A Hero Returns

I stare down the masses of evil, twisted monsters that stand before me. Their glares of hatred and desire to corrupt me is as strong as ever. At the corner of my eye I can barely make out the flaring light from escaping ships. Sure enough I see that the horde of darkness had noticed them as well and they started to become more and more agitated. I wonder why they don't just attack already, I mean I'm just one guy! I guess there really is something to being a champion of the spirits. They fear me, not only because I am who I am but because I slaughtered their leaders. That was when I saw the movement, a single beast shot forward ahead with a roar of bloodlust, then there was two, four, fifty, a hundred, suddenly I was staring down a wall of writhing flesh with nothing on their minds but to destroy all that I had dedicated my life to. I gripped my knife even harder turning my blue, scaled knuckles white. With a final look at what I am protecting, I launched myself straight towards the tsunami of teeth and hatred...

My eyes shot open and my head was flung upwards. I gasped for air, as I held my head in my hands I started to become aware of my surroundings. I was in a great white room, everything was really fuzzy, probably one of the side effects of being in cryo sleep for as long as I was, as a matter of fact how long was I in cryo? Eh that's not important right now. I seemed to be the only person in here currently. Why am I here? Where's the temple? I start to look my body over and try to find out if any of my old injuries were still around. I looked down at my skin passed the protective chemical skin suit to see that all were healed save for one, and all that was left of that little gem was a nasty scar.

I lay my head back down so as to serio-HOLY SWEET GOD THIS PILLOW IS AMAZING! I instantly turn around and grab the imitation cloud in my hand and press on it. The give, the firmness, the incredible softness of it all, it was obviously a gift from the gods, there is no way a man-made pillow can be this good. That is when reality slapped me upside my head like the bitch I was. There was no more man, save for myself, something has changed and evolved to fill the niche. While the initial soul-crushing loneliness of being the last human on the planet with no way to reach others of my kind had passed it was replaced with an intense curiosity for what kind of species had stepped up to take humanities place as well as what kind of culture and civic polic-*SNORE*

That was the sound of me completely losing interest and passing out due to the sheer force of the boredom as well as some of the cryo sleep side effects making me very weak. This is to be expected I mean all I did for God knows how long was be suspended by life preserving liquid, I would be more worried if I wasn't experiencing the effects.

I woke up a couple hours later, or a couple minutes I don't know I ain't a clock. I could tell from the suns position but my eyesight was still a bit fuzzy. Well all that plus the fact something big, white and with extremely large light purple eyes was completely blocking my view by being alarmingly close to my face. My own eyes were glued to them, they were extremely beautiful, however the fact that they were less than a foot away from me kind of made them less breathtaking and more terrifying, and my reaction was...less than stoic.

"OH JESUS CHRI-WHOA WHO-" Then came the sound of my ass hitting the oddly close ground.

I couldn't really tell what it was that scared me half outta my skin but I got a clue when I heard a frightened whinny as well as loud flapping. So, a horse is in my room, and judging by the flapping a large bird as well, the highlight of my day. My eyesight was still fuzzy but I could see clearly enough to see the shape of an ivory white horse with a strangely waving chromatic mane flowing on a non-existent breeze.

'Well that's weird, must be the magic that's still in the environment, probably influenced the Genetic codes in equines but still weird' I thought to myself as I slowly stood up and started to approach her.

"Hey girl how'd you get in here huh?" I spoke very softly as not to spook her. I may not have my magic anymore but I still have a connection to other life forms, so I knew on an instinctual level that she was a she. She seemed to back up in a surprised manner when I stood to my full height when I was able to get close to her. She appeared to be shaking, she also kept on opening and closing her mouth.

"Shhh, it's ok I ain't gonna hurt you, it's gonna be ok" I said as calmly as I could. She was acting very strangely, what else worried me was a slight red hue on her face.

'Maybe she's sick?' I thought as I brought my hand up. She flinched at this.

"Oh no, it's ok I said I wasn't gonna hurt you," I said as i placed a hand on her muzzle, which was surprisingly short "see there you go pretty girl, everything's gonna be ok"

Her face turned a slightly darker shade of red and she appeared to become a bit more antsy. She must be really sick.

I bring my face closer and press my head against hers in an attempt to calm her

"it's ok look, I'm not gonna hurt you, see pretty girl" her face turned an alarming shade of red, her breath began to speed up, this wasn't working. I started to pet her head when I felt a hard object and as I ran my hand over it her whole body seemed to tense up.

'The hell is that?' I ran my hand over it, it felt like a long spiraled horn, and that was when I heard something earth shattering.

"Oh my..."

For a second, I swear to god, I thought I was gonna crap my pants. I launch myself back so hard I smash myself against the very solid brick wall.

"OH SHIT! Talking horse!" In that exact moment was when the blurriness started to clear up a bit, the sight that was before me was, well, I was lost for words. From what I could see she had a spiraled horn protruding from her forehead, a crown on top of her head, but what was most startling was the pair of huge ivory wings

"A horse with a horn! and wings!... Your not a horse!" Sadly that conclusion took a lot longer to reach than I'm proud of.

She started to approach me slowly, I tried to put some distance between me and her but as I've stated before I have my back against the wall, literally. She stepped closer to me, lowered her head and did something I will never forget, she spoke to me.

"A-are you alright?"

I look at her dumbfounded, now she's trying to calm me down? Well I am acting like a bit of a spaz, so I took a few calming breaths and did my best to try and hold some introductions.

"Yeah, I-I'm ok but I have a question...WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU!", key word try.

She jumped at the volume in my voice, a moment passed where we just stared at each other. She shook her head lightly, took a breath and looked me in the eyes before speaking.

"I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and it is an honor to have you here in our castle hero" She spoke softly while lightly bowing her head, she was acting as if I was royalty. While I did kinda enjoy the treatment I knew I couldn't let it go on.

"Stop, stop bowing, why are you bowing? Stand up" I said.

She looked up from where she was, she had a confused expression on her face like I had just explained Quadratic equation to her, well in all honesty I couldn't do that either...Math sucks.

"So, Princess Celestia right? Anyway, you don't bow to me I ain't no one special, in fact, I should be bowing to you" I stated, and while I dislike bowing to anyone, I swallowed my pride since she did release me from the cryo chamber. She also called me "Hero", gonna have to talk to her about what she knows about my past but for now I have one question to ask, the most serious question any guy can ask in any given situation.

"So, got any food?"