I regained consciousness as a beam of sunlight hit me in the face, causing me to groan.

Stupid mistake number four.

I jerked awake, coughing violently, dislodging the little bit of water that had made it down my throat after my impromptu high dive act last night.

"Ugh, I've really gotta stop falling from high places..." I muttered, spitting out the last few drops of water from my mouth. I took stock of my body's current state. I was a little bruised, probably from clipping a few rocks downstream from where I dove in, some small cuts on my face and hands from my escape, and there were some small tears in my hoodie, but nothing too extreme.

I moved to get up, but a sudden amount of pain forced me into a prone position. "Okay, ow." I muttered, fighting through the pain to stretch out all the sore areas. Once all the kinks were out of my system, I picked myself up from where I was lying and took a look at my surroundings.

The area I was in was a hole in the ground, and I mean that literally, it was a small clearing surrounded on all sides by high rock walls. Various kinds of flowers dotted the grassy meadow at the bottom of the crevice, the stream that had bought me here was bubbling softly behind me. All in all, it looked like a very peaceful garden. There was a cave at the other end of the clearing, a light shining from it.

Panic started to set in, I had lost my bearings and had no idea where I was, everything I had met in this forest had been openly hostile, I had zero survival skills to speak of, and if I was attacked again... well, I didn't want to think too hard about it.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, ok me... whoever I am. Survive now, freak out later. Preferably when I'm safe from whatever's sharing this forest with me. I took another breath, steeling myself, I looked towards the cave again.

Where there's light, there's civilization. I reasoned, making my way across the meadow. As I was approaching the cave, a thought occurred, This obviously isn't the world I came from, those wooden wolves were proof enough. Whoever or whatever lives here might not be that friendly... With this in my mind, I turned left and looped around the side of the meadow. I'd rather not expose myself more than I had to, and staying hidden from the cave's inhabitants would probably be important to staying among the living. Probably... I thought, frowning as I approached the mouth of the cave.

What I saw inside was impossible.

The cave turned out to be much more shallow than its outward appearance showed. In the back of the cave stood a tree, one made entirely out of crystal, at the end of its five branches were crystal orbs about the size of a basketball. Inside of each was a gem of a different shape and color, a light pink butterfly, a sky blue balloon, a red lightning bolt, a purple diamond, and an orange apple. The branches flowed flawlessly into the trunk, centering on a larger gem in the shape of a pink starburst. Imprinted into the trunk were two images: one depicting the sun and the other depicting the moon. Small motes of light flitted around the branches of the tree, surrounding it with the unearthly glow I had seen earlier.

Approaching cautiously, I ran my hand over the imprints on the trunk, the tree pulsed with warmth at my touch.

"What the hell?" I muttered, pulling away from the warm crystal. One thing was for sure, as impossible as it was, this mass of crystal was alive.

The pulses got faster, the soft light that surrounded the tree growing more and more intense until it became blinding, causing me to cover my eyes.

It is dangerous to go alone, young one. Take this, it belongs with you.

"Who are you?" I shouted into the light.

"I am friend, young one."

The light began to fade, bringing my vision back with it. I blinked the spots out of my vision, rubbing my eyes as my blurred vision came back into focus.

A rounded chunk of crystal had seemingly grown out of the ground in front of me, and sticking out of the very top was a sword.

It was an altogether simple, yet elegant weapon. It had a single edge that formed an S-curve from it's point to the curved guard which extended from the blade. Below it, in a slot grown out of the crystal was a comparatively boring wooden scabbard and belt.

I reached up and touched the sword blade, tracing the line of runes. It hummed in response the same way the tree had, as if it also had a life of it's own.

"This has King Arthur written all over it," I muttered, climbing on top of the clear crystal mound. If I was going to be stuck in this forest with those wooden wolves, I was gonna make damn sure I had a proper weapon on me. That branch hadn't even slowed those things down.

I wrapped my fingers around the handle, causing the sword to pulse in response. A tingling feeling raced up my arm and exploded into my head. I cried out, falling from my perch on the crystal and crashing to the ground.

I awoke in a white room. Pulling myself up, I glanced around. "Who's there?" I shouted into the endless emptiness.

No response, but something caused the hairs on the back of my neck to prickle in anticipation.

I spun around to face the other presence in here. Standing on the other end of the room was a human figure clothed all in white.

They wore a glove with a scarlet palm on one hand, the same hand clutching a long, narrow blade with a guard that curved around the handle. Their face was obscured by a mask fashioned from a metallic mesh.

"Who are you?" I asked the figure.

No response.

With no warning, the figure lunged, crossing an impossible distance in less than a second, the point of their blade racing toward my heart.

I could only gasp in surprise as the blade passed cleanly into my chest.

In a far away city, a stark white alicorn looked up from her paperwork, "...Mother?" she said, shocked.

In a certain crystal castle, the floors of the map room began to rumble as the thrones shifted over to make room for the crystalline obelisk sprouting from the floor, startling the castle's inhabitants.

My eyes shot open, my free hand clutching at my chest in a panic, searching for a wound that wasn't there.

"What the fuck was that?" I muttered, feeling my pulse slow back down to its normal pace.

I examined the blade in my right hand more closely, it had a leather wrapped grip which seemed long enough that I could wield it with both hands if I needed to, and ended with a rounded pommel adorned with a silvery-grey gemstone in the shape of a flame, a design of an orbiting sun and crescent moon decorated the surrounding metal. A line of runes in a language I couldn't decipher ran along a curved tongue of blue metal on its blade.

I stood up and gave my new weapon a few practice swings. The blade was balanced perfectly and the hilt melded into my hand naturally, almost as if it were made specifically for me.

That's impossible. I thought, dismissing it immediately. Or is it?

I picked up the belt and strapped it on. The scabbard fit horizontally across my lower back, but I could still slide the blade in and out without any real difficulty. I just have to be careful to not stab myself in the kidneys. I thought dryly, turning toward the cave exit.

Returning to the stream, I began to gulp down water as quickly as I could get it to my mouth, turns out having a trippy dream about getting stabbed in the chest after being given a sword á la King Arthur gives you a terrible case of cotton mouth. Once I had drank my fill, I sat back and reviewed what little I could actually remember.

I was a human, I came from the human world, Earth. Wherever I was now, is definitely not Earth. I don't remember my name, age, or the names or faces of any family or friends. There are freaking intelligent wooden wolves that tried to one-v-one me last night, until I tried to run. I have no clue where I was, and had no way of getting my bearings until I got out if this hole in the ground. Granted, it was a very nice hole in the ground, what with the stream, meadow, and crystalline tree that gives you fever dreams if you take the weapons it tries to give you, but other than that, a very nice hole in the ground.

I shook my head, clearing that line of thinking from it. Whatever the hell just happened, it had happened. There was no point on dwelling on it when my brain could be trying to figure out a way out of this hole. Glancing at the stream that bought me here, I briefly considered trying to follow it back to where I jumped in, dismissing the idea on the grounds that I didn't know how far I had gotten from my starting point and that swimming upstream would likely be a terrible idea. That left scaling the cliffs around me somehow.

Turning back towards the cave, I began to walk around the circumference of the clearing, scanning the cliffs for any signs of decent handholds that would allow me to scale up to where I could confirm the location of the castle again. Using whatever protection the crumbling fortifications could offer as a home base was probably gonna be my best chance of making it out here. And hey, I could always raid the armory for some more hardware that any looters had overlooked, though I was less hopeful of the second prospect, the image of myself decked out in ill-fitting armor smashing a gauntleted fist into the wooden muzzle of one of those wolves from last night began to fade from my mind.

That's when I tripped on the bottom step of the staircase, my shin exploded in pain as I slumped over the bottom step.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have been as mad as I had been at that moment, the stairs had been disguised in such a way that you wouldn't have been able to see them unless you knew they were there or were looking at them directly. Whoever put them here probably made them in a way that wouldn't cause the natural beauty of the meadow to be disturbed by their presence.

Cursing my bruised shin in the most colorful of pained grunts, I made my way up to the lip of the cliff only to find myself staring at a high, crumbling stone wall.

There's no way- I thought to myself, drawing my gaze upwards, only to see the twin spires that had been my goalposts for what I assume to be the last twenty four hours.

I had arrived at the castle.

As it turned out, getting inside the castle was a relatively easy task. The huge, rotting remains of the once grand doors were lying flat across a short staircase leading up to what looked like what had once been a foyer or grand entrance hall for greeting guests. The long hall was lined with the remains of stained glass windows and lined with the rusted remains of several suits of full plate armor that looked like they had been designed for small horses, with either a sun or a crescent moon emblazoned on the front of them. The high vaulted ceiling had crumbled away in places, revealing the sky above.

"No outer walls, no murder holes above the entrance, looks like the only defenses here were the poor saps guarding the place, huh?" I said out loud, examining the rusty plate armor. This one had a crescent moon emblazoned on the chest, closer examination revealed two pretty sizable holes in the sides just behind where the horse's withers would be. "Doesn't look as though they were serious about crafting this decorative piece though". I picked up the helmet and found it to be surprisingly light, even for a show piece. "What did they use for this, sheet metal?" I muttered, tossing the helm over my shoulder as I continued on my way.

The entrance hall led directly to a grand staircase to the second level with several halls leading off to unknown sections of the castle, most likely to the kitchens and servant's quarters whereas the upper levels were for nobles. This entire estate was probably a vacation home or hunting lodge for some noble way back when, the lack of visible defenses or external walls pretty much confirmed my theory. I turned away from the staircase and headed for the servant's quarters. If, by some insanely lucky chance that there was anything remotely useable in this castle, it wouldn't be where the nobles had stashed any valuables.

The desolate halls echoed with the sounds of my boots hitting the stone floor, the soft thumps lulling me almost into a trance as I explored the various servant bedrooms and common areas I found. All I found were the occasional wooden furnishing that was probably too heavy for any looters to take with them, not that I hadn't been expecting as much, but the lack of anything useable did not bode well for the rest of the castle having any viable resources.

Sighing heavily, I turned into the last door in the servant's quarters: the kitchen.

What was once a shrine to the culinary arts was now only a collection of slightly rusted cast iron pots, an old oven, and the rotted remains of a central table. The cabinets looked to be on their last legs before breaking off the wall. Heaving another heavy sigh, I began to comb the room for anything that could conceivably be considered useful.

Why am I even bothering with this anymore? I fumed, slamming the doors shut on another rotting, dust-filled cabinet when a metallic glint caught my eye. Getting down to my hands and knees, I peered into the gap between the stone oven and the wall next to it.

There, a little further in, was a tube-shaped piece of metal about half a foot long and about an inch thick. Straining, I reached into the gap, brushing along cobwebs and dirt until my fingers wrapped around the base of the tube.

I pulled it out...

...and almost dropped it when the giant spider on the end was shaken off it's perch.

I shrieked like a little girl and dropped the rod, causing it to clatter to the floor, emitting a shower of sparks on contact, and scaring the spider back to its hiding place.

"Dammit! I fucking hate spiders!"

...wait, WHAT!?

I sat down cross-legged on the floor next to the tube of metal, placing my hand on my chin. That was a reflex reaction, right?

If that was true, then it was entirely possible that my memory loss didn't affect the gut reactions of whoever I was before I ended up in that tree. I grinned, apparently I was an arachnophobe.

Still grinning like a madman, I picked up the tube of metal. Pulling out the sword, I ran the edge of the blade against the metal firmly, resulting in a much more generous fan shaped shower of sparks. Oh yeah, this one was definitely going in the 'win' book.

I pocketed my new fire starter, sending a glare at the gap where I knew the spider was hiding before leaving for the upper floors.

The throne room looked to be in much worse condition than the rest of the castle. All the windows were shattered, their ironwork frames broken and bent outwards, the ceiling had been blown apart, pieces of rubble littering the floor. Across the hall stood two dais, one backed by a golden throne, the other backed by an ebony one. Above the two were what must have once been beautiful banners, the bright yellow and gold one torn up way too much for moths to have been responsible.

I looked to the other banner, this one depicting a regal, horse-like creature with a midnight blue coat and an azure mane, sporting wings and a horn. At the end of the horn, a silvery crescent moon shone ribbons of pale light onto the hills surrounding the one the creature was standing on.

Was this one of their deities? I wondered, stepping around large pieces of rubble. They sure seemed to like horses a lot, didn't really seem like all that much of a stretch to assume that their gods/goddesses would be more of the equine persuasion, and right now, my 'suspension of disbelief bar' was in low orbit.

My boot slipped on a piece of loose tile, snapping me out of my theological trance. Waving my arms, I tried in vain to regain my footing which only accelerated my fall backward onto the cracked tile floor.

"Augh, god dammit..." I muttered, rolling onto my hands and knees, "I've gotta stop falling, period."

I was about to stand up again when something caught my eye. I crawled over to the suspicious area that had caught my attention, brushing away some debris to get a closer look at the tile below. The tile in question was charred black and warped, as if at some point it had tried to support a sun standing right on top of it.

I cleared away more debris, exposing more tiles with a similar affliction. The pattern extended equally in all directions and formed a perfect circle, leaving me with just one question:

"What the hell happened here?"

Author's Note

YAY!!! IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!

This chapter took much longer than I had anticipated (probably because I do my own editing) but now I can release it! On the premiere day for season six no less! (This is starting to sound suspiciously as if I planned it this way... )

Anyways, please comment back with your feedback on how I did down below while I figure out a new meaning for the word "soon"!