The Equestrian Chronicle

by Souldrainr


Chapter 2

The white alicorn tilted her head at the scene before her, silently contemplating the situation. She found herself sympathizing with the crying human in front of her. If she found herself thrust into an alien world full of hairless bipeds, the only thing that would keep her from panicking would be the stoic, analytical persona she had developed all those centuries ago.

"Andrew, are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

Andrew held his face in his hands, attempting to calm himself after hearing the revelation that he was indeed reborn after suffering the fate of death at the hands of his friend. He should have been laughing triumphantly at the fact that he had just cheated the reaper. Indeed this could be counted as a huge win for him. Alas, he knew that this was no victory. There was a reason he did not die as he should have; some explanation for all this must exist. His powers, the blue crystal, the flash of light that he saw at the moment of his death coupled with the one that brought him into this alien world proved without a doubt that this was no accident.

"I'm a monster," Andrew whispered silently to himself as he withdrew his hands and lifted his head, revealing his slightly red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "This isn't fair, first Steve, then the gas station, and now me. I can't even die properly." He began to thoroughly rub his eyes, trying to rid them of the remaining offending moisture.

This sudden display put a frown on the trio's faces. Celestia stepped forward, about to pull the troubled newcomer into her embrace. However, when she moved within a yard of him she was swiftly put to a stop as Andrew stared up at her from behind his now raised hand.

“Please, don’t. I just need some time to adjust to all of this." He said with a sigh. "A whole new world, wow. Steve would have loved this... Matt would probably just freak out though. I wonder if he was able to get away from the cops after he killed me. Actually, knowing him he would probably just try his best to avoid hurting anyone until he could get away." He mentally chuckled at that for a moment when his train of thought was interrupted by a rumbling feeling in his stomach.

            "Can I get something to eat and drink, I feel like I haven't eaten in days.” He groaned just before gently laying himself back on the bed, his feet brushing the floor.

Nurse Redheart cheerfully nodded. “Of course! We just need to know what your species' diet consists of. I took a look at your teeth while you were unconscious, you are an omnivore correct?”

“Yeah, we can eat just about anything I guess, meat, fruit, and vegetables. Although we need meat no matter what, I'm guessing you don't have any here since you guys are herbivores.” Andrew replied dully, beginning to rub his eyes.

“Unfortunately no, although we do have eggs and toast if that would be ok." She said, peering at the human. “It’s the closest thing we have to meet here.”

“I guess so, thanks… am I by any chance allowed to go outside?” Andrew questioned as he turned his head toward the window. "Wait a minute, that's not right..." The sky had darkened considerably in the past twenty or so minutes. Before any of the ponies could respond, he continued. "How late is it? I could have sworn it was noon.”

Dr. Stable trotted over to the window and glanced out into the dark streets. “That’s strange, there wasn’t suppose to be any kind of storm at this hour, it’s barely three o'clock.” He said. He looked up at the sky and saw a grey, behemoth-sized storm cloud stretching all over the sky above Ponyville. “Uh-oh.” He turned to the ponies and Human, a look of concern plastered on his features. “It would seem that the pegasi over at the weather factory have no clue what they're doing. Not only have they started the storm early, but from the size of it we might be looking at several cases of property damage!” He scowled.

Celestia frowned at this unsettling piece of information and trotted over to the window to take a look for herself. “...Oh dear, that storm will end up causing quite a bit of damage to Ponyville as is, I will need to teleport to the weather factory in Cloudsdale and resolve whatever problem is causing this to prevent it from enlarging anymore. Please take good care of our Andrew in my absence.” She began to light up her horn, much to Andrew’s surprise.

“Of course Princess,” replied Redheart with a slight bow. "Farewell Andrew, we can discuss your situation at length when this is resolved."

"Fine." He responded stoically.

With that Celestia disappeared in a flash of white.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the first display of magic he had been audience to since arriving in this world. He was curious at what else they could do with it.

“I'll be right back with your food Andrew!” Redheart announced as she cantered out of the room.

Andrew didn't respond. Instead, he was thinking just how powerful magic was in this world. The earth and Pegasus ponies were practically powerless, but the unicorns had full use of their magical abilities. Celestia just teleported and he knew that telekinesis was apparently an everyday skill that unicorns used, but what else are they capable of? He decided to ask something small first.

“Can every unicorn teleport?” Andrew asked quizzically.

Dr. Stable paused momentarily, caught off guard by the impromptu question. "No, but any unicorn can learn to teleport." He began to Explain as he trotted slowly to the center of the room. “But the problem lies in that most unicorns only know basic spells for everyday use, like telekinesis. Since teleportation is high-level magic, it involves way more know-how about... magic stuff than most are willing to bother learning. At least, that's how a unicorn acquaintance of mine explained it to me."

Andrew smiled at that. Knowing that he won’t have to hide his powers here was most definitely good to hear. As he had mentioned to Matt at Steve’s... funeral, his powers have grown to such a point that they were part of him just as much as his limbs. It had gotten to the point where he would use his powers for simple everyday activities like making his bed to clothing himself. It would be difficult trying to hide what now felt like second nature to him.

Andrew nodded softly and asked, "So this storm, the pegasi can't just fly up there and disperse it? Like... I don't know, use their magic to spread it thin or move it someplace else?"

"I'm afraid not, there comes a point where a cloud becomes too big to properly control, and the only option is to wait it out." Stable explained.

"Can't the unicorns just fly up there and use their magic to deal with it?" Andrew asked.

Dr stable took on a look of confusion. "What? Unicorns can't fly, only pegasi can. Were you not paying attention to Redheart's explanation?" As much as Stable liked a learner, he didn't like ponies that lacked common sense. Then again, this was no pony...

"Then it's not real telekinesis." Andrew replied with a subtle scowl. How are they not able to fly? It should be just as easy as lifting a table.

"And just what do you think is real telekinesis hmm?" Stable replied with a snort.

"Food is here!" replied a cheerful Redheart as she trotted through the open door, somehow balancing a tray containing a glass of water, two golden scrambled eggs and two brown slices of toast. She paused however when she saw the tray hover over her head and into the waiting lap of Andrew.

"That is telekinesis." He crossed his arms, sporting a prideful grin. The slices of toast then levitated a foot above the tray as the eggs quickly followed, nestling themselves on top of the lower slice as the other came down. What was left was a perfect egg sandwich... minus the ketchup.

To Dr. Stables and his assistant, it looked as if the plate and its contents had minds of their own. There was no visible aura that would usually indicate the presence of magic, so what exactly did Andrew do?

Andrew took a gluttonous bite and looked at the two medical ponies with a mouth full of food, chewing as he looked at their bewildered faces.

        “Whuh?” He coughed up just before swallowing. “Why do you look so surprised? Don’t you guys see that kind of stuff like… every day or something?” He took another large bite of his sandwich and washed it down with a swig of water.

"How did you do that!? I didn't see any magical aura? Did you use illusory magic to conceal it? Was that even magic!? Stable asked fervently.

Redheart was completely lost. How stable knew so much about magic she had no idea.

"Magic doesn't exist in my world so it can't be that, it's just a power me and some..." Andrew paused, thinking for but a moment about Steve and Matt. The crazy antics that they went through together since getting their powers. The first time they flew through the sky together.

"Friends." He said solemnly. "It's something me and two other friends got from," He paused again, contemplating whether or not he should tell these ponies the origin of his powers. Magic is commonplace in this world so it's possible they might be able to help him understand what exactly happened to him down in that cave that gave him his abilities. "from a huge glowing blue crystal in a cave, it has to be connected to my arrival here after I died."

"Fascinating, Twilight is going to have a field day with you that's for sure." Stable said.

"Who?" Asked Andrew with a tilted head.

"Oh, Twilight Sparkle is the most magically adept unicorn of this age!" Stable clarified. "Not surprising of course when you also take into account that she is the sole student of Princess Celestia. She lives here in Ponyville, from what I hear she and is tasked with studying the magic of-"

CCCRAAAAABBOOOOMMM!

The deafening sound of thunder could be heard alongside the feeling of a deep rumbling beneath their hooves and feet. Andrew was the first to respond as he rushed to the window and peered out.

Pandemonium was all he saw, ponies everywhere were scattering like roaches and screaming incoherently all the while. He tilted his head upwards to look at the sky, or rather what should have been the sky.
        
"This is bad, you two should come see for yourself..." Andrew said without even turning towards the duo.

Redheart and Stable exchanged momentary glances of worry before trotting over alongside Andrew to get a look at the storm.

What they saw made them want to run as far away from this town as possible. The entire sky above Ponyville and extending outwards for miles was a dark grey, almost black mass of clouds. Large tendrils of lightning could be seen making their journey along the storm in short flashes every few seconds. Several pegasi royal guards could be seen flying around trying to keep everypony calm.
 
"Andrew, back away from there! We need to head to the lobby and bunker down until this storm passes. Redheart, make sure all the patients are moved deeper into the hospital and that everypony stays away from the windows." Dr. Stable barked out confidently, taking immediate control of the situation as best he could.

"Of course doctor, come on Andrew follow me!" She exclaimed as she began to turn around and head for the door.

"No," he replied defiantly. This was his chance. He may have done unspeakable wrongs before arriving here, but it's not like they knew that here. As far as they were considered he had a clean slate. This was his chance to not only prove to the locals that he was benign but to take hold of the downward spiral his life had taken and do something about it. He lifted his right foot and got into position on the window.

The two ponies merely looked at him like he was crazy.

"Don't worry, I can fly by using my telekinesis on myself." Andrew said with a grin.

"Pardon? Andrew, flight using telekinesis is nearly impossible to maintain beyond short-term levitation!" Stammered Dr. Stable, sure that Andrew was completely out of his mind.

Andrew turned back to stare at the town. It was quite a simple looking village that was for certain, it could probably pass for modern if it wasn't for all the green. He would have to ask later how advanced they were technologically. "I already told you." He said as he stepped along an invisible floor and into the open air. Upon reaching a few yards out he turned around to look at the two flabbergasted equines.

"This is true telekinesis! Not magic." He spoke the last word with a drop of disdain.
        
"It's the creature! It's escaping!"

Andrew and the two startled ponies at the window turned toward the source of the yelling, seven ponies clad in golden armor and matching spears were advancing from the right of the hospital. All were white, three pegasi, three earth, and one unicorn.

"Nopony said it could fly!"

"I don't care if it can shoot lasers, get it before it harms anypony! Flight team attack from above, get it down to where we can all deal with him together, Celestia knows what that creature is capable of!" Barked the apparent lead pegasus as he commanded his fellow guards.

               "Ugh oh." Thought Andrew. He quickly started his flight upwards and away from the hospital, the cries of Stable and Redheart muted against the raging wind, whether they were trying to say something to him, or the guards he couldn't tell. Within a minute a pegasus guard slammed into Andrew from the back, forcing them both down at an angle, putting them even further away from the hospital. They impacted the ground with an audible thud, sliding a few yards before coming to a stop, Andrew on his back spread eagle with the pegasus on top.

"Ouch" Muttered the guard as he got up and took hold of his spear. "What do you want to do with him, captain!? He yelled to another approaching guard.

"Good job Streak, hold him there while he's teleported to the dungeon, Then we report the incident to Celestia," Commanded the pegasus captain.

Streak pressed the tip of his spear to Andrew's throat. "Yes sir, but what do we do abou-umph!" Streak found himself flying back as if punched right in the stomach, he landed before his troopmates, who stopped dead in their tracks. They were all stunned for but a moment before Andrew got to his feet.

"Everypony hold your ground, it's capable of magic!" The rest of the guard ponies lifted their spears, ready for a fight. One pony, however, the unicorn of the group off to the far left, lowered his head.

Andrew wore an irritated look on his face. He didn't want to kill anyone here but he was tired of being pushed around. He saw this as an opportunity to show off his superiority over these ponies. He needed to let them that he was stronger. That he was not to be messed with. He was certain this could just be written off as a misunderstanding after he deals with the storm. Besides, he needed some warm-up exercise for what he was planning.

Both sides just stood in place about four meters apart, examining the other. Andrew took note of the unicorn who was aiming his horn directly at him as well as the spears doing the same. He pondered how he could best dispatch them all without actually doing any harm. He glanced up at the storm, it was thundering a bit more frequently now. He would have to make sure to hurry it up.

              The nameless captain took in every detail of the creature before him. Bipedal, mostly hairless, clothed. "No way is it not intelligent, it's surveying the situation just the same as us." The captain thought quietly.

"Captain, I knocked that thing out of the sky and crashed it straight into the ground! How does it not have any marks or tears on its body or clothing?" Asked Streak. After looking over Andrew's clothing again he found Streak's assessment to be correct, It was completely unscathed.

The captain furrowed his brows, unsure of what to make of it. How did the creature come out of that crash unharmed? He would have dwelled on the thought longer if he wasn't snapped back to attention by the fact that his spear was growing lighter. In fact, it had quickly become weightless. In his shock his grip faltered momentarily, allowing the spear to leave his grasp and float away from him. The captain backed up slightly with a scowl. “Hold tight onto your spears! We need to find out what else it can do besides telekinesis. Dusk!” He called out.

“Yes sir!” Replied the unicorn his left.

        Summon my anti-magic spear for me, then proceed to provoke the creature into revealing whatever else it is capable of. If simple levitation is all it can do then we should have no trouble bringing it under control, everypony else wait for an opening and hit it with everything you got.

"Sir!" They all called out in unison.

Dusk began to focus his magic into his horn, intent on summoning the ethereal portal linked to the weapon cache in the royal barracks. After a few moments, he released the built up magic within and the luminescent white portal materialized above them. A golden spear shot out from the center and lodged itself into the ground to the right of the captain.

Andrew's interest peaked greatly when he saw Dusk summon the replacement spear. "Have to admit, that's kinda cool," He thought, mentally smiling to himself. He was anxious to test how he fared against magic, best to dispatch the irrelevant parties beforehand though so as to minimize interruption.
"let's see what else you can do..."

The captain took hold of his spear and raised it, pointing it directly at Andrew.

"Hear me, creature! We have been informed that you speak Equestrian. Why you choose to remain silent while facing the royal guard I don't know, but this is your last chance to turn yourself in. Drop the spear and-oomph!" The captain was cut off when he was thrown sideways into a tree, knocked out instantly.

"What in Tartarus!?" Exclaimed Dusk as chaos befell all around him.
One by one his platoon was taken out. Streak was flipped forcefully onto his back, stunning him. The two earth ponies to his right were dragged forcefully into each other, heads meeting with an audible thud as they fell to the ground limp. Snoozing softly after a few moments.
        
Dusk was trembling with fearful awe. In the twenty years that he has lived, he has only ever been able to partially hone his conjuration magic. This creature had used telekinesis offensively, something that takes years of honing your magical endurance and skill. Telekinesis is one of the most simple spells ever created, but the amount of magic needed to use it increases exponentially after a few dozen pounds of lift.

This creature was capable of flinging one hundred and fifty pounds of pony and sixty pounds of armor across the road like child's play! Multiple times even!

And that wasn't all he could deduce. This creature had perfectly mastered an entirely separate form of magic, Illusion magic. It is able to conceal its wings as well as its magical aura from view completely. If he didn't know any better he would have thought it was doing all of this with its mind. But that would be ridiculous.

"Hurry up and do something cool, I don't have much time!" Andrew yelled, a restive tone lacing his voice. The wind had begun to pick up dramatically over the past few minutes and was buffeting the trees mercilessly.

Dusk recovered quickly from his thoughts, preparing to attack as he lowered his head.

Andrew saw this and quickly backpedaled to a distance of 9 yards, unsure of what to expect. "Maybe he can shoot lasers?" Andrew smirked. "Steve would probably love that." He thought solemnly.

Pewpewpewpewpew!

Dusk opened fire with a barrage of lasers.

"Shit!" Andrew screamed reflexively, no time to dodge. He put his arms in front of his face and closed his eyes.

Ssssssssssssss...

No pain, no impact, nothing but the sizzling sound that permeated through the air. Andrew opened his eyes and brought his arms down to his side. Beyond the thick layer of white smoke in front of him, he could make out Dusk sitting on his haunches utterly dumbfounded. Andrew assumed that his special defenses managed to protect him.

"Impossible...," Dusk uttered woefully to himself. "How!? He cried. "Offensive telekinesis, illusion magic to mask your wings and aura, and now shield magic!!? That's not scientifically possible!" He pointed his hoof at Andrew. "You're not scientifically possible!"

CCCCRRRRAAABBBOOOOMMM!

It began to pour.

This was not your typical shower. The downpour was so strong and relentless that at first glance it would seem more like hail than anything else.

Looking at Andrew, Dusk realized that he wasn't getting wet, it looked like the water was splashing off him as it should, but leaving no wet splotches on his clothing or hair. Was he really wasting magic to shield his body from the rain in such an inefficient manner? He could achieve the same results if he were to form an umbrella barrier above himself than waste concentration covering every inch of his being.

Andrew looked down at himself momentarily then back at Dusk. "No such thing as magic on my world. Everything I'm doing is telekinesis, my power, my gift, my talent. Nothing to do with your poor imitation that doesn't even let you lift yourself off the ground.

"B-but....what?" Dusk stuttered through chattering teeth. The rain had already begun to lower his body temperature

"Thanks for the warm-up but I need to take care of this storm before someone gets hurt." He frowned, trying not to dwell on what he had done during a storm similar to this... Although his memories seemed off, distant even.

CCCRRRAAABBBBOOOOOOMMM!!

"No time to waste on the past" Andrew Thought as he flew up, heading straight for what seemed to be the center of the chaotic storm.

Dusk maintained his sitting position, staring at the seemingly wingless creature flying up to and eventually disappearing into the mass of black that now covered the sky.



Andrew found himself in the midst of the storm. Lightning arcing from one cloud to another, crackling with raw energy. He closed his eyes and began his work by projecting a bubble around himself and proceeding to expand it, hoping to eventually disperse the storm enough for it to either lose most of its strength or simply disappear.

Ssssssssssssssssss...

Andrew paused. Opening his eyes to the familiar sound. Once again he was met with the same white mist that formed when he blocked Dust's magical attack. This time, however, It was completely shrouding him in what appeared to be the same spherical shape that he was emulating just moments ago, it faded away after several seconds. Andrew began to ponder this strange effect his power had been having lately, "Why does that keep happening? What's going on with my powers?" He certainly didn't feel any different than bef-

Cccrrraaackkk

A bolt of lightning arced from the right only several feet from Andrew's head, caught by surprise he tumbled backward in a back-flip before righting himself, smelling thick ozone.

His eyes were wide open and his mind fully alert from the adrenaline now coursing through his veins.

So why is it that he could see Steve floating before him? He was wearing a suit and looking at Andrew, smiling. Was this a hallucination? Ptsd? Did the lightning hit him and scramble his brain!?

If he can come back to life than just maybe this was actually Steve. Unless this actually was some sort of Hell, or maybe this was a test? He didn't care, maybe he wasn't hallucinating, maybe he was. Assume the worst, hope for the best.

"Steve, if that's really you I'm sorry!" Andrew yelled over the raging storm. He began to weep, the tears prominent against his still dry skin. He slumped down to his knees, sitting on his legs. "I... I wasn't trying to hurt you," He clutched his scarred chest with his right hand and yelled, "I didn't mean to hurt anyone!"

"You didn't mean to hurt me Andrew... And I forgive you for that. But we both know you knew what you were doing when you robbed those three thugs. You killed that store clerk. You killed police officers.

"I didn't mean to-"

"You crashed a bus full of people Andrew!! Men! Women!"

"But Steve, I didn't know what I was doing... I wasn't try-"

"There may have been children in there Andrew!!"

"But-!"

"Andrew you killed people, you ended their lives. Does that really mean noth-"

"I was trying to save my mom! I just wanted to be left alone!"

"By killing dozens of people!? You almost killed your father!"

"He would have deserved it!"

"Did those innocent people deserve to die, Andrew?"

"..." Andrew's eyes began to grow puffy as he held back tears. This couldn't have been Steve... He had to be hallucinating.

"Would your mother have wanted you to do all those things to save her!?"

"..."

"You know what killed her Andrew."

He rubbed his left temple with his left index and middle finger, his head was killing him.

"Instead of helping your mother you chose to buy that stupid camera of you-"

"Shut up!!" Andrew bellowed as he let loose a torrent of telekinetic energy all around him. He was simultaneously assaulted by the feeling of a dagger being wedged between his brain and skull and twisted without remorse. The pain was indescribable, paralyzing his mind as he began to fall. The last thing he remembered seeing was a bright white light.

            Then everything went black.

---Ponyville General Hospital ---

"Thank you so much for the help ms. Sparkle. I could never have imagined somepony being able to teleport so many ponies at once," said Dusk to the Princess's star pupil.

"It's no trouble at all sir, anything I can do to help. Now, back to this alien that you confronted, are you certain that he was able to use such powerful telekinesis magic?" Questioned Twilight. The possibility of meeting somepony as proficient in magic as her was quite exciting, but the fact that it wasn't even a pony, unprecedented! She wondered why he had attacked the guards though, maybe he was scared. After all, he wasn't of this world, so it could very well be that the guard was expressing some sort of hostile intention without realizing.

"I know what I saw ms. Sparkle, you don't think my comrades just decided to knock themselves out, do you? Also, he said that it wasn't even magic, that he was doing it all with his mind." He stated, shrugging and rolling his eyes.

Ok now this was getting weird, why would he lie about his talent and pretend it wasn't magic? Twilight was about to question Dusk further when she saw Redheart come out of the room they were outside of. She was balancing a clipboard on her back and wore a smile on her face.

"Well sir, it would appear that your friends here will be just fine, nothing but a few scrapes and bruises. Might I ask what you did to elicit such a hostile reaction out of Andrew? He isn't used to this world yet so you may have done something that may be regarded as a threat where he's from." She asked accusingly.

Dusk brought his chin up and closed his eyes. "We did no such thing Madame, we simply told him he had to come with us right away and he refused. He said something about fixing the storm before leaving," he turned to Twilight, "I almost even believed him too. He was able to stop my magic beam like it was nothing with that shield of his, though he seemed just as surprised about that as I was, to be honest."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that last statement. "Wow, really? Fascinating, are you sure he didn't have a horn in his man-whoah!

Twilight stumbled as the ground beneath her hooves began to shake roughly. After only a few moments the rumbling dies down.

Redheart stepped forward. "What in Equestria!? We almost never get quakes in this region, could it be because of the storm?"

Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. "I doubt it, I don't feel any fluctuations in the magical stability underground.... wait a minute. Something is going on with the storm, did you feel that Dusk." She asked.

Dusk lit his horn for a moment. "Sparkle is correct, the storm is fading away, let's go investigate. Redheart you stay with your patients.

"I need to stay here with the patients, besides it's probably just Celestia as she did say she would fix this," Redheart replied cheerily as she walked back into the room.

***

Twilight gasped at what used to be the forming hurricane above Ponyville. Dusk doing the same. The storm had an ever-expanding hole in the middle that seemed to burn away all the clouds in its journey toward the outer edges. There appeared to be somepony in the center.

"I think somepony is in the center, let me check," Twilight said as she began to focus her magic into her eyes to form magical magnifying lenses.

"Never seen that before, she really is the princess's student huh?" Dusk thought silently observing Twilight. It seemed like a very practical spell, interesting how nopony has ever thought of it before.

Twilight adjusted her zoom level until she could make out the Pony well enough to see that it wasn't a pony at all but Andrew himself.

"It's Andrew!" Twilight shouted as she started galloping along the road leading east of the hospital, followed almost immediately by the royal guard. "Do you have any spells that can catch him?" She yelled over wind rushing past her.

"Not from that height no! A bubble wouldn't be able to withstand terminal velocity, his momentum would just rip through it. Do you think he got struck by a stray lightning bolt?" Dusk asked.

"No, he has no burn marks on his clothes but it looks like he is bleeding from his nose, ears, and eyes. Do you think..." She paused. "That's impossible, he couldn't have." She thought doubtfully.

Dusk knew what that meant. Those are symptoms of arcane exhaustion. Andrew must be the cause of the storm's disappearance. Whatever he did to disperse the storm must have drained him of all his magic at once, leaving his body in a state of shock. "He displaced the clouds! How in the name of Celestia did he manage to do that!?"

Twilight was going to call dusk out on the fact that typical magic can't affect the weather when something caught her eye.

A prismatic blur was rushing towards Andrew.