Apocalypse Rising [See Description]

by The Voice In Your Head

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Other, Adventure, Crossover, Dark, Human
Length: 13866

Currently Revising

(4/28/2016) Link to my blog post about this story's future development: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/624534/revision

Published 2014-07-31 04:10:03 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-11 02:13:44 UTC

Prologue

It was the middle of the night, the stars were present, the moon was being shown at it's fullest, and the sound of the trees and the crickets added to the midnight beauty. But of course, all peaceful things must come to an end at some point...

The creaking of a metal door broke the peaceful silence of the night with a biped creature walking out and towards a two-wheeled machine that could go faster than usual walking speeds, way, faster.

"Well, I guess I have to go find another town to see if there are any extra Jerry cans or Fuel tanks that I can use."  Said the creature, who sounded slightly annoyed at having to travel to yet another town in search of what it was looking for. As it walked towards the machine, it thought of what would happen if it got stolen by anything. Well, I think it is safe to say, God help them if this creature saw anything touch his prized possession.

When the creature reached the machine, he got onto it and then turned a small key into a small hole, and then the machine revved to life with a loud mechanical roar. The creature on top of the machine smiled at the sound, but then dropping it as soon as it appeared.

"Time to go." The creature said as it pulled one of the handles on the front back, and the machine launched forward, leaving a small cloud of smoke and a loud screech from the rubber on the wheel being rubbed against the pavement very quickly.

The machine was reaching speeds up to 75 miles an hour when on the cracked and worn road that it was being driven on, even though that was barely the fastest it could go, the creature riding it didn't want to use all the fuel inside of it, because ever since this little incident, gasoline has become even more useful and valuable, that it became the currency of the age.

A good 15 minutes has passed and the creature was nearing the next town in search of the gasoline that it needs to fuel his machine. The town was getting closer and closer, until the creature starting slowing down to look at a sign, pinpointing which town he had come across.

"Dirk, huh? Well hopefully dirk holds some fuel." The creature said, starting to gain a little speed until he got to the entrance of the town. He then turned left to enter a Fire Station that was on the side of the town that the creature entered from. The creature then slowed to a halt in the left side of the fire station, and then twisted the key on near the front of the machine, which turned it off. It then got off of the machine and started walking towards the other side of the room where there were stairs to go up to another level of the building.

When it took it's first step onto the first part of the stairs, the stairs started to creak, with each step seeming to be louder than the first, the creature gradually made it's way up to the second floor of the building. He wasn't really surprised by not finding anything up there, but still a little disappointed, knowing that the rest of the floors won't hold anything either. With a deep sigh, he then started walked back down the stairs with the same bored expression he held for all these years, ever since the incident.

Knowing that the rest of the town wasn't really worth checking for loot, besides the two light blue gasoline tanks next to a small shack on the other side of the town. When he was done refueling his machine by filling up the Jerry can he had about 3 times until the small machine just couldn't hold any more fuel. he strapped the Jerry can to the left side of the machine and then got back on it, turned the key within it's slot, and then started to drive down the opposite way that he went to enter the town.

"Next up, Trinity." he said as he sped up to the usual 75MPH he usual went to travel. He turned a small red switch down , which then turned on the MP3 that was wirelessly hooked up to his helmet that he wore even when he wasn't riding on his machine sometimes. He switched the currently playing song to another album by the name of 'The Glitch Mob', and started playing one of his all-time favorite songs.

As soon as the electronic sounds started playing, he sped up ever-so-slightly, growing faster with each beat. He was smiling and doing a small head bang with each beat, it was only until about a minute into the song that it stopped, and a deep voice said something that made him smile even wider, after it spoke there was loud bass explosion in his ears that made him narrow his eyes with a devilish grin and went from going 85MPH, all the way to 124MPH, but not without doing a wheelie in the middle of the continuous speed it was gaining, him not caring how much fuel he just burned by doing that, it did lighten his mood quite a bit.

After about 5 minutes of traveling at the 124MPH he was going, he spotted the top of a radio tower on top of a bright white building, right when he saw it, he slowed all the way down to about 35MPH, and his smile dropped to a saddened frown. The closer he got, and the more clearer the building appeared, the more vivid, and terrifying that his memories had become. When he was about 50 meters away from the entrance, he slowed to a stop, turned off his machine and got off. he made his way through the few barriers and tank traps that were placed around the front side of the building. He was cautiously looking left and right, scanning for any sign of movement. When he got to the front door of the building, he then realized something he should have seen earlier...

"Wait, where are the Zeds? This place is usually completely filled with them, yet there isn't a single one of them in sight..." he said, becoming a little more cautious every second he stood there, until he shook his head and started to open the door, expecting the worst of things to be thrown at him. Bracing for the small amount of time it took to swing open the door, quickly walked inside with his Rifle aiming towards wherever he looked, scanning the room for any signs of danger.

After a minute of slowly walking around the room with his gun raised and pointed towards wherever he look, he slowly lowered his Rifle and didn't say anything, slightly speechless at seeing a once infested place, being completely empty of it's usual inhabitants.

He searched the few rooms on the first floor, and then started walking towards the steps to get up to the second floor, until he heard faint noises coming from upstairs.

'Footsteps...' He thought as he quickly raised his Rifle, and started to slowly walk up the stairs. But when he started to walk up stairs, he started smelling the foul stench he was used to for so long... Blood.

But right when he started smelling it, he started hearing the faintest of conversation, which was nowhere above the sound of someone whispering. The foreign words coming from the voice sent a sharp shiver down his spine. But nevertheless, he continued without stopping until the second he saw.

'Holy Fuck' Dead Bodies littered the entire area of the second floor room he entered, along with an absolute ton of writing on the walls, written in blood. But when he got a closer look at the walls, he noticed something very grim. The writing was not just written in blood, but fresh blood, like it just recently came from a living body. It was only then did he notice the whispers were louder than before, it was coming from everywhere, yet at the same time, nowhere in particular. He looked around to see if he could spot where the source was, but to no avail, he couldn't find anything. He then turned his head towards the wall of blood writing, nothing really standing out, but there was one few bit of writing that intrigued him. He slowly walked right, skimming through the writing, until his eyes laid upon some of the blood writing near the end corner of the room. He read these words in a whisper.

As soon as he read the words to himself, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He quickly turned his head to the rest of the room, seeing if there actually was anything watching him.

Nothing.

"I have a bad feeling about this place, more than ever...I think I am done he-..." He was cut off by seeing movement at the corner of his eye. Raising his gun towards where he saw it, his heart stopped, and his blood ran cold.

Right in the entryway, stood his wife wearing a plain white lab coat, looking completely unharmed by any of the surrounding blood soaked bodies, and or walls. But it wasn't the look of how clean the lab coat looked that made him freeze, it was the fact that his wife was standing there, staring at him with emotionless eyes.

"Uh... K-kate?" He said in a very surprised tone, along with the surprised look on his face.

"Are you okay? H-how did you survive the outbreak of the disea-"  He stopped mid-sentence when he saw his wife's eyes tear up and mouth turn to a saddened frown.

"Why?" His wife spoke nothing above a whisper

"Huh? What do you me-" He barely got to finish, until she screamed at him.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!"

He was really taken aback by the loudness of her voice, he was about to say something else, until he saw her entire body jolt up, like something spooked her. But then the unimaginable happened.

Blood started to slowly drip from her nose, painting the untouched floor beneath her in small pools of fresh blood. She then started to gag, which then stopped all of a sudden when blood started to quickly ooze out of her mouth.

"K-kate?!" His voice was trembling in shock at the scene that he was viewing right now. But before he could run up to her and try to help her, he then heard echoing screams all around him, making him look around frantically for the source of the noise, but then stopped looking for the source, when he realized something very wrong.

Where his wife once stood, now stood a pitch black creature with no facial expressions or any sign of life whatsoever, all until 6 tentacle like things started moving out of it's back, and started to slowly head towards him.

He then knew you couldn't run towards the stairs, they were behind the black creature. He couldn't just shoot at it, because he knew this was not gonna be stopped by a few bullets. So he quickly turned his head to the right, looking towards the window. Considering jumping out the window to survive the weird creature, knowing that he wasn't that high off the ground, since he was only on the second floor.

He then took the leap of faith by running towards the window while shooting about 5 rounds at the glass just so he could pass through it easily. He then jumped while he lunged himself towards the glass. Falling a good 12 feet to the ground, he got up very quickly when he fell to the ground from the drop. He then started running towards his machine that he was glad was still there. He then reached his machine, got on it, turned the key, and started the motor that made a loud mechanical roar. Loud screeching came from the machine as it sped away from the large white building.

The creature on the machine never looked back, wanting to get away from the god-forsaken Headquarters known as Trinity. All while speeding away, tears started to form in his eyes, tears of sadness, tears of regret, tears from the memories of his wife being played in his head. Over and over those memories were played, and after a good bit, they stopped.

"I'm so Sorry..."

About 15 minutes later, he calmed down enough where he stopped tearing up. But he still sped up to insane speeds on his machine. Spotting a Huge mountain to his left, he decided to take a rest on top of it, see if he can spot anything. So he slowed down to around 25MPH and turned left, his machine slowing down to about 12MPH on the dense grass that it was being driven on. Then in no time at all, he reached the bottom of the steep mountain, and then turned the key on his machine and then got off.

He then started climbing it with ease, taking caution with every step he took, with every inch he climbed, he couldn't help but notice that the air around him seemed to not move or make a sound, even at the height he was now, he couldn't hear any wind. Normally, you would at least hear a little bit of rustling in the air the higher you got. But the world just seemed, silent.

He was almost to the top when he noticed beams of light coming out from ahead of him, as if the world in front of the mountain was being set on fire, and the light being shown through the top in heavenly lines. This made him very curious and he climbed just a bit faster, until he finally reached the top and saw what was making the light.

KIN, if you don't know what KIN is, it is the largest city in the state, and it's appearance from afar made it seem like it was such a powerful city. But before he could admire the sight of the city from on top of the mountain, he then saw what was making the massive amounts of light was coming from the center of the city, known as 'Union Square'. It was hard to make out what it was, but it seemed ethereal, from the peaceful feeling he was getting from it, it was almost as if he was feeling like he was being welcomed into a home, but not necessarily a bright and heat emitting home...

But right when he decided to get down from where he was, he heard a massive explosion, the sound tearing the his eardrums to shreds, making him bleed through his ears a little. He quickly looked back at the city, which now looked like a Nuclear bomb was being set off, the ground being torn up from the circular dust cloud advancing away from the explosion, and now heading up the mountain with dangerous speeds. The blast reached him in seconds, while he didn't even get a chance to take cover, while the shock-wave from the blast made him fly off the side of the mountain for a good 4 seconds before he reached the side of the mountain, now sliding down the mountain.

He then hit the bottom of the ground with a loud crack, which came from his spine hitting the edges of a rock that was unfortunately placed in a bad position. But before he could tend to his back, he heard a small screeching coming from his machine that used to get to the mountain. Right when he looked, he saw it being thrown in the air from the force of the blast, but more importantly, being thrown right towards him. Before he could roll out of the way, he was hit with the 500 pound bike being slammed against him, slamming his own body to the ground. Before he could do anything, he blacked out.

Chapter 1: Magic Nightmare

===The Ponies' Perspective===

It was a bright and sunny day in Equestria. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the sweet crisp and clean air was soothing to anything.

Ponies moving along with their lives in the streets of a certain village just a few miles from a Royal Castle, that was professionally built on the side of a mountain. To the ponies that lived in the village, it was a everyday sight. To others, it was a breathtaking, once in a lifetime sight.

All was normal, and all was peaceful. All until a certain Purple Unicorn shattered the peaceful air with a rather loud spell, which apparently was just one out of a few spells that she had tried doing to find out if this summoning spell that she had found in one of her old spell books that she had gotten as a gift a while back. After one last attempt, the Unicorn got very annoyed at her failed spell.

"Ugh, no matter what I try, It just doesn't end up getting enough power!" With a tired sigh, she walked to her kitchen and got a small glass of water. Then a small child's voice spoke from upstairs.

"What kind of spell is it? Because I know you of all ponies should be magically powerful enough to do any sort of spell!" The child, which was actually a small dragon, said to the Unicorn.

"Thanks Spike, but this spell takes a lot of concentration, even more than a long distance teleportation spell." The unicorn said to the small dragon, which was now known as Spike.

"Well, good luck on it Twilight, I am gonna get some rest." Spike yawned, and then starting walking back up the stairs to the room where his bed was. With the sound of a closing door, Twilight decided to try the spell just one more time, now being a little more relaxed about completing it. She set the half empty glass of water on the kitchen table next to her, and walked near the center of the main room and got into a offensive stance. Getting herself ready for one last try, she started focusing all her magic into one spot in her mind. And thought of using that magic as a source of transportation.

She then felt connected to the world around her. She felt the magic of the world, and the pure magical abilities with it all combined. She smiled at this, because she didn't get that far that quickly with the last few tries. She then focused on her magic coursing through her horn and her mind. Her eyes were closed, but that didn't stop them from glowing a bright white. Twilight felt so much raw power that she smiled even wider, until she felt something that made a shiver go up her spine. She felt so much unnatural energy consume her mind, making her quickly lose that smile. She felt as if darkness and pure evil consumed her very soul, as if begging to taint her. Then she saw something she didn't expect.

I massive city that was being overgrown with vines and plant life, buildings that were as high as her library were on every corner of cracked stone streets. Among all the buildings, one stood out more than any other building in the city. A dark brown and severely overgrown tower, with had what looked like a large balcony, and a ladder leading to a smaller upper part of the building. She then noticed that there was a small stone sign that held what appeared to be blood-written Equestrian on it. Twilight read the words on it:

RESIST THE INFECTED     DO NOT BE DETECTED      THERE WILL BE NO HELP.

This made her be even more scared than ever, but It was only then till she noticed the most gruesome of sights she has ever seen.

Bodies. Blood stained bodies litter the entire city, some looked like they were a bit green, as if infected, and other had pale white skin with torn clothing and vests. But among all of that, she saw a body, tied from the neck, and hanging from a tree with blood dripping from massive cut in the creature's stomach. All of this made Twilight want to throw up, but she couldn't because she was too focused on using her magic. But the focus was suddenly dropped when the sound of a door forcefully being swung open. The city instantly dropped out of sight and she was forced to open her eyes, unknowingly letting out all the focused magic that she had contained inside of her mind for so long, all of the magic didn't really have a proper exit, so it was forcefully thrown out of twilight's horn, which in turn let out a massive shock wave that shook the entire library and shattered every window in the building. She shielded her eyes from the glass that fell from the upper windows on the higher bits of the walls. And then when she was sure that nothing else would fall, she then slowly opened her eyes to reveal a certain Cyan Pegasus with her mouth agape.

"THAT WAS AWESOME! When were you able to do tha-" The Cyan Pegasus was cut off by Twilight yelling at her in extreme frustration.

"Rainbow Dash! Why did you have to barge into here!? I was focusing on a spell that takes a lot of concentration!" Twilight said, glaring at the Pegasus, now known as Rainbow Dash.

"Sorry, but I was actually knocking for the past 5 minutes, Twi." Rainbow said, making Twilight confused and surprised at the cyan mare actually knocking for once. But never mind that...

"Still, knowing the type of pony that I am, you should realize that I am studying or doing complicated spells most of the time, if not all the time!"

The Pegasus rolled her eyes and then went wide eyed at the unicorn.

"Twilight, just to let you know, your nose is bleeding." This made the unicorn wide eyed herself, and then quickly walked to the kitchen to get some paper towels to care for her nose. After a good minute of cleaning her bleeding nose, she then sniffled a little bit and then walked back towards Rainbow that was impatiently tapping her hooves on the hard wooden floor.

"You alright, Twi? You seem to be a bit nervous." Rainbow asked in a rather loud voice.

"Y-yea, I'm fine. I'm just a little exhausted at almost completing a Specular Cosmos spell." Twilight tiredly said to Rainbow.

"A Spec What?" Said Rainbow in a confused tone.

"It's basically a Dimensional Travel Spell. It is similar to a Basic and or advanced Teleportation spell. It is suppose to make a small portal between the magically guarded barriers of this world, and then into any other world, if there even is another world, or dimension. Though it would depend on how much magic is guarding that world." Twilight said all in one breath, causing her to breath heavily for a small amount of time.

"All I heard was you were able to go to another world." Rainbow said, quite confused at the little explanation that her purple friend gave her.

"Well, close enough I guess." Twilight said with a sigh, and then went to finish her glass of water until she heard a small crack coming from under her hooves. She then realized that broken glass still littered the library floors. She then quickly used a spell which repaired all the windows and removed all the glass from the floor. With that problem gone, she then continued her way to the kitchen to finally finish her glass of water. After a few seconds, she finished the rest of her water, and then set the glass down. Her eyes closed, thinking about what she saw when she was doing that spell just a little bit ago...

'Where was that? And why was there so many dead...things, they looked familiar, just not with all the... blood' This thought made her visibly shiver.

"Are you sure your okay Twi? It looks like something spooked you" Rainbow said, laughing at the statement, but then stopped when Twilight just started looking at Rainbow like she grew a second head.

"S-something did s-spook me, Rainbow." Twilight said in a stuttered and scared tone.

"Okay! Then whats wrong?!" Rainbow said, acting like she would kick the crap out of anything that scared one of her best friends. Only until she heard Twilight's response...

"A place far worse that Tartarus itself, Rainbow." Right when twilight finished, there was a loud crack of thunder outside. This scared Rainbow to an extent where her legs started shaking.

"If you didn't know, there was a scheduled storm today. Again, you of all ponies should know when a storm is about to happen, you work for the weather team." Twilight said in a matter-of-fact tone. Rainbow then stopped shivering and then looked a little annoyed at her purple friend.

"Yea yea, it's just the timing of that lightning strike kind of spooked me, and I'm not one to admit when something spooks me twilight." Rainbow said, partly glaring at Twilight, partly laughing.

"Well okay then. But you should get back home before the rain starts." Twilight said to Rainbow making her realize that it was pretty late into the day, and she has a scheduled nap for the day.

"Okay, well I- OH! I just remembered why I came here in the first place! I was meaning to show you something I found near the edge of the Everfree Forest, and before you give me one of those boring little talks on how dangerous the place is, let me tell you that I'm to awesome to actually care about that safety stuff. Any who, here it is, hopefully you will know what it is." Rainbow said right before getting out something that made twilight's ears perk up in curiosity.

"Woah! It looks like some sort of goggles, the black bands on it seems to be for the head so you can strap it to your head, and view through the goggles without actually having to hold them, which is quite useful if your not a unicorn. It's actually a pretty well designed piece of equipment, but whats the point in wearing these if your just going to be looking through goggles? They look to small for a ponies' head, and too small for a ponies' eyes... So, what the hay is the use for it?" Twilight said as she to soon became confused about what the piece of equipment actually was and why it was designed for a smaller head and or eyes. A wild thought came to her head, thinking about the creatures she saw in that vision she had a little while ago, and if these goggles were made for them, but that thought quickly vanished from her mind, when rainbow said something that made twilight go nuts.

"Eh, if you don't know what it is, then it's probably junk." Rainbow said, quickly getting intervened by her friend.

"I don't think it's junk, Rainbow. It looks like a pretty well made item, it looks like it was made to last for a long time. Wait, let me see that for a second..." Twilight said while levitating the item off of Rainbow's left hoof, and then bringing it closer to her head to get a better look at the side of the goggles where she saw a few words etched on the side of the left goggle, along with a small picture of what appeared to be an owl, The words read: Night owl Optics. She was confused as to what these meant, only until she read the bottom two words when she realized what she had right in front of her. Twilight then looked back at Rainbow, who was looking at twilight with her head to the side, confused.

"Rainbow, where did you say you found this?" Twilight calmly said to her friend

"On the outside of the Everfree Forest, just laying there as if somepony put them there. Why?" Rainbow said to her friend, confused as to why twilight seemed to act a bit weird.

"Because, rainbow. These aren't just some ordinary goggles. These are professionally made, magicless, NIGHT VISION GOGGLES! Rainbow, nopony in the history of the world has ever come close to inventing anything like this, I mean, there is no magic in these whatsoever!"

The sudden out burst made Rainbow flinch just a little and then looked down, processing what she just heard.

"So, let me get this straight. I found some goggles, in the outside of the Everfree forest, and they just happen to let you see in the dark without any magic at all?" Rainbow said, getting a nod from her purple friend.

...

"Do I get a treat?" Rainbow said, laughing at her own joke

"Ugh, I suppose you wouldn't really care about tha-" She was interrupted when she heard small steps coming from upstairs, and not even 5 seconds after that, the door upstairs to Twilight's room opened, with Spike running down the steps with a scroll in his claws. Twilight gasped as she noticed the the scroll had a Red Seal on it, which meant it came from the princess herself! When Spike reached twilight, he handed her the scroll which twilight levitated out of his claws, took off the seal and then began reading...

"Hello my dearest Twilight, I am sorry but it has come to my attention that powerful Dark Magic radiated from the center of the Everfree, this magic more powerful than the magic Discord used, even at his most chaotic state.

I need you to gather your friends and see what has made such a disturbance. Because whatever it was, It must have come from something far more evil than anything I have faced In my entire lifetime.

I apologize again to say hello in such a way, but this is something that can not simply be avoided.

I wish you and your friends a safe trip. Approach this with extreme caution."

When twilight finished reading, she then looked up to rainbow with a slightly scared look on her face.

"Rainbow, I need you to gather the others. We have a treacherous trip ahead of us..."

And with that, Rainbow nodded and then ran to the front door, slammed it open almost breaking the door, and then flew off to gather her friends.

Chapter 2: Awakening

Chapter 2: Awakening

===Wilgram's Perspective===

Darkness.

Darkness was all he saw. It was like being blindfolded with thick cloth, and having your ears blown out, because there was nothing but silence. Which to some, would be peaceful, as it would be like sleeping in a dark room with no sounds to bother you, but that is not the case. In this dark silence, he felt as if he was trapped, lost even. He wasn't really able to move, either. Though he was fully capable of controlling his own thoughts, and feelings.

It then came to him as to why he was there, and to why he couldn't really do anything. He didn't remember what happened to make him be in this state. But then right when that thought came to his head, several images started painfully appearing in his mind. Images of his family, his friends, and the times he has spent with his wife. The images weren't just thoughts, they were memories. Memories of his life from the past decade or so. These memories went by as fast as a single blink of an eye. But to him, it felt like he relived his entire childhood, all the way from when he was just a baby, all until he was about 28 years old. Then it hit him as hard as it came when it actually happened.

The incident at Trinity, being spoke of on the news for a good 3 days, mentioning that there was an explosion in one of the underground labs near trinity, causing everyone within a mile radius, just die from radiation. But everyone soon found out that it wasn't radiation that killed so many, it was a disease that came from the blast. People thought that they were safe in their homes, thought they were protected by the Military that came the same day of the blast. No one was allowed within a mile radius of trinity, besides the soldiers and scientists that went to check out the area. But they weren't prepared for what was left there...

As soon as the thoughts came, they vanished. And right when it happened, bright white lights started to come into his vision, surrounding him completely in bright, multi-colored beams. He then felt as if he was falling, falling into the void of nothingness. He then felt hot searing pain in his head, starting to feel his body again and could finally move his muscles, he moved both of his arms to his eyes, trying to shield them from the bright lights. It was only then until he felt soft grass under him, along with the smell of fresh air that harshly overcame his sense of smell that he started to cough. After a while of holding his head from the searing pain in it, to holding his chest, from the pain he was getting from smelling such fresh air, which he was really not used to.

After about 5 minutes of coughing and shielding his eyes from the brightness, he started to get used to the smell, and his headache started to lessen, making it easier to focus. He slowly opened his bloodshot eyes, slightly wincing from the sun being shown right in his eyes. He rolled over to his side to get his eyes away from the sun's beams. But as soon as he did, he went wide eyed, and extremely numb all over by what he was just seeing.

Dark pine trees and vines littered every inch of his sight, along with bright green grass covering the ground. Through the thick leaves of the trees, he saw bright blue skies with no hint of radiation in them. It reminded him of the forests in the mountains that he use to walk through during winter vacation. What he was seeing, hearing, smelling... feeling. It mimicked the way he felt perfectly during past experiences. The days of vanishing melancholy as he slowly drifted along the brightly colored pebbles and stones that was strewn across the equally bright and lively tall grass.

He shook his head to clear the past memories and focused on the present. He rolled over to the other side to get up onto his feet, only until he saw something that made his jaw drop.

A giant castle, just built on the side of a mountain about 5 miles away. Along the lines of sights, this really beat the competition. After about 10 minutes of just dumbly staring at the magnificent building. He slowly got up from his position on the ground, getting loud pops and cracks from his legs and back. But it was a bad idea to try and stretch his back out...

*CRACK*

A shock of pain went up his back and made him fall to the ground, making a small cloud of dirt be kicked up from the fall.

He then remembered what happened to his back, but then wished he didn't because he just winced at the memory of him rolling down a hill at breakneck speeds, and then his back being forcefully crushed by the jagged rock he unfortunately fell on. As soon ass he reached his arm to the middle of his back, he felt something warm and wet and his back, but when he brought his hand in front of him to see what it was, he almost fainted at the sight of it...

'Holy shit, that rock fucking tore into my back...' He thought in his head, feeling lucky at still being able to feel his legs.

"I won't feel my legs for long, if I don't get any medical attention..." He set quietly to himself, still laying on the ground. He then heard something metallic hit the ground next to him, which made him quickly look to where the sound came from, and then slightly smiled at what it was...

It was his Battle Rifle, along with the attachments. The glare from sun on the barrel of the gun was, to him, beautiful.

He started to slowly crawl towards it, the front of his clothing being smothered in dirt, thankfully his wound was not on his stomach, otherwise he would feel absolute hell. It took him a full minute to crawl towards his rifle, but when he reached it, he quickly grabbed the middle of the rifle, and cradled it in between his arms and whispered

"I am so glad I have you with me right now, I just feel so much... Safer." He smiled, while tightly hugging his rifle.

Around 5 minutes have passed unnoticed to him, but he then realized that he was still laying on the ground, hugging his rifle. But he then remembered that he had a Military pack with him when he blacked out, though, it was attached to the side of his bike, because the pack itself weighed about 3 pounds, but the amount of stuff he had in it added about an extra 95 Pounds. That amount of weight will hurt your back if you have it on your shoulders all the damn time. So he thought it would be a better idea if he just put it on the side of his bike. But then he thought,

'Where is my Motor bike anyway? I hope it didn't just fall apart from being transported here, because I had many valuable things with me that I would kill for...'

As soon as that thought came to mind, he heard some bushes to his left be shaken violently. This caused him to sit up, crawl away to the side of a tree, and aimed his gun at the bush that was still being shaken all over the the place. But then after about a minute, it stopped. He still had his gun raised towards the bush, but then slowly started looking around his entire line of sight, to see if anything else was there. After another full minute, he lowered his rifle to his lap, and then just sighed.

"Ugh, fucking Wildlife, always gotta sta-" He stopped when he saw something at the corner of his eye, and then threw himself forwards as for as he could from his position. He then rolled onto his back, trying his best to ignore the pain from the pressure that was being put onto it, and raised his gun towards what just flew at him, and then saw something that made him consider whether he was high or something... Right in front of him, was some sort of wood dog, which turned around to look at him, and it too became confused as to what it just jumped at.

'What in the actual Fuck?! This thing just jumped at me as if wanting to kill me, I mean, It's made of *WOOD** for Christ sake!'* He quickly thought to himself until the wooden dog shook It's head and then leaped at him again... But it was torn in half by the foreign weapon, not even being able to get at least 5 feet close to the foreigner.

Thankfully, the shot was suppressed by the silencer on the barrel of the rifle, therefore the sound of the rifle being discharged would have alerted any surrounding creatures to his location; which obviously wasn't ideal, since he is badly injured from recent events.

Though, with that taken care of, he then thought about what that thing that jumped at him was. He didn't really know exactly what it was, but he knew it was not a Wooden dog, it was a Wooden Wolf. You know, that kind of animal that will not stop until it has your neck between it's jaws? Yea, that one.

He noticed that the wolf wasn't actually bleeding blood, it was bleeding Tree Sap.

'Well I suppose that is it's way of bleeding...' He thought, while staring at the body of the wooden creature.

He shook his head after thinking about if for a few minutes, and then started to think about his back, and how much blood he think he lost. He wasn't feeling light-headed, so that is good. He wasn't feeling dizzy in any way. And he wasn't feeling like he was in any sense of danger. So over all, he felt pretty good. He still felt a little bit of pain in his back, but it seemed to have healed just a little bit, which was surprising, because that rock he landed on felt like it tore a good 3 inches into his back, which should have broken his spine, even though it tore into the middle left part of his back, it should have at least dented his spine... He stopped thinking about it when he noticed that it was getting a little dark out. He cursed under his breath and then tried getting up on his feet to see if he could at least walk.

After about 5 minutes of slowly getting up on his feet, he was finally stood all the way up. He learned his lesson last time when he tried to stretch his back. But just then did he realize that he had several pouches in his vest and his pants. So he decided to search each pouch to see if he could find anything. After about 3 minutes of searching, he had 8 Mags for his Rifle, 2 Incendiary mags that were also for his rifle, 4 mags for the side arm that he didn't actually have with him, it was in his bag attached to his Motor Bike. He also had his Combat knife, which was the famed 'Gerber Mark II'. In terms of something to feed himself, he had 2 MREs and 3 Water Bottles, along with about 5 Chocolate Bars. Why did he have 5 Chocolate Bars you ask? Simply because they are chocolate bars.  They were also very common in the cities, for some unfathomable reason. But he wasn't complaining.

As much as he wanted to sit down and enjoy the numerous treats he had with him; they wouldn't heal his wounds, or give him any much needed nutrition. So he had to find some place to stay to get better; mentally and physically. But that was pretty much all he had with him at the moment, so he started to pack up his supplies, adding extra unnecessary care to the placement of the chocolates.

Supplies tucked away, and his rifle to his side; he journeyed off into the unknown surroundings.

... With 1 less bar of chocolate he had a second ago...

Chapter 3: The Machine

===The Ponies' Perspective===

Rainbow Dash flew out the door of the library to find and gather her friends for the so called 'Treacherous Trip'. Rainbow severely doubted that the journey would actually be treacherous or dangerous at all, in fact, she bet she could take on anything that stood in her and her friends' way. She then remembered the times that she and her friends took on the God of chaos, the Nightmare, Chrysalis... She could go on, but it really just ended there. Either way, she knew they could handle anything. Though the Everfree Forest was a pretty unpredictable place, there was no doubt about that.

Rainbow shook her head to stop her train of thought, when she realized she had been aimlessly flying the entire time, though she didn't strafe to far off track, she was fairly close to Fluttershy's cottage, in fact, she was right above the building. She flew down a bit lower to see if she could spot Fluttershy anywhere. After about 5 minutes of searching, she couldn't find her. So Rainbow flew down to Fluttershy's front door, and started knocking.

Almost instantly, the door slowly opened, and small light blue eyes peaked through the bottom half of the doorway. But after noticing who it was, she opened the door fully, smiling at her visitor.

"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash. How are you?"

"Good, but hellos can wait. I need you to come and help me gather the others, Twilight got a letter from the princess. I am not sure exactly what it said, but she said we have a treacherous trip ahead of us." Rainbow said very quickly, but slow enough for the timid Pegasus to understand her.

"Oh, o-okay..." Fluttershy said, a bit unsure, but to Rainbow it was good enough.

"Okay, you get Rarity and Apple Jack, while I get Pinkie and let Twilight know that we are ready." With a barely audible 'okay' as a response, Rainbow flew off to the bakery, while Fluttershy went to Sweet Apple Acres, and then the boutique.

=================10 Minutes Later=================

Twilight was searching her library for anything that could be useful on the trip, though she didn't know entirely know what the trip held, she knew it was a good idea to learn those defensive spells a few years ago, but would it be enough for the trip that literally 'Radiated Evil' ? Well, that is kind of what Princess Celestia said... But while searching for necessary items, she heard a loud knock on the door. After shaking her head to get rid of her train of thought, she quickly went to the door and opened it. Rainbow Dash was the first one to talk,

"Hey twilight. we are all ready when you are." Rainbow said, getting a nervous look from her purple friend.

"Um, yea, hold on I need to get a few things, come on in." Twilight said quickly so she could get back to searching for supplies. Her friends started to make their way into the library and found places to sit and get comfortable. When they were finished, an orange mare with a Stetson decided to start conversation with the others.

"What do ya'll reckon this trip is for? I didn't get very many details on the subject." After she said that, a white mare with a purple mane that looked like she had spent hours working on, spoke up.

"Well, I personally think that it is just one of those small disturbances in that forest, that get us all hyped up for, then finding out it is just nothing. That good-for-nothing forest has caused quick a bit of false emergencies." After the English accented mare spoke, it was then a Pink Fluffy maned mare's turn.

"Well I hope it is actually something this time, because the last few times, nothing of interest happened. But this time seems different! OH OH, hopefully it is somepony new! I would ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY love to throw them a welcome to ponyville PARTY! If it isn't then its fine, hopefully next time we get to meet somepony new! THAT WOULD BE-Mffhgfhfshgsf!" The pink mare loudly said, with the fashioned mare cutting her off.

"Darling, sorry to rain on your parade, but I doubt it is somepony new, if it was then they would already be out of that dreadful forest! But If they aren't then I do hope they get out safely."After that,  Fluttershy spoke up, but barely did

"Oh, I hope they get out of there as well, I wouldn't anything bad to happen to them..." Fluttershy said, with Rainbow speaking as soon as she finished talking,

"Oh come on! I bet this trip won't hold anything good. The last few times we were called to that place, there wasn't anything there! I mean there were trees and grass and air, but I mean nothing of interest!" Rainbow said, getting a laugh from her friends.

Before anypony else said anything to continue the conversation, the door upstairs opened with a frantic looking Unicorn running out. She then ran down the steps to the main room where her friends were waiting.

"S-sorry girls, I had to... get some... t-things..." Twilight said through heavy breathing. The others were looking at her oddly, but then dismissed it when Twilight cleared her throat to let her friends' know that she was ready.

"Jeez, twilight. You don't need to freak out like that."

"Sorry, It's just it has been a while since one of these trips were actually important..." Twilight said, but then realized that the others didn't know anything about the vision that she had.

"What do you mean darling? How do you know that this one is actually different than the others?" Said Rarity, getting a sheepish look from twilight.

"W-well, it... It just feels like it is going to be, no reason!"

"But you said-" Pinkie said, before she got interrupted by Twlight.

"N-no! It's... Ugh, it is very gruesome. I don't want to frighten any of you!" Twilight said as she looked down to the floor with tears forming in her eyes.

"It's okay Twi, if you don't feel like telling us, that's fine! Hopefully this trip will be worth while." Rainbow said, trying to cheer the unicorn up,

"If there ain't anything you can tell us, then that is perfectly fine sugar cube." Apple jack said, also trying to cheer Twilight up

"Thanks girls. It is just something that I don't want to think about. Ever." Twilight shakily said while rubbing her eyes

"Well, let's get on with the trip then!" Rainbow said as she flew up into the air. But just after she did, there was the loud sound of lightning along with the heavy beat of rain on the top of the library. And almost instantly, Twilight said,

"Don't worry girls, there is a spell that I know that can create a basic ceiling above us, so we don't get rained on. Now, since it is only a basic one, I can hold it up for however long we are gone." Twilight said reassuringly.

The girls gave very sarcastic 'Woohoos' at twilight's response, besides Pinkie, she was still joyful and happy about it.

So with that, Twilight opened the door of the library and started to walk out side, then she cast that...(Umbrella Spell?) to shield her and her friends. Once all her friends were all out of the building with the door now shut, twilight nodded at them and then turned the opposite way to lead them to the Forest. Now, since the library was close to the middle of town, it took them about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of the forest.

When they got there, twilight remember that Rainbow had found those Night vision goggles near the side of the forest. So she decided to ask rainbow which side she found it on.

"Rainbow, which side of the Everfree did you find those goggles on?" twilight said slightly louder from the sound of the rain hitting the magical barrier above them

"Oh it was..." Rainbow started, but then face palmed (hoofed?) when she realized that she found it waaay on the other side of Ponyville.

"Whats wrong?"

"It's on the other side of Ponyville..." Rainbow said, getting complaints from the group. Twilight was the first one to speak up,

"W-well okay. We can just walk to the other side of Ponyville I guess..."

Even though the others really didn't want to walk that distance just to start they're journey, they did anyway. Half way through the walk, Rarity decided to just go back to her shop. With a few Goodbyes from the group, rarity then started her way back to her boutique.

"Well then..." Rainbow said, not really expecting a response.

==========25 Minutes later==========

It was now fairly dark outside, along with the rain, making it kind of hard to see further than 35 meters. The group made small conversation while they walked towards the other side of the forest. After a while, they finally reached their destination. Massive trees and vines covered the view into the forest, along with tall weeds on the ground, making it hard for the ponies to travel into the forest.

"Well, this is it. Any info on what we are suppose to be looking for twi?" Rainbow said to the purple unicorn

"Actually, the Princess didn't really specify on what we were suppose to be looking for..."

"Oh, great! We are just suppose to go into the Everfree and expect to find anything that seems out of the ordinary? Well, I mean like, not normal to the forest." Rainbow said, annoyed at the idea of having to search the entire forest, which by itself isn't normal, for something 'out of the ordinary'.

"Now hold on there Rainbow. I doubt that the Princess would just send us into the Everfree forest for no reason!" Apple jack said, getting a glare from Rainbow

"Hey! I'm just saying!"  Rainbow said, the Pinkie spoke up

"Oh come on! It doesn't sound that bad, I mean sure it may take a while, but it could be like a scavenger hunt! Oh oh! I spooky version of Scavenger hunt!" Pinkie said enthusiastically,

"Girls, I could just use a tracking spell. It could make it a lot easier." Twilight said, getting the attention of Rainbow and Apple Jack, who both looked at her with surprised looks.

"Well... okay."

"Hmm, how does it work?" Apple jack asked, having no clue as to what the 'tracking spell' does

"Well, you have to think of something that is in your memory, or in your thoughts, and it basically casts a small path towards the general location of that said memory, and or thought. If either one of them do not exist, or has been demolished, OR to far away from your position, it just won't appear." Twilight said, trying to make it so her friends could understand what she meant.

"Well what are we waiting for?! Use the spell so we can finally find out what this disturbance or whatever is!" Pinkie said, sounding like she was slightly frustrated, though also sounding like she was very excited for the 'hunt' she was partaking in.

Nopony else said anything, they just stared into the depths of the forest.

"In order for the spell to work, i am gonna have to use something that will kind of track down what that disturbance was..." twilight started, trying to think of of something that she could use to kind of notify her of any thing unnatural in the forest. Then she remembered those Night Owl Optic Goggles that rainbow found. They were in her saddlebag that she had been carrying that is full of supplies that she thought that they would need if the journey was long. She then sat down, took off her saddlebags and then started searching for those goggles. It didn't take very long, since they were one of the biggest items in her bags, they stuck out like a... a... Big, thing...

Once she took it out, she got weird looks from her friends, besides Rainbow Dash, because she was the one who found them.

"I rather you girls not ask any questions about what this is. Okay now I just need to do this, and then that..." Twilight said as she concentrated at casting the tracking spell on the goggles, and then casting the spell into the world's magic. Making the spell spread out a few miles in search for anything magically or historically related to them. Within seconds, the spell came back to her giving out signals in her mind as where it was. She then saw ethereal blue path hovering above the ground, leading straight into the forest. Now, this was a spell that only effected the vision of the caster, which means only twilight can see the path.

"Well, here we go-" twilight started to say, until pinkie cut her off. Twilight expected the pony to say something along the lines of, 'Why can't I see the little path thingy??' but she was surprised to hear the actual response from her friend.

"But Twilight! I don't really like the color blue!" Pinkie said, smiling at a baffled Twilight.

"H-how?" Twilight said, getting a simple response from the pink mare.

"Well duh! I'm Pinkie Pie!"  Pinkie said as she smiled very widely at the Unicorn.

"Oh! Umm, right! I, er, forgot about that..." Twilight shook her head at the thought.

Without any other response or comment, the other four followed Twilight into the forest.

Before they got far, Twilight noticed how dry the forest was. She thought it was just from how dense the upper part of the place was, but then dismissed that thought when she couldn't even hear any rain either. And when she thought it couldn't get any more confusing, it did, when she noticed the sun barely peaking through the leaves above them.

'Push away all the facts of how dangerous this place is, you also realize how this forest seems like it takes care of itself as if there was a mother to nature, well, nature. Like the mother took care of it.' This thought intrigued her greatly, but she shook her head realizing that she was going on and on in her own head. But she just noticed that the blue path was now leading to the left of where she was.

"Oh, uh, this way, girls." Twilight said as she pointed to her left,

The others didn't say anything, they just nodded and followed Twilight to where she pointed. Gradually making their way through the thick weeds that stood tall on the ground, and the vines that hung over the path that obscured long distance vision or sight of anything that might be peaking through at them.

After about 10 minutes of traveling through the thick overgrowth, they finally made their way into a large clearing, it expanded about 75 meters into a a big circle and the grass was reasonably shorter than the other grass that they were traversing in. Twilight saw that the path ended at something that was in the middle of the clearing.

From a distance, it didn't look like much, but the closer she got, the more detailed it got.

She was now about 5 meters away from it, moving very slowly towards the object. She was now close enough to touch it, didn't mean she did touch it, but it does mean she noticed that it looked like a very complicated mechanical... thing. She couldn't wrap her mind around whatever the hay this thing was, so she started to circle it slowly, studying every little detail. When she was completely on the other side, she saw something that made her gag.

A massive blood splatter on what looked to be a cushioned seat made of... some material that she couldn't identify at the moment, but the blood was covering the entire side of the machine.

The group kind of spread out, as if looking for something. Rainbow was flying around the edges of the clearing. Looking back at where they entered the clearing, on the side of her vision, she noticed Twilight sitting next to something that looked like it was wedged into the ground. She then noticed the disgusted face on her friend, so she decided to make sure she was okay.

"Twilight? Are you o-" She was cut off by twilight nervously saying,

"You may not want to see this, Rainbow..." Twilight shakily said, getting a laugh from Rainbow.

"Pfft! Like it could be that bad!" Rainbow said, as she landed on her hooves, and then started to walk over to where Twilight was sitting.

"I am serious Rainbow! You really don't want to see this!" Twilight frantically said, trying to convince Rainbow that it wasn't a big deal.

"I doubt it's anything worse than... a... a..." Rainbow started to say but then slowly stopped when she saw what Twilight was trying to stop her from seeing.

"U-uhh... That is, um... A lot of b-blood..." Rainbow said while nervously swallowing from the sight.

Twilight just nodded while looking back at the machine. Besides the amount of blood on it, she thought of what the thing was actually used for. Which made her extremely curious as to what the thing actually looked like. She had a debate in her head, whether she should levitate the machine to see it at every angle, or she should just leave it alone... but as always, curiosity always wins...

Twilight stood up and moved back about 2 meters away from the machine, and then tried to use a levitating spell on it...

It didn't move an inch. She tried harder, trying to focus her magic onto the machine. But no matter how hard she tried, there wasn't any sign of a purple haze around it, which would normally happen if she used a levitation spell on anything. But when she tried to use the spell on this, something that seams so lightweight, something that seems so insignificant, it just wouldn't move at all. She has levitated an Ursa minor that would fill the entire clearing she was in! She was the Element of Magic, which meant she was capable at doing very difficult, if not impossible spells! Yet, this one, single, pony sized machine, wouldn't be effected by her magic at all!

"Gosh, how is this even remotely possible?! It won't budge at all!" Twilight said, obviously very angry at the machine in front of her.

"Maybe we could just push it right-side up? It can't be that heavy." Rainbow said, trying to offer a solution.

Twilight sighed at this idea, but she thought it may be the only way of moving it.

"Ugh, fine! We'll move it the old-fashioned way..." Twilight said, getting a laugh from Rainbow.

Twilight and Rainbow walked up to the side of the machine, doing their best to ignore the blood on it. They got into position on either side of it, and then counted...

"1...2...3!" They both shouted as they did they're best to push the machine the other way.

It was slowly pushed to a standing position, but then fell to the other side, making the dirt behind it be kicked up, along with the blood under it, that made small dripping noises from the gravity of which the red liquid was falling switch sides, and started to drip the other way onto the non blood-stained grass.

Rainbow, being disgusted at the sound and the smell quickly flew backwards to keep herself from smelling the amount of blood. Twilight, in other matters, ignored the sight and the smell when she spotted, what looked to be a rather large camoflauge saddlebag that was strapped to the back of the machine. She quickly went over to the back side of the machine to get a better view at the bag. When she got there, she noticed that it seemed to be able to carry a lot of things, even more than an average saddle bag. She then became curious as to what is inside of the bag. As nosy as it was, she thought it wouldn't hurt just to take a small look. Knowing that it most likely would not be effected by her magic as well, she decided to to just reach her hoof out to open it.

Until her friend Rainbow said there was some sort of laser being pointed at her head...

Chapter 4: Contact

This chapter was delayed because my computer crashed a around 11 in the morning. Files were being scanned and it ran into a loop, and eventually just crashed. But I managed to get a hold of a friend's PC, and I released this chapter from there. Sorry again.

(I'm sorry about the long wait for the story, I've been troubled with other things in life. But I'm back now, so hopefully I'll be able to publish some more chapters. And just to clarify, if you notice any change in writing in the next few paragraphs, it's because I started the first bit of this chapter around the time of Christmas 2014. I think I have improved a bit, but I'll leave that to you to judge. Carry on...)

===Wilgram's Perspective===

Wilgram has been walking for what felt like hours, but it has really only been like 30 minutes.  His back was still in great pain, but he was doing his best to deal with it until he was able to be treated. He wasn't really tired physically or mentally, but his legs were getting numb and a little less responsive. He was worried he might lose his ability to walk soon, so he quickened his pace.

'Is it just me, or did the sun set much faster than it use to?' He thought as the sky quickly got darker. He was thinking he might have to make camp for the night, but he wasn't really in a good situation to do that. First, he didn't know where he was or what kind of forest he was in. Second, his back is in too bad a shape that it cannot heal on it's own very quickly, so he had no choice but to continue walking.

Thinking of the terribly diseased place he was in before, he was beginning to feel a heavy amount of dread. Shaking his head to clear his train of thought on that, he was just going to focus on the present and the future, not the past.

He still had no idea where he was, but he was feeling refreshed at how how clean the air was, having gotten used to it now. He also noticed that the forest that he was traveling in felt very peaceful, despite having been attacked earlier by some wolf thing, he couldn't help but feel more relaxed here. He wasn't sure why, but he just accepted it.

Not looking where he was going, he tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground and fell face first into the side of a tree and onto the ground. Feeling stupid, but thankful that he didn't fall on his back, he got back up onto his feet and gently rubbed his face to feel if there were any cuts. Not finding any, he got back up to his feet and took a moment to collect his thoughts.

His vision was getting a little more blurry from exhaustion, so he sat down on top of a small fallen tree and opened one of the bottled waters he had with him. His hands were a little bit shaky as well, so it took him a second to get the lid to his mouth without dropping the bottle. He closed his eyes while enjoying the feeling of the cool liquid as it filled his body with necessary energy to continue. He stopped drinking when he had only about half left in the bottle.

'I wonder how far away from everything I am...' Wilgram thought to himself while trying to relax so his back wasn't given so much stress from walking on uneven grounds. But he was interrupted when he felt a drop of water fall on his nose. He opened his eyes and looked up to see that it was going to start raining soon. Slowly getting back up to his feet, he looked around to see if he could spot anything until it got too dark to see anything. He looked around him, trying to make out any lighter parts in the dense overgrowth, until he stopped when he was facing towards the fallen tree he was sitting on. It wasn't much from where he was now, but it was the brightest part he could spot from where he was currently located, so he decided it was the best idea to head in that direction.

When he walked around the tree to start walking towards the area, he noticed that the tree had very large claw marks on the area the tree was cut off from. He felt very intrigued at the sight, wanting to investigate a little more, but seeing how it was getting way to dark and he could feel and hear the rain pouring down harder, he decided to just leg it towards the light he saw.

'I wonder if the the thing that made those marks is nearby...' He thought to himself while feeling his heart race at the thought of

some massive Lion attacking him in the injured state he was in, or even worse, a pack of the same wolf he fought earlier that day.

The light was getting bigger the closer he got to it. It was close enough to see that the light was coming from an open area in the forest, spanning at least 50 meters in diameter. The rain seemed like it didn't actually reach into the clearing, seeing how overwhelmingly bright and

clear the sky was over it.

Right when he was about to run straight in, his left leg suddenly went completely numb and he lost his balance and fell behind a tree that was right on the edge of the clearing. He fell on his stomach making him lose his breath and almost blacking out from the sudden outburst of air from his lungs and the blood loss he was suffering from his back injury.

*THUMP* ...

'Shit... I need some help very soon otherwise I won't last much longer...' He thought as he was clenching his chest for air.

Getting into an upright position beside the tree, he took a second to collect his thoughts and make them clear. He got out his water bottle and finished the rest of the water that was inside. He set the empty bottle down next to him and leaned against the tree; still clenching his chest. He looked up to see where the clouds were, and noticed that the rain clouds ended around the clearing, making a very distinct gap between the clear, calm pastel sky; and the dark, energetic rain clouds.

"What the... Oh yea, that's totally normal." He said sarcastically while rolling over onto his stomach and getting to his feet, slowly yet surely.

Now at his feet, he peered past the side of the tree into the clearing to see if there was anything inside. It was relatively normal, save for some odd indentations on the grass. Actually, the grass was practically and literally destroyed from something that looked like it crashed into the ground and skid along the grass.

He looked around the clearing to see if what made those indentations was actually able to be seen from where he was, and he thought he saw something metallic towards the center. His vision was still fairly blurry from earlier that day that he couldn't get a good look at it. Even though it wasn't that far away, he couldn't make out what it was, so he decided to get out his binoculars to try and make out what it was. Looking through the two lenses didn't actually help much, because the kind of binoculars he had were for viewing objects about a kilometer away.

Setting them aside, he rubbed his eyes and shook his head to clear the blurriness. He was able to make out finer details of his surroundings, along with the object in the center of the clearing.

He froze.

'No...what?'

It was his motorbike. It was the one that made the marks on the ground along the clearing, but also the one thing that stands out from everything else. It was also the first thing he wanted to see the entire time. Although...

Wil's eyes widened, specifically because his motorbike was almost completely covered in blood. His blood.

Wincing at the thought of how much blood he has lost, his train of thought was interrupted by something moving at the corner of his eyesight.

What he saw worsened his headache tremendously. One word popping up into his mind.

BRIGHT... He blinked at the sight.

Okay, what the hell am I looking at...? He thought to himself as he crawled lower into the ditch.

A group of 5 colorful animals entered the opposite side of the clearing, slowly spreading out. One of them flew up into the air and started flying around the edge of the entire area, scanning for any dangers. But he was on the edge of the clearing, so if he was spotted, there could be some problems... He didn't know what kind of problems, but for the time being, he just wanted to stay out of sight.

Wil tried to crawl towards the tree next to him as quickly and quietly as he could. Doing his best to ignore his wounds that were protesting to the sudden movement.

'Shit, they're going to see the bike!' He worried if they were going to decide to take it, or mess with it; either one worried him.

He heard the wings of the blue one flapping overhead, praying that he won't be seen from where he lay. He was not at all in the condition to fight anything, let alone 5 things. He also didn't have the energy to even stay conscious much longer, from his barely audible, but present raspy breathing.

The sound got louder and louder as it approached his location, his heart rate increasing a little bit at the tension of whether it'll spot him or continue flying.

From what he heard, it was now right above him.

And it sound like it stayed there.

'Shoo, shoo! Don't you dare see me, damnit... He thought to himself as he slowly lifted his head to see what it was doing.

It wasn't looking at him, at least. But it looked towards the center of the clearing, and started flying towards it; having only cleared half of the surrounding area of the clearing, leaving the other half alone.

Releasing the breath that he didn't realize that he was holding, he shook his head to try and make himself more awake, drowsiness creeping up on his conscious. He ran his hand through his hear and wiped the blood and sweat off his forehead. He poked his head out again to see what was going on.

One of them was slowly walking towards his vehicle, the look of curiosity clearly plastered on it's face. The closer and closer it got to the machine, the further the foreigner's eyebrows furrowed downwards. His heart rate increased yet again with each step it took. The purple animal was now about 5 meters from the motorbike, moving much slower than before. The animals face then briefly turned to slight annoyed confusion, and then went back to it's curious examination. It circled the object, taking in every single detail. Once it got to the opposite side, it seemed to have spotted the absurd amount of blood on and around the leather seat, judging by the the sudden movement it took away from the motor bike; though he couldn't blame it, he wasn't too particularly keen with the sight of blood either.

The blue one, still hovering in the air, started to communicate with the one that was examining the vehicle. Wil couldn't make out much because of the dull purr and vibration of the thunder that he heard and felt, along with the sound of leaves waving in the wind that was passing through the forest and into the clearing; making him shake a little from the air coming into contact with his open wound; reminding him of the urgency that needed to be taken into receiving help.

Through the other noises resonating from the foliage , and the clouds, he very faintly heard the sound of a laugh; a surprisingly feminine laugh, nonetheless. He held his breath for a moment to see if he could hear anything else. As a matter of fact, he could barely hear a conversation among the two beings. He believed to have made out a few words, but they were just barely audible from where he was. Though he also quickly dismissed the nagging feeling in the back of his head that what he was hearing wasn't normal. He also got the tingly feeling in his ears anytime that he would hear voices; as faint as they may be sometimes, it was odd how he was getting the same reaction out of what he was hearing in the direction of the 5 creatures, though specifically from the 2 that were communicating with one another.

The conversation seemed to have halted abruptly from the blue one seeing the blood-stained metal as well. After a moment it opened it's mouth as if it was saying something about it, and looked very nervous and uneasy at what it was seeing.

'Odd... They reacted to it in a very human-like manner; which is odd seeing how animals don't typically react to something like that... But just to take account of even more weird traits, they were, to put it bluntly, *bright as fuck. And what was up with that feminine-sounding laugh I heard earlier? That is more than a bit creepy to me... I just hope they don't mess with my bike...*

The look on the purple one's face slowly, but visibly turned back to curiosity as it leaned it's head from left to right periodically as if contemplating on what to do with it.

About 1 minute has passed and the purple one stopped the head movement and sat up. Still facing the bike, but moving about 2 meters away from it. It lowered it's head slightly and closed it's eyes, and then something... weird, happened.

Much to Wil's already lowered conciousness's dismay, something; which seemed to be some weird rod shaped object atop it's head started to glow ever so slightly. A few moments has passed and... Nothing seems to have been happening, though the concentration, (or what looked like concentration, to Wil.) on it's face seemed to be more emphasized, the 'rod' appeared to be getting a little brighter as well.

The light...

He was staring at the light coming from the 'rod'. Besides it obviously being out of place, there was just something about it that seemed... ethereal.

It made him freeze. Not at all in a negative way, though. The light calmed him. His breathing, which, for the time he was hiding in the ditch behind the tree, semi-silently observing the 5 creatures, was closer to panting and sounded much more raspy than normal; was back down to a steady, calm, and safe pace of slow intake and outtake of air. There was a warm and welcoming cloud of bliss that washed over his muddy and turbulent mind, clearing his thoughts and feelings along with uprooting his concentration to much higher levels. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, he actually felt...

... Happy...

... but the bliss vanished from his conscious, and his concentration was quickly set back onto the creatures. He noticed the two that were the closest to the vehicle, and also were the ones who engaged in conversation; most likely about his bike. The two walked up to the side of the bike, getting visibly weary of the blood.

'Son of a...-' He cursed to himself towards the actions of the two creatures. He wanted them to just leave his property alone, and if possible; just leave the area so he can get to his bag and use the medical supplies that are stored within the several pouches of the pack. He was going to bleed to death if he didn't patch up the critical wound on his back. He was also starting to feel his spine get cold from the severe lack of blood cells. He did not want to end up dying here; wherever here was located...

He knew he might regret his choice later on, and he felt bad for deciding this route; but nonetheless went through with it.

Still lying down in the ditch near the old and mossy tree, he reached to his side and grabbed his rifle in one, swift motion from the years of experience with firearm handling. Being cautious as to not put any part of the rifle out of cover while he readied it just beside the tree, on top of one of several massive roots that were protruding from the base of it. He didn't need to worry about the sun glaring off of the lens of his mid-range scope because of the Anti-Reflection Device on the end of it. Getting into position, he closed an eye and looked through the end of the scope with his other; readying his aim to make sure he was on-point. He still wasn't sure if his course of action was a good idea, or even necessary. He silently examined their movement as closely as he could, making sure that his bike was safe from any more harm that has been brought onto it.

The two got into positions on either side of the vehicle; both standing on opposite ends. The blue one visibly shivered from coming into direct contact with the blood. They waited a moment, nodding their heads towards each other in unison, as if counting down when to begin moving the bike. Barely hearing what seemed to be a vague-sounding shout; again, sounding very feminine.

The bike was pushed upward to a standing position, but due to the poor shape of the vehicle's wheels and steel kickstand -the stand itself was not actually attached to the side, and was presumably located somewhere else in the clearing- quickly fell onto the side prior to where it lay.

With an audible *thud*, the weight of the bike caused plenty of dirt and gravel to be kicked up and away from where it was; including more than a little bit of the foreigner's blood; which was still not completely absorbed into the worn leather seat, along with the grass that was beneath it when it was still laying on the opposite side.

In his mind, he felt the vibrations of when it hit the ground; completely muting all other sounds that weren't immediately in front of him. His conscious fully focused on the creatures. His grip tightened, getting slight metallic feedback all over the rifle. Though, during the time he shut his mind out from everything else to focus on his bike, he forgot to turn off the laser attachment that was mounted to the under-barrel of his gun, which was changed to a setting where it turned on automatically if there was sensory feedback in the handle near the base of the rifle. He only noticed that it was one when he saw the two acknowledge the visible laser, and looked directly towards his location...

...He was no longer hidden.