KA-BOOM was the only sound that the confused Twilight Sparkle had in her head.
"Wha- What was THAT?" She said to nothing. She doubt that answer would ever come because she was in the middle of the ice mountains of Slentick. It was a small village many miles in her past. She had come her to find, and engage in conversation with, the yaks if YakYaknsine. She, of course, had come alone because of the many dangers involved with these mountains. Currently she was half way there but, half way was 3 days of traveling.
Twilight estamated that the sound came about one half league from were she was standing. She was wary at first to go near it. The reason for this was because of a massive storm brewing to the south. In the end though, curiosity triumphed and she began preporations for the small detour. Luckily, the area of the sound was flat and of little danger to Twilight. Even still, the snowy drifts made the small trek very taxing. By the time she had reached the general area of the boom, the storm had twisted its way into the place were she stood.
"I must wait till the storm subsides," she said quietly to herself,"The the wheather ponies from that village may be few, but they now how to kick up a storm."
The storm raged on for another fort night thrice over. It was noon of the next day.
Twilight awoke to a snowed in entrance. This was, of corse, undoubtingly a small problme because of her abilities as a unicorn. When she had finally unsnowed her entrance, she looked out and gasped. The night befor had made any surondings unclear and fogged. Now though, anything within her and the next mountain over was as clear as black on white. The true thing that made her gasp though, was the crater not but 30 paces in front of her. It was not very deep but it's sheer width made up for any size issues. In the center of this snow covered hole, was a cone shaped capsule. It seemed to be made of copper. She new this because of the in depth conversations about metallurgy that she had with Mayd Pie.
"What is it?", Twilight wispered to herself.
She then contomplated if it wise to investigate this occurance. Again, her couriosity won out in the end.
As the purple unicorn got closer to the object, she started to notice symbols on the surface of it that mystified her. What appeared to be a emergency guide, a strange flag, and many other things that where written in a language she had not ever seen before. The emergency guide was only given away because of the pictures on it. These pictures though, had creatures unseen by her in any book or guide of her knowledge.
There was also one other thing that stood out to her more than any thing. A window was what it was on closer inspection and also a hatch in which it was placed apon. Both of these things were blacked out with an unremovable soot that covered nearly every part of this cone shaped object. Save the cap of the vessel of corse.
As Twilight continued to inspect the copper cone, she noticed something fairly strange next to a bundle of the mysterious symbols she had found. It was the outline of a lever. This lever was pointed up from the inside of a fourth circle. As her small investigation continued, she started to wipe away some of the lesser stuck soot. When she completed wiping it away, she saw there was an arrow curved and pointed down from the top of the lever. Twilight saw this symbol as a instruction of what to do. When her magic enveloped the stick of black sooted metal, many sounds of clicking could be heard. When the lever was fully pulled, a part of the cone started to extend outward. This left the inside of the capsule free to see by the purple mare.
When she looked in, she saw a scene of a pony. This pony, it seemed, had had some sort of helmet on. This helmet had a mesterious hole in it. Right in the front. On a closer look, it seemed that the cap had once had glass were there was now a hole. There was what seemed to be blood on the panel in front of this pony.
The it occurred to Twilight. This pony could be hurt or worse, dead...
Anxiety
The next day, the strange pony awoke more strengthened then everthanks to a special herb tea Twilight had brought with her. When he rose up, he coughed a little and was to tired to do anything other than eat, drink (not like there was much to eat anyway though), and the ocassional murmmer. What he was murrmering was unclear to Twilight. Though she did catch things like 'Am...Dead?' and 'What happened?' To these questions, she could not answer, nor did she want to. Having this pony awake still was terrifying to her.
Finally, after many hours in the tent, the pony spoke,"Where am I?" He said this with a voice tormented with the cold and some form of pain.
Twilight answered, "You are four days away from the borders of YakYakinstan."
"Are you at war too?" He replied with a voice of remorse.
"No, of corse not," Twilight said with a almost offended tone,"Are you?"
The pony thought for a second, then said," We call it another name. I think at-" The pony collapsed suddenly. It looked like twilight would have to what a bit longer for answers.
With his final thought they moved out, slowly. As they were moving, Twilight could not shake a feeling of anxiety. As if some pony (or some thing) was watching her. She even noticed the strange pony looking on edge as well (that was before he went to sleep though). Twilight would have to whatch out from now on. Anything could be out there. Though what ever is out there may not be a thing at all. Besides this emotion of fear brewing, other things were brewing as well. Another storm was set to play out in two days, and when it hit, she would rather have a wall between her, and that mountain...
***
After the pony awoke again, he had more energy and could even stand for a time. This time, Twilight was hoping, she would get a better understanding.
"So...who are you?" Twilight said slowly.
" I am... I... I can't remember for some reason." This was seemingly hard spoken for the stallion, for he still did not have much energy. He still even coughed, stuttered, or even couldn't even complete a sentence at times. This was of corse understandable.
Now that the pony could walk a bit Twilight noticed something. It seemed like he was just learning to walk again. Twilight quickly blamed it on the recent crash he had. I mean, it would only be logical.
***
On the final night before they refuse the town, Twilight was awoken to the sound of movment inside the tent. When she got up, she saw the battered pony looking scared while looking out the front of the tent.
She asked, "What are you doing at this time of night?"
The chestnut stallion looked at her with a grave face and said,"I think they have found me."
"Who is they?" Twilight asked in response.
Twilight suddenly remembered the anxiety from the previous day. This made her even more terrified.
"I can't remember," he said in a agitated voice,"I just get this feelingthat they are after me and anyone I meet."
"I can't really explain it. We just need to get away." At this sentence, twilight became ten fold more terrified. The seriousness in the pony's voice was true and full, and ironically, that is what scared her the most.
So Twilight got up and looked out into the darkness. To her utter horror, strange creature were closing in from what seemed to be all sides. At that moment, they were truly surrounded and unfathomably terrified.
At this moment, Twilight thought,"May Celestia help us all..."
And maybe, just maybe, someone would really help them in the end. But would it be obvious, or a pony no one expected?
Author's Note
Here is the hiatus! Yay?