The Warrior's Path: Part 1

` Lyra and I walk side by side as we make our way towards her house. As we walk, Lyra turns to me and speaks.

“What did you mean back there? When you said you didn’t have a home anymore. Did you have a home in the human world?”

“I did. I lived with my parents. That is until they were killed. Then I lived with a family friend for a couple months after the incident.”

Lyra gives me a wide-eyed stare.

“Your parents were killed?! By who?! By what?! Who would ever do such a thing to you?!”

“I can’t be certain, but I have this feeling in my gut that I was a dark crystal that I found near my parents, the night that they died, buried underneath some burning rubble.

“Doesn’t that seem a little…I don’t know…strange to you, Aura?”

“Of course it does, Lyra. But I can’t give a legitimate reasoning for it. Why me?! That’s the ONE thing that I can’t put my hoof on!”

“Well, do you think that it DOES have something to do with you?”

I scoff at Lyra in disbelief.

“If it did, I wouldn’t understand why. Perhaps, if I’m lucky, I’ll find some answers while I’m here.”

“Well, I wish you luck with that, Aura Storm.”

I raise an eyebrow and smile at Lyra, and then we laugh a little bit. Lyra starts to speak.

“We should be coming up to my house shortly, and we’ll get settled from there.”

“Well fantastic!” I exclaim. “It’ll be nice to get some well-deserved R&R after the crazy fucking day I’ve had today.”

Lyra chuckles a little bit.

“I don’t blame you, Aura.”

We continue to walk towards Lyra’s house, but then it had gotten really dark rather quick. I turn around, and I look behind me, and I can still the sunset. But I had jinxed it; the same darkness that cloaked the sky above our heads had also blocked out the beautiful Equestrian sunset. They looked like rain clouds at first, but they didn’t look like clouds at all. It looked more like smoke; pitch, black smoke. But nothing was ablaze because Lyra and I couldn’t smell anything burning. I turn around, and I look at Lyra. Lyra was about to say something, but, before she could, a massive gust of wind swept through Ponyville, and it nearly took Lyra and I off of our hooves. We manage to stand our ground against the massive strength of the wind.

“WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Lyra shouted over the wind.

“ISN’T THIS A NORMAL THING?!” I replied.

Lyra squints at me angrily.

“OH YEAH! STUFF LIKE THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!!!” Lyra remarked in a sarcastic tone.

“ALRIGHT! I WAS ONLY ASKING!!! Don’t need to be a bitch about it,” I mumble under the wind.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!”

“Umm…NOTHIN’! Umm…I SWALLOWED A BUG ER SOMETHIN’ AND I UMM....CHOKED A LITTLE BIT!”

Lyra squints her eyes angrily at me again. Lyra was about to make another bitchy remark, but something else grabs out attention; a large tower of the black smoke starts to form only mere feet from where we were standing. The tower of smoke stood, at least, 30 feet high. Lyra and I look at the tower of black smoke with jaws dropped and blank stares. Then, out of the black smoke, a face emerges from the base of the tower. It was a gray stallion unicorn wearing glistening steel armor. He also wore a tiara/crown type thing and a red cape with white fur on the outer edge of it. He also possessed strange eyes; he had red irises, but his scieras were not white, they were light neon green. Flowing out of his eyes was purple and black colored…..stuff. He had a strange horn for a unicorn; it was curved slightly upward, and, from halfway up to the tip, it was colored red. His mane and tail were as black as the smoke he spawned from, and it moved completely on its own. He also had big menacing fangs that completed his intimidating and frightful appearance. The stallion walks out of the smoke with a bloodthirsty grin. I saw the stallion, instantly as a threat, and I put myself into a combat stance the best I could in my pony form. I lock angry stares with the unicorn, and then I look at Lyra with my head still pointed at the unicorn. When I get a good look at her, I turn my turn towards her in curiosity. For some reason, Lyra was in a bowing pose trembling where she stood, terrified beyond belief. Then she utters two words softly in terror.

“King Sombra.”

After hearing Lyra say those two words, I assumed that this couldn’t be good. I look back to the dark unicorn, King Sombra, and I see him squinting malevolently at me with a sinister grin. I had almost become just a frightened as Lyra, but I manage to keep a straight face. I resume my battle stance, and attempt to oppose the threat at hand…er I mean…hoof. I wait for Sombra to make the first move, but he’s just standing there with the same menacing look on his face. Then Sombra turns his attention to Lyra. He squints his eyes a little bit harder, and his grin grows larger and more intimidating. Then his horn becomes cloaked in a mysterious, black aura; just like the smoke behind him. Lyra and I look at Sombra with blank stares, and our pupils shrank. Then, in a single, massive burst, Sombra lets loose a monstrous beam of dark magic…..right at Lyra. I couldn’t let Lyra be harmed after all she has done for me. So before the beam of dark magic could made contact with Lyra, I push her out of the way, and the beam had hit me instead. The beam had impacted me on my left side, right in the rib cage. The beam had a combination of sharpness and burning sensations piercing through my fur and flesh. The beam had made so big of an impact on me that I get sent flying back about fifteen feet, or so, before I make contact with the earth again. After I impact the ground the first time, I bounce off of the ground, and I fly, a good, five to seven feet until I slide on the dirt, and I construct a pile of dirt on my right side and almost buried myself. Lyra slowly arises to her hooves after I had pushed her out of the way of Sombra’s magic. She slowly opens her eyes, and she turns to me at where I lay.

“AURA STORM!!!” Lyra screams.

I was too weak from pain to move even a hair. The only thing that I have the strength to do is open my eyes. My vision was that equivalent of an intoxicated person; everything was blurred out and moving about. From where I lay, I can see Sombra walking towards me with the same look he gave Lyra just moments ago. He stops right where my hooves lay limp. Then his right hoof becomes cloaked in the same black aura, and he raises his hoof as if he were about to punch me.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU MONSTER!!!” Lyra shouts angrily.

Sombra lowers his hoof, and he starts to turn towards Lyra. But before he can fully turn towards Lyra, he is hit with a beam of fluorescent green magic. He doesn’t get sent flying like I did; he just vigorously slides across the dirt until he stops himself. The sinister grin he wore earlier had vanished, and it was replaced with, an even more sinister, look of furiousness. He turns to Lyra with his new emotion attached to his face. Then his horn becomes encased in the black aura, and the earth begins to tremble. Before Lyra could have time to react, she becomes caged in a hallow prism of black colored spikes. But these spikes didn’t seem very “earthy;” they were, in fact, very lustrous. This may have been a strange coincidence, but the spike radiated the same kind of light as the dark crystal I possessed in the Human Realm. That couldn’t be possible. I couldn’t figure it out because I only once piece of a gigantic puzzle. If these were the dark crystals that killed my parents in the Human Realm, then Sombra could be the one supplying them. Therefore, Sombra would be responsible for the death of my parents. After this assumption, my pupils shrank immensely with fury. Ultimate revenge was the only flowing through my mind at this point, but I was still too weak to put my thoughts into actions. After Sombra had dealt with Lyra, he turns his attention back to me, and my pupils shrink even further, but this time, in terror. He walked backed over to where I still lay. His bloodthirsty grin had begun to return back to his malevolent face. He stood where he stood the last time he approached my; at my lifeless-looking hooves. He makes direct eye contact with me, and he squints his eyes harder, and his grin grows wider.

“DON’T YOU DARE HURT HIM!!! KEEP AWAY FROM HIM!!!” Lyra shouted with tears building up in her eyes.

Lyra’s words didn’t seem to stop Sombra from attempting to achieve his goal; whatever it may be. Sombra raises his dark aura covered hoof, and he swings it straight at my face. My pupils dilate greatly, and adrenaline courses through my little pony veins. Using his own momentum against him, I deflect the punch away from my face, and I counter, rapidly with a punch of my own while still lying on the ground. This makes Sombra stagger a little bit, but it’s enough for me to attack again before he recovers. Then I use my back hooves, and I kick him directly in the muzzle. Blood flies from his nostrils as he flies five feet away from me.

“YES YES YES!!!” Lyra cheers franticly from the sidelines where she was imprisoned. “GO STORM!!!”

Then, while still on the ground, I stick out my hooves, and I point them directly where Sombra lies weakened. I had no idea what I was doing, or what the outcome would be, but it just felt like a natural reaction to be doing in this situation. Then my hooves become encased with the same blue aura that I encountered in the crater outside of Ponyville. I close my eyes, and I try to let whatever happens, happens. Then I feel a strong gust of wind blowing in my face; it must’ve been for the charging aura. I clench my teeth in pain and fury, and I open my eyes and see something totally unexpected; my vision had been drastically altered. Everything was a dark blue color, but Sombra’s and Lyra’s outlines were a faded blue; almost to the point where I cannot see them. But I can see something, though; a red, fiery orb emanates from Sombra. Then I look to Lyra, and she emits the same type of orb but of a different color; it was a shy blue color. I have no idea what is happening here, but I’m not gonna complain. My whole body had, almost been cloaked in the blue aura that my hooves were giving off. Then the charging aura left my hooves in a sudden explosion, and it shot at where I was pointing with my hooves……right at Sombra. Before Sombra has a chance to regain strength and rise to his feet, the massive beam of blue aura hit Sombra dead on with unrelenting force, and it sent him soaring into the side of somepony’s house.

“STORM, WHAT THE HELL?!?!” Lyra shouted furiously.

I rise to my feet, and I respond to her.

“WHAT?! WHAT DID I DO?!”

“That was MY house!!!”

I look at the good-sized hole in Lyra’s house that I slammed Sombra into.

“You’ve got to be shitting me, Lyra?! Out of the homes in Ponyville, I, somehow manage to hit yours?”

“YES!!!”

“WELL, SCREW YOUR HOUSE! DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID?! HOLY CRAP!!!”

I stand up on my back hooves as if I were human again, and I look at my front hooves; they were emanating a light blue smoke that the blast of aura had been produced from my hooves. I take some time to be completely stupefied at what I had done. I was aware of the fact that I possessed powers, but I wasn’t aware that I could do something like what I had just accomplished earlier. I have so much to learn of what I’m capable of doing with my new-found powers and abilities. I turn my attention back to the gaping hole in Lyra’s house that I had blasted Sombra into. Then, Sombra slowly emerges from the whole in the house with scratches, bruises, some good sized pieces of wood penetrating his flesh in non-vital places, and small amounts of blood oozing out of his wounds and other various parts of his body. He also wore and extremely pissed-off look on his face. He thought that taking me out would go smoothly for him, and I thought that as well and that brought up something to my attention; why did he want ME so badly? Out of all the ponies here, Sombra has his sights set on me. I didn’t get it at all. What kind of impact could I’ve made in HIS life? I’ve only been here for FIVE FUCKING HOURS!!! Then Sombra’s pissed-off look turned back into his bloodthirsty grin he wore previously. Then his horn becomes covered in the black magic that he possessed, and a black…..portal….thing started to form on the dirt. Out of said portal, rose a massive scythe that could’ve belonged to Death himself, and it, too, was encased in the dark magic. Sombra looked at the scythe, and it spun around lengthwise in the air, and then he looked back at me with the same evil grin. I had a hunch that he was using his magic to control the scythe. With a massive scythe under his control, he sprinted towards me with a scream that increased in volume and intensity. My pupils shrank immensely as he bolted towards me, and I just stood there like a deer caught in headlights.

“MOVE, AURA STORM!!!” Lyra yells with tears swelling in her eyes.

But I just stood there, motionless. Lyra looks at me with her jaw dropped and tears overflowing her widened sunset yellow-orange eyes from where she was imprisoned. As Sombra approaches me, he gets his scythe prepped for swinging, but he turns it around with the back end facing me and the blade facing him. At this point, I was more confused than scared. Using his magic, he swings the scythe, and he hit me across all of my legs and sweeps me off of my hooves until I’m airborne for a couple of seconds. Then, while I’m airborne, Sombra raises his scythe, and he brings it down and the back end of the blade makes contact with my skull. Blood rushes forcefully out of my cranium. I thrash onto the intensely, and I lay flat on my stomach, sickened from pain to do anything at this point. I slowly opens my eyes a little bit, and I see Sombra walking towards me with the same bloodthirsty grin he has worn many times during this whole venture. Before I slip into unconsciousness, I can see Lyra reaching out for me from her imprisonment about 30 feet away.

“AURA STORM!!!” Lyra cries out, but her voice fades away as I lose blood and mental focus. I can also hear dark, malevolent laughter as I slip into the dark void of unconsciousness.

I regain consciousness, slowly, but I keep my eyes shut. I try to recover some of the energy that I had lost after my little quarrel with Sombra. I can feel my head pulsing vigorously as blood runs down my face due to the massive blow that Sombra struck me with. I try to ease the pain by rubbing my head, but I can’t move my hoof to do so. I open my eyes rapidly in sheer terror, and I see that all four of my legs have been restrained by shackles attached to a wall. Then I turn my attention to my new surroundings; I wasn’t in Ponyville anymore. I was in, some sort of, medieval torture chamber. I try to free myself of these shackles, but I fail. Even with full strength, I don’t think that I would’ve broken the inch and a half thick iron shackles. I hang my head in failure and disappointment. Then I hear the clopping of hooves coming down a dark, eerie hallway that was faintly lit by tiny torches on the walls of the hallway. The clopping of hooves grew louder and louder until they, eventually, reached the chamber where I was being held prisoner. Emerging out of the darkness was Sombra and….some other pony. It was an extremely tall mare with a dark gray coat, piercing green snake eyes, and dark blue-green mane and tail. She also had some peculiar physical features; her horn was extremely crooked, she had holes on various parts of her body, even in her mane and tail, and she had huge, thin, bug-like wings. How the fuck is she supposed to fly with those things anyways?! They also had holes in them, like the rest of her body. And another thing; she many bug-like qualities. It’s as if a bug and a horse had sex, and they gave birth to…..whatever the fuck this thing is. She also had a very slender stature, which, probably, aided her in flight, and she also had long, menacing fangs like Sombra’s, but a little bit longer. They both look at me with big, sinister grins smeared on both of their faces, as if they were planning on doing something with me…..or to me.

“So is this the one you were talking about, Sombra?” the mare asks Sombra whilst looking at me.

“Indeed he is,” Sombra replies.

I’ve never heard Sombra emit anything from his voice, besides evil laughter, and his voice was just as dark and intimidating as he was. His voice was deep and rough-sounding. It matched his physical appearance and his personality perfectly. Then the tall mare scoffs at Sombra and rolls her eyes while walking towards me.

“This can’t possibly be the one we’re looking for.” The mare says while she scans me with her eyes. “He doesn’t look so tough.”

I snarl at her, wanting to prove her wrong. All she has to do is release me so that I can beat the living shit out of her.

“Don’t underestimate him, Chrysalis,” Sombra says. “I thought that way as well, but he did put up quite a fight in my attempt to capture him. Also, according to legend, this stallion is the only one with the powers to stop us.”

“Legend?!” I asked questioningly. “What fucking legend?!”

Sombra walk over to me, and he stand next to the tall mare named Chrysalis.

“Legend tell of a great warrior that fell from the heavens above, and his mission was simple: protect all of Equestria from anything that might harm it. You being in Equestria was no accident; ‘twas destiny. I killed your parents and left the crystal as your motivation to find your way here,” he explains.

“Then why not just kill me then! Why not let me die with my parents?!”

“That’s because we’ve got some quite special in store for you, Axel.”

“My name…..is Aura Storm,” I say somberly.

“It matter not! You’re here. That’s all that matters!” Sombra says with that same stupid grin on his face.

“Why does it matter? I’m here, aren’t I? Why not just finish me off already?!”

“Well, that wouldn’t be very enjoyable then, now would it?”

“So if you’re not going to kill me, then why am I here?”

“You possess a special and powerful kind of magic, and we tend to syphon it out of you, and or corrupt you with dark magic and changeling venom so that you will be under our total control. With your help, you will either fuel Chrysalis’s vast changeling army, or you will become our super weapon who commands the changeling army. Either way you look at it, you’re aiding us in taking over Equestria.”

I snarl at Sombra. Then my look of anger transforms into a look of curiosity.

“The fuck’s a changeling?”

“Changelings are shape-shifting creatures that can take the form of whoever you love most,” Chrysalis starts, “and we syphon that love out of you. That’s what we feed on, how we survive. Luckily, for us, Equestria is an endless supply of love,” Chrysalis states.

“So you’re a changeling, I take it?”

“I’m not just a changeling; I’m the QUEEN of the Changelings, and it is my job to provide my subjects with food. That is why we migrated to Equestria . Now, we’re just waiting for the proper moment to strike.”

Chrysalis puts a hoof under my chin, and she raises my head.

“And since you came along, our time will soon come!”

She removes her hoof from my chin, and she walks back to Sombra’s side. Then Chrysalis turns her head towards Sombra.

“Shall we begin?” she asked.

Sombra glares at me creepily.

“We shall!” Sombra replies.

I have no idea what they’re planning on doing with me, but I have a gut feeling that this cannot end well for me. Sombra then looks at Chrysalis.

“You start, Chrysalis,” Sombra said.

Chrysalis gives me a bloodthirsty grin, and I can feel a large pulse in my neck constructed by fear and adrenaline. She approaches me with her bloodthirsty grin still in place. She licks her lips and her viscous fangs in one fluent motion with her tounge. She takes her left hoof, and she jerks my head towards my right shoulder. Then she brings her muzzle to my left shoulder. I was at an absolute loss by this. I had no idea what she was doing.

“Hey! What the hell are you…..”

My sentence was cut short when Chrysalis sinks her fangs deep into my flesh. The force of the bite was so powerful and unexpected that I couldn’t help but let out a blood curdling scream. The intensity from the bite grows, as do my screams of anguish. After ten agonizing seconds of having the Changelings Queen’s fangs buried beneath my skin, she slowly drew them out like King Arthur when he drew Excalibur from the stone. Chrysalis gives me a look of intimidation and seduction as she licks her fangs clean of my blood, and…..some other, green substance. Then Sombra addresses me.

“Do you feel it? The Changeling venom coursing through your veins. The effects will become apparent shortly. Now it is time for me to do my part.”

I hang from my shackles with my head pointed to the ground as I breathe heavily through my mouth with my eyes locked onto Sombra, trying my best to bare the pain. Then Sombra uses his dark magic to summon an object that appears before our eyes. The object was a dark crystal, of the exact same size and shape, like the one I found in the Human Realm. It glowed with the same dark aura as mine did as well. I stare blankly at the crystal, then at Sombra.

“Remember this?” Sombra asked, “This is the very crystal that changed your life, almost, three moons ago, and, now, it will change your life once more!!!”

Sombra uses his magic to thrust the dark crystal deep into my abdominal region. The force of the blow was so powerful that all of the air expelled from lungs, and made it very difficult to breathe. Every second that passed, Sombra would drive the crystal deeper and deeper into my flesh with the bloodthirsty grin that he always likes to wear. I clench my teeth with extreme vigor to cope with the pain, but the pain overwhelms me, and I can’t help but let out a scream even more blood curdling then the last. Then Sombra uses his magic to forcefully jerk the crystal out of my body. Following the crystal, came large quantities of my blood that flowed from the crevasse in my body. I felt faint, and I thought I was going to blackout from blood loss. Sombra and Chrysalis stare at me; waiting anxiously to see what the outcome of their little experiments will be. Chrysalis turns her head to Sombra.

“You said that this would work, Sombra!” she said sternly.

“Patience is a virtue, my dear Chrysalis,” Sombra said replied but didn’t look at her.

“Looks like your efforts were in vain, Sombra,” I say with an eyebrow rasied, breathing heavily.

After I said that, I start to twitch uncontrollably for a few seconds. I look to my left, then I look to my right without moving my head.

“What the hell was that?!” I asked in confusion and curiosity.

Sombra’s bloodthirsty grin with eyes squinted returns to his face.

“Now it begins,” he stated with the grin smeared all over his face.

I try to respond to Sombra, but my involuntary twitching prevents me from doing so.

“What the….FUCK is goin’ on?” I utter softly to myself.

Then an extremely sharp pain splits me, directly in half. Then, in an instant, the pain grows immensely. It feels as if I am slowly being cut in half by a chainsaw. I scream bloody murder like I was being eaten alive. Seconds later, it feels like in being ripped in half ever so slowly. I can feel my body stretch as id somepony was doing just that. Then, as soon as it appeared, the body-splitting pain left, and I hang limp to try to recover. Then, I hear a forceful “THUD” hit the ground. In the upper left corner of my vision, I could see a pony lying on the ground. Was this pony here earlier? Had he or she been lying here this whole time, and I hadn’t noticed until now? The pony starts to get up slowly with his or her eyes closed, and rises out of the dark, blurry haziness of my periphery. It was a unicorn stallion, and he…..looked….just like me. But there were some key differences between us: he had a dark gray coat, like Chrysalis, and his mane and tail looked like Chrysalis’ too, with holes and everything that a stereotypical changeling should look like. The stallion’s eyes had been closed this entire time, but after he rises, he open them widely; his eyes, too, were like Chrysalis’. Then he went into a light chuckle, but then it escalated quickly into a dark, malevolent laughter; almost like Sombra’s, but not as deep and powerful, but intimidating nonetheless.

“Excelent,” Sombra said while looking at the stallion.

“But Sombra, this isn’t what we’d planned at all!” Chrysalis exclaimed.

“I understand this, Chrysalis, but we can also make do with this,” Sombra replies while still looking at the stallion. Then he continues to speak.

“In attempting to do one thing, we’ve managed to do something else something far beyond our expectations; we’ve created our own weapon instead of infecting Aura Storm to do so.”

“But how is Aura Storm not infected?” Chrysalis asks.

“Of that, I cannot be certain, but I can be certain of one thing; we’ve managed to acquire what we wanted if not more.”

“So what do we do with Aura Storm? Can I kill’em, Sombra?!” Chrysalis asks excitedly.

Then Sombra gives me the same stupid smirk he always does.

“You can. We have no use for him now. Go and dump him in the Everfree Forest. The timber wolves could use a little snack.

“And if he, somehow, manages to survive the timber wolves?”

“Then I want him to watch as we lay waste to all of Equestria, and I want him to know that this little endeavor wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for him.”

Then, out of this whole thing, the unicorn stallion finally decides to say something.

“Your majesties, I would love to do the honor of…taking out the trash,” he said sinisterly while looking at me.

The stallion possessed Sombra’s intimidation and his crooked grin.

“Yes,” Sombra said with his crooked smile, “This is going to be…..delicious.”

“Sombra,” Chrysalis exclaims, “We need to come up with a name for our little…..creation,” she said with a little smirk.

“Ah yes. How foolish of me. Did you have any ideas then, Chrysalis?”

“I…..I didn’t. Do you?”

“That…I do!”

Sombra walks to the dark gray stallion.

“Your name is, and forever shall be, Aura Shadow.”

The stallion, named Aura Shadow, gives Sombra a pleasing, sinister grin.

“Now may I begin your highness?”

Sombra looks back to me with his same, tiresome grin.

“You may…..Aura Shadow.”

Shadow quickly turns to me, and he walk in my general direction with the same, stupid grin that Sombra never gets tired of wearing. As he walks towards me, his hooves burst aflame….just like me. But Shadow’s “flames” were a hue of light green. It seemed that Shadow had possessed my powers, and I was pretty sure that he’d possessed Chrysalis’ and Sombra’s powers as well. Shadow was the super weapon that Chrysalis and Sombra wanted to turn me into. I shared Chrysalis’ confusion from earlier on how I wasn’t infected and corrupted by the Changeling venom and dark crystals. I had so many questions, but didn’t want to ask them to ponies who were trying to end my life. Then, in an instant, I had been released from my shackles, and I collapse onto the unforgiving floor below. I lay here like a slug with Aura Shadow’s hooves next to my face. Shadow gets on bended knee, and he raises my head with his left hoof. I can feel blood running out of my abdominal region and in between my left shoulder and my neck.

“I’m…going to enjoy…every minute of this,” Shadow says with that stupid smirk, “Having you look at what you helped create as my King, Queen, and I lay havoc on all of Equestria. Well, that is, if you survive the timber wolves.”

“Like hell you are,” I ensure.

Then I spit blood into Shadow’s face. Shadow just laughs malevolently.

“And how do you purpose on stopping us, hmm? You have powers, yes, but you…don’t…quite have a grip on them yet. But they were strong enough to protect you from being infected. I do wish you luck on finding somepony who’s knowledgeable about our powers. Now, if you don’t mind, my king has asked of me to dispose of you, and after that’s done, we shall begin on making out preparations to take over all of Equestria.”

I cough up some blood.

“I….won’t….let you.” I grunt out.

Shadow gets in my face, and he grins and squints even harder.

“I bid you farewell,…..Aura Storm.”

Then Shadow use his magic to lift me up. He stands up on his hind hooves, and he brings his right hoof back. Then, with unrelenting force, Shadow punches me right across my left cheek. As he makes contact with my face, I go into unconsciousness instantaneously. Nothing but pitch black.

I manage to regain consciousness. I open my eyes slowly but my vision is distorted and blurry. I have absolutely no idea where I am. Then I remembered what Sombra had said:

“Go and dump him in the Everfree Forest.”

Somehow, I had a feeling that I was there. Then Sombra had said something after that, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. Then I hear snarling and growling from all directions of where I lay. My eyes rapidly open, and, all around me, giant wolve made of….wood; timber wolves. I couldn’t help chuckle a little bit reguardless of the dangerous cercumstance that I was in. It was very punny. Giant wolves, literally, made of wood. My smile disappears instantanesously as the giant wolves creep upon me, ready to feast upon my open wounds. Then large blasts of green smoke envelop the wolves and myself. The wolves shake and rattle, and they just randomly disassemble and collapse onto the earth. Running through the smoke, was a mare wearing a large cloak to cover her face. She offers me her hoof to aid me in rising to my hooves.

“Very injured you seem to be. I will take you, and you’ll stay with me,” the mysterious mare said as I slowly slip back into the dark void of unconsciousness.