No Way Back

                                                                                                        -Prologue-

     Having just completed her nightly task of raising the moon, Princess Luna stepped off her balcony, passed through double glass doors and entered her chamber.

    As she prepared for sleep she felt an odd, unfamiliar disturbance and shuddered, feeling it inside of herself as well as around her.

    Oddly, it also had the feel of something passing through her. She closed her eyes and focused on it, trying to determine what it was and where it might be coming from.

     It didn’t seem like a local phenomenon, she thought, as she focused her will on it. No, it was more like a wave of something coming from somewhere else, like a ripple that had traveled some distance from a point where a pebble had been dropped into a quiet pond.

    Although rare it wasn’t unheard of to feel an occasional disturbance in that power that surrounded, flowed around and through the world of Equestria, that power known as Equestrian Magic.

    Luna concentrated harder, trying to pinpoint its source but it was too late. It was gone, passing as quickly as it had come.

    Opening her eyes she continued toward her bed, pondering what had just occurred.

    Normally, such ripples usually served as the herald and harbinger of the approach of some evil force or malevolent entity. Discord came to mind. She thought of when he’d attacked Equestria, had tried to take it for himself until her sister, Celestia, with the help and power of the Six Elements of Harmony, had managed to stop him by turning him to stone.

    Pausing, she realized something; this disturbance hadn’t felt like dark magic. In fact, she realized, it hadn’t felt like magic at all. At least not any she’d ever known.

    No, she thought, this felt like some odd force that intercepted and momentarily touched, flowed into and through Equestrian Magic then was gone.

    Although also extremely rare this wasn’t unheard of, either. Very rarely but occasionally some odd force from beyond their world would touch the sphere of Equestrian Magic and, by that touch, would create such a disturbance as she had felt.

    ‘That must be it’, concluded Luna, dismissing it and putting it out of her mind as she climbed into her bed. Settling down she closed her eyes.

     Still, there was something about this that quietly nagged at the back of her mind, something that disturbed her, making it impossible for her to fall asleep.  As she lay there thinking she tried to figure out what that odd thing had been but she just couldn’t put her hoof on it.

                                                                    ----

    Gerald shot bolt upright in his bed sweating profusely and breathing hard, his eyes bugging, his mouth hanging agape, a look of panic on his face.

    'That damn dream, again!', he thought, shaking his head to clear his mind.

    'Will I always have this dream?', he thought, as he ran his hand over his face, through his hair. 'Probably', he concluded, as he calmed himself, lay down and tried to go back to sleep. The vivid images of the dream persisted in his mind.

    It was always the same: astonished, he'd suddenly find himself quickly walking through a quiet, sunlit place surrounded by Earth Ponies, Pegasii and Unicorns. They all seemed to be hurridly going somewhere with him. But where? Why?

    As he watched, he and all of the ponies would rise from the ground as if lifted by some enormous, invisible, magic hand but no one was startled or surprised by it. Everyone in the dream, including him, acted as if this was expected to happen, as if it were nothing more than a part of normal, every day life as they all rose high above the tree tops, stopped and floated over that place.

    Next, came a sound like that of a million voices... Singing? Although the sound grew louder and louder until it threatened to split his ears, Gerald couldn't quite tell if it was singing, or... What?

    Then came the terrifying part of the dream. Suddenly feeling very frightened but not knowing why, Gerald watched as all the Ponies began to glow with a surging, pulsing light that seemed to originate from deep within them, a light that grew and spread out from them until all the ponies were engulfed by it.

   Continuing to spread and grow the light spanned out over and all around him until all the now glowing orbs touched and seemed to absorb each other. Then...

     The dream would always end with the words spoken by some  unknown voice would boom in his ears. "Your Destiny!"

     He would always awaken terrified, panting and sweating.

     As Gerald lay in his bed trying to go back to sleep he thought about those words and the sense of differentness he'd carried within himself throughout all of his life.

    Gerald Hine knew he was different.

    As he recalled, he’d first become aware of this when he was around three years old. At least that’s how he remembered the time of his first realization, although he wasn’t completely sure.

    Still, and for as long as he could remember, he was aware of it, although he could never put his finger on how he was different or why. It was an indefinable sense that he had about himself.

    It wasn’t that he had anything wrong with him. As far as he could tell there was nothing broken or lacking in himself. He was just... Different!

    Gerald’s father worked in a profession that demanded mobility. He and his family always seemed to be relocating from one town, one state, to another.

    This, of course, was painful for Gerald since it seemed that, no sooner would he would start making a few friends in one place then he’d be forced to lose them when his parents would pack up and they’d move again.

    As this continued throughout his childhood, Gerald became reluctant to make new friends because of the fear and certainty that he’d just lose them again when they moved. Finally, after so many years of this, he simply gave up trying to make any new friends at all.

    Sure, he’d always felt a deep sense of loneliness and loss with each move but, eventually, he learned to push these feelings away as he grew more and more accustomed to it.

    ‘What was the point of making friends if I’m only going to lose them again’, he concluded.

    Still, he’d always gotten along well enough with others, even when he was very small but, then, because of the seemingly constant moving,  he wasn’t overtly friendly, either.

    Through it all there was this sense he had about himself. This... Aspect.

    He had no idea about what this aspect of his being was but he’d always sensed it, always been aware of it inside of himself.

    Gerald had become more aware of it when he started grade school.

    It was then that he became aware that the other children seemed to lack this... Aspect, this thing. All he could do was feel sorry for them, although he had no idea why he felt that way.

    Gerald was around eight years old when he became much more aware of his... Aspect.

    It happened to him one night when he was abruptly awakened from a dream.

    He snapped his eyes open, sat bolt upright in his bed to see himself surrounded by an odd light. As the confused but fascinated Gerald watched, it seemed to shift and flow in, around and through him in shimmering, sparkling translucent waves that swirled and shifted like softly glowing multi-colored smoke. It lasted only an instant and was gone.

    Gerald, blinking and thinking he was still in a dream, dropped back down on his pillow and fell almost instantly back to sleep. Still the memory of what Gerald thought to be a dream remained with him. It had happened that one and only time. It never happened, again.

    As a child Gerald had been shy, quiet and studious, had kept mostly to himself preferring - what was to him - the sane, sensibility of the peaceful hours he spent with his nose buried in books.

    The wild frenetic chaos of the other children just didn’t appeal to him even though their happy laughter strongly suggested that they seemed to be having a great deal of fun and some small part of him craved it, wanted to join in it.

    But, then, there were always the painful scraped knees, cut hands, occasional bloody noses, bruised elbows and the wails of pain, the suffering and tears that came with the accidents and even fights that came with play. No, all that crazy yelling, screaming, running about and getting hurt just wasn’t for him.

    Although there were times when he was tempted to join them, was curious about what it was like to play and truly enjoy the games they were playing, he could never quite bring himself to join them on his own and only did so when his teachers forced him to.

    Dodge ball was, for him, the worst gym activity in the world! All the children at school who formed up teams and played that game always seemed, to him, to be bigger, stronger, faster. On top of that those children seemed to Gerald to possess an attitude where they were truly and deliberately intent on seriously harming each other.

    Also, the other children seemed to sense intuitively that Gerald had no desire to participate,  to hurt anyone, so they would target him.

    More than anything they seemed - to him like - cats cruelly toying with a mouse. So,  Gerald always caught the worst of it.

    Then there was the bullying.

    Every school seemed to have a bully; one child who was always bigger, stronger, uglier, meaner and more stupid than the other school children and they always seemed to have a sense, a way of singling Gerald out and making him the target of their cruel attentions.

    School life was hell for Gerald when he’d first started encountering bullies in the fourth grade. It seemed to him that a week didn’t go by when he wasn’t thrown into the dirt, had his head forced into a toilet bowl in the boys bathroom or was just simply beaten.

    Terrified by this and unwilling to go to school anymore, Gerald had cried to his parents about it. His mother, who was sympathetic, had spoken to the bully’s parents,  the various teachers and the principle of whatever school Gerald was attending in an effort to make it stop. That didn’t work and he continued to be bullied.

    This went on from fourth to sixth grades when, being enrolled in a new school in a new town in yet another state, Gerald made a friend who would prove to be his savior. In a sense, anyway.

    This new friend was Harold and, although Harold was as shy, quiet and studious as Gerald was, there were some major differences between these two new friends.

    Where Gerald was thin to the point of being scrawny, Harold was strong and muscular. Where Gerald seemed to carry himself with apprehension, always being wary of bullies, scuttling about like a nervous mouse,  Harold carried himself with a strong, quiet confidence that clearly said to the bullies that they’d be wise to leave him alone or face some serious consequences.

    That impression proved to be well founded when, one day near the end of the school year, a particularly large and ugly bully named Rich, a kid that all the other kids in school hated and were terrified of and for good reason, decided he was going to take a shot at intimidating Harold.

    At over six feet tall and looking like he weighed in at around two hundred fifty pounds, Rich was undeniably the biggest kid in school. And the meanest!

    It started in front of the school before first bell. Dozens of other children, either filing in through the front doors or gathered on the front lawn talking, chatting or playing, froze and stared when they saw Rich, his intention clear on his face, approach Harold purposefully.

    Stopping Harold, who was walking with Gerald, Rich then proceeded to spit insults at Harold, attempting to goad him into a violent reaction.

    All the other children who were still outside stared for a moment then excitedly gathered in a circle around them, some starting a chant of ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’

    Harold, standing in front of Rich with his arms crossed, simply stood shaking his head as if Rich was the biggest fool on the planet but said nothing.

    This went on for some time with Rich spewing insult after insult at Harold.

    Insulting him, his mother, his father, his entire family Rich followed this by calling Harold a wimp, a weenie, and anything else Rich could think of to venomously spew at Harold who just continued to frown angrily and shake his head.

    The encounter ended almost instantly when Rich threw out his hands in an attempt to push Harold.

    What happened next took no more than a second as Harold grabbed Rich’s wrist and, in a single blindingly fast, fluid and seemingly effortless motion, tossed the enormous Rich headlong into some nearby bushes about six feet away. Harold then stepped up to Rich who, now laying in the bushes blinking back at Harold in shocked astonishment, leaned over him and said, “You’re an idiot.”

    Then, without another word, Harold turned on his heel and walked into the school with Gerald beside him. The now stunned students who’d witnessed this then burst into cheers and shouts of ‘way to go!’ as Harold and Gerald, walked through the doors.

    After school and when they had time, Gerald asked Harold how he’d flipped the enormous Rich so easily into those bushes. Harold then told Gerald that he studied martial arts, had been studying them for some years. It was at that point that Gerald not only became Harold’s friend but also his student.

    After that everything changed for the better for Gerald.

    Still, and after years of martial arts training, Gerald could never tap into or even define the Aspect that continued to slowly grow within him.

    Try as he might, he could never tap that odd power that he knew flowed and lived within him. Seeming to have a mind of its own it somehow refused to be tapped.

    Another sense grew in the back of Gerald’s mind; a sense that this thing... This Aspect in and of himself... Would someday move of its own accord and touch him.

    When it was ready and at the proper time.