> DARWIN Guardian of the Sun & Moon
>  by akklessens
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: It Works!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Intro


It was six a.m. when I slowly woke up from my deep slumber.  I hit the snooze button to turn the alarm off, else it would have gone off in the next ten minutes.  I stepped into the shower, set it to the right temperature, and cleaned my body for the upcoming day.  After completion, I stepped out right in front of the mirror, seeing condensation from the effect of the hot shower.  I wiped the condensation and there I saw my reflection.  My name was Darwin Maximus and I was a human being.

I lived in Baltimore, Maryland in the year 2665.  The date was October fifteenth.  It was just a normal day, but in a short time, an event would occur that would change my life forever.  Let me tell you my story starting from the day I received the phone call.









Act I


Elements







CHAPTER ONE: IT WORKS!



After I groomed myself in the bathroom by brushing my teeth, combing my hair, and shaving, I returned to the living room to turn on the television and continue to the bedroom to put on some clothing.  From the bedroom, I could hear the global channel news talking about the usual: the war, poverty, hunger, depressing stories, and a somewhat good story that barely makes up for the rest.  I could remember when my grandparents were still alive. I see my grandfather watching the news when I wanted to watch cartoons.  I could still remember the most common and repetitive line he said every time he was watching.

“Can you believe the shit that’s happening to this world?  I can remember back in my day when crime was not nearly as bad as it was recently, where China knew their place in the world, and when jobs were just handed to ever good-old, hard-working Americans who needed it. I remembered when it was like, ‘Hello, my good sir. I need a good, well-paying job with benefits and pay vacation.’ ‘Well my good sir who needs an interview when you’re white, so the job is yours.” Oh right, I forgot that my grandpa got racist when he was not taking his pills. He also couldn’t afford them at the time, when his insurance stopped paying for them. Hell, no one could really afford anything good if you weren’t an upper-middle American. But excuse me for getting side tracked.

As I returned to the living room with my casual clothing, I placed a slice of bread into the toaster for some breakfast.  I began to tie my shoes when I heard the phone ring. I looked at the screen of my phone to find it was Mark, my closest and best friend. As I pick up the phone I wondered what he wanted. Probably just his wing man for the night.  But without another thought I answered him.

“Hey, Mark what’s up?” I asked casually with my gruff and tired voice.

There was chatter over the line.

“Hey! Hey!” I exclaimed, trying to calm him down, “Slow down, what’s the big hurry? You know what happens when you hyperventilate.”

More chatter, but he was still obviously frantic.

“Look, just calm down and tell me what’s wrong,” I request, hoping he would listen for once.

He did, and he spoke with a clearer tone.

“What?” I said, looking at the phone for a second in confusion before putting back against my ear. “What big news?”
He explained to me what the ‘big news’ was, causing me to be blink in shock.

“You… You’re not messing with me, right?” I asked with a nervous laugh; it couldn’t be true.
His voice is so cheery, I was lucky to make out the words.

“You’re serious?” I reply, my heart soaring, “Wait, this isn’t another false alarm or any bull from the others, is it?”
As I hear the news, a smile came to my face as I dropped the phone. I could still hear Mark talking through it. “Hello? Darwin are you there? Hello? Look, the project works! It really works! Darwin?” Without another thought, I headed straight to the lab, leaving behind my phone in my rush and my bread in the toaster. Thank god the toaster has an auto safety if the toast was burnt.


***


With my shoelaces completely tied and my coat on, I sprinted out of my apartment and headed straight to the lab. As I ran, I passed the skyscraper monuments, five level traffic lanes - with a crew working on a sixth - and many pedestrians, but I hardly cared. The lab was all I could think of as I headed there. After five years, it finally worked.

Within forty minutes of running, plus the resting period, I finally made it to the Johns Hopkins University, where I did research and conducted my experiments in my project. It really was amazing that this place was one of the only a few areas in the world with green around that not in a preservative dome.  The students were giving me stares as I dashed towards the science department. As I entered the building, I shoved through a crowd of students getting out of their lessons and made it to the elevator.  When I reached it, I found it was empty.  Thank God, too, as I could go straight down, all the way to the 120th floor below.  After a minute, I was at my lab, with its pristine white walls, where my coworkers were waiting for me. They were Amanda, who was a blonde with a ponytail, Kyle, a buzzed-cut Asian, May the youngest in our group, and Mark, who I could easily find with his gold spiky hair. All of them were wearing lab coats realizing that I forgot to bring my from home, but I didn’t really care at the time. I was greeted with warm smiles from my team as I went right to Mark with a large smile on my face.

“Mark,” I started desperately, “It really, really worked?”

“Yes” he replied, giving a small chuckle to my behavior, “Your formula was correct. You are the first human being to create a real worm hole.”

“I prefer to call it a Dimensional Space Rift Hole,” I correct to mark with a smug grin. Then, in a display of aggression, I flicked him on the head.

“What the hell was that for?” he whined, rubbing his forehead.

“That was for doing the experiment while I wasn’t here,” I explained irritably, giving him a glare. But then my frown quickly turned to a happy grin as I hugged him, “And this is for telling me first.”

“So can I see it work with my own eyes?” I asked the room, my excitement rising. Suddenly, however, Mark’s grin turned into a sad frown as he looked away with a distant expression. It worried me that he was acting that way. “Mark, what’s wrong?”

“Darwin,” he started slowly, choosing her words carefully. “There’s a reason why I called you here.”

“Mark, what’s going on?” I asked with a serious expression, tired of him beating around the bush.

“Well, I didn’t call you first,” he admitted apologetically, “I actually called the executives first.”  When I heard that, I couldn’t do anything but cringe. As most people knew in the world, the big corporations were the main reason for many problems: the middle to lower class economy, the huge decline in the world forests and environment, and of course, the war. But the worst part, for me, was that they were funding my project.


***


As I was sitting in a conference room, with its long table and multitude of chairs, waiting for the executives to enter, I could only imagine what they were going to ask of me. They knew that my project was just a theory, but with dwindling resources and the war over what was left, my first guess was that this group was getting desperate enough to fund a project that only worked in theory. Before I could go too deep in thought, three men, clad in black business suits, entered the room. One had a needle like body, one had a face that looked beaten repeatedly until you couldn’t even recognize him, and the last one was an old obese man who had let gluttony take over him. As all three sat down across from me, they waited a few seconds before they spoke, probably to build up the suspension.

“Well, Mr. Maximus,” the old man said first with an air of authority, “You have really impressed us with your results. I thought it would have taken you far longer than five years. But now I see that-”

“Just tell me what you want,” I interrupted as I crossed my arms, wanting this to be over.

“Well straight to the point. I like that. Now before you open that portal thing...?”

“Dimensional Space Rift Hole” I corrected him, almost feeling like they were insulting my work.

“Sounds too long. It should be shorter,” the ugly guy commented, making me roll my eyes.

“Well talk about that later,” the old man waved off. Now then… where’s that intern?”

“I just paged him five minutes ago,” the needle man announced glancing around, obviously annoyed.
Then, a young boy, wearing the same suit as the men in front of me, opened the door with a briefcase, breathing hard. Gasping for breath, the boy wheezed, “I’m sorry, sir. Traffic was bad and-”

“I don’t want to hear your damn excuses!” the needle man shouted harshly, “Now put the case on the table and leave at once.”

The boy nodded nervously, putting the case between us as instructed and soon left the room. I could only imagine what crap he had to put up with from those assholes every day. When the old man opened the case, he took out a tablet containing the virtual documents that would tell me the terms of our new contract.

“Now, just read over this,” he instructed, placing the tablet right in front of me, “The bold sections are the most important. When you’re finished, sign it, and we should be ready to open the portal by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I questioned with a tinge of worry and surprise, “But we just tested it once. We need more time.”

“Look, if it works once, then that’s good enough for us,” the ugly man explained coldly, cutting me off, “We’re on a tight schedule, and we need this done now.”

“And besides” the old man continued, a creepy smile growing, “You haven’t finished reading you’re new contract. You might like what you see.” As I read over the contract, feeling unsure about the situation, I realized that my team and I would be going through the portal. We would be traveling to another world. But then I read that there would be hired mercenaries that would be keeping an eye for any hostile natives. More like keeping an eye on us. But I knew that if I wanted to get away from this world, I would have to do what these bastards wanted. So I pressed my thumb on the tablet and my name appeared across the screen, indicating that it was signed. When it was finished, I handed the tablet back to the old executive.

“Excellent,” he said, putting the tablet back in the briefcase, “Now, we’ll be seeing you off. Gather what you will need for the trip and say your goodbyes. Have a nice day, Mr. Maximus” All three of the executive stood simultaneously, and left the room. I remained where I sat for a while, rubbing my head and wondering how things would go the next day. Eventually, I got up and left the room as well, intending to head home.


***


The next day, I returned to the lab, bringing a backpack full of supplies, clothes, books, and many other trinkets. Using the elevator, I reached the 120th basement floor, where I met my team’s “security”.   I saw a big guy with a Gatling gun in his grip. An African was holding a scatter gun while smoking a cigar, leaning against the wall. One person was holding a sniper rifle, with his face covered by a mask. A medic with a pair of round glasses and a white cloak and a technician, who had a bunch of tools on his dark blue vest, stood by each other indifferently. They both had assault rifles, but what concerned me was that they looked nearly identical. They must have been biological twins. Finally, there was their leader, a tall female with an eye patch over her right eye, looking confident and ready for anything. Strangely, I found her rather attractive, what with her long black hair tied in a ponytail and emerald eyes.  Then someone came out of an adjacent room was a guy looking like he was ready for camping, with the large backpack and sleeping bag.

“Alright,” the backpack-wearing man said, catching our attention. “My name is Charlie Debt, and I’m a representative of the Arch Corporation, section seven. I’ll be supervising this project for my superiors.  The rest of the team is in the portal room, ready for the journey. You all should have everything with you, so follow me and we’ll be on our way.”

All the mercenaries looked to the female, who I guessed was their leader, and she gave a nod. When she did, they all got up and entered to another room, where the portal mechanism would be. I was going to follow them, but the female blocked my path, gazing at me intently.

“You must be one who invented this thing” she assumed, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder as she glared at me. “Let’s get things clear” you do you science crap, and let my men worry about the rest. Just stay out of our way.  Do you understand?”

Before I could answer Charlie poked his head back in. “Hey, what are you two doing?” he asked critically. “We’re about to leave. Let’s go.”  The female stared at me for a few more seconds before turning her back to me and walking through the door. Sighing at her behavior, I followed after, wondering if she would be a problem in the future. We were in the testing room, where Amanda, Kyle, May, and Mark were conversing with each other. Amanda was scared; leaving our home world and traveling to another, unknown world in a different dimension can be terrifying.  Kyle was trying to cheer her up, telling her it wasn’t that bad, and thankful it was working.  May stood there, looking over her notes on her personal table, stuck in her fixed little world of work. Mark spotted me and came to me to engage in conversation.

“I knew that they were going to hire mercenaries,” he said, glancing menacingly over to Charlie, “But I didn’t know that they’d bring one of their own lackeys to be a spy.”

I understood, but didn’t reply, not seeing the point of complaining about something that we couldn’t change. I soon turned my attention to the attractive female leader, who was talking with one of her mercenary members. Unfortunately, Mark caught me the act, and gave a knowing grin. “Well, well, well. Looks like you have a thing for that lady.”

“N… No I don’t” I replied a little too quickly with shock. I scratched the back of neck as I looked to the ground embarrassingly.

“I don’t know anything about her,” Mark commented, tapping his chin, still smiling. “She might be a lesbian, or one of those single-for-life types. Maybe she even has, like, eight kids.”

“Mark, shut up,” I said plainly to him, knowing he would go on forever if no one stopped him. Though what he said might be right.  For all I knew she could see me, I mean, my team as just a another job to her. Before I could think on it further, I heard the intercom activating.

“Alright, now that everything is in order, activate the device,” an old voice ordered, and I recognized it as the obese executive. With a deep breath, I pulled the large lever, and soon the Dimensional Space Rift Hole was creating a swirling mass the resembled a black hole, except the center was bright. I knew it would work, but I couldn't help but feel amazed that it actually made the portal. Looking over, I could see that my team, even though they saw it the first time, were as surprised as I was. I took a step forward, bracing myself for the interdimensional travel, but I was stopped by the female leader who took a hold of my shoulder, causing me to wince from the pressure. She looked at me with a donating look, one that told me to not even try it. “Brick,” she called to one of her mercenaries, still staring at me. “Go in and see if the coast is clear.”

“Yes, mom,” The big guy with the Gatling gun replied sarcastically. I assumed that he was Brick.  He grasped his gun tightly and walked through the portal.  I was a little upset that I wasn’t the first living thing to go into the portal.  But I remembered that the contract stated that the mercenaries were in charge of protecting my team, and must enter first, in case of dangerous activity on the other side.  After a few tense moments, a small radio that the female leader at on her side came to life with static, and a deep male voice spoke through it.  “The coast is clear. You can come in now.”

“Alright, listen up,” she shouted to my team, causing us to stand up straight to attention. “You geeks will do exactly what I say. If I say move, you move. If I say stop, you stop. If I say jump, what do you do?”

“Generic move quote,” Mark smirked, trying to be funny, but he only managed to piss her off. But she simply glared at him for half a second before turning her gaze to her men.

“Grass Snake, you’re up,” The sniper gave a curt nod, and charged through the portal without hesitation.

“Matt, Data, your next,” The twins stepped up and went through the portal as well.

“Dodge, now,” The scatter shooter concentrated on the portal and rushed through it.

With the all mercenaries through, the female leader turned to us. “After I go through the portal,” she explained, looking at each of us in turn, “I’ll call you. Then you can come through.” She then turned her back to us, but before she did anything, she faced me with a small smile and winked. I was taken back by the move that I hardly noticed that she was already gone. At least now I know that she isn’t a lesbian.  After a few short seconds, I hear the radio on our backpacks as she spoke. “All’s good. You can come in now.”

“Here goes,” Charlie muttered as he walked to the portal, only to be interrupted by Amanda to scream at the top of her lungs and rush right through the portal.

“Amanda, wait!” Kyle yelled, as he ran after her.

“Damn it, don’t you people know how to wait!?” Charlie shouted at them, not knowing they can’t hear him. But after that, he sighed, and he too, went through.

“You think they’ll have internet on the otherside?” May asked the two of us.

Mark scoffed, “You say the footage thought are first testing. What do you think?”

“Well, this trip is going to suck,” she mumbled, stepping through the portal.  At that point, it was just Mark and I, the last ones left in the room.  We both prepared to charge through the portal, and then Mark looked at me and smiled.
“Ten years of planning, and five years of experimenting. Now, it’s time for the results,” he said, and I returned his smile. Suddenly, he turned his back to the portal and gave a big excited cheer as he jumped back first into it.  Leave it to Mark to make any serious thing fun. I took one last look to the three business men, standing behind the glass window of the observatory. They stared at me with creepy waves as the old man spoke through the intercom.

“Don’t disappoint us.”

I was really tired of their controlling ways, and thinking I wouldn’t have to deal with them for a long while, I decided to give all three of them the one thing I wanted to do when I first met them. I raised my hand and gave them my middle finger, essentially flipping the bird. And after that, I turned to the portal, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and walked though. Little did I know, that those last moments would be my last time on Earth, my home.
> Chapter Two: One Month
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER TWO: ONE MONTH



Darkness. That was all I saw. It wasn’t the present, but a memory from my past twenty years ago. I was part of an Archeology expedition in an old ruin in the deep part of England.

“You know my studies are in quantum physics, right?” I asked skeptically to the young lady in front of me. “I don’t know anything about ancient history, unless it’s current.”

“Well, maybe, but you owe me, remember?” chuckled the lady, with her short cut brown hair. Mary was her name. I had known her since we both met in a university class, and even graduated together in time. She was a year younger than me, but it never bothered me. I always focused on her personality, wits, and intelligence. What really got me thought it was her deep ocean eyes.

“Now if you’re done bugging me, I need you to listen.” she said, standing in front of a crumbly stone wall. She knew me just as well as I knew her. “If my calculations are correct, which they are, the tomb should be on the other side.”

I soon step up to the wall, preparing to break it open, “I got this.”

“Wait, there could be something important written on the other side of the wall,” she tried to stop me, but without considering it, my foot broke through the thin wall like it was styrofoam.

“Now it’s a door,” I commented with a small laugh. When we both stepped into the tomb, we could barely see a thing, as the room was dark as Hell. Mary and I pulled out our flashlights from our backpacks, and turned them on. The beams of light landed on a large, stone round table.

“Maybe we uncovered King Arthur’s Round Table?” She joked with a smile. I smiled back, understanding what she meant. I glanced around with my flashlight to see the remains of some corpses on the table. What was strange was the corpses were perfectly intake; there was no decomposition at all.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispered in awe, approaching the table. “Over two thousands year and their bodies are still untouched by time.”

I was surprised as well. Then again, this room must have been sealed off from the outside, cutting out the oxygen. It could also have been the cause for their deaths. Or poison, seeing as goblets were littered around the room. The light from my flashlight looked over the bodies, not finding anything extraordinary, except the body that had interesting, faded colors that were different from the rest.

“I’m guessing that’s the host,” I assumed, pointing to the body as Mary looked at what I was indicating. I walked to the body to get a closer look, and saw that the corpse’s hand was clutching something. “Hey, I think he’s holding something.”

“Well, be careful not to damage the body,” Mary requested. Giving a grunt of confirmation, I carefully lifted the hand off the table as I tried to see what he was trying to cover. It revealed itself to be a beautiful amulet. It gold colored with six gems on it. One big amethyst in the center and five smaller ones surrounding it: a ruby, citrine, emerald, sapphire and a pink diamond.

“He was holding this,” I explained, showing her the amulet with astonishment, “It must cost a fortune.”

“You may be right,” she whispered, staring at the object in wonder. It was at that we heard someone approaching from where we had entered.

“Quick!” she ordered, hastily covering the amulet with her hands as she faced the entrance. “Put it in your bag. They won’t expect someone like you to have it.”

I was surprised from her remarks, “Wha- what are you talking about?”

“It’s not like that,” she added abruptly, obviously on edge. She took one last glance at the entrance before facing me with a frown. “I what to study it and see what history it holds. If anyone else finds it, they’d just take it and sell it to some rich, tycoonist, who’ll just give it to his trophy wife.” I knew she was right. This amulet did have history, and the people that funded her expedition would definitely take this away before she had the chance to look over it. I placed amulet in my bag under some clothing, hiding it from view. Marry smiled at me and whispered, “Thank you.”

“Of course,” I chuckled, “I’d do anything for my wife.”


***


Returning to the present, as I stepped through the portal with my eye’s closed, I felt the environment change from room temperature to a nice warm breeze. I could tell that I was no longer in Baltimore, Hell, I knew I wasn’t on Earth or even my universe. After taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes.

Beauty. That what the first thing I saw. Pure, untouched beauty. There was pure green grass on the ground, tall trees that weren’t in a preservative dome or in some rich guy’s backyard, and a clear beautiful sky with clouds that looked like they were painted. I was trapped in the world’s scenery, and it made me happy. My old and corrupted world that I came to hate was on the other side of the portal, but at that moment, all I cared about was admiring the view.
“Hey,” the female leader said, snapping me back into reality, “Move your ass already and get your tent up.” Looking around, I could see everyone already busy setting up camp. As I walked away from the portal, I glanced behind it, watching it shrink smaller and smaller, and before I knew it, it vanished.

“Two weeks,” I mumbled to myself, “Two weeks until they reopen the portal.”

Turning back, I saw the mercenaries putting up their tents and unpacking their guns. Dodge, as I recall was his name, looks at me with a smirk as he reloaded his scattergun. Grass Snake was on top of one of the many trees surrounded us, keeping lookout. Matt and Data were arguing over something, but Brick quick broke them up by picking them both up by their shirts. Turning my attention towards my own team, I saw Kyle talking with Amanda, making sure she was alright. I wondered if they were seeing each other. May had finished her tent rather quickly as she liked to keep to herself. Finally, I saw Mark pitching a tent next to another.

“Hey, Darwin,” he called, gesturing to the tent, “I was just setting this up for you tent. I think you would want to look around first.”

God, he was helpful. “Mark, you don’t have to do that,” I said, feeling bad that he was doing it just for me. “I’ll finish what’s left. Why don’t you go see if there the foods ready.”

“Got it, man,” Mark replied with a mock salute, heading over to the others. After finishing up my tent, I entered inside and started unpacking, going through my books, clothing, emergency food, first aid - in case we need it - and then the locked boxes. It reminded me what had happened that morning, when I was packing as much as I could. I was going through my sock drawer when I had come across the box sitting in the corner. I had almost forgotten all about it, or at least I tried to. It reminded me of Mary, which nearly made me cry, but I had suppressed the tears and packed the box. Since it was a lock box, I brought along the key that was attached to a string like a necklace. I had placed it around my neck, zipped up my bag, put on my over coat, and locked the door. And before I left, I had given a spare key to an old lady who had promised to water my plants while I was gone.

Coming out of my memory, I pulled the key off my neck, and took a deep breath, knowing that what lay inside the box would only remind me about her. Hesitantly, I unlocked the box, and opened it up, showing the twelve hundred year old amulet from the old ruins.

“She never got the chance to figure out what you were,” I whispered to the amulet, my resolve hardening, “But I will soon enough. I’ll find out why you’re so important.”


***



Loading audio recordings. Sixteen found. Four corrupted; unable to play. Twelve available. Playing now.


Day One: It has now been twenty-four hours since we arrived in this new alien world. No problems have been found so far. We had rumors going around, but nothing really big. There was one fight, but it was just between Matt and Data, who I learned were biological twins. Two brothers hired for war. That’s kind of funny. Still haven’t found out what the female leader’s name was. I asked her today, but she told me to... well, I’m not gonna say it, but I think you can figure out what she said. From the exploration the other mercenaries had done today, they found miles of trees and woods. This forest must be massive if all they could see was trees, but in the distance, they saw mountains with snow caps. There might be snow heading our way soon. If we do get snow, this trip is going to suck. On a personal note, the amulet is unknown to everyone else. As far as I could remember, this amulet was a relic to an old cult. But I couldn’t remember if the gems were as bright as they were the last time I looked at them. Well, that’s it for this log. I’ll record any information that comes up. This is Darwin, signing off.

Day Two: Nothing happened today, but during the night, I swore I heard a whisper, but I didn’t think too much of it. It would be any number of things: A conversation, someone talking in their sleep, or just the wind. To be honest, that’s all I really have to report. Unless you want to hear Mark’s story about the time his date had a bondage fetish, but I think that not really an appropriate topic for this recording. I don’t even know why I brought it up. Darwin, signing off.
Day Four: (chuckling in the voice) Brittany. Today, I found out that the leader’s name was Brittany. That is the trashiest name I have ever heard. When she told me, I tried really hard not to laugh out loud, but I knew I couldn’t hold it in so I ran to my tent instead. On the way, I ran into Doug, and for some reason, he knew about that moment with Brittany. He had said to me, “The last person who laughed at her name ended up fired and a face worse than guy who hired us, so I hope you’re good in bed.” After that I couldn’t stop laughing. Trashy name and a slut. God, I don’t know what to think about that. Wait… Why do I have a feeling that she’s in my tent. Well, she was just there, but now she’s gone. I hope I didn’t piss her off too much. This is Darwin, signing off.

Day Five: Nothing really happened today, except that May was coughing and having trouble breathing, but that could just be her asthma. She never brings her inhaler to work, it’s like she doesn’t want anyone to know. One time, her friend came by and told me about her asthma, and she had left an inhaler for her at the lab just in case. Thank god we brought one with us so she could get better. Right now, she’s in the med tent, where Matt is apparently the medic. Hope she gets better tomorrow. Darwin, over and out.

Day Six: Dear God, something horrible happened today. Matt was attacked by May. I don’t have all the details, but May had broken both his arms and tried to scratch him to death. I know that couldn’t have happened. She doesn’t really work out, or even have the muscle to break both of a mercenary’s arms, let alone one. But damn was I wrong. Both his arms were broken so bad that his broken bones had protruded through his skin. But what was worse was his face. Dammit. Amanda even puked after just looking at it. Right now, he’s in the medical tent. It’s a good thing Kyle has some medical training. He told Britney his arms would be back to normal in a few days with some help with bone regenerating pills, or BRP for short, but his face is beyond fixing, even with reconstruction. Brittany was not happy with me. She said to me, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, and I don’t give a damn, but if she attacks another one of my men, I will kill her.” I went to the newly built holding tent, where May had been restrained on a table resting with five milligrams of haloperidol. Mark told me he tried using phenobarbital, but it wouldn’t work He was surprised that he needed to use that much haloperidol just to knock out one girl who was just an intern. I went inside to see her, and she looked fine, quite better than she was before. I couldn’t even imagine someone like her going crazy like that, but then I noticed something. Something horrible. I looked at her fingers, and there were no nails or even skin. It was just bones. She had scratched him so much to the point where her skin and muscles peeled off, even her bone where chipped. God dammit, what the hell is happening here? It hasn’t even been a week and already someone is injured and another is under surveillance! This is Darwin, going to Bed.

Day Seven: It has been a week since we came to this world. So far, one is still in the medical tent and another is now under quarantine. It used to just be a holding cell, but Brittany told everyone that no one is allowed to go into the tent without a hazard suit, a guard, and her permission. If someone disobeyed her rules, that person would be stuck there until the portal opens up again. Data was checking his brother in the med tent to see if he was alright. I think he was taking his brother attack quite well, considering. Though, he tried to charge into the quarantine tent, screaming “Let me in. I’m going to kill that bitch for what he done! She deserves to die!” Britney had punched Data in the face, which actually calmed him down. “Go back to your post, Data.” she had said to him, “Do you think Matt would like to hear that his brother had killed his attacker in a fit of rage?” And I think Data said something along the lines of, “No, you're right, sorry ma’am.” After that mess was fixed, Brittany ordered me to meet her at her tent again at twenty-one hundred hours, which was ten pm, if I remembered correctly. Mark had overheard the conversation, and said to me, “Well, looks like you found a new friend.” I said it was probably nothing, though I might be wrong. Well, it’s almost ten, we’ll see what’s so important. Darwin, over and out.

Day Eight: Last night, Brittany asked me if May had any medical history. I told her about her asthma, but explained that nothing really could have leaded her to this. Brittany thought it may have been the planet, a sickness unknown to us, or maybe an even bigger problem. Then, she told me to head off to my tent and that was it. For the rest of the day, nothing happened. But later that night, the gems on the amulet, which I had tucked away safely, were glowing, and I thought they were whispering to me slowly. “Run”. That’s what they were saying before the glowing died and the voices were silent. This may be an alternate universe, but this couldn’t really be physically possible. Maybe it was an anomaly, one of Mark’s pranks, or it was just the wind. I decided to look on it later. Well, that’s all I have to report, I wonder if I’m going crazy too. (Laughter) Dear God, I hope not. Darwin, signing off.

Day Ten: You know what? The time I had been here, I have had no idea what my team was even doing. So today, I decided to check on everyone. Amanda and Kyle were working on how this world’s vegetation affects the world. So far, it has been normal, all the vegetation had been fine, just like in our world. May was attempting to send a probe into the air to get a better view of the world before she... well, you know. I’m guessing she wanted to see if stars were similar to ours, but with her current condition, we will never know. Mark said he’s been trying to find any wild life besides the insects see we saw earlier. Mark told me that he saw a rabbit once, a white rabbit to be exact. He tried to catch it, but failed. Before I could leave, he asked, “Hey Darwin, what are you working on?” I didn’t want to tell him about the amulet, he thinks I got rid of it a long time ago, so I lied. I can’t believe I lied to my best friend, the very person who brought me from the brink of death and got my life back in order. I would tell him about the truth, but he’ll think this is about her, but the amulet is for her. I … I’m done. Bye.

Day Eleven: Something happened today. Brick is now in the quarantine tent. Grass Snake said Brink was just banging his head on one of the trees. He thought Brick was just being himself, but then he saw him bleeding. He tried to stop him, but when he got closer, Brick started hitting his head harder and harder, and Grass Snake was forced to knock him out. He dragged him to Brittany, and she told him to put Brick in quarantine. Dammit, another incident. At least no one was hurt. Three more days. Three more days and we’ll all be able to go home.

Day Thirteen: Tomorrow, the portal will open, finally. With one person still recovering and two in quarantine, I’m glad this mess is over. I needed to talk to someone, and I wanted to see Mark, but he was busy. Then, I saw Brittany sitting by the fire, so I asked if I could join her. We started talking, and I think she’s comfortable around me now. I asked her what she’s going to do when she got back to Earth, and she said, “When I get payed, the first thing I’m going to do is get drunk, and screw a few guys, maybe even a girl.” Wow, she’s a slut. Thank god I didn’t say that out loud, or I would be dead. I asked how she meets these people in her team. Wait... she’s not here, good. Anyway I asked her how she met her team. “It’s a long story, trust me,” she had told me, then I asked her why she became a mercenary. “Because I’m a born killer.” Then, out of nowhere she asked, “What about you? Are you a killer?” It took me some time to answer, but I replied to her with this response, “I only killed during my service in the war, never again.” She followed up by asking me, “So you were a soldier? I thought so, I could tell by just looking in your eyes. Well, turning away from that life would be harder than it looks. So tell me, is there a woman in your life?”. I was wondering why she asked me that is until she said, “Just joking. You aren’t, right?”

“Was, not anymore, but that was a long time ago.” I said, and she had given me a sympathetic look, asking, “Didn’t work out?” I didn’t want to answer, so I told her I should get some sleep for the return trip the next day. I was about to leave until she looked around in confusion, saying, “Wait, where’s Charlie? I haven’t seen him in this whole trip” I agreed with her, and said I would look for him tomorrow. You’ll be happy to hear that I went straight to my tent. Now, I’m off to bed. Good night and good riddance.

Day Fourteen: Well, this isn’t good, not one bit. Everyone was waiting for hours and the portal didn’t appear. “Okay, Darwin why the hell is the portal not open yet?” Brittany asked me harshly as the other soldiers look at me as well. “I really don’t know,” I answered, “This is the right date, so the portal should be open. I have no idea what’s going on.” That was when Charlie whipped out this radio, asking if anyone was on our planet. “Wait just a god damn moment,” Brittany barked angrily, “You had a radio that can access home the whole time?” That had really set Charlie off, “Yes, it can, and Darwin, no, I will not tell you how it’s possible because they told me not to tell you. Now everyone shut up so I can see if there’s an answer.” He fiddled with the radio a bit more before, giving a deep sigh, “Dammit, the message is delayed, the computer won’t have the message possessed for another two days.” Brittany rounded on him, yelling, “We don’t have enough supplies for two days!” Which Charlie calmed replied, “Well, this is a forest, find something to eat.” I hate Charlie, he’s a dick. We’ll have to wait two days before the message would get through. Who knows, maybe the portal will open by then.

Day Fifteen: Doug is dead. I honestly never expected him, of everyone in Britney’s group, to actually die. Grass Snake brought him to back to camp while they were hunting for food, and... well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but what Grass Snake described that attacked him was a Manticore. I thought it was crazy, but Grass Snake had video footage. My God, I saw Doug shooting that thing but nothing seemed to work. And before we knew it, it killed him, but Grass Snake said Doug tried had tried to kill it with a headshot, but the Manticore was too quick and dodge his shots. Doug got some shots in it, but it shook it off like it was nothing. Eventually, Doug ran out of ammo, and the Manticore took the kill. Brittany wasn’t happy, and for the first time, she was crying, though she tried to hide it. Data told me that Doug and Brittany had been friends since they formed their team. I can’t help but feel sorry for her. Back to the Manticore, I did some research from an old book I packed and found it. A lion’s body, bat wings and a scorpion tail. I know this is a different dimension but… damn. That portal better be open tomorrow.

Day Sixteen: It’s gone. My world is gone. Our world is gone. I checked on Charlie, wondering what that bastard was doing. I saw his tent completely destroyed from the inside. I thought Britney might have been responsible, but I remembered that she hadn’t been in his tent, let alone, seen him all day. When I entered his tent, I saw him on his knees, looking at the floor. I asked him what he was doing. All he said was, “It’s gone.” I asked him what was gone... Everything. The Chinese bastards finally did it. They finally dropped the bomb on American soil, and we retaliated. Oh sweet merciful god, what have we done? We had a long talk with lots of curses coming from him, but eventually he ordered me to leave. While I was leaving, I heard him whisper “I’m sorry” and then a gunshot. I re-entered the tent to find him dead. Brittany came rushing in, asking what happened, so I told her he committed suicide. “Why?” she asked hesitantly, so I told her how Earth had been... destroyed by the TQO, a weapon that makes the atomic look like a firecracker. Brittany hesitated trying to hide her emotions, and told me she would tell the others. I thanked her because… I don’t think I could have done it myself. Earth is really gone. What the hell are we going to do no?

Day Seventeen: Understandably, no one was happy with the news. Amanda was balling like a newborn, and Kyle was trying to help her as much as he could. Everyone else was taking it well, but I knew they were angry. What I didn’t expect was Mark. I ask him if he was alright. “Why?” he said, glaring at me, “Why didn’t you tell me?! I’m your friend! Why the hell didn’t you tell me first!?” I explained that it was too much for me to handle, but it only made him angrier. “Too much?” he said in disbelief, raising his voice, “Too much?! My family is dead, my friends are dead, hell, even the girl I actually liked doesn’t even have a body any more, and you give me some bullshit excuse like it was too much!” Mark was acting way out of character, and I asked what was wrong with him, which he shot back that I was his problem. He continued on from that, shouting, “Okay, I’m sick of fixing your mistakes, and helping your pathetic ass!” I still can’t believe he would say anything like that to me. But then I noticed his eyes. They were bleeding. Before I could say or do anything, Mark fell to the ground. Grass Snake had knocked him out, telling Brittany he had found another one. We have a patient in the med tent, one dead, and now three in the quarantine tent. (Silence) For god’s sake, why the hell am I even recording this? The only ones who will ever hear this is everyone in camp, unless the manticore would like to hear my audio logs. Well, I’m out.

Day Nineteen: DATA CORRUPTED

Day Twenty Two: DATA CORRUPTED

Day Twenty Six: DATA CORRUPTED

Day Twenty Nine: DATA CORRUPTED

End of audio recordings. Attempting to restore Day Nineteen, Twenty Two, Twenty Six and Twenty Nine. Process one percent.


***


It was the middle of the night after our first month in this world, knowing that Earth was gone. And that was when I smelt something from inside my tent.

“Smoke…? FIRE!” I shouted, quickly exiting my bed and heading outside. Everything in our camp was on fire. Not only that, but… Grass Snake. He was on the ground. I walked over to him to see if he was okay, but... “No,” I whispered, turning away from him. His body… his body had no head. It looked like it was torn off completely.

“Can it be…? I need to get to the med tent.” I told myself, rushing over to my destination. As I hurried along, I hoped I would run into any survivors in this inferno camp. Unfortunately, I found Kyle on the ground.

“Kyle are you-?” I started before seeing his head. There was a hole it; he was dead as well.

“What’s happening? What going on?” I whispered to myself, my anxiety growing immensely. Giving my respects, I crouched down and closed Kyle’s eyes before I left for the med tent. Continuing to my objective, I decided to move more quietly, hoping I didn't run the thing that had attacked our camp. That was when I heard a noise. I went to investigate, keeping silent as I hoped it was survivors.

“Oh… oh god,” I said quietly, my eyes wide. I saw Matt, with blood in his eyes, smashing Data’s head into a rock, and Data was dead for some time, as there was barely anything left of his head.

“Dear God, why? Why? Why would he do this to his own brother?” I whispered shaking my head in distraught. I snuck past Matt, moving forward when I noticed May. She was smashing her head against a tree while on fire.

“This can’t be happening. Please be a dream,” I said, my breathing and heartbeat increasing. I knew it wasn’t a dream, it was real, and at that moment, I was in Hell. I was getting closer to the med tent when I noticed a body that was still moving. A survivor. Squinting, I saw who it was: It was Brittany. I ran over to her to see if she hadn’t lost her mind like Matt or May.

“Hey,” she said hoarsely, coughing heavily afterwards, “Darwin, right?” I was a little mad that she forgot my name even though we had a mouth to know either other, but I shook it off and nodded. “Damn, I got to know you for a month, and I still wasn’t sure about your name. God, I’m terrible, and I was thinking of sleeping with you.”
She coughed some more after that, causing my heart to wrench. “Don’t say another word,” I said, patting her shoulder, “I-I’ll get help.”

“No, don’t bother,” she told me, taking deep breathes, “Look… it was that friend of yours, Mark. He started this fire, he released the quarantine, and somehow infected Matt, even though he could have been infected from the beginning.”

“But how?” I asked, puzzled how Mark had escaped from the quarantine tent.

“The blonde girl, he used her.”

“Amanda,” I muttered to myself, knowing she was the only blonde here.

“He’s… he’s holding her hostage,” she explained, “He thinks I’m waiting to strike, even though he knows he got me. I think he’s just being paranoid. That, or he’s just crazy. Darwin, you need to stop him.” She reached for something from her back and brought it in front of herself, it was a handgun. “Here, take my gun. I don’t know how many bullets are left. You need to stop him, if you don’t, he’ll kill her and what’s left of my team.”

“Sorry to say,” I said to her, taking the gun in my hands, “But Data and Green Sneak are dead.”
She smirked at me, “Well, we survived hunger, deserts, hell, we even survived the war, but every member of my team died on an alien world, and we still don’t know why.”

“I know... it sucks,” I replied, trying terribly to lighten the mood.. She chuckled none the less, and then she gave a long exhale. She was dead, “Shit”. With the gun in my hands, I opened the clip to find two bullets left. I snapped the clip back in and decided it was time to confront Mark.

As soon as I stepped away from Brittany, Mark came into view, looking around frantically. He was holding a knife in one hand and was dragging Amanda in the other. She was still alive, but she was Mark’s hostage.

“Mark, listen,” I called softly, taking a few steps forward. He whipped his head towards me, his eyes wide with paranoia as he brought Amanda up, putting the knife under her neck.

“Come any closer and all cut her throat!” he threatened, bringing the knife closer to Amanda’s neck, causing her to whimper.

“Help me,” she pleaded quietly.

“Shut up, you stupid bitch!” Mark screamed at her.

“Please listen,” I said, putting my hands up in a gesture of peace. I had to contain the situation. “Everyone’s dead; were all that’s left. We can make it out.”

“No, God Dammit, we won’t,” Mark growled, “The earth is gone, our families are gone, and this world is trying to kill use.”

I had to calm him down, but I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to, “Look, we’re human. We’ll adapt and survive.”

“With what!?” Mark questioned, visibly shaking, “You think we can repopulate our species!? You think we impregnate this whore and make our children inbreed with each other!?”

“NO! Not like that!” I shouted, growing frustrated and angry.

“You're Goddamn right, not like that,” he said, a crazy smile on his face, “Have you seen it yet? Our species was meant to die. What we did to our planet - global warming, stripping our natural resources, overpopulation, corrupted government. Death is our punishment! Earth was destroyed with the TQO, and everything with it. What was left of our race came here, and we were either infected or killed by that monster. We weren't supposed to even exist! We’re all going to die tonight, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this world take me. You and her are going out first.”

I tried to rush over to stop him, but I was too late. Mark sliced Amanda throat open, blood gushing out. Mark released her as she fell to her knees, gasping for air, before falling to the floor dead.

“Now it just you and me,” Mark announced, pulling out a pistol from his back pocket. “First you, then me.” He aimed the gun at me, and I froze with fear, unable to use the gun that I was given. “I’ll see you in Hell, old friend,” he whispered, but I heard the gun jam as he pulled the trigger. He looked at the gun trying make it fire.

Shaking out of my stupor, I knew it was my chance. I brought the gun up to bear and aimed at Mark’s head. “Mary... forgive me,” I muttered to myself. Mark faced me with his crazed eyes, before discharged the gun, putting a bullet in the center of his fore head. He fell to the ground, his body completely lifeless as he slumped to the ground, his eyes still wide open. Before I could grieve, I heard a loud noise coming from the forest. Knowing I didn’t want to meet it, I quickly turned to my tent, which hadn’t been touch by the fire yet. Entering, I hastily grabbed my bag filling it with anything I could get my hands on. With the bag full, I made to leave, but then I saw amulet at the corner of my eye..

“I must be crazy,” I told myself, grabbing the amulet, putting it around my neck. After which, I made my way back outside, heading out of the boundaries of the camp.

I heard more roars coming from the behind me as I ran. Looking back at the camp, I could see the flames getting smaller every second I continued forward. As I ran, I was reminded that once again I was running for my life. What was different was that this time, I felt a drop of water on my head.

“Rain. Perfect,” I said to no one as the rain fall soon turned from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour. I knew I had to stop to rest, but I just couldn’t. I was literally running for my life. I glanced back again, and noticed that the flames getting farther away and the roaring was growing quiet, then silence. I started to slow down, knowing I was probably at a safe distance.

“I need somewhere to rest,” I sighed. Thankfully, I found a big hollow tree a few feet away from me, with a hole big enough for me to fit. I rushed into the tree, wanting to escape the downpour quickly, even though I was already drenched. I threw my bag to the ground as I sat down, leaning against the insides of the tree, and for some reason, I was crying. But why? Oh… now I remember. Earth was no more, the team that I called my friends were all dead, but the worst part is that I just shot my best friend. Eventually, before I knew it, I was crying. I knew then that everything was gone. There was nothing left in my life worth living for. That was when I remembered that I still had the gun. Slipping it out, I checked the clip. One bullet left.

“One bullet... that’s all I need,” I whispered with a deep frown. I knew that there was only one way out. Taking a deep breath, I raised the gun to the side of my head and closed my eyes. Soon, I’d pull the trigger, and end my suffering. But then I heard something.

“Quick, sister, in this tree!” a young feminine voice said. A voice? I heard a voice! And crying?

I blinked; was I dreaming? There couldn’t be another intelligent life form. I saw two beings slip into tree, about as wet as I would expect from the rain outside. “Th-This can’t be real?” I whispered, my eyes looking down at who had entered. Horses, I saw two very small horses. I must have been imagining it, there was no way those two horses could talk.

“Where…Where’s mommy?” said a different feminine voice, though much younger than the other.

“I... my God. They can really talk,” I said so quietly that they didn’t hear me. I knew this was an alternate dimension, but I still couldn’t believe it.

“Luna,” the first voice spoke, shaking her head sadly. “Mother, she’s….” However, before she could finish her sentence, she looked up and noticed me. A white coated foal with a pink mane holding close was a smaller foal with a dark blue coat and bright blue hair. The white coated foal’s eyes shrunk in shock as she gasped, clutching the other foal tightly. The other foal turned her gaze to me too, shying away slightly in fright. I would have reacted the same way to them, if I didn’t remember that the gun was still to my head.

I knew I couldn’t do it in front of them, so I hastily brought the gun down, taking deep breathes from nearly killing myself, and put it in my front pocket. Looking at the young blue coated foal, I couldn’t help but feel sad seeing her upset and shivering, I can also see the other one in the same state. I took my coat off and throw it near them so they can use it as a blanket. The white one broke away from the other and, without breaking eye contact with me, pulled the coat closer, and covered herself and the young foal. As they lied down, getting comfortable, the white one looked to the other, and began to sing a nice song. I didn’t remember the lyrics, but I felt like I was in a trance, and when I rested against the tree, I soon fell asleep. Little did I know that those two would forever change my life, starting with that one act of charity.

> Chapter Three: Honesty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Three: Honesty



I saw a bright light, and a room came into my vision, albeit somewhat blurry, but I was able to hear people converse. Oh god, I remembered that. It was eighteen years ago, and I was at a bar, completely drunk off my ass. I remembered that I was trying to pick up this girl, but I was so wasted that my speech was worse than bad.

“Then… I told that… guy, that lady was your… mom!” I slurred, tipping back and forth as I chuckled.

“Well that was… interesting,” said the girl, who was completely unimpressed as she avoided eye contact with me. She had regular clothing on, as in, a pair of jeans and a white blouse.

“So…” I said, raising my eyebrows suggestively, “You want to… my place and…”

“Look,” the girl said with a deep sigh, closing her eyes in frustration, “You’re… something, but I’m here with my boyfriend.”

Then a big, muscular guy came over with two drinks in his hands. “Sorry I’m late, babe,” he said to his girlfriend with a shrug, “The line was long.”

“Now… who’s this… guy?” I asked, blinking stupidly as I eyed the man.

“Hey, has this guy been bothering you?” he asked rather aggressively, gesturing to myself.

“Yes,” she answered with a roll of her eyes, “I would like to move to another table.”

“Hey hey hey, you can’t take her, I already called… dibs,” I announced as the girl stood up from her seat.

“Look man,” the man growled, looking intimidating, “I know you’re drunk, but that won’t stop me from kicking your ass if you treat my girl like that.”

“You think… you can take me on? I can kick… your ass so hard that… so hard that… What?”

“Darwin, there you are,” Mark said with relief and concern, walking up to me hastily with an annoyed expression, “I’ve been looking for you all night. Come on, man, it’s late and you’re shit canned. You need to go home.”

“Not until I… kick this guy’s ass and… get some pussy,” I replied sounding worse than before. I remembered seeing her boyfriend getting really angry from what I said.

“Now look, he didn’t mean that,” Mark told the angry boyfriend with a nervous laugh, grabbing one of my arms as he lifted me out of my seat. “So I’ll just take him home and we'll forget this ever happened.”

“Yeah, you better,” replied the boyfriend, jabbing a finger at him. I remembered the room spinning and Mark was escorting me out of the bar. As soon as we were outside, I pushed him away with an irritated look.

“What was that for?” I asked him.

“Dude, I just saved your ass,” Mark explained with a shake of his head, “Did you even get a good look at him? He would have kicked your ass, or worse, put you in the hospital.”

“Well, you don’t know that,” I snapped back, swaying a bit, “Maybe I… could have taken him. Or maybe I wanted … him to put me in the hospital. Or better…”

Mark interrupted before I could go on, his face very agitated, “Look man, I know what you’re trying to do to yourself, and I’m not letting that happen. Face the facts, Darwin, she’s gone. She’s gone, and you need to move on.”
“Shut the hell up man!” I shouted, sober enough to feel the sadness, “Shut your goddamn mouth! you know nothing and… and…” Before I could finish my sentence, I fell back onto the hard cement and blacked out.


***


Restoring corrupted data. Process: 10 percent.


***


I slowly woke up, my mind groggy as a small headache set in. Rubbing my eyes, I tried to remember what happened the night before, and it all came rushing back. A fire, my team, Mark, death.

“Sweet Jesus,” I muttered to myself, rubbing my head. I looked around seeing that I was still in the hollow tree. Then my eyes landed on the two sleeping foals, with my jacket still placed over them.

“Oh yeah,” I said in remembrance. It was a downpour the night before, so I had taken shelter in the tree and they both ran into the the tree as well. And I reminded myself about something else.

The gun.

I faced the gun that was in my front pocket, and glanced at the foals who are still asleep. I wanted to finish what I had started, and quietly I snuck out to do just that. I walked a ways away from the hollow tree, to avoid having the foals seeing me, and found a nice spot to end it all. I remembered that I was going to do it last night until my uninvited guests arrived. I didn’t want to scar them for life, so I had refrained myself. At that moment, I was still depressed to hell, and I just wanted relief. I stopped behind a tree, giving a small nod at the location.

“This’ll do,” I whispered, sitting down against the tree. I pulled out my gun examining it again as I check the clip again to see how much I had left. Still only one bullet. I closed the clip, took a deep breath, put the gun to my head, and began to carefully pull the trigger, before…

“What are you doing?” said an innocent voice, scaring me into losing my grip with the gun and nearly dropping it. Quickly, I caught my gun, glad that it hadn’t fired, and I turned my head to see the foal from before. The older white coated one with the pink flowing hair.

“Hi…” I stammered, setting down the gun, “You’re awake. I thought you were still asleep?”

“I was until you woke me up,” she explained, “So I followed you. Which brings me to my question: what are you doing?” asking me the same question.

“It’s… It’s nothing. What do you need?” I asked her.

“Well it’s a good thing that you asked,” she said with an authoritative tone, “I was hoping when we all wake up, I could speak with you about a manner of most importance. But you decided to leave before we had a chance to talk. We should return to your… tree. My sister is waiting.”

As she turned away, she started walking back to the hollow tree, and for some reason I followed her instead of running away. I may have been completely weirded out, but I had no other place to go. As I followed her, we soon arrived at the hollow tree, and poking out of it was the head of the young, blue-coated foal.

“Tia you’re back!” She said excitedly, running towards who I assumed to be her older sister. When she got close enough, the two wrapped their hooves around each other in a hug. As the younger foal was hugging her, she notices me and got scared. “Who is that?” She asked her sister.

“He’s going to help use,” she replied with a smile.

I wondered what she meant by helping them, and it kind of made me upset. I never agreed to anything like that.

“Please sit,” the older sister directed to me. She was awfully commanding for a filly. I took a seat opposite of them, and waited to hear what they wanted from me.

“Let me introduce myself,” she started with a smile, “I am Tia, and this is my little sister, Luna” she gestured to smaller foal, “and we request your assistance.”

“I’m hungry,” groaned the dark-colored foal known as Luna.

I pushed myself to my feet, and went into the tree, grabbing my bag that I had left behind, and returned to them. I opened my bag to see many days worth of food, and reached into it to pull out an apple. I was hungry as well, and I was willing to bet that the older foal, Tia, was just as famished. Pulling out my knife, I cut the apple into six equal pieces, dividing it up for each of us.

“Here,” I said, handing two slices for each of them. Then something unexpected happen. I saw a strange yellow glow covered the four apple pieces and soon they were levitating out of my hand. I freaked out, as expected, wondering what that was. I looked at Tia and Luna and soon realized something. Horns, they had horns on their foreheads. I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice that last night, though I was a bit delusional. They were unicorns, another mythical creature that only existed in myth and legend. 

“Is there a problem?” Tia asked with a raised eyebrow, noticing my stare as she dispersed two apple slices to Luna, who used her hooves to hold them instead.

“Your unicorns!” I replied excitedly.

“Alicorns,” she corrected.

“What?” I questioned, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

“We’re not unicorns, we’re alicorns,” she explained, and when I got better look at them, I noticed they had wings as well. They truly were alicorns. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was utterly speechless, so speechless that I dropped my own apple slices.

“Damn it,” I muttered to myself, picking up my apple pieces and brushing off the dirt as best I could before eating them.

“Alright, now that we have introduced ourselves, I would like to know your name,” Tia informed, taking a bite from her own apple slices.

“Darwin,” I said with a nod, “Darwin Maximus.”

“Well, Darwin,” she said, testing the name out, “I may inform you that we require an escorting to a specific location. I’m not going into too much detail, but I would really appreciate it if you would help us.”

I swallowed my bite and said, “Look, I would like to help you two, but I'm afraid I can’t.”

“Well I guess I have no choice,” Tia said as she stood up, “As the daughter of the royal rulers of Equestria, I command you to be our escort!”

I replied simply, “No.”
 
She stared at me with wide eyes before narrowing them at me, “Didn’t you hear what I said? We are of royalty. Don’t you know what that means?”

“Not… really,” I answered honestly. I knew what royalty meant, but they didn’t realized I wasn’t from this world, so therefore they didn’t have jurisdiction over me.

“Look I really want to help you, I do,” I said, causing both of the fillies to frown sadly. “But I have my own set of problem I have to work out first.”

I wasn’t going to tell them I was still planning to kill myself. They didn’t need to know that. After finishing my apple pieces, I looked through my bag for more food for them, and when I found a few apples, I placed them on the ground. 

“Here, this would feed you if you conserved it right,” I explained, standing up. I then gave a small wave, turned around, and walked away. I wasn’t even a few meters away when I heard sobbing from behind me, and I figured it was just Luna, seeing as she was the youngest. When I turned to face them, I was a bit surprised that it was Tia.

“Please…” she said in between sobs, a few tears falling from her eyes, “We beg you.” She turned her gaze to the ground pitifully, her body shaking from pent up sadness. Luna was on the verge of tears herself, but was somehow able to keep it locked up. “We’re just two fillies. We don’t know how to take care of ourselves. Please, we need your help.”

“Sorry,” I told them, guilt tugging at my heart, “But you don’t want to be with me, trust me.”
Feeling bad, I took a shaky breath, and walked away. I could hear Tia calling my name, but I ignored her cries, continuing forward. I felt horrible, leaving those two fillies alone like that, but what could I do? I don’t have any knowledge about this world; I know nothing about their culture, and I had no weapons to defend them. I eventually stopped walking and pulled out my gun. I was dead set on killing myself, but I suddenly felt conflicted whether it was a good idea, leaving Tia and Luna like that. Before I could think more of the matter, I heard a branch snap behind me, and when I whipped around to see who that was, I saw a blue tail hide behind a tree

“Luna?” I asked, furrowing my brow in puzzlement. She slowly brought her head out from behind the tree, looking quite adorable as she bowed her head, her eyes fixed on me. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your sister?”
“I came to convince you about helping us,” she explained quietly, “I know my sister and I don’t know anything about you, and I don’t know why we have to leave our home, but my big sister knows best, and I trust her. So I like to ask you for your help. Please.”

I made my way over to her, and knelt down. “Look kid,” I said softly, making her look away, probably already knowing what I would say. “I want to help, really, but I have my own problem I have to sort out.”

“What’s so important that you have to do right now?” Luna asked desperately, her eyes quivering.

“You’re only a kid,” I said, shaking my head, “You wouldn’t understand.”

All of a sudden, a terrifying roar resonated through the forest, making my spine shiver instinctively.

“What the hell?” I asked myself. I heard someone coming this way, and when I looked back, I saw that it was Tia, running like a bat out of hell.

“Run, Luna! It’s a manticore!” she screamed, and my eyes widened in remembrance. I almost forgot that manticores existed in this universe. One even killed Doug! If a professional wasn’t able to take down a beast like that, then I knew there was only one thing we could do.

“We need to run, NOW!” I told Luna.

I started running, but when I looked back, I realized that Luna, with her small body and stubby legs, was falling behind. Tia was the same way, not even close to keeping up with me. “I don’t have time for this,” I growled, spinning around and sprinting for Luna. When I was close enough, I grabbed her into my arms, and held her next to my chest. Then, I did the same with Tia, holding each filly in an arm.

“Put me down this instant! “Tia complained, squirming in my hold, “I’m not a baby, I can run on my own!”

“Well, you’re not fast enough, so shut up,” I told her, causing her to flinch from my forceful voice.
Running. All I was doing was running while carrying two foals. The crashing and roars behind me was all I needed to know that we were being chased. There was was no way I could outrun this creature with these two fillies with me. I doubt I could fight it either, as even Doug, a mercenary, couldn’t even kill one. However, Grass Snake was able to kill one with a headshot, but he used his rifle. All I had was a handgun with one bullet, and I needed that for myself.

Unfortunately, with my mind occupied with these thoughts, and I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going. We ran right into a rock wall, and I stopped abruptly, looking up to see nothing I could use to climb up. I turned back from where we came, and could hear the manticore was getting closer and closer.

“Damn it,“ I whispered to myself, breathing heavily from the fear and exertion.

“What do we do?” Tia asked with a scared tone, as I placed the two on the ground.

“I don’t know,” I replied, my face contorted with uncertainty. The manticore was getting closer, but I couldn’t see him through the brush of the forest.

“Stay behind me,” I instructed as I stood in front of them like a shield, “I’ll deal with this.”

The sound of the manticore was getting close, trees crashing and footsteps booming. Finally, it came into view, stopping a couple meters away from us, probably in intimidation. It was a real manticore. Like legend said, a lion’s body, a scorpion tail, and bat-like wings. Then, I noticed something else in its mouth. it looked like blood and… clothing. Dear god, that monster ate the remains of one of my people who had died. I could recognize clothing color was the same as… Brittany’s. No, it ate Brittany!? She didn’t deserve to end up like that, and my mind was full of rage. All I wanted was to kill that monstrous bastard. Soon, the monster roared again charging at us, and my instinct kicked in. I pulled my gun out quickly and fired. The bullet hit right between the eyes, and the manticore fell, sliding a few feet before stopping completely. Grass Snake was right, only a headshot could kill one.

“You… you stopped it,” Tia whispered, sounding impressed though fearful, “I never saw a weapon like that, even one that could kill a…” she stopped talking after seeing the expression on my face. I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t even angry, I was downright pissed. Then I sprinted right to the manticore’s corpse, and just kicked the lifeless husk with aggression, putting my rage into each swing.

“You stupid… son of a… bitch! Ugly… piece of… shit!” I hissed, with each kick. So much anger, so much rage. I didn’t know if it was because my one shot at peace was gone or what the thing did to Brittany. Either way, all I wanted to do was hit the monster, even if it wouldn’t change a thing. While I was kicking, something grabbed my other leg, snapping my mind back to reality. When I looked at my leg, I saw Luna clutching it with both hooves, crying her eyes out.

“Please, stop…” she asked me, sinking her head into my leg. I also saw Tia was terrified, seeing me act like that. I realized what I was doing by that time. I was beating a corpse because I couldn’t kill myself, and for eating someone I cared about in this world. God, what the hell was wrong with me? I looked to Luna, my mouth hanging open as I searched for a response, but before I could say anything, I heard another noise. It was another roar, but this time, it was much louder, and it was coming this way. Then, it burst from the foliage, showing that it was another manticore, but it was three times bigger than… at that moment I realized something. That manticore was a mother, and I just killed its baby.

Oh fuck. 

Without hesitation, I quickly grabbed Luna and made it over to Tia, picking her up as well, and ran off along the rock wall. getting the hell out of there. Luckily, the mother was too distracted looking over her baby, so I was able to slip out. I knew it was only temporary, but I would take what I could get. Once again, I was running for my life with two native aliens from this world. Looking back for an instant, I saw that the mother was chasing us, having gotten over her baby’s death, seeking revenge. It was definitely faster than the baby, and there was no way I could escape unscathed. So I made a quick turn, hoping to confuse it and get some distance. Luckily I did. I stopped for a second, and dropped Tia.

“Can you fly?” I asked quickly.

“What?” she said with confusion.

“Can you fly? Yes or No?” I repeated hastily, glancing behind me.

“Of course I can fly, but-”

“Okay, take Luna and hide in that tree,” I ordered, placing Luna beside her as I pointed to the tree, “I’ll distract the manticore. Wait ten minutes, then get down and get out of this forest.”

“But…”

“No ‘buts’, just do it!” I snapped, not wanting an argument when we were short on time. Tia cringed but did what I told her. Luna climbed onto her back, and with a flap of her wings, Tia flew to the top of the tree, out of sight. Then I notice the manticore emerge from the bushes, not looking so happy. As soon as the manticore poked its head out, I started throwing rocks at it while yelling at the top of my lungs.

“Hey, bitch, I’m over here!” I screamed, hitting the mother right between the eyes with a rock, “I’m the one who just killed your little bastard, so come and get me!” My plan worked, but I still had to deal with a rampaging manticore. I instantly took off away from the monster as it gave chase yet again. I turned my head several times to make sure the manticore was still on my tail. It wasn’t really necessary, as I could hear it quite easily. I broke out of the forest only to nearly run right into a deep ravine, catching myself before hand.

I groaned, “What the hell is with all these roadblocks!?”

I whipped around to see the manticore was only a few feet away from me, growling as it keep its eyes on me. Instead of attacking me right there and then, the manticore was being patient, waiting more the right moment to attack without falling into the ravine with me. Honestly, I just wanted it to pounce already so I could take that monster with me down to the bottom of the ravine. I would get what I wanted, and Tia and Luna would get away safely. I just hoped that they would find someone who would take care of them.

“Wait!” I heard a voice cry out to me, causing me to turn to the noise, momentarily forgetting about the manticore.

“Luna, stop!” Tia’s voice said as I saw the two fillies running towards me, “He told us to stay put!” 
They stopped right between the manticore and I, with Luna in tears as Tia was looking worried, glancing over to the manticore.

“Please you don’t have to do this!” Luna cried out.

“Yes, I do, Luna, this is the only way,” I said sternly, slightly angry that they would come back for me. “Like I told you, I have my own set of problems that you just wouldn’t understand.”

“I do understand!” she retorted, her breathing growing ragged, “I can see you lost something you care about, and you feel sad and lonely but… but… I don’t want you to die!”

She knew… she knew the whole time. She was younger then Tia, and she knew about my suicide attempts, and at that moment, she could see I was doing it again. I don’t know what to do. I had no way out; I left the gun where I killed the other manticore, and even if I had it, it didn’t have any ammuition., and worse, the mother was getting ready to strike. God Damn it, what do I do?

“Really, Darwin?” a voice echoes in my mind, one that made my breathing stop, “Is getting yourself killed really the answer?”

That voice, I knew that voice, “M-Mary?”

“That’s right,” she answered, almost making me faint in surprise, “And what are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed like this. You can’t just die now, you have to help these girls.”

“No,” I whispered aloud, causing the two fillies to look at me funnily, “This can’t be real. There’s no way this could be happening. You’re not here, and I can’t do that. I just…”

“I know everyone you have ever known  is dead,” she said smoothly, “This was exactly what happened with me. You just fell apart, and what did you do? Chose the path of destruction, and tried to get yourself killed.”

“Shut up,” I told the voice in my head, closing my eyes tightly, “I don’t want this I just want peace.”

“Then stop lying to yourself. I know you, Darwin. Now tell me the truth!”

I hesitated a moment, my mouth hanging open as I said, “I don’t… want to… “

“Louder!” she shouted.

“I don’t want to…”

“LOUDER!”

I screamed, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

That set the manticore off, and it lunged, its claws ready to slash through us. Tightening a fist, I screamed again, “I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!”

With that said, I threw a punch at the manticore, and my world faded to darkness.


***


I opened my eyes slowly to see I wasn’t dead. I was still in the forest, and I was alive. My first thought was what had happened to the manticore. When I sat up,  I saw a row of trees flattened, and at the end was the manticore with a bruised face. It was on the ground, motionless. It didn’t die, but its injuries showed that it wouldn’t be moving for a while. Then I looked at my arm, and realized my arm had transformed. A bright, orange-colored armor was covering my arm, looking like it was responsible for what it did to the manticore.

“I… I did this?” I questioned myself. Then, I noticed a soft glow, and figured it was Tia, but this one was a different color. It was the amulet, the citrine gem was glowing with light. How was that possible? I wondered what could have caused it, and remembered what I said before.

‘I don’t want to be alone’. it happened after I told the truth. Honesty, I wondered?

“HEY!” I heard crying again, it was from Luna. She ran to me and clutched my chest, crying. But it wasn’t of sadness. It was tears of joy. “You… you did it! You… beat a manticore!”

Tia trotted over to us, “I have to agree, that was amazing. I know magic but never anything like that. How did you do it?”

“Honesty,” I answered, even though I was one-hundred percent new to this power. Soon, the orange armor disappeared, and was replaced with my arm once again. “Well, this is interesting,” I muttered to myself, testing my hand, “Very interesting.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just take our leave” Tia said with a sad tone, dipping her head as her ears folded back, surprising both Luna and myself. “I know you have your own business to take care of, and we shouldn’t make you help use. We appreciate the food and protection, so have a good day. Let’s go, Luna.”

Luna smiled at me one last time and said, “Thank you.” She hugged my chest again and galloping back to her sister.

“Wait,” I called out to them, standing to my feet as they both turned back to me, “You know, Luna, you’re right. I shouldn’t have to die. I wanted to, but then I realized I was lying to myself. I didn’t want to die, I just didn’t want to be alone. I had someone that left my life a long time ago, but when that person was gone, and I just fell to pieces. I just didn’t want to live anymore, but I had a friend who helped me get back on my feet. But now… he’s gone too, and fell to the same depression all over again. Then, I met you two, and I didn’t feel sad anymore. Now, I realize I don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Wiping my tears I had shed, I beamed brightly as I said, “So, I’ve decided to become your protector, and escort you two to your destination.”

I soon saw the look on both their faces, they were crying, and I knew they were tears of joy, but then they simultaneously jumped on me, making me fall back down to the ground. They were thanking me over and over again, and I gave a soft laugh.

“Okay, okay, just get off please,” I requested kindly, and the two complied, stepping off as they looked to me with smiles. “So Tia, Luna, where do you want me to escort you to?”

Tia tapped her chin with a hoof, “Well, we’re seeking refuge at the Crystal Kingdom.”

“So I’m guessing you have no idea where it is.”

“Yes, I’m afraid,” Tia replied with a frown, “I don't know where its exact location is, but…”
I stopped her by putting my hand on her head, patting her gently as I said enthusiastically, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. We just need to find a town where we can get a map and a compass, and we’ll be there before you know it.”

“Thank you, Mr. Maxwell,” Tia thanked with a nod, making me rub the back of my head.

“Please,” I waved off, “Just call me Darwin.”

She nodded at my request and I sighed, pushing up to my feet yet again, “Alright, let’s get moving. We have to use what little day light we have left.”

The two gave a nod and we started our journey. After that night of bloodshed, monsters, and even lost hope, I found a new reason to keep moving, and their names were Tia and Luna.

> Chapter Four: Kindness Part-One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Four: Kindness Part-One

 
The bright blue sky blinded me as I stared at it, a commercial plane flying by. I soon noticed I was in the body a small boy, no older than twelve. As the boy’s head lifted up from where he lied on the ground, he saw a boy clearly older than himself, pointing his finger at him.

“You better stay down if you don’t want to get your ass kicked,” demanding the older boy, obviously a bully. As the bully turned his head to look behind him, the grounded boy saw another bully beating a young Asian child, same age as himself.

“You know why you’re getting this?” asked the attacker. “Because your goddamn people killed my dad! And now I’m gonna take it out on your ass!”

“Please stop, I was born in the U.S. My family has no ties in this war,” the Asian kid said in pain.

“SHUT UP!” yelled the bully as he continued to punch him. The bully that had pushed the boy down joined the other as they kicked the Asian kid nonstop. As the boy on the ground looked at the suffering kid, watching him be abused by the two bullies, he felt a great rage brewing inside of himself.

Without a second thought, the boy sprung to his feet, grabbed one of the bullies picking on the Asian kid, and punched him square in the face. He went down fast, crying and balling like a baby. Thinking how pathetic he was, the boy completely forgot the other bully. Before he could act, the other bully grabbed him by his collar, turning to face him as he looked angrier than ever. The bully spoke with a fist clenched and raised, preparing to strike.

 	“You shouldn’t be getting involved in things that aren’t your problem, Darwin,” the bully growled, punching the kid, and all that was left was darkness.


***




As I awoke, I realized it was just another dream. No, it was a memory from my childhood.

“You shouldn’t be getting involved in things that aren’t your problem,” I repeated quietly to myself. Looking to my right, I saw two sleeping ponies: Tia and Luna. I had made a deal with them; I was to be their protector and escort. The crystal kingdom was where they needed to go, but the only problem was I had no idea where that was.










***




Restoring corrupted data. Process: 70 percent.




***

 
Four days, it’s been four days since I agreed to help Tia and Luna. We had been hiking through the forest, which seemed to stretch for miles, ever since the break of dawn, hoping to get an early start. However, that was hours ago, and the only one who kept up with me was Tia, trotting a few feet away. As for Luna, she was falling behind far too many times, with her small body and tiny legs making it impossible to keep up with her sister and myself.

“Tia, I need you to carry your sister, she’s falling behind,” I instructed, glancing back at the poor filly. She was taking steady steps, gasping for air. Tia looked at me with shock, her expression becoming annoyance.

“Why can’t you do it? Aren’t you our protector?” Tia said, pointing a hoof at me while reminding me that I was working for them.

“I’m already carrying too much weight as it is,” I explained nonchalantly, gesturing to the pack on my back. “I need you to do this.”

I knew Tia didn’t want to, narrowing her eyes at me like it would change my mind. Thankfully, she relented, sighing deeply as she fell back a bit to walk beside Luna. I watched over my shoulder as Tia explained what I had requested, and Luna obliged quickly, and with enthusiasm. She hopped on Tia in a flash, grinning widely as Tia groaned. It was actually quite funny really, a horse riding a horse, ha.

“What’s so funny?” Tia asked, raising a brow at my smiling face.

“It’s nothing really,” I replied, waving it off with humor in my voice.


***


Two hours had passed after that conversation, and there was still no sign of any town or even a village. It was then I heard a small grumble along with a whinny sigh. Wondering what it was, I turned to my side and saw Luna was walking next to me.

“I’m hungry,” she said, her face showing exhaustion. Looking to Tia, I could see the same on her, and faced Luna again

“Well, I guess it’s a good a time as any to rest,” I said, stopping as I pulled off my backpack. As the the two fillies sighed in relief as they sat on their haunches, I knelt down and opened up my backpack. Searching through it, I found out we only had two apples and half a canteen of water left. I could easily refill the canteen with a nearby river, but I wouldn’t be able to find any edible food around the bare forest. We needed to find a town quickly so I could stock up on food or else we would starve. But we also needed to get a map of this country - Equestria, as Tia called it - and a compass to direct us to the Crystal Kingdom.

“Okay, we only have two apples left,” I explained as I took out one of the fruits. “We’re only having one for now. We have to save the other one for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!?” Tia replied, not liking it one bit. “We can’t live off one apple.”

“Look, were dangerously low on food,” I said sternly, making her back away shamefully. “We need to conserve what we have left.”

I pulled out a knife and sliced the apple into three pieces, one for each of us. I held out two pieces towards the fillies, “Here, make it last.”

Tia grudgingly wrapped the two slices with her magic, floating them over to Luna and herself. Luna grabbed it out of the air with her hooves, smiling at the food given to her. It made me curious as to why Luna couldn’t use magic herself. She was an alicorn too, wasn’t she?

“Luna,” I said, catching her attention as she bit into the apple slice again. “Can’t you use your magic?”

“Well, I’m not very good,” she replied bashfully, looking off to the side, “I have a hard time flying too.”

After hearing that, I examined her wings and compared it to her sister. I suppose ponies around Luna’s age had a difficult time adjusting to their wings, like new born birds.

Still a bit curious, however, I asked, “Have you ever tried?”

“I have, but…”

Clearing her throat suddenly, Tia interrupted, “She’s just not good enough yet. She needs more time and practice, okay?”

I was about to apologize for sounding rude, but Luna beat me to it. “Not good enough?” she scoffed, offended by her sister’s words. “I am so good enough. I can do what you can do. Watch.”

Concentrating and grunting, Luna tried with all her might to use her magic to lift the apple piece into the air. Her magic did envelope the slice for a time, but quickly died out and fell to the ground, causing Luna to sigh sadly. I reached for the apple, after wiping the dirt off, and gave the piece back to Luna. 

“You don’t have to prove anything,” I said with a small smirk, “Just eat your food, alright?”

She looked at me with a smile and took the piece with both of her hooves.

After a few minutes of silence, I stood up and glanced at the sky, not liking what I saw, “We should keep moving before it becomes nightfall.”

Despite our efforts, we still couldn’t get anywhere, and eventually the sun set, the stars twinkling into view. “We’ll have to make camp for the night,” I said aloud, crouching down and getting my backpack. After pulling a few blankets from my backpack and placing them around, I went to work on a campfire.

“I know we’re not supposed to eat again today,” Tia said quietly behind me, catching my attention. She was staring at her hooves, knowing what she was about to ask would get a negative response. “But…”

Luna didn’t let Tia finish as she exclaimed, “We only have one apple left. We need to save it for tomorrow.”

“Luna,” Tia said in surprise, slightly taken aback that her sister would be so bold. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“Of course I am,” she said, sticking out her chest, but it quickly deflated as she slouched where she sat. “It’s just…”

I knew it was hard for two fillies to go without food for so long, but it was for the best. Sighing, I finished up lighting the fire, placed a few logs on top of it, and spoke to them, “Like I said, Tia, we only have one left, and we would be out of food if we ate it now. It’s not like you can eat grass.”

“Well, actually, we ponies can,” Tia replied matter-of-factly, “But that’s a peasants’ dish.”

“Oh my god,” I groaned, slapping a hand to my face. “You were definitely pampered.”

“Wait,” Luna said suddenly, her eyes wide in shock. “We can eat grass!?”

“Yeah,” Tia answered, and hastily added, “But like I said before-”

“Alright,” I interrupted, “it’s bedtime. We’re going to be getting up at dawn again.”

“But we’re not even tired!” Tia complained, hopping up and down defiantly.

“Yeah, let’s just stay up a bit longer!” Luna whined. I growled, but hid it from the fillies. Kids could be such a pain sometimes.

“Come on, Darwin, please?” the two fillies said simultaneously, giving me puppy eyes. Luckily, it was too dark to make out their faces, so I was impervious for the time being.

“Go to sleep. Now,” I ordered bitterly. Both fillies caught my tone, and hussled into their sleeping bags. They didn’t move a muscle after that, and I assumed they had fallen asleep. Not tired indeed. Compared to them, however, I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was worried and nervous; we were on our last apple, and there was still no sign of any civilization. I knew I needed to rest for another long journey the next day, so I closed my eyes, and waited for dream world to take me.


***


I was the young boy again, my younger self. I was entering a room that I remembered to be the family room. There was a man, sitting at a recliner turned away from me to face the fire place. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words were said. Instead, he spoke up in his deep, authoritative voice, “Let me guess, you got into another fight in school and you got your ass kicked, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I replied, my eyes facing the floor.

“What was it this time?” he questioned.

“These bullies were picking on a young Asian kid and-”

“Was he Chinese?” he questioned again.

“Yes,” I said hesitantly. A moment passed before the man took a deep breath, shaking his head.

“You know why I called you ‘Darwin’?” he asked the boy, but continued on without a response. “Because of this man of the same name and his theory of Natural Selection. The survival of the fittest. The weakest shrivel and die, only the strongest can survive. You are a survivor, Darwin, remember that. Before you were born, the doctor said that the umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck, and if your mother attempted to push you out, she would have suffocated you. She wanted you to live, and told the doctors to perform a C section, but you came out feet, making the matter worse. The doctors got the rest of your body out, and with quick action, they were able to cut the cord and get you oxygen. They thought you wouldn’t make it, and your mother cried and cried for hours begging god not to take you. Now, here you are. Alive and with no damage done.”

“But that kid, if I didn’t-”

“That boy was born weak and that was why he suffered,” he explained sternly, “and you will too if you continue their senseless attempts. Now return to your room, I’ll call you for dinner when it’s ready.”

“Yes, father,” I said glumly, about to leave the room while feeling much worse than before.

“You know, Darwin,” the man said with a thoughtful tone. “You shouldn’t be getting involved in things that aren’t your problem.”

I only nodded silently, and left the room, closing the door behind me.


***


I woke with a start, leaning forward a bit as I breathed softly. My brain replayed the dream in my head, and I shook my head, wishing to drive it out.

“Dad,” I said to myself, looking at my hands, “God, I hate you.”

It was still to early to wake up, so I reluctantly laid back down and drifted back to sleep. The next morning, I got out of bed groggily, feeling the effects of not getting enough sleep. Tia and Luna were still fast asleep, snoring softly and peacefully. Glancing to the sky, I saw the sun was peeking over the distant mountains. It was dawn. I didn’t want to wake the fillies up, but we had to get going. So, regretfully, I shook them out of their sleep, but they struggled and tried to go back to bed. It took some time, but I finally got them to wake up. They were tired, and really wanted to fall asleep again, but they knew I would just wake them up again until I got my way.

Luna came up to me, rubbing her eyes with a hoof, and said, “I’m thirsty.”

I nodded, pulling one of the canteens out of my bag, only giving her a small amount to save what we had. Then I went over to Tia and gave her the same amount, and lastly I drank a bit myself. Putting the canteen away, I felt Luna rubbing her muzzle against my leg for attention.

“I’m hungry too,” she told me. Tia said the same, but we only had one apple left, and I knew we would need to save it for later. After that, we would be completely out of food. Dammit, why couldn’t we find any food in this god damn forest!? I looked to the sky, remembering my dream: ‘You shouldn’t be getting involved in things that isn’t your problem’. In my private thoughts, seeing that I was involved in something that I couldn’t handle once again.

I thought, ‘I could just walk away and... No, no why the hell would I think that? They may be horses… I mean, ponies, but they're just children. What kind of a man would just abandon two young girls alone in the forest? If I left them back in the forest, they would have been killed by that manticore, or die slowly out here. Why am I thinking about this? We need to keep moving.’

Before I turned my head away from the sky, I saw something from the corner of my eye. I turned towards it. It was pretty far away, but it was pretty clear what it was, and I cracked a smile

“Are you alright?” Tia asked, looking up at me with a puzzled expression.

I replied with one word, “Smoke.”

“What?” Tia and Luna asked simultaneously

“Look,” I said pointing into the distance “smoke. You know what that means? It could a sign of civilization, which means it could be a town with food and supplies.”

“And a bath,” Tia added, looking happy with a small squeal. Luna chuckled at her sister’s reaction. Tia noticed, however, and gave Luna a dirty look, telling her to stop that.

“Come on you two,” I said to them with a chuckle of my own, “Let’s go!”

I found myself running faster than I had ever run before, hoping to find some help with the state we were in. Glancing back, I could see Luna riding Tia, so she wouldn’t be left behind again. I turned my head back seeing a light seeping through the trees. It must have been the exit to the forest. As soon as we stepped into the light, and the brightness blinded me for a moment. When my eyes eventually adjusted to the light, I saw it. A god damn town. It was fairly big from my point of view, having buildings that reached taller than the wall that surrounded it. I saw lines of horses… I mean ponies that lead to the entrance of the town, guarded by two earth-bound ponies. The lines of ponies were made up of a variety of the subspecies with pegasi and unicorns. Tia and Luna caught up to me, their eyes bright with enthusiasm. They were about to walk over to join the lines, but I put a leg out to stop them.

“What are you doing?” Tia asked, looking up to me with a hint of annoyance.

“I just thought of something,” I explained, as I looked down at them, crossing my arms. “Now please remind me, beside you two, no one has ever seen another human, right?”

They nodded, and I continued, “And you two are royalty looking for refuge?”

“Yes, but why is that a problem?” Tia asked with a raised brow.

“Well we can’t let anyone know that you’re royalty,” I stated, “Or else that would cause a scene. But I think it would be worse if anyone saw me. I would freak everyone out.”

“Everypony,” Tia corrected with a raised hoof. “It’s pronounced ‘everypony’.”

I looked at Tia with one thing in mind. “You got to be kidding me,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. I shook off my disbelief, and faced the girls. “Anyway, we’ll need some disguises before we enter the town. Now, I think I packed some ponchos that just might work.”

Pulling out my backpack, I searched through it for a brief moment before smiling. I was right. I found two plain ponchos, and one of them fit me perfectly. The other I could use for Luna and Tia, with a little work. I could make two small ones for Tia and Luna easily. Taking out a pair of scissors, I cut up the other poncho careful, making sure they were even. After a few minutes, I had two small filly-sized ponchos.

I slipped the ponchos over the fillies heads, covering up their wings and cutie marks. The ponies would think they were just regular unicorns. As for me, I just hoped no one took too much notice of myself. But then I came to realize that his would never work. It would work fine for Tia and Luna, but I would stick out like a sore thumb.

“Okay girls,” I addressed to Tia and Luna, an idea running through my head, “change of plans. We need to do some reconnaissance before we try to get in.”

Though Tia and Luna were a bit perplexed by my notion, they nodded, and we snuck around, hiding behind the town walls. Behind cover, I peeked over and saw two guard ponies, guarding the entrance as they spoke with a mule.

“I won’t ask again,” one of the guards said harshly, “Let’s see your citizen papers.”

“I told you I have them right here,” the mule snapped, holding his papers in his hoof.

The other guard raised a brow and took the papers from the mule and looked it over, his eyes scanning over every little detail. After a moment, the guard suddenly dropped the papers onto the ground and the other stomped on them, smearing it against the dirt.

“Wait, Stop!” the mule cried out in horror.

“Well,” one of the guard ponies demanded, as if nothing had happened, “where are your citizen papers now?”

“You just had them and then your friend ruined them!” the mule yelled, his anger flaring up.

“No, I didn’t,” he insisted, and I could tell he was trying not to smirk. “Did you see me do something like that?” he addressed to the other guard.

“Nope,” the other guard said, equally keeping his smile down, “I didn’t even see any paper work. He must just be another illegal immigrant who snuck into our great country.”

“Hey!” the mule called out, You can’t just-”

“WE CAN, AND WE DID!” the guard shouted, furrowing his brow at the mule. He must have hit the end of his rope. “Now, get out of our sight before I smash my hooves into your head!”

The mule, completely terrified at that point, nodded frantically before taking off away from the town.

“What a bunch of assholes,” I whispered, shaking my head.

“What are those?” Luna asked, looking up to me with curiosity.

“It’s nothing,” I replied to Luna, not wanting to tell her about curse words at a young age.

“So Darwin,” Tia spoke up, her shoulders slump as she stared at the two guards. “How are we going to get in?”

I stepped away from the corner, as I knelt down to the two fillies’ level, “We’ll have to get in illegally.”

“But that’s against the law!” Tia said in shock, her eyes wide.

“Well, I think they’ll let you two in,” I started, gesturing to them, “But there’s no way I’m letting you two go in without me, and if the guards wouldn’t let a mule in, there’s no way they’ll let me in. So I’ll need to check along the wall, see if there’s a back door we could sneak in.”

Unfortunately, while I was talking, someone interrupted right behind me.

“HELLO!” someone shouted, scaring the living hell out of me and making me jump. I was lucky I had caught myself before I had fallen. I turned around, there stood a pony with a wide smile. It was a stallion with a pink coat, curly pink hair, and blue eyes. At first, his smile creeped me out, but I eventually found this smile more cheerful than anything.

“I couldn't help, but hear that you needed help getting in to Haybin, am I right?” the stallion said rapidly, catching me off guard, “Tell me if I’m right, I’m usually right about these things, or maybe I’m just hearing the same thing again. No wait, I’m not wrong, I’m right. I’m always right about everything. But wait tell me who are you first.”

That guy was… wow. “Yes,” I answered uneasily, drawing out the word. I attempted to start a real conversation with him, but he was talking again before I could try.

“YES!” the stallion said, giving a fist pump, or I guess a hoof pump. “I knew I was right, because I could never be wrong, because if I was wrong I would never be able to help anypony in need of help, but if I’m always right then I get everything right and that would make things boring, and boring isn’t fun at all. Why is this confusing me?”

“Excuse me,” I asked him before he say another word, “who are you exactly?”

“Oh right of course, I should always introduce myself when somepony I never met comes by, they’ll think I’m some kind of weirdo.” It was like he was reading my mind. “Anyway, my name is Cocoa Pie.”

“Co… coa… Pie?” I said to him.

“Yes, well my real name is Pecan Pie,” Cocoa explained with a roll of his eyes, “but everypony calls me Cocoa as a nickname. I mean everypony in my home town called me that, everypony at my school, and even everypony all over Equestria calls me Cocoa Pie, so I just stuck with it. So… what’s yours?!”

I blinked, “Um… Darwin.”

“Darwin?” Cocoa questioned with a giggle, “I never heard a name like that before. I mean, I know a Silver Grape, Dawner Goner, Heavy Ringer, Fantastic Leaper, Midnight Glitter, Super Fantastic, Sleepy Meme, Horse Shoe, Flipping Coin, Jumping Mc Jump, Dum Dum rig Mong, Pecky, Shooting Dawn, wait let me see… Oh right and I know a-” 

Oh my god, was he really going to keep talking like this? I was trying to intrude, but I didn’t know if it was considered inconsiderate or rude to do that. However, at that moment, I needed him to shut up for five seconds, at least. I was about to speak up, that is, until Tia did it for me.

“Excuse me,” she called out gently, silencing Cocoa instantly, frozen in place, “you said you were willing to help us, right? What do you have in mind?”

Cocoa Pie took one look at Tia and gave a big gasp for a solid six seconds, and bowed afterwards. 

“Your Majesty!” he breathed, “It’s an honor to meet you.”

Wait, how did he know that Tia was royalty? She had her puncho on, so her wings were covered. That wonder drifted off quickly when I realized that he was practically giving away our cover. Slightly panicked, I grabbed him and hid him with us before he could make a bigger seen. After I let him go, he let out another gasp, which lasted for another six seconds. 

“I knew you were different,” he expressed with a smile, “but I never seen anything like this!”

I gave him an odd look before I replied, “You mean my hands?”

“Hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand , hand, hand, hand, hand , hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand,” he said repeatedly Luna came into his vision, “Wait, is that another princess? It’s also an honor to… Wait a minute. What are they doing with you? HA! I know what you are! You’re a prince who casted a spell on himself and now you need to a wizard to help you fix it, or maybe you’re a alicorn in disguise. No, no you’re a boy, or maybe you’re a kidnapper. A kidnapper who has taken the princesses and are going to make an exchange in town for millions and millions of bits! Or maybe you’re nothing but a evil, no good, meany pants! But you don’t look evil enough, maybe if you had a mustache. Aaaah, I didn’t bring a mustache.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, feeling very overwhelmed. 

“What my friend actually means,” Tia interrupted quickly with a tinge of nervousness, “is can you help us get into the city?”

“Oh yeah, I can help you,” Cocoa said with a nod, “I’ll put you in a cannon, shoot you into the sky while you do loop de loops in the air and land on a trampoline I conveniently place in the town square. Or was it a glass of water?”

Before he said anything else, I stated with a small smirk, “Or we could hide in that wagon of hay and you can pull us in.”

Everyone took notice of the abandoned wagon, and Cocoa groaned, dipping his head in disappointment, “Alright, if you want to do it the boring way.”

“A wagon of hay?” Luna repeated, glancing at the object in question.

“Well, after hearing about Haybin, I just-” I said before the town name finally sunk in. A town named Haybin... in a world of horses. I really hoped I wouldn’t hear any more horse puns while I’m in this world.

 Shaking out the thought, I briskly ushered everyone over to the hay wagon. I helped Luna into the hay wagon, then Tia, and lastly I climbed in myself. Once I was sure we were hidden in the hay, I checked outside, seeing Cocoa strap himself to the head of the wagon. I said, “Ready.”

With enthusiasm, he responded, “Okie dokie lokie!” 

What he said confused me, but I knew I didn’t have time to argue. I simply remained under the hay, keeping myself from moving at all. I could feel the wagon shaking as it was pulled along the dirt road. It was only a few seconds afterwards did we hear anything. 

“Halt!” I heard one of the guards shout. Dammit, I knew things were going too easily. I peeked through the hay, seeing Cocoa converse with a guard at the gate.

“Is there a problem?” Cocoa asked with a nervous smile

“Yes, you look familiar,” spoke the guard from the left.

“Wait, I remember you,” the guard on the right muttered, his eyes narrowed, “You’re that crazy earth pony, Cocoa Pie.”

“Yep, that’s me. Good old crazy Cocoa Pie,” he replied, his voice wavering as he glanced around.

“Well, you can enter,” the guard on the left conceded, “just stay out of trouble, and don’t make another scene like last time.”

I’m guesting that this wasn’t Cocoa’s first time here, but I was too relieved to think about it. Still being able to see through the hay, I looked around and saw many different ponies in many different colors. Unicorns, Pegasus, earth-bounds, griffins … after blinking a few times, I shook my head and looked again. A real, brown and white griffin. I knew this world was magical with the unicorns, Pegasus, and manticores, so griffins should have exist as well, but I still couldn’t believe it.

I soon spoke to the girls, “Can you see this? A real griffin.”

“Well of course that’s a griffin,” Tia replied with indifference, “You mean to tell me that you never saw a griffin before?”

I replied with a nervous grunt. “You never saw a griffin before!?” Tia exclaimed in surprise “That’s just like saying you never seen a dragon.”

After hearing that, all I could say was, “Dragon’s exist too!”

“Ssssooooo, where do you need to go?” Cocoa asked, not shocked in the least about my limited knowledge.

I dropped the subject of new mythical creatures before addressing Cocoa, “Oh right, we need to find a pawn shop.”

“Pawn shop?” Cocoa repeated confusingly, indicating that pawn shops hadn’t really been established yet.

Sighing inwardly, I said, “I mean, a general goods store where I can trade goods for money and other supplies.”

“Oh, well I know just the place”, he said with a small cheer,” And the owner is really nice, he’ll do business with anyone as long as they have business to work with!Just stay in that pile of hay, and I’ll take you right there.”

“So what do we need?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Tia added, “I would like to know?”

“Well, we need a map of Equestria, a compass, and money to buy food, water and supplies,” I explained, counting off the items with my fingers.

“We’re here!” screamed Cocoa, surely making everyone look over to us and causing a scene, even though the guard told him explicitly not to do that! I pushed some hay out of the way to see clearly, and there was the shop. A sign that hung nearby said ‘Goody Goods General Goods’. I really hoped Goody Goods wasn’t the owner’s name. With a quick check of the area, I snuck out of the wagon to a position where I was hard to spot with Tia and Luna following my lead.

“By the way, thanks Cocoa. You really-” I said, but cut myself off when I noticed that he was gone. I quickly looked around but he was no where in sight.“Where did he go?”

The girls shook their heads, causing me to wonder how he was able to slip away without any of us seeing him. I was curious as to where he could have gone at the moment, I had more important things to get done. I turned to the store, and pulling my hood farther down to cover up more of my face as I opened the door. As I entered the shop, I saw a unicorn with a brown coat and a long thin beard behind a wooden counter. The store itself was littered with food, water jugs, and other miscellaneous wares.

“Hello, welcome to Goody Goods General Goods,” the pony said with a smile, “I’m Goody Goods and I’ll be your vender today.”

“Son of a bitch,” I mumbled to myself. I quickly shook off the irritance of the similarities and asked, “Do you buy goods and have a map and compass?”

“Yes and yes,” Goodie replied with his ever present smile.

“Good, come in girls,” I said with a wave of my hand, allowing Tia and Luna to come inside.

However, we were quickly stopped by Goody as he said, “Sorry, but foals aren’t allowed into my store. It’s just a store policy.”

Great, no kids allowed. Cocoa Pie did mention this was a good store, and I really didn’t know this town very well. I needed to get what we needed and leave, and fast. I soon turned to Tia and Luna and knelt down to their level. “Listen, we’re in need of supplies so I want you two to wait outside for a few minutes while I get what we need, okay?”

“But-” Luna started before I stopped her.

“Luna, please, be a big girl and wait out with your sister,” Luna shook her head as a response, but I ignored it as I turned to her sister. “Tia, keep Luna and yourself safe, and please… don’t get into trouble.”

“Don’t worry just do what you need to do, we’ll be waiting,” Tia said before she and Luna left the store As for me, I turned to the counter to make my transaction.

“You know,” Goody muttered, stroking his beard with a hoof, “I’ve never seen somepony like you in Equestria.”

After hearing that, I thought I was screwed, thinking he’d call the guards or something along those lines. “But I don’t care,” he said with an indifferent tone, “as long as you have money, you’re welcome in my shop anytime.”

Well this guy sure was a greedy bastard, but thank god he was fine doing business with me. “Now then,” as the shopkeeper returned to our bartering, ”let’s get down to business. You wanted to sell some goods?”

“I do,” I answered with a nod, my hands pulling off my bag, “Just one second.”

With bag in hand, I knelt down and unzipped it. Carefully, I sorted what I needed and didn’t need, placing the unnecessary stuff on the counter. I noted that the shopkeeper was looking at my hand with a stunned look on his face. He finally saw that I was staring at him, and smiled back and looked away with an awkward cough. After I placed everything I wanted to sell on the counter, Goody examined them intently, his expression being very unimpressed.

“Is that all?” he asked, gesturing to the stuff. I nodded, and he continued, “Aren't you going to buy something?”

Hearing that I replied, “Well, I don’t really have any money.” 

“WHAT!?” he shouted, his eyes widening before he simmered down a bit looking off to the side, “Ah, I mean… well, I don’t offer trades in my store, so I must ask you to leave.”

“But Cocoa pie said you would trade and buy stuff,” I pointed out.

“COCOA?! ”he shouted before sighing tiredly, whispering, “Why am I not surprised?“ 

“Well to be honest,” the shopkeeper said with a long pause, “I’ve never seen any of this before, and I’ve seen many thing from all over Equestria. Yours looks like it was from some far off land or even another world. But if that’s it, I’ll buy it for fifty bits.” 

I assumed that bits was their currency in this world, but since it was a free market, I decided to haggle him. “I’ll sell them all for seventy-five.”

“Do you think you could haggle with me?” he replied with a angry tone. With quick thinking, I remembered Cocoa Pie, and decided to use that to my advantage.

“Okay,” I submitted, unable to stop the sly smirk on my face, “but I think Cocoa is right outside, and I need some help carrying my stuff out. Hey, Co-” 

“STOP STOP!” he yelled frantically, holding his hooves out, “I’ll buy everything for sixty bits.”

“Sixty-five,” I replied.

The shopkeeper grumbled, “Fine, deal.”

“Good,” I nodded before remembering what I needed, “Oh and I was wondering if you had a map of Equestria, a compass, and some food.”

“Yes, yes I have those,” he said dejectedly. Using his magic, the shopkeeper levitated a small chest - which I assumed where he stored his money - on top of the counter. He then casted a spell to open the box, making it glow for a moment. Quickly opening it, he dug into the box, tossing my sixty-five bits on the counter. Before closing his box, the shopkeeper halted, and looked up to me. “Pardon me,” he asked rather nicely, “but what’s that around your neck?”

I looked down to my chest, noticing the golden chain was shown slightly, and with a small tug, I pulled it out completely from the cover of my poncho. The shopkeeper was stunned just looking upon it, his gaze glued to it. “Those Gems…” he muttered, “The craftsmanship… Where in the name of our King did you find that beauty? I’d like to buy that from you for five hundred bits.”

My eyes widened a bit at his offer. Five hundred bits was a lot; He really wanted it if he was offering that much. Even still, I already had the answer ready before he asked, returning to my neutral expression before speaking, “No”.

“Very well, six-hundred,” the shopkeeper said hastily without a hitch. Six hundred!? He was willing to buy my amulet for six hundred now!? That was almost nine times more than what I was making with this junk, but I needed the amulet for its magical properties. I remember the orange armor appeared on my arm that helped me defeat the manticore. I knew I couldn’t just get rid of it.

“No,” I said again, being stern emphasis my decision.

The shopkeeper shook his head, giving a defeated sigh, “You’re very persistent, aren’t you? Very well, seven hundred and fifty, but that’s as high as I’ll go.”
Damn, this guy really wanted it that badly. I actually hesitated a moment before saying yet again, “No.”

“Fine,” he mumbled with a unhappy tone, but it quickly died out as he said,”What a shame, that would have looked lovely on my wife. Anyway, here’s your sixty five bits. Now, you said something about a map, compass, and food?”

Happy to get what I needed, I smiled, “Yeah, I need a map of Equestria, a compass to help navigate, and enough food for a week.”

After some bartering, I got what we needed, with enough food to last a week with careful usage. And I still had thirty bits to spare. I placed the money with the rest of our supplies in my bag as I swung it over my back.“Thanks,” the shopkeeper said with a bit more glee than necessary. “Come back to Goody Goods General Goods if you want some goods.”

I cringed as he finished that statement. God, I hated this guy’s name. Well, I shouldn’t really care. Since I got what we came for, I needed to get out of here before someone noticed me, or worse, the shopkeeper would tell a guard that some creature not of this world just came by his shop for some supplies. I knew I was just overthinking it, but it was better to play it safe, especially with my job protecting the girls.

Pushing the door open, I stepped out of the shop, my eyes to the ground. “Tia, Luna, I got what we need. Are you girls hun-” I started before realizing that they weren’t where I left them. I quickly glanced around all over while still remaining undetected, but they were no where in sight. “You have got to be kidding me,” I grumbled, slapping a hand over my forehead, “God damn it.”


	***


This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. I told them to wait for me; I left them alone for five minutes and they both disappeared. I had only been their protector for less than a week and I already screwed it up. God, they could be anywhere, or worse they could have been taken by someone or… Damn it, I needed to find them as soon as possible! Just as I thought that, I heard a noise that sounded like a young fillies, and I knew that cry. Luna. Following the voice as stealthily as I could, I rushed over to see if it really was Luna, hoping that Tia was there with her. I soon found myself running through an empty alley way, hearing Luna’s cries as I got closer and closer. As I neared the end of the alley, where Luna had to be, I knew it wouldn’t be wise to run right in. So I slowed to a walk as I neared the opening, taking quite footsteps. 

As I reached the edge of the next alley way, I peaked my head past the wall to see what was on the other side. And there they were, Tia and Luna. Luna was behind Tia, looking a bit shaken as tears welled up in her eyes. Though I wondered what was wrong, I couldn’t help but be glad that Tia was there, doing what I had asked her to do: protecting her little sister. My eyes wandered past them, further down the alley as I spotted who they were facing. It was just... more fillies. But they weren’t girls, they were boys, and I believe ‘colts’ was the correct term for a young male horse. From what I could examine, there were only three of them, and they were all unicorns. Besides Luna, I thought Tia had the situation under control, but I prepared myself in case something happened.

“So you think you can take me on?” the colt that stood in the middle, a sneer on his snout.

“If you continue this path, then yes, I will use my magic to stop you!” Tia threatened, her eyes narrowing.

“Maybe we should leave Deep Pocket,” said the colt to the left, his expression one of worry

“Yeah,” the other colt to the right, looking just as scared, “We’re not saying we can’t take her on or anything. It’s just that this is getting stupid, and we should just do something else.”

“Will you two stop acting like a bunch of fillies!?” the one known as Deep Pocket snapped, causing the other to to flinch, “She’s obviously bluffing. I bet she can’t even do a floating spell.”

I was unable to stop myself from cringing again at the these weird names. Even though this was an alternate version of my universe, I still had trouble adjusting to the items and customs.

“It’s called telekinesis,” Tia replied, confidence brimming in her words, “And for a unicorn, you seem to be lacking in magic yourself.”

Deep Pocket growled, “Well, at least I have something you don’t, blank flak.”

“Blank flank,” I repeated to myself, “What the hell is a Blank flank?”

As I examined the situation, I noticed the three colts had symbols on their flanks. That Deep Pocket brat had what looked like a sack of gold, the one on the left had a pinwheel, and the one on the right had a forge. As I recalled, neither Tia and Luna had a symbol on their flanks. But as I thought even further, I believed that the colts symbols were tattoos. Wait, were those tattoos? Did their parent really let them have tattoos on their asses? I knew this was another universe, but I had never meant a parent that would allow someone at their age to even have a tattoo. Let alone on their ass.

“I may not have a cutie mark, but at least mine won’t be some sack of gold, what does that even mean?” Tia said, making me proud that she showed him who better.

Deep Pocket looked like he was about to lose his temper, and then he yelled, “Oh yeah, if you think you’re so much better than me, then I’m going to stomp you into the dirt, and then that little filly is next!” I was really starting to hate this little bastard. I knew Tia could take him on no problem, but after he threatened Luna, I knew I have to step in.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I said, stepping into the scene.

“And who do you thi…” he trailed off, as he noticed my size and angry expression. Then he screamed, “MONSTER!” He took off away from me out of the alley and into the street which lead the other two to screaming and running as well.

“Darwin? How did you…?” and before she could finish her sentence I interrupted her with a strict voice.

“What the hell were you two doing?!” I scolded, crossing my arms as I did. Tia cowered away from me slightly, but that didn’t deter me. “I told you to stay near the shop, you two had me worried sick. What if someone found out who you two were, or worse, hurt you? Well, answer me!”

Before I could get an answer, I heard a small whimper coming from behind Tia. I checked to see if it was Luna, but it wasn’t, though she was there. Behind Luna was a smaller body. I looked closer and saw a younger colt, bruised and beaten.

“It was my fault,” Luna explained, dipping her head low “I saw him being chased by those bullies. Tia told me to stay, but I couldn’t just let him get beaten. I’m sorry, Darwin.”

I gave a long pause in thought for a moment before sighing, “We’ll talk about it later.” I examined colt closer, and I noticed his coat had strips. “Wait, is he a zebra?” I questioned. I knew this world was populated by horses, so I shouldn’t excuse zebras from appearing as well. Even still, I expected that they’d live in warmer climates like Africa.

I walked a bit closer to get a better look at him, but the sound of a female voice halted my movement. “What are you doing to my son?!” I turned to see who had spoken and saw a cloaked creature. The cloaked creature with the female voice then rushed towards me. In a quick reaction, I grabbed Tia and Luna and moved out the way. She approached the injured zebra colt, taking off her hood as she did and revealing that she was actually an adult female zebra. She must have been the colt’s mother.

Based off her reaction to seeing her son hurt, there was no doubt she would blame us for being the cause of his injuries. I opened my mouth to explain the situation to her, but she interrupted me before I could say a word. “Stay away form my son!” she shouted, glaring at us as she held a hoof over her son in protection, “If I see you again, I’ll kill you!” Putting the injured zebra colt on her back, she trotted away through the same alley she came in.

“Is he going to be okay?” Luna asked, looking up to me with concern.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly with a shrug, “but it isn’t really our problem. We got what we need, now we just have to get out of this city. Once we leave, I’ll tell you what happened with me.” 

“But how are we going to get out of here?” questioned Tia as she stomped a hoof, “With Cocoa Pie gone, who’s going to get us out of town?”

“I’ll figure something out,” I said with a wave of my hand, taking a few steps away from them, “but first, I’m I going to see if the coast is clear.”

“But what happen if somepony finds us?” asked Luna, “You’re not going to hurt them, are you?”

I took a deep breath, “I’ll try to restrain myself.”

What was I saying; if the situation got any worse, I’d have no choice but to fight. I could possibly take on one or two pony guard with no problem, but if I went up against a hand full, that would really become a problem. Then again, I could use that power I used against the manticore. Honestly, I think it was called. But I don’t know how to call it. From that near death situation, I honestly had no idea how I did that. But at the moment, I had to get Tia and Luna out of this place.

As I peered over to the street see if the coast was clear, I caught sight of that Deep Pocket kid talking to some stallion. Taking a good look at him, I could see that he was middle age, wearing a rich renaissance hat, and had a tattoo of coins falling into a pile of coins. I could safely assume he was Deep Pocket’s father.

“Don’t worry, son,” the stallion said, patting Deep Pocket on the head. “The guards will find this monster that attacked you.”

Attack? I didn’t doing anything to him, except stopping him from hurting Tia and Luna. But seeing that the father was wealthy, I could see how his son would become a little bastard.

“In the mean time,” the stallion continued, dropping his hoof back to the ground, “Tell the gate guards that the front door must be closed until this monster is found.”

Well, this just got a lot harder. We won’t be able to leave through the front door, and we won’t be able to walk along the streets to escape either, or it would be a hell of a run for all of us. 

“Bad news, girls,” I said as I walked back to them, “The whole town is looking for me and the front door has been shut tight.”

Tia groaned, sitting on her haunches with a huff, “Well, now how are we going to get out of the city?”

“Darwin?” Luna asked, her tone indicating she was slightly afraid.

“I don’t know,” I said with gritted teeth, frustrated at the situation overall.

I faced back towards the street, and saw a guard heading straight toward our position. I told Tia and Luna to move and lead them back to the Goody Goods… I mean, the general goods store. When we got closer, I noticed a shadow coming from another part of the street. The shadow became a guard as he walked closer. I quickly stopped the girls and we bolted for another alley way. We continued to move along, finding the alleys being more of a maze with it’s weird path of corners and dead ends.

After some time, we found ourselves in a three way path. As I looked down both ways, I noticed that there were guards placed at both ends. Turning around in hopes to find another route, another guard was heading this way. Realized that we were trapped, I knew that the only way out was to fight. Then, out of the blue, I heard a voice, the same voice as the female zebra from earlier. Frantically scanning the alley, I eventually faced the ground and saw her head poking out of manhole cover.

“Get in if you don’t want them to get you,” she said hastily. I didn’t know the town would have a sewer system, but boy am I glad it did.

“Okay, girls,” I called to them, failing to hold back a faint smile, “We’re getting out of here.”

As the zebra pushed the manhole cover out, I grabbed it and dragged it off to the side, trying to keep the noise down as low as possible.

“What?” Tia said in shock, finally seeing where we would be going, “Absolutely not. It’s filthy down there.” Without a second thought, I grabbed Tia and dropped her in the sewer hole before she could do a thing. I then grabbed Luna and jumped down. As I landed on my feet, I realized that the fall was much shorter than I thought. Then again, this world was full of ponies, so pony sized sewers should have been expected. Not only that, but I had to lower my body so I wouldn’t hit my head. Before I did that, I had to cover our trail so I went up and pulled the man hole cover back where it was.

Returning to the sewer, I noted that the area really was filthy. However, I pushed that thought away as the zebra stepped closer to us. “If you are wondering why I saved you,” the zebra said, looking to each of us in turn “It is because my son told me what really happened.”

“Well… Thanks,” I said with an appreciative nod, “but how did you know we would be near this place?”

“I over heard the guard speak about the lockdown,” she explained, “and I guessed that you wouldn’t leave the spot where I left you. So I took the sewer system, and luckily, you were under a manhole cover.”

“So you just assumed where we were and got lucky?” I asked, not liking that fate was responsible for our safety.

“Yes,” she answered simply, “Now, follow me, I will take you to my home. It’s the least I can do for you all.”

“Yes, please,” Tia replied floating in the air, making sure not to touch the sewer water that ran along our feet. Seeing Tia fly away, I knew that Luna was walking around in the muck, and seeing her disgusted expression, I could tell she didn’t like being in the water either. So I picked her up, and put her on my shoulders. I could faintly see her smile as she gave my neck a small squeeze, causing me to give a warm smile myself. Facing the zebra again, I saw how shocked she was as she stared at Tia’s wings before reverting a serious expression.

“So you are an alicorn princess, I see,” she observed looking Tia up and down before studying Luna. “This has been an interesting day.” With that, she turned back and we followed her through the sewer. The silence reigned for some time, and having enough of it, I decided to engage in a conversation
.
“So, what’s your name?”

“You ask many questions, you know that?” she replied snidely, showing a smirk as both Tia and Luna giggled.

I raised a brow at them before replying, “Well, I was just being polite, that’s all.”

Giving a humorous grunt, she said, “It is more polite if you give your name first before I do.”

“Very well,” I agreed, somewhat taken back by her logic, “The name’s Darwin Maximus. Now what’s yours?” 

“Za, my name is Za,” she answered, and I had to admit, it was a good name. Even still, it was another name that wasn’t a name. However, after hearing the names Goody Goods and Deep Pocket, I don’t know why I was complaining about how different this world was compared to mine.

“Thanks again for saving use back there, Za,” Tia said still flying over the water, “If you don’t mind me asking, but how much longer until we reach the end?”

“We’re almost there, look up ahead,” she said, pointing her leg forward towards a bright light at the end of the tunnel. The light got closer and closer as we approached, and after a while my eyes adjusted to it. But what I saw was something I didn’t like. We were at the edge of town, evident by the tall walls, but the state of the place held much to be desired.

“What is this place?” Luna questioned with worry, holding me tighter.

With a shake of my head, I replied, “It’s a slum.”