//------------------------------//
// Portal To the Great Lands 
// Story: Poniplier 
// by CosmosFactor 
//------------------------------//

"So, you got transferred here through a portal, huh?" The small voice spoke out, cocky and sly. "I could tell you how to get out with my extensive knowledge... on one condition." Green eyes glowing in the dark nest. "Gems."
"You look like you're sleeping in a dog bed." Mark said bluntly, half lidded eyes peering back at the talking shadow with little interest.
"Hey! It's not a dog bed! It's a dragon bed! Made especially for fierce dragons like me!" He popped his head out from the shadow, the purple and green dragon looking up at the stallion with hurt eyes.
"Spike. We don't really have time for this, and he's not really in the mood to be playing around like that." Twilight spoke up, stepping closer to her friend. "If you could please just tell us first if you know anything that can help him, then I'm sure we can find a way to get you some gems in a while."
Spike pouted, still obviously hurt from Mark's remark. Eventually he got up and walked to a night stand, pulling out a box of comic books and sifting through them. "Well... I have some knowledge of this." He said at last, pulling out comic of a pony surrounded by snake ponies and monsters. "There's this one; Battloid. It's about a Stallion who gets sucked into the world of his favorite video game after almost getting crushed by a rock. He has to travel through many miles of many challenges to defeat the evil villain; Otisum."
"Does that sound plausible, Mark Fischbach?" Twilight turned to him once more.
Mark stared at the cover. It seemed like any other manga in the human world. Backwards cover and everything. Does that mean that there's a Pony Japan? Mark thought to himself, getting side-tracked.
"Mark?" Rainbow Dash called out, nudging him with her front hoof.
"Oh- uh. Kinda? I was playing a game called MLP;FiM: Portal to the Great Lands, or something. I just saw white before waking up just out of this town." He turned to the others, seeing their wide, colorful eyes staring back at him. "If this is anything like any Other World anime, then... I suppose I have to grind until I defeat what ever is keeping you from progressing." He furrowed his brows, feeling like he wasn't in his body anymore. He felt like he was looking through someone else's eyes. Like everything he was looking at was a dream, or like VR goggles. He was dissociating, feeling overwhelmed, he calmly walked past the 6, staring down at his hooves the entire time before exiting the main hall. He looked up at the sky through a large crystal window, the sky was a dull blue. Thick clouds drifting high up, and tall, impossible hills stabbing into the atmosphere. He continued to walk, stepping outside on the dirt ground.
Mark sat, trying to gain consciousness again, trying to feel the dirt on his legs, the dirt between his hooves on, the wind on his ears and slight movement on his main. He tried scraping a hoof on the ground, trying to sync up his physical being with his mental state, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
After a while, he opened them again, looking around, seeing more details on the broken town. The old cottages were bent and twisted, thick oak wood planks splintering at the corners, their sharp, square edges dented and scraped. Windows were shattered, cracked and thick wooden beams protruded from them. Doors fallen off, left askew and slanted, hanging from their frames by a screw. The town was a ruin. Hay bale top houses sticking out like tangled hair.
Mark got up, slowly walking through the town, looking at the floor for any signs of what could have done this. The only thing he saw were deep muddy indents of hundreds of hooves, all going one direction. The were all heading out of town.
The brown stallion continued to inspect the dirt, walking off the path of the main hall and onto the grass, spotting large holes of upturned and rooted trees. Next to them were large hoof marks. As large as a tree hole itself.
"That was the big centaur that came to Ponyville." A soft voice spoke up behind him.
Mark turned to her, seeing her eyes lower to the tree next to it.
"So many poor critters lost their homes to him." She looked back up at Mark. "So many ponies lost their homes to him."
"Where is he now?" Mark said feeling the grim realization of what had happened.
"Well-"
****



Heavy winds and dark rain showered the open window as Twilight few out. The dark sky providing it hard to see, especially with the lights town down and the windows broken, even emergency candlelight were blown out. She glowed the tip of her horn, the magenta light brightening to see the torso of a man. She followed it up, seeing a gruff face, gin sprinkled with coarse facial hair and thick, dark brows furrowed. He had looked down at the Princess, reaching with a slow hand grab her. The purple Alicorn dodged in time, her eyes wide.  "What are you!" She called out, seeing the creatures arm rear back to a fist.
Twilight had little time to react, barely seeing his heavy arm rush forward to her. A flash of rainbow blocked her vision to see Rainbow Dash guide her out of the way. Her colorful main stuck to her pelt, her wings flapping heavily to combat the rain and cold weather
"I got everyone, Twilight! I'll help you with this brute!" She shot a helpful glance at her friend before flying up to distract the centaur. "Over here you big, fat, bully!" She called out.
Twilight flew down to Fluttershy who waited at the door. "Do you know if you can still get those fruit bats at Sweet Apple Acres?" She called out to her. Fluttershy looked up to see the large monster before nodding.
"Yes. Why?" She called out, trying her best to overtake the loud thunder around her.
"I have an idea."

Rarity and Pinkiepie galloped back to Twilight.
"We got the ponies to the station. They should be on their way to Canterlot right now." Rarity spoke out, panting heavily, her main matted from the wind.
"Great job, you two." Twilight called out, hearing hoof-steps behind her. She turned to see Fluttershy and Applejack running down the path with a horde of colorful bats behind them. "Amazing! Fluttershy, Applejack, I need you to help us lead the centaur away from Ponyville. Fluttershy," she turned to look at the bats, a colorful array of flying rodents, "I need you to tell your friends to linger behind, just out of sight. We're going to lead him away and confuse him so he can never find his way back here.
"Right." The two ponies called in unison.
Twilight flew up with Rainbow Dash, avoiding the large beast to communicate the plan to her. Rainbow Dash nodded and began to fly off, slow enough for him to follow. The rest of the ponies galloped in front, calling out names to the giant centaur to keep his focus. "Be careful, girls. I'm afraid if any of you slip, you'll get crushed by his hooves!" She looked at Fluttershy who was falling behind. The yellow pegasus acknowledged her worry and began to flap her wings to make her run a little faster. Bones aching as they ran as far as they could, Twilight flew forward to survey the area. The dark night and rushing wind hurting her eyes, making it hard to see past her nose.
An open field surrounded by large rocky mountains came into view, a deep, hollow cave split between the crevices of the mountain side. Perfect. The princess flew back and waved to Rainbow Dash and the others to follow her, lowering down to Fluttershy to tell her bat friends to start taking position.
Rainbow Dash flew up while Twilight took her spot, reaching for any safe cloud to grab and mold without getting hit by the lightning. She then flew back down, aiming the cloud with the est of her ability to the moving target and kicked as hard as she could.
A loud crack sounded in the air as a bright light shot out of the dark gray mass, sending a strong shock to the Centaur. The beast recoiled and let out a loud roar of pain, his back arched and his front hooves kicking up, standing on his hind legs.
"Now Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called, flying up the Centaurs face, circling around him as fast as she could. Rainbow Dash shot down and whirled around him, her rainbow after-image leaving him dizzy before swatting the two away. Fluttershy called out to her fruit bat friends as they took the ponies place, huddled together as similar colored blobs, flying away towards the large cave. Rainbow Dash and Twilight swooped down to pick up their friends, flying to the cloud to hide as the Centaur, too dizzy to see straight, followed the blur of bats.
The 6 ponies looked onward as they saw the beast disappear into the darkness, shifting and struggling to get in. Finally squeezing through, the edged of the cave crumbled behind him, encasing the entry of the cave with heavy boulders. A loud, enraging roar, trembling the cloud they sat on. Sparse fruit bats fluttered out of the cave holes, not as many as before.
Fluttershy let out a whine as she could hear her little friends beat their wings in terror, only assuming that not many of them were luck enough to make it out of the cave in time.
"That should keep him away for now. But I doubt he'll stay in there long." Twilight let out a sigh, turning up at the sky. The heavy rain didn't stop, but it lessened up significantly. "We should head back and make a plan to try and stop this thing once and for all."
A collective murmur of agreement sounded from the princess's friends. Together, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash lowered their non-pegasi friends to the floor.
"Alright, I should be able to teleport us back... but after this, I'll need a nap." Twilight let out a loud yawn. She lowered her head as her horn glowed magenta, a bright light filling up the area and teleporting the ponies back to the castle doors.
****

"As far as we know, he could be out right now, but I feel we led him far enough away to have trouble getting back to Ponyville." Twilight spoke out to Mark, who was playing with a rock between his hoof and the ground.
"You know, I don't really mind the sound of my hooves on the dirt, it's pretty satisfying." He said rather enthusiatiscally, looked up at the princess to see her disapproving look. "Oh," he lowered his head, "Sorry. I was listening though. Do you think that's the guy I gotta fight before I head back to my home?" He asked, kicking the rock away from him.
"I can't say for sure, but it's worth a try." Twilight said confidentially.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... But I'm a normal horse guy. You have wings, you have horns, hell, you have BOTH! How am I gonna be able to fight this guy with just my small little man hooves?" Mark asked, shaking his head.
Pinkie Pie and Applejack gave disappointing shakes of their head. "It ain't that bad being an earth pony, ya know." The southern mare spoke up.
"I'm sure, but like... Don't you have super strength?" He asked the mare, who turned and blushed.
"W-Well. I am pretty strong." She tilted her hat down to hide her face, rubbed her foreleg with her other hoof.
"See. And I doubt I'm gonna have enough time to train to become all jacked and shit!" Mark exclaimed, looking at the 6 mares before him.
"No. But we will try to test your limits. There's a reason you came here, Mark Fischbach, so you have to have some great connection to this world. And we're going to find it." Twilight said triumphantly, her wings flaring out to show their great lengths. "No matter what."