The Crackle of a Flare

by LunarLife

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Discord, Princess Celestia, Human, Main 6, Princess Luna, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Original Character
Length: 3473

What happens when a Miami resident decides to retire for a while, but one night wakes up in an all too familiar place?

When actor Zachary Smith finishes his latest movie, he decides to retire for a while. But just when he thinks he can relax, he gets sent through a rift in space in his sleep. But, the life of Zachary or "Flare" is not done. He can't help but wonder if there was another reason he woke up there. Follow him as he survives in the colorful, laugh filled, somtimes dangerous land known as Equestria

Note: Some ideas you may notice seem familiar, dont worry, i am not trying to copy. If you find an idea that seems relevant to yours, again, I am not trying to copy. This is just my first story.

Published 2013-11-26 20:30:04 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-03 02:45:53 UTC

Chapter 1

Zachary quickly switched on the thrusters on the boots of the skin tight body suit. The thrust pushed him past the flaming canisters, which quickly exploded, leaving no way back to the bridge of the ship. "Dammit!" Zach yelled through the helmet on which was embedded a lick of fire. He couldn't go back now. "Mission Command do you copy?" Zach asked through the communications settings in his helmet. No response. He decided to keep moving towards the front of the ship, where he could maybe get a better signal. Zach spotted an M916 pistol floating towards him. It was somewhat of an older model, but a weapon nonetheless. Realizing that he was the last survivor after going through the barracks, he came to a hole that was blasted through the front of the ship. What he saw could only make him stare in horror.

"Aaaaaaand, that's a wrap!" shouted the director as the stage lights came on and the microphones were raised up. Zach eased a bit and took off the helmet of the costume, glad that he was finally able to take it off. He slowly slid down the platform as the stagehands came over to pick up the props.

"Looks like we finally finished that scene eh Zach?" The director asked as he walked up to shake Zach's hand.

"Yeah, I'm happy that I don't have to wear that suit anymore, It was starting to get annoying." They both shared a short laugh.

"Well Zach, it looks like you've finally finished your part in this movie, and let me tell you it was a pleasure to have you be in it!" The director exclaimed, shaking his hand still.

"Yeah, well i'm planning to kick back for a while now, and thanks for asking me to play the part, It was a pleaure working with you Kevin!" Zach said back jokingly.

After quickly getting his things and packing them into the back of his Comaro. Zach was happy that he could now rest for a while. He was planning to do so much stuff. For one, he had always wanted to go to Europe, and now he had finally booked a first class plane ticket straight there. He smiled at all the things he wanted to do and could now do. Zach drove at a casual pace towards his apartment in Miami, only stopping to get a drink at a local bar that he liked to go to after hours. Luckily for him, not many people there recognized him. Most people loved the overwhelming fans, but Zach found it a curse. He swiftly paid for his drink and got back in his car.

After reaching his apartment, he tiredly walked towards the elevator and went up to the 18th floor, which opened up into a hallway with a couple of other rooms, but mainly his suite. Zach twisted the key into the lock and opened it up into his living room, locking it back behind him.

The refridgerator door opened lazily to reveal not really much, "Mental note: need to go shopping." his hand made it's way to a styrofoam box on the top shelf that had TGI Fridays on it. He wanted to make something for himself, but leftovers would suffice enough. He sat and ate the leftover steak in silence before he realized just how tired the shoot made him. He twisted the cap off of a bottle and chugged down the rest of the refreshing water. He dimmed the lights and went change into something more comfortable. Zach grabbed a pillow and threw a blanket onto the sofa, laying down and letting his eyelids droop closed.

Twilight casually trotted downstairs towards her kitchen, careful not to wake the sleeping dragon. She groggily levitated a piece of bread into the toaster, which was still new to Equestria. She lazily filled a glass with water before gulping down the entire thing. Last night had really taken a beating on Twilight. Pinkie had insisted that they come over to a party just to cheer everyone up. Nopony knew why she suddenly wanted to throw a party, but, it was Pinkie.

Ding!

The toast popped out of the toaster, more golden than before. Twilight lightly spread some butter across the bread and took a small bite into it, smiling a bit at the taste. She perked up once she remembered that new books had arrived at the library. She was eager to start reading them, as she loved to read. She glanced over towards the pile of books neatly placed by the last bookshelf. She had been way too tired to read them last night. When she finished her breakfast, she walked over to the stack and picked up the first one she saw: The Effects of Time.

She flipped to the table of contents and noticed one chapter that caught her eye, Time and the Elements. Twilight began reading the chapter, interested in how time affected one of Equestria's most important defenses.

Zachary slowly opened his eyes to a blinding whiteness. He jolted upwards and realized he wasn't in his apartment. There was nothing around him as far as he could see. As he looked down, it seemed like he was floating and it felt weightless. "I must be dreaming..." he told himself, standing up. He walked around his dream for a couple minutes, but it was just nothing. He tried to pinch himself awake, but nothing happened. "That's weird..." he muttered. As far as he could remember, that always woke him up from dreams. Suddenly, a loud voice rang throughout his 'dream',

"Zachary," it spoke loudly, "I have been observing you for a while now, and this is the only way I can communicate with you, through a rift." "This world needs you, and so does this universal dimension."

"Wait, what?!" Zach called out, but nothing answered him back. He was all too confused, "I'll just wake up and realize this is a dream." But that was too good to be true.

Author's Note

I will be going back to edit every chapter so that i can see it with fresh eyes. Hope you guys will enjoy my first fic. And I do accept anything that you guys comment on how I can improve. It helps a lot because I have never written a Fan fic before. I appreciate feedback as i want to make this a good story. Lunar out.

Chapter 2

Canterlot

11:00 p.m

21 Hours before contact

Deep within the catacombs under Canterlot, behind doors, upon doors, upon doors that were magically sealed, a sickening crack could be heard. That devilish crack could only come from one thing, one thing everypony feared. It could be seen on the back of a stone statue. One could look at that statue and think, "What kind of strange deer-goat-bat-snake hybrid is that?" It could be none other than chaos in its purest form.

"Princess! Princess!" A royal guard in bright golden armor flew straight into the throne room. Celestia seemed to be dozing off on her throne when the guard came running through. She opened one eye and noticed the look on the guard's face. "Your highness, the elements have failed to completely seal away..." he gulped for a second and looked around, "Discord..." Celestia looked unusually concerned, rather than her calm self.

"Then it's only a matter of time before it completely breaks..." the princess muttered to herself, "Continue monitoring the cell." The guard put a hoof to his forehead and galloped out of the throne room.

"Should we warn the citizens sister?" Luna walked in from the back of the room, looking disheveled.

"No, it would put all of Equestria into panic, thinking that the elements had failed them," she looked out of the window onto the city. "I didn't want to have to do this, but it seems that I must," Celestia looked over at her sister, "We need to get some rest." Luna nodded softly and went back behind the thrones, Celestia following suit.

Present

Zach's eyes fluttered open to a blinding sun. It seemed bigger than before, and not only that, it looked to have a dark outline. He put a confused look on his face; something wasn't right. The bones in his body felt way too compressed, and the muscles in his back seemed to sprout out and create a fold. The grass on his back was soft, very soft, almost too soft. He tilted his head off to the left. There was nothing but open field. He then tilted his head off to the right, where he could see a mountain range. The snow capped mountains seemed to come from nowhere. Still looking confusedly at the mountains, he tried to stand up, only to be met by the ground again. "Ugh..." Zach groaned into the dirt, wondering why he lost balance. He brought his hand, rather, his hoof up to mouth to rub off the soot. It took a second for him to realize that a hoof just scratched his face. He stared at it for a moment before following the arm back to a shoulder that rested beside his head. His eyes opened wide when something clicked in his head.

He was breathing very heavily, while staring at the hoof that was connected to his shoulder. His heart was beating faster and faster as his heart raced. That hoof was a part of his arm, no fingers, no hands, just a hoof. He looked at his back legs, which were also hooved. "Nonononono...." Zach muttered to himself while he was trying to calm down. His survival instincts were starting to kick in. "Alright, alright, calm yourself down.... this isn't time to panic," he told himself. First off, he needed fresh water. He didn't care what he was right now, he knew he needed water. He noticed a hill to his right, he could probably get a better view there. "Ok, it looks like you're some kind of,...pony. How do I walk with these? Right front out, left front in, back right in, back left out." He contineued this motion forments, getting used to the rhythm. He knew that he would have to learn to run, but that was for later. Once he reached the crest of the hill, he noticed that there was a forest at the bottom of the mountains. There was a stream flowing at the edge of the treeline.

The water in the stream was refreshing, cold and clean. By the time he even reached it, Zach was thirsty. He didn't even take time to notice himself. As he peered into the surface of the water, he was just completely baffeled at what was looking back. The creature staring at him had a matte orange body and, as he had guessed, was pony-like. Folded onto his sides was a pair of feathered wings, with a darker orange on the tip of them. His mane flowed like a flame, and it seemed to look like one. On his flank was a mark that looked like a flame with a golden streak coming from it. But what pulled more of his attention is what was paired with the wings. Portruding from his head is what looked like a twisted orange bone, better yet, horn. "I-I-I'm an..... I'm an alicorn..." Sure he knew what it was, he had watched a show called My Little Pony and, besides all the hate he got, he liked the show. He was practically living the dream of every single brony, and all he could do was deadpan. He looked over towards the mountain and forest, "Then that means... I'm in... Equesrtia...."

His mind had just been completely blown.

Author's Note

I realize this chapter was a bit short, but I was only using it to explain the situation and introduce our character. I will try my best to make some chapters longer, but I can't promise 8,000 words or so. It gets pretty busy with college. Anyway leave feedback because anything helps. Lunar out.

Chapter 3

Celestia's early sun rays beamed upon Canterlot Castle. But as the sun finally rose in the sky, all Celestia could do was fall asleep from fatigue. The last day or so had been very tiring for both her and Luna, and for a good reason. That had been a very powerful and energy draining spell, and it would probably be a couple more days before she would be re-energized. A royal guard guard came cruising into the throne room to find Celestia dozing off on her throne. He chuckled before speaking, "Princess, you seem to be quite tired these last couple days, is there something wrong?"

Celestia woke with a slight stir, "Oh, SilverShield. Everything is alright with me, its just that after the Summer Son Celebration, I get quite tired. Thank you for checking though," she said with a smile, although her mind was frowning. Not everypony, even some of the guard had been warned of the threat. Silvershield bowed slightly before heading out the throne room, forgetting the reason he was there in the first place. Celestia's smile quickly slipped from her face. She knew the being would be there soon. "I should probably send Twilight a letter..." she told herself, quickly pulling a parchment and quill from thin air.

Dear Twilight,

I am writing to you to inform you of the soon presence of a pony who will be new to Ponyville. Make sure he has somewhere to stay, and contact me as soon as you can.

Your Princess,
Celestia

She quickly sent the letter away with her magic.

The forest was much bigger than Zach had expected. Although he could tell he was making progress by looking at the mountains growing larger, it seemed as though he kept getting sent back to the beginning. It was as if the forest was enchanted. Suddenly there was a light growl coming from behind him.

Grrrrrr....

Zach jumped and twisted backwards, losing balance as he did. Where had he heard that before? Before Zach could react, a wolf that seemed to be made of wood and twigs pounced on him, pinning him down. Its glowing yellow eyes stared down at the alicorn before bringing its head down to bite at him. Out of reaction, Zach brought a hoof up to meet the wolf's face, square in the jaw. But it seemed to have little effect as the wolf still bit down, tearing a bit of flesh off the pony. He instinctively brought his back hooves up and bucked the timber wolf off of him. The wolf wimpered a bit, but quickly regained it's position, lunging back at Zachary. He was lucky enough to roll out the way as the claws merely scratched him across his side. The momentum of the wolf caused it to slam straight into a tree, falling out cold in front of him.

"Man, that was WAY too close. I must be that lucky. I seriously need to find my way out of this forest" he noted in his head, trying to calm his breathing. He winced a bit as he touched the wound on his chest where the wolf had bit down at. There was no telling how many more were out here. Man he got lucky. It took him a second, but he finally found himself able to stand again. He knew he would have to learn how to run soon enough.

He walked through the forest for a while before he noticed that it was starting to get dark. "I guess I should set up camp here. I'll find my way out in the morning. I just need to rest on this..." he thought to himself while sitting down to take a break. A couple minutes passed and Zach found himself gathering some leaves and sticks. He plopped them down in an open spot in the floor of the forest. He realized that even with his survival training, being a pony could complicate things. He piled up the dry leaves and placed a couple sticks in the middle of them. He took another stick and placed the long end on the ones that were laying flat, and, taking it with both his hooves, began twisting the stick. It took longer than he expected, but Zachary finnaly saw the flame begin to ignite on the leaves. Smiling at his work, he bent down and cuffed the flame around his hooves. He jumped as he thought he heard something behind him snap butsaw his hooves pull into the fire. He quicly pulled them away, prepared to yelp, but, he felt no pain. He stared questioningly and the fire and slowly put his hoof close to it. For some reason, he didn't feel any pain as it made contact with the flame. "Hmmm, interesting. I'll have to look more into that later." He smiled as he knew all too well the pony he knew he could talk to about that. He began blowing on the flame as it grew ever so slowly.

After getting a fire going, Zach sat back and looked up at the stars. It was the first time he could relax since he had gotten into this mess. Most people would be dying to get a way back home to their families. He smiled, 'most people'. But Zach didn't really have much of a family, if at all. He was an only child, his parents had died 9 years ago after a trip to New York where they were both killed in a drive-by shooting, and his friends had long since grown apart and went their seperate ways. And not to point anything out, but his girlfriend had dumped him years ago. He had nothing to go back to, besides his swanky suite life. Something popped about in his head. He was an Alicorn, he could do magic, right? He let that thought swim around in his head before he decided he would try something. He sat up and closed his eyes, concentrating. He concentrated every thought into his mind, pointing his horn at a rock. A small red light started to well up around the tip of his horn. He opened his eyes to a surprise in front of him. A small aura was enveloping the rock as it began to float a short distance into the air before he lost concentration and it fell to the ground. He was surprised to see how easily it was to lift it. Probably something to do with him being an Alicorn. He convinced himself to not try anything else because of not how tired he was, although that was a factor, but because he knew that it probably wasn't smart to do magic willy-nilly. He decided to take his spot back by the fire, where he layed down on the soft grass. He slowly let himself drift into his first sleep in Equestria.

Zach slowly woke up with a stretch, satisfied at hearing the pops in his back. He looked around towards the ashes and the forest around him. "Guess it wasn't a dream." He propped himself up onto his hooves, staggering a little. He realized that he didn't have anything to take him, so he set off towards the only way he had been going. "I'm going to get hungry soon..." His stomach started to growl at his own comment. "Very soon," he chuckled.

After a couple more hours of walking, and stomach growling, he came upon the edge of the treeline. Zach sighed with relief. "Okay, now all I need to do is find Ponyville, or any civilization, if this even is identical to the cartoon world," he shook his head and walked out into the open fields. The skies were clear as far as his eyes could see. The air was crisp that morning, well, day. During his walk along a particularly nice streatch of land, Zach thought he could hear a buzzing. His face put on a confused look as he softly hit his ear. It didn't help. It was starting to get a little louder, and he realized it sounded a bit like a jet. He scanned the land in front and around him as it grew louder, not paying much attention to the sky. It suddenly sounded very close as Zach's ears twisted toward it.

"Loooooook ooouuuut!" It yelled.

THWACK, CRACK!

Author's Note

I won't be uploading as much now, because this is a busy part of the smester. However I will work on the story as much as I can and I can assure you that I will be uploading a lot more over Christmas. Leave feedback please! Lunar out.