Twilight had not seen many bipedal creatures in her lifetime, if you don't count spike who is a dragon and so technically a quadruped. or a four legged creature if you so please to say so, others than the young dragons walking on two legs the only other species that walked on two legs in Equestria was the Diamond dogs. That she knew of anyway.
Their decent down the mountain was one in silence, Alice had ignored most of her questions. Twilight had plenty of them but no answers. Twilight had also not noticed the two plugs in Alice's ears, nor did she pick up the faint music that they played. Alice on the other hand was happy that her 64 gigabyte Ipod had survived her little trek through the lab facilities. She had even been able to retrieve a portable solar panel so she could charge it. Right now the little machine rested in her pocket and blasted a mix or rock and classic and anything between into her ear. Frankly most people thought that her taste in music was odd for the person she was, truth to be told she liked most music just not most of the techno/noise genre that some liked. They finally reached the end of the mountain and ended up in a forest. The forest struck her in a odd way, like it was unnatural somehow. The pony did not seem to mind it so Alice let the thought slide. She did notice the animals that lured in nearby bushes and so removed one of the earplugs.
Twilight walked briskly on the trail trough the forest. To call it a trail was a little unfair it was more like a small dirt road. Still she actively listened to any sounds that she found out of place, she heard none. Not much dangers in White tail woods. The odd pack of timberwolfes maybe some manticore cubs. It was not unheard of that the woods could be dangerous, especially at night. So far had Twilight not picked up any danger. Then Alice spoke for the first time since they left the cave.
"Don't ya think it's weird that we are rolling inta town in the middle of night?"
Twilight knew Ponyville and ponies came into town at the oddest of times sometimes. "Not at all I live there after all, Ponies come into town at random even some at night. Mostly through the train and not the forest but some still come at hoof. Why do you ask?" Twilight could not still get the accent that Alice had it sounded something like AJ's but not as heavy.
"Just a feeling that, no matter how odd it is with a live talking unicorn. I just... Just can't shake the feeling that's something is wrong."
"Like what?"
"I donno,Let's call it intuition. Also we are followed by some kind of beast, predator most likely."
"It's probably just a manticore cub or something, nothing I can't handle."
"They hunt in pack?"
Twilight swallowed. "No but Timberwolfes does." She said with a squeak.
Alice sighed. "Then it's probably the later then, 5 of them, three behind two to the sides."
The pony stopped dead in her tracks Alice almost walked right into her. "We need fire! A torch or something!" The pony panicked a little where she stood. "And I don't know a good fire spell."
"Fire? That's all?"
"Pretty much yea." The pony almost went into a hysterical giggle. 'Pony with magic that can't make fire, Great. Just Great!' Twilight thought to herself. She always used spike for that. Him being a dragon and all so she did not even bother learning one.
The bushes behind them rustled and and a barky looking wolf made of logs and sticks, slowly creeped out of the bushes. It snarled and growled at them, 4 more growls where heard all around them and joined the bigger wolf on the road. Alice let out a sigh seeing that Twilight was having a giggle fit about now. Alice pulled out a gun, a old mauser C96 or a 'Red9' as the also are called. she fired a round in front of the wolf. When the ground in front of it exploded it jumped back a little mostly by the sound of the gun, but it did not run away like Alice had thought it would. With a sigh Alice lit a flame where she had hit the ground, the wolf yipped by the heat of the flame as it licked its snout and fled into the woods whining as it ran. The other wolf was very quick to follow. 'Next time I just put a round through it's head.' Alice though to herself not amused in the least that she had wasted a round not knowing the next time she need to refill. Not that she needed to worry she had at least a 300 rounds more in her pack.
"What just happened?" The pony was still freaked by the wolf's, now maybe even by Alice.
"We needed fire and seeing that my gun did not scare it very much I made fire." Alice said dryly.
"You have magic?" The pony asked shocked, Alice had said that she did not believe that the princess moved the sun and she still didn't. She had after all yet to see this display of 'magic' in person. She had dismissed the thought about the lab.
"Not really, we call it pyrokinesis, I can do some other weird stuff with my mind. Creating fire and doing other things with my mind might count. Still I don't call it magic." 'Not yet atleast.' She reminded herself about the bandage around her leg with the thought.
"But I felt nothing, Usually when somepony uses magic around me I can feel the use of mana. The pony was visibly shocked. "How's that even possible?!" She blurted.
Alice felt that she needed to tell the mare some truth. "I'm a heavily genetic altered human. I have seen and done some odd stuff in my life. It would not surprise me if I could learn pony magic to some degree." 'She did claim that it existed. Alice had to atleast believe Twilight in something, how else could she trust the pony or the pony her for that matter. "But as you said no mana no magic."
This revelation shocked the pony even more. "What? Genetic altered?"
"Genetically altered, if said alone and yes. I'm a test platform for to create super soldiers. Than again that failed when I decided to to shut that little operation down. Easier said that done if you ask me." 'I had to take down a bunch of backup data and some retired scientists.' Alice thought grimly.
Twilight hit the head on the nail even seeing that she put two on two together. "You killed somepony?"
"Not somepony, somebody. They fucking deserved it!" Alice snarled. "Developing weapons of interplanetary destruction and other fucked up stuff. They did not deserve to live. Creating monsters from unborn children! Then... Then killing them off when they don't have any use for them anymore! Alice was starting to progressively more angry just by thinking of it.
"So... Y you killed them not to die like the others?" Twilight stuttered a little. 'Great now she is afraid of me.'
Alice gently shook her head. "No. I killed them so they could not do it ta another living being." Alice sighed. "They had already tried to put me down years ago... I did not die.. I.. I can't die. Trust me they tried. The last ten years of my life has been a mess especially the last three months." She sulked. "First I was lost and alone. I was only ten at the time. Then I found some friends, and Bradly another test subject. Our bodies where unstable according to the scientists." She snorted. "A load of bull. Then the bastards figured out that we lived and came after us. Bradly and my friends where killed when I was in a place we call Prague. When I figured out what had happened. It was not to hard seeing that I have some connections, I went to find every sonovabitch and ... And." Alice suppressed some tears.
"Killed them?"
"Quick and painless. Never even noticed me. It was more than they deserved, Bradly was like me. When I said I can't die well that's not entirely true. He was lowered into what's called kings acid. Nothings left of him."
"I see... How many?"
Alice was not surprised she cared, just surprised that she had not screamingly ran away yet. "Outside the facility around twenty of them. Inside? I don't really know I blew that up and ended up here. Maybe, just maybe I can find some peace here. Being created to kill don't always mean ya want ta." Alice had slumped down on the road whit her head on her knees arms gently wrapping around her legs. Tears rolled down her cheek.
"Oh." Was all Twilight could say.
"Now do you want to stand there all night or get going?" The tears still rolled down Alice's cheeks as she looked out mindlessly in the night sky.
Due to Alice emotional breakdown Twilight decided for them to camp out. Not that she got much reply from Alice that only started a small fire in the clearing that Twilight had found. Alice had also seen her first true display of pony magic as Twilight had gathered the firewood without even leaving her side. Beside all ammunition that Alice had packed on her she had also a couple of blankets for them that she produced from her rucksack. that and two nutrient bars, she offered one to Twilight and ate hers in haste. Facing away from Twilight she went to sleep. Twilight on the other hoof was in deep thought about what Alice had told her. What these beings had done to her, Human had she called herself. And what they had done to her friends.
'By Celestia that is not something somepony would think about doing for no reason' Twilight felt a great sadness for Alice. Pity and some fear seeing that she was a killer. But Twilight dismissed the thought about the girl before her. If there was something she had learned, then it was that everypony deserved another chance to right their wrongs. She was even willing to give Trixie another chance and so far had Alice done nothing to be hostile in anyway. Except against the Timberwolfes anyhow.
Twilight had at least gotten some rest during the night, not much but some. The notion that it might be Timberwolfes in the area and that she had slept only hours ago did not help at all. Alice had seemed to cheer up after her sleep and packed her belongings and they set of to Ponyville.
After a while so could not Twilight hold it any longer. "So?" She asked.
"So what?" Alice asked back.
"I was just wondering about stuff."
"Like what?"
"Like how you talk Equestrian? Your age, stuff like that."
"Equestrian? Hmm. In my world we call it English Than again some morons call it American not knowing it's a dialect."
"Is there a difference?"
"Not really some words and what not. You speak perfect English-American by the way."
"I do? Well. So you have other languages? Do you speak any of them?"
"Självklart." Alice giggled to the puzzled pony. "It meant of course. Swedish is one of eight languages I speak."
"So English, Swedish and?" Twilight rolled her eyes to the amused Alice.
"German, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Japanese. are the fluent ones." Note that the author don't speak them fluently. Hey Stop breaking the forth wall mister!... Sorry.
"Equestrian and some ancient, languages is not my thing."
"Me nether, but learn the language and you survive."
"Okay next question. How old are you.?
"Nineteen, Tha I look older. Being created in a lab instead of born so I have been technically and adult since I was five. I stopped aging physically when I was around seven Seeing that I reached my prime age apparently so I look a little older than I am. Except this thin it's brand new." She twirled the tip of her tail with a finger. "Human don't have tails. Normal humans that is."
"Oh.."
"What?"
"Don't tell that to a dragon, Apparently they have some bad blood with humans in the past according to dragon legends." Twilight looked back at when Spike had gone to the dragon migration, the topic had been some of the leisure talk in the magma pool.
"Like what?"
"The little I heard from Spike goes like this: They appeared out of thin air, their rods of fire was strong enough to burn us, they hunted us, we died, many did. Then they disappeared and our race was safe once again." Twilight told.
"Ouch, None should have their people mercilessly slaughtered."
"Like you did?"
"That was different. I did not commit genocide."
"So humans do that? Kill each other like that I mean?"
"Our history is riddled by war. Always a conflict somewhere. At some point in time a nation went to fight almost the entire world. They slaughtered the ones that they deemed unfit to live in their 'reich'. Many innocent humans died in that war. Another topic please."
"Back to the tail then. Why do you got it if other humans don't"
"Like hell I know to be honest. I'm sure I did not have it before I came here. Might have to do with my genes I'm not fully human. So calling me a chimera is not a long shot." They could now see Ponyville on the horizon from the little hill they stood on."Now it's your turn to talk I think." She shielded her eyes with her hat.
"What do you want to know?"
"Let's begin light. How old are ya? then ya can dump a part of your life history seeing that I have some done with mine."
"Sounds fair. I'm nineteen like you but born and raised a normal foal in Canterlot." She started. After a while she talked about how she came to study under the princess Celestia, she mentioned Spike again and her friends. Alice took interest in unicorn magic which pleased Twilight as it was a topic she was happy to show and talk about. More talking than showing but Alice still listened. She talked some about life in Equestria and then suddenly wanted to know more about Alice own abilities. Alice Showed her some or rather most of them that could be shown. She showed her basic ability to manipulate the elements according to Alice herself then she was relatively new to these herself and had best control over fire but it was nothing fancy. She demonstrated a low level of telekinesis that was a basic skill in Equestria. All this needed a bit of concentration. Then she told her about her telepathic power directly inside Twilight's mind. Twilight noticed that she took pleasure in startling the pony, Twilight then asked if she could read minds with it. To which Alice said that even trying that would give her a migraine for the rest of the day. But the ability that fascinated Twilight the most was and ability Alice called Shadowleap. Something that was hard even for a skilled magic user like Twilight to even try to replicate.
"Shadowleap?"
"Yea it's really cool. Check this out." With a small zip Alice faded out and appeared by a rock some distance away. Twilight teleported next to her.
"Teleportation? Without magic? Hows that even possible?."
"Well I don't know! But it has it's limits and a little twist to it. First I need to see my target, I can't go trough solid mater there is also a range limit seeing that I can't jump from here to Ponyville. And it's very energy draining to use. Two, three times tops before I need to rest.
"Oh, and no magic?"
"Not so far I can tell, according to the research notes I read all these 'Skills' are locked away abilities that the human brain can do, only that a normal humans body would probably die from using them, But i'm not directly not normal now am I." Alice giggled. 'At least she is in a good mood now.' "Also If I stand in a shadow that covers my whole body I can do this." Alice and Twilight had reached line of trees that Twilight knew belonged to the Apple family. Alice disappeared in the shadow of the trees, Twilight could not spot her.
"Alright so you are good at hiding?"
"Yea i'm good alright. Ya can say that I'm almost invisible. Alice popped out from nowhere besides Twilight, startling her. 'Pinkie warning there Alice..'
"Okay I would have believed that fully, if you did not have clothes. Noway that you can make them invisible.
"I bend light in a small field around my body for some reason if I'm sneaking in a shadow or rater I bend the lack of light. Not even the scientists could explain that one. The shadowleap and stealth thing I have had since I was born. It was fun sneaking around and scaring people. So it's only natural that I'm good at it." Alice giggled like a school filly.
"And that also have a limit?" Twilight said unamused. Hey is that even a word?! Shh your doing it again! *Smack* Sorry.
"Not so far I know." Alice was having a blast at the startled mare.
Decided that she had enough of the human fooling around she brought up a completely random topic and so started a nice little chat about everything and anything. Then suddenly she asked. "Do you ever wonder about your parents, you know the humans you are based on?"
Alice shrugged "Not really and I did not have a childhood to speak of. I was born almost an adult after all also I read in my file that I'm not even fully human remember I said chimera before."
"Really?"
"The tail is from a lion if ya did not know, just silkier hair. I think I have some horse in there to."
"That's freaky, might explain the tail."
"It might but nothing in my world have Freaking rainbow hair!"
"One of my friends have a chromatic mane."
"Fun for ya, love to meet them." Twilight figured Alice did not want to talk more as she hummed a song.
Alice had put one of her earphones in her ear and put on some a shuffle list. She enjoyed the silent walk for a couple of minutes.
"Sound catchy, what is it?" Twilight wondered.
"Song called Loreley." Alice continued to hum.
"Sounds happy." 'not really' thought Alice then she sung with the song.
Oh, the stories we where told.
Quite a vision to behold.
Mysteries of the seas in her eyes of gold...
Laying on the silver stone, such a lonely sight.
Barnacles become a throne, my poor Loreley
And the winds would cry, and many men will die.
And all the waves would bow down to the loreley...
Alice saw that the pony was troubled by the last part and so started to hum the tune instead.
"You have songs about death? That's .. Tragic."
"It's about an old German folktale." Then she hummed again as they walked into town. Ponies that saw them ether ran away or just glared at them, most glares where against Twilight but she was oblivious to it, Alice thought as she did not mention it. She still had that odd feeling that this world gave her. Something was off, she just knew it. The most obvious thing was that it looked different, more colorful and vivid. Somehow cartoony so to speak. Still everything had the same amount of details that her world did. Still this was not the thing that bugged her.
"Ponies can be a little xenophobic at times. Don't worry they'll warm up to you in time." Some of the colorful equines watch curiously out on them from the windows. Not many but some. Others was ether hiding or glaring daggers into them.
Alice heard a low whistle in the middle of a song change. She extended a hand and caught whatever that came their way. Not surprised that what she caught was a small rock. Twilight missed it and so continued happily along the road. 'The hell? I thought that ponies where a friendly bunch.' "I just have to send a letter, then I can show you the town proper." Twilight was as cheerful as she had been most of the time.
"Sure." Alice let the rock fall and stepped on it as it landed, muffling the sound. 'Who the fuck chucks rocks at people?'
A minute later another rock was thrown. This time Alice was ready and had removed the earpiece, she caught the rock this one was aimed directly at Twilight's head and so Alice moved in such a fashion that she noticed. Alice chucked it back to the source, deliberately missing the pony hiding in the alley. "Next time I will hit ya with whatever ya throw ya bastard! With a blur the pony disappeared from the alley.
"What was that about?" The pony stared at Alice.
"Somepony as ya say, chucked a rock at ya for the second time since we came into town." Alice growled.
"Now that's weird. And now when you say it. Most ponies have been acting strange... And I have not seen Pinkie yet she usually feel when somepony new comes to town." The pony mumbled. "Let's go to the library I need to find Spike to see if something happened."
"Could not agree more." Somehow Alice felt that this was just the start of it. She was going to regret how right she was.