Beyond the Veil (Rewritten)

Chapters

Prologue (Edited)
Chapter 1: Dream a little Dream
Chapter 2: Stumbling in the Dark
Chapter 3: A Brave New World
Chapter 4: Cat and Mouse
Chapter 6: Of Ponies and Man
Chapter 7: Yackity Smackity
Chapter 8: Starlight Waltz
Chapter 9: Glass Half Full
Chapter 5: Road Goes Ever On

Prologue (Edited)

Chapter 1

“Once about a time, in the.....land of Equestria. There were two…… sisters that ruled together and created peace for all the land. To do this; the eldest,…...raise the sun at dawn. The younger, brought out the moon begin at night. The sisters maintain balance for their kingdom and subjects; all the different types. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. …... the day her elder sister brought forth; but shun and slept through her……….night. One faithful day, the younger…….refuses to lower the moon………for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her. But bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into ……. of darkness; Nightmare……... She vowed that she would cover the land in lasting night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harness the most powerful……..known to Ponyville; the Elements of Harmony. Using the powers of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her forever on to the moon. The elder sister took on the responsibility for both sun, and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.”

Albert Stone finished reading the last pages few pages out-loud to himself; scanning over the words several more times, as if trying to read in between the lines searching for some kind of answer hidden beneath the words. It had been nearly eight years since he had found this book. He was on a trip in South America while studying as a student in archaeology. The team that he was in were searching through some ancient ruin that was recently been discovered deep in the heart of the Amazon. What was even surprising was that it had not seemed to be related to any of the Aztecs or Inca temples.

Unlike the temples in Machu Picchu or Chichen Itza which built to worship their sun, this temple seemed to had worship the moon and night rather than the sun. What was also puzzling was that it seemed to have countless images and artwork of horses, even artifacts of Unicorns, and Pegasus. The one image that greatly recognized throughout the entire temple what he thought was the most beautiful Unicorn he has ever seen. Unlike most unicorns he had heard in myths which were white, this one had a coat of deepening dusk's inky cerulean cloak. Her eyes were midnight cyan, and around her face flown a mane that glowed with the radiance of the night sky itself. Finally on the statue's right flank seemed to be a symbol of a lunar moon. Maybe it was something these people saw as a goddess. The artworks of this creature held such great magnificent and power to it. Such great care to detail it was almost as if this lovely creature was real in front of him.

It was also here that Albert found something that was one of the many things he would look back later on in his life. While searching through one of the many passages, Albert had literally stumbled upon it; having tripped over what he could guess was loss floor panel, revealing a hidden chamber. There he found a book, lying there on top of a small alter. At first it had looked like any normal book, though worn with age it still seemed to be in good shape. On the front cover was a golden crest of a moon. When he had first inspected the book he had noticed that the golden crest was removable, though for whatever reason he did not know.

Though two things that struck him at odd though with the book. One was it was a book. The Mayans and the Aztecs wrote in codex and this seemed something closer to what the Europeans had been using during the thirteenth century. The second thing was even stranger than the first. At first he thought it would be Spanish; maybe something the Spaniards had left by during their time in South America. But as he read through the pages he began to see it wasn’t even Spanish at all, but rather symbols of more images of horses, unicorns and other horse related images that didn’t make any sense!

With some convincing, Albert was able to keep the book. Working hours and days on end trying either trying to translate the book or he spent hours back in the temple looking at the images of the dark blue unicorn. It had been a long painful eight years but Albert had been at least glad to have some success even if it was only the first few pages. But even then he doubted he would not be able to translate even close to half of this in his lifetime.

“Are you reading that book again?” Albert jumped almost from his seat, nearly dropping the book in the progress. “Damn it Keitaro don’t do that.” Albert pulled his headphones out, and glanced back angrily at the man who had snuck up on him. The other man was fairly young looking Japanese man around close to the same age as Albert in his mid to late-twenties. He looked soaked to the bone; having tried to escape the rain from outside. Keitaro gave a hearty laugh, wiping off his glasses as best he could. “Hehe sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.You were in another world again. Any progress on that?” Keitaro asked, gesturing towards the large book.

Albert shook his head “No, the only words we’ve been even close to translate is the first few pages and even then some words I can’t seem to figure out, and we’re not even one hundred percent sure if they’re even right.” He set the book aside for the time being. “Any progress out there?” Albert asked, tossing him a hand towel to dry off.

“Sadly no.” Drying himself off as best he could “We try to do some more digging but the rain is slowing our progress down. I’ve sent some of the men to do some more finding back in the temple.”

“Well it IS a rainforest after all.” Albert joked, getting up from his chair and giving a satisfy sigh of popping joints. He stood at full height, clearing over shadowing Keitaro now. “Been stuck in your cave too long there Kuma.” Albert could only roll his eyes at his friend’s jester.

He had met Keitaro back several years ago when he was going to Tokyo U as a foreign-exchange student to study for archaeology. The two of them had become fast friends and was often teased for his large body structure and hairy features, which had quickly earned him the nickname Kuma or bear in any case.

“Haha, but I’m sure you didn’t come here just to pester me.” Albert stated reaching into his shirt pocket to pull out a cigar. “You know those are not good for you.” Keitaro pointed out as he watches his friend lit his smoke. “So? At least they’re not those nasty things your aunt smokes all the time.” He rebuke back while taking several puffs.

Keitaro could only shake his head in disapproval “Anyway, I did come here to tell you that you have a call; It’s Seta."

“Seta? Really now, what does the old man want?” Only to get a shrug as his answer. “Don’t really know, all he told me was he needed to speak with you. He sounded really excited about it.”

“Well then, let’s not keep him waiting shall we?” Albert replied before grabbing his worn duster from the table and followed Keitaro from the tent.

Keitaro led him to one of the computers that had been set up within the mess tent. “It’s going to be a bit laggy but the call will be coming through alright.” Keitaro stated before typing in a few keys into the computer, popping up an image of an older looking man. Albert sat down in front of the computer looking at the man.

The man was Japanese like Keitaro though he was much older version; the hints of grey were showing on his head. “Professor……Professor Seta are you still there?” Albert spoke through the speaker. It took a moment or two before the man begin to smile, adjusting his glasses on his face.

“Ah Albert, good to hear from you again; how’s the Amazon treating you.” Albert glanced behind him to see it was still down pouring “Very wet. How’s Egypt treating you old man?” he looked back towards his old professor

Seta only laughed “Very Dry....But I’m sure you not interested…about the weather now.” Seta adjusted his glasses again.

“Keitaro told me you had some urgent news to tell me?” Albert questioned.

The man smiled brightly and nodded “Yes, in fact I think it’s some that will greatly peak your interest….But why…..tell you when I could just show you.” Moment or two later several pictures popped up onto the computer screen.

Albert took his time and studies the new images carefully; taking in every detail. Slowly his eyes begin to widen every second in the realization “Is…..Is this what I think this is?” Seta’s smile continued to grow, watching the reaction of his old student “Yes.....we discovered it a few weeks ago after one of the terrible sandstorms I ever saw…..We’re still trying to get sand out of our boots.”

Albert just continued to stare at the images he was given, it was the closely similar to temple that was here. He was starting to get excited, like a children finding out what he was getting before Christmas. Finding another ruin that was similar to the one here in the Amazon filled him with joy. What secrets could they tell more about the people or the culture relating to these people that worship horses. But this also brought even more questions than answers. One such as how could the same temple is in two parts of the world from two very different sets of cultures?
“How is this possible?” Still trying to wrap his head around this new discovery.

“We don’t know yet the period this was in. But this seems older; maybe even older than the Old Kingdoms, we’re not for sure.” Albert sat back; his mind trying to wrap this around his head. His old teacher just continued to grin “I knew that would peak your interest, that’s why I wanted to ask you to come to Egypt and to help me.”

Albert blinked for a second; his mind focusing back to the elder man. “I’m not sure old man, we’ve still have so much here to uncover.”

“Don’t worry about it Albert, I’ll take care of things here while you’re gone.” Keitaro butted in. “You sure?” Albert looked back to his old friend.

“Yes, yes, besides if anything new pops up, I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I can.” Keitaro just waved his hand reassuring him there were no worries. Albert just nodded before looking back towards Seta. “I guess I’ll be going then.”
Seta clapped his hands in delight “Fantastic! I’ll call in some favors for your trip. Be seeing you in a few days.” He cheerfully said before cutting off the connection. “Well then, I guess I have some packing do.” He muttered before heading back towards his tent on what things he’ll need.

Egypt, nearly a week later

Noriyasu Seta crouched down, his nose nearly inches from the ground. The temperature was over a hundred degrees. His knees ached, despite him wearing his thick rug-layer pads; god how he hated feeling old. His lungs burned from harsh dust. Sweat dripping off his forehead onto the ground. But Seta was oblivious to the discomfort. His entire attention was focused on the six-inch square of stone slab in front of him. He carefully brushes away the hard dirt in between the cracks of the carved image. It showed an image of a Pegasus standing gently on a set of clouds, it’s wings spread out as ready to take off.

“Professor Seta!”

Noriyasu Seta looked up, blinking in the sunlight. He pushed up his glasses before wiping his forehead with the back of his arm. He saw assistant waving at him from the shadows of the field laboratory “Visitor!” He called, and pointed towards the north.

Seta saw the cloud of dust, and the red Ford sedan bouncing over the dirt road towards them. Seta glanced at his watch: right on time. On the other hill, the other workers looked up in interest; it wasn’t often to get visitors. Seta began to walk down the stone carved stairs to meet the car.

Albert grinned, adjusting his duster on his head as he slammed the car door. “Professor,” he extended his hand and shook hands with his old teacher. “It’s good to see you again, how’ve you been?” Seta smiled in return “You look thirsty. Want a beer?”

“Jesus, yeah.” Albert chuckled adjusting the satchel on his shoulder as he followed seta towards one of the larger field tents

Seta glanced over to him “I don’t think you’ll be needing that.” He stated looking at the revolver on Albert’s left hip.
Albert just shrugged readjusting the gun and knife holster on his belt. “Like my father always said ‘Hope for the best and expect the worse.’ Besides remember what happen back in Mongolia?” Earning a nervous chuckle from Seta. “Hey! How was I to know there were still bandits in that area?” He tried to argue back, though he knew he was beat. “So how long have you’ve been out here now?” Albert asked as they enter in the large tent.

“Oh about three cases so far.” Answered the elder man, tossing him a cold beer from the cooler. “You still measuring time with beer huh?” Albert shook his head, and glanced outside.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Seta stated, opening his can. Albert only nodded in response. To see it as he drove up here was just simply breath taking. “Spent the last several weeks digging around the site itself. We had yet to go inside it. I wanted to wait till you got, so you could be one of the first few to step inside.” Albert could shake his head but knew why Seta was doing this. “Let’s go then; we’re burning daylight.”

“READY! ONE, TWO, THREE, PUSH!” the large doors were pushed widely open. Albert, Seta and several men stood in front of the entrance, peering into the darkness. Was this what Howard Carter felt as he had found King Tut’s tomb? The feeling of excitement, not knowing what laid ahead, and what could be the greatest archaeological in history. Albert pulled out and shined his flashlight, into the long passage. “Well then, allons-y.” as he ventured into the darkness.

It was amazing; like the temple of in the Amazon, this too had its halls filled with images of Unicorns, Pegasus, and other Horses but this was on a much grander scale. The artwork held so many rich details, telling of stories of some long forgot time. What was also incredible was that time was also had been very kind to this place as well. The images still seemed very well intact as though these were just recently made. They continued onward, making their way into what seemed to have been a large gathering hall. Maybe it was when the masses gathered to worship.

“Albert over here.” Seta called over his attention. “Take a look at this.” Seta gestured to a large painted image that was on the far side of the room. “Those this seem familiar to you?” Albert looked over at the Seta was looking at.

It was a painting of an ivory white unicorn her ephemeral rainbow mane spilling over her face and past the single tall, proud horn, beautiful and flowing like an eternal sea. Almost as pretty as the amethyst eyes of the regal female, which matched the color of the two gemstones that set neatly in a golden tiara, just above her horn. It looked like she was sitting on a large throne, on the right was the moon, and on the left was the sun.

“I think I’ve had.” Digging through his satchel and pulled out the ‘book’, Albert flipped through several pages till he found what he was looking for. It was the same images that was in the pages of the book, in fact as he glanced along the wall more and more of those images from the book match the ones on the wall; telling some sort of story about these two sisters. Though unlike the one in the Amazon, this place seems to worship more to the sun, rather than the moon. Amazing if one thought about it. The two temples, both here and the one in the Amazon had a deep sense of harmony. While the moon rose in the Amazon jungle, the temple here would be seeing the rays of the sun.

“Sirs, over here!” one of Seta’s assistants waved over by another passage way.

*Cue Audiomachine- Lost and Forgotten*

They were led to what seemed to had been a small throne room. From the far end of the room was a large throne incased in gold. On its head were six different color gems, each sitting neatly in a small golden sun ornament. The gems were large, each were as big as a full grown man’s fist. On the wall behind it was a small hole just big enough to letting the light shine in, which shined upon the throne showing off its glory. Albert glanced about; in certain parts of the room there were large golden Pegasus, large mirrors set neatly on their backs. Albert pulled out his revolver and aimed it towards a bent mirror that some light was shining off of it.

*BANG*

The sudden sound of gunfire made everyone jumped, but it had done its job. The bullet hitting its mark on the golden rim of the mirror, causing it to tilt upwards and letting the light reflect from it to the other mirrors; brightening up the room for all to see.

“Incredible.” Seta glanced around in amazement. Clay pots, statues, and artifacts littered the room. The walls were decorated with colorful craftsmanship, so many kinds of colored silk and fabrics leaned against the walls. In the center of the room floor before the throne was a large circular image of the two sisters. Both were facing each other on their back legs, between them what seemed to look like a door with strange looking symbols engraved on its archway. “And you said I wouldn’t need this.” Albert joked, putting away his gun. He took his time soaking in all that was in the chamber.

He gave a moment, looking upon the golden throne. He reached into his satchel and pulled out the ‘book’ and flipped through several pages, there was something odd about the arrangement of those gems. “What you got Albert?” Seta watched his student walking up towards the throne, his eyes seemed focus on the large gems that set just above the head of the seat.

“These looked like the ones here in the book; the ‘Elements of Harmony’….” Albert glanced back between the book and the gems several more times “They’re in the wrong placement order, but why?”

Albert reached up and careful grabbed one; the green gem from the top of the holder. It easily had popped off “Seta come here.” He beckoned the Professor over and handed over the open book to the man
“What are you doing?” Seta questioned his student’s action.

“Someone had put these on the wrong order. Maybe on purpose, I don’t know.” Albert replied as he carried on his task. It wasn’t long for him to put them in the right places. The red on top, pink, and blue on the left, yellow, and green on the right. Albert carefully placed the last gem into the middle slot. Just as he done so a soft click was heard. He took a step back, waiting to see if something were to happen.

Nothing, nothing happen. Had he done it wrong, did he misplace the gems? He took at the book once more, wondering if he had gotten the wrong order. “Something’s missing.” He glanced towards the Elements of Harmony again before noticing the small hole that lead to outside behind it. The gears in his head were clicking together. This was almost like a puzzle.

“Seta.....What time is it?” not taking his eyes away from the hole behind the throne.

“Huh? Well it’s almost four o’clock, why?”

Albert smirked, not saying anything as he backed away from the throne. He watched as the light slowly crept through the opening shining into the room. The gems began to shine brightly just as the sunlight touched the purple gem in the center. Each of the gems shined, pouring out their own color onto the floor, forming into a mix range of colors of that of a rainbow. The signal ray of rainbow light inched its way across the floor towards the carved image that was on the floor before the throne. Just as the rainbow color light shined onto the center it began to reveal small key hole that was a shape of a crest moon within the center of the doorway, the symbols that laid on its archway began to give a faint glow of purple hue. The other workers muttering amongst themselves of this sudden chain of events that was taking place. Albert walked over towards the center of the area; his eyes began to scan the rest of the carvings. He knelt down, taking a closer look at the glowing symbols. They were the same as the ones in the book. Though he could only just barely make out a few of the words.

“Behold the Veil…..Land of Harmony….when sun and moon meet….the door shall open.” Albert scanned over the words several more times; trying again and again to make sure he was reading it correctly. When sun and moon meet; what did that mean? The gears in his head began to turn. “Sun and moon, sun and moon……an eclipse!”

“Albert! What do you think you’re doing?” Seta stopped just outside of the circle.

“It’s a key, the book IS the key!” Albert was quickly digging through his satchel and pulled out the book. He only had a short amount of time before the key hole disappeared again. He started to give a few hard twists on the golden moon crest till he heard a soft click.

“Albert I don’t think that…..” but it was too late as Albert slotted in the golden moon, when he heard the soft click he knew it had worked. Though what happen next no one could foresaw. The crested moon and carving symbols on the floor had started to glow in a ray of mixed colors. Though weak at first, it began to glow brighter by each passing second. The eyes on the two sisters started to glow of deep pinkish hue, even the carved ‘door’ was giving off a glow of bright white. But then the room had started to shake, sending pots and smaller artifacts shattering onto the ground. Many of the workers started to scream in fright, most running from the room for safety of fear that the room may collapse. Though while all this was going on Albert did not feel the small quake, nor the cries of the others around him.

*cue mlp intro in bell chimes*

All he did was stared at the ‘door’ in front of him. It was almost as if the ‘door’ was opening up underneath him, the bright light continuing to glow brighter. The very last thing he could remember was hearing soft sweet sounds of bell chimes. He felt that he wanted to hum along with it, though he could barely make out the tune itself.

“ALBERT!” Seta try calling out to his student as the bright light intensify, forcing him to shield his eyes as the light began to engulf Albert’s body. Seta tries to reach out and grab on hold of him, but just as he was about to touch the wall of light it suddenly exploded, knocking Seta flat on his back. Seta gotten back up to his feet, trying to rub the spots from his eyes. The sudden light was gone, but his student was nowhere to be seen.

“ALBERT!” he called out, hoping his student was still in the room, but was only greeted with silence. He was alone and on the ground behind him laid the scattered pieces of gems.

“Min sister?” Celestia glanced over behind her to see her sister Luna. Her face showing both of concern and worry for her. “Thou seem troubled dearest sister, those something ill thee?” Celestia gave a warming gentle smile “No my dear sister, I am fine. Just simply enjoying the evening breeze.” She gazes back out towards Everfree forest. She had felt a huge spike of magic suddenly being released. Though as quickly as it came, it had just as quickly disappeared again. It felt almost familiar to her, though she could not place it. She thought of sending a team there to investigate, but decided to leave it be for now and just simply wait.

Chapter 1: Dream a little Dream

Chapter 2

Albert Stone lay on the hard ground, his cheek pressed against the cold stone. He drifted back to consciousness. He only wanted to go back to sleep right now. He shifted his position, and felt the pain in his cheekbone where it lay against the hard stone floor. His whole body ached. His arms, and legs, and mostly his head—the terrible pounding pain in his head. He felt as though he had went several rounds against a gorilla, and said gorilla had a friend.

He pushed himself up on one elbow, opened his eyes, and retched, vomiting all over the ground. He tasted the sour bile and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He head was throbbing; he felt dizzy and a bit seasick, as if he was rocking back and forth on a boat.

Albert muttered out a soft curse, as he rolled onto his back, turning away from the puddle of vomit. The pain in his head made him breath in short and shallow breaths. He opened his eyes once more, trying to regain his bearings once again, only to quickly shut them again from the bright light that was overhead. He tried to open his eyes once more, letting them adjust the lighting around him. He couldn’t remember anything expect for being in the chamber with Seta and bright white light. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the soft melody of bells.

He felt sick again, and closed his eyes until the nausea passed. He continued to lay there for several more minutes, before he slowly started to push himself up into a sitting position. He could feel his joints popping, luckily though none of his bones felt broken. He look about curiously at his new surroundings.

*Uncharted 2- Marco Polo*

The room was smaller, almost oval shape, columns running along each side of the room. Though unlike the bud-shape columns they had found in the chamber in Egypt, these columns here looked more liked Corinthian columns. Though most of them looked destroyed; worn from age and harsh weather, he could still see the carved ornaments of leaves and flowers on their bases. He also took note of several shattered windows, and parts of the ceiling overhead was missing as well, letting the sun shined through. At the far end of the room was a large throne, almost like the golden one in Egypt, though this seemed to be made of stone, large parts were missing of its upper half.

He started to slowly get up on his feet, making sure not to stumble over himself. He could feel his head ach returning again. He gave himself a moment to recover before picking up his duster that was lying on the ground beside him. He gave a quick examination, looking for any kind of tears or damage done.

After a satisfied check, he neatly placed it back onto his head once more and headed over towards one of the windows. Maybe he could get an idea as to where was. Though what he saw wasn’t quite what he expected to be, being greeted by a sea of trees and other vegetation. He could see mountains just over the tree lines at the distance.

“Just where the fuck am I?” He muttered confused by what he was seeing. Where ever he was, he defiantly knew he wasn’t in the same temple anymore. Hell, he didn’t think he was even in Egypt anymore either.

“Alright, let’s try not to freak out here.” He muttered, leaning heavily against the cold hard stonewall. His mind was trying to process all that was going on right now. He tried to think back as to what might had happen back at Egypt or as to ‘how’ he had gotten here. He kept thinking back to the carvings in the temple. Was what had happen with the key and the carvings reasonable for bringing him here?

“Alright then, we’re lost in some ancient ruins in God knows where, maybe miles away from any help, and no food or water on you. On the bright side, you’re still alive, none of your bones feel broken, and you still got your hat….yeah, sounds like a normal day.” He muttered examining the room once more, picking his short beard in thought, a habit he done for years since he had grew it out. A large part of the room was heavily shadow, though he could still make out some of the architectural structure within the room. It seemed nearly similar to many of the gothic castles that were in Europe.

He mind began to grind its gears. People had to have been here before to build this place, so there has to be a fair chance of maybe a town or village nearby that could help him. Since this place looked kind of like a European castle of fortress, then maybe for all he knew he could be somewhere in Europe; at least that’s what he hoped.

With a plan in mind Albert started to make his way towards the staircase that he had saw at the far end of the room. It looked like it led. As he was making his way towards the stairs he started to hear a low growl. He brushed it off at first thinking it was nothing more than his stomach. But what made Albert made his body tense up was the second growl, it sounded much louder and closer this time. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck started to stand.

Albert slowly turned his head around. His eyes started to widen, seeing two yellow eyes staring back at him from the shadows. A lion, he knew it had to be a lion; he could just barely make out the mane on its head. His best guess was that it didn’t look pleased that someone was invading its home. He could feel his heart racing. He wondered just how a lion could be here or how he could have not noticed it before. He slowly reached for his revolver. He knew he was in a very bad situation right now. But right now he needed to get to the stairs as quickly as he could. Maybe if he was cautious, the lion won’t rush him; if it did he would only have seconds to react.

Albert slowly started to back away towards the stairs, keeping a hand on his revolver, and an eye trained on the creature that was in the shadows. Just as he touched the first few steps, is when he saw the creature started to move from its hiding spot, but what Albert saw next nearly made his heart stop. The lion was huge, bigger than any normal lion he had ever seen in his life; it was nearly the size of a large horse! But it wasn’t just the size that made him stop in place; it was what was ‘on’ the large lion that shocked him to the core.

A legendary beast that was described only in myths and legends, a manticore! How could that even be, sure he guess in ancient times that animals like unicorns and dragons might had once existed, yet no proof was made of them being real. But yet here, staring at him in the face was a creature that had a body of a red lion, and a tail of a scorpion. The very creature of myth itself, standing no more than several feet away from him!

It stood at full height, the red fur shining from the sunlight, horns standing proudly on its head. Its large paws almost looked like normal lion’s paws; was covered in reptilian like scales. Though instead of wings this manticore’s tail however was a larger, and at the tip were several large needles that were nearly the size of his arm.

He remembered reading once that a manticore would sometimes shoot poisonous spines from their tails to either paralyze or kill its victims. He cringed as it let out a loud roar, showing its three rows of sharp teeth. It was then that Albert knew he needed to get the fuck out of here, caution be damn! He turned and bolted down the stairwell; the beast charging after him.

*Uncharted 2- Cat and Mouse*

Albert continued racing down the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him. He could hear the manticore not too far behind him. He took a glance back, and let out a small curse. It was starting to gain ground on him; he could just see the growing shadow of the manticore along the wall.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and came upon a T-junction. He quickly turned left and raced down the corridor. He looked back again seeing the manticore now, still following close behind him. It was maybe no more than fifteen yards behind him. He pulled out his revolver and wildly shot three rounds behind him. Out of the three bullets only one actually managed to hit its mark; skimming the manticore’s left eye.

The beast roared, surprised by the sudden pain in its eye. But it seemed that the wound only anger the creature further. Albert looked about, hoping to find another exit and fast. He took another left down the passage and saw a door onto the right. He quickly slammed through the door, shutting it behind him before bolting the door. He knew that thing could probably rip the door apart with ease, but he needed some way to slow it down. The room was small, looked like it had once been a bedroom with maybe a noble. The only things that seemed to had remain was a small bed that looked all but rotten and a small fireplace. He noticed a balcony at the other end of the room. He raced over and peered over the balcony trying to find some way down; he could already hear the manticore pounding at the door.

“Oh you got to be shitting me.” Albert muttered seeing the only escape route available was a ledge that was ran along the building, it was so thin; he doubted half of his feet would fit on them. But it was undeniably leading towards a mess of vines just a few yards over. They looked like it could support his weight, which was hope anyway.

The manticore busted through the door, looking about for its prey with its only good eye left. It started to sniff about, looking for its two legged meal. It knew the prey was still nearby; the scent was still strong here. It slowly stalked in, following the scent towards the balcony, where the scent was getting stronger. It stopped at the sound of muttering and the fall of loose stone

Albert stopped for a moment to regain his balance after his left foot almost slipped off. He was right, the ledge was thin indeed. He could hardly steady his heels on it. He pressed his back against the wall. He risked a glance downward. He was nearly there; he could just touch the vines now.

*ROAR*

Albert whipped his head back towards the balcony and cursed. The manticore was standing there growling at him in anger, its tail raised as if it was ready to strike. His stomach turned. He could take a really good guess as to what that beast was about to do. He quickly reached over for the vines and started to slide himself down as quickly as he could just as the first several needles flew inches over his head. He slid as far as the vine could go, and cursed; he was still a long ways down. He looked about and took note of a broken part of the wall onto his right side. It looked assessable enough for him to grab of hold of.

The sound of another set of needles whizzed passed by, forcing him to press himself against the wall again. He gazed up to see the manticore was still shooting its poisonous spines from the balcony railing above. ‘That thing doesn’t know when to give up.’ He thought, holding onto the vine for dear life.

Albert could feel that the vine was starting to give-away from his weight. He knew it was only a matter of time till the vine would give way under his weight; he need to act now; his only chance right now was to reach for the ledge. He pressed his feet firmly against the hard stone and started to run himself back and forth along its surface several times. He needed to give himself the momentum he needed for the leapt. After about the third swing Albert let go of the vine and leapt, just barely grabbing a hold onto the ledge. He could hear the manticore roaring above, but it seemed the creature had stop shooting at him. But he didn’t care right now, and started to shimmy his way across the ledge, working slowly his way downward.

Albert reached the ground, glad to have the soft earth underneath his feet again. As he had been climbing down he saw a bridge, which lay just on the other side of these ruins. If he could make it towards the bridge then he should be ok, just as long as he didn’t run into that manticore again. He dug through his bag and pulled out a small box. “Shit.” Looking at the only remaining bullets he had left. Besides the two in his gun, he only had enough for eight more shots.

‘Going to have to use them wisely.’ He thought as he started to reload his revolver. Right now every bullet counted.

Albert continued to venture onward, climbing over rumble and small walls as he made his way towards the second large stoned structure. As he drew closer he noted a hole off to its side, it looked just large enough for him to climb on through. He began to climb up hesitantly through the hole in the wall, gripping his gun so hard it ached. He carefully looked about, if to see any signs of the manticore. Seeing that it was clear he slowly climbed himself in and dropped softly onto the ground.

The room looked about the same size as the first room he had been in early. Same rib vault designs, several broken stain windows, and only thing new was a large stoned round pillar that sat in the middle of the room. On the top of it was a large sphere, though vegetation nearly covered most of its designs. Just underneath it were five stone arms sticking out, each looked like they once held something of great importance.

Albert stepped towards the center of the room. He could see a large double door at the end of the room, and still no manticore within sight. 'Safe' he thought, making his way towards the doors. He was halfway there when something very large landed behind him. He glanced back and curse; it was the manticore again. It’s one good eye staring at him in raging fury. It gave roared; swing its tail and destroying a smaller column beside it.

*Uncharted-Showdown*

“You are persistent bastard, aren’t you?” He said, driving off to the side just as the manticore shoot off several of its needles at him. He rushed towards another column, trying to find cover of the manticore’s assault; he fired off two more rounds at the beast. He needed a plan and fast, just shooting at it was only making it madder and wasteful to his remaining rounds. He peered around the corner and quickly ducked again as several more needles flew at him. His brain was working overtime, looking about for anything that could help him. Suddenly an idea started to form in his head. All of columns looked rather weak and broken at some parts. It would take one good hit to knock them over. It was really crazy but if he could just time it right, there was a chance he could make it out of here.

Albert moved out from his cover and stood in front of the column. “HEY KITTY!” WOULD YOU LIKE A BIRD?” Giving the manticore the middle-finger. “COME AND GET IT!”The manticore growl and started to charge towards its prey. Albert just stood and counted down in his head. It wasn’t until the manticore was nearly on top of him that Albert drove off to the side, ending the manticore crashing head-first into the column.

The force behind the impact cracked the column, breaking it off its base, and sent it crashing down on top of the beast. Albert didn’t waste any time and rushed for the doors. He continued to race down the steps, his lungs like they were on fire, but he could see the bridge just up ahead.

*CRASH*

Albert glanced over his shoulder. The manticore busted through the doors and was hot on his heels; its body was covered in cuts and bruises. Albert knew he couldn’t keep running like this, it was only a matter of time for the beast would catch him. He was half-way onto the bridge when he stopped and turned back towards the manticore. The bridge creaked underneath the stain from the weight they were putting on it.

*Uncharted 2- Desperate Times*

Another idea was forming; he only saw this done in a movie once, but he hoped it would work. It was stupid and it may just kill him, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He started to wrap one of his legs around one of the ropes. The manticore was getting closer now, only 20 yards now. He pulled out his revolver and pointed it towards the other rope “I hope you can grow some wings quickly….” He pulled the hammer back; 10 yards left. “Cause we’re going on a ride.” He pulled the trigger.

The first shot tore through the rope, but it took a second shot for the rope to fully snap. Albert felt the bridge starting to give way. He let go of his gun and threw himself onto the bridge floor, grabbing a hold of the broads as tightly as he could. The combine weight of both man and beast put too much strain on the remaining rope snapped, causing the bridge to fall apart beneath them. Albert could feel himself being slammed onto the cliff wall, but held on tightly, not letting go. The manticore was trying to reach out to latch onto something, but was only grabbing air as it tumbled downward into the river below.

Albert stared on for a few more moments, waiting to see if the manticore would pop back up again. With no sign of it coming up Albert started climbing his way upward till he had reached the very top. He slowly crawled himself up onto the soft grass, breathing in short shallow breaths. The adrenaline was starting to wear off. His body was aching, the pounding in his head was returning with vengeance. He could feel himself trying to drift off to sleep.

‘No, I can’t….not now.’ He thought, struggling to his knees, trying to fight off the sleepiness. He couldn’t black out now, who didn’t know what other creatures could be out here. But now it was going to be even harder since having to drop his gun, leaving him only his knife. After finding someplace that was safe he could then rest, but for now he needed to keep himself moving. He slowly pushed himself onto his feet again and slowly started his way down the road into the unknown forest.

*At the river*

A large paw reached out of the water and latched a hold of dry ground. The manticore pulled itself out of the freezing water; its body was battered and beaten. It looked upward with its only eye, giving one last growl, before slowly limping away into the darkness of the forest. For now it will rest and lick its wounds, and then…it will hunt again. It will have its revenge on the two legged creature.

Chapter 2: Stumbling in the Dark

Chapter 3

AN: Italics are mostly used for either journal entries or when ponies talk around Albert!

Albert awoke, hearing the small beeping sound from his watch. He opened his wry eyes and looked about, casting a glance towards the mouth of the cave. He had stumbled upon the cave the day before and fortunate enough that empty and it didn’t seem to be any signs of animals living within the cave. He that entire night eating nothing but wild berries, and slept on the harden ground with a bed made of only leaves. It had not helped that no matter where he had laid, it always seemed to have a rock jabbing his back. Albert yawned, sleepily stretching out his kinks, and sat up upright in his makeshift bed.

It was morning: judging by the lighting. He looked at his watch; it was nearly fifteen till seven. He started to dig through his bag and pulled out his journal. Something he started carrying one around for several years now. The book was filled with eight years of notes, covering over different symbols and notes during his findings at the Amazon temple. He flipped through and began to write on a new page.

Journal Entry-Day 2, Albert Stone

Aching and sore, but still glad to be very much alive after yesterday’s events. It’s still hard to believe that I had an encounter with that creature as what I thought was nothing more than myth! Seta is not going believe me once I tell him about this….if the old man will ever believe it. Losing my gun yesterday will make things a bit more difficult from here on out. Not really sure what other mythical creatures could be running around in this place.
Today I’ll be heading out. There was a river I had crossed about five minutes back. After I gather some water and a quick bathe, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to catch me some fish before continuing back onto the road. Maybe I’ll able to find a town before day’s end…

Albert placed the journal safely back into his satchel and slowly started to get up, groaning. His head throbbed and his body was still aching from yesterday, but he had worse before. He could feel his stomach starting to growl again. He still had some wild berries left, for now they’ll hold him over. Though they looked like everyday blueberries, their taste however was least to be desirable; it was like he was chewing a handful of rubber bands. He grabbed his hat and satchel and headed out towards the direction of the river.

*Several Hours Later*

For the last two hours Albert continued to trek down the road through the forest, munching on wild berries. He gave up looking for fish after nearly spending an hour at the river with no real success.

“Maybe I should’ve stayed and followed the river?” He started muttering to himself aloud; a bad habit he had done since he was just a child. Either when alone or lost in thought he would talk to himself. He would at time’s forgetting his around other people when doing it, leaving a lot of people either giving him strange or annoyed looks.
“You just HAD kept messing around with ancient artifacts you have no clue to what they could do. Remember what happen last time you did something like that back in Mongolia! You end up almost getting yourself killed by a water trap, and let’s NOT forget about those bandits that were after both yours and Seta’s head!”

Albert continued bantering himself, not really paying attention to his surroundings. Ever since he found himself in that ruin, things had not been looking too good in his favor. Almost getting killed by an overgrown cat, losing his favorite gun, and was now lost in some forest with God knows what else. He almost didn’t realize he had just pasted the trees lines and had stepped into an open plain. He came to a halt on the road, studying the new change of landscape about him.

*Audiomachine- Holland’s 2nd Opus*

“Beautiful.” Were the only words he could really describe this place. It was like he had just stepped into some sort of Garden of Eden. The grass was the greenest he had ever seen in his life, swaying gently in the breeze, the sounds of birds and critters chipping all around. He had also had noticed the sky overhead had changed into a more cheerful blue color, and that the clouds had changed as well, unlike the dark gloomy dark forest he had just been in before. The very air itself was different as well; it felt so clean, almost pure even.

He slowly made his way across the open field. He could see another river just across the way, the sun’s warmth rays sparking off the crystal clear waters. He was starting to have the same sense of bliss, like he was in a dream. Even the feelings he had when he discovered the temple in Amazon years ago was nothing compare to this overwhelming sense of awe and wonder. It was like he had just entered into heaven; a paradise lying before his very feet, untouched by human hands. He felt like he could just remove his boots, feel the grass underneath his feet, and just bask in the warm glow of the sun.

He continued on the beaten path until it came upon another dirt road, though it was much smoother, than the harsh path he had been on, almost like it had just been recently made. It stretched from left to right, winding lazily northward, just over the hill across he could make out the top of buildings. From the distance he could just barely see some sort of castle on the side of the mountain. For some reason this felt very familiar to him, as if he had seen this before but couldn’t place it. From the distance he could hear the sounds of chiming bells from the clock tower; telling people that it was now noon.

Wait…the way bells were playing sounded almost similar to the chimes of bells he had heard before blacking out back in Egypt. It just had to be a coincidence, there was just no way was it connected; was there? He just shook his head; maybe he was just over thinking things.

Albert stopped and looked southward. He could hear voices as well the sounds of clopping hooves. Finally some other people that might could help him. He started his way towards the voices. ‘Maybe some riders that’ll could give me a lift into town. Maybe I can figure out just what this place is, get a nice hot bath and a warm bed to sleep, then call Seta and tell him I’m finnnneee…..’ Albert came to a halt as he watched two figures coming over the hill towards him. Coming up the road were indeed two horses or ponies, judging by their size. But it wasn’t their sizes that made him stop and stared, but rather what the ponies ‘looked’ like.

One looked like any normal horse, caramel coat, its mane was black, though it looked much shorter than a normal mane and it seemed like it had been combed back like a style would see man would. He could see on its flank was a tattoo of looked like a red chili pepper. The other pony beside it is what really threw him for a loop. It was purple unicorn, A BLOODLY PURPLE UNICORN! Its brown mane was also short, almost similar to the first pony’s hair, and on its face it was wearing square framed glasses. It too had a tattoo on its flank that looked like an open book with a quill pen writing on it, with books stacked behind it. Their eyes were also huge; almost similar those anime style eyes he saw back in Japan, all big and innocent looking. He rubbed his eyes for a moment; they looked exactly like the very same ponies he saw in on the temple walls. But…how is that even possible! He rubbed his eyes again trying to process in his mind as to what his eyes were seeing. First a Manticore from Greek Myth, now two more creatures that he spent the last eight years of researching in front of his very eyes. He didn’t know if he should jump around like a little kid, look dumbfounded, or wonder if those berries he eaten was making him high and see things.

Albert could hear the voices again, but yet there were no signs of people about, say for the two ponies in front of him. They were staring back at him in fright, and they were whispering to each other….wait….whispering to each other!?

‘Talking ponies…h-how was that even possible, animals don’t talk!’ His mind raced with so many questions. How were they even able capable to speech, can they speak English? He could see their expressions which also confused him. Their expressions were almost human like but how was it that….

He could feel his headache returning, this was getting all too confusing for him. So many thoughts and questions ran through his mind, he didn’t know what to think. He knew he could just hear them but the words they were saying sounded foreign, though he couldn’t understand them, he knew it sounded familiar. The awkward silence was tense, so tense that it might have to be cut with a chainsaw. Almost for five solid minutes both man and pony just stood there staring, seeing if either of them would make the first move.

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ Albert decided to make the first move. He took a step forward, opening his mouth to speak but was cut off by the large growling sound of his stomach. The action seemed to had scared the two ponies even more so, as they were backing away in fright. “Hey now don’t be scared. I’m not going to hurt you.” Albert tries to talk to them like one would a puppy. He held up his hands slowly, trying to show he meant them no harm, and tried to step closer to them. Though it seemed they didn’t understand him and before he got any closer they bolted off, racing towards the town.

“Well, that didn’t go as well as I thought.” He muttered, watching the two ponies ran off till they were out of sight. His mind kept going back as to what he had saw. A unicorn! A real living, breathing unicorn, and a purple in fact! This was truly amazing! To discover such a creature of legend and myth was something truly the find of the century. Something like this could win anybody the Nobel Peace Prize. He could be put into the history books as one of the greatest archeologist of all time! Albert quickly shook his head in disgust. No, he was not kind of person. To do something like that to one of nature’s beautiful creatures was wrong in his eyes. What could be the very last of its kind, just so it could be caged and locked away forever? No, he would not do that to any creature, let alone a creature of legend. He silently adjusted his bag and headed off down the road towards the direction the two ponies had run off to. For now he’ll put those ponies out of his mind.

It was a brand new day in Ponyville and the market district was booming with ponies. A variety of ponies were busy shopping around for the latest accessories for the upcoming Summer festival while others were simple there for another day of groceries. Applejack decided that this area would be the perfect place for her to set up her apple stand. After all, who was crazy enough not to try one of the tastiest apples you could find in all of Equestria?
"Aw, Applejack this ain't no fair!" Apple Bloom stomped her hoof. "Ah already know ah ain't cut out for sellin' apples! So why'd ah have ta come anyway?"

Unfortunately, her business opportunity was also the same day she chose to take Apple Bloom out, so she could better the filly as a Sweet Apple Acres Sales Pony. Applejack rolled her eyes at her sisters pouting. “Aw, stop all that darn bellyachin' Apple Bloom! Ya'll need ta learn how ta start selling apple goods the right way! Just like how Granny Smith and Big Mac showed me."

"Oh my, what's this?" A tanned coated Earth pony with gray mane, and classy reading glasses, approached the apple stand. Her eye's sparking with interest at the sight of the beautiful red Apples.

"Well, howdy Mayor Mare! Come by for some o' the sweetest Apples in Ponyville?" Applejack beamed, offering one of her apples to the well-groomed pony. The scroll flanked mare smiled in delight. “That does sound delightful.”

Apple Bloom could only sigh in frustration behind her sister, who was happily chatting away. She and the other crusaders had planned on meeting over at Sugar Cube Corner today, to see what other new ideas they could do to discover their cutie marks. Of course, her dear old sister just had to ruin that for her; just so she could learn how to sell a few measly apples.

‘Urgh, this is soooo boring.’ She thought, drawing in the dirt. ‘Ah wish something interesting would happen.’ Though unbeknownst to her, something big was about to happen, that would change the lives of many in Ponyville.

"Mayor Mare, Mayor Mare!"

Apple Bloom watched as two ponies pushed their way through the crowd towards them. They looked frighten by something and had running for some time.

“Easy gentlecolts.” The elderly mare stepped forward, trying to calm the two frighten stallions. “Now, what is going on? Why are you two looked like you had just seen a manticore?”

The purple unicorn was the first one to recover his breath “I-If only that was true Mayor. My brother Chili Pepper and I were just attacked by a beast that came from the Everfree forest!” The purple unicorn shouted. “Yes, it was HUGE!” the other stallion shouted in fright.

“Whoa, just slow down there partner.” Applejack stepped forward now “Now back up and start again. What Everfree beast?”

“Me and my brother here were on our way into town, when on the road we ran into this huge creature.”
“It looked like a hairless monkey, though it was as big as a bear.” the brown colt dramatically flailed his forearms trying to describe the height. By now many ponies had gather around, listening as the brothers continued their description to this so called ‘Everfree beast’. Many started to whisper amongst themselves.

“What if it came here?”

“Would it come after our child?”

“Maybe we should alert the town guards?”

“Settle down everypony, settle down!” the elder mare tried to calm the crowd down, the last thing they needed was a riot on their hooves. “I assure you there is nothing to worry about, let’s not let it spoil our festivities so….”

“Ahhh! Wh-What is that!” some random pony shouted, pointing to the strange looking creature behind them.

"No way" Albert stared, his eyes continuing to widen in awe. Ponies…this entire town, were filled with ponies. Not just ponies, but unicorns and pegasus too! Red, blue, green, yellow…there were so many ranges of colors it was blinding! A few of the ponies were even wearing hats, and some were doing occupations that human would do. He continued to look around, trying to find any signs of a human, yet could not see one. He gave himself a hard slap; this had to be some kind of dream. Maybe after of years researching had gone to his head and made him insane. He rubbed his cheek, still seeing the things still there. “This isn’t a dream…” he looked at all the ponies that stared back at him. He could see some of them whispering to one another. He could defiantly hear them but like before he couldn’t understand what they were saying. The language sounded closely similar to that of the ancient book. Though the only words that was able to make out was one word….Everfree.

"I've never seen a creature like that before!"

“What is it?”

“Is it dangerous?”

“That’s it! That’s the Everfree beast that had attacked us!” The purple unicorn shouted, pointing towards the creature. Very soon the very idea started to grow very popular in the minds of the town’s folk as the ponies started talking and whispering to each other.

Though Albert had no clue as to what they were saying, he had a fair guess as they were talking about him. He saw the purple unicorn from before pointing at him, yelling something, and the way the ponies were starting to look at him was not good. He started to see some of the ponies giving him angry looks; watching mothers drag their little fillies off into their homes, while many others settled into more threatening postures. ‘Now I’m starting to know how Frankenstein felt, just without the pitchforks and torches.’

Albert slowly tried to back up. He could see this was already starting to turn ugly, and he only just got here! He tighten his fists up, readying to bolt at the first given sign of an exit or was willingly ready to fight his way out. He sees out of the corner of his eye an alleyway just across the cobblestone street. His brain was working overdrive, forming an idea within the thick mob of hostile ponies that was starting to close in on him.

Albert looked towards his right, suddenly pointed skyward; his eyes widened dramatically. “GODZILLA!!” He screamed out in terror. Every last pony whose eyes were on him, suddenly turned away to look as to what he had screamed and pointed to. Some ponies fearing that there had been something much larger….only to see obviously nothing was there.
“My God, I can’t believe that really work!” Albert muttered in amazement, as he raced down the alleyway into the next street, accidently knocking over the cart of apples in his escape. He needed to make his way around and try to head back out of town.

"AHHH! My apples!" Applejack cried at the horrifying sight of her hard work hitting the floor with a splat and rolling across the ground, covered in dirt and bruises. Her wooden stand knocked over and a bunch of ruined apples.

*Audiomachine- Rat Race*

It seemed that running blind into town he had never been in before wasn't one of his smartest moves. Though he had managed to lose the large portion of the mob, there were still several ponies and unicorns on his tail, especially the orange one with the cowboy hat that he saw by the fruit stand still hot on his heels. For the past five minutes now he had try to shake them off, knocking over several barrels and boxes to slow their path, but that orange coated one didn’t seem to let up. ‘The forest is starting to sound more and more safer right now.’ He thought, before just barely jumping over a pony that was charging him.

He needed to find some way to lose them, and get off the streets. He noticed a pony carrying a ladder and some paint. Though he was puzzled as to HOW would a pony would be able to even climb a ladder in the first place was beyond him? But it didn’t matter; this did provide an idea, as he snatched a paint can away from the pony. Judging the weight of the can, Albert glanced behind him again. He math out the distance between himself and the anger cowgirl pony, and heaved the can up into the air, before crashing down onto the orange colored pony, and sending it crashing into the ground covered in white paint.

AJ was mad, no she was furious! Not only this monkey thing destroyed her hard day’s work, but now half of her was covered in paint along with her hat! Nopony, but NOPONY touches her hat and gets away with it! "Hey Dash!” She spotted Dash up in the skies patrolling “Catch that two-legged critter!" She shouted, trying to wipe the paint off as best she could. She wasn't about to let some monkey get away from her!

Dash had been patrolling the skies that day practicing, nothing too special. When she started to hear shouting coming from the town below, the last thing she expected was to see some weird looking creature; running from an enraged AppleJack covered in paint! When she heard for her to catch the thing, she smirked confidently as she zoomed in low and tackled the thing into a cart of cabbages.

“MY CABBAGES!” screamed a brown fur earth pony, which was oddly dressed in clashing green and yellow clothing, watching the two collide into his stand.

"Alright punk! You'd better apologize to my friend before I make you" a voice demanded angrily. Staring at what had tackled him, Albert blinked as he found himself staring up at a rainbow marred, and cyan colored pegasus. From how it spoke, the pony defiantly sounded female, almost tom-boyish. Rainbow looked the weirdo up and down. It defiantly wasn't a pony, it had fingers or claws kind of like Spike; but that was where any similarities ended really. It looked like a tailless monkey! She looked at it puzzled “Just what the hay are…OOF” The next thing she knew the strange creature slammed its head against her. She reared her head back from the sudden force, seeing nothing but stars. Before she could even had chance to recover herself, the thing had manage to free its hand, and slammed the side of her head with a cabbage; knocking her off of it.

Albert quickly muttered an apology as he scrambled to his feet and made a mad dash into the next alleyway. Noticing some crates, he looked up and took note of a wooden fence up ahead as well as a lamp pole near the wall. Getting an idea, Albert started climbing up the stack of crates. Kicking off the last crate, he reached for the pole. Grasping it, he used the momentum to swing himself over the fence and back into the street. Though as he glanced back to see if he had lost those two, only to collided himself into another pony!

Twilight Sparkle was doing some shopping for more books, as she felt that she needed to expand her knowledge on spell casting. Plus, she did promise to stop by Sugar Cube Corner and being back something sweet for her number one assistant. As she trotted happily down the street, she blinked as she heard yelling coming from near the town square. "Huh, I wonder what's going....OOf" she gasped as something collided with her.

Groaning, she sat up rubbing the side of her head to see something was lying on her stomach. Staring hard at the short manned creature; her eyes widened as it slowly got up and she caught sight of the huge creature that was clothed, had a small mane, and its face was covered in fur

Albert blinked, staring back at a multi purple manned unicorn underneath him. “This just isn’t my day." He muttered aloud as he quickly got back onto his feet, and shouted a sorry to the unicorn as he took off running once more down the street
"There it is! Don't let it get away" AppleJack shouted to Rainbow Dash, who had managed to recover from the blows! Now there we're two pissed off ponies who most likely wanted to wring his neck! AJ narrowed her eyes as she swore "Your gunna pay for that ya lilly-livered bull-leged varmint."

"OOoo, that’s it! I’m so taking you down!" Rainbow Dash declared as she spotted the thing! Whatever it was, it just humiliated her with those cheap hits! It was now payback time!

Twilight blinked in surprise as she saw Dash and AJ go running past her, chasing after the strange creature. "Girls?!" she asked aloud in shock. Quickly picking up her books with her magic, she put them into her knapsack as she started to run after the two.

"Don't those two ever give up?" Albert shouted aloud, as he could see another small market set up, with ponies shopping all over. "Maybe I can lose them in the crowd" Albert thought as he rushed towards into the market. Albert started to shout as he approached the ponies, "Get OUTTA THE WAY"! Many of the ponies try to scramble out of the way, as he rushed through the crowd leaping over carts and ponies that were in his way.

Pinkie Pie hopped happily through the streets, giggling as she thought "Hehe, where's a good hiding spot? Maybe I should hide in a cardboard box? Nah, too simple. How about in a mail box! Oo that sounds like fun and challenging" the energetic pony giggled as she stared around at the others around her.

"OOo, how bout I…WhooooAAAAAAAoooAAAAAAA" she gasped as she was sent into a cartoonish spin as something rushed past her at high speed. Surprised by the sudden movement, she giggled loudly; pleased by the sudden spin as she slowly came to a stop; her eye's spinning in a cartoonish manner. "Hehehe, that was fun" she announced as she spotted a hairless monkey creature running! "Ooooo, who’s that? He looks funny! I bet he's alotta fun" she smiled as she started to bounce after him; not noticing her friends running past her.

Albert let out a sigh of relief, seeing the exit to the town. He had only been here for fifteen minutes, and already he had gone and pissed almost every person…er, pony in town. Getting out of town was his best option for now. He had to lay low, maybe find a way to sneak back later once it got dark and get some food, maybe even something for…Oof!

He let out a gasp as a certain grey furred; blonde mane pegasus crashed into him. Sending him rolling into the ground, Albert groaned as he landed on his back. "What are the odds?" Albert muttered as he sat up rubbing the back of his head as he found himself staring at eyes that were looking in two different directions. "Uhhhh." Albert stared as he looked at grey coated pony in confusion. He was even more confused when the pegasus reached into its bag, and stuffs a muffin into his mouth. It then gave him a silly looking grin before flying off into the air. Albert watched the strange grey pegasus go, taking the muffin out of his mouth "Uhhh…thank you?" That certainly was one of the nicest ponies he had met yet. ‘Huh, this smells good.’ He looked at the muffin in his hand.

“There's that varmint!”

“Come back here and take your beating like a uh….thing you are!”

“Wait, don't hurt it! I need to find out what it is!”

“Heh heh, we're chasing a funny fuzzy monkey!”

"Good lord, not again!" Albert groaned out, as he quickly got back up to his feet and ran out into the forest! Great, he was back out where he had started in this damn forest. Well, town was no better but at least the place was civilized. Or at least he thought it was until he found himself being chased by a mob of the local residents. He was able to quickly climb up into one of the trees, and watched as the ponies continued running up the path past him.

"Girl's, what is going on here? What was that thing" Twilight asked in exasperation as she trotted up to three of them. All she had planned for today was to go out, shop for some new book of spells. The last thing she ever expected to do today was to be chasing some weird two-legged creature around town. "Umm, are you two alright?" Twi asked noticing the enraged looks on Applejack’s and Dash's faces.

"Alright? Oh I'll be alight as soon as I get my hooves on that no good worm eatin, apple destroying, rabbit- hopping critter!” she grunted as she kicked some dust aside aggravated.

"That stupid monkey thing made me look like a foal when it blinded me with a cheap headshot!” Dash admitted, though she wasn't about to admit getting blindsided by a cabbage. She had a reputation to keep up after all. Whilst she was mad at whatever it was that ran, she had to admit it was pretty athletic. Those we're some sweet moves it was pulling off for something that had no wings! Didn't mean that she though it was cool she quickly corrected herself.

"What are you ponies talking about? I think that the funny monkey looked alotta fun" Pinkie giggled as she trotted up to the group. She couldn't help but wonder what is was though? Hmm...It had no tail or wings. Its mane was messy and brown, while it wore multiple clothes over its skin! Ooo, it also had that big fuzzy hair all over its face too! Like a big furry squirrel had latched onto it by the chin! She bet if she petted it, it would feel just as fuzzy as one too!

"Fun or no fun, that thing destroyed my apples and covered me in paint!" AJ informed as she kept a sharp eye out for any sign of the thing. If it was in this forest, it wouldn't get very far! She'd find it, and when she does she’ll be sure to introduce it to “Bucky McGillygutty" and "Kicks McGee”! Walking forward a few feet, she spoke "Spread out and look around, I'm sure it’s still here somewhere."

*SugarCube Corner*

“I’m tellin ya guys, this thing was HUGE!” Apple Bloom waved her two front hoofs dramatically to her two friends; one was an orange pegasus with a mess of purple hair, the other a pure white unicorn with carefully styled pink and purple mane.
“Say, you know what we SHOULD do? Maybe we can get our cutie marks by hunting it down and capturing this strange creature!” Scootaloo said with excitement.

“I…I don’t know Scoot, from what way Apple Bloom described it. It might be dangerous.” Sweetie Bell asked, unsure of the idea.

“Besides how are we going to capture it? If everypony or my sister couldn’t catch it, then how can the three of us can?” Applebloom asked, also seemed doubtful of the idea.

“Well…what if we were to sneak up on it and trapped it, you know like ninjas!” Scootaloo suggested.

“Yeah…that does make a lot of sense. Nopony really expects a sneaky ninja.” Sweetie Belle added.

“That sounds great and all but we don’t look really…well ninjaie.” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Then we’ll just dress up for it. Come on, not only we’ll end up getting our cutie marks, but we’ll also be seen as heroes.” Scoot pumped her hoof in the air; this was going to be so awesome. The two thought it over for a moment “Yeah ok…. I’m in.” Sweetie Belle spoke first. “Yeah, we can do this.” Apple Bloom chimed in. Scootaloo looked at her two best friends in the world "Then it's settled, we’ll meet back here in an hour."

*Naruto- Kakashi’s Theme*

“Where is Sweetie? It’s almost two hours now! Just what is keeping her so long?” Scootaloo huffed in annoyance waiting beside Applebloom. For the pass hour and a half now they had been waiting at Sugar Cube Corner for Sweetie Belle, who had yet to show. “And why are you wearing red?” She raised an eyebrow at Apple Bloom’s choice in clothing. She was wearing a red dress with white circular designs, without sleeves, and using her red bow as a headband. “Well ah like red, besides you’re one to talk.” She pointed back at Scoot’s choice of clothes. Scootaloo looked down; she was wearing an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulders, as well as around her waist, with a large white collar, and a blue headband as well. “What? Orange is an awesome color. Wwwaayyy better then red, believe it!”

Before the two oddly dress fillies even could start butting-heads, their third companion finally showed up. Unlike the other two, she wore a dark blue shirt with a dark green vest over it, as well as a mask that covered her lower face.
“I’m sorry I was late. An old lady needed help with her bag. Then I helped her put away her things. She made me a cup of tea to thank me for helping to hold her knitting and I didn't want to be rude, soo…” She softly explained, pushing her headband up, keeping it from falling down the left side of her face.

“Finally! We were getting...whoa Sweetie Belle, what happen to your hair?” Scootaloo pointed at Sweetie Belle’s hair. It looked tall and spiky, greatly resembling that of a scarecrow.

“Huh? What’s wrong with my hair?” She asked confused by what her friend had meant.

“No time for that you guys. We got ourselves a monster to catch!” Apple Bloom stuck her hoof into the middle of the triangle they had formed, and it was quickly joined by an orange hoof followed shortly by a white one.

“YEAH! CUTIE NINJA SQUAD GO!!” they cheered together, and sooner than anypony would had thought possible they were all running down the street for the Everfree Forest.

“Finally” He gave a sigh of satisfaction as he sat underneath a shady apple tree. Several apples and a muffin wrap discarded beside him. After he knew the coast was cleared, he managed to cautiously backtrack his way out of the forest and to some apple trees he saw while he was running out of town. Why stay a place where they could easily find him? Besides for all he knew, they probably had a better knowledge to the place then he did. If they didn’t…well, that it might take them some time before they figure it out he wasn’t there anymore; by then he’ll be long gone. As the old saying goes ‘Better safe than sorry’ right? Though that had raised another question in mind, just WHERE was he supposed to go? The only town within miles was that one filled with ponies and he was sure that would be the last place he would ever want to be in again.

Maybe he could try to find himself a map, or something that would give him a clear understanding as to where he was. The only two best places where could find one would either be in the local library, or a school. At the library he would have a chance to finding not only a map but take several books as well. Who know what knowledge he could find, but that also comes up as a problem as well. If he couldn’t understand the language of the locals, then how could he know what book he was looking for; he could spend hours just trying to find something. But…if he were to go to the school then not only could he find a map, but he was sure to able to find a child’s alphabet book or something to translate from.
“Maybe I’ll lay low for the next few days, let things quiet down before I go risking….what the?” Albert stopped and listens for a moment. He could have sworn he heard something just a moment ago. He scanned amongst the trees; he thought he just saw movement. He slowly starts to draw his knife, for all he knew it could be another wild animal.

“YEEAAHHH!”Albert snapped his head left, seeing several small objects hurled at him. He quickly rolled out of the way and onto his feet with knife in hand. He paused for a moment and looked down at the ground puzzled as to see the objects that were thrown at him were wooden….shurikens?

“Who on earth would use toy shurikens?” He was answered when three oddly dressed fillies jumped out from their hiding spot.

*Naruto- Naruto’s main theme*

“You got to be kidding me right?” Albert just stood there, staring at them blankly. There he was, staring at his so called ‘attackers’, who looked like they just came out of a bad anime convention. He didn’t know if he should hug them with their cuteness, or facepalm.

“The Cutie Ninja Squad has arrived!” Scoot shouted in excitement, as her and her friends balanced themselves on their back legs. “With our awesome skills, we’ll take you down Everfree beast, believe it!”

“Ya know that catch phrase is getting old right?” Apple Bloom said, looking at her friend with a deadpan expression.

“What? No its not, is an awesome phrase; believe it!”

“Yes it is”

“No its not”

“Yes it is”

“No its not”

Albert started to giggle which turned into a full blown laughter. Causing the two friends to stop and looked at him in confusion. “Oh dear God! Haha, what next; an army of white rabbits wielding plungers? Or how about a dragon like thing playing in a Mariachi band?” Albert giggled at the thought. Who knew, maybe it was even possible in this place. The laughing seemed to anger the orange one, as it pointed at him yelling something, this only made him laugh even harder.

He calmed himself down, putting away his knife. He hadn’t had a good laugh like that in a long while. After all that he had gone through the past two days he needed a good laugh. “Why don’t you kiddies run off and play elsewhere huh?” He waved them off, as he turn to leave. The next thing he knew however, was a large orange blur latching onto his back “Hey…W-What the…get off you!” Albert tried to reach the little orange blob on his back. “I said get… Hey, let go!” He soon found himself having the other two latching onto his arm and leg. “You little… OW! Stop biting me! Come on get off!” he flailed and wiggled about, trying to shake off the little tiny terrors, but with no real success. Just how on earth were they even holding onto him like this in the first place? He continued “ALRIGHT THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF…”

*WHAM*

In the mist of his struggling, Albert turned around too quickly, ending him comically face first into a tree, before sliding onto the ground unconscious.

The three crusa…er, ninjas looked at one another dumbfounded that they had actually had done it and caught the creature. Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up “We….we did it!” “Ah can’t believe it, we really did it!” Apple Bloom looked at the creature that lay before them. “AW YEAH! BELIEVE IT!” Scoot pumped her hoof in the air.

“APPLE BLOOM!”

The Apple Bloom cringed and looked behind her, seeing Applejack and her friends looking at them dumbfounded with their jaws hanging open, expect for Pinkie, who was….well being Pinkie. “Uh, hey sister….we caught the creature.” Apple Bloom chuckled, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

From her throne Celestia silently read the scroll several of times, making sure she had not missed any details within the letter. The letter was very detailed in its descriptions. For good or ill she did not know, but she did know that this was no coincidence.

“Captain Thunderstruck”

A large grey earth-pony came forth and humbly bowed before her. He was nearly as big as AppleJack’s brother, maybe bigger. His white armor shined and polished brightly. His face was that of a veteran, seeing many years of service; a large scar running down his left cheek. On his flank was that of a large silver and blue lightning bolt. “What do you wish of me, my lady?”

“I have a mission for you of the utmost importance.”

Chapter 3: A Brave New World

Chapter 4

AN: Hello fellow readers, for those who are keeping track of this story you may have to go and read chapter 3 before reading this. Due to a small mistake on my part, I had the chapter 3 teaser replace with the real chapter. I did not know that by doing that, people who have been tracking the story were not noted of it being updated. So for those who had not read the chapter yet go please do so, so you will not be lost and confused. For does who have read it, well here is the newest chp. Also I had some people ask for links to the songs I will be setting links for now on.

Albert groaned painfully, slowly coming to. He could feel the cold stone pressed against his cheek ‘Dammit, not again.’ He thought, feeling the hard floor again for the second time in two days. He gave himself a moment before slowly started to push himself up to his feet; his bones were sore and aching, but he’ll live. He began to look about him; it looked like he was in some sort of cell. It was small, though fairly clean, there was a bed, not altogether luxurious in appearance, but it did beat sleeping on the floor; even if it looked a bit small for him. There was also a wooden chair and table, designed for use rather than comfort. The window looked strongly barred, facing westward; he must have been out for some time seeing the sun was already setting. He rattled his brain, think just how did he get here; the last thing he recalled was…
Oh that was right; he ran himself into a damn tree with three tiny demons latch onto him. He had faced bandits, lived through ancient death traps, and even just survived an encounter with legendary manticore. But to get beat by oddly dressed ponies and a tree; that was just humiliating. He thanked god Seta or Keitaro wasn’t here to see that; he didn’t think they’ll ever let that one down; damn tree.

“Well Al, it seems you’ve found yourself in a real mess this time.” He muttered as he plop himself onto the small bed. He cursed as he reached into his pockets. ‘Damn they even took my smokes.’ He thought bitterly sitting on the small cot. This did give him the chance to think over what had occurred earlier today. Ponies….Ponies that could talk, they showed fear, anger, and other expressions that any human would do. They were doing jobs and wore accessories like a human would too. But these ponies also looked exactly like the ones in the temples in both Egypt and the Amazon! Unicorns, Pegasus, every single one have different colors and tattoo marks on them; all fitting the descriptions that were on so many artifacts and carvings he had seen, but to see them real in front of his very eyes was just simply mind blowing. He thought maybe in Egypt he would find the answers he seeks, but now he finds himself stuck in some sort of cell in a place filled with colorful hostile ponies, leaving him with only more questions than answers.

It seemed he only had two options laid before him; he could just sit and wait to see what happens. Though after what had happen earlier today with those ponies, and the fact that they didn’t even speak or understood his language, he didn’t think it will end all too well for him. Worst case scenario would be they would try to do experiments on him to see what makes him tick, or maybe they’ll sacrifice him to their gods or something? Well whatever they were going to do he sure wasn’t going to stay around to find out. Besides, he hated waiting anyway; he was a man of action, and just sitting here waiting wasn’t something that sit well for him. Which meant his only other option was to break out of here, but the question was how?

Albert got up and started to inspect his cell door. The bars themselves looked strong, yet long and unsupported in length. He lightly tugged on the bars again and looked around the room for anything he could use for his escape. Table, blankets…an idea was starting to come together in his head. He started to break off one of the table legs; it was time for him to get to work…

Two brown colored earth-ponies stood guarding the door that led to the cells. Their orders were simple; stay on guard and bring the strange looking creature, once it had awakened to Princess Celestia. It had been a few short while since that thing had been brought in by Captain Thunderstruck and along with him were the six heroes of Equestria. It was an ugliest thing they had ever seen; to them it looked like a tailless shaved monkey. “Do you hear something?” One guard asked, hearing a low grinding sound. The second guard strained to listen; it sounded like it was coming from the dungeon.

“I hear it too; what do you think it could be?”

“I’m not sure; we better go check it out.”

When the two guards made their way down to the holding cells they were shocked to find that the strange creature was not in its cell, and that the bars to its cell door were bent. “How…How is that even possible?” the first guard went over to inspect the door. Two of the bars were tied together with a large piece of wet cloth and was twisted by a large wooden stick. The bars wasn’t bent much but was just enough for something to squeeze itself through. The guard cringe his nose from the smell of the cloth was giving; by Star Swirl’s beard, it almost smelt like….

*SLAM*

The sound of the door back upstairs gotten both guards attention and made a race back up the stairwell. When they reached to the door, they found it was locked. “GET THIS DOOR OPEN NOW!” The first guard ordered as he tried to ram the heavy wooden door open.

“I can’t, it’s bolted on the other side!” replied the second guard, as he bucked at the door but with no success.

“Alright, that should be able to keep them busy for awhile.” Albert muttered making sure that the door was bolted fast before making his way down the corridor and up another flight of stairs. He knew it wouldn’t be too long before someone will find them and raise the alarm; but hopefully by then he would be able to find a way out of this place. But first he needed to find his satchel; if anything his notes and the book were all that mattered. He would not let eight years of his work just disappear; he needed to find them quickly before things get too hairy. But he didn’t even know where to look, let alone where he was going in this place.

*play*

On the next floor there was a narrow hallway. There were seven doors, six of them lining up on each side, and one at the end of the hall. He tried through several of the doors; most of them were sleeping quarters or storages, before trying his luck the door at the end of the hall. He grabbed the handle and pressed his ear against the door; he could hear voices just on the other side; two of them at least in front of the door. He carefully opened the door slightly and could just see one of their shadows.

Shit; he knew things like this were never easy. Well he had no choice; he didn’t wish to harm these things but if it might get out of here so be it. He slowly took a deep breath, readying himself. “Three…” he started counting down softly, gripping the handle tighter, readying himself to charge in. “Two…” The muscles in his legs tensed up; his heart racing with excitement. “One!” He burst through the door with all his might slamming the door against them, and knocking the armored ponies off their hooves. Albert didn’t stop his momentum there, as he reared his leg back and kicked one of the down ponies in the head, knocking it unconscious, before quickly spinning around to the other guard who was trying to get up, and slammed it’s head against the stone wall; knocking it out as well. He took a moment to look around to see if anyone was around before continuing down the hallway, leaving the two unconscious guards laying there. There was no point in hiding them really, when soon everyone would know he had escaped and the whole place would be looking for him.

He continued pressing onward, for nearly fifteen minutes he passed through several more hallways and passages, checking the corners for any signs of more armored looking ponies walking about. So far he had lucky and had manage to sneak by several of them, sticking close to the shadows as best he could, though he was no spec-op that was for sure. It was only a matter of time before someone would spot him.

“There it is!”

“Shit!” Albert turned around to see the two armored ponies he had locked in the dungeon earlier pointing at him. “Spoke too soon” He muttered as the armored ponies started to charge at him.

“Where could she be? This isn’t like her to keep us waiting.” Twilight was pacing back and forth, occasionally stopping and looking towards the door to see if Princess Celestia had arrived. Ever since they had been brought here to Canterlot with that strange creature they have been told to wait here in the royal lounge and that Princess Celestia would be here soon. That was nearly over one hour, eighteen minutes, and forty-six seconds ago. “Twi just relax; I’m sure the Princess will get here when she gets here.” Applejack said reclining comfortably on a couch with her hat tilted over her face.

“I agree darling, you need to calm down. Besides you’re starting to create a hole in the floor.” Commented Rarity as she was lazily reading Ponies Magazine. Twilight looked down and she was in fact starting to create a small pathway into the very floor. Correction, it was now one hour, nineteen minutes and ten seconds. The door to the lounge opened and in walked Celestia in all her glory; her mane shining brightly. She seemed to also being carrying a small satchel. The girls quickly scrambled and bowed before their Princess, and Celestia motioned for them to rise. “Hello my faithful student.” She smiled brightly nuzzled her student in greeting, Twilight returning the kind gesture.

“My dearest apologies girls for keeping you waiting for so long, there were certain matters that had needed to be attended to.” The sun goddess smiled the rest of the girls. “Now I’m sure you all have so many questions. So please, make yourselves comfortable this will take some time.” Princess Celestia suggested, and the mares all did, finding cushions or chairs to sit on; forming a semi-circle around the Princess. Twilight was the first to speak up. “Princess Celestia what was that creature we saw? I've simply never come across any animals like it before? A bipedal organism that could stand on two feet; it seemed to had lack any sort of fur to keep itself warm, and it had no wings or horn.”

“Yes my student I know of this creature. The creature you girls have seen is called a human.” This immediately got a slew of different reactions and questionable looks from each of them. Human; what was that? Where did it come from? We're their more of them out there? Did it like parties, and cakes, and chocolate?

“Beggin ya pardon Princess, but what pray tell is a hu-mare?”

“Humans…” The Princess politely corrected “…are very complex creatures. Like us, humans are able to have free will, express emotions, and have a sense as to know what is good or evil. Though never two humans are ever the same; truly one of the most marvelous creatures I have ever seen in my life. Though unlike like us ponies; humans do not seem to have the ability to use neither magic, flight, nor cutie marks.”

No magic or cutie marks; how was something like this even possible! Everypony had at least some magic within them, and the fact they didn’t have cutie marks also brought more questions! For Twilight this was unacceptable; she had read every book containing about Equestrian wildlife and Creatures of the Everfree forest, and not once had she found any of the descriptions that match this creature! The more she heard about this human, the more she wanted to know about this fascinating creature! Oh, she wanted to ask it so many questions, and wondered what sort of knowledge it possessed.
“But why is it that we had not ever heard of these human things before; where do they come from?” This question got all the girls to nod their head. They too wish to know as they never heard of this type of creature before.

“That is because they are not from this world; rather they are from beyond what is known as The Veil.”

“Excuse me your Highness.” Twilight spoke up. “But what is this Veil?”

“We do not know what it is, only few hoof picked ponies know of its very existence, and many including myself are still searching to discovering its mysteries. But the simplest way I could explain as to ‘what’ The Veil is; think of it like water within a lake. While we ponies live above on dry surface, underneath the waters are different types of fish and other living things. Two very different worlds; yet living in the same plane of existence. The Veil is that water that separates our world from theirs.” She explained as carefully as she could to them.

The girls sat around their Princess for several minutes with jaws agape. Twilight was the first to regain her composure. “Th-This is amazing! Princess, how were you able to come about discovering these creatures?”
“It was not I who first discovered them dear student, but it was that of Lavender Dust.” Celestia answered, earning large gasp from her student.

“Lavender Dust!” Twilight nearly shouted, her eyes shining with glee. How could a unicorn not know about Lavender Dust? One of the most brilliant unicorn minds since that of Star Swirl the Bearded. Some of her works were what laid down the very cornerstones for what every unicorn knew today! Many of her theories and notes were still being used even to this day in magic schools and universities all across Equestria. But no pony knew what happen to her; just one day she had just simply vanished without a trace.

Celestia’s horn lit up creating a projected image in the middle of the circle. The image was that of a unicorn, her coat was that snow white. Her mane was that of a dark red color, and on her flank there was an inkbottle and with a quill. “That’s right; it was nearly one hundred years after the banishment of Luna. Lavender Dust was working on a new spell known as the Utonium Jojo. From her notes, it supposed to be a new type of teleportation; able to travel to places like Ponyville to Canter at just a matter of moments. It could be used for not just unicorns, but for all ponies.” Images of Lavender carefully placing several large gems in a circle around of what appeared to be a large carving of a doorway carved in the center of the floor.

“Your Highness, why is that she was using gems?” Rarity asked, eyeing at the lovely large stones. “They are what she called ‘Storage Gems’. She made created them to store up large amount of magic energies. In her notes she explained, that in order to teleport a group of ponies or objects the larger use of magic is needed. For one unicorn that is both exhausting and dangerous. So she had come up for a way around it by creating these gems. One of these gems holds enough magic of three unicorns.” The girls sat there in awe, wondering what other amazing things one simple gem could do. “But it was then….something went terribly wrong.” The image showed that of the gems and carvings starting to glow brightly, almost blindingly to the eyes. When the brightness died down, Lavender was nowhere to be seen.

“For over ten years I have poured over her notes, trying to find some way to locate Lavender. But on the thirteenth year I received this odd parchment.” Celestia dug through the bag she had brought with her, and pulled out what looked like a worn and torn piece of paper. “Unlike the paper we used, I had found this was made that of animal skins.” There was a collective gasps around her along, some looked disturbed and even Fluttershy looked to be on the verge of tears. Who would make a parchment letter out of animals? “But it wasn’t the parchment itself that drew my attention but rather what was written inside of it.” She passed the old parchment over to Twilight. Twilight carefully read for several moments; her eyes growing wider. “It…it’s a letter from Lavender Dust!” The Princess nodded “In her letter she describes of a place filled with two legged creatures that share the same describes as that as our guest.”

“She concluded that the Utonium had worked, but it had sent her to another world. She sent other letters describing about these humans, from culture to their language. For five years we exchanged letters, keeping me informed and discovering new things about these humans as she continued to find a way for her to return home. Till one day the letters stopped coming and that….”

Her explanation was cut off when the door burst opened and one of her guards came rushing in. “Your Highness!” He gave a quick bow before her. “Forgive me your Highness but the creature, it has escaped!”

It was another busy afternoon for the staffs of the royal kitchen. The chefs were working tirelessly preparing the dishes for the upcoming Summer Festival Banquet. Many nobles and fancy ponies were coming from all around, so everything had to be just perfect. “Nickel…Nickel Specter; get your plot over here boy!” One of the large chef earth-ponies called from his station.

“Y-Yes sir” Weakly replied a young dark brown unicorn; dressed in a common butler outfit.
“I need you to take these tea trays to the lounge; understand? Her Highness and her guests will be expecting them very soon.” The head chef ordered, passing several trays to the younger stallion.

“Of course sir” the young stallion replied, using his magic to gently lift the trays and headed for the door. When he reached to open the door when it suddenly burst opened, sending the poor pony and the trays onto the floor. One pony shrieked in fear and pointed to the large hairless monkey as it pushed and shoved its way passed them with several of her Highness’s royal guards on its heels.

Albert cursed as he hopped over another pony. Those armored ponies had been chasing him around now for nearly ten minutes, and it seemed that no matter how hard he tried, more of them just keep coming out of the woodworks. He quickly snatched away a frying pan from one of the scared chef hat ponies and batted away one of the closest armored pegasus that was trying to swoop down at him; sending it crashing head first into a large cake. He tried slowing them down by throwing anything he could get his hands on, pots, pans, and bags of flour in their path as he made his way out of the back of the kitchen into what he guessed was a large banquet hall. For Albert it would seem that they getting ready for some sort of festival; tables were being set, decorations being hung, and dishes properly set. He continued racing across the room as fast as his legs could carry him, jumping onto tables, and shoving any pony that was in his way. He slid to a halt as more armored guards came pouring in, blocking his escape routes. He tried racing towards another door but like before more ponies were blocking his exits. ‘Shitshitshitshit’ he thought, as they were starting to surround him on all sides now. He gripped the pan handle tighter as they started to close in on him.

* play*

He gave a tired sigh, adjusting his hat. “Well then…who’s first?” he asked just as they started to rush him. He threw his hat in the face of the closest pegasus before swinging the frying pan to the earth-pony behind him, followed by a right hook. He quickly dodges a kick before smashing the pan down another earth-pony’s head. One of the unicorn’s horns started to glow and he felt himself bring lifted up into the air. “EEEEUUUU” Albert screamed out as he was tossed like a rag doll into one of the tables; breaking it underneath his weight. He shook out of his daze; just what the hell did that thing just do, use the force? He slowly pulled himself out of the broken derby and nearly stumbled over his own feet. He grabs a hold of a silver tray and smashes it at an earth-pony that had tried to tackle him. ‘No you don’t.’ Albert thought, picking up the frying pan, and throwing it at the unicorn who was glowing its horn again, and hitting it in the face. He grabs pegasus that tried to grab him from behind by the head, and slammed it face first into another table before tossing it over another table.
“Piss off, you prancing show poni...ooff!” Albert’s taunt was cut off as another armor pegasus tackled him onto a table. “Get….off!” Albert growled, smashing a bottle over the pegasus’s head, knocking it off of him. He struggled to get back on his feet once more; his breathing was starting to get short and shallow. He jumps back as another unicorn try to rush him; its horn covered in static electricity. He wasn’t sure what it would do but he didn’t want to find out as he quickly grabs a table cloth and threw the cloth over its head as it came lunging at him again, before giving it a hard left hook, and sending it crashing head first into the buffet table. He suddenly felt a sharp pain to his right side as he was sent crashing into a set of chairs; knocking the wind right out of him. He could only curse as he held his right side painfully; it was more likely they were heavily bruised.

‘Oh…..shit’ it was the biggest pony he had seen yet, it stood at nearly over a head higher than those other ponies; he could only imagine if it was standing on its back legs. Its coat was ash grey, and unlike those other armored ponies, this one seemed to be wearing white armor. He could hear the warning bells going off in his head, telling him to stay clear of this one. “Wait….wait.” Albert raised his hand up in a stopping gesture. “Give me….just one second.” He said, trying to get air back in his lungs. The large pony seemed to understand his gesture and stood there for a moment as Albert painfully struggled back onto his feet, leaning heavily against a chair for support. He took a moment to catch his breath before gripping the chair he was supported on tightly “Ok buddy…. allons-y!” He said and swung the chair as hard as he could across the grey pony’s head, breaking the chair from the force. Though the large pony seemed unfazed by this as it looked back up; its eyes boring into him. Albert looked at the destroyed chair in his hands and back at the white armored pony. “Oh this is not going to be good.” He muttered as the last thing he saw was two large hooves.

Albert let out a soft groan, as he slowly began to regain conscious once again. His head like someone took a sledgehammer to it, and his ribs didn’t feel any better. Just how many times was that going to happen to him? He tried to move but was finding it hard to do so. On the bright side though, where ever he was it sure wasn’t a hard floor; rather it felt like he was floating on a fluffy cloud. There were several muffled voices, and judging by their tone he would guess at least several females; a few of them seemed familiar.

“Did you guys see that? That human thing had some pretty awesome moves! It was like POW, BAM! Then suddenly with that chair, WHAM!”

“D-do you think his going to be ok?”

“I’m sure his going to be just fine girls. You did an excellent job on bandaging him up Fluttershy.”

Albert slowly started to open his eyes. He blinked a few times as his eyes hurt from the brightness of the room. After a moment of letting his eyes adjust; the room was brightly white, it almost reminded him of a hospital. Though last time he checked, hospitals didn’t have such good beds. Something in his peripheral vision caught his eye and nearly screamed when he turned his head to see a small pink pony staring at him nearly inches away from his face with a large grin on its face.

Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, Who are you?
DoyoulikepartiesIlikepartieswhatsyourfavoritekindofcakeyouknow
youhaveaveryfuzzyfacemisterdidasquirrellatchontoyoudoyouknowwhatrootisforpieIwonderifmytailtastelikecottencandy?”

Albert could just laid there in confusion as the little pink one continue to ramble on, and that each time she seemed to bounce around he could have sworn that he heard a springing nose.

“Pinkie dear, I think you’re scaring the poor thing and do please breath.” Pinkie stopped hopping in mid-air, looking over at Rarity for a long moment before taking in a quick breath. “Thanks Rarity, almost forgot.” The little pink ball of energy giggled before trotting back to her friends.

Albert had finally mange to slowly push himself up into a sitting position, taking note that his shirt was missing and that his ribs were bandaged up. He took the time to examine each of the ponies at the foot of the bed. The small white unicorn with the well kept violet mane had its nose in the air trying to look as dignified as possible. To Albert she seemed like one who was maybe upper-class, or actress type. Next to her was a butter-scotch color pegasus, who was trying its best to hide behind its large pink mane, giving small squeaking sounds. It looked so damn heart-melting adorable that he felt like he just wanted to go over there and hug the poor thing. The next one was that Pink colored pony which was still smiling at him; its hair greatly reminded him of cotton candy. ‘Looks like someone hype up on too much sugar.’ He thought glancing at the next two he knew quite well. It was those very same orange and cyan colored ponies that had chased him around town earlier today, though they seemed to look at him more curiously rather than wanting to kill him. The last one Albert remembered clearly well. It was the multi-purple unicorn he had crashed into on the street while running from cowgirl and gay bacon strips over there. He could see she was greatly curious about him as well. Eyeing and calculating every detail; trying to figure him out. He had recognized that look before; it was the same look he did all those years ago when he had first discovered the book. The look of excitement and the desire to finding out what secrets could lay hidden within.

“Ah, I see you are awake. That’s good.” A large white unicorn with wings stepped forward. ‘Wait…it can’t be’ Albert thought, weakly rub his eyes. It was her, the very same ivory white unicorn he had seen in the temple in Egypt. It all fit the descriptions like in the book; the ephemeral rainbow mane and tail, the deep magenta eyes, and the golden tiara sitting neatly on her head. “Iiti sa ne se.”* She greeted him a voice that sounded soft and kind.

Albert blinked at her for a moment or two; was she speaking in ancient Egyptian just now? She tilted her head to the side and said something to him again but slower. This was so amazing; she was indeed speaking Egyptian to him! This only proved even more there was some connection between this and temple in Egypt. “I’m…sorry. But I don’t understand you.” He replied, which seemed to surprise the sun goddess; guessing by her expression. She seemed to study him; her brows furrowed in thought for a long moment before turning around started talking to the small group behind her before returning her gaze back towards him. The horn on her head started to give a soft glow. Thinking she was going to attack him Albert started to back away in fright, until his back was against the head-broad of the bed.

‘Be calm young one, I do not wish you any harm; I am Princess Celestia’ He heard a voice within his head, but….how was this even possible?

‘It is a telepathy spell; one that I would rarely ever use, but seeing that you do not speak the language of that of those of that heard before; this is the only easiest way to communicate to you.’

Telepathy; that kind of stuff only happens in movies or comics, that is almost like saying magic is real or that the fourth wall can be broken.Just where in the hell was he?

‘I assure dear human it is very real. You are in Equestria; in my palace in Canterlot, where I and my sister rule together.’

Albert stared at her with his eyes almost like saucers, still hearing her voice still in his head; she really could read his mind. ‘I understand you are frightened. But do not fear; no pony shall harm you.’ She said with that same gentleness of that a mother would talk to her child.

‘Uh...Forgive me for being a bit doubtful Princess. I’ve almost been eaten by a creature I thought were legend and myth, being chased by colored ponies, and finally was locked in a cell.’ It felt weird having to reply back with his thoughts.

‘You must understand; you the very first human to enter into my lands, so my ponies have never seen your kind before. As for locking you in a cell, that I am sorry; for I did not know what kind of person you were. I have read and heard both sides of your kind, both the good and the evil. But I can see in your heart that you don’t wish any harm to my little ponies.’ She tried to ensure him with a warm gentle smile.

Albert nodded his head slowly; didn’t want to admit it, but she did had a point. If something like this had happen back home people would more likely act the same way more or less. So he guessed he couldn’t really blame them for being scared. But still, Celestia…Equestria, he knew those names for years. But if this was all real, that would mean that everything he had found within those temples were not just for show or some myth like story, but they were real!

‘My name is Albert… Albert Stone, your Highness. I would give you a proper bow, but I seemed to be glued to the bed at the moment.’ He tried lightly joked. If anything the least he could do was be polite and hope not to get struck down by lightning from an all powerful being.

‘Well aren’t you a charmer.’ She seemed to giggle in amusement of this. ‘But I do have several questions for you Albert as to how you were able to come here.’

‘To tell you the true I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to explain really.’ Albert began his story. He told her of the temples, finding the book, and what happen in the chamber. Celestia listened, deep in thought as Albert had finished telling his tale. It did somewhat explained the sudden spike of magic being released. Though it did not make sense as to why it was such a large intensity of it if it was only a teleportation spell; something did not seem to add up. Like these temples; she remembered Lavender wrote something about one of them in one of the letters. That the people there built it for they had thought she was some sort of divine being. But from what this human was telling her, the temples appeared to be thousands of years old rather than nine-hundred years when Lavender had vanish. There was also the fact of the doorway; it fit closely similar to the one Lavender had been working on. If Albert said was true, why didn’t she try to use it herself and come back? She will have to look into this further on a later date.

One of the smaller ponies seemed impatient and started talking to the Princess. Albert watched as the Princess turned towards the six ponies and was exchanging several words for them. He quietly waited until Celestia her attention back towards him. “So what happens to me now?” Albert finally spoke up, breaking the silence. Were they going to lock him up again, or worst?

He could hear a giggle in his head ‘No young Albert, nothing like that will happen to you. For now just rest, you are weary from the events you had today. In the morning I wish to discuss with you some things. So rest well Albert Stone, and you will not find any lock doors, or cages here. You are welcomed here to stay as our humble guest.’ The Princess answered, before turning back towards the girls and said something. The girls looked slightly disappointed as they reluctantly followed the Princess out of the room; they still had so many questions to ask the human.

Albert rested his head on the pillow, quietly staring up at the ceiling thinking over the situation he was in. Part of him just wanted to just go home, to get things back to normal for him, and get back to his work. But here he was in Equestria, THE Equestria; it really was a place and not just some story in a book! Ponies, unicorns, everything was here. Eight years of hard work right here in his face, a once in a lifetime opportunity! Did he dare wish to leave when the archeologist part of him wishes to stay? He spent years trying to find the answers to his research and studies, and all of it was right here! There were still so many questions he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to know; did really he want to go home and waste this opportunity? He closed his eyes and fell into a blissful sleep. Unbeknownst to him, Pinkie Pie peeked back into the room, and quietly crept over towards the bed side where he was sleeping. She glanced about, seeing if it was all clear. Giving a goofy grin in satisfaction she placed a cupcake on the nightstand next to the bed before tiptoeing quietly back out of the room.

Fun facts: As to ‘HOW’ Albert escaped his cell well I got the idea after watching an old Jackie Chan film, I’m sure many remember this scene *play*

Lavender Dust is Lauren Fraust if her name was ponified as a generic pony.

*Iiti sa ne se- ‘Greetings son of man’

Chapter 4: Cat and Mouse

Chapter 5 and outtakes

Albert stared out the window watching as the scenery slowly rolled on by. The mountains, fields; it all looked so beautiful; surreal even. But not even this seemed to ease his troubled that was on his mind. For the past half hour he had been sitting here on this train on the way back to Ponyville. He was fortunate enough that car was empty, say for the six ponies that were sitting several seats down from him. They seemed to be chatting ideally amongst one another; occasionally looking over towards him. It wasn’t that he wanted to sit by them heavens no! If anything he wanted to go over there and at least try to talk to them, even if neither party knew what the other was saying; it would at least ease his mind of the troubles from the events earlier this morning. He dug into his satchel for his trusty journal and opened to a new page.

Journal Entry-Day 3, Albert Stone

Ribs a bit sore and my body still aches, but I’m glad that four legged tank didn’t cracked or broken any of them. Though my body hurts it does not compare the troubled that has been plaguing me as of late. I’m still trying to grasp at the very idea that this really is Equestria, and all that I had been through was not some sort of dream. For years I had poured over carvings, texts, and the images; assuming that all this was nothing but maybe stories and folklore told by some lost ancient civilization long forgot past. But to find out that after all this time there was an actual place, and that these ponies they had worship were as real as the very fingers on my hands; it’s still both frightening and mind blowing. It amazes me even more is the fact that they are just as curious about me as I of them. This goes especially to the purple and pink one; Twilight and Pinkie I believe their names were. While one seems to look at me like some puzzle that needs to be solve; the other well…for some reason she keeps trying to touch my face or my beard anyway.” He paused for a moment with a soft smile playing across his face. It was so cute how innocent that little pink pony looked when she bounced about wanting to feel his beard.

“Earlier this morning I had meet with the princess, the very same ivory white goddess that it is said that raises and sets the sun (though it doesn’t make sense when it is a known fact that the planet revolves around the sun…right?). She had explained to me bits and pieces about how she knows of my people. From what she had told me, there was a unicorn by the name of Lavender Dust (note to self: Look up anything you can find related to her or anything of her work) who had crossed over ‘The Veil’, just as I had done back in Egypt! She showed me some images as to what this Lavender looked like. To say I was amazed really; I remembered seeing something similar back in the Amazon, though ones showed her to be taller and wings of that of the princesses. At first I thought she was another sort of divine being that the Bronies (this is the only suitable name I can think of giving these ancient people until I can come up with a more proper name) had made just like that of Celestia and her sister. When I tried to press for more additional information about this Lavender, I only ended up getting half answers or the question is steered away. I’m not sure if it is a trust issue or something else; that has yet to be determined. It was also during this meeting that the root of my troubles here begins. The first bomb shell was that of Lavender. As I explained to Celestia, the places I’ve found were old, maybe around the time before Egyptian’s first dynast;, over five thousand years ago. But what she told me was that Lavender had only been missing for nearly less than one thousand years! To say I was shock could not describe these feelings I’ve felt from this news. Could it be possible that our two worlds have two very different times? If so just how long will it take to send me back, and even then how much time will go by my own world? A week here could be between months or maybe even years! I asked if there was any way if we could use the same method to return home. My heart started to sank when she gave me a look. That kind of look doctors would give you when giving bad news. She told me that there was a chance to send me back, but to do so it would take a great deal of power, and that there was little chance of even returning to the right world, and even if it the right world that my chances of survival was slim at best. For example, I could be sudden teleported miles in the air to even inside a raging volcano. Those gems I had use at the inner chamber were specially crafted gems that only Lavender knew how to make. Not only to hold large amounts of power but were also to be beckons to help people…er, ponies safely travel in between one point to another. So now I find myself in a state of hopelessness…lost. Yes I’ve spent years of my life working and studying, which in time had bore good fruit. To me this was a chance of a lifetime to study and learn about these ponies, but even then what of that of my friends…my family. Sure I am that of a grown man and that I live my life like any other Joe; but what of that of my mother and father? How would that handle that their only child is missing, maybe to never see again in their lifetime? What real point would there be to show my findings to the world when you can’t share it with the people you love and care for the most? So now I’ve find myself on a train back to Ponyville (Ponyville, Canterlot, I will not be too surprise if there’s a place named after a Clydesdale) by Princess Celestia with six other ponies. From here they are to be my help and guide, helping me adjust here until some form of solution to help me back. I wish that of Keitaro or even Seta were here. At least I could have someone to talk to……

“The poor thing he looks so sad. I wish there was something we can do for him; if he’ll let us.” Fluttershy said, barely peeking over her seat over to see their newest companion.

Twilight glanced over and watched as Albert sat there alone writing into a small book for quite some time. Throughout the entire trip back he had mostly been sitting there quiet, keeping a small distance between himself and the rest of them. But could she really blame him? He felt so lost, stuck within a world not even his own and the only one of his kind. She couldn’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to never be able to return home, to nver again see her friends or her beloved mentor, just the very thought sent shivers down her spine. Ever since leaving Canterlot they had been debating amongst themselves as to what they should do with him.

“I think the first thing we should probably do is to get Albert over to the library and get started on some basic fundamentals of Equestrian; I have plenty of books that should suffice for the time being. While I’m helping Albert with getting started AJ, Rarity, and Dash,” Twilight looked over to her friends. She glanced “Could you three go and talk to the Mayor and see if she can form a town meeting. With her help it would make things for Albert’s stay much easier in the long run. The last thing we need is another incident like yesterday, and no Pinkie I don’t think it now will not be a good time to throw him a party.” Knowing what the pink party machine would want to do.

“What! But party time is always a good time, and cake, and every day shuffling!” Pinkie started to ramble in thought. She had planned on throwing a HUGE ‘Welcome to Ponyville and to a new world!’ to their newest friend. Ever since Canterlot he had looked so down and upset; she wanted to just go over there and get him to smile. Who knows, maybe he’ll let her touch his beard. It looked so fuzzy and warm she wanted to do nothing more than just rub her face all over it and….

“She means dear that we shouldn’t throw him a large party for he may be too uncomfortable with the idea of so many ponies being around all at once.” Rarity said, cutting off Pinkie’s thoughts. “Also I believe the first thing he needs is a bath and something then those dreadful looking clothes. Brown and tan, that is just screaming help me. Though that hat and rugged beard those give him that adventurist look. But perhaps he should shave it and…..”

“NO!” Pinkie screamed, causing the rest of them look at her a bit weirdly from the sudden outburst.

“Uh, what I mean is…maybe he likes keeping it. That’s like uh…….asking Dashie to dye her hair.” She quickly said trying to cover up her outburst.

“Well any color I wear will be cool and awesome, but you’re right Pinkie it would be 20% less cool not to have my awesome colors. But anyway, I don’t see why not just use some sort of spell for him to talk to us, or maybe do that mind reading trick the Princess did?”

“It could be dangerous, remember Princess Celestia said that humans do not have magic in their world. I don’t know if by doing even the simplest of spells would have some sort of side effect to him.” “And as for the telepathy; it’s a spell rarely even used among unicorns. Unlike teleporting, reading mind is a much harder thing to do since one has to use a greater deal of magic and concentration. Even then one must be careful when entering another ponies mind, so that you not damage yourself but the other’s mind as well. It’s also explained in findings that…..”

“Ok ok we get it egghead; we don’t need to have an entire lesson over it.” Rainbow drawl out, already bored by this.
“There’s still the problem of where he should stay. I think his maybe just too big to sleep in any of the beds we have for him.” Fluttershy quietly spoke up. It was true, with his emeses size he wouldn’t be able to fit even in a king size bed, and could likely break said bed.

“Well there’s plenty of room in the barn. We could have him stay there until we can get him something more comfortable for him. There is plenty of hay and ah’ll toss in some blankets for him ta make sure he can stay comfortable and warm for the nights.” Applejack threw in her two bits.

“That sounds like a really good idea Applejack; by then I’m sure we’ll have someplace better to stay until….Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Twilight looked away from Pinkie for only a moment before noticing the party pony had suddenly disappeared.

“Hi!”

“Gah!”

“Oh no” Twilight muttered as she face-hoof herself.

play

Albert finished writing and opened his bag to place the book back in when some large pink head giving him the biggest grin he has ever seen on someone’s face, suddenly popped out from within the satchel.

“Hi!”

“Gah!” Albert cried out as he fell onto the floor in surprise. Pinkie giggled looking down at him with her tail wagging cutely. “Why are you doing down there silly?” Albert blinked a few times, slowly registering just who was talking to him before getting himself off the floor.

“How did yo…when did you…” He pointed towards her, babbling incoherently as he quickly looked inside his bag and back towards the little pink pony trying to comprehend just how the hell did she even get into his bag and without seeing her in the first place? He peered into his bag again before looking back at the pink pony, who was bouncing happily on the seat beside himself, before once more looking back at the bag still trying to wrap his head logically as to how she even gotten in such a small confine space. After several moments Albert gave up of the fruitless searching to the hyper pink pony’s trick and sat back down watching as Pinkie continue to bouncing on the tip of her hooves. She seemed to be rambling on about something, though as of what he had no clue but she did seem really excited about it as she waved about her front hooves making silly sound effects. She then gave a small gasp as if she had forgotten something before she stuck her head back into his bag, as if to find something. Albert wanted to stop her but at this point he was more curious as to what she was doing, maybe even figure out her little secret. He was soon answered with Pinkie holding a small plate with a piece of cake setting neatly on top. Now he was really confused; just seconds ago he had searched in that bag and had not seen any sign of any food in there! She placed the plate on his lap and sat back across from him again with those big innocence eyes of hers. Albert examined the piece of chocolate; carefully poking it with the small fork that he was given. He gave Pinkie a questionable look and it seemed that some of the others were now watching as well. Though their faces were bent more towards what his reaction will be rather then how their friend had just magically appeared over there. ‘Does she do this on a regular basis?’ If that was true then he didn’t know if he should be scared or be even more intrigued by what else this pink energy pony could do. Not one to disappoint, Albert slowly took a small bite.

“My…God” There were no real words that could describe just how heavenly this cake tasted. Sure he had a thing for chocolate before whenever he had a sweet tooth for it. But this…this was some of the most delicious cake he has EVER had in his entire life; not even swiss chocolate could come close to this! Hell not even his mom’s cooking can come close to this and she was a damn good cook! He could feel his taste buds just tingle wildly from the rich chocolaty goodness; it was just pure utter heaven. Even after taking several more bites, it was still just as good as the first; this was just amazing! Albert could only hum in pure delight as he gave a smile towards the little pink pony, which seemed to please her even more as she started to clap her hands…er, hooves in delight. He continued quietly munching on the delicious cake, listening as Pinkie continued to ramble on as before; flailing her front legs about in gestures. Albert couldn’t help but smile at the little pink pony, reaching over and scratched the top of Pinkie’s head. She didn’t seem bothered by the gesture; in fact she seemed to really enjoy it as she pressed against his hand in return. He understood that she was trying to cheer up his mood. He didn’t mind really, in fact he thought it was cute that she would go the trouble to that for him. Albert didn’t know why but there was something about this pink hyper pony that just made him want to smile. Maybe it was because how cheery and innocent this pony was acting. For now he’ll put the troubles to rest and enjoy what time he has here. One day he’ll find a way to return home but until then he might as well enjoy the ride.

play

My angel, my everything, my other self – Why this deep grief, where necessity speaks - can our love exist but by sacrifices, by not demanding everything? Can you change it, that you are not completely mine, that I am not completely yours? Oh Celestia, look upon beautiful nature and calm your mind about what must be love demands everything and completely with good reason that is how it is for me with you. While still in bed my thoughts turn towards you my Dearest Beloved, now and then happy, then sad again, waiting whether fate might answer me - I can only live either wholly with you or not at all. Yes I have resolved to stray about in the distance, until I can fly into your arms, and send my soul embraced by you into the realm of the Spirits. O Celestia why do I have to separate from somepony whom I love so much, and yet my life is now is a miserable one. Why must I look upon another to hide myself from your ever loving gaze? My heart pains with much grief and sorrow that I must keep my heart hidden away from yours, until that I find the courage to show it. Your love makes me at once most happy and most unhappy at my age. I would now need some conformity, regularity of my life can this exist in our relationship? My angel, consider our lives that we can achieve our purpose of living so close together. Oh Celestia, so near! So far! If our hearts were always this close together, I would have no such thoughts. I weep when I think that you may not return my love for you in kind. However that does not dampen my love for you even of the slightest – For I love you even more than all the gems and rubies in this world. For you are my treasure my love. Oh there are moments when I feel that language and the words on this paper is nothing to the way I feel for you my beloved angel. For I love you - today - yesterday –forever - What yearning with tears for you - you – you’re my life – my everything – so please continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of this soul. The rest is up to the heavens, what must be for us and what is in store for us I can only pray that you will look upon me with such love as well.

Forever thine

Forever mine

Forever… “Spike! Spike I’m home!”

Spike fell out of his bed with a great thud, nearly spilling the bottle of ink onto the piece of paper that he had been writing on. He had spent nearly all morning working on a letter to give to his beloved angel. Unlike the feelings that he had for Rarity the feeling he had for HER, burned like that of a thousand white suns. At first he ignored these feelings, believing it was nothing more than just a bond of friendship he felt to HER. Over time however these feelings have only have only grown stronger to the point where that it was all he could think about was her. Even in his dreams she plagued him; it was madding! Oh how he wished he could go and just proclaim his feelings to her and to just scream it to the very world. After quickly making sure no mess was made from his sudden fall, Spike stuffed the letter back underneath his bed and started to make his way downstairs to meet Twilight.

“Hey Twilight er, how was your trip to Canterlot?” the tiny dragon greeted as he came down the steps. Putting away the duster; acting as though he had just finished cleaning upstairs.

“It was nice and I can see you’ve been keeping the place so well cleaned while I was away.” She beamed at her assistant. “Anyway listen Spike, there is somepon….one I want to introduce you to. His new here in Ponyville and his….well different.”

This really got the little dragon’s attention. “What do you mean by different; different like Zecora or a griffin?”

“Well not exactly, maybe its best you see for yourself. Girls could you being him in please?” Twilight called back towards the doorway. Fluttershy and Pinkie came in moments later, followed by a being that Spike had never seen before. “Whoa…” He stared up curiously at the new creature that had stepped into the room. This creature was huge; he barely stood just a knee height of this thing as it looked down at him. Albert didn’t really know what to make of the bipedal lizard. He, at least Albert thought it was a he, based on the voice the tiny lizard spoke. It had green spikes cresting on his head and ran down his back, ending on a swaying purple tail that had a spade-like tip. To Albert it looked almost like a miniature Braney or Spyro without wings.

“Coooooool” Spike said, looking up in awe. “Hiya Albert I’m Spike, Ponyville’s local dragon and Twilight’s number one assistant.” Spike said proudly, reaching out his claw to shake to shake his hand. Albert knelt down and shook Spike’s claw in return. “I’ve never heard of a human before; what are they?” Spike asked.

“Spike he can’t really understand you.” Twilight said, pulling out books from the shelves for Albert to read and study.

“Huh, but why not?”

“That’s because he doesn’t speak the same speech as us, but we’re going to be helping him on that.” She explained laying out several stacks books in alphabetical order. “Now then Albert…” Which he looked over towards her; this was good, his beginning to get use to them saying his name now. She pulled out the first book off the stacks “We’re going to be starting you with something easy.”

Albert looked at the floating book with a mix look of confusion and interest. He still couldn’t get over the fact of the possibility of magic, even with Princess Celestia explained it to him it was still pretty hard to see things like this. To Albert, magic was nothing but smoke and mirrors and cheap party tricks his uncle did. ‘Though I seen never could figure out how he did that orange tree trick.’ He thought to himself before taking the purple aura book and opened it up.
“Now then, let’s start with something simple.” Twilight used her magic to bring over a large chalkboard and started writing something down. “This here is an A and when you…Albert?” She looked to see that he wasn’t paying attention but to rather the book she had given him.

To Albert the book looked like that of a children’s book, each page was an illustration of a letter and a picture beside it what they were; twenty-four letters in all. Already the gears in his head were working; perhaps there was a similarity in both of their languages after all. He pulled out his journal and started to write down everything he could.
Twilight watched Albert with interest as he pulled out that small book of his again and started to write something down. After several moments of writing Albert stopped and handed over the journal towards her; she guessed he wanted her to read it. Twilight grabbed the book and look to see what he had written down. Inside she could see he had copied down the letterings down, and underneath them were some strange markings she had not seen before; maybe this was his language. But it was at the bottom of the page was what took Twilight’s attention. Underneath there was a set of Equestrian letters being carefully written out, but she knew what it said.

[b‘Twilight’ ]

This was amazing! Even though some of the lettering was poorly written he had manage to spell out her name to the T! Which meant they now have some sort of way to commutation with one another; it looked like she’s going have to stock up on more paper and ink for the next couple of weeks. But even still this was good news! Perhaps this wasn’t going to be as difficult as she thought. Maybe Albert could later on show her some of his language as well; oh this is so exciting!

“Oh this is so exciting.” Albert muttered sarcastically as he stood beside Twilight and her friends as Mayor Mare was addressing the townsponies of Ponyville. He was told (or written in this case) that they needed to see the Mayor. She had set up a town’s meeting and that they were going to use that opportunity to clear things up with the townsfolk over yesterday’s events and to make him feel a bit more welcomed in Ponyville. Even though Twilight reassured him that things were going to be alright, Albert still felt very uncomfortable just standing there on this stage like he was in some kind of freak show, with all those ponies eyeing at him and whispering to one another. ‘God I really need a smoke after this.’

“My dear citizens of Ponyville! We are gathered here today to put all fear and rumors that had been going around in Ponyville. First, there is the matter of the strange monkey like creature that was running through our streets yesterday afternoon.” There was a collective hushed whisper could be heard within the crowds, many still remembered of the Everfree beast that was terrorizing them yesterday. “Now I’ve been assured from the elements of harmony themselves that this creature, though strange in appearance, is not here to cause harm to any us and that in fact what had happen yesterday was nothing more than just a misunderstanding.” The newsponies that were among the crowd was scribbling down their note pads as the Mayor continued on with her speech. “It has also come to my attention that this being will also be living here among us for a time. Twilight Sparkle, prodigy student of our beloved Princess Celestia will be explaining to you about our newest member to our community. She will take any questions about our guest.”

“Thank you Mayor Mare. Fillies and gentlecolts, the creature you all have seen his name is Albert; a human that has come from a far and distance land and he doesn’t mean you any harm. As Mayor Mare explained before he may seem strange to us, but he mustn’t be judge by his appearance. All we ask is that each and every one of you will give him a fair chance and treat him the same as any other pony here. Now sadly where he is from his language is much different than that of ours. But we have recently found a way around this for the time being. It would seem that our written languages are somewhat similar that he is able to translate it easier than that of speaking it. So until he is able to speak in our Equestrian language, Albert here will only be to communicate through in writing.

A random pony within the crowd raised their hoof “Yes?” Twilight pointed towards the young colt.

“Uh yes, we were wondering; what sort of food those he eat?”

“Well his that of an omnivore.” This of course got a lot of blank stares from the crowd.

Twilight gave tiresome sigh “He eats both plants and meat.” She explained, though this got a lot of mix reactions from the masses.

“M-Meat!”

“H-He won’t try to eat....”

“Anypony please settle down!” Twilight quickly spoke up; the last thing they need was a stampede on their hooves. “Now it may be true that he does eat meat, but he is like that of any other creature that does as well, such like bears, hawks, and griffins. They need to eat meat from time to time because they that certain protein to help their bodies. Fluttershy is known to take care of certain animals that needed that kind of food in their diet and has offered to get him fish every few days of the week. But let me assure you from that even the Princess herself, that Albert will not eat any ponies. As a matter of fact where he is from ponies are seen as dear companions, and that humans has had a long bonding friendship with them throughout their history.”

There was a collective sigh of relief all around from the crowd. It wasn’t long before a grey colored pegasus raised her hoof this time.

Yes Derpy?”

“Does he like muffins?” this cause Twilight to face-hoof himself this time. She should have seen this one coming.

“Yes Derpy, he likes muffins now is there any…… sigh, yes Derpy?” seeing the wall-eyed mail-mare still had her hoof up.
“Does he like blueberry or banana-nut?”

“I think both. Now then, are there any other ques…..Yes Derpy! Yes I think he might like to try some of your home-made muffins on a later time.”

“Yayz!” cheered the grey mail-mare in delight.

“I think that’s enough questions for today. I’m sure many of you have things to do. So with that I shall bring this town’s meeting to a close. Thank you all for coming and have a wonderful day.” The Mayor announced letting the crowd to disperse, some of them grumbled as they too had still wanted to ask more about the human.

After the town’s meeting Twilight and her friends gave Albert a tour of the town. Although there were some ponies that were still giving him strange looks, there were some that smiled and waved at him as though he been there for years. They eventually led Albert to Sweet Apple Acres and to say he was pretty surprised at what he saw. Apples, apples as far as the eye could see and with no end in sight; he had never seen so much fruit in all his life. Twilight wasn’t kidding when she told him that her friend owned a large apple orchard, but he didn’t know it was going to be THIS big! Not too far off he could even see a large house and red barn. It kind of reminded him of back home. When he was younger he would go to his great-grandfather’s ranch during the summer and work as an extra hand. To Albert, those were the best days of his childhood as his grandfather would tell him stories of the old days.

“Cutie Mark Daybreakers Attack!”

‘What the…GAH!’ Albert was brought out of his thoughts as he soon found himself being tackled onto the ground by four oddly dressed little ponies wielding pillows. Applejack and Twilight turn to notice their newest friend being attacked by three familiar faces.

It was a strange sight indeed. Each of the CMC was wearing long black cloaks with little red clouds over it, with collars going up nearly to their chins. Their fourth companion had their face covered with that of a swirl-pattern orange mask. The only noticeable thing Applejack could see was the short spiky brown mane on the foal’s head. “Apple Bloom what in blue blazes are ya doing!” The elder sister went and pried the little fillies off of Albert.

“But sis, that’s the Everfree creature, we thought it was going to attack you”

“Now hold ya horses ya lot; he ain’t gonna hurt no pony. As a matter of fact his quite nice and his going to be….Ah’m sorry sugar cube but who are ya?” Applejack looked towards the masked child, nearly forgetting the little foal was there.
The tiny pony removed the orange mask revealing to be a young foal with a pinto colored coat. Applejack remembered seeing him once before. He was dressed up as a pirate during last year’s Nightmare Night. “My name is Pipsqueak at your service ma’am.” He saluted towards the older Apple sister.

“Pip’s our newest member to the cutie mark crusaders.” Scootaloo chimed in.

“Yes and I must say,” The little foal added in excitement “Tis the best fun I’ve had playing ninja ever!”

Twilight helped Albert back onto his feet, which he gave a nod of thanks in return before turning his attention back towards Applejack, who was lecturing the four strange wearing kids. Were they siblings or perhaps they were Applejack’s kids he didn’t know. The four foals soon approached him with their heads heading low.

“We’re so sorry; we didn’t mean to cause ya any trouble mister.”

“We’re sorry that we attack you.”

“It wasn’t nice of us.”

“Please don’t be angry at us sir, we did not know.”

Even though Albert did not understand a single word they said, he knew what they were implying. He couldn’t really blame them, their children after all, and just the way they were looking at him just made his heart melt. They flinch at first when he reached out his hand towards them, say for the small pinto colored foal. In fact the foal didn’t seem frighten at all towards him when Albert reached over and gently petted Pip on the head. Seeing that this human wasn’t going to harm them, the rest of the CMC quickly forgotten their fears and gathered around this giant in both awe and wonder.

*Everfree forest*

Curse that two legged monkey, curse it a thousand fold. The manticore bent down and smelt the ground for a moment. The battered looking manticore let out a small growl in anger; its only good eye peering into the darkness of the forest. Good it was on the right track. Soon, very soon that damnable monkey will pay for what it had done with its blood. It will make that monkey watch as it will feast on its innards alive.

Author notes: Finally after over a month of writing and brainstorming it’s finally here! Sorry if anything looks rush, I do plan to go back and re-edit anything that needs to later. But I hope many of you enjoy and like before please review and comment about the story thus far and how to help improve myself. Also I’m looking for a future beta-reader that could help me in later chapters. Doing everything by myself is getting more difficult, so if anyone likes to help and lend a hoof I’ll be more then graceful, just please leave a message and we can talk.
And now……the outtakes!!

Outtakes

Chapter 1: I use to be…

Albert glanced about; in certain parts of the room there were large golden Pegasus, large mirrors set neatly on their backs. Albert pulled out his revolver and aimed it towards a bent mirror that some light was shining off of it.
“Whoa wait just a minute!” Someone grabbed his hand before he could take the shot. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know you could hurt someone or damage those artifacts?”

“Who the hell are you?” Albert questioned the man; he had not seen this old man before. The man looked old; maybe around his 80s or more; his clothes also look worn and torn from age, the most noticeable was the brown fedora covered in years of dust and cobwebs. Albert guessed the man had a limp, judging from the way the old man was putting most of his weight on one leg.

“My name is not important but I use to be an adventurer just like you. I use to go off searching for ancient artifacts. Fighting Nazis and bandits, and even getting the girl at the end. But that was all until of course I took a bullet in the……”

*BANG*

Albert put his gun back into its holster as he looked towards his professor, who was giving him a very disappointed look. “What? That joke has been so over used.” Albert shrugged before the two of them continued venturing into the chamber, leaving the old man on the stone floor to whimper in pain of his other knee.

Chapter 4: Madness of a Savage

“Wait….wait.” Albert raised his hand up in a stopping gesture. “Give me….just one second.” He said, trying to get air back in his lungs. The large pony seemed to understand his gesture and stood there for a moment as Albert painfully struggled back onto his feet, leaning heavily against a chair for support. He took a moment to catch his breath before gripping the chair he was supported on tightly “Ok buddy…. allons-y!” He said and swung the chair as hard as he could across the grey pony’s head, breaking the chair from the force; knocking the large pony cold.

Albert turned slowly to the rest of them behind him; he was nearly out of breath. “Well? Any more of you want to try to take me on!” he shouted, waiting to see if anymore dared try to attack him next.

“You don’t know where the Macho Stallion is coming from!”

He could have sworn he had just heard something but it sounded really faint. No matter; he needed to get out of here before even more ponies decide to….

“Macho Madness, sky’s the limit!”

“The hell?” Albert knew he heard something this time and was looking about to see where the voice was coming from.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAH!” Though it didn’t take long however as something very large tackled into him; crashing him into more tables. Albert groaned painfully as he turn rolled over to see who or what had just hit him. It was a Pegasus stallion, a large one in fact with its wings flared out. Its coat was butterscotch yellow, its mane was long and pink colored. Its face was a large pink beard and on its flank was that of a cup of coffe. But unlike all those another armored ponies it wore no armor at all but rather a pair of comprising sunglasses, along with a large cowboy hat.

“Oh Yeah! Macho Stallion Wild Savage, THE CAPATIN OF THE ‘CELESTIA’S ELITIES’! Happen so fast you can’t even talk about it…put you in a state of shock let me tell ya. I’m gonna give ya a beating of your life. But I’m not just going to beat’cha in front of these ponies like a monkey’s uncle, AND I’M NOT GONNA JUST GIVE YOU THE ONE TWO THREE KNOCKOUT! But I’m going to put you out the fight for good, oh yeah. I AM THE LORD AND MASTER OF THE SKIES and you’re gonna find that, ONE WARRIOR TO ANOTHER, RIGHT NOW! You can’t compete with me, no. Because you’re nothing more but a grain of sand in the desert and IMMMMMM THE ENTIRE DESERT OH YEAH!! HISTORY BECKONS THE MACHO STALLION YEAH!

“Oh you got to be fuc…”

“SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!” Cried the butterscotch colored pegasus as it came driving down towards him at high speed, followed by a very girly scream.

Chapter 6: Of Ponies and Man

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Chapter 7: Yackity Smackity

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Chapter 8: Starlight Waltz

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Chapter 9: Glass Half Full

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Chapter 5: Road Goes Ever On

AN: Alive and Re-editing

Greetings fellow readers; Stormfox here back, and alive. Alot of things been happening in RL that I was forced away from this story. I posted a blog to give better details but know i'm back and the first thing that will be on my list is re-edit and fix things in my chapters. chapter 1 is already done and waiting for it to be looked over by someone I know. chapter 3 and 4 will be worked on this week and chap 2 will have a major redone. There are also future stories coming as well and hope you all will enjoy them like this one.