It was a vast clearing. Well, not so vast. If by vast you mean a wide open expanse, which wasn't what this was. This was just a small clearing, a bunch of poison joke surrounding the bushes and canopies that cushioned the man's fall. He could fly, but he tried not to use it whenever he visited a new world in paradox space. He looked strange enough, he didn't need scientists or the like poking and prodding him (not like he couldn't avoid them anyway.)
"Howdy there pardner!"
The man jumped, pulling on his life hood and pulling it over his eyes. The sound came from nowhere. Had his planet hopping been found out?
"Ah don' know where you come from, but ya look like ya're a nice, helpful pony. Well, not a pony but a, a, whatchamacallit."
"Who are you?"
"Ah could ask the same thing stranger."
"And where are you?"
"Raght in front o' ya."
It took Jordan some time for his eyes to adjust to the large amount of darkness in this area, but once he finally found her - was it a her? It sounded feminine - once he finally found her his curiousity piqued to immense proportions.
"Now ahr ya gonna help a pony in need or not?"
"Y-yeah, sure."
The miniature orange pony barely reached his ankle, which was weird because everything else was so big.
"Yoo're a strange lookin' creature if I do say so mahself. What's yur name sir?"
"Jordan, and yours?"
"Ahm Applejack - pleased to meetcha. Ah'm on mah way to a hut in the middle of this here forest and ah got lost from mah friends."
"Well I'm sure we'll be able to find them."
"Say, whaht's that symbol on yer shirt s'pposed tah mean?"
"It means life. I have power over life."
"Well shucks sir, ah don't mean ta look a gift horse in the mouth, 'specially since yur helpin' me out an' all, but ah find that hard ta believe."
"It's true, watch!"
Jordan focused the energy in his hand which began to glow a little like the sun, the plants near him turning to face him with a sickly noise.
"Well I've never heard that before."
"That's pretty amazing sugarcube, what else can ya do?"
"I've trained a lot and gotten to the point where I can do minor healing."
Applejack's eyes widened, her really small body looking around as though this was a secret.
"Are ya a witch?"
Jordan laughed. "No, I'm not a witch. I'm a knight."
"You don' look much like a knight ta me Jordan."
"I may not have armor, but I assure you, I'm a knight. A knight of life."
"Is that why yur able ta control life?"
"Sort of."
"Can ya heal me? Ah've been cursed and that's why ahm here in the first place."
"Um, sure, I guess. I don't see why not - it's not like a hero of doom hurt you. Right?"
"Hero of what?" Applejack sounded extremely confused, her tone heightening when asking 'what.'
"Nevermind, just forget it. Come closer."
Applejack obliged and came up right underneath him. Jordan leaned down and held his hand close to her, letting the energy of life flow through his hand and into her, understanding the problem and fixing it, Applejack's form started to wibble wobble and slowly grew back to her normal height, which was about the height of his waist.
"Wow, that was amazin' sugarcube. Ya healed a curse!" Her eyes were wide with respect.
"It wasn't a curse. It was just poison."
"Poison?" Her jaw hung slack, her whole viewpoint doing a 180 that left her reeling. Jordan helped steady her.
----
Jordan's way was inhibited by the strange plants of the Everfree Forest. Applejack gave him a quick rundown of the forest and what had happened to her; although she was still a little wary around him due to the zebra she had been hunting for earlier. They both had strange powers, and Applejack was entirely satisfied that all it was was poison, even if she had been cured of it so easily. Jordan told Applejack a little bit about the sword he kept with him, which had belonged to his friend, a hero of doom player. Most of it was above Applejack's head, but she listened intently about the story. The sword, Letum Coupant (Death Blade) seemed to strike down the forest with ease; although with some plants it seemed to only make them worse, as if they fed off of the energy the sword gave off. They tried to make their way around the more dangerous parts, occasionally hearing some growling or sounds from the underbrush. Applejack informed him of some of the many creatures that inhabited the forest, and told him that lately they'd been getting bolder and a little stronger. Jordan told her that he could sense the life of her friends near to them, and had been being guided by the light they seemed to give off, and as they grew closer, Applejack's own life signature grew brighter and stronger. The stronger it grew, the stronger she seemed to become.
When they were nearly there, a caped figure drooped down from the sky, completely shrowded in a cape of void. Where he had gotten it was uncertain (not like Jordan would have even known.) When the figure touched down, his somewhat deformed face (almost like Twoface but worse) was revealed and glared sharp daggers at Jordan. If looks could kill Jordan would have been tossed into the sky and murdered by a dozen caped figures.
"I knew I felt a foreign presence. State your name young one."
"Who are you!?" Jordan could feel the dominating coldness in his voice. He brandished his loyal friend's blade and stood ready to attack and defend, his body glowing a little with pale light that reacted to some of the plants around him; although as they moved, they gave the same sickening sound as before.
"My name is of no significance to you. If you can not even follow basic instructions..." His body started to glow with dark intent, his eyes going red and almost piercing Jordan's shroud of life. "...Then you shall DIE!"
"Applejack go and get to your friends, they're nearby! Ru-AHG!"
As Jordan made a move to push Applejack away and shield her at the same time, he was shot by the flowers around him with dark stingers. It was as though they had evolved suddenly due to the dark shroud. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Jordan screamed. He hoped the pins weren't poisonous.
"It's going to be fun watching you squirm." Applejack finally got control of her legs and ran off to go find her friends, knowing she was out of her league but hoping with her friends she could help her protector.
Jordan felt weakness gripping him, and darkness coming. He focused on his sword and swiped it, sending a wave of darkness at his foe, only for it to be absorbed as he fell to his knees. "Who are you!?"
"I am the Lord of Doom, and your soul and power is mine. You should never meddle in the affairs of another, and that will be your downfall!"
The Lord of Doom felt his mind go a little fuzzy before he closed in for the kill, a spear of doom formed in his hand and about to be thrown into the heart of the hero of life. Seeing as he had just protected someone else, the lord of doom knew it would be a heroic death. But when his mind felt fuzzy he forgot what he was doing until a second later the plants infused with the power of doom started to rumble a scream to him, causing him to float backwards when a weak-looking, diffused spear of doom sailed right in front of him. He muttered a "what" before he realized it was his enemy, the thief of muse, who had borrowed his power temporarily from his mind and used it against him. Not like it would have done anything he thought - both because it was his aspect and because it was only a minute fragment of power. A second later the thief burst out of the bushes with his diamond studded cape and hood rushing past. The diamonds flashed a little despite the lack of light, as though they reacted to his power, if only faintly.
"I finally found you, you son of a bitch!"
"Hahaha, it's good to see you finally caught up. But I have made this my home, and there is no one that can take it away from me. Soon I will have empowered this forest so much that it will grow all over this planet and infect every living thing, and then, as usual, it will give me power, much like Lavos did, then die. You haven't stopped me before, and your small powers couldn't hope to stop me now!"
"Shut the fuck up!" He looked angry, stomping his foot on the floor, bringing his hands up which glowed a gentle green. "I won't let you get away this time, this forest be damned!"
"I have no desire to skirmish with a little fly like you right now."
"You won't get away!" Typo quickly ran after him into the forest, temporarily taking the ability from a weak-minded manticore and using the claws it gave him to slice through the doom-seeping overgrowth in his pursuit. He would soon lose his trace of the lord of doom and would have to find his way back out.