A Tale of Magic

You find yourself standing in a room. You’re completely aware that you couldn’t possibly be here, but you have a sense of calmness about it all.

The room is lit up by the roaring fireplace, as well as the numerous candles placed about with no obvious pattern in mind. Countless bookcases are lined up along the walls. If you didn’t know better, you’d say that the bookcases WERE the walls. Whoever lives here must really love reading.

“Why hello there,” a voice from your left utters. Turning your head you see a young man. His calm face and gentle eyes seems almost unreal in the flickering light of the fireplace.

“By all means, sit down and have a cup of tea.” You suddenly find yourself sitting in front of the fire in a comfy chair, holding a cup filled with delicious Earl Grey. You don’t know how you got seated but frankly, you don’t care.

“Allow me to introduce myself. They call me by many names; ‘Man’, ‘The Author’, ‘Writer’, ‘Kasper’, ‘Son of Søren’ and ‘Friend’. You may call me ‘Glassed’.”

“Please, as my guest, let me entertain you for a while. But before anything else, I must ask you a question: Do you love a good story?” You nod.

“Splendid! I myself am a great lover of good stories. In fact; I have the most peculiar story for you this fine evening. If you are ready, I shall begin this strange story, this tale of mystery and ponies. This tale of magic…

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Chapter 1: A Strange Morning

“Just 5 more minutes,” he groaned. He hated mornings; hated them with a passion. Why would he need to leave the comfort of his bed and greet the morning sunlight? Why do mornings exist at all?

‘Well the day’s got to start somewhere,’ the logical part of his brain said.

‘But why not at noon then? Noon is a nice time,’ that would be the lazy part of his mind speaking, the one that would very much like to stay under the covers.

But something didn’t feel quite right with this despicable morning. His covers felt weird, like they weren’t even there. His mattress had an odd 'grassy' feel to it.

Oh yeah! And he wasn’t breathing. That would most likely be at the top of the list of weird things at the time.

I should probably fix that, he thought, addressing his lungs. They surely couldn’t still be asleep. He and they had an agreement; when he woke, they had to get up as well. Granted he wasn’t completely awake yet, but it would be nice if they were a bit ahead of him. Oh, there they were.

As the fresh air reached his lungs, he couldn’t help but cough. The sudden change had taken him completely off guard and he felt his legs collapse under him… This was an odd feeling, considering that he was lying down. He was hyperventilating.

His vision was blurry, unable to see what was happening in front of him. As his breathing became more and more stable, he was able to take in some of his surroundings.

From the flora around him, he would presume that he was in some kind of forest. While he had little to no clue of what he was doing there, he had to address his list of priorities again.

• Giving his lungs the heavenly gift of air: Check.

• Checking the status of his mattress. Status: Grassy, as the feel. Otherwise not-existent. Check.

• Checking the status of his blanket. Status: Not there… (He could live without his mattress, but this was just sad!) Check.

• Diverting his attention and possibly identifying the cloaked figure in front of him. Status: Not complete, but he’d get right on that.

His vision, still blurry, made him unable to see anything other than the general color of the cloak. A deep violet color was the last thing he saw, before the cloaked pony disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He tried to get up, yet found himself horribly unable to do so.

“I could really use a nap right now,” was the last thought that went through his head, (With the noticeably exception of a witty comment to himself, consisting of “Hello ground”) before everything around him plunged into darkness.

---Same Place---

Unknown amount of time later

What felt like only a few seconds for him, had been several hours of him lying on the soft grass.

As he opened his eyes, he found himself somewhat able to stand, though not before greeting the dirt below him quite a few times. As he rose, he found that his vision hadn’t changed. Yet he felt fine, or as fine as you can be when you don’t know where you are… or who you are.

“Where am I?” he asked out loud, as if expecting somepony to suddenly come out from under a rock and explain everything.

Yet no such thing happened. He was alone… confused and alone.

Taking a look, blurry but nonetheless a look, he found himself wearing, what he presumed, had at one point in time been some form of blue clothing. He had a small medallion in the shape of star around his neck and… something in his pocket, which was just as battered as the rest of his attire.

He took the object up from his pocket and noticed to his relief that it was glasses.

He took off the 'presumable clothing', left the medallion on and put on his eyewear.

As his surroundings became clear he saw that he really was in a forest. A small lake, some feet from his location, gave him a clearer look at his person.

Even without him looking at his reflection he knew; he was old. He could feel it in his bones. Not 'retirements-home-old' but old as in 'filled with experience'. His coat was white and his mane slightly greyish, his horn being white as well. What he took the most notice of, however, was the medium sized beard that he had.

“I look like someone’s grandpa,” he muttered to himself, wearing a wondering look on his face. “Maybe I am?” He quite enjoyed the thought of sitting on a front porch, waving his hoof (and possibly shouting a bit) at the foals running on his lawn. He liked children, though the thought was amusing nonetheless.

“OK, first thing’s first: Before thinking anymore about this, I should find someplace to set up camp,” he said. “The sun is going down and I have a bad feeling that I won’t like the wildlife in this forest…” he gulped “and I have a slight suspicion that they won’t like me either…”

“AND WHY AM I TALKING TO MYSELF!?”

A few hours later

After having wandered for a little while, there were a few things that he now knew better.

One thing he knew better was the dirt. Glorious dirt! More than once had his face meet the ground, in an almost flirtatious way. Had it been a date, he would be at the point where he was about to propose to it. Only to be turned down, the dirt saying how it would never work out.

Another thing was that this forest apparently had SOMETHING against him! Thankfully, he had managed to stay out of the way of the particular part of the wildlife that would enjoy munching on his face. But the flora… ugh…

Though, an upturn of the day (being one of the few there had been), was the discovery of a small cave.

Seeing as the cave was dry and a better alternative than sleeping outside, he decided to set up camp for the night. The last visitors that had used the cave before him had left various items and supplies.

After scavenging the cave for a few minutes, he had himself a blanket, a few carrots, that arguably had seen better days, and a book entitled 'The Legends of Equestria'.

As the night began to take hold of the forest, he had himself a small fire going and had begun reading the book.

Skimming over a few pages, he read up on the entity known as 'Nightmare Moon'. He found it interesting, though not very enjoyable. What he read on the next page, however, couldn’t help but amuse him.

“The legendary thief, known as 'Silk D’Rouge', the thief who stole the moon,” he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. He loved the way old writers made up these ridiculous stories. “Stole the moon, yeah right”.

He turned the page and found something that fascinated him greatly. “The conjurer 'Starswirl the Bearded'… his most powerful spell… to unite the magic of Equestria for the greater good of all ponies in the world… failed… died while attempting...” he said, mumbling.

At this point, his mind and eyelids was fighting an epic battle of dominance. His mind wanting to continue reading and his eyelids wanting to go to sleep. In the end, the lids stood victorious. He was tired from everything that had happened today.

As he pulled his blanket over him, he thought of the long day ahead of him tomorrow. As he closed his eyes, he felt at peace, more than he had felt in a long time.

---Elsewhere---

The man stood, looking out of the window, completely aware of the cloaked figure standing behind him. He hadn’t made his presence known, but they both knew that, that wasn’t necessary.

“I trust everything went well?” he said.

“Yes my lord. It has been done,” the cloaked man said, with much respect in his voice. He wasn’t one to disappoint his master.

Without even turning toward his student, he said in a voice that would make other ponies freeze with fear, “Good! Then everything is going according to plan,” his smile turning into a menacing, borderline insane, grin.

---Back at the cave---

Next morning

As the tiny strips of sunlight made their way into the cave, his eyes slowly opened.

As he stood and popped his back, he felt better than ever. Sure he still didn’t know who he was and this was another morning where the sun apparently found it hilarious to torture him, but at least he wasn’t tired anymore… “Which leads me to yet another problem,” he thought. “What am I going to introduce myself as, were I to find anypony?”

After a while of thinking, he came to the conclusion that he should have a name based of his appearance, as he had nothing else to go after. “Let’s see; white, glasses, a beard, gray hair (I really do look old, don’t I?), no Cutie mark (that’s a bit odd…) and a horn. Not much to go after.”

“What about 'Greymane'… Nah, a bit too old-sounding… 'Silvermane'? No, I want something a bit more normal…

"Jeez the sun is bright... bright… bright… eyes… 'Bright Eyes'! That sounds good, and slightly ironic considering my horrid vision.”

As he made his way to the entrance of the cave, having gathered what he could from it, he took a look at the sky.

“Not a cloud in sight, this will be a good day for traveling, I can feel it!” He said, his voice filled with excitement.

Yet there was a single thought that hadn’t occurred to him before now. Why had the last travelers just left their things in the cave?

Sudden realizations made him slowly turn around, staring into the deep cave.

What followed, would to anypony standing outside the cave, have been a sight to behold. An elderly pony, screaming his lungs out while running away from an equally loud roaring bear, followed by, what could only be described as total hysteria, would have been amusement to anypony.

---A few miles away---

30 minutes later

“Oh at least I got away from the bear,” he panted. He wasn’t made for things like this.

After having survived his encounter with the angry bear, and gotten past a field filled with equally angry squirrels, he couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“OK, a quick break but then I’ll keep walking,” he panted.

Looking around the area, he found it quite pleasing; breathtaking even. The flora was in full bloom and he couldn’t remember ever seeing trees being greener… stupid amnesia…

“Time to get going I guess,” Bright gave a mock-command to himself, “places to go, places to see, ponies to meet and the hooves won’t move themselves!”

At least the weather was nice. Clear sky and a warm, if not a little humid, breeze.

“There’s a road, calling you to stray. Step by step, pulling you away~

Under moon and star, take the road, no matter how far~

Where is leads, no one ever knows. Don’t look back, follow where it goes~

Far beyond the sun, take the road wherever it runs~

The road goes on, ever ever on…” he sang as he walked.

However, had he taken a look from above the trees, he would have noticed the dark clouds approaching.

There was a storm coming… and it was going to be a big one.

Hey people, what's up? Glassed here with the first rewritten chapter for you. It been well underway and I felt like the time to give it to you was now.

References: Legacy

Song: Lord of the Rings - The Road Goes On

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos