Over-Infinite Bonds and Friendships

Everfree Forest (Noon)

Deep within a cave in the Everfree Forest, the avian creature hefted three logs into a circle of stones and placed some twigs under them. He then shot a small fireball into the pile of timber and the fire started to blaze. The avian creature stared at the fire for a moment before turning to the unconscious Sozui as he continued to snore softly in his sleep while clutching the book in his arms.

"Tch! This is just my day! I was dead for about five minutes and then I wake up to find some freaking chimera about to use a chainsaw on me and an unknown human holding a book with OOO's symbol on it. I could have left him back at that awkward place if that thing didn't caught my attention, and Eiji wouldn't approve it... More importantly I'm missing three of my Core Medals!" The avian creature muttered as he poke the fire for a moment, but then a small groan came from Sozui as he started to stir in his slumber, "Well, look who's finally awake."

"Ugh, where am I?" Sozui groaned as he rubbed his throbbing head until he noticed the avian creature before him, "Nani? Ankh? Is this a dream?"

Ankh tensed before he suddenly pinned Sozui to the ground with a murderous glare in his gaze!

"NOT A DREAM! NOT A DREAM!" Sozui screamed as he struggled to get out of Ankh's grip.

"Omai! How do you know my name? Who are you?!" Ankh demanded as he put more pressure around Sozui's throat. "Are you one of Maki's subordinates!?"

"If you can at least take a chill pill and let go of my throat, then maybe I can answer your question!" Sozui choked in a raspy voice.

Ankh grudgingly did so and watched with a suspicious look as the almost suffocated human started to take deep breaths while he rubbed his hand over his sore throat.

"Now, you better answer my question or else!" Ankh growled as the flames from the fire pit flickered wildly.

"Would you believe me if I told you I'm from another dimension where everything in your world is fiction?" Sozui asked. The flames suddenly went out at the same time Ankh tensed, "I guess so."

After starting another fire pit, Ankh sat across Sozui as he glared at him with suspicion.

"If you claim what you say is true, what is your proof that I'm fictional in your world?" Ankh asked.

"Well... I can name a few things..." Sozui smirked, "Let's see: you were tricked by Koumagi to pay sixty percent of the Cell Medals you collected, you got whacked in the head by a lovesick Eiji multiple times, and I think you were pranked once by a wasabi filled icepop!"

"Enough!" Ankh bellowed before he took a deep breath and let it out, "Fine! I believe you, but let me ask you one more question: Where did you get that book?!"

"This?" Sozui asked, "I got this from a strange guy in a black cloak. He said it would help me remake your Tenth Core Medal as well as your siblings'."

NANI?! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO REPAIR MY CORE MEDAL, BUT REPAIR THEIRS AS WELL?!?!?!? Ankh demanded as the fire's blaze increased in strength lighting up the cave in the process.

"I can explain!" Sozui quickly added as he hastily backed up while shielding the book from the flying embers, "You had a friend once before you met Eiji, right?!"

"What?! I- I don't know what you are talking about!" Ankh denied as he turned his head away, but there was a faint hint of sadness and regret within his anger and annoyance.

"Don't try to play dumb Ankh," Sozui scolded as he placed the book behind him, "I told you! I know everything that has happened so far that happened within your world! You met a blind girl, didn't you? That is one of my reasons for helping you so I can help you fulfill your promise to her!"

"Hrgh!" Ankh grunted as he crossed his arms in angry embarrassment.

"Come on Ankh! I know deep down you still care for her and Eiji. Can't you at least cooperate with me for them?" Sozui pleaded as he walked over to Ankh, "I just want to help you and your siblings."

"URUSEI!" Ankh snapped as he threw a haymaker to Sozui's face causing him to stagger from the blow and slumped against the cave wall, "LIKE HECK YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME! IN MOST OF MY LIFE I WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A FLOATING HAND WITH BARELY TWO CORE MEDALS LEFT TO SUSTAIN ME! YOU'RE JUST A HUMAN WITH A BLUE VEST, WHITE SHIRT, JEANS, AND STUPID SNEAKERS WHO'S LOOKING FOR AN IMPOSSIBLE RESULT! HOW EXACTLY ARE YOU GOING TO RECREATE OUR CORE MEDALS WHEN YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE TO MAKING THEM?!"

"Ough!" Sozui groaned as he struggled to get up, but the pain from the punch made it hard for him to stand correctly, "Okay, maybe I went too far with that one..."

Sozui was then immediately grabbed by his vest and lifted against the cave wall by the enraged phoenix Greeed.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't roast you right now!" Ankh deathly whispered as flames appeared in his unoccupied left hand as it clenched into a fist, but then a deep growl came from the darkness of the cave as two glowing green eyes opened to the flickering light of the fire pit.

"Maybe so we could run for our lives from that!" Sozui suggested in fear as he pointed to a manticore stepping out from the shadows and roared at the intruders to its cave causing the fire pit to go out.

Ankh was surprised at first but he growled as he shouldered Sozui and immediately made a break to the exit while Sozui managed to grab the book along the way. The manticore roared as it chased after them while using its scorpion tail to sting at them.

Ankh kicked off the walls as he dodged the dangerous appendage while he threw a few fireballs to stall the creature's progress before they managed to reach the exit. Sozui sighed with relief as he thought they were going to make it until a pained yell came from Ankh as the manticore managed to score a lucky hit on his right foreleg before it retreated back to its cave to treat its burns.

"Ankh! Are you okay?" Sozui spoke in concern as he got off of Ankh and set him against a tree.

"I'm fine! Get your hands off me!" Ankh grunted but then he hissed in pain as he clutched his leg.

"No you're not! I'm not going to let you move until we take care of that injury! You may be a body composed of many Cell Medals, but that doesn't mean I can let you treat an injury like it's nothing!" Sozui chided as he watched Cell Medals pour from the wound as it healed slowly from the attack. He then looked around his surroundings and found some vines and a fallen tree limb near him.

Getting an idea, he reached into his vest pocket and pulled out some rolled up gauze and wrapped it around the open wound. He then took the tree limb and broke it into the appropriate length before he used the vines to tie it against Ankh's foreleg. Ankh watched with annoyance as Sozui continued to make the makeshift-splint, but he noticed that the pain is starting to lessen when Sozui finished.

"There!" Sozui gasped as he wiped his head free of sweat, "It's not much, but it will give you enough time until the poison is completely removed from your body! I guess you're stuck with limping for a while."

Ankh didn't say anything as he tested his leg, it still hurts but not as much as it did previously. He then felt Sozui shouldering his right arm and started to carry him while he kept the book in his inner vest pocket.

"You know, I was kind of like you when I was younger," Sozui spoke after a moment of silence, "Rude. Stubborn. Hot Tempered. I just wanted to be by myself at some times, and it did land me in a couple of troubles."

"Then what made you turn around?" Ankh asked in curiosity.

"Let's just say... I had some help from an unexpected source," Sozui cryptically stated.

Ankh stared at him in confusion as they continued to walk through the forest.

An hour later, Ankh and Sozui found themselves standing in front of a hut inside a very old tree with potions hanging from its branches.

"Do you think somebody lives here?" Sozui asked before a gust of wind suddenly pushed them through the front door as it closed behind them. He quickly got up and tugged at the door only to find it unable to budge.

"Great," Sozui muttered before he felt something gently tapped his shoulder.

"Strange guests who are in my home, why were you in the Everfree such it is a dangerous place to roam?" A voice mysteriously rhymed behind him. Sozui turned his head around and found a zebra holding a tray with three steaming cups and a pile of crackers on it, "Come in to my chambers, I have some tea and crackers."

Sozui blinked in bafflement as he turned to Ankh who only groaned and rubbed his leg in pain before asking the strange zebra, "Aren't you the least bit surprised by him?"

"I have seen many strange creatures more or less, he is just merely a bird wounded by an injury and stress," the zebra explained calmly with a smile.

"Bird?!" Ankh growled with a visible tickmark, but he received a whack from Sozui as well as a quick 'bear with it' glare as he helped him got up from the floor and carried him to the zebra's chambers.

"So you live here to keep others safe when you are doing dangerous spells?" Sozui asked as he slumped in his seat on the couch next to Ankh while chewing on a cracker. After the zebra showed them to her quarters, she introduced herself to be Zecora, a shaman from Zebrica. It also turns out she has the antidote to a manticore's poison and was able to apply it to Ankh's wound which quickly sealed up as soon as the medicine was applied.

"Yes I don't want the other ponies to be harmed, and I certainly don't want them to be any more alarmed," Zecora explained while Ankh blew on his tea to cool it off.

"I see," Sozui muttered as he sipped his tea while Ankh did the same, but then something clicked in his mind that made him did a spit take on Ankh much to his annoyance, "WAIT! Other ponies?! You mean there are others like you?"

Zecora nodded as she took a sip from her tea, "There are three types: earth, pegasus, and unicorn, but the most royal of them all is the alicorn."

Sozui's eyes narrowed in thought as he nudged Ankh's arm beside him, "Ankh, I'm going to see what's inside that tome. Think you can stand still through her explanation of the alicorns?"

"Oi! You may have treated my wound and helped me across the forest, but that doesn't mean-!"

"Would ten ice pops change your mind?" Sozui asked as he stopped Ankh from executing another of his rants.

"Rgh! Fine! But don't you forget it!" Ankh sternly reminded.

Sozui quickly jumped behind the couch as Ankh started to ask Zecora about the alicorn.

"There are two alicorn sisters that have existed through out the history of Equestria. The eldest is Princess Celestia while the youngest is
Princess Luna." Zecora started to explain while Sozui managed to quietly open the book and started to skim through the pages quickly, but all he could see is ancient gibberish on every page.

"Come on, please tell me there is something legible in here!" Sozui whispered urgently as he flipped page after page frantically until he suddenly stopped on the last one where it doesn't contain any writing, but an indention of something rectangular, "Oh you got to be kidding me..."

Suddenly, a scream of horror came from outside as Ankh, Sozui (who placed the book back in his vest pocket), and Zecora went out and the former two saw someone familiar as he scrambled in fear away from something. That someone is Uva in his incomplete form as he frantically shot green lightning at a pink blur that is chasing after him.

Some of the green lightning strayed from its target and zapped where Sozui was standing causing him to spasm a bit as his skeleton was seen a few times before he stopped completely black as coal with an afro on his head. He quickly shook the soot off of him and watched in confusion as Uva scurried up a tree and clung onto a branch. The pink blur immediately stopped in front of the tree to reveal to be a pink mare with a poofy mane and tail as she looked around for the cornered bug Greeed while holding a big fly swatter.

"Uva?! What's he doing he-UMPH!" Ankh started to speak out loudly, but Sozui quickly slapped a hand over where his mouth was suppose to be.

"Quiet Ankh! Don't let her see us! Zecora, please distract her!" Sozui whispered as he ducked out of the pink pony's view while Zecora nodded and made her way to the pink mare.

"Pinkie Pie my dear friend, are you looking for someone to apprehend?" Zecora asked in confusion.

"Oh hey Zecora!" Pinkie Pie cheerfully greeted, "I was baking cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner when I heard something clattering outside, and I went out and found some sort of big bug searching through the garbage cans eating some of the baked bads I accidentally made. I thought it was some sort of crazy bug so I brought out my big flyswatter and started to smack it and then it managed to get away! Did you see it around here!? I want to teach that big beetle not to mess around with my garbage until he apologizes!"

"Good luck with that... Uva might be a tough nut to crack," Sozui muttered to himself as he and Ankh quietly tiptoed behind her to the tree.

"Ah if you are looking for that beast, I think he ran to the east," Zecora explained as she pointed to a direction.

"Thanks!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she zoomed off at an amazing speed but then she came back a second later, "He wasn't there sorry! Say my Pinkie Sense just went off earlier and wowie zowie was it a doozy!! I don't know what it is but something big will happen here! I wonder what it is? A sudden lightning bolt? A failed experiment? A new pony to welcome in Ponyville!?! Oh Zecora, you know how much I like to throw 'Welcome Parties!'"

While Pinkie Pie was rambling to Zecora, Sozui and Ankh started to climb up the tree to get Uva down and managed to get to the tree branch from where he was hanging.

"Ankh?! What are you doing here and who is he?!" Uva whispered as he clung on the branch.

"Shh! Don't let her hear you! I'll explain later just grab my hand!" Sozui quietly spoke as he held out his hand to Uva. The bug Greeed stared at Sozui for a moment but he grabbed his hand none of the less, "Good, now gently... Gently..."

Sozui and Uva were almost to the trunk of the tree when the branch suddenly snapped off completely, but Ankh managed to grab on Sozui's vest at the last second as the helpless duo hung for their life.

"Whew, that was close!" Sozui sighed with relief as they were gently lowered to the ground by Ankh's flight ability, but his relief was cut short when Uva suddenly sneezed when one red feather landed on his face.

Pinkie Pie's ears flicked making her turn her head to see three strangers behind her. Her eyes then comically flamed as they turned red with anger when she saw Uva. She snorted steam as she scraped her hoof against the ground while her tail started to spark like a lit fuse as her teeth clenched around the handle of the fly swatter.

"Shall we run for our lives now? I've seen what she does with that fly swatter! It wasn't natural!" Uva gulped in fear as he stepped back.

"For once Uva, I agree with you..." Ankh fearfully stated as he stepped back as well as the spark on Pinkie's tail reached to her flank, the fly swatter then started to spin like a high-speed eggbeater!

"RUN!!!!!" Sozui screamed as the terrified trio ran for their lives as a mad pink pony chased after them like a rocket while Zecora just shook her head at this spectacle before she went back inside her hut.