//------------------------------// // I- On the Hunt // Story: Imperium et Imperator // by Emperor Gerald I //------------------------------// It was an excellent day to be hunting. It was late fall and the leaves fell slowly from the trees as Gerald, and his good friend Garrett sat lazily in their hunting blind. "Haven't seen any of the Geese about, have you old boy?" queried Gerald "Naw man!" Garrett was rummaging around in his knapsack looking for that candy bar he was certain he had brought. "You know, sometimes you remind me of an old British man when you talk like that!" Gerald smiled "You know me Garrett! I love old British men!" Garrett snickered, thinking how odd that this 20 year old from Northern Canada could have ended up being somewhat like a British aristocrat from the early 19th century. "Still no birds around!" exclaimed Gerald, pulling out a brass pocket watch from within his tweed jacket. The two young men could not have looked more different. Garrett wore a standard hunting outfit, with camouflage baseball cap, matching jacket and muddy pants as well as large hunting boots. Gerald was wearing his favourite grey flat cap and British shooting jacket, with the right shoulder well padded, with a matching tweed vest, ascot, and trousers, as well as knee high socks and brown leather hunting boots. Garrett was wielding a bland modern pump action shotgun while Gerald preferred a double barrelled percussion cap shotgun that was richly engraved with british imperial insignia. Whereas Garret was clean shaven Gerald sported a thick beard completely encircling his face. Garrett had a pair of aviator sunglasses perched in his front pocket while Gerald had a carefully folded handkerchief and wore his rectangular prescription glasses close to his face. The only similarities between the two were their brown hair, blue eyes, height (about 6'.1"), and their slightly "portly" body structures. As the sun climbed lower in the sky the two chatted, cursing their foul luck at not seeing any geese in the seemingly perfect field arrayed before them. "I guess it was just not our day." Garrett yawned, pulling up his sleeve to check his watch. "Shi- err I mean shoot!" Garret corrected himself quickly before his friend could jokingly chide his use foul language. "What is it?" asked Gerald, looking up from the book he had begun to read. "We are an hour-forty minutes late packing up, which means we will still be walking after dark." Garrett sighed as he hurriedly grabbed the small pile of candy wrappers from the ground beside him. "If we pack up quickly I am certain we will make it back before dark Garrett." Gerald grabbed his gun and pack. After the two had packed up the hunting blind and re-packed their bags the sun had slipped beyond the horizon. "Damn, I forgot to bring the flashlight!" cursed Garrett. "Darn" corrected Gerald. "Yeah whatever, lets get going, and fast!" said Garrett. The two trod down the path back to Garrett's truck laughing at each other's jokes as they poked fun at each other. "So in all seriousness why do you even like that pony show?" asked Garrett to Gerald. Gerald sighed. Garrett would always try to get him to explain his one "quirk," and poke fun at his explanations. "They have a monarchy in their land, so I like the support for the monarchy portrayed by the general populace in their land, it is not much seen today." "Why do you like monarchies so much?" Garrett laughed, knowing that he was successfully irritating his friend. As the duo neared the slope that lead down to the small depot where they had parked Garrett's truck Gerald accidentally dropped his gun. "Curses!" exclaimed Gerald. "What happened?!" said Garrett whirling around to face Gerald in the darkness. "I dropped my gun!" "I'll go back to the truck and get the flashlight, you wait here so we don't loose it!" Gerald stood and waited as he watched the outline of his friend disappear into the small defilade in front of him. After ten minutes Gerald saw the light of Garett's flashlight through the brush. "Over here old boy!" he called. No response. "Garrett!" Gerald tried again. "GARRE-" but Gerald could no longer speak as the light had begun to consume the whole forrest leaving him speechless with horror. Gerald began stepping back, his mouth slowly opening and closing as if even his vast vocabulary could not describe this strange spectacle that had appeared before him. As he was about to turn and run the light rushed forward with blinding force, physically knocking Gerald from his feet. As he struck the ground he could see nothing but stars. Gerald awoke some time later, extremely dizzy with a throbbing head. He slowly brought his hand to the back of his head and felt the sticky mess of blood and hair. He groaned as he rolled over onto his side, and the world seemed to continue spinning. As the world came back into focus it was clear to him what had happened, he had simply tripped and fallen onto his gun. The last thing he remembered was a bright light, most likely some sort of dream that occurred in his dazed mind. Gerald could not think straight, his mind flew faster even than normal. As he regained his footing he grabbed his hat from the ground and stuffed it in his pocket. Almost without thinking he clumsily picked up his gun of the ground and started walking. The forest looked different, it even FELT different. Gerald concluded in a moment of cognizance that he must have sustained some sort of concussion. But where was Garrett? All Gerald knew was that he must return to civilization before he fell back into unconsciousness. As Gerald stumbled through the forrest his mind began playing tricks on him, he saw large, colourful flowers, impossibly vibrant trees, and strange animals illuminated in the moonlit distance. It felt to Gerald like some sort of horrible rendition of "Alice in Wonderland". Gerald suddenly stopped, he had stepped out onto... a road? As he stumbled forward he bumped into a signpost. It read... "Ponyville?" "I must really be going mad..." Gerald mumbled to himself as he slumped to the ground and back into unconsciousness.