I awoke to myself shooting up in the air via a hoof to the side. It appeared that even when I'm sleeping, my body would still react to a poke to the side. I fell back and hit my head against the ground. "Ow...." I said as I groaned in pain. It was definitely not the nicest way to wake up.

I opened my eyes to see who or what had poked me and saw Longtrot standing over me trying not to laugh. She quickly stopped laughing as I gave her a look of irritation. "I wonder how in the world you made it out of that alive." She said. I got up and stretched letting out a deep growl. Longtrot didn't seem to know what to make of this and took a few steps back. My body felt a lot better and even my wrist didn't hurt that much.

I inspected Longtrot a little better and saw she had a big backpack on. She had a smile on her face and was having a hard time sitting still. I knew that feeling pretty well considering there was rarely a moment in which I sat still unless I was focused on something, which I didn't really know if I was moving or not. "Looks like there has something she really wants to do right now." I thought to myself forgetting the fact that I had fought a dragon yesterday and was thought to be dead.

"Maybe we can still go on that hike!" Longtrot shouted out in excitement. She walked up to Fluttershy's cottage and banged on the door. During the commotion I took a second to stretch again and look at the sky. The sun was only just starting to rise meaning it was probably close to 5 or 6 in the morning. A nice time to wake up when your me. I have always been a morning person, That is at least if I have had a full nights sleep and not went to bed at 2:00 in the morning.

I walked up to Longtrot who was still trying to wake up Fluttershy via door banging. I tapped on her shoulder which made her bounce in surprise. Apparently I had been to quiet when walking up to her. I motioned that I wanted to get in front of her and simply open the door. Longtrot facepalmed or rather facehoofed at this. I assumed that it was directed towards herself.

We walked in and went to Fluttershy's room. I could hear soft breathing between Longtrot's hoofsteps as we walked into the room. There lie Fluttershy, curled up like a can't or dog with her blanket over her. I was blow away by the cuteness and I couldn't help but get a big smile. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I looked at Longtrot who seemed to have gotten the same reaction.

"How in the world am I going to wake her up? I wasn't prepared for this." Longtrot said quietly. This made me laugh a little and being the coldhearted bastard that sometimes I was, quickly overcame the flow of cuteness and nudged Fluttershy awake. Longtrot had a look of disbelief as I did this.

She slowly opened her eyes and yawned. Tears came to my eyes as she did this. "My life is now complete." I thought to myself whilst wiping the tears away. Fluttershy sat up and looked around. "Oh... Good morning Gunnar, Good morning Longtrot." Fluttershy said quietly with a warm smile. "Stop Fluttershy, your killing us with your cuteness." I thought. My mind could not comprehend the amount of cuteness being forced in. I looked at Longtrot, who had also been hit hard with the rays of cuteness, eyes and mouth wide open. She seemed to be hypnotized by the cuteness.

After a moment, Longtrot shook her head and remembered why she had came in in the first place. "Fluttershy, now that eerrmm... Gunnar is back, we can easily go looking for were he came from without the princesses help!" Longtrot said trying not to yell. The excited smile came back and she was bouncing around with joy. "I guess she really likes going on trips. I remembered what the tattoo on her flank looked.

"Lyra had mentioned something about those tattoo's. What were they called....? Something about marks. Anyways, Longtrots mark was that of a rock with a horseshoe imprint, does this mean she likes wandering around? I wondered. I looked at the mark to make sure I hadn't remembered it wrong and got a mixed reaction from Longtrot. She gave me a look of confusion, disgust and a little bit of curiosity. She looked up and started thinking about something only to quickly look down and shake her head trying to get the thoughts out.

"She doesn't think that I...... Oh god." I thought, before quickly removing the thought from my head completely. Fluttershy just sat there and gave us both a confused look. "Well, I think it would be better if we got the princess's help. What if there is still more dragons in the forest?" Fluttershy said with a worried look. I was a little bit worried myself. If there was anything bigger in the forest, I don't see why it couldn't just kill me. I doubt I would get lucky again, though I didn't really know if it was luck or not.

"I guess your right, but it will still make things easier." Longtrot said. "Not only that, seeing as how unhurt Gunnar is, I think he could take on something bigger. I mean this is the second time he's saved me." Longtrot continued speaking proudly, It made me feel good to here the compliment without extras. Normally when someone gave me a compliment there would always be a big *But* behind it which only equalized the compliment just turning it into a judgmental remark.

"Well, anyways. We need to go get Twilight and Lyra before we go." Longtrot said.

"I'm sure they'll be happy to hear that Gunnar is okay." Fluttershy added.

I had to admit, I wasn't used to being called by my name anymore, the few days I had been here had wiped away most need to talk to me aside from my chats with Fluttershy, who did not bring up my name a lot. "You can leave your bag here, we will be coming back soon." Fluttershy told Longtrot before we walked out of the cottage. Me and Longtrot ended up happily walking ahead of Fluttershy.

It was nice to get some early energy out whilst watching the sunrise. Fluttershy ended up having to fly to keep up with our fast paced walking. This was however the first time I had got a good look at how pegasi flew. I didn't understand how they could fly with such small wings but went with the most logical answer, its magic.

It didn't take long to reach our first destination, *Twilight's library which had no true name*. "Ha ha! I finally remembered her name!" I thought to myself proudly. Longtrot started banging on the door. "Twilight, get up and open the door!!" She yelled impatiently. It didn't take long for Twilight to open the door. "What do you want at this time? The sun only just raised." Twilight asked. She was tired but not exhausted which made me feel good knowing she had at least been sleeping this time. She noticed me and jumped out of happiness. "He's okay, but how!? He must be a warrior or something!" Twilight yelled.

This remark made me giggle. Sure I had some decent reflexes and an urge to fight but I had never once been trained to fight. I think the only thing that kept me alive was my instincts and strange, icy powers. Lyra popped her head out from behind Twilight. "Whats going on?" She said. She seemed to be far less tired. When Lyra saw me she mimicked the jump of joy and pushed Twilight out of the way.

"This is amazing! Your amazing!! I'm soooo glad the princess was wrong about you. Wait... hmmm... What was his name again?" Lyra asked.

"His name is Gunnar." Fluttershy replied.

"Well then Gunnar, I don't know if you can understand me but thank you!" Lyra said whilst hopping up and down infront of me. I put my hand on her hand trying to calm her down. Once she had stopped bouncing a gave her a warm smile. "Graag gedaan." (Your Welcome.) I said. Lyra's eyes light up when I said this.

"Did you hear that?! It spoke, It spoke!!" Lyra shouted bouncing around in circles. I noticed Fluttershy was giggling ever so softly. I guess I could understand why considering the amount of time I spent talking with her. "I wonder what he said!" Lyra said loudly.

"Well from the looks of things, it either said your welcome or calm down." Twilight replied. "Anyways what are you doing here so early?"

"Well I thought since Gunnar is back, we could go on that search without the princess." Longtrot said.

"I don't think that we can just leave now. The princess needs to know of Gunnar's return." Twilight said, ruining Longtrots streak of joy. She looked down with an extremely disappointed look on her face. I set my hand or her shoulder and frowned. I wanted to go on this trip to. "Yah never know what they could find out." I thought to myself. We walked in and I sat next to the door. It was the only place not covered in books and it was far more comfy than I thought.

Whilst Twilight, Lyra and Fluttershy walked into the main room to do whatever, Longtrot ended up staying with me by the door. She was pacing back in forth mumbling and sighing. I gave her an understanding look. I knew how it felt to constantly have to wait for something and it could be very hard to wait at some times.

She got sick of walking in circles and sat next to me, letting out a big sigh. I pat her on the back a few times and smiled at her. I wanted to tell her that we weren't going to have to wait forever and that all she needed to do was be a little patient. I stood up and grabbed as many books as I could and walked back over to Longtrot. She gave me yet another confused look whilst I set the books down. I started trying to set of the books to form different structures, basically using that like paper building blocks of knowledge.

Longtrot quickly started to join in and together we started making more and more advanced structures, learning via trial and error what worked and what didn't. It didn't take long for the entire hallway to be filled with book structures and most of the mess had been turned into what could be considered organized chaos. Considering the room was still a mess, at least is was a pretty mess. I giggled a little when I thought that.

Suddenly we heard a knock on the door and a yell coming from the main room following. Twilight burst into the hallway, knocking a few structures down as she ran. She opened the and started an endless flow of apology. Me and Longtrot peaked out from behind the door and saw the same white horse from last night. "The princess!" Longtrot said with a gasp whilst quickly fixing her stance.

Twilight was still on a massive apology spree only to be buzzed killed by the white horse. "Twilight its okay, she not feel sorry for not cleaning up when I came on such short notice." The horse said. It had a women's voice and considering how it look, I should have known it was a female all along. She turned her attention to me and began walking inside. Both Twilight and Longtrot moved out of the way. The horse walked in and noticed all the book structures me and Longtrot had made. "It seems someponies have been doing something with your mess, Twilight."

Twilight looked confused for a moment and then looked around her. "Wow, did you two make all this?" Twilight asked. Her voice was shaky and it was easy to tell she was nervous. "We were bored." Longtrot replied. Her eyes grew wider with a sudden realization. "So we can go now?!" she asked excitedly. She was no longer standing still and started bouncing up and down. The commotion had attracted Lyra's attention. When she saw the white horse she just waved.

"I guess if everypony is ready, we can go." The horse said. "I don't think our trip should take too long."

Longtrot's had a massive smile on her face and I couldn't help but smile too. Twilight and Lyra quickly noticed how excited Longtrot was and quickly left the hallway to collect there things. The white horse turned her full attention to me and eyed me with a curious look. I returned the look and we just stared at each other for a moment. Our focus was quickly broken as Twilight and Lyra burst into the hallway, closely followed by Fluttershy who simply trotted out.

Almost all the book structures knocked to the grounded. It kinda sucked to watch all that work get knocked down by two hyper ponies but as long as I didn't have to clean up the mess then so be it. The hall was starting to get very crowed and we decided to stand outside. "Shouldn't one of us get Rainbow Dash?" Lyra asked. "I'd think she would won't to know that Gunnar was okay and that we are restarting our little trip.

"If you wait here, I can go get her." Fluttershy replied. The word *wait* hit me and Longtrot like a lighting strike as we seemingly fell to the ground. We both sat down and prepared for yet another wait, not that we had to wait long. Only about two or three minutes later Fluttershy came back with Rainbow along side her. Rainbow looked like she had just woken up and her eyes were heavy.

"Good morning guys." Rainbow said sleepily. She landed and sat next to me and Longtrot only to seemingly fall asleep on spot. The group just kinda stared for a moment. "Shouldn't we wake her up?" Twilight asked. Coming up with a better idea I got up and then proceeded to pick Rainbow up. Kinda like you would carry a crate but underhand so that my arms could wrap around her body without moving her into a uncomfortable position.

"It looks like your new friend has found a way of handling the issue. Shall we be on our way?" The white horse said. I had yet to hear the name of the apparent princess so white horse would have to do for now. We started on our way to Fluttershy's cottage. It was a rather nice early morning walk full oh happy voices. For once I chose not to listen in on what the ponies had to say and instead enjoyed some thinking time.

One of things I realize is just how light Rainbow was. It was like I wasn't holding anything because of how light she was. It might explain how the pegasi were able to fly with such small wings but it did not explain why Fluttershy had pinned down my arm only a few days before hand.

Up next on the list was who the White horse was. She was apparently a princess of the ponies but she didn't mind to get her hooves dirty and come along with into the...... What was it called......? Screw it, the forest. I respect this. A ruler or soon to be ruler that doesn't mind to help the lower class is a good ruler.

Number three on the list was what were we going to do on this trip? We were going to take a hike and find were I popped up from. Something about this didn't feel right though. How would the ponies know that I just popped up and didn't come from a far away land. I guess that could have just read it in one of the books considering that humans had already been seen in Equestria a long time ago but it didn't explain why they went missing or rather why the ponies still believed just knowledge after 5000 years. Who knows, maybe I will be able to find out how I got here and why. Was there even a reason I showed up here or was I just really unlucky? Or lucky. I guess it depends whether I really would choose this over my old life but now was not the time to think about that.

That questions kept rolling in as we reached the cottage. Longtrot rushed in the grab her bags in hopes of getting the trip start faster but in vain as Fluttershy still had to find her bag from yesterday. After yet another moment of wait we finally made our way up to the forest. It was far less misty and the sun lit the forest up giving it a more welcoming feel. That feel dissipated the moment we set foot inside the forest.

As we walked it felt like I was being watch from all around. I kept a close eye out for movement but I didn't see anything. That actually made me feel uneasy. When I said I didn't see anything I really meant nothing. There were no birds or rabbits, not a sound coming from the surrounding tree aside from the wind blowing gently. It seem I wasn't the only one who noticed this.

"Something has happened to the forest." The white horse said. I should probably call her princess from now on... "Where are all the animals?" The princess continued.

"Maybe there still sleeping?" Fluttershy suggested.

"No, this is a restless forest, not in anytime have I seen it like this." The princess corrected. To give you a sense of the feel of the forest, imagine that you are walking around in a city when the sun has only just risen and there was no one on the street. Not a car, not a biker, no birds, just emptiness aside from the parked car her and there. Now remove all the background noise and imagine you feel like your being watched from all sides without ever seeing a single piece of living creature. That's how I felt about now and it was getting to me.

We walked deeper into the forest and the feeling only got worse. I started to imagine things, seeing movement just beyond the reach of my sight. Even the wind has stopped blowing and the only noise that could be heard was a mix of pony voices from the rest as they talked. I really wanted to talk and take my mind of the feeling but I had a secret to keep and was not going to reveal it just because of fear.

After a little while I heard a groin coming from Rainbow as she tried to stretch. I set her down and smiled. It was a nice distraction to have a little pony wake up in your arms. I was surprising just how cute these ponies could be. She stood up and looked around. "Wai... what.... what happened... where am I?" She asked sleepily.

"You fell asleep and Gunnar ended up carrying you with us. We're in the Everfree forest right now."  Twilight responded. It didn't seem to really answer much for Rainbow. She just continued to stumble around before sitting down. She seemed to be very tired and was falling back asleep.

I slumped over and picked her up again. This seemed to wake her up somewhat and she started to mumble. As we walked, I could see Rainbow open her eyes slightly here and there. She seemed rather exhausted and her breathing felt irregular. "I hope shes not sick." I thought to myself, not that I really knew much about when someone or rather when somepony is sick. My sudden focus on Rainbow kept me distracted from the strange feelings that the forest was giving me.

The distraction didn't last very long as I started getting overwhelmed by the feeling something was extremely wrong. It felt like thousands of eyes were staring down at us. My spine started getting stiff and it I kept seeing things in the corners of my eyes. The ponies weren't seeming to have any issues aside from Longtrot, who was looking back and forth with a worried look. "Atleast I'm not the only one who is getting worried." I thought to myself.

The feeling just kept getting worse as we approached the foot of the mountain. My entire body was tensed up and I was shaking ever so slightly. "Looks like we can't go any further, Atleast not for now." Twilight said. As Twilight said this I could feel a very soft rumble under my feet. It was coming part of the mountain wall. My instincts kicked in and took complete control of me. I set down Rainbow and turned full focus to the mountain wall. I ran up to the wall and put my hands on it. I could feel pulses of energy move through my arms and hands as I seemingly froze the mountain wall.

A few seconds a number of loud bangs could be heard from behind the stone. It felt like something was striking at the wall only to be stopped by whatever I did to it. The banging stopped after a half a minute and I fell back. I sat there and thought. I had no idea why I did that but for whatever reason it might have saved us from whatever was beyond that wall. I new that instinct and reflexes worked without you having to think but for me to do something so complicated just confused me further.

I looked down at my hands and saw the same snowflake like things as before. My hands also seemed to be proceeding mist. It looked almost exactly like my hand were made of liquid nitrogen with the amount of  mist coming off my hands. I could easily see my breath as well and it lingered in the air for far longer than it should have. It seemed like had turned into a living, super freezer or something of the sorts.

I got up and turned my head to the group of ponies. "What.... what did he just do?" Twilight asked confused. None of the ponies could find an answer and even the princess seemed fazed. "I don't know..." The princess said. "I have never seen anything like this before."

"Nor should you have...... A deep old voice said. As it spoke a rumble could be heard in its voice. The voice sounded like thunder as it echoed through out the forest. I looked up at the mountain wall and saw white figures moving along the side of the mountain. A mist started to cover the mountain.  

You have quite the gut to come here, goddess of Sol. The voice continued. We started to get closer together as we watch the mist swallow us. White figures were not seen moving around us from all side. "Who are you? Show yourself!!" The princess shouted.

My my, have your elders not told of my tale. I am the wind of the north, here to rid of the coming storm!

"Coming storm?! What do you mean by this?!"

That is not for your ears to hear. This is not your matter, Now leave! I must have a word with this...... Human.

"Wuh....?" I thought to myself. It seemed any fears or bad feelings I had had left me and interest took over. It was a bit odd though, normally I would assume a fearful mindset and lack all sense of logic thought but now I seem to be in a more blissful state. Not that I wasn't worried about my fate or anything, it just seemed like getting scared again just didn't help the slightest bit.

The white figures started funneling the ponies away. They reluctantly listen to the voice in the mountain and slowly left. "Oh god.... if I survive this, then I going to have to see Fluttershy's sad face again." I thought to myself. It was a fate that rivaled death itself. I watched the ponies as they left. It made me feel somewhat better seeing how slow the ponies were moving. I felt like that really did care for me. At the same time is sucked because once again, I'm stuck in situation in which I have little control over and my new friends would not be there to help me out. It was like a school project that you suddenly have to make alone only this time, if you made it bad, you would probably die.

Now,,, Human, make your way up the mountain and we shall discuss your fate. Refuse and we will end it without second throught.

I sighed and started finding a way up the mountain. "Now what have I gotten myself into." I thought. There were too many questions and I didn't really get that much time to think of an answer for them but for now, at least I know I'm not screwed.

[New chapter, Yaaaaay. Please excuse the lack of a quality chapter here and thanks for reading. I have been getting writers block and a school project at the same time, giving my little or no time to think up more for the story. I will try to make up for it in the weekend but I can't make any promises.

Side note: My "My little pony : Friendship is magic" School presentation that I had to make went more than great which means I will be in a rather good mood for the next couple of days. :D] Next Chapter: Into the depths. Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 45 Minutes