Anthology

by Timeless Lord Slayer

Line 1 - Beginning of The Written Word (Edited... Again.)

Hello, how are you?

A man slowly cracks his eyes open and yawns, sitting up in bed.

A mare groans as she gets out of bed.

Opening a window, a man's head popped out.

Opening a window, a mare's head popped out.

Both sigh, before saying, "Morning!"

Bright, sunny daylight lies outside.

A man stands in a kitchen, yawns as he makes his breakfast.

A mare sits patiently at a table, yawning.

They sing, "La la la la da la~," in their hearts.

A yellow woman cheers as she eats her breakfast, a man smiling and doing the same across the table from her.

A mare looks over a scroll as she eats some toast.

A mare sleeps soundly in her dark room, happily dreaming.

"Hello, how are you?"

An unassuming neighborhood sprawled out before the dark sky. The sun was not yet risen, and all in the small town that housed this neighborhood was bathed in the light of street lamps and little else. This neighborhood, this block, was not overly grandiose. For all intents and purposes, it was just as average as any small town neighborhood found in the modern world of 2018. But in this neighborhood was a particular boy.

He was young, 19 years old in fact, and a fairly plain boy. Some may call him cute, others unattractive; he tried not to let appearance bother him, though. His hair was thick yet short, barely close to touching his eyes, and dyed a light, silvery blue with gold fringes. His other features were what pegged him as plain, however. He bore glasses, and a clean shaven face. His eyes, sparking with contemplation, were a hazel green.

He wore a light gray hoodie with a design of a particularly well-known wolf known as Sif on the back, blue skinny jeans so worn at the bottom that the tail-end of the legs were torn, but only at the very endges, just above his black, steel-toed hiking boots, with a belt coupled with a buckle on it with the symbol of the Inquisition from Dragon Age.

This young man was, very clearly, a gamer. And he was currently walking the streets of this neighborhood, as he had done for the past 4 years of his life. He had an unreadable expression on his face, but it was clear in his eyes that his mind was elsewhere.

It seems pretty quiet tonight, er, today. He thought himself, tilting his head up to look at the smoky black expanse of sky. ...I wonder how much longer it is 'till the sun rises. He frowned lightly. Can't really see the horizon that well with those huge ass trees covering the western horizon. His mouth returned to a normal, flat line as he shrugged to himself and kept walking. Well, I'll just have to wait 'till later to see the glorious sun, I guess.

His thoughts jumped from one to the next, ranging from whether he would eat later in the morning to what game or video he'd watch or play in the afternoon. And then, he noticed a person, particularly a well-dressed, black haired and pony tailed woman, right on the corner of the street. The boy hummed in thought. Bit weird. It's not that often I see people out and about this early. Much less so well dressed. He squinted his eyes. Huh. Is she a cosplayer or something? Those are pretty rare around this town.

Curious, he walked towards her. She seemed to be watching the sky above, as if waiting for something. When he drew close enough, she looked to him and smiled, her masquerade mask hiding most of her posh looking pale face.

"Hello, my boy. How are you this fine, crisp morning?" she asked genially, smiling. The boy smiled back.

"Good, good, just out for a walk. It's kinda my thing," he answered, coming to a stop in front of her, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Can I ask what you're doing out here so early?"

Her smile widened. "Well, I happen to have a spare pencil someone gave me during my journalism debut at a convention, but I didn't want to just toss it away, because it looked fairly expensive. So I've been wandering around, hoping someone will take it off my hands so I can finally get some rest."

The boy raised a brow. "Huh. Can I see it? Ya got me curious now."

"Certainly," she dug into her fine, red Victorian coat pocket and pulled out a stylish pencil. "Here you are!" The young man took it, looking it over with a fair degree of interest and awe. It was a black and yellow pencil, but with what seemed to be Anglo-Saxon runes carved in gold script into each side. It was sharpened to a fine point, the eraser looked unused and untarnished, and overall it seemed almost...otherworldly. "I take it you like it?" The boy looked up at her, realizing he'd been staring at it for a mite too long.

"Oh, uh, yeah, it looks pretty frickin' awesome," he said with a nod. The woman's cherry red lips curled into a large smile.

"Well, would you like to have it, then?" She asked. "In return, you can give me a hug."

The youth gave her a quizzical look. "A hug?" She nodded. "That's kinda...unusual, to ask."

She giggled daintily behind a hand. "Well, us ladies like to be hugged from time to time, especially from strapping young men like you!"

The boy blushed, but eventually calmed down and shrugged. "Eh, alright then." Thus, he took a step toward her and wrapped his arms around her in a brief hug. She giggled again and returned the gesture, and then they released each other.

"Well, that concludes our deal, my boy," she said, smile turning mischievous. She gave him a two fingered salute as he raised a brow, before he was hit with a wave of drowsiness, and all he managed to say was a mumbled, "Wha-?" before he collapsed to the pavement. The woman giggled once more, twirling a cane that appeared in her hand out of nowhere. "Another successful trade!"

The youth felt as if he were in a dream, for all was black. All he heard were whispers and mutters and murmurs. Never was he able to make out a word or string together a sentence. It was just as if he were walking through a crowd as a criminal, but he didn't recall ever committing any crimes.

He grew worried after what seemed ten minutes.

Afraid after twenty.

Then, just as he was about to try and wake himself up with an old trick he had learned, the voices all stopped. Kaleidoscopes of colors flashed through his mind, so quickly and so brightly that it should have blinded him, and it only hurt more when his eyes were met with utter darkness again, and then the light returned.

Finally, he felt himself start to wake up after the light once again went to darkness.

The young man awoke blearily to the sounds of nature all around him, like he had been camping. But...wasn't I just walking around the block? He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and they promptly widened as he noted the greenery all around him. Trees of various kinds, shrubs and bushes and flowerbeds, all of it dazzled him with the beauty of nature. He wasn't sure how, but despite his mind telling him this had to be a dream, his heart assured him it was real.

It was only made more apparent when he felt a small leather bound notebook impact his head and bounce off to the side of his lap, followed by the same pencil he'd obtained from that woman and a piece of paper that fluttered down to his other side. He slowly grabbed the paper, and opened it up to see a letter.

Hello, my boy.

Let me be the first to welcome you to your new escape from Earth, your new home, Equestria. To clarify things so you don't go all loopy like some other folks I've Displaced; yes, you are not dreaming, and yes, this is real. Deny it all you want, that won't change.

Now, onto your new abilities as a Displaced. That little pencil I gave you earlier? It's enchanted with strong magic. Essentially, you can write on any surface, anything at all, and whatever you write will come into being. Well, with some side-effects. For one, go with something too big, like, "I become a God," or anything that could change your biology or spirit, and the magical backlash will very likely kill you. So try to be careful with that. Of course, there are some exceptions, but knowing your studious nature, I'm sure you'd rather figure those out for yourself. The pencil is also indestructible and will always stay sharp.

The magic of the pencil will essentially draw on your power, your will and mana pool, which will grow with repeated exercise, just like muscles. Also, it'll only work for you, and any sentences already written, whilst they can be erased, the effects cannot be undone without a special ritual you'll get later.

I'd recommend starting small, but hey, your life, dear boy. Anywho, have fun~!

-Trader

The boy stared at the small page for a long time. Slowly, he clenched it and placed it in his coat pocket, and picked up the pencil. He slowly tightened his grip on it as he closed his emerald green eyes and took several long, deep breaths. Then, he opened them, and got to his feet. He then looked to the sunny sky peeking out from the canopy, and spoke.

"...Well... Guess my ideas of having a bit of an adventure finally came true, huh, bro?" He let out a breathless chuckle. "...At least it's in this world, eh?"

With that, he began to walk through the forest, towards his new life.

Author's Note:

EDIT: Fixed some minor things, optimized it's flow a bit. Made the hint a little more obvious.

Well, I certainly hope this is good enough for all of you. I know I'm going to enjoy it a lot. With all the possibilities for this fic just opening left and right... It's got me so giddy I'm already writing the third chapter and have planned the fourth. Not a terribly normal thing for me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Anyway, thank you for reading, my dear readers.

-Timeless Celestial

Comments

[Who cares]

Did you make him a more convenient if heavily nerfed version of the Author from Once Upon a Time?

[Timeless Lord Slayer]

8960259 In a way. Though I can't say I know much of the show, despite my mother watching it frequently.

[Lovecraftia]

Cool!

[FTR2017]

Well, I finally got around to reading this first chapter, and I must say I'm impressed.

For an introduction for this type of story, it is spotless.

I especially liked it how you changed the means of displacement for our main character, and who's the brother he referred to?

Mysteries to be read about in future releases!

I'll be tracking and faving this, as the concept is interesting.