Homeward Unbound

by Cinnarowe

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Human
Length: 7475

College can get quite boring once you get used to it, but what if something magically unnerving happened to change the same old routines? Somerhing like being placed in a place where you are not supposed to exist?

This is the tale of a young man who's life is completely and utterly changed. As all hope seems lost, and everything around him ripping holes in realities and everything he thought he knew about everything around him, how will he handle the new ways given to him? Is there truly nothing that will make these strange happenings clear to him?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-15 20:31:59 UTC

Beginnings

Utter confusion and shock is the general mess going on inside of my head right now, as I scan for where the main entrance to the school should be, only to find trees, trees and more trees. A forrest surround the tiny clearing of which I now stand, confused to my wits about what could possibly have me end up here.

Where the hell am I? Why am I in a forrest and what the fuck was that tornado thing that happened just a few moments ago?

"HELLO?!" I shout out to nobody in particular. My panic only seems to get worse as there is no response whatsoever. Nothing in sight but snow, and a vastly big forrest that I seem to have somehow ended up in. "Anybody out there?!"

Receiving no response but the chilly draft from the cold air, I but both palms to my face, trying to get myself to calm down and think straight about my situation.

Okay, so I was trapped in a vortex of snow just in front of the main entrance to my school, which all in itself is nowhere near possible, and now I'm in a forrest, far from anything that seems to have any lick of sense?

See, the thing is, I would naturally jump to the conclusion of me still dreaming, but I have a pretty clear mind on whenever I am actually not dreaming. Such as fully remembering when waking up, doing all the things I naturally do and all of that. There's just a noticeable difference between when you know you're actually awake and when you're dreaming, at least for me. So I don't think I'm dreaming.

But then how else do I explain what just happened?

I groan as I rub my face with my palms, clearing my mind of these conflicting thoughts. My eyes bright up as I realize that my phone is still in my pocket, like it always is. Thank god.

I gleam as I navigate through to my contacts, and settle with calling my mother, as I would always inform her whenever something completely unnatural happens to me, which to be honest, this is the first.

I hit call and to my great dismay, all I hear is a disheartening beep. "Fuck." I curse. No signal, of course. Why am I not surprised?

I shift between looking towards the trees, and back to my phone a few times before sending a message for my mother to "call me". It'll send automatically whenever signal is in reach, and she will most likely call back as soon as she can. Until then...

I sigh as I plonk the phone safely in my inner pocket of my coat, making sure that it will be safe from both the cold, and me loosing it out of my pocket by accident. That would not be good. I quickly take in my surrounding once again as I hesitantly choose a direction to start walking in. Without the sun, nor moon visible from my position, I am unable to deduce where any direction might be, so I just pick the one that was in the general direction of where the main doors to my school would be.

As I start walking, I shudder in thought as once again I think back to what just happened. How does something like that just happen?

Thanks to the white snow, and the trees being a relative fair distance between each other, I am able to slightly see where I'm going. That is to say, I am able to not walk into a tree. I can in fact see very little due to the darkness.

Walking further, I keep getting more disappointed by the fact that I don't find anything else but more woods. I've been walking for about five minutes, and all I see is still this damned wood.

As if my prayers were answered, I could hear something other than eerily silence.

"We gotta get her to the hospital, she's not safe here!" I hear faintly in the distance, although the tone of whoever said that doesn't really lift my spirits. Who's not safe, what happened?

I decide to approach this carefully, and make as little as much noise I can as I close in on the voices behind the treeline. A little ahead there seems to be another little clearing, and I can barely make out shapes in the distance between the trees. The voices are talking to someone who seems to have gotten hurt by something, and now remembering them saying "It's not safe here" isn't exactly making me feel less worried about my situation.

As I finally get a clear view of the voices, I come to a complete halt as I stare dumbly into what was what I thought were people talking to each other.

But no, Instead I see the impossible scenario of three horses with scarves and beanies, tending to another horse who seems to have injured itself. One horse was dark colored, the other was a shade of light yellow, and the pony being tended to was white as the snow.

I quickly hide myself behind the tree I had snooped out from, and completely loose all sense of awareness.

WHAT THE FUCK?! Why... How?

As if I wasn't going through enough this morning, this was just the icing on the cake. How dare the laws of nature twist itself twice in one morning? Horses don't talk. Horses don't talk. Horses don't..

I squint my eyes shut as I keep repeating this to myself mentally. I open them quickly and take another glance towards the horses.

I instantly resume my hiding position. Horses do talk. Horses do talk.

What am I supposed to do? Should I come out and try talking with them? No. For all you know they could have every intention of murdering me on the spot if they think I'm dangerous... Or they can just be dangerous out of the concept of being dicks.

My head is spinning now, as I realize the ponies must have heard me moving back to hiding behind the tree, evident by the silence that followed.

"Did you hear something? I think I saw something move over there.." One of the horses said, sounding... worried?

We can't afford being paraniod, Thunder Lane, Light is in trouble!" The other horse with the female voice replied. "Help me get her back to Ponyville!" She ordered, causing this "Thunder Lane" to turn in his tracks.

As I feel eyes were off me, I carefully adjusted my position to sneak a view of the scene in front of me, still trying to figure out what was actually going on.

"Sorry.. my bad." He went over to the horse who was now leaning against the female horse, adding for extra support. "You'll be all right, Light. We're gonna get you to that hospital in no time." He added, causing a pained smile by the injured horse.

For some strange reason, the two horses spread out their wings... Oh, they have wings... wait.

These things can fucking fly. They're pegasuses... or pegasi. I don't give a shit about how it's worded, I'm just flabbergasted by the fact that I'm seeing this.

The two horses start flapping their wings, taking off with relative ease as they lift the injured horse with them, heading towards the left of where I currently stand, leading further off from where I had originally come from. As they are out of sight, I hesitantly step out into the clearing, still having my eyes on them as they ascend into the sky, still being able to see them despite the dark skies, thanks to their bright colors. Why are they colored like candy?

I remove my hat as I stare dumbly at the horses as they slowly vanish from my sight, and out of my reach behind the treetops. I crouch down an grab a handful of snow in my fist, stand back up, and dump the load of snow on top of my head.

Ah, much better. That honestly helped easy my mind for a little. I noticed despite the cold, I was sweating heavily, and I doubt it was from the thick clothes I was wearing. I have been panicking for a while now, and I seriously need to calm down before a vein bursts within me.

I once again think through everything I've seen so far... and to be honest, I don't feel comfortable right now. I feel down right lost. Talking horses? That's... just not normal.

I rub my temples as I try to figure out some sort of reasonable explanation to all of this, which proves unsuccessful. I groan as I stare up into the night sky, giving it a grimace, as if it were at fault for bringing me to this place.

Also, where the hell am I?

I grab for my phone in my pocket, checking if my message had sent. Nope, nothing. I still see no sign of any signal bars on the top right of the screen, and I defeatedly sigh. At loss for ideas about what to do, I start to get worried. It'll probably be sunrise in a little while, and I need to find somewhere that's inside before I start getting cold. Luckily I packed myself in with warmth today, so I won't freeze anytime soon.

I think back at what the two horses said about heading to a hospital. Where there is a hospital, there is most likely a local area, which means society.

I look back into the direction of where the horses had vanished from my sight, staring into it, waiting for my mind to be clear.

I take a deep breath as I hesitantly start to walk. "Here goes nothing."

It's been a good half hour of just walking now, and I feel myself getting increasingly tired. Mostly from stomping through the snow, which makes trekking considerably more difficult. There's still no sign of any clearing, lights or anything anywhere, although I see the sun is starting to rise. Thank god, finally I am able to see a little more of this god forsaken place.

I reflexively look at my phone from time to time, still no damn signal. I tried calling the emergency service after I slapped myself mentally for not doing it sooner, but I got the same beep as last time I tried dialing.

Giving up on that for now, I was determined to get to this place the horses were heading. I hope to christ they didn't take any sharp turns somewhere in the sky, as it would probably lead me nowhere but into more trouble. I am now just following what faith I have that I'll somehow get out of this place, and fast.

Just a short while later, the sun has finally started to show itself beyond the horizon. I sigh in relief as I see signs of it, and how much more bright this forrest has now become. It doesn't change the fact that I am lost, so my thoughts trail back to the matter at hand. Find civilization.

Suddenly I hear something a little ways to my left, which prompts me to stop dead in my tracks. More voices.

I don't want to loose my trail of where the pegasi flew, but I have the general direction stamped into my mind, and I nervously take silent steps towards the voices in the distance. Once in reach of hearing, I stop and hide behind a tree, cautious to the fact that this may be more of the talking horses. Hopefully not. I cease my thoughts to be able to tell what the voices are saying.

"So what exactly are we looking for again?" A female voice asks. "I told you, I don't know what it is we're looking for yet, we just need to investigate where the twister happened, check for clues of any magical disturbance." Another female voice replies.

I glance out from behind my hiding spot, and I see them. Six more horses, all wearing winter gear. Scarves, beanies, fluffy saddles and boots. Some of them even have jackets.

Now I'm more surprised as I see that not only is there horses without wings too, but some of them even have horns! Unicorns too? One of them has both wings AND a horn. What even is that?

I stare at them in awe, still not getting over the fact that this is actually happening, and I continue listening in on the conversation.

"So Twilight, what do ya reckon we're gonna find anyway? The princess seemed mighty sure this here twister wasn't just some accident." A peach colored horse says with a thick southern accent, catching me off guard.

Hang on a second. Twister? Are they... Are they talking about the thing that got me here?

"I'm honestly not sure, Applejack. I'm just really eager to investigate this phenomenon. But I want you all to be on your guard in case anything off is to happen while we're here." The unicorn+pegasus combo commands. getting five nods in return. Applejack? Twilight? What kinda names are that?

I struggle as I take in all this information that I have no idea what means, and I forget that I was supposed to be quiet.

*snap*

Why does there always have to be a fucking twig, even in the snow? I mentally groan, now having gotten the full attention of all the horses as I quickly dash behind the tree again, hoping they didn't see me.

"Uh... did you guys see that?" Another asks. Shit. shit. shit.

"Yeah... I think something is hiding behind that tree over there." The one I remember as Twilight responds. Fuck.

My mind goes on overdrive, and I fully panic. Shit, they know I'm here. What the hell do I do?! I struggle as my mind has it's conflict within my head, and it only resolves into a single conclusion of extreme instinct and fear.

Run.

I dash from my hiding spot, running as fast as my legs can carry me back towards the direction of where I was previously headed, not daring to look back to see if the horses had started their pursuit. All I could think of was getting the hell away.

Earlier...

Twilight walked back and forth impatiently as her friends worriedly stood by and observed her every move. They had waited for Rarity to come out of fifteen minutes now, and they all knew why.

"For Celestia's sake, Rarity, are you almost done in there?" Twilight shouts towards the door to Carousel Boutique. "Just a moment, dear" The white unicorn responds with a fluttering voice from within.

For the past fifteen minutes since Twilight had informed Rarity about the little investigation they were going to do in the White Tail Wood, she has been obsessed to do what it seems like she always does before anything slightly of interest; dressing for the occasion. Her other friends luckily only had one set of winter wear, although they did have a slight grumpy attitude at the idea of getting up to adventure this early in the morning.

But peaceful slumber can be set on hold, as investigating what could be something quite extensive is far more important.

Finally, after what seemed like hours , the door flew open, revealing a white unicorn, taking a pose as to show off her style.

She smugly smiled at Twilight. "Why Twilight, don't be like that. After all, some of us needs to look fabulous." She only received a dead panned glare from Twilight. "Come now, Twilight. Don't be so glum. What has gotten you so anxious today?" She asks, looking slightly worried at her alicorn friend.

"Sorry Rarity, but I really want to investigate this! It could be something crucial, and the princess asked us to find out what it is, so I really wan't to get going before the end of the week." She sarcastically replies, causing the unicorn to grin. "Well, we're waiting for you now." She states as she takes point, heading towards the pathway out of town followed closely by the rest of her friends.

Twilight only sighs in defeat, realizing Rarity is now simply toying with her, and moves on.

The girls stop before leaving the town edge, and huddle in a circle to plan their trip to the woods. "Okay girls, you all read the letter. We're just going to be investigating the general area of where this happened. It's quite a trip, at least forty-five minutes give or take." Twilight explains.

The girls nod in affirmation. "Okie-dokie Twilight! What do you think we're gonna find? Oh, oh, I know! Aliens!" Pinkie finishes ominously, drawing a chuckle from the group. Pinkie, despite being woken up this early, seems to have no problem being present. In fact, she gives of the same gleam and slight spring in her step she always carry with her.

"You've got some imagination, Pinkie. It's probably just a mess up in the weather planning." Rainbow added, seemingly confident of her professional deduction on her experience with the weather scheduling and it's effects.

Twilight feeling assured everyone was ready, and slightly less grouchy, she took point as they headed for the forrest.

It had now been a good half hour of walking through the forrest, none of the girls really had anything to add as they trekked through the winterfallen forrest as the sun was making it's slow ascent towards the sky. The whole trip was mostly silent. Even Pinkie Pie hadn't really been talking. Probably thinking through her alien theory a bit more.

Most of the girls had been too lost in thought about preparations for Hearth's Warming Eve. The presents had mostly been all accounted for, some still required packing, but that would be dealt with later on, it was still a week and a half left after all.

Fluttershy was busy scanning for any traces of animals out and about, not because she wanted to meet them, quite the opposite. She would be quite concerned if she saw animals running out at this time of year, but she assured herself that nature had it's ways to make sure the animals stayed in hibernation.

To Rainbow Dash's pleasure, they did pass by the current resting place for her pet tortoise; Tank. She happily went over there for roughly ten minutes to casually chat with her pet, knowing he was sleeping, but it made her feel better with dealing with the fact that she wouldn't see her pet again until Spring.

Resuming their walk, the silence was almost killing. Feeling the need to break the awkward tension, Rainbow spoke up. "So.. uh, nice morning, eh?" She hesitantly said to no one in particular, giving space for anypony to reply.

"Oh, it sure is. The snow looks so nice and untouched." Fluttershy added with glee. That caused the rest of the group to fall out of their trance, as they started to look around.

The snow was pretty much flawless, and the sun now barely touching over the horizon made it sparkle slightly, making it even more wonderous to behold. "Winter sure is cold, but it sure has it's special way of bein' natural and pretty." Applejack added, agreeing with her butteryellow friend.

"Oh, I can't wait to get back to Ponyville to make a really big snowpony, and then I'm gonna build an even bigger snowalien!" Pinkie exclaimed, now returning with her alien tales. Twilight smiled. "And what do you think that would look like, Pinkie?" Pinkie suddenly appeared in front of Twilight, as usual, out of nowhere. "I don't know, that's what makes it so exciting!"

Rainbow was feeling tired already, not really feeling up do doing much today, much less go on a hike. "Argh, how much further is it Twilight? I don't wanna waste my time here when I could spend my time reading through the new Daring Do book, again."

Twilight frowned. "I would say it's about twenty minutes towards this direction." She points a hoof leading towards the general direction she's walking towards. "And I'm sorry, Rainbow, but I need all of your help in case this turns out to be something out of the ordinary."

"So what exactly are we looking for again?" Rainbow asks. "I told you, I don't know what it is we're looking for yet, we just need to investigate where the twister happened, check for clues of any magical disturbance." Twilight responds, also wishing they could arrive soon. She was instructed where to go, and the clearing should be considerably easy to find. If not she would search from the skies.

"So Twilight, what do ya reckon we're gonna find anyway? The princess seemed mighty sure this here twister wasn't just some accident." Applejack pipes in. "I'm honestly not sure, Applejack. I'm just really eager to investigate this phenomenon. But I want you all to be on your guard in case anything off is to happen while we're here." Twilight finishes, receiving an affirmative nod from the five mares present.

*snap*

To say the sound stood out, was an understatement. It sounded fairly close, and it was more clear to the ear due to the silence that had fallen over the group after the conversation ended. Twilight's head, along with the other five, snapped to the direction where the noise came from. A twig, it sounded like.

For less then a second, they saw something dash behind a tree roughly 10 meters from their current standpoint. They all stopped in their tracks, and shared a confused look, seemingly all having seen something going behind that tree.

"Uh... did you guys see that?" Asked Rainbow, apparently curious about if the others saw what she saw, seeking for confirmation from one of her friends. Twilight firmly nods.

"Yeah... I think something is hiding behind that tree over there." She replies, causing Rainbow to get in a better stance, in case this was a sign of trouble. To drive the point home, she flared her wings to their grandest position manageable.

As Twilight was about to cautiously shout out a meek 'hello', some... dark, tall creature emerged from the tree, making a mad dash towards their left. Twilight and the gang was startled quite by this, Rainbow even loosing her posture in a few seconds of shock. "What the hay is that thing?!" She splurted out, looking between Twilight and the... thing.

Twilight was now very confused. "I... I don't know! I've never seen something like that before!"

Pinkie's eyes grew to pinpricks. "Ohmygosh! I knew aliens were real!" Twilight glared at the pink party pony. "Pinkie!"

"It's running away! What do we do Twilight?" Rainbow asked hurriedly, causing Twilight to panic slightly more. "That thing was spying on us!"

Twilight was running like a steamtrain, glancing between the direction of the investigation, and the creature's mad dash between the trees, now a much further distance away. She was sweating. How would she know that this creature isn't just a startled animal? She's never seen the likes of it before. It was bipedal, and the speed of it was quite impressive, but was it safe? Why was it spying on them?

"Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack. We don't have any idea what this could be, but we need to split up if we're gonna be able to do this without loosing our objective. Me, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie will be heading towards the clearing, while you three follow this thing and find out where it's running off to. Don't scare it though, we have no idea what it could be. And be careful!" She commands, getting a nod and an excited grin from the pegasus. "On it!" She salutes as she dashes towards the direction the creature had gone.

"You girls be careful too!" Rarity shouts as she and Applejack tries to keep up with Rainbow Dash. Twilight sighs, looking towards Fluttershy and Pinkie. "This could turn out to me more complicated than we anticipated."

Where am I?

I yawn as I get up to sit up in my bed, eyes still forcing themselves shut. However, this is the only way I'll ever get up, and my body isn't ashamed to let me know of it's dismay. As my ears start to make contact with my brain, I soon realize my alarm is still playing.

I groggily navigate myself blindly to reach my phone and slide the alarm off. I slowly realize I forgot to remove my corrective lenses the night prior, causing it to dry in my eyes, which makes opening my eyes an even more so difficult task.

I finally manage to open my eyes, but it doesn´t exactly improve my efforts. Everything is blurred, as due to my dry lenses. I hesitantly try to remove them from my eyes, preparing for the pain that comes with it. I end up having to literally rip them from my eyeballs, which quite honestly isn´t as nasty as it sounds. Still stings though.

I reach for my glasses, and toss the dry lenses in the bin. So comes the joyful routine of getting dressed. I settle with a regular setup, the usual wooly clothes to guard me from the presence of winter.

Man, it can get extremely cold up here in the winter, relentlessly even. Especially at this altitude.

Feeling satisfied with my choice of clothing, I finish dowsing myself in deodorant and glance over at the time.

Time for breakfast.

I live in a relatively tiny room in this College. Thankfully I was lucky to get one of the few single rooms, which means I don´t have to share it with a stranger, thank god. I am NOT ready for a shared environment with a complete stranger.

There are roughly 60 or so people living in this one building, which connects to the cafeteria. It´s easy to get used to, in the end everyone living there is like family since you see each other from you wake up till you go to sleep. Mostly.

The cafeteria only opens 4 times a day, 1 meal a few hours separate from each other. It´s breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a "before bed snack" meal. It´s always a mystery what they serve at dinner, so I either become really satisfied or very disappointed at dinnertime. It´s alright I suppose, although one gets very hungry when night falls, given that the last meal is at 8pm, causing me to actually have something to wake up to in the morning.

But whatever, like I said, time for breakfast.

I make my way out of my room, and lock it. I don´t trust anyone enough to leave my door unlocked just yet. I head over to the stairs to the cafeteria, already smelling the newly made bread. I gotta say, paying for College actually pays off once in a while. I mean, fresh bread every morning? Yum.

Breakfast as usual goes by without much happening at all. It´s just the same early birds as always, ready for yet another day. The days here usually aren´t bad. I love my studies and my teacher is pretty awesome to boot. He even joined us for a drink last weekend! Don´t get me wrong, he´s just 8 or so years older than myself so it isn´t THAT weird.

With us, I mean the usual gang. You know, the one everyone has at some point. Here at college we always have our separate gangs, and separate tables, which I guess is the norm for all small societies like this one. Not that we feel we are a master race or anything though, we are fairly open to most of the people in this institution, which is about 120 people total. Including the prissy bastards that live over in the apartment building, extra paid for and everything.

I head back to my room after breakfast to prepare myself for my first class. I firstly make my bed all nice, just like I always do. With nothing else to do for the next half hour, I glance around in my room, thinking about what to spend the next 30 minutes doing.

I could play some Smash Brothers on my 3DS... but I don´t really feel it at the moment. I hate feeling like I have nothing to do, and while still having lots of time to myself, something I never truly appreciated enough, I feel.

I keep glancing until I spot the picture of my little brother and sister on the top shelf of my desk, and a thought quickly reminds me.

My mom is having another baby. Meaning I get another sister or brother. Honestly when she told me I couldn´t believe it. My sister was the last child she had and that´s 6 years ago. Speaking of, my brother and my sister are 8 and 6, and I love them with all my heart. I don´t spend my time home except for vacations, but when I do, they treat me like I am their father, and it makes me so very happy. It renewed my vision on having children to one where I actually considered it.

However, I haven´t had a girlfriend in about 6 years now, and I don´t really see that changing anytime soon.

I go to study the picture closer, causing me to smile, remembering those few trips I have home to my family. I am actually coming home next week for Christmas, my favorite family bonding time. It´s bound to be great, and I can´t wait.

I am interrupted in my thoughts as I spot my over the top full trashcan, and I groan.

"I might as well." I say to myself, given that I have nothing else to do. I grab the bag surrounding my mess, and tie it up to the best of my abilities, which when this thing is as filled as it is, it proves to be quite the task. Throwing it over my shoulder, which I instantly regret, feeling a moist smudge hit my back, I head out to the College trash area.

Although with the cold snow outside, and it being below 0 degrees, I refuse to leave without my coat, scarf and hat. I just love that combination, it totally says "me". Oh well.

Heading out the main doors, I instantly feel the bite of winter. It´s still dark outside, it still being 8:10 in the morning at late December. It´s been snowing, as far as I can tell. The layer of snow that was already there has been considerately raised and flattened of any tracks of disturbance.

Just the way I like it, although the cold I will never get on good terms with. I adjust my grip on the rather nasty bag of rubbish in my hands, and head over to the trash area.

It´s a simple shed just a hundred meters away from the main entrance, and a few stair steps lead down to it. Without thinking much I casually step on to the metal stair, realizing a little to late it is completely covered with ice.

Naturally I instantly fall on my ass.

I grunt in pain as I grasp my back for support to my aching backside, and curse at the rude stairs for making my morning considerably more unpleasant.

I grab the railing of the stairs as support to push myself up, dusting the unwanted snow off myself before cautiously shuffling down the steps, which to my comfort, proves successful. I toss the bag of dirt into the cart, happy to have done something semi-productive, only taken a little sacrifice in the effort of doing so. I glance back at the stairs and give it my best glare, only realizing I´m being mad over my own uncarefulness.

As I turn to head back, something catches my eye in the corner of the shed, under some traces of snow that made it´s way into the shed. It gives of a slight sparkle, which is what caught my attention. I frown and head over to the source of this interesting... whatever it is.

I carefully crouch down to dust the snow away to reveal this mystery that is bothering me so, almost as if it drawing my attention towards it. I dust the snow away, to reveal a... a pendant? A small pendant shaped to look somewhat like a whirlpool or sorts.

Figuring someone probably lost this here, and me having a soft spot for collecting pretty objects, I shrug while picking the pendant up, stuffing it in my pocket. I stand back up and make my way up those blasted stairs again.

I don´t even get halfway to the entrance of my school before a powerful gust hits my face, completely out of the blue. I jump back in surprise at this sudden change of events and let out a weak yelp.

"Wha-" I gasp out as I collect myself, correcting my hat on my head. I look around, taking in my surroundings. Completely windstill.

"Okay..." I nervously let out as my eyes dart from every direction, to possibly try to spot where the mysterious gust had come from. I hesitantly shrug it off my mind, as my eyes find themselves focusing on the ground below me, which has for some reason started to react to... something else.

Not as much the ground, as the area around me. I see the snow around me, forming itself into circles around my feet, looking like it´s being carried by a wind I can not hear nor feel.

I feel myself getting increasingly confused and scared, and I look around me as the circle around me seems to pick up speed. A speed that I am starting to get extremely worried by.

Okay, now I´m officially fucking loosing it. I turn to every direction, trying to gather what in the world is happening as I see the snow rise above my feet, forming a sort of tornado of snow around my lower body. I feel myself unable to move my legs, despite my best efforts. I panic as the wind picks up yet again, and I feel myself getting more afraid by the second.

What the hell is going on?!

The tornado is now in full spin around my body, and my vision is blurred by snow, snow and more snow. It spins around me faster and faster as I try to figure out what´s happening to me. Why can't I move my legs?!

I scream out for help a little to late I feel, and my eyes are now invaded by the snow flowing around me, also blurring my glasses. I cover my eyes with my arm, squinting my eyes to not be blinded by these rapidly moving snowflakes. A full tornado is now violently spinning around me, and I am completely unable to do a thing about it. A million thoughts race through my mind as this traumatic experience unfolds.

Am I dying? Is this real? Is someone playing a very dumb and dangerous prank on me? Will I... Ever see my family aga-

I am interrupted from my thoughts as I feel the wind grace me up a few feet in the air, and hurls me forward into the ground. I fall face first into the thick snow in front of me as I feel the presence of the whirlwind around me completely fade from existance. I groan while my face is buried in the much deeper snow that I now lay in, not remembering how it got this deep. However, that thought was quickly extinguished as I remember what had literally just happened.

I dart up from the snow in panic of what had just happened, erasing the snow that still remains on my face and expecting some sort of closure of what had caused this unnatural thing to unfold. As I quickly find out, my answer will apparently be set on hold as a new question enters my mind.

"W-where am I?!"

Ponyville shines brightly with it's natural cozy feel and with beautiful lights and decorations, praising the holidays at this time of year, graced with a grand tree in the town square. Lights and ornaments adorn the enormous tree, making it seem almost magical.

This time of year is special for everypony, and so it is only right to make it the best of the best. Celestia's sun still lingers beyond the horizon as a few townsponies start milling the streets, preparing for the daily doings of their own businesses. Most of the market is closed at these remaining days before Hearth's Warming Eve, but some places simply need to be open every day.

Most of the town is still influenced by the peacefullness that is vacation. Ponies get to sleep in, young fillies and colts don't need to go to school for another half month, and all around, the mood is really starting to embrace the Hearth's Warming feel.

What takes up most of the attention from any eye, is the Ponyville Castle. Lights are hanging down from the walls, and a beautiful star is resting on the very top of the castle. It's also reflecting the lights hanging around it, giving it even more of a shine.

A little dragon is skidding along the pathway towards the castle with a presents in it's claws.  An excited grin on it's face as it happily makes it way towards the castle entrance. Once reaching the doors, it quickly enters to escape the cold of winter, and closes the door behind it.

"Twilight, I'm home!" The dragon shouts towards the hallway, receiving a loud echo of his own voice. As he removes his scarf, he sees a shape coming towards him.

Entering the entrance hall, is a purple Alicorn, delicately gliding over to greet the dragon. She lands gently beside him while smiling at him, leaning in to nuzzle her friend, which he happily returns with a chilly hug.

"Hello, Spike. Thank you for getting that from Rarity. We'll go put it under our tree right away." Twilight smiles as she takes the present away from Spike, causing him to sigh. Twilight looks back at Spike and quickly realizes what's bothering him.

"Sorry Spike... You know you can't open it until Hearth's Warming Eve." She tells him, lifting his chin up with her hoof.

"I know, Twilight. I just get so exited when ponies give me presents." He admits in defeat, noticing his friend grin.

"Yeah, I do. And I have the entire town to confirm that. You just have to learn to control it Spike, which has been going great so far, given that the "incident" didn't repeat itself on your last birthday." She says while walking beside him, heading toward their living room area up on the second floor. Spike scratches his back with a claw, remembering what she was talking about. Although he had no recollection of the actual happenings of that day, he was only told what had happened when he was a giant, rampaging dragon.

Coming up on the second floor, they already see the shine of the tree, lighting up the hallway outside through the open door, leading in to the living room. Spike glances over to where the table-map is, seeing through the open door that Twilight has been busy decorating the roots of the Golden Oak Library with more of the pretty lights.

Twilight fully opens the door to the living room, and trots over to the tree to place the present for her friend gently under the tree with all the other presents.

There are a load of presents under the tree already, mostly for Twilight and Spike, but some for the other guests Twilight is having over to celebrate the holiday with. All of her friends, the Apple family, (Big Mac, Granny Smith), and Apple Bloom and her crusader friends.

It'll be great getting to be together with so many of her friends.. no, her family, at such a special time. She grins to herself, returning to her book about star constellations that was left in front of the tree before she was interrupted.

Spike sits down in a comfy chair a little ways from Twilight, closer to the warm presence of the fireplace to warm himself from the cold outside. To his unfortunate miscomfort, he feels his stomach clench up the usual way it always does before-

A loud belch is heard, as Twilight instantly snaps her head around to see if that sound meant what she thought it did.

A scroll magically appeared from the trails of green flames that were so graciously being sputtered out by the poor dragon. She quickly catches it with her magic, surrounding the scroll in her purple aura, and levitates it over to her.

"A letter from the Princess?" She glances over at Spike, who has quickly recovered, and is heading over to Twilight to see what the letter says.

Twilight unfolds the ribbon keeping the scroll rolled up, revealing it's content. She studies the text along with her assistant.

Dear Twilight

I am most sorry for disturbing you on such an early hour, but i feel

I need to inform you about this as soon as I can.

I was just informed by my guards that there was a  weather "disturbance"

somewhere deep in the White Tail Woods. It was seen by a pegasus

doing her morning weather schedule, when she claims she spotted a

tornado forming up seemingly out of nothing.

Naturally we would oversee this as a fluke, but given that the pegasus

lost her control of her fight completely as she flew closer to investigate, we

believe this is... something else.

The pegasus, Light Hooves, unfortunately crashed into a tree, but she was

quickly found, thankfully that her fellow weathermares were close by. She is

now recovering here in Canterlot.

I of course turn to you, as I believe this to be something unusual.

I believe this was not a natural event, but something of magical disturbance.

Twilight, I would like to request that you, as the element of magic, investigate

this strange event. I am sure that if there was something magical about this,

you of all ponies would be the first to discover it.

Proceed with caution, and be well. You may bring your friends, as I'm sure

they would be much help to you.

Your friend,

Princess Celestia

Twilight frowns as she reads over the letter once more, trying to think of what could have caused such an event.

"Whaddaya think it was, Twi?" Spike asks as she contemplates the possible alternatives of this. She shrugs as she places the letter on her book, and trots around in thought. "I'm not sure, Spike. I can't seem to remember reading about this kind of stuff in any of my books before. There are said to be unnatural storms and twisters in the Everfree Forrest... but those rarely happen, and this took place deep within the White Tail Woods."

Spike scratches his chin with a claw. "Well, do you think we should go check it out?"

Twilight nods uncertainly. "I think it's definitely worth a look. This could be a just something as simple as some unicorn messing around with spells in the forrest... but for some reason I don't think that's what caused it." She glances over at Spike, finding him to softly sigh, while he longingly stares at where he comfortably sat in the armrest chair.

"Say, why don't you stay in today Spike, you already came back from running those errands, and I'm sure me and the girls can handle this just fine on our own. Besides, I can't really think of anything for you to do today to help prepare for Hearth's Warming Eve." She smiles in kind. "I'm sure you have a few ways to entertain yourself with while I'm gone?" At this, she sees Spike gleam as he pulls out a magazine apparently from out of nowhere.

Probably influenced by Pinkie.

"Aww yeah! You bet! I have been looking forward to a chance to read through "The Superpony" comic book." He gleams proudly as he displays the latest comic book, featuring his favorite comic book hero. Twilight smiles, glad to have that problem solved.

"Okay, Spike," She chuckles. "but first, I need you to send a letter to Celestia, so I can let her know I will be on my way." She requests as she starts heading towards the door, prepared to go meet with her friends.

"Sure thing, Twi. You can count on me!" On her way out, she nuzzles her friend goodbye, and heads out the doors leading to the hallway.