Why do I have scales?

Chapters

Stone Prison Break
Past and Present
Pieces to a Puzzle

Stone Prison Break

Why do I have scales?
Stone Prison Break

“I want to start our field trip here, in the world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden.” Lectured Miss Cheerilee, her hoof raised pointing out the lush garden and its many statues to the young fillies and colts of her class. “That one over there represents Friendship.” Said the teacher in an all too happy tone as the group walked past a statue of three laughing ponies stacked atop one another. “And this one Victory.” She added, moving toward a statue of a pony holding a real flag flapping in the breeze.

Breaking up an argument between the Cutie Mark Crusaders Cheerilee then showed the class a statue different to any the group had seen in the garden; it had an eagle claw, a lion’s paw, a snake tail, a deer’s antler and a large fang protruding from what the group guessed was a lip. “This creature is called a draconequus, it has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose that represents?” asked Miss Cheerilee.

While the Cutie Mark Crusaders argued once more and cracks began to form on the draconequus statue Cheerilee and her class were stopped by Diamond Tiara’s exclamation of; “What the hay is THAT?!” her little polished hoof pointing at another odd statue. The statue in question appeared to be some sort of dragon-hornless-minotaur-hybrid type thing; what looked like scales on its forearms and neck, slit pupils, a mane, no tail, large chunky bracelets on its wrists, and something covering its legs.

“This statue depicts Forge Scale, who is said to be the physical embodiment of fire and destruction. Over a thousand years ago he appeared in what we now call Stalliongrad; spreading fire and destruction while apparently screaming ‘I don’t speak Russian!’ Once word of a strange dragon-like beast attacking ponies reached the princesses they rushed into battle and turned him to stone. What’s interesting is that this statue is actually one of...”

‘Why is it that only one out of thirteen ponies ever notice me?’ I wondered to myself, being sealed in stone tends give a person time to think. ‘How did I let it get to this?’, ‘Is this a dream or am I in a coma?’, and my personal favourite ‘Oh God this itch on my nose is KILLING me!’ Most people would go insane from the solitude and being fully conscious for all of it, but not me I enjoyed it... for three days then I went insane, then frothing mad and then just mad.

A little after the field trip group left I heard a cracking noise followed by an eerily familiar chuckle, ‘Looks like Discord’s free’ seeing the draconequus stretch and move about, free from his prison brought hope to the mass of coal and tar I called a heart, ‘You gonna help me, jigsaw?’ I mentally asked, and lo and behold Discord walks right up to me, takes a good look while rubbing his beard in thought and disappears with the sound of a duck quacking. ‘I forgot the jackass couldn’t hear me.’

‘Might as well meditate, it’s not like I have anything better to do.’ I mentally groaned. 1250 years I had been in Equestria, 1250 years since I donned my original costume for the RAGE Expo; Me and my friend Jessica ( I called her Jessi for short ) were writing an original story about a half-human half-dragon hybrid in a magic land and his adventures when we had the brilliant idea to dress up as characters from the story for RAGE, the South African equivalent to mashing Comic Con and E3 together. So there I was dressed as the main character Forge Scale; hair dyed blonde, amber contacts with slit pupils, scales painted on my forearms and neck, crappy thick wood bracelets spray painted gold and black jeans.

And then everything went to Tartarus; one poor purchase and BLAM! I actually am my character with his powers and everything, oh and here’s the kicker: I’m in Equestria and ponies are screaming at me in Russian!
‘Ok calm down, count backward from ten and relax.’ I thought trying to get past that memory, not noticing the world around me turn grey and stop.

“We meet again fakeling.” Purred a voice, silken and seductive. ‘Oh not this bitch.’ I groaned; in front of me float a vision of beauty, hair and skin as white as snow, warm pink eyes with slit pupils like mine and scales in the same places. With a soft chuckle and a smile she spoke “Why fight the inevitable fakeling?” amusement dancing in her draconic eyes. ‘Oh I dunno... ‘cause I don’t want to be a dragon?’ came my sarcastic response. “In time whether you want to or not, you shall become a dragon true; scales harder than diamond and blood of molten fire.” The vision purred. You know after I landed my ass in Equestria and met her I seriously wondered what the Tartarus was going through my head when I came up with “Vision” as I called her for the story.

She was basically every dragon hybrid’s inner temptation; seducing them into leaving behind their humanity and going full dragon, and she wouldn’t leave me the Tartarus alone!

“In time you’ll be free of your stone prison and in time you will turn.” Whispered Vision as she faded and the world came back into focus.

‘The Tartarus’s going on?’ I wondered, with the choir and everything it was like there was a celebration going on in the castle. ‘What or who is Twilight, and what’s this about a princess?’ the questions just kept on piling up. ‘The castle’s noisy, Discord hasn’t come back since that cow Celestia took him somewhere a while ago, and IS THAT A CRACK?!’ focusing on it a bit I noticed it was indeed a crack and it was getting bigger! ‘Oh this is going to be good.’ I thought in glee as my stone prison slowly broke apart.

Gathering as much magical energy as I could before my prison broke I readied my grand re-entrance to Equestrian society. Feeling the magic build and compress in me; harsh, burning and wild as always I considered which of my elegant yet oh so ingenious attacks to use.

“Imma Firin’ Mah -Blargh!” my stone prison shattered completely as the beam of concentrated fire magic left my mouth and ploughed straight into Canterlot Castle, and for a few precious seconds there was silence.

Pandemonium, pure pandemonium... One second he’s watching his little sister’s coronation as Princess of Friendship and the next there’s an explosion, a wall’s missing and the nobles are running about, screaming their faces off. As fast as his hooves could carry him Shining Armor; Captain of the Royal Guard ran to the destroyed section of wall to see the cause, Princesses Celestia and Luna as well as Twilight right behind him.

‘Another Changeling invasion?’ guessed the stallion trying to see through the cloud of dust and debris the explosion had kicked up. With a flash of her horn Celestia cleared the dust cloud, but all they could find was the sculpture garden with no sign of an enemy. Deciding to take flight the Princesses flew down and in Shining Armor’s case be levitated down to the garden. Turning to her friends before flying down herself Twilight Sparkle asked each of them to help Cadence with the panic and anypony hurt as best they could.

“Prithee dear sister, who would have the gall to attack a coronation?” asked the Princess of the Moon, confusion written all over her face as she looked for any sign of aggression. “I couldn’t begin to guess until we know more.” Replied Celestia, she too searching for any clues. Shining Armor having patrolled the gardens as a rookie guard knew them like the back of his hoof, so when he came across an empty pedestal nearby Discord’s old spot he immediately fired a flare spell from his horn alerting the princesses and twilight.

Rushing to where the unicorn stallion was Celestia and everypony else were relieved to find him unharmed, but that relief drained away to be replaced with horror once Celestia and Luna saw the pedestal. “Twilight, hurry you must get to the Elements of Harmony before it’s too late.” Barked Princess Celestia, panic in her voice. “Who is it Princess?” questioned the nervous young Alicorn.

“Make haste Twilight Sparkle, Forge Scale hast been freed!” bellowed Luna, curious as to who that was and why the Princesses were panicking like the nobles in the castle Twilight nodded and flew off back into the castle with a look of determination.

“Oh, so THAT’S Twilight.” spoke a voice catching both the princesses and Shining Armor’s attention, turning to where the voice had come from the ponies came face to face with their attacker. Once the Captain of the Royal Guard saw who was to be held responsible he just became even more confused; it looked like a young dragon but not, like it was part dragon and part something else. ‘Whatever the hay it is, it’s under arrest.’ Thought Shining Armor.

“Celestia, Luna how nice to see you.” quipped Forge Scale taking a step towards Shining Armor and the Princesses, his thick gold bracelets catching the light. Scowling at the creature’s audacity the stallion stomped his hoof and snorted as he stood in between it and the glaring princesses of sun and moon.

“You’re going to have to go through me if you want to get anywhere near the princesses.” Growled Shining Armor, stamping his hoof once again as a sign that he wasn’t joking.

“Them’s fightin’ words boy.” Spat Forge Scale, glaring at the stallion whipper snapper standing between him and those who had imprisoned him in stone all those years ago. “then a fight’s what you’ll get.” Growled the unicorn, lowering his stance as to aim his horn at the enemy. Moving into his own stance Forge Scale began drawing on the residual magic energy in his surroundings as molten metal began seeping from the pores on his right hand. Startled by the metal dripping from the beast’s talon-like appendages Shining Armor quickly raised a barrier spell to protect himself and the Princesses.

The captain having raised his barrier just in time stared as the molten metal took shape into what looked to be a sharp, smouldering rod before being raised by the creature into a spear throwing stance.

“Prepare thy anus...” quipped Forge Scale rearing back to throw, “for my rod!”
“...”
“...”
“What?”
“Yes, yes realised it the moment I said it.” Muttered the former human before hurling the superheated rod at Shining Armor’s barrier with astonishing speed.

The second Forge Scale’s attack hit the barrier spell all Tartarus broke loose; it hit the shield with such force that the very earth on which they stood shook, Canterlot Castle’s windows shattered, it’s stone walls cracked and tremors travelled as far as Las Pegasus, but Shining Armor’s barrier held... until he dropped to his knees; his eyes glazed, his nose bleeding and spell flickering as the captain collapsed.

Seeing one of her little ponies hurt after trying so valiantly to protect her and her dear sister Celestia just snapped; her mane billowing in all directions and coloured the darks colours of sunset instead of their usual warm morning sunrise as searing heat blasted off of the pissed Alicorn much like it did the celestial body she controlled.

“U mad pony?” joked Forge Scale, mirth in his eyes at seeing the Sun Princess so angry. “I’ve hurt your little ponies before haven’t I, why so much butthurt?” asked the former human with a grin, and chuckling as Celestia’s rage grew. “Oh I know he was yer lurv- OOF!” grunted Forge Scale as a thaumic lance courtesy of the pissed princess launched him into the Everfree.

“Luna get Twilight and her friends, we’re going pest hunting.”

Past and Present

Why do I have scales?
Past and Present

There’s something captivating about the skies of Equestria; the rich shade of blue, the special way their clouds looked as they lazily drifted on the breeze, and its fresh unpolluted air. Really if a person were to just stop for a second and take in the environment they’d see that Equestria as whole had a rather unique and refreshing feel to it, something magical.

But seeing as I was currently in a free fall at about give or take five hundred feet and headed straight for the Everfree Forest I really didn’t have the time to take in the view. Harsh winds ripping past my ears and stinging my eyes made making out where I’d land hard to tell, it also didn’t help that when Celestia hit me with that thaumic lance she broke one or two of my ribs. Through the haze covering my eyes I could vaguely see a strip of blue getting bigger as I fell. ‘There’s no way she planned this.’ I thought wincing as my body jolted a bit. And so with a colossal splash I hit the river that ran the length of the Everfree, the momentum I had built up falling sent me right through the shallow waters and straight into the riverbed below.

Luckily becoming Forge Scale and winding up in Equestria had a few perks; becoming fire and lava proof, superhuman physical strength, the ability to leech off of Equestria’s residual magic energy. My favourites though were being able to secrete and shape molten metal and having skin as tough as dragon hide. The powers helped but they didn’t mean I was invulnerable; a hard enough hit could easily land me six feet under.

‘Everything hurts.’ I thought as white hot pain raced up my spine causing another involuntary spasm and in turn more pain. Moving the limbs that still had feeling in them I slowly crawled out of the river and onto one of its banks, soaked and broken. I couldn’t feel my right leg, more of my ribs had broken in the impact and breathing was getting harder. With each blink I made Celestia’s Sun moved an odd amount across the sky, ‘I’m fading in and out of consciousness’ being my last thought as everything went black.

1250 Years Ago:

With an almost deafening crack the sphere of lime green flames that encircled me burst, dropping me onto my hands and knees. Noticing the cement flooring of the expo centre had changed to cobblestone and my ears ringing a little I lifted myself back onto my feet. “That’s... weird.” I muttered, looking up from where I’d landed I was met with the sight of a small village from centuries past. Cottage after cottage lay in front of me, each with grass roofing, walls made of stone and even fences built from sticks. ‘Must be some booth gimmick.’ I thought.

The ringing in my ears didn’t go away and was getting a little more than annoying, so I tried rubbing at them to try getting it to stop. “They really went all out for this one.” I muttered as I eyed my surroundings, it’s like I actually was in some fantasy role playing game right down to the bleak grey sky overhead and the crows cawing from dead trees. Noticing that my arms felt a little heavier than normal I turned my attention onto them; the thick gold bracelets I wore around my wrists stared back at me, or to be more specific my reflection in their weighty golden surface stared back at me. ‘They feel like real gold...’ I thought incredulously, panicking a little I looked at the scales I had used body paint to put on my forearms, and felt my heart begin to hammer harder in my chest; they looked like real damn scales, light reflecting off of each skin coloured scale as if they were a natural part of me.

Deciding to ignore the fact that I could see really well for a guy who normally needed glasses I walked along the cobblestone path in front of me, looking at the minute differences in each cottage I passed to try calm myself down. “Calm down, just calm down. You’re dreaming and this is your subconscious screwing with you.” I muttered to myself while traversing the oddly empty village.

Hearing a thud in front of me I turn my attention away from the cottages. A few feet ahead of me on the path stood a dirty little indigo horse, eyes as big as my fist and its body oddly disproportionate for an equine. Next to it lay a bundle of sticks that must’ve caused the thud I heard; now normally a horse would just stare at you for a few seconds and then it would snort and find some grass to munch on, but this small horse thing just stared and stared.

‘Might as well find the damned things owner’ I decided before taking a step, big mistake that; the second my bare foot hit the cobblestone the horse-thing broke out of its trance and screamed, bloody screamed! A small horse actually screamed.

“Чудо́вище!” screeched the little indigo horse, hooves stumbling as it turned and ran away, I could still hear the thing screaming “Чудо́вище!” every couple of seconds and growing fainter the further away from me it got.

“Ok brain, what the hell?”

Everfree Forest - Present Day:

Feeling some pressure on my broken ribs I jolted awake, every pain in my broken body greeting me as I awoke. Moving my head the little I could I made out that somebody had their hand on my chest, looking up a little I came face to face with the disapproving glare of another human; a girl actually. She had shoulder length wavy brown hair, vibrant pink irises, a cute button nose and a glare currently drilling its way into my skull. “Idiot.” Uttered the girl, her tone a little flat and bored sounding for someone trying to kill me with their eyes. With my current condition I responded the best I could.

“H-huh?” I wheezed. “I had one chance to sneak into the library and get my book back from the lavender one, and you up and ruin it by putting everpony on high alert.” Accused the girl, her tone still oddly flat and adding a little more pressure to my ribs. Raising my hand I pointed at the girl “Human?” I asked/wheezed. “Witch.” Answered the girl, blinking for the first time since I had woke up. Turning my hand and jabbing my thumb at myself I tried coughing out my name for the girl, “Fuh- Forge Scale.”

“Meryl Anne Anderson” replied the witch girl before shoving her hand into my chest, ‘What the fuck you psycho bitch!’ I mentally screamed, seeing her pull a heart shaped chunk of flesh from my body. Looking where she had shoved her hand I could see a clean heart shaped hole through my chest, the psycho still had that blank look on her face as my vision began to swim and my head thumped back onto the grass.

1250 Years Ago:

Not five minutes ago did a miniature indigo horse run away from me screaming, and now I’m surrounded by the things. All around me little horse-things of all colours and sizes stood glaring at me, garden hoes and stones at the ready. ‘Some of them have beards and moustaches, how the hell can a horse grow a beard or a moustache?!’ I thought, a little freaked out at the sight. “враг?” asked a male mini-horse stepping forward from the crowd, grey moustache on its snout, knitted wool scarf around his neck and wearing an old shirt. ‘Okay he asked me a question, but how do I answer him?’ I wondered, chalking all of this up to a seriously messed up dream.

“враг, да и́ли нет?” asked the stallion glaring a little harder at me, ‘Da, Nyet? Oh he’s speaking Russian!’ I realised, “враг!” yelled lil’ miss indigo, derailing my train of thought. “Da.” I answered, deciding to wing it, which turned out to be a mistake seeing as all the horses gasped and started backing away from me. “уходи́ть!” boomed the stallion in front of me, glaring at me like I was the devil incarnate. “Look, I think I might have said the wrong thing there...” I apologized as I walked up to him; arms held out in a non-threatening way. “уходи́ть!” he yelled, spittle flying and holding a hoe to my face. “I’m trying to say I made a mistake!” I yelled back, getting more than a little annoyed. That’s when the first stone hit.

There’s nothing quite as sobering as pain; when that first stone hit me I realized something, that something was that this was no dream. I actually was in mini-horse Russia and I actually was in danger; my heart began beating as fast as it could, sweat coated my body and I was seconds away from hyperventilating. With stone after stone hitting me I could see the angry stallion swing his hoe at me yelling “уходи́ть!” one last time. With everything happening so quickly around me, the stones, the screaming, and this not being some weird horse dream I just snapped.

I launched my fist and decked Mr. Mustache so hard his horse head literally bounced when it hit the ground, the horses started screaming “Чудо́вище!” over and over again while throwing more stones at my head and that’s when something magical happened; with everything that had happened I was seeing red and ready to smash some horse skulls in. Without realizing it something in the air had begun flowing into my body, giving me strength as I swiped at the air in front of me.

Fire swept from my swipe in an arc, burning through the stones and multi-hued horses in front of me while I screamed “I don’t speak Russian!” at the top of my lungs, too into my fury to see the unspeakable act I had just committed. Turning my palm towards me I stared at it, my blood still boiling I sent arcs of burning fire into and onto the cottages around me before running from the small village, adrenaline pushing me as I ran going much faster than I ever could before.

Two weeks had passed since I came to this place, after running a while I had come across a cave and decided to wait things out there. Once the adrenaline had faded I realized what I had done; I had killed living creatures, sentient creatures. Their burning shapes breaking apart and turning to ash in the hellish fires I made haunted my dreams and their screams my thoughts. To fight this I trained; after apparently becoming the character I was dressed as I had also gotten his powers, so to make sure I didn’t lose control like I did in the village I worked myself into the ground trying to get some kind of control over the powers I now possessed.

Breathing and throwing fire came easily enough, but absorbing whatever it was that fuelled my fire magic from the air didn’t; it was like trying to take a breath using only your skin. Putting that on the back burner for a while I worked on seeing if I had any of Forge Scale’s other abilities, Forge Scale being the character I had dressed as. After a couple of days of practice I found that I did have more abilities, but by far the coolest to me was being able to spew molten metal from anywhere on my body and shape it, if I had enough food and water in me that is. Found out you can’t make something from nothing and had to go looking for food and clean water.

After a couple of outings to the village nearby and setting the odd cottage on fire I had a nice little hoard; when you stay up all night pondering on something bad you did you tend to shift the blame off of yourself, which is what I had done. ‘They asked me questions in a language I don’t understand, they were screaming at me and they tried to attack me! I had every right to do what I did.’ I thought to myself in an “It’s their fault not mine.” Kind of way, and after a while I believed it to be the truth.

Having gotten a good grasp of my abilities and limitations I turned to face the mouth of the cave and the city I could see off in the distance, a cocky grin on my face. “I hope you little horse bastards and your thrice damned friendship based economy are ready for a skull buggering.” I began, eyes glinting. “Because I just dumped all of my skill points into the Anti-Pone branch of my skill tree.”

Five hours and a half destroyed Equestrian city later I was turned to stone by the Elements of Harmony and their bearers at the time; Princesses Celestia and Luna, after which my stone ass was dragged to their fledgling statue garden where I sat for two and a half centuries before being carted off to the new castle in Canterlot.

Everfree Forest - Present Day:

Waking up again every part of me felt... fine? Sitting up as quickly as I could I put pressure on my ribs and gave my leg a once over; my broken ribs had somehow been fixed and my leg healed. ‘But how? I can’t absorb enough magic energy to heal those wounds... The witch!’ I thought, turning my head left and right trying to see if I could find the psycho. “Oh goodness, you’re awake!” squealed a voice, turning to look at the speaker I found a scaled purple belly staring at me from the river. “Up here.” Sang the voice, masculine but trying to sound feminine, failing to suppress a sigh of annoyance I looked up and was greeted by the sight of a purple river serpent with a styled mane and moustache.

“Oh I am so glad you’re ok after you took such a fall!” chirped the serpent holding his hands to his chest, “I’m fine thanks, have you seen another creature that kind of looks like me?” I asked dismissively, still looking for that Meryl girl. “Besides you and I, nopony else has come here since you crawled out of the river.” Answered the serpent sounding a little confused as I still looked for any sign of Miss Surgeon Simulator. ‘Just great, another figment messing with my head.’ I thought, realizing she might have been another part of Forge Scale’s psychological issues ‘But I didn’t write her into his story...’

“How are you feeling..?” began the serpent, with an inquisitive tone lingering at the end of his question. “Feeling a little freaked out but it’s nothing I can’t handle, name’s Forge Scale and you are?” I muttered, rubbing at the nape of my scaled neck. “I, my dear friend am Steven Magnet and I believe being ‘freaked out’ is normal for somepony who fell from the sky, now isn’t it?” chuckled Steven while rubbing a claw at his scaled chest. “So Steve how long was I out?” I asked with a bit of a grin.

Clucking his tongue at how I addressed him the river serpent took a look at the sky before turning back to me, “Judging by where the sun is, I’d say about four hours or so.” Stated Steven sounding a little unsure.

And so Mr. Face met Mr. Palm and vice versa.

Author's Note

I have no idea how Russian sentence structure works but here's the translation of the words I had to look up and copy.
Translation:
Чудо́вище - Monster
враг - Enemy
да - Yes
и́ли - Or
нет - No
уходи́ть - Leave

Pieces to a Puzzle

Why do I have scales?
Pieces to a Puzzle

Deep beneath the derelict windmill that sat at the edge of the Everfree forest, in a cavern that appears to have been created by artificial means stood a creature unlike any Equestria had seen before. It looked almost Minotaur in nature; standing on its two hind legs, a torso with two forelegs that ended in weird tentacle-esque appendages, its body without a coat and on its head a small mop of greasy slicked back black hair and a pair of black rimmed glasses.

This creature was a human, and though human beings were once considered nought but myth on Equus this was no ordinary human. He was Dr. Franklin J. Devious and he had just finished putting the final touches on his latest creation. Stepping back from the tarp covering his masterpiece Dr. Devious wiped the sweat from his brow and adjusted his glasses, the light from the overhead lighting catching them at just the right angle to hide his eyes. Other than taking a short break to ponder on those tremors earlier nothing had stopped the doctor from creating his greatest invention yet, pieces of metal and the occasional gear could be seen through the gaps in the tarp towering over the man.

“With this not even the Princesses can stop me!” bellowed the grease covered, lab coated man with a grin. “That’s what you said about the Amazon Army, Doc.” Quipped a voice from behind. “Hmm?” murmured the doctor turning to see who had questioned his undeniable brilliance, there behind him stood a griffon, female with a light purple hue at the tips of her feathers and around her eyes. “Ah, Gilda my marvellous assistant!” recognised Dr. Devious with a smile which quickly turned into a frown.

“Actually it was Unageing Amazon Army and they were meant to stop the ageing process at the physical appearance of twenty five years of age, not eight!” replied the doctor while shuddering at the memory of having to deal with over two hundred, super strong little girls.

“So what’re we going to do today Doc?” Asked Gilda, ignoring Dr. Devious as she filed her talons. “The same thing we do everyday Gilda.” Began the doctor, turning to face his griffon assistant. “Try to take over the world!”

Elsewhere:

“Puh- P-please, I don’t know what’s going on!” sobbed a green-haired women, trembling arm held out to shield herself. Standing a few feet in front of her lay an oddly dressed man; black suit, dress shoes, tie and white shirt. What made the man odd though was the fact that his entire head was covered in a white cloth mask with a disturbing eye painted on in black. “I just want to go home.” She snivelled.

“...” Silence was all the women got in return, the odd man just staring at her as she lay in the dirt trembling. Off to the side of the pair, leaning against one of the many trees surrounding them was another woman looking bored with the whole situation.

“Please, please, please, please.” Chanted the scared women over and over, tears running from her eyes. Suddenly she felt an invisible pressure smash down on her, its weight crushing and unbearable. The women felt her bones groan under the pressure as she was forced face first into the dirt underneath her, the pain mounting as cracks began forming in the ground around her and most likely in her bones as well. “PLEASE!” shrieked the green-haired woman before being silenced with a booming crack as the ground where she lay cratered and sunk. Her life blood seeping into the cracks beneath her.

A rasping sigh left the odd mans covered lips as he reached for the cigarettes in his coat pocket, lighting one and placing it where his mouth would be under the mask as the bored woman skipped over to the crater. “Und now vhat, Herr Paradise?” chirped the woman with an amused look, a long rifle tucked between her elbows and lower back.

“Now Miss van Winkle, we find the rest.” Answered the man, his voice rough and raspy as cigarette smoke seeped from the pores in his cloth mask. Turning his back on Miss van Winkle the odd man, Paradise being his “name” began his trek to the forest exit.

“Vant to play ze game?” asked Rip van Winkle as she caught up to her partner slash boss.

“There are no games in protecting utopia Miss van Winkle.”

Outside of Ponyville:

Standing atop one of the higher hills that surrounded Ponyville Meryl could see the Everfree Forest and all the paths that led from there, from her view point the witch could see the regiment of Royal Guards preparing to enter the forest from the Ponyville entrance, the two figures leaving the forest at the opposite side; one smoking and the other skipping for whatever reason, and the old derelict windmill at the side border to the forest that suspiciously still turned even though in disrepair.

“Five total.” Muttered the witch, her face as blank as slate. Her magic sensing energy similar to her own throughout the area. Turning away from the Everfree Meryl focused her gaze on the Library tree in Ponyville. “Is this really the Era of Humanity that the son of necessity preached of?” whispered the witch, her eyes never leaving the library.

Author's Note

This chapter's just to introduce some characters and show what's happening while Forge Scale's unconscious after meeting Meryl.
In case you're wondering this is Paradise