“Ugh..” The magician slowly opened his eyes, rubbing his head in pain as the world around him took hold.

He felt the soft grass underneath his dark robe, the new light provided by the early sunset was enough to see his environment clearly. Emrys made it just to the edge of the forest, which explains why he had remained undisturbed for the remainder of the night.

Emrys stood up and placed both hands upon his chest, sure enough, the wounds from the wolf fight last night had healed up while he slept. The magic energy within the body remarkably hastens the process of cellular restoration, and the more honed one’s control of this energy is, the better this and other skills will work.

Bending down, the mage picked up his precious staff and studied it. His master had passed it down to him moments before he died. The staff has a long, pole-like structure with designs going up through it, the tip of it looking sort of like a mace head wrapping around a blue spherical gem. It’s extremely light for its size.
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a207/AkashaSuki/Other%20Stuff/Staff_of_the_ArchMage.jpg)
He gripped the staff tightly in his hand, “Alright... time to find out what the hell is actually going on.” The mage spoke out loud to himself before making his way towards what appeared to be some type of human settlement.

-2 Hours Before-

*WoOoOoOo*
In the latest hours of the night, a sharp humming noise was heard throughout every corner of Equestria.

Twilight Sparkle tossed and turned violently in her bed, her eyes clenched shut tightly as cold sweat encompassed her entire body. She woke in a startle, her eyes opening quickly as she attempted to quell her erratic breathing. “W-what *breathe* was..*breathe* that…?” She quivered, feeling an intense feeling of dread encompass her body as she wondered the possibilities. ‘Could it be something in my room?’

The purple unicorn quickly surveyed all around her room, and nothing in sight would be causing such a dreadful noise. ‘Okay.. I know I’m not crazy.’ Twilight quickly hopped out of the comfort of her bed and down the stairs, her horn glowing brightly as she used her magic to unlock and open the front door before trotting into the dark and chilly night. ‘Doing this is probably a bad idea… but I have to know what caused that sound!’ She spoke in her head before beginning her search, heading toward the Everfree Forest knowing well that sunrise would be soon.

Emrys began to approach a cabin mostly hidden by berry shrubs and tall trees, only visible through small cracks of light shining on the logs which made up the makeshift house. ‘This is quite interesting.. It’s almost as if they made the house to be intentionally disguised by the foliage.’ Curiously, he approached closer to the cabin which now appeared to have vines running up and down the sides of it, making it even harder to spot.

The mage slided his body through the two trees, his robes brushing against them as he could now make out the entire house, crouching as he noticed a visible blue light through one of the windows. ‘It looks like it’s still inhabited. I’ll just knock, what’s the worst that could happen?’

Emrys stood from his crouching position and went to knock on the door three times, waiting for a response. After about 10 seconds, he went to knock on the door again, this time harder and with 5 knocks instead. “Hello? Anyone home?” He called out loud.

‘Hmm.. I know I see a light in there, they probably just don’t want to be bothered this early.’ In fact, now that he thought about it, it was quite rude to slam on someone’s door this early in the morning. But, there was light in the cabin. Curiosity had won, and the magician slowly creeped his way to one of the windows, peering in.

The blue light appeared to be some type of energy that was floating mid-air above the floor inside one of the corner rooms of the cabin, but being a large cabin it was still hard to make much of anything out. Emrys didn’t see anyone in the house, and most of it was completely pitch dark. Assuming it was empty, he went back up to the front door.

‘Now this is getting strange… I’m think I’m going to have to check this out. I just don’t know if I should even be meddling in such matters here in the first place, I don’t even know where the hell I’m at for fuck sakes.’ Going against his better judgement, Emrys turned the old doorknob of the wooden cabin, the door opening with a horrible and chilling creaking sound. 'What the hell am I getting into..’

To be continued...

Author's Note

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I'm back! Thanks for still reading my story.