---

The Doom Slayer’s eyes shot open. Right arm reaches for his back whipping out his super shotgun aiming it from side to side finding none in his surroundings as if to defend himself from the last remnant of his memory. He paused, his muscles twitching as his chest rises and falls quickly. He could feel his heart pounding wild against his ribcage, beating as though he was still living through the last waking moment, even though he vaguely became aware he was no longer in danger. Fresh adrenaline coursed through his veins - eager and waiting for something that would happen, which it already had. Not only was his body motivated to be alert thanks to the adrenaline, but it also sharpened his other senses.

Completely aware he was no longer feeling the dread of incoming physical danger, he closed his eyes and tried to get his body to slow down, bringing himself out from the last memory of whatever it was.

No, he thought, reassuring himself. It was just another nightmare.

Slowly, he raised his eyelids.

He blinked in bemusement when he noticed smoke dancing through funnel loops above him. Sitting himself up, his eyes followed the smoke’s trail along with awareness of someone humming a melody tune as it bounces across the stone walls.

Eyes landed on the source finding the back scales of a snowy drake wagging their tail side-to-side. Was that her? He thought, a bit surprised of how musical her voice was to his ears. The humming melody stopped as the snowy drake swiveled their head around to the Doom Slayer’s direction. She stared at him, her lips formed from ear to ear a broad smile.

“Good morning my Lord. I hope you slept well,” Zyerks said, bowing her head with her right claw placed to her heart. “I went out to find you something for breakfast. I didn’t know which food you’d like, so I came back with this. Fried and well cooked salmon.”

He stared at her with a blank expression. Cooked salmon, he thought to himself. The last time he’d eat any food was when his mother made him a plate of bacon and eggs with a cup filled with the sweetest of orange juice during his childhood many eons ago. However, just as sleeping was rendered off the list, even eating wasn’t needed with his immortal body. Subconsciously his HUD flickered to life, his eyes trailed off to the upper left side of his screen, and was nearly in shock when he suddenly became aware of the time.

Thursday/July 1st/2011

Wait… he’s been asleep for two-hundred and forty-three days?! Was he that tired when he arrived here? No, he thought relaxing his muscles, maybe he just overslept. Yeah that had to be it. One thing’s for sure though, this is the last time he should ever go to sleep.

Getting to his feet he trudges his way over to the small fire pit in the middle of the cave, sitting cross legged on gold and gemstones. Speared by a wooden skewer cooking above the dancing flames is today’s breakfast; a gigantic salmon. He found himself staring down into the pit, eyes glued on the dancing flames which touched and licked the underside of the meat. He wondered how it’ll taste once finished.

“It’s ready my Lord.” Zyerks’s calm voice bounces across the stone walls of the cave. He reached up, gripping the sides of his headgear, and giving it a twist. There was a slight hiss as the pressure seal was broken, and the Doom Slayer extricated his helmet from his protective covering.

When Zyerks saw his face she was quite shocked, and in awe. The best way she could describe what she was seeing was a hairless ape. Long straight dark gold hair cascaded around noble facial features, as eyes of icy blue showing great experience and weariness stared at the cooked fish with calm composure.

Oh my, oh my, she thought, right cheek cupped by her claw as she could feel her blood rushing to her cheeks. For a hairless ape and a force of destruction. . . he’s beautifully handsome. As if the prophecy couldn’t be any more true to what she was seeing, her Lord was beautiful in her eyes, and that increased her love for him tremendously. But it wasn’t a romantic type that filled her heart and soul. Rather it was a love that inspired her.

Holding it by the tail, he detaches it from the skewer. Rising and turning around, he gives his new acquaintance Snowy Drake most of his attention, but not before taking a large and eager bite. It tastes fine. But not good enough to eat on everyday lunches; he’ll have to make do with this one for now.

Zyerks eyes blinked, realizing she’s been gawking at him for too long before immediately shaking her head, snapping herself back in reality.

“So my Lord, I was thinking since you’re new here in our world that, if I may, I could give you a grand tour around the place,” Zyerks said gesturing her hand at the entrance, “once you know your way around I could take you to a few places as a start to find that which you lost.”

Taking another bite of the belly, his eyes glance over to the snowy drake, taking her words in his thoughts. Zyerks had a point, and he was well aware of it. He got lucky he was able to find one out of his arsenal but he’s got seven more still unfound and searching for them by foot could take up his whole day. He can accept her being a helping hand, and while she is friendly he can not lose the firmness of his guard. He’ll keep her close whilst keeping an eye on her, closely…

Tossing the fin into the fire, he stood up and grabbed his helmet from the gold filled floor. Pulling it over his head, the HUD flickers to life, as a cushioned rubber ring slowly tightens and compresses around his neck, creating an artificial environment. As his armor calibrates itself, he begins making his way towards the mouth of the entrance but abruptly stops. Turning to his shoulder glancing up at the snowy drake beside him moving up to the tight shackle contracted around her neck.

Zyerks notices his gaze and looks down at him tilting her head.

“Is something wrong my Lord?” She asked, looking at him with curiosity.

He raised his hand gesturing her to come close. She leaned in, getting eye level with him and watched as he walked over to her side staring at the wrapped steel shackle. Both hands grabbed hold of the collar clutching both sides in his grasp and with a swift effortlessly ripped it off her with ease freeing her scaly neck.

Carefully Zyerks stroked her claw from the front, her sides, and her nape. A sense of ease washed over her causing her to let out a relieving sigh. She immediately got down on both knees lowering with her claws down and her head bowed in subservience on the ground.

“Thank you for freeing my neck’s shackled prison, my Lord. It was indeed a bit hard to get air in my lungs with that metallic collar wrapped around me,” Zyerks said, glancing up at him. Her lips formed from a broad—to a warming smile, “beget I shall not of your act of Kindness for I will treasure this in my heart.”

The Doom Slayer didn’t nod and just stared at her blankly.

“Well let’s not waste anymore time here. Shall we go?”

Right wing laid gently next to the Slayer’s side. Taking this gesture he gently climbed over her wing, following up to her shoulder, neatly sitting on top of her back.

Slowly she stood back up and began to stomp straight down the long cavern tunnel. As they exited the cave Zyerks stepped forward carefully examining the trees and areas around the forest.

She took a few deep breaths, her wings opened up spreading wide, giving them a good flap lifting her body into the sky and causing everything to rattle and shake with the force of the wind. With a few more quick flaps she flew up into the clear blue sky, the earth’s floor getting farther now from view.

Reaching high to the sky the snowy drake slowed down levitating herself by the support of her wings flapping. She stared into the view before her. Spreading her arms wide announcing to her master.

“Lord Slayer, Welcome to Equestria!”

---

Inside the cottage a group of animals surrounded a butter yellow pegasus in a circle listening closely as she read to her dear friends their favorite book.

“When the chicken opened her eyes, she wondered if they had; for verily it was so dark it was as if they were still shut. Imagine how frightening it was for the little chicken to find no one around her. She could—”

Her narration was interrupted by a soft knock at the door alerting Fluttershy and her animals. She looked at all the critters, bears, birds, and mammals sitting around her raising one hoof.

“Um, could you excuse me for a moment, please?” Each animal nodded and began to scatter from different directions. With that she stood up making her way to the door. Raising her hoof she opens it, winding it up before her seeing two familiar mares standing outside of her doorstep. One on the right a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane, and one on the left a lavender unicorn with a rim cut navy blue-colored mane.

“Oh, good morning Twilight, good morning Rainbow.” Fluttershy greeted them, her lips adorn with a warm smile.

“Good Morning Fluttershy,” Twilight returned happily, “I hope we’re not interrupting anything. If we are, we could always come back later.”

Fluttershy shook her head while waving her hoof. “Oh not at all Twilight. What brings you two here?”

“Well me, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie are on our way to the dragon migration and we were wondering if you’d like to come with us?” Twilight offered through her reply.

“Oh I’d love to—”

There was a brief delay as Fluttershy’s brain processed Twilight’s words before inevitably cutting her words short. She stared into deep space, her mind filled with images of fiery torrents of flames, and three gigantic silhouettes of scaly winged lizards with bright snake-like eyes staring at her, a chilling audible chuckle escaping through their lips. Fluttershy cupped both her cheeks screaming and tried to flee back inside. Halfway towards the stairs she was pinned down by the cyan pegasus.

Twilight watched while stepping inside the cottage insisting to her friend. “C'mon, Fluttershy, it'll be fun!”

The shy buttered yellow pegasus clawed her hooves on the carpet as Rainbow Dash had hold of her tail in her teeth dragging her towards the door.

“There's nothing fun about dragons! Scary, yes! Fun, no!” Fluttershy commented, pulling her tail off of Rainbow’s teeth galloping towards the stairs before being stopped by the cyan pegasus again, pushing her back towards the main entrance.

“But Fluttershy, the great dragon migration happens only once in a generation! Do you really wanna pass up a chance like that?”

Counting on all her four hooves for support, Fluttershy firmly grip on the back side entrance’s ellipse shaped wood from being pushed any further to the outside world.

“Now that you put it that way, yes!” She replied.

In a flash the lavender unicorn disappeared—then reappeared outside of the cottage standing before Fluttershy with a genuine smile.

“Aw, Fluttershy, we just don't want you to miss out.” Twilight said. Fluttershy puzzledly looked at her.

“Miss out on what? Dragons? Big, scaly, fire-breathing dragons?” Fluttershy queried. Twilight took a moment to process the querying question through her mind before looking back at her pony friend with a smile and replied.

“Well... yeah!”

“Thanks, but... no thanks!” Fluttershy faltered clearly. Rainbow Dash stops having enough of this and gets up to the timid pegaus’s level.

“Look, Fluttershy, I watched that boring butterfly migration with you,” Rainbow Dash recalled, pulling out a picture taken of the recent butterfly migration she spent with her, “so now it's your turn to watch the dragon migration with me! You owe me!”

At that moment Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed, her chest rising and falling, and a mixing feeling between anger and fear derived its way from her chest, rising up to her throat, escaping out of her lips into a near squeaky shout.

“I... said... no!”

Before Rainbow Dash could react Fluttershy thrust her hooves to her chest adding a left leg kick to her belly air escaping through the cyan pegasus’s lungs. Twilight gasped unexpectedly, shocked at her friend’s sudden brute strength. She galloped straight for the window letting out a low growl, gritting her teeth, aggressively raising both her hooves in the air before bringing them back down, opening the window up with tenderness and leaped out.

Fluttershy up on her heels without even turning around. She forced herself to breathe, faced slightly to the right of the field and ran. Imbued with the strength the butter pegasus had she ran as hard and fast as she could. Her heart was pounding as she tried her best to run, not daring to open her eyes in fear that she may see a nonexistent dragon descending down upon her. Despite every ounce of her being telling her to stop. She ran off the main road and into a forest. She dodged tree after tree, jumped root after root. She felt her strength begin to fade. Her sprinting became a gallop, her gallop a trot. Finally, Fluttershy had to stop completely. She panted heavily trying her best to relax and calm her beating heart.

It’s okay Fluttershy it’s okay, she thought reassuring herself, there’s no dragons following you… you’re okay.

Aware and assured she was not being chased, she slowly raised her eyelids. Raising became an opening, opening—to blinking in bewilderment. She finds herself oddly in… the Everfree?

‘Oh my, I must’ve ran too far by instinct that I didn’t pay attention to where I was going.’ Fluttershy scanned her surroundings finding none but large pillared trees and bushes. She really did run too far deep didn’t she?

‘I should probably find my way back then.’ Fluttershy thought to herself looking around the area hoping to find a path or maybe a road back to her cottage. After sitting for a good few minutes her legs were recharged then stood up ready to advance. Until she stops dead in her tracks when she hears a deep guttural growl from behind her neck.

---

The Doom Slayer watched the snowy drake explaining and pointing out the small neighborhood while the indicators in his helmet told him it was detecting a lot of small dotted life forms coming from the town.

“Over there is a magical and harmonies town called: Ponyville,” Zyerke pointed her claw at the various apartments each bigger than the other, “inhabited by ponies from three different races; you have the earth ponies, the soaring pegasus, and quite talent unicorns.”

His eyes followed her claw as she pointed from a mile away to what he believed to be a silhouette of a castle. Like all images of the castle he had seen through books, amusement parks, and television shows. This image of the castle was mythical and—he couldn’t quite find the right word for it, but then it came to him:

majestic.

“And about a mile from here is one of Equestria’s beautiful ancient kingdoms: Canterlot. Ruled by the two Princesses of the sun and moon. The main ruler out of the two is Princess Celestia, and the second is her sister Princess Luna. At least that’s what I’m told.” Zyerks explained, eyes glued at two towers while the Slayer starred in silent awe.

Zyerks turned her head at him. “Of course, I’ve never met them before nor have I seen them but I’ve been told by my people that their beauty is exquisitely striking to the eye.”

The Doom Slayer nodded taking in each piece of information. So this confirms it. He’s no longer in his world. Right hand gripped a spike from the back of the snowy drake and a heat had begun to grow within his gut. Not only did Samuel Hayden send him away he tossed him into another dimension like plastic to a bin. Was it his intention to send him to his personal prison of a fluffy, cute little world just so he would have time to continue his work? Was this a joke to him or something? Slowly his chest starts to rise and fall. If this was his way of mocking him and making a joke out of him then he better be prepared for the day he finds him!

He could be back in his dimension saving innocents from the demons right now. Instead he’s stuck here in a childish world because of a cyborg bastard who wanted to use a dangerous artifact for the sake of science. Because he had no choice! The Doom Slayer stopped himself as he felt his rage building up from his gut—to his throat. He took a calming breath, he needs to stay calm, seething in anger isn’t gonna get him nowhere, and focus on his new goal, finding a way off this world. Just as the Slayer finished his thought he turned back to his snowy drake companion realizing that he was too deep into his thoughts that he hadn’t paid attention to whatever it was she was explaining.

“As for this my Lord right below us,” Zyerks said, looking down at hundreds of trees dotting the earth’s floor causing the Slayer to also look down. “Is the Everfree forest. To this day Just five percent of the forest remains mostly undiscovered and unseen by all and is undoubtedly a dangerous place in these parts. I for one would not venture here for not even one piece of a gem except in great need.”

She turns her head back to the Slayer.

“So where would you like to go first? We could go to Applelossa or Manehattan, though it would be a big risk considering ponies would scatter and scream their heads off seeing a dragon flying over the city.”

The Doom Slayer just sat staring at her blankly.

“Dodge Junction maybe or the Dragon Lands?”

Cupping the chin of his helmet the Doom Slayer hummed quietly thinking. His eyes darted back the snowy drake nodding his head.

Zyerks nods back to the gesture.

“Very well, Dragons Lands then Dodge Jun—”

Just as she was about to finish her sentence both of them heard an ear shattering roar, and screams. At the same time his armor registered a heat bloom about not too far from their current location. Rolling her body around Zyerks and the Doom Slayer looked straight at the direction of the roar as sounds of low growls and barks echoed through the trees of the Everfree. The two stood still wondering what in the world could be happening over there.

She placed her claws on her hips, saying under her breath. “Hmm… I knew there were some who had escaped through his slaughter in the cave last night.”

Without taking her eyes off the direction where they both heard it Zyerks asked. “Should we go check it out?”

She felt her nape tapped by the gloved hand of the Slayer almost telepathically giving her the green light. She nodded before her wings began to spread wide.

“Very well, hold on tight my Lord!”

With a great flap Zyerks started diving down, the Slayer’s thoughts focused, the trees rushing past him in a blur, as they streaked their way toward the screams.

Next Chapter: CH.5 - First Witness Estimated time remaining: 16 Minutes