Chapter I: What Goes Up, Must Come Down

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Our tale begins in the humble little town of Prospect Lake, an isolated community planted in the far Northern region of the expansive Canadian wilderness. Far from the conviences of modern civilization, such as good cell reception and more than one Starbucks. Truly, a small hodunk town cut off from the wonders of the twenty first century.

At the moment, the town was facing one of its worst storms; nothing like it had been seen in the last decade, the wind howled like a savage beast, prowling the desolate streets looking for a way inside people's homes. Snow came down in sheets so thick that if anything stood out in the open it would have been covered in seconds, and buried in minutes. Frost covered thermometers reported that outside the air was reaching well beyond sub zero. The storm was brutal and malevolent, anyone caught outside was either mad or had a death wish.

There was one person though that was definitely not suffering from the cold, not in the least.

Currently, said individual was enjoying some rarely caught rest, as he slept in his cozy little cot; sheltered from the freezing arctic air by several layers of blankets, along with a large down duvet. It was nice and toasty under those blankets, nothing could harm him so long as he had this barrier of warmth to protect him. The raging blizzard outside couldn't breach the stronghold that he had created; Damian had constructed the ultimate fortress against the cold, and he used every minute of it to dream peacefully.

Then that fateful horrid moment struck when Damian was thrown from his dreamland; the phone on the nightstand rung out into the small bedroom, its chime worse than the screech of a harpy.

Sleeping under the sheets the man cringed at the noise, wishing whoever it was to give up and call again later; but Damian was granted no such mercy as whoever it was on the other line kept trying to get through. The phone kept up it's acoustic attack until the walls crumbled around Damian; groggy, he opened his sleep blurred eyes to face this nemesis. Shifting his eyes to the wall-clock found that it was nearly four in the morning. Groaning out a curse, he picked up the phone.

"Hello? Walker speaking," the urge to just put the phone back and ignore it rose, but since he had already answered he knew that he couldn't. Whoever this was had better have a good reason for waking me.

"Yeah this is your boss, get your ass out of bed, I need you down at the office now," a gruff voice commanded from the small electronic speaker. "We just got our packages ready and they need to be delivered pronto."

"...Mr. Blake, with all due respect there is a mother of all storms trying to bury the town alive right now. There's no way I could get out in this weather, whatever it is it can wait," Damian's throat itched as if he hadn't had a sip of water in years, "Plus today was supposed to be my day off remember?"

"Yeah yeah, I know that it's your day of the month to sit back and fart around all day; but these orders are important enough to revoke your little vacation. It's in the job description that up here at the arctic circle vacations are rare," The man on the line said with annoyance. "The weather report said it would clear up in an hour or so, you shouldn't have any problems by the time we get the Aurora packed. I'm not missing a chance to get these deliveries made, so get your butt out of bed or you might not have your job tomorrow," the line went dead as Mr. Blake hung up. Yeah, and by tomorrow I won't have my job anyways since I'll be six feet under, Damian thought to himself.

True, he had signed the contract, read the fine print front to back, but as far as he had known at the time the thought of Safety Firstwas always the top priority. How naive he was.

Now he could just refuse, state it wasn't safe to work in those conditions, he might even have won an appeal in court if he was sacked for not doing what Mr. Blake had ordered him to do, which as paramount to jumping off a cliff. Yet, deep down Damian knew it would just kill his career, and Mr.Blake had many connections to make sure of it.

I've come too far to throw it all away now.

Reluctantly tossing off the covers Damian made his way to the apartment's tiny bathroom, ice cold air numbing his feet and skin as he entered the small washroom. Looking into the mirror he found a bedraggled man staring back, eyes lined with dark rings. "G'morning beautiful." Damian ran a hand through his short chestnut brown hair, noticing a few grey hairs starting to poke up; it was kind of depressing since he just turned twenty-seven a month ago. Dark stubble had appeared on his face and Damian knew that he should probably shave it soon, but when his hand reached for the razor he decided to only trim it instead taking it all away. The end result was an even stubble that outlined his faced, looking back in the mirror Damian still looked like shit, just a more organized pile of it.

After a while, a freshly-showered Damian walked iback nto the apartment's kitchen. He wore a grey thick woolen sweater as well as his favorite pair of black snow pants; he'd gotten them two years back on a snowboarding trip in Whistler. Together with a black and red scarf his mother had knitted for him, he felt warm despite the freezing air around him.

Next paycheck I'm fixing the heater.

Kicking open the fridge revealed only a half finished bag of milk, a six pack of Molson missing half its cans, and the remains of last night's dinner; a box of Tim Horton's Doughnuts. A tired sigh left the man's lips and he thought of the trek he had to make to the only supermarket in town; though it was unlikely they would be open with their front doors buried under two meters of snow. "I knew I should have stocked up sooner, but oh no, I had to procrastinate. Now it looks like I might have to eat only crackers and jerky for dinner." With a huff Damian snatched the box of donuts and poured himself a bowl of Fruit Loops.

Half an hour after his boss had blackmailed him to come to work Damian was outside ridding his snowmobile, plowing though snow drifts and weaving between the sparse buildings that made up Prospect Lake, though at times it was hard to tell which was which as the snow and ice practically submerging entire buildings.

None of the lights were on in the homes he passed, with only sparse lamp posts glowing eerily as snow still fell through the gloom. Damian looked to the gray skies he noticed that for a moment the falling snow had let up; just a bit though, as if Father Winter was trying to lull everyone into thinking that the worst was over.

The town sat a few hundred kilometers North West from Whitehorse with British Columbia to the South and Alaska to the direct west. There wasn't much to the town besides a Tim Hortons and a hospital. The population never really went above a thousand, and if it wasn't for its job servicing the pipeline that ran from the Arctic oil platforms down to South then it would have turned into a ghost town long ago. The other saving grace for the town was that it was connected to the Alaska Highway. This road access combined with the lake that the town was named after created its second purpose; an airport, of sorts.

In winter seasons the lake's ice became thick enough that you could drop a Ford Ranger on it and nothing would happen. The Lake was also the only perfectly flat land in the area; the surrounding landscape was filled with steep hills and mountains. It was much easier to use ice skies on the planes in winter and floats in summer than it was to carve out the necessary land for a proper runway. As Damian past a crop of pines the airport came into view, the large steel hangers sitting on the frozen shores like giant toy boxes.

The trip didn't take long and soon enough Damian was greeted at the front door by the lumbering form of his boss, Mr. Blake. The man stood between Damian and the sweet safety of the warm office. Mr.Blake was in his late fifties with balding grey hair, he was one of those morbidly obese people that you see every now and then with a weight somewhere near 160 kg that tried to fit into a body only 160 cm's tall.

Word around the break room was that Mr. Blake had actually tried to keep his figure, using it as an extra layer against the cold. Several jokes sifted about the crews that his mother was a grizzly and his father a sea lion, but what sealed the deal was the thick bristly mustache Blake kept on his upper lip; behind his back the nickname The Walrus stuck.

"Why didn't you get here sooner Mr. Walker?" Mr. Blake demanded, his fat acting like a road block as Damian tired to enter the company office.

Damian really disliked the man; the guy was a modern slave driver. If there was a profit to be made then you could count on Mr. Blake to try and claim it; mostly at his employee's expense though, like now. Worst of all, he was actually useful and talented when it came to running a business and working the complex system of supplies that each plane needed to run, so the CEO back in Vancouver didn't even try and get rid him.

"Today was supposed to be my day off, sir. That and there's the whole blizzard thing going on outside that slowed me, I'm sure you must have missed it," Damian snarked as he pushed around the blubber and made for the hanger.

Mr. Blake scrunched his face up in contempt, "Heh, excuses, you should already be used to the commute by now. From now until the New Year I've canceled all vacations in order to deal with this backlog of shipments," Damian shot his head around to look in disbelief as Blake held up a filled out form and passed it to Damian, the smile on Mr. Blake's face would have given Jig Saw nightmares as he sneered. "It's been approved by the top."

There wasn't any doubt as Damian looked it over, the form was official. Mr. Blake took back the form and handed a folder back, "In here are some of the details about the flight, I suggest you give it a look over before you leave the ground in twenty minutes, so get going. I don't want to miss this window of opportunity the weather has given us." Mr. Blake turned on his heels and started to walk back to his office, "Oh, and happy holidays," The walking whale of a man left Damian in the hall to look on in horror and disbelief.

A tan hand came to rest on Damian's shoulder, "Ah don't worry too much, I'm sure the boss is going to have a stroke soon enough, and when it happens we can raid his stash of Twinkies," Damian turned to meet his friend's grinning face. "I even have a bet riding on that he'll keel over before Christmas."

"Thanks Riel, save some of those for me would you?" Damian laughed and playfully hit his friends shoulder. It was good to see a friendly face, "Though I still think him ordering us into the air in this weather is suicide."

"Yeah, I can understand, but we really do have a major issue here with delayed shipments. The boss is just trying to solve the crisis anyway he can really, even risking a flight like now," Riel gave a sympathetic smile and started down the hall.

"Today's flight is for a research group planning to set up camp along the Mackenzie River just south of Great Bear Lake. The team is going to monitor migrations of some of the local wildlife for a few months. They already have their gear set up; all they need is a stockpile of preserved foods."

"So this is just a glorified grocery flight?" The two passed the break room and picked up a cup of watered down coffee. The coffee was terrible, but at least it was warm.

"Yep, oddly enough though there isn't any meat in the creates; apparently quite a few of the egg heads are vegans and wouldn't work out there if any of their food ate other food at one point. Apparently a large sum of their funding is also from Green Peace, so that explains part of it as well."

Damian just hummed at that, personally he didn't understand why vegans were all perfiniky with their food and such, but it wasn't really his place to judge. His own diet was more preservatives than actual food anyways.

The two walked along in silence until Riel spoke up again, "So Walker, are you going to send anything back to your folks? My uncle just finished with preserving some Caribou meat from the last hunting trip, there's enough that I could give you some for your parents back in Burnaby."

"Nah, thanks for the offer but they're actually getting sick of the stuff. Frankly I don't even know what to give them for Christmas, we don't really talk all that much."

"Ah, that's right, your ma wasn't too happy with you coming up here, kept on calling this place a 'death trap' and all that. Quite frankly I'm a little insulted by that, I don't go calling other peoples homes lethal." Riel put on a face of mock disgust. Riel was a Métis and had lived his entire life up in Prospect Lake, his Quebec Father and South Tutchone mother had met when a French Canadian geological survey team had visited the area.

"Yeah, but at least I told her not to send any Starbucks coupons this time. I mean come on, I'm in the Yukon, sure it's cold but a Starbucks just isn't up here. Though, this time I think she's just sending a Timmy's card instead."

"Well it's the thought that counts."

The pair walked along the halls of the office until they arrived at one of the spacious hangers. Damian stopped when he saw his plane, his face drawn in concerned and worry. Inside the hanger a ground crew was busy going about loading up the companies DHC-6 Twin Otter full of reinforced crates. The red and white skin of the 400 series Otter clashed with the safety orange colour that the boxes where painted. As another create was loaded Damian imagined the fuselage sinking lower and lower on its skiis. Each meter squared create looked to be over three hundred pounds and the amount of creates the creates being loaded worried him. The Aurora was a sturdy craft, but it wasn't invincible.

"Just how big is this shipment?" he asked Riel, if they overloaded the plane it would likely spell disaster and death. "How badly is it messing with my center of gravity?"

Riel took a clipboard from a nearby workstation and gave a whistle, "I don't think you'd like it..."

Damian grabbed the clipboard and looked it over, "Three thousand pounds?! That's insane; it goes way over the plane's safe limit! If I go up in that I won't even leave the ground!"

A few of the workers turned their heads at the outcry, but continued their work after Mr. Blake showed up in the hanger. Damian stormed up angrily to his boss and shoved the clipboard into his face. "Are you trying to kill me?!" Damian demanded as his nostrils flared, the air from his lungs turning into mist in front of him.

Mr. Blake calmly lowered the offending document and stared at Damian with cold eyes and spoke with little emotion, "Mr. Walker I'm just trying to untangle this cluster fuck this blizzard has given me. These people wanted their supplies half a week ago, and if they don't get it then there's going to be starving scientist in need of a rescue. If that happens their project will fail and this company will get sued to high hell for it. This company is currently teetering towards bankruptcy, if this job doesn't get off the ground because my pilot is a coward then when everything is said and done I'll make sure that you never get hired again!" The tone Mr. Blake used gave no room to challenge him, and Damian knew that the flight was important. It's just that his life had more value.

Mr.Blake calmed himself and went back to his business mode as he looked over the charts, "Don't worry about being over the maximum weight restrictions, I've compensated by calculating the amount of fuel you need and by removing some extra weight. You alone are just under the limit."

As Damian heard the last part, he looked to his friend and co-pilot, Riel shrugged as he shook his head, "Sorry about this bro, but he's right. You're flying solo on this trip."

There was a shout from the ground crew and the hanger doors ground open, letting in a maelstrom of ice cold air and snow to blow inside. Damian shivered down in his very bones, maybe it was the cold, but he knew that it was a bad omen. Turning back to Mr. Blake Damian gave him his worst scowl, despite the cold a burning sensation churned in Damian's stomach. "Fine, I'll fly, but if I die out there I will personally haunt you to your grave and see to it that you burn in hell."

Mr. Blake continued to fix his steel grey eyes at Damian's, "It's a good thing I don't believe in the afterlife."

Fifty minutes had gone by since Damian had brought the Aurora into the matte gray skies. Turbulence rocked the plane from side to side as the wind smashed against its metal skin like waves of an angry ocean. Outside the cockpit Damian couldn't see more than a few dozen meters in front of the plane, essentially forcing him to fly blind with only his instruments and GPS to help guild him. He didn't like to rely on the instruments with his life, but he had little choice in the matter. So the pilot kept his altitude above nine thousand feet above ground level and hoped that he wouldn't run across Mt. Everest.

Though there was a blizzard raging along on the ground, at the current altitude the storm seemed almost benign. Sure the constant turbulence and blindness were bad, but in comparison to the almost deadly takeoff that the Aurora and its pilot had nearly suffered it was nothing. When a gust of wind had nearly pushed the Otter into a nearby mountain straight after take off Damian had nearly crapped his pants. He made a mental note to ask Riel if he had recorded that and to deck that fat prick when he got back for forcing him into this situation. His career be dammed.

Damian's thoughts drifted back to how he had gotten into this career of being a bush pilot; back when he was just a kid he had always wanted to fly around the world, seeing new things and going on adventures. He really had obsessed over anything to do with flying, from going to see air shows, to watching documentaries on Amelia Earhart. Now that he was in the business of flying across the vast wilderness for a living he had doubts about the whole choice of profession, it had lost its magic with the freezing temperatures and near suicide jobs. In fact, this wasn't the first time he'd been sent out in these kinds of conditions. Maybe it's time for a change in careers?

The Aurora was cruising along in the clouds when a sudden gut-wrenching wail pierced the sound of the twin Pratt and Whitney engines and buffeting winds.

"W-what the fuck was that?" Damian quietly whispered to himself, every hair on his body was standing on end as goose bumps rose along his skin. Lead balls had formed in his stomach, sparks of electricity tingled the small of Damian's neck along with the sensation of spiders running along his spine. The sound was completely otherworldly and foreign; it brought up such a raw primal sense of fear that Damian had to force himself to keep his hands on the yoke.

The young pilot checked his instruments to see if there was any immediately wrong with the engines, even double checking everything over again when he found no issue with his plane.

The banshee screeched once more into the plane, the blood curdling wail sounding closer than it did before. Acid-like fear welled up in Damian's chest as he searched the skies for the source. There had to be a reasonable explanation for it, like the engine was overworked and was starting to make these noises. Although there were old stories of gremlins ripping apart planes and other such ghost stories Damian didn't believe a word of them, there was no way something like that was real.

Peering out into the snow falling in front of the plane, Damian saw something that would question his very sanity. Out of the snow a ghostly image of a horse head formed out of the blue, it was soon followed shortly by the rest of its body. It looked like a horse from the shape of its features, but its ethereal body clearly denounced any relation to the ones that ate grass on the land below. It was the size of the average horse and had a similar torso, the only major difference bedsides it being able to fucking fly and coloured blue was that it had no rear legs, it's body tapering into a wispy point.

The eyes that embedded its head were like two bright stars, as they looked into Damian's own he could sense the blinding hate contained inside.The specter seemed like it had no problem traveling along at two hundred kilometers an hour, in reverse no less as it was always facing towards the plane in front of it. Damian felt frozen to the spot in terror as this apparently mythological nightmare bore its gaze into the plane. He could only look on in horror as another ghostly monstrosity had joined the first, followed by a third.

"Holy Hell, I must be tripping balls," a punch to Damian's leg confirmed his hunch, he was awake. "Damn, I still think I'm having a bad trip though, though I know I didn't do any drugs. If Riel spiked my coffee I swear I'll have to repay him for this!"

When the three ghost's were brought together they all started to screech out in unison, tripling the effect of their horrid wailing the one had performed before, but this time it sounded like a few broken sirens trying to sing in unison. Damian winced in pain as the sonic barrage hit his eardrums, even though they were contained inside his pilots head set. A warm feeling of water in his ears prompted Damian to remove the set to feel his ear lobes, when he removed his gloved hand blood had coated his index finger. The monster's screams had literally caused his ears to bleed.

At the same time though something else was happening; somewhere deep inside Damian a voice rang out in his mind. It was one of those instinctual voices people get when their brain ether tells you to fight or flight, You are not going to die here, not now. These things may not be real, or they may and you are going to most likely get killed by them. But you are a Walker, at the very least you're going to die trying, his subconscious ordered him in a steeled voice. Ironically enough what the voice had chosen was both fight and flight.

"But what can I do? I don't want to believe that this is happening, I mean come on? Ghost horses? If it isn't all in my head then I'm probably screwed aren't I?" Damian Walker asked the air, wondering if he'd finally lost it.

Well you could just do nothing, since they might as well be just a figment of your imagination. The voice reasoned, or you could try and dodge.

"Dodge wha-" one of the banshees cut Damian off by ramming itself into the cockpit windshield, knocking the Aurora about and causing Damian to lurch foreword against his straps. There was a sickening cracking sound as a bolt of pain reached along Damian's left shoulder. The world momentarily turned white, the man screamed out in agony as searing pain from what felt like a fractured collarbone forced Damian to come to grips with the situation: There are Ghost Horses attacking my plane in the middle of a blizzard. Lovely!

Damian sat back in his seat and faced the abominations in front of him through a now cracked pane of curved glass, "Alright you freaks of nature, you want a piece of me?! Come at me bros!" Nothing like a bit of pain to get the old rage pot boiling.

The ghosts looked between each other, apparently discussing something between themselves. Their focus then centered back on Damian again as they let loose another chorus of ear splitting shrieks. This time when they began their assault Damian was ready. As one of them charged the Aurora Damian pushed the nose down and rolled to the right, the result was that when the banshee tried to ram the fuselage it got a face full of turboprop engine.

The monster soon realized what was happening, but it was too far gone into its charge to dodge out of the way of spinning blades. There was a whimpering screech and a thunderous crash like a train hitting a dog. Damian gritted his teeth as he braced himself for the impact, the shock jarred his bones and for a moment he thought that the Aurora wouldn't survive the collision. In mere seconds the once fearsome ghost was nothing more than ethereal shreds floating into the storm far behind.

"Take that Casper!" Damian let out a whoop as he brought the plane level again.

The engine on the other hand was now a crumpled mess; its propeller was mangled and had stopped dead on its axle. A spark had met some fuel as the entire engine block burst into flames leaving a trail of oily smoke in its wake. "Oh shit!" With a flick of a few switches the engine was cut from the fuel line, it wouldn't put the fire out but it would prevent the fire from reaching along the gas lines to the fuel tanks. If that happened then the resulting explosion would knock the wing right off. With only one engine Damian knew that there was no way he could make it to his destination, but at least he was alive and with one engine he could still land safely enough. Hopefully...

The other two witnessing their comrade being tuned to ghost confetti started to thrash about in a blood rage... well that is if they had blood. Once the banshee horses stopped their thrashing they rounded on the Aurora, bearing down on it with all they had. Welp, there goes landing softly; time for engine number two to finish this off.

"You fellas just don't know when to quit do ya? Well here goes round two!" With a bit of timing Damian pulled the same maneuver again, this time with the right engine. Once more the Twin Otter was knocked around like a pinata as the Aurora crashed into another one of the beasts. Damian was slammed forward in his harness, the belt arrest apparently failed as his face met the instrument panel.

For a moment Damian's world was blurred by dizziness and pain, in his mouth he could taste the metallic tang of iron. A tooth jarring screech of metal on metal filled the Aurora's cockpit as the last remaining engine was torn from its housing leaving a gaping space in the right wing. With nothing pulling the plane forewords the Aurora began its free fall.

As the plane started to glide Damian knew that it wasn't over yet. The windscreen now had multiple spider web cracks across its surface, but even with the cracks in the way Damian could see the remaining spirit hovering in front of the plane. The two locked eyes in a stare-down until the spirit grunted something, and if Damian was right, it started to laugh manically. Soon out of thin air the other two spirits manifested themselves, completely whole again with not a scratch on them.

"Well now that's just not fair," Damian breathed. What did it take to kill these things! Oh... right, they're ghosts.

Their leader screeched out a final command to the other two. Soon the nightmares began to circle the falling craft, the snow following in their path as they galloped around faster and faster until they turned into a screaming blue blur. Lightning shot all around the helpless plane, a few times actually hitting the Twin Otter causing a fire to breakout across the right wing as the fuel tank was hit. The sound of wind crashing around as well as the spirit's own shrieks grew to unbearable levels, forcing the human inside to cringe in pain once more. Damian grew nauseous just watching the merry-go-round of horror spin seemingly out of control. Though that may have been the G-forces from the spiral dive he was in.

Fighting with the controls to pull the Aurora from the death spiral was a lot harder without both engines apparently. Maybe it was luck or skill, but Damian forced the wreck wings level and pulled out of the steep dive.

Moments after the recovery from the spin the torrent slowly came to a stop along with the noise of the spirits. A second past, then two, nothing seemed to be happening.
"Phew, I thought they'd never leave; for a moment there I thought I as a goner. When I get back home I'm going straight to the History channel, I'm sure they'd love to hear about this," though now when Damian looked back at the whole event it seemed way too unreal, anyone he talked to about this might as well think he'd gone mad; he could see the headlines now "Insane pilot crashes plane due to hoax Horse Spirits." Knowing Blake he'd try and strangle him to death for ruining the company's property while battling otherworldly apparitions.

But Damian knew what he saw and felt, no matter how insane it might sound; he knew that those 'things' were real.

When the haggard pilot took a look outside he found no trace of the mysterious ghost horses. Even the storm seemed to have vanished along with the apparitions, leaving a nice view of a night sky...wait a minute, when the plane had taken off it was only ten in the morning. Even if he was near the North Pole the sky shouldn't look like it was close to midnight.

Damian looked outside once again and found that he was looking at the forested ground below as it came rushing up to greet him. I hope you like pain, the little voice in the back of Damian's mind spoke, because you're going to be in a world of hurt soon.

"Tia, I'm hungry," a tiny voice spoke out amongst the dark forest of snow, "And I'm cold."

"Hush now Lulu, I'll find us somethingto eat soon... We're almost back home, so just hold out a bit longer, okay?" Celestia spoke softly to her sister. Luna silently nodded back with a smile and the two continued their trot through the pines. A half-buried root caught the little dark blue filly on her hoof; she tripped and fell face first into the deep snow. Immediately Luna jumped right back up and grinned like a foal; Celestia fussed at the fall, but Luna just shrugged it off like it was nothing. The elder sister was proud that Luna was starting to grow up, not too long ago Luna would have cried at such a similar tumble.

A shiver etched along Celestia's back as the cold night air started to get to her. Looking up Celestia could tell from the clouds that it was going to get even colder; the dark foreboding clouds from this morning had turned into silverish puffy ones, spots of night sky poked through as the cloud cover was starting to dissipate. Those clouds may have been pouring snow on the ground for the longest time, but they also acted as a container, keeping the relatively warm air beneath them. With an open sky it meant that the temperature would drop to lethal levels. They needed to find shelter from the cold and fast.

The pair walked amongst the frosted pines until the trees broke into a clearing, a small field of snow sat before a tall stone cliff that stretched above the pine tops. A path was cut into the side of the stone wall, crafted by the elements for an unknowable amount of time. It led the sisters half way up the cliff side to a hidden cave, the entrance just low enough for Celestia to trot into its mouth without hitting her horn on the ceiling. Luna ran past Celestia laughing all the way, her small body easily passing the entrance without a worry.

The interior of the cave was pitch black, only after Celestia used a light spell did the jagged surface of the cave appear. It was cramped, dirty, and damp, but most importantly it was safe. Luna had found it after she'd fallen from the cliff above several days ago. The fall had given the filly a few scrapes and a sprained hind leg, but after a week Luna had fully recovered and was able to prance around again, like now.

Near the back of the cave and around a cluster of stalagmites was what the sister's called home. There wasn't much in the way of furnishings, just a pine needle bed, a few trinkets from past travels, and a beginner's book of spells Celestia had "borrowed" from a traveling elderly unicorn. Celestia collapsed onto the makeshift bed, the day's adventure to find some food had drained much of her energy. The bouncing blue ball of fur on the other hoof hadn't run out of energy yet, if nothing else she seemed to gain more of it as the night progressed.

"Luna, why don't you get some sleep," with her hoof Celestia patted the ground next to where she lay.

"But I don't wanna!" Luna scrunched her nose at the thought of going to bed so early.

Celestia didn't argue back, instead the white mare stared at the filly, her pink eyes boring into Luna's turquoise. Eventually all resistance left Luna as she cringed under the "stare."

"S-sorry," Luna squeaked apologetically, looking down at her hooves.

"It's alright. Why don't you come over here and get some rest," Celestia smiled and patted the ground next to her once more. Luna trotted over and lay next to her sister, her small form huddled up next to her big sister's. The pine needle bed was itchy at best, but the warmth of her sister made it bearable. The two ponies laid there on the cave floor in silence, just enjoying the others presence.

As the silence lasted Celestia thought about their situation and what best to do about their next meal. It was getting harder to get any food these days with the Great Storm ruining all the crops. The famine was affecting everywhere that she knew of; the Earth Pony Tribe, the Pegasus Tribe, even the Unicorn Tribe was suffering from starvation. Food for "others" just wasn't available, and even if there wasn't the famine Celestia doubted that they would have given Luna or her any at all, to them they were just "monsters."

The number of times the sisters had been chased out of town was large, each time a mob with pitch forks and torches ran after them their hope dropped a little lower. They had yet to find a proper place to call "home", a place that the two could live in peace and happiness without being judged by their horns and wings. Celestia knew that there had to be a place like that out there somewhere, perhaps where their parent's had lived, where ever that was...

For now the sisters got by living in the woods and scavenging food where they could find it.

"Hey sis, why are we the only ones with horns and wings?" Luna suddenly piped up, her eyes sparkling with curiosity as she asked the tough question that even her big sister didn't know the answer for.

Celestia gave the question a moment of thought before she replied, "Well, I guess it's the same reason why Unicorns have their horns and Pegasi have their wings, each belongs to their own Tribe. I'm certain that we belong to a pony Tribe, just a small one that nopony knows about."

"Really? Because I thought that from what the villagers said we were 'monsters,' like the ones that hide in the dark and hurt ponies," Luna let out a sad grunt and laid her head on her fore hooves.

"No! We are not monsters, just different. Don't let those other pony's words get to you," Celestia ran a hoof through her little sister's light blue mane.

Luna nuzzled her sister, "Okay Tia. You're not a monster as well."

Celestia gave out a soft chuckle, "Alright, now get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so get some rest."

"Goodnight, I love you big sis," Luna laid her muzzle down again and closed her eyes.

"I love you too little sis."

It may have been an hour or so later that Luna opened her eyes again, a shine of adventure inside each teal eye. Luna didn't feel much like sleeping at night, even though everypony else became sleepy at night oddly enough she didn't. When the moon was out she felt energized and wide awake, especially when there was a full moon like tonight's. It was as if she was one of the owls that lived in the woods that slept during the day and stayed up all night. What was that called again? Nautical? Noctronal? Nocturnal! That was it! Little Luna reasoned that that must be what she was. Though Tia didn't like the night for some reason, Luna couldn't fathom why though, the stars were so pretty at night and the moon was so beautiful! It must be because she didn't want to miss her sleep.

Luna looked over at her big sister and watched her to make sure that she was fast asleep. Eventually after watching Tia long enough she knew that she was fast asleep, several hoof pokes later it was confirmed. 'Super Top Secret Mission to Star Gaze' was a go!

Carefully Luna inched away from her sister's side, the lack of warmth chilling Luna's small body. Once she was on her hooves, Luna silently weaved along the stalagmites. Luna didn't need any light spells to see where she was going since her eyes naturally could see in the dark. Like a shadow warrior Luna made for the mouth of the cave, her sister said that she shouldn't be alone so close to the woods, but Luna just wanted to gaze at the stars. What harm can a little peek at the night sky do anyways?

Soon enough the cave entrance came into view as silver light washed the cave walls and snow with a dim light; Luna became excited since it meant that the sky was clear enough for the moon to shine though! As the little violet-blue filly rounded a bend in the cave a mixture of odd sounds perked at her ears. Luna stopped in her tracks and swiveled her ears around to get a better reception. It sounded unlike anything she had heard before; there was the sound of several whinnies, though they didn't sound like anypony that she knew. There was also another sound out there that Luna couldn't recognize; it was a swooshing, whistle like noise, like wind blowing through a tree, but at the same time it wasn't. It was odd.

Luna exited the cave into the snow beyond, her hooves grew numb and she had started to shiver from the cold, but her curiosity kept her standing there to search for the mysterious noise. She looked all around the outside of the cave, but the source of the sounds didn't come from the silent woods. It sounded too distant, but as she listened the sounds grew closer.

Looking up into the sky Luna discovered the origins of the racket, up and far off in the distance in the starry night sky. The filly's breath caught at the sight, she had never seen anything like it. Streaming across the late night sky were several blue ponies flying circles around a falling red star. The star grew brighter as it neared the cave, turning from a small pin prick into size of a pebble. As the spec of light became larger Luna started to get a clearer picture of what it was.

The star puzzled Luna; the falling star looked like a bird from its shape, but it was much too large to be any bird she knew of. The star bird didn't flap its wings as it glided along; they also looked rigid and unmovable like they were made of smooth stone. Bright orange flames spewed from its wings, leaving a thick track of smoke in its flight path. The fires shone like a beacon in the darkness; for a moment Luna watched with awe as the star bird flew amongst the valley, going dangerously close to the trees. In a moment Luna realized that the big bird was probably hurt.

As she watched the scene unfold the three ponies suddenly flew off, flying past a mountain and out of sight, it also sounded like they were laughing all the way. Humph, those meanie ponies left that poor star bird when it needed their help, Luna was sickened that they would just leave someone in need like that. The bird seemed to be in major trouble as it started to dive for the snow covered trees in the forest. There was a dull thud as the bird crashed into a crop of fir trees not too far away in the snow capped valley below.

Luna knew that she had to help the bird, it could be seriously injured. There was only one problem though; Luna needed Celestia to go into the woods, but if she woke her sister up then Luna would have to admit to sneaking away at night and disobeying her sister's words. If she found out about Luna's star gazing then Luna doubted that she could get away with it again. But the bird really needed their help.

0A pillar of smoke started to snake into the sky from the burning birdie, as soon as Luna saw the black smoke she knew the right choice that she had to make. She turned and galloped back into the cave. The sound of Luna's hooves clacking on the rocky cave floor echoed along the walls, announcing her arrival before she had even arrived back where Celestia was.

PpThe elder sister was groggily waking up, her eyes still partly shut and her pink mane in a mess. Celestia raised her head and faced the direction of the noise. With a yawn a luminescence spell was cast, lighting the space of the cave. As Celestia's magenta eyes became used to the light she began to see things more clearly. The eyes widened into size of melons as they spotted the blue blur rushing towards her.

"Luna, why are you awake? And why do you look like you've seen a bear?" I sure hope that isn't the case, this cave started to grow on me, Celestia thought to herself.

The filly came to a screeching halt, kicking up a small dust cloud and started to babble incoherently until Celestia put a hoof in Luna's mouth, "Catch your breath, and then talk."

A few deep breaths later and Luna was ready for her report, "A giant bird fell from the sky! It was huge, larger than anything I've ever seen! It was on fire and crashed into the woods nearby; I think it might be hurt. Please sis, we need to help it!"

It took Celestia a moment to catch up with the torrent of what Luna was saying, but by the end of it Celestia was shaking her head. "Luna, what did I tell you about eating mysterious berries or mushrooms? I don't want another incident like last time."

Luna's face drooped as it became crest fallen, "You don't believe me then, don't you sis?"

Celestia had to admit that Luna didn't appear to be under the influence of a mushroom, and she did sound sincere enough as if something was really in trouble. "No, I believe you. It's just a little far fetched," Luna visibly stared to perk up, she smiled up at her sister, "And if somepony really is in trouble how can I just leave them?"

Luna jumped and gave Celestia a big hug around her neck, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The filly jumped down and raced for the entrance, obviously enjoying the excitement. She turned back to her Elder Sister and waved a hoof "Come on Tia, we need to go on a rescue!"

Chapter II: Aliens, Magic, and Whole Lot of Hurt.

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The pain was unlike anything Damian had felt before; it reached new levels of torture as each wave battered his mind and threatened to crush his will. The closest that he could compare this sensation he felt running along his nerves was to the time he had fallen out of a tree in fifth grade, smashing though multiple branches and landing in a crumpled heap ten meters below. Luckily for Damian his mother had spotted his tumble and had rushed him straight to the hospital. The doctor had been amazed that no internal organs were ruptured or any serious bones had been broken like his spine. The following months were spent in a hospital room recovering from the fall; the tally was several broken ribs, a spiral fracture in his left forearm, and a severe concussion. Taking that amount of excruciating pain and multiplying it by ten or so was what Damian was in now.

It took several minutes of drifting in and out of consciousness for Damian to finally get a grip on reality, each time he woke the pain just shut him down again, and it was almost too much to bare. By strength of will Damian finally managed to gain a foot hold on and stay there without passing out. A searing headache made Damian think that it was being crushed in a vice, like a walnut being cracked open under the pressure.

God I hate today, the thought rung out inside his mind and Damian held onto it like a life raft.

Not long after Damian cracked open one of his eyes, only to find that the world was covered in a red tint. Panic sparked in Damian's mind, Oh gods, I hope I'm not blind; but a few teary blinks later and the blood has vanished from his vision, along with the fear of being crippled. Very few things could be worse that losing your vision when you're stranded in the middle of the wilderness. The dull grey surface of the Aurora's control panel came into focus, the cracked obsidian surface of the GPS sat right next to Damian's head where it lay.

All right, time to do a body check for damage, Damian sent out probes of electricity along his nerves to check his extremities. He felt along his muscles and tendons, working them and making sure that nothing was severed. As the test came to his left arm he found that it had been dislocated, this along with the broken collar bone left that arm useless, though the fingers in his hands still worked. His right femur had somehow snapped, it was actually kind of impressive since the bone was one of the strongest in the body; it must have been from the collision with the hard ground. Quite honestly though Damian got of pretty lucky and he was amazed that he didn't have any more shattered bones than he did. The shocks of electricity when both limbs were moved nearly made Damian black out for a few seconds, yet each time they were moved the pain lost a little bit of its sting. Well, I was always better with my right arm anyways, and I never was into running to begin with, Damian remarked as he came to again.

For several minutes Damian just lay there in his pilots chair, his breathing had started to become more labored as the adrenaline took it's toll and wore off. A gust of cold wind from the shattered windshield blew the last of Damian's warmth out of him and he began to shiver uncontrollably as the cold bored into his bones, Oh that's right, the whole being near the North Pole thing. I need to get warm, and fast, or I'm gonna turn into a meat-popsicle.

With a bit of effort Damian pushed himself up in his chair with his back resting into the leather of the seat, the small bit of exertion left Damian panting and exhausted. Along the way discovery was made that several ribs had broken, most likely from when he was slammed against his harness. The straps must have broken at the force of the impact, Damn I'm lucky my ribs didn't cave in and puncture a lung; otherwise I'd be downing in my own blood right about now. The fun just keeps coming.

Suddenly the world started to turn a red once again as the blood made its way into Damian's eyes. Gingerly Damian wiped his forehead with the back of his right hand, there was a sting when he touched his forehead, when he removed his hand the blood on his glove confirmed that he had a large gash above his brow. There was enough blood pouring out of his tuque that it had created a steady drip. Well that's just perfect, I even managed to smash my head open. Damn I hope I didn't need those brain cells.

As he sat there the scope of the destruction of the Aurora jumped out at Damian; through the empty cockpit window laid one of the Otter's wings. It was half buried in the snow with the upper portion facing the cockpit; its crimson red paint was a deep contrast to whiteness of the surrounding field of snow. Light from several fires danced around the wreckage of the wing, the occasional crackle of a fire hitting something flammable snapped into the still air.

Damian flexed his fingers to make sure that they were still functional; after a satisfying survey he put them to work untangling the mess of the harness that clung to his arctic flight jacket. After a fashion of working out the tangle of belts and Damian was free, though with only one arm and a broken leg he was still stuck there in is seat. Come on, remember those first aid classes you took; because if you don't remember them you'll die here in the middle of god forsaken nowhere. You still have unfinished business in this world, things you haven't tried yet; like popping Jello Shots off of the belly of a smoking hot babe.

Tapping into his inner MacGyver Damian utilized the remains of the buckles and straps into a makeshift tourniquet for the injured leg, hopefully it would allow a few moments of limping until he could sort out a proper cast. The left arm would have to be relocated eventually, but it wasn't vital so it could wait its turn for attention. Further body searching revealed no serious cuts, besides the gash on Damian's forehead. With the emergency first aid was complete for now it was time for action. The pain had started to dull to a more manageable level, a high pain tolerance would have been cool but it was more likely that the numbness was because the flesh was starting to numb and freeze. "And that's a really, really bad thing, so get your ass in gear!" the little voice in Damian's head marshaled.

Hey, where've you been? Damian asked the voice, for a moment there I thought that I'd lost you.

"You know, most people consider talking to your subconscious a little crazy right?" The voice deadpanned, "But I think we have much bigger issues here than your failing sanity, like hypothermia and frostbite."

Oh yeah, I'll get right on that.

In Damian's mind he pictured where the first aid kit was, it was stored in the rear of the cabin in a bright orange container. Inside the kit was the proper stuff he needed; bandages, pain killers, antiseptic lotion, the essentials. If he could get his hands on that bag then Damian's life would take a turn for the better and delightfully less painful. It was also something to keep him preoccupied and his mind off the hopeless reality: no one's coming.

A thought came back to Damian, during his whole battle in the sky with Seabiscuit and his ghost buddies he never actually sent out a distress signal; though he wasn't quite sure what the code was for battling demented evil spirits, maybe it's the siren from the Ecto-1? Damian doubted that the radio would still work, if the impact had enough force to rip his wing off and impale it into the ground it was also likely that all the more delicate equipment was obliterated. His only hope is that the Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT for short, was still working and sending a distress signal. Until help could arrive he had to survive as long as possible.

Damian looked out of the shattered windows into the ominous dark forest beyond, "I'm totally screwed," he wheezed. Clenching his teeth Damian hefted his legs over the pilots chair and in the direction of the Aurora's cabin; the movement caused his right leg to spasm with horrendous pain. The pilot let loose a cry of anguish at the top of his lungs, tears had formed and froze to his cheeks. For several long minutes Damian sat there, clutching his leg and trying not to pass out as the electricity shook his nerves from head to toe; the image of the pain meds materialized in his mind becoming his sole desire and objective.

Eventually the pilot made it to his feet, the straps holding the bone together well enough. Holding the chairs to either side of him for support Damian opened the cockpit's hatch and limped through. The space beyond was a mess, several crates had been dislodged and blocked the narrow passageway from the rear of the Aurora to the cockpit. To no surprise the rest of the windows in the back were shattered, allowing a chilling night air to blow through. It was dark back there and only an occasional flicker from some fire and a few emergency lights made anything visible.

That last part made Damian pause in the door way to think, it had been late morning when he had left Prospect Lake, now it was near the dead of night. Ether those ghosts had done this, or he had been knocked out for hours on end. The idea that he had been here for several hours wasn't appealing since it meant that not only had Damian been exposed to the elements for far too long and possibly with frostbite eating him away, but that any rescue attempt at finding his plane was lost until the next day. The longer it took, the less likely he was to survive.

Snow had breached the interior and was starting to invade the confined space with miniature white dunes. With the cargo-crates blocking the path Damian had to haul himself over them and crawl along on his stomach until he reached the other side of the blockage. Each time his injured arm and leg was dragged over the orange metal boxes the pain felt like they were being torn off by a giant. The broken ribs jabbed into his gut as he shuffled on his belly, causing his breath to become ragged and labored. As the last crate was cleared it suddenly gave way and threw Damian to the floor like a bull at a rodeo, luckily the fresh pile of snow made for a relatively soft landing.

At the other side of the obstacle lay the Promised Land, the med kit. Damian snatched it from it's bracket and tore it open. Sifting through the kit revealed only a small container of Paracetamol, but it was enough. Popping the lid Damian downed two of the pills, they don't taste all that great. There wasn't any immediate effect, so Damian laid down with his back to the rear wall.

A gust of cold wind to his left drove the young pilot to look over his shoulder; the rear hatch had been wrenched off and had created a portal to the ground beyond. The field of snow was deathly quiet, the snow banks and divots lay peacefully as the shadows from the fires danced on top of them. The forest wasn't too far off, maybe a few dozen meters, and from what Damian could see it was filled with nothing but pines, they almost reminded him of Christmas trees. It was peaceful, and almost calming.

A twig snapped and it's echo traveled across the field of snow breaking the silence, it was soon followed by a string of high pitched animal chatter. Scanning the tree line Damian soon discovered the source, poking out of a berry bush were the heads of two peculiar creatures. They looked like horses, but their heads were too rounded and their eyes were also too large. One was large than the other with white fur and a long light pink mane, the other was shorter with dark blue fur and a short royal blue mane. Their features reminded Damian of the ghosts that had attacked him, a lead ball formed in the pit of his gut; if these creatures were like those spirits then they might be here to finish the job! The stranded pilot wasn't in any shape to defend himself, he was completely at their mercy where he lay broken on the floor of his crashed plane.

The creatures seemed to notice him laying there and started to approach across the dark field, "G-get away...you freaks..." When the words left Damian's mouth a fit of violent coughing soon shook his body. There was a spray of blood at the final hack with a sharp stabbing pain in his chest like he was being stabbed with a knife. His breath came short and there was a feeling of water filling his lungs; one of the cracked ribs must have punctured a lung. The creatures that had left their shrub were now mere meters away from the wreckage. Damian tired to wave them away but his left arm, but it didn't rise from his side. The corners of his vision eroded into deep shadows and soon Damian fell unconscious on the cold steel floor.

"Hurry sis, I think I see something up ahead!" Luna yelled over her shoulder as she dashed through the snow, missing every tree and branch in her gallop.

"H-hold on Lulu, we need to stay together!" A pine branch smacked into Celestia's face, she spat out the snow and needles to continue her pursuit of the filly. Celestia wasn't that much taller than Luna, maybe a full head higher, but that little bit of height meant that she had to dodge the low hanging branches while Luna simply skidded under them.

Celestia's eyes looked back up ahead and sure enough a distant light broke though the forest like a match in the dark. As the pair neared the source of the light a stone formed in Celestia's stomach, the light appeared to be coming from a large fire and that was never good. A fire was something that could easily destroy everything, turning once lush plant life into nothing more than charcoal. Don't worry, even if the fire is large it won't go anywhere; the trees are too soaked from the snow for them to catch alight, Celestia reasoned to herself as she ducked under another low fir branch.

The sisters halted their rush when they came to the source of the light; it was unlike anything they had seen before. In a clearing there lay a cluster of three strange structures; two large blades were dug into the snow like shovels while a gigantic tube like thing lay embedded between them like a field plow in the earth. Each of the objects easily towered over the mare and filly, their looming shapes cast large menacing shadows along the ground. Several fires burned on a few of the objects, though it was odd since they didn't seem to be made of wood or cloth. Whatever this was, it had made quite a mess. Timbers from several uprooted trees laid about the field like they were nothing more than twigs.

"Wow!" Luna's eyes grew in size as she took in the mysterious sight with wonder; amazingly the filly didn't seem scared unlike Celestia who was terrified out of her hooves.

"What do you think it is Tia?"

"I-I don't know," the 'thing' in front of them was unlike anything Celestia had ever seen or heard about before.

Luna looked back up at Celestia with sparking eyes, "I think it's an alien space ship!"

"Don't...Don't be absurd Luna, A-aliens don't exist...This has to be something else."

"Well then, what is it?" Celestia didn't have the answer for that and simply shrugged back.

For awhile the two stayed there at the edge of the clearing, watching the foreign sight from behind a bumble berry bush. After some observation at a distance it soon became obvious that the objects never were alive to begin with; Celestia reasoned that it must be some sort of golem, those blades must have been wings. It was probably somepony's attempt at making an artificial bird. Though why anypony would make such a thing seemed ridiculous to Celestia.

Celestia tapped Luna on her shoulder, "Come on Luna, there's nothing here to rescue, just a large mess."

Luna's smile quickly became downtrodden as the excitement drained out of her, "B-but I was sure that something was in trouble! I was looking forward to being a hero!" Luna's shoulders slumped down and the her lower lip began to quiver. The sadness that Luna felt tugged at Celestia's heart; she wrapped the filly in a tight hug.

"I know. Its better that we went out here to make sure that nopony was injured than to ignore their plight if they really were in trouble. I'm still proud of you Lulu," At that little touching moment a deep blood curdling yell arched across the white field.

The sisters froze in their embrace, paralyzed with fear as the last dying echoes of the outcry drifted into the woods. In the following silence Celestia and Luna sat behind their bush, trying their best not to move a single muscle. After Celestia's heart nearly stopped the drumming in her ears began to thump faster and faster. Inside Celestia's hooves she could feel Luna's body trembling; her normally dark blue coat had turned a sickly pale. Luna looked back up at her sister with terrified eyes; tears had begun to well up in them as she shivered with fright.

Celestia's ears perked at even more sounds coming from the field. Several muffled sounds of something moving about reached her ears; they were followed by a dull thump of something falling. Curiosity got the better of Celestia as she poked her head above the bush to spy on the possible threat to her sister and her, and that's when she saw 'it'.

Laying in an opening of the artificial bird was something Celestia had never seen before. It wasn't a pony, nor did it look like any of the other creatures that she knew of. The upper half of it body was covered in a thick green material while a black material covered its lower half. It had a pair both arms and legs, each limb was long and gangly, yet they didn't seem in any way weak. The two legs meant that it was probably a bipedal like a Minotaur, and even though it was lying against a wall Celestia could tell that it would easily tower over her if it was standing. Its face was warped up in a red scarf and it was wearing an odd red hat that covered most of its head. The thing's eyes were like a bugs, their pitch black sockets showing no emotion at all.

The thing was rummaging through a box on its lap, its hands where surprisingly delicate and maneuverable as it sifted around the contents until it found what it was looking for. It held up a bottle of some kind, and after unscrewing the top it removed its scarf to eat whatever was inside the bottle. Celestia noticed then that it was covered in red blood stains, and that it's left arm never seemed to move from its side.

A twig snapped next to Celestia, it's sound smashing the silence to pieces. Celestia snapped her head to the source of noise and the culprit. Without her knowing Luna had become curious as well and had poked her head through the bush. The filly slowly turned to face Celestia, one of her hooves was standing on a crushed branch.

"Sorry sis, I just wanted a look," Luna apologized as she lifted her hoof from the crushed twig.

"Shhh, we need to be quite or else that thing might hear us!"

Luna frowned, "But it doesn't look like it can do anything to hurt us. The poor thing's hurt, we need to do what we came here for and help it."

"Luna, I know that's what we said that we'd do, but now I'm not so sure," for some reason that creature scared the living Tartarus out of her, "It might attack us! When an animal is hurt and backed into a corner it can become violent!"

For a few seconds Luna glared back up at her sister, she stood there in the snow biting her lower lip. She didn't say anything else but instead jumped out of their cover and started to trot towards the creature. Celestia was taken aback by Luna's defiance and recklessness, but she followed anyways, she knew Luna's was right but she could never forgive herself if something happened to her little sister.

The thing must have heard them because now it was staring right at them as they approached, its beady black eyes locked with Celestia's, sending shivers down her spine. It spoke in its gravely foreign tongue at them, Celestia couldn't make out what it was trying to say, but it almost sounded just as frightened as they were. After the mysterious words left the creature's mouth it started to hack and wheeze, blood started to spray into the air at its final cough. The thing slumped back against the artificial bird and became motionless.

"Hurry Tia, I think its dying!" Luna shouted as she darted for the creature.

There were quite a few spells that Celestia had learned from her book; basic healing was one of them, but resurrection wasn't. Celestia slowed her trot as it started to look like they had been too late.

"Lulu," Celestia spoke softly and with a touch of sadness, "We're too late."

Luna was now right beside the beast; she tilted her head and poked the creatures flank with one of her tiny hooves, it didn't move. She inched a bit closer and laid her head on its chest, her ear pressed against where its heart might be. A second later Luna jumped back and broke her muzzle into wide grin. "He's alive!"

"What?!" Celestia was certain that the creature must have passed on, what with all the blood everywhere.

"Yep, it's faint but there's still a heart beating in there!" Luna beamed.

"...Well, I'm not sure if I can fix it, but I'll give it my best," Celestia brought back the memory of the spell and called forth her magic. Her horn was encased with a lavender aurora as it started to glow; the pink haze then jumped to the creature's body and soon after it was enveloped with a pink mist. A few sickening snaps came from the body as the bones were reset, blood started to thaw and flow like quicksilver back into the wounds as they were sutured back together.

Healing spells where hard and needed a lot of concentration, or else a bone might be reattached the wrong way or even a severed vein being reconnected to the wrong spot. The spell took a lot out Celestia, but soon enough the hardest parts were over. At the end of the healing the creature's chest was rising and falling in a normal rhythm once again, or at least as normal as Celestia knew. By the gods, I hope I didn't mess that up.

Luna plopped next to her big sister, her small body leaning against Celestia's white fur, "Thanks sis."

"Say Luna," Celestia spoke to her sister, "Why do you want to save this creature so badly? We didn't have to do anything, yet you really wanted to save the strange beast."

Luna gave her big sister a look that said do I really have to spell it out? "Well, if I was in this poor guy's hooves I'd want somepony to be there to help me out," The filly gave a sigh as she looked back at the creature, "And he might be just little bit lonely like us."

The mare blinked in surprise, but then she gave a warm smile. Little Luna was growing up, even though she was only a few years old. Celestia leaned down and gave Luna one of her biggest hugs yet, the blue filly giggled and returned the sisterly embrace.

A distant howl of a Timber Wolf forced them back into reality. They broke off and turned their attention back to the odd creature. It seemed to be sleeping now, but after a few jabs with Luna's hoof it became clear that it wouldn't wake up any time soon.

"Well now, I think we'd better get this creature someplace safe," Celestia's horn glowed again as she levitated the creature into the cold air.

"Hey Sis, I'm getting a bit tired of calling the Alien 'it' and 'creature', how about we give him a name. How about we name him Steve?"

The splitting headache was the first thing Damian felt when he awoke in land of the dead. Damn, and here I thought that the torture would wait until after I was told my sins. There was something odd though, something didn't feel quite right. It was a feeling that he couldn't wrap his mind around, it took Damian several moments of laying there in the black void for the sensation to manifest into something that he could name. I feel fine, pretty good in fact. Maybe the Devils are just trying to mess with me, give me a little hope that everything's alright. Then when I least expect it, BAM, right into a pit of lava.

Though as Damian waited there in the void for the little red men in tights, to come with their tridents ready to spear him, it soon became clear after about half an hour of waiting that they wouldn't show up. Frustration soon started to build as the minutes flew by. Oh come on! I heard that the afterlife had to have something happening, at least do something!

Out of the endless darkness the noise of something slinking about made it to Damian's ears. Anger and frustration both worked their way into Damian's mouth, he was getting sick of all this bullcrap and he wanted at least something to happen.

"Show yourselves demons! If you're going to do something to me then do it already, I don't have all day to float here in space!" The sudden shouting caused whatever was inside the darkness to suddenly yelp and crash into something. Ha, take that! The crash was soon followed by more yelps and chattering, though the noises sounded somewhat familiar. All of a sudden the floating sensation Damian had been feeling abandoned him, and in its place the all too familiar sensation of gravity returned.

"Woah!" Damian yelped as his body plummeted, his back smashing into the hard rock floor under him. As he lay there cringing at the pain in his back, he heard the high pitched noises return as they began to chatter amongst themselves. Oh, I remember now where I've heard those sounds before. They were from those horse like creatures. Huh, I guess they really were ghosts after all.

Damian pawed at the floor around him, finding that though the floor was indeed cold it wasn't covered in any snow or moisture. Must be under some cover or I'm inside someplace. Then a realization hit Damian like a ton of bricks, he could move his left arm without feeling any pain! A quick survey proved that all his injuries were gone, it was like a miracle! Even the blindness was solved when Damian reached up and pushed up his tuque.

Looking around he found himself inside a small cave. It was sort of dark inside with the only light coming from the entrance of the cave itself. The ceiling was only a meter and a half high, making it impossible for him to stand. The sharp points of several stalactites that hung directly over Damian made him just a tad nervous though.

As Damian's eyes wandered the cave they soon came across the forms of two familiar creatures. They were hiding in the shadows behind a rock with only their white and blue heads exposed as they stared at Damian. They were the exact same animals that Damian had seen back at the crash site... wait, why am I not back there? Instead I'm in a small, dark, confined cave with two unknown creatures... Oh gods! They must have taken me back to their lair to be eaten! Well fuck that noise! And with that Damian spun himself around and onto his stomach. He started to power crawl the heck out of there, he made it to the entrance of the tunnel and straight over the side of a cliff.

Chapter III: Cliffs and Caves

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It must have been just past midnight when the pony sisters arrived back at the cave. Celestia felt every one of her muscles ache from exhaustion, between carrying the creature from where they had found him to carrying a tuckered out Luna on her back the journey had taken quite a bit out of her. Luna was nestled between Celestia's white wings in a curled ball, although she may have been exhausted the filly's powerful sense of curiosity had her transfixed with the odd creature that floated lazily along with them.

The creature hadn't woken up yet, its chest rose and fell, but other than a steady heartbeat little life seemed to exist inside it. Occasionally Celestia peeked out of the corner of her eye to study the beast a bit more. Its body was massive compared to her's, its torso was as thick as a pine's trunk and its hind legs were as big as any Stallion's. It was obviously a powerful animal, capable of enormous strength and that unsettled Celestia, she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to be around it when it eventually did wake from its slumber.

Although the beast looked powerful and possibly predatory, there was no doubt that it was intelligent. For starters it was wearing clothes, although ponies didn't need to wear such things because of their fur coats', clothing was only worn by creatures that were smart enough to make them, and judging by the cloth on its body this creature was most likely as smart as a Unicorn scholar or a court wizard.

A few pieces of fabric were made of things that Celestia recognized; layers of cotton and wool under jacket for example. Other parts of clothing were beyond the mare and confused her; the pants were made out of a shiny black cloth that was slick to the touch, Celestia wracked her brain trying to guess what it might be made out of but her mind only turned up blanks.

One article of clothing only reinforced the fear that Celestia had of the Creature, one its feet were a pair of boots made out of dried skin! Celestia's skin crawled at the thought of such a horrid thing, to kill another being and take its body parts to make a pair of shoes was horrifying. What kind of creature would do that? Predators killed ponies and other creatures alike, but never did they go beyond simply eating their body. To perform such an act was something only a monster would do.

But it doesn't look too much like a monster, and I don't think that if something can be intelligent enough to make something to fly that it could do something so barbaric. Celestia reasoned as she took several deep breathes, calming down. Maybe it's really made of something else; I should at least give it a chance to explain itself.

Speaking of which, it had been inside an artificial creation that at one point, according to Luna, had flown across the sky. No pony had made such a complicated contraption before. Celestia had heard several rumors in a few of the towns that they had passed through of the Unicorns trying to create the wondrous ability of flight that only the Pegasus Tribe seemed to have, but those had been spells rather than a machine like the one in the forest behind them.

Another thing that baffled the white mare was that the flying machine didn't need magic! When Celestia had approached the thing before, she couldn't find any magic residue anywhere on it or the creature. To be able to make something like that without the help of magic was impossible, yet this sleeping giant might have just pulled it off. When it eventually woke Celestia promised herself to ask how it had flown across the night sky.

"Hey, Tia?" Luna piped up suddenly from behind, "Do you think we can keep him?"

Celestia halted on the snowy slope that led to their cave; she turned to look at the beaming blue ball of innocence, "No Luna, we can't keep him." Celestia turned back to work on guiding the creature into the safety of the cave, but truthfully it was so that she was spared from looking at the heart melting cute display that Luna was performing in an attempt to persuade Celestia otherwise.

"Awwww, but why not? I'll take good care of Steve! I'll feed him, I'll take him for walks, and I promise to house train him!"

"No means no! This isn't a puppy Luna, and quite honestly I don't even know WHAT this thing is. We're just going to make sure that it's healthy and once it wakes up we'll help it get on its way," Celestia said with authority, her brow creasing into a frown as she hammered in her point.

Luna shrunk back and went quite for last few seconds of their climb, probably contemplating how she could try and convince Celestia to keep 'Steve'. When the creature was brought inside behind them Luna opened her mouth again to protest some more, but before she could say a word she was suddenly she was cut off by the thunderous bellows of the creature in question.

Celestia gave a startled yelp as she jumped into the air; a soft thud came from beside her as Luna toppled over her sister's flank.

The creature was now wide awake and speaking in its deep rumbling voice, the low pitch reminded Celestia of a moose. It bellowed at the ceiling with such intensity that Celestia had to flatten her ears to protect her hearing; she cringed as her eardrums started to ring. The volume was amplified even more as the shouting echoed around the cave, bouncing from wall to wall. The shock of the creature's sudden vocal action caused Celestia to momentarily forget about the spell holding it and it crashed to the floor.

Celestia wanted to get as far from the creature, to hide and wait for it to leave. The only problem was that they were trapped inside the cave since the creature's body was withering about the entrance. With a bit of quick reflexes, Celestia plucked Luna with her magic from where she was stood and flung her behind a stalagmite. She soon followed as she dove behind the cover.

"What the heck sis? It was just startled, and afraid. We could have made contact with it be now if you hadn't dropped Steve on his flank," Luna glared at Celestia with her hooves crossed and cheeks puffed out.

Celestia blew out a sigh of relief; at least Luna was alright and apparently not at all frazzled by a mysterious and possibly dangerous 'thing' waking up in their home. Luna's curiosity was working as usual, so Celestia knew that her sister was fine.

"Stay very quiet Luna, and don't move. I'm going to check up on our guest," Popping her head over the rock Celestia began to observe the creature, looking for a chance to escape.

The creature was laying on the ground, groaning from hitting its back on the hard surface. It soon recovered as the groaning stopped. For some odd reason began to paw at the floor. The way that the black hands moved disgusted, yet at the same time, intrigued Celestia; it was like watching a pair of spiders perform a delicate little dance. It then began patting its own body as if it was trying to find something, moving from its legs and up its body. She followed the creature's arm as it reached up to its face, and with revulsion Celestia watched as it removed its very own eyes!

The obsidian 'eyes' turned out to be a covering for the real ones beneath. The creature swiveled its head around as it took in its surroundings, eventually its small brown eyes came to rest on Celestia's own. If she had been any other colour Celestia would have sworn that she would have turned completely white as the blood drained from her face. She stood paralyzed there behind the rock, locked in the stare with the creature.

Its eyes widened suddenly, terror etched into its pupils. Unlike Celestia, the creature's pinkish face lost its entire colour, the flesh that was showing from behind its many layers of cloth turning a sickly pale. Celestia realized as she watched the creature's reaction that for some reason it was afraid of her just as much as she was of it.

Faster than she thought possible for its size the creature flipped itself over and onto its stomach, immediately pulling its body out of the cave.

Celestia blew out a sigh of relief. Well, at least that thing is leaving. I'm not sure what would have happened if it had decided to attack us.

The white mare watched as the creature hurried along in its mad crawl away from them. "Wow, that thing sure can move," Luna was peering around the side of their rock. She tilted her head and gave a puzzled frown, "But I wonder why it's not slowing down, doesn't it know that we're on the side of a cliff?"

Oh no, Celestia snapped her head back just in time watch the creature's feet disappear from view as it fell beneath the lip of the cave straight to the ground below.

Damian was used to the weightless sensation of falling and recognized it in an instant; it was a familiar feeling, though not something that one would want to have on a regular basis. The air rushing by was refreshing and at the same time brought up excitement in the young man as adrenalin kicked in; all in all it was actually quite a good feeling. The not so fun part was the always the inevitable, more than likely fatal, sudden stop at the end.

Looking down Damian witnessed the snowy ground floor as it rushed up to meet him as if it was some long lost brother. The poofy whiteness would have anyone else think that they were as safe as houses as the plummeted, that their landing would be like the kind seen in a Loony Toons cartoon: a nice soft one. They were dead wrong.

Beneath that deceptive covering of snow was probably a dozen or so boulders and/or a few fallen trees. Landing on one of those would snap a Human's spine like a twig. But even if there wasn't any particularly hard surface hidden under the white field, the snow itself would be sufficient to shatter many of Damian's bones into dust; ice had probably formed under the pressure of the snow above, and when his body came into contact with the snow it would compact further until it was rock solid.

Well, I'm fucked, Damian deadpanned. The drop had to have been at least fifteen meters, counting in the amount that his body had already fallen Damian guessed that he had mere seconds left before he ended up a red hunk of meat on the snow below.

"Aren't you going to yell or scream? That's normally the reaction most people have when they are going to die," That little voice in the back of Damian's head sounded disappointed for some reason.

I think I past 'normal' a long time ago, you're kind of proof of that. The doomed man shrugged in mid flight, but if you insist that I scream like a little girl in my last seconds of life then I guess I could always do the Wilhelm Scream. I always wanted to do that.

"That would be lovely."

No problemo. And so like many of his predecessors Damian let loose his best manly little girl scream as his body plummeted to the unforgiving ground below, the spirit of Private Wilhelm would have been very proud.

Celestia's body had moved before she realized just what she was doing. Her hooves thundered along the cave to the entrance, the clack of hoof of on stone bouncing around her as she ran out of the darkness. As she neared the pale light Celestia's horn began to glow pink as it was charged with her magic, if she was fast enough she knew she could save the creature from its demise, she just hoped that it wasn't too late.

Skidding to a halt at the cliff Celestia quickly peered over the edge just in time to see the form of the creature come dangerously close to the ground, its terrified scream reaching her ears. Without a second thought or breath she fired a bolt of pink lightning. The creature was almost immediately encased within Celestia's magical haze; the body hung just a hair's breath away from the frozen snow.

"That. Was. So. Coooool!" Luna's tiny blue body had materialized next to Celestia, grinning like a foal as she began to hop in a circle. "Do it again!"

Celestia gave a tired grin back, "Well, maybe another time."

Luna halted her prancing to peer over the edge and down at the ground below where the screams continued on. She hummed as she did her usual tilt of the head, "Now what do we do?"

"Aaaaaaah!" wailed the young man as he plummeted to his certain death. Damian had glued his eyes shut, not wanting to see the end as it neared, though it seemed to take a bit longer than he had originally guessed.

"Maybe you should take a peek then?", the schizophrenic voice suggested.

Bollocks to that! As soon as I open my eyes I'm going to hit the ground in those last seconds. So I'll just keep them shut and continue screaming, that plan has worked so far. Though Damian began to doubt the integrity of reality as the seconds ticked by.

"That so? ... You sure you haven't already hit?"

What!? There's no way tha- where's the wind...? Damian hesitantly opened his frightened eyelids which had been caked with frost. There before him, mere inches from his face, was the dreaded ground. The snow had a soft gleam to it as the moon shown down on it from up high. Damian opened his mouth and inhaled as he readied for he possibly last scream, then he noticed something, he wasn't getting any closer to the solid earth.

"Okay, what gives?" It was maybe a second or two after he breathed the words to himself that Damian began to rise. At first the ground was only half a meter away, then two, then ten. The odd thing was that Damian didn't feel anything hoisting him up, and when he patted his back no cables were found. Though a discovery of a different nature put the man's mind on hold further as it desperately tried to rationalize it.

There on his hands, and the rest of his body, was an aura. It was pink and moved around his limbs like a sort of fog. Damian flexed his fingers and tried to dust the mist off, but to no avail, the stuff seemed to be glued to him. It didn't take long for Damian to guess that this was the reason for his prolonged life expectancy, and a wide grin plastered itself on his mug.

"I can fly!" the man hollered out at the top of his lungs, thrusting his fist out in front of him and forming the superman pose. I guess that little escapade with death brought on my hidden superpowers! Who knew that having near death experiences could reveal an X-Men in someone?

Ahem, so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think that it's you that has the power. And there went Damian's subconsciousness, ruining all the fun once again.

"Oh, fist I wake up all healed and such after I should have died back in that wreck of a plane. And now I gain the power of flight! How can't I be a super hero?" Damian crossed his legs and arms in mid flight.

First of all, you haven't done anything heroic, so even if you got bitten by a radio active skunk you'd still have to earn that title. Secondly, I think this pink haze is coming from that creature over there on the cliff.

With a few creaks in his neck, Damian slowly swiveled to face the cave that he'd previously jettisoned himself from. Sure enough that white horse thing was there, it's spike on it's head glowing the same pink that was currently defying gravity around Damian. The smaller blue one giggled and raised one of it's legs and waved it in the air, an evil smile on it's face.

"No," with a bit of horror Damian watched the monster reel him in. "No no no!" Damian flipped over and started to breast stroke in mid air in a vain attempt to escape from the tractor beam. A peek over his shoulder and Damian was looking eye to obscenely large eye with the creature. "No!" And touch down.

The pink mist guided Damian onto the ledge, despite his best efforts to get the heck away from there. The firm sensation of solid ground under his rump told Damian that he'd made full contact. As he left the air, so did the mist as it vanished into nothing. From where the young man was seated on the edge he could see the vast dark forest valley stretch before him, moon light turning the snow covered pines into silver geysers. It would have been a beautiful sight had Damian not been trembling with terror.

Alright man, you got this. There's just two freaky horse things right behind you, most likely relatives to those ghosts that handed your ass to you. They might try and eat you, they might try and steal your soul, but if you going down you are going to take them down with you. After a few deep breaths Damian knew that he was ready, the plan was that he would turn around as fast as he could, take them by surprise, and drag the two monsters off the cliff side with him.

Alright, on the count of three; one, two, three! Spinning around Damian came face to face with his captors. Well, to be accurate, face to hoof with them. The white one was holding out it's front hoof to the frightened man, as if it was offering a helping hand (Hoof?). For all the world Damian could have sworn that it was smiling too, not the 'I'm going to fuck you up' kind of smile ether, more of an awkward and nervous, 'Hi there, um, sorry for stepping on your toe there' kind.

Damian blinked several times in surprise. Maybe he was imagining it, but this thing in front of him might just be intelligent, and seemingly friendly. Taking a closer look at the being revealed another interesting surprise, Holy crap, it's a unicorn! The spike on it's head was actually an ivory horn that jutted out of the small horse's forehead. As the human watched, a pink spark circled the horn and faded away.

"Well, at least we know who, or what, saved your ass a few moments ago," said the voice.

For a few seconds Damian's jaw dropped and he could do nothing be stare in bewilderment at the Unicorn in front of him. When he finally regained a semblance of his sanity back he directed his confusion back at the voice. Well, gee golly, who would have thought that I would owe my life to a creature of fantasy! I bet you didn't see that one coming. Damian snapped back at the voice, his life was stressful enough as it was to begin with, now he had to deal with a bout of insanity and things that never should exist outside a Brothers Grimm story book...maybe the whole thing was just the schizophrenia's fault.

Returning his attention back to what was supposedly reality Damian found that the creature hadn't really moved its leg, and amazingly still, hadn't made any attempt to eat him. The horse thing traded several nervous glances with it's small companion beside it as time ticked on. Aside from the occasional jet of wind it was pretty quite on the side of the cliff, though that only heightened the defining awkward silence that hung over the three.

Eh, why the heck not. Damian reached out and grabbed the hoof and shook it lightly. The eyes of the unicorn bugged out as it's jaw nearly hit the floor. The horse emitted a tiny squeal as it recoiled back a bit into the cave, there it flicked it's focus between the leg that Damian had shook and the culprit of the shaking himself. Maybe grabbing unknown animal appendages isn't the best way to go about things.

The blue one jumped over to the pony thing and began chattering lively to it. Damian wasn't sure how he felt about all of this, heck, he didn't even know what was normal to feel in this kind of situation. There he was, sitting on the precipice of a cliff in the middle of god forsaken nowhere, stranded after his plane crashed due to a fight with supernatural entities, knocked on death's door twice from severe injuries that vanished after a nap and from falling off the same cliff that he was sitting on. All the while there were two seemingly fictional creatures out of a children's story book acting for all the world like a pair of cave men that had met someone that just popped out of a time machine.

Damian wondered if the correct response was to freak the fuck out, or to calmly deal with what came his way and hope for the best. I think I'll settle for option two, I'll probably live longer that way since option one landed me off a cliff already. Who knows, maybe they won't suck out my soul after all?

"Yeaagh" Celestia yelped as the creature reached out and grabbed her hoof, quickly backpedaling to a safe distance; sure she had meant for a friendly hoof shake, but those things on it's paw were just too creepy! The way that they grasped her leg sent a few shivers down the mare's neck.

Staring down at her hoof Celestia found that there was a bit of crimson mixed in with the white fur. Looking back at the slightly offended creature Celestia noticed that it's clothing still had a few red blotches of blood from it's owner's previous injuries. It raised an eyebrow at Celestia, it was more than likely that it was just as confused about their predicament as she was. Celestia's heart felt sympathy for the beast, it had been through so much pain, and now it was in a strange place with no one else It was more than likely just as confused about everything as they were.

"You really are a scaredy cat Tia! You acted like it had eaten your hoof or something," Luna laughed as she came bouncing up to Tia.

"Y-yeah well...you try it then! Those claws are too weird!" Celestia's face heated as two splotches of crimson surfaced on her cheeks, melting a few snow snow flakes that had begun to drift lazily down. Celestia blinked and turned her head to the heavens. More snow started to fall from the heavens, gradually filling up the dark night sky with white flakes.

Celestia turned back to face the creature who was at the moment eying the snow falling all around him with what Celestia supposed was a concerned expression. She knew that she might just regret what she was about to do, but at the moment what she was planning seemed like the only option that she had. With a heavy sigh Celestia stamped her hoof into the rock several times, gaining the attention from the creature. Looking it directly in the eye the mare raised her right hoof and pointed it into the cave, "Would you like to come in?"

Damian still had no clue as to what the heck was happening, but taking everything into account, it wasn't exactly the worst thing that could be happening to him.

Okay, I think its high time for a little mental check list. The man thought to himself as he tried to make some sense out of his ordeal. First things first, my plane was obliterated when I smashed it into the ground at roughly 200km/h, why I'm still alive from that kind of crash boggles my mind. Another mystery is that I know that this all happened because I really was knocking on death's door not too long ago, it felt like my body was put through a meat grinder and thrown around like a hacky sack. Odd thing though, if I really was that badly injured then I would already be dead; or at the very least be so near to it that it wouldn't make a difference, but somehow I don't feel any pain at all and all my bones aren't broken. Now I may not be a doctor, but I know that injuries that bad don't just disappear; so maybe I didn't crash in the first place.

Damian paused in order to take in a deep breath through his nose, the musty cave air stinging his nostrils. It was dark inside, but from where he was near the mouth of the cave some moon light managed to illuminate the darkness just enough to outline it's contents The other inhabitants of the cave stared at him from where they lay in their corner; a mixture of fear, uncertainty, and curiosity was angled at where he lay against the opposite wall.

Second topic of the day is those things. From what I can tell they are horses of some kind; granted, horses that look like they were thrown straight out of a Disney cartoon. Those horns on their heads mean that they're unicorns of a sort, but I never heard anything about a Pegasus knocking up one of it's more Earth-bound cousins in any of the Brother's Grimm books.

Damian silently observed the snow white one with the pink mane that had tried to shake his hand before, it looked back at him with probably the same thoughts as him. That one seems to be the older out of the two, judging by it's size and it's friend's I'd say that it's not too much older though. My guess would be that it's still just a kid though.

Damian's eyes then drifted to the small blue form next to it's partner, it seemed to have finally fallen asleep. Although the young man would never admit it out loud, but that one was so cute it hurt just to look at her. Well, from what I can tell those two are possibly related. Though, it does beg the question of where their parent's are. Ending my existence by being impaled by an angry mama Unicorn probably won't be as badass as it sounds. I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

A shiver went up Damian's arms and legs as the cold became even worse; his only way to prevent hypothermia was to wrap his arms around his knees; that and trying to picture himself on a nice tropical beach somewhere near the equator, it didn't really help but it at least calmed him down a notch.

These guys are also responsible for dragging me out of the wreckage and bringing me to their 'home'. They must have been wandering by and seen the mess, and they wanted to save me. A nice sentiment I guess, but now I have no fucking clue as to where I am; at least when I was back at the plane I could get access to my supplies...

"Now what are you going to do? Surely you have some sort of plan." The voice inside Damian's head asked.

Well for starters, could you not talk to me? I really don't want to add schizophrenia to the list of things that are so wrong with this mess I'm in. And yes, I have a plan. The plan is to get the heck out of here in the morning and try and find my plane, from there I can see if I can send out a proper distress signal. I also have a better chance of survival if I stick near the crash site if any search and rescue party happens by.

There was a pause before the voice made any comment back, and when it did it sounded a little bit concerned. "You do realize that if you go out there you'll get even more lost than you are now. You won't be able to even make it a day."

I thought that insane voices inside ones head were supposed to be...I don't know...a little bit insane? Why aren't you telling me to do another swan dive off of the cliff like what a normal crazy hallucination is supposed to do?

The voice made an imaginary cough, "Well considering that I'm actually your sub-conscious that you managed to tap into I'd say that its in my favor if I keep you alive. And lets be real here, there are sentient horses inside a cave with you that look like they feel out of a children's story book, I think that it'd be really hard to be any more crazy than that.

Damian grunted and positioned himself so that he laid on his side, "I think I need to get some professional help once I'm out of this nightmare." After saying that Damian fell into a fitful sleep where monstrous banshee's tormented him.

Chapter IV: How to Speak Equish

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The morning sun rose over the eastern mountains, shedding light onto the dark green valley bellow and banishing the shadows from the night before. The fiery orange glow from the sphere set the snow capped mountains ablaze into a pleasant peachy colour as it passed over head. The pines of the valley forest also started to become a lighter shade of emerald as more and more light filled the forest, turning the once frightful place into a more peaceful one. In the distance several song birds began to rise and sing to the rest of the woodland critters, their chirps weaving through the bark and snow.

From the cliff's edge Celestia couldn't help but smile at the sight before her, and for a moment just let her worries be washed away with the receding darkness. She took a deep breath and let the fresh morning air fill her lungs. The young mare's morning routine always began this way, it woke her up and simultaneously re-energized her stores of energy inside her. This morning however was a lot more different than the every other since Celestia now had a "guest" to share her perch with.

At first Celestia had been started nearly out of her fur when the creature emerged from the cave, but when it did nothing more than plop itself next to her on the cliff and stare off in to the distance Celestia eased up a notch. It was a mess; it had taken off it's hat and it's seemingly only patch of hair was ruffled, the short brown hairs jutting out at funny angles. Under each eye purple marks had formed, it's chestnut eyes were blood shot and the eyelids were an even darker shade of pink. It's other patch of hair around it's jaw had also grown out, though only marginally. It looked tired and exhausted, a feeling that Celestia could share in common with this odd being.

It peered back at her from the corner of it's left eye and laughed when he saw her equally messy appearance, then it said something in it's strange language and laughed once again; though it seemed like the laugh was sort of forced it did seem as if it was trying to cheer her up a bit. It looked back out across the valley once more, a ghost of a smile had formed on it's mug this time. It was a weird creature, but Celestia had to admit that it wasn't as fearsome as she once though it was.

The sound of several hooves clopping against a rock surface came from behind the duo. Celestia craned her neck around and the creature shuffled to get a better look at the visitor. The cobalt blue mane of Luna appeared from the cave's shadows, and when the ball of hair met the morning light it recoiled slightly, like a bat from light. The frizzled mane parted and Luna's bed ragged muzzle poked out. The filly looked just as worn out as the other two, yet she still had a sparkle in her eye that told of her pent up excitement.

"Mornin' Sis, Mornin' Steve," Luna said as she joined them on the cliff. She sat in between the gap her big sister and the creature had made. She yawned and shook her head once, her mane fell back to it's normal state and all traces of it being the rats nest that it had once been vanished as if by magic.

"So," Luna began switching her attention between her company on ether side, "has he said anything yet that you can understand?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Celestia sighed, "Everything he says sounds like nothing more than gibberish, and I doubt that he can understand us as well."

As if on cue the Creature let out a few rumbling notes that nether of the ponies could decipher, just proving Celestia's point further.

"Well that sucks. If only he could speak pony, then we could try and understand him a bit more. I'd really like to know how he got his flying machine to work too. It was sooo coool to watch it soar across the night sky! It was as if it was enchanted, and it could use magic to do the impo-" Luna cut herself off mid sentence, and stared out across the valley.

Celestia became a bit curious as to her little sister's odder than normal behavior, and sure enough her suspicions were confirmed when Luna had a wide grin that stretched across her muzzle. It was the look of a pony with an ingenious idea.

"Hold on, I'll be right back!" With that Luna darted back into the cave in a cloud of dust. Both the creature and Celestia watched the filly go with mild amusement. The creature turned and raised an eyebrow at Celestia, who in turn simply shrugged back. Moment's later Luna came rushing back out with something in her mouth; it was Celestia's spell book.

"Wa don we yush dis 'ook ta jicks 'em?" Luna said around a mouthful of parchment. She trotted over and laid the tome on ground next to Celestia.

The creature was now wide awake and had his full attention directed at the old book. His eyes were lit of puzzlement and intrigue as he glanced over the green cover. Steadily he reached out one of his strange paws and was about to touch the spell book when Celestia swatted his appendage away. The creature recoiled and glared at the mare, and in return Celestia glared back as she levitated her precious treasure away from him.

"Didn't you say before that there was a spell in there that could make a pony learn a new language in the blink of an eye, Tia? Why not use that on him?" Luna beamed at her bright idea.

Celestia knew what Luna was getting at, but she doubted that it would work. There was even the chance that if she didn't preform the spell correctly it could possibly back fire and hurt somepony. Celestia knew that she had enough magic for that kind of spell, but she had never preformed anything this advanced, so she couldn't share her sister's optimism.

The young mare looked back up at the mysterious creature beside her on the cliff's edge. It was an oddity, and somehow deep inside her Celestia was dying to unravel the secrets about this peculiar being. Her curiosity wanted to ask it what it was, if it had a name, where did it come from and if there was more of him. She wanted to ask it about it's flying machine and about the odd clothing that it wore; that issue with the thing's foot wear still unnerved her. The only thing that was getting in the way was this vocal barrier that made each party oblivious to the other's words.

Out of further prompting from Luna, Celestia opened the tome and flipped through the pages until she came to the one that held what they were looking for. On first glance it wasn't anything complex, only taking up about half the page. The book was for aspiring mages so it only held spells ans incantations that could match a beginner's caliber, yet when Celestia read it over she noted a warning label near the bottom that said the spell should be done with an instructor's supervision. A bead of sweat ran down Celestia's neck and it felt like a lump had formed in her throat. Should I really do this? What if I fail and end up injuring the creature, or worse? I'm not sure if I can fix magical injuries just yet, so this could really put him in danger. Besides, something like this needs the other pony's consent, and I'm not so sure that he could understand what I would be doing. And even if I do succeed, what then?

Celestia let out a heavy sigh and put the book back down. She knew what she was going to do, and she prayed that the creature did not come to resent her for it.

Damian was a wreck that morning, his back was stiff, his legs were cramped from staying still for so long, he hadn't had a shower so he knew that he had a serious case of BO emitting from his body, and even without a mirror he knew that he looked like a walking corpse. At this point in time he would literally beat to death a wild grizzly with nothing more than his fists just to get a cup of strong coffee and a doughnut. All in all it was far from the worst night he had ever had.

His little fantasy friends seemed to have had a rough night as well judging from their state when he first greeted them. That white and pink one sure looked like it was suffering the morning after a hard night's party with a hang over. That blue one however I have no idea where it get's it's fuel from; it seems like it could be featured in a Duracell commercial, even if it didn't run on batteries.

At the moment both were leading him down the cliff via a semi-hidden path. Even if it was daylight Damian wasn't so sure if he could have found it, so he was quite grateful to the two winged-unicorn-horse-thingies; especially since the only other way down was the express rout. I've already tried that, and I'm not one for sticking my head in a lion's mouth twice.

Eventually the trio made it to the ground floor where they stopped in the small snowy field. The two mythical creatures did an about face and stared a bit unnervingly at Damian. "Ookay, um, thanks for saving my ass back there, twice in fact, but I really need to get back to my shit before the Search and Rescue teams thing I've been eaten by wolves," The unicorn's didn't respond. For awhile the two parties held a little stare off, slowly Damian started to back away from them; regretfully that meant heading back towards the cliff behind him.

"So, ahem, you wouldn't mind leading me back to my plane, right? I honestly have no clue where I'm at, and I doubt there's a local gas station I can ask for directions. Or at the very least, could you just point me in the right direction?" No response.

"Alright, this is getting a bit creepy. So, if you don't mind, I'll be off now...Later!" And with that Damian spun on his heels to his right and began running for the safety of the forest. One thing though, running in the snow isn't all that easy, even more so when the snow was a light fresh layer of powder that was being churned under Damian's boots. It took several strides for the young man to even make it half way to the cover of the fir trees, and the moment he began his sprint Damian knew deep inside that he was doomed to never reach his goal. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see the white one's horn charge up with pink magic and be unloaded in his direction. Oh god damn it! Were the man's last thought's before the ball of energy hit him in the back.

"Oh my goodness, are you all right?" A young girl's voice asked.

Damian tried to open his eyes and remove the darkness, but the splitting migraine had other plans. There are no real words to express the amount of pain Damian was in; but a suitable way to describe it is to imagine your head being pulverized by several mallets, smashed into a concrete wall, and then cracked open only to have an egg beater grind up his grey matter. His only solace was the cold snow under his head acting like an ice pack.

"Oh gods, did anyone get the number of that truck?" Damian groaned no one in particular.

"What's a truck?" Another more youthful voice piped up, the voice sent spikes directly into the man's forehead and he cringed. Right now, all Damian wanted to do was to crawl into a deep, dark hole, and wait for the ringing to stop.

"Shhh, don't ask him any questions Luna, I think he's in pain," the first one spoke in a more hushed tone. Well, no shit Sherlock, I was just hit by an energy beam from some sort of mutant horse! Damian internally bellowed; but then when what he had just internally said finally clicked the pain was momentarily forgotten.

In a flash Damian's eyes flung open and he sprung his torso upright from the snow's embrace. There he was, still in the snow covered field, with those two magical horses staring directly at him from only a meter away. At first Damian attempted to get up and run away; attempted being the key word here. When he brought his feet under him and stood up a wave of nausea swept over him, forcing him to double over and puke. From his hands and knees he kept on coughing until the pain went away.

Angrily he wiped away the pile from his face and stared daggers at the magical creatures in front of him, "What the heck did you do to me?!" He demanded. Bother creatures flattened their ears and backed off a bit, the blue one hid behind the other's hind legs and stuck it's tongue out.

"W-we're sorry, we j-just wanted to talk to y-you," it was one of the girl's voice's from before, though it sounded a lot more meek and it trembled with fear.

Damian paused dusting himself to look for the source, though when he scanned the area surrounding him he found no trace of anyone else, just the two horses in front of him. What the heck, am I starting to hear things now...on second thought that might just be it since I already have a voice in my head.

"Um, hello? Mister, I said I was sorry for casting the spell without your permission," again that girl was talking to him, but this time Damian got a good look at who was the source. That white unicorn thing was freaking talking!

Out of instinct Damian instantly started peddling backwards in the snow until he had shuffled a good ten meters away from the fictional animals. His breath sped up, and he was sure that he was sweating more than a fat man in a sauna. Heart pounding Damian raised a finger and pointed it at the white one, "Y-you talked!"

The white horse made an awkward smile and brought it's hoof up to rub the back of it's neck, "Yeah, I did just talk, but so are you really."

Damian's brain was nearing it's processing limit with all this reality bending business; it was nearly too much for the grey matter to handle. One of Damian's eyes twitched as he tried to keep the shambles of his mind together, Alright, now not only is this horse a Magical Winged Unicorn, but apparently it can talk too! Dear lord, what am I? Alice in Wonderland?

"Well I for one thing that this is pretty great! Now we can ask them where the plane is instead of probably dying while we run around the forest looking for it." The voice said cheerfully. Damian simply grunted back, true be told he hated taking sound advice from a hallucination. It just proved how far down the rabbit hole he had fallen.

"Oh, and just so you know I can hear you, we are sharing the same head after all. And I also take offense to being called crazy by someone that's insane."

Cradling his head in his hands Damian could feel his migraine coming back for another pass, and the bright day and snow didn't help on bit. The reason for his pain was probably from that thing that this creature in front of him shot at him when he was running away. "What did you shoot me with anyways?"

The pink maned horse fidgeted, "Oh THAT, I just shot you with a Babel spell. It can imprint a language into its target, allowing them to instantly understand and speak in a tongue that they couldn't comprehend before. That's the reason why we can talk right now."

As another spike was driven into his head Damian could literally hear his brain cells screaming out to him to end their misery. "That's highly unethical, you know that right?"

"What does 'Uneth-hick-cal' mean?" The smaller horse piped up.

"It means it was so wrong it was borderline evil. You brats should have asked me if I wanted my brain scrambled before you did this kind of shit," it felt like an ice pick was being jabbed into the young pilot's eye socket now.

"W-we're sorry, but we really just wanted to talk to you. And what were we supposed to do if we wanted your permission? We could hardly understand each other before," The white one's magenta eyes looked remorseful, as she hung her head.

"Well I guess that's true; but you could have tried. Heck, even a bad game of charades would have been better than shooting me like that."

"Hey, do you have a name?" The blue one popped her head out from behind her furred cover; her large emerald eyes sparkling.

Damian gave the young filly an icy stare and Luna ducked back behind her living shield, "Yeah, I have a name, but I thought that you were supposed to give your name before you ask for someone else's?"

"Oh, um sorry about that," The white mythical horse said, and placed a hoof to her chest, "My name is Celestia, and this," She directed her hoof behind her to the head that was poking around her rear leg. A blue hoof popped out and waved back at the human, "Is my little sister Luna. Now can we have yours?"

Damian softened up and let some of the tension out of his shoulders, "Well I guess it can't hurt to give you my name. My name is Damian Walker, but you can call me Mr. Walker."

Celestia's ears flicked at the sound of the name and she began rolling the unfamiliar name around her mouth. "So Mr. Walker, that's an odd name. Is it because you like to travel a lot by walking?" Celestia innocently asked.

"Well no, although I consider myself a seasoned traveler my name has nothing to do with that," Damian's headache was starting to pass and along with it the sensation that he was sitting on a life raft in a storm. Pushing himself once more to his feet resulted in success. As Damian stood at his full height he towered over Celestia and Luna, who each took a cautious step back. "Now then, now that we have that out of the way I have a question for you two."

"Ooh, and what may that be?" Luna asked.

Inhaling a deep breath the man filled his lungs for what he was about to say, "What in blue blazes are you freaks?!" He bellowed; the pent up frustrations from the last day or so being unleashed right then in that single question. Both creatures flattened their ears and cringed at the sudden yell. After the outburst an uneasy silence filled the gap in conversation, both parties were as confused as the other, but for different reasons.

"U-um, both me and my sister are ponies Mr. Walker...or at least we think we are..." Celestia trailed off quietly.

"Huh, What does that mean?" The man demanded, feeling much relieved after finding an outlet for his pent up emotions.

Celestia shrunk back further, the distance between them was well beyond 15 meters "W-well, me and my sister aren't like the other ponies."

"I can see that," Damian deadpanned, "I'm actually kind of happy that you know that you're different than the average horse."

"Well aren't you a big meany pants! I liked you better Steve when you couldn't talk, because now you're just bullying my sister!" Luna shouted as she gained the courage to step out from behind her big sister.

"What? Who's Steve?" Damian said, once again confused.

"Never mind her, she's just upset that the other Ponies treat us like monsters. It's hard being a mix between a Unicorn and a Pegasus. That's why we live out here."

A gloved hand was held up and Damian shook his head from side to side, "Wait just a moment! You mean to tell me that there are other cartoon character's running around the place?"

"Um, I don't know what a 'Kar-Toon' is, but yes there are other ponies with wings and the ability to use magic, just not a combination of the two like us," Celestia had no clue as to what this thing was saying, but she had a few more questions of her own. "Now it's my turn, what are you exactly? And where did you come from?"

Damian lowered himself to the snow and crossed his legs, he felt tired and out of energy, like he had aged a decade in the last ten hours, "Fine, I'm what's called a Human, and judging by your question I'd say that you don't have that many out here in the northern wastes, so I'll give you an abridged version. A human is an evolved monkey that uses his head and tools to accomplish what he wants. If on the off chance that I'm not in Kansas any more then I'd say that this place doesn't have any, well, except for me of course. So lets just say that I'm from a far away land and leave it at that."

Celestia took several steps closer to the Human, her interest perked, "Interesting; and what of your flying machine?"

Damian waved a hand in the air nonchalantly, "Oh that, it's called an airplane. It could fly very long distances and I used it to cart stuff around as a job; but now it's just a pile of useless scrap, it won't ever fly again," Celestia picked up a dejected tone in the Human's voice.

"It's still very fascinating. How does it fly? Do you use magic to make it soar?" The distance was now close to five meters.

"No, nothing like that. Where I come from Magic doesn't exist, and things such as yourself are reserved to fairy tales," Damian noticed Celestia getting reeled in by the topic, catching on to the pony's interest. He had a little light bulb moment, and started his plan. "It's really hard to explain just by myself, perhaps we can head on over there and I can show you exactly what you want to know?" Perfect, now I gave them a solid reason for bringing me back to the ruins of the Aurora.

The white pony stopped her slow advance and put a hoof to her chin, contemplating what the Human had just said. She looked back down at her sister, who was vigorously nodding her head up and down in approval. Celestia then glanced back up at Damian from his spot on the frozen ground and sighed. "Fine, we'll take you to your machine Mr.Walker, but you have to promise me that you're going to show me how it works."

"Then it's a deal."

It had been at least over an hour since the trio had left the clearing below the cliff. Celestia was moved to the front of the group in order to fulfill her role as a guild, recalling the paths that Luna and her had taken the night before. It wasn't all that hard since most of their tracks in the snow hadn't been covered up by the snow just yet; though at some parts were a snow drift had formed, or another set of tracks had intersected theirs. If it wasn't for her familiarity with the forest Celestia knew that she might have lost the trail by now. It was also because of these reasons that she knew that the creature known as Mr.Walker had stuck with them.

Speaking of which, he's been awfully quiet back there. Celestia turned her head just enough to peek behind her shoulder, and sure enough the bi-pedal creature was still keeping pace several meters behind her. At first Celestia had thought that it was because he walked on two legs that forced him to stick back, but it soon became apparent that that wasn't the case. Once or twice Celestia had seen him sprint in the snow, leaving a cloud of snow in his wake. When the Human got into a run he could probably match Celestia if he used his full strength. So Celestia came to the conclusion that he just wanted to keep some distance between them instead. Well that's fine I guess, I'm sure he just wants his space.

So far Mr.Walker hadn't spoken anything more than the occasional comment about the forest or the snow, leaving Celestia slightly disappointed that he didn't make full use of his new ability to communicate with them. The spell wasn't easy to preform ether, as it nearly took out all of her magic. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it caused him a severe headache, and he's still mad that we didn't try and warn him we we're going to do that to him. Regardless, there was an awkward silence that prevailed in the air as they made their way along the forest.

"Geez, I can't believe the Human doesn't like the name I gave him! He's totally the Steve type too," Luna pouted as she trotted next to Celestia.

Celestia gave a chuckle, "Well, I guess it would be like as if he started calling you by some weird name like Snowball. I know that you wouldn't like that, so maybe he just feels that his own name is best for him."

Luna huffed, but conceded none the less. Behind them Damian muttered something, and shook his head. His red scarf swaying back and forth. We was wearing his dark eye glasses once again and had tucked the rest of his head under his woolen hat; all together there wasn't much of his face that was uncovered.

Celestia was still in awe at the sheer amount of clothing that he wore on his body. Sure, she had seen several other ponies wearing things like capes and boots, but the amount that covered the Human's body seemed ridiculous to her. It must be sweltering under there. Even so, Celestia had to admit that several of the clothing came in handy, especially the jacket and pants that had all those pockets and pouches; it was as if he could fit all of his belongings in them and still move easily around.

When the group past a familiar gnarled tree trunk Celestia knew that they were coming up to their destination. As the moved closer to their goal evidence of the crash began to surface; several trees were knocked over, along with a few that had scorch marks covering their bark. Then once they past a large bubblegum berry bush the wreck came into view. Celestia couldn't help but gasp at what she saw.

There in the field of snow was the Aurora, or what was left of it; the main hull had several large gashes that raked along its side, one of the wings was nearly buried under a snow drift while its counter part was leaning against a crop of fir. The red paint was chirped and blistered near where a fire had been. Even the snow was effected, as little black parts of metal littered the clearing and the snow closest to the wreckage had been turned a hideous black. The night's darkness had covered up most of the devastation, but now the mid day sun hadn't been so kind to the poor thing, and instead it revealed the ugly mess to the world.

"Ah, just where I parked it. If I hadn't come sooner she might have been towed away," Damian laughed light heartedly as he walked up beside the two. He stood there looked at the blemish in the forest and placed his hands on his hips. His voice was cheerful as he said that, but Celestia saw that there was sadness in his eyes as he looked upon his machine.

"Its nice to see you again, Aurora," and with that he started making his was across the debris field to the place where the sister's had found him before.

Looking at the wreck and how it had effected the Human made Celestia almost think twice about asking how it once flew, almost. Only after a moments hesitation Celestia followed the Human. Luna was left standing in the snow by the edge of the forest all alone, "Wait up Tia! You can't just leave me back there!" She yelled as she galloped ahead.

Damian by this time was already at the metal construct, eying it within a melancholic trance. He remembered all the flights that he'd made with the old girl, flying her from Calgary to Anchorage Alaska. He recalled his many adventures with his friend Riel as they made their deliveries. They had gotten into several fights with each other, many of them at a bar; but they always had forgiven each other the next day when they both shared the hangover. Looking at the remains of his plane only made it quite clear that he wasn't going back, and that he'd never see his friends or family ever again.

Celestia and her sister had followed him and were staring at him, worry on their faces. Heh, well I guess these little fellas are too innocent and naive to really understand what's going on. I'm also not sure if I should be worried or happy with the fact that these things are so caring. It's almost like they're a distilled product of a childhood fantasy.

"Um Mr.Walker, are you going to be alright? We could take a break from 'this' if you want," The pony named Celestia asked. Damian was moderately surprised that she was acting so mature, given that she was probably the same age as a Human thirteen year old girl.

"Nah, I just got a bad case of nostalgia running though my veins, nothing to worry about really."

"Oh...Okay," Celestia said, nodding her head. Yep, what I just said flew right over her head.

Damian walked along the metal carcass until he reached the open hatch, and to no surprise the busted door was nowhere in sight. As the young man poked his head in the opening he saw that the snow had indeed made its claim to the interior since everything was covered in the stuff. "Just fucking peachy."

Something hard pressed up against Damian's back suddenly, startled he flipped around only to find that the two ponies had been responsible for the unwanted breach in personal space. "What the heck?" Damian snapped, it really was like he was carting around a pair of kids, even though he never signed up to be their babysitter.

"Um, weren't you going to tell us how your flying machine works?" Luna spoke up, her eyes were all over the place; it was like watching tacky bobble head that had just been shaken around on its spring.

"Yeah yeah, later. Right now uncle Walker needs to find a few things in here," Damian said in a tired voice, the headache he had from when one of the puff balls had shot him was still lingering around in the back of his head, "And remember to stay close to the Aurora, I don't want to fish you out of a bear's stomach or anything." With that the man stepped inside the belly of the Aurora.

Chapter V: The Howling Hunger

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It didn't take long for the Human to return from his trip inside the wreck, when he eventually did exit through the open hatch he was carrying something in his hands. The folded black object that he was holding was thin like a stack of parchment, yet it's texture didn't seem as rough. It was nearly the same dimensions as a book, but it was nowhere near as thick. When Damian had cleared the hole he immediately opened his packet and began sifting though the contents, searching through the sparse amount of parchment for something among the papers.

Celestia sat in the snow with Luna as they watched the creature they had saved only a night before, observing the odd behavior with keen interest. The young mare wasn't sure what to make of what she was seeing; out of everything in this 'airplane' of his, the Human had grabbed only this. She couldn't understand how the thing Damian was looking through could be more important than so many other amazing gadgets and wonders. After the minutes stretched by she gained enough courage to ask the alien being what was on her mind.

Gulping down her nervousness, Celestia trotted over the the bipedal figure. "S-so what are you holding?" She ventured awkwardly, she didn't like the fact that Damian's face was completely covered under his crimson scarf, hat, and dark eyeglasses. It was as if she was talking to a faceless monster.

The man paused and looked over the tip of the folder at where Celestia was sitting before him, "This thing? Oh, It's just the shipment manifest," Damian stated simply with a dull and uninterested voice. Celestia wasn't satisfied with that answer though, mainly because she didn't know what a "Shipment Manifest" was.

So she repeated her question another way, "Why do we need that?"

The bush pilot blew out some air though his nose in frustration and snapped the manifest shut, "You're a nosy little bugger ain't ya? Fine, if you want to know why 'I' need this I'll tell you; I'll even put it simply so you'll understand," the condescending way he phrased that last sentence irked the young mare, but she bit her tongue.

"This thing," Damian tapped a gloved finger to the black cover, "Is a list of all the things I was going to deliver; meaning a list of all the things inside that pile of scrap. I'm trying to see if there's anything in those creates that can be useful or help me survive out in this hell hole. Oh, and another thing, what's this 'We' business all about?" By now the dark glasses had been removed as well as the scarf, revealing the Human's harsh scowl.

"Well, I just thought that 'We' would be sticking together," Celestia huffed, blood pressure rising as the Human looked down on her, "And besides, you haven't told us yet how this thing works yet!"

"Sure sure, I'll tell you how this thing used to work; but after that I want you gone. I never said that I was going to live with you in your little horsey lair, so find someone else to be your baby sitter. Now I'm kinda busy here, so why don't you kids run along and make snow-angels or something. I'm really not in the mood to deal with you two kids at the moment, this headache you gave me is starting to flare up again," Damian dismissed her with a wave of his document while the other hand pinched the bridge of his nose. He continued to ignore the pony as he went about looking through his binder once again, not noticing the roses on Celestia's cheeks as they heated with indignation.

Hot anger swelled inside of little Celestia. Sure, she and her sister had been rejected, ignored, and ridiculed by many other ponies most of their lives, but being treated like thin air by this crude creature was just too much; especially after everything she had done for him! If anything he should be thanking them non-stop for saving his sorry hide, not brushing them away like they were beneath him! That's it!

Stamping up to the busy Human Celestia swirled around on her front hooves. She coiled up her hind legs and let them loose into her desired target; the buck sent the air right out of Damian's chest. With a wheeze of the air rushing out of his lungs Damian was thrown ass backwards to the ground where he rolled around in pain.

After a few wet coughs and a puke later, the young man was able to speak again. The first words he said were violent and blood curses, his voice wheezing after ever syllable. "What the bloody *hack* hell! What did I *cough* do to you to deserve that?!"

Celestia stomped up next to the man as he grabbed at his ribs, staring knives into her, "You've been nothing but a big fat jerk to me and my sister ever since we met! Not once have you properly thanked us for saving your life, TWICE, but you even made us guide you through the forest back here, and all we get is disrespect!" Celestia placed a white hoof on the man's chest, causing him to wince as she pressed down into his gut. "Now say you're sorry," Celestia demanded, her pink eyes filled with fire.

There was a tense moment between them as both Pony and Man glared at each other in a hard stare down, seconds ticked by with no one making a move. The pony's horn was lowered so it aimed at Damian's forehead, and likewise the Human had his hand on the grip of his knife, waiting for a moment to strike. The silence was suffocating as nothing dared to make a sound. It wasn't until a third party stepped in that the silence was shattered and the conflict was put to an end.

"What are you two doing?! Stop it!" Luna squeaked as she tackled her sister off of the Human's body.

A soft thud rang across in the clearing as the pony-on-pony collision sent the sisters spiraling into the snow. The pony dog-pile rolled in the white powder until it came to a rest a few meters away from the crashed airplane. Celestia didn't even realize what had happened until after it was already over, now she found herself being pinned down by Luna in a near identical situation from not a minute ago. Even though the filly's tiny blue frame was smaller than her own, Celestia was held down by her younger sister with relative ease.

Looking up Celestia saw that Luna's large emerald eyes were shedding tears all over her in a mini water works, "Why Tia? Why did you do that? The sister that I know doesn't hurt anypony like that!" Soon Luna fell into a fit of sobs, the tears falling onto Celestia's white fur. "Why?" With the heat of the moment past and the fury leaving her Celestia was calm enough to fully realize what she had just done. Instantly feeling remorse her eyes began to spout their own tears. "I-I I'm so s-sorry!" She wailed, joining her sister in crying.

Across the littered clearing Damian sat watching his four legged company on the ledge of the broken rear entrance to the Aurora. The expression he wore was one of guilt mixed in with a healthy dose of exhaustion. Aw geez, now I feel like a total douche bag. I guess I had been a little too much of a jerk to them this whole time, and me being such a prick to them just pushed them over the edge I think.

"I agree, sometimes you can be a real pain in the Ol' Caboose," The voice snarked.

Oh shut up, and don't say anything unless it's useful. Now with those two embroiled in their touching little family moment I can't even get a chance to apologize.

Suddenly a deep rumbling entered the clearing, silencing the sisters and drawing the attention of everyone present. A second rumble emanated from the bellies of both ponies. With all the events of the last day or so the hunger that each of them felt had been largely ignored, but by the over use of her magic and her explosion of emotions had drained Celestia of all her energy; Luna had probably lost her's just from being more hyper and active than usual. In the end, the lack of sustenance and attention had forced their stomachs to voice their anguish to the world.

Luna wiped away her tears and looked up at her elder sister, her eyes pleading for the cure for her starvation. "Tia, I'm hungry..."

A large gash tore through Celestia's heart as she heard the heartbreaking words. She knew that without anything to eat they were likely to starve to death pretty soon, but at the same time she knew that they would never be able to find any food in time. They were doomed, and there was nothing Celestia could do about it, "I'm sorry Lulu," The damning words hung in the frozen air as more tears formed in Celestia's eyes, "I'm so sorry."

"Well well well, would you look at that? I think you already know what you should do, though I know you'd have done it regardless if I hadn't said anything," The voice said, sounding highly amused at the depressing drama unfolding only a few meters away from Damian.

"Yeah, I know. I guess now I have that chance to redeem myself," The man said as he sat up and re-entered the ruins of his plane. While the two florescent equines wailed there hearts out at their impending fate of starvation they didn't even notice a medium sized orange metal box being thrown out of the Aurora's open hatch.

Damian dropped to the snow below the opening and strode over over the the brightly coloured crate, he knelled next to it and began the process of prying it open with a strip of jagged metal he had found on the floor of the Twin Otter; the blade like chunk of the plane's structure perfect for unsealing the locked box. With a bit of leverage, and a whole lot of force the container was cracked open to reveal it's treasure within.

The sister's hadn't even noticed this event happening right before them, but took notice when a snow ball was chucked their way, "Hey, sorry for being an asshole awhile back; I'm just stressed but that's no reason for taking advantage of you. As a token of my appreciation for rescuing my sorry ass and as an apology I'd like to give you something," Celestia blinked a few times to wash away the hot tears and saw that Damian had reached into the strange box of his and had pulled out what appeared to be a small silver ingot.

"Sorry about before as well Mr. Walker, I don't normally act so violently," Celestia smiled weakly, "But I don't think my sister and I need any such things as coins or silver at the moment."

"Well then, I guess I'll just keep all this food to myself if you don't want any," at the mention of food both ponies instantly had their full attention on the Human, their ears perked and their eyes were drawn to the chunk of shiny metal. Their mouths went slack as a glove started to unwrap the silver ingot like a fruit to reveal a brown stick underneath, their eyes grew even wider as Damian took a bite out of the peculiar confection. Celestia's and Luna's mouths began to water as they watched the morsel being devoured.

With a satisfied look Damian swallowed the bite out of his granola bar and broke the remained chunk into two parts, holding them out in one of his hands, "You sure you still don't want some?"

What happened soon after was short of nothing more than utter chaos. The two starving critters charged the Human and pounced for the offered nourishment. Damian had to snap his fingers back from the mini feeding-frenzy just in case the chomping herbivores mistook his digits as edible. In a flash the bar was annihilated.

Huh, I guess they like those health bars more than I ever could. Eating that bit awhile ago made me remember why I hated granola bars as a kid a long time ago, they're just too disgustingly healthy.

As soon as the tiny amount of food was safely devoured Celestia returned back to her normal self once again, her cheeks were red at the embarrassing spectacle that she and her sister had just committed. For a second or two she had turned feral with the chance for something to eat in front of her. The pony's stomach still complained at its emptiness, but it was dulled for now, making it easy to ignore for now.

"Please Mr. Human, can we have some more?" Luna had finished her portion and had begun to use the full undiluted power of her adorableness to gain a second helping to an oat and honey bar. The thought that it might have been pushing their luck had crossed Celestia's mind, but she also hoped that there would be more things to eat coming her way as well.

"Sure, in fact I think I might have more than I could possibly eat in a year or two back there, so help yourself," Damian gently smiled as he tore open another bar.

Celestia became suspicious at the shift in character, not an hour ago the man had been cold and unfriendly, and now he was giving them his very own stash of food as if he had an unlimited number of those nutty bars. There had to be a catch, and Celestia knew that they had taken the bait... but a tasty bait none the less.

As she levitated the second bar over to them Celestia spoke up, her eyes judging as she looked over the Human who had moved back to his plane and was sitting on the sill of the hatch, "This is awfully generous of you Mr. Walker, but why are you giving us your food so easily? Most ponies would certainly be fighting to the death for the something like this."

Scratching the stubble on his chin Damian took a moment to ponder his answer, "I couldn't just stand by and watch you two like that without doing anything, it would have left a bad taste in my mouth," he said at last and then nodded towards the box, "Consider this an apology and my thanks for saving me; I hate living with a debt like that weighing me down, so consider the slate cleared."

I suppose that's a good enough reason, the young mare reasoned, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling she had that there was more to the gesture than what the was being said to them.

"I don't mind what the reason is really, all I know is that we don't have to worry about finding food no more!" Luna cheered as she took her head out from inspecting the container's contents.

"I certainly have enough to share, so why don't you two dig in while I go sort some stuff out. Call me if you need any help with some of those things; a few of those are meant to be cooked before you eat them, so be careful," with that Damian left the two ponies to their devices as he went back inside the Aurora.

More curious than hungry, Celestia trotted after the Human and into the crashed plane. Inside it was dark and cramped, but there was still enough room to move around in the confined space. A clanking noise came from further ahead, drawing the white pony's attention. The olive green jacket and red scarf was moving several of the boxes that cluttered the interior, but it appeared that the man hadn't noticed Celestia yet, or at least he gave no sign of acknowledging her presence.

Even though everything was a complete mess, and probably beyond repair Celestia couldn't help but be awe-stricken at every little detail. In one of the towns that she had visited she had seen a brand new printing press through a window, at the time she had gawked at the technological wonder as if it was crafted by the gods; the ability to print several books in a single day had fascinated the filly to no end. Even as they were being run out of town by the locals Celestia had still been impressed at the marvel that the town had created.

The things inside the Human's machine were beyond anything like what that printing press had been. Every panel, and every surface was ether made of a shiny polished metal or a weird white rock that bent and caved inwards when Celestia had placed a hoof against it. Behind every metal floor board and wall was also this network of wires and string, at several parts in the walls where a hole had been torn into the hull this web of red and blue cable had gushed out in a tangle.

"Aha! Found you at last, you rotten bugger!" From under a pile of metal boxes Damian had pulled out a dirty brown knapsack. The bag was roughly the same size as Luna and it looked like it had many different compartments, and as soon as it was clear of the debris the Human began ruffling through the many pouches with a grin on his face.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking Mr. Walker," Celestia peered at the bag as she approached, "But what's in the bag?"

The sudden company came as a bit of a mild suppose, and nearly caused Damian to jump to his feet, but the low ceiling hadn't made that possible; instead Damian ended up smashing his head against the paneling above him.

"Gah, Fuck! Didn't your parents ever tell you never to sneak up on people like that? Damn, that smarts," Sitting his body down on a box Damian rubbed his forehead, he glared over at the other occupant of the plane.

Celestia didn't respond to that and kept quiet, but inwardly her heart ached as the subject was brought up, "No... they didn't." Was all she said.

"Well they should have...speaking of which, where are they anyways? Off in the forest of Narnia?" The pilot smirked.

Celestia lowered her head and allowed some of her sadness to show, "I don't know..."

There was a gap in the conversation, as Celestia didn't want to further elaborate and the young bush pilot's eyes widened with comprehension. Well that went dark pretty fast; note to self, stay clear of that landmine of awkwardness. Deciding to do something about the heavy atmosphere Damian put on his back pack and headed for the door.

"Come on, I said that I was going to tell you about how this thing worked, didn't I?"

The day was coming to a close as the sky began to turn a fiery orange. Long dark shadows of the mountains surrounding the valley had already filled the forest below them with darkness. Eerie silhouettes danced among the tall pines and a Great Horned owl screeched as it dove for it's prey; if it hadn't been for the fire that Damian had erected close to the crashed plane then Celestia would have felt extremely vulnerable to the creatures that stalked the night.

The warm glow of the flames sat on a chunk of the Aurora's metal skin, held in place with a ring of stones. The fuel for the fire hadn't come easily since every single tree in the valley was waterlogged from the snow, but the trio had managed to find a few logs that were dry enough to begin the flames. Around the edges of the fire pit several other logs that were too damp to use right away were being dried for later use.

Damian had kept to his words about telling the ponies about his "Baby Girl" as he called it, though there wasn't much he could have shown before they had realized that they didn't have any tinder for a fire. Once the fire was made and stoked to a steady level the lecture had continued.

"...So the whole principle of flight is to create enough power from the engines to form thrust. This forward momentum makes the air flow around the wings and creates a high and low air-pressure..." The Human droned, not exactly interested in what he was saying, but he kept his to his word. Occasionally he poked the burning logs with a stick to keep the flames going.

Most of what Damian had been saying was incomprehensible, though that didn't mean that Celestia wasn't learning. She had grasped the general idea from what the foreign being had been saying and was listening quite intently to what the Human's lesson. Luna on the other hoof had fallen fast asleep after eating her full of those preserved nut meals, the wrappers laying about the makeshift camp site.

"...The shape of the wings form a lower air pressure above the wings, and since the air below the wing has a higher air pressure it lifts the wing into the air. There's a lot more to it than that, I'll admit, but that's the gist of it," as Damian explained more and more about how his craft worked his expression softened from its previous rigid glare.

"Fascinating, and you use this 'Airplane' to make deliveries, like a mail mare?"

Taking a bite out of his energy bar Damian nodded in agreement, "I guess you could say that, though my job was more specialized that that. My tasks were to bring supplies and people from the towns to some more extreme location, for example this trip was supposed to be for a small group of scientists out further north. Out there the only way they could get anything is by plane."

"So, what's going to happen to those Humans if they don't get their cargo?" Celestia asked as she began warming her hooves closer to the fire.

"Well my job this time was to get them their food supplies, now they only have two options available to them; starve, or be rescued. Though I believe they'll be picked up soon enough. It's a shame that they have to abandon their work because of this, but that's the reality I guess," the fire was starting to die down so another log was placed into the pit.

Celestia looked down at the wrappings from the meal that she had eaten and instantly felt guilty from eating the food, "Isn't there something we can do for them?"

"Nope," the answer came quickly, "Not if what I think is true..."

"And what may that be?" The young mare asked with a bit of curiosity.

Taking a stick that Damian had used for stoking the fire he drew a few crude shapes in the snow between the pony and him, after he had finished his snow art he poked the holes in the snow, leaving a bit of black ash as the stick was removed. "First things first," Damian pointed at the first hole, "This is where my home should be, a sleepy little town called Prospect Lake." The stick was then moved over to the second puncture in the snow, "And this is where I'm guessing where I should be if I'm still back in Kansas. As you can see this third one to the North is where I was going, a spot close to the Mackenzie River; but it's way too far to even think about getting there. Does any of this sound familiar?"

The shape of the rough map looked nothing like any of the maps Celestia had seen before, even given the messy lines it was nowhere close to her lands. She shook her head in response.

"Thought so. Here's another thing, and the one that will probably give me a hint as to how far I am from home; is the world that I'm on called Earth?"

"No, I'm afraid not. My sister and I have traveled quite a bit, but never have we heard of a place called 'Earth'. There's a race of ponies called Earth Ponies, but I've never heard of a placed called that. These lands don't really even have a name, except for maybe the territories that belong to the three tribes. Sorry if that didn't help."

Damian let out a heavy sigh and turned his head skyward to watch the stares above. The night sky was chock full of the shimmering little specks, the old saying that the stars were always more beautiful the farther you are from the city still rang true; the sight was breath taking even, though that only made it all the worse.

"I had a feeling that this wasn't Earth, this place is just too weird. Then I guess no one's going to find me and I'll be stuck here for the rest of my days... Everything is gone forever..." the words were soft and quite, as if Damian was speaking from a distant land.

Celestia saw the calm sadness and pitied the strange creature, she couldn't relate to his sorrow but she could empathize with the feeling of sadness. So, she began to ponder what she could do to make her company feel any better. "Mr. Walker, if you ever need some company my sister and I would be glad to have you around."

There was a pause as the Human remained staring at the stars, eventually he brought his eyes back down to the ground and slowly shook his head, "Not to be rude here, but I'd rather be on my own thanks. I appreciate the offer, but being stuck in a cave doesn't sound too appealing to me."

Slightly disheartened, Celestia carried on their conversation, "Then what are you going to do instead?"

The fire was slowly burning down and it was getting late, but the two still sat there in the freezing snow, a serious expression on each of them. "Well since there's no going back, I guess the only way is forwards. You mentioned that there were more of your kind around this place, so I'll go and find them I guess. There really isn't much to do actually, and I don't know what things may lie ahead, but I think it's better than sitting on my ass until I keel over."

"Oh, well that's great I suppose...you wouldn't perhaps mind if we could come al-" Celestia was cut off by a pile of snow being pushed onto the flames of the fire, dousing them with a hiss. The light and warmth had dissipated and now only the shadows and coldness remained. The silhouette of the Human rose from where he was sitting and entered the crashed plane.

"I take that as a no then," Celestia remarked as she picked a slumbering Luna with her magic and followed Damian into the shelter of the Aurora.

Chapter VI: Hot and Cold

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Damian hated mornings, he really did, each time the sun came over the hills and went about maliciously destroying his peaceful slumber Damian swore that one day he'd have his revenge upon the super-heated ball of gas. This morning wasn't so different from all the others, yet at the same time something felt out of place. The young man's mind tried to come up with a reason for this feeling, but thinking this early was like trying to run a marathon through quick sand and the process came up with little other than his back was sore.

Well, I always hate this part, so lets get this over with, with a bit of effort a pair of sleep crusted eyes opened to be greeted with a wall of blue fluff.

"What the?" Damian said, or he would have hadn't his words been muffled by the fuzz. I don't remember buying a blanket like this.

The fluffy blanket was warm and strangely heavy; it wasn't really until he heard it snore that Damian realized that was alive. With both his arms Damian managed to gently remove the creature from his facial region, and as he looked down at the culprit of the unwanted cuddles his memory came back to him in a flood. On his chest was was the still sleeping form of a midnight blue miniature horse. The horn that jutted out from a messy azure blue mane as well as the pair of wings on it's back painted out the painful fact that Damian had been stranded in some god awful fairy tale.

The first rays of sunlight drifted through the smashed open windshield and illuminated the wreckage; all Damian had to say was that taking away the shadows and revealing the mess didn't do his plane any favors. Jagged metal poked out from tears in the hull, the controls in front of the pilot where smashed beyond recognition, and snow covered pretty much everything including the razor sharp glass and obstacles that could easily injury anyone not careful enough. The Aurora had seen better days for sure.

Looking around the cabin of the dead Twin Otter the Human found himself sitting in his old pilots chair with the back rest reclined into a makeshift bed or sorts, Well that explains the back pain, at least it wasn't as bad as last night in that cave though.

The other fantasy-land critter had taken Riel's chair and was curled up on it, and if the rhythm of it's breathing was any indicator it was still asleep as well. The snow white fur seemed to blend in with the surroundings, and if it weren't for the pink mane and tail the unicorn like creature would have had the best camouflage.

Another bout of snoring on Damian's lap returned his attention to the smaller sibling. Briefly the young man questioned why the little filly had landed up on his head, memories of his old Labrador Retriever doing the same thing back in earlier days in life came to mind. Shrugging the thoughts away the man carefully removed the curled ball of fluff enough so that he could escape from being it's mattress. As soon as contact was removed from the pony the winter cold invaded Damian's body, generating shivers the rocked his body as the heat drained from him.

"Damn it sonny, I told you not to mess with the thermostat!" The little voice in the back of Damian's mind chimed in to give his little two cents. "Now put that heated horse pillow back on top of us and go back to sleep! Goodness knows you need it."

How about no. I have a lot of things planned today, and I need to get some warm food in me more than I need a few extra z's. Now shut up and stay out of my head, its bad enough that I'm in the crazy situation as it is that I don't need a mental breakdown on top of it.

"Well I could go for some flapjacks right about now. Oh, and I'm sorry to say this but your stuck with me because I am you, and I can't exactly leave me now can I?" The voice laughed back.

"I really hope there's a psychiatrist in this world."

An enormous yawn cracked across Luna's mouth as she woke from her slumber. Luna had seen the weirdest dream ever the night before; in it there had been a bazillion Humans all around her. They had lived in a city greater than any other in the world; the city had been made a maze of mountain tall towers, each trying to reach the heavens. Below the trunks of the massive shimmering monoliths streams of Humans of all shapes and sizes went about their daily lives in what looked like utter chaos. There had even been more machines that the Humans had used to ride around in. It was totally crazy.

Not wasting any time, Luna jumped out from the Human sized chair and promptly began to wake her big sister in the traditional way; by jumping up and down on Celestia's rib cage and rump. Accompanying the ceremony was a chorus of giggles as the pony squirmed under the barrage of hooves on her flank.

"Enough Lulu, get off of me!" Celestia shouted as she threw her younger sibling off and launching her into a pile of soft snow below the cabin seat.

Luna poked her head above the rim of the chair and giggled. "Sorry Tia, I just had the strangest dream and I just have to tell you all about it! There were tons of Humans everywhere, a city filled with all these towers that where twice as tall as any mountain, and there were a bunch of these-" Luna was cut off as a white hoof quickly plugged her mouth.

Celestia looked down her foreleg at her sister with a scowl of mild annoyance, but then as the tips of Tia's lips curved up ever so slightly Luna knew that she wasn't in too much trouble. "That's real nice Luna, but you could have told me when I woke up normally; at the very least you could try to wake me up in a gentler way. Besides, how many times have I told you not to jump on me?"

"439 times now, and counting," Luna grinned back as innocently as possible with puppy dog eyes.

Celestia sighed in semi-defeat as she watched the heart melting display of manipulation in front of her, she could never stay angry at her little sister for too long. With the rough awakening, Celestia had enough of her senses alert that she noticed that their Human friend had disappeared from sight.

"Lulu, did you see where the Human drifted off to?" As the blue filly shrugged back Celestia began to worry, just a tad.

After a few minutes of searching all around the inside and outside of the crashed machine both sisters came to the same conclusion that the Human had left. The Human's large bag had also disappeared, and there was a fresh set of tracks in the snow that led deep into the frosted forest beyond the crash site.

"I can't believe that creature left us like this! And here I thought that I had finally made a new friend too!" Luna cried out in frustration as she punted a pine cone across the clearing.

"I was going to tell him all about the places we've been to and teach him how to read the stars; but now he's gone." The filly's body relaxed as Luna sat back onto her haunches and sniffed, "It's not fair that he left right after I met him...He didn't even say goodbye..."

Celestia could sympathize with Luna's frustration, feeling just as abandoned; though this wasn't something that she hadn't expected to happen so soon. The feeling of being left behind because ponies saw you as dead weight or a freak of nature always cut deep. There wasn't much to be done about the Human now accept the reality and move on, and at the very least there was still everything that the alien creature had left behind.

Walking over to her sister Celestia placed a comforting hoof around her sister's shoulders and brought her into a warm hug, "It'll be fine Lulu, I'm still here with you and we can make new friends later if you want." The soft words managed to at the very least brighten up the downtrodden pony enough that she leaned back into the hug with a brittle smile.

On the other side of the Aurora Damian had just turned from picking up some tinder and firewood for making breakfast, the rucksack full of branches weighing down on his back. He had been gone for the past hour and the rumbling his stomach hadn't subsided; apparently a few energy bars and a cup of water could carry him so far. As the Human rounded the broken tail of the Otter he noticed the two horses having a little sisterly moment.

"Aww, isn't that just adorable! They look like a fuzzy Yin and Yang!" The voice cooed at the sight, "You really should join in on that action."

"Yeah, no thanks. Those two look like they're having a very personal moment, so I'll just keep my distance for now," though a bit of a jerk he may be, Damian wasn't someone to barge in on someone else's privacy.

After setting the bag filled with twigs down, Damian set to work on building another fire pit, as the one he had made the night before had melted deep down into the snow. In the original's place was a meter deep pit fill with ash and charcoal, so it wasn't really usable anymore. Learning from that mistake Damian had come up with an idea of using a panel or a door as a more suitable fire pit to prevent the snow from melting from under the fire.

Damian remembered seeing a large strip from one of the shredded wings lying about near where the talking ponies had been sitting. Though he didn't really know why those two had been hugging like that, and since the atmosphere didn't seem like the kind you could just waltz in on, Damian decided to hang back and out of sight by the tail of the Aurora and wait till they were done. The Human had enough on his plate that he wanted to avoid any drama bombs if at all possible.

With everything that had happened over the past two days, getting ambushed by a posse of phantoms and crashing into the side of a mountain range, dealing with nearly fatal wounds and no hope for a rescue, and to top it all off he was having his sanity cracking with schizophrenic voices. All the evidence pointed out to Damian that two things could have happened to him: He could have had a stroke or went into a coma, or that this was the weirdest circle of hell he could possibly think of. The addition of apparently real mythological talking unicorns that could use magic of all things didn't help in the slightest.

I'm not even a virgin! So if we went with the traditional lore then I wouldn't have these freaking unicorns hanging around me, right?! The man internally screamed.

"If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say that it's because you have you butt's virginity still intact," the Voice snickered.

Damian simply deadpanned, "I hate you so much, you know that?"

The Voice just laughed back, "Of course I do."

As Damian walked around the corner of the Aurora something rammed into his stomach, knocking a bit of air out of him. When he looked down Damian came face to face with that white winged unicorn, which had a look of pure shock plastered all over her face, like she'd just seen a ballerina dancing bison wearing a tutu.

For a brief moment Damian pondered why the horse could even make that kind of face considering that she was from an entirely different species, yet at the same time the creature had some unnervingly Human qualities, like high pitched screams for instance.

The younger blue unicorn noticed the commotion and looked over to notice the arrival of the alien. Luna's eyes widened with surprise and she immediately rushed over to the two. "W-wha? Where did you-? We thought that you left us! My sister and I were-" The pony was talking a mile a minute and was obviously very confused for some reason. If Damian hadn't held up a hand to stop her, he was sure that the tiny creature might have continued on aimlessly rambling like that.

"Alright, hold up. What's this even about? I couldn't have been gone more than an hour and you two act like I fell of the side of the world," the young man crossed his arms as he waited for an explanation.

Both ponies exchanged glances with one another, unsure of what they were supposed to say. It wasn't until a minute passed by without anyone saying anything Celestia took the initiative. The unicorn awkwardly stepped up to Damian and began rubbing one of her front legs with a hoof.

"Well umm, when we woke up and noticed that you'd left with your bag we thought that you had abandoned us behind..." The pink maned pony lowered her head and began pawing at the snow, her name had escaped Damian's memory, but he was sure that it had started with a C or something.

The other one, Luna, was looking back up at the much taller Human with wide eyed silent joy for some reason. It was odd to see her mood be flipped around just like that in a span of a few seconds. Maybe she's Bipolar? Can a magical baby unicorn even be Bipolar to begin with?

It slowly began to click in the back of Damian's mind, and he was starting to get the gist of what had happened. Even if they were weird ass story book animals they were still kids after all, any kid would have acted the same if they woke up all alone in a strange place. Though, perhaps there was more to this, Celery seemed like a smart enough person...pony thing...whatever, to wait at least a bit more before she claimed that he was gone for good.

A sliver of a smile crested Damian's mouth as he shook his head back and forth. "Heh, I guess you guys would panic if I just up and left like that. It's too bad I couldn't have left a note, but then again you wouldn't have been able to read it so it would have been pointless."

"You could have woken us up," Luna huffed mildly annoyed that she had gotten so upset about something like this. Odd that you would say that Ms.Smotherington, even after I was trying to be a gentleman before and not wake you up.

Damian bent down on his knees and looked directly into the large emerald eyes of the filly, "And you could have not slept on my face last night, so I think we're even."

Once again Luna huffed at the Human as she walked over to her sister's side, sticking her tongue out at Damian once she reached a safe distance.

"I left to get some more firewood, and in a few minutes I'll have something to eat. So, what do you guys eat for breakfast anyways?"

The crackling fire that Damian had made was had started to thaw out his frozen legs, leaving a warm roasted feeling in the retreating cold. Perhaps he shouldn't have had his legs so close to the fire pit, but a third degree burn was well worth it if it meant not freezing to death; seriously, it was like minus fifteen degrees Celsius outside.

With some of the scrap metal Damian had fashioned not only a decent platform for the fire, but also with some added scraps of aluminum he had fashioned a roughly made stove to cook his food on. Currently there was an Instant Meal Package, IMP for short, sitting above the flame. If the label was right then inside the metal bag contained Vindaloo curry with potatoes.

Sitting next to Damian were the two ponies, both were eating out of their own bags with immense difficulty. Holding the spoons with their hooves and using them to scoop out the soup like meal out of the bag proved to be troubling to say the least. After getting frustrated at using the Human plastic cutlery Celestia used her magic to scoop out a portion, her magenta eyes widening as she chomped down on the spicy food.

Thank god that the shipment had only been for vegetarian packages; otherwise I'd have to deal with that whole being an Omnivore thing and possibly scare them off.

"This food of yours is amazing!" Celestia said when she finished eating her mouthful of curry, "I've never tasted anything like this!"

Beside Celestia Luna gave a satisfied burp as she wiped away some sauce from her muzzle, the filly had given up on using the spoon and instead had dived her mouth into the bag, "Yeah! This stuff is yummy!"

Damian gave a soft chuckle as he picked up his own cooked packet from the fire. With only a few spoonfuls the meal was halfway gone, and so was the rumbling in the man's stomach. Out of the corner of his eye Damian noticed that the two ponies were watching him eat with slight unease.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" The two horses shifted their eyes away from him, but he still managed it get an answer out of 'Celery' after he stared long and hard enough to make her sweat. Something about the way they had been avoiding his gaze was a dead giveaway that they has something to say, yet still nervous enough that they didn't want to speak about it.

Celestia swallowed a limp in her throat and faced the Human, "W-well...it's just that we noticed that you have a set of f-fangs. Most creatures that have those are predators and eat meat, possibly Pony meat...Seeing you eat just now reminded us about them." The mare was slightly trembling when she spoke; keeping a constant eye on the Human's mouth as if it was a viper.

Oh, I guess that explains the odd behavior. Placing his spoon back into the bag Damian set his meal down in the snow next to him and put on as reassuring smile as he could. "You girls can relax, I'm not gonna eat you."

Both mares blew out a sigh of relief at hearing the news. "Phew! For a moment there I was sure that you ate meat," Luna grinned as she went back to eating her potato curry.

Damian began to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, "Ummm, actually I do eat meat-" Too late did the young man realize that he had accidentally let slip a sensitive bit of information, at that moment he mentally kicked himself in the head. After the causal mention of meat eating by their company both of the sister's eyes grew as large as dinner plates with primal terror. A millisecond later they were cowering behind a snow dune.

"Great going there Einstein, you sure have a way with words don't you?" The voice snarked from deep inside Damian's mind.

Damn it! Now I need to put them back at ease, or else I won't be able to find out where that village is! Things had escalated pretty fast with just that one word; meat. It should have been obvious that mentioning that you like steak in front of a purely herbivore race is a fucking big mistake!

At the moment the two spooked magical critters were chattering something between themselves at the far end of the clearing, the muttering stopped when they noticed that the Human was approaching their hiding spot. "Um, I'm sorry about the miscommunication, but let me just clarify that I don't eat talking ponies!"

"How do we know that!? You could just be luring us into an elaborate trap!" Luna shouted across the distance

Damian halted his advance to put his hands on his hips, "For starters I could have killed a hundred times over and eaten you long ago, but I didn't now did I?" Some of the heat from the filly's challenging glare evaporated. "Also, did you find any chunks of meat in that food I gave you? No, you didn't, that's because Human's don't always have to eat meat."

"I guess that makes sense...but that doesn't explain that hide on your hooves!" Celestia pointed a quivering hoof to Damian's boots, "What kind of twisted creature uses another's skin as clothing!?"

"Let's see you try and explain that away Mr.Diplomat," The Voice commented annoyingly with a hint of satisfaction from the dilemma.

God I wish he had a mute button. Back in reality Damian's brain was churning away, attempting to come up with a solution to this firecracker of a situation that had suddenly exploded in his face. Seriously, this was like the thousandth time something had gone from "Alright" to "World Ending" in ten seconds flat. "Well... You see that's actually fake leather... It's not real."

Celestia's pink eyes narrowed as she took a closer look at the Human's footwear. "Hmmm, I guess you're right...There's no way somepony would be as sadistic and cruel as to fashion clothing out of another creature. Sorry about that." She looked up from her inspection and gave back a sheepish smile.

Well, this is kinda awkward. I guess I never really thought of it that way until just now. That unicorn really has a way of unintentionally making you feel like a god awful person. "Yeah, I guess I really should have mentioned sooner that I was an Omnivore."

"Ahwm-nee-vor?" Luna asked from beside her sister, Well ain't you just a little bundle of weaponized cuteness and diabetes.

"It means that I can basically eat anything. Not that I'd want to mind you."

"Oooh!"

The explanation seemed sufficient enough to clear things up that Luna and Celestia decided to abandon their guarded stances behind their dune. After the ponies apologized for their rudeness and calling Damian a monster they settled back down at the fire.

Since Damian had left his bag in the snow it had gone cold; though he had to admit that sometimes curry tasted better chilled, and it certainly damped down the spice a few notches. Although Damian liked curry, he didn't like his food spiced to the point where it was flaming hot.

Well, at least they seem to adapt pretty fast to things; I guess living alone in the woods made them hardy like that.

"So, what are you going to do now Mr. Walker?" Celestia asked.

Damian scratched his chin bristles with a finger in mild thought, "I'd say the best course of action right now is to head to that village you mentioned before. If nothing else I could figure out where I am exactly, and perhaps I could get some clues as to what those spirits where that crashed me here."

"Did I just hear somepony say spirits?" Luna's eyes widened with excitement.

"...Yeah, there were three of them in total. Each of them looked kinda like you guys but more like a regular horse, and they were also ethereal. They attacked my plane and from what I can tell it was them that put me here in this world."

"WAIT! I think I might have seen them before!" Luna shouted as she jumped in front of where Damian sat. "When I saw your airplane fall out of the sky I also saw those three ghosts! Now I get why they ran off and didn't try and help you!"

"Well, I want to find out where they are so I can return the favor and make them pay," the way that Damian had said those words sent a shiver up Celestia's spine. The human's voice was calm, yet there was darkness in the man's eyes that unsettled the pony.

There was a short silence before Damian spoke again, "Celery, last night you also mentioned something about tribes and such, could you tell me if this village belongs to any of them?"

Celestia gave an irritated frown at the Human for mistaking her name, "My name is Celestia, not some vegetable," the young white and pink mare said. "And as for Pine Village, it's a town of Earth ponies. They mainly stick near the forest edge, but I'm not so sure that they'd like to see you..."

The bush pilot raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And why wouldn't they want to see me exactly?"

Both Celestia and Luna looked away as they began to fidget nervously, "...They don't like anyone that isn't an Earth Pony..." From the way that Celestia said that and their hesitance talking about the village probably meant that they had a first had experience with the hospitality those ponies had to offer.

"A town full of racist talking ponies! My, isn't this going to be a fun little adventure," Once again the Voice was back.

"That certainly throws a monkey wrench in my plan... But will they still be open enough to allow a bit of trading? I was going to trade my cargo for some supplies I need and perhaps a warm bed."

"I-I think they would," Celestia nodded in agreement with herself, "They're a logging town that's this high up in the mountains, so I think they'll be willing to trade for the food they can't grow."

"That's great to hear, now all I need to do is get down this mountain. Thanks for the info." Finishing off the last of his meal the man rose up and walked back to his crashed plane.

"Wait!" Luna cried as she ran up to the Human's leg before he could disappear into the bowels of the metal wreckage. Damian stopped at the hatch and looked back down at the small blue filly.

Luna's watery giant emerald eyes, along with her quivering lip and pulled back ears made the filly look like a puppy with denim blue dyed fur, "Can we pwease come along with you? I promise to be good!"

Damian stared the pony down as he towered over her, his face was ridged and he had an uncomfortable lack of emotion. For awhile nothing moved or made a sound as Luna bombarded the stone faced Human with her charm. Eventually the man sighed and shook his head in defeat.

"I'll be here for the next two hours or so packing up my stuff... if you still want to come along with me by the time I'm done then I guess-" Damian was cut off as Luna jumped up at him and attempted to wrap her tiny limps around his torso in a hug.

"OhThankyouthankyouthankyou! You're the best!" With that Luna jumped down from a startled and slightly bewildered Human to run over to her sister. "Come on Tia! We need to head back home and pack too!"

A warm smile grew on Celestia's muzzle as she was dragged along by her hoof; she looked over to Damian and saw that he was slightly flustered by Luna's antics. "Thank you."

"Hurry up then; I'm not going to wait all day for you to get back," Damian grumbled, "I'm burning daylight as it is, and I don't want to head down the valley at night, so move it before I change my mind."

Chapter VII: The Trail Ahead

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It hadn't taken Damian too much effort before he was ready to set out on his journey. Securing the Aurora's cargo was relatively simple since the orange metal containers had survived the impact into the mountainside. With a few scraps from the wreckage lying about, Damian had sealed up most of the entrances to the Twin Otter just in case some wildlife decided to set up its den inside the metal hull.

From the remains of the bush plane Damian had scavenged for anything that could help him out in the winter wilderness. Currently packed into his rucksack was the following; four days worth of preserved food (including some for the mythical creatures that had decided to tag along for the ride), one itchy gray woolen blanket, a carton of matches and a stick of flint, several water purification tablets and a canteen, the medical kit, and strapped to the side was an emergence fire axe.

Other than the small red axe the only other weapon Damian had in his possession was his hunting knife that never left the sheath on his belt. The seven inch long blade with a black rubber grip was once a gift from Damian's uncle, and although he hadn't used it other than for camping or as a tool it was perhaps the most deadly thing he currently owned.

Satisfied with his handy work at barricading the Aurora Damian sat back down at the fire pit. The flames had dimmed down into red embers with no one around to stoke it or add more logs, yet it still gave off more heat than anything around.

Damian let out a tired sigh as he looked up from the littered clearing and up at the sky. The position of the sun in the clear blue sky meant that it was high noon at the moment, which meant that there were only a few more precious hours until the valley was pitch black once again. Traveling at night had many dangers; brutal freezing temperatures, dangerous animals stalking the shadows, and utter darkness were to name a few. If those ponies don't get back here soon I'll be forced to leave without them, whether they like it or not.

Just as the Human was about to get up and leave with his belongings a pair of miniature horses burst through a bush, tumbling along in the snow until they reached the lone figure in the snow. Damian raised an eyebrow as he looked down the tangle of limbs before him. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Ow ow ow!" Celestia said as she lifted herself up and then her sister, "Luna, I told you not to run so fast!"

"But I was worried that the Human had already left!" The filly whined as she dusted the snow from her coat, "And I wouldn't have run if you hadn't taken so long to pack!"

"Says the foal that started running off in the opposite direction and I had to gallop after you to get your attention!" Celestia retorted, the two began bickering away as Damian knelt down to take a closer look at their belongings.

Wrapped up in an old cloth was an old book written in some sort of weird hieroglyphics, a wooden comb, and what looked like a small stone pendant tied to a string of hemp. The small necklace's grey stone was warn and dulled, yet it still held its original markings of some sort of Celtic spiral rune. When there was a pause in the verbal battle Celestia noticed that there was a Human rifling through their stuff.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" The pink maned mare shouted as she enveloped her belongings in a carnation pink aurora and whisked them towards her. The way the pony puffed out cheeks in annoyance along with her frown made her look positively adorable and Damian found it hard to take Celestia seriously like that.

The whole 'Magic is a real thing' still confused and surprised Damian, but next to ghosts and talking unicorns with wings he had to suspend his disbelief in order to make it through the day; otherwise he'd constantly be driven insane by it's improbability.

"Oh, sorry about that, I was just checking out what you're bringing along," the apology managed to deflate Celestia somewhat.

"Fine, just ask next time before you start poking around in our stuff," Within the magical field the objects began wrapping themselves back into a neat little parcel.

Picking up his bag and placing it firmly on the square of his back, Damian walked over to his company, "So, now that we're all here, I think it's high time we hit the trail. You girls know the way, so I'll follow your lead."

"Agreed. It should only take two days at most traveling to get to Pine village, and we know of a few good spots to set up shelter for the night." Mimicking the Human's action Celestia placed her own parcel on her back and started trotting towards the forest's edge.

"Yay, we're going on an adventure!" Luna cheered as she bounced after her sister and strange new friend.

As the three set off down a trail to the valley bottom a pair of glowing green eyes watched them vacate the safety of the clearing. The eyes followed their progress until the creatures had left from view, by then it had decided that the ponies and the bipedal creature were excellent prey; the creature hadn't tasted pony flesh in quite some time and the smell of the young equines made it's jaw water with thick, gooey tendrils of spit. The two legged animal was new, but that only meant a new meat was on the menu. In a flash the predatory eyes ran off through the forest to gather its comrades for the hunt.

For the most of the trek through the snow covered woods the trio had kept to themselves; a few short-lived conversations had happened between Celestia and Damian, but otherwise it was a quiet hike. The forest was still, and other than the occasional bird chirp the only sound was that of a knife being stabbed into the bark of a passing pine tree. After the twentieth time Damian had hacked at a fir, Celestia had to ask what the heck it was doing.

"Umm, Mr. Walker, is there any reason why you're cutting up those trees?" Celestia tentatively asked, watching nervously as the long blade of the knife sunk into the wood of another tree trunk.

"Hmm? Oh those marks you mean? I'm cutting arrows into the trees so that we'll have a clear trail to follow if we want to get back to the Aurora," Damian explained as he wiped away some sap that had covered the blade.

"That's... actually a pretty smart idea. Have you done this before?" With a conversation started Celestia hoped that she could get some more info out of her mysterious companion.

"I guess so, back where I came from I did a bit of camping and hiking, but I never did it more than a few times a year... When I was young I used to do it all the time with my Uncle," With a grunt Damian carved another arrow into a passing tree.

Celestia gave an interested hum at the mention of some of Damian's family, "Do you still go hiking with your Uncle?"

There was a pause before Damian answered the question, and when he finally spoke Celestia almost wished she didn't bring the subject up, "I can't really, Ol' Ben's been six feet under for a few years now."

"I-I'm so sorry to hear that, if I brought up any-" The mare was cut off as a loud *thunk* resonated in the quite woods, another mark had been made.

With a shake of his head Damian carried on walking through the knee deep snow, "You don't have to worry about it, Ben was a great Uncle, but his time had to come eventually, just like everyone else."

"Oh," was all Celestia could come up with to say in the sudden awkward silence, it was obvious that Damian's deceased uncle was a sensitive topic, and in her attempt at trying to get her new friend to open up she had just reminded him of that wound on his heart. Ah, pony feathers!

Not too far up ahead Luna was busy trail blazing, leaping through the meter deep powder like it was nothing. The soft sounds of humming from the filly probably meant that she was oblivious to the traded words behind her.

Out of the corner of his right eye Damian saw that the pony beside him had turned a tad bit too depressed for his liking, so he decided to alter that with a change in topics. "So this hoodoo-voodoo magic thing, how does it work? I mean, you practically brought me back from the dead with it, so you got me interested."

Celestia perked up slightly and smiled back at the Human, thankful that she could get past that awkwardness a minute ago. "It's actually quite simple; 'magic' exists everywhere and in everything. With the right knowledge and abilities a pony such as myself can control that energy and make it do what I want. That healing spell only accelerated you own body's power to heal itself."

With a grunt of amusement Damian stopped in his tracks and shook his head from side to side, "Freaking Midichlorians."

"What?" Celestia asked, confused at the new word.

"Never mind, it's just that it's similar to something straight out of Star Wars," the Human's laughter only further confused the equine.

What's so funny about stars going to war?! Celestia thought to herself, If Luna hears about her precious stars fighting against each other then I think her heart would break!

"So do all the critters here use magic, or is it just you guys?"

"Well, yes and no. Everything has some degree of magical power, but it depends on each individual's race for what they can do with it." Luna could hear a lecture brewing behind her and increased her pace in an attempt to flee the avalanche of knowledge her sister was going to unleash.

"A Unicorn for example has the purest form of magic among the three tribes, as they can channel raw energy though their horns. With horns like mine and Luna's we're able to manipulate our surroundings. While on the other hoof a Pegasus can use it's magic to help it fly and walk on clouds. Earth Ponies however don't have wings or horns; instead they have a deeper connection with the environment, allowing them to become effective farmers or botanists."

Damian was beginning to regret his curiosity as more and more exposition was thrown his way, sure he had asked for it but that didn't mean he wanted an encyclopedia read to him; though with some new tidbits of information a few questions had sprung up in the man's own mind. "Wait, you keep saying three Pony races, but from what I can tell you two don't fit into any of them, why is that?"

There was a silence after that; Celestia's face was unreadable surprisingly. The pair's foot falls made the only sounds as snow crinkled and was crushed beneath their respective strides. Celestia knew that it was rude to ignore the Human's question, but on the other hoof she didn't want to answer it ether. She was about to apologize to Damian that she couldn't give him an answer when she noticed that the man was standing as still as a statue all of a sudden.

Slightly curious as to why her new friend had just become petrified she reversed her course and trotted over to him, the crimson scarf was tightly wrapped around his face and in one of his hands he held his axe, "Um, Mr. Walker, why are you-"

The mare was cut off as a gloved finger was lifted to the Human's mouth as Damian hushed the pony. "Remain very still and listen," the soft whisper put Celestia on edge, something had defiantly spooked the Human.

All around the two stood a dense grove of snow covered pines; their dark brown frosted bark was the only contrast with the blinding white of the winter wonderland. Up ahead Luna's humming could be heard, the filly hadn't noticed that her traveling companions had halted their tracks. It was then that Celestia caught onto what the Human had been so worried about; nothing was making a sound. Earlier the song of birds and the pecking sound of a wood pecker had filled the forest, but now it was completely dead silent. Only one thing could have ceased the woodland racket, and that was the threat of danger.

Crouching down on his knees Damian moved closer to the pony's head so they could whisper more effectively. "So, what do you think is out there? A bear, or maybe wolves perhaps?"

The inside Celestia's gut felt it had been hollowed out, and she could feel her legs trembling in the snow. She was terrified, and she almost didn't respond to the Human in fear that it would trigger the predator's assault. "It must be Timberwolves, they normally hunt further north, but I'm sure it must be them."

"That's just fan-flipping-tastic, wolves. That's all I need right now," the causality of Damian's statement caused Celestia's jaw to drop slightly in shock. How can he act so calm?! We're talking about a pack of murderous wolves here!

Little did Celestia know that at that moment Damian was shitting himself in horror at the hidden predator, (not literally of course, because that would just be gross.) The calm in his voice and pose was just an attempt at keeping the equine next to him from panicking. The only way she could have noticed the fear in the human would have been a slight trembling in his legs, but that could have just been written off due to the cold.

A thought suddenly popped into the young mare's mind, Oh gods! I need to find Luna right now, she's in danger!

Without a second of haste Celestia bolted forwards in the direction Luna had gone, leaving the slightly bewildered human in the dust. The filly's tracks were clearly laid out in the snow for anyone, friendly or otherwise, to follow.

"Damn it! That stupid horse ran off, and now those wolves will defiantly attack." Rule number one when dealing with being stalked by a predator: never make any sudden movements, otherwise the animal's instincts will make it chase after you. Unfortunately for Damian shouting worked just as well for grabbing the unwanted attention of a pack of carnivorous hunters.

As soon as Celestia had left his view a deep growling sound came from behind Damian, it reminded him of his neighbour's pitbull. The sight that greeted the man when he turned to look over his shoulder wasn't like anything he had seen before outside of a Hollywood movie.

Coming from around a tree was, from the looks of it, another tree, except this one was shaped like a wolf. The creature was roughly a meter and a half tall, and twice that in length. From what Damian could tell it was made entirely of branches and leaves, but that didn't mean that it was in any way fragile; its forelegs had claws that looked shape enough to shred steel. From inside its sap drooling maw sat rows of razor sharp fangs. In each of the wolf's eye sockets shone two bright-green orbs.

All it took was three seconds for Damian to pass his judgment upon the flesh hungry creature. The most primal part of the young man's brain was screaming that if he fought that thing he'd die a horrifyingly painful and gory death.

Okay, add mutant twigs to my personal list of nightmare fuel, Damian's hairs stood on end as the beast emitted a low guttural growl; whatever the heck that thing was, it certainly terrified the man to his bones.

The monster began to slowly creep forwards, its head low to the ground and locked onto the Human only mere meters away from it.

Drops of sweat rolled down the exposed portion of Damian's face as he tightened his grip on his fire axe, the blade looking way smaller than what he remembered it to be.

Shit, I don't know if I can take this thing head on, but I maybe I can take it out with some effort and-

Damian's plan of overcoming the creature with any hope of living another day was smashed to pieces when the Timberwolf lifted its head and pointed its muzzle towards the tree branches above it. The wooden wolf began to bark... If the bad puns didn't kill the stranded young man, then the two new companions for the original Timberwolf would.

The two new predators on the scene had been hidden behind tree trunks to either side of their friend, their rough bark hides' provided them with the perfect camouflage. Soon enough all three wolves slowly began to flank Damian on each side.

From inside the head of the terrified Human came the mysterious voice once again. "From the looks of it I'd say that you're boned, well it was nice knowing you!"

Taking a deep breath and letting it out helped calm Damian down a notch enough to get out of his semi-paralyzed state. He knew what he had to do in order to survive, "Fuck this noise!" And with that Damian ran with all his might away from the wolves.

The three Timberwolves looked at each other, slightly confused at the sudden bout of screaming that came from their strange two legged pry.

Their leader growled and let out an ear piercing howl, the chase was on.

Luna was inspecting an odd ice formation that looked like a squirrel holding a nut when she heard the Timberwolves's howling from far behind her. The filly froze at the sound, instant fear plaguing her tiny body and rooted her to the spot.

What came next surprised the filly as her blue body was enveloped in a pink mist and thrown abruptly into the air. With a startled yelp Luna found herself hurtling towards Celestia, who was at the same time charging towards her. There wasn't much time to process what had just happened before she landed on her sister's back.

"W-what gives Tia?!" Luna shook her head to get rid of her dizziness and then fixed Celestia with a worried frown, "And was that a Timberwolf I just heard?!"

Without a moment's hesitation Celestia began running though the snow once more at full tilt, "Sorry about that Lulu, be we need to get out of here NOW! We're being hunted!"

Luna had to swallow a lump of terror that was threatening to strangle her, but she managed to focus on something else as she repeatedly ducked her head to miss a low lying branch. "What happened to Mr. Walker?"

There was a silence as Celestia remained focused on the trail ahead and not on the questioning eyes that were boring into the back of her skull. Luckily she didn't have a chance to answer her sister about the Human that she had just abandoned because a steadily increasing yell grabbed both of the pony's attention.

From several hundred strides behind them Damian was kicking up a snowstorm in his wake. The man was screaming profanities at the top of his lungs as he steadily closed the gap between them. It was a curious sight to see, the man was holding a hand to his red woolen hat to prevent it from flying off while his other arm was pumping back and forth while holding onto his hatchet. His scarf was trailing like a ribbon in the wind from around his neck. It would have been a funny sight, had it not been for the three pony eating wooden monsters nipping at his heels.

"Ahhh haa haa! Somebody, for the love of god help me! I'm going to be eaten alive!" Damian wailed as he tried to catch up with Celestia and Luna.

Celestia took one glance at the snapping jaws of the wolves and instantly doubled her pace, leaving Damian behind once more with the wolves. "Keep those things away from us!" Celestia bellowed behind her at her less than fortunate friend.

"You heartless bitch!" Damian cursed at the ponies as they left him in their dust, "What good are you if you can't just magic these things away?! How can you just leave me behind like this?!"

Damian noticed that Celestia had turned her head back to face him, probably to say sorry for sacrificing him like this. As fate would have it that wasn't the best time to have taken her rose coloured eyes from the path ahead, in the span of micro seconds the ground beneath Celestia's white hooves vanished and gave way to a steep slope off of a cliff.

Time came to a standstill as both pony and human locked terrified eyes, equally surprised by the sudden turn of events. And then they were gone, disappearing below the cliff edge.

Taking a look behind him Damian saw that the wooden wolves were still in hot pursuit on his rump, and if he didn't do something soon they'd catch him and eat the flesh off his bones. "Oh damn this all to hell! I'd rather die quick and painless then being eaten!" And with that Damian ran straight off the cliff in the pony's hoofsteps.

A familiar laughter in the back of his head caught the young man's attention before gravity took hold of him, "Do a flip!"

Pain radiated from every corner of Celestia's body, but from a few tests she found that nothing was seriously injured or badly mangled. The next thing that popped into her head was her sister. "Luna!? Are you alright?!" Snapping up out of a hole in the snow Celestia found a similarly shaped smaller hole next to her.

"I'm okay!" Luna happily shouted from deep in the pony imprint. Celestia blew out a sigh of relief at her little sister's survival.

Though, once she had assessed that they hadn't died or been critically injured the young mare found herself and her sister in a clearing beneath a decent sized cliff. Looking up however caused her heart to nearly stop, as not only had Damian fallowed them off the edge but so had the Timberwolves as well.

Before Celestia had a chance to scream all four figures crashed in a semi-circle around the two ponies.

As the snow started to settle all around the impact sites signs of life in each of the craters began to make themselves noticeable; for instance, from inside Damian's hole a multitude of curses and swears could be heard, while in each of the wolf shaped snow indents there were growls and low whining from a Timberwolf that didn't make the fall without some damage.

"...Luna, get on my back, we're going to run for it," Celestia quietly instructed her sister.

But, before Luna could hop in between her sister's wings another noise drew their attention. A tempo of thunderous earthquakes began to approach the cliff face. From across the clearing the trees began to shake and quiver as something huge moved among them, clouds of snow were shaken from the branches of ever tree that was passed. With every crash from inside the woods a wave of panic rose inside Celestia's stomach; whatever was out there was gigantic, and it was coming straight for them!

Then all of a sudden the booming foot falls halted without warning, as if whatever had been making them had simply vanished into thin air. A tense silence fell on the six holes below the cliff, Celestia noticed that not only had Damian ceased his fountain of verbal swears to sit statue still, but so had the Timberwolves. Obviously something was out there that even the most vicious predators in the woods feared.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Damian was now standing and moving towards Celestia, "I mean that sounded like some sort of behemoth just walked by!"

"I..I don't know. I'm just glad it didn't find us," Celestia let out some tension as she heaved a sigh of relief. Damian on the other hand stopped in his tracks to stare with wide eyed horror at the pink maned pony; Murphy's Law had just been activated.

And just like that, the trees parted and snapped as a mountainous form of a Timberwolf smashed into the clearing. The monster's height reached halfway up the stone cliff and it easily towered over the tiny terrified creatures below it. Its breath was rank with the stench of death, and each time it breathed a small gust of wind bathed over everyone.

The eyes that glared down at Damian were a molted yellow with a tinge of red around the edges. Inside the gigantic Timberwolf's gaping maw sat rows of teeth the size of tombstones. Only one word though fully could describe the beast before Damian: Death.

The other smaller versions of the monstrosity were the first to react, the two that were uninjured quickly dashed off into the woods and out of sight, leaving their crippled comrade to his fate. The fall had apparently broken one of the Timberwolf's rear legs, and it desperately tried to follow its friends into the safety of the tree line. With only a lunge and snap of its mighty jaws the Alpha Timberwolves ate its unlucky cousin whole.

"Well, I think I've said this way too many times by now, but I'll say it anyways; it was nice knowing you. At least you'll be eaten whole," The voice in the back of Damian's head said with a small amount of pity.

As the giant turned its attention towards the remaining three morsels Damian could only think of one thing, and that was to buy his strange new four legged friends enough time to escape.

"I can see what you're thinking, and all I have to say is that you're a stupid son of a bitch if you think you even have a hope of killing that thing."

I don't need to kill it; I just need to by us some time. Now shut up, I need to fight this ungodly bastard if it's the last thing I do. Picking up his fire axe from the snow Damian moved in between the ponies and wolf.

"It will be the last thing you do," The voice said darkly.

"Damian, what the heck are you doing?! Run!" Luna cried from beside Celestia, already a stream of tears in her eyes.

Shoving off his backpack Damian then took his axe in both his hands, he turned his head a fraction and gave a weak smile. "I could say the same thing to you too."

In a flash the lone, stranded, and half crazed young Human charged at the beast of nightmares. In his brief moment he thought about how he had never wanted any of this, that all he wanted to be in his home sipping a cheap beer and watching some sports with his friend. He thought about the craziness of his situation, of being stranded in a magical frozen land when he was attacked by ghosts off all things, of his crash and the ponies that had saved his life.

He wished those two the best of luck as he ran face first at his target, roaring with all his might as he lifted his axe into the sky to strike at his enemy. It would have been quite the epic scene had not a mouth filled with razor like teeth snatched him up from the side without warning.

Out of all the pain he had suffered through thus far being impaled by a dozen wooden teeth and a jaw powerful enough to crush stone to dust was by far the worst thing ever. Damian could feel each blade that dissected his chest and limbs; the red hot searing pain from each puncture was torturous and unbearable. With his lungs crushed Damian couldn't even scream out in agony about the pain that was killing him.

As his vision and mind began to fade the last thing he could see was the frightened and horrified shapes of both Celestia and Luna. Why...didn't y-you run?

*Crunch*

It was an odd thing being dead; normally most people picture ether a fire and lava filled subterranean hell, or the white and puffy golden glowing palace of heaven up in the clouds. This wasn't ether of those, instead it was just a pitch black foggy void with nothing in it other than two red leather lounge chairs, a coffee table, and what appeared to be two steaming cups of tea housed in a matching porcelain china tea set.

Damian was currently sitting in one of the red cushy chairs, still wearing all the same clothing he had on only seconds ago, complete with snow still clinging to him. Looking down at his chest he found that he didn't have the latest additions of bloody holes or mangled limbs, it was as if he was never eaten to begin with.

With his little survey out of the way the twenty seven year old reached out and grabbed a cup from the table, Though I guess that's going to be my age forever now, right? With a shrug Damian took a sip of the warm drink. And heck, this may not be the best afterlife, but at least it beats being boiled alive and tortured for all of eternity.

"Now who told you that this little place of mine was the afterlife, huh? I quite frankly take offense to that!" It was The Voice once again, but this time it was much more crisp and clear; before it had been like hearing someone from behind a door, but now it felt as if it was right beside him.

"That's because I am right beside you," The Voice retorted, apparently offended for some reason.

The sudden entrance of the mysterious voice didn't shock Damian, but it did sour his mood a bit. With a quick glance from where he had though he heard The Voice come from he saw that there was nothing out there beside the inky blackness that seemed to shift and swirl constantly.

Though, when Damian returned to his drink he nearly spat out his tea in shock; the other blood-red seat was now occupied by an exact clone of himself. His doppelganger was wearing the same snow covered gear he was and was holding the other cup to his lips.

Damian#2 gave a disapproving frown at his company's rude behavior, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his aromatic leaf-juice. With a satisfied burp the copy cat placed the cup back down onto the table in between them. "Don't give me that look; it's hardly the most shocking thing you've seen today."

The cogs began to churn inside the original Damian Walker's mind, "So you just took on my form so I could talk to you, is that it?"

"More or less."

"Then who are you really? Are you a god or demon or something else?" Damian took another sip from his drink. "Mmm, this is some damn fine tea."

"Thank you, I only drink the best. As for your question, I can't really answer that; at least not at the moment... perhaps later," The illusion waved away the question, "Though I do have something you might want to listen to."

Damian cocked an eyebrow and took another sip, "Go on?"

The mysterious figure leaned forwards and steepled his fingers together which he then rested his chin on, "What if I were to give you another shot at life? You'd still be stuck in that world though, I'm afraid can't do too much for you in that regards."

Now came the part that was recited with pretty much every depiction of a devil, the catch. "So, what's the price? My soul, eternal servitude, or maybe even have me go out and collect other people's souls for you?"

"Oh no, nothing like that," the clone shook his head from side to side while laughing softly, "Those things are so overrated; no, I'd just like you to stick close to those two magical ponies."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that they're fun to watch, and that I have some plans in store for them. So, do we have a deal, or not?" The other Damian reached out with his right hand towards his mirror image, there was something off about the grin he had on his lips that Damian didn't feel right about, but on the other hand he was being offered a get out of jail card with the only catch being that he had to monitor those two ponies.

"Alright, I agree," Damian set his cup down and lifted his hand out, but the second before the second Damian could grasp it the hand was pulled back out of range, "But I have one last question: What's your name?"

At first the demon/god/ghost-wizard didn't know how to react to the sudden action; he looked down at his cup, then said with a soft chuckle, "You may call me Chai." The way Chai grinned still unnerved Damian, the way the eyes kept on analyzing him along with the wide creepy smile made Chai look like the Cheshire Cat. With that they shook hands, and the deal was made.

It had all happened in a blink of an eye, but Damian had just been eaten right before Celestia's eyes. The gruesome image of the bloody lifeless corpse wedged between the Mother of all Timberwolf's jaw was still stuck in her mind, even with her eyes tightly shut she could still see the horror of her friend's death.

Hot tears rained from Celestia's eyes as she and Luna mourned their friend's passing, huddled together and too afraid to move. Even if they could get moving the speed of the enlarged wolf would have mowed them down the instant they moved.

It was hopeless, and Damian had died for nothing.

There was a sickening crunch and both sisters' shuddered at the wet noise, hugging each other harder as they listened to the wolf devour its meal, too horrified to watch. Luna began to silently scream as they heard the sound of the wolf moving closer. There was nothing Celestia could do, and the sheer helplessness she felt crushed her more than anything.

The wolf was now above them now, its heavy breathing beating down on them. There was a sick noise as it opened its mouth to bite down on the two-for-one deal snack, the wet slopping sounds of the monster's gullet reached Celestia's ears and she had to force them down to prevent her from retching.

This is the end, goodbye Luna...

...

Then came nothing, by now Celestia had thought that they'd have been halfway to the beast's bowels but surprisingly nothing had happened.

As curiosity began to outweigh terror Celestia cracked open a tear crusted eye and peered upwards. Sure enough the sight of the gaping innards of the Timberwolf's mouth greeted her, complete with slobber and blood stains. It appeared as if the creature had frozen right above them for some strange reason.

Not even thinking twice about what she was doing Celestia instantly grabbed a still weeping Luna and together with her in Celestia's forelegs she jumped to the side and away from the deadly rows of fangs that were poised to chomp down on them. They landed in the snow barely out of the reach of any snapping motions.

As soon as Celestia was out from under the beast she heard something that was impossible: she heard the Timberwolf laugh.

At first it was a faint giggle from inside it's throat, but eventually it grew into a roaring cackle; oddly enough the wooden creature hadn't moved a single muscle when it laughed, it was as if it was paralyzed by something. Looking into the stale yellow eyes of the wolf Celestia found that it too was bewildered by the turn of events, its eyes darting back and forth looking for a reason for its frozen state.

What the heck is going on?! The mare yelled out in her head, not only was she scared out of her wits at the moment, but she was also confused and had no idea of what to do or what was going on.

She shivered and trembled in the snow, too afraid to run and too afraid to hide. The last of Celestia's courage and strength went when she had jumped away from the Wolf, now she was helpless once more and all she could do was stare at her and her sisters cruel doom.

Something even more unexpected than the wolf halting its attack and laughing happened; it began to hum a song. At first it was barely audible, but then it slowly grew in volume until it could be heard all across the forest.

It was a disturbing sight to watch; a gigantic Timberwolf paralyzed in mid attack was once motionlessly laughing its twisted heart out, and now appeared to be singing!

Then what came next was even more unexpected, though of a different kind; this time it was of a relief, shock, and awe. From inside the maw of the Timberwolf something was beginning to claw its way out, at first all Celestia's tear blinded eyes could see was a hand gripping onto a tooth, but then came an arm, then a head, and then a body as it pulled itself from the monster's belly.

With a wet slopping noise Damian fell to the snow below, covered from head to toe in the Timberwolf's thick gooey spittle. It was then that the source of the laughter and humming had been found, the Human continued his cheery humming as he stood up to dust some goop and snow from his clothes.

"Damian! You're alive!?" Celestia couldn't believe what she was seeing before her, the last time she had seen the Human he'd been torn to pieces when he'd charged at the Timberwolf. Astonishingly though he seemed to be alive and in once piece, with the only change being that he was covered in the clear green sap of his supposed killer.

The Human seemed to ignore the pony and her question on his continued existence. Joy gradually turned into confusion and worry as she noticed that there was something off about Damian; his eyes had started to glow yellow, that and the smile he had on his features creeped her out just a bit.

Calmly Damian bent down and picked up his axe once more, still humming; though it seemed that the tune had picked up in pace and was now even louder than before, there was even some lyrics thrown in there, but what they were escaped Celestia.

Without even a glance at his friends Damian raised his left arm out and pointed it inside the wolf's still gaping mouth. What happened next baffled the pony as she watched what could only be described as magic formed in Damian's hand; the sparks that gathered from the air around the man's palm were purple, but tinged with an inky darkness.

As Celestia watched her jaw dropped even further as the sparks were collected into a miniature purple orb. As soon as the last spark had entered the sphere Damian shoved his fist along with the magical ball directly into the Timberwolf's mouth. A purple cloud of flames erupted from inside the gigantic wolf and it was set hurtling across the snow field and into a tree.

By now Luna had wiped away her tears to get a look at what was going on, at first she didn't know what she was looking at because it was utterly impossible, yet her large blue eyes witnessed everything that happened and they told her that what she was looking at was real. She unconsciously decided to join her sister in slack jawed bewilderment.

After the Timberwolf had smashed into the forest and toppled over a few fir trees it seemed to have regained its senses, as well as its control over its body. With a fierce growl it locked onto its assailant with rage filled eyes, no longer were they the colour of mustard yellow but instead a crimson bloodshot red.

The beast roared and jumped at the tiny two legged singing creature.

The axe was gripped in both of Damian's hands as he braced himself for his attacker. As the wolf and his wooden limbs came crashing within a few meters Damian lifted the axe above his head in preparation to strike.

In an instant before the wolf was upon him Damian jumped up into the air, reaching twice his height into the sky, and swung the axe down upon the giant Timberwolf's cranium.

With a sickening crunch the axe was embedded deep into the beast's forehead of bark, the wet squelching noise that met everyone's ears as the axe blade was removed meant that the improvised fire axe weapon had met the soft tissue of beneath the armoured bark hide. And with that, Damian had finished his humming. His body went limp a second later and his body silently fell to the snow below.

Author's Notes:

Welp, here you go guys, another chapter down! I hoped you liked it, and please feel free to comment, I always want to know if there's anything I can improve on. I'm sorry if I confused anyone when I bumped up the rating to Mature and then reset it back down to Teen, I'm just not sure what to rate this since the rating system isn't exactly clear on what's considered 'Mature'. As you can see this bit of confusion only really happened with this chapter, due in large part to Damian's "Death". Hopefully this doesn't put anyone off, and I'm going to avoid anything gruesome as much as possible. If any of you can give me a hand with the rating system that'd be great!

Take these two as apology:

Once again thank you Nihatclodra for helping me edit and supporting me with this!

Frigid

by Yuri Petrovitch

Chapter I: What Goes Up, Must Come Down

Chapter II: Aliens, Magic, and Whole Lot of Hurt.

Chapter III: Cliffs and Caves

Chapter IV: How to Speak Equish

Chapter V: The Howling Hunger

Chapter VI: Hot and Cold

Chapter VII: The Trail Ahead