Apex Is Coming

All I could do was stare into the forest in awe and confusion. How was this even possible? One second I was in a room, the next I’m in a creepy forest. I was snapped out of my confusion as I felt the metal box start to heat up.

I quickly spit out the box in front of me and watched as the box started to turn red from the heat. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to spit the box too far away from me, so I could still feel the heat radiating off it as the temperature just kept increasing. After a couple of seconds, it bursted into flames.

I tried to get out of my chair, but I had forgotten that I was still nailed into it. I needed to get out before the fire ended up spreading to me. Even though the grass was partially green, it was still dry enough to have started to catch on fire. I already knew what I had to do, even if I really didn’t want to do it

Unfortunately, I needed to. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. After mentally preparing myself, I said fuck it and lifted my right arm as fast as I could. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. My right arm felt like it was on fire, after getting stabbed by Charlie and having to rip a nail out of it, I’m surprised I was still able to even move it. But I knew I couldn’t stop now, I needed to keep going. I swung my right hand over to my left arm, and gripping the nail, I pulled it out.

I completely ignored the pain as I rolled out of the chair and began stomping on the fire. Luckily for me, it eventually extinguished. I collapsed onto the ground and just started to breath through my nose. My entire body felt broken and destroyed, I couldn’t even open the eye that Bruce stabbed. I just wanted to lie here and cry, but I knew that now wasn’t the time for that.

All of my life I’d been with Beta, Charlie, and Delta. Yet I lost them so easily, betrayed by one of my bosses. He took everything from me. They were the only family I’d ever had. Thinking about what he could do to Sara and Alice scared and angered me. If he ever touched them, he’d regret it deeply.

After a while of me just laying there, I started to hear a light hissing sound. After figuring out how close the noise was to me, I realized it was actually coming from my suit. I lifted both of my hands and stared at the holes through both my hands and the suit. My blood was still leaking out of my hands and dripping down my suit, but that wasn’t what was making the hissing sound. I watched in amazement as the suit seemed to be reattaching itself. The suit appeared to be reconnecting itself, trying to patch up the holes that were in it. It only took a couple of seconds, but my suit had completely repaired itself. Guess that was the update Sara had added. But the suit repairing itself was reminding me of the nanobots.

Wait, why hadn’t they started healing my hands yet? It’s definitely been more than enough time for the nanobots to start working.Then I remembered that Bruce was talking about a serum before he shoved that metal box into my mouth. He also mentioned that it would wear off after a while. But I couldn’t just stay in this forest waiting for that to happen.

After a while of contemplating, I said fuck it and forced myself up. I limped over and leaned against a tree. Looking around, I noticed all of my stuff was on the ground, my glasses, my daggers, my grenades, and my helmet. I looked back at the tree I was leaning on and ripped off a branch that looked long and sturdy enough to be used as a walking stick. I limped over to my stuff and began attaching everything besides my glasses onto my belt before slipping them both on.

I tried to say ‘time’ but I ended going into another coughing fit. The inside of my throat was caked in a thick layer of my blood from earlier. Guess I’ll need to wash that out.

I started to limp in the first direction that looked like in might lead out of here. Sadly, there weren’t any noticeable paths that I could discern. The floor of the forest was barely visible due to the sun being blocked by the thick canopy. I just kept walking in my chosen direction, simply listening to my surrounding. I heard birds chirping and owls hooting. I also heard what sounded like a chicken clucking. Wait, a chicken in a forest?

I turned around and saw something I thought I’d only see in TV shows. It had the body of a dragon and the head of a chicken. It had beady red eyes and even a pair of wings. I thought I was just tripping on some acid so I decided to turn around and ignore it.

Before I could even take a couple of steps though, I heard the clucking get louder. It dashed by me and flew up into my face. I tried to jump back, but instead, pain flared through my leg, causing me to wince and fall onto my ass. The chicken thing took the opportunity and jumped into my face. I prepared for it to bite me and eat me, but instead it’s eyes just glowed a brighter red.

I then watched as the bottom of the chicken thing seemed to be turning to stone. It seemed to notice this as well, because it looked back towards its legs and started clucking loudly. It even tried to fly away, but it's ever increasing weight caused this to fail. It kept clucking and clucking, until it was completely covered in stone. It then fell onto its side and sunk into the dirt. Ok ,weird. I stood back up and tapped the stoned animal with my branch. It had actually turned to stone, and judging by the sound it made when I tapped it, was completely hollow.

I found the ability for an animal to just turn to stone like that pretty useless. Whatever, I walked around the dumb chicken and kept going. I continued bumping and leaning onto the trees as I went, my legs feeling broken and destroyed. Some of trees even looked like they had faces, which was extremely unsettling. After walking for god knows how long, I finally heard flowing water. I quickly limped over to the noise, and after a while, I eventually found a river.

The river was flowing fairly calmly. Luckily, for a reason I couldn’t fathom, it was extremely clean, but I paid that no thought. I limped over, putting my glasses and branch to the side before shoving my face into the water. The water was extremely cold, but that didn’t stop me. I pulled water into my mouth, lifted my head out of the water, gargled it, then finally spat it out onto the ground. I repeated this process four more times until my mouth no longer tasted like copper. When that was done, I finally drank some of the river water, hoping I wouldn’t die from some random disease.

After finally feeling refreshed, I grabbed my glasses, slid them on, and began to speak. “Map.” I was successful able to say this without being reduced to a fit of coughing. I watched as the globe appeared and started to spin. After a while of spinning, the globe went away, replaced by the word ‘Error’.

I let out a loud sign, annoyed that I had gotten a error. I decided to turn my glasses off to save some battery, if I’m lucky they’d be solar charging like my helmet. I then stood up, grabbed my branch, and began limping off again. I kept walking and walking, looking for some type of path in this dumb forest. If I ever get out, I’m burning the place down.

Before I could turn and start walking in a different direction, I heard a branch snap behind me. I instantly turned around and went to go grab a impact grenade. A couple of tense seconds passed, the bushes rustling and rustling. Then the rustling stopped, and out walked what I believe was the cutest thing I ever saw.

I thought it was a baby lion at first, but attached to its body was a pair of dragon wings, and instead of a normal tail, it had a scorpion one. It had all white fur with a pair of purple eyes. I watched as it slowly came towards me. I really wanted to pet it. I lowered my hand and forced myself onto one knee since the lion type thingy only came up to my knees. I reached out for it and tried to pet it, but instead, it reached out and bit my fingers.

Since I had my suit on, it really didn’t hurt, it just felt like something nibbling on me. The lion must have not like the taste of it because it stopped biting me and made a sour expression. “Sorry. My skin probably tastes just as bad.” I smirked down at the lion. I tried to pet it again, but before I could fully reach out, I heard more rustling from the bushes.

I looked up and was surprised to see another lion walk out of the bushes. This one was a lot bigger, and I had a feeling it was the smaller lions mother. I could tell it was female because it didn’t have a mane like a male lion would have. But I could also tell it was it’s mother because, just like it’s child, it had white fur with purple eyes, along with the same dragon wings and scorpion tail.

I dropped my makeshift cane and tried to slowly back up. I failed, miserably, because I ended up bumping into a tree and falling onto the ground instead. I watched as the mother lion moved to the side of its kid and gave me a confused look. “What manner of creature are you?” It asked in a motherly tone.

“Wait, what?” I was shocked that it could actually speak. I tried to get back up, but my body was still hurting from the fall. I was still in so much pain that I was honestly hoping that if they were going to eat me, they’d let me kill myself first.

“What manner of creature are you?” It asked in the same motherly tone. I watched as it took a few steps closer to me and seemed to be trying to look me over.

“Uhhh. I’m a human.” I spoke nervously . She walked around my body, trying to look at every nook and cranny of my suit. She eventually seemed to finish her examination as she walked back over and stood next to her child.

“Are you injured?” She questioned while raising a brow.

“Yes…,” I awkwardly said. I watched as her tail seemed to stretch out further than it should have been able to. It curled for a second before shooting straight towards me. I was about to roll to the side and actually throw an impact grenade at her, but her tail was much faster than me. It wrapped around my torso, the stinger just inches from my head. I was about to start struggling, but before I could, she lifted me off the ground and gently set me down on my feet.

“Oh, thanks.” I tried to sound as thankful as I could. Instead of responding, she simply nodded with a neutral expression. “So if I may ask, what are you exactly?” I was certainly curious as to what the fuck she was and also how she was talking.

“We are manticore. We are a loyal and mute race.” Wait why are you talking to me then? “I am only conversing with you because I realized you were actually intelligent, and I was also curious as to what you were.” Never mind then.

“So you don’t eat things that can actually talk?” I asked while limping over and leaning onto a tree for support.

She seemed to ponder this for a while, and after an awkward silence she responded. “Yes. It’s a rule my family follows. You’re lucky to have run into us instead of another manticore.” Oh cool, my luck is still around. The mother bumped its child with its head and pointed using its tail towards my branch. The child seemed to understand as it walked over to my branch, picked it up using its mouth, and brought it over to me.

“Aw, thanks.” I said as I grabbed it out of its mouth and started to use it instead of the tree. It nodded its head and went back over to its mother's side. “So I don’t mean to bother you, but can you direct me towards the nearest city?”

“Yes, I can do that.” The mother's tail started to stretch again. “Just head that way and you’ll run into a small village. Just ask for the yellow one. She’ll be able to help you.” That’s fucking racist, but whatever.

“Thank you once again.” I waved while heading towards the direction she pointed to.

“Wait,” She called out. I turned around and looked at her. I was starting to get annoyed because I just wanted to lay down and sleep for a while. She then tapped her child with her tail and pointed towards me. The child seemed extremely scared because it began to rapidly shake its head and jump behind its mother. “Come on, I know you can do it. He won’t hurt you, trust me.” Well I certainly wasn’t planning on it.

The child still seemed scared, but it’s mother gave it a loving smile and a nod. It seemed to gulp, but it trusted its mother as it came out from behind her and headed towards me. It slowly and carefully crept towards me. It was still clearly nervous because it actually almost tripped at one point.

After finally about thirty seconds of me just waiting, it was finally in front of me. It looked up at me with its adorable purple eyes and spoke in a gentle voice. “Sor.... sorry... mis..mist..mister.” Turns out it was a young girl, judging by its high pitched squeaky voice. She paused a lot through her sentence, almost like she was just learning english.

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled down at her. “That was honestly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” She instantly looked away while blushing, which was pretty easy to see through her white fur. The mother must have found this funny because she started giggling.

“Yes, she is certainly cute. Come along dear.” The red faced manticore instantly went over to her mother and hid behind her again. “It takes a while to teach children how to talk, but she’ll be able to speak perfectly sooner or later.” Hopefully that’s not true, because that was way too cute to just throw away.

“Well I better get going before something happens.” I spoke while waving at them. They both waved back with smiles on their faces. After a while, they turned around and began heading back into the depths of the forest.

I started limping again in the direction the mother showed me. So I’m looking for an asian. Hopefully it wouldn’t be that hard, I mean it’s just a village.

After limping for what felt like hours, I could make out the light of the sun ahead of me. I rushed to it as fast as I could and pushed myself out of the forest and into the light.

I was about to throw my arms over my eyes before I realized I was still wearing my sunglasses. I looked into the distance and saw what the mother manticore had been talking about. It really was a village. I started limping over to it, I even had to cross over a mini bridge just to get into the village. I was walking very slowly throughout the village, my eye twitching slightly at the fact that there were no humans around. Instead, there were only ponies.

“The fuck?” I muttered to myself. I must have been loud because all of the ponies heads snapped to me. They weren’t even normal ponies, all of them had a completely different color concept. Their coats and mane were all different colors of the rainbow. What was even more confusing was that some of them had horns, others wings, while some had neither. So I’m seeing unicorns, pegasi, and normal ponies. Maybe I’m in some third world country that’s experimenting on animals.

I tried to ignore the stares of the ponies and just push on through the village, walking down the dirt path. I noticed that the houses that the ponies lived in didn’t look like modern ones. They were like houses from back in the medieval times. They didn’t even have normal roofs, being made out of either straw or hay.

I was starting to get annoyed because the ponies just kept staring at me. Their multi colored eyes were starting to creep me out. I even think some of them were following me. I tried to quicken my pace, but instead, something caught my attention. Instead of the normal poor houses around me, there seemed to be a treehouse of sorts. Well I believe it was a treehouse. It was as if someone carved the inside of the tree out and made it their house. It had a small red door at the base of its trunk, along with several windows that were carved into the tree itself. There was even a pair of balconies that were hanging on the branches of the tree.

I limped in front of the building and noticed a sign. All it had on it was a picture of an open book. I instantly thought of a library, I was hoping someone inside could give me information. I pushed the door open using my branch and carefully walked in, making sure not to bang my head on the small door.

“One moment, Twilight, I’m almost done.” I heard a childish voice call. I looked around and saw a mini dragon wearing a pink apron. I watched as it dusted down the shelves of books using a pink duster. At this point I wasn’t surprised that it could speak.

The dragons scales were purple while green spikes went down the back of its head and towards its tail along it's spine. The spikes on its head made it look like it had a mohawk, which was kinda cool. “I don’t know any Twilights. But regardless, think you can help a brother out.”

The dragon clearly wasn’t expecting me, because it spun around and dropped the duster. “Whoa. What are you?” He gawked while looking me over.

“Human. And I’m looking for the yellow one. Know where I could find them?” He kept staring at me for a while, examining me. He then gave me a confused expression.

“Yellow one? There’s a lot of yellow ponies. There’s Fluttershy, oh and also Applejack if you count her mane. There’s also-” I cut him off by throwing one of my impact grenades at him. Of course I didn’t actually activate it.

“Yeah, I know it was a stupid question.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed my grenade and began to examine it. “Do you know anyone who could help me?” I asked while limping over towards a weird horse head statue and leaning on it.

He looked up from my grenade. “If you need help looking for a book I could help,” He said while running up to me and giving me my grenade back. I strapped it back onto my belt and noticed he was looking at everything on my belt with a nervous expression.

“No. I’m currently in a lot of pain and I didn’t see a hospital anywhere.” Not that I was actually looking in all honesty. He snapped out of little trance and looked up at me

“Wait, really? You seem fine to me.” He crossed his arms while giving me a look of suspicion.

“You can’t see it, but I have holes where they shouldn’t be.” I lifted and hand and waved it around slightly.

“Wait, you’re bleeding!?” He shouted, sounding scared and concerned.

“A little, but I’m fine at the moment. Just sore and needing to be patched up.” He seemed to calm down a bit because he let out a breath.

“Well Twilight could easily help with that. She could heal you using her magic.” Magic? Does that mean the unicorn can actually use their horns for magic?

“Cool. Do you know where I can find her?” Hopefully I can find her sooner rather than later.

“She went out to grab some quills. She’ll be back eventually if you just want to wait here.” I was relieved to know that I can just relax finally.

“Good. Also, uh... are there any chairs or something? I can barely keep myself up.” The horse head was shorter than me, so leaning on it was starting to become uncomfortable.

“Oh, sorry, follow me,” He said while he took off towards a pair of stairs I hadn’t even noticed.

“Oh fuck off.” I muttered. I really didn’t want to go up stairs. I forced myself to move from the statue and headed towards the stairs. After struggling up each step, I finally got to the top of the stairs. There weren’t that many, but I was still panting heavily.

“Over here!” The dragon shouted. I looked up and saw a couch that was pushed back up against a wall. I dropped my walking stick and hurried over to sit down. I gently sat down in the center of the couch and let out a sigh. It felt good to just sit and relax.

“Thanks my guy, I really needed a seat.” I watched as the dragon hustled over to my stick and picked it up. He then ran over and sat the stick down onto a set of stairs that were leading up to a bed that was just above the stairs I had used to actually get up here. I originally thought this was the second story of the library, but it looked like more of a living area.

“Wait, does that Twilight person live here?” I asked. After setting down my stick, the dragon walked over and sat on the edge of the couch.

“Yeah, Twilight lives here. Why do you ask?”

“Never mind.” I dismissed while leaning back more into the couch. Hopefully I could take a nap and relax. After about a minute of silence, the dragon decided to speak again.

“Hey, what’s your name?” I completely forgot that I had never introduced myself. Now that I actually think about it, a child let me into it’s house without asking the persons name.

I was about to answer the question before I stopped myself. I thought back to what happened and how I got here. I had practically been kicked out of Apex and sent into exile after being betrayed. So I’m not technically Alpha anymore. I tried to hide the sadness in my voice. “It’s Saint.”

“I’m Spike!” That name actually makes sense.

“Nice to meet you Spike.” I extended my hand out for a handshake. He eyed my hand for a second but eventually grabbed and shook it.

“So what happened to you?” Spike asked while eyeing my belt.

“Got jumped.” I let out a groan as I attempted to lay down on the couch.

“But look at all of this stuff. How could you have gotten hurt!” He tried grabbing my helmet, but it was still attached to my belt, so he wasn’t able to pull it off. He tried pulling it again, but it still didn’t come off. He looked up at me with a sheepish grin.

I sighed and undid my belt and all its contents before tossing it all onto the floor. I watched as Spike jumped at all of my stuff. He completely ignored my helmet and instead held up my daggers.

“Whoa! These are so cool! Wait, what’s with the wire?” I watched as Spike tried to stretch out my daggers, but couldn't get far due to the metal wire connecting them. I’m surprised he didn’t question why I had a pair in the first place, but whatever I guess.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll show you after I get healed.” I kept a close eyes on Spike, waiting to see if he would attack me or something. All he did was shrug his shoulders and start playing with the other stuff. Hopefully he won’t know how to activate my grenades.

After about ten minutes of watching Spike bump into stuff while wearing my helmet, I heard a voice from downstairs. “Spike!” It was a female voice shouting. “Spike, you didn’t even finish your chores!” Damn my homies mom just came home. Spike didn’t even take off my helmet as he just ran down the stairs. I tried to listen in on their conversation, but I couldn’t hear them at all.

Hopefully this Twilight character would be reasonable and think about this logically. “YOU DID WHAT!” I heard a different female voice scream. I didn’t even get the chance to look shocked before a rainbow streak shot up the stairs and tackled me.

“FUCK!” I shouted as pain that I thought had left me came rushing back. I shoved whatever was on me onto the side of the couch and fell onto the floor. I tried to crawl away to the stairs but I didn’t get far enough, because I watched as a unicorn came galloping up the stairs.

“Wait, Rainbow!” I heard the unicorn call. I wasn’t surprised that they could talk as well.

I felt my entire body get picked up by something, but I felt nothing touching me. I was carried into the middle of the room, as was the the rainbow thing that had crashed into me. Turns out it was actually a pony.

The pony that crashed into me turned out to be a pegasus. Her tail and mane were both rainbow colored, both extremely unkempt, making her look like a boy. She also had a cyan coat with rose colored eyes. “Why should we wait! We don’t even know what this thing is, it could be dangerous!” Oh well fuck you too then.

“That’s true, but it hasn't done anything to harm Spike.” The voice was the same one I had heard earlier and that I was assuming was Spike’s mother. I took a good look at the unicorn, she had a purple coat along with lavender colored eyes to match her coat. Her mane and tail were dark blue with a pink and purple stripe going through both of them. What confused me though was that her horn seemed to be glowing. A violet aura was surrounded her horn, I then realized that the same aura was surrounding me. Wait, was she controlling me with magic?

I tried to shake myself free but to no avail. My body was still in pain and aching. I watched as Spike finally decided to come to my rescue as he ran up the stairs and stood in front of the purple unicorn. “Wait, Twilight, I never finished what I was saying. I was going to say that he’s injured and needs help,” He said while taking off my helmet and lifting both of his arm up in an attempt to defend me.

“Why didn’t you start with that!” I shouted and glared at Spike. The ponies clearly weren’t expecting me to be able to talk because they both gasped.

“Wait, you can talk!” The pony named Rainbow yelled, curiosity and amazement in her voice.

“What did you even tell them Spike?” I was becoming extremely annoyed at my current situation. Spike turned around and gave me another sheepish grin. He put down my helmet and slipped behind the unicorn who I assumed was Twilight.

I tried to position myself better in the air, but my body wouldn’t move. “Spike, take notes.” Twilight spoke enthusiastically . I then watched as Spike pulled out a quill and a piece of paper out of nowhere.

“Twilight, this isn’t some science experiment! This thing could be dangerous.” Rainbow angrily growled while flailing around in Twilight’s aura.

“ThIs tHing CoUlD bE DanGerous,” I said in a mocking tone. I heard Spike snicker behind Twilight, but Rainbow clearly didn’t find it funny at all because her head snapped towards me.

“What did you say?” She growled at me. She started to glare at me, but I was not scared at all. I might be injured, but no way will I be afraid of a pony.

“I thought horses had good ears.” Was the only response I gave. Rainbow seemed to snap, because after that remark she started to rapidly flap her wings, trying to get out of the magical grasp.

“Horse!? You take that back you buckin-“ Rainbow was cut off as a purple aura wrapped around her mouth and closed it. I couldn’t help but stick my tongue out at her, I was gonna taunt her more but Twilight cleared her throat.

“You’re right Rainbow, he could be dangerous.” I grinned at the fact she didn’t call me a thing. “But, like Spike said, he’s clearly injured.” Twilight levitated my helmet and my other things next to her before looking everything over, her eyes stopping on my daggers. “Just get the girls, we can deal with this together.” She looked back towards Rainbow with a nervous smile.

“On it! But don’t think this is over!” Rainbow said while saluting for the first part and glaring at me for the second. Twilight let her go, allowing Rainbow to fly down the stairs, leaving the same rainbow streak from earlier trailing after her. I looked over to Twilight with a frown.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off before she actually said anything. “If you’re planning on interrogating me, I’ll talk if you heal me. Spike said you’d be able to.” If Spike lied to me, I’m really throwing an impact at him.

Twilight looked up at me with a soft smile. “Of course. Also, it isn’t an interrogation. We just want to make sure you don’t intend to harm anypony.” Twilight levitated me closer to her and pressed the tip of her horn into my stomach. I watched as her horn started to glow brighter, and after a couple of seconds, I felt my aches and pains slowly start to disappear. I even felt the holes in my hands start to regrow from when I had to rip the nails out of them. She was really healing me with magic! But there was still one thing that wasn’t being healed.

After I was fully healed, Twilight removed her horn, letting out a loud yawn in the process. I had to fight the urge not to yawn as well. I opened my right eye, completely forgetting I had had it closed the entire time. But to my disappointment, I couldn’t see out of it. The entire right side of my field of view was shrouded in black.

I didn’t have much time to be worried about my eye though, because Twilight stared trotting down the stairs, leading the way for Spike while she carried me and my gear with her magic.

We entered the lobby of the library and Twilight lightly put me and my gear down. The second I was on the ground and out of her magical grasp, I looked at my gear and contemplated taking my stuff and running. I decided it was a terrible idea since she could just levitate me back. “Umm. How many girls do you have exactly? I’m not really good with crowds.” I looked back towards Twilight and began to rub the back of my head.

Twilight closed her eyes and began to hum, I assumed she was thinking of a response. She didn’t take long, because she opened her eyes not long after that. “There’s only six of us in total. But if Spike trusts you, then I can at least show some trust.” Well that was easier than I expected. I looked at Spike with a smile and gave him a thumbs up, he returned the gesture by giving me a smile. “Spike, when the girls get here, tell them to wait here and watch his stuff. It shouldn’t be long.”

“What about the notes?” Spike asked while looking down at the quill and paper in hand.

“Oh right, after you tell them to wait, meet me in the lab.” She has her own lab? Twilight motioned for me to follow her using her hoof. I complied, and she lead me to a door in a corner that I hadn’t noticed. She opened the door using her hoof and lead me down into what I assumed was her lab. I looked around the room and saw a bunch of lab equipment that looked extremely outdated, but considering I didn’t see a single street lamp in this village, I figured that this is really advanced for the ponies.

Twilight lead me to a table in the center of the room. She sat at one end, while I sat on the other. I don’t know how she sat down on a stool, but whatever. The ponies only came up to my stomach in terms of height so this table was perfect for Twilight, but extremely uncomfortable for me. I was about to complain about it but Twilight cut me off. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the librarian here.”

“Yeah, I figured that.” I grunted out, trying to shift myself into a better position. “The names Saint.”

Twilight gave me a warm smile. Before I could return it, the door leading to the lab opened and in walked in Spike, quill and paper in hand. “Rainbow said they’re on the way. But she isn’t happy about you doing it alone.” Good, fuck that cunt.

“I’ll be fine. Now, are you ready, Saint?” I nodded my head, hoping to just get this over with and be on my way. “Good. I’m going to cast a lie detection spell on you, is that fine?” What happened to trusting me? I’m not really in a position to say no anyway.

“Go for it.” Spike went and stood besides Twilight, ready to jot down everything I say. Twilight pointed her horn in my direction and watched as it started to glow with its signature purple aura. It got brighter for a second before dying down.

“Done.” Twilight spoke while lifting her head back up. I didn’t feel any different, so I don’t know how this spell is going to detect a lie. “Ok, first question is where are you from?”

“Earth.” I watched as Spike wrote down what I said. “Also, do you mind if I ask questions as well?” Hopefully I can get some information about this place.

“Of course you can! But where is Earth exactly? I’ve never heard of it. Is it outside of Equestria?”

“Time-out. The fuck is Equestria?” I stood up in from my stool, extremely annoyed. She’s clearly fucking with me. I thought this was a third world country that was experimenting on animals. But I never heard of a place called Equestria before.

“Equestria is the place you’re in now. Well you’re technically in Ponyville, but Equestria is the country.” I never heard of Equestria before, I’ve been to many countries but this one is a first. I sat back down and started to rub my temple.

I turned my glasses back on and said ‘map’ out loud, completely ignoring Twilight’s and Spike’s questioning glances. Just like before, I watched the globe pop up, spin around for a bit, then display ‘Error.’ How was that possible? Maybe I was drugged while I was unconscious. “Twilight, is there like a magic thing that detects if people are under the influence?”

Twilight was snapped out of her confused state and looked back at me. “Yes, there is. But I don’t think it would work on you, since I’ve never seen your species before.”

“Fuck sake.” I mumbled to myself. I tried to lean back but I forgot I was in a stool, so I ended up falling to the floor.

I blocked out Twilight and Spikes shouts as I closed my eyes and just tried to process everything that was happening to me.

Nothing was making sense. Was it possible that I was sent to another planet? Or possibly another dimension? That shouldn’t even be possible, but if anyone could make it happen, it would be the higher-ups. Bruce is planning something huge, and I need to stop it.

I quickly stood back up and rushed back over to the table to ask Twilight something, but I also noticed Rainbow and four other ponies in the room. I paid them no mind as I started to speak. “Twilight, who runs Equestria?” Worry evident in my voice. I refuse to let Bruce have his way, I’m going to ruin his plans and avenge my team.

Before she could answer me, Rainbow shouted while jumping up onto the table. “Hey! Don’t just start talking like nothing happened!” She was clearly annoyed because she was glaring at me like I had murdered her family. I ignored her and moved my head to the side and looked at Twilight.

She had a look of concern on her face but she responded. “Princess Celestia and Princesses Luna.... Are you ok, Saint?”

“Yeah, I’m straight. My stomach started to hurt is all.” I was plastering a fake smile on my face as I told her this. Twilight gave me a confused look at first but then frowned at me, I then realized I just completely lied to her and she had probably detected it with that dumb spell.

“She didn’t ask what you preferred silly! She asked if you were ok!” A bubbly female voice said. I looked over to my right to see a pink pony. Her coat was pink along with her mane and tail. But her tail and mane were both extremely poofy. She had a pair of cyan eyes, and I also noticed she was lacking a horn and and pair of wings.

“Uhhh no... It meant that I’m fine.” I said becoming nervous because all of the other ponies in the room were looking at me.

“Oh in that case, I’m straight to!” She giggled. She started hopping over to me and somehow bumped Rainbow out of the way as she jumped onto the table.“Hiya, my name is Pinkie Pie!” She smiled brightly while extending her hoof out towards me.

I assumed she wanted to shake hand so I grabbed it and gently shook. “Saint.” I nervously responded. She seemed to ignore it, as her smile somehow got brighter.

Pinkie let go of my hand and started hopping on the table. “Maybe you're hungry, and that’s why your tummy is hurting!” She said while pulling a cupcake out of literally nowhere, offering it to me by holding it with the underside of her hoof.

I looked at her with a baffled expression, but she just kept smiling. “Nah, I’m not that hungry.” As if I’m cue, my stomach let out a loud growl. I forgot that I haven’t eaten since the mission. Everyone in the room started laughing at what just happened. I let out a sigh and shrugged my shoulders. “Whatever I guess. May I have it?”

Pinkie finished her little laughing fit. “Of course you can silly!” She plopped the cupcake down onto the table and hopped off of it. I grabbed it and looked it over. It was just an average vanilla cupcake with pink frosting. I unwrapped the cupcake, but before I could even take a bite, I heard hoofs slam into the ground, almost making me drop my snack. I decided to set it on the table, just in case something happened to it.

“Pinkie! That thing is dangerous!” I heard Rainbow angrily say. I looked at her and watched as steam seemed to be coming out of her nose. I didn’t really care about how Rainbow was feeling because fuck her. I was about to grab my cupcake and take a bite, but before I could, I was interrupted by someone walking over to me.

“Come on now sugar cube, he ain’t all that bad,” A pony with a southern accent said. I looked over and saw the pony in question. She had an orange coat with a blond mane. Covering her mane was a cowboy hat fitting the southern cowgirl look. She even had freckles under her green eyes, which I found adorable. Just like Pinkie, she also didn’t have a horn or wings.

I didn’t even get to respond as another pony spoke. “Yes darling, you described it as if our Twilight was in danger.” The new pony spoke in a manner that reminded me of Crystal. This one walked over and stood next to the southern pony. She had an all white coat with an indigo mane and tail. Her tail seemed to even curl towards the end. Just like Twilight, she too was a unicorn. She had azure eyes that seemed to be watering slightly. I then noticed one of her hoofs was raised to her snout, covering her nose.

Do I smell? I lifted my arm up and sniffed my armpits. I instantly regretted it because my eyes started watering. I smelled like sweat, blood, and dirt. “Damn, I need a shower.” I said as I began coughing.

“Don’t worry dear, you’ll be able clean up soon I believe.” She looked over towards Twilight. The unicorn in question got out of her seat and slowly approached us. She let out a loud yawn as bags seemed to be appearing under her eyes.

“Of course you can. Spike can show you where the bathroom is.” Well at least I can get cleaned.

“Actually, Ima have to put that on hold. I only have this, and it smells just as bad as me,” I said while motioning to my suit. The white unicorn looked me over, examining me.

“Don’t worry dear. I believe I might be able to help with that.” I was happy to know someone was going to do my laundry. “Wait just a moment!” She happily said as she elegantly trotted to the stairs. She had forgotten my suit though.

I was about to go ask Spike where the shower was, but before I could, Rainbow jumped in front of us. “Did you not see what he was carrying around? He’s clearly dangerous,” She said while hovering in front of me. I’m really starting to hate her. “And Pinkie, don’t you have a party to plan?” She questioned while pointing a hoof at Pinkie.

“Oh my gosh! You’re right!” She jumped into the air and hugged Rainbow. “I’ll cya later, Saint, I have a party to plan!” She called while dashing up the stairs and closing the door behind her

Rainbow still didn’t let up though. “He had two knives! Look!” She turned away from me and dashed up the stairs. A couple of seconds later, she came back down with my daggers in her mouth, carrying them by the wire. She spat them on the ground and flew back up. She brought one of my grenades down, and just like before, she spat them on the ground. She repeated this process a couple more times, bringing the rest of my grenades and my helmet. She had them all in a little wet pile just next to the stairs.

The farm pony, Twilight, Spike, and the last pony walked over and looked at my stuff. The last pony was a pegasus, just like Rainbow. She had a yellow coat with a pink mane that covered her cyan eyes somewhat. She hadn’t said a single word through this entire ordeal.

The yellow pony looked up and spoke first. “Sure he has those Rainbow, but he’s obvious scared and confused.” She spoke in a soft and quiet voice. I’m not scared, but definitely confused.

Then the hat wearing cowgirl looked up. “Yeah, and the rest are just some metal balls and ah helmet. Can’t do too much harm to nopony with them.” Little do she know I could level this entire village with a single cluster. But I ain’t gonna say that of course.

Finally Twilight looked up. “Rainbow. He won’t harm anypony, just trust us ok?” She was clearly tired, because she let out a yawn at the end.

Rainbow became flustered, she kept opening and closing her mouth repeatedly, looking for words to say. Finally, she just turned around and flew back up the stairs.

“Rainbow!” The yellow and orange pony called out before they both began to chase after her. I let out a loud sigh and started to rub my temples again. This is starting to give me a headache. Spike seemed to notice my expression because he walked up to me.

“You ok dude?” he asked while looking at me with concern in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just concerned about what I’m gonna do now.” I waved him off while sitting on the stair steps. Twilight walked in front of me with a sad and tired expression on her face.

“Spike, can you finish cleaning the library please. And if any of the girls come by, tell them that I’m sleeping and Saint is busy.” I didn’t think it was that late. I figured healing me took a lot out of her.

Spike nodded at Twilight and looked back at me. I then realized I was blocking his path, so I got up and went to sit on the table Twilight and I had used.

After Spike was gone, Twilight trotted over to her original seat and picked up a quill and a piece paper using her magic, both were just laying on the floor. I guess Spike dropped the notes he was supposed to take. Twilight let out a loud sigh. “The lie detection spell wore off just a couple of seconds ago.” I was about to respond, but Twilight continued. “Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you?” I’m definitely not telling her what’s going on.

All I did was shake my head. Twilight frowned at me, but she quickly changed it to a neutral expression. “Maybe next time. But did you want to talk to princess Celestia and princess Luna?” I did indeed need to speak to them, especially if they ran the place. But I’d prefer to speak to the king and queen.

“Yeah, if possible, anyone at the top will do.” I then noticed the cupcake from earlier was still on the table, so I picked it up and took a huge bite out of it. “Damn, this shit’s good.” I kept eating it till I was finished.

Twilight giggled at my antics and then let out a yawn. “I can send them a letter if you’d like. I bet they’d be interested to know I met a new species.” She makes me sound like a science experiment.

“Really, you can do that?” I was definitely surprised that she could contact royalty. All she did was smile at me.

“Of course, I’ll send it out in the morning. I don’t know how much longer I can stay awake.” She let out another yawn and walked over to my gear and levitated it up. “You’re welcome to stay the night.” She then started to walk up the stairs, of course I followed right behind her.

“Thanks I suppose.” We walked into the lobby and I saw Spike standing on a wooden ladder, dusting the upper shelves. He was equipped with his apron for some reason. “You sure you’re ok with that, Twilight?” Concern filling my voice. I certainly was surprised that she’d let someone she just met stay the night.

“Of course. If you don’t mind, I was planning on putting your stuff somewhere else. Unless you need something from it.” Oh, that’s cool I guess.

“Yeah, that’s ok.” Not like I need anything from it. “Take these too, I guess.” I unstrapped the pouches containing my throwing knives. They almost dropped to the floor but Twilight caught them using magic. She gave me a confused look at first but then just shrugged. I followed her up the stairs that lead to the living area. After climbing for about three seconds, we were standing just below what I assumed was her bed.

“If you’re okay with it, you can have the couch.” She pointed a hoof at the couch.

“I can do that.” I tried to hide the concern and worry in my voice. I was worried that Twilight and Spike would try something while I was sleeping. I could easily deal with Spike, but Twilight could just use magic to hold me.

“Good. Also, you should shower before you sleep.” She said while giggling. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that. “Goodnight, Saint,” She said while turning and walking up the steps that lead to her bed. Before she actually got there, she grabbed my cane with her mouth and brought it up with her. I completely forgot it was left on the stairs.

“Night.” I turned away and started walking down the stairs. I returned to the lobby and sat on the stairs. “Guess I’m sleeping over.” I announced while watching Spike clean. He dropped his little duster and turned to me.

“Really?!” He shouted, clearly excited. All I did was nod as I watched him pump a fist into the air. ”Awesome! I’ve never had a sleepover with another guy before!” So my little homie is a ladies man.

“First time for everything,” I said while leaning back onto the stairs. It was kinda uncomfortable but I was too lazy to move.

“Let me just finish cleaning and we can do something,” He said while speeding up his cleaning.

“Okay.” I continued to watch him for a second, he kept jumping and running from place to place, quickly dusting everything off. I was thinking of grabbing a book, but I don’t really read that often.

I just closed my eyes and thought about what I’m supposed to write in the letter for the princess, maybe I should try to get them to relay the message to the king and queen. Before I could think of anything else, Spike came running up to me while breathing heavily. “ I finished!” He didn’t have to rush it to be honest. It’s not like I would’ve gone anywhere.

“Cool. But you didn’t have to rush,” I said while rustling his head like a dad would for his son. His spikes were surprisingly soft. He only let me do it for a couple of seconds before he swatted my hands away.

“Nah, I wanted to finish fast anyways,” He said with a annoyed tone. “Anyways, what do you want to do?” He looked up to me, now that I was actually taking a good look at him, I realised just how short he was.

“Last time I checked, you’re the one who actually live here. So I don’t know what you do for fun.” I crossed my arms and let out yawn. All he did was roll his eyes and push past me and up the stairs. I followed after him and into the living room. He went over to a desk and opened it, after looking for a second, he pulled out a deck of UNO cards.

“We can play UNO if you want.” He waved the deck around while wearing a smile. Oh shit they got UNO.

“That’s more of a three and up kinda game. Besides, I’m still hungry.” I emphasized this by patting my stomach. As if this world really was a cartoon, I heard Spike’s stomach growl. All I could do was roll my eyes.

Spike looked up to me with a sheepish grin. “Hey, there’s a super cool pizza place in Ponyville. Wanna go there?” Pizza didn’t sound perfect, but then again, I’m flat broke.

“I’m broke, Spike. I literally just got here.”

“That’s fine, I can use some of my allowance!” He took off, running by me and down the stairs. I followed him into the lobby and watched as he grabbed a bag from behind a book on the shelf before running to the front door and turning around.

“Let’s hurry before they close.” He then pushed the door open and walked out.

After sighing and saying fuck it for the umpteenth time today, I followed him. It definitely was getting late in the day. Luckily my glasses were still on, so I could easily see everything. Just like before, all the ponies eyes were on me, I tried to ignore them as best as I could and just follow Spike. It was proving to be difficult though, as I kept looking towards them, fortunately they couldn’t tell what I was looking at though due to the glasses. After only about ten minutes of walking, we arrived at the pizza place.

The place seemed to be similar to a classic pizza restaurant from my world. It had picnic tables just in front of the entrance and an orange and red banner hung in front of the building with the words, ‘Princess Cheese’ written across it. Tinted glass panes served as the walls of the store, preventing me from really seeing what was inside the building.

Spike and I walked in like we owned the place. The inside was just as I expected, booths lining the walls with tables in the middle. No one else was in the building besides the mare behind the counter running the cash register. She didn’t notice us at first, seeming to instead be reading some type of magazine. The mare had a yellow coat with a red fiery mane. Sadly, her tail was being blocked by the counter she was sitting behind while her mane was mostly covered by a hat shaped like a pizza.

Spike walked up to the counter and tapped the top of the counter, he was just barley tall enough to even do this. The mare jumped a little from the scare, but regained herself quickly. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think I would... Whoa.” Her expression was utterly shocked as she finally noticed me, she seemed to be examining me with her golden eyes all the while.

“Sup.” I said while waving. Spike seemed to be looking between the both of us repeatedly. “What’s on the menu?”

She snapped out of her daze by shaking her head repeatedly. She then went behind the counter and pulled out two menus. “Take a seat wherever and I’ll be there in a second.” Her voice being muffled due to the menus in her mouth. She placed the menus down and turned around and trotted through a pair of double doors.

Spike grabbed both menus and lead me over to a booth, we both sat on opposite sides. The seats were extremely uncomfortable though because of my height. I decided to at least look over the menu to see if anything looked good. Nothing special was really on it, well, besides the fact that some of the pizza toppings consisted of hay and flowers.

After a couple of minutes of debating what to get, Spike and I decided to order two large cheese pizzas, two lemonades, and a side of hay fries. Didn’t know what hay fries were, but whatever.

After a couple of seconds of Spike trying to balance the menus on his nose, the mare from the counter trotted over. “So what would you two like?” She asked while floating a notepad and quill next to her, she had a red aura that matched her mane and tail. I didn’t even notice she was a unicorn because of that stupid pizza hat.

Spike relayed our orders and the mare jotted them down. “Those will be ready in a couple of moments. Also, cool sunglasses mister,” She said while trotting back over to the counter.

I adjusted my sunglasses at that. I’m surprised no one’s said anything about them yet. “Yeah, why do you wear those?” Spike asked while looking at me with a questioning expression. Never mind I guess.

“I have my personal reasons.” I leaned back into the booth. My right eye hadn’t came back, which was making me wonder if I’ll be permanently blind in one eye. “Besides, it makes me look cool and mysterious.”

“They do make you look mysterious.” Was the only response I got. While we waited for the food, Spike kept asking me questions about my world, but the only response I gave was ‘I’ll tell ya when you’re older’, which just seemed to annoy him.

After about ten minutes of Spike asking questions, the mare returned. She was holding our food in her magical grasps. She gently sat all the food onto the table. The pizzas were on metal trays while the hay fries were in a container. The fries looked like normal french fries, but the pizzas looked delicious. Both pizzas had steam coming from them, proving them to be hot and fresh.

I quickly grabbed a piece and took a bite. The pizza burnt my mouth a bit, but I didn’t care because of how hungry I was. It tasted amazing though, the perfect amount of cheese and tomato sauce. Even the crust was crunchy. “You sure were hungry mister!” The pizza mare said.

I watched as Spike grabbed a slice and starting eating it. “You can call me Saint,” I said while looking over at her.

She gave me a warm smile and nodded slightly. “I’m Red Domino.” I was about to say something about Dominos from my world, but it probably wouldn’t make any sense.

“Nice to meet you.” I took another bite of my pizza carefully, trying not to make a mess.

“Sorry for staring like that earlier. I was just surprised. I’ve never seen anything like you before.” For some reason she took a seat next to me in the booth.

“It’s fine, you should have seen it when I walked into town,” I said while scooting closer to the wall.

She seemed to not notice me moving, because she moved closer. “I bet that was awful.”

“Oh yeah, it was pretty bad.” Bad was a understatement. I was like a walking freak show for everyone in town.

“It wasn’t that bad, Saint!” Spike said with a mouth full of hay fries.

“Spike, everyone was basically checking me out, like I’m some freak show that’s not welcome.” I tried to hide the annoyance in my voice. He just shrugged his shoulders and kept eating.

The pizza mare giggled at my suffering of being a freak show. “Well, you’re always welcome here. Next time you’re here I’ll even give you a pizza, free of charge.” Well I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

“Really?” I asked, suspicious of the offer. I was trying to think of a catch to this free pizza proposal.

“Of course! You’re just like me when I first got here.” I cocked my head to the side, thinking about what she meant. She then removed her pizza hat, showing off her horn. Spike gasped while I just had a dumbfounded expression on my face. Just as I expected, her horn was the same color as her yellow coat. But her horn seemed to be shorter than what he had seen on other unicorns. “I’ve always been bullied because of my smaller horn.” She put her hat back on and looked up to me with a sad expression. Even her ears dropped down onto her head. “Everypony stared at me for a while when I first got here. I felt like an outcast” I actually felt kinda bad for her to be honest.

I couldn’t help but start rubbing her head and behind her ears with the hand I wasn’t using to eat. She just giggled and leaned into me more. “Aye, we can be outcasts together.” She kept leaning into me more, I was already against the wall so I had nowhere else to go.

“Thank you.” She said while letting out a quite groan.

Our moment was cut off by someone shouting from behind the counter. “Red! It’s closing time. Make sure everything’s clean!” I heard a angry male voice call. After he was done shouting I heard a door open and then close. Must have used the back door I guess.

Red let out a sigh as she looked up at me with a frown. “That was my boss. Here, I’ll get you some boxes.” She got off of me and exited the booth. I watched her trot away for a moment, observing as her tail swayed back and forth. I then noticed something weird. She had a tattoo of a cheese pizza with a slice missing on her flank.

“That’s a weird spot for a tattoo,” I muttered out loud while rubbing my chin. Spike seemed to be done eating pizza because he started rummaging through his bag.

“Her cutie mark?”

“What?” I asked while looking at him with a confused look.

Spike looked up and set down a couple of golden coins onto the table. “You don’t know what a cutie mark is?” All I did was shake my head. “Oh, a cutie mark shows the special talent of a pony. It only appears on the pony when they recognize their talent.” I let out a loud sigh at how stupid that sounded.

Red came back not to long after Spike explained what a Cutie Mark was. There was just no way everybody had one. I definitely would have noticed. She came back floating two small boxes. She sat them both onto the table and opened them. I watched as our leftover pizza was floated into a corresponding box. There wasn’t even that much left, to make matters worse, judging by the size of the boxes, Spike had eaten what amounted to an entire box of pizza and finished the fries.

“There. Your total is... oh, you already paid.” She levitated the golden coins over and counted them. I assumed Spike paid for everything like he said he would. “Yep, everything there. Have a good night you two,” She said while trotting away with the coins. I grabbed both of the boxes and headed towards the main door, Spike following close behind.

It definitely was getting late into the day. The sun was just now setting. Spike and I headed towards the library while talking about how good the pizza was.

We made it there in no time and headed straight to the living area. We both could hear Twilight lightly snoring, so we decided it would be a bad idea to make too much noise. Spike lead me into the door I had seen earlier, turns out it lead to the kitchen. It was a regular kitchen, but some of the appliances were smaller than normal. Spike shoved the leftovers into the fridge and turned to leave.

“Yo, where’s the shower at. I still smell.” I refuse to go to bed smelling like this. He just rolled his eyes and showed me the way to the bathroom door, which was located right next to the kitchen for some reason.

“I’m heading to bed. Just leave your clothes in here and I’ll wash them tomorrow.” He let out a loud yawn when he finished speaking. I watched as he turned around and left.

When I entered the bathroom, the first thing I noticed was the huge bathtub with curtains surrounding it in the corner of the room. It was definitely bigger than what I was used to, but it made sense seeing as the ponies were wider than people. Cabinets and windows were against the back wall. Luckily the windows had curtains covering them. I put my glasses down on one of the cabinets and wasted no time in stripping down, turning on the water, and jumping into the tub.

I almost ended up burning myself because I couldn’t figure out how to work the faucets. But after struggling for a couple of minutes, I was finally able to get it to the perfect temperature. I scrubbed myself till my fingers became all pruny. I even thought about using some shampoo for my hair, but I decided against it.

After only fifteen minutes of washing and scrubbing, I turned off the shower and stepped out onto the hard wooden floor. I quickly shuffled over to one of the cabinets and opened it. It was fortunately filled with towels, all of them were purple for some reason.

I quickly grabbed two and started to dry myself. After I was fully dried, I grabbed a third towel and wrapped it around myself. I didn’t want to use my suit since it probably still smelled.

I grabbed my suit, my boots, and my socks, and put them in a neat pile next to the door so Spike could easily grab and clean them. I then grabbed my glasses and headed for the living room.

When I entered the living room, I set my glasses on a nearby desk and climbed onto the sofa. I didn’t want to think about anything because I was too tired to keep my eyes opened. I’m just praying I didn’t wake up with a knife in my back.