It was unnaturally cold in Aremia the particular day that it was scheduled for, the thing being scheduled was a burial. The man being buried was an army cadet, but the most unnatural thing was that the man’s killer was attending. Reason being it was an accident, except in the killer’s eyes. He was a part of the team the cadet was assigned to, and just like so many times before, things had turned out poorly. His team was saddened but they understood what had happened, which sadly, the killer refused to see.

His name was Zero or that was what he made every person he knew call him, and he was pale skinned with gray and black hair which contradicted his young age. He was a very strong ‘mage’ as most called his type. The people of Aremia were mainly militaristic due to its rather tragic history, but everybody made it work in favor of themselves as selfish as that sounds. Not that most of that mattered to Zero, but that isn’t what he didn’t want to ‘see’ as stated.

Now his magic was among some of the strongest in recorded history, and safety measures were placed to restrict his power. Namely the nullifiers on his upper arms coupled with runes all along his fore arms. Not that he couldn’t remove the runes as he placed them there, but it didn’t do much to limit the power with which he cast with, that was one reason he was dubbed a killer.

His magical power was tied with his emotion and thus when one or the other got out of control bad things happened, and it just so happened that the cadet got caught within the range of his magical crossfire. Everybody was saddened but Zero was no exception, as he had done things such as what happened before, and it was starting to put a heavy tax on his body and mind. That was the reason he wasn’t a part of the sound off he scheduled for the man, his sadness and rather chronic depression made his magic slightly unpredictable.

He wished with every single thread of hope in his body that he could someday control it, but he knew with every sensible part of his being that it was close to impossible, and the saddest part of all, was that he understood that he would be better off alone than with others, but he wouldn’t let his team come to harm after all they went through. That was why he didn’t just call it quits and go to a place where he couldn’t hurt anybody, as he had a tendency to end up hurting even those he wanted to protect.

And as the coffin was lowered into the grave he thought back to when he didn’t have the ability to hurt people. The time when he was alone in an orphanage and nobody noticed him. And when he was just starting to gain the abilities that he resented, and with those thoughts in mind, he turned away and went back to his place of residence that he shared with the rest of his team.

                                                                             19 years earlier

It was just a usual day for Rayan as it always was as he was unable to play with the other children at the moment. Just like always they played a sporting game that he was unable to participate in or watch for that matter. Why you may ask, is that Rayan was blind, and everything just escaped him slightly due to his extreme learning disability. It was two of many things that made him different that limited his ability to interact with others.

It was also the reason that nobody wanted to adopt him, he was outclassed by the other children and that was another cause for his bad mental state which consisted of both natural and external things like the several times he walked into walls or the focus disability he had.

It was depressing to say the least for Rayan, as nobody bothered much with him besides meals and such. Though he did have a slightly accelerated growth rate, as for a five year old, he was four foot one and towered above the others somewhat. Not that he could really acknowledge it very much; he only knew that there were a couple of offhand comments about his height.

None the less when a siren went off he immediately started feeling for the door that he thought was near the bench he was in. sadly he never found that door a he tripped on a rock that protruded from the ground. Rayan hit the ground with a muffled thump.

Right about that time he heard the other children running past him, and whether out of spite or an accident, one of the stomped on his hand as he got up. Rayan let small cry as he felt one of his fingers break, and subsequently fell to his side out of the way while holding his finger. Rayan could feel the break between the knuckle and first joint in his ring finger.

Now some may wonder exactly why a simple siren would cause such a panic, and Rayan was not exactly too bright on the topic either. All he really understood was that it was protocol and if violated, a severe punishment would be dealt out, if of course ‘They’ did not kill the violator.

Rayan never really understood what ‘They’ were, but when the military men were giving their instructions, like they do every month, and he was taken aside by a man who was trained to deal with mentally defunct people. All Rayan was able to really understand was that most of the creatures were differing shades of black and gray. Usually the creature’ eyes are red, and are large burly creatures that consisted of corded muscle that showed up strangely against their skin.

Now he didn’t really have a great thought process at all, and when he was introduced to his newly broken finger, pain was all that really occurred to him. He could hear a calling that may or may not have been his name before a door slammed. He sat there cradling his finger for a while until he got the worst feeling in the pit of his stomach. It didn’t help that at the sound that was coming near him.

Footsteps got closer and closer to him until it stopped; by the sounds of what he heard there were at least three creatures if he was doing his math correctly. And that’s when he got terrified to his very core; one of them spoke in very guttural Aremian. “What is this thing, a young child perhaps? But why is it that The Prophet ordered us here, certainly he wasn’t expecting us to find a child here.”

A second creature spoke at that point, this one softer but still guttural in nature, “Idiot, of course this is what he expected us to find. It came to him in a vision you fool, he saw all of this before it happened. But my question is why exactly did he order us to come here?”

“Maybe the old Prophet is going to have to step down to his son, because after this I don’t believe his mind is where it must be, though I must say, through all the humans I’ve put an end to, this one certainly gives off a strange presence.”

“I will admit to that but I think its best if we leave before any more of the humans show up, I don’t particularly feel the need to kill today and I’m going to follow that feeling.” After those words, a light set of footsteps faded but only one. One, and possibly two remained and even though the pain was extreme for Rayan’s mind, he still felt the fear of death clinging on.

It only got worse as the creature touched Rayan’s side, and it was not very pleasant, mainly for the fact the thing had three primary fingers and a very long thumb. It just prodded at Rayan’s side, and it was persisting to the point of giving a shard prod to his ribs. Nearly without thinking and it wouldn’t be surprising if he wasn’t though through the pain and fear, Rayan slapped the hand away from him, and the result was a rather terrifying chuckle from the creature.

“The child appears to be rather consumed in fear as his scent is reeking of it. Though ever since we got here it has been holding that hand, and from the look on its face it may have a possible injury,” said a calm and controlled voice, this one being less inhuman than the two previous.

“And why exactly would you make a comment about that General? Do you show concern for this creature, and I ask because I do not wish to see you go down on behalf of heresy. ,” said the first voice.

“Do not concern yourself on my behalf young one, for I do not care much at all for these humans, I only care for the things that they posses. I do show an interest in this one though as its eyes are open, yet it does not scream in terror at our bodies like so many others would.” With that, the second creature took a step or two closer and knelt down to Rayan.

This one however took a hold of Rayan’s chin and turned his face upward. The creature let out an ‘oohhh’ upon closer inspection of Rayan’s eyes, which were a solid gray color. “What did you find General?” the first one asked.

“It appears that this human is blind, as he cannot see me. It is not often a human has a defect such as this. Maybe I can help with that.” After that was said, there was a brief pain for Rayan on the side of his head where ‘General’s” fist contacted, and then he was unconscious.

                                                                              Equestria present day

Twilight Sparkle was having a fairly good day; she had started it by helping her friend Fluttershy with her animals for a while. Reason being the animals were spooked by something that was unexplainable, but there was a certain feeling in the air that just felt wrong and out of place. Though after some calming down the animals returned to their normal behavior, but something was still off, and for a change it wasn’t one of her friends, Rainbow Dash’s, pranks.

It was in the air more or less, something that had no real form. It was somewhat infectious as well because Fluttershy was acting abnormally down. It was as if somepony had poisoned the air with sadness. It was baffling to Twilight but she didn’t really have the power to stop it.

She did however send a little to Princess Celestia via Dragon Mail. She hoped that her teacher could possibly do something about the strange happenings, but it would probably be a while until a reply was received. So until she received said reply, Twilight focused on the positive, and spent time with her friends.

So after she helped Fluttershy, she proceeded to have tea with her friend Rarity, and talked about local gossip. Though Twilight wasn’t an active gossip pony, she did like to hear some of the stories Rarity heard. With those two things down, she went back home to the library.

At the library through some ‘accident’ as Spike called it, was a mess. Books were strewn about the ground in an unorganized mess. Spike himself was knocked out due to an encyclopedia to the head. So for quite a while she just picked the books off the ground and sorted through them placing a few in their places, most in piles to be sorted later, and a couple that she decided to read later were placed by her bed.

After giving more instructions to Spike to sort books into different categories, so she could later shelve them into the appropriate places in the library. But she had made prior engagements with the local farm-pony Applejack. Twilight was going over to have a nice diner with the Apple family, and as a result wanted to go early to get a few pointers at how to cook properly. And it was the best way to learn without outright saying she couldn’t cook, so she chose the less embarrassing of the two ways.

So going into Sweet Apple Acres was a nice change from the town’s buildings. Though that’s when she felt that feeling again, the sadness that seemed to affect Fluttershy was within the apple orchard as well.

With that revelation, Twilight quickened her pace to the house her friend resided inside of. She knocked on the door and in only a few seconds a very tired looking Applejack opened the door.

“I hope you don’t mind I came a little early Applejack, but I’m curious if you’re feeling what I am right now,” Twilight both stated and asked her friend. By the looks of it though, Applejack was more than just feeling it. Large bags were forming underneath the orange coated mare’s eyes and it was a little unsettling.

“Oh I don mind none Twi. But yeah if yer talking bout the weird feelins in the air, or at least that’s what I think it is. Well pardon mah manners come on in, we just started makin dinner so it shouldn’t be long now,” Applejack said in reply to her friend.

With that out of the way, Twilight made her way inside after her friend and closed the door with her magic. Twilight followed her friend all the way into the kitchen, keeping up idle chatter while Applejack cooked some delicious looking apple products.

When Twilight began helping set the table, Applejack finally asked, “Twi I know ya wanna know what this strange stuff is as much as I do, so can ya contact the Princess bout this? Its startin ta affects mah family an ahm gittin concerned.”

Twilight replied with, “I’ve already contacted Princess Celestia about this because it seems to be affecting Fluttershy as well. I hope that the Princess has an answer for this.” With that Twilight sat down as the rest of the Apple family filed into the room.

That’s when Twilight saw what Applejack was talking about, they all looked slightly down, and her pondering got interrupted by Applejack who said, “I just hope somepony can solve this is all.” Twilight nodded in response to this.