AN: Hello fellow bronies and pegasisters! Welcome to my lovely little chapter of this lovely little story… crap I can't actually think of anything to say that will waste your time… of wait! My editor, Cdude1777 is making an amazing story called "The Mare, the Map, and the Treasure." Check it out, it's amazing. Maybe a good part of the contribution is the fact that I'm in it, but I'm not sure. Anyways, let's get going, away to the story! BTW, Meta, you're characters eyes are red because you didn't specify eye color and I needed the chappy out that day.

-Meta's POV-

I woke up in on a red carpet that was soft to the touch. I sat up to find his head throbbing with a pain of three hangovers rolled into one.

"Augh, geez I've had better mornings…" I mumbled to myself as I grasped my head. I looked down to find I was naked with no armor at all, revealing my dark blue fur "Hey, where did my armor go!?"

"I took it…" I heard a familiar deep voice echo from behind me. I got up and spun around, trying to ignore the feeling that a dwarf was mining inside my skull. I was greeted by a familiar shadowy figure, the pony that held my ticket home in his hooves. Thunderruner was his name wasn't it? His white eyes looked at me with disapproval, Light I hate those eyes; they always creep me out.

"Tsk, tsk." He said pacing around me "You've failed me Meta, why have you done so?"

Suddenly, the memories of the day before came rushing back, dipping me to my knees as I remembered the red pegasus, Enigma, under my blade, then the force crashing my helmet, then Enigma on top of me, pounding her metal covered hooves into my face. Then the rush of death, the light in front of me, pulling towards the sky, then the shadows, grasping my limbs and pulling me back down.

"What did you…" I stammered as much as I could before I was forced to grab my head again "What did you do?"

"That will be shown in due time." Said the figure "Right now I want you to explain something to me, why did you fail me?"

"I didn't expect them to be so strong." Said looking at him in the eye "Why didn't you tell me they had combat experience?"

"I didn't think I had to." Snarled the figure, lashing out slightly before calming down a bit "Tell me, who am I again?"

"You're Thunderruner." I said curious as to where he was going

"Yes, and what exactly do I have that you want?" asked Thunderruner.

"You have a way for me to get home." I murmured.

"Exactly," Said Thunder walking towards me. "Now you can either have this if you succeed…"

The shadows in his body morphed into a humanoid shape, taking on the color and texture of dark blue skin. He grew taller than a normal human and his ears grew longer until they reached the crown of his head. His eyes remained white, and silky white hair sprouted from his head. He wore armor the same as mine, but fitted for his body type. I realized that he had turned into my previous body, a night elf. My eyes widened as I looked at an image I had only seen in a mirror before.

"Or this…" he said in my exact voice that I had before turning to a pony. His body dissolved once again into black smoke that filled my ears eyes and mouth. The pain was horrible, like every organ in my body was being tugged, pushed, or beaten. I tried to scream, but the smoke clogged my lungs, making it impossible to breath. I couldn't see anything but eternal darkness, the smoke causing my eyes to feel like they were on fire. My ears blocked all sound but a painful screeching noise that sounded like nails on chalkboard amplified by over nine thousand.

Just as I thought I would pass out from the pain and lack of oxygen, the smoke suddenly left, leaving me kneeling as I gasped for breath; the already powerful headache sending shockwaves throughout my body now. Thunderruner stood over me, back in his original shadowy form. I tried to get my breath back and prepare for Thunder to do something to me again, but instead he just reached out his hoof.

"Don't think I don't respect your power Meta" He said as he helped me to my hooves "but you have to be reminded what's at stake."

I wanted to spit in his face; tell him to go and destroy this pitiful world himself. I didn't, instead I looked at him, with a strange mixture of hate, anger and fear rolled into one.

"What do you want me to do…?"

-Cloud's POV-

We all sat at the breakfast table, it had been a week since we had all came to Ponyville, and we all had a lot to talk about. Lonestar mentioned that he had been hanging out with Applejack, and showed off his new muscles that were already starting to develop. Solar mentioned that he had been spending a lot of time with Twilight, but when pressed, he admitted that they weren't a couple yet, which promoted mixed emotions from me. Morphine explained that he had a similar thing with Fluttershy; he would hang out with her and help sick or injured animals where Fluttershy couldn't.

Colton said that he and Rainbow were definitely good friends, and that he was happy that he was teaching him how to fly as faster than he thought he could. He said that he hoped to ask her out soon and that he was currently gathering the courage. Starlight, when questioned answered with a smile, saying that he was preparing to talk to Rarity soon, but just needed a little longer to prepare.

I stayed quiet during the meal as I usually did with people I wasn't familiar with. Listening rather than talking, nothing happened much for the past week for me anyway. Visiting Twilight seemed awkward, though I did run into Pinkie Pie once or twice, pushing her party cannon around town. I wondered if she was preparing a party for us. I chuckled realizing who I was talking about; of course she was throwing a party for us.

I had a lot on my mind as well. Enigma had been open to me, but didn't know anything more about what was happening then I did. She started leaving the house with everypony as well; leaving me alone, with nowhere to go. Not that I minded, it's how I loved to spend my time back on earth, and now I had a lot more to worry about then homework. I paced back in forth in my room, thinking about what had happened the week before. The stallion in armor, the shadow creatures, and Enigma's fighting skills.

All of these filled my mind for the past couple of weeks. Once or twice Celestia had contacted me, telling me I shouldn't worry about it and just enjoy myself, but I just couldn't it was against my nature to not worry. Once I realized that Celestia was probably telling me not to worry about it for a reason, I just worried more. I never turned irritable, and I never let it get to my head, unfortunately I never shared my concern either. I figured that they deserved to have a bit of fun while I tried to figure this out.

Today was going to be no different; I sat in my room, feeling that I was on the edge of figuring something out. I paced in my room when I heard something downstairs. Nervous and jumpy, I snapped to attention and felt the fear start to creep its way into my head. I grabbed a particularly heavy book and snuck downstairs, staying silent and keeping my ears perked. I raised the book with my magic and prepared to strike. I heard another rustle just around the corner in the kitchen. I closed my eyes and gathered my courage and leapt out.

"Don't move!" I shouted at whoever was in the room.

I saw a stallion spin around and face me, cheeks bulging and crumbs all over his face. I recognized his familiar black fur with yellow stripes and sighed, lowering the book.

"Dangit Colton, you scared the crap out of me." I said setting the book down on a shelf.

"Sorry, I just wanted a bite to eat is all." Said Colton holding up a sprinkled donut and taking a bite into it.

"Yeah, I've just been a bit nervous lately…" I said.

"Really? Why, where in Equestria, there's nothing to worry about." He said finishing of the baked good and brushing off the crumbs into a trash can.

"Something weird is going on." I told him "I guess I'm just a worrier, but…"

Suddenly, we both heard a scream from outside the house, right in our front yard. We looked at each other, and in a split second we were outside, the heavy book gripped in my magic. WE looked just in time to see a mare dragged into the shrubs a couple feet from our house. We dashed after her, following her voice that was moving faster than any pony should be able to, even without a thrashing mare dragged behind them.

We chased after the voice that was fading quickly until we could hear it no more. We stood, panting and taking in the new problem we had, we had run into the Everfree forest, and even though it was around noon, the thick canopy let hardly any light leak in, making it look like twilight.

"What do we do now?" asked Colton, realizing that we were lost.

"Give me a second to think…" I said, catching my breath and searching for anything that could lead back to Ponyville. I noticed our footprints in the soft soil were clearly visible. My expression lightened as I realized getting back would be a piece of cake. Then I noticed that those footprints weren't ours, for they didn't end at us, instead going deeper into the forest. I noticed lots of other tracks as well, some hoof prints, some drag marks.

"What's up with these prints…?" I said preparing to move.

"Stop!" Yelled Colton suddenly, almost causing me to fall over, but I managed to stay still.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, looking at him with curiosity.

"You're standing on a tripwire, once you take your weight off of it it'll activate. Whatever you do, don't move a muscle."

I looked at my front hoof to find a nearly invisible line. I looked to my side to find it rigged to a large bag of rocks suspended above my head.

"Crap, it's "Lost" all over again." I said, chuckling, but inside my body was screaming to run the hell away.

"Don't move, I'm going to find a way to disarm the trap." Said Colton, moving carefully as to not trigger any more traps that could be lurking around. He traced the tripwire around to larger mechanisms, finding the trap and finding out how it worked. He then, looked at a certain rope, scanned the entire thing again, and then turned to me.

"Cutting this rope should disarm the trap, but if it set's it off, be ready to jump."

I nodded and got ready to bolt at the slightest sign of the rocks hanging above my head falling.

Colton reached out with his teeth and started to gnaw at it, cutting it with his teeth, slowly but surely, the rope started to weaken, the tension rose and rose until I was practically vibrating with nervousness. Suddenly, the rope snapped and I jumped out of the way, hitting the ground and covering my head with my hooves.

I looked up and saw that the rocks hadn't even fallen yet. I sighed in relief and looked up at Colton who looked just as relived as I did.

"What was that trap doing there for?" Colton asked me.

"I'm not sure, it's can't be a hunter's trap, any animal could have gotten out of the way before that thing hit… besides, ponies don't eat meat."

Suddenly, we heard a piercing scream come from a little ways away. The scream sounded exactly like the one that we were chasing, except instead of fear, this one sounded like it was in pain. We crept up to come across a gruesome scene. We saw the same shadow things that had attacked me and Enigma gathered around the mare we saw chasing bound to a totem pole with vines. She was tied to that her front hooves were tied above her head and her hind hooves stretched down and tied so she looked like she was standing with her hooves up. Her eyes darted around wildly at the creatures that surrounded her, all giving little woops as they smiled at her. I realized that she had a metal nail pounded through her horn, preventing her from using magic.

Now that we were close I could recognize her from her light green coat as Lyra. Beads of sweat poured down her face as the cheering from the creatures stopped, a familiar creamy white mare with a dark purple and pink mane walked besides her looking at Lyra.

"Is that… Bon-bon?" asked Colton speaking as quietly as he could.

I nodded my head before returning to watching the scene. I noticed that for some reason, Bon-bon seemed different. Her mane and tail were slightly less poofy and her entire color scheme seemed darker.

"Bon-bon?" asked Lyra looking at her friend "Bon-bon it's me! Lyra, help me get down! Bon-bon help me!"

Bon-bon stood her ground not reacting, I wondered what had happened; then she turned to face the crowd, allowing us to see her eyes. Her eyes were nothing but white, lacking any pupils or irises. When she talked, she spoke with no emotion at all.

"Our dark lord, who is the Thunder of our battle cry, will bring us the utopian society." Said Bon-bon with zero emotion whatsoever. "Now he calls upon me to bring another to his army, to bring its power higher than ever before."

"Bon-bon, what are you doing?" asked Lyra, puzzled by her friends emotionless talking and even more by the fact that she sounded like a cult leader "You sound crazy? Please, get me down from here."

Bon-bon ignored the fact and climbed up on a stool so she could look at her eye to eye while Lyra was suspended.

"Give up the burden of your soul." Said Bon-bon, looking directly into Lyra's eyes "Surrender it to the dark lord."

"Bon-bon, your scaring me, please stop." Lyra said, moving back as far as she could go.

"Your soul will be of good use, and your body will help bring others to the cause…" Said Bon-bon before opening her mouth.

Lyra screamed as if her soul was being ripped out, which it probably was. Her cheeks bulged and her mouth was forced open as a golden smoke was ripped out. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as if her organs were on fire. I watched as her fur slowly turned a bit darker and her irises lost color. After a couple seconds, the gold smoke ran out and Lyra's head rolled to the side, unconscious, or dead.

Bon-bon stepped down and untied Lyra, causing her to collapse to the floor. Suddenly, Lyra opened her eyes revealing the irises to have disappeared like Lyra's. She opened stood up and said nothing to Bon-bon, they turned and walked into the jungle, the creatures following.

Colton and I looked at each other, in both horror and surprise.

"Something tells me our visit to Equestria is about to become a lot less enjoyable." I said.

"You have that right." I heard a voice say behind me before I was knocked unconscious by a heavy object. The last thing I remember seeing is a pony with a mane like fire.

AN: Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun. There you have it! Chapter nine done. What's going to happen next chapter, who was the stallion with hair like flames? What was he doing watching Colton and Cloud, and what happened with Lyra and Bon-bon. Have a happy Thanksgiving everypony, and enjoy your bronyism!