Reborn

by shadowsythe22

(sequel to "dream machine"). After the tragic incident with queen chrysalis Crimson is brought into the world in a new body with no memories of who he is or was. he becomes reborn as a new pony in more ways than one and to save his wife he must fully realize what he has become and tap into his hidden power to take down his toughest foe yet. (Rated M for clop)

46. Chapter 46: Two Become One

-WARNING-

the following chapter contain explicit material not suitable for younger audiences. if you do not wish to see such things then please wash your retinas with any household bleaching agent thoroughly. if not then continue

you have been warned

-Authors Note: oh look another pre-chapter authors note, that means this is going to be good. so anyway, i have created what i believe is the biggest, greatest, most extremely awesome, chapter to end all chapters. over 30,000 words, single spaced, size 12 font... you are about to read that now. i shall not reveal anything of the chapter at hand but it is pretty awesome though. but as you can see up above there is explicit material, this chapter has everything... so enjoy, and stay shady.-End of Note-

I slowly started to wake up to the sultry sound of birds chirping and the wind howling around us. As I slowly opened my eye lids light started to flood in and after being blind for a short period of time it was a bit of a change having the ability to see in the bright day like this, but it didn't take long for me to get used to it and wake up. I rolled over onto my stomach and sat up a bit woozy and still somewhat tired. The sword of light I had created still shining and glowing next to me. Using my magic I form a magical steel sheath and a belt attached to my side and slid the sword into it… perfect fit. The sword stopped at the hilt making a soft click and I let it go, and it hung there soundly. I let out a fierce yawn and rubbed my eyes which helped me adjust better to the light.

I looked around and slowly got up onto my four hooves. I felt something slide against the side of my flank and I stood up. Wondering what it was I looked over to see little Alba Roza had been sleeping up against me the whole time. I was afraid that for a second I had woke her up but she remained still and laid there peacefully. Almost hard to believe somepony like her could kill others and rip their eyes out. I do forget that she does have the mind set of an adult, seeing as she is actually older than most adults, but she still is a filly at heart. I smiled at her and walked onward toward the road to check the area and get my bearings. I stepped out onto the road and I heard a soft squish and noticed the ground under my hooves was soft and slimy. I looked down to see that the ground was wet and had been reduced to mud. I looked down both sides of the road to see that the whole trail was that way. Even the surrounding trees were wet and covered in droplets of water.

I looked back towards the little circle of dirt we decided to sleep in last night and saw that it was dry as bone. I stood there for a second pondering how we remained dry when it obviously must have rained last night. There weren't any trees above us to shield us from the rain, and that one spot, including us, couldn't have been completely untouched by the raining storm. I know that I didn't do it, I don't think twilight did it either, thunder… well he was knocked the fuck out… Martukus maybe? It could have been him, but it doesn't seem like he could be the kind of guy to perform an elemental magic like that, especially in his sleep. As I looked closer to out circle I noticed a perfect ring around the dry area that was much wetter than the surrounding area, suggesting that there must have been some kind of physical barrier around us that moved the rain away. A shield maybe… twilight could have done that.

I was letting my mind wander and soon I caught on. I pulled myself away from the subject and decided to worry about it if it should present a point of interest later on, though I'm sure to be questioned on it later. It wouldn't even take a filly to notice what happened. As I turned back to the circle of dry dirt I stopped by a large puddle and looked down at it. The puddle was still and very reflective. I looked in and I could see my own reflection in the water. My hair was a mess. I didn't want to use my hooves to straighten my hair because they were all muddy so I used my wings to straighten it out. Once it was all neat looking, sort of, I caught a glimpse at my wings. They were in horrible condition. I can't remember the last time I preened my wings. I think… it was a year ago. I brought my right wing over and reached around and started to preen my wings.

I used my teeth to pull and push all the feathers in place and ripped out some of the older ones. I spit out all the old feathers on the ground and fixed my wing. Once that one was done I flapped it a bit and the difference was tremendous. I began preening the other wing and did the same. I placed all the feathers back in place and tore out the old ones. It didn't take too long and I was done in about a few minutes. I still stood by the puddle and flapped my wings and could feel the difference. I looked back into the reflective puddle and decided to smile and check my teeth while I was on the subject of personal maintenance. I smiled widely and couldn't find a thing wrong with my teeth. They were blindingly white and perfectly aligned. I never did have a problem with dental hygiene, but you would think that with my life style it would be a problem, but it isn't, probably partly because I'm a god… well, it's probably all because I'm a god. I checked myself over once more in the water. I still had the scars over my face and body. Still have that gash in my ear from a long time ago when I was jumped in an alleyway… everything was in check. For the first time I felt like I was myself again, and I like it.

"NO! Get away from that!" yelled a small voice from close by my side.

"Huh?" I murmured turning my head to see Alba running towards me with the look of worry in her eyes. She smashed right into me probably in the hopes to shove me out of the way like I was going to get hit by a train or something. She tried her best to push me out of the way of something but there was nothing around for me to be afraid of. I bent gown and picked her up with my wings and placed her on my back trying to get her to calm down. She seemed so upset I thought that she was going to cry. "What's the matter Alba?" I asked.

"Don't look into the water… get away from it." She said almost about to cry. She must be talking about the puddle. Without wasting time I made the connection between the puddle and the reflecting pool she was pulled into.

"Hey hey calm down..." I said grabbing her again and holding her. Luckily she did start to calm herself down. I felt like a father trying to calm his crying child. "It's okay, nothing going to happen; it's just a bit of rain water…see?" I said splashing my hoof into the puddle of water. She had her hooves covering her eyes and slowly peaked out from behind her hooves to look over. "see… nothing happened." I said. "its going to be fine."

"are you sure…?" she asked.

"im sure… now come on… your mane is a mess." I said stating the truth, she had horrible bed head. I flung her hair around a bit with my hoof playfully and she giggled.

"What are you two doing over here?" asked twilight who apparently was up now… damn I've got to keep track of my surroundings. She walked over and I smiled. I looked past her and saw Martukus and thunder were getting up too. Martukus had to help thunder get his bearings after last night.

"Just looking into a puddle." I said.

"A puddle…" said twilight. "When did it rain?"

"Last night I guess." I said.

How did we not get wet?" she asked. I just shrugged and placed Alba on my back again. She giggled a bit more and I stepped a bit closer to the puddle.

"why are you so afraid of me looking into this puddle?" I asked alba who wasn't very concerned anymore, but her mood did change when presented with the question,

"Well… its dangerous." She said. I looked at her with an expression that pressured her to explain further. "I just don't want the demons in the water to take you." She said. "they escaped with me that night at the mirror pool… so I've been afraid of water ever since I can remember."

"well those demons can only hurt us at night… and it's a beautiful morning and this was just a small night shower… that somehow completely missed us." I said jokingly looking back at the dry campground we rested in. she smiled and bit and peered over my shoulder to look into the water and at her reflection.

"Is my mane really a mess?" she asked. It might have been even worse when I decided to mess it up further.

"See for yourself." I said getting closer to the puddle and leaning down so she could get a good view of herself without the glare from the sun up above us. She was standing on my back now peering over my shoulder and twilight just watched us from a distance smiling too. I leaned a bit closer and soon I could see the both of us in the reflection. She smiled along with me and I looked over to her. She looked at me and giggled knowing her hair was a bit ruffled up from the night. Suddenly there was a loud splash and something wrapped itself around my neck and pulled hard.

"Oh fuck…!" I exclaimed getting pulled towards the ground. Alba screamed as she fell of my back and a deep rumbling was heard from all around us. Once the shock of the situation was over I looked to see what was happening. There was a large black tentacle spouting out from the puddle, which was very shallow mind you. It tried pulling me in but I had quickly planted my hooves on the ground and pulled back. I started getting a bit of leeway but another tentacle shot out and wrapped itself around my chest and back and started to pull me too. My hooves began to slide on the muddy ground and I was inching closer to the large but shallow puddle. Twilight was freaking out calling over Martukus and thunder who were rushing over to help and Alba was running away from the wet ground around us into the dry zone. She got there and stared over in horror. I kept pulling back the demon or monster trying to pull me into the puddle and managed to start getting more leeway and pulling back despite the wet and slimy ground.

Twilight and the others rushed over but I quickly used my magic to force them back not wanting them to get pulled in too knowing they aren't as strong as I am. Soon another tentacle rose up from the water. It didn't shoot out to grab me like the last one but it slowly rose up and towered over me. I was in an awkward bending position trying to get pulled into the water so I could just barely look up and see it. It snaked up and curved towards me. Soon it sharpened into some kind of scythe blade made of black metal. The blade thrust down and pierced through me causing me to let out a gagged scream of pain as well as forcing blood out of my mouth and into the ground. It had stabbed through the mid right side of my back and out the other side of my chest and into the ground. The blade quickly pulled out of me and for one second I grew weak from the pain, and that one weakness was enough for the tentacles to pull me forward into the puddle.

At first I was afraid I was going to be pulled through the puddle into some kind of dark void, like a portal. But I just got launched forward into the puddle and hit the ground and was submerged into the puddle I was on my stomach not with the tentacles on the back of my neck and upper back. They pulled harder like trying to force me into the ground. I let out a few cries of pain from my wound which only came up as bubbled screams since my snout was submerged in water now. I could hear my name being called but it was faint over the sound of my thrashing and yells of pain. I tried forcing myself back up but it wasn't easy. I let out a fierce shout and surrounded myself in a powerful blast of light that lit up everything brighter than day. Once the light faded I still felt the pressure on my neck and back, it didn't work.

I tried pulling myself back up again and managed to start to make progress moving upward. A few more tentacles rose up from the ground and waved like fire around me. One of them lashed me over the back like a whip and I let out a shriek of pain before the tentacles pulled me back down to the ground with force and smashed the underside of my jaw into the wet mud, which didn't feel very pleasant. There was another whip across my back and I let out another shriek of pain. Once again one of the tentacles sharpened into a scythe like blade a stabbed me through the top of my left flank and pierced out through my lower stomach horrifyingly close to my junk. Before I could let out my own scream of pain I heard another shriek, or I should say more like a cry. Thinking the worse, that the others were in danger, I shot my gaze over to see the others past the tentacles spinning around me.

I looked over to see that my friends were completely unharmed. They hadn't moved out of the safe dry zone but looked over at me with worried looks. Martukus had a concerned look on his face, but I felt that he was concerned about why I hadn't finished this yet, well it isn't easy. After doing that impossible feat last night I'm still pretty drained. Plus it's too early in the morning to be dealing with this shit right now. I looked to see that the cries had been coming from Alba who was being held back by twilights hoof. She was reaching out like she was going to grab my hoof. She was crying with tears down her eyes trying to get passed twilight to come and help me. For a second my vision began to fade… and in her place I saw dawn, my own little baby girl, standing there watching her father… and I lost it.

Another sharpened tentacle stabbed me again going through the left side of my back and out the right and I let out a scream of pain that turned into a cry of anger. I grit my teeth and planted my hooves on the ground, at this point I had completely lost my cool, which doesn't happen often. I often roar whenever I prepare a large attack because it's intimidating, this time I was roaring because I was mad… and god was I MAD! I let out a low growl and my hooves began slipping around the mud beneath me, but I kept my stance solid. I flexed every muscle in my body to keep myself up and the symbols on my body started to show, glowing a strange white/ purple color. From the symbols small streams of lightning started sparking around me. Miniature bolts of electricity would spark off one part of my body and connect with another part of my body. Up above the sky soon started to fade and the once nice and sunny morning sky was blotted out by dark and ominous clouds that seemed to appear out of thin air. They swirled around in a cyclone right above me before completely covering the whole sky.

Then… there was a single drop of rain. It fell down and landed right on the bridge of my nose in-between my eyes, Then another and another. Soon it was lightly raining from above and the puddle around us began to ripple and wave. I kept letting out a low growl like a tiger or lion growling at an enemy. I tried pulling myself back but it wasn't working. Soon my eyes started to glow the same whitish purple as the symbols and markings on my body. There was a flash in the sky quickly followed by a booming thunder which seemed to cripple the tentacles because for that one second I was able to pull back a few inches easily, but they kept hold and pulled me right back in. another tentacle lashed out at me and hit my back like a whip. I let out a cry of pain and at the same instance a bolt of lightning fired down from the dark cyclone in the air and the world flashed and was filled with a thundering boom. This was another thing that I learned in my training. This wasn't just a regular storm that I had summoned out of thin air…no. this was my storm.

I let out a thunderously fierce roar as bolt after bolt of lightning fired down from the eye of the storm and struck everywhere around me. The lightning came down in rapid fire succession and covered me in a cylinder of lightning. I kept letting out my fierce shout as rouge bolts of lightning soon began to fire off from random spots in the cyclone and strike the ground under them, acting like normal lightning. If you ever heard of the expression, lightning storm, well you have no idea. The tentacles around me seemed to liquefy from the intensity of the lightning. The lightning was so strong that the heat of it actually began to break the ground under our hooves and leave scorch marks on the dry dirt one all the wet mud was flung out of the way from the force of the lightning. I let out another loud shout as the cylinder of lightning I surrounded myself with burst outward creating a dome of electricity that pressed forward and probably cleared the whole forest of any rain. I did manage to keep a level enough head to have it pass by my friends and any woodland creatures in the area without affecting them.

The electrical discharge in the air slowly started to fade and the clouds up above vanished as sunlight slowly started to seep in through the cracks until it was shining completely on the forest. The trees were charred black but none of them burned. The ground all around me was black as night and so was the spots that lightning struck the ground. I sat there breathing heavily as my anger started to fade and my body slowly began to glow less and less. Once the air around me had finally settled and the day returned to normal I stood there with blood leaking out from all around me and large gashes and whip marks running across my back. My whole body stung like you wouldn't believe, it burnt like fire. The puddle that once existed had completely evaporated from the lightning. The blasts of lightning had flung mud everywhere and I was covered in blood and mud. Twilight, Alba, and the others remained untouched. I slowly took a few steps back staring down at the ground somewhat relived and shocked at the same time. I leaned back and sat down on the now completely dry ground. Next thing I did was lean back even more and fall onto my back and just stare up into the sky. This signaled the others to start running over to make sure I was alright.

"Crimson!" shouted twilight as she always does in that worried and concerned voice. It had become a very familiar expression to me. She and the others rushed over to my bleeding and beaten body lying on the ground. I just kept taking in deep breaths through my mouth. Soon my vision of the sky was blotted out by the familiar faces of my friends.

"crimson are you okay?" asked thunder placing his hooves on my chest and searching my wounds for any kind of lethal damage, I'm sure they were all lethal blows, but still.

"yeah yeah…" I said trying to get him off me.

"I'll be fine…I just… I just need to… to rest for a bit." I said. "I put in too much energy for that one blast. It was pretty stupid of me."

"So... You seem fine." Said twilight.

"you didn't put yourself into an energy dept, did you?" asked Martukus.

"a huge one…" I said. Normally going into an energy dept isn't much of a bad thing for unicorns, but for ponies like me with magical metaphysical abilities it means that I won't be able to use any kind of magic whatsoever until the debt is repaid. An energy debt is what it sounds like. If I need something done but don't have the energy then I can pull it from the earth, but that energy must be replaced and any energy I regenerate naturally will be sapped out of me and pulled back into the earth until the debt is repaid.

"Well if you're in debt crimson… there's always that light you made… that gave me tons of energy last night." Said twilight checking the bags. She rummaged through them with a surprised face. "What the… fuck, they're not here!" she said. I checked my side to see the sword I made was gone too.

"I didn't think that the light shards would last long, they must have broken down while we were all distracted." I said. "It's fine… I can still fight without magic." I said standing back up and fluttering my wings that were a bit singed at the tips from the lightning, and also broken from the force of the tentacles wrapping around them and my body.

"So until the debt is paid it'll be like your mortal again… and regular mortal, not the old kind of mortal you used to be." Said thunder smiling with a snug grin on his face. I shot him back the same look.

"Yeah… just like old…old…old times." I said thinking way back.

"Not old, old, old times, just old times." He said.

"For you… I'm over 1000 years old." I said. "I spent the greatest part of my life in a colorless void training on how to become a god… what did you do in the last week of so?" I asked jokingly.

"Hey watch yourself Mr. God." He said playfully jabbing me with his horn. "At the moment I have more magical abilities than you."

"Yeah whatever…" I said rolling my eyes and thunder. "We should get going now so we can get to the next town." The others agreed and we packed up and started to get going. I carried my own bags like before and we set off down the path. I went to pick up Rosa and place her on my back, but I stopped for obvious reasons. "twilight, do you want to carry Rosa?" I asked.

"how come?" she asked looking at me and Rosa. "all I had to do was guide her with my eyes towards my lashed and bloody back for her to instantly get it."

"of yeah.. sure." Said twilight. she smiled and picked up rosa and placed her on her back. We started walking down the path following the map towards the next city. It wasn't too far from us, we should be able to make it there by nightfall and find a place to stay on short notice…hopefully. Twilight picked up Alba and placed her on her back. We started walking onwards down the charred forest path towards the new city that remained out of sight for the moment. Because of my fresh and serious open wounds, I was tracking a trail of blood. What was worse was that the forest was viciously silent. I'm not surprised though, that blast probably scared every woodland creature to death, all the way from the squirrels in the trees the huge ass bears chasing after the squirrels in the trees. Even we were silent now, nopony talked, we just marched onward.

"Hey crimson…" said twilight next to me. Hearing her break the silence was such a relief. I wanted the silence to end, but I didn't have anything to say.

"Yeah twilight…" I said smiling and looking over.

"This might sound a bit strange…" she said. "But… uh… do you think you could sing us a song?" she asked.

"A…a song?" I repeated.

"Yeah… a song." She repeated. "I know you would sing for rarity and even rainbow dash… and they told me you were a very good musician, but I've never heard you sing." She said.

"uhm… I suppose I could." I said blushing slightly. Thunder and Martukus glanced back at us, specifically me, to see if I would actually start singing. And I decided why not, it would help lighten the mood. "is there any song you want to hear?" I asked.

"no… just think of one." Said twilight. I sat there for a second and suddenly a song formed in my head. It was a mix of familiar song lyrics and my own.

"Walking down this road…." I sung out in tune. "In a world that never ends, only the company of my closest friends… never let it show, the pain I've grown to know. Because with all these things we do, it doesn't matter when I'm coming home to you." Twilight and the others smiled, so did Alba. "in this world that never ends, my company of friends, walk me through the storm, take on fear of any form, cause with all these things we do… it doesn't matter when I'm coming home to you."

"Hehehe…" twilight giggled as I flaunted my tail at her with the end of the line.

"But with all that we've been through, this time I'm coming home to you." I said now prancing around to the beat of the song. "This wild ride, that takes me through life, breaths me into darkness but emerges into light." I sung. "But with all the things we do… this time I'm coming on home to…you." I said finishing my song and landing right back next to twilight.

"That was a great song..." Said thunder.

"I never knew you could sing." Added Martukus.

"it would sound better, probably, if I had a guitar or something to play." I added.

"it sounded fine... Thank you." Said twilight smiling at me as we trotted down to road. I smiled back at her and saw that little rosa was fast asleep on her back. She noticed to and smiled at her. We pushed on down the road without much distractions, hopefully we won't get jumped by bandits again, and if we do, hopefully it won't end up like it did last time. I opened up my bags and checked the map one more time to see how much progress we've made already. I looked at it and it didn't seem to help. I looked around the forest and checked between the map and noticed we hadn't gained much ground. This journey might end up taking us through the night, but if we move quickly without any distractions I think we might be fine. I put the map away and looked around in the sky checking for the sun. I saw that the sun wasn't even in the middle of the sky, it hasn't even been noon yet. For such a late night we sure did get up exceptionally early.

" so crimson..." Said thunder. I turned my gaze from the sky and looked over to him. " what's the plan?" He asked.

" the plan?" I repeated. " well first we have to go to the ruins of alba's hometown and help her, then we can move onto the volcano and finally get on with our adventure." I said.

" where is her hometown?" asked twilight taking the map from my hooves and holding it in front of her with her magic.

" it's the uh... Big black X on the map between the eastern blight and the forsaken lands." I said.

" this one hear..." She said pointing out the spot to me.

" yeah... Right there... That's where we need to go." I said.

" let me see that." Said thunder using his magic to take the map form twilight. He held it in front of himself and Martukus peered over too. "Holy crap... Those things wicked far away from here. It will take us at least five days to get to it." He said.

" yeah... I know." I said. " that's why I'm hoping that there's some kind of transportation system in this country that can get us there quickly.

" I didn't see one at the port we were at." Said twilight.

" yeah, but that was a small port, and it was very close to the bandit city which wasn't always controlled by bandits, there might have been a train station or something in there that we didn't see..." I said. " there might be one in this next town." I said.

" you mean city..." Said Martukus.

" yeah sure whatever." I replied. I smiled and rolled my eyes as the subject dropped and we started to press onward further down the road. I soon became very bored and I could tell so was everypony else. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like the whole day was ticking by, I felt that the sun was going to set any second and is the sky would turn dark signaling night... But when I looked for the sun I saw it floating right above our heads. I let out a deep sigh and my stomach let put a low rumble. I looked down at my stomach and blushed slightly from embarrassment.

" hungry?" Asked twilight in a haughty manner.

" a bit... I can't remember the last time I ate." I said.

" what are you talking about, we ate at the port about a day ago." Said thunder.

" I mean the last time I really ate something." I said. " not like a bowl of soup or noodles, like an actually meal..."

" he's right..." Added twilight clutching her stomach for a second. " if there was a buffet right now, I would DESTROY." She said smiling as her stomach growled too. We all laughed and smiled, and apparently Alba woke up too. We decided to stop and have some food that we had packed. We sat down on the edge of the road and unpacked out things and we all grabbed some food. We sat down and ate our food, which happened to be sandwiches, and told a few jokes. I looked over to twilight who shot her eyes down the path. She had a strange look on her face as she slowly followe dot he path behind us with her eyes. I watched them as the moved up to me then she looked at me in shock.

" what?" I asked.

" crimson!" She exclaimed. " are you still bleeding?" She asked me.

" huh?" I said looking back through the track following a trail of large blood drops that lead right up to me. I was already in a small puddle of my own blood. " I guess I am." I said.

" that can't be healthy..." Added thunder sarcastically obviously not as worried as twilight is.

" crimson are you alright?" She asked.

" yeah I'm fine..." I said. " I've been bleeding for the last few hours, so it can't be that bad." I said. " I produce blood faster than I can loose it in most cases, so I'm fine." I said. " besides my super regenerative abilities don't work while I don't have any magical energy."

" your sure you'll be fine?" She asked.

" if I faint then you'll know." I said smiling and taking the last bite of my sandwich. She rolled her eyes in a worried manner and I smiled. We finished our food and were about to get packed up. I placed my saddlebags back over my back and they rubbed against my lash wounds which caused me to wince at the pain but I pushed through it. The others got there bags on and twilight tossed alba up onto her back.

" hey..." Said Martukus looking past me and twilight. " what's that?" He asked pointing down the road we just came from. Thunder was staring at the same thing martukus was and it compelled me and twilight to look back and see what was happening. We turned around and saw something coming down the road. I could hear the faint creaking of wheels and thud of hooves on the ground, but those hooves sounded too heavy to be a pony. I focused my vision a bit more and saw a cart with a pony on it. I noticed it and smiled.

" hey... It's a cart..." I said smiling.

" really...? Do you think he would give us a ride?" Asked twilight.

" I don't know, let's wait for him." Said Martukus. We waited patiently there for the cart and as he started to get close we tried to signal him down. The cart began growing closer and closer until it was easily visible. It was a large cart with two oxen pulling it along with incredible ease. On the drivers seat of the cart was a pony. He held the reigns of the two oxen in one hoof and relaxed on the back of his seat with his hooves up. He had a straw hat on that covered his face and a stick of wheat sticking out of his mouth. There were empty and flattened bags in the back of the cart, but other than that it was seemingly empty. The pony driving the cart was a normal brown pony with black hair, like most of the ponies here. His hair looked greasy and very unkempt. He rolled up in his cart and it slowly came to a stop next to us.

" I take it you need a ride, reckoning how y'all are just standing there watching me." He said flashing his face at us. He had a scar over his left eye and his eyes were green. I was w about to speak up but Martukus who already was showing his armor beat me to it. I could tell he had a plan.

" please sir... I'm an adventurer trying to escort this injured family safely to the next town... If you could get us there before night I would find no trouble in making it worth your time." He said. He looked over to the four of us. Through the looks of it, we did seem to look like a family. And taking my injuries into consideration I decided to use that to my advantage.

" please..." I said speaking up using my best fatherly tone. " If you can't take us, at least bring my wife and child." I said gesturing over to twilight and alba who were already in on the plan.

" hmm... Are you alright there buddy..." He said looking down at me.

" uh... No... I was attacked" I said.

" I've sent those whip marks before..." Said the pony. " looks like you five had a run in with the black rain." He said. " well... I can't let good ponies perish when I could have done something about it..." He said. He stared at me and gave me a sullen look. " climb on, I'll get you to aurora before nightfall." He said. We smiled and climbed on. I weakly climbed onto the cart pretending to be severely injured and in pain. We sat down on the cart and I laid down near the edge. The crack of a whip filled the air and the cart jerked forward and we started making our way down the path.

" thank you so much." Said twilight.

" no problem miss." Said the pony. " it was all that I could do." We sat there in silence for a little while until the pony spoke up again. " where are y'all from anyhow?" He asked. "and what do you need to get to aurora for?" he asked, I was confused for a second.

"wait…" I said. "aurora is that town back there that is controlled by bandits."

"that used to be new aurora." Said the pony. "the place didn't last five years before it was ransacked and taken over by bandits, we don't call it new aurora anymore. The real aurora is the large city down this here path, that's the true aurora." He said. "so like I said, where are y'all from?"

" we're just humble ponies from the port down south trying to escape the poverty of the area... We heard it's much better in aurora." I said. " we sought out the help of an adventurer who gladly agreed to help us."

" what about him?" Asked the pony gesturing back to thunder.

" he's a very close friend of the family." I said. " he wanted to come with us."

" well, y'all sound like a very nice bunch, and I'm happy to help." He said. " aurora is a great city and I'm sure you'll find a good living there, maybe as farm ponies." He said.

" thank you... Is that what you are... A farmer?" Asked twilight.

" yes ma'am." He said. " just came back from nu-Xing, sold my crops and made quite the nice profit from it... Got a farm outside of the city, lots a farm land out there, really nice and fertile soil." He said. " if you are planning on starting a farm, aurora is the place to be."

" so what is your name kind stranger?" Asked Martukus.

" my name is thorn." He said. " I know, it might seem like a strange mane, but there's a reason behind it." He said. " like most farmers I grow wheat and corn, but I am famous for one particular crop that other ponies don't grow."

" and what is that?" Asked thunder.

" roses..." He said smiling.

" roses?" Said twilight sounding confused.

" yes ma'am, roses." He said. " they're the most beautiful flowers around... Partially because they aren't always around."

"what do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well roses aren't an indigenous plant in stallasia, they're mostly imported, and the trick about them is that they don't grow easily in stallasain soil, and I'm one of very few farmers who knows how to grow them." He said. "they are very rare here to be grown naturally, I've got a batch coming in now actually, when we get there you should be able to see beautiful fields of red roses."

"That sounds lovely…" said twilight smiling.

"It is, it's a very beautiful sight." He said. "the only real tricky part are the thorns… which is where I get my name." he said. "I grow the roses and they call me thorn."

"That's a very nice tale." I said.

"Mmmm…. And one of my favorites to tell." he said. "Now, what are your names?" he asked.

"u well, im twilight sparkle."

"Im thunder rush."

"My name is Martukus."

"I'm Alba…"

"And your name…" said the farmer looking back to me.

"My names crimson… crimson blast." Suddenly he stopped the cart and looked off down the road. I grew a bit concerned wondering what kind of hell I've unboxed now.

"Where did y'all say you're from?" he asked in a sullen voice.

"We're villagers… from the port." He stayed silent for a few seconds.

"You know…" he said. "I almost believed that." He said… damnit. "Now… I'm a nice pony, but please dog lie to me… where y'all from are." He said. "You don't have any kind of strange stallasain name like most ponies here do… and you're too bright and colorful to be coming from that port."

"fine…" I said getting up. I had left an impressively large puddle of blood in my shape. He looked back at me and when he noticed how much blood I've lost and how I'm still standing his expression changed to that of wonder and curiosity. "No more lies…. Here's the whole truth."

"crimson…" twilight said but I spoke over her.

"We're adventurers from equestrian, not pheasants from the port." I said. "Were trying to get to this location here." I said holding up the map and pointing to the black X. "we didn't lie about our names… but were here on an important quest… and we just need a way to get around quickly… so…I apologize for lying… but we didn't know if you would help us or not." I said laying back down. He looked back at me and then turned back to the road and whipped his oxen again as they pulled the cart. We all stayed silent for a while and the cart just moved forward down the road. The only sound was the squeaking of the wooden wheels.

"I never thought that the very crimson would be riding along on my cart." He said. How the hell does this guy know my name? "There is something more to my story you should know before is start explaining things." He said. "You see the only reason I have a rose farm in the first place is because I'm not a native of stallasia, as you might have figured out by my accent, its only coincidence that I look alike to them. I came here trying to be a farmer, but I was robbed on my way here… the only thing I had left were a few rose seeds… I settled down at the farm of a kind pony who helped me out until I got back up on my hooves, he gave me some land to plant my own crops and make a living… and I did." He looked back towards us. "I used to live just outside of equestrian… to the south, in the equine flatlands. I was a profitable farmer there, but times were rough and there was a massive drought… so I set sail to stallasia… and you know the story from there."

"when was that?" asked twilight.

"about ten or so years ago." He said. "I didn't know of you then… but a while ago, maybe three or four years ago I went back to equestrian to visit family and when I got there the whole place was buzzing about a certain pony with strange abilities. It took only three days for me to hear everything there was to know about you. I spent a few years in equestria with family, and I would always hear your name, and some other great thing you've done… and I have to say. It's an honor to meet you face to face." He said looking back and smiling at me. I smiled right back at him.

"thank you…" I said for no reason.

"its absolutely not a problem." He said. "I always knew you were tough… but not this tough. And I'm no fool, I have a good pair of eyes… I can see the wounds on you. Any other pony would have died from those wounds, if not then the loss of blood." He smiled at me and tipped his hat slightly.

"You know…" twilight said. "Before when these kinds of things happened I would stand there confused for hours at a time no matter how many times somepony explained it to me, but it happens so frequently that I'm already over it." She said making me and the others chuckle.

"I take it these kinds of things happen to you a lot?" said thorn looking back and sharing in the joke.

"Are you kidding me… strange occurrences happen to me so often that I could set a clock by it?" I said "let's see…I'm guessing it's about… 2:30" I said. Thorn opened up a bag next to him and pulled out a fancy gold pocket watch and flipped it open. He looked at it and then smiled.

"2:36…" he said. Needless t says that we laughed. He put the watch away in the bag and smiled as he looked onward keeping his eyes on the road. "So… you don't seem to be doing too well crimson… is there anything you could use help with… maybe medical wise?" he said throwing some very large hints my way.

"No… I'll be fine…" I said. "I'm just drained of energy… once I recharge then I'll be good as new, but I figured I would be out of it all day… but I probably should do something so I'm not bleeding all over the place."

"Well I've probably got some bandages and stuff at my place, you're welcome to stay the night and have a nice warm meal. My wife is an adept healer and could help you with your wounds." Said thorn. "Or we could hang you upside down and just let you dry out naturally." He said jokingly.

"Hmm…" I said playfully. "Sounds tempting… let me think about it." I said making him chuckle slightly. His laugh slowly faded but his smile stayed. He gazed onward towards the horizon and we could see that the forest was thinning out. We were on top of a large hill and bellow the hill was farmland… as far as the eye could see. Golden fields of wheat and corn. And off in the distance, far, far away was a faint bulge that was the city of aurora.

"you know crimson…I have to thank you." Said thorn.

"Huh... for what?" I asked still with a smile on my face.

"For not being one of 'THOSE' hero's." he said putting emphasis on 'those'.

"What do you mean one of 'THOSE' hero's?" I asked with my smile fading slowly now to hear what he has to say.

"the fact that you're a hero isn't what makes you great… but it's the way you go about it, and I have heard plenty of stories about you to know that what I say ring true." He said. "You don't act like a hero… that's the thing… you act like a normal pony." He said. "You don't overwhelm others with an almighty attitude, you stay on their level and get to know them… in other words you're a very likeable pony, which is great." Thorn continued. "You don't act stuck up and arrogant like some ponies I've met… and you always put others before yourself…in every sense of the term…so thank you crimson… thank you for acting like a normal pony… and not a hero… because that is what makes you a true hero." He said looking back and grinning at me.

"Thank you…" I said with a smile spreading across my face. "That means a lot to me coming from a pony I don't know very well." I said. "I can't tell you how long I've waited for somepony to tell me those kinds of things; I always thought I was celebrated for being a hero. But hearing that makes me feel like I'm celebrated not for being a powerful hero, but for being a good friend, and a very likeable pony… thank you thorn…" I said with a big smile slowly spreading across my face. Twilight looked over to me and smiled at me too. She leaned over and rubbed her head up against mine in a kind of hug and I did the same back.

"I have to say though… if I were in your hooves I couldn't do the things you do… but I always dreamed about being a great adventurer like yourself… but I couldn't do that, I'm not cut out for it, I was born to farm." Said thorn.

"I have the same kinds of dreams…" I said. "But I don't want to adventure… I just want to live a normal life, without any fame or fortune or adventures. I just want to settle down with my wife and kids and just live a normal life. Wake up every morning; go to work, maybe even start a farm like you, I always thought it would be fun to work a farm. Then I would pick up my kids from school and go to the market to buy food without everypony crowding around me and trying to get my attention." I said. "because believe it or not, I never asked for this life… I was just dragged into it, and for the longest time I've been trying to escape." I said looking down at my own pool of blood that I was sitting in. "but every time I take one step forwards, something pulls me six feet back."

"I'm sorry about that…" said thorn. "What are you doing now then?" he asked

"We need to get to the volcano…" said twilight.

"What are you doing then going so far out of your way to the border near the scarred land?" he asked.

"We have something to do their first before we go to the volcano." I said.

"I won't ask you any of your business if you don't want to talk about it." Said thorn.

"Thanks…" I said. I looked back up and suddenly the forest around us seemed to be gone now, just fields of gold and green. Endless miles of golden wheat spread out before our eyes. The wind blowing made ripples and waves along the seas of wheat. Seeing these fields of wheat made me wonder something. I looked back at the map and checked the surrounding area of aurora; the map says it should be forested area, and not miles and miles of farmland. "Hey uh thorn… this map says that these parts should be forested area, not fields." I said.

"Huh… let me see that." He said. I passed the map over to him and he browsed over it. "Huh… wait… oh, here's the problem. This map dates back 40 years ago, it's not accurate." He said. a sudden wave of pity washed over the entire group as we felt mildly embarrassed.

"I-it's not…" said twilight.

"No…it's not…" answered thorn. " about 30 years ago raids on the city by the dark creatures of the night had grown so frequent that the ponies decided to completely clear all the forest around the city. This solved the problem and the townsfolk could sleep easily. The ponies and the farmers who went out and chopped down all the tree's kept the wood and instead of letting all this land just sit here and grow them decided to build farms on the land. The areas were divided up and roads were drawn out."

"So the whole city is just surrounded on all sides by farmland." Said Martukus.

"Pretty much." Said thorn. I looked back at thorn as he handed me the map back. I grabbed it and placed it back in the bags. By now the blood that was leaking from me had slowed considerably, but there was a trail dripping off the end of the wagon. I'll have to be sure to wash this down once we get to the city. The others saw the puddle of blood under me and kept their distance, luckily there was enough space because the cart was huge. After a while of ridding on the back of the cart most of my friends were resting now. Twilight was asleep with alba resting on her back, also asleep. Thunder looked all around trying to find something to keep him distracted and thorn kept his eyes on the road. The farmland completely overtook everything and it seemed to be the only thing around us. The road was rather hilly and curved. There were many times where it would branch off onto smaller roads and there were large barns and farmhouses all around. Whenever there wasn't a field full of wheat, corn, cotton, apple trees, or any other kind of plant, it would be full of animals; Pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens. I looked up to the sky trying to find the sun and I saw it right in front of us, looming over the large bulge that had grown to be recognizable as the city.

The air had dropped a few degrees and the sky was turning a vibrant orange. The sky was bright in front of us where the sun was resting, but behind us it grew darker and darker fading into a deep red then to a dull indigo. The clouds glowed red signaling that tomorrow would be a beautiful day. I could see a sudden breeze drifting over our way as I watched a wave form in the sea of wheat. It passed over the golden field and then blew right over the cart. I pushed my mane back behind my forehead and rustled my fur. There was always something about the farm life that I found relaxing. My father used to be a farmer in Arizona. He would always take me flying in his crop duster and show me all of his neat tricks that he learned in the war. He taught me to fly and then I legally got my pilots license at the age f 24 after I graduated college. He used to let me fly his plane and dust the fields for him once every month. That was the life, along with working on the farm with him… I had fun all the time. That seems to be the only thing I can remember about my time on earth right now, farming with my father… that's all I want to know.

"It's getting late." Said Martukus snapping me out of my trance. He was looking up to the sky and staring at the sun. Twilight slowly woke up and yawned. She also caused Alba to wake up and yawn as well. Twilight lazily adjust and looked around. Thunder looked over to thorn expecting him to comment.

"It is…" said thorn. "We won't make it to the city before night… but y'all are welcome to stay the night at our place, we've got plenty of room in the barn." He said.

"Well, we don't want to impose." Said twilight.

"Nonsense… it would be my honor." He said. "Besides, I can't wait to see the look on my wife's face when she see's who I brought home." He said smiling and looking very excited and giddy.

"Thank you…" I said. "We would only need to stay one night."

"Perfectly fine." He said. "And you won't need to worry about animals in the barn, Wilma and Belmont here are the only two ox we got, they stay towards the back and don't make too much noise." He said. "when we bought the plot of land the barn came with it, we just use it for storage mostly and for extra sleeping space when the need arises, and trust me your not the first ones to sleep in that barn." he said. "I've actually got a funny story for all of you." He said smiling. I just looked off and smiled too listening to his story.

Thorn told us about one time when a runaway bandit had hid in their barn over the night. It was just one morning, same as every other one, about 5 years before he left on vacation back to equestria. He and his wife woke up in the morning and thorn went to grab his harvest to sell in the town market while his wife, who he ironically told us is named rose, prepared breakfast. Thorn was going out to the barn and he noticed that one of the doors was swung wide open. Being curious he walked in slowly with his lamp in his teeth. He grabbed one of the pitchforks hanging up by the door and slowly walked in. to his surprise there was a pony sleeping peacefully in a pile of hay. The pony was wearing leather armor and carried weapons on him. Startled by this, thorn jumped back and let out a small gasp of excitement causing him to drop the pitchfork. The sound of the pitchfork hitting the floor woke up the pony and seeing thorn there, the pony jumped up onto his hooves.

The pony drew his sword and held it up to thorn. He was shaking and trembling and didn't seem like much of a killer. In an attempt to frighten thorn the pony said he was a bandit from the bandit city that I…uh… currently leveled to the ground. The pony didn't look like a bandit. He didn't have the evil look in his eyes, he looked scared instead. He didn't seem to be a day over 19. Knowing that this might go either way thorn slowly backed away from the pitchfork lying on the ground. He didn't call out for help or anything, because nopony would hear them. His barn was far from the house and surrounded by fields of wheat. Thorn and the boy stood there at a standstill staying completely silent for what seemed like minutes. It was obvious that the boy didn't know what he was doing and wasn't really a bandit.

"What are you doing kid?" asked thorn to the bandit. He tried reasoning with him. "You don't look like a bandit to me… now… drop the sword, I'm not going to hurt you, and I won't call the guard."

"I-I…I… I can't do this." Said the bandit as he dropped his sword and immediately broke down crying. He put his head into his hooves and started sobbing madly. Tears rolled down from his hooves and dropped onto the wooden floor of the barn. Thorn had the perfect chance to pick up the pitchfork and run the kid out of his land, but he didn't. he walked over to the pony and sat down next to him.

"what's the matter lad… what are you doing?" thorn asked. The pony took a minute to sober up and stop crying.

"I don't know anymore." He said to thorn. "I thought I wanted to be a bandit, it seemed like a good lifestyle, and I didn't have much choice anyway, I was born into it." He said. " I tried being a bandit, and I just couldn't do it. i was supposed to jump a passing trade caravan but when the time came I chickened out and ran back to the city." He said. "it wasn't pretty after that." Thorn told us about how the pony's father and mother disowned him and that he was accused of treason and was wanted dead. The father didn't care, but his mother didn't want him dead despite disowning him. She helped him escape and he ran away early in the morning so he couldn't face the horrors of the dark forest at night. They caught on and chased him but he slipped away and in a fit of extreme fear and worry he found the closest barn he could find and hunkered down in there before night fell… and that leads up to the current point in the story.

"look son…" said thorn. "You haven't done anything wrong; in fact you were smart to get out of that place." He said. "you have a bright future ahead of you, you should go into the town and find work, honest work. Make a good living, and maybe start a nice family. I know you could do that, you've got the heart."

"Do you really think so?" asked the bandit boy with tears still rolling down his eyes.

"I know it." said thorn smiling. The bandit bow smiled too. "Now c'mon…" said thorn getting up. "why don't you come back to the house with me, we can get you some food and then head into the city." Both smiling, thorn and the bandit boy headed back to the house. Once they got there thorn had to explain everything to rose who was also as caring and hospitable as thorn. She made some extra food and the three of them ate breakfast. The bandit told thorn and rose that his name was blaze. They talked and once dinner was done thorn and blaze headed off into the city travelling by cart. It took them a few hours to get there and once they were there thorn had his own crops to sell. Blaze helped him and after they found a merchant who bought all of blaze's old gear. Blaze had some money now, but it wasn't enough to get started the right way. They both headed back to the farm and blaze was invited to have dinner with them.

At dinner thorn invited blaze to stay with them and help out at the farm. He would pay him at the end of every week for his help and he could eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the family. Blaze happily agreed with tears in his eyes and thorn let him stay in the barn since the house was rather small and had no spare rooms, blaze didn't care. Thorn and rose opened themselves up to blaze and he accepted their help humbly and honestly. For the next two months blaze helped out on the farm and saved up his money so that he could start a new life. And then one day when thorn went to go get blaze early one morning he was gone, nowhere to be found. He had left, leaving no note or anything telling that he left, and he had taken a lamp. Thorn knew that he was off on his own now and whatever would happen to him was up to him now. So thorn tended the farm for the next couple of weeks, and soon those weeks turned into more months and then a few years passed. Suddenly one day thorn went back to the barn to grab some wheat to sell in town. When he walked into the barn he stopped dead still at what he saw.

In the middle of the bard was a small pile of golden hay. Sticking out of the hey was a sword that had been thrusted into the floorboards and stood upright in the hay. On one of the hoofguards for the sword was an oil lantern just hanging there unlit. On the handle of the hilt was a piece of paper that was wrapped around the handle and ties together. Thorn looked at the sword and a smile ran right across his face. He recognized the sword to belong to blaze. He walked over and took the oil lantern off of the sword and slowly untied the note attached to the handle of the sword. He took off the note and unrolled it. he read the whole note with a smile on his face. To this day thorn still remembers word for word what the note said.

"Dear thorn… I cannot begin to express my gratitude towards you and your wife rose. You two were the only ones who ever saw me and thought I had a chance to be something great, and that fills me with a great sense of joy that I cannot begin to explain. You showed me what it was like to do honest work and gave me a true chance. If I had a chance to change anything, I wouldn't, because I regret nothing. Thank you for believing in me and here's your lamp back. Sorry I took it, but it was night and I needed to find my way around. I one day we will meet each other again… One day. Until that day, I hope you the best of luck my friend, to you and rosa… thank you."

Attached to the note was a picture. In the picture was blaze with his red hair and brown fur. There were two other ponies in the picture with him. A mare with long black hair, emerald green eyes and a brown coat. She had a smile that could melt the sun. In blaze's hoof was a small child with black hair with a red stripe running through it. The child had a brown coat and blue eyes. The picture was labeled too in ink. The labeling was: "father, mother, and daughter". Seeing this almost brought thorn to tears. When he showed it to his wife rose she started crying tears of joy. He looks back at this day as one of the proudest moments of his life. He looked at blaze like a father does and when he saw how successful he was he felt the kind of pride only a father feels for his son. Thorn's only regret is that he hasn't seen blaze ever since.

"And that's my story…" said thorn. We sat there awestruck as the sky above us was now a deep dark blue as the sun was inches above the horizon.

"That's a very touching story thorn." Said twilight who had a tear in her eye.

"Thank you miss…" said thorn. We stayed silent for a while and let the moment settle in. suddenly we took a left turn down a more narrow path towards a white farmhouse. "Well, here we are… home sweet home." He said changing the mood suddenly. We turned into the dirt path leading up to the cozy wooden house. Instead of stopping there we went beyond the house and the path led to a large red barn off in the distance. The ride there took only a few minutes and thorn rode the cart into the barn and we all got off. It was a large barn full of boxes and barrels and piles of hay. Thorn took the reins off the two oxen and walked them into the back and put them in their pens. He walked back over to us with a smile and we made our way over to the farmhouse. We didn't talk much on the way there. I kept bleeding down the path but it wasn't so bad as it was before. My fur was SOAKED…in blood. And before when I had my normal red coat of fur it wasn't very noticeable, but now I've got white fur and… well, I HAD white fur, now it's red again from the blood. It didn't take us much longer before we reached the house and thorn opened up the door. The first thing we heard was a mare call out from another room.

"Hello honey…" she said excitedly as she walked out from a room to the left with a big smile on her face. She was a small mare with brown fur and blue eyes. She had short pink hair with red highlights. She walked over with a smile on her face and it grew wider once she saw us all…But then… seeing me there all dirty, injured, and blood soaked didn't serve as a good welcoming home sight. Her smile faded to a look of concern and panic. She walked over to her husband with a worrying look glancing back between him and me paying no attention to the others. Thorn could see the look on her face but kept a happy smile on his face. "Uh dear, who are these ponies?" she asked.

"Wandering adventurers." Said thorn happily. "They need a place to stay for the night and a good meal."

"That's fine and all…" said rose. "But, uh… who is that blood soaked one there." She said whispering right into her husband's ear. The others couldn't hear but I could. Before thorn could say something I took a step forward and introduced myself.

"Uhm… sorry to bother you ma'am." I said in a gentlemanly manner. "… My name is crimson blast, and me and my friends just need a place to stay for the night, were trying to reach aurora." I said doing a little courtesy bow showing some respect by just bowing my head to the floor slightly and walking over. She looked at me with a shocked face and I just smiled.

"You… you're crimson blast." She said with her smile slowly returning. "Oh my gosh, I've heard so much about you!" she said excitedly like a giddy school filly. She went in to try and hug me but stopped after she noticed my condition. "oh god your hurt badly." She said.

"its not bad…" I said. "but your husband told me you're a good healer."

"oh… yes, I am, ill do what I can to help." She said. "please, come on in, there isn't much room, but I can find some chairs." She said. c'mon, we should get you fixed up right away." She said.

"thank you…" I said. "I just need you to get the bleeding to stop."

"sure… uhm…" she said thinking. "alright, honey can you go get some rubbing alcohol and a few rags?" she asked.

"sure thing sweetie." Said thorn running off to a different room.

"why don't you four stay down here for a little bit and make yourselves comfortable, ill be starting dinner once I'm done with crimson…" said rose. "Here crimson, follow me upstairs, leave your bags here." She said.

"Sure thing…" I replied a bit shocked at how quickly she took control of the situation despite being so giddy and excited almost a minute ago. I placed my things down near the door and followed rose up the staircase onto the next floor. She walked into a new room and I followed her in. I walked in and looked around, and I noticed it was a bathroom. She reached over to the bathtub and started running the water. She walked over to me and smiled.

"alright." She said. "Let's see what we have to work with here." She said placing her hooves on my sides and brushing away my fur to see the horrible wounds on my body. They were easy to pin out since they were gaping holes and red slashes across my back and sides.

"this isn't grossing you out at all?" I asked.

"not really…" she said stepping off of me. "I once saw a mare with both her eyes torn out… poor thing was still alive and is today, she wears a blindfold to hide her shame…" she said.

"that sounds horrible." I said.

"She was ten…" she added. Oh god no that's worse. I shivered slightly.

"Honestly… after all the shit I've seen, seeing a ten year old girl with her eyes torn out would probably cause me to go insane."

"Luckily for me the incident was so tragic that I've completely repressed it, even the images. I can't remember a single thing no matter how hard I try." She said. "The only things that I remember from that time were the screams." She said becoming rather distant and staring at the running bath. She soon snapped out of it and looked at me with a smile. "Be we don't need to worry about that, here… we should wash out that blood and clean those wounds." She said gesturing to the tub. I walked over and stepped into the tub. I sat down and let the warm water cover me. Since the water was cycling through to wash away the blood and keep the water clean the level of the water didn't get too high, just sitting down didn't even reach up to my wounds. "Just one sec." she said leaving the room for a short while before returning with a small bucket. Thorn walked in just in time with a few rags and rubbing alcohol.

"Here you go honey." He said placing them down.

"Thanks dear…" she said. He left the room and rose got to work. "Alright let's get you all cleaned up." She said dipping the bucket into the water. She pulled it up and poured the warm water all over me. When it touched my open wounds and the hot water rushed through my raw flesh I let out a yelp of pain from the water. I arched my back like I was trying to avoid the pain and I grit my teeth. The water soon turned a faint red and I was now soaking wet. My coat was still red but was getting cleaner. She kept dumping buckets of water over my head and washing the wounds. She grabbed a rag and a bar of soap and dipped them in water. She got the rag all soaped up and started pressing it against my wounds and slowly dragging it along so she didn't reopen the wounds and cause me any pain, though it did sting a bit. To pass the time I decided to make a bit of small talk.

"So uhm… how long have you and thorn been married together?" I asked. She placed the rag on an open wound on my back and I winced slightly. The bath water was red and soapy and no matter how much it drained it didn't seem to get any less so.

"me and thorn have been happily married for eight years." She said. "we knew each other before we started this farm actually." She said.

"Oh really?" I added.

"Mmmm… we didn't know each other in equestria, but we were on the same boat together and that's when we started to get to know each other better, he's a very sweet stallion and I love him. I remember the day we landed somepony had stolen all of my belongings and got away with it. With nopony else to turn to I asked him for help." She said. "I just wanted to ask if he could help me get my luggage back, but after hours of trying we knew that they were long gone by then… so instead he invited me to stay with him until I could get my bearings."

"Did you two land in the dock to the east of here?" I asked.

"Yes we did, it wasn't the best place to start off. We stayed in an inn most of the nights and he paid for both of our rooms." She said. "We started to get very intimate and soon after a year or so he disappeared. Left a bag of money in my room and never wrote. I was devastated, but a week later he came back with the biggest smile on his face. He walked up to me and told me he bought a farm by a town far from here. He asked me to come with him; he said the city near the farm was such a beautiful and friendly place."

"And so you went with him." I said smiling. She was smiling too and I saw she was lost in her thoughts as she stopped tending to my wounds and just held the soapy rag in one spot completely frozen in her memories.

"Yes, of course I said yes… I was excited to begin a new life." She said. "It took us about two days to get there by wagon, and when we arrived at the farm the first thing he did, before I even walked into the house, was propose to me. I happily said yes and he was so overjoyed that he swept me up off my hooves and carried me around the house. We got married a month later and now we live happily on this farm."

"Sounds romantic." I said in a happy manner. She giggled a bit and placed the rag down. For the first time the water around me wasn't red anymore. I must be clean now. "Have you two thought about having a child yet?" I asked.

"we have… but our only concern is that because the night time here is so dangerous, we wouldn't want anything to happen that we would regret for the rest of our lives." She said. "The lady of the dark that haunts the woods has everypony scared out of their minds." She said. We remained silent for a while and then rose stood up. "Well… you soak for a while, I'll leave this towel hear for you to dry, and come down when you're ready" she said grabbing the rags and rubbing alcohol. "I'll get some dinner started for you and the others and then we can get to the best part." She said shaking the bottle of rubbing alcohol… great, I thought. Before she walked out of the door I stopped her.

"Uhm rose…" I said stopping her. "After dinner I would like to talk to you and thorn in private… if that's alright with you?" I asked.

"Sure crimson… I'll let thorn know; you soak up and come down when you're ready." She said leaving the room entirely now. Her hoof steps faded as she left the room and went downstairs. I sat there in the bath for a while and turned off the flowing water and let it slowly drain out. No point in wasting hot water, especially when I'm just a guest here. One all the water was drained from the tub I stood up and looked over at the towel. I focused slightly and suddenly the towel levitated into the air and floated over at me. I smiled at my ability to use magic once again. Though I was still pretty magically exhausted, but I should be fine after a night of rest and some good food. If we're just going to the city anyway it's not like there's going to be some huge demon guarding the gates to the city that we have to fight, so I should be fine. I used my magic to throw the towel back onto the counter and superheated all the air around my figure to instantly evaporate all the water on me. I opened up the window as well to let all the steam out. Once the air was clear I closed the window and walked downstairs completely dry now and no longer bleeding.

I heard a bit of commotion coming from the room to my left and walked on over. I walked in and saw the others sitting around a small dining table in the kitchen. There weren't enough seats so martukus had to stand on the side. The whole place was rather cramped except for the kitchen area where rose was making food. She had a few pots boiling away on a gas stove and a few vegetables and a cutting board sitting on the counter. Above her were cabinets and bellow here too. There was a spice rack nailed to the wall to her right above the counter which then turned off to the sink with a window behind it which overlooked large green fields of freshly harvested corn and wheat. The others noticed me and gave me a warm smile and I returned that smile too. Thorn glanced over at me and gave me a friendly wink. I walked into the room and rose turned around and noticed me too. She smiled and walked over.

"Oh good your dry…" she said. "Honey watch the pots for me." She said walking over. "Here crimson come with me into the living room so we can treat those wounds and disinfect them." She said. I shrugged and walked out with rose. I flashed my friend's one last smile before she led me off into the living room which was right across from the kitchen/ dining room. The living room had only a few pictures hanging up with a large sofa and two chairs on either side. There was a large window that overlooked the front of the house and a few potted plants for decoration. She guided me over to the couch and pushed the wooden coffee table to the side which had a single bottle of rubbing alcohol on it.

"this is going to sting isn't it?" I said walking up to the couch.

"Like a bitch…" she said with a smile and grabbing the alcohol. I chuckled and rested onto the couch lying on my stomach.

"Great…" I said with a smile as I laid down into the couch.

"Are you ready?" she asked. I just took in a deep breath.

"Well, I guess it has to happen sooner or lateAAAAAAHHHHAHAHAAAAAAA!" I shouted out in pain as she started pouring the rubbing alcohol on my back.

"Everything alright in there crimson?" asked twilight from the other room. I was going to respond but rose poured some more of the alcohol on my other wounds and I shouted out in pain again.

"AAAAAAHHHH SON OF A BITCH!" I shouted out.

"Hang in there." Twilight shouted back out from the other room.

"Stop being such a baby…" said rose. "You probably got these wounds in a fight." She said.

"Yeah, but that's different." I said. "When you're in a fight you don't feel pain form all the adrenaline rushing through your body, makes everything but the enemy unimportant. I don't know why I'm letting her do this. I can't be stricken by mortal diseases, so I could literally just fill up my wounds with dirt and be fine. But then again, they don't really need to be bothered with all that junk, I'll let it slide. Besides, it's not the worst pain I've been in. she doused my wounds again with more rubbing alcohol and I yelled again in pain. She just giggled a bit and put the cork back on the rubbing alcohol.

"Alright, that's good… you should be fine for now." She said. "I'm sure a pony like you will just heal within a few days." She said. "I'm going back to fix up dinner." She said.

"Alright…I'm just gonna…. Just gonna rest here for a while." I said lying down on the couch. I laid my head down on the couch for a while and closed my eyes. I didn't fall asleep but I did enjoy the rest. As I laid there I heard the trotting of hooves at a very quick pace then I heard the doors open and shut. I looked back but nothing was there, and I was tired so I ignored it.

"Alright... Foods done." Said rose from the kitchen. I picked my head up off the couch and flopped over onto my hooves. I stretched out slightly and then dragged myself over to the kitchen. I walked in and everyday was abuzz. Food was being served and everypony got their plates and some food. I walked over and thorn handed me a plate. I walked over to the counter and rose smiled at me. She gave me my food and twilight saved a chair for me. Thorn went out and grabbed some extra chairs. We all managed to fit around the table cozily and we sat there with our food. We all sat down and started eating our meals. We were having green beans, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli and cornbread... All with milk. Sweet merciful god, An actual meal.

We started to dig in and help ourselves to the food, and it was so good. I honestly can't remember the last time I've ever eaten this well. And even though I'm a god and I don't need to eat food, this was the best food I've ever had, and I could eat it all day. The mashed potatoes were really creamy and the corn on the cob was buttered up and crunchy. The steamed broccoli was pretty damn good too. I stopped eating the food for a second and drank down half of my glass of milk. I was starving like you wouldn't believe, and the food was so good, I just wanted to cram it all down my throat, but I restrained myself and ate normally, so I don't freak everypony out. Because honestly, whenever I get hungry I can be a bit of a slob... And nopony wants to see that... Trust me.

" wow rose... This is great." Said twilight swallowing her food before she spoke up. " I can't remember the last time I ate this well."

" I can't remember the last time I ate." I said abruptly " normally on an adventure I just put food in my mouth and swallow it... This is some damn good cooking."

" I think we can all agree on that." Said thunder. Twilight and martukus nodded with smiles on their faces. Rose blushed and giggled.

" thanks you guys." She said smiling.

" what do you think alba?" Asked twilight happily. We waited for her response, but there was only silence. " huh... Alba?" Twilight questioned again, this time we noticed she wasn't just silent, but she wasn't here. The mood of the room suddenly changed. " where is she?" Asked twilight.

" I think I know..." I said smiling. I got up from the table and completely forgot about my food. " she probably ran outside while we weren't looking." I said.

" what?" Exclaimed thorn very abruptly. " she went outside, that's not good, it's dangerous out there." He said becoming panicky

" don't worry..." I said getting up from my chair. " I'll go and get her, everything's gonna be fine." I said, at this point the others have already stopped bothering to put any reason in my head as I walked down the hall and out the door into the night outside. The screen door closed behind me and I walked a few feet Outside. It was quite dark outside now, but I could still find my way around. I moved off the deck and down the wooden steps onto the dirt path. I looked around and couldn't see alba. I closed my eyes and everything around me went dark. Soon a wave of energy burst from me and moved outward like sonar lighting everything up in my mind. Soon it passed over alba and I felt her presence as well as see her. She was sitting on top of the barn looking out at the moon. I opened my eyes and the sonar was gone and everything was normal, nothing had really changed though.

I looked over towards the barn and started following the dirt path down towards the red barn. The wind picked up and blew up against my face and made waved in the fields of wheat. Over the fields of wheat I saw a small patch of red roses. They grew like cornstalks and towered up high above the wheat fields. While the roses looked more gorgeous than any others I've ever seen, they were protected by razor sharp thorns and large vines of green. The thorns tangled and whipped around like blades with large roses growing on the, occasionally. I stopped for a second and looked over at the roses. I spread my wings out wide and slowly picked myself up off the ground and fluttered over to the bed of roses. I flew over the fields of golden wheat and hovered just above the roses. If my wings were to stop working suddenly I would be so screwed. I moved down closer to the roses and just as I thought, in the midst of the red and green colors, there was one rose, one special rose. A purple rose with black tips nested comfortably inside a whirlpool of thorns. I wanted to pick it, but I wouldn't be able to with my hooves, the stem is too thick. I floated there for a minute and let out a deep sigh.

I lowered my head into the pit of thorns and roses to grab the rare flower with my teeth. I inched in closer and the thorns already threatened to press against my cheeks and cut me to shreds. I moved carefully but one of the thorns nicked me and dug into my skin. I let out a little wince of pain and pushed my head forward towards the rose. More thorns cut across my face and one thorn sliced me under the eye. They started pricking against my neck now as I repositioned my head to grab the rose. I managed to get the stem in between my teeth and I bit down hard on it. Some of the barbs and thorns on the rose stem cut my tongue and the roof of my mouth but they weren't as bad as the thorns on the outside which sliced and stabbed into my neck. These thorns wouldn't break off now since they are so thickly rooted to the vines they grow on. I tried to gently tug the rose loose, but it was too thick for me to do this gently. I let out another sigh and with all my strength I yanked my head out of the thorn bush and took the rose with me. The thorns sliced all around my neck and face and tore my ears too. I let out a muffled grunt of pain and tried not to make too much noise. I looked back over to the barn and saw alba sitting on the edge still looking up at the moon.

I flew over there with the rose still between my teeth. I floated by her and she didn't notice me next to her, she was too lost in the moon to notice eye flying only a few feet to her left. I fluttered over I front of her and blocked her view of the moon with the rose still in my teeth. The glow of the moon illuminated around my figure and the blueish light wrapped around me and illuminated my own face. It was cut up and bloody with a purple and black rose in my teeth. Alba snapped out of whatever trance she was in and looked at me with shock and awe. I simply smiled at her and floated over to her side. I sat down next to her and she remained completely silent. I placed the rose down next to her and quickly spit out some blood off the barn and looked back to her smiling. She looked at the rose and then back at me. She smiled with an unsure look on her face.

" you're a fool..." She said staring at the rose with a now sincere look spread across her face all complete with a beautiful smile. Some of the darkness around her engulfed her and she seemed to mature into a full grown mare. She was skinny with long black hair and beaming red eyes. She looked at me and smiled. She picked up the rose with her magic and the thorns fell right off. She smiled and placed it between her ear.

" just because I do foolish things doesn't make me a fool." I said smiling. She giggled and opened her smile up slightly before closing it and looking at me with a serious look.

" I can't thank you enough for helping me you know." She said.

" I'm doing what's right..." I said. " watching you suffer is bad enough. But you shouldn't have to make others suffer with you, it doesn't help."

" I know, for as long as I've lived, nopony cared about me." She said. " the truth behind my story is that my parents were horrible ponies, I could only escape them in the forest, they would come back before night fell, so I would come back so they didn't know I was gone, they always had to give me a foal sitter because they didn't trust me on my own, and my foal sitter was a prevented drunk who couldn't care about me, he just got paid to sit around and drink himself dead."

" alba I..." I tried to stop her because tears had started streaming down her face now.

" I never had any friends and the only one I did have pushed me into a reflecting pool and laughed while I was torn apart and tortured for what felt like hours and hours." She said now fully crying. There was nothing I could do but just sit there and let her vent all of her emotions. " I only wanted to be loved..." She said crying. " I only wanted a friends, all of my life I've had to deal with bullies, abuse, and I had to live in a broken home for all my life. My parents fought all the time, I hated the both of them but I didn't want to hear them fight."

" alba..." I said trying one more time but it didn't work.

" now I'm stuck like this... Forced to feel the pain of that one night for the rest of my everlasting life. I moved on hating ponies of all kinds, its only right that they made me out as a monster... Because that's all that I am now... A FUCKING MONSTER!" She roared as she expelled great amounts of magical energy that she used to completely block out the moonlight and turn the whole area around us pitch black. She was crying now with tears falling from her eyes and hitting the ground. Soon... She finally calmed down, but she was still crying frantically. The moon became visible again and the energy coming from her stopped. She poured out tears as she kept crying and hanging her head down low. " and now I can see to what I really am... And I hate myself for what I've become... Because of me, ponies like thorn and rose... Two of the nicest ponies I've ever met, two ponies who don't see me as a monster... They can't have a kid, because they're afraid of me... Who knows how many other ponies out there are like them, who knows how many lives I've ruined like that... I... I can't stand it." She said.

Large tears rolled down her face and she fell to the ground crying and covering her head with her hooves. I sat there and watched the whole thing, I watched this mare pour her heart out at me and just sat there. Hearing her made me think about how many times I made the wrong choices and how many times ponies got hurt because of me. I laid down in front of her as she started crying and placed my head up against hers so our foreheads pressed against each others. All of those feeling got to me too and tears started rolling down my face and I whimpered slightly trying to keep them back. She moved her head back and looked at me, she had stopped crying now and looked at me while I cried. She seemed confused and even more hurt than before, but mostly confused.

" w-why... Why are you crying?" She asked sniffing back her tears.

" because I don't want to see you like this..." I said.

" you don't even know me too well... Why are you crying for me?" She asked.

" I'm not crying for you..." I said. " I'm crying because you remind me of my own darkness..." I said. " I've made poor decisions in the past, and those caused my loved ones to she'd tears, and for all of those times I've built up tears inside of me as well, but I can't let the world know, so I keep them bottled inside of me... All of the fighting, the violence, anger, hatred, sadness, disappointment, and regret that I keep inside of me is killing me, I eats away at me like a cancer, but I keep it inside because I know it would break anyone who saw my true emotions." I said. I sniffed back my tears as well.

" crimson you..."

" alba... Promise me something." I said cutting her off. She was stunned silent and just looked at me. I picked my head up and she could see the tears rolling down my face. " promise me, that when we get through this... Promise me you'll find the forgiveness of the ones you've hurt... I can't find forgiveness yet, because I know that it's too early for that, I would only hurt the ones I loved again, and they would be truly devastated... But please... Do it for yourself." I laid there and everything was silent for a moment.

" I... I will." She said smiling and breaking the silence. " crimson... I'm sorry." She said. I picked my head up in confusion and looked at her. She gave me a heart warming smile that made me slowly smile as well. " I'm sorry I caused you this pain, and the pain I've caused you before." She said. " I'm also sorry that you have to carry my burdens with me, if it was possible to return to the place where my soul died then I would. But I cannot return to that place on my own... Nopony knows what would befall me there... Thank you crimson." She said.

" alba.. I... Mmff." I said before she cut me off with a deep kiss. She pressed her lips up against mine and took me off my guard and caught me by surprise. My eyes grew wide for a second as she closed hers and poured her soul into this one kiss. I didn't resist and I gave back too. This was the only time she could ever feel love and she wanted to be happy, I didn't want her to suffer without knowing what love was either. She leaned forward even more and started pushing me back. It's a good thing the roof of the barn is flat so we don't start rolling off. She placed her hooves over my own and started pressing her tongue Into my mouth. Our tongues danced around for a short while before she pushed herself forwards and I rolled over. She fell on top of me and held herself close to me. She looked down at me with a smile on her face. She blocked out the covered over the moon behind her but not all of it. The moon was huge this night, the radiant moonlight flashed past her and she pressed her hooves against my chest and she glowed brightly from the moonlight. The light wrapped around her and gave her a majestic blueish glow.

Her hair hung down from her head like threads of black shadows that covered over my face like curtains of darkness. She inched herself closer to me and pressed her lips against me again and we locked into a deep kiss. She started shifting and grinding her hips agains try own and a spike of pleasure washed over my body. Even though I wasn't sure, my body was rearing and ready to go, and so was hers. She pulled herself away from my lips and brought her head down to my neck. Her warm breath washed over my neck and gave me the shivers. She bit on my neck lightly and shifted her hips into position. The tip of my cock rested on my stomach and she stabbed her lower lips across it making it nice and wet. She laid the tip of it against her opening and she slowly started pushing me into her. She winced and bit down harder on my neck causing more pain then pleasure. She kept pushing my length into her until I was fully up engulfed my her pulsating pussy. The walls of her vagina pulsed rhythmically forcing waves of pleasure to lapse through my body without her having to even do anything yet. Her face was glowing vividly and her cheeks lit up a bright red as she held her eyes closed tightly as she tried getting used to the new sensation she was feeling.

She let out a soft moan and laid her hooves over my chest and gave me another big kiss on the lips. She moaned again softly and she started slightly shifting her hips up and down making her face even more flushed red. I could feel both of our heartbeats picking up speed and beating together rhythmically. She let out a soft moan in my mouth and slowly pulled herself away. She placed her hooves on my chest and pressed down for leverage. She started bucking her hips up and down and had a pleasure and pain filled expression on her face, she seemed uncomfortable. She let out a shrill moan which sounded like she felt. I looked down to see a trickle of blood running down the base of my shaft. I placed my hooves on her and she stopped and opened her eyes.

" alba... If this is hurting you then stop." I said and she just looked at me.

" it's fine crimson..." She said a bit frantically.

" but you bleeding." I said. She just leaned in and planted a deep kiss on my lips for only a few seconds before pulling away only inches from my face.

" please crimson..." She said looking at me with her big red eyes. " I need this so bad... Please." She said with a single tear in her right eye. I looked at her and felt a sharp guilty feeling running through me. That soon turned into a different feeling, some strange emotion that made me grasp her and roll her over onto her back and force myself back into her causing her to let out a sharp yelp. Her face was flush red again and she let out a pleasure filled moan. I don't know what made me do that, pity, kindness...regret. The more I think about it, she is a lot like me, and we've both suffered, so why don't we deserve to be happy. At least she deserves to be happy, I'm not okay with this because it will haunt me forever, but I'm too nice to deny her happiness before she is laid to rest. I started to buck my hips slowly making sure I don't hurt her. She let out soft moans of pleasure as our bodies brushed and rubbed up against each other. She quivered slightly before letting out a deep moan right before i felt a burst of warm liquid against my ground and lower stomach. She went limp for a second but returned to strength as I started to slow down my pace.

" please... Don't stop." She said noticing me slowing down. " I want you to be happy too... Please." She said in a weak voice. Her voice wasn't necessarily weak, more though she was dazed, lost in pleasure, and in the afterglow of ecstasy. I picked my pace back up still taking it slowly but as I kept thrusting myself into her I became overwhelmed with pleasure and started picking up my pace. She began moaning lightly and she reached up and kissed my neck. I moved my head over and brushed up against hers as I bucked my hips harder and harder. The let out another shrill and deep moan as another burst of warm liquid covered the base of my cock. She grew a bit faint and weak. She was completely taken over by pleasure, I'm pretty sure she couldn't even feel the cool night air or the wooden roof top rubbing against her back. I thrust myself into her harder and harder and I felt a well of pleasure pulsing up inside of me. I kept at my current pace which was considerably fast.

" please... Don't hold back..." She said in a weak voice, a truly weak voice lost in a sea of pleasure. I gave her a big kiss on the mouth and rested my head up against hers. I pushed my whole length into her as quickly as I could over and over. I felt the pleasure in me building up and I was going to burst soon. I too started to make a few grunting noises and moans as well as her. We managed to keep it relatively quiet however. Her eyes were closed, not shut, she wasn't forcing the, closed, but they were just closed, like she was sleeping. She opened up her eyes and look up at me with her big red eyes. She glowed vibrantly in the moonlight as I let out one last main and forced myself deep inside of her. I burst my load in her and grew weak for a short while. She too let out a deep moan of pleasure and grew weak. Once I stopped pumping her full of my seed I stopped and started taking a few deep breaths. She was breathing very heavily too and her breath blew onto my neck just like before.

She was laying there spread out and weak. I pulled my penis out of her and it grew flaccid and returned to its normal state. I bit of cum started to dribble out of her folds and I picked her up. I put all of my remaining strength into flying us off the roof and to the bard doors. I pushed them open with a bit of magic and looked inside. The barn was empty and quiet now, everything was quiet. The others hadn't come in to rest yet or look for us. Off in the distance behind us was a faint glow coming from the farmhouse. I floated into the ban with a very weak and tired alba in my hooves. She remained in her grow up form. I floated over to a large pile of hay and laid her down in the straw. She curled up innocently and smiled. Physically exhausted now, my wings failed me and I ended up falling right into the pile of straw next to her. I smiled and closed my eyes.

" c-crimson..." Said alba causing me to sprout back to life for a few more seconds to look over to her. When I looked over I saw that she had a big smile on her face. " thank you..." She said leaning over and giving me on least little kiss on the lips before resting her head on my chest and placing one hoof on,y stomach. She closed her eyes and nodded off to sleep with a smile on her face. I know the look on her face, it's the utter definition of happiness... I see it more often than other ponies. You can only make that smile once you've truly lost it all. Only when you know true pain can you then know true happiness. And her true happiness, truly makes me happy. I ended up falling asleep as well with a bright smile on my face too. I slowly started fading away until I was in a world of dreams and bliss.

I stayed in that dream world of blissful ignorance until my body started pulling me back to life and I began regaining all of my senses. I could feel a presence I front of me. It must be Alba waking up next to me. The thought made me smile slightly before I let out a deep yawn and I could feel everything around me now. The itchy straw poking my back and the cool morning air. The chirping of birds and a very loud... Sound... From the oxen, I don't really know what sound an ox makes really. It's a weird sort of moo... But, not like a cow... More like, well... And ox. Anyway, I soon became aware and not only could I feel Alba's presence I front of me but I could feel the weight of her hooves on the straw next to me and the gentle breeze of her breath. Then... As my senses started tuning themselves better I felt some weight on my chest and stomach. I made it out to be a head and hoof... But if... Then that means. Without sparing any time I shot my eyes open and my smile faded to see twilight staring me in the face. The expression spread across her face beckoned death. In other words, she was fucking pissed.

"Crimson!" she shouted out. Her words cut through my ears. "I can't believe you…" she said. I knew it… this is it, this is how I die. She's going to kill me now, I can tell. she probably went to check on us and saw me and alba having sex on top of the barn and now she's going to kill me…crap. Oh well, I have to man up, and take this like a real stallion.

"Twilight… I uh… I can explain." I said nervously.

"you ran off last night without saying anything and leaving thorn and rose worried sick about you, then we find you here with alba, who might I add is a bit older than we last saw her… and now your face is all cut up… crimson… what the hell?" she said. I laid there confused out of my mind waiting for her eyes to just start glowing with anger… but she seemed calmer now. She must not know… I don't know who to thank for my fortune… but thanks whoever is making me the luckiest bastard on the earth. I stayed silent for a mere second more only to think of a series of quick lies to tell her if I should.

"Uh… sorry twilight." I said. "Me and Alba were just out here talking about our feelings and I guess the time got ahead of us and we ended up falling asleep… sorry." I said.

"Alright…well… why is your face all cut up?" she asked.

"Oh… before I talked to Alba I plucked her this rose out of thorns rose garden out there, it's a mess of thorns, and I couldn't pick it with my hoof, so I used my teeth… it seemed like a good idea at the time." I said. Twilight giggled and smiled at me.

"You're an idiot." She said lying down in the straw with me. As she moved I could see it was still dark outside, not as dark, but certainly very early now, she must have just woken up and decided she needed to talk to me or something.

"Alba said something just like that last night." I said.

"She called you an idiot." Twilight said with a smug look and an equally smug smile on her face.

"well… not exactly." I said rolling my hoof. "she called me a fool. And do you know what I said back to her?" I asked.

"please don't tell me you called her a cunt or something." She said.

"what the… no… I cant believe you would say that." I said. she started giggling.

"it was a joke… what did you say to her?" she asked

"I said, just because I do foolish things doesn't make me a fool." I said looking twilight in her deep purple eyes.

"I think it does." She said. I let out a big sigh.

"I thought you of all ponies would get that." I said.

"no.. I do… that was another joke… and its true, crimson you're not a fool, you're my fried, everyponies friend. And you're a great guy… you just don't think about things sometimes… and you always end up the same way… hurt." Said twilight resting her head next to my neck. " I don't like seeing you hurt crimson,.. I know every time you'll be okay… but… it still makes me worried. Because whenever you do get hurt, that one thought goes through my mind, that one thought that makes me wonder that if you fell… what I would do if you never got back up… what would any of us do if you never got back up."

"That won't ever happen… I promise." I said.

"When everypony thought you were dead for those months after my brother's wedding other ponies just broke down… it was horrible. I walked around with a hollow and empty feeling inside of my gut for as long as I can remember… so promise me right now." She said looking me dead in the eyes with a serious face. "Promise me that you will get back up… promise me that you'll be there until the end." She said. She had become very serious with emotions and I felt like if I said no then she would break down and cry.

"Yes… I promise, I'll always get back up and ill do so with a smile on my face for all to see… you can bet your life on that." I said with a big smile. A small tear rolled down the side of twilight face and I used my wing to brush the tear away. She smiled and leaned over to give me a small kiss of the cheek. She laid her head back down by my neck and closed her eyes.

"Thank you crimson…" she said smiling. I smiled too and closed my eyes. I rested my head above hers and grasped her tight. On my other side Alba who must have been awake tapped me on the shoulder causing me to look over to see her smiling face. She smiled at me and gave me a small kiss on the lips, twilight luckily didn't notice. Alba pulled herself closer to me and hugged my body like a stuffed bear. I could feel all three of our hearts beating in harmony. Both twilights breath and Alba's washed over me and their warm bodies kept me nice and warm too. I flapped out both of my wings and used them to cover the two mares. We all had big smiled on our faces as we kept our eyes closed to slowly drift back to sleep. However, this touching moment didn't last too long. Soon the entire barn echoed with a thundering slam followed by an ear shattering bell ring. It scared everypony awake, even thunder and martukus who were sleeping over on the other side of the barn in separate piles of straw. We all shot up at the same time and looked over to the source of the noise. To our surprise the sky outside was just beginning to light up. The thing that had waked us up was nopony other than thorn who had kicked open the barn doors and was ringing a large and rusted brass bell. Shocked that he would see Alba I looked over to her as to warn her to change back. When I looked at her she was smiling at me, she was also about a few feet shorter with stubby legs and a big childish smile… she's not just smart but quick too.

"Alright y'all… time to get up… breakfast!" he said. That was a good enough excuse to get up as any. I shrugged and got up with the others. We started making our way out of the barn and to the farmhouse. I looked down at alba who still had that rose in her ear, just like twilight fire dais she kept between her ear. Looking at Alba while she was a small filly was a bit… well… unsettling… considering the events that took place the other night. I just have to keep reminding myself that its only a disguise and that she's over 500 years old… which still doesn't help as much. I shook the idea from my head so it doesn't distract me and I moved onward towards the house. Once we got to the house rose was in the kitchen with a towering plate of pancakes sitting on the table. We walked in and the others eyed the pancakes with ravenous hunger and insatiable want.

"sweet merciful god of flap jacks…" said thunder taking a seat at the table.

"Oh I'm sorry…" said rose looking back from the sink where she was cleaning up the dishes. "Did I make too much?" she asked worriedly.

"Not enough if you ask me." Said martukus. Also taking a seat. We laughed and soon everypony took a seat at the table. We distributed the pancakes evenly and everypony started to dig in. we passed along syrup and butter and we ate pancakes like nopony has ever eaten pancakes before… maybe not, but seriously… we destroyed those pancakes. There was nothing left… no survivors. I finished my whole plate of pancakes just like everypony else, even Alba who received just as many pancakes as the rest of us completely wiped out her plate.

"Hot damn that was good." I said resting back in my chair.

"Agreed…" said thunder and twilight together. We sat there for a while and talked about a bunch of things. I had to explain to thorn and rose that the quest we were on was going to defeat the dark lady that they feared so much, but I didn't have the heart to tell them that the dark lady was the little filly sitting right next to them. We talked about the matter for a while and I assured them to not be afraid of starting a family. It took a bit but after some time I managed to relieve them and they both thanked me. We carried on a few conversations over tea and cookies, but before long I had to end the conversation, it was time to get going. I finished the rest of my tea and stood up from the chair. Everypony in the room was quiet now and set their eyes on me.

"Thank you… thorn and rose… for everything." I said. "It means a lot to find such generous ponies such as yourselves, but… we should be going now, we ant afford to waste time. Even though it wasn't even noon yet and it was still very early we needed to get going, we can't waste time.

"Alright… I see." Said thorn. "Well y'all should get going now if you're going to save the day on time." He said smiling.

"you aren't going to give us a ride into town?" asked twilight who was getting up now with the others.

"No ma'am… those oxen are slow, not as fast as us ponies… I only use them to carry around heavy loads of crops and produce across long distances… no point in using them to carry y'all to the city; it would be faster on hoof."

"Alright... Then this is goodbye." I said.

"Not necessarily… I'm convinced that we'll meet again." He said

"I'm sure we will…" I said. We started to move out of the house and we all gathered outside of the farmhouse in the bright and early morning. There was a light gust in the air that cooled us all down. "next time I sail to stallasia, ill be sure to come and visit… and the next time you're visiting in equestria, look for a town called ponyville… you can find me there." I said as me and the other started heading down the path away from the farmhouse with all of our bags and supplies.

"We'll be sure to… take care… and good luck." Shouted thorn since we were a distance away now. I turned and smiled as we all waved goodbye. We turned back and rounded the corner back onto the big dirt road towards the city which was now very visible from this point. There weren't any tall buildings, maybe a few but they were wide spread. It was mostly a large mass of building. It looked like the place to be in this country. We started walking down the path with smiles on our faces. We made a good distance from the farmhouse to the city in a few minutes but it would probably take us an hour of two on hoof to walk there, that's not much of a problem, since it's so early, we would probably make it there before noon. As we walked I felt the cool breeze blow my hair back and press against my face. The warm sunlight shone down on us and beat down on our necks and backs. The chirping of birds filled the air and it was starting to feel like summer. Which is strange since we left the equestrian continent towards the end of winter, this place must be naturally warm like this, and it must be nice? I looked over to Alba who was still a small filly.

"are you sure you want to stay like that?" I asked directing my question to her. She looked down at herself for a second and smiled.

"Oh.. Forgot I was like this… I guess I could change." She said. She leapt around and then jumped into the tall wheat field to our left and completely disappeared. There was a bit of rustling in the tall wheat and there was a strange sound coming from the field, its best described as sounding like magic. A magical sound emitted form the field as the light around it seemed to fade for a second before everything went back to normal. There was more rustling and soon a long and slender mare stepped out of the wheat with grey fur and black hair all tied together with big red eyes. "Ah… much better." She said with a smile. She stopped for a second to stretch her back by leaning back and arching her spine much how a dog stretches. We kept moving ahead and when she was good she trotted back over and joined us. She still seemed a bit childish at heart but she had the mindset and body of a fully grown female. She was like a teenager if you think about it. Thunder and martukus glared at her questionably with suspicion but she just played cute and winked at them. They froze for a second and Alba giggled. They regained composure and caught up with us. Twilight tried to stop herself from giggling but she couldn't help but put a hoof to her mouth. I just smiled and walked on.

As we walked Alba and twilight stayed lose to me while thunder and martukus now took the back of the group. We stayed to the left side of the road incase a carriage or cart comes by. We kept making our way down the road and the air was warm and dry. The sun beat down hard on the road and lit up the world. A small gust of wind picked up and blew up against our faces. The wind blew my hair back and soon settled to a cool breeze. The golden fields of wheat that bordered the road soon came to an abrupt end and there was just a small strip of ordinary field with a white fence running along the length of it. On the other side of the fence there were trees, apple trees. The air started to smell sweet like the apples growing on the trees. The trees soon became thick and started covering over the path. We kept walking and looking around. As I gazed around my eyes glazed over a big green apple hanging from one of the trees. I smiled and flapped my wings to fly up to it. I flew up and plucked the apple from the tree before touching back down between twilight and alba. I held the apple up with my magic and took a big bite of it.

"What are you doing?" Asked twilight glaring at me.

" what?" I said with my mouth still full of apple. " I like the green ones better... Oh sorry, did you want one too?" I asked swallowing.

"that's stealing you know." She replied.

"oh c'mon... It's one apple." I said. " it's not like I stole the whole tree... You need to relax a little... What's got you so worked up?" I asked.

" uh... Nothing, never mind." She said looking away with a strange look.

" do you wanna talk about it?" I asked taking another bite of the green apple.

" uh... No... It's fine, I guess the stress of this all is finally starting to get to me." She said.

" I was wondering when you would snap... Don't worry you'll be fine." Said thunder behind me.

" she isn't going to snap." I said. I turned back and took another bite of my apple and looked over at twilight. " sure you don't want an apple?" I asked.

" if I wanted one I would have gotten one already." She said smiling back at me. Meanwhile alba behind us shot out a tentacle of darkness Into one of the apple trees and grabbed a big juicy red apple. She pulled it over and held it up with her dark tentacle. I looked over just as she sunk her teeth into it and it made a satisfying crunch. She chewed it with a smile on her face and swallowed.

" I like the red ones more," she said smiling. I smiled back at her.

" I'll have to agree with her." Said martukus using his magic to pick one of the red apples from the trees. " the red ones are better."

" what, do you guys have rocks for tastebuds?" Asked thunder picking a big green apple from the tree. " the red ones don't have enough kick to them, the green ones are better." Thunder took a big bite out of the green apple and some of the juices dribbled down his chin but he wiped them off and smiled. We all looked to twilight.

" well twi... It's dead even, your the tie breaker... Which one is better, the green ones, or the red?" I asked. She looked over at me with a bit of uncertainty, but smiled and her horn started to glow.

" I like the red ones more." She said pulling a big red apple form one of the trees with her magic and sinking her teeth into it. Martukus and alba laughed and me and thunder smiled.

" in your face." Said alba nudging me. I smiled and nudged her back lightly. Thunder and martukus got into a bit of a nudging fight after martukus stuck his tongue out at thunder. We laughed for a bit and ate our apple that we...borrowed. I took one last bite of my apple and threw the core back into the fields to decompose. The others finished theirs too and did the same. We kept making our way down the road with smiles on our faces and our stomachs satisfied for the time. The city was growing ever closer and we should probably be there in the next half hour. My hooves where starting to get a bit sore but I pulled up some energy to rejuvenate my body and relax my muscles. I took one more step and then my ears started to pick something up. They perked up and twitched as I stopped. I stood there and the others stopped too. I turned my head so that I could find pick up on the sound more easily. It sounded like a cart, I could hear the turning wheels running down the road, but... I heard more than just one set of wheels. It sounded like an entire caravan was coming.

" do you guys hear that?" I asked.

" yeah... Sounds like a couple carriages are coming this way." Said thunder.

" no... It's more than just a couple." I said. The noise soon grew louder and ver the crescent of the hill a large and fancy looking carriage came flying down the road, followed by one after another. They where being pulled by ponies in silver armor. The carriages seemed to take up the whole road. " move!" I ordered dodging out of the way and hopped over the fence into the apple orchard. The others did the same just in time for the first carriage to come barreling down the road. Then another followed it, and another. Carriage after carriage rolled down the road. Each one was exactly the same being pulled by two ponies in silver and jewel encrusted armor. These carts must be pulling important ponies, but why are there so many? We sat there waiting for the carts to clear the street. We waited, about fifteen carriages later the train of carts ended and we hopped back onto the road. We looked down the road to see the long train of carriages heading to the city trailing dust behind them.

" what the hell was that?" Said twilight.

" seemed like they were in a rush." Said thunder.

" those were awfully fancy for such a small city." Said martukus. " they couldn't be royalty could they?" He asked looking over to me. I just kept my gaze on the carts.

" no... I don't like this." I said. " something feels wrong... And my guess is that were going to end up finding out whether we like it or not."

" yeah probably." Replied twilight.

" we shouldn't take chances, if we can convince the ponies here that were adventurers then we can make ourselves renowned off the bat, which might help us avoid complications." I said massing my energy and glowing brightly. I shone like a star and bright white armor appeared all over my body coating me in a full suit of spiked armor. I put on my skull mask and the hood and cape and flexed out my wings which blew brightly and sent out a flurry of white sparks. The symbols on my body started lighting up and I took a deep breath in and out. Martukus had the same idea and was wearing his similar black armor and hood.

" don't go hogging all of the fame." Said alba. " I am the lady of the dark after all." She said smiling. She blinked and suddenly her red eyes where nothing but black as a gust of wind picked up our shadows and covered her in darkness. Once the darkness dissipated she was wearing a full metal dress. It was like a normal wedding styled dress... But made of black steel. She wore a gold necklace of a skull and her eyes stayed black and hollow. She blinked one more time and her red eyes returned to her.

" hey wait a minute..." Said twilight. " me and thunder don't have any armor." She said. I forgot about that.

" would you like some?" I asked in a serious tone.

" uh... Sure." She said taken back a bit.

" what would you too like?" I asked.

" something slick..." Said thunder getting a bit excited. " like my old armor... That is now destroyed." He said.

" I think a regular battle Mage dress would do for me." Said twilight.

" okay... Hold on." I said. I blinked once and my eyes started glowing through my mask and rays of light shot down from the sky and engulfed twilight and thunder. They soon became invisible from outside and I worked my magic. The thoughts of their armor raced through my mind and they started glowing brightly. The light soon faded and they stood there fully clothed in a cloud of smoke. Once the smoke was gone we saw what they were wearing. I gave thunder his original dragon scale armor back but instead of being all dark and scratched it was vibrantly white and well polished, like brand new. Twilight was now wearing a rather tight dress with lots of ribbons on it. It was dark colored like her natural colors but with white stripes. It was mostly cloth with some protective leather padding underneath just in case. "There how's that?" I asked rather exhausted now from using up some magical energy.

"Wow... This is amazing, I love it." Said twilight smiling.

"It's just like my old armor... Nice!" Exclaimed thunder. I smiled at the two of them and we started to make our way back down the road once again. It didn't take us too long before we reached the entrance to the city. There wasn't a big fancy gate or anything; it was just a path leading into the city. I stopped for a second and used my senses to look over the city. The others stopped too and looked over at me. They didn't say anything, they just looked. I could definitely tell that something felt strange, I don't know what… but I don't trust the place. I took a deep breath in and out and started moving onward once again. The others still made no comment and we all moved into the city in a group. There were a lot of houses here that looked pretty nice. The building that I could see up ahead seemed quite large. There were large stone houses with archways and paths winding all around the place. I looked around and saw all the ponies walking around and they all gave us strange looks. And by strange looks, I mean really strange looks. These ponies looked at us like they were confused and unsure of how they should feel about us.

"Kimiko… look out." said a mare to our side. I looked over to see her staring at something in the street and I felt something in front of us. I stopped abruptly and looked down to see a little filly standing in the street. She was brown with dark blue hair and magenta eyes. If I hadn't stopped I might have stepped on her and probably killed her. She looked up to us and stuck out like a sore thumb. She gave us this kind of smile that beckoned hope and happiness. The little filly's mother ran out and nudged her daughter along to the other side of the street. "Let's go kimiko… lets go." She said.

"Wait… are you here to help us?" asked the little filly running from her mother back over to me.

"Huh?" I said looking down to the adorable filly who is to blissfully ignorant to know that I could pose an immediate danger to her.

"Kimiko don't bother them." Said the filly's mother. "Im sorry… don't mind her." Said the mother sympathetically dragging her filly away. The other four behind me exchanged looks between each other and waited for me to do the talking.

"Wait ma'am…" I said stopping the mare; she seemed to freeze solid like she was staring death in the eye. "What's the matter… is something wrong?" I asked.

"No no… everything's fine, you know how children can be, don't worry everything's just fine here." She said nervously. I looked her dead in the eyes.

"So there's something wrong then…" I suggested. She seemed to freeze for a second.

"No... I said there's nothing wrong." She said shaking her head in denial. Out of the corner of my eye I could see twilight giving me a strange looks as if she was confused to what I was doing.

"But there is something wrong… I've been an adventurer long enough to know when a pony needs help… and the look in your eyes is begging me to help you." I said. "Plus… you're kind of a bad liar." I said shrugging and smiling.

"You… you're an adventurer… all five of you." She said trembling now. She seemed to be in a state of denial and disbelief. "I can't believe it… thank avo." She said smiling now. All the other ponies around were starting to lighten up too.

"Of course we're adventurers." Said twilight. "What else would we be?"

"I thought you were all part of the silver saber." She said looking around conspicuously.

"What's the silver saber?" I asked.

"A group of royal jackasses that have been running this city into the ground for the last five years." Said an elderly mare from the left of us. We turned our attention to her as she walked over with her cane. She looks like she's seen better days, that's for sure. "If you five are here to stop them and run them out of town then we would truly be in your debt, and you would have the blessings of the whole town."

"We didn't come here to stop them…" I said. The mood quickly changed back to its original depressed state. "But if there's a problem than we will take care of it, I promise you that." I said. And just like that the mood started rising one more. "All we ask in return is a quick method of transportation and a place where we can resupply." I said.

"You could take the cullis gate." Said one mare to the right. Already we started gathering a crowd of eager and hopeful ponies.

"Cullis gate?" I said. "What's that?"

"It's a portal that links all the cities together." Said the mother of the little filly from before.

"Won't be any use…" said the elderly mare. "They shut them all down; they don't want adventurers like you five to just teleport in and out of this city willy-nilly and cause trouble. They know that the woods surrounding the whole city are too dangerous to take a hike through for most ponies… but you made it. You must be able to help us right." She said.

"Well it seems that we have a conflict of interests…" I said. "I was hoping to get through this city quickly but seeing as how we need the cullis gates to work and you need somepony to deal with these silver saber's it would appear we've reached an impasse… so we will help you." I said. The other ponies started to silently cheer in hope. "But can I ask what the silver saber has done that is so wrong?" I asked.

"They came into the city five years ago and took over." Said the filly's mother. "They used this as a station to commute trade through. With trade moving through the city and not into it, the economy has plummeted into the ground and forced us all into poverty... And it all began with those damn crossroads they built in the middle of town."

"Where are the crossroads?" asked twilight.

"You're standing on them deary." Said the elderly mare. I glanced at the road and did notice it had been one of the largest roads here. "This is the north west road that leads right into heart of the beast. A mass trading hub set up in the center of the city." She said pointing her cane down the road to a huge coliseum that towered over everything else in the city.

"It's a massive trading area that wandering travelers walk into and trade what they please. And of course none of them are actually merchants in the city or townsfolk, so whatever business is done in that place is separate from the city and doesn't help the economy whatsoever."

"What do they gain from this?" asked thunder speaking up now.

"They put a large tax on the four entrances to the trading hub so that they make sure they're making some money too." Said the mare.

"it was bad enough when they set up the hub, but now the ponies that guard it patrol the entire city like they own the place…" said the elderly mare. I looked down towards the huge coliseum and gazed at it with intensity. Just then two large ponies in silver armor came strolling down the street. They rushed over and pushed through the crowd.

"What's going on here… break it up?" One of them shouted. Their voices instantly struck fear into the hearts of the other ponies as they all backed away and cowered in fear of the two armored and well armed guards. "I said break it up." He said pushing a stallion onto the ground. He stood above him like he was going to kick him.

"HEY!" I shouted causing everything to become silent. I put a bit of energy into that shout so they heard me right. "you leave that poor stallion alone… if you're going to pick on somepony… then pick on me." I said. The two guards looked over to me with anger in their eyes and they walked over.

"You there…" one of them said. "You five are violation of several laws." Said the guard.

"Yeah… which ones?" I asked.

"Public disturbance, unauthorized organization of a party, and possession of war like material, disregard for the guaa…" he stopped there. He didn't really stop; I got tired of his voice, so while he was distracted reading off fake laws I picked my head up and crashed my forehead down on his own head. I head-butted him so hard he fell right to the ground unconscious… hopefully, even his helmet was dented in to the spot that I hit him. He fell silent and the other guard took a step back as his eyes shrunk into his head. The town's ponies looked at me like I had just committed murder… I might as well have.

"You just… but…" the guard stammered. "You just knocked him out in one blow."

"Yeah I know… I was there." I said taking a few steps towards the guard who now drew his spear and pointed it at me. The other four just watched me like it was nothing.

"Get back… I'm warning you." He said.

"You're not going to stab me with that now, are you? That isn't very nice." I said smiling. He was shaking in his own boots so badly I almost felt like laughing at him. While he was distracted at me and scared out of his mind I shot two tentacles of light out from underneath me. One of the tentacles yanked the spear out of his hooves and the other one tied around his hind legs and hoisted him up into the air. He screamed in terror and I threw the spear to the side of the road. I pulled him in close to me.

"Oh god… avo please, put me down." He said.

"don't worry I will…" I said. "first you got to tell me what I want to know.

"I will… ill tell you anything… just, please… don't hurt me." He said. He was pathetic, its ponies like him that disgust me. He was so scared he looked like he was about to cry. In fact he started trembling and shaking as a transparent yellow liquid started running down his silver armor and dribbling across his face onto the ground… I can't believe the guy just pissed all over himself. The other ponies around us tried not to laugh but they started giggling and chuckling. I could tell now that this guy was on the verge of tears.

"Dude… gross." Said thunder.

"Eewww…" said twilight and Alba in unison.

"you could at least have some dignity…" I said. "Oh well… too late now, that's gone now just like your bladder." I said making a joke and laughing at it. "Now… tell me, who is running the silver saber?" I asked.

"Our leader… general saber!" he said frantically.

"and where is he?" I asked.

"in the trading hub, it's also a command hub, he's at the top. That large square section that sits higher than the rest… now please put me down." He begged squealing his secrets like a pig. I just smiled lightly and the tentacle around his legs vanished and he fell to the ground landing face first into his puddle of piss below him. He frantically scrambled to his hooves and ran away on the verge of tears. The ponies cheered. Seeing that must have been a real boost to their confidence. I smiled and turned to face twilight and the others.

"Well it looks like we've got a quest on our hooves." I said making the ponies gathered around us smile and cheer some more. I used a tentacle of light to grab the bags strapped to my waist and unbuckle them. I held them up and used another tentacle to tear them in half. "I need two of you to go and boost the economy, go and distribute all the money in these bags to the rest of the town… twilight and Alba can you do this?" I asked.

"sure crimson…" twilight said as she and alba nodded and agreed. I passed them the bags and looked to thunder and martukus.

"I need you two to go and take out any guards in the city and block the crossroads in any way you can." I said. "try not to kill any of the guards… just beat them up until they're out cold, if they do pose a threat though, then don't hold anything back."

"Sure thing…" said martukus.

"Ha… sounds like fun." Added thunder. I nodded at them and they both bolted off to do their job.

"Twilight can a see your bags please?" I asked.

"Sure thing." She said tossing me her saddlebags.

"I need to play the part of a trader, but I can promise that the trading hub and general saber are going down." I said strapping on the bags. "We'll all meet up back here when were done." I said. The others nodded and went off to do their jobs I bolted off down the street towards the large hub ready to take it down. I ran down the street getting closer and closer to the hub as I started devising my plan. I do need to take the thing down, but I should probably scare everypony out of their first before tearing it down. As I sprinted towards the coliseum trading hub I started to slow down since I was getting much closer now and I didn't want to attract any attention to myself. I slowed down to a slow walk and began approaching the toll gate. As I drew near a sudden wave of realization washed over my body… I can't pay the toll…CRAP! I gave all of our money to twilight and Alba. All I've got in my bags are food and lantern oil… crap. I started running ideas through my head at light speed as I slowly approached the gate, but by the time I reached the gate I still had nothing.

"Halt… you have to pay the toll." Said the guard. There were four guards. Two facing inside and two facing the outside. "The toll is 20 gold pieces." He said. If the currency here is like that of the countries bordering equestria then nopony in their right mind would step within a hundred miles of this place. I'm sure the currency is nothing like that. It can't be, after all we did do some shopping in the port a while back… well, at that time I was blind too, I don't really know… still, crap.

"Uhm…" I stammered.

"Help help… adventurers are in the city." Said a scared sounding voice to the right of me. The guards turned over to see who it was. I did the same and saw a guard running down the street with tears rolling down his cheeks and fear in his eyes. He stopped briefly and stared at me and his eyes shrunk even more. I stared at him in confusion for a second then the smell hit me. This guy reeked of piss and sadness; this was the same pony from before. "IT'S YOU!" he said sprouting to life and jumping back. "RUN!" he said turning tail and bolting. Needless to say the other guards were confused and now very suspicious of me… which gave me the perfect idea.

"Hey… who are you?" asked one of the guards shoving me. In one fell swoop and without any warning a forced a mass of energy to the surface of my body in the form of dark shadows and exploded like a bomb blowing wide open the whole entire west gate. The screaming of ponies filled the air as smoke started to funnel out of the hole I made and into the air. I walked into the trading hub with a wicked smile on my face and dark magic surrounding me. I looked in and saw the whole place was a mess of stalls and carts with ponies selling things out of the back, like one huge flee market. I walked in and all the ponies gazed at me with fear as their eyes shrunk inside of their heads. It wasn't long before a few ponies started panicking and running from their stations. I took that opportunity to use my magic to flood the place with black smoke and start flipping over stalls creating mass chaos. It wasn't long before the mass fear spread like a virus and everypony was running from my rampage. I made sure not to hurt any innocent ponies. But that didn't stop me from throwing a few stalls at some of the defending guards.

"RUN… it's some kind of monster!" yelled one guard running away from me. I started grabbing guards with my tendrils and throwing them at stalls and into boxes and barrels to knock them out, I didn't want to hurt anypony. I hid myself in my shadows and took on the role of a monster. As I walked around and started lashing out at the walls of the building and started breaking holes in the foundation to weaken it. I don't need it destroyed just yet. Most of the ponies were gone now and only guards remained. I let out a fearsome roar and exhaled fire onto all the wooden carts and stalls. The piles of wooden barrels, boxes, carts, and stalls all soon caught fire and the whole place was now a blazing inferno of darkness and fire. I smacked around the guards with my tentacles and threw them around. I noticed a large group of heavily armored guards heading my way. I turned and shot a large bolt of dark energy at them. It exploded in the middle of them in a black cloud of darkness and smoke sending them flying across the field. I let out one last fearsome roar before I heard a voice.

"You there, monster… you will pay." Said a deep voice. Curious I looked over to see a large stallion flying high above the smoke holding a large silver claymore in both hooves and wearing large silver armor. He had white hair with a grey coat and his eyes were blue, well… one of them was. The left eye was scarred and covered up with an eye patch. "You think you can come in here and destroy everything I've worked for… you will pay." He said crashing down to the ground with a large thud and picking up his claymore which he rested over his shoulder. I started laughing in a sort of demonic voice which quickly faded as I dispelled all of my shadows from me and started glowing bright white. He could now fully see me as I just glared at him with a burning gaze.

"I'm a monster?" I asked. "I'm not sure about that… but I know what you are… a filthy parasite." I said drawing the sword I keep at my side and holding it with my wings.

"A parasite… how dare you foreigner."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Only a foreigner would be so foolish enough to walk through those woods to the city." He said.

"You shouldn't judge your enemies…" I said. "Only a fool takes his enemies for granted… I can guarantee you that the second you underestimate me is the second you will fall."

"Why have you come here to destroy all that I've worked for… you must be some kind of evil that can survive in the sunlight?" He said.

"I'm evil?" I said as we circled each other with our swords drawn. "Your precious trading hub has been sucking this city dry for years… and now you think you own the place."

"This IS my city…!" he said yelling and getting quite angry. "And now you've come in and destroyed it."

"No... Just this." I said. "Back down now, and no harm will come to you… stay and fight… and I will kill you if need be."

"if you want this city so bad… you'll have to pry it from my old dead body." He roared charging at me. He swung his sword at me and I dodged it. I swung at him and he blocked. We started exchanging blows over and over without making any hits. He is a good swordspony. I swung again and again and he did too. He blocked all of my attacks, but I only parried and dodged his. That claymore of his is huge and blocking it head on would be a smart idea with my smaller blade. He swung once and I dodged out of the way but he just barely scratched my mask. I flew back and skidded slightly before lashing out at him again. I went for a strong attack but I was foolish and left my guard open. He leapt towards me while swinging his wings with all his might and ramming me. We went flying backwards and up high into the sky. He flapped his wings and carried me with him. The hit took the air out of me for a second but I caught my breath only to feel something smash into my back. He had pushed me through the wall of the trading hub and we went careening through the air. We started falling but he repositioned himself so that he bucked me towards the ground.

I fell and hit the ground with a loud thud as I bounce back a few more feet. I had landed in the middle on a crowded street. Ponies soon began clearing the way and looking in shock. I was too distracted to see that the general was heading right for me. He dived down at me from the air yelling out with a battle cry. He gripped his sword tight and reared back for a devastating blow. I quickly propped my sword up just in time to block the attack. The force of his attack started to push against my sword but I managed to redirect the energy to my left and shoved him to the side. He tumbled over himself to my left but gained his composure one last time and got back up. I too quickly got back onto my hooves. I was a bit shocked from the ordeal but I pulled myself together and ran towards him yelling out my own battle cry, once again we started clashing swords. We didn't bother to block anymore we just started hitting our swords together in the hopes to get a hit in. the clashing of iron filled the air as sparks flew from our steel and fell to the street. The other surrounding ponies gathered around and watched.

I went to slice him and let out a powerful side swipe. While he blocked it I spun around facing away from him and took him by surprise. I reared my hind legs and bucked him square in the chest. I could feel the silver armor he was wearing bend under the force of my kick. I also felt a few faint cracks from the kick through my hooves. He let out a grunt of pain as he flew back a few feet and rolled through the street. He came to a stop on his back and got back up. It was too late; I was already on top of him. I flew inches over him with my sword in my teeth. I spun in the air and slashed him across the chest. My blade ripped through his armor and he let out a cry of pain. In the air I also made the effort to buck him once more in the face to get a boost and fly forward a few inches and land on the edge of the crowd who watched intensely.

He got back up and I could see the immense hatred in his eyes. He charged at me with his sword in a flurry of slices and slashes. I dodged and parried each one. He went for the overhead strike but was too slow so I slashed a weak spot in his armor near his upper hind leg. He let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground while dropping his sword. His sword hit the ground with a clang and he hit the dirt with a thud. He went to grab his sword but I kicked it far away from him and held the tip of my blade to his throat. He looked me in the eyes with anger and I glared back at him with a confident look. The crowd around us started cheering my victory. He squirmed a bit but I kept one of my hind hooves pressed on the wound on his hind leg and placed one hoof on his chest where I slashed him. He tried pushing me off but I forced him back down and moved the tip of my blade closer to his neck.

"Alright… alright…" he said putting his hooves up in surrender. "You win…" he said. "just don't kill me… I'll do whatever ,I'll get out, I'll leave the city and never come back, just please… show mercy." He said with dignity.

"I think that you are an evil and despicable pony." I said. "but… I have no reason to truly hate you… so I will spare you, but I'm leaving you to the fate of the townsfolk. My companions have already taken out all the guards in the city and are currently distributing wealth though the city to boost the economy… I will ask that you leave this place… and one other thing." I said sheathing my sword.

"What… anything?" he asked.

"How do you activate the cullis gates?" I asked.

"Simple… it just takes a bit of magic to open them back up, any pony with magical power can activate them." He said. I glared at him one last time and stepped off of him. I turned around without saying anything and started to walk off. I took two steps before I felt a sharp pain in my lower leg which caused me to cry out in pain and fall to my knees. "Too bad you won't need It." said the general behind me. I looked back in shock to see he was now holding two sharp silver daggers, I didn't even see those. The townsfolk had horrified looks on their faces. He sunk the other knife into my other leg higher up than the other leg. I yelled in pain and he pulled the other dagger from my lower left leg and stabbed me in the flank. He climbed up me using his daggers like ice picks. He pulled them both out and stabbed me right in the back with both of them. I let out a blood curdling cry of pain as he twisted the daggers in my wounds and I coughed up a small puddle of blood. He stood up and pulled the daggers from my back. He kicked my side and I rolled over onto my back still coughing up blood and yelling in pain.

"DAMN YOU…" I said yelling out in anger and pain. He just loomed over me with a smile on his face. i felt my heart start to slow down and my body start to unwillingly relax.

"What was that you said about underestimating your opponent?" he said stabbing another dagger square in the middle of my chest. I let out another cry of pain. He smiled as I cried out in pain while he twisted the dagger in my wound. With a smile on his face he grabbed my mask and ripped it off to look me in the eye. He stabbed me again in the stomach and threw my mask onto the ground. My cry of pain slowly died down and picked up into a subtle laughter. My laughter caused his expression to change drastically. I placed both hooves over his hoof and held on. "What… what are you doing?" he asked.

"I said that the second you underestimate me… is the second you lose." I said. I blinked once and my eyes started glowing. My whole being at this point started glowing and suddenly the ground broke underneath us and light started shining through the cracks. "And you've just lost." I said.

"Wait… no." he said. I let out a fearsome shout as the ground shattered and engulfed the two of us in a great beam of light that rocketed into the sky and tore apart any clouds above. The incredible brilliance of the beam of light made everything else seem like it was nighttime. The blast shattered the ground under me and shook the earth. All I could hear were the screams of the general as the light slowly tore him apart until he had been completely disintegrated by the blast. The light washed over my body and started covering my wounds. The blast soon started to become calmer and the earth stopped shaking. The beam grew smaller and smaller until it was gone now with me standing there, fully healed and fully armed. Once the smoke cleared and the rumbling stopped and all the towns' ponies looked over to me after they stopped shielding their eyes they all began to cheer. I just smiled and sat down on the road.

They all started crowding around me and praising me for saving their town from being sucked dry. I just sat there and smiled and thanked them. A surge of pain washed back over my whole body as the wounds that were inflicted on me reopened and I coughed up a spurt of blood. The ponies around me lost their shit for a second and freaked out. I may not have been as rejuvenated as I let on, or thought. Blood started to dribble down my body and I found it difficult to breathe. Soon I lost feeling in my right hind leg which had been hit the hardest. The ponies continued to freak out but I started trying to calm them down and assured them I was fine. I stood back up but I couldn't walk on my right hind leg. The ponies finally started to calm down and offered me any medical assistance but I turned them down, I don't need it, there isn't enough time. They were desperately asking me if I needed any food, water, or even a place to sleep. I just smiled and told them I was fine.

"Crimson… hey crimson!" shouted a voice past the crowd of ponies.

"Huh?" I muttered looking past the crowd. I saw twilight, thunder, and the others walking down the road smiling and waving at me. I smiled and waved back at them.

"Oh… excuse me... Sorry, need to get through." I said making my way through the crowd that obediently parted to allow me to pass through it. Twilight and the others walked up to me with smiles on their faces. "How'd it go?" I asked them with a smile.

"Me and thunder cleared the streets of guards without killing any." Said martukus.

"Twilight and I distributed all the gold and money in these pouches to the entire city." Said Alba smiling as well.

"And you're bleeding…" said twilight with a smug look. She let out a deep sigh. " I knew that when I saw that blast of light that you had gotten into trouble." Said twilight.

"Yeah… my skill with swords isn't as great as it used to be." I said. "I kinda went overboard and disintegrated the guy… my bad… he's the only one I killed though… and he deserved it, that bastard stabbed me in the back. Really look…" I said making my armor fade away and showing twilight and the others the stab wounds in my back.

"Damnit crimson." Twilight said shoving me sparingly. "We just fixed you." She said getting a bit angry.

"Hehehe… I know… but don't worry." I said shrugging. "These wounds aren't as bad as before, I'm going to be fine." I said calming her down. She just let out a deep sigh again and the others chuckled. The next thing that we needed to do now was find one of those cullis gates the other ponies talked about. I'm sure somepony in the crowd gathered behind me could help. " uhm... Does anypony here know where we can find a cullis gate?" I asked looking off into the crowd of ponies behind me.

" yeah, there's one in the library down the street that way." Said a mare in the crowd pointing down the road.

" thank you..." I said as I gestured to my friends to follow. We moved through the crowds again and started making our way down the street. Some of the ponies started celebrating in the streets and having a great time by spreading the word and others followed us. They didn't really say anything they just followed trying to see what we would do next. We walked down the street and soon a large building started coming into view. It looked like a huge old cathedral but the sign in the front said library. I shrugged and walked up to the doors. I pushed them open and stepped inside, and what I library it was. There were books... EVERYWHERE. I could see twilights eyes widen and a huge happy smile spread across her face.

" oh my god... It's amazing." She said.

" easy girl..." I said patting her on the back. " we have work to do remember."

" hello there... How can I help you?" Asked an elderly mare form behind a desk in front of us. I looked over to her and smiled.

" hello... We need to use your cullis gate." I said.

" are you the five ponies that took down the silver sabers?" She asked giddily

" that's us..." I said confidently.

" then by all means feel free." She said. " it's this way, follow me." She said walking off to the left and disappearing behind some bookshelves. We followed her and she lead us down a path of bookshelves leading towards a few steps by a large circular overlook with large windows covering the walls. She stepped up and there on the ground was a blue glowing circle, looked a lot like a magical circle with all kinds of magic runes and symbols. " your going to need some magic to activate it." She said.

" no problem..." I replied. I stepped to the edge of the circle and closed my eyes. I focused and my body to give off a white glow. I shot my eyes open which were now glowing and a bolt of magical energy fired from my body and struck the center of the circle. The circle began to glow brighter than before and energy started to swirled inside of it before a large bolt of blue energy fired straight up into the air. Once it settled the circle now emitted a field of blue energy around it like a cylinder. " so uh... How do were this thing?" I asked.

" well I have to set the arrival zone..." She said. On the wall to the right she pulled down a large map of all of stallasia. On the map there were lots of tiny blue circles that I could assume were waypoints. " choose where you wish to go and give me a second to set it up." She said. " usually this mode of transportation is a bit expensive in stallasia depending on where your going, but I'll let you five go for free because of all your help, but I can't say the same for e other cities."

" thank you, that's very kind of you." Said twilight behind us.

" how come we don't have stuff like this in Equestria?" Asked thunder behind us. The librarian looked over to him with a curious look.

" Equestria?" She asked.

" yes... That's where we're from, we're foreigners." I said. She just smiled.

" so have you chosen yet?" She asked.

" yes... We want to get to this spot here." I said pointing to a small blue dot just off to the center of the large black X on the map.

" oh no, you don't want to go there, there's nothing out there but evil." Said the librarian.

" I know... That's where we were heading to before we helped out around here... I'm just surprised that place is an option on the map." I said.

" if you insist..." She said. " I with you all the best of luck." The librarian placed one hoof on the outer rim god the circle and to my surprise started spinning it and moving the runes. She started turning the middle circle and then finally the inner circle. The cylinder of light glowed brighter and shrunk into a tiny string of light. It soon opened up into a large circle of energy that was ready to teleport anything that walked through it.

" so... Who's first?" Asked thunder.

" I'll go first." Said martukus. He stepped past me and stood before the portal. He swallowed his fear and stepped through. There was a shockwave of energy that barely blew past us and he was gone. Twilight was the next to step through, then thunder. It was just me and alba. She looked over to me with a rather nervous look and I smiled at her. She made a faint smile to accompany mine and she stepped through the portal. I looked towards the librarian and we both exchanged a smile. I stepped forward and walked through the portal. Instead of a bright blinding light I poked my head through and around me there was a black and charred forest, and in front were my friends. I stepped all the way through and looked around. We were in some kind of ruins. Cobblestone structures lingered over us covered in moss and plants. The we stood on a stone uprising poking out of the dirt.

" so... We're here." Said twilight.

" I guess we are." I said. " alba... Do you know the way to the mirror pool?" I asked.

" n-no... I don't." She said regretfully.

" but I do..." Said a familiar voice off to the side. I looked over and saw the pure white mare with blonde hair from a few days ago. It was Roza who was hiding behind some of the ruins. She walked over with a smile on her face. " I'm glad you came." She said.

" uh... Crimson... Who's this?" Asked thunder.

" this is Roza... She's the other half of alba... Roza and alba are the same pony."

" is there a story behind this?" Asked twilight.

" yes... There is... But there isn't much time." Said Roza. " this place is the most dangerous place on this planet to be in when night falls." She said. " we must go quickly." She ordered stepping off of the ruins and heading towards the charred forest. I shrugged it off and followed her, the others did too. Alba kept her head down the whole time and looked around the place like she was waiting for something to pop out and attack her. I can't blame her, this place is the cradle of her suffering and she's taking this rather well.

We pushed on through the forest and up ahead I could see a huge hill top with a large opening. We pushed on and all the time alba became more and more afraid. I fell back and stood by her. I patted her on the back and brushed up against her which helped her stay calm. As we walked into the entrance of the cave she looked at me and smiled. The cave was dark so I focused my energy and shot a ball of bright light I front of me which lit up the whole cave. The ball of light stayed in the middle of the group and lit up the way. We walked for a few minutes but for alba it must have felt like forever. Soon I noticed a bright light at the end of the tunnel and I extinguished my ball of light. The tunnel became rather dark again but it started to light up with every step we took. We inched closer and closer to the light before we finally passed through and broke into a large cave with an open ceiling. The sun was rot above our heads and it beamed down into the cave. There was a winding staircase to the bottom of the cave where a large perfectly circular pool of water laid completely still and untouched. Alba eyes the pool of water nervously and we started walking down the steps.

Every step on that staircase must have been another flashing memory of the pain alba endured. I could see the memories flashing through her eyes and I could see the fear in her, but under all of it was a small fire of hope. I have her a quick hug which helped the fire of hope in her burn a little brighter. We waved down the staircase and finally made it to the bottom. We walked over to the reflective pool and stopped. I looked into it and saw myself in the water. Alba then peered over with me, but her reflection never showed up in the water. Roza walked over too and when she look into the pool a reflection of a brown mare with black hair appeared in the water between them both.

" so... What happens now?" Asked twilight.

" now we both enter the pool and become whole again." Said Roza.

" what are you going to do after that?" Asked thunder. Roza and alba looked at him with worry and confusion.

" if you want you could come with us." Said twilight. " you make a great friend." She said. I looked over to martukus and he looked at me. He didn't know at first but when I gave him that look it suddenly hit him and his expression changed.

" twilight..." I said. " you don't understand."

" I don't understand what?" Se asked.

" alba... Isn't going to do anything after this..." I said. " merging her two halves will put her soul to rest..."

" what...what do you mean?" Asked thunder.

" she isn't coming back." I said. Alba and Roza just looked at the ground with guilty looks. Twilight and thunder both looked at them with horrified expressions.

" no... There has to be another way." Said twilight.

" yeah... You don't need to do this." Said thunder.

" guys..." I said before alba took one step forward.

" look..." She said. " I've been suffering for as long as I can remember, for all of my life I've never been happy, not truly happy at least. I was never loved and never had any friends... But you four showed me what it means to have friends and what it's like to be loved and for that I could never thank you enough." She said. " I truly mean that... But I don't want to live on forever as a hollow husk filled with only pain and misery... Even though you've taught me how to love and be kind I would eventually become the monster that had terrified the nights once again. I don't want that life... Nopony wants that... Please, don't be sad, I have to do this." She said with tears in her eyes. I placed a hoof around her and comforted her. I gave her a big hug and she dug her head into my shoulder. Twilight walked over and gave us a big hug as well, then thunder and martukus joined in as well and we hugged our friend goodbye. " thank you... All of you." She said as we disbanded.

" we're going to miss you alba..." I said as I helped her weak over to the mirror pool.

" we are too." Said twilight speaking for us all.

" thank you..." She repeated.

" it's time alba... Are you ready?" Asked Roza looking at alba.

" yes... I'm ready." She replied. They both smiled at each other and them smiled back at us as we stood back smiling too and watched. I stood there as alba and Roza both slowly stepped into the mirror pool. They sunk their hooves in and stood in the shallow end of the pool. The water started glowing brightly and giving of a faint hum. They started walking into the deeper parts and as they began to get deeper in the water the pool glowed brighter and brighter and soon the ground started to vibrate slightly and the whirling sound of the pool grew louder. They walked in further and further until they were them both completely submerged in the water. The pool glowed pure white now and the ground trembled lightly and the whirling grew very loud. Soon though it all stopped and the mirror pool faded back to its original color. Everything was silent and we peered at the pool.

Suddenly a huge blast of light the size of the pool fired up into the air and broke through the atmosphere. The ground trembled greatly and we shouted in surprise and covered our eyes. The cave started rumbling and breaking down as small rocks fell from above us and hit the ground. A great gust of wind was being shot from the blast that threatened to pick us up in the current and blow us away. The blast of whit slight swirled and cracked the ground underneath us. It started tearing up the ground around the pool and the cave floor started filling up with steam. And suddenly the blast started dying down and the whirling grew quieter and the rumbling grew softer. Soon only a thin strip of light remained which soon disappeared and everything was silent again except for a small ringing in our ears from the intensity of the blast. I could tell we were all dazed and confused. I looked back to my friends who had been blown away from the blast and were in a pile on the ground dazed and confused.

I looked forward and smiled knowing alba was now resting in peace. Suddenly out of the thick mist created by the blast a figure appeared. For a second I couldn't believe my eyes but then a mare started walking out of the steam smiling. She was brown with long blonde hair and a smile spread widely across her face. As she became more visible I saw her eyes... Her big red eyes. I stared in awe as she walked up to me and stood right I front of me smiling. I wanted to say something, but before I could she lunged forward and planted a deep kiss on my lips. I could feel her like a normal pony would and she pushed against me passionately. I kissed her back knowing this would be a farewell kiss. She pulled her lips away from mine and smiled at me. She looked me right in the eyes and smiled. I smiled too as her body soon started to fade and become transparent. Suddenly from underneath her a spark of light fluttered away and floated up into the sky. Then more and more sparks of light. I looked down to see that she was breaking apart from the bottom up. I looked back up into her eyes as slowly but surely she started to disappear. The light caught up to her waist, then to her neck, then Her head. She smiled one last time at me as her whole body was washed away in a cloud of bright lights that floated up into the sky. Not once in that moment did I stop smiling.

Goodbye Alba... We'll miss you.