The Traveling Horseman

Just a quick note:
Imagine me, walking in circles in my room and on my terrace pacing back and fort. It would be a normal thing. Now imagine me doing these, while I talk to the ponies, like I'm The Traveler. That is totally weird.
Thankfully the neighbours haven't noticed the smoking teenager talking to himself. And thankfully, I only had one awkward moment, when my brother walked into my room and heard me.
That's how I write a story in a nutshell...

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''So what do you need?'' Asked Rainbow Dash, actually eager to know what this being wants.

''I'll answer with a question. Can you tell me the basic thing about this world? I want to know what is the difference between a normal pony, a pegasus and an unicorn. Also, I want to see a world map. That's all you can help me with for now. I will read the rest from books...'' Said the man.

Twilight sat down on a couch and Rainbow kept hovering in the air, as the man stood in the middle of the library. Twilight motioned for him to sit down and he found no reason to stand there, so he sat down on another couch.

''Well first off, it's not 'normal pony'. They called 'earth ponies'. The difference between the three is that earth ponies are stronger, better at planting and harvesting crops and other food and they can't use magic like a unicorn. They have passive magical abilities.'' Explained Twilight.

And there, she saw the still unknown creature, summoning his scroll, flipping around and moving his fore limbs over the paper.
''What are you doing?'' Asked Twilight.

''Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you Twi. He has that magical map and he always writes something down. And it has the same color like yours Twi. Maybe you two are kinfolks...'' Said Rainbow Dash, who met with an odd look from Twilight. ''What?''

''Well... that's impossible. As I remember, I had no predecessors when I appeared in a world...'' Explained Traveler, as he finished writing down the new information.

''You have no family?!'' Exclaimed Twilight. ''Then how did you even born?''

''Not born... appeared. But I thought you give me informations. Not the opposite...'' Traveler just looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

''Traveler! Not cool. We don't know anything about you. It's not fair!'' Said an upset Rainbow Dash.

''Rainbow!'' Twilight narrowed her eyes at her friend.

''What? It's not fair! He kept acting like I'm invisible!'' Retorted Rainbow.

Before the girls start an argument, Traveler spoke up. ''She's right...'' Twilight wanted to say 'what?!', but he held up a finger. ''No! Don't say that. It's getting old.'' He saw Twilight sink back into the couch and he continued. ''She is absolutely right. I did not shared some things about myself. And now I know I can trust you enough to tell YOU some information.'' He explained.

Rainbow looked at Twilight with a face like 'I told you...' and Twilight accepted her defeat. Traveler waited for a few seconds to make sure they're listening. ''So! I'm going to ask something. You give me the information that I need. And then you two can ask something from me and I give YOU the information. Mutual information sharing...''

The girls nodded after a quick glance at each other and Rainbow landed on the couch. ''Alright, so-...''

''Hey!'' Interrupted Rainbow. ''You already asked a question. It's our turn.'' She demanded.

''Go on then.'' The man said and got comfortable on the couch. Even if it was too small.

''Yeah! Hm...'' Rainbow thought about what to ask. ''Why is that other ponies can't talk in other worlds?''

''Because ponies and horses are animals there. As you can see, the quadrupeds here are sentients. You can talk, think and dream. Animals can't do that. Clear?'' He finished the explanation and Rainbow Dash nodded.

''Now, what can a pegasus do?'' He asked.

''Pegasi can fly DUH!'' Spoke up Rainbow Dash, who found this question silly.

''Pegasus ponies can fly obviously. They control the weather, thanks to their passive magical abilities, they can make contact with the clouds. Their job to make a sunny day, or rainy night. They can also make thunders, tornados, emptying a rain cloud from water and move faster than other kind of ponies.'' And again, Twilight explained, which was embarrassing for Rainbow Dash, because she was the pegasus, not Twilight.

Traveler moved his fingers trough the paper and that caused Twilight to come up with her question. ''What kind of claws you have? I never seen such claws...'' She mused.

''Because these are not claws Miss Sparkle.'' Explained Traveler and he saw Twilight pulling out a notebook, quill and a feather to write down this new discovery.

''Than what? I don't even know why are you wearing those half cut eggshells on your shoulders...'' Spoke up Rainbow Dash.

''These are hands. If my nails would be long, they would be still just hands. Even if I could cut trough wood, with one swipe. And these are not eggshells. They called shoulder plates. They serve to protect me from smaller hits. They part of my light armor, so if I got hit, by something... or someone...'' He looked at Rainbow, who smiled sheepishly. ''... then it wouldn't hurt that much.'' After he explained this, Twilight finished writing down what he said and looked at him, waiting for him to ask something.

''Now tell me about the unicorns!''

Twilight expected this question and she wanted to start a long description about how magic flows trough the unicorns body, then leaves trough the horn. How clever are they and all that unimportant stuff.

But Rainbow was faster... and she wanted to look awesome, for knowing actually SOMETHING. ''Unicorns can use magic in their own way. Levitation, teleportation and all that stuff. They weaker than other ponies, but smarter. That's why Twilight lives in this library.'' She finished and closed her eyes to look even more awesome.

Traveler looked at Twilight for help. He wasn't sure if that's the correct information. He prefered to ask the little unicorn, who actually nodded in defeat. Twilight found unnecessary to start rambling about this topic.

After Traveler 'wrote' down this new information, changing the way how Rainbow described the unicorns of course, and Rainbow asked her question. ''What the hay are you?!''

''That's another way to ask that...'' he commented, loud enough, so she can hear it. ''And I already told you that one. I'm a spirit.''

Twilight decided to help her friend out. ''Every spirit resembles some kind of creature, or specie. What kind of specie are you?''

''I'm a humanoid. Humanoids are creatures, who walks on two legs, have hands or claws, have a homo-sapiens sapiens like face, can think, dream, feel.'' He explained.

''So... a dragon is a humanoid?'' Twilight asked, breaking the rules of this 'mutual information sharing' game.

''No. The dragon surely can walk on two legs, have claws, can think, dream and feel, but they have no homo-sapiens sapiens features. They have snouts, not nose.'' He corrected her. ''And before you ask, homo-sapiens sapiens features are like mine, you see.'' He added.

''My anatomy is a human's anatomy. My bones are exactly like theirs. AND before you ask, human's are the latest generation from the homo-sapiens family. They anatomy changed under million years, but I can't remember what they called... I think I answered your question, here comes mine...''

Twilight looked up at him as she finished taking notes. ''I want to know about this lands history. Can you tell me some kind of short-version-history-lesson?''

And Twilight just did that. She only told him a little bit more than he needed, but he kept those small things in mind. She told him about the three tribes, before Equestria was made. She talked about the princesses, Nightmare Moon, Discord's chaotic plans, the changelings and filled him with the recent events. Traveler was taking notes, Twilight gladly explaining and Rainbow Dash... she was bored, then left.

The two information hungry souls were too busy, to notice the pegasus's flying out of the window and they just kept throwing questions and answers at each other.

''So there is a fourth kind of pony. Alicorns... what can they do?'' Asked Traveler.

''Well... there are only three alicorns. Princess Celestia, my mentor. Princess Luna, my and my friends new friend. Princess Mia More Cadenza, The Crystal Empire's ruler and my brothers wife. Princess Celestia is the Princess of the Sun, she raises the sun every day. While Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night, raises the moon every night. Princess Cadance is the Princess of the love. She rules over the crystal ponies.
So, alicorns are pretty powerful. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the co-rulers of Equestria and the Crystal Empire is ruled by Cadance. But I already said that. hehhe...'' Twilight finished with a giggle.

The man, on the other couch, 'wrote' it all down. One thing stuck in his mind however. ''Her brother married to the Princess of the Love... seems legit. Hm... looks like she's okay with that... fine.''

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As much as Twilight wanted to ask more questions, Traveler wanted to see a map about Equestria. Disappointed, she brought a few one. Each map, was a little bit different. And not just because some of them looked cleaner than the other. Some of them were made a few years earlier and the rest were made recently.
Some of them were smaller maps, only about towns and smaller areas in Equestria.
Twilight also had a poorly draw map about the Griffin Kingdom. She said that ponies and griffons are not so friendly with each other. ''Hm... I don't know which one is the bad side. As much as I see these ponies friendly, maybe the griffons have their rights to be harsh with the ponies. I shall look after this conflict if I want to live in peace...''

Traveler thanked Twilight the maps and he went to work the magics. He placed the similar maps together, then looked at his map. He analyzed the maps. Scanning the differences on each drawings, he found some maps, that had the same drawing about forests and mountains.

So he found these similar maps the useful ones and he put the rest aside. Then he started searching for differences on those ones, which he kept. After half a hour searching, he put aside the ones, that not had the same things draw on them. So this left only two maps.

The two maps had a lot of similarities. But at the same time, they had a few difference. Like most of the two maps, shoved exactly the same thing. While some parts were missing...

''Twilight!'' He called to her, but no answer, only some small movement.

He turned around to see Twilight just waking up. She smiled at him sheepishly and rubbed her eyes. Seeing his information sharing parter listening to him, he continued. ''Why is there a forest, so near to this town, but the maps shows only blank paper at that part?'' He asked her.

Twilight immediately knew what was he talking about. ''The Everfree Forest. A really dangerous forest. Nopony goes into that forest. Predators lurking all day and night. That's why the papers are blank there.'' She explained somewhat sleepily.

''I'll keep that in mind to go there...'' If he just knew to not say that sentence...

''NO!'' Twilight shouted. ''You can't go there! It's too dangerous!''

''I'm not you're concern. Just go to sleep. I want to prepare for tomorrow. I'll have to find someone-... oh sorry, somepony, to repair my clothes. They're in a bad condition as you see.'' He started to walk to the front door. ''I'll be in front of your house...''

''What are you doing?'' Asked the dumbfounded Twilight, who found the spirit crazy. She couldn't imagine somepony or 'someone', to go to the Everfree Forest.

He looked back over his shoulder, before opening the door...

''I'm going to prepare...''