//------------------------------// // Exposition // Story: Terraria Is Magical // by Srake //------------------------------// The trek from the hill was an easy enough. Twilight only had to trot to keep up with the strange bipedal creature. It continued to glance over its shoulder either to reassure that Twilight was following it or that something wasn’t following them. They were fast approaching the walls of the fortress when a dark shape flew from the sky and smashed into the back of the creature. The creature lost its balance and rolled onto the ground with a grunt. It looked up at the round, dark shape floating in the sky, eyes blazing red, with a growl and held out its hand at the monster. Twilight could sense magical energy being focused into its hand. Crystals formed in front of his hand and flew towards the shape and met it with a wet sound. Its silhouette fell apart and hit the ground with a soft thud. The dark creature turned back to Twilight, offered a concerned look and motioned for her to follow. Twilight felt indecision in her mind. The creature she was following clearly had some form of magic power and without her magic she would be no match for it if it wished to do her harm. It had also just killed a something without a second thought. Growling came from behind Twilight and motivated her to go move the opposite direction. Twilight trotted up to the creature who was staring at the wall, tapping its foot impatiently, waiting for her. She looked up at it and the creature shook its head. It reached its hand forward and pressed it against the wall. The wall moved back and slid to the side revealing the inside of the fortress. The creature hurried Twilight though the passage and looked around before it closed the wall and turned to Twilight. It let out a sigh and walked down the hallway to the central building. It stopped and turned back towards Twilight and folded its arms. Twilight gave a start and quickly trotted after it. The creature rolled its eyes and waited until Twilight had caught up and walked alongside her. Twilight looked around the hallway. The hallway itself was constructed from green bricks and was illuminated by green light that shone through the spaces between the bricks. It was wholly unspectacular besides the lighting. Eventually, they reached a wooden door and the creature walked up to it. It knocked its hand against it twice and opened the door. White light flooded into the comparably darker green light. They stepped through the doorway and walked into a room made of red bricks. The creature held up its hand and signaled Twilight to stay there. Twilight complied and leaned against the wall and fell into a sitting position. She examined her new environment. The interior of the room was much more furbished than the hallway. A table was pushed up against the wall and had a chair pushed in underneath. On top of the tables were books that had strange glyphs inscribed on their covers. There were also many storage chests lined against the wall. In the near middle of the room there was a smaller table that had tools on it, a furnace, and an anvil. Twilight heard a scuffle from above and directed her attention to another door. The door opened revealing half closed red eyes. The creature walked out the door and turned back towards the door and extended its arm towards Twilight with an aggravated look on its face. From the room came another creature similar to the first. It had the same basic shape but it seemed to be a different gender from the first. It also had a pinkish hue to its skin and orange hair. Covering most of its body was yellow material and on its back was a massive piece of metal that Twilight recognized as a wrench. As she was walking out she was talking to the other creature, “now what were you talking abou- Oh. My. Gosh.” The creature noticed Twilight leaned against the wall, watching with interest. The creature turned to the dark one and started exclaiming loudly, “YOU BOUGHT ME A PONY?!?” She launched herself at the other and pulled him into a hug. “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!” The other rolled his eyes casting an annoyed glace at Twilight and broke out of the hug shaking his head. Twilight stood up, “Wait, you can talk?” Her interest redoubled with this revelation. The dark one stared at the pony with wide eyes while the other one replied without missing a beat, “Well of course we can! What kind of person can’t talk?” The dark one’s eyes flicked from the pony to his companion and shot her a puzzled look. The female human realized what happened and stopped her rambling and stared at the pony. “You shouldn’t be able to talk...” she stuttered in disbelief. Twilight suddenly realized what these things were.Twilight’s eyes flicked between them, “What do you mean, ‘I shouldn’t be able to talk?’ You’re the ones who shouldn’t be able to talk because humans aren’t real!” The female reacted by turning around and crossing her arms, “Whatever! Ponies aren’t real either!” The dark human redressed his annoyed look and glared at the female. He reached up and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. “They are real...” he said in a loud whisper. He dodged a punch from the female and raised his hands dismissively and sat down at the table. He stared inventively at Twilight, as if looking through her. Twilight squirmed under both the human’s stare and the new information she was processing. Humans aren’t real. But here are two of them, alive and well and speaking Equestrian of all things. They’re myths, just old stories made to entertain. Nowhere in Equestria could a human exist. ‘So I must not be in Equestria. I must be somewhere outside, perhaps even another world.’ Twilight thought. Humans were said to be extremely violent and evil creatures. While the dark one looked the part, they certainly didn’t act it. Movement broke Twilight’s train of thought; the dark one sat up in his chair and leaned on the table. “Well, do you have a name?” he asked. Twilight hesitated causing the two humans to look at each other. He looked back to Twilight, “No then?” “No, no! My name is Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight replied hastily. A sound came from the dark human, sounding almost like suppressed laughter. Twilight glared daggers at the human, “What? I suppose your name is better?” “Well,” The human tried to look nonchalant. “I’m afraid my name doesn’t measure up to,” He cleared his throat. “Twilight... Sparkle. But, I think the name ‘Dark Srake’ is just fine.” Srake dropped his false air of superiority. “Oh, and that’s Kayla.” He pointed in the direction of the female. Kayla scowled in concentration at Twilight, “I’m starting to think that you didn’t get me a pony...” She turned to Srake, “Why do you think she’s here?” Srake frowned at her, “I don’t know why you’re asking me. We are in the presence of a purple, magical, talking horse.” Srake stopped talking and looked around the room trying to avoid Kayla's glare. Srake relented under her gaze and let out a sound of annoyance, “Fine...” He turned to Twilight and asked her, “Why are you here...” Twilight was puzzled by his demeanor. He only seemed surprised by her for a few seconds before he became bored. In response to his question, Twilight recounted the events of the day.