Chapters Author's Note
Bible will be mentioned a lot. It won’t be a integral part of the story, however.
Entry
The Paladin woke up, groaning with annoyance. He had woken up late again, and would likely be late for-.
He stopped. Nothing felt right. He felt too... solid. He felt way too big. He didn’t feel like him.
The Paladin opened its eyes, and was greeted with the beautiful sky. It’s light shone down on him, giving him energy and determination. He tried to get up, pushing himself off the ground with his way-too-big hands. At first, he felt like he was fine, and maybe he was just sleepwalking.
His hypothesis was soon proven wrong as he looked down at himself. It was all armor. He saw no skin inside the metal he was trapped in. Worse, it didn’t feel like he had skin at all. It was as if he was a phantom in control of his body.
He tried to remember what happened. The only thing he could retain was a bright light advancing down on him, it’s power overtaking him. Thankfully, he knew the rest about who he was.
He was Jackson Malverry, a student at his local high school who was quickly getting tired of all those assignments. No matter how much tutoring he did he didn’t seem to understand the work material enough to get a decent grade. He was hoping to do good on his finals so he could have a chance at getting maybe a C-. His parents were very busy most of the time and didn’t have a chance to help, and he had no siblings. He was all alone in that cruel world.
The only thing he was good at was just being a decent person. He always helped those who needed it and he always spoke out against bullying and harassment. Of course, bullied hated him for it, and often picked on him for it, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. He picked up these lessons from his own Bible. It led him toward a brighter path and teachers often recognized his passion in helping those in need.
However, school matters could wait, now it was time to figure out what was happening. He looked around, trying to pinpoint any evidence of a specific location. However, he could find none. Grasslands aren’t exactly good indicators of these types of things. Sighing in frustration, the beast walked, eventually coming toward a forest. It looked inside, seeing nothing but trees for as far as the eye could see. He shook his head, he wouldn’t find out where he was in there. The smarter thing to do was to follow the tree line. So he did, making sure to look out for landmarks. Eventually he stumbled upon a strange sight: a cottage. It seemed to be connected to the earth itself, with roots stemming from it, and nest having been set up at various points on it. Quietly, he advanced toward the cottage. Walking toward the front door, he made sure not to damage anything, as his large figure could bump into one of the walls. Making sure not to dent the wood of the door, he knocked.
...
No answer. The beast knocked once more and received the same result. Whoever lived here wasn’t home, or hasn’t been home for a long time. Observing a pathway in front of the house, the beast followed it, intent on finding more signs of civilization.
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The beast was starting to wonder how long this path went on. Seriously, he had been going on for hours and there was still no sign of civilization. He was starting to hate this little adventure of his. Every attempt at quelling his boredom failed. Signing? No. Dancing? No. Staring forward? No. There was no end to this endless cycle of boredom, even as the night took control of the skies once more. Thankfully for the beast, his boredom would be quelled, as the sight of a village arrived. He rushed as soon as he saw it, eager to meet the locals and get back home. However, his enthusiasm would go into a downward spiral as he observed the building, and he slowed down. They were too colorful. Everything about this place was colorful. It was strange.
The beast now roamed the village with a cautious pace. There were no locals roaming the streets right now, so he was currently looking for clues of who he was dealing with. He would hate to have to breach someone’s privacy. This option would begin to seem like the only option as his search still yielded no results. Apologizing in advance, the beast looked in on a widow. What he saw was shocking. A pony was laying down on the bed and sleeping. Not just any pony, but a colorful, cartoonish one at that. For a moment, the beast seemed grossed out, who dyed ponies and puts them in beds? He would be even more shocked as he noticed a horn sticking out of the heads of these ponies.
Unicorns?! Oh no, what is happening? Am I in some kind of alternate reality? Wait no, that wouldn’t exist. This has to be some other planet or something.
The beast looked up toward the stars in the night sky, looking to confirm his theory. They did, he recognized not one of the constellations. Even the moon looked different, sporting a carving of a unicorn on this planet’s moon. The beast knew this was not his world, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He escaped the confines of the village, running back toward the path which he had taken earlier.
This time the path felt like it took 10 minutes to make it back to the cottage. This time, he looked in the window to observe the creatures inside. He once again found a pony, this one having wings and not a horn.
For the first time in ages, Jackson knew not where to start. His thought process seemed to revolve around passing out or running away. He thought to run away. Loud thumps emanated from his figure, disturbing the Pegasus and causing her to wake up.
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Fluttershy woke up to the sound of big thumps from outside her house. She responded by jumping under the bed and hiding for her life. Once the thumps went away, she came out, looking around for any sort of danger. When she found none, she looked outside, she saw nothing that would catch the interest of anypony. She sighed in relief and went back to bed. Telling herself she would inform her friends of what just transpired.
The Summer Sun Celebration was a festival praising the current monarch of the nation of Equestria. Every year, on the longest day of the year, ponies gathered and celebrated the Sun’s emissary. It was a very special occasion for ponies all over the globe, as it reminded them of their greatest treasure, Celestia. However, instead of celebration and joy the ponies of Equestrian were granted with terror and eternal night, as the once-banished Nightmare Moon returned to bring Celestia to her knees. Ponies went back to their homes in fear and grief as there was no sign of Celestia from anywhere in Equestria.
However, all was not lost as six mares were now on a mission to take back the crown from the evil alicorn. Their names were as follows: Twilight Sparkle, their self-proclaimed leader, Rarity, the fashion-obsessed dress-maker, Rainbow Dash, the dangerously confident Pegasus, Fluttershy, the quiet and shy animal nurse, Applejack, the tough and stubborn farmer, and Pinkie Pie, the mare who has way too much energy for her own good. These six mares will go on a mission to save Equestria from the endless night and do the impossible.
Currently, Nightmare Moon was observing the six mares at the entrance of the Everfree Forest in the form of blue, starry mist. When the Mane Six began to move foward, the mist quickly flew ahead of them, making sure to remain unseen. As it flew, it laid several traps its wake. However, it would soon encounter a being it would of never thought of seeing.
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Jackson had found out many things in the hours he had been in this world. To name a few, he found out he had a massive shield on his back, which looked like it could block a missile, and he also had a massive hammer that was strapped to his side that he could pull out. He experimented with these items and found they made a good combination. If he was under attack he could probably defend himself easily.
Unfortunately for him he was going to have to put this statement to the test as a blue, starry mist shot right at him. Acting on reflex, he quickly pulled his hammer from its strap, at the same time using his other hand to grab the shield off his back. He placed the shield between him and the incoming projectile just in time to block it. The mist seemed to act alive for a moment, bouncing off the shield and rolling into a tree. It was as if it was a bird that just hit the window of a building. Suddenly, the starry substance transformed into the form of that of a dark horse, with a mane that seem to radiate energy straight from the heat of the stars. It quickly got up on all fours and turned to him. From there he noticed that it had armor, as well as a horn and wings to go along with it. So it was a mix between a Pegasus and a Unicorn? That didn’t explain the size, though. The other equine creatures he observed were way smaller than this one. So the only conclusion he could possibly reach was that it was a super-pony. If that was the case he would need to be careful.
Quickly, he held up his hammer and shield, preparing for any attack this thing might throw at him. The super-pony did the same, radiating a strange glow from its horn and watching his every move. Jackson knew this would be a long fight.
Suddenly, the thing shivered. At the same time it’s eyes widened, seeming to perhaps realize something or remember something. The super-pony gave him a quick glare before transforming back to its misty form, and flying into the darkness of the woods. Despite this, Jackson continued his stance, ready for any sign that the super-pony would attack him once again. Once a significant amount of time passed with nothing happening, he assumed it ran away and he relaxed. Thankful that a battle had not taken place, Jackson decided that he would wait for the night to withdraw so that he could at least maybe meet some of the locals. Perhaps he could converse with them?
The line of thought made him stop for a moment. He hadn’t talked at all so far, and all he made so far were deep grunts and growls that resulted from the body of a beast rather than an actual, thinking person. So he tried to talk.
“Hello, hi, hola... woah.” His voice was deep, extremely deep. He sounded nothing like his former self; instead he sounded like a cartoon villain. That was a bummer, the locals might not like a giant beast made of metal that sounded scarier than the beasts of the wild. He decided to wander the forest, which seemed to lack much of the things you would expect from a regular forest. The trees themselves looked like they wanted to kill him and there a strange aura of dangerousness that filled the forest. Despite this, he pushed forward. He doubted the beasts of this forest could stand a chance against the power of several tons of metal crushing them. He thought about this for a moment. Maybe the true monster of this forest was him. He was bigger than any of the dangerous grizzly bears or cats that wandered the forest where he once lived. However, Jackson dismissed this thought as soon as it entered his mind. How could he be a monster? A monster is not just a large animal. A monster is something that finds solace in cruelty. Adolf Hitler, Vlad the Impaler, Joseph Stalin, and more recently, Joseph Kony. These were true monsters. They may not have had the raw power of a grizzly bear, or the size of a dinosaur, but they had the cruelty that no animal could ever have. This one factor is one of the many reasons he considered humans and animals different. One is mindless and only exists to reproduce and eventually die. One commits the greatest atrocities that any living thing could commit.
...that was dark. Jackson always thought way too much. He was starting to think it was unhealthy for him. Whenever he was doing something boring, he would always end up having philosophical debates inside his mind, thinking of the depravity of humanity or his own religion. Perhaps this amount of thinking led to great things. He would never know, as he was no longer on earth.
Jackson thought about the ponies he had seen and the things they owned. All their buildings were colorful, and they always seemed to smile. Perhaps they had found a way to live peacefully, not making the same mistakes his own ancestors had. If so, he would be all too eager to meet them. Maybe this was his purpose here, to become a new person and live like he always wanted to, kind and respectful, and willing to do anything to show everyone that violence was never the answer. Such a statement may be obvious to most, but often times human beings rejected peace. In recent years, division and conflict seemed to build up. The society which he knew seemed to be rapidly deteriorating from when he was born. There was so much... hate. He hated to see it. He wanted to fix his country and reintroduce peace to his society. This was his chance to find out how.
His monologue that was going on inside his head was stopped by the sign of a castle, and in front of it were six mares, all walking toward the large building. This was his chance to meet the locals and introduce himself. Saying a quick prayer, he walked toward the six mares.
Author's Note
Paladin encounters a Nightmare Moon then has a philosophical debate inside his head. This is a bruh moment. Dark themes!
Author's Note
Changed the fight scene so that the Paladin had trouble and was injured.
First Encounters Part 2
The saviors of Equestria charged forward, intent on saving the day, literally, and bringing justice to Nightmare Moon. Twilight Sparkle almost charged over a cliff in her enthusiasm to reach the castle. She was saved by her brave and loyal friend, Rainbow Dash, who had to catch her from running straight into the void. Following this, Rainbow Dash flew over the cliff and pulled up the broken bridge in order to allow them to cross. However, she was stopped by the Shadowbolts, evil creatures made from the magic of Nightmare Moon herself. Following this exchange, Rainbow Dash stuck by the side of her friends and denied the Shadowbolts their victory. After she reconnected the bridge, they planned to head inside the castle. The Mane Six were stopped, however, by thumps.
Thump, thump, thump.
The noise came from behind, and when they turned around they saw a fierce creature. It was a large, metal biped that held a massive shield, along with a hammer that could instantly crush any of the ponies present. Twilight Sparkle was the first to act.
“Quick, get behind me!” She said quickly as she threw herself in front of them. Just as quickly she formed a strong barrier capable of withstanding powerful magic attacks. However, she didn’t know if she could withstand the force of a Paladin.
Paladins were one of Equestria’s most ancient creatures dating back to the reign of Grogar, where they patrolled his prisons which contained high-value artifacts and creatures. Despite their corporeal appearance, Paladins are actually phantoms that create powerful armor for themselves through the use of their magic. The origin of these phantoms is unknown, as Grogar never revealed where he found them, but it is known that they are some of the most powerful spirits of Equestria.
The fact that Twilight was facing one herself was terrifying. Plus the Royal Guard was in no position to help at the moment as they were currently trapped in Canterlot fighting Nightmare Moon's army and cultists. They were all alone, with no backup nearby.
Suddenly, the Paladin stopped right in front of them, it held out its hands and pushed them forward and backward. Twilight, scared and confused, continued to hold her ground. When this failed to satisfy the beast, it began to make weird noises. It was deep and it sounded like grumbling. After listening for a while, Twilight realized the beast was trying to speak with her. So, in turn, she spoke back to it.
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Jackson saw the purple pony jump ahead of the rest of them and create some kind of barrier around them. Putting two and two together, he figured the ponies were scared. So, he made a "stop" motion with his hands. Seeing as this did nothing, he began to speak, "Hello, creatures, I am Jackson. I am a creature that has been transported here through unknown means. I do not wish to enter combat with you, rather, I wish to make great partnerships with you and together we can strive to be better. Is that alright? Hello?" Jackson looked at the ponies as they looked at him in a confused manner. They seemed to no longer think they were in danger as they stared at him a little more. The purple pony began to make weird whinnying noises before Jackson noticed a beast behind them. It was a wolf that looked to be made of wood and had green, glowing eyes. Fearing for the group of pony’s safety, he yelled, "GET DOWN!"
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Suddenly, the Paladin roared at the ponies and charged straight at them, hammer and shield equipped. The ponies quickly jumped out of the way as the beast barreled past them and right into something they didn't see. When they looked back they saw that the Paladin was now fighting with an Alpha Timberwolf. The Paladin had just charged into it with his shield and was now waiting for the Timberwolf to attack. The Timberwolf had already recovered and was now circling the Paladin. They stared at each other for a while, neither willing to make a move. Suddenly, the Timberwolf attacked, dodging a large hammer from the Paladin and striking it with the force of a car. The Paladin stumbled back, with the Timberwolf following him in order to get an extra shot on. However, the teeth of the Timberwolf was blocked by the shield of the Paladin, which nearly broke the Timberwolf's teeth in half. The Timberwolf whimpered, and ran away to try and avoid another attack. The Paladin threw the hammer straight at the Timberwolf, which barely managed to dodge the Timberwolf. Thinking the Paladin was now without a weapon, the Timberwolf advanced toward the Paladin. The Paladin's hammer then slammed straight into the back of the Timberwolf, taking out several chunks of wood with it. The Timberwolf, now enraged, charged toward the Paladin. It was too fast for him to try and attack as it scratched and bit him. The Paladin dropped the hammer and grabbed the Timberwolf by the tail. It threw the Timberwolf into a tree, breaking the tree in half and doing considerable damage to the Timberwolf. The Paladin threw his hammer once again, striking the Timberwolf in the head, nearly decapitating the Timberwolf and causing it to run off. Whimpering was heard throughout the Everfree Forest that night. The injured Paladin then went to check on the ponies, making sure none of them were hurt in the carnage.
“Wow, that was... quite the show.” Rarity commented from behind Twilight. The Paladin looked back toward the castle which was the destination for Twilight and her friends.
“Oh yeah, the Elements! Let’s go!” Twilight said as she zoomed past the Paladin. The others did the same, causing the Paladin some trouble in trying not to crush them.
The last one, a pony it had seen earlier while spying on the houses, quickly thanked him, “Thank you, mister, I would help you right now... but-um I have to go with my friends. I am sorry they were so rude to you, I'll try and make it up to you.”
When they finally passed the Paladin, it observed them rush into the castle. When it could no longer see the ponies, it shrugged and walked away.
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“That was really weird.” Jackson thought to himself. He never thought that there would a massive freaking wolf made of wood try and hurt those ponies. That thing really hurt him too! Those scratches didn't just effect the metal.
“This world is strange, nothing here makes sense! Magical stuff and weird conscious ponies. What is going on? I’ll have to find answers, I guess. Well, at least I protected them. They should be safe and now I have good standing with them. Perhaps we can share things about ourselves later.” For now, though, Jackson wandered the forest. No creature dared step in the way of him, his hulking armor would prevent damage to himself anyway. He continued to wander throughout the night, eventually stumbling upon a hut.
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