"Ah! Damn it!" I shouted as my Halo avatar was shot by another player. The camera moved over my green Master Chief as the countdown sound before respawn played. "You're so dead!"

I was fifteen again, sitting in front of my original Xbox and large box TV set in my childhood home bedroom. The green bean bag I was sitting in provided the perfect gaming chair as I respawned in the red base on the Blood Gulch map. The announcer then said, "Red Team has the flag."

"Sweet!" I grinned as I gathered up a shotgun and headed out to the nearest Ghost. I got in and began driving to the other side of the map to provide assistance. I saw the player who'd captured the flag and fired on the pursuing Scorpion, doing my best to stealthily avoid the bursts of tank fire and machine gun fire from the massive tank.

"Red Team has the flag. Red Team, score," the announcer said a few seconds later, right before a large round hit the Ghost, causing my in-game corpse to fly into the air. "Game over," the announcer finished, and our scores were displayed on the screen.

"Jethy dear," Mom called out from downstairs, "Trixie's stopped by for a visit."

I felt my heart leap out of my chest. Trixie, my childhood friend and long-standing crush, was here!? "Alright, coming Mom! Just gotta log out!" I took a few minutes to exit the game I was in, shut down my Xbox, and rush downstairs to see Trixie sitting on the couch. She was wearing a bright yellow summer dress with white stripes going down the side. "Trix!"

"Heh, I'm not for kids, Jethy," she giggled, standing and looking at me. "Jeez, did you just get out of bed or something?"

I snorted and shook my head. "I'll have you know I got up at ten this morning! A new record!" I put my hands on my hips proudly.

She laughed, and my heartbeat increased at that. "Oh, please, that's hardly a record. At least I got up at nine this morning like normal."

"Yeah, yeah. You and your regular routine," I waved my hand in playful dismissal. "What brings you by today?"

"Come on, Jethy-wethy, it's summertime!" she said, gesturing to the sunny late morning day outside. "Let's go do something! Have some fun!"

"Like what?" I asked, looking at the clock on the VCR. "Free pool time doesn't open for another half hour, you know?"

"That's not too long, dude, and you know it!" Trixie giggled as she took my hand. "Besides, I've got a new game we can play!" she said as she pulled me to the door.

"Slow down!" I chuckled, "At least let me put some shoes on, first!"

She let me go and pushed me back towards the stairs. "Well hurry up!" she said. "I'll be waiting outside!"

I rushed back up to my room, grabbed my Spider Man colored sneakers, slipped them on, and ran back downstairs. "Mom, I'm going out for a bit with Trixie!" I called out.

"Have fuuun!" Mom called out with a knowing tone. "Dinner's at the normal time! We're having tacos! Tell Trixie she's free to join if she wants!"

"I'll let her know!" I said as I rushed out of the door onto my front lawn. Trixie was standing in the center of my lawn, hands behind her back and whistling a familiar tune. "Trix, Mom said you can stay for dinner if you want to," I said as I joined her.

"Whatcha having?" she asked as we headed to the gate.

"Tacos."

Her eyes widened. "Oooh! I'll text Mom and let her know!" She pulled out her Blackberry and shot off a quick text.

"So where are we going?" I asked with a smile as I opened the gate.

Her smile turned into a sudden smirk, her eyes changing into a very dark and familiar red. The sun vanished behind a dark cloud, leaving the area surrounding us in a gray darkness. "Equestria."

"What…?" I asked, the smile vanishing from my own face as she stepped through the gate. The world morphed around us and Trixie and I were standing on a cliff overlooking Ponyville and the much more distant Canterlot. The sky was dark gray, as was the entire landscape before me. I heard a pair of wings fluttering behind me and I looked back. My new Alicorn wings were spread wide, but there was something wrong with them. They were more demonic, almost like the wings Nightmare Moon had. A dark black mist surrounded me.

"There's the real you," Trixie snarled, the only part of her different being her glowing red eyes. "There's the part of you that's aching for release! Welcome to Equestria, Legion! For you are many!"

She held up a purple mirror, and I gasped at my appearance. No longer was I human. I was a completely black humanoid monster. My teeth were all sharpened, my eyes glowing a demonic red, and the black mist surrounding me only added to my malevolent appearance. My hair was aflame, much like Daybreaker's in that particular episode. "What the fuck-?" I started, before the change in my voice caused me to put my hand over my mouth. Gone was my normal voice and it had been replaced with the voices of dozens in sync. Like the Borg hivemind's voice.

Trixie laughed, a malevolent, triumphant laugh. "Legion, my friend, you've finally surfaced! Isn't it time you revealed to all of Equestria the monster you really are?" She approached me, her form growing until she was as I remembered her before her cancer began ravaging her. "The kind of man who fucks animals! The kind of being who is not satisfied with just living in harmony with nature, but bending it to your will, dominating all life under your thumb."

The land around us shifted, and I was standing with her in the middle of Ponyville. The town was still standing, but the Ponies around us were walking as if in a trance. On their hooves, I saw metal bracelets with a red gem embedded in them. They all looked up at me and moved away in fear.

Trixie sneered at me and poked my chest. "Isn't this fun? You get to play dark lord to these pathetic creatures! What was it God commanded Adam and Eve in the Garden? 'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the Earth and subdue it', correct? Isn't that what was written? Well, here's a planet without humans! Time to subjugate this world! Fuck all the mares and knock them up! Teach them the truth about humanity! Eliminate the Pony race and replace it with humanity!" She approached me sultrily as she had in the past whenever she was feeling frisky and slid her arms around me. "You'd so quickly turn me aside just to get your rocks off with a Zebra? I thought you loved me."

"Trixie…"

I watched as she began to deform into the sick version I remembered from all other nightmares. "You did this to me…" she said, sounding weakened and sick.

"Trixie, no!" I shouted in anguish.

"ENOUGH! BEGONE, FOUL CREATURE!" a voice from above shouted, and the scenery around me vanished. Trixie, however, remained a bit longer, her sick form cracking into a smile before shattering into a cloud of dust. I fell to my knees, staring at where she'd been just before. The moment my knees hit the ground, the black mist shattered, and I felt the heavy weight of all those voices in my mind that I'd felt since becoming Legion vanish, leaving me once more alone with my thoughts and grief.

The world around me was a blue mist, but soon that vanished and I found myself standing on a vast clear layer of water. Above, the sky blazed with the all-too familiar constellations of Earth and Equestria. Two moons hung high in the sky next to each other, one Earth's moon and the other Equestria's larger version. I reached down and pushed my hand through the watery surface, finding that it went down further than what seemed possible. I stood and watched as the water I stepped into rippled away.

A pair of slender, dark blue arms wrapped themselves around me, and someone nuzzled my face. "Jethro…do you still think you ended the life of your first paramour?"

"Luna…" I felt her press her Anthro form against me, one hand running through my hair and the other wrapped around my waist.

"Is this why you have not dreamed since coming to Equestria?" she asked somberly.

I nodded. "The nightmares are too much to bear," I whispered. "She comes to me innocently enough, but then she accuses me of murdering her. Sometimes it's with a knife in her back and blood on my hands, other times it's in the hospital where I watch myself pulling the plug while breathing smoke into her face, other times I watch myself pushing her over a cliff, unable to do anything but watch. For every dream I have, I watch myself kill her in many different ways. Each worse than before. And I'm helpless to stop it."

She sighed, continuing to stroke my hair. "Guilt is a powerful thing," she said. "Remember, I began to torture myself with the Tantabus before you called me out on it. But unlike me, you did nothing wrong. You have no need to feel guilty."

"Luna, you don't know what tobacco can do," I said angrily. I snapped and a cigarette appeared in my hand, lit and smoking. "This stuff is good for a small rush, but at the same time it causes cancer, and not just for me! She got cancer because I used this as a crutch for my parents' death! Anything to dull the pain!"

"My friend, you did not kill your first marefriend," Luna said.

I pushed her away, facing her. "I did! The doctor told me it was because of secondhand smoking that she had cancer! And I was the one doing the smoking! I should be the one in the ground instead of her!"

The world exploded into light around me and I fell to the ground, my cheek stinging painfully from the powerful slap that Luna had given me. Before I had the chance to recover, she had straddled me and pulled me up by my shirt. An angry Luna was terrifying, I learned just then. "DO NOT SPEAK THOSE WORDS IN MY PRESENCE OR IN THE PRESENCE OF ANYPONY ELSE EVER AGAIN!" she bellowed. Had I been awake, I probably would have pissed myself in fear. Luna's expression softened and she pulled me closer, holding my head between her breasts and stroking my hair. "I grieve with you, I truly do," she said. "It is never easy to lose somepony close. I lost many when I came back to Equestria. Celestia has lost more. I know that even Applejack has lost family. And I have heard that Sunset Shimmer is an orphan, so she knows the pain of loss, too."

A new wave of guilt washed over me. Not guilt at Trixie's death, but guilt at having hurt Luna, one of my close friends in this world. "I'm sorry, Luna," I whispered, slowly wrapping my arms around her waist.

"All of us care about you too much to see you in such distress," Luna said, pulling me closer to her breasts, "Ever since you've come to our world, you have not had much rest, have you? Not even in your own dreams can you rest. I assume that is why I have not found your dream realm until tonight, correct?" When I nodded, she pulled me away and made me look into her eyes. She had a sorrowful expression on her face. "I am truly sorry for that. And I know a few other mares who are equally as sorry for it as I am. I promise that I will do everything in my power as Princess of Equestria to make your continued stay among our kingdom enjoyable. And your dreams shall be peaceful."

I smiled gratefully for a brief moment before my smile faded. "That may be harder than you think, Luna."

She nodded somberly. "My sister making you a knight was unexpected, but please believe me when I say she has the best of intentions in her heart. She has grown extremely attached to you. More attached than I've seen her become to anypony before."

"I wasn't just talking about that and you know it," I said, slowly breaking out of the hug. "This shit with Eris…what she did and how many deaths she caused throughout the world…there's a big target on my back now. Am I right?"

Luna nodded again. "That is one reason why Celestia gave you the title of knight. It's a means of protecting you. That, and you and Zecora are now full citizens of our country, with all the benefits that come with it."

"That include taxes?" I said with a small smirk. I couldn't help it; death and taxes were an absolute.

Luna threw back her head and laughed hard. "Oh my! Jethro, you are a riot!" she said through amused tears as she walked up and took my hands. "You are a knight of the crown, now. Taxes are taken automatically out of your yearly pay."

"Pay…? Luna, I have more money than I know what to do with," I said.

"Jethro," Luna said softly, once more walking up to me. She took my hand, spun me around and pressed herself close against me, her wings and arms wrapping themselves around me affectionately. She placed her chin on my head and I could feel power flowing into me from her. "You put so much on yourself," she continued. "We all are truly grateful for all you've done for our country. You ask for nothing, and yet you have constantly put yourself in danger to save Ponies despite not being one yourself. The Ursa Minor, the incident in the Lycan Empire, and most recently with Eris. If it were up to me, I would move your house to a quiet spot where you, Zecora and anypony else could live in peaceful quiet forever. You've done so much."

"Luna, you and I both know I can't rest yet," I replied sadly. "I have to help and explain to everyone what they saw. If this were ten years ago, I'd have gladly done what you just said and ran, but I know I can't hide forever. I have to face the consequences of this, even if it means I'll be eternally ostracized."

"I would never allow that, and neither would Celestia," Luna said firmly, holding me tighter. "I would declare you my personal student before that. Celestia would…I'm not sure what she would do, but she would do everything in her power to keep you safe."

I slowly untangled myself from her, then snapped. A large couch formed and I took a seat, motioning for her to join me. She immediately did so and sat close to me. "I'm grateful for that, truly," I replied, "but you know as well as I do that I need to address this. Starting with Ponyville."

"My sister and I will be there for you," Luna said.

I smiled, reached out and took her hand in mine. She automatically squeezed it. "No Anthro forms this time," I chuckled softly.

"I promise," Luna said. "I can't speak for Cellie, though."

"I'll talk with her," I said with a small smirk, which slowly faded away. "And speaking of talks, there's something else I need to speak with you about."

Her expression turned serious. "What is it?"

"It's about how I react to Eris," I replied. "There's so much…hatred I feel for that two-bit whore," I continued with a snarl. The dream realm around me reacted, turning from a lovely starry night to a darkening black thunderstorm. "She constantly throws me off. I never felt this way for the Queen and Princess of the Lycan Empire. I want to take a massive sledgehammer and smash Eris' fucking head off! Barring that, I would want her back in a form I could pound into a bloody pulp!" I was hyperventilating now, the thunderstorm overhead flashing and rumbling with dark crimson lighting and massive booms of thunder. I took a deep breath, exhaling loudly. The thunderstorm shifted overhead and rain began pouring down on the two of us. I was immediately drenched, as was Luna. However, the Anthro Alicorn didn't seem to be bothered by it.

I turned to her, watching as her mane fell to her side. "The Tree of Harmony spoke to me before I woke up. She told me that the first Pony I spoke to when waking up would have experience in that regard. Hatred of someone, I mean."

"Ah…my turn to Nightmare Moon, you mean," she said softly.

"You saw my dream just now," I said. "Apparently, I have my own version of Nightmare Moon and Celestia's Daybreaker."

"Legion," she said.

"Yes, Legion," I sighed. "I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want to hate, but with Eris, it's an all-consuming desire to hurt her. To punish her in so many sickening ways. Hell, to end her life!" The rain increased in intensity around us. "Barring a blast from the Friendship Laser, how did you get over it?"

Luna held up her hand. A bright flash of light flew from it, and when it reached the cloud layer, it scattered, revealing the night sky above once more as well as a full moon. The rain lasted for a while longer before stopping almost instantly. "Jethro," she said, "all I can offer is advise. My situation is not the same as yours. I let my jealousy get the better of me until it turned into hatred which turned me into Nightmare Moon. Your situation is different. You have nothing but negative feelings for Eris, whereas I loved my sister, then hated her, and now love her again."

"Hatred is corrosive," I repeated my mantra. "I can't just…I don't want it to control me, but whenever I'm in close proximity to Eris…"

"I understand," Luna said. "You wish harm on her, correct?"

"Didn't you hear what I said earlier? I wish so much more than harm!" I shouted bitterly, putting my head in my hands.

"I remember," she said, rubbing my back. "And I can relate to that part. Your show might be directed at human girls, but what it might not have told you was that I was seriously trying to murder my own sister."

"…Well, fuck…" was all I could say.

"Fuck, indeed," Luna said sadly. "My anger, jealousy and hatred were all directed at her, when it could have all been avoided by a simple talk."

I whirled on her. "I don't think a simple talk will work with Eris," I snapped angrily, before I looked down. "Sorry…that was uncalled for."

"You are forgiven," Luna said. "In truth, you are probably correct. A talk would be very hard for you. At least, one on one talk with her where she isn't a statue."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm saying that perhaps you should go to where Eris is and speak to the statue," Luna said. "It might work, it might not."

"What's to stop me from going there with a sledgehammer and busting her into a million pieces?"

"You wouldn't go alone," Luna said. "Somepony would be there with you. Possibly more than one."

I leaned back onto the couch and sighed. It was dry once more, and I felt myself sinking into it. "Last time I was in front of the statue, I still got angry. And what if whatever she did to me before she was turned to stone was some sort of last-minute effort to save herself?"

"I assure you that our best mages have checked you over," Luna said. "My sister, myself and even Twilight Sparkle looked you over just to be sure. We found nothing."

I felt a bit of relief at that, but I wasn't completely convinced. "If you're sure…" was all I could say. I was still unconvinced, but I decided to table that discussion for another time. "I'm still lost on what to do here."

"I'm sorry I couldn't help any further," Luna said apologetically.

"Don't be," I said. "You're right. Maybe talking to the statue of Eris will help me vent a lot of the hatred. At the very least, it'll be satisfying to see those holes I put in her."

"Ah yes, the pistol the other humans told us about," Luna said. "Quite an ingenious and deadly weapon."

I snorted. "Humans are good at that. No magic means we need to be inventive when it comes to some stuff you take for granted. Including weapons."

"The weapon you used on Eris is depleted, correct?" Luna asked.

"For the moment," I replied. "I could easily go back to Earth and buy more bullets for it, but I'm still debating that. Guns are extremely dangerous for a world that still uses spears, swords, and crossbows. A massive leap in technology like that could start an arms race that can destabilize the current political landscape. It was that arms race that led to Earth's Cold War."

"Cold War?" Luna looked confused.

"Yeah…a war without fighting, as it were," I replied. "Two of Earth's major superpowers, the United States of America, my country, and the United Socialist Soviet Republic, both had opposite ideologies on how to run a country. After the development of the atomic bomb, which is an extremely deadly weapon that can vaporize an entire city in seconds, both countries began improving on the technology and developed deadlier versions of the device. Enough to destroy our entire planet in minutes. It was a war of spying and subterfuge. There were a couple of near disasters, but luckily we survived. I don't want the same thing to happen here, especially with tensions between Equestria and the other nations of the world. And besides, you all have magic. Who's to say what could happen if you focused your magic on offense?"

Luna looked a bit shaken at this new information, but she quickly shook her head and put a hand on my shoulder. "Sir Jethro, I am truly glad you are on our side," she said.

I chuckled. "It's the right side for me to be on," I said, "and I'll gladly share what my world knows about certain topics with you all. But weapons? That I'm not sure about. Which reminds me, I'm gonna need to have a long talk with Sunset about that, seeing as she's probably gotten a lot of studying done about humanity."

Luna nodded. "Currently, she is dreaming happy dreams. Ever since she returned, her dreams have been as plagued by guilt as yours have."

I frowned, feeling a bit bad for her. "Can I…see her dreams and speak to her?"

Luna shook her head. "I would not do so at the moment. She is still too vulnerable."

"I'll still talk with her at some point," I replied.

"Of course," Luna said, "just not now."

I nodded. "Sure. I can do that." I looked around the dreamscape, then a sudden idea came to mind. "In the meantime, how could you like to have some dream fun with me?"

"What kind of fun?" she asked, looking a bit eager now.

"Well, there was an older video game I was playing in my dreams before things went to shit," I replied. "I'm a decently experienced lucid dreamer. Watch." I snapped and Halo's assault rifle appeared in my hands. Snapping again, the two of us were standing in Blood Gulch, only this time with the graphics looking completely realistic. "This is the MA5B Assault Rifle from Halo: Combat Evolved. Watch this." I said as I took aim at a nearby Warthog. Pulling the trigger, I opened fire. Unlike in the game, the noise from this weapon was ear splitting. And unlike in multiplayer, the Warthog began filling with holes until, to my satisfaction, it erupted in a massive fireball. "Hah! Take that, noobs!" I shouted, laughing maniacally.

"Jethro? Where are we?" Luna asked, ears flattened as she looked around the gulch.

"This, my dear Luna, is one of my favorite multiplayer game maps from Halo," I chuckled. I pointed to another nearby Warthog. "Wanna go for a drive?"