The Exiled Godby King_KratosChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 5 (The Forest)Chapter 6- ExileChapter 4 (The School)Chapter 1The Castle of Friendship, 10:00 PM Princess Twilight Sparkle peered into a large telescope while writing something into a thick, weathered book. She had been sitting there for at least an hour, cataloging the latest batch of meteors falling from the sky. To her left, her trusty assistant Spike was taking a nap in his basket which he had dragged out to the balcony. Twilight hummed a little tune, alternating between her book and her telescope. She yawned, taking a small sip from a nearby teacup. Suddenly, she choked, spraying tea over her equipment. “Ooh! Spike! Wake up! You have to see this!” She said, shaking him furiously. He jerked, clearly disturbed by her sudden movement, and comically fell to the floor on his face. Groaning, he worked his way up towards his feet. “What is it, Twilight? I was sleeping!" He whined. "Spiiike! Look!" She pointed at the sky, where a fireball was hurtling towards the ground. Their eyes widened as it came even closer and passed over Ponyville, heading towards the Everfree forest. "Wow! Quick, Spike! We need to go check it out, come on!" She rushed into the castle, gathering various pieces of equipment and stuffing it into a saddlebag. Going back out to the balcony, she found spike back in his basket, snoring. She sighed, lifting him up with her magic and placing him onto her back. Careful not to wake him, she made her way towards the castle gates and set out towards the Everfree. The Everfree Forest In a deep furrow made by the supposed Meteor lay a tall, immensely muscular man. His skin was bleached to the point that it appeared as if he had spread chalk over it, and covering most of his body were red tatooes stretching across his body. On his back, a pair of identical blades attached to chains were tied around his arms, and an ax with a cold, icy sheen and runes etched into the handle was embedded in the ground to his left. For some reason, he had survived the deadly fall and was clearly still breathing, as was evident from the slow rise of his barrel-like chest and the slight movement on his beard. It wouldn't be long until he woke up from his temporary slumber. The Edge of the Everfree Twilight trotted at a brisk pace towards the ancient woods. Spike was now wide awake, bouncing on her back while snacking on a couple gems Twilight had packed for him. The Meteor had made it pretty obvious where it had landed, as it had left behind a trail of destroyed trees and disturbed wildlife. Ponyville didn't seem to be doing too well either, as Twilight had seen many distraught ponies on her way to the forest. As a princess, her duty was to tend to her subjects, but that could wait for the moment. This was an opportunity too good to pass up. Never before had she ever seen a meteor of this size, and she was shaking from excitement. She began picking up the pace and entered the woods. She wanted this to be quick, in and out. No horsing around. At this time of the night, it was even darker than it was during the day (if that was even possible), and she had to pay attention to make sure no creatures attacked her and Spike. This forest was...different from the rest of Equestria. For the first time, the ponies were unable to bend it to their will, like they had done everything else natural in their world. Everfree. Ugh, even the name sounds weird. Twilight thought, weaving in between the overgrown vines and roots. She had tripped several times now, and they were getting close to the crash site. Spike was now hovering beside her, his tiny wings flapping to maintain his weight. "Hey, Twilight? Are you sure about this? I really think we should head back." Spike said nervously. "Oh, come on. We've come this far. It's just a little further." "That meteor isn't gonna disappear, you know? We can always come back at a later time. Please?" There were only a couple more trees between Twilight and the meteor. She could make out the shape of a strange object in the crater, something with a rather pale color. Maybe it's just a massive chunk of moonstone. That could explain it. She used her magic to remove the remaining plantlife from her path and stepped forward into the clearing. She gasped. There, instead of a piece of rock, was a man. She had seen some of his kind before, in her adventures in the mirror dimension. However, they were smaller, more colorful, and they didn't have this much...muscle. Twilight slowly approached the hulking biped and studied him more closely. "I-it's a human, Spike." She said, dumbfounded by her discovery. "Spike?" The drake was nowhere to be found. "Not again. Spike! Come back!" After a quick search, she found him cowering behind a tree. "It's only a human, Spike. Nothing to be afraid of." She comforted him, giving him a small hug. He nodded, rubbing his eyes a bit."Come on, we need to figure out a way to pick this guy up." They headed back towards the opening in the forest canopy. "A human? I thought they were only in the mirror dimension." Spike said. "Yeah, but this one is different. I think he might actually be a different species entirely." "Really?" "Well, he certainly doesn't look like any human I've ever seen." She pointed at the human, who was just barely visible from his cozy position in his crater. "Come on, help me pick up his stuff." She tried to levitate his body but was confused when she couldn't lift him. "That's weird. My magic doesn't seem to work on him." She tried again, this time with more effort, but received the same result. "Wait, I have an idea." She charged a spell with her horn, and with a crack, teleported away. A couple of minutes passed, with Spike becoming more and more anxious by the second. He clearly was not comfortable being in the presence of the intimidating figure. Suddenly, Twilight returned, this time with an oversized wheelbarrow. "A wheelbarrow? Is that really the best thing you could come up with?" Spike asked. "It gets the job done, Spike. Now come on, help me pick him up. You take his legs." Twilight moved to the man's head and placed her hooves underneath his neck. Spike did the same, placing his claws around his muscled legs. "One three. One. Two. Three!" Both of them strained under the weight of the colossal biped, and they were barely able to lift him. It was only because of Twilight's Alicorn strength that they were able to carry the man into the wheelbarrow. Once they were done, Twilight let out a sigh in relief, running a hoof over her forehead to wipe off the drops of sweat that had accumulated. Now that their unexpected guest had been taken care of, Twilight turned to pick up his discarded items, namely the massive ax embedded in the ground. After a quick check, it also proved to be immune to her magic, and she had to resort to the same measures to store it in the wheelbarrow. Once they had collected everything, they started to make their way back towards Ponyville. After rushing to make their way out of the Everfree, Twilight could finally slow down her pace. Her brain was currently in shambles. There were simply so many questions that filled her mind. Who was he? Why was he here? Why wasn't be able to be affected by their magic? Twilight sighed. She would have to wait until he woke up, and until she had sent a letter to Princess Celestia for those to be answered. Tomorrow, there would be a very important meeting, and she would finally get her answers. However, there was an underlying problem through all of this. Twilight couldn't help but feel extremely intimidated by the human's presence, as not only was he gigantic compared to her, he had also arrived with weapons, along with some questionable items. At first, Twilight was confused as to what they were, but after some clarification from Spike, she found that there was a real dragon tooth attached to his belt. Judging that because it was the size of her entire foreleg, it must have come from an absolutely titanic dragon, even bigger than Princess Ember's father. She shuddered at the thought. If he was so strong that he could take down a dragon of that size...However, all she could do now was wait. It was an understatement to say that she was excited to greet their newcomer and introduce him to her friends. Pinkie could even through a welcome party for him! Setting down the wheelbarrow, they were now back at the castle. Carrying the man as quietly as they possibly could, as not to wake Starlight, they arrived at an empty guest bedroom. As they placed the human on the bed, however, it let out a loud squeak, but thankfully, no Starlight. Charging up her horn, Twilight cast a spell to make the bed just a bit longer for their guest, and put back the wheelbarrow in the shed where it belonged. She yawned. Even though she needed the sleep, and tomorrow was a full day of classes at the school of friendship, she was most intrigued by the human's gear. On closer inspection, he actually had two more blades, but she couldn't unbind them from his arms. Well, the ax would just have to make due. As she entered her bedroom, she found that Spike had already gotten back in his basket and gone to sleep. Twilight placed the weapon on her desk and went to work, studying its features. It was most certainly going to be a long night... Author's Note God of War 4 came out last year, and I decided this would be a good idea. If you're reading this, you might be wondering where BOI is. Well, the truth is that he's not in this story. It's just going to be 100% of manly Kratos all the way through. Chapter 2As the light came in through the Castle of Friendship's crystal windows, Kratos awoke. His eyes fluttered for a bit, before succumbing back to the pull of sleep, turning sideways and pulling the covers over his body. His bed felt so soft and warm this morning. It reminded him of the woolen bed of his childhood, but more comfortable. Like silk. Silk... Kratos's eyes snapped open. Something was definitely not right here. Sitting up, he found that he was not in the rundown cabin him and his son shared, but rather in an enclosed room, appearing to be made of some sort of dark-blue crystal. A large bed took up most of the space, and to his right, there was a window with red curtains drawn closed most of the way. He quickly stood up, looking around for his weapons, and, more importantly, his son. His twin blades of chaos were already attached to his forearms, but his ax was missing. No worries. He would recall it soon enough. "Boi. Boi! Where are you?" He whispered, careful not to wake anyone nearby. He looked around the room for his son, but there were no signs of him. Giving up the search for now, he made his way towards the door, remarking that it was far smaller than it should have been to accommodate a man, even one of his size. Perhaps I am in the company of dwarves, or similar imp-like creatures. He thought, opening the door just a crack and peering into the hallway beyond. Realizing that there was no one there, he kneeled, stepping into it and closing the door behind him. Slowly, he made his trek through the building, passing many doors similar to the one he had just exited while not making a sound. As he approached the end of the hallway, he pushed his ear against the door, trying to identify any sounds. He could hear voices, three to be exact. He could tell that two were female, one distinctly so. The other was deeper by quite a bit and had a scratchy sort of quality to it. The last voice was definitely that of a youngling, no older than 13, probably. However, it was not Atreus. That he could be sure of. His son did not sound like a whiny little bitch. Loosening one of the chains on his arm, he held one of his blades in his hands, in case of an armed confrontation. With his other hand, he opened the door a few centimeters to allow him to peek in. What he saw surprised him immensely. Instead of humans or dwarves, he was met with two small horned equines, and an even smaller, scaled lizard. What surprised him even more, was that they were the source of the voices he heard earlier. Kratos had to admit, among the many strange things he had seen in his life, never had he seen talking horses. For several minutes he simply crouched, watching the creatures with great interest. They appeared to be in the middle of their morning meal, composing mostly of fruit, vegetables, and, strangely, some kind of fried hay and gems. Why they would waste precious jewels for the consumption of the lizard puzzled Kratos. That said lizard started clearing the dishes from the table and began to wash them in a nearby contraption which pumped water onto the cutlery. If these creatures are able to afford to live in a place such as this, they must be of some sort of noble origin, perhaps royalty. Kratos thought. Admittedly, he knew none who could afford luxuries as such, even the Grecian kings he had come acquainted with during his time as a General in the Greek army lacked such wealth. Lost in thought, Kratos failed to notice that the lizard was done washing the dishes, and was now walking straight towards him. Before he could react, it had already opened the door, exposing him. The lizard let out a girly screech and stumbled backward. "Aaaah! Twilight, help!" It screamed. Only one of the equines seemed to respond to the lizard's distress, lighting up its horn with an azure glow. "Put the sword down!" It shouted, an intense look covering its face. The other simply grinned and stepped closer. "Calm down, Starlight! Well, looks like our guest is finally awake! Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle, that's Starlight Glimmer, and this is Spike. Um, could you put that weapon down?" She said, motioning to each creature respectively. Kratos dropped his blade, wrapping it back around his forearm with a deep frown upon his face. There was no threat here. At least, not to him. "I have ever heard of any of you, nor of your kind." He said, entering the room and rising to his full height, the mongrel lizard scurrying away to hide behind the legs of the lavender equine, known as Twilight. "Explain. Now. How did I come to be in this place?" His serious and dark tone seemed to evoke an aura of authority and intimidation among the ponies, especially the one with purple fur. She held out her hoof, offering him a place at her table. "Here, we've just finished breakfast, but I'm sure that Spike can make something for you. Is there anything that you want?" She asked, sitting down with Starlight on the opposite side of the table as Kratos, who crouched instead of sitting. The table was too low for him. He picked up an apple that was in a fruit bowl in the middle of the table, and bit into it, creating a loud crunch as he munched on it, juice dripping over his beard. "No. I am content with this fruit, for now. Do you have meat?" The ponies flinched at that, clearly not accustomed to the consumption of flesh. "Uh, no. We don't. Anyway, last night I was watching a meteor shower, and one of them got really close to Ponyville, which is the town that we're in-" Kratos interrupted her, taking another bite, this time eliciting an even louder crunch, a drop of apple juice dripping from his beard and landing on the table. "And it flew towards the Everfree forest. When Spike and I went to check it out, we found you in the crater left by the meteor. We assume that you fell from the sky." Kratos had now finished his apple, core and all, and reached for another one. "Continue." He bit into his second apple, undeterred by Twilight's explanation. "Then we picked you up and brought you here. "That was really late last night, and you were unconscious, so we're not expecting you to remember anything." Twilight waited for several seconds as the awkward silence grew, the only sounds being Kratos' hungry munches. She looked towards Starlight, who motioned for her to come closer. "Why didn't you wake me up and tell me?" She whispered, clearly distressed due to her current situation. "He was asleep, and I didn't want there to be a conflict. My magic doesn't work on him, plus he's also really strong, and has several weapons with him." Twilight took a glance back toward their guest, who had finished his second apple and was now busy fiddling with a pack attached to his belt. "But you could have at least woke me up after you brought him in! I'm your student, for Celestia's sake!" "I forgot! I was up all night studying his ax!" Starlight was now seriously sweating while breathing heavily. "You stole from a creature that is resistant to our magic? What made you think that was a good thing?" She asked, with a concerned tone. "I don't know! I thought that it was a good idea at the time, and it was late, okay?" Both turned back towards the hulking man, who had pulled several strips of what looked like dried meat from his satchel, before tearing off a strip with his teeth. "Uhh...Where did you get that meat?" Twilight asked, after getting a good look at Kratos' canines. "This is Elk meat. I hunted down the animal myself." "Okaaay. Anyway, so where do you come from?" Twilight tried to break the ice between them, hoping that she could maybe be friends with this mysterious biped. Kratos swallowed. "I come from a land called Midgard." "Well, I've never heard of "Midgard" before in my entire life, but you're in Equestria now. Specifically, the Castle of Friendship." Kratos narrowed his eyes, processing the knowledge he had just received. "Very well. Do you know how to get me back there?" Kratos asked. This revelation was...disturbing to him. He needed to get back to Midgard, back to his son. Though Kratos knew that Atreus would be more than capable of fending for himself. He could hunt, and if he needed anything, he could ask Freya for help. The goddess would still be angry due to the death of her son, Baldur, but she had a soft spot for children, Atreus in particular. "I'm sorry, but no, we don't know how to get you back there. We don't even know where that is, and if we did, we wouldn't know how to get you there." Starlight said, a look of pity on her face. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Sure, she had just met him, and he ate meat, but he probably had family and friends in Midgard...wherever that was. Kratos seemed to look even more serious than he normally did, a hand reaching up towards his beard to stroke it. "Actually, maybe there is a way to get you home," Twilight added, sensing his distress. Kratos looked up hopefully. "But It'll take some time. If you want, you can stay here as long as you like. I can introduce you to my friends, and the princesses! Pinkie Pie can even throw you a party!" "Judging by that this is a completely different realm than Midgard, I will need a place to stay. Do you have a place in which I can use to wash myself?" Kratos got back up onto his feet, brushing off the remaining pieces of apple adorning his beard. "Oh, Yeah, we do. The bathroom's right through the door behind you, 5th door to the left. Oh, and once you're done, do you want to come with us to our Friendship school? I'm sure that the students would love to meet an alien. Maybe you can give them a lecture about your world? Um, we've never seen a human before, at least not one like you." Twilight said, awaiting Kratos' response. He stopped in his tracks. "You have seen some of my kind before?" He asked. "Well, yes. They're just a lot smaller, and they're lots of different colors, just like us." Twilight responded. "Then they are not my kind. We only come in a very limited range of colors." "Okay then. Um, see you later!" The man opened the kitchen door and was about to make his way out, but was stopped. "Wait just a minute! What's your name?" The pink-colored mare asked him, with an inquisitive look on her face. The man sighed. "It's Kratos." And he went to take a sh*t. Chapter 3Kratos stepped through the door behind him and closed it, crouching to avoid the low frame. What he had just learned from his discussion with the ponies had left a great emotional toll on him, even if he didn't show it. As he walked towards the location of the washroom, he went over what had happened in the past day. It had been...normal, he woke up in his Elk-skin bed, prepared some meat for his son, went hunting, and trained the boi in the use of weapons and hand to hand combat. He had never expected this to happen. However, before he could approach his destination, the tiny lizard he had encountered from earlier stepped into his path, seemingly out of nowhere. Because of the height difference, Kratos had to look down onto it, the thoughtful look gone from his face was replaced with a deep frown. The lizard raised its fists in what looked like a fighting stance, which Kratos had to admit looked adorable. "Listen, I don't know what you think you're doing, but whatever it is, it needs to stop, okay?!" The lizard said, determinedly. "First, you spy on us eating breakfast like some sort of creep, and then you start eating meat in front of us? Are you crazy?" Kratos' frown deepened, even more, displeased by the reptile's hostile attitude. The lizard puffed out his chest, trying to look tough. It most certainly wasn't. Spike was smaller than any dragon Kratos had ever seen since even the baby ones were up to ten times his size. Plus, his wings were...small. Far too small to support his body, which led Kratos to think that the lizard had some kind of deformity, or was crippled. "Mind. Your. Tone, lizard. When I arrived, I took heed to be cautious, lest there be any danger." Kratos said. Pausing for a moment, he thought of a good response to shut Spike up for a moment. "Is this how you treat guests in your home? It appears that I must speak to Miss Twilight over your foul behavior." "It's Princess Twilight, not miss. Jeez." Spike's courageous posture slumped quite a bit since he wasn't too keen on having to clean the throne room for the second time that week, and he sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry. Just...Don't tell Twilight, okay?" Kratos grunted, acknowledging the small lizard's apology. Atreus would never have yielded so easily. No, he would never have been foolish enough to put into this situation. The man sighed. This boi had much to learn, perhaps too much. From what he could tell, living in immense wealth had made these beings weak. They didn't have to hunt for food. They didn't have to chop wood for a fire or find building materials for a self-built cabin. And, most importantly, they didn't have to fight. From what he could tell, the two unicorns could use some form of rudimentary magic, but it was nothing to be concerned about. "If you learn to address others properly, I may allow this to pass." The man said. "Really? Thanks! Listen, if there's anything you need help with, just ask me, okay? I... kind of know my way around here." Kratos grunted once more, then entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He examined the mechanism on the handle, and, figuring it out rather quickly, rotated it to lock the door. As he turned around, he was met with a quite exquisite display. Just like the rest of the castle, the bathroom was composed of the same dark blue crystal. To his left were two strange contraptions, with indented basins and appendages hanging over them, both made of white crystal, which contrasted to the dark colors surrounding them nicely. To his right was a reflective white bowl with an equally reflective cover leaned behind it, which contained a small amount of water near the bottom. Straight ahead, there was a large, walk-in tub that he assumed to be for washing one's entire body. Without wanting to waste any more time than he had to, Kratos got to work inspecting the contraptions. Twilight's Personal Quarters "Just. What. Were. You. Thinking?" Starlight asked, breathing heavily. She took another glance at the massive ax, which was easily twice the length of a pony, and just as wide. "If you spent all night studying this ax, you would have noticed the runes covering it." "Of course I noticed them, Starlight-" "Then you would have sensed that it literally emanates power. Runes like this don't exist in our world, Twilight. Definitely not like these, and most definitely not as strong." Starlight ran a hoof across the metal's surface, the engravings glowing bright blue. Quickly, a layer of frost covered it and her hoof, and she pulled the appendage back before it could do any more damage. "You see? By the looks of it, this ax is immensely old, and don't even get me started on that edge. Listen, if an incredibly dangerous weapon like this is used well, which Kratos obviously can, we're gonna have a problem on our hands if it comes to a fight. We should lock this up somewhere where he can't find it, and it should stay there for as long as possible." "Oh come on, Starlight. I thought I taught you not to turn to the worst possible scenario. He's not an issue. You saw how Kratos acted at breakfast. He's totally fine!" "To you, maybe. But there's just something about him that's...off. Did you see the way he looked at us? He wasn't fazed by us one bit. It's almost like he's seen our kind before, even though he said he had never been to Equestria! Not to mention that he also eats meat! How do we know that it was Elk and not pony?" Twilight paused for a moment. As much as she wanted to believe that Kratos was completely safe, she had to admit that there was something suspicious about him. Generally, his whole being radiated authority, strength, and respect, and she didn't quite know what to think of that. Those two chain blades didn't help either. In fact, they were positively terrifying, and she most definitely did not want to know what purpose they were made for. As for the possibility of him eating ponies, from what she knew about humans was that eating her kind was a societal taboo. She hoped that it was the same where Kratos came from. "I agree, Starlight. It's just that we-" "I" "I've already stolen the ax, and keeping his property away from him any longer is just...wrong. You have to see it from his viewpoint. First, he's just living his life normally, and then Boom! Suddenly he's in a foreign world, with foreign beings. He must be so confused right now, I can't even imagine!" The Bathroom "Ugh! Cursed mechanism! Why won't you work!" Kratos had been examining the faucet for over 10 minutes now, and it was really getting on his nerves. Renewing his efforts, he tried another approach, grabbing the smaller handle located on it and turning. To his surprise, the sink was now filling with crystal clear water. Sighing, he removed his robes and sat down onto the toilet, which was far too small for him, but not before bumping his head for the fifth time against the ceiling. For how extravagant the castle was, it really wasn't very spacious. Twilight's Personal Quarters "And about him being an omnivore, I don't think that he'll eat us. In the mirror dimension, the humans used ponies as companions, and I'm pretty sure it's the same in Midgard." Twilight said. "And I guess that for now, the ax will stay here with us if you think that it'll make us safer." "Okay. Wait-were you serious when you said that we could send Kratos back?" Starlight asked. As far as she knew, and from what Twilight and Sunset had told her, was that they couldn't send someone to a different realm without knowing exactly where it was. That was if it was a planet and not a different dimension. That was something else entirely, since the mirror in the Crystal Empire was only a two-way gateway to one specific alternate dimension. Twilight motioned for Starlight to come closer and took a quick peek around their vicinity to make sure no one could hear them. Kratos had done it before unnoticed, so there was no reason he couldn't do it again. "Starlight, you have to promise me that no matter what happens, you can't tell Kratos this, okay?" Twilight said. The pink mare's breath hitched. It was just as she expected. If he found out, well...it looked like keeping the ax hidden was a good idea. Starlight nodded, acknowledging her mentor's request. "Good. As you were probably wondering, there isn't a way to get him back. Since our magic can't affect him, we can't teleport him, and any portals can make would just collapse with his physical contact, at least that's what I'm theorizing." An awkward silence fell over the two mares. "You really didn't think this out, did you?" Starlight asked. "Uhh...Not really?" Her student sighed. "Well, at least we have a new roommate! So that's good!" "Yeah..." To be honest, Starlight was...less than thrilled. Her life was already weird, not to mention her position as counselor at the Friendship School. The Friendship school...Oh, shit! They were going to be late! "TWILIGHT! THE SCHOOL!" She shouted. Her mentor jerked from the sudden sound, before galloping off to gather her things. Starlight did the same, heading towards her chambers to grab a scarf. Twilight cursed under her breath. She shouldn't have gotten so hung up on the ax. Sure, it was important, but she had classes that she needed to teach. After filling a small saddlebag with some essentials, she slung it over her purple, slightly pudgy flanks, and set out to find Kratos and Spike. The Bathroom Kratos stepped out of the bathtub, running a towel across his body. Once he was dry, he picked up his garments and got dressed. However, before he could put on his chest-strap that usually held his ax, a small object fell out. A feather. One from a great eagle, to be exact. Kratos picked it up, cradling it in his hands, its softness tickling him a bit. It was one of the tail feathers of an old kill, Atreus' first. He could remember the look of pure joy on his son's face, and the warm, comforting smile from his recently deceased wife, Faye, as she praised him. The boi walked up to him, tearing out the bird's feathers, and gave him the longest, most colorful one of the bunch. Although it was a small gesture, Kratos accepted the gift, and couldn't help but feel somewhat proud. He had smiled that day. A real, genuine, smile. Kratos finished his venture into the past and tucked the feather in between his chest and the strap covering it. He would have to get back, somehow. Even if it meant crossing through as many realms as he had to. He wrapped his blades around his wrists, and made his way towards the door, refreshed from his bath. However, before he entered the hallway, he pressed his ear against the door, just to be safe. He was met with a voice calling his name, which he identified as the purple pony, Twilight Sparkle. Not wanting to keep her waiting, he unlocked the door and went out to meet her. "Oh! There you are, Kratos! I was looking for you. We're just about to head off towards the Friendship school, and you said you'd come with us." "Lead the way," Kratos said. They began walking (or trotting) towards the exit of the castle. They passed many hallways filled with even more signs of wealth, Twilight pointing out several to the man, who grunted and nodded in response. He never was a talker, even less so in the presence of strangers, but Twilight wanted to eventually find something they could have a sophisticated conversation about. After all, becoming friends with humans was awesome, but becoming friends with a chalk-white warrior human with red tattoos and scars covering his body was even more awesome, and she definitely looked forward to it. "Hey, Kratos?" She asked. "Yes, girl?" "Do you mind if we walk a bit faster? We didn't expect to have any guests, and we're sorta late to class." She gave a nervous chuckle and an awkward look towards the man. He gave a short nod in approval. They began to pick up the pace, encountering Spike on their way towards the exit. The small lizard gave Kratos a pleading look when in the presence of his alicorn sister, and received a stern look in return. He climbed onto Twilight's back, and soon they were off again. Surprisingly, Starlight was nowhere to be seen, Twilight assumed that she had already left and was making her way towards the school. Finally, they came across the castle entrance, which, Kratos had to admit, was rather puny for a castle fit for royalty. After all, it was barely as big as him! The large handles glowed purple for a second, and the doors opened up. For the first time since his arrival, Kratos could smell the fresh air and feel the wind on his skin. However, something was...strange. He took a glance at the sky, and there were no clouds in sight, not even miles away, despite the fact that a thick, white fog covered the ground. The only visible place he could see them was over a thick, overgrown forest to the east that he could only assume was the Everfree. The sun shone brightly, beating down its soft, pillowy rays, but on closer inspection, he found that it was far higher than it should have been at this time of day. He pushed it to the back of his mind. He would have to return to that later on, once he had visited their school. Author's Note Damn thing took me a while. I'll try to have the next chapter out in a couple days. Chapter 5 (The Forest)The Everfree Forest A small deer and its family grazed in a clearing in the forest canopy, unaware of the danger they were in. For a hunter was stalking them, and he was close. Despite his size, he made no sounds and had been watching his prey for quite some time. Kratos scoffed under his breath. Easy prey, indeed. If these ponies did not hunt for their food, it was no wonder that their animals would be weak, just like them. It was now the time to strike. The deer had their backs to him, so he left his hiding place and came up behind them. The animals turned around, confused, but they were doomed. He picked up the heads of two of them in his hands and bashed them together, crushing their skulls. The third did not even have the sense to run and was taken down with a strong punch, its neck, and windpipe broken. Although quite smaller than what he was used to, they looked plump, a product of plentiful and rich foods in the area. Kratos immediately took to skinning the animals, retrieving a small knife from one of his packs, and after a couple minutes, had three smooth pelts, some brittle bones, as well as quite a bit of meat. This would sustain him for the next couple of days if he could find a drying rack or some salt to preserve it. Kratos placed the meat into one of his bags, tied the bones together, and folded up the skins. It would be good to head back now. In this world, there was no fun in hunting. The prey was too easy. The man placed his goods onto his shoulder and followed the trail back to Ponyville. It was then that he heard growling, like a bear or some other wild animal. Kratos turned around, facing his foe. At first sight, it appeared to be a lion, but with a set of strange horns and wings, as well as a scorpion's tail. Kratos had heard of this creature before. A manticore, he recalled. He had fought one of them before, but, just like everything else in this world, it was very small and barely reached up to his chest. He heard more growls, and more manticores closed in around him. Kratos cracked his knuckles. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have even more meat. Friendship School "Twilight, we've checked the entire school! Kratos isn't anywhere!" Starlight said. The school's staff had spent at least half an hour looking for their guest, and Twilight was busy having a mental breakdown in the corner. "Did you check outside?" She replied, sweat pouring down her face. "Uhh...No." "Then what are you waiting for?!" Starlight galloped away, looking for the other members of their friend group. Just what had Twilight gotten herself into? What would Princess Celestia think if she lost her guest the day after his arrival? A few minutes later, Twilight entered into the school's grounds, searching frantically. But there was nothing. As she gave up, she began trotting back towards the castle, only to trip into a large furrow in the ground, the dirt and filth smearing into her purple coat. Twilight whined and began wiping out the mud from her face. She was encountered with an identical indentation right next to her, as well as several more leading in the direction of...The Everfree Forest. Twilight cursed under her breath, sitting up. There was only one creature that could have left such markings, but she never expected him to be this strong. With little time to waste, so she cast a quick cleaning spell on herself and set off to find her friends. Her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her chest as she ran, teleporting every chance she got. Kratos was in great danger, and she needed to save him! Everfree Forest Kratos was having a splendid time. Another manticore pounced at him, only to be punched aside, its neck broken. It lay on the ground, hissing, before Kratos crushed its skull, putting it out if its misery. The chunks of brain and bone covering his boot did not disturb him in the slightest, he would wash them once he got back to the castle. More manticores approached him and were cut down just like their brethren. Kratos noted that these manticores were, well...weak. Eventually, the animals stopped their assault and retreated into the forest to lick their wounds. It had taken less than a minute for them to lose over a dozen of their pack. Kratos picked up the food he had dropped during his fight and slung it over his back once again. As he walked, he observed a small trail of dust was kicked up on the road several hundred feet away. As it came closer, it turned out to be Twilight and her friends, terribly out of breath. "W-Where were you?" Twilight asked, in between breaths. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" Kratos raised an eyebrow, motioning to the blood stains visible in his pack, and the folded deer skins he was carrying. Fluttershy gasped and started breaking into tears, muttering something about the poor animals. The rest of the ponies (Except for Twilight) showed similar signs of shock. "He's gonna eat us!" Pinkie half screamed, half shouted. In the next few seconds, complete chaos overtook the scene. Applejack readied her lasso, Rarity powered up her horn, Rainbow made a couple kicks in the air, and Pinkie had already fled. Fluttershy was too busy crying to do anything. "Girls! Wait!" Twilight said, but it was already too late. With a shout, Rainbow flew full speed at Kratos, trying to kick him in the face. To her surprise, she found that her leg had been caught in Kratos' iron grip, and he flung her back at the ground. Rarity's spell was simply absorbed into the man's body and did minimal damage. Instead of wrapping around him and pulling him to the ground, Kratos wouldn't budge an inch and snapped the rope with ease. Unwilling to give up just yet, the three ponies renewed their efforts, much to Twilight's distress, who was more concerned for her friends' health than Kratos'. Judging by the scars on his body, this fight was nothing but child's play to him. Several minutes of failed attacks passed, and Fluttershy had finally picked herself up from the ground. Her mane was disheveled, and an unusually angry expression was present on her face. She flew up to Kratos' level and unleashed the stare. "YOU LISTEN HERE, MISTER! YOU'VE HURT POOR, INNOCENT ANIMALS, AND NOW MY FRIENDS! YOU SHOULD BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOURSELF!" She shouted. Unfortunately, it didn't affect Kratos one bit, as was shown by his ever-present frown. With an unbelievably fast motion that made even Rainbow jealous, he grabbed her by the neck and forced her to look him in the eyes. Fluttershy let out a little squak as she was lifted with great ease. "Mind. Your. Tone with me, Girl." That's all it took to make Fluttershy break into tears once more, and Kratos allowed her to flop onto the ground. The other ponies crowded around their friend, trying to comfort her. Kratos turned his head towards Twilight. "You." The Alicorn snapped out of her daze. "Fix this, and explain." She nodded, following Kratos' orders with great caution. What she had just witnesses scared her immensely. Kratos was able to withstand Fluttershy's voice and had just defeated half of the elements of harmony with close to no effort. As she began to explain the details of Kratos' dietary needs to Fluttershy, several thoughts ran through her head. The first, most important one was that she didn't want to get on Kratos' bad side. An obvious decision. The second was more simple. Fluttershy took care of animals that ate meat. Why was she so disturbed? It might have been the skins. Twilight thought. Several more minutes passed, and the butter yellow pegasus had calmed down. Just as they were about to apologize to Kratos, a loud thumping could be heard, like footsteps. A gigantic shadow covered the group, and a bit of drool landed on Kratos' shoulder. Twilight's jaw hit the floor. Behind the man was an Ursa Major. Never had they been seen during the day, so something was definitely wrong. Kratos turned around, facing the beast. It snarled at him, spraying him with mucus and saliva, before raising a gigantic paw to swipe the man out of its way. To the ponies' surprise, Kratos caught it and used the Ursa's arm to fling it into the forest. Unsurprisingly, It threw off the impact rather easily and got back onto its feet. Kratos turned around. "Go. Now." Although Twilight wanted to stay and fight, she simply nodded and fled, along with her friends. As they ran, she could hear the sounds of two powerful opponents shaking the earth. From that far away, it was impossible to tell which one was winning, but she certainly hoped it was Kratos. Several minutes later, she burst into the Friendship Castle and got busy writing a letter to Princess Celestia. She had hoped to send one to her mentor later that day, but at that moment it was a situation of emergency. Usually, she would have Spike send the letter with his fire, but however, he was nowhere to be found. With a quick teleportation spell, Twilight transported the piece of paper to Canterlot. Hopefully, Princess Celestia would arrive soon. Back at the edge of the Everfree The Ursa Major roared, charging towards Kratos. His frown deepened as he braced for impact. From what he could tell, he could deal with the creature rather easily, but it was good to be cautious. If anything went wrong, he could always call for his ax, or use his blades (a last-resort measure). The animal appeared to be large, slow and not very agile, all things in his favor. As it charged towards him, he sidestepped it and punched it in its stomach, sending it flying once again into the thick, lush forest, while knocking over dozens of trees and creating a wide furrow in the dirt. The creature had sustained heavy damage from its impacts with the ground and boasted plenty of scratches, bruises, and a particularly nasty stab-wound from a tree branch that was embedded in its side. Hopefully, that would be enough to deter it from attacking further. However, the animal persisted still and stood unsteadily on its feet. It growled once more, preparing to maul Kratos. The man grunted in displeasure. What a waste of time. It was time to end the fight, it was becoming boring. He held out his hand to the sky, calling his ax to him to finally kill that annoyingly stubborn animal. A couple miles away, Twilight paced in her chambers, a look of concern present on her face. Suddenly, the runes covering the ax lying on her desk began to glow a bright blue, and the entire weapon moved, crashing through the crystal walls of the castle and out into fresh air where it would reunite with its master, all the while creating a loud wooshing sound as it tore through whatever lay in its way. As the creature charged towards Kratos for the third time, the man could see his ax approaching at an insane speed. Realizing that he wouldn't have enough time to catch it before the starry bear mauled him, he pulled his knife from his belt and started to charge at the animal, much to its confusion. Just before they made contact, Kratos dropped down onto his back, sliding underneath his opponent and slicing the knife through its gut, creating a long gash from chest to the pelvis that spilled out a plentiful amount of thick, steamy blood and organs. The Ursa roared in pain and confusion as it effectively killed itself, gutted by its own momentum. As Kratos slid out from underneath the animal, his ax reached his hand, and he flung it towards the direction of the dying Ursa, to end its suffering. And that it did. Much to the man's surprise, it somehow sliced the bear completely in half and made its way back towards him in an oval trajectory, staining the ground with copious amounts of blood and cleaning off its surface in the wind. Kratos caught the ax in his left hand and surveyed the scene of his destruction. His enemy certainly wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, that was for sure. What had once been a symbol of danger and power, something that struck fear into the hearts of all ponies, was now nothing but a steaming, mutilated corpse. Checking over his ax once more, Kratos was about to leave, before he heard a loud gasp. Behind him, on a nearby hill stood a rather tall pony, as well as what looked like a couple dozen of...guards? Their armor was terrible, that was certain. Those same guardsponies were now emptying the contents of their stomach on the ground, and their leader was doing no different. It certainly wouldn't be pleasant when they recovered. Author's Note Sorry for the wait. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon, and if anyone wants to be my editor, that would be great. Have an ax. Chapter 6- ExileSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 4 (The School)The Friendship School Ocellus exited her room, humming a little tune to herself. She yawned, rubbing her eyes with a cyan hoof. She had stayed up way too late last night studying for today's tests, which she was now regretting. Walking by a series of doors, she discovered that her friends had already gotten up for breakfast. She made her way down the stairs, and towards the dining room, finding her friends crowded around one of the many tables. "Hey, guys." She said, still shaking off the haze of her tiredness. "Hi." Their responses were a variation of such, voices monotone and without much emotion. Ocellus sat down next to them, grabbing a banana from a fruit bowl in the middle of the table. "What's up?" She asked, taking a small bite. "School was supposed to start 10 minutes ago, but head mare Twilight hasn't even gotten to school yet! If she wants us to take this stupid test, then she should be here!" Gallus said, letting his frustration known. "Maybe it has something to do with that weird meteor last night. Yona remembers it making really loud noises, and the ground was rumbly too." Yona added. "Eh, I don't think so. It's just a little meteor. Dragons are used to that kind of stuff all the time." Smolder crossed her arms and held her snout a bit higher, trying to act tough. Ocellus had finished her banana, using her magic to toss it into a nearby trash can. "Gallus, I don't think you should be blaming head mare Twilight for this. Everycreature can be late sometimes, even her." The rest of the students nodded in agreement with Ocellus. The rest of their breakfast went rather smoothly, the small group having some fun with a couple of Silverstream's jokes and Ocellus' imitations. Sandbar even busted out a joint and filled the dining hall with weed smoke (Ok, not really). It had now been twenty minutes since school had started, and at this point, the students had almost forgotten about their class. Suddenly, they stopped talking. Silverstream included, which was quite a surprise. "Guys? Hello? What's going on?" Ocellus asked. Her friends were facing the window, and seemed to be entranced with something outside. The small changeling turned her head towards the same direction, and then she saw it. At first, it appeared to be completely normal. Head mare Twilight was just trotting towards the school. But her gaze shifted to the right, and a massive creature came into her view, which was easily keeping up with the princess' pace, due to its long legs. "What do you think it is?" Gallus whispered. "I don't know. He looks kind of funny. He even painted his face!" Silverstream replied, giggling. "Yona thinks the weird creature looks tough. Weird creature looks strong, like Yak!" Yona said pridefully, and with a bit of caution. If this creature was really as tough as it looked, she would have a worthy contender for hoof wrestling matches, and the young yak was fairly content on keeping her spot as champion. But Holy Hay, those biceps were thick. "Yeah. Tough..." Smolder chewed her lip, licking it while running her eyes over the exposed abdomen of the creature. Ocellus herself had to admit that the creature looked strong. Its chalk-white skin and red tattoos really did a number on her, and it looked suspiciously like one of those "humans" Twilight had told her about in one of her adventures. She cleared her throat with a little cough. "Um, guys, now that Head mare Twilight is here, I think that we should really get to class. If she finds out that we're not there, we're gonna get into a lot of trouble." She said. The rest of the students (minus smolder) nodded in agreement, getting up to head to their first class. "Smolder!" "Oh, yeah. Gimme a minute." "Come on!" "Ugh, fine." Friendship School, Entrance Twilight burst through the door, slightly out of breath. Kratos stepped in behind her and closed it with a loud slam. He wasn't out of breath at all. Spike quickly got off Twilight's back, said something about janitorial duties, and hurried off. The purple alicorn ran a hoof through her mane, smoothing out any stray hairs, before making her way towards her first-period class. "I guess that you can sit in and watch the class. Maybe you can teach us a couple of things about Midgard." She said. At this point, there would not have been much else for Kratos to do, besides taking a tour across the school, but since they were late, that would have to be postponed for the moment. "It appears that your schools are different than what I am used to. Are all your schools like this?" The man asked. "No, this is a specialty school. Normally foals go through several years of cutie mark education, where they learn their special talents. Universities are only for very specific talents, and they're really rare, like the Wonderbolts academy or Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns, which is where I went." Interesting. From what he heard, Kratos could assume that these "Cutie Marks" were directly related to a pony's special talent and that their society had an...unreliable workforce, considering that every pony's special talent was different. "What are these cutie marks?" He asked. "What do you mean? I thought those red tattoos were your cutie mark." The man simply shook his head. "My kind don't have these "Cutie Marks"."The look on Twilight's face displaced her shock. Although the humans in the mirror dimension didn't have cutie marks, their pony counterparts' talents did carry over into their world. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to live without having your special talent given to you. Having to choose your own destiny? Preposterous! "How does that work?" She asked. "My kind have to go through a rigorous amount of education in several different subjects. We are given a choice for several different kinds of professions, and we are required to choose one. Not one is allowed to leech off society." Kratos replied. They now entered a hallway containing a number of different classrooms. At the end, the man could see a quick flash of cyan, before a door slammed closed. "Ah, those are probably my students. They're probably worried. It's not common for me to be late, you see." Kratos nodded in acknowledgment. Twilight approached the same door that the blue thing had fled into and opened it. The sounds of a thriving class quickly faded as the Head mare entered the room, Kratos following behind her. "Good Morning, Mrs. Twilight!" The students said, in monotone levels. Their eyes quickly widened as they saw the other figure enter the classroom. "Hi, Class! Today is gonna be a bit different because we have a special visitor! Every creature say hello to Kratos!" An awkward silence came across the class, with shy greetings spread across from the students. "Kratos is an alien from a place called Midgard, and he's going to be sitting in through class today. Feel free to ask him any questions you might have!" Kratos walked past the rows of inquisitive students and towards the back of the room, where he pulled over two spare desks and sat on both of them. He nodded, motioning for Twilight to continue. "Because our unexpected delay-" Kratos raised his eyebrows. "There won't be a test today. Feel free to work on any homework from your other classes!" The students cheered, Gallus looking especially happy. He moved his desk to face those of his friends, who did the same. Leaning his head forward, he whispered: "So, who wants to talk to the guy first? I vote Ocellus." The rest of the group giggled, casting glances over at the hulking biped, who was rubbing his weathered, callous hands, and didn't seem to be paying too much attention to the class. "Yeah, Ocellus. You should go." "Yona thinks Ocellus should!" "Go talk to him! Pleeeeease?" "What!? But...Why me?" "You're smart and into aliens! You'll get along just fine!" Ocellus sighed. "Ugh...Fine." The small cyan changeling got up from her chair and made her way towards the back of the classroom where Kratos currently resided. As she walked, she received several strange looks from her peers while her friends watched on, whispering to themselves. She hung her head lower, trying to make herself smaller while being undoubtedly self-conscious of herself. Approaching the man, she lifted her head back up and straightened out her posture a bit, before clearing her throat with a cough. "Um, hi?" She said. From this close up, she could see Kratos in complete detail, and was, just like several others, very intimidated by him. He turned his head slowly towards her, a neutral expression donning his face, which was a nice change from his chronic frown. "Yes, child?" He said. Ocellus breathed in sharply, but not loud enough for the man to notice. Kratos' voice was even deeper than she had expected and added even more to her nervousness. The shy changeling had never been very good in social situations, and it was quite a bit out of her comfort zone to greet a newcomer, much less an alien from another world. "C-can I ask you a question?" Ocellus wore a hopeful expression, and Kratos nodded curtly in response. He stood up from one of the desks that he sat on and moved it towards her. "Sit down." The changeling clambered onto the desk, taking her place next to the man, and proceeded with her original intention. "Areyouahuman?What'syourplanetlike?WhatdoyouthinkaboutEquestria?Howlongareyougoingtobehere?" She rambled out. Kratos sighed. It looked like this class was not going to be as mellow as he had expected. 15 Minutes later The remaining members of the group of friends watched as Ocellus conversed with Kratos. The blue Griffin seemed to be right. They did get along well. Too well, to be exact. Currently, the changeling seemed to be entranced by one of the man's stories. A captivating one, judging by the wide-eyed expression on her face. "I'm gonna go over there," Smolder said, getting up from her chair and repeating what Ocellus had done just minutes before. The rest of the students simply shrugged, watching as the small dragon introduced herself. "Hi. My name's Smolder. I'm a dragon, by the way." Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it appeared that his mouth curled upwards a tiny bit. Not a smile, and nowhere close to it, but he was getting there. "You are quite...small, for a dragon." He replied. Smolder crossed her arms, a small frown covering her face. "Hey! I'm still growing! Besides, how big are dragons in your world anyway?" She huffed, slightly offended. Perhaps this new visitor was not that great after all. "The last dragon I have seen was one-hundred times my size, and half as high. Here is one of its teeth that I retrieved from its corpse." He said, pulling out the dragon tooth and passing it to Smolder. Her eyes widened as she held it in her claws, lightly cradling it. It was nearly twice the size of her arm, and was deadly sharp at the tip. "You...killed the dragon?" She asked, still in a state of shock from the utter size of the dragon this tooth came from. "Yes. It gave me no choice, and attacked unprovoked." Smolder nodded, handing back the tooth to Kratos, who tucked it into his belt. If he was able to kill a dragon of such gargantuan proportions, he had earned her respect. Pulling over another desk, she sat next to her changeling friend. "Can you, um, continue with the story please?" Kratos nodded. "After the war, Odysseus set sail from Troy upon twelve ships. Several days passed until they sighted land. Odysseus' second in command, Eurylochus, urged him to come ashore..." Soon, the two students were enraptured by his story, looking up at him with attentive expressions on their faces, occasionally expressing their thoughts about his tale. On the other side of the room, Twilight watched closely. It was a good decision to bring Kratos to class. She was slightly bothered that he opened up more to two children that he had just met than with her, but she would get to know him better. It was only his first day here, after all. Soon, the bell rang and the students ran off towards their next class. The two girls said their temporary goodbyes, Smolder bumping Kratos' fist and Ocellus wrapping her front hooves around one of his legs in a hug, before heading off to join her friends. He was very surprised but didn't mind the contact. Perhaps his kind didn't show affection through touch. Once all the students left the classroom, and the second-period students started pouring in, she walked over to Kratos. "So, what do you think?" She asked. "Your class is...unique. Is there a dining room in the area?" "Oh, yeah. The break room is just a couple turns to the left. You'll know it when you see it." Kratos nodded and left the classroom, the students making a wide cordon around him. Once he arrived, he entered the room, finding a table in the middle of the room, a long couch pressed to the left wall and a counter with a fridge and a coffee machine to his right. He walked over to one of the windows adorning the walls and covered them with curtains, then approached the couch and, laying out a blanket out to cover it, laid down on it, his feet legs hanging over the edge. It looked like conversing with the children had taken far more out of him than he had expected. Due to his many years of seclusion, he wasn't used to engaging in meaningful conversations, and besides, he had stayed up fairly late last night repairing the cabin from his fight with Baldur. From what he could tell, the pony students were definitely not as friendly as Ocellus and Smolder, judging by the way they avoided him, and he doubted that the upcoming classes would be as entertaining as the one he had just been to. Sighing, Kratos rolled onto his side and allowed his tiredness to lull him to sleep. For a while, he dozed in and out of consciousness, getting up several times to drink some water from the nearby faucet. His slumber didn't last long, however, since the sound of a door opening, followed by a blood-curdling scream, startled him. Cursing whoever it was that woke him up, he stood up, peered out the window to tell the time, and found that the sun was still in the same position it had been in hours before. That would take a while getting used to. Walking towards the door, he paused for a moment, hearing voices. "Rarity, it's okay. That was only Kratos." The man could tell that this was Twilight, due to its slightly scratchy consistency. "What do you mean, that was only Kratos! Have you seen it!" Kratos scoffed. This one was clearly the one who disrupted his slumber. A softer, more calm voice followed up. "Um, Rarity. I think you should be more nice with our guest. Twilight said that he's totally safe, so there's nothing to be worried about. I'm sure that he'll be really nice when you meet him." "And if not, we'll beat him up!" "Rainbow!" "I can't wait to throw him a party!" Kratos scoffed, raising his eyebrows. He had had far more than enough parties in his youth, those that involved wine and women in particular, and he had no intentions of revisiting such an ancient pastime. The door opened, and Kratos turned to face them. Just like Starlight and Twilight, the ponies in front of him were of many different colors, such as white, pink, light blue, butter yellow, and orange. He was met with a variety of reactions. The white one gasped and shielded her eyes, the pink one gave him a massive (and slightly disturbing) smile, the light blue one's eyes widened and her ears flopped to the sides of her head, and the yellow one let out a small "eep!" like sound and hid behind her mane. Surprisingly, the orange pony gave the least expressive reaction, and instead lifted her hat from her head and gave him a sharp nod, which Kratos returned. "Hi, Kratos. These are my friends..." She pointed towards the group of ponies that were now a plethora of awkwardness. "This is Rarity." She pointed towards the white one, who scoffed and scrunched her nose in disgust. "Your outfit, or whatever that thing is, is absolutely horrid! I can not, no. Will not have you walking around here in those rags!" Rarity said furiously. Kratos' frown dropped even lower from where it was. "These garments have served me well, for many years, and certainly far better than anything you could ever conjure." Rarity's jaw hit the floor. Never had she seen someone who had such little regard for fashion, or even basic decency! She spluttered, at a loss for words, before her eyes rolled into the back of their sockets and she passed out, flopping onto the ground. The room was silent for a moment until the light blue pony (which Kratos later learned was called Rainbow Dash) spoke up. "Daaaaang." Slowly, the rest of the group broke into laughter, which escalated into some rolling around on the ground and bawling their eyes out. "How did you do that!" Rainbow said, flying right up towards Kratos' face. "I've never seen anypony that she can't force to change their outfit!" "A life of not caring what one's thoughts are has taught me to be resilient." He said. The blue pegasus hopped onto his shoulder and shook his head in her hooves. "Teeeeeach Me!" She said, causing the other ponies to break into laughter once again. After their merry-making had died down, Twilight introduced the rest of her friends and picked up her unconscious friend from the ground, placing her onto the couch. The next several hours of the school day passed by relatively quickly, and Kratos found himself becoming quite bored, due to the lack of a boi by his side. By lunchtime, he had thoroughly explored the school and was now roaming the school grounds. Looking towards the Everfree forest, he wondered what would happen if he slipped out for a bit, went for a walk, maybe a short hunt. Due to one of the many schedules he had found adorning the walls in the school, he knew that it would still be a couple hours before the day ended, and he decided that it wouldn't hurt if he left. He would be back soon enough. Cracking his neck, he started jogging, before breaking into a full sprint. Due to his godly strength and speed, it took him very little time to get to the forest, which was miles away from the school. As he entered into the lush woods, he decreased his pace into a crawl, as not to disturb any possible prey in the area. This would be a fun hunt indeed. Friendship School, Staff Break Room "Uhh, Twilight?" "Yeah, Starlight?" "Where's Kratos?" The sound of choking on a sandwich was heard soon after.
Chapter 1The Castle of Friendship, 10:00 PM Princess Twilight Sparkle peered into a large telescope while writing something into a thick, weathered book. She had been sitting there for at least an hour, cataloging the latest batch of meteors falling from the sky. To her left, her trusty assistant Spike was taking a nap in his basket which he had dragged out to the balcony. Twilight hummed a little tune, alternating between her book and her telescope. She yawned, taking a small sip from a nearby teacup. Suddenly, she choked, spraying tea over her equipment. “Ooh! Spike! Wake up! You have to see this!” She said, shaking him furiously. He jerked, clearly disturbed by her sudden movement, and comically fell to the floor on his face. Groaning, he worked his way up towards his feet. “What is it, Twilight? I was sleeping!" He whined. "Spiiike! Look!" She pointed at the sky, where a fireball was hurtling towards the ground. Their eyes widened as it came even closer and passed over Ponyville, heading towards the Everfree forest. "Wow! Quick, Spike! We need to go check it out, come on!" She rushed into the castle, gathering various pieces of equipment and stuffing it into a saddlebag. Going back out to the balcony, she found spike back in his basket, snoring. She sighed, lifting him up with her magic and placing him onto her back. Careful not to wake him, she made her way towards the castle gates and set out towards the Everfree. The Everfree Forest In a deep furrow made by the supposed Meteor lay a tall, immensely muscular man. His skin was bleached to the point that it appeared as if he had spread chalk over it, and covering most of his body were red tatooes stretching across his body. On his back, a pair of identical blades attached to chains were tied around his arms, and an ax with a cold, icy sheen and runes etched into the handle was embedded in the ground to his left. For some reason, he had survived the deadly fall and was clearly still breathing, as was evident from the slow rise of his barrel-like chest and the slight movement on his beard. It wouldn't be long until he woke up from his temporary slumber. The Edge of the Everfree Twilight trotted at a brisk pace towards the ancient woods. Spike was now wide awake, bouncing on her back while snacking on a couple gems Twilight had packed for him. The Meteor had made it pretty obvious where it had landed, as it had left behind a trail of destroyed trees and disturbed wildlife. Ponyville didn't seem to be doing too well either, as Twilight had seen many distraught ponies on her way to the forest. As a princess, her duty was to tend to her subjects, but that could wait for the moment. This was an opportunity too good to pass up. Never before had she ever seen a meteor of this size, and she was shaking from excitement. She began picking up the pace and entered the woods. She wanted this to be quick, in and out. No horsing around. At this time of the night, it was even darker than it was during the day (if that was even possible), and she had to pay attention to make sure no creatures attacked her and Spike. This forest was...different from the rest of Equestria. For the first time, the ponies were unable to bend it to their will, like they had done everything else natural in their world. Everfree. Ugh, even the name sounds weird. Twilight thought, weaving in between the overgrown vines and roots. She had tripped several times now, and they were getting close to the crash site. Spike was now hovering beside her, his tiny wings flapping to maintain his weight. "Hey, Twilight? Are you sure about this? I really think we should head back." Spike said nervously. "Oh, come on. We've come this far. It's just a little further." "That meteor isn't gonna disappear, you know? We can always come back at a later time. Please?" There were only a couple more trees between Twilight and the meteor. She could make out the shape of a strange object in the crater, something with a rather pale color. Maybe it's just a massive chunk of moonstone. That could explain it. She used her magic to remove the remaining plantlife from her path and stepped forward into the clearing. She gasped. There, instead of a piece of rock, was a man. She had seen some of his kind before, in her adventures in the mirror dimension. However, they were smaller, more colorful, and they didn't have this much...muscle. Twilight slowly approached the hulking biped and studied him more closely. "I-it's a human, Spike." She said, dumbfounded by her discovery. "Spike?" The drake was nowhere to be found. "Not again. Spike! Come back!" After a quick search, she found him cowering behind a tree. "It's only a human, Spike. Nothing to be afraid of." She comforted him, giving him a small hug. He nodded, rubbing his eyes a bit."Come on, we need to figure out a way to pick this guy up." They headed back towards the opening in the forest canopy. "A human? I thought they were only in the mirror dimension." Spike said. "Yeah, but this one is different. I think he might actually be a different species entirely." "Really?" "Well, he certainly doesn't look like any human I've ever seen." She pointed at the human, who was just barely visible from his cozy position in his crater. "Come on, help me pick up his stuff." She tried to levitate his body but was confused when she couldn't lift him. "That's weird. My magic doesn't seem to work on him." She tried again, this time with more effort, but received the same result. "Wait, I have an idea." She charged a spell with her horn, and with a crack, teleported away. A couple of minutes passed, with Spike becoming more and more anxious by the second. He clearly was not comfortable being in the presence of the intimidating figure. Suddenly, Twilight returned, this time with an oversized wheelbarrow. "A wheelbarrow? Is that really the best thing you could come up with?" Spike asked. "It gets the job done, Spike. Now come on, help me pick him up. You take his legs." Twilight moved to the man's head and placed her hooves underneath his neck. Spike did the same, placing his claws around his muscled legs. "One three. One. Two. Three!" Both of them strained under the weight of the colossal biped, and they were barely able to lift him. It was only because of Twilight's Alicorn strength that they were able to carry the man into the wheelbarrow. Once they were done, Twilight let out a sigh in relief, running a hoof over her forehead to wipe off the drops of sweat that had accumulated. Now that their unexpected guest had been taken care of, Twilight turned to pick up his discarded items, namely the massive ax embedded in the ground. After a quick check, it also proved to be immune to her magic, and she had to resort to the same measures to store it in the wheelbarrow. Once they had collected everything, they started to make their way back towards Ponyville. After rushing to make their way out of the Everfree, Twilight could finally slow down her pace. Her brain was currently in shambles. There were simply so many questions that filled her mind. Who was he? Why was he here? Why wasn't be able to be affected by their magic? Twilight sighed. She would have to wait until he woke up, and until she had sent a letter to Princess Celestia for those to be answered. Tomorrow, there would be a very important meeting, and she would finally get her answers. However, there was an underlying problem through all of this. Twilight couldn't help but feel extremely intimidated by the human's presence, as not only was he gigantic compared to her, he had also arrived with weapons, along with some questionable items. At first, Twilight was confused as to what they were, but after some clarification from Spike, she found that there was a real dragon tooth attached to his belt. Judging that because it was the size of her entire foreleg, it must have come from an absolutely titanic dragon, even bigger than Princess Ember's father. She shuddered at the thought. If he was so strong that he could take down a dragon of that size...However, all she could do now was wait. It was an understatement to say that she was excited to greet their newcomer and introduce him to her friends. Pinkie could even through a welcome party for him! Setting down the wheelbarrow, they were now back at the castle. Carrying the man as quietly as they possibly could, as not to wake Starlight, they arrived at an empty guest bedroom. As they placed the human on the bed, however, it let out a loud squeak, but thankfully, no Starlight. Charging up her horn, Twilight cast a spell to make the bed just a bit longer for their guest, and put back the wheelbarrow in the shed where it belonged. She yawned. Even though she needed the sleep, and tomorrow was a full day of classes at the school of friendship, she was most intrigued by the human's gear. On closer inspection, he actually had two more blades, but she couldn't unbind them from his arms. Well, the ax would just have to make due. As she entered her bedroom, she found that Spike had already gotten back in his basket and gone to sleep. Twilight placed the weapon on her desk and went to work, studying its features. It was most certainly going to be a long night... Author's Note God of War 4 came out last year, and I decided this would be a good idea. If you're reading this, you might be wondering where BOI is. Well, the truth is that he's not in this story. It's just going to be 100% of manly Kratos all the way through.
Chapter 2As the light came in through the Castle of Friendship's crystal windows, Kratos awoke. His eyes fluttered for a bit, before succumbing back to the pull of sleep, turning sideways and pulling the covers over his body. His bed felt so soft and warm this morning. It reminded him of the woolen bed of his childhood, but more comfortable. Like silk. Silk... Kratos's eyes snapped open. Something was definitely not right here. Sitting up, he found that he was not in the rundown cabin him and his son shared, but rather in an enclosed room, appearing to be made of some sort of dark-blue crystal. A large bed took up most of the space, and to his right, there was a window with red curtains drawn closed most of the way. He quickly stood up, looking around for his weapons, and, more importantly, his son. His twin blades of chaos were already attached to his forearms, but his ax was missing. No worries. He would recall it soon enough. "Boi. Boi! Where are you?" He whispered, careful not to wake anyone nearby. He looked around the room for his son, but there were no signs of him. Giving up the search for now, he made his way towards the door, remarking that it was far smaller than it should have been to accommodate a man, even one of his size. Perhaps I am in the company of dwarves, or similar imp-like creatures. He thought, opening the door just a crack and peering into the hallway beyond. Realizing that there was no one there, he kneeled, stepping into it and closing the door behind him. Slowly, he made his trek through the building, passing many doors similar to the one he had just exited while not making a sound. As he approached the end of the hallway, he pushed his ear against the door, trying to identify any sounds. He could hear voices, three to be exact. He could tell that two were female, one distinctly so. The other was deeper by quite a bit and had a scratchy sort of quality to it. The last voice was definitely that of a youngling, no older than 13, probably. However, it was not Atreus. That he could be sure of. His son did not sound like a whiny little bitch. Loosening one of the chains on his arm, he held one of his blades in his hands, in case of an armed confrontation. With his other hand, he opened the door a few centimeters to allow him to peek in. What he saw surprised him immensely. Instead of humans or dwarves, he was met with two small horned equines, and an even smaller, scaled lizard. What surprised him even more, was that they were the source of the voices he heard earlier. Kratos had to admit, among the many strange things he had seen in his life, never had he seen talking horses. For several minutes he simply crouched, watching the creatures with great interest. They appeared to be in the middle of their morning meal, composing mostly of fruit, vegetables, and, strangely, some kind of fried hay and gems. Why they would waste precious jewels for the consumption of the lizard puzzled Kratos. That said lizard started clearing the dishes from the table and began to wash them in a nearby contraption which pumped water onto the cutlery. If these creatures are able to afford to live in a place such as this, they must be of some sort of noble origin, perhaps royalty. Kratos thought. Admittedly, he knew none who could afford luxuries as such, even the Grecian kings he had come acquainted with during his time as a General in the Greek army lacked such wealth. Lost in thought, Kratos failed to notice that the lizard was done washing the dishes, and was now walking straight towards him. Before he could react, it had already opened the door, exposing him. The lizard let out a girly screech and stumbled backward. "Aaaah! Twilight, help!" It screamed. Only one of the equines seemed to respond to the lizard's distress, lighting up its horn with an azure glow. "Put the sword down!" It shouted, an intense look covering its face. The other simply grinned and stepped closer. "Calm down, Starlight! Well, looks like our guest is finally awake! Hi! My name is Twilight Sparkle, that's Starlight Glimmer, and this is Spike. Um, could you put that weapon down?" She said, motioning to each creature respectively. Kratos dropped his blade, wrapping it back around his forearm with a deep frown upon his face. There was no threat here. At least, not to him. "I have ever heard of any of you, nor of your kind." He said, entering the room and rising to his full height, the mongrel lizard scurrying away to hide behind the legs of the lavender equine, known as Twilight. "Explain. Now. How did I come to be in this place?" His serious and dark tone seemed to evoke an aura of authority and intimidation among the ponies, especially the one with purple fur. She held out her hoof, offering him a place at her table. "Here, we've just finished breakfast, but I'm sure that Spike can make something for you. Is there anything that you want?" She asked, sitting down with Starlight on the opposite side of the table as Kratos, who crouched instead of sitting. The table was too low for him. He picked up an apple that was in a fruit bowl in the middle of the table, and bit into it, creating a loud crunch as he munched on it, juice dripping over his beard. "No. I am content with this fruit, for now. Do you have meat?" The ponies flinched at that, clearly not accustomed to the consumption of flesh. "Uh, no. We don't. Anyway, last night I was watching a meteor shower, and one of them got really close to Ponyville, which is the town that we're in-" Kratos interrupted her, taking another bite, this time eliciting an even louder crunch, a drop of apple juice dripping from his beard and landing on the table. "And it flew towards the Everfree forest. When Spike and I went to check it out, we found you in the crater left by the meteor. We assume that you fell from the sky." Kratos had now finished his apple, core and all, and reached for another one. "Continue." He bit into his second apple, undeterred by Twilight's explanation. "Then we picked you up and brought you here. "That was really late last night, and you were unconscious, so we're not expecting you to remember anything." Twilight waited for several seconds as the awkward silence grew, the only sounds being Kratos' hungry munches. She looked towards Starlight, who motioned for her to come closer. "Why didn't you wake me up and tell me?" She whispered, clearly distressed due to her current situation. "He was asleep, and I didn't want there to be a conflict. My magic doesn't work on him, plus he's also really strong, and has several weapons with him." Twilight took a glance back toward their guest, who had finished his second apple and was now busy fiddling with a pack attached to his belt. "But you could have at least woke me up after you brought him in! I'm your student, for Celestia's sake!" "I forgot! I was up all night studying his ax!" Starlight was now seriously sweating while breathing heavily. "You stole from a creature that is resistant to our magic? What made you think that was a good thing?" She asked, with a concerned tone. "I don't know! I thought that it was a good idea at the time, and it was late, okay?" Both turned back towards the hulking man, who had pulled several strips of what looked like dried meat from his satchel, before tearing off a strip with his teeth. "Uhh...Where did you get that meat?" Twilight asked, after getting a good look at Kratos' canines. "This is Elk meat. I hunted down the animal myself." "Okaaay. Anyway, so where do you come from?" Twilight tried to break the ice between them, hoping that she could maybe be friends with this mysterious biped. Kratos swallowed. "I come from a land called Midgard." "Well, I've never heard of "Midgard" before in my entire life, but you're in Equestria now. Specifically, the Castle of Friendship." Kratos narrowed his eyes, processing the knowledge he had just received. "Very well. Do you know how to get me back there?" Kratos asked. This revelation was...disturbing to him. He needed to get back to Midgard, back to his son. Though Kratos knew that Atreus would be more than capable of fending for himself. He could hunt, and if he needed anything, he could ask Freya for help. The goddess would still be angry due to the death of her son, Baldur, but she had a soft spot for children, Atreus in particular. "I'm sorry, but no, we don't know how to get you back there. We don't even know where that is, and if we did, we wouldn't know how to get you there." Starlight said, a look of pity on her face. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Sure, she had just met him, and he ate meat, but he probably had family and friends in Midgard...wherever that was. Kratos seemed to look even more serious than he normally did, a hand reaching up towards his beard to stroke it. "Actually, maybe there is a way to get you home," Twilight added, sensing his distress. Kratos looked up hopefully. "But It'll take some time. If you want, you can stay here as long as you like. I can introduce you to my friends, and the princesses! Pinkie Pie can even throw you a party!" "Judging by that this is a completely different realm than Midgard, I will need a place to stay. Do you have a place in which I can use to wash myself?" Kratos got back up onto his feet, brushing off the remaining pieces of apple adorning his beard. "Oh, Yeah, we do. The bathroom's right through the door behind you, 5th door to the left. Oh, and once you're done, do you want to come with us to our Friendship school? I'm sure that the students would love to meet an alien. Maybe you can give them a lecture about your world? Um, we've never seen a human before, at least not one like you." Twilight said, awaiting Kratos' response. He stopped in his tracks. "You have seen some of my kind before?" He asked. "Well, yes. They're just a lot smaller, and they're lots of different colors, just like us." Twilight responded. "Then they are not my kind. We only come in a very limited range of colors." "Okay then. Um, see you later!" The man opened the kitchen door and was about to make his way out, but was stopped. "Wait just a minute! What's your name?" The pink-colored mare asked him, with an inquisitive look on her face. The man sighed. "It's Kratos." And he went to take a sh*t.
Chapter 3Kratos stepped through the door behind him and closed it, crouching to avoid the low frame. What he had just learned from his discussion with the ponies had left a great emotional toll on him, even if he didn't show it. As he walked towards the location of the washroom, he went over what had happened in the past day. It had been...normal, he woke up in his Elk-skin bed, prepared some meat for his son, went hunting, and trained the boi in the use of weapons and hand to hand combat. He had never expected this to happen. However, before he could approach his destination, the tiny lizard he had encountered from earlier stepped into his path, seemingly out of nowhere. Because of the height difference, Kratos had to look down onto it, the thoughtful look gone from his face was replaced with a deep frown. The lizard raised its fists in what looked like a fighting stance, which Kratos had to admit looked adorable. "Listen, I don't know what you think you're doing, but whatever it is, it needs to stop, okay?!" The lizard said, determinedly. "First, you spy on us eating breakfast like some sort of creep, and then you start eating meat in front of us? Are you crazy?" Kratos' frown deepened, even more, displeased by the reptile's hostile attitude. The lizard puffed out his chest, trying to look tough. It most certainly wasn't. Spike was smaller than any dragon Kratos had ever seen since even the baby ones were up to ten times his size. Plus, his wings were...small. Far too small to support his body, which led Kratos to think that the lizard had some kind of deformity, or was crippled. "Mind. Your. Tone, lizard. When I arrived, I took heed to be cautious, lest there be any danger." Kratos said. Pausing for a moment, he thought of a good response to shut Spike up for a moment. "Is this how you treat guests in your home? It appears that I must speak to Miss Twilight over your foul behavior." "It's Princess Twilight, not miss. Jeez." Spike's courageous posture slumped quite a bit since he wasn't too keen on having to clean the throne room for the second time that week, and he sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry. Just...Don't tell Twilight, okay?" Kratos grunted, acknowledging the small lizard's apology. Atreus would never have yielded so easily. No, he would never have been foolish enough to put into this situation. The man sighed. This boi had much to learn, perhaps too much. From what he could tell, living in immense wealth had made these beings weak. They didn't have to hunt for food. They didn't have to chop wood for a fire or find building materials for a self-built cabin. And, most importantly, they didn't have to fight. From what he could tell, the two unicorns could use some form of rudimentary magic, but it was nothing to be concerned about. "If you learn to address others properly, I may allow this to pass." The man said. "Really? Thanks! Listen, if there's anything you need help with, just ask me, okay? I... kind of know my way around here." Kratos grunted once more, then entered the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He examined the mechanism on the handle, and, figuring it out rather quickly, rotated it to lock the door. As he turned around, he was met with a quite exquisite display. Just like the rest of the castle, the bathroom was composed of the same dark blue crystal. To his left were two strange contraptions, with indented basins and appendages hanging over them, both made of white crystal, which contrasted to the dark colors surrounding them nicely. To his right was a reflective white bowl with an equally reflective cover leaned behind it, which contained a small amount of water near the bottom. Straight ahead, there was a large, walk-in tub that he assumed to be for washing one's entire body. Without wanting to waste any more time than he had to, Kratos got to work inspecting the contraptions. Twilight's Personal Quarters "Just. What. Were. You. Thinking?" Starlight asked, breathing heavily. She took another glance at the massive ax, which was easily twice the length of a pony, and just as wide. "If you spent all night studying this ax, you would have noticed the runes covering it." "Of course I noticed them, Starlight-" "Then you would have sensed that it literally emanates power. Runes like this don't exist in our world, Twilight. Definitely not like these, and most definitely not as strong." Starlight ran a hoof across the metal's surface, the engravings glowing bright blue. Quickly, a layer of frost covered it and her hoof, and she pulled the appendage back before it could do any more damage. "You see? By the looks of it, this ax is immensely old, and don't even get me started on that edge. Listen, if an incredibly dangerous weapon like this is used well, which Kratos obviously can, we're gonna have a problem on our hands if it comes to a fight. We should lock this up somewhere where he can't find it, and it should stay there for as long as possible." "Oh come on, Starlight. I thought I taught you not to turn to the worst possible scenario. He's not an issue. You saw how Kratos acted at breakfast. He's totally fine!" "To you, maybe. But there's just something about him that's...off. Did you see the way he looked at us? He wasn't fazed by us one bit. It's almost like he's seen our kind before, even though he said he had never been to Equestria! Not to mention that he also eats meat! How do we know that it was Elk and not pony?" Twilight paused for a moment. As much as she wanted to believe that Kratos was completely safe, she had to admit that there was something suspicious about him. Generally, his whole being radiated authority, strength, and respect, and she didn't quite know what to think of that. Those two chain blades didn't help either. In fact, they were positively terrifying, and she most definitely did not want to know what purpose they were made for. As for the possibility of him eating ponies, from what she knew about humans was that eating her kind was a societal taboo. She hoped that it was the same where Kratos came from. "I agree, Starlight. It's just that we-" "I" "I've already stolen the ax, and keeping his property away from him any longer is just...wrong. You have to see it from his viewpoint. First, he's just living his life normally, and then Boom! Suddenly he's in a foreign world, with foreign beings. He must be so confused right now, I can't even imagine!" The Bathroom "Ugh! Cursed mechanism! Why won't you work!" Kratos had been examining the faucet for over 10 minutes now, and it was really getting on his nerves. Renewing his efforts, he tried another approach, grabbing the smaller handle located on it and turning. To his surprise, the sink was now filling with crystal clear water. Sighing, he removed his robes and sat down onto the toilet, which was far too small for him, but not before bumping his head for the fifth time against the ceiling. For how extravagant the castle was, it really wasn't very spacious. Twilight's Personal Quarters "And about him being an omnivore, I don't think that he'll eat us. In the mirror dimension, the humans used ponies as companions, and I'm pretty sure it's the same in Midgard." Twilight said. "And I guess that for now, the ax will stay here with us if you think that it'll make us safer." "Okay. Wait-were you serious when you said that we could send Kratos back?" Starlight asked. As far as she knew, and from what Twilight and Sunset had told her, was that they couldn't send someone to a different realm without knowing exactly where it was. That was if it was a planet and not a different dimension. That was something else entirely, since the mirror in the Crystal Empire was only a two-way gateway to one specific alternate dimension. Twilight motioned for Starlight to come closer and took a quick peek around their vicinity to make sure no one could hear them. Kratos had done it before unnoticed, so there was no reason he couldn't do it again. "Starlight, you have to promise me that no matter what happens, you can't tell Kratos this, okay?" Twilight said. The pink mare's breath hitched. It was just as she expected. If he found out, well...it looked like keeping the ax hidden was a good idea. Starlight nodded, acknowledging her mentor's request. "Good. As you were probably wondering, there isn't a way to get him back. Since our magic can't affect him, we can't teleport him, and any portals can make would just collapse with his physical contact, at least that's what I'm theorizing." An awkward silence fell over the two mares. "You really didn't think this out, did you?" Starlight asked. "Uhh...Not really?" Her student sighed. "Well, at least we have a new roommate! So that's good!" "Yeah..." To be honest, Starlight was...less than thrilled. Her life was already weird, not to mention her position as counselor at the Friendship School. The Friendship school...Oh, shit! They were going to be late! "TWILIGHT! THE SCHOOL!" She shouted. Her mentor jerked from the sudden sound, before galloping off to gather her things. Starlight did the same, heading towards her chambers to grab a scarf. Twilight cursed under her breath. She shouldn't have gotten so hung up on the ax. Sure, it was important, but she had classes that she needed to teach. After filling a small saddlebag with some essentials, she slung it over her purple, slightly pudgy flanks, and set out to find Kratos and Spike. The Bathroom Kratos stepped out of the bathtub, running a towel across his body. Once he was dry, he picked up his garments and got dressed. However, before he could put on his chest-strap that usually held his ax, a small object fell out. A feather. One from a great eagle, to be exact. Kratos picked it up, cradling it in his hands, its softness tickling him a bit. It was one of the tail feathers of an old kill, Atreus' first. He could remember the look of pure joy on his son's face, and the warm, comforting smile from his recently deceased wife, Faye, as she praised him. The boi walked up to him, tearing out the bird's feathers, and gave him the longest, most colorful one of the bunch. Although it was a small gesture, Kratos accepted the gift, and couldn't help but feel somewhat proud. He had smiled that day. A real, genuine, smile. Kratos finished his venture into the past and tucked the feather in between his chest and the strap covering it. He would have to get back, somehow. Even if it meant crossing through as many realms as he had to. He wrapped his blades around his wrists, and made his way towards the door, refreshed from his bath. However, before he entered the hallway, he pressed his ear against the door, just to be safe. He was met with a voice calling his name, which he identified as the purple pony, Twilight Sparkle. Not wanting to keep her waiting, he unlocked the door and went out to meet her. "Oh! There you are, Kratos! I was looking for you. We're just about to head off towards the Friendship school, and you said you'd come with us." "Lead the way," Kratos said. They began walking (or trotting) towards the exit of the castle. They passed many hallways filled with even more signs of wealth, Twilight pointing out several to the man, who grunted and nodded in response. He never was a talker, even less so in the presence of strangers, but Twilight wanted to eventually find something they could have a sophisticated conversation about. After all, becoming friends with humans was awesome, but becoming friends with a chalk-white warrior human with red tattoos and scars covering his body was even more awesome, and she definitely looked forward to it. "Hey, Kratos?" She asked. "Yes, girl?" "Do you mind if we walk a bit faster? We didn't expect to have any guests, and we're sorta late to class." She gave a nervous chuckle and an awkward look towards the man. He gave a short nod in approval. They began to pick up the pace, encountering Spike on their way towards the exit. The small lizard gave Kratos a pleading look when in the presence of his alicorn sister, and received a stern look in return. He climbed onto Twilight's back, and soon they were off again. Surprisingly, Starlight was nowhere to be seen, Twilight assumed that she had already left and was making her way towards the school. Finally, they came across the castle entrance, which, Kratos had to admit, was rather puny for a castle fit for royalty. After all, it was barely as big as him! The large handles glowed purple for a second, and the doors opened up. For the first time since his arrival, Kratos could smell the fresh air and feel the wind on his skin. However, something was...strange. He took a glance at the sky, and there were no clouds in sight, not even miles away, despite the fact that a thick, white fog covered the ground. The only visible place he could see them was over a thick, overgrown forest to the east that he could only assume was the Everfree. The sun shone brightly, beating down its soft, pillowy rays, but on closer inspection, he found that it was far higher than it should have been at this time of day. He pushed it to the back of his mind. He would have to return to that later on, once he had visited their school. Author's Note Damn thing took me a while. I'll try to have the next chapter out in a couple days.
Chapter 5 (The Forest)The Everfree Forest A small deer and its family grazed in a clearing in the forest canopy, unaware of the danger they were in. For a hunter was stalking them, and he was close. Despite his size, he made no sounds and had been watching his prey for quite some time. Kratos scoffed under his breath. Easy prey, indeed. If these ponies did not hunt for their food, it was no wonder that their animals would be weak, just like them. It was now the time to strike. The deer had their backs to him, so he left his hiding place and came up behind them. The animals turned around, confused, but they were doomed. He picked up the heads of two of them in his hands and bashed them together, crushing their skulls. The third did not even have the sense to run and was taken down with a strong punch, its neck, and windpipe broken. Although quite smaller than what he was used to, they looked plump, a product of plentiful and rich foods in the area. Kratos immediately took to skinning the animals, retrieving a small knife from one of his packs, and after a couple minutes, had three smooth pelts, some brittle bones, as well as quite a bit of meat. This would sustain him for the next couple of days if he could find a drying rack or some salt to preserve it. Kratos placed the meat into one of his bags, tied the bones together, and folded up the skins. It would be good to head back now. In this world, there was no fun in hunting. The prey was too easy. The man placed his goods onto his shoulder and followed the trail back to Ponyville. It was then that he heard growling, like a bear or some other wild animal. Kratos turned around, facing his foe. At first sight, it appeared to be a lion, but with a set of strange horns and wings, as well as a scorpion's tail. Kratos had heard of this creature before. A manticore, he recalled. He had fought one of them before, but, just like everything else in this world, it was very small and barely reached up to his chest. He heard more growls, and more manticores closed in around him. Kratos cracked his knuckles. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have even more meat. Friendship School "Twilight, we've checked the entire school! Kratos isn't anywhere!" Starlight said. The school's staff had spent at least half an hour looking for their guest, and Twilight was busy having a mental breakdown in the corner. "Did you check outside?" She replied, sweat pouring down her face. "Uhh...No." "Then what are you waiting for?!" Starlight galloped away, looking for the other members of their friend group. Just what had Twilight gotten herself into? What would Princess Celestia think if she lost her guest the day after his arrival? A few minutes later, Twilight entered into the school's grounds, searching frantically. But there was nothing. As she gave up, she began trotting back towards the castle, only to trip into a large furrow in the ground, the dirt and filth smearing into her purple coat. Twilight whined and began wiping out the mud from her face. She was encountered with an identical indentation right next to her, as well as several more leading in the direction of...The Everfree Forest. Twilight cursed under her breath, sitting up. There was only one creature that could have left such markings, but she never expected him to be this strong. With little time to waste, so she cast a quick cleaning spell on herself and set off to find her friends. Her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her chest as she ran, teleporting every chance she got. Kratos was in great danger, and she needed to save him! Everfree Forest Kratos was having a splendid time. Another manticore pounced at him, only to be punched aside, its neck broken. It lay on the ground, hissing, before Kratos crushed its skull, putting it out if its misery. The chunks of brain and bone covering his boot did not disturb him in the slightest, he would wash them once he got back to the castle. More manticores approached him and were cut down just like their brethren. Kratos noted that these manticores were, well...weak. Eventually, the animals stopped their assault and retreated into the forest to lick their wounds. It had taken less than a minute for them to lose over a dozen of their pack. Kratos picked up the food he had dropped during his fight and slung it over his back once again. As he walked, he observed a small trail of dust was kicked up on the road several hundred feet away. As it came closer, it turned out to be Twilight and her friends, terribly out of breath. "W-Where were you?" Twilight asked, in between breaths. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" Kratos raised an eyebrow, motioning to the blood stains visible in his pack, and the folded deer skins he was carrying. Fluttershy gasped and started breaking into tears, muttering something about the poor animals. The rest of the ponies (Except for Twilight) showed similar signs of shock. "He's gonna eat us!" Pinkie half screamed, half shouted. In the next few seconds, complete chaos overtook the scene. Applejack readied her lasso, Rarity powered up her horn, Rainbow made a couple kicks in the air, and Pinkie had already fled. Fluttershy was too busy crying to do anything. "Girls! Wait!" Twilight said, but it was already too late. With a shout, Rainbow flew full speed at Kratos, trying to kick him in the face. To her surprise, she found that her leg had been caught in Kratos' iron grip, and he flung her back at the ground. Rarity's spell was simply absorbed into the man's body and did minimal damage. Instead of wrapping around him and pulling him to the ground, Kratos wouldn't budge an inch and snapped the rope with ease. Unwilling to give up just yet, the three ponies renewed their efforts, much to Twilight's distress, who was more concerned for her friends' health than Kratos'. Judging by the scars on his body, this fight was nothing but child's play to him. Several minutes of failed attacks passed, and Fluttershy had finally picked herself up from the ground. Her mane was disheveled, and an unusually angry expression was present on her face. She flew up to Kratos' level and unleashed the stare. "YOU LISTEN HERE, MISTER! YOU'VE HURT POOR, INNOCENT ANIMALS, AND NOW MY FRIENDS! YOU SHOULD BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOURSELF!" She shouted. Unfortunately, it didn't affect Kratos one bit, as was shown by his ever-present frown. With an unbelievably fast motion that made even Rainbow jealous, he grabbed her by the neck and forced her to look him in the eyes. Fluttershy let out a little squak as she was lifted with great ease. "Mind. Your. Tone with me, Girl." That's all it took to make Fluttershy break into tears once more, and Kratos allowed her to flop onto the ground. The other ponies crowded around their friend, trying to comfort her. Kratos turned his head towards Twilight. "You." The Alicorn snapped out of her daze. "Fix this, and explain." She nodded, following Kratos' orders with great caution. What she had just witnesses scared her immensely. Kratos was able to withstand Fluttershy's voice and had just defeated half of the elements of harmony with close to no effort. As she began to explain the details of Kratos' dietary needs to Fluttershy, several thoughts ran through her head. The first, most important one was that she didn't want to get on Kratos' bad side. An obvious decision. The second was more simple. Fluttershy took care of animals that ate meat. Why was she so disturbed? It might have been the skins. Twilight thought. Several more minutes passed, and the butter yellow pegasus had calmed down. Just as they were about to apologize to Kratos, a loud thumping could be heard, like footsteps. A gigantic shadow covered the group, and a bit of drool landed on Kratos' shoulder. Twilight's jaw hit the floor. Behind the man was an Ursa Major. Never had they been seen during the day, so something was definitely wrong. Kratos turned around, facing the beast. It snarled at him, spraying him with mucus and saliva, before raising a gigantic paw to swipe the man out of its way. To the ponies' surprise, Kratos caught it and used the Ursa's arm to fling it into the forest. Unsurprisingly, It threw off the impact rather easily and got back onto its feet. Kratos turned around. "Go. Now." Although Twilight wanted to stay and fight, she simply nodded and fled, along with her friends. As they ran, she could hear the sounds of two powerful opponents shaking the earth. From that far away, it was impossible to tell which one was winning, but she certainly hoped it was Kratos. Several minutes later, she burst into the Friendship Castle and got busy writing a letter to Princess Celestia. She had hoped to send one to her mentor later that day, but at that moment it was a situation of emergency. Usually, she would have Spike send the letter with his fire, but however, he was nowhere to be found. With a quick teleportation spell, Twilight transported the piece of paper to Canterlot. Hopefully, Princess Celestia would arrive soon. Back at the edge of the Everfree The Ursa Major roared, charging towards Kratos. His frown deepened as he braced for impact. From what he could tell, he could deal with the creature rather easily, but it was good to be cautious. If anything went wrong, he could always call for his ax, or use his blades (a last-resort measure). The animal appeared to be large, slow and not very agile, all things in his favor. As it charged towards him, he sidestepped it and punched it in its stomach, sending it flying once again into the thick, lush forest, while knocking over dozens of trees and creating a wide furrow in the dirt. The creature had sustained heavy damage from its impacts with the ground and boasted plenty of scratches, bruises, and a particularly nasty stab-wound from a tree branch that was embedded in its side. Hopefully, that would be enough to deter it from attacking further. However, the animal persisted still and stood unsteadily on its feet. It growled once more, preparing to maul Kratos. The man grunted in displeasure. What a waste of time. It was time to end the fight, it was becoming boring. He held out his hand to the sky, calling his ax to him to finally kill that annoyingly stubborn animal. A couple miles away, Twilight paced in her chambers, a look of concern present on her face. Suddenly, the runes covering the ax lying on her desk began to glow a bright blue, and the entire weapon moved, crashing through the crystal walls of the castle and out into fresh air where it would reunite with its master, all the while creating a loud wooshing sound as it tore through whatever lay in its way. As the creature charged towards Kratos for the third time, the man could see his ax approaching at an insane speed. Realizing that he wouldn't have enough time to catch it before the starry bear mauled him, he pulled his knife from his belt and started to charge at the animal, much to its confusion. Just before they made contact, Kratos dropped down onto his back, sliding underneath his opponent and slicing the knife through its gut, creating a long gash from chest to the pelvis that spilled out a plentiful amount of thick, steamy blood and organs. The Ursa roared in pain and confusion as it effectively killed itself, gutted by its own momentum. As Kratos slid out from underneath the animal, his ax reached his hand, and he flung it towards the direction of the dying Ursa, to end its suffering. And that it did. Much to the man's surprise, it somehow sliced the bear completely in half and made its way back towards him in an oval trajectory, staining the ground with copious amounts of blood and cleaning off its surface in the wind. Kratos caught the ax in his left hand and surveyed the scene of his destruction. His enemy certainly wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, that was for sure. What had once been a symbol of danger and power, something that struck fear into the hearts of all ponies, was now nothing but a steaming, mutilated corpse. Checking over his ax once more, Kratos was about to leave, before he heard a loud gasp. Behind him, on a nearby hill stood a rather tall pony, as well as what looked like a couple dozen of...guards? Their armor was terrible, that was certain. Those same guardsponies were now emptying the contents of their stomach on the ground, and their leader was doing no different. It certainly wouldn't be pleasant when they recovered. Author's Note Sorry for the wait. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon, and if anyone wants to be my editor, that would be great. Have an ax.
Chapter 4 (The School)The Friendship School Ocellus exited her room, humming a little tune to herself. She yawned, rubbing her eyes with a cyan hoof. She had stayed up way too late last night studying for today's tests, which she was now regretting. Walking by a series of doors, she discovered that her friends had already gotten up for breakfast. She made her way down the stairs, and towards the dining room, finding her friends crowded around one of the many tables. "Hey, guys." She said, still shaking off the haze of her tiredness. "Hi." Their responses were a variation of such, voices monotone and without much emotion. Ocellus sat down next to them, grabbing a banana from a fruit bowl in the middle of the table. "What's up?" She asked, taking a small bite. "School was supposed to start 10 minutes ago, but head mare Twilight hasn't even gotten to school yet! If she wants us to take this stupid test, then she should be here!" Gallus said, letting his frustration known. "Maybe it has something to do with that weird meteor last night. Yona remembers it making really loud noises, and the ground was rumbly too." Yona added. "Eh, I don't think so. It's just a little meteor. Dragons are used to that kind of stuff all the time." Smolder crossed her arms and held her snout a bit higher, trying to act tough. Ocellus had finished her banana, using her magic to toss it into a nearby trash can. "Gallus, I don't think you should be blaming head mare Twilight for this. Everycreature can be late sometimes, even her." The rest of the students nodded in agreement with Ocellus. The rest of their breakfast went rather smoothly, the small group having some fun with a couple of Silverstream's jokes and Ocellus' imitations. Sandbar even busted out a joint and filled the dining hall with weed smoke (Ok, not really). It had now been twenty minutes since school had started, and at this point, the students had almost forgotten about their class. Suddenly, they stopped talking. Silverstream included, which was quite a surprise. "Guys? Hello? What's going on?" Ocellus asked. Her friends were facing the window, and seemed to be entranced with something outside. The small changeling turned her head towards the same direction, and then she saw it. At first, it appeared to be completely normal. Head mare Twilight was just trotting towards the school. But her gaze shifted to the right, and a massive creature came into her view, which was easily keeping up with the princess' pace, due to its long legs. "What do you think it is?" Gallus whispered. "I don't know. He looks kind of funny. He even painted his face!" Silverstream replied, giggling. "Yona thinks the weird creature looks tough. Weird creature looks strong, like Yak!" Yona said pridefully, and with a bit of caution. If this creature was really as tough as it looked, she would have a worthy contender for hoof wrestling matches, and the young yak was fairly content on keeping her spot as champion. But Holy Hay, those biceps were thick. "Yeah. Tough..." Smolder chewed her lip, licking it while running her eyes over the exposed abdomen of the creature. Ocellus herself had to admit that the creature looked strong. Its chalk-white skin and red tattoos really did a number on her, and it looked suspiciously like one of those "humans" Twilight had told her about in one of her adventures. She cleared her throat with a little cough. "Um, guys, now that Head mare Twilight is here, I think that we should really get to class. If she finds out that we're not there, we're gonna get into a lot of trouble." She said. The rest of the students (minus smolder) nodded in agreement, getting up to head to their first class. "Smolder!" "Oh, yeah. Gimme a minute." "Come on!" "Ugh, fine." Friendship School, Entrance Twilight burst through the door, slightly out of breath. Kratos stepped in behind her and closed it with a loud slam. He wasn't out of breath at all. Spike quickly got off Twilight's back, said something about janitorial duties, and hurried off. The purple alicorn ran a hoof through her mane, smoothing out any stray hairs, before making her way towards her first-period class. "I guess that you can sit in and watch the class. Maybe you can teach us a couple of things about Midgard." She said. At this point, there would not have been much else for Kratos to do, besides taking a tour across the school, but since they were late, that would have to be postponed for the moment. "It appears that your schools are different than what I am used to. Are all your schools like this?" The man asked. "No, this is a specialty school. Normally foals go through several years of cutie mark education, where they learn their special talents. Universities are only for very specific talents, and they're really rare, like the Wonderbolts academy or Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns, which is where I went." Interesting. From what he heard, Kratos could assume that these "Cutie Marks" were directly related to a pony's special talent and that their society had an...unreliable workforce, considering that every pony's special talent was different. "What are these cutie marks?" He asked. "What do you mean? I thought those red tattoos were your cutie mark." The man simply shook his head. "My kind don't have these "Cutie Marks"."The look on Twilight's face displaced her shock. Although the humans in the mirror dimension didn't have cutie marks, their pony counterparts' talents did carry over into their world. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to live without having your special talent given to you. Having to choose your own destiny? Preposterous! "How does that work?" She asked. "My kind have to go through a rigorous amount of education in several different subjects. We are given a choice for several different kinds of professions, and we are required to choose one. Not one is allowed to leech off society." Kratos replied. They now entered a hallway containing a number of different classrooms. At the end, the man could see a quick flash of cyan, before a door slammed closed. "Ah, those are probably my students. They're probably worried. It's not common for me to be late, you see." Kratos nodded in acknowledgment. Twilight approached the same door that the blue thing had fled into and opened it. The sounds of a thriving class quickly faded as the Head mare entered the room, Kratos following behind her. "Good Morning, Mrs. Twilight!" The students said, in monotone levels. Their eyes quickly widened as they saw the other figure enter the classroom. "Hi, Class! Today is gonna be a bit different because we have a special visitor! Every creature say hello to Kratos!" An awkward silence came across the class, with shy greetings spread across from the students. "Kratos is an alien from a place called Midgard, and he's going to be sitting in through class today. Feel free to ask him any questions you might have!" Kratos walked past the rows of inquisitive students and towards the back of the room, where he pulled over two spare desks and sat on both of them. He nodded, motioning for Twilight to continue. "Because our unexpected delay-" Kratos raised his eyebrows. "There won't be a test today. Feel free to work on any homework from your other classes!" The students cheered, Gallus looking especially happy. He moved his desk to face those of his friends, who did the same. Leaning his head forward, he whispered: "So, who wants to talk to the guy first? I vote Ocellus." The rest of the group giggled, casting glances over at the hulking biped, who was rubbing his weathered, callous hands, and didn't seem to be paying too much attention to the class. "Yeah, Ocellus. You should go." "Yona thinks Ocellus should!" "Go talk to him! Pleeeeease?" "What!? But...Why me?" "You're smart and into aliens! You'll get along just fine!" Ocellus sighed. "Ugh...Fine." The small cyan changeling got up from her chair and made her way towards the back of the classroom where Kratos currently resided. As she walked, she received several strange looks from her peers while her friends watched on, whispering to themselves. She hung her head lower, trying to make herself smaller while being undoubtedly self-conscious of herself. Approaching the man, she lifted her head back up and straightened out her posture a bit, before clearing her throat with a cough. "Um, hi?" She said. From this close up, she could see Kratos in complete detail, and was, just like several others, very intimidated by him. He turned his head slowly towards her, a neutral expression donning his face, which was a nice change from his chronic frown. "Yes, child?" He said. Ocellus breathed in sharply, but not loud enough for the man to notice. Kratos' voice was even deeper than she had expected and added even more to her nervousness. The shy changeling had never been very good in social situations, and it was quite a bit out of her comfort zone to greet a newcomer, much less an alien from another world. "C-can I ask you a question?" Ocellus wore a hopeful expression, and Kratos nodded curtly in response. He stood up from one of the desks that he sat on and moved it towards her. "Sit down." The changeling clambered onto the desk, taking her place next to the man, and proceeded with her original intention. "Areyouahuman?What'syourplanetlike?WhatdoyouthinkaboutEquestria?Howlongareyougoingtobehere?" She rambled out. Kratos sighed. It looked like this class was not going to be as mellow as he had expected. 15 Minutes later The remaining members of the group of friends watched as Ocellus conversed with Kratos. The blue Griffin seemed to be right. They did get along well. Too well, to be exact. Currently, the changeling seemed to be entranced by one of the man's stories. A captivating one, judging by the wide-eyed expression on her face. "I'm gonna go over there," Smolder said, getting up from her chair and repeating what Ocellus had done just minutes before. The rest of the students simply shrugged, watching as the small dragon introduced herself. "Hi. My name's Smolder. I'm a dragon, by the way." Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it appeared that his mouth curled upwards a tiny bit. Not a smile, and nowhere close to it, but he was getting there. "You are quite...small, for a dragon." He replied. Smolder crossed her arms, a small frown covering her face. "Hey! I'm still growing! Besides, how big are dragons in your world anyway?" She huffed, slightly offended. Perhaps this new visitor was not that great after all. "The last dragon I have seen was one-hundred times my size, and half as high. Here is one of its teeth that I retrieved from its corpse." He said, pulling out the dragon tooth and passing it to Smolder. Her eyes widened as she held it in her claws, lightly cradling it. It was nearly twice the size of her arm, and was deadly sharp at the tip. "You...killed the dragon?" She asked, still in a state of shock from the utter size of the dragon this tooth came from. "Yes. It gave me no choice, and attacked unprovoked." Smolder nodded, handing back the tooth to Kratos, who tucked it into his belt. If he was able to kill a dragon of such gargantuan proportions, he had earned her respect. Pulling over another desk, she sat next to her changeling friend. "Can you, um, continue with the story please?" Kratos nodded. "After the war, Odysseus set sail from Troy upon twelve ships. Several days passed until they sighted land. Odysseus' second in command, Eurylochus, urged him to come ashore..." Soon, the two students were enraptured by his story, looking up at him with attentive expressions on their faces, occasionally expressing their thoughts about his tale. On the other side of the room, Twilight watched closely. It was a good decision to bring Kratos to class. She was slightly bothered that he opened up more to two children that he had just met than with her, but she would get to know him better. It was only his first day here, after all. Soon, the bell rang and the students ran off towards their next class. The two girls said their temporary goodbyes, Smolder bumping Kratos' fist and Ocellus wrapping her front hooves around one of his legs in a hug, before heading off to join her friends. He was very surprised but didn't mind the contact. Perhaps his kind didn't show affection through touch. Once all the students left the classroom, and the second-period students started pouring in, she walked over to Kratos. "So, what do you think?" She asked. "Your class is...unique. Is there a dining room in the area?" "Oh, yeah. The break room is just a couple turns to the left. You'll know it when you see it." Kratos nodded and left the classroom, the students making a wide cordon around him. Once he arrived, he entered the room, finding a table in the middle of the room, a long couch pressed to the left wall and a counter with a fridge and a coffee machine to his right. He walked over to one of the windows adorning the walls and covered them with curtains, then approached the couch and, laying out a blanket out to cover it, laid down on it, his feet legs hanging over the edge. It looked like conversing with the children had taken far more out of him than he had expected. Due to his many years of seclusion, he wasn't used to engaging in meaningful conversations, and besides, he had stayed up fairly late last night repairing the cabin from his fight with Baldur. From what he could tell, the pony students were definitely not as friendly as Ocellus and Smolder, judging by the way they avoided him, and he doubted that the upcoming classes would be as entertaining as the one he had just been to. Sighing, Kratos rolled onto his side and allowed his tiredness to lull him to sleep. For a while, he dozed in and out of consciousness, getting up several times to drink some water from the nearby faucet. His slumber didn't last long, however, since the sound of a door opening, followed by a blood-curdling scream, startled him. Cursing whoever it was that woke him up, he stood up, peered out the window to tell the time, and found that the sun was still in the same position it had been in hours before. That would take a while getting used to. Walking towards the door, he paused for a moment, hearing voices. "Rarity, it's okay. That was only Kratos." The man could tell that this was Twilight, due to its slightly scratchy consistency. "What do you mean, that was only Kratos! Have you seen it!" Kratos scoffed. This one was clearly the one who disrupted his slumber. A softer, more calm voice followed up. "Um, Rarity. I think you should be more nice with our guest. Twilight said that he's totally safe, so there's nothing to be worried about. I'm sure that he'll be really nice when you meet him." "And if not, we'll beat him up!" "Rainbow!" "I can't wait to throw him a party!" Kratos scoffed, raising his eyebrows. He had had far more than enough parties in his youth, those that involved wine and women in particular, and he had no intentions of revisiting such an ancient pastime. The door opened, and Kratos turned to face them. Just like Starlight and Twilight, the ponies in front of him were of many different colors, such as white, pink, light blue, butter yellow, and orange. He was met with a variety of reactions. The white one gasped and shielded her eyes, the pink one gave him a massive (and slightly disturbing) smile, the light blue one's eyes widened and her ears flopped to the sides of her head, and the yellow one let out a small "eep!" like sound and hid behind her mane. Surprisingly, the orange pony gave the least expressive reaction, and instead lifted her hat from her head and gave him a sharp nod, which Kratos returned. "Hi, Kratos. These are my friends..." She pointed towards the group of ponies that were now a plethora of awkwardness. "This is Rarity." She pointed towards the white one, who scoffed and scrunched her nose in disgust. "Your outfit, or whatever that thing is, is absolutely horrid! I can not, no. Will not have you walking around here in those rags!" Rarity said furiously. Kratos' frown dropped even lower from where it was. "These garments have served me well, for many years, and certainly far better than anything you could ever conjure." Rarity's jaw hit the floor. Never had she seen someone who had such little regard for fashion, or even basic decency! She spluttered, at a loss for words, before her eyes rolled into the back of their sockets and she passed out, flopping onto the ground. The room was silent for a moment until the light blue pony (which Kratos later learned was called Rainbow Dash) spoke up. "Daaaaang." Slowly, the rest of the group broke into laughter, which escalated into some rolling around on the ground and bawling their eyes out. "How did you do that!" Rainbow said, flying right up towards Kratos' face. "I've never seen anypony that she can't force to change their outfit!" "A life of not caring what one's thoughts are has taught me to be resilient." He said. The blue pegasus hopped onto his shoulder and shook his head in her hooves. "Teeeeeach Me!" She said, causing the other ponies to break into laughter once again. After their merry-making had died down, Twilight introduced the rest of her friends and picked up her unconscious friend from the ground, placing her onto the couch. The next several hours of the school day passed by relatively quickly, and Kratos found himself becoming quite bored, due to the lack of a boi by his side. By lunchtime, he had thoroughly explored the school and was now roaming the school grounds. Looking towards the Everfree forest, he wondered what would happen if he slipped out for a bit, went for a walk, maybe a short hunt. Due to one of the many schedules he had found adorning the walls in the school, he knew that it would still be a couple hours before the day ended, and he decided that it wouldn't hurt if he left. He would be back soon enough. Cracking his neck, he started jogging, before breaking into a full sprint. Due to his godly strength and speed, it took him very little time to get to the forest, which was miles away from the school. As he entered into the lush woods, he decreased his pace into a crawl, as not to disturb any possible prey in the area. This would be a fun hunt indeed. Friendship School, Staff Break Room "Uhh, Twilight?" "Yeah, Starlight?" "Where's Kratos?" The sound of choking on a sandwich was heard soon after.
