Chapter 2: The Stone

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. If you didn't like it, then go **** yourself ^^ Just kidding. Kinda. Not really. Anyways, here is chapter 2.

Read, enjoy, comment.

Wanderlust sat on an intricately carved wooden seat. In front of him lay a long oak table covered with a long red table cloth. A wide assortment of food sat on wide silver platters but Wanderlust didn't make a move to touch any of it. His dinner partners did the same but not by their choice.

Their mouths watered and their hooves itched to grab the food lying mere inches in front of them. The only things that kept them from tearing into the food were the chains keeping them bound.

The only two ponies who could move were Wanderlust and his "gracious" host. At the head of the table sat a gray pony cloaked in silver armor. Perched on his head was light gray crown resting above a red and black horn.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" He asked in a deep, booming voice. "I'm sure my other guests would be more then happy to do the same." He laughed darkly.

Wanderlust looked at the drooling ponies with pity. "Then why don't you let them?"

"But where is the fun in that?" With that, he pushed a plate of food closer to the blue mare sitting next to him.

Her eyes sparkled for a moment and she lunged for the food only to end with her hooves inches from the plate. Tears flowed down her cheeks but still she struggled in vain to reach the food that was so far away, it might as well have been miles.

Wanderlust watched with a sort of detached interest. He took quick note of her disgruntled mane and her tight looking face. Dark circles hung under her eyes. She was obviously starving and she looked like she would struggle until she either broke the chains or died.

Wanderlust nudged the plate forward slightly with his magic until it was just close enough for her to grab. A look of pure joy crossed her face right before her eyes widened and she dropped face first onto the plate.

The stallion sitting next to her smiled as his horn's glow slowly dissipated. "Oops."

Wanderlust felt a deep growl form in his chest and before he realized what was happening, he had the stallion on his back with his horn hovering over his throat.

"I like the anger. Use it. Give in to your rage." The pinned pony said with a joyless smile.

Quickly, Wanderlust jumped backwards and tried to calm his pounding heart. Every fiber of his being had wanted him to ram his horn through the cruel unicorn's windpipe but he found just the thought of such a thing terrifying.

"Pathetic." Came a hiss from the pony. Quickly turning his head, Wanderlust saw that the stallion had vanished and in his place was a large black mass of shadow.

"Begone." Came the hiss again before the shadow lunged at him.

As the shadows engulfed him, Wanderlust felt the ground shudder before dropping away under his hooves entirely.


Wanderlust woke up falling. He hit the ground with a thud and grunted in pain. He was sprawled out on his back but made no move to get up. He even contemplated going back to sleep until something brown appeared in his sight.

Focusing, Wanderlust found himself looking at a familiar brown bunny. It hopped over and sniffed Wanderlust before giving him a small lick on the nose. Wanderlust just smiled and rolled over.

"You are a very friendly little bunny." Wanderlust said softly and patted the rabbit on the head.

Wanderlust picked himself up off the ground and cracked his back. "Note to self: Don't sleep in trees." He thought before putting his saddlebag on and trotting away from the tree.

He yawned and out of the corner of his eye, saw the brown bunny hopping after him. He stopped and turned to look at the bunny. It looked back and stopped hopping. Turning, Wanderlust continued to trot along but a quick look over his shoulder showed the bunny again following him.

Annoying creature. Crush it.

Wanderlust shuddered as the voice entered his mind. He wished that for just one day, the voice would leave him be.

He was pulled out of his mind by a loud thump. Looking down, Wanderlust saw the bunny standing directly in front of him. He was about to question what it was doing until it lifted it's arms up and made small grabbing motions.

"You want to come with me?" He asked and received a quick nod as a response. Wanderlust had no idea why this bunny would possibly want his company, but who was he to question it. Putting out a hoof, he watched as the bunny quickly hopped onto it before hopping up to his back. After a moment, he felt a small weight drop onto his head, and he knew that the bunny was sitting on top of his gray mane.

"I'll call you Ginger." He said with a smile before he trotted on.

Somewhere between there and town, Wanderlust's stomach started to quake with hunger. "I'll feed you later." He grumbled at his belly.

Why wait? You have a perfectly good rabbit right there.

"Shut up." He said out loud, gaining him an awkward glance from a nearby pony. He ignored the look and decided to just wander around town for a little until he found something to better occupy his time.

That something came in the form of a bright pink blur crashing into him. He barely had time to realize that there was a pink pony with a very puffy mane standing over him before an onslaught of words began to assault his ears.

"Hi! Welcome to Ponyville! I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?" She paused for only half a second before continuing on. "That's okay, you don't have to tell me your name because you are my newest best friend! OH! Now I have to throw you a party! Do you like parties cause I think-"

Wanderlust stopped trying to follow her words at that point as they all turned into an incomprehensible mess.

Oh my sweet Celestia. Please shut her up.

For once, Wanderlust listened to the voice and placed his hoof gently, but firmly, over the hyper pony's mouth. He could still feel her lips moving under his hoof and he was sure that if he moved his hoof, she would continue speaking as if nothing had happened.

"Excuse me, but could you please calm down?" He asked slowly before moving his hoof away from her mouth.

"Of course!" She squeaked loudly before she started hopping in a circle around him. "I know I get excited sometimes but it's just so great that there is a new pony in town!"

"How did you know I was new?" He asked cautiously after he stood up and brushed some dust off himself. He looked over and saw his bunny friend doing the same before hopping into Wanderlust's saddlebag.

"That's easy! I know everypony in Ponyville and since I didn't know who you were, I knew you had to be new!" She answered before she gasped loudly and tackled a nearby pony. "I don't know you either! Welcome to Ponyville!"

Seeing freedom at hoof, Wanderlust turned and galloped away. He slowed only when he could no longer hear the chattering of the pink pony. Still, he didn't want to remain on the street lest she find him again. He looked around until he found something that caught his attention.

Wanderlust found himself staring at a large tree that seemed to have been retrofitted as a house. He walked over to it and peeked in through the window only to find a massive pile of books leaning against the window.

"Is this a library?" He wondered before he made his way to the door and opened it slowly. "A very messy library..." He muttered out loud.

Looking in he saw books thrown everywhere. Wanderlust took in the sight of dozens of books lying in random positions all over the floor. He saw shelves but most of them were empty except for one or two books sitting in the corners.

He took a few steps into the disheveled room. He debated whether to clean up the room or if he should just ignore it and leave. He decided on the former and grabbed a few nearby books with his magic.

He was only halfway through organizing the books before the front door opened revealing a small lizard like creature. He was covered in small purple scales and had large green spines running from his head to the tip of his tail. He had curious looking green slitted eyes that were currently locked onto Wanderlust's own.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey."

"Why you cleaning up those books?"

Wanderlust thought for a moment before answering. "It's messy."

"Ok." With that said, he went over and grabbed a few books and quickly put them in their correct spots.

Both were silent until all of the books were snuggled safely in their respective shelves.

"So who are you anyways?"

"I'm Wanderlust. And you are?"

"Spike. Nice to meet you."

"Ditto. You own this place?"

"No. Twilight Sparkle does. You know, bright purple unicorn. Got some weird colored streaks in her mane. Kind of crazy."

"Crazy, huh? I'll remember that Spike." Came a feminine voice from the other side of the room.

Looking to the door, Wanderlust and Spike saw the described pony walking into the room. Spike was pretty spot on with his description except for the crazy part. Wanderlust couldn't see a reason for that part of his description.

"Who's this?" She asked indicating Wanderlust.

"I'm Wanderlust. May I say, you have a lovely library here."

"Oh thank you." She smiled and looked around. "You should have seen it earlier. It was an absolute mess."

Wanderlust smiled slyly. "Well I got here and this place looked spic and span. You have a very good assistant here." He said and patted Spike on the head softly.

Spike looked at him in confusion and was about to say something until Twilight started talking.

"I do, don't I. I'm going to have to get some nice gems for my number one assistant here." She smiled and trotted over to look at one of the shelves.

Wanderlust gave Spike a little wink before he heard the ever annoying presence of the voice come back to him.

Wanderlust, this is very important. I need you to burn this place to the ground. I need you to kill these two.

Was it just his imagination, or did the voice sound pleading.

They are going to try to take me away.

"And what's bad about that exactly?" Wanderlust thought back.

Twilight felt chills run down her spine and she turned around to see Wanderlust staring at nothing. His eyes were staring straight ahead but they weren't focused on anything. She was about to turn back around when she saw something flicker across his vision. It was gone in a moment, but she swore that his eyes had turned black for a moment.

"Wanderlust? Are you okay?" She asked cautiously.

He blinked and looked at the purple unicorn. He almost jumped back as he saw fire burning around the pony and blood sliding down her face. In an instant, it was gone but it's effects remained. Wanderlust felt his stomach clench and he had to fight to keep himself from vomiting. He took a step back and again the image appeared. Without a second thought, he turned and galloped to the door only to find it stuck shut.

He was about to start banging on the door until he noticed the light pink glow surrounding the door. Turning around, Wanderlust saw a similar glow coming from Twilight's horn. The image appeared again but this time it remained.

Kill.

Wanderlust felt his stomach flip and he turned away. "Let me leave." He ground out between clenched teeth.

Kill.

"Leave me alone."

KILL!

Wanderlust whipped around with every intention of doing what the voice told him. He would kill. Anything to escape from the image of death that was burning itself onto his eyes. He felt a heavy weight slip off his back and Wanderlust's eyes widened.

In an instant, the voice completely vanished and Wanderlust suddenly felt very tired. He blinked a few times drowsily before he turned around to see his saddlebag lying a few feet away on the ground.

Some of the contents of the bag had spilled out including a book, Ginger and the jagged stone he had found in that snowy wasteland outside the Crystal Empire. Pulling his attention away from the bag, Wanderlust looked at Twilight and saw her eyeing him suspiciously.

"Can I go now?" He asked hoping that his face didn't show how shaken he was.

After a moment, she nodded and the glow from her horn vanished. Wanderlust looked to his bag but saw that Ginger had already pushed all of the objects back into the bag. He quickly grabbed it and dashed out the door before the voice could return.


Wanderlust stared at the stone sitting a few feet in front of him. For the past few hours he had watched it afraid of what might happen if he looked away. A few times he had reached a hoof out and touched it. Each time images of death had flashed into his mind.

This time, however, when Wanderlust touched the stone, he saw the dark stallion from his dreams smiling a cruel smile. Wanderlust didn't move his hoof away even as the image slowly seemed to morph. In a few moments, Wanderlust found himself staring at...himself.

But something was wrong. His eyes had changed to match the dark stallion's and a purple mist was flowing from his eyes. A dark crown sat on top of his head. A smile formed on his face as blood slowly leaked from his jaws.

Wanderlust felt his consciousness quickly slip away. The last thing he saw before his mind left the waking world was the red horn resting atop the pony's head.

Chapter 2 is done. Hope you enjoyed it. Goodbye people/ponies.