Prologue

Fiction.

That’s always been a word that I’ve had trouble accepting. Sure, it may seem like it was “made up” for us, but in another world, another universe, or another reality, it was a real event. You might read a book and see that in it one of your favorite characters died. That probably made you a bit sad, but you probably told yourself that it wasn’t real; that it was just a story. Try telling that to the friends and family of that now dead character. I’ve had to do that a few times, and it’s one of the worst feelings ever. Like I said, in another world, in another place, it happened or is going to happen.

In other words, to dumb it down for you folks just scratching your head, it means this: If it’s been thought about, there’s another universe, and reality, where it happens, and in those realities the thoughts and dreams of the people who live there create other realities, and it keeps going from there, endlessly. If you’re still having trouble understanding that, please go to your nearest comic book store, and pick up any type of Marvel comic book or watch some Doctor Who. They are both chock full of alternate realities.

Now let me tell you a story that is true for every reality, time, and universe: There are Gods, Capitol G. There are Gods of Good, Gods of Evil, and Gods of Neutrality for every reality and universe. They watch over their respective universes and realities, and occasionally help out one another with their realms, you know, make sure everything survives. Now, to ensure that each universe's story would survive, each side came together, and decided that they needed a Traveler for each of their sides. Someone who could go to each reality and realm, and do things for their respective side. This would help spread the story to every reality, mostly in the forms of fables, and the collective thoughts of each sentient being would make sure everything survived.

The Gods of Evil chose a man who craved power but didn’t want to become a god. He was ruthless, cold, cunning, and full of anger and spite (a little clichéd, but come on; he IS the chosen one of evil after all). He is one of the darkest, if not one of the most evil, men alive, and his real name is unknown to everyone. He goes by the name of Torrentican (ooooh, scary).

The Gods of Neutrality chose to keep their Traveler a secret to everyone in order to help preserve the balance by having a sort of secret agent that could tip the scales in someone else’s favor. After all, everyone needs some form of an ace up their sleeve, don't they?All that is known of the Traveler is she is female and someone who can change their shape and even their very essence in order to hide their identity.

The Gods of Good, however, chose someone who was different. They chose a simple mortal to be their Traveler. The mortal wasn’t very strong and he wasn’t very smart (take it from me; he ain’t that good looking either). But he had something that the Gods of Good had planned for him from the beginning: The ability to learn. The Boy loved learning and he would devour stories of heroes, listen for hours on end to all kinds of music, and sometimes just sit around and think. The Boy also had something else inside of him, three things to be exact: The earlier mentioned ability to learn, at the core of his being, he was a good person, and, just as important as the other traits, he was a Traveler. In fact, he had been created and chosen from the beginning of his life to be the Traveler for the Gods of Good.

I am that mortal (this is the part where if this story gets to you via T.V or internet, dramatic music plays).

At birth, my parents named me Sean. Ironically enough, it's the Irish way of saying, "God is Gracious".

My official Traveling name, the one that the Gods chose for me, is Omnius. It's Latin for something, but I can't remember it right now.

The name that I use for undercover work and for a nickname (don’t judge me): Nathan Traveler. At least, that's the more commonly used one.

Okay, we got that long and semi-dramatic intro out of the way! Who wants to hear about my adventures in Equestria? More importantly, who just wants to get to the ponies? If you’re still reading this, you hopefully want to! So pull up a comfortable seat, grab a drink, and don’t cut the green wire!

Chapter 1: My Little Traveler.

(Takes place one week before Ep.1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

“Gaaaaaaaaah!!!!”  I screamed as I fell from the sky. I felt a brief flash of pain and realized that after I had screamed, (Not like a little girl, mind you, More like a small pre-teen girl) I had hit the ground.

“Why is it that nearly every time I go into a different realm, I end up falling from the sky? I mean, it happens so much that it’s starting to become a cliché!” I ranted at no one in particular, as I pushed my hooves on the ground to pick myself- Wait… Hooves?  What happened to my normal hands? My awesome, tan, five-fingered hands?!

Try to understand something here: As a Traveler, I’m used to the idea of getting a new body for each new reality I go to. I assume the form of the local population so I can blend in, and I can change back to my normal form at anytime. Clothes included…Most of the time. Long story short, it involved a lightning bolt, coca-cola, a rubber chicken, and was a complete disaster. Anyways, I’ve been a human, a dragon, and one time I had been an elf (with a plus five to charisma). But this…this was something else entirely.

I looked around, trying to resist the urge to panic, and saw a crystal blue lake just a few feet from the dirt road I had fallen on. Normally I would have been awed by the peaceful and serene nature of the lake and taken a moment to meditate on it to try feel the chi in the air (In other words, set up a hammock, listen to music, and take a nap). But as I was having an out-of-body experience, or in-new-body experience as it were, I focused on nothing but getting a good look at myself.

“YE GODS!” I yelled as I saw my reflection in the water. “I’m a pony!” I paused and looked closer, before muttering, “And to add insult to injury, I’m kind of cute.”

I had a dark tan coat and a mane that was a dark enough brown to be considered black at first glance. My eyes were still their normal shade of dark brown, and my thick black glasses were in place on top of my muzzle. Snout. Thing. Okay, note to self: Learn local anatomy. Anyway, around my mouth area the fur had darkened, giving the appearance of a small goatee. I let out a sigh of relief at that. See, one of the few things about my appearance that I really like is my beard. It’s like a thicker and darker colored version of Gordon Freeman’s beard (If you don’t know who that is, you lead a sad and pathetic video game free life), and it made me look just a bit cooler. So even in pony form I still had a beard. BOO YA! There’s a silver lining after all!

I then turned to look at the rest of my body (Hey! I’m not vain! You try going to a new universe and getting your body changed to match that of the local population, and see how YOU like it). I had a tail that was the same color as my mane and long enough for the tip to drag against the ground gently. On either side of my flank, there was a familiar looking mark. My logo, an infinity symbol with a sun in one loop, a moon and star in the other, and an hourglass set behind it. Complicated? Yes. Do I wish it were simpler? Sometimes. That symbol has probably caused me more problems than I can count...

“Okay, so here’s what I know so far,” I said to myself, “The local populations of this reality are ponies, they look adorable, and they have weird tattoos on their butts. Note to self: Figure out what they call them and what they mean. What’s next? Chocolate rain?”

Shaking my head vigorously, I made my way slowly to the dirt path, stumbling as I went. Once at the road, I proceeded to examine the ground very thoroughly, because it looked interesting...and definitely not because I had tripped over my own hooves and fallen face first. Honest. I picked myself up off the ground, while getting the feeling that I was going to be doing that a lot for the first few days, and started down the path, trusting in fate to lead me to the heroes of this story.

“This is going to be a long day,” I sighed and kept walking. Trotting. Cantering. Ugh. Stupid Grammar. Me smash later.

“At least it’s not rain-“

Thunder boomed and rain started pouring, cutting me off. I scowled at the sky which had suddenly darkened with charcoal gray storm clouds that were letting loose a torrent of water and briefly wished for mini windshield wipers that could attach to glasses.

“Me and my big mouth,” I mumbled.

I ran, er, I mean, galloped down the road, slipping a little and nearly falling again. The rain turned the dirt path into a mud slide, and it was getting considerably difficult to keep upright. I felt like a drunken one-legged guy trying to jog down a gravel road while blind folded.  After about two hours of stumbling through the mud I saw a barn, bright red even in this weather, in the distance. At this point, my options had come down to:

A) Enjoy the harsh freezing rain.

B) Hide under a Tree.

C) Go to barn and hope and pray that someone’s there

D) Do the Cha-cha slide.

I decided that option C was the best. After all, the worst thing that could happen would be me getting turned back out into the rain.

I trotted up to the door and was about to knock, when I heard a voice that had a southern drawl call out over the storm, “APPLEBLOOM! APPLEBLOOM! CONSARN IT, WHERE ARE YOU!?!”

Ah, nuts. Now I had to add another option: E) Go find out who was calling and help them out. Gah! Sometimes being the good guy isn’t easy. I turned toward the sound of the voice and saw an orange pony with a blond mane and tail standing on a hill, struggling to keep a weathered brown stetson (Making her a cow-pony?) on her head. She had a tattoo of three apples on her flank, her eyes were an emerald green, and she seemed to be trying to find someone.

I galloped toward her, somehow managing not to fall, and yelled out over the storm, “What’s wrong?”

Instead of questioning me, like I was sure she’d do, she looked at me with something near tears in her eyes and said, “It’s my little sister, Applebloom! She was out in the orchard when the storm came, and she should have been back by now!”

“What does she look like?”

“She’s got a yellow coat and a red mane and tail! She always wears a big red bow in her hair, and she-“

“I get the picture! Where did you say she was?” I interrupted her while looking around.

“In the orchard!” she replied, giving me a look of confusion.

“Well I’ll go look for her then!”  I called out, already running toward a huge group of closely knit apple trees.

“Wait, what’s your name?” she shouted after me, her voice going hoarse (Heh heh, I made a funny) from yelling.

“I’ll tell you when I get back!” I said, grinning over my shoulder.

Funny thing about danger: If you’re unprepared for it, you normally get into some serious trouble, or you suddenly learn how to deal with it. Case in point, while I was running through the orchard searching for Apple Bloom, I dimly noticed that I wasn’t stumbling anymore. I was galloping full steam through a forest in almost absolute darkness (minus the occasional lightning bolt) in the mud and I wasn’t falling. How’s that for adapting?

I called out Apple Bloom’s name while I ran, hoping to find some sign that she was alright, when I heard a small voice crying. Changing direction as fast as I could, I found who I hoped to be the missing pony huddling, as only a pony could (D’aaawww), under a small makeshift tent made out of fallen twigs. I have to admit, she may be a scared little girl (Filly), but she was smart enough to try and make a shelter for herself. I made my way over to her and half-shouted, “Are you Apple Bloom?”

The filly’s eyes widened and she said in a frightened voice, “Y-y-yes.” Hey, she had a southern accent too! Does this mean I’ve stumbled across a pony version of Texas? Louisiana? Missouri?

“Your sister is worried sick about you! How about we get you back home?” I said, picking her up with my teeth (Fun fact: Pony hair + Mud and dirt = Blegh) and setting her on my back. She didn’t seem to be hurt, but she was obviously scared and I could see why. Thunder as loud as a war cannon and lightning striking the ground a few yards from us would have terrified almost anyone. Myself included.

“Applejack sent you?” she asked, hope slipping into her voice.

“Yeah, well, she was looking for you, and I decided to lend a helping hoof,” I tried to say in a reassuring voice, making my way through the orchard. Man, there were more trees here than in a national park! And to top it off, each tree had a different kind of apple on it. Hmm…Apple Bloom? Applejack? And of course, all of the apple trees. Let me guess, the next pony I meet is gonna be called Green Apple! Okay, probably not, but I can dream, right?

Apple Bloom shivered and tried to hang on as hard as she could, and I could feel how cold she was. Thankfully, I was somehow able to see the hill top where I had met Applejack, and managed to make my way there, fighting against the wind as I went. I couldn’t see the bigger pony anywhere, and I decided that I would track her down after I got Apple Bloom to safety.

I went to the barn and head butted it a few times, ignoring the stars that flew up from the impact, hoping I could get someone’s attention. I kept hitting the door with my head, and just when the stars started to turn into cartoon birds, the door opened, and a massive red pony with an orange mane and a bit of wheat sticking out of his mouth stepped out. Of course, the stick of wheat fell out when he saw a complete stranger holding what I guessed to be his little sister.

“Hey! Don’t just stand there! The little pony here needs to get warm!” I growled, gesturing with my head to the shivering filly on my back. Big Red (As I decided to call him until I got his real name) instantly nodded his head and took Apple Bloom off of my back.

“Where’s A.J? And who are you?” he asked slowly, after he got her wrapped up in some nearby blankets.

“Long story short, I offered to help find the little one, and now I gotta go find Appleja-“

Again, I got cut off (Why does that keep happening?) by the door opening, Applejack running in, and shutting the door behind her, effectively muting the sounds of the storm.

“I saw you run back here with Applebloom and got here as fast as I could,” she panted while shaking herself dry. She softly walked over to where her sister lay huddled in a mountain of old blankets and started whispering to her softly.

“Well…okay then. Yeah, uh, nice to see that you’re safe and all, so I best skedaddle and get out of your hair,” I awkwardly chuckled, walking towards the door. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but it was starting to become a full blown family moment, and I always feet awkward around those. More so when it was someone who I didn’t even know.

“Hold on there pardner. You can’t be serious about goin’ back into that storm,” Applejack said, moving in front of me and blocking the exit. Her stance told me that she would stand there all day (or was it night now?) if she had to. Crap, it was a stubborn pony. Moreover, it was a stubborn pony who honestly cared for the well being of others. Damn it. But of course, I can be just as stubborn when I want to.

I smiled, and said in an overly-confident tone, “Oh don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine. It’s just a little-“

BOOM!

There was a moment of silence, until I said in a much less confident voice, “…Medium sized storm. But that doesn’t change anything. It’s not too ba-“

BOOM!

“WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!?” I yelled while staring at the roof.  The others gave me a look that plainly stated they thought I was crazy, and I quickly added, “Alright, it’s a big storm. I’ll still be leaving though. Nice to meet y’all, good to see you’re all safe, and now...I am skeddadling!”

I nimbly (HA! Barely a chapter in and I had went from klutzy to nimble! There is hope!) skipped around Applejack and managed to open the side door. Stepping outside, I turned to say something like, “See? It’s just a normal storm. Nothing can go wrong.” Instead, what happened was I stepped outside, and then there was a blinding white flash, quickly followed by the distinct smell of overcooked meat.

“On second thought,” I mumbled through numb lips, “I think I might stay for tea.”

Darkness overtook me as I fell to the ground.

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

I woke up, and tried to open my eyes. Unfortunately, someone had gotten a little overexcited with the bandages, and my entire head was covered with them. I lifted a hoof and let out a sigh of relief. Other than some stiffness, everything seemed to be working properly. Of course, I could look like a pile of overcooked hot dogs and not even realize it thanks to the aforementioned bandages.

But see, that’s one of the perks of being The Traveler. I can’t die. Seriously, no matter what, I can’t die. If I get sick, I’ll get better eventually, and if I get wounded it’s the same thing. Of course, I can be wounded or sick enough to have to return to a Home world (A place that I can call home), and stay there in order to recuperate.

Sounds like a blessing, doesn't it? It's not.

Well, anyways, it seemed that the lightning didn’t do much worse than knock me out. Although with the surprising amount of bandages on my head, I wouldn’t be surprised if I looked well-done.

“Hello?” I called out, but with my mouth full of bandages, it came out like, “Hrem?”

“Oh Good, you’re up!” I heard a voice cheerfully exclaim. I felt a straw being forced through the bandages, quickly followed up with a stinging sensation in what I thought was my left nostril.

“Hrm mrr hrmph hrm?” Is my beard still in one piece?

“I just wanted to thank you for saving me last night! Applejack says that if you didn’t come when you did, I might have gotten struck by lightning like you did!”

Ah. This must be Apple Bloom! Her medic skills leave much to be desired, but at least she was okay. And I guess her heart was in the right place, but it would’ve been nice if she hadn’t just stuck a straw up my nose. What’s more, the straw was in a big glass of juice, and it sent the strong unending aroma of apples up my nose.

“Apple Bloom!” I heard Applejack walk in and start telling off Apple Bloom.

“Oh, Hi Applejack! Hey, look Sis! He’s awake!” Apple Bloom said, removing the straw and giving my nose an enormous sense of relief.  Ah, to not have the scent of apples jammed up my nostril. T'is a truly wondrous feeling, and I highly suggest you try it sometime.

“Sugarcube, why is his face covered with all them bandages?”

“HREM! HRM HREM HREMEM MM HRM!” HEY! CAN I GET THE BANDAGES OFF PLEASE?!

“Oh, uh, we better get them bandages offa ya, huh?” Applejack said sheepishly, and I felt the bandages slowly being unraveled from my head. Note to self: Never become a mummy.

As the last of the bandages were removed, I gasped out, “Oh, sweet relief! I can breathe!” I shook my head and got up, noticing that someone had moved me to a nearby pile of straw. Oddly enough, it was actually pretty comfortable, instead of itchy and annoying. I wrote it off to being a pony and felt for my beard. Thank the Gods of Good it was still there.

“Uh, are you okay?” Applejack asked cautiously, pulling Applebloom behind her.

“Oh yeah. Perfectly fine,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, on a sudden impulse I continued by saying, “So…Who are you?”

“What do you mean?” Applebloom said, poking out from behind her older sister.

“I mean, who are you? And how did I end up here? More importantly than that, where is here?” I asked, hoping that after a few years of hanging out with people who had amnesia I could at least act the part. Hey, don’t groan. It’s better than having to explain why I don’t know about something that should be painfully obvious. Like this one time, one of my buddies and I went to this mall and there were these dancers. Now it weren’t bad or anything, but I thought that maybe we should go up and try to talk to them and-

Oh, right. Now’s not the best time. Sorry about that.

“You mean you don’t remember anything?” Applejack asked in a quiet tone, looking at me.

I shook my head, and stated in a cheerful voice, “Nothing but a flash of light, a storm, and my name.”

“Uh-oh. That’s not good.” Applejack started pacing back and forth and swishing her tail nervously.

“Well, if it helps, I’m pretty sure my name is Omnius. Pleased to meet ya!” I said, holding out a hoof.

“Applejack. So you mean to tell me that you don’t remember anything about last night?” My hoof just hung in the air. No hoof shaking for me then? Oh come on A.J! Don’t leave a Traveler hangin’!

“Nope,” I grumbled in my best Engineer voice. I had to resist the urge to try extending my neck when I said that though.

The sisters looked at each other and then told me what had happened last night, most of which I already knew (although if you can’t remember, just go hit the rewind button) except for the part where they had to pull me back into the barn and make sure I was okay. It surprised me that they would do that for a random stranger, but it made me happy. They were obviously good ponies.

“What’s really amazing is that you aren’t, well, you know…” Applejack started to say, but couldn’t find a good word. My smart-ass section of my brain went into action at the obvious opening.

“Deep Fried? Electro-ficuted?  Shell Shocked? Fricasseed? Paralyzed? Thunderstruck?” I supplied helpfully.

“Yeah, that,” Applejack said, chuckling softly.  

“What’s Thunderstruck?” Applebloom asked with a look of childlike curiosity on her face.

“Um, well, actually, uh…I don’t know?” I tried, shifting nervously. Crap, how do you explain amnesia and the fact that you know songs from another dimension? Answer: You don’t. You let the viewer laugh silently (If they get the joke) and hope that they don’t get too suspicious.

“You want to know what’s really strange about you?” Applejack quickly said in an obvious attempt to gloss over the awkward moment.

“My face? Oh no, please tell me the lightning didn’t fry my glasses!” I said, suddenly feeling around for them. After I found them sitting next to the pile of hay, I put them on and let out a sigh of relief. You wanna know how bad my eyesight is? It's about as good as a certain meddling kid who wears an orange sweater and glasses. I hate it...a lot...

“Uh, actually, I was gonna say your Cutie-Mark,” She said, laughing out loud this time.

“My what now?” Aaaaaaannd here’s the part where I feel like an idiot for not knowing something obvious.

“Your Cutie-mark,” Applebloom said, pointing helpfully at my flank. I looked and saw the familiar shape that was my logo. An infinity symbol with a sun and moon in the loops and an Hourglass set in the back.

“I have a feeling that I’m gonna sound pretty dumb for asking this, but what is a cutie-mark?” I asked, my heart already sinking. Thank you amnesia, for giving me an excuse for dumbness!

“Are you being serious?” Applejack said unbelievingly.

“Unfortunately. Hey, remember: Just got my brain scrambled by lightning.”

REAL LIGHTNING!

Applejack’s eyes widened and she looked closer at my head, and said after a minute, “Wow. Guess that amnesia business must be serious. Well, a cutie-mark is that little something that tells you what your special talent is. Like mine.” She turned, and I saw the trio of apples on her flank. “See them apples? That means that my special talent is running Sweet Apple Acres.”

My finely honed detective skills, and the sign hanging on the fence I could see out of the window, told me that Sweet Apple Acres was the name of the farm I was at. That would explain the apple trees, the apple baskets, the apple sign on the fence outside…Hey, give me some credit, I just got hit by lightning!

“Oh, I get it. And mine means…” I frowned a bit and tried not to let my paranoia get the better of me. My logo is something that I created before I started Traveling, and for some reason it’s always been there to be my insignia, my mark, and my trademark! But to have it suddenly appear on me for my talent was a little disconcerting. It’s like having a favorite book and then realizing that book defines your life. Spooky.

Applejack gazed at me with sad eyes, and said in a low voice, “I guess that amnesia must’ve hit you pretty bad. To have already realized your specialty and then forget about it…It’s almost like you’ve lost your own identity.”

I swallowed and tried to fight off the urge to break out into a cold sweat. “So, uh… If I’m all right, I think I’ll just go ahead and make my getaway. Thanks for taking care of me, and I hope to see you again.”

“Whoa there Sugarcube, you can’t be serious about doing that again. That’s what got you into trouble in the first place. Besides, you can’t remember a thing! So where would you go?” Applejack said stubbornly and logically at the same time. I have a feeling this is going to be something I say a lot, but here goes: Only Ponies could be able to pull that off.

“Well…uh…”

“Exactly. So I reckon the best thing for you to do is to just stay here, and help us out with the upcoming celebration,” she said, giving me a smug look. Only ponies could be cute enough to pull off a smug look without getting an angry glare from me.

“What celebration?”

“The Summer Sun Celebration. It’s the biggest event in Equestria, and it takes place in about a week. You can stick around and help me get things ready for that and for my family reunion, which is happening in about five days.”

“Yeah! You gotta stay for that! Please say yes, please,” Apple Bloom piped in, giving me an incredibly sad and hopeful look.  I guess me saving her from a storm must’ve made some sort of impression. Then I got a good look at her sad face (You already know what it looks like, and I’m not going to describe it.)

No, no, and melodramatic NOOOOOOOOOOOO again. I may have failed to mention this, but I’m a sucker for a sad face. Especially if the sad face is real, the person giving me the sad face is a kid, and they’re a pony.

How could I resist?

I sighed, and said reluctantly, “Alright.” Almost as an afterthought, I added, “Hey, maybe doing some work will help me remember my special talent!”  Gotta play the part of amnesiac lightning bolt victim or risk getting found out.

Apple Bloom beamed at me and happily skipped out of the barn. Applejack shook her head in the way only older sisters can and said over her shoulder as she followed her little sister out, “You don’t remember it, but thanks for saving my sister.”

I blinked and smiled. Maybe it had been coincidence, or maybe fate, which had made me be there in the nick of time for Applebloom and made me get struck by lightning. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met the two sisters.

And although I didn’t know it at the time, it also meant I wouldn’t have met a whole lot of others who would end up changing me a lot more than I thought they would...

NO! IT’S NOT A CLICHÉ! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!

Next Chapter: She's an Applejack and she's okay! Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 34 Minutes