Inhuman

Prologue: The Human of White Tail Woods

The village of Ponyville was quiet, and nopony was out on the streets at this time of night.

Ponyville was a small town, in which everypony knew each other and practically everypony went to bed at around the same time, more or less. For tonight in particular, there were no festivals or parties going on, so it made sense that nopony would be out so late.

The streetlights and houselights were all off, so the only source of light the town had at the moment was Luna's moon, which loomed directly above the town and blanketed it in a very dim light.

For better or for worse, it was a peaceful village, even if its inhabitants were a little crazy at times.

It was a peaceful night, with little activity going on.

The wind picked up slightly, rustling the sign to the Golden Oak Library. Even the tree's tenant and her assistant were asleep at this time, and Twilight Sparkle was well known for staying up late and over-studying.

The town remained still for a few more minutes, until a single light turned on in the top floor of Sugarcube Corner. The light shone into the street slightly, and within the room, a puffy-haired pink pony was sitting upright in her bed.

She was shaking all over.

"O-OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH! I-It's a-a-a-a d-d-doozy!" she said. Though her eyes were a little bloodshot and her mane unkempt, she gave off the impression of a pony with limitless energy, even if she did just wake up.

Pinkie Pie was rarely even woken up by her Pinkie Sense, and if it did go off while she was asleep, she most likely just slept through it. She had never experienced a "doozy" while slumbering before though, and doozies tended to rattle her to the core.

What's more, her Pinkie Sense wasn't done acting up yet. As soon as her doozy finished, she flopped out of bed and hit the ground, her head and neck bobbing up and down as she scooted along the floor in a strange act that was typical for the pink pony.

"Wait, a doozy and a head bob?! Is it a headzy... or maybe a doobob? I've never had a doozy or a head bob happen at the same time, much less a headzy or a doobab!" her bubbly voice said. It was slightly lower than normal, so as to not wake the other tenants of the house: the Cakes.

"Well, a doozy means something really, really big or super, super scary is about to happen, but a headbob always means that somepony new is in town!" she contemplated for a moment, before she gasped.

"OOOH, maybe it means that the most super-duper, amazing, spectacular pony just arrived in town!" she said enthusiastically. It didn't seem to matter that it was the middle of the night to her.

"I need to go and find this super-duper, amazing new pony right now! I need to throw them a "Welcome to Ponyville" party right away, before they leave town! I need to get my party cannon ready and give them a special welcome! But, wait, do they like cake or fudge? Fudge or cake? Cake and fudge? Whatever, maybe I'll just throw both of them into the cake cannon! I need to remember to leave the confetti out this time!" she laughed, whispering to herself once she trotted past the twins' room.

Two minutes later, and Pinkie was wheeling a small, decorative pink cannon out onto the street. She frowned and put her hoof on her chin in mock thought, as the wind rustled her mane.

"Hmm, there definitely isn't anypony out right now. Maybe this super-duper, spectacular, amazing pony is playing hide-and-seek?" she thought outloud, twirling her party cannon.

Before she could say anything else, her head began shaking once again, the spasms this time pointing her head in a specific direction. It was towards the west, the opposite of the Everfree Forest.

"Ooh, I think I can find the new pony if I go that way! I know where that it; it's White Tail Woods! Maybe the new pony is doing a little sight-seeing! But, I bet I can give them a sight to see..." she said, rubbing the party cannon proudly. Again, Pinkie didn't seem to notice that it was the middle of the night.

"Oh, but wait! I'll be leaving Ponyville if I go to White Tail Woods! Maybe I should bring somepony along with me for the walk! I wonder if Twilight is up right now?"

The library wasn't too far from Sugarcube Corner and where Pinkie was standing, but the hyperactive pony noticed that all the lights were off in the giant tree.

"Hmm, should I go wake her up right now? I know she's the smartest, most-hardworking, most sciency pony in all of Equestria, so she must've just gone to bed after a super study session. And if I wake her up right now, I know she'll be super-duper cranky! Even crankier than Cranky Doodle!" she slapped her hooves to her face in shock after that last statement.

"So no! No waking Twilight for me! I'll just have to go welcome this new pony by myself!" she declared, rolling her cannon down the street.

"This new pony sure is weird, coming into town when everypony is asleep. But I won't wait until daytime to welcome them! I have to do it NOWWWWW!" she thundered.

It took Pinkie approximately twenty minutes to wheel her party cannon to the edge of the White Tail Woods. Her Pinkie Sense was telling her the direction all the way. The new pony must still be in there.

She huffed and puffed lightly, letting go of the party cannon and taking a quick break. However, at the exact moment she did so, her whole body shook with a terrific amount of force, so much that she almost fell on her flank.

She shook her head and hummed; another doozy.

This time, before she could move again or even speak, there came an enormous explosion of force from the very center of White Tail Woods, where the new pony was assumed to be.

Boom!

The explosion that reverberated from White Tail Woods was loud, much louder than any noises that had ever come out of the region. If a pony were to stop and think, a noise like the unusual explosion would be more likely to come out of the Everfree Forest. The Everfree Forest was filled with dangerous plants and animals, as well as bizarre phenomena. An explosion like this would be commonplace there.

White Tail Woods, on the other hand, was not a place where such a thing would commonly occur. This forest was about as tame as things could get; there were no apex predators that lived in White Tail Woods, nor were there any strange phenomena.

Birds flew out of trees as little four-legged mammals scurried out of their hiding places. The air was charged with energy, and it ran up the animal's spines and tingled on their skins. They were all spooked by the explosion, no doubt, and were not keen on sticking around to find out what had caused it.

Despite being incredibly loud, there didn't seem to be any permanent effects. Any of the surrounding objects were not charred or damaged, besides a few trees that looked ready to fall. It was like an explosion of force occurred, but there was no effect, so to speak.

However, there came a stir from one of the trees affected by the blast. It was about to topple over, but there was some heavy rustling coming from inside its branches.

"AUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH!" a young sounding, but clearly male voice screamed.

A tall, bipedal figure fell out of a tree in the exact center of where the explosion occurred as the large oak went down, hitting his head on a outlying branch and falling into some bushes near the roots of the tree.

The young man shook the dizziness out of his head as he emerged from the bushes, blinking blearily about. A large shadow loomed over him suddenly, and he cried out in alarm as he leaped from the bushes before the tree trunk collapsed onto the bush.

He skid onto a trail near the bush, almost scuffing his hands.

"Good job, Zach. You wind up in the middle of Jackfuckistan and the first thing you do is nearly get crushed."

The human climbed to his feet, brushing the dust on his trousers. He said those things, but in all honesty almost getting crushed by a tree was the least of his worries at this point.

There were three things on his mind more important than that right now.

One, he didn't know where the hell he was.

Two, he didn't have his cell phone or any other means of communication on him. Hell, he didn't have any bit of technology on him at, so he also couldn't tell the time or figure out where he was.

Third, he had no idea how he got here!

Zachary Cricket was nineteen years old, and still in his first year of college. He transferred to a four-year university immediately after high school, and it was safe to say that he needed a long time to adjust to life in college.

His classes and workload were fairly generous, and he was in class well into the night.

He always ended his classes extremely exhausted, and today was no different.  When he got back to his dorm room, he immediately collapsed onto his bed without even taking a shower or changing his clothes.

He had woken up to the sound of a big explosion, and when he opened his eyes he was in the middle of a tree that was clearly about to topple over. He was so surprised by the event that he shouted and lost his balance, plummeting to the ground.

And that was basically the whole story. Nothing glamorous or exciting. He went to sleep and woke up in the middle of a random forest, end of story.

"Still, freaky explosions and random teleportation aside, this isn't the worst place to end up..."

It was true. Him teleporting was the only conclusion his mind could come to at the time, no matter how far-fetched or illogical it was. If he was randomly teleported, he could've ended stranded in a desert or the middle of the ocean or something with no way to get back. For a forest, this didn't exactly seem like the definition of rugged wilderness either. There was a trail right next to the area he had "teleported" into, so he could likely could to safety fairly easily.

He looked around, first to his right and then to his left, before looking down at the trail. It looked like an ordinary trail that hikers would take through the forest. At any case, if something like this was here, it probably meant that there were people around.

He got his bearings.

"March 4, 2013. When I got back to my dorm, it was around 9:15..."

He looked towards the sky. Based on the position of the moon, it seemed to be way past 9:15. At this point, it was probably past midnight or so. How long had he been out?

There was something off about the night sky though. There were too many stars and he couldn't see a single constellation that he normally could name. Not to mention the moon... the moon was large, much larger than normal, and it was full. He remembered last night... the moon was a crescent. The full moon shouldn't have come for a couple more weeks.

"What the hell..."

A cold gust of wind washed over him, and he shivered a little bit. It was getting quite chilly out, and he wasn't dressed for cold or even chilly weather. He needed to find his way out of the forest, and maybe towards a settlement, whether it was a town or a campground or something. He just needed to find people.

And fast...