Hey guys, still not dead to many people's surprise. I finally got a chapter down, it's been getting easier with summer coming up, things are cooling down at last. Anyways, that's pretty much all I have to say. Kinda lame, I know, but I hope You enjoy the chapter.
Yours truly, AHW
"So man, what's with the glowy arm tattoo? Lose a bet?" Zeke asked.
"Wouldn't You like to know." I replied jokingly, nose in the air.
"Not even slightly." Said Zeke.
"Well, if You must know, it's what allows me to do this." I exclaimed, levitating a book and throwing it at Zeke, hitting him in the side.
"Do You mean what I think You mean?" Asked Zeke, too astounded to be mad.
"Yeah, the Princesses found some old magic thing and, long story short I'm part Alicorn." I replied.
"No shit?" Zeke questioned.
"No shit." I answered.
"Huh, no shit." Zeke exclaimed.
"Yep." I replied.
"They pull something out of Storage?" Asked Zeke, making Princess Luna and Celestia visibly tense and me groan.
"Damn it Zeke, they are literally right there." I groaned, motioning to the Princesses with one hand and facepalming with the other.
"... Well, it was a pleasure to meet all of You." Zeke said, rising from his seat.
"Not so fast." Celestia said, forcing Zeke back down into his chair.
"How do You know about Storage?" Asked Luna.
"Man I'm sorry, I figured You told them." Zeke told me, instantly causing me to recognize a pressure on my arms forcing me down into my seat as well.
"William?" Asked Celestia.
"I'd like to point out that this is technically a hostage situation and illegal." I said.
"Don't be smart with us, how do You know about Storage?" Luna said venomously.
"When You live as long as I have, You get in a few places You aren't supposed to." I said.
"You mean You've been INSIDE Storage?!" The Princesses cried in shock.
"Umm… No?" I tried, only to receive a dangerous glare from both Princesses.
"Okay, so there were a few times when I was-" I began, only to be cut off.
"A FEW TIMES?" I was pretty sure Luna and Celestia were about to have simultaneous heart attacks.
"Anyways, back in the day when You two were young and new on the job I decided to check out our neighboring nation's rulers. Zeke was back in the Colony, he doesn't know much other than the vague description I gave the Girls." I said, effectively putting off a large amount of focus onto the poor girls.
"You guys have got some cool stuff down there." I continued, doing my best to split their attention as best as I could, and spare the girls as much as possible at the same time.
"William, You do realize what We must do now, don't You?" Asked Celestia angrily.
"I know exactly what You should do, but I also know that's not what You're going to do." I replied.
"And how's that?" Asked Luna.
"Because if You hurt us, well, mainly Zeke, but he will let people know back in the Colony and we will destroy Equestria." I explained.
"You Humans have always been cocky, but I must give You credit this time William." Celestia laughed softly.
"He's not wrong. We've got enough power currently to destroy the planet three and a half times." Zeke backed me up nonchalantly. "I should know, I'm in charge of it." He added with a sly smile.
Now, to say Celestia and Luna were scared, regardless of whether or not they believed me, was immediately an understatement when Zeke chimed in.
"What kind of power could do such a thing?" Asked Celestia.
"That's for us to know, and You too hopefully never find out." Zeke smiled as if he didn't just threaten two of the 'Most Powerful', more like third or fourth, rulers in the world.
There was a dead silence throughout the room, out of disbelief and shock on the Equestrian side, and calm patience from that of Zeke and I. If I didn't know any better I'd have laughed my ass off just from how the whole situation played out, but I figured, with things as they are, the last thing anyone wants is for them to not believe us and get Equestria and it's inhabitants wiped off the map.
After a good two or three minutes the weight lifted from my shoulders and I stoop from my spot, Zeke doing the same. "So, should we go check out Storage?" I asked with a big shiteating grin on my face.
-Time Jump-
"How did it come to this?" Asked Celestia as we stood in front of the massive steel door heavily guarded with various deadly enchantments.
Zeke and I, and by that I mean Zeke, since only he had the authority, called in and had a Nuclear Arms Count update so that the Princesses could hear from somebody not about to die how true our words were, and so then we all headed to the Castle.
"Would You like to do the honors, or may I? I asked the Princesses in reference to the door.
"We would like to see how it is that You got inside." Luna said, Celestia nodding in agreement.
"With pleasure." I said, cracking my knuckles. I made my way to the massive door of death and destruction slowly, and once I reached it I walked over to the side and placed my hand on the pillar. The enchantments instantly shut down and the massive door swung wide open right in front of my audience, who now all stood mouths agape.
"H-h-how?" Is all Celestia managed to stutter out.
"Still think Magic is better than Technology?" I chuckled as we all walked in, with me in the lead now. "Back when you were about yay tall," I put my hand up about two feet off the ground. "You two left this monster wide open for, like, three days. In that time I was able to rig up and install my own little personal bypass." I replied.
"Will, I grow more and more impressed with You as time goes on." Zeke said.
"I know." I said plainly.
We were currently walking down a long hallway filled with pedestals varying in size and shape holding hundreds of thousands of items each more powerful than the last. I made a point of pointing out my favorites.
"This one right here switches genders." I said, pointing to a statue of a split heart, one half blue and the other pink. "This one summons a genie who grants wishes." I said, pointing to a lamp. "I think this one is my personal favorite. It allows the user to travel back in time for periods of five minutes at a time, with a cooldown of one hour." I said.
"William, how do You know this much?" Asked Luna.
"When You find yourself in a room full of some of the most powerful things ever, You can't help but touch a few." I replied.
"You are very lucky to still be alive." Celestia said, obviously somewhat annoyed.
"Barely. This one," I commented, motioning to a red glowing rock with holes throughout it. "Lights whoever touches it on fire for half an hour." I finished.
"How did You survive that?" Rainbow asked.
"This one," I said, motioning to a golden sphere next to it, "makes whoever touches it unable to die for as long as it is held. Kind of like rapid regeneration." I explained. "But don't overestimate it, You still feel everything." I continued, earning a few disgusted and sorrowful looks.
After that we got to the end of the room and saw fourteen pedestals set apart from the rest. "These bad boys some of You might recognize." I said, drawing attention to the fourteen pedestals. Six held what appeared to be a statue with a recreation of the Elements of Harmony, six more with similar statutes but more warped and twisted, along with crueler recreations of the Elements, and two that followed the same pattern as the others but with a design nobody recognized.
"What are those? They look like the Elements of Harmony!" Twilight exclaimed as each girl drew closer to their respective pedestals.
"I never figured that out, they wouldn't do anything for me, but I figured You girls would like to know about them." I replied.
"Those allow the Elements of Harmony to transfer between their pure and impure forms. They were created with the Elements, Luna and I experimented on them one time and one time only. They caused the Elements of Harmony to become vile, evil artifacts that spread corruption into the world rather than harmony." Celestia explained.
"But Princess, what are these two for? I don't recognize the symbols." Twilight questioned, drawing all attention towards the two unique statues.
"Those ones were crafted by Discord. It was his first act in this world, to add another element. The Element of Chaos. There has yet to be an artifact found such as the Elements of Harmony, but I still fear it may be out there, however unlikely such a thing is." Luna explained.
"Yeah, we've got that one in the Colony." Zeke spoke up.
"It's at the center on a little pedestal of it's own." I continued, smiling. "Having been alive as long as I have, it's pretty easy to see how much it has influenced us. It's created mental disabilities that were never before seen and untreatable, but over time we've grown somewhat of a resistance to it. Only a few newborn children a decade ever suffer from them, and they are quickly sent to the Institution." I explained.
"You know, that actually makes a scary amount of sense Will, why haven't You ever said anything to anybody? We should've gotten rid of that a long time ago!" Zeke asked angrily.
"I brought it up dozens of times early on, but nobody would believe me, so eventually I just quit bringing it up. Besides, it's not like it really does anything anymore. What do we get, one, maybe two kids to the Institution a decade? Better we just keep it than let it out into the world to wreak havoc." I explain.
Zeke let out a sad sigh. "I guess You're right. It just sucks that such a thing exists." He said.
"William, if we were to bring it here I am sure we could revert it to it's pure state of order." Celestia spoke.
"Not gonna happen. I've seen chaos, and it's not the best, but we've endured. If You suddenly bring in the existence of pure order and expect no downsides You'd be kidding yourself." I replied.
"And You agree with this Zeke?" Asked Celestia.
"Don't try and fix what isn't broke." Zeke replied with a sigh.
"Very well then." Celestia concluded, somewhat saddened.
"Hey so I have an idea." I spoke up.
"No." Everyone in the room told me at once.
"So You know that one Alicorn Amulet?" I asked, Celestia and Luna to look slightly horrified, ahead of the rest of the group.
"William, We-" Luna attempted to chime in before I cut her off.
"If the evil dark magic stuff I do is good for me, maybe, just maybe, I should try that on for a little." I continued. There was a moment of silent contemplation that shocked even me, but I was too excited by the prospect of trying it out to show them anything to dampen my chances.
"Well… Perhaps it wouldn't hurt for a little bit, as a test run so to say." Luna spoke first.
"Sister! Are You actually saying that-"
"Yes. William has been very useful to us, and to the Nation of Equestria, I think we should have enough faith in him to allow him a testrun, if nothing else." Luna said.
"Pleeeease Celestia! Imagine how much research I could perform on it with a stable host!" Twilight's inner scholar spoke up.
"... I suppose it would be alright, but only for long enough to see if it is influencing You." Celestia gave in, earning a cheer of enthusiasm from the crowd as we made our way towards the pedestal that held the dangerous artifact. I quickly went to grab it and put it on, but Celestia chimed in.
"William, perhaps we should do this test somewhere less… accommodating?" She said, using a hoof to motion towards the oodles of dangerous artifacts at my potential disposal.
"Can't argue with that." I said as we all made our way back to the door. Within five minutes we were all within a large forest of a garden.
"Well, here goes nothing." I said, placing the necklace over my head and around my neck. My eyes instantly shot wide open at the immense power that suddenly flowed through my body. It was so intense I almost fainted, stumbling back slightly and nearly falling over.
"William, are You okay?" Luna asked questioningly as the group as a whole backed away slightly.
"I'm fine, just… this is REALLY strong… Hard to-" I spoke before being interrupted from within my own mind.
"Ahh, another host, at last! It will not be long until you are nothing but my puppet!" It spoke within my head.
"So have any of You tried this on?" I asked, as everyone nodded that no one had. "Well there's a voice… kind of annoying, but not harmful yet…" I told them.
"Nice to meet You too. Can I help You with anything?" I asked it internally.
"You have already helped me more than You know, silly mortal." It replied, laughing evilly at the end.
"You know I could just take the necklace off…" I retorted.
"That is what You think, go ahead and try to, I'm sure You will find it most-" The voice was cut off as I took off the necklace.
"This thing is really cocky." I said before putting it back on.
"How did You do that?! Nothing has ever been able to disobey my orders!" It practically screamed, clearly shaken.
"You might want to do some sightseeing real quick." I replied, giving it a moment.
"How are You so adapted towards chaos? Wait… I sense something… It couldn't be!" The voice spoke, becoming more panicked as time went on.
"Is it the shadows in my mind, Sombre, or the corruption from the Element of Chaos that is slowing You down?" I asked jokingly.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Was my only reply, causing me to laugh.
"Guys, I think I have this thing under control." I said.
"How sure are You?" Asked Luna, clearly a bit surprised.
"I WILL KILL YOU!" The voice shouted.
"I'd bet my life on it." I replied to the group.
"Well, that is… fascinating would be an understatement… Either way, I would like to keep You in an observation room for at least one week." Luna said.
"You are pathetic! How can You best me?!" The voice spoke, clearly aggravated.
"Because I've been exposed to more chaos than You can muster?" I replied.
"IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!" The voice screamed back.
"Well, on the bright side, we are going to have a lot of time over the next eternity to talk through your problems." I responded.
"Alright, lead the way coach." I said as I was blindfolded and lead into a room.
"Hey, so if things get bad, though honestly I don't see that happening, place this key on the door to storage, it will cancel the bypass. But, at the same time, if things go smoothly and You still use it, I will break that door down when I need to get in." I told them.
"... Very well…" Celestia said, taking the key.
"Have a good week everyone." I said, waving as the large metal enchanted door swung shut.