//------------------------------// // Book One: Earth, Chapter I Part I // Story: The First Avatar // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// Fire, Air, Water, Earth Over three Millennia ago, Harmonic Convergence nearly cast the world into chaos, freeing all manner of dark spirits and evil to our world. It was through the actions of Avatar Korra that we were saved. By unlocking unlimited access between the spirit world and our world, Korra not only established better relations with the Spirit world, but also unknowingly restored the Airbending Nation it it’s former glory. She also allowed an entirely new, even greater threat to emerge. Avatar Korra made the sombre decision to completely cut off the Spirit world from our world in order to protect us from this new threat, but at a heavy cost to us. By cutting off all connections to the spirit world, she also stripped the planet of it’s bending in its entirety; her own included. This sudden upset of power between benders and non-benders quickly plunged the world into turmoil, and no longer with an Avatar to lead them to peace and harmony, war soon raged. Entire continents fell, governments toppled and nations razed to the ground. But not all was lost. Those who believed in the possibility of saving the world acted swiftly, locking away a small bastion of hope in which the human race would recover from once the world had healed from it’s scars. And heal it did. Over the ages, new landmasses rose and fell, new landscapes created and others destroyed. Then, we emerged. Out from our caves, from our bunkers and havens, did we rise to claim our new Zion. New governments were created, new empires and nations. But, the human condition is not so easily overcome. Those new empires, nations and governments were eventually overthrown and replaced with new ones which too, fell over the course of time. Borders were established, defended and invaded, nations were conquered and liberated and people's allegiances constantly fluctuated between whoever had established themselves as the dominant; the Alpha. Over two thousand years had passed since we, humanity, had reclaimed the Earth. And now, for the first time in three thousand years, Harmonic Convergence is threatening the world, once more. Only this time, it’s not our world that needs saving. ~~~ It's not very often that a myth proves to be fact. It's even less often that two myths become fact. It's downright rare that the second myth would become fact at a precise date, with a precise time and precise location; all down to seconds of arrival and exact Magical Leyline Position coordinates. That being said, this would be the very first time that the public was allowed to act as an audience for the arrival of the myth; get a first hand chance to watch the Elements of Harmony do their thing once the new danger arrived. This whole event had been planned for for months once Twilight had found out about the legend and brought it to Celestia's attention. Apparently even she and her sister, in all their ancient knowledge and their vast memories, had forgotten about this particular myth and so were more than happy to assist Twilight set up for the arrival of the new threat. This meant that, now at this point in time, not only were there thousands of ponies watching from behind magically constructed barriers reinforced by the magic of three Alicorns and a Prince, but there was an entire legion of guardsponies set up at arms just between the barrier and the Element Bearers. In the event that the threat was capable of flight: there was the entire Wonderbolt force, minus a certain blue pegasus, armed next to the winged Royal, Night and Crystal guard legions. There was no expense unpaid in preparation for this coming disaster, all for the sake of allowing the audience to safely watch the defeat of a myth before it could even begin any sort of rampage. On second thought, maybe another shield between the audience and combative forces would be necessary- no, Celestia, Cadence, Shining Armour and Luna had it under control. But, what if? Tossing her mane about to clear her mind of thoughts of failure, Twilight stood at the ready next to her friends and nervously cast glances to each of her friends, meeting eyes in silent conversation. They were all ready, so why was she worried? This particular myth read out to be the coming of the Apocalypse, the end times that would claim even the lives of immortals like the Princesses and herself; that even Discord wouldn’t be able to hide from. And they had an audience of thousands. Nothing to worry about, right? A polished silver disk sat embedded into the ground, declaring the exact position that the Deliverer of the Apocalypse would arrive to, looking to be unaware of its real duty rather than just brilliantly shine in the sunlight. “One minute to arrival! Guards, at the ready!” Celestia barked over her Royal Canterlot Voice, taking no measures to sound like her usual motherly self. All combat-capable ponies were armoured to the teeth, herself and her friends included. Twilight had been less than comfortable even looking at her runic-enchanted armour that had been hand-crafted for her and personally enchanted by the combined efforts of Celestia, Luna and herself. Simplistic Cedilic half-plate and chain-mail, even more magically conductive than Thaumium yet almost ten times more resilient to damage and fifty times as rare; it had been stained purple to match her coat, with the edges rounded and flared away from her joints to prevent movement restriction and stained a much darker purple to match her mane. The entire surface of each and every plate had been etched with runes: everything from basic mana replenishment to the most advanced of Defensive and Offensive-Reactive spells that she hadn’t even known existed. Over that, wrapping her up to keep her warm, was a dark blue cloak that acted more like a dress than anything, a design of Rarity’s so… who knows? Maybe it actually was a battle-dress. The other girls were all dressed in similar plate armour, done up in their own colours. Rainbow Dash, obviously, had forsaken the battle-dress and merely strutted herself around in the full-plate Cedilic armour dyed black and gold instead of her colours. A testament to old Wonderbolt colours, if Twilight recalled correctly. To finish their couture, the Elements themselves had been directly implanted into the armour themselves rather than remaining on their previous places in necklaces or in Twilight’s tiara. The breastplates of the armours had all received their Elements and had been further enchanted to try and improve the flow of Harmonic magic; try to squeeze out every last drop of juice if necessary. The guards all set their various weapons at the ready, spears, crossbows and offensive spells all aimed at the backs of the girls and to be used only in the unlikely chance that the girls themselves failed and were rendered incapable of continuing combat. Luna conjured up her most favourite of weapons, her Blackmoon Battle Scythe and gave it a quick twirl next to her to re-familiarize herself with it’s reactivity to her magic. Celestia conjured up a pair of bladed chakrams shaped to look like iconic suns and charged them with her magic, igniting them in pure, holy sunfire. She had other, more capable weapons, of course, but she’d agreed to act as a ranged combatant while her sister went in head-long into battle if the need arose. Even Cadence armed herself with all twelve of the Zodiac Blades, rising above her head and behind her in a wide fan before each blade, in perfect cohesion, twirled backwards and aimed themselves towards the point of arrival. Shining Armour was mostly on Defence, preparing every single defensive spell he knew, as well as a few that had been hastily taught to him by his sister. All in all, the entire army could have had Sombra, Nightmare Moon, the combined magic of all Equestria, Discord and the Gates of Tartarus themselves appear all at the same time and they’d have been prepared for it. “Arrival in ten, nine, eight…” Celestia began counting, her voice projected across the entire area for all to hear. Twilight tuned her out and shared a look with her friends and began their tasks. Firing up her horn, the Element within her chestpiece fired up and called out to the others for confirmation of activation. The five stones all reacted in favour and fired themselves up as well, dragging their vessels upwards into the air as a singular unit of the purest magic. “...three, two,” At this point, the space above the disk lying in the grass began to ionize and crackle with energy. This wasn’t energy from the Bearers, however, nor was it energy that was even recognizable by any pony currently present. This was something new, something special. “One!” Celestia shouted just as the very fabric of space and time ripped to the sound of one’s soul being shredded in the vacuum of Oblivion. Of course, this had been prepared for in advance as well, so the effects of the distortion had been rendered nearly inert. There was still a slight tugging on the strings of life, but nothing more than a passing wave of nausea and weakness. From this hole in reality dropped… Well, nopony really knew. It was a body, yes, it was… it looked quadrupedal, at least at first glance, but most importantly, it was alive. That’s all Twilight needed for confirmation to fire the Orbital Ban Cannon and send it back to the depths of nul from whence it originated. The audience held their collective breaths, all eyes on Twilight and friends as they hovered in the air with bodies alight with god-like power. They’d eventually find out that this power wasn’t even in the same timezone as god-like power, however that’s for much later. A gargantuan pillar of pure Harmony fired itself from the circle the mares in the middle and rocketed sky high before changing direction and inverting itself upon the new comer. The light plunged downwards and struck ground, getting focused into the tightest possible space as possible to quickly destroy the Apocalypse before it could even awaken. The roar of pure magical energy screamed out over the masses, pulsing waves of pure kinetic energy and mana rippled over the crowds to the tune of nearly bowling them over. Even the shields, holding back matter, looked to be fluctuating with all the raw magic in the air but fortunately held steady, otherwise who knows what could get out. Then, almost as quickly as it started, it ended. And… nothing actually happened. Nothing at all. The body was still there, curled up in fetal position, breathing slowly yet unmoving. At least the tear into nul had vanished, so there was that going for everypony… “Guards, at the ready!” Celestia commanded, a little apprehensive about how much power this form could possibly contain to resist the effects of the Orbital Harmony Ban Cannon. Arms went up and spells charged. The Element Bearers were all ceremoniously dropped to their hooves and quickly backed away, retreating behind friendly lines while the Ground forces approached with weapons drawn and pointed at the creature. “Atta-” Before Celestia could even finish the word, the eyes of the creature burst open with blinding blue light and a massive shockwave of pure Earth sent all ground forces backwards, even past the four anti-everything shields set up, to shake the audience to their bellies. The body reacted again, spinning itself around on it’s hands to end up on it’s feet in some kind of breakdancing move before pulling both it’s forehooves into it’s chest in some sort of blocking move. Entire chunks of the earth were ripped from the ground, further shaking everypony to their knees as it cloaked itself in the very earth, creating an armour for itself before it began to compress itself into a shimmering black stone. “Air Forces, attack!” Celestia commanded as she fought to remain standing and keep the shields up even after Cadence's had fallen when the owner had lost concentration. The aforementioned aerial ponies dove in for the attack, with others staying behind to fire bolts and arrows from their respective weapons from their stationary position on clouds around their comrades. The demon seemed to have detected the assault (Or merely heard the word "Air") and glanced upwards through his helmet, bringing to bear the light that erupted from his very eyes before crouching down in a solid stance with fists at thigh height. Pulling upwards, as though lifting a pair of extremely heavy weights, the creature suddenly sunk into the ground and disappeared from sight, the small metal disk included. “Find him! Unicorns, begin deep earth sonar scans, locate him immediately!” Luna commanded once she’d landed having taken off to remain combat-capable rather than remain on the ground. Horns fired up and began waving over the ground while their owners kept their eyes closed to “see” into the crust’s layers. A small pop alerted the combat ponies that the creature had reemerged somewhere and Luna only hoped that it wasn’t out with the audience, if for their safety anyways. “Excuse me, could someone please tell me what’s going on here and where I am?” A male voice calmly shouted out, drawing heads to turn towards the source. There, sticking out of the ground a few meters away, was the head sans light-up eyes. Just the head, of the Bringer of the End. “I think I'm lost. And also stuck. I’m also…” his voice began to drift away when he noticed the entire army charging at him with weapons drawn. “...Stuck…” “Bring me it’s head!” Luna roared, her hoof up pointing in the direction of the creature who dared to disturb the peace. “Woah, hey! I rather enjoy having a head!” The head exclaimed fearfully and looked to be struggling to move again. “I kind of need it for living! And I rather like living!” he continued to scream and fought more and more to free himself. No luck, he wasn’t going anywhere and that’s all the guards needed to sweep their swords down and lop off the head. Or… they would’ve if that black stone armour didn’t seem to react first and covered his neck, making the blades just spark off harmlessly. “Can’t we just talk about this like civilized people?” The head demanded in earnest, hopeful not to lose his head so soon after appearing. “Oh god, are you a civilized people?” “Cease attack!” Celestia called out, stalling out the ground forces currently rushing him. Turning to the head, she narrowed her eyes at it. “You may speak, but be warned, if I detect any sort of verbal magic or incantations to cloud the minds of my little ponies, I will not hesitant to end you with the fullest extent of my power.” she warned, slowly advancing on the head with her sister and friends behind her cautiously. “Now, what do you wish to say?” “Well… Uhm… Hi… I guess would be a good place to start.” the head replied nervously, the helmet crumbling to the ground around him, surprisingly him in the process. “Hello.” Celestia replied back, slightly raising an eyebrow at how casual the Apocalypse was being. “I’m… uhm… kind of stuck, as you can see…” he added on, making a quick show of his head wriggling around in a vain attempt to free himself. “Could you… maybe... Pull me out? Gently, I might add?” “No, I think we’ll leave you there in case we have to end your life easily.” Celestia shook her head firmly before returning to hold it up high. “Oh, right. Okay… Could I… ask how you got me stuck here in the first place?” the head inquired, tilting itself slightly to look inquiring. This struck something in the Princesses. “You think we put you there?” the eldest alicorn counter-inquired, approaching a little more to whispers from her compatriots to not move any closer. “Well… I mean… did you not?” “We did not, you did that on your own with your own power.” Celestia shook her head slowly this time, never breaking eye contact with the strange creature as she did so. What was he up to? What game was he playing? “I did?” The head looked mildly surprised about this bit of information. “Oh, well then I suppose I should be able to get myself out then, right?” “We should think so, yes.” Luna replied, sounding just as off-set as her sister was. This End of Times was surely a strange one, that’s for sure. “Can I at least try to do so?” the head inquired, shifting his eyebrows for lack of much other options. “Or, would you rather I stay as a head to try and kill me if the need arises?” A moment was shared between Luna and Celestia, the two of them having one of their favourite telepathic conversations in the world. What to do with the Apocalypse? “What is your name?” Celestia turned back to the head questioningly. She at least wanted to know what the apocalypse would be preferred to be called, if for their records anyways. The day that Apocalypse “Name” destroyed the world. “I have many names, three to be specific, but you may call me Soren.” the head of Soren replied thoughtfully, smirking as though making a joke of some kind. “Three names? May we ask what the other names are?” Luna glanced from her sister with morbid curiosity, figuring one of them would have to do with the end of days. “Vladimir and Mercer.” Soren replied. It took a minute for the assembling crowd to understand what the head meant by three names, but soon clued into it. “So, Soren Vladimir Mercer,” Celestia spoke up as the Bearers of the Elements cautiously approached the encircled head. “What are you doing here? What kind of Apocalypse do you intend to bring?” “Apocalypse? What apocalypse? Is the world ending?” Soren began to look just as worried as the audience felt at the moment, but as time grew on, their attitudes began to collectively wear down into more of a curiosity than fear of dying in some horrible slaughter of all living things. “Well, we’ve been planning for some months now for the arrival of the Bringer of Absolute Death, for you.” Twilight bravely explained, looking to be somewhere in the middle of afraid and knowledge drunk on the potential that this head had for information. “I’m no Bringer of Absolute Death, I’m barely a bringer of coffee!” Soren exclaimed fearfully, now though, the fear was brought on by expectations of a quick, or worse, slow death at the hands… hooves, of these creatures. “Honestly, I just kinda wanna go home! I had a shit day at the office, my boss was running me ragged doing all the stupid little jobs that she didn’t want to do herself… Even had to go fetch a particularly… personal… pick up order from an adult store… That’ll be one mental image I'll never get out of my mind.” Soren complained with a body rocking shudder. In fact, the shudder was what Soren just needed to be able to wiggle himself free and begin the attempts to climb out from his hole. However he managed to do that, that is. The entire assembly watched in silence as the head turned into shoulders, then into a chest and upper arms, then an entire torso when out popped a pair of hands which helped to push the body further out of the hole he was in. Flopping over onto his chest with a thud and accompanying oof! Soren continued to attempt to pull himself out until he was forced to spin onto his backside and lift his feet out when he reached the knees. Collecting himself and dusting off his clothes as best he could, he rose to his full height; standing about the same if not a few inches shorter than Celestia stood with head as high as she could raise it. “So…” Soren began, now taking the time to examine his surroundings. Aside from the two tallest forms, a third female pink one who was a little smaller than the blue one and taller than the purple one, forgetting that he was surrounded on all sides by entire battalions of soldier-looking ponies, and even overlooking the audience who watched him silently as he watched them, Soren had to figure that he was no longer on Earth anymore. “Where exactly, am I?” “You are twelve and a half kilometres away from the nearest settlement. We are in a field, I believe.” Luna explained, with her instincts telling her to kill him having subsided for simple need to sound pleasant in these strange events. “Okay, what continent?” Soren asked next, shifting his fingers through his hair to try and dislodge some of the black stone dust that had ended up there from his armour and helmet. “The continent of Equestria, obviously.” Luna replied, narrowing an eye. Just what was this creature? “Obviously, right. Anyone got a map of the planet I could look at for reference?” Soren stuffed his hands into the pants pockets on his legs, making eyes of the creatures drop down to examine his clothing. Some kind of dense black material for leg wear and what looked to be a thin, yet warm black sweater with a green camouflage pattern panel on the front. Pockets in clothing… Why hadn’t anypony else thought off that? Regardless of the merits of putting pockets into clothing, Twilight stepped forward and summoned up an up-to-date atlas of the known world and presented it to the creature. The man took the thin book and flipped it open to the first couple of pages, looking for an index or table of contents. Twilight figured he was looking for the map itself and helped him out, using her own magic to the appropriate page by memory. Soren merely stared at the glowing page with wide eyes before putting the questions aside for the time being. “Ahh, right.” Soren sighed to himself and looked over the map in his hands. “The continent of Equestria, in the West-Celestial hemisphere of the planet known as…” the man’s voice was beginning to fade away as he spoke, until he mumbled the last few words incoherently. “...Xenos...” “Is there a problem?” Twilight arched an eyebrow and took to wing once they were freed from her confining cloak to take a look at the book to check for errors. Nope, everything was good. “Where are you from? I know we haven’t mapped the entire world yet, so we’ve yet to actually encounter all the races of the planet, however-” “I’m from Alberta, Canada, Earth.” Soren announced, using words that none of the ponies had ever heard in their entire lives. “And we have mapped our entire world.” “So then…” Twilight softly concluded the worst possible fate for the two-legged male before her, and possibly the… thirty-eighth best outcome for someone like Twilight. Who knows what kinds of marvellous information he had stored away within him! “...you’re…” “A long-ass way from home, yup.” Soren dragged out the last syllables slowly over his teeth and gave a hearty sigh of defeat. “So,” the princesses all around him felt him instantly set that depressing thought aside and brightened up a bit, “What’s going on here? If you were planning for the end of the world, why bring an audience?” “We felt that we were prepared enough to instantly subdue the Apocalypse before it could truly begin. Therefore, we felt it was perfectly fine to have an audience witness events.” Celestia replied casually, lifting a hoof to raise and sweep out over the masses. “Besides, if everything failed, they’d probably all die in a horrible blaze of hellish fury anyways.” Luna added on almost too casually, earning a couple of looks from her friends and family. “What? They would, I figured that if they were all at the point of origin, then they’d at least all die quickly instead of suffering whatever fates the Apocalypse has in store for their friends and families back home.” A sense of foreboding pulsed out over the massed ponies as realization of what they had potentially been privy to dawned on them. To them, it would have just been an epic display of the power of the Elements of Harmony overcoming yet another powerful foe. Never once had it occurred to them that even with the amount of protection the Princesses had erected for them that their lives could have been instantly forfeited when the rift into nul had opened. “Well, since I’m not a Horseman of the Apocalypse, there’s no need to worry about that, right?” Soren put in, having seen the faces of fear around him and tried to offer something to settle the matter. “There is, however, something I feel like I’m supposed to say…” “Which is?” Cadence finally spoke up, joining the party with Shining Armour at Luna’s side. “Not my words, I swear to Oblivion,” Soren cleared his throat for a moment and held up a hand with a finger shooting towards the skies. “‘Prepare for our arrival while you still can, for when the sun is dark and the moon destroyed, the Riders of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse shall ride.’” Soren announced, his voice having changed to a much deeper and sinister voice; clearly not his own as it felt to the Princesses that the visitor had just been possessed. Soren dropped his head and closed his mouth looking confused. “So? What’d I say?” “Some kind of warning that somethings called the Riders of the Four Horsemen will ride when the sun is dark and the moon shattered.” Luna replied, paraphrasing the proper warning. Everyone’s head turned upwards to the skies to get an idea of whether or not the prophecy was coming true yet or if there was any indication of remaining time. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky, let alone a threat of Destruction. “Oh, lovely.” Soren shifted his closed mouth around a bit while remaining in thought. “Well, if you want to start an apocalypse, then the Four Horsemen are a good way to start one.” “Excuse me,” Twilight stepped forward, though it was Celestia who spoke. “Just who, or what, are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?” “Biblical entities who’re destined to lead the world into the Revelations, the end of days and the return of Christ, as it were.” Soren explained half assedly while flipping through pages of the atlas to get an idea about the world he now found himself in. “Consists of Death, Plague, Pestilence and Famine. Don’t really remember the specifics, but when those four world destroyers come, that’ll be the end of days, a true apocalypse.” Soren explained and clapped the book shut in one hand before letting Twilight take it back. “I only understood half of that. No idea what you meant by Biblical, Revelations or this Christ character.” Twilight remarked as the book in her purple grasp vanished with a pop of air. “Religion stuff from my world, I don’t really care enough to learn it all to explain it to you.” Soren waved his hand around, as through sweeping away rancid air from his face. “Basically, it’s what you think it is, the end of days.” “So, then what are you? I don’t suppose you’d be one of these ‘Horsemen’, would you?” Celestia raised an eyebrow and internally prepared to battle to the death, if what she was being told was true and that these Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were truly as bad as the visitor had suggested. “More importantly, I don’t suppose you’d know of a way to deal with them, stop them and save the world?” “I am not, no.” Soren shook his head singularly. “But as for stopping them, I think nothing short of the powers of the Gods could stop them.” his announcement seemed to silence everyone again, uncertainties about their futures filling their minds. “Hey, uhm, sorry, but I didn’t get any of your names.” Soren suddenly added in, breaking into the thoughts of Doomsday and of the End Times. “Oh, how thoughtless of us,” Celestia shook her head clear of her own concerns and stood up proudly, wings flared behind her. “I am Princess Celestia, Co-ruler of Equestria with my sister and the one who raises the Sun every morning.” Soren’s eyebrow shot up at the last part, but remained silent as his eyes turned to the next, the blue one. “I am Princess Luna, Co-ruler of Equestria with my sister and the one who raises the moon every night. I also am the sole caretaker of the Dreamscape so it falls upon me to defend everypony’s minds.” Luna replied, standing straight up like her sister was. Cadence was next. “I am Princess Cadence, Co-Ruler of the Crystal Empire, north of Equestria, and avatar of love.” Cadence’s form mirrored that of her elders before turning to Shining Armour. “This is my husband, Prince Shining Armour, Co-ruler of the Crystal Empire with me and Guard Captain of the Crystal Guard.” Soren looked to the last one, Twilight Sparkle. “I suppose you’re also a co-ruler of some kingdom with a significant other?” “What? No, of course not! I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Bearer of the Element of Magic.” Twilight replied, looking a bit flustered and then a little confused when she realized that she was the only Princess who didn’t rule over some kind of kingdom. This thought was tucked away quickly enough and she turned her eyes back from Celestia to Soren once more. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Soren Vladimir Mercer.” “Please, just Soren, or Soren Mercer. Middle names are reserved for mothers to scold their children with.” Soren chuckled, as did a bit of the crowd around him. “So, uhm, Princesses-of-whom-there-are-many, I don’t suppose any of you could point me in the direction of Earth, could you?” “Apologies, but you arrived through a rift from nul. We’ve never even encountered that before, so we wouldn’t even begin to know where to start.” Cadence replied after giving a questioning glance up to the older of the four. “I think you’re stuck here with us.” “Well...” Soren let out a breath slowly and calmly. “That sucks.” the last of his breath came quickly and deflated him and his mood. “I don’t suppose any of you would happen to have a place I could stay at temporarily, would you?” “I suppose if you’re not the Bringer of Death and Destruction, then we could, in good conscience, loan you a suite at the Castle in Canterlot.” Celestia offered with a small spinning flourish of a hoof. “Or, we could arrange for you to stay with Twilight in her Library, or if you’d like to go north to the Crystal Empire?” “Is there a ‘nice and quiet domicile to myself’ option? I’m not fond of roommates or neighbours.” Soren asked hopefully, hands lightly clasped over his chest in a weak attempt to look convincing or hopeful; no one is too sure which it was. “I think, if you’re willing to put in the effort, we could find you a fixer-upper of a house of your own; we feel this would be a better option instead of leasing-to-own on account that we suspect you’re, how do the common ponies put this, broke as a back?” Luna suggested with a hoof to her chin in thought, then brought her eyes back up to the male near to the end. “I like working with my hands, sure.” Soren gave a single shrug of the shoulders and dropped his hands back into the pockets of his black jeans. “Then it shall be settled.” Luna decided with a stern nod of the head before turning to her sister. “The strange creature who isn’t the Apocalypse, or any variation or herald thereof, shall take temporary residence with Princess Twilight Sparkle while he works on restoring one of the older houses out near Ponyville.” While Celestia, Luna and Cadence all addressed the audience, Twilight and five more ponies stepped up towards Soren. “Come on, I’ll lead you back to my home and we’ll get you settled in and introduced to my friends.” Twilight suggested, taking hold of one of his hands in her magic to gently pull him along. Soren obeyed and followed after his new pony master and kept pace, even after the pony had let him go. A quiet little yelp perked everyone’s ears to the sound and Twilight turned back towards the origin. She recognized that little yelp, however quiet that it was. She found Fluttershy on the ground, rubbing at her head with what looked like a rolled up scroll sitting in front of her nose. The pegasus mare looked at the scroll through wet eyes, as though silently asking what she’d done to warrant such an attack on her cranium and to also plead for it’s forgiveness for getting in the way of it’s fall. “What’s that?” Twilight wondered, trotting up to the pegasus and helped her with a wing before floating up the scroll. Sealing the parchment, and keeping her from it’s insights, was an entirely foreign symbol. Twilight looked at the scroll and it's tagmark with overflowing curiosity and was about to open the page when her magic was replaced by a sun yellow one and it was removed from her possession. She was about to protest when she saw Celestia hand the scroll over to Soren who stood staring at the scroll with an open mouth. "I've seen that seal before. It's something from an old child's tale back on Earth..." Soren announced and examined the seal in greater detail before pushing the scroll into his sweater's right pocket. "I wanna look at this as soon as we're able too." "I would be more than happy to assist you with that, Mister Mercer." Twilight announced cheerfully, though in her mind she just wanted to know what it said. "Come along now, we haven't got all day." she pulled at Soren's hand again and lead the entire assembly of ponies back towards civilization.