The Runawayby jordanwriterChaptersBloody HellDigging deeper into the holeI don't have a name for this one so...Old but inciteful SpiritBloody HellThe Runaway Chapter 1: Bloody Hell Deep in the wood covered mountains of Montana, an ex-army ranger named Aaron sat near a camp fire. He was here to mourn the death of his son, Tyler, who died of leukemia when he was just three. He was doing this because his son was the thing that kept him going, even after he was discharged and given the purple heart after receiving multiple gun shot wounds in Iraq. This was ten years ago. Since then, he became a drunkard and divorced. His life was spiraling out of control. That was until a brief stay in jail and a sentencing to rehab got him turned around almost three years ago. Since then, he has sobered up and found other things to pass his time. He even became a Brony and was enjoying life and all of its wonders. However, he felt like he had let his son down with his behavior the last seven years, so he started camping near there favorite spot. This was his third year coming here and just like the last year and the year before, he felt a little of his burdens of his past be whisked away. It was soothing to him, almost like he was a little kid again. He could get away from the retched world below and reflect on the good times. 'What a nice night.' Aaron thought to himself, and truly it was. The stars where shinning and the moon was bright and full. 'I just wish I didn't have to go back tomorrow.' Aaron was so engrossed in his thoughts, that he didn't notice the lone wolf creeping up on him. It was nothing dangerous, just a curious pup who had never seen a human before. The pup sat itself down next to Aaron, landing loud enough to startle the poor man. He jumped a little, but didn't show too much reaction. Living in these hills all of his life, he knew better than to startle junior. Because where there's one pup, there's more pups. Where there's more pups, there's many wolf mothers. And finally, where there's the mothers, there's the big Alpha. One wrong move and he could attracted the wrong type of crowd. He slowly reached for his .40 cal semi-auto handgun that he always kept with him. He slowly undid the Velcro strap to the holster it was in. Gingerly flicked the safety off and methodically pulled the gun out and pointed it at the pup. With a sudden loud 'bang', the pup fell lifeless to the ground. Aaron didn't take no time to examine his kill because it was a mile hike to his vehicle and he needed to get packed before any curious critters came exploring. He had all of his things roughly packed in five minutes and was already starting to set up a gap between him and the site. He was no more than fifty feet from the site when heard the distinctive sound of a wolf packs grieving howl. 'Shit!' he thought, 'I need to hurry before they pick up on my trail.' He was now running towards his truck. After a while, the howling stopped, and so did he. He could see his ford pickup from where he was and he had no more than one hundred yard to go. He was gleaming with joy, happy that he avoided that epidemic. His joy canceled when he felt something bit into his left calf muscle. He dropped to the ground in pain. He caught a glimpse of the creature that had him, it was a female wolf. He ripped her off, but her clench was so tight it ripped most of the meat away from his calf also. He hollered in pain before using a tree to aid himself up to his feet. He leaned back against the tree and took a look at his attacker. The wolf bore and predatory demeanor, and looked fierce with his flesh dangling on the sides of its mouth. Aaron stared down the wolf, trying make himself seem just as threatening as her. However, he soon found himself out matched when the other members of the pack showed up, four females and two males. Aaron knew he odds weren't good, but he was determined to fight till the very end. He pulled out his gun and aimed it at the wolf who had his calf muscle in her mouth. Pulled the trigger and she dropped to the ground. Two other wolves took this as a signal as the charged simultaneously. Aaron dropped one but the other grabbed his left forearm. He groaned in agony before he took the gun and unloaded three rounds into its chest, making it release its death grip on his arm. While he had a second, he started doing the math. 'Alright,' he thought, 'I got three shots left and four wolves. I can do this.' He took in a deep breath in threw his nose and exhaled hard threw his mouth. He brought his gun up challengingly at the remaining pack members. Apparently they got wiser as all four of them charged this time. Bang! Aaron dropped one wolf and rolled to avoid the others. He quickly reared himself up and shot another one. Bang! He was getting close to surviving this ordeal, but he wasn't about to bet all his money on one horse yet. He only had a single shot left and two wolves. Upon further inspection, he had the two males, who he assumed to be the Alpha and maybe a son or a brother. Aaron's vision was becoming increasingly blurry and his breathing was mostly labored. Both wolves noticed this and took there chance, each charging from a different side. Before he could react, both wolves latched onto a body part, his right shoulder and the left side of his rib cage, bringing him to one knee. Aaron could hear and fell the bones breaking with each bite. Darkness was quickly clouding Aaron vision and he could fell his breath become even more shallower. The only thing he could fell at this point is the bites and the feel of his warm blood running down his body. He was about to give in when memories of his son flashed in his mind. Suddenly, a rush of testosterone and adrenaline shot threw his body. He brought his gun up and fired the remaining shot into the wolf that was biting is ribs skull. The wolf let out a small whimper before releasing his grip and falling lifeless onto the ground. Aaron then started punching the remaining wolf with his free hand. After so many blows he could hear the sound of one of the wolfs bones busting. After some of the adrenaline wore off the fight fell to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron could see his survival knife that fell out of his pack after the attack. He quickly pushed the wolf off with all of his might, ripping all the flesh and some of his bone clean off his body. He quickly scrambled to reach the knife but before he did, he felt the wolf latch itself on to his hindquarters. Aaron subdued the erg to scream and continued o crawl towards the knife. By his finger tips, he was able to bring the knife into his grasp. He did a quick look behind him to see were the wolf was latched on at, and with one mighty swing, he plunged the knife deep into the wolfs jugular. The wolf released its death strike on his rear and tried to struggle away, but the knife had serrated edges so all it did was tear out his throat, killing him instantly. Aaron took no solace in his victory, he was slowly bleeding to his death and didn't have enough time to reach hospitable. He wasn't about to give up either because he stumbled to his feet then bumbled to his truck. He finally reached his truck and started it up and was heading down the mountain path that lead into Billings. He was only five minutes into his potentially life saving journey when he started to lose feeling in is feet. He was now two miles away from Billings and he head no feeling in his body, no sight in his left eye, and was being chased by the cops on the highway. The vision in his right eye was already starting to go when saw the sign for the exit that lead to the hospitable. He veered hard onto the off ramp and nearly tipped his crew cap. He focused on his destination which was about five hundred yard away. Unfortunately, his vision was so bad that he missed the entrance by three feet and made his truck stall when it hit the curb. Aaron opened his door and fell out of the truck and started crawling towards the entrance. He could hear the muffled sounds of the police sirens closing up behind him somewhere. He was slowly fading away when he felt himself being picked up and carried towards the entrance. The last thing he saw before he blacked was the badge of the officer carrying him. The officer, David Johnson, on the other hand was desperately trying to get this man to the emergency room. He had hated him for the past nine miles because he didn't want to do anything today and then some lunatic came flying down I90 at over 115 miles per hour. Now the only thing he could think about is saving this man who somehow is still breathing despite obvious pieces of flesh missing. Officer Johnson burst threw the doors and called for a doctor. In less than a minute, a group of nurses and several doctor came rushing with a stretcher. Within minutes, Aaron was in an operating room having tubes shoved into his lungs and painkillers forced down his throat while a large male doctor was busy sowing him up. All this would be pointless as Aaron's soul had already left his physical body and he was somewhere in limbo. He didn't no this however. To him he was in a pitch black room sitting. He had a ominous glow around his body and all of his wounds were healed. He was in total shock and awe as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. “How aren't I dead?” He asked aloud. “Where am I?” He was desperately hoping someone would answer. He was about to ask again when a black hooded figure appeared in front of him. The figure had no physical features. It was just a black cloak and blackness where the head should be. It was floating and it to had the same ominous glow coming from his body. Aaron was terrified, literally shaking with fright. “A-am I d-dead?” he asked. The creatures only response was his head shaking no. Aaron gulped ad asked another question. “Then w-were is this?” “Hell.” was its response. “But, it isn't your time to go, so you are stuck at the gates in eternal limbo.” Aaron couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was religious man, but he never figured he would ever be stuck in limbo, especially at the gates of hell. “If this hell, then who are you?” “I am the gate keeper. Distributer of souls and punisher of the damned. You on the other hand have unfinished business. Your time on earth is done, your earthly body destroyed beyond repair. However, I can give you a second chance at life. But be warned, this life will come with trails and tribulations that most mortals would never imagine. It will be a world you're familiar with, but you will learn things you never thought would be possible about it. Or, you can accept your untimely death and remain in limbo for the next half century.” Aaron was at loss for words. Here he was being told that his death was to soon and he could get a second chance at life. The only thought that he had was, 'There must be a catch.' He summed up all of his courage and stood up and faced the creature and questioned. “This sounds to good to be true, whats the catch?” The gate keeper chuckled to himself, “Silly human, there is no catch. It's cut and dry, you go to this new world and live the rest of your measly life. So, do you accept?” Aaron pondered it, but only for second because anything was better than sitting here for fifty years. “I accept.” The creature did a swaying motion with his arms. He started concentrating energy into a ball in front of him. Soon the ball was as big as Aaron, and it had multicolor blurs movings across it. “Step into to the portal, and enter your new world.” Was the last thing it said before disappearing into the darkness. Aaron took one deep breath and jumped head first into the portal. As soon as he entered, his vision went black and extreme pain shot throughout his body. All of his senses went numb. Next thing he knew, he was free falling towards a giant tree. Meanwhile in Twilight's tree home, Princess Celestia was having a meaningful conversation with her star pupil. She was informing her that herself and Princess Luna would be going into the jungles of Equestria to check up on some of the small Commonwealths that had been established. She was about to bid her student farewell when a large crash followed by guards yelling war cries was heard outside. “Princess, what was that?” The lavender librarian equine asked. “I don't know Twilight, but I think it's best if you stay here while I go investigate.” With a mighty glow from here horn, the Alicorn teleported herself to the front of the building where the commotion was coming from. When she finished her teleportation, she was shocked and enraged by what she saw. The six guards that where guarding the entrance were lying on the ground either unconscious or in sever agony, and standing above them was a very tired looking human. Memories of a time she had erased from the minds of her subject came flooding back. The senseless killing, the trickery, the abomination it created. But the main thing was the pain of witnessing countless unicorns be slaughtered because magic didn't work on this creature. With another glow, she summoned a small legion of Pegasus and Earth pony troops in front of her, and with a hint of hatred in her voice, Princess Celestia boomed 'CAPTURE THE HUMAN, HE IS NOW THE BIGGEST THREAT IN EQUESTRIA!' Digging deeper into the holeChapter 2: Digging deeper into the hole. After Aaron regained his senses, he noticed he was falling towards a giant tree that was situated in the center of a small mideval era type village. He wasn't to interested in the scenery though, he was to busy trying to brace for impact. Aaron landed in the lush canopy and hit a few small branches on the way down. But there was enough foliage to slow his descent so when he hit the ground, the only major injury was a sprained ankle. As Aaron was busy steadying himself to his feet, from his left he hears, “Seize the creature! It's after the princess.” Aaron turned his head toward the source of the noise only to find a large winged horse flying towards him at a alarming rate. Aaron side stepped the charging stallion and watched him slam head-first into a fruit stand, scaring a white mare with a fruit bowl cutie-mark half to death. “Now, what's all of that for?” he coyly asked. “You will never get to Princess Celestia, foul beast!” the guard spat at him, struggling to escape the wreckage that surrounded him. 'Princess Celestia?' Aaron thought to himself, 'I can't be were I think am, could I?' His train of thought was derailed when a large object came crashing into his side. Aaron was thrown back quite a bit but quickly got to his feet unfazed. He looked at what had stuck him and wasn't surprised to see another large white pegasus looking at him menacingly. He was flying above the previously taken down pegasus and was helping him to his feet. He was quickly joined by to unicorns and to earth ponies. “HALT!” the pegasus that just attacked him bellowed, “WE HERE TO PLACE YOU UNDER ARREST FOR THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCESS AND ASSAULTING A ROYAL GUARD. BY ROYAL LAW, YOU WILL BE PLACED IN A DUNGEON FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE. COME FREELY AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED.” Aaron couldn't believe what he heard. He crash lands in the middle of Ponyville and gets charged with crimes he didn't commit. Wasn't going to stand for it, but he wasn't going to go Willy-nilly either. “I didn't do anything! I refuse to be punished for no reason.” he shouted at the guards. “If that is your answer...” The pegasus quickly responded, “Light Caster, subdue the creature.” The larger of the two unicorns stepped forward and a blue aura surrounded his horn. In a flash, a energy beam shot towards Aaron but when it hit it quickly dissipated, leaving the unicorn severally confused. 'Humph,' Aaron thought, 'I must be magic proof. I know I have seen Twilight pick up twenty foot bears without a problem so thats the only explanation.' His attention was quickly focused back to the battle at hand as he heard another guard yell at the unicorn. “Forget it then, we will do this the old fashion way. Guards, ready spears! CHARGE!” As if the dinner bell was rung, all the guards charged simultaneously, coming at different directions with about four foot long spears. However, as intimidating as this may seem, Aaron noticed that it was an unorganized and uncoordinated frontal assault. Aaron quickly took advantage off their glaring weakness and quickly sprung into action, trying to disarm the guards without hurting anyone, or pony. Aaron grabbed the spear of a pegasus that was charging from the sky and made him stab the ground while he took a elbow and smashed him in the check, sending him off to his right. He then pulled the spear out of the ground and blocked an attack from a unicorn by stopping the swinging spears momentum by meeting it with his about three fourths up on the shaft and then swung the but end of the weapon into the guards bronchial trap, causing him to fall to the ground with a now very sore throat. Next, the two earth ponies came sweeping at him from the sides. Aaron launched himself in the air at the last second by using his spear as a javelin. The two guards were unable to stop there momentum and slammed head-first into each other. However, the shear wait of Aaron's body and the pressure he was putting on the shaft caused in to splinter. As Aaron fell, being caught off guard by his sudden drop in elevation, landed on a spear that sliced part of his upper thigh muscle. Aaron was to busy avoiding a spear that the other pegasus threw from the air to notice the fresh gash. He rolled barely enough to avoid the sharp end of the spear as it landed mere centimeters away from his head. The second unicorn charged at him from behind while Aaron was still on the ground processing what happened. He quickly used his hands to spring in the air, about six feet above the unicorn. He seemed unamused at Aaron's agility, as he used his magic to shoot the spear upwards towards Aaron. With one swift motion, Aaron grabbed the shaft under the spear head and used his other hand to completely break the weapon. As Aaron descended back towards the earth, he brought his elbow down onto the back of the confused unicorns head. The unicorn didn't make a sound as he stumbled a bit before falling down. Then, a ear piercing scream came from the sky. Aaron looked up to see the remaining pegasus with another spear in his hoof charging hard at him. Aaron dropped to one knee an waited for the pegasus to get closer. In a instant, Aaron sprung upwards, spinning and making the pegasus miss and slam into the ground. Before the pegasus could register what happened, Aaron gave a wind taking elbow into the guards ribs. The guard fell over onto his side, clutching it in pain. Aaron looked upon his handy work. He was successful at beating the guards and he didn't have to kill any of them. Some of them are going to have a hard time breathing for a while, and some are going to have a major headache, but he didn't truly have to attack them. He was getting ready to bolt, but when he tried to move his leg, the pain from the gash caused him to stop. He was going to start cursing at his dumb luck when a blinding light appeared in front of him. When the light subsided and he regained his vision, he saw a very pissed and fuming Celestia. He gave a quick glance at his surroundings and found he was standing in the middle of a circle of beaten guards. 'Oh crap, this doesn't bode well for me.' Another blinding light flashed, and when Aaron refocused,he was standing before a small army of Pegasi and and Earth guards ponies. Before he could even speak, Celestia gave a very vociferous order, “CAPTURE THE HUMAN, HE IS NOW THE BIGGEST THREAT IN EQUESTRIA!” All of the guards took a charging stance, but before they could do anything, the human grabbed a spear and started running in the other direction. They made haste and started to pursue him, jumping and diving at his feet. Aaron on the other hand, knew that he was to greatly out numbered to fight them off. The odds were at least 70:1 them. So, he figured it would be easier to hit and run, mostly run, than to stand and fight. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he picked one of the spears off the ground and ran in the opposite direction. He knew there was no way he was out running ponies, especially if half can fly. He was zig zagging his way through town, making ponies miss when they dove at his feet. He soon found himself on the outskirts of town heading towards what he assumed to be the Everfree forest. He knew it was the Everfree forest when he hurdled a very confused and scared Fluttershy outside of her cottage. He didn't land on his feet though, he didn't land at all. As soon as he went airborne, a set of large white hooves wrapped around his waist. “Got you now creature!” the guard shouted. “Thats what you think!” Aaron retorted before head-butting the guard, causing him to release Aaron who landed with a thump. He didn't stop to contemplate what he had done as he made a straight B-line for the trees. He glanced back before entering the forest to see Fluttershy passed out on the trial and the guards halting there pursuit. He wasn't about stop and ask why, he was to busy making his escape. He sprinted for a couple of miles before it got to dark to keep trudging forward. Aaron gathered some loose twigs and leaves laying a round and made a small fire. He took off his shirt and tied it tightly above the gash on his leg. He removed the spear head and placed it on the fire and waited for it to heat up. When it was hot enough, he gingerly placed it on the wound, holding back screams of agony, and burnt it shut. The rest of the night went peacefully for Aaron as he laid in his make shift bed which was no more than a pile of leaves. “I need to figure out how to clear my name.” Aaron thought aloud, “I'm also gonna need to find some food.” With his to-do list fresh in his head, he rolled over and went to sleep. Meanwhile, back in Twilights tree house, Princess Celestia paced back and forth trying to conjure up a plan of action. This human was either very brave, or very stupid to run into the Everfree alone. She also couldn't help but wonder why this human didn't try to kill anypony. Maybe there were to many witnesses or maybe he got cold feet. She couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was different about this one. But she trusted one before, and it ended in the deaths of hundreds of innocent ponies. Celestia cringed at the memories of walking down the streets of Canterlot, bodies lying motionless and covered in blood on the once regal streets. It all could have been avoided, but she was to trusting and he took advantage of that. She stopped reminiscing when she heard Twilight walk up the stairs. “Princess,” she spoke, “ I have organized search parties to go an capture the beast tomorrow.” Princess looked down and smiled at her student. She was glad she was helping her, but she was sadden by the fact that she has no idea what she's up against. A hundred years, she has kept their kind a secret, and now if this isn't solved soon, the cat could escape the metaphorical bag. “Thank you Twilight, may I see the plans you have drawn my dear.” The princess asked in her usually motherly tone. Twilight floated a piece of parchment paper and her fake smile that was across her face quickly faded. “Twilight?” “Yes princess?” “Why do you have you, your friends, and most of Ponyville on search parties.” Twilight gave her a confused look. “Why wouldn't we princess? We don't know what they're capable of so it's best to have everypony we can searching for it.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “'sigh' Twilight, I know exactly what he is capable of, and for that reason I don't want innocent ponies getting hurt. It's one thing when it's the guard, but it's another when my little ponies are in harms way. I think it would be best if you sat this one out.” Twilight gave a disappointed sigh and looked to the ground shamefully. “Alright princess, if that is your wish. I will draw up new plans and have them to you tomorrow morning.” Celestia hated seeing her star pupil like this, but she wouldn't be able to bare herself if she knew she allowed Twilight to go on this mission and to only find out she was killed by those heartless monsters. Celestia gave a simple nod and started to walk out the door when Twilight asked her another question. “Hey princess?” “Yes Twilight?” “What do you mean that you know exactly what he's capable of?” Celestia mind froze. She had accidentally said to much. She had to shut her down before she got too curious. “Let's just say it is a secret that I know, and it needs to stay that way.” Celestia didn't let twilight get another question in before she was out the door and on a carriage to Canterlot. 'Hate doing this my star pupil,' Celestia thought while looking at the carriage window at the beautiful night sky, 'but I can't have another incident like last time.' Twilight on the other hand was just siting in the library, contemplating what happened. She had never seen the princess act in such a manner. Even when Discord returned, she was alway would let her in on the most secretive stories of Equestria's past. Never was a stone unturned so it shocked her to know that Celestia would be so secretive all of a sudden. “Maybe I should talk to Luna about this, maybe she can inform me of whats going on.” Twilight said aloud while heading up to bed. Little did any pony or person know, tomorrow would be a little more exciting for both groups. A/N: Special thanks to E-Ranger for Pre-reading this chapter. If you don't already know, I'm rewriting my Chess Game story, 'Shadow Mike', because it sucked so chapter 3 will be out about the same amount of time plus a couple of days then after that expect updates every day or every other day excluding any pop-up events. I don't have a name for this one so...Chapter 3: Aaron woke, sitting straight up in his make-shift bed, when a noise in a nearby bush caught his attention. He was focusing all his senses on the bush, seeing if it would move again. Then, the bush started to shake again, making a god awful noise all the while. Aaron grabbed the spear head and took a defensive stance. He wasn't sure what to expect and he was wasn't fully awake yet either. Half groggy, Aaron stared down the bush in question. Aaron was prepared to fight what ever it was, but sleeping on the ground would make this task hard as he was suffering from a kinked neck and a throbbing headache. He was ignoring the pain, but it was definitely going to be a factor. He went to take a step towards the bush, but the searing pain coming from his gash on his leg stopped his movement. So instead, he just sat there waiting. The shaking of the bush and noise finally stopped. Aaron tensed up, not sure if he could handle anything dangerous in this condition. (Gulp) “Come out and show yourself!” Aaron shouted at the bush. More shaking and out stepped the cause of the noise. Aaron felt stupidity and his pride being crushed when he looked upon the harmless white bunny that was now in front of the bush, looking at him with innocent eyes. Aaron quickly out what was left of his pride behind him a gingerly bent down to a more relaxed position. “And here I thought I was in immediate danger.” Aaron said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. As if a switch was turned on, the rabbits demeanor went from a sweet innocent creature too a terrifying one. No longer did the bunny have the sweet big eyes but now bore crimson colored pupils that showed a lot of anger. His white coat turned a dark shade of gray. His paws sprouted razor sharp steak knife sharp claws. He had several sharp teeth protruding from his snout. His limbs stretched out, making the recently two foot rabbit a now six foot monster. “You have got to be shitting me.” Aaron said to himself. Aaron returned to a fighting stance and squared up the beast. It snarled and both soon-to-be combatants started moving around the clearing, moving in a circle and studying each others movements. The rabid rabbit saw a opening and shot suddenly at the human. Without any hesitation, Aaron rolled out of the way and quickly reared himself up at the beast. The creature was shocked at Aaron's speed was determined to catch his prey. He lunged again, this time not fully leaping so he could move with the human. Aaron recognized this and this time when he rolled he swung the spear head, grazing the side of the beast as it was trying to side-swipe Aaron. The creature roared in pain and examined the wound. The warm blood running down his side sent rage coursing it's body. He turned an snarled at the now grinning human. Aaron on the other hand had confidence pouring out of every crevasse of his body. 'I guess I will get some food this morning, and I won't even have to work for it!' He couldn't help but smile as the beastly rabbit lunged at him again. This time, Aaron went to deliver the final blow, and lept forward at his assailant. Aaron plunged the spear head into the rabbit's chest cavity as they meet. The rabbit on the other hand, dug his claws into Aaron leg, right above the gash. The rabbit was lifeless in a matter of moments after they crashed on the ground and Aaron was in pain again, grasping his new wound with both hands trying to stop the bleeding. “Fuck!” Aaron grunted. He took off his top shirt and ripped it in half. He tied on half above the wound to stop the bleeding and use the other half to soak up the blood off of his leg. When the bleeding finally stopped and most of the blood was wiped away, Aaron crawled over to the lifeless body of his attacker and yanked the bloody spear head out of its chest. After wiping the blood off on his green wife beater, Aaron began gutting the rabbit. When he was satisfied that he removed all the inedible organs, he skinned the creature and sit the pelt next to him on the ground. He would use the fur as a blanket until he could find a reasonable shelter. Aaron then hobbled around and gathered some larger logs and some kindling to start a fire to cook his meal. After creating a small tipi with the twigs and get it to catch along with some grass and dead leaves, around skewered piece of meat with the shaft that he saved of the spear and cooked several pieces. After eating his fill, Aaron cooked the rest of the rabbit and put the cooked pieces in the pocket of his gray cargo shorts. Filling full and bit groggy from blood loss, Aaron limped down the path, further into the forest to find some berries and such to keep him full for tonight. Unbeknown to him, the scent of his blood was draw the attention of a predator far more powerful than a little bunny. At Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight and the rest of the Elements of Harmony were having brunch. It started out as a friendly get together, but after discussing the events that transpired last night, Twilight and her friends were growing curious as to what is going on. “So,” Rarity started quizzically, “You're saying that the princess know what that foul beast is that scared Fluttershy but she won't tell what it is?” Twilight looked at her friend and addressed her question, “It's just a suggestion, but it would seem like she knows more than she is letting on. She also has never made us be held back from a search party. It's like she thinks we as the bearers can't do it for some reason.” All of her friends stared at her, each with a contemplating look on their faces, save Fluttershy who was hiding behind her mane and being quieter than usual. Rainbow Dash seemed to have noticed this. “Are you okay, Shy? You seem to be a tad bit quieter than I'm used to seeing you be.” The timid mare broke a way from her stupor and addressed her rainbowed friend. “Huh? Oh, um... I was just thinking, thats all.” “Ah bout what, sugercube?” Applejack asked. 'Were ya thinkin bout that thing from yesterday?” The yellow mare nodded her head 'yes.' “I just can't get my mind off of it. The encounter was so strange. When he saw me, it was like a look of recognition. Every time I think about it, i-it... i-it... it just gives me the creeps!” Pinkie Pie, who was up to this point getting her fill of desserts, piped up. “Oh silly, he recognized you because you're one of his favorite ponies!” With her peace being said, Pinkie went back to indulging on sugary sweets. They all looked at their bubbly in confusion. “Erm... riiiiiiight.” Twilight said, brushing it off as one of Pinkie's 'special moments.' “Anyway, didn't you happen to notice anything other than his eyes. You know, what did it look like?” “Well,” she started, “He was tall, maybe as tall as Celestia. He had a short brown mane on the top of his head, but he seemed no to have any fur. He ran on two legs and had two arms with claws. He had on gray, what I would assume to be shorts. He had a a red top on. The poor thing, he also had a cut on his one leg and it looked deep.” "I'm surprised you got all of that before you fell flat on your flank unconscious!" Rainbow Dash added with a chuckle. "Rainbow!" Twilight yelled, "That wasn't very nice!" Rainbow Dash looked at her lavender friend and grinned. "Who said I was nice?" Twilight just looked at her with a unamused stared. "Fiiiiiiiiiine!" she whined. "Sorry Shy, just got carried away there." "Oh, t-that's okay Rainbow, I forgive you." The timid mare said, smiling at her friend. Twilight let out a sigh of relief and took a it from her hay fries. With the description fresh in her mind, she couldn't wait to get back to the library and see if she could find something similar to what Fluttershy had described. "Twilight dear, what about Luna? Did you ask her yet?" Rarity chimed in. "Huh?" Twilight said snapping out of her thoughts. "I was actually gonna write her a letter later to day." Seeming to fine with this answer, Rarity nodded her head and continued eating. The six friends sat there in silence, save Pinkie, and ate the rest of their meals. After finishing, they each said their goodbye's and left. Applejack had work on the farm. Fluttershy was taking care of a injured cockroach. Pinkie was, well, no pony knows what she was doing. RD went back to 'work'. Rarity had to go find gems for a new piece. With no distractions Twilight went back to the library and began her studies. About a hour into it, Twilight had gone through half the library to find anything, but time and time again all she could find were more questions. "Ugh! Why do I keep getting more questions then I do answers!" Twilight moaned. Then, a small chuckle sounded throughout the room. "My, my miss Sparkle. Don't you know can't always find the answers you seek is in a book?" Twilight looked around the room nervously. "W-who are you?" Twilight's shadow suddenly started taking shape in front of her, rising off the ground while did. "Silly filly, don't remember the voice of you good friend..." The shadow finally took shape and Twilight's eyes grew large with recognition and fear. "D-D-Discord!" Aaron was relaxing by his new campfire. After gathering various fruits and berries from the forest, he decided that it was to late in the evening to move further away so he was just going to camp there again for the night. His wounds on his leg had been completely sealed and he could more easily move now that he could take the makeshift bandages off form his upper thigh. The only thing that was troubling him was one question. Why do these ponies want my head on a platter? He could understand if he wasn't attacked and they worked it out like civil sentiment being, but being attacked viciously and then being deemed the biggest threat in Equestria was unsettling. This was nothing like the fanfics he read at home. This was just pure hell. In every story he read, there somepony who would be the voice of reason and would stop either side from hurt one another. Instead, the princess catches him in a bad spot and he gets put on the top of the most wanted list. So now, he has to live out his days in the Ever-free until he figures out how the hell to break bread with the enemy. He laid down and tried to get some sleep, but the events of the past day and a half kept replaying in his head, keeping him awake. While reviewing what had transpired, he realized something. The unicrons tried using magic on him and it didn't work. He could understand the magic aura disappearing when he touched the spear, but the one guard had physically tried to use magic on him and failed. Seeing as it was a royal guard, he knew that couldn't have been a fluke. What made it weird is that after the the skirmish, Princess Celestia summoned only earth and pegasus guards to capture him even though she never saw the battle. How did she know that unicorns were unable to control him? 'Better question yet,' he thought 'Why did she summon such a large force for a creature she just saw. Maybe she wanted to be careful, but then why did she automatically deem me the biggest threat in all the land?' His deep thoughts were silenced when he felt something wrap around his mid-section. He looked down at his waist to see what appeared to be a scorpin tail. He urned and looked behind him saw the snarling, drooling, pointy muzzle of a lion. One thought crossed his mind before he was flung towards a tree... 'Manticore!' With a quick flick of its tail, Aaron was flung across the camp site and into a tree. He hit with a thud and landed hard, nearly knocking him unconscious. He was in so much agony that every fiber of his body held firm and made him stiff as a board. He watched the manticore creep up on him slowly, licking its lips many times. When the beast was two feet away, it stopped and gave a ear-piercing growl. It raised it's tail up to deliver the final blow. Aaron closed his eyes and waited for the impact. After a few moments of nothing, Aaron open one eye to see what was happening. To his surprise, a hooded figure was standing next to him. The creature had some sort of weird stick in its hoof. After further inspection, he realized that attached to said hoof was a white and black stripped fore arm. 'Zecora...' He thought. "Be gone, be gone! Don't step anymore and run! Foul beast go away, alive and well he shall stay!" Yep, Zecora. As if it had seen a ghost or a serial killer in his bathroom, the manticore slowly backed away with a look of horror on his face. After about 20 feet of backing up, the lion-scorpin hybrid turned and ran away. Zecora took her hood off and turned to Aaron. "My help I will give, drink this potion if you want to live." She held up a vile of a orange colored liquid to Aaron's mouth. He was hesitant, but after a reassuring look from Zecora, he drank the potion. After drinking the potion, a sudden rush of searing pain washed over his body. Every square inch of his body felt like it was set a blaze. Eventually, the pain became to much an Aaron faded into darkness... A/N Thank you guys for waiting and thanks again to E-Ranger for pre-reading as usual. I will say I didn't like this chapter so give me your thoughts, please and thank you. Old but inciteful SpiritChapter 4: A Place to Call Home So sorry for the delay, I forgot to post this when I completed it. I only noticed because I was wondering why I didn't have any comments on this chapter. Oh well, expect the next in 2-3 days as I finish self checking and before it gets pre-read. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. Standing before her was the very Draqconequus that a few months ago nearly destroyed Ponyville and enslaved all of Equestria. The very same Draqconequus that her and her friends supposedly encased in stone. All Twilight could do was look at him in shock. “B-but h-how are y-you -” “Here?” Discord said cutting her off. “Simple my dear, the elements only seal my physical body, they can't seal my spiritual body. That what happens, my body and powers are sealed away and I roam the planet until the spell wears off.” The spirit of chaos chuckled a little bit a the lavender unicorns confused expression. “But enough about me, I hear you mortals have a human problem again.” “Again?” Twilight muttered to herself before looking up at the Draqconequus with questioning eyes, “You know what that creature is that's been running around in the Everfree forest?” He looked at the Unicorn and smiled, “Know what it is? They're my favorite species not native to Equestria! The violence, the war, the Chaos! Really, they make me have woody in my nonexistent pants.” Twilight was going to ask what 'woody' meant, but she decided that it's best not to. “How do you know what that creature, a human as you called it, how do you know what it is?” “I did say I'm a spirit when I'm encased in stone right?” Twilight nodded her head. “So, I obviously saw the other human when he arrived!” Twilight looked at Discord, giving him 'you're full of B.S.' look. “There was no other human, I checked all the record books. There is no recorded history of anything that resembled the creature you call human in there.” The spirit of chaos chuckled lightly to himself at her naivety. “If you checked the record books, then you would have noticed that 103 years ago, there is no history for almost three months.” Not believing the Draqconequus, Twilight open up the record book closest to her a turned back to the records from that time. To her surprise, there was no history from May 1st till July 31st, Thinking it was just a coincidence, she open up another book and found the same result. After going through every single record, history, and stat book in the library she found the result to be the same. “B-but how can this be?” “How?”' The Draqconequus faked questioned, “Oh, I don't know. Say maybe a all powerful being used a memory wiped spell to erase the pain from her subjects minds. But who do we know that was around during that time that was strong enough to use such a spell?” He tapped his chin for added emphasis. Twilights eye's grew wide when she got at what Discord was getting at. “Princess Celestia? But that doesn't make sense! She wouldn't go to such an extreme unless something...” Twilight stopped talking when she realized what he was getting at, a look of horror upon her face. Discord just chuckled softly. “Exactly.” Discord was now grinning devilishly ear from ear. “You don't think Equestria's history is peaches and cream, do you?” “W-why are you telling me this?” A distraught Twilight asked. “To cause chaos, why would I do anything to begin with? But in case you don't understand, I will spell it out for you. Humans are murderous creatures and the last one nearly wiped out the unicorn population in one evening.” Discord gave one last hard chuckle before snapping his fingers and disappearing into the unknown. Twilight was now sitting on the floor of the library, tears flowing freely from her face. She had never experienced death and couldn't even to begin to fathom what that would be like. For the princess to have erased from everyponies mind means that it must have horrific. Even in her sadness, Twilight still wanted to know how bad it had to have been for Celestia to go to such extreme measures. Putting on a brave face, she called for her assistant . “SPIKE!” The lavender mare yelled, “TAKE A LETTER...” In Zecora's hut, a severely groggy human was waking up after passing out from the pain of having his wounds sealed shut and his bones reset in the matter of a few seconds. He was slightly confused and sore. For some reason, he felt like he was laying on a wood floor and not the soft dirt he remembered passing out on. Another thing was the smell of the place he was currently resting at. It didn't smell earthy more like herbal soup. He slowly opened one eye gazed at his surroundings, what he saw shocked him. He was in sort of lean-too or hut. There were mask, giant witch doctor looking mask. A cauldron with a boiling brown substance in it. Jars of what he assumed to be herbs on shelfs. “What happened?” The confused him asked no one in particular. He shook his head and started recapping the events before he passed out. “Alright, so I was eating berries... Then I was attacked... by a... um.... Manticore, yea that's it, a Manticore!... Then a hooded figure saved me with a stick.... and gave me a healing potion... blank.” He couldn't shake the feeling like he was missing something important from this particular series of events. Hooded figures name, he knew that he knew it but he couldn't remember who it was. Then, in a room down the hall, he heard a voice call out, “Who speaks with a voice that booms and shakes, can it be that my human is awake?” Then, like a ton of bricks, it hit Aaron. 'Zecora, of course!' he thought quietly. “Um, yea. Is this the home of Zecora?” “Yes this home is mine, but how you know my name has gotten me in a bind.” She answered back. “Right, we'll get to that later, but first, are you physically able to not rhyme when you talk or is this gonna be how you're gonna talk?” “I can stop rhyming, this is true. But I've done it my whole life so it may be hard to due!” She stepped out from back from where ever she was and into the Aaron was sitting in. Aaron just deadpanned, “That's fine, just try. But to answer your question, I'm from another world and you creature here in Equestria are famous among certain groups. I can't really explain it much more than that without making me seem absolutely insane.” “Well, I had known that humans aren't from here but I did not think we would be famous in your world. Especially considering the last one of your kind was so shocked at the appearance of the ponies that he nearly wiped out enough equines to make me hurl.” Aaron just stopped and stared at the four foot zebra. “What do you mean, the last one of my kind? You mean to tell me there was another human in Equestria and he killed a bunch of ponies? Is that why the royal guard is after me?!” Zecora was a bit taken back by the sudden out burst but she quickly regain her composer. “Well yes and no. You see human, he didn't kill a bunch of random ponies, he killed unicorns and buried them snow. To top it off, he killed the last descendent's of one of the greatest unicorns to ever be born, and on a necklace he wore his horn. And yes, thats why the royal guard is after you. More than likely, they will search for you until Celestia thinks your expiration is past due.” “Peachy.” Aaron sighed. “So, you think that you could point me in the direction of a good place to hide?” Zecora pondered it for a moment before looking at the tall human with gleaming eyes. “I think that I know of a place, but I will only show it too you under one condition that could bring joy to my face.” Aaron looked at the smiling zebra before his curiosity got the better of him, “What condition?” “You become my student. It is zebra tradition to teach at least two students in their lifetime and I have already started with tiny Applebloom, I just need another who is prudent.” “I guess it is better than running..... I'm in.” Zecora smiled ear to ear before running off to another room. When she returned, she had a map, a machete, and a crossbow with arrows. She dropped the items at Aaron's feet carefully an gave him the map. “This will lead you to a hut about a half from here, but beware. That is the most dangerous part of the forest, not even Celestia's guards will venture into there.” Aaron looked the map over and smiled at the voodoo zebra, “Thank you Zecora, this means so much to me.” Aaron picked up the weapons and started towards the door before he remembered something he forgot. “What about the whole teaching me thing? When do you want to start that?” “Twice a per week starting one month from now, that should be plenty of time for Celestia to call off the search. Just be on look out from the hut's perch.” Aaron looked at mystical zebra before walking out the door. Before he left he spoke one last thing and closed the door, “Thank you.” When she was sure Aaron was gone, Zecora mumble one last thing before going back the hallway and going to bed. “I've seemed to have found my second grasshopper, but it's a shame that he's about as magical as a rubber stopper.” After about what Aaron assumed to be a half hour of walking, he came across the hut that Zecora was talking about. It stood on stilts that were 20ft off the ground and about 6ft in diameter. The only visible way up was a rope ladder that looked like it had seen better days and so had the hut. Aaron climbed the raggedy ladder top the top, gingerly stepping as to not make the thing fall down on him. After reaching the top and carefully hoisting himself up, he reached for the doorknob to view the inside of his new abode. However, when he touched the door, the whole door and frame collapsed. Making a mental note to fix the the door somehow, Aaron continued his tour of the hut. When finished, he concluded that the hut had two bedrooms, a bathroom; Which was just a room with a hole in the floor; a kitchen that somehow had a wood burning stove in it and a living room. After making sure the hut was stable, Aaron went to the large of the two bedrooms and set his stuff down. After two minutes of laying peacefully on the bed, Aaron drifted into a deep slumber. Celestia stood outside the home of one Twilight Sparkle. She had received a letter hours ago the requested a audience with her personal protégé at her tree home in Ponyville. After finishing day court, the princess took the first carriage she could find and now found herself wondering what was on Twilight's mind that she would request to meet in private. Celestia raised a majestic hoof to knock on the door to the tree house but before she could, the door was open by a disheveled looking lavender unicorn. “Come in Princess, if you would please.” Twilight said dishearteningly. Celestia gave her a concerning glance before walking inside, unsure whether or not Twilight was alright. Celestia took a seat at Twilight's kitchen table across from Twilight and waited for her to speak. To two sat for maybe 15 minutes before the silence was unbearable for the Monarch of the Sun. She looked a downtrodden with a bit of unease. “Twilight.” Celestia said softly. The lavender mare looked at her with a bit of apprehension. “Something is clearly bothering you or wouldn't have asked to see me in private. What is on your mind student?” Twilight gulped and took a deep breath. “Well princess, I was doing some research in my library. I know you asked me to, but I couldn't help myself. I was, kind of doing research, well more like trying to find anything that resembled them, on humans after Fluttershy gave me a description of what the one in the Everfree looked like. But then something, or should I say, somepony happened.” Celestia was looking at Twilight with a unamused glare. She figured she would never satisfy Twilight's questions when she told her to drop it, and this little stunt didn't surprise her. She was still, however, mildly disappointed in her. “*Sigh*, What happened Twilight.” “Discord...” Celestia just sat there in total shock. “But,thats impossible! He's looked away in..” “His physical body is.” Twilight cut in. “His spiritual body as he put it, is free to roam the planet.” “Well, this is a new development. I will head back to Canterlot immediately to get our best unicorns to find him and seal that away also.” Celestia started towards the door before she was stopped by Twilight. “Wait! Princess, remember how I told you about me trying to find anything that resembled a human? Well, he claimed that his spirit was in Canterlot 103 years ago when he claimed that another human was present. I didn't want to believe him but the evidence suggest it's true. That's the whole reason I asked for you to come here in the first place.” Celestia was again in shock. The cat was halfway out of the bag and the draw string was broke. “What did he tell you?” “He said... he said...” Twilight was having a hard time spitting the words out. “Twilight,” Celestia said in her usual motherly tone despite her current state of shock. “Just tell me what he said.” Twilight took in a deep breath and sighed. “ He said that the last human killed a lot of unicorns and that you erased it from everyponies minds and from the record books. But, I don't believe him! Nothing could have been that evil, could it?” Celestia looked down, memories of the traumatic event replaying in her mind. The looks of horror and suffering still fresh in her mind. She had hoped that the day would never come when she would have to relive those fateful days. Celestia took a deep breath, before sighing. "Twilight, its time we had a talk..."
Bloody HellThe Runaway Chapter 1: Bloody Hell Deep in the wood covered mountains of Montana, an ex-army ranger named Aaron sat near a camp fire. He was here to mourn the death of his son, Tyler, who died of leukemia when he was just three. He was doing this because his son was the thing that kept him going, even after he was discharged and given the purple heart after receiving multiple gun shot wounds in Iraq. This was ten years ago. Since then, he became a drunkard and divorced. His life was spiraling out of control. That was until a brief stay in jail and a sentencing to rehab got him turned around almost three years ago. Since then, he has sobered up and found other things to pass his time. He even became a Brony and was enjoying life and all of its wonders. However, he felt like he had let his son down with his behavior the last seven years, so he started camping near there favorite spot. This was his third year coming here and just like the last year and the year before, he felt a little of his burdens of his past be whisked away. It was soothing to him, almost like he was a little kid again. He could get away from the retched world below and reflect on the good times. 'What a nice night.' Aaron thought to himself, and truly it was. The stars where shinning and the moon was bright and full. 'I just wish I didn't have to go back tomorrow.' Aaron was so engrossed in his thoughts, that he didn't notice the lone wolf creeping up on him. It was nothing dangerous, just a curious pup who had never seen a human before. The pup sat itself down next to Aaron, landing loud enough to startle the poor man. He jumped a little, but didn't show too much reaction. Living in these hills all of his life, he knew better than to startle junior. Because where there's one pup, there's more pups. Where there's more pups, there's many wolf mothers. And finally, where there's the mothers, there's the big Alpha. One wrong move and he could attracted the wrong type of crowd. He slowly reached for his .40 cal semi-auto handgun that he always kept with him. He slowly undid the Velcro strap to the holster it was in. Gingerly flicked the safety off and methodically pulled the gun out and pointed it at the pup. With a sudden loud 'bang', the pup fell lifeless to the ground. Aaron didn't take no time to examine his kill because it was a mile hike to his vehicle and he needed to get packed before any curious critters came exploring. He had all of his things roughly packed in five minutes and was already starting to set up a gap between him and the site. He was no more than fifty feet from the site when heard the distinctive sound of a wolf packs grieving howl. 'Shit!' he thought, 'I need to hurry before they pick up on my trail.' He was now running towards his truck. After a while, the howling stopped, and so did he. He could see his ford pickup from where he was and he had no more than one hundred yard to go. He was gleaming with joy, happy that he avoided that epidemic. His joy canceled when he felt something bit into his left calf muscle. He dropped to the ground in pain. He caught a glimpse of the creature that had him, it was a female wolf. He ripped her off, but her clench was so tight it ripped most of the meat away from his calf also. He hollered in pain before using a tree to aid himself up to his feet. He leaned back against the tree and took a look at his attacker. The wolf bore and predatory demeanor, and looked fierce with his flesh dangling on the sides of its mouth. Aaron stared down the wolf, trying make himself seem just as threatening as her. However, he soon found himself out matched when the other members of the pack showed up, four females and two males. Aaron knew he odds weren't good, but he was determined to fight till the very end. He pulled out his gun and aimed it at the wolf who had his calf muscle in her mouth. Pulled the trigger and she dropped to the ground. Two other wolves took this as a signal as the charged simultaneously. Aaron dropped one but the other grabbed his left forearm. He groaned in agony before he took the gun and unloaded three rounds into its chest, making it release its death grip on his arm. While he had a second, he started doing the math. 'Alright,' he thought, 'I got three shots left and four wolves. I can do this.' He took in a deep breath in threw his nose and exhaled hard threw his mouth. He brought his gun up challengingly at the remaining pack members. Apparently they got wiser as all four of them charged this time. Bang! Aaron dropped one wolf and rolled to avoid the others. He quickly reared himself up and shot another one. Bang! He was getting close to surviving this ordeal, but he wasn't about to bet all his money on one horse yet. He only had a single shot left and two wolves. Upon further inspection, he had the two males, who he assumed to be the Alpha and maybe a son or a brother. Aaron's vision was becoming increasingly blurry and his breathing was mostly labored. Both wolves noticed this and took there chance, each charging from a different side. Before he could react, both wolves latched onto a body part, his right shoulder and the left side of his rib cage, bringing him to one knee. Aaron could hear and fell the bones breaking with each bite. Darkness was quickly clouding Aaron vision and he could fell his breath become even more shallower. The only thing he could fell at this point is the bites and the feel of his warm blood running down his body. He was about to give in when memories of his son flashed in his mind. Suddenly, a rush of testosterone and adrenaline shot threw his body. He brought his gun up and fired the remaining shot into the wolf that was biting is ribs skull. The wolf let out a small whimper before releasing his grip and falling lifeless onto the ground. Aaron then started punching the remaining wolf with his free hand. After so many blows he could hear the sound of one of the wolfs bones busting. After some of the adrenaline wore off the fight fell to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron could see his survival knife that fell out of his pack after the attack. He quickly pushed the wolf off with all of his might, ripping all the flesh and some of his bone clean off his body. He quickly scrambled to reach the knife but before he did, he felt the wolf latch itself on to his hindquarters. Aaron subdued the erg to scream and continued o crawl towards the knife. By his finger tips, he was able to bring the knife into his grasp. He did a quick look behind him to see were the wolf was latched on at, and with one mighty swing, he plunged the knife deep into the wolfs jugular. The wolf released its death strike on his rear and tried to struggle away, but the knife had serrated edges so all it did was tear out his throat, killing him instantly. Aaron took no solace in his victory, he was slowly bleeding to his death and didn't have enough time to reach hospitable. He wasn't about to give up either because he stumbled to his feet then bumbled to his truck. He finally reached his truck and started it up and was heading down the mountain path that lead into Billings. He was only five minutes into his potentially life saving journey when he started to lose feeling in is feet. He was now two miles away from Billings and he head no feeling in his body, no sight in his left eye, and was being chased by the cops on the highway. The vision in his right eye was already starting to go when saw the sign for the exit that lead to the hospitable. He veered hard onto the off ramp and nearly tipped his crew cap. He focused on his destination which was about five hundred yard away. Unfortunately, his vision was so bad that he missed the entrance by three feet and made his truck stall when it hit the curb. Aaron opened his door and fell out of the truck and started crawling towards the entrance. He could hear the muffled sounds of the police sirens closing up behind him somewhere. He was slowly fading away when he felt himself being picked up and carried towards the entrance. The last thing he saw before he blacked was the badge of the officer carrying him. The officer, David Johnson, on the other hand was desperately trying to get this man to the emergency room. He had hated him for the past nine miles because he didn't want to do anything today and then some lunatic came flying down I90 at over 115 miles per hour. Now the only thing he could think about is saving this man who somehow is still breathing despite obvious pieces of flesh missing. Officer Johnson burst threw the doors and called for a doctor. In less than a minute, a group of nurses and several doctor came rushing with a stretcher. Within minutes, Aaron was in an operating room having tubes shoved into his lungs and painkillers forced down his throat while a large male doctor was busy sowing him up. All this would be pointless as Aaron's soul had already left his physical body and he was somewhere in limbo. He didn't no this however. To him he was in a pitch black room sitting. He had a ominous glow around his body and all of his wounds were healed. He was in total shock and awe as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. “How aren't I dead?” He asked aloud. “Where am I?” He was desperately hoping someone would answer. He was about to ask again when a black hooded figure appeared in front of him. The figure had no physical features. It was just a black cloak and blackness where the head should be. It was floating and it to had the same ominous glow coming from his body. Aaron was terrified, literally shaking with fright. “A-am I d-dead?” he asked. The creatures only response was his head shaking no. Aaron gulped ad asked another question. “Then w-were is this?” “Hell.” was its response. “But, it isn't your time to go, so you are stuck at the gates in eternal limbo.” Aaron couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was religious man, but he never figured he would ever be stuck in limbo, especially at the gates of hell. “If this hell, then who are you?” “I am the gate keeper. Distributer of souls and punisher of the damned. You on the other hand have unfinished business. Your time on earth is done, your earthly body destroyed beyond repair. However, I can give you a second chance at life. But be warned, this life will come with trails and tribulations that most mortals would never imagine. It will be a world you're familiar with, but you will learn things you never thought would be possible about it. Or, you can accept your untimely death and remain in limbo for the next half century.” Aaron was at loss for words. Here he was being told that his death was to soon and he could get a second chance at life. The only thought that he had was, 'There must be a catch.' He summed up all of his courage and stood up and faced the creature and questioned. “This sounds to good to be true, whats the catch?” The gate keeper chuckled to himself, “Silly human, there is no catch. It's cut and dry, you go to this new world and live the rest of your measly life. So, do you accept?” Aaron pondered it, but only for second because anything was better than sitting here for fifty years. “I accept.” The creature did a swaying motion with his arms. He started concentrating energy into a ball in front of him. Soon the ball was as big as Aaron, and it had multicolor blurs movings across it. “Step into to the portal, and enter your new world.” Was the last thing it said before disappearing into the darkness. Aaron took one deep breath and jumped head first into the portal. As soon as he entered, his vision went black and extreme pain shot throughout his body. All of his senses went numb. Next thing he knew, he was free falling towards a giant tree. Meanwhile in Twilight's tree home, Princess Celestia was having a meaningful conversation with her star pupil. She was informing her that herself and Princess Luna would be going into the jungles of Equestria to check up on some of the small Commonwealths that had been established. She was about to bid her student farewell when a large crash followed by guards yelling war cries was heard outside. “Princess, what was that?” The lavender librarian equine asked. “I don't know Twilight, but I think it's best if you stay here while I go investigate.” With a mighty glow from here horn, the Alicorn teleported herself to the front of the building where the commotion was coming from. When she finished her teleportation, she was shocked and enraged by what she saw. The six guards that where guarding the entrance were lying on the ground either unconscious or in sever agony, and standing above them was a very tired looking human. Memories of a time she had erased from the minds of her subject came flooding back. The senseless killing, the trickery, the abomination it created. But the main thing was the pain of witnessing countless unicorns be slaughtered because magic didn't work on this creature. With another glow, she summoned a small legion of Pegasus and Earth pony troops in front of her, and with a hint of hatred in her voice, Princess Celestia boomed 'CAPTURE THE HUMAN, HE IS NOW THE BIGGEST THREAT IN EQUESTRIA!'
Digging deeper into the holeChapter 2: Digging deeper into the hole. After Aaron regained his senses, he noticed he was falling towards a giant tree that was situated in the center of a small mideval era type village. He wasn't to interested in the scenery though, he was to busy trying to brace for impact. Aaron landed in the lush canopy and hit a few small branches on the way down. But there was enough foliage to slow his descent so when he hit the ground, the only major injury was a sprained ankle. As Aaron was busy steadying himself to his feet, from his left he hears, “Seize the creature! It's after the princess.” Aaron turned his head toward the source of the noise only to find a large winged horse flying towards him at a alarming rate. Aaron side stepped the charging stallion and watched him slam head-first into a fruit stand, scaring a white mare with a fruit bowl cutie-mark half to death. “Now, what's all of that for?” he coyly asked. “You will never get to Princess Celestia, foul beast!” the guard spat at him, struggling to escape the wreckage that surrounded him. 'Princess Celestia?' Aaron thought to himself, 'I can't be were I think am, could I?' His train of thought was derailed when a large object came crashing into his side. Aaron was thrown back quite a bit but quickly got to his feet unfazed. He looked at what had stuck him and wasn't surprised to see another large white pegasus looking at him menacingly. He was flying above the previously taken down pegasus and was helping him to his feet. He was quickly joined by to unicorns and to earth ponies. “HALT!” the pegasus that just attacked him bellowed, “WE HERE TO PLACE YOU UNDER ARREST FOR THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCESS AND ASSAULTING A ROYAL GUARD. BY ROYAL LAW, YOU WILL BE PLACED IN A DUNGEON FOR THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE. COME FREELY AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED.” Aaron couldn't believe what he heard. He crash lands in the middle of Ponyville and gets charged with crimes he didn't commit. Wasn't going to stand for it, but he wasn't going to go Willy-nilly either. “I didn't do anything! I refuse to be punished for no reason.” he shouted at the guards. “If that is your answer...” The pegasus quickly responded, “Light Caster, subdue the creature.” The larger of the two unicorns stepped forward and a blue aura surrounded his horn. In a flash, a energy beam shot towards Aaron but when it hit it quickly dissipated, leaving the unicorn severally confused. 'Humph,' Aaron thought, 'I must be magic proof. I know I have seen Twilight pick up twenty foot bears without a problem so thats the only explanation.' His attention was quickly focused back to the battle at hand as he heard another guard yell at the unicorn. “Forget it then, we will do this the old fashion way. Guards, ready spears! CHARGE!” As if the dinner bell was rung, all the guards charged simultaneously, coming at different directions with about four foot long spears. However, as intimidating as this may seem, Aaron noticed that it was an unorganized and uncoordinated frontal assault. Aaron quickly took advantage off their glaring weakness and quickly sprung into action, trying to disarm the guards without hurting anyone, or pony. Aaron grabbed the spear of a pegasus that was charging from the sky and made him stab the ground while he took a elbow and smashed him in the check, sending him off to his right. He then pulled the spear out of the ground and blocked an attack from a unicorn by stopping the swinging spears momentum by meeting it with his about three fourths up on the shaft and then swung the but end of the weapon into the guards bronchial trap, causing him to fall to the ground with a now very sore throat. Next, the two earth ponies came sweeping at him from the sides. Aaron launched himself in the air at the last second by using his spear as a javelin. The two guards were unable to stop there momentum and slammed head-first into each other. However, the shear wait of Aaron's body and the pressure he was putting on the shaft caused in to splinter. As Aaron fell, being caught off guard by his sudden drop in elevation, landed on a spear that sliced part of his upper thigh muscle. Aaron was to busy avoiding a spear that the other pegasus threw from the air to notice the fresh gash. He rolled barely enough to avoid the sharp end of the spear as it landed mere centimeters away from his head. The second unicorn charged at him from behind while Aaron was still on the ground processing what happened. He quickly used his hands to spring in the air, about six feet above the unicorn. He seemed unamused at Aaron's agility, as he used his magic to shoot the spear upwards towards Aaron. With one swift motion, Aaron grabbed the shaft under the spear head and used his other hand to completely break the weapon. As Aaron descended back towards the earth, he brought his elbow down onto the back of the confused unicorns head. The unicorn didn't make a sound as he stumbled a bit before falling down. Then, a ear piercing scream came from the sky. Aaron looked up to see the remaining pegasus with another spear in his hoof charging hard at him. Aaron dropped to one knee an waited for the pegasus to get closer. In a instant, Aaron sprung upwards, spinning and making the pegasus miss and slam into the ground. Before the pegasus could register what happened, Aaron gave a wind taking elbow into the guards ribs. The guard fell over onto his side, clutching it in pain. Aaron looked upon his handy work. He was successful at beating the guards and he didn't have to kill any of them. Some of them are going to have a hard time breathing for a while, and some are going to have a major headache, but he didn't truly have to attack them. He was getting ready to bolt, but when he tried to move his leg, the pain from the gash caused him to stop. He was going to start cursing at his dumb luck when a blinding light appeared in front of him. When the light subsided and he regained his vision, he saw a very pissed and fuming Celestia. He gave a quick glance at his surroundings and found he was standing in the middle of a circle of beaten guards. 'Oh crap, this doesn't bode well for me.' Another blinding light flashed, and when Aaron refocused,he was standing before a small army of Pegasi and and Earth guards ponies. Before he could even speak, Celestia gave a very vociferous order, “CAPTURE THE HUMAN, HE IS NOW THE BIGGEST THREAT IN EQUESTRIA!” All of the guards took a charging stance, but before they could do anything, the human grabbed a spear and started running in the other direction. They made haste and started to pursue him, jumping and diving at his feet. Aaron on the other hand, knew that he was to greatly out numbered to fight them off. The odds were at least 70:1 them. So, he figured it would be easier to hit and run, mostly run, than to stand and fight. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he picked one of the spears off the ground and ran in the opposite direction. He knew there was no way he was out running ponies, especially if half can fly. He was zig zagging his way through town, making ponies miss when they dove at his feet. He soon found himself on the outskirts of town heading towards what he assumed to be the Everfree forest. He knew it was the Everfree forest when he hurdled a very confused and scared Fluttershy outside of her cottage. He didn't land on his feet though, he didn't land at all. As soon as he went airborne, a set of large white hooves wrapped around his waist. “Got you now creature!” the guard shouted. “Thats what you think!” Aaron retorted before head-butting the guard, causing him to release Aaron who landed with a thump. He didn't stop to contemplate what he had done as he made a straight B-line for the trees. He glanced back before entering the forest to see Fluttershy passed out on the trial and the guards halting there pursuit. He wasn't about stop and ask why, he was to busy making his escape. He sprinted for a couple of miles before it got to dark to keep trudging forward. Aaron gathered some loose twigs and leaves laying a round and made a small fire. He took off his shirt and tied it tightly above the gash on his leg. He removed the spear head and placed it on the fire and waited for it to heat up. When it was hot enough, he gingerly placed it on the wound, holding back screams of agony, and burnt it shut. The rest of the night went peacefully for Aaron as he laid in his make shift bed which was no more than a pile of leaves. “I need to figure out how to clear my name.” Aaron thought aloud, “I'm also gonna need to find some food.” With his to-do list fresh in his head, he rolled over and went to sleep. Meanwhile, back in Twilights tree house, Princess Celestia paced back and forth trying to conjure up a plan of action. This human was either very brave, or very stupid to run into the Everfree alone. She also couldn't help but wonder why this human didn't try to kill anypony. Maybe there were to many witnesses or maybe he got cold feet. She couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was different about this one. But she trusted one before, and it ended in the deaths of hundreds of innocent ponies. Celestia cringed at the memories of walking down the streets of Canterlot, bodies lying motionless and covered in blood on the once regal streets. It all could have been avoided, but she was to trusting and he took advantage of that. She stopped reminiscing when she heard Twilight walk up the stairs. “Princess,” she spoke, “ I have organized search parties to go an capture the beast tomorrow.” Princess looked down and smiled at her student. She was glad she was helping her, but she was sadden by the fact that she has no idea what she's up against. A hundred years, she has kept their kind a secret, and now if this isn't solved soon, the cat could escape the metaphorical bag. “Thank you Twilight, may I see the plans you have drawn my dear.” The princess asked in her usually motherly tone. Twilight floated a piece of parchment paper and her fake smile that was across her face quickly faded. “Twilight?” “Yes princess?” “Why do you have you, your friends, and most of Ponyville on search parties.” Twilight gave her a confused look. “Why wouldn't we princess? We don't know what they're capable of so it's best to have everypony we can searching for it.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “'sigh' Twilight, I know exactly what he is capable of, and for that reason I don't want innocent ponies getting hurt. It's one thing when it's the guard, but it's another when my little ponies are in harms way. I think it would be best if you sat this one out.” Twilight gave a disappointed sigh and looked to the ground shamefully. “Alright princess, if that is your wish. I will draw up new plans and have them to you tomorrow morning.” Celestia hated seeing her star pupil like this, but she wouldn't be able to bare herself if she knew she allowed Twilight to go on this mission and to only find out she was killed by those heartless monsters. Celestia gave a simple nod and started to walk out the door when Twilight asked her another question. “Hey princess?” “Yes Twilight?” “What do you mean that you know exactly what he's capable of?” Celestia mind froze. She had accidentally said to much. She had to shut her down before she got too curious. “Let's just say it is a secret that I know, and it needs to stay that way.” Celestia didn't let twilight get another question in before she was out the door and on a carriage to Canterlot. 'Hate doing this my star pupil,' Celestia thought while looking at the carriage window at the beautiful night sky, 'but I can't have another incident like last time.' Twilight on the other hand was just siting in the library, contemplating what happened. She had never seen the princess act in such a manner. Even when Discord returned, she was alway would let her in on the most secretive stories of Equestria's past. Never was a stone unturned so it shocked her to know that Celestia would be so secretive all of a sudden. “Maybe I should talk to Luna about this, maybe she can inform me of whats going on.” Twilight said aloud while heading up to bed. Little did any pony or person know, tomorrow would be a little more exciting for both groups. A/N: Special thanks to E-Ranger for Pre-reading this chapter. If you don't already know, I'm rewriting my Chess Game story, 'Shadow Mike', because it sucked so chapter 3 will be out about the same amount of time plus a couple of days then after that expect updates every day or every other day excluding any pop-up events.
I don't have a name for this one so...Chapter 3: Aaron woke, sitting straight up in his make-shift bed, when a noise in a nearby bush caught his attention. He was focusing all his senses on the bush, seeing if it would move again. Then, the bush started to shake again, making a god awful noise all the while. Aaron grabbed the spear head and took a defensive stance. He wasn't sure what to expect and he was wasn't fully awake yet either. Half groggy, Aaron stared down the bush in question. Aaron was prepared to fight what ever it was, but sleeping on the ground would make this task hard as he was suffering from a kinked neck and a throbbing headache. He was ignoring the pain, but it was definitely going to be a factor. He went to take a step towards the bush, but the searing pain coming from his gash on his leg stopped his movement. So instead, he just sat there waiting. The shaking of the bush and noise finally stopped. Aaron tensed up, not sure if he could handle anything dangerous in this condition. (Gulp) “Come out and show yourself!” Aaron shouted at the bush. More shaking and out stepped the cause of the noise. Aaron felt stupidity and his pride being crushed when he looked upon the harmless white bunny that was now in front of the bush, looking at him with innocent eyes. Aaron quickly out what was left of his pride behind him a gingerly bent down to a more relaxed position. “And here I thought I was in immediate danger.” Aaron said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. As if a switch was turned on, the rabbits demeanor went from a sweet innocent creature too a terrifying one. No longer did the bunny have the sweet big eyes but now bore crimson colored pupils that showed a lot of anger. His white coat turned a dark shade of gray. His paws sprouted razor sharp steak knife sharp claws. He had several sharp teeth protruding from his snout. His limbs stretched out, making the recently two foot rabbit a now six foot monster. “You have got to be shitting me.” Aaron said to himself. Aaron returned to a fighting stance and squared up the beast. It snarled and both soon-to-be combatants started moving around the clearing, moving in a circle and studying each others movements. The rabid rabbit saw a opening and shot suddenly at the human. Without any hesitation, Aaron rolled out of the way and quickly reared himself up at the beast. The creature was shocked at Aaron's speed was determined to catch his prey. He lunged again, this time not fully leaping so he could move with the human. Aaron recognized this and this time when he rolled he swung the spear head, grazing the side of the beast as it was trying to side-swipe Aaron. The creature roared in pain and examined the wound. The warm blood running down his side sent rage coursing it's body. He turned an snarled at the now grinning human. Aaron on the other hand had confidence pouring out of every crevasse of his body. 'I guess I will get some food this morning, and I won't even have to work for it!' He couldn't help but smile as the beastly rabbit lunged at him again. This time, Aaron went to deliver the final blow, and lept forward at his assailant. Aaron plunged the spear head into the rabbit's chest cavity as they meet. The rabbit on the other hand, dug his claws into Aaron leg, right above the gash. The rabbit was lifeless in a matter of moments after they crashed on the ground and Aaron was in pain again, grasping his new wound with both hands trying to stop the bleeding. “Fuck!” Aaron grunted. He took off his top shirt and ripped it in half. He tied on half above the wound to stop the bleeding and use the other half to soak up the blood off of his leg. When the bleeding finally stopped and most of the blood was wiped away, Aaron crawled over to the lifeless body of his attacker and yanked the bloody spear head out of its chest. After wiping the blood off on his green wife beater, Aaron began gutting the rabbit. When he was satisfied that he removed all the inedible organs, he skinned the creature and sit the pelt next to him on the ground. He would use the fur as a blanket until he could find a reasonable shelter. Aaron then hobbled around and gathered some larger logs and some kindling to start a fire to cook his meal. After creating a small tipi with the twigs and get it to catch along with some grass and dead leaves, around skewered piece of meat with the shaft that he saved of the spear and cooked several pieces. After eating his fill, Aaron cooked the rest of the rabbit and put the cooked pieces in the pocket of his gray cargo shorts. Filling full and bit groggy from blood loss, Aaron limped down the path, further into the forest to find some berries and such to keep him full for tonight. Unbeknown to him, the scent of his blood was draw the attention of a predator far more powerful than a little bunny. At Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight and the rest of the Elements of Harmony were having brunch. It started out as a friendly get together, but after discussing the events that transpired last night, Twilight and her friends were growing curious as to what is going on. “So,” Rarity started quizzically, “You're saying that the princess know what that foul beast is that scared Fluttershy but she won't tell what it is?” Twilight looked at her friend and addressed her question, “It's just a suggestion, but it would seem like she knows more than she is letting on. She also has never made us be held back from a search party. It's like she thinks we as the bearers can't do it for some reason.” All of her friends stared at her, each with a contemplating look on their faces, save Fluttershy who was hiding behind her mane and being quieter than usual. Rainbow Dash seemed to have noticed this. “Are you okay, Shy? You seem to be a tad bit quieter than I'm used to seeing you be.” The timid mare broke a way from her stupor and addressed her rainbowed friend. “Huh? Oh, um... I was just thinking, thats all.” “Ah bout what, sugercube?” Applejack asked. 'Were ya thinkin bout that thing from yesterday?” The yellow mare nodded her head 'yes.' “I just can't get my mind off of it. The encounter was so strange. When he saw me, it was like a look of recognition. Every time I think about it, i-it... i-it... it just gives me the creeps!” Pinkie Pie, who was up to this point getting her fill of desserts, piped up. “Oh silly, he recognized you because you're one of his favorite ponies!” With her peace being said, Pinkie went back to indulging on sugary sweets. They all looked at their bubbly in confusion. “Erm... riiiiiiight.” Twilight said, brushing it off as one of Pinkie's 'special moments.' “Anyway, didn't you happen to notice anything other than his eyes. You know, what did it look like?” “Well,” she started, “He was tall, maybe as tall as Celestia. He had a short brown mane on the top of his head, but he seemed no to have any fur. He ran on two legs and had two arms with claws. He had on gray, what I would assume to be shorts. He had a a red top on. The poor thing, he also had a cut on his one leg and it looked deep.” "I'm surprised you got all of that before you fell flat on your flank unconscious!" Rainbow Dash added with a chuckle. "Rainbow!" Twilight yelled, "That wasn't very nice!" Rainbow Dash looked at her lavender friend and grinned. "Who said I was nice?" Twilight just looked at her with a unamused stared. "Fiiiiiiiiiine!" she whined. "Sorry Shy, just got carried away there." "Oh, t-that's okay Rainbow, I forgive you." The timid mare said, smiling at her friend. Twilight let out a sigh of relief and took a it from her hay fries. With the description fresh in her mind, she couldn't wait to get back to the library and see if she could find something similar to what Fluttershy had described. "Twilight dear, what about Luna? Did you ask her yet?" Rarity chimed in. "Huh?" Twilight said snapping out of her thoughts. "I was actually gonna write her a letter later to day." Seeming to fine with this answer, Rarity nodded her head and continued eating. The six friends sat there in silence, save Pinkie, and ate the rest of their meals. After finishing, they each said their goodbye's and left. Applejack had work on the farm. Fluttershy was taking care of a injured cockroach. Pinkie was, well, no pony knows what she was doing. RD went back to 'work'. Rarity had to go find gems for a new piece. With no distractions Twilight went back to the library and began her studies. About a hour into it, Twilight had gone through half the library to find anything, but time and time again all she could find were more questions. "Ugh! Why do I keep getting more questions then I do answers!" Twilight moaned. Then, a small chuckle sounded throughout the room. "My, my miss Sparkle. Don't you know can't always find the answers you seek is in a book?" Twilight looked around the room nervously. "W-who are you?" Twilight's shadow suddenly started taking shape in front of her, rising off the ground while did. "Silly filly, don't remember the voice of you good friend..." The shadow finally took shape and Twilight's eyes grew large with recognition and fear. "D-D-Discord!" Aaron was relaxing by his new campfire. After gathering various fruits and berries from the forest, he decided that it was to late in the evening to move further away so he was just going to camp there again for the night. His wounds on his leg had been completely sealed and he could more easily move now that he could take the makeshift bandages off form his upper thigh. The only thing that was troubling him was one question. Why do these ponies want my head on a platter? He could understand if he wasn't attacked and they worked it out like civil sentiment being, but being attacked viciously and then being deemed the biggest threat in Equestria was unsettling. This was nothing like the fanfics he read at home. This was just pure hell. In every story he read, there somepony who would be the voice of reason and would stop either side from hurt one another. Instead, the princess catches him in a bad spot and he gets put on the top of the most wanted list. So now, he has to live out his days in the Ever-free until he figures out how the hell to break bread with the enemy. He laid down and tried to get some sleep, but the events of the past day and a half kept replaying in his head, keeping him awake. While reviewing what had transpired, he realized something. The unicrons tried using magic on him and it didn't work. He could understand the magic aura disappearing when he touched the spear, but the one guard had physically tried to use magic on him and failed. Seeing as it was a royal guard, he knew that couldn't have been a fluke. What made it weird is that after the the skirmish, Princess Celestia summoned only earth and pegasus guards to capture him even though she never saw the battle. How did she know that unicorns were unable to control him? 'Better question yet,' he thought 'Why did she summon such a large force for a creature she just saw. Maybe she wanted to be careful, but then why did she automatically deem me the biggest threat in all the land?' His deep thoughts were silenced when he felt something wrap around his mid-section. He looked down at his waist to see what appeared to be a scorpin tail. He urned and looked behind him saw the snarling, drooling, pointy muzzle of a lion. One thought crossed his mind before he was flung towards a tree... 'Manticore!' With a quick flick of its tail, Aaron was flung across the camp site and into a tree. He hit with a thud and landed hard, nearly knocking him unconscious. He was in so much agony that every fiber of his body held firm and made him stiff as a board. He watched the manticore creep up on him slowly, licking its lips many times. When the beast was two feet away, it stopped and gave a ear-piercing growl. It raised it's tail up to deliver the final blow. Aaron closed his eyes and waited for the impact. After a few moments of nothing, Aaron open one eye to see what was happening. To his surprise, a hooded figure was standing next to him. The creature had some sort of weird stick in its hoof. After further inspection, he realized that attached to said hoof was a white and black stripped fore arm. 'Zecora...' He thought. "Be gone, be gone! Don't step anymore and run! Foul beast go away, alive and well he shall stay!" Yep, Zecora. As if it had seen a ghost or a serial killer in his bathroom, the manticore slowly backed away with a look of horror on his face. After about 20 feet of backing up, the lion-scorpin hybrid turned and ran away. Zecora took her hood off and turned to Aaron. "My help I will give, drink this potion if you want to live." She held up a vile of a orange colored liquid to Aaron's mouth. He was hesitant, but after a reassuring look from Zecora, he drank the potion. After drinking the potion, a sudden rush of searing pain washed over his body. Every square inch of his body felt like it was set a blaze. Eventually, the pain became to much an Aaron faded into darkness... A/N Thank you guys for waiting and thanks again to E-Ranger for pre-reading as usual. I will say I didn't like this chapter so give me your thoughts, please and thank you.
Old but inciteful SpiritChapter 4: A Place to Call Home So sorry for the delay, I forgot to post this when I completed it. I only noticed because I was wondering why I didn't have any comments on this chapter. Oh well, expect the next in 2-3 days as I finish self checking and before it gets pre-read. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. Standing before her was the very Draqconequus that a few months ago nearly destroyed Ponyville and enslaved all of Equestria. The very same Draqconequus that her and her friends supposedly encased in stone. All Twilight could do was look at him in shock. “B-but h-how are y-you -” “Here?” Discord said cutting her off. “Simple my dear, the elements only seal my physical body, they can't seal my spiritual body. That what happens, my body and powers are sealed away and I roam the planet until the spell wears off.” The spirit of chaos chuckled a little bit a the lavender unicorns confused expression. “But enough about me, I hear you mortals have a human problem again.” “Again?” Twilight muttered to herself before looking up at the Draqconequus with questioning eyes, “You know what that creature is that's been running around in the Everfree forest?” He looked at the Unicorn and smiled, “Know what it is? They're my favorite species not native to Equestria! The violence, the war, the Chaos! Really, they make me have woody in my nonexistent pants.” Twilight was going to ask what 'woody' meant, but she decided that it's best not to. “How do you know what that creature, a human as you called it, how do you know what it is?” “I did say I'm a spirit when I'm encased in stone right?” Twilight nodded her head. “So, I obviously saw the other human when he arrived!” Twilight looked at Discord, giving him 'you're full of B.S.' look. “There was no other human, I checked all the record books. There is no recorded history of anything that resembled the creature you call human in there.” The spirit of chaos chuckled lightly to himself at her naivety. “If you checked the record books, then you would have noticed that 103 years ago, there is no history for almost three months.” Not believing the Draqconequus, Twilight open up the record book closest to her a turned back to the records from that time. To her surprise, there was no history from May 1st till July 31st, Thinking it was just a coincidence, she open up another book and found the same result. After going through every single record, history, and stat book in the library she found the result to be the same. “B-but how can this be?” “How?”' The Draqconequus faked questioned, “Oh, I don't know. Say maybe a all powerful being used a memory wiped spell to erase the pain from her subjects minds. But who do we know that was around during that time that was strong enough to use such a spell?” He tapped his chin for added emphasis. Twilights eye's grew wide when she got at what Discord was getting at. “Princess Celestia? But that doesn't make sense! She wouldn't go to such an extreme unless something...” Twilight stopped talking when she realized what he was getting at, a look of horror upon her face. Discord just chuckled softly. “Exactly.” Discord was now grinning devilishly ear from ear. “You don't think Equestria's history is peaches and cream, do you?” “W-why are you telling me this?” A distraught Twilight asked. “To cause chaos, why would I do anything to begin with? But in case you don't understand, I will spell it out for you. Humans are murderous creatures and the last one nearly wiped out the unicorn population in one evening.” Discord gave one last hard chuckle before snapping his fingers and disappearing into the unknown. Twilight was now sitting on the floor of the library, tears flowing freely from her face. She had never experienced death and couldn't even to begin to fathom what that would be like. For the princess to have erased from everyponies mind means that it must have horrific. Even in her sadness, Twilight still wanted to know how bad it had to have been for Celestia to go to such extreme measures. Putting on a brave face, she called for her assistant . “SPIKE!” The lavender mare yelled, “TAKE A LETTER...” In Zecora's hut, a severely groggy human was waking up after passing out from the pain of having his wounds sealed shut and his bones reset in the matter of a few seconds. He was slightly confused and sore. For some reason, he felt like he was laying on a wood floor and not the soft dirt he remembered passing out on. Another thing was the smell of the place he was currently resting at. It didn't smell earthy more like herbal soup. He slowly opened one eye gazed at his surroundings, what he saw shocked him. He was in sort of lean-too or hut. There were mask, giant witch doctor looking mask. A cauldron with a boiling brown substance in it. Jars of what he assumed to be herbs on shelfs. “What happened?” The confused him asked no one in particular. He shook his head and started recapping the events before he passed out. “Alright, so I was eating berries... Then I was attacked... by a... um.... Manticore, yea that's it, a Manticore!... Then a hooded figure saved me with a stick.... and gave me a healing potion... blank.” He couldn't shake the feeling like he was missing something important from this particular series of events. Hooded figures name, he knew that he knew it but he couldn't remember who it was. Then, in a room down the hall, he heard a voice call out, “Who speaks with a voice that booms and shakes, can it be that my human is awake?” Then, like a ton of bricks, it hit Aaron. 'Zecora, of course!' he thought quietly. “Um, yea. Is this the home of Zecora?” “Yes this home is mine, but how you know my name has gotten me in a bind.” She answered back. “Right, we'll get to that later, but first, are you physically able to not rhyme when you talk or is this gonna be how you're gonna talk?” “I can stop rhyming, this is true. But I've done it my whole life so it may be hard to due!” She stepped out from back from where ever she was and into the Aaron was sitting in. Aaron just deadpanned, “That's fine, just try. But to answer your question, I'm from another world and you creature here in Equestria are famous among certain groups. I can't really explain it much more than that without making me seem absolutely insane.” “Well, I had known that humans aren't from here but I did not think we would be famous in your world. Especially considering the last one of your kind was so shocked at the appearance of the ponies that he nearly wiped out enough equines to make me hurl.” Aaron just stopped and stared at the four foot zebra. “What do you mean, the last one of my kind? You mean to tell me there was another human in Equestria and he killed a bunch of ponies? Is that why the royal guard is after me?!” Zecora was a bit taken back by the sudden out burst but she quickly regain her composer. “Well yes and no. You see human, he didn't kill a bunch of random ponies, he killed unicorns and buried them snow. To top it off, he killed the last descendent's of one of the greatest unicorns to ever be born, and on a necklace he wore his horn. And yes, thats why the royal guard is after you. More than likely, they will search for you until Celestia thinks your expiration is past due.” “Peachy.” Aaron sighed. “So, you think that you could point me in the direction of a good place to hide?” Zecora pondered it for a moment before looking at the tall human with gleaming eyes. “I think that I know of a place, but I will only show it too you under one condition that could bring joy to my face.” Aaron looked at the smiling zebra before his curiosity got the better of him, “What condition?” “You become my student. It is zebra tradition to teach at least two students in their lifetime and I have already started with tiny Applebloom, I just need another who is prudent.” “I guess it is better than running..... I'm in.” Zecora smiled ear to ear before running off to another room. When she returned, she had a map, a machete, and a crossbow with arrows. She dropped the items at Aaron's feet carefully an gave him the map. “This will lead you to a hut about a half from here, but beware. That is the most dangerous part of the forest, not even Celestia's guards will venture into there.” Aaron looked the map over and smiled at the voodoo zebra, “Thank you Zecora, this means so much to me.” Aaron picked up the weapons and started towards the door before he remembered something he forgot. “What about the whole teaching me thing? When do you want to start that?” “Twice a per week starting one month from now, that should be plenty of time for Celestia to call off the search. Just be on look out from the hut's perch.” Aaron looked at mystical zebra before walking out the door. Before he left he spoke one last thing and closed the door, “Thank you.” When she was sure Aaron was gone, Zecora mumble one last thing before going back the hallway and going to bed. “I've seemed to have found my second grasshopper, but it's a shame that he's about as magical as a rubber stopper.” After about what Aaron assumed to be a half hour of walking, he came across the hut that Zecora was talking about. It stood on stilts that were 20ft off the ground and about 6ft in diameter. The only visible way up was a rope ladder that looked like it had seen better days and so had the hut. Aaron climbed the raggedy ladder top the top, gingerly stepping as to not make the thing fall down on him. After reaching the top and carefully hoisting himself up, he reached for the doorknob to view the inside of his new abode. However, when he touched the door, the whole door and frame collapsed. Making a mental note to fix the the door somehow, Aaron continued his tour of the hut. When finished, he concluded that the hut had two bedrooms, a bathroom; Which was just a room with a hole in the floor; a kitchen that somehow had a wood burning stove in it and a living room. After making sure the hut was stable, Aaron went to the large of the two bedrooms and set his stuff down. After two minutes of laying peacefully on the bed, Aaron drifted into a deep slumber. Celestia stood outside the home of one Twilight Sparkle. She had received a letter hours ago the requested a audience with her personal protégé at her tree home in Ponyville. After finishing day court, the princess took the first carriage she could find and now found herself wondering what was on Twilight's mind that she would request to meet in private. Celestia raised a majestic hoof to knock on the door to the tree house but before she could, the door was open by a disheveled looking lavender unicorn. “Come in Princess, if you would please.” Twilight said dishearteningly. Celestia gave her a concerning glance before walking inside, unsure whether or not Twilight was alright. Celestia took a seat at Twilight's kitchen table across from Twilight and waited for her to speak. To two sat for maybe 15 minutes before the silence was unbearable for the Monarch of the Sun. She looked a downtrodden with a bit of unease. “Twilight.” Celestia said softly. The lavender mare looked at her with a bit of apprehension. “Something is clearly bothering you or wouldn't have asked to see me in private. What is on your mind student?” Twilight gulped and took a deep breath. “Well princess, I was doing some research in my library. I know you asked me to, but I couldn't help myself. I was, kind of doing research, well more like trying to find anything that resembled them, on humans after Fluttershy gave me a description of what the one in the Everfree looked like. But then something, or should I say, somepony happened.” Celestia was looking at Twilight with a unamused glare. She figured she would never satisfy Twilight's questions when she told her to drop it, and this little stunt didn't surprise her. She was still, however, mildly disappointed in her. “*Sigh*, What happened Twilight.” “Discord...” Celestia just sat there in total shock. “But,thats impossible! He's looked away in..” “His physical body is.” Twilight cut in. “His spiritual body as he put it, is free to roam the planet.” “Well, this is a new development. I will head back to Canterlot immediately to get our best unicorns to find him and seal that away also.” Celestia started towards the door before she was stopped by Twilight. “Wait! Princess, remember how I told you about me trying to find anything that resembled a human? Well, he claimed that his spirit was in Canterlot 103 years ago when he claimed that another human was present. I didn't want to believe him but the evidence suggest it's true. That's the whole reason I asked for you to come here in the first place.” Celestia was again in shock. The cat was halfway out of the bag and the draw string was broke. “What did he tell you?” “He said... he said...” Twilight was having a hard time spitting the words out. “Twilight,” Celestia said in her usual motherly tone despite her current state of shock. “Just tell me what he said.” Twilight took in a deep breath and sighed. “ He said that the last human killed a lot of unicorns and that you erased it from everyponies minds and from the record books. But, I don't believe him! Nothing could have been that evil, could it?” Celestia looked down, memories of the traumatic event replaying in her mind. The looks of horror and suffering still fresh in her mind. She had hoped that the day would never come when she would have to relive those fateful days. Celestia took a deep breath, before sighing. "Twilight, its time we had a talk..."
