Ch 1:I don't remember that being there. (REVISED)
My name is Jared. I was your average 26 year old guy: brown hair, whitish skin, and a job. One thing I liked to do was backpacking. Hiking into a forest, camping, and hiking out, without any interruptions of the city. I was looking for a site, thinking about something [note: try to specify what], when I bumped my head into a tree. I rubbed my head, and checked to see if it was ok. I would have taken if the ground was still there! I fell into the void, and soon smacked into the ground in a clearing of trees. I blacked out mid-step.
As I got up I found a clearing that I didn't remember being there. It was as good a place to stay for the night, so I decided to set up a camp. I could see a desert a bit away through the trees, and automatically knew I didn't wanna camp there. I pulled out my phone to check the time. It said it was one in the afternoon, when the sun clearly said it was nine in the morning.
As I pitched up my tent, I spotted ruins not far away. I made a mental note to explore them later. After setting up my camp, I unpacked my stuff, which contained two rolls of unopened duct tape (can never have too much of that), a machete, extra stakes, a hammer, cooking essentials, food and water to last me 3 days, an ax, a canteen, and a sleeping bag. After taking inventory, I made a fire pit, chopped some wood, and had a quick snack. I then went for a hike to the ruins.
As I entered what I had presumed to be the entrance, I saw two banners above a couple of thrones. One pictured the sun and some kind of unicorn with wings facing left in a gold-like thread, the other the moon with a different unicorn/pegasus combo in a majestic dark blue thread. I was astonished, but upon trying to mutter "whoa," I found I could no longer talk. Maybe I damaged my vocal cords? After trying to make a few sounds, I found I could only grunt, groan and growl. I'm was gonna need a checkup after camping. I went back to the site where I set up camp and spent the rest of the day there. Throughout the night, I could hear screams and a organ playing. After a while, I decided to get up and see who was nearby. As I poked my head around the corner, I found four ponies panicking, and one flying around.
There was an orange one with a yellow/blonde mane sporting a old western hat running around as if she were drunk, and had three apples on her flank. Branding? One was weeping and saying something I couldn't make out, with a yellow coat and a pink mane and a branding of 3 butterflies. It also seemed to have wings. Then, there was a white unicorn with a royal purple mane, with a branding of three diamonds, crying until a banner on a column fell on top of her, and still after. Then there was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane flying around with a branding of a storm cloud shooting a rainbow colored lightning bolt. Suddenly, a loud "Stop!" brought all the ponies back to their senses, after which a purplish magenta aura surrounded the five.
I was astonished but at the same time glad I was only peeking around the corner in a position to where they couldn't see him. I snuck back to my tent and slept for the rest of the night, only to wonder about it for the rest of the next day. How are there talking ponies? Much less multicolored talking ones!
I could only think up a few reasons, which was that they were an endangered species, they've just been hiding, or he somehow was on another world. Keeping an open mind, I tried to see if I could hike back to my car. I walked in the direction I thought it was in, just to find out that I was lost. I tried my phone for a signal, only to fail in finding one. Eventually I made my way back to the campsite, and decided that since I was lost, I should probably make some traps for food, mainly because there seemed to be no berries in the forest. Setting traps now for food would be better than later, in case I couldn't find my way back. And if I do find my way back, I can just take down the trap. Uncoiling some duct tape from a roll, I attached it to an nearby tree and spun it clockwise to make duct tape rope. After I made a bit of that, I used the rest of the roll to make sticky rope, which gave it the adhesive properties of the tape itself combined with the strength of a normal rope. Binding some sticky tape together, I made a spider web-like net.
After making a few of these, I placed different types of traps around the area. One was set so there was a tripwire which would have some sharpened branches he made fling out at any creature that triggered it, after which would cause them to go partially blind, or lose balance, either way causing the creature to stumble in a sticky net, and another tripwire was placed in front of that to cause another sticky net to fall and encase the creature, and ring a bell. The other was a basic "food and rope" where he would set food on the ground, set a tripwire nearby, so when they go for the food, a sticky net cones up from under them and encases them like a bag hanging off of a tree, after which would ring a bell.
I ate some cooked SPAM, which was Spiced Pork And Ham in a can. After my meal, I went to make a small shelter made of wood. Trying to chop some branches off of a tree, the ax got wedged inside the tree. I eventually got it out, but the tree healed itself, as if the ax never hit it. Trying again, knocking off a lower branch, the tree healed itself again. One of the bells ringed after the second try, and I saw I had caught what seemed to be a wolf made of wood, trying to escape. Any who tried to help it got stuck to the outside. I had figured that the catch would be useless, and freed some of them, who then tried attacking me. Ax still in hand, I chopped them down to their parts, and set on freeing the one in the trap. As soon as I freed it, the others somehow put themselves back together and tried attacking me, but the one I freed stopped them.
Why it stopped the others from attacking, I have no clue. But they left me alone for awhile. I went to resetting the trap as soon as I could. I had no way to get extra water that I could say was clean, so I went to the ruins and found a cauldron in it and slowly moved it to my campsite. After that, I found some sand and put it with some water to try to make it form into a dome with two tubes coming out. One was curved in an "S," so no steam got out. The other curved down into the gallon of water. After that I made it back to camp with it in one piece. I placed it so it could harden over the fire into glass or a some other substance that was solid. After five hours, it was done and he could make some dinner. I slowly moved my now heavy glass dome over the cauldron.
For dinner I had some spam and buried the berries I was going to eat, seeing as they had seeds in them. If not, I tried anyways. Afterwords, I went to bed.
I spent the next days in routine trying to survive. Checking traps, building a better base, and just plain out surviving. I found some lion-scorpion hybrid beast that I outran and made it back to camp.
Few days later I found them again, so I got on top of one and cut off his tail, before slitting it's neck with my machete. The others watched and waited for another to challenge me. As one charged at me, I climbed a tree, and jumped on it's back, rode it like a bull, cut the tail, then finishing it off by slitting it's neck. The other had bled out already, and the remaining two in the group ran off in fear. I had my meals for the next few days, and carried them back to my campsite like a fireman would an unconscious person from a burning building.
2 weeks later
Applejack
"Hey Applejack," said Twilight, "Can you go check upon the others? I need to review the work done so far and check up on Owlowiscius."
"Sure thing, Twi." As ah' walked down the recently restored hall to the chamber we were working on, ah' heard crumbling ahead. Probably just some part further up past the area. As ah' entered the room, ah' had counted only three ponies. Fluttershy was placing brick in the wall up high, Rarity was working on the stained-glass windows, and Pinkie was bouncing up the bricks, literally.
"Hey, where's Rainbow?" I asked.
"Oh, darling, she got tired and went exploring the nearby area. I told her we'd be fine without her. But we're all fine. She-"
Rarity had gotten cut off by a blur of colors before Rainbow Dash crashed into the floor, before shouting "Where's Twilight, I need to talk to her! I found something she should know about!"
"She's checkin on them areas we already fixed up. Why?" After sayin' what ah' had said, Rainbow dashed down the hall out of sight. "Can she get any more wreckless?"
Twilight
As I was studying what had been repaired already, Rainbow knocked into me from out of nowhere, before shouting, "Twilight, hurry, you need to see this! Zecora isn't the only one who lives in the Everfree."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that there is somepony nearby who lives near here!"
"WHAT? Show me!"
"This way!"
As Rainbow Dash showed me the way, we talked abut who could possibly live out here. By the time we arrived, we still had no idea. We pushed open the door, but luckily whoever lived here wasn't home. There was a cauldron with boiling water and had a glass tube above it catching the steam and sending it over a bowl, where the steam then went through precipitation. There was what looked like a saddlebag, but instead of going on the side of the body, it went on the back. There were some roughly made tables, a wood pile, and a hole with a thing leading into it. It looked like a shelf except the sides were made with rope and led down. The hut itself was made of branches and bark, and had a grass floor. near the middle of the hut was a small tent. inside was a large sleeping bag and a mat of some sort that was inflatable and easy to transport.
"What is this place, Twilight?"
"I have no idea, but whoever lives here certainly hasn't been here long or this place would be more structurally sound. We might want to get out of here before they come home."
"Don't you know an invisibility spell or something? I wanna spy in them!"
"Fine, but just to see who lives here."
As I cast the spell, I felt the magical surge flow through me. Afterwords, I looked at where RD just was, but I couldn't see her.
"Do you want me to make it so we can see each other?
"Yes, please."
As I cast a different one, that allowed us to see each other. Rainbow was still next to me. At that moment, we heard the door creak open as whoever lived here walked in. It was a human, and was carrying some wood and placing it neatly on the wood pile. Afterwords, he sat down and took what seemed to be a large curved blade off his back and started sharpening it. It was about 5 hoof eleven and wore clothes. The clothes were blue pants of some sort, tan boots, and a white shirt. There seemed to be no branding, and just sat there sharpening the blade before looking over it. Afterwords, a bell rang from somewhere and he walked out.
"Should we follow him?"
"Probably, just to see what that bell was."
We followed him into a small area where he squatted down and looked at something before getting up and walking somewhere else. After following it to the next area, we saw a rabbit trapped in a net. We watched as he grabbed it and slit the neck and hung it on a branch to let it bleed out, before resetting the trap.
Author's Note
This is my first try at a story, but i think i did good. I'm gonna try to lengthen the other chapters. Next one expect to be better. try to give me some suggestions, please.
NOTE: if you are good at editing and pointing out errors, PM me. as this is my first story i have no editors to poke out the mistakes.
Jared
I had been chopping wood all day, and was getting tired. So I had decided to go back to my new home. As soon as I got there, I put the axe up, stacked the wood, and sat down and started sharpening my machete. It was valuable to me now. I often found large predators in the woods here. Most of which were mythological.
Because of their large size, I had to outrun them, which I couldn’t, or outsmart them, which was too easy. If I was close enough to one of my traps, I simply ran toward it and at the last second sidestepped. After of which they would fall into it. If I wasn’t close to it, I got out my machete and fought the beasts.
After a bit, I heard my bell ring. I went to go check on my traps. Inside one was a rabbit. I was going to let it free, but I was curious to what rabbit tasted like. I slit its neck and let it hang on a branch to have it bleed out, and went to resetting the trap. By the time I was done, the rabbit had bled out. I picked it up and went home.
As soon as I got there, I set to making dinner. I decided to use the rabbit I had caught. I skinned it and gutted it. Then I took the muscle and other edible parts and put them into a stew. Afterwords I went and got some nearby things that I could put in it. I had found a wild carrot patch as well as these weird trees that had grown rainbow apples last week. I had picked what I could but at the end of the week the apples that I hadn’t picked disappeared.
I had found out that rainbow apples were delicious. But I had only one this time. Besides, when was it going to happen again? A month? A year? But I had figure I could use one in my stew. So I chopped it up and put it inside the stew, along with some carrots. I let it set and had it cook. After which I decided to take a nap.
Twilight
I had watched as the human slit the neck of the rabbit and let it bleed out. But after he set it to hang, he had reset the trap. This meant that he was intelligent, and I had to get to max. I tapped Rainbow’s shoulder and motioned for us to go. After we got back to the ruins I undid the spells I had casted on us. “Hey, rainbow dash, can you go tell the girls to meet up here? I’m going to go get max.”
“Sure thing.”
A few minutes later, we all met up and told them what myself and Rainbow dash had found. I suggested observing it for a while. Pinkie pie was excited as usual. She had a bunch of questions, and I could only catch half of them, or less. All of which were along the lines of “Does he like cupcakes?” or “Does he look scary?” or something useless like that. After I got tired of hearing her talk without either having answers or not having the time to answer, I just stuck my hoof in the hole of endless questions.
I felt a slimy appendage lick the bottom. “Really, you have to lick my hoof when I just finished a hike into the forest? Who knows what is on it? Some of the dirt could be bugs that if swallowed could get you sick or something.”
*One question*
“Yes, max?”
*Is it male or female?*
“Male, why?”
*Just curious*
Jared
I awoke to the smell of food ready. I Smothered the fire and then removed the glass a few minutes later. It was enough to serve me for the week. As I ate, I heard noises outside. I decided to peek outside the door. I saw a person! Finally! But as he stepped out of behind the tree, I saw it was naked, and sniffing the air for food. I closed the door and locked it, I was not sharing, AT ALL! I sat down and continued to eat until I was full. Then I placed the glass over the cauldron and went to bed.
Max
Twilight, the rest of the girls, and I watched outside his hut. We waited a few minutes, before I smelt something that seemed familiar. It was close to a stew, but could be easily mistaken for pot roast or roasted turkey. The hut itself seemed to be put together with sticks and a silvery grey material, but no metal, glass, or modern human tech. Except for the silver grey stuff. He had seen it before, but couldn’t recall the name.
As I opened the door, I saw someone facing away from me getting whatever it was out of the cauldron. When he turned around, he had tried to shoo me away. I tried to show intelligence, but he hadn’t noticed, so I flicked him the bird and shoved the door on his face and walked away. Then twilight poked her head outside of some bushes. “Did you get him to have a conversation?”
*no*
“so he isn’t intelligent, just a regular human?”
*just wait, 3, 2, 1-*
“I don’t have time to-“ The door to the hut flew open as twilight was talking. He came out with a machete. He tried to come at me, but I sidestepped, hit him in the center of the back, and pushed him into some bushes with my foot. He soon after got up and charged after me again, and I sidestepped again. But he then tossed the machete as if it were some kind of ninja star. It cut my “saddlebag” (honestly I could never stand it.) and lodged itself on the side of the tree. I flashed a quick smile and grabbed it off the tree.
Author's Note
sorry i took awhile, but here it is. expect the next chapter by the end of April. hope you like it :D
