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Prophesy, Chapter One…

Keith woke in a cold sweat, his dreams having turned on him in the night. He quickly scanned around the area, having pulled the large knife from the saddlebag of his Valkyrie motorcycle. He could feel it on the air, smell it even. Death clung to this area like a cancer, even cutting the light of the fire he had made short of the tree line. He could hear grunting and whimpers from the wood, close to the road he was camped off of. He ran his hand through his hair, moving the waist long black braids from his face. Standing up, he checked his pockets, making sure he still had the three thousand dollars and his bike keys before investigating the sounds.

In a ditch beside the South Dakota highway was a male deer, a mule deer to be exact. It was thrashing about in the depression, its hind legs and antlers broken severely by a car in the night. Keith looked at the animal ten feet away from him, feeling for the beast. That had been him a few months ago, before he escaped. He descended the mild incline to the ditch, walking as lightly as he could toward the animal. "Be calm, brother," he said, speaking in Lakota as his grandfather had taught him. "I am sorry this has fallen upon you," he said, now calming the animal and stroking its neck. The deer stopped thrashing, resting its head on Keith's knee in exhaustion. It looked up at him, silently begging for him to help.

"I'm sorry, friend," he said to the deer, drawing the twelve inch long Arkansas Toothpick from its scabbard and setting it between the ribs of the deer; just behind the shoulder. "But your wounds are beyond me. Worry not that your soul will be lost, for you are accepted into the Summer Lands tonight." Keith sunk the blade in at a forty five degree angle, piercing the heart. The deer kicked once, staring up at Keith's eyes. The Iraq War veteran felt a pang of sadness as the animal relinquished its hope of salvation. Keith stared back, quietly watching the life fade from the animals brown eyes. He removed the blade from the carcass, wiping the carbon steel on the deer's fur before returning it to its place at his waist. "At least I won't go hungry tonight," Keith said, now speaking in English. "This much meat should last me a week if I prepare it right." Keith crouched down, lifting the deer over his back in a fireman's carry.

Keith let the remaining bones fall into the hole he had dug underneath the dead deer after processing it, the bones cracking together in the pile of viscera. He crouched down, wiping his hands on a scrap of deer fur before untying the rope from the hind legs. "Not a bad job, if I do say so myself," Keith mused aloud, coiling the rope as he walked back to the smoke tent he had erected. "Five hours till all of that is done and seven hours till sunrise. I might even get in an hour or two of sleep tonight." He laughed to himself, tossing another slightly green hickory branch into the fire pit below the canvas tent. Sparks rose around the cloth, spiraling and dancing into the stars. Keith sat back on the side of his bike, praying to Epona that the deer be given a place of rest after its journey.

He looked up at the sky, seeing the eastern horizon beginning to brighten. 'five hundred more miles and I'm no longer in US government territory,' Keith thought, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again it was mid morning. "Shit," he said, dragging the curse out. He took down the smoke tent, laying out the canvas as he gathered the meat and placed as much as he could in plastic bags and wrapping the rest in the tent cover before stowing it in his saddlebags. The extra hundred fifty pounds would drain on his money reserves, but it was needed to sustain them. 'Oh the irony.' He thought to himself as he covered the viscera pit with stones and then soil. 'As long as they don't find this,' he thought, smoothing it out as best he could. 'Then they won't know where I'm going.' He banked the remains of his fire pit with the dirt he built up around it, laying a cut juniper bush over it to hide it before climbing onto his motorcycle and cranking the engine.

The Valkyrie roared to life, jumping forward under him. "Maybe not the safest choice of transport," he muttered, regaining control of the powerful machine and guiding it toward the highway. To the south was the sound of the police from the town he passed through yesterday. Keith gunned the throttle, kicking up the gravel on the shoulder and tearing out onto the pavement on his rear wheel. He dropped the nose down, fighting with his light weight. "But definitely needed considering I'm AWOL." Keith redoubled his efforts to distance himself from the police, looking back and finding them pulling off to where he had camped last night. He returned his view to the front, moving back into his lane and pushing the bike over the hundred fifty MPH marker. 'Just get to the reservation and you'll have time while they go through the legal bullshit to get you out.' he thought, ignoring the blaring horn of a semi he passed by.

Keith could smell the cordite and blood still, could still feel the pain of the gunshot wound in his shoulder even as he barreled down the highway at a hundred miles per hour. He had awoken an hour ago from a dream, a nightmare. For a moment he thought he was still in Baghdad, back in that firefight that had taken his fear from him for three years. The numbness in his right shoulder was still there, the memories of firing the SAW into that school building was heavy on his mind.

He shook the thought from his mind, concentrating on keeping the massive bike under his hundred ninety pound form. He felt the memories coming back, forcing their way to the front of his mind. Keith gunned the bike, pushing the engine to its absolute limits. The speedometer rushed past one seventy, fluttering on the marker as it continued to gain speed. The tachometer scaled the dial, dropping back as he shifted into third gear and resuming its ascent. The road ahead was clear if dark, nothing caught the light of his headlamp and there were no oncoming vehicles. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself before he lost it.

He could see the spray of blood like he was there again. The door frame was broken off its hinges, local insurgents running into the school house and firing into the area before taking up position in the windows. Keith raised his Squad Automatic Weapon, letting loose with a hail of lead. The two hundred round belt emptied into the wall, striking multiple hits with the steel tipped rounds. Blood and gore sprayed from the exit wounds in the local resistance, revealing hits through the four inch stone walls. Keith reloaded behind a dumpster, dropping the box and slamming another in before slipping the belt into position. He slammed the breach closed, pulling the action and ducking from cover.

An Iraqi fired on him from the doorframe, landing a solid hit to his right arm. The AK round knocked Keith over, the insurgent ululating to his buddies and coming out of cover. Keith sat up, firing fifty rounds into the enemy before letting the body fall. He got up, drawing his pistol and firing the clip into the two other hostiles. Keith lifted his SAW and opened it, fixing the jam and loading the rest of the belt. A single insurgent came out of the school, walking toward him with his rifle raised. Keith did the same, continuing his brisk walk and aiming at the scared local. The Iraqi fired a burst at him, landing two hits to the hard plate in his vest. Keith paid them no mind, walking up to the hostile as he struggled to fix his weapon. The Iraqi dropped the gun, raising his hands and dropping to his knees in surrender.

Keith didn't care what the human below him wanted, he was in a rage and wanted blood. The local shouted and bowed to him, begging to be taken prisoner. Keith stared into the man's eyes, placing the barrel of his gun against the bridge of the man's nose. The Iraqi's eyes grew wide, his shouts becoming whimpers before Keith pulled the trigger, loosing a hundred fifty bullets into the man's head and chest. His gun clicked empty, causing Keith to reload. He was about to fire again until a squad mate pulled him back, disarming him and subduing him.

Keith opened his eyes, seeing a large bison ahead. He didn't have time to slow down, pulling hard to the left and swerving around the ton and a half beast. He sighed and shook his head, grateful he was able to get out of that one. "Not this time," he said. "I'm not dead yet." Keith looked ahead, noticing the Semi truck barreling toward him at sixty. The driver pulled his air horn, not being able to avoid the cyclist. Keith blinked once before his front tire met the truck's bumper.

"STOP!"

The voice echoed for what felt like hours as time ceased to pass. Keith stared at the grille of the Mack truck in front of him, aware that he should be dead to rights. 'what in hell is going on,' he thought, looking out of the corners of his eyes. In the field to his left was a bright light that quickly faded to reveal a white horse. It stared at him.

"This is your end, Wolfheart," the horse said to him. "But also a new beginning. I have talked with Azrael, and he has agreed to spare you for a greater purpose. The souls you sent his way have earned you a place in Valhalla as a great warrior, but this is not to be." The horse walked forward and moved around him, seeming to observe his every inch. "You will be part of an ancient omen, Wolfheart," The horse said. "One that has carried out for eons."

The horse walked back to the field, spreading a pair of wings before being enveloped in a flash of light. "Since the dawn of the first civilization the Prophesy has repeated. Leaders rose and fell with their kingdoms, and a new being took the mantle. This is not to be you, but you will issue him forth." Time began to move again, the forks of the Valkyrie beginning to scream in protest as the bike moved forward slowly. "All of this has happened before, but shall it again? This cycle continues, new pieces ready to spill their blood for the gods." Keith began to raise his hands to his face as the handlebars collided with the grille of the truck. "So it has been written, so it shall be." Time came to full, the bike being crushed under the truck.

Keith slammed into the nose of the semi, launching into the air and being tossed over it. He was aware of everything, the screaming pains all across his body, the feeling of weightlessness as he fell from high, the sight of the truck locking its breaks as he passed over the trailer, the wind as it fought to push him back. Keith continued to spin in the air, unable to do anything but watch as the asphalt grew closer. He landed face down on the road, hearing his bones pulverize before blacking out. "So say we all."

The first thing Keith noticed was the asphalt felt soft, comfortable even. There was a warm, noon time sun beating on his back, massaging him around his state between sleep and wake. There was a light breeze and the rustle of leaves all around him, the sounds trying to lull him into a deeper state of hypogogia. 'truck…' he thought, waking himself from the subconscious state and trying to stand but finding it difficult. 'I was hit by a truck.' He tried again, lifting his head from the ground. 'Cant fall asleep… might have a concussion… Never wake up…' He struggled into a crawling stance, moving to where he was sure his bike had stopped. The sounds of engines were gone, along with the smell of exhaust. "Wait…" He said, opening his eyes and looking around.

He was on a dirt road in a light forest, the previous plains and highway no longer present. "What the hell?" Keith mumbled, finding his tongue wide and heavy in his mouth. He was thirsty, hungry and sore, but that wasn't what surprised him the most. He couldn't feel any breaks in his body, sure that after that crash he should have been dead. "What is going on?" he muttered, finding his voice again. A rabbit jumped out of the bushes beside the road, hopping up to him and sniffing his face. Keith barred his teeth and growled, trying to seem intimidating to the animal. The rabbit blinked and handed him a carrot, ignoring his attempts. Keith gave the animal a strange look, sure that it should have ran away at the sight of him. the white bunny left the vegetable on the ground, hopping away slowly and sniffing at what interested it as it passed. "Well that was odd," he said to no one, reaching out and picking up the carrot. He turned it over in his hoof, making sure it was indeed a carrot and not another tuber.

'Hoof…'

The word bounced around in his brain like a pinball, taking root in his subconscious as he bit down on the vegetable. He chewed the plant, enjoying the food before stopping completely. He dropped the carrot, holding up both hooves and staring at them. He turned them around, inspecting them as if they were a rare jewels. He lifted them above his head, letting them block out the sun. The fact continued to spread through his mind like kudzu, growing rapidly and tearing down the wall his brain had against outlandish trivia. "I have hooves…" he said in a deadpan expression before looking at the rest of his body. 'Long and cylindrical. Quadruped mammalian species. Serious craving for flowers and plants. Long wiry tail and mane with a chestnut coat…' He sat there, planting his hooves back on the ground and sighing. "I think I'm a pony…" he said aloud.

"AGH!" Keith screamed in panic, standing up and running around the area. He grabbed a passerby around the face, screaming at the sky. "I'm a pony! AGH! I'm a damn small horse!" He turned around running a hundred feet away and yelling at a random bird.

"Yeah," the passerby said, causing him to look at her. she was a violet colored unicorn with a navy blue mane and tail; a stripe of pink ran through both of them. "That's kind of the norm around here, stranger." Keith's jaw dropped as he saw her speak. A talking unicorn. "Are you ok?" She asked as his vision began to blur, his body swaying to the sides. "Oh goodness…" She said, wincing as he hit the ground and fell unconscious.

Keith was woke by a steady beeping, the sound of voices all around him. He wiped his face before opening his eyes. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the talk around him. from the sounds of the words he was in a hospital, the emergency ward it seemed. 'Thank the Gods it was only a dream…' he thought, sighing relief. He closed his eyes and smiled, the fact that he wasn't cuffed to the bed was a sign that the government still hadn't caught him. He drifted off to sleep, dozing slightly before being roused again by a nurse.

"Good day," a sweet female voice said. "I'm nurse Redheart. Are you feeling ok?" Keith nodded, keeping his eyes closed and relaxing on the cot as much as possible. "What's your name?" she asked him. "We need it to process you through the records system and discharge you." Keith opened his eyes and looked at the nurse, stopping short of his name when he found she was a pony. "Sir, are you sure you're feeling well?" She asked, taking the IV drip out of his foreleg. Keith sighed and stared back at the ceiling, now convinced it wasn't some pain induced hallucination.

"Keith," He said, his voice slightly sour. "Keith Wolfheart." The nurse nodded, writing on the clipboard with a quill. She asked his age next, the day and year. Keith wondered if they measured time like humans did. "The summer solstice, twenty seven years ago." The nurse raised her eyebrows and wrote down the information.

"summer solstice, 977 CE." She muttered, writing on the paper/ Keith filed the date away for future use, especially if he was really in a world of ponies. "An awfully odd birthday," she said, scanning the paper for anything she missed. "A birthday on the Summer Sun Celebration. You must be quite the party goer." She found a few area's she missed, tick marking them before continuing. "All I need now is an address and occupation. Your cutie mark is one I've never seen before." Keith raised an eyebrow, deciding to find out what the hell that was later.

"I'm a drifter," he said, sighing. "I don't have an address or occupation. I do a little at every town I come across to get me to the next." The nurse nodded, crossing out the sections as they had no relevance. "So what happened? I remember passing out, and then I'm here." He looked at her, spotting the red addition sign on her flank. 'that must be a cutie mark, considering she's a nurse and all.' He thought, looking back at the ceiling panels before she noticed him eyeing her and got the wrong message.

"A Good Samaritan brought you in," She explained, setting down the clipboard and unplugging the various monitors. "Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn, said she found you along the edge of Whitetail Wood rambling off like a mad pony." She pulled the blanket away from his torso, removing the pick ups for the heart monitor from his chest. "I suspect it was heat stroke, considering what you told me. You must have not noticed how dehydrated you were before you reached town." She helped him into a sitting position.

"And where is here?" Keith asked as the nurse gave him a tray of food. It had a large salad, a small bowl of dressing, a carrot and a rather large apple. 'Horse feed,' he thought with a smirk, finding a steaming bowl of mixed grains and milk. There was a spoon and fork on the tray, which he proceeded to deftly pick up. He marveled at how dexterous his hooves were, digging into the meal. Even without meat it was delicious. 'Must be that horse brain talking.'

"You're in Ponyville," Nurse Redheart said. "We're right between Canterlot and Baltimare." She smiled and took the tray from him as he finished the last spoon full of the hot grain. "You're free to go," she said. "Twilight paid for your treatment in advance, so the receptionist will take your information before you leave." She placed the tray and empty Intravenous drip bag on a cart, helping him to his hooves. He took a couple of steps, finding it easy to walk if a little wobbly. "You should visit Twilight and thank her," she suggested. "She lived at the town library. Take a left when you get outside and follow the road to the hollowed tree." She pushed the cart away, disappearing behind a door.

Keith retrieved his belongings from the receptionist, finding his paper dollars were now gold "bits" and that his knife was now the "Appleoosa" Toothpick. Considering that most of the shops he passed were selling their wares for five or ten bits a piece, this much money would last him a decent amount of time. What he took as the library from Nurse Redheart's description grew closer as he approached the center square. It was a tree that was indeed converted into a house. It had balconies, windows and all the things you would think a house wood, it even had bird feeders and houses hanging from the branches. He walked up to the door, about to knock until the door opened to reveal the unicorn he had met when he first arived.

Keith yelled and jumped backwards in surprise, causing Twilight to exclaim and hide behind the door. Keith gathered his startled wits before talking. "Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof. "I was going to knock but you… yeah…" he laughed nervously, getting a look at the unicorn as she came out from behind the door smiling. She was what you would expect a unicorn to look like, though smaller in all dimensions. Keith held out a hoof, smiling back. "Sorry I was so out of it before. I'm Keith." Twilight hesitantly shook his hoof.

"It's ok, Really." She said, letting go of his hoof. "I'm Twilight by the way." She looked around him for something, obviously disappointed. "I was expecting you to be somepony else. I didn't mean to startle you." She moved aside, inviting him in. Keith thanked her, walking into the tree. Looking around, he realized that the nurse wasn't exaggerating. There were nearly three levels of book cases, stairs leading to each one with a catwalk before them. "Sorry about the mess," Twilight apologized, closing the door and levitating the books that were strewn around the center rug. "I was in the middle of research. So how can I be of assistance?" she asked, sliding the books into their places around the room. Keith continued to marvel at the living building, fascinated with the fact that a tree this size existed anywhere.

"I…came by…to thank you for… Wow…" He said, hesitating until his will gave in. It was almost as much to take in as the fact that ponies could talk here. Twilight called his name, staring at him as he looked around. "Sorry, I've just never seen a tree…house… anywhere quite like this place." Twilight giggled at his expression, slightly intrigued that he hadn't been anywhere like this. "I came by to thank you for bringing me into town. And paying the medical bill out of the kindness of your heart to top it off. I'm guess I'm just not used to anypony being so kind." He looked at Twilight, finding a confused look on her face.

"Where exactly are you from?" she asked, surprised that he hadn't experienced a common act of kindness. "I have no idea of a place in Equestria where you have to walk around armed to the hooves like you do." Keith realized he still had his blade strapped to his side. He gave a meek smile and took off the belt that held it on, setting it in the saddlebags he bought on the way here.

"I wander a lot," he explained. "And not everything is as kind as ponies are. I've had to fight my way out of more than one sticky situation." He walked up to a bookcase, finding the lettering in modern Greek. 'Lucky me,' he thought. 'I'm really glad I took those classes in college now.' Twilight walked up beside him, looking where he was.

"Would you like to check one out?" she asked, causing him to look her direction for a fraction of a second.

"No thanks," he said, turning his attention back to the book case. "But if you would, could you turn me in the direction of the nearest Motel? I'm kind of tired after coming all the way here and would really enjoy a good day or two of sleep and rest." He turned away from the bookcase, looking at the rest of the room.

"Um… Ponyville doesn't really have a motel or inn when a celebration isn't going on." She explained, watching Keith wander around the room. "Usually families with a spare room or two take money to let ponies stay there during big events, but those are usually filled most of the rest of the year by relatives." Keith nodded, obvious on his face that he was considering walking to the next town. Twilight thought for a moment, deciding it couldn't hurt anything. "But um… You could stay here. I have a basement that isn't being used right now, and I could have a bed set up rather quick."

Keith looked at her, not knowing what would be in it for her to offer her house to a stranger. "That's very nice of you, Twilight," Keith said, walking toward the door. "But I don't want to intrude, especially after all you've already done for me." He opened the door, standing in it. "But thanks anyway. I think I can make it to the next town on my own. It was nice meeting you." He stepped out pulling the door behind him until he felt stiff resistance.

"I insist, Keith," Twilight said, holding the door with magic. "It's no trouble, and I won't be taking any money either." She gave him a smile as he walked back in. "I'll just go set up the room for you. Wait here, it shouldn't be too long." She walked down the stairs, closing the basement door behind her.

Keith walked down into the basement, finding it fully furnished with a bed, nightstand, a small TV and a wireless radio. "Wow," He said, giving her a smile as she walked in behind him. "This is perfect. Are you sure you don't want my money?" she hit him on the shoulder with a hoof playfully, shaking her head. "Alright then," He said, walking over to the bed and sitting on it. "I guess I'll be up in the morning." Twilight wished him good night, climbing the stairs and closing the door behind her.

Alright! First chapter is up, a helluva lot to go.

R&R please :)