Journey across Equestria: Book 0 ~ Prologue

  A clap of thunder rolled overhead, a man trudged through the empty street. A cold gust of wide blew through his coat, he wrapped it tighter around himself and quickened his step. Rain began to drip from the sky, it steadily turned into a shower as the stranger turned of into an alleyway. He stopped at a rusty old door and knock out a rhythm; tap...tap,tap...tap,

the sound of metal on metal greeted the the mans ears. The door opened and a flood of warmth engulfed him, he stepped through and was meet with a heavy slap on the back.

The force of the slap knocked the wind out of the stranger, he spun around and almost touched noses with a red haired young woman. She was a year younger then him and had the greenest eyes he had ever seen. The ridge of her nose was peppered with freckles and her skin was pale peach in color.

"Thomas you finally turned up, What took you so long?".

Thomas removed his coat to revel a lightly tanned young man with jet black hair, He ran a hand through his hair, giving it a ruffled look. He smiled at the girl and replied "Did I worry you Lucy?".

Lucy punched him in the arm "Don't flatter yourself, your the one I sent to get the food, I was just worried that you would eat it all".

"Now your calling me fat?".

She looked him over "Maybe"

The young man laughed and pulled a shopping bag out from under his coat "Here, every thing you need is in there".

Lucy took the bag and walked into the living room. She held bag into the air like it was a holly relic sent from god himself said "The great hunter has returned with food".

"Took long enough" called a voice from across the room, Thomas looked past Lucy to see who it was. A teenager of Asian decent, with short,coal black hair, sat at a table next to others. Thomas approached the table and shook the teens hand.

"David its been a long time"

"7 years I believe" David said halfheartedly, he gestured to the other two boys "You remember James right?" he said pointing at a solidly built young man with brown hair.

"James" Thomas said with a bitter note in his voice, the last time he had seen James they had ended up bloodying each up in front of their class.

"Thomas" James nodded back at him, he could still see the place where he had broken the boys jaw. Thomas raised his hand to his face felling his own battle scar, a deep cut under is left eye.

David pointed to the last teenager sitting at the Table "And this is..." he was saying before Thomas cut him off.

"Alex? holy shit, what brings you here?" He said to his younger brother, Alex was almost a looked kind of like Thomas except he was small ,and as every girl Alex meet put it, cute.

Alex got out of his chair and embraced his brother in a hug, he grinned broadly before replying "I just moved here yesterday".

Thomas scowled at his younger sibling "You didn't bother calling me?".

Lucy chimed in and said "I wanted it to be surprise".

He turned to her "Next time a little heads up would be nice", she waved away his words

"Doesn't matter now, we are all here so lets just enjoy the movie".

They sat down on an assortment of comfy chairs and a sofa, Lucy brushed the hair from her face and bent down to load an old disc into a dusty DVD player. David let out a chuckle  as the player hummed to life "Been a long time since we used discs". He was right in the fact that technology had advanced to the state where every thing was holographic or a memory implant.

"Ahh but David we still have no flying cars" Thomas stated as a copy right warning popped onto the screen.

"So what are we watching anyway?" James asked as adds for old movies played across their view.

Thomas sat on the couch with Lucy leaning against him, she grabbed his left arm and draped it across her like a scarf. He looked through the collection of DVD's he had brought with him. "Well we have Alien, Jaws, Back to the Future, Full metal Jacket..."

"Where did you get these? A museum or something?" Alex groaned from his seat on the end of the couch. Thomas had forgotten that his brother grown up with more modern day forms of entertainment.

"Don't knock the classics" Lucy said before kicking Alex onto the floor.

"Lucy play nice, Alex stop complaining" Thomas said while going though the rest o the stack. "And... That's it I believe" he said grabbing the bag to see if he was mistaken, he was about to give up when the plastic corner of a DVD case appeared from under a bag of chips. "Wait, there's one left" Thomas said reaching into the bag and grabbing the corner, after a bit of shifting the case came lose and he got a full view of what it was.

"Equestria Girls, What's that?" Lucy asked looking up from under his arm.

"I have no idea, it looks like a cartoon of some sort" Thomas replied flipping the cover in his free hand

"Why's it in with the others?" James inquired

"No idea, though the name sounds familiar"

"Well it doesn't really matter" David interjected from his seat as the movies menu screen appeared. A title slowly appeared on the screen reading Alien, Alex clicked play and the title devolved into the opening credits.

The rest of the night passed by with a few laughs thrown in here and there but mostly it was Thomas hazing his little brother, who jumped at almost ever scene that the Alien appeared in. After Aliens they watched Jaws and decided to skip over Full metal Jacket for Alex's sake. Lucy fell asleep half way through Back to the future and only stirred when David and James left. "Your free to stay here for the night, bro" Thomas said as he stretched and gently picked Lucy up. "The couch unfolds into a bed"

"Yeah thanks, I will" Alex murmured shooting nervous glances around the living room

"Hey don't stress yourself, kid" Thomas called to Alex as he carried Lucy to their bedroom "There aren't any vents for Xeno's to come crawling out of, just keep an eye out for sharks in the sink"

"You asshole" Alex called back as he unfolded the couch.

Thomas set Lucy onto their bed and began to tuck her under the covers when she stirred from her sleep. She grinned with embarrassment as she looked up at him "Did I fall asleep again?" He nodded in reply "Sorry about that, I've just been really tired lately"

"Hey no problem, you're very cute when you snore"

That remark was meet with a half hearted slap on his arm "Very funny"

"Well in any case, you are cute and I mean that" he said sitting on the edge of the bed and gently brushed a lock of hair from Lucy's tired face. She set her self into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around his waist

"I think your cute too, but that doesn't mean I won't punish you for that snoring comment"

"I look forward to it" Thomas replied as he returned the hug "Now if you don't mind I'm going to use the shower" he stood up and walked away to the bathroom.

He stood looking at himself in the mirror as the steam from the hot water began to envelope it with a light foggy haze. He inspected the scare on his cheek 'James you fucking dick' he thought as he touched the heal skin that had grown darker over the years. At the age of twenty four he looked more around mid thirties. His black hair was streaked with grey lines and his eyes bore the appearance off that of someone who had had little to no sleep in their life.

He ran a hand along his chin, he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. He grabbed his razor had was about to begin to shave when a chill ran down his spine. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he looked around the now steamy bathroom. 'Must have been a breeze' he thought to himself, though he could not shake the feeling of unyielding dread. He razed the blade back to his face and continued his work and was suddenly struck with a fiery pain that shot through his nerves. He dropped the razor and clung onto the sink to keep himself upright, the pain passed as quickly as it began. Thomas could feel the sweat dripping from his face and breathed in shakily, trying to calm his nerves he turned to leave the room and go lay down. As he reached the door an ear piercing scream came from the room beyond, "LUCY?" He called out frantically. No response. He reached for the handle but his fingers stopped short, his head pounded with worry and fear. He willed his hand to grab the handle and turn it. The pounding in his brain turned into a boiling pain and he instinctively grabbed for his head. He opened his mouth in an attempt to call out, instead all he could do was taste blood. He turned back to the mirror and stumbled towards it but his legs gave up.

In a moment the pain was gone again an was instead replaced by a thick shadows. Thomas world turned black an he found himself falling forward into a endless pit of darkness. He thought he heard someone call his name. He feel further and further until he was completely swallowed in darkness.