Chapter 1

I woke up with the feeling of snow surrounding me. The chill went straight through me and into my bones. As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew that something was way off.

By the looks of things, I was apparently in a forest. The forest was covered in lots of snow; about six inches give or take, with large trees all around. For some reason, the forest gave off an intimidating vibe, like there was this evil presence just watching your every move.

I groaned as I tried to sit myself up. As I did, though, a sharp pain suddenly ignited from my lower abdomen. I moaned in pain as I felt the pain travel from my stomach all the way to my head, making me fall back on my back again. I tried to sit up again, but slower this time, to avoid any unnecessary pain. I looked down upon myself to see what could cause me such agony.

As soon as I looked, I could feel my face pale with shock. Right on the lower left of my stomach, about three inches long, was a deep and ragged cut. Said cut had blood all over it.

Lots of blood.

Instantly, my survival instincts kicked in, or at least what I knew from watching some survival shows. As I looked around for something to bind the wound, I noticed that there were some leaves nearby that looked promising. Not caring if they were a type of dangerous plant, I immediately tore a few of them off and place them on top of the wound. As soon as they made contact with my wound, a new bout of pain spread across me, making me take a sudden gasp from the shock of it. As soon as I covered the wound, I went to work cleaning up the blood around the gaping gash. Thankfully, and surprisingly, the wound had ceased to bleed so much, so I was able to clean it off with ease. Once that was done, I began to take stock of anything that I had on me at the time.

I was wearing my favorite sweatshirt hoody, which was a fuzzy red with a deep hood that could cover my face if needed. For some reason, I didn't have anything under it, and my hoody's zipper was open. Not only open, but broken, so I couldn't zip up my hoody. I was also wearing, for some odd reason, some tan cargo shorts.

'Why am I wearing shorts in this kind of weather' I thought to myself. I shook my head, deciding that it was a moot point right now, just happy that at least I was wearing something in this cold weather. Still, the lack of proper clothing was starting to get to me, and I knew that if I didn't get to proper shelter in time, I would most likely die of hypothermia. As I looked around for a makeshift housing area, I noticed that there were some items sitting next to me.

I slowly got up and walked to the items, all the while clutching the wound, making sure that the leaves stayed on it. Once I got to the items, I realized what they were. They were my weapons, which consisted of a Bo staff and a pair of sais. I then realized another important detail that I missed, one that I thought was more terrifying then the gaping wound, or the fact that I'm in some random forest.

I had no idea who I was, or how I got here.

Now, I knew some of the basic things, like I'm a human; I'm male, and things like that. But I didn't know any of the specifics, such as how I got here, how I knew this was my favorite hoodie, or how I know that these weapons were mine. The thought that I lost all memory of my very identity made me feel slightly panicky, but I quickly tried to calm myself down for the sake of my own survival and sanity.

I decided to gather what I did have and look for someplace to stay, maybe find civilization if I'm lucky. I took the sais and tested the weight on them and to examine them thoroughly. The were about one and a half feet in length, weighed about two and a half pounds, with the middle spike being the longest, and the two side spikes going only a quarter of the length and also curved slightly. At the end of the handle was a solid ball. The bow staff, however, was a few inches taller then me. I guessed that the length was 5 feet 10 inches. As I looked for a place to put my sais, I realized that I had a belt across my shorts, so I was able to put the sais into the belt. With that taken care of, I used the staff as a crutch to walk with as a started my search for shelter.

I have been walking for about thirty minutes now and the forest still doesn't seem to be letting up right now, making me even more worried. The wound had started to clot a while ago, thankfully, and it didn't hurt as much as before. The longer I walked, the more certain I felt about that presence watching me. After a few more minutes of complete terror, I finally heard something thing that shook me to my core.

A scream…

The scream was something out of a horror movie. At first, I thought that it was some sort of wild animal, but then I heard a voice. The voice was loud and high pitched, making the person either a girl or a high-pitched man, but it didn't really matter to me at the moment. Throwing caution to the wind, I ran as fast as I could without reopening my wound. A few seconds later, I burst into a clearing and in that clearing was something that made me question my very sanity.

In the clearing were two figures. The first figure was lying down in the snow staring up at the latter figure. The creature appeared to be of an equine nature, the only odd thing was that it was an azure coloring, with a silver mane, tail and appeared to be wearing a wizard hat and matching cape. It would have been a horse had it been taller but assuming that it was about chest height with me put it higher then four feet when standing, making it a pony. I was able to take all of that in a single glace that I gave her (assuming it was a female) before I focused all of my attention onto the other creature.

This creature was something out of a nightmare. It was the size of a lion, and even possessed some traits of one too, including a mane, face and paws of one. However, that was were the similarities ended. The mane of the monster was bright red, with an equally bright yellow body. On its back stood a pair of giant bat-like wings, and in place of a normal lion tail was a giant scorpion stinger. The creature looked like it had seen a fair few fights as well, for it sported a large scar on its face going across the right eye vertically. For some reason, this creature looked familiar to me, but before I could figure out why, both creatures realized that they weren't alone anymore.

Both creatures simply stared at me with unblinking eyes, the pony appeared to be in shock and it seemed that my bipedal appearance did little to comfort her. If anything, it made her more terrified. The lion like creature, however, seemed to be pissed off at being interrupted before it could finish the kill and slowly turned to face me. I readied my staff, waiting for it to make the first move.

The creature did not disappoint me, and jumped at me, using its wings to boost his jump. Before he could hit me though, I swayed to the right and brought my staff in a downward stroke onto his head as he passed, which hit with a resounding "CRACK!" With the creature now dazed, I decided to finish this fight quickly, so I dropped my staff and unsheathed my sais from my belt. But before I could do anything, the creature quickly spun around and lunged its stinger over its back towards me. I dodged it to the right once again, but this time, with my left sai, I stabbed it towards the ground, lodging the stinger in between two of the sai's spikes. With his tail stuck to the ground and awkwardly over his back, it began to struggle to free itself, but stopped as soon as I pointed my other sai against his forehead.

I looked at it dead in the eyes, trying to show him that I was serious and that I would not hesitate to kill him if I have to. As I did, the creature felt something that it had never felt before, something that it hoped to never feel again. It felt a sense of helplessness and something akin to awe.

But most of all, it felt fear.

Fear of this strange and deadly bipedal creature before it with the ability to simply end his life with a single stab through the neck or head. But instead, said creature lowered its weapon and spoke.

"Leave now."

Just two words, and yet those two words meant the world to him, because he knew that this strange creature was going to set him free and spare his life. All he had to do was leave.

Slowly, the creature nodded. I was surprised that it could understand me, but I decided not to question it. I backed up slowly and grabbed the sai that was in the ground. With one sharp tug, I yanked it out of the ground, freeing the beast. I feared that it would try to attack me again, but thankfully it instead turned tail and fled into the forest.

I sheathed the sais back into my belt, picked up my staff, and slowly walked to the pony that was still on the ground were I first saw her. I gave her an once-over to see if she was ok. Thankfully, she only had a little bruising and nothing else major or life threatening. Her figure also conformed the fact that she was indeed a female. Then she did something that I would not have expected her to do in a million years.

She spoke

"H-how did you d-defeat a Manticore so easily?" she said in a quivering voice.

Now I was even more surprised and almost at the verge of shock when she spoke, but I was able to thankfully keep myself together. Unfortunately, however, I was unable to prevent myself from bluntly asking my own question. "You can talk?"

"Well of course I can talk, but I should be asking you that, even I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, has never seen anything like you before" she stated, her head tilted to the side. Apparently she seemed to be calmed down from the fight she just saw. I on the other hand, was still in shock. Here I am, in the clearing of some random forest, having just fought off a fierce lion like mutant thing, and now talking to some pony that I just saved, which I learned was called Trixie.

"I don't mean to be rude, but where I come from, ponies do not talk. As for what I am, I'm a human." I stated in a matter of fact kind of voice. I saw a look of surprise come across her face.

"A human?" She asked. I nodded. "So, where do you come from, human?" Trixie asked me

I opened my mouth to respond, but then a sudden burst of pain swept over my left shoulder. I looked over to it and saw two more large gashes that tore through my hoodie and was bleeding profusely. The Manticore (at least that was what Trixie called it) apparently got me on its first jump, and I didn't even notice. I quickly glanced at the pony again and asked "Right now, I'm more concerned about getting to the closest town to get myself patched up. Do you know were it is?"

"Yes Bu-"

"Then bring me there, please!" I cut her short, slight panic began to fill my voice.

Trixie looked at me, then to my ruined shoulder, then to me again. When she looked at me again, I finally noticed her eyes. They were bigger then mine, that was for sure, but the size wasn't what struck me the most. It was the color of them, a dark amethyst color to them that just made her eyes sparkle. It literally made me gasp in surprise.

"What is it?" she asked, thinking it was a gasp of pain.

"Nothing it's just that, well, your eyes…they…they're beautiful."

She blinked and blushed at my response. Then, realizing what I said, I quickly tried to catch myself, even though it was already too late for me.

"I-I'm sorry I was just…w-w-well…" I quickly fell in silence, trying to think of some way out of this now embarrassing situation. Thankfully the searing pain in my shoulder reminded me that I needed to get to a doctor.

"N-never mind, can you please bring me to the town please?" I pleaded to her. At this point my shoulder was rather covered in blood right now.

Trixie realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately stood up. I was right when guessing her size, as her head only came up to my chest.

"R-right, just follow me. I know somepony that can help patch you up." She said, still blushing slightly from my previous compliment.

'Somepony?' I thought to myself. Whatever the case, I didn't bother to correct her grammar, for there were bigger things at stake here. Using my staff as a cane, I followed her out of the clearing and through the trees.

"So, Trixie is it?" I asked. She nodded to confirm my answer. "Where in the world am I?"

"Well, first off, we are in the Everfree Forest, which is right next to the town that I'm bringing you towards"

"And what is this town called?"

"Ponyville."