Author's Note

This chapter was rewritten! If you read it before 25th of October, you should read it again.

Chapter 1: Discovered

Three Days Later.

Nikolay discovered Ponyville, saw the crystal castle. And, of course, he saw lots of multicolored talking ponies. He noticed that all of them except some foals bear strange marks on their flanks.

He decided to stay at the edge of the forest. Using his magic, he made a dugout. Small, barely noticeable, but cozy inside. The outside of the dugout was covered with dirt and grass, making it barely noticeable from afar. There was also a small window for ventilation, as well as a view outside. Instead of a door, a small manhole was made in the wooden ceiling of the dugout.

The inside was nice and cozy. It had small table and a chair, three large bookshelves with lots of Equestrian literature, a small bed with simple white blanket and pillow, which were found by Nikolay in the Castle of Two Sisters. There was also a small stone fireplace in the corner of the house, in case there was winter. Nikolay also casted a spell to keep out any creature of entering his territory.

Nikolay, being an omnivore, had hard time finding food. He was quite sure that all, or most animals were sane and/or sentient, which made it hard for him to simply hunt the cows and such. So, the human had to become vegetarian. He made a small garden outside where he grew tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and as well had a well and an apple tree. And, he had never known what cucumbers and tomatoes were before, he found them delicious. Shameful, Nikolay had to steal the sapling of an apple tree, as well as other seeds and some food. He hoped that he would be able to repay someday.

He was sitting at the table, light from the candle fell on the new book he has been reading. "Anatomy of Unicorns" was the title.

Nikolay, first of all, read the book about history of Equestria. He was very fascinated by it. He learned that Equestria is ruled by two princesses: Celestia of the Sun and Luna of the Night. He was also surprised by the fact that they are at least ageless, living almost as long as Equestria existed.

He learned about Discord, Nightmare Moon accident, Changelings Invasion, Tirek, Sombra. Well, all he has been doing was reading books, so the book about history took two days to be read.

First of all, Nikolay noticed that ponies were all colors of rainbow. Second, he noticed that most of them had some kind of painted marks on their flanks. He later found out that those are called 'cutie marks' and they represent a pony's special talent.

Nikolay sighed and put aside the book, then rubbed his eyes. He wasn't really sleeping for the past three days, only about two to three hours per day. And, finally, it started getting to him. The man yawned, stood up and walked to his small bed. He took off his boots, detached his cape and shoulder protection, took off his armguards, unwrapped the cloth around his feet. Finally, he unstrapped the belts around his torso and took off his upper part of clothes. His bare torso had lots of scars, and those were not just scars but words and arcane circles of protective magic. His body was covered in scars that no smooth skin was left but his neck. Nikolay unwrapped red piece of cloth which rounded his waist, then took off his baggy pants. He was left only with black underwear.

Nikolay opened the door to the outside and looked at the beautiful night. Perfect time for him to bathe in the river and then get to sleep.

Nikolay pulled himself up and closed the manhole. He slid off the roof down to the ground. He felt soft grass touching his bare feet as he walked to the river. The river was not so far from Ponyville, so Nikolay had to be quite. He took off his underwear and jumped into the clean and cold water, creating a small splash. The man sighed as felt himself cooling down. He rubbed the water from his eyes and saw that on the other side of the river a pair of eyes watched him with interest. Nikolay felt the need to get out of there as soon as he could. He swam to the bank of the river and got out of the water. He dried himself with a simple spell, walked to the underwear he left on the ground. He quickly put it on and started a run towards his dugout. He looked back and saw that someone he noticed followed him.

Nikolay quickly got back into the protective sphere around his house. He stopped to catch a breath. He shuddered as something bumped into the magical barrier. He turned around and saw a pony rubbing its muzzle. It was an orange pegasus filly with purple mane and tail.

Nikolay quickly retreated to his dugout and closed the manhole.

'Damnation! I have been discovered!' Nikolay thought, putting on his clothes. 'Better to get out of here as fast as I can. I know nothing about what would ponies do if they find me. Damn, damn, damn!'

When he had finished dressing, he shrank all the books and put them in his pockets. He opened the manhole, pulled up, stood up and looked around — no pony was in sight. Nikolay turned to the Everfree Forest and started running towards it, un-casting the barrier spell that kept his small dugout out of unwanted visitors.

He looked back at Ponyville and saw that a few ponies were quickly making way to his dugout, two of them had their horns glowing, dispelling the darkness around them.

Nikolay quickly disappeared into the thick forest.

Twilight was reading a book when somepony furiously knocked on the door to the library, almost breaking it. She quickly opened the door, and three fillies entered.

"Twilight! There is...."

"A monster!"

"From the Everfree! I saw it!"

"Now, calm down, girls." Twilight told them, covering her ears from the massive amount of loud sounds every filly was making. "Tell me what happened."

"Well, it's that," Scootaloo started, recovering her breath. "I was hanging out with my friends before we go to sleep, I heard something strange. I told my friends to wait and went to investigate. And then I saw someone... something, I dunno!
It was tall, almost as tall as Princess Celestia! It looked like a big monkey, but stood on two legs and was furless. I followed it but something prevented me from following it to its house. It saw me and quickly got inside. Then I got back to my friends and told them, then we went here."

"Well, that explains." Twilight hmmed. "Why do you think it came from Everfree? I've never seen any hairless monkey there."

"It's house... um, maybe it's called dugout... Well, it was at the edge of the Everfree. And it was surrounded by something magical, a barrier I think. Why would anypony have this kind of barrier if they are friendly? Surely it's a monster who waits, and then it's right outside our doors, ready to eat us!"

"Well, I'll call my friends to investigate. You three stay at home." Twilight replied. "If it's really a new kind of monster, I will inform Celestia about it. Nothing from the Everfree can be ignored, nothing!"

Nikolay was running through the forest, six mares followed him. It was not easy for him to run as the forest was thick. He almost fell a few times, stumbling upon roots. Thankfully, he had a very good sense of balance.

Nikolay didn't know what the six mares would do if they caught him, so he ran.

He ran and ran, and ended up near the bridge to the Castle of Royal Pony Sisters. He looked back and saw that six mares emerged from the forest and finally saw him almost completely. It was dark, all they could see was a silhouette and a pair of glowing, icy blue eyes. Nikolay stared back at the mares for what seemed like eternity, then started running across the bridge. He used a spell to cut the bridge's ropes. The bridge soon fell to the bottom of the gorge, preventing almost everypony from reaching Nikolay.

Unfortunately for him, three of them had wings.

Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took off and flew over the gorge and landed on the other side. Nikolay was fast and used paralysis spell to stop the three, then turned around and quickly ran to the castle, disappearing from other mares' sights.

"Ugh..." Twilight mumbled, falling on the ground, unable to move any of her legs and wings.

"Come back and fight like a pony, jerk!" Rainbow Dash shouted after Nikolay, unable to move as well. "No one disables me to fly, NO ONE!"

"Whatever that was, it sure knows magic." Twilight spoke. "Partial paralysis spell is quite difficult to cast, especially on unicorns!"

"I hope it's temporary." Rainbow Dash groaned. "As soon as I get my wings and hooves working, I'm gonna beat everything outta that thing!"

"Yeah, and what will you do against a wizard?" Twilight deadpanned. "None of us knows anything about that wizard, no one knows how dangerous it is. I think we must write a letter to Celestia."

"Mhm, you're probably right." Rainbow Dash replied.

"GIRLS! CAN YOU HEAR US?" Twilight yelled.

"YES, WHAT HAPPENED?" Applejack yelled back.

"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN, YOU NEED SPIKE TO WRITE A LETTER TO PRINCESS CELESTIA!"

"GOT IT!" Applejack replied and the three ponies started galloping back to Twilight's castle.

Some time later.

"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy called. "I still can't move, even a little bit."

"Don't worry, Fluttershy, princess and our friends are probably already on their way here." Twilight turned her head to the yellow pegasus. "Everything's going to be fine."

Rainbow Dash was quietly snoring, asleep.

"Rainbow sure knows how to save energy." Twilight chuckled.

In the castle.

'Damn, I need a map of this place,' Nikolay thought, walking through the Hall of Armor. 'I better find somewhere to hide, it won't take long for them to come here, especially when they know the rulers of this lands personally.'

Nikolay evaded traps, his senses telling him where he should not step on and what he should not touch.

'I hope there's another exit somewhere...'