The Forgemaster had just finished his battle, none the worse for wear. Though the beast's tail had given him a wound on his leg as he passed, he looked at it and knew it wasn't serious. He would be fine in an hour or 2. He looked back at the ponies, all of them with shock and fear on their faces. But the lavender unicorn's face also displayed… curiosity? With that, he sat down and stared at them, studying them and trying to find out if the owner, whom he had heard call out 'A Manticore!' was anywhere nearby.

As he looked on, one of the tiny creatures worked up the courage to walk right up to him and, just outside his reach, sit down. He stared at the unicorn and the unicorn stared right back.

During this mutual staring contest, the other ponies stopped looking on with fear and just looked interested in what their purple compatriot was doing. The Forgemaster was having a ball, inside his head, for he had never seen creatures as colorful, emotional, and diverse as these. Their eyes were huge, so even if they weren't human, he could read their emotions easily. 2 had horns, 2 had wings, and 2 had neither. There was a yellow one with a pink mane, a light blue one with a multi-colored rainbow name, there was a white one with a purple mane, a pink one with a pink mane too, there was a light orange one with a blonde mane, and, of course, the curious lavender one sitting across from him. He started to wonder what manner of man could own these creatures and not be driven insane by the colors and human-like emotions splayed across their faces.

As he silently took this all in, the lavender unicorn in front of him started to speak!

"What are you creature? Where did you come from?" Purple asked.

The Forgemaster had travelled the world and seen many wondrous sights, so he was well versed in hiding his emotions. But this purple creature speaking in a language he could understand managed to make him come within an inch of losing his poker-face for the first time in decades. Then he had another thought, he was still naked! He couldn't speak with another thinking creature if he was naked! Then he noticed that the creatures didn't have on clothes either, so he figured he was in the clear for a little while at least. Even as he thought this, the purple unicorn spoke once more.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, what is your name?"

No response from The Forgemaster. Just the same, blank stare.

"Can you understand me? Hello?" the purple pony; Twilight Sparkle was its name, continued.

The Forgemaster saw an opportunity here: if he could pretend to be a dumb animal, these sapient ponies would lower their guard about him and enable him to learn more about them!

The light blue winged pony; a Pegasus, spoke up, "Twilight, I don't think it can understand you." The Pegasus then turned to the other Pegasus of the group and said, "Fluttershy have you seen any animals like this before?"

This Fluttershy character hid behind her mane and mumbled a silent, "No."

In all this, Twilight hadn't taken its eyes off of him. He was beginning to feel uneasy at her staring; he could feel her going over every inch of him with her eyes, like a merchant looking over a particularly interesting artifact.

But just then, the orange pony in the group spoke up with a strange accent, "Ah don't think we can let this critter slow us up none, we have tah get to Nightmare Moon!"

With that, the herd of ponies left. Twilight, however, was still sitting and staring at him, until the blue Pegasus literally dragged her away kicking and screaming from the Forgemaster. The Forgemaster, too, sat there for a moment before getting up, memorizing the path so he could find his bag later, and followed the ponies.

The ponies didn't seem to take notice of him, even though he was a giant; he could be very sneaky when needed. A result of his practice sessions with the local thieves, no doubt. He followed the ponies quietly, until the pink one looked behind her and noticed.

"Ohmicelestia! That thing is following us!" the pink pony practically screeched.

The other ponies turned, and sure enough, there he was. The ponies immediately formed a line facing him, looking aggressive. He simply looked at them, not altering his stance or averting his gaze.

Twilight broke the silence, "I think it's okay girls, he protected us from the manticore, after all. He can't possibly want to hurt us. If he wanted to he could have done it earlier. I mean he took out a manticore like it was nothing! I'm sure we couldn't do a thing to him if he wanted to hurt us."

The group of ponies, all females The Forgemaster noticed: if her speech was anything to go by, just kept looking at him, even more scared because of Twilight's logical yet insensitive speech.

Fluttershy broke the silence this time, "Maybe he's just curious. I've met lots of animals who are curious about ponies. Some live so deep in the Everfree that they've never seen a pony at all!"

After a moment of silence, Applejack spoke next, "Well, if'n he wants tah come along, Ah reckon we might as well let 'im."

The Forgemaster hadn't reacted during their speaking, he hadn't reacted at all to anything they have said since meeting them; leaving Twilight to believe he couldn't actually understand the ponies. The reality, however, was far different, he had learned much about these ponies from listening in when they didn't know he was there. He knew their names, their races, their gender, their personalities, the names of several other ponies he had yet to meet, why they were in the forest to begin with, their opinion of what happened with the manticore, what land he was in, who the ruler was, and where they lived: in a town they called Ponyville. He even discovered the Twilight was the pupil of a Princess Celestia. He took in all this information without batting an eyelash; he had been at this game for more than 4 centuries now. He could handle a few surprises and confusing information.

The ponies nodded an affirmative to Applejack and they continued down the path; their human shadow close behind. As they walked, The Forgemaster noticed the forest getting darker and darker, almost unnaturally. The ponies didn't seem to notice until the path got completely dark. As he stood there, the trees seemed to come alive with unnatural faces and creepy visages. The equines were freaking out, all of them screaming at the scary faces around them. The Forgemaster just stood there; trees couldn't hurt him, so they weren't a threat worth addressing with fear or anger. The ponies disagreed with him apparently and were still screaming.

Then the ponies noticed Pinkie Pie; laughing at the trees. After some dialogue he couldn't help but not care about, Pinkie Pie launched into a song about laughing at one's fears. She even tried to get him to participate, which failed miserably, but the other ponies were singing along and doing what her song told them to do: giggle at the ghosties and chortle at the creepy. The Forgemaster simply stood, watching the strange spectacle before him. As he did, he felt his masculinity being threatened but didn't care.

After a moment of rolling on the forest floor laughing: the ponies stood and made way to the next destination. After several minutes of walking, with Pinkie Pie bouncing, the ponies and he made it to a river that seemed to be in a permanent state of rapids. After the ponies looked for a moment, questioning how they were going to cross this obstacle, they heard crying and sobbing off to the left. The group went off to investigate and found, much to their surprise, a sea-serpent with a ruined mustache was creating the horrible waves in the river.

After a few moments of feminine fashion speak and more practical comments from the other ponies: Rarity cut her tail and gave it to the serpent to fix its mustache. The sea-beast was so enthused that he quit its thrashing, enabling us to pass. The ponies were offered the creature's body as a series of stepping stones, but The Forgemaster found it easier to swim. As he reached the other bank, he remembered to cover himself in mud once more, so as not to give a glimpse of something that shouldn't be seen to the female ponies. He may be another species but he wasn't about to go and show his privates to a bunch of females.

And with that necessary business concluded, he went back to his pony companions and noticed that Fluttershy was beet red and hiding behind her mane much more than usual. The Forgemaster suspected that Fluttershy had seen his… business. That would explain her actions but the other ponies weren't affected so they were either more mature, or didn't see him. He was going to bet on the 2nd option, these ponies were far too innocent in mind to not react if something like THAT was seen.

The Forgemaster was worried but the ponies were already moving away, and he had to follow them now: they led him much deeper into the forest and didn't know the way out. He was thinking of what was happening for these ponies to be off in a dangerous forest by themselves. Applejack had mentioned Nightmare Moon and from listening in on other conversations he learned about the 'Elements of Harmony' and what this Nightmare Moon was trying to do. It seemed to him that if his kingdom was about to be plunged into eternal night, he would send much more than 6 young ponies with no experience. He would send a bloody army!

'This Princess Celestia character must be a real bone-head.' He thought.

He was still contemplating the repercussions of a foolish leader dealing with a powerful evil force when the group was stopped at an old rope bridge across a canyon. The rope bridge was down and there was no way to cross. In the distance he saw an old castle and was informed by Twilight's exclamation that that was the destination.

Then Twilight decided to run straight at the downed rope bridged, clearly not noticing that it was, in fact, broken. As she was hanging over the edge The Forgemaster reached over, picked her up, and set her down farther from the edge.

"What's with you and falling off cliffs today?" Rainbow Dash remarked, he didn't understand what she had said but then got the gist of it from Pinkie who recounted the events in Pinkie-speak next to him.

Pinkie Pie was dismayed that they couldn't cross, but then Rainbow flashed her wings and flew across. As The Forgemaster watched, he noticed the distance, the age of the bridge, and how secure the ropes were on their side. He quickly determined that while he may not be able to cross the bridge, he most certainly could make the jump if he had a running start.

He stepped back several feet to do just that, when he noticed a few ponies on the other side speaking with Rainbow. As Twilight and the ponies on his side noticed as well, the fog suddenly thickened unnaturally fast. Something about those ponies struck a chord in The Forgemaster: he didn't like them one bit, he felt they were evil. So he looked down, found a sizable rock, and chucked it across the gap where the evil ponies were last seen. He was rewarded for his accuracy with a short screech and then the fog magically disappeared, along with the ponies on the other side: who were nowhere to be seen.

Rainbow quickly fixed the bridge and led the other ponies across the bridge. The Forgemaster waited until they were all off the bridge then he took a step. The board he stepped on immediately broke, falling into the deep canyon below. The Forgemaster was right: the bridge couldn't support his weight. The ponies had stopped at the other side and were looking at him with great interest; Twilight's horn had started to glow for some reason, too. Since he couldn't walk across he used Plan B, taking several steps back, he jumped across the canyon, landing safely on the other side with a thud.

He looked up to see the other ponies looking at him with awe; he had jumped a huge distance after all, but Twilight just looked at him with confusion. As he stood up and prepared to follow the mares into the ancient castle, he heard Twilight whisper something to Rarity.

"I just don't understand. I tried to levitate the creature with my magic, but it was like it didn't affect it at all. When he jumped across the canyon that was entirely creature's ability, I couldn't have helped if I wanted to!"

'Hmmm, so Twilight is a magus? I didn't know that. I think we could teach each other some things, I'm sure this land's magic is different than home's!' The Forgemaster thought, 'I wonder where my homeland is, surely these ponies will know, but I mustn't give up my ruse just yet. I'm sure I can learn much more!'

With that thought; he stepped, alongside the ponies, into a large chamber with a stone statue in the middle of it.