"ETERNITY!"

I awoke with a start, the sunlight streaming from the window making me wince and flinch away. I didn't realize I was on the edge of the bed, and tangled in the blankets, fell over and onto the floor with an audible thunk.

I sat back up and tried to untangle myself from the blankets and sheets. I stood up, and stumbled up the stairs, still half asleep.

Shielding my eyes from the light, I squinted, looking around, "What?"

"You left the library in an absolute mess!"Twilight yelled from her room.

I blearily thought back to yesterday, "No, I didn't. I cleaned up, remember?"

"Don't blame it on me!" Spike exclaimed, "I didn't do it!"

"I didn't either!" Twilight exclaimed indignantly.

A deep, mysterious voice drifted from the other staircase. "You are here to separate lies from truth. I hope you're ready to prove your worth."

I turned to find a zebra standing there. I blinked, and wiped my eyes with my hand to clear the blurriness from them. I had thought the zebras had went into hiding and never left their island. She had large golden rings around her neck, and large golden hoop earrings in her ears.

"Zakora!" Twilight exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Warning of coming doom, all this will happen soon," Zakora's deep, accented voice was strangely calming. She turned to me, "This test will be the hardest. I hope you're prepared for the consequences of your quest."

She turned, and left the library, leaving me dumbstruck. I blinked at the sunlight again, "That would be who made the mess, than. I'm going back to bed, we'll leave tonight. Let everyone else know."

"Do not let this make you face your doom, all you wish will happen soon," I heard from the bottom of the staircase.

I wondered why she had left her island. Not many zebras bothered with ponies anymore. They knew Celestia for what she is, and therefore, avoid her like the plague. Their culture was badly shaken by Celestia's war and the Fall, and after, they refused to help the pony economy and retreated to their island down south. I doubted anyone except Zakora could find the island now, the zebras have powerful, old magic.

I slipped back into bed, and closed my eyes. I tried to go to sleep, but found I couldn't. I stared at the wooden ceiling, wondering what my family had been like. I knew I had bought them their freedom, and they had left. When I thought about my mother, I only got a sense of warmth and a flash of blue magic. When I thought of my father, happiness and safety, with large green eyes.

I could remember siblings, but other than that I had had some, I had no recollection of them. I rolled over in annoyance, and found the sun had moved positions and was no longer blinding me. I watched the ponies from below, they seemed so happy. They were laughing, and seemed to have no cares or worries.

I envy them. I thought, They're so carefree. I watched them for a while. I watched the ponies' comings and goings, their interactions with each other and their environment. Feeling unhappy, I rolled over and shut my eyes, I needed all the sleep I could get if I was going to lead the Elements of Harmony to Gallopville.

_..._..._..._

I awoke when Twilight called my name, I looked outside and saw the sun was setting. I grabbed bag that Twilight had let me borrow, threw my things into it and went upstairs.

"Umm," I turned to find Fluttershy looking shyly at the floor, "I brought an extra sleeping bag."

"Thanks," I took it from where she gestured and put it beside my bag. I looked around, there was several small piles of bags scattered around, except for one pile. It was ridiculously large, "Who's stuff is that?"

"Mine," I turned to find Rarity looking proudly at her pile, "I brought everything I need for a week."

"What do you have in there?"

"The essentials, clothing, make up"-

"Those aren't essentials, Rarity!' Twilight called from her room.

Rarity gasped, "Of course they are!"-

I muttered a spell under my breath and pointed at her pile. Large sections of the pile lit up, "Those aren't essentials."

Rarity huffed indignantly, but did nothing, I raised an eyebrow, "Are you planning on carrying all those for at least a week?"

Rarity shuddered, "Of course not! Everyone's going to help-"

Something snapped inside me, probably my limited patience, "If you can carry all that, you can bring it! If not, sort through it and decide what you really need. Don't forget, we need food and water too." I snarled, I spun on my heel and started pacing.

My leg twinged, and I rubbed it absentmindedly. I could hear Rarity whining to Twilight, but Twilight would have none of it. We soon left, Spike in tow. We walked into the courtyard, and I looked around, how much time had passed since I had been brought here? I had no sense of real time, hadn't had one for years.

I shook myself, "Which way are we going?"

Twilight led us out of the city, stopping only at Fluttershy's cottage for some more food. When we entered the forest, everyone immediately tensed, and stuck close together, "As long as you stay on the trail, you'll be fine." I told them over my shoulder, trying to ignore my leg's protest to the quick pace I was setting.

After a while, Rarity started to whine and complain. I had to focus on where we were and where we were planning on going, but Rarity's complaining was starting to get on my nerves. I recognized the trail we were on as a trail that led to some ruins where I had stashed some things, including a dagger. I hoped the dagger was still in useable condition, I really didn't want to go deeper into the Everfree forest without some type of weapon.

We soon reached the crumbling, stone building. I walked into the building, and rummaged around a little, I found the covered hole, and unearthed it. I reached in, and pulled out the box. I murmured the spell to unlock it. The box popped open, and I pulled the dagger out. I pulled it out of it's sheath, and inspected it. It looked fine, and I pushed my finger into the blade. It was still sharp, so I stuck the dagger into my belt. I sucked on my finger to get the blood off, and murmured a spell to close the small wound.

I rummaged through the box, not entirely sure on the box's other contents. I found some rotted food, a small backpack with some pre-Fall artifacts and a hunting knife. I took the backpack and knife, sticking the knife on the hip opposite the dagger.

I left the box there out in the open, it didn't matter if someone found it now. I exited the ruins to find Pinkie Pie bouncing around the trail, gasping at some of the birds. Twilight seemed to be lecturing Rarity, and I didn't see Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy.

"Woah! What's that?' Rainbow Dash seemed to materialize out of nowhere and appeared right in front of me. She was looking at my dagger.

"It's a dagger, a weapon," I said patiently.

"Why do you you need one?"

"There are many dark things in this forest. Many of which would hurt or kill us as quickly as possible. Let's go, I want to cover more ground."

We followed the trail for a while longer, I had slowed my pace a little. My leg throbbed with each beat of my heart, and I found it difficult to concentrate on anything but the trail.

I was surprised when Pinkie Pie bounced in front of me and gasped at something she saw. She quickly bounced off the trail and I turned to follow, "Pinkie Pie!" I yelled, the name completely foreign.

I saw a quick flash of something black assault the pink, and I ran forward. Unsheathing the dagger, I plunged it into the beast's hide. The beast yelled, spun around, and knocked me over. It pinned my left arm to the ground, and I fumbled for something to hurt the beast with. I remembered the hunting dagger, and found it.

I used the edge to cut the creature, and blood spattered everywhere. The beast roared in pain, and jumped back. I scrambled to my feet, and stabbed the beast in the eye, even more blood squirting everywhere.

I retrieved my weapons, and stumbled away from the corpse. I made my way back to the trail, pausing only to clean the dagger and knife. I looked at everyone, noticing that Pinkie wasn't there, "Where's Pinkie?"

"Right here!" I turned to find Pinkie holding a flower in her mouth, smiling widely.

"Are you alright?' Twilight asked.

"Of course I am, silly! Why wouldn't I be?" Pinkie turned, and bounced up the trail. I shook my head and we followed.

I shook my head, these ponies will be the death of me.

..._..._..._...

We walked until sunrise, and stopped in a clearing. I sighed in annoyance, we hadn't travelled as much as I would like, but I couldn't argue too much. The sun that streaked through the trees burned my eyes, and I was finding it more and more difficult to not strangle Rarity. We had found a stream at around midnight, and I had washed off the blood and filled our extra canteens with water.

I looked around the clearing, and found a shady spot close by. I set up my sleeping bag, and started to look through the bag of artifacts. There was an electronic watch, harmonica, two books, and several report files.

I skimmed through the files, trying to remember how I had gotten a hold of them and why I had stashed them away. I found out they were my files, about the experiments performed on me, the various work I had done on dimensions, human culture and human anatomy. The charts showed my various injuries, scars, fighting skill, a statistic for how violent I was and a whole bunch of other things I had forgotten about myself.

It didn't say anything on my family, or about the resistance movement I had founded, but there was a catalogue of various mannerisms, habits, and other personal things I had grown out of. The more I read, the more I realized how much I had changed. I examined every inch of the files for some clue to my family, my role in the war, anything that stated I was a person, not just a scientific experiment that learned so much about the sciences.

A small piece of paper came loose, I looked at it and found it curiously blank. I cursed, remembering that I had hid notes everywhere I could in invisible ink for other scientists. I shoved the paper back into the file, and put the file back into the bag. The watch was broken, and I barely remembered how to play the harmonica.

I sighed and curled into the sleeping bag, I soon fell asleep.

_..._..._..._

I awoke at around midday. Pinkie Pie was passed out on top of her sleeping bag, snoring loudly. I looked around: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Spike were asleep, but Twilight was nowhere in sight. I stood and stretched, enjoying the sounds of the forest.

I glared at the backpack, half-wishing the files would tell me who I am, "Twilight!" I called softly, trying not to wake the others.

"Come here!" Twilight stuck her head out of a break in the trees. I winced when I stepped into the sunlight, but hurried into the shadows of the forest.

Twilight stood beside a low, stone wall that was halfway covered by ivy, "What is this?"Twilight asked.

"It's a wall. There used to small villages all through this forest. It wouldn't be surprised if we find more of these things on our way."

"Ponies lived in this forest? That's impossible, there are too many dangerous creatures here!" Twilight exclaimed.

"There wasn't always. Many of the animals that live here were probably driven mad, or experimented on, making them dangerous," I explained.

"Why would she?" Twilight demanded, suddenly angry, "Why?"

"I don't know. She wasn't always bad-"

"Maybe she's good again!" Twilight lit up, "That's a possibility, right?"

I sighed, "I don't know."

"There's nothing to worry about then, why don't we go home?"

I shook my head, "No, even if she is good, our history needs to be confronted, not kept hidden."

Twilight deflated, "I'm not going to convince you, am I?"

"No," I turned, and stiffened when a purple light flashed around the forest, briefly lighting it up. I spun around.

Twilight's face was screwed up in concentration horn glowing a bright purple. I stepped back, starting to panic, "You're not taking this away from us!" Twilight shouted.

I used my own magic to erect a magic shield of my own. A bright purple light flashed, blinding me for several seconds. I blinked, trying to clear my vision.

I saw nothing, no ruin and no sign of Twilight. I let the magic shield drop, but placed a hand on the dagger. Cursing, I remembered I had left it near my sleeping bag. I crept quietly out of the forest to find Twilight sleeping beside Spike.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and looked again. Everything was as it had been, everyone was sleeping peacefully, even Twilight.

I strode over to my sleeping bag, and sat down heavily on it, feeling numb. Did I just have an hallucination? I wondered. What is wrong with me?

I rested my head in my hands, trying to think about earlier, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to find any evidence to prove if something had happened or not.

"Are you okay, sugar cube?" I looked up to see Applejack staring at me in concern.

"I think I've finally lost it," I murmured, swallowing dryly.

"Why is that?"

"I think I just hallucinated," I admitted slowly, "But it's nothing, absolutely nothing to worry about." Great, don't know if I'm trying to comfort myself or her.

Applejack didn't reply, but I heard some shuffling, and glanced around. Everyone except Spike seemed to be waking up. I took several deep breaths, and tried to focus.

After a while, we had breakfast and started out again. I kept an eyes on everyone, and hoped we would survive the whole way there.

I noticed a familiar looking plant, but before I could say anything, Rarity jumped forward, "Ooh! That looks amazing!"

"I wouldn't-" I started, before realizing it was too late.

The plant Rarity was approaching was a variant of the Venus Fly Trap on Earth. They had been experimented on, and were big enough to eat ponies. They had grown colourful fruit on a central part of a leaf on the ground, a pony would step on it and would get propelled into the mouth that had not changed appearance.

Rarity stepped on the leaf and screamed as she was propelled into the mouth of the plant. I pulled out my dagger, and looked at the extremely large plant. I thought against it, and started chanting under my breath.

The first spell was one to get rid of the acid the plant would use to dissolve Rarity, the second was to supply her oxygen. The third was one that dug the plant up by the roots.

When the plant was pulled away from the ground, the mouth fell open, and nothing came out. I was surprised to see none of the other ponies in a panic because their friend had been eaten by a giant plant.

I turned to find Rarity beside me, hoof resting on the leaf. I blinked, and rubbed my eyes.

"Why'd you kill the plant?' Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's a pony-eating plant. Rarity is stepping on the leaf that would have propelled her into it's mouth."

Rainbow Dash laughed, "You're kidding. Plants can't do that!"

Laughing, her tail brushed the edge of a similar leaf on the ground. The leaf threw itself into the air, ad the mouth of the plant opened.

Rainbow Dash yelped, and hid behind Twilight. I smirked, "Told you."

Fluttershy whimpered, but followed after us, trotting to catch up.

_..._..._..._

Author's note: More action next chapter, reach the first of the ruins on Eternity's 'little outing' for the ponies. Again, I do not own anything you recognize, and probably own what you don't. I am not making money off of this, and I hope you enjoy. Please leave a review below!