Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins
Chap1
I am Hendrix Leonidas; 'Parkour Master.' Or at least that's what I believe. I'm about one-hundred-and-ninety centimetres tall and have large calf muscles, so it's not really unreasonable. I lie unemployed and slightly homeless. Currently I'm bunking with a friend on his farm. His name is Keanu, and he's about twenty centimetres shorter than I, and honestly, sucks at anything sport-related. Unlike me, he can't play basketball, rugby, not even one-on-one games of dodgeball.
You see, I was born with a rather interesting skill; An exquisite sense of instinct. During my earlier years at high-school, you'd have to play a lot of ball games. Wether it be a ball speeding at me behind by back, or an apple core flying at me with a rapid speed, I can sense them coming. It's rather weird how I sense the objects, because it feels like a warped mental image at the dark corners of my mind. An image that I don't even have the slightest control over, but I can still feel.
A rather specific incident I had was when I was at school all those years ago. A rather fat and bulky student in which highly disliked me for an unknown reason threw a large stone at the back of my head. Due to my 'powers,' I could sense it and spin around before it hit me. From there, I stuck out both hands and grabbed it towards my chest. The funny part was that there were a dozen people watching at the time. It was hard not to crack up at all the dumbfounded faces looking up at me. Main point, I'm epic.
Back to my friend, Keanu. Keanu is a cool guy. He likes to play a lot of video games to make up for his lack in sports. He has a skinny, but fatty build and has slightly curly, orange hair. I'd joke about it sometimes and hold my hands to his had like it were a campfire. Although, last time I did that his face went as red as a tomato in frustration. In the end we all had a big laugh about it. Oh, let me tell you a bit about myself. As I said above, I have a bulky build and large calf muscles, although the muscles in my upper legs are almost two times bigger. Must be the bike riding. Anyway, I have a moderately long, chocolate coloured mullet and hazel eyes. I'm very tall, have large, bulky hands and a bit of puppy fat still. My story begins here:
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Hendrix laid in bed, having drunk a hot chocolate to help him sleep. The sporting he'd been doing recently had only been lightly torturing him. He's to head to the gym tomorrow, but he needed a good night's sleep to start it off. He tried to sink into a deep sleep, but no dice... He stood up to go into the kitchen, only to fall back onto his makeshift bed made from a pile of blankets that lay on the couch. He knew about being 'knocked out cold,' but he had never imagined it to be this powerful... Rapidly, He drifted into a light sleep.
When He woke, He saw a human figure standing in front of the couch. He squinted and rubbed my eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of who was there. However, it remained blurry and dark. "Keanu?" He said. "Is that you?"
No answer. He somehow expected that would happen. The next thing would craze him for life. The bipedal creature warped. Shrinking smaller. Hands becoming feet, then hooves. Hooves? That's when it all started to fade.
Next thing he knew, he was plunged into a glowing outside softened by his eyelids. "Keanuuu!" He shouted. "What's with the lights being on? I can't even open my eyes..." No answer. "Keanu?"
"What?" He heard an annoyed groan coming from his right.
"What's with the lights?"
"I dunno. I didn't turn 'em on."
Hendrix's eyes shot open, scanning his landscape. He was in a form of ruins surrounded by every inch in sand. Goddamn. Deserts suck. The sun was at least two times bigger than before, showing waves of heat rippling and emanating from it. He heard a shriek, swivelling around to spot the source. Keanu was standing, almost hyperventilating at their surroundings. "Where are we?" He asked.
"In a desert, smartass."
"But why us?"
"How the fuck should I know?" Hendrix replied. "All I know is that these are the ruins of your house. As you can see, the wood and other softer materials have rotted away, and the metals have rusted into oblivion. The roof is exposed, the walls are covered with a layer of sandstone, and there's barely any remains of anything useful."
"What about the other rooms?" He asked.
"There are no other rooms, dumbass. Only this one. The rest have worn away completely." Said Hendrix, checking his surroundings. Yep. He was in sandy ruins with a crazy man. Okay.
Checking their surroundings, they found half a dozen matches and some medical supplies preserved in a plastic container. A slightly rusted, metal drink bottle was found in the sandy void outside the house, as well as a broken-bladed knife and a drifted pile of ropes and bungee cords. After twenty minutes of debating, and mucking around, they decided to head north. They only knew which way north was, was because of the fact that Hendrix and Keanu used to do survival training as kids together, and they set up a 'shadow compass' to point the way. The training having payed off, they slowly dragged themselves and their supplies into the desert's abyss. Having found a dead, brittle shrub, he rubbed it throughout the insides and outsides of the bottle, removing all the rust he could as they walked.
"So, what now" Keanu spoke up.
"I dunno..." Hendrix replied hesitantly, unwilling to participate in a conversation at the moment. Keanu wasn't having any of it.
"Does that mean that the best we can hope for, is that we hit a town or river?
"Pretty much."
"I would usually argue with your unreasonable point, but I can't find any part of it to argue against. I mean, we don't have an option right now. Oh, and my feet hurt."
"We didn't quite have shoes on when we fell asleep though..." Said Hendrix, tiredly tossing the shrub aside. It had been about an hour now, and the sky was starting to subdue to darkness. As much as he loved the night, he would have to rest.
He and Keanu set up a campfire out of few dead bushes and such. Using up two of their matches on the small fire. Sliding the matches into his pocket, Hendrix fell to the gritty floor and fell quickly asleep. Weird seeing that he just woke up an hour ago, but he must've been tired after the apparent 'time warp.'
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Hendrix and Keanu woke slowly and rose to their feet. Searching around for a new waypoint, they saw a small forest. Walking closer, they saw that it was a seemingly wild apple orchard. Having picked as many of the strangely bright, red apples they could, they set off to journey parallel to the strange row of apple trees. The placed smelt like fresh apple pie, but hey dismissed it as the juicy apples bathing in the sun. They eventually had finished walking past the rows of apple trees, and continued walking until they saw a gloomier looking forest. The trees seemed to have slightly purple, dark, green leaves. The forest seemed about a kilometre away, and they started to trek towards it... Only to reveal a giant chasm in which Keanu slipped and fell into, grazing him in more places than you'd think possible and giving him multiple gashes in the back and legs.
"Parkour time!" Hendrix shouted, jumping and skidding down the steep slope of the chasm. Finding Keanu at the bottom, Hendrix assessed the damage given to him. Keanu had a gash in his right arm, left leg and the side of his ribcage. He was bruised and grazed equally along his body, and he had a couple of broken ribs. Hendrix quickly wrapped up the gashes in bandages, and put some bandaids where the worst grazes were. With his given strength, Hendrix lifted Keanu and took him to a nearby cave in the wall. He placed Keanu in and checked the deep of the cave. It only went down a couple of meters before stopping, which was good. Leaving Keanu with the majority of the apples and the drink bottle, he left to go find help, heading in the same direction they were going before the certain incidents arose.
Trying to climb back up the chasm was a pain. There was no footing, nor was the wall made of cotton. Trying to put his foot somewhere cause the greatest jolt of pain to make its way up his leg. The cuts and gashes in his feet weren't making it easy. Just a few moments ago he had fallen back down to break a couple of ribs and sprain an ankle. Unwilling to admit defeat, he continued to climb the 'wall of death.'
That wasn't the only problem. A train was passing along the make-do bridge hanging over the cliffs. As soon as it did, rocks started to fall and smash Hendrix on the head, face and shoulders. Scratches and blisters were starting to appear in the fingers and the palms of his hand, and his knees has suffered no better. Having reached the top, he pulled himself up and onto flatter ground. The desert had converted to grass here, and there was the source of a small river flowing back down the chasm. Ahead pay the gloomier trees of those he had seen earlier, but they appeared seemingly normal of those back 'home.' Wherever, home was. However, the train tracks must've lead back to a form of civilisation or town. However, those very tracks seemed to turn right around the forest. Feeling lucky, Hendrix chose to cut through the forest.
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Hendrix had been walking through the forest for some time now. He had realised that he still had his iPod in his pocket, and began to skim over the apps whilst walking. It was a modded iPod Keanu helped him create. It was pretty much just cracked, but contained much more powerful and clear speakers, and a row of solar panels on the back. He still needed water and had left the water source a while back, but he wasn't going back now.
The walk seemed to be peaceful, until he came across a monstrosity of nature. The sight before him was beastly, as it was a lion mixed with the tail of a scorpion, and the wings and ears of a bat. It seemed to want to hurt Hendrix, roaring and screaming at him. It continued to do so for about thirty seconds, until it broke into a full-on run towards him. Having opened up a 'sonic sound' app on his iPod just before he was confronted, he clicked 'start.' The monster reeled in pain in hearing the high-pitched, screaming sound, and stumbled backwards. Surprised, Hendrix turned the sound up to full, causing the beast to turn-tail and flee. Satisfied with himself, he turned to continue walking north. However, he couldn't find north, and couldn't see the sun through the thick, dark foliage of the trees. Unpleased, he turned left and journeyed on randomly.
Only a small amount of time had passed, yet he was sleepy and his vision was dark. However, he could see a small town and intended to get there before his body gave out on him. He shoved the iPod back into his pocket and slowly trudged towards the town. He crossed a bright pink bridge before seeing the towns inhabitants. Bright, coloured, scared ponied. Great. The tiredness and blood-loss must've gotten to his brain. Now he was hallucinating. The pony hallucinations were backing away from him and running back home. Some of the smaller ones stepping forwards in curiosity before larger ones came to pull them back. He started to think as to why they were scared of him before he remembered that they weren't real. He still pondered the thought though. If it was his mind, he'd be having them all hugging him and snuggling together. He didn't know why, but they made him feel all fuzzy inside. He just realised that he'd been walking for minutes now without any consciousness to guide him. He saw a giant tree with what seemed like a house carved inside, and there was a door on the front of it. Trying to walk the last couple of metres towards the house, he fell to the ground. From this position, he could see his lower body. Blood. Large streaks of blood had made their way down his lower half, ending in what he could now see as a crimson path all the way from the forest. He felt stupid. Ponies had now gathered around him, but a small group had the courage to make it further and tend to him. The last thing he could see was a questioning purple pony before his vision went dark...
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Rubbing noises. He could hear a faint rubbing. And a clopping noise? Hendrix tried to open his eyes only to see that they'd been caked in a thick layer of blood. He tried to scratch it away to feel his arm had a large amount of bandages around it. Having removed the dried blood and opening his eyes, he saw everything as bright and blurry. Faint noises could be heard and shuffling was made clear. He closed his eyes and rubbed at them. Opening them again to find... Ponies? No way. That isn't possible. Ponies aren't multicoloured, nor do they have small snouts and large eyes.
"No!" Hendrix shouted, falling off the bed and sending a sharp spike of pain up his spine. Bed? It was rather kind of the one who had let him sleep on their bed and tend to his wounds, but ponies? He was tripping out. He tried to stand, only to hear shouts and have his leg give in to pain. He only just realised that all his clothes were off, making it rather awkward for the given situation. He was forced back onto the towel covered bed and held down by a blue, winged, rainbow pony helped by an orange, yellow one wearing a hat. He would have laughed having not been held under the two ponies. To be honest though, they were only about forty kilos, and he could have lifted the both of them easily. The purple one's voice made its way through his foggy thoughts and into his brain.
"What are you?" She asked.
"Huh? I'm a guy, I guess?" He replied, confused. The purple one wrote down notes with a quill furiously. "Okay... Guy, why are you here?"
"I have a name..." Hendrix said awkwardly. The ponies looked confused. "And guy is my gender, I guess. Not my type." He said, getting a bit more comfortable talking to animalistic figures.
"So your a... What then? Guy? You mean stallion right? You look like one." The purple one again asked, clearly looking confused and a bit embarrassed.
"I'm a human, and I'm male, so yeah. I guess I'm a stallion..." He said. "But just before you ask me any more questions, I've got some for you. Where am I? Who are you? Why are you all ponies? And why are you using a quill and not a pen?" The ponies looked in confusion. Obviously they had not seen a pen before.
"You're in Equestria. But a pen?" The white and violet one said. "I can't say I know of such a thing. Inform us please."
"A pen dispenses ink without the need of an inkwell and eliminates the need for carefulness because it never easily smudges. It also doesn't blow away..." Hendrix said. "Oh, and my name's Hendrix Leonidas. Can I ask for yours'?"
"Of course!" The purple one stated. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. I run the library in Ponyville and I'm one of the wielders of the Elements Of Harmony."
"And I'm Rainbow Dash!" The rainbow maned one joined in. " And I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria! I also wield the Elements Of Harmony!"
"Ah'm Applejack! An' ah be your everyday farm pony. Ah also wield the Elements Of Harmony." The orange one said.
"I'm Pinkie Pie! And I always throw the best, super-duper, fun parties! I'm also a user of the Elements Of Harmony!" The hyper, pink pony giggled.
"I'm Rarity darling, and I run the Carrousel Boutique in Ponyville! If you need a new suit, I can help. I wield an Element Of Harmony too!"
"And this is Fluttershy," Twilight spoke again, pointing to the huddled yellow pony in the corner. "And she looks after all the animals for Ponyville. She's also really good at Medicare as you can see." She said, pointing to Hendrix's bandages, in which he could see were wrapped over at least half of his body. "She is also the element of kindness and uses the Elements Of Harmony too!" Twilight said enthusiastically. The rest of the evening went into them explaining themselves to Hendrix. Twilight was generous enough to let his stay in her house for a couple of nights or until he decided to leave. With his positive input, he was to spend the night in Twilight's room with her friends for her apparent second slumber party. The friends had arrived with their gear and waited downstairs.
"Twilight! They're here!" Hendrix said, calling upstairs. Twilight said she wanted to get the room ready, but geez. She's been up there half an hour.
"Thanks!" She called, galloping down the stairs. "Just re-enforcing the roof to protect us from a repeat event. Hendrix was just about to ask about it, when he was cut off by squeals. Obviously they were very happy friends. Having headed upstairs and settled in, everyone was huddled around Hendrix in the middle of the room. He was telling stories of his own world. "-and we had big metallic boxes that had metallic wings, but they would fly. We also had computers from gigantic sizes to the size of your hooves. That reminds me, where did you guys put my clothes?" He asked.
"I put them in the corner downstairs..." Fluttershy spoke to him for the first time that day. She seemed really shy and she trailed the end of her sentence to a whisper. "Ok, thanks Fluttershy. I'll be right back guys." Hendrix stated, running down the stairs to retrieve his clothes. Apparently the ponies didn't seem intimidated of the such if he had his genitals hanging out, so he had just gone with it. He still felt really uncomfortable though, and didn't like the idea of being naked. After reaching the bloody, dirty, torn pile of clothes, he pulled his iPod out of his pants' pocket and raced back upstairs to see the six in the exact same position they were in, whispering to one another about the recent things he had told them. Having gained enough confidence, he sat back down between Twilight and Rainbow Dash and revealed the iPod from the cover of his large hands. Although the group looked in awe, he knew they were confused in what it could be, so he pressed the power button. Immediately, gasps could be heard. "I-Is that magic?" Twilight asked.
"No. It's actually a source of electricity running through an unthinkable amount of variables to do a designated task. The light your see is coming from an uncountable amount of LEDs, or Light Emitting Diodes. They are full of a gas that will glow when electricity flows through it. The sounds are created by fine electromagnets creating pulses in the air around it, and the screen is triggered by heat or infrared sensors. Even I don't know exactly how the touchscreen works."
Hendrix stated. Another round of confused faces. Turns out that they haven't discovered electricity, yet. He said that he'd discuss it another day and that it's time to have fun right now, so he showed them what his 'miniature machine' could do. First he showed them the interface, then he started to play some music. They questioned his like for dubstep, but he had dismissed it as a new 'human tradition.' Soon they were all listening to music and taking endless 'selfies' of each other. He had been really surprised to find out that Twilight was a friend with the princesses, and was one herself. It was about one o'clock in the morning when Hendrix and the others had decided to stop screwing around and go to bed. Since Twilight only had one bed, the six mares squished under the covers and Hendrix happily volunteered to take the floor, and what seemed like endless hours of debating with the six, he won and snuggled to the furry carpet of the floor.
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Hendrix woke up during early morning and sighed. The first thing he noticed was that there were about three warm, fluffy cushions pulled up to him. He guessed that the girls couldn't help but make him feel at home. They were some of the best friends he'd had. Friends. That rung a bell somewhere but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Keanu. Suddenly, Hendrix's eyes opened wide. He quickly lifted himself up from the strangely heavy, fuzzy cushions and clumsily ran downstairs to slide on his clothes. Halfway through pulling his pants on, he heard trotting coming down the stairway.
"Hendrix?" Asked a familiar voice. "What are you up to?" It asked. Hendrix quickly whirled around to see a dozen eyes set on him and his clothes.
"And why are you wearing those mucky clothes?" Questioned Rarity.
"I'm headed off to help a friend, and I'm putting these on because I don't feel comfortable being naked." He answered. The mares looked at him with quizzical, but understanding looks on their faces. After hurriedly explaining his situation to them, they said they'd go with him to help the other human. "No," Hendrix replied. "You've served me medication, food, hospitality, and friendship on a silver platter, and I don't even have anything to repay you guys with. I don't want you guys wasting your time on my problems. Besides, it's raining." Hendrix stated, trying to make his point clear. "But Hendrix, I'm a pegasus, and I have wings!" Rainbow Dash claimed. Hendrix just sighed, "And?"
"Chasm. Steep. Flying. Wings." Rainbow tried to spell it out for him. Having gotten the idea, he tried to come up with an excuse. "But I owe you. Not the other way around." Twilight just sighed and stepped in. "No Hendrix, we owe each other. Yes, we've helped you, but you've helped us as well. You taught us valuable information and entertained us with your stories. But most of all, you've become our friend, and that's worth more than anything." Hendrix almost felt like crying at that statement. It was a beautiful speech, and was exactly what he imagined a princess actually saying. Having argued and lost, he quickly sprinted out the door with the rest of the group, heading towards 'Ghastly Gorge.'
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They found him in a puddle of his own blood. He had tried to climb out of the raving only to fall back down. He had a slight pulse and Twilight quickly tried to heal him with her magic. If Hendrix had eaten before they left, it would have gone to waste. Keanu's flesh was convulsing and pulsing up and down. It continued to happen for at least thirty seconds before Twilight stopped, Standing back from the body. From what Hendrix could see, all the wounds were miraculously healed. Having dealt with that, Fluttershy carried Keanu while I was carried by Rainbow Dash out if the gorge. Fluttershy and Dash flew back and forth a couple more times just to collect everyone, then we walked back to Twilight's. Hendrix just feared for the worst when they got back. What if Keanu woke and started a crazed slaughter on everybody? What if he woke and sat depressed, every day? He didn't know, but he didn't like to think about it either.
Having just gotten back to Twilight's, the girls decided to stay for the awakening of Keanu. The door was greeted by the rumble of a belly.
"Lunch?" Twilight asked.
"Yes please!" Came the voices simultaneously. The pressure having calmed down, Hendrix sat on a chair in front of the bed awaiting his friend's arrival to consciousness. Having played his iPod for a good five minutes, Keanu came to and started to look around. Hendrix shoving the iPod into his pocket, said: "Hello, hello, hello, dipshit! What's up?"
"Eh. Hey, where we at?" Keanu asked, sitting up. Twilight called from downstairs. "Hendrix? Is that your other friend?" Came the voice.
"Yep!" He shouted back down. Shortly after, the sound of galloping came up the stairs. Keanu looked very confused. "Brace yourself mate." Hendrix warned, hoping he'd calm down a bit when he saw their appearance. That's almost what happened. The ponies came and said 'hello,' but Keanu just sat and stared. About a minute went by with Keanu immobilised, but he eventually snapped out of it and started asking questions. The day went away like the last, except the human was asking all the questions. The only majorly awkward part being that Twilight brought in daisy sandwiches, only to have Keanu burst like a balloon and state that they ate meat. Hendrix managed to reassure the ponies, but he thought that Keanu might need a small lesson on the life of the ponies. Later that day, Hendrix found out that he would be meeting all of he royals next week and was just more than a little nervous about that. Other than that it was just swell. The only other existing problem being that his hair was unexpectedly turning a weird shade of blue with what seemed like a moderate-frequency, cyan, lightning-bolt going through it from the front to back.
He noticed the same thing going on with Keanu, but his hair was only turning from orange to a slightly sickly brown. The thing that worried Hendrix the most, was what he might continue to transform into. He didn't know, but his body was still taking physical changes. He didn't like puberty, and he didn't like this. It felt like he wasn't what he was meant to be. Slowly, he fell into a soft, deep sleep.
Author's Note
Whew. I dunno... Like it! I guess...
