Where am I?
All I see is an endless dark void. All I hear are my own thoughts. I can't feel my own body, yet despite this I somehow feel as if I'm lying down.
Time passes. How much, I cannot tell.
Suddenly, I hear something; a noise reminiscent of that of a gentle breeze flowing through and rustling the branches of an coniferous tree. I attempt to open my eyes. I am met with more darkness, yet now this darkness is mottled with a myriad of tiny bright points.
What is that? My eyes gradually adjust to the dim light.
Are those stars?
My bare arms feel a soft tingling sensation, and as I turn my head to examine my surroundings, I realize I'm laying in a field of grass. I begin to sit up. I find myself in a clearing that is surrounded on all sides but one by a thick boreal forest. As I stand up to get better bearings on my whereabouts, I can now see that the clearing is situated atop a hill. I glance towards its unusually bare slope which my gaze follows as it flows into a dense forest after which lies a large valley in the distance.
The valley is bisected by a snaking river which flows from beyond my sight on the left and into what looks like an ocean, or at the very least a large lake, to the far right. The distant end of the valley across the river is shrouded in complete darkness. I guess this is due to the low light level and my own eyes not being accustomed to working yet.
Looking closer, there appears to be a small group of faint amber lights which look as if they're coming from lampposts breaking the mysterious darkness.
Where... Where am I? It's so quiet here... So tranquil.
Once again, I sit down on the spot where I had awoken moments prior, and look up at the sky. Stars. There are so many stars here. I had never seen this many at once in my life.
The moon looks unusually large and bright, its lucent radiance providing enough light for basic visibility. Minutes pass as I simply sit, gazing into the distance, my peripheral vision filled with trees gently swaying in the breeze. Their sound, coupled with the buzz of crickets, the hooting of owls and the occasional distant howl lulling me into a deep sense of relaxation.
To suddenly awake in a strange place, bereft of any memory of how I got here should be my primary concern, but I feel... Content. I know that logically I should be uneasy, distressed or scared, but strangely I'm not. This dreamlike place has a highly calming air about it, all I can find myself feeling is happiness and peace.
This place is beautiful. Wherever this is. How did I get here? Why can't I remember?
As I turn my gaze back towards the moon, I notice a strange silhouette imposed over it. Surely it is merely an illusion; some sort of apparition conjured up by my lethargic mind. But no, there is definitely something tangible there, focusing on it I notice it getting closer, and as it does I can make out more detail. A slender form, four legs, two large wings and...
A horn? Is that a unicorn? A winged unicorn? Is it her?
The strange creature descended slowly onto the grassy clearing and landed a distance away from me. It's dark in color, but I couldn't tell if that was its true color or if the darkness was making it appear that way. It started slowly walking towards me when I noticed its visage bore feminine features. I found myself calmed, not threatened, by her presence.
"You're Luna, aren't you?" The words left my mouth, as if not by my own will, but compelled by some strange force.
"Thou... Thou knowest us?", the creature I now knew was called Luna inquired with understandable confusion, her voice seeming strangely familiar.
It--She can talk!? Not only do unicorns exist here, but they can talk!?
"You seem familiar to me, although I don't know why."
Why is she even here?
"That is most unusual, we don't recall ever meeting one of thy kind before. Why art thou here?" She approached me. Finally she sat down next to me.
"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me that. And why are YOU here? In the middle of nowhere?"
"We sensed a magical disturbance and traced it to here. Hast thou any notion of how thou ended up here?" She asked.
"Unfortunately, no. To be honest, I can't remember anything prior to waking up on this hill." I turned to gaze forlornly at distant lake.
"Dost thou remember thy name, at least?"
My name? What is... My name?
A single name comes to mind, but I'm unsure whether it belongs to me or if I'm remembering someone else's. I answer her anyway, while pursing my lips.
"I think... it's Virgil. Can you tell me where I am?"
She pivoted her head around and her vision fell on the distant lights I had noticed before. Recognition flashed in her eyes.
"I believe we are in the outskirts of a small village called Morrow's Hill." She returned her gaze to me.
"Is that in Equestria"? I was unsure of how and why I even knew that name.
"Thou seem to be familiar with us and our kingdom, why is this so?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know WHY I know you, or this place. The moment I saw you, it was like meeting an old friend I haven’t seen in years.” I said pensively.
“As we said, one of thy likeness hath never been seen in Equestria before. We felt a surge of strange magic emanating from this place, so we went to investigate posthaste. We were not expecting the source of that magic to be a member of a new species. Stranger still is how that life form seems to knowest us”.
So that explains why she’s here.
“As to your previous question,” she continued, “Morrow's hill is not located in Equestria proper, but instead lies a few miles beyond its western border."
Something she said doesn’t make any sense to me.
“What do you mean 'surge of magic'? I’m not magical, as far as I know.”
Her face took on an inquisitive expression and she lifted her front leg to her chin, as if deep in thought. “Not magic? This is most strange. Every creature we are familiar with has at least some magic in them.”
“Not me. Not a smidge of magic in me, I assure you.” I let out a small chuckle, but my attempt at a joke seemed to be lost on her.
“We shall make sense of this conundrum later, when we have discussed the matter with our dear sister. Now we have our nightly duties to attend to and thus cannot stay here. Thou seem harmless enough, so we suggest thou head towards Morrow’s Hill. The ponies there are amiable and while they might at first be apprehensive of thou, we imagine they have seen stranger creatures.”
Before I could say anything, a sudden loud noise was heard, almost like the flash of an antique camera, accompanied by a blinding flash of light. When my eyes readjusted, the blue mare was gone.
What the!? Where the hell did she go!? Must be in a real hurry to just leave like that. In a hurry to get away from ME, perhaps.
With Luna's abrupt departure, I remained sitting in the meadow, listening to wind and watching the trees sway ever so gently. After what felt like an hour of just sitting there and contemplating Luna’s words, I broke out of my reverie and decided to descend the grassy slope and head towards the distant lights.
It turns out that the spot where I awoke is much higher on the hill than I had originally assumed. And the slope leading up to the forest a lot more dense with vegetation.
After several minutes of descending, the amount of foliage on the slope began increasing as the evergreen fir, spruce and pine trees began giving way to more deciduous ones such as oak, beech and what almost looked like chestnut, as well as several other species I didn't recognize.
I kept trudging my way through the thicket while watching my step, as well as I could in the still heavy darkness, lest I get bitten by a snake. I tried my best to avoid taller shrubs and bushes for fear of other wild animals.
The number of trees around me grew, their thick boughs laden with countless leaves blocking the clear view of the sky and significantly reducing visibility. The thick shrubbery decreased and the ground here appeared moist and was full of fallen leaves. Occasional saplings of varying heights and species broke through the dense leaf detritus.
With my heading deeper into the woods, the temperature began to decrease, although not by a lot. Pale moonlight was breaking through the edge of the forest in the distance, and I trod forth in hopes of reaching another clearing or exiting the forest.
The woods were shrouded in nigh complete darkness, and the only sounds I could hear were the relaxing whisper of wind flowing through the canopy above and my footsteps breaking small branches and rustling the fallen leaf cover of the forest. Distant hoots and howls could be heard, the latter unsettling me a little bit. A smell of moist dirt and rotting leaves permeated the crisp air.
The air felt fresh here, unspoiled.
Odd. This forest seems weirdly… Ordinary. Non-magical. If Luna was anything to go by, I expected this land to be at least half as magical as its inhabitants.
I walked on, groping with my feet for obstacles and solid ground, as I had previously stupidly stepped into a patch of mud, causing my sneakers and the bottom of my pants to get caked in it.
A few minutes of walking later, I finally came upon the edge of the woods.
Here lay a babbling brook filled with steadily flowing water. Across the brook, there was a dirt path coming from the general direction of the amber lights which I could now see again in the distance.
The path lay next to a vast field of what looked like wheat. The brook seemed narrow enough, and I guessed I could probably jump over it. I readied myself and leapt, landing just on the opposite bank, narrowly avoiding falling in. As I steadied myself, I stepped onto the dirt path and began walking towards Morrow’s Hill.
