When Celestia retired for the night, the ensuing evening passed fairly quickly. Sleep might not find me, but I still found it nice to curl up in bed with a book to whittle away the evening. “A beginner’s treatise on magicking” was fairly interesting, even if most of it passed over my head.

I had barely noticed that the embers of morning had started to stream through my bedroom window when they first arrived. What did snap me out of my trance were the solid knocks at my bedroom door. They were resounding ‘thunk thunk thunks’ that I knew could only come from a hoof’s strike. Having grown in experience, I reflexively called out “Just a minute!” Then I ducked under my room’s chandelier, peeked sadly at my own reflection in my room’s mirror, and opened my door. Standing impassively, a familiar brown unicorn was stood in my doorway. She gave a polite bow, in which I could swear she looked from my horns to the untouched chandelier behind me.

Straightening out again, she puffed up to relay her message, “The Porter, you are summoned to the twin thrones by Her Majesty, Princess Celestia. I have been instructed to guide you to the throne room as a matter of utmost urgency.” I raised an eyebrow. Finally being summoned by the princess, was I? I nodded. The book in my hands, long since forgotten, was gently tossed onto my bedside nightstand.

“Well then. Please lead the way.”

---

I’d had the time to visit many areas of the castle in my wanderings. With that said, one area I had never even gotten close to was the throne room. Around the clock, a cadre of unflinching guards stood watch over the grand double doors to the throne. I wasn’t sure which creatures the doors to the throne room were made to accommodate; however, I was in no rush to meet them. The ponies were easily enough for me on their own.

My brown unicorn handler came to a halt in front of the throne room guards. Giving a short, mechanical bow, she pointed a hoof at me and announced, “at the request of Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, The Porter.”

This satisfied the door guards, who assigned two ponies to each titanic door. Slowly, to the suffering of the door hinges, the doors were cast open, revealing the Equestrian throne. My unicorn handler having departed, I walked past the threshold and into the bright room beyond alone. A light ‘click-click’ could be heard as my clawed toes impacted against polished tiles.

Inside the frankly enormous throne room, rows upon rows of stained glass art pieces lined the room’s walls. On the east-side of the hall, sunlight streamed through the works, which appeared to be of ancient battles, treaties, or celestial bodies. The coloured glass cast its long impression on the ground, making me step through the window projections of a gryphon carrying a halberd, the Equestrian moon, and then a trio of hooves joined together.

On the far side of the room, a pair of thrones sat. One seat was red with a dark blue trim, against the backdrop of the moon; the other seat was red with a brilliant gold trim, placed against the backdrop of a blazing sun. I struggled to wonder whose throne was whose, but I think I managed to work it out. Of far more importance, I saw Luna standing before the thrones with her back turned towards me, engaged in conversation with Celestia who was currently sat on her own throne. By Celestia’s side, a light grey unicorn with a clip on tie around their neck and their black hair up in an orderly little bun was taking notes on a levitating clipboard, nodding at Celestia.

I hadn’t taken a single step forwards before one of the door guards had bellowed across the long hall, “Announcing The Porter!” I winced, those guardsponies had a set of lungs.

Why did they call me the Porter? Did they think that “the” was part of my name? In response to the guard’s announcement, I was briefly the object of attention in the room. Celestia, who I was near-certain had already noticed me as soon as I had walked in the room, turned her head to me. Luna, meanwhile, did a surprised seeming turn on her hooves to stare at me with wide eyes. Quickly breaking eye contact as soon as I established it between us, she turned to her sister and I couldn’t see her face any more. Now that I noticed it, she wasn’t wearing her normal lunar peytral across her breast right now. Was she woken up from her sleep and brought here?

“Good morhning, Luna.” I greeted with a smile and a small wave. It was nice to see her again. I knew she must have a lot of duties as a princess, but it was nice getting to see her around.

“Ah, Brian,”–Luna rubbed her right forehoof against the front of her left forehoof, briefly becoming a pony tripod–“thou art here as well.” There was a moment of silence in the busy room while a hint of rose began to blossom against Luna’s cheeks.

Credit: Silfoe

She looked embarrassed. Was this about the last time we spoke? It’s not that I hadn’t noticed that she and I hadn’t run into each other over the last two days. But, right now, it was glaringly obvious that she was avoiding eye contact with me. I tried to look at Celestia for some sort of affirmation of my observation or commentary on her sister’s actions. Instead of assistance, her face was that plastic mask of smiling tranquillity that it always seemed to default to. Great.

“I summoned him as well, sister.” Celestia gave a nod to her sister. Welcoming me, Celestia greeted, “And thank you for coming, Brian. You’re just in time for the explanation I was about to give Luna. The Canterlot Royal Academy of Magecraft believes that they can detect the raw magical presence of hole appearances reverberating through arcane ley lines, though we still have no understanding of their spellcraft’s signature.”

“‘Tis not much use to know that they are happening, sister.” Luna grumbled, “We know they are happening, ‘tis a crisis.” She glared blankly at her sister, doubtlessly wondering if this was worth having her schedule upended over.

“Thaumaturgy has come a long way, Luna,” Celestia chided lightly. Gesticulating with a hoof, Celestia jumped back in, explaining, “with a bit of work from nationally cooperating mages’ guilds, we have been able to triangulate the rough positions of holes across our nation. Nowhere do we have such clarity as in and around Canterlot. By courier, I was recently informed that”–Celestia leaned towards us–“two holes had recently appeared simultaneously in the proximity of the capital.” Celestia let the words hang in the air for a moment.

“I shouldn’t need to tell you what an opportunity this represents. We will be able to analyse the hole’s magical signatures before whatever sorcery holding them together has had time to degrade. With any luck, it will become clear what is causing these holes to appear and we can shut down the process before more of my little ponies are hurt.” Celestia leaned back into her throne, sighing quietly.

A grin crossed my features. Finally. I was getting what I’d been waiting for. This had the potential to be an answer to why I had entered this blighted existence, a return to human form, and perhaps even resolution to my estrangement from Earth. Wishing for everything all at once might be a bit optimistic, but I had a goal, something to strive towards. Now, more than ever, I needed something grounding me. As distant as I was becoming from my human form, I needed a ubiquitous reminder that I could, that I was close to getting it back. I shut my eyes, remembering the dream Luna had put me in. I remembered hands, a body, a real face. Opening my eyes, my teeth glinted in a terrible grin.

“This sounds great, how can I help?” my voice scratched as I looked up to Celestia on her throne.

“I am splitting you two into teams, each with a contingent of the Royal Guard. You will go to the two locations, and focus on capturing the magical signatures so that we can focus on the elimination of further holes.” Celestia leaned into the ear of the light grey unicorn with a clipboard, whispering something. With one final nod, the unicorn scuttled off, her clipboard levitating out of the room beside her.

“Luna, there are reports of a sighting in Ghastly Gorge. I would like to send you along with a squadron of pegasi to investigate. You know how to avoid disturbing the quarray eel nests. If there is anything that came through, help it get out of there safely if it is friendly. If it is a monster, subdue it.” From the side of her eye, Celestia shot me a glance, appending, “If you’re sure that it’s a monster.”

Shuffling under her pillow seat, Celestia turned ever so slightly to face me. Giving a short nod of her head, her ethereal mane rippling with the movement, she implored, “Brian, you already have some experience in the Everfree Forest. I am sending you to investigate the site the guild reported in that area.”

Back to the Everfree? Well, I wasn’t sure what a quarray eel was or how to rock climb in a gorge, so I supposed that this was probably the better fit for me. Celestia looked apologetic.

“I understand that this is rather short notice. However, the Canterlot mage’s guild reports that these magical anomalies are more recent than we believe any we have previously encountered were. Brian, you will have unicorns with you who will be able to scan for magical signatures. Luna,”–Celestia gave her sister a short nod–“I trust you can perform the analysis on your own. I am very interested in knowing more about these anomalies’ magical signatures, before their magic has had time to dissipate.” Putting her hoof back down, the golden horseshoe over Celestia’s hoof struck the ground with a gavel-like ‘clang.’

---

The forest (the Everfree Forest, I had learned) was exactly the same as I remembered it. I mean, the flora and distant furtive wildlife were completely different. But it still had that foggy, oppressive atmosphere. The twisting winding roots, the branches that seemed to grab at you, and the omnipresent feeling of being watched? Those were all just as I remembered them. Trees, even if of a different breed, still reached up to the sky and matted together, blocking out the sunlight.

Pulled by a score of pegasi, three teams of golden chariots had hastened us to our eventual destination of the forest. It was an experience. Soaring high in the sky while clutching the front of the chariot with a claw, the wind billowing in my face, I felt like Apollo carrying the sun in my wake. Spread out across the three craft, twelve ponies in all had accompanied me.

It looked like we wouldn’t have the privilege of landing directly on our destination. The chariots slowed down and descended in winding arcs like a plane would, before a flat enough stretch of land before the forest. They were like airplanes that needed a landing strip, treetops just wouldn’t suffice. My ears popping as we neared the ground, I was sent briefly airborne as we jostled against the ground. The pegasi seemed like they were trying their best to make the ride smooth, though there was only so much you could do without stabilisers on your wheels.

We set down not ten metres away from the looming treeline that marked the beginning of the Everfree Forest. Unlike the crisp, clean breeze of the skies above Canterlot, the air here was musty and damp, laden with the scent of moss and organic decay. I breathed in deeply, taking in the scent, before jumping off the chariot and feeling the dirt beneath my feet. In the periphery of my view, I noticed my retinue twitch with the sudden movement. I suppose it would have been optimistic to think that these ponies I had no relationships with wouldn’t have been scared of me. I’d give them a minute to collect themselves and get ready for the trip. Sinking into the grass, I rolled my shoulders, relieved at the freedom to move around again. Meanwhile, the ponies buckled clasps, brought a handful of lamps from one of the chariots, and levitated a map from one of their saddlebags. The map, which appeared to be some approximation of the forest, was more cartoonish than most of the ponies I had seen around here and had far more space empty and blank than filled in. In some of that blank paper, there was a red X marked, doubtlessly our destination. It seemed we were headed into uncharted territory.

“So, we ready to head in?” I asked our little assembly now that they had sorted their gear out and were gazing worriedly at the ominous treeline.

Nods and a series of “Ready,” responses were my answer. Anticipation welled up in me.

The Everfree awaited.

---

Our walk through the forest was quiet, eerily so. My first hike through these woods had been characterised by large to moderately sized wildlife either evaluating me as a snack or darting deeper into brush as soon as they noticed my light footfalls. But now, travelling in the midst of the metallic ‘clip-clops’ of a troop of guards, it was as if the forest itself recognized us as a foreign entity and was isolating us. Instead of a wildlife exhibition, ours was a trudge through muddy roads and over ill-tended paths. Our only direction was through the dim orange crystals glowing in lamplight, small groups of moths fluttering around the glass exteriors. From one lamp to the next, we walked. Through the fog, the hazy twinkle of more lamps could be seen, strung up under mossy, decaying wooden lamp posts.

Credit: Huussii

As we crossed over a bridge consisting of no more than two planks over a stream, one of the pony guards, a pegasus, lifted a wing into the air. Their ears twitched a bit and our convoy came to a halt, as if this were something to watch over. Wondering if their oversized pony ears had heard a wolf or some other predator, I did a slow rotation on my legs, eyes poring deep into the dark corners of the woodland. Simultaneously, I sniffed at the air, knowing my nose (or lack thereof, I suppose) had warped with this body and seemed to have become adept at hunting prey. But the woods were calm and I couldn’t smell anything downwind, just the dampness of the pollen-laden air and the smell of fish from the stream. Curiously, I looked back to the contemplative pegasus. Still, the other guards seemed fixated on him. I was about to break the silence and ask what we were waiting for when the pegasus in question unfroze, looking up and pointing a hoof away from our path.

“This way is south, we must head deeper into the woods.” He announced with enough raw-confidence that I was willing to take the magical horse at its word that it could tell the planet’s polarity without a compass. Could pegasi detect the world’s magnetic fields? Was that a thing birds did? I thought about it for a second. Was that a real fact, or was I making stuff up in my head? Another moment passed. The ponies in front of me, avoided an innocuous blue flower over the grass in front of us like it carried the plague. I followed their example. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me.

“So, pegasi can tell which way is north? What is that, magic, biology? I figure youh don’t have a compass shoved up your ass.” I growled, looking towards the pegasus in question.

There was silence for a second. With a lingering hint of trepidation, the guards glanced among themselves. I knew they still saw me as an outsider. Instead of one the pegasi answering, I saw a rough-shod normal pony, (an earth pony, I recalled from my time in the library) turn their head towards me. Hornless, wingless ponies were apparently their own species of pony, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns were all apparently equal. The best qualities of all three of them combined together into the demigod-like alicorns, like Celestia and Luna. It was a bit to take in, but good to have an understanding of. This earth pony, with a shaggy beard, gave a terse nod.

“Aye, laddie,”–the gruffest most exaggerated pony voice answered me. I wasn’t sure if the accent was supposed to be Irish or Scots, but I felt either would be offended by the pony’s existence–“them pegasi have the ken to see north, feel it on their wings, ya’know? I dinnae about this beoology stuff, but it’s the magical strength of a pegasus’ body, ay? Ye just hang tight now. The pegasi will take us to where we need to go, the unicorns will do their fanceh magicking, and ye can step in if any beasties come to make a snack out of us all the while. It’s like Hearth’s Warming Eve, everyone working in harmony, sure it is ‘tisn’t it?” The pony turned back to the path ahead, nodding at his own last statement. I just blinked. I maybe caught half of what he said, but the sentiment that the ponies had it in hand transferred well enough. I voiced my thanks and carried on.

The lit path slowly fading into the fog behind us, we continued along the forest stream. Walking over rocky shores, the trickle of water and the crunching of pony hooves sinking into gravel became the sound of our journey.

After what was probably half an hour of uninterrupted hiking, the treeline abruptly fell away. Here and there, lonely smouldering stumps stood, baren logs inundated with a fresh layer of rain. On the wind, I could smell the lingering acrid smoke of small chemical fires. Ahead, the tree line had been utterly decimated. Soil was uprooted, trees ploughed over, and the sky opened. Towering above it all, the gutted remains of metal behemoths were lain strewed about the landscape.

I knew immediately what I was looking at, a spaceship. Or, at least, pieces of one. It had obviously come down hard. Like broken bones, jagged metal had been extruded and torn in the ship’s crash, warping and breaking away into separate sections as the vessel struck the forest. In the path of the crash, a clearing of barren dirt had been made where the main body of the ship had torn across the ground, before settling in front of the stream we were following. It was hard to say whether the ship had landed at the edge of the stream or redirected it in its entirety with its vast bulk.

Credit: Wojtala

As I stood in awe at the raw destructive force on display through the spaceship’s violent crash into the forest, I was shook out of my daze by movement in my peripheral vision.

There were figures emerging from the innards of the ship.

Next Chapter: Chapter 13: Phantasm Estimated time remaining: 50 Minutes