A pile of coins drops on the frosty counter from a large ice-blue pegasus. He had green eyes, and a sharp and serious look about him. His coat was extremely long, covering a little over half his eyes and even making it look like he had a beard. His blond mane was even longer yet only touched his shoulders. Such a sight caused the earth pony behind the glass to stare at him while he pulled the bits into the box.
"Where too?"
"Pony-...ville."
"A train doesn't come for another two hours. I could give you the ticket, but you'll have to come back later on time."
The stallion snorted. "I wait." His deep voice came with his large and tall build. A whole minute went by before he leaned into the glass and narrowed his eyes, which made no visible difference. "Ticket. Please." The ticket master turned and pulled a silver ticket then set it on the counter. He smiled and showed his small canines to the smaller pony. "Thank...you...very much."
Albion was pleased. He managed to speak Equestrian pretty well. It was rather guttural and a various count of hums. Not everypony knew what he knew. How he spoke made these 'modern' ponies very confused, like they couldn't hear him. Now he was learning Equestrian, he had to speak differently. At first it was just constant war cries while he tried to sound each letter out. Now he was almost just like them. Just one hoofstep closer in the right direction.
Albion was a smart hunter, aside from tricking prey, he hoped to sort of trick this Twilight into helping him learn. It was a win-win situation, or at least in his mind. He just sat silently, thinking while he waited for his train to arrive so he can begin courting his future mate. It was his species on the line. It was a mission he made to not only himself, but his own future. If he was going to have flock of foals, he needed to hurry. While he was still fairly young physically, to the rest of the world, he was one thousand and twenty seven autumns old. He was going to have to do some great convincing to get Twilight Sparkle to mate with him.
And that was just the first step. He had more or less twenty years before he would be too old to take care of his foals, to hunt for them. He had to do it while he still could.
Nearly a half of a day later, the train made it's final stop until the morning at Ponyville Station. He took a last look at the train before he stepped off the platform. It was sunset now, making him look purple from the crystal sheen on his coat. He also felt that he had to preen soon, his wings felt stiff from the lack of flying, and a good preen would help him relax. Everything was so much warmer, calmer, tranquil even.
By the Wills, he was sweating his mane off. Even with the sun much dimmer now that was the evening, he was burning up.
"Oh my gosh!" A pink blur flashed up to him. He jumped a bit in surprise, but kept a strait face. "Who are you!"
"My...name is...Albion." He cursed himself for not learning his name in Equestrian. It made him feel less intelligent in ways he wasn't sure he could describe to anypony. Empty is the only word he could get close to, and even that was stretching it.
"Huh? You're name is what?"
Albion looked around and sighed. 'I wish I could speak to her more clearly...'. Then he realized who he was speaking to. "You...are...Laughter." He didn't know how to pronounce her name, he knew what it was. "Where is...Twilight Sparkle...Prin...Prince...UGH! PRINCESS!!! TWILIGHT!!! SPARKLE!!!" He wanted to slam his head into the dirt so he wouldn't feel so embarrassed as he did now.
Pinkie Pie looked at the large stallion with a bit of confusion. She wasn't sure what was up with this strange, massive stallion who's name she couldn't even hear. At least she could hear Fluttershy's voice, but he was very odd. She looked back at the Castle of Friendship, then back at him. "I can take you to her if you like Mr."
Albion nodded, thankfully he was getting somewhere. He wasn't quite sure where she was, he only idea was to check the massive castle made of crystal. Pinkie Pie led Albion through Ponyville. The ponies of the small town gawked at him in fear or shock, both he couldn't really care for. None of them mattered except his savior's master and friends. Just having her leading him to his future kept him feeling a bit anxious and he didn't really know why either. Courting was new to him, as he's never done it before. When the nightmare was over, he woke up to find out he was the last of his kind. Thankfully, the new ruler, Princess Cadence, could speak his language and help update him on current events. He wasn't sure how she could speak with him, seeing how apparently he was pretty much a myth now, but living.
After all the stares and sideways glances, they finally made it to the castle. Pinkie made sure that he followed in her hoofsteps, He didn't want to get lost, yet he already felt like it. It was a maze in here, looking at the same things over and over again was getting on his nerves.
"So welcome to Ponyville Mr. Can I call you Anon until you can say your name? OH! Is it a curse!?"
Albion raised a brow. Pinkie was speaking too fast for him, but he did catch the last part. He just shook his head, keeping silent instead of talking back. He was too frustrated to talk right now. Not after his outburst and possibly endless embarrassment. Soon enough though he was lead to a set of doors that they stopped at.
"Twilight's inside, Mr." Pinkie paused before leaving him be. Clearly he was upset, she could tell, she could always tell when a pony was upset, but this was different. She had a hunch he was from a far away land and spoke a different language.She turned back to him then said, "Hope you can get your problem worked out." Finally, she left him be
He mulled her words over in his mind, then smiled. "Thank you...for...help.., Laughter."
"My name is Pinkie Pie!" She shouted down the hall.
Albion gave up and turned towards the doors. He felt his heart skip, he was nervous to no end of existence. This was his moment to shine and bring a new beginning to his species, or at least have a foal or four.
He slowly opened the doors to walk in, then paused. This was his future, but why was he pausing this? All of his bits of old were put into this, he traveled a thousand miles for seven hours on a train. Only thing was, he was nervous still. Twilight was a princess as well, she had things to do too. He understood. Hunters were hunters, herders were herders. Mares were smart, they're supposed to be. Just like his tribe used to be.
"HELLO!!!" Yep mispronounced that word. He felt the shame again. There was a loud sound followed by a few books falling. Somepony had screamed which caused Albion's brain to wire panic central. He followed the echo of the sound to a fallen book case over a purple unicorn. Albion took his head and put it under the case then moved it on his neck. Using great power he pushed up with his neck. The force alone made it crash onto another case.
That's when he saw her It was Princess Twilight. His eyes widened in shock, even feeling himself back up. She used her magic to fix it all in the matter of seconds. Everything was how it was like he hadn't saved her. She was an even grander spell caster than Lord Umbra. Even though he towered over her standing even higher than Celestia, he bowed before her.
"Thank you, but no need to bow. You just helped me after all." Albion was confused. He stood up, again becoming a giant. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, what's your name?" It was like she wasn't bothered by him at all.
He was temped to respond but just partly looked away. 'How can I do this? How can I say my name?' He just felt so confused, hurt, and embarrassed. Why did they affect him so?
"You okay? Does your neck hurt?" Albion shook his head. It was easier for him. These ponies were much smaller than other Albatross Pegasi so they didn't have the strength his kind had. "Can you speak?"
"Little." He replied sadly. "Know little, want to learn... but hard...Not good...herder."
"Woh, wait a minute!" Twilight looked surprised. "What are you? You don't have a cutie mark!"
"Not...normal...Asleep for...THOUSAND YEARS!!!" He quoted as best he could, trying his bed to remember how Cadence said it.
"Are you from the Crystal Empire then?" She asked, tilting her head a bit.
"Far...away more."
"What? Why travel so far then?"
He smiled and looked back at her. "Help. Want..to live hear. Much more, much more." Albion nodded as he spoke, clearly looking pleased. He hadn't hurt her, for which he was grateful for.
Twilight smiled back and looked proud. "I can teach you easy." Albion's coat shimmered with excitement. "In return you help me, is that fair?"
Albion was smart, get and give was surely fair. Twilight was much smarter than most mares from his tribe, but they were wiser. They had great insight and knew how to feed well. During down time they would read scrolls and books from along the trade route to the Crystal Empir- Albion screamed in agony from the sudden pressure on his temples. His vision blurred, hearing laughter during a great battle. Swords clashed and magical laser lances firing around vaporizing the air and buildings around him. Slowly, Albion fell onto the ground, shaking.
"Oh no!" Twilight shouted. "SPIKE!!!"
Albion rushed around, trying to find a direction to run in, everywhere around him Equestrians and Crystal ponies fighting and above him Celestia, Luna, and Sombra were fighting. A pony slammed into him, pushing him onto the ground where his here slammed onto the ground. Blood began seeping from his ear and he felt weak. Sombra's laughter rang out before another lance blasted the ground near him. The explosion threw him a few yards where things grew dark.
