The 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.