A Dream in Written Pages

by Mister Meowmerz

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Human, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Lyra, Original Character
Length: 27506

Ponies in Humanville! When Scratch Pad stumbles upon an ancient, mysterious tome, it takes him to a mystical world of high-fantasy where he meets a comically insane human with a penchant for disaster. Shenanigans ensue.

Ponies in Humanville!

When Scratch Pad stumbles upon an ancient, mysterious tome, it takes him to a mystical world of high-fantasy, the likes of which he's only ever read about in books. There, he meets a comically insane human with a penchant for disaster, and together they go on wacky misadventures that threaten Scratch's peace of mind at every hair-raising turn.

However, things aren't all hunky-dory in Humanland (not that it was all that hunky-dory to begin with, in Scratch's opinion), and a potentially cataclysmic force threatens to throw both his home-world of Equestria and this new world he's been warped to into chaos. Can Scratch and his new human friend band together and save both their worlds from catastrophe?

...Well, they'll probably need a little help.

Published 2013-10-02 04:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-10 22:24:52 UTC

Prologue - Talking Ponies. Who Knew?

Twenty-Fourth Cycle in the Month of the Emperor, Year 294, 43rd Sequence. Outside Hillaya Ruins.

Well, they've done it. Crisis averted, so to speak.

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering what I'm talking about. The crisis I speak of is the 'Equestrian Crisis of 294'... that's what I've decided to call it, anyways. And the 'they' I'm referring to are my good friend Ryker and his new... Equestrian companions. It's still hard to believe that everything they claimed happened; if only I'd been there...

My name is Saelus Alaric. I am a mage-slash-elementalist of some renown; you may have even heard of me. If not, then pay me no mind, for that's obviously not the purpose of this document. The reason I am keeping these records is for them to serve as a dossier on all things related to the Equestrian Crisis: major events, effects on our world, key players that took part in the stopping. I'll admit, it wasn't quite as dramatic as I make it sound, but regardless of its minor relevance when compared to our world as a whole, the events that transpired - if made known to the general populace - could very well change how we view this universe altogether.

Before I continue, though, a brief summary of some previous findings might be in order for one to fully grasp the situation. Six months and thirty-seven days ago, my companions and I had uncovered a shocking revelation: potential interplanar travel through the use of ancient, magical relics known simply as 'Gates'. At first, evidence strongly pointed to the possibility of these Gates no longer existing on our world, or, if they were still around, no longer functioning. However, with the arrival of certain 'outsiders' and the threat of the previously mentioned 'Crisis' looming overhead, those theories were put to test, and I have good reason to believe that we, too, can travel to these other 'worlds', there being Gates that are still functioning hidden somewhere across the land.

The theories and such can wait until later, however. To begin my documentation of the Equestrian Crisis, it's probably wisest to start from the beginning, and for that, we'll begin by observing the story of a certain 'Scratch Pad', one of the aforementioned outsiders and native resident of the realm of Equestria. Equestria is a pacifistic world where the dominant species is a race of talking, pastel-colored ponies, ruled over by two god-like entities and kept in balance through their magic. Odd, yes, but bear with me, here.

Scratch is a unicorn, a variation of their species capable of magic through the use of the horns on their heads, and had come to our world by accident due to the power of a strange book in his possession. His first visit was only temporary; however, events transpired that eventually led to his becoming trapped here, with no way back home. A large portion of this document will be written from Scratch's point of view, him being a key factor in the Crisis' prevention, and as such will largely be in the first person with him providing narration. He was kind enough to supply me with a copy of his memories of the last few months, and I will do my best to keep this document as faithful to said remembrance as possible.

So, without further ado, let's begin then, shall we? It all started with...

Author's Note

And now we get started. :3 First story, woo! Had some second thoughts about this prologue, maybe something else would be better? Let me know!

Chapter One - All's Quiet on the Home Front...

...Another, peaceful morning in Ponyville. So quiet, so tranquil, so... filled with rising, black smoke..?

I fumbled around in my now suffocating bedsheets, rising in a panic as the smoke drifted in along the ceiling of my room. A fire? Here!? My mind raced with a sudden anxiety as I leapt to my hooves, taking the bedsheets with me; I had to find Sis! Dashing out into the hallway with my bedsheets trailing behind, I stumbled out into the living room proper, coughing through the black smoke and trying my best not to inhale too much of it.

"Sis? Sis!" I cried, fighting with five layers of fabric and hoping to Celestia that she was okay. Was she still in her room? What if she was still sleeping?!

...A quick glance towards the kitchen, however, found me the mare in question, safe and sound. She was a small, rather wild-looking white unicorn, with a spiky, blue, two-toned mane and large, round eyes of the deepest shade of red, and although she, herself, was alright, whatever was in the pan she was levitating seemed a little worse for wear, as evidenced by the smoke and the fire extinguisher she was desperately trying to put it out with.

"Oh, uh, morning, Scratch!" She smiled, cheerfully, spraying the smoldering substance in the pan with a healthy dose of white foam. "Just, uh, you know, cookin' up some breakfast, here!"

I immediately ceased my struggle with the bedsheets tangled around my legs, taking a long, deep breath and letting it all out in a huge sigh of relief. Okay, so, no, we weren't in any mortal peril; it was just my sister being a giant klutz. I slowly wiggled free of my soft, cottony shackles, walking over and snatching the pan and the extinguisher out of her magical grasp with a levitating spell of my own.

"You know, waking up to breakfast usually doesn't involve me almost getting a heart attack." I frowned in annoyance, as I got to work cleaning up her mess. A few broken plates, sugar spilled all over the floor; probably all knocked over when she realized she'd left the pan on the oven and came running.

"Heh, sorry little bro, it's just you were sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't bring myself to wake you up~!" She gave me a sheepish grin, and despite my irritation at being so rudely awakened, I couldn't help but grin back, even as I rolled my eyes. I could never really get mad at her; she was my fun, loving, incredibly klutzy older sister, after all. Besides, this was her apartment, and she was letting me share it with her. Being a down-on-his-luck journalist that was currently out of a job, I had nothing to complain about.

"Yeah, yeah... let's get the windows open to let all this smoke out..."

Using my magic, I lifted all the windows as far as they would go, opening up the door, as well. Sis deigned to help by grabbing a nearby cloth and whirling it around in the air like a propeller, ventilating the room. It took a while, but eventually, we cleared the living room of the offending smog and returned it to a somewhat presentable state, albeit still with the lingering smell of something akin to burnt toast. I wiped some sweat off my forehead, getting my own spiky, red mane out of my eyes; something told me this was gonna be a long day...

"So, now that that's all taken care of..." Sis started, sidling up beside me. "Good morning!" She let out a yell, giving me her obligatory 'good morning' punch right on the shoulder. I winced a bit; she really didn't hold back, on those.

"Right... well, how about I make some omelettes, then?" I suggested, rubbing on the welt that was now starting to form on my bruised hide. Sis gave out a hearty cheer, and with a shake of my head, I dutifully got to work. I guess I didn't need that extra hour of sleep, anyways...

***

"...So, Bro, you going to the Library again, today?"

"Uh, yeah, how'd you know?"

"Duh, I know you wouldn't pass up a chance to see your sweetie TwiTwi!"

"A-As if! She just asked me to come over for a while; apparently she has something for me."

"Oho, she has something for you, alright..."

I gracefully let the innuendo pass as my sister and I continued eating our cheese and hay omelettes; there really wasn't any arguing with her when she got like this, and I'd rather not do it at the breakfast table, anyways. I considered, though, bringing up her own relationship with her 'friend', Octavia... but immediately thought better of it since, knowing her, she'd probably get back at me in some way or another. Luckily, just as I was about to say something that I might've regretted, later, Sis finished eating and got up from the table, taking her dish to the sink.

"Well, I'm gonna be going out with Tavi, this afternoon, so you two behave yourselves, you hear? Twilight's a princess now; better watch your step!" She teased with a grin, already getting ready to leave. Who does she think I am, anyways...? Again, some words I might've come to regret almost slipped out of my mouth, but common sense and a healthy fear of super noogies kept me quiet, once more. I opted instead for a disgruntled sound of agreement through a mouthful of omelette, just as a knock sounded at the door.

"Oh, that's probably her!"

Sis trotted up to answer, swinging the door wide open with a welcoming grin for the beautiful, grey mare, outside. The mare had on some saddlebags, and was wearing her usual white collar complete with pink bowtie that I thought really complimented the sheen of her long, black mane... Er, n-not that I'd know anything about that...

"Good morning, Vinyl Scratch, Scratch Pad." She greeted, politely bowing her head in her usual fashion. "I take it you're both doing well?"

"Yep, mornin', Tavi!" Sis replied, ruffling the other mare's mane, to which she just grimaced, patiently waiting it out.

"You know I hate it when you do that, Vinyl." Tavi said, fixing her mane after she was done. Sis just laughed and grinned, poking Octavia in the ribs.

"I know. Why do you think I do it so often?"

The other mare simply rolled her eyes, before looking at me and giving me a gentle smile.

"I'll be borrowing your sister, for a while, then. I hope you don't mind?"

"I don't think you need to worry about that," Sis interrupted before I could reply, "He's already got himself a hot date with Miss Librarian, you know!"

"Oh, Twi?" Octavia's eyes widened, a hint of a smirk appearing on her demure lips. "Do tell!"

"I'll tell you on the way! You wouldn't believe what happened this morning, though; we almost had a fire in here...!"

And with that, they left before I could even get a word in, edgewise.

...Phew. As much as I loved her, it could be a real hassle dealing with Sis' hobby of teasing me about every single girl I meet (and then telling Octavia all about it...). I mean, it's not like there was anything going on between me and Twi, and I doubt that would happen anytime, soon; we've already known each other for about a year, now, and although she eats up those sappy romance novels like the ravenous bookworm she is, she seemed a little denser when it came to actually picking up on romance, herself. Add to that the fact that she's a princess now, and somepony like me... well, I didn't really stand a chance.

"Well, a guy can dream, I suppose." I thought, wistfully. Anyhow, now that I was awake, I decided I might as well go out for a walk before I met up with Twilight at the Library. No good in wasting a perfectly fine morning, after all.

Grabbing a piece of toast and some saddlebags of my own, I headed out the door, stepping out to a cool breeze and bright sun as I made my way down the wooden stairs of the apartment complex. It was a fairly new building, but the plastered walls were painted a flamboyant, gaudy orange, which didn't exactly fit with my idea of a stylish pad. Beggars can't be choosers, I guess... However, I wouldn't have too much time for my idyllic thoughts. Just as I hopped down the last of the steps, the sight of a certain, mint colored pony going down the cobbled street stopped me dead in my tracks: Lyra Heartstrings. I froze, looking this way and that; there weren't too many ponies out this early in the morning, so no chance of blending in with the crowd... Cursing my luck, I started trotting off in the other direction, hoping that I wouldn't be spotted.

"...She hasn't noticed me yet. If I just start walking the other way..."

Unfortunately for me, just as I was about to sneak off, Lyra turned her head in my direction, and I could practically see the excitement on her face as she started trotting towards me. I quickly pretended not to notice and tried to walk away, anyways, but her extremely loud cries of "Scratch!" dashed any excuse I would've had for just turning that corner and bolting down the streets.

"Scratch! Just the stallion I was looking for!" She said, beaming, walking up to me with her bright yellow eyes glowing in anticipation.

"Oh, uh, Lyra! I... didn't see you there." I lied, sheepishly looking in the other direction.

"Haha, geez, you never did pay too much attention, did you?" She laughed, tapping my hooves with hers while I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, you gotta come to the bookstore with me!"

"Bookstore?" I raised my eyebrows, genuinely intrigued, now. Usually she was just dragging me off to some weird human convention or a music shop...

"Yeah. The newest 'Too Human' book just came out, and they're having a signing over at the bookstore!"

Figured. It always came back to humans, with her.

"Well, I guess I don't have anything better to do, right now..." I answered, truthfully. Even though her habit of dragging me around every time she got excited over some new thing was kind of annoying, I was planning on heading that way, in the first place, and if she was going to the bookstore, I might as well go with her.

"Great! I know you like books and stuff, so you should buy yourself a copy, too. It's only five bits!"

"I'll... think about it."

We went on our way, Lyra gushing on about all the different books in the "Too Human" series while I half-listened and nodded where I thought it'd be appropriate. Ours was a funny relationship: we've been 'friends' since kindergarten, although that was mostly just because I didn't have many others, and because our mothers were pretty close. I was quiet as a colt, and never any good with other ponies, so I usually just kept to myself. Lyra, on the other hand, was the outgoing social butterfly that would talk with anypony if they gave her the chance, but that grated on a lot of pony's nerves, so she didn't have too many close friends, either. Still, she was pretty much the only one who ever talked to me when we were young, so even though she could be a little annoying... I guess I appreciated the company. Most of the time. She was cute, at least.

"...And then he ripped that monster apart with his bare hands! So cool!" She cried, stamping her front hooves on the ground in excitement. I let her ramble on about the latest feats of Too Human's demigod hero for a bit longer before pointing out that we were already at the bookstore.

"Well, this is where I have to get going," I said, feeling slightly guilty when I saw how quickly her smile faded in disappointment. "I promised Twilight I'd meet her at the Library, later, don't want to keep her waiting..."

"Oooh!" Lyra's face lit up again as soon as I mentioned it, suddenly leaning close like a curious kitten. "Really!? You have a date with Twilight?!"

"It's not a date!" I whispered back, tersely, looking around to see if anypony had heard us. "I'm just meeting her for something, okay?" I tried pushing the mare away, but to no avail. Why was everypony so interested, all of a sudden?

"Ohoho~, suuure you are!" She said, giving me a sly smile and tapping on my hooves again like she was in on some sort of conspiracy. "Well, you go have fun on your not-a-date, then, okay?"

I rolled my eyes, spouting a slightly embarrassed 'Whatever.' before continuing my walk, waving good-bye as she stood in line for the book signing.

"Say 'hi' to Twilight for me!"

Okay, so, with all the distractions out of the way, I finally started making my way towards the Ponyville Library. I was lost in my thoughts the whole way there, as I reflected on Sis and Lyra's reaction to me going out. I mean, how could it be a date? I've been over to the Library plenty of times, before (though never at the Librarian's request, I'll admit). Twi was probably just calling me over to show me a new book, or something.

...Would've been nice if it were true, though. Maybe a little romance wouldn't have been all that bad; Luna knows how boring it could get when my idea of good fun was staring at the ceiling for hours on end. Lost in my daydreaming, I was at the Great Oak Library before I knew it, softly knocking on the entrance door before letting myself inside.

"Hello? Twilight?" I called out, unable to spot the Librarian among the giant stacks of books that lined the inside of the tree. The library seemed to be uncharacteristically messy, today - Twilight usually kept the books in immaculate order - and though I'd just stepped in through the front door, a cloud of dust rose up to greet me, dirty clumps sticking to my normally pristine white coat. I quickly waved the dust away, coughing as I made my way deeper into the Library.

"Twilight? Are you there?"

I was about to call out again when a fallen pile of books suddenly started shaking beside me, and I jumped back in surprise as a small, purple dragon popped out of it, yawning like he'd just woke up.

"Oh, hey, Scratch!" The little dragon held up a lazy claw in greeting, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What's up?"

"Hah, Spike, it's just you..." I breathed a sigh of relief, holding a hoof to my chest to try and steady my pulse. Hey, I startle easily, okay?

"Uh, are you alright?" Spike tilted his head in concern.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." I waved him off, averting my gaze elsewhere. "Er, is Twilight in right now?"

"Huh, when isn't she? C'mon, I'll take you into the basement to see her." The dragon hopped up out of his pile of books, wading through the maze of other books stacked high, and I followed behind him as I tried my best to not knock anything over.

"So, what's up with the mess?" I asked, inching past a dangerously tipping pile of literature.

"Twilight wanted to get some cleaning done before the Princess got here, so we took down all the books to start dusting the shelves." He replied, off-handedly. "I, uh, kinda fell asleep in the middle of it, though... don't tell Twi, okay?"

"Woah, wait, what?" I interrupted, "The Princess is coming to visit?"

"Uh, yeah, Princess Luna. Didn't you know?"

"Well... no, I didn't." I lowered my head in thought, pondering what this would mean. Sure, I didn't get outside too often, but even I would've heard about a visit from one of the Princesses. Heck, everypony in Ponyville would be up and about getting ready to welcome Luna with some sort of celebration. If this was a private visit, well, what exactly would they be meeting about...? I began to feel that Twilight calling me over wasn't as much of a coincidence as I thought.

"That's okay, I guess. She won't be here until tonight, so you take your time with Twi, okay?" The little dragon snickered, putting a not-so-subtle claw over his mouth to try and mask it. "Just to let you know, that Chineighse restaurant down the street is her favorite!"

I just rolled my eyes, punching him lightly on the shoulder as we walked down the steps to the basement. Even Spike was teasing now, huh? It must be contagious.

"Twilight! Scratch is here to see you!" The dragon called out when we got to the bottom. The lights were dimmed, but I could just make out the slender figure of Twilight through the darkness, sitting at a table among a veritable fortress of books stacked in piles around it. At the sight of us, Twi let out a small gasp of surprise, and, using her horn, quickly levitated all of the surrounding books into several neat stacks on top of the desk while simultaneously bringing up the lights to a bright glimmer.

"Ah, Scratch! You're early!" She exclaimed in a rush, quickly closing the book she'd been reading in front of her and turning around.

"I am?" I scratched my mane, trying to remember when exactly Twilight said I should come over. Was I supposed to be here later? I guess I was never all that good at keeping track of things...

"Haha, it's okay! Really..." She breathed a small sigh, fluttering her wings to fan herself. Wings I somehow forgot she had... It was funny how you could get used to such a big change so quickly; when she first became a princess, I was stumbling all over myself trying to keep proper etiquette. But as a few weeks went by and I realized that she was basically the same Twilight she's always been... well, now it's pretty much the same as when we first became friends. Thinking back on it, she hasn't really changed all that much...

"Um, could you leave us down here for a minute, Spike? There's something I need to talk to Scratch about... Alone." Twilight said, pointedly ushering Spike back up the stairs with her magic. Spike just chuckled as he walked out, throwing me a 'good luck' sign with his claws.

"Sure, sure, I'll leave you two down here. Alone. All by yourselves..."

The little dragon was interrupted by a door slamming in his face as Twilight closed it shut in annoyance. She gave another big sigh, before turning to me with a cheery smile, eyes alight with that certain familiar spark I've seen when she gets really immersed in her research.

"Okay, so. You won't believe what I found yesterday!" She started, slowly levitating the book she had been reading between us. It was an ancient, heavy thing, with all manners of wildly tangled, but, at the same time, strangely uniform patterns embossed on the outside of it's brown, leather covers, its pages yellowing with age. It might've just been my imagination, but I felt something... something coming from it, as if the book itself was teeming with some sort of magical energy. Whatever that something was, though, I'd never felt it before, in my life.

"Is this the thing you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked, trying to hide my slight disappointment. Figured it would be a book. For a minute, I was even entertaining the thought that this might've been about a rebellion in the name of the Princess of the Night... and, yes, people have told me that my imagination tends to run wild.

"Yes. I found it down here in the basement, just lying around in one of the storage bins. I don't know how I've missed it for so long; you can feel it too, right?"

"Mm. So that tingling feeling in my hooves isn't just my lack of sleep kicking in?"

"This is serious! The only things that could give off a palpable, magical aura are heavily enchanted, magical artifacts. You see..."

Twilight held it up for me to inspect, slowly turning each page to reveal...

"The pages are blank." I observed. She nodded, levitating the book over her head and going back to her desk.

"That they are. And don't you find that strange? There must be something more to this book than a fancy cover and some blank pages... and that's where you come in."

A variety of leaden tomes landed in front of me with a thud as Twi levitated them over from her many stacks of books. "Magical Codebreakers", "Spell Detection for Dummies"... it seemed like almost every textbook from my arcane-cryptology classes were here.

"I was trying to see if the book held some sort of code in its spell-matrix that would reveal the contents of the page, but I haven't had any luck. I remembered that you've had some instruction on things like this, though, so maybe you could help me out...?" She asked, giving me an earnest, pleading look that I, being me, pretty much couldn't refuse.

"...I'll see what I can do." I said, looking away sheepishly as I scratched my mane. I didn't want to say that she was probably way more knowledgeable in the subject than I was, already; the way she reads, I wouldn't be surprised if she could give my former professors a run for their money. And besides, the whole situation was starting to get a bit interesting. An ancient, obscure text whose contents were apparently worth hiding? Sounded like the beginning of a good ol' adventure novel, to me...

"Great! If we get started now, I'm sure we'll get it cracked open, in no time."

***

"...Well, this isn't going anywhere."

I laid back my head on the rapidly growing pile of instructional texts on the floor, flailing around weakly in exasperation. Geez, if I ever have to read another textbook again in my life, it'll be too soon.

"Come on, Scratch, we can't give up!" I heard Twilight say from within her veritable fortress of literature, a pile about three times the size of mine, all of them read thoroughly and with complete understanding. "There's gotta be something here that can help us with this!"

Sometimes I wonder where she gets that determination from. I sighed, slowly getting back up to my hooves and heading towards Twilight's desk, where we'd stowed the mysterious book, for now.

"I think I'm just gonna give the thing another look. Maybe there's something we're missing, here..."

A tingling feeling shot through my body as my telekinesis took hold of the tome (what was that?), and I could've sworn I heard a quiet voice right as I picked it up (was it my imagination?), but, other than that, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to happen as I flipped the book this way and that, leafing through all the pages and shaking it up and down. Although I wasn't quite as enthusiastic as Twilight, I had to agree that there was something fishy about this thing. The only problem was, what exactly was it? I saw Twilight poke her head up from out of her little book fort for a bit, pausing to see how I was doing before speaking.

"Say, um... if you're hungry, do you... do you wanna go out and get something to eat, before we keep going?" She asked, "I know a really good Chineighse place just down the road..."

Hm, well, we had been working for a while, and I was pretty hungry... What time was it, anyways? I looked up at the cuckoo clock on the wall of the stairs: a quarter past five. I grimaced as I realized I'd missed lunch a long time ago, rubbing at my belly to try and stem the rumbling as my stomach was reminded that, yeah, I needed some food.

"That sounds like a good idea." I agreed, laying the book down, for now. Maybe we'll figure something out, tomorrow...

However, right as I started to look away, the book suddenly began flipping through its pages in a flurry of paper, slowly coming to a neat stop on the first page. I eyed it curiously; was it finally about to do something? Taking a closer look, I noticed that there was a strange, blue symbol on the inside of the front cover. A symbol that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before... It looked very similar to the twisting patterns on the outside of the book, though more organized and confined within a perfect circle, and it seemed to draw my gaze instantly, because I couldn't look away.

"Ah, great! I'll go get dressed! Oh, but, where's that outfit Rarity made for me...? Maybe on the bedroom shelf..."

I heard Twilight talking, but the words seemed to get quieter and quieter, along with everything else in the room, as my focus fixated onto the strange symbol in the book. That tingling feeling in my hooves started up again, this time even stronger than before, and I walked up for a closer inspection, leaning my head down and squinting my eyes. There was something about the emblem that tugged at me when I looked at it, a weird feeling that compelled me to move in closer, drowning out the rest of my senses as the blue glow dominated my line of sight. I couldn't even draw myself back, almost as if it were pulling me in-

"Scratch!"

I jumped up with a start as Twilight called out my name, looking around in confusion. What... the heck just happened?

"Scratch! Are you alright?" She asked, now standing beside me with a worried look on her face. I shook my head to try and clear that buzzing feeling, wobbling a bit on my hooves.

"I... I'm fine. Not really sure what that was." I began, before quickly recovering, turning to Twilight in excitement.

"But, anyways, I think I found something! There's some kind of symbol on-"

I stopped mid-sentence as I looked over at the book once more. The emblem had... disappeared, not a trace of it left on the now empty inside cover.

"Um, I don't see anything... are you sure you're okay?"

Twilight's expression was even more concerned than before, and I was left feeling like an idiot. I couldn't have just imagined that... I shook my head, forcing myself to smile in reassurance.

"Yeah, I'm alright... I think. I'll, uh, probably feel better after we eat, right?"

The other mare held her concerned gaze for a moment longer, before smiling slowly, nodding in agreement.

"Okay. I guess we're both a little hungry! We can get back to cracking this book open after dinner..."

We climbed the stairs out of the Library basement, making a bit of small talk in anticipation of our meal, but I couldn't help but linger behind for a while, looking down at the strange book from the top of the staircase. It was like an invitation, sitting there on top of the table under the dim basement lights, but an invitation to what, well, I just couldn't say. Turning out the lights, I followed Twilight out the door.

***

"...an Yllisvian spell pattern on odd numbered pages, but that doesn't really do much, does it...?"

I tapped my hooves on the hard maple-wood of my desk, still poring over the book with all of my references surrounding me. I'd asked Twi to let me borrow the mystery text for a while to see if I could get anything done, but it'd already been a few hours since I got home and there was still no progress, the book remaining as stubbornly empty as it was in the Library. I sighed, laying my head down on its aged, yellowed pages and lazily flipping up the corners with my magic. Maybe I'll work on it tomorrow...

I don't know how long it took until I drifted off into dreamland, but it was sometime during the night. Unfortunately, my would be happy dream session was interrupted by an unceremonious awakening.

I got up with a start, eyes fluttering groggily as I sat up in my bed. Or, at least, I thought it was my bed. Upon more focused observation, I realized that what I was seeing at the moment was the sight of the road outside of my sister's apartment. From outside of the window. Several feet above the ground. I flailed about in panic, tossing and turning comically this way and that before I realized... I wasn't actually falling. Huh. Okay. I guess I must be dreaming, then...

I gazed about with an intense stare, slowly getting used to my sudden weightlessness as my pulse settled down to its normal rate. There weren't any ponies about this late at night, for which I was thankful for; everybody thought I was weird enough without having to witness my occasional freak outs. Well, it was all just a dream, so I suppose it wouldn't have mattered, anyway. I did an awkward little frog stroke to climb further up into the sky, spinning around a bit before regaining my balance and standing upright to take a look over the city.

This was actually really fun; no wonder those pegasi spent all their time flying around. I could see practically every major landmark in Ponyville from my perch up in the clouds: Town Hall, Great Oak Library, Sugarcube Corner... It was getting late, and lights were going off all around town, but there were still enough to illuminate the majority of the buildings, casting cozy shadows and reminding me why I called this place home. It... really was the most peaceful town in Equestria. Leaning back in the air, I relaxed, determined to enjoy this dream while it lasted. Though, suddenly... I got to thinking that this whole dream was strangely real, a little too real for a dream. And maybe it wasn't a dream at all...

Tilting my head thoughtfully at this occurrence, I closed my eyes, trying to will myself into descending, and smiled in satisfaction as I felt gravity pulling at me once more. If this wasn't a dream, then there was probably one other explanation I could think of... I leveled myself with the window that looked out of my room in my apartment, touching a tentative hoof to the chilled glass to get a feel for exactly what I could do. My hoof went right through it, and I grinned as I silently drifted back into my room, looming over the shoulder of my prone figure to take a quick peek at the book I rested upon. There the symbol was, the faint, blue glow of it's outline shining through the few pages covering it.

Since I was never really one for lucid dreaming, there was probably a good chance that the book was involved somehow. But, exactly how it managed to do this and why was still up for debate, and a better question was, how was I supposed to get back into my body?

However, as I wasted time mulling over my thoughts and questions, a change slowly came over the ancient book. It was subtle, at first, the pages gradually taking on the blue glow of the emblem, and it was a few moments before I even noticed what was happening, but by then it was too late. Suddenly, the tome burst into light, rising into the air with its pages turning furiously, a large, pulsating sphere of energy forming overhead. It was like a vortex, and as the sphere grew bigger, so, too, did the cyclone grow in intensity. The strange thing was that nothing in the room seemed to be affected... that is, nothing except me.

I clawed desperately at anything I could get a hold of, but, me currently being in an ethereal state of existence, could do no more than throw myself about helplessly as the strange vortex dragged me into its glowing depths. Was this it? Was this how I died? Before my life could start flashing before my eyes, however, a soothing voice came to me, echoing in my head and somehow filling me with a familiar sense of comfort. It was a mare's voice, soft and lilting with a melodious cadence.

"An invitation..." It said, simply, and time itself seemed to stand still as it spoke.

"An invitation. Do you accept?"

What was it talking about? An invitation? Didn't really look like I had much of a choice. Still, something about that voice seemed to assure me that I could refuse this... 'invitation', if I felt so inclined. I took another look at the swirling vortex in front of me, which had slowed to a gentle spin as if waiting for me to answer. Then I weighed my options

On one hoof, I realized that this was most likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I'd probably never have something like this happen to me, again. I mean, how often did you get turned into a ghost and sucked into some strange, glowing portal? On the other hoof, I had NO idea what this thing was 'inviting' me to, and it could very well involve extreme danger and/or death. It was a tough call; common sense screamed at me to say 'no' and forget this all ever happened. But a tiny, tiny part of me, the adventurous part buried underneath mountains of doubt and hesitation, uttered a soft, equally tiny 'what if...?'.

What if I did say yes? What could happen? Looking back on my relatively short life, so far, I find that it's a question I'd frequently asked myself, in the past. Yet... for all those times I've asked, I've never actually bothered to find out exactly what could've happened, what could've been. If I'd gone with my Dad to live in Seaddle, instead of staying in Baltimare with Mom and Sis. If I'd asked Lyra out to prom back in high school, instead of wimping out, last second. If I'd focused my time on my dream of writing a novel, instead of goofing off in school just to land a dead end job in journalism...

And it was only here, thrust into this ridiculously bizarre situation, that I realize how badly the monotony of daily life has gotten to me. In a situation where any reasonable pony would understandably be fearing for their life, I found that I was... excited. I wanted to accept; this wasn't going to become another 'what if'. I mean, really, what did I have to lose?

...If I'd realized the answer to that question, back then, I wonder if I still would've said yes. As it were, the glowing sphere seemed to react in time to my answer, its rotation quickly gaining in speed once more.

"May you rest well with your decision..." I heard the voice say, as my room was bathed in a brilliant, blue light. The vortex continued pulling me in, and a small, faded picture of me and my Sis was the last thing I saw before my vision blacked out.

***

I rolled over in my bed as I felt the weak rays of morning sunlight hit me in the face. Ugh. I hate it when Sis opens my curtains...

Getting up with a yawn, I tried fixing my mane, the ends sticking up as stubbornly as usual. While I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, though, I got to thinking that my bed felt rather funny... kinda like grass. And dirt. Well, either last night actually happened, or I was still dreaming.

"So where am I, this time?" I thought, observing my surroundings. The place wasn't familiar, just a plain, grass clearing hemmed in by leafy, green trees, the first rays of light just breaking through the cloudy skies to illuminate the area. It was too, well, normal to be the Everfree, and the other forests around Ponyville didn't grow to be this tall, either. Probably safe to say that I had no idea where I was... It was a nice place, though; I wasn't much of an outdoorspony, but the clearing had a bit of a calming effect on me, like I hadn't just been potentially warped hundreds of miles away from home.

Oh. Yeah, I should probably be a bit more worried about this, huh...? Well, what's done is done, and to tell the truth, the thought of being somewhere brand new was exciting, exhilarating even, considering the strange set of circumstances. I resolved to at least explore a little before I started thinking about a way back.

Just then, however, a rustling in the bushes off to my side reminded me that I was in a strange forest that could quite possibly hold several, hungry predators. I quickly got up from my usual laying about, unsure of what to do. Should I run? Hide? Wait until it goes away?! I was leaning heavily towards the first option, but backed myself behind a nearby tree, instead, waiting in the shadows and watching for whatever it was to hopefully come out into the open. I figured that just flat out running might attract even more attention than I already had, and I needed to see exactly what I was up against, anyways; at least then, I'd know if I had any hope of outrunning it.

The minutes ticked on by as I lay waiting in apprehension - what a way to start the morning. It was too soon to say for sure, but it didn't seem like anything was happening... was it gone?

I really should've known the answer to that one. Too late did I turn around to face the rustling of leaves behind me, before a large, shadowy figure pounced out of the darkness, slamming into my sides and throwing me to the ground. I let out a yell as I scrambled to get back on my hooves, but my assailant was fast, almost supernaturally so, and in less than a second it was on top of me and pinning me to the floor with impossibly strong forelimbs.

I struggled against the monster's grip with all of my might, but with my decidedly under-developed muscle strength, I could do no more than squirm helplessly as it looked on in amusement. Great, only a few minutes into my big adventure, and I was already going to end up as breakfast for some wild beast. Now I wish I'd studied more practical magic back at the U... I closed my eyes, waiting for the beast to finish the deed...

...Waiting. Waiting... Okay, done waiting. Popping one of my eyelids open to sneak a peek at what exactly was taking so long, I saw the beast still looming above me, simply watching without making a sound. Contrary to how strong it seemed to be, the figure was actually quite thin and lean, with what looked to be raggedy, loose clothing covering its tall frame; it was hard to tell with what little light there was, and I was still hyperventilating too much to really care. After another apprehensive moment, though, the creature suddenly... let go, backing off to rise on its hind legs. It was even taller than I thought: easily two or three times as tall as I was.

"Huh," I heard it speak. It's voice was male, a scratchy baritone filled with foal-like curiosity, "You aren't the unicorn I was looking for."

...Phew. So it could talk. And it didn't want to kill me... yet.

Something told me this was gonna be a long day.

Author's Note

Hm, I wonder if this really needs a teen rating... will mild swearing and gratuitous comedic violence be too much for an 'everyone'? xD

Chapter Two - Wish I Could (Not) Be Part of Your World

"...And you somehow mistook me for a 7-foot tall unicorn that glowed in the sunlight?"

"Well, hey! You look... kinda similar. You both have horns!"

I grimaced, staring at the grinning buffoon in front of me. Was this guy for real?

So, it turns out the monstrous beast that assaulted me was a human, of all things; what Lyra wouldn't give to be here instead of me. After our little altercation, we found ourselves sitting in the middle of the clearing, me up on my haunches while he plopped down cross-legged, chin resting on his hand.

The human was tall; a young-looking fellow wearing a raggedy, red cloak over various, mismatched pieces of armor that'd seen better days. He wore his dark, brown mane tied up in spikes in the back - kind of like a samurai from those old Japoneighse movies - with long bangs that swept to the side in front, and his eyes were the same bright green as mine. And although I normally wouldn't think he seemed particularly dangerous, himself, there was a gigantic, double-bladed axe strapped onto his back that looked like it could cleave me in two without much effort; that made me a little nervous.

"Anyways, where ya from?" The human continued, "Don't see too many ponies around these parts... at least, not the talking, technicolor kind."

"Ponyville." I said, simply, though he must’ve found it pretty amusing, chuckling to himself. It was a bright, goofy laugh that rang throughout the clearing, and I found myself wincing at how loud it was.

“Haha, Ponyville? A place full of ponies, huh?”

Needless to say, I didn’t see what was so funny. Truth be told, I was still wary of him, especially considering how sore my forelegs were and how out-of-touch he seemed to be. However, I was more worried about the fact that I was speaking to a real, live human; according to most experts on history and geology, humans were extinct. In Equestria, at least... I felt a cold shiver creep up my spine as I realized I might have been thrown a little farther from home than I first thought.

"Hm...."

The heavily armed human looked me over while I reflected on my situation, as if trying to decide whether I was up to snuff in terms of whatever he was sizing me up for. I just raised my eyebrows, wondering what exactly that could be. The grin he had on his face didn't exactly put me at ease...

"Say, you wanna do me a favor?" He asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"...Does it have anything to do with the other unicorn you were chasing?" I asked in return. Before our previous 'encounter', he'd apparently been tracking another unicorn on the request of a certain someone in a nearby town (at least, so he claims), though judging from the way he described it, it wasn't of the 'pony' variety.

"Sort of." The human's grin grew wider, his almond-shaped eyes narrowing like a smiling cat's. "The boss-man said he wanted to see a unicorn, right...? Well, you just so happen to be a unicorn. All ya have to do is come with me to the city, it'll be a snap!"

"I dunno..."

I hesitated, not quite sure of what I should do. True enough, I was out of my element, here, and sticking with this guy could probably save my life, in the long run. Besides, he only said his employer wanted to see a unicorn; it wasn't like I really had to do anything. But, there was this small problem of a strange, unpredictable human, a human who looked like he could very easily slice me in twain if he wanted, asking me to travel with him for what could be a considerably lengthy amount of time. Not that he didn't seem like a nice enough guy, I just... didn't know what I could expect from him.

"Come on! I’m gonna go out on a limb here, but just by looking at ya, I can tell that you’re lost, am I right?"

"...Right."

"And you probably couldn't find your way outta this forest too quick on your own, am I right?"

"Right..."

"Then it's settled!" He slammed a fist onto his knee in triumph, apparently having proven his point. "I mean, you get a free ticket outta here, and I get to cash in on my contract. It's win-win all around!"

Easy for him to say. Well, he was right, and I really didn't have any reason to doubt him or his intentions, but there was still a nagging feeling in the back of my head that told me this might be a bad idea...

"...I guess it couldn't hurt." I finally conceded, figuring the potential benefits of going with him outweighed my unreasonable misgivings. His employer's request did sound a little suspicious, but, hey, if things started looking ugly, I could always bail once we left the forest. "How far is it to the city from here?"

"’Bout two days travel, more or less." He said, getting up and stretching his legs. "Probably won't get there for a while. C'mon, if we hurry we can make it to shelter before the frost wraiths come out!"

And with that, the human bounded off into the forest depths with that uncanny speed of his, barely even waiting for me to respond. I hurriedly leapt to my hooves, myself, and ran in after him, but by the time I'd even reached the treeline he was long out of my sight.

"W-Wait! Wait up!!!" I cried. He didn't actually expect me to keep up with him like that, did he?! Of course, in my increased state of panic, I didn't expect him to actually return, and I jumped back in surprise, landing square on my rump, when he suddenly dropped down from a tree to appear right in front of me.

"Yeah, what's up?" The human asked, casually, as if he hadn't just popped out of nowhere and scared me half to death.

"...Please don't do that again." I managed to gasp out, shakily getting up to a standing position. When was I gonna get used to that? "Anyways, try and slow down! I'm not that fast, you know."

This seemed to give him pause, and he tilted his head to the side in thought before shrugging his shoulders and grinning, once more.

"Alright, I guess we can walk." He said. Right as he was about to turn and walk away again, however, he stopped himself, like he'd just remembered something important.

"Oh, yeah! Name's Ryker, by the way. Ryker Hartavia. What's yours?"

"Scratch Pad. But you can call me Scratch." I said. The human named Ryker nodded happily, patting me on the head in what was his idea of a friendly greeting.

"Haha, that's a weird name! Nice meetin' ya, though, Scratch. Now, let's go! We got a lot of ground to cover, and I don't think the nargs'll be too happy if we stick around here any longer..."

I rolled my eyes as he walked off into the woods. Ryker was a pretty weird name, too... I was going to ask him what the heck a narg was, but then decided that I didn't really want to know, and once I caught up with him, we began stumbling through the forest proper. I couldn't be sure yet if I could trust him, completely, but there didn't seem to be too many other options, at the moment, and he seemed friendly enough; I just hoped I wouldn't come to regret this...

***

"You know, Ryker, I've been wondering..."

"Yeah?"

"How are we speaking the same language, anyway?"

"Hm... I dunno. Magic, I guess!"

I grimaced in annoyance at the human's carefree remark, but then again, I didn't see any other likely explanations. By now, it'd been a few hours into our trek, and I was being acutely reminded of why I almost never went walking in the woods; tripping over fallen branches and slipping in piles of who-knows-what wasn't exactly my idea of a good time. Ryker, however, seemed a lot more at home in the outdoors, and he quickly kept up the pace without even tiring in the least as we made our way towards civilization.

Oh, and remember that thing I said about this forest being normal? Well… I suppose that wasn’t entirely true. Everything looked to be in order, at a glance, but every now and then we came upon some weird spots in the forest that seemed completely out of place; pure, white snow lay piled in heaps along the ground, and the surrounding trees were stripped bare of their leaves and covered in tiny, blue icicles, like they'd forgotten winter was already past. Then there were the floating islands in the sky that I saw, whenever the trees grew thin enough to see what was up there. Apparently, we were on one of those floating chunks of land, ourselves, and I had no idea how we were supposed to get down.

And let's not forget the multitude of strange creatures that looked like they'd be all too happy to just kill you - from wild dogs wreathed in flames and weird plant things with tentacles and thorns, to beautiful, plumed birds of prey with huge beaks that were lined in fangs. Luckily enough, they seemed to be intimidated by Ryker and didn't attack, but that didn't stop them from hissing at us and growling menacingly. And, c'mon, flaming dogs? In a forest? Really?

Sadly, though, my cynical musings were interrupted by the impact of me running straight into something rather solid, face-first.

"Ouch!" I cried, grabbing onto my snout and rubbing at the spot I'd so carelessly injured.

"You alright?" Ryker asked, laughing a little as he walked up beside me. I nodded crossly, still nursing my sore snout. Looking up, I saw a gigantic, fallen log that stood about as tall as Ryker in the way of the path, bugs and moss and lichen crawling all over it.

"So, Scratch," Ryker started, easily hopping on top of the giant, decaying log and snapping me fully out of my daydreaming, "There a lot of tiny ponies at this 'Ponyville' place you're from?"

"Hey, I'm not tiny! I'll have you know I'm the average-size for a stallion my age!" I shot back, while I struggled to clamber up said giant log. Sure, I only came up to about a little over his knees, but tiny was uncalled for. Ryker just grinned, leaning back down and lowering a hand to help.

"Sorry, bro, but you're pretty tiny." He said as he lifted me up effortlessly by my hooves, jumping down to the other side and placing me gently on the ground. I just frowned and muttered a low 'thank you' before we continued walking; it wasn't that I was small, everything here was just too big.

Still, despite the unfamiliar landscape and ravenous monsters we ran into from time to time, the trip hadn't been totally miserable. Ryker was fairly easy to get along with (if a little weird, at times), and along the way, we had a nice, long conversation about what exactly was going on, at the moment. If everything he says is true, then, well, I'm in another world.

...I guess that should've been obvious the moment I met him, but I was kinda hoping that I was just in some strange, hidden part of Equestria that nopony else knew about. Anyways, the world we were on, itself, was a place called Balance, the floating forest we were in is called the Frosthelm, and the city we were heading to, Madeira, was part of a nation that called itself the Jaris Confederation. I had no idea what any of that meant, and he didn't go into too much detail on anything else about this place, but he did say it was 'lots of fun' and 'you never get bored'. Suppose I'll find out soon enough...

What really interested me was the sheer amount trouble Ryker seemed to cause wherever he went. When I asked him about himself, he told me he was an adventurer by trade, traveling with his friends and doing the odd job along the way. They had previously split up a few months ago in search of some kind of 'Gate' (well, only one of them was actually 'searching'; the rest of them were just off killing time), and Ryker was visiting with one of his friends in Madeira, right now. And when I asked him about some of his adventures, he told me a story... then another one... and another one... and, well, you get the idea.

From conning dragons out of their precious hoards to accidentally destroying the ruins of centuries-old civilizations, there just didn't seem to be an end to all the hijinks he and his friends got up to. Granted, I couldn't tell if any of the tall tales he was spouting off were true or not, but hey, they were funny. And if even half of the things he said actually happened, well, I'd hate to see what it'd be like when you got them all together...

"...So I just flipped the table! Which was probably a bad idea, since we were in the middle of a Zenkari war meeting, and all... That's actually how I got this scar, here." Ryker said, reenacting his flipping of the table and pointing to a pale, shallow scar to the side of his right brow. "But, yeah, the moral of the story is don't leave your axe at home, 'cuz you'll probably regret it later!"

"Uh-huh..."

Of course, it all might be a little more believable if they made any actual sense. Still, I wondered about what else he’d done... Just as I was about to ask, though, I noticed his gaze lingering in the direction of my flank, green eyes full of curiosity.

"Is... something the matter?" I asked after few awkward moments, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask..." He trailed off, rubbing his chin in thought. "What's up with the tattoo on your butt?"

"Huh? I don't have any... Oh. You mean my cutie mark?"

I gestured towards the cutie mark on my flank, to which he nodded vigorously. It was an image of a red feather quill drawing a straight line away from my rump, and though Sis always used to tease me for being the odd one out in a mostly musical family, I was rather proud of it, myself.

"These are just what ponies get when they find their special talent. Mine happens to be writing." I explained to him, as he examined my cutie mark (at least, I hope it was just my cutie mark) more closely. Thinking on it, though, I haven't really been using my special talent too often, lately...

Ryker just nodded some more as we continued walking, muttering a few 'I see's in understanding. Yeah, humans didn't have cutie marks, did they? His eyes suddenly lit up before I could say anything, though, and he pointed a gloved hand off into the darker depths of the forest, making a beeline in that direction.

"Ah, there. Those are the ruins we're staying in tonight!"

I squinted to see through the thick layers of foliage, but couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. However, as we headed towards the area and Ryker ripped down the vines and such in our path, a large, dilapidated structure made of grey, mossed-over stone and stacked in layers like a pyramid suddenly came into view, sitting in the middle of a shady clearing where only the faintest of lights dared to tread. There was a large, door-like opening in one of the pyramid's sides to which Ryker skipped on over, and I followed behind cautiously, gazing in awe of the ruined building. After a few minutes of inspection, I concluded that it looked... normal enough.

"Alright, let's set up camp, then!" He exclaimed, poking into the entryway and pulling out a huge, cluttered knapsack of sorts that was hidden inside. I looked at him in curiosity as he began yanking various pieces of equipment from the bag, from cooking pans to sleeping bags to mandolins and a whole mess more.

"We're stopping already? There's still plenty of light left." I pointed out as he continued unpacking his pack. Ryker just shrugged, throwing a few logs of firewood over his shoulder.

"Probably won't make it to the next checkpoint before night falls. Here should be good!"

Thinking on it, I realized traveling in here during the night would be a very bad idea. After what I'd seen of him, though, I couldn't help but think that maybe I was slowing him down... I frowned a bit at the thought, then walked up beside him to peek over his shoulder, determined to not be so much of a hindrance.

"Is there anything I can help with?" I asked, observing his rummaging with interest. Ryker paused to think for a minute, then turned to me and pushed a few pieces of camping equipment into my hooves, directing me to a small patch of flattened earth.

"Sure, just set up the tent, start the fire, lay out the cooking pots..."

I listened intently as he explained what needed to be done, and quickly got to work. I'd never actually been camping, before, but with a few minutes of setting up and a little help from Ryker, the small camp site was ready for use, a single, grey tent and crackling fire sitting cheerfully in the middle of the clearing. That was the easy part, though; after that, I helped him set up a few traps in the surrounding forest to ward off any potential intruders, some of them looking magical in nature, others as mundane as a wire-trip can. Then we had to gather food to eat, and though the thought of hunting other animals made me a little queasy, I did volunteer to gather herbs and vegetables, and he gave me a little book that pictured various edible plants common to most forests in the area as I set about foraging. There were a few close calls with a couple of different, dangerous looking creatures, but, fortunately, none of them moved at Ryker-speed, and I was somehow able to outrun them until they lost interest.

By the time we were done with that and some other preparations and precautions, it was already sunset, and we were finally ready to sit back and relax, laying around the campfire and chatting while we waited for the various stews and soups Ryker had prepared to finish cooking. The forest glowed a honeyed, golden-orange in the waning rays of sunlight, and I leaned my head back to bask in the soothing atmosphere, the mouth-watering aroma of soups filling the air. This wasn't so bad...

My thoughts strayed, though, as I remembered Sis back home; she did always say she wanted to try camping, once. I wonder how she was doing... Probably not well, considering I most likely just up and vanished from her point of view.

Actually, how did things look back home? Last thing I remember, I was some kinda ghost that got sucked in by that book, so was my body still back in Ponyville, or something? I could picture Sis coming into my room to wake me up, only to find that she couldn't, and suddenly I was feeling a little guilty for leaving without even saying goodbye. If I could at least contact her and tell her I was okay... I looked down at my hooves, praying for Luna to let her dream well, tonight.

"Hey, Scratch, soup's ready!"

I blinked a few times in confusion, surprised to find a couple of tears in my eyes that threatened to fall at any moment. I hastily wiped them away, turning to Ryker who had a hot, steaming bowl of soup in his hands that he offered to me, the exquisite smell setting my stomach to rumbling. I grabbed it with my telekinesis, muttering a small word of thanks, and drank a few mouthfuls after blowing on it to cool. It was surprisingly delicious; tender wild carrots and potatoes, plus a plethora of herbs and spices that left a tangy aftertaste in my mouth as the soup filled my belly with warmth.

"Mm... this is really good!" I said, before quickly gulping down the rest of the soup in the bowl. I'd forgotten how hot it was, though, and paid for my carelessness with a burnt tongue.

"Haha, right?" Ryker let out a goofy laugh, looking thoroughly pleased by the compliment. "Sure you don't wanna try the Vogabeast stew?"

"Er, no thanks, I'm not much of a meat-eater..."

"Alright, suit yourself!"

He slurped up his stewed Vogabeast, finishing it within seconds and refilling his bowl with one of the other soups he'd cooked up. I helped myself to some more of the vegetable-based entrées, eating at a slightly slower pace as I savored the hearty flavor; for such a goofball, he was an unexpectedly good cook. I did, however, take a quick peek into one of the nearby pots of meat stew, watching the chunks of meat float lazily about. The thought of even hunting another animal had made me somewhat queasy, before, but... well, it did smell pretty good... maybe just a bit would be fine...?

"So, something up, bro?"

I hastily retracted my gaze from the meaty soup as Ryker looked my way, realizing what I was about to do.

"Uh, w-what do you mean?" I asked, inconspicuously going back to sipping my vegetable broth.

"Well, ya seemed kinda down a minute ago. Something on your mind?"

I stared down into my bowl as I thought about what to say. It seemed like I was just getting sentimental, when I thought about it, but I couldn't deny that I was still worried about my situation, and, well, maybe I did feel like talking about it, a little.

"Nah, it's just... I was just thinking of home." I answered, truthfully, "I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my Sis before I ended up here, just thought she'd be worried..."

Ryker nodded in understanding, chewing thoughtfully on his meal as he listened.

"Mm. That sounds rough. You don't know any way back?" He asked.

"I don't even know how I got here, honestly. One minute I was looking through this book with weird symbols on the cover, next minute I woke up in that clearing you found me in."

There was more to it than that, but I figured he wouldn't have known anything more about it, and I couldn't have clearly explained what had happened, anyway. The human just rubbed his chin, before looking through his large camping pack with an earnest smile.

"A book, huh? Was it like any of these?"

He began throwing a couple of books down to the floor, each of them differing vastly from the others. I looked all of them over carefully, seeing if any of them were familiar...

"Ah, that one!"

There it was: the strange book from the Library. I hastily picked it up with my magic, studying it more closely; upon further inspection, I noticed some subtle differences in the pattern on the cover, but I was almost dead certain they were at least related, somehow. And, sure enough, when I opened the tome, the same slew of blank pages came up to greet me, ancient, yellow paper crackling as I flipped through them. I looked to Ryker in excitement, and I could practically feel the gears whirring in my head as I pondered over what this could mean.

"Well, it's not exactly the same, but it looks really similar! ...Wait a minute, why were you carrying all of these books around, anyway?"

"Hey, you never know when you're gonna run into a unicorn from another world, right? Besides, I had a feeling one of 'em might’ve been important!" He said, grinning and laying his arms to rest on top of his head. I just gave him a disbelieving stare. There was really something odd about him, and it wasn’t even his oddly perceptive nature or strange way of thinking, though those might have been a part of it. It just seemed like… like he knew, knew something that I didn’t, like some kind of sixth sense. I wasn’t sure how to describe it, but it had cropped up in our conversations before, too, just enough to start being noticeable.

"Okay... Well, what do you know about it? Is it magical?" I asked, flipping the tome in my telekinetic grasp every which way and seeing if I could get it to activate, somehow. I suppose it didn’t really matter, whatever it was about him, though the thought that there was simply something off lingered in the back of my head. Either way, I didn’t have any luck getting the book to work, the pages staying dull and blank in my hooves.

"I dunno." Ryker shrugged in answer to my question, finishing what must've been his tenth bowl of soup as he did so, "I was gonna bring it to my friend, Saelus, though; he usually knows what to do with these kinda things."

I nodded, putting the book back down on the floor as I contemplated my current situation. With this new piece of information, it looked even more imperative that I stay with Ryker, at least for now; if this Saelus person could shed any light on how these strange books worked, then that just might be my ticket back home.

"Haaa, anyways, I think I'm gonna get some shut-eye, bro." My human companion yawned, throwing his bowl in with the now mostly empty soup pots. "You should probably head off to sleep, too. Gonna be another long day of walking, tomorrow!"

He rolled over, crawling towards the camping tent and throwing the entrance flap wide open. It was pretty small; were we both supposed to fit in there?

"Uh, are we... sharing the tent?" I asked, wondering if it was even big enough for the both of us. Ryker scratched his head, a look of confusion on his face.

"Yeah. Why?"

"It's just, it doesn't look all that big..."

"Aw, c'mon, it'll be fine!" He grinned, motioning for me to come on over. I simply sighed in resignation, trotting up to get into the tent, myself. There wasn't much space, but eventually, I managed to squeeze in and awkwardly lay myself down on one of the sleeping bags, inside. I looked over to see how Ryker was doing, but he was already fast asleep, his soft snoring filling the tent as he settled sprawled out on the floor.

"You sure take it easy." I grumbled to myself, fidgeting in place and dropping my head onto the pillow. The tent was cramped and uncomfortable with the two of us in there, but, hey, it wasn't like I was about to go and sleep outside. So, for what seemed like hours, I laid there with eyes wide open as my mind wandered off, simply waiting to slip off into dreams...

***

I awoke with a start. The tent was dark, but I could definitely feel something... there was something warm and heavy wrapped around my torso. I slowly rolled over to see Ryker's sleeping face right next to mine, his gauntleted arm wrapped snugly around my chest, drooling into his pillow with a goofy grin.

Guh. I grimaced, pushing off his arm and getting up from my bedroll, being careful not to wake the sleeping beast next to me. Wonder what time it was... Getting out of the tent, I saw that it was still the middle of the night, the last, smoldering ashes of the campfire just about to go out. I poked a few twigs into the dying fire out of boredom, trying to get it back to some semblance of a blaze, and after putting in a few logs once the fire became a little bigger, I succeeded in getting a decent campfire going, laying myself down before its radiating warmth. There wasn't exactly much to do, out here, but I knew that I wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon. Might as well make myself comfortable.

As I laid there in the peaceful glow of the roaring campfire, my mind couldn't help but wander, and I silently reminisced about home as I basked in its warmth. Do ponies usually get this homesick…? I wondered how they were doing; Sis, Twi, Tavi... and, yes, even Lyra. How were they holding up? Were they worried?

Questions like these ran through my head as the fire crackled on, and I realized just how much Ponyville actually meant to me; I guess you never really bother to take stock of your life until fortune decides to throw you a curveball. Waking up in the mornings with Sis, visiting Twi in the Library, even Lyra bugging me about who-really-cares-what didn't sound too bad, right now. What if... what if I could never go back to that? What if this little trip was more permanent than I thought?

I don't know how long I sat there, thinking by the fire, but it was long enough for tiny cracks of grey, pre-dawn light to start breaking through the top of the forest canopy, and, eventually, I wiped away the still unshed tears and dragged myself up to my hooves. I suppose there'd be plenty of time to worry, later; I should at least go and get some sleep, before Ryker woke up.

Before I could make my way anywhere, however, I heard a rustling of bushes from the edge of the clearing... and I quickly zipped back into the tent, stumbling over Ryker, who had by now taken over the entirety of the floor in his tossing and turning and was laying sprawled out, flat on his back. Say what you want, but rustling was always bad news; my previous encounters in the forest could at least teach me that much.

Slowly opening up the entrance flap, I peeked outside of the tent, keeping a sharp lookout for anything that might've caused the noise. I heard some more rustling, this time louder, coming from off to the side of me, but I couldn't pinpoint the exact location of its source. Did the campfire attract some sort of wild animal? A few more minutes of waiting yielded nothing of interest, though, and I turned to Ryker (who was still sleeping peacefully), wondering whether this'd be worth waking him up over. Well... probably not.

However, while I didn't wanna go waking him up just 'cause some rustling bushes made me a little skittish, I still had to make sure it wasn't some dangerous beast waiting to sneak up on us. Creeping out of the tent, I carefully looked around, keeping an eye out for any movement within the dark shadows of the forest and more telltale signs of rustling leaves. It didn't look like there was anything out there, but... I dunno, I definitely thought I could feel something. I hesitated for a moment, then quickly picked up a small, nearby stone and threw it out into the forest depths, seeing if it would cause any creature lurking about to either back off or come out of its hiding place.

What I didn't expect was to hear a muffled cry of pain, along with several hushed voices speaking words I couldn't quite make out. A wild ripple of movement suddenly broke out among the trees, and, looking closer, I could see the movement was being made by several, shadowy figures within the darkness, all of them shifting around and making a rumbling sound that I guessed was whispering. Several loud 'SHHH' noises rang out from all around me, much like what happens when the teacher is talking and everypony goes to shush each other, and soon the forest was quiet once more, leaving me to stand there in confused apprehension. Okay - we weren't alone.

Before I could shout and alert Ryker, though, the stone I'd thrown suddenly came flying straight back at me, thunking me upside the head and drawing a surprised 'Ouch!' from my lips. Some more hushed whispering, these voices sounding more angry than before, and I heard the bushes rustling again before three small creatures suddenly walked out into the clearing, slowly making their way into the light of the fire and stopping to stand in front of me. I looked them over for a while and nodded my head in greeting, to which they nodded in turn, simply standing there in the light of the dying fire.

They had arms (short and spindly ones) and stood on two legs, like a human, but that was pretty much where the similarities ended; their skin was a dark, greenish color, instead of Ryker's olive tan, and where the whites of their eyes should have been, they were yellow, bloodshot and strained with a painful-looking intensity. They were also rather short; the tallest of the three barely even made it up to my muzzle with its scarred, bald head, which put me somewhat at ease. There were some rather nasty looking weapons on them, though, and all three of them were wearing very sturdy, hard-leather armor adorned with furs and random bones. Thinking on it, I was just glad they hadn't tried killing me, yet.

"Rada. Rada rada?" The tallest one questioned, in some language I couldn't understand. I could see even more pairs of eyes in the bushes behind it, glowing yellow in the darkness of the forest; whatever it was, it brought a lot of friends.

"Well, so much for a good night's sleep..." I thought, nervously, and it was all I could do to stop myself from dropping to the ground in exasperation. Of all the gosh darned luck...

Chapter Three - Translation Error

The tension in the air was thick as we… okay, I guess I was the only one actually nervous. The three little green people seemed pretty relaxed, simply standing there and staring at me with angry looking eyes, as more of them came out from the forest all the while.

“Rada, rada rada?” The tall one questioned as it had before, this time sounding a bit more forceful. I just looked around, taking in the large contingent of creatures that currently surrounded me before I answered.

“Er, sorry, I don’t speak your language?”

Smooth enough. Though they might not understand me, either… The tallest creature gave pause, then turned to huddle with its two companions flanking it, their long noses rubbing together comically as they engaged in animated conversation. I could also see the others in the group whispering to their comrades and pointing with their fingers; I guess I was a bit of an oddity, to them.

"Ryker?" I called out, nervously, hoping that breaking my silence wouldn't provoke the little green creatures to start charging at me, or something. I was relieved when all I heard was the rustling of sleeping bags from the tent, seeing Ryker climbing out of it with a huge yawn.

"Yeah, what's up...?" He started, still half-asleep, until he saw the horde of little, angry-looking green people surrounding us. At that, his face suddenly lit up with a smile, as he waved at them happily and started chattering away in that same language I couldn't understand.

"Rada! Rada rada rada!" He said with a grin, eliciting some stunned looks from the creatures. This time, the whole group turned their backs to us, starting to chat amongst themselves while me and Ryker simply watched.

"Ryker? What are these things? And why do they look so angry?" I asked, tensely looking at my human companion for an answer.

"Oh, these guys? They're goblins." He explained, "And as for why they look so angry... Well, they're just really angry. Like, all the time."

I half-nodded in understanding, still watching the 'goblins', as Ryker called them, with a wary eye. After a few more moments of banter between them, they all turned back around to face us, small hands clutched tightly around their spears and daggers. They looked slightly wary, now; probably because of Ryker, but, hey, I was pretty nervous when I first saw him, too. The tall, bald goblin up front, who appeared to act as some sort of leader and was decidedly less intimidated, began pointing animatedly in our direction, jabbing its finger at us to punctuate its words as it spoke.

"Radarada, radarada rada!" It exclaimed. Of course, I had no idea what it was saying.

"What'd it say?" I asked Ryker. He just rubbed at the stubble on his chin, slowly giving me what seemed to be a shaky translation, at best.

"Uh, she said... something like 'what are you doing here’?" He went on, hesitantly shrugging his shoulders. Great, so the translator barely even speaks the language. It was better than nothing, I suppose; I just hoped he wouldn't say anything... wrong. A goblin off to the side of the one in charge began to speak up, seemingly repeating its leader’s question, only to get laughed at by Ryker, who waved it off while replying with some gibberish of his own. This, of course, only served to peeve them off further, all of them letting out threatening, animalistic growls, and I tugged on Ryker’s pants leg admonishingly, hoping to stem his rude behaviour before they decided we were too much of a bother to deal with and attacked.

"Ryker! Why don't you hurry up and tell them we don't want any trouble, or something?" I hissed, looking on in increasing panic as the goblins started getting rowdier and rowdier, beginning to shout and brandish their weapons.

"Sure, sure, I gotcha." He said, smiling and clearing his throat, "Ahem. Rada, rada radarada, rada?"

Instead of the words pacifying them, however, the goblins instantly became deathly quiet, the goblin leader just standing there with a stunned, indignant look on its face, and all of them silenced their cries and ceased their movement as soon as he was finished speaking. It was the kind of quiet you got when you said something incredibly awkward really loudly at a party, and I looked to Ryker as a nervous chill ran up my spine.

"...What exactly did you say?" I asked, still watching the goblins in apprehension.

"Hey, I just told their leader what you asked me to!" He answered, throwing his hands up in front of him defensively. He paused a moment, though, as he scratched his chin and looked up in thought, shaking a finger at me as he continued.

"Actually, now that I think about it..." He trailed off, "I might have just insulted the length of her mother's nose. The two phrases sound oddly similar in gobbledyguck."

He shrugged his shoulders in resignation, as the sinking feeling in my stomach grew just a bit heavier. This wasn't going to end well...

A few moments passed, the silence unbearable as we all just stood there, before the lead goblin finally broke out of its stunned silence, its face slowly contorting into an expression of rage. Looking as if it was about to explode, it angrily pointed its spear at us and cried out something in its rambling tongue back at its buddies, and I didn't even need to understand goblin to know we were in big trouble; the goblins, at their leader's command, all erupted into hysterical war cries and horrid yelling, brandishing their weapons in the air and stomping menacingly as if they were all caught up in some fiendish pep rally.

"What do we do? What do we do?!" I started shouting, taking a few steps back as the goblins worked into their frenzy, once more. Ryker only grinned beside me, tightly gripping the handle of the battleaxe strapped over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I can handle this!"

With a single, fluid motion, he un-holstered the giant axe from off of his back and into his hands, leaning as if to charge straight into the goblin horde. However, instead of simply running in, he kicked hard off the ground and launched himself forward, as fast as if he'd just been shot out of a cannon, and got right up in front of their faces with one giant, horizontal leap. He raised his axe high in both hands, ready to bring it down upon the shocked, little goblins... But, wait a minute. We were going to kill them?!

It took me less than a second to understand his intention, but that was all he really needed, already flying through the air right above them and swinging down in a sweeping motion before I could shout any form of protest. I watched in horror as the axe blade came down, razor sharp edge only a hair's breadth away from the nearest goblin's skull...

However, right before the axe hit flesh, a shining, red aura flared up around the weapon, wreathing the edge of Ryker's axe in what looked like some kind of force field. Whatever it was, though, its effect was quite... explosive. Instead of cleaving into the goblin's head, Ryker expertly diverted his axe to slam into the ground, creating a huge shockwave that I could feel back from where I stood and sending the unfortunate creature flying off into the forest. Other, nearby goblins were blown away from the force of the blast, as well, and with that, the chaos began.

With a rallying cry from their leader, who had wisely jumped back at Ryker's sudden blitz, all of the goblins that hadn't already been swept off of their feet charged recklessly at the lone human in their midst, swords and spears held close in defensive positions. He didn't seem to care, however, laughing with glee as he drove them back with a couple of fierce swings from his axe, handling the massive weapon in just one hand with ease. The glowing field around his axe seemed to act as a blunt surface for the weapon, and those unlucky enough to get caught by his swings suffered much the same fate as the first goblins did, slamming against the trees and ruin walls in droves.

There were a few goblins that managed to get past his axe’s sweeping arcs, but any that actually did so were quickly met with swift kicks and punches, Ryker even grabbing some of them by their armor and furs and tossing them back at their comrades with a wild grin. With their superior numbers, though, the goblins soon had the young man surrounded, but he seemed more amused than worried, if he was actually worried at all. There he stood, like a behemoth amongst their ranks, the not-quite-sane smile that'd been slowly growing on his face just daring one of them to make the first move. The goblins, clearly intimidated, but unwilling to back down, bravely held the line and waited for the perfect chance to strike.

Well, okay, so Ryker could clearly take care of himself, but... where exactly did that leave me? A shrill cry sounded in my ears, and I glanced to my right to see about five or six angry goblins charging straight at me; I guess I had my answer. Letting out a none-too-masculine yelp of surprise, I turned to flee in the opposite direction, only to be met with even more goblins blocking my path, holding clubs and nets and looking just as angry as the others. I quickly dodged to the side of a hastily thrown net, then bolted off into the forest, the only way out I could see.

The forest was dark, and I could barely even see where I was going, but I couldn’t have cared less as I stumbled through the woods, trying my best to keep my balance and not trip. The goblins were still right behind me, screaming and throwing things in my direction, but I just sped up even more, painfully ignoring my heaving lungs (I guess I was a little out of shape) and letting the adrenaline take over. It was as I was running, though, that a sound caught in my ears, a low rumbling that was slowly growing louder...

Guess what happened next? No, guess... Alright, I’ll tell you: a bush started rustling, and all Tartarus broke loose. From my side, I could barely make out a blur of movement, and then the goblins behind me switched from screaming for my blood to just screaming in general. I couldn’t help but let out a scream, myself. Pushing my body past its limits, I rushed forward blindly, hoping that whatever it was decided to go for the multitude of goblins instead of me. And, for what seemed like my only streak of good luck, tonight, it did, and I beat a hasty retreat as the howls and sounds of shouting goblins faded off into the distance.

I kept on running for a while before slowing down to an exhausted trot, looking behind me for any sign of goblins or hungry monsters. As soon as I was sure I lost them, I ground to a halt, plopping down to the forest floor and panting to try and catch my breath. Mental note to self: try and work out more often. With my luck, though, this wouldn’t be the end of things, so with great reluctance, I dragged myself up to my hooves once again...

And froze, feeling more than hearing the presence that was now creeping up behind me. I suppose I was right. I hate it when that happens. No sooner had I gotten up than a low, animalistic growl sounded out from behind me, and I slowly forced myself to turn around, shivering slightly as I faced its source: a huge, grizzled, wolf-like creature with scars all along its elongated muzzle, standing no more than about twenty feet away within the hedge of white-bark trees. Its glossy, red fur shone dully in the gray-ish light of impending dawn, and thick, powerful legs pawed restlessly at the ground as it looked at me intently, a guttural roar sounding through its bared fangs.

“Uh, y-you’re a friendly wolf… right?” I asked, taking an involuntary step back and stuttering in fear.

Me and my big mouth. The wolf’s only response to my question was to lunge viciously, snarling as it tore through the air towards me at an alarming speed. I hastily dove to the side, feeling the rush of wind and a pain on my flank as the wolf soared past, and scrambled to pick myself up and run off into the forest depths, dirt flying everywhere in my mad rush to get away. Just like that, the chase was back on.

The forest passed me by in a hazy blur as I crashed through the underbrush, my hooves just barely moving quick enough to keep me from stumbling to the ground. Oh, Celestia, what did I do to deserve this? I still haven't gotten the chance to ask a cute mare out on a date, yet! I wasn’t caught - the wolf was actually falling behind, somehow - but my breath was now coming in ragged gasps, and my limbs were starting to go numb from overexertion; I knew I couldn't take much more. I should've listened to Sis when she said my severe lack of exercise would kill me one day…

“Just calm down, Scratch. Think!” A tiny voice in the back of my head shouted at me, the small part of my brain that wasn’t currently preoccupied with being scared senseless and panicking. Good call, brain - I’m glad I always have you to rely on. I shut my eyes for a second, mind working furiously while I ran as I tried to think of some way out of this.

The first thought that came to mind was one of recognition: this thing was a narg, the creature Ryker had mentioned, as I’d seen in one of the books on wildlife I was skimming through back at camp. I remembered reading that it had a tendency to go for days without getting hungry and that it was extremely dangerous, so it should be avoided at all costs.

The second thought that came to mind was of how utterly useless all that information was, as the narg seemed to be pretty hungry, right now, and it was already quite obvious how dangerous it was. Well, brain, points for trying. Shaking off the thought, I wracked my head for something else, something that would actually help me, but the howling coming from behind made it extremely hard to concentrate.

“Dammit, what can I do?” I mumbled to myself as I ran, looking over my shoulder to see how far off my pursuer was. That turned out to be a big mistake, though, because as soon as I did, I stumbled upon a large root on the ground, tripping up my hooves and forcing me to slow down and catch myself. It wasn’t enough to make me fall, but I guess that’s all the beast chasing me needed.

I heard its pounding footsteps grow louder and more rapid, and this time I did fall, startled by a sudden roar, the ferocity of which I’d never heard in my life. I felt my face hit the dirt, and then… well, it was mostly just a blur, after that.

I have a vague memory of me turning round to face my assailant; its jaws were open wide as it pounced, an utterly primal cry tearing out of its throat, and then there was a splitting pain in my head. A flash, a scream, a sick, crunching sound… And then it was over.

After that… I think I passed out, because I came to a few moments later. The taste of grit in my mouth told me I was still on the ground, but after a quick survey of my surroundings, all I saw was a small, crumpled heap a few feet in front of me. It wasn’t moving… was it the narg?

”What the heck just happened…?” I thought, glancing over my shoulders for any other signs of life, only to be met with dead quiet. Well, no, it wasn’t completely silent, there had been something… it couldn’t be, but… Hm. I tried to remember those last few seconds, but all my mind drew was a blank. So, instead, I settled for simply staring at the unmoving form before me.

That is, until a sudden chill ran down my spine, and I remembered that I wasn’t in the clear, yet. I quickly turned from the sight and struggled to stand, but it was like my body had gone numb, my legs wobbling feebly as I tried to get them under control.

”Come on, better get out of here!” The tiny voice inside my head encouraged, but to no avail, as it was all I could do to even keep from falling back over with how badly my body was shaking. That chill I’d been feeling seemed to intensify, as well; seriously, what was that?

Before I could ponder over my situation any longer, however, the shuffling sound of movement coming from behind me caught my attention, and I looked over my shoulder to catch glimpse of the narg slowly struggling to its feet, once more. Its matted fur was even more disheveled than before, and by the way it was staggering about, its legs must’ve been seriously injured. Still, the beast growled with renewed vigor even as it was coughing up blood, and I redoubled my efforts to get back on my hooves, only to fall flat on my face as I stumbled over stiff limbs.

”Not now. Don’t give up on me now!” I thought to my rebellious appendages, my breath coming out as a visible, blue mist as the air around me grew steadily colder… wait, what?

Cold. The surrounding temperature was actually getting colder. While I thought that the chilling sensation was just my nerves failing me, at first, a quick glance at the surrounding forest told me that it wasn’t my imagination: the trees were actually withering before my eyes, frozen leaves falling gently to the earth, and what looked like the first traces of snow lined the now frosty undergrowth.

“Wha…?” I breathed, slowly taking in the strange spectacle. But before I even made any sense of it, something small and fast hit me hard from the side, gripping me around my torso and pulling me into a nearby bush.

"H-Hey!" I yelled out, more in surprise than any real pain, but the tiny hand of whoever was restraining me suddenly went to my mouth to silence it.

"Quiet! Before you get us both killed!" I heard the stranger hiss, and there was a whispered sense of urgency in his voice that somehow told me he wasn't lying. Looking up, I could see the leathery, green nose of a goblin behind my ears, his face scrunched up in an expression of apprehension. Whatever it was he was afraid of, taking his advice sounded like a good idea.

I instead looked out from the now-dying shrubbery we were hiding in, only to see the injured narg already on its feet, panting heavily in the sheer cold. The beast also seemed to be caught up in our terror, turning to whimper and flee from some unseen threat. Before it could even get anywhere, though, right before my eyes, the wolf-creature’s legs began… freezing, solid, a thin sheet of ice glossing over its reddish fur. The crackling ice slowly but surely arrested its movements, growing in thickness with each passing second, and as the ice crept up to begin encasing its entire body, the wolf glimpsed my way, eyes pleading as if for me to save it.

“I can’t-… I’m sorry.” I muttered in breathless awe, momentarily forgetting this beast was the very same creature who was trying to kill me just moments before. The narg simply continued to freeze over in answer, until nothing but an icy statue stood where a living creature once was.

Ohhh jeez. What the hay was that? For a minute, I thought it might have been the mysterious goblin occupying the bush with me, but looking back at him, he still seemed as tense as he was, before. Whatever he was so scared of, it wasn’t gone yet… and that could only mean we were next on the list. However, before I could start panicking again, completely, a chill wind blowing across my face stopped the breath in my lungs, filling me with an inexplicable sense of dread. Out of the corner of my eye, there was a… thing, creeping down from above.

Yeah, real specific, I know, but it was hard to describe. It was some sort of branching tendril made of the clearest ice, slowly making its way through the air like how water would freeze across a window. It continued like this until it reached the icy form of the narg, connecting with the ice surrounding it on its spine - only, it didn’t stop; there was a sound like breaking glass, and then the tendril… entered, into the wolf, a clear spike wedging into the ice to carefully penetrate its skin just below its neck. I could see blood splurting out of the newly punctured skin, but that soon froze over, as well, turning into crystallized flecks of crimson all along the wolf’s back.

While this was all happening, the body inside of the ice turned an intense shade of bluish-white, and, after a few moments of silence, fractured dramatically all along its surface. The wolf shattered, then, nothing left but a pile of pure, white, powder snow left behind as a rush of orange and white light went spiraling up the tendril, like a stream of flowing water. I immediately followed the strange light back up to the tendril’s source, but, boy, I wish I hadn’t.

Floating right above us was a huge, monstrous… thing. Again, sorry for the vague description, but sweet Celestia, I’d never seen anything like it. It was as tall as a tree and floating right above them, the hem of its gigantic, billowing cloak just barely brushing the tops of the dying forest canopy. However, although the cloak clearly had shape, there was seemingly nothing under it, nothing but a deep, permeating blackness emanating out from its tattered, grey hood. The icy tendril that had been the narg’s demise slowly crept back into the darkness of its cloak, and I winced as a hideous wail of what seemed like agony sounded from underneath it.

“Frost wraith…” The goblin behind me muttered under his breath, his voice shaking slightly, and I knew now why Ryker wasn’t so keen on traveling at night.

”Well, this is a great way to start the morning.” I couldn’t help but think to myself, even as I sat there frozen in fear. The sun was finally coming up, now, the frost wraith simply floating above the treetops and throwing a baleful gaze in our direction. That last part was just my imagination, seeing as it didn’t have any discernible gaze to throw our way, but it was incredibly creepy.

The seconds slowed down to a crawl as our little standoff continued, us cowering in fear while the frost wraith simply stared at us. But after a few more moments of tense silence, the wraith finally broke it off, turning around slowly and silently drifting away. It seemed to fade into the light as the sun started rising higher into the sky, and soon enough there was no trace of it left at all, no evidence of it ever being here other than the dead trees and snow surrounding us.

I let out the breath I discovered I’d been holding, shakily trying to get back on my hooves now that the immediate danger had gone away, though I winced in pain as the wound on my flank reminded me it was there. The goblin beside me did the same, brushing some dirt off of his fur robe with a sigh. He looked a great deal less menacing than the other goblins back at camp, his features less harsh, his long, black hair tied up into a ponytail.

“Uh, thanks… Mister…?” I trailed off, not sure how to address him.

“Kirth.” He answered, shivering and rubbing his shoulders. “And don’t mention it. I just did what I had to.”

“Well, thanks anyways, Kirth. I probably would have died there if you hadn’t come in and saved me from… well, whatever the frost wraith was doing.” I said, shaking my head. The goblin named Kirth looked at me for a second, then turned away, rummaging through the small pack wrapped around his waist.

“Ice form aura.” He said, after a few moments, “A simple heating spell can stave off the effects for a while, but if I’d taken any longer getting to you, you’d have been a popsicle, by now.”

I just nodded like I was in a daze, thanking my lucky stars for letting me live another day. Just then, however, a soft click and the feeling of something metallic around my neck shook me out of my stupor, and I looked down to see a strange sort of collar now attached to my person.

“Wha- hey!” I cried out, brow creased into a frown. “What gives?”

Kirth just started walking off, heading in the direction of what I assumed was the campsite. I followed quickly behind, walking beside him and trying to get his attention.

“Hello? What is this thing?” I asked again, my voice taking on a slight edge.

“That’s a null-magic collar. It prevents you from using magic.” He explained, simply. I just narrowed my eyes, then found he was telling the truth as I tried to conjure up a simple levitation spell to no avail, the magic fizzling out with a tiny spark of protest. Shaking my head, I hurried to get in front of him, spreading my hooves to block his path.

“Well, that’s nice, but why exactly do I have this thing on, right now? Where do you think you’re going, anyway?” I huffed. Kirth stopped, a look of annoyance on his face as he spoke.

“We are going back to your campsite, and you’re going to tell that friend of yours to stop his annihilation of my people’s Recon Brigade.” He said, crossing his arms. Oh, alright, I see how it is. You only saved me so you could save your friends from being destroyed by Ryker. Well, see how useful I’ll be without my magic, then, that’ll teach you!

Kirth must have seen the defiant pout on my face, because he eventually sighed and shook his head, the anger slowly draining from his expression.

“Look, try and see it from my point of view, here. Your friend is tearing through my comrades as we speak, and I have no idea what you two are capable of. If you help me, I’ll take it off of you once we get everything sorted out, okay?” He pleaded, the stress and exasperation in his voice clear as day.

I paused a bit, looking down in thought. I guess I was being a little... immature about it; while he did slap a collar on me without my consent, it was his friends that were being beaten to a pulp by Ryker, at the moment. And I suppose that was a good enough reason for him to not trust me, completely. Still, the lack of trust kind of hurt...

“...Fine.” I eventually grumbled, deciding to step aside and play along, for now. Kirth nodded, continuing forward while I followed behind.

“Thank you.” He said. We walked on through the forest in total silence, neither of us having much to say after our initial encounter. I was still pretty shaken by the ice wraith, myself, and I prayed with all my might that we didn’t see another one. After a while, though, the silence began grating on my nerves, and I looked to the goblin in front of me, dozens of questions running through my head.

“So, how did you find me out here, anyway?” I finally asked, trying to get my mind off of my feelings of irritation at being ‘imprisoned’. My magic might not have been the best around, but suddenly not being able to use it made me feel kind of… naked.

“Your magical signature is very unique. It wasn’t hard tracking you down.” He replied, looking to me. “In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it, nor have I ever seen a unicorn quite like you. Tell me, where are you from?”

“I’m… not from around here.” I answered in return, looking off to the side. Kirth seemed to pick up on my reluctance to answer, shrugging his shoulders and turning back to face forwards.

“I gathered as much. Still, I understand if you don’t want to talk.”

With that, more silence, as I was lost in thought. Magical signature, huh? I guess that made some sort of sense… not that I understood how magic worked in this place. But the fact that he could sense me like that brought another question to mind…

“Did you… ‘sense’ anyone else around me? When you first found me with the narg, I mean.” I asked, to which he rubbed his ear, a curious look in his eye.

“Nobody except the narg. Why?”

“Oh, well, no particular reason!”

That was a lie. But if he didn’t know anything, then I must have imagined it, right? That voice I heard… After I woke up from my brief blackout, it’d be easy to assume I was the one who smashed that narg with some unconscious burst of magic, but before it all happened, I thought I heard a voice… My sister’s voice.

”Impossible.” I thought. But, then again, ‘impossible’ was a word that applied to a lot of my current situations, so I might need to change my definition of that...

We continued walking, the forest becoming lighter as the sun continued its ascent into the sky. We were a lot farther from the camp than I thought; next time, I’ll remember to keep home base in sight when I run off in a panic.

“...Do you think we’ll make it in time? To stop him, I mean.” I asked, more to break the silence than anything. The goblin scratched his chin in thought at my question, a grim look upon his face.

“Stop him from pulverizing the entire squad trusted to my care? No.” He said, “But if we’re lucky, we can get there before he decides to execute them…”

“Hey, Ryker wouldn’t do that!” I cried indignantly. Kirth only shrugged, shaking his head in deference.

“Sorry, I wouldn’t know. It’s just that most warriors simply kill those who aren’t worth their time, and from what I saw, the squad wouldn’t even hold a candle to him.”

I frowned, but kept on walking. Ryker wouldn’t kill them because of something stupid like that… Well, no. Thinking on it, I realized that I wouldn’t know if he’d do that or not. I’d only known him for about a day, now, and though I got the feeling that he was always pretty friendly, I couldn’t say for sure if that wasn’t some kind of warrior’s code with him.

”He wouldn’t, though.” I silently told myself. Sure, he seemed pretty eager to get the fight started, but if he wanted to kill them, he would’ve just done that from the start, right...?

Which is what I thought, at least. After a while, we began to finally approach the campsite, and the first thing that hit me was the thick scent of blood in the air that only grew heavier the closer we got. I could see Kirth’s expression becoming steadily darker, beside me, and I swallowed down the lump in my throat, hoping Ryker had a good explanation for this.

“It… might not be as bad as it looks?” I offered, unhelpfully, to which Kirth just grunted, continuing on his forward march. We were just about to break into the clearing, the trees slowly giving way to…

Ryker, standing amidst a sea of bodies. His figure was partially obscured by the shade, but I could tell it was him, immediately, and even the dark shadows of the forest couldn’t hide all the blood dripping down his arm and off of his axe. He looked to us as we approached, face contorting into a maniacal grin…

“Hey, Scratch! You’re alive, man!”

Never mind, that was just a trick of the light. His grin was just as wild as it usually was, although the blood covering his face did make it fairly disconcerting. Looking more closely, I could see that the corpses were actually corpses of nargs, huge, gaping wounds covering the length of their bodies.

“Ryker…” I started, “You’re covered in blood.”

The human just kept on grinning, laughing a goofy sort of laugh.

“Yeah, a pack of nargs came and attacked us while you were gone. Gotta love the smell of fresh blood in the morning, though, right?”

At this point, I’d have said there was something wrong with him… if I didn’t already know there was something wrong with him. I only grimaced slightly in response, turning my head away from the grisly sight. Still, after all the excitement I’d just been through, the corpses didn’t faze me, too much; near-death experiences could do that to you, I suppose.

“Where are they?” Kirth suddenly said in a demanding tone, cutting us off and boldly stepping up to the lone human.

“Woah, you speak Common?”

“Yes, I do. Now, where is the rest of my squad?”

Ryker casually pointed a thumb over his shoulder, indicating towards a large group of goblins who were all tied up with rope. Kirth hurried to kneel over them and held out his hands, casting a bright, yellow glow over the lot, then sighed in relief, getting up and wiping his forehead.

“Well, I can see they’re still alive…” He started, slowly, throwing a wary glance over at Ryker.

“Yeah, put up a pretty good fight, too!” The human smiled, holding up his axe-arm to reveal the long gash running down its length. What he said before, though, made me suddenly realize something…

“Wait a minute… if you speak our language, why didn’t you say anything before all this started!?” I shouted at the goblin in exasperation.

“I was about to, but then your friend here went and insulted our leader’s mother.” Kirth said, crossing his arms. He scratched his chin and paused, though, looking up in thought as he reconsidered.

“Then again, I suppose he might’ve been trying to tell us you didn’t want to cause any trouble. The two phrases sound oddly similar in gobbledyguck…”

I just sighed, smacking a hoof to my face. Of all the gosh darn luck...

***

“Haha, you ran into a frost wraith? You’re pretty lucky to be alive!”

The bright, morning sunlight reflected off of the blood-slick grass as Ryker, Kirth, and I sat around the crackling campfire, updating each other on what had happened, cleaning our wounds, and generally trying to clear up the initial misunderstanding between us.

“That’s one way to look at it. I’m more alarmed by the fact that we happened upon a troop of goblins, a pack of nargs, and a frost wraith all in the same night!” I said, a testy edge to my voice as I pressed a damp cloth against the many cuts and bruises covering my body. The wounds were a bit deeper than I’d first thought, and now that I had time to actually sit down and relax, they stung. A lot. Kirth simply shrugged his shoulders, playing with the null-magic collar he’d removed from my neck absent-mindedly.

“That’s not the weirdest thing that could happen here…” He started, “Though, you’re right in thinking something’s wrong. That’s actually part of the reason my people and I are in the area.”

Ryker and I looked to him expectantly, curious as to what he was going on about.

“Yeah, you guys are pretty far from your territory, ain’tcha?” The human asked through a mouthful of the bread he’d pulled out for breakfast.

“It’s a long story. The best place to start, though, is probably the beginning.”

The goblin took a deep breath, steadying himself before speaking once more.

“As I told you before, my name is Kirth. I’m the apprentice shaman of my tribe, and it was my master who sent me into the forest with the others to investigate a strange anomaly within its boundaries. She sensed a presence ‘so wicked and vile, the very forest screamed out with fury’; I’m sure you’ve noticed the imbalance, yourselves?”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but Ryker seemed to understand, nodding and scratching his chin in thought.

“Well, I’ve seen a lot more monsters and a lot less animals than usual, around here.” He said, to which Kirth nodded, continuing with his speech.

“We’ve reason to believe the presence my master felt has something to do with that. Take these nargs, for instance.”

The goblin motioned to the piles of bodies littered around the campsite.

“They’re supposed to be skilled hunters that proudly walk the forest during the day, but here we see them skulking around at night, desperate and weak from starvation. Most creatures know better than to roam about when the frost wraiths awaken from their slumber. What is it that could have caused this sudden change in behaviour?”

The question seemed aimed more towards himself than to us, and I remained silent as the goblin mulled over his thoughts.

“We seem to have lost our lead, though; the device my master gave me to track the presence’s source has gone silent. I haven’t gotten any readings from it since the night before last.”

At this, my ears perked up. The night before last? That was just about when I got here… The thought that this ‘mysterious presence’ could have had something to do with my sudden trip to Balance crossed my mind, though I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. If only things weren’t so weird around here, I might have some actual clues!

“In any case,” Kirth spoke up, “I’m... sorry things became like this between us. My compatriots and I were on our way back home when we stumbled upon your camp, and I’ll admit we were a little irritable. Though, from the looks of things, you two didn’t have much to worry about.” He added, wryly.

“Well, we’re all still alive, so I guess we’re good...” I said with a sigh. Even if I almost died three times over. Ryker simply nodded his agreement beside me, grinning all the while.

"Yeah, we're cool."

Kirth smiled a bit at that, getting up from his seat around the fire.

"I'm glad we could settle this without too much fuss.” He breathed in relief, “I suppose I'll go and rouse the rest of my comrades; hopefully they won't be too sore about it, themselves."

I sighed as the apprentice shaman walked away to awaken his friends, while Ryker turned to look at me, chin resting upon his hand as he grinned.

“So, exciting first night, huh?” He asked me, that smile never leaving his face.

“If you consider almost dying ‘exciting’.” I replied with a frown. I haven’t even been here for a whole day, and I’m already finding myself just barely getting away with my life. Was this whole world like this? All the time?! The human only let out a laugh, throwing an arm around my neck and giving me a friendly shake.

“Ah, you get used to it. But, hey, maybe I can teach you a few things, make it so you don’t almost die all the time!”

I shrugged, unsure of what kinds of ‘things’ he wanted to teach me, but if it was anything that could help, I was sure as heck taking it. Anyways, after Kirth succeeded in shaking his comrades awake, we spent rest of the morning hours in talks with the goblin leader, Kirth translating for us while the other goblins went about and did their own thing. Their leader took the whole thing surprisingly well, considering what happened, though that might’ve been because she didn’t want to incur another beat-down from Ryker.

In the end, all hostilities between us were thankfully put aside, culminating in a handshake between Ryker and the goblin leader, whose name we learned was Tiluya. All the other goblins wanted to shake hands with Ryker, as well, and Kirth explained to me it was because their tribe held power as a great virtue, and they were recognizing his strength.

“Rada, rada rada rada.” The goblin leader, Tiluya, rattled on, Kirth turning to us to provide a translation.

“She said, ‘Thank you again for sparing our lives. We’re sorry we’ve caused you this trouble, and I hope that you will not hold this against us in the future’.”

“No worries. Maybe we can have another friendly go at it next time we meet?” Ryker asked jokingly, having just shook the hand of an enamored goblin who wanted just one more shake. Tiluya simply averted her gaze, mumbling something under her breath.

“She said, ‘That won’t be necessary’.” Kirth translated, smiling a bit, himself. The goblin leader and her translator exchanged some whispered words for a few moments, before they both got up, Tiluya nodding and meandering back to her squad while Kirth came to stand beside us, waving after the other goblins.

“I’ll be coming with you two, actually; it’s a tradition of we of the Orka tribe to escort guests home when negotiations are done.” He explained, turning to us as Tiluya and her goblins retreated back into the forest depths, “It’s supposed to ensure our guests don’t do anything suspicious within our territory, but seeing as we’re not on Orka grounds and I couldn’t really stop you from doing anything, anyways, this is more me helping Tiluya save face. I’m sure you don’t mind?”

“Not really, I suppose,” I began, slowly, “But will they be okay? Without you, I mean.”

Kirth just let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head.

“I’m not exactly an essential to their ranks. It might not have seemed like it when they were up against this monster,” He pointed at Ryker, “But Tiluya’s squad is more than capable of handling anything within these forests. And if there’s something they can’t handle... well, they’re rather skilled at getting away.”

No arguments here, I guess. With that, Ryker and I nodded, the human getting up and starting to enthusiastically pack up camp, prompting me to follow suit.

“Well, time to get going, then!” He exclaimed, quickly taking down our tent. “Avvy’s probably in town waiting for me, already, so let’s hurry!”

We quickly set about getting ready to leave, and in a few minutes we were already on our way. In the calm, morning air and brilliant sunlight, I couldn’t help but let out a humongous sigh as we left the confines of the clearing, the initial shock of being alive subsiding and reminding me that… we took lives. I took a life. Maybe I didn’t kill it, myself, but it was because of me that narg died. Though I suppose… it was us or them, and I’m scared to admit that I’m glad it was them.

After everything was said and done, my mind was still running over the events of last night: the pain and exhaustion and cold-blooded fear. If bloodthirsty animals and horrific monstrosities were the ‘norm’ around here… then, boy, I couldn’t have been anymore out of place. I looked to my newfound companions in front of me, both of them joking and chatting up ahead as if we weren’t walking through a deathtrap of nature. How could they be so carefree?

Blood. Death. There was a whole pack of once-living creatures back in the area we’d just left, and Ryker was the direct cause of that. I wasn’t a total stranger to the concept of death - I read some pretty bloody stuff, sometimes, and it’s not like things don’t die in Equestria - yet I see Ryker smiling and laughing like it didn’t even happen, and I wonder what exactly it meant to him. Was that just how things were here? I suddenly felt the strong urge to simply be in my bed at home, right now.

“Hey, Scratch, c’mon!” I heard Ryker shout from further along. He and Kirth were quite a ways away, and I realized that I was falling behind.

“Coming!” I shouted out after him, breaking into a swift trot to catch up. The two of them were waiting patiently by a big boulder, Kirth with his shaman staff and Ryker carrying our huge camping backpack.

“No time to space out, man. We gotta get moving!” The human said with a grin, though Kirth gave him a questioning look, calmly leaning against his staff.

“We’re not going to be out of here, that quickly. What’s the hurry?” He asked.

“Well, there’s a ton of stuff I wanna show Scratch before we leave. I was thinking we could check out the Frostfall Caverns, first.”

Kirth just stared at him skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

“...Are you crazy? You might be fine, but we wouldn’t last five seconds against all the creatures in there.”

Ryker only laughed, waving him off and slapping him on the shoulder.

“Nah, it’ll be great! I mean, we just gotta see the crystal chambers…” He trailed off, before leaning down and throwing an arm around my neck.

“Come on, Scratch, it'll be fun! Stick with me, and everything'll be just fine...”

"Things won't be 'just fine'!"

I just sighed, shaking my head in resignation as Kirth and Ryker began to renew their argument. No use getting worked up about it, I guess, this place was just… different. These two were born to a completely different world; they didn’t think the same way I did. At least it was somewhat comforting that they could keep their cool with all this chaos, and I couldn't help but smile as I thought back to what Ryker told me on the we’d first met; whether it was lots of fun or pure terror, though, one thing’s for sure - I’ll never get bored.

Author's Note

Second half of split chapter. I'm wondering about the gore tag, now, does any sort of blood need a gore tag, or only excessive gore?

Chapter Four - The Other Side

“Alright, you remember what to do, right?”

“Uh, I guess, but are you sure-”

“‘Kay, here we go!”

Kirth and I watched as Ryker swan dived into the gaping, cavernous hole before us, the long bungee cord (I don’t know why he had bungee cord, either) tied to his feet trailing behind. The hole was actually a kharma’s den, and we were jumping into it because… well, okay, we didn’t really have a good reason, for that.

Anyways, to summarize the events up until now, the three of us had been traveling through the Frosthelm for about two days, so far, and from what I’ve heard from Kirth, we were just about at the verdant forest’s edge. However, there were plenty of ‘detours’ we still had to take (at least, according to Ryker), and this little stunt was just one of many, in a long list of things Ryker claims we have to do before we leave.

“I think I’m just going to pass on this one.” Kirth said, beside me, untying the cord wrapped around his own leg.

“Yeah, I think I will too...” I started, but Kirth only grinned, nudging me playfully in the ribs.

“Aw, but don’t you wanna see what it’s like down there? I’m sure it’s deep enough that you don’t go splat…” The goblin teased, all the while pushing me towards the edge. I pedaled backwards reluctantly, but he was far stronger than his thin limbs would imply, and I found my hooves grinding into the wet dirt, below, as I inched closer and closer to the hole.

“Woah, c’mon, this is a bad idea…” I pleaded, but Kirth wasn’t hearing any of it, and with a final, powerful shove, he threw me into the hole, me screaming bloody murder as I plummeted into its depths.

As darkness pervaded all of my senses, I quickly tried to focus on one of the ‘tricks’ Ryker taught me, gathering magical energy around my horn; instead of releasing it for a spell, however, I let the energy flow throughout my body, channeling it through invisible circuits I didn’t even know I had before I came here. It was a strange sensation, and still pretty amazing when I thought about it… though my falling into a dark, bottomless abyss took away most of that amazement, for the moment.

I shook off the thought, concentrating once more.

“Okay, now just speed up the flow…” I reminded myself, willing the magical energy, or ‘mana’ as Ryker called it, to circulate faster throughout my body. I tried to envision it creating a thin shell around me, pushing it outwards, and I couldn’t help but grin triumphantly when a faint, red glow slowly formed in the darkness, a sign that my ‘enhancement’ was a success. The technique was supposed to serve as a sort of kinetic barrier, using the circulating mana to redirect force and shield the body from harm, but... I wasn’t very used to using it, yet. I mean, I could barely deflect the pebbles Kirth was helping me practice with, so would it really help me survive a fall from this height…?

Thinking about that, though, made me notice something else: the fact that I was still falling.

”How deep is this hole, anyway?” I wondered, before I saw Ryker’s rope beside me in the dim, red glow of my magic. Suddenly, it went taut, then relaxed once more as I assumed Ryker began coming up on the return bounce. I also started to hear a strange, rumbling sound…

“Hey, Scratch!” I heard him yell out, before he zipped past me with a wild grin on his face. I felt my own rope go taut, making my heart leap out of my throat, before I bounced back up, as well, dangling by my hoof. I looked up to see that Ryker had my bungee cord in his teeth, pulling me up with him as he scrambled up the side of the pit like a monkey.

“Uh, R-Ryker? Everything alright?” I called up to him, as I swung and bounced precariously, below. Then I heard the rumbling grow louder, accompanied by a tremor that could only mean trouble. Looking back down into the pit, I saw a few faint spots of light in the dark, spots that were slowly growing bigger…

I screamed. There was really no alternative. Down below us was a huge, centipede-like creature with gaping jaw and mandibles that was slowly making its way up the pit, and those tiny specks of light I saw were the multitudes of beady, green eyes on its face. The pit itself rumbled as hundreds of legs clawed into its sides, propelling the creature upwards, and I couldn’t help but notice that each leg was breaking into the solid rock quite easily.

“Sweet Celestia, what is that?!” I shouted at noone in particular. Of course, the only reply I heard from Ryker was his muffled laughter, as he leapt and bounded back up the pit. This was it. This was how I died.

”I wonder how things are doing back home?” Came my strangely calm thought, even as I was screaming my lungs out. Indeed, I could only wonder...

***

Saelus’ Note: From here on out, I may briefly intersperse narration of events from other individuals’ points of view. Though I do not have a direct copy of their memories, a certain individual was kind enough to provide me with a look into their lives; he did, however, take plenty of artistic license in his retelling, so reports may not be fully accurate...

Ponyville, night before the incident…

Twilight entered the warmth of her Library with a contented sigh, her belly full of food after a nice dinner at her favourite restaurant.

“Give me just a second, Scratch, I’ll go grab that book for you.” She called back over her shoulder, heading for the door to the basement and trotting down the steps. Her eyes wandered to where a certain baby dragon was cleaning down below, dusting some shelves and putting back books. He looked up at her as she approached, raising a clawed hand in greeting.

“Welcome back!” He said, “How’d it go with Scratch?”

“You mean dinner? It was nice. It’s always better eating together with friends!” Twilight answered, giving Spike a happy smile.

“Aw, c’mon, you know what I mean!” The dragon said, putting down his books, for now, and walking up to Twi. “What did he say? Did he make any moves?”

“Make any… what? I’m not quite sure I’m following you.” She said, walking past him. “Anyways, I just need to get a book for him, the really big one, patterns on the cover?”

Spike just sighed and pointed to a table off to the side, where the thick, heavy tome was resting.

“It’s over there, just finished dusting the shelf it was on.”

Twilight nodded, taking the book up in her telekinetic grasp with a smile and going back up the stairs.

“Thanks, Spike. I knew I could count on my No. 1 Assistant!”

“No problem.” He said, “Say goodnight to Scratch for me!”

Spike puckered up his lips and crudely mimicked some kissing noises, but his friend and sister-figure either didn’t notice or pretended not to. She proceeded back up the stairs, trotting towards the door and gently floating the heavy tome over to the stallion still waiting there.

“Alright, here it is.”

“Thanks. Uh, you sure you won’t be needing it or anything…?” He trailed off, giving her a sheepish grin.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve been looking at the thing for days, now.” Twilight said, “I think it’s about time somepony else had a try with it.”

Scratch just grinned even wider, stuffing the book into one of his saddlebags and turning to leave.

“Alright, I’m gonna give it another look when I get home. Good night, Twilight!”

The other unicorn waved goodbye as he headed back home down the well-lit streets of Ponyville, Twilight watching him go from the doorway. She heaved another sigh as Scratch’s lonesome figure receded into the distance, then closed the door, going back inside.

“What’s wrong, Twi?”

She looked to the basement stairs to see Spike coming up the steps, cleaning his hands with a scrap of cloth. Twilight just looked up thoughtfully a moment, before shaking her head.

“Nothing. It’s just that Scratch hasn’t really been himself, lately, ever since he lost his job; I was hoping I could cheer him up a bit with our little get together, today.” She answered.

“Do you think it worked?”

“I hope so. He looked a little happier than before…”

“Huh. Well, I’m sure your ‘romantic dinner for two’ must’ve had something to do with it!” Spike teased, causing Twilight to blush furiously.

“Spike! There wasn’t anything ‘romantic’ about it!” She huffed, “It was simply two friends going out to eat a meal together!”

“I dunno,” Spike trailed off mischievously, “Don’t ponies usually call that a date?”

“It was not a date!”

“...Am I interrupting something?”

Spike and Twi jumped in surprise with the intrusion of a new voice, and looked to the doorway of the Library to see Princess Luna standing inside, midnight-blue coat shining under the room’s light. Her flowing, dark-blue mane glittered like the starry, night sky, and she wore an impassive, though somewhat curious, expression on her face as she stared at them.

“P-Princess! No, no, we weren’t in the middle of anything!” Twilight managed to stammer out, quickly

lowering into a bow, “S-sorry, we didn’t hear you coming in… Erm, how did you get in, by the way?”

“I carried myself in with the night wind. ‘Twould be more convenient if none should know of my presence, here.” Luna said, before looking at Twilight’s prostrate form and fidgeting slightly. “...Please, get up. Are we not… ‘friends’, now?”

This gave Twilight a start, and she got up to her hooves, smiling as she did.

“Of course! So, should we get to my report?”

“Yes, I am eager to know what you’ve found out.”

The two gathered around a table in the middle of the Library, Spike getting some scrolls for Twilight, who then unfurled them.

“Well, for starters, the book’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The spell matrices all conform to Post-Classical Standards, but whoever enchanted it uses them in some really inexplicable ways…” She began, shuffling through her notes with her magic, “If it wasn’t for that strange feeling I get when I work with it, I’d say it was just the product of some inexperienced enchanter.”

“Strange feeling, you say?” Luna asked, putting a hoof to her chin.

“Yes. I can’t really explain it, but it just gives off this… otherworldly feel.”

The Princess of the Night seemed to deliberate over this a moment, nodding her head slowly.

“I understand. That strange feeling you’ve observed is something that had come to my attention, as well.” She said, “Noteworthy, because the magic binding this book is much akin to the spells my sister and I use to raise the Sun and Moon.”

Twilight let this new information process, looking back through her notes with renewed vigor.

“Really? So, it’s like… Celestial Magic?” She asked. Luna just bit her lip, looking somewhat more thoughtful than before.

“No, the scope of this school of magic is much more broad, than that. It’s more… divine, a magic of the gods.” She explained, “I’m not entirely sure how best to explain it either, as the spells we use to move the celestial bodies were gifted to us, near the beginning of our reign. I wasn’t even sure if my thoughts were correct until I looked through the Royal Archives.”

Twilight’s eyes widened at the prospect, that the rulers of Equestria were actually given their powers by some other divine being.

“Wow… you have got to tell me about that!” She squealed.

“Hm. Perhaps another time, but for now, we must focus on this tome.” Luna answered, with the slightest hint of a smile. “Where might it be located, by the way?”

“Oh, um, well… I kinda lent it to somepony.” Twilight said with a sheepish grin.

“Lent it? Are you sure that was wise?”

“Oh, yeah! Don’t worry, the stallion who has it is one of the most trustworthy ponies I know, and I didn’t tell him about your involvement, either. I was actually just looking through some reference material, so I didn’t really need it anymore...”

“Hm.”

Luna smiled again, bowing her head respectfully and turning towards the door.

“Well, if you trust him, then so shall I. However, if the book isn’t present, at the moment, then I see no point in continuing this meeting. I shall take my leave for now, and advise you to look into ‘Ancient Histories’, by Ink Quill.”

As the princess reached the doorway, a gentle breeze suddenly swept into the room, swirling around her form and slowly making her disappear from sight.

“It doesn’t have the specifics on the spells I had mentioned, but it should give you enough of an idea so as to know where to start, and I will continue to look into the matter, myself, now that my suspicions are confirmed. Farewell, Twilight Sparkle.”

And with that, she was gone, the wooden door barely even opening as the breeze flew out of the room. Twilight could only nod her head slowly, looking towards the doorway.

“Ohhh, so she meant that ‘night wind’ thing literally.”

Spike just shrugged his shoulders in response, starting the long climbing up the stairs to his bed for a night of well-deserved rest.

***

Back in Balance…

“Hm, d’you think she’d like a crystal as a souvenir?”

Ryker and I sat neatly in a cave filled to the brim with crystalline ore, the multi-colored material covering the solid, rock walls like a carpet. However, while Ryker was preoccupied with scrutinizing different crystals of various sizes, I couldn’t help but continuously glance back towards the entrance, where Kirth was standing and keeping watch.

“I guess, but don’t you think we have some more, y’know, important things to worry about, right now?” I asked, voice tense. Ryker just closed his eyes and nodded solemnly, breaking off two more chunks of crystal as he did.

“You’re right. What’s important is the color! Now, d’you think she’d like blue or green more?”

I sighed, smacking a hoof to my face in exasperation. Why do I even bother? Of course the lunatic wouldn’t be worried about the dozen or so bloodthirsty monsters that could be heading back to this cave at any moment.

“Can you hurry up in there? My Alarm spell has a pretty decent range, but I’d rather be gone before the inhabitants get that close.” Kirth called from the mouth of the cave. He had set up a sort of magical field that would alert him to the presence of anything entering it, beforehand, and although I didn’t doubt the effectiveness of his spell, I shared his sentiments.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m almost done.” Ryker called back, still appraising his ‘souvenirs’. “You just keep watchin’ for any rock-munchers comin’ our way, alright?”

“Speaking of those things, you’re sure they won’t be mad about us ransacking their home like this?” I asked.

“C’mon, we’re not ‘ransacking’ anything! The stuff’ll grow back. We just gotta make sure we’re very clear about our intentions, and it’ll all be fine.”

Now that, I highly doubted. One thing I learned about Ryker is that when he says ‘it’ll be fine’, chances are, things are not going to be fine. Why couldn’t he have remembered to grab a crystal from Frostfall Cavern, anyway…?

“Incoming magical signature, four hundred yards down.” Kirth called from his post, making me jump in surprise, “From the size of it, I’d say it’s the Rakshas that live here.”

“Come on, Ryker, we should really get going…” I said, casting another nervous glance towards the entrance.

“Hold on, I’m still thinking…”

Shaking my head, I trotted up to where Kirth was keeping watch, scanning the treeline for any signs of movement.

“...They’re definitely picking up speed. Heading our way.” He commented with a sigh. I just started biting on my hoof, nervously; I really didn’t want to see what these ‘Rakshas’ looked like. Well… okay, maybe a little. But I didn’t wanna die for it!

“Ryker!” I shouted behind me.

“‘Kay, I’m coming!”

The human bounded up to us with his usual enthusiasm, apparently done window shopping as a large, blue crystal was clutched in his hand, large pack slung over his shoulder.

“So, can we get out of here, now?” Kirth asked, waving his staff in the air to dispel his magical ward. Ryker just scoffed, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms.

“Well, we gotta meet the things that live here, first, right? It’d be pretty rude if we just left without saying hi.”

I could think of a few reasons why that logic was flawed, but I wouldn’t have time to voice them as a dust cloud rose up in the distance, followed by an ominous rumbling. There were some shadows moving within the cloud, the rumbling growing ever stronger as the figures made their way towards our location.

“There they are!” Ryker exclaimed, stepping forward and raising a hand to wave.

“Heeeey! We were just visiting, mind if we take some souvenirs?”

Loud as his shouting was, I really didn’t think they’d be able to hear him over their stampeding. If they could even understand him at all…

“Really? We’re just going to ask them if it’s okay?” Kirth said from beside him. “We should just leave, right now…”

“Nah, give ‘em a bit, they’ll slow down once they get a little closer.” Ryker responded, waving him off. The rapidly approaching shadows, however, didn’t look to be slowing down in the least, and as they got closer I could just barely make out their sharp, craggy faces, with stone-like hides and large, yellow eyes that were filled with rage.

“They don’t look too happy to see us.” I pointed out.

“...S’pose you’re right.” Ryker said, slowly nodding in agreement. The beasts were only about two hoofball fields away, by now, letting out terrible roars and howls, and I couldn’t help but shuffle behind him as they continued their rampage.

“Ryker…!”

The human simply rubbed his chin in thought, before turning back to us and shrugging his shoulders in resignation.

“...Yeah, we should probably just run.”

He let out a cheerful laugh as he sprinted off into the woods, me and Kirth looking at each other in alarm before running off after him, and together we fled from the angry beasts that were rapidly closing in on us. The monsters seemed to take notice, though, and quickly changed course to give chase, and soon enough we were running for our lives, the Rakshas following right on our tails.

And that’s how we spent most of the afternoon. Trying to escape the completely avoidable wrath of some strange forest-beasts. When was I gonna get back home…?

***

Ponyville, morning after the incident…

Vinyl yawned as she felt the first rays of morning sunlight creep along her muzzle, sitting up in her bed to stretch and rub the sleep from her eyes. Time to get the morning started. She hopped to her hooves, not bothering to tidy up the sheets or anything like that, and immediately began to make her way to her brother’s room, hoofsteps falling softly on the hardwood floor.

”Better wake him up before breakfast, this time…” She thought to herself, remembering the hectic events from last morning. It was still pretty early to be up, but she was sure he’d be fine; besides, he was getting too used to sleeping in, anyways, it wasn’t healthy!

“Scratch!” She called from the hallway, slowly walking up and cracking open his door. The sight of him sleeping on a book at his desk couldn’t help but make her smile, and she had to stifle a laugh as she went to rouse him.

“What are you, nine again?” She said, grinning as she remembered the bookish colt he was when he was little, “C’mon, sleepy-brains, wake up!”

She gave him a light shake, but he refused to get up, still snoring softly.

”He must’ve pulled an all-nighter…” Vinyl thought, letting out a huff of irritation. She considered letting him sleep, some more, but… well, she figured she should at least wake him up to cook breakfast.

“Scratch? Bro! It’s morning!” She yelled.

Still no response. She shook him a little harder, but gasped as he fell out of his chair, hitting his head against the wooden frame of his bed and landing in a heap on the floor.

“Ah, sorry!” She cried, sitting him up against his bed with her hooves. He still wasn’t waking up, though - or even responding in any sort of way, for that matter - and Vinyl could now feel a small hint of worry creeping up her spine as she continued to try and wake him without success.

“Scratch…? You alright, bro…?” She whispered, gently patting his cheeks. She tried jabbing his belly with her horn, but while that usually startled him into consciousness, before, this time it didn’t elicit much more than a slight exhale of his lungs. She tried again, harder this time, but with the same results, and now that small worry in her stomach was starting to turn into full-blown panic, her breathing growing more rapid and pronounced.

“Shoot… okay… y-you stay here, alright? I’ll… I’ll go find someone who can help!”

Using her magic to levitate Scratch up onto his bed, Vinyl dashed back out of the room and out her door, not even bothering to tidy up her mane or coat as she left. Meanwhile, back in Scratch’s room, a mysterious blue glow rose up from the book on his desk, bathing the pages in light…

***

Twilight yawned as she felt the first rays of afternoon sunlight creep along her muzzle, sitting up in her bed to stretch and rub the sleep from her eyes. Time to get the day started. She looked over to her clock: 12:45. Blinking a few times, her eyes widened as she slowly realized what that implied.

“Twelve… Oh no! I overslept!”

Kicking off her sheets, she rushed downstairs, though she did pause a moment to go back and magically make her bed. Running off to the bathroom, she hurriedly brushed her teeth and combed her mane while simultaneously reviewing some notes she had written down last night, mentally going over a checklist of topics she still had to cover by the end of the day.

“Hey, Twi, what’s all the rush?” She heard a voice from the kitchen say, and looked over to see Spike giving her a curious look from the bathroom hallway.

“I scheduled myself to wake up at eleven, but it’s almost one already!” She cried, quickly rinsing out her mouth. “I’ll have to push in some extra study time if I want to get enough research done, today…”

“Relax, Twilight. You spent all of last night researching, I’m pretty sure missing an hour or two isn’t gonna kill you.” The little lizard replied. Twilight just rolled her eyes, trotting past him and pulling some books from off of their shelves, which she then proceeded to open and lay upon her table in an organized semi-circle formation.

“Maybe so, but I was tasked with this by Princess Luna. It’s of the utmost importance that I get it done as soon as possible! What if she’s expecting it done by a certain time? Tardiness, while permissible, is simply not something I wish to exemplify!”

And with that, she sat down and began her work, while Spike simply sighed and returned to his breakfast-making duties. That is, she would have begun if not for an insistent knocking at the front door, and she had to suppress the urge to ignore it as she went to answer.

“Hello?” She intoned, wondering who it could be; the Library was closed, today, so she assumed it must’ve been one of her friends. Pulling open the door, though, she saw that it was Scratch’s sister, Vinyl Scratch, and smiled happily in greetings.

“Oh, hey Vinyl! What a surprise, how’s Scratch doing?”

However, the look on Vinyl’s face put a damper on her mood almost immediately: a tired, sullen look of quiet desperation that even Twilight, despite not knowing too much about the mare, could tell was extremely out of place for her.

“Hey, Twilight.” She said, “I…”

Twilight waited for her to go on, but she seemed stuck, her mouth frozen around still unspoken words. The librarian just frowned in worry, extending a hoof to rest on Vinyl’s shoulder.

“Are you alright? Um, whatever it is, you can talk about it with me.” She said with a sympathetic smile, to which Vinyl smiled back in appreciation, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

“It’s… It’s about Scratch.” She let out with a sigh. “Ever since this morning, he just won’t wake up. I called on Nurse Redheart to take a look but she said there wasn’t anything wrong with him and he’s still sleeping and I’m useless and I just don’t know what to do and-”

“Vinyl! Vinyl. Just calm down.” Twilight said, comforting the panicked mare who now had tears in her eyes even as she smiled. “Tell me: what can I do to help?”

Vinyl sniffed, taking a few moments to calm herself before answering.

“I was wondering if you could come and take a look at Scratch, yourself. Nurse Redheart said that his condition might be magical in nature, since she couldn’t find anything wrong with him, physically. I figured, since your talent is magic, and all, and he hangs out with you a lot…” She trailed off, scratching a hoof on the ground. The librarian just nodded, a resolute smile on forming on her face.

“Of course, Vinyl, don’t worry; I’ll do everything I can. Scratch is my friend, too. Oh, but before I go…”

Twilight dashed back inside and grabbed a couple of books off of their shelves with her telekinesis, namely “Perplexing Pony Plagues”, “Mysterious Magical Maladies”, and, of course, “Supernaturals”, then stuffed them into some saddlebags which she promptly put on.

“I’ll need some reference material if I’m going to help with a diagnosis,” She explained. “Now, let’s hurry!”

The two mares rushed out of the Library, off into the streets of Ponyville. In her haste to help Scratch, however, Twilight had forgotten about Spike, and he wobbled out of the kitchen with frying pan in claw as he looked for her.

“Hey, Twi, do you want your hash browns with ketchup?”

He was met with only silence.

“...Hello? Twi?”

The little dragon looked to the collection of research notes and books left bare on the table, with Twilight conspicuously absent, then shrugged his shoulders, walking back into the kitchen.

“Huh, more hash browns for me, then…”

***

“...So there aren’t any physical complications, at all?”

Twilight, Vinyl, and Nurse Redheart stood around Scratch in his bed, which was currently surrounded by a multitude of small, fancy machines giving out various numbers and readings.

“No. I’ve already conducted an MRI (Saelus’ Note: Magical Resonance Imaging) scan, and as far as injuries go there are no signs of damage, anywhere. Even his brain waves are completely normal-”

Nurse Redheart paused in her diagnosis as she rubbed her chin, looking back towards one of the machines next to the bed.

“Completely normal for somepony who would be awake, that is, which he’s obviously not. That’s why I’m guessing his condition is magical in nature; unfortunately, the equipment we have here isn’t up for diagnosing much more than your run-of-the mill curse or hex, and I don’t know of anyone on our staff that’s up to casting a spell that can do more than that, either.”

“I see…” Twilight said, nodding. “Well, I think I have a spell that can help, but I’m going to need some time to prepare it. Do you think you could leave me alone in here for a while? I’ll need some space.”

The two other mares nodded and vacated the room, Vinyl whispering a soft ‘good luck...’ before she left. Twilight just gave her a winning smile, and went about cleaning up the clutter on the floor, which was oddly messy and disorganized. Then again, this was Scratch’s room, so she supposed it was to be expected of him.

She was almost done with putting away his comic book collection, though, when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention: the book. More specifically, the book she had given Scratch that was currently laid open on his desk. Now, normally, she wouldn’t have paid it much mind under the current circumstances, but even at a glance she could tell immediately that something had changed about it...

“There’s… writing?” She asked, aloud, walking up to the book in question. Sure enough, the once-blank pages were now filled with words, written with black ink in neat, flowing manuscript. Twilight, quite curious at this point, picked a passage at random and began to read.

”He didn’t know how long he’d sat there, thinking by the fire,” It read, ”But it was long enough for tiny cracks of grey, pre-dawn light to start breaking through the top of the forest canopy, and eventually, Scratch wiped away the still unshed tears and dragged himself up to his hooves. There'd be plenty of time to worry, later, he figured; he should at least go and get some sleep, before Ryker woke up…”

“Wait, Scratch?”

She read the passage again, and found that, no, she wasn’t mistaken. Flipping the book to its first page, she started reading from the beginning, intent on taking in every little detail.

”In a distant plane of existence, far away from Equestria, there lies a mystical land known only as ‘Balance’. A frightening place, filled with monsters and mayhem, but also with hope and boundless adventure. A place where men and mer, beast and spirit alike fight for their place in the world, strive to find their calling; mostly, though, it’s a fight to survive. And survive they do, whether by working together or believing fully in the self, it’s their will to live that triumphs over the day.

It’s here that an unlikely individual now finds himself stuck: a gentle pony from Ponyville, named Scratch Pad. A quiet stallion in unfamiliar territory, he’ll have to adapt quickly if he hopes to return home, though that certainly won’t be easy. What trials await him, and will he make it through, unscathed?

Only time can tell.

We start his story in a forest clearing, not unlike some he’d remember back home...

***

Back in Balance…

Hm. You know, if there was anything that would’ve made this trip worthwhile, I think this would be it. The three of us had finally made it to the forest’s edge, and let me just say, the view from up here was amazing. I’d kinda forgotten that we were up in an island on the sky; I think I remember Ryker mentioning it, but I suppose I wasn’t paying much attention…

Rolling, green plains spread out as far as I could see, broken up by the occasional patch of trees and houses. Out into the distance, I could see the enormous, marble-white walls of what I assumed was a city, golden spires rising up above the battlements. To the south of us, there was a sea of trees, standing taller than any I’ve ever seen; some of them even rose up to our current altitude, I’d wager, and I’d say we were at least a few thousand feet up.

“Pretty neat, huh?” Ryker asked from behind me, and it was all I could to simply nod my head, still trying to take in everything before me. Kirth just smiled beside us, lingering at the edge of the forest proper.

“Well, this seems to be where I’ll be taking my leave,” He said, giving a wave of farewell. “It’s been a... strange pleasure, to be sure.”

“Thanks. We wouldn’t have had as much fun, without you!” Ryker exclaimed, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit saddened by our imminent departure.

“So you’re going to your tribe, now? You sure you’ll be okay by yourself?”

Kirth nodded, turning to walk back into the forest depths.

“Of course. I have plenty of spells to help me in that endeavor. You two, on the other hand…”

He paused a moment, looking to the sky as if for guidance. Finally, though, he sighed, shaking his head mysteriously.

“Never mind. Just, remember what I’ve said about our ‘mystery presence’, from before. It may be gone, now, but with its disappearance coinciding with your arrival on our world, I would exercise caution...”

The goblin shook his head again, chuckling this time.

“Then again, I may be overthinking things. I’ll be going, now; safe journey.”

We waved goodbye as he shuffled back off into the forest, staff waving in the air as he seemed to melt into the surrounding foliage. I let out a forlorn sigh, lost in thought as I surveyed the new lands, below.

”Well, there goes one of the few friends I’ve made, here.”

Friendship is fleeting, I suppose. I’m not really sure what I expected, though, since he did say he’d only be taking us this far. The one thing about not having too many friends is that you never remember how bad it feels when you have to say goodbye...

“Well, better keep moving then, right?” Ryker said, looking down over the edge of the floating island.

“I guess so. I’ve been meaning to ask, though: how are we gonna get down?”

“Jump, duh! How else are we gonna get down there?”

Oh, I don’t know, maybe some other way that won’t end up killing us? Ryker seemed to think of his method as self-explanatory, however, and promptly leapt off the edge without a second thought, turning back to me with a salute as he fell.

“Seeya at the bottom!”

Great. I looked over the edge to see Ryker’s now-tiny form rapidly falling out of sight, gulping when I saw just how long a fall it was. Then again, I suppose it wouldn’t have been the craziest thing I’ve done this week…

”He wouldn’t tell me to do it if it wasn’t safe… would he?” I wondered. I shook my head, though, as I remembered all of our ‘detours’ in the forest. He would. He definitely would. Still, he hasn’t lied about anything, other than withholding information about certain details (he calls it ‘keeping it a surprise’), so there was a good chance that this really was a legitimate way of getting off the island without killing myself. That, and I didn’t exactly have any other bright ideas. I blamed lack of sleep.

“Okay… Here goes nothing!”

And with one final cry of determination, I jumped.

***

Ponyville, early afternoon after the incident…

“...And then, he jumped.” Twilight read aloud, setting the book down on the desk before her. The rest of the pages were still blank; she assumed that’s as far as Scratch’s adventures had taken him, so far.

“He WHAT!?” Vinyl yelled, jumping up to her hooves for what must have been the seventh time during Twilight’s reading. “He’s going to get himself killed!”

“You’ve already said that twice before, and he seems fine, to me.” Nurse Redheart said from beside her. “Besides, he didn’t exactly have too many other choices, did he?”

“Well, that’s where it ends, so I guess we’ll have to wait before we find out.” Twilight said, closing the book.

“Bogus! I need to know if my little brother is alright!”

“Not very nice of him to leave us with a cliffhanger, like that. No pun intended, of course!”

“Um, not to sound rude,” Twilight started, “But don’t you have other duties to attend to back at the hospital, Nurse Redheart?”

“Hm? Oh! Well, I suppose I do. It was a very interesting story, though…”

The other two mares just gave her a deadpan look, to which she rolled her eyes and sighed, packing up her stuff.

“Alright, alright, I suppose I should get back to work. You can’t blame me, though; it’s not every day you find a stallion sucked into a storybook.”

Twi could definitely agree with that. Still, there was one thing that was bothering her...

“Is all that stuff really happening? Or is it just some crazy dream he’s having?” Vinyl asked, grabbing the book and flipping through the pages, herself. Twilight could only shake her head, giving the book a thoughtful look.

“We can’t really be sure, at this point. What I do know is that the book has to be related to all of this, somehow, and it needs to be studied further so we can get to the bottom of this mystery.”

“Whatever the case may be, I’ll need to have a talk with Miss Vinyl about taking care of Mister Scratch’s body, in the meantime.” Nurse Redheart chipped in. “If we’re unsure of how long he’s going to be stuck in this catatonic state, then we’ll just have to make sure he gets his nutrients and such, ourselves.”

“Thanks, nurse.”

“And I’ll have to ask you to let me come over and study the book when I can, Vinyl; I’m still not sure how the book and Scratch are connected, and I don’t want to move it until I know it won’t hurt Scratch…”

“No problem, Twilight.”

The three mares looked to each other and nodded, before Vinyl escorted the other two back to the front door. There was a bit of small talk, mostly about the events that had just transpired, and then it was time to say goodbye.

“You’ll have to let me know when more of the story appears in the book.” Nurse Redheart said, smiling. “I wouldn’t want to miss any of our dashing hero’s adventure!”

“You could take this more seriously, nurse.” said Vinyl, grimacing. “Though I guess he was handling himself pretty well, back there. He’s a lot tougher than I give him credit for.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Scratch’ll be fine. At least he has some sort of a guide with ‘Ryker’, though that guy might be a bit lacking in common sense…”

“Haha, yeah. And… thanks for all your help, Twi. I don’t know what I would’ve done if we hadn’t figured out what was happening.”

“Oh, it was nothing, I mean, I’m sure you would’ve figured it out, on your own-”

Vinyl pulled Twilight in for a hug, causing Nurse Redheart to smile as she excused herself. Twi, a little surprised by the sudden embrace, returned it a moment later, until the two broke it off with Vinyl heading back inside.

“You know, when we get Scratch outta that book, you should come by more often. I’m sure he thinks about you a lot!”

Vinyl laughed at Twilight’s luminescent blushing, waving goodbye and closing the door. Twilight just huffed in annoyance before smiling, trotting down the stairs and down the streets of Ponyville. This was definitely one of the stranger things to have happened around town… but at least, this time, it wasn’t some town-destroying, scream-inducing menace that she had to take care of. Still, one of her friends was in trouble, and she wouldn’t spare any effort in seeing him to safety.

“Well, the first thing I need to do is get some more research done… To the Library!”

Author's Note

Whoo fourth chapter! I've stuck with this a lot longer than I thought I would, and I believe I'll be sticking with it for a while. Wish me luck! =w=