A Forgotten Past Leading to a
Familiar Future
Chapter 4
The moon had finally set and the sun was peeking over the horizon, it had been a long time since Fluttershy had a chance to watch the change. With the large amount of animals now coming into her sactionuary, and teaching friendship lessons at the school, she was up to her hooves in daily tasks. But she didn't mind, she loved every minute of caring for the animals and enlightening others about the value of friendship, both were truly a pleasure. Angel taped his foot impatiently waiting for her to come out of her daze to notice him, and his empty plate. Finally noticing her hungry friend she went out to the kitchen and brought him back a few carrots. About ready to prepare breakfast for the rest of the animals, she heard a sudden loud nock on her door, this woke the vast amount of creatures around the house, sending them into a panic. The door slammed opened as the visitor barged in, and began to shout.
" Fluttershy, you gotta come check this out, I was practicing the most amazing stunt when I noticed some kind of creature by the edge of the Everfree Forest, it seemed to be unconscious, maybe even injured", this grabbed Fluttershy's attention almost immediately, she quickly calmed the chaos around her and began to gather some medical supplies.
"Oh dear, we better get there quick", after saying goodbye to her animal friends, she darted out the door trying to keep up with Rainbow Dash. As they flew to the location of the mystery creature, Fluttershy began to question Dash a little further on what it looked like, trying to get a better idea of what it could possibly be.
"What would say it looked like Rainbow Dash?", bringing her hoof to her chin she began to try and remember what she saw, "Well to be honest it kind of reminded me of a monkey with no hair besides what's on top of it's head, however it's hair is almost as long as a young filly's mane." This was a little odd to Fluttershy, never hearing of something even remotely close to what she described. As they came to the edge of the forest, Rainbow Dash stopped and pointed to the almost motionless body of the strange being propped against a tree. Upon arrival to the ground Fluttershy cautiously approached the creature, just in case it became somewhat semi conscious again. Rainbow Dash began to get closer than needed, despite disregarding Fluttershy's frantic hand signals to stay back. Like a child her curiosity got the best of her, and she touched it, slowly opening it's eyes and re-adjusting posture it made direct eye contact with Rainbow Dash. For a moment nothing happened, but then it began to panic, screaming louder than words can describe. It quickly got to it's feet and booked it for the woods, but was intercepted by Fluttershy.
"It's ok we don't mean you any harm we just wanted to make sure your not hurt, my friend found you out here against this tree unconscious." It seemed it could understand what she was saying, making the situation slowly decline into a more calm setting.
Still a little frightened, she began to try and speak, "I am Aria", as she began to fiddle with her fingers. Rainbow Dash slowly approached trying not to repeat her earlier mistake, while Fluttershy replied.
"Did you say your name was Aria", receiving a confirming nod from the frightened girl, " Well Aria, my name is Fluttershy and this is Rainbow Dash", gesturing to the cyan pony.
As time went on it seemed that she was more comfortable to yes or no questions, using head gestures to answer.
"Why are you out here by yourself, are you lost?", confirming with another nod, both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash looked at each other trying to think of what to do. They could only get so much information from her, It wasn't until they both realized that Twilight might know what she was, and if so this could shed light on improving communication to help her get home. After getting her calmed some more, they convinced her to follow them to the castle of friendship. They were going to fly her there but decided it would be safer to walk, just in case she became frightened again in flight.
As I awoke I found myself laying on the ground, my head was throbbing, It felt like I had just woken up from a long night of drinking and had a killer hangover. Slowly coming to my senses I noticed that the portal seemed to have placed me in the middle of a swamp. This was less than pleasing due to my lack of bug repellent, despite this my biggest concern was what else might be lurking about in the murky wetlands. After taking a quick inventory of my belongings, and taking a closer look at my surroundings. I noticed Aria's footprints, this indicated she must have made it here possibly slightly before me and ventured off. I Slung my U100 MK5 over my shoulder, and switched to the KSG. As I followed the foot prints, I crept slowly using the shadows, to make my presence as least known as possible. I traveled for what seemed to be almost an hour, tracking her steps as fast I could hoping I could find her before something else did, eventually I stumbled across what seemed to be a trail leading out of the marsh. All seemed a little to quiet sense I began my journey, as if I was being watched, even followed by something. As I walked I noticed the trail started to transition from a swamp to a dark mysterious forest, it almost seemed as if trees were reaching out to grab me, but later noticed it was due to the reflection of light coming off the moon. It wasn't until I heard a large limb of a tree snap, did my earlier suspicion come into my line of sight, standing before me was large cat like creature. It kept it's eyes focused on me, snarling as it circled to get into a pounce position. It was clearly mistaken if it viewed me as an easy meal and would regret leaping at me.
" BA-ROOM", the lifeless corpse dropped to ground halfway through flight, blood started to pool around the body saturating the beasts fur, I walked over to my KSG's first kill and examined the damage. It's face was mutilated, from the buck shot, the skull was partially domed in, and the eyes looked as if they were smooshed like red grapes. It was definitely dead at this point showing no indication of a pulse, examining the creature from all sides, I soon realized what I had just bagged. Before me laid a Manticore a creature from Persian mythology, a beast of pure fiction, but how could this be, where did this horn take me? Taking a few photos, I pulled out one of it's teeth to remember my first encounter with the local wildlife, I only hoped there was less aggressive creatures ahead.
The scent of blueberry muffins poured into Twilight's nostrils, this drew her attention from her morning book to looking over at Starlight. Starlight had her eyes closed with her nose in the air, trying to trace the direction of the scent. In excitement they both decided to finish the page they were reading and head to the table. Twilight had a lot to do on a general bases, and usually developed a great plan to execute it day by day. But after the loss of her student Cozy Glow, she began to slowly realize all the things she did around the school day and night to helping it run smoothly. However it was only a plot to almost destroy all the magic in Equestria, lucky enough if it wasn't for her students, she might have succeeded. After eating a delicious breakfast, and helping clean up, Twilight, Spike and Starlight packed a few things and headed out for the school. Almost out the door they encountered Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash at the door step ready to enter. In between them was a creature standing on two legs about three feet tall, looking slightly frightened with three new faces starring at her.
"Twilight we have a slight situation, that we could use your help on", Fluttershy then gestured to the little one, " Rainbow Dash found her outside the Everfree Forest, but I can't say I've ever seen or heard of anything like her."
"How do you know it's a her?", Spike questioned, due to no information being known about it, "Well duh she told us so by her name being Aria", argued Rainbow Dash. About to say something else, Twilight intervened and sent Spike to inform the students classes were cancelled for today, and to use the time wisely with the friendship report due next week. As Spike flew off the group headed back into the castle, hoping to find more information in the library. Twilight and Starlight searched for what seemed to be over three hours, trying to find any relevant information on Aria. In the meantime Rainbow Dash had left for practice with the wonder bolts and Fluttershy had to go check on and feed the animals, they hadn't eaten breakfast yet due the current situation. Spike had returned and was trying to entertain Aria with games like tag and hide and go seek. Out of ideas Twilight decided to send a letter to Celestia, hoping she could shed some light on the situation.
"Spike take a note"
Dear: Princess Celestia
Due to current events I am writing to you about a creature Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash discovered outside the Everfree Forest. We have learned her name is Aria, standing about waist height on two legs, she has no fur except for a long patch of hair coming off her head. She has hands and feet like an ape, but appears to be wearing a form of clothing. I know it's not much to go off, but I'll try and send you a photo as soon as possible, she kind of accidentally broke my camera when playing with Spike around the castle.
Sincerely
Princess Twilight Sparkle
As I continued to follow the path I noticed the forest was becoming less dense, the sun was up and the birds were singing, this put the edge off a little bit compared to the silence before. I could see a vast opening coming up, this was relieving, but yet frightening, it would expose me completely. Reaching the end where vast open space and the tree line met, I noticed Aria had decided to take a stroll to the right, indicated by the depressions in the grass. As I approached the end of her trail I could make out her figure coming closer, but realized that she was not alone. Quickly taking cover in the tree line, I watched as her and the two other colorful animals passed I noticed they had wings and had what looked to be tattoos on their rear. After getting on the trail and walking almost out of sight down it, I began to follow behind, due my exposure this insured they would have a hard time seeing me if they looked behind them. As I walked I began to think of multiple ways to go about getting me and Aria home, or if even at least her. Eventually after walking quite the distance a village came into view, this had just made things extremely difficult for multiple reasons, for starters a higher risk of exposure was just added due to it being day time. And if these things were hostile then all my shots had to count due to my ammo inventory vs. how many of them there were. As I looked from afar with binoculars, I was intrigued by how not all of them had wings, and some even had horns. It took me a moment but I finally realized what they were, they were ponies, but not just ponies, but unicorns and pegasus as well. I couldn't believe it a land with mythical creatures, it was as if all folk lore was true, just found in a different place, but how? In the small moments I stood taking a long puzzled gander, I began to hear the sound of clacking hooves and a creaky cart approach behind me. I had no to time to hide, so I decided it might be best to confront a local, and get a few answers to some questions.
The magician came to a stop, and focused her attention to the tall figure standing in the road. It was nothing she had ever seen before, truly a odd looking thing, but she was not one to judge she had seen many different beings in her travels, but never any so close to ponyville before. It felt a little awkward, it was looking at her very strangely as if it had just escaped the nut house. It remained this way for almost a minute, until she couldn't take it anymore she decided she would introduce herself, maybe make a new friend after all Starlight was keen on this idea now, and it was rubbing on her.
"Greetings Stranger, my name is The Great and Powerful Trixie!", this seemed to change the situation alright but not the way she thought. The individual resembled the face of a audience member in shock from her best trick ever, but all she did was say her name.
I was speechless not only about what they looked like face to face, but they could talk perfect English, to boot. I felt light headed, as if I would pass out, it began to come closer as if it was becoming worried over my developing condition. Like pure animal instinct I pulled out my side arm and aimed it to her head.
"I don't know where the fuck I am, but what I do know is that your going to give me some answers", almost unfazed by the firearm she began to laugh, at me in a most devious way, "You dare threaten The Great and Powerful Trixie, you are truly a simple minded creature."
She began to laugh once again to hype up her confidence some more, at this point I was a little agitated about her response, she truly didn't know what she waved off like nothing. Her attention eventually switched to my demonstration as I aimed the 50 Cal pistol at a squirrel in a tree, she looked at me with a smug look as if I was not impressive at all. "BANG" the sound echoed across the opening silencing any and all wildlife that remained unmoved. The remainder of squirrel seemed to be here, there and a little bit of everywhere, marking the leaves and tree in a dark red. This sent a clear message to the once fearless mare, looking in horror at the scene, her attention refocused on me noticing the sights now lined up with her again.
"Now then, why don't we start from the beginning?"
Author's note:
In this chapter a few characters are introduced, and referenced from past events: Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Cozy Glow. If you the reader have any comments or questions about the story feel free to ask. Also I will say it again I do not spoil what is to come in my notes, so if a character dies, it will most likely be out of no where.