Gate of Friendship

by StoriesofAShadow

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Human
Length: 73684

Chosen by "The Creator," one teen is sent to the world of Equestira on a journey by a man with mysterious powers on an even more mysterious island. What trials in this world will he face?

A teenaged otaku gamer is sent to Equestria by a mysterious man on a mysterious island. Strange forces seem to be at work with the presence of this human. Filled with questions and determined to find answers, our hero searches to find those answers through violence, madness, and (surprisingly) friendship. What trials lie ahead for him? Only one way to find out.

Published 2013-09-21 13:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-12-25 15:51:40 UTC

Chapter 1: Beginning All Anew.

I was walking up the driveway to my home in the afternoon of a hot Summer's day. I had just finished detassling for the last time that year and had planned to spend the rest of weekend relaxing. When I walked into my house a blast of AC came bursting out towards me. It felt like a breath from Heaven itself. I went into the bathroom and took a hot shower. Even though I was sweating from head-to-toe, the hot water felt good on my skin. When I was done I changed into my Halo 3
pajamas, went over to the couch in my little video gaming room, and collapsed on the the couch.

Time to get some well deserved rest.

I closed my eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep. A few minutes had passed I felt my body on something else. I opened my eyes and saw a dark sky with stars shining brightly. I got up and found myself on the shore of a beautiful island. It was full of trees that had fruit on it and flowers that had recently blossomed. I could see five figures standing nearby me, four of them covered in shadows while the the in front of them wasn't. The first one was a skinny young man wearing a sailor's cap. The second figure was a little small unicorn. The third one was another me. The only noticeable likeness I saw in us is that we were both 6'1 tall and skinny. Unlike the others, his eyes were white as snow. Another figure was a teenager of about 13 years. He had long spiky hair, came up to about my chin in height. The final figure was a man who had a black jacket and
dark blue jeans on. He had green eyes, short brown hair, and a goatee.

Who... who are these people?

“Now that everyone is here, will you join me?”

The young man jumped up and down, as if cheering. Both the unicorn and the spiky hair kid didn't move at all. I looked over to my other and saw he was looking back at me. I quickly looked away from him, looked back to the man who wasn't covered in shadows, and nodded.

“Follow me to the core of the fountain of light.”

He walked away into the forest of the island and we followed him. I looked over to the sailor and saw that we was moving all over the place, not being able to stand still for a single second.

Such energy.

“You'll see soon enough, young adventurer.”

Is he talking to me or one of the others?

He looked over his right shoulder and towards me.

“You've been quiet. Is something wrong?”

“It's nothing. Just that, this island seems so..,” I said, trying to find the word that best described the island.

“Perfect? Peaceful?”

“Exactly. It's almost too good to be true.”

“Nothing is too good to be true. You just need to find it in the right area.”

He looked back down the path. I could see the fountain up ahead. It's design was simple, but it still looked amazing. The fountain itself was made of shining pearls and the small platform holding it off the ground was made of stainless marble. The man went behind the fountain while the four of stayed in front of it. I looked into the fountain and saw that I still had my brown hair, blue eyes, glasses, and unkempt beard in the crystal clear water.

“Try to imagine of a ship that holds hope for the soul.”

Little stars came down from the sky and formed a small pirate ship in the middle of the fountain. Like a sailboat in the middle of an ocean

What is this place?

“This is where the quest of your life begins. Just follow the brightest star within your nebulous mind.”

The entire ground dematerialized into small shards and floated up into the air. I looked down and saw I was standing on a full-scale version of the star boat. The other four figures were gone, but the mysterious man was at the front of the ship, looking out into the empty, crystal clear ocean. I joined the man near the front of the boat.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“Don't worry, you'll see them again,” he answered.

“Why am I here?”

“Because. You have been chosen.”

“By who?”

“The Creator. I forget, do they talk of The Creator where you're from?”

“We do have a creator. But not many people know of Him.”

The man sighed regretfully.

“It's a shame. But people believe what they want to, I suppose.”

“So, who are you?”

He chuckled to himself.

“All in good time, sir. All in good time.”

“So what happens next?”

“The four legendary words, forming an amazing question. Close your eyes. You'll start your journey.”

I did as he said. My body soon felt completely weightless. I felt completely at peace. A soft and caring female voice whispered to me.

"Time to wake up, Trevor."

I felt a huge force of wind hitting my face. I opened my eyes and saw a very small city below me. This reminded me of falling dreams I had. But usually I wouldn't be able to hear anything, but the roar of the wind was so loud that I knew it couldn't have been one. A small rainbow passed by, right in front of my path. I ran straight into it, destroying a piece of it, causing the rest to destroy itself. As time went on I was going faster and faster towards the small town.

"Use your wings."

Use my... wings?

I felt something on my back that wasn't there before. I looked and saw two angelic wings on my back. I also looked at my
feet and saw that there was a trail of fire coming off of it. At first I started to panic but I felt no heat coming off of it, and my feet weren't burning.

Alright, let's do this. Let's hope this works!

I pulled my wings back and fell faster than ever. My vision was gone within seconds. I closed my eyes to keep the wind from blowing on them.

"Glide now," the voice said.

I stretched my wings and started to glide. I was still going too fast to see anything if I had opened my eyes. I hoped for the best. I hit the ground head first 4 seconds later, knocking me out on first contact. When I started to regain conciseness I could hear two voices.

"What do you think it is?" Asked the first voice.

The first voice was female, upbeat, and cheerful.

"Whatever it is, it made a terribad landing," the second voice said.

This one was also female, but a bit arrogant and confident.

Terribad..? Oh dear Gorlog. Please let me be wrong.

"Do you think it's okay?”

Now I know why people don't say "bless you" when I sneeze, 'cause they want things like this to happen to me.

I let out a barely audible groan.

"Hmm?"

I moved my fingers, arms, legs, and toes to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, they all seemed to be fine.

"Oh! Oh! I think it's trying to talk to us,"

If I'm right, than this can only end in tragedy.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw a pink, obviously happy face. It was none other than Pinkie Pie.

"Dear Gorlog in Heaven!" I shouted.

I scooted back a few inches and stared at the pink pony, trying to take make some sort of sense of this situation. I saw a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye. I looked towards the source of the blue flash and saw that it was Rainbow Dash,
hovering over the ground, looking disinterested and bored.

"You know you have legs for a reason right?" I asked.

Wait...

"You mean hooves?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Whatever."

She gave me a small scowl.

Why are you... wait.

"You were flying around earlier, weren't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was trying out a new move. Then you broke my rainbow and ruined it,” Rainbow Dash complained.

"I was falling out of the sky, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Use your wings, that's what else."

"What? I - Never mind. Where am I?"

"You're in Ponyvile, one of the best towns in Equestria!" Pinkie Pie said.

Kinda obvious I was in Ponyvile. But than that means.

I looked behind me and saw the royal city of Canterlot over a few houses and behind a forest. If anybody had the power to
summoned me, it would have been Celestia.

"That jester!"

I turned around, got up, sprinted towards Canterlot, and went past anything that got in my way.

“Hey where are you going? I haven't thrown you a party yet!” Pinkie Pie called out.

Perhaps another time, Pinkie.

I managed to make it to Twilight's house without being seen by sticking to the shadows. I laid on the left side of Twilight's house and started to clear my head. I contemplated on how I would get to Canterlot.

I could just walk there. But, that may take a day or 2 if it's as far as I think it is. I don't want a guide, and I can't use our
wings. Curse it. You know what, it's worth the walk. I'll just give Celestia an extra dose of my anger.

"Who are you?" A voice to my left asked.

I turned to the voice and saw it was Twilight Sparkle with Spike right next to her.

"No time to chat now, very important business to attend to." I quickly said.

I jumped up and started running towards Canterlot. I heard an extra set of footsteps behind me. I looked back and saw Twilight running after me with Spike riding on top of her.

"What part of 'important business' did you not understand!?" I asked.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me and who you are and what you are” Twilight said in determination.

"I'll tell you when I come back.”

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart.”

She slowed down, stopped, and watched me run towards Canterlot. Surprisingly, there was a pathway to get there. It wasn't exactly clear, but a path nonetheless. The path was a wide area in the middle of a forest, despite the Autumn leaves on the ground. As the day slowly went on I felt someone watching me. I stopped and looked behind me. I scanned the road and bushes but found no one.

Who in Gorlog's name is following me?

I heard some rustling in the bushes to my left. My head immediately turned to it.

"Gotcha," I whispered.

Pinkie Pie popped out from the bushes.

"Ahhh, I thought I was doing good too," Pinkie Pie said disappointingly, yet still cheery.

"Why are you following me? Twilight sent you after me, didn't she?"

"Yep. Twilight said I should follow you to where ever you were going, and make sure you would come back."

If Celestia finds out I'm coming for her, all my plans will be ruined.

"Go home. Right now," I said sternly.

"But what will I tell Twilight?"

"Tell her I said, 'my promise still stands.'”

"Okie dokie lokie."

She jumped out of the bushes and hopped towards Ponyville.

Loki, the Norse god of mischief. Always makes me worry a little.

I discarded the thought and continued onwards. I was soon able to see the gates to Canterlot. Two royal guards were standing at their posts, looking a bit bored and nonthreatening. I couldn't help but smile at the situation before me.

Never expected anything like this to happen. I wonder what I did to get me here?

As I got closer the guards started to eye me suspiciously. When I was between them I could feel their tense vibe. Thankfully they never stopped me or asked anything. While I was passing through the near-dark city, ponies kept looking at me and whispering stuff to the pony next to them or hiding inside the nearest building.

Oh come now, I'm not the Devil himself or anything.

I easily navigated my way to the castle and saw two more guards at their post by the door. When I tried to walk in they blocked the way with their wings.

"What business do you have here?" The guard on the left asked.

"I'm here to see the Princess," I said.

"No one sees the Princess at this time."

"Is that a fact?" I asked menacingly.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I'm afraid that's out of the question."

Time to go loud.

I hit them both across their cheeks with the back of my fists, getting them away from the door. I forced the door open by slamming into it and ran as fast as I could to get away from the guards.

"Hey!"

I ran through the halls in hope to find a clue of where the Princess might be at. I could hear a multitude of hooves running down the halls, shouting orders on trying to find and capture me.

Not good.

I turned the nearest left corner and saw a door with the sun emblem above it.

Jackpot.

When I tried to open the door it wouldn't budge. I gave it a small kick and it budged half an inch. I kicked it three more times, using more power in them, and the door started to crack. I took about 10 steps back and ran towards the door at full speed. When I got close I punched the door with both my fists, destroying the door. The room was perfectly lit with the colors of the prophecy glasses shined on the floor. I looked to the throne and saw Princess Celestia sitting on it, doing absolutely nothing.

"You! You did this to me!" I accused.

"Who are you? And what did I do to you?" She asked.

"Don't act foolish! I know this was all your doing! I don't exactly appreciate being ripped from my own reality!”

"Over here!” One of the guards announced.

"Now, you are gonna tell me why you did this to me, and you will put me back where I belong!" I demanded.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about, or even who you are.” Celestia said.

For a quarter of a second I saw a little smile in the corners of her mouth. I ran towards her as I felt the blood in my veins heat up. I stopped when we were almost face-to-face.

"Now listen you spoiled wretch! I know the power you hold, the tricks you've played not only on your student, but her friends as well. This time, you're dealing with different worlds-- No! Different realities. You can't just bring people to a new realm for your own amusement without consequence. Now take me back to my own dimension or I'll--”

I was interrupted by the sudden force of four guards tackling me to the ground. They started to drag me away from the princess.

"Sorry Princess, we underestimated this creature," one of the guards reported.

"No worries. Take him to the dungeon. I'll deal with him later," Celestia said.

Over my dead body.

I put all my force into getting up. I screamed, tossed the guards off me, and threw the rest of the guards that were in reach across the room. I surprised even myself with that burst of power.

"You're gonna have to do a lot better than that,” I challenged.

That challenge was accepted with more guards pinning me to the ground from behind. When I tried to overpower them again more guards joined in and completely pinned me down. One of the guards even had the smart idea of knocking me out. I slowly woke up with a headache in the back of my head, where the guard had hit me. When I opened my eyes I saw I was in a prison cell with a small bared-off window above me. There was an empty one on my left and a guard in the one to my right. There was a similar looking guard at the entrance, next to a hook that held the keys to the cells. Behind him was staircase leading upwards with a torch lighting it up. I looked outside and saw it was completely dark out.

Least I wasn't out for long.

I sighed and turned to the guard in the cell.

"So, what are you in for?" I asked.

The guard at the entrance laughed.

"And what's so funny?” I spitefully asked.

"Last I checked, Changelings don't talk,” he said.

Changeling?

The guard in the cell was engulfed by a green fire. When the fire died down the guard was now a changeling minion.

"Dear Mercer!"

The guard at the entrance laughed even harder than last time.

You'll be the first one I deal with once I get out of this cell

The changeling looked at me and the green flame engulfed it again. When they died down this time it turned into a white
pegasus with red hair and a skull and crossbones for a cutie mark. I snickered in a low tone.

“I'm not a pony, fledgeling,” I mocked.

The changeling looked at me, than itself. It growled at me in anger for it's failure and the nickname I gave it. I kicked his cage as a response to that.

"Silence."

"Knock it off, both of you!” The guard demanded.

If I'm going to be executed, please let it be soon.

I felt the solid stone floor. It was a bit warm, almost comfortable.

Well, I might as well get some sleep. Can't be tired for my final moments.

I laid on my back and closed my eyes. The light from the window shined on my eyes, signaling a new day. I opened my eyes and regretted it instantly when the light burned my eyes. I closed them tightly and quietly groaned. I moved my head away from the light then opened my eyes again. My eyes thanked me for the darkness by not burning. I heard a door open and close.

"Where's the new prisoner at?" A familiar female voice asked.

"Middle cell," the guard replied.

I looked at the staircase and saw a shadow of a unicorn. I let out a sigh of relief, a bit thankful it wasn't Celestia. When the pony's shadow passed by the guard I laid down and closed my eyes again. I could hear someone walking towards my cell. They stopped in front of me and I could feel their eyes watching me.

"Excuse me," the mare said.

I slightly opened my right eye and saw it was Twilight in front of my cell.

"If you're here to tell me my sentence, skip the charges and all that," I said.

"I'm not here to do that, I'm here to get you out of here."

Both of my eyes went wide. I quickly got up, ran at the cell door, and grabbed it.

"What!?" Me and the guard asked.

"Guard, please release... it."

"Him," I corrected.

"Him."

The guard grabbed the cell ring with his teeth and unlocked the cell door. I opened the cell and stretched my back, popping a few bones. The guard didn't ask any questions about my release, but I could tell he really wanted to. Me and Twilight ascended up the staircase and headed towards the exit. On our way I saw the throne room again. The door had been replaced and there was some clamoring coming from inside the room.

Sounds like I made quite a riot.

I walked ahead of Twilight.

"Wait, hold on," she said.

Twilight picked up the pace and walked on the right side of me.

"You fall out of the sky from nowhere, run to Canterlot without talking to anypony, cause a huge mess in the castle, and get yourself thrown into a dungeon. But, now that we've met up again, who are you?”

"My name's Trevor,” I replied.

"Alright, Trevor. What exactly are you?"

Uh... I should do some research to see if this place knows about humans before I go all into me possibly being the only
human here.

"It's... complicated."

"OK..?" Twilight said, a bit confused with my answer.

"Well, where did you come from?" She asked.

"Again, complicated,” I answered.

I need to find a better answer than that, or else things could go really bad, really fast.

"Okay. Well how about I show you around Ponyville when we get back?"

"Sure. Hey, where's that baby dragon that was with you?"

"Oh, you mean Spike? He's my assistant. I raised him when he was just an egg."

"Interesting."

The walk back was uneventful and quiet. When we got back to Ponyville we were immediately greeted by Pinkie Pie.

"Hey! You're just in time for the party! Follow me!" Pinkie Pie instructed.

She took off a moment later. Twilight quickly ran after her.

"Pinkie Pie, wait!" Twilight yelled.

This should be good.

I followed behind Twilight and Pinkie Pie towards Sweet Apple Acres and into the barn. When Pinkie Pie and Twilight went in,
the door closed behind them. I sighed and knocked on the door three times. I could hear whispering within the barn.

"Come in!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

I opened the door and went inside. It was too dark for me to identify anything inside. Lights suddenly came in through the windows, confetti poppers went off, and the mane 6 cheered. There was a sign above them that said “Welcome to Ponyville!” Everyone except Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash looked at me in amazement, though Fluttershy was hiding behind a barrel.

"Golly Pinkie. Ya sure weren’t fibbin' when ya said it was a big un'," Applejack said.

"He," Me and Twilight corrected.

"I must say, he certainly is a... fascinating creature," Rarity said.

Okay, so the chances of this place knowing about humans are very much slimming.

Fluttershy peaked out to look at me but hid again once she did. Silence filled the room.

Well great. I basically just killed the party twice over. I can't get to Celestia without Twilight chasing me or getting pinned by guards. Even if I did get to her, I doubt she'd help me out. So, I'm stuck 'til I die.

I poorly whistled two notes and headed towards the door.

"Wait," Twilight said.

"Yes?" I stopped and asked.

"Why don't you..."

She looked around nervously, trying to think of something to do.

"Tell us about yourself."

"There isn't anything of interest."

I reached for the door handle.

"Um... excuse me," A soft voice said.

I stopped myself again and turned around. Fluttershy poked her head out from her hiding spot and looked at me.

"I would actually want to know more about you, if you don't mind of course. If you don't want to, I understand,” Fluttershy
said.

I mentally sighed.

Might as well.

I sat down on the ground.

"So, what do you want to know?” I asked.

Chapter 2: The Mortal Nightmare

Twilight's face lit up with joy at my response.

"I have so many questions. But where do I start?" Twilight asked herself.

"Uh. What kind of animals are there where you're from?" Fluttershy asked.

"Let's see. We have cats, dogs, birds, lizards, insects, fishes--,” I counted off.

"Dragons?" Twilight interrupted.

"Nope. They're just myths where I'm from."

"Where are you from anyway?"

"I told you already, it's complicated."

"How's it complicated? Do you not remember?"

"I remember. It's just... that... the only person who can locate my home is the Princess."

"Well, could try to describe it for us?"

"Sure. It's kinda like Ponyville except the area is bigger, the houses are bigger, and the population is..."

"Bigger?"

"Exactly."

"Does everypony like you have wings?"

"Nope. No one does."

"Then why do you have them?”

"I have no idea."

"What kind of fashion do they have?" Rarity asked.

"I don't keep up on fashion. But I know if we took one piece of clothing from a different designer, we would touch the sky and
possibly beyond."

Rarity had a huge smile on her face. Twilight's eyes suddenly widened, even bigger than last time.

"I'm late! Sorry about this everypony. Trevor, do you have anywhere to stay?" She asked in a hurry.

"Nope."

"Then you can stay with me. Let's go."

We both ran out the door.

"See ya later!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

I gave them a thumbs-up before we were out of sight. When me and Twilight went inside the tree house, Spike was facing away from us and holding a checklist sheet of spells.

"You ready, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"Spike." Twilight said.

"Yes?"

Spike looked behind him and focused his sight on me.

"This is Trevor. He was the one we saw yesterday, and he'll be staying with us until he can get home.”

Spike reached out his right claw towards me.

"Nice too meet you, Trevor. I'm Spike."

I shook his claw.

"Nice to meet you as well," I said.

"So are you ready for the spells?" Spike asked Twilight.

"Yep. Let's get started,” she replied.

Twilight practiced the spells on herself and Spike for about an hour. The spells were mostly to change ones vision to black and white, sepia tone, distortion in color and shapes, things like that.

"Alright, the next one is..."

Spike stop himself and had a bit of a concerned look on him.

"What is it Spike?"

"The next spell is a nightmare spell. Whoever the spell is used on will become a nightmare within them.”

"I'll test this one,” I volunteered.

"Are you sure Trevor?" Twilight asked.

"Indeed, I am.”

“Okay, if you're sure.”

Twilight's horn had a purple aura around it. The same aura surrounded me and made me grow taller. I didn't notice any other difference.

Was that it? Did she do the wrong spell?

"Well, how do I look?”

Spike and Twilight got on the ground and covered their ears.

"Please, whatever you did, don't do it again. It emits a high pitch noise when you do it."

What?

I looked in the mirror and saw that I had been turned into, out of all the nightmarish creatures in mythology and legend, Slenderman.

You gotta be joking. I don't even believe he exists. How could he be a nightmare from within me?

I was about to say something, but I quickly put a hand over my nonexistent mouth.

"The spell should wear off very soon,” Twilight informed.

A few seconds later, I started to shrink down.

"You weren't exaggerating when you said 'very soon.' But that was certainly an interesting experience,” I said.

"Who, or what, was that thing anyway?"

"It's a very mysterious creature titled 'The Slenderman.' Basically if you see him you're marked by him to haunt you until
you're captured by him. And once you're captured by him... well nobody--"

"Nopony."

"Whatever. No one knows what happens. When you're captured you're never heard from again."

"Wow," Spike commented.

"I haven't read about that before," Twilight said.

"Now on to spell number twenty-five. The growing spell."

Growing spell..? Where have I heard that before?

Twilight's horn glowed and the purple aura went around Spike's nose. Within seconds he grew a mustache. He looked at
himself in a mirror, looking satisfied with his brown handlebar mustache.

"Oh ho yeah. Hello Rarity,” Spike said slyly.

Twilight giggled while I rubbed my beard.

"Sorry Romeo, but it's gotta go,” Twilight said.

Spike tried to keep it, but Twilight used another spell to get rid of it in a flash.

"Don't worry. Girls are more into beards anyway," I whispered to Spike.

"Really?" He asked.

"Aye."

Lies.

"Now that we're done with that. Trevor, why don't we walk around Ponyville for a little bit, It might help you learn the area,”
Twilight said.

"Sure, why not.”

“Can I come too?” Spike asked.

“Are all your chores done?”

“Finished them this morning.”

“Okay, you can come then.”

The three of us headed towards downtown. The town looked very similar to the show itself. Though it wasn't that surprising
seeing the similarities.

"Gangway! Coming through!" Someone up ahead of us announced.

I looked up the road and saw Snips and Snails running towards us. They ran into Spike and carried him off.

"Snips, Snails, what's going on?" Spike asked.

Snips and Snails stopped in their tracks. Spike flew off of Snips and into the side of a building.

"Haven't you heard? There's a new unicorn in town," Snails said.

"Yeah. They say she has more magic than any unicorn ever," Snips said.

"Tis a bold claim indeed," I commented.

"Who are you?" Snails asked.

"The name's Trevor. Nice to meet you lads.”

"Where is this new unicorn?" Twilight asked.

"She's in the town square. Come on."

Snips and Snails took off.

Wait, I think things are starting to come back to me. Yeah, this is the time when-- Oh Gorlog not her.

We followed them to the town square. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies surrounded a yellow mobile hut. We made our way to the front where we met the rest of the mane 6.

"Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the great and powerful Trixie!" An unseen speaker
announced.

The stage unfolded. In the background of the stage were cardboard cutouts of planets and star, while on the front of the
stage were trumpets. A flash of sparkles appeared on stage and in the middle was Trixie. The crowed oohed and aww'd at the display.

That's not impressive.

"Now watch in awe as the great and powerful Trixie preforms the greatest feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes,"
Trixie said.

Now begins the third-person talking.

Mini fireworks shot out of the trumpets.

"My, my. What boasting," Rarity said.

"Oh come on, no pony is as good as Twi--" Spike began to complain.

He stopped himself once he remembered he was next to Rarity.

"I-I mean, uh. Hey, Rarity,” Spike tried to recover smoothly.

Them some wise words of wisdom came back to him.

"Beard!" He yelled as he ran off.

I couldn't help but smile and chuckle.

"There's nothing wrong with being talented is there?" Twilight asked.

"Course not. Unless you're showin' it off like a school filly with fancy new ribbons," Applejack replied.

"Just because one can preform lots of magic does not mean they are better than the rest of us," Rarity pointed out.

"Especially when you have me around, being the best than the rest of us," Rainbow Dash commented.

Me and Applejack gave her a deathly stare. Rainbow Dash directed her sight on me and reflected my stare.

You're very good at holding grudges, aren't you?

She looked back towards the stage.

"I mean, uh. Magic schmagic. Boo,” Rainbow Dash jeered.

Trixie looked down at us.

"I see we have some neigh-sayers in the audience," Trixie said.

I'll have to kill her for that one.

"Who is so ignorant to challenge me, the great and powerful Trixe. The most powerful unicorn in Equestria!?” She
challenged.

“Does thou knows who you really are?" I muttered.

"Besides, Twilight--" Spike began to counter.

"Shhh, Spike," Twilight interrupted.

Twilight scooted Spike to the back of the crowd. Trixie's mini fireworks went off again and Rainbow Dash flew on the stage.

"So 'great and powerful Trixie.' what makes you think you're so awesome anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked spitefully.

"Why, only the great and powerful Trixie had the magic to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major," Trixie said.

Twilight and Spike came back just in time to see another set of mini firework go off. The explostion formed into a blue bear
with a star on it's head.

"When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to. But the great and powerful Trixe stepped in, and
with her awesome magic, vanquish the Ursa Major, and sent it back crawling to it's cave deep within the Everfree Forest."

"That settles it," Snips concluded.

"Trixie truly is the most magical, most talented, and most awesome unicorn in all of Ponyville," Snails said.

"No. In all of Equestria."

"How do you know? You didn't see it. And besides Twi--" Spike began to counter again

Twilight magically put a zipper on his mouth and closed it.

"Ha ha ha. It's true my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie most certainly is the best in Ponyville," Trixie said.

The crowd went silent. I crouched down and leaned close to Twilight.

"I have a plan that could end this foolishness," I whispered.

"What is it?" Twilight asked quietly.

"The nightmare spell. Use it on me."

"Why? How would that help?" Twilight asked.

"Trust me, but tell everyone--"

"Everypony," me and Twilight corrected at the same time.

"To cover their ears."

"Don't believe the great and powerful Trixie? Well then, I challenge you, Ponyvillians. Anything you can do, I can do better,"
Trixie said.

"Challenge accept, fool!" I said confidently, cracking my fingers.

"And what can you do?" Trixie asked.

"Just watch."

I stepped on stage and shooed Rainbow Dash away.

"With the help of my friend Twilight,” I said.

Twilight's horn began to glow and the purple aura surrounded me. Once I started growing taller I knew that it had worked.
Everybody looked amazed or terrified. When I saw that ponies were starting to cover their ears, I took a deep breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. Trixie got on the ground and covered her ears. I could hear the groans of different ponies over my window-shattering scream. When I finished screaming I met Trixie face-to-face. Her face looked calm and cool, but in her eyes I saw fear.

Scared yet?

A few seconds later the spell wore off.

"Let's see you do better." I whispered.

"Um. Unfortunately for you, the great and powerful Trixie is tired of preforming magical feats beyond comprehension," Trixie
said, trying to act brave.

"Very well. I will leave you to your simple parlor tricks," I said.

After I had stepped off the stage moments later, the crowd started to disband and Trixie packed up the stage portion of her
mobile home. Me and Twilight headed back to the tree house while Spike talked to Snips and Snails.

"So, what was your plan?" Twilight asked.

"Doing what the spell did. I became a nightmare within me and tried to scare her out of town. Though, by the look of it, it didn't work. Why didn't you show her up when you had the chance?"

"You saw how they reacted to Trixie. If I went up there and showed off my magic, I would have lost my friends."

"Mahogany. There's a difference between claiming a title and earning one."

"It's the same thing."

I face-palmed.

"So about my living conditions.”

"You can live with me. If you give me more information about you and where you came from. And test some of my spells."

She smiled at the deal.

This can't end well.

"Alright. I accept your conditions.”

We shook on it.

Chapter 3: Warning: May Cause Split Genetics Between Transfers

The rest of the way there was silent, besides the whispers of ponies when they saw me. When we got inside the house we went upstairs. Twilight levitated a notepad, quill, and a small bottle of ink over to her.

"Take a seat," Twilight said.

I sat down in a chair a foot behind me. It was a bit small, but it worked.

"Okay, Trevor. What exactly are you? And don't say 'it's complicated.'”

"I'm a human. Male, to be specific.”

"Is there anything else besides humans and animals where you're from?"

"Kinda. There are demons and angels.

"And what are angels?"

"Angels are holy. People usually say their humans with white robes and wings, also believed to have a little yellow halo above their head."

"Kinda like you."

"The wings part anyway."

"What about demons?"

I sighed.

"Where do I even begin? Demons are evil, invisible, they can take control of your body, and make you act differently without you realizing it."

"Why do demons exist?"

"That's a completely different story.”

"How were demons created?"

Spike opened the door and came upstairs.

"What's going on?" Spike asked.

"Trevor's telling me about where he's from," Twilight said.

"Really? I'll have to hear this."

Spike sat down next to Twilight.

"So how were demons created? Hmmm. Well, it started out in Heaven, basically the most perfect place in all of creation. Lucifer, a highly-praised angel, got prideful, and wanted to become better than God. So he got a bunch of angels to try and defeat God. But God took Lucifer and the angels that followed him and banished them to a place called Hell. A place of eternal fire, brimstone, and suffering. And that is the simple version of how demons were created."

Both Twilight and Spike looked confused on what to say to that. Twilight broke the awkward silence a few seconds later.

"Th-that was... Interesting.”

"No kidding," Spike said.

I started to get up and walk downstairs.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna walk around town. I don't want to feel cooped up in here when there's a new place to explore," I explained.

"I'll come with you."

Spike didn't say anything and Twilight followed me out the door. I walked through town, seeing the different ponies and checking out the scenery. I thought about the different places I had yet to visit and decided to go to the park. We walked over to the park, found an empty bench with a tree right behind it, and sat down. I looked up at the tree and saw that Rainbow Dash was sleeping on one of the branches. I hit the tree with my fist to see if I could wake her up. But the result was a small knock and some pain in my hand. Twilight looked up at the tree and saw Rainbow Dash as well. She looked at me with curiosity.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked quietly.

"Trying to wake her up,” I whispered.

"Why?"

"I'm feeling a bit of an Otis today. So, I'm gonna see if I can wake her up.”

I climbed the branches until I was on the same level as her.

So many options to choose from. Do I shake the branch? Nah, that would be too easy. Use Slendy? No, she’s already seen what he looks like.

I felt something in my right pocket.

What the…?

I reached into my pocket and felt a small rectangular object with a wire coming out of it.

No way.

I pulled it out and saw it was my MP3 player.

Excellent! Now I won’t be completely bored on non-episode days.

I turned it on and saw the song was Tyranny of Steel by Iron Savior. I set the volume to high and put the ears buds in her ears. As soon as I pressed play she woke up, lost her balance, and fell out of the tree. Before she hit the ground I caught one of her front hooves. I put her on the ground gently, took the ear buds out, and turned off the MP3 player.

"Hm. And I thought Tyranny of Steel was a good song." I said with a snicker.

"What was that for!?" Rainbow Dash furiously asked.

"I'm sorry, I truly am. But I had to do it.”

She flew up to me and pushed me out of the tree. I landed on my back, knocking the air right out of me. I took in a deep breath, coughed a few times, and kept on laughing. After I was done, Rainbow Dash flew back up to the branch and I sat back down with Twilight.

"You probably shouldn't have done that," Twilight said.

"I know. I'll apologize and make it up to her next chance I get,” I assured.

I looked over at Rainbow Dash and saw she was back to sleep.

Next chance.

An evil smile came on my face.

Oh yes… next chance.

My evil smile went away shortly after.

Oh what to do, what to do. A new world, countless possibilities, can't think of a single one. I wonder how much it would be to get some new clothes from Rarity? Or maybe visit Fluttershy. I suppose I haven't properly introduced myself. Why not, let's give them all a visit.

"Hey Twilight,” I said.

"Yeah?" Twilight asked.

"I feel like I didn’t properly introduce myself to your friends? Mind if we visit them again so I can do so?”

I glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who had one eye looking at me. As soon as she saw I was looking at her, she closed her eye and pretended to sleep, and I looked back to Twilight.

"Sure. That sounds like a great idea. So who are we going to visit first?"

"The white unicorn”

"Rarity," Twilight corrected.

"Rarity."

We walked over to Rarity’s home/shop and saw that the sign on the front door said “open.” I knocked on the door with the back of my hand three times; the door was surrounded with a blue aura, and swung open with Rarity behind it.

"Twilight and. Uh..." Rarity said, trying to remember my name.

"Trevor," I helped.

"Trevor. Why the sudden visit?"

"I felt like I didn’t properly introduce myself, so I came here to do so. Plus, I heard you’re spectacular at making clothes, and I was wondering if you could make me some."

She looked at my clothes. First at my plain white shirt with the word "Halo" printed in black with its unusual font. Then at my long, black pants with UNSC and Covenant weapons printed in gray with a little knot at the waist to keep it as is.

"Oh my. You certainly came to the right place. Please, come in."

Both me and Twilight went in while Rarity got out some paper and a pencil.

"Please. Stand there, darling" Rarity said, pointing to the small circular platform.

I did as such and she got out a measuring tape.

"Could you spread out your..." Rarity said, pointing at my arms.

"Arms? Sure," I agreed.

I spread out my arms and she started taking measurements. When she went behind me to take measurements for the size of my head, she asked me to sit down, and I did as such.

"That's odd."

"What?"

"Is it usual for your kind to have a cutie mark on the back of your neck?”

"What!?" I asked in a almost furious tone.

At that moment I wanted to throw a massive fit, breaking anything I could to let out all my anger, but I kept my cool by taking a few deep breaths and relaxing my nerves.

"I must say. It certainly is strange."

"What does it look like?"

She levitated a piece of paper and the pencil over to us, put the paper on my back, drew the picture, and showed it to me.

Well I'll be cursed.

It was the same mark that the changeling had when it transformed into that pegasus.

Well that certainly explains that.

"Strange indeed," I said.

Twilight came over and looked at the back of my neck, than at the drawing.

"What do you think it means?" Twilight asked.

Madness or death. But I think it's madness.

"I don't know," I lied.

"We'll worry about it later."

"I believe I have the measurements I need. Come back in 30 minutes," Rarity said.

"Wait. Could I make a request for a design on the back of my shirt?" I asked.

"Of course, just write the design here and what color you want it in, and I'll take care of the rest."

She gave me the pencil and paper, I flipped the paper around, drew a vertical eye, wrote that the color should be crimson red on it, and handed the pen and paper back to her. Me and Twilight said our goodbyes and headed off.

"So where to next?" Twilight asked.

"The orange one with the cowboy hat."

"Applejack it is.”

Once we got to Sweet Apple Acres, we went to the apple orchard and saw Applejack and Big Macintosh bucking apples.

Before injury, soon injury, then massacre. Oh what strange times those will be if that actually happens.

"Perhaps we should come later."

"Then who's next?"

Let’s see. The only ones left are Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. And since Rainbow wouldn’t want to talk to me, that leaves only Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Let's get the 4th wall breaking insanity out of the way.

"Pinkie, I believe her name was."

"Yep. It shouldn't take us too long to get to her."

When we got to Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie was at the entrance, hopping up and down. As soon as she saw us she ran towards us.

"Hey Twilight, hey Halo," Pinkie Pie said.

"Halo?" I asked.

"Yeah. Isn’t that a big nametag on your shirt?”

"No, it's vi… it's a ser… it’s a very long story."

"Ooooh, I love stories. Is it a muscial? A comedy? A romance?"

"More action adventure."

"Tell me the story. Ple-e-ease," Pinkie Pie said with pleading eyes.

"Fine."

I saw a table nearby with three seats.

"Let's take a seat and I'll tell you,” I said.

We walked over to the table and sat down.

"Alright the story of Halo begins on a planet called Harvest."

I told them about the Covenant attacking us on Harvest, the beginning of the war, how I became a part of Noble team on the planet Reach, and how I eventually teamed up with Master Chief. Then I told them how me and Master Chief discovered Halo, the Flood, and a few other things. I also told them how we teamed up with the Arbiter after we crash landed on a planet after jumping from a Covenant ship that was detonating, and about how we defeated the Covenant and the Flood, won the war, and that the last thing I remembered from the adventure is being stuck in a cryogenic tube next to Master Chief waiting for Cortana to wake us up.

"Wow. That was an amazing! Especially when Master Chief was like 'Wake me when you need me.' And how you beat that meany 343 Guilty Spark, twice!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

"That certainly was quite a tale," Twilight admitted.

"Thanks," I said.

I then realized why I went Pinkie Pie in the first place.

"Oh, I almost forgot. The reason I came here was to introduce myself properly. Hello, my name is Trevor.”

"I'm Pinkie Pie. But my friends just call me Pinkie."

"Well nice too meet you, Pinkie."

Her body started to twitch.

"Cupcakes are done. Catch ya later."

She took off like a bullet towards the bakery.

What a crazy one, she is.

"That leave's one more. Fluttershy," Twilight said.

"And where does she live at?" I asked.

"Near the Everfree Forest."

"Everfree Forest?"

"It's a dangerous forest where dangerous creatures live and criminals are banished to."

"I'll keep that in mind. Lead the way to Fluttershy's."

And she did. As we walked through the park some certain ponies caught my eye, and those certain ponies were Lyra and Bon Bon. They kept looking at me and whispering to each other.

"Boo," I flatly said.

They gave me a confused glance and continued whispering to each other. When we got to Fluttershy's house, the psychopathic bunny known as Angel greeted us before I even knocked on the door. I crouched down, somewhat attempting to get to his level.

"Is the caretaker of this facility available at the moment?"

Angel shut the door in my face. I knocked on the door and Angel opened it again.

"Is Fluttershy home?"

Angel nodded his head and gave me a "wait a moment" gesture. I stood back up, and noticed that the top of the doorway was chin high to me.

"Eeep!" A quiet voice shrieked.

I ducked down to see who shrieked and saw Fluttershy, hiding behind her chair.

"Don't worry. I'm just here to talk."

"S-sure. Please, come in, if you want to of course," Fluttershy nervously said.

I ducked through the doorway and stood up when I was inside the house. The ceiling was higher than I expected, not really close to even hitting my head, even if I jumped. Fluttershy came out of hiding and sat in her chair.

"S-so what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, since I didn't exactly introduce myself properly, I thought I might do so."

“O-okay."

"My name's Trevor."

I extended my arm with an open hand. Angel came over and stood next to Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy."

She extended her front right hoof and we shook hands, or hooves, whatever you want to call it. Angel looked at me suspiciously, went to the kitchen, and soon came back with his empty food bowl.

"Not right now Angel. I'll feed you later,” Fluttershy assured.

He put the food bowl on her lap and pointed to it.

"Angel, we have guests. I'll feed you later."

Angel then took the food bowl and threw it in the kitchen, almost hitting a few animals in the process.

That bunny has some issues.

"Tell me about it," A male voice agreed.

I looked around to see who said that.

"Oops, wrong time,” he said.

I looked left and right, up and down, but I couldn’t find anyone.

"Trevor, what are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"Just looking around," I said.

Who said that?

"We should be going, Twilight. It was nice meeting you, Fluttershy,” I said.

"It was nice meeting you too. Come back again, if you want to of course, you don't have to," Fluttershy said.

Me and Twilight walked out of Fluttershy's house and I saw it was close to night time. As we headed back to the tree house, I remembered that I had forgotten to introduce myself to Applejack.

It's getting closer to the attack, so I'll just introduce myself to her later on.

When we got to the house, I didn’t see Spike or even hear from him.

"Where do you think Spike went?" I asked.

"Probably on a walk. Let me show you your bed,” Twilight said.

We walked upstairs and Twilight showed me the spare bed. It was almost the same size as her bed and also close to it. I laid down on it to see how much room I would have, and surprisingly it ended at my calf muscles.

Not as short as I thought it would be.

"Is it okay?" Twilight asked.

"Tis very nice,” I said.

"Than this will be your new bed. I'm sure you're tired, so I'll see you in the morning."

She was right. Sleeping in a stone cell doesn't really make for a good night's sleep. Twilight went downstairs to do some more studying. I laid on my stomach and pulled the covers over my shoulders.

"Good night," I whispered.

It felt like months since I had relaxed. It actually felt nice. I was slowly drifting off to sleep until I felt a vibration across my body. I slowly raised from my new bed and rubbed my eyes.

It's too early for this. That, or too late. What time is it anyway?

"Twilight! You've got to come, quick!" Spike yelled.

Quit yelling! Less I rip your vocal cords out!

"Spike, I told you. I don't want to show up Trixie,” Twilight said.

"No, you don't understand, it's--"

Before Spike could explain, he was interrupted by a loud roar. I went downstairs, still half asleep.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"What is going on outside?" I muttered.

"I'll explain on the way there. We need to hurry."

Me, Twilight, and Spike headed out the door and went towards the source of the roaring was, all while avoiding oncoming ponies trying to get as many doors, walls, and towns away from the creature. We found Snips and Snails standing side-by-side with Trixie in front of them, and in front of her was the Ursa Minor.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked.

It's exactly what you think, Twilight. These two fools brought this giant bear thing here to try and prove that everything Trixie claimed was true.

Every bit of me wanted to say, but I knew I had to let the story progress as is, for the most part anyway.

"We brought an Ursa Major to town," Snips said.

"You what?!"

"Fools of a took," I whispered.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Trixie here will vanquish it," Snails said.

"I can't," Trixie said.

"You what?!" Snips and Snails gasped in unison.

"Shocker," I said sarcastically and with a devilish smile.

"I can't. I never have. No pony has vanquished an Ursa Major. I just made it up to make me look better," Trixie said.

"Made it up?!" Snips and Snails yelled in unison.

"I refer to my previous statement," I said.

The Ursa Minor looked ready to attack. The ponies near us started to cower in fear, I even saw Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack in the mix. Spike nudged Twilight and motioned towards the Ursa Minor. Twilight looked afraid to face the giant beast, but walked towards it with courage. She stood in front of it, also looking ready to attack. Twilight's horn began to glow, the air intensified, and in the air I could hear some very soothing music. The Ursa Minor's eyes looked heavy as he swayed left and right. Twilight's horn brightened up three times than it originally had. She levitated the water tower off it's hold, unscrewed the top, let the water out, levitated it through the barn, somehow milked the cows, poured the milk into the water tower, and screwed the top back on.

"That's new," Spike said.

Indeed

The Ursa Minor was starting to collapse, heading right for Trixie. Twilight dug her hooves into the ground and used her magic to catch the Ursa Minor before it could crush Trixie. Twilight levitated the giant milk bottle to the Ursa Minor. The Ursa Minor started drinking from it, and Twilight levitated the Ursa Minor back to its cave. When she stopped using her magic, she took in a few deep breathes. Everyone there started cheering.

"Heavens to Betsy. We knew you had ability, but not that much," Applejack said, amazed at what she just saw.

"I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me," Twilight apologized.

"Hate you?" Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity asked.

"Why. Whatever do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked.

"I saw how you reacted to Trixie when she showed off her magic. And I thought--,” Twilight said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Magic's got nothing to do with it. Trixie's just a loudmouth," Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"I can agree to that," I said, nodding my head.

"Most unpleasant," Rarity said.

"All hat and no cattle," Applejack said.

"So you don't mind my magic tricks?" Twilight asked.

"Your magic's a part of who you are, sugar cube. And we like who you are. We're proud to have such a powerful unicorn as our friend."

"Yeah, and woopin' that Ursa's hind quarters, we're even prouder," Rainbow Dash said.

"You are?" Twilight asked.

Me, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity all hummed of approval.

"Wow Twilight. How did you know what to do with this Ursa Major?" Spike asked.

"That's what I was doing when you came looking for me. After Trixie's boasting, I was compelled to do a little reading up on them."

"So it is possible to vanquish an Ursa Major all by yourself?"

"That wasn't an Ursa Major. That was a baby. An Ursa Minor."

"That was just a baby?!" Trixie asked.

"And it wasn't rampaging. It was just cranky because someone woke it up."

All eyes fell on Snips and Snails.

Burn them at the stake! Burn them at the stake!

"Uhhhh," Snips and Snails said with sheepish smiles.

"If that was an Ursa Minor. Then what's a Ursa Major like?" Spike asked.

An even more giant bear thing with longer teeth. And a lot uglier.

"You don't want to know," Twilight said.

"Ha. You may have vanquished an Ursa Minor. But you will never have the amazing, show stopping ability as the great and powerful Trixie."

She was about to throw her cheap smoke bomb before I grabbed her mane and lifted her up to my face.

"You still haven't shown me better from last time," I said, giving the same smile I did from the first time.

She used her horn to prick my hand and I let her go with a small grunt of pain. She used her smoke bomb and ran away as fast as she could.

"Why that little…" Rainbow Dash said.

She started to take off after her from the skies
.
"Let her go," Twilight said.

She stopped in her tracks and landed on the ground below her.

"Maybe one day she'll learn her lesson,” Twilight hoped.

I saw Snips and Snails trying to sneak off.

"Oi!" I yelled.

They stopped right then and there.

"Don't think you're getting out this that easily. There's still debts to be paid," I said in a sadistic tone.

"Now, now, Trevor. I'll take care of this," Twilight said.

"As you wish," I calmly said.

"You two can, first off, clean up this mess," she said, referring to Trixie's destroyed stage home.

"Then how about it Trevor. Should we give them number 25?"

"I don't see why not. And I think Spike should get it as well."

"Huh?" Snips and Snails asked.

Twilight's horn glowed and the purple aura surrounded the two unicorns and the baby dragon, In seconds they all grew mustaches. Snip's mustache was a brown, stereotypical muscle man biker mustache, Snail's was a regular brown mustache, and Spike's was the same style as Snail’s but the color was black.

"Sweet," the three newly mustached unicorns and dragon said in unison.

Now that that's done. I'm going to get some accursed sleep.

I managed to sneak out of the crowd and head back towards Twilight's house. On the way there, I had that feeling again. Someone was watching me. I took a couple glances and saw a few quick flashes of Aquamarine, but that was about it. It seemed familiar, but I was too tired to think of who or what it could be. When I got into Twilight’s house, I got into my bed and slowly drifted away into a relaxing sleep. Next thing I know, I’m in one of the towers of the Princess's castle, looking out a window. I could oversee Canterlot and a little bit of Ponyville.

"What do you mean?" Celestia asked.

I looked over towards her.

"I told you already, there's something wrong here," I replied.

I looked out the window again and saw what looked like a giant black cloud heading towards Canterlot at an alarming rate.

"And what's wrong?"

"... Death is at your doorstep."

I saw a giant pink shield surrounding Canterlot. The cloud broke through it and separated into a multitude of changelings. I started hearing bombs explode everywhere, but I didn't see any signs of actual explosions. Everything soon went dark. I opened my eyes and saw that I was still in the spare bed.

It was just a dream. A weird one at that.

"Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight said.

I put the pillow over my head in spite.

Chapter 4: Flyer and The Stalker

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.

Chapter 5: Dragon Hunt

I woke up in a metal station wearing blue armor and with three other peope in blue armor.

Now how did I end up here?

"Don't worry Tree, we'll cover you. Just get on that Warthog turret, we'll drive over and show them reds what's up," my teammate on the right said.

I looked over to him and saw the name "Ethan Jacobs” appear at forehead level. Another name appeared below the first one, this one being "Risk."

A codename and a real name, and since he said “Warthog,” I must be in the Halo universe.

"Just don't forget about me this time, or else I'm gonna shoot you with a scatter shot," my comrade on the left threatened.

I looked over to him and saw his name was "Galvan Patterson," and his code name was "Frontliner."

"Now, now, boys. Don't fight over the commander," the comrade ion the middle said.

The voice was female this time. I looked over and saw her name was "Evalyn Boyd," and her code name was "Pixie."

"You ready?" She asked me.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I responded.

"Swords" The Halo matchmaking voice said.

Energy swords spawned into our hands and we took off running out of our base. Outside was a frozen tundra with metal pieces of ruined bases scattered across. There was a Warthog and a Ghost almost next to each other. I hopped on the turret of the Warthog, Pixie hopped in the passenger seat, Risk got in the driver seat, and Frontliner got in the ghost.

"Alright. Let's give them an old three-four," Frontliner said.

"Roger that," Risk said.

Risk took off to the left while Frontliner went right. After 30 seconds passed, the Halo voice made an announcement.

"First strike!"

I heard an explosion go off about twenty feet to our right.

"Looks like Frontliner's giving them a fun time," Pixie said.

"You bet I am!" Frontliner replied via team radio.

"See anything up ahead?"

"Besides the one Red I just killed, I don't see any... Oh sweet--"

Frontliner's signal died, and all that remained was static.

"Frontliner? Frontliner, come in..."

Nothing changed in response.

"Alright, Tree. Get ready for a Scorpion."

"Roger that," I said.

We passed through different bases, red and blue alike. We turned to the right towards one of the red bases and saw a Gauss Warthog. The driver was regular red, the soldier on the turret was maroon red, and the passenger was orange.

"There they are Simmons, fire!" The driver said with a gruff voice.

Sarge?

"Yes sir," The soldier on the turret said with a bit of a voice crack.

Wait... Are these guys--

They shot the Gauss cannon right at me. Before the shot hit me I was transported somewhere else. I was in a construction zone at night, holding a knife in my right hand.

Now this is just getting crazy. This has to be a dream.

"If it can bleed, we can kill it," a male robotic voice said.

Ooh, and it’s a good one.

"It's show time," I darkly said.

I walked on a staircase nearby to find my new targets. When I heard shots going off, I walked over towards the location of their firing. Near the entrance of the construction zone there were five soldiers in black armor from head to toe. Four had shotguns while one had a machine gun, all of them having green laser pointers.

"I can smell your fear."

I quickly moved before the spot I was at was riddled with bullets, and hid behind some crates while I waited for them to stop firing. Once they did I quickly got out a grenade and threw it in the middle of them. When they saw it they tried to run, but it set off before they could. They started firing all around; the machine gun guy even ended up killing one of his buddies in the process. Near me, I found a barrel and threw it at the one with the machine gun. He saw it and started to shoot at it until it stopped moving, then started firing at the crates I was behind. I leaped to the wall behind me and stuck to it.

"Come one out, Peter Pan," the man with the machine gun said.

He had the same robotic voice as the one from before. I leaped behind one of the soldiers with a shotgun, next to the machine gun soldier, and stabbed him in the back, causing all his limbs to tear apart from his body as they went forward, leaving only his torso and a small puddle of blood. The soldiers turned towards me and started firing. I quickly leaped out of the way, only taking a bullet or two to my right arm.

"Spread out and search for him," one of the shotgun guys ordered.

The three remaining soldier split up, one heading deeper into the construction zone where I was before, the other headed towards my direction, and the machine gun guy just stood there. I leaped behind the one who was heading towards my direction and quickly slit his throat, blood pouring out from the new cut on to his uniform and a few inches on the ground in front him. The machine gun soldier quickly noticed and started firing at me. I grabbed the dead soldier and ran forward, using his body as a meat shield. The bullets were tearing the body apart quicker than expected, so I threw the body at the machine gun soldier and jumped towards him. When the body got to him he grabbed it, quickly threw it aside, and aimed in front of him. I pounced on him and stabbed him through his left eye, piercing his brain as well.

"Tis a shame; you seemed to be the smartest out of all of them,” I said.

I went after the final soldier in the middle of the construction zone. I came in through the door in the middle while he was looking around, seeing if he could find me.

"You're next," I told him.

He quickly pointed his gun at me and fired. I leaped over to the stairs on his right before the shots could hit me and leaped
behind him.

"I can see into your dreams," I quickly said.

I stabbed him in the back of the head. His head flew all the way to the door, leaving a small trail of blood, amd his body fell to its knees and fell flat.

"The Hidden wins."

A bright light overcame my vision and I woke up. I looked around to see if I was in another dream or not, but that theory was shattered when I saw Twilight right next to my bed.

"Trevor, calm down. It was just a dream,” she assured.

I slowly started to recall everything that happened in the dream again.

"A dream... Right."

"Now tell me. What do the symbols mean?"

"What?"

"I said. What do the symbols mean?!"

Her eyes and mouth glowed with a red light, emitting a high-pitched screech. I woke up again, this time in a cold sweat. I looked around franticly, saw it was morning, and Twilight was right next to me.

"Trevor, calm down. It was just a dream."

The words that the false Twilight said still echoed in my brain.

"What do the symbols mean?" The symbols on my shirt? What would those have to do with anything? They're human origin. Could they mean something here..? Doesn't matter I suppose. It was just a dream; or a nightmare.

"Trevor?" Twilight asked.

"Huh? What? Oh, yes, hey Twilight. I know it was," I replied.

"The spell reversed. So I was able to see into your dreams," Twilight sheepishly said with some red on her cheeks.

"And I'm sure you have questions."

"Yes, I do. What was that base?"

"Does it matter? It was a dream."

"Dreams are made up from your memory and psychological state of mind."

I sighed.

"I just... I need to wake up."

"Okay, me and Spike will be downstairs."

"Good to know."

Twilight walked downstairs as I rubbed my eyes to try and wake up. I sighed.

Let's start another day.

I got up from my bed and walked downstairs. Spike was eating cereal and Twilight was drinking a glass of water.

"Hey, Trevor," Spike greeted.

I replied to him by extending my thumb, pointer, and middle finger. Twilight used her magic to levitate a pitcher of water and
a glass. She poured some water in the glass ‘til it was almost full and put it in front of the third seat, between her and Spike. I sat down, took a sip, and breathed out the water’s coldness.

"Thank you,” I said.

"You're welcome,” Twilight replied.

I started drinking the water till it was halfway full, or halfway empty, however you see it. Spike burped up a scroll and unraveled it.

"It's from the princess."

"What does it say?" Twilight asked.

"To My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle: It appears that there is a giant, black smoke cloud over Ponyville. I have taken consideration into this matter and found out that a dragon has taken residents in one of the caves in the nearby mountain. He is sleeping, which is causing the smoke. I wish for you and your friends to try and move the dragon from its current residents so that there won't be any danger from the smoke cloud. Signed, Princess Celestia."

"A dragon in one of the caves?"

I looked out a nearby window and saw the giant smoke cloud heading towards Ponyville.

"By the looks of it," I confirmed.

"Alright. We'll get the others and take care of this dragon."

I raised up my glass in cheers, drank the rest of it, and set it down.

"Ready whenever you are."

"Can I go to?" Spike asked.

"Don’t you still have chores to do?” Twilight asked.

"Ahhh, alright."

Me and Twilight left and went to where the smoke was closest, the park. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were there, staring at the smoke. We stood on the bridge that lead to the park and I looked at Twilight.

"Could you--" she started to ask.

"Get everyone's attention?" I finished.

"Yeah."

"Sure thing."

I cleared my throat.

"LISTEN UP!"

Everyone looked at us.

"Thank you, Trevor. Smoke is spreading across all of Equestria."

"That's what I've been trying to--" Fluttershy said.

"But don't worry. I've received a letter from Princess Celestia informing me on what it is."

Everyone looked at us in suspense.

"It's coming from a dragon."

Their faces turned to frightened in a flash. I covered my smile with my hand and pretended I was coughing.

"But don't worry. Me and my friends are going to solve it."

Everyone sighed of relief.

I wouldn't sigh to soon my little ponies... I can't believe I just made that reference.

I saw Rainbow Dash fly by.

"RAINBOW DASH!" I yelled.

She came down and hovered in front of me.

"What!?" She asked with some spite in her tone.

"We need you to give a message to the others. Tell them to meet at Twilight's house to discuss our dragon game plan."

"Uh, okay. Wait, why don't you do it? You need to learn how to fly."

"I'm still gliding. You know how to fly, plus you're faster than me."

Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration.

"Fine."

She flew towards Sweet Apple Acres, and the other ponies started to leave, except for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

"Alright girls. Follow me and Trevor to my house. We'll wait for the others and then discuss what we'll do," Twilight said.

"Okie dokie loki," Pinkie Pie replied.

"Uh. O-ok," Fluttershy stuttered.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy followed me and Twilight back to the tree house. Along the way I kept my guard up for Lyra, luckily not being needed. As soon as we closed the door, someone knocked on it. Twilight used her magic to open the door, and revealed Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.

"Come in girls. We need to talk," Twilight said.

The three walked in and Twilight closed the door behind them.

"Alright Twi, what’s this about a dragon plan?" Applejack asked.

"To put it in basic, there's a dragon napping in one of the caves in the mountain, and the Princess wants us to take care of it by asking it to move,” I said.

"But how're we supposed to wake up a sleepin’ dragon and get it move somewhere else?"

"Fluttershy?"

"Y-yes?" Fluttershy asked.

"You're good with animals, aren't you?"

"I am, bu--"

"Excellent. Then we have our plan. We'll have Fluttershy sweet talk the dragon into moving, again, to put it in basic."

"But I'm--"

"Alright, we'll have to pack some supplies. It's going to be a long walk," Twilight said.

"Everyone, go back to your homes, pack supplies, and we'll meet back here in less than an hour. We got ourselves a witch hunt! Or a dragon hunt, as it may," I said.

The five ponies started to leave one by one. Twilight got out her saddle-pack and started filling it with books.

Books? Really? How would books help stop a dragon, unless they're for Thu'ums.

"Oh. And about the questions I had."

"Ask away. I won't need to pack anything."

"What was that base?"

"The snow one?"

She nodded her head.

"It was a base we used during training. We had different locations and that was one of the first,” I lied.

"You seemed to know the red, maroon, and orange one. Who were they?"

Great, there’s no way I'll have time to explain to them about the Blood Gulch team, nor am I gonna tell it a second time to the others.

"They're... famous soldiers in the army."

Twilight seemed suspicious.

"Alright. What about the teammates you were with?"

"Every squad is assigned four soldiers. Each squad is different, and we certainly gave that word meaning."

"And why did they call you Tree?"

"Tree Lee, it's my code name."

"Why would that be your code name?"

"It's the first three letters in my name. And since I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a Tre, they just called me Tree. And as for the Lee part, that's one of my middle names."

"Middle names?"

"Long story."

"On to the second dream. Why were you torturing those five humans?"

"They were trying to get rid of me. It was self-defense."

"But it was a dream."

"Exactly. They didn't exist. They weren't in any real harm."

"OK, on to the fourth dream."

This is gonna be a tough one.

"What was that thing?"

"I have a few theories. Though, none of them make sense."

"What are your theories?"

"A ghost of you, something wanting answers. That's all I got. Again, it was just a dream."

"But dreams are--"

"I know what dreams are. I've had my fair share."

She stopped putting books into her saddle-pack and used her magic to levitate the saddle-pack on her back.

"Are you sure you don't need to pack anything?"

I don’t exactly have anything except my MP3 player.

I patted my right pocket.

"Got everything I need right here."

"Just that thing you used to scare Rainbow Dash?"

"It's called an MP3 player."

"MP3 player?"

"Sorry, can't exactly say what it is. I'm going to go upstairs and change into my new clothes."

I started to walk upstairs, but my body was surrounded in a purple aura, stopping me in place.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere until you tell me what that thing is."

You're a persistent one, Miss Twilight.

"It plays music. That's all it does. That's all it'll ever do, is just plays music I have."

The purple aura disappeared.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

I gave her a bit of an evil eye and continued to walk upstairs. I took off my halo shirt and pants and change into the clothes
Rarity gave me. The shirt had a custom area where my wings could stick out, something I didn't notice before. As I started to walk towards the stairs, I saw a quick flash of dark purple hair.

I swear Twilight, if that's going to be a constant thing, I'll rat you out like the dog you are.

I held in my annoyance and kept walking. I sat near Twilight, not looking at her or anything.

"I know what you did."

"What are you talking about?" She lied.

I was about to respond, but decided against it, not entirely sure of the consequences if I would reply. I looked out the window and saw the five coming back.

"They're here," I announced.

"Great."

We walked out and almost instantly the five ponies lined up, Twilight joined them and winked at me.

"Alright ladies, listen up. Twilight here has mapped out the quickest route. But we'll have to pick up the pace if we want to
make it up the mountain by nightfall, since the dragon’s cave at the very top of the mountain."

"Looks pretty cold up there," Applejack said, looking at the moutain.

"You bet it is. The higher you go, the chillier it gets," Rainbow Dash said.

"Good thing I brought my scarf," Rarity announced.

She unbuttoned the left bag on her saddle-pack and wrapped a pink and white stripped scarf around her neck.

"Oooh, pretty," Pinkie Pie commented.

"Oh yeah, that'll keep you nice and cozy," Rainbow Dash sarcastically commented.

Twilight used her magic to get out the map and unravel it.

"Excuse me. Uh, Twilight, I know you're busy but--" Fluttershy said.

"Uh huh. We could go this way." Twilight thought aloud, ignoring Fluttershy.

"If I could just have a second."

"No, we want to avoid that."

"So, uh, I was thinking that, um, maybe I should stay here in Ponyville."

"Nonsense Fluttershy. We need you for this mission, you're the key for completion," I said.

"But you see, uh--"

"And don't worry about your animal friends. Spike, front and center!"

Spike ran outside and stood in front of me.

"What do you need?" Spike asked.

"I want you to take care of Fluttershy's animals while were gone. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

Spike ran in the direction of Fluttershy's house.

"I don't really think he's up for the task but maybe. But, but--" Fluttershy said.

"But what?" I asked.

Fluttershy trembled in fear of my height. I crouched down to her level.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you. I ask again, but what?"

"I'm afraid of dragons." She whispered in my ear.

"But you're just fine around Spike," I whispered back.

"'Cause he's a little dragon. Not a big, razor sharp teethed, could swallow a pony in one bite, grown dragon."

"Fluttershy. I've faced dragons before. This one doesn't seem evil. He's just sleeping. And as long as we don't attack it first,
we'll be fine. Even if things get out of hand, err, hoof."

Fluttershy seemed unsure of what I said.

"If you want, I can be right by you when we encounter this dragon."

"Sure, but um. Could you be by me, the entire way?"

"Sure thing.” I gave her a smile.

"Alright every pony, let's move out," Twilight said.

I stood up and we all ran towards the mountain. When we made it to the base of the mountain, there was a pathway to the base of the mountain. We heard a big snore comign from the cave near the top, and Fluttershy hid behind me.

"Whoa. What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That is what a dragon sounds like when it snores, apparently,” I said.

Fluttershy looked up at the mountain.

"It-it's so, high," Fluttershy said.

"It is a mountain.”

"I'm gonna go up there and check it out," Rainbow Dash said.

She was starting to take off, but Applejack grabbed her tail with her teeth and yanked her back down.

"Hold on now. I think we should go up there together. Safety in numbers and all," Applejack said.

The rest of us nodded our heads in agreement.

"Oh, alright," Rainbow Dash groaned.

It's going to be a long trip.

I turned on put on my ear buds, turned on my MP3 player, and heard the song Heroes of Our Time by DragonForce playing. We started to climb the mountain by going up the side.

Whoever's smart idea it was to climb it from the side instead of using a teleporting spell or making some kind of path is beyond my understanding.

"They say the only thing shinier then a dragon's scales are the jewels they use to build their nests. If I play my cards right, I may convince him to part with a few," Rarity said.

I'm surprised I can still hear them through my ear buds. Then again, the volume isn't that high.

"Welcome to my cave, Rarity. Care for a diamond? Roar," Pinkie Pie said in a dragon voice.

Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash started laughing.

"Girls, this is no laughing matter. Fluttershy, you're an expert on animals. What do you think the dragon will be like?"

Fluttershy was too scared to respond.

"I don't think Fluttershy is in the mood for answering," I said.

"I see. What do you think, Trevor?"

"Well. It's either going to have red scales and black horns. Or it'll have tan scales and black horns."

"So either way it'll have black horns."

"Yep."

It was about half an hour of climbing until we found a proper path to the cave.

Finally!

The song change to Keep On Galloping by Korpiklaani. We walked on the mountainside until there was a small gap. Rainbow Dash flew over it, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie jump over it, and I just stepped over it.

"Alright Fluttershy, your turn," I said.

"But it's so… wide," she replied.

"Come one Fluttershy. We should be much farther along by now," Twilight said.

"You could just leap on over," Applejack said.

Fluttershy looked down the small gap. The dragon snored again and she retreated to a rock next to the wall of the mountain.

"I don't know," Fluttershy said.

I sighed, stepped over the gap again, picked Fluttershy up again and put her on the other side of the gap.

"Th-thanks, Trevor,” Fluttershy said.

"No problem,” I replied.

Must avoid the singing at all costs.

The path started to get wider when we got higher up the mountain.

"We should be quiet. My map tells me we're in an avalanche zone," Twilight quietly said.

"An ava-ava--" Fluttershy stammered in fright.

"Shhh," The rest of us hushed.

We kept walking on the path. There were small trees in front of Rainbow Dash's air space, and when she passed right
through one, she knocked a couple leaves down. The leaves slowly fell down, and one of them hit Fluttershy.

"AVALA--" Fluttershy began to shout.

I quickly put a hand over her mouth, but her words echoed along the mountain. No avalanche happened, until Applejack
sighed. When the rocks started falling towards us, we all started to move out of their way. Five rocks piled around me, and I was unable to escape its circle. Then a sixth rock came in and closed in the roof. Everything was pitch black.

Blast it!

I tried to move the rocks, but my efforts were in vain.

"I'll be cursed if I let this rock trap become my tomb,” I said to myself.

There was no more sounds of rocks falling or the mane six screaming.

Avalanche must be done. I just need to find a way out of here, but how?

"Is every pony OK?" Applejack asked.

The voice was muffled, but understandable.

"Thanks to you I am," Twilight said.

And a thousand and one fanfictions were born.

"Yahoo, let's do it again!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

"Assistance is very much needed!" I yelled.

No response.

Well, great. I just have to wait until someone realizes I'm missing. And hopefully they don't think I'm dead on the spot.

"Ugh, this is why a girl packs extra accessories. Oh please tell me I brought a tiara that goes with this," Rarity said.

"I think we have a bigger problem than making sure our hair bands match our horse shoes," Rainbow Dash said.

"Exactly. Now GET ME OUT!" I yelled to the top of my lungs.

There was still no response.

"S-sorry," Fluttershy said.

"Ah, no big whoop, sugercube," Applejack assured.

"Yeah. We'll just have to, climb it," Twilight said.

"I can't believe it. I officially can't believe it. I'm going to die in this place. Most likely the roof is covered in dirt, and I can't move any of the rocks," I thought aloud.

There was an itch in my brain that told me someone was watching me. I looked behind me and saw two white balls of light
the size of eyes, though they provided no light for the tomb.

"That's why you need my help," A male voice said.

It was the same voice I heard when I was at Flutteshy's place. I took a step back and felt my back hit the wall.

"Don't run away now,” he mocked.

The voice started to laugh.

"As if you could. I'm not letting you die here. Not now, anyway.”

The lights came towards me, then disappeared when it touched me. I started to loose my sense of feeling. The sounds of rocks shattering loudly registered in my ears seconds later. I tried to open my eyes and saw that I was outside, though everything was blurry.

"Trevor!" Twilight shouted.

I heard the ponies running up to hill and felt someone hug me.

"Oh Trevor, I almost forgot about you, I'm so, so sorry,” Twilight quietly said.

I felt some liquid on my skin through my shirt.

"It's, it's okay. I just... I just need to sit down. That's all," I breathlessly replied.

I stayed still and let my vision come back in full. The first thing I saw was Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Fluttershy having tears in their eyes, while Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack had concerned faces.

"What happen to you?" Applejack asked.

"Five rocks surrounded me, and the sixth topped the roof."

"How did you escape?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I found a crack in the roof so I broke it using that, and quickly dug out. Guess it was more effective than I thought,” I lied.

I shouldn't tell them about the white eyes. Things seem hectic as is.

Applejack had a look of some disbelief, but accepted it by using her own logic of it.

"Let's get going, shall we?” I asked.

I didn't get a response back. Twilight and the others moved on while I stayed with Fluttershy, who was still wiping away some tears.

You ponies build up friendships in an alarming rate. Better not get myself killed any time soon.

The final words that the voice in the tomb said to me stuck with me in the back of my mind. I didn’t know anyone who would
want me dead already, unless it had something to do with my first rampage. The ponies walked down the small hill that the avalanche had caused, while I slid down it. We turned a corner and saw the cave of the dragon. We slowly approached the entrance.

"We're here," Twilight said.

No joke.

"Rainbow Dash, you'll use your wings to clear the smoke."

"Mm hmm," Rainbow Dash hummed.

She flew up into the smoke.

"Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you'll need to be a distraction if things get hairy."

Pinkie Pie got out a rubber chicken and started flinging it around.

"Applejack, you're ready with the apples in case he decides to attack."

Applejack got two apples in her mouth, threw them in the air, and used her back hooves to send them splattering against a
nearby tree.

"But it shouldn't come to that, because Fluttershy will do what she needs to do to wake him up. And between the two--"

"Three," I corrected.

"Oh no. You're going to be right here with the group."

"And why is that?"

“To stay safe.”

“Why would I need to stay safe?”

“Because you almost died, and I don’t need your life being in danger again.”

“I’m going in there, life in danger or not. I told Fluttershy I would stick with her, and I'll be cursed if I don't keep my word."

"Ahhhhhh," Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack cooed

I ignored them, and Twilight sighed of minor frustration.

"Fine. Is every pony ready?" She asked.

They all hummed in agreement, except for a cowering Fluttershy. I crouched down to her level again.

"Remember. We got this,” I encouraged.

"R-right," Fluttershy said.

"Alright. We're going in," Twilight said.

Twilight and I walked into the cave.

"So, what is the best way to wake up a sleeping dragon without upsetting him?" Twilight asked.

No response.

"Fluttershy?" I called out.

I looked behind us and saw she was nowhere to be found.

"Oh come on."

We walked outside and saw Fluttershy's head in the ground, kind of like an ostrich when it's scared.

"Come on,” Twilight repeated.

She bit one of her wings and dragged her head up from the ground.

"We have to do this."

Twilight pushed Fluttershy towards the cave.

"Now."

I sighed and picked her up.

"Thank you, Trevor.”

"No problem,” I replied.

"Oh no. I can't go in the cave," Fluttershy said.

"Oh great, she's scared of caves now," Rainbow Dash complained.

"It's not caves, I'm scared of dr…”

"What's that, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"I'm scared of dra...”

"What?" Twilight asked.

She's scared of dragons.

I wanted to say that and get it out of the way, but I had to let her tell them herself. That, and to keep the story going as it should.

"I'm scared of dragons."

The dragon snored again.

Way to kill the mood.

A giant burst of black smoke engulfed us, causing us to have a coughing fit for a few seconds.

"But Fluttershy, you have a wonderful talent dealing with all kinds of animals."

"Yes, because they're not dragons."

"Oh come on. We've seen you walk up to a horrible manticore like it was nothin'," Rainbow Dash said.

"But it wasn't a dragon."

"Spike's a dragon, and you're not scared of him," Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"Yes, because he's not a huge, gigantic, terrifying, enormous, teeth gnashing, sharp scale having, horn wearing, smoke
snoring, could eat a pony in one bite, totally all grown up dragon."

Fire breathing. You forgot fire breathing.

The dragon snored again.

Please tell me I get to kill it.

"Fluttershy, why didn't you say something before we came up here?" Twilight asked.

"I was afraid to."

Rainbow Dash face-hoofed.

"All of us are scared of that dragon," Applejack said.

"I'm not," Rainbow Dash admitted.

"Well, almost all of us are scared of that dragon. But we've got a job to do. So get in there with Twilight and Trevor and
show them what you're made of."

"I, I, I just can't," Fluttershy sorrowfully said.

Twilight walked into the cave.

5 bucks says she's dies within 10 seconds of talking to it.

I didn't watch to see how things would go, so I sat next to the mouth of the cave and listened to my music.

"To the East, outlandish woods. And with confidence back home... Back home," The song ended.

When I heard the first few notes of the next song, I paused it and saw it was Die Trying by Art of Dying. Another burst of black smoke passed through us, making us all go into a coughing fit again.

"So much for--" Rainbow Dash began to say.

She suddenly coughed twice.

"Persuading him."

I got up and started to walk in the cave.

"Oo-o-h. Mighty Trevor versus the sleeping dragon. Let's get ready to rumble!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

I started to put my MP3 player away and heard a bell ring. Passing Twilight, I walked up to the dragon and cleared my
throat. The dragon slightly opened its right eye.

"Excuse me sir. I was wandering if you had time for a quick chat?"

The dragon blew black smoke at me.

Guess the Englishman way is out. Let's try the regular way.

"Sir, are you up for a negotiation?"

The response was just more black smoke.

Regular way is out too. Let's do this Austrian style.

"Oi! Wake up!"

The dragon opened its eyes and got up.

"Thank you. Alright your snoring is causing black smoke to fall upon a nearby town which me and my friends live in. And we need you to move to a different location so the town doesn’t have to live in smoke for the next who-knows-how-many years, alright?"

The dragon blew fire around me to try and scare me.

"Who do you think you are? I could swallow you whole right now if I wanted to. What gives you the right to tell me to leave
my home?" The dragon asked in a furious tone.

I gave him a devilish smile.

"No one gives me the right. I just take it."

As the dragon started to blow fire at me, I rolled to the right and avoided it.

"I'll give you one chance. Surrender now or meet your fate."

More fire came my way, and I hid behind a big pile of gems to avoid it.

You made your choice.

I grabbed a sharp looking gem from the pile and faced the dragon.

This is probably the most foolish thing I've ever--

The dragon hit me with his tail and pinned me against the wall. I could see small sparks coming from his mouth, and
stabbed his tail with the gem. He roared in pain, let me go, and shot a fire ball at me. I ran towards him and jumped towards his belly, gem ready to slice it open, but the dragon hit me with his left hand and knocked me into a gem pile.

"I could use some help here!" I yelled to the girls.

When I got no response from them, I decided to bring the battle towards them and ran towards the entrance of the cave. When I got close, the dragon hit me with its tail again and sent me flying towards the girls. When I collided with them, we moved a bit forward and hit a boulder.

At least the story is going as it should.

"How dare you," Fluttershy said in anger.

Fluttershy flew up to the dragon with the look of death in her eyes.

"How dare you! Listen here mister!”

She landed on his nose.

"Just because you're big doesn't mean you get to be a bully. You may have big teeth and sharp scales and snore smoke and breath fire. But you do not, I repeat, do NOT! HURT! MY! FRIENDS!"

Hehehe, that's the spirit.

"You got that?"

The dragon started getting a little scared.

"Well?"

"But that big one stabbed my tail," the dragon objected.

Because you tried to burn me alive! I even gave you a chance to surrender!

"And I am very sorry about that, but you're bigger than he is and you should know better. You should also know better than to take a nap where you're snoring can become a health hazard to other ponies,” Fluttershy said in a more caring tone.

"But I--"

"Don't you 'but I' me, mister. Now what do you have to say for yourself?"

I got up and walked a few steps forward, not getting too close to the dragon.

"I said, 'what do you have to say for yourself?'"

"I'm sorry," The dragon said as it hanged its head.

"It's okay. You're not a bad dragon, you just made a bad choice. Now pack your things. You just need a new place to sleep."

The dragon looked at me.

"Big one."

"Yes?" I asked.

"To apologize for attacking you, I'll give you the words to call me whenever you're in danger. How about that?"

"Sure thing."

"Just say, faal sahqo dovah, and I'll come as quickly as possible."

"I'll be sure to. Thank you."

The dragon started to take off and flew east of the mountain. As the girls were still cheering for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash tapped me on the shoulder.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Time for lesson two, newbie,” Rainbow Dash said.

"And what would that be?"

"I want you to glide all the way back to Ponyville. If you do it right, then you'll complete the gliding stage."

"Awesome."

When we were all ready to leave, I jumped off the cliff, extended my wings, and kept my arms at my side. Rainbow Dash followed me too, making sure I didn't mess up. I could feel the wind against my wings again, the wind felt as intense as the time I first arrived here. Rainbow Dash and I got closer and closer to town as seconds ticked by, advancing far ahead of the rest of the group. When we got to town I aimed towards Lyra's rooftop. Whether it was a good idea or not, I didn’t care. I managed to land on the roof without a problem.

"Pretty good. Congrats Trevor, tomorrow we'll start hovering,” Rainbow Dash said.

And with that, she flew off towards her home.

"And you never say goodbye to me,” I quietly complained.

I hopped off the rooftop and walked back towards Twilight’s house. When I got there I went in and saw Twilight and Spike by a table.

"Spike, take a letter," Twilight said.

"With pleasure,” he replied.

"Dear Princess Celestia, I am happy to report that the dragon has left our fair country. And that it was my good friend Fluttershy that convinced him to go."

After the dragon whipped us to what seemed like no end.

"This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be a source of strength and even help you
conquer your greatest fears. Always your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,” she finished.

"Twilight, Trevor. You gotta come see this!" Applejack shouted from outside.

We went upstairs, went on the balcony, and saw Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy surrounded Rainbow Dash, who was bouncing a ball on her head.

"She's just five from a new pony record,” Applejack announced.

"Three hundred forty-seven, three hundred forty-eight," Rainbow Dash counted.

"Roar!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

"Dragon!"

Rainbow Dash froze in midair and fell on her back with her hooves in the air, casuing all of us to laugh.

"Why are you laughing? That awful dragon is back,” Rainbow Dash worriedly said.

Pinkie Pie emerged from a bush near the tree and roared again.

"Pinkie Pie, you scared me," Rainbow Dash confessed.

"Aha!" I cheered.

Rainbow Dash realized what she said.

"I mean, uh. You broke my concentration."

"It's okay Rainbow Dash. Not every pony can be as brave as me," Fluttershy said as she hovered over Rainbow Dash.

She looked up and saw a falling leaf, blew on it, and sent it towards Fluttershy's back.

Revenge.

The leaf landed on her back and she fell the same way Rainbow Dash did, making us laugh again.

And cue the credits.

I went back inside and sat on my bed, and started to think.

Why is this happening to me? Is it because I'm not supposed to be here? Is it because Celestia actually has some power over events? Whatever is going on I need to figure it out. Or maybe this is normal, or going to be now.

"You wanna talk about it?" Twilight asked.

"How did you know what I was thinking!?" I asked in surprise.

"Lucky guess.”

"I kinda doubt that, but to answer your question, no, I can deal with this."

"If you say so. But if you need help, we can certainly help you.”

Twilight went back downstairs.

I’ll try to keep that in mind.

Chapter 6: Lockdown

"Hey, you girls still gonna help take the branches down before the big storm hits?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Sure am. What about you Rarity?" Applejack asked.

"Of course I will,” Rarity replied.

What's this, a big storm? Two episodes in a day? Interes-- wait, if I have the spare bed then... No way am I sharing a bed with Rarity and Applejack. Forget that, I'd rather sleep on the floor or one of the branches. What to do before the literal storm and the mental one? Hmmm. This could be a really bad idea, but it just might work.

I walked downstairs and opened the door.

"Where are you going?" Twilight asked.

"I’m going to stroll around the town,” I answered.

"OK. Be sure to be back here soon, I hear there's going to be a storm. And don't get yourself into any trouble.”

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

I closed the door behind me and walked into town.

If my theory is correct, which they usually aren't, she should be right--

A gray pegasus with blond hair landed in front of me. She had a bag with a muffin button on it as a saddle pack. As soon as I saw her gold eyes cross, I knew what was to come.

"Delivery," Derpy said.

Here and on time.

She reached into her bag, pulled out a letter, and gave it to me. When I checked to see who it was addressed to I quickly noticed the words were in hieroglyphs. Derpy saluted and flew away to her next delivery. Feeling someone’s presence, I turned around and saw Lyra just standing there, watching me.

Lyra, I don’t know how long you’ve been there, but perhaps it’s time to let things come to an end.

I walked up to her and crouched to her level.

"Hello, Lyra," I greeted with a stern face.

"Trevor," Lyra replied, mirroring my expression.

"I'm surprised you know my name already. Did you get that info from Rarity too?"

"I heard it while you and your friends were walking through town."

"How are things with you and Bon Bon?"

"Pretty good, thanks for asking."

"Finally moved to sleeping in the same bed?"

"Are you saying that--?"

"Indeed I am."

"I'll have you know that I'm attracted to stallions, not mares."

"A lot of people, and ponies, would disagree."

"Says you."

"Says many."

"I don't have time for your lies."

"Then here's a question. Why do you keep following me?" I asked, losing the stern face.

"Why did you leave when I wanted to ask you questions?"

"Because you were threatening me with a weapon."

"Because you broke into my house."

"After you were stalking me."

“Because I was curious!”

Her words struck me. Being a man of many curiosities, even before coming to Equestria, I could sympathize with her reasoning. I sighed in frustration at myself.

"Why won't you just answer my questions?" Lyra asked, a touch of sadness in her tone.

"How about I answer your questions now? I don’t have anywhere to go until the storm hits,” I replied.

Her face lit up with joy and surprise like a beacon.

"Really?”

I crossed my heart with my right pointer finger as a response.

"Well let’s start from the beginning, how did you get here in the first place?” Lyra asked.

“Princess Celestia brought me," I answered.

"Why?"

"She hasn't told me."

"Have you tried to get home?"

"Yes."

"Have you asked Princess Celestia for help?"

"I refer to my previous statement."

"And?"

"Me still being here should help with that answer.”

"Why?"

"I don't know."

'Cause she's a troll, that's why.

"You've seen my notes. How accurate are they?"

"They're surprisingly accurate. A few hiccups here and there, but they're good for the most part."

"Good. I've been studying for a long time now."

I looked to the sky, somewhat hoping the storm would draw very near, but there was no sign of hope there. It’s not that I hated answering her questions, but it just seemed to feel tedious really quickly.

"I’m not even close to being done, by the way," Lyra informed.

Of course you knew what I was looking for and why.

“But don’t worry, I think I have enough questions answered right now."

Thank you.

"Guess I'll see you later than," I said.

"Yes, you will."

I heard thunder as I stood back up and started to walk back to Twilight’s house. I looked at the letter again to see for some reason it would tell me who it was addressed in a language I understood, but nothing had changed.

Maybe Twilight can read this. That or--

"Excuse me, sir," A male voice said behind me.

As soon as those words were spoken, the hair on my neck stood up, a shiver went up my spine, and I felt a disturbance around the area I was in. I knew that only one person could do such a thing like that. Turning around, I saw that my guess was correct. Doctor Whooves stood a few feet behind me, looking at me.

"Yes, you,” he confirmed.

This is one of the last thing I wanted to happen. I haven't even watched Doctor Who.

"Vhat do you want?"

"You wanted someone to translate that letter you received from my friend, Derpy. Right?"

"Indeed."

"Well, I'll be happy to translate for you."

Nice guy.

I showed the letter to him.

"This is addressed to Trevor."

"It's for me then. Thanks for the assistance."

"No problem. Good luck keeping your wits about you."

"Thanks."

I continued on my way to Twilight’s.

So Derpy did her job correctly. That or Whooves is an even bigger troll than Celestia. Either way, I gots me a letter!

I continued my way towards Twilight's. When I got to the door step I heard the thunder roar again.

Let the mind games begin

I opened the door, went in, and closed the door behind.

"I'm back," I greeted.

"Oh good. I need your help," Twilight said.

"With what?"

"I need you to tell me. What do you think of Fluttershy?"

"What do you mean?"

I can see all the roads where this is headed. And it's not gonna be fun.

"What do you think of her?"

"If this about the dragon thing than the answer is no. I don't like her like that."

"Why? You obviously seem to care for her more than the rest of us."

"The answer should be simple. I'm human, she's a pony. It wouldn't work."

"Why not? Spike loves Rarity."

"But does Rarity love him back?"

"Well... I don't know."

"Exactly. So unless she turns into a human or I get turned into a pony. There shall be no love."

"I see," Twilight said disappointingly.

"I'm sorry if the answer you got was not the one you were hoping for."

"No, it's okay. Just forget that I said anything."

I mentally sighed.

Twilight, why do you do this to us?

"I know you're trying to help me with this new reality, and I thank you for that. But love and a few other things are beyond your help."

"What else?" Twilight asked, tears forming in her eyes.

Death. A force which no mortal can control.

I pretended like I was thinking of other things and failing at it.

"I guess love is the only thing," I lied.

"Well that's good."

A few tears escape from her, but a smile still grew on her face. I heard the sound of thunder again and saw the rain coming down.

"Good thing you got here when you did."

"Heh. Rain hasn't beaten me yet."

Twilight looked outside and quickly opened the door.

"Applejack! Rarity! Applejack! Rarity! Come inside girls. Quick!"

I heard Applejack and Rarity run towards the house. Rarity ran in but Applejack stopped at the door way.

"Whoa nelly. Is being in a tree really the best place to be during a lightning storm?" Applejack asked.

"It is if you have a magical lighting rod like I do. Come on in."

"We are most grateful for your invitation," Rarity thanked.

"Thank ya kindly for your hospitality," Applejack said.

Applejack started to walk in, tracking mud with each step, and Rarity stopped her and pointed at her hooves.

"Uh, do, please, be a polite house guest and washen up. Won't you?"

Applejack muttered something, the only words I heard were, “can't be held responsible for what I'm gonna do."

I can't be held responsible for what I'm gonna do to you. What did I do? One. Ah, give me a break. Two! Fine.

"Some storm, huh? The pegasus have really out done themselves this time. I hope you and Applejack don't have any trouble getting home," Twilight said.

"It may indeed be a problem,” Rarity replied.

"Well you're welcome to stay here if need be. Spike is in Canterlot on royal business. It's just me and Trevor."

Why didn’t you tell me he was going away on business? And how did I notice!?

I gave a little wave to Rarity, which she didn't see. Twilight gasped.

"You and Applejack should totally sleep over. We'll have a slumber party. I've always wanted one of those."

What am I than? Well I'm an insane, video game playing, otaku. I guess that's what I am.

"Oh, goodness. I, uh, have another engagement scheduled for this evening, that completely slipped my mind until just now."

Rarity then began to fake a laugh.

"Oh, I can't possibly stay here. All night, with Applejack."

And the insano. You forgot the insano.

Twilight went over to one of the shelves and levitated a book with two pillows for the cover. She lowered it down to her height, opened it, and showed Rarity.

"Slumber Parties 101. All you wanted to know about slumber parties that you were afraid to ask," Rarity read aloud.

"My own personal copy. It's a fantastic reference guide, you should see the table of contents. I've been waiting for a chance to use this, and today's the day. This is going to be so great," Twilight said, beaming with joy.

"That's, uh, great. Ha ha ha."

Applejack was still outside, working on using the hose to get her hooves clean and failing at it. Twilight brought the book to herself and started reading.

"It's says that the first step to a sleep over is makeovers."

She levitated a makeover kit, first getting out the face cream, and started putting it on Rarity's face.

"You want to join us, Trevor?" Twilight asked.

"No thanks. I'm not into makeovers," I replied.

"Oh but you must. It'll help your complexion. It might even get rid of those gray bags under your eyes," Rarity said.

"That's sleep deprivation, not complexion. I don't think anyway. But still, I refuse--"

It was too late. Both Rarity and Twilight started to put the face cream on my face. The only thing I knew what to do with face cream is not to move your face, so I tried to do as such.

Might as well play along. It'll certainly make Twilight happy.

They spread it along my face, making sure not to get it in my beard. Applejack came in with her hooves sparkling. She looked at Rarity, who was starting to put the face cream on Twilight.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack asked.

Rarity and Twilight turned towards Applejack.

"Now wait just a gall-darn minute. You made me wash the mud off my hooves. But it's OK if y'all have mud on your faces?" Applejack asked in an almost spiteful tone.

"Silly. This is a mud mask. It'll refresh and rejuvenate your complexion," Rarity informed.

"Some of us were forced," I commented.

"Oh, don't act like you don't love it."

"We're giving each other makeovers," Twilight squealed.

"We have to. It says so in the book."

Twilight levitated the open book over to Applejack.

"Slumber 101. Everything you…" Applejack began to read.

She stopped herself as soon as she read the rest of the title and realized exactly what was going on.

"Oh hey, would you look at the time. I gotta skedaddle. I'm powerful late for, uh, something. Goodnight," Applejack pardoned.

Applejack ran out the door. I snapped my fingers and a bolt lightning struck nearby.

Even Thor obeys me.

Applejack ran back inside with the same speed she left with.

"Or maybe I'll stay here for a spell."

"Hooray! Slumber party," Twilight said.

Rarity than proceeded to put the face cream on Applejack.

"Bleh,” she groaned.

Rarity put two pieces of sliced cucumber on Applejack's eyes.

"What in the world is this for?"

"Ugh. To reduce the puffiness around one’s eyes, of course," Rarity said.

"Puffiness, schmuffiness."

Applejack used her tongue to eat both pieces of the cucumber.

"That's good eatin'," she added.

"Heh heh. Isn't this exciting? We'll do everything by the book, and that will make my slumber party officially fun," Twilight said.

"Did you hear that Applejack? You certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would ruin Twilight's very first slumber party, would you?" Rarity asked.

"Of course not. And you wouldn't either I reckon,” Applejack assumed.

"So do we have an agreement?"

"You betcha."

Applejack spat on her front right hoof and stuck it out at Rarity, waiting to receive a hoof-shake of agreement.

"Ugh, gross. You know there's messy, and just plain rude."

They got up in each other’s faces.

"You know. There's fussy and just plain gettin' on my nerves."

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

"Fortunately, I can get along with any pony no matter how difficult she may be."

"Oh yeah? Well I'm the most get along-iest pony you're ever gonna meet."

"That's not even a real word."

"This is going to be the bestest slumber party ever. Yay!" Twilight cheered.

She went in between the two ponies and put her hooves around their necks for a group hug.

"Yay," Applejack and Rarity said flatly.

"Hoorah," I cheered.

Soon, we removed the mud masks and the girls continued their makeovers by doing each other’s hair. They asked if I wanted to join, but my response was, “No. Don't you even dare touch my hair."

They accepted my refusal and continued by themselves.

"So. How are you getting along over there, Applejack?" Rarity asked.

"Just fine, Rarity."

They had their tails and manes in those comb things. To this day I still don't know what they're called, nor do I care enough to find out.

"This is so awesome. Heh heh heh," Twilight said.

She levitated the book to herself with a quill nearby.

"Make overs, check."

She used her magic to get rid of the combs and return their hair back to normal, even teleporting Applejack's hat back on her head.

"Oooh. It says here we have to tell ghost stories. Who wants to go first?"

"I'll do it," I said.

As I walked over to the girls, a bolt of lightning struck and shut off the lights. Luckily, Twilight summoned a lantern filled with three fireflies inside

"His name was Sam. When he died, he entered the gates of Hell without fear and spoke with the king of all evil. They made a deal. He returned to Equestria with a task. He had to kill 665 ponies before he died. If he did so he would become an eternal prince in Hell with a legion at his command, and of course he was very delighted. There was one condition though; he couldn't kill random ponies."

Lightning struck again.

"There was a trigger. If they hear one simple incantation involving his name, they are eligible to become his target. He managed to make his job easier by putting a spell in a book. A famous one, so that many ponies would hear it. He was very clever indeed. So after you hear the deadly sentence, he will know you. And, when you least expect it, you'll see his shadow in the corner of your eyes. And when you turn your head to see what that was, it'll be too late. He is waiting for his name to be heard again. I Am Sam. Sam I Am."

The lights came back on after I was done.

"Oooh. Creepy," Twilight said.

The girls didn't really find the story scary.

Then again not many people do get scared of that old story. Perhaps I should have told them The Grudge story. That would've scared them. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t.

"I have one," Applejack announced, "I'd like to tell y'all about the terrifying tale of the prissy ghost who drove everyone crazy with her unnecessary neatness. Oo-o-oh. I'm sure y'all are familiar with that one."

Low blow, Applejack.

"Never heard of it. I have a much better one. It's the horrifying story of the messy inconsiderate ghost, who irritated every pony within a hundred miles. Oo-o-oh,” Rarity flatly told.

Ooh, more shots fired from Rarity.

"That's not a real story. You made it up," Applejack retorted.

"It is a ghost story. They're all made up."

"Mine wasn't. Actually yes it was, continue," I commented.

Lightning struck and the power went off again.

"I have one. This story is called ‘The Legend of the Headless Horse,’" Twilight said.

Man; ‘Legend of the Four Horsemen’ or ‘Legend of the Headless Horseman.’ Doesn't matter to me.

"It was a dark and stormy night, just like this one. And three ponies were having a slumber party. Just. Like. This one."

Twilight told us how the headless horse was the princesses entertainer till he offender her and had him executed. His spirit refused to leave his body so he could never die, and haunted three ponies. He cut off two of their heads, wore them, and threw their bodies in the river.

"And just when the last pony thought she was safe. There, standing right behind her, just inches away was… the headless horse!”

She quickly put a cloth over her head and scared Rarity and Applejack, causing them to hug each other and scream. I smiled a bit and chuckled to myself. The lights turned back on and Twilight went to her slumber party book with quill next to it.

"Ghost stories, check."

The two realized that they were hugging each other and backed off.

Don't act like you two didn't like it.

I couldn’t help but to smile at my own terrible joke.

"Now. Who wants smores?"

"I'll be cursed if I don't," I said.

Rarity and Applejack agreed to make smores, we put some wood into Twilight's fire place, and Twilight used some fire magic to get a fire going. Applejack got out four sticks to hold our smores, and we put a marshmallow on each stick, Applejack cooking them. I sat down next to her.

"So how do you like your marshmallow, uh," Applejack said, trying to remember my name.

"Trevor," I said.

"Trevor."

"I like mine golden brown."

"One golden brown, coming up."

"I don't think I've introduced myself proper. You already know my name. What's yours?"

"Applejack."

"Nice to meet you than, Applejack."

"So how are you enjoying Ponyville so far?"

"Sure is more interesting than back home. That's for sure."

"And how are you getting along with everypony?"

Getting along. That seems to be the word of the episode.

"Great. Everyone's pretty nice."

"Where'd you say you were from again?"

"A land called Earth."

"Never heard of it."

"Most ponies haven't."

Applejack looked at the two marshmallows on the left. They weren't golden or burnt, but they looked a bit close to falling off.

"Could you hold these two while I take these two to the girls?"

"Sure."

I took the two sticks on the right and kept them in the area Applejack had them. I turned them every few seconds so that one area alone wouldn’t get golden. When Applejack came back she had two more sticks with marshmallows on them, I handed the sticks I was holding to her.

"Thanks,” Applejack said.

"No problem,” I replied.

She looked at the one on the far right, a perfect golden brown marshmallow, and handed it to me.

"This one's yours."

I headed over to the table where Rarity was teaching Twilight how to put together a smore.

"And then you put the one marshmallow on top of the chocolate. And be sure it's centered, that's critical, and be sure to put a perfect square gram cracker on top, and, done. Ta da," Rarity said.

Applejack came over and looked at the newly created snore

"Oooh," Twilight awed.

"Then you just eat 'em," Applejack said.

Applejack ate the smore in one bite and chewed with her mouth open. After she had swallowed it, she let out a large burp.

"Ugh. You could at least say ‘excuse me,’" Rarity groaned.

"Oh, I was just about to. But you interrupted me… Pardon."

"Smores, check. Now for the next item of fun is truth or dare," Twilight announced.

Oh, I'm good at this game.

"I dare Applejack to do something carefully and neatly for a change," Rarity said.

"Hold up. If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this right. Everyone, form a circle," I instructed.

Twilight sat next to Applejack and Applejack sat next to Rarity in a near complete circle. I sat between Twilight and Rarity to complete the perfect circle.

"Alright, so this is how it works. One pony asks another pony truth or dare. Then the selected pony has to answer. Then the pony that has completed the truth or dare has to select a pony. No call backs though. I shall start, Twilight, truth or dare?" I asked.

"Truth,” Twilight responded.

I could learn to see if Twilight knows anything about my arrival. She did with Phoenix Wright.

"Do you know if Celestia had anything to do with me being here?"

"No."

Blast it.

"Applejack, truth or dare?" Twilight asked.

"Truth," Applejack said.

"How old is Granny Smith?"

"Eighty-seven."

I was expecting a real shocker.

"I dare Rarity to step outside and let her precious, tidy mane get ruined, again,” Applejack said with a grin.

All the rules have now been thrown out the window.

Rarity gasped in shock of the dare.

"You have to. It's the rules," Twilight said.

But all the rules have been... Never mind.

"Fine," Rarity said with a sneer.

She went outside and stood in the rain for about four seconds. When she came back in, her mane drooped close to the floor, and was shivering like a wet rat. Applejack started to laugh while I was trying to hold back a giggle.

"Okay. I dare Applejack to play dress-up, in a froufrou, glittery, lacey outfit,” Rarity dared in a frustrated tone.

Applejack gasped at the dare.

It's not like you're humiliating yourselves in public.

Applejack went upstairs. When she came back down she was wearing “pretty princess" outfit, with a long pointed hat with some fluff at the top, and some bows on her front hooves. Rarity had a huge grin on her face at the sight of Applejack, as did I, but nothing as big as Rarity’s.

"Happy?" Applejack asked.

"Very," Rarity confirmed smugly.

"Um. Do we ever get a turn?" Twilight asked.

I already had a turn.

Applejack and Rarity ignored us and continued arguing through dares.

"I dare you to enter the next rodeo when it comes to town," Applejack said.

"I dare you not to enter the next rodeo that comes to town,” Rarity countered.

"I dare you not to comb your mane a hundred times before bed."

"And I dare you to comb yours just once."

"I, uh. I think we should check off truth or dare and move on. Let's see what our next fun thing is, shall we? Hmm, what does this mean? Pillow fight?" Twilight asked.

Welcome to Maine.

"Oh please. I am not at all interested in participating in something so crude.”

Applejack threw a pillow at Rarity’s head, challenging her.

“It. Is. On,” Rarity said with a sight of death at Applejack.

Take cover!

I hid behind the table with the slumber book. It’s not that I feared the two of them, I just didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. I heard pillows getting thrown from both sides; most of them were thrown in different groups rather than just one at a time.

"Oh I get it. Pillow, fight," Twilight realized.

I heard Twilight grunt in pain twice. I peeked from my hiding place and saw Twilight was underneath two pillows.

"Uh, girls. Maybe we should take it down a notch," Twilight drowsily said, and with swirling eyes.

They continued throwing pillows at each other.

"I will if she will," Applejack said, avoiding two pillows.

Rarity avoided two pillows herself.

"She started it,” Rarity defended.

Soon Twilight was buried in pillows. She popped her head from the pile of pillows and spat out a few feathers that were in her mouth.

"Maybe we should just call it a night and get some sleep," Twilight suggested.

"I second that," I agreed.

"Alright. Where are we gonna be sleeping at?" Applejack asked.

"You'll be sleeping with Trevor," Twilight said.

I totally called it.

Applejack and Rarity's faces looked of disapproval and a hint of terror.

"Twilight, if you could please reconsider. He may be a different species but he's still..," Rarity tried negotiating.

"Oh come on. Don't you trust me?" I asked, showing my best unconvincing smile.

"Uhhh," Applejack said, trying to find a good answer.

"But in all seriousness, don't worry, I won't try anything weird."

"What do you think Applejack?" Rarity asked.

As if you have a choice anyway.

"I'm ok with it if Trevor is,” Applejack answered.

"Then we have a plan," I said.

We went upstairs and got into our beds. I laid in between Applejack and Rarity, Applejack being on my left and Rarity on my right. And for a while I actually managed to get some sleep, until I felt a slight tug of the blanket on my right.

"Now look who's being inconsiderate," Applejack whispered.

The blanket got tugged to the left.

"I have to make the bed again so the blanket will be perfect. Get up," Rarity whispered.

I'm not gonna get any sleep tonight, am I?

"But what about Trevor?"

"He's not disrupting it. He's in the middle."

Nope, I’m not.

I heard Applejack and Rarity get up from the bed, and felt the blanket being taken away entirely.

"Why does he still have those awful things?" Rarity asked, referring to my pajamas.

"It's to remind him of Halo. Don't you remember what Pinkie Pie told us?" Applejack asked with some anger.

"Why would he want to remember such an awful time?"

"I think it was mighty brave of him."

Why are you two talking about this? Make the accursed bed already.

I felt the blanket touch my back again.

"Ah ah ah. You'll ruin it. You have to do it like this."

I felt Rarity slowly go underneath the blanket, squirming around on her side of the bed until she was comfortable.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Geronimo!" Applejack yelled.

The force from Applejack's jumping on the bed flew me and Rarity off it. I was now tired and angry.

"If you both don't quit it, I'll tie you up and gag you to make you quit it," I threatened in a whisper.

Rarity fixed the blanket again, and her and I got back in the bed.

"Thank you,” I whispered.

No replied back to me, which I thought was great. That night I didn't have any dreams, which I was somewhat thankful for. When I decided to wake up, I saw that Rarity was snuggling up against my arm. I looked over to see Applejack and saw she was gone.

Well. Looks like I'm not going anywhere for the next few hours. Maybe Applejack is downstairs with Twilight.

I tried to slither my arm out of Rarity's grasp, but it proved to be useless. She would just not let go. Soon, she even started muttering in her sleep.

"S-Spike... help me, I...”

I'm half-tempted to know what she's dreaming about. Half-tempted.

Rarity woke up seconds later. Once she saw what she did in her sleep, she quickly backed away from me.

“Oh my. Uh, sorry Trevor."

"It's alright. Let's see if the others are downstairs, shall we?"

Rarity nodded her head and we walked downstairs and found Applejack and Twilight talking.

"Luckily that tree didn't head towards us," Twilight said.

"So Twilight. Think your sleepover was a success?" I asked.

"Hmmm.”

She levitated the slumber book and a quill over to her.

"Fun, check. I declare my first slumber party a success,” Twilight announced.

The three ponies cheered.

Success! I am the coach!

I felt the sun rays come through the window and touch my skin.

Perfect timing too.

"So. Who's up for another sleep over tomorrow night?" Twilight asked.

Applejack and Rarity's response was throwing two pillows at her face.

"How about a week from Thursday?"

I don't even know what today is. How in Gorlog's name would I know when Thursday is?

"How about two weeks from Saturday? A month from now?"

I don't think they're going to, Twilight.

"Looks like the sun's out. Guess I outta get back home," Applejack said.

"I should as well. I have a few orders I need to finish," Rarity said.

"Alright. Thanks for sleeping over girls," Twilight thanked.

"Anytime," Applejack said.

"It was most fun," Rarity agreed.

They took their leave and Twilight used her magic to close the door behind them.

"So Trevor. What did you think of the slumber party?" Twilight asked.

"Twas very nice,” I sincerely said.

"Good. What do you think we should do now?"

I remembered the letter that Derpy gave me that I had yet to read.

"I'll be by myself for a while. You do what you want to do."

I went to my bed, sat down, and reached down towards the letter on top of my clothes. I looked at the front of the letter again, still having my name in a language I didn't even know. I opened the envelope and look at the letter.

Chapter 7: Letters From The Soon Remembered

"I know what and who you are. You have quite the future ahead of you. I don't want to spoil too much, but just make sure you make the right decision in the end and follow the instructions you've learned in the past through some of the nightmares people have thought up. You only need five of them. And remember what End said. - Doctor Whooves."

If he's the one who sent this to me than why didn't he just tell me? Doesn't matter that much I suppose. I wonder what he meant by 5 of them, and who End is. Again, doesn't matter that much.

"Who's that letter from?" Someone asked.

When I looked up from the letter I saw Twilight looking at it.

Does she know about the Doctor? I assume she would since she lives here. Guess there's one way to find out.

"It's from the Doctor. You know him?"

"Yeah. The one who hangs around Derpy, acts kinda weird. What did he have to say?"

You and your questions.

"Nothing of interest."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

Twilight didn't look convinced.

"Let me see."

Twilight used her magic to take the letter out of my hand and levitated it over to herself. Once she was done reading it, she gave me a confused look.

"Told you."

"What does this mean?"

"I don't know," I half-lied.

"Anyway, I have more questions."

She put the letter on my clothes.

"Ask away."

"Where is your home at?"

"I told you, it's complicated."

"How could it be complicated?"

"'Cause I don't know where it is from here. It's not exactly easy to find your home when you don't know the area at all."

"I could use my magic to help you."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Celestia is the only one I know who can help me, and so far negotiations haven't been the best."

"Why? Why is she the only one who can help you?" Twilight asked with a hint of sadness.

"I... I don't know for sure. Either she's the only one who knows the spell or the only one powerful enough."

"I... I see. I didn't think of it like that."

She turned away from me.

Here you go again Twilight.

I put a hand on her head.

"If this is about not being able to help me get home, you have helped me. You put a roof over my head, and you got me out of prison. That's certainly help to me."

"Really?"

"Of course."

She turned to me with a grin. Suddenly, a burst of rainbow came through the window and started hovering over me and Twilight. It was none other than Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, um. Sorry guys, didn't know you were in the middle of... Do you want me to--" Rainbow Dash began to say.

"No! What do you want?" I interrupted.

"It's time for your first lesson in hovering."

"Alright. Meet me at the front door then you can show me the training field."

I got up and went downstairs.

"I'll be back," I said to Twilight.

"Okay. And thanks."

"Anytime."

I walked outside to see Rainbow Dash hovering impatiently. When I closed the door she took off towards the training field. Having to follow the trail of rainbow throughout the town, I saw that it ended a few feet away from Fluttershy's house.

"Alright newbie. This is your first lesson in hovering," Rainbow Dash announced.

"Then let's begin,” I said.

"The first thing you need to know about hovering is that you need to keep your wings moving. Second thing, you need to keep them at a steady pace, you don't want to wear yourself out too quickly. Third thing, stay focused. Now try and see how long you can go."

I cracked my fingers, crouched down, and jumped. I quickly flapped my wings in a steady pace, hovering about a foot or two off the ground. When I flapped my wings harder I managed to gain about an extra foot off the ground, but it grew more tiring, so, I returned to my steady pace and stayed there, but even then I was having a bit of trouble keeping a good rhythm in how my wings fluttered.

“Come on, you can do better than that!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

What could help to keep a steady rhythm? Well, duh, what else?

I thought of a quick-paced song and played it in my head, flapping my wings along with it. Rainbow Dash looked a bit impressed at my progress, or she was just proud of herself. When I decided to survey the land I saw a purple tail, fleeing into the forest. I knew it wasn’t Twilight’s tail since it didn’t have the pink strip on it.

"So. You and Twilight, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked with a little smirk.

"It's not like that,” I assured flatly.

"Oh come on. I saw how you two were looking at each other."

"And I didn't think you were quick to assume things, but I guess we were both wrong."

Rainbow Dash looked at me as if I was talking in some sort of secret code.

"Forget it," I said.

About 12 minutes passed by before I started to slowly descend, and my feet were about to touch the ground.

I can still do this. I can still-- oh forget it.

I stopped my wings and landed softly.

"Not bad. But you still need more practice. This time try going higher,” Rainbow Dash ordered.

I jumped up again, this time picking up the pace of my wings to go up higher than I did before, and I even managed to hover next to Rainbow Dash. As I was hovering I saw curious ponies coming from the town to hills, quite a distance from where we were training.

I’m surprised they can see me from that far away. No matter. If enough of them come this may put an end to all the whispers.

Rainbow Dash seemed to take noticed to the ponies as well.

"Looks like you got some fans,” Rainbow Dash said.

"Seems like it,” I agreed.

I slowed the pace back to just plain hovering. After about 17 minutes I landed on the ground. The spectating ponies came closer, standing about 20 feet away from us, Fluttershy even coming out of her house to see.

This is almost getting weird. Come one, come all. I suppose.

"Ok newbie. This time I want you to give it all you got."

"Let's do this."

I crouched down as far as I could and jumped. I quickly started flapping my wings and started to rise. I even passed where Rainbow Dash was hovering. I kept rising until I was near the top of the trees nearby. I was able to see the entire crowd of ponies, there was even more than I thought. By the look of it there were about 35 or 40 of them. Some of the pegasus ponies hovered over earth ponies and unicorns to get a better look.

I should totally say something. Like, "Come my followers; I shall guide you to the promised land." Or something along those lines.

But I just kept looking over the crowd. This time it was 23 minutes before I hit the ground.

"That was good. Next time we'll get you flying,” Rainbow Dash said.

She took off into the sky and away from the field as soon as she was done speaking.

"Yet again you don’t give me a date or a time,” I mumbled to myself.

"Um, excuse me," Fluttershy said from behind.

I turned and faced her.

"Yes?" I asked, crouching to her level.

"You did a good job on hovering, if you don't mind me saying."

"Thanks. Did you enjoy watching?"

"Oh yes, I did. It looked like other ponies did too."

"So it seems. In fact, I think things are starting to get a bit better."

"That's good. How is it going with you and Twilight?"

"Things are good."

"I think you two make a good couple."

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, Rainbow Dash came to me before you started practicing and told me that you and Twilight were together. Why? Is something wrong?"

This is payback for waking her up, isn't it?

"I'm afraid that Rainbow Dash has made it upon herself to spread rumors."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Me and Twilight are not together. Rainbow Dash made it up."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Tis quite alright."

I looked behind me and into the air, catching a glimpse of Rainbow Dash’s trail before it disappeared.

A bit too far Rainbow Dash, a bit too far.

"I'm afraid I must be going now. Have a good day, Fluttershy."

I stood back up and started to walk towards the town.

"You too."

Having to pass by the spectating and whispering, ponies, I saw Rainbow Dash talking to two female pegasi about 18 feet into town. Most likely more spectators from the training.

"Rainbow Dash! Thine proclamation hath gone too far!” I loudly said.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused with my choice of words.

Doesn't anybody understand Olde English anymore?!

"That rumor you told Fluttershy has crossed the line."

"Oh come on, I only told Fluttershy.”

“Told Fluttershy what?” One of the pegasus asked.

The look I gave Rainbow Dash when I stared her directly in her eyes was one of threatening and begging.

I will kill you if you tell them the lie you told Fluttershy.

As if she read my thoughts, she gave a mischievous smile.

Don’t do it.

She turned back to the two pegasai.

“He...,” Rainbow Dash began.

Don’tdoitdon’tdoitdon’tdoit.

“Is friends with the Princess.”

"Really?” The two pegasi asked.

The three of them looked at me for confirmation.

“Uh… Yeah. We met the night I first came here, and we kinda got along quite nicely,” I answered.

If one forgets all about the “me breaking in and beating up guards and getting thrown into a dungeon” part.

"See. Nothing to worry about,” Rainbow Dash mouthed.

"Indeed," I said under my breath.

I started walking towards Twilight house.

"Wait," one of the pegasi said.

I stopped and turned to see which one it was. It was the golden yellow, female pegasi. She had blue eyes and a tan colored mane.

"Yes?" I asked.

"That was some good hovering you did. That was your first time, right?"

"Indeed."

"You certainly learn fast. How come you didn't learn to fly sooner?"

Not good. Last thing I needed was civilians asking questions. Though, this one seems easy.

"I always preferred walking."

"Why? Don't you want to see the world from a different view?"

"I always thought it would be fun. But I never bothered."

She looked at me as if I was a strange person, but I just simply shrugged it off and continued to walk towards Twilight's house. When I got there, Spike was sorting out some books, just before burping up another letter. Spike looked at me than the letter.

"Just in time Trevor. The Princess sent you a letter.”

"Did she now?"

Spike handed me the letter and I unravled it. It read:

"Dear Trevor: how have you been these past few days? My faithful student tells me you've been having strange dreams. If you would like, I have astrologists that could help, or you could talk to me if you want. But the main reason I am writing this to you is that I wish you to visit me, just to talk. If you're available than meet me in my throne room. - Princess Celestia."

Quite unusual. However, I could get my answers... Or not.

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"Tis a letter from the Princess."

"What does she want?"

She seemed fully interested in just the letter.

"She wants to talk."

"Are you gonna go?"

"Sure. I don't see why not."

"When do you think you'll go?"

"Now, I suppose. Could you give me some paper and a quill?"

"Sure."

She levitated a piece of paper and quill with some ink to a nearby writing stand. I went over to the stand and wrote:

"Dear Princess Celestia: I appreciate your concern, but it may be unnecessary. Though I can't give my answer for certain. As for us talking, I am available and shall be leaving by the time you're reading this letter. I hope that our conversation is a good one. - Prinz des Wahnsinns, Trevor."

I could feel Twilight peeking over my shoulder as I wrote the letter.

"What's that last part at the end for?"

"Prinz des Wahnsinns?"

She nodded her head.

"It's something from my home. A… group of people that aren't really liked by mine, for a few different reasons, but I think they're nice people."

I rolled up the letter and handed it to Spike. He used his flames to send it to Celestia, still not knowing how that works.

"I should be going," I said.

Heading out the door, I took the same the path I used before to get to Canterlot. As I was walking the path I was thinking about how the conversation with Celestia could go, but the results I came up with ended with an argument, or worse endings that I’d rather not write down. I quickly shook the thoughts out of my head and kept on walking in silence. When I could see the gates up ahead, it wasn’t hard to see the guards at the gate's stern looks of remembrance as well.

"Remember me, do ye?" I asked when I got near the gates.

"Every guard knows who you are," The guard on the right said.

"Guess I have a rep to uphold then."

No response.

"Twas a joke,” I admitted.

No response to that either.

Is every guard's humor as dry as the desert in the middle of July.

When I advanced forward they didn’t automatically block my path, so I went to the castle. The ponies on the streets didn't say anything, excluding the occasional whisper, but I could feel their eyes watching me. When I made it to the gates of the castle the guards stuck their hooves in my way.

"The princess is expecting me,” I said.

In thier eyes I could see they didn't believe me.

"Ask her yourself.”

The guard on the left went inside to verify what I said was true, leaving just me and the other guard.

"So... Nice weather we're having, ain't it?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

He just looked at me lazily.

Do they remove your vocal cords when you get accepted or something?

The guard on the left returned and whispered in the other guard's ear, nodded his head, and they let me in. Quickly finding my way to the throne room, I opened the door and saw Princess Celestia sitting on her throne, doing nothing yet again.

"Ah. Trevor, come in," Celestia said.

I did as she said, closing the door behind me, and she used her magic to summon a table, two chairs, and two cups. She teleported herself in the chair closest to her and motioned for me to take a seat. Again, doing what she asked, I took my seat and looked at my cup, seeing it was full of tea.

How did I know?

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

My face must have shown disinterested. I gave a small smile and looked at her.

"I'm just... not really a fan of tea,” I admitted.

Her horn glowed yellow and the tea instantly turned into water.

"Sorry about that. If you want I could turn it to wine."

I see what you did there.

"Clever. But no thanks, it's fine."

I took a sip of the water and quickly discovered that it wasn’t cold, but lukewarm.

Delicious.

"So how has your stay been?"

"It's been nice. Certainly interesting, that’s for sure.”

"And I've heard you've been helping out my student."

"Indeed I have. In return she’s been letting me stay at her house

I took another sip.

"So she’s said in some of her letters. I hope you don’t have any hidden agendas by staying with her.”

I was in the middle of swallowing when I heard that. My throat stopped the water from pursuing to my stomach, so I tried to re-swallow quickly. When the water was safely in my stomach, I let out a few held-in coughs, trying to respond at the same time.

“Are you—“

A few more coughs came out.

“I can assure you I have no plans like that.”

"And I'm guessing that you are gonna accuse me of doing something to you again?"

Some chuckles escaped from me.

"I was thinking of it."

"Like I said before, I don't know who you are or what I did to you."

"Then how in Gorlog's name did you know my name?"

"Twilight told me. She’s also told me that occasionally speak of this Gorlog. Who is Gorlog?"

"A northern Skandian god."

"Skandia? I can’t say I’ve ever of a place like that."

“Can’t really tell you about it since I’ve never been there myself, though I’ve read a bit about it. It’s a bit of a cold place.”

“We have a place like that north of here, called the Crystal Empire.”

"For a reason I assume. So, why did you let me live?"

"Hmm?"

"The first day I came here. You could have had me executed, sent me into the moon, or the sun. Yet you allowed me to live. Why?"

"Twilight convinced me to let you live. She thought that we could learn from you, and that you were probably just someone who was brought here because some pony’s teleport spell didn't go so well."

So Twilight helped me out. Then again, I could have run away before execution and hid out in the Everfree Forest. But then I would be hunted, more or less.

"So what kind of dreams have you been having?"

Aren't you supposed to be Goddess of the sun? Luna has night stuff. Then again, Luna is banished for about a thousand years. So someone, or some pony, would have had to take her job.

"Dreams about different adventures."

"What kind of adventures?"

Great, how am I gonna get outta this one?

"Didn't Twilight tell you?"

"The ones she has given me were the ones she's talked to you about."

"Then those are the only ones.”

As I took another sip of my drink, I noticed that Celestia didn’t have any of her tea yet.

"You know... I'm thinking about staying here,” I said.

"Really?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yep. One question though."

"What is it?"

"First time we met and you said you didn't know who I was or what you did to me, I saw you smile. What was that about then?"

I expected her to be surprised and she would have to make up a lie or something. But that wasn't the case. Her smile was still where it was.

"I thought it was a prank from some the guards here. They have some sense of humor."

But they-- never mind. Forget it.

"Everyone needs a good laugh."

She nodded and took a sip of her drink. Suddenly, I heard the door behind me burst opened.

"Princess Celestia. An urgent message has come from Manehattan!" A certain surfer dude voice yelled.

When I turned back my suspicions were correct. Shining Armor was standing in the doorway, wide-eyed with concern.

"Sorry about this Trevor. We'll have to finish this another time."

The chairs, cups, and table disappeared, causing me to fall on the floor, somewhat expecting that to happen.

"Quite alright," I said as I picked myself up from the floor.

I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. But I didn’t leave. Instead, I pressed my ear against the door and eavesdropped on what they were saying.

"What is it Shining?" Celestia asked.

"The mayor of Manehattan has reported more disappearances have happened since yesterday,” Shining Armor replied.

"Hmm. I'll send some of our royal guards to investigate this matter and see if they come up with anything."

"Yes, Princess."

Disappearances, eh? That's new.

Quickly, I left the castle and headed back to Ponyville. On the way there I saw royal guards conversing, I assumed about the disappearing. Passing the outer gates, I heard the guards say something to me quietly.

"Be careful."

Don't tell me what to do.

Chapter 8: The Witch Doctress

When I got there it was sunny out and with no clouds in sight. I walked downtown to see if any of the 6 were out and about. But it quite the opposite. There was no one on the streets.

No one home? Guess 173 got here. If that's the case I better book it... But why would a dangerous creature like that be in a world like this? Then again, why would someone like me be here? How do I come up with these things?

I was passing by the Bakery. Still nobody to be seen.

"Pssst," A voice said.

I looked around. Just me, the silent buildings, and a small opening in the bakery door.

"Pssssssssssst."

I looked at the small opening and saw a dark shade of pink. Soon identified as Pinkie Pie.

"Trevor," she said.

She looked around and ducked, raised one of her front hooves, and motioned me to come to where she was at.

"Come here."

I sighed and did as she said. As I reached the door way seven pairs of mouths and a pair of claws grabbed me and yanked me into the building and sent me to the floor.

"Not cool!" I said. Almost yelling.

"Shhh," A different voice shushed.

The room was entirely dark besides Pinkie Pie's flashlight, or torch, whatever you want to call it.

"Pinkie Pie, why are you alone in the dark?"

"I'm not alone,” Pinkie Pie answered.

She moved one of the curtains to let in some light, which than revealed the rest of the 6, Spike, and Apple Bloom.

Neeeew! Get me out! I am not staying here with a Cuti--

"Is this who you were talking about sis?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Yep. Sure is," Applejack responded.

"And who would this be?" I asked.

"This here's my lil' sister. Apple Bloom."

"And why are you all in the dark?"

"Hiding,” Pinkie Pie responded.

"From what?"

Pinkie Pie motioned for me and the rest to look out the window, and in the middle of the street was a zebra in a brown cloak. Otherwise known as Zecora.

Oh. It's this episode.

She kept digging at the ground with her front left hoof. When she stopped she looked towards us with sharp yellow eyes. Everyone then abandon their spot at the window and back into the darkness. I sighed and went back towards the nearly terrified ponies, excluding Twilight, who seemed to be in disbelief in the situation, much like myself.

"Did you see her Twilight? Did you see... Zecroa?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Apple Bloom. I told you never to say that name," Applejack said.

"Well I saw her glance this way," Twilight said.

"Glacing evilly this way," Pinkie Pie corrected.

"And a bunch of you flip for no good reason."

"No good reason? You call protecting your kin no good reason? Why as soon my sister saw Zecora ridin' into town, she started shakin' in her little horseshoes" Applejack said.

Applejack than started to shake Apple Bloom to reenact her "shakin' in her little horseshoes."

"Did not," Apple Bloom said shakily.

"So I swept her up and brought her here."

"I walked here myself," Appleboom protested.

"For safety."

"Applejack, I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself."

"Not from that creepy Zecora."

"She's mysterious," Fluttershy said.

"Sinister," Rainbow Dash said.

I wanna see that movie. Looked pretty good.

"And spoo-o-oky," Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight and I looked out the window again, with the entire group almost leaning on us. Zecora had her back toward us and took off the hood of her cloak, revealing a black and white Mohawk, and also had two gold earrings on. Everyone gasped except me and Twilight.

"Will you cut that out?" Twilight asked.

"Just look at those stripes. So garish," Rarity said.

So what?

"She's a zebra."

"A what?" Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Spike, and Rainbow Dash asked.

"A zebra. And her stripes aren't a fashion choice Rarity, they were what she was born with."

The realization of this new information made Rarity faint.

"Born where? I've never seen a pony like that in these parts. 'Cept her," Applejack said.

"Well she's probably not from here. And she's not a pony. My book says they come from a faraway land, but I've never seen her in Ponyville. Where does she live?"

"That's just it. She lives in... the Everfree Forest."

There was multiple crashes coming from the other room, sounding very similar to thunder. Turns out it was Spike, trying to get a cupcake and candy cane, but must have slammed into something.

"Spike."

"Sorry," Spike apologized.

"The Everfree Forest just ain't natural. The plants grow," Applejack said.

"The animals care for themselves," Fluttershy added.

"And the clouds move--" Rainbow Dash added.

"All on thier own," All three ponies said.

"Sounds a lot like home," I said under my breath.

Rarity fainted yet again.

"And that wicked enchantress Zecora lives there doing her evil... stuff. She's so evil. I even wrote a song about her,” Pinkie Pie informed.

NOOOO!! The one time I don't have my MP3 player!

"Here we go," Rainbow Dash groaned.

"She's an evil enchantress. She does evil dances. You look deep in her eyes she'll put you in trances. Then what will she do? She'll mix up an evil brew, and she'll gobble you up in a big tasty stew. So watch out," Pinkie Pie sang and danced.

Pinkie Pie was now on top of the table, panting quite heavily.

"Wow. Catchy," Twilight said.

That's not catchy. I've heard better catchy songs.

Pinkie Pie got off the table.

"It's a work in progress."

"This is all just a lot of gossip and rumors. Now tell me, what have you actually seen Zecora do?"

"Well. Once a month she comes into Ponyville," Rainbow Dash said.

"Ooooh," Twilight awed sarcastically.

"She lurks by the stores," Rarity said.

"Oh my."

"And then. She digs at the ground," Fluttershy said.

"Good gracious."

Good grief indeed.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But how is any of this bad? Maybe she comes to town to visit."

"Yeah. Maybe she's just trying to be neighborly," Apple Bloom said.

"And maybe she's not lurking by the stores. Maybe she's going to them; lurk free, to do some shopping."

"Yeah. Every pony likes to shop. You know what I think--" Apple Bloom said.

"Apple Bloom, hush and let the big ponies talk," Applejack said.

"I am a big pony," Apple Bloom said softly.

"What about digging at the ground? You gotta admit that's weird," Rainbow Dash said.

Apple Bloom was walking out of the bakery without anyone noticing, except me.

"What if she's digging for innocent creatures?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie Pie started to repeat her song.

"I'm sure there's an explanation for everything Zecora does. And if any pony here were actually brave enough to approach her, she would find out the truth."

"She"? Ah no, forget that. It’s time for some creative investigating.

When Apple Bloom open the door and walk out to follow Zecora, I followed her while everyone was still conversing. Apple Bloom kept on hiding in bushes at a big distance while I just ducked down and made sure my shadow wouldn't catch her eye. After a few minutes, Zecora left the town, and Apple Bloom and I followed her. Apple Bloom increased her following distance between her and Zecora, so I had to as well, but I still followed my rules of keeping my shadow out of her view. Zecora soon walked in without hesitation. But when Apple Bloom got there however, she gulp and looked like she was gonna walk away. But, she puffed out her chest and walked in with determination. I decided to take a different route then the two did, climbing into one of the trees. The branches creaked and the leaves rustled, causing Apple Bloom to turn towards the tree I was at and looked around. She looked where I was at, squinted, then her eyes were almost widened a few seconds later.

"What are you doing here?" Apple Bloom asked.

I sighed and lowered myself to the ground.

"Doing the same thing you're doing. Following Zecora to find out the truth."

"I don't need you to follow me around. I'm not a baby!” she said angrily.

"I never said that. Like I said, I'm just here for the same thing you are. So why don’t we do it together? We might get more answers."

"Alright,” Apple Bloom grumbled.

Good. We understand each other.

We walked into the Everfree Forest, seemingly denser than I suspected it to be, and a bit brighter too. We kept following Zecora until we got to the field of poison joke. Me and Apple Bloom surprisingly didn't touch any of the flowers, though I was avoiding them on purpose and Apple Bloom was just lucky.

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack yelled.

"Trevor!" Twilight yelled.

Curse it all, they finally realized we were gone.

Apple Bloom, Zecora, and I turned to the 6, who were standing right in the middle of the poison joke.

"You get back here right now!" Applejack yelled at Zecora.

"Beware. Beware you pony folk. Those leaves of blue are not a joke," Zecora rhymed.

Applejack ran in front of her sister and stood in a guarding pose.

"Keep your creepy mumbo jumbo to yourself. You hear!?"

The rest of the pones began taunting the zebra, excluding myself and Twlight.

"Beware. Beware."

"Yeah, back at you Zecora. You and your lame curses are the ones who better beware," Rainbow Dash said.

"And you. Why couldn't you just listen to your big sister?" Applejack asked.

"I-I," Apple Bloom stammered.

"Who knows what kind of nasty curse Zecora could’ve put on you."

"Just like in my song. Evil enchantress, evil dances, and the trances," Pinkie Pie began to sing briefly.

"You guys. There's no such thing as curses," Twilight assured.

Rainbow Dash flew low to the ground, enough to touch the flowers, and went up to Twilight.

"Well that's interesting to hear coming from miss magic pants herself," Rainbow Dash said.

"My magic, real magic, comes from within. It's a skill you're born with. Curses are artificial, fake magic. It's conjured with potions and incantations, all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale," Twilight said.

You forget that there's such a thing as dark magic, demonic powers, witchcraft, take a pick.

"Just you wait Twilight. You're gonna learn that some pony tales really are true," Applejack foreshadowed.

The rest of the group left, leaving only me and Twilight.

"You forgot that there's dark magic," I said.

"Dark magic?"

"You don't know about... Alright, lesson time. There's a light to every dark and vice versa. Magic is no different. People from my home in the past used dark magic, or witchcraft as it was called, to bring terrible plagues, or curses, upon different people. A famous one I remember is the mummy's curse. It brought locus, drought, disaster, stuff like that. There is one that most people from my home nowadays use, deals. Or to be more precise, deals with the devil. You sell your fate to the king of evil and he'll give you what you want. But it always ends with the devil twisting it into ruins. But I wouldn't worry about Zecora. She doesn't seem to be one for dark magic or any of that."

"Wow. Things from your home sure are different than here."

Tell me about it.

"Let's head back."

Twilight nodded her head and we headed back towards the house

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Night time had fallen upon Equestria. Nothing had really happened after we got home, besides ponies slowly coming out of their homes in fear of Zecora popping up again. I had changed out of my regular clothes and into my pajamas.

"Going to bed?" Twilight asked.

"Not for a bit," I said.

"What do you think of this Zecora stuff?"

"It seems like everyone is going crazy over nothing."

Like the elephant and mouse thing.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one."

"Shall we continue our conversation over a few glasses of water?"

"Sure."

She and I walked downstairs and sat at the table. There was a glass of water for me and a glass of milk for Twilight.

"Not fancying water tonight?"

She shook her head as I took a sip.

"Did you hear about the disappearances in Manehattan?"

"Yep. Princess told me when I saw her."

"What do you think is causing it?"

"Don't know."

I took another sip.

"Why did you go out and not tell any pony?"

"Hmm? Oh. I saw Apple Bloom leaving so I wanted to make sure she was safe. That and what you said before."

"Oh, that. You still should have told some pony."

I shrugged.

"Least I wasn't in any danger."

We drank the rest of our drinks and set our cups down.

"I'm gonna get some sleep."

I got up and headed upstairs.

"Good night."

"Night."

When I was asleep I had continuation to a few dreams I've had in the past. It was about a girl that looked like one of the regular Japanese ghost girls, the ones with the long black hair and white gown. She wanted me to help her find someone, though she never told me who. She showed me bits and pieces of her past and from what I can make of it she was born into a loving family, a mother, father, and twin brother. But when she was seven she was sent to an orphanage, the reason why though I don't know. She stayed at the orphanage for three years until she discovered something. She was born with demonic powers. She was able to control her powers and went on a killing spree on the caretakers of the orphanage, but she didn't kill any of the kids. However, there was one caretaker who escaped, this one also having demonic powers. She ran away from the orphanage before the caretaker could catch her and had chosen me to find whoever she was looking for. She even made me break into a pastor's house to get information from him. But in the end I shot him. The dream kinda left off from there. I was in the pastor's living room, talking to her.

"You haven't told me who you're looking for," I said flatly.

"We just need to know where he's at or where he'll be," she softly whispered.

"Well the pastor didn't know anything."

She looked towards the door. Suddenly swung open so fast that it put a dent in the wall, and standing at the doorway was her brother, his eyes full of fear and his body shaking.

"S-stay back," he stammered.

"You were after your brother. Weren't you?" I asked.

She disappeared from where she was originally at and appeared in front of her brother. The brother stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. She didn't say anything, but just looked at him. The brother had his mouth opened and looked like he was trying to scream, but was to paralyzed with fear to do so.

This is a family moment. I better go.

I left the room and headed for the front door.

"Thank you," the girl said.

Everything started to fade to black. The faint sounds of birds chirping told me that I was out of the dream.

Twilight is gonna have questions for this one.

When I opened my eyes I immediately looked beside me, expecting Twilight to be there. But, somewhat thankfully, she wasn’t.

Wait. The episode is still going. That means...

I went downstairs to see Twilight with a limp horn and blue spots on it and multiple books scattered around.

"Ugh. There has to be a real reason for this. An illness? An allergy?" Twilight asked.

"A curse," Spike suggested, holding a green book with a plant on it.

"I said a real reason. Something that points to something real."

"How about this one?"

Spike showed her the green book.

Fine, don't say hello to the evil man, that's always a smart idea.

"Supernaturals. Spike, the word 'supernatural' refers to things like ghosts and spirits and zombies, which are as make-believe as curses. This book is just a bunch of hooey."

Supernatural... I wonder if season 8's out yet.

"But what if you're wrong Twilight? What if this really is--?"

"A burse," Pinkie Pie sputtered, seemingly appearing out of thin air.

Her tongue was now enlarged with the same blue dots on it as Twilight's horn.

How in-- don't question it, just go with it.

"A purse? How could it be a purse?" Spike asked.

"I believe she's trying to say, a curse. Correct?" I asked.

Pinkie Pie nodded her head.

"Pinkie. What happened?" Twilight asked.

She began sputtering something that I had no idea what she was trying to actually say, but she got spit all over Spike.

"Say it, don't spray it, Pinkie," Spike complained, shaking the spit off him.

A sudden crash turned our attention to a nearby window. It was Rainbow Dash, who crashed into the window.

"She's--" Rainbow Dash began.

She crashed into the window again

"Trying to say Zecora--"

Her wings took her backwards and slammed her into the wall near the door, making huge cracks in its place. Then she crashed through the door and headed towards the ponies and dragon, me being out of the way.

"She slapped us all with a--"

She crashed into one of the bookshelves and got stuck in a ladder.

"Curse," Rainbow Dash finally finished.

I consider this payback for the rumor.

"I'm afraid I have to agree," Rarity said.

Rarity's regular mane and coat was replaced with shaggy dreadlocks from head-to-toe. Spike let out a little scream and hugged Twilight's front left hoof.

"I hate to say I told you so, Twilight," a very high-pitched Applejack said.

We all looked over and saw Apple Bloom with a small figurine-like Applejack on her back.

"But I told you so,” Applejack continued.

Twilight and Spike gasped at the sight. I just stood there, almost ready to snicker.

"It's the curse I tells ya!”

More like plot continuation.

"But Fluttershy seems just fine," Twilight said.

Fluttershy stood next to Rarity.

How are all you people getting in here without me noticing?

"Yes, there doesn't seem to be a thing wrong with her," Rarity agreed.

Fluttershy remained quiet.

"Fluttershy? Are you okay?"

She closed her eyes and turned away.

"Is there something wrong with you?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"Would you care to tell us?"

She kept quiet.

"So you're not gonna tell us?"

Fluttershy turned towards Twilight and nodded.

"Yes you're not or yes you will?"

It'd be yes you're not.

Mini Applejack jumped on one of the books on the table with a flower in a vase.

"Good gravy girl. What's wrong with you?" Applejack asked impatiently.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Fluttershy said in a very deep man voice.

I couldn’t help but face-palm.

Bill Cosby, no.

Spike bursted out laughing. I wanted to smack him on the backside of the head with the two knuckles I had on my right fist, but I let it go.

"This is hilarious. Look at all of you. We've got Harity, Rainbow Crash, Spitty Pie, Appletiny, Flutterguy, and, uh… I've got nothing," Spike said.

I really want to deck him in the schnoze.

"Ha ha ha. This is no joke Spike, now start looking for more books so I can find a cure," Twilight said with annoyance in her tone.

Rainbow Dash finally got out of the ladder and started flying again.

"I think we'll find the cure to this curse at Zecora's place," Rainbow Dash determined.

"It's not a curse."

One last chance to reverse this curse. You stole my heart but I had it first.

Rainbow Dash flew back and crashed into another bookshelf.

"I agree with Dash. We'll go to Zecora's and force her to remove this hex!" Applejack yelled.

"It's not a hex either!" Twilight shouted back.

All the ponies started arguing, except for Apple Bloom who was, like me, watching the argument.

This is getting foolish now.

I changed into my regular clothes, jumped out the window, and hovered down to the ground. Once I had landed I walk in the direction of the Everfree Forest, seeing that Apple Bloom had gotten a good distance from me and decided to follow her, keeping my distance of course. When we got to the forest, Apple Bloom started sprinting and got a good few feet ahead of me before I started to run after her again. We both made it to the Poison Joke, but I stopped right before the first flowers, whilst she stopped near the middle of them all. As I got closer I saw mini-Applejack on her head, telling her to turn around. I quickly hid in one of the bushes nearby in case they looked behind them.

"No," Apple Bloom said with a smile on her face.

"No!? You can't ignore a direct order from your big sister!" Applejack yelled.

Apple Bloom threw her up in the air, caught her in her mouth, and put Applejack on a nearby branch.

"Ha ha ha. Sorry Applejack, but I'm the big sister now."

Apple Bloom walked away from the branch and onwards to Zecora's house.

"Apple Bloom you come back here right this instant... I'm gonna tell Big Macintosh on you!"

I got out of the bushes and went up to the branch Applejack was at.

"Why hello my little friend," I greeted.

"Trevor? What are you doing here?"

"Oh you know, finding a cure for whatever made you and the others like they are."

Without asking, I picked up Applejack and placed her on my left shoulder.

"Alright. Giddy up!”

She hit me with one of her back hooves to get me going. The pain, if you can call it that, was something between a pinch and a mosquito that just bit you

"That's not gonna work, and I suggest you don't do it again."

And with that, I continued on the trail. We soon Apple Bloom nearing a small light, I turned to Applejack and saw she was a bit red faced with anger.

"AP--" Applejack began to scream.

I quickly put her in between my hands and hid behind one of the trees. I don't know if Apple Bloom stopped or not, but if she did she didn't call out. When I thought that Apple Bloom was out of hearing range I opened my hands and saw a very angry Applejack.

"It's called a stealth mission for a reason!" I hissed.

"Well, what are you doing standing here for? Get going."

"I'm trying to keep my distance. She might be suspicious already with you screaming, and we may never get to Zecora if we're found out. So please, just stay quiet."

I calmed myself down and put her back on my shoulder.

"Right. Sorry ‘bout that.”

"No problem. Now that we have figured things out, let's keep moving."

I looked to see if Apple Bloom was still there, and to my luck she wasn't. Once I found the path again I followed it. After a few minutes had passed we had finally made it to Zecora’s hut, looking like a mixture of Yoda’s hut from the original Star Wars movies and Twilight’s house. It also had bottles and vials tied to the tree with a mask on one of the branches. We saw Apple Bloom leaving the house with a saddle pack on.

"What is that Apple Bloom think she's doing?" Applejack asked.

"This is still a stealth mission," I whispered.

Applejack put a hoof in her mouth. After Apple Bloom was out of sight I moved in closer to the house.

Time to end this episode.

The sounds of multiple hooves running my direction could be heard.

But not in the way I want to apparently.

In seconds the rest of the 6 appeared, Rarity’s hair full of leaves and sticks.

"Trevor. What are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"Oh you know, trying to find a cure for you guys,” I replied.

"Ugh. I look horrible," Rarity complained.

"This place looks horrible," Pinkie Pie muffled.

"Oh my. That place really does look horrible."

The rest of the ponies moved in closer until they were looking in the window.

"Nice decorations. If you like creepy," Rarity commented.

The ponies peeking in suddenly ducked from the window, then slowly peeked again.

"Guavaty moni ha lum way. Oka ba te wa um wo a," Zecora said.

Pinkie Pie suddenly took three steps backwards and tried to speak, though I had no idea what she was saying.

"She stole your song?"

"Oh Pinkie. That doesn't sound anything like you're song," Twilight said.

She went to Fluttershy's knees, looking up at her with pleading eyes. Fluttershy sighed.

"She's an evil enchantress. She does evil dances. And if you look into her eyes she'll put you in trances. And what will she do? She'll mix up an evil brew, and then she'll gobble you up in a big tasty stew. So, watch out," Fluttershy sang unenthusiastically, while Pinkie Pie did the dance.

"You saw those terrible things. Now do you believe us Twilight?" Rarity asked.

Twilight pondered.

"Scary looking masks, confusing incantations, and a great big bubbling cauldron. Everything is pointing to Zecora being bad," Twilight said.

I would have gone with evil.

"Or. What if Zecora's just making soup?" Twilight Asked.

The ponies went back to the window to see if an answer would be provided.

"Mmm, the perfect temperature for ponies I presume. Now, where is that little Apple Bloom?" Zecora asked herself.

"Or what if she's making Apple Bloom soup?" Twilight asked fearfully.

Be quiet or she'll hear you.

The ponies backed away from the window and looked at each other. The ponies started screaming.

"Well if she didn't hear us then. She'll definitely hear us now," I said.

Rainbow Dash was headed towards Zecora's door.

"I'm coming for ya Apple Bloom," Applejack said.

She leapt off my shoulder and grabbed onto Rainbow Dash's belly. Rainbow Dash crashed through the door and flew every which way in the house. Zecora started speaking in a language I couldn't understand, most likely she meant "what is going on? Stop, stop." The other ponies burst through the door.

"What have you done with Apple Bloom?" Twilight asked.

Zecora didn't give a response back to Twilight, she just kept on trying telling Rainbow Dash to stop. Applejack jumped from Rainbow Dash to Zecora's left ear and started wrestling with it.

"Ponies. What is this you--" Zecora said.

She was cut short by Rainbow Dash crashing into her soup pot and spilling the contents.

"No. You know not what you do. You've gone and spilled my precious brew."

"We're on too you Zecora. I didn't want to believe that you cursed us, but the evidence is overwhelming."

"You made me look ridiculous," Rarity complained.

"You made me sound ridiculous," Fluttershy added.

Pinkie Pie just sputtered.

"You ruined my horn," Twilight complained.

"How dare you. You destroy my home, destroy my work, then accuse me of being a jerk?" Zecora asked angrily.

"You put this curse on us. Now you're gonna un-curse us," Rainbow Dash said.

Technically she doesn't have to do anything.

"It is unwise to travel down this road. Your actions will make my anger explode."

"Where is Apple Bloom?" Twilight asked.

She got up in Zecora's face till they were butting heads.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

"Zecora, I think I've found all the things you asked for," Apple Bloom said as she walked in.

She looked at the ponies and zebra in the mess.

"What in the name of Ponyville is going on here?"

Applejack gasped.

"Apple Bloom. You're okay," she said in amazement.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Twilight got in front of Apple Bloom.

"Because Zecora is an evil enchantress who cursed us, and was gonna cook you up into soup," Twilight explained.

Zecora and Apple Bloom chuckled.

"Oh Twilight. Did those silly fillies finally get in yer head? You know there's no such thing as a curse."

"Apple Bloom, sweetie, you can't just stand there and tell me that this isn't a curse."

"This isn't a curse."

"If you remember back, the words I spoke were quite exact," Zecora said.

"It was a warnin' about that blue plant. It's called poison joke," Apple Bloom said.

"That plant is much like poison oak, but its results are like a joke."

"What in the hay does that mean?" Applejack asked.

"It means that this plant does not bring wrath, instead this plant just wants a laugh."

"Will some pony please talk normal?"

I decided to finally walk into the house.

"I'll be happy to explain. When you went to save Apple Bloom and I, you walked right into the poison joke. These so-called curses are just this plant's little jokes," I said.

"Little jokes!? Very funny," Applejack said sarcastically

Did I strike a nerve?

"Okay fine. But what about the cauldron?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"And the chanting?" Fluttershy asked.

"And the creepy decor?" Rarity added.

"Can't you ponies ask questions through one mouth?" I asked under my breath.

"Treasures from the native land where I'm from. This one speaks 'hello,' and the other 'welcome,' “ Zecora said, referring to the masks.

"Not welcome at all, if you ask me," Rarity commented.

"And the words I chanted were from olden times. Something you call a nursery rhyme."

"But the cauldron? The Apple Bloom soup?" Twilight asked.

"Lookie here Twilight, that pot of water wasn't for me, it was for all these herbal ingredients. The cure for poison joke is a simple old natural remedy. You just gotta take a bubble bath," Apple Bloom said.

Twilight looked over the book.

"But I tried to find a cure in all my books and couldn't find anything. What book has this natural remedy?" Twilight asked.

Zecora closed it the book and showed her the cover.

"Here is the book you seek," Zecora said.

It was the green book with the plant on it. The exact one Spike had earlier.

"Sad that you lack it in your library."

"Actually, I do have this book. But I didn't look inside 'cause the title was so... weird," Twilight said.

Zecora opened the book to the first page.

"'Supernaturals. Natural remedies and cures that are simply super.' I'm, I'm, I'm so sorry Zecora. I had the answer the whole time, if only I bothered to look inside."

But we would still have the Zecora being an evil witch thing. And even if we explained to the villagers they still wouldn't listen. I know this from experience with villagers, curse them all.

Zecora chuckled.

"Maybe next time you will take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book," Zecora said.

And that's the lesson of this episode.

"Zecora, would you be nice enough to mix up another herbal batch?"

"Mix it up I certainly will. Yet I am missing an herb from Ponyville."

"But whenever Zecora comes to town all the shops are mysteriously closed," Apple Bloom said.

"Oh. Well, I think we can help you with that," Twilight said.

Zecora got on her cloak and we headed into town. Easy to say, we were welcomed with silence. Twilight went over to the flower shop and knock on the door. The door slightly opened.

"Daisy, we need to talk."

Twilight explained the situation to her and was able to get the herb Zecora needed. Rarity suggested we used one of the spa's baths to put the cure in, the majority agreed, and Rarity was able to persuade the two spa owners to let us use it. Once the cure was completed, the ponies jumped into the bath one by one. We had to get a small bucket for Applejack though.

"Oh my gosh, I just realized how horrible it is not to be able to talk. I mean I love talking so much and when I couldn't talk anymore 'cause my tounge was all like ahhhhhhh. It was the worst. Don't you agree Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yes," Fluttershy said, her voice now normal.

The ponies started laughing.

Cheers to the heroes.

I imagined I had a beerstien in my hand and clanked with another imaginary beerstien, then pretended to drink the imaginary water in the beerstien. After every pony was cured and relaxed, they thanked Zecora for helping them and apologized for them accusing her. She accepted their apology and went back to her home.

Chapter 9: All Flies Must Die High In the Sky

A week had passed after the Zecora thing. Nothing happened except for Twilight getting a letter from the Princess, saying she would be visiting tomorrow. After Twilight heard the news she informed all of Ponyville and told them to sweep up for the Princess's arrival, of course the residents of Ponyville were excited and happy to oblige to this request. I, on the other hand, was not. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't get any information I wanted from her. So while the rest of Ponyville was sweeping up the town, me, Twilight, and Spike were at home making sure everything was arranged properly.

"Oh. Hurry up Spike, this place isn't going to clean itself," Twilight said as she was sweeping the walls.

"It also didn't mess itself up," Spike grumbled as he was picking up books from the ground.

"Princess Celestia will be here tomorrow."

"I thought this was just an unofficial, causual vist."

"There's nothing casual about a visit from royalty!" Twilight said in a nervous tone.

"Oh you'd be surprised," I said as I was organizing the books Spike handed me.

"I want this place to be spotless, and you've barely made a dent in the clutter," Twilight told Spike.

Spike got a big stack of books and started using the ladder to organize them himself. I would have offered help. But then I thought.

To each his own I suppose.

"Maybe you should start reading them one at a time."

Spike lost his grip and fell down with the books toppling him. Twilight went over to him and used the duster she had to brush the books off of Spike.

"Everything's got to be perfect. No time for fooling around."

"You know, this would be an awful lot easier if there weren't three of us getting under each other's feet."

I believe you mean getting under each other's skin. And I haven't been crawling under anyone's skin... As of late anyway.

"Great idea. You clean, and I'll see how everyone else's preparations are coming."

Twilight gave the duster to Spike and walked out towards Ponyville.

"Maybe I should--"

Twilight closed the door and Spike let out a low growl of annoyance.

"Just the two of us now I suppose," I said, picking up the books Spike dropped.

Spike didn't respond. He just started grumbling and handed me books he picked up from the ground.

Someone's in a bad mood today.

I checked each book I held to see where it would go. The order I had to place the books in was alphabetical, which made it a lot easier. There were tons of books for magic, creatures, history, songs of olden time written in this world’s version. But a book that caught my eye was one titled, "Legendary."

There's no way this is about the video game.

I set the other books aside and opened up the book. It had information on different mythical and legendary creatures, locations, artifacts, you name it.

"Come on Trevor. Help me out here," Spike said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry. Curiosity got the better me."

I closed the book, picked up the others, and set them in their places. When there was about 10 books left, Spike got about eight of them and handed them to me one at a time. I set them where they were suppose to go and then Spike handed me the other two. When I looked at the titles I noticed that they were both about the Halo story. One was named "Reach," and the other was named "The Halo Rings."

Apparently you found my story more interesting than you admitted Twilight. But you could have done better in naming the second one.

I put them in their place and got out the legendary book, searched through the pages with locations, and saw the first one was called Ancelot.

Ancelot? Interesting name.

"Ancelot: There have been very few ponies who have claimed to have seen this old town, all saying that it contains a mystical creature that brings pain and destruction to whoever trespasses on the town. The town itself is described as only an old village of stone in the middle of a clearing of a forest, and a podium that stands in front of a giant filled arch with a crack in the middle of it. The witnesses have also reported that no matter what they did they could not part the two pieces that were in the arch, and have no knowledge of what the podiums are for or what they do."

And an even more interesting history.

I decided to read more later if I had the time and set it back where it belonged. No sooner when I did, Twilight walked in.

"So how are the preparations coming along?" I asked.

"There are a few hiccups," Twilight said.

"Like?"

"Pinkie Pie's eating all the goods, and the sign was wrong too."

"I'm sure things will go as planned."

"But what if they don't?" Twilight asked nervously.

"Trust me, the entire town is excited about the Princess, and I sincerely doubt they try to mess it up.”

She seemed to accept my answer, but was still on edge about the whole thing. Then I saw a little yellow ball in her hair.

"What's that?" I asked.

It popped out and revealed itself to be a parasprite.

"A parasprite. At least that's what Pinkie called it."

It looks a lot like some anime chibi version of a fly.

I looked around to see if I could find an object big enough to kill the fly. Unfortunately, no such object was available. I went up to it to get a closer look. It rubbed itself against my right cheek, like a cat wanting attention. I held it with my pointer finger and thumb and put it back next to Twilight.

"Interesting little thing,” I said.

"And cute,” Twilight commented.

Sure, sure. Let's go with that.

Twilight got out two dusters and handed one to me.

"Time to start dusting."

Should have seen that one coming.

When we were done dusting the entire house, it was about night time. I don’t know how since we had three dusters, but at that moment I was too tired and annoyed to answer those kind of questions.

"I'm going to bed," I breathlessly said.

"Alright. See you in the morning," Twilight replied.

I went upstairs and saw Spike sleeping with his new parasprite buddy. They got along quite well during cleaning, until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Lucky dragon, not having enough stamina to stay up too late.

I got into my bed and slept. It was actually quite nice since I didn’t have any dreams to keep me semi-awake, but when I was waking up I heard an orchestra of snoring.

I feel sorry for whoever is going to face my tired wrath.

When I sat up and looked around, seeing nothing short of a battalion of parasprite of all colors.

Someone is going to die today.

Twilight woke up as well to the same terrible sight.

"Spike," Twilight said to wake him up.

She waved the parasprites off her bed and managed to fall on the floor in the process.

"How are we gonna get rid of these things?” I asked myself.

Spike was still asleep with six parasprites on him, snoring. Twilight walked over to him.

"Wake up! What happened!?" Twilight asked loudly.

Spike got up and stretched his arms and back. But once he realized he couldn't open his eyes since there were parasprites on them, he screamed for about a second and then took them off.

"What's going on?" Spike asked.

“I think we should be asking, ‘what happened?’ Because I’m pretty sure that there was only one parasprite when I went to sleep last night.”

"Right, so how did they multiply?" Twilight asked.

"Well, the little guy got hungry in the night, so I gave him a snack. I have no idea where these others came from," Spike said.

Our attention was turned towards a loud crash that came from downstairs. The parasprite were knocking books off their shelves.

"They're messing up all our hard work," Spike said.

"The Princess will be here in a few hours," Twilight said.

Twilight ran off and Spike tried to pounce on one of the parasprites holding a scroll. The parasprite just flew passed him and Spike fell on the floor. Twilight got out two dusters, one for me and one for her.

"Trevor, help me round up these little guys."

"On it," I replied.

I went down stairs and smacked every parasprite I saw with the hilt of the duster. They would fall to the ground and I would pick them up and put them in a basket. Surprisingly, they actually stayed there.

"Responsive little things aren't they?" I asked myself.

Twilight got out her saddle pack and opened both of the bags.

"Put them in here. I'll see if Zecora knows what to do with them."

"Got it."

I picked up the basket that held the parasprites and put them all in both packs.

"Try to round up the rest of them."

"Can do."

Twilight ran off with two bags full of parasprites while I just kept on smacking the things until most of them stayed in a general area.

This is as good as I'm gonna get it.

"How'd you get them like that?" Spike asked.

"Through creative persuading."

I went over to the group of parasprites. They were just standing there, looking at me.

"Now, are you gonna behave like a good group?" I asked.

They didn't respond. They just stayed in their area and blinked at me.

"I'll take that as a yes."

I looked outside the window and saw a bunch of colorful dots heading towards town.

"Well that can't be good."

The parasprites that were in the pile suddenly crashed through the door to join their brethren. Once they all left I closed the door and sat near the window.

Let them be someone else’s problem.

I was very tempted to just stay there for the rest of the pandemic, but my conscience overtook me yet again.

Blast it! I'm an evil psychopath. My conscience should be dead by now.

I walked out the door and towards downtown. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were in the buyers’ market, watching the massive parasprite brigade eat the town's rations.

"What do we do? They're eating all the food in town," Fluttershy said.

Thanks for the update Fluttershy.

"My apples!" Applejack said.

She ran towards her apple cart, which the contents were being devoured.

"We've gotta do something," Twilight said.

She looked at a brown parasprite holding a green apple cupcake.

"I got it! I'll cast a spell to make them stop eating all the food."

"Wait! Don't--" I started to say.

Too late. Twilight's horn began to glow and started hitting the parasprites. It worked, they stopped eating the food. I went over to Twilight.

"Twilight, what spell did you cast on them?" I asked.

"A no eating food spell. Why?"

"Wait for it."

The parasprites just stood still. Menacingly.

"Look, tambourines, If you could all just..." Pinkie Pie said.

She let out a growl which shook the tambourines in her saddle pack.

"What am I suppose to be waiting for Trevor?"

I pointed to a wooden bucket with one red apple in it, which a yellow parasprite went over to eat. The parasprite sniffed the apple and flew away from it a bit with a disappointed face. However, the parasprite opened its mouth really wide and ate the bucket itself, then spit out the apple.

"That," I said.

The parasprites began eating different things across town, such as signs, lamp posts, and entire carts.

"Hey, it worked. They're not eating the food anymore," Rainbow Dash said with a semi-spiteful tone.

Twilight responded to her with a sheepish smile.

"Oh no. If they get inside my store... Every pony for herself!" Rarity yelled.

She ran towards her store in hopes of it not being in shambles when she got there. Applejack suddenly ran off without saying a word to anyone.

"We should get back to the house," Twilight said.

"Aye," I said.

When we got to the house there were more parasprites. Spike was hiding underneath a basket.

Coward.

Some of the books were open and the parasprites went over to them and started licking them. One even got a fork and knife, twirled the words on the fork like pasta, and started eating it.

"They're eating the words!"

"I've seen a lot of crazy things in my day. But this almost beats all."

Twilight grabbed one of the parasprites by the wing and ran outside. Spike finally showed himself from under the table and looked to me.

"Help," he begged.

I sighed and got one of the books on the ground. I went towards the first parasprite I saw and smacked it over the head, sending it towards the ground.

Should I really go through all the trouble of whooping these things again?

An evil smile appeared on my face.

Yes... I shall.

I started smacking every parasprite I could see, sending them towards the floor, wall, ceiling, and I even smacked a few out the door. The parasprites started retreating soon after my rampage.

"Will that do?" I asked.

Spike came out of his hiding place.

"How did you do that?"

"Persuasive negotiations, my friend. Persuasive negotiations."

The sound of trumpets came from outside.

What's this?

When I started to leave to the location of the noise Spike protested, but I just ignored him. Twilight was standing in the middle of the street, watching Pinkie Pie going down the street with an accordion, tuba, harmonica, and a banjo. All I could do was stand next to Twilight, confused and curious to see what would happen next.

"Pinkie, we're in the middle of a crisis here. This is no time for your--" Twilight began to say.

She looked in the sky to see that the parasprites were dancing along the music.

"Nonsense?" Twilight finished.

The parasprites began to follow the music as if it were their salvation.

Well I'll be cursed. I guess music really does soothe the savage beast. Wee beasties in this case.

The rest of the girls came and saw Pinkie Pie and the line of parasprites. They looked at each other with a dumbfounded face, but then shrugged, knowing they couldn't, and wouldn't, find an answer to this craziness. We all followed the line of parasprites out of Ponyville.

"Look," Twilight said, extending a hoof into the sky.

It was the Celestia's chariot, coming in for a landing in the middle of the street and in the path of the parasprite line. All of us, excluding Pinkie Pie, ran in front of the Princess's chariot. The girls bowed down to Celestia as she got out of the chariot, while I just stood there chuckling on the inside.

"Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil. And Trevor, my dear friend," Celestia greeted.

Dear friend? Where did that come from?

"Hello Princess," Twilight greeted.

“Good afternoon, Princess,” I replied.

"It's so lovely to see you two again, as well as your friends."

The rest of the introductions were interrupted by Pinkie Pie and the parasprite conga line.

"So, how was the trip? Hit much traffic?" Twilight asked, trying to ignore the metaphorical elephant in the street.

The Princess didn't respond, she just kept looking at the giant line of parasprites.

"What is this?"

Well, it’s a line of evil food eating, now materiel eating, color flies being led by a 4th wall breaking pony with multiple instruments. Just a regular day in my mind.

A yellow parasprite jumped on her wings and continued in the line. Celestia giggled at the act.

"These creatures are adorable."

“Appearances can be deceiving,” I warned.

"I'm terribly honored that you and the good citizens of Ponyville have organized a parade in honor of my visit."

If you call this parade then you should see what I can do. I'll need 30 red balloons, a black marker, and about 30 pounds of explosives.

"Parade? Oh, yes, a parade," Twilight said.

"Unfortunately that visit is going to have to wait for another time. I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of infestation."

"Infestation? An infestation of what?” I asked.

"A swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town. I'm sorry Twilight to put you all through so much trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?" Twilight asked with a smile.

"Before I have to go, would you care to give me your latest report on the magic of friendship in person?"

"My report?"

"Haven't you learned anything on friendship?"

She always seems to.

"Actually, I have. I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it, it's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends opinions and perspectives --"

Twilight was interrupted by a crash from one of Pinkie Pie's instruments.

"Even when they don't always seem to make sense," Twilight finished.

"I'm so proud of you Twilight Sparkle. And I'm very impressed by your friends as well. It sounds like you're learning so much from each other."

I couldn't help but to give an evil smile.

Oh yes, so much indeed. Heh heh heh.

"Thank you Princess."

The Princess got in her chariot and the guards started to take off towards Fillydelphia.

I will get all my answers from you, Princess. I swear it.

We all went over towards Pinkie Pie, who was playing the final notes in her tune.

"Hey, what happened to the princess?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Emergency in Filldelphia."

"Turns out we weren't the only ones facing this plague," I said.

"Oh no. They got parasprites too? Well, have tuba, will travel," Pinkie Pie determined.

She then proceeded to start playing her tuba.

"I think the Princess can handle it," Twilight said.

"So you knew what those critters were all along. Huh, Pinkie Pie?" Applejack asked.

"Well duh. Why do you think I was so frantic on getting my hooves on all these instruments? I tried to tell you."

"We know Pinkie Pie. And we're sorry we didn't listen," Twilight said.

The rest of the girls started apologizing.

"You're a great friend. Even if we don't always understand you."

"Thanks guys. You're all great friends too. Even when I don't understand me."

"You saved my reputation with Princess Celestia."

"And the entire town, or at least what's left of it," I added.

Twilight gasped.

"The town!”

When we got back into town we saw that it was almost completely wrecked.

"Perhaps I spoke too soon.”

Pinkie Pie got out her trumpet and played the "wah, wah, wah," song.

Another happy ending I suppose.

The energy was suddenly sucked out of my entire body, causing me to drop to the ground. My vision started to fade and all I could hear was mere static.

What!? What’s happening!?

When my vision slowly came back to me, I was in a flat world that was entirely gray. There was black silhouette of a man who had two different horns on his head standing before me.

"So, this is the one the voice told me about in person,” He thought aloud.

It was him, the one who was with me in the rock trap and the one who spoke to me at Fluttershy's house. I tried to stand up, but my body was still too weak.

"What's it to you?" I asked bitterly.

I violently coughed up some blood.

"He told me you had promise, but I didn't think you would be this pitiful. Don't worry; I'll only need you in your final hours."

"WAKE UP!" Multiple voices screamed at me.

Flames began to emerge all around me. I had regained my energy and stood up.

"You shall not harm this soul! Be gone, foolish traitor!” I shouted.

It wasn't me who had spoke, but something else. Long claws came out of my knuckles without any pain and the flames grew more intense. The silhouette smiled, showing no teeth but inside of his mouth was pure white. Within the blink of an eye, I found myself in a cold sweat in a green room, lying in a bed.

What happened? Was it all just one crazy dream? Had I been in a coma? If so, how long was I out?

Chapter 10: Runs In The Family

I tried to calm myself down by familiarizing myself with the new surroundings. I was in a hospital bed with two more beds to my right and three beds in front of me. When I looked to my left I saw the 6 looking at me with concerned looks.

"Trevor, are you okay?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine now,” I replied.

"What happened to ya? One second you're standin’ tall and next you're on the ground coughing up... What did Lyra call it?" Applejack asked.

"Blood?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"We all brought you here to see if nurse Redheart could help," Twilight said.

"At least they didn't cut me open... They didn't cut me open, did they?" I asked half-jokingly.

Twilight giggled.

"No, she just put you on this bed, ran a few medical scans, and healed the small things that were damaged with some healing spells.”

I sighed of relief.

“So how long till I'm out?” I asked.

“The nurse told us that as long as you be careful you should be fine. I took care of the bill already, so we can go whenever you’re ready.”

I swung my body to the right and put my feet on the floor.

“Let's get going then.”

Perhaps I should actually heed a doctor’s word this time, especially since I have no idea what happened.

I got up from the bed and followed the six outside after having to fill out some paperwork. The sun was starting to set and the streets were almost empty.

“How about we celebrate this with a game?” I asked.

“What kind of game?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.

“It's like hide-and-seek except with a bit of a twist.”

“What's the twist?” Twilight asked.

“Elimination. Basically if the seeker tags you, you're out.”

“Where would we play at?”

“The forest by your house is abandoned right?”

“Yeah?”

“We'll play there. All of us.”

Rarity and Fluttershy looked a bit uneasy when I said that.

“Couldn't we play somewhere that isn't so... messy?” Rarity asked.

“And scary,” Fluttershy added.

“Well if you'd rather prefer we'd play in town. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, what do you think?” I asked.

“I'm okay with it if Applejack and Pinkie Pie are,” Twilight answered.

“As long as we can all play and have fun,” Pinkie Pie said with a big smile.

“I'm fine with it,” Applejack agreed.

“Alright, now that that is done. Who shall be the first tagger?” I asked.

“Not it,” Pinkie Pie quickly said.

The rest of the ponies said "not it" before I could comprehend what they exactly meant.

Oh well. Being the first tagger shouldn't be too bad.

“Alright, guess I'll be the first tagger. I'll close my eyes and count to twenty. Then I'm coming after the lot of you, alright?” I asked.

The six nodded their heads and I closed my eyes.

“One, two, three,” I began.

The sound of hooves running and wings flapping away were louder than me counting. Once I counted to twenty and opened my eyes I looked for the nearest rooftop, which happened to be the hospital's. I jumped up and flapped my wings to give me enough height to get on the rooftop and survey the area, but didn’t find any trace of the six, not even a trail to follow. They kept their buildings close enough to each other that I was able to walk from rooftop to rooftop, so I kept looking in the street, trying to find at least one of the six that couldn't find a good hiding spot or place to keep them out of sight. Before I knew it, five minutes passed until I finally found one of them. Applejack was hanging around one of the fruit stands, pretending to check out the food.

Nice try Applejack.

Carefully and quietly, I jumped down from the rooftop and walked up behind Applejack. Once I was close enough I put my hand on the back of her neck, making her jump a little by the sudden feeling.

“Gotcha,” I said.

She looked towards me.

“Consarn it. Was I the first one?” Applejack asked with a bit of frustration in her tone.

“Sad to say, but you were.”

Applejack sighed.

“Alright, where do I go now?”

“Hmm. Is it alright if we all meet at your barn?”

“Sure thing. We can have a little picnic after this.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

She ran towards her barn to prepare for the rest of us.

Now I just need to find the others.

I kept to the streets and walked around. The next one I saw was Pinkie Pie, hiding in a box with glasses, a big nose, and a mustache on it. I went over towards the box, picked it up, and saw Pinkie Pie.

Sorry Snake.

I poked her forehead.

But your mission has failed.

“The tagged are meeting back at Applejack's barn for a picnic,” I notified.

“A picnic!? I can't wait!” Pinkie Pie shouted while hopping up and down.

She hopped towards Applejack's farm.

Two down, four to go.

I surveyed the area once again in case one of the six was watching what had happened, but none of them were in sight. So, I traveled around the streets again, making sure to keep a low profile, and saw a small bit of red and yellow hair. It was Rainbow Dash looking at a Wonderbolts poster.

Your idols shall be your downfall, Rainbow Dash.

I kept walking until I was behind her. I crouched down and was about to get her. Though something seemed off. She knew we were playing this, and she wasn't one for being easily distracted. Plus she kept look to her left and right.

She knows I'm here, well played. Alright, three, two, one.

I jumped towards her but she just kept standing there. I tapped her on the back of the neck and she turned towards me. Once she saw it was me, she looked angry.

“I thought you knew where I was and you were gonna make me chase you,” I said with a bit of a disappointing tone.

“I didn't even see or hear you. So where do I go now?” Rainbow Dash asked in frustration.

“We're meeting at Applejack's barn for a picnic. Pinkie Pie and Applejack await you.”

“Alright. See ya there."

She flew off towards the barn.

Okay, now for the hardest ones. Twilight's will most likely be in a strategic hiding place while Fluttershy should be hiding wherever she can. And Rarity should be... I have no clue. This is gonna be a long game.

I sighed and continued to search. I searched from the rooftops and the streets even in alleyways for half an hour, but I could not find a single clue of their whereabouts. I started looking in more obvious places, like behind barrels, or under boxes like Pinkie Pie did. But I had nothing to go on, until something almost too simple came across my mind.

Where would Twilight be? Behind her house. It's technically in town, plus it's so obvious that it would get overlooked. Perfect.

I ran over towards Twilight's house. When I got there I grabbed one of the lower branches and kept climbing until I reached the near top. I worked my way over to the back and peeked out. I was half right. It wasn't Twilight there, but instead it was Fluttershy.

Hold on. If Fluttershy's here then where is Twilight?

Fluttershy looked around the area and came back to the same spot.

“It's clear,” She said in a whisper.

Twilight suddenly appeared right next to Fluttershy.

An invisibility spell!? You're a crafty one, you are.

“Good. If we keep this up we should be the last ones left,” Twilight concluded.

I don't think so.

I slowly descended down the tree quietly until I was at the end of branches. I jumped down and instantly Twilight and Fluttershy saw me, but it was too late for Twilight. I poked her on the top of her head with my right pointer and middle finger.

“Run Fluttershy! Run!” Twilight yelled.

Without hesitation, Fluttershy quickly ran towards town.

“Don't run Fluttershy, you'll just get tagged tired!” I shouted maniacally.

I ran towards Fluttershy, slowly catching up to her with each step. We made it to the town and kept avoiding ponies left and right, all while Fluttershy was apologizing for getting in the way.

“You can't get away forever Fluttershy. You'll have to accept your fate eventually," I said.

She just kept running, but suddenly cut off from the main path and took a different route.

Clever girl.

I jumped and used my wings to get on the rooftops and managed to re-find her, and kept an eye on her. I looked ahead of her path and saw that she was heading for Rarity's house.

Rarity could be hiding in there trying to pick an outfit for the game or something foolish like that.

The chase continued until Fluttershy ran into Rarity's home. I walked up to the door casually and knocked three times with the back of my hand. No response. I tried the doorknob and it seemed to be unlocked, so I walked in and saw Sweetie Belle, just standing there.

“Who are you?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I don't have time for introductions. Just tell me where your sister and her friend are and we won't have any problems,” I said while looking in different places close to the door.

“Stop!” She yelled with anger.

“Don't test me child. You won't like the result.”

“You take one more step and I'll scream!”

I stopped immediately.

We won't be needing that.

“Look, I believe this is a misunderstanding. I'm a friend of your sister, and we're playing a game right now.”

She looked at me as if I was lying.

“OK, I see how it is. Has she ever talked about me? About the shirt she made me? Anything?”

Sweetie Belle thought about it for a few seconds, but the answer was quick.

“No.”

Note to self: Get revenge on Rarity one day.

“Alright, so this seems bad. But you gotta trust me,” I said calmly.

But her face and vibe were very void of it.

Blast. Okay, verbal negotiations won't work. Tis a shame, I thought stuck-ups were fond of negotiations. Now it's time for their other means of talking. Blackmail... I don't have anything against her. This is what I get for having a permanent evil vibe. Guess I have to abuse that vibe then.

“I suggest you let me search around before I destroy you,” I threatened.

“I'll scream!” She threatened back.

“Go ahead, scream. Your sister can't un-destroy you.”

And scream she did. Her scream was as loud as chalk screeching across a blackboard, and way more painful. I got on my knees and covered my ears as they began to ring.

She's gotta run out of air sometime.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. She just kept screaming and screaming until she was nearly blue.

“Alright. ALRIGHT! STOP!!!” I roared over her screams.

Sweetie Belle stopped her screaming. I got up and waited for my ears to stop ringing.

“Go ask your sister. Ask her if she knows someone named Trevor!”

“Don't you mean 'somepony'?” Sweetie Bell asked calmly.

“Just do it!” I shouted at her with an annoyed tone.

She left the room in search of her sister.

Curse it all. At least I'll finally get some progress done.

I soon started hearing Sweetie Belle and Rarity arguing about her screaming and how it was unladylike to scream at that volume or something foolish, while Fluttershy tried to keep both of them calm but kept failing at it. When Sweetie Belle came back she looked at me with spite.

“Well?” I asked.

“She said you come in,” Sweetie Bell replied.

That's what I thought.

Though I wouldn't have said that, knowing the tides would turn on me in an instant. I went into the room Sweetie Belle went in to, and saw it was Rarity's design room. There were mannequins with dresses on and different fabrics on the table, and also a wooden closet that was big enough to hold two ponies. I sighed.

And here I thought I would have a little fun hunting the two down.

I slowly crept up to the closet, making my footsteps as loud as I could to scare the two. When I got to the closet I knocked twice.

“Come on. I know you two are in there. Just accept your fate and be done with it.”

No response.

“Guess I was wrong,” I lied.

I started stepping my feet on the ground to imitate footsteps, making them more and more quiet over time. Then I just stopped and silently tip-toed over to the left side of the closet. There was silence for about 5 seconds until I heard the closet door open. I saw a white and a yellow hoof step out of the closet.

“That was a close one. Next time please pick a different place to hide, Fluttershy,” Rarity said.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy apologized.

I tried my best to hold in my snickering. Luckily it proved to work. As soon as I was able to control myself, I closed the closet door behind them. Once the two heard the noise they turned to me with fear in their eyes.

“Good morrow my little friends,” I said, finishing with an evil grin on my face.

Before they could run or scream I jumped towards them and tagged them both.

“Game over," I announced to myself.

“What happens now?” Fluttershy asked, still shaken by the whole ordeal.

“We're gonna meet up at Applejack's barn for a picnic. I'll even go with you two, since you were the last ones.”

The two agreed to this and we left for Applejack's. When we got there, the four and Granny Smith were on a picnic blanket and observing the food. There was apple pie, applesauce, apple fritters, apple muffins, and more. When the four saw us they waved, but when Granny Smith saw me she squinted her eyes.

She must just be having a hard time seeing us or something.

We took out spots with the group and sat down; Granny Smith took another look at me.

“You remind me of someone I knew when we first found Ponyville,” Granny Smith thought aloud.

“Do I now?” I asked, going along with whatever Granny Smith was up too.

She kept on looking at me.

“Big Mac! Bring me the photo album!”

Big Macintosh suddenly came out of the front door of the home with a medium sized book. Big Mac brought the book to Granny Smith and put it on her lap. She flipped through the photo album and stopped on two pages, moving her right hoof through the pictures and stopped on one near the end. It was her as a teenager with a man. The man was about 45 years old. He wore a white sleeve-less shirt, blue jeans, and brown work boots. He had on big, thick glasses, a dog tag, and had blue eyes and brown hair.

“Who's that Granny?” Applejack asked.

“He said his name was Vernon. He was one of the scouters who found the location for Ponyville. Said he was part of… what did he call it? Um.”

“The Navy?” I asked.

“That's it. The Navy. He wanted to get back and see his family again.”

I looked at his dog tag. It was hard to see the full thing but I was able to see a few things. Some letters in his name, and some numbers, most likely for his phone number.

So grandpa was here. I've heard of like father like son, but never like grandfather like son.

I looked at my dog tag. It had my name, phone number, and address. It was a gift from my father when he went to a gun show, but I've worn it in honor of my grandfather.

“Guess killing kories wasn't enough for him,” I joked in a whisper.

I felt a hint of sadness in my heart, but I couldn't help but smile.

“What is that?” Twilight asked, referring to my dog tag.

“It's something my grandfather gave me, before he... went away,” I lied.

That was my own story to the origin of my dog tag.

“Who was your grandfather?”

“The man in that photo.”

The six gasped.

Wasn't exactly the response I was expecting.

“So your grandfather was one of the founders of Ponyville!?” Twilight asked.

“Well, if what Granny says is right, than it appears he was.”

But that raises a few questions. Like, how did he get here in the first place?

Chapter 12: Wrapping Up Winter

I was sleeping soundly till Twilight woke me up.

“Trevor! Spike! Wake up, wake up! It's Winter Wrap-Up day!”

“What in Gorlog's name are you talking about?” I asked while still having my eyes closed.

“It's where the ponies of Ponyvile wrap up winter for the first day of spring.”

I forgot to mention that it had been about two months since the snowball fight and snowman build. Surprisingly, nothing really happened during winter, though that could be because I had multiple colds and stayed inside. Twilight went downstairs and turned on the light, which I responded with a small hiss.

What time is it anyway?

I got up and looked at Twilight's little wooden clock. When I saw it was four in the morning I groaned and collapsed in my bed.

Too early!

“Come on you two. The first day of spring is tomorrow, so every pony in Ponyville needs to clean up winter. Now help me get ready,” she said.

“In case you haven't noticed, Twilight. I'm not a pony,” I said.

“You're the exception.”

Blast, too tired to think of a retort for that.

“Clean up winter? Who cleans up winter? Don't they just use magic to change the seasons like they do in Canterlot?” Spike asked.

“No Spike, Ponyville was founded by earth ponies, and Trevor’s grandfather. So for hundreds of years they've never used magic to clean up winter. It's traditional," Twilight explained.

“I can respect that,” I said.

“It's ridiculous,” Spike commented.

“Okay, let's see. Scarf, check. Saddle, check. Boots, check. Spike refusing to get up and going back to sleep, check,” Twilight listed off.

I couldn't help but snicker at the last one.

“It's a good thing I'm so organized. I'm ready, bright and early,” she said while opening the door.

And then she saw how early it was.

“Oh. Maybe a little too early.”

“Ya think?” I said.

Twilight went back inside and closed the door.

“Sorry guys.”

“No problem.”

Spike responded with a small snore. Twilight turned off the light, followed me upstairs, and we both went to our beds.

Perhaps now I can get some sleep.

I closed my eyes for what felt like only two seconds before I woke up again, this time feeling more rested. When I got up and looked out the window the sun was high in the sky.

“At least it's morning this time,” I muttered.

I saw Spike and Twilight eating breakfast when I went downstairs.

“Good morning Trevor,” Twilight greeted.

“Morning.”

I sat down and looked out the window. Snow was still on the ground and covered the town. When I heard something land on the table in front of me I saw that Twilight had gotten a glass of water for me. I thanked her for it and started drinking it until it was about halfway gone. When I set my cup down, Twilight and Spike were gone from their seats and at the door, dressed in their winter gear.

“You two going out?” I asked.

Twilight giggled at my question.

“We're getting ready for Winter Wrap-Up," she replied.

“Right, right.”

I drank the rest of my water, got on my winter clothes, and met with them at the door.

“Are you ready?”

“Set and ready to go.”

I checked to make sure I had my MP3 player in my pocket since I knew what was coming up, and found it was in my right pocket as usual. We walked out the door and headed to town hall. As we got closer we saw ponies in different colored vests.

“Those must be the team vests Rarity designed. Blue for the weather team, green for the plant team, and tan for the animal team. I wonder what team vest I'll be wearing?”

What would I be? I don't know how to move clouds around and such. I don't care for plants. Maybe I'll be on the animal team, though I'm not good with animals.

“I'll take a blue vest, the same color as my blankey, which I think I hear calling my name. Spike, Spike, come to bed. Ugh, it's too early,” Spike complained.

We got in the crowd and saw the mayor on a podium.

“Thank you every pony for being here bright and early. We need every single pony’s help to wrap-up winter and bring in spring,” the mayor announced.

The ponies in the crowd cheered.

“Now all of you have your vests and have been assigned to your teams. So let's do even better than last year and have the quickest winter wrap-up ever!” The mayor continued.

The crowd cheered even louder this time. I even saw Lyra jumping high in the air for joy.

“Oh, this is so exciting,” Twilight said.

“Alright everypony, find your team leader.”

The leaders were Rainbow Dash for the blue team, Applejack for the green team, and a unicorn mare with a pink coat and purple mane for tan team.

“And let's get galloping,” the mayor finished.

The ponies ran over to the teams they wanted to be on.

“My gosh. Where should I go? I'm not sure where I'd fit in,” Twilight said.

She looked at the three teams.

“What exactly does everypony do?”

I sensed evil coming nearby.

That can't be good.

“Three months of winter coolness,” Rainbow Dash started to sing.

Why am I always right with these things?

I quickly put my ear buds in, turned on my MP3 player, and set it to high volume.

Anything to not hear that accursed song.

The song was Time Stands Still by Blind Guardian, the Imaginations Trough The Looking Glass live version. I followed Twilight as she and the rest of the ponies sang and danced through one of the most annoying songs my ears ever had to hear. When they were done we were at the bottom of a hill. I took off my ear buds and put them away.

“Everypony belongs to a team. What should I do? Where should I go?” Twilight asked.

Everyone finds their place eventually. I've yet to find mine.

Rainbow Dash flew right passed us and went to three pegasi.

“Alright team, you're clear for takeoff,” Rainbow Dash told them.

The three pegasi took off while she landed near us.

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh. Hey Twilight, what's up?”

“What are you doing?”

“Sending off one of my flight crews to retrieve the birds that have flown south for the winter.”

“Oh, can I help? How about I help clear out the clouds?”

“You kinda need wings to move clouds, correct?” I asked.

“Right. No wings.”

“Sorry Twilight. Trevor, could you help?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Sorry laddie, I'm not getting into that massacre. I don't deal with birds,” I said.

“What are you gonna do then?”

"I don't know for sure yet. I may go help out Fluttershy on tan team, but again, I don't know for sure."

"Well if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me."

Rainbow Dash then flew off, going the same the three pegasi went. I did a quick observation of my surroundings and saw Pinkie Pie skating on the ice on a nearby lake.

"Maybe we could help Pinkie Pie over there."

I pointed to Twilight where she was at.

“Good idea Trevor. Come on Spike, let’s go," Twilight said.

When we didn’t get any kind of answer back, I looked and saw that Spike was sleeping in a bush. Twilight was just about to wake him up, but I stopped her.

“If he doesn’t want to do this, then let him be. We can find him or vice versa later.”

“But it’s—“

“The final day of winter. He shouldn’t freeze, most likely. We can always check on him later if need be.”

Twilight seemed to accept that answer, and the both of us approached the lake

“Hello-o-o-o Twilight and Trevor,” Pinkie Pie said.

She started spinning.

“Wow Pinkie Pie, you're quite the skater. Probably the best skater I've seen,” Twilight said.

Pinkie Pie skated towards us.

“Thanks Twilight. I've been doing this since I was an itty bitty, little little, twinkie Pinkie. Just comes naturally.”

I’m never going get that image out of my head now.

She skated off again and started doing more tricks.

“Which is probably why they designated me to Lake Scorer. I cut lines in the lake with my skates, that way when the rest of the weather team comes here to break the ice. It'll be easy as pie,” Pinkie Pie said.

“How clever. When the thick ice begins to melt, it'll break along the lines,” Twilight thought aloud.

We get it.

“Well you sure have a lot of work ahead of you. There are quite a few lakes in Ponyville,” Twilight said.

“Tell me about it. Hey, Twilight. Wanna help me out?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Would I!”

“Come one, put on those skates over there. I bet you'll be a natural too.”

“Okay.”

Twilight went over to the pair of skates Pinkie Pie had pointed out and put them on.

“I don't see this portraying well,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I've ice skated before. It's not exactly the easiest thing ever.”

“I know that. I've read lots of books about ice skating before.”

"But there's no substitute for experience."

Twilight ignored my words and got on the ice anyway, but had trouble keeping herself up.

“Maybe on second thought.”

She fell down once and hit her head, but quickly got back up.

“Are you gonna give up after one fall? Come now, at least try for a little while.”

Twilight decided to listen to me and went further out into frozen lake. She couldn't control herself in the slightest, but managed to not fall, even after a few close calls. After a few seconds she began to spin uncontrollably.

“Steer! Steer!” Pinkie Pie yelled.

Twilight soon crashed into her and headed in my direction. I crouched down and formed my arms into an X in front of my chest. I felt them collide into my arms, causing me to stagger a bit, but I was able to regain my balance. Their heads popped up around my arms.

“Thanks for stopping us Trevor.”

“No problem,” I said.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie got out of the pile. Pinkie Pie stood beside me and we watched Twilight skate more on the ice. But, after crashing a few more times, she carefully slid back onto to the snow with me and Pinkie Pie.

“Twilight, you did a great job your first time around. I'm sure my first time was just as wobbley, bobbley, crasherific as yours,” Pinkie Pie assured.

“Really?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“No.”

I quickly stifled a giggle.

“But did it make you feel better?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I bet you'll be super awesome at something that keeps your hooves on the ground. I know; Fluttershy could probably use your help with the critters.”

“Well, I'm pretty good with little animals. Yeah, I'll go help her.”

Pinkie Pie pointed us in the direction Fluttershy was at and walked. We found a place with caves absolutely everywhere, and eventually found Fluttershy sticking her head in one with a bell under one of her wings, trying to wake up whatever animal was inside there. She pulled her head out and two hedgehogs came out of the den.

“Aww, how cute,” Twilight commented.

“Aren't they? This is my favorite task of the whole season, when I get to see my little animal friends again when I wake them up from hibernation” Fluttershy said.

“Can’t say I’ve seen so many hibernation caves in one area, are there different animals in each one of these?” I asked.

Fluttershy rang the bell.

“Yes, there’s a different animal in each one of these caves.”

“Very interesting.”

Two porcupines emerged from the den. They yawned and hugged each other, but poked themselves with their needles in the process. Fluttershy sighed.

“But just look at all these dens. I'm worried that I won't be able to wake up every animal before spring comes,” Fluttershy said.

“And that’s why we’re here to help.”

“Really? Oh, that would be wonderful,” Fluttershy replied.

She handed the bell to me.

“Okay, let's start there,” Twilight said, pointing to a den behind us.

We walked over to it; Twilight grabbed the bell with her mouth out of my hand and poked her head into the den. She rang the bell and pulled her head out.

“Hello. Wake up little friends, wherever you are. Spring is coming,” she said.

Twilight rang the bell again.

“I wonder which cute, little, furry creatures I've woken?”

The undead.

Three snaked came out of the cave, yawning as they did.

Or snakes. Good enough.

Twilight screamed at the sight of the snakes

“Snakes! Snakes!” She yelled while backing away.

“Oh come on, it's not like they're poisonous,” I said.

At least I hope so.

I looked at their eyes and saw they were human shaped.

Was it cat eyes means evil or human eyes means evil?

I heard Twilight scream again, looked over to her and saw she was running away from a group of bats flying around. She ran directly into a tree which knocked down a beehive right on top of her.

My my, what a series of unfortunate events.

When she ran passed me with the beehive still stuck to her and the bees chasing after her, she dropped the bell at my feet. I picked up the bell and went to a nearby cave, not wanting to mess with the bees, since I had a bad experience with them as a child (being hunted by bees isn't exactly the best feeling in the world.) The den itself was bigger than the one with bats in it, though not by much. I rang the bell and stuck my head in the den.

“Wake up everyone. Spring is approaching,” I announced.

I pulled my head out and waited for some evil creature to come out of the den. Instead, I got a goat.

What in Gorlog's name is a goat doing in a den!?

The goat walked passed me, not letting out a baa or anything, and went on its marry way, doing whatever goats do.

I really hate goats.

“Uh, Fluttershy?” I asked.

“Yes?” Fluttershy replied.

“Why was a goat in a den?”

“... I don't know.”

“But... Didn't you... Never mind.”

I was too much in disbelief to ask more questions about the goat, so I continued onto the next den. The den was human-sized and looked deserted, but just to make sure, I went inside. I was right about the being deserted part, save for the insects crawling around. The light from the outside world slowly faded as I went further and further into the cave.

“Is anyone here?” I asked.

No answer.

I don't like this.

I went in a little deeper, where little light remained, and found some patches of white hair on the ground. I followed the trail until I saw Angel.

“Angel? What are you doing here?”

The rabbit looked at me.

“Well?”

He looked around in semi-panic.

“I suggest you give me an answer, pretty quickly too.”

Angel ran towards the exit. I tried grabbing him but missed him, and chased him out of the cave and near the forest. Just before he got into the forest, I leaped and grabbed him by the ears.

“Why were you freaking out!?”

He tried to kick me multiple times, but failed with every kick.

“That doesn't answer my question.”

He closed his eyes and crossed his arms, not wanting to give me any answered.

So that's how you're gonna be, eh?

I spun him in a circle while he was upside-down in the air for a minute, then held him in front of me again.

“I'll ask you one more time before I go full throttle. Why have you been acting so strange?”

He took my bluff seriously and just stared blankly at the forest. I looked over and saw a crow perched on one of the branches. It cawed at me and flew into the forest.

“You wanted to chase a crow?”

He nodded shamefully.

You're a terrible liar, but let's see what happens, for giggles of course.

I slowly set the rabbit down and he hopped to where I assumed Fluttershy's house was. I didn't see Fluttershy or Twilight around, so I just picked up the bell and continued to wake up some of the animals. As I had just finished waking up the animals in the area, I heard a voice in my mind that made my skin crawl.

“Tell me what ails you, dear child,” the voice from the rock tomb said.

Shut up!

“That's not very nice to say to the one who saved your life.”

And the one that made me cough up blood, and the one who's been mentally messing with me almost the entire time I've been here!

“Oh come on, it's all been in good fun.”

“Fun for you perhaps,” I hissed.

“Don't give me that. I want to help you.”

For all I know you want destroy this place, and me along with it.

“Come now. Why would I use you just to destroy you?”

Let's see. I'm no longer useful to you, I'm a threat to you, and I’m just a liability. I could think of many others.

“Don't be silly. Through you, I will usher in a new age. Not just for here, but for this entire planet.”

Sorry, but I don't feel like making history at the moment.

“You will one day. I know you; I've known you since you got here.”

Stalker much?

I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and coughed up some blood.

“Don't mess with me, boy.”

I snickered.

You won't kill me. You still need me, remember?

“Doesn't mean you're not replaceable.”

What do you mean?

No response. Who or whatever that thing is was gone now, hopefully for the better.

“Trevor, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

She looked at the blood and looked back at me in disbelief.

“What happened?”

Let's see how I get out of this one.

“Let's just say someone been watching over me since I got here.”

“And they did this to you?”

“Seems like it. Don’t worry, they’re gone now.”

“Do you want me to walk you to the hospital?”

“No thanks, I’m feeling better now. I don’t think whoever was messing with me will do it again.

That was a lie, and Fluttershy saw right through it.

“Are you sure? Me and the rest of the girls could help you look for them and teach them why it’s not nice to hurt others.”

Did you just make a threat? I’m a bit impressed Fluttershy.

“Again, no. If they come by again I’ll be sure to let you and the rest of the girls know.”

Though I would already have their head on a pike.

“Have you got all the dens in that area done?”

“Aye, I was going to check on Twilight to see how she was doing. She had a bit of trouble with waking up the animals last I saw her.”

I had that sense that someone was behind me. I turned around and saw Lyra in a tan vest.

Why am I not surprised.

“Fluttershy, team three is done with the seventh den spot,” Lyra said.

“Great. Have them go to third; me and Trevor will finish up here. Have you met Trevor?” Fluttershy asked.

“We've met,” she said with a sneer.

“On multiple occasions,” I said, returning the same sneer.

Lyra left and went back to her team.

“So how many dens spots are there?” I asked.

“Eight,” Fluttershy said.

The perfect number.

“And which one are we at?”

“Six.”

Fluttershy walked with me as I tried to find Twilight, so I told her about what happened with Angel.

“I'm glad it wasn't something serious,” she said.

“Aye, I still find it a bit strange though.”

“Still, thank you for doing that.”

“No problem. Let me know if anything else strange happens to him.”

Fluttershy nodded her head and I left the den spot and searched around for Twilight. I found her, Spike, and Applejack in a snow pile.

“Did I miss something?” I asked.

“Just Twilight using magic,” Applejack said with spite, “That's not how we do around here Twilight, and especially not on my farm.”

I could see tears forming in Twilight's eyes.

Not good.

“Well see... I just wanted to--” Twilight began to say.

She popped out of the snow and ran away.

Blast it.

I followed her into town. She hid in a snow covered bush in town square. I walked up to the bush and sat next to it.

“Twilight, come on out,” I said.

“Go away,” she said with sorrow in her tone.

“Not until you come out and try to get something done.”

“I'm a winter mess up.”

“No you're not. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“I can't ice skate, wake animals, or clear snow.”

“That doesn't mean you're not useful.”

“Then how am I useful?”

“I can’t say I know for sure now, but Winter Wrap-Up day isn’t over yet. So I’m sure you’ll find something.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Rainbow Dash, ya'll on the weather team need to melt the rest of this snow here on the ground and the trees, pronto,” Applejack said.

“Got it,” Rainbow Dash confirmed.

She started to take off until Fluttershy got in her way.

“You can't, my poor little animals homes will get flooded if the snow melts too fast,” Fluttershy informed.

“Got it.”

She turned and tried to take off in the other direction, but this time Applejack was in her way.

“I'm tellin' ya Rainbow, you gotta melt that snow, now,” Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash took off into the sky.

“No, you simply must wait,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash halted.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Go,” Applejack said.

“Stop,” Fluttershy said.

“Go.”

“Stop.”

Rainbow Dash groaned.

“Make up your mind!” She yelled.

“Oh. What in Equestria are all of you arguing about? This sort of silliness is why we were late for spring last year, and the year before that, and the year before that” The mayor said as she walked in.

Twilight popped her head out of the bush.

“Did she say late?” Twilight asked.

I grinned.

“See what I mean? Never give up too quickly,” I said.

She replied to me with a smile, and the both of us sat back to see what the rest of the situation was.

“I was hoping my amazingly inspirational speech would urge everyone to do better than last year, but now it looks like we'll be later than ever. I mean just look at this catastrophe. The ice scorers made the ice chunks too big to melt. The nest designers are drastically behind, we need several hundreds and she's only made one. And don't get me started on how all the clouds still in the sky, the icicles on the trees. This isn't good, not at all,” Mayor said.

“And it's gonna be all the pieces of disastrous if we can't get our seeds planted,” Applejack said.

“Chillax Applejack, we're bustin' our chops as fast as we can,” Rainbow Dash informed calmly.

“No, not fast, you have to wake animals slowly,” Fluttershy said.

Big Mac and an orange pony with a brown mane came up to Applejack.

“Uh, AJ,” Big Mac said.

Applejack face-palmed and sighed with irritation.

“Good gravy. Caramel lost the grass seeds again, didn't he?” Applejack asked.

“Eeyup.”

A pegasi suddenly flew near the group.

“Ditzy Doo accidentally went north to get the southern birds!” she announced.

“Oh that feather brain. Didn't she learn her lesson last year when she went west?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The whole group started arguing on their different problems.

“Stop this at once, we don't have time to argue. It's almost sundown, spring's going to be late again. Another year of scandal and shame, if only we could be more organized,” Mayor mourned.

Twilight popped out of the bushes.

“Trevor, get my check list and clipboard, stat,” Twilight ordered.

“Aye!”

I ran back to the house and got a check list, clipboard, quill, and a container full of ink and brought them back to her. She levitated the items out of my hands and started writing things down. I got out my MP3 Player again and set it to high volume once again. When I turned it on it started playing Revolution by Flogging Molly. I felt that I had no more parts to play at this point, so I sat down by a nearby tree and tried to get some sleep back that was stolen from me by Twilight. I peeked from time to time to see what was going on occasionally, but after a few minutes a giant burst of wind woke me up completely. It was so strong I was surprised my glasses didn't lodge itself in my skull. I closed my eyes again, in hopes of getting some sleep without being interrupted, until I felt something nudging my right arm.

I can’t win today, can I?

When I opened my eyes I saw Twilight, wearing a combination of all three vests.

“So how did everything go?” I asked groggily.

“It went great! Spring arrived on time this year. And I got a finally got a vest,” she said with joy.

I looked behind her and saw the green grass, blooming flowers, and birds flying around.

“Impressive. How long was I asleep for? Felt like only a few minutes.”

“For a few hours now.”

“Apparently that wasn’t enough. How’s Spike doing?”

I heard a scream in the distance, most likely from Spike.

“Waking up from his nap by the sound of it.”

The both of us laughed and went over to where we left Spike, and found him looking around, sniffling and occasionally sneezing. The three of us went home and stayed there for the rest of the day. I sat next to the fire with Spike, who was wearing a green bathrobe and some slippers, while Twilight was nearby, reading more of her books. I stared deep into the flame.

I need to figure who brought me, and how to get home. I think it’s safe to rule out that Twilight brought me here by mistake, she would have said something much sooner if that was the case. Celestia could still be hiding something from me. Wait, what about that man on the ship? Everything’s gone so crazy that I completely forgot about him. Though I shouldn’t completely take Celestia out of the picture, if fanfictions and the show have taught me anything, it’s that Celestia has more power than she lets on.

“Spike, take a letter,” Twilight said.

Spike got out of his chair, went to the writing board and got out a quill and piece of paper.

“Dear Princess Celestia: Winter Wrap-Up was one of the most special things I've ever done here in Ponyville. It helped me to learn that we all have hidden talents, and if we're patient and diligent, we're sure to find them. And as always, with good friendship and team work, ponies can accomplish anything. How's that Spike?”

When he didn’t give a response I looked over to where he was at and saw that he was asleep.

“I think it was good,” I said.

Me and Twilight laughed for a while, until there was a knock at the door.

Chapter 13: Wilderness Nightmare

I opened the door and saw Fluttershy with tears filling up her eyes.

“Fluttershy, what's wrong?” I asked.

“I-i-it's An-an—” Fluttershy stammered.

All of sudden she started crying semi-loudly. I sat down next to her and she dug her face into my shirt to wipe away the tears.

“Fluttershy, calm down and tell me what happened,” I said soothingly.

She sniffed and looked up at me.

“After Winter Wrap-Up I fed my animals. While I was feeding the birds I turned back and saw Angel run into the woods. I tried chasing him and asking him to come back, but he just kept running until I lost sight of him.”

I'm gonna strangle that rabbit.

I sighed.

“Alright Twilight, you watch over Fluttershy while I'm gone.”

“What are you going?” Twilight asked.

“I'm gonna find that rabbit.”

Without waiting for any retort, I walked out the door and headed for the Everfree Forest. As I was running through town I could hear Lyra calling my name, but I didn't care to look back; I kept running towards the infamous forest. When I got to the Everfree I felt a strange, almost haunting vibe coming from within the forest, but I threw whatever thoughts of doubt I had and charged in.

“Angel! Come on out, you've got some explaining to do!” I yelled.

No response, not that I was actually expecting one, a verbal one anyway. As I walked further I heard a dark growl ahead of me and a little bit the right.

Not good.

I saw yellow eyes heading towards me, more following behind them as they got closer to me. The first pair of eyes stepped into a lighter area and revealed itself to be a timberwolf.

Oh no.

The timberwolves started to surround me. They didn't make any attacks; they just waited for me to do something.

Let's see. The one in the back will most likely make the first move, and then the rest of the pack will follow after.

I looked around and saw eight pairs of eyes.

I'll have seven to deal with once the one from behind is dead. I sure hope this works.

I looked at the ground near my feet and saw a small rock. I picked it up and threw it at the one in front of me; it hit him directly between the eyes, the wolf replying with a growl

Come on, make a move.

Ask and ye shall receive, the one from behind jumped towards me. I spun around and kicked it back, making the rest of the group follow after. I jumped back from the area they were attacking and quickly ran away from them.

I need a weapon, fast!

I looked around as I kept running seeing only small stick and rocks.

All I need is something with a good knock to it, maybe even a knife.

I could hear the timberwolves breathing as they got closer and closer.

Guess I’ll have to improvise.

I stopped and immediately looked back. The wolves were still after me and were closing in on me quickly. When the closest one got within range I punched it between the eyes, breaking the hollow wooden skull with a satisfying and almost peaceful CRACK! The now dead timberwolf's head was completely gone from the impact and the rest of its group was closing in quickly. I reached into its body, felt something stronger then wood, ripped it out and saw that it was a metal rib.

Natural on the outside and mechanical on the inside I suppose.

I held the metal rib with the sharp end towards the pack and waited for them to get to me. When the first one got close I stabbed the metal rib through its skull, quickly pulled it out, and threw the lifeless body aside. The next three came at me in different directions, one in front, one from the left, and one from behind. I blocked one of the strikes from the one in front, but the other two pounced on me and started clawing at me. I could feel my skin being torn from my back and my left arm. I stabbed the one from behind in the leg, which was enough for it to get back. I yanked my arm away from the other timberwolf and stabbed it through the neck. The timberwolf from the front jumped towards me, knocked me to the ground and tried to eat my face, but I put the bone in between its jaw and tried to push the beast away. I took a quick look behind me and saw the other timberwolf rushing over to help its friend. After I kicked the first timberwolf off me, sending it on its back, I faced the other timberwolf and stabbed it between the eyes when it leaped towards me. When I tried to take the bone out of it, the bone wouldn't come out.

Come on now…

I twisted and moved it around to try and loosen it, but nothing seemed to work. When I looked back I saw the first timberwolf back on its feet and ready to attack. Quickly improvising, I swung the dead timberwolf’s body at the other timberwolf like a huge club, smacked it, and sent it slamming into a tree. Then I dropped the timberwolf attached to my weapon and curb stomped the beast, breaking its skull and freeing my metal rib. I picked up my weapon and turned to the last remaining wolf, slowly getting up and looking at me with rage. I got in a defensive stance and waited for the timberwolf until it started to charge me.

Alright chump, let's do this.

I followed its lead and ran towards it. When we got close to each other, the wolf jumped a good three feet in the air, and I countered by sliding on my legs to get under him and planted my weapon in the middle of its chest and let the blade slide with me until it came out with the sound of a grotesque wreckage. I got back on my feet turned to the wolf, still standing and running towards me again. I flipped the metal rib to its blunt side and clubbed the timberwolf across the left side of its face, breaking half of its skull open. Just when I thought it was over, I heard more timberwolves coming towards me at a very fast pace. Had my wounds been more fatal I would have ran, but instead I held my ground, keeping still and my ears open to try and detect where they would try to attack from. The pack growled as they got closer, but a second later the sound of the timberwolves running and growling stopped completely. No rustling, no howls, no growling, just silence.

What are they up to?

The only sound I could hear was my heart beating like a metal band drum. I looked around slowly, trying to see something out of place from the almost-blinding darkness around me.

Come on, bring it.

I heard a barely audible growl coming from behind me.

“Gotcha!” I accidentally yelled.

I turned to face the timberwolf from behind, expecting it to leap out, but instead another timberwolf leaped from the shadows and got on my back, digging its claws into my shoulder and biting near the base of my left wing. I let out a mighty cry of pain and stabbed the timberwolf in the right eye with my metal rib, killing the wolf. The limp body started to fall, making its claws pull down further on my skin. Quickly, I pulled the claws out with a cry of pain and frantically looked around for the next one. The next timberwolf emerged from the right of me, slowly moving towards me with a fiery rage in its eyes. It charged at me with a snarl and teeth bearing. When it got close it tried to bite my left leg, but I lifted it up before he could and slammed my leg down on the wolf’s head, cracking it a little bit, and did another quick stomp to crack open the top of its head. It seemed to stop moving so I slowly put my leg down, just in time for the next two to emerge by charging me. The two stayed side-by-side, making it harder to choose which one to kill first. The one on the right jumped towards me when it got close, so I stabbed my bone through the bottom of its jaw and quickly took it out. Just when I was about to attack the second one it bit my left foot and trashed its head around. I pulled my foot back to try and escaped it grasp, but only got a few inches, pulling the wolf with it. Out of panic, I started to hit the timberwolf with the club-part of the rib, hitting it repeatedly on the left side of its face. The wolf didn’t let go until the third hit broke part of its skull open. It let out a bit of a yelp and went a few steps back before it arched its back at me.

“I'll give one chance and one chance only. Surrender, or die with your brothers,” I warned.

When timberwolf jumped towards me I dropped the metal rib and stood there. The wolf opened its jaw when it got close, and I replied by side-stepping towards it and side-kicking it in the middle of its mouth, making its jaw split in half, killing it as soon as it hit the ground. I looked around, the bodies of the timberwolves, or what was left of them anyway, had created a clutter all around me. I looked around for any signs of where I was at, but only found more dense trees in every direction. I let out a sigh and picked up my metal rib.

“Great. Looks like I'm going off of instinct.”

I went whatever way I thought was north until I remembered something very obvious after I walked a few feet.

Wings! Dur.

I started flapping my wings, but quickly remembered the damage the timberwolf had done on my wings in the form of surging pain.

Blast!

I looked at the scar on my left arm and saw three scratches going down from the shoulder to the elbow, still letting out blood.

Ouch, gonna need to patch that up.

I took my shirt and was able to wrap it around most of the wound, helping to slow down the bleeding, though just a little bit.

It'll have to do.

When I was about to move on I heard a growl darker and louder growl than that of a timberwolf’s. Slowly, I turned around to see what had caused it and saw the outline of a manticore about four feet behind me.

Oh dearie me.

The manticore roared at me, cuing me to run as fast as I possibly could. Running through the branches that stuck out from the trees and vines wasn’t exactly easy, but I was able to keep my distance from the beast, though the sound of its breathing and thrashing of the environment was close to me. I kept making sharp turns left and right to try and slow the beast down, though it was just minor, yet I still looked for a way out of this predicament I was in. But no such luck came by. Soon it just started tearing down the trees that I would use to help make my sharp turns.

This might be a small chance. But it's what I got left.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the massive beast, drool coming from his mouth. I did the only thing I thought I could to slow down the beast, possibly for good. I tossed my metal bone at the manticore and it pierced his left eye, not going far enough to reach his brain and kill him like I had hoped, but still enough for him to let out a loud roar in pain. The beast began to run faster towards me, his other eye turning bloodshot.

Well, it was worth a shot. The only thing I can do now is wait for him to bleed out or try to escape.

I made sure to keep to the left side of him and hope to get away from him by hiding in his blind spot. When I tried to made a sharp left turn to get away from the beast, it didn't notice me slip away and kept running forward.

Thank Gorlog.

I hid behind a tree and sat down on the ground to rest and let out a huge sigh of glee and relief. Though I thought it was over too soon. I could hear the beast coming back and sniffing around the area to find me. I looked at the wound on my arm, blood still seeping from the wound.

He's gonna smell my blood.

I took some of the fresh blood on my arm, smeared it on the tree, and quietly moved to a tree about five feet away. I was able to see the beast walk up to the blood, licked it, and growled. I dared not move in case I would step on a twig or crunch some fallen leaves. I saw the beast sniff again, turned away from me and walked off.

Don't know how that worked, but I shouldn’t question it right now. I'm alive, and that's what matters.

I could still hear its growl.

Might as well stay here for a bit, could increase my chance of survival.

Suddenly, the tree I was hiding was cut close to the stump and collapsed to the right, revealing the manticore behind it, breathing heavily and staring down at me. Its working eye was completely bloodshot, the one I stabbed was leaking discharge, and its mouth was covered in blood, drool, and dirt. We just stood there in silence for a couple seconds. That silence was quickly broken when I yanked the bone out of his eye and ran away as quickly as I could. The manticore roared at me and began the chase yet again. The sound of the manticore flapping its wings roared behind me as I frantically swatted and crashed through the terrain around me.

Wait, why am I running? I have my weapon back, I still have a slight chance to win this.

I stopped, turned around, and brought up my weapon as the sound of trees crashing came closer and closer.

Either I'm gonna kill it and live or I'm gonna kill it and die. Either way, I kill it.

When I saw the outline of the manticore I wait for my moment to strike. As soon as I could see the manticore's mouth open I ran towards it, jumped forward and straightened my body like a pencil, and dove right into its mouth. As soon as I felt the manticore’s tongue on my arms, I drove my bone through the roof of its mouth and dragged the blade with me down into its stomach. The manticore let out a loud roar when I landed in his stomach, then collapsed to the ground. I waited for a little bit in the manticore’s stomach acid, waiting for it to move again to signify that it was still alive. As soon as I saw small holes in my shirt and pants, I climbed out of the beast’s throat, bashed its teeth out with the bone, and crawled out of its mouth. The first thing that overwhelmed my senses was the smell of blood and bodily liquids, making me flinch a bit.

Note to self: take shower when we get back to Twilight’s.

I walked forward, wanting to get away from the dead beast before anything wanted to take a bite out of it, and me alongside it. As I walked through the forest I saw wild animals that actually didn’t want to kill me for once, and even tried asking them if they saw Angel, but they had no idea what I was talking about.

“Well that figures. Back to square one,” I muttered to myself.

After walking for about a mile I found an unfinished carrot on the ground. Assuming it was Angel’s I looked around for any possible animal, and saw a squirrel picking up a nut for next winter’s harvest.

“Squirrel.”

It looked at me with a quizzical look, seeming to actually understand what I was saying.

“Do you know who left this carrot here?”

The squirrel nodded its head.

“Perfect. Do you know where he went?” I asked with a bright expression on my face.

It nodded once again and pointed east of where I was standing.

“Awesome, thanks a lot squirrel.”

I gave the squirrel a thumb up and left towards the direction it pointed me in, hearing my stomach growling as I went.

Not now stomach, I shall feed us once we get back.

When my stomach replied with a much louder and deeper growl, I snatched some berries off a nearby tree. They almost looked like miniature strawberries, but were more of a darker shade of red.

Eat or don't eat? Well, with my luck so far I’m pretty sure this won’t kill me.

I ate one of the berries and continued on my way, but then the world around me began deteriorating into something different. The trees and my metal bone disappeared, and then giant walls of dirt appeared all around me.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to eat that cherry.

A bald man slowly appeared a few feet in front of me, facing the dirt wall, wearing nothing but some white shorts.

“Yes, perhaps it wasn't,” the man said, sounding exactly like me.

When he turned towards me the first thing I noticed was his left eye was completely white, and his right eye was half white and half black.

“Who in Gorlog’s name are you?” I asked.

“My name is John, and the real question is, how did you get here?”

“Where is here exactly?”

“This is the essence of the soul, the very core of a human.”

“A big dirt pit is the very center of a person?”

“Every soul is different. Does a dirt pit mean something to or about you?”

“Nothing that I can think of. What’s with your right eye, by the way? I’m pretty sure that isn’t natural.”

“These are a meter, a meter of your sins.”

“What!? So does that make you my conscience or…”

“An angel, yes. And before you ask, no I’m not the John the Baptist.”

“Good to know. So, do you know what’s happening to me? Who that man was or anything like that?”

“Unfortunately I know only as much as you do, since I am a part of you.”

“But you’re also an angel of Heaven.”

“Indeed, I was sent from God to help you on your path to salvation.”

“And it seems you’re doing a good job.”

“Yes, but not a perfect job. There are a few things you could stay away from.”

“I know, but you know how hard it is to keep away from them.”

“Can’t say I do understand; I was never human before.”

“Really? You were one of the original angels?”

Before John answered, a maniacal laugh echoed throughout the pit.

“What is this, a new guest?” The voice asked with a dark and spine-tingling tone.

“No… not him, not now!” John said, looking around frantically.

“What do you mean? Who was that?” I asked.

“There’s no time to explain, he’ll be here any moment now.”

“And who is h—“

“In nomine Domini Dei, Jesu, et sanctu spiritus: mitte anima ei homo dorsum domus cum auxilium!”

He pushed both his arms towards me and a white light emitted from it, soon swallowing me whole. I shielded my eyes from the light, and once I felt the world get darker, I moved my arms away and saw that I was on the ground in the middle of the forest, the bone right next to me.

I’m… back?

I got up and suddenly got light-headed for a few seconds. I shook it off until it passed, picked up the cherry, and then examined it closely, as if it would reveal what it did to me.

Blasted cherry. Note to self: make sure you know what you’re eating before you do; otherwise you’ll go on some weird acid trip.

I threw the cherry as far away from me as my strength would allow and looked around for any bunny track. Sadly, there were none to be seen. When I tried to take a step forward, I almost collapsed to the ground and started to feel dizzy.

No… Guess I lost too much blood when I passed out. Well I can try to get out of this forest, but it might near-impossible to get to the hospital in Ponyville. Cursed shame, I was just starting to enjoy this new life I was given.

The faint sounds of a pair of wings flapping came near me, revealing itself to be caused by a single raven when it passed me in a circular motion. Suddenly, about twenty crows flew around me, circling around at blinding speeds that I could barely keep up with. They never cawed, but just kept circling around me, looking at me.

“Do not worry human, I am your angel. Do not be in despair, I will help you and guide you home!” An unseen woman told me.

I could feel my wounds slowly heal, and my body feeling more refreshed. When I stood tall on my feet, feeling as good as new, the crows flew into the sky in different direction, letting out one huge “CAW!”

What in the world? What is happening to me, why do all these things happen to me? Though I shouldn’t complain this time, that woman somehow healed me. Who was she anyway?

I went to pick up my metal rib and saw that Angel was standing right beside it.

“Angel! There you are!” I said in a half-cheery, half-accusing tone.

Angel looked to the ground and slowly kicked the ground, having a very apologetic look on his face.

“You certainly gave Fluttershy some trouble.”

Angel hung his head even lower, and let his arms droop close to the ground. I let out a sigh and patted his head.

“Well, I found you now. Shall we go back?”

He looked up to me and nodded.

“Good. But how do we get out of here?”

Angel looked up in the sky and pointed at an aurora that began right under us and headed west.

“Good theory.”

We followed the aurora as best we could, sometimes having to change our directions because we either got lost or the aurora went in a different direction. But, we managed to get out of the forest in what felt like twenty minutes.

“So Angel, out of curiosity, why were you in the forest in the first place?”

He imitated the crows by flapping his arms and running in a circle.

“You were there because of the crows?”

Angel shook his head, then put his ears down, imitating long hair, and tried to act all sweet-like.

“Not, the crows, but the woman drew you in?

Angel nodded his head as a response.

“How’d she do that?”

Angel put a hand to his chin, thinking over it for a little bit, and then gave a shrug.

“Really? You have no idea what drew you in?”

He nodded with a shameful look to him.

“Guess that’s as good of an answer as we’re gonna get.”

I looked towards Ponyville and was taken aback by the fantastic sight before me. It was completely shrouded in a shimmering celestial light that came from an opening in a huge cloud.

“You think the girl did that to?”

Angel simply nodded his head, also impressed at the sight. We ran towards Twilight’s feeling the light bathing our bodies. It felt lukewarm across my skin, almost having a comforting and protective feeling to it. When the two of us made it to Twilight’s house, I knocked on the door and it immediately opened with a pull of Twilight’s magic. Twilight and Fluttershy looked at us, amazed that we were even still alive.

“Angel! You're back!” Fluttershy said with tears of joy in her eyes.

Angel did an apologetic motion.

“It's alright Angel, I forgive you,” she said.

As Fluttershy went up to hug Angel, Twilight looked at my bandaged arm, back, and the manticore blood that covered me.

“Trevor, what happened to you!?” Twilight asked in concern.

“Let's just say Angel wasn't the only one I met,” I vaguely said.

Twilight sighed with a hint of frustration in it.

“I'll take you to the doctor in a little bit.

Fluttershy and Angel were hugging, for the most part anyway.

“Actually there’s no need. The wounds have completely healed.”

I unwrapped my bandages and revealed my completely healed arm and back.

“What, how!?”

“If I knew myself I would tell you. Guess I got an angel on my shoulder.”

And one that’s in that forest.

Fluttershy turned towards me with a soft and heart-warming smile.

“Trevor, I can't thank you enough for what you did,” Fluttershy said, still having some remnants of joyful tears.

“Don’t worry about, anything to help out a dear friend.”

Twilight noticed the bone in my hand.

“What is that?” Twilight asked.

“It’s a timberwolf rib.”

“How in world of Equestria did you get that!?”

“Like I said, I met things other than Angel.”

I laid the rib on the table and sat down on one of the nearby chairs.

“Trevor thanks again, if you don't mind me saying,” Fluttershy said.

“I don't mind at all,” I said with a smile.

Fluttershy and Angel left and headed back home.

“So about that rib…,” Twilight said.

I let out a sigh that turned into a light chuckle.

“Okay, so it all began when I got lost, as I usually do when I go into a forest.”

Chapter 14: A Game of Fashion

When I had woken up I was staring into complete emptiness. As I started to get up, I soon realized that I was back in the dirt pit, but the person who was with me was not John, but someone else. This man was covered in darkness, was tall and had long hair like mine, and had a curved horn sticking out of his right temple. He was sitting down on a dirt mound, facing the wall in front of us. As soon as I took a step forward, the man turned to me, his eyes goat-like and red as blood, but quickly blinked, turning into normal, blue eyes.

“Hello, who are you?” The man asked with a voice just like mine.

Upon studying his face, I realized that it was exactly like mine, excluding it being covered in darkness of course.

“Uh, I'm Trevor, and who might you be?” I asked nervously.

“My name's Trevor too, but only to those out in your world. Everyone who knows me, the real me, calls me Rix.”

“And what is the real you?”

He gave me a large grin.

“I'll show you, but I have to ask, are you a good fighter?”

“I don't know. No one's ever gave me a re--”

Within the blink of an eye Rix was right next to me holding a scythe, which was now sticking halfway in my stomach. Rix swung the scythe like a baseball bat, throwing me to the wall with a loud thud. I fell a few feet to the ground, landing face first. As I slowly got up, I saw Rix holding the scythe with the spear end pointed towards me. When I was on my knees, Rix threw the spear toward with a mighty throw and aimed it towards my heart. I moved my torso to the right and the spear missed my heart, but pierced my left shoulder and nailed me to the wall, letting out a cry of pain as I tried in vain to pull it out. Rix walked over to me, laughing sadistically as he looked at me with a mischievous look. When Rix was in front of me, he grabbed me by the throat with his right hand, grabbed the scythe with the other, and placed his left foot on my shoulder. He ripped out the scythe, making me scream louder than the last time, and lifted me a foot off the ground, bringing my face close to his.

“You are so pathetic!” He loudly mocked.

“Let me go and I'll show you how I really fight,” I bluffed.

Rix began laughing like a hyena. When I thrust my head towards him for a headbutt, he brought his head back and retorted with his own successful headbutt.

“I watched you take on those timberwolves and manticore, and I was actually quite impressed, given how you've barely been in any fights. But seeing you fight me is such a disappointment.”

I felt his grip tightened around my throat, nearly choking me. I threw a left punch at his face, and it connected to his right cheek. But, Rix didn't move, not even closing his eye when the strike was slowly moving off his face. He laughed at my attempt to get free and pointed the scythe to my forehead.

“I won't kill you, not yet. Instead, I'm gonna give you an offer you can't refuse. I can give you power beyond that of any human, all for the simple price of--”

Rix was suddenly interrupted by three consecutive gunshots, all hitting Rix's chest by the way he flinched. I looked over Rix's shoulder and saw John pointing a pistol at Rix, smoke coming out of the barrel.

“Put him down, Rix. Now,” John sternly ordered.

“John... quite the timing you have.”

“Rix, you know we're not suppose to directly interfere, it's against--”

“Enough with your rules! God brought him to us, didn't he? I think we have a right to 'influence,' don't you?”

“Whether he's here with us or not is none of our concern. Leave him be, or else I'll have to break a few rules myself.”

“We both know you won't. You're too much of a good little soldier to disobey daddy now.”

“One last chance Rix.”

“Than you better make it count.”

Rix threw me to the wall and spun his scythe in a circular rotation.

“Trevor, get out of here, now!”

John fired his pistol at Rix's head and Rix stopped his scythe in front of him, the blade sticking towards his face. I heard the bullet get cut by the scythe and felt the two pieces graze the top of my ears.

How am I suppose to get out!?

The words from my mind echoed throughout the entire pit.

“DEUS! ADIUVA!”

John fired another shot, this time hitting Rix in his right leg, causing him to flinch.

“God does not exist here!” Rix yelled

“Trevor...”

“What!?” I nervously asked.

“I'm sorry.”

John pointed the gun at me, and before I could yell out any defiance, he pulled the trigger. The flash from the barrel of his gun was the last thing I saw before everything went black. I didn't hear Rix or John yelling or battling, nor could I move my body, feeling paralyzed. Minutes slowly passed before my body would let me move a single nerve. I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling of Twilight's house. Needless to say, I was a bit glad that I out of that place. More specifically, I was away from Rix.

But are those two really demons and angels inside of me? It wouldn't be too far fetched, given what's happened to me thus far. Plus what John said makes some sense. I wonder if Fluttershy know anything about the berries in that forest, or maybe Twilight would know. Though it would probably be best if I just pretend that whole ordeal was a dream, for now anyway.

I got out of bed, got dressed, and went downstairs. Twilight and Spike were in their usual places at the table, eating breakfast, a glass of water and apple waiting at my spot.

“Good morning, Trevor,” Twilight greeted,

“Mornin',” I replied.

I took my seat and too a big bite out of my apple, drinking the juice from it as I chewed.

“So, guess who agreed to make you a dress.”

“I hope you mean suit, and would it be Rarity?”

Twilight nodded with a hum of approval.

“Nice. Any idea when it'll be ready?”

“You and I will check on her after you're done with breakfast.”

I nodded as I swallowed the first bite and took another. Me and Twilight began to walk to Rarity's about ten minutes later and saw the rest of the six outside, waiting patiently.

“You girls waiting too?” I asked as we approached Rarity's house.

“Yes,” they monotonously said in unison.

Figures.

I approached the door and knocked on the door three times with the back of my fist.

“Rarity, you have an audience waiting for you.”

“One moment please. I've already finished the dresses for the girls, I just need to put on the finishing touches for yours,” Rarity said.

I hope you mean “suit.”

“Sure thing, no problem.”

With a sigh, I sat down right next to the door, somewhat near the rest of the girls, and noticed three small ponies playing about a yard away. I focused on who in the world that could be, and as soon as I figured out it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they noticed me and began dashing to where I was at.

One of the things I swore I would try to avoid if I would ever come to this world, and now I have to suffer through it. Curse you, cruel fate.

The three of them stopped running when they got close and stopped entirely when they were next to me.

“Hello. Is there something you need?” I asked with a look that obviously showed that I didn't want to be bothered.

“Are you the human that every pony’s been talking about?” Scootaloo asked, either ignoring my look or was completely oblivious of it.

Well, let's see. I don't hooves, I'm about three times bigger than you, and I don't have fur, excluding my hair. What do you think!?

“Yep, that's me.”

“Awesome, where did you come from?”

“You wouldn't know even if I told you.”

“I dunno, we're pretty smart,” Applebloom retorted.

What are my vague and/or sarcastic options here? Hash tag 'Mercia, Mother Russia, The Garden of Eden. The list goes on, but I best get to the point.

“Earth.”

“You're from the ground?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“No, I'm from the planet Earth, as in one of those stars you see in the sky is my home.”

“Whoa, so you're an alien?” Scootaloo asked.

“Don't be silly Scootaloo, there's no such thing as aliens,” Sweetie Belle informed.

“But there's one standing right next to you, you even spoke to it.”

I was tempted to correct them out of pure instinct, but I held myself back so that they wouldn't focus their vocal attention to me.

“Just because he looks different from us doesn't mean he's an alien.”

“That's exactly what an alien is!” I loudly thought aloud.

“No it's not! Zecora was different and everyone thought she was an alien, but she was just like everyone else.”

“That's because zebras have a very similar genetic structure to ponies. I am a human, I stand on two legs, have five fingers, and able to think up complicated strategies and mathematical equations.”

“That sounds a lot like a monkey.”

“And many scientists where I come from think that all of humanity came from monkeys. I don't exactly believe that, but our likeness is pretty high.”

“So you're a mutated monkey?” Scootaloo asked with a small smirk.

“Oh no, I'm not gonna play that game. If I play that game I will most likely lose, so, I'm just gonna say no and call that end of discussion.”

“So if yer from another planet, why don't you ask Celestia to use her magic to take you home?” Applebloom asked.

If I had a dollar for every time--

“Indeed I did, and before you ask, no she's not going to.”

“Because you broke into the castle in Canterlot,” Scootaloo said.

“Where did you hear about that?”

“Rainbow Dash told me that you fought off a bunch of royal guards and barged into the Princess's throne room.”

I look to Rainbow Dash and gave her a cold glare, and she replied with a sheepish grin.

I could still accept or deny this, but who would I be if I didn't boast a bit in my fighting successes.

“Well, yeah, I did do those things. I was having a bit of a mental breakdown moment.”

All three of the raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly a mental breakdown was. I was half-tempted to explain, in great detail, what happens when a person has a mental breakdown, but Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were there, which would earn me a few hits to the skull, glares, and making a certain someone cry.

“Come on girls, we have some crusadin' stuff to do,” Applebloom said.

“Oh yeah, CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FORE--” Scootaloo began to cheer.

Sweetie Belle quickly covered her mouth with a hoof and shushed her.

“Not right now,” she whispered, barely audible to me.

That peeked my interest a bit. Usually those girls would announce to the world what they were going to do to get their cutie marks, but actually keeping it a secret sounded like a mere myth.

At least I won't be bored today.

The three ran off towards the woods when Rarity opened the door.

“Alright, I have everything ready. Now close your eyes and follow me,” Rarity instructed.

I stood up and closed my eyes, facing the sound of Rarity's voice.

“How are we suppose to follow you if we have our eyes close?” I asked.

“Just walk ahead.”

I did as Rarity had said, feeling the flooring change from grass and dirt to granite flooring.

“That's right. Keep them closed. Don't look,” Rarity said.

“Okay you can look now.”

We all opened our eyes and I heard the five gasp. Their dresses were the cliché princess dresses. It fit their personality’s to a certain point, but it was bland, all in all. The dresses were set up in a straight row, and at the end was mine, at least I assumed it was, underneath a white cloth.

“These are your new outfits. What do you think of your old duds now, Applejack? Pretty swanky, are they not?” Rarity asked.

Swanky? When did people ever use that?

“Twilight, I made this dress for you, and I designed each outfit theme to perfectly reflect each ponies unique personality. It took me forever to get the colors right on this one, Rainbow Dash, but I did it, and it turned out beautiful, don't you think? And I know you're going to love yours, Fluttershy. It just sings spring. Pinkie Pie, look, Pink! Your favorite.”

She went over to the hidden mannequin pulled off the cloth. The shirt was black with a red, spiral tie stitched in it. Three red lines on the left arm, most likely representing scars, connecting to a white cuff with a gray peace sign on it, while the other cuff had a brown cross on it. The pants were also black with gray scriptures in a language I didn't know.

“It took me a while to do yours, Trevor, but I able to show your personality. Aren't they all amazing?”

Uhhh.

I thought the suit was nice, but not great, but yet me and the rest of the girls all hesitated for a while until Twilight finally spoke up.

It needs a different style for the tie. A different color for the pants or shirt. And change the peace sign to something else.

“Wow. They're...,” Twilight said, trying to think of a nice word to use.

“Yeah, they're...” Rainbow Dash added.

“They sure are, uh... Somethin',” Applejack commented.

“Yes. Something,” Twilight agreed.

“I love something. Something is my favorite,” Pinkie Pie said.

“It's... Nice,” Fluttershy said.

“Interesting design,” I said.

“But what's the matter? Don't you like them?” Rarity asked.

“They're very nice,” Twilight said.

“And we're plumb grateful because you worked so hard on them,” Applejack said.

They're just trying to soften the blow.

“Mine's just not as cool as I was imagining,” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight and Applejack looked at her with a scowl.

“She asked,” Rainbow added.

“I guess what we're saying is that they're just not what we had in mind,” Twilight said.

The rest of the girls and I agreed with Twilight.

“That's okay. Not a problem. There's plenty more where that came from. They were only a first pass. You're my friends, and I want you to be 110 percent satisfied. Not to worry, I'll redo them,” Rarity said.

“Oh, Rarity. You don't have to do that. They're fine,” Fluttershy said.

“I want them to be better than just fine. I want you to think they're absolutely perfect.”

“Are you sure? I mean, we wouldn't want to impose,” Applejack said.

“It's no imposition. Really, I insist.”

“Well, in that case. Thank you again, Rarity,” Twilight said.

Me and the girls left Rarity so she could redo the clothes. When we got out, it was just me, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

What to do now? I wonder what those crusaders are doing in the woods? Best check it out, could find the girl who was with me that night.

As the girls were in mid-conversation about how they think their next dresses were going to look like, I slipped away unseen from them and headed towards that cursed forest. There was no sound of cheerful or terrified screaming, which put me to some ease, and then I sprinted in, headfirst of course. Even though the sun was fully out, it felt like the beginning of dusk within the forest, thanks to all the thick trees. Memories of the ambushes and chases crept in my mind, but quickly shook them away, assuring myself that it was still daylight out so no predators would be seen for quite a while. As I was searching through the woods for several minutes, only seeing small woodland creatures, I noticed a raven sitting on a log, staring at me.

“Hey raven, you wouldn't happen to see three small ponies or a mysterious person or pony, would you?” I asked.

The raven let out a short “caw” and flew further into the woods.

Ravens. You're like the bigger and more bloodthirsty version of a crow, but you're still the better of the two. Now where could those girls be at?

I began walking west of where I was at and felt the cool wind blow on my face, and also heard a very faint sound. Following the wind and the sound, it soon became clear that it was the sound of children laughing.

Found 'em, excellent.

I ran towards the wind, the sound of the laughter slowly growing louder and louder. As soon as I saw the three through the trees, I stopped, climbed the nearest tree to me, and slowly climbed to where they were at. I had to stop a couple feet away from them since they were on the clear road and not in the actual forest. Apparently they were laughing with joy as they were following some sort of map, which currently resided in Applebloom's mouth, going further up the road.

Now what are you three doing?

Following them quietly and sticking to the shadows of the leaves, they soon came to a short fork in the road.

“Where do we go?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Check the map,” Scootaloo replied.

Applebloom spat out the map and the three unraveled it on the ground. I tried to maneuver myself around so I could see the map as well, but I was either too far or the girls' head were blocking the map.

“Let's see, the map says that we should go right.”

“But here isn't suppose to be another road connected to it, it's just suppose to go right.”

“Let's just take the right path, if it's wrong then we can just go back.”

But where are you going is the what I want to know.

As they began to move, the map back in Applbloom's mouth, I followed them as they walked on the right road.

“So what do you think this temple will have?” Applebloom asked through her teeth.

“Probably gold, jewels, and gems that are piled as high as houses,” Sweetie Belle guessed.

“Or some super cool mirror that can tell the future.”

Gorlog I could really use one of those mirrors.

My eyes searched the woods to the left of them and only saw birds, bushes with berries, and lush trees. However, there was one tree that was about half the size of the rest and didn't have any sticks or leaves on it at all. I shortly wondered what happened to it, but quickly came to the conclusion that a storm probably took the rest of it. But as soon as I took my eyes off it and onto the next tree I would climb on, I heard a loud shrill from one of the girls. I quickly looked at where the girls were at and saw that Scootaloo was now in the hands of a living, humanoid tree. When it opened it's mouth I saw that it had sharp human-like teeth, and sharp green eyes above it. I jumped out of the tree and expanded my wings, gliding towards the monster, and put a forceful hand on it's chest, pushing forward and down as I went even further. The monster, a wendigo if I know my monsters correctly, and I fell down to the ground, the wendigo accidentally tossing Scootaloo as it fell.

I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't have to fight, but some things never change I guess.

I began punching the wendigo across the face a few times before he grabbed my arm and threw me into the air. As I began to fall down, I formed my body into the a pencil and dive-bombed him. When I got close, I brought back my right arm and rocketed forward when in range of the wendigo. It made full contact, my fingers cracking and the wendigo screaming as I tried to push my fist further to crush it's skull. Unfortunately I wasn't successful in doing such and received a hard punch to the left side of the ribs for my troubles, throwing me off the wendigo and sending me into a tree, my spine letting out loud cracks upon impact. Thankfully nothing was broken, so I got up and ran towards the wendigo while it was getting up. I charged right into it, carrying him forward with my left shoulder, slammed it into a tree to see how it felt, and punched it across the right side of it's face for good measure. Before I could add another punch, the wendigo kneed me in the stomach, making take a few steps with my upper half a bit hunched over, and earning myself a clubbing from both the wendigo's hands to the ground.

Looks like I'll have to use a bit more strategy than just brute force.

I quickly got up and got in a defensive stance, facing the charging wendigo, arms and mouth opened for grabbing and devouring. When the wendigo swiped it's arms, I rolled to the right, making a rough quarter-circle around him, jumped up and planted both my feet on his spine, sending him on all four. I walked to his left side and kicked him in the stomach, sending him to his back, and grabbed his throat choking him.

“P-Please, h-h-help me,” the wendigo stammered with a distorted tone.

I let go of the it's neck, confused and surprised that a wendigo actually knew how to talk and was asking for my help of all things.

“Why would you need my help, besides being your next meal?” I asked accusingly.

“No. I c-can barely k-keep control of the m-monster inside me. Please, k-kill me, b-b-before I continue.”

“Alright, I'll help you, but only if you answer me one thing.”

To be honest, I was gonna kill him whether he agreed or not, but if I agreed and if there would happen to be a witness, or in this situation three witnesses, we could confirm it as a mercy killing.

“I will, b-but please b-be quick.”

“Were originally human before you became this or no?”

“What's a h-hu-human?”

“Good enough answer for me.”

Grabbing the wendigo's head, one hand on top of it's scalp and the other on the tip of it's chin, and did a violent twist to the left. Hearing the brutal-sounding crack, I took a few steps back from the wendigo, and when it didn't get up for about half a minute, I looked around to see if the Crusaders were still there. There had been no sign of them in the area, however I quickly found a few sets of tiny hoof prints heading towards the exit, and that the map was also left on the ground.

Smart ponies, childish and annoying, but smart to know when to run, but you could at least quickly take inventory as you are running.

I left the body where it laid, not knowing whether the birds and/or monsters would have use for it or not, picked up the map, and followed the path of hoof prints. Thankfully I was correct in my theory that the girls had ran to the exit of the forest and ran towards Twilight's house as quickly as I could, not wanting to be ambushed by creatures hiding at the edge of the forest. When I opened the door, I saw Spike eating some ice cream, straight from the carton. As soon as Spike saw he, his eyes widened and hid the carton behind his back with a sheepish smile and light-hearted chuckle. That's when I understood what was going on.

“Don't worry, I won't tell. Just make sure you finish it quickly. Speaking of which, where is Twilight?” I asked.

“She's at Rarity's, getting her dress remade,” Spike replied between chews.

“Alright, thanks.”

I went upstairs to my bed and unrolled the map in front of me. The first thing that caught my eye was the the name written the top left corner. It was written in small, very neat cursive that I couldn't read worth the life of me, but all I could tell was that it started with an “A,” I think. The starting position was at the very heart of Ponyville, leading the Everfree Forest, and makes a sharp turn the the right a bit afterwards, leading to the destination, marked with an “O.”

“Now what do you lead to? And who made you?” I whispered to myself.

Usually a map has a signature on it so that way people could see how much weight of truth the map held, and if it didn't than it usually came from some famous navigator, but that didn't seem to be the case. There was also no indications of what the treasure might be.

Either this was once a very famous map, or this was a personally made map, not one to be shared with others. I'll go with the latter.

“Trevor?” I heard Twilight asked.

I rolled up the map and turned my head towards her.

“Yes?” I replied.

“Rarity wants you to visit her about your suit.”

“Really now? Thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

She went back downstairs and I placed the map on my bed, hoping that Twilight wouldn't get curious and read the map.

I'll deal with you once I'm done with my suit.

The walk over to Rarity's place was actually peaceful and quiet. The only ones that were in the streets were vendors and some regular customers, with the occasional pair of best friends or couples walking around. Yet, there was someone who broke that peace with their mere presence, and that someone was Doctor Whooves, looking at me with expected eyes.

Oh Gorlog no.

As soon as I was parallel to him, he called out to me. I very quietly let out a curse of regret and turned to Whooves.

“Hey, what's up?” I asked.

“I thought you would be here and wanted to give you this, given your living conditions,” he replied.

He grabbed something under his left front hoof with his teeth and I took it out of his mouth for him. It was was small circular disk made out of fake gold, having two sides of it closed with a small switch at the bottom and had a thin chain on the other side of the disk. Knowing it could have been one of two things, I opened it up and saw that it was a working watch, telling the time to be currently half an hour after three P.M.

“Wow, thanks. This should come in handy.”

“Glad I could be of help, be safe.”

No promises there.

Doctor Whooves left without another word and I did the same, heading towards Rarity's again. When I got there I knocked on the door three times with the back of my fist, as I usually do. A blue aura surrounded the door and it swung open, Rarity looking at me in the room. Her hair was completely unkempt, and messy, and big gray bags hung under her eyes.

“Ah, Trevor. Please, come in,” she said.

I did as she said, though I was somewhat hesitant given her current look, and she closed the door behind me with her magic.

“Did Twilight tell you why I wanted you?” She asked.

All I could really think to do was nod slowly, trying not to invoke any unwanted emotions.

“Good. I want you to help me design your suit.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I want you to tell me what you want it to look like.”

“Hmm. The base of the suit you can keep the same, but instead of having it black, change the color to purple. Instead of a spiral design, keep the tie in a straight line, and the peace sign needs to be changed to a circle. Other than that, everything was good.

Seem seemed to be shock by my answer, but in a good way, and quickly changed her expression to relaxed yet confident.

“Is that all?”

“That's it.”

"Excellent. I'll come get you and Twilight when your dresses are done."

Suit...

"Alright, thanks."

“However, I must ask, why purple?”

“In my world it's a symbol for royalty.”

“Really? How interesting."

I didn't comment on that and went back to Twilight's house when she began to start sewing again. When I got there, Spike was dusting the books, and Twilight was most likely upstairs.

What to do now?

The only thing I could think to do is re-look at the map, so I went upstairs and saw a raven on my bed, the map in it's left talon and a window open right behind it. The raven looked at me, giving me a cold and grim look.

Don't. You. Dare.

I slowly looked around me, hoping that I could find something to smack the raven with, and found a decently-sized book and grabbed it.

Okay raven, this is how it's gonna go. I'm gonna smack you and you will drop that map and go away.

As I was beginning to aim the book at the raven, it quickly flew out of the window and into the sky.

“No!” I yelled.

I ran to the window and looked out, seeing the raven too far out of my throwing range to attack it.

“Blasted raven!”

“What's going on?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing. Just some cursed raven stole something of mine.”

“What did he steal?”

“Nothing important,” I lied in a sigh.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, just a note to myself.”

"Hunt every raven you see."

“Well at least it wasn't something important. So how did it go with Rarity?"

“Went good, I think my new suit will look marvelous."

“I bet it will too."

“What about you? Do you think your suit will turn out well?”

“Knowing Rarity's sewing skills, I know that she'll do her best.”

“Indeed.”

Having no map to study and too frustrated to do really anything else, I sat in my bed and tried my best to take a nap. Instead of having a dream as I usually did, I slept in a very deep and dark sleep, until I was interrupted by a few shakes on my right arm. I slowly opened my eyes and turned my head to see Twilight looking at me with a somewhat-sheepish smile.

“Rarity came by a little while and told me that she's ready top show everyone's dress,” she said.

Suit.

“Alright, let's get going,” I replied as I got up.

The two of us traveled over to Rarity's house and saw the rest of the girls near the front door.

“Hey, Trevor and Twilight,” the girls greeted.

“Hey girls,” I greeted back.

“Why are you girls waiting out here?” Twilight asked.

“Rarity wanted us to wait outside while she does the finishin' touches,” Applejack said.

Why am I not surprised.

“Hey Trevor, I just remembered that I haven't shown you how to fly,” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, you haven't. We should probably fix that.”

“Well, since we're waiting out her--”

Rainbow Dash was suddenly interrupted by Rarity slamming open the door and triumphantly said, “Please, come in.”

And with that, the six of us walked into Rarity's boutique, seeing the girls dresses and my suit worn by mannequins. I will admit, I know little to absolutely nothing about fashion, and I have a very slight fashion sense, but even I was able to tell that the girls' dresses looked completely terrible. Even Rarity's cat hissed at the dresses.

“OK, I did exactly what each of you asked for. Now don't hold back, tell me what you really think,” she said.

The girls and I contemplated on what to say about our new fancy clothing. Personally, I liked it, and was probably the only piece of clothing that didn't look abysmal. But then again, Rarity only had to edit a few things on my suit while she had to completely remake the girls dresses.

“It's exactly what I asked for,” we all said.

Rarity let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you Rarity,” Twilight said.

“Are you as happy with them as we are? Huh huh huh?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Well, I'm happy that all of you are happy. I'm just relieved to finally be done” Rarity said.

Don't be so sure of yourself, yet.

As if on cue, Spike burst open the door and then top to catch his breath. I swear I'm not some sort of psychic.

“You are never gonna believe this,” Spike said between breaths.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that.

“You've heard of Hoity Toity?” He asked.

The sound of that name raised a fire of hate inside me, but I didn't really know why. I was pretty sure that it wasn't because he was some snobby fashion critic, but it was something else, something that I had obviously forgotten.

“The big wigged fashion hot shot in Canterlot?” Twilight asked.

“Ah huh! He heard about your fashion show, well, maybe I happened to mention it to him. He's coming here all the way from Canterlot to see your work Rarity!”

You did what!? Blast it all to bitter oblivion! I can't see this ending well in the slightest.

All the girls let out a gasp while I just face-palmed and sighed.

“Whoa nelly. You could sell a ton of dresses to this guy. You're business will be booming,” Applejack said.

The rest of the ponies began to talk to Rarity or themselves about how surprising or cool it would be to have an actual crowd for their little fashion show.

“Hoity Toity? He's coming here, to see these dresses?” Rarity asked.

“So it seems. He'll be here in person, er, pony I guess,” I confirmed.

Rarity's right eye began twitching nervously, reflecting most of her face.

“So, wait. How in Gorlog's name are we gonna get this place ready for a high quality fashion show?” I asked.

The multiple sounds of hooves trampling and wheels turning came from outside and looked out the window to see a team of builder ponies. Male and female, earth, unicorn, and pegasi ponies.

So that's how.

It took a few hours, but everything was set up thanks to our “special help.” All in all, the set was looking good. The spotlights shined along the catwalk, backstage was set up behind the curtains, everything seemed to be flawless, except for the huge crowd of ponies around the end, and that Hoity Toity at the very front of it all.

It's show time. Welcome to curtain call.

I went to back stage, grabbed my suit and headed for the changing room, but heard Rarity started heavily breathing as she peaked from the curtain.

“Don't worry, things will go well,” I assured her.

She looked over to me.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Indeed. Even if things don't go as well, you'll still have your friends.”

That seemed to calm her down, enough to stop her heavy breathing anyway.

“You're... you're right. Thanks Trevor.”

“Mm hmm.”

I went into the dressing room, thankfully not occupied, got into my suit, and join the rest of the girls directly behind the curtain, hearing the jazzy classical music playing beyond it. The spotlights turned on with a click, and Spike stood to the right of us, holding a microphone in his claws.

“Since the beginning of time,” Spike began.

Someone please give me a gun so I can shoot myself in the foot.

“The elite of Equestria have longed for pony fashion that truly expressed the essence of their very souls. Patiently waiting decades, no, centuries, for the perfect pony gown. Today, at long last Equestria, your wait is over. Let's hear it for the breathtaking deigns of Ponyville's own, Rarity,” Spike finished.

So cheesy and cliché.

As soon as the curtains opened and the spotlights shined on us, the crowd gasped in horror.

I can see this ending badly already.

Twilight walked out first, then Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and me at the end. We all looked out at the crowd on the slow moving circular platform, noticing Lyra as one of the ponies in the crowd. After a full circle, I was sure that everyone in the crowd did not like the outfits.

“Why's everypony looking at us like that?” Applejack asked in a hushed tone.

Twilight looked at her dress and then her ridiculous butterfly antennae-like headpiece.

“Oh dear,” she said.

“You think we overdid it?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hushed tone.

“Maybe just a wee bit, lassies,” I replied quietly.

“Oh, those amateurish designs look like a piled on mishmash of everything but the kitchen sink,” Hoity Toity loudly remarked.

As the crowd laughed as what Hoity had said, more scorn and hatred raised up within me just by the mere sound of his voice, yet it still left no explanation as to why in my head.

Perhaps it has something to do with his voice, but what?

“It's a travesty is what it is. Those outfits are the ugliest things I've ever seen, oh for shame. Who is responsible for subjecting our eyes to these horrors? Not to mention, wasting my valuable time.” Hoity Toity said.

I wonder if anyone would judge if I gave this guy a Colombian necktie.

“Come on out and take a bow, Rarity. You worked really hard for this,” Spike urged.

Weren't you listening to what he was saying at all, Spike?

I could hear Spike cheering for Rarity. The spotlights were taken off of us and shined on Rarity, walking in front of us to face the crowd. The crowd began to whisper, nothing good I imagined. Needless to say, the fashion show was a disaster. After everyone left and the catwalk was taken down, me, Twilight, and Spike went home after Rarity went into her room to cry... her words, not mine. I changed back into my regular clothes and went directly to bed.

A few days have passed since then. Nothing really happened, except me and the girls constant failings at trying to get Rarity out of her room. We tried negotiations, more negotiations, extreme negotiations, but we never tried force. Or violence, mostly because the girls had turned down my idea via majority vote. After the third day filled of failure, at about four in the morning, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep despite my constant attempts to just close my eyes and relax. So, I got up and walked towards the balcony.

Perhaps some star gazing will put my body at ease.

On the balcony I looked at the stars from the north, south, east and west, not seeing any easily recognizable constellations.

“This night is mine and those who are awake with me,” I nonsensically rambled.

“Does that include me?” Twilight asked from behind me.

I looked to Twilight, confirming with my eyes that it was really her and not some eerie copy like from my dream, and looked back to the stars.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” I asked.

“No, I just couldn't sleep.”

“Same.”

She walked to the side of me.

“See any constellations?”

“Nope. Don't know any of these, though I've always preferred to just look at them anyway.”

“What about the moon?”

“Some consider it a star.”

She looked up at it.

“Do you know about Nightmare Moon?”

“Nope,” I lied.

“She's Celestia's younger sister. Me and the girls fought her with the Elements of Harmony when I first arrived here in Ponyville, and changed her back to Princess Luna.”

“Interesting.”

“So do you have any stories?”

“About what?”

“About adventures you had from where you're from.”

“Not much to tell. It's pretty boring where I'm from.”

“What is it like?”

“It's like any other old and small village. I didn't really go out and talk to people, nor did I really like the people themselves.”

“How come?”

“Let's just say my personality isn't really liked where I'm from because they're so closed-minded due to their... 'traditions.”

“Why?”

“Because they don't really want people who are out of the norm.”

“That's mahogany.”

I chuckled at that.

“Seems like you're learning from me.”

“I meant what I said because you have great personality.”

“Thanks, but you're about four years too late. Actually, I probably would have chased you with my pocket knife four years ago,” I joked.

Twilight let out a quiet giggle at that.

Let's try and not be haunted by the past, shall we?

“Come on, let's get back to bed. We have to get Rarity out of her bad mood tomorrow,” I said.

“Okay,” she said.

The two of went back to bed and actually managed to get some sleep this time, most likely thanks to my kinda heart-to-heart with Twilight. When I woke up I went downstairs, Twilight and Spike already eating cereal when I got to the table, and heard my stomach grumbling at the sight of it

How long has it been since I ate?

Twilight got a bowl, poured in some cereal and milk, and put it in front of me. I thanked and took a bite out of the cereal. It was actually pretty good. The cereal itself was brown and tan balls, kinda like Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch except with a different color. I ate the cereal and drank the milk in the bowl the same time Twilight had.

“Let's get Rarity back in spirits, shall we?” Twilight asked confidently.

“Let's do it,” I replied, matching the same tone as hers.

The rest of the girls had already arrived when we got there, waiting outside of Rarity's bedroom door.

“So how are we gonna try to get Rarity out this time?” Applejack asked.

“Let's try talking to her again,” I suggested sarcastically.

“We tried that already. Three times!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Four can be considered a lucky number as well.”

“Let's try Trevor's plan again. If it doesn't work then we can think of something else,” Fluttershy said.

“Fine,” Rainbow Dash said.

Pinkie Pie knocked on the door six times.

“Rarity, you okay in there!? You haven't come out for days!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

“I'm never coming out! I can't show my face in Ponyville ever again! I used to be some pony, I used to be respected. I made dresses. Beautiful, beautiful dresses. But now, every pony is laughing at me. I'm nothing but a laughing stock,” Rarity stated, weeping more after she did.

“You're not a laughing stock, Rarity,” Twilight said.

“She kinda is,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Silence, you're not helping,” I commented.

“Come on out and talk to us,” Twilight said.

“Leave me aloo-oo-o-one. I want to be alone. I want to wallow in... whatever ponies are suppose to wallow in. Do ponies wallow in pity? Oh, listen to me. I don't even know what I'm suppose to wallow. I'm so pathetic!” she loudly whined.

She's far in sorrow. Doesn't mean we can pull her out though.

“Now what do we do?” Twilight asked.

“Panic?” Fluttershy suggested.

“That's your answer to everything,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Well we can't just leave Rarity like this,” Applejack said.

And who says we can't? I'm joking.

“Yeah, she'll become a crazy cat lady,” Pinkie Pie said.

“She only has that one cat,” I said.

“Give her time.”

Twilight looked into the doorknob and gave a slight hmm.

“I know what we'll do,” Twilight said.

“And that is?” I asked.

“We'll finish Rarity's dress for her.”

“How will that make Rarity come out?”

“It won't initially, we'll have to lure her out somehow.”

“How about the cat? She seems to care enough about it that Rarity would come out for Opal.”

“Perfect. Rainbow Dash, you'll get Rarity's attention by using Opal. Trevor, you'll get Hoity Toity to come back here for our next fashion show.”

“Wait what? Why are we gonna have another fashion show?”

“To show off our dresses, and to cheer Rarity up.”

At least you have your priorities straight I guess.

“He's in Canterlot, yeah?”

“Yep, that's where he lives at.”

Figures. The one place I'm not liked at is the place I have to go to end this episode.

“Alright, I'll get him. It'll probably take me a while though.”

“Don't take too long, I'll have Rarity outside in no time,” Rainbow Dash bragged.

“Don't be too quick, you gotta give me a little chance to talk to him.”

Or knock him out, depending on how things go.

That's when I left the boutique and headed for Canterlot, taking my time by walking there. When I got to the gates of Canterlot I still didn't have a plan of how I would negotiate with a pony like Hoity, if he would even give me a chance to talk before criticizing me of my clothes or about my species's genetic code. As I past the gates I felt the eyes of the guards ever judging me as if they had nothing else better to do, and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. The first place that I decided to check was the most obvious and first place that one would look for a pseudo-celebrity, downtown. But once I turned a right corner five blocks from where the gate was, I saw that my task would be more difficult than I expected. There was a plethora of ponies down the almost-cramped road, restaurant tables set up outside and fancy-looking traveling food carts helped well with filling it up.

How am I gonna find a specific pony in this madness?

There were only two ways I could think of, taking to the rooftops and finding him assassin style, or just walk, listen, and watch. In the end I chose to just walk, knowing that it would probably be too much work just to find someone like Hoity. I searched through the seas of faces, none of them the one I wanted, and some of them staring back with either fear or confusion. But about halfway downtown, I found him eating alone at a restaurant called “The Golden Stable.” He had just paid the bill and began to walk forward, his back towards me.

Well, at least he won't complain that I was ruining his lunch.

As I followed Hoity I had to gently push a few ponies out of the way to make sure I wouldn't get any further from Hoity than the fifteen feet I already was. But then he suddenly jerked to the right into an alleyway without anyone but myself noticing, or caring. That's when I picked up the pace from a walk to a near-jog and turned into the alleyway which had another right corner about twenty feet ahead of me.

Now where did he go?

I kept up my jogging pace until I heard Hoity yelling something undecipherable from where I was at, and that's when I began running. As I turned the corner I saw a stallion with golden fur and toxic green mane looked with fury at Hoity Toity.

“Oi!” I called out.

The stallion looked at me with eyes of fury and death for interrupting whatever he planned to do with Hoity and charged straight towards me. I smiled at the simple approach, already knowing how I was gonna retort against an attack like this. When the stallion was six feet away, I took a quick step to the left and extended my right leg low enough to trip him. But instead of running into my leg, he jumped and slammed me into the ground, crushing my chest when we were both on the ground. I slammed both hands on his right side and shoved him off to his side, got on top of him, and began to punch the left side of his face. When I struck my fist down for my fifth punch, the stallion moved his head back, making me hit hard stone, grasp my hand with his teeth, and bit down hard.

“You little bugger!” I yelled.

I raised up my right foot and began stomping on on his face, making sure the ball of my foot slammed on his eye. After a few good kicks, the stallion swung his back legs around like crazy, almost hitting me in a place I would rather leave untouched by hostile blows, and I backed away to make sure a lucky swing wouldn't hit there. The stallion then got up quickly and ran off, hissing at me as he did like a cat or snake before I could grab his mane or tail, and got away without any attempt of chase from me.

“Git,” I muttered as I spat.

I may not be British, but I knew the slang quite well, thanks to some friends and online entertainers who live there. Something suddenly tightly wrapped itself around my left ankle and was about to punch or kick whatever it was, but then saw that it was Hoity on his belly wrapping his front hooves on me.

“Oh, thank you so much! I thought that brute was going to kidnap me!” he yelled with glee.

“Why would he want to do that?” I asked, mostly to myself.

“I have no idea, but I'm sure he was just some crazy fan, or some pony out for revenge for my critique on their disgusting clothes.”

“Yeah, that might do it.”

“If there's anything I can do to repay this kind favor...”

“Actually, there is. About three or four days ago you were in Ponyville for a fashion show, remember?”

“You mean those awful--”

“Yes yes. Well, she's remade her dress, brand spankin' new and good dresses that make a mockery of the original.”

“What about the suit?”

“The suit stays the same.”

“Oh. Well, that's the only one I liked anyway.”

“Good to know. Anyway, she wants you to critique these dresses, guaranteeing that they will impress you.”

“Well... okay, I'll do it.”

“That's the spirit, now come on, we got a bit of a walk ahead of us.”

“Can I at least have a drink first?”

“Sorry, we don't have time,” I lied.

Hoity managed to stay quiet during the entire walk back to my surprise, and seemed to look pretty calm despite what happened to him and what I expected his psyche to be. When the two of us got to Rarity's house, the girls were all outside surrounding a true princess's gown.

“Alright, I haven't got all day,” Hoity Toity stated.

That's when I finally figured out the question that I had been asking myself for days, why I had detested Hoity so much, excluding the obvious.

His voice actor has the same first name, that was it! Knew I would figure it out eventually, but I guess I can forgive that reason for detesting him.

The eight of us went inside the boutique, the girls got inside a small platform that was in another room in Rarity's house I hadn't bothered noticing before.

“Take two,” Hoity announced.

The room got darker, a little light shined through the curtains, and Twilight was the first to go on stage, wearing her original dress that Rarity made.

“Hello. Well this can't be the same designer.”

Well guess again.

Next to the stage was Applejack.

“Simply magnificent. And I suddenly have a fierce craving for some Dutch apple pie, candied apples on a stick, apple turnovers, apple cobbler.”

The Dutch are in the world?

Pinkie Pie hopped on the stage.

“Brilliant!”

Rainbow Dash flew in on stage as soon as Pinkie Pie was out of sight.

“Oh, spectacular.”

Fluttershy was the final pony to go up.

“Now this is a fashion show. Oh these dresses are absolutely amazing. Who is responsible? Step forward, show yourself.”

Rarity went up with the rest of the girls and they all did a court bow.

“Bravo! Bravo! Magnifico! Encore!”

“Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much,” Rarity said.

After the had officially ended, Twilight had written her letter to Princess Celestia and Rarity was offered to have her dresses shown in Hoity's best of the best show. She would have accepted, until he wanted a dozen of each dress by next Tuesday, about eight days from now, to which she humbly refused the offer. But in the end, I still had no interest in fashion, but earn appreciation for what Rarity did and has to do for what she loves to do.

Author's Note

Almost two months and this bane of my existence of a chapter is finally edited and posted for you to either love or hate. Now I have a small announcement to make. Chapters will be coming out a bit less frequently since I'm going to try and -write- the chapters that are needed to end the story so that I can later focus on editing everything else. I hope this does not discouraged you in thinking that this story will be abandoned, because I can once again assure you that it will never be abandoned or forgotten. Thanks you and have a nice day/afternoon/evening.

Chapter 15: Paranoia and Pinkie Sense

Yet another week has past after Hoity was here. Me and Twilight went on one of the hills in town since she wanted to try transformation spells, like turning nature objects into articles of clothing or accessories. Can you guess who the test subject was? If you thought or said “you” than you would be correct.

“Alright, Trevor, for this to work we both need to concentrate,” Twilight said.

“Simple enough,” I commented.

Lies. This is gonna be a nightmare and a half.

But that didn't mean I wasn't gonna try. When Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow, I tried to concentrate on what to transform the leaves into. In a few seconds the leaves turned into a tuxedo, the stick turned into a fancy cane, but when it came to the rock, however, something interrupted my concentration and caused the rock to revert back in mid-transformation, earning me a smack on the head by it.

Blast it.

“Trevor, this magic needs our full attention to make it happen, there's no other way,” Twilight said.

“Sorry, couldn't help it,” I said as I rubbed where the rock hit.

When I searched for what had distracted me, I saw Pinkie Pie hiding behind a tree a couple yards away.

Well, well, well.

“What is it?”

“Something that you need to see as well.”

Twilight walked up next to me just in time to see Pinkie Pie look up at the sky as she hid next to a tree and then run underneath a deck just to peek up at the sky again.

What is.... what?

Pinkie Pie then zipped to a rock and somehow hid underneath it with some “cartoon magic” mahogany and took yet another peek at the sky, then she just ran into town.

“Ugh. Never mind her, she's just being Pinkie Pie.”

“She seems paranoid about something. But what?”

I followed Pinkie Pie, Twilight behind me, until she stopped moving in the middle of the street.

“Pinkie Pie, what in the wide, wide world of Equestria are you up to?”

“Oh, it's my tail. It's-a twitchin' twitchin', and you know what that means,” Pinkie Pie said.

Thar be trouble a-brewin'?

“Actually, Pinkie, I haven't the slightest idea.”

"The twitchin' means my Pinkie Sense is telling me that stuff's gonna start falling! You should better duck for cover."

I looked around us, seeing if there were any gray clouds or loose flower shelves outside of bedroom windows, but didn't see either of those things around us. Instead, I saw Fluttershy flying about a couple yards away with a cart of some kind of green mass in it, but I was pretty sure that the cart wouldn't be it, Fluttershy seemed to be too careful for something like that to happen.

"Are you sure, Pinkie Pie? I'm not seeing anything," I said.

"Uh huh, my Pinkie Sense has never been wrong before."

Better safe than sorry, I looked up in the sky again and saw a small green object fall off of Fluttershy's cart and heading straight for Twilight.

"Watch out."

Before waiting for a reply, I quickly pushed Twilight out of the way and got a frog to land on my head as a reward. I looked up and saw the frog looking back at me before it croaked.

"He just said 'nice catch' in Frog."

"Good to know," I muttered a bit irritatedly.

"Oh, I'm so, so sorry. You okay, Trevor? I just couldn't stand to see the pond getting so over-populated, what with the frogs all hopping into each other and all, so I decided to fly as many as I can on over to Froggy Bottom Bogg," Fluttershy said, flying closer to us with a cart full of frogs behind her.

"Really now? I couldn't tell. You want this thing back? I don't think he like me much."

"Oh, yes please."

I grabbed the frog and threw back on the cart, the frog looking none too happy that I manhandled him the way I did.

"Bye-bye!" Fluttershy quietly said before taking off again.

"C'mon Trevor, let's continue our practice session where there's a little less commotion," Twilight said with some spite in her tone.

"Um, okay," I hesitantly replied.

Twilight began to walk away from Pinkie Pie with a mild look of spite, without even saying a goodbye to her, and I walked beside her. I waited until Pinkie Pie was out of hearing range before I spoke to Twilight.

"That was pretty impressive, Pinkie predicting the future. Didn't know she could do that."

"Oh, come on. She said that something would fall, and a frog just happened to fall right around the same time. A coincidence, nothing else to it."

"I usually go by the 'three strike' rule. One's a fault, two's a coincidence, three's a pattern. But nonetheless, that was still impressive."

Pinkie Pie ran past us like a bullet and stopped in front of us, her backside facing more towards us than he head, showing us that her tail was twitching in every which way possible, though me and Twilight didn't stop walking.

"My tail! My tail! Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch! Somethin' else is gonna fall!" Pinkie Pie loudly told us.

Once again I took a quick look at my surroundings, this time only a ditch a couple feet ahead of us being a problem.

"Oh, Pinkie, please. Nothing else is gonna fa-AAAH!" Twilight began to say before she tripped into the aforementioned ditch.

Maybe I should have told her about that... Nah.

"Twilight, are you okay? Wait, Pinkie, was she the falling thing?"

"Yep,” Pinkie Pie confirmed.

Pinkie Pie then proceeded to hop away, humming some song as she did. When I saw that Twilight was still laying down in the ditch, I walked in the ditch my self and extended my right arm with an open hand in front of her.

“Need some help?”

She put her front left hoof in my hand and I pulled her back up.

“Uh, Twilight and Trevor? Why are you hanging out in a ditch?” Applejack asked from the other side of the ditch.

“Pinkie Pie predicted that something would fall, and that something was Twilight.”

“Trevor, she did not. Two coincidences in a row like this may be unlikely, but it's still easier to believe than twitchy tails that predict the future,” Twilight retorted.

“Really? 'Cause I'm from a completely different world, twitchy tails that predict the future shouldn't be too impossible.”

Before Twilight could argue me any further, Applejack interrupted us with a very loud gasp.

“Twitchy tail? Pinkie Sense?” Applejack repeated.

Sweat began to drip down her face as she looked cautiously around for anything that could fall.

“Don't worry, it's already passed, like I said.”

“Oh, wait. Don't tell me you believe in this stuff too Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“I know it doesn't make much sense, but those of us who have been in Ponyville a while have learned over time that, if Pinkie's-a-twichin', you better listen,” Applejack informed us.

"Wait, so this isn't anything new?" I asked.

“Nope, it's been goin' on ever since Pinkie Pie moved in with the Cakes.”

“Well then. This is all news to me, probably would've been nice to be informed of this earlier.”

Except it really wasn't. I knew about Pinkie's ability for some time, thanks to good ol' fashioned internet videos of the episodes. Though her abilities were the only thing I truly remembered about the episode. Me and Twilight got out of the ditch to Applejack's side of the road, and as soon as we stepped foot on the stone Pinkie Pie showed up out of nowhere.

“My ears are flopping! My ears are flopping!” She yelled as her ears were... well, flopping up and down repeatedly.

“Which means what?”

“I'll start a bath for you,” Pinkie Pie said to Twilight.

Pinkie Pie began to walk away, a sad look now on her face. Me and Twilight looked at each other for a moment, both of us confused on what exactly she meant by that.

“Huh? Ha ha ha, A bath? This thing keeps on getting more ridiculous by the minute!” Twilight mocked.

As fate would have it, Scootaloo rode down the road we were on with her scooter. As soon as she began to pass us, her left wheels hit a mud puddle that was right next to us, causing a small wave of mud to head right for me and Twilight. I didn't expect the wave to come at me, so my reaction was a bit slow, giving the mud a chance to let itself cover my lower arms and hands as well as everything below that.

At least I won't be the only one covered in mud.

When I looked over to where Twilight was, I saw the wave of mud at her feet and no trace of mud hitting her at all. That's when I got on my knees and pointed to the sky with my head held high.

“What did I do to you to deserve this!? It's because I like metal, isn't it!?”

“Uh, who're you shoutin' at?” Applejack asked.

“God.”

“You mean Celestia?”

“No, those are two completely different entities. Well than again...”

“I think I get the idea.”

Heh, even the farmers here don't want anything competing against their traditional religion.

“Okay, fair enough. Guess I should get washed up; you coming Twilight?”

“Sure, maybe I can convince you yet that this 'Pinkie Sense' is just a string of unlikely coincidence,” Twilight said smugly.

You keep telling yourself that.

Twilight and I went upstairs when we got to the bakery, as instructed by Mr. Cake, and saw Pinkie Pie putting soap in the filled bath as we passed the second door on the left. I knocked on the doorway to get Pinkie's attention, and it seemed to have worked.

“Oh good, you're here, I have the bathtub ready and everything!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Good, now you two wait outside while I take my bath.”

“Why would we need to do that?” Twilight asked.

“Because I'm going to take off my clothes so they don't get wet when I get in the bathtub.”

“I don't think I'm seeing your point.”

“I'm going to be naked,” I flatly said.

“We're naked as well, Trevor. The only reason we ever dress up is either for a special occasion or if we just want to.”

She had a good point, though I was very tempted to play the species card at that point, but decided against it since she probably had three more cards stashed away, ready to be used against me.

“Fine, you win. At least let me get in the bath in peace.”

I closed the door behind me before any of them could retort or accept my statement and walked to the bathtub. Once I was undressed and in the warm bathtub, I called out to the girls that I was ready. As expected, they slammed the door open, yet walked calmly towards the bathtub. They first saw my legs, which were half out of the bathtub and half in due to the size of the bathtub, and then looked to my face, casting a suspicious glance their way. Inside my head I thanked Pinkie Pie for having so much bubbles in the bathtub to avoid glancing eyes.

“Okay, so I'm a bit curious, how does this Pinkie Sense of yours works?” I asked.

“Sooo, basically, it works like this: I get different, little, niggling feelings and they mean different things. Like when my back is itchy, it means it's my lucky day. And, when my knee gets pinchy, that means something scary's about to happen,” Pinkie Pie explained.

“Is anything happening now?”

“No, but my shoulder's achy. That means there's an alligator in the tub.”

“What!?”

As the words left my mouth, I felt something bite the left side of my stomach. I almost leaped out of the bathtub in surprise, but stopped myself just before my stomach could rise to the surface. The bite wasn't tearing into my flesh as I thought it was, but instead was a soft clamp. After lowering myself down, I felt where I was bit and felt what I presumed were scales, grabbed a hold of it, and lifted it up as hard as I could. What I pulled up was none other than Pinkie' pet Gator.

“What's this?”

“This is my pet alligator, Gummy. He's got no teeth. See?” Pinkie Pie asked as she took the alligator away from me and showed me it's toothless gums.

“Make sure you keep him that way, I don't want to loose one of my kidneys or stomach if I ever come back in this bathtub.”

Twilight and Pinkie Pie giggled at my half-joke, and set Gummy on the floor.

“So it kind of works how my Paranoia Senses work. Good to know,” I thought aloud.

“Paranoia Sense?” Twilight asked.

“Yep. It's like a small voice in the back of my head, telling me of what could be around me and what could happen if I don't confirm or deny it.”

It didn't work exactly like that, I'll admit. But if I went to go into every detail, the conversation may stray from what Paranoia Sense is to what my mental state truly is.

“Are you serious, Trevor?”

“Aye, I am. I've had this for... some time. How do you think I survived my late night trip into Everfree?”

“Hmm. If what you're saying is true, and if it is connected to Pinkie's 'Pinkie Sense,' than I'd like to do a few tests on you.”

“As long as you don't put me in a box filled with neurotoxins, I'm okay.”

“It won't be anything like that. Just some brain waves tests, maybe something else.”

“Well that seems simple enough. Sure, we'll do that here in a few minutes, once I make sure I get this mud off me.”

It didn't take long for me to get all the mud off. Just a few dips of my head into the water, along with curling up my body to make sure my entire body was in the water, and I seemed as clean as I was before I was splashed with mud. After somewhat-politely asking the girls to leave, I got out, dried myself off and got my clothes back on, and met the girls outside the bakery. As we walked towards Twilight's house, I wondered what experiments Twilight had in store for me. Although she could just be doing exactly what she said she would do, it pays to always think ahead and prepare yourself for when that possibility becomes a reality. Most of the things I thought of ended in me loosing a body part, usually something small like a finger or a toe, or my organs exploding after expanding beyond the breaking point.

“Trevor!” Twilight loudly called out.

“What? I asked, instinctively turning my head to the side Twilight was on.

When I didn't find her there, I looked back and found out that I was about a good three yards away from them.

Guess my body went on autopilot.

“I didn't know you were so excited for this test, you seemed a bit hesitant after the first time.”

She wasn't wrong on that. After Trixie's trip to town, Twilight asked me to be the subject for multiple spells. But some of the spells that she wanted to test on me were... questionable at best. My personal favorite one was the “Inside-Out” spell. The spell itself is self-explanatory, and the reason Twilight wanted to test it out on me specifically so that she could write down the anatomy of a human body. Since I wanted to keep all of the blood in my body and continue to live, I refused her, albeit a bit rudely.

When we got inside the house a few minutes later we went down into the basement. I never went into the basement, believe it or not. Multiple times I was tempted to go into it, but whenever I heard Twilight giggling or the sound of multiple vials clanking around at once, I was a bit put off by the idea of going down there. As soon as I saw the iron restraints for the arms and the brainwave machine, I wanted to leave.

“Okay Trevor, just put on that helmets and put your arms in those cuff, then we can begin testing,” Twilight instructed.

Reluctantly, I did as Twilight had said, and she locked in the cuffs once my arms were in.

“So what exactly will this accomplish?”

“This studies your brainwaves and your pulse, so if this 'Paranoia Sense' of yours really exists, than this will pick it up.”

“Alright, maybe I'll make you believe yet. Let 'er rip.”

When she pulled a lever on the small bronze machine, I could see the light coming from the inside of the helmet out of the corner of my eyes and feel the cuffs tighten up even more, cutting off the circulation in my wrists. The machine began spitting out paper with a red and blue zig-zag line. The lines seemed to go in a relatively ordinary pattern, I assumed it was anyway, it could have been completely off the scale for all I knew. But, since Twilight didn't seem perplexed, I guessed everything was okay.

After a few minutes had passed with no different pattern coming up, Twilight began tapping her front right hoof and her left eye began to slightly twitch.

“Are you feeling anything strange, Trevor?” Twilight asked.

“No, not at the moment, or at anytime during the test for that matter. I think you may hav--” I said.

My words were cut off by the door slamming open, instantly catching my attention. When I saw that it was just Spike just seeing what we were doing, I looked back over to the machine and saw that the lines had spiked tremendously for about five seconds before returning to normal. I looked to Twilight who must have seen the results herself, now wide-eyed and mouth open as far as it could go.

“I told you,” I flatly said with a smirk.

“One test does not prove everything. I have a few more tests in mind to see if you really do have something like Pinkie does.”

So you do believe that Pinkie Sense does exist?

I decided against saying the thought, not wanting to prolong the tests and Twilight's patience of this whole thing further. The next test seemed simple at first, sitting in a chair with hands strapped down with leather straps and wait for Twilight to find the right spell to trigger certain things in my mind. Totally not a torture method or anything.

“I think I've found the right spell. All you need to do is to stay still, Trevor,” Twilight said, turning towards me with her horn glowing.

“Ha ha, very funny. Just don't dive into my mind, you won't like what you see,” I replied.

“I'll try not to.”

Twilight then fired a thin purple beam into my head. I could feel it slowly pierce through my skull and into my brain, surprisingly not painful but instead it just felt like a worm crawling on your skin. When the beam first touch my brain my entire body jumped back, causing the chair to begin to fall. After jerking my entire body forward, I managed to keep the chair on the ground again, but the beam started to run across my mind wildly, touching different parts every few seconds.

“Twilight, is this suppose to happen?”

“Is what suppose to happen?”

I then notice that Twilight's horn had stopped glowing and that there was no magical beam to be seen.

This isn't going to end well.

“You got that right,” an eerie voice said.

Next to Twilight, who seemed oblivious of the voice, was Rix with his scythe in his hands. I pushed myself and the chair back a few feet.

“Y-you're not real, you're just an il-l-lusion,” I stammered.

“Trevor, who are you talking to?” Twilight asked nervously.

“You would think that, but you would be terribly wrong. I am actually here, but no one else can hear or see me. So, we're going to have some fun since that little flea John interrupted us last time,” Rix continued.

“Why should I trust you? You're a demon!” I shouted.

“I'm not just a demon, just so you know. Also, demons don't lie all the time, just sometimes.”

“That's comforting. It's also comforting to know that you can't actually hurt me.”

Rix raised an eyebrow and began to walk towards me, slowly twirling his scythe.

“Trevor, whatever you're seeing is not real, it's just a side effect of the spell being interrupted,” Twilight comforted.

“I kinda figured that out already.”

When Rix towered over me he slammed the the middle the the scythe on my fingers, causing a few bones in my fingers to crack. Thankfully none of of the bones broke, but it hurt too much to hold back a yell nonetheless.

“Do you believe me now!?” Rix yelled.

“Trevor, what's wrong!?” Twilight loudly asked.

I didn't respond to either of them, being more worried about calming myself down and trying to banish Rix's image from my mind held my tongue.

It's all in my head. If I don't look at Rix attacking me, it won't hurt me.

As I came to that conclusion, I closed my eyes and slowly leaned my head back until it touched the top of the chair. For a few seconds I didn't hear Rix laughing or yelling at me, though the pain still surged through me hands. Then those semi-blissful moments were destroyed, along with the nerves in my other hand when Rix put the spiked end of the stick in it. Another of my screams echoed through the house as Rix laughed. I think Twilight and Pinkie Pie said something, but their words were drowned out.

“Get me out! GET ME OUT!” I screamed at Twilight and Pinkie.

The two began to run to me as fast as they could, almost knocking everything in their path in the process. When the two were a few inches away from me, Rix swung at them with his scythe and knocked them into the wall like they were baseballs. He turned back to me with a large grin on my face.

“Now we won't have anymore interruptions,” Rix said.

“What do you plan to do with me?” I asked, catching back my nerve and biting off groans of pain.

“My plan? This ain't my plan, boy. If this was my plan, you'd be dead by now and sent to Hell. No, you're going to fight me or die trying!”

He cut off the straps that bound me with two quick swings, nearly cutting my arms in the process. I knew I couldn't beat Rix alone, especially bare-handed, but if I could get to his weapon, it probably would even the odds. Plus, I wanted some revenge for what he did to me now and from before. So being the completely sane person that I think myself to be, I gave Rix a left jab to his cheek, causing him to stagger a couple steps. When I ran towards Rix, I quickly grabbed the scythe and tried to yank it out of his hand, but after I tugged once, Rix sent a strong punch to my stomach, knocking most of the wind out of me. I fell to the floor, hands on my chest and desperately trying to get in some breaths of air. While I was now vulnerable, Rix smacked me it the back of the head with the blunt end of his scythe, knocking down whatever part of me that wasn't on the ground.

“Pathetic,” Rix said with a sigh.

“I'll show you who's pathetic!” I loudly retorted back, grabbing Rix's right leg and violently pulling back as I rose up to my knees.

I quickly got on top of Rix as he fell to the ground and punched him in the throat a couple times before trying to grab his scythe from him again. This time I managed to take it away from him and lunged the spear-end at Rix's head. Rix moved out of the way before the spear managed to hit him, and kicked me in the face as soon as the spear was in the ground. I pulled the scythe out of the ground as I took a step back, letting the sting of pain take its course before earning more hurt from a punch to my left cheek. Opening my eyes until they were slits, I slashed wildly at Rix, trying to cut him up into pieces but only saw him move around my attacks with ease. After the sixth failed swing, Rix grabbed the scythe and punched me in the throat hard enough to knock me to the ground. That's when I quickly spun the scythe around and threw the spear in front of me blindly, guessing that Rix would the try to strangle me. When I heard a grunt, I opened my eyes and saw Rix with the spear in his chest, pinned to the wall.

“You think that this will hold me?” Rix asked with a grin on his face.

“No. It'll give me enough time to get my own weapon though,” I replied.

As soon as the words left my mouth I sprinted towards the stairs as fast as I could, knocking over several vials on the way. As I looked back, I saw Rix pulling the spear out of his body and ran towards me, quickly catching up with me. When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw that Spike had left the door opened when he checked in on us, good fortune for me in the end. I sprinted as fast as I could towards the door, almost loosing my footing or tripping over my long legs a couple times when I made it about halfway. The sound of Rix's footsteps sounded closer to me than I had wanted to be, though at least if I was able to make it to the door I would be able to close it and maybe even slam it in his face. When I reached for the door handle, something hit me on the left side with a strong enough force to knock me over the railing and to the ground below.

Course I would have a demon that uses a cursed customized scythe as his weapon.

As I picked myself off the ground, I looked back and saw Rix charging at me head-first.

If I'm going to survive this, I'm gonna have to get better at fighting. Very quickly too.

Rix swung his scythe at my skull when he was close enough to stab me with the nail. I ducked down and moved to the left, running forward as soon as the scythe was away from my head. Grabbing the back of Rix's shirt with both my hands, I rammed his head into the wall, making him drop the scythe. The strength of Rix's skull along with me forcing it into the wall made a decent sized hole in the wall, similar to what Rix did to Twilight and Pinkie Pie. I attempted to slam his throat on one of the sharp points that were around the hole, but Rix's resistance left us in a deadly stalemate. After a little while, Rix began to slowly rise up despite me trying to push down harder as he rose. Suddenly, Rix grabbed my wrists, pulled my arms away and slammed the back of his head into my face. His head felt like it could have been made from steel from the pain that surged through my head and the blood now going down my nose. I did a quick shake of my head before I threw a punch at Rix, now facing me. He ducked under it and ran towards me, grabbing me at the stomach and kept running until he crashed me into the machine. As I tried to get my upper torso off the machine, Rix grabbed both my wrists and headbutted me again.

“That wasn't half bad, but you could still do better,” Rix mocked.

“Why do you do this to me?” I asked, spitting some blood out of my mouth.

“Does it really matter why? Your people don't seem to care why us demons do things and just blame it on our nature.”

“And is that the reason? Because of your evil nature?”

“No. It's because I have my orders, and I live to have as much fun with my work as possible.”

“I'm not going to let you kill me.”

“Kill you? Ha! You don't need to die just yet. We still have plans for you, and you're going to do those plans.”

“What makes you so sure of yourself?”

“Because I didn't become a king for nothing. You'll give in to me, everyone does eventually.”

“Then I'll have to be the first.”

I spat some blood in his right eye. He didn't seemed to be phased by it at all, and just growled at me with a smile. He let go of my right wrist and went to choke me, but I threw a quick punch to his face before he even got the chance to put his fingers around my neck. When the first punch didn't get him off me, I added a couple more hits, sending him to the floor next to the machine. I quickly rose up and put a foot to his throat, pressing down hard enough to choke him.

“Go back where you belong demon!” I shouted.

“T-T-Trevor.”

It wasn't Rix's voice that came out of him, but instead it sounded a lot like Twilight's. Thinking myself mistaken, I violently shook my head a couple times and saw that Rix was now gone, and instead was Twilight who was under my foot, still choking and looking to be nearly unconscious. I immediately took my foot off her and fell to the ground in shock, quickly scooting back a couple feet in horror of what I was doing.

What – what's going on? Where did Rix go? Was he really just an illusion? If that's the case, then... By Gorlog's braided beard.

Twilight slowly got up and looked at me, not with anger but with concern. I can only imagine what she saw me as. A scared and shaking child perhaps.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered nervously.

It truly could have been a new trick from Rix that I had never seen before, though the thought never passed my mind at that time. I kept looking at Twilight, Pinkie Pie now walking up to her with fear written on her face. Who knows what those two were trying to do to help me, but I repaid them with hostile attacks and nearly killing one of them.

“I forgive you, Trevor. Just stand still and remember that whatever else you see is a fake. It's not actually there,” Twilight softly reassured.

Her body began to turn into a goo-like substance, slowly building up and turning black to make Rix, grinning at me with his weapon back in his hands.

“You're going to Hell,” he said.

“It's not real,” I said to myself.

“You keep telling yourself that, kid. I am real, and have been for thousands of years now.”

He struck his scythe into the ground and a large crack ran out of it, heading straight to me. Inside the crack was a white fire with shadow-like demonic figures coming out to grab me.

“IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S NOT REAL!”

Not wanting to mess up whatever Twilight wanted to do, I held me ground and kept watching the figures coming in closer, chanting to myself over and over that none of it was real. The first shadow that got out of the crack slowly approaching me, almost looking like he was studying me. When the demon approach closer to me, he opened his hand and slowly put it across my face. As soon as it did that, everything froze in place. The flames didn't roar, the demons halted their movements, like all of time had come to a stand still. After a moments of pure silence, the demons were sucked back into the flames, the hole came back together whole, and Rix changed into dark ooze which eventually became Twilight.

“Is.... is it all over?” I asked.

“That depends, what do you see? Is everything how it's suppose to be?” Twilight asked.

I looked around, seeing the hole in the wall where I had slammed Rix into and that the machine was still broken. Other than that, there were no real changes to be seen.

“Things seem normal. What did you do to fix all of it?”

“I used the same spell as I did before, but managed to reverse the effects that were caused when I lost control.”

“I'm glad you did. I thought I was going to die a few times there.”

“What exactly did you see that made you so terrified?”

“A demon, my demon tried to kill me in order to make me a better fighter.”

“Why would it do that?” Pinkie Pie asked, almost forgetting that she was in the room.

“I don't know why he would do that. But he's gone now, and that's all that matters.”

“We also proved that your Paranoia Sense is real!”

“Not necessarily,” Twilight commented.

“Oh come on. You saw the chart spike when the door opened and saw what happened when your magic tampered with that part of my mind,” I spitefully said.

“It touched multiple parts of your minds, causing some sort of chain reaction to start giving you illusions.”

“There's still the chart.”

“One shred of evidence doesn't prove that you have some sort of sixth sense.”

“Then what else would you have me do to prove it to you?”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin and looked around tat the vials and other machines in her lab.

“I think I have a few ideas.”

Twilight lead me and Pinkie Pie to an empty field about a quarter mile from Fluttershy's house. She told us on the way there that her plan was to have me stare out into the Everfree and try to predict where she and Pinkie would come from as they tried to tag me.

“I'm pretty sure my paranoia sense can't accurately predict where you two are at when I can't see you,” I explained.

“Maybe not with perfect accuracy, but me and Pinkie Pie will be invisible when we hide, courtesy of an old invisibility spell.”

“This should be pretty easy then. Wait, how will I know when to start looking for you two?”

“Here in a little bit. Pinkie Pie and me need time to go back far enough.”

“Fair enough. Let's get this over with.”

I turned to the forest, noticing the small entrance of where I went in the last time I was at the Everfree. As I stared into the forest, I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that dark clouds began to roll into the area, like a terrible storm was about to start. But when I looked up in the sky to see if this was any of Rainbow Dash's doing, I saw that there was no pegasi at all. At first I had simply shrugged it off as Rainbow Dash doing quick work, but then I saw something dark come from within the forest. It was some sort of ring of darkness, going through the ground and the sky. When it passed through me, I saw something within the forest for only a mere second. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it looked to be made out of old-looking stone. Out of curiosity, I got up and slowly walked towards the forest, trying to find out what exactly I saw. Another dark ring came out of the forest, growing bigger as it entered the outside world. Once again I saw the ancient object, now seeing that it was a single podium, about three feet tall and had something scribbled on it, but I couldn't read it fast enough before the ring passed beyond me.

What is this thing?

I was at the entrance of the forest when the third ring came out of the forest. This time I could that there were five podiums, each marked with something different, though I couldn't tell what the signs meant. Slowly, I began to walk into the forest. When I walked two steps in, I felt an electric charge suddenly go through my body for a second, shooting me back after it had taken its course. I got up to see what had shocked me, but found nothing but the road that went on ahead.

“Don't go,” a girl told me.

I turned to where the voice had come from and saw a raven on the ground, looking at me.

“What are you?” I asked it, not for sure if the raven was the perpetrator or not.

The raven cried at me then began to fly back out into the open.

“Do not worry, I am here. Don't go in.”

“I'm going to see what those things are, whether you want me to or not.”

“Don't go, I'm begging you.”

“You can beg all you want, your opinion doesn't mean anything to me.”

I grabbed a nearby rock and chucked it to the area where I was shocked and saw that the rock didn't suffer any punishment for wandering in that area. So I got back up and ran passed the rocks, feeling the electricity run through me again a few seconds later. Despite the pain, I managed to go about two steps further before getting shot back further than last time, and was now smelling like burnt meat.

“Let me through!” I shouted, looking around for the voice that was talking to me before.

“No. You can't go,” the voice replied.

“Why not? I've entered this forest before!”

“You carry an evil that would desecrate this place. You shall not enter until this evil is away from you.”

“If you want the demon in me gone, then exorcise him.”

“I do not know how to do this 'exorcise.' It is something you must do on your own.”

“Fine. But I will be back, you can be sure of that.”

“Trevor, who are you talking to?” Twilight asked.

The skies then instantly changed back to how they were before when I looked to Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Just like myself, they did not find the person I was talking to.

“No one. I was just talking to myself,” I lied.

“Really? Because it sounds like you were talking to someone.”

There goes my bluff.

“I'm pretty sure there's no one else here, otherwise you would see them.”

“You were having another illusion, weren't you?”

“I may or may not have been hallucinating. I thought you said you fixed it.”

“I thought I did too. Guess I'll have to use another spell to help you with that.”

“On no you don't. You're not digging around in my mind anymore. Just face it Twilight, my paranoia sense is real.”

“I highly doubt that, Trevor. I'm pretty sure hallucinations wasn't in the list of things your paranoia gives you.”

That was something we could have both agreed on. Paranoia, in my case anyway, was an extreme case of pessimism when it came to the future, trusting people, what people will think of me when I do this or that and the like. Sure, it helped giving me an upper hand in what to expect should it come true, but I always seemed to not think of the outcome that actually happens, making me question my mind and how good I was at truly knowing what is to come. For the most part I had it under control, but there were some moments in my life before I came to Equestria that I had absolutely lost control, which almost resulted in my own death a few times.

“Maybe it's a new power from it that I haven't realized yet. Like when I came to this place I didn't have wings, but now I do.”

“Those are two completely different things.”

“But you understand what I'm talking about, no?”

“No, because there's a huge difference between a psychical attribute that you got from however you came here and a mental ability that you've had for 'some time.'”

I was starting to get irritated now, even though I knew Twilight was right on that matter. Just when I was about to tell her that things like these can evolve, a somewhat baseless claim, until I noticed that Pinkie Pie's body was vibrating up and down like a jackhammer.

“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?”

“It's my Pinkie Sense! But I've never gotten any like this before. Whatever that shudder's about, it's a doozy. Something you never expect to happen is gonna happen!” She explained.

“Where's it gonna be at?”

“It's gonna happen... at Froggy Bottom Bogg!”

“Isn't that where Fluttershy went to?” Twilight asked.

“By Gorlog's braided beard. We need to get there now, before something happens to her,” I said hurriedly.

“It's just a case of the shiv--”

“Twilight, I don't care if you're a skeptic on this or not. A friend is in danger and I'm gonna help them whether that danger is real or not. Now, where is Froggy Bottom Bogg from here?”

“It's north-east from here, just through the forest!” Pinkie Pie replied.

“I'd prefer a way not through the forest.”

“Why don't you want to go through the forest?” Twilight asked.

“Let's just say that during my hallucinations I saw something a bit shocking.”

“But it was just a hallucinations, whatever you saw ca--”

“Once you get to the Bogg, let me know with a signal of some kind,” I said as I ran along the side of the forest.

Twilight had said something with a semi-tone of a complaint, but I was too far away to hear or give a reply to it. Despite my long legs and decent running speed, my stamina is not the greatest when it comes to doing the same motion over and over again, like running next to a forest for about a mile for instance. In the distance I could see a sudden change from green and flush tress to dead trees with orange leaves constantly falling into brown swamp marshes. Once I had taken my first step into the marshlands, I reduced my running to a near-limp while taking in very deep breaths that were probably similar to the breaths one would make after being passed out for about a day. The first tree I passed by I sat down next to it, cursing myself for not doing more “psychical activities” back home.

No more running. Next time I meet Rainbow Dash, I'm gonna learn to fly so that I never have to deal with this again.

Granted, I was sure that using your wings would probably be very similar to running, except the air was your ground and your wings were your legs, but that particular thought didn't get much air before drowning back into the storage of my mind. I looked into the darkness of the Everfree forest, seeing strange shapes move around slowly, which almost greatly encouraged me to find somewhere else to lay down, but I just kept reminding myself that it could just be another illusion, or that it has no interest in me. I didn't know how I was gonna get rid of these illusions, nor did I know how those things even began, at least to the degree that they were at. The sound of a gunshot echoed through the forest, quickly following with a small purple light in the sky.

Guess that's the signal.

I slowly got up and walked to where the light had come from. Eventually I found a small dirt road and followed it until I saw Twilight and Pinkie Pie, standing next to Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy, it's glad to see that you're okay,” I said.

“Why wouldn't I be?” She asked.

“My Pinkie Sense told me that something big was going to happen, but I'm so glad everything's alright,” Pinkie Pie said.

I saw something out of the right corner of my eye, something big swimming around in the marshes. Thinking it was another trick of the mind, I didn't speak up to it or give it another glance. But then, a small part of it's head popped out from behind Twilight.

“Sorry, I know it's not nice to gloat but... AHA! I told you there was nothing to worry about, and I was right. Pinkie Pie said whatever she was shuddering about was a doozy, and the only doozy here is how right I am,” Twilight boasted.

The monster was now completely out of the water, though Twilight was still completely oblivious to it. It was an orange-scaled, four-headed hydra that breathed out a weird green smoke. It didn't seem poisonous, but seemed to make Twilight and the rest of us cough a bit. Perhaps it was just the beast's rancid breath.

“Uh, Twilight--” I began to warn.

“Pinkie's made a lot of predictions today but... ugh, what is that smell? But what we've shown here is that there's no point in believing in anything you can't see for yourself.”

“Oh really? Then what exactly is right behind you?”

Twilight looked back and saw what the rest of us had already seen, and was terrified like her friends.

“I see it... But I don't believe it!”

The hydra let out a mighty cry from its three heads, all acting as one voice for its terror.

“Book it!”

Twilight and Fluttershy were quick to get as far away from the monster as possible, me being close behind them. But then I saw that Pinkie Pie just stood there, quaking at the presence of the hydra. Whispering a quick curse, I completely turned around, grabbed Pinkie Pie by the tail and threw her in the direction Twilight and Fluttershy were headed, making sure she was turned the right way too. As I ran behind Pinkie, the hydra nearly took a bite out of my leg, but I jumped forward as the second head went after me, avoiding its attack by half a foot. During the chase, the bright blue sky began to wipe away into a unsettling darkness with the sound of thunder coming from it. The trees around us began to suddenly light ablaze, acting like big torches in the dark field. Out of the marshes came men and women who wore the swamp like it was their skin, their eye sockets completely hollow and teeth missing from their mouth. They called to me, wanting me to join them in the marshes below. Of course, I responded to them by running away from them and trying my best to ignore them. I didn't want to know what this new illusion had changed the hydra into, but judging by the fact it had roared the same roar as last time, it probably didn't change at all.

“Everypony up that hill!” Twilight yelled.

I knew that would be a bad idea. Even if it would slow the hydra down, the long neck would easily compensate for it and give it a chance to eat two or three of us. So, to increase my chances of not being eaten, I quickly looked around for some kind of weapon as I ran next to Pinkie Pie. Most of the weapons I passed by were either on fire, too weak to attack a hydra, or both. One of the marsh puddles had a man with a timberwolf bone stuck in its right eye, but his hand was worryingly close to it as well. I decided to take the chance and shifted myself near the man with the bone. As soon as I was next to him, I snatched the bone from his skull and managed to avoid his grabbing hand as well. Like the bone I had back at Twilight's house, the other end of the bone had sharp points where it had been snapped off.

Now what does our little friend look like now?

When I took my first step on the hill, I looked back and saw what the transformed hydra looked like. It still kept true to what it was, but the heads were more monstrous, almost like a worm head with a shark-like set of teeth and was three times bigger than before. The legs were no longer there, instead in its place was a big serpent's tail with aquamarine scales. The head on the far right charged at me, mouth opened to swallow me whole as if I were a mere crumb to it, but I rolled to the left and quickly got back up to start running again. The head crashed into the hill, leaving a big crater in its wake with a roar as it went back to the others.

This is going to be a suicide mission, isn't it?

Whether this new form of the hydra could hurt the girls or not I didn't know for sure, but I wasn't willing to take the chance of letting the hydra eat or hurt any of them. So, I decided to be the suicidal anti-hero that I knew in my mind I wasn't, but desperate times call for desperate measures. As much as I don't care about the life and death of others, the lives of my friends is a completely different story. Their lives I put above my own, though I've had my arguments with them, Rainbow Dash and Twilight in particular, they were still my friends through and through.

“Come and get me!” I yelled at the hydra.

“Trevor, what are you doing!?” Twilight asked in surprise.

“Make sure you write down my story for the next guy that comes here!”

That's when the hydra's third head went towards me, and I jumped towards the hydra. When I was in the middle of the beast's mouth, I shoved the sharp part of the bone into the roof of its mouth and dragged it down with me as I went into its throat. I could hear the blood rushing down the throat and felt it rush past me, covering me in its black and smelly texture. When I landed at the entrance of the hydra's stomach, the entire world began to shift backwards, but my body wasn't taken along with it. Seeing walls of flesh appearing in front of me, I ran ahead began to cut through the flesh like it was grass, only to see more walls being formed ahead of me. Once I cut through all the walls, I saw a floating white orb in front of me.

What in the world is this.

“Take it,” a man in the dark told me.

Why?

“Consume it.”

I'm not gonna do anything until I know what this is.

“It's the heart of the hydra. Consume it's essence and you will destroy it.”

I'm not going to eat this thing.

“You don't have to eat it. All you have to do is touch it.”

“Hmm, well that doesn't seem too bad then,” I said to myself with a smile.

I tossed the bone aside and touched the ghostly orb with both my hands. It slowly began to cover my arms until it was the orb was no longer there, and then evaporated in a second.

“Who are you voice? You sound pretty familiar,” I asked, looking around for some sort of manifestation.

The voice reminded me of the man on the boat, but although the voice here was smooth like the man on the boat, this voice had more of a deeper, almost trustworthy tone.

“I don't think we've ever met before. Think of me as a friend, and to prove this, I'm going to fix your mind from having all these... interesting illusions.”

“That'd be nice. Can you do exorcism too?”

“What in the world of Equestria is an exorcism?”

“Do I seriously need to preform a self-exorcism just to find out what those cursed things are?”

“Things? What things? Magical ones, ancient ones, what do you mean?”

“I don't know what exactly is. It seems like nothing, plus they were part of a hallucination so it probably wasn't real at all.”

The man said something else, but his words sounded distant and came out muttered. I could feel my body being pulled away by some strange force. When I looked back the walls of flesh were gone, and in their wake was a giant wall of light. I tried to run away from it, but the pull proved too strong and yanked me into the light. The next thing I saw was Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy looking down on me.

“He's awake!” Pinkie Pie cheered.

“What happened?” I asked as the smell of rancid flesh assaulted my nose.

“You managed to kill the hydra.... but then you,” Fluttershy said, turning away from me as she stopped herself.

“What did I do? I don't exactly have memories of what I do when I black out.”

“You cut open it's heart and crushed it with your bare hands,” Twilight explained.

That would explain the smell.

“Well, at least the good news is that I'm cured of my illusions.”

“'Cured'? Didn't you said that it was a part of your Paranoia Sense?”

“Uh, well yes, but I kinda disabled it during my last hallucinations.”

“How? You can't simply switch off parts of your mind.”

“I don't know how exactly I did it myself, but apparently what I did in the hallucination lead to me crushing the heart in real life.”

“So does that prove that Trevor has Paranoia Sense or not?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“The result would be no, he doesn't have it.”

“Gorlog curse it! Twilight, just because you can't explain it, doesn't mean it's not real! My entire existence here is one of those things!” I angrily yelled.

“You being brought here can easily be explained by quantum reality spells. They can only be preformed by the highest skilled unicorns, but it is possible.”

“I give up. Either this entire universe's logic is backwards, or my logic is sideways, or both for all I know!”

“Pinkie, do you have anything to add?”

Pinkie Pie responded by her body shaking again like she did earlier.

Here we go...

“That wasn't it,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Huh? But I-- WHAT?! The hydra wasn't the doozy?! How could it not be the doozy?! What could be doozier than that?!” Twilight asked in fury.

“Dunno, but it just wasn't it.”

A mad twitch began to flair in Twilight's right eye.

“Hit the deck! She's gonna activate devil trigger!” I yelled before diving behind the hydra's dead body.

I peeked over the corpse just in time for Twilight's fur to turn white and her mane and tail turn into a blaze of fire that spread dangerously close to me. When the fires began to lick the hydra's feet, I ducked back down until I couldn't hear the roar of the flames anymore. When I looked back up, Twilight was back to normal with some scuff marks on her face.

“I give up,” Twilight said.

“Finally gonna admit that some things just can't be explained?” I asked, still behind the hydra.

“Yes. I don't know how, why, or what, but Pinkie sense somehow... makes sense. I don't see how it does, but it just does. Just because I don't understand doesn't mean its not true.”

“So does that also mean you'll admit that my Paranoia sense is true too?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Victory is mine once again.”

A quick flash of a purple bolt shot passed me, nearly clipping my right ear.

“Don't get too comfortable with that.”

I sunk my head down a bit after she said that, not wanting to loose something I still wanted.

“Pinkie Pie, is the doozy over?”

She looked at her hooves and bounced into the air once before giving us a big smile.

“That was it. That's the doozy. You believing. I never expected that to happen. That was the doozy, oh and, oh what a doozy of a doozy it was!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully replied before skipping away into the forest, presumably back home.

“Can we go back too? I think I'm tired with today, and just want to forget all this happened.”

“I do too, Trevor. I do too,” Twilight sighed.

The walk back home was silent as a night. Eventually we caught up to Pinkie Pie and she followed us back home and gave Twilight an umbrella hat for whenever her tail twitches again. I didn't hear a peep from Spike until he opened the door and walked in with a small spring in his step.

“Where have you been all day?” I asked with small annoyance in my tone.

“Oh, good, Spike, you're here. Take a letter,” Twilight said.

“With pleasure, Twilight,” Spike said, seemingly ignoring me as he went to a nearby stand with a quill and blank piece of paper.

As Twilight began to say the first part of her letter, Spike took notice to the umbrella hat Twilight was wearing and stopped writing to take in the strangeness, not that I couldn't blame him.

“Spike?”

“What? Oh, sorry, I just...”

“What's wrong, Spike, never thought you'd see me with an umbrella hat on?”

“I don't think any of us expected that, Twilight. Especially inside of all places,” I said.

“Well if Pinkie's tail's a-twitchin', what else can I do?”

“A fallout shelter? You have enough room in the basement for a decent one.”

Twilight giggled at my half-joke and put her attention back to Spike, saying what she wanted to send to the Princess. After which, Pinkie Pie touched Twilight's nose.

“Honk,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Honk,” Spike repeated as he wrote that down.

“Don't write that down, she'll think your crazy,” I commented.

“I'm sure if she let you go for breaking in the royal palace, she won't mind a bit of humor,” Spike proudly said.

Dang, I felt that burn.

After Spike sent the letter via his green flames, Pinkie Pie's tail began to twitch wildly again.

“I wonder what's gonna drop outta the sky this time?” Twilight said.

“You never know,” Pinkie Pie replied.

A loud crash came from outside the second floor. Me and Spike rushed up to see what had caused it, and lo and behold, Princess Celestia was standing on one of the larger tree branches.

“What are you doing here!?” I asked, not sure if I should have been angry or confused at her sudden appearance.

“Twitchy tail?” Spike asked.

The Princess gave no reply, but instead began to fly back towards Canterlot.

“Wait! I'm not done with you yet onda jester!”

But alas, she didn't turn back, nor did she even give me a reply back. I should have expected this from Celestia, but she was always one that I couldn't completely figure out at times. Probably for the better, since there were more pressing matters in my mind. I then made a mental list of things to do once I had some free time. One, find the girl who always has either a crow or a raven nearby. Two, figure out what exactly brought me here, maybe first starting off with the higher unicorns until further notice. And finally three, make another list of questions for the man on the boat when I got back to him. If I got back to him anyway.

Author's Note

I actually managed to get this done on Christmas day? Excellent! Okay, so before I get to some other news I'll first say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Be sure to be safe during your holiday celebrations and try your best to make the most of them. Now for the news: So basically I need to write eight more chapters until the entire story is done, so I'm going to write four of them, post another chapter here, then finish the rest of the chapters so I can focus (for the most part) on this. Eventually we will get to the point where they'll be two/one chapter a week, but that'll be sometime next year. Thank you and have a nice day.

Prologue: Beginnings of A New Legacy.

I stood on the edge of the beach like I always did, looking at all the islands on the endless sea under the star-filled night. The islands were of many sizes, shapes, colors, and so much more. I couldn't help but admire them. I could hear someone walking up behind me.

“Sir,” the man behind me announced a bit loudly. His tone was strong and mildly deep.

“Yes? Is everything alright?” I asked.

“Sir, I have orders from high command sir!”

“Please, you don't have to call me 'sir.' What are the orders?”

“S-- um, I was told to tell you that it's time to continue the legacy.”

“Really? Have you been told who will be next?”

“Yes. It'll be the offspring.”

“Offspring? He's a bit out of range for this task, isn't he?”

“Yes, I'm sorry, my mistake. I meant the product of his offspring.”

“Okay. Thank you, you are dismissed.”

I heard the man salute and leave.

A very long time for selecting the next one. But, it is his choice after all.

I summoned a book from a library back home and searched for the name I was looking for. Once I found it I looked through their history from the very beginning. It took 2 months of non-stop reading before I finished his, and a few other people's history. But in the end I found it well worth it.

What an interesting man. Quite the story as well. I can see why he chose him for this journey.

I closed the book and sent it back to where it belonged.

“Spirit, come to me,” I whispered to the wind

A few seconds passed before I heard the sound of wings flapping to the left of me. Spirit landed right next me.

“You called me?” She asked with that sweet tone of hers.

“Yes, I did. We have been called to service once again, and I know exactly how to go about it,” I told her.

“And how would that be?”

“You will do what you have been destined to do. Watch over him, make sure he goes on the right path, and make sure he learns what he's suppose to before he leaves.”

“Okay. Where will I go?”

“I can't give you the details right now, but I will once he leaves. Now, I need to get ready for his arrival. I'll leave a sign for you at the gate you're to go through. I will speak to you once I am done.”

“Okay. God be with you.”

“God be with you as well, Spirit.”

After that, she flew away. I sunk all the islands back into the ocean for the time being. I walked off the beach and onto the island itself. The thick bushes and trees along the path were still teaming with fruit and flowers, truly a wonder to behold. I placed a hand on the ground and a circle of light surrounded me.

Time for another legend to begin.

I searched the catwalk from the open ventilation grate about 30 or 35 feet away from me with my semi-auto rifle, my weapon of long-ranged destruction. I saw an armored soldier coming down the walkway, carrying a mere pistol in his hands. I focused my reticule on his head and pulled the trigger.

“Ee-ahhhh!” A voice over my headset screamed.

I pulled the trigger four more times as the soldier ran, getting a head-shot each time before the soldier dropped dead.

Gotcha. 1 more point for me.

I pressed the select button on my Xbox 360 controller and saw I had 21 kills, needing only 4 more to win the match. I looked at the other opponents. Spencer's username was below mine, having 18 kills. Brandon had 17 kills, Dave had 13, and Ryan had 12.

“I just need to kill all of you once to end the game,” I said menacingly.

“Not unless I kill you first,” Spencer countered.

“You're gonna kill me 7 times in a row without me killing you or the others first?”

“... Yes.”

“Dave, meet me in the lift room,” Ryan said.

“Okay,” Dave replied.

“NO!” I yelled.

This was a trick they had used before to cheat me out of my deserved victory. They would meet in that cursed room and assassinate each other until one of them would win, the gits. I switched to my shotgun, ready to kill them and any other heathen that got in my way. As I quickly made my way over there I saw that Ryan had already assassinated Dave.

I'm gonna kill him. I'll kill him again, and again, and again.

I took a quick glance at my radar when I was next to the lift room and saw that there was an enemy inside and another enemy coming up the stairs. I went inside, jumped over a grenade Ryan threw at me, and shot him in the face at point-blank range. Another person came in using the entrance I used. It was Spencer holding an energy sword.

Just bloody try it!

He went into the lunging animation. When the sword almost touched me I pulled the trigger and killed him in one shot.

“What!?” Spencer complained.

“Bulltrue,” I announced the medal I had earned for that kill.

That leaves Brandon and Dave left to kill.

I glanced at my radar and saw an enemy coming up the lift. I stood in front of it, my finger a bit twitchy with anticipation. As soon I saw a black visor and Master Chief helmet I pulled the trigger. It had been Brandon with his own shotgun on hand. We had both killed each other at the same time.

“Ha! Killed you!” Brandon cheered.

Blast.

“Killed you too,” I countered.

“Ah, shut up,” he joked and laughed.

I couldn’t help but snicker. Brandon was kinda like the brother I always wanted but never had. We were a lot alike in some ways, but not so much in a few aspects. I had re-spawned in the bottom of the vent with a DMR and a pistol, our usual weapons on spawn. I checked the radar to see if anyone was near me. I saw a shaded red blip to my left. Someone was in the room near the catwalk. I crouched down and went up the air system that brought me to the same floor as the enemy. It was Dave that in the same room. I got out my pistol and started to shoot at him.

“Oh crap!” He groaned.

He started to run away from me as his shield were on the brink of being disabled. I put another shot in his back, disabling his shield. I took another shot but he turned to the left before the shot could hit him. I had to reload.

“Almost got you,” I said.

I ran after him, following the same path he did. I saw him going out the nearest door downstairs and followed him. When he went out of the door way he turned left then turned right at the catwalk, picking up the concussion rifle.

Oh no.

As he turned to me I got up close and punch him once, eliminating his shields. He shot me back with a concussion rifle shot and I started to open fire on him. After 2 shots from each of our guns, Dave dropped dead.

“Game over,” the game announcer said.

“No!” the others yelled.

“Yes!” I cheered.

It showed the scoreboard with me in 1st place.

That was a close one.

“How about a different game type this time?” I asked.

“Nah, I think we're kinda done with custom games for now,” Brandon said.

“Ahhhh. Alright.”

I looked at my laptop tat was right next to me. The time was 11 P.M.

“Come on, let's play some grifball,” Ryan said.

“We can only have four people for that though,” Spencer responded.

“Actually I have to go offline now,” I said.

“No, you're staying on with us,” Brandon jokingly demanded.

“I would, but I have to wake up at 4 in morning for work.”

“Heh heh, well alright man, goodnight.”

“Night.”

The rest of the guys said goodbye and I turned off my Xbox 360.

“That went on longer than I thought,” I whispered to myself.

I brushed my teeth, went upstairs to my room, and went to sleep in my bed with one cover on. When I woke up I
was standing in the middle of an aurora fog. The sound of warfare was everywhere, iron clashing iron, blooding splattering
on the ground, bones being broken, and bodies slamming into the ground.

Where am I?

I walked forward cautiously, not wanting to end up on the wrong side of a weapon. I started to hear voices, some mine and some others. They seemed strangely familiar but I couldn't exactly figure out who they were. I could see a figure up ahead. I slowly moved towards it, hoping it wasn't a knight or something. When I got close enough to the figure I saw that it was...
me. He was taller, had longer hair, thankfully still had brown color to it, had tinted, circular glasses, and a goatee.

“Ah, there you are,” he said gladly.

I was dumbfounded. My jaw was slightly open and my head was tilted to the right.

“Who... exactly are you?” I asked.

He put his right hand to his chin.

“Hmmm. Um, to put it as basic as I can, I'm you from the future. Well, not the future but a future.”

“What do you mean 'a future?'”

“I don't even really know myself, to be honest.”

“And what happens to you... me... us?”

“The future's on you. I can't really say all that much because of spoilers. What I can say, however, is that I highly envy you.”

“I don't see why. As far as I know you've lived the same life as I have.”

“You'll see. I'll let you go now. Hopefully you will remember this when you wake up. I know our tendencies with remembering dreams.”

“What?”

He snapped his fingers, I heard the annoying buzzing of my alarm, and everything went to black. I groaned, turned over, and turned off the alarm.

Now, what was I dreaming about again? All I remember is that mist. Oh well, if it's important enough it'll come back to me.

I got out of bed to begin the new day at a too early time.

Author's Note

Good morning/afternoon/evening. I'll get this out of the way now so I won't have to say it later. This is my first story in years, so my apologies for any errors. This story shall be the first one out of five, and I hope that you enjoy this and the rest of them. I can't say for sure how many I'll upload a week or month, but I'll try the best to my ability to get them out when I can. Thank you for reading, and enjoy the ride.

Chapter 11: A Little Fun In The Snow

After the picnic was finish, Rainbow Dash announced to us that.

“Winter starts tomorrow.”

“Really now?” I asked.

“Yeah. Don't they have winter where you're from?”

“Of course they do.”

“Anyways, I gotta take off and get ready. See ya guys.”

Me and the five said goodbye as Rainbow Dash flew into the air.

“That reminds me. Trevor, do you have any winter clothes?” Rarity asked.

“No, I don't believe I do.”

“Then I must make you some clothes. Don't want to get cold during the winter now.”

Rarity started to leave.

“I guess so. But--”

Too late. Rarity had already left, and most likely wouldn’t come back even if we tried.

“And she's gone,” I thought aloud.

“What was your grandfather like?” Twilight asked.

“Didn't know him too well. I was a year old when he left.”

“Well you obviously knew a few things about him.”

“All I know is he was in the Navy during the Korean War.”

“He was in a war!?”

“Aye. Guess my family has a knack for it,” I half-joked.

“How many wars have happened where you came from?”

“Let's see. From what I can remember, The American Revolutionary War, the Civil, World War 1, World War 2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, War of 1812. And the current one is the Afghanistan War.”

The girls were surprised by my answer.

“Why were there so many wars?”

“Either people attacked us first, an argument got really out of hand, stuff like that. But that's why I like this place. No foolish wars.”

“Me too,” Twilight agreed.

The others nodded their heads in agreement, and the picnic ended soon after that. It was dark out so we all said our goodbyes and returned home. At the door there was a letter for me from the Princess.

“Dear Trevor: As you may know the disappearances have continued throughout Manehattan, but recently the disappearances have stopped, and we have gotten reports of the possible kidnapper identity. By the descriptions of the witnesses it looks a lot like your kind. If you know of someone else of your kind that may be here please, notify me. - Princess Celestia.”

Another one? This is certainly not part of the original story.

I had no idea if there was another human in Equestria. If there was then I certainly didn't notice it.

“Night,” I said to Twilight.

“Goodnight,” she replied.

I went upstairs, went to bed. The next thing I know, I'm in the middle of the desert during an eclipse. An army was in headed my way while I just had an emerald sword in my hand. I saw the leader of the army come out in front. His skin was pure white with black liquid on his mouth and eyes, and he had many rings on his fingers of occult-looking symbols. He also had long black hair and some armor on his body and legs that was made out of leather.

“Veniți fraților! Să ne ocupăm locul cuvenit în calitate de conducători ai acestei lumi și să trimită aceste jalnice oameni înapoi la locul lor! Pentru slava lui Dumnezeu! Pentru infinit!” He yelled.

“Where's my reinforcements?" I asked myself.

Risen from the sand, multiple soldiers in metal armor head-to-toe with nothing but their bare hands to fight with. As the opposing army drew closer and closer, the general looked at me and motioned to come to him. I stood my ground and pointed my sword to the general as a challenge. My soldiers took initiative and placed their hands on the ground. It started to rumble furiously for only a few seconds, then a demonic shaped hand rose from the sand and reached towards the general and his troop, more hands and a few sorrowful faces followed them, crushing the soldiers and dragging them down into the sand till they were buried alive. Some of the hands even threw them into the faces for them to swallow the captured soldiers. The hands sunk down into the sand after they killed all the soldiers, except for the general. He looked around at the blood-stained sand. He got on his knees and looked towards the sky.

“Dumnezeul meu, Dumnezeul meu. De ce ne-ai parasite!?”

I walked over towards him.

“Cum? Cum ne-ai depășit? Suntem mai puternici decât ai putea înțelege vreodată!?” He asked me.

“Can't say I understand what you're saying. However, you're death will most likely not be in vain. You seem like an honorable warrior," I replied.

He seemed to understand what I said and hung his head low. I stabbed my sword through his stomach, making him grunt in pain, and dark blood started pouring out of his mouth. I took the sword out and swung to the right, aiming right at the neck line. The cut was clean, making his head fall backwards while his body fell to the right. Then, I woke up. As the morning sun burned my eyes when I opened them, I noticed that there was another light coming from outside. I looked out the window and saw it was snowing, by the looks of it there was already three inches on the ground.

Winter. It's been a while.

When I went downstairs I saw Twilight and Spike eating breakfast.

“Good morning Trevor,” Twilight said.

“Morning,” I replied.

Twilight levitated a glass of water and set it on the table for me as I took my seat.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem,” Twilight replied.

As I took a drink of water there was a knock on the door. Twilight used her magic to open it, and at the door way was Rarity in winter gear and her saddle pack. When Spike saw Rarity I could see little pink hearts in his eyes.

Keep trying lover boy. Keep trying.

“Trevor, darling, I just finished your winter clothes and I wanted to know what you think,” Rarity said.

“Sure. Let's see what you got,” I replied.

Rarity used her magic to open the saddle pack and levitate a black, hooded thin coat and heavy white pants with flame designs on the sides.

“What do you think?”

“Fantastic.”

“I'm glad you like them.”

She levitated them over to me and I put the clothes on my left shoulder.

I wonder.

“Are you free today Rarity?”

“I have a few more orders to fill, but other than that I am.”

“Alright. I have a game that the eight of us can play.”

“Eight?” Twilight asked.

“You two and the rest of the girls, me, and Spike.”

“Really!?” Spike asked excitedly.

“Really really.”

“I'll get ready. Then we can see if the girls will play,” Twilight said.

Excellent. Might as well play some winter games while it's here.

I put on my new winter clothes over the ones I had on and Twilight had on yellow boots, a blue saddle with fluff around it, and a scarf. We walked out of the house.

“We should split up; we'll get more progress done.”

The others nodded.

“Alright, Spike you go to Applejack's, Rarity will go to Pinkie Pie, I'll go to Fluttershy, and that leaves Rainbow Dash with you Twilight,” I said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Spike said.

Then, the three of us left to inform the rest of the girls. As I saw the rest of Ponyville dressed up in winter gear, my body quickly remembered that my feet were bare, thanks to the small chills that were sent to them with each step and the slightly cold air wasn't exactly helping the rest of my body. When I got to Fluttershy's house she was helping the animals find places to hibernate.

“Good morning Fluttershy,” I greeted.

“Oh, hello Trevor. What are you doing here? If you don't mind me asking, of course,” Fluttershy replied.

“The girls and I are planning to play a game and wondered if you would be able to join us.”

“Oh I would love to join you, but Angel has been acting strange lately, especially when he gets near the forest.”

I've never heard of a rabbit being scared of the forest before.

“Hmm, could just be because it's winter.”

“That could be it, but I've just never seen him like this.”

“I’m sure he would be fine if you were gone for a few hours. Where is he now?"

"He's inside the house with the rest of my pets."

"Well, there you go. He's not home alone or anything like that. Plus, I'm sure the rest of the animals will help him out if he's feeling uneasy. So, will ye join us?"

She hesitated on answering, but came to a decision half a minute later.

“I will.”

Me and Fluttershy walked back to the tree house and saw the rest of the group waiting for us.

“Ah, there you are. What game are we playing?” Twilight asked.

“We're gonna have a snowball fight,” I said.

“Snowball fight?”

I grabbed a handful of snow, formed it into a ball, and threw it to the left and watched it crash into the ground.

“The rules are as followed. You get hit three times you're out. If you're too close to some pony, then you say 'mercy strike,’ which counts as a single hit. And that's about it.”

“Do we have teams or is it a free-for-all?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We'll have teams. Team one is Me, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. Team two shall be Spike, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.”

The ponies and dragon got in their groups.

“Good. We'll split up in town and begin the battle there. Good luck, and may the best team win,” I said.

When we got to the entrance of the town, we split up in opposite directions, and huddled in a group when we thought they were gone.

“So what should we do?” Twilight asked.

“We'll do some sort of Roman maneuver. We'll leave two of our team in an area and wait 'til the enemy team starts firing at them, then the rest of us will attack from behind.”

“So who will be the decoys?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Shouldn't have opened your big mouth.

“Glad you volunteered yourself Rainbow Dash.”

“What? But I didn't--”

“Oh come on now. If they know that you're there, then they won't think we're doing a sneak attack. Plus you'll be a major asset.”

Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her chin and thought about it for a few seconds.

“I'll do it,” she said, putting her hoof down.

“Excellent. Now who will be alongside Rainbow Dash?”

“Um, I'll do it, if you don't mind,” Fluttershy said.

“Good, good. Alright Twilight, that leaves you and me to fire at the enemy team.”

“Where will we be at?” Twilight asked.

“We'll go to the bakery. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, I'll have you fake searching around ‘til they start attacking, then I'll need you two to take cover and attack. Me and Twilight will try to cover you as much as we can.”

“Right,” the three said.

“Let's set off!”

We marched towards the bakery and got in our positions. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were at the entrance while Twilight and I were on the rooftops, thanks to me carrying her. I was on the bakery's rooftop while Twilight was on the rooftop on the other side of the street. It didn't take long for the other team to show up. All four of them were in a group and watched out for attacks on the streets. As soon as the other team saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy they quickly made snowballs and threw it at them. The first few missed the two, which helped them realize what was going on. They quickly took cover and started firing snowballs. I grabbed some snow, mushed it into a snowball, popped up from cover and threw it at Spike and watched it hit the top of his head before going back into cover to make another snowball.

That was lucky.

“What about the previous plan Trevor?” Twilight asked.

“Change of plans. We'll take a sniper’s attack.”

She seemed to figure out what I meant by ‘sniper’, and started firing at the enemy below us when I got out of cover to choose my next target. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were firing snowballs at Applejack while Fluttershy was hiding behind Rainbow Dash. The enemy team soon started throwing snowballs at me and Twilight, one of them even got close to hitting me in the head if not for it hitting the ledge instead.

Well looks like things are getting worse.

I saw Spike was still in and that Rarity had taken two hits, though Applejack and Pinkie Pie hadn’t been hit yet

The sooner I can lower their team the better.

I threw the snowball at Rarity. It was just about to hit her until Spike got in the way of its path and got hit instead.

“Don't think you'll have lover boy to protect you next time, Rarity!” I yelled.

The response I got was three snowballs tossed in my directions. One of them hit me in the left shoulder as I was ducking behind the ledge.

I need to be more careful.

I moved my position, fired a snowball at the team, and repeated the process. I managed to hit Pinkie Pie and Applejack once and fired at Rarity again. The snowball was headed directly towards her, and this time I thought I was gonna get her. But like history, Spike got in the way when it was close to her and took a hit in the chest. Rainbow Dash seized the opportunity to end off Spike with a perfect throw to his left shoulder, and he wondered off the battlefield. Applejack and Pinkie Pie kept firing at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, while Rarity was firing at me. At the times I wasn’t being fired at, I managed to see how Twilight was doing, and noticed that her snowballs were going nowhere near the team, acting more like mortars than anything.

Well, it's even teams I suppose-- Wait... mortars.

That was when I had formed a “high risk, high reward” plan. I made a bunch of snowballs and held them in my arms.

Let's hope those gliding lessons will pay off.

I ran towards the ledge and jumped off the roof, expanded my wing, and started gliding towards the roof Twilight was on. I looked at the ground and saw I was right above the enemy team.

Surprise pony ladies.

I dropped all the snowballs I had and landed on the rooftop Twilight was on. The plan worked almost worked. The snowballs dropped on the team, but only for Applejack and Rarity. As they left the battlefield, Pinkie Pie was loading up the snow that missed her in her party cannon.

Oh dear Gorlog.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy tried to hit Pinkie Pie, but they couldn’t seem to hit her in time. Pinkie Pie fired the cannon where the two were at; the shot was bigger than the cover that the two were behind.

That's gonna hurt.

It was a direct hit. The two popped out of the snow-cannonball that swallowed them and turned the cannon towards me, and of course, I took off running.

Not good.

She fired the canon and the shot was headed straight for me. I couldn't avoid it if I went left or right, so I tried something else. I jumped in the air and formed my body in a crescent moon shape and barely managed to avoid the snow-canon. After it went passed me I fell down to the street, quickly formed another snowball, and turned to Pinkie Pie, who was right beside the loaded cannon.

“You have two choices Pinkie. Surrender or be destroyed,” I said.

“Not gonna happen Trevor. I studied all your moves,” Pinkie Pie replied in an Australian accent.

So be it.

She fired a shot that was bigger and faster than the two shots previous. I jumped in the air, just scraping the edge of the cannon, and threw my snowball at Pinkie Pie as soon as I saw her. I flipped and landed on my back, but managed to sit up just in time to see my snowball hit Pinkie Pie on her right front hoof.

Can't believe that actually worked.

Pinkie Pie came up to me.

“Good job Trevor,” she said.

“Aye.”

We shook and Pinkie Pie went back to her fallen teammates while my teammates came to me.

“So what should we do now that the battle's over?” Applejack asked.

Hmm. Have I made a snowman yet? No, this is the first day of winter.

“We shall make snowmen. Or snow-ponies in your case.”

“What's a snowman?” Twilight asked.

I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle in response.

“A snowman is a man made of snow. It won't be a perfect replica but it'll be something.”

“Could you build one for us?”

“Let me see what I can do,” I said with a grin.

I tried to figure what kind of snowman I would make. I didn't want to make a regular snowman, but something I haven't created yet.

I made the giant, the dwarven guard, and a colorful one. What to make this time?

But instead of actually planning out my snowman, I just made things up as I started to build him. First, I made the three balls bigger than what one would usually do. Then, I put a little line on the snowman’s head, like an outline for a hood, than rubbed the face down so that the hood had more depth than the face. And finally, put the famous Assassin’s Creed logo on the hood.

“This is a snowman, an assassin snowman to be exact, except he’s missing two sticks for arms.”

“What's his name?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Can't say I've given a snowman a name.

“Umm… His name is Altair.”

“Altair?” Twilight asked.

“Yep, he’s one of the most famous assassin’s where I’m from. And for good reason too.”

Rainbow Dash hovered in front of the snow-assassin.

“This is a snowman? Doesn't look like much,” Rainbow Dash commented.

“It's a simple design. There are people like me far more skilled in making snowmen.”

“Still isn't that cool.”

"Think you can do better?"

"I know I can do better."

"Then prove it."

She and the rest of the group accepted my challenge and started making their own snow-pony. Pinkie made a huge cupcake, Twilight made Celestia, Applejack made Granny Smith, Fluttershy made Angel, Rarity made prince Blueblood, and Rainbow Dash made a crude-looking version of Spitfire.

"These are quite impressive, though yours could use some work, Rainbow Dash," I said.

"Oh come on, mine isn't that bad," Rainbow Dash retorted.

I took another look at the snow-pony. It was indeed Spitfire, but her legs varied in sizes, one wing was a quarter smaller than the other, and had rough edges on her face.

"Though you did manage to get your snow-pony's body and head to stay off the ground, that's something I certainly can't do."

"So you're saying I'm better than you at making snow-ponies."

"I'm saying that we're basically even in snow creation making."

"You just don't want to say that I'm better than you."

"That's not it at all."

"So you admit I'm better than you, and you just don't want to say it."

"What!? I told you already that that was not the case at all."

As you'd expect, the argument went on for a while. Once we stopped though, it was starting to get dark out. I let out a semi-fake yawned and rubbed my eyes.

“Didn't think strategic snowball warfare could wear me out so much. I'm gonna head back home and get some sleep. ”

“Right now? The moon isn't even fully out yet,” Twilight said.

“It's surprising how dreams can keep you up.”

That was somewhat true. When I woke up in the morning from a dream back home I would always feel like I was awake during the dream, but if that was common for other people or not I had no idea. I said my goodbyes and the group replied with a “good night" as I walked away. I got inside the house and almost collapsed on my bed.

So tired... must die of sleep now.

It didn’t take long for me to fall into a deep sleep.