Somewhere deep in the Everfree forest, a hooded figure, cloaked in black robes, pushed through thick branches and tall grass. It continued its course until stopping randomly in the middle of the forest. The figure stuck up one hoof and leaned forward until something made contact with it. After several taps, the hood was pushed off, revealing a charcoal colored stallion.
With a silver mane, the stallion was a unicorn, but his skin was extremely thin. His cheekbones were protruding and his jawline prominent. Clearly, he didn’t care for himself.
The unicorn’s horn began to glow with a greyish aura and suddenly, a small circle began to form and and continue to grow until it was large enough for a normal sized pony could fit though. The pony stepped through with the hole sealing behind him.
Before him was a magnificent but terrifying castle shrouded in black smoke. This castle was decorated with large statues of bipedal creatures with horns protruding out of their heads and giant bat-like wings on their back. The castle was surrounded with a ring of flames rising taller than any pony.
This was a sight the pony had seen plenty of times, and yet he still had a sense of fear swell inside himself. He pushed onward toward the rising fire. The flames simply moved completely out of his path as he approached them. The unicorn continued until he arrived at a giant metal gate. With just a nod of his head, his horn was enveloped in his personal grey aura, the gate was swallowed by the same glow and began to rise off the ground.
The pony began to trot into the castle and entered it. Through the main gate, he arrived at the royal chambers. The entire room had very little lighting, barely anything was visible.
“What is it, Shadow?” said the shady figure sitting on the throne.
“Sir, I have returned from my route to inform you that a new energy source has appeared in Equestria. One like I have never sensed before. During my investigation, I discovered a creature not known to pony kind.”
“Hmmm, describe the creature.” the figure whispered.
“This creature walked on two legs. It’s body was covered in strange clothes that covered almost it’s entire body. The most striking aspect of it’s clothes was the hood. It seemed to have a sharp point at the tip, like an eagle’s beak.”
“And this is the energy source you sensed?”
“Yes, My Lord.”
The one in the throne looked down at the marble floor for a moment, thinking about what his next move will be until he came to a decision. He stared back at Shadow.
“You will keep a watchful eye of this being. I want you to report all of his activities personally to me. Begone with you!”
That sudden aggressive outburst caused that fear Shadow was feeling to arise higher.
“Oh, um Of course, Lord Sombra”.
The terrified pony left with haste, leaving the former king to his chamber in silence.
Altair had suddenly become alert. He had never encountered a new race before, never even considered the existence of sapient ponies more colorful than a rainbow. But Altair knew he had to control his fear, for fear led to aggression. Man always fears what he does not understand. The aged assassin knew he had to watch his actions and not cause any problems.
If he was going to figure out where he was, he only had one option: ask the locals. Unfortunately, one of them was bouncing around him, asking him questions before he could even think on how to answer.
The pink pony bouncing around him in circle, calling herself Pinkie Pie, was finally in front of him. Altair stuck out his aged hand as Pinkie’s head bounced into it, causing her to stop in place.
“Forgive me, but I do not understand where I am. I am in need of assistance” He gritted his teeth as he finished his sentence. Altair hated asking for assistance due to his self confidence. Elderly years were an inconvenience to him.
“Why silly, you are in Ponyville! The greatest little town you’ll ever see. Come on, I always show new ponies the town.” Pinkie responded with such enthusiasm as she bounced off. Altair took it as a sign to follow the pony until he could get some answers. What puzzled the wise man was how he was able to understand the pony at all.
Do we speak the same language? Has my exposure to The Apple granted this knowledge? Or is the dying man’s dream, and I am still in the chair under Masyaf?
Through out the “tour”, while Pinkie was chatting about anything her mind came up with, Altair was able to examine the town more closely. The entire place was graced in beautiful colors he thought unimaginable. He looked at himself, he noticed that his coloring was normal, as if his colors transferred with him. This brought up some questions, but he chose not to focus on them.
Most of the other ponies vanished into their homes to avoid the the new monster that now lurked in their town. This did not surprised him, for he had similar reactions in several towns that were under siege by Genghis Khan years ago.
“Oh, don’t worry. They are just not used to new creatures coming into our town.” Pinkie popped right next to Altair without him even noticing.
How did she know what I was thinking? Or rather, How did she appear right next to me without me noticing? Is my age catching up to me? Are my skills deteriorating?
The assassin silently wondered about that until he saw something odd to the left. A tree with light emerging out of it. After a hard look, Altair saw that it wasn’t a normal tree, but a house carved into the tree itself!
“Excuse me, but what is that over there?” He pointed to the tree.
“Oh, that is Golden Oaks Library! My friend, Twilight lives there. She is kinda funny, she likes to spend all day reading or doing smart stuff, kinda reminds me of that time she was trying to learn about my Pinkie sense…”
Altair left her talking while he walked slowly up the tree house. The assassin was surprised that the VERY large tree was still standing, even after being apparently hollowed out.
A library. I might get some answers of how I arrived here. Pinkie said another pony lived here. She maybe able to help me if what Pinkie says is true about her intellect. Since this is someone’s home, I’d better knock.
He raised his right hand and firmly knocked on the door, which the top frame barely cleared the top of his head. After a few minutes of silence from the inside, he repeated the action, only this time he heard something coming from the other side of the door.
“...real tired of everypony knocking, this is a public library. You are all allowed…”
The door swung opened, revealing a lavender pony. This one has a horn sticking out of her head and had wings on her side. Her mane was a darker shade of her body but with a lighter, almost pink, streak in it. At this point however, her eyes widened and her mouth opened. Her face displayed all the signs of fear. A face Altair had seen too many time from the lives he had taken throughout his life.
Altair lowered himself to one knee, a process that usually was so strenuous now suddenly so easy again. He didn’t pay no attention to it. The scared pony started to back up in fear.
“Please, do not be afraid. I have no wish to harm you.” Altair said, trying to be as gentle as he could. The pony simply closed her mouth and took baby steps toward him, trembling in doing so.
“W… wh...What are ...you?” The pony asked with hesitation.
A memory that was not his own surfaced to Altair. The scientific name of his species. A give from the Apple of Eden.
“My kind is call Homo Sapiens. Another name is Human beings.”
“Wait, are you saying humans exist?”
Altair found this interesting. Humans might be in this place.
“Please tell me, what is your name?”
Altair had to stay friendly with this timid creature, or it could run away in fear and take his chance of understanding with it.
The pony stood there for a minute, trembling before finally answering.
“M… My name is Twilight. Princess Twilight Sparkles.” Her words were shaky, still in fear.
“Hello, Your highness, I am Altair Ibn-La’ Ahad.” Altair stuck out his right arm for a simple shake. Twilight’s eyes centered on the mechanism strapped to his forearm and immediately jumped backwards. Altair saw that he still had his hidden blades attach and removed them from both of his arms and set them on the ground. He again offered his friendly shake.
Twilight only looked at him to start and gently trotted toward him again, this time returning the shake offered. Altair was surprised that he actually felt like someone was shaking his hand, someone with fingers and a palm.
“Uh, come in and have a seat.” Twilight did her best to sound friendly.
Altair simply smiled and grasped his blade, but didn’t reattach them. He instead simply stood up and entered, placing the blades on a table next to the door.
The inside of the tree was remarkable. The entire walls were covered in bookcases filled with all sorts of text. In the far back of the room, there were some stairs leading upward.
Must be her home upstairs.
Altair looked over to the princess and saw that she was writing on a parchment, only that the quill was floating in the air. A purplish glow surrounded both the the quill and her horn. After all that Altair had seen throughout his life, this wasn’t really a surprise to him.
“Forgive me. I have to send letters to my friends and the other princesses about your arrival.”
“I understand. This is new to me as it apparently is to you. I hope that we may understand my purpose for my presence here.”
“You mean you don’t know? I thought you came here on your own.” Twilight stopped writing for a second and gave him a confused look.
“No, I do not understand why I am here. I found myself in a forest after I woke up, and when I arrived I was greeted by a… very “interesting” pony. She called herself Pinkie Pie.”
Twilight set the quill down and trotted over to him.
“Yeah, she is extremely friendly to strangers. Always have to have everypony as her friend.” Twilight seemed more friendly with her voice, but her eyes still spoke with caution.
The door swung open and in walked a small two legged creature smaller than Twilight. He seemed focused on the parchment in his hand with a quill in another.
“Hey Twilight, I got the quills you wanted and I also made sure to check on the…”
The creature’s face was the exact replica of Twilight when she saw Altair. The newly arrival dropped all that he was holding.
“Hey Spike. Kinda got something to tell you.” Twilight said with a guilty smile on her face.
Is that a dragon? Altair thought.