"...A memory is rising...something almost forgotten. I...caused this loneliness?" A voice would echo at an inaudible level throughout a cave in a snowy mountainous range, fraught with gust after gust of wind. "...No...she inspired it..." the voice would continue to mutter as a flashback of a very colorful figure came to mind. "To her dismay, perhaps a trickle of my own, it has been...far too long. Thine soul will need another vessel to aid me in finding her..." it would then mutter a few more incoherent words before the cave glowed a dull, flashing cyan color. "Yes...a human would be the perfect medium to get to Equestria..." the cold winds continued even when the voice no longer spoke, casting a white out in the surrounding area. "...I remember...everything."
Twelve days later...
"Hmmm...Time to mark the journal for the morning," thought a particular, nerdy but tenacious looking older teen. Gunnar brand outdoor glasses, light brown hair, piercing blue eyes, slightly puffy cheeks, medium frame and six feet tall. More detailed specifics seemed to be hidden by a pair of gloves, jacket, Columbia brand Parka, Columbia brand seemingly thick pants, scarf, beanie hat, ear muffs doubling as a microphone headset. Whatever he was wearing over his feet was covered by the layers of snow he currently was standing in...but that was about to change as he stepped forward into a base camp of adventurers. His Blue and Silver outfit wasn't a trend setter as no one had to have a team flag of any sort, just the team microphone. Did the camp have a tent with his name on it? Yes as it so happened, "Thomas Rancord" was labeled over one of the heavily nailed, hammered, zipped and locked to the ground tents. He had gotten about in the morning to make sure he could keep moving about, stretch out his sore muscles and even wake up at the sight of how close the clouds seemed to be. He would love to say all of it panned out, but he was still slightly tired, slightly sore, and for some reason uninspired to do today's hike about the mountain. Stepping into his tent after zipping it down, he fought off the light breeze that morning to put it back up and brush off the snow at the small water pit that had been purposely made at the entrance so the snow would not cover the rest of the tent.
After dispensing the spare snow from off his outer clothing he then moved to the small table that had been set up near his "bed bag" as he called it. He would sit there on the slightly flimsy, fold up chair and open up the journal which coupled against the few other things on it, is the biggest object on the table. He would open it to set the date with a pen put to the classically tanned paper and slowly let out a sigh "February 14, 2012...the morning air is crisp and chilly, later we can only expect colder weather...but, I made it past the first night with some trial and error so, with some adjustments to how I sleep I should be just fine. Today we are supposed to search for caves do North East at lattit-" eventually his train of thought as he wrote on the paper was interrupted by the microphone. He would fill in the details slowly as he gritted his teeth listening to the broadcast from the base camp leader. "We will be heading out in ten minutes, everyone should make sure they form groups of four and follow the given instructions on the maps put in your tents. Every hour on the hour we are to gather up at the specified spots on your maps as a whole. After that you can split up with your designated teams once more...but I must emphasize that you don't wander on your own! That is all." After the headset cleared up, Thomas would just tap at his journal with his pen while trying to reorganize his thoughts. "...Oh forget it..." after dismissing the math behind his location on the mountain, he stuck with bracing himself for the journey ahead.
After finishing up his page with three words, 'here goes nothing', He adjusted his outer vestments to make sure everything was comfortable. Of course he had a slight wedgie but if he were to attempt a correction, he would also need to correct the rest of his lower body clothing. Not that he had O.C.D, his clothes always liked to combat him for comfort. Three minutes more and he found himself out of his tent with a backpack on and his journal in it...although he saw the others were already heading out. "Oh crud...wait up!" he would yell as he struggled to make his voice known to any of his team-mates...but the weather had turned surprisingly windy and the more he shuffled his feet through the layers of snow to get to them, the more it became apparent that he might not make it to everyone on time. ("I know, I will just follow the closest person I can see,") he would think as he did just that. Five minutes into following these fellow hikers whom didn't mind taking their time, would pay off once he caught up with them. "Keep up with us and hopefully you will rejoin your team again," the leader of the four person group would say without another word. ("Well, comforting to know I have the support of my fellows...not comforting to know that the mountain's wind sheer is increasing, line of sight is decreasing due to this fog, and I am not sure but I might be losing the feeling in my feet.") Keeping the complaints to himself, all he could do was wince every now and then while barely keeping up with the group's normal pace.
"A presence draws near...physically debatable but...mentally strong. It will have to do as it seems withdrawn from the others I sense. Forsooth, in this cold lies not a naive vassal...come hither and accept thine destiny, human!" The cave would then flash a bright blue once before going back to it's dull, blue flashes.
*brrrriiiinnngggg* *brrrrriiiinnngggg* A sound went off in Thomas' head as he stopped, and blinked "What? A phone?" He looked puzzled ("No one in the camp has a phone except for the base camp leader...something is wrong here...") he would think to himself before hearing the sound again...only this time, it sounded alluring. Being a slightly spacy one himself, and one to wander...he couldn't resist the urge to find out where the sound was coming from. He did try once to call out to the others to tell them where he was going...if only he had known sound was traveling against the tone of harsh winds. He would bunch up his arms together and start rubbing vigorously to try and create some friction...but then he thought to himself ("Perhaps I should try and find cover first...I could be heading towards it for all I kn-" his train of thought crashed once his eyes widened at the sight of the glowing cave. "Ye gods..." His mouth was agape, and his body slightly trembling "What is...causing that glow?" But then, he would start to hear the ringing again, only louder. *Brrrrrriiiiinnnnggg* *Brrrriiiinnnngggg* "Oh no, I am not falling for that one again..." Thomas muttered "This is getting a little too freaky...and either I am losing my mind or I am witnessing s-s-scientific i-i-impossibility..." his words started to become shortened. For some reason, a decent more amount of cold found itself attracted to this location then any other part of the mountain...was he prepared to make the distinction? Not when he heard the next sound from the cavern. "You know you came here, boy..." "...!" Thomas immediately realized the phone he heard in his head had been picked up. "...Who are you? What are you?" "...Both are good questions...but...I cannot tell you what as you haven't the word in your vocabulary...what a shame when I can read you. But...at the same time, I cannot read all of you...you guard yourself quite well, just as I do myself..." "Who, are you!?" Thomas would yell out, although his voice was getting raspy. "...No manners?" The voice would tersely reply. Thomas blinked as he thought to himself ("A cave wants me to introduce myself...am I sure I am not going crazy?") He would then say "Thomas Rancord...I am Thomas Rancord." The voice would not reply for a moment before saying "Very good...as for who I am...come in and see for yourself." "...?" Thomas would hesitantly go into the cave. What choice did he have...he needed to warm up and gather enough friction to keep the blood flow going in certain joints. Not a pleasant survival technique, but a technique none the less. At least his lips were still far from turning blue.
As he entered the cave, he noticed odd shards of ice, hanging from above and shooting up from the floors of the cave. "...I can't believe what I am seeing." "Believing is not seeing...Seeing is believing, is it not?" the voice would call out to him...Thomas definitely identified it as male, in the regal sense. Thomas would then say "You sound pretty classy for someone that decided to get lost in a mountain cave..." "Are you not lost yourself?" "...I have a map and a compass, I can always trek myself back..." he would then think to himself ("Of course if I do that without good cause, demerit time would happen...which is why I had to follow the others.") The voice would hmmm before saying "I sense a bigger story..." "And I sense I shouldn't be here," "Well...senses and emotions can be such...insipid things, can't they?' '...?" Thomas continued down the cave...noting the passage got narrower...it wouldn't be further until he got to the root of this mystery. "Listen to yourself...worried, suspicious of everything around you...what is next, human?" Thomas blinked as he stopped in his tracks ("What the...either this is one really insane person or it isn't a person at all...should I even go into this final room?") The voice would then say "Emotions bind us to objects, to friends...and to whom we become betrothed." "...Your point?" "...You may understand soon enough, as we are more similar then you have yet to realize." "..." Thomas now frustrated, decided to confront the source of this voice head on...when he went into the final cavern, all he saw was what appeared to be the hilt and handle of a blade, sticking out of the right side of the speckled cavern. Then again, maybe speckled wasn't right...because when it didn't have various speckled colors, it had an aurora-borealis. The shifting colors though did not take Thomas' eyes off of the handle and hilt he spotted at the side of the room. That's when it gleamed within his eyes...as he took in the shifting colors, and flashing of the greyish gem below the handle...he became hypnotized.
"Yes...that is it. Now, go to the blade...pick it up, and take it among yourself," the voice would say as Thomas drew closer to it. Once he had both his hands on it, the voice would say finally "When you wake up from this trance...you shall not remember our discussion...You shall be my guard and vassal...is that clear?" "...Yes...." Was all Thomas could utter, compared to all the direct commands which were clear and concise in tone from whatever this voice had said. Then, after gripping it with both his hands, he would find it magically start to slide out on its own...but the other half of the work was done by his strength, which wasn't too impressive but just good enough to help the process begin...and end. At the time of the sword's ejection from it's icy tomb, its glowing cyan blue color would show itself along the blade. Versatile as a one handed blade, it could also be held with two...where his hands met the hilt, the hilt's multitude of color started to circulate to the blade, which would then glow a bright white. He was holding up the blade towards the cavern's ceiling, so it wasn't a mystery that the intended magic, a dimensional crevice portal, would end up on the cavern's roof. It was also no surprise that it would end up sucking Thomas and the sword, with him...but, it left his heavy outer vestments behind during the squeeze to get him through.
"3...2....1...Release!" The voice would call out as Thomas' eyes then closed, freed from hypnosis...freed from his unusual grip, but not completely from his will. The sword would then carve out its way among the cosmos to another crevice...the crevice which lead to a familiar land. "I have waited this long...I wonder what has become of my homeland...." The voice would whisper as a magical blue sphere surrounded Thomas' body. "While I remake this human's outfit to something more of a warrior...I must also protect the structure from impact....this will be a long fall..." and indeed it was, as the sphere was crashing down like a meteor from the atmosphere, headed towards Everfree Forest. At that time, a certain purple filly was looking at the night's sky with her telescope from the library...when she noticed the particular blue 'meteor.' "Oh my goodness...I haven't seen a meteor stay at that size when entering the atmosphere..." She would continue to watch its progress as her eyes narrowed a bit "Its heading for the forest...Wait...Zecora! She could be in trouble!" Hearing all the noise and yelling, the pony's assistant rushed over to her "Twilight, are you alright?" "Its not me that we should be concerned about Spike, see that meteor?" She would have him look through the telescope. Spike lazily walked over to it and put an eye to the glass, noting the ball of fire "Yeah...so?" "Its trajectory is making it head on a crash course for EverFree Forest!" "...And?" He didn't catch on quite quickly where she was going with this. "Zecora lives there!" she would exclaim. "...Oh....Oh Crud! We got to get going, now!" After the exchange of words, they would make their way downstairs and out of the library, whether or not they could make it to Zecora in time...or if they even needed to worry, were other questions to be answered in time.