The Last Mage

The Last Mage

Chapter 1: Departing

Have to make it! Have to make it! I thought as I ran. I was tired, but if I stopped, I died. I-I'm not gonna make it... wait! There it is! I pushed off with the last bit of energy I had left. The sight had filled me with hope that I may still make it out. The ancient circle of stones, many broken or missing, was the sight that brought me this hope, Stonehenge; ancient calender, place of druidic rituals, and the last well of magical energy strong enough to get me out of this. As I ran I heard the unmistakeable crack of a gunshot. The bullet flew past my head, embedding itself in one of the ancient stones as I ran past. I reached the central stone of the ancient well of power. I turned to see three jeeps racing toward me, at least one person with a gun hanging out the doorless sides.

Fuck! Gotta hurry! I pulled out the old gnarled staff that had been resting along my backpack and began to concentrate. I felt the power in the old stones, resonating with the power of the earth itself. The power was vast, but I could tell that it was slowly dyeing. The magic on earth had been dyeing for centuries, and a rare few were born these days that could so much as feel the power let alone use it. I was one of the beings that could use it. The only one that could for more than one or two unconscious things anyway. My ability was the reason there was now a group of people in jeeps holding guns coming right at me. They were some half-assed religious group that thought that anything like what I could do was 'evil'. Ironic seeing as I've only ever harmed people that tried to harm me first. But they had gunned down groups of people to make sure that they got the one they wanted. I had lost a few friends that I've made over the years that way.

My staff began to thrum in my hands, the power was building but they were too close. I hurried and with as much force I could I brought the staff down on the central slab. The staff shattered but the power erupted out. I started to think I had made it. To think that the spell had worked and now I could escape to another world. A bullet through my chest proved me wrong. I fell and my life flashed by. All my accomplishments, my dreams, then my regrets. Oddly enough, the last of the regrets was a rather simple thought. Crap. I'm never going to get to watch season three of My Little Pony. Then there was darkness. Or at least there was to me. To the ones watching, a massive column of white light shot up from the center of the circle, and when it ceased, there was nothing left to indicate I had ever been there.

Meanwhile, in the – relatively – peaceful town of Ponyville, a strange crackling of electricity began right in the middle of the market. Everypony stopped what they were doing to look for the source of the sound, including one purple unicorn, and two pegasi. The electricity intensified, white bolt flying about. Then as the energy was at it's most furious there was a sound half-way between metal tearing, and a dry wind blowing across sand. There was a flash of light and when the spots cleared from everypony's eyes, there was a strange creature sprawled out on the ground. It was wearing some type of clothing and had what appeared to be a sack of some kind on it's back. Pieces of smoking wood were all around it. And there was blood. The hold in the creatures chest was clearly visible through the large amounts of blood that covered it's front and was now pooling around it. Twilight Sparkle, the most well known purple unicorn in Equestria, was the first to snap out of it. She shouted to the cyan and cream colored pegasi next to her and began to levitate the strange creature toward Ponyville Hospital. It was closer than Fluttershy's cabin, and the creature's wounds were too severe for the timid pegasus, that even now flew along side her friends, to treat.