A New Voyage

                                                                'This is ridiculous...'

Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate had been walking through this forest for a decent amount of time and in that time he had come across many things. Nothing he could have used to see what his new face looked like unfortunately but instead a good many aggressive demons out to get him.

Some like the lion creature he dealt with previously, while others were all together different. At least the ones he noticed weren't out right too afraid to challenge him and fled from his presence.

He had traveled the world over many times and seen strange beasts of every shape and size imaginable but none of those compared in sheer strangeness to these demons. These new monstrosities could best be described as wolves made out of trees.

They weren't particularly interesting beyond that description but he still felt the need to come up with a name for them to keep some deviation between them and the chimera's. He was exceptionally proud of the name as he felt it was not only very original but even a tad comedic.

He called them "Timber Wolves".

If hell or wherever he was had other people in it a small part of him couldn't wait to tell them the clever moniker he had come up with for the monsters.

The larger part of him on the other han...hoof had other things in mind however.

For instance why would the creatures sent out to deal him his eternal punishment not seem to know just who he was? If they did they would have known to approach more tactfully, which they never did.

It had all been much of the same as you would expect to see from ordinary wolves...but these were demons! Surely they had to have at least partially higher intelligence.

But no they had all been the same. Which is to say stupid aggressive and easily scared off once they realized they were out matched.

The old man gave them some credit though, they never attacked alone.

Always in groups they appeared which made little difference to Edward beyond his opinion of them. But that did them no good as his tremor powers were strong enough to make them to shatter like the twigs they were.

He was a bit uneasy mostly from the sight of it, when he observed that the broken piece's could come together and form a larger more powerful version of the original beasts.

These larger one's did required a little more oomph in his attack, but in spite of that it wasn't much different and down it went.

The idea that the monsters sent out for him were getting stronger had kept him partially interested in his enemies, perhaps the devil or whoever was in charge was finally understanding who they were dealing with?

But that was in the deeper part of the forest he awoke in. Before he came across something that completely shattered any idea of taking the unseen force driving the beasts seriously.

As he made his way forward now a bit slower then when he began for no reason other then he no longer felt like he had to rush or risk letting some grand invincible demonic beast catch him, he took note that some of the flora was beginning to change from the grey twisted foliage into something more vibrant and pleasant. Which told him he was entering something new. And that was when he saw it....

A bear.

Not a bear made of fire not a bear in armor with a sword not even a polar bear. Just a regular old brown bear which being up on its hind legs was about Edwards height.

And it just so happened to have been roaring its loudest in his direction from the moment he laid eye's on it.

'This is ridiculous...' Thought the beyond annoyed pirate.

Sure hell wasn't supposed to be a fantasy land of wonder and amusement but he had hoped if he found himself there that the creatures dishing out the punishment would have been....creative. This had all been nothing short of boring for the old warrior.

He slowly and grudgingly made his way towards it for he knew by now if it had been sent for him ,it wouldn't just let him walk past with out some resistance.

"Alright brat. lets go,"

Hearing this made the bear stop its noise and look as if it honestly hadn't noticed him. It then proceeded to stare at the approaching being with what Edward could only describe as confusion.

"gurararara...What? You act like you've never seen a talking horse before," If he absolutely had to deal with this he would at least make it fun.

To his surprise and partial relief, the beast got down out of its stance and simply walked away looking back at him every now and again as it slowly vanished from view.

"....heh well at least I ain't gotta deal with you," He said once the creature was gone from eye sight.

Turning forward he caught sight of something comforting, a small cottage a short distance away.

And so with thoughts of perhaps having someone to talk to who wasn't out to kill him ,and more importantly of a particular beverage he had been deprived of for longer then he would have liked possibly being present, reinvigorating him he strode forward in its direction.

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Earthquakes had been ravaging the entirety of Ponyville for a greater deal of the day.

"There there little critters, everything's gonna be alright," Fluttershy said trying to calm down a few still distressed squirrels in one of the shelters outside her cottage.

Most of the animals she cared for had been thrown into a panic from the very start, and the tremors that followed did little to help their mood. So she had been hard at work all day trying to calm them all in any way she could and be it through singing promising treats or everything in between she had managed to get a just about all of them to settle down by this time.

Twilight had shown up with Rainbow Dash just a short time ago to make sure Fluttershy was okay which other then some of her nicer things being broken and the emotionally distraught state of the animals she was fine.

After her friends helped her clean up the mess and secure the remainder of her possessions with magic, they all sat down over tea and there she was informed that these tremors flowing through out town were a combination of too violent and too frequent, that meant they couldn't be natural. Which perhaps meant magic was at work.

Well Twilight informed. Rainbow on the other hand simply boasted that if a unicorn or some other user of magic was doing this intentionally she'd take them down. They chatted for short while longer before the alicorn and pegasus left to check on the rest of their friend's.

After a few minutes had passed and Fluttershy had managed to repress any thoughts of a demon unicorn out to destroy Equestria, another quake hit. This one far worse then the other's

Fortunately, the spells in place kept her things from being knocked out of place. Unfortunately the animals had no calming down spell about them. So once that had passed she began the task of tending to the upset little creatures, and much to her and their delight, the last quake seemed to have been just that.

The last.

Off in the distance she could hear Henry the bear practicing his roar as he always did this time of day. Hearing this was pleasing to her, knowing that even with all this earthquake business going on Henry wasn't too upset he really was one of the nicer and more laid back bears in the woods she thought. He had once even told Fluttershy that he would never attack a pony. Even if they were being mean to him, he'd just walk away.

She was glad such a kindly creature wasn't troubled by all the tremor's. Then a thought hit her.

"There did you hear that? Henry's not worried about the earthquakes and he's a big softy," The pegasus stated sweetly

the squirrels chittered in response before looking in the direction of the noise. Their reaction was one of deep concern, in fact they looked positively petrified.

"hm? Whats wrong? Its only Hen-" But turning around to look back she was greeted with the sight that had them so upset and left her speechless.

A massive white stallion, even bigger then Celestia with the largest crescent shaped mustache she had ever seen was just a few feet away making his way towards her.

"Hoy....got any booze?" The large pony asked her.

"EEep...." Fluttershy whimpered in response as she slowly crept down to the ground and there began shaking nervously.

"Ehh....I just heard you talking to those animals...so don't act like your a mute. Well? Answer the question" the stallion was now right in front of her staring her down with tired yet commanding eyes.

"uhm...no? I'm sorry but....who are you???" She responded too quietly to be properly heard. She swore she could hear him growl which didn't exactly help her terror.

"Try again," He said this time leaning in close and locking eyes with her.

At this point the animals around her had taken notice of the visitor and in response gone into hiding.

"I'm sorry...no...who are you?" She said this time a little bit louder....which clearly wasn't loud enough evident from the behemoth of a pony sighing before he retracted himself from his leaning position.

"Never mind...I'll go check myself if your gonna be that way about it," And with that the massive individual simply walked right by her with big stomping hoof-steps towards her closed door.

"w-wait! what are you doing?...I-if you dont mind my asking" She said in protest. But the stallion if he heard her simply ignored her and made his way to her door and then just stared at it, then at his hoof, then at the door.

He seemed to be in deep genuine thought about something. Maybe he didn't know how to open a door? No that's just silly she thought. After a moment he raised a hoof and placing it gently on the door handle managed to get it open after a moment of fumbling.

He then smiled as if he had accomplished some great feat and simply walked in like he owned the place.

"Oh....my...." Squeaked the still distraught pegasus.

She couldn't just this giant pony do who knows what in her home it was obvious he made the animals uncomfortable and the fact that he was fine with just going right into somepony else's house without permission made her worry that he wasn't exactly the nicest pony out there either.

But what could she do? She had a feeling he wouldn't just leave if she asked at this point and she knew on her own she could never take on such a huge stallion. She really didn't want to leave the animals alone with this giant but she didn't have much choice.

So taking one final look back at her cottage then at some of the animals that were slowly peeking out from their hiding place's she took to the air and made for ponyville to get help.

"Be careful babies.." she whispered as she flew.

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Meeting a talking horse ordinarily might not have surprised him what with all the different types of devil fruits the world had to offer, but now all the encounter did was confirm his suspicion that when you die you turn into a horse for some idiotic divine reasoning. Whether it was an all around rule or just for those in hell he didn't know or really care.

What did surprise him however was the fact this one had a house and various bits of furnishing to boot such as books a sofa tables and even some fruit left out on said table ,which reassured him that food and drink were accessible here .

After giving it some thought he just figured that once you lived out your degree of punishment which may not have been quite so eternal, your allowed to live in various degree's of luxury. Perhaps the forest he found himself in was in fact the place where all the divine retribution took place?

If so the fact that he made it out by that reasoning meant he had earned a few comforts, and the little air head who lived here wasn't going to keep him from them. He was after all Whitebeard the pirate.

From what he saw inside this was obviously the home of some kind of animal breeder or something and he did notice various smaller rodents and birds scampering about trying to avoid his seeing them. He just ignored them.

Instead he focused on the task at hand ,and searched throughout the homestead until he saw it, and with a wide grin made his way towards what was obviously the residents food storage.

He stood staring at the door for a moment the handle was much to small for him to slip one of his massive hooves through. He thought he might have to use his teeth, but quickly abandoned the thought of such a demeaning action for another more respectable one.

"Screw it,"

Reeling back his right hoof a bit further then he thought he'd be able in his knew body he aimed right for the center of the metal boxes door then struck resulting in the satisfying sound of metal scraping and buckling. He stepped back and watched the whole thing fall off its hinges landing with a loud clatter at his feet, then set his sights on the treasure with in.

Most of the contents there in were more green then he expected, with hardly a speck of meat to be seen.

"Honestly, if you want to be health nut while alive that's fine....but your dead now, I don't think it matter's..And come on, why else would hell have all these animals if not for food??" He said as if the smaller soul was next to him at that moment.

As he with one hoof rummaged about looking for his prize he didn't notice or perhaps didn't pay any attention to the small white rabbit standing in the door way of the kitchen giving him such a scowl.

If its presence had gone unnoticed, it was quickly picked up on when the thing rushed towards Edward and leaped up delivered what it must have thought was a kick to the side of his head impressive given he was much much higher off the ground then it.

But much to the bunny's chagrin, it didn't even seem to register with Edward. Of course he had felt something bump him from the side, but given how soft and light it was he didn't pay the action any mind. He did however watch this tiny poof ball out of the corner of his eye.

The vermin watched him for a moment with its arms folded before it stuck out its chest and repeated the action

Edward however had just set his sight on his prize and he didn't feel like being bothered as he collected it, so just before the creature's attack he flexed his arm releasing an air born shock wave. It didn't cause an earthquake but one wasn't needed as the small white rat was sent flying back the way it came. After a moment a small clatter could be hear on the other side of the cottage.

Not considering anything about the creature other then its bravery even worth noting he returned his sights forward and there they were. A handful of bottles in the back filled with a familiar brown liquid inside. Though he personally preferred his beer sake and any other drink he was having straight from the barrel which before today were usually the only things large enough for him, he wasn't complaining.

The labels on them read cider which for a brief moment made his heart sink, as whether or not it was hard or soft wasn't listed.

"Only one way to find out," The old man said with an arched eyebrow.

And so reaching out with his hoof....he paused and widened his eyes slightly then stood completely motionless, time itself seeming to slow down as the realization set in.

Though he had been brought so close to victory, he had no hands to grip it with.

"This place really is hell...." he said as he allowed his outstretched leg to return to his side is expression slowly returned to how he usually wore his face.

After a few moments he had an idea.

He reached his head in and gripping one of the bottles with his teeth slowly and carefully lifted it out and pulled it away before setting it down on nearby table, then raising his head directly over the bottle grabbed it and lifted it straight up allowing the contents to pour into his mouth.

It was different then what he expected. It was far sweeter and didn't taste like it had much alcohol in it but he finished it off all the same. Even if it wasn't what he was hoping for, he had to admit it was delicious.

He thought about grabbing another as he tossed the bottle to the side with a satisfied exhale, but that thought let his mind when he spied a mirror in the main lobby of the cottage.

He was still curious what he looked like so he made his way over to it and got a good look at his new face.

As he already knew his wide mustache was present. As for the rest of his features, his eyes while much larger now were still the golden yellow they always were, his jaw was still long and wide and there were still the signs of great age on his face. The biggest difference was it was now all covered in white fur as well as being contorted to hold a muzzle.

What drew his attention lastly was the short blonde mane on the top of his head. He almost forgot he had blonde hair considering he almost always wore a black bandana.

This called to mind he still had no clothes, perhaps he could find some replacements in this cottage?

Well replacements were a bit too much to hope for especially considering from what he over heard while she was talking to those animals, the resident was probably a woman. So instead he hoped to at least confirm the notion of hell's denizens having clothes.

That was the thought anyway before he saw movement in the mirror towards the main door which he had left open followed by voice's.

"Whoa! Look at him!" said one "Ya'll wern't kiddin'. He IS huge!" said the other.

Edward turned about and was greeted with the sight of the smaller horse he tried to speak to earlier hiding behind two other horses of similar size.

One had azure colored fur with a literal rainbow colored main who was staring at him both expectantly and with a bit of wonder.

The other was orange with freckles and a blonde mane under a type of hat he had seen in some parts of the world but couldn't quite identify at the moment, who was staring at him both with concern and a hint of indignation.

But rather then their looks, he was much more caught up in the realization of how truly odd their color schemes were. Even the one he met earlier he now realized was a strange color for a horse, even if it was just the form the dead took.

At first he thought their fur color was designated by maybe whatever their favorite color was in life or something, when a much more logical solution was presented in his mind.

He looked at the empty and cracked bottle on the floor.

"That stuff must have been stronger then I thought..."