Tales from a lost pony

by Zen Gale

Chapter 1: Introductions

The doors to the bar opened, spilling light into the dim atmosphere. Several sets of eyes displaying a mix of emotions from curiosity to irritation all fell on the yellow-green mare. She however paid them little mind, looking past their glances with a searching stare. She was searching for somepony specific and at first glance it didn't appear that he was here despite their supposed arranged meeting. With a defeated sigh she began to turn around only to catch sight of a table that had previously eluded her vision. Sitting at this lone table was a single dark blue pegasus stallion who despite the warm temperature in the bar still wore a large red trench coat, its lengths draped over his back covering all most all of his rear half except for his hooves. Atop his head rested a rather beaten up pointed hat also red in color with it's wide brim tilted down obscurring his eyes. He was looking at her with something of a smirk, and proceeded to raise his glass in a beconing gesture towards the table.

Cautiously she began to walk over, 'Okay Cheery Notes he's here, this is your big chance. This assignment was given to you from Princess Sparkle herself. Remember you need to get ans.......' her thought process was interrupted as she arrived at the table. Just as she began to take her seat, the brim of the stallions hat lifted ever so slightly revealing his eyes. Instead of the normal pony eyes and color, there were a pair of hourglass pupils with the rest of the iris a duly glowing gold.

Chuckling he began to speak in a sharp, but calm voice "So am I going to have to start this conversation? And here I thought I was supposed to be the one getting interviewed."

"Rrrrright....ummm...." She stuttered as her gaze finally tore away from the pegasus. Her attention found its new target, her saddlebags. Horn briefly lighting up with a light green glow a small book, quill and ink, soon levitated out and onto the table. "Where would you like to start Mr. Gale?"

"With another drink, and please, just Zen is fine."

"Mr. Gale, I'd like to retain a air of professionalism" her upturned face briefly showed a hint of disgust "That is assuming that you are still sober enough to provide me with literate and fully articulated answers to my."

"Sskkt hehahahahaha!"

"And just what is so funny?"

"Sorry, sorry, but this isn't what I'd call much of a formal meeting," he said with a sweeping gesture of his wing towards the rest of the bar. "And I personally never reached the level of professional before everything went wrong."

"What do you mean?" Cheery asked with suddenly wide eyes, quill raised just inches above the now open book. "Were you some kind of professor before the disastor? Did you actually see the disastor, or possibly its cause? Were you in the building when it happened? Did." The rapid assult of questions was abruptly stopped as some surprisingly articulate primary feathers fell over her mouth.

"Mare...I mean Cheery, no offence meant but if I answer a random line of questions you'll only be leaving here with several more and we'll never get this done. Now lets start with my drink and what we both know." Slowly the feathers fell away only to make a gesture to the bartender who began to dig around on the shelves behind the counter.

"Fine...." a mix of irritation and disppointment in her voice. "I'm ready when you are"

At that point the bartender arrived at the table with the bottle of labelless booze casting an expectant look at the pegasus. He returned it with a grin and proceeded to pull out a few coins from inside his cloak. The Bartender began to leave only to stop facing towards the unicorn, once more his gaze fell on the pegasus. With the slightest of nods from Zen the bartender continued his turn and left the two.

"Ummm....What was that about?"

"Nothing, so lets see where to start....." his hoof rose scratching the back of his head. "I suppose we'll start eight years ago."

"But thats when Twilight Sparkle became the princess of magic?"

"Yep, and one years later she founded the leading company in magical and technological research, spear heading the integration of the two into usable forms for all three of the pony races as well as a few other races. one year later this company, Magi-tech industries, announced its biggest project ever."

"The research into usable magics for pegasi and earth ponies!" Cheery blurted out, only to blush slightly a put a hoof over her mouth, elicitating a restrained chuckle from Zen. "Sorry, I've done a little research into the project and its ramifications. I was actually hoping to help work on it with the other scientist before the explosion."

"Well, be glad you wern't there. You probably wouldn't have made it....uh no offence meant" he quickly added when her expression started to change. "Anyways, yeah the research into useable magic for the other two pony clans. It was a massive announcement that not only would the majority of the company in Trottingham, but the princess of magic herself would be leading this project from her home in Ponyville. A year after this no information had been released but rumors of a breakthrough were wide spread. This continued right up to the beginning of the disastor."

"Right, the explosion"

"Implosion"

"Implosion?"

"Yeah, implosion," the scratching of a quill roughly across the paper of the book seemed uncannily loud as she marked out the word only to replace it with the latter. As soon as the scribbling stopped her eyes rose expectantly waiting for him to continue. "Well, almost immediatly afterwards strange reports start to file in, the princess goes to investigate, and locks down the entire city and a sizable chunk of the surrounding area with an impenetrable barrier saying that a disastor of unprecedented destruction has befallen the town and for the safety of everyone she has enacted a quarentine. A few days later, some teams are sent in to investigate the scene and rescue survivors, they disappear a only a few hours in. This goes on for a while before the area is simply deemed unsafe due to an overflow of dangerous magic and to be left under quarentine until an appropriate course of actions can be enacted."

"That was all five years ago" Cheery intejected, "Durring that time nothing entered or exited the quarentine, that is until three weeks ago when suddenly a strange dark purple portal opens on the north side of the wall, and you walk out through the barrier like nothing happened."

"Heh, and it took all of three seconds before Twilight Sparkle herself teleports infront of me, starts barraging me with questions, then binds me magically as soon as she sees my eyes."

"And despite her powerful binding spells, you manage to escape without any trace or show of struggle only to send her a request for a meeting with a representative a few days later....Zen."

"Hmmm?"

"How did you manage to escape her binding spells?"

"That answer comes with a story, and will probably take more than a single day to answer. Tell me, do you have some place to stay?"

"Yeah? I'm staying at the hotel on Mulbush and Coldridge."

"Good, hope you brought some more paper with you. Theres roughly five years worth that isn't in any report I've seen since getting out."

"Fi..five years.......five years of undocumented, first hand experience on a situation that not even the princess is aware of...."

"Ummm....yeah? That is why you were sent here isn't it? To write a report on my experiences."

"I...I wasn't told that I'd actually get anything other than the cause, but a full five years. That'd be long enough to not only see the immediate effects but also to see the beginning of long term effects....YES, promotion here I come!"

"Hehehe, how about you listen to my tale before celebrating and be forwarned, there were some rather...disturbing situations inside the barrier. Even thought it trapped me inside, I'm glad she put it up fast enough to keep any of 'them' getting out."

"Them?"

"Ponies inside the quarentine called them the , and they're something no pony should ever have to see. Let alone do what I've had to do." Zen's eye took on a distant view as his sentence ended prompting an awkward silence between the unicorn mare and pegasus stallion.

"Zen?" His eyes continued to stare at a spot on the table, but one look at the hourglass eyes was enough to tell anyone that he wasn't seeing with his physical eyes. "Zen? ZEN!" finally his eyes snapped back up at the mare who all but shouted his name, and for the briefest moments his eyes held a fear as clear the moon on a cloudless night.

"Sorry, kinda spaced out there."

"I'd say, are you sure you're up to this. I mean we can reschedule if its too much trouble."

"No, it's time for this story to be heard. I'm going to ask though, please keep the interruptions to as few as possible, it'll be easier to answr questions before we leave rather than risk me loosing my place."

"Ooookay then." She said dipping her quill in the ink "Ready."

"Alright, 5 years ago..."