Chapter 1: First Impressions
(10 Years Before Nightmare Moon's return)
In an entirely different dimension, deep in the middle of a forest an ominous rumbling started and a spatial distortion, like a mirage, started developing. Small bolts of lightning arcing from a single dense point in the middle of the distortion increased in frequency until a massive bolt of lightning erupted and struck the ground in a massive explosion. The lightning skittered across the ground dissipating around the body of one Alexander sprawled on the ground groaning in pain. Disoriented, Alexander stumbled to his feet blearily looking at his surroundings confused as to where he was.
"Okay I'm alive so that's good, but I'm definitely not in the city anymore. Got to figure out where I am though." Alex looked toward the canopy and saw the sun and assuming that this sun also sets in the west he turned right and headed roughly north hoping to find civilization. Walking through the forest for what seemed like hours Alexander stumbled across a rather large clearing with a small grouping of hills near the wood line as the sun started dipping below the horizon. Seems like a good place to set up camp Alex though, the clearing had a river fed pond with fish splashing about near and mid sized cave carved into one of the hills making a natural shelter . Farther to the north he could see the ruins of some building maybe a castle or a fortress but he was too tired to explore any farther. While there was still some light Alexander collected some firewood and built a small fire pit near the mouth of the cave igniting the wood with a campfire jutsu as the fire crackled away merrily Alex leaned back against the cave wall and drifted off the events of the day catching up to him.
A lance of sunlight coming through the trees raked across Alexander's eyes rousing him from his sleep. Turning over he tried to fall back to sleep, but it wouldn't come so with a sigh he got up and stretched. Making his way out the cave he stripped out his clothes and jumped into the pond the cold water shocking him to alertness he swan a few laps around the pond. Satisfied that he was awake and warmed up enough he got to work on breakfast scouring the nearby woods for any edible berries or mushrooms. After an hour he made his way back to his clearing with a small sack filled with blue berries and edible mushrooms and sat down near the now dead fire to break his fast. Over the next two months Alexander's life was more or less the same as he made a life in the clearing; he'd built a cabin and moved out from the cave. He'd furnished his home with a decent bed and a fire pit for cooking he'd managed to build an alchemy station and an enchanter's table. In his explorations he'd stumbled upon a decent size coal deposit nearby and build a rudimentary forge as well as a smelter. Using earth bending he'd diverted some of the stream that fed his pond and narrowed the stream making it run faster before feeding back into the pond to drive a waterwheel he'd fashioned to power a millstone to ground the wild wheat he'd found into flour. In a few months with the help of clones he'd managed to turn a mere clearing into a proper thriving homestead. With his living situation taken care of Alex decided to investigate the castle ruins he'd been avoiding and seeing if he could learn anything about his new home.
The trek through the forest took mere minutes tree hopping through the canopy and Alex landed near a debilitated suspension bridge that looked like it was ready to come down that spanned a small ravine that separated the castle grounds from the forest proper creating a natural barrier. Nimbly leaping along the bridge Alex made it across without further destroying the decaying structure and went ahead inside the main hall. Looking around the first thing he noticed was that whoever lived here really like horses, he saw them depicted in moth eaten tapestries and in half crumbled statues even in the cracked glass mosaic leading up to the throne room. Looking at the thrones one was made of marble and had an ornate sun depicted on it and the other was made of obsidian and depicted a half moon. Two ruling monarchs maybe the sun and moon are symbolic but for what? Alex thought trying to figure out what the celestial symbolism meant. Leaving the throne room Alex made his way through the castle but asides from a few half rotted books that he couldn't read he didn't find much and decided to leave and make his way home.
Leaping back across the suspension bridge he headed back home still pondering what the sun and moon on the thrones meant when a young girlish scream ripped him from his thoughts. Not thinking about why someone would be this far in the forest he took of sprinting through the forest at breakneck speed his surrounding blurring around him. The screams kept coming 'come on kid keep screaming let me know where you are' Alex zeroed in on the screaming pulling his collapsed staff from the small of his back and extending it with a flourish as he burst into clearing and immediately looked for the screaming child but paused for a mere second at the sight of an young orange pony with a blond mane cowering over an unconscious and bleeding young red pony with straw colored mane but got over it when a group of wooden wolves charged at the pair their intent obvious as sappy drool leaked from the mouths with one hand he made a hand seal and a shadow clone sprang into existence in a bust of smoke next to him and they performed a substitution with the two ponies taking their place in front of the wolves and immediately sprang forward swinging their staves and dismantling the wolves in an expert display of martial prowess.
The orange pony and the now conscious red pony stared wide eyed an awe at the two strange creatures destroyed the wolves with what appeared to be effortless grace. The two creatures quickly made tinder out of the timberwolves and the few that were left fled deeper into the forest yelping in pain and fear from the two new alpha predators. The orange pony gasped when one of the creatures disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving just the one as is slowly approached them. Taking off his fox ANBU mask Alex smiled reassuringly to the filly and colt and backpedaling from Alex fear etched across her face.
"Be calm young one I mean you no harm, are you okay, your friend seems hurt?" Alex asked softly kneeling down to not be towering over them . Calming down slightly the filly approaches Alex cautiously eyeing the red pony nervously but he just nodded his head.
"Mah name's Applejack and this is mah brother Big Macintosh, please can ya help us mister he's hurt and we don't know where we are?" Applejack mewled her voice cracking from worry eyes wide and shiny from her tears. She wiped her eyes with a hoof and stared up pleadingly at Alex silently begging for aid.
"Well met Applejack, I'm Alexander Xavier Brushtail but please call me Alex, I don't know where you are" Applejack looked like she was going to start crying again but Alex softly rubbed her head calming her down as she leaned into his touch "but my home isn't too far from here I can patch your brother up and we can see about getting you two home after okay, what do you say Big Macintosh?" Alex proposed looking over to the young colt who had gotten to his hooves keeping his injured left rear leg off the ground a rather large bite mark he just nodded his head and limped to stand next to his sister
"There is a fair bit of walking to get there Big Mac it would go faster if I picked up you and carried you there if you don't mind."
"Okay, whaterver'll you think is best Mister Alex." Big Mac agreed as Alex gently scooped Big Mac up and deposited him on his back being careful not to jostle his injured leg to much. The trio set off making small talk along the way and in no time it seemed they made it to Alex's home.
"You got a mighty fine home here Mr Alex, seems comfy." Big Mac stated looking around the developing homestead. Alex nodded his head in acknowledgement and opened the door and gently set Big Mac down on the table and quickly went to another room and came back with a mortar and pestle and a handful of dried plants.
"I'm an master in restoration magic, that's healing magic and the like, but I don't know how your body would react to my magic so I'm not going to chance it, these are some herbs I've picked from the forest that have some very powerful healing properties and it'll go a long way to healing you." Alex explained as he set ground up the herbs and mixed in some water in a bowl mixing everything together in a thick slurry that looked extremely unappetizing.
"I know it looks terrible and probably smells just as bad and I can tell you from experience that the taste is the same but the best medicines are usually the ones that do." Alex chuckled at the disgusted looks on the siblings faces.
"Ya mean I gotta drink that?!" Big Mac squealed his voice cracking. His ears folded back and nose scrunched up from the smell. Alex just laughed at the sight and transferred the concoction over to a clean pad.
"No you don't have to drink it you got lucky. if the bite had been left unattended for a few more hours any diseases would have had more than enough time to set and make it into your bloodstream. Then you'd have to be drinking this and another concoction to purge your body of the disease and I can assure you Big Mac when it comes to purging diseases your body only gave you two ways to violently expel foreign entities and both are unpleasant." Alex explained mirthfully as he gently placed the pad on Big Mac's leg and tightly wrapped it keeping it in place. Big Mac winced as the concoction settled into his wounds stinging them but the sting started fading as the pain started to die down to a dull numbness.
"I forgot to ask ya before but what are ya mister, I ain't never seen nothin' like you before. Are you an Everfree spirit" the filly asked her curiosity overriding her fear.
"No young one I'm not a spirit, I'm an... oddity" Alex implied wanting to keep his heritage to himself for now so as to not scare his new charges.
"What's that mean Mr. Alex, do ya not know what ya are?" Applejack questioned
"Now Applejack don't pry in Mr. Alex's business if'n he wants to tell us then he will." Big Macintosh admonished softly wanting to respect Alex's privacy.
"So how did ya do all those fancy moves to take down them timberwolves an makin' two of yerself, I ain't never seen no magic that kin make more of yerself before." Big Mac suggested changing the subject
"Those were jutsu, shinobi techniques, that I use in my line of work." Alex explained
"Whats a she-nob-knee, I don't think we got those in Equestria." Applejack pondered uncertainly rolling the foreign word over in her mouth
"It's pronounced she-no-be Applejack, and shinobi, just say ninja if you can't, are essentially mercenaries. We do jobs that we are paid to do whether it is for our nation or a client. Everything from babysitting to...other stuff" Alex trailed off near the end not wanting to go into the gorier details of his job. Taking a look out the window he saw the sun dipping down and decided that if they were going to make the journey they'd need to go now. Making there way to the east Alex asked the siblings a few questions about their home and family and found out that their mother's name was Pear Butter and their father Bright Macintosh and their grandmother Granny Smith all worked on the family farm called Sweet Apple Acres.
After carefully navigating the forest, which he now knew was called the Everfree Forest, they emerged from the forest line near the fence spanning the length and breadth of a massive apple orchard which Alex assumed was Sweet Apple Acres. He let Big Mac lead him down the apple rows from his back to a massive red barn and group of ponies bearing torches frantically searching all around the property calling the siblings names
"Ma Pa we're over here!" Applejack yelled waving a hoof gaining the attention of a yellow stallion wearing a stetson with a red mane and a clearly pregnant bisque colored mare with a curly yellow orange mane and an older green mare with a graying mane who came charging over. Alex gently set Big Mac down and slowly got up and kept his hands in plain sight not making any sudden moves but already had a shadow clone made to substitute with in case things got any more heated.
"Peace, ponies, this one means you no harm, I ran into your children in the forest and returned them home." Alex stated slowly
"Where in the hay do ya live, I ain't never seen a critter like ya in Ponyville before." The green mare probed giving Alex a stink eye.
"I live in the forest, elder one, I have made my home in a clearing about three miles-" Once again Alex was interrupted
"The Everfree Forest?!" the three adults shouted in disbelief
"Yes, I have been living in the Everfree Forest for a few months."
"How in the hay are ya not monster chow?! That place is one of the most dangerous places in Equestria!" The green mare blurted waving her hooves around emphasizing her disbelief.
"I can assure you elder one, that I am more than likely more dangerous than anything in the forest." Seeing the distrustful looks on the adults faces Alex quickly clarified "that being said, as I stated earlier I have no intention of causing anyone intentional harm so long as no harm comes to me." Clearing that up Alex rose to his full height towering over the ponies, 'Land's sake that critter's bigger'n the princess' he heard the older green mare mutter and chuckled, the older mare blushed having been overheard.
"Now that that has been cleared up I believe introductions are in order, I am Alexander Xavier Brushtail of the Brushtail Clan" Alex formally stated bowing slightly in greetings.
"Now that's a right formal greeting there partner, my name's Bright Macintosh just call me Bright Mac and this here is mah wife Pear Butter, this is my ma Granny Smith and ya already know our young ins." Bright Mac introduced the Apple family. Alex briefly bowed again after introductions he looked around the farm and noticed that near the edge of the farm several pairs of glowing eyes belonging to the same creatures he'd fought off earlier peered at the ponies from the safety of the forest. An idea sprang into being and he decided to offer his services to the Apple family in exchange for their product and their silence.
"What do ya mean services, what can ya do?" Bright Mac asked "You look like ya might be a good farmhand but I'm not sure what else ya could do." Bright Mac scratched his head with a hoof looking around the farm trying to think of something.
"To put it shortly you have a problem, look at the eyes from the forest" Alex pointed to the treeline and the ponies gasped noticing the eyes glaring at them "Those animals wouldn't be anywhere near your farm if they were wary of you, to them you're food and the moment I'm gone they'll make a move on your family. The only reason they haven't already is because they know what I'm capable of and they're cautious. I can do everything from espionage to body guarding to even babysitting if need be," Alex shuddered briefly thinking about the times he was commissioned to babysit, the fur on his tail took forever to grow back in" I was quite good at body guard missions myself when I was an active shinobi. I'm willing to patrol your farmlands and keep predators and the like away from you and yours so long as you'll have me. All I ask is that you keep my existence a secret and supply me with a few starter trees so that I may start my own apple grove." Alex proposed, extending he senses he knew the creatures in the forest getting restless and knew that they were going to act soon so he decided to give a little demonstration of his skills. He sat down cross-legged his back to the creatures and listened as the family debated his offer, Applejack looked up from the family huddle to look back to Alex looking past him and gasped her eyes shrinking to pinpricks and screamed
"TIMBERWOLVES" at the top of her voice alerting everyone to the oncoming danger. focusing his senses Alex felt out for the timberwolves and once he figured they were close enough he jumped to his feet and turned around a kunai knife flying into his hand so fast it seemed like it teleported and sent if sailing at the nearest timberwolf impaling it dead center in its head. The timberwolf went limp mid leap its eyes dimming and landed behind him scattering across the ground like a broken puppet. Not missing a beat he raced past the slain wolf and drew his staff from the small of his back and with a quick flourish extended it to its full six and half feet trailing in back of him as went to engage the rest of the pack. Smashing his staff into the head of one timberwolf he used it as a balance as he cartwheeled over it pulling his staff out of its ruined head and spun in a wide arc catching another in the jaw shattering it and its head along sending bits of rotting wood flying like shrapnel. They rest were quickly and masterfully dismantled in no time leaving nothing but broken piles of wood and awed ponies in the aftermath, a gout of fire from his hand turned the former timberwolves, now kindling, to piles of ash that scattered with the wind. Dusting his hands off he turned around and smirked at the gobsmacked look on their faces.
"So how'd I do?"
"Yer hired" the Apple family said in unison.
Author's Note
Greetings and salutations, I'd like to start out with the disclaimer; I do not own Naruto, Bleach, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter, Dragon Ball Z (or Super) or any other copyrighted works, the only characters or techniques etc. I claim are my own. Which at the moment are Alexander Xavier Brushtail, with any others that may follow.
With that out the way I'd also like to say that this story is inspired the concept of the displaced idea so with that said, I'd like to apologize about any unintended copying done and if it does happen please bring it to my attention so I may try to fix it. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and please leave comments. I like to see where I need to improve and hear your feedback IT JUST MAKES MY LOVE YOU MORE. Sorry about that, my Other took control for a second there.
Anyway, please enjoy and thanks for reading
Prologue
*Beep* *beep* *beep* *bee- SMASH the blaring of the dime store alarm clock ending, shattered under the force of the blow of a furred appendage before it slithered back under the nest of blankets it came from. The figure in said blanket nest stirring from a restful sleep.
"Stupid clock, that's the third one this month." The figure croaked his voice still groggy from sleep.
Slowly getting up from his comfortable bed and stretching, his hands reaching for the ceiling with a satisfying series of pops along his back, lets out a sigh. He reached his behind him and gently grabbed the appendage growing the base of his spine, a blackish grey brush tail with a white tip, and gave a slight pull releasing the tension from the night before in a series of satisfying pops. Releasing his tail and giving it a quick flick the figure fumbles around the wall he until he finds a switch and flips it briefly wincing from the brightness from the light he trudged to the bathroom and shut the door with flip of his tail.
Flipping the light switch on, the figure turns and faces a full body mirror revealing his appearance. Brown colored skin and long black hair braided into dreadlocks that reached down to the middle of his back, eyes still bleary from sleep open further to reveal silvery gray irises with a slit pupils not unlike a cat or fox. A slightly larger than normal nose in the middle of his face and opening his mouth in a jaw cracking yawn shows teeth made for an omnivore, grinding molars near the back and sharper pointed teeth near the front the canines being more pronounced than on a regular person tied everything together. Turning away from the mirror he finishes his bathroom routine and steps out shaking his tail of excess water and dresses for the day ahead.
Coming down the stairs we see him wearing a uniform of sorts, a padded dark green flak jacket with an assortment of pouches placed about. Beneath that a long sleeve dark blue shirt covered his torso and riding up fishnet chain mail could be seen beneath above another blue shirt A pair of dark blue cargo pants with white tape around his ankles and around his right thigh were a weapons pouch lay and a pair reinforced open toed boots adorned his feet completed the ensemble.
Walking into the kitchen he sad down for a quick breakfast and opened today's newspaper. Reading an article about his assignment, a man-made Oblivion Gate that was going through the final test phases. His mission was to observe the Gate and ensure that any hostile factions were denied access to the Gate, as had been the case months ago where a radical group had interrupted the test and almost made off with the scientists before their guards subdued them.
Opening a closet door he reached inside and grabbed several items, the first a bo staff, it was an unusual bo staff in that it had several attachments that made it looked like it was made to change shape into something else. The other was a sheathed ninja-to that he attached to his back and with a quick whirl his bo staff compressed down into a size no more than about eight inches and slid it into a slot near his waist along his back. Satisfied he had everything he headed to the kitchen, and on the way out the door he grabbed his wallet opening it showed several cards and an ID displaying his face and name, Alexander Xavier Brushtail, checking the contents briefly before putting it in a pocket and grabbing his phone on the way out the door and disappearing in a blur of speed on the the nearby rooftops.
Making his way across the rooftops Alex was looked out at the city as it went by, humans, bipedal cats and lizards, elves and even small dragons commuted through the city streets and in the skies dragons and other figures could be seen jumping across rooftops and flying through the air to their destinations. But Alex paid them no heed as this was an everyday sight, his eyes set on a central building nearby that towered over the rest; his destination. Landing near the entrance he waves to get the attention of the guard, a mid size green colored dragon.
"Greetings, how are you?" Alex said in Dovahzul, the dragon language.
"I'm fine, thank you." The dragon replied in a rumbling baritone, inclining his head in greeting.
"I'm expected, I have a meeting with a few specialist in research and development." said Alex in Common language, fishing out his wallet and showing his ID to the guard before moving on when he was cleared. Making his way through the lobby Alex spotted several coworkers and gave a few greetings as he made his way up the stairs to the fifth floor or research and development. Opening the door he walks in to the sight of two people arguing about something, but its technical jargon and just flies over his head and ignores them and heads towards a lone female bipedal cat, a khajiit, looking over a clipboard and writing figures down. She looks up and smiles as Alex makes his way over.
"Hello Alex, S'mari is sorry for forgetting our lunch date. S'mari's cub came down with a sickness and this one could not leave her alone." S'mari said in greeting.
"It's no problem S'mari, I know how it is, I hope little T'masi feels better soon." Alex said smiling; giving S'mari a hug as well.
"T'masi knows that her uncle Alex is always worrying about her and she knows that Alex wasn't mad about missing his date." T'masi said chuckling as she nuzzled into Alex's chin, Alex returned it with a smile thinking about his honorary niece.
They broke apart and S'mari led Alex to a archway that's been recently installed. It looked like an old Oblivion Gate but with some major modifications, it was reinforced with metal and had a lattice of wires running across it connecting it to a massive glowing soul gem the size of a man as a power source. The gate was off at the moment, but the purpose of the gate was to manually open a gate to another realm without the need of one of the Daedric princes and putting the world in peril from unbound daedra. Of course the development of the gate had seen criticism from factions that felt that there was nothing else but the planes of Oblivion and the realms of the Daedric Princes beyond the gates and that the risk was not worth it. While others felt that there has to be more to the universe than just the Oblivion and Daedric realms, maybe even a path to Aetherium itself or beyond.
Beckoning the pair of squabbling scientists over, S'mari directed them to begin the start up sequence for the Gate. Alexander watched as the soul gem glowed making the wires connected to it turn a cherry red from the power flowing through them. The power heading to the gate made it glow an ominous red setting an eerie tone and putting Alex on edge; from experience he knew that things of this magnitude never go this well and he'd be dammed before let something go wrong involving something like a man-made Gate. With sufficient power running through the Gate a deep humming began to build and a visual ripple of sapphire blue energy emitted from the Gate in pulsing waves before coalescing into a whirlpool of color as the Gates stabilized.
The scientists and S'mari, too caught up in monitoring the Gate, didn't see the air ripple around an invisible figure but Alexander did and casually put his guard up so as not to tip off the intruder and looked around for anymore intruders. Unfortunately several had managed to get into ambush positions around the Gate and S'mari. Before he could get off a warning they reappeared with shout; several of them charged the control panel and the soul gem smashing the panel before dropping to the ground dead with several kunai sticking from their bodies courtesy of Alexander. With one arm still extended from throwing Alex turned on the ball of one foot sweeping a leg out facing the opposite direction, widening his stance in a low crouch he shot both arms straight out fists clenched sending a chunk of the ground flying at another attacker at high speed. But the attacker saw the projectile coming and dropped into a low horse stance and crossed his arms across his torso bringing up a wall of stone blocking Alexander's attack dead and shot out a fist sending his own boulder back. Unfazed, Alex loosened his stance and with a quick wave motion drew water from his hip pouch and turning in place he quickly flowed through a water blade kata sending the blade of water flying at the boulder cleaving it in half sending the halves past him. Not losing a step Alex body-flickered to his attacker and delivered a vicious right cross that sent his attacker rag dolling across the ground unconscious.
In the time it took for Alexander to dispatch the first group of intruders a second managed to compromise the soul gem and flee, disrupting the energy flow and causing it to overload with unstable energy.
"Glory onto Dagon!" Yelled the last of the attackers before immolating himself and part of the Gate causing the portal to become unstable and grow uncontrollably.
"S'mari, grab the other scientists and get out of here now!" Alexander ordered while bracing himself against the high winds picking up from the vacuum of the Gate.
"S'mari will not leave without you, we go together!" She yelled back as she struggled her way to his side against the winds.
"Please you have to go-"
"No, S'mari will not leave her brother!"
"I'm not giving you a choice sister," Alex said under his breath steeling his nerves for what he must do.
"What did you say, this one did not-"
"I will always love you and T'masi, may you walk on warm sands." Alex interrupted, pulling S'mari into a hug trying to put everything he was and will feel into it before shoving her away with a wave of water out the laboratory door before freezing the water and the door shut in a thick layer of ice... he would never forget the shocked look on S'mari's face as the door quickly froze over. He turned back the the rapidly destabilizing Gate ignoring the muffled pounding and pleas from S'mari to turn back and flee but his mind was made up, he had to try to contain the explosive decompression that was sure to come or else it would take the building and possibly a large chunk of the city with it when it went.
Quickly going work, Alexander bent water and stone into a curved wall of sorts making layer upon layer around the Gate hoping to cushion the explosion and absorb as much of the energy as possible, but he was having limited success. For every five layers he added another two were sucked into the Gate but he kept it up knowing that the Gate would only absorb so much before the energy building up had nowhere to go but out in an explosion of energy destroying it and hopefully only the room with it. As the vacuum decreased Alex heard an ominous rumbling emanating from the Gate as energy and pressure built up. Low on energy from the amount of bending he'd done Alex turned around as he heard ice crackling from the sealed door, his sister had sent fireballs and lightning jutsu hoping to break in but he knew that it wouldn't be enough and smiled sadly knowing that she knew as well but knew she wouldn't stop.
"Don't do this please, there is still time you can make it!" S'mari pleaded her energy spent as she slumped against the frozen doors breathing heavily.
"You know I can't, someone has to try to contain this and you know I'm the best, I wasn't ranked S-class for nothing you know." He said softly moving to rest by the door to be near his sister one last time.
"This wasn't suppose to happen" S'mari said as she tried her hardest to stop the tears from leaving her eyes, "it was suppose to be a test run."
" I know, but you can't predict everything sister."
"S'mari won't stop you know, wherever Alex is going S'mari won't stop until S'mari can make a portal to find you." S'mari said with determination wiping her eyes of tears.
"This one knows S'mari won't quit, S'mari is to stubborn." Alex chuckled unknowingly dropping back into Khajiit pronunciation. Back at the Gate lighting arced from the Gate scorching the walls as the energy grew to critical levels an explosion being imminent. Reinforcing the walls and the laboratory doors a final time Alex turned and told S'mari to leave and after looking into his eyes a final time S'mari nodded but not before getting a final word in.
"S'mari will not say goodbye because goodbye is final, S'mari says she will see you again beloved brother, may you walk on warm sands." She stated new tears tearing down her face as she turn and fled leaving Alex behind.
"Farewell sister, may you walk on warm sands, I will see you again." Alex uttered as light from the Gate overtook him illuminating the entire room before rapidly shrinking into a pinpoint of light for a split second before exploding in a sapphire bloom engulfing Alex leaving nothing but shadows burnt into the ground.
