Chapter 2

It was midday and around the town pony's and zebra's where going about their business as normal. Lucas casually walked down the street, receiving weird looks from some passers-by and occasionally a mother would pull her fillies behind her. This was nothing new, even after 30 years and princess Celestia telling every pony they had nothing to fear from the Ascended some pony's still didn't trust them too much. It did not help that he was wearing a leather trench coat and had long black hair and on top of that he was 6ft 4. From the way he dressed he didn't make it easy for other ponies to like him. Lucas was just happy to know that he did have some friends. As he entered a café and was beckoned over to a table in the far corner, he sat down and was happy to see his friends; a mint green unicorn, she had a light green mane with a white streak and her cutey mark was a golden Lyre. Next to her was a middle aged man he had white hair which was always spiked up, He wore a plain white T-shirt and some light blue jeans. There was also an earth pony sitting with them that Lucas did not know. She had a cream coloured coat with a pink and blue mane and her cutey mark was three sweets.

“Hi Lyra hi Tom, how’s it going? Who’s your friend?” Lucas said with a smile that seemed odd against his current dress choice.

“Hey it’s fine, and this is my room-mate,” she said Pointing a hoof at the earth pony

“Nice to meet you, names Bon-Bon and you must be Lucas, Lyra has told me so much about you. But I was wondering, how did you two meet?” she look over at Lyra.

Lucas sighed. This was the second time this week he had to play the story teller

“Well it all started when...”

I was in town and decided to try a new shop. As I went in I saw a security pony. I noticed that the pony seemed to be intensely watching me but paid no attention to it and just looked around the shop. I knew that I was breaking no laws, I had a right to be there, Celestia herself had made it clear that the Ascended got Equal rights. Even so some ponies did not see them as equals, not after what the humans did. What most ponies did not know or didn't much seem to care was that the Ascended didn't like humans either, and are proud to say they are not human. But prejudice is not something that can just be wished away, not matter how powerful the magic.

I was wandering round the shop I was hit in the back of the head, although pretty dazed I looked in the direction I was hit from, I was shocked to see a little colt standing there. “Ha! take that you monster!” He said with pride in his tone.

Then a pony that I could only assume was the colts mother grabbed him and she pulled him away. Then she said something I really did not want to hear.

“Stay away from that thing it’s dangerous,” I hated being called a thing, it boiled my blood, but despite the overwhelming need to scream at the mother I held it in.

I had finished my shopping and was about to pay for it, the pony at the counter gave me a threatening stare

“I’m not serving you,” she said with spite in her voice.

“Why not?” I put on a confused face but knew all too well why not.

“Because you are bothering my customers” I took a quick look around the room and knew the pony was right, all the pony's were watching me, some looked angry and others just looked afraid.

“Well I am sorry about that, but I can't change the way I look. I’m not breaking any laws by going about my business,” I just wanted to pay for my things and leave.

“I don't want to hear it just get out,” the pony was almost shouting.

I didn’t have to shout in the end as all the ponies behind me started saying the same thing, “yeah get out”, “your just a freak”, “no pony likes you.”

This was the last straw, I threw down the things I was going to buy and left. I crossed the street outside the store, every pony on the street was watching, I heard some pony call out “Wait!”

I stopped and turned to look at who it was. Standing there was a mint green unicorn “oh you want to call me freak as well” but then I looked down and saw that the unicorn had brought out all the things I was going to buy in the shop laying there in front of her.

“This is what you were going to buy, wasn’t it?” she said nudging the stuff to me.

“Why?” was all I could manage to say.

“Because you kind helped us escape the humans, you earned the right to be equal and that means you should be able to buy these.” I couldn’t tell if she saw lying, was it possible that she didn't think that I was a monster?.

“What is your name?”

“Lyra” she started to look away “but I guess you want to be alone... I should go now” she said with a bit of sadness in her voice.

“Wait” she stopped and looked up at me “do you want to hang out?”

She perked up at this “I would love to.”

That day I made my first real fried.

“Oh I didn't know you guys had it so rough,” Bon-Bon said she was on the verge of tears. “I didn't see much ascended after the invasion; I didn’t know how bad it was for you. To be honest this is the first time I have been this close to one of you.”

“Hey don't be sad it has got a lot better since then, and it is not your fault that you did not notice us. In this whole land there are only just over 100 of us left.” Lucas explained trying to put on a reassuring tone.

At this point a waiter pony came up to their table, “what can I get you?” he asked in the politest tone he could manage.

“I’ll have a muffin,” Lucas said. This came as no surprise to Lyra because every time he has been to this café with her always had a muffin. If humans had cutie marks Lucas' would be a muffin, no doubt.

“I'll have five, no wait six, six cups of coffee,” Tom said with more energy than was physically possible.

Lyra and Bon-Bon both had some hay fries.

When they were all done eating Lucas switched his gaze over to Tom. “I wanted to talk to you Tom.”

“What about?” Tom said in confusion. Lucas had a very serious tone in his voice so it was probably important.

“The princess wants us for a mission,” this got his interest; it had been so long since the princess had given him a mission.

“What is it?” he asked with excitement in his over energised voice. Bon-Bon and Lyra were also looking at Lucas with interest.

“Sorry it’s rather secret, I can't say in public,” they were all a bit disappointed at hearing this.

“Just meet me at the entrance to the north forest at 8 tonight.”

“Aye aye captain,” Tom gave a strong but slightly sarcastic salute and left.

Tom was very excited about this mission, so excited he had arrived 30 minutes before the rest of the group. I was just past 9:00 when the last member of the group had arrived, four in total. Including Lucas and Tom there was a blue Pegasus with a blood red mane and a torch as his cutey mark, alongside a zebra with some metal rings on his right foreleg.

“OK Tom, Night Light, Zanjin you are all probably wondering why we are here,” Lucas said his voice cutting through the distance noises of the town behind them.

“YES!” they all shouted in unison. How they did that he will never know.

“It is because the princess detected an anomaly north of here.”

“What sort of anomaly?” Tom asked, and by the looks on Night Light’s and Zanjin's faces they were thinking the same thing.

“That is what we are going to find out.”

“But why us?” Zanjin asked

“I picked all of you for specific reasons,” pointing to Zanjin first, “Zanjin you are our survival guide. The mission will take 4 days and we only have 4 days’ worth of supplies, food, water and various other essentials. In the event that we get held up or have to ditch our supplies you will help us survive off the land. Can you do that?” this was less of a question and more of a statement.

“You can count on me” Zanjin said with a grin.

“Good now Night Light” turning to the Pegasus “you are the night watch, when we camp down for the night you will you will be keeping a look out for any signs of danger. If you spot anything wake us up.”

“Wait, what about during the day? I can't stay up all day and all night” Night Light was quick to point out.

“Don't worry, you will sleep during the day and ether me or Tom will carry you.”

“Oh OK” he said, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The idea of have to stay up 4 day's straight was enough to make him collapse right there.

“What about me?” Tom asked wanting to hear his part in the mission.

Lucas looked at him with a soft smile.

“Your part in this is simple,” taking out a map and laying it on the ground he pointed to the bottom, “this is where we are,” tracing his finger up the map and stopping at the top, “and this is where the anomaly is. As you can see there are a fair amount of rivers blocking our path. If we change our route so we cross the bridges it will add an extra 2 day's to the trip.”

“Aw come on, surely you need me for more than just crossing rivers” Tom said sounding disappointed.

“Your right, you are also here because you and me are the only trained fighters in the group, so in the event that we come under attack, we’ll be the defence.”

Then Zanjin asked a question that was on everyone mind, “what about you, where do you fit into all of this?”

“My skills won’t be needed until we reach the anomaly,” he said. Tom having been on mission before with Lucas knew what he was talking about all too well. Zanjin and Night Light however did not, but both decided not to pry as it was getting late.

“Did you all bring a weapon for the trip?” Lucas asked.

“Yes” they said in unison, ‘seriously how are they doing that’ Lucas thought.

They all got their weapons out. Zanjin had a crescent shaped dagger with a tiny bit of purple liquid on it which Lucas could only assume was poison. Night Light was holding what looked to be a simple pipe, but Lucas quickly realised what it was when he saw a couple of blow darts in Night Lights’ pouch. Tom was wearing a metal gauntlet with metal plates down the fingers ending in raiser sharp claws, and finally Lucas had a modified hunters bow with a Quiver full of arrows.

“Right then here are your supplies,” Lucas said handing a bag to each member of the team. “All right, we are ready to go then” Lucas announced.

And with that they all set off on their journey.

A/N
Shout out to my brother Liam and my friend ‘Craig at Black-Dragon’ (his fanfiction.net username) for proof reading this.

Next Chapter: chapter 3 Estimated time remaining: 8 Minutes