“Daniel, what are you doing!? Stop that this instant!” Alexander, an old and frail blue man commanded to him. Alexander had white hair, and a very skinny body. At the moment, he was floating on a platform, awaiting a portal to be opened for him to return home. This urge to be home is what caused Daniel all of the troubles he faced.
Daniel was a shorter man, with long brown hair cut down to his shoulders. His face was dirtied, and his brown jacket covered the green sweater-vest and white shirt underneath. His brown pants had bruises and deep cuts from the many monsters of Brennenburg he encountered, and the shine was completely faded from his black boots.
“Daniel, no! You will ruin everything!”
“That’s what I intend, Alexander! This is for all those lives you’ve so cruelly taken so you could return to your home! Well, if you so wish to go back to where you came from, I shall make it easier!” Daniel screamed at Alexander, remembering all the tortured souls. The childrens’ screams, the innocent man being sawed in half by The Saw, he remembered it all in a shockwave of pain. “Have fun, demon!”
The orb room, a large cylindrical chamber lit only by blue torches, with an altar held at its center, accompanied with four pillars in a square formation. A blue portal started to form on the altar, bathing the room in a blue glow. There were thousands of boulders floating in a circular pattern in the hollowed out roof, expanding to what seemed like eternity. Alexander floated freely on his platform in the back of the room, waiting for his chance to escape.
Daniel remembered Agrippa, an old man hanged by all limbs on a wall in the Nave and what he had told him. When at the Nave, plotting against Alexander for his crimes, Agrippa mentioned that if an item of spiritual value is thrown into the portal, it is disrupted. Agrippa’s head was that object, and Daniel still held it in his knapsack.
He grabbed the head and threw it into the portal at the last minute, disrupting its pattern. The portal closed, and the Shadow was seeping through the moist stone walls of the Orb Chamber.
“No! You fool, Daniel! You’ve killed us both!”
“Good! I wanted to forget, I wanted to never have to see those pained faces. Why else do you think I drank the amnesia potion!?”
Through the stone walls of the Orb Chamber seeped a red substance, which Daniel recognized as the Shadow. This Shadow was enraged by Daniel’s removal of an orb, an artifact found in the ruins of an old city in Egypt. The Shadow, vengeful at Alexander as well for using an Orb to return to his home, made its way through the thick walls, cracking each at the cement lining.
“IT WAS TO FORGET YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!”
Suddenly, while Alexander’s portal closed with a thundering boom, the stone wall tumbled down onto his frail blue body. Alexander’s muffled screams could still be heard, but not for long. The Shadow had already made its way to Daniel, ending his life.
“There he is. Do you see him, Weyer? He deserves so much more...” Agrippa said. “Please, help him. I know you can.”
“Don’t worry, Daniel! It’ll be alright.”
The memories of that blasted castle Brennenburg began to fade, as well as the faces of those people he’d so wrongly tortured to death. Alexander wanted the blood of the tortured to ward off the Shadow, as he had read a passage about the warding rituals once in his library. The only way Daniel was to fend off the Shadow, especially when he still carried the taint of the Orb, was to use this ritual whenever possible, no matter the cost. This led to the horrible murder of many innocents, including children.
Alexander’s hate and evil faded from Daniel’s mind, calming him to a point where, for the first time in ages, he smiled brightly. It was as though the largest weight had lifted from his tired shoulders, now with Alexander and Brennenburg gone forever. Daniel had to thank the Shadow for ridding the world of the two greatest evils.
Daniel continued through the starry expanse of the void he was in. Strange, how his mind seemed to be without a body, floating through this void. He continued walking on the blackness of the void, unaware of what Weyer and Agrippa were doing. He felt himself lift, losing the tension of his body weight and the drag of his empty mind.
His eyesight became too clouded to make out what was happening, but it felt like he was floating through a white cloud, with a hot sun shining on his face. There was no sign of color other than the white of clouds. Daniel’s eyesight became clear, able to make out the strange details of these clouds. They did not appear as they did before. They were more... artistic, he should say.
The welcoming view of sky-blue broke Daniel’s train of thought, filling him with an even happier sensation of finally being home. Finally, he saw the approaching fields of grass, trees, and lakes below.
His eyesight faded once more as he descended underneath a tree, encompassed by its cool shade. Daniel felt comfortable with the warm grasses swaying around him, wind jostling his hair.
He laid under the tree with his eyes closed and arms folded behind his head. His jacket and sweater vest lay next to him on the rolling hill of grass. Sunshine was dimming, and began to cover the land in a brilliant colour of golden-orange. Daniel felt overjoyed, not having to escape the monsters of Brennenburg, nor their master, Alexander.
It was getting darker, and Daniel had to find somewhere to stay, lest he end up eaten by some wild animal. A yellow glow broke from a small town over the hills, and it sounded like a party was going on. Parties were rare for Daniel, since he had very few friends after the incident with the Shadow. Now that the orb was destroyed, he could remain at peace and perhaps join this party.
Daniel took his jacket and sweater-vest, and took off for the town not too far from him. Where there were parties, there were people. Should he be able to get some work from them, he could start a new life here without worry.
It was a windy night, and the moon just barely lit Daniel’s path enough so that he could find his way to the town. Yet, when he arrived, the entire town was empty except for the building where the party seemed to be coming from. The giddy screams of many females could be perceived by Daniel, yet there were also girly giggles from men. “Odd,” Daniel said aloud, “men do not usually sound like that...”
Daniel was now standing in front of the door, trying to see through the window. Someone had covered it with cake frosting, it seemed, and he had no way of seeing through that. Daniel stood outside, worried at what might happen if he pushed through the door. He thought long and hard, coming to the conclusion that the worst that could happen is that he would be asked to leave.
“Wait, what is this...” Daniel said, looking at the door intently. “There is no doorknob! How am I meant to open this without a knob?”
Daniel pushed at the door, seeing if it was an old sway-open door, yet it was unyielding. He found a small orifice on the side of the door, large enough for his hand to get enough of a grip to open. The door was creaking loudly as he slowly opened it. The party-goers inside seemed to take no notice to the door’s opening, as they were still yipping and yelling loudly with glee.
Daniel’s gasp barely made it through the noise of the party, but it was loud enough to be heard by a few of the things inside. “W-what are you!? This... no, this is all but a dream! Silly Daniel, it’s just a dream! Calm yourself! It’s but a dream, so I might as well help myself to some food here.”
Daniel struggled to keep his sanity, his head pounding harder and harder with each step into the sea of the things, each of them starting to slow their partying pace. Daniel had not minded the fact that they were strange creatures, even with so many different colors, and the fact that they were walking, screaming, talking, and using hooves to pick up food normally eaten by a glutton. “Just keep going, Daniel...” he said through clenched teeth that formed a wide smile.
“So then I says, ‘whatcha got fer yer picnic sale *hic*, ya schkavonn!” a purple pony with darker purple hair mumbled drunkenly to her grey pony friend with blond hair.
Daniel wanted to advise the pony to drink only in moderation, but when he got her attention, she screamed, “MONSTER! *hic* RUN FOR YOUR *hic* LIVES!!!”
Suddenly the party went all to hell, with ponies screaming and frantically trying to evacuate. Daniel wondered why they did not react when he first walked in. Perhaps it was his height.
Still believing this was a dream, he took an ornate cupcake from the table and proceeded to eat it while the confusion still shook the building. The ponies that had eaten one too many food-stuffs had lodged themselves in the doorway, furthering the panic of the party. Daniel remained eating his cupcake, still convinced this was all a dream. Until he felt the all too real pull on his jacket.
Looking down, Daniel noticed a pink colored pony, with darker pink curly hair, still tugging on his jacket. “Mister big meany monster? Could you hand me a cupcake?” She asked, still smiling widely despite her fear. For some reason, when Daniel tried to move, she laughed three times loudly, scaring the living daylights out of Daniel.
“What was that about!?” he yelled, holding his chest.
“Sorry! Can I have that cupcake now?”
“Err...I suppose, little pink pony. Here.” Daniel handed her a pink and sugary chocolate cupcake, one that seemed would give a heart attack to any normal human consumer.
“Thank you! By the way why are you at my party? Don’t monsters usually stay in a cave or something like that? Ooh, you should show Rarity your clothes, because they are so cool! *gasp* Maybe she could make me one of those! Oh, I’m so excited I just can’t--”
“Excuse me, pony, but could you settle down? The panic over at the door needs tending to.” Daniel said, flattening out the pull on his jacket. His eyes grew wide as he realized the truth.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll go stop the party-crashers!” the pink pony giggled and bounced off to the door. “Hey! The monster only wants to party! Who wouldn’t want to party? Because if you don’t want to party you’re probably a meanie who hates everything--”
The entire crowd yelled in unison, “PINKIE, WE GET IT!”
The crowd walked backwards, pulling the pudgy ones from the door and leaving in a single file line, some shaken from their experience with Daniel. To a pony, Daniel was a very imposing being, especially with the cuts and bruises from Brennenburg.
“Awww...I didn’t want the party to end yet! Oh Mr. Monster, could you stay here and party with me? Those party-poopers won’t know what they’re missing!”
Daniel thought a bit, wondering if he should. “Sure...”
“My name’s Pinkie Pie!”
“Okay, Pinkie Pie, I shall stay awhile.” Daniel said hesitantly, wondering how good of an idea it was to stay with her. She appeared friendly, but so did Alexander until the sudden horrible truth came forward.
“That’s it! No more absinthe parties for me!” Daniel said to himself, laying clumsily on the wooden floor of Sugarcube Corner, as he learned the name earlier. The floor was covered in cupcake from their cupcake wars last night, and they both got incredibly drunk. God, what fun that was for Daniel. Pinkie, on the other hand, was still in the bathroom recovering.
The lights had been blown out last night by the opening of the window, leaving Daniel in darkness on the crummy floor. He could hear the retching of Pinkie above him, where water slowly trickled onto his forehead. His long hair had become matted with frosting, which was withering away with the water dripping onto him. Daniel felt lucky his system was able to take more than that of a pony.
“Ungh... why did I go and do that again? As if the amnesia potion wasn’t bad enough.”
Daniel’s eyes shot open, and he sat up quickly. His head throbbed as he did so, but he had to focus. “Again, I remember Brennenburg.” His head throbbed once more as he said the name, unlocking a part of his mind from the haze of memory that shrouded it.
“Now... I took amnesia drought, and... felt terrible...” Daniel concentrated everything he could onto unlocking his past. If he got far enough, perhaps he could explain this predicament he was in. “Yes... I remember reading a note. AGH!” His head shot with a blaze of pain once again, remembering the image of a dark room containing a dimly lit desk. A dried and faded parchment sat atop it.
“It was my past self. I needed to... to...” Daniel continued, Pinkie’s retching breaking his concentration every so often. “I had to find Alexander--Ack!” Daniel’s eyes welled up with tears from the excruciating pain of the memories unlocking. “It is impossible for me to continue! My head is throbbing so! Oh, God, why have you created such sufferings as a headache?”
Pinkie’s retching stopped, and her hoofsteps could be heard from the direction of the stairwell leading up to her floor. Daniel felt the need to leave without a trace, and so he made for the door. His mind was foggy, and his legs wobbly, yet he pressed on through, allowing himself to feel the cool of the storm raging on the outside world.
He had no clue why, but his mind felt he needed to flee the premises of Ponyville. His legs forced him to a park where the fillies played so gleefully. It held small wooden playgrounds, with baby swings, regular swings, slides, and other miscellaneous play-buildings. Daniel sat down on a bench overlooking the park, where he sat and watched the fillies play. It was so strange, how these equines were able to accomplish so much without the use of hands. It seemed almost impossible, even with the help of the books Daniel’s read on this sort of matter. He’d once read of a horse god who used hooves to build pyramids, and he thought nothing of it. Now, it seemed as though all his research was proven fact.
Daniel had taken to watching these children play, seeing their all-too-expressive cheery faces. “How on earth do you do all this with no fingers?” he asked himself quietly through his hand.
It may have been drizzling, but the fillies remained in the rain, not noticing their watcher sitting on the bench. One filly had been pushing their younger sibling on the baby swing, causing it to laugh loudly. Daniel couldn’t keep away a wide smile, even a small chuckle at the display. “These ponies are so... strangely like humans... “ he thought, “They perfectly portray the innocence of children, and the subtle elegance of animals.” Daniel took out his journal, and began to write.
Arrival in a Strange Land, Day 1
The land I’d arrived in just last night, or so I assumed, seemed so strange upon first glance. Though the sun when I arrived had just began falling beneath the rolling hills of the plain, such a sight I’ve wanted my whole life, I still felt strangely out of place.
I was met by a strange group, that’s comprised of ponies. Now, you may think me a madman, but it’s true. They ran in fright, which is expected of them, as I’m very imposing, but one stood bravely next to me, asking for a cupcake. We partied the rest of the night, as I had scared off the rest of the guests, and got happily drunk. I left this morning.
Sitting here, watching these child ponies play has reminded me that the world isn’t full of hate as I so thought it contained, yet a simple elegance we cannot ignore. The children remind me of my own innocence, back when I lived in Mayfair. Those memories have already left me, and trying to remember only brings me horrible pain.
Daniel closed his journal with a slap, alerting the children to his presence. Although they appeared nervous, they still played on, despite their hesitation.
Daniel motioned with his hand to one of the small fillies with orange coat, purple, shaggy mane, and purple eyes who stared at him with a curious grin. Daniel thought he could make out the words on her lips to the sound of, “Cool.”
Clouds began to roll in, blocking the sun from the world below. Some fillies took their younger siblings and dashed to their homes. Others, the older of the bunch, stayed and continued on playing their games. Daniel sat on the bench for a while longer, until the spits of rain soaked into his hair.
Daniel up and left, before the rain began to pour harder. His mind cleared once more, he went back to town to introduce himself properly, hoping not to scare everyone who was awake. The stroll through the town was much needed, as Daniel’s stomach settling soon proved. Mind now fully aware, Daniel was able to make out a sign, reading that the direction to the town’s Center was close.
The rain had gone from spits of water, to a torrent as he made his way to the center of town. Daniel wished the best for the children at the park as he pulled his coat over his head. The pitter-patter of the rain on the leather of his coat made Daniel cringe, as the coat was highly expensive, and leather does not bode well in water. Pushing it aside, Daniel broke into a sprint to the Center, getting ready for whatever reactions were to be had.
“The monster is back! Run for your lives!!!” The same purple pony had exclaimed, still wobbling around as she had the night before. The ponies paid no mind, however, and kept on with their business. Perhaps somepony had spread word of his good intention?
Daniel’s jacket and hair swayed rhythmically with the wind, growing darker with each drop of rain soaking into them. He looked on, examining the scene with fervor. Each pony seemed to do an individual job, which he pieced together as a relation to the marks on their flanks. Those with marks resembling strength—such as a dumbbell—lugged carts on their backs, transporting their cargo to a nearby shop.
Ponyville was bustling today, ponies moving about every which way, and it reminded Daniel of London the day the shadow attacked. Daniel’s head throbbed again as he felt shards of something inside of his jacket.
“The Shadow! Oh, God, I neglected that demon!” Daniel said, also remembering what happened to the last person he made contact with. He ran to Sugarcube corner, pushing ponies out of his way to get there before the Shadow did. Luckily, moving the ponies proved simple, as they still were unsure of their visitor’s intention.
“Oh, thank God. Pinkie Pie, are you alright? Has anything strange happened to you?” Daniel asked frantically, patting the pony’s head, her breast, and other areas in a crazy examination.
“Other than getting sick, no! I still feel kind of bad, but I’m alright! Where did you go this morning? I heard you scream earlier, are you okay?” Pinkie started to giggle at the many pokes and prods of Daniel’s fingers.
“Pinkie Pie, refrain from your spastic personality so that I may focus?”
Pinkie nodded in direct contrast to Daniel’s orders, eliciting a short glare from Daniel from under his hair.
Daniel felt inside his pockets to warm his hands. Then, as he felt underneath a wad of paper, he felt some pieces of something. It felt like cloth—no, now it was stone. No, it’s turned into glass!
“Oh, God. I’ve brought the Orb to this innocent place. Pinkie Pie, I need you to rally up every pony in this town, and tell them to listen to me. There’s something I must admit.” As he remembered, the Orb is what caused the release of the Shadow in the first place. It’s constant texture-changing ways still baffled him.
Pinkie nodded spastically again, and bounced out the door to Ponyville. Daniel stayed in the darkness to think. Embracing his knees and putting his head inside his arms, he sobbed silently. “The Shadow will be back, and its murderous ways shall be all my fault.”
After some hours passed, Pinkie burst through the door, grabbing Daniel’s jacket with her equine teeth. He stood, and slowly crept from the dark of the bakery. Pinkie had done what he asked, and every single pony from the town had rallied up in a commotion at the front of Town Hall. Daniel didn’t want to reveal the dark secret, but it was necessary if he was to protect the denizens of this town.
“Ponies of this town, I regret to inform you of a terrible threat to this community. The Shadow.” Daniel said into a microphone. At the word “threat”, everypony began mumbling, some even fainting. “It is the ultimate being. The very cosmos themselves catching up with the worlds. It exists for one reason and one only: Protect this,” Daniel held up the scattered pieces of the Orb, some dropping to the wooden floor of the stage. Some pieces hit the wood with a splash, while others broke through the wood. “Protect it by killing all those in its path.”
The crowd rose their voices, bombarding Daniel with questions. The crowd’s energy didn’t help their fears in the slightest, proving a frustrating task for Daniel. He tried to speak through the frantic mumblings, and stomped on the stage many times before they finally settled down. The rain started to feel like the entire ocean being dumped to the ground.
“What shall we do!?” “Whatever can we do?” “Oh my, I’m about to faint...” A trio of mares yelled in a dramatic manner.
“Wait, ponies! There is a way... but I cannot bring myself to do it. The Shadow is a relentless force, only hindered by the scent of blood. Should it come to the time when it is near enough to smell the stench of bronze...”
Little Pipsqueak walked over and flaunted his sword in Daniel’s face, saying with a courageous tone, “I’m ready to stop that bugger!” Daniel used his foot to scoot him over to the side, immediately jerking back when he saw two pink eyes staring back at him.
A cyan pegasus was hovering over him, asking rudely, “Why should we trust you? You’re an alien, or whatever it is you are! I say we drive this guy from Ponyville!”
“Yeah! Why should we believe you?” asked another pony hidden inside the crowd.
As everypony in the crowd began to argue, Daniel caught sight of a purple pony with some kind of object attached to her forehead.
While Daniel watched her and his assailant, he noticed the object begin to glow, as well as the pegasus’ rainbow colored tail. Daniel remembered instantly what type of creature she was, hearing about them in books in the library of Brennenburg. A unicorn.
“Rainbow Dash, sit down! This man’s in enough trouble as it is, if he’s telling us the truth!”
So the pegasus’ name was Rainbow Dash? Daniel thought it funny the coincidence of how she was so aptly named.
A random pony from the crowd asked what they should do to stop the Shadow. Daniel’s mind remembered the blood wards he and Alexander practiced. He didn’t want to do such a thing to these ponies.
“In order to contain the Shadow, we must find a way to stop it, without harming anyone. That means that you must not come into direct contact with me or the Orb, should it brand you as well.” Daniel said quietly to the crowd, unsure of how he could do such a thing.
“Wait!” Twilight said, “Princess Celestia, the most powerful being in all of Equestria, may be able to stop the Shadow without anyone being harmed!”
Daniel looked at her in surprise, smiling widely again, this time baring his teeth. “You really believe she can stop the Shadow? If this is true, we must seek her council at once!” Twilight shook hands with Daniel, which began the deadly chain of events that would soon take place. Daniel realized all too late what had happened, yet kept his mouth shut.
“Let us depart for this Princess Celestia at once...”
“Twilight Sparkle, student of Celestia.”
Daniel and Twilight nodded to each other, and took off for the road. Everypony in the square looked on as they slowly shrunk to nothing but dots in the horizon. Then, as they had disappeared, a terrible roar shook the very ground that the ponies stood on, causing a panic in the town of Ponyville when the red flesh en massed around the buildings of the town.
