I woke up pretty early. The sun was just beginning to rise and morning dew had formed on the grassy patches around our camp. I got up and decided to have a small walk around before everyone got up for the day. I didn't walk too far from the camp, but enough to witness the nature of this strange world. There were pretty much the same animals from home. There were birds, frogs, chickens... chickens? "Why is a chicken out here?" I asked myself walking closer. The chicken turned its head towards me and I noticed something off about it. Instead of beady black eyes like I would've expected, there were red, glowing orbs in their place.
It was staring at me with such intensity I felt myself going rigid, but then I just slowly walked away. It looked surprised and then angry and walked out of the bushes. My eyes widened when I saw what it truly was: a cockatrice. A chicken head on a snake's body. I learned of the cockatrice in English Class when we were reading myths but I never thought I'd see one in real life, let alone here of all places. It glared at me again, I felt the same rigid feeling come and go, and then it just looked confused, coking its head to one side. "I feel like I'm forgetting about something I learned about you..." I thought to myself. Then it was the cockatrice's eyes' turn to widen and it quickly scurried away.
"Are you alright Cam?!" I heard a soft voice yell. I turned and saw a worried Fluttershy behind me.
"I-I'm fine... why?"
"The cockatrice has the ability to tun anypony it sees to stone! That's why!" She practically yelled. That explains why I felt rigid. "You didn't look it in the eyes did you?"
"I did actually... twice." She stared at me slack-jawed.
"Then why aren't you..."
"No idea..."
"Well... the important thing is that you're alright." Wow... she sounded a lot more like a mother just now. I figured the shy personality was all that was there. And I've only known her for two days. We walked back to camp where everyone was still asleep.
"How did you know where I was, Fluttershy?" I asked.
"I was already awake and decided to follow you... I hope that was okay with you...." Aaaaand back to being timid.
"No no it's fine really. How did you scare it off like that?"
"A few years ago, when Twilight first came to Ponyville, I encountered that same cockatrice, I also met it in Tartarus a few months back. I used my stare on it to keep it away from Applejack and Rarity's little sisters plus their friend."
"Your... Stare?"
"It's what I do to keep my animals under control if they're misbehaving." I was, in all honesty, intrigued.
"Really? Does it work on other ponies?" I asked. She stopped walking and turned towards me with a nervous expression.
"Please don't make me use it on you..."
"Why not?"
"Rainbow Dash thought she could take it once, and she ended up hiding in her bed for a good week." I gulped. If Rainbow was about a hundred percent tougher than I was, what chance did I have?
"Alright I won't make you..." She sighed a breath of relief. I felt a buzz and a ring from my pocket. I pulled it out and the alarm to wake up was playing on my phone. Everyone stirred (except for Ayden) and got up.
"Ugh... I'd prefer to wake up in a less noisy way." Rainbow groaned, her mane disheveled.
"You said it." Theresa groaned.
'C'mon everyone get up." James said, "We still have a good hour to walk before we get to the cave. Burgess, get up."
"No I'm dead. Go away." He mumbled.
"Get. Up."
"I'm trying to rot in peace here James, I would like to have my eternal slumber."
"If only I had that gun..." He mumbled to himself. Knowing Ayden for a few years, I knew how to deal with these situations.
"Ayden if you die now you won't be able to have a nice, soft, cushiony coffin. If you stay alive for a few more hours we'll get you one." He opened one eye and stared at me.
"Why did you have to be my best friend?" He grumbled.
"C'mon you corpse, get up." He stood up and shook out his leg.
"How's it feeling?"
"Stiff." He grunted as he took his first step.
"Hey." Rainbow said to him. She sighed and lowered her wing. "Hop on, you can't walk on that leg for an hour."
"i walked on it for a few yesterday."
"Look, do you want the ride or not?"
Hmmmm... what's the catch?" He said putting on a goofy, curious expression while rubbing his chin. Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"The catch is you do it before I change my mind." He stood there for a good few seconds.
"Deal." He walked over and lifted his leg over her barrel, eventually hopping onto her back.
"Whoa, you're light as a feather!" She said.
"Yeah I know I am, but be happy you aren't carrying Cam. He's like lifting a pile of bricks." Rainbow snickered.
"I'm not deaf y'know." I called back.
"It's true!" He yelled.
"Ah'll be the judge of that." I heard a western accent say. Soon I felt something go underneath my legs and lift me up. I yelled in surprise and landed on the back of an orange pony with a blond mane. My vision soon turned brown as her stetson hat landed on my head, which was a tad big. "Heh, sorry partner." Applejack grabbed the hat off my head and placed on on her own. "Well Ayden, guess you were wrong, he's probably as light as you are."
"Bah what do you know!" He yelled. I chuckled to his expense. I heard Theresa yelp and suddenly, she was on top of Pinkie Pie.
"Didn't want you to be left out!" Pinkie said, giggling.
"Oh brother." I heard James mumble. I frowned, knowing that he was stressed but maybe taking out his anger the wrong way.
"HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE?!" Twilight yelled, "I turned to stone when I looked at it and I had magic to prevent the process!
"Guess magic doesn't solve every problem, Twinkle." Ayden said, lying down on Rainbow Dash's back. Twilight's face scrunched up in frustration.
"I just wish you were staying longer... I could've ran some tests, maybe made a breakthrough for an antidote!"
"Bet you're happy yer leavin now, huh?" Applejack said.
"A little, yeah."
"Only a little?" She asked.
"Well-" Okay so I liked the place. I know I've only been here for two days but it already seemed better than Earth. Just before we came here, kids were kidnapped and tortured so...
"Where is it?!" I heard James yell.
"James are you okay?" I called up.
"WHERE IS IT?!" He screamed. I hopped off of Applejack's back and ran up to him.
"Whoa, calm down! What's wrong?" I laid a hand on his shoulder. He shook it off.
"The entrance! It's gone!"
"What?!" Phillip yelled, "That's impossible!"
"Yeah, it couldn't just disappear!" Mike said. I looked around and couldn't find the hole.
"Maybe we're in the wrong area..." I suggested, "We could scale this side of the mountain?"
"NO!" James yelled, "IT WAS RIGHT HERE AND IT'S GONE!"
"James! Calm down!" I said.
"This is all your fault."
"J-james I-"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" He stood up and turned around, knocking me back a little.
"Woah! How is this my fault?!"
"No he's right Cam!" Phillip said getting in front of James. "You sent me to the counselor! If you hadn't, I wouldn't have been kidnapped and we wouldn't have ended up here!"
"How was I supposed to know he was a kidnapper?!"
"Yeah you can't just blame him for this! He had no idea this would happen." Theresa stepped in.
"Oh fuck off Theresa!" Mike yelled, "Don't defend him just because you like him!" Theresa blushed but only grew angrier.
"And what about you Mike?! You've been James's best friend for years and now you're defending him!" It was Ayden's turn to step in front of me.
"He couldn't have known, guys. The counselor was supposed to help us, Cam made the right choice in the situation Phillip was in."
"SHUT UP AYDEN! STAY OUT OF THIS!" James yelled.
"ALL OF YOU STOP!" We were nearly knocked off of our feet as Twilight spoke in a very loud voice that we had no idea she possessed. We all turned toward her and the girls.
"Holy shit..." Ayden muttered. While he was facing them, James took the opportunity to run up and kick the knee, which had been shot, causing him to yell in pain and fall over, blood spilling out of the recently healed wound.
"You son of a bitch!" I yelled as I run up to James, slugging him right in the stomach. He hunched over in pain, or at least I thought he was, when he grabbed the gun from my pocket and whacked me on the head. I fell over, my eyesight blurry. All I could make out at the time was a yellow figure jumping over me and standing in front of James. A few seconds later, I heard a soft thump and saw the blob that was James on his knees. The yellow creature turned towards me and knocked the side of my head, lightly, but enough to knock me out of my daze. I saw Fluttershy's large blue eyes staring into mine, squinting, trying to find something. She sighed and looked at me with worry.
"You'll be okay, but you have a concussion. One of your pupils blew out from his attack." I sat up and looked over at James. He had a blank expression, his eyes wide however, and he was pale as a ghost.
"W-wha-" I started to say.
"I had to use my stare on him. He probably would've hurt you if I hadn't." I looked back at him and saw the gun in his hand. It was locked and loaded.
"Fluttershy, you actually may have just... saved my life." I said slowly.
"What do you mean?"
"That thing he's holding... is a gun from my world. Was he pointing it at me?"
"Yes he was..." Her eyes grew wide and she gasped. "Th-that doesn't mean?!"
"Yes... he was going to try and kill me."
We turned back and headed through the forest. I was starting to feel dizzier so Applejack volunteered to carry me again. Rainbow took Ayden since he was bleeding again. Luckily, this time we had bandages to spare, and we were able to patch it up. Twilight agreed to carry James, although she didn't look too thrilled to be doing so. Fluttershy flew by Applejack and I from time to time to check on me. The trauma had caused a bump to form on the side of my head which hurt whenever she used her hoof to touch it. "Ow! Quit it, Fluttershy!"
"I just need to be sure the bump won't get bigger. It could be a blood clot." She said as she tapped it a little more. Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit me. My eyesight got even blurrier and I felt more saliva being produced in my mouth, to the point that I had to spit every second.
"Applejack please stop for a second." I heard my own voice say, although it was pretty muffled. I jumped off and ran to a nearby bush where I retched.
It took a few hours until we finally reached Ponyville. We stopped at the edge of the forest, where I heard Twilight talking to the others. I could just barely make out the words she was saying.
"Applejack, you can give Cam to me, Fluttershy and I will take him to the hospital. Ayden, do you feel like you need to go as well?"
"As long as you have more bandages at the castle I'll be okay."
"Okay. Would one of you carry James back there?"
"Actually Twi, maybe you should bring him to the hospital too..." Applejack said as she gently lowered me to the ground where I slumped over, having a coughing fit. The words were just muffled and my vision was completely blurred. I felt myself become weightless for a few seconds before I landed on something soft and purple, which I assumed was Twilight's back. My vision began to go black and I was soon unconscious.
I was floating in darkness again, only the stars weren't there. Instead was what looked like a purple cloud with dark veins all over it. I had no idea what it was but it gave off an evil aura. It was cold when I floated by it. It's the kind of cold you get when you're helpless, powerless against everything that crosses your path. I felt sadness, fear, and anger. Anger towards James for trying to kill me, anger towards the others for siding with him, sadness that my friends might never get home, and I felt fear above everything. I had no idea where we were, if home was close or not, if there was even a way back at this point. I felt the cloud surround my body, the sinking feeling all over me.
Then I felt a tingle of warmth. I turned around and saw a blue star in front of me. It was one of the stars from the group I saw my first night in Equestria. My body was enveloped in warmth and light. The other stars surrounded me, the cloud starting to dissipate, and the darkness was replaced by a blinding rainbow light. I felt safe, I felt every element of harmony at once, rushing through my veins. the kindness that my friends had, the loyalty Terri and Ayden showed me today in the forest, the generosity the girls had, welcoming us when we were considered a threat, the honesty they showed with wanting to help us, the laughter we all shared, and the magic we've been exposed to when we first got here. It was the most amazing feeling I've ever felt in my entire life. Even though we hadn't been here long, they had showed us so much kindness and friendship that I felt as though we'd been friends for years.
And as the light died down, I saw... a grassy field... no not just any field... Equestria, at sunset. I saw my friends, the girls, even Spike sitting on a picnic blanket, they were all smiling, even James. I saw Princess Luna with them, smiling, then looking up at a pony I'd never met. A tall mare with a white coat, a flowing rainbow mane and tail, beautiful, angel-like wings, and a horn behind a golden tiara. She was smiling down at Luna and raised her head to see me. The field vanished and I was in the starry area again. The place where I met Luna for the first time. The taller alicorn flew toward me. I had no idea how to react at this point. Both times I met an alicorn weren't the best encounters. The first one I was tied up, the next I was attacked, what would she do?
She landed in front of me, and walked up to me. "So you're this Cameron Hallow my sister has told me about."
"S-sister?" I asked, petrified in fear.
"Luna is my sister. She's told me of how you had advanced knowledge of the dream realm, as well as how you have a cowardly appearance when meeting royalty." I smiled sheepishly, feeling my cheeks warm up. She giggled, and it sounded like a mother laughing with her newborn. The motherly laugh, it seemed to calm me down. "I suppose I would be remiss to not introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of the day and the one who harnesses the sun." Great. I'm talking to a Sun Goddess. I instantly felt all of the color drain from my face. "Are you alright? You seem a little, pale."
"W-what do you mean? Harness the sun?" She smiled softly.
"As the ruler of the day, it's my job to raise and lower the sun, just as Luna's job is to raise and lower the moon. Saying it out loud, it makes others see us as goddesses, but I can assure you that's not the case."
"So... why are you here anyway? If Luna's the ruler of the night, wouldn't she be the one to come and see me?"
"Normally that would be what happens, but I felt the need to meet you face to face. Come. Walk with me." She turned and started walking down a starry path. I followed her and watched in awe as certain images floated by.
"Are those..."
"I promised that I would keep a close eye on Twilight while she was gone. I do so every day, watching her memories from a third-pony point of view. She was my student a long time ago... I'd even consider her one of my own children... it's amazing how time works... isn't it?"
"Not a huge fan of it to be honest, one moment the best thing in your life is happening right before you then it's gone. Then you have homework due on Monday and you were told about it a week before." I heard Celestia laugh.
"Time can be one of the most wasted things in a world like mine. When you're alive for thousands of years, things seem to speed up as time goes on." We walked in silence for a few more minutes, I watched as the memories whizzed by, seeing all of Twilight's experiences. It looked like she went to the human world once, or at least another one besides mine.
I heard thunder and turned to see black and purple fog swirling around the ground behind us. "What is that stuff?" I asked. Celestia turned and looked at what I saw. Her eyes widened.
"No... no not here. I thought it would be with Starswirl, but you?!" She genuinely looked terrified. "You need to wake up now!"
"But..."
"Go! I can only hold it off for so long." I turned and saw a bright doorway a few feet away. I ran towards it and felt warmth, much like I did when I first woke up in Twilight's Castle. I ran through and Instantly I felt warmth, then burning. Then...
I felt a jolt and woke up, my chest on fire, my limbs convulsing. "We've got him back!" I heard a voice echo.
"He's under too much stress, we need to sedate him!" I heard another one.
"Mister Hallow," I heard the first voice, "We're putting you under, just to make sure that you don't feel any pain and to ensure that you don't overload your systems. You suffered serious head trauma which is causing problems for the rest of your body. Just lie down and let the anesthesia do it's thing. I felt myself getting tired again, my eyes started to close when I felt pressure on the side of my head. I just had to hope that I didn't wake up in any other place besides the hospital. Ponies not understanding human anatomy was the only thing I was afraid of at this point.
There was nothing when I slept. Dreamless, no princesses, no nothing. So I decided to try and open my eyes. They felt heavier than weights at a gym. I tried more and suddenly there was a bright light. I heard myself groan and closed my eyes instantly. I heard muffled voices. They were worried? Happy? A combination of both? I tried opening my eyes again. The light was so intense that I felt the urge to close them then and there, but I mustered the strength to hold them open to gain focus. I was relieved to see myself in a hospital room in a patient gown, rather than be dressed in all white, with a halo and a lyre. The wings would've been a bonus though...
I looked up to see a purple face smiling down on me, then to my left were two humans. One with long ginger hair and the other with jet black hair, covering some of her face. They came into view and I saw Ayden, Theresa, and Twilight around me smiling. I smiled back, knowing I was safe. I heard the door to the room open then close and Nurse Redheart walked in with a clipboard. "Well Mr. Hallow, you weren't easy but I believe that you should be fine. You came in with a Severe Concussion, caused by unknown blunt force trauma, you suffered cardiac arrest while we tried to get you situated so we needed to open you up and see what the problem was. You had a few blood clots created by the trauma that traveled into your heart. If we hadn't gotten in there when we did... well, the important thing is you're alive."
"Thank you nurse." I smiled and she walked out of the room, promising to check on me every few hours.
"So what now?" Ayden asked.
"Now..." Twilight started, "Cam is going to get rest, we're going to head back to the castle, and we're going to get rid of that gun."
"And James?" I asked.
"He's in the psych ward." Theresa said, "He still hasn't snapped out of it ever since Fluttershy's stare."
"Wait... Fluttershy can put people into the hospital just by giving them a look?" Ayden asked.
"Her stare can reverse the effects of a Cockatrice. Pretty sure it's strong enough to put anypony into a hospital."
"Damn... remind me never to make her mad."
"Remind me never to ask for her to try her stare on me." I added.
"I don't know... those beds in the psych ward look about your size... pretty comfy-looking too." Ayden said giving me a sly smirk.
"Huh, cool, go talk to Fluttershy and tell me all about it when you get out." I said smiling.
'Boys.', Twilight thought.
'Welcome to my world...', Theresa thought while looking at her.
I spent the rest of the week in recovery. Ponies haven't invented TV yet so it was pretty boring. I mostly laid in bed, read a magazine, tried to draw some new characters in a journal Rarity brought as a "get well soon" gift.
"Ayden told me that you like art, so I got you something that will hopefully last until you get home. She had said. I liked Rarity. She was kind, generous (like her element) and she had always found a way to add glamour to almost any situation. Even though she could be braggy, she honestly has every right. She's talented and deserves to show that off. Anyway, I tried to draw some old fashioned cartoon characters, then some still-lifes, but I always loved the concept of drawing superheroes. I always found myself drawing My Hero Academia characters. It was hard to get every muscle line perfect, and I didn't exactly want to be drawing... assets... to the female characters. but it was always All Might who grabbed my attention.
He started out as Toshinori Yagi, weak and defenseless in a world where 80% of the world was stronger than he was. Then he met Nana Shimura. A wielder of the strongest power known to man, "One For All". Telling Shimura that he believed that the world needed a pillar to lean on for support, she grew curious of Toshinori's abilities. With intense training alongside his mentor Gran Torino, he grew strong enough to wield the power and make it his own. Once he obtained the power, Shimura had to use the last of her remains of One For All to take down its creator, "All For One". A wicked man who stole the powers of others. He created it as a quirk to give to his younger brother who was assumed to be quirkless. It was his quirk of passing down powers from generation to generation that allowed One For All to grow. So it was passed down, hero to hero, until it reached All Might, who then passed it on to his heir and student, Izuku Midoriya, who was also a quirkless boy as he once was.
So I thought about the powers, and the more I did, the more I saw connections to what I've seen in my mind. The stars of various colors, the cloud, the fog. I believed that I had seen the powers I had so long admired. But why were they here? The manga and the anime never made any reference to Equestria. Then again, why would they? This place reminds me of a children's coloring book rendered by Source Filmmaker. There's absolutely no reason why they would be here.
A very long week later I left the hospital, still puzzled. I needed to find out why I was seeing what I was seeing. I felt that Twilight might have known about what I was thinking about so I decided to ask her. I returned to the castle and went straight to the library, where all of my friends were. "I was wondering when you'd be back." Ayden said as I walked in. "You good?"
"Yeah, never better." I said smiling. "You can read?" I asked him, looking at the book he was holding.
"Har har..." He replied rolling his eyes, "Well without technology and the usual shit, we need to revert back to our primitive ways."
"Pretty sure our primitive ways had to do with us killing any animal in sight and shitting outdoors." Ayden rolled his eyes and got back to reading.
"i mean what I'm reading sounds like something out of Greek Mythology. The ones who rule over this land apparently have the power to raise and lower the sun and moon."
"That's hard to believe..." Mike said looking over Ayden's shoulder. "The Earth is supposed to revolve around the Sun, not the other way around."
"Well that's how it works here." Twilight said walking in with two mugs of what looked like coffee.
"Thanks Twi." Ayden said taking a mug. Twilight blushed at the nickname and walked back over to what I guess was her desk. It was littered with scrolls, books, and inkwells.
"Hey Twilight... can I talk to you?" I was feeling a tad nervous, I'm sure she'd say I was just having nightmares, but I needed to tell someone... or pony in this case.
"Sure! What's up?" She said, not looking away from writing on her scroll.
"I need to speak with you privately?" I said as if it were a question. Why is it so hard to ask someone for anything, no matter how simple it is.
"Uh... okay..." She raised an eye brow as she and I exited the library to the hallway. She shut the massive doors behind her and turned to me. "Is something wrong?" She asked.
"Well... it's... it's complicated." I noticed that she looked even more confused than before. "Have you... have you ever heard of something called... One For All?" She blinked and shook her head.
"I've heard it been used by some of the guards when they rushed into battle." 'Athos, Porthos, Aramis' I said in my head. "Why do you ask?" Holy shit, why was it so hard to explain?! I went over asking her millions of ways in my head and I actually never thought about what to say! I sighed in frustration.
"Nevermind." I said walking back towards the library.
"WAIT!" She yelled. I stopped and looked back at her. 'Thinking back on it... I do remember something in the Royal Archives in Canterlot..." Great! So I didn't have to explain.
"What do you know about it?" I asked eagerly.
"Not a lot. Only some subtext that explained what a stockpile of power was..." That was it. The word stockpile confirmed my suspicions. One For All was here and for some reason, I've been seeing it. Why is the true question.
"We need to go to Canterlot and find out what it is!"
"Woah! Hold on! Why is this so important?!"
"I've seen it before! In my mind!" I said pointing to my head. Aaaaaaaand there was the "Are you crazy?" look. Then it hit me. Celestia and Luna had to know about it. I knew I would be sorry for making her panic but right now we had to go to Canterlot. "And besides, won't the Princesses need to know about me and my friends? I mean it'd be pretty stupid to hide some aliens in your home... especially if she wanted you to turn us in to her." Yeah I saw the letter on her desk about us being potentially dangerous. I noticed that sweat had formed on her forehead and she bit her bottom lip. I suddenly felt an impending sense of doom.
Meanwhile in Canterlot
Celestia and Luna were eating together, enjoying the delicious lunch the kitchen staff had prepared them. Just as Celestia was about to take her first bite, a scream echoed from outside. Celestia dropped her fork and walked to the window, seeing that Twilight's castle had flown a few hundred feet into the air, before landing. "Sister... tidy up. Twilight's coming to the castle." She said smirking, knowing that her student had finally realized that she hadn't notified her teacher of the new arrivals.