“Hello, my most faithful student.”

I hear the words bounce off of the walls of the hollowed Golden Oak. My hairs raise up slightly more, the voice is kind but dripping with authority and power. A new pony walks into the living room, resembling Luna but taller, with an alabaster coat and a mane resembling an aroura. A small smile resides on her face and my sense go haywire. Her features are unmoving as she gazes towards me, making no change in expression, completely unreadable.

“You must be the Artemis my sister wrote about in the letter.” Her tone is calm and slightly soothing, like a mother offering comfort.

“And you must be Princess Celestia, I have heard much of you in quite a small amount of time.” I state trying to keep any emotion out of my voice. I fall into the same royal bow I had given Luna while in the forest.

“Please stand. There is no need for such formalities right now.” She takes a seat at Twilight’s table while I stand and reclaim my own chair. My feelings of discomfort from being inside a building increase at the introduction of this ‘Princess Celestia’. Her gaze scanning every move I make. The tension in the air is pliable; Twilight and her friends sit silent, until the tension is finally broken by Luna.

“As much as we love witnessing thy staring competition, there art highly important matters to discuss!” Her louder than normal voice making me look her way, suddenly braking me from the trance the new arrival had put me in. Luna shoots glances between me and her sister.

“Of course”, “Sure” We both respond.

“What is it you wanted to ask me about?” I add trying not to look at Celestia.

An eager look appears on Twilight, the previous awkwardness forgotten. “Oo, can you tell me why I can’t trace any magic on you, it’s uncanny.”

“Well I think the most likely reason you can’t find any magic in me, is because I don’t have any.” I state simply. Shocked silence. Twilight’s mouth is contorted into a humorous looking ‘O’, with varying other looks of confusion scattered on all the ponies faces. All except Celestia, who still has a little smile. I don’t think I like her.

“Truly?” It is Luna who speaks first.

“Is that really so weird? No one where I come from has magic, not a single creature, and it is considered folly and myth. Well, no magic that we can detect at least.”

“I think it would be best we instead start with how you got here.” Celestia asks evenly.

I pause a moment and think before saying. “I’m not entirely sure, see I was trying to destroy the Parasitic Heart-”

“What’s that!” I’m rudely interrupted by Pinkie Pie.

“And why were y’all trying to destroy it?”

“And how did thou intend on ending it?”

More and more question flood my ears. I lift one hand in the air like my primary school teachers used to do and wait for them to calm down. Finally, they stop talking. “How about… I start from the beginning.”

“A wise choice.” Celestia quips, her tone still calm. But… is that a trace of a humour I hear.

I take a chance to breathe before I begin speaking. “So, in basic terms, there was this scientist, and he wanted to create a repellent that could permanently remove the risk of intestinal worms. Apparently taking normal medication was above the man.” I muse with a sigh, “To cut a long story short, instead of creating his ‘cure’, he accidentally caused the one of the worms to rapidly evolve into a terrible creature. We call it the Parasitic Heart.”

“And that is what you were seeking to destroy?” Twilight ponders aloud. While I am briefly annoyed at the interruption, I am thankful for the chance to breathe.

“Uh, yes! So basically this Parasitic Heart started sucking in animals and humans and horribly disfiguring them into mindless murders.” My audience thoroughly captivated at this point; I continue, “The Heart infected more and more with too little being done about it, until one day, a country got sick of it. They dropped hyper-destructive weapons onto location with the most parasites.”

Gasps can be heard from my audience. “Not only did this fail to eradicate the plague of the Parasitic Heart, but it also started a war that spanned the whole world. Between the parasites and the war, almost every human was wiped off the face of the planet, save a few thousand.” My recollections of the events are partly blurry, but the story was harshly ingrained in my thick skull. “I was in the upper regions of a place called Canada on a ski trip at the time. Due to the extreme temperature and lack of civilization, I was safe from the war and the parasites. I was later found by an organization called the Olympians and, well, that is a story for another time.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes were welling with comically large tears. “That’s s-s-so sad. Are y-you okay?”

“That was ten years ago; I overcame and adapted. If I hadn’t, I would’ve died.” My tone is sombre but strong and I stare at my legs. I flinch as two hooves wrap around my body, but I can’t help but calm down a little when I look into Pinkie’s humongous orbs, tinged with sadness. “I’m fine… really.”

I quickly finish my story while absent-mindedly petting the pink ball wrapped around my waist. “To wrap up; I tried to destroy the Parasitic Heart, but instead of succeeding… I woke up here.”

“We are… sorry for making thou relive that.” Luna adds.

I put on my best smile, “You really don’t need to worry about it!” I exclaim with some false ecstasy. Celestia’s face warps from it’s usual smile to something more concerned, like she is about to question me. I don’t think I can take anything from her, so I interject first. “Surely you had more questions?” Smooth.

Luna stares me dead in the eyes for a few moments. “Fine… If thou art sure.” I intensify my smile in response. “So the creature in the forest that did… thou knowest what… to the guards, was a parasite? Tell us more about them!”

“There are 26 kinds of parasites, one for every letter of the alphabet.” I say with enthusiasm, glad for the distraction from the previous awkward conversation. “They come in various shapes and sizes, but they all have these pulsating blue veins, and they are all heartless.”

“So if we go through and kick some parasite-butt them we’re good?” This time it was Rainbow Dash to speak up.

“It’s not as easy as ‘kicking parasite-butt’,” I half-giggle while doing air quotes with my fingers. “Most have extremely thick skins and resistances to heat and poison. On top of that they have insane healing with a single weak spot we call the core. The one I got in the forest had its weak spot in between its eyes.”

“So you have to give each one special attention meaning getting rid of them all is a problem.” Celestia pipes up. “But I suspect you found a way to counter them?”

“Yes and kinda.” I pronounce, “We found that they require the Heart to reproduce so if we can destroy that…”

“You can stop the parasites!” Twilight looks giddy with the logical conclusion. Her silly demeanour making me grin.

I’m starting to feel the nerves I’ve been supressing from being around so many aliens bubbling to the surface. I stand up to clear my head and hear a little ‘eep’ from the pink creature on my lap. With a quiet muttered apology I arc my back into a huge bow and twist my neck until I there is a loud ‘POP!’

“As much I loved our little get together, I ought to get back to my treehouse.” I say drowsily, “Though I think your treehouse is a little better. Roomier you know.” My mind wanders in my sleepy haze.

“Yes, me and my sister should set up some precautions to make sure none of these alleged beasts don’t invade the town.” Celestia states, nodding to her sister. I pick up on her use of ‘alleged’, but I feel no reason to argue my case. I start towards the door when I feel a tug on the back of my cloak.

Twilight has made her eyes look even bigger than usual, “You should stay here, I would love to have you.” I can’t help but feel like she is trying to make up for making me spill my guts.

“I don’t really thi-” It’s as if her eyes get bigger with each word, “Well… I… fine!” I sigh with exasperation.

“YIPPEE” Twilight cheers, “I have so many more questions, and you still haven’t met Spike!”

“And who might Spike be?” I say following her deeper into her house as the rest of her friends filter out the front door. Little chills run through my bones every time I get too far from an escape route.

“Spike is my little baby dragon assistant, greatest one there is too.”

“I’m sure he’s lov- SPIKE’S A WHAT!”

Author's Note

Uhh this was rough. Too many characters, too much talking, AND it was an exposition chapter. Those always feel bad.

On a seperate note, I think this chapter puts me onto 10k words which is an unexpected first. Thanks for the support y'all. Speaking of support, my sister drew some fanart despite not having read the story so here it is.

The gal on the left is Artemis while the guy on the right is Hermes (Aka. Michael). Yk, Michael, everyone's favourite character... he has three lines in the prologue. Surely you didn't forget Michael.

Anyway thank you for reading hope you enjoyed.

Happy writing!!