Uncharted: Starswirl's Secret

Drake’s brain was pounding against his skull, and he placed and hand upon it, groaning in pain. His eyes slowly opened, and he was expecting the harsh sunlight to blind him the second his eyes flew open. But not a drop of sunlight reached his eyes. He fully opened them, lifting himself onto his elbows, gazing at the strange world around him. Absolutely no sunlight filtered through the condensed treetops, and he could barely make out the foliage around him. He pushed himself off the ground, stumbling to his feet and brushing himself off.

He pushed away some shrubs, heading in the direction he was facing. By temperature alone, he was able to tell that it was around noon. The forest gave off an eerie chill that sent a shiver up his spine, although he shook it off and continued along his way. There was no path in sight, and he questioned how he actually got there. One minute he’s drowning in desert sand, miles away from any sort of land of green. Next thing he knows he’s in a thick, green forest surrounded by endless shade and plants.

The marks he received from Talbot still burned slightly, and when he glanced at the one on his arm, a trail of dried blood ran down to his elbow. He rubbed it off as best as he could, then inspected the one on his stomach. The bleeding, thankfully, had also stopped, but the cut was much deeper. He knew that he should get it looked at, or at least, get some antibiotics. Who knows how much sand got into it, and the last thing he needed was a wound infection.

Drake cursed Talbot under his breath. Why Marlowe’s right-hand man hated him so much, he had no idea. He could understand trying to kill him while Marlowe was alive. She must have been paying him a fortune to do everything he had been. But even when she had been alive and fully well, Talbot seemed to enjoy the anger and suffering he had caused him. Drake sighed. I guess I’ll never understand, he thought to himself.

He had spent so much time thinking, he forgot about what he was doing. He hissed in pain his face contacted with the ground. He looked back and saw his foot caught on a large root of a large oak tree. He ripped his foot away from it, growling in frustration. He stood up, once again dusting himself off, and tilted his head to the right, listening to the pop as it cracked. He tiled it again, doing the same to the other side, then rolled his head back, staring at the top of the trees. Then he narrowed his eyes and looked at them harder. Between two branches, he could just make out a small glimmer of sunlight.

“I guess I’m heading in the right direction,” he said aloud, his voice filling the silence. A lone crow, startled by the sudden noise, took flight, its caws echoing around him. He jumped back, surprised by the sudden noise, then shook his head, laughing to himself. “This forest is getting to you, Drake. Keep yourself together.”

He continued along through the grassy woods, crossing through a small stream. He sighed with relief, bending down to take a sip. “Finally, some water,” he muttered, bring the water up to his face. He took a long gulp, and then spat it out in disgust, backing away from the water.  He ran to the nearby bush, kneeling down and vomiting up a large amount of stomach acid. He stood back up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Something’s not right with that water.”

After another hour of walking, the forest grew lighter. He began to see things much clearer. He sped up his pace and sighed with relief when, after hours of searching, he finally burst out into the open. In front of him was a long, thin trail. He stared laughing crazily, the joy of finally being able to find his way out bubbling out of him. “I made it out,” he exclaimed loudly, turning around to look at his surroundings. “Just needed to have faith in myself.” He stops, his eyes widening in shock and disbelief. Standing before him, is a lone zebra.

It was scratching at the ground, but when it heard him, it turned to face him. He stood staring at it for a few moments, their eyes locked. “Zebras in a dark forest,” he muttered. “Where the hell am I?” They stood staring at each other for several seconds longer before, very much to Drake’s surprise, it spoke to him.

“I don’t know where have been, but you are outside of Ponyville human. So make sure that you take care, as humans in Equestria are quite rare. Although you should be wary in your travels, as I sense an evil about to be unraveled.

   Drake stood staring at it, then rubbed his eyes. A moment later it was gone, and he shrugged it off. “Note to self: buy water purification tablets,” he muttered. He looked around one more before taking a left down the trail. The trail began to get noticeably lighter, although it was still dark and mysterious. After several minutes of walking, he once again found his face connected to the ground. He turned back to look and found his foot caught on a tree root. He groaned in annoyance and turned to pull himself up, when something caught his eye. He reached over and grabbed the Para 9, holding it in front of his face. “What’s a pistol doing out here?” he questioned. Shrugging, he holstered it and pushed himself up.

After only several minutes, the trees vanished and he was standing on top of a small hill. A small cottage could be seen nearby. Drake stood there for a few seconds, blinking and rubbing his eyes, making sure it wasn’t a hallucination. After finally deciding that it wasn’t, he set out towards it. As he walked to it, something seemed off, and he stopped when he got close to it.

“This cottage reminds me of the houses in the cartoons I used to watch.” He just stood there, staring at it. It looked like it was built into a tree and there was a bunch of animals all around it. He shook it off and walked up the stairs to the back door. Drake knocked on the door.

“Hello, anyone home?” Drake watched as the curtains closed on the door’s window. Someone was home, but didn’t want to be seen. Drake walked over to the window and the curtains again shut quickly in his face. “Hello?”

A female voice called out very weakly, “G-g-go away…”

“Ma’am, may I have some water? I haven’t seen any clean liquid in a while”

There was a smash from the other side of the window that startled Drake. The weak whimper became a strong, scared yell, “I said leave!”

“Alright, sorry to bother you.” Drake started to walk down the stairs. “I’m just going to go around your house. Is that ok?” Drake might as well been to talking to himself as there was no reply. He did, however, see the curtains move slightly, like someone was watching him.

He headed around the house and down the small walkway. After a few short minutes, a town came into view. Drake sighed in relief. “Finally,” he muttered. “Someplace where I can actually rest.”¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The road up to the town was, as Drake observed, just a small dirt path. He crossed over the bridge leading into town, glancing down at the small stream beneath him. He headed down the dirt path, glancing around for any signs of life. The town seemed deserted, although fruit stands were scattered here and there, all with fresh fruit in them. Confused, Drake turned to look at the buildings. “Hello?” he called out.

He could hear a loud whispering coming from one of the buildings. It sounded along the lines of “I thought you guys learned from last time”, but it was hard to make out. He turned in a circle, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. He stopped and glanced around again. “Hello?”

“Hello.”

Drake spun around, obviously startled by the voice. He was even more startled at the speaker’s appearance. She was a lavender mare, with a purple and bright pink mane. The thing that caught his eye the most, although the appearance was already weird to him, was the unicorn horn sticking out from her mane. Drake went to speak, but was interrupted by her. “Wow. A human in Equestria. I...”

She stopped abruptly as Drake drew his gun up to her. However, instead of fearing him, there was only fascination and curiosity. Only Drake had a look of fear as she took the gun from his hand, both it and her horn glowing as she levitated in front of her face, inspecting it closer. “What is this thing?” she questioned. “Some kind of human tool? What do you use it for?”

Drake found it hard to speak. The last thing he expected was for a magical purple unicorn to question him about his Para 9. She looked up at him, patiently waiting for the answer. After several moments he found his voice, stuttering as he spoke. “It’s... it’s a gun. Y-you just pull the trigger there. “

She pulled it closer to her face. He watched as the slide of the gun moved back and forth. Soon she clicked it back, and then turned it away from herself, pointing it straight at Drake. He watched in horror as the trigger twitched slightly. “Don’t pull that!” he yelled frantically. He watched as she lowered it down and looked at him with a confused expression. Drake lowered his voice. “Just... give it back to me.”

She brought it back towards him, and he snatched it from her, holstering it. Looking back up, he noticed she was looking at him enthusiastically. He gave her questioning look, to which she eagerly responded to. “I have so many questions to ask you! What’s your name?”

“Nathan Drake,” he said quickly, then slowly adding, “What’s yours?”

“Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight Sparkle? What kind of name is that? “Let’s see. What else? Oh! Where did you come from? You can’t be from Equestria. It’s been said that humans died out over a thousand years ago. But if you’re here, then that means they’re still around!”

Humans used to live here? “I’m from Earth.”

“Earth,” she muttered. “Never heard of it. It must be far away from here.” Yeah, really far, he thought. “I might have read about it in one of the books. I’ll have to have Spike look for it when we get back to the library. I wonder what Earth is...”

She was cut off as a small purple dragon came around the corner and approached her quickly, holding a small, wrapped up box. “Here are the cupcakes you wanted Twilight,” he said, then turned his head towards Drake when he saw him. “Did you discover a new species of dragon?” he questioned.

“No Spike, it’s a human.”

“A human? I thought that was just an old pony’s tale, Aren’t they supposed to be, like, extinct or something?” Now he was looking at Drake. “I’m Spike. Twilight’s assistant.”

“Nathan Drake... Drake.”

Twilight glanced up at the sky. “It’s getting late,” she said, turning to Spike. “We should probably get back to the house.” She looked at Drake. “Where are you staying?”

Drake hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Um...are there any hotels or anything around here?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not in Ponyville. Not many ponies visit here, with it being such a small town and all. I would offer you to stay at our house, but there wouldn’t be any place for you to sleep. We might be able to talk to...”

“He can sleep on the couch,” Spike interrupted.

Twilight looked confused. “We have a couch?”

“Where do you think I hide when you kick me out of bed.”

Twilight shrugged, although she still looked confused. “Well then. I guess you can sleep on the couch. Spike will show both of us where it is,” she said with a glare at Spike.

“Thank you”, Drake said. “I appreciate it.”

Drake followed them back to the house. In his encounter with Twilight, the cut had been forgotten, but as they walked back, the burning began to reappear, and he rubbed at it uncomfortably as they walked to her house. Soon, however they arrived at their destination and the rubbing stopped. The house was basically a giant tree with doors, windows, and a balcony. When they reached the front door, Twilight turned to him. “Here we are,” she said, before turning back and opening the door.

The place was filled with books. Dozens of shelves stretched to the ceiling, each one packed with books. “It’s like a library in here,” Drake said.

Spike looked back at him. “It is a library.”

“Oh,” Drake muttered. As he turned to get a better look of the place, his side scraped against a nearby table. He gave a small hiss of pain, to which Twilight turned to him worriedly. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Drake nodded. “It’s nothing, just a small cut,” he replied.

Twilight came closer to it, inspecting it. It was fairly noticeable through the small slash in his shirt. “Hold still,” Twilight said. Drake watched as her horn began to glow and felt a strange warmness from his cut. Then, surprisingly, it began to glow as well. His cut began to close, which soon vanished completely without any scars. Drake looked back at her.

“And you can heal things,” he said surprised. Twilight gave him a nod.

“Would you like anything for now? Water? Food?”

“Um, water please.”

She turned away from him. “Aright. I’ll be right back.” He watched her disappear into what he would assume was the kitchen. He heard the sound of rushing water, and then she returned a moment later with a glass. She handed it to Drake, who took it gratefully. He gulped it down quickly, enjoying finally having clean water. Once he was finished, Twilight took the glass from him.

“Alright, Spike,” she said. “Where’s this couch at?”