"Well, this oughta be interesting."
Perhaps I should explain. I woke up in a field, at night. I had no idea what was going on, and after standing up and looking around, promptly panicked and fainted. When I got up, I saw some stuff that's going to take me a while to get used to.
I was dressed as Providence, from my favorite game, Risk Of Rain. I had been going to a meeting with some friends before a trip, and then there was an explosion. But I can't remember anything else, and now, I seem to be the spitting image of Providence, thanks to the reflection from a nearby river.
I was freakishly tall, my face was covered in darkness, and I had a weird blue fire in between where my eyes should be. I couldn't take off the hat I was wearing. No idea why. I had a massive sword, one that seemed to be glowing blue slightly. I was wearing a big half-circle shaped piece of cloth, and mysteriously seamless black leather underneath. It went all the way down to my toes, and as far as I could tell, up to my neck.
But enough about me, I should talk about where I am.
From what I could tell, I was in this big open field, with a scary looking forest to my left, and nothing but opens fields behind me and to my right. Miles in front of me, I could see a huge mountain. And on the left of the mountain,(from my point of view) there was a castle built into the side of it. Big spires, a large town, and train tracks leading up to it.
It looked oddly familiar, though I couldn't tell why, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky, nor was it very dark, as the moon cast plenty of light on the surrounding area.
Holding back any confusion and slight panic at having no idea where I was, or how I got here, I decided exploring was a better idea than standing around looking at everything. Since the castle was the only source of civilization in sight, I figured that heading there would be best.
After a while of walking, I came over the crest of a hill and noticed I would have to go through a large section of the forest to close to the castle. Hopefully this sword would be of some use. It would certainly protect me if I came across anything particularly nasty.
As a sort of demonstration, partly to myself, I walked up to a nearby tree and swung my sword at it with what I would expect would be only just strong enough to cut the wood. What I did NOT expect, was for it to go all the way through the tree, and keep going, me having to forcefully hold my hand so it wouldn't fly out of it.
As I stood there in shock, I noticed the tree starting to slip off the trunk. Quickly thinking, I realized when that hit the ground, it would make a lot of noise, and any nearby animals would likely come to investigate, and good as my sword was, I didn't want to fight anything. So, quick as I could, I took off into the forest, hearing the loud thump of the tree hitting the ground behind me.
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I swear, the forest was so dark you'd have thought someone had turned off the moon. I had a hard time seeing ten feet in front of me. Luckily my sword cast a nice glow all around me, making sure I didn't trip over any roots or fallen tree branches. Bad news was I couldn't turn it off, and it seemed to be making me look like a big flare.
I thought I saw eyes in the forest sometimes, and decided that trying to look intimidating was my best chance of defense at the moment.
I noticed my sword seemed to be made out of some of odd material, as it was just passing right through any tree branches I decided to touch with my sword. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to have been cut with a scalpel. I was rather glad that it wasn't like a lightsaber in the way that it didn't leave a burning trail or anything. Otherwise, it was like a sword shaped lightsaber.
A few minutes later I came across what looked like a big patch of blue flowers. Raising my sword over it, I noticed there was a path through it closer to my left. When I walked up to it I started to notice something about the flowers. They looked... familiar, somehow.
"Wait, isn't that--"
Before I could finish my sentence, I heard a distinct sound behind me. A growl. I whipped around and saw one of the strangest animals I had ever seen.
It was like a massive lion, tall as I was, with bat wings and a scorpion tail. Something about the flowers bothered me, but because I was panicking, I couldn't imagine why, so I tried to stay away from them for now.
I went to my left and backwards at the same time, making sure to keep my sword ready and my eyes on the beast. It took a step forward for each of my steps back, forcing me to stop to confront it. Heart pounding, I was now left in a staredown with it. I saw it crouch down, and in response I grabbed my sword with both hands and got ready to swing it like a bat, using the flat of the sword, so as to not make a mess.
Suddenly, it jumped in the air, making a loud roar, and like a massive baseball, I swung at it with all my force. It contacted with its head, and with a resounding *CRACK*, it changed directions entirely and flew off into a tree to my left, breaking it in half.
As the adrenaline started to wear off, I walked over to see if it was dead.
I couldn't tell, but it definitely wasn't moving now. I noticed something glimmering on the ground in front of its face.
I crouched down to see what it was, and noticed it was a key of some sort. Suddenly, and oddly enough, a term went through my head.
Explorers Key
"Well that's odd."
"What..." I heard a voice say.
I quickly turned around, sword ready in my right hand, key still in my left. In front of me appeared to be a zebra. I studied it. It looked like it was wearing rings around its neck and a few on its right leg. It also appeared to have a mohawk. Wait a second...
"Zecora?" I said.
"Who is it that says my name?" She spoke.
I stood there in shock for a moment before I keeled over backwards, landing on the beast and mumbling "Ponies..." before I blacked out.