Author's Note

Hello once again everybody!

I cannot express how happy, I am that you guys seem to like the story thus far.

I do come with a warning however! This chapter will contain some gore! For people who have trouble reading such a thing well, in case you did not see the gore tag of the story although it isn't the worst that shall come in the story it is still gore so be prepared!

I hope you guys will continue reading and supporting the story.

Author: TheShadowOfZama
Editor: Vlasislas32

The Arrival of an Outsider

“We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.” ― Colson Whitehead, Zone One

Brussels Airport:

“Hey Karl! Hand me the bags. I want to check the papers again.” said a man with short blond hair, brown eyes and a fair skin. The man was wearing blue jeans, red T-shirt and a brown leather jacket. Around his neck hung a small golden necklace with a crucifix on it.

“That’s the 15th time already… and we haven’t even taken off yet! That’s not even counting all the times you checked before we even reached the airport.” Karl grumbled irately, nevertheless handing over the papers.

Karl had fair skin, but possessed brown hair and green eyes. He wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a white-and-blue striped button-down shirt. Around his left wrist he wore a black digital watch.

“You can never recheck stuff like this too much.” Will argued, earning himself a sigh from his friend.

Will was without doubt the best friend a man could have, but sometimes he thought too much.

“Whatever! Do what you want.”

After rechecking everything twice, Will carefully put their papers away again. Over the next few hours the men were introduced to how boring planes could be.

“Let’s see… I see what you can’t see and it is blue.” Will said.

“Let me guess; it’s the ocean?”

“How did you know?”

“Because we’re flying above the goddamn Atlantic ocean.”

“You know, just because we’re flying above an ocean that doesn’t mean I’m talking about it when I say I see something blue. Our seats are blue too.”

“You were looking out of the window and you said I couldn’t see what you were talking about. There was a pretty good chance that it was the ocean.” Karl replied, earning him some mumbling which probably contained some cursing.

“Shit is starting to look bad up ahead from what I can see.” Will noted as he looked at the dark clouds in the direction the plane was flying.

Karl really did not need to hear that: he already felt uncomfortable on the plane as it was. No need to tell about storms as well.

“Fucking great.” He mumbled under his breath and right when he was done cursing he heard the voice of the pilot announcing the dreadful news.
“This is your pilot speaking. There is a storm on our course so we will probably experience some turbulence. Please remain in your seats. Thank you.”

Now it was the waiting game. How long till the airplane would be in the dreaded storm? The answer? Not long enough. Everything started calm enough, but the turbulence quickly got heavier and heavier. He could hear some children scream and their parents trying to calm them down. He saw a man quickly grab a puke bag from the chair in front of him and empty his stomach into it. The turbulence continued, only gaining force.

Then the masks fell down. Everyone quickly grabbed their own respective mask and attached it to their face.

Both men looked at each other. Karl saw the fear in his friend’s eyes, his own fear was probably visible as well. Both realized the situation had totally gone to shit when red lights started burning. Both men held each other’s hand. Karl thought it might look gay, but in such a moment, that’s hardly what someone should care about.

“See you on the other side.” Will said as he took the crucifix in his hand.

“See you there, man.”

That was the last thing he said as he waited for the impact which came a few moments later. The last thing he saw was an inferno coming his way. It was probably the most destructive yet paradoxically beautiful thing he ever saw.

He smelled the burnt air and the ash. He felt the heat and awaited the pain the fire would bring before the numbness of death. Neither the pain nor the numbness ever arrived. The firelight quickly faded out, leaving him alone with the dark, but strangely enough, with vague sounds reaching his ears: the chirping of birds and rustling of wind-blown greenery could be heard. Seconds later, the softness and the smell of grass faded into existence along with the feeling of a cool breeze.

This was not death he realized, but what was it then? Life? No, not his life anyway. His life ended by fire and later by water. So just what the hell was this then? He opened his eyes and saw he was lying in a small clearing. He heard the characteristic white-noise rush of a river. Trees, lots of trees. Definitely a forest.

“Where the hell did a forest come from? Am I on an island?”

Stupid questions. There was no way he survived: he saw the fire and knew there was no escape from it.

“Maybe this is what heaven looks like.” Karl mumbled.

Hell he wasn’t a fan of the design for heaven anyway: Walking on clouds? Wings and harps? Belch! Who would want that? He also heard people talk about rice pudding and golden spoons. They could keep that too: he didn’t like rice pudding, and he took pleasure with other types of metal spoons just as easily.

If he was in Hell, then they had given him a bad description. He figured it should have looked a lot more, well… hellish.
Wherever the fuck they dropped him, perhaps Will was here as well.

“WILL!!!!”

Nothing.

“WILL!!!”

Still no response.

“Perhaps not.” he mumbled as he tried to get on his feet.

He could worry about his friend later. First he needed some answers, but where to find those?
****
Princess Celestia was asleep when she felt it: the distinctive aura possessed only by one species in history.

“Humans.” she said the instant she awoke.

She detected but one signature, but it was undeniably that of a human.

This simply could not be! The Apes’ Children had been dealt with so long ago: their names had long been forgotten, their cities fallen to ruins and their relics destroyed, yet one had again appeared in her land. She needed to deal with it quickly and swiftly before anyone saw it, before it gained a foothold. Celestia quickly cast a spell to contact Luna, who appeared as an image inside a ring of shimmering magic.

“Sister, why has thou called me?”

“There is a human in Equestria again.” Celestia said.

As the word “human” left Celestia’s mouth her sister’s eyes widened.

“But how? Our parents destroyed them all during the fall of the Chaos Empire along with the rest of their loyalists. Even Discord couldn’t bring them back anymore during his second reign.” Luna replied.

“I know Lulu, I know, but one is here! Just now I felt it appear by the Everfree Forest. The chaotic magical signature is unmistakeable!”

“Then we need to deal with him as soon as possible! Out of all the creatures spawned by Discord, Fate ha sent us a human! Its existence cannot be tolerated!”

“Keep your voice down! We can’t anypony knowing that a human has returned!” said Celestia in a hoarse whisper.

“Sorry sister, but of all of the Chaotic creatures, none is as capable of spreading chaos as a human. A Timberwolf is immune to magic, a Manticore is almost unstoppable and a dragon is highly destructive, but out of all of these, humans have the most dangerous minds: watching, adapting, analysing, planning, always raging with ideas. These other creatures may be openly dangerous, but humans have a knack for subtle corruption. ”

“I know. We must address the situation immediately. We cannot allow him to destroy the harmony we and our parents have managed to build and protect through all those years.”

With that, Celestia teleported her and her sister to where the human was.

****

Karl had just recovered and had come to the conclusion that the universe was out to mess with him. A blinding light that came out of nowhere did not help this one bit. When the light died down and his sight returned to him, where the light had been now stood two… what were they, anyway? It looked like two winged unicorns. The tallest one had a white coat and wore golden shoes and crown. Her mane was rainbow colored and flowed ethereally with the wind.

The smaller one had a dark blue coat. Her mane looked like a starry sky and was flowing in a similar fashion. She wore silver shoes, a silver crown and something that looked like a gorget with a crescent moon on it.

“This shot just keeps getting better.” Karl mumbled sarcastically to himself.

“HUMAN! WHY HAST THOU INTRUDED UPON OUR LANDS?”

That horse had one hell of a voice! The sonic force nearly made him fly back.

“Uhm, I got lost I guess.”

It was a lame answer, but Karl was still busy registering what the fuck was going on. Besides, on a certain level it was probably the truth.

“Sister why isn’t this human shaking in fear or in rage from the mere sight of us like all the other humans have done?” Luna inquired more silently, extremely confused as to why the human didn’t even react to their presence in the slightest, even (or perhaps especially) if they had brought an end to his race.

The human looked different, albeit only slightly, from those she had faced in the past, prompting Luna to cast an analytical spell on him. The results were surprising to say the least. This human possessed neither chaotic magic nor the magic of harmony. He rather appeared to be completely magically neutral, with no magical charge at all. However, she still felt the chaos was there, somewhere in his brain. He was still dangerous even if he didn’t possess the chaotic magic with which Discord and the rest of his race were endowed.

She told the results to her sister.

“What do we do now?” Luna asked.

“We cure him from the chaos inside of him,” Celestia said. She had been forced to destroy the humans before because it was simply impossible to cure their chaos inside of them, but this one possessed less chaos than his ancestors so he could perhaps be cured and she was certain of it he would allow it as well for due to his complete lack of energy the magic of harmony was slowly, but surely killing him.

“Human, what is your name?” Celestia asked.

“Uh… Karl.” he replied hesitantly.

Karl didn’t know what the fuck these horses were, but he sure as hell didn’t like that they were talking so secretively. He didn’t know of a situation back home where furtive speech didn’t indicate that something was afoot, and he was pretty sure that it was culturally universal.

“Karl of the Human Race! We can sense the chaotic energy in you and have come to offer you salvation! Your body is not capable of surviving the Magic of Harmony in this world. We will transform you into a pony so you can live a life cleansed of chaos and greatly extended. Do you accept?”

Both princesses awaited the approval which they were sure was to come.

“No.”

It was a short and clear answer which completely shocked both princesses.

“No?” Luna repeated, confused.

“You heard me. Now leave me be.” Karl said dismissively.

“Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear enough: without the metamorphosis, the magic of this planet will kill you!” Celestia exclaimed.

“So?”

“You can’t throw away your life so easily!”

“Can’t I? At least it’s my own life and not someone else’s I’m toying with for enjoyment! Besides, I happen to care deeply about my humanity. If you want to change that, that’s some tough shit. I’d rather die as a human than live on as one of your patsies!”

Celestia’s surprised look turned into a stern one.

“I am sorry you look at it like that, but I cannot allow you to throw your life away so carelessly.”

Well, that, and she wanted to keep him from destabilising the country which was set up so very much in her favour. She also wanted to know if ponification could actually work.

Karl realized that something bad was about to go down. He turned to run, but was enveloped in a golden aura that lifted him off of the ground and a terrible pain came over him.

“This will all be over soon. You will see that you will be a lot happier after you are cured of yourself.”

Karl started screaming as the pain intensified and he heard the white-furred bitch talk to him on a soothing manner like a mother calming her child. Given the setting however, he couldn’t help but hear an undertone of phoniness.

“Listen to me you bitches! Cut this shit out now! If you go through with this twisted, fascist crap, I swear I will have my vengeance! When I’m through with you, you’ll beg for death!”

He continued by spitting out every insult he could think off as he fell his hands become more stump-like and rounded-off like hooves.

The pain suddenly stopped as he heard one of them scream. When he reopened his eyes, he saw he was still stuck in the golden aura, but to his relief his body started changing back to its original state. Karl looked at the two of them and saw that the blue one was under attack from what looked like wooden wolves who had driven her to the cliff.

Celestia was unable to assist her sister due to the powerful spell she was casting on the human, but if she didn’t act now her sister would die, or at least be gravely injured. Seeing as she could not perform any offensive spells she decided to use the human as her attack.

Karl could only look in horror as he was being swung by an invisible force straight at the wooden wolves.

*BOOM*

He hit the first one with incredible power, causing it to collide with the others, who were pushed over the edge. Luckily for Karl, the wooden wolf managed to regain his balance, thus keeping the both of them from falling after the wolf’s companions. Unbeknownst to anyone, Karl’s collision caused the wolf to start leaking a green-glowing, sap-like magical fluid which was absorbed by Karl’s body.

Luna saw her chance to deal with the Timberwolf and sent a fireball its way. Unfortunately for Karl, said fireball exploded and burned the left side of his face and set his clothing on fire near his left shoulder.

“AAAAGHH!”

Karl stumbled back as he could feel the flames licking at his skin and he screamed the air out of his lungs. That fucking bitch had set him on fire! The Timberwolf stumbled over the cliff’s edge. Unfortunately for Karl, his shirt had gotten stuck on the wolf’s splintery side, so when the wolf fell over the edge, it dragged Karl with him.

Never in his life had Karl felt pain that could rival what he felt right now. He desperately tried to keep the fire away from his eyes. He felt himself fall, but couldn’t see it. By the time he was able to open his right eye, he barely registered hitting the water and then more pain.

Granted the water put out the flames, but have you ever put freshly burned skin in water? And natural, unfiltered water at that? It burns like hell. The frigid temperature of the water only made it worse. Karl managed to swim back to the surface and felt the skin on the left side of his face crack open, followed by the feeling of fluids running out of the wounds.
****
This was not how it was supposed to go! Not at all! The sisters had tried to help the human! They had tried to cure him from the chaos! They had tried to extend his life span! But everything went so horribly wrong: not only did the human dismiss the idea of being turned into a pony, even to save himself, but they had actually succeeded in killing him!

The Timberwolves had ambushed her sister, what else was she supposed to do? Let her sister be killed? No, she couldn’t let that happen, so she used the human as bowling ball and her sister had finished off the last wolf by setting it ablaze, but she had set the human ablaze as well and then both human and Timberwolf fell in the raging river down in the canyon. They had looked like a shooting star during their fall.

Celestia had tried to locate him again, but the aura the human had given off when he arrived had vanished, which could only mean he was dead.

Perhaps it was for the best. The river would surely destroy any evidence of the human as it flowed deeper into the Everfree, so nopony would find the corpse and the humans would remain a legend. Yes, everything worked out, just not as she had planned. She had truly intended to purge the human of the chaos, but death worked just fine. At least now he could rest together with his ancestors and hopefully this was the last Equestria would ever see of the humans.

“Goodbye Karl may you rest in peace… and never set foot in this world ever again.”

****

Karl had, after what seemed like an eternity, finally been able to swim to the shore, his clothes wet and reduced to rags. His face itched terribly and every time he tried to change his expression it hurt. It was the same when he tried to move his left shoulder, although not quite as severe. He carefully clawed his way to the top of a fallen tree trunk, careful to not get any dirt in the wounds. So far, he could still see out of both eyes so he guessed he had managed to keep his eyes shielded. His hearing was also alright. The flames had by some miracle not reached his left ear.

Karl started searching for shelter, but his body gradually began feeling weirder and weirder. First it was only a tingle, then he started shivering and he got the feeling that he needed to vomit, which he did.

However, while he vomited he was forced to widen his mouth, which in return caused his face to itch and the pain to return. Proceeding to walk away from the shore, Karl eventually found a small cave where he figured he could spend the night. However, the shivering had been replaced by an ever growing pain. He fell into the cave and started squirming in pain. The pain reminded him of that which he felt when that bitch had started transforming him.

‘Is that damn spell active again? No; my hands aren’t being compressed; it’s like they’re growing.’ Karl thought as he looked at his right hand.

The sight scared him. It looked like his flesh was breathing on its own, pulsing in an up and down motion while it was expanding. He lifted both his hands and his nausea instantly returned: his fingernails had come loose. He didn’t think about those for long, as he felt the bones in his legs start to relocate themselves, but the worst pain would be coming from his teeth. He could feel them crack and shift around. Then they started to grow further out of his skull.

That was the last thing Karl remembered before he lost consciousness. His body lay limp upon the floor of the cave surrounded by a haze of green light with a slight undertone of gold, the energy carefully making sure that the body would not die from a nearly spent pain threshold as it set about reconstructing the body.