Chapters Chapter 1 - A New Life Begins
- The Everfree Forest-
KAAAABOOOOOOOOM!
A massive thunderclap rang out loud through the forest, completely drowning out, just for a moment, the sound of rain slamming into a thick canopy of leaves and tree branches snapping and creaking in the powerful winds. Once the boom of the thunder faded, the horrible groan of the winds took its place.
Somewhere, huddled miserably among the exposed roots of a particularly large tree, was Hunter Cunningham. The meager shelter provided by both the tree's leaves and the twisted dome its roots formed over the small hollow he was crouched in did much to keep the rain off of him, but it did nothing to quiet the thunder.
For all Hunter cared, thunder could go straight to hell and burn.
It was doing as little as could be possibly done to improve his day. The deafening noise, the blinding flash of lightning that always came before, the fear that one moment he would be alive and feeling quite well but dead and burnt to a crisp the next was horrifying.
Nothing scared him like thunder and lightning. It always came out of nowhere, startling him enough to make jump and knock over anything nearby. The knowledge that something as hot as the sun could strike him at any moment made him feel more weak and puny than his skinny body. Well, than his skinny body used to.
Taking a deep breath, Hunter tried to calm himself a bit and take stock of his surroundings. After startling awake to drenching rain and booming thunder, he had run to the nearest thing resembling a dry space he could, moving on pure instinct. Despite all the distractions that had occupied his attention, he had not failed to notice that his body felt... he tried to find the best way to describe it.
A wee bit fucked up, he thought tiredly. His morning had drained him of anything close to energy, both physically and mentally, so finding a more poetic way of saying what he wanted to say about himself was unlikely.
Turning his head to look at himself, the first difference made itself known. His neck felt like a snake. He could move it with a flexibility and ease that frightened him mildly, though not as much as the weather. Glancing down at his body, couldn't help but reflexively try and run away.
He was a dragon.
Really, there was no better way to put it. Grey scales covered what looked like a lizard that wanted to fly among the clouds. His arms were short, relative to his torso, and ended in sharp looking claws. Powerful looking legs were positioned farther back down his now long stead of tall body, the muscles he now possessed easily felt all throughout his body. Extending from his... Back? Butt? Regardless, he had a long tail extending from his rear area, slightly longer than his torso was. Running from the tip of his tail up along his back and neck were short and skinny magenta spines.
Sprouting from his shoulders were big and strong looking wings. Unfolding them as much as he could in the space he had, Hunter could tell that he was capable of flight. Each wing was as long or longer than his torso, and were connected to him by a huge bunch of raw muscle and strength that could easily flap his wings hard enough to lift him.
Based on the size of the trees, he figured that his body was six feet long, not counting his tail. That was likely eight or nine feet in length.
He wasn't freaking out. After blinking once and doing absolutely nothing for a couple of seconds, he realized that yes, he wasn't startled or scared or even unsettled, which was odd, to say the least. Maybe it just hadn't really set in yet? That was probably it.
KAAABOOOOOOooooooom!
...Or maybe he was scared, but for different reasons.
An ear flicked, which made Hunter really want a good look at his face, but that wasn't what got his attention. There was a faint crackling sound coming from above him, barely loud enough for him to hear, but which seemed to be getting progressively louder.
Dread seized him as a thought struck. He looked up, and sure enough, there was a very distinct orange glow coming from the top of the tree, accompanied by the rapid flick of fiery tendrils.
"Not fire, please not fire," he whispered fearfully to himself.
Hunter ran out from under his shelter, the quick transition from dry to being hit by rain all over snapping his mind into clarity like a rush of cold water. Quickly turning around, he involuntarily sucked in a short gasp at the sight before his eyes.
The tree he had stowed himself under was absolutely consumed by bright fire. The sound it made could no longer be considered a faint crackle; It had become an outright roar that could be heard even over the wind. Flame illuminated a large area around the tree, casting wild shadows across the rest of the forest. All Hunter could clearly see was the fire and everything immediately around it, the other trees shrouded in darkness.
After only a couple of seconds, the fire started leaping from the first tree to others near it, the light and sound only growing brighter and louder every moment, yet he felt no heat. He hesitated to run, transfixed by the sight he was seeing.
He tore himself from the sight and ran, stumbling on his unfamiliar limbs as his mind switched into something not dissimilar to auto-pilot. The only thought running through his mind was to get away from the expanding wall of fire behind him. For a horrifying while, the sound didn't go away. Eventually though, it started to fade, yet Hunter didn't stop running. At some point, he wasn't sure when, but his arms and legs felt light and he stopped stumbling.
After some time, he wasn't sure how long exactly, Hunter was suddenly out of the forest. In front of him was a cottage that looked very familiar to him, but he couldn't concentrate enough to try and remember why he remembered seeing it. A small bridge spanning a narrow stream, bloated slightly by the rain, lead up to a wooden door that was slightly shorter than Hunter.
With only a hint of hesitation, he raised a scaled claw, clutched it into a fist, and knocked gently on the door. After a minute or two with no response, he knocked a second time with a bit more force behind it.
The door opened slowly, the hinges letting out quiet groans. A head appeared from behind the door, only to make a squeaking sound and retreat inside again.
Hunter blinked. Was that... no, it couldn't be. that's not possible. He looked at himself, at his scales, his wings, his tail. Clearing his throat, he looked back at the still open doorway.
"Um, could... could I come in?" He timidly asked. Slowly, the head peered out from behind the wood with wide blue eyes, partially covered by long pink bangs. There could be no doubt about who it was anymore. Hunter decided to ask again.
"Could I come inside... Fluttershy?"
~
Author's Note
*Made some grammatical fixes that really should have been caught before releas
That's right folks, I've gone and flexed my fingers, sat down on a nice plump sofa with my laptop in front of me, and written some words. Not particularly great words, but words nonetheless!
For any of you who have read my other stuff, I apologize for the insanely long hiatus I've been on. I have no excuse besides a bout of writer's block and lack of inspiration. You guys seemed to like my other stuff (for some reason), so I'm sorry it took this long to give you something else to read.
Anyways, DRAGONS!! I wanted to write something with dragons, and this is what happened. I just can't stop writing HiE stories, can I? Weird.
This chapter isn't filled with much humor, but I promise you, there will be plenty. Most of it immature and lacking in wit, knowing me. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the long-anticipated return of moi! Feel free to suggest ideas for the story, though they won't get implemented until after the next chapter, where I'll finish establishing the premise.
SEE YA NEXT ~~SPRING~~ CHAPTER.
- Fluttershy's Cottage-
Hunter was ushered inside, the sound of the rain hitting the ground muted as soon as the heavy wooden door was pushed closed by the creme colored pegasus standing behind it. He stood still for a moment in the entryway, examining the home he had stepped into with curious eyes. He felt a compulsion to compliment the room.
It was pretty much the same as the show depicted it, with a green wooden floor covered with various scratch marks from all the animals that Hunter knew must move about the house. A large red rug was positioned in the center of the room, a flower pattern in the middle. On the wall to the right of the door was a large stone fireplace, an iron pot hanging above the dimly glowing coals by a metal rod. Directly across from Hunter was a small green sofa and a plush green chair, a small wooden stand between them. On the left was a rectangular entrance framed with wood that likely led to a different room. A staircase leading upwards was next to the second door.
Taking a small breath in, a smell drifted to Hunter's nostrils that could only be described as natural. It had a calming effect, especially after the ordeals he had dealt with in the forest.
"Your house is nice," he said quietly.
The utter lack of substance to the compliment made Hunter groan inside. Really setting the bar here, aren't we? He turned towards Fluttershy and gave a sheepish smile, ducking his now serpentine head with embarrassment.
Fluttershy blinked once before responding timidly. "Oh, um, thank you very much, um..."
Realizing that he had not introduced himself yet, Hunter cleared his throat. "Sorry. My name is Hunter. Uh, sorry I just kinda walked into your home, Fluttershy," said Hunter apologetically.
Immediately, Fluttershy shook her head from side to side frantically. "Oh, it's no problem, though, i-if I may ask..." her voice faded briefly as she thought of how to word her thought. "...Why are you here?"
"Well, uh..." Hunter trailed off as he realized that he didn't really know himself. Sure, he was well aware of the fact that, by chance, a forest fire drove him in the direction of the mare's cottage, but he had no clue as to why he had shown up in Equestria.
Fluttershy waited patiently for him to finish his sentence. Although it had taken many moments, the shock of seeing a dragon show up at her front door asking to come inside had passed. Regardless, she could not wrap her head around it completely. There was a dragon, in her home, and she wasn't even very scared.
She wasn't sure if it was just because of the confidence boost she had gotten when she had helped get the water from Ponyville to Cloudsdale, but the dragon silently sitting in front of her seemed... harmless. Maybe it was just because he was still young, judging by his height, but Fluttershy could easily suppress the urge to run.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing. "I don't really know, to be honest. I woke up not too long ago in the forest, and a fire forced me to run here, but other than that, I just don't know," he confessed, looking slightly ashamed.
"Oh, um, that's fine. Can you... not remember anything before waking up?" Fluttershy spoke quietly, trying not to do anything that could provoke him. Even though he gave the impression of being docile, her limited experience with dragons, excluding Spike, had shown her that they could be irritable creatures.
Hunter hesitated. On one hand, he could tell her about Earth, and humans, and all that stuff, yet for some reason, he didn't want to. "Um... no, I can't. There are some hazy pictures floating around, but I can't remember anything besides my own name. And how to talk, I guess," he lied.
Fluttershy was unsure of what to do. She had never dealt with any amnesiac animals before, and even if she had she doubted she could use the same techniques here. Whenever new animals came to her, she would usually pet them, feed them, and let them stay for a night.
"Okay, um, Hunter, right? Are you hungry? I could get you something eat if you want," she suggested, both her hostess manners and concern for the amnesiac in front of her compelling her actions.
"Sure, if that's fine with you," said Hunter.
Smiling, Fluttershy trotted through the doorway, calling over her shoulder, "Make yourself comfortable in here, I'll let you know when the food is done!"
Hunter nodded before looking around for someplace to sit down. All of the furniture was far to small for him to fit in or on, so he settled on laying down on the large rug. It felt weird and alien to be lying on his stomach, arms and legs tucked underneath his large but lithe body.
Deciding to get more used to his new body, Hunter gave his tail a gentle flick, trying not to hit or damage any of Fluttershy's belongings. He already felt like he was intruding, breaking something would probably make him feel guilty enough to leave on his own. He gave several more experimental flicks, feeling out how it responded to his thoughts.
Once he had a feel for the tail, he shifted his attention to the bat-like protrusions extending from his shoulders. Flapping them would disturb the room, so instead he simply fanned them out to either side, inspecting them more closely than he had in the forest.
The general shape of them was basically that of a bats, with a webbing spread between the wing's fingers. Peering closely, he noticed that the thin layer of skin was covered in scales that were much smaller than the ones covering most of his body, small enough that he hadn't noticed them at first. They were a darker grey than his other scales as well.
"Food is ready!"
Carefully, Hunter lifted himself from the rug and started walking towards Fluttershy's voice, before finding himself too large to fit through the entryway. "Uh, I'm too big, I can't fit through the doorway!" he called out, loud enough for her to hear.
There was a brief silence before she replied with, "Oh." His ears perked up when he caught the sound of wings flapping hard, accompanied by occasional soft grunts.
After a short while, Fluttershy entered the main room, a wooden platter holding two sandwiches with various vegetables inside next to a mound of steaming gems.
"...Gems?" asked Hunter weakly, his appetite lessened by the idea of eating the hardest kind of rock around. He could swear there were diamonds mixed in.
"Of course. All the dragons I've met have loved gems. I-is there something wrong with them? Are they cooked enough?" said Fluttershy, a hint of panic entering her voice.
"Oh, no, I'm sure that you did a great job cooking them, but..." Hunter had never watched past the first season of MLP: FiM, but he did know that gems were a delicacy to dragons, at least to Spike they were. He tried to ignore his fear that they were completely inedible, yet the feeling could not be shaken.
Apparently noticing his distress, Fluttershy set the platter down and began flapping her wings, flying closer to him. A sort of ease and confidence seeped into her voice as she consoled him. "It's fine if you don't want to eat them, it must seem weird to you with your memory loss, but I know a dragon who swears they taste good. For your own sake, give them a try?" she pleaded in the hopes that her guest, strange as he was, would feel good enough to give them a taste.
Hunter looked into Fluttershy's eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. Sighing quietly to himself, he reached a claw over to the still hot gems and grabbed a handful. Expecting them to be hot, he was surprised, pleasantly so, to find that he wasn't burned at all. They felt like they were just above being luke-warm, honestly.
Casting one last glance to the floating pegasus, he got a small nod. Finally throwing his doubt aside, he grabbed one gem off of the pile, a sapphire, with his teeth and started chewing.
It tasted heavenly.
His eyes widened at how amazingly tasty the rock he was eating tasted. At first, it tasted like an extremely creamy caramel, with a somewhat chunky texture. The aftertaste was something like a warm and filling bread, pure soft-but-simultaneously-hard delight.
Fluttershy looked at him with a satisfied grin, made happy by the knowledge that Hunter was enjoying the gems much more than he had expected to. The smile only grew as he started eating more of the gems, his pace growing progressively faster with each one.
Suddenly, a huge BOOOOOM filled the room, drowning out all other sounds for a few seconds. The happiness Hunter felt at discovering his new favorite food was shattered by his worst fear.
After she uncovered her ears, Fluttershy looked over to see a quivering dragon laying on her carpet. Understanding dawned on her as she realized why Hunter wanted shelter so badly. Without really thinking, she began to softly hum a tune, not any one in particular, but it had the desired effect.
Slowly, Hunter removed his scaled claws from his head and looked towards the source of the pleasant music. It was a gentle tune, inherently soothing nature, only helped by the fact that Fluttershy had a great singing voice. After a few more moments of the wonderful sound entering his ears, he couldn't help but feel fine again.
Seeing that Hunter was fine, Fluttershy stopped singing an flashed a quick smile at him before landing back on the ground. "Are you feeling better now?"
Hunter returned the grin. "Yeah, thank you Fluttershy. Something about thunder just... Blegh," he confessed. He looked outside through the fairly large window in the room at the rain still hammering away at everything outside. "What rotten weather."
Fluttershy walked over to him and sat down next to him, staring out the window as well as the pitter-patter of raindrops on glass dominated the room for a moment. "It's not so bad, really. The trees and plants need to get fed too, just like you and me," she explained.
Hunter glanced away from the window at her for a moment, before looking over her shoulder. "Speaking of which... Are you going to eat?"
Confused, she looked over her shoulder as well, and realized that she hadn't touched her sandwiches at all. Wanting to feel helpful, her stomach chimed in as well. She gave a soft giggle. "Oh, I guess I kinda forgot. Sorry."
Her apology was dismissed by a wave of his claw. "Nothing to be sorry for, as long as you promise to eat every bit, understand?" he mock ordered, directing a ridiculously stern finger-pointing at the pegasus.
Giggling, Fluttershy placed the platter on her head and started flying slowly up the stairs, yawning once before speaking. "I'm sorry I can't really do much to make you comfortable for the night, but I'll go get you a nice, warm blanket, okay?" she said.
Once again, he dismissed the polite offer with his claw. "I'm fine without the blanket, you don't need to go to the trouble. Good night!" He waved gently as she flew up the stairs, and only stopped once he heard the quiet sound of a door opening and closing.
Taking a second to stretch himself before going to bed, Hunter examined the room one more time, before looking down at his own body. Claws, scales, wings, a tail... almost everything about him physically was changed.
Hunter curled up as best as he could, staring at his claw, a dragon's claw, the whole time. He didn't stop staring long after the sun had gone completely down. He didn't stop staring after the rain had stopped and the clouds had left, revealing a bright moon that cast a soft glow on his grey form. He lost track of time completely, hours blurring into hours.
He fell asleep staring.
Author's Note
Edited by Deprave , who also happens to be my brother. Go read his stuff, it's gooooooooooooooood~!
Chapter 3 - Finding Humanity
- One Day Before-
It was cold outside.
Scaredy Cat shuddered once before resuming her slow trot.The grass gently swished every time she moved her hooves forward, the sound coming and going with every step. The texture of wet plant life made her grimace with every blade that rubbed against her forelegs.
Deciding to try and get out of the cold wind as fast as she could, Scaredy looked around again, searching for the shack that was supposed to be in the area. Left, right, front, back, there was nothing but the swaying grass and some trees around her.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do this after all, she thought remorsefully. Why had she wanted to do this again?Memories of yesterday evening came back to mind, as they had often done that day when she questioned why she was doing what she was doing.
Walking along a simple dirt path on her way to pay a surprise visit to some friends in Ponyvillie, she had noticed that there was a stallion standing by the side of the road. He wore a cloak that seemed to be in good condition, as Scaredy could see no tears, patches, or ragged edges. It was grey, with some sort of pattern on the back. The hood was down, allowing her to get a good look at his face as she grew closer. His coat was a dark grey, while his mane was a purple-crimson color. He had a tired but determined smile on his lips.
As she came within easy talking distance, the stallion called out a greeting. "Hey there. Tell me," he asked, looking at her eyes with an eerily intent look in his, "Do you know what humans are?"
Scaredy had a bad feeling already about him, which usually took longer to develop than just mere moments. Still, she saw no harm in talking with him. "No, I haven't. Why do you ask?" she said.
His smile grew ever so slightly. "Because I have a similar problem. You see, it turns out that thousands and thousands of years ago our world was connected with another, where a race of creatures called humans lived. Their culture and ways were very different from ours, and once we knew much about them. But now, that knowledge has been lost to time. We no longer know anything about them besides their looks," he explained, though Scaredy had a feeling he wasn't finished.
"...So why are you telling me this?" she asked, caught between her doubts about his trustworthiness and her curiosity to see where his strange speech was leading.
"Can't you see?" He gestured with one of his forelegs. "There's an entire civilization that we know practically nothing about! There's a wealth of information on creatures that could be far superior to ponies, or griffons, or anything we know off, sitting just outside of our reach, and we, Humanity, strive to discover that hidden knowledge and reunite our world with the plane that humans had somehow ascended to so long ago! they simply have to be better beings!" He took a few breathes, the intensity of his rant tiring him somewhat.
For a moment, Scaredy stood there, thinking on everything he said. For some reason that she couldn't really explain, she felt the urge to discover more about humans, to help the strange stallion in front of her. "So... are you part of a group? And... can I join?" she asked.
Recovered, the stallion looked at her with the same smile. "Of course. Just head that way-" He pointed behind him, towards the distant, but visible, Everfree Forest. "and you'll find a run-down looking wooden shed. Head inside of it, and you'll be with us in moments."
She thanked him, and set off in the direction he pointed her in, hoping that she made the right choice.
And now, here she was, pretty sure that she had managed to get herself lost, and there was still no sign of the supposed shed. Scaredy sighed. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..." she muttered under breath, hanging her head. Maybe the stallion was lying, or was actually crazy, and there were no such thing as humans in the first place.
Thinking about heading back to the road and getting with her friends like she had planned to in the first place, she looked up, and spied the corner of what looked like a building in the distance poking out from behind a tree trunk. She grinned to herself, spirits raised significantly, and started galloping off towards the growing shape of what she hoped was the shack.
Ten feet away, she stopped herself suddenly, sliding across the slick grass for a few moments before regaining control. Scaredy examined the place, and felt a twinge of fear in her stomach.
If there was ever a place that looked like it was the home of some sort of outcast maniac, it was sitting right in front of her. The shack was made out of old wood, its walls twisted slightly by the elements and time both, likely. It was not a very tall building, only about twice as high as Scaredy. There were no windows or openings of any kind besides the large door made out of thick wooden planks, held in place by rusty hinges of iron.
Scaredy let out a slightly shaky breath. The appearance of the shack was intimidating enough that she seriously considered trotting the whole way back to the road, despite the fact that it was growing dark.
No, I need to do this, to do something courageous for once. She took a deep breath in, held it for a second, then let it out slowly. The door creaked loudly as she pulled it open with a hoof, determined to have made the trip worth it.
The interior was not too far off from what she was expecting it to look like. The walls were bare, plain wood. On the back wall was one torch, lit but dim, casting a flickering light across the walls and dirt floor. The only other feature was a spiraling staircase with steps of stone that led down below into the ground.
Scaredy descended.
