The next month flew by like a blur, but Ryan was certain that was because he was unconscious for half of it. The training with Zecora was far beyond any kind of training he had before, but he could slowly feel himself getting better and faster. He still couldn't fight worth a damn but he was getting good at predicting attacks and avoiding hits that would take him down. Until Zecora got serious. And with all of the times she had to heal his wounds, her supplies of medicine were running low once again. And that is why he found himself running out of a manticore nest as fast as he could with six of the things chasing him.
"Goddamn...evil...ZEBRA!" he yelled to the skies once he had finally escaped them, looking down at his shredded coat and pants with amazement that he was still alive. "Oh sure, just go into this area and grab me a couple of the flowers. Is it dangerous? Nah, you'll be fine if you remember your training. Didn't know she was training me to be monster food." He sat down by a spring that rested near a cave, drinking as much water as he could carry before he leaned back against a rock and stared up at the sky. "She's going to get me killed one day. Not that I care, but I wish that I didn't have to go like this. I would have been fine going like everyone else..."
'Care to explain what you meant?' He was too tired to jump to his feet, so all Ryan could do was turn his head to see a silverfish pony sitting next to him by the spring, looking at him with her empty eyes. 'Is there a story behind your words there or where you just venting your frustrations.'
"Doesn't matter now that I've been caught with my pants down," he said with a weak smile as he looked up at the sky again. "So, is there an angry mob waiting for me at the edge of the forest or did you come alone to kick my ass, just like everything else has in this forsaken world?" The silver mare raised a hidden eyebrow at his words, but she shook her head with a small laugh as she looked into the spring.
'No, I have no plans to mess with you, I am simply here because you interest me,' she said to him with a smile, but he couldn't see it under her hood. 'I have be working on something for a few years now and I need a rest every once and a while. But while I was here I discovered that you somehow managed to get to this land despite having no powers or being skilled in any sort of magic. Care to tell me how you got here?'
"Nope," Ryan said as he leaned back against the rock some more, feeling himself beginning to calm down. "So what the hell are you? I've seen mostly all of the ponies and none of them look as weird as you. You some sort of ghost or god or something?" The silver mare took a moment to ponder what he said, never really having to think about what she was before.
'I am more a specter than a ghost, but you can say that I am all that remains of what used to be a pony,' she said in a cryptic voice, Ryan rolling his eyes at her "answer". 'But what I am does not concern you at all. I am simply here to relax, although I have found that observing you has been very entertaining. Why do you bother fighting the zebra if she continues to defeat you?'
"Because I enjoy the pain," he said in a sarcastic tone. The silver mare said little as she looked around Everfree forest, vague memories coming back to her as she did.
'It is nice to see the forest again,' she said aloud, though Ryan did do his best to ignore her. 'I haven't seen it since it was wiped off the face of the planet.' Ryan wondered just what the hell she was talking about before he heard a gasp from above and he spun around to see a Pegasus floating above them. She let out a gasp before she flew back off towards Ponyville, saying something about how she found the shadow.
"Well, I better get out of here before the angry mob arrives," he said to the silver mare as he got up, looking down at her as she remained seated. "Not getting up?"
'I will be gone by the time they get here,' she said to him. Ryan shrugged as he turned to leave, but then he looked into the cave near the spring and the wheels in his head began to turn. If that pony told the others where she had seen him, they would assume that he lived here and would come out in force to capture him. But since he knew that, he could use their knowledge to his advantage. He turned to leave before looking back to the cave once more, an evil smile spreading one his face when he thought about what he could do.
//||\\
Night had fallen before the Pegasus had finally returned to the town, telling the mayor what she had seen. Upon hearing that the creature in the forest had been found, the ponies all gathered together in front of the town hall, where the mayor had gathered the Elements of Harmony on the stage as she stood before the ponies and began to speak to the crowd.
"Ponies of Ponyville, at last we have finally found where the creature is that has been hounding our town for so long!" she said to them, getting a roar of approval in return. "Now I have talked with Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony and I have come to a decision on what our course of action should be. I believe that it is in our best interest to...form a giant mob and go drive that pony out of our forest!" Twilight face hoofed as the crowd cheered before she walked over to the mayor.
"Mayor, I thought I said that I just wanted the Elements of Harmony to go into the forest and find the creature?" Twilight said to her as she looked to the crowd, seeing that they already had torches and pitchforks. "There is no need for the town to get involved. According the Rainbow Dash, the creature isn't particularly strong or fast."
"Nope, this is obviously the most sane and safe course of action," the mayor said before she hopped off the stage and grabbed a pitchfork as well, leading the crowd of ponies into the forest. Twilight let out a sigh of exasperation as the other Elements walked up to her and shook their heads at the sight.
"They're helpless," Applejack said as the crowd began to head towards Everfree.
"So what's the plan Twilight?" Rarity asked.
"We should probably go with them, Celestia knows what might happen to them if we don't," Twilight said as she and the others followed the crowd into the forest. The crowd got lost a few times within the forest, but the number of ponies plus the torches and yelling kept the monsters away. The Pegasus that was leading them had gotten them lost a few times, but eventually she had managed to get the massive crowd to the spring near the cave where she had found the creature.
"Alright ponies, let me handle this," Twilight said as she began to look around, the crowd, despite having superior numbers, was still somewhat terrified of the creature called the shadow. Twilight didn't find anything of interest as she looked around the spring, but she saw something inside the cave, where she motioned the Elements to join her as she went inside.
"Is that it?" Rainbow asked as she saw something laying in the darkness. Fluttershy hid behind her friends as twilight went over to investigate.
"It's just a piece of paper?" she asked as she picked it up, reading it by the glow of her horn while her fiends crowded around her to read over her shoulder.
"So what's it say?" Pinkie asked, Twilight snarling to herself as she crumpled it up with her magic.
"Riddle me this. When is the best time for someone like me to visit Ponyville?" she repeated, causing all of them to look at her funny as she threw the paper and ran out of the cave. Rainbow picked up the paper and uncrumpled it to finish reading the paper while Twilight ran as fast as she could to Ponyville.
"When there are no ponies in it."
/V\
Ten minutes earlier.
'This has probably been the smartest thing I've done since I got here,' Ryan thought to himself as he slipped into the bakery, looking around quickly to make sure that he was the only person...pony in the building. He had gone through two buildings already with no one in them, but they had nothing of value to him. But he figured that the bakery would have at least something, hence why he was in there now. He first crept up the stairs and slightly opened the door, looking inside to see a pair of ponies sleeping in their beds. While he was a bit surprised that not all of the ponies came after him, as long as he remained quiet they wouldn't wake up.
'At least I hope that happens,' he thought to himself as he took his backpack off of his back and placed it gently on the center table in the kitchen before he slowly opened one of the drawers. He found nothing of interest as he looked through that one and thought his luck would continue as the others provided the same, but then his luck turned around when he found a very large knife inside one of the drawers. 'This is probably for large cakes or pies,' he thought as he slipped the knife inside one of the pockets of his bag. 'Hope they don't miss it too much.'
He continued his search through the rooms, but he kept a wary eye on the clock on the other side of the room. The ponies could be back at any time and he knew they would catch him if he was still here. He also grabbed a candle, figuring that a secondary light source wouldn't hurt. He finished taking the last of the food that he needed and was taking one last look through a cabinet when he heard a sound.
"Gah." Ryan spun around and pulled out his stun baton, looking around the room as the electricity crackled along it. His eyes scanned the room while looking for the source of the sound, but he couldn't see anything that might have caused it. He took another look at the clock and figured that he had pushed his luck enough, so he put the baton next to the knife and hefted the bag onto his back.
'Heavier than I remember, really loaded up this time.' He slipped out the back window and slowly closed it behind him, keeping to the shadows as he slipped through the town. Despite there barely being any ponies, he still worried about being spotted. Some would call it paranoia, but he called it paranoia that would keep him alive. He didn't leave the shadows until he reached the edge of town and even then he took the long way back to the forest. 'And I good thing I did, she looks pissed. Wonder if she got my note?' he thought as from the safety of a tree he saw Twilight racing back towards the town. He smirked at the sight before he turned and headed into the forest, the castle being his destination.
'I probably should check in with Zecora, but I am far too tired,' he thought as he jumped from tree to tree, doing much better than he had a few months ago. 'Plus, she'd probably want to train me in some bullshit like fighting when I'm exhausted. Every time she teaches me something new I can feel a bit of me die inside.' He sipped through the forest while on alert, afraid that a pony might have stayed behind to see if they could find him. But the rest of the journey back to the castle was uneventful and as he crossed the bridge he allowed himself to relax, walking into the ruined castle with a bit of peace in his heart.
"Home sweet home," he said aloud as he headed for his room, moving the wall and walking down the corridor to his room. He took off his backpack and set it on the table, opening the guide and writing some new information in it.
Name: Lyra.
Species: Unicorn.
Sex: Female.
Age: 18-22.
Bio:
A unicorn who got caught in a web and had to be freed. She knows a good deal about humans and seems to be friendly for the most part, though it was fairly easy to convince her to be quiet about my presences. I have a bad feeling that I'm going to be seeing more of her, whether I want to or not.
Personal Opinion:
She's obsessive, very obsessive.
Threat Level: Low.
He closed the book as he wrote this and sat down against the wall, figuring that he could empty his backpack later. He closed his eyes and thought back a bit to his world and his friend.
TOT
"You're crazy," was all Ryan could say to Chris when he heard what the guy was building in a school funded lab. "A portal to another world? You really think, that despite how insanely stupid that sounds, that you can build one of these in the lab of a school?"
"Hey, I'm getting fairly close," Chris said with indignation, but then went back to working on the machine. "Most of my calculations are correct and I've gotten really close to having all the materials that I need. As soon as I have them all, I will be able to create a portal that will take me as far away from here as possible." Ryan snickered at the idea, but he had no idea what else this material could be used for. Then again, he wasn't a scientist.
"Care to tell me why you want to leave the comfort of your own home and get whisked away to Narnia?" Ryan asked as Chris ran over to another part of the room and began to work on something. "Because last time I checked, interdimensional transportation isn't exactly the safest career option."
"I want to see what lies beyond this realm," Chris said with a smile as he looked off into the distance, losing himself in his memories for a minute. "Can you think of it, worlds beyond anything that we have seen, creatures that the human mind can't even imagine? Doesn’t it sound like an amazing ride?"
"I prefer reality, where I can know what's going to happen and not get ripped apart by a lion or witch," Ryan said with a shake of his head. "If you manage to get that thing to work then more power to you, but I think I'd rather stay here and deal with this world before heading off to any others."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Chris said with a laugh, before a more somber look appeared on his face. "Not to mention, I'm not really sure how safe my own home is anymore. You've heard about how the talks with China have been going right?"
"Of course I have. It's all gone to-"
"Gah!"
TOT
Ryan's eyes snapped open as he heard the sound and he immediately shot to his feet, eyes scanning the room for the sound. But he didn't need his ears as his eyes were fully capable of seeing that something was moving around in his backpack. He slowly raised the stun baton and advanced towards the bag, gently unzipping it before throwing it back and preparing to strike, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by what he saw.
"Goo?" the little unicorn with the carrot colored mane asked as it looked up at him, it's only focus on the shining baton and it reached for it with awe filled eyes. But whereas the baton was the only thing the baby cared about, there was only one thought going through Ryan's mind as he realized what this would do to his relationship with the ponies. And just like every terrible thought that crossed his mind, he said it out loud.
"Ah fuck."