1 - Doctor

Chapter 1:
Doctor

It was Saturday, January 5th. As I arrived home at around 6 in the evening, after my appointment, I tried to distract myself from the anticipation of the results, said to come the next day. I shouldn't have been antsy for the cancer tests. I knew they'd turn out just like the battery of tests that came years before. And, the ones that came years before that. I would recover almost instantly, if it was positive. Hell, I thought, last time they didn't even treat me. They just tried to figure out why the results changed from a conclusive positive to a conclusive negative in less than a week. It was boring, and more than a little frustrating when I found that out. Good thing it wouldn't happen again, I thought. Back to normal.

I got out of my car - an old Model 5 from '94 - and stepped heavily across the asphalt to the cobblestone path leading from my driveway to my door. My house was a one-story rancher, with beige stucco siding and a faded, brownish tiled roof. Most of the windows along the front and sides were completely dark, with the exception of the front door setup, which lit up when an interior light turned on as I approached the first stone step, and flickered in brightness afterwards; I remembered I needed to replace it. At least the sensor still worked, I thought.

Before I entered the house, I emptied the mailbox beside the door of it's week's worth of newspaper, and a few magazines – Discover, Lee Valley, Hammacher Schlemmer – which had probably come late, as they were the Christmas editions. I unlocked the door with the code, which might as well have been forgotten as I had typed it in without thinking, and walked inside in my hiking shoes, dumping the magazines in a pile on the table near the door.

I took my shoes off and walked down my hallway, and at the switches at the end I turned the sensor light off and the TV room light on. It wasn't really a TV room, since it was connected to the kitchen and hallway, but I had separate lighting for each. The other sets didn't come on yet, though, since I usually watched the news before making dinner. I turned the TV on, but it was starting off at Cash Cab – it was actually 5:49 – so I made my rounds to clean the house from the mess made in my absence.

I mostly had to get rid of a fine layer of dust that started forming on the furniture and objects nearest the walls of the L-shaped connected room. I wasn't sure why there was even dust on it, since I was the only occupant and I had been gone for a while, but at least it kept me from yelling the answers at the candid contestants in Adam Growe's epileptic question van. I cleaned off my computer, monitor, and leather castor chair; my collections of movies, games, and models; and my glass coffee table.

At that point I had stopped to bring the magazines into the room, but a commercial break signified the news starting, so I just put them on a shelf and switched the channel to 7.

"...ven o' clock this morning, the patient received his latest treatments from Dr. Jones from here in Ottawa, who we have on here with us. Dr. Jones, what did..."

I turned the TV off quickly, once I heard my doctor's name. I didn't like Dr. Jones. He was the one that exaggerated the effects of my cancer; the one that made me stay in a hospital for two weeks to run tests instead of 'treatments', costing me my job and, almost, my life. The worst part about it was that I had no ground for when I wanted to press damage charges; I was officially a patient, and the doctor officially 'cured' me. When I went in, I was 'sick', and I was fine when I left.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any lawyer that could argue against that logic.

After thinking about the situation, I found myself moving towards my weights. I had learned, perhaps years prior to that moment, that controlling and focusing my anger into constructive means was the best option when I was in my own house. I still remembered the source of my anger from so many years ago.

In September 2006, I was notified of my parent's death. My mother had lung cancer while my father had some sort of stomach problem - I never got clarification on what it was - and the local practitioners wanted me to come in for an examination, since to them I had practically disappeared after going into the army in 1994. So I went.

I was given six months to live. I had developed a rapidly growing brain tumour that put me in the hospital for four weeks. After that, I got out with a clean bill of health. There was no sign of cancer.

Four years later, in April 2010, I had a scheduled appointment. Apparently being a cancer survivor gave me a non-optional checkup routine. I went to that one, and met Dr. Jones, much as he is today. He told me I had more cancer and forced me to stay at the hospital for two and a half weeks. After that, I was given a clean bill of health and set free again, though until after I got home I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.

I arrived home, but I was too tired to go anywhere, so I just fell on my bed and slept for over a day. When I woke up, I had a lot of mail. Some of it was bills, which I kept because I try to pay them soon enough, and the rest was quite possibly the oddest and most frustrating combination of notices I had ever received.

I was fired from my job as a frame technician for a contractor in charge of building houses. That job used to be important to me financially, but the inheritance from my parents covered me well enough, so that was only a minor setback. I didn't like relying on the inheritance, but I got over it.

I was demoted a rank in the Army Reserves, as well. The absence went unreported, so I was essentially AWOL for the time spent in the hospital. That was more of a sentimental issue, since I had been part of the Reserves for almost 16 years and had only gotten promotions. My teeth only slightly ground, I opened the last letter.

Dr. Jones sent me the official report, and the second bill of clean health. It told me that any sign of cancer had been thoroughly eradicated since September. But, it was April. I never went into a hospital the year before that, or the year before that. I went into a hospital four years before, September 2006. And, yet, the 2010 report listed a battery of tests I had never heard of, starting at the beginning of my time in April and ending when I left. In April.

I knew that when I remembered it at the time I was lacking details and certain consistencies, but the emotions remained the same. In 2010, I broke all my windows, and almost tore down a wall, looking for something to impale myself on. It was a fit of rage, back when I didn't know what that could do.

Dr. Jones was on a wild goose chase inside my body and it had cost me the only two things that gave my life achievement and consistency. I looked for a gun.

Then I looked for a lawyer. I knew I couldn't blame him on the damage to my house, but I could sue for intangible damages - my job, and my ranking. Thus the frustration when that didn't help at all.

When I went home to repair the holes in the wall, I found myself straining myself whenever I thought about the then-recent events. After that, I had to buy a weight machine to keep up with my anger, and soon it became a very healthy habit for controlling my anger.

So, on January 5th, 2014, I lifted weights. I did leg curls. I pulled up, sat up, pushed down, pressed, and curled an assortment of things for a bit less than an hour before I was feeling better. There was another reason for going at it that hard, on that day; I was feeling a little slow. I was getting old, no doubt about that, but I had to keep up with the Army or I might have gotten another demotion, and that was no good.

I had guns in my house at that point, so I had good reason to fear for a potentially fragile stability that kept me from using them in all but the most drastic of circumstances. I never fired a single one of them.

After the inner monologue, a long workout, and mechanically making and eating my dinner of leftover salad - the process of which escapes me - I went to my bed on the other end of my house in the memorized path through darkness and prepared to go to sleep. It would have been routine the next day, with the only major difference being a hope that I would give Jones a piece of my mind, when I walked into the office and got my negative test results back.

It might have been the workout; it might have been the blood tests of the day; it might have just been the tired memories of days past; whatever it was, I slid my body onto the bed, and my head hit the pillows, and by the time I had noticed the absence of the covers and reached out to grab them - I fell asleep. Someone flipped a switch. I was out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was all a mess of imagery and memories from some indefinable point after I fell asleep, and onwards. I heard a faint voice, somewhat nasal and obviously amused, laughing and speaking, but it faded out over time such that I could not remember the words or the meanings entwined with them. Thus began a crazy dream.

Throughout the dream, I saw assorted stars dot pure blackness, some completely static, some moving away from me at astonishing speeds. A white flash filled my vision, and revealed a different location.

A table stood in the infinite room of a grey tile floor, with the horizon simply fading out into the pure white sky and dipping below sight. A lone figure sat at the table, with a sort of otherness about it that set my nerves on end. I moved, against my wishes and through my fear, towards the presence and sat across the table. It started speaking with the same voice as before, and I still could not understand the words. I was scared of the presence that surrounded it, like it was watching me from all angles, and yet I only had a simple two dimensional view to keep it in sight. It was just so much more than what I could see, hidden behind a veil of shadow, and I could not move from where I sat. After an incomprehensible monologue, it spoke a few words that I understood.

"...I just can't wait to get back."

With that statement it extended what I could perceive as an arm through sheer instinct, yet could not decipher it's true shape, and I felt a thump on my chest. Then my head, then my chest again. It beat on me with consistent repetition, then my head started hurting from the inside and the grey floor dissolved, leaving me to fall. I fell for hours, my stomach twisting and cringing, all the while seeing more stars fly away from me. In the last throes of the figure's existence, looking down from a hole above me, it thought something to me, and my mind echoed with the concept: I wanted to be back as well. Just like the presence. It turned away and the hole sealed up, leaving me in the abyss of nothing.

After that scene, it was just like the type of dream where I was falling and couldn't hit the bottom. Even when clouds passed overhead and wind whipped at my clothes and short hair, I accepted it as a dream and every ounce of rational fear drained away, replaced with the knotted stomach of a falling dream about to end. The sky changed again, this time from black to blue. I was no longer in some kind of empty space; I was landing.

I cut through the air, and eventually slowed down and neared the ground beneath a sky that held a rapidly moving sun and moon. I could smell - or, imagined that I could smell - dew and grass, but the scent came and went as many mornings, evenings and nights passed by. Trees sprang out and grew from below me in the accelerated days, and my fall was almost coming to an end. Grass prickled my back and lay flat as I gradually closed the distance between me and the ground.

Just then, when the grass lay fully flat and my clothed back pressed against the ground, deceleration hit me like a train travelling straight up and I jolted awake, blinking; falling dreams always ended like that. I was awake, briefly, in the darkness, but the utter absence of any visual stimuli sent me back to sleep in a few minutes. I was so lost in the stasis of unconsciousness that I barely noticed anything about how my arms were placed, where I was or even how I was sleeping before and after the short moments of being awake.

Any sort of perspective besides my own would have confirmed what I remembered: I was having a strange dream, stirred in waking time for a few seconds, then fell back to sleep. I remembered it exactly like that. It was a crazy dream, indeed, but nothing more happened that night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After a long time in a slumber - it felt like years, but passed by like a second - I awoke with a jump when a high pitched wail broke the silence. I instinctively rolled over to reach for the snooze button of my alarm, but I tripped and hit my head on a wall before I realized I was already standing. My arms were crossed so that my hands were on my shoulders, and even though it was absolute darkness I could sense walls around me, like the one that reminded me of stinging pain on the back of my head.

Or more accurately, I thought, one wall; one circular wall. I was in some sort of small, round room with no exit; discovered when I felt around looking for the button to turn the constant alarm off. I tried to push against the walls with my hands and elbows, but apart from a small deformation of the coarse, wet material the wall was made of, no progress was made. Only after I pushed apart with both arms was some light shed on the situation.

At first, I couldn't see anything in the darkness; when I pushed on the wall, however, a light appeared overhead and I heard a faint cracking. I pushed harder, and the surrounding wall split open to reveal green and blue all around me. One hard kick to the portion of the wall in front of me was all it took to reveal what was happening.

I was inside a tree. More specifically, an empty, rotten tree. I was really confused as to how I wound up in one, and even more confused about why I was then in a forest. I would have slapped myself in the face if I was able to see the flaw in that train of thought; most trees are in forests. The connection between being in a tree and being in a forest is fairly obvious.

The logic behind it notwithstanding, I still didn't know how I got there. I was asleep, and then I was in a tree. It wasn't something that usually happens to a guy; not anyone I knew, anyway. There was the underlying question of why, behind all of that, but I left that quandary hanging for the more immediate mystery: where?

Where was I, I asked myself. There were forests all over the world. My first guess was that I was at least somewhere remotely near my house, but that was more wishful thinking than any kind of estimation. I looked around at the morning-lit canopies, dark trunks and thick brush lining the small clearing in front of me, which covered a small hill and only held with it a sparse thicket of trees; one of which I had just emerged from. I had the feeling that something was really and truly wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought back to my experience with forests.

In the Army Reserves, six years prior, I was tasked with training recruits with most of my company. Unfortunately, I was with a relatively small group of officers, a large group of trainees, and woods between us and the LZ. While most of the week we spent in the camp involved conditioning and exercises, the final goal was to make our way through the forest of northern Quebec with vital intel and meet up - somewhere. My company hadn't fared very well, but we survived for a few extra days until we had to catch our own food, at which point a tracking device was activated and we were airlifted out of there within the day.

Even though we learned a lot, a few of the new guys quit after they got back. It was too much for them, evidently, but ones who left were the ones that wanted to join the Army; not just the reserves. They just weren't prepared for what happened there. But, then again, I wasn't either; I might have led them into it blind.

It could have been my fault, I still thought after all those years, but that wasn't the issue. What was the issue was the fact that I had learned almost everything I knew about forests in the few days where almost a hundred men were lost in one. I knew how to start fires, find food, and search out shelter in the coniferous, temperate forests of eastern Canada, and the knowledge stuck with me through all those years.

I never learned anything about tropical rain forests, unfortunately. Yet, as I looked at the deciduous behemoths before me, I knew that I must have been close to one. I knew there were some temperate rain forests, however, and some were in Canada, but, even if I was in one of those instead of a tropical one, I still had the problem of surviving long enough to get anywhere else. Red berries that were edible in Quebec might look like red berries that were poisonous in - well, wherever I was.

That brought me back to the problem of where in the hell I was. A breeze blew past me and rustled the leaves, and at that point I noticed how warm it was. I was close to sweating in the long-sleeve shirt and jeans that I had apparently brought with me, despite air currents to cool me off. Without the sun, even, it must have been nearly 20 degrees.

During January.

OK, I thought, I'm not in Canada.

I was about to consider where else I might have been, but I was interrupted by the alarm wailing again, resounding through the clearing - only it wasn't an alarm. Something else woke me, and was repeating again. It was a shrill, high pitched noise, but extremely faint, as if it was far away. It sounded like a girl, shrieking. Then, a massive roar shook the ground and made the grass waver slightly. It echoed off to the right a moment later.

I locked up, and my heart tightened. All my attention was focused on the question of what to do about the events, even though I had no idea what those events were. I frantically thought out what happened.

There was a scream and a roar, coming from generally the same direction. The scream was possibly out of panic, fear, or, worst of all, pain; it was definably female as well. The roar sounded like something out of Jurassic park, though I had never heard anything like it before. The echo was surely a solid structure behind me. I knew I had three options.

I could run towards the source of the noise, and find out whatever was happening there - and, possibly, do something about it.

I could call for help or run to my right, either of which would ideally result in finding another person to help me or go back to help the girl.

And, lastly, I could just remain frozen in place and hope to whatever god the locals believed in, wherever I was, that everything would turn out A-OK.

At that point, a full five seconds after the noise, I narrowed it down to two options for obvious reasons; but, before I could come to a decision, I felt my right leg come forward. Then my left leg followed suit. Before I knew it, I was running a full sprint forwards and slightly to the left, towards the noise. In the furthest reaches of my mind, I always knew there was only one option to take.

I ran across the grassy clearing in a handful of strides, then dived straight into the surrounding forest with a crash through a large bush of bristly seeds. Some of them attached to my clothes, but I made no attempt to remove them as I bounded over rocky outcroppings and a single, thin river. Of what little forestry was not blurred during the mad dash, I remembered a small construct on a tree, followed by a patch of some sort of bright blue flower and, much later on, the wavering bronze field that I found myself in.

Stalks of browned grass blew in the wind and brushed against my legs, and I tried to find the source of the sound again. I might have lost my way in the forest, so I stood still and listened for any sign of whoever I was trying to find, and whatever was happening to her. I called out, but my throat was too dry after the run to register more than a croak.

I tried harder, panicking in the struggle to call back to the screaming girl, and let out some kind of distorted retching noise that I was sure was not supposed to come out of a human mouth. After a long breath, feeling my voice box relax slightly, I tried to yell 'hello' into the forest, feeling more resolute. Whatever results came forth were drowned out by a thunder clap that seemed to come from everywhere at once. My ears rang from the noise, and I knelt to cup them for a minute until I could hear again.

In my renewed senses, I heard a slight whimper coming from across the field, within the further extents of the forest, far right from my path if I had continued running straight ahead. It was followed by another blood curdling roar, this time much louder and much closer - but still in the same direction. Whatever had caused it was still near the girl.

I checked the pockets of my jeans and found a combat knife. It would have to do, I thought; before I found myself running towards the noise again.

I tried to call out in reassurance once more, but in a similar fashion as the first time I was drowned out by the sound of the air around me exploding. It wasn't pleasant, but I was running too fast and had too much ground to cover to waste my time falling to my knees again. I cut a ragged line through the strands of tall grass and made my way to the hard tree line. It was not so much a subtle transition between grass and forest as it was a solid, improbable wall of foliage sticking out of the ground and blocking my way.

It didn't do a very good job. Thin saplings and thick shrubbery broke apart as I dived again, through the barrier, and landed in a heap just behind me. I, however, fell into a roll at the last second, after which I planted my hands on another tree to stop myself from breaking my jaw on the trunk. I shook my head and refocused on the task at hand, trying to quell the frustration and anger I was accumulating. I was sure I had twisted an ankle at some point in the roll, and I had lost track of my goal for the second time in less than a minute. That was besides the aching I felt all around - possibly a side effect of sleeping in a tree - and the ringing in my ears that never seemed to run out of steam.

The whimper sounded again. Heavy breathing and digging noises registered in similar volume. I looked around at the young trees and low brush in the bright light of the approaching morning, unable to determine the source. It was almost as if the digging noise came from all directions, not unlike the thunder blasts that kept me from speaking my mind. The thin trickles of light passing through the sparse canopy of the younger forest made the part I had wound up in seem warm and inviting. Birds chirped, bees buzzed, the mushy ground smelled like incorruptible nature, and the digging noises that migrated to definably behind me was starting to get annoying, actually. I stood up fully and turned around, ready to ask for directions to the nearest screaming girl. I lost my anger in the peaceful imagery, and it reflected when I let my guard down and turned to face a yellow and red structure.

I made out a rough, surprised syllable. It was the one that made old ladies scowl and wag their fingers, and got me pulled out of line for disrespect.

If anyone had told me that it was an inappropriate use of language, I would have told them to pardon my french while the air explodes around me and a monster rears up in surprise.

That's right, I would tell them, a monster. A beast of a lion, mane and all, stood briefly on it's hind legs, throwing it's paws up to reach nearly ten feet above my head. It's reddish bat-wings flared as it growled in the air, and it's red scorpion stinger swished and slashed the trees behind it. I could only imagine what the five inch claws could slice apart without stopping, and perhaps the monstrous chimera thought about it as well; it landed the front of it's body with a thump and just stared back at me.

I tried to match it's gaze in the hopes that it would just blink and walk away, but it was futile against what might have been a cat at some point and thus was a master of the staring contest. I may have also been too scared to move, but that mystery was resolved when I tried to look around it to see what it was doing before I crashed the party. I hoped that the sounds of the girl screaming were simply misconstrued from some sort of meow, but judging by the fact that the growl coming out of it's throat was deep enough to shake the very blood in my fear-stricken heart I quickly abandoned the reasoning. It attacked a girl, I thought, and I might not want to find out what happened to her.

The huge cat thing caught me looking away, and I noticed it prepare to pounce out of the corner of my eye. I jumped back just in time to dodge the first swipe, but it caught the edge of my shirt. I somehow approached a new level of fear when I thought it was going to pull me forward, but the claws passed effortlessly through the tough fabric and just kept going, digging eagerly into the ground.

I fumbled with my knife, trying to grab and find purchase, before finding the handle and swiping towards another incoming trunk-like arm, dodging to the right all the way. I felt resistance, but had to break into another side roll before I could be sure of the damage done.

I came out of the spin and hit my side on a tree, almost getting winded, before turning back to see the monster. It was lightly limping away from a long gash on the outside of it's right arm, but as soon as it looked up and saw where I was it seemed to forget the wound entirely. My arms were wrapped around my compressed abdomen and could not raise to my face in time to block the next wave of impossibly sharp, clawed swipes. The monster growled deeply and reeled back for its attack.

I could see plainly that it was the end of me, right there. I felt the concept of fear in its most primal form, and had the infinitely sobering experience of a fight-or-flight response ready to be decided. I didn't know what I was thinking, but I somehow believed that I could fight; and win, at that. Yet, despite my sudden resolve, all I could do in the frozen last moments was let out a cry. It was a simple exclamation of, “no,” but given the patterns I had seen in the last couple of minutes I should have seen the results sooner.

Not a second after I spoke against the monster, everything turned into a silent ringing and I blinked hard. I was facing where the monster was standing – last time I saw it – and saw a flash of leaves and dirt in front of me, obscuring the scene. I took the chance to quickly run around the tree behind me, and after a few seconds of nothing happening I risked a peek around the trunk. The leaves and dirt had settled down but I still couldn't make sense of what stood before me. Or, I thought, sprawled before me.

Five feet ahead, the remnants of a dead tree scattered outward from a stump that was seemingly torn from it's roots. A series of broken, shattered and ripped trunks and branches lay in a mess several feet ahead of the original decimated tree. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, unable to accept what grunted and moved in a tangle of leaves and fur and fangs and rocks.

The patch-worked creature emerged from it's pile, shaking and staggering in the destruction. It whimpered for a short while, looking round with ears flaring, but it spotted me and began to charge. I reacted by crouching behind my tree again, hoping that it could just be over with. Until the ringing faded, I didn't know that it was running away from me. I could barely hear anything - the noise was masking any incoming sound.

All I could feel was my breathing becoming shallow and strained, and my face heating up. For a while, I still thought I was about to die.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After enough time had passed, I no longer heard the staggered stomps through the forest. I slowly moved against my aching, tired joints, and stood up, still leaning against the tree. I noticed that I never actually saw it, so I looked up. It was, perhaps, the only pine tree I had seen in the forest, with prickly boughs and dark cyan needles. Something odd about it was that most of the needles on one side had been torn off and sprinkled onto the ground.

And me, I thought as I shook tiny green fragments out of my hair and shirt. I also found and removed most of the burrs from my jeans. Then, I sat down and leaned against the pine tree. I knew I had forgotten something, so I tried to reach into the depths of my mind and figure out what was missing. What I really wanted to do was crawl into a hole, get into a fetal position and cry and mumble like a lobotomy patient, but I didn't see any holes that were deep enough. I knew that would be the incorrect move, anyway, but given the fact that I had just seen – and fought against – a huge chimera-monster, it certainly would have been justified.

Alas, I did not have the liberty to go into shock. I was compelled to find that thing that I forgot. I knew it was important, since I had run into a freaking monster and it was still topping my priorities. Of course, I couldn't control my mind very well so I soon lost all hint of what it was. Whatever empty spot was left in it's wake quickly filled up with questions of where I had ended up. My priorities were back in check, I thought.

I simply looked around to figure that question out. It was a forest, all right, but something seemed odd about it. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was exactly, but the forest I was facing gave off an aura of wrong. Not all right, I corrected. It could have been the greenish tinge of the sunlight, or the seven-pointed, bright-red leaves that poked up from the ground, or even the indigo flowers that emanated a subtle blue glow. As one strange aspect was observed, two more took its place, each more confusing than the last.

I didn't like it at all; I much preferred the look of the forest before I was attacked. It seemed much brighter, less likely to destroy me. I could do my best to suppress whatever emotions came to me while the chimera assaulted me, but the forest was always going to be there. I could do nothing to stop the feeling of strangeness surrounding me. Great, I thought, I was back on the subject of strange things - I might as well wonder what caused the tumble with the chimera to end.

That was a big question, though not what I was thinking when I ran over there; I wished I could have remembered it. So, I thought, whatever happened at the tree, between the huge creature mauling me and the huge creature running away. There was some noise that nearly deafened me, just like the time I tried to speak in the field. Again, it happened, when I was running through the field, and tried to call back. It was the same ringing, same sort of noise. All three instances happened when I tried to say something.

OK, I thought, slow down. I couldn't get ahead of myself. It might have been a thunderstorm - if only it was raining - if only there was any evidence of a thunderstorm. The sound seemed to come from everywhere, so whatever caused it must have been big and loud. If it was some sort of cannon, that would explain the chimera being shot back; but not the complete lack of giant cannons.

I was about to consider whether or not someone could have camouflaged a large tank in the forest when the noise, the strange wet-leaves noise, returned my attention to what was around me. I quickly looked in the direction of the sound, but was disappointed when all I saw was some kind of animal with a big tail - like a squirrel or fox - jump out of sight and under a tree. I turned back and shook my head, but did another take back to the tree when I processed several things about the turn of events.

For example, the 'fox' or 'squirrel' was the size of a large dog. It showed an odd colour palette of yellow and pink. The tree it went under was slashed up, bent and almost uprooted, and I recognized it as the tree the chimera was standing near when I first saw it. A few yellow feathers, like a canary's, had been left behind after the movement. Lastly, there was a squeak and a quite whimper that reminded me of something that happened earlier.

I had finally remembered what I ran across the forest to do; there was someone in trouble - probably something to do with the chimera, I thought. I shook away the cloudiness in my mind and focused on finding out who it was. As I approached the hole that the animal probably jumped inside, the whimpering or crying sound got louder. I had no explanation and could not make any connections to the person crying and whatever the smaller creature was, so I slowly leaned into the hole to find out who - or what - was down there.

I laid flat and entered the space between the roots of the tree and the ground, and I had to crawl in until my shoulders stopped before I could see anything. I shifted to the left, and some more light filled the space. I quickly noticed some pink hair and yellow wings, along with yellow limbs of some sort. They were surely arms and legs, but they were too flat and had no hands or fingers at the ends. It was extremely creepy until the arms/forelegs moved and I saw a face.

I stopped. It was - definably - a face, but not human. It had huge cyan eyes, - not huge per se, but I couldn't think of another adjective that wasn't an understatement - a lowered nose that connected to the mouth in a strange kind of muzzle, and cat-like ears. Most of that was a flat shade of light yellow, partially concealed by hooves of the same colour, and long pink hair.

I didn't know what to think, even at the first instance of seeing it. Within a second or two of that I was even more dumbfounded when it spoke in a stressed, human, female voice.

“Ah! No, please, don’t hurt me! Help!” It cried.

The animal talked. It was an animal, and it just talked – or, at least, it sounded like it talked. It couldn’t have been the original target of the chimera - that was a girl - I thought, but as it shrieked and cried with the same voice that brought me here, that scepticism dissipated. I grimaced at the mental discomfort that came from not having any damned idea how to react.

"Ah! T-t-those teeth! S-somepony help me!” It cried again. Tears were welling in its eyes. I suppose, given the stress and relatable imagery, my brain thought that right there was a good time to swap from cold and calculative to emotional and reactive. It wasn't always the best mode to be in, but I quickly took advantage of the sudden ability to form a reply.

This thing was scared, I thought, and it was crying and calling for help. I reassured it, starting off with, "No, no, I'm not here to hurt you!" At least, that was what I planned to say.

Before the second word sounded, I was defeaned and thrown back by the force of sound that exploded in the tiny, dark space. It was only after I tried to speak when I remembered that the local company commander was firing artillery at my eardrums every time I spoke. I had fleeting thoughts that it was some sort of migraine that I never had nor heard of before, ever, but when I opened my tightly closed eyes I saw the animal using both of its forelegs to cover its ears.

With that, I was convinced that talking was no longer an option if it caused big problems like that again. I didn't want to lose my hearing permanently, let alone deafen the whateveritwas in front of me me, so I silently reached towards the animal to pull it out from under the trunk. It screamed again, begging for somepony to help it, and I decided to just back out and let it find it's own way out. Then I paused, listening.

There was some sort of yelling from behind me, outside the tree, and a scuffle of leaves and dirt. I hoped the voices were from actual humans instead of whatever the thing under the tree was, so I tried to back out again - faster this time. Before I could move my shoulders out of the mess of roots and dirt, a burning sensation covered my feet and I was pulled back. Before I could grab at the thicker roots and pull my legs in, I was pulled back again and my face was pressed against the ground, the back of my head burning as well and my spine going through spasms.

I had to get up, I knew it. I tried doing everything I could to arch my back, move my arms and push my torso upwards, but the shooting, tingling pain going from the base of my head to my ankles was too powerful to overcome, and I could feel myself losing feeling in my limbs. I was probably going to be killed by that chimera again, I thought, though I didn't know why I heard another voice before I was attacked again.

It was revealed to me when the pain and pressure let up from the two original points of my legs and neck, and the voice started again. It was incomprehendable, since I was still mostly deaf, though I could tell there were actually two voices after a few seconds - and the owners were probably the cause of the pain. The fire in my body retreated back to it's starting points and vanished completely, though the numbness was stil there and I had a hard time moving to see the people talking. I could barely raise my head, but my deafness cleared in less than a minute and I finally heard what the two were saying. They both sounded female.

"...well what do you think it is?"

"I told ya, I still don't know. I reckon Fluttershy might, though."

"Hey, where is she, anyway?"

"Uhh... under that tree, I think... Wait, what was this thing doing to her, anyway?"

"Nothing bad, I ho- hey, it's getting back up!"

By that time I had managed to force my partly limp arms to turn the rest of my body over, and I started to regain enough feeling in my abdomen to sit up. What I saw possibly rivaled the chimera in terms of strangeness, though it wasn't just the imagery; the things were speaking to each other in full sentences. One of them even had a southern accent.

One of them did actually remind me of the chimera, but I could tell the two were closer to the thing under the tree in terms of anatomy. They both stood about four feet high, and had bodies that resembled small horses, as well as 'hooves' like the one under the tree. The one on the left was orange, had lighter yellow hair that was tied off on the mane and tail, and had some kind of worn out hat and a pair of bags on its side. I had no idea how it would put them on. The one to the right was bright cyan with rainbow hair, and wings.

I didn't like the idea of constantly being confused at every turn. With resolve, I got past my instincts to lock up in fear and stood up, forcing the numbness out of my legs and head, and I got strength back in them.

I made the mistake of asking what the hell they were, after again forgetting why I tried not to do that, and had to take a step forward to properly bend over and prevent my ears from bleeding. The two mysterious things in front of me moved back as well, and I heard some weird clanking noises coming from the orange one. Then I met their reaction.

I realized, a little too late, that firing invisible cannons and crawling towards someone, covering my ears, would raise mixed reactions. What I realized just as someone yelled something about a monster attacking them was that the prevaling reaction would be fear and, apparently, kicking me in the side of the head. Stars flew to match the sparks that shot down my neck and radiated into my body, and I was out cold - though I still felt burning.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I was suddenly falling into a grey tiled room. I landed softly and stood there, counting the tiles. Three dozen of the tiny things were covered by my shoes. I looked at my watch. It said 1:30 PM. Surely there was a bus coming, I thought; maybe even a helicopter? I was probably late for work.

I could see mind shapes. It would be hard to name them in concrete terms, like describing the elements of a smell using touch or hearing, but they were there. Soon, they took forms and changed to different things that I could see plainly. Something like a kraken, with puppet strings.

I blinked and the kraken turned into a piano with several keys missing. A man jumped out of the back cavity, holding the pieces, and told me I have to put them back. I knew I didn't play piano, so I just tossed the keys away and blinked again.

That time, an old butler holding a tea set on a silver platter was there to replace the image. I tried to reach for a cup, but he slapped my cheek with a leather glove and challenged me to a duel. Before I answered, he jumped on me, tea set crashing to the ground. and started strangling me. I forced my eyes closed, and stopped dreaming about all that stuff.

I felt around my neck to make sure the butler was done killing me. There was an itch, but it was gone.

I was unconscious. Strange things happen, down there. I still haven't forgotten. They got worse later on.

Everything got worse later on.

2 - The Collar

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Chapter 2:
The Collar

After swimming in the slow dream-scape of forced sleep, for either minutes or hours, I woke up again, this time with a headache and a little freedom to move my arms and legs. I was out in the open on a hill, curled up in a ball, next to a fence. In the distance I could see a forest threshold, which stretched far to the left and led into what appeared to be a farmland on rolling hills. To the right, there was an even longer forest line that led into a body of water almost at the horizon. Further right was a large mountain range, mirrored by the snow-tipped peaks within the forest.

I was lying down in the sparse grass, so I couldn't see what was behind me. I tried to stand up, but something pulled at my neck hard and I fell over. I got worried that something bad might have happened while I was out when I felt a large collar around my neck, which was roped to the wooden fence post.

The fact that I was near a farm contributed to the conclusion that I must have pissed off a farmer and gotten chained to the fence; as were the ways of nasty farmers. Unfortunately, my good-enough explanation only lasted until I remembered what had actually happened, in the forest. I tried to pull the fence post out but, while it moved ever so slightly in each heave, it was simply too solid to remove.

I knew I was stuck, but I only had one thing on my mind; I couldn't talk. Talking, and whatever it was that happened when I talked, was the source of the problem I found myself in. Remaining silent wouldn't be so hard, I thought.

I noticed that a few people approaching me from behind were not having the same problem. There were between three and five voices that I could tell apart, and they were getting louder. I turned around and crouched with my arms crossed on my knees, waiting to see whoever was coming up the slope. I couldn't see them, but soon enough I tuned in to hear what they were talking about.

"...saying this monster just ran up to Fluttershy and-” A female voice I didn’t recognize was cut off mid-sentence.

"-Ah say, we still don’t know if it’s a monster.” Another voice interrupted. It had a southern drawl that I recognized from earlier, but I hoped that it wasn't the same creature.

"Right, fine. We don’t know what it is. You found it near Fluttershy, after it might have attacked her. Weren't you trying for that to happen?

The second familiar voice continued, “Well, yeah, but it wasn't a manticore. It was smaller. Made a lot o' noise, too...”

Five colourful horse heads rose from behind the hill and walked towards me, and the voices stopped. I looked around for the source of the voices, but, after seeing no people, I feared that I would soon make the obvious connection.

I looked, again, to the group that surrounded me. The one to the front of the group was not one of the two I met at a forest, though it had a similar build; it looked like the other two, basically a small horse, just under 4 feet tall like the others, but had light purple fur, indigo hair (were those… highlights?) and a very troubling addition: a single horn coming out of its forehead. I saw another like this, again with purple hair, but with pure white fur. I tried to kick myself for thinking ‘unicorns’ but then realized that was exactly what they were. And that kicking myself would knock me over.

Behind the all-purple one, I saw the orange and cyan horses, and the wings on the latter reminded me of, as painful as it was to admit, a pegasus. Three mythical creatures in one day was a major problem on its own, but I held out for the worst as I surveyed the rest.

To the right of Purple was the white unicorn. Next to that was a regular, small horse, coloured all pink. There were no people near by, but hushed voices continued from around them. I knew it was futile, but I didn't want to admit to myself that I was captured by goddamned talking animals.

“Yeah... Well, there it is.” The aqua and rainbow pegasus spoke first.

It, a pegasus, spoke first. I was not OK with that, but I had to somehow find a way to convince myself that it made sense - because it was happening right in front of me. For the second time.

The others, around it, started mumbling. That was very possibly the final push to insanity, and I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t real. It was all too real for my brain to handle, despite all my effort being poured into rational thought, despite coming back from the edge twice in the last few minutes (of waking time). I must have been dreaming, I thought, but that wasn't a valid answer.

I could always tell the difference between sleep and reality, and it once became a powerful source of insomnia when I found out how to wake up on demand. I had been performing the mental ritual since before I got here, in vain, to escape the confusing events I found myself involved with. It didn't work thus far, so I threw that option away.

I searched for a way to comprehend it all. I was going to have to accept that it was real eventually, so I just looked back on what happened before I woke up the second time. I just saw what was happening, and accepted it for what it was. There were unicorns and pegasi and some other more natural, but still weird, horse things standing around me, I thought.

And there were. I understood it, then.

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times to clear them. All five of my captors had approached to within a few feet, looking with different levels of interest, distaste, or enthusiasm. That wasn't right, I thought, there were more. I could only see five, but - yes, a sixth one hid behind Orange. It had a pink tail that wasn't completely obscured, and I recognized it as the one under the tree, and saw a glint of cyan. I asked myself, was that the one they called 'Fluttershy'?

My eyes, tiny in comparison to theirs, scanned the faces that surrounded me. With each take, their stares became less resolute, as if they could somehow read the emotions from my face, through the beads of sweat starting to form and trickle down. I didn't move from my crouching position and managed to hold their gazes.

The colourful pegasus was the first to turn away, and started speaking again. That time, I was more prepared, but I could only pretend that I didn't flinch.

"Well, I got nothing.”

I held back a disapproving grunt. I was human, and they couldn't see it, obviously. I didn't dwell on the thought, but I sighed heavily and they noticed. I didn't know what they were thinking about me, but they made it pretty clear after a few seconds of whispers.

One of them said I was a monster again, and another asked the general question of where I came from. I would have told them that I didn't come from anywhere near there, but I still had to consider how horribly trying to talk would turn out. I decided to just pantomime instead; I pulled sharply at the rope that connected to my collar, which moved the post a little.

Yellow darted from behind Orange to behind Rainbow, letting out a little shriek. Purple approached me, looking between me and the post.

"Hello, there. We aren't going to hurt you.” A female voice came from Purple. It seemed it was trying to comfort me, but that ship sailed a few kicks to the head ago. I was also trying to be weary for whatever it was that paralysed me earlier, so I raised my hands and backed away in order to assume a defensive stance.

Unfortunately, I backed away too much and hit the length of the rope again, almost knocking myself over. Purple looked like she (?) was sympathetic for a split second, and raised a hoof towards me, but stopped as I regained my footing and continued to look on with pure curiosity.

She raised a hoof to her chin in a Thinker's pose, eyeing me up and down, and mumbled some observations, "...It looks a little like a manticore, definitely in the family... but where are the wings? It's definitely missing some peices."

I found it strange that I could hear her so clearly. I didn't hold any weight to what she had to say, though, as she clearly didn't know what I was.

I began to think about that. If she didn't know what I was, I thought, she - and the other five - must be aliens. That didn't completely fill in all the mysteries, but it made sense for that situation. I wondered why they would bother to bring another animal with them if they were scared of it - what they called a 'manticore'. I was cut off by White speaking in another female voice, that time with some sort of English accent.

"Umm, Twilight..." She asked, "What is that thing wearing?" 'Twilight', the purple one that was examining me, shook her head - probably at the strange question - and turne to answer.

"Oh, I don't know... clothes?" Twilight suggested. It was astounding, at the time, to hear a phrase like that uttered without a hint of anger or sarcasm. It was only light condescension that she spoke with, and White started looking at me as well, in a mix between awe and disgust.

I noticed the pair of observers was closing in on me, and far too close for comfort, at that. I huffed, and slid my shoes on the dirt, but none of them payed any notice. Twilight continued to look up and down, and White was starting to walk to my right. I clenched my jaw.

“C-c-careful, girls… it’s d-dangerous!” Yellow, out from behind Rainbow, made an ‘Eep’ noise, again, before darting behind the next furthest pony, again; this time it was the all-pink horse that was eyeing me with a furrowed brow, or what passed for one on their cartoonish faces. It was also rubbing an upside-down hoof on it's chin, in another very animated Thinker's pose, and I wondered if the gesture meant the same thing for both of our races. If it did, the pink one was deep in thought.

I would have thought the event was cute if I wasn’t presently captured by super-intelligent farm animals that looked like they collided with narwhals, eagles and a crayola factory at high speed. I almost laughed at the imagery, but I forced myself to stop - vigilance was important.

“So, AJ...” Rainbow started to ask to one of them named 'AJ', which I couldn't decipher as quickly, “Any idea what this thing is? I really don't know, but either way, that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten up something that big!” Orange and I gave her a nasty look, both of us remembering what actually happened - mostly Orange. “Well, not that I haven’t come close before…”

"Come on, Rainbow” said Orange in dissapointment. It was pretty obvious that Rainbow, with the rainbow-coloured hair, was 'Rainbow', but I remembered hearing ‘Fluttershy’ and ‘AJ’ and I had to listen closer to their conversations to find out. I had more time to think, but if I thought too much about how easily I could separate voices I would probably just end up tuning them out.

"You've been askin' me about it since we brought it back." I was being called an 'it' by them. At least I managed to figure out what gender they were. Meanwhile, Orange and Rainbow were getting into a fight that I really wasn't listening to.

I heard hoof-steps behind me, and turned to meet the extremely close face of White, who was staring at the back of my shirt. She looked up at me slowly, took a single step back, then did some kind of elaborate dance onto a couch that... A couch came out of nowhere, and she fainted on it. I looked back at Twilight, who rolled her eyes at the events and continued mumbling about me. I sputtered, looking between White and the group.

I knew, right there and then, that I would not understand a lot of things to come. And, of course, they came.

"I've got it!" Pink clopped a hoof on the ground in some sort of realization. Twilight looked back quickly, visibly tensing up.

"Got what, Pinkie?" She asked apprehensively.

"I know what-hey, what happened to Rarity?" The group looked towards the downed unicorn, then back to 'Pinkie', rolling their eyes.

Twilight, turning around, began to explain to the group, "Well, girls, I can conclude that... I have no idea what this is." She shrank a bit at the statement, but straightened up and continued, "But I think it may be intelligent." I slapped my face and huffed, wishing I could yell at them. "It may take a while, but I'm sure I can get something out of-"

She was interrupted by Pinkie waving a hoof in the air wildly, like a kid in school. It was Twilight's turn to put her hoof on her face, and sighed heavily before pointing to her. "Yes, Pinkie Pie, you were going to say something. What did you get?"

"Well, I just now remembered that this guy here is a human and he might have been brought here for reasons that are not apparent right now but will probably be revealed later on in some hashed-up last-minute cover for a lack of a proper ending, and he may or may not know everything about us, and he probably has some sort of special powers that nopony knew about until now, and what I'm getting at is that we should probably be nicer to him in case he goes crazy later on OK?"

I blinked.

Twilight, and the others, seemed unfazed.

"So..." Twilight began, after a long silence, "You know he's... male?" She obviously didn't understand what Pinkie Pie said, although I wasn't able to make out much more than the correct use of pronouns, either.

"Yeah! We should totally throw a party for him!" Pinkie Pie stated, bouncing and smiling, apparently oblivious to what she was talking about earlier. I got the feeling that forgetting that part of the encounter was the best option, and Twilight turned back to me with an expression that seemed to mirror the conclusion.

"So, you're a he, are you?" She asked me. I resumed a crouch, not looking away from her, and gave a quick nod. "What kind of animal are you? Do you have a name? Can you talk?" I deadpanned, and fiddled around with my fingers, waiting for a question I could realistically answer without destroying anyone's eardrums. She didn't take the hint.

"I wonder... Fluttershy, do you know what 'he' is? Do you think it's safe to take the collar off?" Twilight turned and asked, eliciting a turn of heads to Orange, who stepped away to reveal the one she was talking about. It seemed that 'Fluttershy' had jumped back behind Orange after Pinkie's rant. I wondered why Twilight was ignoring Fluttershy's earlier warnings.

"I d-don’t really kn-know, I thought it-t was a m-m-manticore at f-first, but w-when it f-found me hiding it looked c-completely different.” She barely made it through the sentence after noticing me glance at her.

I didn't know what a manticore was, but I could only imagine it looking a bit like a monkey if I was to be mistook for one. Ideally, one would mistake me for another human, but the horse-things didn't know what humans were so I had to be realistic.

"And... I d-don't think y-you should take the collar off..." Fluttershy concluded. Twilight was about to ask why, but Rainbow jumped in front of Fluttershy, abandoning previous argument.

"Believe her, Twilight! You didn't see it... him, whatever, with the collar off! Didn't you hear it?" Rainbow was yelling in a breaking voice. It seemed like the obnoxiously coloured one was afraid of me as well. "It almost made me deaf!" She pointed at her raised ears, as if that would prove her point.

Twilight looked between me and Rainbow. "Well Rainbow Dash, I would love to believe you, but I haven't exactly gone deaf yet. The only thing you and Applejack did was put a collar on; what's stopping him from doing whatever it was, again?" I still wanted to yell at them, and I had to agree with Twilight that not much was stopping me.

Rainbow 'Dash' sat down and touched a hoof to her chin - it seemed like they would always do that while thinking - before looking up to Twilight and shrugging. "I dunno."

Twilight looked back to me. "You have a reason not to talk, I guess?" She seemed a little sad, and kept lowering her eyes to what I could guess was my neck. My collar itched. I gave a slight nod, and Twilight continued, "So you can't tell us anything about what happened earlier... How old are you?"

I didn't expect to be asked that. My age hadn't been requested for over ten years prior, so I opened my mouth slightly, before noticing what Twilight was then looking at. My fingers were tapping my knee. I looked between her and them for a few seconds, before getting it. It seemed she had the same idea I had, just later than I thought of it. I rose a hand with all the fingers spread out. Twilight examined it for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Five? You're five years old?" I slapped my face again, but at least I knew she could count. I put up both my hands, and flared them three times, then closed and opened them with the thumbs down, but before Twilight could decipher the kindergarten-level counting exercise she was pushed out of the way by Pinkie.

"Ooh ooh I know!" She shouted, bringing her face too close to mine, "We can throw him a birthday party! Quick, what day is it? What year is it? Hold on, let me get my abacus..." She finished, after only a few seconds, and hopped away, up and over the hill. I didn't know what was up with her and parties, but at least I knew they were more advanced aliens. They could count and had an abacus, and parties, apparently. I wondered how they would have gotten to Earth with an abacus, but that was a question for a different time.

Twiligt, now recovered and sitting the rope's length in front of me, looked at my collar and came to a decision. "I suppose that's proof that you're intelligent. We should probably get that collar off now." I could not express how thankful I was to hear that, and the cowering Fluttershy had a similar reaction, though probably with fear instead of thanks.

The purple unicorn spread her hooves and took a wide stance, then started to concentrate. I had to blink and rub my eyes when I saw motes of light dance around her glowing purple horn, and a glowing energy spontaneously wrapped around the rope near my neck and traveled towards my neck. The energy was enough to singe my skin from a distance - it really didn't feel good up close.

'AJ', who was the only conscious unnamed one thus far, so it was probably her name, ran up and spoke in a hushed, rushed tone. "You should probably ease up on that magicky stuff, Twi; It don't look like it's havin such a good time." I had closed my eyes in pain at that point and grimaced to the air, trying to pull my collar off by hand. It was obvious that whatever Twilight was doing was not a good thing, however she seemed to be focusing on something right in front of her instead of the creature twisting in pain a few feet away.

It was agonizing, whatever she was doing. The pain was not bound by any threshold when it started, and seemed to increase in a steady and unrelenting fashion. I felt my arms tremble and lose sensation so I couldn't try to get the damned collar off, and my legs collapsed under me when the muscles simply stopped responding. The purple glow wrapped around me, and I could barely hear what was going on around me; of course, I still made out what they were saying. Somehow.

"I don't know what's happening! My magic shouldn't act like this!"

"Stop doin that, Twi! It's dyin down there!"

"I can't look..."

"I'm trying, I'm trying!"

"Woah, what's everypony doing? Did you start the party without me?"

"Try harder! I'm not a fan of it more than the next pony but I can tell it's-"

The purple aura seeped into my skin and shut my muscles down, disabled my eyes, and I started to feel cold. The energy seeped into my brain and I lost all feeling of everything; all observations became null and disappeared from my memory and were gone. I must have died, I thought. How curious that I thought about death again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A flash took me to an infinite room with a pure white sky and a grey brick floor that stretched out over the horizon. I remembered it, somehow. There was a table and two chairs. I sat in one chair, moving without hesitation - or control. What looked like a human puffed out of smoke and sat in the ornate chair opposite mine. I couldn't see my own; my head wouldn't turn from the dark figure.

It started speaking in a voice that echoed throughout the seamless, white-grey abyss and cloaked my ears in a shroud that blocked any audible words from reaching me. It went on for hours, talking and talking - I knew it spoke english through some innate understanding, but somehow the meaning was lost on me.

After a long monologue, with me listening eagerly - for some reason - it finished talking and looked at me. I could see question in it's eyes, which appeared for only a split second, flashed, and disappeared, and it spoke with a final meaning.

"You understand what I mean, right?"

I found myself nodding. I watched it happen. I did not let myself nod, or feel it, or cause it - it just happened. Suddenly, I was put back in my body and continued nodding under my own will, then convinced that I understood what it meant. It was strange that I could change opinions so quickly - and I wondered if I had really changed at all - but I knew right then that I was controlling myself.

For some reason, I gave a salute and jumped backwards. I fell through the bricks and was suspended by a platform that caught me softly. I relaxed, and crossed my arms behind my head. There was a collar on my neck. I gripped it with both hands and pulled, straining from the effort. Grass grew under me and six figures popped up around me. There was a forest, a hill, a mountain, and plains behind me.

A glowing path formed between me and the forest. I hit my head on the dirt, and feeling returned to my legs and arms. I could move again. I woke up an instant later.

The pain was still there, but I was back in control of my own body. I could see again, and this time the purple glow was around just my neck and shooting out sparks of colour - thankfully fading quickly. Twilight's horn had stopped glowing, and all five of the others were crowded around her so I took the opportunity to get away from the crazy horses.

There was stiff dirt under me, like there had been a lot of animals there before, and I found purchase on the solid surface. I slid my legs under myself and bent them, pushed down with my shoulders and elbows, and curled forward sharply. I was standing up in a blur and, with a twist of my hand, the rope between my collar and the post was wrapped solidly around my arm. With a turn, a dash backwards, and a throwing motion using all the weight and strength in my body, the rope tore the post straight from the ground, dethreaded, and detached from where I was holding it. I grunted in the effort, sending a shockwave to disturb the grass and dirt, and deafen me again, but I didn't care anymore.

I was free, with a small length of rope dangling after my strides instead of a heavy post preventing me from moving. I ran towards the forest along the path laid out for me, still glowing in aftersight, and had covered half the distance in only a few seconds. There was a shout from behind me but I didn't turn to answer the voice or the faint whistling.

I figured out why there was whistling too late to do anything about it, and I was tackled by a rainbow-coloured streak of light that I ended up tumbling over in the ensuing fall. My hand went numb and became another source of fiery agony all at the same time when the pegasus Rainbow Dash landed on it, unconscious. I knew for sure that it wasn't enough pressure to hurt physically, but there it was.

I pulled my disabled arm out from under the colourful pile, wincing at the feeling. It wasn't natural for my body to just lose feeling after touching something. It happened back in the forest, and when Twilight was doing what they called 'magic'. Magic would have brought them to Earth without anything related to computers, I thought, but it wasn't the time to think about why they would have an abacus or what they were calling magic - or why they believed in it. I looked back at the charging pack of four horses, with one flying in the distance, and finally moved my legs while making sure my disabled arm didnt fly around in the run.

A few seconds later, I quickly passed over the tree line and, in the relative cover, began to imagine how much pain I would be in when I was really safe and ran out of adrenaline. Hopefully, the natural painkillers would last for that long, at least. I managed to limp a few dozen meters in, past several dense pockets of vegetation and around another patch of blue flowers. I didn’t know what they were, but the glowing blue mist around them was a mystery and I wasn’t much for experiments while being pursued by powerful aliens in an unfamiliar land.

Still running, I slowed down when I heard the footsteps (hoofsteps?) dissipate behind me, followed by queries about the condition of Rainbow Dash. I started to feel guilty about the injured pegasus, but I quickly justified it, seeing as it was the one that flew after me; I was not at fault for any injuries it may have received. Not to mention whatever Twilight was doing, I resolved any feelings for them that were brought on by benefit of the doubt... No, I thought, it was something else.

There was something that happened, near the beginning of the encounter, that changed my opinion about them. I saw Fluttershy, saw her eyes - they were deep cyan, I remembered - and then, poof. I suddenly didn't view them as an immediate threat. That was a big mystery, and a good question.

There was a fresh breeze coming from my right, and I paused to take in my surroundings. I had stopped to rest against a large oak tree, the trunk of which was shimmering in the angled light of the canopy. There was moss on it, pointing to where I was running from. Several trees around me bore the same signs, which I remembered from something long ago; moss points to civilization.

It was then that I had to make a decision. Would I risk going to get help, I wondered, or would I have to avoid the horses long enough for them to lose interest in me? It was a tough inner argument, but I looked at the facts. Most, if not all, of them could easily disable me through touch. One of them could do something worse from a range. It was them between me and some kind of human population. I couldn't let them fend for themselves against potent aliens, but I also couldn't just run in and die without a chance in hell. I needed to wait.

There were faint voices from where I had come from, but they died away with distance. The aliens were moving on, I thought. I would have to as well, for a time.

So, I stopped and listened. I thought about things. I questioned reality. I asked why.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After a while, I was sure I could think well enough to move up, but I found myself resting against a tree. I had made time to practice talking without the dangerous side effects, and the grass shook in the wake of my most accurate speech attempt yet. I was thankful for one moment of peace in the last, incredibly taxing half hour of waking time. If only my hand had regained feeling that I could have felt the blades bend to my will, the dew collect on rough skin that did nothing to hint at the damage beneath.

I didn’t need to worry; it changed back, eventually.

[A/N]

Sorry about Pinkie's third-wall-breaking speech.

3 - In The Forest

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Chapter 3
In The Forest

I stood uneasily in the forest, leaning on a sturdy stick-cane that dug into the mulch floor. I had to keep the weight off of my injured leg with the fallen branch, and fallen branches weren't uncommon in the immediate area. Leafed and Pine trees behind me looked a lot like any forest I've been in, except slightly darker. There was standard plant material on the ground and standard noise in the background. As I looked forward, I knew why the same could not be said for what was ahead of me.

There were wood chips, bark slivers, ripped boughs, and entire uprooted trees lying in a blast cone that came outwards from a pine tree. The tree itself was showing a single, three-clawed scar that matched my head height, and was about a foot wide. Almost all of the needles on the closest side of the tree were missing, scattered, instead, on the ground and freaking in my shirt they get everywhere. I shook them out, then pulled the collar of my sweater higher, covering the ring of raw skin where the metal collar had rubbed against my neck.

I remembered what happened there. I had the courtesy of meeting a monster hybrid - which I then believed was the 'manticore' mentioned previously - as well as a small group of equine aliens that were moving towards a city. I considered the situation, and I just didn't have the capabilities to fight them. I couldn't outrun them, either - but it seemed the forest I was in deterred them slightly. Enough for me to get ahead of them, at least.

I wanted to know where I was and why there were suddenly aliens, but I had no way to sate the curiosity and just decided to ignore it. If I went to higher ground I could probably find another civilized place to actually tell people about it, to warn them, to get help, and then - I added as an afterthought - find my way back home.

The concept of getting back home seemed insubstantial when considered against stopping a potential alien invasion. I tried and failed to control my anxiety.

I looked back, one last time, at the path I had followed to get back to the tree. It was two unbroken lines, horse tracks in between, and a few feathers near a scuffled area in front of the main tree where branches and leaves had been thrown about. I had picked up a few of the yellow and aqua-blue curiosities and put them in my pocket for, if anything, proof that I had encountered something strange in the forest. Then I turned left and started down the path to where I woke up.

There was a large hole in a line of several smaller trees. Said line separated the forest section I was in from what looked like a field with a large path tracked through it. That was where I had jumped into the fiasco with the manticore, it seemed, and I stepped through it and made my way into the field. I avoided the hook-covered burs that wanted to attach to my clothes and walked silently down the breezy grass field.

Mentally berating myself, I itched at my neck, just above the raw skin under the collar. The sooner I could control myself about it, the better, I thought - then corrected myself, the sooner I can get it off of me.

I passed the next forest threshold and was about to continue on in the same direction when I noticed something peculiar. On an extremely dark and dead tree, reaching into the air with warped boughs, was a tribal mask that reminded me of a show on Discovery channel; it was a skull-like thing carved from what looked like layers of bark and had old, weathered blue pigments in eye-streak patterns. Below it, however, was the really strange part.

Under the mask, at the base of the dead tree, was a large patch of glowing blue flowers. It seemed like all the undergrowth around them had withered away, leaving only an overwhelming cover of azure. I looked back to the mask and made the connection; I would stay away from that. I turned away, continuing down the path, keeping an open eye for the blue flowers.

I saw another patch not meters away, and shook my head, saying, "weird." Then I stopped walking.

I heard myself talking, and I could hear ambient noises of birds and wind afterwards. I didn't go deaf.

I was finally able to speak properly, so I did what anyone would have done in my situation: I laughed and cheered. I had regained the ability to communicate and felt relief from a sense of restriction that I didn't know was actually there.

There were echoes of my yelling coming back to me from what I thought might have been the west. That corresponded to the direction of another echo I had heard earlier - though I might have just been filling in details - and a mountain that I remembered seeing from near the end of my encounter with the horses. My first thought was about how I could see the tip of a mountain above the canopy in that direction, and it didn't look too hard to get to.

The next thought I had was punctuated by female voices, off in the distance, in the general area that I was trying to get away from; something must have heard my wild cheering. I turned to the right and continued along the path to where I woke up the first time, not pausing to confirm the source of the voices or wonder any further about the blue flowers that I dared not approach.

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There was an empty backpack, a fleece toque, winter gloves, combat boots, a digital watch and a glasses case, all inside or strewn around a destroyed, rotten tree. I didn't think they had any real significance to me, but - there they were. I strained to listen for any sign of pursuit, and when I heard some faint voices again I shoved everything in my pack and turned back, moving towards them. I had a plan.

It was a pretty awful strategy at face value, but I didn't spend 18 years in the army to learn about making beds and collecting bottle caps. Well, I thought, maybe the former, but that wasn't the only thing, and learned reasoning was an important skill. There was a clear objective, an LZ, an approaching enemy and a probable path to follow.

I would have to make it half-way back to the voices before I encountered the river - discovered while running back from where the horses had me - that was likely to travel all the way up to the mountain and lead me to a lookout point, and I would also have to lose my tail along the way without getting myself lost in the forest.

It was hard enough without a broken leg, but at least I found the means to create a rudimentary splint - which I considered taking off based on how it only served to make my walking slower and noisier. I almost did, too, as I had not had the most pleasant of medical experiences in the past days, but I immediately reset it when I felt my bones shift in my leg. It was not the time for playing around with my bones, so I forced myself and made good time across the worn path without too much pain.

Before long, I had gone far enough in the right direction to hear the constant trickling of the small river. My leg was aching, but I was still up to the task of scaling a mountain if it meant the mystery of the aliens, and my being here, would be solved when I actually made it up there.

I thought it would happen, honestly.

Voices formed in the direction I was heading in, confirming part one of my plan. I turned right to go up the river. The voices were louder that time, and I managed to make some sense of a few sentences as well as recognize who was talking. There were two or three discussions, but I only made out one of them.

"... should go up this way if we want to find him!" spoke the voice I believed was from Twilight.

"Uhh, Twilight..." began Applejack with her accent, "You sure we should be going towards the thing that tried to kill us and completely-"

"He didn't try to kill us! Stop saying that..."

"Fine. The thing that attacked Fluttershy..." a pause, "Almost made me an' Dash go deaf, completely tore a fence post from the ground and... uhh..." The voice paused again, like it was reciting a list.

"Despite all that, I saw him with my own two eyes! He's intelligent, he can count - hey, he even understands-"

"Magic stuff!" Applejack shouted. The other discussions seemed to die down.

"What? I didn't see a horn on him, I don't think he can understand that."

"No, no, no. When you tried to free it from the fence, I don't think you wanted to do... whatever it was that happened, right?" Applejack finished. I had to agree with it in those regards, but Twilight kept arguing.

"That was a fluke, OK? Unicorn magic just doesn't stop working for no reason. Applejack." I noticed the sudden absence of a noise I hadn't even noticed before; the two had stopped walking. I, on the other hand, almost hit a tree when I stopped paying attention to where I was going. I stopped so I could hear the rest of the conversation, and prevent a broken nose.

"I get that you think this creature is dangerous," Twilight started again. "None of us know what he is. Hey, we're all a little scared and that's fine-"

"Why would I be scared of it?" 'Applejack' interrupted, "I just think it's not too safe to be wandering the Everfree forest on a wild goose chase for something nopony's even seen before."

"And I'm there with you, but listen to yourself. Nopony has seen anything like him, have they? Yet he's intelligent enough to communicate with a full understanding of equestrian, wears clothes, and can count - do you know how important a discovery that is?"

"Now look here Twi, I..." Applejack stumbled for words. I could have yelled back and told them not to follow me, that I agreed with her, but that was flawed; they didn't know that I could talk. At best it would convince Twilight to go along by herself on pure curiosity, without Applejack, and at worst it would win her side of the argument and convince the both of them to go. I decided to hold off on weighing my options until the two finished.

"Fine," Applejack continued. "I don't trust that thing worth a hill o' beans, but I trust you. I'll go out here today. Just, be more careful this time." With that, the sound of walking - the one I hardly noticed before - started again. The discussions in the back started again, and while I could only hear five voices I wasn't falling for that again.

That meant all six of the horse-aliens were with Twilight and Applejack. As I got back on track and headed upstream, the voices continued - almost like they were getting closer. I could barely out run them, with my broken leg.

And they were all trying to find me.

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I had a lot of things to wonder about, least of which was where the river I was following would take me. Instead, I considered my reasoning for following it in the first place.

I had six aliens following me, and I had no way to determine their intentions. Twilight was using curiosity as an argument, but I still remembered what she did to me the last time. Applejack was less likely to do any major harm, as she would probably keep her distance, but I remembered one of them saying she was the one to put the collar on. Why would she even have a metal collar that could fit tightly around my neck, I wondered. My imagination told me there wouldn't be any good reason for that.

I had conflicted feelings, on the other hand, whether or not I should let them find me. After all, I considered, I was a curiosity to Twilight, enough that she would risk injury trying to find me. But, I considered, her 'magic' almost killed me. Contact with them would hurt me as well, and I didn't want to break another leg in a tangle with Rainbow Dash.

It was getting dark, and Applejack had said she would only go out looking for that day. Based on their responses, most of the six would follow Applejack more eagerly than Twilight. Those facts meant that I could probably get away from them more easily then if they were a fully active search party.

But, I began to think, what if the city they were heading towards (or so I thought) was the only one around? I knew that wouldn't be good in the long run, but the immediate issue was more worrying - I would have to cross paths with them, eventually.

A meeting with the first aliens on Earth was a daunting task at the time - but they seemed to have a special interest in me, personally. And there must have been people in the nearby city, but what if they couldn't do anything about it?

I decided then and there that, if no other options presented themselves, I would proceed to meet with them once I had an advantage. I would need to think of something big if I was to actually get that advantage, but - hey, I thought - my plan had gone well thus far. There wasn't anything I needed to worry about.

I was still heading through the forest, up the mountain, well aware that the sun was starting to head down.

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The forest became dark - blanketed in occlusion - and black clouds seemed to rise out of the ground, stopping me from passing. Glowing faces appeared on trees, things howled in the twilight, and the steady trickling of a river to my side was my only true guide, my only route away from the sound of creatures following me, close behind.

I couldn't make anything out, at first glance, but I saw moving shapes constantly. I winced as I swatted at them with the stick-cane that was then required to support my left side. I was attacking gas with a tree branch. I tried to move along the river, but a presence was somewhere, bothering me in my peripheral vision. I kept turning around to check.

The dark shapes moving about the trees and through the water wasn't the presence in itself; nor did I feel something in the way the shadows slid along next to me, clouding my vision of all but the coming darkness. Snakes of vines, clouds of leaves and pillars of bark laughed at me, mocking my quest to do - what, I asked. I forgot what I was even doing in the forest. Something important, that was it, close to... I couldn't remember at all.

A metallic noise sounded behind me; the kind of sound that registers when a man picks up a machete and scrapes it on the ground. No, that wasn't it, I thought. A baseball bat hitting a pumpkin came to mind at the sound. Or, I wondered, was it the click of a lighter, the loading of a gun, a weapon resting in the palm of my hand, a betrayal that I would not forget for the life of me? I didn't remember betraying anyone at the time.

"How ironic..." Whispered the wind through miles of foliage around me. I turned around, and pointed my stick-cane into the shadows. Clouds of pure black absorbed my cane for a split second, but the cut I made through it expanded and the mist retreated in a back wind.

"You fail to understand..." Hissed the river, the grass, everything was speaking. Something was terribly wrong in that forest, that night, and I couldn't do anything about it other than wave a tree branch at fear itself, telling it to leave me alone.

Finally, a figure replaced a tree and stared at me. It was the presence, I was sure, and I recognized it. In my corporeal realm, not it's dream world, it took a visible form, opting to represent something close to my image of the devil; it had animal legs, spiked claws, withered and asymmetrical wings, and distorted horns among a bald head. It was close, but it seemed to have the wrong parts attached. It tisked and shook its head.

"You really don't know what you're doing, do you?" The voice echoed. I bristled at the statement, unaware of how deep the words were getting to me.

"You're forgetting something. No, no, not your goal in the forest. That's actually pretty smart." He scratched his chin with a clawed, orange paw, then continued. "It's what you'll do about the... current situation. When you meet more of your people."

I was fully listening at the mention of other people, despite the odd wording. He continued again, this time fixing me with a hard stare.

"Will you let them die?"

I sputtered, caught off guard by the question. "What? No!"

"Ah, right, so you'll kill them yourself?" He was leaning in, and I was stuck in place. The words struck deeper still. My collar itched.

"No. I won't let them die. I won't kill anyone." I paused in a moment of clear thought, a question forming. "Who are y-"

"Oh, but you will. I can see it in your eye. You would trample your own grandmother if it meant you could-"

The voice - that horrible voice that came from everything and everywhere and deep inside me and echoed with every memory I had ever had - stopped when my own began. I ordered it to stop putting me through this, and just like that my imagination turned off and I was only seeing a fallen tree with lots of debris and needles lying around.

That damned voice, echoing around, through, and within me, stirring up dark memories and things I would have preferred to forget, forever, was stopped when I shouted. If I knew this was part of The Plan all along, I might have done things differently. I might have had a better reaction, I might have controlled myself better.

But I didn't know. So I shouted the shadow apart.

The darkness receded from the forest, and the shadow dissolved and seeped into the earth. I could feel the presence moving away, and I could finally think straight without the thing clouding my thoughts. Unaware of how long I was walking in the forest, I picked through my bag to find my watch, still trying to keep the weight off my leg, and checked the time.

The hands read off as 23:48 hours, and I was about to put the watch on when I noticed something. The sun was still out, and the hands weren't moving. The watch was broken. I judged that it was mid-afternoon, forced myself to be satisfied with the accuracy of an educated guess, and continued up the stream.

As I moved onwards, I reconnected with why on earth I was heading up a mountain; Aliens was why. I briefly reconsidered putting my broken watch on, but just stowed it in my bag instead. I didn't need more useless things wrapped around me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was still dark, but lighter than it had been. I covered my ears for a brief moment, trying to clear up that annoying ringing that seemed to come up a lot that day. It was obvious, really, that I shouted; that was the source of my deafness.

Once it was gone, I looked around at where I was.

The ground had started to lose it's soft qualities of deep forestation, and the grass and low plant life was less abundant than it should have been. The trees, I noticed, were farther apart than usual, and there appeared to be a drop in forest density as I reached the source of the river. I picked right, it would have seemed, as the river was near a worn path that widened the further I went up the mountain. I asked myself, was the forest occupied?

It was a stupid question because, just as it came into my mind, the damned horses were talking behind me. Far enough that I was sure they couldn't see me, but behind me nonetheless. Even if they hadn't kept track of me for hours, they would have been able to hear me from a mile away, back when I shouted at the dark thing. They were closing in.

"Did you hear that?" Twilight's voice sounded first.

"Yeah. Think that's it - what we're lookin' fer?" Applejack answered.

"I don't know anything else that makes that sort of noise."

"I'm not so sure about this..." Spoke another one of the voices from earlier, and that time I actually remembered it - Fluttershy.

"What? We can't stop now, and you've stuck with us for far scarier things, like a-"

"Shhhh... Listen." Somehow, I was compelled to follow Applejack's voice and listen, but I remembered, shortly thereafter, what they were supposed to be listening for. I was stepping noisily on gravel and rocks, and my stick-cane was slipping to lower stones every time I put my weight on it.

The cover behind me was thinning, and something close to a clearing was up ahead, past several very large, very dead trees. I sped up on the pebble trail, trying to figure out a way that I could possibly get out of the situation.

I considered that I could have made a beeline to the left or right of the river and lose them earlier, but then I might not have had a chance to get to high ground - without getting caught - and that, I thought, was a catch-22. Any choice would have left me to be caught, away from high ground and too tired to fight back. Then, I realized had another choice.

The dead trees around the opening to the clearing - and access to high ground - were not much wider than I was, but if they all fell to the ground together the mass of branches would stop my pursuers from getting by - a sound plan as long as I got past them before they fell.

The method was less sound - figuratively, of course. I only had one way to go about felling a patch of trees, and not only did I have no understanding of it, but I wasn't sure I would be able to use it. I was thinking, of course, of my voice-cannon. The one I had just used, but forgot about.

It wasn't an accurate name but I found it fit well for what I intended to use it for.

The only times I used it before then were accidental. The most recent time at the moment was accompanied by that dark figure, the one that I was sure was a product of heat stroke, fever dreams or some other illness that I probably didn't have, saying I didn't know what I was going to do, and that I was a killer. I was trying to get to civilization to warn potential victims, and, regardless if that succeeded, I would have to address the alien problem peacefully. If that figure had shown up soon afterwards I would have mentioned that to... him.

I was running, then. I managed to convince myself I was actually angry at the mockery, rather than confused and scared, and I pushed the pain away with faked emotion. I didn't abandon use of my stick-cane, but that was only common sense. I ran across the gravel and passed the final forest threshold into the clearing and, as I did, I turned.

The second most recent time I had yelled, there were no explosions. It was an anomaly, but surely it would work when I actually tried to shout with power, I hoped. I might have been wrong, I considered.

To my right was the cluster of darkened, dead trees that I had intended to knock over, an act that was then within reach - both literally and figuratively. I then commenced the worst, most unprepared escape plan of all time.

I shouted at a bunch of trees and hoped they would fall over.

Lucky for me, it worked. Unlucky for me, I was thrown back a few dozen feet and landed in a bush near what looked like a wall. I concluded that putting all my weight on a stick moments before exhaling enough concussive energy to fell several trees was not a good idea at all.

At that point, my leg burned like hell, but it was still intact and I had gotten practice at keeping pressure off of it from a several hour trek through the forest. I stood up unsteadily - from the shock of getting thrown across the clearing, by myself for God's sake - and tried to listen for the horses behind me.

They moved on the gravel like I did, but they sounded like they were stopped - predictably - by the fallen trees. They argued, but a pressure in my head had clouded my hearing and my body temperature seemed to increase dramatically.

Goddamn, I was exhausted. Searching, through narrowed vision, I looked around the clearing. More forest. More heat. The horse-aliens got louder, and I recognized the voices. I sighted in a full circle, and stopped, feeling cheated.

It was just more forestry around me, and a wall, I thought. But there are no walls in forests. I looked back to the wall, and looked up. Lo and behold, from my low vantage in the bush, I was seeing a mountain. I repeated, in my mind, the concept of Not Giving Up once more, and grabbed onto the wall as high as I could reach. My hand moved down without finding purchase; I was too clouded and head-heavy to accurately grab a handhold, but by the third try I caught a deep crack in the rock and pulled down, hard.

The world around me became a blur and I could barely keep myself upright. My hand fell out of the crack in the rock, suddenly too weak to pull at. I tried again, and that time I didn't even need to pull for my hand to fall.

The arguing got louder, but a yell above them silenced all four, or six, or twenty-five billion of the murky, painful voices with a simple, drawled exclamation.

"Ah'ma buck it outta the way!" It had said, shocking me back into competence. I remembered that the voice belonged to Applejack, the one reluctant to follow me. At that point, all my remaining energy was being poured towards grabbing my cane from the torn and snapped brush, making sure I had both feet planted wide on the ground no matter how much it hurt, and breathed in.

Such was the sequence of events that I jumped and shouted at the ground just as a loud, unrelated crack echoed through the forest. The force coming up from my blast lifted me up faster than I could think, and wind hit my face.

I peaked in my ascent, and came down a few meters. I landed in a heap, on the hard and painful rocks, and that was it for me. I didn't die, but my head was pressed to a cracking pressure and my body felt both numb and hot, and my leg felt like it was about to just snap off and the stupid collar that I still remembered was pressing on the back of my neck, rather painfully.

The stone beneath me was pressing up, it seemed. I was getting heavier, my eyes closing. It wouldn't be long now, I thought.

I didn't know, at the time, if the aliens had followed me that far, or if they even knew where I was. All I could tell was that my head was heavy with pain and an unrivalled exhaustion that stretched to my extremities, weighing them down.

What I wouldn't do for a concussion check, I thought. Before I was out, I heard something.

"Calm down, Applejack! You'll wake all of Ponyville from here!"

"No, no... What they hay just happened?!"

Gibberish is what I heard. Then, nothing.

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"...sorry, Twi, but Ah guess it's gone fer good."

"So we didn't find him, we can try again tomorrow, right?"

"You can't go an' waste all yer time on that creature, especially by yourself."

"Sending a letter to Princess Celestia is the first priority. She should be interested in him, and she could probably find him, too."

"Actually... yeah, sounds good. Just don't overwork yourself over this, ya hear? We both know how bad that'll turn out."

"Absolutely. I just wish Zecora could have helped us."

"Yeah... what's with that? Ah swear she..."

The voices faded in when I started to hear again, and by the time they were muffled by leaves I was staring at the darkened sky, holding myself in place on my cliff, trying not to look in the direction of the voices in the hopes that the horse-aliens wouldn't notice - it was baby logic. I got up and oriented myself when the last, quiet whispers of conversation disappeared into the forest.

I was standing - no, crouching - on one of many levelled ridges of a mountain. The ground was mostly dirt and rocks, and the ridge wrapped around the rest of the rising mountain and lowered as it went around the curve. In one direction, where the setting sun and the parts of the forest I came from were to the right - I would call it 'south' - was a 50-foot drop into the clearing that I was almost caught in.

I would have noticed more of what was immediately below me if I still had two good legs with which to support me as I leaned dangerously over the cliff. As it was, however, the general masked throbbing in my left leg had turned into a sharp, focused pain a few inches below my knee cap, as if someone cracked the bone from inside and turned it halfway around. Hell, I thought, that might as well have happened.

Not caring to check what was actually going on under my pant leg at that point, I just adjusted my splint so it would hold up better after the damage it took. Unfortunately, I had no medical skills with which to get further than that, so I called it finished and moved on.

Thinking, finally, back to the conversation the horse-aliens had held in the clearing below me, I realized how strange the situation really was and how much more these creatures were sounding like proper aliens.

A Princess, Twilight had mentioned. They were going 'back' someplace, she had said. If I had any assumed knowledge on alien culture, it would be that they had either a Monarchy or an Autocracy; and it sounded like the aliens that were chasing me had the former. They were going back to their mother ship, I also assumed - not entirely seriously, but it was worth considering. Just as I was about to think more about how the ship wouldn't make any sense, based on any sort of rational thought, the situation dawned on me.

The leader of an Alien race, or at least a planetary representative, had or was about to have a personal interest in finding and making contact with me. I thought of the appropriate adage to explain my feelings: Holy shit!

I had time to think, but it's not like I could have lifted the sudden, crushing weight off of my shoulders. I was a personal interest of an Alien government power, and they planned on tracking me down, there in the forest. I couldn't decide if I was to be honoured or scared of that.

To the west, the sun had passed behind the horizon, and it silhouetted shapes and peaks in front of a pink and orange palette. The shapes were not trees, however, they were too uniform to be trees. I squinted, trying to see past my near-sightedness, and caught the shape of a roof, a chimney, and light through some windows.

I was looking at houses.

I tried to stand up to get a better view, but winced in the pain and dropped to my knees again. The splint had done something to stop the constant pain, but there was still a distinct feeling that the bones in my leg were shifting again.

Eventually, I propped myself up with my good right leg and my stick-cane - thankful I still had it - and peered over the tops of trees to the half-lit town. Forcing better focus out of my left eye, I could see not only pathways between individual buildings, but figures walking amongst them.

The laughter that came on was hard to suppress, as I had suddenly learned that I spent most of the day moving in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. It ended when I remembered that the aliens were moving in that direction, and were going to be between me and the town until they got 'back' to wherever they were going. I remembered the plan I devised beforehand, and searched the horizon - I was finally on high ground, a lookout point.

Before long, a second settlement materialized out of shadow, also darkened in front of the sunset. It was perched precariously on the side of a mountain and looked like a castle. The only determinable path leading up to it went straight through the town that I could not reach at the moment.

My plan had failed; I had nowhere to go. I really didn't want to take the option of waiting, but it was the only option. I could have gotten lost in the forest if it wasn't for the river, so damned if I was going to try to find a way out in a different direction; I had to sit there and wait until the aliens were no longer in my path. The morning was a good possibility.

At that point, I turned to face the peak of the cliff, to my self-proclaimed north, and examined the rising mountain - which looked decent for a mountain, in the light. I saw a small opening, in the face, and drawing closer I saw that not only was it big enough for me but it opened up into a moderately sized cavern. Correction, I thought, I would sit and wait in a cave.

I imagined it was going to be a terrible way to spend the night. That assumption was a gross understatement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The last apple of four hit the soft ground. I carefully bent down to pick it up, and set it beside the first three in my pack. I was about to grab another branch of the apple tree and shake it when a bush rustled, peaking my attention.

I stopped what I was doing and looked towards the shrub that moved. It was done shaking, but I swore I saw something other than leaves and branches inside it. I poked my stick-cane into it, but it just passed through. I remembered someone once describing the feeling of being watched, how it was like eyes were behind them. At that moment, I would have a better description: a cold, absent wave of darkness, silence, and stillness was all I could detect where I was not looking, or could not see. I stopped collecting apples and got the hell out of there.

I knew the forest was a dangerous place. I was almost killed on two different occasions, back when both of my legs were fully functional. The simple fact that I was not prepared to almost die again outweighed any curiosity I held for whatever I thought was watching me, so I slung my pack over my shoulder, lifted my left side with my cane, and moved on back to the mountain ridge.

Nothing jumped out at me from behind the various fallen trunks and large rocks as I exited the deeper forest, following another worn path that guided me back to the high ground. I somehow defeated the frights of the forest with more baby logic, but I retracted my thoughts after considering how demeaning that was to babies; they're smart enough to be scared.

I, on the other hand, was almost - counter intuitively - begging for some night-time beastie to come out of the shadows and jump me just so I could use the crazy voice-power on it. It didn't happen, so I let out a non-destructive breath and plodded up the west side of the mountain ridge, back to my makeshift camp.

If any camp could be called utterly pathetic, it was mine. There was a pile of unburnt lumber in a circle of rocks, where I might have started a fire if my glasses had actually focused into a point. I was blessed with myopia, the common eye condition that has basically no effect on anything other than extremely long distance. The only problem was that the prescriptions for it only dispersed light, or what little light was left when I tried to light the fire.

I ate two of my apples, leaning against the northern face of the mountain, musing about my fire. If there were aliens after me, I thought, what good would a fire do? It would alert them to my location. I suddenly became aware that I had yet to find out where, exactly, I was. If the aliens would be so kind as to drop by in their spaceships and tell me that, I would have gladly wasted hours on that fire.

I wasn't stupid, of course. The stars could have at least vaguely told me where I was, but the entire sky was blacked out by clouds in the coming night. I spent a half hour waiting for an opening, but it was simply not going to appear. I got slightly depressed when I took my with-me-for-no-reason watch out and saw the time was still stuck at 23:48. It was probably more accurate now than the first time I checked, I thought. It was good enough for me.

The cave proved to be more than comfortable, but only in size. It was still rocks and gravel. Luckily, my with-me-for-no-reason sweater was enough to make the ground into a tolerable bed. I set down on it, and prepared to shut my eyes. My collar was still itching, but I got a lot of practice in ignoring it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I nearly pissed myself when I heard the howl from the forest. It really wasn't something I should have worried about - the howl in my cave was too small for the manticore to get in - but I was scared anyway.

I wondered; was it because I would have to brave the path back to the town tomorrow? Or, was it because the creature that was yelling probably had a grudge against me?

It would remain a mystery. I didn't have the mental capabilities, on the edge of sleep, to think of how easily I had dispatched it the last time - though it would have been flawed to think that way, anyway. The night simply continued on its cycle, and I barely noticed as I fell asleep.

There's a saying: "Ignorance Is Bliss". I suppose that's why I bother to remember any of this.

[A/N]

Sorry about the melodrama.

4 - Gone

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Chapter 4:
Gone

I didn't realize how much I had needed uninterrupted sleep until it actually ended.

The cloud cover moved to reveal a pink-orange sky, and quickly changed to a standard blue one when the sun, presumably, moved further along its path up from the horizon. I could only see that sky, yet the harshly lit walls told me that the sun was out, low angle. Surmising that it was early morning, I checked my watch. It said '23:48'. I kept forgetting that it was broken, yet it was on my wrist anyway. I planned on getting it fixed as soon as possible.

I wondered if it had run out of batteries, at first, almost wishing that it really wasn't broken. Then I remembered that it wasn't electric – and, obviously, that I had no extra batteries. I wound it up until there was a good amount of resistance, and waited what I could only guess was a few minutes. No dice.

My metal collar was still there as well, and I still didn't like it. I had an inkling on where it came from, but just barely out of reach. Almost like adding insult to injury, I thought. There was, however, a silver lining: the collar supported my neck in my sleep, and I had no cricks or pains afterwards. I could be at peace knowing that I had no minor inconveniences in the middle of a goddamn war of the worlds that I just then remembered.

I resisted the urge to slap my face, frustrated at forgetting such a big event, and remembered that there was probably no war going on, and there wouldn't be one if I could help it. But there the problem was, I thought. I was the sole influence on how humanity was viewed by an alien race. It wasn't going to be fun, I thought. I was right, but I could never have imagined how not fun it would be.

The cave was extremely dark and cold, at least I thought it was, so I put my dusty sweater on and got up. I grabbed the stick-cane that was left on the stone floor and walked out, past the narrow opening, to the warm air. I used both legs effectively and didn't even need the cane, and wondered why that was. Ten hours before, my leg was - felt - broken. When I stepped out of the cave, it was fine.

Once the sun had started to wake me up, I began thinking more clearly; I noticed my ex-broken left leg tingled with a strange pins-and-needles sensation when pressure was put on it, or when it touched something. There was no residual pain, no feeling of shifting bones or even any sign that my leg had even been broken.

I slapped myself. Of course, I thought, it wasn't broken! I was injured, but it was nothing serious; at that moment I decided to pull up my pant leg and check. I never got a chance to check before that, what with being on the run from hostile aliens, and honestly I was a little scared to find out what had happened down there. That fear came from back when I thought it was broken.

The pant leg curled up and I saw some disgusting purplish-brown coloration, but, other than that and a little swelling, I was fine; just bruised.

The absence of a small worry allowed the topic of aliens to come up once again. Looking at the facts, I could form a basic understanding of them: They were a group of six (I had no way of knowing if that was small or large for them) mythological horse-like creatures capable of human-like speech and some other wildly improbable powers. They were possibly internally led by the purple unicorn – Twilight – or by the orange vanilla-horse – Applejack. The only external leader I heard any mention of was called "The Princess" but it was only mentioned by Twilight.

The purpose of the group as a whole was unclear, but Twilight – and "The Princess", by extension – was trying to find me specifically. The others, if the group was multipurpose, probably had tasks or goals that did not involve me, or at least viewed me as less important than I was for Twilight. Some of them were even worried about what would happen if they found me, or if I found them. Remembering that made me laugh but the humour faded off as I started thinking again.

They were between me and the town. Even if they weren't in the town itself, and I ended up having to risk a hike up to that mountain castle, they managed to find or follow me in the thickest parts of the forest. And there was no cover where I was headed.

I would have to meet with them eventually; there was no way around that.

What I was worried about was which one I would find, if I looked for them, and how the first contact would play out. Twilight would be preferable since she was the most involved with trying to find me. But, I thought, but she was also by far the most dangerous. That consideration meant Applejack would be a better choice; the group followed her more actively than the others, so I would only have to gain her trust to improve my chances of surviving. Also, she seemed to dislike Twilight's 'magic', which was what I was worried about.

Then, I thought, I could use that as leverage for any formal contact with Twilight, or, possibly, The Princess. I was going to meet them and explain to them that humans were a good species as a whole, and if I said the wrong thing or found the wrong one I would probably die. So I thought about it.

I really didn't have a choice about which one I would find. And that, as I have only found out recently, was predetermined in itself. Someone thought it all through before it even happened. And I was left in the middle of it.

I have recently acknowledged that things don't often go my way.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ferns and low shrubs bent easily to the stick-cane as I made my way through the set path, in the direction of the forest barrier. I still needed it out of consideration for the unbroken leg and because I was tired as hell. Not a bad selection of reasons, I thought to myself.

I was forgetting things. A small thing like whether or not I had batteries on me was totally excusable. A big thing, like whether or not there were aliens invading earth, was a little more worrisome to pass off. Especially since it almost happened twice.

The reasoning behind walking towards a town that might be filled with aliens was lost on me, after I fuzzed out for a few minutes and lost track of time.

Thinking it was some sort of subconscious repressing of memories, or some other product of my loose knowledge of psychology, I trudged onwards and further out of the forest, hopefully towards the town. I assumed it was still east.

I briefly considered that, since I obviously wasn't in North America, the people in the town probably wouldn't speak english. Or believe me when I told them there was an alien invasion. The town was probably more than a kilometre away from my position, giving me an awful lot of time to think about that.

My leg started to hurt again as I came still closer to my destination. The town was a good sign that I was not stranded, at least, but an itch on my neck reminded me of something. I had been strung up at a fence on the outskirts of the town, with the collar.

My hearing had apparently gotten better during my time in the strange place, yet I didn't hear any screams or shrieks of terror when I was captured. That meant that the occupants of the town were aware of the alien presence and hiding, they were unaware and somehow didn't notice anything amiss, or something was done to them before I got there.

I shuddered. I would go with the first option out of three, since the other two were horrifying to think about. I convinced myself that they were ridiculous, instead, and moved on.

Fact: I made a lot of noise the day before. The town should have heard that at least once, so it was stupid to think they couldn't have noticed. Fact: The aliens didn't show any signs of definite hostility. They didn't seem to have any reason to do anything with a whole town of people.

Then, I thought, what reason did the aliens – or, at least one of them - have to do something with me? I could only imagine, based on the facts again, that I was just a curiosity to Twilight and The Princess.

I was happy, then. That conclusion meant they had not seen many – or any – humans up close before. The town I was wandering in the general direction of was not a bustling city, but it wasn't too small either. I could see, the night before, that it covered much of the valley it sat upon. And at that there was a large farm of some kind to the west, I remembered.

I thought back to the earliest explanation I thought of for winding up there, and shook my head in the reminiscent hindsight. No farmer would be yelling at the guy that warned his town about an alien invasion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There was a reason for why I felt lost, stuck at a blackened tree with a mask on it. I thought about that reason.

In the forests of Quebec, I remembered, there was a town that the soldiers and I had to get to. It was more of a training camp, slightly larger than the one we had started out in, but the Lieutenant called it a town so I did the same.

Before getting to the town, there was vital 'intelligence' that my team needed to get. There was an 'enemy movement' - for lack of a better term - and we were to spy on them. They ran to the west, shouting that they were running west. Jokingly, a fellow WO asked the Lieutenant which direction the enemy was moving. After a round of laughter, spread around our small team, we all moved back into the forest.

That was when things got hairy. We were meant to report back to the General in teams of around 20 - with different 'intelligence' reports on the 'enemy movement' per team - within a day. Several of us were lost for four days after being funneled into a ravine and stopped by a thick wall of trees that we had to back-track to get around. My Lieutenant’s team was one of them.

We were lost until some communications officer in another team had sent out a signal that let the helicopters find us, and we left with shame. Most of those guys were sent to different units. We never had many training exercises after that, at least not many involving forests.

I knew that it wasn't the same thing. I knew that, at the moment, I was not lost; I knew that the town was so close; I knew that if I failed it would mean so much more than just some recruits washing out. That was why I knew I couldn't get lost.

Yet, at the blackened tree with a skull-mask on the trunk and blue flowers at the roots, I felt lost. Even at the known landmark, I didn't remember which way to go. And there was the reason.

The path back to the town revealed itself to me, after a few minutes. I was thankful that I could no longer worry about the crazy blue flowers, and relieved to finally find my way back. I couldn't shake the feeling, however, that I could have easily stayed lost there. Even after knowing absolutely where to go I could imagine a possibility where my mind would just shut down and I would forget where to go or what to say. There were no communications officers to send out tracking signals, and no helicopters coming to find me.

In that situation, I would likely die - there in the forest, anywhere really, without a clue as to where I was.

I skipped around the mental wall that I found myself encroaching upon and tried to convince myself that it wouldn't happen. I could conclude that easily, but the phrase always seemed to complete itself. No, I thought, I wouldn't die...

...I probably wouldn't die.

I was overreacting, really.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The forest was thinning out for a few dozen meters. It wasn't as subtle as most forests I had been in – in fact it was almost comical how quickly the forest ended. At least, I thought, I could still tell where to go.

There was a dirt path leading out of the forest and going past a wooden fence. I immediately recognized it as not being the fence I was tied to the day before, so I wondered how I managed to follow the wrong path. However, I thought, unless I'd managed to walk over the mountains in an hour and a half, I was moving towards the first town I spotted.

Part of the town, I suspected, was in front of me right then; I was approaching an elaborately landscaped house on a hill. Except it wasn't a house per se. The construct that I saw was more of a giant house-shaped bush, only defined by the windows and barely-visible framework. It fit perfectly with the landscape, I observed, though I couldn't see the front yard. There was even a river running through the property, with a few small animals around it. I ignored them.

I started walking towards the house, relieved to finally find one. The path went through the fence, up the hill and turned right, continuing around the house. I followed it, checking around for any sign of the aliens. I wasn't going to ignore the possibility that they had already been here, and thinking back I realized that possibility was extremely high. But I was distracting myself. I reached the top of the path, the house was to my right. The front of the house was forward, a few steps.

The house looked more like a wide-branched tree than a bush from a close distance. Almost as if it was built around an existing tree. That would be a pretty eccentric design, I wondered-

I slapped my forehead when I realized how distracted I was getting. Be realistic, I thought. I turned the corner, and was walking towards the house when I stopped in my tracks.

One of the aliens was in front of the house, looking away from me.

If that wasn't enough to get me thinking seriously, I was destined to be a comedian. Luckily for me, it was, and I began trying to think of what the hell I was going to do.

Logic. I backed away quietly and hid myself around the side of the house. With luck, the alien hadn't seen me - but I had seen it. It was a yellow pegasus with pink hair, and I recognized her as Fluttershy - part of the search party. Or, whatever they were. And for a moment, all hope was lost.

The aliens were in the town.

But - I thought - I still had to make an effort to save the town. From what? Anything. It was not my duty, at that point, to wonder what had happened. So I took my knife out of my bag, and put it in my right pocket. Then I stepped around the corner.

Fluttershy had seen me, and was almost rounding the corner herself. My appearance caused her to stagger back, whimpering, lightly flapping her wings. The reaction was not what I thought it would be, but I didn't do anything differently.

"Stay where you are!" I almost shouted, putting a bit of force behind the words. Fluttershy's wings collapsed and she appeared frozen, allowing me to run up to the front of the house and rap on the door. "Anyone in there?"

The first clue that something was off was the size of the door. It was less than 5 feet high. Next thing I noticed was that the doorknob didn't work. The door provided some resistance, but just opened on a push. Thirdly, I heard Fluttershy whisper an answer to my question, as to if anyone was in the house.

I put my hand on my knife and approached the yellow, shivering pegasus. She visibly retreated, but I managed to get within arms reach and slowly asked, "What did you say?"

She whispered again, and I barely caught it. I leaned closer, careful not to make contact, and she seemed to know what that gesture meant when she gave her answer again. "I live here." It was barely a whisper, but I managed to hear it that time.

"What? You live..." I gestured to the house, and I really couldn't understand that an alien would be living in a house; a house with a front door too small for a human to use without crawling. I drilled my mind, trying to make sense of it. Fluttershy was an alien.

"But... You're a... Aren't you an alien?"

"Alien?"

I wondered, did she even understand the term? "Alien." I addressed her. "You can't live here. This is Earth." I started to lose trust in that statement, even before she replied. I knew I didn't know where I was, but to think I wasn't on Earth... I couldn't understand it. Not until she told me.

"I... oh, sorry, I didn't mean to... I thought it was Equestria." She was beyond whispering at that point, but I didn't pretend to know what she meant.

"You thought it was Equestria?" I asked, incredulous. I had heard that name before, used in horse racing. It didn't yet strike me as funny, given the situation I was in. Fluttershy continued.

"Everypony here calls it Equestria... please don't eat me!"

I ignored the last part. "Everypony... you mean the others, like you? In your group?"

She nodded.

It finally sank in, and I was struck dumb. My hand slid off the knife and, dazed, I sat down. I stayed silent for quite a while, and Fluttershy didn't seem to be the one to take the initiative. So she stayed where she was, silent as well.

I spent a few minutes thinking about what I'd just heard. I was on... no, in a place called Equestria. I wasn't sure if I wasn't on Earth at that point, but it didn't really matter. I was in the territory of the aliens - I would then-on call them 'ponies', as Fluttershy had punned - and definitely not within reach of any sort of human authority. On the slim chance that there was, there was a more-than-slim chance that they wouldn't feel the need to do anything about it, since I had never heard of that place, or the ponies, before – since anyone with a right mind would spread the word that aliens were on earth. Or that Humans were on alien planets.

That left me to finding out where I was (without just saying 'Equestria'), and how to get back. Any information I gathered up to that point would be delivered to the people that could handle it properly, and I would be out of the equation more quickly.

Fluttershy hadn't moved at all, but was staring at me through my inner monologue. I tried not to look into her eyes after remembering what happened the last time, but I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't doing anything to help me. I kept my eyes on the brightening horizon and decided to break the silence by trying to clarify what I was thinking of.

"How many of you are there?"

Fluttershy made a squeaking noise when I began, but after a few seconds of silence managed to get over the shock, and answered. "There are... lots of ponies living here." She whispered. It wasn't what I would define as 'helpful', but it was a start.

"This place, you called it Equestria?”

She waited quite a while before answering, as if afraid to interrupt me. "Yes... and this town is Ponyville." Again she was just barely beyond whispering, but at least she could see where I was going with the questions.

“Equestria... where is it?” I asked. I didn't know what to expect as an answer, so when Fluttershy didn't provide one I didn't press further. I was already feeling all sorts of bad about the situation.

I looked over the hill in front of me, in front of the house, and saw the tops of houses; A lot of them looked like thatched roofs. But the walls were brickwork, sometimes wood. The houses were old.

That meant they – the aliens, ponies – had been living there for quite some time. I was almost thinking myself in circles; but really, I didn't have anywhere to go from there. Physically it could have been possible, I thought, but I didn't know how to get back to Canada – or Earth, for all it was worth. I didn't know if there were any other humans in Equestria; I was too exhausted at the moment to think of any alternate plans.

It was then that I began feeling the heat of that place, of 'Equestria'. It was the middle of winter in Canada, but there it felt like late spring. The warmth and humidity didn't help me think, either.

After simply sitting in the sun and contemplating how meaningless my progress had been, I started to hear some strangely rhythmic noises. There was some sort of trotting noise behind me, mixed in with folding grass. I looked towards it to see the nearby hill where the footpath led into the town. I turned back to see Fluttershy stealthily crawling to her house.

“What are you doing?” I asked dumbly, confused and not very perceptive anymore. The pegasus just shrank down, whimpered again, and looked at me with sad eyes.

I had one last, fairly important thing to ask her, that I had forgotten until that point. “Why were you chasing me? You and Twilight and the other ones...” I trailed off. It looked like Fluttershy was about to answer, but something behind me caught her attention and she dashed into her house, slamming the door.

I would have to do without any helpful answers. After finally realizing she was going home, I decided that it wasn't such a bad idea. I got up, intending to just head back into the forest and try another direction.

There was another noise, same as the first, coming from over the hill, but I had lost the motivation of curiosity and just went to the side of Fluttershy's tree-house to grab my bag, and my cane. I didn't realize I had left them there, caught up in the moment. I shuffled over to my stuff.

I reached down to pick up my stick-cane.

“Halt!”

I froze, unaware of who said it or where they came from. I was also shocked out of my confused state and finally figured out what the hell I was doing. More or less.

“You there – put down your weapons!”

I immediately dropped the cane and stood straight up, holding my hands above my head. I wondered who was behind me, but not enough to question their authority. If I considered what I had just learned about the place I was in, maybe I would have been more skeptical.

After a brief pause, with what sounded like six people walking towards me, I slowly turned to meet them. I was utterly disappointed when they turned out to be ponies.

Three large, white pegasi wearing legionnaire armour, to be exact. I didn't know how they found me so quickly, unless that was the first or many search parties sent out by Twilight or Princess Celestia. As far as I knew there could have been a whole damned battalion of them, all looking for me.

But I didn't have to let them capture me. Or, imprison me, or whatever they were going to do. I couldn't know. And I preferred not to.

“These aren't weapons,” I answered, trying to take a diplomatic approach as opposed to just sprinting out of there. God knows it wouldn't have worked with pegasi, given how quick the Rainbow one was. “And I'm leaving anyway.”

“Stay calm,” The one at the front of the formation replied, in a gruff voice I recognized as male, “and come with us.” Evidently, the excuse wasn't sufficient for them.

And by telling me to stay calm, it seemed we both knew how trying to run would turn out.

From what I could tell, they looked like guards. Or soldiers. They had authority, sure; but not over me. And the one doing the talking wasn't convincing me to go along.

“No.” I told them. I lowered my hands slightly. It occurred to me that the 'raised hands' gesture might have been lost on them, what with none of them having hands or the capability to make that gesture otherwise, but I played it safe and kept them up. And I stood my ground.

“We are bringing you to the Princess,” the first one stated, as if it would happen no matter what I told them. “You should be honored; not many are blessed with the privilege.”

I could have argued all I wanted, especially since I knew it would be less of a 'privilege' for me than it would one of them, but the fact that the immediate destination wasn't a dungeon or an operating table made me a little more open minded. I didn't let my objections fall just yet, though.

“Where is the Princess?” I hoped the question wouldn't fall flat and just offend them. I was not experienced with addressing royalty so the concern was out of the obvious cultural differences. They were aliens. Or, locals on an alien planet. I didn't care at that point.

The leading pony guard pointed, quickly, at the mountainside castle. “Canterlot Castle.” He explained. “She's waiting. This does not have to be difficult.”

“How'd you find me?” I was still letting my stubbornness get to me. And maybe something else.

Heat and physical frailty was irritating me, I discovered. The edge of shock from hearing the guards for the first time faded, and what I originally tried to justify as a fever of some sort returned with a vengeance. It was enough to barely ignore, like the pains in my leg and general aching of my whole body, but still taxing.

I relaxed slightly, after knowing what was clouding my mind.

The leading guard nodded and backed up, seemingly knowing what my next move would be. He still answered, “Word travels fast to The Princess.”

Lines of communication. I started to imagine that if I did something regretful, it would soon be made even more so due to fast reports back and forth among their military. Or was this politics, I wondered? And I had no immediately conceivable way out of that place. So, my questions exhausted, I stepped forward. I had no way out of it.

The three guards visibly tensed, preparing for a fight. Or flight. I took another step, then kept walking up the hill to meet where they were standing. The guards parted and surrounded me as I reached the top, arranging to an inverted V pattern in front and around me, and I tried to keep walking without bumping into any of them.

I faltered when I saw their mode of transportation.

A carriage. I was going to be put into a wooden carriage.

As I was led up to it, the flanking officers split off and attached themselves to the reigns. The leader turned to me and raised a hoof, seemingly motioning me into the carriage, and I got in. The carriage was a tight fit and I pretty much had to press my neck into the ceiling to fit on it. The leading guard got in and sat diagonal to me.

For that I was thankful, as I didn't have to make contact with him, but I panicked and lost the sentiment when the vehicle lurched and started to rise.

“The hell? We're flying!?”

“Fastest way to Canterlot.” The leader answered. It was like he ignored my lack of wings. Or the lack of any way a carriage (even one pulled by two pegasi) could fly at all.

“There are no doors!” I voiced my concern more directly, and he picked up on it. It still wasn't a significantly calming assurance when he answered with...

“We won't fall out.”

I had no choice but to sit there, hunched over, for the entirety of the 'flight'. I refused to let myself look out of the open space where a door should have been, so instead I looked at the bench where some sort of safety harness should have been.

In retrospect, it wouldn’t have fit me anyway. But my collar still itched, and I began feeling the weight of my broken watch.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I suspected that it had been roughly 15 minutes, though I couldn't tell for sure, and I sure as hell had no idea how far the carriage/magical flying machine had gone. What I did know was that whatever odd, sharp, burning pain was assaulting me had had time to manifest. No way out.

Through most of the ride thus far, I had said nothing to the pegasus guard sitting across from me, nor had he addressed me. But he had no objections to staring at me with those (huge!) creepy blue eyes.

I pretended he wasn't there and, getting over my minor fear, looked out the open space where something, like maybe a door, should have been between me and the open air. Based on the low angles of what I could see, especially visible when the carriage banked and I nearly passed out, we were pretty damn high.

Wait, I thought. Why was the carriage banking? The pegasi pilots should have had a clear path to the castle. God forbid we were taking the scenic route.

Two pilots, and one leading guard. I couldn't help but think there should have been more of them, especially since I didn't think they had any way of knowing exactly where I was going to be. But, if that was true, maybe the banking was caused by returning groups going faster than us. They didn't have any cargo. Still, it was possible that they had pinpointed me and this was the only group sent out. Or there were constant flights to and from the castle, this one just being the only incoming vehicle not involved with business as usual.

Either way, that meant the guard was understating when he told me word could travel fast. The world I got caught up in was getting more complicated by the minute. The guard didn't seem intent on telling me very much.

“What are you?” I inquired, addressing the leading guard in the cabin with me. “What's with the armor?”

The legionnaire pegasus straightened up, to his credit, and said, “I, like the two pegasi drawing this carriage, am a member of the Royal Guard of Canterlot.” He paused, like he was about to add something, then just remained silent.

I started to ask what his name was, but motion caught my eye outside the carriage and I knew why the Royal Guard had stopped. We were landing. I didn't recognize the area outside the cabin as the castle I had seen on the horizon, but I had only seen it from very far away. And I didn't use my glasses.

The guards in the front unhitched themselves and rounded the carriage, meeting up with the leader (though I wasn't sure what his actual rank was, I assumed he lead them) and waited in formation for a few seconds. The leader (?) turned back to me. “We will accompany you to the Castle.”

I shuffled out of the cabin, my muscles and bones aching more than ever, to take my place in their familiar inverted V formation. Then we started walking. Well, I walked; the pony guards trotted.

The castle I originally saw from my cave was much bigger and more intact than I thought at first. It was impressive, but I was put back on track by the sickness that had befallen me so suddenly. It felt like some sort of reaction to the heat, but that wasn't right. It was colder and fresher on the mountain side, yet I just kept burning up.

I didn't show it in front of the guards, though. If I slowed, or acted sick, there was a good chance one of them in the back would prod me along – making physical contact – and then the problems would really start. I stood straight, walked at a brisk pace and kept my eyes facing forward all the way to the castle doors.

I wasn't completely sure if contact with these ponies, in particular, would cause the same shocking/burning as with the first six I had met, but I couldn't take any chances. Not when I was about to meet the Princess.

The large doors were opened and I, again, didn't stop to bewilder at their size or design. I just pushed through, after a pair of guards from somewhere else opened them, trying to forget the growing discomfort as it turned into a faint, sharp pain. It was all over me, knives piercing my nerves and making it harder to stand. I should have stopped there, but... I couldn't have known what was happening.

I could only keep trying to push the pain away. It would work for a few seconds, dulling the feeling slightly, only for another, stronger wave to come back in.

So we walked through a long hall, me and the three royal guards. At least, it seemed long, and I remember there being a red carpet; I almost fell over at one point, close to losing control of my limbs. I was trying my hardest to keep upright and damned if it didn't work longer than I expected – next thing I knew we were at a second door. I couldn't tell what it looked like.

“...will ...majesty as... Celestia, at all times. Bow when in her presence. And do not... her... any...” Sounded a voice, clouded and muffled. The only thing that was clear to me was my goal to remain standing in the well of darkness and pain, and perhaps make a few steps forward once the door was opened.

Infinite pain washed over me, and my vision pulsed with red. My head was about to explode. The thing at the head of the room was the source, I was told. The voice eluded me. There was white; some diluted colour; stained windows.

I took it as an obvious sign that the door was open.

It's a fog even now, remembering the events. But I know what I felt. I have to relive it.

There was pain and darkness. I could only feel it, my vision and hearing and minor senses cut off before they could register. Almost like radio interference, but I knew it wasn't exactly like that. How did I know? I wanted to scream, but it was held in. I was getting a lot of practice at controlling pain, and soon I began to have short – but clear – glimpses of what was happening around me.

I was told to rise, but I couldn't. Before I could react my limbs collapsed and I was plunged back to darkness. It was like that until something grabbed me up and I was standing, but only with its support. There was more infinite pain, and another brief lapse allowed me to think: It felt a lot like when Twilight used her 'magic' on me... A stronger form of whatever happened when I made contact with them. Similar to what I had been feeling constantly for at least a half hour by then.

My senses were cut off – all of them. How could I see, hear, or feel anything? How did I know I couldn't see or hear? I could barely tell the difference.

There was another short, real glimpse of what was happening.

I realized, then, the source of the pain; the paralysis; the 'sickness'. The Princess was causing it. I only had one option – to stop it. I forced the pain out of me and took a step forward, then another. I don't remember seeing anything, but I knew there was a force pressing against me. I kept on moving, and it shattered like glass.

More barriers rose and dissolved in front of me as I pressed forward.

I knew the Princess was the source of... whatever it was. I didn't know at the time. All I knew was that I had to stop it, to keep moving forward. And I did. Nothing stopped me until a familiar feeling took hold – the burning sensation of my collar. I could see again, for a brief moment.

Princess Celestia was more horse-like than the rest of them, but a better comparison would be Pegasus of legend. Brilliant white, wings and a horn, but also a flowing mane of green, blue and pink. Some jewelry as well.

I got a good look at my path, as well – even though it was behind me. Three unconscious guards were on the floor, and the large stones that made it up were severely crushed and cracked. I didn't actually look at any of it, I just knew it was there. Somehow.

I stayed looking at the Princess. I saw her face. It was unnaturally emotive, for a horse's face. Only one (huge) eye with a pink iris was visible, the other one occluded by the flowing mane, but I saw fear in that eye. The Princess trembled, and the emotion changed. It was almost apologetic. The horn grew brighter, my collar heated. Pain.

Then I was gone.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For the longest time, I didn't know where I had popped up next. But I was in a dungeon cell. All I could think of at the time was a variation of the tried-and-true 'how did I get here?' I felt confused. That I was getting used to.

It was the feeling of being gone that I never got used to, though. It wasn't a sentiment of being lost, or not being in one particular place. The best I could describe it would be a part of me not being anywhere, ever. Like the sense that I'd forgotten something.

But now, in my current state, that feeling was terrifying.

Back in the past, I didn't know that the greatest coup of known history was beginning to take shape around me. I just sat in a dungeon cell, starting to understand what happened on a very basic level. I screwed up. I failed at probably the most important thing any one human had ever done – meeting the leader of an alien race – and I hadn't the slightest clue as to how it happened.

The last thing I wondered before I slipped into a fitful sleep was how meaningless it all seemed.

Myself, meaningless. I've forgotten what that feels like.

[A/N]

Sorry about the Art Evolution.

5 - Escape

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Chapter 5:
Escape

Jail.

I woke up in a jail cell. It didn't take me a long time to remember where I was, or who (what) had put me there. It did take me a while, however, to assess my condition in the limited light.

I was covered with the raw, wax-paper-skin feeling of light burns. My skin hurt, my head hurt, my muscles hurt. Somehow the pain felt like it was going all the way to my bones.

And, of course, I couldn't remember why I was in this state. The memories between arriving at the castle – in that goddamned flying chariot – and getting dumped here in the cell simply refused to come back, so I decided to try my hand at an educated guess. I looked at my burns.

Burns came from hot things, electricity, flames, and friction in my experience. I've also heard that radiation causes burns, but I didn't think there was any chance of that. Of the four realistic options, I chose to believe electricity or flames, because the marks were more or less mottled over my whole body and I couldn't make out any shapes. But why would I have been set on fire, or electrified?

The unicorn, Twilight. She had... 'magic', it was called. That's what burned me the day before. Or was it two days before? Either way, the ponies – especially Twilight – weren't concerned for my health if they chose to continue using magic after my first reactions.

I tried not to dwell on the burns. The floor of my cell was rough, like concrete but less uniform, and a large cast-iron-looking door separated my cell from whatever was out there. There was hardly any light. I'd been in a holding cell before, and this was no holding cell. It was more like solitary confinement, which would have made it my first experience in one of those.

“Lunch time!” Called a harsh voice from the thought-to-be solid metal door, distracting me from the previous train of thought.

A latch opened near the bottom of the barrier, letting light into my room in a flash, and a platter of what I originally judged as food was pushed through the opening.

“So, new guy.” The voice continued – it was probably another male guard-pony. “Tell me – what'd you do to get thrown down here? I've heard some crazy stories.”

I guess annoying the prisoners is pretty much a universal pass-time for guards. I couldn't answer his question, though, so I tried to fill in some of the missing pieces.

“What did you hear?”

He laughed. “One o' those Royals said you exploded in his face, then said somethin' funny and exploded again.” He seemed to pause for a moment, shifting right behind the door, then cracked up in a belly-laugh. “Is that even possible?”

I didn't think I exploded twice, but I somehow doubted the guard was looking for an answer on that. I changed the subject. “What time is it?”

The guard seemed to pause in thought for a moment before quickly telling me, “half-past noon.” Then he shut the hatch and ran- no, trotted off, as if he was late for something. I looked at my food, thinking hard.

Half-past noon. How long had I been out?

I looked at the platter that was left for me. In the sparse light I could make out what was obviously a cup of water, along with what looked like a sandwich of some kind, and possibly french fries. None of it looked very appetizing.

The sandwich had flowers in it, and the fries were dry and stringy. I couldn't stomach whatever the latter was; it seemed to be some kind of crispy potato-celery hybrid – which was to say it tasted like crap. The flower sandwich, however, was made with really good bread. I tried the flowers (which turned out to be just the petals) which, while not really bad per se, seemed completely insubstantial for a sandwich.

After eating what I could and drinking the water, I felt around the the back of my cell to find a cot in a dark corner and just laid down on it for a while.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I checked my watch: 13:04. I'd rested for half an hour.

I was back to thinking about being in the dungeon, and my burns and general body pain. If I was being contained for a long time, what with it being a dungeon, then the food they were feeding me was not going to keep me going for long.

If the ponies were torturing me, however, it wouldn't be as boring. That thought made me laugh a little. Was I really accepting all of it so quickly? A pony walking in front of my cell cast shadows under the door, drawing my eyes, and an idea struck me when I saw the solid iron door.

I could escape. With my voice, which I was still uncomfortable with on principle, I could probably blow out the door. But, I thought, I probably wouldn't make it out. Even if I took out the guards, what if Twilight was just waiting for me down the hall? I couldn't possibly get past her.

My head was hurting from what I supposed was an earlier injury, so I decided to just rest and see if any other ideas came to me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Time passed. I had dinner, some sleep, then breakfast. The edibility of the food varied, the guard was not above insulting me whenever he passed by, and I had to relieve myself in a bucket, but I never expected a Goddamned dungeon to be five-star. I was getting anxious, thinking about what the first guard pony said to me. I had no idea what I did to get in here, so I had no idea how long I'd be in here, if I was getting out at all.

And I kept coming back to the thought of escaping. I weighed the options, and found that if I didn't at least try, I would probably have no way of knowing. None of the guards I asked knew anything about it, although some simply refused to answer.

My watch said 12:27. I had three minutes to consider the choices: leave and never look back, or rot in the cell and hope for something else to happen.

I knew something else would happen, given enough time, but I didn't know what it would be. And that made the choice of waiting just as risky as leaving.

The guard was early, unexpected. He opened the slit in my cell door and pushed another platter onto the platform.

“Lunch time!” He announced, unusually jovial. “Looks like you've been here a whole day! Hope you've enjoyed your stay.”

That cleared up the mystery of how long I'd been in jail.

“It's been nice.” I lied, knowing my decision was going to be forced by how quick I had to make it. The only thing that surfaced in the ocean of scrambled, unformed thoughts that was my mind was that I might not be able to escape with the slit open; I'd need the door as sealed as it could be. “Three stars.” Did he even understand a five-star rating?

“Oh yeah?” the guard laughed in a challenging tone. “Why not four?”

“Room service is terrible.”

“Two?”

“At least I have a bucket.”

The guard snorted and closed the slit in the door. I heard a single step; the decision was made. I shouted with full force.

The heavy metal door broke off its hinges and slammed into the guard with a clang from his armour, pinning him against the stone wall. The door was bent severely, and three of his hooves were splayed out underneath it.

I sucked in a breath when the light met my eyes, and held it, waiting for two things. One, the noise of more guards coming. As the echo of the loud impact faded, and the obvious ringing in my ears disappeared, I heard nothing but breathing and what sounded like a light breeze. Sounded like nobody heard me. Two, any signs that the crushed guard was alive. I saw a bit of blood on the wall, probably from a scrape, but the pony underneath the door was breathing. He was alive. I didn't feel like murdering any aliens. The dust settled and blew away, and I resettled my thoughts.

I needed to get out of there. Taking a shot in the dark, I chose to bear left, down the hallway. The guards always traveled that way before they left for the day, so common sense dictated it was a way out. Or, a way out, prefaced by an armory. And more guards.

Numerous cell doors passed by me in the slightly curved hall, but no passages. I almost lost hope when I came to the end and rounded a corner. There was the low clatter of more armored guards through the passage, but I couldn't see anything on the straightaway.

Later, I passed by a wooden door in the stone. There were two or three voices coming from the room behind it, and I thought I heard someone wondering where “Clove” went. Weird name. I was on my way around another corner, towards a stronger breeze, when I heard the door open. I was running again.

After moving further out of the dungeons, I hoped, I began to notice something other than the breeze. When I thought it was getting stronger, I now knew that I was just feeling it more. As if my skin was getting more sensitive. What I thought was numbness from running was actually a pins-and-needles sensation that soon spread throughout my body.

I took my jacket off, thinking it some reaction to heat and sweat, but it was just worse that way. But I made my decision – I was escaping.

I came to a carpeted flight of stairs, much wider than the others, at the front of a central hub that lead to several different paths – including the dungeon labyrinth. I dashed up the steps, hoping it was the way out. The flight of stairs led the way to a large chamber with stained glass windows painting the floor in a mosaic of colour; I had a fleeting memory of being in there before.

“I knew you would escape.” Came a voice to my right, out of sight. I turned and saw a large, white, winged, horned horse. Something about the horse, her transparent, flowing mane, the wings and horn, and her voice struck a forgotten memory. Then I noticed the air around me felt electrified.

“Princess Celestia.” I said, not actually remembering the name. Her eyes widened slightly.

“Yet I do not know your name.” She responded. “Or your species, or your origin, or so many things.”

I heard her voice, and something came to me. She was a threat, if I remembered correctly. Right? I backed off slightly.

“I have nothing to tell you.” I told her, loosening my jacket again.

“Please.” The Princess implored. “I do not wish harm upon you.”

“That's a joke!” I laughed. “What about Twilight? Her 'magic' or whatever the hell it is... The only thing you've done to me is-”

“Silence!” She ordered. Something about that tone of voice, that inflection, the way it echoed through the entire room for several heartbeats, made me close my mouth and keep it that way.

“We do not wish harm upon you.” Celestia gave me a hard look. “ Anything that happened was simply an accident! How were we to know that...” She paused, sighing. “I can understand how you feel.”

I snorted, but kept quiet.

“Perhaps not.” The Princess said pointedly. “But that is because I have not been told.”

“You want to know how I feel?” I asked, incredulous. Celestia nodded. “I'm being attacked by legions of aliens and I don't even know what planet I'm on! How do you think I feel?”

“Angry?”

I began to answer, but huffed when I couldn't think of a response. I was angry.

“Betrayed?”

That suggestion was less on the nose. I had only known the species as long as I was running away from them. What kind of pact was broken that I would feel betrayed? But I felt a stirring inside me when the word was uttered, and another pang in my head where I must have forgotten something.

“Angry.” I answered, starting to back away. I eyed one of the glass windows.

“At what?”

“At you.” I told her, glaring back. “Your whole species decides it's fair game to try to kill someone just because he wakes up in the forest and gets mauled by a... by a fucking monster, while trying to save one of yours!”

“That's not-” Celestia started to deny it, but took a different approach. “What happened?”

I was nearing a window, and she didn't seem to notice. “What happened? What kind of question is that?”

“Please.” She began again. “We want to help you, but you're making it difficult.”

She was convincing, and genuine, but I felt like she was deceiving me somehow. Why was I so irrational about it? The window was beside me. “I heard screams in the forest. It was some pegasus named Fluttershy, being hounded by a manticore, and-”

“I do wish to know about that incident,” Celestia interrupted, “But it's not what interests me now. You told me you woke up here.”

I nodded. “I woke up inside a tree. In a forest.”

“The Everfree forest?”

“I think so...?” I thought I remembered one of the ponies from earlier mentioning that name. “If that's what it's called.”

“Did you not fall asleep in the tree?”

I was caught short by the silliness of the question. “Of course not!”

The Princess sighed. “I believe there may be... danger, associated with your arrival.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked. The window was so close to me, but I didn't try anything. I remembered, earlier, that I wanted to meet and talk with the Princess I'd heard so much about. I had my chance right there, and it wasn't ruined yet. Of course my behavior was doing it no favors.

“Just a feeling.”

Just a feeling, I repeated in my head. Sure was a lot to go on.

Celestia gave me an odd look. “Do you remember me?”

I focused, and looked into her eyes. Well, one of them, anyway. There was something familiar about them, but it was distant. “Not really.” I blinked, and looked down. “I think I've forgotten something, though. Something important. Do you know anything about that?”

“Yes.” The Princess said simply, and started walking towards me. Her horn started glowing, and she lowered it towards me. The air between us crackled.

“Don't...” I tried to say, a sudden fear washing over me, and I tried to resist it. But it happened anyway. A snake of other consciousness dove into my brain and recalled what had happened a day ago.

I was in the great hall, collapsing in pain. It hurt more than I could imagine, but, of course, it was a memory.

The Princess was talking to me, telling me to calm down and tell her what was wrong with me. She tried to use magic on me, which only increased the pain, and I tried to move away. I screamed and the stones under me shattered; the guards behind me were knocked out; Celestia was barely moved at all. I think I started to say something, but The Princess' face told me she didn't like any of it.

I was grasped by some strong, intangible force, helpless and nearly unconscious as Celestia brought down her glowing horn. It touched me and everything went black. There was a deep growling.

The growling noise was not from the memory. I was kicked out of the completed recollection only to see Celestia searching around the room for the source of the noise, her energy still converging around me. The growling rose to a scream, then dissipated. I couldn't locate a source. Something in the energy of the room changed – it was colder.

“What is that? The air is...” I didn't finish. The Princess was fixated on some of the windows, glancing between them.

I heard a harsh whisper, “She's tricking you!” come from inside me. I know I didn't say anything. The presence stirred again, my body going numb. Celestia's attention snapped back to me, and she tried to do some sort of magic again. I blacked out again.

When I opened my eyes, I'd gone through the stained glass, and was falling from the mountainside castle.

[A/N]

Sorry about all the unconsciousness... and cliffhanging.

Lost Chapters - #1 "Pilot"

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Chapter 1:
Pilot

It’s Saturday, January 15th. As I arrived home at around 5 in the evening, after my appointment, I tried to distract myself from the anticipation of the results, said to come the next day. I'm usually not antsy for my four-year health report, but that time it felt important as I had just overcome a medical challenge that the doctors can only explain as 'baffling'. For me, that would be an understatement, as would the three previous, and identical, situations and reactions. I was not a practitioner, but I was started to get bored of it, really.

I stepped into the house and flick on the main lights. Everything was exactly where I left it, some of it collecting dust since last time it was moved. I repeated my standard scheduled day to watch TV until six, eat dinner in front of the news, and either work out or play video games. I felt like falling asleep early, so I went with exercise. Hopefully I wouldn’t fall asleep before I finished. It’s happened before.

It had been over a week since my last session, so I tried to push myself harder to make up for it. My standard repertoire of assorted curls, pushes, and pulls were doubled. I wasn’t too fat for my age, though sometimes I just felt it, and that reflected in the strain I put myself through. After I was done, I realized my mistake; my effort rewarded me with a splitting headache. That was not the first time that the exact scenario repeated itself, and I cursed myself for passing my limit.

Going to sleep after that, at around 9, as was my custom, should have been harder with the affliction. I was proven wrong once again when I drifted off almost immediately. The day was full of surprises. I didn't like surprises; they implied changes, which usually meant things were going to get worse. I based that way of thinking off of experience, and I was not proven wrong.

I fell asleep like someone flipped a switch, and it must have been lucid; I could think and feel and see. Not that there was anything to see or feel, though, only faint white dots in the dome of darkness that surrounded me, as well as the regular non-color rainbows that danced and pulsed through my darkened vision. All I felt was a faint attraction to a direction behind me, and my clothes being pushed onto my back. That meant I was accelerating, if that was really happening.

I tried to open my physical eyes and wake up, but it did not come easily or quickly. I was falling faster, and even though it was a dream I swore I could feel my heart beating faster as well. I feared that I would find the landing this time and have a heart attack.

I desperately convulsed my arms, looking and feeling for some sort of... there it was. My hand stroked a solid surface, and the battle with my subconscious ended abruptly; the deceleration forces should have been crippling, but I attributed that to my current status as being asleep.

I was more asleep than before however, and a few fleeting thoughts remained as I tried to escape them. It would be hard to describe it exactly in words, but I felt like I wanted to be on Earth, which was a strange idea. I was on Earth already, so I must have remembered something I heard somewhere, probably from science fiction.

In the final throes of its existence, the fading thought issued a final iteration: I wanted to be back on Earth. I never left, and I had never heard anyone say that. The concept worried me, but I was almost completely blacked out, so it was probably sleep induced. I was still on Earth.

I awoke with a jump. A loud, high pitched wail wrestled me out of my slumber. Looking around for the alarm clock resounding through the air, I soon realized that the typical status lights and displays of my house were no longer there, nor was the alarm. I also noticed that I was standing up.

I couldn’t see anything; the darkness was all-encompassing. My eyes might have been closed – It’s happened before - I make the mistake of checking with my fingers and now one of them hurt too much to remain open. Nevertheless, I could still see nothing, but I felt something surrounding me: something rough and wet, yet weak and malleable. I wondered where I was, but found no obvious answers.

I called for anyone nearby, but I was not able to make any sounds. Snapped out of the inner monologue at my unexpected muteness, I turned around, looked up and down, and to my dismay I found no discernable exit. Not one for standing around, I decided I should probably do something. I felt around again and found the two closest walls, setting my arms up for leverage. ‘Maybe I can climb out’, I thought to myself.

I pushed against with my elbows, but slid to the ground as the walls gave way. I was rewarded by some light coming from what I assumed was the top of the object around me. ‘I guess I can make my own exit’. More pressure and a rearrangement of my arms later, and the additional light revealed my predicament: I had somehow gotten myself stuck in a rotten tree trunk.

'Strange...' I thought, 'It should be colder in a forest, during January.' If I had known what was surrounding me before I made an attempt, the first thing that would come to mind would be that it should be frozen solid; the past week had not shown a temperature of above -10 C, and one would have gone back weeks to find a day that was above freezing.

What confused me even more so was how I ended up in the trunk, and why it was hollow. I lived in southern Ontario, and while I had recently explored around the area, I never saw an empty trunk, let alone stepped inside one. The probable method of my arrival reminded me of the trick to removing egg whites without breaking the shell, but in reverse, and with me. I shuddered.

So, I was left with two unanswered questions: 'Why am I here?', and 'Where is here?'

Among all my thoughts about the strange turn of events, my sleep-induced fuzziness started to drain, allowing me to fully take in my surroundings. The air felt warm and humid, despite the month; I could see sparse canopies above my deciduous dungeon; I could smell the earthy scent of moss-covered bark seeping through cracks in the tree, and the inexplicably familiar dirt-and-worm smell in my hands as the decaying walls fell away. Lastly, free from the silence of my blood pumping through my ears I could hear birds chirping diligently, insects buzzing aimlessly, bears fighting in the distance, and a small, high pitched scream...

'Wait, bears? And a scream?'

I call out in surprise from the tree still surrounding me, but the thunder striking near me all but drowns out any message I had sent. A further panicked shriek cemented my limited options: panic and stay here, run and call for help, or pull myself together and save someone. With very little time on my hands, and nobody nearby to tell me otherwise, I made the only choice I could live with. The humor was lost on me at the time.

I immediately kicked a hole in my very own sarcophagus as the bear - and mysterious screamer - continued. “Where are you, what's happening!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, only to find that the lightning inconveniently drowned me out again. I looked up, seeing a clear sky, and frowned. “Not funny”, I though aloud, only to hear rolling thunder and winds echo my voice. ‘Is that my… voice?’ I thought, silently, as no other noises interrupted my thoughts.

“Must have been my imagination” I thought aloud again, but I could still hear some sort of electrical storm from either behind or below me. ‘Or inside me’ I shuddered at how cheesy the concept was, at how I was brought to a strange place and was given powers… for what, a thunder-voice? Not only was that impractical, I never-

Another panicked call for help snapped me out of my ridiculous train of thought, and I suddenly remembered why I was yelling.

Intent on finding the commotion, and filled with an adrenaline rush, I sprinted in the direction of the sound, which was clear as day and coming from the direction opposite where I was originally facing.

I ran along the soft forest floor, quite possibly faster than my legs could usually support, and by the time I was halfway to the point of interest the half-scream-half-cry tapered off to what I might have described as a low whimper. If I even heard it, that is; I didn’t really know what that was about, but I heard it without hearing it. I also snapped out of deep thought.

The realization of the situation spiked my adrenaline yet again, and I slid across a small hill, burst through a thicket, and found the source of the disturbance.

What little I knew of the laws of nature had been defied by what I saw ahead of me; out of a lion’s muscular upper body led the expected head and arms, but crimson bat wings sprouted from the shoulders. The disproportionally small lower half and legs ended in a similarly colored scorpion tail. Altogether the monstrosity was over 10 feet tall, but my fear, rage, and unfortunately directed momentum left me undeterred.

Time slowed down significantly as I closed in, which was not an unusual side effect of the fight-or-flight rush. With time to think, I drilled the whole of my brain looking for a way to either distract or disable the monster. When I awoke not 5 minutes ago I was still wearing my winter sweater, which was thin but dense. I suppose it could provide protection. I’m not sure if my knife was on me, but I had my glasses. How convenient. As I forced my conscience further I ended up waking the section of my mind I oppressed only a minute ago, the memories and thoughts flooding my mind and beckoned to be used.

When the patchwork giant reared back and cast another terrifying howl, my higher brain functions caught up to the action and delivered it’s own message. Within 5 meters of the monster, and time only just speeding up, I opened my mouth and sent out what I had discovered only moments ago: an absolutely horrific and powerful combination of rolling thunder, a sonic boom and smashed concrete reverberated through my lungs, shot forward and cracked against the beast’s side. Were it not for the life or death situation, I would have collapsed at the mere thought of such an attack even being possible, not to mention from me, since I was the kind person that would notice if my shouts were made of explosions.

The creature turned around slowly, off balance and angry, moving its attention to the source of the blast. I jump and slammed my right shoulder against its neck, causing it to reel back from pain momentarily, before recovering and going in for a right slash with deadly scimitar-like claws. Narrowly dodging the swipe, I fumbled around my left pocket, luckily finding my utility knife, before drawing it and slashing at another incoming arm.

The creature obviously did not expect any resistance, and reeled back as I cut a long gash on its left arm, from the outside of the palm to just below the elbow. It whimpered and crawled backwards, hitting a tree. I shouted again, this time with enough rage to cause a physical impact, stunning the creature and flattening several bushes behind it. As it was recovering and preparing for another lunge, I shook the ground with a growl, putting an end to whatever it had planned for me next.

Just like in the old cartoons, it clumsily ran away with a panicked “Yipe yipe yipe!”

After that encounter I finally had some real time to sit down and think about what happened in the last five minutes. By sit down and think, I really meant crawl into a hole and whimper like a lobotomy patient, trying to find shelter from the radically new area, new animals, and new ways of dealing with at least one of the problems associated with the first two. Alas, there was a disappointing lack of the time and holes required to indulge in such a way.

Resolving my near mental breakdown, I actually sat and thought about things. Things like: ‘Where am I?’, ‘Why am I here?', 'What did I just do?', and ‘What the hell was that thing?’

I seemed to remember what that creature was, actually. I had read about it before, in some old fantasy novel called The Manticore. At first I denied myself the luxury of knowing so soon, but as I cross referenced the two, the lion body, scorpion tail and bat wings told me there was really no other conclusion. I was able to get a few chuckles out of that coincidence, and scratched that off of the list of answers I needed.

As for where I was, I simply looked around. It was a forest all right, but something seemed odd about it. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was exactly, but the forest I was standing in gave off an aura of wrong. It could have been the greenish tinge of the sunlight, or the seven-pointed, bright-red leaves that poked up from the ground, or even the indigo flowers that emanated a subtle blue glow. As one strange aspect was observed, two more took its place, each more confusing than the last.

A forest, albeit a strange one, was the answer. I might have been able to ask somebody if I ever got out. Moving onto what it was that I did, I started to think about what caused it, and why I even continued after seeing that thing. It was the size of a bear, and I’ve always distanced myself from the actual animals in question, for fear of a confrontation. If I was thinking clearly, I could blame the circumstances, which were no doubt subconsciously realized before I really confirmed them. If I was cynical, I could blame those damn-

I was snapped out of my trance-like state by the sound of a broken twig and crunched leaves. I had completely forgotten about the first reason I ran over here; to search the area for any indication of the victim. With the exception of a fox barely escaping my sight, nothing stood out to me. I turned back before shuddering at the thought, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a light yellow and pink fox before…’

I thought better of immediately darting after the animal, as I had not had the most usual of experiences so far. For all I knew, it could have been a baby manticore running back to its mother, which I just dispatched. The fur was only off by a few shades, so apprehension was required. Carefully turning back, and sidling around a patch of trees in silence, I saw the fox/manticore/whatever dive into a small hole under a tree, near where I first encountered the manticore. My anxiety rose.

Patrolling around the tree cluster that the rodent-like animal hid in, I found a small hole on the left side which I approached cautiously. Checking for any motion outside, and finding nothing, I quietly ducked in and looked around the miniature cave. I quickly noticed the light yellow and pink creature, only to be dumbfounded as it spoke in an extremely stressed, yet human, voice.

“Ah! No, please, don’t hurt me! Help!” It cried.

The animal talked. It was an animal, and it just talked – or, at least, it sounded like it talked. It couldn’t have been the original target of the manticore, I thought, but as it shrieked and cried with the same voice that brought me here, that skepticism dissipated. Probably one of the only things I knew for sure about this situation was that it could communicate, while my capacity was severely limited. I decided the sensible thing to do was to smile, ignoring the instinctual desire to curl up in a ball and question reality.

“Ah! T-t-those teeth! S-somepony help me!” That was the exact opposite of the intended result, but I guess I didn’t have much of a chance.

My clumsy attempt at countering the second impression was foiled, yet again, by cracks of thunder that barely sounded like the original, “Don’t be scared, I wont hurt you.”

Convinced that being nice and talking my problems out would get me nowhere, I went with the prime directive of getting this creature out of the area and to wherever the others were. I sort of assumed there would be others like it (her?) nearby, since those distress calls weren’t directed at me. I also assumed it was forming speech instead of copying something, given the context.

I reached further down to retrieve it, but the yellow animal retreated deeper into the roots. With one final push from one arm, and a reach with another, tried to grab the shivering whatever-it-was before being pulled straight out of the hole and pushed onto my stomach by two hard objects, later found to be feet or shoes of some kind.

“Whatta ya think yer doin’ ta Fluttershy, ya monster!” said another human female voice, this time with what I assumed what a western accent was (I don’t know any cowboys from Canada). I tried to ask who the hell she was, what a ‘fluttershy’ was, and why I was being stood on, but, once again, all that came out was another growl made of earthquakes and landslides. Another, more raspy voice continued.

“What’s that thing you got, AJ?”

“I don’t have time for this, just look at me,” I tried to say; futilely defying the evidence that it would not be received as such.

“Ah don’t know, but it sure as sugar makes some noise.” The first voice elaborated.

“Good, you too. Now get off.” Whatever was standing on me, whether it was the owner of the voice or otherwise, obviously did not hear me.

After failing to communicate to the two mysterious assailants, I tried to get a better view of them by pushing up with my arms, tucking my legs underneath my stomach and standing upright, throwing the squatter onto the ground.

I turned around and, half-surprised, I saw some more large fox-like animals similar to the other yellow and pink one, but a better view of them than before reminded me of horses, and small ones at that. I really should have been more surprised to hear them speak, but after seeing them there were no more voices and I came to two options: I imagined the voices, or, their owners were somewhere else. I let that choice hang and focused on the bright figures in front of me.

The horse that was step dancing on top of me had an orange body and yellow hair. As it picked itself off the ground, it put on a worn out Stetson hat, despite only having hooves and thus no ability to pick anything up with a single arm. To the left of that was a similar creature of light cyan body and-

No. That was getting out of hand. Bright aqua fur and rainbow streaked hair, on a horse with wings no less, was just too much for me to reserve. I cried out in surprise, pushing them back slightly and, unfortunately, making them think I was hostile. I raised my hands in an effort to plea not guilty, but another pulse of air sending them backward ruined any chance of making amends.

The obscenely colored horse (with wings; I could not stress that enough) jumped up and punched me in the face, and the blow hurt much more than it should have, based on the impact. I clutched my burning face, but while my guard was down the orange horse's back legs connected with the top of my thighs, knocking me to my knees instantly. Through my fingers I saw it doing something with a loop of rope, and I lowered my hands to see if the winged one was still there.

I found out where it went when something heavy crashed into the back of my head, near the based of the neck. My head angled back, my body hit the ground, and I blacked out. It was not fully because of the impact, however; it was more like my head was on fire. More specifically, it was my brain. I could not fully place the feeling or description, though; I was out cold.

Yet my body continued burning.

After swimming in the slow dreamscape of forced unconsciousness, for either minutes or hours, I woke up again, this time with a headache, and little freedom to move through my restrained limbs. At least the lights were on.

Some memories came flooding back as I saw, out past the field to my right, a wide tree line that stretched across the horizon, disappearing behind the atmosphere and the curvature of the rolling hills beyond the near valley. I slowly recalled what had happened, and, fearing some follow-up action, I tried to run towards the nearby trees but was stopped by heavy chains around my arms, and rope around my legs. I nearly forgot why I was standing when I woke up.

I messed around with the chains, reaching to the locks, clanging the thick metal, but nothing made a difference. I was captured, though luckily my captors spoke English. Their attack horses did a number on me, but at least I wasn’t dead. I smiled, and then frowned, as I realized I had not been in a worse situation before.

I became slack again, but that caused the chains to smack against each other hard, loud enough to make my ears ring. After my hearing came back, I heard some voices I recognized as the two attackers from the forest, and the other one I saved from a monster, among some I didn’t recognize.

“…saying this monster just ran up to Fluttershy and-” A female voice I didn’t recognize was cut off midsentence.

“-Ah say, we still don’t know if it’s a monster.” The familiar western voice drawled.

“Right, fine. We don’t know what it is. It ran up to Fluttershy, possibly attacking her. And you did what to it?”

The raspy voice of my second attacker continued, “We beat it up, obviously! Who knows what it would have done if we…”

The horses approached, and upon seeing me awake, the voices were silent. I looked around for the owners, but, after seeing none, I feared that I would soon make the obvious connection.

I looked, again, to the group that surrounded me. The one to the front of the group was not one of the two I met at a forest, though it had a similar build; it looked like the other two, basically a small horse, just under 4 feet tall like the others, but had a light purple body, indigo hair (were those… highlights?) and a very troubling addition: a single horn coming out of its forehead. I saw another like this, again with purple hair, but with a blinding white body. I tried to kick myself for thinking ‘unicorns’ but then realized that was exactly what they were.

Behind the all-purple one, I saw the orange and cyan bodies, and the wings on the latter reminded me of, as painful as it was to admit, a pegasus. Three mythical creatures in one day was a major problem on its own, but I held out for the worst as I surveyed the rest.

To the right of Purple was the white unicorn. Next to that was a regular, small horse, colored all pink. There were no people near by, but hushed voices continued from an unknown source. My fear was evident through my shallow, quick breaths as I tried to avoid the inevitable conclusion. All the evidence was there, but I refused to believe it. I hoped…

“Yeah... Well, there it is.” The aqua and rainbow pegasus spoke first.

It, a pegasus, spoke first.

The others, around it, started mumbling. That was very possibly the final push to insanity, and I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t real. It was all too real for my brain to handle, despite all my effort being poured into rational thought, despite coming back from the edge twice in the last ten minutes (of waking time). Of the things I thought of, squirming in my binds, two major concepts turned up: A dream, and, of all things, aliens.

I could always tell the difference between sleep and reality, and it once became a powerful source of insomnia when I found out how to wake up on demand. I had been performing the mental ritual since before I got here, in vain, to escape the mental torture I found myself in. It didn't work thus far, so I threw that option away.

Through the process of elimination, as I locked away the absurd sights in front of me with closed eyes, I came upon a dilemma with the alien theory; were they the aliens, or…

I opened my eyes in shock, silently arguing with my subconscious. All of my captors had approached to within a few feet, and I tried to ask them if they came in peace. All I made out was the sound of faint gunfire, which scared me more than them. Perhaps they wouldn’t know what it was. I would always remember it.

The colorful pegasus was the first to turn away, and started speaking again. That time, I was less shocked, but I did not take it lightly:

“Well, I got nothing.”

Once again, communication failed, but this time my voice box replicated a brown noise, like a waterfall, and caught the five off guard. One of them said I was a monster again, another asked the general question of where I came from.

“Not anywhere near here.” I earth-quaked in response, hoping they would understand.

Apparently there were six after all; with a small shriek, a light yellow blur darted behind the others, favoring the ones that stayed further. What was it so scared of? Me? It had a trembling, pink tail that reminded me of something else...

“Hey, you’re that thing I saved at the forest!” I thundered as I realized the pony under the tree was here again.

“Quiet down, please! We aren’t here to hurt you!” A female voice came from Purple. It seemed she was trying to comfort me, but that ship sailed a few kicks to the head ago.

“Are these all girls?” I rumbled.

“Ah got it, Twi.”, drawled Orange as it (she?) kicked me in the stomach, but I was ready and backed up to dodge it. I somehow forgot about my current predicament, so I was winded despite the effort. I was also treated to aching shoulders and a burning sensation in my stomach that I was absolutely sure was not a direct result of the kick.

Purple appeared distraught, and while she gave Orange a lecture on some sort of etiquette, my abdomen kept burning, my lungs started to reinflate, and the small yellow one spoke, in the small voice I still remember from the attack.

“C-c-careful, girls… it’s d-dangerous!” she made an ‘Eep’ noise, again, before darting behind the next furthest pony, again; this time it was the all-pink horse that was eyeing me with a furrowed brow, or what passed for one on their cartoonish faces. It was also rubbing an upside-down hoof on it's chin, and I wondered if the gesture meant the same thing for both of our races.

I would have also thought it was cute if I wasn’t currently captured by super-intelligent farm animals that looked like they collided with narwhals, eagles and a crayola factory at high speed. I almost laughed at the imagery, but I just coughed hoarsely through the pain.

“No, seriously, I've never seen one of those.” The cyan pegasus (I decided to stick with fur colors as identification, despite having far better indication in this one via mane and tail color) stated to no-one in particular, “either way, that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten up something that big before!” Orange and I gave her a nasty look, both of us remembering what actually happened. “Well, not that I haven’t come close before…”

“Come on, Rainbow” said Orange, as I started to realize that they were referring to each other with these names. It was pretty obvious that Cyan, with the rainbow-coloured hair, was Rainbow, but I remembered hearing ‘Fluttershy’ ‘Twilight’ and ‘AJ’ and I had to listen closer to their conversations to find out. I had more time to think, but if I thought too much about how easily I could separate voices I would probably just end up tuning them out.

My breath returned, and I grimaced in the residual aching while looking around for the voice with a British accent coming from my right. The white horse was slowly circling me, eyes flashing up and down my (luckily) clothed body, but they met mine. I scowled at the last hope of any humans being around here disappeared, after briefly and futilely wishing that an English woman came to rescue me, but my full expression might have given a different meaning. White fainted.

"I've got it!" Pink clopped a hoof on the ground in some sort of realization, and a book hit the ground from an unknown starting point. Purple, the closest to the book, looked at Pink with a strange face.

"Got what?"

"I know what-hey, what happened to Rarity?" The group looked towards the downed unicorn, some with faces of fear, others with exasperation.

Purple had her back turned and was trying to calm the group down, “Come on girls, we don’t have anything to be afraid of. This… thing… it’s all tied up, thanks to Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” Noting their responses, I named the orange one ‘Applejack’, and was proven right about the name ‘Rainbow Dash’.

I almost blacked out again, this time from sheer confusion, when I saw Applejack tip her hat to the purple one, but I decided that physics had long since been ignored after the manticore incident. That was something I had to get used to.

Purple continued, “Now then, Pinkie Pie, what did you remember?"

I was too focused on figuring out what kind of a name 'Pinkie Pie' was to remember what she said. The only phrases that I made out were, "I think he might be...", and, "I don't know, nothing's come up yet!" I forced myself out of the confusion and began to listen again.

"Hmmm... I guess it'll be a mystery, unless... ah, Fluttershy?"

There was that 'Eep' noise again, and from behind Applejack the yellow horse peeked out and said, “Y-yes, twi-ilight?” She was almost as shaken up as when I found (and accidentally shouted at) her, under the tree.

“Do you have any idea what kind of animal this is? I’ve never read about anything like it, and as for Pinkie... Well, that sums it up. Any ideas?” ‘Twilight’ seemed impatient towards Fluttershy's cowardice. I guess I couldn’t blame that one, as she was being attacked by that patched together lion-bat-scorpion hybrid, and afterwards by me, so it was appropriate for the situation.

“I d-don’t really kn-know, I thought it-t was a m-m-manticore at f-first, but w-when it f-found me hiding it looked c-completely different.” She barely made it through the sentence after noticing me glance at her. I guess I was right about the large creature being a manticore as well, but the small victory didn’t hold me over for very long.

I thundered and cracked a slightly coherent “That’s what I thought” and regained hope for initiating formal contact with them, and their leaders, if I wasn't looking at them.

While ‘Rarity’ was being fanned (where did that come from?), Twilight tried to get some kind of useful answer out of Fluttershy.

“Do you think we can let it out of the chains? It doesn’t look too dangerous anymore.”

"Come on, Twi, you didn't see it when it wasn't in chains!" Rainbow Dash argued, cutting Fluttershy's reply. The yellow one hid behind her hair, and Twilight tried to justify.

"That's why I'm so curious!"

"We already told you, from what Fluttershy said, it defeated a manticore, and when me and AJ got there, it-"

"Well, I think we should hear from Fluttershy on that."

Fluttershy began to voice an opinion, but was overshot once again.

"But she's too scared to even look at it!"

The two continued like this, their arguments degrading into madness with timing and percentages mixed in. I was interrupted in my observation when a head bobbed up and down in front of me, obscuring my view. Pinkie Pie was hopping to my height, trying to meet my gaze, and talking a mile a minute.

“I almost didn’t know what you were, but I just figured it out a few seconds ago! I’m Pinkie Pie, you might actually know that from back there, but then again, you could have figured it during all that exposition we were having. You know, that thing when we all say each other’s names because otherwise how would you know, you know? Unless you know of us from back there, that is. Anyway, I think you’re nice, and those two are almost done arguing, and when we get you down from there we can totally have a-”

Barely keeping my sanity throughout the interrogation from something that had already lost it, I pleaded to the others, but it fell silently as I did not wish to frighten them again. Until, that is, a few seconds later, when the pink horse’s voice became far too familiar for a brief second.

The others stopped and turned towards me and Pinkie Pie’s voice as she became quiet, replaced by a scream, in her squeaky voice. They pulled her back, before noticing she was still talking, yet no noise was coming out - at least, until the shrieking stopped.

“… and then I was like *gasp* because I couldn’t believe what just happened and… what?” She might have continued if she wasn’t being shaken violently by the orange one, Applejack. I still didn’t know how she did that stuff with no hands.

More shrieks came, and soon they realized that it was not her, but me. After whispering amongst themselves, I began to form some vowels, consonants, and eventually, my first, if barely understandable, word of the day.

“Hello!”

I was not a poet.

Pinkie Pie, after recovering her voice, said, “Hey! It sounds like me! Hello, Pinkie Pie number two! Ooh, we can be twins! That sounds like fun! But we’ll have to have make-up birthdays… Yay! Now the next-”

I stole her voice again, but words did not come easily. I spent the next full minute attempting to say a simple “Stop!”, but my vocal chords, tongue, and mouth were not working in unison and the sounds coming out were weak and slurred.

Trying a different strategy, I clumsily voiced through the five I could see, and got to Twilight’s voice. She looked extremely thoughtful, possibly considering the torture I was going through, but instead of saying something to silence the others she just took a few steps towards me an her horn started glowing.

The most fearful of events that day happened right after she started, when my wrists and feet started to heat up. They glowed with the same purple aura as Twilight’s horn, so I knew she was doing it.

“I think it’s just frightened; we should probably do something about that.” Twilight said, sounding sheepish. The tone and intention betrayed what was really happening, and I shook in my binds as my arms and legs were very close to being numbed by the burning pain. The others watched in awe, as if it was some sort of performance. I pulled and shook harder.

Twilight’s ethereal aura shifted down my arms, which then felt like they were burning on the sun, and my chest contracted as the light surrounded me. I could not breath anymore, and the drops of sweat leaking from my face would drop a short distance before being held in place and evaporating within the strange glow.

I actually had no idea what was happening to me, but a new sensation drove me to conclusions. My stomach area felt warmth like I had downed a hot beverage. It proceeded to heat up like a small fire within my upper bowels, and continued rising in temperature until my stomach acid boiled.

I was not being freed. I was being killed.

Somehow, for some reason, I had not reacted to the furthest extent just yet. Even as I was being killed by these sadistic aliens, I never reached my full effort. That was held off for when I felt like my body was being torn apart at the seems from all directions, as if every fabric of my being was dedicated to no longer being a whole piece. And so I screamed in agony. The others did as well.

A high-pitched tone reverberated through the clearing, increasing in frequency and volume until things started shaking. I heard windows shatter from miles away, and the chains around my arms started to shake violently. As the pitch became inaudible, with the nearby captors trying desperately to either find shelter or cover their ears, and the violet aura dissipating, I felt the chains stop vibrating and pulled down, rewarded with the sound of sheared metal. The ropes, which looked like thick twine from my perspective, had snapped easily in the heat of the moment. I took advantage of the ‘flight’ side of the adrenaline rush to find an escape route, pushing despite my nearly disabled limbs.

With the enemy temporarily neutralized, I could have had second thoughts about my ability to melt metal by screaming , but denied myself the curiosity once again. I needed to find a place to hide from these assailants, and as I looked to my right to see the unsettling forest, my mind was set.

Rolling to the side, I jumped over one of the cowering heaps and ran towards an apple tree before tripping over and hitting the ground. It was lucky I was turning to hug the tree, or else I would have crushed my jaw instead of falling on my right shoulder. Looking down to find what tripped me, I saw the familiar yellow and pink ‘Fluttershy’ in a fetal position (or, the horse equivalent) at my feet. Weighing the pros and cons of my next action, I quickly changed plans and tried to scoop the yellow one into a choke hold, as if it would provide me with leverage enough to make them talk.

As the others recovered, I tried to lift the small horse, newly discovered to be a pegasus, but suddenly lost all energy in my numbed arms and it fell to the ground. The burning in my arms returned again, and I centered on the purple unicorn that caused all of this, eyes ablaze as if it would hide the fear that nested in my gut.

Twilight’s horn was glowing again, and I quickly reached down to grab Fluttershy in a panicked re-attempt to make a hostage deal with them. When my hand hooked under her belly, I realized my mistake. The mistake that I made several times since getting there. The mistake that I was making again.

Strands of purple energy were drawn towards Fluttershy’s prone form, and I tried to drop her, but my arm was being pulled towards her center as well. The glow enveloped her, and I was partially blinded by a bright flash when her weight was suddenly lifted, replaced with third degree burns and a backwards momentum.

After regaining my footing from an awkward roll, I kicked up grass and dirt before moving to the tree line. I might have considered it silly to re-enter the forest, since they must have had a civilization, but Twilight did something to Fluttershy, and I was just collateral. I shuddered at the thought of what she could do if she was focusing on me, and succeeded, unlike the first time. I had time to think while outrunning them and their short legs, which were probably less suited to speed, despite them essentially being horses. Then I heard wings flap.

My heart sank as I remembered that two of them had wings, and probably the capability of flight. I slowed and turned, only to see a multi-colored streak rocketing towards me. I was back to running as fast as before, but the flyer clearly had a gain on me. Expecting the worst, I tucked my arms in front, lowered my head, and, waiting to the last second, jumped into the oncoming projectile.

A few seconds, several rolls and a couple more painful burns later, the pegasus was unconscious on top of me, while the others were quickly approaching. Where it's fur touched my neck and arms was another source of fiery agony. I rolled it off and continued running, quickly passing over the tree line despite the state of continuous discomfort and weakness I found myself in. I managed to limp a few dozen meters in, past several dense pockets of vegetation and around another patch of blue flowers. I didn’t know what they were, but the glowing blue mist around them was a mystery and I wasn’t much for experiments while being pursued by powerful aliens in an unfamiliar land.

Still running, I slowed down when I heard the footsteps (hoofsteps?) dissipate behind me, followed by queries about the condition of Rainbow Dash. I started to feel guilty about the injured pegasus, but I quickly justified it, seeing as it was the one that tackled me. Not to mention whatever Twilight was doing, I resolved any feelings for them that were brought on by benefit of the doubt.

I looked around at the low hanging sunlight that reflected off mossy trunks and shimmered beneath the canopy. I would have to find out where I was without asking the local pastel animals, and I thought a good place to start was the tree I woke up in. That was ground zero, but I didn’t pursue it right away. Unapparent sounds and movements kept me alert, but the voices died away, their cloudy presence dissolving into the woods.

So, I stopped and listened. I thought about things. I questioned reality. I asked why.

After a while, I got a funny thought in my head, and it all suddenly made sense to me, despite only giving me more questions.

“I’ve got a feeling I’m not in Kanata anymore…” I thought aloud, resting against a tree, momentarily safe from my attempted captors (and executioner). The grass shook in the wake of my closest attempt at speech yet, and I was thankful for one moment of peace in the last, incredibly taxing half hour of waking time. If only my hands had regained feeling that I could have felt the blades bend to my will, the dew collect on rough skin that did nothing to hint at the damage beneath.

I didn’t need to worry; it changed back, eventually.

Lost Chapters - #2 "Free At Last"

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Chapter 2:
Free At Last

I stood ahead of a large trunk that stood out from the rest. It had notches and marks carved into it by sharp and powerful claws. Three yellow feathers lay on the mulched forest floor. I shuddered and tried to move past the memory of an event that, upon further reflection, yielded positive results. It was more than could be said for anything else in the day, as I was strung up by aliens and almost killed on two occasions.

I took it back. Saving the yellow one was the catalyst for all of it. The morality was questionable, but I wished I hadn't done it.

I looked at the trail leading back to the area. It bore a curious pattern of two unbroken paths dug deep into the dirt and mud, with a single set of circular tracks off to the right. I turned to another track, leading in a direction I could guess led back to my tree. It was signified by broken grass blades and torn up shrubbery. That was the line I made on my way to the noise that was mysterious and unnerving not an hour past.

It must have been just as, if not more, horrifying for the manticore as/than it was for me, when a small, unknown animal ran up to it and knocked it down without touching it. A cone of flattened plants spread out from a roughened point, signifying the power that was let out, and centered slightly to the right of the desiccated tree.

The tree; I was standing next to that tree. Sap leaked freely out of the numerous notches. I played at a frayed end of what used to be a whole jacket.

The manticore did not need sympathy. The horses, pegasi and unicorns did not need sympathy. I sure as hell wouldn't get any, so it was no use saying that I needed any either. Did anything?

I trekked through the tall, broken grass and back to my starting tree. I took note of a small, dirty river that led in the general direction of the small mountain range in the distance, as I would eventually need to survive in the land I continued to find myself in, despite many a prayer to many sorts of deities that I could only hope to them that they heard me. I wondered if the local... things had any sort of imaginary, god-like character that they blindly followed.

Perhaps, I thought, they could mistake a large, intelligent creature, from a far away place, with mysterious powers, for a god? I wouldn't be so lucky, especially after their first reactions, but it was an interesting train of thought that I held onto for a few minutes before reaching my destination. Besides, they could overpower me anyway.

In a dreary corner of the forest, my original tree laid on its side. There were obvious exit signs on the trunk, with chunks and particles of moist bark littering the ground beneath. I caught a glint of reflected sunlight, and was surprised to find my watch among the wreckage. Next to that were my steel-toed boots, some gloves, a backpack, and some boots.

It fit that these would come here, given that it was in the midst of winter when I departed. Adding to the mystery, however, was a more encapsulating question of why; I did not have any of these items close to me before being teleported. Even my clothes were unfamiliar, and that was not because they were ripped and dirty. It made no sense that anything around me would be brought to this place, neither did it make sense that I would go.

I stated with force, as I left the area and headed up the stream with my loot in tow, that nothing made any goddamn sense. It took several tries, but soon I was able to pronounce the phrase, and most others. The water shook and bubbled in response.

“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?” I didn’t think I ever got it perfect before that attempt.

By now, I had increased in volume, and was speaking fluently in the language that never escaped me, yet in a distant voice. Boughs and shuddered leaves defied my words. They beckoned to me, as if to draw me to conclusions, yet I had no intention of following blindly into the deep woods.

I stuck to the river, not quite standing in the stream yet never leaving it's reassuring presence, keeping myself alert to the glowing eyes that seemed to dot every shadow and hide behind every tree only to pop out as soon as my vision left them. I caught motion in my peripheral vision, perhaps of one of the creatures getting careless and approaching. My neck tingled; they could have been silently approaching, directly behind me, that whole time.

"Ah-HA!" I shouted, landing from a jump that faced me towards them. Except they were gone, replaced by a tree. Less than a second passed, the remnants of a tree dotted the water to my right, and sharp pieces of lumber impaled everything behind it.

There were no reactions to what I did beside the one I held on my face, and even that was hard to discern. I, for some reason, looked to my hands, and noticed the lines that had always been there. I checked my clothing; it was torn up, but I owned it at some point. Nothing was different. Nothing changed about me.

Except for that. The force that decimated what used to be a tree, as immovable and invincible as they would be when faced by natural forces, even manticores, came from my lungs. My voice, if it was possible, did that to that. What, I thought, if anything, was real anymore? What position did I play in this screwed up game of pain and fantasy and power? What sort of malevolent force placed me in a land where I would have such quantities and qualities against me, despite having so much false potential to remove them? And...

...Why?

My explorative mind could not be sated by imagination any longer. It told me, try again. I didn't like it at all, but there were few other options beyond hiding away from the yellow and red dots that hung in the shadows. It occurred to me that it should not have been that dark, even in a forest, at one o' clock PM - according to my watch. Nothing was entirely believable except for the path that tracked both ways through the river, and even it seemed to beg to me. I finally listened, and I gave them something to listen to. I hoped it wouldn't work.

As another once-intact trunk ceased to exist, I knew that they were right. I was beyond different. Surely I was different, obviously, but the changes reached further than that; at my disposal was a force that had, at the moment, no specific use. It was just bestowed upon someone who had no capacity to exploit it properly, however that was going to happen. I could only imagine that it would end badly for all parties involved, yet the inanimate, non-existent voices continued begging.

My footsteps, the babble of the river to my left, and the inevitable chirping of birds above the canopy, filled the air with tangible sound. It drew me away from the non-voices of every dark corner, every overturned rock that I passed by. I became so lost in the realism that it became the only thing to hear, even past the grass and brush being crushed under my heavy steps.

It was only after the sound disappeared that I realised I was doing this. I shut out my footsteps, accidentally, after hearing an inconsistent gait and wishing I could be done walking. I spoke with the words of the forest, answering their calls and changing the message. Soon everything around me became a blur of incoherent noises, as if the raw, wandering thoughts leaked from my mind and littered the landscape.

Eventually, I found relief in the form of some sort of immediate goal. There was an apple hanging off of a single, outstretched branch, perhaps double or three times eye level. It was shaking and dangling slowly in the breeze, as if to be bestowed upon my outstretched hands. But I did not hold my hands out. Instead I watched as the apple

I quickly became bored of the lack of challenge, and tried something else. I had seen the effect my voice had on the manticore, and I attempted to replicate the action. Sucking in a deep lungful of air, I compressed it hard before forcing out a loud “BOOM!” ‘Ow, my leg…’

The water was momentarily pushed back over the ravine; leaves were blown off branches and some small shrubs were nearly flattened. I could not believe it when I saw it. I could move things by yelling. Not only that, I started to remember interesting things like that in a game I once played, years ago. I couldn’t recall much else about it, aside from "Force Roll Doll" or something. I guess nostalgia could wait until I actually remembered something that made sense.

After a few tries, I could consistently push things pretty far. I got bored based on the lack of difficulty, and my leg starting to hurt more, so for another challenge, I aimed up at the tree above me and repeated the blast.

“BOOM!” The tree was left with bare branches as the sound waves carried most of the leaves up in a burst of foliage. This was becoming exhilarating, so much so that I continued for hours, and ignored the pain of slight movements in my leg. I quickly learned how to produce different sounds, different blasts, and with more experimentation, more facets of my power were revealed. ‘Like levelling up, in a video game,’ I thought.

I could estimate the sound’s reactions with environments, and adjust my voice accordingly to make it sound like it was coming from somewhere else, basically ‘throwing’ my voice. I extended that specific point beyond the obvious use; inverting sounds and throwing them to an area could effectively mask out the existing noise. I could even silence my footsteps once I got the timing right. The rate at which my new abilities were being discovered was mind-boggling. The thought of being god-like was enticing, but soon, three conflicting thoughts came up.

The first was that I would possibly be shunned by those that had originally accepted me for being me. That was a given, and I could fully understand the reasoning, but it made me less than eager to return to my original home, back to Kanata. As far as I knew, nobody else had super powers, and the masses would look upon me as a freak of nature, and despise me for being better than them. That last portion eased the pain, as it was always a big point in a super hero’s life to accept hatred.

That last though got away from me; I was not a super hero.

Continuing to the next one, I started to wonder if I was still on the same planet, let alone the same universe. There certainly were no manticores in the present day, and even though I never traveled very far I could say for certain I had never heard of any talking, pastel-coloured ponies, or any unicorns or pegasi at all. For all I knew, I could be inside the game I remembered earlier, with those new body-tracking suits or something. I didn’t like that thought, however, since it assumed technology was around a decade more advanced than it really was.

It was very evident that something strange had happened last night, and I started to make links back to that tree. The feeling I got when I stepped back inside, the knowledge that flowed to me, almost as if it was passed down by an invisible hand. After having a good internal debate about the nature of this place, I went down to the last thought, and thinking it aloud gave me hope for returning home.

“If I was to find my way home, I could make a killing as a ventriloquist.”

That absolutely killed the serious mood I had going, and I literally broke down with laughter. Before long I snapped out of it when I heard some noises near by, and squelched my voice. With any luck, this was a search team sent out to find me after I had been missing for a day. But, of course, I heard the familiar voices of at least three of the six ponies that had captured me, so I needed to act quickly.

Securing my belongings in the pack, I ran off towards the mountains to find some form of shelter that would hold me over for the night, still feeling a sharp pain in my leg. I heard the hoof-steps grow louder, but as the grass turned to stone and I approached a cave, I had more consistent sounds to work with and masked out my own footsteps.

The ponies continued uphill, close behind me, but unaware of my exact location. I acted quickly and threw my voice past a nearby hill, producing pebble-shift noises, distracting them long enough to hide inside a crevice on the stone wall. Watching them pass me in the receding light, I noticed that the rainbow-cyan and yellow-pink ones were not with the other four. Perhaps the former was too injured to go along with them, after we collided. I think I got a broken leg from that incident, and my face reflected what I was thinking of the pain the smaller pegasus had gone through.

I felt guilty again, and this time, with only an empty rock cavern behind me, there was nothing to pull me away. The yellow pegasus was probably too shaken up after the two incidents and may be recovering from emotional pain. ‘Lightweight’, I chuckled.

After seeing the ponies retreat as quickly as they had left, I made my way into the larger cave and set up my camp in the dying sunlight. I looked at my watch to see that it was almost 7 in the evening. I was genuinely exhausted from all the running, practice and sustained injuries. I also needed to wake up early for what I had in mind, but I had one last thing to attend to.

I grabbed a few tough branches and some of the strips of fabric from my bag, and tied my leg up in a splint. It might not last for very long, but I could only think of a few options and I didn’t have the tools for amputation.

Straining to make a mental note of where the ponies had returned to, I laid on a slightly risen stone platform and wrapped my sweater around my body. Sleep came much more easily than the night before, even through my pain, as an odd sort of calm shifted through my body. My last thought was about being in my house, on the comfortable bed, drifting off….

Lost Chapters - #3 "And Then There Were Two"

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Chapter 3:
And Then There Were Two

I woke up early and fully awake, as was my custom when in an unfamiliar bed. Looking at my watch, which said 1:24, I had only slept for approximately six hours. Despite the early hour, I got up quickly to examine my surroundings. It was almost pitch black at first, but, as my eyes adjusted, the light from the large moon filled the area and illuminated my path.

The first objective of today was to make fire, and in the dark of the night I pulled some of the dried bark pieces from earlier and unsheathed my knife. I also found my sharpening block, and a few quick swipes along the short blade created enough sparks to start the fire.

Venturing down to the forest again I found some wool-like moss and more dried wood, and used half of it to keep the flames going. With the cave more illuminated, I did some exercises on the stone floor to wake myself up. I didn’t know what was up with my leg, but it seemed to be completely healed. I took off the splint and tested my weight, then jumped a few times. It was a strange occurrence, but I just shrugged it off as probably being related to my new powers. It was important to keep an open mind in a world that still made very little sense.

After getting a feel for my healed leg, I searched the small area near the back of the cave. I found nothing of interest, so I decided to go back to the fire and set up my next move. I needed answers, so I would have to find someone out there. If the city ahead was for these ponies, then I would have to get answers out of them, probably by force.

The sweater, which was a little ripped up but still wearable, kept me warm in the night as I exited the cave with a flaming branch. I stayed near the entrance, looking into the horizon. The forest in front of me led into plains, and further in, the small village that I first noticed after being captured the day before.

From my high vantage point I could also see what appeared to be a large castle construct hanging precariously from a rock face, on the mountains opposite my cave. That would have to wait, as there were many lights on around the city. I set out through the forest, which held numerous sights and noises, but none that caught my attention.

After making my way to the plains, without being mauled by any more hybrid animals, I put out my torch and approached the fence I had been tied to. The chains and ropes were still there, and while the former would get me caught if I held on to them, the latter was silent and had just as many uses. I took the rope and looked across the surrounding area, planning my course.

Directly to my left, near the forest threshold, was a small rustic home overtaken by a tree. The lack of disrepair told me that either someone still lived there and accommodated for the damage, or the tree was older than the house and it was simply constructed around the trunk. In front of me was a small copse of trees, and to the right appeared to be a large farm that swept across the further hills and grassland.

I looked to the left again, decided that a tree house would be easier to infiltrate than a farm, and made my way through the short hills and over a small river, opting to jump instead of taking the nearby bridge. There were lanterns on the main path, and while making sound was not an issue, being seen would be. I noticed a chicken coop and some low fences, which only served to confuse me about what the place was. It wasn’t connected to the farm, but had the means to support small livestock like pigs and chickens.

I slipped by the sleeping animals, and arrived at the tree house, which had lantern light coming from the further halls. It became apparent that somebody lived here, so I tried my best to mask the footsteps. Unfortunately, the creaky wood patio was unpredictable and betrayed my secrecy. Smoothly retreating around the side to a dirt path, I heard the door open and more light filled the area.

“Hello? Is anypony out there?” whispered the small voice. I recognized it as one of the pony creatures that captured me, and as it made its way down the steps and looked around, I saw that it was the yellow pegasus from earlier. I seemed to run into her a lot. Either way, this was my chance to get some answers. For example, what was up with it saying, “anypony”?

I waited for her to lose interest in the search, at which point she shrugged (how!?) and turned around. Darting silently across the dirt, I quickly returned to the porch until she stopped and flicked her ears, probably detecting my presence. I carefully walked behind her, taking out the rope, but my presence was revealed when I accidentally scuffed the ground, kicking a rock into one of her hooves. She slowly turned around, shrinking before my large, silhouetted form.

Looking at the wide, innocent eyes, I whispered, “Sorry,” and brought a closed fist down on the back of her head.

Catching the lantern before it fell to the ground, I carefully covered all evidence of my presence, before lifting the small, unconscious creature and returning to the cave. I hoped that no animals would approach me on my way back, because the small yellow and pink pegasus’ survival was quite possibly my last chance to gain any answers. If she died out there, and I was left injured, the others would very reasonably accuse me of the death and use their vastly superior powers against me. With this one alive, and in my possession, I could either use it as leverage to reach an agreement or find answers as to how I would return to my world.

Another uneventful trip through the forest later, I arrived at my cave with the fire almost dissipated. Before I attended to that, I needed to secure the still knocked-out pony to a large stone near the fire, via the rope I had acquired earlier. Luckily for me, the stone was ball-shaped and increased in size near the middle, nullifying the possibility of using her wings to escape.

I stirred up the fire again, and after laying the pegasus down in a pile of grass, I proceeded to eat a few apples I had found on her property before laying down in my own bed. It was two o’clock, and I was still slightly tired.

I woke up to the sound of something dragging behind me. The early morning sun was not out yet, but the fire was still going, casting deep shadows around the cave. I slipped into the darkness and observed my rising prisoner. She opened her eyes, yawned, and started to look around. After seeing the fire, she came to the realisation of what had happened, and looked around more quickly. Seeing the sunrise sky outside the cave, she ran towards it only to be stopped by the rope I had tied earlier. Starting to whimper and stutter, she tried to fly up, only to be stopped by the same, well placed restraint. Now without hope, she could only cry and occasionally call for help.

I decided to let this continue for a few minutes, until she finished crying and just sat by the fire, staring into it. I was also well prepared for that, as the rope was too short to be pulled over the fire, and she couldn’t reach any of the embers. I silently exited the shadows, slithering up near the fire just outside her vision. After the two previous run-ins with her, I picked up that she scared easily, so in order to get the best first impression I would have to take that into account.

"Hello." She closed her eyes and tried to back away from me, but was flanked by the wall and just scrunched up next to it.

"Please... dont hurt me! I didnt do anythi...." She became too quiet to hear after that, but I got the gist of what she meant.

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not dangerous." After hearing the reference, she opened her eyes in surprise, looking up at me. I was crouching, but I still towered over her shrunken form. She retreated even closer to the rock wall and tightly shut her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I.. I just.... I..." She squeaked out a few more sounds, but I finished her thought.

"I'm sure you didn’t mean it. I forgive you." Now she was looking at me with confusion, but I got the feeling I guessed right. She became more articulated after hearing that, but it didn’t last long.

"Who... I mean, ummm... w-what are, oh, of course, that is, if you don’t mind answering..." I heard another squeak that sounded like "sorry", so I knew I would have to try harder.

"All you need to know right now is that I need answers."

"Oh, ok, I’m just..... sorry..."

"I'm a human, to answer your question. I came here only one day ago, but I don’t know how or why, or what this place is. Do you remember the time when you first saw me in the forest?"

She nodded.

"That was only a few minutes after my arrival. I heard screaming and shouting, and my first reaction was to save whoever was in danger. As it turns out, that person was you." I pointed at her for emphasis. She seemed to understand, and trusted me a bit more.

“Now, what are you?” I asked.

“I’m a pegasus.” I hoped to get a better answer, but I guessed she was a pegasus.

“Do you know why the others attacked me, specifically the orange one, the cyan-rainbow one, and the purple one?”

“I think they saw you attacking me, and I, I mean… you… I…” I was losing her.

"Before the run in with the creature that was attacking you, I discovered that my voice was replaced with thunder and explosions. After defeating the creature with my voice, I tried to retrieve you from under the tree. Communication backfired, because of my voice being uncontrollable, and, as a result, your friends thought I was the one attacking you. I think you know the rest."

I had left out a key piece of information, but it was not the most appropriate time to mention that I had, with me, the same weapon that played a part in fighting a manticore. My explanation seemed to make her mind click and she looked up at me, with wide eyes. They looked off, somehow, as if the black pupils were actually endless holes. I shook myself away from their gaze as she started to speak.

"So... y-you just... fought a manticore... to save somepony you didn’t know?"

I nodded.

"After waking up in a place you knew nothing about?" She seemed to be getting a little excited, but I had no idea why.

"Yes."

"Thank you!" she jumped up and hugged me, nearly knocking me over. I didn’t like hugs, but there was sort of a give-and-take situation here.

"What do you mean?"

She looked up at me, and said with another confused look, "Nopony has ever defeated a manticore before!"

I looked at her with mirrored confusion and said, "I had never even seen a manticore before." Now she backed away from me, cautious of where I was going with this. I continued, "In fact, it’s common knowledge where I come from that manticores don’t exist."

"You must be far from.... Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to remind.... sorry...” She saw that I was saddened after thinking of my home.

"No, it's fine. I’m far from home, but I often go into the forests to the north. There’s been a recent problem, though.”

“You go into the forest on purpose? But…”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. I don’t remember these woods; I don’t even remember half the animals I saw in there. Plus the whole voice-of-power thing, I think I’m either dreaming or in a different world.”

“I don’t think this is a dream, I’m awake. I can see you.”

“You don’t need convincing, but I thought it wouldn’t be the first option, either. What’s wrong with that is this has never been done before, ever. The furthest anyone ever got, before now, was our moon.”

“Wow, you must be famous! Where do you come from?” She queried. I laughed, but the humour was lost on her.

“Well, I come from Kanata, Canada, and I don’t think I’m famous yet. Well get to that later though. What I want to know now is this: where am I now?”

She was deep in thought, probably contemplating on why I repeated the word “Canada” twice, but with different pronunciations, before she answered, “Oh! We’re in the land of Equestria, near the city of Ponyville, but, I-I don’t really know where I am now…” She began to show the initial fear, perfectly evident in her using of ‘I’ instead of ‘we’.

“Thanks, but I don’t really know where we are either. This cave is beyond the forest that borders your town, the same forest I woke up in.”

“That’s called the Everfree forest, and it’s dangerous, filled with all kinds of strange creatures…”

“Like manticores?”

She shied away even further, tugging at the rope around her waist. I decided now was the time to tell her.

“Do you know why you are here?”

She shook her head, “No…”

“I kidnapped you in the night.” She almost screamed when I said it, but brought her hooves to her mouth.

“I know you can never forgive me, but I thank you for giving me some answers. It really was my only choice, but that doesn’t begin to justify it. I have one last question for you.”

She was calmed slightly and looked up to me and, with a quiet voice, asked, “What is it?”

“Do you know any way for me to get out of here, back to my home?” I was almost pleading, and I didn’t do a good job of concealing it. She shook her head.

I let out a held breath as my guess was correct. She didn’t know what happened, so this captive was of no use to me.

I untied her rope.

She was originally very shocked, but quickly trotted towards the exit. I sat down closer to the fire, and started to put more wood in before being interrupted by hoof steps. I turned to the yellow and pink pegasus, who looked at me with slight concern before sitting down beside me.

“I forgive you.”

I backed away and looked straight into her eyes. I opened my mouth to ask her why before she continued, “You seem really nice, and I forgive you for doing what you did, especially since you intended to save me. It was all a big misunderstanding, I’m sorry.” She hugged me again, and I contemplated returning it, but I really wasn’t that kind of person.

“What’s your name?”

“Fluttershy.”

“You’re a good person, Fluttershy. I’m Ethan.”

“You’re a nice pony too, Ethan.”

We looked at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before laughing at the differences in dialect. I was becoming friends with this pegasus, after knowing her for less than a day, trying to kill her twice, and kidnapping her in the night. I looked back to her again and my eyes were drawn towards those eyes… I felt weaker, somehow. I drew myself away and looked at my watch, and saw that it was almost seven in the morning.

“You know, I don’t think anypony would have expected you to talk. I mean, you look like a forest creature.

“Yeah, well, don’t go spreading it around. The authorities will probably let me off easier if they think I can’t.” There were other reasons for that, but it was still a bad time.

“Why do you think they’re after you?”

“Because I stole a cookie, obviously.” I said with a sarcastic smile. She thought for a moment and giggled, but then looked below my eyes and stopped abruptly.

“What?”

“Oh, umm, I just noticed… something…”

“What?” I asked again, with an expectant tone.

“Um… you have… you look… nice.” She was a terrible liar, but I was a terrible interrogator, so I didn’t pursue the thought. I would find out eventually, probably.

I got up and put out the fire, and stepped towards the cave mouth, motioning for her to follow.

“Where are we going?”

“To the forest.” She began to protest, but I continued, “I have to show you something.” Content with the answer, we continued onwards, chatting about what was in the forest. I learned that she was extremely knowledgeable in the field, and after hearing names and descriptions I told her that the forests in Canada were much like this one, except larger and colder. She asked why, and I elaborated.

“Canada is an extremely large place, but most people live on the south borders, or on east and west shores. Forests cover most of the northern areas. It’s cold there for two reasons: one, it’s in the middle of winter right now, and two, Canada is so far north that some places never experience the warmth of summer.” She was extremely interested in what I had to say, even though her expression told me that she didn’t understand all of it.

“How cold does it get over there?” I told her the average was -22 Celsius, but she shook her head saying she didn’t know what a Celsius was.

“You know how cold it is when water freezes into ice and snow?” She understood that.

“It gets twice or three times as cold as that, every day.” That was true, but her overly sympathetic response told me she didn’t know I had a house. I wouldn’t correct her, I liked the attention. I still wasn’t much for hugs, but she liked giving them.

After a few more small discussions about plant and animal life, we arrived at the spot where I woke up only 24 hours ago. I told her about what I felt when I stepped back inside and she decided to give it a try. She shook her head and said there didn’t seem to be anything special about that place.

“Well, if there’s anybody that knows about something like that, it would be my friend Twilight Sparkle!”

“She wouldn’t, by any chance, be an all-purple unicorn, would she?”

“Actually, yes! That’s her! How’d you know?”

I groaned, “That’s the one that almost killed me. She attacked me with a glowing horn, and used some sort of teleportation on you before I ran off.”

“That doesn’t sound like her at all! You should meet her, I bet you would have a lot in common.”

“I’ll bet. Speaking of that, how are you around loud noises?”

“I dont really… wait, why?”

“Cover your ears.” She sat down and held her hoofs into her ears.

I took a deep breath, compressed it just like before, and released the blast at a nearby tree, sending the leaves flying. She looked up at the leaves before settling her gaze at me, and as I approached again she backed away slightly.

“Wha… what was that?”

“I don’t know. I discovered it after breaking out of this tree,” I said, patting the rotting trunk, “and used that blast to defeat the manticore. I’ve learned some more tricks, but I don’t think I should be shouting out in the open. The others might find me, and I don’t think they’re as trusting as you.”

“Well you won’t know until you meet them!”

I was distracted by noise in the distance. She noticed I was staring past her and followed her gaze. She turned back after seeing nothing, and asked about what I was looking at.

“I think I already know, actually. They aren’t.”

“Why not?” She asked, justifiably mixed with confusion and denial.

“They know where I am, and have some others with them. We don’t have much time. Do you trust me?”

“Yes, I do, but why-”

“Do not tell anyone about me. They can’t know that I can talk, that I have more powers, or even if I’m intelligent. I might die if they find out, but I trusted you to know. Please.” I was practically begging, yet again. She started to tear up, but quickly regained her stature.

“I promise. You can trust me, too.” I put my hand on her shoulder in gratitude, and returned to looking over her to the incoming convoy.

This time, when she turned to match my gaze, she saw it with me. At least two dozen white ponies, unicorns and pegasi, were charging in this direction. Near the back, in the rear of two carriages, there were two smaller ponies, one orange and one purple. Fluttershy would be unable to hear them, but with my abilities I learned of their intentions as they debated.

“I’m telling you, AJ, we need to bring it back!”

“Are ya kiddin’? Ya saw what’t did ta poor Fluttershy, an’ how it made all our voices? Ill bet’t has somethin’ ta do with Fluttershy goin’ missin’, no doubt ‘bout it!”

“That’s no reason to banish it to the moon, Applejack. Besides, I think it’s intelligent. If we capture it, we could learn a lot about what it is, where it came from, how it did the….”

Fluttershy tugged on my pant leg and pointed to the oncoming vehicles. Snapping out of that eavesdropping session, I quickly pushed her and told her to get away, before running in the opposite direction. I ran up to a large hill for a better vantage point, breathing in deeply. Before the impending fight, I grabbed my knife and threw it towards the trees behind me. It stuck into a trunk with a tell-tale ‘THUMP’. I began to run towards the forest, but there were large, armoured pegasi trying to flank me. I turned back, seeing my only chance at escape, and exhaled.

“BOOM!” The first carriage flipped over, momentarily stopping the ponies pulling it and knocking out those within. I tensed up for another blast, aiming at the second carriage, the one that contained the orange and purple ones, but missed high as I was tackled by one of the armoured pegasi. I easily kicked the small animal off of me, but quickly lost the satisfaction when six more flew overhead. I knew I had to act fast to avoid capture, but that hope was dying quickly.

After blasting a few pegasi out of the air, the concussive force rendering them unconscious, I turned to the next pack of regular ponies that were charging me. I knew I couldn’t disable them all in time, but once again, in the heat of battle I thought of another crazy idea. I aimed down and inhaled, charging a blast inside my lungs.

“BOOM!” The blast hitting the ground created a wide, deep crater, shooting out tufts of grass and dirt in front of the oncoming pack. Some of them fell over, clutching their eyes, while those near the edges continued, unfazed. I blasted the one to the right, and rolled to dodge the two lefties before they collided into each other. I ran towards the forest, but was tackled head on by two more ponies, while several more surrounded me. I couldn’t shake them off, and sucked in another blast, ready to fire, when everything stopped.

A purple glow surrounded my body, tugging at my arms and compressing my lungs. It was a struggle to move, but the assault forces that was caught in the glow were lifted away and set down, completely unharmed. As the unfrozen soldiers backed away, I was rearranged to face the purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. Her horn was glowing with a purple glow again, like when she teleported Fluttershy out of my arms.

It was almost as if she was laughing at me, at my simple sound manipulations, when she was virtually omnipotent, capable of using full telekinesis.

She looked at me and said something to the orange pony, whom I remember being called ‘Applejack’, but it was just a muffled noise that I couldn’t make out, even with my enhanced hearing.

I prepared for my last ditch effort to get out of there: the ultrasonic frequency that I had used to escape from them before. The unicorn, however, sensed whatever energy I was using and constricted me further. I started to suffocate, my chest being compressed more and more, and everything went black.

Lost Chapters - #4 "Dear Princess Celestia"

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Chapter 4:
Dear Princess Celestia

I had brief moments of consciousness while being transported. My eyes would open for seconds at a time, and scenarios flashed before me. I was on a carriage, still being held by the purple glow. Next, I was being carried in the purple glow up a large hill to what I thought looked like a castle. It looked familiar. After blacking out again, I was dropped on a stone floor while the two captors approached the source of two mysterious voices. It seemed like hours of inaudible discussion before I awoke fully and rose to my feet.

“Well, it is awake now. Guards, be wary; we do not know what it is fully capable of.” The first mysterious voice was large and commanding, but yet again, female. I heard some male voices from behind me, probably the guards that were just mentioned. I noticed I wasn’t paying attention to the four voices in front of me and quickly tuned in.

“- even standing on two legs. Could this be another form?”

“Look, it just appeared out of the Everfree and started attacking one of my friends. Applejack and Rainbow Dash…” The voice paused as I started looking around.

I settled my gaze on the four shapes in front of me. I remembered the smaller pair as Applejack and Twilight, but the other two were massive and looked different. They each had a pair of wings and a horn, like a unicorn and pegasus combined. The larger one on the left had white skin and a flowing, lightly rainbow-coloured mane; the one on the right was smaller, dark blue-skinned and had a flowing mane that looked like a portal into space.

“What are you?” I didn’t answer. “Why are you here? Why did you attack my subjects?”

I grunted in response, shaking the floor and causing dust to fall from the ceiling. I hadn’t intended for such a great first impression.

“What could it be, Celestia?”

“I’m sorry, Luna, but I do not know. Twilight, you said you haven’t heard of anything like this before?”

“Yes, Princess Celestia. You see, the pegasus it was attacking, my friend Fluttershy, described it as looking and sounding like a manticore, but once we saw it up close it didn’t match up. It seems to wear clothes, so we thought it would be intelligent. It actually managed to speak once, but then we realised it was just pulling words from another pony.”

“It pulled words from a pony? How could it have done that?”

“Well, I think it has some sort of magical ability that lets it…” Ok, that was enough of that. Magic? Was that what they thought it was? Obviously, everything they knew about me was, at best, guesswork. I remembered Fluttershy’s last answer in the cave, about not knowing about what brought me here, and started to look around at the room while barely listening to the dialogue ahead of me.

The hall I was standing in was a huge stone archway, like a cathedral. I was standing on a thick red carpet that led up to two thrones, each of which held the larger hybrids, ‘Luna’ and ‘Celestia’. Along both walls were several stained glass windows, and each seemed to depict a historic event, but they were far too flashy and abstract to make out. There were several closer windows without glass, and that provided an opportunity.

Observing the two leaders, and their interactions with each other, I started to form my plan. Cooperativeness was not a trait that I would use to escape out of here. I couldn’t rush this, however; I could exploit my abilities, push them aside with my voice or disable them with a high frequency, but the purple one, I thought it was ‘Twilight’, had power far beyond mine, and I couldn’t imagine what the two larger ones were capable of. Taking it slow would be my only strategy; these things were powerful, but not very clever. I tuned in again.

Twilight started, “We only know for sure that it can make noise-”

“A whole lotta noise!” Applejack corrected.

“Yes, a ‘whole lotta noise’, so we should be able to keep it within an enchanted dungeon cell until we can learn more about it.”

“Why would we need an enchanted cell?” Luna asked and and looked towards Celestia

“Well, it doesn’t just make noise. When we captured it in chains, yesterday, it let out a high pitched scream. Next thing we knew, it was out of the chains and holding Fluttershy. I don’t know what it did, but I’m sure it couldn’t have broken the chains on its own.”

Celestia closed her eyes, deep in thought, “You are correct, Twilight Sparkle. One moment, please.” She turned to her sister and started whispering, but I could still hear them.

“Luna, are you able to enchant a cell for our guest?”

“Of course, but what kind of magic are we dealing with here?”

“Based on the descriptions, I think it uses sound manipulation.”

“What? That died out centuries ago!”

“Come on, can you do it or not?” I heard a tinge of laughter in their voices.

“You know I can. It’ll take a while, though.” The princesses turned back to Twilight.

“My sister and I will enchant a cell to make sure our guest does not try to leave. It will take a few hours.”

“What do we do about it until then, Princess?” She started to look crossed between scared and concerned.

“Just a moment…” Celestia closed her eyes again, and her horn began to glow. I felt energy surge through my body, which soon turned into pain. That was enough; I decided to go sooner rather than later.

My arms were in chains, but they weren’t connected with cuffs. In a swift motion I pulled the left chain, which revealed to be attached to a guard as he was pulled over. I turned to wrestle with the other, before I remembered I could just melt the chains. ‘Thanks for reminding me, Twilight.’

After I was out, with the ponies around me doubled over from the noise, I rushed towards the princesses. I didn’t know how they would react to the sound, but I had a good guess of how they would react to a blast of power. I tried to continue towards them, but the pain intensified and I dropped to my knees.

Celestia’s horn was blindingly bright at this point, and I could barely breathe through the sparks blasting through my body. I exhaled what was left of my power towards them, but it dispersed as Luna’s horn glowed as well. Nearly suffocating and feeling worse than dying, I fell to the ground and blacked out.

After what seemed like minutes, but could have been hours, I woke up in a dark room. There was a thick, glowing door on one side and a hay stack in the other. Everything else was dark cobblestone, and in the boringness of it all I remembered what happened.

I knew I was captured, but I was not sure where. It may have been the large castle I saw on the horizon this morning, but it could also have been on another continent. I also didn’t know if the cell I was in was really enchanted, or what they meant by that. I heard the unicorn mention that I had “magical abilities”, so was it really possible? Could I be in a land of magic? There were manticores, which seemed to increase the evidence, but then I thought about it.

“It could be a dream,” I said to myself, “after all, I did fall asleep right before arriving here. And there are mythical creatures all over the place, not to mention they speak English. And I have superpowers. That's a doozy, but, then again, when I think about dreams in a dream, I wake up. When I fall asleep in a dream, I wake up. None of that has happened yet, and I've done both several times."

It was then that I made my mind up. Magic or not, I would get out of here. I had to. I got up, collected myself, and blasted the door. As dust settled, I saw that the door didnt move at all. I pressed my hands against the thick metal and tried a high frequency, but nothing happened. Low frequencies, blasting the floor and walls, all of it did nothing. I slumped against the wall, out of ideas.

That meant that I really was in a land of magic, that this was indeed an enchanted cell. They weren’t guessing when they said I had "magical abilities". They were talking ponies, unicorns and pegasi, and those two hybrid things, magic existed, and this was not a dream. I just waited, but soon heard some muffled noises. I focused in and found out the source.

There was talking upstairs, and I could hear them. It seemed that they did not anticipate my enhanced hearing, even though they knew what my powers were. Perhaps it was related to the mention of not hearing about it for centuries. I began to wonder how old the princesses were, but I snapped out of it and focused on their discussion.

"-ord's beasts, coming back to attack us!"

"Please, he was never able to directly control anypony, and he never used demons to do his bidding." Again, with the any/every-pony.

"But what if it's usually peaceful and he just corrupted it? It's happened to the elements before, surely he could do the same to a wild animal, no matter the intelligence!”

“I just don’t like the idea of it, Luna. After all, he shouldn’t be coming back. It’s been, what, three months? I know the elements were inexperienced, but the prophecy did not account for any of these occurrences. We will have to wait and see.”

“But Tia!” Was that a nickname? I knew they were sisters, but it seemed their dynamics may be more complicated than I thought.

“Enough, please, we have visitors. Try to remain calm, and the answers will come, given enough time. They always do.” I struggled to listen to two points at once. The large room from before, with its stone walls and vaulted ceiling, was designed with acoustics in mind, which made it slightly harder to pinpoint locations. Eventually I got the hang of hearing two places at once, and started listening again.

“-ponies are here to see you, Princess Celestia!”

“Speak of the devil. Let them in!” several pairs (quads?) of hoof steps filled the room, and greetings began.

“We are thankful for your time, Princess. My friends and I would like to see your new captive; we think we have a few ideas about getting information from it.” I thought I recognised that voice…

“It is a pleasure to see you, my faithful student, but I am afraid I cannot allow that. There are still many unknowns, and while you have been able to overpower it before, I would not advise you to take such risks.”

A few shuffled steps later, and the six were whispering amongst themselves. It did nothing to stop me from hearing, but they didn’t know that.

“So, Fluttershy, what did you have in mind? I sure wont get anywhere with “a few ideas”.”

So it was that group. I tested the ground around them with subtle steps and cracks as they talked. I couldn’t let Fluttershy tell them anything, and there was only one way to prevent it; I would have to talk to her.

“Well, you see, yesterday morning, I was just-” I got her location. I needed to act fast.

“Fluttershy…” I masked the sound of my voice from the others.

“Hmm? What were you doing?” Twilight was trying to get answers. I needed to try harder.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I... I was saying that-”

“Don’t tell them.”

“What was that?” She seemed unwilling to accept my presence.

“Fluttershy, nopony said anything.”

“They can’t find out… please.”

“Oh, umm… I suppose it was just the… the wind. That’s it!”

“Sure. You were saying?”

“Yes, I, uh… never mind, Twilight. I don’t… remember.”

“Thank you.”

They said their goodbyes, dragging their hooves in shame as they moved out. I heard them pestering Fluttershy for chickening out, but even if they managed to get answers, the Princess would hesitate to have another audience with them after today.

I felt bad, but also relieved, because I would be put on trial if anyone else knew I could talk. They would ask why I was here, why I attacked somebody, what my powers were, and probably something about this ‘prophecy’ mentioned earlier; if that happened, my only answers would be “I didn’t do that,” or, “I don’t know.” That wouldn’t be very convincing.

“Celestia, what was that about?”

“I do not know, Luna, but I believe you may be right.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Something strange is going on here, and those six ponies…”

“Aren’t they the Elements of Harmony?”

“Yes. Those ponies, the elements of harmony, mainly the element of kindness, are withholding information. Since you are the one who suggested these connections, however…”

“Are you suggesting I go out to do your dirty work, Tia?” The levels of sarcasm surprised me.

“Yes, I suppose I am. Have fun. And, sister…”

“Yes?”

“Be careful. I believe you remember what happened last time you went out on your own?” Celestia was stifling a laugh, but it didn’t hold very well.

“You mean on Nightmare Night? When half the town was running away and the other half was begging me not to eat them?”

Both of them were leaking with laughter, but Celestia managed to pull off a serious tone for a few seconds, “I trust you won’t let that happen again, hmm?”

“You don’t give me enough credit, Tia. I will, however, give you a royal promise that I will not eat anypony.” There were slight scuffs on the floor, from Luna’s area, and the two burst out laughing. I gathered that she didn’t actually perform a royal promise. After the two stopped laughing, they said their goodbyes and parted in opposite directions. Celestia was walking up a spiral staircase, and Luna walked to the far end of the room, through the doors, and flew off. I made out one last line before the door to the upper rooms closed.

“I wish she would stop calling me that…”

I didn’t know what to think. On one hand, one of the princesses was going to be gone, so I would have an easier time escaping. Not that I had any idea of just how I would actually do it.

On the other hand, Luna ate ponies. That was… weird, to say the least. I accidentally let my mind wander too far, and began imagining what they tasted like…

It was right then that some food dropped into the cell, from a slot in the door that phased out as soon as it had appeared. I hadn’t realised that I was so hungry, but the appearance of food does wonders to an appetite. I dropped the idea of eating equines, quickly ate the five apples, almost inhaled the bread, and was about to finish the last dish when I saw what it was made of.

Hay. These creatures ate hay. Not meat and potatoes, but dried grass. I was originally put off by the idea, but I decided I shouldn’t pass up the chance, so I chewed on a few of the strands. It reminded my of celery veins, and thus was far too hard to break down, so I spat it out. After finishing the other courses, I pushed the tray into a similar looking slot and laid down again. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was 8:32 PM. Time flies when you have fun.

Deciding that an early bedtime was for the best, partly because I had nothing to do, I tried my best to go to sleep. My eyes remained shut, but my mind repeatedly wandered to today's incident, beginning with Fluttershy and ending with capture... or was that yesterday? Fluttershy was talking about yesterday morning before I spoke to her from the cell, and I wondered if she meant when she was attacked by a manticore, or when she was kidnapped.

I continued those thoughts unwillingly, looking for a way out. I kept replaying the last few days in my head, trying to find answers that would put me at ease. I settled on only being here for two days, but I still didn’t find any sleep.

Maybe it was withdrawal from the games and computers in my house? That would be an easy answer, but incorrect as I only got into it when I was bored, and this trip was far from boring. Perhaps my mind was dwelling on my new powers, but if that was the case, then what put me to sleep on the first night?

I settled on the explanation that this was the first time I was put in jail, and I was angry at the beings that put me here. Of course, I was a powerful being myself, so it was really an ‘us against them’ sort of thing. That train of thought made me anxious about my future in this place. Was I to be just ‘that creature in the dungeons’ forever?

I looked at my watch, and thought about how it was the only thing I had left. It was the last thing my parents had given me, almost fifteen years ago, and the last reminder of everything in my previous life. My mind was going all over the place, but I managed to slow down and everything was quiet. As I was staring at the watch and seeing a cut and bruised face of sadness and despair reflect back to me, I quietly drifted off.

I was awoken by another tray sliding into my cell. Crawling over to it, I saw that it had eggs, toast, more apples and hay, and some sort of pastry. It was odd to see such food being served in what I assumed acted like a jail, but I couldn’t complain, with the exception of the hay. After finishing and sliding the tray back, I finally got an idea on how to escape. It would need practice, so I practiced.

At first, I was attempting to simulate and throw sound like I had done the second day. I would throw my own voice around, simulate the voices of Luna and Celestia in different places, and start up heated conversations. I originally thought that it would both strengthen my powers and keep me sane, but then thought about how I was essentially talking with imaginary friends and stopped quickly. Next up was the noise blocking ability that was essential to getting this far.

I figured out that once I had a mental map of the room’s acoustics, I could replicate sounds, noise and vibrations in certain patterns to form a field of silence, or block sounds from outside the field. Moving it around the room, I was dumbstruck at how easily I could manipulate- oh, yeah. Magic. I had to get used to thinking of it that way. With a specific goal in mind, I focused my hearing up to the large room from last night.

“-estia, I must inform you that the location of your sister, Princess Luna, is not known to…”

“What? Are you saying you just lost an alicorn? How is that even possible?”

“Well, you see, we were, umm…”

“Never mind what you were doing. I’ll send a letter.”

“A letter? To who?”

“My student, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends. They know something about this, and even if they didn’t, they would be the right mares for the job.”

“Twilight, and her friends? Aren’t they the elements…?”

“Yes, the elements of harmony. Now go, you must keep looking. While I have no faith that you will succeed, given the recent events, I must keep you busy with something.”

I heard hooves scuffing, and some sort of whooshing flame noise. I didn’t want to assume what it was, though I was curious. I should have more time for that, later. After a few minutes of silence, some sort of ceremonial horns blew and dozens of hooves lined into the room.

“There are citizens here for royal requests, Princess!”

“Send them in, I have time!”

I lost patience with the requests after some time, but I did learn a few things. The weather didn’t move by itself; pegasi used magic to move clouds and adjust temperatures. The sun and moon were lifted by the two princesses, though Celestia did both, most of the time. Among all these voices, shouts and whispers, I would sometimes hear Celestia mutter things about her sister under her breath, and once again, my ‘magical’ abilities allowed me to hear them perfectly. She was worried for her sister, and didn’t know what to do. I would take advantage of that tonight.

After two more trays of somewhat repetitive food passed through my cell, I was anticipating the night’s events. ‘This is it,’ I thought, ‘it’s all or nothing, now.’ I was fairly certain that nobody would come to help me, and all this talk about me being involved with some sort of evil plan made it seem like I would be prisoner there until the answers were found. I was not going to rot down here, so the final preparations were made. I would distract Celestia, get her to open my door, and slip by unnoticed. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was 11:25 PM.

Celestia began to walk up the staircase. I was losing time.

“Hello, Celestia, are you down here?” The fake Luna sounded like she was down here, in the dungeon cells.

“Luna! Where are you? What happened?”

“I figured it out!”

“Oh really? Care to explain to me why you are in the castle dungeons?” Doubt was in Celestia’s voice. It wasn’t easy.

“Our guest, the sound manipulator, it knows what all of this is about!”

“Really? It can talk?” She was roped in, and began descending to my dungeon.

“Oh, yes. It knows all about the prophecy, all about the elements, everything! It was actually just scared the first time, it isn’t dangerous!” I was just making stuff up as I went; if Celestia asked what I knew I would have no backup. She arrived near the door.

“Where are you?”

“In here!” It sounded like she was in my cell.

“Why?” Damn, she’s good.

“It didn’t want any of the guards to get in after me! They hold grudges, you know.”

“Hmm… Tell me, why hasn’t this loose-lipped captive said anything to me yet?” I only had one chance left to convince her.

“He’s just shy! Come on!”

No answer. Last shot.

“Tia, come on!” The whiny voice carried that blasted nickname. I crossed my fingers, standing next to the door, hoping it would take. Luckily for me that last line seemed to be enough, and a glowing blue light triggered several locks in the thick portal. As the last deadbolt slid down, a similar blue aura surrounded the door and it opened to reveal the white princess.

She looked around my empty room, scanning with some sort of night vision, oblivious to the dark silence rolling over the halls, up the stairs, and into the main room. As I looked around to make my exit, the great and powerful sun ruler caught on and charged towards the stairs.

I was now in the main room, my senses and abilities heightened in the heat of the moment. I scanned the carpeted great hall, and my memories pointed me to one of the open windows behind the throne. With Celestia only steps away from my level, I quietly sprinted to the sill and dived out the opening. That was a move that I regretted instantly. I did not take into account that this castle was on a mountain, suspended over an ocean.

Now falling, I had to think of something. I didn’t come all this way to die a watery death, so I spread my arms and legs to slow the drop. I spurred my mind along, avoiding the fear of freefall while thinking of a solution. I flashed back to the last time I had blasted while aiming down; the dirt under my feet became a crater, but I thought I lifted up slightly. Not willing to take anything off the table, I breathed in, approaching the water. At the last second, I released the building energy towards the surface of the water, only meters above it. It was effective, to say the least.

My descent was slowed to a quarter speed, making it seem like I just stopped and hovered above the water, which was pushed down in another crater. After what seemed like minutes of no movement, I gently dropped in, shivering as the cold surrounded me. I was only a few meters from the shore, so I quickly swam up and sat on the sand. Sitting in the darkness, my mind, and hearing, could only wander back to the castle.

“GUARDS!”

“What is it, princess-”

“The prisoner has escaped!”

“What? Where is it going?”

“Check the forest.”

“Whitetail woods?”

“No; it’s going to the Everfree.”

“The royal guard is on it, your majesty!” The male voice started to bark commands as it disappeared out of the room. Celestia walked towards the windows, and I backed into a deep shadow. I saw a white blur pop stick out of the window I used to escape, and looked around a few times before going back in. I heard the princess walking up her staircase, muttering again.

“What is happening to this place?”

I knew what she meant. I had no idea either.

As far as my last thoughts on the matter went, I was deciding what I would do in the Everfree forest. The guards were looking for me, but the leader sounded apprehensive when he heard where I was going. That would buy me some time, but in order to stay on the lamb, I made myself promise something.

I would not be able to trust Fluttershy any more, and I could not go back to her for help. It was hard to accept at first, but if any of the other ponies found me near her house, or worse, talking to her, the punishment would be terrible for both of us. I would have no other chances to escape, since they already knew of my tricks, and Fluttershy would probably be executed for treason. I couldn’t afford to go back, I was already in a corner.

I would have to go to my cave, collect what was left, and move further into the forest. With that in mind, I began to walk towards the tree line.

My feet hurt.

Lost Chapters - #5 "Encompassed"

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Chapter 5
Encompassed

I stood up and shambled towards the forest. The forsaken Everfree was my only option left, but I would make the best of it. As I headed through, just barely making out paths in the moonlight, I began to feel some sort of push. It was strange at first, like someone was directly behind me, shoving my back if I slowed, but soon it was a reassuring sign that wherever I was headed, it was probably the right direction.

After picking myself up, I realized that the object I ran into was a dead tree. Backing up, I noticed it was the same tree I had woken up in, less than a week ago. ‘Did this place draw me back?’ I reached up to grab the knife that I had wisely thrown away before I was taken, sliding it into the sheath. They may not have known what the sheath was for, but the knife was fairly obvious and would have been taken away. Luckily, it remained in the same place as before, buried inches deep in the rotting bark. It was another stroke of luck that the moon was out, as the blade’s lunar reflection was the only sign it was there. Of course, I heard something about the moon only coming out at night earlier that day, but I was only just coming to grips on magic existing and I didn’t want to mess my mind up further by thinking about it.

After looking for any ponies nearby, I stepped inside the tree again, hoping that the mysterious feeling would direct me to where I should be going. Nothing happened. I decided that I should go to my cave to find the few things I would need, like my glasses and sharpening block, and then continue in the direction I had been traveling in.

I started thinking about my feet hurting, which only increased the anguish, but drew me to another thought: my left leg, which had healed overnight on the second day. It was ‘Almost like magic!’ I laughed at the thought. I wondered if the same thing would happen to me again, but the thoughts soon degraded into similarly horrible jokes and puns until I managed to track down my cave. Nothing was out of place, at first, but as I entered the mouth two objects stood out at me.

There was a shiny red apple, and a folded note. The note had odd glyphs on it and was probably placed there by Fluttershy after I spoke to her. It was strange that she thought I would get out, but I didn’t pursue the thought. I was hungry, and the apple was probably the best one I had had yet.

Still eating, I went into the cave to retrieve the objects I didn’t take with me the first time and began to start a fire. I looked out of the cave for some dead wood, but something else caught my eye.

Several of the trees around me were apple trees, carrying large fruit not unlike the one I was still holding. The unsettling sight, however, was lying below; there were apples on the ground. Apples just like mine had fallen to the forest floor recently. After a few seconds of staring at one of them, I finally understood why this scared me.

Every single one of them was rotten to the core, while my apple was healthy and clean. Someone, again, probably Fluttershy, picked it recently, within the last few hours. I wasn’t going to take the chance that this was a ‘coincidence’; one or more ponies knew of my escape, knew where I was, where I lived and could track my movement well enough to outrun me to my cave. That was not good.

I put my knife in its sheath, collected my few belongings in my pack, picked a few apples, and searched the horizon for a place to go. I wanted to get further away from the castle, the center of the search, so my options were to continue along the mountainside to the right or go into the forest on the left. I saw ruins of a building within the forest, nearly opposite the castle, and made that my goal. Less than a minute after throwing the apple, I was sprinting through the forest, with virtually no sound in my wake thanks to my powers. I sprinted for several minutes, leading into jogging for an hour and walking the rest.

In the brief time of an hour or so, I covered most of the distance, and supposed that slowing down was a good trade-off for my legs not falling off. I sat by a river on some dewed grass, eating my apples. I was surprised at how many I was finding out here, and how many I had eaten in only five or six days. Or was it four or five? I lost track of time somewhere between being kicked in the head and constricted by magic, so it could just as well have been a month. Either way, the apples tasted better here, and they seemed to be healthier as well. I couldn’t complain about that, but there were plenty of bones I had to pick. Now was a good time. I began to dwell on all of it; the ponies, the forest, the physics, the powers, and that blasted rotten tree. I wanted to think about it, I wanted to make sense of it. I had a chance to ask…

I once again dwelled on failing to get any useful information out of Fluttershy on the second morning. Maybe it was the shock of arriving here so quickly, or maybe it was my general inability to communicate. I seemed to remember saying all the things I meant to, but I kept thinking of her eyes. Those huge, cyan-rimmed eyes that seemed to fall inside forever… Something was up with those things, and the more I thought about what it was, the further I was from the answer. And the closer I was to something else.

My vision was snapped back to the river as I heard some twigs snap, some leaves crunch. I looked up, and fewer than ten feet away was a dark figure similar to the ponies I had just left behind. I reached for my knife, but held it within the sheath as I the silhouette slowly approached me, showing no signs of aggression. It soon was circling around, examining me from all angles before mumbling something to itself in an odd language. It might have been the one to leave the glyphic note on my doorstep, but I couldn't know.

Getting a better look at it, I saw that it was a zebra, very similar to the ponies. It also had several brass-coloured rings around its neck, one on its ear and a few around the left-front leg. I had no idea what this zebra was doing out here, but it looked like an African tribe-woman, except for the whole thing about it being a zebra. It began to mumble things again, and poked me around my waist. That hurt a lot for some reason.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked, making sure to keep an even tone. Unfortunately, the zebra jumped back, startled, and started looking around. It took me a while to figure out what it was doing.

“I’m right here, in front of you.” It looked back to me, a frightened grimace turning into a warm smile.

“I did not expect you to talk to me. You should probably follow if you wish to be free.”

“Well, I guess I… wait, what? You know I’m a convict?” I rushed after her as she trotted away, almost tripping over my confusion.

“I know a great deal about what happened to you. So I suppose I could say, yes, I do.”

“How much do you know, and why are you rhyming?” The zebra looked at me with light anger in reply to my question for a few seconds before looking ahead. We were approaching a small hut in a clearing. It didn’t look like any of the pony houses I’d seen, but I couldn’t let my guard down.

“Are you leading me into capture?” I started to slow and looked all around, searching for anyone nearby. It was hard to see in the darkness, but I scanned the forest with extended hearing and found no other hoof-steps.

“I assure you that you will be safe within here. Most ponies abandoned this route, out of fear.” It turned back with a saddened look, and I hurried ahead after being reassured that I was not being captured again. Still, I thought, this zebra was probably lonely out here-

I stopped myself from thinking about how it felt. It was no concern of mine, at least not right now. I was getting away from those that it missed, so all the better if it was in a secluded part of the forest.

During my inner monologue, the zebra had approached the hut, which appeared to be made of combinations of thatched grass and straw, and something like leather. From the top came a plume of grey smoke, and I noticed it bore some streaks of colour. My little forest guide opened the door and motioned that I go inside, and I crouched as I passed through the low door. It gasped as I stood to my full height, but nonetheless continued to a cooking cauldron in the center of the room and sat down. I crossed my legs to drop beside it.

I looked around at the strange room. All covered with odd lighting that didn’t match up with the fire, bottles, pouches and various wooden masks littered the brown walls. The roof was held up with wooden beams, and there was some sort of device in the corner with similar design…

“So, what leads you to my part of the forest, my-” I held up a hand in pause and it stopped. I didn’t want it to rhyme anymore, based on my inexplicable knowledge of things dying whenever she finished a verse.

“Do you think you could, you know, not rhyme for a while? I find it really unnerving.” The zebra nodded and seemed to think of a non-rhyme before speaking again.

“As you wish.” It gave me a sheepish smile before turning around and muttering something. I heard it perfectly.

“I heard that.”

“Heard what?”

“You said ‘smelly fish.’ You completed a rhyme”

“I don’t think I did, maybe you’re hearing things.”

“Oh, you bet I hear things. I hear your heart beat; I hear your joints creak. I even hear a mechanical alarm clock going off for the fifth time tonight. Sounds like someone’s late for work today.” It seemed unimpressed at my explanation, but looked up to me again.

“What are you?”

I thought for a while before answering, “Name’s Ethan.”

It raised it’s hoof, “Zecora.” It took me a few seconds of looking awkwardly at its hoof before realising what it was attempting. I took it in my hand and shook.

“Pleased to meet you, Ethan, and I do have need of you. Please, sit over there so I can examine your leg.” I got up and walked to the structure Zecora was pointing at, the one that distracted me earlier. It was a latticed contraption of wood beams, twine and several gears, and I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do with it.

“Just put your flank in… oh, that’s not right. Your anatomy is different than…” Zecora trailed off and started adjusting the machine. As I watched, I noticed it sounded female, and looked similar in build to Fluttershy and the other ponies I met earlier. It even had some sort of abstract tattoo on its back legs. I was about to decide on its gender before it noticed me looking at its flank. I quickly turned away after meeting its gaze, but it was a hopeless gesture.

“I saw that.”

“Ok, I have a question to ask, but it’s only partially related to that… I hope.”

“Go on.” It was torturing me with that intentionally seductive smile. I hoped it wasn’t trying anything.

“Are you female?” I asked, trying to give as flat a tone as possible. It didn’t work, my face burned up.

“I am. And as for you…?” As she asked I thought up a pretty good joke.

“What’s your preference?” I leaned down with a huge smile, inches from her face. She blushed, so it probably worked.

“None of your concern, but based on that I’d say your female as well.” Well, that didn’t work out- wait. What?

“Wait… what?” I thought aloud. She began to answer, but I shook my head (as a ‘no’ gesture and to get rid of my confusion) and explained further. “I’m a man. My name is Ethan. I have this voice. How’d you mess that up?” I stood back up as she approached the cauldron, abandoning the strange wooden machine behind me.

“You seem to be more forward when discussing things like these; I haven’t heard the name Ethan before; and, you checked me out.” She smiled and waved her backside at me, at which point I almost burst several blood vessels and fell on the floor. Almost.

That… that was just wrong in so many ways. My discomfort was compounded by two things that Zecora had the pleasure of reminding me; these horse-like beings bore faces that looked very human, which made me think of them as such, and they were all naked. Naked girls walking around in public, talking about sex and always bending over on all fours.

‘Aaaagghhh’ was the noise my brain made as many of my happiest childhood memories suddenly meant nothing to me.

“Are you alright?” She saw me kneeling down on the floor, still having a bad reaction to the thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah, sure… I… I just had a very disturbing revelation.” She began to ask, but I cut her off again, “one that I would rather not share.” She shrugged, which only added to my cranial pressure, and grabbed a ladle in her mouth. She scooped out some sort of green liquid and poured it into a bowl, which was then slid under me.

“What is that?” I wrinkled my nose at the strange, odourless substance.

“I need to follow up on healing your leg.” I still didn’t look back at her for fear that she would be turned around again, but I still had a few questions inside me.

“Before I do whatever with this bowl of whatever, would you mind telling me why you know my leg is… I mean, was, injured?”

“For the record, you’re supposed to drink it, but I suppose I should enlighten you. I heard your cries of pain from this very house, and when I ventured to their source, I found a strange creature half-asleep in a cave. I was unsure of its disposition, so I just blew a little sleep powder at it and checked out the broken leg.”

“We’re getting somewhere. I won’t even ask what this creature was, since it was probably me, but I will ask; what did you do?”

“I gave it- I mean, you, a concoction similar to this brew. It was a topical version, enough to last a few days, but the pain would soon return. I was actually trotting back to find you when I heard a noise coming from the castle. It was unmistakably your sound, and when you came running in the opposite direction of the hold, I put the pieces together.”

“Clever… But, I must ask, why would you go into a cave to heal what could have been a manticore?”

“I have lived long enough in this forest to know that manticores only wander in the deep forest, near the marshes. None of them have even come close to the region where your shouts came from.”

“Well, times they are a’ changin’” I said under my breath, and as she looked at me I covered it, “Anyway, I guess I can take from this that you’re a healer, a potion maker, and you know a good amount about this forest. Now, for the task at hand.” I was sitting cross-legged at that point, still not looking in the zebra’s direction, and I pointed at the bowl, “You say I’m supposed to drink this?”

“That is correct, my un-hoofed friend. You are supposed to down it, for healing ends.” She audibly sighed as she finished her rhyme, but I looked at her with the same dread filling my mind as before.

“Are you serious? Wait, let me guess, rhyming comes naturally to you, is that it?”

“Most pony folk do not believe me, when I say I rhymed since the age of three.”

“Well, I can’t figure it out, but death itself screams at me when I hear you complete a rhyme. Any idea why that would happen?” I gestured to all the masks in the room, several of which looked suspiciously like skulls. She didn’t seem to get what I meant, so I crossed voodoo off.

“No idea, though I will spare your discomfort for a little of mine.”

“And I will spare my discomfort for whatever awaits me in death as I drink this poison.” I said flatly as I downed the green liquid, which coalesced in my stomach before somehow spreading to my leg, waist and feet. I fell over from the feeling, but quickly got up. I was completely healed and fully awake. That felt better. Much better.

“Wow. That’s the best poison I’ve ever had. Thanks.” I stood up quickly and was about to try jumping, until I realized the ceiling was stroking my short hair.

“I hope that we can meet here again, but I think you must be going, my friend.” She said with a smirk as I straightened my pack and walked to the door. I just then realized that I said I was short on time, and would have to save face somehow. I seemed to remember Zecora being on the other side of the room, but I let it slide as I did the same, out the door.

“Yes, it’s been swell. I’ll see about meeting with you again and paying you back, but I don’t have much in the way of a life expectancy, so well see wont we?” I finished from the crack of the door as Zecora started to run after me, probably from the life expectancy comment. It was true that I probably wouldn’t last long, but it wasn’t exactly hopeless. It didn’t matter, however, as I was deep in the brush by the time she re-opened the door.

After jogging silently for over a minute, trying to forget about the zebra that I probably wouldn’t see again, I was noticing a change in the forest. I slowed down and took a look around me, and was surprised at the convenience. With my luck, I might have run right into that manticore I encountered on the first day, but instead I was right in front of the castle structure that I set out to find in the first place.

The ruins in front of me were very similar in design to the castle in the distance, now silhouetted against a rising sun. It seemed the sun would always rise in that direction. Forgetting the anomaly, I looked over the ruins again. Yep, basically a smaller, run-down castle, in the deep forest. I remembered Zecora saying something about other ponies fearing the forest, so being in the deepest part of it would be good cover for a while. I started moving forward again.

I slowly stepped across the rope bridge, trying not to look down at the sharp rocks. When that experience was over, I looked around at my new home. It sure would be inconvenient if the ponies actually used this castle, as an outpost or something, but I got the feeling that was stupid. Still, I was cautious.

I looked at my watch, which I almost forgot I had, and it said 8:34. I wasn’t tired just yet, so I- wait, what? It was 8:34 AM. And it was morning. I wondered why I hadn’t noticed any of these things, or how I managed to fall asleep without knowing. I played back the recent events, and settled on the one stand-out: that green fluid. It knocked me out, or paralysed me, or something worse. I was about to storm back to the hut and raise hell on that zebra, but I caught myself.

I was still here, still free, still unharmed. Though the first of those facts was saddening, I calmed down and silently thanked Zecora for not harming me or handing me back to Celestia. I would have to thank her in person later on, but it would have to wait. I was still a bit shocked that she drugged me.

I climbed up the stairs of the castle to the upper floors, as I had already searched the incredibly boring ground floor. I got up to the partially destroyed balcony on the top, and looked out towards the forest behind me. In the distance I could see the small village, further on I could see Celestia’s castle, but surrounding me, all encompassing, was the forest. Ironically, again, I was safe here. I saw two landmarks, one of which would require investigation.

Near the bridge, but only relatively as it was probably a kilometre off, was a thin trail of smoke with familiar flecks coming off of it signifying Zecora’s hut. Further in, off to the right, in the mountains, was a large combination of a cave and volcano. Coming from within was some sort of orange light, and it beckoned to be explored. Of course, thanks to Zecora I was well rested, well fed and in no immediate danger, which left me with little else to do. If only she could cure stupidity.

After deciding on the plan for today, I checked my pack to make sure everything was there. Pleased at the untouched contents, I pulled out my boots, gloves, hat and sweater, and folded them to tuck them into a crevice in the wall. Next, I lightly stepped across the rickety bridge to find some firewood. After gathering semi-dry bark and dead branches for a good half hour, I set back to the castle to prepare the fire that I would need for the night to come.

After securing the rest of my things behind a large stone, I ate a few apples and imagined what lied in that cave. It could be lava waiting to escape on an unsuspecting victim, but I expected it, so that probably wouldn’t happen. I tried to escape my paranoia, but it soon caught up to me; I was imagining that inside the cave was an elite army of the white soldiers I had fought on the second day. Or… was it the third? What day was I passing at the time? And what day did I wake up to? I would have to actually wake up if I was to think straight.

100 push-ups and 50 sit-ups later, I was munching on some more apples, fully awake. I sure couldn’t survive on them alone, but I filled up on them nonetheless and began preparing. I took my mountain shoes off and replaced them with the steel-toed boots, I put on my sweater, and I collected my gloves and hat to put them in my pockets. They probably wouldn’t be useful, but they didn’t weigh much and it might get cold later on.

Looking deeper in my bag, I found some long strips of white fabric. They looked like some of the material I saw in the strange contraption in the corner of Zecora’s house, but I couldn’t be sure. Of course, I couldn’t get angry at the zebra for putting stuff in my bag, If it was her, so I just hid them in a corner.

I still wore my pack as I left, in case there was anything I needed to bring back, but I could drop to gain speed. I made my way across the forest in the direction I assumed was south, based on the sun’s position when I woke up. I was heading towards the glowing cave, and a closer proximity revealed a low snoring coming from inside.

‘That cant be good…’ I thought to myself as I approached the entrance. It was easily three times my height, and I sidled along the wall to peer inside without being seen. The orange glow was still pulsing, but the curvature of the cave made it impossible to see the source. Drawing my knife, which I was again thankful for still having, I smoothly traced the entrance path and approached the main chamber. When I saw what sat in there, I almost expelled every bodily fluid and waste product at once.

Almost; Not enough to make a mess. But, I digress.

A dragon. There was a dragon in that cave, and it was just sleeping there, on top of what I could only assume was the meagre amount of billions of dollars in gold and jewels. Obviously the dragon was protecting its stash, but I couldn’t help but imagine what I could do with a few handfuls of the loot in there. I almost fell right onto the tail when I caught myself idly walking up to the treasure.

‘What do I do now?’ I asked myself, careful not to wake up the dragon with thunder blasts. I had three options before me. The first and most obvious solution was to backtrack out of there and try not to disturb the behemoth within. The second option was to steal some of the dragons wealth without its knowledge, an act that I realised could get me killed when I remembered that they sleep with one eye closed. The last and craziest option was to attempt to disable or kill the dragon with my powers, then have all the loot to myself. I was reminded even more of that game I played once, despite having no idea of what it was about.

As I thought about my choices, I came upon the fact that I was essentially on the run, and on my own. There was nothing better to do, literally. If I killed or, at least, defeated the dragon, I would be very sure that no ponies would try to mess with me again. And, if I died, I would probably return to the real world. It was an easy decision after that.

I decided on the second option out of preservation instincts as well as proximity to a fortune, and started to pick up some of the gems and gold. I was almost disappointed at how light and small they were, but underneath the first layer were behemoths of gems. At least a dozen fist- to head-size diamonds, amethysts, emeralds, rubies and sapphires lay in front of me, and I wasted no time snatching them up. I almost got too giddy to hold onto them, but a quick hand stopped an azure stone from hitting the ground. I had to remain alert if I was to get out of there alive.

I was done stuffing my bag within a few minutes, still with no sign of the dragon waking up. I had to go a long way to avoid the flames caused by it’s snoring, but eventually I made it back to the mouth of the cave instead of the dragon. I turned back to listen for any noise, and another object caught my eye. There were thick dragon scales near the arms, flaked off onto the floor.

Sneaking closer, without making any noise, I examined the large scales. They looked thick and heavy, but weighed very little and were surprisingly tough. Seeing an opportunity here, I grabbed five moderate sized pieces and slid out of the cave without a second thought. I quickly made my way back to my castle ruin, and almost got to the bridge before remembering a tiny detail about my time here.

I scanned through the forest, amplifying every small crunch of leaves and extracting every branch movement. Hearing that no ponies were out looking for me, I crossed the bridge, almost skipping, as my ideas begged to be let free.

After securing the loot in a hole on the upper floor, I placed the scales on a stone table, put on my still-intact glasses, and took out some of the white mystery fabric.

I was tired from all the running around, so I just ate a few more apples as I placed the materials in the form I was planning. What I had in mind for those scales was probably the best idea ever; I was going to make armour out of them. I kept remembering the game from years ago, but I didn’t actually know why dragon armour had any connection. I would prefer this world to that game, however, as my current plane was… no, it felt real, and I could remember it.

I started out by grabbing the dense strips and wrapped them around the scales. I didn’t make a knot, however, as I took the largest scale and completed a double-loop around my torso. I also stuck the second largest scale in the back of the double loop. Next, I repeated the action with smaller scales for the shoulders, and after that was done I wondered where to put the smallest scale.

I smacked my head for forgetting the obvious answer, and strapped the last scale to the front of my waist, starting at my stomach and stopping between my legs.

I turned towards the dragon’s cave and headed out again, eager to collect more gems, gold and scales. With an empty bag I made great time, and the trip was as uneventful as the last. Approaching the dragon through his cave, I slid by bag off my shoulders and let the noiseless fabric hit the ground. There was a loud ‘Ping’ noise as a gold ornament I forgot to take out hit reverberated against the stone floor.

“Oh, crap.” I exclaimed, and it was almost made a statement when I heard the dragon stir awake. I tried to put my bag back on and slip away, but an arm smashed against the ground and blocked my path. Manticores had nothing on dragons, so I knew I couldn’t just burp in its direction and expect to walk away unscathed. I turned around to meet it’s eyes, barely remaining resolute in the face of death.

“Why are you taking my treasure?” It rumbled in a voice that was felt more than heard.

“Wow, you can talk? Uhh I mean, uhhh… I was actually returning stolen goods.” I struggled to form sentences in the heat of the dragon’s breath, and I pulled out the stray jug, ‘I will have my revenge, inanimate object…’, and let it roll towards the dragon. With it’s free, non-almost-crushing-me arm it plucked the jug off the ground and deposited it deeper within the stash. Then it turned back to me.

“You still have some things that belong to me, talking mammal.” It eyed my chest and arms, and I cursed under my breath at choosing to put this armor on- no, to coming back- no. I cursed setting foot in this cave. The dragon noticed my hesitation and pulled me closer, leaning in. The heat was almost unbearable.

“You don’t have to return my scales, don’t worry.” It sounded sincere, and it moved its closer arm away from me, but when I found its red eyes within the curvature of bone that was its skull, I noticed sarcasm. And anger.

I tried to run, but it caught me in a scalding hot claw and reeled back, aiming at a previously unnoticed hole in the ceiling. It only took a moment for me to realise what it was doing, but by then it had already let go. All that was left behind was the gradually quieter noise of a word that was entirely appropriate for the situation.

“ OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…”

Lost Chapters - #6 "Until Next Time"

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Chapter 6
Until Next Time

I was flying through the air at a speed over terminal velocity. The dragon had thrown me with such might that a wall of heated air formed in front of me, which, combined with the rapidly rotating world around me, effectively blinded me. I could still hear, however, and I dreaded that the dragon may have been reluctantly sparing me only to throw me into a worse situation.

I heard Pinkie Pie laughing. There were others with her and several ‘poof’ noises. She said something about not being scared of trees, but I lost track of what was being said as I lost air and began to fall. I was still traveling at an intense speed, and what little glimpses of the ground that I managed to make out told me I was on the other side of the forest, over a swamp.

I gained momentum and was half-way to the ground. In the overwhelming panic I almost forgot the two things I had to protect myself from dying this way; nearly indestructible armour and an air blast that could stop me, or at least slow my descent. I had to stabilize before either became effective, however.

As my spin started to slow, and the ground approached more quickly, I heard more of what the ponies below were saying.

“Well girls, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” That was the horribly memorable voice of Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t know how you do it Pinkie, and once again I am reluctant to accept it. But… yeah, it wasn’t bad at all!” I believed that was the voice of Twilight Sparkle. As her voice was followed by three others, I realized how bad the situation was.

Celestia had made that group come after me, of all things. I would waste no time fighting them this time, and as I resolved those problems I managed to face the ground. I was closer than I had thought, so I acted quickly.

Building up the force in my lungs, I completed another natural flip before blasting the ground. What surprised me, however, was what happened during the flip. Of course, I should have expected the sudden dip as my body went parallel to my fall, but I was left off guard when a high tree clipped me. I released, but something went wrong. I was facing up. I threw myself at double speed towards the ground.

As I connected with my first obstacle, a tree, I expected more resistance. Instead, when I hit the trunk, the wood fibres crushed and compacted for a split second before exploding out from behind me, leaving me at an unchanged speed. The damn scales on my back made anything in my path, any chance to survive the fall, as weak as a piece of paper. With my spin dissipated, all I could do was bear with the patches of turbulent air that used to be trees and wait to die.

I hit the ground. Something went wrong. I didn’t die.

Instead, the ground below me acted as a mattress and I was flung in the air, again above the treetops, but at a much more survivable speed. On the other hand, the g-forces from changing speeds so quickly might as well have killed me, and I was winded and barely conscious by the time I landed again. I had the pleasure of hearing everything around me as I lay on the ground in pain.

“W-what was… that noise?”

“Oh Fluttershy, it’s probably nothing.”

“No, I heard it… It came from over here…”

“Yeah, I heard it too! Let’s get over there!”

“Ah’ma comin! Ya guys sh’d prob’ly keep up, I dunno what coulda made that noise!”

“Ugh, fine. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, come on, we have to- Pinkie? Where are y-”

“OVER HERE GIRLS!” Goddamn, they found me. Good thing Fluttershy was there, she would be the only one of six that wouldn’t try to kill me.

“Hey, it’s that monsta’ thing we caught up a while ago! Now, how’d it get out a’ the castle?”

“That’s a mystery, AJ. Celestia just said it was locked away safely! Well she wouldn’t lie to us… maybe it just looks like the first one!”

“Oh you poor thing!” Fluttershy finally caught up and tried to roll me over. I was surrounded by what felt like molten glass but she managed to turn me over anyway.

“It’s hurt! What should we do?” She began poking and prodding at my burned and raw sides, chest and face, and in my weakened, barely alive state I could only flail my arms around in slow motion, trying to push her away from me.

“Regardless of its injuries, we should figure out what made the noise, why this thing is burned and smoking, and-” A dragon cut her off as it roared overhead. I forced my eyes open, only to see the descending beast a dozen meters away. Looks like it came to finish the job.

“Well, the dragon’s here. It looks like these two had a falling out.” Hah. Unintentional puns. “Fluttershy, we may as well get our mission done right now. I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” As Twilight finished, Fluttershy looked back to me with a hesitant look. The dragon landed and Fluttershy put on a serious face with piercing eyes and flew over to the dragon that was slowly approaching.

“What do you think you doing back here?” She was actually talking straight to the dragon. Like, right it its face. I managed to sit up at that point, but when I saw her start I couldn’t move. The ponies around me just watched eagerly, like it was a good show but had happened before.

“Leave me be. This is between me and him.” The dragon pointed at me. My heart jumped and I was frozen even further.

“Oh, no it’s not; you’re sleeping near Ponyville again! Didn’t you learn your lesson from last time?” The dragon, amazingly, was starting to shrink away from the angry Fluttershy. He looked away for a moment, and seemed to show a face of terror before growling and raising its arm.

The dragon tried a futile swipe at Fluttershy, who shrieked and flew back to the five ponies. The dragon started laughing.

“It won’t work like last time. This runt has been stealing from me, and I’m doing something about it!” It seemed to behave like a defiant child before rearing back, inhaling. At this point I finally got the motivation to start moving. I turned back to the shocked ponies, one of whom was right next to me, shivering. It didn’t make any sense to pit them against a dragon, no matter how powerful Twilight was. It was possible that I had more power than her, however, but I just used it for force. This was one of those situations, and I took control of it.

“All of you get away!” I shouted at them, pushing Fluttershy away in their direction. They stood, mouth agape, as I rose and stood against the dragon. My makeshift armour was mostly intact, but the rest of my clothes were burning away. I looked back again. They were looking between me and the dragon.

“Fine, don’t run. Get behind me!” They quickly obliged, and as they formed a cluster to my rear the dragon started to exhale. I could feel, see and hear the heat coming towards me, as well as hear the whimpering slowly backing away from me. I breathed in what little tolerable air there was around me, and began to charge up a blast; it was the only thing left.

As the fire escaped the dragon’s mouth, shot through the air towards me, I noticed a change in my own abilities. All other sounds were squelched; I could only hear myself and the fire. Or, I thought I could hear it. I also seemed to see it from multiple angles, as if I had sonar vision. As all of this happened, time slowed down like when I approached the manticore for the first time, but this time, my taget was approaching me.

I stopped inhaling, but energy continued to build up. The fire was mere inches away now, but I felt no heat. I felt singeing on my face, ignored due to the adrenaline in my body, as the flames parted in front of me. That wasn’t supposed to happen; I was going to take the brunt of the flames, not the ponies behind me. I spread me arms and aimed them at the dragon. The power that coursed through felt euphoric and crippling at the same time, and the dragon fire twisted and turned around me, refusing to leave my body.

My clothes were almost melting at the heat, but I stood resolute. It didn’t matter if my skin was burning, even though it hurt more than anything I had experienced. I could only focus on the air and power being forced out of my lungs. A shockwave was sent through the air, carrying the flames with it. The dragon, realizing its mistake, tried to dodge out of the way, but the burst was too fast and it connected.

Scales shattered. Teeth and bone cracked. The dragon, once the most powerful being in the forest, fell to the ground. I could not check if the dragon was dead if I wanted to. As I stood there, in the center of a large molten-glass crater, I simply observed my last surroundings.

There were trees knocked over, all bent away from me. The mountains reflected a faint echo of the foretold events, a second or two later than they actually occurred. The grass in front or around me was graduating between dried, burned, and vaporized. Though all this destruction surrounded me, six saved lives slowly approached, surely cautious of me and my power. I couldn’t blame them; I had just defeated a dragon.

There was muffled speaking as they drew closer. I could barely see or feel, hear or smell anything. It was obvious to me why this was, why I was frozen in time while the world passed by. I smiled in my mind, knowing that it finally came. I was fine with it.

The ponies were almost at my back, probably forcing their way through the stench of burning skin. One of them poked me. It was probably either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, as the poke was right on my shoulder, and the others couldn’t reach that high. My world darkened and I lost balance. Unable to move, or even react, I quietly fell over, waiting for my face to contact the ground. That never happened.

When I expected to hit the ground, instead I just spun and flipped a lazy circle through space. I could feel nothing but my memories. I smiled again, as I saw my home approaching. I knew what it all meant. I knew what it took to defeat the dragon, to save those that I had no reason to care for. I knew, as well, why the preceding moments took forever, and were viewed in third person.

I was under judgement.

I was dead.

Lost Chapters - #7 "What Was Left"

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Chapter 7
What was Left

"And, I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad..."

The slow, droning music from a long-lost age wrenched me out of my restless sleep, and I struggled to understand my surroundings.

I was in the endless hallway.

I was falling, near as I could tell, though the movement of small white dots in front of me was the only clue. There was no motion to be felt, with my body being supported by what appeared to be a giant cloud, taking different forms as each errant thought passed my mind, but staying soft and supporting. Stars and planets passed by me in all different directions, until I was turned over. I was sure I was falling at that point, for Earth was right in front of me.

I could see the exit sign.

I was going to land on Earth… did that mean I was escaping the world of Equestria? I saw the real, tangible clouds pass by me, with the intangible ones keeping up, even steadying my descent. The pillows of water vapor cleared and I saw land. I could see my house from impossibly far away, looking like a toy. I was finally going back.

I fell towards my escape.

The air tugged on my mysteriously intact clothes, but I couldn’t bend my neck to look at them. I simply stared at the incoming tiling on my roof. I slowed down like last time. It was almost a mirror image of the dragon fight preceding these events, but it was like I drifted the final meters to my house instead of time simply slowing. I was turned on my back again, still being held onto by the formless clouds. As wisps passed into my peripheral vision, I saw what the clouds were made of.

I was being held aloft by my life, before the pain.

All I had done, everything I experienced, all my knowledge was supporting me as I felt my spine touch a roof tile. I exhaled a held breath out of relief, but it was different. I heard the sound echo off of the walls that suddenly surrounded me. I was not sighing in relief; I was screaming in pain. The supportive memories of my previous life were dispersed as I hit the suddenly soft surface below me. I was not on my house anymore.

I was being brought back.

My arms, legs and head were forced down by something I couldn’t see. I had my eyes closed hard, and all I could do was feel, smell and hear. I smelled the horrible stench of burning skin, accompanied by the overwhelming warm, coppery tinge of blood. I heard voices, some crying, some screaming, all of them around me. I felt small objects on my wrists and ankles, and two on my head. I gathered enough strength to finally move; I was not going to be captured and tortured as long as I was alive.

I was not being brought back there.

I gripped at the forces pushing me down and pulled as hard as I could. I felt my left leg break free, and used it as leverage for my right leg. After the bindings were gone, I alternated between pushing on the soft surface below me to free my arms and kicking at the enquine figures surrounding me. They were too far away, so I tried the other option.

I would stop at nothing.

I felt bones break as my right arm was freed. It didn’t matter; my focus was on getting out at all costs. My heart and lungs strained to keep up as I pulled with impossible strength on my left arm. After feeling a snap and a pop, I thought I was going to be free from this limbo prison when I was thrown flat onto the soft ground once again. My arms and legs were spread again, and my bones were painfully set back to their proper orientations. The pain was without equal, how I remained alive, I had no idea. Was I even alive at that point?

I was failing.

The weight on top of me was an immovable obstacle. I could not bend my arms or legs, I could barely breathe, and my head was pushed back at a disproportionate angle. The pain slowed, and I could only lie there, convulsing in futile escape attempts. In my final throes of consciousness, I had the sense to open my eyes.

Capture was approaching.

In front of me, upside down, I saw the sight I feared the most. It was Celestia, the goddess sun ruler of Equestria, and she was looking back at me. Through a bluish glow I could see fear, concern and confusion set upon her face.

She was weak.

My own face was mixed with pain, regret, and anger. Anger and rage because of my failed escape, because of my wasted sacrifice, and because of my sabotaged afterlife. Regret because of how differently I could have done things, how I could have taken the chance to speak to them and avoided the falling out. And pain because of what I was going to do.

I was strong.

I screamed with all my power. I did not channel it, however. The pulsating energy, seemingly made of pain itself as it further singed my body, simply flowed out of my skin, or what was left of my skin, and bombarded the figures in the room. I heard many thumps as what I assumed were ponies passed out under the pressure. One of my captors, however, stood defiant. Celestia was still awake, still killing me. I saw her glow become brighter, and the pain, somehow more intense than before. I finished screaming, as I found it did nothing to ease the suffering, and accepted my coming fate.

The low music, which seemed to loop in my head since the lucid images started, began playing again. At the final tone, my presence was cast into darkness once more.

"...that the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."

I finally awoke, but my eyes remained closed for fear of what I would find. The recollections of what just happen were distant, but I somehow saw them in the same light. Excruciating fire and electricity shooting through my veins, arteries and nerves filled the most recent memories. I didn't know if Celestia was actually killing me, but the pain she created was similar to the dragon's fire. It was the same thing she used against me in the castle, but the previous time I had reached that level I at least had some sort of guideline. The horrible moments, which seemed like eternities as they happened, were unmatched in my life so far. Perhaps if death came again I could compare it.

Of course, the issue of my death was moot. I was alive now, at least. It was ironic, really, that immediately after blinding pain, my biggest fear was opening my eyes. I had to ease into the situation, however; first priority was my physical condition.

What just happened was certainly some sort of abstract fever-dream, but it seemed to represent what happened to me in real life as evident by the severe internal pain in my right arm, and distant soreness in my left shoulder. I had expected more types of pain, perhaps the burning or bruising resulting from the larger scale battle in real life. I still felt my bones shift in my brief movements, and my raw skin was irritated by only the air, and that was unpleasant to say the least. But I could handle it. It was nothing compared to what I felt at ground zero, and what immediately followed.

With my physical status at least partially understood, the main trouble I was facing at the moment was the pair of eyes boring holes into the side of my head. Some sort of being was standing next to me, and as it shifted a scratching noise gave the impression it had scales. It didn’t sound anything like a pony, and my slight curiosity was beat by apprehension; I didn’t want to have to deal with two different alien species- though that thought dissolved when I remembered I had encountered at least five different kinds during my time here, discounting small animals and plants.

Even the dragons could talk; which, while it was not entirely surprising, still scared me. I could now be in a very unique civil war, between native sentient species. It eased my nerves when I remembered that I was the invasive species, unknown and unmatched. So far.

I refocused on the task at hand; observe my surroundings without opening my eyes. The creature next to me was watching diligently, and I had no idea what it was, so it was best to play it safe.

I decided to try to ping the room like I had done in prison, and by extension, the dragon's fire. I didn’t know how it worked, but after a few normally-silent echoes were passed around the room I got a feel for the general shape. It had a large, curved wall closest to me and an opening opposite the room. There were separation walls bordering the door, and scattered shelves throughout the room. And, of course, the being standing next to me, probably expecting me to be unconscious. I would not show any signs that I wasn’t.

After what I thought was a half hour with nothing but the creature near me making a scraping noise as it shifted, a door opened and closed and a faint yell came through the opening to my room.

“Spike! I’m back!” It sounded like Twilight. Perfect.

“Twilight! Nothing to report on the subject, he’s still asleep.” The young male voice of ‘Spike’ got further away and was accompanied by light footsteps around a corner and down some stairs. I made that my cue to jump out of the bed and examine my surroundings.

“Are you sure? Any movement, any noise? Anything out of the ordinary at all?”

I quietly stepped onto the floor towards the door. Luck granted me another chance at escape, and their voices sounded like they were facing away from my door. I almost stepped out.

“Well, he made some sort of snoring noise and his eyes opened a bit, but that was half an hour-”

“What? I need to see this!” Twilight began to rush up the stairs, towards my room. I doubled back and used the separation wall as cover when she stepped inside. She didn’t see me.

“Come on, Twilight, it’s probably…” Spike also reached the door and stood there, probably dumbfounded at the empty bed. Watching from the shadows, I could see Twilight and the now visible lizard-thing, Spike, approach the bed. I silently snuck around them.

“I don’t know what happened to it, it was still there before you got in.”

I stepped down the stairs and approached the door.

“We have to search the house; from what we know of him, he could have-”

I opened the door, which resulted in the ringing of a bell that I didn’t notice. I heard some rushed footsteps from up the stairs, but by that time I was already sprinting through the dirt road, ignoring my protesting muscles, towards the forest that I could see in the distance.

I simply ran as fast as I could across the flat ground, with bare feet and unfamiliar clothing. No ponies were in the strange town passing by me, and all the rustic, wooden houses looked empty, so apart from two panicked voices behind me I was free to go where I pleased. Of course, that meant the forest, which had creatures I was in no condition to defeat. I shook the thought from my head and grinned.

‘At least there’s one less dragon to deal with.’ With that in mind I ran faster. I thought it was renewed energy due to motivation, but I soon recognized it as the mysterious, pushing guide from earlier. It came back to me yet again, pillows of air pushing me forward, and the goal was the same. It guided me with ease through the forest, and behind me I could hear the two shouting.

“Twilight, he’s too fast!”

“You’re right, we can’t catch him alone. I’ll get Rainbow Dash and Applejack, you get Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and we’ll get Fluttershy on the way into the forest. Go!” Her voice was followed by both her and Spike running in opposite directions. I entered the forest, still in pain but not tired, and made quick work of the distance between me and my castle.

I heard a pair of footsteps as I was halfway in, and they sounded familiar, but they were traveling away and soon disappeared behind a kilometre of thick trees. I briefly considered following the animal, but the pushing force behind me ignored the matter and I did the same.

I approached my castle. As I turned, the pushing guide stopped abruptly and I almost fell over, as if a carpet was pulled from under my feet. I doubted that was where it was intent on taking me, but stored the thoughts for later, when I had some time to think. I ran inside, uncomfortable as I had to put real effort into each stride, and eventually I found my stash of belongings. I took off my strange new shirt, which was made of white cotton and didn’t quite fit my form, and ripped it in two.

I grabbed one of the sticks from the fireplace I never lit and turned the two materials into an extra large bindle. Within it I held the loot I stole from the dragon; an assortment of pre-cut gems, gold coins and jewellery. I was thankful the fabric was both strong and elastic, as I managed to collect all of the loot in one go. I made my way out of the castle and back to the site in which I fought the dragon, in an effort to find any remainders of my more important belongings; specifically, my knife and watch.

I moved quickly and silently through the trees and shrubs, my feet feeling more secure after I found my hiking shoes near the ground floor. After a matter of minutes, I was beginning to see trees at odd angles. I followed in their wake, and came upon some trees that were bent, snapped, and even shattered, yet all converging to a single point. Once nearly all the trees were fallen, I found the point of impact.

There was a crater made of hardened soil laced with black glass, and nearly all of the surrounding area was completely void of vegetation. I noticed a small pillar of grass facing away from the dragon’s footsteps, and found light imprints of small bodies within. It seemed that I almost completely shielded the ponies from harm in the showdown, and finally made up my mind as to what I would do about that.

I picked up the slightly singed backpack lying against a toppled tree and turned away from the scene. Not seeing my watch or knife anywhere, I filled the bag with most of my loot and started walking, directly against my unseen guide. It would not lead me to where I wanted to go.

I was returning to my captors. I was alive, after what I went through, and now awake. If anything, they would respect my power by now. If they didn't, I would have to make them fear it.

Little time passed after the guide let up. It seemed that it had some sort of intelligence, at least enough to determine when not to push when the effort would be futile.I would need to look into that, if I was to spend any time here. I neared the forest wall, the sun coming down behind the receding canopy. Only around half hour had passed, although I wasn't entirely sure, so I shouldn’t have drawn too much attention. I almost reached a point where I had nothing to think about, but I heard bears fighting in the distance.

A deep, guttural roar, followed by a scream; it was all too familiar. It was close this time. And based on the footsteps I heard, I could have turned around to stop it when I was back in the forest. The guiding force had led me straight past it.

I abandoned the rising pain and exhaustion that came from wandering the forest unsupported and ran straight for the approaching noise. No ponies were going to die in front of me. I broke through the forest threshold and saw the shape and color that I feared. A manticore stood next to a house with a tree coming out of it. Screams were between them. I knew the voice, I knew the situation. My fear was forced out by the realization that this was my fault.

Zecora, in my brief meeting with her an indefinite amount of days ago, said that manticores never ventured very close to the town, or even as far as her hut. They preferred the marshes that resided even further than my castle ruin, so something drove them here. I didn't want to indulge in my theory, but I still wanted to make sure.

I somehow doubled my speed, through anguishing legs and chest, and charged at the beast ahead of me. After a final roar, it raised a paw and I saw a scar. The very same scar I had given on the first day now taunted me with the certainty that I was the catalyst. My arrival here was very possibly the cause for this particular manticore to approach the town, and what made it even worse was I ignored the signs of it moving in this direction. No, my intangible guide led me past it. I wanted to investigate, but I was pulled away.

I was about to scold myself, until I remembered what I was running for. I was right behind the manticore, and it was raising it's scarred arm for a swipe. I jumped.

Just as the arm reached its maximum height, I reached around it and twisted so I was facing the beast, back to a wall. It was further than I thought, so I ended up with my feet on the wooden siding. Taking my chance, I pushed off and tackled the monster. It stumbled slightly, but I failed to knock it over. It swiped and snarled when I jumped off, narrowly missing a set of teeth and two sets of claws in the process. I leaned back to gain leverage in a blast of power, but the manticore recovered from it's misses quicker than I could react.

The horribly sharp claws ripped into my chest, following the entirety of my rib cage as it carried through. I felt bones shatter under my bare skin, and I was knocked over. The manticore had succeeded where I had not, and now it was upon me. It reeled back for another swipe, and I started to black out, but the pegasus it was attacking came between us. Fluttershy was standing over me, wings abroad, and looked like she was staring the beast down. It hesitated as she started speaking.

“You big, mean bully! You have no right to attack me or anypony else! Now, you better get back to the forest before I make you! Is that clear?” With that, the manticore performed a double take between me and Fluttershy, and took off. The pegasus above me looked in it’s direction until it passed into the trees, then immediately turned to me and started talking.

“Oh my goodness Ethan I thought you were still recovering what happened?”

I coughed harshly in response, and she appeared to notice the extent of my injuries. My vision was tunneling, and all I could see at that point was her cyan eyes peering into mine before I lost all vision and collapsed.

“Oh no, we need to get you fixed right now!” With greater strength than I thought she had, she lifted me and flew for a few seconds, before dropping me onto a papery matress. I could feel wooden boards on my limp hands, and realized I was probably in Fluttershy's house.

In almost an instant, several cloths started to cover my wound, the extent of my injuries becoming apparent to me as well; I could feel one of the cloths touching my heart. I would probably die at any moment.

Proceeded by faint shouts, a door opened and four quadrupeds ran in. They all called for Fluttershy, but stopped as soon as they came into the room. My sense of sight was long gone, as well as touch, but my hearing worked from beyond the potential grave.

“Twilight! I need you to cast a healing spell on him, STAT!” There was a short pause before a glowing that I just barely registered, as it must have been bright, and a noise reminiscent of a laser gun started. The very next instant, I wished I was still dead. Again.

I felt my skin weaving together, and the fragments of my ribs were pulled into their correct positions. It was even worse than the attack that had caused it, but not as bad as what I experienced before waking up. The difference between now and then was now I had room to move, and I accepted it by arching my back and kicking the air, and, at one point, punching the floor hard enough to shatter the wood.

When time Twilight was finished pulling my chest through the seven circles of hell, I fell from my arched position onto the bloody, papery surface with a thump. After gathering enough strength to move my arms, I brought them to my chest, and my palms and fingers were met by rough, unharmed skin. I cycled my breath a couple times while Fluttershy wrapped bands around my bloodied torso, and soon I was led onto a couch.

I rubbed my eyes to wake up, and noticed something strange about them. I settled my face into my palms, as support to catch my breath, and still felt strange. There was a cracked aspect to them, and I was about to rub them together when I noticed four ponies in front of me, and one beside me, desperately trying to assess my injuries.

After I was done covertly feeling my oddly textured face and hands, I looked up at them. There was Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and the white one I thought was ‘Rarity’ but couldn’t quite remember. I thought there might have been six including Fluttershy, but I passed it off since the only time I really saw six at a time was right before I died. I pushed the poking Fluttershy away from me, ignoring silent protests, and looked fully at who I assumed was the leader.

"Is pain the only thing you ponies bring me?" They were about to reply, looking at eachother and turning back, before just staring back at me, mouths agape. I had no idea what they were doing, but I read Fluttershy easily as she lowered her face beneath her pink mane.

"You're the exception, Fluttershy." She perked up after I said it, but still retained her shy, fearful face. I turned to the others and continued, "you, on the other hand. It seems every direction I go leads to me being mortally wounded, and you, especially you," I pointed at Twilight, "and your 'Princess Celestia', insist on being humane and saving me, only to increase the pain. What's next, this house is going to come down on-"

I paused as another distant shout was heard, and it rapidly approached. I remembered this happening earlier, when I was running on day one. Before I could dive to the ground, a rainbow colored blur burst through the door and tackled me hard, knocking me heavily to the other side of the room. I was winded, so as I was turned over to reveal Rainbow Dash, the missing sixth pony, shouting at me for attacking Fluttershy again, I could only cough and sputter.

“What’s wrong with you, attacking Fluttershy a second time? She never did anything to you!” She had her hooves over my arms and her face was hovering over mine, trying to look intimidating. The spectrum of colorful hair did little in that regard, but she managed to incapacitate me for at least the next minute, so I turned away the more she shouted.

"He didn't attack Fluttershy!" Came Twilight's voice from behind me, stopping Rainbow Dash in her tracks. She looked suspiciously at me before turning back with a questioning look.

"He can talk."

I sat back in wait as Rainbow Dash slowly moved towards the group, and an extremely startled Fluttershy dragged me back onto the couch. I breathed through the minor injury, thankful that no other conditions arose, and looked back at their expecting faces. Twilight was, once again, the first one to ask.

"You can talk?"

I had no intentions of giving them answers just yet, so I harshly stated, "I will ask my questions first." Twilight flinched slightly but nodded and I continued, "am I being captured again?"

"Not entirely. We were meant to keep you in one place, but it wasn't like last time."

"Why not?" Twilight flinched again, and a look of confusion crept onto her face as she answered.

"Don't you remember?" I didn't respond, so she continued, "you saved us from a dragon!"

I let out a sigh of relief. The ponies seemed to be fickle as a race, but at least I was on their good side. I looked over at Fluttershy, and she was just smiling weakly at me. I felt bad for judging their intentions so quickly, and to make up for it to Fluttershy I made a beckoning motion. She quickly jumped up to hug my neck, and I turned to the other five.

The assorted ponies, unicorns and pegasus looked at me with ever growing confusion, but I was still hesitant. "What about her?" I asked, pointing at Rainbow Dash.

She raised her head to meet my eyes for a split second, before registering the gesture, and looked to the floor again. "Sorry..." she muttered, still not making eye contact. I got the point and leaned slightly back, careful not to crush Fluttershy's left side. Rainbow Dash was probably sorry for what she did, but I would have to keep an eye out for her. As with them all.

"Please, we need to ask you some questions, now that you're awake." Twilight chimed in, moving slightly towards me. It was odd that she said 'awake' instead of 'alive'; maybe they were actually helping me? I saved that thought and inwardly sighed, again, knowing what kind of questions they had planned for me. They were probably the same ones that I had for them, but I was the stranger, and a convict, so it only made sense to let them have their day first. It was basic diplomacy.

"Alright, I'll try to answer-" I was interrupted by a pink blur flashing in front of me, and instantly regretted giving them a chance.

Lost Chapters - #8 "All That Was Done"

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Chapter 8
All that was Done

Fluttershy got off of the couch after a long silence filled the room, and proceeded to look up at me like the five other ponies. They all just looked at me, examining my features as I got increasingly uncomfortable. I broke the silence with a plead, well disguised as a humble request.

"Really though, any questions?" They looked around at each other before Twilight cleared her throat and repeated her question from earlier.

"So... you can talk."

I nodded.

"Why didn't you talk earlier? Like, when we first saw you?"

I thought for a few seconds before answering, "I had a little trouble finding my voice."

"What are you?"

"Human."

"Never heard of it..."

"Homo Sapiens... sapiens, I think. Highly evolved primates." Twilight nodded, but the others cocked their heads at unfamiliar words. I said, "smart monkeys," and they accepted that answer. Rainbow Dash stuck her foreleg up and I accepted her question.

"Where did you come from?"

"I guess Fluttershy never told you?" I looked at the pegasus in question and she smiled sheepishly, slightly blushing. "Don't worry, I didn't really tell you very much anyway." That was her turn to look at me, and my attempt at a sheepish smile. I didn't know if it was executed very well, but I pushed on.

"I came from Earth."

"What's that?"

"A planet. I don't think I'm there anymore." They all looked surprised at the explanation, but couldn't find any words to ask. Rainbow Dash stuck her hoof up again.

"You can just ask, this isn't kindergarten." She gave me a face crossed with embarrassment and humour before finally asking.

"How are you so strong?"

That wasn't expected. "What?"

"You... you fought the Royal Guard, escaped out of the Canterlot dungeons, and defeated a dragon!"

"I don't really know. Do I look strong?" I asked. Rainbow Dash put a hoof under her chin in thought as she examined my figure.

"Sort of. You're really tall, too, but you mostly look like a burn vict-" Applejack shoved a hoof in her mouth, but it still didn't cover up what she was saying. Applejack gave me a fake smile and started looking around, anywhere but my eyes, which narrowed as I understood her concern.

"Do you have a mirror?" The orange pony looked at me in horror for a few seconds before sighing and pointing to a frame on the wall. The others watched in matching fear as I approached the mirror. I bent down to see my face. I almost jumped backwards at the image I saw.

My entire body was laced with a network of deep scar tissue. Especially on my chest, shoulders and face, the scars made up the shattered stone texture I had felt earlier covered the regions. While the discolouration was relatively subtle, several more distinct scars covered my body as well.

A large, creasing scar ran down my face from my right eyebrow to the bottom of the cheekbone. The iris behind it was greyed out, a stark contrast to the bright blue colour it used to be. Pulling my gaze away from my scars, I noticed that most of my hair was gone, and my eyebrows and rough beard were singed grey. After examining the rest of my body, especially the huge marks on my chest, I sat back down on the couch and accepted it. I traded looks for freedom; only a fool would choose differently.

I looked around at the ponies. Some of them were looking back at me in concern, some were staring at the floor in shame. I found the new events funny for some reason, and they all eyed me in confusion as I laughed. When I finished, I shared with them the humour of the situation.

"I guess I won't be winning any more beauty pageants, will I?" A resounding of snickering convinced me that they wouldn't dwell on it any longer than I would. Rainbow Dash attempted to lighten the mood with a joke I didn't get, but I laughed anyway.

"Well, you don't have the cutie mark for it anyway!"

Applejack and Rarity stopped laughing first, and they started comforting me with things like, "It'll come eventually," and, "these things take time, everpony knows that." I really didn't get what they meant, but I guessed it was some badly executed continuation of my joke. I nodded and as the laughing died down, Pinkie Pie started jumping and asking my name.

"It's Ethan. Don't worry, I know all of your names. There's you, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy."

"How'd you know our names, Mr. Ethan? OH do you have an Ethan sense!?"

"Uh... No. I have great hearing, and good enough memory."

"Sorry 'bout your burns, Ethan, really I am, but... how'd you defeat the dragon?" This time it was Applejack. Her accent seemed less prevalent than last time I heard her speak.

"I don't really know."

"I thought you had good memory?"

"I didn't know what I was doing when it happened. I just went along with it."

"Well, when you figure it out, let us know, ya hear?"

"In all honesty, I actually remember exactly what I did, but..." I was cut off by an angry Applejack.

"Well why don't ya tell us?"

"But I don't have words to describe the act of bending the air around me and pushing it back on the attacker."

There was silence for a few seconds, and I face-palmed in realization before explaining, "On second thought, there's your explanation. Anyone have any other questions?"

"Yes, what ever happened to my- I mean, your shirt?" Rarity spoke up.

I looked around for my two bags, and noticed they weren't in the house. "I was using it to carry some things, but that and my backpack went missing. Probably right after the second confrontation with that manticore."

"Was that what happened to you before we got here?" Twilight was asking, though my attention momentarily turned to Pinkie Pie when she gasped and ran out the door.

"Uuhh... Yeah, funny story. You already know I ran out of your house when I woke up, but you probably don't know why I returned." She responded with a shake of her head and I continued, "It was for three reasons. One, I didn't have any place to go after retrieving my things; two, what was in that bag would help me in this society, though I don't want you to know until it's back in my possession. And, three..." My voice was overrun by Pinkie Pie rushing back into the house, carrying two loud objects on her back. She dumped them on my feet and sat down with the others, looking up at me expectantly.

"I found your bags!" She motioned a hoof to the two objects on the floor, and I realised they were my bags. I quickly opened them, found that nothing was missing, and patted Pinkie on the head.

"Thanks! How'd you find them?" I almost got my hand stuck in her mane when I pulled away, but she was stuck in a strange, pleasured face for a few seconds before shaking her head and snapping out of it.

"I just saw them lying near the trees on the way over here!" She hopped up and down as she spoke, punctuating the sentence when she sat back down on her haunches. Twilight stopped me from rifling through the bags as she still had a question.

"Wait, Ethan, what was the third reason?"

"You know, after this impression I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter anymore."

"I still want to know, please."

"Fine... I decided to go back because there was nowhere else, I had my belongings, and..." I breathed in, expecting the reaction, "I thought you were able to overpower me at first, but after I succeeded in stopping the dragon where the six of you could not, I had the feeling your kind would fear my power and respect my freedom. It would be that, or a severely offset body count, had they attacked me first."

Twilight and the others had erased all other emotions and began backing away, even Fluttershy. I sighed and tried to reset their disposition, "but I hope you'll believe me when I say that I don't wish harm on any of you, which was the chief reasoning behind sacrificing myself to the dragon."

"Sacrificing? You're still alive, how did you-"

"I thought I died. At least, I was dead, until I was brought back by Celestia. And I'll tell you, surviving death was a very unpleasant experience."

With that explanation out of the way, they came closer

“What can I do to repay you for helping me?”

“You don’t need to do anything at all! I love treating animals… except your not… oh, im…”

“It’s ok, I’m not exactly wild, but I am an animal.”

“Ok… Hey, you must be hungry. Would you like some soup?” She turned and walked into another room, like I didn’t even have a choice.

“That would be very nice, thank you.” I wasn’t going to turn down soup, despite how uncomfortable I was being babied by a pony.

“Well, what kind of food do you eat?”

“Pretty much anything, though what I would really go for is some chicken noodle.”

“What do you mean by, “chicken noodle”?”

“Its soup with noodles and chicken in it, but I guess you don’t have that?” She walked back into the room looking worried.

“What?”

“You eat chickens?”

“Well, it’s not exactly my favourite. I really like beef and bacon, but those don’t go very well in soup, do they?” She ran into the other room and mumbled something about carnivores. I hadn’t regained all my power yet, so I couldn’t make out the whole thing. It was apparent, however, that she didn’t eat meat, and was probably scared of me eating her.

I got up in disagreement with the pain around me and shambled over to the doorway.

“Come on Fluttershy, I told you the first time that I wasn’t going to hurt you. I have no plans to eat any of you ponies.”

“But you eat animals, I don’t want any of my friends to…”

“Look, if it’s really a big problem, I’ll ditch eating meat altogether, ok?”

“Really?” The voice was coming from a cupboard. I opened the door to see the pink-haired pegasus.

“Absolutely. Now come out of there, if you give me an ingredient list, I can make us some soup, and I promise won’t include any animals.” She stepped out, but hovered over to my shoulders and started turning me around. I forgot she had wings.

“Oh, no, you can’t go to all that trouble in your condition! I’ll make it, you just rest.”

I began to protest, but I forgot to duck out of the doorway and hit my face on the wall, almost falling flat on my back. “On second thought, I can’t go to all that trouble in my condition.”

She giggled as I laid myself painfully onto the bed, which was actually a flat couch with some sort of medical covering.

“So, are you some sort of veterinarian?”

“Sort of, I mainly help the friendly animals from the forest with things like broken wings or sicknesses.”

“That’s cool. Hey, do you know what happened to my clothes after the dragon incident? In fact, what happened to me?” Fluttershy stopped chopping vegetables and looked in to the room.

“I’m not sure you’d want to hear about that…”

“Actually, I do. I don’t remember much after that point.”

“Well…” she swallowed nervously and walked up to me, “when you jumped between us and the dragon, and did that shouting thing, the fire almost completely destroyed your clothes on contact. And, your body, the skin…” She trailed off. I was curious as to how badly I was hurt.

“…Yes?”

“I don’t really want to talk about that…” That would have to wait.

“Naw, that’s ok. One thing though: where did these new clothes come from?”

“My friend Rarity made them. Actually, you should be able to meet all my friends later today. I told them you were doing much better, and they said they wanted to see. I mean, it’s only been a week, so Twilight-”

“A whole week?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I guess you didn’t want to hear…”

“I swear if you say sorry one more time, I’ll…” I almost lost it, but looking at her shaking on the floor in fear dissolved my anger. The eyes again… Something was up with them, I swear.

“I won’t do a damn thing about it. You were saying?” I was careful not to say ‘sorry’.

“Well, umm Twilight wanted to get some information about your species, and I guess I wanted to know a little about you as well, but… um, if that’s ok with you…”

“You already know I’m an omnivore.” I said with a smile, showing off my canines. She laughed a little and I remembered an earlier reaction.

“You already knew, didn’t you?” She tried to feign confusion as I asked her.

“Oh, I didn’t really-”

“You saw my teeth in the cave, what was it, twelve days ago? Anyway, you saw my teeth and got scared, and when I asked about it all you could say was I looked, ‘nice.’” I replicated her voice pretty well on the last word. “Are meat eaters frowned upon here?”

She started to stutter, saying something about friendly forest creatures, when I just patted her on the head and told her I would still switch over if it became a problem. She finished fretting over it and suddenly remembered something. I never said anything about it, but she was starting to wear on my nerves.

“I guess I should finish that soup, huh?”

“Yeah, thanks Fluttershy.”

“No trouble at all, Ethan.”

I was lying there for about ten minutes, thinking about how fragile Fluttershy was, before she flew over, carrying the soup with her front hooves. I thought I wasn’t going to ask about that, but she hesitated when she pulled out a spoon.

“Oh, I guess you won’t need this…” She began to walk back to her kitchen with the spoon.

“Uh, Fluttershy…” She turned around and I wiggled my fingers at her.

“What?”

“I can, in fact, use spoons. I have fingers, you know…”

“Oh sorr- I mean, I thought you wouldn’t be able to hold it…”

I showed her that I could indeed hold utensils, “Yeah, I just grasp it with my fingers. Don’t you have any animals that can do that?”

“No, some of them have fingers, but they don’t really use them for eating.”

I started to sip the soup, “Wow, Fluttershy, this is great! You have to show me how to make it some time.” She blushed at the compliment, and I was almost glad that she was lightening up to me, only hindered by those eyes. I move past it and tried to understand the spoon mystery.

“Ok, back to the spoons… How do you ponies hold them? I mean, you don’t have any way to grasp them or anything.”

“Well, all ponies have a little magic in them, and while unicorns have a lot and use it for all kinds of things, earth ponies and pegasi have a little and we use it for smaller things, like holding things and moving clouds.”

“You said earlier that Twilight knows a lot about mysterious and magical things?”

“Yes, she lives in the town library and loves to read, so even if she doesn’t know something, she should be able to find out from all the history and science books.”

“I guess I’ll have a little talk to her about all this ‘magic’ stuff. It’s not really getting through to me.” There was a knock on the door, as if they appeared there by magi- goddamnit.

“Oh hi girls, my patient actually just woke up. Come on in!” Hooves clopped on the floor and I craned my head up to try and see the approaching crowd. There was a blast of colours like purple, orange, cyan, rainbow, and pink…

A pink object flashed in front of me, causing me to nearly choke on the still-hot soup.

“Hey what’s this thing it looks hurt, Oooh I bet its Fluttershy’s patient! Wait, you look familiar! You’re Pinkie Pie number two! Hi twin, happy to see you again, we still haven’t had any of those missed birthday par-” She was cut off by the orange pony, I seemed to remember it being named ‘Applejack’, who dragged her out of the room with a sheepish smile. I could have listened to what they were saying out there, but that would probably get awkward later on.

“Well, I see you’ve already met Fluttershy. I’m Twilight Sparkle,” The purple unicorn explained, “The pink pony was Pinkie Pie,” I heard a faint ‘Number One!’ coming from outside, “and the orange pony was Applejack. These ponies beside me are Rarity,” She motioned to a bright white unicorn to her left, “and Rainbow Dash,” she gestured to the obviously-named cyan pegasus with a bright rainbow mane, who greeted me with a detached, “Hey,” as Twilight continued.

“We are all very grateful for what you did for us earlier, and for helping Fluttershy yesterday… but, we really wanted to find out how you were doing. Maybe Fluttershy can…” I cut her off.

“I’m actually doing fine.” That was met by a unanimous, “You can talk?” from the four that didn’t know.

“Yes, I can. I’m a human, and my name is Ethan. Most of us can talk.” I guessed Twilight and Fluttershy either didn’t tell them or forgot.

“Well, how come ah haven’t seen yer kind ‘round these parts?” Applejack asked with a light western accent, as she and the pink pony came back in.

“Because I’m not from around here,” I answered, looking at Fluttershy. I got up with a wince and slowly moved to the kitchen, eliciting gasps from the ponies as I crouched under the doorway. Fluttershy followed me as I started to wash the bowl, but she took over and pushed me back to the other room with a concerned smile. I went back out and sat down on the couch, still not meeting eye level with the small ponies around me.

“Wow, you’re tall!” Pinkie Pie somehow got right next to me without making a sound.

“I suppose I am, but compared to other humans I’m just above average height.” It was true, I stood at 6’3”, which may have been a bit more than “above average”, but I was a middle height among my friends. I continued moving the conversation along.

“With introductions aside, I’m a little surprised to see you here, let alone thanking me, after what I did.”

“Well what did you do, darling?” The white unicorn asked with a different light accent.

“I attacked Fluttershy three times, I nearly killed at least three of you, I scared off a manticore, I fought and disabled over a dozen of your army, I mentally broke your Goddess-like ruler and escaped out of an enchanted dungeon, I survived a terminal velocity crash into the ocean, I knocked out, then possibly killed, a dragon in a single day, and I made a manticore disappear by shouting at it. How does that warrant a thank you?” I was almost checking things off at that point.

They all looked like they were about to say something, but were too scared to ask.

Rainbow Dash, the pegasus, was the first to speak up, “Yeah, why are we thanking him? We should be taking him back to the princess and jus-” She was cut off by Twilight.

“No, Rainbow, Ethan sacrificed himself to save us, and did it twice more for Fluttershy. Why do you think you don’t deserve anything?” The purple unicorn was forgiving, I gave her that.

“I guess I just didn’t think of it that way. By the way, Rainbow Dash…?” She looked up at me with a tinge of anger.

“I’m sorry for whatever happened after the incident on the day you found me. I never really meant to hurt you, but I heard you might have been injured, and I’m feeling guilty about it.” Her eyes dropped to the floor.

“Well, I got a messed up wing and stuff, but it healed pretty quickly. I mean, I was the one who tackled you. Didn’t you get hurt too?” She was trying to sound concerned, but I heard it as disappointed, like she wanted me to be hurt. I decided it was a good idea to get on her good side for now. I pointed at my left thigh.

“The bone in this part of my leg is the largest and strongest bone in the body. It would have taken almost ten times my weight to even bend it, but your tackle broke it in three places. It wasn’t very pleasant, I’ll tell you.” I was slightly exaggerating on the injuries.

“Oh, umm… sorry.” I noticed she was satisfied by the answer, but tried to feign guilt. I winked at her and she smiled, understanding what I meant.

“With that explanation aside, I wanted to thank you girls for helping me. Thank you, Fluttershy, for healing me, and thank you, Rarity, for the clothes. Unfortunately, the shirt might be in a little disrepair…” I finished by pulling a sleeve, which came off with little effort, revealing several rips along the body.

“Well it was no problem at all, darling! You simply must come to my boutique some day soon; I can imagine you would want some say in what I design for you.”

“Design for me…? Well I don’t want you to go to all that trouble-”

“I insist. I mean, you must miss those old things you had earlier, but I’m afraid they were almost all gone before we managed to get you in a stable…”

“Wait, wait wait. When you say almost all gone…?” This was getting more uncomfortable by the second.

“I’ll just say that we know your male, and leave it at that.” Twilight explained and kept her professional look, but was blushing slightly. That was nothing compared to the crimson shades and nervous shuffles that were displayed by the ponies around her, and I started to flush red as well. Twilight was eager to break the silence.

“Well, we may have gotten off track a little. How are you feeling?” They all looked expectantly as I began to stand up, testing my body.

The pain was excruciating. Joints were scraping and grinding, breathing was an effort, my skin felt like it would fall off at an instant, every movement creaked in anguish, and I had trouble seeing. It was like fire ran down my veins and every second of existence was another exposed wound, like a paper cut, but my entire body.

“I’m feeling fine, just a little scratched up.” Fluttershy looked at me funny, but Twilight was incredulous.

“I don’t understand it! You were barely alive when we found you the first time, and after the manticore…” I stared her down and interrupted her.

“Perhaps we could talk about that somewhere else.” I subtly gestured to Fluttershy, and while the other ponies didn’t quite understand it, Twilight nodded and sat back down, and Fluttershy smiled at me. I noticed the reason for one of my ailments.

“Hey Fluttershy, do you know where my pack went? I dropped it before the most recent ‘incident’ and I think it has something in it that I need.” Pinkie Pie gasped and blasted out of the room. I was about to ask what that was about, but she shot back in and put my bag on the floor.

“Where was… How’d you find it?” I still thought something was off about that pony.

“I saw a weird thing lying on a tree, and it looked like half of a saddle bag, but until you mentioned it I didn’t know what the hay it was!” She said that in a single breath, confusing me further. I was glad to have the bag back, at least. I took out my glasses, cleaning them with a cloth, and put them on.

I audibly sighed as I took in all the details around me. The ponies still stared at me, wide eyed, and I looked at each of them, when I noticed something on their flanks. On Pinkie Pie, she had a tattoo with what looked like balloons on it. On Fluttershy, butterflies. Butterfly, Fluttershy. On Twilight, a six-sided star with sparkles around it. Rarity had a diamond, Rainbow Dash had a cloud with rainbow-lightning, and Applejack had an apple…

Applejack eyed me with suspicion, and I realised that I was essentially leaning at a 45 degree angle to look at her butt. I straightened immediately, and there was a long silence as I brought my palm to my face in regret and embarrassment. I was about to try to apologize when I noticed something different about my palm, like that old expression no longer applied. The skin was harder in some places, wrinkly in others, and dark and light patches wisped through it.

“Oh, shit. Fluttershy, do you have a mirror?” I asked nervously, and Fluttershy pointed to a frame on the wall. I stood up, still examining my hand and wrist, and when I reached the mirror, bending down to see my face, I almost jumped at the sight I saw.

Nearly my entire face was covered in various scars, which looked almost like dark veins that spread through my face. On my left eye was a large, rough and dark scar that went from the eyebrow to the mouth level, but on the side. I tried rubbing my eyes, and took my glasses off to clean them thoroughly, but I kept looking back to that disfigured head.

My dark brown hair was always cut short in a sort of military style, but now it was mostly stubble with patches of inch-long hair sticking out. My eyebrows were mostly intact, and I had somehow retained most of the beard that grew over the past two weeks, but it was singed gray. Perhaps the most unsettling feature of my new face was my scarred eye, with the colourless iris. My other eye was a piercing blue, and the right side was relatively intact.

I looked back at them, and they all faced the ground except for Fluttershy. I smiled and said, “I guess I won’t be winning any more beauty pageants.” I didn’t know why I was so comfortable with the discovery, since it contrasted with my growing dislike of being there.

“Well you don’t have the cutie mark for it, anyway…” Rainbow Dash tried to lighten the mood but trailed off with a hint of sadness.

“Cutie mark…?”

“Well, in the whole clothes-replacing part of your recovery,” Twilight managed to mention that without blushing, “we didn’t see a cutie mark anywhere on you.” She did, however, blush at the concept of looking around my naked body, no matter how injured it was.

‘A cutie-mark? I needed to be naked for them to see it, and it was related to beauty in some way…’ I nervously brushed my hands over my head and exhaled. I was pretty good at concealing emotions, but when a bunch of what I assumed were college-age girls asked me about stuff that I could only imagine was related to my sex organs, and, to make matters worse, my lack of something, I couldn’t help but get extremely uncomfortable. And that made

“Ah, yeah, I don’t have one yet…” I looked over my shoulder at them, and they seemed worried, but not suggestive or anything. ‘Maybe it’s not… that.’ I couldn’t take my chances, so I just quietly sat back down.

“Don’t worry, hun, it’ll come eventually…” Applejack patted my upper leg, which I could have either passed off as a cultural difference or a reassurance that it really was the worst thing possible. Naturally, my brain took a nose dive for the worst option, and I couldn’t think of any way to get out of it.

“Something wrong, Ethan?” Twilight had her genuinely curious face on, and I could only shift uncomfortably as Applejack backed away. I was quickly losing patience.

“Yeah, uh, something’s really wrong. Can we please change the subject?” My voice cracked as I tried to back away from the situation. I could feel sweat beading on my ragged forehead.

“Hey, here’s a thought. What ever happened to Pinkie? She’s usually talking all the time.”

I knew what they meant and, eager to skip over the last minute of dialogue, I looked over at Pinkie, who was lying on the floor and holding her mouth closed, barely containing whatever sounds were leaking out. As we all examined her prone position, she finally broke and screamed something about parties, before blinking out of the room. That was it, in less that a tenth of a second, she just disappeared, leaving a whirlwind of both questions and actual wind around us.

“What did she say about parties?” I began to believe that all of the ponies here had some sort of crazy in them.

Fluttershy had some sort of care-obsession, and was extremely emotional to the point of it being a hindrance on all involved. Twilight was fine, but leaned towards an almost eidetic nature, which wasn’t bad on its own. Rainbow Dash was part sadist, part egomaniac, and after remembering Iron Man, my brain reeled at the resemblance.

Rarity was a little obsessed with clothes, but I chalked that up to being female. Applejack was to look out for, as she seemed to have something about being unable to “enhance the truth”, especially when it came to embarrassing subjects.

Lastly, Pinkie Pie was hyper and uncontained, obtrusive, obnoxious, and all-around annoying. I wondered what she was doing while I was recovering, but then it hit me: They could have been doing anything to me; especially Fluttershy. I kept thinking about that horrible effect her eyes had on me.

“Hello? Anybody there!” Rainbow Dash was tapping me in the shoulder and I snapped out of that stupor, but kept my analysis on my mind.

“Yeah… what?”

“We were saying that you should probably watch out for Pinkie for the next few days.” I already concluded that, but I hoped they had another explanation.

“Why?”

“’Cuz she’s gonna throw you a surprise party, that’s why!” Applejack almost yee-hawed at the concept, and the others looked thoughtfully at me.

“I don’t really think that would be a great idea…” It really wasn’t, and I was starting to snap.

“Well why ever not, dear?”

“I can barely stand you guys right now, that’s why!” I almost yelled, and stood up in spite of the pain to walk out the door with my bag. The ponies stood in awe as I stormed out, but they soon ran after me.

“What do you mean by that, big guy?” Rainbow was the first to catch up, hovering at eye level, as I walked towards the forest.

“You all act nice, but it’s like your crazy. I fear for my life whenever you talk, and you expect me to party with you five and that crack addict Pinkie? Against my will, no less!” Twilight was on my other side, barely able to make up a sentence.

“But, you and us… you saved us… we just wanted to… to be friends, and…” At that word I stopped and put my arm in front of Twilight, stopping her in her tracks. I crouched and centered my eyes a few inches away from hers.

“Friends? You want to be friends? I had friends, they worked with me and we had common interests. They were never nice to me. The only people who were ever nice to me are dead. And those that I tolerated, I have no idea where they are, and they, me. I can’t do a damn thing about it.” My voice cracked as I started to tear up. Twilight was obviously moved by what I said, but I couldn’t read her face as I started walking faster to the forest. I didn’t have time for being nice.

Three sets of hoof-steps followed me, with two pairs of wings flapping above them. I couldn’t care less about what they were saying, to themselves or me, so I blocked them out. I was about to step across the forest threshold when pink hair fell in front of my face, and yellow hooves wrapped around my neck.

“No, please don’t go Ethan! We’ll do anything to help you! You’re one of the nicest ponies I’ve ever met, and I can’t imagine you being shut out from everypony else!” She managed to tell me through sobs, and my knees buckled under the emotions.

“I didn’t have any real friends in my world. What makes you think I can get friends in this one?” I asked flatly as the five huddled in front of me.

“Because you’ve already made six!” They all said with equal enthusiasm, starting to hug me. I would have pushed away, but I was feeling defeated and I just sat there. A single tear ran down my scarred face and hit the ground. I took that as the cue to agree and return the hug. Nearly all of them were completely crying at my revelation, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash restricting it to the occasional sniff. I broke away and turned to the forest.

The ponies looked at me, and I looked between them and the forest. I turned to look at Fluttershy’s cottage. Another sequence of takes, and I ended the silence.

“I know there’s value to the whole thing, but I don’t do very well at parties.” I slowly started back to the cottage with the others tagging to either side, Fluttershy still holding onto my neck. I was hoping they could overlook the nervous breakdown I just had.

“Well, I was new to Ponyville around a year ago, and I was even less social than you, but these four and Pinkie managed to show me how great it was to just spend time with other ponies!”

“Yeah, that raises a problem. I’m not a pony, and even for my race I look a little scary. That was before the hideous burns and scars, by the way.”

“Ooh, I have a great idea!” Twilight looked up at me, “We could have a slumber party at the library to get to know you, then Rarity and Fluttershy could give you a make-over the next day!”

“Oh, hell no! I’m not getting a girly make-over from a bunch of pon-” I noticed they stopped walking and I looked over at them.

Aside from Rainbow Dash, they all had big puppy-dog eyes and gave me pleading looks. Rainbow Dash looked over at them, said, “Oh, yeah…” and stood next to them with a mirrored expression. I was about to tell them not to try that, when Fluttershy came out from behind me and put her hooves on my shoulders.

“Oh, please, Ethan?” She had the biggest eyes and cutest expression out of all of them, and it broke straight through me. I tried to look away, but she hovered to meet my eyes.

“Godda… Fine. But I don’t want to look girly, so no things like… make up, bows or… butterflies. No offense, Fluttershy.” She just giggled as we walked back. I had a pretty wacky thought just then.

“Hey, Fluttershy, you’re pretty light, think I could carry all of you at once?” She looked over at Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity, and they all smiled at me before trying to jump, or fly, onto my face.

I fell over.

Lost Chapters - #9 "The Twilight Zone"

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Chapter 9
The Twilight Zone

“I swear I could have done it if you guys hadn’t jumped, man. I mean, ouch.” Fluttershy was helping remove my bandages after we got back. I started to bleed again after failing to carry the five ponies, and it had taken three of them to carry me back. The pain was even more unbearable than before.

“Well at least you know what not to do for next time.” Fluttershy was joking around, but was significantly more serious whenever she was treating a patient.

“I guess now would be the time to tell me about my wounds, considering I’ll have to see them anyway.”

“I really don’t think… just look in the mirror, I don’t really like giving this sort of news.” She finished removing the bandage, while the opened wound stopped bleeding, and I stood up to the larger mirror she had brought up. The view was almost sickening, especially with it being my body.

Nearly all of my skin was streaked with faint red-brown patches from the burns, and I had several larger and more noticeable scars. Four deep marks across my chest, some similarly spaced marks on my left shoulder and arm, and the open wound, a hole that almost went straight through my stomach. All the skin that wasn’t burned or scarred or still bleeding was a ghostly white.

Fluttershy finished with the new bandages and gave me one of the simple shirts rarity had made with a little confusion. “Why is it that you wear clothes all the time?” I pulled the soft, white fabric over my body and arms.

“It’s sort of a cultural thing,” I paused, looking for her reaction, which stayed a cross between worrying and questioning, “Everybody like me, every human I know, wears at least some sort of clothing at all times, except when bathing or showering. There really isn’t a lot of exception to the rule outside of that, and in most places you would get arrested if you were naked in public.” I looked over my lower chest before flipping the shirt down and adding, “Some of us just don’t look very good without them.”

She was about to ask an obvious question, but I answered ahead of her, “Its considered public indecency, for a lot of reasons involving hygiene and the more intimate parts of our concealed areas. I think you know what I mean.” She nodded and turned away, showing she probably knew more than just that.

I flattened the shirt and pushed the sleeves up, turned around and raised my arms. “Well, how do I look?” Fluttershy turned back and looked up at me, standing at almost twice her height. She almost flinched, but then flew to eye level and said, “You look… nice,” with a little smile.

“Oh come on!”

At that point, we just headed over to the library at which this “slumber party” was taking place. We passed a few ponies along the way, but they usually gave me weird looks, saw Fluttershy, and just shrugged it off. Somehow. I seemed to remember Twilight said she lived there, but when Fluttershy and I stopped at a corner I didn’t see anything that looked like a library or a house. Then she knocked on a door I hadn’t noticed.

“Woah, this tree is a house? That’s crazy!” Fluttershy gave me a sideways look, “I mean, crazy in a good way. I’ve never seen a real tree house before.” She nodded and looked back at the opening door. I leaned so my head wouldn’t smack on the doorway. The purple lizard creature saw Fluttershy and let her in, but looked up to me and screamed, trying to slam the door.

“It’s ok, guy, I’m with Fluttershy. I don’t bite.” I smiled as he reopened the door, looking over at the pegasus.

“Spike, he’s nice. Show him in!” ‘Spike’ looked up to me in horror as I crouched down to his level. My elbows were touching the ground by the time I got face to face with him. I smiled and stuck out my hand.

“Great to meet you, Spike. I’m Ethan.” He looked at my hand for a few seconds before shaking it gingerly, like it would break at any moment. I looked down and saw that the hand he shook, my right, was scarred and burned far worse than my left, and I sighed.

“Sorry about that, I haven’t quite healed yet.” I started coughing and stood back up, causing the small lizard to jump back at my full height. I leaned back down again, and asked if he was going to let me in.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that, Ethan… Its just, you’re a little… tall. Like, the tallest pony I’ve seen!” He jumped at the expression, and I just laughed a little. We began walking into the room.

“Yeah, well, I’m not a pony, so we don’t compare very well.”

“Oh yeah… I guess that explains your claws…”

“No, you have claws. These things are fingers. I can imagine they serve the same purpose, but mine are fleshy and aren’t as tough as yours.”

“Hey, can I see your ‘fingers’ for a second?” I handed him my hand. He compared the two, with my large hand covered in callous, wrinkled, scarred skin and his small hand covered in smooth, purple scales.

“Hey, spike, uh… what are you? Like, a lizard or reptile or something…?” The green spines and pale green scales on his back and front, respectively, made it hard to determine what animal he most resembled.

“I’m a dragon, a baby dragon to be exact.” This might get a little awkward later on, if I asked the ponies about the events that I didn’t remember. “What are you?”

“Cool. I’m a human, basically a smarter, less hairy monkey.” Spike scanned my body shape and seemed to find the comparison humorous.

I looked in front of me to see that I had almost walked straight into the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and she had her forelegs raised to stop me. The five other ponies around me were snickering, and I crouched down to meet Twilight’s level.

“Hey, so thanks for inviting me here, but how is this going to work? I’ve never been at a slumber party, and even if I had been at something similar it wasn’t with ponies.” She seemed delighted at that, and cleared her throat before reading me a checklist of things she wanted to do. The first item was ‘Hear elaborate story about Ethan’s world and how it works’. I sat down at a couch, and they all sat around me with curious eyes.

I leaned back, put my arms around all six of them, and asked what they wanted to hear first. I could hear discussions among them, and a few things about my arms, but I looked up at the ceiling, trying to daydream about whatever came to mind.

“Your childhood!” Pinkie jumped about before leaning back against my hand.

I regaled to them the story of my childhood, about how I was an only son, I was fairly smart throughout school and had fairly good grades. I was always into building things with blocks, and liked playing video games. I had a very standard childhood.

“What’s a video game?” Rainbow Dash asked, causing more discussion before all the ponies turned to me again. I told them that it would have to be a pretty long story, but justified it with video games being so awesome. They agreed, especially Dash.

“Well, that would get into the topic of technology, and that would be really hard to explain without a proper reference.”

“I really can’t wait, but I think the others would just like a basic explanation.” Twilight chimed in. The ponies around me all nodded.

“Video games are like another world that you insert yourself into, via a motion picture display and a handheld controller. Most of them let you control fictional characters, and just to name a few, there are racing games, puzzle games, platform games, first person shoo… yeah there are lots of games. And almost all of them come in a box around this big.” I finished by shaping the size of a small computer with my hands. I never liked having to describe concepts like that, as I was never a teacher.

Nevertheless, the ponies were speechless, and Rainbow Dash jumped out of the couch and hovered right in front of me.

“Wow! That’s awesome! I mean, it’s only, like, 20% as cool as me, but for a boring bob like you, that’s crazy! In a good way, I mean.” I narrowed my eyes at her self comparison. Something seemed familiar about it, but I just couldn’t place it…

“As much as I would love to hear how these video games work, how about we get back to your life, shall we?” Twilight was moving the topic along.

“Fine, fine. What fantastic adventures do you want to hear about?”

“How about you tell us what you did later in your childhood, and what you think your special talent is?” I hadn’t heard Rarity in a while, and while I didn’t know what she meant by ‘special talent’, I gave her a nod before continuing my story telling. All of them were still comfortable on top of my arms.

“I was always into building, as I told you earlier, and after I graduated from high school, I went to college for three years to become an architect, but ended up in construction. I was mainly a carpenter, but I did some electrical, structural, masonry, mechanics… I really liked building things, and it was a mostly fun job.”

“How long were you at school, in total? I don’t know what you mean by ‘high’ school…” Twilight trailed off, looking to the same patch of ceiling that I was.

“Well, I started at four, and ended at… uh, I think I was 20 or 21 when I graduated colle-”

“You were at school for seventeen years?” Twilight cut me off quickly.

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago.”

“How long?”

“Almost sixteen years.” I waited for them to figure it out. Pinkie Pie, who was quiet for most of the time, blasted off and seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds.

“Wow, your old! Since you’re Pinkie Pie number two, I have to throw all those parties for you to make up for not having them with me!”

“Sorry, as much an honour as it would be, I’m afraid I’m not related to you. Besides, I had most of the parties that mattered so you don’t really need to-”

“But every party matters! How many did you have?” She was saddened that I missed some of them.

“Well, all of them until the twenty third, when…” I didn’t want to say it. I couldn’t tell these ponies, they would probably care too much.

“Until when, Ethan? You can tell us!” That Pinkie, it’s like she read my mind. I shook my head, but Fluttershy from my left, Twilight to my left, and the others got closer to me and all told me, “You can tell us anything about you.” My expression darkened and I looked to the floor.

“On my twenty third birthday, I got a watch, and it… Do you really want to hear more? Do you really care about-” I was cut off by all of them getting into ready-for-hugging positions and telling me they did, in fact, care.

“Ok. On August 15th, 2002, over fourteen years ago, my twenty third birthday started. I went to work like every other day, but after I got home to clean up I would go to my parent’s house, the same way it was for the two previous years since I moved out. I got home, got the mail, ate a late lunch, and got ready when I noticed a large package had come for me.

“I opened it the package, and inside was a letter on top of something heavy. I looked at the object underneath. It was the watch I had made with my father only a year before.”

The ponies were hanging on my every word, and I continued, “I opened the letter, half expecting what it said, but still hoping it didn’t…”

“What did it say, Ethan?”

I covered my eyes, not crying, but trying to erase my emotion as I repeated the line, “It said that my parents were dead.” I said it without flinching, my eyes and face cleared of any and all emotion. All the ponies sat there shocked for a few seconds before Pinkie broke, collapsing onto me and crying loudly. All the others joined in and I was under a pile of sobbing ponies, even Applejack and Rainbow Dash affected by the story. I thought I heard the whimpers of a baby dragon coming from the upper floor.

I didn’t shed a tear at that point; I just pulled them close and let them cry it out for a few minutes. Afterwards, they all tried to apologize for making me tell them.

“Please, don’t apologize. I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t want to. I’ve kept that in for so long. You know at the forest entrance, when you all convinced me to come here, saying you were my friends?” All except Pinkie nodded, but she was both not there when it happened, and still on the verge of crying.

“When you hugged me, I shed a single tear. That means something to me, because it was the first time I had come close to crying since the watch. I had just insulted you guys, probably because I was angry at the result of the dragon incident, and I was ready to leave you all behind until you broke me. Thanks, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie. I guess you are my friends.”

We hugged again, and then Twilight checked off the first item on her list and got to the next.

“Ok, that was a pretty variable story, full of every emotion and we learned lots, but it’s safe to say we won’t go back to it. That’ll be hard to beat with the next one, which is ‘Scary stories’. Ethan, do you want to go first?”

“No, I don’t think it would be fair if I went first, since I’m from a… different kind of place. I’ll go last, if that’s ok with you.” She nodded and we got off the couch, setting up seven pillows around a lantern. They were about to start, when I heard sniffing above me. The others didn’t seem to notice, so I excused myself and went up to where I assumed Spike was sleeping, based on the sounds.

I opened a door and saw a small basket bed with a moving lump inside it. I silently strode up to it, mindful of the creaky floor, until I got right next to the baby dragon. I patted him on the back, which caused an initial scare, and he turned towards me with watery eyes.

“Ethan, I can’t believe you had to go through…” His voice was cracking beneath the emotion. I gave him a gentle smile and told him I was ok, and everyone else was ok. After a bit of sniffing, more back rubbing, and a, “Thanks”, I moved away from the comforted dragon and slid down the stairs, ducking to avoid smashing my teeth on a support beam. The others were silently waiting for me in the sparse light.

“What was wrong, Ethan?” Fluttershy flew up to me and asked. I sat down, with Fluttershy still over my shoulder.

“Spike overheard my story and was a little upset, so I went up there and told him everything was ok. I think he’s fine now, but I don’t know much about dragons.” The ponies around me ‘bawww’ed, and Twilight told me that it was “The sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!” Fluttershy hugged me around my neck again and sat down next to me.

“Ok, who’s telling scary stories first?” I crossed my legs and got ready for the scariness.

“Well, since the guest of honour is going last, I guess me, the host, should start. This is a tale about the terrible writer, and how nopony ever wanted to read her books!” Thus began a long and extremely un-scary story telling session, with Applejack talking about the tree that dropped apples on its own, Rarity regaling us with the story of the missing diamond, and Rainbow Dash spun tales on that one time she didn’t win a race. It was shocking.

There was an interesting point, where Pinkie managed to scare a few of the ponies with the punny tale, “The headless horse,” but disappointingly left out any of the gory bits involved with losing your head. Fluttershy ended it on a calm note by telling us about when Angel, her pet bunny, got a broken toe and it took her days to find him. I didn’t find any of the stories particularly scary, and started to yawn, when I was caught by Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, I suppose you have some sort of scary story? I bet it’s another yawn fest like the others…” I looked at her, positioning my head so only the scarred side was visible in the lamplight.

“Oh, I think there is much more to this story than you think, for it is the tale of…” I paused for dramatic effect, “The dread hand.”

“Once, there was a mailman. An ordinary guy that delivered mail to every house on his street, and he had a family and a happy life. Not rain or shine, not sleet nor snow, should his quest begin to slow… or, so he thought. Going on his merry way at 8 in the morning, he stepped outside to a cloudless day, ready to begin his journey of deliverance. But, it was not meant to be.

“After a few minutes of walking, a dark cloud appeared overhead. He brought his raincoat, so he didn’t worry about the rain getting him wet. More clouds started to form, but no rain. Eventually, about an hour in, the entire sky was nearly black, the morning becoming night in minutes. There was nopony outside, nopony in their houses, just an empty street, and a single message in the mailbag.”

I started to vibrate the lantern, silently and slowly turning the valve and darkening the room in an extremely subtle effect.

“The mailman walked over to the address. He had never seen this house before; he had never seen anything like it. The grass around it was burning and charred, and the wooden boards that made up the mansion were cracked and warped. He was a mailman, pure and fearless, so he took a step towards the house. More clouds, more darkness.”

I leaned slightly closer to the dimming lantern, my face becoming the only lit object in the room. My voice was getting deeper, and it rumbled the floor.

“The man had a choice; he could leave now, or deliver the mail. Eventually, the rain picked up and stopped the burning lawn. He couldn’t see anything but his own hands; he couldn’t hear anything but his own breath and the pit-pat of rain behind him. He was about to put the mail in the slot, when the door opened…”

The room was almost pitch black now, but I could still see the ponies. They were all huddled across from me, shivering, looking about as I silently walked to move my voice.

“The door opened with a, “creeeeeeaaaaaak…” and inside was an empty hole of nothingness, black as the void, drawing him closer. But he knew better than that. He grabbed the doorknob, and tried to pull it closed. The door was being pulled equally back, so he tried harder. In the darkness, beyond all the planes of land and soul, he could hear a voice that was saying…”

I walked right behind them and whispered, throwing my voice in front of them.

“Come closer… We need you… We need to feed…” I backed away and continued, while the ponies were almost fainting with terror, even Dash.

“The darkness was all-consuming. He felt dread through his entire body, and promised that he would never let go of the doorknob. Eventually, the skies cleared, the day brightened, and everything went back to normal. The mailman had kept his promise, he had continued holding on. For the next day, when the replacement mailman came in and delivered his rounds, he noticed a paper in front of a strange house. On it were the words, “Last wish; Make it count.”

I vibrated the lantern on, but stood in the shadows.

“The replacement walked up to the door and noticed something… odd about it. The mailman had kept his promise, all right, he never let go. But he was nowhere to be seen. All that was left, attached to the door, was the mailman’s last wish. The hand…”

I thrust my hand towards the group, showing it in the light.

“…was still there!” Cue thunder, cue turning the lantern off, cue running upstairs without a sound. All the ponies were screaming and shuffling, trying to get the light back on. Spike asked me what happened, and I told him it was a scary story. That just gave him a smile and he lied back down. When the light was turned on, I slid down silently and sat on my pillow.

Rainbow Dash was on the floor shivering, Fluttershy was in a pile mumbling something, Twilight was looking out all the windows before shutting and covering them, Rarity was unconscious on the couch, Applejack was staring daggers at me through teary eyes, and Pinkie just stood there, frozen with a frightened face.

I waited a few minutes without a word as they all managed to wake up or unfreeze and sit at their pillows again.

“So. Was that scary enough for you?” I heard a resounding chorus of “Way more than enough” and smiled at their reactions, but then noticed they were still acting weird, like they believed the story.

“Come on guys, it’s a ghost story, they’re all made up!” Rarity woke up and looked over at me for a split second before turning away and sniffing. I really messed up on that one, and I would have to make it up to them. I started by gathering them closer, and though they were reluctant, they were eventually sitting next to each other. I went for Fluttershy first, for she was probably the most affected by the story.

I picked her up and hugged her, rubbing her back, saying I was sorry, and told her it would all be alright. She was originally really cold, but I warmed her up and she quickly returned the hug. I set her down and did the same to Rainbow and Applejack, apologizing to them and getting them to return the hug. I repeated again for Twilight and Rarity, and then centered my attention on the frozen Pinkie.

She didn’t seem to react to any sort of contact. Confused, I snapped my fingers in front of her and she shrieked, bouncing around the room at high speed until she stopped in front of me.

“Wow, Ethan! That was the scariest story ever! I was really scared, not frightened, but genuinely terrified at that ending with the hand, and you doing that thing with the lights! Oh boy that was some great fun I had there!”

The others started giggling at Pinkie’s reaction, and as soon as I let out a chuckle we all burst into laughter.

Eventually, after several minutes of snorting and guffawing, Twilight used her magic to bring out the sleeping bags for her and the other five ponies. None of them were large enough for me, so I offered to just sleep on the floor. Obviously, they disagreed, and eventually they had all their sleeping bags under me and started finding spots on top of me.

It was originally uncomfortable, but with Applejack lying between my knees and ankles, Dash upside down on my stomach, Pinkie flat on my chest, Rarity on my right arm, Twilight over my left arm, and Fluttershy laying over my neck, I quickly nodded off.

Fluttershy was tossing and turning on my windpipe, and was mumbling things in her sleep. Still half asleep myself, I lifted Twilight and Rarity into curled positions on my sides, without waking them, and lifted Fluttershy so she was beside my neck, facing away. I put my chin over her head and began stroking her mane, trying to get her to go back to sleep. She mumbled something and rolled over, grabbing my face. I tried to pull her away, but she continued to hold tight and I gave up.

I put my arm around her as we both drifted back to sleep.

Lost Chapters - #10 "i dont know yet"

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Chapter 10
I don’t know yet

I slowly woke up from one of my first restful sleeps since the jump. My mind was virtually blank as I continued to hold the soft pegasus in front of me, stroking her mane again. ‘Today would be a good day’ I thought, before being snapped awake by a voice.

“I know you make a great pillow, Ethan, but you should probably be careful with Fluttershy.” I turned over and tried to blink my vision clear, but all I saw was a purple blur in front of me.

“Huh? What do you…? I don’t know…” I slurred as I turned back to the pony next to me. Fluttershy was curled up on top of my arm, nuzzling my neck, and doing something equivalent to purring. I continued to stroke her back as I turned back towards the figure standing over me.

“Well, just don’t roll over or anything. Breakfast is almost ready you two!” I thought it was Twilight Sparkle, and as she trotted away I tried to move Fluttershy. She just mumbled again and grabbed my face, while I tried to move my arm out. I decided to just wake her up.

“Fluttershy, wake up.” I nudged her shoulder.

“No more, Angel, just a few more minutes…” She tossed around for a few minutes before rolling into my chest, and I managed to pick her up from that position and lay her on the couch. I put one of the sleeping bags over her, and rolled up the rest of them to put them in a pile.

I looked back at Fluttershy. She was probably the cutest thing I had ever seen, but I still remembered the events at the cave, and every encounter with her afterwards. She had abilities and I didn’t want to get caught up with them, so I just went over to the kitchen, once again ducking under the door frame.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle, do you need any assistance?” I asked in the most proper voice I could muster, which would actually rival Rarity’s.

“Actually I am quite fine, sir. Just sit down over there and I will be ready in a-” She started laughing after trying to match my accent. “I’m fine, Ethan, and call me Twilight.”

“Alright, hey ‘Twilight’, what’s up with sleeping beauty in there?” I said, leaning forward and feigning a private talk gesture. I wouldn’t need to put my hand over my mouth since I could make sure the sound never reached anyone else’s ears.

“What do you mean? Do you have a… thing for her?” I stood straight up as she said it, almost hitting my head on the ceiling.

“No, it’s not like that. Not that I wouldn’t… never mind.” I face-palmed as I realised what I was saying. Twilight blushed, and I continued, “Ok, you know what happened the second day, right? Like, a few hours after I escaped your first capture attempt?”

“Um, well, Fluttershy was missing… we heard shouts in the forest… Wait, did you…?” She looked to me in horror upon connecting the two incidents.

“I kidnapped Fluttershy, but she forgave me because of the reason I did it. I wanted to make something resembling peaceful contact with your kind and she was the one I found in the first night. Anyway, I can understand if you don’t like me for it, but need to ask you something about her.” I looked into her eyes and she calmed down a bit.

“Well, if Fluttershy says its ok… sure, what did you want to know?” I looked back to see Fluttershy was still sleeping. I wasn’t worried about her hearing us in her sleep, but if she walked over and saw us talking in silence that would get a bit weird.

“Ok, so at the cave, I noticed something about her eyes. It’s like they don’t end anywhere, know what I mean? And I can’t help but like her and agree with her when she does that. Afterwards, she did it when I woke up yesterday, to get me to eat her soup, and again when I was walking towards the forest later that day after the whole ‘friends’ thing.” Twilight started to smile nervously, and beads of sweat formed around her forehead.

“Oh, well, I guess you just… like her eyes! Yeah, that’s it!” She couldn’t look at my face when she said it.

“I’m serious, Twilight, but I’m pretty sure I know what it is anyway, so thanks for confirming that.”

“What? I didn’t confirm any-”

“Come on, I know when people are lying, and ponies act the same way. If you don’t want to tell me, then at least tell me that so I don’t have to guess.” She sighed and revealed the secrets.

Fluttershy had some sort of stare power that she used to make sure animals behaved, or to stand up against things like dragons and cockatrices. Earlier, Fluttershy mentioned to her friends that she doesn’t have a lot of control over when it happens, and that probably means it’s triggered automatically. That might mean trouble later on, but I stored the thought.

I looked over at the sleeping pegasus as she stirred awake. I motioned for her to come in and leaned over the table in the center of the kitchen, hanging onto a beam on the ceiling. It was still a pain to stand, and sitting down to the low chairs would probably hurt more. Not to mention I was pretty sure something would break it if I tried.

Fluttershy walked in and was greeted by Twilight just as she finished making breakfast, and I offered to help while they set up the table. They declined, obviously. Instead of using a chair, I just sat on the floor and ate what Twilight had prepared. It was scrambled eggs, with applesauce, apples, and hay. I told her about they hay, how I’m unable to process it, and she looked really happy for a few seconds before apologizing and taking what was left.

“Wow, thanks Twilight, that was great!” It was true.

“Thanks, Spike has been giving me tips. He’s a great cook, but he can sleep… late, sometimes.”

“Well how did you two sleep? You know, apart from the obvious, ‘on top of me.’”

“Ethan, again, you make a great pillow. Everyone was gone before you woke, and they said it was because of how soft you were, how they got a great sleep. I agree!”

“I guess that’s why Fluttershy was still asleep; she didn’t get any of me to lie on.” Fluttershy blushed before turning away.

“Well I guess it was partly my fault. I thought you were shivering, so I moved you next to my head. That and my neck isn’t really made for sleeping on, no matter how feather-light you are.” I finished with a smile, and Fluttershy looked back to me.

“Yes, thanks Ethan… I was actually having a bad dream… so, um I just…” She quieted down to the point where even I couldn’t hear her. I kneeled down and held a hand to my ear, jokingly.

“Well, thank you for keeping me warm. That was very nice of you. I actually have to go now, but I think Twilight wanted to talk to you, so ill leave you to it!” She was smiling when she hovered out the door, and I rolled up Fluttershy’s sleeping bag before asking Twilight what she meant.

“I know you didn’t get to tell the other ponies much about who and what you are, but I’m just so interested! I mean, I’ve never seen anything like you, there isn’t even mention of your kind in mythology, fiction, or history. Why might that be?” She sat down and a purple glow enveloped a few rolls of parchment and a quill.

“Wait, is that magic?” I said, staring at the glow on her objects, then her horn.

“Yes, why wouldn’t you know what magic was?”

“Well I didn’t know what it was until I heard one of you talk about me having ‘magical abilities’. I never thought that could happen, actually, since magic doesn’t exist where I’m fr-” I was cut off by a surprised Twilight.

“What?! No magic? How do you change seasons, raise the sun and moon, grow crops, go long distances, make such advanced technology, or do that… that thing you did?” She asked, talking almost as fast as Pinkie.

“We don’t change seasons or raise the sun and moon; that stuff happens on its own. We go long distances on cars, boats, planes and sometimes rockets, we have advanced technology because we invented it, and that thing I did…” I didn’t have an explanation for her, so I just shrugged.

“Off to a great start, I see! If you don’t use magic, then how do the seasons and sky change?” She started to write on a parchment with her floating quill.

“The moon rises and falls on its own because it orbits the earth, our planet, so sometimes it’s out during the day. The sun rises and falls because the earth orbits around it. That also causes season changes. The earth is at a permanent angle to the sun, so as it rotates and orbits some parts of the earth get more sun than others. This causes the different seasons.” Twilight was watching my hands as I formed the movements and diagrams that were hard to describe.

“Wow, I can’t imagine having a world without magic. It just seems so… restrictive.” Twilight sounded like she pitied me, so I had an idea.

“Hey Twilight, you said ?”

“Yes, it is. Do you like my collection?” She was thrilled that someone was interested in her books.

“Yeah, can I read one?” I answered. She squealed and levitated a book in front of me. It said ‘Equestrian History: Volume One’. I opened it, and although the letters looked a bit strange, I could read them. Not that I was really focusing on the book.

“You know, I never mentioned the internet. With access to the internet, you can read almost every book and learn about every aspect of our world at the touch of a button. So I wouldn’t say our lack of magic is restrictive in such a wide sense.”

“Sorry about that, but I just… Are you saying you could fit this entire library in your ‘internet’?”

“Well, the internet is spread throughout the entire world, so it isn’t a thing you can touch or feel. But we invented it, so we can use it. Recently there was a new kind of device that was made, it could fit in the palm of your- of my hand, and it was useful for accessing the internet. And, could I fit your library in there? No, not even close…” I trailed off intentionally, and Twilight took the bait and looked sad for a moment.

“I could fit thousands of libraries in there!” I shouted, but without releasing any force. Twilight squealed, clopped her hooves together and wrote something down, before looking up again.

“Don’t you wish you could go back?” My heart sank. In all the events, I had barely thought about the possibility of going back until now. I taunted death at least four times, making a choice of risk over safety, in the hopes that my fate would guide me to the right decision.

“I haven’t thought about it much, but when I did I was trying to justify it with dreams or something. The abilities I had, the creatures in the forest, and even talking, flying and magic ponies were all lore and legend, sometimes made into books, movies, or video games, but not possible to exist, like magic. Of course, this doesn’t feel like a dream, so I’m probably wrong.”

“I’m sorry, abilities?” She looked over to me, and I realised I had only told Fluttershy about my powers. I guess Twilight had the right to know.

“You know, when I stole Pinkie’s voice? When I broke my chains, fought the guards, took out a dragon and made a manticore disappear?”

“Ah, yes. I remember you mentioned it. Can you show me an example?” She seemed to be intrigued by my power, even though it could kill any one of these ponies with little effort. I shook that thought out of my head.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, last time I used it on a tree there was a significant lack of tree a few seconds later.”

“Can’t you do anything smaller?” She was continuing to write with her magic, without looking at the quill.

I looked around for something to show her, then I realised the lantern was still there. I made the low vibration again, and it turned on and off. I turned back to Twilight, who was staring at me in surprise, mouth agape.

“Wow! How long have you had this for?” I didn’t know why she was so excited.

“Since I woke up here, so around two weeks ago, though I took a few days off.” I smirked but she approached me with a frantic look and I stopped.

“You have some great abilities, Ethan, and I can’t believe you managed to learn it that fast in such short time! I know you think it’s dangerous, but I know all about the power of magic, so if I teach you, you should be fine!” She began to lift books off of her shelves and put them in a neat pile on the floor.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. Do you even know what this-” I was interrupted by Twilight dropping a book on the table in front of me, and sitting right beside me. The book read, ‘Understanding Magic: The Basics’.

I opened the book to the table of contents, and skimmed through the chapters.

“Unicorn History… Weather theory… Sound Manipulation…” I flipped to that sound chapter, feeling it was probably closest to what I had. I looked over at Twilight, who was examining my hands.

“Sorry, Twilight, my hands don’t look too good, what with all the scars and such.”

“No, not that… although, they are kind of… never mind. Your hands and fingers look a lot like Spike’s claws.”

“Yeah, I noticed that when we shook hands at the door last night. Anyway, why did you want me to read this?” I stopped at the beginning of the ‘Sound Manipulation’ chapter.

“This is a book used in early magic school, so it doesn’t have very many magic-related words you haven’t seen before, but it will help you understand how your magic works.”

I started reading, starting with how this form of magic is rare among equines, and later about how it can be triggered by trying to reproduce a sound. I already knew how to form sounds, but Twilight insisted I keep reading. I was using my glasses after a while, and eventually I got to the more advanced section with instructions on technique and how to achieve certain results, like simple levitation.

Twilight took this as an opportunity to magically bring 3 apples over and lay them on the table. I set the book down and looked at them for a few seconds.

“What?”

“Try one.” I reached for an apple, but she swatted my hand away and continued, “With magic, not your hands.” I sighed and tried to move the apple, but it didn’t budge. I looked at Twilight, and she told me to try again. No luck.

“Just try to imagine picking the apple up, but without your hands.”

I shook my head. “Mind if I try something… different?” I asked. Twilight nodded, eager to see my solution.

I leaned over to grab one of the apples, but I didn’t eat it. I shook the apple beside my ear, confused as to why I thought this would work. I could sort of hear the apple as it was shaking, and tried to use that on another apple. After several tries, I managed to vibrate the apple a few centimetres to the left, and Twilight gasped.

I was just as amazed, but I didn’t let that slow me down. I continued to make the inaudible buzzing, moving both apples slowly but without direction. I knew I was making progress, but it wasn’t advancing at all. Frustrated, I sighed and put my hands down on my knees. The apples fell to the ground. That shouldn’t have happened; they were in the middle of the table. Twilight and I exchanged glances, and she magicked the apples back onto the table.

I tried another swiping motion, this time at the center apple. It rolled away from the table. I aimed my finger at the right and motioned it to the right, where it fell off the side. Then I picked up the other apple, with my hand, and threw it in the air, noting the sounds I heard earlier. The noise was faint, but still there; it was some sort of droning that occurred whenever the apple was in flight. I placed it on the table again, aimed my finger at it, and reproduced the sound.

The apple started lifting into the air, following my finger as I pointed, but if I deviated with my noise the apple would start to spin or stabilize, or come closer or further. I spun the apple and flew it around the room, nearing the walls and shelves, before hovering it over the table again.

I was laughing in excitement as I lifted the other unseen apples to meet the third, now orbiting each other. I looked at Twilight and she started a squeaky laugh, before I moved them closer. I hovered one in front of her and two in front of me, and quickly ate mine. Twilight finished hers and I looked at her, searching for her reaction. She looked up at me, and I gave her the widest smile I had ever given before wrapping my arm around her.

“Magic.”

“Yeah, magic.”

“Twilight?” She looked up. “Thanks.”

“Anything to help a friend. While that was certainly amazing, especially for your first lesson, I think you should get some rest. If you want, I can give you another lesson tonight.” She walked over and wrote something on the parchment. “Not that you need much help, that is.” She continued with a wink.

“Thanks, Twilight. I can’t say I’m any less surprised than you, I mean, it’s only been, what, a half hour?” I instinctively looked towards my wrist, only to find that it was still bare.

“More like two hours. That reminds me, you’re scheduled for a makeover today, at around… oh! 20 minutes from now!”

I groaned, “Awww do I have to? I mean, I’m not that scary, am I?” I half-sarcastically asked her before walking up to a nearby mirror. I was, to my displeasure, that scary.

“I thought you promised? You, Fluttershy and Rarity are going to the spa today, whether you like it or not.” Twilight finished with a commanding tone. I did sort of want a spa day, but after seeing and hearing nothing but female ponies (and one baby dragon) I wasn’t too keen on the adventure.

"Well, how do I get there? I noticed the townsfolk were looking at me kinda weird, so I don’t suppose I could-” I was distracted by a flash of light and sound, and my mind froze as I was stretched and compressed through dimensions.

Lost Chapters - #11 "Worst Thing Possible"

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Chapter 11
Worst Thing Possible

"...get an escort", I finished saying as I popped in front of a house. I thought I was still walking towards Twilight's door, but instead I smacked into the front wall of Fluttershy's house and fell over. I could barely breath and my vision was blurry after that horrible teleportation experience, and Fluttershy came out of the house looking for the cause of the noise. Upon seeing me incapacitated on the ground, she quickly guided me inside and set me on a couch.

After a harsh coughing fit and finally being able to see again, I noticed I was inside Fluttershy's cottage and she was standing over me on the couch.

"I don't think I'll let Twilight teleport me anymore." I told her between ragged breaths. She just smiled and started to stand me up in front of a mirror. I was surprised at how strong she was, in comparison to her weight, but it was only enough to get me to my knees.

"I just wanted to check your injuries before we meet up with Rarity. Oh I hope you aren't hurt more after that..." She was feeling around my shoulders and back, at which point I noticed I didn't have any clothes on. I tried to contain my embarrassment, but seeing myself in a mirror made that all the more difficult.

"I'm feeling fine, much better than yesterday... Uh, could I have my clothes back?" She gave me a confused look for a second, before blushing and handing me my boxers, pants and shirt. After regaining my dignity, and confirming several times that I was feeling better, Rarity arrived and we started walking into town.

"Well, I'm still a little confused over this. I've never been to a spa in my life, let alone one for another species, so I don't really know what I should expect to get out of it."

"You've never been? Well, that truly is a shame, Ethan. Fluttershy and I go there every week, and we come back out feeling rejuvenated, relaxed, and fabulous!" I cringed at the description. "I noticed your skin could use a bit of... work, and what a better option than the spa!"

"It may sound strange, but that really doesn't encourage me to go along with it." I noticed that we were heading towards a pink and blue building decorated with flowers and plants, and I fought hard against my instincts to stop in my tracks when the two ponies ahead of me walked in. Reluctantly, I followed them, and was met with gasps from what I assumed were the shop owners.

Two regular ponies, with alternating mane and body colours of blue and pink, were staring up at me, past Fluttershy and Rarity. I was standing near my full height, and as the unicorn and pegasus started to explain I got to one knee in an effort to look less imposing.

"...You see, Ethan here is new in town, and he just recovered from a few nasty injuries. He may not be a pony, but he is similar, and once you get past his size he is really nice. Fluttershy and I would like our usual, and we brought Ethan along to get it with us!" The spa ponies started to examine me as all five of us walked through the building, into a large room with several baths. Fluttershy and Rarity just stepped in, and the spa ponies asked me to get undressed and step in after them.

“Oh, umm… I really don’t think I should be…” I began to back out. This was quickly becoming the most uncomfortable experience so far, even though that bar was raised at least three times in the past 24 hours. I tried to beg for help from Fluttershy and Rarity, but the pink pony with blue hair was on a ladder behind me and lifted my shirt off in a swift motion, and the blue, pink-haired pony grabbed me pant leg with her teeth and pulled the pair down. She began to raise her head again but I quickly stopped her.

“That’s enough! Right here is the limit, it’s not coming off.” I was practically climbing up a wall before the two stopped following me, and I slowly walked over to the tub.

“Come on, Ethan, the water’s fine!” Rarity was surely getting a laugh out of this, with Fluttershy just giving me her standard look of concern. I calmed down and let out a chuckle as I stepped into the water, which seemed to calm Fluttershy as well. The tub was obviously designed for ponies, and the water almost rose over the edge when I was down to my chest.

“Yes, Rarity, this water is fine,” I said defiantly as she finished laughing, “especially when compared to being stripped by force.” Rarity looked down and became quiet.

“Sorry about that. I suppose I may have forgotten a few things you told us yesterday. Of course, you never told us why that was, did you?” She looked up to me again, still smiling as she faked an accusation. I knew it was a joke, but I struggled with the answer nonetheless.

“I… I think it’s the hair.” The two turned to me with questioned looks. “I noticed that you ponies have hair on your whole bodies, especially your mane and tail. We used to be like that, but I guess we evolved to have mostly bald bodies. Now, most of us have two major patches of hair. One is on our heads, like a mane.” I didn’t finish explaining, and they nodded as they understood why.

One of the spa workers, now embarrassed after the clothing incident, quietly pushed a button and the water started to lower. I slid down to sit on the underwater bench, again, made for ponies, and my feet touched the wall of the tub.

Lost Chapters - Story Bible (And Other Notes)

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Entropy: Serial Bible

[NOTE] P1 means Part 1. I don't recall what E means. I think MSL means Main Story-Line (Entropy was the largest of three stories I intended to write in this universe).

[FUN FACT] Entropy was originally called Unheard Of, and Ethan's powers were originally sound-based. But he was never a Dragonborn.

P1-E0-MSL

Discordian History

1. Universe was created, as well as several elements and gods. The elements are pure, sentient embodiments of concepts, and powers. The gods are technically non-living, but they are self-conscious and can manipulate existing, natural forces as they please (they must witness such forces changing in order to learn how to artificially produce or affect them).

2. One of the gods, now known as Discord, inhabits the milky way. As a formless god, he experiences time linearly, but can change his perception of it. This becomes his first power.

3. He was thinking that there must be more of him somewhere, but he could not find anything other than empty solar systems after billions of years. After he created a few planets, he made earth. It was very close to successful, at least to his eyes, but it yielded no life, again.

4. Very distraught, he almost gave up. He simply made a copy of that planet, but something extraordinary happened. It yielded something that he could only think was life, from a source of magic from across the universe (possibly the element of magic). He spent the next billions of years trying to create magic, create life. He eventually succeeded, but to a great personal cost of most of his power, which was in the form of magic, using the planet as a carrier. This became Equus.

6. Discord had to abandon his life (sort of) in order to create life, finally, but it started growing advanced life, some of which evolved the use of magic. Those were the alicorns, and they could almost rival him in power at that point. Fortunately for him, he gained the Element of Change after he created them.

7. He had no intentions to leave the planet, as there was still life there, but he taught them how to do things. He gave them spoken word, and later written language, based on what he learns from Earth (he can detect things on it, still). He also writes books about humans, and gives them human inventions.

8. They start to resent his obsession with control, and they get into a very one-sided power struggle. In order to preserve his position, in a very short-sighted lapse, he splits most of the alicorns into the three factions of ponies. This enrages them even more, and they go so far as to attempting on his life. He has qualms about killing his ‘children’, but starts to stray into it.

9. He is unkillable, but his horrible actions and reactions lose his element within the year.

10. His loss of power corrupts him into Discord, and he goes insane and kills off most of the remaining alicorns, with his remaining elemental power.

11. The two alicorn sisters, the most powerful in Equestria, stay calm and regain peace among the remaining alicorns though nonviolent means. Discord is still corrupted, but after no longer being able to do much about the alicorns, he tortures the three factions.

12. That was far enough for the sisters, Celestia and Luna, so they found their opportunity and used their elements of harmony against him.

13. Since Discord lost all his power, he could not spend enough to convert magic back to him, and he succumbed to the elements. He was immortal, however, and was not fully imprisoned in stone. He could still watch. And wait.

P2-E0-MSL

Lunar History

14. Celestia and Luna, in addition to gaining full use of the Elements of Harmony, took up the responsibility of raising the sun and moon for Equus, keeping it in harmony and making both sequences equal in total time of the year. The two sisters were already extremely powerful, and with Celestia’s Element of Harmony: Magic, they learned to control these things quickly

15. The other sentient beings of Equus were jealous of the power held by only two individuals, especially since they were almost mortals, but Celestia and Luna managed to convince the other species that the sun and moon were in good hooves. The relationships between the species have been mutually strained ever since, resulting in minor hostilities, as well as intrusions. It is also why the other species are considered rare.

16. After several centuries of ruling, Luna was starting to lose patience with her sister, and the seemingly unimportant task of raising the moon at night. She started to lose her grasp on her three elements, Laughter, Generosity and Loyalty, while Celestia stood strong with her three, Honesty, Kindness and Magic.

17. After a thousand years, she used her three elements in her sudden switch from good to evil. She plunged the world into eternal night, and was almost successful until Celestia fought back. She was on equal ground with Celestia, until the second day, when the subjects started to fear the day would never come. Luna did not lose power immediately.

18. Celestia was forced to sacrifice her three remaining elements to imprison Nightmare Moon on the moon.

19. In the brief fluctuations, Discord managed to achieve more than partial freedom and could fully observe them, but could only partially affect their minds. That was enough to make them believe the element of magic was lost.

20. After that event, with the Element of Magic gone, and Luna imprisoned, there was very little technological advancement. After millennia of using magic instead of intellect, and being taught by discord, the two primary sources of development were gone and Celestia was forced to recruit unicorns as personal students in order to advance.

21. With some leaps and bounds in technology for a thousand years, Equestria turned into the state it is in canon. Celestia worked her way into a permanent ruling, after several coups were attempted, and Equestria was very close to achieving harmony again.

22. After her thousand year imprisonment, Luna broke out; the Elements of Harmony are meant to be used for recovery, not punishment. Returning with a vengeance, the Element of Fear attached to her after seeing her plans, and she became Nightmare Moon.

23. Celestia knew this would happen, as she was granted intrinsic knowledge via her element, and made arrangements for Twilight, her current personal student, to meet the other potential elements.

24. Discord actually got out before Nightmare Moon, and used his mind reading abilities to watch what happened when another deity tried to regain power.

25. Right on time, the Element of Magic was brought back, as well as the other five, and Discord learned of their carriers. He watched and waited some more, and Luna was defeated.

26. Discord made it appoint to find a way to gain more power. After regenerating for two millennia, he could potentially overpower two alicorns, but definitely not six elements.

P3-E0-MSL

Discord’s Plot

27. Harmony was preserved for a year or two, and Discord was finished planning, finished watching over the elements. He watched their time at the Royal Gala, and finally knew their largest flaws. After years of technically being freed from the elemental prison, he broke out and began his elaborate plan.

28. Discord tested his understanding of the elements’ flaws. Apart from kindness, they all exhibited crippling character weaknesses and were almost defeated.

29. Discord planned for everything to be stacked against him, so he made sure Celestia was in real-time to witness his ruling, knowing that if she was smart enough to stop him, she would be able to. He also had a backup plan.

30. As a backup plan, in the very probable case of Celestia finding a way to stop him, he used his powers to track down the Element of Change.

31. He was almost defeated once, when he wasn’t expecting it, and from that point on he badgered them about it, but was secretly scared that it would happen successfully.

32. One day before his defeat, he found it. It was in his second last planet, Earth. Knowing he still had the connection, he sent a non-magic long distance portal to drag the element back to him. He didn’t fully know if it would work or not, and he continued to lose power.

33. The very next day, as Discord waited for it to arrive, he noticed that the Princess found a way to save the elements. They began to charge up their attack, and he initiated the patience protocol. Before he was turned into stone, he teleported into the Lost Castle, the one he trapped Celestia in time for a day, and put a stone statue of himself in his place. To complete the illusion, he doesn’t re-initiate chaos among the city. Instead, he just watches over everypony, silently waiting for the Element of Change.

34. After two months, he sees an object coming into the atmosphere. He teleports Ethan to the lost castle (Where he ruled in secret from), and takes a month (ten years in the castle) to examine Ethan’s memories, all his weaknesses and strengths, and finds out how to manipulate him.

35. He must slowly affect Ethan with his chaos, in order to imprint the image that changing the world to Discord’s whim, and allowing him to leave the planet, is the right decision.

36. After the long period of examination, all the while Ethan is in stasis, Discord enchants him so he can passively guide Ethan towards the castle if anything goes wrong, and makes him extremely intolerant to magic, so major contact with earth ponies and pegasi hurt him, and magic is unbearable. This is to give him a bad impression about the ponies.

37. Discord drops Ethan into a rotten tree, and sends a manticore out of its boggy homeland towards Fluttershy, in order to set the events in motion.

P4-E1-MSL

Ethan's Awakening – Act 1

38. Ethan gets back from the doctor's, and thinks about the news he received, and how he should come back in a day to find out what he has.

39. He goes through his schedule, and pushes himself a little too hard. He ends up getting a headache, going to bed, and going through the dream about getting to Equestria.

40. Ethan wakes up to hear Fluttershy’s scream.

41. He makes his first Elemental decision – to save her or run away.

42. As he yells after her, the Element that he was born with finally awakens, and he has trouble controlling the near – infinite power, being both mortal and non-magical.

43. Since his first action worthy of gaining the element was to call out assurances to Fluttershy, the element uses the medium of sound as its first instrument through his body.

44. After seeing the manticore, his heroic action to charge it head on strengthens his ability, allowing him to send his will through sound. As he does not focus on controlling it, he can only push away at that point.

45. He tries to comfort FS, but is pulled away at the last second, which the element takes notice of and allows Ethan to make his judgement of the other ponies. Since then, his opinion of the ponies decides whether or not the element grants or withholds worth when he acts good or bad towards them.

46. The ponies knock him out and capture him.

47. After he wakes up, the ponies are approaching him. He can't quite talk yet, but when he does he uses Pinkie Pie's voice and she calls him "Pinkie Pie Number Two".

48. Twilight gets impatient and tries to cast a spell on him, and a heat starting in his gut makes him believe that they are attacking him again.

49. He tries to escape, causing Twilight to try harder. He also uses his granted powers to escape from his chains, and run into the forest.

50. He practises his powers, understanding how to use them, but the noise causes him to be found. He evades them, realizing that the mane six are either out to get him, or at least following orders.

51. He stays in a cave for the night, without fire, and early the next morning he goes out to recon the area. He starts to realise that he is essentially an alien, or more realistically, all of the ponies are aliens.

52. Fluttershy notices him, and he manages to convince her that he means no harm and explains his situation.

53. Fluttershy takes pity on him, and he explains further. She also tells him some things, but not much, and Ethan leaves when the sun starts rising.

54. He understands that they perceive him as a threat, so tries to keep his presence hidden.

55. Later in the day, after finding food in the forest, he hears more animal noises so he moves out in order to converse with Fluttershy later. He sees the mane six, and a few guards, talking to her, and as they mention the biped they found yesterday, he realises they're out to get him. He does not want to have information forced out of him, so he hides until they leave. He hears what they say, though.

56. Ethan asks Fluttershy what that was about. She gets scared around him, but when he tries to smile to make her feel better, she shrieks before trying to calm down, realising her mistake. It’s too late.

57. He’s caught by the pegasi guard, and tries to fight them off, but Twilight catches him and he blacks out from the magic levitation; an unforeseen side effect of the magic intolerance, but after all it ends up better than expected.

P5-E1-MSL

The Great Escape – Act 1

[FUN FACT] This part (at once it was chapter 5) originally contained a rape-like scene. Ethan used his sound powers to fake Luna's voice and pretend she was being ravaged by a prisoner. My editor, thank god, prevented me from writing any of it.

58. He wakes up in the royal castle, and sees Celestia and Luna. They try to ask him questions, but after hearing them talk about a prophecy earlier, remembering what the guards said at Fluttershy’s, and getting intense sinus and all around body pain standing there, as well as the grogginess from being attacked with magic and knocked out, he says nothing.

59. He’s thrown in prison, and finds that he can hear them talking outside, and learns about the nature of the princesses – about their powers, and about Luna going missing.

60. He notices that the enchanted door has a weak point, the flap that opens three times every day to give him food.

61. He times it correctly and destroys the door, after three days, and escapes with Celestia on his trail. He manages to survive the drop, and runs into the forest. He briefly considers the consequences of his actions, but decides that he must assess the tactics first.

62. He finds his knife, and his cave, and sees the cryptic note and apple that signify he needs to leave, to get away from the ponies.

63. Ethan goes to the temple of the two sisters, known to him as the castle ruin, but meets Zecora. She manages to convince him to go to her shack.

64. Zecora reveals that she knows his name, and that he can talk. She reassures Ethan that she is only healing his leg, and he agrees on the condition that she stops rhyming. They argue, and settle on Ethan returning with a gift in exchange for the two favours.

65. Zecora has trouble not rhyming, and after getting his leg healed he tells her that he doesn't plan on being alive to meet his end of the bargain, and runs out as she tries to figure out what he meant.

66. After reaching the castle ruin, he ends up realising it's the morning and decides to investigate the glowing cave. He finds a dragon.

67. He decides that taking the gold and jewels would be pointless, but the scales could be useful. He takes them back to make armour, and that takes a few hours. He realises that he's still alive, and knows that the dragon is soundly asleep, so he goes back to steal a single gem for Zecora, finding no flaw after he managed to take the dragons scales without interruption.

68. The dragon wakes up after he picks up the gem, and he fails in making any excuse for having it. He gets flown out of the cave by the dragon, heading to a volcano, but gets dropped into the forest.

69. As it turns out, the dragon was trying to kill two birds with one stone, but missed and ended up nearly paralysing one bird with no stone. The mane six ponies see him, and the dragon lands near them.

70. Fluttershy tries to use the stare on the dragon, but it tricks her and tries to shoot flames at the six when they turn away. It was affected by discord at the time.

71. Ethan, upon seeing this, uses his thought-to-be sound powers to shoot the flames back at the dragon, combined with the force of his shout, and it comes to an unknown fate as Ethan’s heart stops from burns and nerve damage from the dragon’s magic fire.

P6-E1-MSL

Afterlife – Act 1

72. Ethan sees himself falling towards earth, in an abstract fever-dream. He is supported by his memories, and slows down as he floats back to earth.

73. He sees the landing site, describes it as his escape. Escape from what? These are not his thoughts, but they seem very right for some reason.

74. He slows before hitting the roof. He is turned over, and dropped onto a soft surface.

75. Two horns appear on the horizon. They look like they belong to the same creature, but it is revealed that they are the horns of Luna and Celestia. The figures approach him.

76. He feels something happen, as if his heart restarted. Was it the princesses doing?

77. Ethan is healed, and sighs, but it is not a sigh - it is a scream. A scream of agony. Pain instead of healing, they are trying to kill him.

78. Ethan vents power, attempting to do the same to his attackers. Several other figures fall on the floor, their shapes and energies are unknown and insignificant. His goal is to kill the princesses, using their power against them.

79. The princesses start to weaken, but a push with telekinesis, and a rearrangement of his bones, leaves him in too much pain to continue his attack. He lays in the limbo nothingness of his dream, only knowing two feelings: pain and disappointment.

80. Once again, one of his feelings are not his own. The pain is undeniably there, but he is forced to realize that his actions were not fulfilled. The other thoughts are right, however. His goal was to kill the princesses with their own power, but instead he left both parties weakened.

81. He was sure they would heal first, so he closed his ethereal eyes to get some rest…

P7-E1-MSL

Life After Afterlife After Death – Act 1

[FUN FACT] At one point in the earlier drafts, Zecora tried to seduce Ethan.

82. Ethan wakes up in Twilight's house, in residual pain from the previous events, and examines his surroundings.

83. He sees a lizard-like animal, Spike, sleeping against his bed, tries not to wake him as he slithers past, using his powers.

84. He almost reaches the door when Twilight opens the door, ringing a bell and startling Ethan. He barely has enough room to slip by and escape Twilight as she enters the house.

85. Ethan hears some faint yelling, but runs to where he thinks the forest is based on what he's seen. Discord (unrevealed) guides him to his castle ruin, where he finds the equipment he didn't lose. He also goes to the dragon cave to pick up the gem to give to Zecora, making sure the dragon isn’t there.

86. He sees that there is no dragon, but has some extra space in his bag. He takes a few of the gems, keeping them hidden at the bottom, and carries one to give to Zecora, but is guided away and forgets where she lived. He decides to just continue back and see what will happen to him, since he has nothing else to do and they have the closest thing to a city he’s seen.

87. He wanders back to the forest and, nearing the exit, hears Fluttershy scream again. He runs to the commotion, and sees the manticore that attacked him originally. He pushes his body through the sustained injuries in an attempt to keep the manticore from hurting her, as she is the only one that can explain him to the others.

88. After a short fight, Ethan has his rib cage ripped apart.

89. Fluttershy protects him with the stare and brings him back.

90. She attempts to heal him, but he is almost dead, and his heart is exposed to air. Twilight and three others run into the house.

91. Fluttershy commands Twilight to heal Ethan, which she does quickly. Ethan is in immense pain from the attack, and even more from the magic, but he doesn’t make the connection between the pain and magic, since he still doesn’t think magic exists.

92. He is healed now, but gets angry when they start asking questions. RD crashes into him and tries to get answers, and he can’t push her off because of the contact pain.

93. They tell her that he can talk and is innocent, as RD back away.

94. Twilight rethinks her explanation and asks him if he can speak, but he asks his questions first, namely if he's being captured. They tell him they're supposed to keep an eye on him, but he isn't wanted for crimes. He asks what crimes he was wanted for at the beginning, but she can’t tell him.

95. He is relieved, nonetheless, that he isn't a fugitive anymore. Twilight says she'll tell him the conditions of his stay there later, and he agrees. They want to ask him questions, but he regrets saying yes.

P8-E2-MSL

Touchy – Act 1

Day 1 Middle – Day 11 in total.

96. PP and RD are intrigued by his anatomy, and Fluttershy is concerned of his condition. Ethan tells them to try not to touch him, but FS immediately breaches the request.

97. Rarity leaves for 'business', after hearing he has to wear clothes all the time. Applejack noticed he was looking at their butts (cutie marks) and leaves, citing apple bucking as the reason. RD and FS are now asking him what he did before he left his world.

98. He sees Twilight watching him without questions, and asks why. She says she has to gather information about him, and he decides that it would be better if he talked to her in private. Fluttershy convinces Twilight and Ethan to let her follow, and continually assesses Ethan’s condition as he walks to Twilight's. She begins to ask him why he's so tall, why he walks on two legs, why he has no fur and things like that.

99. Upon reaching Twilight's house, she tells him that she has a lot of things to write down, so the two others can get something to eat while they wait. Ethan tells FS that he isn't hungry, but she gets him to tell her when the last time he ate was and she gets extremely upset when he tells her, before making him a salad.

100. After eating it slowly, yet hungrily, Fluttershy continues with her questions, and he tells her that it irritates him. She remains silent until Twilight comes down, accompanied by Spike, whom Ethan doesn't know.

101. Spike and Ethan greet each other reluctantly, hesitating at the size difference of their hands, and contact with Spike is only a faint tingle instead of pain.

102. Ethan tells more about himself as Twilight writes.

103. After being asked more general things about humans, Ethan tells them he doesn’t know what to do about explaining himself, since he’s never met another sentient species, and asks them how they know what to do; it’s because there are lots of sentient species on the planet. Ethan doesn’t like the concept.

104. Twilight starts asking him all about his species, but he answers vaguely and starts to gain suspicions. He looks out the window to see the sun is setting on the empty town, and asks if his presence is kept secret.

105. He gets an unwanted answer, and returns to the couch. He dwells on the thoughts until he sees Twilight writing with magic. He almost freaks out, but then explains all the pseudomagic on Earth and tries to compare it to the planet he’s on now.

106. On the way back, Fluttershy hovers over him and doesn't say anything, and he asks what it was about. She thinks he's mad at her, but he explains that while he was momentarily, he doesn't hold it against her. They reacted much better to a new species, much less one that overpowered them, than what he would expect humans to.

107. After walking back to Fluttershy's, they see Ethan’s bag, a new shirt, and a note with similar glyphs that he does not understand.

108. Fluttershy sits Ethan down on the couch and starts making him another meal, and he tells her not to go out of her way, he can just find food in the forest. While he makes his case, she makes dinner and shares it with him. He acknowledges that she must know how to handle things like this.

109. He has a bad experience with Angel afterwards.

110. Fluttershy inspects the injuries, but Ethan constantly tells her its fine.

111. Fluttershy sets her bed up on the couch, but Ethan refuses to take her bed upstairs on grounds of imposition and it probably not being big enough for him. He is eventually coaxed into taking the bed, and finds that it is actually the correct size.

112. Ethan thinks about his day and his life so far. He considers the fact that he is a pioneer in both alien relations and superhuman abilities, but thinks about how the ponies have him beat in both regards. He thinks about everything changing, but not for the better, as he is not fond of the ponies except for Fluttershy, even then barely, and knows he will eventually have to meet the being that almost ensured his death three times, Celestia.

113. Ethan drifts off, but not before hearing footsteps up the stairs. He is too tired to think about it.

P9-E2-MSL

Relations Continue – Act 1

Day 2 - Day 12 total

114. Ethan wakes up and noticing Fluttershy is hugging him in her sleep. He gets out of bed and sorts through his bag, wondering about FS's hypocrisy.

115. Angel gives him the implication that he smells bad, and when FS awakes she tells him it's "nice". Unrevealed if she is telling the truth or not.

116. Ethan asks her why she was sleeping on him, and she blushes again before clumsily explaining that he must feel lonely in a new world. He is bristled by her not considering this sooner, but thinks about how she probably did.

117. He tells her he's actually fine, he got over it in the first few days. He also explains how he needs a goal.

118. After that discussion is over, Fluttershy goes downstairs, but doesn’t say what she’s doing. He suspects she’s trying to make him breakfast, but gets petty revenge by making her bed.

119. He goes downstairs to see FS putting pancakes on the table, and while he is confused as to how quickly she made them, he just rolls with it and goes with a different topic.

120. Ethan asks why she’s so nice to him, and notices the first ingredient.

121. They talk like this for a while, but Twilight knocks on the door and tells him that she has to finish her report.

122. When they arrive, Twilight tells him he has to stay at her house from then on for secrecy. He is in wonder at the magic, but is confused when Twilight asks how to spell his name. He writes it, and Twilight notices that he writes in equestrian. He says that he thought they were speaking English, and asks what the glyphic note said. She tells him it's a different version of equestrian, essentially a pictogram. It was assumed he could not fully read equestrian/english.

NOTE: It is not fully revealed, but with Ethan, Ryan, Human, Woman and Man being the most common human words Ethan uses, the equestrians assume that humans put 'an' as a prefix, similar to 'pony' but more prevalent.

123. After getting Twilight's first note pile sorted out, she sends it to Celestia through spike. He asks her why she's sending it to her, and she says its because Celestia wants to know all about him before meeting him in three days. He tells her he doesn't think it'll go well.

124. Twilight convinces Ethan to show her his powers, and he uses the sound based ones as well as the voice push.

125. Twilight uses an analysis spell on him, but it hurts a lot. She starts to make a connection, but is going crazy after not knowing how.

126. Ethan asks if he is allowed to go to the forest, to figure some stuff out and think for a while. She pouts for a while, but says FS's house is right next to the forest and they can use her house as an in-between point

127. After asking how he’s getting there, since he's to remain secret. Twilight starts teleporting them both. It’s too late for Ethan to stop her before they go, and when they land in front of Fluttershy’s house, Ethan’s heart is stopped and his muscles spasm, which causes him to fall and break FS's door.

128. After an emergency heart restart, Ethan enters FS’s house, making it very clear that he doesn't agree with magic. Twilight realises the connection between touching ponies and the magic reaction.

129. He is intruding on FS and R, and upon seeing the broken door he offers to fix it, saying he might as well to something for them. They tell him not to worry about it, they can have someone hired to fix it. He asks when they'll get there, and leaves to the forest. He is secretly followed by TS and FS, but he knows since he can hear them.

130. Ethan experiments with his powers throughout the forest, with varying strengths. He manages to float a few inches above the ground, but afterwards he gets back to the dragon site. He sees the destruction, and starts to wonder a lot about his powers, and his pain.

131. He calls the two followers over, and asks them for directions to Zecora's, since he forgot when he was guided away from it. They show him, grumbling about how he noticed them.

132. Zecora isn’t there, she's collecting a plant from the base of a tree nearby. This causes the tree to fall, but she already cleared the area and thinks nopony will get hurt.

133. Ethan is surprised when a tree starts falling, directly on top of TS and FS. He pushes the ball-form FS out of the way as TS dodges, but is almost crushed under the trunk. His powers save him from being crushed, but they cause more injuries.

134. Ethan survives, and ends up being healed by Zecora again. He gives her the gem he found for her, and goes back with TS and FS, who start asking him why he went out there.

135. He explains to them that he just needed time to think, and he got some exercise as well.

136. When they get back to Fluttershy's, Spike has a letter for Twilight; it says Celestia wants Ethan to be revealed to the public in two days. She goes off, reluctantly, to start planning with the mayor and Pinkie Pie, who will be advised to not throw a party, and Ethan asks what to do then.

137. He decides to just go back to Twilight's with Spike, giving some time back to FS, and reads a bit before talking with Spike and experimenting with levitation.

138. After a while, TS gets back and Ethan is tired, it's pretty late, so Spike makes them all dinner. Ethan asks Spike about gems, and he shows his to Spike. Spike tells him he can age them, and Ethan takes up the offer, as well as giving Spike one to eat.

139. Ethan goes to sleep in the bed he was in before.

P10-E2-MSL

Preparations – Act 1

Day 3 - Day 13 total

140. Ethan wakes up, makes his bed really well, and is fed breakfast, again. He tells them he wants to find a way to pay off his debt, but Spike tells him he's headed in the right direction; Ethan doesn't understand, but Spike was referring to the gems.

141. Twilight tells him he is on schedule that day, he has to meet the mayor, he has to do something with Rarity, and after that should practice for his announcement to the public.

142. He talks to the mayor, explains what makes him important, but doesn’t say anything about saving any lives (half humility, half because he doesn’t want to explain everything once again.)

143. Next, he goes over to Rarity's house and she reveals that she had been making him a suit, and he ends up giving her a gem as payment. From that point on he tries to repay the ponies for anything they give him, in varying ways. (Spike sees him give the gem to Rarity and gets angry at him, implied but not revealed)

144. He gets the suit fitted and Rarity says she will have it before his announcement, and he goes back (reluctantly) to figure out how it will go down.

NOTE: He notices Lyra notice him, but is used to being stared at. She thinks for a while before shaking her head and trotting off.

145. Afterwards, they go back to Twilight's, and Ethan practices levitation and stuff again, getting better at it. Twilight starts teaching him techniques, which is hard because he can not use magic right away, or produce it at all - later on he can grab it from an unknown source (the planet, hint hint.)

146. It starts raining, and he asks what PP, FS, RD and AJ have been doing. He learns that PP is a baker, FS is a caretaker for animals (confirming his suspicions), RD is in weather and rain was scheduled for that day (he does not like the concept of controlling weather) and AJ is apple bucking (haha, bucking.)

P11-E2-MSL

Announcements – Act 1

Day 4 - Day 14 total

[FUN FACT] Contrary to popular belief, I'm pretty sure Rarity doesn't make clothes for stallions, let alone male humans.

147. Ethan wakes up to Twilight standing over him, smiling and staring and staring at him. She was hyper-prepared for his public announcement, and they start getting ready for it. He makes his bed yet again.

148. He gets into the suit (no shoes, they don't know how to make them yet) and stands for the announcement.

149. The announcement goes fine, but no-one asks many questions. Lyra gasps and leaves when she hears he's a human. He says it went well, since he doesnt really want to be well known if he plans on leaving when he can. The discussion leads to Ethan being in RD's custody for the afternoon.

150. She shows him some tricks in the air, and after making a comment on how high she can go, he beats her to the height with his levitation. She tries to teach him a trick after learning that he can fly, but she ends up breaking several of his bones and almost killing him as he crashes into the ground at hyper sonic speeds. He unknowingly forms barriers around his body, but gets mangled nonetheless.

151. Ethan pushes his bones back, but they go to the hospital to get him checked out. They give him splints, saying that he did a good job on his own, its just to correct for any movement. Ethan figures out how to levitate for longer and just uses that instead of walking for the day.

152. He goes back to Twilight's later on, but is sidetracked by FS and ends up staying in her house again. He decides to go, and tells Twilight that he'll draw some human stuff when he gets back, picking up on her obsession with knowledge.

153. FS's "freaky knowledge of sewing" leads to him making socks out of his older clothes, but he still doesn't have any shoes, so he only uses the socks inside.

154. He goes to sleep on the couch, telling FS to stay in her own bed that time. It is unknown if she really does.

P12-E2-MSL

Repercussions – Act 1

Day 5 - Day 15 total

155. Ethan wakes up as Fluttershy walks on top of him, trying to wake him up. She accidentally touches his skin, and he accidentally sends her flying across the room. He uses levitation to cushion her fall at the last second. He apologizes for the scare, makes the bed, and ends up making breakfast for FS as a further apology, and an attempt to balance things out.

156. He is to meet Princess Celestia at noon, and ends up being flown in a carriage along with the main six. The ones that didnt know about it ask about his splints, and he tells them he needs some more flying practice.

157. He talks with Celestia, and when Pinkie brings up his explanations, she says she already has all the information. He tells her of the new developments, specifically magic reactions and new powers.

158. She asks for some privacy with Ethan and the mane six leave to wander around the castle grounds.

159. Celestia asks him about his goal, he says it's to get back to his planet, and she says they dont know how that would happen. He says there must be some way, since he was brought there, but she tells him again that his presence was only known to them until after he arrived.

160. He asks what his crimes were, and she says that it isn't important anymore. He asks if they were important when he was punished for them, and she asks him what he means. He describes the pain he went through, and the pain he endures at the moment, and says that its the main reason he wants to leave. She says that long-range teleportation is relatively new and there are only a few researchers in the world that are on it, but will get on it as soon as possible.

161. He thinks that's his cue to leave, but she tells him that his escape from prison resulted in severe burns and internal injuries to a Royal Guard, so he will have to do something for punishment. She settles on the Trollestia solution - 8 hours worth of community service, in ponyville. He complies despite thinking it's a useless punishment, as she is the ruling body.

162. He asks what ever happened to Luna, and she tells him she does not know. He cracks a joke about 'your princess is in another castle' before leaving, managing to hold in his laughter until he makes it outside to the others to call them back in.

163. They go back in, and Celestia says that he will begin his service tomorrow and complete it when he is able. The mane six have typical reactions to this, but Celestia has a strange smile that Ethan sees before he leaves, not knowing what it means. She remembers one last thing, and give Ethan the remnants of his clothes, basically the frames of his shoes, scraps of clothing, and

164. He ends up going back to Twilight's for the day, and Spike avoids him. He also doesn't understand that, but it's made unimportant when Twilight gives him a bunch of parchment and quills, taking him up on his offer to draw some human stuff. He turns out to be a good mechanical artist, and Twilight tells him that they should have thought he was more intelligent since he had hands.

165. He asks what that means, and she says that ponies cant usually draw or write very well because of their obvious lack of hands or claws. Spike is a scribe because of his claws, and he is almost as literate as Twilight, despite being a baby. She also explains how the language and text works, while he continues to draw.

166. Ethan accidentally affected one of Twilight's levitation spells, and they try to figure out how it happened before Ethan ends up falling asleep on a couch.

P13-E2-MSL

Pinkie Pie – Act 1

Day 6 - Day 16 total

167. Ethan wakes up with a minor headache, but pushes through it and makes breakfast for Spike and Twilight. Twilight gets up, but does not know what caused the headache (it was Discord trying to use direct punishment for improving relations), but it’s getting better anyway. Spike is sleeping in later than usual, and Owloysius is helping her out for the morning.

168. Ethan is reminded that he has to help out around the town as part of his community service, but Celestia specifically mentioned ‘janitorial duty’. He says that even though she is obviously a ruler, if she hadn’t almost killed him on several occasions he wouldn’t have enough respect for her to go through with it. He makes the beds (foreshadowing) and heads off to the square.

169. He is thankful that there aren’t many ponies there. He ends up finding some trash around the area, and picks each portion up to put in a nearby dumpster.

170. Pinkie Pie pops up from behind the dumpster, and he asks what she was doing. She says it’s a secret tunnel, but he can’t look inside because he might go crazy if he does. She says that Twilight would, at least.

171. PP convinces Ethan that he should come with her, and says that Princess Celestia said ‘8 hours worth’ not just 8 hours. He wonders how she knew that, but in the end is convinced and just uses levitation to clean the whole area up.

172. He goes into PP’s house, and she asks him a whole bunch of cliché HiE questions before shoving a cupcake into his mouth as he talks. He says he likes it, and she goes into the kitchen to make some more, saying she’ll be back in an extremely specific amount of seconds.

173. Ethan finds the obscure dirty joke book, and sees some of the main lines she uses in the show, but gets distracted by Pinkie Pie calling him into the kitchen.

174. She asks him to reach into the oven to get it out, saying she lost her favourite giant spatula. He does her one better and levitates it out to avoid getting burned.

175. After eating some of them, he asks if she wants a gem, but PP doesn’t have a use for them. She says that as long as she can make him smile, she’s happy. Ethan realises he’d been smiling almost the whole time, and makes a mental note of what she said before leaving back to Twilight’s.

176. He sees a few ponies around, and doesn’t want to make a scene, so he floats up to a few clouds, narrowly avoiding Lyra again. He spots RD and gets a push back to Twilight’s, and when he gets there, she stays and says she wants to know what he can do.

177. Ethan ends up showing RD how he can levitate things, and she ends up showing him how to fly, and after thanking her he flies over to Fluttershy’s.

178. He talks to Fluttershy about getting his shoes remade, and they fly (Ethan levitates FS, she doesn’t like flying) over to Rarity’s to plan things out.

179. He gets the basic drawings of the pair of shoes, but says that he wants to make them. He goes back to Fluttershy’s and stays for the night, but he can’t sleep, and gets an even worse headache.

180. He washes his suit, and makes the base parts for his shoes, during the night, and eventually falls asleep on the couch again.

P14-E2-MSL

The Day Before – Act 2

Day 7 - Day 17 total

[FUN FACT] Even though it certainly seems that way, Fluttershy wasn't meant to have a 'thing' for Ethan. I can't believe I deluded myself about that for so long.

181. Ethan wakes up when Fluttershy nudges him again, and he has enough sense to not almost kill her that time. He doesn't eat breakfast and heads to Twilight's house with Fluttershy to figure out what is causing his migraine.

182. He is levitating FS again, but his migraine causes him to lose his focus and he almost crashes, and FS lands on his face, which causes temporary nerve damage and Fluttershy has to lead him to Twilight's because he can barely see, or talk. He hits his head on the doorway as he is led in.

183. He eventually gets better, but Twilight is fretting over both finding a solution, and the letter she received, from the Princess, requesting that the seven of them to go over first thing the next day. Ethan goes back to FS's to retrieve the parts of his suit and boots, then to Rarity's to finish the shoes.

184. He manages to use his levitation and an as-of-yet undiscovered heating ability to complete his shoes, which he immediately uses to walk back to Twilight's and, in a better mood and mostly free from the migraine, goes back to Twilight's to ask about the letter.

185. There's no one at Twilight's, so he asks around, running into Dunkel and Sparks (story plug) on the way, as well as Lyra. She asks him if he's Ethan the Human, he says yes, and she all but drags him to her house for an unknown reason. Ethan gets away after she could only describe what she had at her house as "a fun surprise", and after a previous warning about Lyra being obsessed with humans.

186. Ethan runs into Pinkie Pie, who comments on common themeing, and tells Ethan that Twilight went into the Everfree, to Zecora. He tries to fly above the trees, but gets another pang of migraine and has to walk.

187. He spots Twilight across a patch of blue flowers, the ones he doesn’t want to go near, and can’t find any way to get past it, aside from going out of his way around a thicket. He decides to just float the little way across it.

188. He is almost past it when he loses height and hits a branch, causing Twilight to turn around and scream, but not for the reason he suspected. He almost falls into the flowers before regaining height and landing the rest of the way.

189. They walk to Zecora’s together, and Ethan learns the nature of the letter, how the Princess thinks she knows where Luna is, but they don’t know why Ethan was asked to go. He tells her about his recent migraines, but it shouldn’t be much of an issue.

190. He talks to Zecora as well, and she offers a remedy for it. It works, and he offers to help her back, as he doesn’t have his gems with him. He contemplates selling them for the ‘bits’ that everyone uses, but Zecora accepts.

191. She says the Poison Joke flower has some special parts to it that she needs, but nopony she knows wants to get it for obvious reasons. He uses his powers to get it for her, and then leaves quickly after she thanks him, not wanting to be around the flower after what she said it did.

192. He still has a bit of the migraine treatment, so he doesn’t worry about flying over the forest, and starts to have a bit of fun with it, doing a flip and a few barrel rolls, but starts getting motion sickness after a while. RD sees him, and makes fun of him for having a weak stomache before challenging him to a race.

193. Ethan loses, obviously, but he learned how to slow down more effectively after a close call with a building. FS’s house, to be exact. He knocks on the door, and FS answers, begging to know how he’s feeling, again.

194. He goes back to the whole thing about feeling fine, shows her his shoes, tries them on, makes plans for a mask and gloves (hinted at needing them earlier on) through the night, again forced to stay awake by some unexplained force (hah unexplained).

P15-E3-MSL

That Explains Everything – Act 2

Day 8 - Day 18 total

195. Ethan finds himself drifting off before being woken up by Fluttershy again, and saying he only just closed his eyes. He meets up with the mane six, getting a strange look from Applejack (whom he hasn’t seen much at all) before they’re loaded onto the carriage. He offers to fly them himself, but RD just laughs and FS says he should just rest in the carriage.

196. When they are briefed on the situation, they are told that the area they are going to is a castle beyond the Everfree forest.

197. Celestia tells them that the main thing is to just search the castle and surrounding area, as it has several magical anomalies, but is generally a barren and stable landscape. Twilight is excited, but the rest are only doing their duty. Ethan asks why they get chosen to do all this stuff, and they just say that Twilight is Celestia’s student, and she trusts them to get the job done.

198. They fly up there, with all of them talking about what they’ve been doing. Ethan is asked, and tells the rest of them the gist of what’s happened where not all of them were involved. They say he’s been pretty busy, and soon they arrive in front of the castle.

199. They wander around, and they encounter several obstacles, which they use teamwork to get around. Pinkie Pie, who is the only one besides Ethan that didn’t use their talents to get by, asks him what he thinks she’s going to do. He says whatever she’s good at, apparently, and she tells him that it’s making ponies laugh, then asks if he’s ticklish.

200. Ethan, seeing the trap of the question, immediately tells her not to touch him. She approaches him, and he backs away, hitting a wall, before Ethan realises that he got the same feeling that he got while around Celestia (general pain and pressure) and he breaks through the wall.

201. Luna is in a half-sleep state, is woken up by Twilight, and she doesn’t even remember being there. She starts to leave, and Pinkie Pie says they should have a party to celebrate it, but not before finding out if Ethan is ticklish.

202. She approaches him with a feather, and he backs into the room, but trips on a rock.

203. He thinks he’s going to hit the floor, but instead he just hinges on his feet and stands back up, apparently not upside down. He opens his eyes, and realises he’s in a very, very large room.

204. A voice starts talking to him, and Ethan assumes it’s a, if not the, god. It tells him that it might as well be one, and that it has very important things to tell Ethan.

205. It tells him that his powers are not sound based, and he says he already knew that. It tells him that he has far, far more power than he could even comprehend, and he need only a tiny fraction to become a great being. It says that all the answers will be revealed with time, and that he will be able to go back to earth.

206. Ethan begs to go, saying it’ll leave open ends but he can justify them, but is told he has unfinished business. He isn’t told what the business is, but the god tells him that Ethan can’t say it’s there.

207. Ethan asks why, and the god tells him that it used to rule the land, but the princesses overpowered it and it has to reside in the lost castle. It tells Ethan that he is a very important person, and he will achieve and create great thing, but will not delve into what those things are. He just needs to complete his goal in this world.

208. Then, the god tells Ethan that he may leave the room whenever he pleases. Ethan tries to leave for hours, but finds no exit in the endless void room. He asks for a little help, and the god says he’s on the right track. He tries even harder, moving the stone blocks, flying extremely fast, and starts to get a migraine. He looks for the medicine, but can not find it.

209. He asks the god what he’s supposed to do, and the god says he is supposed to find his own route, and it makes him remember a story from his time in the military. He doesn’t find it of any use, so he keeps looking for a way out, and gets to the point where he lifts the blocks out of the ground and searches down – to no avail.

210. He finally tells the god that he’ll do whatever the god wants in order to get out, and his wish is granted. He trips over a raised stone block, and is sent through another portal.

211. He reappears in the bottom room of the castle, and desperately takes the last of his medicine. He feels weak and stupid from the hours of running, and days of no sleep from before compound the effect.

212. He can barely stand up, and his powers seem distant. He tries to open a door, but it opens before he can reach the doorknob.

213. Twilight talks about magic anomalies, Pinkie Pie says she doesn't want to know if he's ticklish anymore, and they all say assorted, typical things as Ethan is drawn back to the carriages. He wonders why he can't fall asleep, even though he's so tired, on the ride back.

214. The ride back ends shortly, it passes much too quickly, and Ethan is almost carried back to Twilight's. They all go inside, and start wondering what's wrong with him.

215. He regains enough composure to move under his own power, and sit on a couch. He tells them that he has to tell them all something important.

216. Ethan recounts the story of how, in military training, 16 years ago, 1998, he had difficulty following commands. It was all about making your bed and cleaning the floor and assembling your weapons. Once, he took apart the commander's electric toothbrush, electric razor, and automatic pistol, to make a automaton that could wash the floor. It was simple, because making the bed was too easy to make a robot worth it, and disassembling a weapon was difficult. He eventually got so bored with that, he set his gun up so that he could assemble and disassemble it in seconds, but without a robot. He got platoon-wide recognition from it.

217. They ask him what happened next, and he tells them he was kicked out. Then he asks them how long he was gone. They tell him it was a few minutes, but he explains that he went somewhere strange.

218. They say that he went through a non-magic portal, and as far as they know they shouldn't exist, so something strange was bound to happen. He tries to explain the room he was in, without mentioning a god, but his crippled mental state makes it extremely difficult.

219. He also says that he had to find a way out on his own. He searched for hours. They asked him how he found his way out, and he says it was the same way he found his way in. By tripping and falling backwards. By now, they start to understand his condition.

220. He tells them he had an epiphany regarding how to fix all the problems he's been having. They asks him what it is, and he says it’s to make...

221. He collapses on the ground, unconscious.

P16-E3-MSL

Decided Goal – Act 2

Day 10 - Day 20 total

222. Ethan wakes up in a hospital, after approximately 24 hours of sleep. He feels much better now, and as such uses his powers more aptly (and responsibly) by getting up, putting his clothes on, and leaving, after a brief and awkward conversation with the staff there.

223. He is directed to Twilight’s, where she fills him in on what happened since he passed out (from exhaustion and stress) and then asks him for some help with magic. She says she's trying out non-magic portals, and he's the only one to pass through one and survive.

224. After the initial worry, he gives her some help, and only dies once. He's built up a resistance after a while, so he's almost fine. They stop after that, and he starts asking questions.

225. He asks if RD has a home, and she does. He asks if AJ doesn't like him, and she says she may have gotten a bad first impression, and the two never crossed paths. She has experience with construction, and while it may not be superior to his, she'll know where to purchase or acquire the materials.

226. In order to get money for it, Ethan is about to sell some of his gems, but they aren't worth very much, so he needs to sell most of them, leaving a deep crimson plumbob and a curious black one. The sale leaves him with around a thousand bits, but he really doesn't know how much that is.

227. He goes to Sugar Cube Corner and buys breakfast, which turns out to be mostly pie-based. He'll take whatever he can get, and starts to believe that bits are worth a bit more than dollars.

228. After that, and not seeing Pinkie around (hint hint) he goes over to Rarity to make some gloves, and after Rarity offers to make them for him he reminds her that they are for his fingers, and she quickly reconsiders. He buys more than enough fabric for his hands, as he plans to make a mask as well.

229. He heads over to Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack, and after getting lost, remembers that he can fly, and quickly finds the acre. He decides that he should approach it as casually as possible, and so lands before anyone sees him.

230. He meets Applejack pulling a cart, and tries to talk to her, but she doesn’t immediately open up. She reaches the farm and dumps the cart, then looks expectantly at Ethan.

231. He looks at the apples, then at AJ, then at her flank mark, and gets chewed out by AJ because he keeps giving her ‘the look’. She also asks him what he thinks he’s doing with FS, as he explained that he kept making her bed earlier.

232. He tells her that he was just looking at her tattoo (cutie mark) and wonders why everyone has them. This boils down to them laughing at the misjudgements they had about it, and Applejack apologizes for jumping to conclusions.

233. She says that she wasn’t avoiding him; actually, she was just busy with her apple bucking. She didn’t lie. He says he can help, and that he’d like to ask her something afterwards.

234. He levitates a bunch of apples into the farm, way more than what she would be able to bring back in a day. He tells her he wants to build a house somewhere, and he thinks she might be able to help him.

235. She tells him that Princess Celestia actually mentioned something about permanent housing, and she recommends that he figure out what it was before doing much, but she would be glad to help. They go over the logistics, as far as materials go, and he has much more than enough to pay for it, should he be able to do it.

236. Ethan thanks her, she tosses him a few apples, and he flies/walks over to Twilight’s. His migraine starts coming back, but it is easily ignored. He asks Twilight about the house, and she tells him that the mayor is actually the one to talk to. He notices Spike avoiding him again, and wonders if he did something to get a bad first impression. Twilight tells him, before he goes, that he’s invited to a picnic to watch a meteor shower, if he’s up for it. He agrees, and asks for some parchment and a quill. He gets it.

237. He wanders over to the mayor’s office, and gets permission to have a house built, just like that. It was actually Celestia’s idea. He asks why, and the mayor tells him that the Princess felt he was ready for it, and he had finally figured out what to do here. He agrees, but thinks about how he actually wants to leave. He, of course, thought this would complete his goal ‘on this planet’, thus giving the god a reason to bring him back.

238. He chats with the mayor some more, learning that there are actually several small events planned for the week, such as an arm wrestle competition three days from then, and it will rain in two days. He thanks her for the information, then flies back to Fluttershy’s.

239. He meets RD along the way, who asks him how he’s feeling after dropping off two days ago. He converses with some other ponies like this, and eventually gets to Fluttershy’s.

240. He uses her sewing machine to start making the gloves, and the starting print for the mask. He gets pretty far, but is called to dinner by FS. She made salad again, and it’s pretty good. For the next couple of hours, he makes designs for his house with the parchment and quill from Twilight’s.

241. They go to the picnic, and Ethan is accused of being FS’s ‘coltfriend’. Pinkie Pie says they shouldn’t keep using clichés, and Ethan quickly and non-painfully sets them straight, very different from the stereotyped similar sequences of most fics.

242. They watch the meteor shower, and Ethan slips away unnoticed for a few minutes. He is actually flying towards one of them so he can bring it down without it burning up.

243. They are amazed at him doing this, but the meteor is still much too hot to go near. He gets RD to blow wind towards it, and soon he is able to replicate the action, and they cool it down. The actual stone is around a foot across, and Twilight takes it back to study, thanking Ethan profusely.

244. He returns to FS’s, and sleeps on the couch again, and he still has a good reason for it – his contact intolerance. This will change, but his choice will not.

P17-E3-MSL

Second Visit – Act 2

Day 11 - Day 21 total

245. Ethan wakes up to FS’s blanket over him. It is very early, possibly six, in the morning, so he just eats an apple and goes back to making his gloves. It takes him a few hours to get everything perfect, but after lots of adjustments he finally has thin, resilient gloves, and is very close to finishing his mask.

246. FS wakes up, and apparently Ethan was shivering in his sleep. He says it must have gotten cold during the night, even though he later finds out that it only went down a few degrees. It was Discord trying to get FS to touch him, causing pain, but it didn’t work.

247. He had made breakfast for her when she was waking up (good hearing, bordering on semi-omniscience) and leaves shortly after talking to her for a while.

248. He walks (doesn’t fly) to SAA to meet Applejack, who already started to get the materials for Ethan’s house ready. He gladly pays her for it, and starts to scout out a spot to start his house. He finds a small hill, in the same area as FS’s house, but not very close to it, and lays out some rope for the base.

249. He goes back to AJ’s to sort out the materials, and finds that, after he helped her the day before, she has a lot of spare time for the next few days. She continues helping him, and is surprised at the dimensions of his house, but since he has to crouch under every door it’s kind of predicted. He finishes what he wanted for the supports of the first floor, and thanks her before storing it in a corner of the barn.

250. He meets Big Mac, and after another awkward coltfriend discussion, he offers his hoof to shake. Ethan thinks that his gloves solved that problem, but he hesitates before forming a fist bumping it, realising that, because of the hoof-grab, it functions exactly like a handshake. He goes off to town, looking for SCC for lunch, and hopefully to ask Pinkie Pie what she meant when she was talking about clichés.

251. He ends up just getting something to eat from the cakes again, and it turns out to be pumpkin pie. Apparently it’s not very common, so it doesn’t cost much. He just chalks it up to demand, and starts eating it.

252. Halfway through finishing he overhears a school bell and a bunch of fillies and colts run out of the school. He briefly reminisces about being in school, and looks down to see the CMC staring at him.

253. He gets confused for a moment, but after figuring out who they were, he talked to them. Apparently they never heard of humans, or that humans never got a cutie mark, and after hearing the crusaders go on about how important it was, he decided to give them advice on how to get one.

254. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie bursts out of her secret tunnel again, and talks to the CMC. She’s whispering, so Ethan does his best to ignore it. Unfortunately, this proves difficult after hearing the off-hand mention of his name. He turns around to see all four of them looking at him, and the yell “Cutie Mark Crusader Monster Hunters Yay!” before inexplicably producing a rope and jumping on him.

255. He tries to pull them off, but the same grabbing force in BM’s shake lets them climb up his clothes. They wrap rope around his limbs, and he starts to play along after realising how much fun they were having. Until, that is, Scootaloo jumps on his face.

256. He reels back in pain and falls to the ground, disappearing again into the endless room. Ethan curses the god that he was here again, and learns that he was doing something wrong. When he asked what it was, the god just tells him that he was doing the right things, but they didn’t happen fast enough. He is told that all the pain is their fault, but it is unknown who it was referring to.

257. Ethan is suddenly out of breath as a vacuum is formed around his head. A line, “What is the difference between creation and destruction” is sent through his mind. Then he falls over again, and is forced back into the town square where he left. There is now a crowd where he once stood, and his pain is all but gone, nothing but a memory.

258. Lyra stands among them, trying to figure out why Ethan disappeared at random, but when he shambles by she keeps up with him, trying to ask what happened. He is unable to fly away, so he has no choice but to answer her. Eventually he feels fine, and Lyra pesters him continually, even after he reaches Twilight’s. She mentions someone named Ryan, but he doesn’t pay very much attention.

259. He tells her about the portal again, and she stops examining the asteroid to perform non-magic tests on him since it’s very probably because of him. He feels pretty bad afterwards, so he just goes back to FS’s to finish his mask and start wearing it. He also buys a hat to go with it.

260. Much later, he’s finished it and drifts off after telling FS what happened. She feels pretty bad about it, so in his sleep she huddles next to him.

P18-E3-MSL

Creation – Act 2

Day 12 - Day 22 total

261. Ethan wakes up early again, and he feels strange being near a pony, even with his mask. He effortlessly lifts FS off of him and continues working on his house, excavating the ground in a perfect cube before laying out the framework.

262. After a bit, it starts raining (he forgot about it), and he can not continue the work, so he just leaves it there. He figures out how to passively keep rain off of him, but this does not prevent Derpy from flying into him. He is prepared enough that he prevents himself and Derpy from falling in the mud, but when he lets her go she immediately flies into another few buildings, and more ponies.

263. He gets pretty bored now, after having nothing to do, and wanders the skies, practicing the deflector. He accidentally creates a vacuum of air, and water flows into it, then he heats it up to boiling, and cools it down again. He wonders why he is able to do this, so he goes over to Twilight’s to get some answers.

264. More pain, he gets sinus pressure (thought to be from the rain) and Twilight is even more obsessed with learning how he was able to do all of that. She tells him to try it out, and he heats a thermometer up enough that it explodes. He cleans up the mess, and thinks about what he could possibly do with that power.

265. He accidentally burns himself, and concludes that a wreath of flames is not going to be easy to make, especially one that floats around him. He also states that it’s incredibly impractical.

266. He is finally out of ideas, so he just goes over to FS’s again, as it is basically where he’s staying at that point. Before reaching the door, he’s struck by lightning and brought back to an endless room, but not the one from before. This one is black, and he’s lying on the ground instead of standing.

267. The god is storming at him, replicating the electrical storm that was around him moments prior. It tells him that he is not going in the right direction. He asks him, desperate for any kind of advice and apprehensive that he won’t be killed then and there, what he is supposed to do.

268. The god tells him, simply, that he is supposed to prepare. Next thing he knows is he is on the ground, in the rain, with Fluttershy desperately calling for help and pushing on his chest to restart his heart.

269. He gasps for air and grabs onto her, filled with more fear than he ever had before. Here was an immortal, all-powerful being that could bring him through portals to neutral hell, contact him through any means, tangible or intangible, and do anything to him, including influence ponies to push him over and send him anywhere again. All it asked was for him to prepare. Prepare for what?

270. He thinks some more, after getting brought into Fluttershy’s house, and concludes that he can possibly resist the god’s outlandish demands, while also fulfilling them. He will not do anything that could cause him pain of any kind, and he will be even more vigilant of the things around him. He must get creative with his powers and do a lot of preparation if he is to avoid being struck down by God, or brought into

271. After realising this, he finally snaps out of his stupor and hears most of the Mane Six talking around him. Rainbow Dash is strangely missing from the group. They tell him that there was a terrible accident with the flight team, though nopony was hurt, they accidentally turned the rain into a thunderstorm, and they think this is the main reason why he was struck.

272. He tells them he’s fine now, but is still observing them to no end. He settles on asking them where Rainbow Dash was. They say she was in the flight team, and couldn’t stand to see him after what she might have caused. He passes it off, saying it wasn’t her fault, but makes a list, starting with her. He thinks of PP and the CMC as well, as they were the cause of the previous teleports. The behaviour before them wasn’t out of character, but it was unwarranted, since RD is a good flyer, PP never had an interest in his ticklishness before, and the CMC didn’t even know him, so why did they think calling him a monster was a good idea?

273. After telling them all that he’s fine, they reluctantly leave. He washes his suit, leaves it out to dry, and starts the official list. It is kept at the bottom of his pack.

274. That night, FS offers to make tea for him, and he helps her by heating up the water for her. He drinks it, but FS waits because it’s too hot. He manages to cool it down, enough for her to start drinking it right away, and he feels a subtle movement in the back of his head.

275. He writes FS’s name down on the list, which is now described as a watch list. She never did anything to cause him physical harm, but her constant proximity is a determining factor. He sleeps again, but tries to keep himself aware of any disturbances. Fluttershy comes down right away and keeps him company while he pretends to sleep.

P19-E4-MSL

Creation – Act 2

Day 13 - Day 23 total

276. He wakes up swift and aware, true to his thoughts as he had forced himself to be vigilant. He quietly repeats his now-common sequence of getting up, checking the time, putting his full suit on, and making breakfast for both of them.

277. Ethan starts to monitor his surroundings, and finds startling clarity within his mind. He is able to fully manipulate smaller things as well. He makes note of this, and hears, or, more accurately, senses, things around town. He hears a mention of someone named ‘Ryan’ again, but he didn’t think it was out of place in the other names.

278. He moves out to start making his house again, and completes the framework for his foundation, as well as some preliminary first floor work. He gets pretty far, and goes to the town square for lunch, ordering his new favourite, pumpkin pie. He looks around, and sees Twilight, before writing her name in the list. Twilight is actually looking for him; she received a letter requesting that he meet the princesses at Canterlot.

279. Before flying off to meet them, he writes their names in the list as well, and underlines Celestia several times. He briefly overlooks the town, and senses the location and action of FS, TS, PP, the CMC, and as he approaches the castle, the princesses – their magic auras make them hard to miss.

280. They actually wanted to properly thank him for his services to the kingdom, and update him on how he might get back to Earth. She knows the non-magic portals are much more precise than any kind of magic teleportation, so he should probably help Twilight with that research. He thanks her for her time, then hurries out of there, disturbed by how their magic flows out of them. He does not see any purpose in it, as he is the only one who reacts to it. He begins to think that their actually doing something to him on purpose.

281. He tracks their movements after he leaves, and overhears them talking about him acting strangely. They also talk about an event to come in six days, and he does not know what it means. He only knows that he has to be prepared for it.

282. Ethan goes to Twilight’s, and tells her what he was invited to the princess for, then starts helping her with her research on non-magic portals. She tells him she needs more magic power than she has to work on portals, so she has to get another unicorn to help. This turns out to be Lyra, and he refuses before flying off and writing Lyra’s name in his list.

283. He decides to just spend the time watching over them from a cloud, after figuring out how to make a semi-solid platform to rest on, and he uses a cloud as visual cover. After a few hours, he gets extremely involved with the discussions, and begins to lose track of time, as well as develop a headache again.

284. RD jars his brain when she notices what looks like him sitting on a cloud, and he is just about to start searching for her before he is startled and falls a few meters, straight through the cloud. He is more than able to recover from the fall, and starts to suspect more of RD. She wants to know how he’s feeling, which is purely out of character for her.

285. After a borderline rude conversation with RD, he goes back to FS’s to have dinner, though he does not tell her about the day’s events in detail. Instead, he just sits on the couch, watching her. Watching all of them, all through the night. Night becomes day, and he does not have any reason to stop watching them.

P20-E4-MSL

Creation – Act 2

Day 14 - Day 24 total

286. Ethan is racking up more pain than average, and wonders why. He thinks it has something to do with the ponies, and looks at FS, who somehow got past his sensing and is now sleeping against him, again. He decides that he must pay even greater attention to everything if he is to find out the true culprit of the pain.

287. He briefly considers God as the source. He doesn’t know if gods can lie, or if it can do anything directly to him. He finds that if it was trying to do something to him, the god would have no problem doing it immediately. Also, it promised him freedom. All Ethan had to do was find out what his goal was, and avoid being dragged to one of it’s realms.

288. Fluttershy actually wakes up before he gets up, and she blushes again. He makes breakfast really quickly, this time it’s pancakes. She thanks him, then, before he leaves, hears FS whisper extremely quietly. She asked him for a favour, and he is told that she needs help carrying frogs to a place called ‘rocky bottom bog’.

289. Ethan easily helps her, though almost goes too fast and loses her. As they go back, he tries to be more careful, but the same hydra that attacked them before is chasing them. Ethan smashes it into the side of a mountain and it runs away, defeated. FS shudders, and they go back quickly.

290. He remembers his goal, to watch over them, not as their guards but his, and attempts to stretch his consciousness while creating the frame for his house. It doesn’t go very fast, but he adds Applejack to the list after she approaches him and asks him what he plans to do for the week. He tells her he can make spare time at any time, and with that she leaves, but he tracks her back. She says another thing, to a different pony, about five days, which corresponds to what the princesses said.

291. He notices some interference coming from Lyra’s house, but he makes out another connected mention of his name and five days. Things are starting to fall together.

292. Ethan can’t sleep right away, so he continues to monitor the townsfolk as they sleep. No movement apart from Twilight, who is busy reading books. He doesn’t know what the titles are, but he knows it must have something to do with what she was talking with Lyra about, and that means it has something to do with him. He underlines AJ, TS and Lyra’s names.

P21-E4-MSL

Creation – Act 2

Day 15 - Day 25 total

293. He wakes up a few hours later when he hears grass crunching, and is starting to get the hang of watching the town. He sits up to see FS a few feet away from him, and she shrinks away when he sees her. He asks her what she was coming over for, and she says she was worried that something had happened to him.

294. She asks what was wrong, after he told her he just couldn’t sleep, and uses a hyper cute smile in order to get him to answer. He asks if he can trust her, and she says yes without any pressure. Then he tells her.

295. Ethan tells her that something is happening, that he believes it has something to do with Twilight, Lyra, the rest of her friends, and the portals he went through. She tells him that she doesn’t know much about that, but Twilight was wondering why he ran away when he saw Lyra. He tells her that he needs some time to think, and she leaves reluctantly.

296. Finally getting some privacy, Ethan looks back at the house. He didn’t see any way to get concrete, so his design would have to wait until he got a hold of some. Not that he plans on staying much longer. Not that he can trust them to let him stay for four more days.

297. Later in the day, he notices Fluttershy talking to her friends, and after hearing what happened, Twilight went over to him to ask him questions about what he thinks is happening. He says that he understands his goal, but nothing more. Not if he plans to achieve it. This causes Twilight to return to her friends.

298. Pinkie Pie asks if he found out about the event in four days. Exactly as he had predicted. They decide that giving him some space would be the best option, though they would need to be discreet about it since they think he’s onto them. He thinks he is, too.

299. Ethan watches over the town, absorbed in the conversations. He adds more names to the list, like Rarity, Cherilee, Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Ryan, who always resides in a realm of interference, along with Lyra. Sometimes he fades out of existence, then comes right back. Ethan never senses what he looks like. Many more names fill the list, and it eventually gets crowded, so he just writes ‘all of them’.

300. After hearing a whole lot of them talking about him, he starts to think that they are all out to get him. The meaning of his list changes to accommodate the development. He burns it as a gesture to the god that is no doubt watching him, making sure that it knows he is coming prepared. He will be prepared for anything, and gets a surge of inspiration.

301. He finally notices the pain that has been rising since he got out of the second portal. It was almost unbearable once he noticed it, but it might have been poisoning his conscience since it began. He curses the god again, before getting up and walking into the forest to prepare.

302. He catches, guts, and cooks some fish in meagre seconds, with no tools, and finally eats some meat, which is very refreshing. He eats a huge meal, feeling energized from the protein, and flash burns what was left. Next he heads off to the manticore, which he tracks through the forest.

303. When he reaches it, he hesitates when deciding what to do to it. It begins to act scared, which he believes is sincere. Unfortunately, when he turned around, the manticore tried to pounce on him. Its bones were crushed and it was thrown off a cliff.

304. Ethan felt a pang of sorrow, but it was overwhelmed with realisation. This was like his situation, but he was God and the manticore was Ethan. He needed to do something.

305. Ethan prepared himself for God. He made sure that he would somehow defeat the god, but in a way that would not result in any more deaths. He remembers what Twilight said about more magic, and how he actually manipulated some of her spells using ambient magic. He channels some of that to him, but it causes the same pain that is building inside of him.

306. He finds no purpose in doing that, so instead he watches them more. Twilight is working on non-magic portals. Lyra is in her house, talking, but PP is there as well. There is a canon outside. AJ, RD and RR are setting something up inside the barn, though he can not tell definitively what it is.

307. Spike wonders what everyone is doing, but Twilight tells him not to talk. She says that they can explain everything at Lyra's, and that Pinkie said so. Ethan finally understands.

308. He makes the connection between all that they've said, their attitudes, them trying to figure out about the portals, and what he's doing, always wanting to be with him and ask him what happened the day and how he felt. They were gathering intelligence. They were working with the god. He knew what he was to do.

309. A new clarity passed through him when he thought of it. This allowed him to continue monitoring all of them, as well as PC and PL. He narrates his memories of all that happened, connecting it to what they said, and finally, reaches one line.

310. They are preparing for something. Like the God said, the day before they started. His transportation to the ethereal landscape was not like the others, it was like it was inside his mind. And as soon as the order fell upon his ears he was pushed out. That was an accident, and RD was probably being punished for letting it happen.

311. He slept in low atmosphere, warming himself slightly, still sensing their basic locations. He would be able to keep an eye on them despite sleeping for over a day. All the food he ate earlier, as well as the days of sleeplessness, contributed to this lag, and his pain was lessened as he concreted his plan.

P22-E4-MSL

Discovery – Act 2

Day 19 - Day 29 total

312. He sets himself down on the ground and stretches, it was his first physical contact with anything in days. The pain from everything before is null, and he approaches town. There is nopony in sight, and he likes the motivation he gets from not knowing. He walks to his house, and looks at the pit.

313. He frowns that he was unable to finish it in time. Perhaps he would if he survived the encounter. The wait is killing him almost as much as the pain was, days ago. He nears sweet apple acres, and nonchalantly eating an apple. He would take his sweet time.

314. He walks to the door, and refines his senses to directly in front of him. He does not hear motion, but he throws the apple core on the ground and watches it fall and spin in slow motion, despite not looking at it. Then he flash-burns it before it reaches the ground. He's ready.

315. He opens the door, revealing darkness. Then the lights flick on, even though he could plainly see all the figures in pitch black. They let out a battle cry. It takes him a few seconds to realise that they were yelling 'surprise'.

316. They look at him expectantly, their spirits dying down slightly, as he takes his mask off in confusion. He looks around at all of them, spreading his senses across the room, and then drawing them back. He blinks several times, trying to understand.

317. Pinkie Pie goes up to him, and he senses something that almost sets off a red-flag: she is displaying pure intent, and is getting close to whatever success she wants. He backs up, and she tells him.

318. It's his birthday. He continues to blink, but then comes to a realisation. They might not be bad. He could grant them this last chance, as he really had no idea what they were to do. He cracks a smile, and walks into the party.

PX-E6-MSL

Shortest Hour – Act 3

Day 19 - Day 29 total

319. Everyone cheers as he finally accepts this. He walks into the party, all the ones that knew him welcoming him back, asking him if he's feeling better, basically keeping him company.

320. They do some standard party stuff, he converses with them (awkwardly) and then Pinkie Pie rolls out the cake.

321. She cuts a piece, and Ethan turns around to see her grabbing onto his shoulder with one hoof, and supporting herself with her hind legs. She is reeling back with a slice of cake in her hoof. Ethan tries to know that she means no harm, but he senses another thought in her mind. She is achieving another intent. The cake smashes into his open mouth, but most of it gets on his face.

322. He doesn't react very much to the cake, but Pinkie Pie touches his face with her hoof. That sends him falling backwards, over a smaller pony, and into a confections table.

323. As his back reaches the floor, another portal starts on the ground. But, he is ready. Despite almost being pulled in, he pulls himself back out in a spectacular display.

324. This almost sends him over the edge. He looks around, through the cake (which is a non-issue against the portal) at their horrified faces, and the CMC ask Applejack what happened.

325. She says that he was just pushed into a portal, but it didn’t work. That tore Ethan apart, and he resolved, again, that they were trying to kill him. They couldn’t do it themselves, so they tried to get their god to do it. He force pushes everyone except the mane six out, and wills the cake to reform into the slice, with a bite taken out of it. He takes another, lamenting in its flavour, before dropping it. Pinkie Pie screams in terror, but can not move. None of them can. Ethan says that when the cake hits the ground, they will all die.

326. Ethan goes around, telling them about how their plot to kill him failed, and how they were going to suffer for it. He forces their mouths closed when they try to talk over him.

327. Ethan explains how FS is using her kindness against him, Applejack was lying the entire time, RD could not kill him when she had the chance, RR tried to buy his trust, PP was forcing his comfort, and Twilight’s magic was worthless against him.

328. FS tries to use the stare on him, but he resists. He tells them he was sent to hell several times, and they will like it there. The difference is that they will stay. Fluttershy goes first, and upon hearing that, she cries. Ethan leaves, after thinking of the supreme leader. Princess Celestia (and Luna).

329. He gets to the castle, sensing a small disturbance as he flew quickly, but nothing out of the ordinary. He arrives at the Princesses doorstep, and issues his ultimatum. He will take over the kingdom if they step down without resistance. They refuse, and start to say the elements of harmony will stop him, but not before they are knocked out and thrown into the ocean. They fall extremely slowly.

330. He forms their chair into one, and sits, thinking. He starts to believe that they may not be out to get him, but he is far too lost in the events to consider that for very long.

331. Out of nowhere, Discord appears, clapping, congratulating Ethan on doing, in a matter of minutes, what Discord could not do in several aeons.

332. Ethan recognizes him as a powerful being, but does not think of him as the god. Discord tells him that he can not be killed, but Ethan tries several times directly after. He was right. Discord explains everything, or most things, in slowed-down time.

333. Discord tells him that Ethan should follow him back to town square, and they do so quickly, with minimal arguments. The mane six are out now, but the cake still falls.

334. They try to use the elements of harmony against Ethan and Discord, but Ethan easily dissipates the force and it evaporates. Discord laughs, and tells them that they are in the presence of the most powerful element: Change. Suddenly, a gold mantle appears around Ethan’s shoulders, and an ethereal cape flows out of it. It is crimson, matching the plumbob in that he found earlier, which is also in the front of the mantle.

335. He is sceptical that Discord can bring him back, and starts to have second thoughts about the whole thing, so he is led to Lyra’s, the center of the disturbance he continually sensed. Ryan, talking through Lyra’s portal, tells Ethan that Earth is on the verge of destruction. Devastated, Ethan is easily convinced that Discord is doing the right thing. Lyra mutes Ryan in terror, and starts to cast a memory spell on Ryan. She knows not to do it to Ethan.

336. Discord tells Ethan that he must have the magic back from the planet. Ethan tells the mane six to prepare for their final time on the earth. The fifteen minutes it takes for the cake to fall are almost up. They go their separate ways.

337. Pinkie Pie rushes back to the barn with Applejack. Fluttershy runs to her cottage. Twilight runs towards Canterlot. Rarity dashes to the carousel. Rainbow Dash flys to Cloudsdale.

338. The cake falls. Pinkie Pie runs to the empty floor, trying to catch the slice. Fluttershy tries to save the animals, especially Angel, from the fire that engulfs her house and the forest. Applejack runs to the barn as it is peeled off of the earth and thrown into space, taking her family with it. Rarity runs through the corrosive gas, trying to save Sweetie Belle. Rainbow Dash flys to the Cloudsdale Coliseum in order to save Scootaloo. Twilight dashes to Canterlot to save the Princesses from the falling palace.

339. Ethan starts taking the magical energy from the planet, and giving it to Discord. This causes everypony to fail in saving their non-material lives. RD stops flying and crashes into a hill. Rarity suffocates in the pulverized gems as she tries to save Sweetie Belle. Twilight is crushed under the rubble as she tries to save the Princesses, and Spike. Applejack is suffocated in space as she tries to save her family. Pinkie Pie dies as she tries to keep the Cakes from touching the falling cake slice. Fluttershy is unable to fly and is burned as she tries to save all her animals from the flames.

340. Discord begins to absorb the power, but Ethan, who is now trying to find definite answers, sees a memory in Discord`s mind. He wills it to him, but Discord throws up barriers in horror that Ethan would find it. Ethan feels enough that he diverts the power stream from Discord to himself. He knows that Discord caused all of it.

341. Discord, after trying to reverse time to make sure it didn’t happen, is stripped of his barriers and all of his power. Ethan watches as everything happens. He tears into Discord's subconscious and learns everything about discord. He learns of Discord's history, or at least what Discord did not tell him. Ethan absorbs the billions of years of Discord's existence, but does not feel the same emotions as Discord. He only learns of the suffering that Discord caused. And the lives he has taken. Ethan adds all of them to the list. (Basically this is a backstory for Discord)

342. With these billions of years of experience taken in, Ethan does not spare Discord. He tears away all his powers, save the immortality, and plunges Discord into the center of the planet. Then he seals him inside by converting his extra power into magic and putting it back into the state it was before it was taken out. Then, with that conflict solved, he looks around.

343. Bodies fill the streets. Blood pours from countless destroyed buildings, and debris covers the streets. But they are not dead. Not all of them, at least. The mane six sacrificed themselves to save those they loved, but instead they died along with them. And Ethan saw it all happen. It was all his fault.

344. Looking down at the bodies, he sees they still breath. They are vegetables, but he does not know why. Again, he caused all of this. He sets it right. He brings everything back.

345. Ethan reverses time. He watches everything happen in reverse time, criticizing himself for it. Unfortunately, he thinks he reverses too far, so he stops. There is darkness, but he can sense Discord in the depths of the planet, living eternity in the confines of his white, neutral hell.

PX-E6-MSL

The End – Act 3

Day -1 - Day 30 total

346. He phases through the walls of his confines, and sees himself back in the Everfree forest, though it is not nearly as creepy as the last time. It's still early morning though. He brings his senses back to the first person for the sake of nostalgia, but still uses his powers to navigate.

347. He extracts the special parts of the Poison Joke and gives it to Zecora, without her knowing. He takes the book of prophecies, the only copy, from the Canterlot Libraries and destroys it. He takes the manticore from the western forest and puts it in its marshy home, away from the ponies. He walks out to his hill, where he was building the house that is no longer there. It gives him a great view of ponyville, SAA, Canterlot, and even FS's cottage. He stands there, watching.

348. The ponies, revived and sent back in time, groggily exit their houses in the early morning, before even the sun comes up. They think that something happened, but do not know what. They slowly begin to think that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Fluttershy is making sure all the animals are safe, and spots Ethan at the hill. She stares, and he realizes that it's time to finish. FS is too timid to come closer, and she can't see him from that distance.

349. Ethan erects a small obsidian pedestal and carves a likeness of himself, praying to the heavens. He then writes his message on the epitaph, and removes the plumbob from his mantle and places it in the stone. It lights the text subtly, and Ethan stands up.

350. His life there is complete, and he wonders if he could go back to it. He feels them remembering certain aspects of his short reign, and wants to know what happened to his own planet. He has ties to it, albeit not very strong, but even so he can not exist on the planet any longer. He looks towards Fluttershy, who is now in a park with the mane six, discussing what happened. Fluttershy motions towards the hill. It is time.

351. For not much longer than a themptosecond, Ethan understands the nature of the elements. During this brief period, he knew he had completed his handed goal on the planet, and that in doing so he witnessed them dying, completing theirs. He knew what he had to do. The six looked. Ethan smiled in his funeral pyre.

EXPLANATION - Equestrian and English

There are three tiers of the Equestrian language - There is the alphabetized version, for highly literate ponies. There is the phonetic version, which resembles a combination of Russian and Equestrian/English, made for semi-literate ponies who need help connecting letters (which is why the letters are literally connected). There is the iconography version, which uses pony-related symbols as a way for illiterate ponies to narrate texts.

Lyra, while creating her message in a joint effort with Celestia, Luna, and Twilight, labeled the message with Lyra's humanized name (Lyran) and an urgency message, "Fast". When it arrived on Earth, passing through the time portal that Ethan left in his wake, it turns out that Lyra was not fully literate and accidentally wrote "Lauren Faust", which was spelled correctly at first, but the connected letters were non-transferrable. It was covered up by the soon-to-be-world leader and Studio B edited it into a TV show.

Author's Notes:

I don't even know what to say about this. I tried to spice things up with that [FUN FACT] bit, but even that doesn't make it any less painful to read, and I can't really remember much that went on during the second half of the story. I guess one thing would be thanks! For reading all of this. Really, to think someone would go to that much trouble. Congratulations, too. And I'm sorry, for writing it.

But in a way I suppose I'm not sorry, because I learned a lot in the process. I learned about writing, and I learned about myself. I became best friends with my editor, who has been as supportive and critical as anyone could hope for. And of course I learned about failure.

That's what this is about, this post. This unfinished odyssey is the source of my shame. I wish I could get rid of it but I can't, so the only other option is to own up to it, look it right in the face, and say "I'm better than this." Because I am. And nobody isn't.

And this is why don't talk about Entropy. The end.