“How? How are you doing this!?”

“I don’t know buddy, but I‘m not looking a gift horse in the mouth”

“Aaargh!”

Despite my own doubts, it was working, and I couldn’t give it up, then, I felt the darkness around me tremble, and then, the “walls” began to break, the darkness being slowly removed by light coming from the cracks that appeared.

“You…”

“Get out!” I yelled at the top of my mental lungs, Sombra growled back in response, and suddenly, I felt myself regain control of my body, completely limp, and falling to the floor like a rock.

“You are just like him… Good riddance I say,” were the words I heard before losing consciousness.

“Aah!”

“Ahh!”

“Oh my god, what!?” John felt himself fall over something, it took over a minute for him to realize his current situation; he was on the floor, and his face was directly face down on the floor over something soft, he took a deep breath and opened his still closed eyes, noticing a pillow in which his head now rested.

“What the hell?” he cursed, humming confusedly, and feeling the cold floor around him, only serving to confuse him further.

“John!?” came the sound of a voice just above him, he grunted at its closeness and got on his feet, popping his bones in the process, he turned his head to the bed to find the small form of Spike sitting on it.

“Are you okay!? That was quite a fall,” ignoring him for the moment, John looked around, it was a big room, lavish red curtains hanging in each window, a clean, and polished floor reflecting his face, and the bed he had just been laying on looking as comfortable as it probably was for him when he was on it.

“We are in Canterlot?” he asked himself, knowing the answer already, he looked at Spike once again, noticing a cast on his right arm and a small boot in his left leg. “Spike? Are you okay? That cast!”

“Oh, this? Pfft, no worries! I’m doing fine, but better question is, are you okay? You know…” -he cut off suddenly- “After what happened?” he seemed to hesitate as he asked, hiding his able arm behind his back.

“Me? Well…” he tried recollecting his thoughts, doing his best to remember what had transpired. “We went to this Crystal Empire, then we threw a fair, and then Twilight found this Crystal Heart thing, and then… Argh!” he held his head as he felt a headache coming in, he allowed himself to sit on the bed as it passed, the young dragon stealing a glance at him every few seconds. “What’s up with you?” John asked when he noticed Spike continuously looking at him.

“Sombra…” he began, shivering at the mere mention of the name. “He took over your body, that’s what,” he stared at John, his face a mask of sudden seriousness.

“Ugh!” John held his head as the throbbing pain returned, but this time, returning with a stream of images in his head. “Oh… Wait… I think I remember… What happened to Sombra, Luna was there too, and…Twilight!?” he turned to Spike. “Where is Twilight!?” he asked loudly, holding the young dragon’s shoulders, his ragged breathing showing his distraught state.

“The Princess wants to see you,” Spike simply sighed, he moved John’s arms aside and got off the bed, heading for the door. “Go out and turn right, pass ten rooms and you will find the Princess’ study, she’ll be waiting there… And I-I‘m sorry if I can‘t tell you anything but… I was forced to Pinkie promise,” he looked at John nervously one last time and closed the door, leaving him on his own.

John sat there dumbfounded at Spike’s sudden change of tone, his worry over Twilight, what happened in the Crystal Empire, himself; all weighting down on his mind. “Twilight… Did she di- No! It couldn’t be! She is a strong pony, yeah! She is alive. Yes. And Celestia will reaffirm that!” he got on his feet and began walking to the door, stopping as he reached for the handle.

“Um…” he looked at himself for a bit and a noticeable red appeared on his cheeks once he had realized it. “Why the hell am I naked…?” he fumed both embarrassed and annoyed.

After some quick searching in the room, he had been pleasantly surprised to have found a shirt and a pair of pants resting on a chair, unfortunately for him, no underwear nor socks were left behind.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.”

He left the room and began his walk, heading towards the room Spike had told him about, questions plagued his mind on the way there. “Why does she want to see me? Is it about Twilight? And what the heck is a Pinkie Promise again?” he walked the ample hallway in silence. With no sign of guards to be found, he calmed his wondering thoughts by looking outside at a view of the mountainside; the city of Canterlot visibly going about its business under the grand castle, it was quite a sight to behold.

“And ten...” he audibly finished his mental counting, reaching a pair of doors engraved with the logo of the sun, he took a quick gulp of air, and made to knock on the door.

“I’ve been waiting for you, John, come on in,” he was taken aback by Celestia’s voice, surprised by her knowing of his presence. Choosing to leave it to her omnipotent abilities, he slowly made his way through the doors, readying himself to find some answers, he shook slightly as he entered the room, her presence usually causing his guard to be up expecting his own death by magical Alicorn for whatever reason.

“Welcome John, I am glad to see you looking better,” Celestia warmly welcomed him from the podium she stood by, giving him a warn smile.

“Yes, thank you, but can we cut the pleasantries? You know why I’m here,” he responded without thinking ahead, his hand moved like lighting to his mouth in response to his sudden rudeness, mentally cursing himself for his tactless act. The smile on Celestia’s face faded, and she let out a sigh.

“Straight to the point, I see,” the doors closed by themselves behind him, scaring him slightly as they automatically locked themselves, taking it as a sign, he took a deep breath and walked towards Celestia, making sure to avoid her gaze by inspecting the room.

A few torches hanged around the room, separated just enough to give the right amount of light, a single window lay hidden in the far end, behind numerous bookshelves that kept it mostly hidden from sight, various ancient looking paraphernalia, the set up giving the room a mysterious feel that John hadn’t noticed in the other parts of the castle.

“Okay, w-what do you want?” he timidly asked as he stood as close as he dared to.

“John” she began right away. “What you experienced at the Crystal Empire was something that I apologize for, I should have taken care of Sombra all those years ago,” she closed her eyes, showing her regret, John frowned in return, uncomfortable with her apology.

“Look, Princess?”

“You can call me Celestia, I can at least give you that much.”

“Er, okay. Celestia? It’s okay, sometimes we can’t control what happens, you did what you thought was best with the circumstances, okay?” he tried reassuring her, feeling a bit relieved. “Besides… It was my fault, I shouldn’t have gone, things would have turned out differently.”

“That may be, but we cannot change what has transpired. I am not blaming you for any of this.”

“Well, you should,” John said in a low voice.

“I’ll be honest with you John, I’m actually surprised you survived,” John jumped back, unpleasantly surprised at the Princess’ words, had she wanted him to die? 'No, that's dumb,' he thought.

“Pardon my wording, but the reason I say this is because any creature possessed by Sombra never survives. When he leaves the body, the host dies—but you didn't,” John listened to her explanation carefully, tensing up at the facts she was giving him. “Which is why I ask; what happened?”

John stood still, thinking of her question carefully 'Should I tell her? Would she believe me?' he thought back on the voice that had helped him, imagining it to be a part of his subconscious, a fact that in the end, he let Celestia know as he spoiled the events that had transpired in his own mind.

“It’s a possibility, but I do not think it’s that simple to get out of such powerful magic. Not even one of the most powerful unicorns was able to,” all of a sudden, her eyes received a distant look that faded after she took notice of John once more- “Ah, forget my reminiscing; let’s continue,” she moved closer to John, crouching slightly to meet his face directly with hers, causing him to fall back on the floor.

“W-what are you doing?” he asked, frightened by her massive closing frame. She only closed her eyes, and a dissatisfactory grimace appeared on her face, she turned her back to him and took out a feather controlled by her magic, she quickly scribbled on a parchment, making notes of some sort, John grinned at the act, being reminded of Twilight, much to both his relief and growing worry.

“John, what if I told you I can see into your thoughts?”

“I would probably believe you, you are a goddess after all, right? Are you looking into them now?” he asked irritated, clumsily getting back on his feet, he had gotten tired of her questions, and he wanted to address his own.

“… Yes, I am, which is surprising,” she turned to him with the smile she usually wore back on and fixed his clothes with her magic.

“What was that for!” he asked, growing increasingly uncomfortable as she kept her line of tinkering, he’d had enough.

“Once again, I apologize, but I needed to make sure. Thanks to this, now I’m sure of what happened back at the Empire,” her wings extended to its full view, John stared at them, awed by the way they looked once fully open. “John, you seem to have some sort of special ability that I have never seen in the entirety of my existence, and trust me, I’ve seen a lot.”

John stood silence, staring confused. “W-Wait, can you explain, please?”

“You seem to carry a sort of ‘magic negating’ ability, allowing your body to cancel out both raw, and controlled magical power used on your body,” John stood looking serious for a second, then, burst into instant laughter that roared in the big room, he instantly recovered and glared at Celestia.

“So, if you are done, can we get on with my questions?” she only stared at him with the look of real seriousness plastered on her face, John shook his head at the reaction. “What? You can’t be serious.”

Celestia stared at him, keeping a somber look. “Luna told me Sombra had been able to survive one of her attacks while in your body, and trust me, you shouldn’t have survived that either… I am not mocking you, John, this is the real deal.”

“Celestia, magic has been used on me several times by Twilight, what you say is impossible,” in response, she shot a small trail of magic towards him, hitting his forehead and disappearing at contact. “Oww! What was that for?”

“That is how I visibly read minds, and as you noticed, it didn’t work this time—your mind is blocked even from me,” John raised a brow and chuckled darkly.

“What? Even the Goddess of this world can’t read my mind? And besides, I thought you’d already read it, what is this nonsense?” he asked exasperated, staring holes into Celestia.

“From what I have gathered, this just shows that this can be activated subconsciously whenever you are either intimidated greatly, or are in great peril; that’s the only explanation I can give you. This would also answer why I can’t scry the elements in Ponyville.”

“Scry?”

“Never you mind, I was merely talking to myself,” she finished, smiling ever so slightly.

“Yeah, okay, but why? Why me?” Celestia mulled over the question for a second before replying.

“I have absolutely no idea, even this confounds me like nothing else,” she trotted to the side, heading to a large oval shaped object the size of Celestia, covered up by a single cover. She then removed said cover, revealing a large mirror. “Unlike your world, one that runs in events that transpire more logically, events that always have an explanation no matter the case; our world is filled with raw magic, which is much more… unstable, so to speak.”

“Get to the point,” John fumed.

“Either you were born with this ability, which sounds very unlikely due to the minuscule amount magic in your world, or our world gave you this ability. Why it did? I do not know. Scholars have spend hundreds of years trying to find the logic that our world follows, but unlike the magic we use, it cannot be recorded nor measured like ours is, it’s a mystery.”

“Uh huh.”

“Do you understand?”

“No,” he replied flatly.

“Understandable, I don‘t really either,” she replied, laughing to herself.

“Marvelous. So are you done now?” Celestia looked at him curiously.

“Do you not want to know more?”

“All I want to know right now is what happened at the Empire, please Princess, tell me.”

“I’m glad to see that your priorities remain where it matters,” her horn glowed, and a bright light filled the room, forcing John to close his eyes. Once he opened them again, he found himself in hallway, the smell of sterilized objects in the air, a smell familiar to him.

“We are…”

“In the hospital wing in Canterlot‘s General hospital, glad it worked with you, otherwise we would have to fly. Now come, protocol says we have to make the rest of the way to the room by hoof,” John did as he was told without protest, following Celestia as she filled him in on what had happened back at the Empire; Pinkie had arrived the instant he’d fainted, grabbing the injured Spike and jumping down to escape. Luckily for them, both Rainbow Dash and Princess Cadence—who’d apparently been thrown like a javelin towards Spike—grabbed the pair and the heart, activating it, and saving the kingdom, revealing Cadence to be the Crystal Princess to boot.

“Well, what do you know?”

“Indeed, life is full of surprises.”

“And Sombra?” John asked nervously, wondering over the King who had so easily taken over his body.

“He is gone. Dead,” Celestia replied simply, not adding anything more. John remained silent absorbing the news, relief washed over him, but the fear over the unicorn remained untouched.

That fact would never change.

“A-and what happened afterwards?” he asked reluctantly, Celestia missing the trembling in his voice, or just choosing to ignore it; it was difficult for John to notice.

“After that, you were all brought in and your injuries treated, Luna and you were practically fine, with only a few minor injuries, Spike had a broken arm, as well as a sprained ankle, but you were all otherwise okay.”

“W-what about Twilight?” John hesitantly asked.

“Well… You will see for yourself.”

They kept walking in the hallway area, turning numerous times, finding a couple of doctors who bowed when the Princess came into their presence, a few of the ponies giving John glares that he couldn’t quite place, as the silent reigned between then, Celestia spoke once more.

“Do you regret it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you regret coming here, to Equestria?”

John stopped walking and looked up to Celestia, being taller than he was presented a challenge for him to show resentment, but he tried his best with the glare he currently had. “Why are you asking me this now? You said I couldn’t return anymore anyway, didn’t you? I‘m not going to complain about it.”

“I did, however, that was only due to the difficulty to find your dimension once more, it was easy to track Twilight due to her magic, but a world with no magic to track would present a challenge,” John shook his head in disbelief.

“Why? Why would you do that for me?”

“Because I wanted to give you a chance to choose, and now that you’ve experienced Equestria, you can safely choose. I can help you, however long it takes,” John looked past Celestia, seeing the hallway come to an end, a pair of double doors in their way. “We can talk about this later, we are here,” wasting no time, the pair made their way inside.

“What is this place?” the room was immense, there were no lights, giving John the sensation that the unnaturally white walls gave off light magically, there were windows high up near the roof where multiple seats were visible, but nopony sat on them; it remained as empty as it looked, a single curtain being a sore spot placed in the otherwise empty room.

“This is an operating room, but we had to use it as a guest room for Twilight due to her cir-” at the mention of the name, John ran ahead, ignoring the rest of Celestia‘s explanation, he pulled the curtain back and headed inside, only to gasp at what he witnessed.

“Twilight?” her breath came in short bursts, her disheveled mane let out beads of sweat by the second, an overbearing smell reached John’s nostrils; the smell of dirty hair, or in Twilight’s case, mane and coat.

“Ugh… What’s going on ? Why is she… why does she smell?” he added awkwardly.

“She is fighting it, John. Look,” Celestia pointed to Twilight’s flank, her cutie mark specifically, it looked as flashy as it always did, but one of the marks looked different.

“Why is the star in her cutie mark… Black?” he asked, noticing the blackish symbol.

“I blame myself for this” Celestia stomped the ground with her hoof, surprising John. “If only I had explained to her the disadvantages of negative energy, this wouldn’t have happened! She is being corrupted by it, either her mind or body, maybe both, nopony knows,” John sighed in understanding, he remembered Twilight mentioning it back at the empire.

“… We have to do something!” he turned to her, his pleading eyes hoping for an answer, the look she gave him showed him enough; she was just as lost as to what to do as he was.

“Let’s go, we don’t want to be here when another one of her episodes happens, none of the nurses are brave enough to get close to her,” she unfurled her wing and wrapped it around John, pulling him away from his sister.

“What episode?” as in cue, a yell came from the bed’s direction.

“Aaah!” John ducked under Celestia’s wing, looking at Twilight‘s bed once more, where she trembled violently, a glow of magic keeping her tongue in place; John presumed it was to avoid her from biting. Dark streams of magic left her body as she twisted herself, loudly showing the pain she was going through. John couldn’t stand it, and he ran towards the bed, ignoring the dark haze coming out of Twilight.

“John! Get away from her!” Celestia called, she attempted to use her magic, but to no avail, finding her magic suddenly blocked. “Not again…”

“Twilight! Please, answer! I’m here!” John hugged her pain filled form, the dark streams of magic enveloping him as he did. “I’m okay! See? Sombra is gone! Sombra is gone, just… Wake up…” he said, his eyes filled with tears, not knowing what to do other than hug her writhing body in a desperate attempt to reach her.

Celestia only stood there, unable to get too close, the unstable magic a threat even for her. “It’s times like this that I wish you were here…” her eyes glowed yellow, and a stream of brightly colored magic filled her eyes, flowing out to suppress Twilight. “I’m sorry Twilight, but this will hurt…” she apologized somberly, the magic reaching the now obscured pair. “Aaaa-!” Celestia’s hold on the energy broke as she heard Twilight’s voice crack, and a bright light filled the room, blinding her momentarily. Once she recovered, she looked upon the pair, the dark energy now suddenly gone.
` “John… Are you okay?” she approached the pair instantly, unfolding her wings and flying the short distance faster, yet still fearful of what she might see, a knot in her stomach telling her to stay back but one she ignored regardless, and one that went away when she got a look of the pair.

“Yes, we are,” Twilight laid dormant with a blissful look in her face, she breathed slowly and without effort, the dark star now replaced by a single dot barely visible to the naked eye, one that Celestia could see, much to her chagrin. John had then turned to check the star as well, noticing the dot too. “S-she will be okay, right?”

“John, I’m sorry, but it seems we didn’t treat her in time,” Celestia began, sounding regretful. “The dot she now bears has become a part of her; it doesn’t belong, but it’s a part of her now and it will likely return. She is at risk as long as it is there. How long will it take to recover? I don’t know. There have been cases of ponies that have kept them all of their lives, and most of them didn’t live a full one," she shook her head. "I’m sorry.”

The bluntness of Celestia’s words broke John's heart, and he felt the harsh truth; Twilight was still in danger; and not just momentarily, but what could potentially be the rest of her life. There was nothing they could do, and not even a goddess appeared to have the answers.

“But I can… I can help her, by staying by her side… Right?” he turned to Celestia, a sad look in his face, but behind it, Celestia saw something else—a resolve.

“You seem to be able to block off the magic rather well, but I cannot ask you to do th-”

“No, I’m the only one who can do it, and I’m willing to,” he interrupted her, a fierce look of determination piercing through Celestia's words..

Celestia only nodded in silent agreement, and they both stood in stood quiet by the bed, not speaking another word, Twilight’s soft snores the only sound that could be heard in the room.

Author's Notes:

Boy, this chapter was a doozy. All I'll say.

Notes 20 – 5/10/18

Alright, so I'm actually kinda happy about this chapter, and also a little bummed; let me explain. As long as I've written, I've learned TONS of words in the process, however, it feels like I end up forgetting a ton of the ones I already used. Even now, this is a problem.

It's something that's still an issue that dampens my writing, and a thing I want to remedy. But to keep the focus here, this chapter is one of my few favorites, even with some of the issues I previously explained. This is the point where John becomes a little less useless than he used to be, and where my current writing REALLY begins to take shape.