Beyond the Portal

by Firestar463


Chapter 2

“What is that thing Twilight?”

“I’m not sure, Spike. It kind of looks like a minotaur, but it doesn’t have any hooves or horns…”

Pain lanced through Kyle’s body as he slowly regained consciousness. He heard voices nearby, but any meaning behind their words was lost upon his clouded mind. By the Light.... What happened… he thought to himself, still not moving. Memories flashed through his mind, fragmented and blurry, with only a few thoughts clear enough to register.

The Dark Portal, flashing between red and green. Brown-skinned Orcs, roaring in fury. A large ramp, slick with blood. A gunshot as a man fell backwards down the ramp. A flash of blinding purple light, and then blackness.

Kyle dared to open his eyes, and immediately regretted his choice. Even the dim light filtering through the trees were like white-hot blades gouging into his retinas. He quickly snapped his eyes back shut, waiting for the pain to fade. When it finally did, he braced himself before cracking his eyes open again, allowing a small amount of light through. The pain was less sharp this time, and he slowly opened his eyes as they adjusted to the light.

Everything was blurry at first, but as Kyle opened his eyes more, more coherent shapes began to form. Finally, Kyle was able to identify his surroundings. He was apparently in a forest, laying on his side next to a large tree. Kyle saw a small dent in the tree, and his headache returned in full force. He groaned and held his head, trying to stifle the pain. He was distracted, however, by a female voice from behind him.

“Sweet Celestia, it’s alive!”

For a second, Kyle didn’t dare to move, barely dared to breathe. Something had seen him, and he was in no shape to fight. Kyle scrambled to his feet, but a wave of dizziness and nausea overwhelmed him. He stumbled, leaning on the tree for support as he retched, trying desperately not to fall over again. He knew he was weak, but if he was going down, he was going down fighting. As his dry-heaving stopped, he looked around for the source of the voice.

Kyle instead saw a most peculiar sight. A few meters away stood two small horses. One was cyan-colored, with a mane and tail comprised of every color of the rainbow. The other was purple, with a darker purple mane and tail that had a streak of magenta running through them. What was more unusual was that both of the horses seemed to have wings, and the purple one had a horn shooting out of its forehead. Standing alongside them was what appeared to be an overgrown lizard. All three creatures were staring at him with a look of curiosity and barely-contained terror.

Kyle shook his head to clear it, and winced as sharp pain shot through his forehead. These creatures were distracting him from his goal. “Who’s there?” He called out, trying to sound intimidating despite his pain. “Show yourself!”

“It talks too!”

Kyle’s head snapped to look back at the purple horse. Its eyes were wide open and staring directly at him, and its mouth was slightly open. If he hadn’t known better, Kyle would have thought that this horse had… No. No, that was impossible.

“Can you understand me?”

Impossible just went out the window.

For a long moment, Kyle just stood there, dumbfounded. His mind was still waking up, still trying to process what had just happened, trying to resolve the conflict between his preconceived notions of impossible and what his senses had just observed. Slowly, he slid down the tree, his back against the trunk as he came to rest against the ground.

“I think you broke it, Twilight.”

This time, it was the cyan horse that spoke. There was no doubt this time. Kyle’s mind went into overdrive, attempting to adapt to this new fact: Horses can talk. Finally, Kyle swallowed, feeling multiple knots in his stomach as he nodded, wincing slightly at the movement. “Ye-yeah… I… I understand you.” he stammered, still trying to make sense of the situation.

The two horses seemed to relax slightly, though maintained their distance. The lizard, however, still seemed quite afraid. As his brain finally caught up to the situation, Kyle shakily returned to his feet. Nausea once again flowed through him, though less severe this time. After leaning on the tree for a few more second, Kyle was able to keep his balance on his own. He looked back at the horses and blinked in surprise.

The cyan one was flying.

Kyle had seen large creatures fly before, such as dragons, demons, griffons, and hippogryphs, but never a horse. Even as he watched, the horse hovered closer to him, looking him over. “What are you?” she finally asked.

Kyle stood there for a moment before answering. “I am a Human.” he replied. “Kyle Slater, Sergeant in the Grand Army of the Alliance.” he added, staring back at the cyan horse. “Now, how is it that a horse can fly and talk?” he asked, his voice still wavering a bit.

The cyan horse appeared to pout. “We’re ponies, not horses.” She retorted, sounding offended. “We’ve always been able to talk. And in case you hadn’t noticed, I have wings. Kinda helps with the flying thing.” she added, doing a backflip in the air.

Kyle raised an eyebrow, feeling annoyed. “Well where I come from, hor… ponies don’t talk and don’t fly. Excuse me for not expecting one that can do both!”

The cyan pony opened it’s mouth to speak, but was suddenly surrounded by a faint purple aura and pulled backwards. Kyle looked at the purple pony, and noticed that her horn was surrounded by that same purple aura. As the aura faded from the horn, it also faded from around the cyan pony. Oh great, they can use magic too.

The purple pony glared at the cyan one, clearly telling it to be quiet. “Sorry about her.” the purple pony said, stepping forward a couple of steps. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Rainbow Dash…” she nodded towards the cyan pony, “And Spike.” She nodded towards the lizard, who gave a nervous wave. As Kyle hesitantly returned the wave, Twilight spoke again. “You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked.

Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Depends on where ‘here’ is.” he replied, looking around. The trees were close together and created an oppressive canopy that barely let in any light. It reminded him of Dustwallow Marsh, which was not entirely reassuring. The closest intact Alliance outposts would be across multiple areas controlled by the Horde. Unless… “Could you point me towards Theramore?” he asked. Even with the city gone, a boat still ran between Theramore and the Wetlands.

All he received were a couple of blank stares. “Okay… how about Thousand Needles?” he asked. The confusion on the ponies’ faces intensified, as did Kyle’s impatience. “Alright, just point me south.”

“Uh… you don’t want to go that way.” Spike said uncertainly, his voice sounding like that of a young boy. “Even if you got through the rest of the Everfree Forest, you’d just end up in the Badlands.”

Now it was Kyle’s turn to feel confused. “No way is this Loch Modan!” he countered. He then realized what the lizard had said. “Wait… Everfree Forest?”

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight. “Definitely not from around here.” she said. Twilight nodded in agreement. Kyle tried to take a step forward but stumbled as the world spun around him. He fell forward, but his fall was interrupted as Rainbow Dash braced herself against his right shoulder. “Easy there, big guy.” she said, sounding slightly amused. “Looks like you hit your head pretty hard there. Might have a concussion.”

Kyle nodded and elected to sit down again, not wanting to risk another fall. Instead, he pulled a pouch off of his belt and opened it. The bitter stench of his Energizing Brew quickly filled the air, and Rainbow Dash recoiled, gagging. Kyle ignored her and quickly took a swig. His taste buds protested vehemently, but he was rewarded for enduring the taste. The effects were nearly instantaneous, and while he knew they were only temporary, so too were the effects of all but the most serious concussions. Energy flooded through him, and the throbbing in his head was reduced to a dull ache. The fog surrounding his mind lifted, and he stood up without any nausea or fatigue. The ponies stared as Kyle began to take a few tentative steps, and then more confident steps. Satisfied that he would be able to walk, he turned back to the ponies. “So… Where exactly am I?” He asked.

“You’re in the Everfree Forest.” Twilight answered. She looked up at the sky and noticed the sun moving towards the horizon. “We should get out of here. Quickly.” she added nervously. “Nighttime in Everfree is dangerous. We’ll head back to Ponyville an-”

“Woah woah woah.” Kyle interrupted. “Ponyville? I’ve never heard of a town called Ponyville.”

“It’s a couple of hours by train away from Canterlot.” Twilight explained, seemingly unfazed about being interrupted.

“...Canterlot?”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight exchanged a confused look, while Spike chuckled. “Definitely not from around here.” he said, seeming a bit more relaxed now.

The ponies, however, were visibly tensing up. They spoke to each other in hushed tones, occasionally glancing up at Kyle. Kyle was able to catch a few words here and there. “How… not… Canterlot… Never seen…” Kyle was starting to get a little irritated again, not appreciating that these ponies were clearly talking about him.

A rustling sound from nearby made everyone freeze. Spike looked terrified, and the ponies hardly looked better. “There’s… something out there.” Kyle said warily. Spike gulped and nodded, eyes darting back and forth. Kyle reached for a branch lying not far away. It was a sad replacement for his staff, but better than nothing. Kyle began to focus his Chi once more, preparing for a fight.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind. His hand began to glow with a green energy as he prepared to unleash a spell. “Tempestatis, exaudi vocem meam.” he muttered, and the energy from his hand was released as a green mist. The mist swirled around his body for a moment as the ponies looked on, eyes wide open. Finally, the mist coalesced into a spectral copy of Kyle, glowing with a blue energy. Kyle grinned and pointed into the bushes. The spectral copy ran away, disturbing the brush as it ran. A snarl was heard nearby, and more rustling as the creature gave chase to the spectral clone. The group let out a collective breath. Whatever had been skulking around in the bushes, it had taken the bait. “We’d better get out of here. Storm won’t get too far.” Kyle said, looking at Twilight. “So… Ponyville?”

Twilight shook her head to clear it. “Uh… yeah.” she replied nervously. “Yeah, we’d better get out of here.” With that, the four set off to the North.

As they walked, Kyle hung behind the others, occasionally spinning around to check that nothing was following them. Meanwhile, Twilight pulled out the Inkwell, quill, and parchment and gave them to Spike, who hopped up on her back. “Spike, take a letter please.”

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Princess Celestia stood atop the tallest tower in the palace. Her horn glowed a bright yellow and her eyes were closed in concentration. Beside her, Princess Luna’s horn was likewise engulfed in a dark blue aura. As they stood atop the tower, the sun slowly set in the west as the moon rose in the east, the stars revealing themselves in the darkness of night.

In unison, the glow surrounding the two sisters’ horns faded and they opened their eyes. Luna let out a long sigh and stretched, her neck popping as she did so. “Did anything interesting happen in court today?” She asked, walking back inside and sipping from a glass of water.

“Not much, sister.” Celestia replied, sounding almost disappointed. “Just more paperwork and bureaucrats trying to jockey for any power they can get. As usual.” Celestia picked up a glass of wine and took a small sip. “There was a report of a bright flash of light from the Everfree forest… again.” She added with a small chuckle. “I might take such reports more seriously if they didn’t come in every other day.”

“Is Senator Wordtwist still trying to convince you to cut it down?”

“I think he’ll keep trying until the day he retires.” Celestia replied, shaking her head and sighing. “No matter how many times I turn his request down, no matter how many times I explain that it’s a historical site, or that wood can be obtained more easily elsewhere...”

Celestia stopped as a green smoke floated in through the open balcony door. It curled in upon itself until a scroll appeared in a small flash of light. Celestia picked it up, recognizing the seal upon the scroll as Twilight Sparkle’s seal. “Let’s see what Equestria’s newest Princess has to report today.” Celestia said with a smile as she opened the scroll.

As she read, her smile quickly disappeared and was replaced with concern, which in turn was replaced by curiosity. “Well, sister?” Luna asked, pacing back and forth. “What does it say?” Celestia merely levitated the scroll over to Luna, who began to read aloud.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I apologize for sending a letter at this hour, but a matter of some urgency has arisen.

Earlier today, Spike claimed to see a large explosion coming from the Everfree Forest. While I at first believed him to be seeing things, my friend Rainbow Dash told me a similar story. Upon investigating the approximate area where the explosion was reported, we indeed found traces of some force, including charred grass and burn marks.

Most surprising of all, however, was the strange creature not far from the epicenter of the blast. This creature appears to be built similar to a minotaur, but lacks any fur, horns, hooves, or a tail, and is covered in clothing. It was unconscious at first, but woke up not long after we arrived. It introduced itself as Kyle Slater, and claims to be a creature called a ‘human’. He claims to be from a place where ponies cannot talk and have no wings. I believe that the explosion may have had something to do with his arrival.

This ‘human’ claimed to be a part of what he called the ‘Grand Army of the Alliance’. He does not appear aggressive, and we have established communication. He has, however, displayed the ability to perform magic: specifically, the ability to summon a doppelganger. He also seems to have access to some elixir that grants a reprieve from injuries; though clearly suffering from a moderate-to-severe concussion, Kyle was able to stand and walk (on only his hind legs!) with little difficulty after drinking this elixir.

We are currently moving through the forest towards Ponyville. I am taking the human to my friend Fluttershy so that she may determine if he needs further medical attention for his concussion. Your advice on what to do next is most appreciated.

Your Faithful Student
Twilight Sparkle.

Luna lowered the letter to look over the parchment at her sister. Celestia’s eyes were closed, and hey eyebrows creased in a frown of thought. “Sister…” Luna began, but Celestia held up one hoof, indicating that she wished for silence. Finally, she opened her eyes once more. “I am going to Ponyville.” She said. “I would meet this ‘human’ for myself.”

“I’m going with you.” Luna replied immediately.

Celestia shook her head. “No. I’d like to keep this quiet for now. My guard will believe that I am in my quarters. You, however, have Night Court tonight, and cancelling that will draw suspicion that something is amiss."

Luna sighed, looking down and feeling disappointed. She was curious about this strange creature, and she desired nothing more than to go investigate as well. However, she knew that her sister was right. Keeping this creature’s existence a secret for the time being would be wise, and that meant making sure that both of the Royal Sisters appeared to be where they normally would be. "Alright, Tia. I will remain in the castle."

"Thank you, Luna" Celestia said warmly, nuzzling her sister. "I promise I'll fill you in on all of the details when I return."

As Celestia pulled away, Luna grinned slightly. “Can I at least cancel Night Court? One of those old windbags is almost certainly going to try to tell us that our ponies want him to to be head of state.”

Celestia only chuckled as the pair descended down the stairs.