The New Dark Ages
Chapter 2:
The Beginning
A human that stood about six feet tall, and was dressed in black combat boots, black jeans with holes in the knees, and a black t-shirt that was covered by a long black trench coat stood alone on top of a cliffside.
It was hardly the weather for such clothing, but he wore what he wanted to because he didn't care about the weather. The weather didn't bother him much anyway, despite it being about zero degrees and the wind was blowing wildly. The ground had a light dusting of snow and the trees were all bare, save for a single pine tree that stood to the right of the human.
Below where he stood the ocean swirled and crashed against the stone of a much lower part of the cliff, nowhere near the top where he stood.
He turned his head to look behind him, his crystal blue eyes shining despite the dusky surroundings of this winter night's eve.
His slightly pointed nose was pretty cold, as were his small oval shaped lips, but he cared not, he was here for a reason and he wasn't going to complain one bit.
He looked at the tree again, and put his hand on it, just as some would a mirror when they're distraught. His expression was not one of sadness however, it displayed that he was smiling ever so slightly and that he was giving the tree a rather fond expression.
"Well my old friend, I don't know anymore. It's a rough life, and I don't know how much more I can take of this" He said, seemingly to the tree.
He removed his hand from the tree and crouched at its roots, looking at the small hole there, where he knew a squirrel lived. He pulled a few walnuts from his pocket and lightly rolled them into the hole before standing back up and looking back out towards the ocean.
"I had hoped to make you proud of me, while I continued your legacy. I wasn't nearly as good as you were. No one can fill your place. I'll always be second best compared to you. That's okay though, being the best wasn't worth it" he said to himself.
"Alas, how could I ever compare to you? You were so much better than the rest of us. You revived our lives and gave us a purpose, something we all needed. Without you though, it all fell apart. I tried my best to keep them going, but I'm the only one left now" he continued.
"If only you were here to make understand what you did for us. You had so much more than the rest of us, but you lost it all because you thought so highly of us. I'll never forget you, brother" he said as he walked to the very edge of the cliff, the frozen dirt crunching beneath his feet.
"I know you wouldn't be happy with what's happens, but there wasn't anything I could do. You were the only thing that really kept us misfits together, like tape on a piece of paper. Without that tape, the paper just keeps ripping until it's completely torn apart" he continued his little dialog, looking out over the water, searching for boats caught in the storm coming across the bay.
"I can't wait to see you again bro. I've been so lonely without you. Of course, I was lonely before, but after gaining such an amazing friend it hurts to have lost you right before my eyes. I suppose it doesn't matter though" he said as he stood up straight. "It'll happen soon"
The wind blasted against him again, making his coat flat like wings around him.
"My time has come, I'm sorry for not being strong enough" he said as another gust of wind hit him and he leaned into it, falling over the edge of the cliff.
"My only regret is that I couldn't stop them" he said as he fell headlong towards the water.
"Sorry pal, you're not getting off that easy" A voice said from next to him as he continued to fall.
He looked over to his left to see a ghostly image of his old friend.
"Let's just stop you here and send you elsewhere buddy" the figure said as he snapped his fingers.
Directly in front of where he had been falling a colorful swirl appeared in front of him. He could do nothing but watch as he passed through the swirl and watch as he fell through a dark tunnel lined with a view of the stars.
Then there was a light up ahead, and he fell towards and through it. Now instead of the ocean, there was solid ground below him by several miles.
However, before he could hit through the ground, he somehow managed to land on top of a cloud, absorbing the impact and hurling towards the ground at a much slower speed.
The cloud came to a stop as it bounced off the ground, seriously confusing it's passenger.
"Well I'll be damned, permeable clouds" he said to himself as he poked it a couple of times.
He hopped off the cloud and looked around him to gather his bearings. He was surrounded by deep forest with no clear paths. He somehow managed to land in a small clearing, but he couldn't see very far beyond the line of trees surrounding him.
He looked upward at the sky, searching for the Sun's position. The sun was directly above him, indicating a local noon time of the day wherever he was.
"Well shit, either heaven sucks or I went through a freaking portal" he said to himself as he continued looking at the forest around him, trying to find a path.
"Well I guess I'll just have to walk in a straight line until I find something" he said to himself as he charged into the brush before him.
He walked for what seemed Like hours, but in fact according to the small flip phone it had only been about twenty minutes when he stumbled out of the forest.
Before him laid a chasm, spanned only by a simply rickety bridge. On the other side of the abyss laid the ruins of an ancient castle, clearly hundreds of years judging by the amount of eroded rock and the vast quantity of plants creeping upon the ruins.
"Well now, this looks interesting" he said to himself as he ran across the bridge and approached the ruins.
"Well now, what do we have here? It's been some time since anypony came through here" a female voice said from behind him.
He turned to find himself facing three Pegasi, all of them wearing purple athlete uniforms and goggles.
"Oh lovely, talking horses" he replied sarcastically.
The middle pony seemed to hiss. "We are ponies! Horses are trashy foreigners from Saddle Arabia and we would never associate with such fools"
"Well that's not very nice" he replied flatly.
"Silence! Who are you, and why have you come to this place?" the middle pony inquired sternly.
"My name, is Devin. My business here was simply curiosity. Although it seems I've found myself facing a trio that think of themselves as high and mighty compared to others" He replied as he squared his shoulders and jerked his neck to the side, eliciting several loud cracks.
"So what? We know we're better than them. Even an ape like you is better than them" the pony continued.
"No one is above another" Devin replied simply as he punched the pony square in the temple, knocking her out in an instant.
The other two ponies were dumbstruck as their leader crumpled to the ground.
"Anyone else think they're above anyone else?" Devin inquired as he cracked his knuckles.
"Nope, not at all" the left pony replied, his voice rather husky.
"Yeah I think I'd rather be equal then get punched" the pony on the right said, his voice quivering slightly.
"Good, now you boys are gonna do me a quick favor so I don't punish you as well" Devin told them sternly.
"Whatever you say sir" the one on the right replied.
"As great as the woods are, I'd like to find a legitimate town. If it's not to much, I'd like one of you to lead me to one before sundown" Devin informed them.
"Oh sure the nearest town is only a twenty minute walk from here. I'll gladly take you there" the pony on the left replied.
"Thank you. And you should stay here and make sure she doesn't end up in a coma, I think I probably overdid it a bit" Devin said to the other pony, who nodded and glanced down at his fallen leader.
"Well let us be off then" Devin said as he walked back across the bridge, his escort flying to keep up.
"Wow, that was pretty crazy. He has such a strong sense of right and wrong and yet he apologies for his actions anyway" the pony said to himself as he glanced down at his leader again.
"Perhaps we should investigate into him" a voice said from behind him.
"Do you know what he is, Lady Moon?" the pony asked as he turned to face the speaker.
Before him stood a large and slender pony, whose fur was black as night and mane and tail shone like the nighttime sky. Her eyes were light green And reminiscent of a cat's. The pony was adorned with a light blue armor of sorts as well.
"That was a human. Very odd considering they were banished from our world thousands of years ago" the large mare replied.
"Devin… we look forward to your return to our little home here in the forest" Nightmare Moon said to herself as she gazed into the distance where the pair had disappeared into the forest.
A/N: Thanks for reading this far. If you're confused at all I'll give a brief explanation. The character is remembering all the past events that lead to the point where he has to fight Celestia. The main portion of the story will be the events that lead up to Upon the Battlefield.
I do hope you all enjoyed this story and will continue reading it with each update I post.