Rift in Harmonyby jalaspisaChaptersBeware the Ides of ChaosA Change in SceneryThe Horse Who called BoyBeware the Ides of ChaosChapter 1: Beware the Ides of Chaos I know what you’re thinking. How did we end up in this mess? How could anybody do something so sinister and selfish? You’re confused about why we’re in such a situation, you think that they’re out to dispose of us, and you’re worried about how your life is going to change if we somehow manage to stay. I know that this may be hard to take in, but don’t worry. Perhaps I could shed some light on the situation. Maybe I’ll show you that perhaps this fight isn’t as one sided as it appears, and maybe it is not really us that they’re truly after. I’ll first warn you ahead of time. Anyone who hears this story usually thinks I’m just crazy. They usually just cast me aside. I’ve never actually gotten to tell the entire thing to anyone with out them leaving. So, maybe this is more for my sanity than it is for yours. This story may seem to go off track, but everything in it is relevant. It may seem confusing and unconnected, but everything in it is related. It may seem too far fetched and impossible, but everything in it is true. Please just listen. It all started the night of the royal wedding. The decorations were all being cleaned up, and the reception guests were all filing out to return to their homes. The new royal couple had already headed out to their honeymoon in the beautiful Buchaman Islands. Princess Celestia was both relieved and ashamed as she walked down to her room to retire for the night. She was relieved because the largest recent threat that Equestria has had for awhile was averted, but she was ashamed that she was almost finished. Not only had a foreign leader found a way to infiltrate Caterlot, but she was defeated by her right where anypony could see. Perhaps she was more upset about her own lack of omnipotence. It didn’t really matter though. The threat was now gone, peace was restored, and, even though this day was going to be perfect, the chaos had ended …or at least that’s what she thought. She was about to enter her chamber when she was interrupted by one of her royal guards. “Princess Celestia, before you retire for the night, may I have a quick word with you?” “Of course you can. Is something troubling you?” “It’s just, do you recall the name of that pony who had given us that warning about the threat on Caterlot?” “Oh yes, Honey Locus was his name. You can give him our gratitude and a handsome reward for foreseeing such a threat.” Celestia started to turn into her room, but the guard stopped her. “That’s just it your highness, He’s still preaching that same message. He claims that the Changeling invasion of Canterlot wasn’t what he was predicting at all. As of now, he has taken to the streets and is harassing the ponies that pass by.” Celestia was a little stunned by what he said. How could have not been the threat? You have an infiltration, and royal battle, and an all out invasion, and that doesn’t qualify as a threat? “Let’s just see what he has to say,” she responded, “then we can see if there is any reason behind his claims.” They found the crazy unicorn preaching from atop a cardboard box on a market street corner. Ever since he came stumbling out of the Everfree Forest, he was always making predictions and acting very oddly. “Listen Equestria! A new ruler is to come! This Ruler is to ruler not only this land, but many beyond our wildest dreams! Make way Equestrians! This ruler is to rule all!” Most of the ponies around him tried to ignore him, but it was his zeal that dragged them in. Even more began to take notice when Princess Celestia approached him. “Greetings Honey Locus, do you mind if I stop you for a moment to ask you a few questions?” “Why certainly Celestia, ask away. I’m sure of all the ponies in Equestria, you are probably the most excited to here this news!” “Excited? Why would I be excited?” “Answer to question one, you, like all ponies, should be excited about this news, for this ruler is to save us from a terrible fate of eternal servitude. Next question.” A small crowd started to form around the two. Many were appalled about how casually Honey Locus would talk to the Princess. “Uh…okay, so from where is this new ruler to come?” “Answer to question two. This ruler is not what you would expect. This ruler will come from PonyVille, though not of it, bringing along a band of powerful warriors.” “Oh, so she lives PonyVille with a bunch of her friends? Then I guess there really isn’t a reason to—” “Answer to question three. No. I never said she. I know who you are probably are thinking of and your plans for her, but I assure you that those plans will surely fail. There, I answered your few questions. Now please leave me for I have many more ears to give news.” Both Celestia and the crowd were appalled. Celestia was stunned that this preaching street urchin who had seemingly came out of the wilderness only a month ago had known about her plans for her most faithful student, and the crowd was shocked at the derogation in the way he addressed her. “He is a traitor!” yelled one pony from the crowd. “He speaks against the royal sisters! Throw him in the dungeon!” yelled another. Celestia was too flustered to say much, but with one quick gesture of the hoof, the prophet overtaken by guards from all around. The stallion was soon locked up for treason against the royal sisters, but, since he really hadn’t done anything, he was only given a 6 months in prison instead of life. Fortunately for him, that was also the precise amount of time it would take for the being he described to arise. A Change in SceneryWait, are you actually still listening to me? Wow. I don’t think anybody has actually listened to me for that long. Usually, they dismiss me as some kind of conspirating lunatic after I mention the royal wedding, which is actually pretty funny because I think Celestia is the better princess. I guess then I’d be a celestiatic! — What? It’s a joke! Lighten up a bit! Well anyway, I guess I’ll continue. Everything was silent. No birds were singing. No laughter was heard. Nothing dared to make a sound. It wasn’t the good, peaceful, everything is going to be fine silence. No, this was the silence that nopony wants to hear. This was the silence that you hear before the pulling of a trigger. It was the calm before the storm. He found himself lying in a dried up river bed. He seemed dazed and confused as he tried to get up. He had wounds and burns all over his body and a splitting headache. For some reason, he never really seemed the same after he had awoken there. I mean, besides the fact that he didn’t remember anything. He just seemed a little conflicted. He would argue with himself and would be extremely irrational. He used a stable, well rounded character. He used to be the best individual I had known. Oh, how I wished that accident never happened. Oh, I’m sorry. I was just regretting some past decisions. Anyway, as he got up he stumbled all over the place. It seemed as if the sand was unaccustomed to being stood upon by anything like him. He seemed almost blinded by the brightness of the sun and his surroundings. “Where am I? What happened?” Nopony was around him, but he did not feel alone. He walked over to a puddle that was nearby and looked at the cuts and bruises on his face. He had never looked more human. He combed his fingers though his singed, brown hair and tended to the scars that covered his arms and his forehead. What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you doubt me? I didn’t just rip this story out of some fan fiction! This actually happened! It’s real! This human was about college age. He had brown hair that looked like you overturned a bird nest and put it on his head. His eyes were as pure and as blue as the water he was gazing upon. His clothes consisted of a torn up t-shirt and what remained of a pair of jeans. For some reason, his shoes were gone. What Now? So what if there are many similarities in our appearances? That’s just the way it happened! Sure, there are some relations between me and him, but we are not the same! I don’t even have hands or the ability to stand upright! ... I guess I really shouldn’t be so upset. At least you’re listening. I really just need someone to tell this to. It isn’t really an understatement to say that my existence is dependant on telling this story. I just don’t want to mess it up, you know? It’s really all I have left now. But I digress. The human was very confused about where he was. He noted the strange colors of the trees that surrounded him and the odd difficulty that he had breathing. He wanted to think about the situation, but his headache seemed to interfere with any type of coherent thought. "So I can't remember where I am, and I have absolutely no idea about where I am. It's like a cartoon here... yet it still seems very real and familiar. Maybe I need to get glasses. Did I have glasses before? Maybe I dropped them." He briefly looked around on the ground to see if any were there, but he was soon interrupted by several young voices coming from the woods behind him. "Hurry up you two!" said one voice with a bit of a southern drawl, "or we aren't ever gonna get our exploration cutie marks!" "Sorry, my scooter's wheel fell off" said another. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to ride that thing in the Everfree Forest, but nopony ever listens to me!" said a third. The sounds of their voices and the mentioning of the Everfree Forest seemed to cause thoughts to rush through his head. 'Why do those voices sound so familiar?'. 'Everfree? I recognize the name, but...'. It then seemed as if whatever was holding back had retreated, and It all suddenly came to him, and it gave him nothing but dread. "No, that can't possibly be true. It doesn't even make sense! There's no way I could be in Equestria! Is this some type of elaborate prank?" The human was completely in shock. He tried to deny it and come up with an explanation, but he still feared it to be true. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for him, the answers to all of his questions were just about to skip around the bend. He took this time to get himself situated behind a rotten stump that had ended up in the bottom of the riverbed, and, sure enough, he saw three little fillies prancing about with gold line crimson capes. "oh no..." he muttered to himself. He then ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He didn't know what else to do. He ran past twisted vines and trees with crooked faces. He even ran past some Poison Joke somehow remembering to avoid it. He stumbled upon a small hut adorned with african looking masks, recognised it immediately, and just kept on running. He was scared, confused, and disoriented. Every tree he passed looked flawless and untouched, and he could not even tell if he was even running in the same direction. It wasn't until he reached the edge of the forest that all of his greatest fears were realised. All he could do was stare when he gazed upon it. The skyline of PonyVille. You see, you would think that the logical thing to do now would be to get help, to go see the wielders of the elements of harmony, or to get some type of guidance, but something in his head told him that that was a bad idea. He later explained to me that he feared that if the creators stumbled upon him, whether he appeared or was just referenced, it would cause a breakdown of reality or something like that. I'd love to explain it in more detail, but, to tell you the truth, I didn't really listen to him that well myself. Perhaps I too was in denial of the situation. I guess the best way I can explain it now is that it had something to do with free will. We all have it. You do what you want. I do what I want. Nothing really special about it right? What he feared was that, since he was in another being's creation, the concept of free will would need to be distorted. He said something like if he were to appear, who's will would be done? His or their's? That's about all I understood. It just seems a little odd now to me that this guy who was just unconscious about half an hour eariler was able to think up of such a lofty, transcendent idea. I mean, his ideas does make a little sense I guess. I don't really know who the creators are exactly, but I definitely wouldn't want to see anything in my creations slithering around that doesn't listen to me. It's just that it's not even the sort of idea I would have heard out of him before. After mysteriously coming up with his...um...philosophy, He had deduced that the only way he that he would be able to stop his prophesized multiuniversal unraveling would be to become completely isolated. Not just from the ponies, but everything. He saw a couple of peaks on the outskrits of PonyVille that seemed to be desolate enough for him to hide out in, and he ran off toward them. He almost fell running through a puddle of mud, and he hoped with all his heart that he had made it without being detected. He was not unseen. The Horse Who called BoyAs dusk started to crawl in, Truth Turner, a unicorn from PonyVille, ran off toward his downtown home. Now, Truth Turner was a stallion with a bluish-grey coat and a grey mane. He wasn’t elderly. In fact, he had actually just recently reached adulthood. He was a stallion in his prime. His mane was always unkempt and he always had some dirt on his hooves. He burst through the door of his house and galloped over to his older brother, Time Turner, who was busily preparing their evening meal. “Time Turner! Time Turner! You won’t believe what I just saw!” He said leaping around. He always was of the excitable sort. “Let me guess,” His brother said, “you saw a human again…” Truth Turner was little confused why Time Turner seemed so agitated. I would guess it was probably because he had just received some type of a difficult, frustrating order in his clock shop, but what do I know? Anyway, he sure seemed un-ordinarily hostile. “Congratulations!” Time Turner snapped, “You, the intelligent, all knowing, and always correct unicorn of the family, have fooled me, your gullible earth pony brother, once more!” His words really stunned Truth Turner and his eyes started to well up. “No! I’m serious!” Truth frantically replied, “It was running off toward the Appaloosan Mountains and…” Time Turner held up his hoof to stop him. He took in a deep breath and sighed. “Truth,” he said, “we are not colts anymore. Humans are just a fillytales. Now, I’m sorry for shouting at you, but they just don’t exist and they never will.” Truth Turner didn’t know how to respond. “Now please grow up, stop all this human nonsense, and get ready for dinner” Truth Turner slowly climbed up the stairs. He wondered if it had really been a human that he saw. He really didn’t know what else it could be. Maybe it was one of those diamond dogs who live in the caves of Appaloosan Mountains, or maybe it was some type of dragon. Both of those answers really didn’t make much sense. Diamond dogs would never venture down into PonyVille and whatever he saw was definitely larger than that assistant of the town librarian, the only dragon anypony ever saw walking around town. He decided that he had to take action. He swung out the second story window, as he often did from time to time to avoid chores, and landed on the roof of his home. The hay roof had been trodden down a bit from his many other escapes. He then jumped down some of the various crates that were against the side of his house, and he ran off to the only other pony that he thought would listen. He walked up to the cottage that was situated on the edge of PonyVille. It was a small sized home and it was supported by an oversized hot air balloon. The house floated a couple inches off the ground and was tethered to the ground to stop it from flying away. Truth Turner knocked rapidly on the door, looked behind him to see if there was an annoyed brother tailing him, and looked back to see a somewhat flustered pony with a hoof shaped bruise on his face. “Uh… hello there, my friend” the pony said a little confused, “What brings you here? Shouldn’t you be at home? enjoying supper?” He spoke with a slight British accent. His name was Cheery Overview, but most just called him Cheery’O. Don’t let his name fool you. He was one of the least cheerful ponies in PonyVille. I’m not saying that he was depressed, but it’s just that he always seemed to be so unmotivated. He just liked to be by himself with all of his foreign knick-knacks and shelves of sophisticated books. He was always cooped up inside his home. He was a rare type of pony. One known as a wingless pegasus. Cheery’O could do pretty much anything any other pegasus could do. Wingless pegasi can walk on clouds and even control weather to a small degree, but, as the name implies, they’re without a pair of wings. His coat was a pale yellow and was very similar to the one of his nature loving neighbor. His mane was an odd shade of bright green and, no matter what, it had a cowlick that always curled the same way. His home smelled of fancy imported hay. “No!” Truth Turner quickly replied, “well… yes actually, but this is much more important, and my brother won’t listen to me!” Truth Turner’s breathe was a bit short from his long run over here. “Well I suppose I could listen…It’s not like I was having supper…” Now, Cheery’O had always been a bit of a pushover to Truth Turner. He often found it too taxing to try to fight with his persistence, and, even if he did successfully refuse him, he would often let his conscious get the best of him and end up going along anyway. “Great! I knew you’d listen!” “As if I had a choice…” “Please! Quiet!” interupted Truth Turner, “Okay, So here I was walking through the market. I was doing some errands for Crafty and…” Here he started to worry. He just realized that he had never done those errands he had promised Crafty he would do. Crafty was one of his other good friends who often had a bit of a temper, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll describe her in more detail later. “Oh my gosh! I forgot to get that fabric for Crafty! Oh she’s gonna be so mad that. I don’t even want to think about what she'll do!” He started prancing about with worry. “Then don’t,” said Cheery’O very plainly, “just get this story over with.” “Oh! Yes! So, I was walking through town when I saw....” "A human?" “Yes! Did you see him too!?" Cheery’O rubbed his forehead in frustration. He took a bit of time to figure out what he was going to say. He didn’t dare want to upset Truth Turner, but he definitely didn’t want to take any part in this new escapade. “Truth…” he said slowly, “It’s not that I don’t believe your tale. I really do, but it’s just that the last time I followed you on one of your… uh… expeditions, we were out there in the middle of the Everfree Forest stuck for hours on a wild goose chase, or should I say, a wild bear chase.” “But this time there’s proof!” he responded with enthusiasm, “If we hurry, the footprints should be still on the outskirts of town!” Cheery’O was turning around to go back inside, but he stopped upon hearing the word ‘footprints’ and sighed. “Fine,” Cheery’O said with bit exasperation, “I’ll go see your ‘footprints’. Just let me have a bit to eat and then we’ll be on our waaay!” Truth Turner grabbed Cheery’O’s hoof and was pulling him down the stairs of his house. “There is no time! We gotta go now!” he said. “What? It’s not like the footprints are going anywhere!” They then rushed off to the other side of town with empty stomachs and mixed opinions. By this time, the human had ventured much farther into to wilderness. He couldn’t see the skyline of PonyVille now, and surrounding him was nothing but rocks and the occasional mound of dirt. The place was plantless. Completely barren. Not even moss could survive on the soil of the deep Appaloosan Mountains. He had been running for what seemed like ages. His stomach was caving in, and his legs were on the verge of snapping like twigs. He did had a bit of time to try and collect his thoughts. There weren’t really any good ones. He sighed and started to talk to himself. “I guess this should be far enough, but what do I do now?” He leaned over to catch his breathe resting his hands on his knees. He had only been running for only about half an hour, but he wasn’t really the athletic type. “I need to find somewhere to stay while I’m stuck here. Some type of base of operations. Out of sight from everybody… or everypony…or whatever!” He scanned the horizon. The lack of any type of foliage made hiding anything a challenge, and building some type of a structure would definitely be a waste of time and energy. He did spot that on the side of a cliff about half a mile away there were what appeared to be caverns, and he decided that those would have to do for now. “I guess I’ll just go hide out in one of those caves. It’s not like anypony could survive out here. All there is out here is just rocks. Nothing could survive out here …wait, then how do I survive then?” He stopped and tried to think for a minute, but that was quickly interrupted by the rustling of a couple stones behind him. It sent a shock up his spine as cold as a blade. “Who’s there?!” No one responded, but he could hear a faint panting sound. “I gotta get away! If I’m seen, reality will fall apart!” He ran off toward the caves dodging the various outcroppings and ledges placed ahead of him. Behind him, he could hear the disturbance of gravel, and then he knew he was being followed. If only he chose the correct that cave to hide in, then maybe it would have stalled the unraveling of fate. The cave he dove into was not as deep as he had hoped, and before he knew it he was cornered. He heard footsteps approaching him and braced himself for the confrontation that he thought would destroy the universe. It didn’t. What? Why am I telling you all these details? Do you just want a simple explaination?... Where's the fun in that! I need to tell you everything or the story won't make sense! I told you that this story would seem to get off track! Which it's not! I guess I should thank you anyway. You are the most patient being in the universe for sitting here and listening to me. I would love to continue, but it seems that visiting hours are almost to a close. I would say that I hope you return, but I know your curiosity will cause you to come back. I'll see you tomorrow.
Beware the Ides of ChaosChapter 1: Beware the Ides of Chaos I know what you’re thinking. How did we end up in this mess? How could anybody do something so sinister and selfish? You’re confused about why we’re in such a situation, you think that they’re out to dispose of us, and you’re worried about how your life is going to change if we somehow manage to stay. I know that this may be hard to take in, but don’t worry. Perhaps I could shed some light on the situation. Maybe I’ll show you that perhaps this fight isn’t as one sided as it appears, and maybe it is not really us that they’re truly after. I’ll first warn you ahead of time. Anyone who hears this story usually thinks I’m just crazy. They usually just cast me aside. I’ve never actually gotten to tell the entire thing to anyone with out them leaving. So, maybe this is more for my sanity than it is for yours. This story may seem to go off track, but everything in it is relevant. It may seem confusing and unconnected, but everything in it is related. It may seem too far fetched and impossible, but everything in it is true. Please just listen. It all started the night of the royal wedding. The decorations were all being cleaned up, and the reception guests were all filing out to return to their homes. The new royal couple had already headed out to their honeymoon in the beautiful Buchaman Islands. Princess Celestia was both relieved and ashamed as she walked down to her room to retire for the night. She was relieved because the largest recent threat that Equestria has had for awhile was averted, but she was ashamed that she was almost finished. Not only had a foreign leader found a way to infiltrate Caterlot, but she was defeated by her right where anypony could see. Perhaps she was more upset about her own lack of omnipotence. It didn’t really matter though. The threat was now gone, peace was restored, and, even though this day was going to be perfect, the chaos had ended …or at least that’s what she thought. She was about to enter her chamber when she was interrupted by one of her royal guards. “Princess Celestia, before you retire for the night, may I have a quick word with you?” “Of course you can. Is something troubling you?” “It’s just, do you recall the name of that pony who had given us that warning about the threat on Caterlot?” “Oh yes, Honey Locus was his name. You can give him our gratitude and a handsome reward for foreseeing such a threat.” Celestia started to turn into her room, but the guard stopped her. “That’s just it your highness, He’s still preaching that same message. He claims that the Changeling invasion of Canterlot wasn’t what he was predicting at all. As of now, he has taken to the streets and is harassing the ponies that pass by.” Celestia was a little stunned by what he said. How could have not been the threat? You have an infiltration, and royal battle, and an all out invasion, and that doesn’t qualify as a threat? “Let’s just see what he has to say,” she responded, “then we can see if there is any reason behind his claims.” They found the crazy unicorn preaching from atop a cardboard box on a market street corner. Ever since he came stumbling out of the Everfree Forest, he was always making predictions and acting very oddly. “Listen Equestria! A new ruler is to come! This Ruler is to ruler not only this land, but many beyond our wildest dreams! Make way Equestrians! This ruler is to rule all!” Most of the ponies around him tried to ignore him, but it was his zeal that dragged them in. Even more began to take notice when Princess Celestia approached him. “Greetings Honey Locus, do you mind if I stop you for a moment to ask you a few questions?” “Why certainly Celestia, ask away. I’m sure of all the ponies in Equestria, you are probably the most excited to here this news!” “Excited? Why would I be excited?” “Answer to question one, you, like all ponies, should be excited about this news, for this ruler is to save us from a terrible fate of eternal servitude. Next question.” A small crowd started to form around the two. Many were appalled about how casually Honey Locus would talk to the Princess. “Uh…okay, so from where is this new ruler to come?” “Answer to question two. This ruler is not what you would expect. This ruler will come from PonyVille, though not of it, bringing along a band of powerful warriors.” “Oh, so she lives PonyVille with a bunch of her friends? Then I guess there really isn’t a reason to—” “Answer to question three. No. I never said she. I know who you are probably are thinking of and your plans for her, but I assure you that those plans will surely fail. There, I answered your few questions. Now please leave me for I have many more ears to give news.” Both Celestia and the crowd were appalled. Celestia was stunned that this preaching street urchin who had seemingly came out of the wilderness only a month ago had known about her plans for her most faithful student, and the crowd was shocked at the derogation in the way he addressed her. “He is a traitor!” yelled one pony from the crowd. “He speaks against the royal sisters! Throw him in the dungeon!” yelled another. Celestia was too flustered to say much, but with one quick gesture of the hoof, the prophet overtaken by guards from all around. The stallion was soon locked up for treason against the royal sisters, but, since he really hadn’t done anything, he was only given a 6 months in prison instead of life. Fortunately for him, that was also the precise amount of time it would take for the being he described to arise.
A Change in SceneryWait, are you actually still listening to me? Wow. I don’t think anybody has actually listened to me for that long. Usually, they dismiss me as some kind of conspirating lunatic after I mention the royal wedding, which is actually pretty funny because I think Celestia is the better princess. I guess then I’d be a celestiatic! — What? It’s a joke! Lighten up a bit! Well anyway, I guess I’ll continue. Everything was silent. No birds were singing. No laughter was heard. Nothing dared to make a sound. It wasn’t the good, peaceful, everything is going to be fine silence. No, this was the silence that nopony wants to hear. This was the silence that you hear before the pulling of a trigger. It was the calm before the storm. He found himself lying in a dried up river bed. He seemed dazed and confused as he tried to get up. He had wounds and burns all over his body and a splitting headache. For some reason, he never really seemed the same after he had awoken there. I mean, besides the fact that he didn’t remember anything. He just seemed a little conflicted. He would argue with himself and would be extremely irrational. He used a stable, well rounded character. He used to be the best individual I had known. Oh, how I wished that accident never happened. Oh, I’m sorry. I was just regretting some past decisions. Anyway, as he got up he stumbled all over the place. It seemed as if the sand was unaccustomed to being stood upon by anything like him. He seemed almost blinded by the brightness of the sun and his surroundings. “Where am I? What happened?” Nopony was around him, but he did not feel alone. He walked over to a puddle that was nearby and looked at the cuts and bruises on his face. He had never looked more human. He combed his fingers though his singed, brown hair and tended to the scars that covered his arms and his forehead. What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you doubt me? I didn’t just rip this story out of some fan fiction! This actually happened! It’s real! This human was about college age. He had brown hair that looked like you overturned a bird nest and put it on his head. His eyes were as pure and as blue as the water he was gazing upon. His clothes consisted of a torn up t-shirt and what remained of a pair of jeans. For some reason, his shoes were gone. What Now? So what if there are many similarities in our appearances? That’s just the way it happened! Sure, there are some relations between me and him, but we are not the same! I don’t even have hands or the ability to stand upright! ... I guess I really shouldn’t be so upset. At least you’re listening. I really just need someone to tell this to. It isn’t really an understatement to say that my existence is dependant on telling this story. I just don’t want to mess it up, you know? It’s really all I have left now. But I digress. The human was very confused about where he was. He noted the strange colors of the trees that surrounded him and the odd difficulty that he had breathing. He wanted to think about the situation, but his headache seemed to interfere with any type of coherent thought. "So I can't remember where I am, and I have absolutely no idea about where I am. It's like a cartoon here... yet it still seems very real and familiar. Maybe I need to get glasses. Did I have glasses before? Maybe I dropped them." He briefly looked around on the ground to see if any were there, but he was soon interrupted by several young voices coming from the woods behind him. "Hurry up you two!" said one voice with a bit of a southern drawl, "or we aren't ever gonna get our exploration cutie marks!" "Sorry, my scooter's wheel fell off" said another. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to ride that thing in the Everfree Forest, but nopony ever listens to me!" said a third. The sounds of their voices and the mentioning of the Everfree Forest seemed to cause thoughts to rush through his head. 'Why do those voices sound so familiar?'. 'Everfree? I recognize the name, but...'. It then seemed as if whatever was holding back had retreated, and It all suddenly came to him, and it gave him nothing but dread. "No, that can't possibly be true. It doesn't even make sense! There's no way I could be in Equestria! Is this some type of elaborate prank?" The human was completely in shock. He tried to deny it and come up with an explanation, but he still feared it to be true. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for him, the answers to all of his questions were just about to skip around the bend. He took this time to get himself situated behind a rotten stump that had ended up in the bottom of the riverbed, and, sure enough, he saw three little fillies prancing about with gold line crimson capes. "oh no..." he muttered to himself. He then ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He didn't know what else to do. He ran past twisted vines and trees with crooked faces. He even ran past some Poison Joke somehow remembering to avoid it. He stumbled upon a small hut adorned with african looking masks, recognised it immediately, and just kept on running. He was scared, confused, and disoriented. Every tree he passed looked flawless and untouched, and he could not even tell if he was even running in the same direction. It wasn't until he reached the edge of the forest that all of his greatest fears were realised. All he could do was stare when he gazed upon it. The skyline of PonyVille. You see, you would think that the logical thing to do now would be to get help, to go see the wielders of the elements of harmony, or to get some type of guidance, but something in his head told him that that was a bad idea. He later explained to me that he feared that if the creators stumbled upon him, whether he appeared or was just referenced, it would cause a breakdown of reality or something like that. I'd love to explain it in more detail, but, to tell you the truth, I didn't really listen to him that well myself. Perhaps I too was in denial of the situation. I guess the best way I can explain it now is that it had something to do with free will. We all have it. You do what you want. I do what I want. Nothing really special about it right? What he feared was that, since he was in another being's creation, the concept of free will would need to be distorted. He said something like if he were to appear, who's will would be done? His or their's? That's about all I understood. It just seems a little odd now to me that this guy who was just unconscious about half an hour eariler was able to think up of such a lofty, transcendent idea. I mean, his ideas does make a little sense I guess. I don't really know who the creators are exactly, but I definitely wouldn't want to see anything in my creations slithering around that doesn't listen to me. It's just that it's not even the sort of idea I would have heard out of him before. After mysteriously coming up with his...um...philosophy, He had deduced that the only way he that he would be able to stop his prophesized multiuniversal unraveling would be to become completely isolated. Not just from the ponies, but everything. He saw a couple of peaks on the outskrits of PonyVille that seemed to be desolate enough for him to hide out in, and he ran off toward them. He almost fell running through a puddle of mud, and he hoped with all his heart that he had made it without being detected. He was not unseen.
The Horse Who called BoyAs dusk started to crawl in, Truth Turner, a unicorn from PonyVille, ran off toward his downtown home. Now, Truth Turner was a stallion with a bluish-grey coat and a grey mane. He wasn’t elderly. In fact, he had actually just recently reached adulthood. He was a stallion in his prime. His mane was always unkempt and he always had some dirt on his hooves. He burst through the door of his house and galloped over to his older brother, Time Turner, who was busily preparing their evening meal. “Time Turner! Time Turner! You won’t believe what I just saw!” He said leaping around. He always was of the excitable sort. “Let me guess,” His brother said, “you saw a human again…” Truth Turner was little confused why Time Turner seemed so agitated. I would guess it was probably because he had just received some type of a difficult, frustrating order in his clock shop, but what do I know? Anyway, he sure seemed un-ordinarily hostile. “Congratulations!” Time Turner snapped, “You, the intelligent, all knowing, and always correct unicorn of the family, have fooled me, your gullible earth pony brother, once more!” His words really stunned Truth Turner and his eyes started to well up. “No! I’m serious!” Truth frantically replied, “It was running off toward the Appaloosan Mountains and…” Time Turner held up his hoof to stop him. He took in a deep breath and sighed. “Truth,” he said, “we are not colts anymore. Humans are just a fillytales. Now, I’m sorry for shouting at you, but they just don’t exist and they never will.” Truth Turner didn’t know how to respond. “Now please grow up, stop all this human nonsense, and get ready for dinner” Truth Turner slowly climbed up the stairs. He wondered if it had really been a human that he saw. He really didn’t know what else it could be. Maybe it was one of those diamond dogs who live in the caves of Appaloosan Mountains, or maybe it was some type of dragon. Both of those answers really didn’t make much sense. Diamond dogs would never venture down into PonyVille and whatever he saw was definitely larger than that assistant of the town librarian, the only dragon anypony ever saw walking around town. He decided that he had to take action. He swung out the second story window, as he often did from time to time to avoid chores, and landed on the roof of his home. The hay roof had been trodden down a bit from his many other escapes. He then jumped down some of the various crates that were against the side of his house, and he ran off to the only other pony that he thought would listen. He walked up to the cottage that was situated on the edge of PonyVille. It was a small sized home and it was supported by an oversized hot air balloon. The house floated a couple inches off the ground and was tethered to the ground to stop it from flying away. Truth Turner knocked rapidly on the door, looked behind him to see if there was an annoyed brother tailing him, and looked back to see a somewhat flustered pony with a hoof shaped bruise on his face. “Uh… hello there, my friend” the pony said a little confused, “What brings you here? Shouldn’t you be at home? enjoying supper?” He spoke with a slight British accent. His name was Cheery Overview, but most just called him Cheery’O. Don’t let his name fool you. He was one of the least cheerful ponies in PonyVille. I’m not saying that he was depressed, but it’s just that he always seemed to be so unmotivated. He just liked to be by himself with all of his foreign knick-knacks and shelves of sophisticated books. He was always cooped up inside his home. He was a rare type of pony. One known as a wingless pegasus. Cheery’O could do pretty much anything any other pegasus could do. Wingless pegasi can walk on clouds and even control weather to a small degree, but, as the name implies, they’re without a pair of wings. His coat was a pale yellow and was very similar to the one of his nature loving neighbor. His mane was an odd shade of bright green and, no matter what, it had a cowlick that always curled the same way. His home smelled of fancy imported hay. “No!” Truth Turner quickly replied, “well… yes actually, but this is much more important, and my brother won’t listen to me!” Truth Turner’s breathe was a bit short from his long run over here. “Well I suppose I could listen…It’s not like I was having supper…” Now, Cheery’O had always been a bit of a pushover to Truth Turner. He often found it too taxing to try to fight with his persistence, and, even if he did successfully refuse him, he would often let his conscious get the best of him and end up going along anyway. “Great! I knew you’d listen!” “As if I had a choice…” “Please! Quiet!” interupted Truth Turner, “Okay, So here I was walking through the market. I was doing some errands for Crafty and…” Here he started to worry. He just realized that he had never done those errands he had promised Crafty he would do. Crafty was one of his other good friends who often had a bit of a temper, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll describe her in more detail later. “Oh my gosh! I forgot to get that fabric for Crafty! Oh she’s gonna be so mad that. I don’t even want to think about what she'll do!” He started prancing about with worry. “Then don’t,” said Cheery’O very plainly, “just get this story over with.” “Oh! Yes! So, I was walking through town when I saw....” "A human?" “Yes! Did you see him too!?" Cheery’O rubbed his forehead in frustration. He took a bit of time to figure out what he was going to say. He didn’t dare want to upset Truth Turner, but he definitely didn’t want to take any part in this new escapade. “Truth…” he said slowly, “It’s not that I don’t believe your tale. I really do, but it’s just that the last time I followed you on one of your… uh… expeditions, we were out there in the middle of the Everfree Forest stuck for hours on a wild goose chase, or should I say, a wild bear chase.” “But this time there’s proof!” he responded with enthusiasm, “If we hurry, the footprints should be still on the outskirts of town!” Cheery’O was turning around to go back inside, but he stopped upon hearing the word ‘footprints’ and sighed. “Fine,” Cheery’O said with bit exasperation, “I’ll go see your ‘footprints’. Just let me have a bit to eat and then we’ll be on our waaay!” Truth Turner grabbed Cheery’O’s hoof and was pulling him down the stairs of his house. “There is no time! We gotta go now!” he said. “What? It’s not like the footprints are going anywhere!” They then rushed off to the other side of town with empty stomachs and mixed opinions. By this time, the human had ventured much farther into to wilderness. He couldn’t see the skyline of PonyVille now, and surrounding him was nothing but rocks and the occasional mound of dirt. The place was plantless. Completely barren. Not even moss could survive on the soil of the deep Appaloosan Mountains. He had been running for what seemed like ages. His stomach was caving in, and his legs were on the verge of snapping like twigs. He did had a bit of time to try and collect his thoughts. There weren’t really any good ones. He sighed and started to talk to himself. “I guess this should be far enough, but what do I do now?” He leaned over to catch his breathe resting his hands on his knees. He had only been running for only about half an hour, but he wasn’t really the athletic type. “I need to find somewhere to stay while I’m stuck here. Some type of base of operations. Out of sight from everybody… or everypony…or whatever!” He scanned the horizon. The lack of any type of foliage made hiding anything a challenge, and building some type of a structure would definitely be a waste of time and energy. He did spot that on the side of a cliff about half a mile away there were what appeared to be caverns, and he decided that those would have to do for now. “I guess I’ll just go hide out in one of those caves. It’s not like anypony could survive out here. All there is out here is just rocks. Nothing could survive out here …wait, then how do I survive then?” He stopped and tried to think for a minute, but that was quickly interrupted by the rustling of a couple stones behind him. It sent a shock up his spine as cold as a blade. “Who’s there?!” No one responded, but he could hear a faint panting sound. “I gotta get away! If I’m seen, reality will fall apart!” He ran off toward the caves dodging the various outcroppings and ledges placed ahead of him. Behind him, he could hear the disturbance of gravel, and then he knew he was being followed. If only he chose the correct that cave to hide in, then maybe it would have stalled the unraveling of fate. The cave he dove into was not as deep as he had hoped, and before he knew it he was cornered. He heard footsteps approaching him and braced himself for the confrontation that he thought would destroy the universe. It didn’t. What? Why am I telling you all these details? Do you just want a simple explaination?... Where's the fun in that! I need to tell you everything or the story won't make sense! I told you that this story would seem to get off track! Which it's not! I guess I should thank you anyway. You are the most patient being in the universe for sitting here and listening to me. I would love to continue, but it seems that visiting hours are almost to a close. I would say that I hope you return, but I know your curiosity will cause you to come back. I'll see you tomorrow.
