//-------------------------------------------------------// The Long Way To Love -by Milesbrashier- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: The Hurricane //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: The Hurricane *BUZZZZZZ....BUZZZZZZZ.....BUZZZZZ....BUZZZZZ... CLICK* "Thank the guy who made snooze buttons...." I say groggily. It's nearly time to get up, and go get dressed. I never use my alarm, except on special days. Wait a second. Holy crap it's my birthday! I jump outta bed  just a bit too fast and smash my head against the wall. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" I yell, already seeing butterfly's flying around my head. I run into the living room and turn on the tv , checking the news. "..Hurricane Cedric is heading strait for the Atlantic coast, and will hit Spring hill at any moment. We recommend staying indoors and heading for low ground or hallways...... We've just been informed that it has now reached category 5. We are evacuating the whole city but it wi..."               *CLACCKKK..GRUMMMMMMMM...* The lights go out instantly as I run to the window. In the field behind my house I see what I feared. A rather large funnel shaped  object heading strait this way. "OH SHIIIIIII"    * CLACK!* the loudest sound I have ever heard comes right as I get hit by the pure venom of nature. I Black out. I start hearing voices.... And the static of rain outside..... Its all blurred as I'm fading in and out....God have mercy on my soul...the pain of the heat is too much for me..... "...should we do? It's seems hurt. It must have been struck by the lightning. We don't have time for the hospital, but your place is close enough to..it.....carry.....soon.....inside.." *CLACK* "..............paralyzed........too much to.....and still live.....anyone's guess if it'll live to tomorr......." The voices were fading away as I fell into the darkness...... "GAAAAAAHH!" I awoke to the sound of rain hitting the roof overhead. There were voices talking in the other room. "..if hes dangerous? He could hurt all of us! Why would you risk our lives for something so much as a hurt..." *CRACK* Taking in my current surroundings, I thought up an escape plan. There was a window in the corner, in the other side there was a low hanging door. It was barely taller than me, it had to be less than 5 1/2 feet tall. Wait a second. Why can't I move my left arm? Looking down, I remembered what happened when I went to the window. In shock I realized that my arm was wrapped in bandages and had a white cream spread across. Oh yeah...5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. That arm must be scorched. I'll have to fix that later with Kronos. I move Out quietly to the side of the bed,  but I hear the clack of something sounding like high heels moving toward the door. By instinct I opened. The window, realized I couldnt just jump two stories with a paralyzed arm, and hid under the bed, behind some boxes and a plastic bag akin to a first aid kit. Who is this person? Some kinda short doctor? Real short if the evidence suggests. *Creeeeeeeeeeeeeek..* "Where'd he go!?" said a female voice. "Oh no! He'll never survive without proper medical attention! We must go after him! Spike, get the first aid kit! He probably went back to that house! Rainbow, see if you can find him on the way there! Lets go!" said the voice. The sound of Footsteps can be herd running away rather fastSuddenly something grabs the plastic bag.... And it was purple. And small. And had scales. And is staring at me. "I FOUND HIM!" Holy crap it talked. Oy vey.  Just then I faint out of pure shock. I wake up with the rain stopped, and the sound of chatter outside the door. I look to my watch to see its 2:00 pm. But its 2 days after my birthday. I must have been out cold. It's then I notice the small rabbit at the bottom of the bed, which my feet are hanging off of. Why does it look all....angry? I didn't think rabbits could express any emotions, but after what I saw earlier I'm not sure that I am done getting surprised. The rabbit hopped off the bed and went to the door, hopping up to the handle to turn it. I realized that I'm tied to the bed, but not very well. Anyone could tell that this was not normal for whoever lived here. As I start at the process of grabbing and yanking with my teeth, the door opens and......there's a pony. Not just any pony, but it was purple and had a navy blue mane with a streak of this violet color going through it. I could see what looked like a tattoo on its side and then I realized that it was staring at me. "Hi?" It said. Weirdest. Week. Ever. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Questions and Threats //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Questions and Threats   Life just keeps getting weirder.   So I don't know if I'm getting pranked or the universe is laughing at me, but I guess if Either one was true it would be the former. "Alright, very funny. Come out whoever you are, I know this is a prank!" I look for any cameras, or any dead giveaway that I was right.   To my surprise I found none.   "Um...who are you talking to?" said the purple unicorn. Huh. I must be going crazy, what with all the magic I do I probably cast some crazy spell that makes me see everyone as ponies. Wait a second. I haven't touched Kronos in days. I am so confused. Maybe  in my sleep I was screwing with my wand again. Well, I better find out what was true.    "Just a question, but are you a pony?" I said. " I'm asking the questions here." she said.   Well I think I'm in my right mind enough to know that not acting wired means that she is. "How did you get here? And who are you?" she said. "Well I'm Cedric, but I don't have a clue as to how I got here. But I think I deserve to be let go." I said.   "Not until I figure out how you got that house and you to just appear out of nowhere. No unicorn is strong enough to send a house here. And I don't think an alicorn would help considering they are all royal. So, how did you get here?" right as she says the last word I rip myself of the bed and jump out the window, shattering glass and landing just a bit lower than I expected. As I get up I break into a run as i head toward the direction of my house. I must have sent myself into some alternate dimension.   I hear hoof steps  behind me, but I know I'm faster than any other thing on my planet. Let alone some horse. So as I gain speed I jump into the trees and see just what I thought. There are ponies trying to follow me. Summoning from my pocket the wand , I bring it to life with its name "KRONOS!" and do just what I needed. I summon the creatures of choice. Specters. They cannot harm but they sure can scare the hell outta anything that they want to. So I tell them to keep them from following me.   One minute and I'm in my house barricading the doors and turning on the generator. Above me I hear a certain clattering. Something's in my house. Nobody could have caught up, so I head upstairs and find myself face to face with something I never thought could catch up. That purple unicorn is in my house. "Why did you kidnap me?" I say, pointing the wand at her. "Tell me why I shouldn't strike you down now!"  She stumbled backwards, clearly not knowing what to do at this point. "We didn't kidnap you, we were trying to save you." "Well I'm fine now, so get out before I decide that I don't believe you." I say, switching to a fitting wand focus of shock. She moves her head and her horn starts to glow. She then teleports away somehow. I didn't know anyone who could do any magic without a wand. I just need to get this healed and consult my spell book on a way to travel between dimensions.   Outside the house....   "Well twilight, what are we going to do about this? We can't just overlook the fact that there is a random house that wasn't there a few days ago there now along with a strange species living in it." Said Spike. " Spike, he threatened to strike me with some stick. I don't want to go in there with some crazy human who is coming outta nowhere and running really fast for one too." She thought back to when she visited the mirror last. "It hasn't been enough time for the portal to open back up, so I want to know just who he is and how he got here. More importantly, how did he summon ghosts with a stick!?" she said. Rainbow Dash spoke up " I dont care who he is, nopony threatens my friends and gets away with it!" she bolts in the door, smashing it down.   The sound of a struggle can be heard, followed by lightning, and a weak looking pegasus being tossed out the door. "You are trying to hurt me for threatening?! I could have killed you, but your not dead. All I want is to be alone!" He says, summoning his wand to project some kind of red field around the house. It was about that time that the shy pony realized that she was trapped in that field without any way of escape. "Eeeeeeeeek!" she said, running toward the house that was here. She ran inside, screeching past Cedric and under a table. "P-p-p-please don't hurt me...." she said clearly fearing for her life.   He didn't know what to do. De he really scare her so much that she was begging him not to hurt her. What is happening to me? Have I become so distraught by myself being helped? Why did I Hurt that poor creature? I love animals! I must be going crazy. After 2418 years of life I should be going crazy anyway.   He had cheated death so many times, and with his magic as long as he drank victus essentia each day he would live forever. But here he is, threatening to kill some unicorn and feeling bad about it. "Hey.... I..I'm sorry for whatever I did to you....." he said, dropping his wand and therefor lowering the field. "Please...come out.... I'm so sorry......" and with that, he broke. All his anger, all his pretending that he could live like this, vanished. He started sobbing... Crying for all that he had done to people, all that he hadn't done as well. He should have done better about his wife, he should have been more careful.... He just kneeled there.... Broken from 1000 years of pretending that she wasn't dead. "I-it's okay. We all make mistakes..." said the pony coming out to comfort this man... Who had lived through more sorrow than anyone should be able to withstand. "I didn't hurt you did I? I didn't mean to be so angry.... I just miss her! All these years of this..."   She grabed his wand with her mouth, handing it to him. " You were just... Upset. You had no clue where you were, all I know is that at least my bandages healed you.." she said with a hoof on his back. "Wait, you healed my arm?" He said staing at the mare with great pause. "T-Thank you...." he said hugging the mare with his sorrow dissipating. "I'm sorry I scared you, but it's just that Last time it was my wife... And I remember when I first met her... She was my responsibility, mine! And I got her killed.... I wish I could change the past. But I can't and she's gone....I blamed the universe for it... But I can't live like that, being angry at anyone who crosses my path!"   I said. "Could you forgive me? I am the monster now and I understand if you can't, but I owe my lfe to you.." //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Answers and Apologies //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Answers and Apologies The pegasus's name is Fluttershy. I know that the damage I've done to the ponies will not be easily forgiven, but she makes them sound so... friendly. I used to have friends, until the day she died. They were with her... All scorched by the flames of hell. She sees my sorrow and try's to steer my thoughts away from whatever I was thinking. "So what kind of animal are you?" she says, eager to learn. " I'm a human, mind you the only one who knows nearly everything there is to know." I said, knowing it to be the truth with the book of knowledge in my pocket. " How come your so angry with everypony?" She said. Huh. That's strangely fitting. "Well, I don't want to be, it's just nobody, I mean nopony, knows what I've been through." *SMASH!* The door comes down just in time for me to whirl around, defensively casting a spell of speciation. As I turn to a mouse, dragging the wand away to my small pass locked mouse exit. "Fluttershy! Are you okay?" said a disinct country accent. "Yes, I'm quite well actually," she said, "He's not that evil, just a little misunderstood. He lost his wife and has been alone for years, not even leaving his house." "Sugarcube, I don't think ya fully understand what's going on. He attacked rainbow dash!" "She attacked first, provoking him. She could have just talked to him." "I can't believe that yall would stick up for someone who would hurt your friend like that!" "He is my friend! He was only defending himself like any cornered animal would do." Taken aback by this logic, she realized that fluttershy was actually not acting as shy. That normally means that she is being assertive. "He is my friend and you can't hurt my friends...." Applejack didn't think about that. She was right, she couldn't hurt him. But she could still try reasoning with fluttershy. "Rainbows wings are completely paralyzed, and her mane is burnt up. How are y'all gonna reason with that?" Realizing she couldn't just sit there forever to defend him, he ran back in. After switching back he was met with an orange pony with a yellowish mane and a hat. She stared at him angrily. "I can heal her!" he said, hoping to fix what he broke. "I wish I didn't hurt you ponies, I am truly sorry for what I've done, but I now know I owe my life to this Pegasus, so I am forever in her debt. And I shall try to make amends, but there's gotta be some help on the other side." "Why should I trust y'all?" said Applejack Fluttershy spoke, "Because I do." As the two ponies walk out the door, he switches to a wand focus of healing.  He is immediatly met with a bolt of magic to his face. It didn't do much. "Wait!" said Fluttershy, moving between me and the unicorn. Suddenly I realize that the unicorn had wings. Holy crap. "Don't hurt him!" she yelled in a quiet yell. "He only wants to help" I raise Kronos activating him and tossing the aura at the injured pony. Suddenly she bursts up and stares at me, growling in her anger. "I still don't trust him." she said. To avoid getting questioned by twilight, he teleported away toward the cottage he woke up in. Might as well fix the window. He rotated the focus to be a focus of repair and fired away. When he fixed the damage he realized that he's out of energy. He needs to find an aura node. He puts on the goggles of revealing only to find one HUGE node inside the house. Well, he did fix the window. He turns the knob to find that it was left unlocked. Typical. Run off ad not even lock the door. As he absorbed the energy, he heard the sound of complete charge, followed by the sound of the front door opening. "Shit.." In a moment of pure guesswork he tried to turn into a pony. Here's the thing about species. He looks unique to every species as if that was how he was born. in a moment of pure shock he realized that it worked. But his wand was gone! He looked around and felt something else. He had wings! I wonder.... He reaches up to touch his head but is stopped by something long. Very long. Holy crap he was a unicorn with wings! He jumped out the window, this time not breaking it, and headed up to the sky. It felt as if he was an expert at flying, even though he never had. Book of knowledge for ya. He sees a village and starts to land outside. He decides to play it ool and just walk in, as they probably see these people all the time. The first person to see him gasps in awe and heads to get someone, I mean somepony's, attention. He asks a bystander where he could find someo....pony named fluttershy. The bystander is just baffled by the fact that an alicorn with a mane like the starry night sky, an extremely long horn of wood, a white body, and a cutie mark shaped like a wand with heaven above and hell below. "J-j-j-just head that way and you'll see a cottage. She lives there. Now who are you?" I stand up tall and, in an effort for awesomeness, say these few things. " I am Cedric Ichabod Phasma, Last remaining thaumaturge, and protector of the great balance of evil and good."  I jump up and take off, dashing at speeds I could only dream of. Man, this is kinda cool.