Raven Revenant

Explanations And Meeting New Ponies

"I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!"The earth filly kept saying, over and over, and over. Oleander groaned, Cozy just rolled her eyes, Xuez looked indifferent, The twins looked bored , and Raven was still trying to catch his breath and calm down the crying filly. "MY SPECIAL TALENT IS MAKING THINGS GO BOOM!" Raven's one good eye twitched, and he glared down at Amber.

"Amber Star!" Raven said through clenched teeth, catching the earth pony's attention. Amber nearly forgot that she was in trouble for almost getting them killed in that explosion. "We nearly got vaporized, and you're dancing and cheering because you got a mark on your flank. Do you see the problem?" The man replied with suppressed anger.

Amber's ears flattened while rubbing a hoof over her foreleg. "I'm sorry, mister Maxwell." The filly had teary eyes after saying that.

The man let out a tired sigh as the anger slowly drained. "We'll discuss punishment later." He gave cozy a single glance. "You too, Cozy." The pegasus scowled and crossed her forelegs while mumbling along the lines of 'I saw that button first.' and 'not my fault it was so red and shiny.'

"Oh, buck!" Oleander pointed a hoof towards the direction of what used to be mountains. The four mountains that used to make up Foal mountains have been vaporized. All that was left was the base of the mountains and the surrounding vegetation. "Foal mountains is gone!" Everypony gasped at the sight while the human looked up with a raised eyebrow.

Raven put two and two together in his mind and came up with a single answer. "This is not good" The group just destroyed four mountains; anyone with a brain would send a scouting team to come and investigate. They needed to leave this area now. The cyborg entered his mercenary captain mindset and turned towards the unicorn. "Oleander, do you have a map? If you do, I need to see it right now."

The unicorn whipped her head back around and faced the human. Her horn flared, causing her to wince, but she produced the map as he asked for. "Take it." She levitated the map over to him. Raven placed the no longer crying filly near Amber, taking the map. "While I look this over, I'm going to ask you a series of questions, and you're going to answer them to the best of your abilities." His voice left no room for disagreements or backtalk, and he had no time for their antics.

"First question. How old are the foals?" Raven asked as he examined the map filled with horse puns.

"Cozy glow is 11 years old. Moon Charm is 13 years old. Xuez is 11 years old. Night twister and Dew Twister are 14 years old. Amber Star is 10 years old, and Jade star is 2 years old. "The mare replied and waited for the next question.

It wasn't as bad as Raven thought. Three were already teenagers, while the others were near the age, except for Jade. Now he needs to ask the unicorn about supplies. "How is our food and water situation?"

"We still have five days' worth of food left, not including you, though, but we'll need to refill our water canteens soon." While she answered the question, Raven took a photo of the map with his phone. This caused some of the members of their little group to give him questioning looks.

Regardless, he continued with his questions. "What type of currency is in use in Equestria, and how much of it do we have?"
He didn't have the exact number, but he was asleep for a long time, and he doubts these ponies are still using ED.

The unicorn points a hoof at Cozy, and pegasus puffs out her chest in pride. Cozy pulls out a brown pouch from under her cloak. "Equestrians currently use bits as money." Cozy pulled out a gold coin from the purse and tossed it to the mercenary. Raven catches it with his hand and examines the currency closely. It was just a simple gold coin with no markings or engravings. He tosses the cashback at Cozy with a snort. Cozy catches it and places it back in the bag. "We currently have 257 bits left, but I'm sure I'll be able to 'find' more along the way, hehe hehe." The little filly giggled.

"Need to keep my stuff away from her."The man thought before giving Cozy a nod and bringing his attention back to the map. Raven gathered that the Nasod archives are somewhere outside Equestria, but leaving Equestria will be a problem. He moved on to the next question. " How will ponies of Equestria react to seeing me?" He already knew the answer but wanted to hear it from them.

Suddenly everypony found the ground very interesting, and some of them started pawing the dirt with a hoof. Xeuz was the first to speak up and look up at the human. "Well." Raven looked up from his map and gave the winged Zebra his full attention. "Ponies would run away from you and start screaming 'monster.' Then the Royal guards would be called and be ordered to arrest you. You would be thrown into the dungeons until you've been processed, and you get your hearing." Xuez sounded miserable as he spoke.

The Zebra pointed a hoof at the human. "In your case, you'll be stuck in dungeons until one of the princesses come to talk to you and deems you non-dangerous. You'll be on probation and have your weapons taken away. You would also have taken classes on 'what it means to be a pony.'" The Zebra spoke that last part with such vitriol; it would leave even the cyborg ill. And He continued. "And the sun princess will say 'They will accept you in time.', lies! They'll wave and smile and speak ill of you behind your back and still think of you as a monster!"

Xuez's angry scowl was soon replaced with sadness again. "This has happened to me and many others in Equestria. And this will happen to you if you submit yourself to the Equestrians." The winged Zebra sat on his haunches and kept his eyes on the ground. "Love and friendship are only for those who fall in line."

It wasn't Raven's style, but he walked over, got on his knee, and gave Xuez a one-arm hug. Xuez flinched back but realized the man was doing and hugged him back. "It'll be alright." They both heard a chorus of "aw's" from most ponies around them. Raven was the first one to pull back with a slight blush. "This is why I don't hug people." He mumbled. Xuez, on the other hoof, had tears of joy running down his face, along with a smile.

Raven turned around and cleared his throat; he wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible. "Are..." Raven clenched his fist in frustration; he didn't want to ask the question and didn't want the answer because he already knew the answer deep in his heart. "Are, are there any humans left...Or am I the only one?" His voice was monotone and held no emotions.

Then he heard it, that one word he never wanted to hear, and it came from Moon Charm. "No." He looked calm and collected on the outside, but it all came crashing down on the inside. "Most Ponies don't know what a human is, while others believe that humans are just a foal's tale. You're the first human this world might ever see."

Every emotion was washed away in a sea of apathy. Raven had nothing; no one, not even his kind, was around. "What's the point?"He asked himself, feeling crestfallen.

"Fool, you still have your life! That means you have a chance!"

"a chance at what?"

"To bring back humanity! The Archives must have something!

"I still have a chance. Plus, I haven't fully examined the data I received from the server room." He nodded to himself. He still had a chance to fix things. "Plus" Raven looked back and saw that the Outcasts were giving him worried looks. "I still have them, they saved my life, and I was about to give in to despair. Have I fallen that far?" The human finally had a goal now, and that was to bring back humanity, no matter what! "I'll do it for my fallen comrades, and I'll do it for you, Seris!" No matter who or what got in his way, he’ll push them out the way and bring back humanity!

Raven turned back around and fully faced the group, with a determined look and smile on his face. "It doesn't matter. I still have a debt to repay to you guys, and this I swear." He placed a clenched fist over his heart and gave them a nod. This caused the foals to cheer out and Oleander to give an approving nod and smile. Before anyone could say anything else, a high-pitched beeping sound could be heard. The source of the noise came from Raven's new device.

The human wasted no time and took out the phone and found that the map had been thoroughly examined and matched the possible location of the archive. The app pointed towards near an area called Prance, stratusburg, and Wuy-Dovey Smoochy land. If Raven ever found the ponies who came up with these stupid names, he was going to strangle them.

Asides from the wanted violence, Raven, had a clear idea of how they would get there, but it wasn't going to be easy. He looked from his phone and gave them a straight face. "We're leaving Equestria." Once again, they started cheering. These youngsters did not like Equestria. Raven held his claw out to calm them down, which they did. "Don't go cheering yet; we have minimal options. Seeing as I'm considered a mythical beast, and you're all minors, no one is going to let us past."

He let the information sink in and continued after a short pause. "So we're going to Baltimare, and we're stealing a boat from horseshoe bay." Everypony went wide-eyed at that plan, Xuez raised a hoof in the air. Raven pointed his finger at him to speak.

"Isn't stealing bad?" Cozy rolled her eyes at that one and gave the Zebra a 'Are you serious' face.

Raven ignored the silliness and replied, "Yes, stealing is wrong, but we have few options. I'm certainly not going to beg the two princesses for anything. Plus, it's either this or going with Plan B." The man rubbed his hand under his chin in thought. "It involves a lot of killing and property damage, neither I have a problem with." The Zebra shuddered at the very thought.

A thought did pop up in Raven's head, and he pointed his index finger at Oleander, who perked up. "When I first met you guys, those cloaks of yours, something felt off about them. It was as if my mind was telling me to look away." The unicorn nodded with a smile on her face.

"Very observant, mister Maxwell. I enchanted these cloaks with a 'Notice-me-not' spell. It tells the mind to forget what it just saw or put it as background noise. Observe" Oleander put her hood up, and the spell took effect. The human was having a hard time keeping the unicorn on his mind. The results weren't as bad, considering he knew what it was doing and knew what he was looking for. After a minute, Oleander pulled the hood down.

"Can you make me one, or at least use that spell on my armor?" Raven replied, raising a good point.

"Unfortunately, no, the whole point of the spell is to pass off already mundane things to be more ordinary. Casting a spell-like that on a manticore wouldn't do anything." Then she pointed a hoof at Raven. "In your case, you're a 14 hoof tall mythical creature, and you would be noticed instantly."

Raven clicked his tongue in annoyance and waved her off. "I'll find my own way to sneak in without being noticed. Now let's get going. I still have questions, but we can't afford to stay here any longer. Same formation!" The human took the lead, with Oleander in the back. The group made their way east. "Now tell me all about Equestria."

Oleander cleared her throat to start the tale. "Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria."

"If only I had my magic right now" Starswirl thought as he was galloping for his life, along with the uninjured pillars of Equestria members. Which was currently Starswirl himself, Rockhoof, and Somnambula; Rockhoof was carrying the other three members. Flash Magnus had a dislocated wing and two broken hind legs. Mage Meadowbrook had a nasty gash on her side, along with a broken foreleg. Mistmane currently had a head injury and wasn't even conscious at this point.

Currently, they were galloping in the forest and were trying to get away from a Chimera. Half of the torso and front legs were a tiger, and the other half was a goat and its back legs. Finally, the tail was a snake, and it spoke with a wicked grin on its face. "Nowhere to run, little poniessss" The snakehead taunted the group of heroes. The tiger head spoke up next, with an evil smile on its face. "Just make it easy on yourself and stop running." The goat head was last to speak. "We promise, it'll be quick."

"My legs are getting tired!" Somnambula called out in a shrill voice.

"Strength is failing me; we have to do something!" Rockhoof called out, looking ready to collapse any minute.

Starswirl bit his lower lip in thought, and he came up with one conclusion "I'll sacrifice myself". He had no doubts in his mind, he sacrificed himself for Equestria once, and he would do it again for his friends. "I'll distract it wh-" He didn't finish his sentence when a booming voice interrupted him.

"GRASP!" The next thing everyone knew, there was screaming and the sound of flesh and bone being sliced. The Pillars skidded to a halt and turned around to see what happened. Then they saw it; the chimera's snake tail was severed and in the claw of some kind of hairless ape wearing armor. In its other hand was a jagged sword big as a pony; it threw the snakehead to the side in disappointment.

"You'll pay for that!" The remaining heads screamed out to their attacker. The ape just simply taunted it with a single talon and gestured for it to 'to come here.'. The chimera charged forward in a rage, wanting to end the creature that dared attack it.

The beast didn't make it half away before the stranger threw out another attack. "Sprout!" The stranger swung his sword once, causing a wave of black and white mist to come out and go through the chimera's body. Not a second passed before black vines started sprouting all over its body and proliferating. The monster howled in agony as it tripped and fell over. Already the vines were taking over the tiger's body, killing it in the process. That just left the goat alive.

The stranger walked over to its dying prey and stared it down. The goat was the first to speak. "You bastard I-" That was the last thing it said before the stranger sliced its head off with his sword. The creature started cutting off other parts that weren't affected by the vines yet.

The Pillars of Equestria were horrified after what they had just witnessed. A creature of unknown origins came out of nowhere, slaughtered a chimera with ease, and didn't break a sweat. The creature finished mutilating the corpse and made its way over to the group of ponies. "Buck,buck,buck,buck"! Flash whispered out in a panic. All of them were frozen in place by fear.

The creature was a few steps away from them, and it stopped and looked them all over with its one piercing eye. It was as if death was given form and stood right in front of them. "You ponies, alright?" It spoke in its deep rumbling voice. The creature frowned at what he saw. "I think one of your friends uh, wet herself." It pointed out with a bloody claw.

And indeed, he was correct; Somnambula did urinate. "I-I-I" She stammered out before being cut off by another voice.

"There you are, Raven! Don't go off running like that without saying a word!" A black unicorn with a horn similar to Mistmane galloped behind the tall creature. Seven foals followed her soon after, and one of them rode on the back of a red filly. The creature frowned and turned around and faced the unicorn.

"That's right! I'm not done with you!" The one called Raven said in a dangerous tone. "That was the dumbest fucking history lesson I've ever heard! Especially with the Sun and the Moon part, magic can't do that!"

"Those are the facts, you dumb ape! Honestly, the planet orbiting around the Sun is hogwash! Where did you even learn that from!" The unicorn argued back. The two of them kept going back and forth about how dumb each other were. Meanwhile, the foals looked at the arguing adult and teen with a bored expression.

Starswirl was horribly confused by all this first; they were freed from limbo. The mountains nearby were gone; next, a monster was chasing them, then saved by another monster, and now that same monster is arguing with a unicorn not even half his size. "What in Tartarus is going on around here?"