70 B.N.M. (Before Nightmare Moon)

On the east side of a forested valley a series of tents and lines of three thousand white pony soldiers in golden armor, consisting of about equal numbers between three races, unicorn, pegasi, and seemingly normal ponies. Two ponies stood out over the others in the back of the army, a white pegasus with an electric blue mane in silver armor, and a midnight blue hybrid of unicorn and pegasus with black and silver armor.

On the west side of the valley, a large group of griffins and minotaurs were defending a fort made largely of stone and wood, dressed in leather and iron armor. The minotaurs were armed with war axes and swords, while the griffins were armed with bows and spears. In the valley between the two armies, fire was burning the forests to the ground, large quantities of smoke being blown back and forth by the griffin and pegasi’s wings in an effort to keep it away from their armies.

Suddenly the smoke started swirling into a cyclone that grew ever smaller, closing in until it only covered a small area on the west side of the river. The smoke compressed into a doorway, which promptly opened, with a bipedal form being thrown through the door and landing on the soft needles of pine trees that layered the banks of the river. He coughed twice before the smoke floated towards him, settling on his back and flowing softly down his arms and legs.

Both the pony and griffin leaders saw this take place and immediately dispatched scouting parties to find out what this creature that appeared out of the smoke was, and if possible, bring it to their main base for questioning. The griffin and minotaur generals argued for a minute about who would be sent to collect the creature, with the griffin general winning the argument to send a group of griffins to collect him due to them being unaffected by terrain. The ponies sent pegasi for much the same reason, though they were also the designated scouts.

The man stood up, looked around, and simply said, “Where the FUCK am I?” in a dumbstruck voice. He then clutched at his head, bending over in pain, as how to use his new abilities flooded through his mind. After a few seconds, four names for his newly acquired abilities floated through his mind, two being actively controlled, and two being instinctive.

The two actively controlled abilities were typhokinesis, or the manipulation and conjuration of smoke, and fictional material manipulation, which allowed him to bring his imagination into reality. The instinctively used abilities were functional immortality through rapid healing and agelessness, and absolute magic immunity. No magic would ever work on him directly, and all parts of him had the same effect, dripping his blood onto something would cause it to be immune to magical manipulation until the blood was completely removed.

He shook his head to clear it, and took a look around, noticing a small group of griffins flying towards him, as at the same time on the other side of the river a group of pegasi were doing the same. The griffins reached him nearly a minute before the pegasi did, as the fort they were dispatched from was significantly closer than the pony army was. A griffin that was wearing what seemed to be full iron armor stepped to the front of the group, saying “Good evening, I have been tasked with recovering you and bringing you back to our fort in order to get answers as to how you appeared in the center of a battlefield. Also, if I may ask, what is your name?”

As he was saying this, the griffin looked up and down the creature, noting that it was wearing what appeared to be formal wear, though not like anything he’d seen in the griffin lands before. It was reminiscent of the formal wear the pony nobles wore, although of significantly better quality. He was also wearing leather shoes, which did not seem like something someone who lived with ponies would wear, and had a gold watch on his left wrist. He was largely furless, with pale skin and long black hair that came down to his shoulders. His left eye was a pale, piercing blue, while his right eye was a dark grey.

“My name is Egil Davinson, and I’ll fly with you back to your fort to provide your answers, though you may find them lacking.” Egil responded with a curt nod. He then focused on the feeling of the smoke surrounding him, forming it into a pair of wings on his back. He gave them an experimental flap, at which the griffins took off with him following behind. After a couple of minutes of flying they touched down at the outside edge of the fort, where a heavily scarred minotaur and a griffin wearing a heavily decorated uniform were waiting.

“Good evening to you, my odd friend. I am Duke Silverbeak the Third, and this minotaur to my side is Chief Stone Wall of the Iron Tribe. If you would follow us to the war room, we can inform you of the situation you’re in.” The Stone Wall nodded once before turning and walking through the fort to a tent just outside the keep. Egil followed them into the tent, which contained a large wooden table with maps on it.

Duke Silverbeak took a seat at the head of the table and gestured for Egil to sit at the foot of the table with his back to the entrance flaps. “The situation you currently find yourself in is most odd, as you bear a passing resemblance to the minotaurs, yet you clearly are not one, and you are also clearly not a pony, and from what we can tell from looking at you, you aren’t involved with the ponies in any way. However, you showed up from a smoky portal nearly in the center of an active war zone, so we wish to ask you who you are, where you came from, and what powers you have.” Silverbeak stated, with a stern look on his beaked face.

Egil nodded, “Well, my name is Egil Davinson, and I came from Los Angeles, California, in the United States, and as far as I know, I was knocked unconscious and given four injections, as shown by the four needle marks on my arm. When I woke up, I was down by the river flowing through this valley, and as far as I can tell I am now immortal and can manipulate and conjure smoke. I also seem to be immune to all forms of magic, but other than that I don’t have anything else.” He paused, taking a breath, “So, why is this war going on?” he finished.

“The ponies decided to invade our lands here to try and push us off this continent, and we had previously come to an agreement with the minotaur clans in the area that we would come to each other’s aid if we were invaded by the ponies in the north or south. The army on the other side of the valley is led by one of the Princesses of the ponies, who supposedly raises the moon in the night. They preach love and harmony, but only for their races. Their army is three thousand strong, and they’re attacking here because I am the griffin king’s younger brother.” Silverbeak said, with a sad undertone to his voice.

Stone Wall spoke for the first time after this, saying, “Stone Wall believes that, at the current rate, our forces will lose this battle and this fort will be captured. The pony army is currently four thousand strong, while we only have a thousand troops here, and we cannot get reinforcements as our brothers to the north are fighting the Crystal Empire. They can get reinforcements at any time, but it is looking like they won’t need them. If you are immortal and immune to magic as you say, then you would be a great help to our cause.”

Egil thought over his options for a few seconds, before saying, “I’ll go over to the ponies and see what their side of the story is, and afterwards I’ll decide whether or not I’ll get involved, and on whose side I’ll be on.” Silverbeak nodded sadly, then got up and walked over to the tent flap and opening it.

Egil walked through to get outside, pausing as Silverbeak said, “I hope you’ll stay safe, my friend. If I’m still around after this war is over, you’ll have a place to stay with me, though I may give you a job or two.” He smiled and waved as Egil took off towards the pony outpost, before turning to Stone Wall. “Hopefully he decides to fight alongside us, as it would be a major pain to fight two immortals. Have you planted the poisons in their drinking water, Mandible?” In a flash of green fire a bug-like equine was standing where Stone Wall had once been.

“Yes, and we have infiltrated the chain of command, we’ll now know their every plan as they’re making it, and be able to counter them accordingly.” Mandible said smugly, seemingly prideful of her brood’s effectiveness. Silverbeak also smirked, believing that he had this battle well in hand, and that his losses shouldn’t be too bad.

“I wonder why Strong Wall wasn’t a minotaur, even though it seemed that everyone thought he was one? I mean, it looked more like a female equine bug than anything remotely resembling a minotaur.” Egil thought aloud, about halfway across the valley and nearing the river he appeared by. He checked his pockets, finding them suspiciously empty even though he had them before he was knocked unconscious. “God dammit, that was a $900 dollar phone and a few hundred in cash!” he shouted, shaking his head.

He reached the outskirts of the camp, forming a white flag out of smoke as he stumbled to a landing. A group consisting of nine soldiers, three of each race, approached him cautiously, with their spears leveled at him. Surprisingly, unlike the griffins and the female bug-pony, these ponies only reached to his lower chest, where the griffin and the bug-pony reached his shoulder. He wasn’t tall per se, but he also wasn’t very short at 6’1”.

A unicorn with embellished armor stepped to the front of the group, sternly saying, “State your name and purpose here, or you shall be brought before Her Majesty Princess Luna in chains.”

Egil shrugged, “I’m Egil Davinson, and I wish to speak with the Princess about something.” he said simply. The griffins were much more kind than these ponies, though that was likely because they had an ulterior motive. These ponies didn’t seem to like or dislike him, so there was less of a chance that they had ulterior motives for getting him on their side. There was also the issue of the bug-pony impersonating a male minotaur, when it was clearly female.

While he was thinking on what the griffin’s ulterior motives may be, the three unicorns in the group were discussing what they should do with him. The one who first spoke said, “He may be an assassin sent by the griffins, there’s no telling what damage he could do to our efforts.”

The unicorn to his left, who was wearing very similar, but slightly less embellished armor, responded, “He came under a white flag, so he’s not here for violent purposes. I say we take him to the Princess, but keep him under guard. Any abilities he may have are an unknown, so we should put a magic suppressing ring on him, then take him to Princess Luna.”

The unicorn to the right of the first one to speak pitched in, “We should probably pat him down for weapons, make sure he isn’t armed before we allow him to speak to the Princess.” The other two nodded, and he walked off to get a magic suppressing ring.

The two that remained behind stepped forward, and the one who had initially spoken stepped further forward. “If you wish to speak with Her Majesty, you will have to allow yourself to be searched for weapons, and you will be required to wear a magic suppressing ring while in her presence.”

Egil nodded, and the second unicorn charged a spell on his horn, casting it at him. It sank through the first layer of his clothes, but stopped as soon as it touched the layer that was touching his skin. “He’s clean, no weapons on him, and no enchanted items either.” the unicorn said stepping back.

Right then, the unicorn that had left returned, with a gray ring floating in his magical aura. With a flick, the ring sailed through the air, and Egil caught it in one hand, easily slipping it onto his left middle finger. The two unicorns who had stayed the full time nodded at this, and the highest ranking one said, “Follow us, we’ll lead you to the Princess. Keep your eyes forward and don’t touch anything, or move out of formation. If you do, it’ll be taken as hostile action, and we’ll be forced to act accordingly.”

Egil nodded, and the unicorns took point, with Egil following behind. The pegasi flanked him on either side, and the normal ponies followed directly behind him. They led him through the camp, and each group of ponies that they came across glared at Egil suspiciously. After about a minute of walking, they reached a midnight blue tent with a silver crescent moon over a black backdrop on the flap, and the highest ranking unicorn opened it and walked in. Egil moved to follow him, but the second unicorn stopped him with a hoof.

After about two minutes of waiting, a regal, female voice called out, “We will now see this ‘Egil Davinson’” Egil walked in and beheld a midnight blue pony in black and silver armor that was at least a good foot and a half taller than the rest of the ponies, not including her horn. While her height was impressive, putting her at his chest, shoulders with her horn included, the most odd thing about her was that she had both wings and a horn, Egil noted. Where the rest of these ponies had either nothing or one of the two, she had both.

“Good evening, I take it that you are the Princess Luna that I’ve been told of?” Egil answered smoothly, after surreptitiously taking in her appearance. She looked him over with much less concern, looking on his form curiously.

“What manner of creature might thou be? We must confess, we have never encountered anything like you before, save for the great apes in the forests to the south.” Luna said, still looking over his form. Egil moved over to one of the cushions on the carpeted floor next to the table she was sitting at, taking a seat across from her. Now that he was sitting, they were about the same height, with her horn making her a few inches taller.

“I am a human, and from what I can tell, I am the only one of my kind here. You may have been informed, but I’m the creature that came through the doorway in the smoke. If I might inquire, why are you attacking the griffins? They made out that you were simply attacking them because you wanted your race to have the only nation on this continent, but seeing how the supposed leader of the minotaurs is some kind of bug pony everyone seems to think is a minotaur, I’m not liable to trust them at the moment. Luna listened on in mounting surprise as Egil went on, from the revelation that he was the creature from the smoke, to the mention of bug-like equines, which could only be changelings.

“The reason that we are attacking the griffins is to push them off the continent, yes, however, it seems that they have failed to inform you that their main kingdom is across the sea, and that they have been attacking pony run trading caravans our kingdom to the south and the Crystal Empire to the north, who are our close allies. If the changelings, the bug ponies thou saw, are fighting alongside the griffins, this is most worrying.” Luna said, sounding somewhat frantic at the end of her tirade, when speaking of the changelings. She got up and left the tent, heading straight for a pegasus in gilded armor.

He glanced at Egil for a second, before turning to Luna, saying, “Your Majesty, has something come up?”

Luna nodded briefly, moving forward and whispering into his ear. He nodded once, saying, “I’ll take him on a tour of the fort and have him point out any that he sees.” He walked over to Egil, gesturing for him to lean down so that he could reach his ear. Egil complied, and the pegasus whispered in his ear, “I am Commander Hurricane the third, and I need you to follow me and point out any bug-ponies that you see as I show you around the base. For the record, they’re called changelings.” Egil nodded once, and then the commander led him on a tour through the fort.

After passing by a few tents, he noticed one entering what seemed to be the mess hall, and pointed it out to Hurricane. He nodded and seemed to memorize the changelings face, then moved on, with Egil still tailing behind. After touring through the entire encampment, Egil pointed out a total of two hundred changelings, the majority of which were in low to mid ranking officer positions, with only forty being in general foot soldier positions.

Hurricane let him wander about as he took care of the changelings, so he went back to the Princess’s tent. He knocked on the support pole to the left of the flap, and Luna immediately called out, “Enter!” He stepped inside and she seemed to be surprised that he was already back. It had only taken an hour for him to point out all of the changelings in the camp. “So, how many of those vile bugs were in our camp?”

Egil thought for a second before responding. “There were roughly two hundred changelings, mostly taking places as low to mid ranked officers, with about a fifth of them being general soldiers. In key positions, they only had ten, most of which were in the weapons and food distribution areas. They likely sabotaged supplies, so I’d keep an eye out for that if I were you.”

Luna nodded, and seemed to be about to say something when Egil continued, “As I’m sure you have questions for me, Princess, and the opposite is most definitely true, how about we ask each other one question each, and the other has to answer it honestly, unless it makes them uncomfortable. If they pass, the asker asks a different question, and they alternate after a question is asked.” Luna nodded, and so they began to acquaint themselves with each other.

Author's Note

In this universe, illusions are powerful magic suggestions, rather than physical or light representations, therefor they don't work on Egil, who is immune to magic. The next chapter will be the backstory as to how he got there, during Egil and Luna's game of twenty questions. If you dislike, let me know why, and I'll see about fixing it. Personally, I think this is my best fic yet, or at least the best paced anyway. If you're questioning Egil's lack of apparent care when it comes to being in a different world, it hasn't sunk in yet.