"Is that silhouette the Devil?"
Have you ever gotten that strange feeling of impending doom? Or that someone is watching you just outside the corner of your vision? Maybe even that feeling that you can't remember anything that just happened? Well I'm getting all of those feelings at the moment.
An empty void of endless white appeared in my vision. Absolutely nothing around me, even the ground was this discerning colour of white which blended seamlessly into the background. That feeling that someone was watching me slowly left as I turned in circles trying to spot anything that could give me a clue to where I was and what happened.
"Hello?" I said, echoing for what seemed like hours.
"Hmm? What's this?".
And the feeling returns ten-fold... A cold chill rushed down my back as the voice echoed around me. A dark, foreboding quality hung on each syllable spoken in a child-like glee.
"Interesting...".
"Who's t-there?" I asked with a shudder as the feeling grew.
"Who am I hmm? Maybe what am I? Or perhaps you mean to ask my name?".
The voice asked sending a further chill through me as it came from behind me.
I turned quickly to find nothing but the empty white of the void "A name would be nice..." I said as I closed my eyes trying to calm myself.
"Well, I am called by may names, I am the World, I am the Universe, I am God, I am Truth, I am All, I am One and I am also... You~".
A figure of white surrounded in flecks of pure darkness sat cross-legged in front of me as I opened my eyes, a broad glee-filled smile on its face.
"How about I just call you Truth for now..." I said frozen in place as I watched the figure stood up slowly "My Name is... I guess you can call me Edward now..." Truth smiled as I finished.
"So what is it you wish to know?".
"What?" I said dumbfounded at what Truth said, what do I want to know?.
"You have paid in advance for knowledge yes? So now I can grant you any knowledge you so desire~".
"What do you mean I have paid?" I asked confused as Truth's smiled only grew larger.
"Why with these of course~".
Truth slowly stepped towards me, flecks of the darkness slowly turned inwards and became flesh, bone and skin with each step flowing from one of his legs and arms until they stopped.
Are t-those mine?.
"When you arrived through the portal these were given to me, but until you entered my domain I could not grant you the knowledge in exchange".
"So I can ask for any knowledge? Anything at all?".
"Yes... I can grant any knowledge about any subject even those that do not exist yet".
Truth looked behind me for a moment before his smiled vanished as faster than it had appeared. I turned to see what had upset him only to find nothing before looking back at Truth.
"It seems our time is up for now...".
Truth turned and walked away fading into the background as he did.
"Should you ever need to find me Edward you need only summon me with a simple transmutation circle..."
"WAKE UP ALREADY!" A sudden gruff voice yelled in my ear.
"ARGH!" I did not scream no matter what you think as I launched myself up from the ground onto my feet.
"Took your time waking up..." the voice said again behind me.
I jumped around only to meet with the tiny blue horse from before, strangely enough I began feeling light-headed.
"HEY! No more fainting!" it said pulling me down to his level before slapping me in the face as it held me by the neck with one of his... hooves?
"Ow! Alright! I get it!" I yelled holding my face.
"Good, now how about we introduce ourselves before you even think about screaming like a little filly and fainting again hmm?" he said with a smug grin.
How can a horse even smile like that... It's so creepy
"Fine... just no more slapping..." I said quietly as I rubbed my face as it bruised, I offered my free hand out to him "My name is... Edward Elric".
"My name is Millstone" he said shaking my hand with his hoof "Now we got that outta the way, how about you help me with my cart now eh?" he said as he walked away.
I examined him as he began taking off one of the wheels of the cart. He had a dirty brown mane cut exactly like a normal horse, what looked like a tattoo of an angled stone wheel with a cross-shaped metal piece running through the centre sat on either side of his ass.
Wait... Millstone? Like those things that grind up wheat?
I sat beside him as he inspected the axle of the cart "You don't got any experience on fixing this sort of thing do ya?".
I shook my said "Not exactly... But I can try something that might work..." I said unsure, thinking back to the exploding tree.
He dropped the wheel on the ground turning to me "Being stuck out here fer the night can't be better than an alternative can it?" .
I breathed out a couple of times before answering "Just stand back as I do this okay?" I dropping to my knees and started drawing.
"Whatever gets it done..." he said walking over to the other side of the road.
~5 minutes later~
I think it's done... I hope... I thought before slamming my hands to the ground before me. A bright glow erupted from the ground, sparks of energy flashed around every few seconds as the wood from the cart began to gently flow towards the cracked axle like water.
Come on... Steady... No explosions...
Behind me Millstone sat, his jaw on the ground as he watched as the circle dulled in energy, the wood stopped moving I removed my hands from the ground and inspected my handiwork.
Not a single crack left... Good
I clapped my hands of the dust and turned towards Millstone, his jaw and eyes were wide open as he watched me in what I think was both amazement and fear as his cart had fixed itself before him
A few seconds passed before he trotted around me over to the cart and looked over his cart in silence. Without turning his gaze from the cart he asked quietly "What in Tartarus are you?".
I smiled widely before looking at him "My name is Edward Elric, and I am The Fullmetal Alchemist!".
Feels so cool saying that!
As I was enjoying my little fangasm over that little moment oblivious to anything else Millstone started attaching himself up to his cart.
*Whack* A blue hoof came out of no where and hit me across the face.
"Ow! What the hell was that for!" I yelled as I looked down at Millstone who was smiling at me still holding his hoof in the air preparing to hit me again any second.
"That was to get your attention" he said lowering his hoof to the ground before trotting away "Now come on I said I was going take you to town and I ain't waiting for you".
"Alright I'm coming" I said walking up beside him.
~20 minutes later~
We ended up talking about a range of things on the way to town and from what I now know, Millstone isn't a horse, but a pony, I'm in a place known as Terra or specifically, Equestria, which is the pony kingdom. There are other species out there from different mythologies on earth like unicorns, pegasi, minotuars, griffons and dragons.
The biggest thing is probably when he asked how did I use magic, apparently only some creatures can use magic on this world. Insane right? Also if it not sapient, stay the fuck away from it because most of them are deadly such as the cockatrice which is the bastard son of a chicken and a snake which will turn you to stone.
As we entered the town I attracted a few strange looks which I pretty much expected since they haven't really seen anything like me before.
"So Millstone..." I said getting his attention for a moment "Know anywhere I can get a place to stay?".
"How much you willing to spend?".
Shit... Don't really think they would accept credit would they...
I started scratching my neck absent-mindedly "I don't exactly have any money to pay...".
He stopped and looked at me like I had grown two heads for a second before moving on and contemplating about something. After a few minutes he spoke up again "If your willing to do some farm work for a warm bed and food I'll be willing to let you stay with us fer a few nights".
"Can't say I've worked on a farm before but I can't be that bad right?"
Millstone started trotting down the road laughing non-stop, when I asked him what was so funny he only laughed louder.
When we reached his farm we started unloading his cart into the barn before heading up to his homestead to introduce me to his family.
"Now I'm going to go in first just to prepared them okay? So just stay out here" he said stopping at the door before heading inside. After a few minutes I heard Millstone talking to his family before asking me to enter.
As soon as I entered I heard a few gasps before seeing two kid ponies gallop behind another pony who was suddenly wielding a very large frying pan.
"Woah now y'all this is Mister Elric, now he'll be staying with us fer a few days" Millstone interrupted before anything could happen. The two kids were a lot more interested after that.
"S'cuse me Mister Elric?" One of the kids asked, he was about half Millstone's height and was a yellowish-brown with a brown mane.
"Yes... umm?"I began to ask before remembering I didn't even know their names. Luckily he noticed.
"Golden Russet sir" he said smiling before realizing he hadn't asked his question yet "What exactly are ya?".
I smiled lightly before answering "I'm a human, now how about you introduce me to the rest of your family hmm?".
He nodded quickly before he pushed the other kid from under Millstone's legs towards me "This is my lil' sister Melrose" he then went and started pushing Millstone's wife towards me.
"My name is Honeygold, thank ya for help my husband with the cart" She said smiling at me "How about we settle down and have some supper hmm?"
The rest of the night went by quickly as the kids went straight to bed despite wanting to ask me more questions.
Millstone led me to a spare room in the attic after saying goodnight to his kids "Well it isn't much but it will do fine Millstone" I said tried
"No problem, now best not stay up too late, our day starts at sun rise and no later so I expect you will be up and ready by then" he said before turning to return downstairs "And if you ain't I'll up, wake you up myself...".
I will say this once... Hoof slaps. Fucking. Hurt. So with that fact I was suddenly very tired.