I haven't really decided how I want this story to play out, so for now, more filler as Danny meets a few new faces! Enjoy.

Chapter five: Magic and Mayhem

Danny woke up with a raging head ache. He slipped out of bed and made his way into the hall while trying to hold his head with a hoof and not loose his balance. He knocked on Spikes door but it wasn't latched so it just opened.

"Spike?" he stuck his head in. Comic books where strewn about and action figures sat on the book case, but Spike himself wasn't there. Danny groaned and turned ghost. He fazed through the castle looking for the kitchen. After looking for a while Danny fazed up through the floor right next to Spike who was stirring a pot of oatmeal on the stove.

"Woah!" Spike exclaimed, almost knocking the pot over.

"Sorry," Danny held his hooves up in surrender as he turned back to a non-ghost pony. "I was just looking for the kitchen."

"Well you found it. What do you want? I can cook you something," Spike offered good naturedly.

"That's okay, I can manage," Danny scanned the room and noted the bowl of apples on the couter. He climbed up onto a stool on the oppisite side of the counter from Spike and munched on the juicy fruit.

"You want some of this? I made plently," Spike pointed to the oatmeal.

"Uh, sure?" Danny said, mouth full of apple. Spike poured him a bowl and set sugar, honny, and a variety of dried fruit on the counter. Just as Danny was about to dump a ton of sugar in the bowl, a pony he hadn't seen before walked into the kitchen.

"Morning Spike!" she greated chearfully as she marched over to the dragon. "Whatcha cooking?"

"Oh hey Starlight! When'd you get back?" Spike greated.

"Last night. Trixy crashed in my room, she probably won't be up till well past noon," Starlight stirred the oatmeal with her magic, relesing steam, before scouping herself a bowl. When she turned around to set the bowl on the counter she noticed Danny for the first time.

"Who'se the colt?" she asked rather bluntly.

"That's…"

"I'm Danny," he inturped Spike; he was getting tired of other ponies introducing him..

"He's from another realm," Spike said, with the sly look Danny was getting used to.

"Oh! Like the mirror realm?" Starlight asked, getting excited.

"Why does everyone say that?" Danny asked throwing up his hooves.

"Well, it's the only other realm I'm familar with," Starlight said, worrying she'd offended him.

"Sorry, I'm just getting worked up. This world is so strange." Danny tried to levitate his spoon to his mouth but lost control and spilled oatmeal on himself. "Damn it! I thought I Twilight's advice was working!" Spike gave Danny a towel and he angerly wiped himself off.

"What'd Twlight tell you?" Starlight asked curious.

"She said that the way to levitate something is to really want it, more than anything. Why?"

"Welllllll," Starlight drew out the word. "Twilight is a great teacher, and amazing with magic, but one pony's tecnique doesn't work for everypony. It's not how I would explain it is what I'm saying." She'd caught Danny's attention.

"How would you, explain it I mean."

"For me, I find it really hard to exert your will on the world, rather, you have to bend the world to suit your will. For expample," Starlight plucked a seed from Danny's half eaten apple and set it in a glass of water. "If I wanted this apple seed to grow, like really fast, I wouldn't just tell it to grow, I would tell it that it wants to grow." To show her point, Starlight pointed her horn at the glass. Her horn glowed, and the seed started to grow, untill it was a sapling, its roots pressing agianst the glass.

"See?"

"Woah," Danny excalimed. He turned his attention to a stack of plates on the other side of the room. He closed his eyes and focused, and, with seemingly no resistance, the entire stack floated to him one by one. He grinned as he made them dance around the room before re-stacking themselves.

"That was so much easyer. Thanks," Danny smiled.

"Don't worry about it," Starlight said. "So what was Spike saying about you being from another realm?" Danny sighed and explained the situation.

Later that day, Danny had gone off to do some solo flying over the forrest and decided to do a power check, something he'd made a habbit of back home with his friends. Not only had it acted as a warm up, it also made sure that none of his enemies had shorted out any of his powers; now it was acting as a way to stay grounded, and to see how this worlds weird rules might affect his powers.

First he started simple, an ecto blast. He aim his hoof at a rock and fired! But nothing happend. Danny frowned and tried the other hoof; still nothing. His horn started to tingle and and when he went to rub it a realization came to him.

He lowered his head and fired! An ecto beam shot from his horn and obliterated the boulder. It was way stronger than normal.

"I could get used to that!" Danny admired the shattered rock. Next, he tried his ice power, but didn't bother with his hooves and tried his horn straight away. It was also more powerful than normal, covering the entire clearing in ice. He quickly went down the list; he'd known his intangablity and invisbitly still worked, and now ecto blasts and ice worked too. There was only one he hadn't tried, but didn't want to, least he take down a whole section of the forest.

"What have we here? I can see a pony of power is near." Danny whirled around to see a zebra step out of the trees, a little filly behind her.

"Who are you?" Danny asked, instinctively getting into a defencive stance.

"I am Zecora, I live here, among the trees and deer. Might I ask, who are you? Who sees fit to ice up all the yew."

"Danny!" the filly bounded out from behind her mentor; it was Apple Bloom. Danny's muscles relaxed and he lost hid devensive stance. "Is that really you? Did you do this?" she asked in awe. "My sister told me about you, but she didn't say you could make ice!"

"Yeah, I was just making sure my power's worked." Danny morphed back and Zecora's eyes went big.

"What kind of pony are you, who has not one cutie mark but two?" Zecora asked, baffled.

"Oh! He is a powerful superhero from another world!" Applebloom supplied. Zecora seemed to find this explanation sufficient and nodded.

"Well why don't you come with me, we were just about to sit down for tea," Zecora turned and walked away without waiting for Danny's response, Applebloom trotted after her, but stopped when she realized he wasn't following.

"Come on Danny, Zecora makes the best tea!" she called over her shoulder.

"I don't drink tea," Danny grumbled under his breath, but his curiosity got the best of him and he followed anyway.

"Be careful where you walk, you don't want to slip on a rock. Or stumble into poison joke, it has strange effects it can invoke," Zecora looked over her shoulder at the filly and colt walking side by side. Danny lowered his head and spoke in a whisper, "Does she always talk in rhyme?"

"Yeah, though I don't know why. Seemed rude to ask." Applebloom caught up to her mentor and started talking about different plants they passed.

They walked that way for a while, until a deep growl stopped all three ponies in their tracks.

"What was that?" Danny asked, catching up to the girls.

"Hush, or it might hear. If we stay quiet, it won't come near."

"What won't come near?" Danny asked.

"Timber wolves," Applebloom whispered harshly. Just as she said it, a huge head pushed its way through the bushes, it's mouth full of teeth. Danny instinctively turned invisible, and put a hoof on each of the girls flanks to spread his power to them. Applebloom let out a yelp at the touch and the monster leapt.

Apple Bloom screamed, and Zecora pulled her back, just as Danny leapt. He turned into Phantom mid air and collided with the Timberwolf. The wolf landed on it's back and Danny blasted it with his horn. Instantly, it broke into twigs and branches.

"That wasn't so hard," Danny commented, but when he turned around, two more wolves where advancing on the girls, Zecora desperately trying to keep the filly behind her. Danny leapt over them and blasted the monsters to bits, but, after a second, they started to reform. A growl from behind told Danny that the first one was already back. He swore under his breath. With one movement, he bent his head down and scooped Applebloom onto his back. Levitating off the ground, he picked up Zecora with his forelegs.

"Hold on," he warned and quickly rose above the trees, wolves snapping at their hooves. The cool evening air was a pleasant change from the warm sticky atmosphere of the forest, and the tension eased away from the trio.

"I've never seen them wander so close to town unprovoked before," Applebloom shudder as she clung to Danny's neck.

"Indeed, it is true. Timberwolves this close is new. I wonder what brought them so near. Could a new threat to their land be here?"

"I don't know," Danny said quietly. "But where should I take you?"

"I will direct you to my home. I think this deserves tea, with honeycomb."

Danny deposit them at Zecora's hut and they all sat down in side. Zecora put the kettle on and set down a plate of what looked like zucchini bread. Danny took a piece, it was surprisingly good.

After Zecora poured the tea, and Danny found he liked it, he finally felt save enough to revert back to Fenton.

"So what can you tell me about those Timber wolves? Other than that they don't normally wander this close to town?"

"Where they came from, no pony knows. Deep in the forest, they have no foes. But old pony legends do say, they were once forest spirits, who lost their way."

"So you're saying, no one knows anything about them." Danny stirred his tea with his magic. Zecora just nodded. The three talked for awhile, mostly about trivial things, like the different types of creatures that lived in the forest, and the many monsters as well. Danny found Zecora easy to talk to, once you got used to her constant rhyming. After awhile, he looked out the window and realized night had fallen.

"Well thanks for the tea, but I have somewhere to be. Wait," he stopped, realizing that he'd just rhymed.

"Don't worry about it. Happens to me all the time," Applebloom grinned.

"If it's not too much trouble to take Applebloom home, I don't want her walking back on her own."

"Uh, sure, hop on."

After dropping the filly at her house, Danny made his way through the night sky back to his room. He had somepony he was hoping to meet in his dreams.

I was wondering if you guys might be interested in seeing some of the failed chapters that didn't make it into the story. Let me know, and I'll publish them.