//------------------------------// // Chapter One: A Lost Sword Part 1 // Story: A Sword In Equestria // by Joe Toon //------------------------------// "W-Where am I? What's happening? Why can't I feel anything?" "..........." "What's going on? It's dark in here! Why is it so dark in here?" "........................." "Is somebody out there? Anyone? Please, I don't know where I am! I'm scared!" "....................." "It's so cold here. It's so cold. I can't feel the floor, or the wind. Am I even breathing? Am I even Alive? Am I Dead?" "...................." "For that matter, who am I? My name..... I can't... I can't remember my name. No... wait." ".....deo... ldeo..." "I-I... I remember." "... eldeo..." "My name... It's... Keldeo." "Hey Ocellus, do you know why we're here?" Gallus, a blue griffon with parrot-like features asked with a solemn tone. A small, green changeling gave a confident yet reflective smile, "Well, that is a very good question Gallus. Scientifically, it's one of life's greatest mysteries. No creature truly knows how we all came to be; is our existence the result in a cosmic lottery or were we designed by a creator?" The solemnity of the griffon's expression dropped into a deadpan, "... Ocellus, that wasn't what I was asking." "Oh, Philosophical then?" Ocellus' face lit up as it morphs into a brooding scowl. She shifted into the form of a snow-white unicorn with three diamonds for a Cutie Mark and with an overdramatic voice she spoke, "Why are we here doing the things that we do? Is there more to life past fulfilling the destinies set before you by your Cutie Mark or is there no free will and we are fated to follow the course we found ourselves in?" "Heh, nice Prof. Rarity impression," the sea-green earth pony (with three turtles for a Cutie Mark) named Sandbar smirked. "What can I say; her antics are rubbing off on me," Ocellus smiled sheepishly as she morphed back to her real form. While the rest of their friends grinned with amusement, Gallus on the other hand was not as impressed as he facepalmed with a groan, "Ugh! Ocellus, I am talking about why are we out here circling around an open field out in the middle of nowhere for hours?!" "Does Gallus not remember?" the yak named Yona asked innocently, "Cutie map called Yona and friends to solve friendship problem here." "I know that, Yona! I just think the map could have been a little more specific as to what we are looking for!" "I'm with Gallus, there's nothing here but an open field of nothing," a young orange dragon added with irritation, "It could have pointed us to a lava pool. It could have been the Badlands. It could have been the Changeling Hive. By Torch, it could have even been underwater! There is nothing here!" "Aw, don't say that Smolder," a pink hippogriff grinned enthusiastically, "there's plenty in here! Like this blade of grass, or that patch of grass, or that lonely rock, or that weird swirling portal above us, or that lonely tree on that hill, or..." "Woah, slow down there Silver. Breath," Gallus pressed a finger on her beak, silencing her. She stopped to take a deep breath as a small blush formed on her face. "... Thanks Gallus." she muttered under her breath. "Wait, Silverstream what did you say earlier?" said Sandbar after doing a double take. "Which one Sandbar? The patch of grass? The Tree on the Hill? Or..." "Portal!" the yak pointed to the sky, "Yona sees Portal!" They all looked up. High above them floats a giant hole in the sky, glowing with a vibrant blue, violet and pink light. The portal pulsed and rippled outwards like a calm wave on the seashore. All six friends stared at the void with hypnotic marvel and wonder. "It's sooooo pretty!" Silverstream quivered with awe and excitement as her eyes sparkled. "Yeah," Gallus added, almost drawn to the portal, "makes you feel like you want to touch it." "Yona feels that feeling too," Yona slowly moves closer to it, "Only Yona wants to hug it." "Hey Ocellus, could this be why the Map called us here?" Sandbar asked, keeping his eyes glued to the maw. No reply was heard. "Ocellus?" Sandbar managed to break eye contact from the spectacle; only to find the changeling in question drifting closer to the portal with a hypnotic gaze in her expression. "Ocellus NO!!" Thinking quickly, Smolder flew up, grabbed her and attempted to drag her to the ground to pin her down, "Don't look at the light!!" "I can't help it... It's so beautiful." Ocellus droned as she continued to drift closer to the maw of the portal. Turns out, Ocellus was tougher than she looked as the young drake had a hard time trying to pull her friend down as they struggled closer to the portal. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE, HELP ME PULL HER DOWN!" Smolder roared out a rather impressive impression of the Royal Canterlot voice as it snapped out Gallus and Silverstream from their daze and flew up to pin their insect of a friend down. Meanwhile, Yona and Sandbar circled underneath them, in case they should catch them when they fall. "Ocellus snap out of it!" Gallus grunted. "Sweet Auntie Novo!" Silverstream struggled to hold her, "Does Ocellus work out? It's like you're trying to pin down a Bugbear!" "Hey guys, something's happening to the portal!" All eyes turned (except for Ocellus) to Sandbar's warning as a large pulse of energy knocked the group floating next to the portal; snapping Ocellus out of her daze while dropping all of them to the ground. Seeing this, Yona and Sandbar grabbed a large blanket from their sleeping bags and rushed to break the others' fall. They stretched out the sheet like a makeshift trampoline just in time for the rest of the group to fall into the blanket. "Ugh, what happened?" Ocellus gave out a groan while she held her head with her hooves, "Feels like I just took too much of Sir Pharynx's pod jelly." "You were about to be bug-zapped when you went all googly eyed for that portal!" yelled Smolder as she glared at Ocellus in the eye, "Seriously, what the hay happened to you?" "I-I don't know," Ocellus shrank at the dragon's berating, "One minute I looked at the portal, the next minute I thought about all the reasons for such a thing to exist. Then I felt a series of powerful emotions from the other side of the portal; fear, loneliness, sadness, joy, anger, love. So much love... Then I thought of all the possibilities we could discover from the portal, then the magical advancements we could achieve, then I thought of Changeling benefits, then..." Smoulder held a claw to the changeling's mouth, silencing her, "We get it, you were Twilighting." "Um guys, I think something is coming out of the portal!" Before everyone could register Silverstream's warning, an equine figure was flung from the portal, and was falling directly above them. Everyone cleared out of the way with the exception of Yona as she was promptly smooshed to the ground, cushioning the fall of the figure in question. "Yona! Are you alright?" Sandbar rushed to her side, checking if she was in any way harmed. "Y-Yona fine," she grunted, "Yona stopped weird pony's fall." Sandbar sighed in relief and gave her a grin, "Seriously, that was crazy of you to do that... and a little bit awesome." Yona returned his grin with one of her own along with a small blush. While the two were sharing the moment, everyone else decided to take a closer look at the body that fell from the portal. "I-is that an unicorn?" Smolder wasn't off in her observation. Upon closer inspection (after removing him from Yona's back), they noticed the pony in question appeared to be an unicorn colt. Keyword; appeared. He was taller than most ponies, almost that of Big Macintosh but lacked the muscle the humble apple farmer had. He had a thick red mane above his head and a blue one stretching from behind his head, all the way down to his chest. He had a yellow coat, a blue tail, a sharp curved horn and most curious of all; no Cutie Mark. "Hey, buddy! You alright there?" Noticing the lack of consciousness from the colt, Gallus shook him in an attempt to wake him up. "Um Gallus," Silverstream held his claws to stop him, "I don't think it's a good idea to shake him awake." "W-why not?" he asked. "Look at him," Silverstream carefully pointed out the strange unicorn's body, "he's covered with bruises, scratches and burns. He's badly injured." Ocellus moved in closer to scan his body with her magic, "Strange, his body structure is pony-like but I can't seem to get a read on his internal organs. He's still breathing but as you said, he's very injured and is short of breath. I also can't get a read on his mana pool and his thaumic signature is unlike anything I've seen before." "What do you mean?" asked Smolder. "I'm not sure. It's like he has no magic to speak of," explained Ocellus, "I mean, he has something of the like, or at the very least has no magic that I'm familiar with. And he has a lot of it." "A lot?" Sandbar raised an eyebrow, "Like how much?" "Well," Ocellus stretched out the word as she scratched the back of her head, "Almost alicorn level a lot. Whatever is substituting his Mana pool for magic is enormous enough to compare to Princess Cadence's Mana Pool. And I don't know if it's hurting him or helping him." "Bah!! Doesn't matter!!" Yona gave a stomp, "Strange pony needs help! Yona and friends must bring him to the hospital!" "No arguments there," Gallus said as he made his way towards the lone tree, "C'mon, let's grab a blanket and some branches to build a stretcher." They all nodded in agreement as they set to work on building a makeshift stretcher, unaware of the portal slowly shrinking. Or the amber eyes watching them from a distance.