//------------------------------// // Equestria, trees and other stuff // Story: Travels of a Hunter // by Reaper1543 //------------------------------// I was slowly regaining my consciousness when a thought hit me. “Ok, I seriously need to stop this track record. I mean fainting 3 times already since coming here is just lame.“ I didn’t open my eyes but I tried to assess the things that were happening around me. As far as I could tell from the sounds, the fire was burning and there was a delicious smell that lingered throughout the hut. “Smells like Lightning is cooking something. These new senses of mine are very useful. This Discord guy knows how to do stuff. Anyway, this smell is so good. I just hope that I can eat it, hehe. Hmmm, I should probably do something to repay her, I mean she had already done so much for me. Nursed me back to health, let me sleep in the bed (into which I have been dragged, again) and the biggest thing is that she could bear with me, however short the time I have been here.” I decided to open my eyes, and wonders of wonders I was right. Lightning was busy making something that I presumed was food at the cauldron so she didn’t notice me as she was with her back to me. I watched her do whatever she was doing and finally after minutes of watching I spoke up. “You know Lightning, whatever you are doing smells so delicious that I would eat it in a heartbeat.” I watched as she jumped in the air and gave a soft ‘eep’ as I surprised her. She turned to me so fast that I could almost her neck snap but surprisingly it didn’t and her gaze softened as she looked at me. With an almost inaudible sigh she smiled and trotted towards me. “Good to see that you are up again but please don’t try to make a habit out of fainting okay?” she chided/reprimanded me but then continued lightheartedly “It would be too much of a hassle to drag you back to bed every buckin’ time you do it.” and for a good measurement she punched me in the arm. It didn’t hurt, of course but none the less I overplayed it a bit. “Watch it or you will put me back into the sick bed.” I said in a hurt voice but she just looked at me with an ‘Are you serious?’ look. But then she just gave up and shook her head. “I swear, you bring me more problems than anything in the last year.” she said in mock anger and I chuckled. “Am I too much trouble? If yes then I can get out of your hair, no problem with that.” I said but the brief look of sadness made me thinking. “She doesn’t want me to go doesn’t she? But sooner or later I have to go…..but what if…nah she wouldn’t want to do that..but still..oh well, no point in worrying about that now. I can ask her when the time comes.” “Sooooo… what are you cooking? Food I hope because I am starving.” and as to help me in my statement, my stomach grumbled in agreement which brought a smile to her lips. I was glad for it as I didn’t want to see her sad. “Actually it is. I am making a soup” she stopped and looked back to me “By the way, what can you eat?” she asked me and I answered, still half-absorbed by my thoughts. “Honestly? I have no idea but i guess that i am an Omnivore, meaning i can eat everything from fruits and vegetables to me..a..t” aaaaaaand this was the point when my thought process caught up with my mouth when I realized just what I had said. Lightning, however didn’t freak out like I thought she would and this was strange for me because as far as I know equines are Herbivores. So I decided to ask her “Umm, aren’t you..you know freaked out by the fact that I eat meat?” I asked her tentatively and she sat down with a sigh. “While I can’t say that it doesn’t bother me you are not the first Omnivore I met.” I raised an eyebrow at that but chalked it up as some kind of animal but she didn’t finish it here “Just promise me that you won’t eat me while I sleep okay?” she put on a mock fear impression for good measure and I shot her a withering glare but she just waved me off. “Relax, relax I know you wouldn’t do that, or at least I hope so.” she finished with a smirk. Now it’s official, this was for yesterday, or I hope it was yesterday. Now that I think about it, what happened exactly? Well, only one way to find out. “Lightning?” I called out and she ‘hmm’-ed from the boiling soup “What exactly happened and how long was I out?” she stopped whatever she was doing and turned back to me. “It was actually two days ago. Whatever you did that night really took out a lot from you that much I can tell. As for what happened to you…honestly I have no idea. When you started to sneeze I only saw some black smoke like thing rise off of your body and in the next moment you were at the other side of the hut, appearing in a small cloud of the same smoke. Other than that I don’t really think that anything else happened. Sorry if that’s not enough but that is all I saw.” she explained with a sad expression and I felt bad for making her feel like that. But suddenly spoke up again. "Although, there was something else now that i think of. When that smoke started to rise something else appeared too." "What was it?" i asked her and she thought deeper. "There was this ring above your head. It was made of the same smoke that came from your body but was very faint and immediately disappeared after you teleported. Sorry, other than that i don't really remember anything else." “No, it’s all right Lightning. That was more help than you think. I think I know what i am now. Every sign points toward that i am a Dreamkeeper." she just tilted her head in confusion. "A Dreamkeeper? What's that?" she asked me and i gathered everything i knew about them. "Well to tell you the truth, where I'm from, Dreamkeepers are just the results of fantasy. A married pair thought out the whole thing. The story states that every human, the species i was before i got here, has a Dreamkeeper counterpart in a parallel universe. They don't know about us and we don't know about them, but nearly everything else is shared. But a Dreamkeeper can look like anything ranging from reptiles to fishes to mammal and even a strange crosses between to or three. But each one of them are anthromorphic, meaning that they have human-like qualities. Their daily live don't mirror their human counterpats but their lives are linked. When the human dies, so does the Dreamkeeper but not vice-versa. And this is what the Nightmares, creatures that want nothing but destruction of every sentient life, want. Because once a Dreamkeeper dies the Nightmares can invade the human it was unknowingly protecting. With me so far?" i asked her and she nodded but i could see that this was just as confusing to her as for me. "And this is why every Dreamkeeper had a unique supernatural gift. They had powers that had unimaginable potential and power. This could range from destructive powers through defensive to creative ones. With these powers the Dreamkeepers could defeat the Nightmares preventing their annihilation. So basically that ring you saw above my head was the sign that i was using my power. The brighter and noticeable the halo is, the stronger i am focusing the power and the stronger the effect will be. Phew, that was a moutful. Thank you Lightning, now i know what i am and that means a lot to me." i smiled to her and was i glad to see that she had forgotten the earlier gloom and she was smiling too. But my stomach choose that moment to let out an enormous rumble, signalling that i was hungry. She let out a small laugh while i scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. "Hehe, i'm a bit hungry, say Lightning can we eat?" i asked her and she just let out a small laugh, nodded and motioned for me to follow her.True I could have used my bag to get something to eat but nothing beats the taste of home-made food. I stood up and slowly started to make my way towards the table. "Man, i will have to practice this...a lot." I finally arrived at the table and sat down on a chair, why does a zebra, or zebrican need a chair is just another item on the ever growing list of impossibilities and strange things. I sat down on the chair and started eating the food while trying not to think of how she can hold the freakin’ spoon to eat. With nothing better to do I started a conversation. “So Lightning, I wanted to ask you something before the whole clothes, bags, and I-am-here-one-sec-then-not thing started.” “And that is?” she asked back. “Can you teach me how to read and write?” I hung my head and waited for the incoming laughter. And sure enough she was on the floor not seconds after the words had left my mouth with tears of joy flowing down her cheeks. “Yeah, yeah laugh it up.” I said to her but she just laughed even more. Soon I had an idea which would make her ask for forgiveness. With an evil glint in my eyes I stood up from the chair and walked towards her. She could see me coming but had no idea of what I was going to do. When I stopped next to her and knelt down her eyes widened when I held up my weapons of destruction, namely my hands, and started mercilessly tickling her. Soon, just as I predicted she was squirming under me and pleading for me to stop. I did so as let her catch her breath and sat down next to her. “And what did we learn today Lightning?” I asked her like a teacher would the student while she just shot me a look that said ‘are you serious?’ and answered me. “Ummm, that you are illiterate?” she grinned at my annoyed look but that soon changed to a horrified expression when I held up my hand in a threatening matter. “Thought so.” I muttered “No, not that I am illiterate. By the way that’s only because I am not from around here as you can see.” here I gestured to myself, heck even a near blind person could see it. I stick out like a sore thumb. But what I can do nothing about that? “Now seriously, can you teach me how to read and write this language?” I asked again and she nodded while smiling. “Of course I can. But there is something I want you to do in exchange.” I raised an eyebrow at that, what could she want from me? “And that is?” here, she turned serious and I knew whatever she wanted was important. “Tell me how did you got here.” I knew that this moment would come and was prepared for it. And so I told her how I came here, although I obviously left out the violent death part of it. I saw fear seep into her facial expression when I explained the being that sent me here and when I asked her about that she told me about him, and damn what a guy is this Discord. Although the cotton candy cloud sounds fun, tormenting others for fun is not. Now I had a bad feeling about accepting the deal with him. Something told me that something…bad will happen, I mean this guy is something akin to a god right? Then it’s obvious that he knows stuff that others don’t. Heck, maybe he can even look into the future and saw what would have happened to me and choose me accordingly. These were not good news, but I had no other choice than to wait. After this, however we went back to eat and talked some more. It turns out that she really lives alone here and gets her stuff from the small settlement nearby called Trot. I had to suppress a snicker at the ridiculous name of the small settlement. I mean really, Trot? But oh well, new world new rules. She sells various potions that she makes to the townsfolk and buys her desired objects. She also told me that we are in Equestria and showed me the map (now explaining the names on it) and where we were exactly. Near the border of something called the Gem Fido and the Dominion. She told me about those places. Unlike Equestria where two princesses rule, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, whom raise the sun and moon (something that was hard for me to believe) in the Dominion there was no ruling government, well now at least. There used to be one but that was long ago and now the Griffins that lived there (wow, some bunch that lives in this world isn’t it) are living in small isolated groups surviving from day-to-day. This was a bit disturbing as a whole civilization was dying not far from here and it seems that the group effort to solve this problem is close to zero. And then there is the case of the Diamond Dogs or D-Dogs as everyone calls them. They pretty much solve everything by enslaving, ponies, griffins, heck even other D-dogs to do their stuff. And all that shit so they don’t get eaten by dragons that are terrorizing everyone outside Equestria. And when I asked Lightning how she knew all this she said that Trot was a unique town and she heard all of this info there. Hmmm, I might have to visit this town later so I wrote it on the mental ‘To do list’. But since it was late that night we both went to sleep. I offered that she can sleep on the bed but she declined saying that she can sleep on the floor but I was having none of that. So with mutual embarrassment we both slept in the bed. It was quite the experience as I have never slept with a zebra in the same bed but I didn’t think about that as I fell asleep really fast. The following week went by really fast as I did nothing more than study, study, study and look at that more studying with the occasional helping hands for the various tasks that Lightning needed. Like cutting the wood, helping her gather herbs and so on. I also managed to get the walking issue solved, with lot's of falling and other humiliating situation. And thanks to Lightning I was starting to understand the Equestrian writing system a bit at least. I could at least make out the most basic sentences but writing them was something that was out of my proverbial grasp. Strange, I could always learn to read new languages faster than write them, I wonder why. But learning to read and write wasn’t everything she taught me. She explained a great deal about the pony society, about how they were using magic and other mumbo jumbo to make their everyday lives easier, much like how we humans used technology to do the same. But the cake on the top was when she said that here, the ponies control the WEATHER. I mean, how cool is that? She said that every pegasi (I nearly spat out my drink when I heard that) could control the weather by moving the clouds and other stuff. Seems like that this Equestria is a nice utopia here and the rest of the world is in deep shit. I don’t want to delve too deep into it. The princesses must have a good reason for them not helping but it’s not like one person can make some drastic changes right? (somewhere a Griffin and a Diamond Dog sneezed) . Also during the week I noticed something that freaked me out that how I didn’t notice it, but I chalked it up to me being tired and an idiot. It seems like that everything is brighter…more colorful here than on Earth. Like I am in a cartoon or something similar….ridiculous right? And now I was outside the hut with Lightning sitting not too far from me as I tried to do something that I could only do once since coming here. That’s right, I was trying to teleport. Part of the deal was that I would get powers, and I think that teleportation can definitely be counted as power. “Okay Jack, think how did you do it. When I did it first time I felt something similar to the rushing wind. Maybe if I concentrate on that feeling I can do it right? Well, nothing ventured nothing gained right?” I mustered all my concentration and thought about the exact same feeling, soon the smoke that was described by Lightning started to appear and a faint halo was appearing over me. I was beginning to think I did it when a twig snapped somewhere nearby, probably an animal stepped on it, but that was enough for me to lose all the progress I had and the smoke vanished into thin air. I groaned in frustration and felt the energy leave my body. It was significantly less taxing than the first time I had done it but I felt the drain none the less. With my legs shaking I sit down to the ground and Lightning trotted towards me. “Are you all right? What happened? It started out good but then you just stopped.” she asked with concern in her voice. I just waved her off and tried to stand up, keyword=tried. I couldn’t get up. The maximum I could do was standing on my knees and let’s face it, that’s not much. “Okay, maybe I am not as fine as I thought I was but don’t worry. I’m only exhausted, but this thing is hard and takes a lot of energy out of me but I have a feeling that later that will change. I lost my concentration and lost it. But it’s nothing to worry about now.” And true to my word I could stand up now, let’s try again shall we? “Maybe you should go a bit further Lightning, I am about to try it again k?” she nodded but cautioned me to take it easy, heh bless her heart, god knows she has a golden one. Okay let’s try this again. I concentrated again and luckily this time there was no distraction in the last second and the teleport try-out was a success but there was a teeny bit of a problem. Mainly I didn’t specify where exactly I wanted to go and thus I went in a straight line because I was looking forward…..but unfortunately a tree had other ideas because when I arrived my face was immediately introduced to the hard bark of said tree. Faintly behind me I could hear a certain mare burst out laughing while I tried to alleviate the pain in my muzzle with tears in my eyes “Friggin’ tree, couldn’t be like two feet away? Noooo it just had to be there.” I shot one more withering glance to the tree but it took it in stride, the soft imprint of my face in the tree bark mocking me like it’s saying ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS’, damn memes and internet. Instead I decided to take out my frustration on the still laughing mare via righteous justice. “Ohhhhh , Lightning!” I called in a sing-song voice and she immediately knew what was coming because she saw me slowly holding up my hands and wiggling my fingers. She immediately took off, running and I gave a chase in spite of my fatigue and the throbbing pain in my face. Unfortunately she was faster than me…MUCH faster but hey, she is a zebra, of course she can run faster than me. But I didn’t give up and continued to run after her until mother nature showed me the middle finger again by having me trip on a root. I sprawled out on the soft grass and held my face as I YET again landed on that, what’s with me and having my face assaulted I noticed Lightning coming over with concern on her face and I devised an evil plan. Overplaying the pain I started to groan and she spoke to me. “Jack, are you all right?” in response I mumbled something incomprehensible so she would come closer. And that she did. Four feet, three feet, two feet “That’s right, come here my little victim.” Now she was beside me and I motioned her to lean closer. When she did I whispered one thing into her ear. “Gotcha!” with widening eyes she tried to get away but it was too late as I grabbed her and pulled out her legs so she would be on her side and mercilessly assaulted her stomach and side. Soon she was laughing but not out of her own choice. She pleaded for me to let go but I had none of it. I continued without stopping and I could her getting more desperate and just as I was about to let her go she somehow shocked me. And not like the small discharge that happened more than a week ago, but a real one. Although it was brief, it still hurt my hand and numbed them. When I looked at Lightning however my breath stopped, her eyes were glowing softly and there was a look of terror in them. Fear, but I had no idea about the why. Sure it hurt like hell but nothing serious. I was about to touch her when she stood up and quickly ran away. "NO! Stay away from me!" “Lightning, wait!” I shouted after her but she didn’t stop so I ran after her as well. I chased her through the forest but I eventually lost sight of her. I looked around trying to catch a glimpse of her but to no avail as I couldn’t find her. But then I realized that even if I wanted to find my way back to the hut I didn’t know where to go. “LIGHTNING!! WHERE ARE YOU?” I shouted and the listened but there was no response, even with my new and improved hearing i couldn't hear her. This went on for a good hour or so of pointless wanderings and shouting when I heard the telltale sounds of sobbing. I worked my way towards the source as silently as I could and my hunch was proven right when I found her beneath a large tree with tears rolling down her cheek. She didn’t see me because her eyes were closed but she heard me when I stepped in front of her. I kneeled down and tried to wipe away the tears but she flinched when I touched her. Whatever made her have a reaction like this can’t be good. “Poor girl, what could have happened to her if she is like this.” “What’s wrong?” I asked her softly and she immediately snapped her eyes open. “What’s wrong? WHAT’S WRONG? I nearly fried you that’s what’s wrong.” now this was just getting plain strange, she thinks she would have killed me with that? “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” I said to her but she just looked at me like I have killed the Santa. “How can you say that? This could have been a lot worse. I could have even killed you. I nearly lost control of it…again” she cried confirming my ideas. I sat next to her and pulled her into my embrace. She tried to fight it at first but then she just gave up and started sobbing into my chest. I started to run my fingers through her mane in an attempt to calm her. This seemed to work as after a good half an hour the sobs quieted to small sniffs and she was no longer crying. After that we just sat in silence, I still didn’t let up with my strokes through her mane and we just enjoyed the silence. After some more time I spoke up “Do you want to talk about it?” she just shook her head. “No, well at least not now. Maybe later I can tell you but now I can’t. It’s too personal” I just nodded in understanding. There were things I didn’t tell her either so it was fair that she doesn’t tell me everything too. Noticing that the sun was starting its descent I stood up and dusted myself off. Turning back to the now less distraught mare I decided that it was a good time to go back to the hut. “Well, I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t like to spend my night outside in the forest, who knows what lurks in the darkness. So if I may suggest, my fair lady, can we go back to the hut?” I started to nervously laugh a bit. “I…may have lost my way when I was chasing you. So my dear Lightning, mind being my guide through the forest?” she just giggled and shook her head. “Sigh, what would I do without you Jack?” she asked me rhetorically and I felt my smart-ass senses tingling there. “Weeeeeellll…” I started but I shut up when I saw her gaze that told me that this isn’t the time for it and I acknowledged it. Instead I just helped her to her feet and let her lead us back. There was no talking on the way back to the hut and I could tell that what happened before was still hurting her but I didn’t pry, I respected her choices. If she wants to talk about it then she will talk about it. When we arrived back we both were tired and just went to bed straight away. As the days passed again she started to talk more and more with me, slowly arriving to the point where it seemed that, that particular incident never even happened but I knew better, I knew that she was still sore about that but as I said I won’t bother her with it. But now I had other things to do, mainly going to the nearby settlement of Trot. Originally Lightning wanted to go because she needed to restock on some things that she was running low on but I practically begged her to let me go there. It was nice for her to let me live there but I needed to go out for a bit and after hours of pleading and persuasion she agreed to let me do the restock run this time. My backpack will be a great help as the holding part is amazing. Turns out the stuff that Discord left me in there were some of the things that I would miss. My Butterfly knives, that were gifts from my father, my sketchbook that held some of my drawings (yes, I draw sometimes, deal with it) and my gas-mask (I like gas-masks so if you have a problem with that, then sucks to be you). But the best thing was that I could pack things into it without limit. And there is no weight increase, so if I wanted I could pack a whole shop into it and be on my merry way and wouldn’t have to worry about breaking my back due to the weight. But back to the story as Lightning was making sure I remembered everything correctly. “Do you have the list?” she asked and I groaned for what felt like the hundredth time. “Yes mom. I have it. See?” I said as I waved the piece of paper in front of her nose and she finally let up with all the nagging little questions. Like she didn’t explain everything at least a hundred times already. I swear she was just like my mom when I was a little kid, oh god the horrors of those times. And finally after another half an hour of nagging I was on my merry way. But just as I went through the door a thought entered my mind and I did a quick one-eighty and walked back to the hut. Lightning just looked at me expectantly and was that a bit of smugness in her expression? Nah, surely I’m just imagining things. “Yes?” she asked in an all too cheerful tone. Damn, I didn’t imagine that. “Ummm, which way is the town exactly?” I asked defeated and she just smirked knowing that she had won this. She walked out motioning me to follow her and that I did. She led me to a small path in the forest that made me facepalm as how I didn’t notice that. I mean really, his thing was like ten feet away from the hut and I couldn’t even find it. Man I suck. “Trot is this way. It’s a day if you walk but you can make it in just half a day if you hurry but there is no need for that. Oh and there are some extra bits in the bag so you can buy something for yourself if you want.” she said with a warm smile and I found myself smiling too. “Thanks Lightning. Be back in around three days okay?” I asked her and she just nodded and started to trot back to the hut. I looked forward to the small path and took the first step on it. “Well here goes, I just hope something interesting will happen to me.” I said to myself as I went deeper into the forest. Oh how correct I was at that time. But I had no idea that this small journey would change my and Lightning’s life…. FoREvEr. “Trot-ba ment, Hol a szörny megjelent. És mikor éjfélt üt az óra, A pokol szabadul a lakókra.” Here is the second chapter. Sorry if it feels a bit rushed but i wanted Jack to be in Trot.