill chuckled with a slow shake of his head. "But, do you know what's stopping me?"

"...Choice?" I guessed.

"Aren't you a bright stallion?" Kill answered with his expected sarcasm. "You're correct. At the beginning of everything is the choice of a pony. And later on, that affects his or her’s life. But, do you want to see what choice and faith can do to something to a wreck of a place like this?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. I opened my mouth in response, but was quickly hushed by the stallion. "Don't even bother answering me, I am going to show you anyway. You need to see this... my happy place."

The stallion rose to his hind legs, his wings aiding his balance as he rooted himself to the floor with his forelegs aiming towards the heavens in this hellhole.

The place was no longer a dark, empty void. Blocks cascaded far and wide from beneath and above, bringing life to the place as water sprouted from the earth, forming a river over the sea-blue brick-laid bridge to a colorful, lively town known as Ponyville. Ponies painted with many vibrant colors and life escaped their stony imprisonment and went along their usual business, happily trotting with friends and families. My acquaintance, the water fountain,  once again poured water from her lips as ponies gathered around her, sitting on her concrete rim for that refreshing breeze alongside the water that drizzled against their backs.

"It's so beautiful... and the ponies, they are so happy," I muttered, trying my best to nitpick at their exact detail while in a sense of shock and awe.

"You, Joy, and I all knew that ponies said bad things about us, but it was your choice to focus on them. Grim's spell reinforced the worst of all that abuse, and when it came to that, you were a bit... lost," Kill admitted, standing on the fully laid out cobblestone path, watching as a playful group of foals laughed their way in steadfast gallops straight through us.

"Wow! What's going on?! Are we ghosts or something?" I said in shock as it dawned on me that I couldn't be felt or seen by other than Kill.

"You could say that, since we don't actually exist in this time period—well, not our older selves, at least." I tilted my head, dumbfounded at Kill's expanded knowledge on the topic. These consciences seemed to have known more about the mind than I ever would.

"We're in the past, Graze, the foundation of everypony's lives, which soon comes back to haunt us for our terrible choices," he explained, observing  the happy, joyous ways of the citizens of this small town. "Everypony regrets one thing, and this right here is yours. You shouldn't be too fixated on what other ponies say about you, ya know?" He turned to me with a smile before turning his attention back to the fillies and colts. "They're not the ones putting you to sleep at night, bro— that is only done by you. Please, don't forget that."

I replied with a smile to the stallion, "But I have one question." Kill rose an eyebrow, taking interest of what it possibly could have been. "If everything and everypony here is restored... where is my mom?"

"Why don't you look to where the foals went?" Kill pointed towards an open park past the bridge, where the rushing water beneath was linked directly to my old friend, the streaming fountain.

Colts and fillies gathered round a golden manned mare, her hooves reaching out toward the sky as did her statue from before, singing a tune for the young ones that gathered around. I heard no sound from her, no song, no melody, no voice. And yet, she watched me... those red-violet eyes watched me. Something must have caught her attention to make her smile so, with open hooves as she came to her knees.

Did she notice me? Was I... actually visible to her?

"M-mom?" I called out to her in my slow trot, hoping that she'd have heard, or at least seen me.

"Graze!" I read her lips call out my name.

"Mom!" I called her out, my slow-paced trot turned into a gallop. But as quickly as it started, it faded with another passing colt, phasing right through me at a quicker pace. That little colt was... me.

It was too good to be true. I knew it.

"Why so down in the dumps, Graze? Shouldn't you be happy?" The conscience questioned my emotions. "Just look at them! Mother and son, the unbreakable bond!" Kill rested his shoulder on my back as he watched the touching scene before him.

The snow-white mare coated her son within her scarlet magical grasp as he ran toward her, picking the cerulean pegasus up and into her hooves, embracing the colt, spinning a circle before sitting on her haunches. Finally, she kissed the snowy-white patch of fur on his snout.

I could've only laid my hoof on mine as the moment passed, remembering the feel of a mother's love as I relived the moment. The young colt flailed around in his mother's cradling hooves in laughter, tickled from her kiss.

His laugh was once mine... and that was something I haven't heard in a long, long while.

For the first time in my life was I at peace, knowing that everypony else was wrong, and that my mother was indeed happy to have me. That I wasn't a burden.

"It's time to go, Graze," the conscience spoke to up. "Are you ready to leave your fears behind?" 

"This is not a fear, my friend. I fear nothing else anymore. This is heaven," I took a breath of Ponyville's fresh air, capturing the moment in the process.

"But, I don't deserve this yet! Not when I have my brother to save!" I wiped away the sadness, the memories of Ponyville, and the past with a motivated shout. Only Kill and I, returned to the darkness. There were no blocks, no ponies, no statue and no Melody... nothing more, nothing less.

"Don't you mean 'my brother'?" Kill smiled, knowing well in mind where I was going.

"No! He's mine as well, and you are too! And together, nothing shall stop the three of us! The Three of Me!" I stood on my hindlegs, raising my forehoof skyward with clenched teeth, bringing it back down to earth with a forceful punch. A glimpse of white light pierced through the darkness as I shattered a piece of Grim's Paranoia.

"No pony to doubt me!" POW! I bucked the shadows once more, the light growing brighter and brighter, illuminating the enclosed box that we were trapped in. "No fear to stop me!"

"No pride to judge myself!" One more punch!

"And no shame to hold me back!" I fluttered my wings and jumped, using the momentum for an extra boost as I bucked through the darkness.

The spell shattered like glass around us as it brought Kill and I into a familiar environment. I ignored the fatigue that my physical body experienced as I momentarily laid to rest on the school's welcoming concrete compound.

What did Joy do to my body? It felt so... wrecked!

In the background stood the four story high facility, its width stretching miles onward, curving symmetrically, nearly meeting at their ends and once again only to continue in a straight line. Whoever designed the school to look like a hoofprint was a bucking genius.

In charge of my body once more, Kill was reunited with his brother, a half-beaten Joy, who only laughed in delightful relief to see two other similar faces. "Ha...ha! I told you that I'd make it!" Joy boasted with a forced, ‘horse’ laugh in the face of Kill. "I was actually starting to doubt you, brother," the conscience exhaled deeply, smiling with a black and blue eye as he brought his brother into an embrace.

"Trust me, you won't have made it, Kill—five against one is terrible!" Joy quickly noted in his chirpy ways, releasing his welcoming hug. "And look at you, Graze! You seem to be a whole new stallion!" Joy commented as he watched me struggle to stand on all fours in my body's half-beaten state. "I made sure to save you some wingpower, Graze..."

I was about to respond to Joy when a certain grave pony and his company of clones interrupted me. "You pegasi really are stubborn ponies," Grim stated on the other side of the field, displeased to see his opponent rise once more. "You may have taken out one of them—I congratulate you on that—but you won't be doing that again anytime soon. With everyone you destroy, the others get stronger, until you have to face me!" he explained.

"It's too late for any pegasus surprise attacks. You haven't a ghost of a chance!" he exclaimed, laughing manically as he swiped his hoof through the air. "Give up!"

"I've faced every trick up your rotten sleeve, Grim! And you haven't won just yet!" I retaliated with a shout, swiping away his negativity. "Give up on trying to make me... give up!"

He seems different than before, the Grave pony thought to himself. Just what did he see in Paranoia?

"Alright, since you want it to be done that way, so be it!" Grim bluffed, anchoring his hooves onto the floor, charging his horn with a click-click as if he was reloading the magical ammunition. That could not have been anything good. "Tell me when you're ready."

"We're on our last stand! Let’s make every hit count!" Kill exclaimed to his brother, perched on my left shoulder. The two were more than excited for this--in fact, they seemed downright enthusiastic about this battle. "Joy, are you ready for this?!"

"You bet I am!" Joy replied, perched on my left.

"Resonate!" The two consciences shouted simultaneously. "Conscience over conscience!"

Resonance Mode has been activated. Only when under 25% of health can you activate this mode.

Note: Every character has different effects. Experiment, for science. You Monster.

Switch between Kill and Joy for the ultimate offense and defense! Note, you cannot equip both at the same time... use them wisely!]

Even through my worn out status, wincing and gritting my teeth to ignore the pain, I felt a strange force flow through me, rejuvenating me despite the obvious bruises dotting my body. 

I stared skyward, basking in the heat of Celestia's sun and dropping my face towards Grim, allowing my mane to flow with a powerful gust that surrounded me from a hearty beat of my wings, pitching dust and dirt throughout the field and around me. The air resistance--through which every pegasi has to force themselves through--felt a bit weaker, immensely cutting down the intervals between the synchronized beats.

Resonance: Wingpower!

Speed/Attack/Magic +33%

“Ohoho yes, I can get used to this!” I deviously smiled, allowing the magic to course through my veins,

Argh! What is this?! His magic... I can feel pegasi magic? Grim rummaged through his thoughts in doubt. I-Impossible! The air around him seemed to thicken, clinging to his skin like a wet rag and pushing him down into the dirt. He stared down angrily at me, changing his stance to more of the offensive stature. Never mind that, all I have to do is clip those wings.

Primary Objective: Defeat Grim with 25% of your health

Secondary Objective: Defeat Grim with a Pegasus based move

High in the clouds, watching over the school’s weather condition, one lone mantis-green pegasus rested upon the drifting cotton clouds as he observed two ponies, unicorn and pegasus alike, prepare for battle. He leaned over the edge, allowing his black ponytail to wave freely in the wind as he peeped attentively. “Hmph, things are about to get a bit interesting from here on out... my bits are on the pegasus.”

“Now why would you say that, Chaser?” Another voice entered the skies, more stern and gruff than the other associate.

“Ugh,” the appointed Chaser grunted in disgust. “What are you doing here, Charge? Don’t you have a class to teach or something?”

“Why, I’m here for the same reason you are, Chaser,” the suited, alicorn-built stallion stated.

“For the entertainment.”

Chapter Seven: The Hazmat Vs The Grave Pony

Reap and you shall grow. Sow and you shall know, that everything lives, and everything dies, but nothing is left undone or to be forgotten...

Above the horseshoe-shaped facility, two stallions observed the rivals below on the concrete courtyard as they mentally prepared themselves for the inevitable battle. Amongst the inert pillows of the sky, the mantis green pegasus, seemed to be none too pleased at the presence of the larger stallion at his side.

"Why are you even up here?" the jacketed equine asked, as he continued to gaze upon the two students. "Don't you have a class to teach or something?"

"I would like to see how this ends," Charge replied flatly, as he too found himself focused on the earth below. "Why, are you bothered?" he asked, only wanting the truth.

"Yes."

"How unfortunate for you, C-minus." With a hefty exhale through his snout, Chaser released his pent up vexation at Silent's remark.

-Click-Click-

The sound of Grim's magical reload signalled the start of the match. "I have my bits on the unicorn," Charge announced practically to himself. "Scientifically speaking, it was five--now four to one, and the pegasus has received a substantial amount of damage... he is on the tip of the edge; one wrong move and it's over," he added.

Chaser rose a curious brow at the suited pony, finding Charge's analysis beating against his eardrums, more of a challenge than an opportunity to break his unlucky streak from previous bets."I have mine on the underdog... twenty bits per pony defeated. That makes it a fair one hundred bits if either of us wins. Deal?" With a smug smirk, Charge responded with a silent nod. "What's his name?"

"His name is Graze, a very... zealous type of pony."

“Ah. Say, how did you even get up here? Aren’t you a bit... heavy for your wings?” Chaser strayed away from the insult.

“I jumped.”

Having a four to one advantage in a fight usually meant bad news for the opponent, and I was no exception.

Standing in front of the other Grim clones, the first Grim's horn whirred with a sickly green transparent glow, the sound of a revving and loaded barrel spinning as he patiently awaited for the first move.

 

Firmly anchoring my hooves into the ground, I changed to my fighting stance, fluttering my wings furiously. Dust and gravel was sent flying as I disappeared from my spot, taking off and cutting through the air effortlessly.

Dammit, he's fast! Grim thought to himself, wiping away the drop of salty doubt that rolled down his cheek. He gritted his teeth and shouted a command, throwing his hoof outwards to the copy in front of him and screaming, "Fire!"

From the horn, magical rounds scattered throughout the field, obstructing my path as I progressed towards the quad. The buzzing sounds zipped by my ears and lightly grazed my face as I became overwhelmed by the oncoming barrage of bullets. "Argh, there's too many!" I cringed.

Thankfully, the clone's accuracy was far from perfect, and he seemed to be doing a better job of attacking the dirt than me. "Don't stop!" Grim exclaimed from the background, watching as each magical spell narrowed its aim towards the cloud of dust that surrounded me. A sickening smile grew on his face with each passing second, watching as the shadow within endure and--hopefully soon--crumble to his firepower. 

In time, the shadow jerked and crumpled through the concentrated amounts of pitched cloud of gravel and dust.

Even though he had won, the onslaught continued. "Move on up, number one, and keep on shooting! We can never be too sure with this one," Grim instructed, watching through his shades as the slaughter continued.

Above the school grounds, well hidden in the clouds, the two stallion professors had now become witness to the newly derived term that was "overkill."

"Dude, forget the bet, that unicorn is murdering Graze! We have to stop the fight, like now," Chaser anxiously worried as he shot up from his seat, ready to jump into the action.

Through continuous beats of his wings, a black and white meaty hoof swiped before the jacketed equine, preventing the artist from making any other move. "Charge, I swear if you don't move your hoof, I will-"

"You'll what?" he curiously asked of the artist, knowing that against a pony as big as himself, Chaser couldn't stand a chance in Tartarus. "Just be quiet," the alicorn built stallion quickly interrupted once more, forcefully placing Chaser back into his cushioned cloud. "--and watch."

"Watch what? Somepony getting his flank handed to h--" he suddenly paused in his tracks with a forced glimpse of the one-sided battle. "No. Way." He muttered in disbelief staring at the still nimbus below. "Is that--?"

Charge nodded in response. “Indeed it is. I have a sense that things are about to get very interesting."

On the surface, the clone approached the cloud through his repeated point-blank shots, stopping seconds after to look for signs of life. All that was left was a cloud. A motionless, heavy cloud.

"Alright, he's close enough! Now!" Kill demanded, high-hoofing his brother as I switched out from Joy's defense to his offense.

From the concentrated dust, I rose with a surprise attack, bashing the shield against the clone's face. From my jump, I descended, quickly flapping my wings and swept the pony off his legs. With the quick reflexes of a jump off his hooves, he dodged my attack.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away that easily!" Kill exclaimed, scanning the pony above as I slid on the concrete. The motion automatically flowed through me, and jettisoning my hoof out for an upside-down kick to the chin.

"I'm not finished yet!" I furiously flapped my wings and continued juggling the clone in the air, delivering a brutal kick-after-kick combo. Higher and higher he rose, two stories until I came to a mid air pause. "Now, for the finishing touch!" I backflipped out of my hover, propelling the pony even higher before finishing off with a buck to the head, leaving a hoof-shaped stamp of approval in the side of his skull. 

Poof! The clone disappeared, vanishing with an ominous, diffusing haze .

"Three more to go! Nice job, Kill!" Joy congratulated his brother on the perfectly set combo.

"No, no, no, thank you for that quickly thought up defense!" Kill and Joy then laid out their hooves, smacking them with the other in minor festivities.

"How!?" Grim shouted angrily over the impromptu battlefield. "How did you survive that?!"

Landing mere metres away from the three remaining Grim's, I flicked the sweat off my brow. "When you were shooting at me, I actually did get hit, but then I realized something... you had created the perfect diversion for me." Grim crunched on his teeth, knowing that this was his fault.

"When I 'fell' to the ground, I did it on purpose. Yes, I was ducking for cover, but with that dust you hurled, I did something only a pegasus could do. I concentrated it around me and made the perfect shield--"

"I-I can’t believe it!" Cloud Chaser in his stuttering awe above muttered to himself. “H-he's a Hazmat!?”

(Hazmat- A pegasus who uses clouds for offensive and defensive purposes)

 "--the more you fired, the more you fed my shield," I finished my explanation. "It was as simple as that."

"Hmph, well clone number one may be gone. But how will you fare against number two?" The grave pony smirked, sending forth the second clone.

"If you think shooting me is going to work two times in a row, think again," I smugly added to the approaching opponent.

"No, no, that one is gone. I believe that a demonstration is in order, shall we?" the teleporter of Grim replied, adjusting his translucent scarlet shades. Standing on his hindlegs, he took a fighting stance, furiously punching and kicking the air. 

I was beyond bewildered of his motives. "Urhm, is that it?" I shrugged not only to Grim, but consciously to Kill and Joy as well.

"I don't know..." both simultaneously hummed a response, equally confused as I.

"Hello, I'm over here!" I called out to the supposedly blind pony (probably the reason why they all wore shades) as he continued making direct contact with absolutely nothing. I grunted, ignored by the pony who chose to dance with the wind. "Nevermind,” I sighed, “I'm just going to come towards you, if that's okay."

"Oh don't worry, there's no need for that," the teleporter rejected my request with a smirk.

 In a sudden, blinding flash, my eyes were set in a daze, nauseated from the quick jump through space as I found myself directly in the middle of Grim's combo. Hook punch after punch roughly kissed each side of my cheek. A few jabs to my stomach and a final spinning buck to my face later, and I found myself spinning in the air, landing roughly in the heated gravel with a bounce.

I tried my best to recover, coughing up anything liquid that oozed passed my lips.Through whinnies, I strained a stare as I slowly got back to my four legs. "Argh, nice trick you got there," I rightfully admitted, spitting a thick iron taste from my mouth, wiping the remains with my black jacket. Blood. "But now it's my turn," I simultaneously quoted with Joy as he once again tagged out with Kill.

"Kill, hold my halo, I'm gonna get myself some revenge," the angel advised, perching himself on my right shoulder as he threw his golden halo to Kill, who caught it with a single wing.

The calm wind stirred against the dusty shield that still rested on my hoof, patiently awaiting for the teleporter to make his move. Radiated with that ominous glow, his horn signalled the next attack. The question still remained, though: Where was I or he going end up next?

With the abrupt, passing feeling of my atoms deconstructing and reconstructing themselves in a matter of split-seconds--a feeling I prayed I would never have to get used to--I found myself in front of the two other remaining Grims.

"Graze, behind you!" I suddenly ducked, a forceful wind passing above with a successfully dodge.  Instincts guided me as I grabbed the hoof and threw him over my body in a reversal, slamming his back against the concrete plains.

He didn't disappear. Great, these things were just getting tougher.

I approached and grabbed the exhausted clone with my hooves. He wheezed for air as he glared into my violet-red eyes with intent to kill. In a matter of seconds, through our staring competition, his death glare formed a wicked, trickster's smile--Bzzt-Ping! 

And then he disappeared.

With a full 360 degrees spin, I scanned the area. The teleporter was nowhere to be found... and then I looked up. Metres away from me, was that cunning suicidal teleporter. I shielded myself with my hooves, a secondary defense concealed by my wings.

Bzzt--He teleported once more with the added velocity of his descent, his hoof inches away from my barrier. Things were not looking good. At those speeds, if I was to collect that hit, the match was surely going to be over.

Joy noticed the fear in me; the trembling legs and sweat that dripped from my brow as even my wings submitted to tremors. "Hahaha, are you scared, Graze? C'mon, have a little faith in me, why dont'cha," the angel laughed in the face of despair.

That! It was that same thing Kill had said to me. Faith! "Close your eyes, and be patient. You can’t see him anyways, so try something new," was Joy's last words. "Don't move a muscle until you hear that 'ping'... and when you do, I will guide you." And so as the angel instructed, I patiently waited, closing my eyes.

…

…

--PING!

I heard the teleportation spell cast in front of me, the wind around that clone as it slingshotted his body.

I jumped.

PING!

Ducked.

PING!

A shift to my right.

PING!

A shimmy to the left.

PING! PING! PING!

All of his attacks were successfully dodged.

Time seemed to have slowed down as I opened my eyes on his final reappearance. His body shot towards me like a bullet without the pegasus’ magical air resistance.

I flapped my wings and spiralled into the sky.

He passed under me, and I closed my eyes once more.

I furled my wings and the well timed descent began as I trumped him with forceful stomp onto his back. “AGGGHHHH!” he shouted in pain, squirming on the floor as he desperately clawed at the gravel to escape. I trotted over his body and bucked him in the face, waiting for that annoying ping to test my patience. Poof!

A sound that soothed my soul. 

My victory was short, the third Grim running into battle with his oxford blue horn ablaze, scattering the field with bullets once more as he teleported at every corner.

Aside from the shots that only barely scraped by my exposed face, the cloud shield absorbed most of the fire, growing darker and darker as  it met with the casted bullets. The darkened mast of fluff vibrated on my right hoof, continuously feeding away at the visible magic as lightning spontaneously discharged through its unstable element.

“Oh shi--Crackle-BOOM!” The miniature lightning storm exploded, knocking me back into the air and towards Grim.

Through the moment of flight, he quickly shot three orbs below me, floating lazily under my body.

The stallion's forebuck met with my face and sent me back again towards the first magical ball of three, which exploded on impact and lobbed my body back to the last clone. Back and forth, I rebounded off the magical explosions as the advantageous pony continued his barrage, each buck charged with more force to travel the distance of the furthest casted orb.

My body was sent rolling, skipping against the concrete gravel that tore the jacket before my fur coat as I had finally came to a skidding stop.

Kill and Joy cringed in pain. “Yikes, that was the most rape I have ever seen in my entire lifetime.”

If this wasn't pain, I don't know what was. I don’t know what internally bleeding felt like, but I know that something rather important, rather fleshy thing inside of me weren't where they were supposed to be. I felt my hooves numb from combat, beaten to nothing but black and blue, as was my face. And I was definitely sure that I felt a broken tooth or two... or maybe that was a rib. It was that bad.

"Do you see why the unicorns are always on top! Do you see the true power of a Grave pony?!" the real Grim laughed. "You bashful pegasi are nothing compared to me, let alone a normal unicorn!" he continued to boast.

Through swollen eyes, I drifted in and out of consciousness, trying to keep my focus on Grim. The pain was taking over and sleep never seemed so inviting than before.

"It's alright, Graze...you gave it your best shot," Joy appeared on my right shoulder, consoling me. "Remember, we didn't need to find out... life just goes on. Isn't that right, Kill?" He turned to his brother.

"No." Joy was stunned at the devil, who folded his arms in support of his own remark. "No, this isn't his best. His best is when he ain't breathing no more. Once he's dead, then he can say that he did his best.. I don't believe in 'best' or 'perfection', Joy... I hate limitations, and this pain is something that is holding Graze back!" 

His words of encouragement aimed towards me. "Don't let anything or anypony stop you! Not the pain, not me, Joy and especially not that phoney of a unicorn!"

"We are doing this like we did last time with the bully! He may have been bigger, he may have been stronger, but that didn't stop us from kicking his flank so hard that even his grandfoals felt it! Of course we don't need to this,” he mocked Joy. “But it's so much more satisfying to get something you want!" He stood on my snout and stared into my eyes with tiny, intangible flames boiling his blood. "And what we want is to win!"

Through my weakened state, I moved my hoof forward, trembling for a sturdy grip. "Persistent fool," Grim shook his head at my weak, desperate attempts to stand. "Don't do anything, number three.” He obstructed the other’s path. “Let's see if he has the willpower to stand up again and fight."

Grim watched as I slowly rose my back, planting my hindlegs into the ground as I stumbled back and forth. My body gave way, tripping me back into the ground, only for me to use my head as a final checkpoint to continue. I gritted my teeth, enduring the pain as blood trickled from my forehead and stained the floor.

"C'mon Graze...don't give up!" Kill and Joy remarked simultaneously.

"You don't need us for this one. It is time for us to have have faith in you," Joy said, flying to Kill's side, both watching as I endured what had to be one of the worse spasms of my life..  

"Grit those teeth and bite them hard! We believe in you!” Kill exclaimed. “Do this for mom!”

I unsheathed my wings, setting them outwards, cutting through the air as they aided me with balance and a push-up from the floor. I stumbled back and forth with tired, determined eyes toward the two Grave ponies.

Despite the ache coursing through my veins, I stressed to turn my back and flew skyward to those two lone clouds above, very well in mind that I had to return. In my flight, I basked in the sun and saw two other ponies, occupying the cushiony pillows of the sky; Mr. Charge and another jacketed equine.

I scanned the area looking for any other nimbus, but was interrupted by the stranger’s voice. "Here, take mine," said the mantis-green pony, removing himself from the large cloud, placing it into my hooves. "Two more to go, man... you're doing good. Make this one count." The stranger smiled, passing onto me as I nodded back toward the long-maned stallion, returning to the facility's grounds with the cloud in my possession.

"Ha! You think that trick is going to work twice on me?!" Grim laughed at my attempts for a last stand. "Well then, if you want to lose so badly, so be it."

The final move.

Grim and his clone began to overcharge their horns, accumulating massive energy from their surroundings as they flared brightly even through the daylit sky. But me? No, it wasn't anything fancy like that... just a pegasus and his cloud.

In my tranquility, I sat on my haunches and hummed the song of my mother, the same one in Kill’s apparent heaven. I began to shed the fluff out of its perimeter, plumping and condensing the nimbus into a tiny, pressurized coating around my hoof.

I was ready, and so were the two Grims.

"Make your move, Grave pony," I called out.

"Gladly." The two simultaneously fired their magical orbs, ripping through the courtyard at unmatched speeds even for a pegasus. And that's exactly what I was counting on.

With my nimbus-hoof, I sliced through the orbs as the coating sapped away at its contents, the remnants buzzing passed my ears as the four halves exploded in the background. With a much more stable conductor than before, the power of lightning was finally at the will of my hooves. Sparks discharged from its surface, striking the earth and heavens above.

"W-what is this?!" Grim shouted. I believe I heard fear in that voice.

I rose my electrified hoof beside my face, staring at the two ponies with my violet eyes that pierced through even the blinding light. "Unicorns aren't the only ones who can manipulate magic," I announced, swiping the cloud's cover off my hoof. The power was remarkable, everything amplified almost to its third power as the continuous flares of light began to sting my eyes. "You act like unicorns are the top dogs of Equestria.

"I've had enough of being discriminated by the likes of you. I've passed every single mind game and defeated you three times over, and with this, I shall show you the true power of a pegasus!" I rose my hoof to the sky. "DENRYU!"

I galloped forward with a trail of zig-zagged light, instantaneously appearing before the clone beside his mentor.

In his final moments, he only had time for a single gasp. I struck him into the earth, the copy disappearing on contact, the thunderous boom from my hoof echoed and overpowered his miniscule Poof! With a quick pivot and drift, I back swept Grim off his hooves, and spun with an uppercut to his chin.

His body sizzled and bounced against EQU's grounds, staring at Celestia's sun above in awe with his mouth agape. His hooves twitched in futile attempts to move. "I-I can't move... you filthy pegasus, what did you do?!" he shouted in rage, a static shock discharged from his body and electrocuted himself. "ARGGHH!"

"I've stunned you, Grim," I explained through my exhausted huffs, standing beside the stallion who clenched his teeth and strained his neck only to become victim once more to his current status effect. I admit, seeing him like this made me chuckle. But as for Kill? Oh, he was dying with laughter. "All I needed to do was stun you, because if you can't move, you can't fight, and if you can't fight--"

His dilated eyes twitched irritatedly knowing the answer. "You win by default," he paused, allowing the words to sink deep into his conscious. "I...I lost." The words then sunk even deeper. "I lost to a pegasus like you?!" he continued his tantrum. "No No No! I was so close! Pegasi aren't allowed to have magic like that!"

"Actually, Grim, if you paid attention to my class," another gruff voice entered the conversation. It was Charge, and beside him that kind, cloud-lending stranger from earlier.. "You'd know that every pony alike has a certain attribute of magic. You telepathically controlled the atmosphere, using your natural born ability to its maximum potential, as did Graze.

“Instead of magic from a horn, he used a pegasus' natural ability to physically manipulate the atmosphere. At the end, we saw who came out on top, Graze," he announced, turning to his right and patted the air where I was supposed to be. *Thud* "Graze?"

"Charge, he's on the floor, passed out cold. Poor guy gave it his all with that last move," announced Chaser, poking at my beaten, resting body. He placed his ear by my chest and thankfully heard a sign of life. "He's not dead, though."

"Good, take Graze to his room, and put somepony in charge of him. I'd check on him later," ordered Charge, watching as Chaser placed the unconscious body onto his back. "Think fast." He threw a pouch, soaring through the air as the sound of bits clanked against the other. "Here's your winnings, C-Minus."

"What?! You betted against me?!" shouted Grim, shaking with wrath in his frozen stature as Chaser trotted away. “That’s too cliche! How dare you pull a move out your flank in the last second!”

"Technically, I was on your side, but that's not the point. As I did, you should too and come clean to Graze with your side of the deal... probably when he wakes up, though."

"Argh, fine... wait, how did you know about that?!" Grim exclaimed, squirming on the ground and fell to his side, watching as Silent Charge too, left the scene. "Wait, you're not going to just leave me here, are you?"

"Eeyup."

“H-how long am I going to be stuck here?!”

“One day...two tops, you did feed him a lot of magic, you know,” he explained, pausing to glance back at the disabled stallion. “I really hope you have some sun-screen and a blanket.”

Arc One Complete!

Character Unlocked: Grim

Graze has learnt Denryu- "Shock them til they drop... literally!"

Arc Two- Elements

Chapter One- Truth

Hours passed after the events of my unconsciousness. Luna's moon had risen over the school, its beaming rays and stars outshining the EQU’s indoor lighting. Through time, the rock in the sky shifted with the simultaneous shutting of lights. Nights from the first month onwards is something we've grown accustom to, its biting winds as the new years (and new semesters) began.

Only one room, number forty three of the west wing defied the curfew of the University. A single blonde mare sat worriedly on her haunches beside the bed of another beaten equine. She sighed in dismay at the revelling condition of the stallion; black and blue dotted his icy coat as the trail of dried blood led from his lips and unto the slightly shredded coat, some wounds deep enough that were visible from the rips in his jacket.

"Sweet Celestia..." Ditzy whispered to herself, reviewing the nasty bruise on my cheek, gently sweeping a band-aid onto it. A specific aspect of the fight replayed through her thoughts as best as they could provide; the lifeless body skidding and beating against the gravel scraping off anything that was part of the stallion. "Look at what Grim did to you,” she sympathized toward me.

No matter how many times those crossed eyes glanced back, she never grew attached to the scenery. "I don't know if you can hear me, Graze, but I saw it all, and... I’m sorry, but I can't see you like this, it’s too much for me to handle," she abruptly stated, turning my hoof over and placed the keys to the apartment in it.

"Wait, don't go," I exclaimed, shooting up right with a quick securing of her hoof. As I rose from my slumber, I whinnied in pain, my body still sore from today’s previous battle. "Ow ow ow!" She quickly leapt forward in fright, forcefully pushing me back as if I was an assaulter. "AGH! What was that for?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what I was doing! You just grabbed me and I got scared!" she apologized in the spur of the moment.

I looked down in realization, her golden eyes following mine as we stared in disbelief at her hoof resting on mine. We blushed, shying away from each other, momentarily glancing in opposite directions. "Urhm, urh, I... I-I didn't mean to?" she stuttered another apology... at least that I think it was one.

Thank Celestia and Luna that Kill and Joy were asleep. Either asleep or very good actors. "Graze, how long were you awake?" she asked.

"Couple minutes, I'm a very light sleeper," I smiled in my innocence, Ditzy's mouth wide agape in the horror of the truth. “Before you even ask, the answer is yes, I heard everything." Even through the darkness, if it weren't for those bright eyes, the red in her cheeks surely did the trick to brighten the room.

Now, here was where the awkward silence kicked in; her eyes darted across the room with a scrunch, desperately searching for an escape from her embarrassment.

“So," I released the tension from me with a heavy breath, resting my back against the bed's frame. "You saw everything, huh?"

"Urhm, yeah... why do you ask?" This was the perfect time to find out about Joy and why he placed me in such a tight situation. As much as I loved the angel for pulling through, I wanted to choke him to death.

"Uhh, I got a pretty nasty hit on my head... can't seem to remember anything before the fifth clone," I sighed with a lie.

"Well, duh, you rushed into the five of them, and then they beat the living crap out of you," she chuckled. "It was kinda funny."

Joy must've thought that if hitting Grim would make him lose focus on the clones, they'd disappear... obviously that wasn't the case. I thought to myself, playing out the scenario as I stared deep into space.

"Is something wrong, Graze? You seem kinda out of it..." she called out to me before I travelled deeper into my own subconscious.

"I'm just thinking of the battle, is all. Each clone had a specific magical spell. After one was defeated, like with the transporter and shooter, the final clone got both attributes... the thing that worries me the most is that, what if it was actually just me and Grim alone? Would I have lost?" I brought my hooves before me, staring at the bruises under my hoof. "I hardly lasted five minutes out there... what exactly was he hiding?"

"You're thinking way too hard, all that matters is that you actually won!"

"Ahaha, yeah..." I sheepishly chuckled in my victory, pausing for a moment as what Ditzy had said just then it hit me. "Hey! What do you mean 'actually won'?"

The blonde mare facehoof'd and sighed in bemuse. "You don't pay much attention in class, do you?" she asked the obvious.

"No, No, not really," I quickly answered, leaning over to the other side of my bed, bringing with me a blue notebook as I flipped through its flimsy contents. "I was kind of doodling, see?" I squee'd in delight, showing her a poorly drawn flip-animation of a dragon attacking, and soon eating our professor of magical studies, Mr. Charge.

"Oh!" She exclaimed in shock. "It's... nice," Ditzy sheepishly smiled, "and quite detailed... I don’t even know ponies contained so much blood."

With that in mind, I flung the book back to its resting place, never to be picked up again. "Yeah, everypony's a critic," I bemusedly responded, getting back on track with Mr. Charge's teachings. "So, what did I miss out?"

"Let me see if I can put this in ten words or less." She brushed her chin, scrunching her face as she tried her best to remember Charge's notes. "Pegasi have a natural disadvantage against unicorns."

Eeyup, mind officially blown. "What?!" I shouted loud enough to wake Kill and Joy, and surely at least half of the school.

"W-What's happening?!" both consciences simultaneously appeared with a shout by their respective shoulders.

 

"Unicorns have a natural advantage against pegasi!" I quickly informed them.

"What?!" they repeated my exact words.

"I know, right?!" I then shifted the track of the conversation back to Ditzy, closing my mouth from the shocking knowledge. "What do you mean 'Pegasi have a natural disadvantage against unicorns'? Grim was actually telling the truth?"

"Yeah," she flatly responded.

"And I beat him?"

"Yeah."

"That means I have bragging rights, correct?" I abruptly jumped from my bed, leaving the bandages and sheets in my place, as somehow through the mystic powers of Celestia had I gotten the energy to rightfully gloat.

"Yeah, of cour--wait, no! You've already won, why would you do something like that?" Ditzy held me back, one of my legs already dangling over the window frame, a perfect view of the school's courtyard where the paralyzed stallion rested.

"To boast, duh. Have you seen how obnoxious that dude was? I mean, c'mon, just look at him." I pointed my hoof to the pony almost consumed by the darkness, surviving the biting winds of Luna’s night. "Oooh... well he doesn't like all high and mighty now, does he?"

"No, he doesn't! And the two of you are terribly injured for doing this to each other over a stupid bet," she scolded.

"Hey, that bet wasn't stupid! It means a lot to me!" I retaliated an inch or two above the mare.

"Oh yeah? If it means alot to you, what's so important about it?" Ditzy asked that one question I could not possibly have answered.

I trotted back towards the window sill, planting my hooves for balance as I gave the mare one last glance before leaving her in my apartment. "Well, that's why I'm going to find out."

"You mean you don't know?!" Ditzy exclaimed, watching as I climbed onto the ledge.

"Nope... but, you should keep your voice down, everypony's trying to sleep," I winked at the mare with a tease, flaring my wings before taking off. A sudden pain jolted through my body, stunning me as I lost my stance as I dropped like a stone to the room's floorboard. Ignoring the pain, I sheepishly smiled upward, gritting my teeth towards the mare. "Care to offer some pegassistance?"

The mare contemplated on her haunches with smirk, as somehow I knew at that very moment, our little dilemma was going to direct itself in her favor. "Only on one condition." Right there, I knew it! Those words were proof enough that I had cursed myself.

With a tired sigh, I rolled my eyes in annoyance and agreement. The blonde mare clapped her hooves with a squee, once getting her way. "Okay, number one; that poor pony is freezing to death out there... you have to help him."

Well, that certainly took a bite out of my sweet victory. "Deal... anything else, your highness? Please say no," I silently muttered the last part to myself.

"Well..." she twiddled her hooves. "Care to tell me what the bet was about?"

"No, that's personal," I instinctively shot down the mare.

"Alright, I understand, I guess... since it is personal and whatever," Ditzy responded with a hint of melancholy. Oblivious as I was, I was baffled at her reasons for this sadness, nevertheless, I was as stoic as Charge when dealing with personal matters.

"Okay, since we got that out of the way," I shoved our contract to the side, grabbing the blanket in my mouth, "you care to help me fly down?"

"What?! Why can't we just walk down the stairs?!" Ditzy exclaimed in bewilderment.

"One reason, and it’s a very good one... Shadow Mark." Ditzy tilted her poor head in confusion as I heard her mentally cry 'who?’. I won't blame her if she didn't; reason being that hardly anyone sees him. "Oh, right, you're new here... Shadow Mark's our Headmaster, a stallion who takes curfew very seriously. He hides in the shadows--his name, hint hint--leaving the lights on as a trap to make you feel safe... when they begin to flicker, it’s pretty much a signal to get the buck out of there... he does it for the thrill of the hunt." I explained. "He has many methods of expulsion and torture once he captures you--so I've heard--none of which I plan to be part of. That is the reason why we are sneaking out!"

"By flying out a window..." She seemed a little bit less interested in my idea, adding onto my explanation.

"Yep, we are pegasi! We can fly, because we have wings!"

"Outside of our dorms..." she continued in the same half-hearted tone.

"Uh-huh, yes... that's where outside, and more importantly Grim is."

"Just so that you can claim your winnings..." Ditzy finished her little charade with a pause, allowing the awkward wind to answer for my misconception. "Graze, I don't think you see the danger of this. If encountering Shadow Mark is so risky, and going outside can place us in even more trouble, then why can't you wait until morning?"

"We can't wait because..." I paused for a moment, trapped in her net of words as it sent my left ear twitching. It was Kill, tugging on my perked ear as he whispered something evil, something Ditzy had earlier stated to contradict this statement. "Because, somepony out there," I coughed in Grim's general direction, "is probably alone in the dark, freezing to death with no food to eat, or no loved ones to gather 'round."

"Not like anyone loves him, anyways," Joy commented, folding his hooves, Kill in shock at his arbituary statement. "What? The guy tricked us, entrapped Graze in his fears, and is an overall douche for pricking us with a curse... I have my rights to be mean sometimes, ya know!"

Ditzy flared her nostrils, agitated by the fact that I used her own words against her.

Taking her time to descend from my apartment, Ditzy constantly flapped her wings in strain to keep a steady momentum. "G-Graze, just... how much do you... weigh!?" She huffed and grunted through these difficulties.

"Urhm... I don't know... 154 pounds? I haven't checked in like a year or so, but you're doing good!" I reassuredly supported, as I rested on her back. "Oh, and try not to shout so much. If Shadow Mark hears us, we are more than screwed," I hissed.

"Try not to shout?! I'm having a hard time keeping my breath! Celestia's sake, Graze, you weigh more than an average Earth pony!" she complained, exhaling deeper breaths in synchronization with her wings.

"Muscle weighs more than fat," was my poorly laid out excuse. I honestly hadn't worked out in weeks, keeping up with Grim during that battle surely made me bang for my buck... figuratively speaking. "And stop shouting, we don't want to attract any unnecessary attention!"

"Y-you're making a 120 pound mare work against gravity here! N-not an easy job! I can practically do what I--Wowww, wow! I-I don't think I can hold on any longer! You're too f-fa-"

"Don't say it, Ditzy! Don't you dare say it!" I shifted back and forth on the mare with each exclaim. “I’m not fat, I’m lean!”

As valiant as those wings fought, they soon gave way to the overwhelming pressure that was my lean (not fat) body. Luckily, a bush had cushioned our... my fall. Looking skyward, I found the mare, the same blonde one who had dropped me, found to be gliding above, gracefully landing with a bereft smile. "Ooops, my bad."

I stayed in the bushes, collecting my thoughts in a daze, as Kill and Joy made laps, spinning round and round above my head.

"I am sooo sorry, Graze," the grey mare apologized, wrapping her hooves around me, trying her best to lift a stallion much too heavier than herself.

"I-it's alright, let's just get to Grim," I instructed, limping forth to a figure that laid in the darkness.

Suffering from his paralysis, he stared at Luna's moon, the giant rock in the sky as he shifted his gaze towards Ditzy and myself, our clops attracting his attention, disturbing the peace. "What do you want? Have you not shamed me enough for one day? Go ahead and boast, see what I care.” He tried shifting his body away from me, but stayed inert due to a mini discharge. “...You can't tell, but I'm mentally trotting away from you at the moment."

A quiet thud inches away had attracted his attention. His eyes shifted a vision to its lids’ corners, only to find a woolen blanket laying before him. "What is that for?" he questioned its sudden appearance.

"It's a blanket, what do you think it's for?" I smartassedly replied, only to receive a death glare in return from the pegasus mare. "It has my blood on it, extra warmth... mmm, cozy," I tried my best to cover up the sarcasm.

"I can see through your deception, pegasus, what is it you truly want from me?" Grim galloped straight to the point.

Well, the cat was out of the bag, no use beating it against the wall. "I came here for the truth, my winnings," I answered hesitantly. "Why is my cutie-mark so important? How do you know of my mother's incident? And just for the bucking fun of it, why are you a pegasist? It's kind of annoying."

"We never agreed to put so many questions on stake, especially the last one," Grim refused.

"That's it, I knew he was going to pull something like this out of his ass! He's a bucking liar!" Kill exclaimed, pointing hooves in offense to the disabled pony. "This was our one and only chance, and if he's the pony who has those answers, then I'm gonna force it out of him!"

I picked up the Grave pony, with a piercing stare through his soul, clenching my teeth as sadistic thoughts surged through my imagination. Grim noticed a flash of red shooting through my red-violet eyes as they returned to normal.

"Listen to me, ya bucking unicorn. I've had enough of your games, and right now, I have half a mind to trample on your face with spiked horseshoes. It already got personal when you brought out that incident." Ditzy's ears perked, apparently camouflaging with the background, left unnoticed as I brought upon my wrath upon the unicorn. "You call yourself a Grave pony? I don't mind sending half of you back to Tartarus!" I threw him on the floor, knocking the wind out of his lungs and weighed him down with a heavy hoof upon his chest. "Now, give me my answers," I warned.

Grim stared at me, unable to retaliate through his paralysis. He choked as I suppressed the air from reaching his lungs, coughing and wheezing, desperate for mercy as he gritted his teeth, enduring the torment.

"Graze... I-I think that's enough..." I ignored Ditzy's plea in the background, staring at the stallion who gasped for air. "Graze, stop." Her voice became more stern, glancing back and forth between Grim, his eyes seeming to pop out at any given moment, and myself as I smiled from Kill’s strong influence. "Graze, Get off of him!" She pushed me right off the stallion, freeing him from his torture.

The midnight air rushed towards his lungs, the stallion coughing out the bad and bringing in the new.

Ditzy and Grim stared at me, confused as I rubbed my head from the instant blood rush that was Kill's anger. Grim was the only one who observed the red back down through a flash of blue irises, forcing my eyes back to its original red-violet state.

"Look, Graze! We are ponies and we don't need to go to such drastic measures! What's wrong with you? You almost killed him!" Ditzy scolded, watching as I rubbed my temples, soothing the headache from the battle that was Kill and Joy, both fighting for either dominance or stability. It was pretty obvious who fought for what, and who was winning.

"I'm sorry, Ditzy... I-I don't know what got into me," I apologized, whinnying in desperation for an aspirin.

"Hmph, and you, Grim!" She directed her vexation towards the stunned pony. "If you made a promise, you should at leas--"

"Graze." The unicorn completely swept away Ditzy's existence in a matter of one word, as even she was silenced through my sudden calling. "You want the truth? Fine, I'd give it to you. You're just like my father; a brash, arrogant, selfish, aggressive, careless--” My mind began to block out most of the negative adjectives, “--pegasus. Those are the values that brought him to his own noose. He was a famous pony, one of the greatest scythe wielders in Tartarus because of his Celestia-blessed appendages, wings. There was no sky to fly through in the Underworld, so what better use to put them through, rather than scythe dueling?”

‘Scythe Dueling?’ Sounds like something that can tickle my fancy.

“His fame, introduced him to a mare, of course as we both know, my mother... and of course, they had a foal, me. He was a coward, afraid of the responsibility that was a husband and a father. He knew he didn't have the heart in him to put down so much work, and just as you are, he was a selfish pony for taking his own life. Props to him for making the right decision before he had hurt somepony... unlike you.”

That struck so many nerves, I’m sure even Ditzy felt my heart shatter. “But, Graze,” he called out to me once more, before I had to break his legs. “Do you know what's the difference between him and you?"

“What?” I asked through the restraints of my anger.

"You're still alive. Do Equestria a favor and go off yourself. I can't account for Tartarus not accepting such a spiteful soul like yours, though," the scorn of unicorns admitted.

There was something I’d rather do than break his legs, and it was definitely my choice to tell him off of how wrong he was.

"You know what, Grim? You're right about some things, sure I'm arrogant, aggressive... and careless... and brash, I know myself all too well not to look in the mirror and accept that fact. But, you know what's the two differences that distinguish me from your father?" I questioned the stallion. "Number one; I’m alive."

"Burn," Kill and Joy commented, each with a black and blue eye from their previous engagements.

“Number two,” I continued. “I don’t give up on my family, you twit.”

“Double burn.”

"Unlike you, I'm not a bucking miserable pony who bickers of how dead his father is. Unlike you, even though my mother is dead, I still love her to death, and I know she won't want me to do something as foolish as your father had done, that's why I'm a fighter, and that's why I won. As a pegasus, I'm persistent and hard-headed.” I ponged my hoof against my head. “So, guess what? Screw you and your side of the story. In my heart, I know that my hooves aren't soaked with my mother's blood. I don’t need you, you’re just a waste of time, probably the reason why your father even left you.”

“Triple burn!”

“I'm going to find the truth out by myself, whether it kills me or not!" I then kicked the slightly torn blanket onto him. "Enjoy your next day in the sun," I wished him with detest, trotting my way back into the school. "C'mon, Ditzy, we can leave Grim alone, he doesn't want filthy pegasi around him." I paused in my hoofsteps, scanning the area for the bright-eyed mare. "Ditzy?"

"Graze..." her voice called out from the back. I didn't like the sound of her tone. "I'm over here."

I turned around to face the mare, but what stood before me was that alicorn sized pegasus, Mr. Charge, holding the wall-eyed mare by the back of her neck clenched between his teeth. Beside him stood another pegasus of authority, the one who we had hoped to avoid at all costs.

"Buongiorno, Mr. Graze, will you please come to my office?" ordered the Headmaster of EQU, Shadow Mark.

Ditzy's Friendship has reached level 2!

Chapter Nine: Shadow Mark

“Finally we meet.”

Ebony slickback mane, grey streaks and an even lighter shade of grey than Ditzy's coat, the Principal of EQU--somewhere around his late forties, early fifties--had attired himself with a fawn cloak, leather sashes across his vest, as through their slots hid many silvered daggers and pointy objects. Through all these observations of the elderly stallion, there was one question that forcefully rammed itself against my cranium: How does he not feel hot under all those layers of clothes?

I mean, c'mon, I'm just honest enough to say that even I feel a bit warm under my vest and jacket. Then there's this guy with a vest, a shirt over that vest, a robe over that shirt over that vest, a hoodie over that robe over that shirt over that vest, a cloak over that robe over that shirt over that vest, a cape, and leather sashes.

He's old, he's weighted down, and he's agile enough to catch most curfew-breaking ponies in this school.

"Even I'm feeling hot, standing a table away!" Kill commented. "And I'm not even physically real!" 

Behind his desk, the pony sat on his haunches in between two towering sentinels of paperwork; neatly stacked, not a paper out of place and somehow by the mystics of the Goddesses, perfectly balanced. The stack on his right was labelled "Paperwork" as was the stack to his left, "Budget." Life must be tough being the principal to run this joint-- it's literally filled with ponies, for one. Two, the wide variety of subjects and living arrangements, not to mention electricity and heating bills for during the winter.

But other than that, this University practically relies on itself with all of its gardens, plantations, and not to mention all the ponies who contribute their unique talents. We're just like one big happy village.

"I'm not happy, Graze. Not. One. Bit," emphasised Headmaster Shadow Mark as he pulled back his hood, revealing lust-red tired eyes.

He trotted back and forth, not once passing his mahogany desk, still flooded with the day’s paperwork. My eyes traced his movements slowly to the left as he made his way to the window, some broken parts and edges of the frame stuck together with duct tape. As my eyes traced him to the right, his head held up high, I observed a bright yellow sticky note protruding itself from the Budget stack, not another one visible for another ruler or two. He passed trophies, tons of them neatly beside each other as testaments to the victorious, golden sporting history of the school had been told in no matter than a couple of seconds.

Through this game of chronemics, I eyed down cluster of trophies in all of its beauty, and then to the top... two concrete spheres? One had a lightning bolt shooting from a cloud, and the other... three diamonds.

My ears twitched with the passing wind, as a chill jolted up and through my spine upon a new voice.

Come to me... I can grant you anything your heart desires. After all, I am very... generous...

"Did that ball just talk to us?" Joy perched himself behind my shoulders, bracing himself before the ominous voice.

"I think I know what my wish is going to be," Kill evilly rubbed his hooves with a laugh. He shot his to the sky, and shouted to the heavens. "I want to be an alico-"

"No, Kill, that's just stupid," Joy quickly interrupted his "Top of the world mood" with a slap, facehoofing from that fact that he was somehow related to-as said in his own words-that.

I shook my head from the two-now three-voices that spoke as I focused my attention back on the heavily clothed stallion, making his way in front of the heavily wooded reinforced desk as he set one dagger facing in my direction.

"Why didn't you run away?!" B-O-O-O-M! He slammed both his hooves upon the desk with such a powerful force. Both mighty stacks of paper jumped in the shock as they landed back neatly in their piles, not a single sheet out of place. The curved throwing knife spun in mid air, quickly caught between the feathers of his right wing as he flung the projectile, cracking the tiles before my hooves.

I glanced at the dagger-stricken tile, and back to Shadow Mark's stern composure with a furrowed brow, patiently waiting for his reaction.

"Oh-hohoho! You're just as fearless as Mr. Charge said!" the principal laughed, clapping his hooves as he sat on his haunches.

"Hahaha, sir," I faked a laugh with his, "I'm not fearless, I just didn't move because you'd be in big trouble if you--" Shing! Another dagger zipped passed my cheek, lightly slicing through my skin. A trickle of warm blood streamed down to the ground.

"If I did that?" he rhetorically asked. "Don't test me, Mr. Graze, I never miss my target, just look behind you!" he laughed once more. As ordered, I observed the frame around the door, counting eighteen silver daggers that remained untouched. "Huh, could've sworn I threw twenty..." he furrowed his beard. "Oh well, you win some, you lose some, but you get the idea, right?"

Mental note: Don't piss off the scary Headmaster.

"Well, at least we aren't dead. Isn't that right, Joy?" Kill asked, looking to the right to find his brother hiding behind my right shoulder.

"Yeah, right... not dead. Can we leave?" Joy begged.

Again, the headmaster seemed to be lost in space as even I could see through his tired eyes that his mind was only on one thing, and that was sleep. "Well, I could punish you for passing curfew... but it's like three o' clock in the morning, and I'm overburdened with work. Some students are all like 'Hey, I'm going to sneak out after 11 o'clock!'" he mocked a hefty voice of what I supposedly thought was Dumbbells and his crew. "But then, we have you, Mr. Graze, who has to go to the extreme and test an old pony's abilities at 3 o'clock in the morning and not even put up a fight! I mean, seriously, who doesn't like to go hunting at witching hour!"

"Sir, I'm injured... I can't really run or fly. I can limp away if you'd like," I offered the stressed pony.

"Nah, that's no fun... that's like dying on a piece of wooden furniture," he complained. The awkward silence filled in for my loss of words as I attempted to unravel whatever Charge's metaphor had insinuated. "My ancestors didn't know how to die properly. But, I'll let you go on one condition!"

"Oh, and what is that?" I surprisingly asked, extremely tired from all the contracts, bets, pacts and deals that needed to be made in one day.

"Next time you're in danger, try and practice running rather than being captured by the enemy. You adolescents these days seem like you know it all. Right now, if I was the enemy, you'd be dead," Shadow Mark explained, folding his hooves on the table. "As you can see, as I am the enemy, I've already caught you and struck you down twice."

"So, you're teaching me to run away?" I asked.

"No," he quickly responded. "I'm teaching you how to be tactically wise. You have the day off, tomorrow, being injured and all... and might I say, I am quite impressed with the level of skill you displayed against Grim today. I lost twenty bits to Chaser and stole back forty! Hohoho!"

"I hate Mr. Charge for not betting for us," Kill puffed with folded hooves.

"Oh, stop acting like a spoiled brat. The bet won't even exist if one pony wasn't against us," Joy made sense of the topic to the devil.

"Thank you?" I guessed it was worth to share a thanks for such compliments coming from the headmaster's topic-changing speech pattern.

"Prego!" Just play along, Graze and pretend you know what that meant. "Now, I think you should head back to your dorm and get some rest, those cuts aren't going to heal itself!" Shadow Mark released me from his office, guiding me through his door. "Well, unless you wanna stay and we can put alcohol, salt and mercury on those bad boys! Sure, you'd scream like a demented cow, but it gets the job done!"

"I think I'll pass, sir," I tried to pardon myself from the agonizing pain that was his ailment. "But, before I leave... what exactly is that thing?" I pointed my hoof towards the tri-diamond encrypted stone.

"You mean you don't know?" he raised a brow, questioning my knowledge on the matter at hoof. "That is one of the six Elements of Harmony, the Element of Generosity!" He then pointed at the sphere to the left. "The one beside it is the Element of Loyalty!" he paused for a moment, wiping the tiredness from his eyes. "I'll take the liberty of explaining what exactly these are, since you don't know."

"These stones are said to hold great power, each one of them a specific trait of magic that have been crafted and entitled to by no other than our princesses, Celestia and Luna."

He cleared his throat, continuing with History 101 of Equestria as he turned his back to bask in the concrete stones' awe." Even though the Elements of Harmony have already been chosen, the princesses can never been too careful, so as a back up plan, per say if one of the Elements were to have a misfortunate event, they could gather these stones scattered all over Equestria and conquer whatever evil may show up, if it does. The hard part is not finding the location, but to actually find and nab it in that location."

This seems quite interesting. "Wait, how is it so hard to 'nab'? I mean, can't you just grab it and run?" I asked.

"Well, for me, yes... for other ponies... whoo," he exhaled in relief, scratching the back of his head, "other ponies aren't really chosen for this sort of loot. They are inexperienced and it's too dangerous."

"How so?" I sat on my haunches, showing that I was willing to learn even at these wee hours of the morning. Any other circumstance, though? Pftch, hell no.

"You see, you have to be a chosen, either that or to have a high resistance to magic--and when I mean high, I mean extravagantly high. One can be easily killed or corrupted by its power. If you are accepted by the Element, you be shall guided to the next and so on and so forth," he explained.

On the spot, I already had the intention to just poke at this whole 'Elements' thing with my curiosity. It was already late, but I had a day off tomorrow, so I could just sleep in.  

That's it, my mind has been made. "So," I innocently whistled, attracting Shadow Mark's attention as I popped up behind him, "how does one be accepted by that Element? Does it choose you or something?" My hoof drew closer to one of the stones.

With a quick slap away of my hooves, Shadow Mark continued his explanation as nothing ever happened, a curious glance here and there, but nothing much to be worried about. I could still continue my game.

"Why yes, for some, they actually do choose you," he continued. "I actually found Loyalty just lazing under the bell of Ponitaly's church," Shadow Mark explained, picking up Loyalty and dusting it off. "Generosity, I haven't had much interaction with it yet. I honestly do not know which of them is lazier," he stressfully sighed. "At least Loyalty lead me to Generosity." He slammed his head on the desk with a thud, muttering some words to himself. "Why don't you speak to me?!" he shouted at the orb.

"What if I gave it a try?" I hopefully reassured the headmaster with my enthusiasm. "I mean, I already heard it spoke to me." I turned my back from him as I had successfully planted the bait. With a peek of my eye and a silent chuckle I watched his head arise from my point.

"Y-you heard it spoke?" Shadow Mark asked in disbelief.

"Hook. Line. And Sinker." Kill, Joy and myself respectively commented on my success.

"Celestia as my witness, I did," I gently smoothed the icing of propaganda on the cake. "If it ignores you, sir, by all due respect and knowledge on the topic, you are not chosen. If you think I'm lying, why don't you give it to me for a test run? What can go wrong?" I shone my teeth with a smug smile.

In bemuse, the headmaster reached for the Element of Generosity, dusting it off with a wing as he gave me a strict glance. "You're a  smooth talker, you know that?" He then threw the ball towards me.

"Yeah, I pride myself on that," I quickly replied, catching Generosity within my hooves as I smiled, teeth gleaming at its presence in my possession. "What exactly am I supposed to do now? Is there like a ritual or something to unravel its secrets?"

"Hmm... yes,yes, there is!” he cheered on. “All you gotta do is close your eyes and concentrate on the orb, and it shall speak to you," he advised. "It must have your undivided attention," he warned.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Joy worriedly commented beside the Element of Generosity, a boulder in comparison to his size.

"Souls, I need more souls!"The three of us heard the orb exclaim.

"See? It just wants our souls," Kill unworryingly smirked. "Pftch! As if we need those anyways," he laughed in the face of danger.

"Kill, we are souls! Nothing but souls! I just don't know, man, I don't like the idea of messing with magic that we have no experience with," Joy sighed, leaning on the other side of the boulder.

Upon contact, Joy's touch--added with Kill's and mine--the orb brightly shone, exploding with a flash of blinding light throughout the office. I dropped the Element of Generosity, drawing back my hooves to shield my eyes from the blinding light.

I don't know what it was, but I couldn't open them, my eyes were forced shut as I screamed in pain. My mind was violently attacked, I could feel my ears bleed as high pitched frequencies noises beated against my drums. "Aggghhhh!" I came to my knees, screaming as I could feel my ears bleed.

Through my thoughts, I saw heard and this snowy pattern as the high pitch interference tortured me; something like static on a television screen, but only through intervals did I pick up a signal and saw this.

Upon sighting, the static became more violent, succumbing me to unconsciousness as the torture became unbearable to withstand in my already beaten state. That stallion, he was in a forested area, and that was the only thing clear to me... if Shadow Mark was correct, that was where the next Element of Harmony was.

I should tell him, hopefully once I wake up.

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