//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A shy welcome for Nicholas // Story: Era of Harmony // by Gambling_Sam //------------------------------// ******* Nicholas POV ******* "Raiden!" I yelled as the light died down around me, only to find myself on a platform surrounded by...space? What is this place? I thought to myself. getting a better look around, I saw stairs descending into a small temple. As I walked down them, I started getting my bearings. Although it was dark in most of the area, there was torches following the platform and the staircase. I looked around the empty space I was in just in case I could make out something in the distance, but there was nothing but pitch black and the occasional star. I stopped in front of the doors to the temple. They were those odd doors with the fancy symbols carved into them you only see in movies and stuff. On these, however, there was what looked like some cloaked man holding the moon in one hand and the sun in another with some kind of purple star on his chest. I reached for the door and pushed it open. Inside was just as full as the outside, nothing except the same man with his backed turned and looking in a little pool of water. wait.... what? "Umm, excuse me Sir." I asked while taking a step towards him."Have you seen my brothers around here? one will look like an irish version of the Rock with hair, and the other will look like Gordon Ramsey on steroids." The figure turned towards me and I gasped when I saw his hands. Unlike in the door picture, he had rotting skin and bone could be seen poking out of the wrists. His lower face, the only part I could see due to the cloak, turned up into a sick grin. A bender of magic returns to this forsaken place. He said. Only it sounded like it was coming from inside my head. Let us see if his light shines bright! With that, he outstreched his arm towards me. A warbly sound was made as a dark blob shot out of his hand at me. "Noo!" I yelled as I raised my hand and closed my eyes, bracing for the inevitable pain. It never hit me. I opened my eyes and saw that a red barrier surrounded me and had absorbed the blob. A bead of sweat poured down my face as I dropped my hand. The barrier disappeared and I collapsed, worn out all of a sudden. The figure only smiled and put his hands togethor. You have much potential, spellweaver. He turned around and looked back at the pool of water.Regretfully, it is not my job to teach you. For now, you must wake up. Wake up? I thought as I started to get drowsy. the last thing I saw before I fell asleep was that odd man point towards the star on his chest. Seek the weilder of magic, and she will guide you. ******** "GAH!" I awoke with a start, only to hear a loud crash from somewhere to my left. I looked over to see a blanket trembling on the floor. "S-Sorry if I scared you" I said to the pile. I only got a soft squeak in return. I looked around and noticed where i was. It was what looked like a cottage of sorts, with all sorts of little tables and what looked like a... cage in the corner? I looked in front of me and saw cookies and water on a mini table. Whoever this person is must've made these for me. I thought as I took a cookie and ate it. Man, those are good! I turned back towards the shaking blanket pile."Uh, who are you?" I asked. The blanket slowly came off and when it did, my jaw hit the floor. Of all things I was expecting to see, a little yellow horse was standing in front of me. Or would it be a pony, considering it was smaller than a horse. I then noticed it had wings. WINGS!!! ponies dont have wings! I pulled up my own blanket in fright. This was NOT normal, and I'm not afraid to admit I was seconds off from passing out in fright. The winged horse/pony thing must've seen I was scared or something, because she suddenly got way less timid and walked straight up to me. "Oh you poor thing." She said. "You must be so scared." Not trusting myself to speak, I simply nodded. Although I was still terrified, her motherly tone was helping my nerves calm down a bit. "Your not from around here, are you?" she continued as she gave me the water. I took it quickly and drank it dry. Sitting the cup to the side, I answered her. "I dont know..." I whispered. And I truly didn't have a clue about where I was. "Is this Destin?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at that. Oh no. She doesn't know what Destin is? I thought. that means this can't be the U.S "I don't know if I have ever heard of a place called.... Destin." She said the last part slowly, almost as if it was a word she had never heard before. "Right now, your in ponyville." It was my turn to be confused. What the heck is ponyville? "Where on Earth is that?" I asked, afraid of the answer. She raised an eyebrow, but spoke even quieter. "Earth?... Umm...I've never heard of Earth before." My hands were starting to shake. "W-whats the name of the planet we are on?" I asked, now super close to having a panic attack. She noticed this and draped a wing around me. "The planet? I think its name is Equiis." That's when i broke. I'm on a completely different planet than my home. I thought as i started to sob. What if I never see my brothers again? Next thing I knew, I had both of the horse things wings draped around me in a close hug. It felt suprisingly nice and we just sat there like that while she slowly rocked me back and forth. After a little while, she pulled her wings back and looked at me. She had this calming smile on her face. She then realized what she had just done, and jumped backwards quickly and hid from me in her mane. "Umm...do you have a name?" I asked carefully, as to not scare the person....pony thing that had obviously been taking care of me while I was asleep. "Its fluttershy." I barely heard her whisper. Thank goodness its so quiet in this cottage or else I would've completely missed it. I gave her a half-smile. "Well, Im Nicholas. But you can call me Nick." With that, she finally looked at me again. I was never a big animal person at home, but man, she was adorable! She flew over and sat next to me. I turned to face her. "Where did you find me?" I asked. Suprisingly, she giggled at that. "Well, I didn't find you, three little adventurers did." This only confused me further. "Adventurers?" I repeated and she nodded. "Oh yes, three fillies that live here in ponyville. They are very... creative when it comes to their little crusades. They were on one when they found you passed out under a tree near my cottage. They came running to me claiming to have found a scaleless dragon and asked me to make sure you were ok." I laughed at that. Me! a dragon! wait till Ronin hears that one. Now that's a guy that needs to become a dragon. "So you have been looking out for me for how long then?" I asked her. She looked up on thought for a second and then refaced me. "For about 7 hours now." She said and I sighed in relief. 7 hours isn't so bad of a K.O time. Still, for her to drop everything she had been doing just to look after something she had never seen before touched me greatly. I turned and pulled her into a big hug. She let out a big squeak at first but didn't pull away. After I finished hugging her I looked her in the eyes. "Thank you, fluttershy." I told her. "That means a lot to hear that from someone." She simply hid in her mane a bit and blushed slightly, clearly not used to getting compliments. It was at that moment the door burst open and three more ponies ran into the cottage. However, these three were different from fluttershy. The three of them were half of her size. One had wings like hers, another had a horn. and the the last one didn't have either. Instead she had a little bow in her reddish hair. As soon as they saw me, they all took a collective deep breath. I cringed up quickly. Being a kid myself, I figured out what was going to happen next. 2 ways to describe the question onslaught that occured: Loud and relentless. "OMIGOSH YOUR AWAKE?" "WHAT ARE YOU?" "HOW'D YA GET HERE?" "ARE YOU A FILLY OR A COLT?" they kept it coming without giving me a chance to answer any of them until Fluttershy finally butted in and stopped them. "Now girls, lets not crowd him. he woke up not too long ago and he's still recovering." The trio immediately stopped and hung their heads a bit. Oddly enough, I laughed at this. "Hey, no hard feelings. I get it, I'm the newcomer to this place, and I'm geussing your the girls that found me?" They looked up excitedly. "We sure did!" The orange one with wings said. "You were near our clubhouse!" the pale one said. "Whats your name?" the yellow one said. "Well, my name is Nicholas, y'all can call me Nick" I looked at them. "You girls got names?" The orange one spoke first. "Im Scootaloo!" The horned one was next. " Im Sweetie Bell!" Not to be outdone, the yellow one stood on her hindlegs and said proudly. " And A'hm Applebloom Apple!" they said this next part togethor: "and we are...." They took a deep breath. "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!" That definitely made me go deaf for a second. But it left me with a question. "Uh, what's a cutie mark." Which got me a gasp from the trio. "Cutie marks represent your special talent." Sweetie Bell said matter-o-factly. "Dont you have one?" Scootaloo asked "No." I said. "Humans usually dont get things like that, we just choose what we are good at." Applebloom spoke up. "Thats soooo weird. But cool at the same time!" I found myself laughing again. I was really starting to enjoy hanging around these girls. Fluttershy spoke up, yet still seemed to be a bit soft about it. "Why dont you girls come back in a hour or two. I need to make sure Nick is fully alright." I raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. The girls moaned a bit at that, but they left with a passive "Goodbye Nick!" From Applebloom. "I can see what you meant by adventurous." I said with a smile. I turned to her. "So, what do you want to know?" ********** 2 hours later ********** Fluttershy had asked me about just about everything with earth when it came to one subject: animals. I was right when I had saw the cage in her cottage. Turns out shes an animal enthusiast, and a BIG one at that. At the end of the conversation, however, I noticed she was staring at my teeth. "Uh, is something wrong with my mouth?" I asked She looked me in the face and answered. "D-D-Do you eat meat?" She slightly whimpered. She must've seen the canines. Crap. I thought to myself. A sentient pony just asked if you eat meat. Oh well, no use lying. "Yeah, us humans eat both fruits, veggies and meats." I said slowly, noticing the look of fear on her face returning. She gulped audibly. "Do humans eat....ponies?" My eyes went wide. "Definitely not! Well, a few might, but its almost unheard of when it comes to most people." She relaxed at that but I continued. "Humans DO need meat to survive though. So what type of meat is available here?" She paled a bit, then answered. "We dont sell meat in ponyville, but I could teach you how to fish.... if that's alright with you, that is." She said, once again hiding in her mane. "Alright, that works. thanks." I said while streching back on the couch. She got up and started walking towards the kitchen. "Good, now Nick, I've got to go feed the animals, will you be alright being in here alone for a bit?" I nodded in response. "Great!" She said with a smile. Then it went to a frown. "Do you remember what you were dreaming about earlier?" A tad confused as to where this came from, I shoke my head. "Nope, I usually don't remember my dreams. Why?" She shook her head. "Oh, nothing too crazy, just while you were asleep, you kept mumbling things. Only thing I could make out was when you said 'Raiden.' Is that the name of someone you care about?" I nodded. "Yeah, he's one of my brothers." realization struck me like a car. "What if he got sent here too!" She smiled at that. "That would be wonderful, then you could be reunited with him." She turned and walked into the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I walked to the window and looked out it towards the sky. Dont worry Bros. I thought with newfound determination.Once I sort out what I'm doing here, I'm going to find you two.