Chapter 1 - Meeting The Princesses
‘Well I supposed that’s enough training for today’ I thought while sheathing my blade. I then begin walking over to my meditation room to begin when I hear someone tripping the second of three alarms I have to tell me how far people make it. ‘Huh, thats a first anyone has made it to through the second trial.’ I think while trying to scry who it is but then I realized someone was tracking it back to me so I instantly stopped and decided to meditate since that little event had gotten me worried since no one has ever done that before.
‘If someone is able to track me through my scrying then my magic abilities might not be able to help me in the coming test.’ I contemplate while sitting down for my meditation session.
Several hours passed before I heard the alarm for the third test go off and you can guess my surprise considering my actions. At the noise I moved so fast I broke the sound barrier over three times just by taking a step forward. ‘Better not do that again’ I thought as I felt my bones shaking. After the final test it would take them approximately three hours to reach my location.
‘Well time to get started with the preparations’ I realized during this little panic session of mine. Within a few minutes I had switched my training robe out for my attire the soldiers had given me before kicking me through the experimental device. So here I am waiting for them to appear wearing what most people would call unusual. You see I'm standing here wearing a white shirt hidden under a brown shirt and on top of that I'm wearing a black hoodie and for pants I was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans and some runners.
Now after waiting about five minutes since I was concentrating to remember all I have learnt from my training both with my blade and with my magical abilities I had gained after appearing in these strange lands.
My blade most people think at this point is probably just some katana you can get from any old forge in my time, but that would be dead wrong. This blade I made myself with a combination of tungsten and titanium steel alloy, you got no clue how difficult it is to work with that stuff like seriously, it took me ten years to do this, In this time I had made this blade so sharp that it can cut clean through a solid steel wall without getting a scratch and since getting here and learning to use my magic I had even put enchantments on it but they aren’t all that important right now.
After what I thought was only five minutes turned out to be two hours and I could see shadows faintly in the distance. ‘Something about those shadows doesn’t seem right’ I thoughts while looking harder at them with my sharp vision and then I noticed it. ‘Theres more then one of them and they don’t seem to be bipedal.’ I realized while pondering how they could have passed my trials. ‘Well I supposed I will find out shortly they will be here in about three minutes at their pace.’ I thought and then I noticed there was twenty-two shadows, twenty shadows seemed to be guards if the spears were any indication, but those two other shadows they both seemed to be about twice as tall as the others and it looked like they were wearing tiaras of some sort. ‘Well this shall be interesting’ I think sarcastically to myself.
I realized that I would be waiting a while longer since they seemed to have slowed down probably to look around since we were in a cave that I excavated using only my sword and decided one that note to add symbols and drawings of past events and weapons I've used in the walls. ‘Ugh could they be any slower, ah well might as well meditate till they get here’ I decided so I moved to the entrance of my home and sat down to meditate while they were enjoying the carvings and moving forward.
After about twenty minutes I heard one of the clear their throat at which it made me open my eyes and stop meditating. But that wasn’t the biggest shocker today, no that would be what happened next. I noticed that I was looking at a group of horses? no, well not the small ones anyways, no the smaller ones must be ponies. The two big ones though I'm not sure, but the bigger one seemed to be pure white with a flowing mane of blue, pink, green and purple, on her flank she seems to have a picture of the sun. ‘Well I'm gonna have to ask about the marks later.’ he decides. ‘So she seems to be the a ruler.’ he deduced. Then he moves his head a little to the right to notice another one but she was well for lack of betters words well blue but upon further inspection he notices the mark on her flank is a crescent moon surrounded by purple.
‘Ponies and what look to be horses...well I've seen weirder but how did they get past the three trials...’ he questions while looking at the ponies in front of him before stopping and glaring at the guards one by one giving each the exact same message from nothing but a look, the message being ‘I would love to put you in your place so please try to fight me’ and then finally looks upon the princesses glaring at them softer but still enough to give them the basic message of ‘don’t start trouble with me, get to the point of your visit and leave’ before nodding at them to let them know hes ready to listen.
The princesses simply looked at each other and then back to the guards who all seem to have just looked into the face of death before looking back and introducing themselves. “Hello creature, my name is Princess Celestia, I co-rule Equestria along side my sister Princess Luna.” Celestia says with her normal motherly smile.
Upon being mentioned Luna decided to speak up “hello creature, may we ask thee to inquire to why have thee decided to reside in this cave?” She ask curiously.
I simply just stared at them but they got the message of a simple ‘why do you bother me’ and then just sighed and looked at them again expecting an answer.
“We have heard rumours of a creature living in this mountain and heard of ponies getting hurt while on their way up this mountain, so we decided to come and see what was causing this trouble personally.” Celestia informs still giving a motherly smile.
‘Man that smile is starting to really creep me out, like seriously does she ever frown or laugh.’ He thinks to himself while showing obvious discomfort from looking at Celestia.
“Well now that we have found thou, we must ask thee some questions to figure out what has been happening to our subjects.” Luna states with a blank expression on.
‘Damn these two play for keeps with those brickwall expressions’ he says to himself before realizing. ‘Damn I'm gonna have to speak to get them to leave aren’t I?’ He asks himself in disbelief.
At this point Celestia and Luna both notice him taking a deep breath and clearing his throat but instead sounded like scraping a sword across a metal plate.
“Ask your questions then so that you may leave.” He replies in annoyance from having to speak but the voice itself was really deep and scratchy.
At hearing his voice all the ponies had a look of pain on their faces even Celestia and Luna seemed to be in at least some pain but spoke regardless. “We wish to ask you some simple questions.” Celestia starts before thinking about what questions exactly to ask and once she had decided she continues. “Let’s start off with your name and what you are as well as what you do here.” She states leaving it at that so that he may answer her questions.
“Alright, well a start would be I have no recollection of my name since I haven’t required it for over five thousand years, what I am is an easier question to answer since I am simply a human and as to what I'm doing here, well I'm waiting for someone to pass my three trials so I may teach them the way of the swordsman but I never knew that the inhabitants of this land were ponies and horses.” he says in a voice starting calm but slowly starts to be filled by annoyance because he waited so long yet would never get to train a pupil in his ways.
In that instant Celestia and Luna looked at him with a glare. “You are the one responsible for causing my subjects to come to harm!” Celestia shouts at him with a hint of anger in her voice as if someone had broken her favourite toy.
“Technically I haven’t hurt a single person but If I'm to be arrested I shall go quietly since I no longer have a purpose here.” I state flatly as I resign myself to whatever punishment they deem worthy.
“Guards” Luna says simply and at that single word all the guards instantly knew what they were to do and started walking to the man to restrain him and to take any weapons he may have, but upon making contact with the swords sheathe the guard suddenly felt lighter and didnt understand why until he heard his armor hit the ground.
“Never touch my sword.” I said with so much rage in my voice that it would make anyone feel like they had just seen death but unfortunately for the guard who went to take my sword he got all his body armor cut off and then was looking down the blade as I had the sword tip just in front of his face. “Do you get me?” I said flatly while glaring at him.
“Yes!” He half shouts before running behind all the other guards.
After watching the guard run so easily I simply looked at the princesses, Celestia looked at me with disapproval splattered on her face while Luna on the other hand seemed to be barely holding back her anger.
At this sight I simply said “Let’s go” and got up and left leaving them all behind.
After about a three hour trip of nothing exciting happening unless you count getting glared at by the princess of the night and getting a look of disapproval by the princess of the day exciting which I certainly don’t, they at least were kind enough to fill me in on how Equestria works so at least I'm not completely lost. But at this time we still had a few more hours to go but the princesses wanted to stop so they could switch the time of day. I didn’t find it that special to be perfectly honest, but the next few hours of the trip I spent meditating.
After a few more hours I stopped meditating just as we were landing at the castle, to which I simply responded with grabbing hold of the handle on my sword, but that didn’t go unnoticed by the princesses who both glared at me to put it away to which I simply answered with a glare of my own that said almost the exact same thing I did to the guards. ‘I dare you to try to take me down’ was all I needed my glare to say before they both let up on there glares just a little but they both still said to not fight anyone.
‘I hate flying, honestly it seems so unnatural and I could have ran here a lot faster then it took to fly.’ I thought to myself while the princesses got off, yet the instant I stepped off every guard in the yard I swear crapped themselves and instantly thought I was a threat all of them grabbing their weapon and pointing it at me.
‘This yard looks really nice and I really rather not mess it up so I give it five seconds and if they still are pointing their weapons at me then I can’t be held responsible.’ I decided to which I glared at everyone in the courtyard saying such but that just seemed to make all of them rush me.
‘Man they never just let this shit be explained do they, oh well more fun for me’ I thought with a smile shown on my face. I noticed that a good chunk of the guards noticed the smile and then tried to turn away but before any of them could I grabbed my sword handle and doing a little trick with magic I pulled my sword out and returned it to its sheathe so fast that no one would have noticed if it had not been for the trick I used in which I sent energy flying in a crescent shape towards the guards, lucky for them that it will simply blow up on contact since I'm currently in a nice mood.
‘Well now that they're not a problem to me anymore.’ I stated as I turned to start heading towards the princess when I noticed them glaring at me and for good reason too, but I simply ignore them and just took off to which you would think I turned invisible if not for the loud echoing boom that resonated through the city and the huge cloud of dust that was left around my feet. Within seconds I was sitting on the throne in the throne room, deciding to meditate there while waiting for Celestia to show up.
Chapter 2 - I Don't Recommend A Vacation In The Everfree
After sitting on the throne for what felt like a few hours with my sense of time but was only a few seconds I realized I wasn’t able to meditate. Could be from flying for hours from my home which I want nothing more then to return to, maybe it was because of about twenty guards in the throne room currently coming towards me probably in the hopes of arresting me or most likely it was because my body was seriously feeling the effects of my slip up from when the third alarm went off.
I guess that needs some explanation, you see during my seclusion I have been training my body to keep pushing my limit and ever since arriving here in I believe I was informed was Equestria I noticed I had magical abilities but it took me a century to be able to use it without being well blown up. Imagine trying to simply move something but instead it blew up with the force that makes dynamite look like a firecracker, I was limping around for a few weeks after that one. Anyways since then I learnt to control it and enchanted my clothing to add weight onto it, I believe at this time the enchantment was around three hundred pounds on each piece of clothing and when wearing them for as long as I have they put serious strain on my body and makes my reaction slower to certain events as I soon found out and by soon I mean now.
‘Well, how did this happen’ I question to myself while sitting in the throne room chained up and sadly with my weapon in the hands of one of the guards, I take it he was the captain from all the other guards saluting him.
“So this is the creature that appeared in the throne room?” He questioned while looking me over as if I was about to suddenly vanish.
‘Man this guy must be a barrel of laughs at a party.’ I thought while trying to figure out what exactly happened not two minutes ago. If I recall I was sitting on the throne then suddenly all the guards start coming towards me but I was unable to move because of the strain my body is in. Did I ever tell you how much it hurts to walk around wearing over a few tons I think it was after slipping up and doing something that if not for the magic in the air would have killed me?
“So creature” he starts while giving me a look that I just couldn’t put my finger on. “If the reports are accurate you simply appeared in the throne room and just sat down on the throne?” he asks obviously not believing it for a second, I can’t blame him I would be suspicious too if I was told that a creature I was looking at could appear out of nowhere but I technically didn't appear out of nowhere. I ran through the castle I believe I broke the sound barrier once but It still took a lot out of me with all the strain on my body right now and staying conscious right now well lets just say I hate questions.
“Sleep” was all I was able to say before falling forward onto my face for a very long nap. Just as I was losing consciousness I could hear what sounded like talking and I only made out one word ‘everfree’ with that one word going through my mind I lost myself to the welcoming darkness of sleep.
As I awoke all I could hear around me were growls so I knew I was near some type of pack. ‘Wait a minute’ I thought while opening my eyes and looking around. ‘I passed out in a throne room while being questioned..’ I realized I was lying in the middle of a forest and to make matter worse someone had the balls to have thrown my sword beside me. I could tell simply because the dirt was pushed up on one side like it was sliding on the ground.
But before making anything of it I heard another low growl this one was very obviously aggressive. As the noise hit my ears I tried to get up to get in my ready stance but I noticed something that scared me.
‘FUCK!’ I thought in anger of my body not responding.
Just then a flash of realization was shown on my face as I laid there looking at my blade recalling all I put into making it. ‘So this is it, I always thought I would go out from a pupil surpassing my skills, but never from some animal.’ I thought
Moments passed with nothing happening, I still heard the growls but then I felt something move beside me. I assuming they were hiding behind the nearest object but I really don’t have any clue and then the sound that entered my ears next made me feel terrible for not being able to do anything, I heard what I assume was children crying.
So with pure willpower I forced my body to move, thing is that I was still moving very sloppy and slow, I bet my reaction time was next to nothing as well and then I remember one little magic trick I developed a few centuries ago.
As I was looking around I noticed a pack of wolves but what really got me was they were made of wood and when I looked behind me I noticed three little ponies staring wide eyed at me before running again, I'm guessing from the new monster that showed up.
“I’m sorry little pups but I need to make this quick” I say while proceeding to stand at my full height.
As the wolves notice me standing up they all reacted by getting ready to pounce the new obstacle in their path which is exactly what they did but what they didn’t know is that while they were getting ready to pounce at me I was finishing a little spell I came up with in my free time.
“Thank you for making these easy for me” I start while raising my hand open palm pointing at them. “Lets hope for your sakes I can figure out how to control this properly this time” I finish as I recalled the last time I used it which was over a century ago when a giant blue bear showed up wanting to take my home. I didn’t beat him but atleast I made him run, didn’t matter since I was almost killed that day from this spell.
It seemed like the wolves could understand me since as soon as I finished that statement they all had a look of recognition in there eyes that I was pulling something.
“Too late now pups!” I shout as I gather all of my energy and just as much magic in the center of my palm and started to shape into a orb of red and blue energy mixing together as if fighting for control but just before I fired I noticed the red energy started to gain control. In that moment my eyes shot open with a look of pure terror as if looking death straight in the face, in that moment before it backlashed I was able to barely utter “shit” and then a huge explosion rattled the entire forest .
I woke up several days later embedded in the side of a mountain. ‘I wonder where I am’ I think to myself since my body still wasn’t obeying my command, but then my eyes go wide upon a realization that I lost my sword before trying to move and remember after it blew the sword was close enough to grab.
“Well that’s one disaster avoided I guess” I say with a bit of happiness in my scratchy voice. ‘So where am I anyways?’ I question myself at which point I start trying to scry for anything that could be of help.
After twenty minutes of trying to scry I finally stop with a look of frustration splattered on my face. ‘Well looks like I depleted all my energy and feel like I just went into the depths of hell.’ I think to myself before another flash of realization upon noticing the forests around me. ‘I’m still in that god forsaken forest, oh look I can see the crater I left over there’ I thought while observing the damage done by a spell that was supposed to basically just blast them with concentrated energy while using the magic to contain it. Unfortunately every attempt I make my own energy overpowers the magic and breaks free.
‘Well lets see if I can move yet’ I decide while attempting to move my arms upon the realization they move but very slow I decide it would be best to rest some more. Upon that decision I just closed my eyes again and let the embrace of sleep take hold.
Upon waking up hours later I noticed one thing I was no longer in the side of a mountain, I was instead inside a cave surrounded by some black pony things. ‘What the hell are these things?’ I question to myself as I observe one closer. ‘So lets see there pony shaped and seem to be pitch black, they have both wings and horn but there horns are jagged they also seem to have holes in their legs and horn.’ I thought while trying to match their appearance to anything else I've seen but coming up with nothing.
“What is this creature doing in my home” I heard something say with what seemed to be anger.
‘Probably from having some weird creature brought into her home’ I thought while holding back a laugh while still trying to figure out where I was until I noticed something missing from my hand. ‘NO!’ I realized just fuming with anger.
“WHO TOOK MY SWORD!?” I shouted with pure fury in my voice. Instantly I could tell everyone was taken back from my shout and I also heard one of the drop something. ‘For their sake that better be my sword.’ I thought still boil in anger.
After a few moments I heard that voice again “who are you creature to demand answer from me?” it said with what seemed to be an obnoxious tone as I heard the voice coming closer to me.
“Well I guess you’re gonna find out now aren’t ya.” I say to the voice with my voice still dripping in anger of my sword missing. ‘Now then with everything I know of this race I'm assuming there magic is different from the ponies since I can’t detect the same traces of magic in the air, it seems different in someway.’ I think while going through all I know of magic.
“Enough!” The voice starts. “You will answer me creature or I will use some methods of persuasion.” It finished with what seems to be hopefulness in its voice.
“Ok, but only once I have my sword back in my possession.” I tell the shadows with my voice still full of anger.
“You shall answer my questions first” she begins to say before being cut off by something hitting the floor again.
As soon as the sound hit my ears I instantly looked in the direction of the sound and saw what I feared most. Standing there was a creature wielding my sword, normally this wouldn't matter but over the years my sword has started gaining a consciousness from the magic I’m assuming but I’ve never actually figured out from what exactly. Upon the creature looking at me while wielding my sword I saw the very faint red aura around the blade and knowing exactly what that meant for everyone in the direct vicinity I started planning what to do.
