Gate of Friendship

Why did that have to be the first words said this morning?

"I have learned a valuable lesson about friendship," Twilight said from downstairs.

You also seem to.

I was about to get out of bed, until I noticed a letter on my knees.

What's this?

I picked it up and opened it.

"Meet me near the Everfree Forest when you wake up. I'll be waiting. - The Best Young Flier in Equestria,” the note read.

May the sky you fly in and the ground you stand on be forever cursed, Rainbow Dash. This better be a really good trap, or a really good conversation.

"So. You finally admit that you're the most talented unicorn in all of Equestria?" Spike asked.

"Well... yeah. But it's nothing to brag about. So, uh, how did it go with Rarity?"

I took the note and walked downstairs.

"She didn't go for the mustache."

When I got downstairs I looked at Spike, pointed at my beard, and mouthed "beard" to him.

"You know Spike. That mustache has nothing to do with who you truly are. Maybe you should just try being yourself."

"Or maybe the mustache wasn't enough. Maybe a mustache and a beard."

I gave him a thumbs up and a smile. Twilight sighed.

"Not this again."

I headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked.

I stopped in my tracks and turned to her.

“Rainbow Dash asked me to meet her, so I’m going to do just that,” I said.

“Aren’t you going to have any breakfast?”

“Nah. I’m not that hungry at the moment.”

“Well, remember to apologize to Rainbow Dash.”

"I'll try to. See you two later.”

When I walked out of the house, I went through town to get to the Everfree Forest. While I was in town, I had that same feeling I had from last night. Someone was watching me. I decided not to turn around this time since I had other tasks at hand. Once I made it out of town, I could barely see a pathway into the forest, past Fluttershy’s cabin. I went to it and stayed
near the entrance to the forest.

"I'm here Rainbow Dash. So what do you want from me?" I asked.

I felt a shiver down my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.

What is going on with this place?

Rainbow Dash flew down from the sky and landed in front of me.

"So you think you're so awesome just because you're new here?" She asked in an angry tone.

I gave a little smile and leaned against one of the trees.

"So this is what it's about. But to answer your question, no, I just see all of this as a weird series of events."

"You have wings, but you don't even know how to fly."

"I prefer walking. But it would be cool to fly."

"Then why don't you get someone to teach you?"

"How about you teach me?"

"No way. Why would I waste my time on someone like you?"

"You’re the best flier young in Equestria, correct?”

"Yeah, so?"

"So, a master like you should be able to teach a novice, like myself, how to fly, easily. Or was your title a lie?"

"A lie!? Well, meet me at Twilight’s house for your first lesson!”

And with those words she took off like a rocket.

I didn’t expect things to go quite like that. Well it took me about, what, 5 minutes to get here? Wait... blast it all! I forgot
about Rarity and the clothes. Curse it. I'll do it once I'm done with Rainbow Dash.

I began running towards Twilight's house. While I was in town, I still felt like I was being watched, but it wasn’t as frequent.

Good. Let them have a tough time keeping up.

When I got to Twilight's door, I stopped to take a few breaths, and then opened the door. I expected to see Rainbow Dash waiting on me and saying that I was late or something, but when I opened the door I saw Twilight reading books and Spike giving her more books to read. Twilight looked over towards me.

"Oh, hey Trevor. Back so soon?" She joked.

I snickered.

"Yep. Hey, was Rainbow Dash here?” I asked.

"No, why would—“

Speak of them and they shall appear, Rainbow Dash flew through the opened window upstairs and landed in front of me.

"Alright chump. Before you get to flying you need to know how to glide. Once you know how to glide, then you'll need to know how to hover. You got that!?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Got it."

I ran upstairs, jumped out of the window, extended my wings, and glided towards town. I was doing good, as far as gliding goes, especially since this was my second time gliding with these wings. I landed on a nearby rooftop and saw Rainbow Dash fly towards me.

"Not bad, for a newbie."

"Then good thing I'm fast at learning and improving."

For the next hour or so I kept practicing my gliding from rooftop-to-rooftop, under Rainbow Dash’s surveillance. She said I was surprisingly getting better and better, except I had a tendency to let my arms down instead of at my side or in front of me.

"Same time tomorrow?" I asked.

"You betcha, I'll make sure you can fly by the end of the week."

She then flew into the sky and headed towards her house. I expected flying to take months and months. But a week was really surprising.

No matter. If I can start flying by the end of the week, then that would be perfect. Hmm. I'm kinda starting to like this place.
Sure I've been here for only a few days, but it feels like I've been here for a week or two. And sure, the only friends I've made are the main characters, but, I'm sure things will go well. Do I want to return home still? Here I could become a hero throughout this country. But back home I could become a worldwide legend. What to do? What to do!?

I sighed.

Arguing with myself is not gonna help. Might as well take what I have and make something of it. For now, anyway. I should get to Rarity's before she closes her shop.

Being able to see the shop from where I was, I jumped off the rooftop I was on, and glided to the top of her rooftop. I looked down at the skylight to see if she was still open, and sure enough she was, but she was talking to Lyra Heartstrings.

Now why would she be here?

By the look of their movements, they were talking about the clothes and possibly who it was for. Lyra started to walk towards the exit.

"Alright. Tell me if you know anything else, Rarity," Lyra said when she was outside.

"Of course, Lyra," Rarity replied.

What were you up to Lyra? Looks like detective Nanners is on the case.

I let Lyra walk a few feet ahead of me before I started to follow her by rooftop. She seemed just to be walking without a direction or place to go.

This is getting weirder and weirder by the hour.

After a few minutes of following, I saw her go into her house. It was a bit smaller than the rest of the houses I've seen in Ponyville, but nothing too surprising. It had a purple rooftop and tan colored wall. I looked to see if there were any ponies nearby, and only saw Doctor Whooves and Derpy talking.

Best not talk to them. Who knows what could happen.

I dropped down from the rooftop and landed in front of the door. When I tried to open the door it was locked.

Why do you ponies have to make everything harder for me?

I took off my glasses to see if I could you one of the handles as a lock-pick. It was just barely able to fit in the lock, and I managed to lock-pick it.

Thank you, Italy.

I opened the door, quickly went in, and shut the door behind me as quietly as I could. The place looked nice. There were a few plants, a rocking chair, a few pictures of her and Bon Bon, and a staircase for the upstairs. I walked upstairs and it lead down a hallway with two doors and a closet. In the middle of the hallway was a notebook. I picked it up, and it read.

"September 12th, 01:37 P.M.: No sign of suspicious movement. Will try again tomorrow."

What are you up to Lyra?

I left the notebook there and looked in one of the doors. It was her bedroom. There was another closet, a bed, a window near the bed, and a rose in a vase. I looked in the closet and saw nothing, except something was wrong with the design, but I just couldn't pinpoint it. After a few seconds of searching, I found it. In the middle of the closet there was part of the design that was off-key to the rest of it. I touched the off-key design and it fell into another room. The room was dark, except for a few lit candles. I moved the closet and saw there was an entire doorway to it. Light from the bedroom brightened up the hidden room. When I went inside I saw some drawings and old pictures, all them of human origin. There was a picture of a skeletal system, a nerve system, and a drawing of me, though it was crudely drawn, but I could tell who it was supposed to be. I looked around and saw different note books, all of them containing different information about humans. Like how many fingers they have, how they're different from ponies, their history, and legends and myths. It was an insane asylum room full of human knowledge. I let out a low sigh.

You've been following me the second you laid eyes on me. I'm almost impressed on the accuracy of your research. But one day, I will catch you.

As soon as I was going to turn around I felt a small wooden pole smack me on the head.

"OW!" I shouted.

I looked and saw Lyra holding a broom with her teeth. She had the end of it pointing at me.

"What are you doing here?" Lyra muffled.

"Seeing what in Gorlog's name you were doing at Rarity's that concerned my clothes," I furiously replied.

When I took a step forward she swung at me again, and backed away before the stick hit me.

"You're not leaving until you answer my questions."

"I'm not answering anything. I'm leaving here even if I have to make my own exit."

"If you do that I'll scream."

"You're really starting to get on my nerves."

She put the end of the broom to the tip of my nose.

"Watch it."

I wanted to grab the broom and knock her out with it and leave. But I knew that would cause more problems than I've solved so far. There was a knock at the front door.

"Go answer it," I mouthed.

"You'd better be here when I get back."

She left the room with her broom, closed the door and locked it.

Like that's going to happen. I refuse to stay one more minute in this madhouse.

I moved the closet back to where it was, went towards the window, and opened it. I looked down and saw it was Bon Bon at the door. I quickly jumped out the window and glided to the alleyway across the street.

"Get back here!" Lyra shouted.

I landed at the entrance and started running through the alleyway, tossing as many barrels in her way as possible, though they didn't seem to slow her down. I turned right when there was no straight road, and saw a house blocking the path 20 feet ahead.

Curse it! How am I gonna get out now?

I looked back and saw Lyra getting closer to me quickly.

I just need to make it to the edge to the rooftop.

I started flapping my wings.

"You're not getting away that easily!"Lyra determined.

When she was close enough she tried to bite my shirt and almost succeeded. I started flapping my wings faster and jumped for the building. I wasn't exactly flying, it was more like a second jump, but I managed to grab the edge of the rooftop and kept flapping my wings to help me climb. I looked down and saw Lyra trying to bite my feet to drag me down, and almost bit my toenail. When I got on the rooftop, I ran as fast as I could and glided to the rooftop ahead of me. I started losing control; crash landed, and laid on my back. I stayed there and tried to catch my breath, since I didn’t expect the second jump to take so much out of me.

"Cursed... I outta... I'll be," I stammered.

With the way I was, there was no way I could have done that again.

I need to get to Rarity. She'll tell me what Lyra asked her. I hope.

After lying down for a few minutes, I got up, and went towards Rarity's house. I made sure to keep my eyes on the ground to make sure Lyra wasn't following me. When I made it to the shop, I saw the “open” sign was still up. I opened the door and tried not to look like I was just chased by a semi-psycho pony.

"Hey Rarity. I'm here for my clothes," I said.

"Sure thing. I have them here for you," Rarity said.

I walked over towards Rarity and I saw my clothes. The shirt was white with black and red symbols all over. The symbols were: a cross, an upside-down cross, the blair witch, chaos, ouroboros, the star and crescent moon, the marker from Dead Space, and the vertical eye I had requested.

"What do you think?" Rarity asked.

"Tis nothing less than beautiful."

"I'm glad you think so. It took me longer than expected, mostly with some of the markings on it, especially this one."

Rarity pointed to the marker symbol. It was on the front of the shirt while the left and right parts were on the left and right arms.

"Lyra told me about the symbol yesterday. When I asked her what it meant, she said she had no idea. What do you think?"

Lyra was here even earlier than before? Clever little snake.

"It doesn't mean anything."

"What? How could it not mean anything?"

"'Cause it doesn't mean anything. It's a weapon."

"What does it do?"

"You don't want to know. Let’s just say people were very desperate for salvation, so they went to the darkest corners of the
world to try and find it."

"Well whatever it did, it certainly looks fascinating."

You should have seen the real thing.

"So what else did this Lyra talk to you about?"

"Well..."

She looked around to make sure no one else was listening. She motioned me to get closer, and I did as such. She put her mouth near my left ear.

"She--" she whispered.

"FOREVER!!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

We both got away with a small scream of fright from Pinkie Pie popping out of nowhere.

"Tis rude to interrupt a private conversation, Pinkie Pie," I scowled.

"No, I'm afraid she's right. I promised Lyra I wouldn't tell anyone what she asked. Sorry, darling," Rarity sadly said.

"It's alright."

I took the clothes Rarity made and headed for the door.

"Thank you again for the clothes, Rarity,” I said.

"You're quite welcome,” Rarity said.

I left her house, Pinkie Pie following behind me. When I noticed she was there, I shrugged and walked out the door and continued on. I looked at the sky and that night was very soon approaching.

Better get home, or rather, my new home.

As I walked towards Twilight’s house, I noticed that Pinkie Pie was still following me.

"Why are you following me?" I asked.

"'Cause I like you," Pinkie Pie said.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

I sighed.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Could you tell me another story?"

"Hmm. What kind of story?"

"Like the Halo one."

"Alright. Let me tell you the time that I saved the 8 sacred realms from the evil demon, Skorne."

"O-o-o-oh!”

I told her how the evil wizard Garm stole the rune stones from the 8 realms to summon Skorne so he could rule the world, but Skorne betrayed him and wreaked havoc on the realms, and how the wizard Summers summoned me and a warrior with a jester costumed named Invulin to get the rune stones back and defeat Garm and Skorne. I also told her how Invulin always used bombs.

"And he always used to tell me, 'Trevor, the best way to take care of evil creatures summoned by an evil wizard and demon lord is to use as many bombs as un-physically possible.' Turns out it worked, for him anyway. I preferred throwing knifes."

I continued by telling Pinkie Pie about how we had to face a guardian at the end of each realm. There was the Lich, Dragon, Chimera, Plague Fiend, Spider Queen, Genie, and the infamous Shadow Wraith.

"The hardest part was actually getting to Skorne. Not only did we have to collect all the rune stones, but we had to fight through a church full of random enemies. And I thought facing my worst nightmare was bad.”

I told her how when we got to Skorne and beat him, we got all his armor. But it turned out he was still alive in the underworld, so we had to go and beat him there. And after going through three parts of the underworld, we finally found him, seeing Garm chained up between two pillars, like a prisoner. Once we defeated him, Garm absorbed Skornes power, so I and Invulin had to defeat him.

"So turns out, an evil wizard and a demon lord mix is way more tougher to beat than it sounds. I was lucky to have Invulin as a partner or I would have been finished. Invulin was throwing bombs like a psycho, and Garm certainly was returning the favor with his purple laser eyes."

We had made it to Twilight's house, but we just stood at the doorway as I continued.

"But in the end, we beat Garm and saved all the 8 realms. However, Summers needed someone to stay with him and guard the place in case someone tried doing the same thing. I was going to do it, but Invulin told me, 'Trevor, it was one heck of a time meeting you, but you got a life to live, buddy. Get yourself a good job, some nice friends, and get a girlfriend for Summers' sake!' Which then Summers yelled at him. Then he tells me, 'don't worry, I got things covered here. I certainly couldn't have done it without you and your crazy knife throwing. And that nifty halo you had. Those Death guys were all over me.' Then, Summers sent me back home. Last thing I saw at that place was Invulin's smile, and the guardian window. The end."

"Yay! Whoo!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

I took a quick bow.

"Thank you, thank you."

"It was nice seeing you again, Trevor." Pinkie Pie said as she hopped away.

"Likewise."

I looked at the sky again, this time the moon was clear.

Seems it’s later than I thought.

I entered Twilight's house and saw Twilight reading books, as usual.

"Hey, Twilight,” I said.

"You were out late," Twilight said.

"You have no idea.”

I started heading for the stairs.

"Going to bed?"

"Yep."

"Before that I need to try out a new spell. And I thought you would be an excellent subject."

"Sure, what's the spell?"

"It's another visual spell."

"Well what's the name of it?"

"Dream Viewer. The description is self-explanatory."

"Alright. Let's do it."

Twilight's horn began to glow, and a purple aura surrounded my head. Part of the aura had touched my eyes, yet I couldn't feel it. I blinked and felt like I had opened my eyes for the first time all day. The aura slowly faded away and Twilight's horn stopped glowing.

"So did it work?"

"Guess we'll have to find out tonight."

Pointing out the joke is so tempting.

"Indeed we will. Good night."

I walked upstairs.

"Good night."

I set the clothes on the side of the bed, took off my glasses, and my dog tag, and put them on the clothes. I put the cover at shoulder length and laid on my stomach.

Well today was certainly interesting. Got chased by a semi-psycho pony, got some classin' new clothes, and that's probably going to be normal now. Whatever Celestia did, I'm kinda glad she did it. Though I'll never admit it. And I'll still give her some heat now and then, but oh well.