The Divide

Chapter one: Beyond the Island

The tune was ringing in A's head. It was singing something to him, messing with his thoughts, sapping every last drop of courage from his mind.

I travel a dusty old road

And carry on in ultimate terror

The torture will grow while infinity's lost

The lunatic fears the unknown

THE UNKOOOOOOOOOOOWN!

A red, swirling, burning portal creaked into life behind A', as he turned around.

INTO THE FIRE!

A being of flames erupted from the portal, its menacing horns and manic grin visible through the orange tinge. It grabbed A', screaming, dragging him into the abyss of what he had called hell.

A' woke up in a cold sweat. He shot up from his bedspread, eyes bloodshot and widened, with tears streaming out of them.

It began then. The rollercoaster of pure insanity had begun.

In 13 years, he was going to tell somebody. He was going to ask for help, to cure him of his utter insomnia. Jogging up the street, the jog turned into a sprint, as he heard the voices stirring.

No, He assured himself. I will not give in today. Not to you, of all the horrid, accursed things in our world.

A stronger, more dominant voice rained out from the shadows of his mind, following him, damning him to the silence of his mind.

You're just part of our game

You're our slave to the grind

YOUR SANITY

GROWS WEAK

You're just part of our game

You're our slave to the grind

"You won't take control again! NEVER AGAIN! I RID YOU OF MY SOUL!"

YOU HOLD YOUR GROUND

UNTILL YOUR LAST BREATH

THE CYCLE ENDS

AND YOU'RE STUMBLING

This war

It rages on

Forever and ever

I WILL RETURN

"I refuse to be you're victim! Show yourself, coward! SHOW YOURSELF!"A' cried. He sprinted into his parent's house, clutching his skull in fear and panic.

"Mom? Are you here?" He inquired. "Dad?"

He stopped in his tracks. All there was in the house was blood. Blood and fire, swallowing up the room, only a memory of what existed before the destruction.

He fell to his knees, sobbing.

"WHAT IS IT?" He cried. "WHATIS IT YOU WANT FROM ME?"

YOUR SPIRIT

YOUR SANITY

YOUR SOOOOOOOUL

"I told you, Elex, it takes time to draw!"

"Korlin, you drew it in a matter of seconds."

"Shut up! That wasn't even the finished project!"

"You call that a project?"

Korlin fumed. He had given up hiding his utter rage a very long time ago. His friends had been torturing him about his lack of drawing skill for the past ten minutes. Being a full-blooded Sicillian, he had a temper that would kill a school full of children if it was in the wrong body. And he was on the verge of killing a party full of wise-asses.

David, Korlin, Elex, and A' (his real name was Artliligox, his parents had been odd folk) were all together, chattering and horsing around as a whole. They were strolling back to A's house, after meeting up with Kristine.

It was a deceitfully cheerful day in Boston. The city had a particular hum to it. The people they knew greeted them with a smile and a wave, the guilt and stress of school suppressed and stored away for the summer. But today was different. The hum was more foreboding, more like a machine than a city of living things. Not everybody noticed it, though. In fact, only one person noticed it: A'. He was always uneasy about walking past towering skyscrapers. But this one here, it was like a towering mountain of metal. His imagination led him to believe all sorts of conspiracy theories, such as being abducted and thrown into cryogenic preservation. Like in Futureama, he always said.

"Why do we take this route all the time?" He inquired to his friends.

"Nostalgia value," replied David, his mop of a hanging, pure black haircut ever so slightly shifting. He was taller than A' and Elex, Korlin being the towering 6''6' giant that he was. David was the most sly and cunning of the 4, his slender and mildly muscular format giving him the, "Like a sir," disguise. Inside, he was the biggest goofball you'd ever even hope to find. Being the fastest and slimmest of them all was a huge plus in that regard; being able to hide in the depths, strike with a pie to the face, and then outrun the raging, cursing, fuming Korlin, David laughing the entire way home.

"Nostalgia towards what? The day you got fired from the taco bell nobody ever went to?" Retorted A'.

"Would you quit all that conspiracy theories and living nightmare crap? We go by here every day, nothing new is gonna happen. It's just an empty old building," Elex snapped. She was always hated it when A' got worried. It was natural for her to support her friends, especially A'. Elex was a short girl, in her low 20's, with long, brunette hair flowing down past her shoulders. With a glowing shade of blue for her eyes, her face was complete and stunning, by some. She was certainly favored among the younger guys in her classes, some of the older ones, too, so she understood pretty well that she was a beautiful young lady. Certainly able to look after herself, she could kick your ass back to the sorry mama you came from if you got too close for comfort. For example, David had a new black eye every month from making a new wise-crack r sexual inuendo involving her. THAT was crossing the, "It's-okay-ill-skip-the-part-where-you-die" line. On the inside, she loved David like a brother, and would never legitimately hurt him. Another thing she kept inside was her liking towards A'. He had always been sweet and kind to her, something that few people, surprisingly, knew how to do without getting on her nerves.

David chimed in "Somebody still wants their tacos…" He put on a cocky grin, shutting A' up.

A' frowned. He had heard of this kind of thing everywhere. He had never had any luck in arguments, especially when defending himself. It wasn't because of his looks, that's for sure. A mild blonde with even brighter highlights, his hair was rather long and elegant. With a rather mild build, he seemed more buff than he was because of his ribcage. A freaking box, as he described it. He didn't have too much self esteem, either, which made him quite quiet and humble. But something was different about him. Something reassuringly saintly of him. As if he had forgotten how to be mean. This was why everybody took a liking to him.

Korlin heisted before asking, "A', seriously, is something wrong?" He was known for being the blunt and straightforward one. A towering giant he was, at six feet, six inches. He bore great muscular capacity, and could smash through a brick wall with his shoulder. More of the, "Don't freaking touch me or ill rip you spinal cord out and use it as a jump-rope," type, he gave the paladin role to himself. His hair was a calm black that connected with the stubble on his chin to fabricate a light goatee. He had trained in a military training camp a while back, but after 4 years of an American Pax Romana, he had had enough. The military let him go, and he started his career as a kickboxing trainer. To that day, he was still in the business, with his subtle life as a lone wolf.

"Yeah, I'm alright, it's just that-" A' stopped dead in his tracks.

At the end of the back road they were taking, stood a man.

A half-man.

Staring through his hateful, masked face, directly at the party of unarmed college students.

"No…" A' whispered, audible, but only just. "Not this time. I left you… I left you… in the Otherland…"

Half of his body was made of what A' could make out to be mist. It was radiating off him like wavy streams of light. Two weapons, a sheathed, ominous-looking broadsword and a massive battleaxe, which both radiated a dark aura, were strapped to his back. But most terrifying of all, he had an iron mask covering most portions of his unseen face. It was in the shape of an X; a spiked, jagged X. His eyes could be seen through gaps in the mask, his mouth and lower head revealed through the end of it. The mast didn't just cover his face; it wasn't trying to disguise him. It branched off past the corners of his head, continuing the jagged X shape. Another confusingly ominous thing about him was that, within the mist, was a wrought iron glove and a boot at the bottom, moving on their own, as if there was still a body controlling them. Not to mention the sheer ripped muscle and gigantic biceps (one, that is; the other couldn't be seen). But what made the three college students stare in shock?

He was taking slow, foreboding steps towards them.

"Get away. NOW." Korlin ordered. None protested, other than a screaming, warning A', as Korlin was the most skilled and most protective of them all. The 3 remaining victims of fear sprinted into the building, leaving Korlin alone with the masked hybrid. He was in as much fear as them, but he was ready to fight off this-

A weapon of sorts had been jabbed into his side. But the man was still far away from him. Korlin then noticed the taller man above him. This man had what looked like a giant cannon strapped to his arm, wires and metal crawling and spiraling up it. The other arm had a black leather glove on it, with a dark purple X imprinted into the back. A dark aura was emanating from his glove, just like the man with the mask. Part of this man's face was cybernetic, corrupting it until it reached the nose, holding a red, electronic LED in place of the eye. He had a cigar poking out of the humanized side of his mouth. A jetpack of sorts was keeping him in mid-air, giving him exceeding maneuverability.

But what had been jabbed into his side was something else entirely. A sword-like claw. Three claws, in fact. They were connected to what Korlin could make out as a cloak. The cloak had a similar pair of claws on the other arm. He/she had its entire body covered in the pitch-black cloth, the blades exceeding the length of the cloak. Nothing could be seen inside the hood, as it was darker than the night itself.

The cloak released its grip. Korlin stumbled to his knees. The last thing he remembered was the three men encircling him.

"He is one," the masked man uttered. "One of the pure."

Korlin blacked out. The words rang in his head for the entire time he was unconscious.

And that was for a long time.

A shatter pierced A's eardrums. He fell to the floor, breathing heavily; spilling out of the glass container he had been held in. In front of him was a man, thankfully not the same one that he had seen a few minutes ago. This man had sandals on, with rather short pants that fell below his knees. He had a shirt with a star with wings branching off of it, all of it being white. But what absolutely stunned A' was when he looked up, he saw wings. A pair of huge, feathery, white wings had grown out of his back. Another aspect of awe was the halo. The halo resting above his head was glistening in the darkness of the lab that A' and the remaining people had stumbled into. He also had a broadsword strapped to his back, with a golden hilt.

"Am I… am I dead?" He inquired to the angelic man.

The winged man just glanced over to him; he had walked over to a different glass tank. Inside the glass tank was another person that he couldn't make out, his vision was still blurred. The angel's (as A' had dubbed him) eyes were a freezing, solid grey-blue, with a reassuring, protective, wise softness within them. A' had a feeling that he would find out later, if he was still in existence or not.

Inside the glass tank was a shark. No, a man. A shark man? A' was VERY confused. When he looked closer, he saw that it was a relatively tall man, with a robin's egg blue color to the skin. Scaly, as the texture of it seemed, his face had a sharp nose to it. The eyes were closed, as he was most likely as unconscious as A' previously was. A curved, mow-hawk-like fin rested at the top of his head. What startled A' the most was the shark's head on his scaly, blue arm. It was the full head of a massive shark, possibly of the great white. The other arm had 5 claws, all about as long as A's shin. The legs of the creature were just as scaly as the body, with feet that resembled fins, but were much more like feet. It had black shorts that had been torn around the knees, and it bore no shirt. Very muscular and fit, he was locked in the containment unit, just like A' had been.

The winged man took his sword and sliced a wire behind the containment unit. It let out a warning beep and shattered the glass. The shark-creature spilled out of the broken glass.

He coughed. "What…"He continued coughing. "…I need to get to Korlin…"Another murderous coughing fit escaped him.

That voice… A' grew thoughtful. He then realized who this was.

"D…David?" A' tested.

David stopped coughing. "What?" He questioned impatiently. Suddenly, as if he had been smacked, he realized. "AAGH!" He cried. "Get this thing off of me!"He commanded, slamming the shark's head onto the concrete floor of the lab.

The angelic man finally spoke up. "Relax, you'll be fine." His voice was soothing, like a hot bath in a tub of butter...

Oh, wait...

David was visibly on the verge of tears, trying not to panic. He looked around the room, where dozens of tanks laid, unbroken. He noticed one that held a recognized face in it: Elex's face. Her shirt was ripped n the lower part of it, revealing her stomach, and nothing more. She wore the same pants she had before, with a few tattered pieces here and there. She had no shoes, and, like all the other beings in the containment units, was levitating. Something had changed, though. Her shoulders had spikes growing up off of them, and her hair had pieces that were differently colored, flowing like a river.

The winged man broke the unit once again, and she fell out of the unit like the others had. She was coughing heavily as well, soon opening her eyes to see the world around her. She saw A' first, some of her worries fading when he was noticed. But then she noticed David. Her worries grew right back up as he looked back at her.

"Don't ask me, I just woke up like this." David assured her.

Elex gasped, recognizing the voice. "You're… Is it really you? Are you David?"

He nodded. "I'm still a little unsure myself."

Still unconvinced, she looked towards A', pleading for an explanation. He just shrugged. Just as confused as her, he turned to the angelic man, who both David and Elex had just noticed for the first time. "Who are you?" A' asked.

"Later," he said, knowing that they all wanted answers. "But for now, you can call me Throne."

They all noticed just how many containment units there were. They all had reptilian-like creatures inside them. Throne went around cutting the wires, releasing one after another, the mutated people spilling out one at a time. After a short intermission of recollection, A' went to help Throne release them faster. Almost all of them were either reptilian creatures or were internally changed, as far as they could tell.

One of the reptilian men grew conscious; his pants torn like David's were, lacking a shirt. He looked around the room.

"A'… what… where are we?"

A' stood there in shock. "…K-…Korlin?"

Korlin looked confused, the pain fading from his eye. "What? What is it?" He looked up, failing to see his head. "Is it my hair?"

A' was in no place to answer that. He looked to Throne for help. Throne looked at him with his cold, grey-blue eyes. His expression told A' that he must tell Korlin himself.

A' stuttered. "Korlin… look…" A' held up a piece of glass, shattered from the containment unit.

Korlin looked at the glass, confused. It hit him. His reflection was in the glass. A man with scaly, forest green skin was in it. A crown of small, bull-like horns sprouted from his temples, reaching for the sky. Two large, jagged objects sprouted from both sides of his neck. They reached up to his forehead, just enough not to obscure his vision. His hands were like the claws of dragon, short, stout, and deadly sharp. To top that off, his eyes had no pupils, no iris. He had a giant scar on his left eye, turning it to a shade of red instead of the pale grey-white abyss.

In utter shock and disbelief, the man that was now Korlin was taken aback by the image in the shard of crystallized sand. He ran out the door, visibly on the verge of a breakdown.

Now, it took a lot to make Korlin sad. Pain was virtually invisible to his nerves. You could stab him in the face with a ignited sauntering iron and he'd tell you to fuck off and stop playing with matches. It took pain from the heart to make him remotely disturbed. A change to the way everybody looks at him, talks to him, how they treat him for the rest of his life? Pretty big punch in the stomach. This guy had a reason.

The other reptilian creatures started to stir. The most stunning of these was a man without legs. He had no legs, but a tail. His head was like that of a cobra; flaps of skin connecting the top of his head to where his chin meets the neck. The teeth were like that of a snake, he had eyes that were burning with a radiant, grudging orange. He bore arms that were extremely muscular, with a flaming, skeletal claw with none of his reptilian skin on it. One hand was a massive, burning blade, like the edge of a scythe. His tail, which substituted for legs, had a massive, burning sword at the end of it. On his scaly, green chest bore a jagged, black and purple V.

The man rose, adjusting his posture to an observational angle. He looked at A', and jumped back as if he had been struck.

"No… it can't be true… no, no, no, NO! IT BRINGS APOUN US LIES!" He hissed, and slithered out of the room. "Come, brethren! Rebel against the Artlilic and bring the earth to its former glory!" The reptilian men roared and hissed, dashing off along with the snake man.

Throne looked displeased and thoughtful. "We need to get going. Grab your friend and I'll tie up some loose ends for you." A' and Elex looked distraught, unsure if they should follow him. But this guy had freed them from the bad guys. He seemed to be on their side. Not to mention he was a FUCKING ANGEL.

Rainbow Dash was flying through Evertree forest, looking in every each direction. Yesterday, she had seen a pegasus that was unlike any she had seen before. It had a blonde "mane" that was only on his head and face, not down his neck. His hooves were like little tails on the ends of his arms. Its wings were huge, white mattresses of fluffy gracefulness. He bore a sword that was longer than she was (shut up, I'm talking about her body length. No futa-dash here.). But most of all, he stood on two legs. This was something that rainbow was curious about.

"Hello? Mr. Huge pegasus! Heloooo?" She called. No answer. "Darn…" She kept on flying, going deeper into the everfree. This pony might need help, going so far into the everfree alone, she thought.

She stopped dead in her tracks. Cutting off the forest in a fine line, was the biggest, reddest desert she had ever seen. Nothing was here. Nothing but desert and flames.

Wait… flames?

A massive pillar of fire busted out of what looked like a rock from where she was. As nimble as she was, she smoothly dodged the surprise campfire. She looked closer to see that it was a red chicken.

"Gee, somebody's a little touchy, Mr. Mcflameyeggs." She was retorted by a squawk as loud as a clap of thunder. Rainbow squealed and dashed back into the everfree… until she noticed the figure she was looking for. In an instant change of direction of her thought train, she soared past Mr. Mcflameyeggs (As she had dubbed him) and was heading towards the silhouettes in the vast desert. She stopped in front of the creatures. To her surprise, it was actually the same creature as before, with blonde hair and two legs. The others varied and shapes, sizes, and skin tones. One of them even looked like a shark. They all stood the same way as the winged one.

"Hey," She started, "You were in Evertree forest yesterday."

The winged creature nodded. "I guess I wasn't as secretive as I thought." He chuckled, as if a blue pony with wings was perfectly normal. "My name is Throne. What might be yours?"

"Me? I'm the fastest flier in Equestira, the one and only Rainbow Dash!" She stood proudly, her chin up high.

The others were stunned, with their faces aghast. Not only were they in a random desert in the middle of scenic nowhere, but they were confused as a cow walking out of a Scottish pub.

"Er… I'm… *ahem*…" They all introduced themselves with awkward introductions, unable do decipher what was going on.

"So is there anywhere we can stay for the night? " Throne asked.

"Oh, sure! Come to Ponyville, somebody's sure to let you stay for a while!"

Throne had a gentlemanly look on his face. "Thank you kindly, Ms. Dash."

Rainbow blushed. "Oh, just call me rainbow. I'm no s."

Dash led them through the forest, taking a safe route through the everfree. She explained to them the history of equestria, how Canterlot was made, and the like. They finally arrived at sweet apple acres, or at least on the edge of it.

Korlin spoke up for the first time in hours. "Erm… Throne? You never explained to us where we are, or what the hell is going on."

A dark expression grew on his face. "That," he said, "Is a tale, I fear, that you won't like so much."

END CHAPTER ONE