“Ugh my head.” I thought, my hand going to my head trying to relieve the pain. “That’s the last time I accept a friend's clothes” Slowly getting up I began to take in my surroundings. I found myself in a sort of forest. It was dark and a bit hard to see. “What the hell happened?” I said aloud before I heard screaming to my right. Before I knew what I was doing. I was running towards the sound.

As I was running something I couldn’t explain at the time happened. It was so strange but I could feel my body...blinking out of existence before returning a moment later in a completely different spot. I didn’t even realize it had happened. It was only later when I had calmed down that I really took in details of what had happened that it set in. When I had blinked back into existence I saw something strange before me.

Before me were four humans dressed in what appeared to be golden plated armor, which held a resemblance to roman armor, only with less leather and more metal. The fact that they were humans was wasn't what was causing him to stand and stare like an idiot, rather it was the fact that two of them had a pair of wings while the other two had long horns protruding from their foreheads.

The armor plated oddities were not alone though. Snarling and taking swipes at them was a creature of pure mythology. The scorpion tail of a manticore lashed out at a human with wings, who barely had time to dodge, before his wings flapped and pushed him forward to strike at the creature with a sword.

“What the bloody hell?” I said to myself. I didn’t notice my hand going to the revolver. I hadn’t even noticed that I had taken aim. I only noticed its presence when it went off with a bang, a second later one of the legs on the manticore’s legs exploded in a shower of blood and muscle.

The two humans with the horns took notice of the manticore’s crippled limb, and took advantage of the situation. The horns glowed a bright blue before bolts of lightning shot forth and hit the manticore head. The creature's head quickly exploded in a stream of blood and gore as fragments of it’s skull went flying. The humans all nodded before they turned and saw me still holding the revolver, the barrel still smoking.

“You there halt!” one of the more beat up horned one’s called raising a hand. “Sheathe thy weapon and put thy hands in the air,” he commanded as his buddies began to close in on me their weapons aimed at my chest and head.

“No,” I said simply which made them tense a bit, the tightened grip on their weapons were clear as day. “You were lucky I showed up, it’s best not to take that for granted. Had I not shown up, you’d have died,” I said letting the words sink in, watching as the tension in the air relaxed a bit.

“Who are you?” one of them asked me. I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out. My name escaped me and any suitable replacement name just felt...off

“I’m just a stranger,” I said dejectedly. It was a truth as I could feel I was different now. I was a stranger to everyone, even to myself

With that I felt a kind of tug. Turning around I felt myself blink out of existence yet again. I didn’t reappear in any normal sense of the word. Where I was it was like I was in a large room that I could roam in, and the world around me looked like that of the one I had left, but it was different. it was like...like I was looking at the world through beer goggles. The world seemed to move slower and blurred at the lines but I didn’t get the nauseating feeling that someone would normally get.

“Hell of a place isn't it?” I heard from behind me. Turning, my hand going for the gun. I spotted Fred there, a large grin on his face.

“Fred, is that you? What the hell is going on” I demanded as I gave him a highly pissed look. “ First I find this damn thing on the side of the street, then you give me the Mysterious Strangers cloths, I pass out and wake up in god knows where with some weird ass looking people with horns, and now you show up out of the blue with a shit eating grin on your face like you know what’s up!” My voice had slowly begun to rise as I had gotten deeper and deeper into my rant until I was nearly screaming at him.

“Yeah it’s me man. Sorry about the whole trapping you in an entirely different universe,” he said with a sheepish smile on his face, A SMILE! As if he could smile and the whole thing would be a-okay. My displeasure must have showed because he continued to talk with more hesitation. “Fortune was insistent that you were the one she wanted. The fact that you found the gun without her help only made her want you more.”

To say I was not amused was an understatement, Fred was talking about someone who shouldn’t exist, she was a character from a video game for christ sake. “Where the hell are we? I asked plainly. I just wanted a simple answer to a simple question.

“Well we’re currently in what I guess you could call the timestream. You know that wonderful place that when inside you can go to anytime and you never age,” He said before he seemed to stop as if listening to something. “Miss fortune wants to talk with you,” he said a second later.

Before I could even ask him what the hell he was talking about, I saw the figure of Miss fortune fade into existence next to him. To say I was scared...understatement of the fucking year. “Ahh it is so good to finally meet you in person Samuel or should I say Stranger?” She said with a giggle, meanwhile I stood there confused.

“I.. uh guess it’s good to meet you to Miss. Sooo was there any particular reason you wanted to meet me or what?” I ask

“Why yes, I actually wanted to fill you in on what you can do and what your duty is now. So lets get to it, first off you are what is called a apparition only physical. So that means that while you are technically a ghost you can still interact with the physical world. And now your powers and duty. You can now appear anywhere in the world as long as where you appear is around someone who is in danger and when you get there you will instinctively drawn your gun and fire upon someone or something there. And your duty is to protect the inhabitants of this world, as well as make sure that certain events happen, which when they are supposed to I will come talk to you. And I think that’s all anything to add Fred?” Fortune asked.

“Nope I think that pretty much covers everything, so any questions Sam?” Fred asked

“Good, now than I am sorry to say this seeing as you are still so new to this, but there is an event that needs to happen right now and I need you to make sure it happens. This event being that two particular soon to be princesses need to find what is known as the Elements of Harmony. I am going to be sending you to their location and I want you to lead them to the Elements, and don’t worry about getting lost I have a gift for you.” She said to me before handing me a map of what I am guessing is the country we are currently in with the location I will be appearing in and where I need to lead the princesses to circled.

And when I looked up from the map, Fortune and Fred had vanished and I was standing behind two tall women with both horns and wings, who I am guessing are the two that I am supposed to guide. *Sigh* Well this should be fun.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, this took some time and I would appreciate it and I am going to assume AstralFlame would as well if you all gave her a round of applause and a thank you for being a wonderful Co-author/pre-reader. So yeah send her a thank you for being awesome. For without her this story would not being anything like it is now.