//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Mages Journey 
// by LunarLocket 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 1
‘I have got to get home. It’s an absolute blizzard out here!’ Connor thought to himself as he trudged towards his home with a bundle of food, firewood, and various arcane objects in his telekinetic grip. He walked up to the door with his cargo and stepped inside, immediately lighting his fireplace with a blast of magic as he entered. He loved his home. It was a small and simple house with a fireplace in the main room, his bedroom being the only other room in the house. He dropped his things on a table near the fireplace and went to his room and flopped down on the bed.
“It’s good to be home” he said to himself. “Tomorrow’s the big day; I’ve got to get some sleep.” Wrapping his blankets around himself he yawned loudly and closed his eyes, letting himself slip into unconsciousness.



Connor woke the next morning and realized that he had forgotten something of tremendous importance the previous night, something that could change his life as he knew it. He had forgotten to eat. He went into his main room and walked over to the fireplace and placed several logs in the space. He started the fire with a blast of arcane fire from his palm. He smiled to himself. He always loved elemental magic; it felt much more natural to him then all the other areas of magic that were out there. After that small moment of thought he placed a pot of stew from a few nights ago over the fire. It began to heat up and bathed his home in the amazing smell of the stew.

After he got the food started he had some time to think about his plans for the day. This was going to be an enormous challenge for him, both mentally and physically. He was going to be the first mage to master the art of teleportation. He was aware of the risks of the experiment and all the things that could happen to him in the process. Many a mage had attempted this before and ended up a bloody splotch on the wall just a few feet from where they started. But he had an advantage on all the mages who had tried previously. He had found an artifact of great power, one that would grant him the strength that he needed to perform such a spell. He had the laburnum stone.

He walked over to the stew pot and got a bowl of stew for himself. As he ate he began to gather all the necessary components for the spell. He had his salt, his candles, his staff, and the stone. He set the stone at the tip of his enchanted staff and looked at the stone. It was a stone of pure obsidian with several glowing green runes etched across its smooth surface. This was truly an item of immense magical power. He finished his bowl of stew and began preparing for the ritual.

He started by pouring the salt on the ground in the shape of a pentagram, careful not to make a single break in the lines. Then he placed the candles on every corner of the pentagram and lit each one with a small blast of fire from his fingertips. After everything was prepared he walked to the center of the pentagram and began chanting. As he began, the world itself seemed to grow still and tense. A haze settled over the room, the candle flames dancing in the air as he grew louder with his chanting. The pentagram began to glow an angry red as the power of his spell reached its climax. Finally, all the power that he gathered during the chanting gathered in the center of the laburnum stone and bathed the room in a harsh green light, then suddenly there was a flash of green light, and Connor was gone.

Connor slowly blinked his eyes has he awoke to an unfamiliar location. He looked around at his surroundings; it looked like he was in a desert of some kind. He was surrounded with brush plants and cacti. Yup, definitely a desert. ‘well’ he thought to himself. ‘better start finding out where my spell landed me’. He began walking; trying to find out where on earth he ended up.
After a few hours of walking, plus a few more, he began to feel hopeless. It was around sunset when he sat down to rest and looked over the horizon with an ever increasing sense of hopelessness and saw what looked like a settlement of some kind. With newfound hope he began to sprint towards the town. ‘Thank god! A town! Maybe now I’ll find out where I am.’ As he ran into the town he saw what was probably the last thing he expected. A town filled with pastel colored ponies! All of which were staring at him in absolute horror at the moment. “What the FUCK are you!?” He exclaimed as he felt something hard and unforgiving collide with his jaw. He fell to the ground as he felt the cold hands of unconsciousness grasp him as he was knocked out.

He awoke on a cold, hard floor. He tried getting up to get a better look at his surroundings when he realized his hands and feet were both tied! After a moment of thinking to himself he realized he could just burn the ropes off, but that would hurt his wrists. He settled for trying to find out what was going on before he made any rash decisions. He got up and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a small, dark room with a small pile of what seemed to be hay lying in the corner. He looked at the door and realized it was a cell door! “Where the hell am I!?” he screamed. “Well, whatever you are, I’m sheriff silverstar and I would like to be the first to say, welcome to Appleoosa.”