//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: When Worlds Collide Part 2 // Story: Uncharted: Secrets of the ancestors // by Cloud Thunderhoof //------------------------------// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Nathan Drake- After having been shot at and nearly blown to pieces all in the span of one day, Nate had decided to put up with his new situation. At least they’re not trying to kill me and take my stuff, the adventurer thought to himself as he followed the small purple horse in front of him. Although neither of them spoke Drake could tell Twilight was excited. He assumed it was curiosity about him because judging from her reaction to his appearance she definitely had that type of personality. When they reached the farm house Twilight told Drake to stay put. The treasure hunter obeyed, not wanting to offend his host. The house was two stories and painted apple red, smoke rose out of the chimney and the same smell of pastries lingered in the air. The progression of time finally caught up to drake. He looked up and saw the sun was high in the sky and realized he had been out for at least a day, his last memory was of the afternoon when the helicopter had attacked him and sully. Wait, where’s Sully, Drake thought looking around for any signs of his friend. Twilight Sparkle pounded on the door with her hoof, which Drake assumed was the equivalent of knocking. The door creaked open a few moments later and the same orange pony from before peeked around it. When the creature’s eyes fell on Drake it tried to go back inside the house but something stopped it. Twilight Sparkle’s horn flashed and the orange pony appeared on the porch and then the door slammed shut on its own. Drake jumped at the sudden appearance of the orange creature. At first the pony seemed as startled by her sudden appearance as Drake was, but she got over it quickly. The orange horse gave her purple friend a death glare and spoke with unrestrained anger, “Twi’ I’ve told you not do that without my permission!”. Drake noted this pony lacked a horn or wings and wondered if that was the equivalent of skin color back home. Twilight Sparkle cleared he throat in a blatant attempt to turn her friend’s attention to Nathan. The orange pony turned around and gave Drake a sheepish grin. “Well, uhh, Hiya. Ma’ names Applejack…”, the orange pony said. Her voice was decidedly feminine, but had a distinct southern drawl. She seemed unsure of what to say next and looked like she expected Drake to gobble her up at any moment. In an attempt to mitigate the awkwardness of the situation Drake stuck out his hand hoping it meant the same thing here as it did back home. She stared at the hand not understanding the gesture, and then she realized what it meant and cautiously touched her hoof against his hand. They shook and the awkwardness seemed to diminish a little bit. “My name’s Nathan Drake”, the treasure hunter said, introducing himself. “I have to say, when my friend and I found you we didn’t expect you to make it. You were hurt pretty bad and you wouldn’t wake up. Sorry for leaving you in the barn and all, but I didn’t want to risk the safety of my family”, she said finally appearing to be warming up to Drake a little bit. “Wouldn’t be the first time”, Drake scoffed. However when he saw a look of worry flash across the orange creature’s face he said, “I meant being left somewhere after being rescued, not hurting a family”. Then Drake remembered something, “Where’s Sully?”, he asked out loud but both of the ponies gave him a strange look. “Who’s Sully?”, the lavender pony asked. “My friend, he was caught in the same explosion as me”, Drake said as he looked around as if his aging friend would just materialize out of thin air. “The big blue explosion Applejack told me about?”, Twilight Sparkle asked. “No, just a normal explosion”, Drake replied. “We should probably head back to my library and sort this out, If your friend is in danger than we shouldn’t be wasting time”, Twilight said, gaining a slightly more urgent tone “Um Twi’ aren’t ya forgetting someone?”, the orange pony called out to her friend. Drake could hear a rustling noise off to his right. He turned his head and could see a glimmer for a fraction of a second. The fortune hunter walked over the scrub and reached toward it. As his hand neared the bush he could hear a muffled cry of surprise followed by a shushing noise. He pulled back the leaves to reveal two small forms within it. A small yellow pony and a bipedal lizard had been hiding there, watching the strange creature intently. Drake looked down and noticed that the purple lizard held a piece of paper and a feather quill in his claws. Drake turned around and called out, “Looks like we were being watched”. The two larger ponies trotted up to drake and looked into the bush where the two smaller creatures had been hiding. Drake saw the purple pony shoot the lizard what appeared to be a disapproving glance and the orange pony sweep the small yellow one behind her. “We should get going, It’s probably best that we try and sort out your situation as quickly as possible Mr. Drake”, Twilight said as she beckoned Drake forward. “Listen Twilight Sparkle, you can just call me Nathan or Nate, usually the people who call me Mr. Drake end up trying to kill me later on”, Nathan said. “Oh, well in that case you can call me Twilight”, The purple pony said in response. “Come on, it’s around lunch time so the streets should be more clear now, however we need to find a way to keep you from being seen, I don’t want reporters on my case any more than I have to”, She said it in a way that implied that being followed by the paparazzi was a daily occurrence for her and Drake couldn’t keep from wondering why. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Twilight Sparkle- "There's no way you're going to turn me into a pony!”, the human practically yelled at the lavender alicorn before him. “No, I offered to create the illusion of a pony around you so we wouldn’t draw too much attention”, Twilight replied. The human had been turning various shades of red, which made Twilight wonder if the species had any relation to chameleons. Then his face began to return to its normal tan color, which she assumed meant he was calming down. “So, it’s basically just a disguise?”, he asked in a much calmer voice, confirming Twilight’s suspicions. “Yes, and as soon as we get to the library you can drop the spell and your real body will be visible again”, Twilight informed him. There’s something forgetting about how this spell works, I feel like it’s important but usually relevant, the mare thought without alerting Nathan to her confusion. However before the detail came back to her, Drake interrupted by saying, “What do you mean by ‘you can drop the spell’, I can’t exactly do magic?”. “If I have to maintain the spell than body my horn and the illusion would glow, giving us away. But if I enchant an object then you could manually control the spell and my aura wouldn’t give anything away”, Twilight explained. “Let’s get this over with”, Drake said. Twilight nodded and pointed her horn at the human and closed her eyes. The same sense that she was forgetting something came back as her horn began to feel warm and the base of her skull began to tingle. The sensation of using her magic was nothing new to the pony; in fact she found it comforting. When she opened her eyes the world took on various hues of blue indicating how magically charged something everything was. However when she looked at Drake all she saw was darkness. However it was more than ordinary darkness, it consumed all of the magic around it and gave off a strange aura of its own. “Nathan, I need you to let me do this”, she said and almost immediately the darkness dissipated slightly. A swirling golden mass formed inside the void Nate created and twilight targeted it. Then there was a flash and the spell abruptly ended. When Twilight opened her eyes again she noticed that an image of a pony stood before her. Nate looked at and nodded his head in approval. “Is this the illusion you were talking about?”, Nate asked Twilight as her normal vision returned to her. “Yep, now all you need to do is place the thing you want to facilitate the spell into the hologram and it will be done. It will work best if its metal and you can wear it, it will make droping the spell as easy as taking the thing off”, Twilight informed him. Nathan pulled a silver chain halfway out of his pocket and removed something from it so that the pony could not see it. Then he threw the item into the floating hologram and waited for something to happen. Then there was a flash of golden light and a cracking noise shot through the air, forcing the human, the pony, and the dragon on her back to cover their ears. When the light faded the necklace floated where the hologram had been. It glowed slightly as it bobbed up and down in place like a hovering pegasus. Nathan reached for it with uncertainty. He grabbed it lightly as if he expected it to be hot to the touch. Then when he found it was perfectly fine he tightened his grip and brought it to his face. “So if I put this on, it will make me look like a pony but not actually change my body?”, He asked. “That’s the idea”, Twilight responded. “Here we go”, he said in an uncertain voice before placing the chain necklace back on. Within moments the human faded out of existence and a pony stood in his place. The image created was a tan stallion with a short spikey mane and close cut tail. Twilight looked to the “pony’s” side and saw he was a pegasus. The pony’s wings were the same color as his coat except that the feathers at the very tip were golden, however it almost looked as if they were made of the actual precious metal. The “pony” had bronze colored eyes which now darted around, observing the environment. Spike hopped off of her back and walked around the disguised creature. “I never knew you could do a disguise spell like this Twi”, her scaly friend said in a slightly surprised tone. “It comes in handy”, she replied “Like when?”, the dragon asked “Let’s not talk about that in front of our guest”, she replied as she pointed at Nathan and blushed a little under her fur. “Let’s go”, Twilight called out to the “stallion” behind her . After Nate caught up they walked in silence for a little while. Twilight observed the illusion of a pony closely. Her eyes glowed a little bit as she looked past the illusion and saw the creature within. Nate stood about twice as tall as the illusion, the ends of his claw like appendages coming down to about the height of the illusion’s back. Twilight knew the spell would translate the human’s actual body movements into the pony equivalent but a trained eye could see the inconsistencies in the image’s stride. “Nathan, try not to move your arms too much”, she told him noticing something awry on the hologram. When the invisible human replied the voice came out of the decoy’s mouth like it should have, “Why?”. “I understand that your arms naturally swing when you walk, Spike’s do the same thing, but it’s making the wings on the illusion shake unnaturally”, she replied. Twilight could see the aura of the otherwise invisible human place his hands into his pockets and keep them still, stopping the jittering wings. With that Twilight cut off the enhanced vision spell and there was no longer a trace of the human. They were nearing the outskirts of the town and Twilight began to come up with the best route to take in order to avoid unnecessary encounters with anypony. All we need to do is get to the library and straighten this out, I just hope ‘she’ doesn’t know we’re here yet, her thoughts transitioning to a certain friend of hers, I rely hope there’s no pinkie-sense for “strange new sapient creature comes into town” knowing my luck there probably is. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Twilight’s curiosity overwhelmed her. “Tell me about yourself”, she said, biting back the urge to look into the place where the invisible human’s eyes were and instead looked into the illusion’s bronze eyes instead. “What do you want to know?”, he asked. “Well what’s it like where you’re from?” “Well it’s a lot like here but there are some differences…” “Obviously” “Can I finish please?” “Sorry” “I don’t know, the trees are the same, the skies are blue, the clouds are white. The creatures are different thought, for instance there are no talking horses” “Ponies” “What” “The proper term is pony; horses live in some of the eastern states like Saddle Arabia” “Huh, well excuse me princess” “I didn’t tell you that how did you know?” “Wait, what?” “Never mind”, Twilight finished as she felt the conversation grow more and more awkward. For the remainder of the walk neither of them spoke but the awkward air between them grew. Seeing it was around noon the streets were less packed from before, making them slightly less impassable. Twilight knew it would be difficult to get Nathan through undetected, the illusion was not solid, but the invisible human was If anypony bumped into his side then they would disrupt the illusion and a low flying pegasus could have the same effect. Getting to the library would be too tricky until the ponies returned to their homes and cleared the streets. Then twilight remembered something she needed to get done. “Change of plans”, Twilight told the human. “What do you mean?”, he asked. “Getting to the library would be too difficult until the streets clear, You said you needed new clothes and I have a friend who could help you with that who lives closer”, she responded. “And where would that be?”, he asked Twilight gestured with her hoof at a building. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Nathan Drake- Drake cringed at the sight of the building. It was stylized as a carousel and was painted baby blue. Hearts and frills adorned the structure, it seemed out of place in the otherwise sensibly designed town. “Are you sure about this”, Drake asked “It takes some getting used to but the owner is a great pony and extremely generous. But my first time here wasn’t so good. I’ll do my best to make sure your first time isn’t so bad”, Twilight Sparkle replied. “Thanks, I guess”, Drake replied, unsure of what to expect. They walked into the building and an even more cringe worth sight greeted Drake. The interior was covered in every conceivable hue of pink, mannequins sporting gaudy dresses stood on display, and various images of ponies wearing fancy outfits were framed on the walls. Drake knew he needed his clothes mended but he started to wonder if it was actually worth it anymore. “Welcome to carousel boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique”, the voice was distinctly feminine and came from a white horned pony who walked, er, trotted into the room. “Hi Rarity, my friend needs a special order filled. I’ll spot him the cost but I would need to get the money to you tomorrow. Is that ok?”, Twilight asked. “That’s fine Twilight”, she said as she walked up to the duo. "Let me do the talking", Twilight said “If you insist”, Drake replied in a half sarcastic voice The white and purple pony approached Drake and he noticed something odd. She had a mark on her flank like Twilight and Applejack, in fact every large pony Drake had seen had one of those marks on their flanks; however the small pony at the farm did not have a mark. Drake wondered if they represented some sort of rank in the pony society. The white pony circled around the disguised adventurer before speaking, “You know Twilight, this would be easier if I could see what you friend here actually looked like” Drake’s heart skipped a beat. How did she figure that out, is it that easy to tell I'm a fake, Drake thought. “What do you mean, he’s a pony like you and me”, Twilight said, obviously lying through her teeth. Drake face palmed at Twilight’s lack of conviction, and, although he didn’t know it, the illusion face hoofed as well. “You’re a terrible liar Twilight. Anyway darling, I’m a fashion designer not a fool”, before she continued, the pony waved a hoof through the illusion and canceled it, revealing the once invisible human. She took a look at Drake’s true form before continuing with her explanation, “You see, I have a magic field which tells me when a pony enters and how many ponies are in the building, and don’t worry, it’s all legal; anyway I only felt one pony enter the boutique when you and your friend came in. Now the field picks up on the intrinsic magical fields of all sentient creatures which means your friend was either only a hologram or was shrouded entirely”, She explained. Twilight was dumbfounded and reminded herself that Rarity was much smarter than she let on. “And you’re not scared?”, she asked. “Twilight, I have made garments for numerous ‘strange looking’ foreigners in the past, and ever since that misunderstanding with Zecora I try not to be so quick to judge”, the white pony elaborated. “Now that she knows what I am, I think I can do the talking”, Drake said, trying to allow himself to speak again. Twilight looked at him and nodded. “What’s your name?”, Drake asked the purple maned pony. “Rarity”, she replied “All I need is a patch job on my shirt and pants, I hope that wouldn't be too much trouble”, Drake said. “Oh, not at all, give me a moment”, Rarity responded. Then, in a flash of blue light, a needle and thread appeared. It only took a minute or two for the pony to expertly stitch the holes in the shirt and pants closed using her magic. “So tell me about yourself, mister…”, the white pony said, trying to get Drake’s name. “You can just call me Nathan or Nate, usually people who call me use ‘mister’ when talking to me are the ones trying to kill me”, he said. “Does that happen often?”, She asked, trying to hide a her worried tone. “More than it should”, Drake replied. Drake could sense the conversation becoming more and more uncomfortable as time went on and realized he was treading on the wrong ground. Just then Drake heard the door creaking open and realized he was undisguised. “How do I turn this thing back on?!”, Drake said as he inspected the chain like necklace which had sustained the spell. “Tug on it lightly”, Twilight was quick to answer. Drake obeyed, pulling at the item and reinstating the holographic disguise just in time. The door swung open and revealed yet another pony; this one was blue and appeared to have a rainbow colored mane. The pony carried a bag in her mouth and deposited it on a work table before noticing the three ponies standing in the middle of the room. “Hey Twi, didn’t expect to see you here, oh and Rarity, these are those cloud lilies you wanted”, the female sounding pony said as she gestured towards the bag she had brought in. Then her eyes fell upon the new pony in the room and she smirked. “Say, Twi, you never told me you made such a big score”, she said with a tone which was somewhere between mocking and envious. It took a moment to realize that the cyan pony liked the look of the illusion a little too much. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Twilight Sparkle- It took Twilight a few seconds to realize what her friend was getting at, but when she did it took every ounce of concentration she had form spilling the secret about Nathan just to shut her up. Dash would mess something up sooner or later and the jig would be up and Nathan’s true form would be revealed. Twilight almost wanted to order Nate to take off the illusion generation relic in order to shut up the blue winged pony’s escapades. Rainbow Dash walked up the “stallion” obviously unaware it wasn’t even a pony and said, “Wadda ya’ say we take off together and get to know each other”. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Nathan Drake- “Sorry, my wing is injured”, the lie flowed out seamlessly. He groaned a little while thinking, great, now I have to deal with this. Drake glanced over to Twilight with a pleading expression that conveyed something akin to, “Make her stop”. “That’s too bad, anyway my name’s Rainbow Dash what’s yours?”, she asked Nathan decided it would be best to use his last name, seeing as it sounded more like a pony name, “Drake”, he replied. “How’d you do that to yourself?”, She asked, gesturing at where drake assumed the wing was on the illusion of a pony. “Crashed into a tree”, he said, hoping it would be a legitimate answer. “Nice aim” “I try” “I was looking for treasure deep in the forest when it happened” “So you’re like Daring Do?” “Who?” “Daring D… Nevermind”, the blue pony said it as if she was trying to sweep a mistake under the rug and change the topic. At that point Twilight saw it fit to stop the increasingly awkward conversation and decided to intervene, “Hey Rainbow Dash, how about show off your flying skills”. The blue pony seemed to have an expression which conveyed something akin to “Why didn’t I think of that”. She began to walk out of the door and gestured for the others to follow. “When she gets up in the air we’re making a run for the library”, Twilight said. “Thanks”, drake said, glad that he would be able to get away from “intrigued” pony. “Try not to get too blown away by my awesomeness”, the blue pony said before gaining altitude. Twilight and Drake watched for a minute or two. She was agile and probably a very good flier, even though Drake had nothing to compare her to. The blue form darted across the sky, preforming various mid-air stunts. Then she went into a steep dive, going faster than Drake thought any living creature could. A cone of energy formed around the pony and then drake witnessed something incredible. There was an audible explosion noise and then a wave of white light shot out form where the pony had been like a ripple in a pond. Then Drake saw a chromatic trail following the blisteringly fast pony. “We have to go before she gets back”, Twilight whispered urgently as the blue pony flow out of sight. Drake nodded before following her. The streets were less crowded now, however it was still difficult to navigate the streets without bumping into any of the ponies. Their destination was in sight now. The building was an old oak tree which had obviously had a house carved out of it. The lizard who had been sitting on Twilight’s back jumped off and began walking on his own two feet. "Say Nathan, i thought you said you couldn't do magic”, Twilight said as she stopped at the door. “It does not exactly exist where I come from, why?”, he responded. The purple pony gave Drake an extremely skeptical look before speaking, “Then how did you manipulate the base spell so easily?”. This time Drake gave Twilight a confused look and asked what she was talking about. “When you said your wing was injured the illusion changed to fit that description, the only way it could have done that is if you changed the enchantment’s base spell”, she explained “Maybe it just reacts differently to my body because I’m not actually a pony”, Drake said dismissively. “Or maybe it could be…” she began to say, however she trailed off as she opened the door. The inside was dark and as soon as Twilight closed the door Drake took off the chain necklace and the illusion of a pony faded away, being replaced by the human it had been hiding. The inside of the library was clean and inviting. Seeing as there were no patrons around him, he assumed that it was closed today. Out of curiosity Drake picked up a book which had been sitting on the table in the center of the room and opened it. However nothing could prepare him for what came next. A pink pony seemed to pop out of the book, as if she had been hiding there. “Surprise!”, it yelled as drake backpedaled away from it, startled from what just happened. “What the hell just happened?!”, Drake exclaimed as Twilight noticed the pony who had just appeared in the room with them. “That’s Pinkie Pie, just try not to think about what just happened too much if you value your sanity”, Twilight said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Victor Sullivan- Sully trekked through the jungle on the tropical island, remembering how this whole fiasco had started. There had always been talk of a lost city in the area. Stories had been told about the strange relics found on the island which bore images of Greek mythological creatures which dated back before the legends arose in Greece. One day a man had approached Drake about helping with an expedition to the island chain to uncover some of the secrets. Drake accepted the offer and took sully with him on the voyage. They spent two weeks searching for any hints of the fabled treasure but came up short. However, one day Drake found an amulet hidden in a hollowed out rock and showed it to the man who had hired them. Then the backstabbing started. The man attempted to steal the amulet from Drake and cut off the loose ends. They had escaped, but just barley, and now Drake was god knows where with the amulet, probably being hunted by the mercenaries the man had hired. Sully stopped at the sound of human voices. They were speaking English, but they had accents ranging from American to South African. Sully did his best to avoid being detected as he slipped onto the truck they were guarding. “I’m Coming for you Kid”, he said.