(( Hey, everyone. I'm back! With another new story! Note that neither My Little Pony nor Kingdoms of Amalur belong to me. They belong to Hasbro and 38 Studios, respectively. As it says in the description, this will contain HEAVY SPOILERS for the main quest in Amalur, and anthro ponies! If you want a visual to go by, look up SkyKain's My Little Pony fan art. It's what I picture the ponies to look like, at least. XD Anyway, enjoy! ))

"You are nothing but dust! Why. Won't. You. DIE?"

The voice roared through every corner of his mind, reverberating in his senses until it was no more. The creature before him snarled, its massive, jagged fangs bared in a permanent snarl. Flames burst from its nostrils with every aggravated breath, and its molten red eyes smoldered with hatred for the mortal before it. The dragon lowered its gaze to the Alfar before it, curiously taking in his soft, almost calm demeanor. How could he be so calm? She had killed him before! He was surely fated to die by her claws again. The Alfar raised his arm, his eyes nearly overflowing with a violet-white light, and blue crystals that formed around the room were suddenly torn from the very earth in which they grew. The dragon's eyes would've widened in fear, if they weren't already so in rage.

"No. NO. NO!"

The voice screeched, a force pushing his mind, attempting to make him stop. But he had already begun his assault, and he would be damned if he let some overgrown worm hold him back with meager pleading. He shifted himself forward and began a dash towards the creature, pummeling its body with the crystals he forced from the ground. Howls and roars of pain and fury filled the cavernous fortress as he leaped from his earthy perch and collided with the dragon, the force of the impact causing it to lose balance and plummet into the infinite chasm below. The crystals followed suit, and the Alfar let loose a breath of relief. He looked around for a moment, at the crystalline growths coming from the walls, floor, and even the ceiling, and for the first time since he awoke to this damned war... he smiled.

The room began to quake. Violently, in fact. The entire fortress shook, crystals and pieces of molten rock falling around him. The dragon's voice echoed in his head again, a laugh followed by a growl.

"Fateless one... You may have prevented me from my breaking free of this prison... But I assure you, this is not my final act. No... You will never see Amalur again. You will never see anyone you hold dear. In fact... You will never know the world after my defeat. This is my final act, Fateweaver. May you forever remember that it was Tirnoch that broke you from this world!"

A pain flashed through him. A pain unlike any he had felt before. He had been stabbed. Shot with an arrow. Burned. Frozen. Shocked. Poisoned. But none of that compared to this pain. It felt as though he was being torn from the very fabric of the world itself. His body enveloped in silver light, he screamed, his body convulsing from the sensory overload. The light blinded him. Tirnoch's roar deafened him. The taste of the sulfurous air choked him. The smell of it brought him to gag. And the pain... Oh, Lyria, the pain...

He felt as though he was flung away. Flung away from Tirnoch. Flung away from Amethyn. And flung away from the world he had just saved. Before realizing it, his vision went black, and his mind soon followed suit.

A bright light and whispers brought him into consciousness yet again. The Dokkalfar stirred and groaned as his senses slowly returned to him. The first thing he felt was... softness. He was in a bed. A rather comfortable bed, at that. Then the ache came. If anything, he was grateful that he could still feel the ache. It reminded him he was alive. Then the light. The Belen-cursed light. He tried to move his arm to cover his eyes, but he found it wrapped in a blanket. So that was the warmth, he thought.

"He's waking up! Get Twilight!" Came a soft, feminine voice in a hurried whisper. A soft padding of... wait... clopping of... hooves... could be heard, followed by a door opening and shutting. He turned his head away from the light, unable to withstand the blinding he received. He was quickly greeted by a loving shadow over his eyes. It was then he began to flutter them open, though his vision was heavily blurred. He wasn't surprised, given Tirnoch's mental assault...

Tirnoch...

He heard the door opening and closing again, this time two sets of hooves clopping in. He felt the shadow grow darker. Someone was standing over him. His eyes began to focus as he fully opened them, but it was a slow process. His pupils dilated and shrunk, over and over, trying to adjust to the level of ambient light. He saw a figure standing beside him, the one watching him. He could see a feminine figure, but something was amiss. He could see a... tail. It looked like a horse's tail, its dark blue coloration split by a streak of violet and pink. And her clothing... her trousers were a strange shade of blue, and looked rough to the touch. They hugged her hips and legs, the legs of the trousers falling to the floor loosely. He groaned and rolled to look up, wanting to see the face of the woman standing over him. Her shirt was plain white, hugging her chest and falling around her stomach. The sleeves were cut short, just about at the middle of her upper arm, which was coated in... purple fur. He blinked twice, making sure he was seeing correctly before looking up to her face.

If he weren't the polite Dokkalfar he was, his jaw would have dropped.

Her face held a slight similarity to a horse, but only in that instead of a plain, rounded face like the races of men, or more angled features of Alfar or Fae, a slight muzzle was present. A pair of violet eyes gazed down at him, and just above them was a line of hair, the same color as the woman's tail. In the middle of her forehead, a... horn. A lighter violet than her coat, but a horn. Her ears perked up at the sides of her head, and a smile graced her features.

"Thank Celestia, you're awake!" She said happily before her horn began to glow with a soft purple light. A chair floated from the corner of the room, and she sat down. The Alfar blinked away his confusion, slowly adjusting himself to sit up. A pain burned in his side, but he pushed past it, allowing the blanket to fall from his torso. The cool air against his bare skin felt wonderful, though it presented a small problem. Wherever he was, and whoever this woman was, he was in, presumably, her bed in nothing but his underclothes. The bare dark grey skin of the Alfar was a stark contrast to the coated... horse-folk that looked to inhabit this place. He brushed his black hair from in front of his eye and looked up to the woman, still smiling kindly at him.

"I... Where am I?" He asked, his voice groggy. It hurt to talk. It burned his throat. An aftertaste of sulfur came. He hated it. It would pass soon, hopefully. He brushed past his ears. They were still there. Pointed back, long, slender, capable of picking up the most subtle rustle of grass. He had no doubt that his angled features were in a look of confusion as he spoke, but he hoped she would understand.

"You're in Ponyville. My friend found you unconscious in the an alley, and brought you here. She was worried about taking you to the hospital, so we nursed you back to health," she said. Her voice was calm, something he enjoyed.

"How long was I..."

"You were out for three weeks since we found you. But every once in a while, you would have these nightmares. You were screaming... Something about 'fate will not have you,'" she explained, but the realization of how long he had been asleep had set in immediately. Three weeks? In a place he didn't know? He blinked again, looking to the woman.

"You... You are very kind, miss. Most people in Amalur would have left me to die..." He began, but noticed the strange look of confusion on the face of the woman.

"Amalur? We're in Equestria. But that would explain your different... appearance compared to everyone else," she murmured, her eyes set in thought. He took that moment to look around the room. The walls were shelves, set with row upon row of books. Even the Scholia Arcana couldn't boast this many volumes, and it was one of the greatest places of learning in all of Amalur! As he looked up, he came face-to-light with what was blinding him earlier. He shielded his eyes, and noticed it... wasn't a torch. It wasn't a candle. It wasn't even a ball of mana. It was a strange... bulb, he thought it looked like. And light was pouring forth from it, brighter than any torch. He noticed a strange cone above it. Perhaps to focus the light from the bulb towards him in an attempt to awaken him, he thought. But the device was... strange. He'd never seen anything like it. He looked back to the woman sitting beside him, noticing that her look of thought had returned to the polite smile.

"Anyway, I'm Twilight Sparkle," she said, extending a hand to him. He thought it peculiar, that with the clopping of hooves he'd heard earlier, these people would have hands like other races, but he paid it no mind. And her name... Perhaps it was a tradition in this land of... Equestria.

"My name is Caerwyn. It is a pleasure to meet you, miss Sparkle," he said, taking her hand. Twilight blushed and laughed nervously.

"Please, just call me Twilight. Everyone else does," she said, a twinge of nervousness evident to the Alfar. He thought it endearing, but he had no time for such thoughts.

"Very well, Twilight. Now, would you please be so kind as to..." He pointed to the light device above him, "Explain to me what in Lyria's name that contraption is?" Twilight blinked. She blinked again.

"That's a light," she said plainly. But Caerwyn's expression remained perplexed. This was commonplace? Why wasn't this device in Amalur? Scholars and workers would do well to have this! But the clothing... The 'light'...

"Twilight, how long was I unconscious?" He asked as calmly as he could. Twilight gave him a strange look, one he couldn't make out.

"Three weeks. Why?" She asked. Caerwyn brought a hand to his chin. Three weeks? That couldn't have been enough time for a rogue Tuatha to... "You were wearing some sort of armor. And you had a sword. It was strange, it looked like it was made of..."

"Prismere," he said, his thoughts slowly beginning to piece together. The pain... Tirnoch's last words to him...

"May you know forever that it was Tirnoch that broke you from this world!"

Realization hit him hard. Tirnoch had made good on her final act. He wasn't in Amalur. Amalur never existed here. Men, Alfar, Fae... None of them existed. Tirnoch never existed. The Erathi never existed.

"Twilight... I know this is going to sound... odd. But I need you to listen to me. I'm not from this world. Equestria is a place I've never heard of. You... I've never seen anyone like you. No one I... knew had ever seen anyone like you. And, from what you said before, I can assume no one in Equestria has ever seen a Dokkalfar..."

"A Dokkal-what?"

"Twilight, dear, the man's clearly exhausted. Whatever happened to him must have left him in a state of shock," a sophisticated voice came from behind Twilight. The sound of clopping hooves coming closer to him caused him to look around Twilight. Not only were his arms and armor nowhere in sight, which he would need to remedy later, but another woman was approaching him. Her body was much more slender than Twilight's, and she was clad in a stunning black dress that fell past her knees. Her coat was the purest white, and her hair and tail were a deep indigo, styled in lovely curls, and a white horn, the same length as Twilight's pointed, from her forehead. Her crystal blue eyes looked towards him and she smiled.

"Hello, dear. My name is Rarity," she said, extending a dainty hand to him. By the look of her fingers, he could tell she was a tailor. The dress was perhaps one of her own design. Her gracefully took her hand, his Dokkalfar social nature kicking in.

"Caerwyn. Charmed," he said calmly, a smile that had set many a lady's heart aflutter spread across his lips. Rarity smiled right back, a smile that he could tell would drive a man wild as soon as he saw it. It was going to be interesting, speaking with her.

"Now, what in Celestia's name are you talking about, dear? Dokkalfar? Another world?" She asked, a blue glow shining from her horn as another chair floated over for her to sit on. The Alfar hesitated. Alyn Shir was quite clear about what she would do to anyone should he tell them the truth about what transpired in Amethyn. But... If he was the only one from Amalur these two had ever seen, perhaps she was still looking for him in the aftermath of whatever happened after his violent ejection from the world. Still, it couldn't hurt to be safe. He didn't wish the people who save him to die because of loose lips.

"I'm afraid I can't go into too much detail. My memory of what transpired before I awoke is rather hazy," he lied, "But I come from the land of Amalur. The Faelands, to be exact. A war waged between the immortal Fae of the Winter House of Vengeance and all who opposed them..."

"That doesn't make sense. The last war in Equestrian history was between the three tribes, and that was far before any recorded history here," Twilight murmured, her eyes lowered. "And immortal... Fae? What does winter have to do with anything?" She continued her murmurings.

"I'll explain that later. It will take a long while to explain that pseudo-feudal system the Fae have," he sighed, "The House of Vengeance believed a new god was being born beneath the palace of the Winter Court. This god demanded they eradicate the young races, and whoever got in their way. I was thrust into the war. The last thing I remember is... fields of Prismere. I cut my sword from the growths that forced themselves through the land. Our army was about to march on the enemy encampment... They gave the order... And then nothing. Everything goes black." The last part was a lie. He knew full well what happened when that fateful battle began. Twilight hummed to herself and looked to Rarity, who nodded to her.

"It sounds like quite an ordeal. I'll write to the Princess in a minute. But first... I want to try something. Do people in Amalur believe in fate?" She asked, shifting forward in her chair. Caerwyn forced himself to remain calm. Fate, or lack thereof, was what put him in this position in the first place. He nodded to her.

"Yes. And it's not just a belief. Everyone in Amalur is bound to a fate. It is part of them from the moment they are born," he said, which brought a sigh of relief from the violet woman.

"Good. I'm going to try reading your fate. Maybe I can look into your past and help you put the pieces together," she said before her horn began to glow again. Her eyes met his for a brief moment, and he could tell she didn't believe what she saw. She tried again. And again. Still, she saw the same thing. She looked over to Rarity in disbelief.

"I'm definitely writing to the princess," she said curtly. Rarity blinked and looked to her friend in concern.

"What's wrong? What did you see?"

"What did I see? I didn't see anything! Nothing at all! If his people are bound to fate like he said, then I should see something, right? But I don't! It's a big black void where I should be able to see the threads of fate around him..."

"Twilight, allow me to explain," said Caerwyn sternly, "This is no coincidence. It is not a fluke. There is... one thing I left out of my story. It explains my lack of fate."

"It shouldn't! No one can be free of fate! Even the Princesses are bound to its weave! It shouldn't..."

"Twilight. I died."

Twilight stopped speaking and stared at him incredulously. Even Rarity, who he could tell was ladylike, found herself gaping at his proclamation.

"The first thing I remember is waking up in a pile of corpses. I was in the middle of a cavern. The Winter Fae were invading. As I fought my way out, I met a man who seemed surprised to see me. He told me I was one of the corpses in the pile. No signs of life, no movement. I was cold and dead. Apparently, he and his employer had been working on a project to reverse death itself. I was its first success," he explained calmly, "The Fae destroyed it, but not before I escaped. Every Fateweaver I visited said the same thing you did. I have no fate. None. It shouldn't have happened. I wasn't meant to return to life, but I did. My resurrection may have been what caused me to be torn from fate's weave." Twilight and Rarity kept staring at him, but a new form was approaching.

Caerwyn looked up to see another young woman approaching him. She was a slim young girl, dressed in a heavy blue sweater and the same type of trousers Twilight wore. Her coat was a pale yellow, and her hair and tail were... pink. Both were a shade of pink. Her green eyes met his for a moment before looking away. But he couldn't see a horn on her head, like Twilight and Rarity. Instead, coming from her shoulder blades, he could see a pair of wings folded against her back. It captivated him, but he could tell she was uncomfortable with him gawking at her. Rarity snapped out of her disbelief and looked back at the woman, who shrank from her gaze.

"It's okay, Fluttershy. He won't hurt you. You can join us, darling,"she said softly, causing the shy young woman to slowly approach the bed. She didn't bring a chair with her, but remained standing near the bed. Caerwyn smiled at her, a kind, soft smile that he thought would help bring her out.

"Fluttershy, is it?" He asked softly, bringing a flinch from the girl.

"Y-yes..."

"There's no need to be nervous. I won't attack you. I won't attack anyone here, for that matter." He could see her easing closer, but maintaining her distance. He smiled and looked back to Twilight, who had a look of stern concentration on her face.

"We're going to Canterlot."

"What?" Rarity blurted out, looking to her friend with a shocked stare.

"I'm writing to the princess, and when she responds, we're going to Canterlot. She'll be able to explain this. I'm sure of it," Twilight said with a grin. Caerwyn blinked. Canterlot? Was it the capital city? He looked down at himself.

"Well, if we're going anywhere, I'll need clothing."

(( I promise I'll update the other two soon, but I've had this idea swimming around for a long time. When Kingdoms of Amalur came out, I pretty much dumped Skyrim to play it exclusively. This idea popped into my head, and I just had to write it. I hope you all enjoty! Remember to leave a review! I subsist on that stuff! ))