The ponies are forced to ally themselves with a strange new creature in order to stop a plot that threatens the lives of everypony in equestria.
When fortune hunter Nathan Drake discovers a secret operation on a remote island he unknowingly sets a two thousand year old plan in motion. Drake finds himself thrust into a a new world he didn't know existed and his only hope of return lies in the hooves of forces be barely understands.
When all has been said and done, when the dust has settled and the rubble has been cleared, I only hope that the ponies who come after me will look back and say I made the right decision” ~Starswirl the bearded
“Goddammit kid get up here and help me!”, Sully yelled as he pulled the trigger on his revolver. Drake swam back to the surface of the water he had fallen into and looked up. A cliff face stood before him and he could hear gunfire coming from the top. Drake moved over the cliff face and grabbed onto the rocks which jutted out. The pain from the grenade blast that had sent him over the cliff came back to haunt him as he climbed. As he neared the top, the sound of gunfire became louder and more distinct.
As he reached the top he saw a figure running along the edge attempting to flank his friend. With one swift motion Nate pulled the man off of the cliff and grabbed a rolled up piece of paper from his belt. “That’s mine asshole”, he said before pulling himself up. He was in a tropical forest on some remote island, men in raggedy cloths ran from the beach towards his entrenched friend. Each one of them was armed to the teeth and only wanted to kill the two treasure hunters.
Drake ran towards the sound of gunfire, knowing they would get Sully sooner or later. A pirate with a sniper rifle sat on a tree limb but his finger was off the trigger. Static crackled from his radio and he began speaking in a language Nate did not recognize. Better do this quietly, Drake thought as he climbed the tree. The pirate never saw it coming; Drake reached up for the pirate’s rifle and pulled at it, knocking the pirate off balance and making him fall backwards. The fall broke the sniper’s neck and Drake took his place on the branch.
Nate looked through the scope of the sniper and zoomed in on his target. An older man with a blood stained shirt sat in the center of his crosshair. The man was struggling with a taller armored foe wielding a knife. The older man was struggling to keep the armored assailant from burying the knife in his chest. A radio sat on the branch and Nate picked it up hoping that all the others carried radios too. “Hey Sully You might want to duck”, he said through the device. The grey haired man in the scope dipped down, probably hearing the warning through the armored pirate’s radio. Drake held his breath and pulled the trigger; the armored pirates head snapped to the side and a large red mark appeared on his temple.
Sully shoved the body off and looked in the direction the gunshot came from; sure enough Nate was sitting there waving to him. Sully yelled at him “Get over here and give me a hand!”. Drake slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder and bolted through the forest, dodging gunfire while closing the gap between them. The young treasure hunter dove behind the cover Sully was using and pulled out his pistol.
“Have I ever told you how much I hate pirates!?”, Drake asked Sully as they fired at their assailants.
“Eh, you may have mentioned it once or twice”, Sully replied semi-sarcastically as he ducked behind the stone wall and reloaded his weapons.
Drake pulled a grenade from his bandolier and threw it without looking. He could hear the screams of the pirates it had landed near over the crack of gunfire. 3, 2, 1, Boom, he thought and as if on cue the grenade detonated; killing three pirates instantly. Even though he just killed another man, he felt no remorse or grief; they weren’t people to him, just enemies. A pirate got too close to their position and the treasure hunter put a bullet in his skull, the body fell with something clutched in his fingers. Drake didn’t notice it at first, but green smoke poured out of the object in the dead pirate’s hand.
Suddenly the pirates stopped firing and ran back to their ships on the beach. “Yeah that’s right, run away assholes!” Drake shouted while firing at the fleeing enemies. He didn’t even notice the dark shadow and the rustling trees.
“Uhh…Nate, what do you hate more: pirates or helicopters?”, Sully asked trying to get Drake’s attention.
Nathan Drake’s stomach dropped and he heard a high pithed whirring noise from above. He looked up to see a soviet era attack helicopter preparing to fire.
“Run!”, he shouted at Sully. Just as they cleared their cover, rockets rained from sky. The shockwave sent both of them flying. As they flew through the air the amulet drake had stolen began to glow blue. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Apple Jack-
“Come on Fluttershy, we have to find the girls before something else does”, Applejack called to the butter yellow pegasus as they ran into the depths of the forest. “I should have known that silly little filly and her friends would run off sooner or later. I should have stopped them as soon as I heard them say ‘cutie mark crusaders treasure hunters’”, the orange mare said to nopony in particular.
“Applejack, the manticores, cockatrices, serpents, and a few other things shouldn’t be in the forest at this time of year”, Fluttershy spoke in an uncharacteristically determined voice.
Applejack slowed her pace and looked up at her hovering friend. “So they're safe?”, the orange pony asked, a glimmer of hope coming to her voice.
Fluttershy couldn’t meet the earth pony’s gaze as she spoke in a whisper “Its hydra season”.
AJ gave her friend an angry look which made her shrink back. Then the two of them took off deeper into the Everfree. Everything began to look the same after a few minutes and Applejack feared they were going in circles. Every passing minute made the orange mare more and more worried; she feared her sister and her friends would be lost forever. “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, ya’ll come back here!”, she called as loud as she could, not doing anything to mask the desperation in her voice.
Applejack knew her sister was smart, but she acted reckless with her friends. Usually the Cutie Mark Crusaders would just get into trouble around town, but this time they had heard the stories about the Everfree castle and decide to go exploring.
The two ponies came up to a mossy rock and Applejack realized something. “We're going in circles” she said and hung her head from both exhaustion and sadness.
“I’ll fly up and see if I can see anything”, Fluttershy said as she ascended above the tree tops. Apple jack leaned against the stone and caught her breath. She calmed herself and her thoughts stopped racing. The mare hoped he sister would remember what she had been taught about being lost and stay in one place. They’ll probably end up camping out in a clearing, or building a fire. Then again if Applebloom builds a fire then we’ll be able to see the smoke from a mile away, the orange farmer thought to herself. Something red flickered across AJ’s vision, derailing her train of thought. She could have sworn somepony or something was watching her. She looked around and saw a glint coming from something in the distance.
Suddenly the ground shook violently and there was a blinding blue light. The tremor rattled Applejack’s bones and knocked her over. Then she earthquake and light stopped as suddenly as it began, and Applejack picked herself off of the ground. She looked around and made sure all of her body parts were intact. She placed her hat back on and looked around. Fluttershy swooped back down and checked on her friend.
“Applejack, there was a big explosion, and a bright light; are you ok?”, the yellow pegasus said as she landed. To Fluttershy’s surprise her friend had a massive grin on her face. “Whadda ya’ bet that the girls went to investigate the source of that light”, the orange mare said in a triumphant voice.
The two mares made their way towards ground zero of the explosion in hopes that the curious foals had gotten the same idea. Neither of them spoke, Applejack kept her silence out of determination to find her sister, and Fluttershy kept quiet out of fear. However they both kept quiet due to the mutual feeling of being watched.
Luna’s moon was high in the sky when the two mares finally reached their destination. The sight shocked them, the trees were blackened and the leaves had been burned off. It was eerily quiet, all of the crickets and birds had gone silent in the aftermath of the explosion. Everything in the blast radius was charred to the core, except there didn’t appear to be any damage to the ground itself. As they drew closer to the center of the blast Applejack heard something. It was still distant, but it sounded like children. The orange mare’s heart raced and she ran towards the source of the voices, there was no mistaking the tones of Applebloom and her friends’ voices, but to the farmer’s surprise, they sounded excited and there wasn't a trace of fear.
“Come on Fluttershy, were almost…”, Apple jack trailed off and her eyes widened at a grizzly sight before her.
Fluttershy caught up and saw what her friend was staring at, there was a young hydra lying dead. Despite what most ponies thought, Fluttershy handled death better than most of the royal guards. She understood that everything died eventually, which was especially true of her animal friends. The only time the pain of loss ever lingered was when there last bunny, Lucifer, had been hit by Carrot Top’s cart. All life was precious to her, but she knew how to let go when she had to.
The hydra was young and only had one head. The wound was deep and seemed to pass through the entire head since some scarlet blood pooled under it.
“Looks like somepony punched a hole straight through this thing’s skull”, Applejack stated bluntly.
“I’ve never seen anything like it”, Fluttershy said as she inspected the bloody wound in the creature’s forehead. It stared off into the distance with unblinking eyes and its forked tongue lolled out of its gaping maw.
“Whatever did this is still out there, that means the girls are still in danger”, Applejack said before resuming her sprint towards the source of her sister’s voice.
When the two mares finally found the three fillies, they were sitting around something neither of them could make out at first. Applejack was about to reprimand her sister when she saw what they were looking at. There was a large creature lying unconscious in front of them. The animal at first appeared to have white fur on its torso and blue fur on its hind legs, but the neck, face, and forelegs appeared to be bare. The creature also had what appeared to be a spiky brown mane on the very top of its head.
Applebloom turned around and saw an orange mare standing over her. She poked her friends and they looked at Applejack. Each of the fillies forgot their curiosity and guilt took hold.
Sweetie Belle began to apologize, “When we heard about the Everfree castle we decided to go adventuring…”, but AJ cut her off with a wave of a hoof.
The creature behind the fillies stirred, Applejack swept the children behind her and every muscle in her body tensed. She was ready in case the monster tried to hurt her sister. However what happened next shocked her. The creature opened its mouth and spoke in a raspy voice, “Help me”, but before Applejack could say anything it passed out again. Fluttershy landed next to the creature and moved one of its forelegs off of it’s torso, revealing a long splinter of wood imbedded in the flesh and blood oozing out.
“Im going to fly back and get Twilight and Rainbow Dash, we need to get it back to civilization before it bleeds out. Put pressure on the wound until I get back”, The yellow pegasus commanded being unusually assertive. Then she flew off back towards the town.
Applejack wanted to ask why this thing’s life meant anything to her, but she had learned not to question Fluttershy when she started giving the orders.
Applejack gave her sister a disapproving glance before putting pressure on the spot where the wood had impaled the animal. The red headed foal shrunk back and spoke in a small voice, “Im going to gather firewood”.
“This is gona be a long night”, Applejack announced before continuing with her task.
Sully pulled himself up off of the ground and leaned against a tree. His ears rang from the explosion and his back felt like it was on fire. Sully had been farther form the blast than Nate, and had probably suffered less of the effects. Wait, where’s Nate, the ageing adventurer thought as he looked around for his friend. The blast had thrown each of them forward, but the younger treasure hunter was nowhere to be seen. Sully looked around and noticed a body on the ground, its back was charred and bloody but it was alive. Sully limped towards the body, hoping it was Drake, but the trees began to shake again and he hid.
The same helicopter from before flew back from the beach. After it had opened fire on Nate and him, the Hind had perused the fleeing pirates and slaughtered them on the beach head. The helicopter now hovered above the clearing, shining down a searchlight. The fallen man attempted to crawl to the safety of the trees but the search light fell upon him. Sully heard the minigun on the chopper begin to spin up and he watched as bullets rained onto the injured man, ripping him to pieces. The helicopter hovered in midair for a few minutes before flying off again.
Sully’s heart raced and he limped over the man who had just been mowed down by the chopper. It was impossible to tell, but the body could be Drake’s. Sully’s heart pounded and dread wrapped its icy claws around his heart. Reluctantly, Victor rolled the body over and revealed his face. Dread turned to relief as the ageing adventurer saw the body belonged to a pirate. The dead man stared into the distance and a gas mask hung loosely from his face. Sully looted the body; stashing the usable grenades and bullets on his belt. Unfortunately, the pirate’s AK-47 was damaged beyond repair so he left it behind.
The old fortune hunter spent a few minutes looting the bodies before he found it. At first he didn’t notice the book, but when he did his heart sank. The book was half buried and its binding was tattered, but it was unmistakable. Sully picked up the tome and flipped it open, hoping he wouldn’t find what he knew would. The inside cover of the book had a name scrawled on it in black pen: Nathan Drake. Nate never anywhere without the notebook Sully had given him after their first adventure. Drake’s body was nowhere to found, but his journal was still there.
“Where the hell are you kid?”, Sully said as he limped back into the forest . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Nathan Drake-
Drake’s eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright. However unbearable pain greeted him so he lay back down. It took him a moment to realize, but he was inside a building and lying on a bed made of straw with a blanket thrown over it. The building was spacious and appeared to have stalls for animals, probably an old barn. Daylight filtered in through a hole in the wall and illuminated the interior. Drake stood up, except this time he was careful not to hurt himself.
Nate noticed that his holster had been hung on a peg on one of the support beams. He shuffled over and started to put it back on before realizing it was a bad idea. “Whoever rescued me probably wouldn't be too happy if I showed up at their front door with a gun”, he half chuckled as he placed the leather holster back on the peg. Then he realized his pistol was still in its spot and the grenades had not been taken. Drake removed the silver magnum from the slot and ejected the clip, noting it still had a bullet in it. Something about the fact that whoever had saved him hadn't taken his gun troubled him, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly why.
Drake limped to the large barn door and forced it open in spite of his protesting wound. The blinding sun forced drake to cover his eyes. After the world became easily visible again Drake realized he was not on the same island anymore. He stood in a grassy field littered with trees. All of them appeared to be in neat rows and well-tended to, indicating some sort of farm. The island Drake had been on was tropical so the chances that there was an apple farm on it were slim to none. Also, there was no way this farm would not have showed up on the satellite scans of the island drake had looked at beforehand. However, after being to a nearly tropical city in the middle of Tibet, not much could surprise him.
A house was visible in the distance, Drake made his way to the building in hopes of getting answers and maybe a meal too. What would have been a short walk became long and slow, with every step sending a new wave of pain through the injured adventurer. Drake clutched at his bandaged abdomen and attempted to ignore the pain. As he approached, the smell of baking pastries and the sound of voices greeted him.
“Looks like I’m going to get both of the things I wanted”, Nate said to himself as he knocked on the door.
The treasure hunter knocked on the sturdy wooden door, hoping whoever answered it would have some answers. “Be there ‘n a second”, a female voice with a distinct southern accent replied from inside. The door swung open and when Drake saw who came to greet he couldn’t believe his eyes. What appeared to be a tiny orange horse was standing in the doorway, looking at him with wide and confused eyes. Both of them stood there for an awkward moment before the door closed again. Did I take some of the water from the Atlantis of the Sands with me by accident?, Drake thought as he just stood there, stunned.
Drake stepped off the porch and back into the clearing in front of the house. He looked around and yelled “Alright sully, ya got me. Now can you please tell me what the hell is going on!”, Drake yelled, thinking this was all some joke his friend was behind. No answer came and Drake began to worry about what was going on.
“Twilight, Twilight, Twi…”, Spike called out as he ran to the purple alicorn’s side.
Twilight turned around to see her scaly assistant out of breath and leaning on her flank for support.
“What is it spike?”, she asked.
The dragon attempted to relay his message in between breaths, “Applejack…told…me…to…tell…you…creature…awake…talking”, after which he collapsed onto the ground.
Twilight levitated her assistant onto her back and trotted down the stairs from her room into the library. She put on her saddlebags, careful not to disturb her exhausted friend. She levitated a few thick tomes into her bags before rushing off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
The mare’s heart was racing and she felt more excited than ever. When Fluttershy had come to the library last night to ask for help moving an injured creature Twilight had dismissed it as an ordinary creature. However when the yellow pegasus had mentioned the creature spoke she became extremely curious. At first the injured creature had appeared to be a deformed young dragon, but upon closer inspection it had no scales and wore a layer of light clothes.
The creature most resembled the gorilla Twilight had seen when her father had taken her to the zoo as a filly. However this creature was of a much slighter build and appeared to be designed for life on the ground.
It was noon on Saturday, so naturally the townsponies were out enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, that meant that the streets were packed and hard to navigate at high speed. Twilight considered taking to the sky in order avoid the crowds, however she shot the idea down because the extra weight would probably set her off balance, not that she had much to begin with. The trip to Sweet Apple Acres lasted twice as long as it normally did, but the anticipation made it feel even longer.
The alicorn’s heart ponded and her thoughts raced as she reached the farm house. The creature was nowhere in sight so Twilight walked up to the door and knocked. It swing open and Applejack beckoned her inside. The house inside of the house was darker than normal on account of the shades in the windows being drawn. The low lighting contributed to the fearful atmosphere Twilight had felt as she stepped in. Granny Smith sat nervously in her rocker, Big Mac paced around the living room, and Applejack seemed a little shaken; only Apple Bloom seemed unaffected as she looked out through the blinds at the creature with curiosity.
“What happened?”, Twilight asked, attempting to understand why almost all of the Apples were on edge.
“It’s Jus’ that thing out there is scaring my family. They aint never seen anything like it before”, the orange mare replied, trying to sound indifferent.
Twilight bite back the urge to facehoof right then and there. The mare rolled he eyes before saying, “You said the same thing when Zecora came into town, and we all know that turned out”
“Least I knew what Zecora was!”, Applejack yelled, dropping the ruse of bravery.
“Listen, AJ, im going to go out and talk to, it”, Twilight said as she walked back out of the door.
Despite what she had said in the house twilight was nervous. The prospect of making contact with a new form of sentient creature was invigorating, but by the same token she didn’t know what to expect. Twilight didn’t think it was xenophobia, but something about the creature screamed danger to her.
Twilight found the creature leaning against an apple tree. She noted that it rested its back against the tree and sat in a very similar way to a certain green unicorn mare. Twilight could hear it mumbling something about “hallucinogenic water” and “Talbot’s drugs”, whatever that meant. Its back was turned so Twilight decided to call out first, not wanting to startle the creature.
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I would like to be the first to welcome you to Ponyvill”, she called out, trying not to stumble over the words.
The creature chuckled but didn’t turn around. Twilight thought it might be a mistake, that the creature might just be a strange animal, but a few moments later it spoke,“I guess this is real, isn’t it?”
Drake stood up and turned around, revealing source of the voice; what appeared to be a short purple unicorn with wings stood in front of him. Great, talking horses, then again it’s not any stranger than the abominable snowman protecting the tree of life, He thought to himself, using every ounce of self-control he had left not to burst out into confused laughter. Drake leaned against the tree so that he would collapse again before speaking, “My name’s Drake Uhh Nathan Drake”.
The unicorn looked like she was also trying to suppress laughter, however she spoke in a calm voice, “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I must say, Drake uhh Nathan Drake is an unusual name, no offence”.
A slight smile crept to the weary adventurer’s face, the pony in front of him brought back memories of his first encounter with Elena. “It’s just Nathan Drake”, he replied.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what are you?”, Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Human”, Drake replied as if it was a rhetorical question. However the creature before him gave him a puzzled look. “You know, Human, Homo Sapien, Masters of the Earth, etcetera”, Drake continued, making gestures with his arms which sent new waves of pain coursing through his body. However the small horse before him only appeared to grow more confused. Great, not only are there talking horses, but I’m probably the only human around, Drake thought.
“Is that some form of monkey or ape?”, Twilight asked.
“Listen, I’d love to go over the detail but I am in a lot of pain right now and its getting hard to stand”, Drake said, trying avoid being called a monkey again.
“I can use my magic to heal you, I know a great spell for that”, Twilight Sparkle said.
Drake scoffed a little before speaking in a sarcastic and dismissive voice, “Sure, knock yourself out”.
“It’s a simple spell, there’s no reason I would lose consciousness because of it”, Twilight replied.
“It’s a figure of speech that means go ahead”, Drake deadpanned.
Drake had assumed the ‘magic’ in question would be of the typical ‘voodoo and great spirit variety’ but the reality of it shocked him. Twilight Sparkle’s horn began to glow and his body began to feel strange. Golden light radiated from his body and he could feel a subtle warmth creep into his skin. It felt as if every cell in his body was being remade into something strange and new. Drake tried to call out, to make her stop the spell, but his throat felt like it was on fire. Nathan winced at the feeling of bones cracking and reforming under his flesh and unimaginable pain shot through his body. Then in a blinding flash of gold, it all stopped and the weary adventurer collapsed to the ground, unable to support himself.
Vision returned to Nate, slowly, but it returned none the less. His body felt strange, like his skin had been taken off and put back on the wrong way. He looked down at his body and a startling realization struck him, all of his injuries were gone and he was still human. Drake got back up to his feet and checked where the gaping hole in his flesh used to be. However, there was only smooth skin. Drake looked at the creature in equine in front of him and gave her a confused look.
“If you knew I was here, then why didn’t you do that before when I was more injured”, Drake asked her.
“You were unconscious and I didn’t want to cause any more damage to you without your permission”, she responded.
“Well, I feel great now”, Nate said. Then the treasure hunter became aware of the holes the explosion before had left in his cloths.
Drake’s face turned an embarrassed shade of red before he spoke, “Hey, Twilight you wouldn’t happen to know a spell that fixes clothes, would you?”.
Twilight giggled a little before responding, “No, but I know somepony who could help”.
Did she just say somepony, Drake thought before following Twilight back to the farm house.
After having been shot at and nearly blown to pieces all in the span of one day, Nate had decided to put up with his new situation. At least they’re not trying to kill me and take my stuff, the adventurer thought to himself as he followed the small purple horse in front of him. Although neither of them spoke Drake could tell Twilight was excited. He assumed it was curiosity about him because judging from her reaction to his appearance she definitely had that type of personality.
When they reached the farm house Twilight told Drake to stay put. The treasure hunter obeyed, not wanting to offend his host. The house was two stories and painted apple red, smoke rose out of the chimney and the same smell of pastries lingered in the air. The progression of time finally caught up to drake. He looked up and saw the sun was high in the sky and realized he had been out for at least a day, his last memory was of the afternoon when the helicopter had attacked him and sully. Wait, where’s Sully, Drake thought looking around for any signs of his friend.
Twilight Sparkle pounded on the door with her hoof, which Drake assumed was the equivalent of knocking. The door creaked open a few moments later and the same orange pony from before peeked around it. When the creature’s eyes fell on Drake it tried to go back inside the house but something stopped it. Twilight Sparkle’s horn flashed and the orange pony appeared on the porch and then the door slammed shut on its own. Drake jumped at the sudden appearance of the orange creature.
At first the pony seemed as startled by her sudden appearance as Drake was, but she got over it quickly. The orange horse gave her purple friend a death glare and spoke with unrestrained anger, “Twi’ I’ve told you not do that without my permission!”.
Drake noted this pony lacked a horn or wings and wondered if that was the equivalent of skin color back home.
Twilight Sparkle cleared he throat in a blatant attempt to turn her friend’s attention to Nathan. The orange pony turned around and gave Drake a sheepish grin.
“Well, uhh, Hiya. Ma’ names Applejack…”, the orange pony said. Her voice was decidedly feminine, but had a distinct southern drawl. She seemed unsure of what to say next and looked like she expected Drake to gobble her up at any moment.
In an attempt to mitigate the awkwardness of the situation Drake stuck out his hand hoping it meant the same thing here as it did back home. She stared at the hand not understanding the gesture, and then she realized what it meant and cautiously touched her hoof against his hand. They shook and the awkwardness seemed to diminish a little bit.
“My name’s Nathan Drake”, the treasure hunter said, introducing himself.
“I have to say, when my friend and I found you we didn’t expect you to make it. You were hurt pretty bad and you wouldn’t wake up. Sorry for leaving you in the barn and all, but I didn’t want to risk the safety of my family”, she said finally appearing to be warming up to Drake a little bit.
“Wouldn’t be the first time”, Drake scoffed. However when he saw a look of worry flash across the orange creature’s face he said, “I meant being left somewhere after being rescued, not hurting a family”.
Then Drake remembered something, “Where’s Sully?”, he asked out loud but both of the ponies gave him a strange look.
“Who’s Sully?”, the lavender pony asked.
“My friend, he was caught in the same explosion as me”, Drake said as he looked around as if his aging friend would just materialize out of thin air.
“The big blue explosion Applejack told me about?”, Twilight Sparkle asked.
“No, just a normal explosion”, Drake replied.
“We should probably head back to my library and sort this out, If your friend is in danger than we shouldn’t be wasting time”, Twilight said, gaining a slightly more urgent tone
“Um Twi’ aren’t ya forgetting someone?”, the orange pony called out to her friend.
Drake could hear a rustling noise off to his right. He turned his head and could see a glimmer for a fraction of a second. The fortune hunter walked over the scrub and reached toward it. As his hand neared the bush he could hear a muffled cry of surprise followed by a shushing noise. He pulled back the leaves to reveal two small forms within it. A small yellow pony and a bipedal lizard had been hiding there, watching the strange creature intently. Drake looked down and noticed that the purple lizard held a piece of paper and a feather quill in his claws.
Drake turned around and called out, “Looks like we were being watched”.
The two larger ponies trotted up to drake and looked into the bush where the two smaller creatures had been hiding. Drake saw the purple pony shoot the lizard what appeared to be a disapproving glance and the orange pony sweep the small yellow one behind her.
“We should get going, It’s probably best that we try and sort out your situation as quickly as possible Mr. Drake”, Twilight said as she beckoned Drake forward.
“Listen Twilight Sparkle, you can just call me Nathan or Nate, usually the people who call me Mr. Drake end up trying to kill me later on”, Nathan said.
“Oh, well in that case you can call me Twilight”, The purple pony said in response. “Come on, it’s around lunch time so the streets should be more clear now, however we need to find a way to keep you from being seen, I don’t want reporters on my case any more than I have to”, She said it in a way that implied that being followed by the paparazzi was a daily occurrence for her and Drake couldn’t keep from wondering why.
"There's no way you're going to turn me into a pony!”, the human practically yelled at the lavender alicorn before him.
“No, I offered to create the illusion of a pony around you so we wouldn’t draw too much attention”, Twilight replied.
The human had been turning various shades of red, which made Twilight wonder if the species had any relation to chameleons. Then his face began to return to its normal tan color, which she assumed meant he was calming down.
“So, it’s basically just a disguise?”, he asked in a much calmer voice, confirming Twilight’s suspicions.
“Yes, and as soon as we get to the library you can drop the spell and your real body will be visible again”, Twilight informed him. There’s something forgetting about how this spell works, I feel like it’s important but usually relevant, the mare thought without alerting Nathan to her confusion.
However before the detail came back to her, Drake interrupted by saying, “What do you mean by ‘you can drop the spell’, I can’t exactly do magic?”.
“If I have to maintain the spell than body my horn and the illusion would glow, giving us away. But if I enchant an object then you could manually control the spell and my aura wouldn’t give anything away”, Twilight explained.
“Let’s get this over with”, Drake said.
Twilight nodded and pointed her horn at the human and closed her eyes. The same sense that she was forgetting something came back as her horn began to feel warm and the base of her skull began to tingle. The sensation of using her magic was nothing new to the pony; in fact she found it comforting. When she opened her eyes the world took on various hues of blue indicating how magically charged something everything was. However when she looked at Drake all she saw was darkness. However it was more than ordinary darkness, it consumed all of the magic around it and gave off a strange aura of its own.
“Nathan, I need you to let me do this”, she said and almost immediately the darkness dissipated slightly. A swirling golden mass formed inside the void Nate created and twilight targeted it. Then there was a flash and the spell abruptly ended.
When Twilight opened her eyes again she noticed that an image of a pony stood before her. Nate looked at and nodded his head in approval.
“Is this the illusion you were talking about?”, Nate asked Twilight as her normal vision returned to her.
“Yep, now all you need to do is place the thing you want to facilitate the spell into the hologram and it will be done. It will work best if its metal and you can wear it, it will make droping the spell as easy as taking the thing off”, Twilight informed him.
Nathan pulled a silver chain halfway out of his pocket and removed something from it so that the pony could not see it. Then he threw the item into the floating hologram and waited for something to happen. Then there was a flash of golden light and a cracking noise shot through the air, forcing the human, the pony, and the dragon on her back to cover their ears.
When the light faded the necklace floated where the hologram had been. It glowed slightly as it bobbed up and down in place like a hovering pegasus. Nathan reached for it with uncertainty. He grabbed it lightly as if he expected it to be hot to the touch. Then when he found it was perfectly fine he tightened his grip and brought it to his face.
“So if I put this on, it will make me look like a pony but not actually change my body?”, He asked.
“That’s the idea”, Twilight responded.
“Here we go”, he said in an uncertain voice before placing the chain necklace back on.
Within moments the human faded out of existence and a pony stood in his place. The image created was a tan stallion with a short spikey mane and close cut tail. Twilight looked to the “pony’s” side and saw he was a pegasus. The pony’s wings were the same color as his coat except that the feathers at the very tip were golden, however it almost looked as if they were made of the actual precious metal. The “pony” had bronze colored eyes which now darted around, observing the environment.
Spike hopped off of her back and walked around the disguised creature. “I never knew you could do a disguise spell like this Twi”, her scaly friend said in a slightly surprised tone.
“It comes in handy”, she replied
“Like when?”, the dragon asked
“Let’s not talk about that in front of our guest”, she replied as she pointed at Nathan and blushed a little under her fur. “Let’s go”, Twilight called out to the “stallion” behind her .
After Nate caught up they walked in silence for a little while. Twilight observed the illusion of a pony closely. Her eyes glowed a little bit as she looked past the illusion and saw the creature within. Nate stood about twice as tall as the illusion, the ends of his claw like appendages coming down to about the height of the illusion’s back. Twilight knew the spell would translate the human’s actual body movements into the pony equivalent but a trained eye could see the inconsistencies in the image’s stride.
“Nathan, try not to move your arms too much”, she told him noticing something awry on the hologram. When the invisible human replied the voice came out of the decoy’s mouth like it should have, “Why?”. “I understand that your arms naturally swing when you walk, Spike’s do the same thing, but it’s making the wings on the illusion shake unnaturally”, she replied.
Twilight could see the aura of the otherwise invisible human place his hands into his pockets and keep them still, stopping the jittering wings. With that Twilight cut off the enhanced vision spell and there was no longer a trace of the human. They were nearing the outskirts of the town and Twilight began to come up with the best route to take in order to avoid unnecessary encounters with anypony. All we need to do is get to the library and straighten this out, I just hope ‘she’ doesn’t know we’re here yet, her thoughts transitioning to a certain friend of hers, I rely hope there’s no pinkie-sense for “strange new sapient creature comes into town” knowing my luck there probably is.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Twilight’s curiosity overwhelmed her. “Tell me about yourself”, she said, biting back the urge to look into the place where the invisible human’s eyes were and instead looked into the illusion’s bronze eyes instead.
“What do you want to know?”, he asked.
“Well what’s it like where you’re from?”
“Well it’s a lot like here but there are some differences…”
“Obviously”
“Can I finish please?”
“Sorry”
“I don’t know, the trees are the same, the skies are blue, the clouds are white. The creatures are different thought, for instance there are no talking horses”
“Ponies”
“What”
“The proper term is pony; horses live in some of the eastern states like Saddle Arabia”
“Huh, well excuse me princess”
“I didn’t tell you that how did you know?”
“Wait, what?”
“Never mind”, Twilight finished as she felt the conversation grow more and more awkward.
For the remainder of the walk neither of them spoke but the awkward air between them grew. Seeing it was around noon the streets were less packed from before, making them slightly less impassable. Twilight knew it would be difficult to get Nathan through undetected, the illusion was not solid, but the invisible human was If anypony bumped into his side then they would disrupt the illusion and a low flying pegasus could have the same effect. Getting to the library would be too tricky until the ponies returned to their homes and cleared the streets. Then twilight remembered something she needed to get done.
“Change of plans”, Twilight told the human.
“What do you mean?”, he asked.
“Getting to the library would be too difficult until the streets clear, You said you needed new clothes and I have a friend who could help you with that who lives closer”, she responded.
Drake cringed at the sight of the building. It was stylized as a carousel and was painted baby blue. Hearts and frills adorned the structure, it seemed out of place in the otherwise sensibly designed town.
“Are you sure about this”, Drake asked
“It takes some getting used to but the owner is a great pony and extremely generous. But my first time here wasn’t so good. I’ll do my best to make sure your first time isn’t so bad”, Twilight Sparkle replied.
“Thanks, I guess”, Drake replied, unsure of what to expect.
They walked into the building and an even more cringe worth sight greeted Drake. The interior was covered in every conceivable hue of pink, mannequins sporting gaudy dresses stood on display, and various images of ponies wearing fancy outfits were framed on the walls. Drake knew he needed his clothes mended but he started to wonder if it was actually worth it anymore.
“Welcome to carousel boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique”, the voice was distinctly feminine and came from a white horned pony who walked, er, trotted into the room.
“Hi Rarity, my friend needs a special order filled. I’ll spot him the cost but I would need to get the money to you tomorrow. Is that ok?”, Twilight asked.
“That’s fine Twilight”, she said as she walked up to the duo.
"Let me do the talking", Twilight said
“If you insist”, Drake replied in a half sarcastic voice
The white and purple pony approached Drake and he noticed something odd. She had a mark on her flank like Twilight and Applejack, in fact every large pony Drake had seen had one of those marks on their flanks; however the small pony at the farm did not have a mark. Drake wondered if they represented some sort of rank in the pony society.
The white pony circled around the disguised adventurer before speaking, “You know Twilight, this would be easier if I could see what you friend here actually looked like”
Drake’s heart skipped a beat. How did she figure that out, is it that easy to tell I'm a fake, Drake thought. “What do you mean, he’s a pony like you and me”, Twilight said, obviously lying through her teeth.
Drake face palmed at Twilight’s lack of conviction, and, although he didn’t know it, the illusion face hoofed as well. “You’re a terrible liar Twilight. Anyway darling, I’m a fashion designer not a fool”, before she continued, the pony waved a hoof through the illusion and canceled it, revealing the once invisible human. She took a look at Drake’s true form before continuing with her explanation, “You see, I have a magic field which tells me when a pony enters and how many ponies are in the building, and don’t worry, it’s all legal; anyway I only felt one pony enter the boutique when you and your friend came in. Now the field picks up on the intrinsic magical fields of all sentient creatures which means your friend was either only a hologram or was shrouded entirely”, She explained.
Twilight was dumbfounded and reminded herself that Rarity was much smarter than she let on. “And you’re not scared?”, she asked.
“Twilight, I have made garments for numerous ‘strange looking’ foreigners in the past, and ever since that misunderstanding with Zecora I try not to be so quick to judge”, the white pony elaborated.
“Now that she knows what I am, I think I can do the talking”, Drake said, trying to allow himself to speak again. Twilight looked at him and nodded.
“What’s your name?”, Drake asked the purple maned pony.
“Rarity”, she replied
“All I need is a patch job on my shirt and pants, I hope that wouldn't be too much trouble”, Drake said.
“Oh, not at all, give me a moment”, Rarity responded. Then, in a flash of blue light, a needle and thread appeared. It only took a minute or two for the pony to expertly stitch the holes in the shirt and pants closed using her magic.
“So tell me about yourself, mister…”, the white pony said, trying to get Drake’s name.
“You can just call me Nathan or Nate, usually people who call me use ‘mister’ when talking to me are the ones trying to kill me”, he said.
“Does that happen often?”, She asked, trying to hide a her worried tone.
“More than it should”, Drake replied.
Drake could sense the conversation becoming more and more uncomfortable as time went on and realized he was treading on the wrong ground. Just then Drake heard the door creaking open and realized he was undisguised. “How do I turn this thing back on?!”, Drake said as he inspected the chain like necklace which had sustained the spell. “Tug on it lightly”, Twilight was quick to answer.
Drake obeyed, pulling at the item and reinstating the holographic disguise just in time. The door swung open and revealed yet another pony; this one was blue and appeared to have a rainbow colored mane. The pony carried a bag in her mouth and deposited it on a work table before noticing the three ponies standing in the middle of the room. “Hey Twi, didn’t expect to see you here, oh and Rarity, these are those cloud lilies you wanted”, the female sounding pony said as she gestured towards the bag she had brought in.
Then her eyes fell upon the new pony in the room and she smirked.
“Say, Twi, you never told me you made such a big score”, she said with a tone which was somewhere between mocking and envious.
It took a moment to realize that the cyan pony liked the look of the illusion a little too much.
It took Twilight a few seconds to realize what her friend was getting at, but when she did it took every ounce of concentration she had form spilling the secret about Nathan just to shut her up. Dash would mess something up sooner or later and the jig would be up and Nathan’s true form would be revealed. Twilight almost wanted to order Nate to take off the illusion generation relic in order to shut up the blue winged pony’s escapades.
Rainbow Dash walked up the “stallion” obviously unaware it wasn’t even a pony and said, “Wadda ya’ say we take off together and get to know each other”.
“Sorry, my wing is injured”, the lie flowed out seamlessly. He groaned a little while thinking, great, now I have to deal with this. Drake glanced over to Twilight with a pleading expression that conveyed something akin to, “Make her stop”.
“That’s too bad, anyway my name’s Rainbow Dash what’s yours?”, she asked
Nathan decided it would be best to use his last name, seeing as it sounded more like a pony name, “Drake”, he replied.
“How’d you do that to yourself?”, She asked, gesturing at where drake assumed the wing was on the illusion of a pony.
“Crashed into a tree”, he said, hoping it would be a legitimate answer.
“Nice aim”
“I try”
“I was looking for treasure deep in the forest when it happened”
“So you’re like Daring Do?”
“Who?”
“Daring D… Nevermind”, the blue pony said it as if she was trying to sweep a mistake under the rug and change the topic.
At that point Twilight saw it fit to stop the increasingly awkward conversation and decided to intervene, “Hey Rainbow Dash, how about show off your flying skills”.
The blue pony seemed to have an expression which conveyed something akin to “Why didn’t I think of that”. She began to walk out of the door and gestured for the others to follow.
“When she gets up in the air we’re making a run for the library”, Twilight said.
“Thanks”, drake said, glad that he would be able to get away from “intrigued” pony.
“Try not to get too blown away by my awesomeness”, the blue pony said before gaining altitude. Twilight and Drake watched for a minute or two. She was agile and probably a very good flier, even though Drake had nothing to compare her to. The blue form darted across the sky, preforming various mid-air stunts. Then she went into a steep dive, going faster than Drake thought any living creature could. A cone of energy formed around the pony and then drake witnessed something incredible. There was an audible explosion noise and then a wave of white light shot out form where the pony had been like a ripple in a pond. Then Drake saw a chromatic trail following the blisteringly fast pony.
“We have to go before she gets back”, Twilight whispered urgently as the blue pony flow out of sight.
Drake nodded before following her. The streets were less crowded now, however it was still difficult to navigate the streets without bumping into any of the ponies. Their destination was in sight now. The building was an old oak tree which had obviously had a house carved out of it. The lizard who had been sitting on Twilight’s back jumped off and began walking on his own two feet. "Say Nathan, i thought you said you couldn't do magic”, Twilight said as she stopped at the door.
“It does not exactly exist where I come from, why?”, he responded.
The purple pony gave Drake an extremely skeptical look before speaking, “Then how did you manipulate the base spell so easily?”.
This time Drake gave Twilight a confused look and asked what she was talking about.
“When you said your wing was injured the illusion changed to fit that description, the only way it could have done that is if you changed the enchantment’s base spell”, she explained
“Maybe it just reacts differently to my body because I’m not actually a pony”, Drake said dismissively.
“Or maybe it could be…” she began to say, however she trailed off as she opened the door.
The inside was dark and as soon as Twilight closed the door Drake took off the chain necklace and the illusion of a pony faded away, being replaced by the human it had been hiding. The inside of the library was clean and inviting. Seeing as there were no patrons around him, he assumed that it was closed today. Out of curiosity Drake picked up a book which had been sitting on the table in the center of the room and opened it. However nothing could prepare him for what came next. A pink pony seemed to pop out of the book, as if she had been hiding there.
“Surprise!”, it yelled as drake backpedaled away from it, startled from what just happened.
“What the hell just happened?!”, Drake exclaimed as Twilight noticed the pony who had just appeared in the room with them.
“That’s Pinkie Pie, just try not to think about what just happened too much if you value your sanity”, Twilight said.
Sully trekked through the jungle on the tropical island, remembering how this whole fiasco had started. There had always been talk of a lost city in the area. Stories had been told about the strange relics found on the island which bore images of Greek mythological creatures which dated back before the legends arose in Greece. One day a man had approached Drake about helping with an expedition to the island chain to uncover some of the secrets. Drake accepted the offer and took sully with him on the voyage.
They spent two weeks searching for any hints of the fabled treasure but came up short. However, one day Drake found an amulet hidden in a hollowed out rock and showed it to the man who had hired them. Then the backstabbing started. The man attempted to steal the amulet from Drake and cut off the loose ends. They had escaped, but just barley, and now Drake was god knows where with the amulet, probably being hunted by the mercenaries the man had hired.
Sully stopped at the sound of human voices. They were speaking English, but they had accents ranging from American to South African. Sully did his best to avoid being detected as he slipped onto the truck they were guarding.
Sully hid behind a crate in the covered back of the military truck. He could hear the vices of the soldiers through the canvas.
“How much longer do we have to put up with this bullshit?” a soldier with an American accent asked.
“Until the boss stops paying us or you know…” a mercenary with an Indian accent said. Then there was the unmistakable crack of gunfire.
At first the adventurer thought that it was just the merc’ trying to make a point, but then there was a hollow thud from outside the canvas covering followed by another one yelling “Oh god, Hostile contact three o’clock!”.
Shortly after, the sound of automatic gunfire began and Sully grabbed for the hilt of his revolver instinctually. The gunfire was deafening, causing him to release his grip on the gun and cover his ringing ears instead. Every so often a stray bullet ripped through the canvas and let golden beams of sunlight filter into the dark interior. Victor did his best to stay quiet, though he knew that no sound he made would be heard over the noise outside. He began to wonder who was attacking them, whatever it was, the hired guns didn’t seem to stand a chance.
As time went on the sound of gunfire outside got quieter, which Sully assumed was due to the soldiers falling in combat. The sound of gunfire diminished until Victor could only hear one weapon fire, but it cut off abruptly.
“I surrender, please don’t kill me I have a family”, came a pleading voice from directly outside.
“Look, I’ll throw down my weapons just to prove it”, the pleading voice came again follows by a metallic clattering of weapons falling to the ground. However the pleading did little to sway the attacker, and seconds later there was a gunshot and then the sound of body falling to the ground.
Sully silently edged his way to the end of the cargo truck. Hoping to avoid any more stray bullets that might come through the canvas covering. Silently he got out and peeked around the corner of the truck to see what had happened.
To his surprise there was nothing there, just the bodies of slain soldiers and spent shell casings. Sully let out a sigh of relief and put his gun back in its holster, but did not release the handle in case there were still enemies out there. Something about the corpses was off, Sully couldn't put his finger on exactly what, but something seemed wrong. Each mercenary had been killed in the exact same way, a bullet straight through the heart; except that was the only wound any of them had. Whoever had killed them was incredibly accurate, which didn't bode well for Sully.
He crouched down and scavenged the bodies for anything that could give him a clue as to where Drake could be. Eventually he found a worn map in the front pocket of one of the mercenary’s body armor. He unfolded the yellowed paper and inspected it. The map was blood stained but he could make out some of the details; the map was definitely of the island, but it had seemingly random locations circled in thick black ink.
Something snapped behind him. Then before he could react, he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel being pressed against the back of his neck.
“Get up”, a female voice commanded.
Victor had no option other than to obey, so he slowly got up to his feet and made sure not to make any threatening movements. If drake were here he would have made some smart-ass remark, then again, if I was with Drake then we wouldn’t be in this mess, He thought, trying to take his mind off of his probable death.
“Don’t try anything funny, this is your gun after all”, the feminine voice continued with a note of almost smug confidence. Sully stole a glance at his now empty holster, confirming what the voice had said.
“Eyes front, take two steps forward and turn around, if you make any sudden movements I swear I will put a bullet in your skull, understood?”, the voice commanded.
Sully nodded as the gun barrel prodded him. He took two large steps forward and turned around, making sure not to make any threatening or sudden movements. The source of the voice ended up being a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties.
“You’re a little old to be a mercenary”, she stated bluntly, her crystal blue eyes trained on the aging man.
“I’m not one of the mercenaries” he replied, hoping she would not just shoot him anyway.
“Then why are you here? Why were you in the back of the truck if you aren’t with the soldiers?” she asked, taking aim at sully’s head.
“Listen, a friend and I were hired to help with the expedition, if we had known that all of this was going on then we wouldn’t have accepted the job” Sully said, he spoke slowly and deliberately, choosing each word carefully.
The woman used her thumb to pull back the hammer on the revolver and the cylinder rotated, chambering a new bullet. Then she raised the gun and Sully found himself staring down the barrel of his custom Colt Python. She was obviously about to fire, except that Sully had and ace in the hole. During the last fight with the pirates he had spent all but one of the bullets in his revolver, the one she just chambered was not that one.
Suddenly the woman pulled the trigger but only a hollow click greeted her. The woman recoiled in surprise and Sully wasted no time in fighting back. The aging adventurer sprung forward and grabbed the pistol out of her hands. She recovered from her shock extremely quickly, and within a second was on the offensive. She swung out, striking Sully in the jaw and causing him to taste blood. Her next strike was directly into a pressure point, causing Sully to lose sensation in his legs. He barely managed to stay on his feet as the woman swung at his ribs. The strike connected, sending ully reeling back a few steps. Suddenly she sprung forward and drew a hunting knife from a sheath on her leg. The woman lashed out with the knife, the steel gleaming in the sunlight.
The tip of the knife grazed Sully’s face, slicing a jagged line from his ear to his chin. The long gash sent waves of pain coursing through Victor’s head and made it hard to concentrate on his assailant. Adrenaline began to work its way into Sully’s blood and the pain diminished, letting him focus on the fight. The woman lashed out with the blade again, this time she went straight for the chest. However Sully was ready; he grabbed her wrist as it got within an inch of his sternum and twisted it so the blade faced away from him. Then, without hesitation Sully used his other hand to bring up the revolver. He swung the gun, and with an audible crack the hilt of the revolver struck the woman’s skull.
The metal base of the handle ripped a gash into her head. Instantly she stopped struggling, her eyes rolled up into her head, and her body fell to the ground; motionless.
Sully prodded the still body with his foot to confirm that she wasn’t going to get up. Next he crouched down and searched for a pulse. The woman still had a faint pulse, confirming that she was just unconscious. Although the woman had fewer injuries they were much more sever. The gash on her forehead now oozed scarlet blood, which pooled around her right eye and trickled down the side of her face.
The surge of adrenaline which had kept Sully going during the fight now left his blood. Every cut, bruise, and scrape from the conflict now cried out in pain. Victor took the revolver and rotated the cylinder until the last unspent bullet was chambered. His injured arms protested as he lifted the gun and steadied his am at the unconscious woman’s head. He used his thumb to pull back the hammer on the pistol and then rested his finger on the trigger, but didn’t pull.
This isn’t right, I can’t just shoot someone when they can’t fight back; either way if she was the one who killed the mercs than we might have the same enemy. Either way, I bet she knows something I don’t, Sully thought.
He took his finger off of the trigger and holstered the gun, hoping that the decision not to end the woman would come back to bite him later. Instead Victor dragged the unconscious body over to a tree, and tied her hands behind it using rope form the back of the supply truck.
After he made sure the knot would hold, he went to scavenge anything he could off of the dead mercenaries and from the supply crates. There was a veritable gold mine of weapons and ammunition within the truck, Sully found everything from RPGs to tazers in the supply crates. Sully found an M4 and slung it over his shoulder then stashed extra magazines on his belt before moving on. Each crate was filled to the brim with state of the art weapons and ammunition; and by the looks of it they had all just been dropped off on the island.
Sully remembered seeing the cargo planes dropping supplies in by parachute for the last few days. All of the supply drops had been taken and loaded onto trucks like the one Sully now occupied before they drove off to some unknown location. “Wait a second, there are barely even a hundred mercenaries on the island, why the hell do they need so many guns” He wondered out loud.
Sully got off the flat bed of the truck and looked at the unconscious form of the woman and something told him that she be invaluable in the days to come.
“Pinkie, how, what…” Twilight began, baffled by her friend’s appearance out of the book.
“Sorry-Twilight-I-have-to-go-and-put-together-a-party-for-our-new-friend”, the words tumbled out of the party mare’s mouth as she sped out of the door at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash jealous.
Twilight just stood there for a moment, trying, but failing, to understand what just happened.
“Do all your books do that?” Drake asked, obviously joking, but shaking a little bit for the unexpected encounter.
“Not usually”, Twilight said as Spike got off of her back and cleaned up the mess Pinkie had made
“Let’s go up to my study and talk”, Twilight said as she climbed the stairs to the second floor of the library
“Spike can you hold down the fort for while I’m upstairs”, she called to her assistant.
The small dragon threw a salute and then plodded off to take care of some other task. Drake grudgingly followed her up the stairs. The study was still in disarray from a whirlwind night of studying a few days prior. Twilight blushed slightly out of embarrassment as she swept some of the papers off of her desk haphazardly.
“Take a seat”, she told the human. He obeyed and sat on the ground in front of the cluttered table.
Twilight scanned the shelves and the various piles of papers for something she could use. Eventually she located some tomes and maps among the chaos and focused on them. The familiar sensation of warmth came to her horn as her aura enveloped the objects and drew them closer. The mare placed them on the table before her and sat down opposite to Drake. Twilight wasn’t sure she was reading his face right, but Nathan seemed surprised about something.
“How did you do that?” he asked, pointing at where the books used to be.
“Levitation isn’t that hard, it’s usually the first spell unicorns learn”, she replied.
“Sorry, I’m still getting used to the whole magical talking ponies thing”, Drake replied
Twilight unrolled one of the maps with her magic and placed it on the table. The map was old and water stained. Blue pen marks and random notes were scribbled on the old paper, they were smudged but Twilight knew what they meant. It was a hoof drawn map of the Everfree Forest with blue circles drawn around certain areas. She took a blue pen and circled the place where she had found Drake the previous night. She then rolled the map back up and set it to the side.
“What was that?” Drake asked trying to get a look at the map.
“Magical Hotspots in the Everfree Forest” The purple pony replied.
Drake wanted her to elaborate but he knew that there were more pressing matters at hand. The two sat there for a few uncomfortable minutes, neither one speaking. Drake was secretly grateful, these ponies might have been strange but they weren’t pulling him apart on a lab table, yet; he wasn’t sure the reaction would be the same if one of them suddenly appeared in his world.
“You said your friend is missing?” Twilight asked, breaking the silence.
“I haven’t seen him since the explosion” Drake said, restating what he had said a few time before.
“You keep talking about an explosion, what happened?” She asked, obviously worried
Drake opened his mouth but paused and chose his words carefully, “Something exploded; I don’t know what, but it was pretty big. Next thing I know, I wake up in a rundown barn in a land of magical ponies” he decided to omit the details about the helicopter and pirates.
She didn't seem to notice Drake’s lie and continued to sift through the books in front of her.
Drake looked around as the pony searched through a set of books taking in the details of the room for the first time. It was brightly lit but there did not appear to be any obvious source, which he assumed was because of some of this magic. Shelves were carved into the walls and lined with ornately bound books. Drake looked at Twilight who was paging through an alarmingly large book at the moment and wondered if getting up to look at the other book would be overstepping his bounds.
“Go ahead take a look; I'm going to be at this for a while” Twilight Said. Drake didn’t realize that Twilight had put the book down.
Nathan nodded as he stood up and walked over the wall which was overflowing with the ornate tomes. Each one was large and bound in a stiff cloth with ornate golden designs on the side. He selected a deep red tome and flipped it open. The first few pages were images of a massive castle with ornate marble towers, high walls, and a cascading waterfall tumbling down a mountain in the background. However, it looked more like a photograph than a painting.
Drake opened the book to the first page and scanned it. The page had a picture of a massive castle nestled over a cascading mountain waterfall. Ornate gold capped spires rose from behind the marble walls. The castle appeared to be built for comfort more than the defensive fortresses they were back home. There was a caption under the image but it appeared to be in poor handwriting and smudged. If he didn’t know any better than he would have said the image was a photograph. “Beautiful isn’t it?” A female voice came from behind Drake.
He turned his head and saw that Twilight had walked up behind him without him noticing. “Yeah, the artist has a real talent” Drake said, mesmerized as he leafed deeper into the book.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, “It’s a photograph”
Drake gave her a skeptical look but turned the page to see if there were any details about the regal structure. He turned the page and looked at the paper but couldn’t make out any of the letters. It was strange, they looked like English but some of the letters had an extra line or were curved in strange ways. The letters resembled Russian more than English but even they they still looked strange.
Great, magical “communist” horses, Drake thought sarcastically.
The adventurer paged through the book, trying to see if he could understand any of the writing but to no avail.
“What language is this?” Drake asked as he scoured the tome for legible text.
Twilight gave him a strange look and responded as if it was a stupid joke, “I know the hoof-writing is bad in the book but it’s perfectly readable Equuis”
“You mean English?” Drake asked as he turned to face the pony, wondering if he had heard her wrong. She cocked her head to one side and returned a curious look, showing that she didn’t understand what he was talking about.
The human rooted through the pockets of his pants, looking for something.
“Damn it, must have lost it during all of the confusion”, he swore when he could not locate whatever it was.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, wanting to know what he was looking for.
“You have something I can write with?” he asked, not appearing to notice Twilight’s question.
Twilight levitated a quill, ink and parchment her desk over to the human. He gave the items a cautionary glance before reaching out to grasp them. As Drake’s had approached the hovering items a strange sensation ran across Twilight’s horn. It began to feel cold and she felt herself losing control of the spell even though it continued normally. She had felt a similar feeling when casting the healing spell on the human before, except it was less pronounced. It bothered Twilight, but she bit the feeling back seeing as she couldn’t do anything about it at the moment.
Twilight watched with curiosity as the human wrote on the parchment. For the first time she saw his hands in action and it fascinated her. She had seen Spike write countless times before but the human’s writing style was much different. His hands worked much quicker than spikes pudgy claws ever could and with much more precision. She was also fascinated that his hands weren’t clawed, each finger looked soft and fleshy except for a small hard tip on the top of each one. What surprised her was that they didn’t appear to be designed for anything else than manipulating objects; Spike’s claws were designed for digging more than anything else, and most animals with similar appendages used them for ripping into flesh. If Drake’s species had evolved to manipulate objects and tools than that could say a lot about what it was like where Drake came from.
Twilight’s train of thoughts was broken up when Drake stopped writing and held out the piece of parchment towards her. Twilight took the paper with her magic and turned it so that the writing faced her. At first the wanted to know why he wanted her to read it, but what surprised her was that she couldn’t. The letters appeared to be in Equuis at first but the individual characters did not flow together as well as the equestrian script and the lines of each letter were much thinner, almost barren looking.
The alicorn asked the first question that came to mind “What does this say?”
Drake took the paper back and Twilight noticed that when his hand made contact her magic instantly faded away even though she didn’t release the spell. It bothered her that the human somehow could negate her magic without even trying, overpowering somponyelse’s spell was a cultural taboo in Equestria, but something told her that the human didn’t even know he was doing it. The human absently folded the paper and slid it into his back pocket before saying “it’s my name in my language” Strange, our spoken languages are practically identical but our written languages are different, Twilight thought. Then another thought came to the forefront of her mind, but that shouldn’t matter.
“It shouldn’t matter though, all of the books in my library are enchanted with a universal translation spell, you should be able to read them no matter what your native language is”, Twilight said, perplexed as to why it had no effect on the human. “Listen Twilight, I’m not sure if you heard me say this before, but there is none of this kind of magic where I’m from. Maybe it’s just that I’m not from a place where magic exists, but the universal translation spell or whatever might not work on me because of it”, Drake said, trying to get a point that he had made before across.
Something finally clicked in Twilight’s mind, she had heard him say that before but dismissed the notion since a magic-less world seemed so improbable. However now that she thought about it, other abnormalities about Drake started to make sense. Then another thought managed to work its way into the mare’s head.
Twilight facehoofed and groaned “How could I not have thought of it before”
Drake watched perplexed as the pony in front of him hit herself in the face with one of her front hooves and muttered something unintelligible through a groan.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, not sure why she had such a dramatic change in demeanor so quickly.
However instead of answering she just looked at him and gave him a nervous smile. It worried Drake that she wouldn’t answer, but he didn’t feel like prying would help the situation much better for him.
Drake watched as the pony used her magic to pull books, scrolls, an abacus, and even a messy chalkboard out from areas all over the study. It fascinated him how she could use her magic so effortlessly. He couldn’t help wonder at what he could do if he possessed the same abilities, the ability to manipulate objects without even touching them would make so many things easier. Then something occurred to him for the first time, all of the ponies he had seen had wings, a horn, or nothing at all; except that Twilight was the only one he had seen with both of them. He wanted to ask the pony what the story behind it was. but she was neck deep in what appeared to be calculations at the moment.
Drake stood there, trying to figure out what the pony was doing for a few minutes before the purple lizard’s voice filtered up from the first floor, “Twilight!”
Twilight turned to face the source of the voice and screamed back “Spike, I’m busy!” losing her usually calm demeanor.
The young lizard replied unperturbed by Twilight’s harshness “Applejack is here, she has something…”
“Tell her I’m busy!” Twilight yelled back, cutting him off
The purple lizard continued despite Twilight trying to make him stop, “She has something for…him” he paused before addressing Drake, as if searching for the right word.
He looked at Twilight uncertainly but she was still engrossed in whatever she was working on, so Drake took the liberty of walking down the stairs, careful not to hit his head on the low ceiling. The first floor of the library was now occupied by both the purple lizard and the orange pony from before, except that now she was wearing what looked like saddle bags. Neither of them looked comfortable with being in the same room as Drake, and he could feel them watching him cautiously.
As he approached the lizard stood back, probably attempting to stay as far away from Drake as possible. Drake turned his gaze to the orange pony next and she returned an uncertain look. There was still fear in her eyes, except that this time it was more subdued and she looked more confidant then when they had first met.
A few moments passed before she dug into her saddle bag and took something out. It took Drake a second to recognize it but once he did he quickly took it. It was his bandoleer and holster, with the gun and grenade still attached.
The orange pony started to speak in an uncertain voice, “Ah caught my sis’ and her friends messing with this” Drake looked up and his blood ran cold for a moment “Are they ok?” he asked, his voice quavering a bit. Crap, I hope nothing happened to them, Drake thought, but he didn't let his face portray any more of his worry than is voice already had.
“They’re fine, it’s jus’ that I didn't want them messing with your things”, She replied, obviously not understanding why he was worried.
Drake didn't reply, instead he ejected the clip to make sure that none of the bullets were missing, then he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were all still there. Then he wasted no time in removing the firing pin, which he then slipped into the back pocket of his jeans.
“Thanks umm…” Drake said, addressing the pony in front of him.
“Applejack” she said, filling in the blank.
“Well, thanks Applejack” Drake said as he disarmed the grenade.
“Well I’m going to head out”, the mare said hurried as she walked back out of the front door.
After the door swung shut Drake began to walk back upstairs to the study. As he neared the top of the stairs a much different sight than before greeted him. Twilight was talking to the lizard who appeared to be writing on a large scroll with a feather quill. It took Drake a second to realize that she was dictating a letter to him.
“…however, as the situation has grown more complicated I feel that we need your judgment in the matter. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”, Drake only caught the last part of the letter but it grabbed his attention
“What do you mean ‘the situation has grown more complicated’?” Drake asked, making his presence known. “Drake there’s something you need to know”, Twilight said, chalk dust now speckled her otherwise tidy mane and she wore an extremely nervous smile.
“What?” Drake asked, a slight hint of agitation now coming to his voice.
Twilight used her magic to pull the chalk board she had been working with earlier and picked up a small piece of white chalk before speaking, “Ok, so here’s a quick crash course in magic; the world is surrounded by a field of magical energy, we don’t know exactly what causes it but we believe it originates from the planet’s core” she is illustrated her point by drawing a big circle on the chalkboard and then drawing wavy lines around it.
“Now, the strongest concentrations of magic are the north and South Pole, except other high magical activity areas exist around the world and the Everfree forest, where we found you, is one of the most active” Twilight continued, looking at Drake to make sure they were both still on the same page.
Then before continuing, Twilight used the chalk to draw a tunnel on the chalkboard with an object on either side, “It’s not too uncommon for something to accidentally get pulled from one area of high activity to another. Usually it’s just a few rocks or bugs; but every so often something bigger comes through, which is how most scholars believed that the hydras got there even though they’re native to the Talon Islands”
“So that’s what I shot” Drake muttered absently; after all that he had seen today the fact that hydras exist barley caused him any pause.
Twilight stopped her lecture and looked at Drake quizzically before asking “What?”
“Never mind, it’s not important” Drake said, trying to change the topic before he had to tell her about the gun. Twilight shrugged it off and continued to explain, “Anyway, so like with most teleportation magic there’s a definitive way to tell where an object originated by what’s called an entry signature. Whenever an object is teleported and reappears there’s always a flash of light and a very subtle disturbance in the air around it. The light is really just magic which traveled along with the object when it teleported, and a trained unicorn can usually identify where the teleport originated by the color of the light flash and how much of a disturbance it caused”.
“So finding how to get whatever comes through back, and I’m assuming you’re referring to me, should be just as easy as using the origin point as the destination instead”, Drake stated, hoping that he was getting everything.
However instead of replying right away Twilight just gave him a sheepish grin. When she began to speak it sounded more cautious and reserved than before “But there’s a problem; whatever brought you here was definitely some sort of teleportation spell, except that the numbers don’t match up”
“What do you mean ‘the numbers don’t match up’?” Drake asked, the nervous tone in his voice becoming slightly more pronounced.
“So based on my knowledge of teleportation, the entry signature of whatever brought you here covers about a two hundred mile radius. Except the disturbance doesn’t match up with that at all. Whatever brought you here was extremely violent and reduced over a square mile of forest to ashes. As far as I know nothing has ever had that much of an impact before”, Twilight paused and looked at Drake as if debating what to say next.
Except Drake beat her to it, “Twilight, cut to the chase, what’s going on?”
The mare gulped and looked at Drake uncertainly, “Whatever brought you here isn’t anything I’ve encountered before, or even heard about before”.
“So basically, you have no clue how to get me home”, Drake stated, keeping his face a neutral mask despite his conflicting internal feelings.
Twilight seemed a bit hurt at the acquisition but she quickly regained her composition before speaking, “I don’t know how to send you home, yet” the last word being stressed.
“Oh this is just perfect” Drake said sarcastically as he let out a sigh.
“Listen Drake, my mentor has access to one of the most extensive libraries in the world; and I think that I might be able to find something if I can get into it for a day or two. The letter I was dictating to Spike earlier was just me asking if it would be okay for me to stay there while I look for clues on how to get you back”, She explained; and it took the human a second to realize that the name Spike referred to the purple lizard.
“If you’re gone than what am I supposed to do here in the meantime, also time isn’t exactly on my side either”, Drake said, trying to get a full grasp on what exactly the purple mare was planning on doing.
“If I go you should probably come along, my mentor is going to want to meet you. Wait, what do you mean ‘Time isn’t on your side’?” Twilight asked, now getting curious as to what the human meant.
“What I meant is that the friend who I left behind in my world might be in some big trouble right now”, Drake said, he knew that there was no guarantee that Sully was even alive after the explosion but he couldn’t afford to think like that.
Twilight spoke next, “Drake, I know you say you come from a world without any magic, but I need you to tell me if you came into contact with any strange artifacts or creatures”
The first thing that popped into Drake’s mind that fit the description was the bronze amulet which had set all everything back home in motion. He pulled the large metal disk out of his pocket and held it up for the pony to see.
The human held the large metal amulet in his hand so that the alicorn could see it. Twilight activated her enhanced vision spell in order to more closely examine it but something strange greeted her. The amulet was covered in the same black hole like aura that enveloped the human, except that to her surprise it appeared to be the source of it. The black cloud of magic flowed out of the center of the amulet and swirled around Drake, creating what appeared to be a barrier between his body and the natural magic which swirled around the library.
But then she noticed something strange; any of the natural which got near to the black aura slid across it and flowed into the center of the amulet, which Twilight’s enhanced vision spells showed as glowing. The princess tried to grasp it with her magic except the waves of energy did not latch onto the item, instead they flowed to the center where they were absorbed like the natural magic around her. Then she lost control of the spell and the amulet began to suck the magic from her body instead.
It felt like somepony had frozen her horn while the amulet continued to draw the magic from it. Twilight quickly terminated both the levitation and enhanced vision spell and with that the icy sensation ceased. However it left her with a splitting headache and the feeling of lightning coursing down her spine. However within a few seconds the excruciating pain subsided and Twilight regained her focus.
Drake looked at her with a worried expression plastered across his face, but the mare gave him a reassuring smile which showed that she was feeling fine.
Now that she had terminated the vision spell she could see the amulet normally again. It was about the size of her hoof and made out of both gold and bronze with designs etched into the face. A large gemstone which the alicorn could not identify was set in the center of the piece, the gem radiated some sort of energy and Twilight assumed that it was the source of the strange aura around the human. Then Twilight notice that there was an inscription along the rim of the piece.
“Drake, can you hold it a little closer to me so I can read the writing on the side?”, as soon as Twilight finished the human held the amulet at her eye level.
The writing was spidery and drawn out, it looked nothing like Equuis or the human language, which confused Twilight. Then she remembered a lesson she had had in school years ago where they had been shown something similar. How is that even possible? Twilight thought as she realized what language it was.
“It’s Evarian script”, Twilight said, shocked by the discovery.
“Evarian script?” the human replied quizzically, obviously not understanding what the mare was talking about.
“The Evarius Empire is more myth than fact, and the little we know about them comes from the writings of other races and the few artifacts we’ve actually managed to recover. The strangest thing about them is that they just vanished about three thousand years ago, and there are barely any traces of the massive cities that are mentioned in the historical records” she elaborated while inspecting the strange artifact.
“Sounds familiar” Drake said.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked
“Well there are a couple of myths like that where I come from”, Drake said, chuckling a bit under his breath.
“But I have no idea how this could have made it into your world, unless this is also a language where you come from”, Twilight said perplexed by how any of this was possible.
“No its not” Drake said as he shook his head.
“We definitely should have my mentor look at this, she was alive back then and might have a better idea what it is or even what it does”, Twilight said as she stopped examining the dead language inscribed around the rim of the amulet.
“How long to ponies live?” Drake asked, obviously confused.
“We usually live into our nineties, except…” Twilight began.
However Drake interrupted, “But you said that the Evarians disappeared three thousand years ago”
“I was getting to that” Twilight began, shooting Drake a look, “She’s thirty-five hundred years old, but that’s not the important part”
Twilight then turned to Spike and noticed that his had a familiar queasy look plastered across his face
Jade flame erupted form the small dragon’s mouth and a royal scroll materialized from the smoke. Twilight didn’t hesitate to open the letter and read it,
“Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
As per your request I have dispatched a sky chariot to pick up you, your friends, and your new acquaintance. However I would like you to take the elements of harmony with you; while I trust your judgment I feel that it is a necessary precaution to have the elements with you in case your new acquaintance becomes a threat we cannot handle without them. However I hope that none of that is necessary in the end.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia”
Twilight rolled the scroll back up and placed it on the table before informing Drake of what was going on “Listen, we are going to have to leave in about an hour and I have to get some stuff ready in the meantime. Can you stay here while I’m out? I don’t want you to scare any of the townsponies and it would be quicker if you just stayed here”
"Fine” Drake said begrudgingly as Twilight made her way down the stairs.
Before the alicorn was out of sight she turned around and said “Spike is still here if you need anything. Feel free to look around, but just try not to break anything too expensive. I should be back in fifteen minutes”
“No guarantees” the human said jokingly as he began to examine the amulet more closely, and with that Twilight left the library and set off to gather her friends.
“Twi’, are you sure that we can trust this…this thing”, the cyan mare said as she jabbed the creature in the chest with a hoof, causing it to step back a little bit.
Rainbow Dash hovered around the creature, sizing up the threat it posed to both herself and the other pony in the room, making sure to stay out of its reach in case it decided to lash out. It was nothing like Twilight had described on the way to the library, the creature was larger than she had imagined and resembled the minotaur who had messed with Fluttershy’s head last year, except it was shorter, furless, and much scrawnier. What surprised her the most was that it wore a thin layer of clothes, proving it was at least somewhat intelligent, or that Rarity had had gotten to it before she had.
Suddenly she felt something pull her tail and she looked back to see a familiar aura surrounding the chromatic hair.
“What’s wrong with you?” Twilight asked in a hushed voice
“How do you know you can trust it, I mean it’s not like we've seen anything like it before. How do you know that it’s not just waiting for the perfect moment to sneak up and rip you apart?” Dash replied, all the while she could feel the creature’s beady eyes watching her.
Twilight relinquished her grip on the Pegasus’s tail and shook her head.
A knock at the door broke up the altercation, causing the two ponies and the creature in the room to turn their attention to the door.
“Sorry, the library is closed for the rest of the day”, the unicorn mare called out.
The alabaster dressmaker called out from the other side of the door, “Twilight, Its Applejack and Rarity”
Dash watched as the librarian hastily pulled the door open and ushered the two other ponies in before hastily slamming the door behind them.
The cyan pegasus swooped down in front of the two new occupants of the room and spoke in an urgent voice “listen guys, Twilight brought that thing here and even though she seems to trust it, I’m not so sure we can, so be ready in case it attacks”
To her surprise Applejack rolled her eyes and Rarity looked down and shook her head disapprovingly.
“Hello again Nathan” Rarity said, trying not to stumble over the words
It took Dash a second to realize that she was addressing the creature. Instantly what that simple statement implied clicked in the mare’s mind.
“You knew about that thing!?” She exclaimed, wildly waving a hoof in the creature’s direction.
“Can we just cut all of this crap out, okay? I haven’t done anything to hurt any one of you and I don’t appreciate getting put on trial like this” A male voice which she had not heard before came from behind her.
The pony spun around and faced the creature which now stood with its arms crossed and an unmistakably annoyed expression on its face. She attempted to conceal her shock but her eyes betrayed the emotion. The creature had spoken, and it was not in some sort of garbled tongue, it was in honest to goddess Equuis.
At this point Twilight saw fit to step in and break it up “Listen Rainbow, he’s not some terrible creature from the Everfree who wants to rip us limb from limb”
“How do Apple Jack and Rarity know about it?” Dash spat, changing the topic.
“Applejack and Fluttershy found him injured in the forest, that’s how they know about him…” Twilight began
However before she could get another word out Dash interrupted her “and Rarity?”
“He needed his clothes patched Dash” Twilight said unable to fathom the depths of the pegasus’s paranoia.
“Why am I the last one to know about this!?” Dash exclaimed, her voice somewhere between betrayed and enraged.
“Rainbow! It was an accident that anyone besides Fluttershy, Twilight, and I knew about this before now. Either way it’s not like he’s done anything wrong” Applejack said.
“Why are you defending it?!” Dash exclaimed, wildly waving a hoof in the creature’s direction.
“Hey, you know I’m still here right” it interjected, however the ponies either didn't notice or just didn't care.
The equines in front of the fortune hunter kept bickering among themselves, the one with the prismatic mane seemed to, he hoped only metaphorically, want him strung up while the others tried to talk her down. However Nathan was in the process of pinching himself repeatedly, hoping that this could still be some strange dream or hallucination. However his efforts only left him with a small bruise and assurance that the world around him was real, somehow.
The colorful horses in front of him continued with their argument until another knock sounded through the sturdy door. Then, without anyone letting her in, a pink pony burst in along with a shower of multicolored confetti and some sort of cart in tow.
Instantly the ponies in front of Drake stopped their arguing and stared at the pink mare, unsure of how to proceed. The new arrival however wasted no time in entering the tree house, pulling some sort of cart with tubes coming out of the top with her.
Before she managed to get the strange contraption into the library Twilight stepped in her way “Pinkie, you can’t bring your welcome wagon into the library”
Instead the pink mare produced much smaller item from seemingly nowhere, appearing to be a gift wrapped box sporting a big red bow and what appeared to be a name tag. For her part Twilight seemed confused, looking at the gift not entirely sure how to respond. The bubble gum colored pony rolled her eyes at her friend and made a not so subtly nodded towards the human. Twilight still seemed uncomfortable with the situation, eyeing the gift with what appeared, based on the similar reaction from the others, to be justified suspicion.
The purple pony turned her head towards the human in the back of the room, as if asking if the pink one could deliver her gift. Drake shrugged, not entirely sure how to read the situation considering what he had seen the pink one do less than two hours prior. The exuberant party pony trotted towards the human in the back of the room and handed him the box, giggling.
The box was heavier than he expected and didn't make any noise when he shook it next to his ear.
“You’re supposed to open it silly” the pink mare said her intrinsic maniacal smile not changing a bit.
Drake drew a small knife from his pocket and cut the paper from the box and slipped the wrapping into his pocket. While this dismayed the party pony who expected him to tear it off Drake knew that it was probably not a good idea to make a mess in Twilight’s…tree, library, house, thing.
However instead of pink glitter or a live grenade like the human was expecting there was a small cake inside the box. Instantly Drake remembered how hungry he was and dug into the pastry, disregarding the Equuis writing and crude frosting drawing of him.
It was a bit dry, flaky, and had a not so subtle hint of some form of pepper but to the near starved adventurer it couldn't be better.
As Drake finished the pink mare handed him a napkin and spoke “I see you liked your welcome to Equestria cake”
“Thanks for that, I was starving, although it was really spicy” Drake started, suddenly aware of an acute scorching sensation in his throat.
“I’m glad you like it, I was experimenting with some recipes and decided to add some fire-ruby peppers. Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I didn’t add enough to make your throat close up or anything like that” The pink pony said, although her last statement made Drake a bit nervous. Before anything else could happen there was a heavy knock at the door.
A deep voice sounded from the other side, “Princess Twilight, the chariot has arrived”
Without having to be told the human placed the illusion generating artifact on and instantly the brown stallion swapped places with the foreign creature. This followed closely with the sound of Rainbow Dash dry heaving, probably putting two and two together and realizing exactly who she had been flirting with earlier.
Twilight opened the wooden door, revealing a fully armored royal guard. Instantly something stood out to Twilight, a slight shimmering across the stallion’s fur. The distortion in the light would have gone unnoticed to all but highly trained eyes, except that Twilight caught it. It was a diffusion shield, a magical force-field which provide the protection which the otherwise ornamental armor could not. However it was rare for them to be used in anything besides active combat situations since they required energy from a storage gem which ran out after about two hours of use. The fact that the guard at the door had his active implied that something was wrong.
“Can we speak outside for a second?” Twilight asked.
The guard nodded and stepped outside of the door with Twilight following, making sure to close the door behind her.
“Why is your shield active?” Twilight asked, using her enhanced vision spell to confirm her suspicions.
“I’m under strict orders not to disclose any information regarding the nature of this escort” The guard replied, quite sure of himself.
“Sergeant, you realize that withholding information from a princess is a punishable offence and I could have you court martialed for it” Twilight replied, she hated pulling rank like that but she hated being deceived a million times more.
“Your highness, the orders came from the top” The stallion replied, unfazed by the princess’s attempt.
“Tell your captain that he can go…” Twilight began, her anger towards the obstinate stallion growing.
However the soldier cut her off “Your highness, I mean the very top”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the shielding was in place in case Nathan was dangerous, but the question was who gave the order. The “very top” implied either Celestia or Luna, and seeing as the guards were both shielded and armed Luna was the most likely answer.
“May we proceed?” the soldier continued with the same indifferent tone.
Without a reply Twilight returned to the door and opened it, motioning for everyone inside to come out. Everyone filed out of the door and entered the enclosed stage coach esque wagon. Spike however remained behind in order to keep the library running during their absence. After the rest of the group boarded the flying wagon Twilight entered as well and with that it lifted off.
The interior of the chariot was small, too small for the six ponies let alone a human nearly twice their height. He had to duck his head and bend over a little just to fit in and even then the ponies sitting next to him were squeezed in.
Without warning the vehicle lurched forward, and then to Drakes surprise and discomfort, up into the sky. Both his neck and once injured abdomen cried out in pain as the unexpected movement wreaked havoc on his spine. The discomfort passed quickly but he knew that if this flight lasted for more than twenty minutes or so he would have a stiff neck for days. The silence was the worst however, no one spoke but each of them stole glances at the hulking creature in the midst and averted their eyes as soon as he noticed. Not that he blamed them, the fact that all but one of the ponies had reacted so well was a blessing. Overthinking things wouldn't help the situation, he just had to keep his mind on the task at hand: figure out how he got here and then how to get back.
The ride lasted exactly one hour and seventeen minutes, just as planned, however a strange apprehension made it feel like an eternity. There was no rational explanation for the feeling, it was simply that, a feeling. It started when Twilight had realized that the human’s amulet was linked to the Evarians. Something in the back of her mind was telling her that if they kept unearthing things that they would eventually find something which was meant to stay buried.
No, she couldn't afford to think like that; she was a scientist, a princess, and she had Drake's fate in her hooves. She couldn't let her emotions control her like a teenage filly, especially ones so unfounded. The human's ability to return home and in turn his fate relied on her ability to make rational decisions and she didn't intend on letting him down.
One by one they filed out of the flying carriage onto the landing platform. Two lunar guards stood outside of the chariot, waiting for the group to exit. And one by one they did, with Twilight exiting last. It was blindingly bright outside, forcing the alicorn to shade her eyes with a hoof until they adjusted.
The two bat ponies bowed as Twilight’s eyes fell upon them; unlike most ponies it was not just an empty gesture but showed genuine respect. It was an open secret that Luna’s guards viewed the princess as godlike figures and their undying loyalty was the stuff of legend.
“Are they bowing?” The human asked
“Well it is customary in the company of royalty one shows some form of respect” Rarity informed the human.
However to the purple alicorn’s amusement the human didn't seem to register exactly who or where said royalty was, leading him to awkwardly glance around the landing platform, probably expecting to find an equine in flowing robes or a crown.
Twilight stifled a small laugh at the confusion, however one of the bat ponies saw fit to move the motley group along.
“Your highness, Princess Celestia is expecting you conference room” The bat pony said, standing at rigid attention.
Judging from the stifled giggles and groans alike Drake realized that he was missing the elephant in the room. Honestly he didn't care, he had been dropped into a veritable fantasy land and wasn't all that concerned if he missed some minor aspect of their culture. Although on second thought, not knowing if he was in the presence of royalty might become an issue.
The creepy bat-pony hybrid things ushered the group out of the brilliant scenery of the outdoors and into the interior of the massive palace. Once they were passed the ornate door into the complex Drake’s jaw dropped. The interior of the palace was massive, with ornately carved marble pillars rising what must have been at least three stories to the vaulted ceiling. The wall facing the outside was lined with intricately designed stained glass windows and massive tapestries adorned the opposite walls. The bright colors and soft lighting made the building feel almost alive.
“Hey, snap out of it, I don't want to keep the princess waiting” The cyan pegasus snapped, glaring at the awestruck human out of the corner of her eye.
“What? I thought we were here to see Twilight’s mentor”
This time the purple pony replied “It just happens that my mentor is one of the regents of Equestria”
The conversation continued as the group made their way down the corridor.
“I’d think that being as old as you said she is would qualify her for a position higher than princess”, Drake said, addressing Twilight.
She returned a look of total confusion, “What do you mean?”
“Well I’d think that she might qualify to be a queen, I mean that you made it clear that she’s the one in charge” Drake replied, not sure what made his statement so outlandish.
However that statement was met with what appeared to be a brief look of disbelief from Twilight.
“Princess Celestia isn’t a tyrant” The rainbow haired one spat, not even turning around to face him.
“Whoa, I never said she would be an evil queen, it’s just that I would that after thousands of years on the throne she wouldn't be considered an heir anymore”, he replied surprised by how personally they took what he had said.
“Drake, the terms King and Queen refer to dictators and those who impose their rule by force” Twilight informed Drake, seeing that he honestly didn't understand what his statement implied.
“Oh, then what do you call heirs to the throne?” Drake asked.
“Drake, think about it, we have two immortal rulers who have been on the throne for eons, we don't exactly need heirs to the throne” Twilight said, still a little stunned by the human’s faux pas.
“Well her palace would put Nero to shame” Drake muttered as he took another good look at the architecture of the corridor.
A large set of oak double doors sat at the end of the hallway with two identical unicorn guards flanking it. Two magical auras engulfed the doors as they approached and the large double doors swung back to reveal what appeared to be a conference room. It was a significant step down from the sheer in-your-face magnificence of the rest of the building, however it was not displeasing to the eye. The center of the room was dominated by a large mahogany table which, strangely enough, appeared to be tall enough for him to sit at normally.
A pony stood at the end of the room, although she was much different than all of the others the human had seen. The first thing to grab Drake’s attention was her stature, the pony princess was massive compared to all of the other equines the human has seen; she probably stood as tall, if not taller, than he did, giving her an almost imposing presence in the room.
One by one the six ponies filtered into the room and in turn each of them bowed to the pony at the end of the room. It took Drake a second, however he caught on and copied the action until the others stopped.
The pony smiled towards the human and spoke with a calm, measured tone, her magenta eyes appearing to scan the area around where the adventurer stood “I would ask that you stop using the illusion spell to hide yourself”
Drake hadn't realized that the disguise was still in place and with one quick motion he removed the necklace, revealing his true form to the monarch.
Surprisingly her gaze did not change, however there was still the inquisitive expression in her eyes. Drake had seen in in the guards’ eyes, in the eyes of the six ponies who accompanied him, and he had seen it in so many people back home. She was sizing him up, deciding whether to throw the strange creature at her metaphorical doorstep in a dungeon, dissect him on a lab table, or, hopefully, to help him get back to his own reality. If he had learned anything from his experiences with the ponies he had already encountered then it would probably be the third option. However he wasn't sure that the six mini-horses he had already encountered made up an accurate cross section of their society as a whole.
The towering white pony spoke after a few seconds of silence “Would you care to tell me your name?”
“Nathan Drake, but you can just call me Nathan or Drake if you like” He replied, deciding to omit the reason he didn't want to be called Mr. Drake.
The regent smiled warmly and replied “My name is Princess Celestia”
“It’s an honor your majesty” Drake replied, unlike most of the times he had referred to people that way this was serious and he did his best to keep his almost automatic sarcasm response from making him sound irreverent.
“So…” the princess began “Twilight tells me that you are pretty far from home”
“Yeah the GPS reception here is terrible” Drake smirked.
However, the comment was met blank stares.
“Never mind, bad joke” Drake said, realizing that he was probably the only one on this planet who knew what any of that meant.
“Well, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Equestria, I hope these six have treated you well enough”, she replied, eyeing the ponies who had fanned out around the conference table.
“Yeah, everyone has been surprisingly hospitable” the human replied, shooting the rainbow one a distasteful look out of the corner of his eye.
“While I enjoy idle conversation I understand that there are pressing matters at hand. Twilight said you have an Evarian artifact in your possession and she believes that it is responsible for you being here” The monarch said.
Drake removed the palm sized bronze disk from his pants pocket and held it in the air for her to see. A warm golden glow enveloped the princess's horn and a slightly pained expression flickered across her face momentarily. Drake caught the change in emotion immediately, however he had no idea what was going on.
The adventurer opened his mouth to speak however Twilight beat him to it “Princess, don’t try to levitate it. The artifact seems to absorb any magic directed at it and drains it from the source”
The aura surrounding the regal pony’s horn instantly vanished, accompanied by a fleeting look of relief on the princess’s face.
Drake began to get up however princess shook her head, telling him not to bother. The alabaster pony whistled a simple three note tune and immediately a pony who the human assumed to be a servant walked through the large wooden doors. The dark orange mare took the amulet from the human and, without a word, brought it in her teeth to the royal pony. She took a good look at the intricate writing on the face of the object and studied it for at least two minutes before speaking again.
“I have always been fascinated with unexplained, or paranormal if you will, history and nothing embodies that more than the Evarians. No doubt you know that their mass disappearance and my birth fall were both over three thousand years ago, however I was born close to two hundred years after all of their cities vanished from the face of the Earth. After my sister was banished one thousand years ago I poured over texts from the ancients, trying to find whatever perversion of magic had twisted her mind and warped her body into a creature of nightmares. I read through everything we know about the Evarians. It did not amount to much, just some scattered legends and research documents, however there was recurring mention to three bronze amulets like this. Every source disagreed on the names of the amulets, their origins, and their purposes; however every one of them concurred that they bore some sort of religious significance” The ruler said, never taking her eyes off the artifact.
Then her attention turned to the human “Pray tell, how did this come into your possession”
“I was working on an archaeological dig when I found it” Drake replied, still concealing the part about the man in charge of the dig trying to murder him, the pirates, and the helicopter.
“If it’s not too much trouble than I would like to have a few scientists working in the castle look at this. Trying to levitate it has given me a splitting migraine and I need to retire to my quarters” the princess said, placing a hoof against her temple.
The human nodded, and one of the bat guards began to usher the group out. However Twilight rushed to her mentor’s side. However the regal pony gave her a reassuring smile and urged her to go with her friends. Twilight tried to protest, but her mentor shooed her away, trying to conceal what appeared to be growing pain.
“Well that went swimmingly” Rarity mumbled as the large oaken door closed behind them, sarcasm oozing from every fiber of her being.
“I hope she’s okay” Twilight said absently, her eyes gazing off into the distance.
“Come on Twi’ if Celestia can deal with the agony of being alone for an eon than I think she can handle a minor headache” Pinkie said, trying to reassure her friend.
“But it happened because I didn't warn her about trying to levitate the amulet” Twilight said, Pinkie’s statement bouncing off of her.
“It’s not like it’s your fault that Nate’s amulet causes excruciating physical pain to anyone who tries to …” the fuchsia mare began to say, however Applejack elbowed her in mind sentence.
“On second thought, don't worry about it” Pinkie concluded, flashing an awkward smile.
Needless to say Nate had more than a few lingering questions, however he thought that it might not be the best time to bring them up. At this point Drake just wanted a quiet place to be alone and let his mind catch up with everything that had transpired in the past twenty four hours, but more than anything else he just wanted something to eat. A servant pony came trotting down the long corridor, her hooves falling with considerable haste. As she approached the group she bowed slightly, essentially just nodding her head towards them.
“Princess Luna has asked me to show you your quarters and then escort you to the royal archives” the green mare stated nervously.
“Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked, giving the servant mare a concerned look.
“Nothing your majesty, It’s just that it’s my first day on the job a...and…” she blurted, stumbling over the words and forcing herself not to make eye contact with Twilight.
“First of all you can just call me Twilight, second of all there’s no reason to get worked up, it's not like I’m going to throw you in the dungeon if you mess up” Twilight said, trying to calm the servant’s nerves.
It worked, partially, and the dark green mare began to usher them down a series of corridors.
“Wait, Twilight, you never told me that you're royalty” Drake said, matching the pony’s pace as they walked down the corridor.
“I guess it slipped my mind” she replied, turning to the human.
“Then why do you live in a library, instead of a castle or something?” Drake asked.
“Good question” Rarity said under her breath, however it came out much louder than she anticipated.
“I haven't been a princess for that long, and besides I couldn't just leave Ponyville behind like that” Twilight said, disregarding the dressmaker’s comment.
“I don't understand, aren't you born into royalty?” Drake asked
“Not always, I became a princess a few months ago. Before that I was just a unicorn” Twilight said, extending her wings to illustrate the point.
“Then what are you now?” Drake asked, not sure if she realized just how little he knew about their society.
“An alicorn” Twilight said, folding her wings again.
With that they arrived in a rotunda. At least a dozen doors lined the gold laden walls, each one of them bearing a different design.
“These will be your quarters for the duration of your stay” the servant mare said, gesturing to seven of the doors with a hoof.
“Good to know, now let’s go to the archives and start looking for answers” Twilight said, an almost thrilled note in her voice.
“Actually Twilight I think that I'm going to stay here, if that alright” Drake said.
“But aren't you going to help us look for a solution?” Twilight asked, surprised by the decision.
“You remember that I can't read a word of your language, right? I’m not sure how much help I would be looking through books” Drake said, shrugging.
“Ok, then I guess you can stay here” Twilight said, scratching her head with the tip of a hoof.
The she turned to the dark green servant “Could you help him settle in? I know my way to the archives”
The dark green nodded and nervously bowed before turning to the closest door. With a flash of dark red magic she opened the door. As the two of them walked into the room Drake took stock of everything that was inside.
Like the rest of the castle the small room was in pristine condition. The floor was covered with a dark velvet carpet, mahogany furnishings lined the walls, the windows let in the warm glow of afternoon sunlight, and plush bed sat in the corner. Surprisingly enough it all seemed large enough to fit the human, instead of being sized for the equine natives.
“Why is everything so big?” Drake asked
“We have visitors of every species in this castle, so we have accommodations to match all kinds of creatures” The servant replied, sounding slightly unsure of the answer.
“There’s more than one sentient species on the planet?” Drake asked, a bit surprised by the response.
“Yes sir, there are over a dozen sentient species” She replied as if it was a stupid question.
“Is there anything else you need before I leave?” the servant asked
“Yeah, something to eat” Drake said as he paced around the guest room.
“Anything in particular?” she asked as Drake turned to look out of the window.
“At this point I don’t care, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” Drake said jokingly, however the servant did not reply.
He turned around and saw that she was slowly backing away, eyes wide with terror, pale as a ghost, and stammering incoherently.
The human realized what he had said and opened his mouth to explain however the dark green pony bolted out of the door before he could.
“It’s a figure of speech!” Drake called after the fleeing servant, silently praying that she would hear him.
He closed the door with one hand and face palmed with the other “Great, now she’s going to tell everyone that the big bad monster eats ponies”
However he didn't dwell on it that long, knowing that it wouldn't help to worry about it.
The adventure’s eyes scanned the room, looking for something to keep him occupied since he didn't feel very tired at the moment. There was a bookshelf, a chess board, and a few other assorted things that were of no use to him.
A glass topped coffee table sat in the center of the room with a silver tray on top of it. A pitcher of water, two glasses, and a small bowl of what appeared to be mints sat on the tray. Drake took the pitcher and poured himself a tall glass of water before collapsing into one of the plush chairs in the room.
Words could not describe how much of a relief it was to sit in a properly sized chair and let his muscles relax. With one large gulp he downed the glass of water, it was amazingly crisp and fresh with a subtle hint of citrus. Fatigue crept into every fiber of the human’s being shortly after and he decided to move to the bed to lie down. It was surprisingly hard to lift himself out of the chair and some higher part of Nathan's brain was trying to tell him that something was very wrong. However he paid the niggling feeling no mind as he struggled to get up.
Drake stumbled across the room like he was drunk, the exhaustion making every movement harder and harder. The feeling that something had gone horrible wrong became louder and louder in his mind but an overpowering sense of complacency silenced it. Then when Nathan was two steps from the bed he collapsed, hitting the ground with a thump.
The sense of complacency overwhelmed every other part of his mind and without so much as a cry for help his eyes rolled up into his skull and he faded into unconsciousness.
The fortune hunter’s eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet. Immediately he made sure that he was still in one piece. Not only was he unharmed, he felt better than ever. He was wearing all of the same clothes as before and his holster which, to his surprise, had a pistol in one of the pockets.
Then drake turned his attention to his surroundings. He was standing in what appeared to a massive atrium with dozens of corridors leading in every direction but no apparent exit. The walls and floor of the building were made of what appeared to be sandstone, with dark moss growing out of the cracks in the masonry and long vines hanging from the walls in intricate web like patterns. The domed glass ceiling of the room appeared to be at least one hundred feet above him, letting pure white light into the expansive room.
“Where the hell am I?” Nathan muttered, gazing up into the light.
He made his way to one of the vine covered walls and looked up.
“Well It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do” Drake said as he grabbed hold of one of the low hanging vines and hoisted himself up.
Surprisingly, both the vines and the stone which they clung to felt warm to the touch. Hand over hand he ascended the wall, each pull seeming to lift him dozens of feet towards the ceiling. Within seconds he made it to the top, not even question how he moved so fast.
“That’s a long way down” Drake muttered, strangely unconcerned as he grabbed onto one of the steel skylight supports.
Like the rest of the building the steel was the same temperature as his skin, making it feel like it wasn’t even there. Drake pulled himself up onto the steel bar and reached a hand out to the glass. But there was no glass there, just an endless white expanse.
Drake felt his palms getting sweaty and before he could reach the wall the sickening sense of falling overwhelmed him. He plummeted to the stone below, flailing his arms and screaming. However no pain came. Nate picked himself up and closed his eyes on some strange impulse.
He could feel every part of the building, like it was just an extension of his body. Every square inch of the seemingly infinite structure felt familiar to him. Through some sort if inner vision he could see almost every part if the complex at once. However there were places which he could not see through his mind’s eye, each of them shrouded by a dense fog.
He could feel another presence, a consciousness brushing up against his own. It was deep within the maze like expanse of the building. Drake knew the way as if by instinct and he set out towards it.
He picked his way through the maze of moss and stone, knowing exactly where to go. Suddenly one of the corridors eventually opened up into a massive room.
It was somewhere between a throne room and a church, with a massive golden chair sitting at one end and a seemingly infinite row of pews in front of it. The mossy sandstone of the hallway seemed to melt into the cracked marble of the cathedral like construct. Large dark masses sat in the pews, crowded together like sardines in a can, slightly reflecting the ambient light.
The almost calming nature of the building gave way to all consuming sorrow. Drake’s skin crawled as the dark masses seemed to draw him closer and closer. As Drake closed the gap between him and the first row of benches the dark masses began to gain definition.
They were all body bags, lined up in the long benches like people attending church, the features of the individual corpses within blurred by the rubbery covering. With a trembling hand he gripped the zipper and yanked it down. The latex bag fell from the corpse it contained, revealing a man with a bullet hole ridden torso and blood stains running down his face. Placed a hand on the cadaver’s forehead and gave it a gentle push. The dead man’s head swung back and forth but made no movement of its own.
Drake stepped back, his heart beating faster than he knew it could. The anxiety was unbearable, he felt like thousands of eyes were watching him, scrutinizing his every movement. Then something else entered his vision.
A nondescript figure stood in the isle which divided the two columns on benches. It looked human, however some part of him kept telling him that it was not, that it was a monster. Drake drew closer and closer to the figure, drawing the pistol which had materialized at his hip.
The creature kneeled next to one of the body bags inspecting the armored cadaver within. Drake placed the barrel of his newfound gun against the head of the humanoid darkness. However it didn't even seem to notice.
“What are you” Drake said as he pressed the muzzle of the magnum against its head.
Silence.
“I’ll pull the trigger, I swear” Drake stammered
Silence.
The creature finished inspecting the heavily armored cadaver and with one finger touched its forehead. The body’s eyes began to glow before the dark form zipped the body bag up again and pushed it back into position. The light from the eyes penetrated the thin rubber, causing two faint lights to shine through the bag.
Drake took his gaze off of the body bag and turned his attention to the dark figure. However instead of the shadowy humanoid it looked like his oldest friend.
“Sully?” Drake asked, not lowering the gun in his hands.
However the grey haired man just turned his back and began to walk down the infinite isle.
Nate blinked and Sully had changed places with Elena. He didn't know what to think, most of him wanted to believe that his fiancé was standing there, however some higher part of his brain was screaming at not to trust it.
Then he blinked again and Chloe stood there. Every time Drake blinked the thing in front of him changed forms, switching between all of the people he trusted or cared for. Whatever that thing was it was definitely the source of the mind he had felt earlier.
Drake’s finger came to rest on the trigger of the magnum in his grip, he knew he should pull it, but he couldn't bring himself to it. The shape shifter was doing something to his mind, making him hold back as if he were close to gunning down the actual people.
Drake closed his eyes, freeing him from the mental influence, and pulled the trigger. The gun didn't even recoil as it sent thirty two millimeters of lead straight into the shape shifter’s chest. The consciousness brushing up against Drake’s own suddenly shrunk back as the bullet struck the creature.
Nate’s eyes shot open; the creature had reverted back to its true form, however a basketball sized hole now occupied the space where its chest used to be. It turned to face the adventurer, its glowing blue eyes sending a sensation of uncontrollable dread rocketing through his entire body.
The massive hole in the apparition’s chest slowly filled back in, leaving it the same way it had started. It raised one hand and pointed to the corpse with the glowing eyes, then snapped its fingers showering the ground with cobalt blue sparks.
Drake raised the gun to fire again however a sound from behind him make him turn around. The glowing eyed corpse was flailing around inside of the body bag, punching, kicking, and tearing at its plastic prison. An arm punched through the thin layer of plastic with the sound of ripping paper, then the other arm, and a leg. Within seconds the armored body had ripped the bag away, revealing itself fully.
The living cadaver didn't even give Nathan a chance to react before it began to sprint towards him at top speed. Drake drew his pistol, completely forgetting about the shape shifter for the time being. He pulled the trigger as fast as he could, sending a wall of lead towards the charging brute. Most of the shots sailed past the living corpse and the ones that connected ricocheted off of its steel armor harmlessly.
Desperately Drake kept firing, sending round after round into the giant’s body, however it charged on completely unfazed. Within seconds it closed the gap and lunged at Nate, knocking him to the cold hard stone floor. It grabbed the fortune hunter’s head, it grip like an iron vice closing around his skull.
Drake fought back with all of his strength, punching, kicking, and trying to tear himself from his opponent’s grip. It was doing something to his mind, waking something which lad lay dormant in his memories for years. Images flashed before his eyes: a snow capped mountain, a derelict temple, a courtyard full of rubble, and two towering figures wielding mini-guns. He could feel a phantom grenade in his hand and the sensation of hurling it through the air. The image of an explosion flashed through his mind’s eye. One of the armored figures in the suppressed memory caught fire, struggling to extinguish it as he baked alive in his suit.
The man who assaulted him now was the one who had burned alive back in Shambhala. He was forcing the memories of Drake killing him back into his mind.
A the memory the armored foe’s grip loosened around the fortune hunter’s head, and with one powerful kick Drake knocked the assailant off of him. Without wasting a second Drake jumped onto the sprawling figure, savagely striking its steel mask with the grip of his pistol, sweat and blood dripping from his face. It dented and warped under the constant assault until it snapped and went skidding across the stone floor.
Under the mask the cadaver’s face was burned beyond recognition, nothing but charred remains of what was one flesh and bone. Without hesitation Nathan forced the barrel of his pistol against the charred skull.
The animate corpse retaliated, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him up into the air. With herculean strength he threw Drake across the room. Nate’s gun was sent skidding across the flagstones, coming to rest in front of one of the corpse filled benches.
Desperately Drake scrambled on his hands and knees for the lost weapon as his undead assailant charged towards him.
As the glowing eyed corpse came within feet of his position Drake grabbed the gun and fired towards the charging body with trembling hands. The bullet flew straight and true, burying itself in the exposed forehead of the charred remains. It stopped mid sprint, falling to its knees as the bullet carving a hole straight through its skull.
Drake fired again and again, each piece of lead burying itself in the charred flesh of his assailant until nothing but a blackened stump remained.
Finally the corpse collapsed, hitting the ground with an audible crack.
“What the hell was that”, Nate said, wiping blood and sweat from his brow.
Without warning another set of dead eyes began to glow, and another, and another. Row by row the eyes inside every body bag flickered to life. Every bag began to thrash and warp as the corpses within tore madly at their prisons. With a chorus of ripping plastic and splitting zippers they began to free themselves.
Drake ran. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, coughing and spluttering as he tore down the aisle. It wasn't long before the cadavers began to free themselves, their cobalt blue eyes landing on the desperately fleeing man. They gave chase and as each copse freed itself they joined in the hunt. Within seconds Drake’s pursuers numbered in the thousands, the sounds of their footsteps like the thunder of an oncoming storm.
Without losing speed Drake turned slightly, aiming his pistol at the oncoming mob of the undead. He fired as fast as he could pull the trigger, sending dozens of rounds downrange. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a few heads cave in and bodies fall to the floor however the waves of undead did not relent. There was no end in sight, the isle seemed to stretch on indefinitely and each row of corpse filled pew he passed only added to the hoard. Nathan gave up trying to thin the ranks of his pursuers and just ran.
His mad sprint consumed all of his conscious thought he could feel every muscle contracting and expanding, every heartbeat, every breath, and nothing else. Then there was salvation, a wall stood at the edge of the white fog which enveloped the construct. A massive stained glass window stood in in the center of the marble wall casting a warm orange glow over the sterile environment.
With one trembling hand he drew his sidearm and fired into the glass, cracking and damaging it as much as possible. And then he jumped, curling up into a ball as his body broke through the ornate glass.
“Oh crap!” Drake shouted as he barreled through the window, dislocating his shoulder.
Hundreds of razor sharp pieces of glass sliced through his skin, drawing blood and causing him to cry out in pain. An empty white expanse surrounded him as he fell what felt like hundreds of feet. He closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate.
Suddenly he felt water envelop him. He was no longer falling, there was no more broken glass, there were no more corpses, just crystal blue water. The water was glowing slightly while the wounds he had suffered began to fade away. He could feel bone realigning, skin mending, and muscles being knit back together.
Slowly he sat up and examined his body, the glowing water flowing off of his hands and arms as he inspected them.
“Okay, that’s strange” Drake muttered as he brought himself to his feet.
He was standing in a shallow pool in the middle of a courtyard. Massive walls of the same cracked sandstone as the atrium enclosed the clearing and lush green grass interspersed with vibrant flowers covered the ground. All around the courtyard there were massive bronze statues depicting each of his closest friends.
The shape shifter from before stood right outside the shallow pool, it’s back turned to the human. He could see the cobalt blue light of its eyes reflect off of the statues as it inspected them.
“This ends now” Drake said as he pulled his magnum and aimed it at the invader.
He felt strong here, stronger and more powerful than he could ever remember. He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight into the dark humanoid’s chest. There was a blinding flash of golden light it tore a hole straight through the apparition.
The creature shrieked in a deep feminine voice as it fell to the ground, its body slowly dissolving into nothingness.
Nathan stepped out of the pool of water. He approached the slowly disappearing apparition, intending to finish it off. As he raised his gun for the kill the shadowy figure flickered out of existence. In its place lay a tall midnight blue alicorn shuddering in pain.
Drake lowered his gun, not sure whether to leave it alone or put a bullet in its skull. However before he could make that decision the pony flickered out of existence and the apparition came back. With snakelike speed it struck out, ramming its talon like fingers into Drake’s chest so far that they came out the other side.
Nathan felt all of the air leave his lungs and his blood freeze in his veins. He was paralyzed, unable to resist as the slowly vanishing monster began to ravage his mind. It forcefully tore every memory of the strange building from his him and he was powerless to stop it. The fingers buried in Drake’s chest were the last of the apparition to fade away, leaving him frozen in place until they too ceased to exist.
The world around him began to crumble. The massive walls fell, crushing the massive bronze statues and destroying the ground underneath. Everything began to fragment and fade into the endless abyss below.
With his newly wiped memory Drake had no idea where he was or what was going on, however he knew that he had to escape the destruction. His blood felt like it was frozen, making fleeing nearly impossible. Then the ground below him opened up and he fell. Before the abyss claimed him he managed to grab onto a piece of solid ground.
Drake desperately grabbed at the rapidly vanishing land, trying to keep himself from the endless expanse below. Eventually he missed, his hands slipping and before he could cry out he felt himself dissolve into nothingness.
Nathan’s eyes shot open, he was lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor of the room he had been given in the castle. All he remembered was drinking the water and then collapsing.
He couldn't speak and he could barely move but with his last shreds of energy he dragged himself into the hallway. It was dark however he could see light coming from one of the other rooms. He crawled over the door, congealed blood dripping out of his nose and mouth. He smacked the door, hoping it would alert the occupant of the room and then collapsed, his conscious mind fading into oblivion.
