Raison d'etreby Umbral AfroChaptersGetting out (revised)A new development (revised))First ConfrontationGetting out (revised)Raison d'etre Ch. 1 Getting out It was a nice winter's day; it wasn’t too cold, and the sun could actually be seen through what limited cloud cover there was on this day. There sits a lone house along a dirt road, all the curtains were closed, while an open window allowed the light, cool breezes to enter. The house was well kept on the outside; the cream colored paint on the home had been repainted only a few months prior, and the grass surrounding it was well kept; it retaining its color and length due to the cold weather. The only thing that stood out was that it was the only house on that road for about a quarter mile, and was rimmed by forest along its back sides. Inside the home consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/dining room area, and living room. Each or these rooms was kept clean, for the most part; the bedroom doors remained closed, possibly to hide that which shouldn’t be found, in the kitchen dishes began to form a small mound that breached the rim of the sink, and while the living room was only ever victim to scattered, and abandoned, plates and cups. Behind one of the closed bedroom doors sat a lone figure in the darkness. It spent its days mostly in front of a lit screen, whether it is computer of television, and passes the time. Currently a lush rainforest could be seen on the TV screen; the scenery began to rush by, and then came to an abrupt stop at a dirt road. The figure then began to mutter something to itself. “Okay, so now I go past here, up the hill, and there is the outpost.” Later the front door to the house opened and a second figure entered into the dark. The darkness was then chased off when the light switch in the living room was flipped and the room was illuminated. The second figure now moved towards a closed door, there was no sound coming from the other side and upon discovering this second figure grinned wickedly. Suddenly the door was thrust open, and the inside light switch flipped. “And one more to go- OOOOH MY GOD!!!!!” The first figure yelled Now bathed in light and thoroughly blinded the figure slowly open its eyes and saw the second doubled over in a fit of laughter. “Abner! What the hell?!” “Couldn’t help myself Conor!” Abner managed between laughs. “You don’t see any light all day, I thought you might secretly be a vampire. So I had to see if you sparkled!” The last word was punctuated by Abner quickly opening the curtains to allow in sunlight. Conor knew to not look towards the window, and instead paused his game (which he was sure he missed the shot and was now dead), and let his eyes adjust to the more than necessary amount of light in his room. His room was kind of small; with most of the floor space in his room taken up by his computer desk, TV stand, and dresser there wasn’t much room to move around. He liked it that way though, in his smaller room he felt more comfortable. His walls had a couple of posters, a couple video game related posters, and that poster of Einstein with his tongue out. This is where he would spend his days, inside, away from the crowds of people. “Come on.” Abner said, regaining some composure “You can’t always stay in your room all day. ” Conor would spend every day this way, with all of his free time spent either on his computer, or with one of his only friends, Abner. It's not that he didn't like others it's that he wasn't able to properly talk to people beyond two, or three at a time. Whenever he was with a large group of people all he could manage was uttering a barely audible "Yes", or "No". He was a bit shy, but that wasn’t the reason why. It was that being around too many people caused his brain to kind of overload. Conor has empathic abilities (meaning he could feel other people’s emotions and thoughts), and when there were too many people around him he would feel them, in presence and in thought. “Yes I can.” Conor quickly replied “I can leave at night to get exercise walking from here to my job at the late night stores, food is covered by you, and social interactions are covered by forums and thread posts.” Connor, despite his shy personality was well versed in all manner of sciences, primarily psychology, biology, and physics. He could map out all he would have to do to keep his body and mind from deteriorating due to minimal human contact, and Abner knew it. Abner was a very social person with an exuberant personality. He could become anybody's friend the instant he met them, and wasn't the kind of person to have himself constantly surrounded by others, though. He was one of the only people who Connor could easily talk to. Abner emitted a kind of energy that Conor felt as a kind of high energy that would normally quickly fry his brain, but at the same time it was tame and easy to deal with. Neither of them could explain it, and stopped caring after a while. Abner was the only one who tried to help Conor get over his shyness. He would plan ways to get Conor out of his house and interacting with others. These plans could be a simple trip to the mall, or including Connor in some of the things he did with his other friends. Abner even introduced Conor to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic so he could at least start to make some friends on his own. (Even if they only communicate over the internet) Today's Operation: Bring Connor to the mall Step 1: Convince Connor to go Step 2: Go have an awesome time at the mall Step 3: Repeat until Connor is over his shyness "Come on Conor!" Abner pleaded. "NO!" Conor snapped, his usual calm personality worn thin by Abner's constant barrage of failed attempts at getting him to leave the house. "Dude we're just going to the mall, not the moon. You'll be fine." "Like I was fine after the last time? Those people nearly crushed me!" Conor said remembering how the last time he went to the mall with Abner. He was nearly toppled over by a stampede of people after he short circuited from the barrage of different people’s feelings at once. Thankfully Abner saved him. “Now that was your fault you forgot some of the rules of the mall while it's crowded. • People will not hear you if you just stand there and try to talk to them • Move along the walls whenever possible • Only leave the wall to cross short distances • If caught in crowds in the middle of the walkway go with the flow of the crowd, and move back towards the wall “Also, you weren't in any danger you're bigger than anyone else there, just don't draw attention to yourself. If all else fails I'm here to help.” Conor still wasn't entirely convinced, but Abner was right about a few things. Conor was a good few inches taller than anybody else, and made it a priority to not attract any attention to himself. Also, Abner was always there to help him out. Conor then sighed, a sign that Abner knew meant that what was left of Conor's resistance has been defeated. "Yeah! Step one complete!" "What?" Conor asked. "Nothing, let’s go." A short while later both Connor and Abner stood outside Conor's house; Conor adjusted his eyes so he could better see the sunlit landscape that he so often ignored, and Abner put on his favorite pair of sunglasses, ones that made a weird V shape and seemed to stick right onto his face despite them not having arms. "Off we go then!" Abner exclaimed guiding Connor into the outside world. Connor was having second thoughts “Hey, why don't we do this late-" he was cut off by a sudden blinding white light that enveloped them, and then they were gone. From there they both felt a strange tingling sensation accompanying the intense light blinding them. This quickly changed as they both began to cry out in agony. It felt like every bone I their bodies were growing, shrinking, and breaking all at once. What they couldn’t see was their fingers and toes receding into their hands and feet, that were simultaneously hardening into hooves. Their skulls were being pulled horizontally forward, creating a muzzle. Other physical changes occurred, and the pain from this event caused the two now half human half equine creatures to pass out. A new development (revised))Ch. 2 A new development A soft light filtered through the tree tops shined in Abner's face causing him to wake up with a groan. "The hell happened?" he said to himself going over what could've lead to him waking up in... Well he didn't know where he was. He was in the middle of the woods somewhere, and the rays of sunlight that woke him up were gently shining on the ground so it wasn't that late in the day yet. Which was weird, seeing as it’s supposed to be winter. He felt fine though, his muscles were stiff, he had a minor head ache and felt a slight tingling sensation but all in all he was okay. He was lying under a tree on the edge of a small clearing in the woods. It looked like a normal forest would; it had trees, bushes, and a nearby lake. He could hear birds singing in the trees, but one thing caught his eye. There was something lying near the edge of the river. It was curled up in a patch of sunlight so he couldn't see what it was, but he could see that it was a shade of deep blue with two patches of hair, one short the other long, and both were silver with a black streak. “The heck is that?” he asked on one in particular. His interest peaked Abner decided to go over to the strange object by the lake, but once he stood up he noticed that he felt a bit... different. He tried to stand but found it impossible as he would fall back onto all fours. He just thought that his muscles were a bit weak from whatever had happened so he went with the quadruped gait. While he walked he also noticed that walking on all fours felt more natural than on the two he was use to so he was used to, and that he couldn't feel his hands or feet. Still believing that his muscles were just too worn out he pressed on towards the strange figure he initially was interested in. There it was… whatever it was. Now that he could get a better look at it Abner could get a good look at it he noticed that it looked like kind of like a pegasus from MLP. His mind ran a blank. This can’t be real. What is a pegasus doing here? (disregarding the fact that he didn't even know where "here" is). What happened? Just then his head was going to burst from all the questions he had the pegasus woke up. He took a step back allowing it to wake up without some stranger standing over it. The Pegasus slowly opened its eyelids revealing its brilliant emerald green eyes, and looked around as if confused. Its eyes eventually drifted over to Abner and gave him a quizzical look, as if to say ‘Who are you?’ "Hello." Abner said in an attempt to introduce himself “My name is Abner” The pegasus' eyes instantly shot wide “Abner?" it asked rolling over onto its hooves. Its voice sounded like Conor’s “Conor?” Abner asked back “How the hell did you turn into a pony!?” the Conor sounding pegasus asked Abner, being just as confused as the Pegasus walked over to the water's edge and looked for his reflection. What he found wasn't the human face he was expecting, he found that what looked back at him was a grey pony with blood red eyes, a horn, and spiky black hair that was draped down the sides of his face with a red streak going down the left side of his face. Looking at his body he saw why he couldn't feel his hands or feet, he didn't have any! As if some missing piece to a puzzle was just found he turned back to the pegasus who was now standing in the middle of the clearing looking over himself almost frantically. "Yeah it's me.” Abner said almost unfazed by his new form “And I'm guessing that you don't have any idea where we are either?” "No. The last thing I remember is us leaving my house then a bright flash of light and now we're here.” Abner sighed "Same here." After they both calmed down and had time to think about their situation they decided that sitting in the clearing all day wasn't going to solve anything. They had to get moving sooner or later, and would like to find some kind of settlement before night fall. "So which direction should we choose?" Conor questioned. Abner smirked "Well" he began sarcastically "You have direction number one, which is a lovely forest route.” he said pointing in a random direction. Then continued while pointing in the opposite direction "Direction number two, which is a delightful forest route. Or direction number three." He said pointing towards the sky "A beautiful skyward route that won't get us more lost." “I may be a pegasus now, but I’m not sure if I can fly yet.” Conor replied looking up into the clear blue sky. “Never know till you try.” Abner coaxed “How can I magically learn to fly after having these wings for all of half an hour?” Conor asked skeptically. “You won’t.” Abner calmly replied calmly “But, your body will.” Conor looked at him bewildered “How do you figure?” “And I thought you were good with this sort of thing.” Abner said in mock disappointment “Your human mind may not know how to control your wings, but your pegasus body will, it’s instinct. You get flapping those wings, and your body will help work out the kinks.” “What about your horn? What’s stopping you from preforming a magic spell to help us out?” “Not sure how well that’ll work out.” “Why?” Conor asked accusingly “You’ve seen the show. Unicorn magic isn’t instinctual it’s controlled by the mind, and something like teleportation, or anything else like that that could come in handy here is way out of my league. I can probably only do simple manipulation, like levitation, if I really tried.” Abner then closed his eyes and began concentrating. As a few sparks erupted from his horn a few rocks were lifted off of the ground in a red aura, and began to float around the two. “You, however, are probably already able to fly like someone who is already out of flight school. ” He sounded so sure that it’ll work, that Conor could just fly as simply as taking off, which he didn’t think he could get that far. There wasn’t much choice, either try to fly and maybe find out where the nearest city was, or walk aimlessly for god knows how long. In a sigh of defeat Conor agreed and extended his wings. As he began to flap he stared cautiously back at his own wings while Abner did as well. His wings began to pick up more air as he continued to flap. He could feel his front hooves gently being tugged off the ground, followed by his back hooves. Once he was completely air born he carefully started to flap harder and harder, and before he knew it he was hovering about five feet off the ground. He continued to rise as Abner cheered him on, and after what felt like an hour Conor could see clear over the tree line that previously obscured his view. Off in the distance he couldn't see much; the forest spread out covering as far as the eye could see in most directions, but he could see a small town off in the distance. “Abner!” he called down “I can see someplace off in the distance.” “Great!” Abner called back “Now let’s get moving!” First ConfrontationFirst Confrontation Knowing direction Ponyville was in and going that direction proved to be two entirely different things. The path was almost completely overgrown with all sorts of vines and bushes. The undergrowth was so thick that it was almost impossible to walk through, and the canopy above them blocked out the sun making it hard to see. In short it was HELL, and both Connor and Abner just wanted to get out ASAP. "Hey Connor, I have a question for you." Abner said to Connor who was behind him. "What is it?" Connor replied dryly. "If you could see that town off in the distance then why didn't you just fly us there, and save us both all the trouble?". "Because I'm not sure if I could carry us both there. I may be a pegasus, but I'm not se if my new wings would allow me to support us our combined weight."."So in short; you're unsure of yourself and, too scared to try." Abner said unphased by his friend's reasons. "I'm not scared!" Connor said angrily "I just don't want to break my wings carrying us both, or worse kill us both if can't fly properly, and we crashed into the forest."Abner scofed at Connor's response "Geez. You really need some more selfconfidence. I mean you have wings now Connor. Wings! And I saw how easily you lifted off yourself back there to have a look around; my added weight wouldn't be too much of a problem." Connor knew where this conversation was going. "And look up ahead." Abner continued "There's a spot where the trees are thinner where you could fly through." Connor did not want to deal with a conversation like this right now. The kind where Abner shoots down all of his cautionary choices, and tries to have Connor do things his way. "Pay attention to where you're going Abner, we don't want to get more lost because of your needless questioning.". "Don't worry about us getting lost" Abner said with a smile "You know I never get lost." he said reassuringly. "Also my questions aren't needless, my point was that-" Connor cut him off. "Shut up" he said sternly as he stopped walking. "No need for the harsh tone" Abner said stopping as well. "I was just saying that-" "I said shut up Abner!" he sounded angry, but at the same time worried? "Why should I?!" Abner said getting mad at Connor. "Because if you were quiet I could tell you that there is something off to our right hiding behind all those trees, and it's probably not friendly." Abner stopped talking, knowing that if whatever it was had caught Connor's attention he would do best to shut up. The wind as still, and the forest was silent while the two stared off into the woods for what felt like forever. They would try to creep past whatever it was, but for every step they took it would also take another step, effectivly keeping them where it wanted them. Suddenly Abner jumped to his hooves and began to gallop off. "Everypony for themself!" he yelled as he left Connor behind. "Wait! What? Abner wait up!" Connor began to call after him, but was interupted by a loud crashing sound coming from behind him. He took one quick look, and was both intrigued and frightened by what he saw. What he first noticed was its size. It was huge! Easily twice as big as both him and Abner combined, and it was brown. He saw what looked like wings on its back, and a segmented tail that ended in a nasty looking stinger. He was broken from his trance like state of examination by the bone rattling roar it let out as it charged at him. Having thankfully been snapped back to the present Connor proceeded to follow Abner's lead and run for his life. Abner hadn't gotten too far ahead, Connor could still see him, and he swore that if they both survived he would kill Abner himself for leaving him behind.Connor finally caught up to Abner who had been stopped by a wall of thorns blocking his path. There was so much adrenaline pumping in him that he almost wanted to kill Abner before whatever was chasing them got the opportunity. "What the buck man?! Why did you leave me to die like that?!" Abner only looked back at him confused "Whose leaving anypony behind to die? My overdramatic exit was all part of my plan." Connor was now completly lost. "A plan that you'll have to learn as I tell you so do what I say, no thoughts just action okay?" totally confused now Connor agreed and then was narly pounced on by their pursuer who had just barely missed him, and landed between the two. They both were now able to see what had been chasing them. It looked like a giant lion with the wings of a bat, a scorpion's tail, and 6 inch long fangs dripping with saliva. It stood there looming over them, making what little light that could filter through the trees become blocked out entirely. Connor half expected Abner to run out on him again when Abner called out to him "Try to fly away!" "What?!" he replyed "The plan" Abner said shooting him a reassuring look. Conor began to flap his wings, there wasn't anywhere to fly to with the canopy blockng his path, but Connor didn't have any other choice; it was go with what Abner said, or be eaten before he could find out what happened to them both. The manticore turned its attention towards the pegasus and raised its paw to swat Connor down in an attempt to stop him from escaping. Connor braced for impact. This is what Abner had been waiting for. He focused in on the manticore's paw that was about to swipe Connor, making his horn spark a bit before lighting up with a gentle red aura. It then enveloped the manticore's paw, and spread to the rest of its body. Unable to move the manticore l out a deafening roar that was only made louder by the sound being bounced off of the surrounding trees. Then it started to thrash around trying to break free of Abner's magical grip "Now help me throw this thing into the thorns." Abner said straining to hold it back. Connor was still a bit dazed by the roar, but was able to hear his friend over the ringing in hs ears, and fly as fast as he could throwing himself at the manticore. When he hit it it was like hitting a brick wall made of muscle, but with the assistance of a teleknetic thrust from Abner it was tossed into the wall of thorns that had been blocking their path, effectively crushing it benth it massive bulk. "Almost done" Abner said to himself as he began to focus on the thorns themselves while still holding the manticore down. He started to move the indivudual vines of thorns making them wrap around the manticore, and when he was done the manticore was immobilized under a thick blanket of thorns. "AWW YEAH!" Abner cried out standing over the manticore "Whose the boss!?" he looked over to Connor who was only able to look on in astonishment at what his friend had done. "H-How did you do that?" Connor stammered "You do know that I'm a unicorn right?" Abner said sarcastically. "No not that. I mean the plan as a whole; how did you come up with that whole plan in the span of a coulple minutes?" Connor said in disbelief. Abner though about it for a second "Well it was a combination of common sense and dumb luck." Connor could feel his mind die a little bit from how easy it sounded. Abner continued "It was obviously hunting us, and if we both bolted it would've chased us. The running gave me time to think of something, and the thorns." he paused "The thorns just happened to be there, and proved useful to me.". Connor could feel his brain dying of a massive aneurysm as Abner sat on his haunches. "It may have worked, but it took alot outta me" he said panting. Connor felt tired as well, but they had to reach that town before it got too late, and other predators were lured to them by all the commotion. So they decided that after a short break they would continue their journey.
Getting out (revised)Raison d'etre Ch. 1 Getting out It was a nice winter's day; it wasn’t too cold, and the sun could actually be seen through what limited cloud cover there was on this day. There sits a lone house along a dirt road, all the curtains were closed, while an open window allowed the light, cool breezes to enter. The house was well kept on the outside; the cream colored paint on the home had been repainted only a few months prior, and the grass surrounding it was well kept; it retaining its color and length due to the cold weather. The only thing that stood out was that it was the only house on that road for about a quarter mile, and was rimmed by forest along its back sides. Inside the home consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/dining room area, and living room. Each or these rooms was kept clean, for the most part; the bedroom doors remained closed, possibly to hide that which shouldn’t be found, in the kitchen dishes began to form a small mound that breached the rim of the sink, and while the living room was only ever victim to scattered, and abandoned, plates and cups. Behind one of the closed bedroom doors sat a lone figure in the darkness. It spent its days mostly in front of a lit screen, whether it is computer of television, and passes the time. Currently a lush rainforest could be seen on the TV screen; the scenery began to rush by, and then came to an abrupt stop at a dirt road. The figure then began to mutter something to itself. “Okay, so now I go past here, up the hill, and there is the outpost.” Later the front door to the house opened and a second figure entered into the dark. The darkness was then chased off when the light switch in the living room was flipped and the room was illuminated. The second figure now moved towards a closed door, there was no sound coming from the other side and upon discovering this second figure grinned wickedly. Suddenly the door was thrust open, and the inside light switch flipped. “And one more to go- OOOOH MY GOD!!!!!” The first figure yelled Now bathed in light and thoroughly blinded the figure slowly open its eyes and saw the second doubled over in a fit of laughter. “Abner! What the hell?!” “Couldn’t help myself Conor!” Abner managed between laughs. “You don’t see any light all day, I thought you might secretly be a vampire. So I had to see if you sparkled!” The last word was punctuated by Abner quickly opening the curtains to allow in sunlight. Conor knew to not look towards the window, and instead paused his game (which he was sure he missed the shot and was now dead), and let his eyes adjust to the more than necessary amount of light in his room. His room was kind of small; with most of the floor space in his room taken up by his computer desk, TV stand, and dresser there wasn’t much room to move around. He liked it that way though, in his smaller room he felt more comfortable. His walls had a couple of posters, a couple video game related posters, and that poster of Einstein with his tongue out. This is where he would spend his days, inside, away from the crowds of people. “Come on.” Abner said, regaining some composure “You can’t always stay in your room all day. ” Conor would spend every day this way, with all of his free time spent either on his computer, or with one of his only friends, Abner. It's not that he didn't like others it's that he wasn't able to properly talk to people beyond two, or three at a time. Whenever he was with a large group of people all he could manage was uttering a barely audible "Yes", or "No". He was a bit shy, but that wasn’t the reason why. It was that being around too many people caused his brain to kind of overload. Conor has empathic abilities (meaning he could feel other people’s emotions and thoughts), and when there were too many people around him he would feel them, in presence and in thought. “Yes I can.” Conor quickly replied “I can leave at night to get exercise walking from here to my job at the late night stores, food is covered by you, and social interactions are covered by forums and thread posts.” Connor, despite his shy personality was well versed in all manner of sciences, primarily psychology, biology, and physics. He could map out all he would have to do to keep his body and mind from deteriorating due to minimal human contact, and Abner knew it. Abner was a very social person with an exuberant personality. He could become anybody's friend the instant he met them, and wasn't the kind of person to have himself constantly surrounded by others, though. He was one of the only people who Connor could easily talk to. Abner emitted a kind of energy that Conor felt as a kind of high energy that would normally quickly fry his brain, but at the same time it was tame and easy to deal with. Neither of them could explain it, and stopped caring after a while. Abner was the only one who tried to help Conor get over his shyness. He would plan ways to get Conor out of his house and interacting with others. These plans could be a simple trip to the mall, or including Connor in some of the things he did with his other friends. Abner even introduced Conor to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic so he could at least start to make some friends on his own. (Even if they only communicate over the internet) Today's Operation: Bring Connor to the mall Step 1: Convince Connor to go Step 2: Go have an awesome time at the mall Step 3: Repeat until Connor is over his shyness "Come on Conor!" Abner pleaded. "NO!" Conor snapped, his usual calm personality worn thin by Abner's constant barrage of failed attempts at getting him to leave the house. "Dude we're just going to the mall, not the moon. You'll be fine." "Like I was fine after the last time? Those people nearly crushed me!" Conor said remembering how the last time he went to the mall with Abner. He was nearly toppled over by a stampede of people after he short circuited from the barrage of different people’s feelings at once. Thankfully Abner saved him. “Now that was your fault you forgot some of the rules of the mall while it's crowded. • People will not hear you if you just stand there and try to talk to them • Move along the walls whenever possible • Only leave the wall to cross short distances • If caught in crowds in the middle of the walkway go with the flow of the crowd, and move back towards the wall “Also, you weren't in any danger you're bigger than anyone else there, just don't draw attention to yourself. If all else fails I'm here to help.” Conor still wasn't entirely convinced, but Abner was right about a few things. Conor was a good few inches taller than anybody else, and made it a priority to not attract any attention to himself. Also, Abner was always there to help him out. Conor then sighed, a sign that Abner knew meant that what was left of Conor's resistance has been defeated. "Yeah! Step one complete!" "What?" Conor asked. "Nothing, let’s go." A short while later both Connor and Abner stood outside Conor's house; Conor adjusted his eyes so he could better see the sunlit landscape that he so often ignored, and Abner put on his favorite pair of sunglasses, ones that made a weird V shape and seemed to stick right onto his face despite them not having arms. "Off we go then!" Abner exclaimed guiding Connor into the outside world. Connor was having second thoughts “Hey, why don't we do this late-" he was cut off by a sudden blinding white light that enveloped them, and then they were gone. From there they both felt a strange tingling sensation accompanying the intense light blinding them. This quickly changed as they both began to cry out in agony. It felt like every bone I their bodies were growing, shrinking, and breaking all at once. What they couldn’t see was their fingers and toes receding into their hands and feet, that were simultaneously hardening into hooves. Their skulls were being pulled horizontally forward, creating a muzzle. Other physical changes occurred, and the pain from this event caused the two now half human half equine creatures to pass out.
A new development (revised))Ch. 2 A new development A soft light filtered through the tree tops shined in Abner's face causing him to wake up with a groan. "The hell happened?" he said to himself going over what could've lead to him waking up in... Well he didn't know where he was. He was in the middle of the woods somewhere, and the rays of sunlight that woke him up were gently shining on the ground so it wasn't that late in the day yet. Which was weird, seeing as it’s supposed to be winter. He felt fine though, his muscles were stiff, he had a minor head ache and felt a slight tingling sensation but all in all he was okay. He was lying under a tree on the edge of a small clearing in the woods. It looked like a normal forest would; it had trees, bushes, and a nearby lake. He could hear birds singing in the trees, but one thing caught his eye. There was something lying near the edge of the river. It was curled up in a patch of sunlight so he couldn't see what it was, but he could see that it was a shade of deep blue with two patches of hair, one short the other long, and both were silver with a black streak. “The heck is that?” he asked on one in particular. His interest peaked Abner decided to go over to the strange object by the lake, but once he stood up he noticed that he felt a bit... different. He tried to stand but found it impossible as he would fall back onto all fours. He just thought that his muscles were a bit weak from whatever had happened so he went with the quadruped gait. While he walked he also noticed that walking on all fours felt more natural than on the two he was use to so he was used to, and that he couldn't feel his hands or feet. Still believing that his muscles were just too worn out he pressed on towards the strange figure he initially was interested in. There it was… whatever it was. Now that he could get a better look at it Abner could get a good look at it he noticed that it looked like kind of like a pegasus from MLP. His mind ran a blank. This can’t be real. What is a pegasus doing here? (disregarding the fact that he didn't even know where "here" is). What happened? Just then his head was going to burst from all the questions he had the pegasus woke up. He took a step back allowing it to wake up without some stranger standing over it. The Pegasus slowly opened its eyelids revealing its brilliant emerald green eyes, and looked around as if confused. Its eyes eventually drifted over to Abner and gave him a quizzical look, as if to say ‘Who are you?’ "Hello." Abner said in an attempt to introduce himself “My name is Abner” The pegasus' eyes instantly shot wide “Abner?" it asked rolling over onto its hooves. Its voice sounded like Conor’s “Conor?” Abner asked back “How the hell did you turn into a pony!?” the Conor sounding pegasus asked Abner, being just as confused as the Pegasus walked over to the water's edge and looked for his reflection. What he found wasn't the human face he was expecting, he found that what looked back at him was a grey pony with blood red eyes, a horn, and spiky black hair that was draped down the sides of his face with a red streak going down the left side of his face. Looking at his body he saw why he couldn't feel his hands or feet, he didn't have any! As if some missing piece to a puzzle was just found he turned back to the pegasus who was now standing in the middle of the clearing looking over himself almost frantically. "Yeah it's me.” Abner said almost unfazed by his new form “And I'm guessing that you don't have any idea where we are either?” "No. The last thing I remember is us leaving my house then a bright flash of light and now we're here.” Abner sighed "Same here." After they both calmed down and had time to think about their situation they decided that sitting in the clearing all day wasn't going to solve anything. They had to get moving sooner or later, and would like to find some kind of settlement before night fall. "So which direction should we choose?" Conor questioned. Abner smirked "Well" he began sarcastically "You have direction number one, which is a lovely forest route.” he said pointing in a random direction. Then continued while pointing in the opposite direction "Direction number two, which is a delightful forest route. Or direction number three." He said pointing towards the sky "A beautiful skyward route that won't get us more lost." “I may be a pegasus now, but I’m not sure if I can fly yet.” Conor replied looking up into the clear blue sky. “Never know till you try.” Abner coaxed “How can I magically learn to fly after having these wings for all of half an hour?” Conor asked skeptically. “You won’t.” Abner calmly replied calmly “But, your body will.” Conor looked at him bewildered “How do you figure?” “And I thought you were good with this sort of thing.” Abner said in mock disappointment “Your human mind may not know how to control your wings, but your pegasus body will, it’s instinct. You get flapping those wings, and your body will help work out the kinks.” “What about your horn? What’s stopping you from preforming a magic spell to help us out?” “Not sure how well that’ll work out.” “Why?” Conor asked accusingly “You’ve seen the show. Unicorn magic isn’t instinctual it’s controlled by the mind, and something like teleportation, or anything else like that that could come in handy here is way out of my league. I can probably only do simple manipulation, like levitation, if I really tried.” Abner then closed his eyes and began concentrating. As a few sparks erupted from his horn a few rocks were lifted off of the ground in a red aura, and began to float around the two. “You, however, are probably already able to fly like someone who is already out of flight school. ” He sounded so sure that it’ll work, that Conor could just fly as simply as taking off, which he didn’t think he could get that far. There wasn’t much choice, either try to fly and maybe find out where the nearest city was, or walk aimlessly for god knows how long. In a sigh of defeat Conor agreed and extended his wings. As he began to flap he stared cautiously back at his own wings while Abner did as well. His wings began to pick up more air as he continued to flap. He could feel his front hooves gently being tugged off the ground, followed by his back hooves. Once he was completely air born he carefully started to flap harder and harder, and before he knew it he was hovering about five feet off the ground. He continued to rise as Abner cheered him on, and after what felt like an hour Conor could see clear over the tree line that previously obscured his view. Off in the distance he couldn't see much; the forest spread out covering as far as the eye could see in most directions, but he could see a small town off in the distance. “Abner!” he called down “I can see someplace off in the distance.” “Great!” Abner called back “Now let’s get moving!”
First ConfrontationFirst Confrontation Knowing direction Ponyville was in and going that direction proved to be two entirely different things. The path was almost completely overgrown with all sorts of vines and bushes. The undergrowth was so thick that it was almost impossible to walk through, and the canopy above them blocked out the sun making it hard to see. In short it was HELL, and both Connor and Abner just wanted to get out ASAP. "Hey Connor, I have a question for you." Abner said to Connor who was behind him. "What is it?" Connor replied dryly. "If you could see that town off in the distance then why didn't you just fly us there, and save us both all the trouble?". "Because I'm not sure if I could carry us both there. I may be a pegasus, but I'm not se if my new wings would allow me to support us our combined weight."."So in short; you're unsure of yourself and, too scared to try." Abner said unphased by his friend's reasons. "I'm not scared!" Connor said angrily "I just don't want to break my wings carrying us both, or worse kill us both if can't fly properly, and we crashed into the forest."Abner scofed at Connor's response "Geez. You really need some more selfconfidence. I mean you have wings now Connor. Wings! And I saw how easily you lifted off yourself back there to have a look around; my added weight wouldn't be too much of a problem." Connor knew where this conversation was going. "And look up ahead." Abner continued "There's a spot where the trees are thinner where you could fly through." Connor did not want to deal with a conversation like this right now. The kind where Abner shoots down all of his cautionary choices, and tries to have Connor do things his way. "Pay attention to where you're going Abner, we don't want to get more lost because of your needless questioning.". "Don't worry about us getting lost" Abner said with a smile "You know I never get lost." he said reassuringly. "Also my questions aren't needless, my point was that-" Connor cut him off. "Shut up" he said sternly as he stopped walking. "No need for the harsh tone" Abner said stopping as well. "I was just saying that-" "I said shut up Abner!" he sounded angry, but at the same time worried? "Why should I?!" Abner said getting mad at Connor. "Because if you were quiet I could tell you that there is something off to our right hiding behind all those trees, and it's probably not friendly." Abner stopped talking, knowing that if whatever it was had caught Connor's attention he would do best to shut up. The wind as still, and the forest was silent while the two stared off into the woods for what felt like forever. They would try to creep past whatever it was, but for every step they took it would also take another step, effectivly keeping them where it wanted them. Suddenly Abner jumped to his hooves and began to gallop off. "Everypony for themself!" he yelled as he left Connor behind. "Wait! What? Abner wait up!" Connor began to call after him, but was interupted by a loud crashing sound coming from behind him. He took one quick look, and was both intrigued and frightened by what he saw. What he first noticed was its size. It was huge! Easily twice as big as both him and Abner combined, and it was brown. He saw what looked like wings on its back, and a segmented tail that ended in a nasty looking stinger. He was broken from his trance like state of examination by the bone rattling roar it let out as it charged at him. Having thankfully been snapped back to the present Connor proceeded to follow Abner's lead and run for his life. Abner hadn't gotten too far ahead, Connor could still see him, and he swore that if they both survived he would kill Abner himself for leaving him behind.Connor finally caught up to Abner who had been stopped by a wall of thorns blocking his path. There was so much adrenaline pumping in him that he almost wanted to kill Abner before whatever was chasing them got the opportunity. "What the buck man?! Why did you leave me to die like that?!" Abner only looked back at him confused "Whose leaving anypony behind to die? My overdramatic exit was all part of my plan." Connor was now completly lost. "A plan that you'll have to learn as I tell you so do what I say, no thoughts just action okay?" totally confused now Connor agreed and then was narly pounced on by their pursuer who had just barely missed him, and landed between the two. They both were now able to see what had been chasing them. It looked like a giant lion with the wings of a bat, a scorpion's tail, and 6 inch long fangs dripping with saliva. It stood there looming over them, making what little light that could filter through the trees become blocked out entirely. Connor half expected Abner to run out on him again when Abner called out to him "Try to fly away!" "What?!" he replyed "The plan" Abner said shooting him a reassuring look. Conor began to flap his wings, there wasn't anywhere to fly to with the canopy blockng his path, but Connor didn't have any other choice; it was go with what Abner said, or be eaten before he could find out what happened to them both. The manticore turned its attention towards the pegasus and raised its paw to swat Connor down in an attempt to stop him from escaping. Connor braced for impact. This is what Abner had been waiting for. He focused in on the manticore's paw that was about to swipe Connor, making his horn spark a bit before lighting up with a gentle red aura. It then enveloped the manticore's paw, and spread to the rest of its body. Unable to move the manticore l out a deafening roar that was only made louder by the sound being bounced off of the surrounding trees. Then it started to thrash around trying to break free of Abner's magical grip "Now help me throw this thing into the thorns." Abner said straining to hold it back. Connor was still a bit dazed by the roar, but was able to hear his friend over the ringing in hs ears, and fly as fast as he could throwing himself at the manticore. When he hit it it was like hitting a brick wall made of muscle, but with the assistance of a teleknetic thrust from Abner it was tossed into the wall of thorns that had been blocking their path, effectively crushing it benth it massive bulk. "Almost done" Abner said to himself as he began to focus on the thorns themselves while still holding the manticore down. He started to move the indivudual vines of thorns making them wrap around the manticore, and when he was done the manticore was immobilized under a thick blanket of thorns. "AWW YEAH!" Abner cried out standing over the manticore "Whose the boss!?" he looked over to Connor who was only able to look on in astonishment at what his friend had done. "H-How did you do that?" Connor stammered "You do know that I'm a unicorn right?" Abner said sarcastically. "No not that. I mean the plan as a whole; how did you come up with that whole plan in the span of a coulple minutes?" Connor said in disbelief. Abner though about it for a second "Well it was a combination of common sense and dumb luck." Connor could feel his mind die a little bit from how easy it sounded. Abner continued "It was obviously hunting us, and if we both bolted it would've chased us. The running gave me time to think of something, and the thorns." he paused "The thorns just happened to be there, and proved useful to me.". Connor could feel his brain dying of a massive aneurysm as Abner sat on his haunches. "It may have worked, but it took alot outta me" he said panting. Connor felt tired as well, but they had to reach that town before it got too late, and other predators were lured to them by all the commotion. So they decided that after a short break they would continue their journey.
