The Drifter walked down the cold, crumbling hallway as his mind processed the events that had just occurred. The Immortal Cell was destroyed, Judgement along with it. Anubis has regained their power and his journey had ended. He was never promised a cure, he just hoped that the destruction of the Cell would bring an end to Judgement's disease. He was wrong. As he exited the cold hallway, coughing up blood as well as it dripping from his many wounds, he wondered,"What happens to the rest of the world? Does life begin to flourish again, like it once did? Or was all life tied to the existence of the Cell? Was Anubis just leading him on, pretending to be the good guy?"

These thoughts and many more ran through the Drifter's mind as he experienced another vision: All around him was crystal blue water and an even bluer sky, a steady breeze and a mountain range off in the distance. "Is this what the world will become? Is this just a trick?" He wondered, but as usual, he was given no answer.

He explored his surroundings, taking in every little detail as his attention was draw to his stomach. There was a gaping wound that oozed blood at an alarming rate. If he wasn't sure of this being a vision he would have panicked. But alas, he knew he was most likely already dead, just viewing all of this from borrowed time.

He looked back up and everything was black, as if it never existed. In the distance he noticed a small campfire and a familiar stone pillar. His final resting place."At least I have some place to call home," He thought to himself, giving a bittersweet sigh. He made his way to the crackling fire and rested his back against the pillar, he looked down at his small robotic companion and back at the fire. He felt the earth shake and watched the ceiling collapse around him. As he was being entombed by the rubble he closed his eyes and welcomed death's cold embrace.

And then he heard a voice. "This is not where you fall. You are the champion, the hero. You have defeated that which would destroy the world entirely, a feat that not even I could accomplish alone. You were the one who fought through the disease rather than letting it be your downfall. You did all of this, because you knew what was right... and I failed to return the favor, I betrayed your trust. I feel as though I owe you a great amount and that is why I speak to you now. It is time I rewarded you for your deeds..." The Drifter's vision was completely blocked by a bright, white flash. And then he slept.

Bon-Bon was angry, "Lyra's been missing for an entire week! What do you mean you still don't even have a lead?!" She yelled out to the purple Alicorn sitting across from her.

"We've tried everything, Bon-Bon: Tracking spells, summoning spells, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Zecora have searched the Everfree top to bottom, Pinkie Pie has searched every nook and cranny in Ponyville, Rarity has spoken with everyone who might know where she went, and Fluttershy has asked all of her animal friends to help look. It's almost like she just stopped existing." Twilight explained as calmly as possible.

"That can't be possible!" Bon-Bon cried, "Ponies don't just stop existing!"

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike called as he opened the door to the throne room.

"Oh, Spike! Can it wait, I'm kind of dealing with something really important."

"Not really." The young dragon replied.

"Did you find out where Lyra went?!" Bon-Bon asked excitedly.

"No, but there's this weird thing walking through Ponyville on two legs and it's wearing a cape," Spike stated, a little bit nervous, "Everypony's hiding from it in their houses."

"Maybe it's the thing that took Lyra!" Bon-Bon shouted in a mix of delight and fear, "She goes on and on about these weird bipedal creatures called 'humans', maybe that thing tricked her into getting close enough for it to capture her!" Then her voice got sinister, "Ooh, I'll rip it apart if it hurt her."

"Bon-Bon, let's not jump to conclusions," Twilight tried to reason, "We don't know what this thing is or why it's here. Our best bet is to try and communicate with it."

"Yeah, you're right. But can I still tear it limb from limb if it DID hurt Lyra?" Bon-Bon asked hopefully.

"Celestia help anypony who tries to stop you," Twilight stated, "Let's go check this thing out."

"Will it be fine if I wait here for you two to get back?" Spike asked, clearly not wanting to deal with something potentially dangerous.

"Of course, Spike" Twilight said, smiling.

Twilight and Bon-Bon made their way down the halls of the castle to the entrance. As Twilight used her magic to open the doors they both leaped back in shock, coming face to face with a tall, blue skinned, bipedal creature with a small... 'thing' floating over it who looked like they were about to politely knock on the door.

The Drifter awoke on a grassy hill. He was not unaccustomed to waking up face down in the dirt after weird dreams, but it was still annoying. "Can't leave me on the ground right side up for once? Does your godly power not extend to the direction someone faces when they wake up?" He thought, slightly irritated. He stood up, shaking off the few leaves and blades of grass that clung to his cloak. That's when he noticed the small town with a giant purple castle on the far end of it. Where was he anyway?

Thinking it to be his best bet of getting some information he started walking to the town, and then he remembered something, "Sprite?" He called out, "You there?" He had almost completely forgotten his robotic companion. Sure enough, a small red and blue robot with one eye floated up to greet him. "I guess Anubis understands how helpful you've been, good thing too," He stated happily. "Let's go check out that town and see if the inhabitants can tell us anything," He was answered with small 'bleep' sound.

As the Drifter neared the town he noticed that all of its citizens were small, quadrupedal creatures in a variety of colors. Some had wings, some had a singular horn on their heads, and some had neither. "Where did Anubis leave me?" He wondered, "I've never seen anything like those."

The closest one to him was a dull white and pink and had neither wings nor a horn and seemed to be watering flowers, "Hello?" he asked carefully, hoping they spoke the same language.

"Yes, how may I help yo-" they turned and abruptly stopped talking as soon as they saw him, jaw hanging wide open.

"I was just wondering if you could tell me where I was?" He asked.

"Y-y-you're in P-ponyville," the creature, who sounded distinctly female, managed to stammer out.

"Thank you, uh... what's your name?" He asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"R-roseluck," she managed, clearly horrified of him.

"Well, thank you Roseluck. I'll be on my way then," He said walking off. He heard a slight thud behind him and turned to see that the poor thing had fainted from fear. "I guess my next bet is the castle, hopefully the royalty will be much more calm. If not, I feel sorry for this place."

He continued to walk through the town, getting some strange, sometimes scared looks, but most of the creatures simply hid in their homes and workplaces. He could feel all of their eyes watching him from windows, bushes, roofs, some of them just frozen in fear on the street. "Welcoming..." He said sarcastically.

He eventually reached the large, purple castle which appeared to be made entirely from crystals. He shuddered, not wanting to remember that damned forest. He looked over to Sprite, who looked back at him not doing anything. He reached out to knock on the door, but was cut off as it was enveloped by a bright, purple glow and quickly pulled open.

Author's Note

Firstly, I wrote this because of the extreme lack of HLD crossovers on this site, i.e. none whatsoever.
Secondly, this is the first thing I have ever written that isn't some kind of school assessment, so the first few chapters will probably suck. Please correct me on every error I make.