The Lost Courierby Blazing WardChaptersThe PrologueWhere Am I?More Questions With Mild PanicWandering and HeadachesIs Meeting the Locals a Good Idea?Hard LaborThe PrologueAuthor's Note This will be my first ever attempt at writing Fanfiction on a scale this large. Please do leave comments with constructive criticism once you finish reading, but only if it is necessary. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I encourage you to stick around until the end. Thanks for reading The Prologue of, "The Lost Courier". The Prologue Who knew that buying a simple replica of an amulet from a show you love would transport you to an entirely different world. I sure didn’t. It all began as a normal Saturday, aside from the fact that it was convention day. Get up, shower, get in costume, and head out to the convention hall where vendors would be selling their wares. That sounded odd- but, I digress. This was a day of fun and money spending after all. I had a bit of trouble getting into costume since I was alone, and had been alone for around 3 to 4 years. My costume was the generic NCR Ranger Armor and Helmet. What? Don’t look at me like that. It’s cool. Then again, it’s not really generic, is it? Considering the fact that I had painted Luna’s cutie mark onto the chest piece, the same goes for my helmet. However, my helmet had the lenses replaced with ones that glowed like Luna’s turquoise eyes. If they ever crack I have some spare red ones I can snap in place of the turquoise ones. Anyways, since I was alone, I could take all the time in the world to make sure everything was perfect. I wasn’t rushed and I wasn’t yelled at. Only Celestia knows how people reacted when they found out I was a Brony. I was bashed, yelled at, and disgraced when that little secret of mine somehow slipped out of the woodwork. But it taught me something, friends betray you, even if you feel like you can trust them with your life. It was the show that taught me to trust again, albeit very little. It had taken around 30 minutes to get in costume and get my gear on my person all sorted and ready to go. I had the Pip-Boy 3000 from New Vegas, I had the .357 revolver and the apply named Broad Machete. I had decided to add some personal touches to my armor though. As I had mentioned before I painted Luna’s cutie mark over my heart on the chest piece, and as for my helmet, I added Luna’s cutie mark on the right side of the helmet and replaced the generic red lenses of the NCR Helmet with turquoise ones to match hers. I didn’t have enough time to finish my helmet though, because I was going to be late to the convention had I taken the time to finish Celestia’s cutie mark on the opposite side of Luna’s. “Enough rambling, now to the convention hall!” I half-shouted as I rushed out to the main convention area. ‘I wonder what type of merchandise I will buy today? I hope I can find something that fits my outfit.’ I thought to myself as I browsed the goods everyone was selling. As I was walking through the hall, I was getting a lot of compliments on my costume, mostly good things, but some people threw irritating comments my way about how MLP is for girls and the like. But I didn’t pay attention to that, I worked hard on this outfit and gave it my all, that’s what matters in the long run. “Hey, you there, Courier, I have something you might be interested in” Spoke… someone from behind me. As I looked around, I found the owner of the voice. He looked… like he was continuously high or something. Maybe he was just tired. Yeah, probably tired. I hope. But what confuses me the most about this man is that he called me The Courier. I know I was in Fallout New Vegas garb and had a pip-boy, but I have never been called the Courier by anyone I know. Then again, who do I know? ‘What does he want’ I thought to myself as I approached his booth. He had a few things lying about, the Dragonstone Tablet from Skyrim, a Laser Pistol from Fallout 4, the Alicorn Amulet, some helmets from Dark So- wait. Alicorn Amulet? That’s an odd item to have in the middle of so much video game memorabilia. “Hey, merchant, how much is this Amulet?” I questioned him with my best impression of what I thought the Courier sounded like, which was actually just a slightly more menacing version of my own voice. “Well, for you, my good man, for having such a great costume, I will give you a little discount. This old thing is normally $150, but I’ll give it to you for $50.” My mind was blown. He cut the price in half just because of my costume?! Damn, I knew this costume was worth the time! “I’ll take it!” I said rather enthusiastically. “Goodman, here you are. One Alicorn Amulet,” he said with what sounded like… mischievous intent in his voice? No matter, as I have already paid the fair man the $50 he asked for and was on my way. “Thank you for your kindness, fair merchant!” I said again in my best Courier impression. The man smiled… strangely. Not in a bad way of course, but in what looked like a face of pity. He then disappeared from sight behind the curtains of his booth. I found this odd, as when I had turned back to voice my thanks once again, to my surprise, his booth was gone. As if it had never existed in the first place. My eyes went to the amulet now in my possession, to the spot where his booth used to be, back to the amulet. Said amulet gave off a menacing vibe. One of power, one of domination. I quickly slipped it over my head and around my neck and hid it from view. As to not attract unwanted attention from others who asked where I had gotten it. Now that I had thought about it, I found it strange that I was the only one he had spoken out to among the giant crowd of people. He called me the Courier, and it felt… right. ‘Strange… I should be freaking out right now, but I’m perfectly calm.’ I thought to myself once more before heading to the other vendors to see what other goods I might buy before heading to the panels ran by the different developers. I was curious as to what they were hiding behind their facade of being as discreet as possible. As I was looking around, however, I began to feel paranoid. More so than ever, it was as if something was watching me without my knowledge. I looked up at the ceiling of the convention hall and saw the multiple cameras they had around the place. Ignoring this fact, I continued on, shrugging it off as nothing. “That was a good chunk of my money gone from all of the items I purchased today,” I said to myself. “But it was all worth it.” I continued as I was going over my inventory. I had picked up a sweet Alicorn Amulet, a sweet headlamp from Fallout 4 to attach to my helmet, a .357 ammo belt from Red Dead Redemption 2 to go around my torso, a canteen that was accurately modeled after the Vault 13 canteen from New Vegas because it fit my outfit, and a sweet ass golden pocket watch, because why not? I felt like I was a badass to Hell and back. But I knew, in reality, I could never be what I really wanted to be due to the limitations of today’s society. As I was heading back to my car to drive to my temporary home, which was a hotel owned by a contact of mine who was kind enough to let me stay for as long as I needed, I started to feel… strange, and even more paranoid than I had previously thought. My eyes were as wide as you can imagine. Darting here, there, and everywhere. I felt like I was trapped, and that nobody could help me. As I looked around for the source of my sudden panic attack, I noticed I was alone. Not a single soul was in the hall, but there was something there. I could feel it breathing down my neck. I froze. Not in terror. Not in fear. But in shock. As if I was suddenly paralyzed by a blow to my spine. I nearly fell to the ground, suddenly feeling exhausted. But before I inevitably fell to the ground, I had heard a faint voice, feminine in nature, whispering something along the lines of,” Please… help us…” Then suddenly, nothing. Where Am I?Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.More Questions With Mild Panic‘Why is it all starting to come back now, what triggered these memories?’ I thought to myself as I looked at the Elements of Harmony laying dully in their place upon the statue, void of color “It just doesn’t add up. I buy the Alicorn Amulet at a convention, go through the day with no trouble, and suddenly blackout only to end up in Equestria.” I say to no one in particular. “Right, yeah. Okay. That makes perfect sense,” I mumble before cutting myself off by shouting,” EXCEPT IT FUCKING DOESN’T!” Apparently, that shout was loud enough to startle some birds into flying off somewhere less obnoxious. Fucking cliche’ if you ask me. Always happens in any show with a character shouting loudly. But that does raise another question though, why am I here? In Equestria that is. “This has to be a VERY potent lucid dream. Maybe if I feel a certain amount of pa- Oh shit!” Lost deep in thought, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and tripped on a tree root that had grown through a window. I smashed my helmeted head pretty good on the solid concrete floor which in turn caused my ears to ring slightly from the impact. “I’m going to be feeling that in the morning.” I say as I peel myself off of the godforsaken floor. As I regain my footing from my face plant, another question arose. What time period am I in? It can’t be during the actual show, the elements haven’t been destroyed. Well, I say destroyed as in when Nightmare Moon smashed the orbs to dust. If Nightmare Moon hasn’t shown up yet, that means I am either 500 years early, or 1 month to a year away from the events of the first episode. Remembering the earlier confrontation with the Timberwolves, I take out my revolver and reload it. With a click, I opened the loading gate with ease and dumped all of the spent cartridges into my off-hand and dumped them… wait. I have a Pip-Boy, can’t I just put the spent casings in there? “Gah, might as well give it a shot.” I place my now empty revolver into the holster and bring up my Pip-Boy and select the now present ‘Store Object’ option which resulted in me freaking out after the shell casings disappeared from view. “Whoa! How the Hell does that even work!?,” I said in surprise,” actually, scratch that. I don’t think I want to know. Probably magic. Or video game logic. Nothing really makes sense anymore.” Taking my revolver back out, I click to open the loading gate once more and start to swiftly and silently load the shells. It was as if I had done this all before. Closing the gate with a satisfying ‘click’, I spin the cylinder and spin the revolver once before deafly sliding it back into my holster. “I’m getting distracted, I need to keep my mind focused. Er…. what am I doing exactly?,” I ponder out loud as I look at the time on my H.U.D. “Oh, it’s almost 11 pm. That was fast. I guess time works differently in Equestria than on Earth?” I mean, they have two Alicorns that control the goddamn Sun and Moon. It’s always a possibility. Looking up at the rising moon, I see what appears to be the head outline of a pony with a horn on the surface. That has got to be Nightmare Moon, no doubt about it. This helps narrow the time frame down a small bit. If my knowledge serves me correctly, which it has proven so far, the first episode happened during the Summer Sun Celebration. Glancing at the date on my Pip-Boy I see that I am around two and a half months away from the Summer Solstice that happens on Earth. I am hoping that the Summer Sun Celebration is on the same day. “If the Summer Sun Celebration really is that close, I need to prepare. Though it still bugs me, what is my purpose here?” My thoughts began to run wild at all of the possibilities. “I can do what I've always wanted to do. Make friends, have fun, protect those in need, help out around wherever I am needed.” I said with excitement, which disappeared with the next thought. ‘But how would the ponies react to seeing something like me? I might get experimented on… scratch that, I might be attacked on the spot, or worse.’ The thoughts only got darker and darker. The more fantasized ideas shattered and made way for the more logical ones. I’m human, they are ponies. My dream actually coming true is slim to none. My morale worsened faster than a man who was stuck in a dead-end job. The feeling of being alone still surrounding me as I walked throughout the castle. That feeling got worse as I walked towards the entrance to leave. I heard the crunching of glass beneath my heavy boots as I walked down the solitary hall with my head down. I brushed the door aside and walked down the steps only to stop when I reached the bottom. The feeling of dread crashed over me like a tidal wave of ice shards, causing me to freeze on the spot. I couldn’t move, well except for my eyes. I panicked as I activated V.A.T.S. to make sure nothing was around me. My head snapped up and over to the right. What I saw confused the hell out of me. It was a chicken, with the body of a small dragon. No- wait, a small dragon with the head of a chicken. That doesn’t seem right either. Is it a- I give up. It’s hurting my head to think this deep into things. A memory from an episode called ’Stare Master’ reminded me what this thing was and what it did. To give a summarized and blunt version, if you have a staring contest with a Cockatrice, you become a nice garden decoration. Lucky for me, It was looking the other way. I didn’t want to kill unless it was necessary. So that meant no shooting or using my machete. An idea sprang forward, but before setting my plan into action, I went over it multiple times in my head, each time It ended with me as a statue, or the Cockatrice not noticing me. Let me run through my plan once again, just to be safe. I slowly attempt to sneak away from the Cockatrice without making too much sound. If it does see me, I look away as fast as possible and try not to make eye contact. That’s how this thing worked, right? I can only hope that it does. I set my plan into motion as I slowly made my way back into the castle to avoid the Cockatrace and close the door as quietly as possible. All of this happened in about 15 seconds, and the Cockatrace never batted an eye towards the sounds. I peek out of a window and saw something that made me feel like an idiot. It was a statue. A damn statue. I don’t know what it was doing there, nor did I really care at that point. The shock of being in Equestria with real-life counterparts of my gear was still very present in my mind. ‘Who in their right mind would put a statue of a creature that creates other statues out in the open like that!’ That thought then gave way to another. ‘If the Cockatrice was actually a statue the whole time, then why did my V.A.T.S. pick something up?’ I decided against questioning it as it was about 3:00 in the morning. I needed to set up a base camp. I decided against the castle due to it being too open and the floors are made of stone, which isn’t that comfortable to sleep on if you ask me. Walking out of the castle I brandish my machete and get to setting up an area for the base camp. After about a full hour of non-stop work, the camp is finally done. Nothing too fancy, just a tent I had in my Pip-Boy and a log I could sit on. The fire was gently glowing in the night. The light from the fire reflected off of my helmet that I had taken off at this point. I’m surprisingly not as hungry or thirsty as I thought I'd be. That might also be a side effect of the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey… stuff. Gazing into the fire with a glazed look in my eyes I throw another log onto it to make sure it didn’t go out. Thinking about it, everything seemed to have become real when I arrived in Equestria. I was pondering the fact that even though that was the case the Alicorn Amulet didn’t seem to do anything. It was almost as if it was broken, which I find odd. I undo the chain holding the amulet around my neck and hold it in front of me. It feels powerful, yet useless to me. Is it because I’m a human, or is it because I don’t have magic? It’s always a possibility. Even if it was real, I don’t think I'd actually use it. If I am in a dire situation and my weapons are for some reason down, I will. But I don’t want to be corrupted by dark magic for some stupid reason like wearing an amulet. “Did you bring me here? If you did, why? I’m definitely overthinking this,” I softly whisper,” I’ll just put you in storage, for now, I don’t know what would happen if any of the Mane 6 or even Celestia saw me with you”. I lift up my Pip-Boy and select the ‘Store Object’ button. The Amulet disappears from my hands and appears in the menu on the screen. I shut the Pip-Boy off and grab my helmet to do one last sweep of the area before I pass out. The sweep wasn’t too eventful at all actually. Just a few birds and rabbits. The whole sweep took about a total of an hour. I was also camped near the Castle and decided to look around once more before coming back with a book or two. One on smithing and how to repair armor and swords, the other on The creatures of the Everfree Forest. Even though I love the show, I never paid any real attention to the creatures of the Everfree. I do know most of them, and if I run into a Hydra I would like to be prepared. I must add that the books are still in amazing condition. So whatever spell Celestia or Luna used to preserve them must be extremely powerful. At the moment I am laying down in my sleeping bag under my tent checking the time on my pocket watch that I had completely forgotten about. All the while thinking of all the opportunities that present themselves in Equestria. I can protect, wander, or be a jerk. Who knows, maybe the reason why I am here is to do what I want. That last one might be the option that gets me domed by the Elements of Harmony if they ever come around that is. Before I shut my eyes, I lift up my Pip-Boy and admire it some more. I’m still amazed that this thing actually works like it’s supposed to, the same goes for everything else. “So much has happened today. Maybe my luck is finally starting to turn around. Maybe I can finally live how I want and do what I want…” With that sentence, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Author's Note if this one jumps around too much, sorry. I've been under a lot of stress lately, my mind is kind of scattered at the moment. It's also 3:41 am at the time of me writing this. I should get some sleep... nah. Wandering and Headaches*Beep Beep. Beep Beep.* I woke up slowly to my alarm sounding from my Pip-Boy. Lifting my arm up, I turned it off and groggily got up from my sleeping bag. Looking around outside my tent nothing seemed to have changed. I put my helmet on and started to pack up camp, but an Idea sprang to my head. ‘What If I transformed this camp into a fortress?’ I shook my head at my own thought. Bad idea, too many resources would go into something I don’t currently need. I have a fucking pocket dimension with me right now anyway. “What to do,” I said to myself, ”Maybe I could see if I can find my way out of these woods?” That’s exactly what I did. I got all of my gear ready, making sure to erase every trace that I was here away. That took about thirty minutes, as I was still pretty sluggish after waking up so soon, I was never one to wake up early, as I always stayed up until the sun rose. I have always preferred the peace and quiet of the night, it was always so relaxing. But I digress, I just hope nothing happens to hinder my progress towards my goal. The trek through the forest was uneventful, to say the least. Nothing really happened aside from the occasional curious wild animal looking at me. Needless to say, I didn’t pay much attention to my current surroundings as I was walking along minding my own business. I did eventually come to a rope bridge that looked like it has been there for the past 300 years which I somehow managed to make it across safely, it was probably magic. About half-way through my journey, I stopped to rest and read the books I had picked up. I started with the one on smithing, seeing as I needed to know how to fix my own gear up one way or another. Reading through it I see a page on shields and what type of wood is effective for certain designs which could come in handy later, you never know. After reading for about forty- five minutes I close the book and store it away. I have already come up with a few ideas myself which involve reinforcing my chest piece. The one idea I am very fond of is adding some shoulder protection, much like the Elite Riot Armor from New Vegas because I only have cloth to cover my shoulders. I shake my head at those ideas, ”I need to focus, even if I do make it out of the forest alive I can’t guarantee I can make contact with the ponies who have what I need.” I lift up my Pip-Boy once again to see if I have any metal scrap. I don’t, I am positive that there is some form of metal scrap I can get my gloved hands on. I get up from the rock I was sitting on and start walking. Much of the same, wild animals giving me odd looks, etc. I had been walking for about 4 hours in total now, hopefully, I will be out soon. I can always camp out again if I need to. It was then I realized something extremely important. Where the Hell am I going? I honestly can’t tell what way Ponyville is in. ‘If I can find Zecora’s place I can ask for directions.’ I almost shut that idea down pretty fast, as I had no idea how she will react to seeing a strange creature with glowing blue “eyes”. Probably not as bad as the ponies know that I give it some thought. She seems like the best option, to be honest, if I walked into Ponyville literally every single pony in my immediate vicinity would run away aside from Rainbow Dash, I might get tackled to the ground. This is going to be way harder than I thought it would be. I should be out soon, the trees are less abundant than they were seven minutes ago. Okay, I lied. The trees led to a clearing, but it’s not all bad, as there was a stream running through the center. I know I should be panicking at the fact that I am lost in a forest filled with God knows what, but I know I can take whatever it throws at me unless it’s a Hydra. If a Hydra appears I’m kinda fucked no matter which way I look at it. There isn’t anything of use in the area, so I continue walking after a short five-minute break. I’m honestly trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself if I don't get accepted by the ponies, more so how am I going to prove I mean no harm? Rescue a pony from this Forest of the Damned? Right, not likely, unless this world has more than one cliche’ to throw my way. Something else I didn’t take into consideration was the fact that I have Celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks on my armor, which is pretty fucking suspicious if you ask me. I can’t really hide them unless I paint over them, or scratch them off with a blade. The lenses should be okay, but I’m starting to regret the turquoise color I chose, it doesn’t blend in as well as I had hoped. For cosplaying, it was pretty cool, but now it just feels odd. I’m positive I can replace the lenses with the original red ones from the game with relative ease, that is if I can find them amidst all of the clutter I’ll eventually have in my inventory. Sighing tiredly, I keep moving to my main destination, Ponyville. I’m almost there, just another 2 hours of travel. Now, I know I said I want to get there as soon as possible, but I’m tired, and it’s almost midnight. I need to start setting up camp before I pass out from exhaustion. Gripping my machete in my right hand, I start to collect firewood. It was a tedious but easy process. “Now that I have enough firewood for tonight, I should start to set up my tent. Shouldn’t take me long.” I say as I set down the firewood. Pitching my tent only took 20 minutes, with a few problems here and there that were solved with relative ease. I then moved onto the fire pit and dig a hole surrounding it with rocks to prevent the fire from spreading. Now onto the actual fire, which was very easy since I had matches, don’t ask where I got them because I don’t know. But with camp set up, I sit down on a log near the fire and stared into it, much like I did last night. Multiple things were going through my head, many of which involved the Mane 6 and Ponyville in general. I will admit it, I was scared. Not for my safety, but for theirs. What if the timeline doesn’t follow the show now that I exist in Equestria; and the elements are never found? What if Nightmare Moon actually achieves eternal night; will I have to live with that guilt? What about Discord; will my chaotic mindset release him many months too early? What about Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra? I groan as I start to get a serious migraine from overthinking everything. I pull off my helmet and set it aside, pulling up my Pip-Boy to see if I have any sort of medicinal herb to help the pain succeed. “Let’s see here… Mentats - no, Jet - no, Buffout - no, Hydra - maybe,” I list out loud while going through each medical item I have. “None of these would work. There is always a chance that when I use these chems, I will get addicted. Granted, I do have some Fixer, which removes addiction permanently but in turn causes nausea for a short period of time. I think I will just power through this…” I say as I reach for my helmet. I stumble to my tent with helmet in hand, ready to turn in after having a serious migraine that seemed to never end. This migraine didn’t feel natural, I haven’t had one this bad since… whenever I last had one, in fact, I don’t think I've ever had one before. “Goddamnit…definitely not powering through this one,” I said, as I took off my helmet and set it down. Closing my tent, I take off my ammo belt and holster and placed them next to my helmet. I felt my body giving out on me as I slowly laid down on my sleeping bag, waiting for the migraine to end and for sleep to grace me with its presence. Once again the same question crossed my mind before I fell asleep; If me being in Equestria affect events in the future, like Twilight making friends with the others, how will I prevent the change from happening? My mind began to shut down as I thought this over, making my migraine worse. Eventually, I gave up and once again fell into a dreamless sleep. Author's Note Once again, I'm sorry if this chapter jumps around a lot. School is starting up again and I have got so much to worry about. Hopefully, it won't hinder my ability to produce chapters of decent quality. I will try and write longer chapters for those who desire it. Is Meeting the Locals a Good Idea?I've been wandering along the outskirts of a small village for about 3 hours now. I know for a fact that its Ponyville, but I haven't entered due to not wanting to be tackled by a certain rainbow pegasus and imprisoned. I need to keep in mind the I have no idea if this is the Equestria from Friendship is Magic or not. They could be slavers, drug addicts... I've read to much fanfiction on these topics. I'll just ignore those thoughts for now. Before I arrived on the Ponyville outskirts I packed up camp and didn't run into much aside from the odd TimberWolf. My little killing spree in the castle was enough to get the message through. I'm glad it was, I didn't want to waste any more ammo as I have a limited supply of .357. I do have a machete though, so that's a plus. From what I could see ponies were wandering around the market place talking to friends, buying foods, flowers, whatever else was there. A cafe was serving a few ponies waiting outside at the tables. An orange earth pony was hauling barrels of apples to a stall, I'm guessing that was Applejack due to the stetson she was so fond of. That's all I could see from my current position. I didn't come out on the main path into the Everfree due to not wanting to be spotted. My armor blends decently well but I needed to shut off my pip-boy and my helmet so that the red glow wouldn't give me away. "Damn... Should I even attempt to make contact with them or should I just take refuge in the Castle of the Two Sisters, fortify the place a bit," As I debated what I should do, I checked the time on my pocket watch so I didn't bring attention to myself. "Noon... Plenty of time to continue scouting." Gently, I crawl away from the bush I was hiding in and moved to a different hiding spot so that I could view the town square. Better start observing and taking notes before I get caught. Some time has passed, it's now 3 pm and I've managed to gather data on the base layout of the town. There's a market district, a residential district, a food district which is filled with a few cafes scattered about, a town square, Sugarcube Corner, the Golden Oaks Library, and a train station. There is more to it, but I've only managed to get down these details before nearly being spotted. Throughout my expedition, I've only found 5 of the Mane 6. Rainbow Dash who was sleeping on a cloud, Applejack selling apples with her brother at the market, Fluttershy on the outskirts of town taking care and talking to animals, Rarity going to the local fabric shop to buy supplies to make dresses, and Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. I'm surprised she hasn't noticed me, then again she was the one who almost caught me. If I had to pop a guess, Twilight Sparkle isn't in Ponyville yet. So I can narrow my time frame to about 1 year or less before the return of Nightmare Moon. As the members of the Mane 6 who are present in Ponyville seem about the age they were in the show. At least I have new information and a general idea of the time frame I'm currently in. I should probably retreat to the forest for the time being since I want to set up camp and come up with a plan to judge what I'm going to do. "Well, see you soon, Ponyville. Hopefully, it's on good terms." I whisper mostly to myself as I pull back from the Outskirts of the town and back into the Everfree Forest. By good terms, I mean not having to appear threatening or get in trouble with the ponies, that would suck. I carefully tread backward until I make it to the edge of the trail and start to walk in the general direction of the castle. I'm not going to decide on where to stay or what to do until I get my head on straight. I've been in Equestria for only about 3 days so far. Not much. I might meet up with Zecora if she is around. I think I still remember the way to her house. If I can't find it by nightfall I'll just set up camp normally. This time without any headaches. I still have no idea what that was about... Guess what? I didn't find Zecora's house and I tripped on a root. Again. I had my helmet on so I didn't feel it too much as it was mostly just shocking and happened suddenly. I think I was daydreaming about going on random adventures like a fool. I should've been watching where I was going. But I digress. It's now 6 pm and getting dark. FAST. I need to find a place to camp. A clearing would be nice but I might have to clear an area out myself. That's probably a better idea than to wander around in the dark. With a fluid motion, I unsheath my machete and get to work. A few minutes later the ground is cleared and the edges of the camp are camouflaged so that no one finds it while I'm either away gathering firewood or sleeping. I probably should grab a few rocks for a ring around the fire. *Timeskip 15 minutes* I have gotten enough stones for a ring around the fire. Digging a firepit with a cool stick I found on the side of the trail I place the stones around it and place some sticks in the center. It was then I realized something. "Fuck. I forgot kindling and some actual firewood. I'm an idiot." Getting up with a grunt I walk out of the campsite and begin looking for suitable pieces of wood to burn. I had an old ass zippo lighter in the junk section of my pip-boy which still worked. Thank goodness for that stroke of luck. I have a feeling I'll soon run out of luck if this keeps up. The size of the firewood I'm looking for doesn't need to be huge, only moderate. But I can always cut them in half if I needed to. I also need to find a way to fix the chips in my machete when they inevitably do occur. "Now there are a few pieces I could use..." I mumble to myself as I lean over to pick them up. "Decent size, including a few twigs I can use for kindling. I'll keep looking for more than I need. Always good to be prepared. Gotta make sure I don't trip again. That wouldn't be fun picking all of this up. I should also stop talking to myself." *Timeskip back to camp* I made a decent time on everything so far. It only took me 30 minutes to grab the firewood and 15 more to set up my tent. I got the fire started and everything too. My sleeping bag is also set up and I've just been sitting by the fire contemplating what to do with myself. It isn't very easy suddenly being transported to a world different from your own. But even though it is a different world it's still Equestria. That gives me some decent ideas on what to do. I have a few rules in place to make sure I don't mess anything up. One: Don't fuck anything from cannon up. Two: Don't kill anything that can affect cannon such as Changelings, other ponies, griffons, etc. Three: Don't get involved with any adventures that have a big effect on the timeline like during the Changeling invasion, Discord being an ass, the return of King Sombra AKA King Edgelord, stuff like that. One thing I really want to do before I forget is to find that Timberwolf I healed up. I feel lonely and I would like to have a loyal companion by my side. He or she, I don't really know and if I did I forgot, could also help improve my morale drastically. Keeping me from doing something insanely stupid like pissing off an Ursa Minor. THAT would suck. It could also be a replacement for Rex from the King. I remember gunning it for that adorable robot dog each time I started a new playthrough. Anyways, I'm getting off track. I've made a few plans as to what to do when it comes to my current situation. Either I stay in the Everfree and fortify camp and wait until the show actually begins, fortify the castle which would be pretty easy, go and find Zecora and become her friend, or I just walk straight into Ponyville which is an idea, but a very bad one. The downside of fortifying camp include: Taking up time and resources, high risk of discovery, and hunting would be a must. The upsides include: Having a place to stay and feel safe in, having a home base, and I can easily make quick expeditions to Ponyville and the Castle should the need arise. The downsides of fortifying the castle include: Traps could be present, the magic residue could fuck me over in the worst ways, and I could get lost in the maze of the corridors. The upsides include: An armory, a smithy if I can get one set up and working again, solid stone walls to protect from the elements and who knows what else, a throne room to feel badass, a solid base of operations, it's easy to fortify, and I can travel to Zecora's easily if the need arises. The downsides of finding Zecora include: trying to convince her that you aren't a threat, a possibility of a potion to the face, and finding her in the first place. The upsides include: A reliable friend, a great listener, someone to help out, shelter, and a way of getting into the town. The downsides of just walking into town include: A possible Rainbow to the chest, getting thrown out of town, a strong buck from Applejack that could cause my ribs to break, scaring Fluttershy, Celestia could get involved because of a random creature showing up that could possibly harm her little ponies and a few more issues that could arise. The upsides include: Getting it done and over with, the possibility of making friends, having someone else to talk to... that's all I can think of right now. It's getting late and I need sleep. Storing away my notes that I had made earlier in my pip-boy I take off my helmet and lay down on my bag after putting the fire out. Heres hoping for a good night's rest. Author's Note I've decided to try my hand at writing a different scenario to meet the ponies. I have a decent idea of what I want to do in the near future. But I need to ask you all something, do I make The Courier fortify the Castle, Set up a fortified camp, meet up with Zecora, or just walk into town? The most upvoted will be considered. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, despite the long wait. My goal is to have at least 1,300 words per chapter. Hard LaborSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
The PrologueAuthor's Note This will be my first ever attempt at writing Fanfiction on a scale this large. Please do leave comments with constructive criticism once you finish reading, but only if it is necessary. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I encourage you to stick around until the end. Thanks for reading The Prologue of, "The Lost Courier". The Prologue Who knew that buying a simple replica of an amulet from a show you love would transport you to an entirely different world. I sure didn’t. It all began as a normal Saturday, aside from the fact that it was convention day. Get up, shower, get in costume, and head out to the convention hall where vendors would be selling their wares. That sounded odd- but, I digress. This was a day of fun and money spending after all. I had a bit of trouble getting into costume since I was alone, and had been alone for around 3 to 4 years. My costume was the generic NCR Ranger Armor and Helmet. What? Don’t look at me like that. It’s cool. Then again, it’s not really generic, is it? Considering the fact that I had painted Luna’s cutie mark onto the chest piece, the same goes for my helmet. However, my helmet had the lenses replaced with ones that glowed like Luna’s turquoise eyes. If they ever crack I have some spare red ones I can snap in place of the turquoise ones. Anyways, since I was alone, I could take all the time in the world to make sure everything was perfect. I wasn’t rushed and I wasn’t yelled at. Only Celestia knows how people reacted when they found out I was a Brony. I was bashed, yelled at, and disgraced when that little secret of mine somehow slipped out of the woodwork. But it taught me something, friends betray you, even if you feel like you can trust them with your life. It was the show that taught me to trust again, albeit very little. It had taken around 30 minutes to get in costume and get my gear on my person all sorted and ready to go. I had the Pip-Boy 3000 from New Vegas, I had the .357 revolver and the apply named Broad Machete. I had decided to add some personal touches to my armor though. As I had mentioned before I painted Luna’s cutie mark over my heart on the chest piece, and as for my helmet, I added Luna’s cutie mark on the right side of the helmet and replaced the generic red lenses of the NCR Helmet with turquoise ones to match hers. I didn’t have enough time to finish my helmet though, because I was going to be late to the convention had I taken the time to finish Celestia’s cutie mark on the opposite side of Luna’s. “Enough rambling, now to the convention hall!” I half-shouted as I rushed out to the main convention area. ‘I wonder what type of merchandise I will buy today? I hope I can find something that fits my outfit.’ I thought to myself as I browsed the goods everyone was selling. As I was walking through the hall, I was getting a lot of compliments on my costume, mostly good things, but some people threw irritating comments my way about how MLP is for girls and the like. But I didn’t pay attention to that, I worked hard on this outfit and gave it my all, that’s what matters in the long run. “Hey, you there, Courier, I have something you might be interested in” Spoke… someone from behind me. As I looked around, I found the owner of the voice. He looked… like he was continuously high or something. Maybe he was just tired. Yeah, probably tired. I hope. But what confuses me the most about this man is that he called me The Courier. I know I was in Fallout New Vegas garb and had a pip-boy, but I have never been called the Courier by anyone I know. Then again, who do I know? ‘What does he want’ I thought to myself as I approached his booth. He had a few things lying about, the Dragonstone Tablet from Skyrim, a Laser Pistol from Fallout 4, the Alicorn Amulet, some helmets from Dark So- wait. Alicorn Amulet? That’s an odd item to have in the middle of so much video game memorabilia. “Hey, merchant, how much is this Amulet?” I questioned him with my best impression of what I thought the Courier sounded like, which was actually just a slightly more menacing version of my own voice. “Well, for you, my good man, for having such a great costume, I will give you a little discount. This old thing is normally $150, but I’ll give it to you for $50.” My mind was blown. He cut the price in half just because of my costume?! Damn, I knew this costume was worth the time! “I’ll take it!” I said rather enthusiastically. “Goodman, here you are. One Alicorn Amulet,” he said with what sounded like… mischievous intent in his voice? No matter, as I have already paid the fair man the $50 he asked for and was on my way. “Thank you for your kindness, fair merchant!” I said again in my best Courier impression. The man smiled… strangely. Not in a bad way of course, but in what looked like a face of pity. He then disappeared from sight behind the curtains of his booth. I found this odd, as when I had turned back to voice my thanks once again, to my surprise, his booth was gone. As if it had never existed in the first place. My eyes went to the amulet now in my possession, to the spot where his booth used to be, back to the amulet. Said amulet gave off a menacing vibe. One of power, one of domination. I quickly slipped it over my head and around my neck and hid it from view. As to not attract unwanted attention from others who asked where I had gotten it. Now that I had thought about it, I found it strange that I was the only one he had spoken out to among the giant crowd of people. He called me the Courier, and it felt… right. ‘Strange… I should be freaking out right now, but I’m perfectly calm.’ I thought to myself once more before heading to the other vendors to see what other goods I might buy before heading to the panels ran by the different developers. I was curious as to what they were hiding behind their facade of being as discreet as possible. As I was looking around, however, I began to feel paranoid. More so than ever, it was as if something was watching me without my knowledge. I looked up at the ceiling of the convention hall and saw the multiple cameras they had around the place. Ignoring this fact, I continued on, shrugging it off as nothing. “That was a good chunk of my money gone from all of the items I purchased today,” I said to myself. “But it was all worth it.” I continued as I was going over my inventory. I had picked up a sweet Alicorn Amulet, a sweet headlamp from Fallout 4 to attach to my helmet, a .357 ammo belt from Red Dead Redemption 2 to go around my torso, a canteen that was accurately modeled after the Vault 13 canteen from New Vegas because it fit my outfit, and a sweet ass golden pocket watch, because why not? I felt like I was a badass to Hell and back. But I knew, in reality, I could never be what I really wanted to be due to the limitations of today’s society. As I was heading back to my car to drive to my temporary home, which was a hotel owned by a contact of mine who was kind enough to let me stay for as long as I needed, I started to feel… strange, and even more paranoid than I had previously thought. My eyes were as wide as you can imagine. Darting here, there, and everywhere. I felt like I was trapped, and that nobody could help me. As I looked around for the source of my sudden panic attack, I noticed I was alone. Not a single soul was in the hall, but there was something there. I could feel it breathing down my neck. I froze. Not in terror. Not in fear. But in shock. As if I was suddenly paralyzed by a blow to my spine. I nearly fell to the ground, suddenly feeling exhausted. But before I inevitably fell to the ground, I had heard a faint voice, feminine in nature, whispering something along the lines of,” Please… help us…” Then suddenly, nothing.
More Questions With Mild Panic‘Why is it all starting to come back now, what triggered these memories?’ I thought to myself as I looked at the Elements of Harmony laying dully in their place upon the statue, void of color “It just doesn’t add up. I buy the Alicorn Amulet at a convention, go through the day with no trouble, and suddenly blackout only to end up in Equestria.” I say to no one in particular. “Right, yeah. Okay. That makes perfect sense,” I mumble before cutting myself off by shouting,” EXCEPT IT FUCKING DOESN’T!” Apparently, that shout was loud enough to startle some birds into flying off somewhere less obnoxious. Fucking cliche’ if you ask me. Always happens in any show with a character shouting loudly. But that does raise another question though, why am I here? In Equestria that is. “This has to be a VERY potent lucid dream. Maybe if I feel a certain amount of pa- Oh shit!” Lost deep in thought, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and tripped on a tree root that had grown through a window. I smashed my helmeted head pretty good on the solid concrete floor which in turn caused my ears to ring slightly from the impact. “I’m going to be feeling that in the morning.” I say as I peel myself off of the godforsaken floor. As I regain my footing from my face plant, another question arose. What time period am I in? It can’t be during the actual show, the elements haven’t been destroyed. Well, I say destroyed as in when Nightmare Moon smashed the orbs to dust. If Nightmare Moon hasn’t shown up yet, that means I am either 500 years early, or 1 month to a year away from the events of the first episode. Remembering the earlier confrontation with the Timberwolves, I take out my revolver and reload it. With a click, I opened the loading gate with ease and dumped all of the spent cartridges into my off-hand and dumped them… wait. I have a Pip-Boy, can’t I just put the spent casings in there? “Gah, might as well give it a shot.” I place my now empty revolver into the holster and bring up my Pip-Boy and select the now present ‘Store Object’ option which resulted in me freaking out after the shell casings disappeared from view. “Whoa! How the Hell does that even work!?,” I said in surprise,” actually, scratch that. I don’t think I want to know. Probably magic. Or video game logic. Nothing really makes sense anymore.” Taking my revolver back out, I click to open the loading gate once more and start to swiftly and silently load the shells. It was as if I had done this all before. Closing the gate with a satisfying ‘click’, I spin the cylinder and spin the revolver once before deafly sliding it back into my holster. “I’m getting distracted, I need to keep my mind focused. Er…. what am I doing exactly?,” I ponder out loud as I look at the time on my H.U.D. “Oh, it’s almost 11 pm. That was fast. I guess time works differently in Equestria than on Earth?” I mean, they have two Alicorns that control the goddamn Sun and Moon. It’s always a possibility. Looking up at the rising moon, I see what appears to be the head outline of a pony with a horn on the surface. That has got to be Nightmare Moon, no doubt about it. This helps narrow the time frame down a small bit. If my knowledge serves me correctly, which it has proven so far, the first episode happened during the Summer Sun Celebration. Glancing at the date on my Pip-Boy I see that I am around two and a half months away from the Summer Solstice that happens on Earth. I am hoping that the Summer Sun Celebration is on the same day. “If the Summer Sun Celebration really is that close, I need to prepare. Though it still bugs me, what is my purpose here?” My thoughts began to run wild at all of the possibilities. “I can do what I've always wanted to do. Make friends, have fun, protect those in need, help out around wherever I am needed.” I said with excitement, which disappeared with the next thought. ‘But how would the ponies react to seeing something like me? I might get experimented on… scratch that, I might be attacked on the spot, or worse.’ The thoughts only got darker and darker. The more fantasized ideas shattered and made way for the more logical ones. I’m human, they are ponies. My dream actually coming true is slim to none. My morale worsened faster than a man who was stuck in a dead-end job. The feeling of being alone still surrounding me as I walked throughout the castle. That feeling got worse as I walked towards the entrance to leave. I heard the crunching of glass beneath my heavy boots as I walked down the solitary hall with my head down. I brushed the door aside and walked down the steps only to stop when I reached the bottom. The feeling of dread crashed over me like a tidal wave of ice shards, causing me to freeze on the spot. I couldn’t move, well except for my eyes. I panicked as I activated V.A.T.S. to make sure nothing was around me. My head snapped up and over to the right. What I saw confused the hell out of me. It was a chicken, with the body of a small dragon. No- wait, a small dragon with the head of a chicken. That doesn’t seem right either. Is it a- I give up. It’s hurting my head to think this deep into things. A memory from an episode called ’Stare Master’ reminded me what this thing was and what it did. To give a summarized and blunt version, if you have a staring contest with a Cockatrice, you become a nice garden decoration. Lucky for me, It was looking the other way. I didn’t want to kill unless it was necessary. So that meant no shooting or using my machete. An idea sprang forward, but before setting my plan into action, I went over it multiple times in my head, each time It ended with me as a statue, or the Cockatrice not noticing me. Let me run through my plan once again, just to be safe. I slowly attempt to sneak away from the Cockatrice without making too much sound. If it does see me, I look away as fast as possible and try not to make eye contact. That’s how this thing worked, right? I can only hope that it does. I set my plan into motion as I slowly made my way back into the castle to avoid the Cockatrace and close the door as quietly as possible. All of this happened in about 15 seconds, and the Cockatrace never batted an eye towards the sounds. I peek out of a window and saw something that made me feel like an idiot. It was a statue. A damn statue. I don’t know what it was doing there, nor did I really care at that point. The shock of being in Equestria with real-life counterparts of my gear was still very present in my mind. ‘Who in their right mind would put a statue of a creature that creates other statues out in the open like that!’ That thought then gave way to another. ‘If the Cockatrice was actually a statue the whole time, then why did my V.A.T.S. pick something up?’ I decided against questioning it as it was about 3:00 in the morning. I needed to set up a base camp. I decided against the castle due to it being too open and the floors are made of stone, which isn’t that comfortable to sleep on if you ask me. Walking out of the castle I brandish my machete and get to setting up an area for the base camp. After about a full hour of non-stop work, the camp is finally done. Nothing too fancy, just a tent I had in my Pip-Boy and a log I could sit on. The fire was gently glowing in the night. The light from the fire reflected off of my helmet that I had taken off at this point. I’m surprisingly not as hungry or thirsty as I thought I'd be. That might also be a side effect of the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey… stuff. Gazing into the fire with a glazed look in my eyes I throw another log onto it to make sure it didn’t go out. Thinking about it, everything seemed to have become real when I arrived in Equestria. I was pondering the fact that even though that was the case the Alicorn Amulet didn’t seem to do anything. It was almost as if it was broken, which I find odd. I undo the chain holding the amulet around my neck and hold it in front of me. It feels powerful, yet useless to me. Is it because I’m a human, or is it because I don’t have magic? It’s always a possibility. Even if it was real, I don’t think I'd actually use it. If I am in a dire situation and my weapons are for some reason down, I will. But I don’t want to be corrupted by dark magic for some stupid reason like wearing an amulet. “Did you bring me here? If you did, why? I’m definitely overthinking this,” I softly whisper,” I’ll just put you in storage, for now, I don’t know what would happen if any of the Mane 6 or even Celestia saw me with you”. I lift up my Pip-Boy and select the ‘Store Object’ button. The Amulet disappears from my hands and appears in the menu on the screen. I shut the Pip-Boy off and grab my helmet to do one last sweep of the area before I pass out. The sweep wasn’t too eventful at all actually. Just a few birds and rabbits. The whole sweep took about a total of an hour. I was also camped near the Castle and decided to look around once more before coming back with a book or two. One on smithing and how to repair armor and swords, the other on The creatures of the Everfree Forest. Even though I love the show, I never paid any real attention to the creatures of the Everfree. I do know most of them, and if I run into a Hydra I would like to be prepared. I must add that the books are still in amazing condition. So whatever spell Celestia or Luna used to preserve them must be extremely powerful. At the moment I am laying down in my sleeping bag under my tent checking the time on my pocket watch that I had completely forgotten about. All the while thinking of all the opportunities that present themselves in Equestria. I can protect, wander, or be a jerk. Who knows, maybe the reason why I am here is to do what I want. That last one might be the option that gets me domed by the Elements of Harmony if they ever come around that is. Before I shut my eyes, I lift up my Pip-Boy and admire it some more. I’m still amazed that this thing actually works like it’s supposed to, the same goes for everything else. “So much has happened today. Maybe my luck is finally starting to turn around. Maybe I can finally live how I want and do what I want…” With that sentence, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Author's Note if this one jumps around too much, sorry. I've been under a lot of stress lately, my mind is kind of scattered at the moment. It's also 3:41 am at the time of me writing this. I should get some sleep... nah.
Wandering and Headaches*Beep Beep. Beep Beep.* I woke up slowly to my alarm sounding from my Pip-Boy. Lifting my arm up, I turned it off and groggily got up from my sleeping bag. Looking around outside my tent nothing seemed to have changed. I put my helmet on and started to pack up camp, but an Idea sprang to my head. ‘What If I transformed this camp into a fortress?’ I shook my head at my own thought. Bad idea, too many resources would go into something I don’t currently need. I have a fucking pocket dimension with me right now anyway. “What to do,” I said to myself, ”Maybe I could see if I can find my way out of these woods?” That’s exactly what I did. I got all of my gear ready, making sure to erase every trace that I was here away. That took about thirty minutes, as I was still pretty sluggish after waking up so soon, I was never one to wake up early, as I always stayed up until the sun rose. I have always preferred the peace and quiet of the night, it was always so relaxing. But I digress, I just hope nothing happens to hinder my progress towards my goal. The trek through the forest was uneventful, to say the least. Nothing really happened aside from the occasional curious wild animal looking at me. Needless to say, I didn’t pay much attention to my current surroundings as I was walking along minding my own business. I did eventually come to a rope bridge that looked like it has been there for the past 300 years which I somehow managed to make it across safely, it was probably magic. About half-way through my journey, I stopped to rest and read the books I had picked up. I started with the one on smithing, seeing as I needed to know how to fix my own gear up one way or another. Reading through it I see a page on shields and what type of wood is effective for certain designs which could come in handy later, you never know. After reading for about forty- five minutes I close the book and store it away. I have already come up with a few ideas myself which involve reinforcing my chest piece. The one idea I am very fond of is adding some shoulder protection, much like the Elite Riot Armor from New Vegas because I only have cloth to cover my shoulders. I shake my head at those ideas, ”I need to focus, even if I do make it out of the forest alive I can’t guarantee I can make contact with the ponies who have what I need.” I lift up my Pip-Boy once again to see if I have any metal scrap. I don’t, I am positive that there is some form of metal scrap I can get my gloved hands on. I get up from the rock I was sitting on and start walking. Much of the same, wild animals giving me odd looks, etc. I had been walking for about 4 hours in total now, hopefully, I will be out soon. I can always camp out again if I need to. It was then I realized something extremely important. Where the Hell am I going? I honestly can’t tell what way Ponyville is in. ‘If I can find Zecora’s place I can ask for directions.’ I almost shut that idea down pretty fast, as I had no idea how she will react to seeing a strange creature with glowing blue “eyes”. Probably not as bad as the ponies know that I give it some thought. She seems like the best option, to be honest, if I walked into Ponyville literally every single pony in my immediate vicinity would run away aside from Rainbow Dash, I might get tackled to the ground. This is going to be way harder than I thought it would be. I should be out soon, the trees are less abundant than they were seven minutes ago. Okay, I lied. The trees led to a clearing, but it’s not all bad, as there was a stream running through the center. I know I should be panicking at the fact that I am lost in a forest filled with God knows what, but I know I can take whatever it throws at me unless it’s a Hydra. If a Hydra appears I’m kinda fucked no matter which way I look at it. There isn’t anything of use in the area, so I continue walking after a short five-minute break. I’m honestly trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself if I don't get accepted by the ponies, more so how am I going to prove I mean no harm? Rescue a pony from this Forest of the Damned? Right, not likely, unless this world has more than one cliche’ to throw my way. Something else I didn’t take into consideration was the fact that I have Celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks on my armor, which is pretty fucking suspicious if you ask me. I can’t really hide them unless I paint over them, or scratch them off with a blade. The lenses should be okay, but I’m starting to regret the turquoise color I chose, it doesn’t blend in as well as I had hoped. For cosplaying, it was pretty cool, but now it just feels odd. I’m positive I can replace the lenses with the original red ones from the game with relative ease, that is if I can find them amidst all of the clutter I’ll eventually have in my inventory. Sighing tiredly, I keep moving to my main destination, Ponyville. I’m almost there, just another 2 hours of travel. Now, I know I said I want to get there as soon as possible, but I’m tired, and it’s almost midnight. I need to start setting up camp before I pass out from exhaustion. Gripping my machete in my right hand, I start to collect firewood. It was a tedious but easy process. “Now that I have enough firewood for tonight, I should start to set up my tent. Shouldn’t take me long.” I say as I set down the firewood. Pitching my tent only took 20 minutes, with a few problems here and there that were solved with relative ease. I then moved onto the fire pit and dig a hole surrounding it with rocks to prevent the fire from spreading. Now onto the actual fire, which was very easy since I had matches, don’t ask where I got them because I don’t know. But with camp set up, I sit down on a log near the fire and stared into it, much like I did last night. Multiple things were going through my head, many of which involved the Mane 6 and Ponyville in general. I will admit it, I was scared. Not for my safety, but for theirs. What if the timeline doesn’t follow the show now that I exist in Equestria; and the elements are never found? What if Nightmare Moon actually achieves eternal night; will I have to live with that guilt? What about Discord; will my chaotic mindset release him many months too early? What about Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra? I groan as I start to get a serious migraine from overthinking everything. I pull off my helmet and set it aside, pulling up my Pip-Boy to see if I have any sort of medicinal herb to help the pain succeed. “Let’s see here… Mentats - no, Jet - no, Buffout - no, Hydra - maybe,” I list out loud while going through each medical item I have. “None of these would work. There is always a chance that when I use these chems, I will get addicted. Granted, I do have some Fixer, which removes addiction permanently but in turn causes nausea for a short period of time. I think I will just power through this…” I say as I reach for my helmet. I stumble to my tent with helmet in hand, ready to turn in after having a serious migraine that seemed to never end. This migraine didn’t feel natural, I haven’t had one this bad since… whenever I last had one, in fact, I don’t think I've ever had one before. “Goddamnit…definitely not powering through this one,” I said, as I took off my helmet and set it down. Closing my tent, I take off my ammo belt and holster and placed them next to my helmet. I felt my body giving out on me as I slowly laid down on my sleeping bag, waiting for the migraine to end and for sleep to grace me with its presence. Once again the same question crossed my mind before I fell asleep; If me being in Equestria affect events in the future, like Twilight making friends with the others, how will I prevent the change from happening? My mind began to shut down as I thought this over, making my migraine worse. Eventually, I gave up and once again fell into a dreamless sleep. Author's Note Once again, I'm sorry if this chapter jumps around a lot. School is starting up again and I have got so much to worry about. Hopefully, it won't hinder my ability to produce chapters of decent quality. I will try and write longer chapters for those who desire it.
Is Meeting the Locals a Good Idea?I've been wandering along the outskirts of a small village for about 3 hours now. I know for a fact that its Ponyville, but I haven't entered due to not wanting to be tackled by a certain rainbow pegasus and imprisoned. I need to keep in mind the I have no idea if this is the Equestria from Friendship is Magic or not. They could be slavers, drug addicts... I've read to much fanfiction on these topics. I'll just ignore those thoughts for now. Before I arrived on the Ponyville outskirts I packed up camp and didn't run into much aside from the odd TimberWolf. My little killing spree in the castle was enough to get the message through. I'm glad it was, I didn't want to waste any more ammo as I have a limited supply of .357. I do have a machete though, so that's a plus. From what I could see ponies were wandering around the market place talking to friends, buying foods, flowers, whatever else was there. A cafe was serving a few ponies waiting outside at the tables. An orange earth pony was hauling barrels of apples to a stall, I'm guessing that was Applejack due to the stetson she was so fond of. That's all I could see from my current position. I didn't come out on the main path into the Everfree due to not wanting to be spotted. My armor blends decently well but I needed to shut off my pip-boy and my helmet so that the red glow wouldn't give me away. "Damn... Should I even attempt to make contact with them or should I just take refuge in the Castle of the Two Sisters, fortify the place a bit," As I debated what I should do, I checked the time on my pocket watch so I didn't bring attention to myself. "Noon... Plenty of time to continue scouting." Gently, I crawl away from the bush I was hiding in and moved to a different hiding spot so that I could view the town square. Better start observing and taking notes before I get caught. Some time has passed, it's now 3 pm and I've managed to gather data on the base layout of the town. There's a market district, a residential district, a food district which is filled with a few cafes scattered about, a town square, Sugarcube Corner, the Golden Oaks Library, and a train station. There is more to it, but I've only managed to get down these details before nearly being spotted. Throughout my expedition, I've only found 5 of the Mane 6. Rainbow Dash who was sleeping on a cloud, Applejack selling apples with her brother at the market, Fluttershy on the outskirts of town taking care and talking to animals, Rarity going to the local fabric shop to buy supplies to make dresses, and Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. I'm surprised she hasn't noticed me, then again she was the one who almost caught me. If I had to pop a guess, Twilight Sparkle isn't in Ponyville yet. So I can narrow my time frame to about 1 year or less before the return of Nightmare Moon. As the members of the Mane 6 who are present in Ponyville seem about the age they were in the show. At least I have new information and a general idea of the time frame I'm currently in. I should probably retreat to the forest for the time being since I want to set up camp and come up with a plan to judge what I'm going to do. "Well, see you soon, Ponyville. Hopefully, it's on good terms." I whisper mostly to myself as I pull back from the Outskirts of the town and back into the Everfree Forest. By good terms, I mean not having to appear threatening or get in trouble with the ponies, that would suck. I carefully tread backward until I make it to the edge of the trail and start to walk in the general direction of the castle. I'm not going to decide on where to stay or what to do until I get my head on straight. I've been in Equestria for only about 3 days so far. Not much. I might meet up with Zecora if she is around. I think I still remember the way to her house. If I can't find it by nightfall I'll just set up camp normally. This time without any headaches. I still have no idea what that was about... Guess what? I didn't find Zecora's house and I tripped on a root. Again. I had my helmet on so I didn't feel it too much as it was mostly just shocking and happened suddenly. I think I was daydreaming about going on random adventures like a fool. I should've been watching where I was going. But I digress. It's now 6 pm and getting dark. FAST. I need to find a place to camp. A clearing would be nice but I might have to clear an area out myself. That's probably a better idea than to wander around in the dark. With a fluid motion, I unsheath my machete and get to work. A few minutes later the ground is cleared and the edges of the camp are camouflaged so that no one finds it while I'm either away gathering firewood or sleeping. I probably should grab a few rocks for a ring around the fire. *Timeskip 15 minutes* I have gotten enough stones for a ring around the fire. Digging a firepit with a cool stick I found on the side of the trail I place the stones around it and place some sticks in the center. It was then I realized something. "Fuck. I forgot kindling and some actual firewood. I'm an idiot." Getting up with a grunt I walk out of the campsite and begin looking for suitable pieces of wood to burn. I had an old ass zippo lighter in the junk section of my pip-boy which still worked. Thank goodness for that stroke of luck. I have a feeling I'll soon run out of luck if this keeps up. The size of the firewood I'm looking for doesn't need to be huge, only moderate. But I can always cut them in half if I needed to. I also need to find a way to fix the chips in my machete when they inevitably do occur. "Now there are a few pieces I could use..." I mumble to myself as I lean over to pick them up. "Decent size, including a few twigs I can use for kindling. I'll keep looking for more than I need. Always good to be prepared. Gotta make sure I don't trip again. That wouldn't be fun picking all of this up. I should also stop talking to myself." *Timeskip back to camp* I made a decent time on everything so far. It only took me 30 minutes to grab the firewood and 15 more to set up my tent. I got the fire started and everything too. My sleeping bag is also set up and I've just been sitting by the fire contemplating what to do with myself. It isn't very easy suddenly being transported to a world different from your own. But even though it is a different world it's still Equestria. That gives me some decent ideas on what to do. I have a few rules in place to make sure I don't mess anything up. One: Don't fuck anything from cannon up. Two: Don't kill anything that can affect cannon such as Changelings, other ponies, griffons, etc. Three: Don't get involved with any adventures that have a big effect on the timeline like during the Changeling invasion, Discord being an ass, the return of King Sombra AKA King Edgelord, stuff like that. One thing I really want to do before I forget is to find that Timberwolf I healed up. I feel lonely and I would like to have a loyal companion by my side. He or she, I don't really know and if I did I forgot, could also help improve my morale drastically. Keeping me from doing something insanely stupid like pissing off an Ursa Minor. THAT would suck. It could also be a replacement for Rex from the King. I remember gunning it for that adorable robot dog each time I started a new playthrough. Anyways, I'm getting off track. I've made a few plans as to what to do when it comes to my current situation. Either I stay in the Everfree and fortify camp and wait until the show actually begins, fortify the castle which would be pretty easy, go and find Zecora and become her friend, or I just walk straight into Ponyville which is an idea, but a very bad one. The downside of fortifying camp include: Taking up time and resources, high risk of discovery, and hunting would be a must. The upsides include: Having a place to stay and feel safe in, having a home base, and I can easily make quick expeditions to Ponyville and the Castle should the need arise. The downsides of fortifying the castle include: Traps could be present, the magic residue could fuck me over in the worst ways, and I could get lost in the maze of the corridors. The upsides include: An armory, a smithy if I can get one set up and working again, solid stone walls to protect from the elements and who knows what else, a throne room to feel badass, a solid base of operations, it's easy to fortify, and I can travel to Zecora's easily if the need arises. The downsides of finding Zecora include: trying to convince her that you aren't a threat, a possibility of a potion to the face, and finding her in the first place. The upsides include: A reliable friend, a great listener, someone to help out, shelter, and a way of getting into the town. The downsides of just walking into town include: A possible Rainbow to the chest, getting thrown out of town, a strong buck from Applejack that could cause my ribs to break, scaring Fluttershy, Celestia could get involved because of a random creature showing up that could possibly harm her little ponies and a few more issues that could arise. The upsides include: Getting it done and over with, the possibility of making friends, having someone else to talk to... that's all I can think of right now. It's getting late and I need sleep. Storing away my notes that I had made earlier in my pip-boy I take off my helmet and lay down on my bag after putting the fire out. Heres hoping for a good night's rest. Author's Note I've decided to try my hand at writing a different scenario to meet the ponies. I have a decent idea of what I want to do in the near future. But I need to ask you all something, do I make The Courier fortify the Castle, Set up a fortified camp, meet up with Zecora, or just walk into town? The most upvoted will be considered. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, despite the long wait. My goal is to have at least 1,300 words per chapter.
