The Final Element

Quentin groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry but it slowly started to come into view.

"What...the hell...happened?'' Quentin asked himself, groggily.

His head ached, and it felt like he was one something cool and hard, like dirt. It took a couple minutes but Quentin finally rolled on his stomach.

"Man that was not fun,'' Quentin said.

In a few moments, Quentin's vision cleared and he had to blink a couple times at the sight he saw. He was in a forest of some sort. It was close to sunset and a light breeze blew. The only thing was...everything looked like it was animated, like a cartoon.

"What the...'' Quentin began slowly, looking around.

He couldn't believe it, it was like he stepped into a cartoon. Quentin shook his head in disbelief.

"Ok, I MUST be dreaming!'' Quentin tried to convince himself.

"Yeah, that's it. And by the feel of this bump on my head, I really must-'' but Quentin froze on the spot.

Immediately something didn't feel right...his hands didn't feel right. Quentin hesitantly gazed at his hand and yelped at what he saw. Instead of a human hand, he saw a black hoof.

"Wha, What?!'' Quentin stammered dumbfounded.

Quentin quickly gazed at his other hand and saw another black hoof.

"What's going on?!'' Quentin said loudly, looking at his legs only to see more hooves.

What was happening to him? He looked over to his left and saw a river a few feet away. Quentin crawled over to the river and looked into the water and screamed at his reflection. Quentin didn't see a human reflection, but that of a burly horse, a stallion. Quentin now had a dark brown coat with a black, mane but was styled with black dreadlocks that went down and stopping just above his back along with a medium length, black tail. He had a large, angular, squared off muzzle and fetlocks above his hooves. He was also naked, the clothes he had on were now gone. However, around his neck still hung the silver chain with the rectangular pendant.

He was a horse, somehow someway Quentin became a horse. He just sat there, his jaw hung open until suddenly Quentin let out a scream that for sure someone from miles away could here. In Ponyville a pair of girl ponies walked happily with one another until one of them stopped.

"Did you hear something?'' one of them asked, looking around.

The other one looked puzzled and shook her head. Quentin was panicking.

"Okay Quentin old boy, calm down,'' Quentin said paranoid. He tried to stand up, but struggled in his new form.

"You just hit your head, that's all. That's it, you're just dreaming!'' Quentin laughed nervously.

Quentin was up on four legs that shook uncontrollably. "Pretty soon, you'll wake up, everything will be back to normal, and you can have a big laugh about this whole thing!''

Quentin took a trembling step. It was like he was a newborn trying to take its first steps.

"Come on, if I can learn to walk once, I can do it again,'' Quentin said with determination.

Quentin made a successful step, then another, and another. "See, nothing to it!'' he said proudly.

He was making slow but sure progress, but he still fumbled a few times.

"Now that that's taken care of, maybe I can-'' Quentin said smugly, beginning to trot awkwardly, but wasn't paying attention, and he tripped and fell down. Quentin rolled a couple times into the mysterious, animated wood until finally coming to a painful, stop.

"OWWWW!'' Quentin cried.

His scream echoed throughout the wood, until it started to fade away. Quentin looked around wide eyed as silence took over. He laughed sheepishly.

"Maybe a little bit dramatic there.''

Suddenly, he heard deep, heavy breathing...and snarling. Quentin froze on the spot and looked around fearfully. A light green mist-like air blew out of the bushes past me. He inhaled it, it was horrible, like rotten eggs, mixed with sweaty socks and fart.

"Damn that's rank!'' Quentin gagged, waving away the smell.

Quentin gazed at the direction of the smell and a pair of glowing, green eyes opened up in the bushes. He shook with fear as he began to back away. To his horror, two more pairs of glowing, green eyes appeared. As Quentin backed away, the creatures walked out of the bushes and revealed themselves. He didn't know what they were. They looked like wolves, except that they were made entirely of wooden logs, and trees with leafy eyebrows and fangs made up of sharp, pointed wood, and their sizes were monstrous. They snarled menacingly.

Quentin gulped nervously as he continued to back away. "U-Umm n-nice d-d-doggies?'' Quentin stuttered.

The wolf creatures still prowled toward him, greenish drool dripping from their mouths.

"I-I wasn't serious about the rank crap I said earlier,'' Quentin smiled nervously, but still they came.

"D-Do you want a bone? Preferably one that isn't mine?''

Nothing was working. Then out of nowhere, the wolves let out a ground shaking roar. Quentin screamed and he ran as fast as he could. Quentin still hadn't gotten complete used to his new body yet as he almost fumbled and tripped trying to get away. Quentin ran further into the forest, not knowing where he was going, all he knew was he had got to get away from those things. Quentin looked back over his shoulder, the wolves were gaining on him and fast.

"HELP!'' Quentin cried at the top of his lungs.

"SOMEBODY, ANYBODY...HEEEEEELP!''

Quentin was so busy running and hollering, he failed to see a dead end and collided right into it. He cowered against the stone and dirt wall as the ravenous creatures drew nearer. Deep down, he knew that wasn't going to help. Deep down, he knew no one wasn't coming to help. Was he really going to meet his end here, in this strange forest in a strange world? When he was completely about to lose hope, a large rock flew out of nowhere and hit one of the wolves square in the head.

"COME AN' GET ME YA BIG GOONS!'' a heavily, Southern American accented voice called out.

The wolves leered toward the voice and I peered up to the top of a cliff. There on top stood a female pony. She had an orange coat with a long, flowing blonde mane and tail, both tied in a ponytail and had a bang. Her mane was like in the style like a human woman's would be. She had emerald green eyes and three white dots on both cheeks like freckles and on her head she wore a brown Stetson.

Quentin just stared at the animated pony known as Applejack while the wolves snarled at her.

"RUN!'' Applejack cried to Quentin, turning and bucking another large rock at the wolves.

She ran away and the wolves followed her.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!'' Quentin cried back and bolted towards the other direction.

It wasn't long, however, that he skidded to a halt. Quentin felt guilty about running away while someone that was brave enough to help him were in danger. He didn't know how, but he had to help someway. Quentin gulped and sprinted back in her direction. He ran fast through the forest until he finally saw the wolves ahead of him. Applejack looked back seriously, making sure the wolves were following her.

She glanced forward and saw an approaching tree branch and smiled smugly.

"HOLD ON!'' Quentin cried. "LET ME-'' but he cut off mid-sentence.

To his surprise, Applejack took the branch in her mouth and bent it back. When the first wolf came close enough, she let go of the branch at the right time and it flung powerfully back at the wolf, immediately destroying it into a million pieces of log and wood. Quentin skidded to a halt

"WHOAA!'' Quentin awed, his jaw dropping.

Applejack continued running, the remaining two wolves giving chase. She ran past some large rocks in like a blur, began to buck a few towards the wolves. She had a powerful kick, for when a few rocks hit a wolf, they completely obliterated its front legs. The wolf had a surprised and dumb look on its face before falling hard on the ground, breaking into many parts, with its head flying into the air and towards Quentin.

Quentin flew on his belly and put his hooves on top of his head for protection. There was only one wolf left. Applejack led the wolf further until a tree with a hole large enough to fit through approached. Applejack ran with all her might as the wolf came closer and closer, but right when it opened its mouth to devour her, Applejack leaped through the hole and to the other side. The wolf wasn't so fortunate, for it was far too big to fit through, s on impact, it collapse into pieces.

Its front legs slide in front of Applejack in with a few seconds of life, the legs collapsed into twigs. Applejack had done it. She single handily took out all those wolves. No longer in danger, Applejack let out a sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from her face. She then noticed Quentin still in a Fidel position and quickly galloped to him.

"Are you alright surgarcube?'' Applejack asked, concern in her southern accented voice.

Quentin nervously peered through his hooves and looked up to see Applejack looking down at him, concern in her emerald eyes. He rose up slowly.

"Y-Yeah, thanks,'' Quentin said.

It was a little awkward for him, he had never talked to a pony before, let alone an animated looking one. Quentin struggled a little getting up, and almost fell back down but Applejack quickly caught him.

"Hey easy, easy now sug,'' Applejack said, helping Quentin up.

"Thanks,'' Quentin said sheepishly.

Quentin stood back up, his legs still trembling.

"Golly, yur legs are shakin' like a naked squirrel in the winter time,'' Applejack said, smiling slightly.

Quentin chuckled, "Is it that obvious?'' he joked.

"Yea, kind of,'' Applejack chuckled.

They both laughed a bit.

"Oh, well I just wanted to thank you for saving me form those things,'' Quentin thanked.

"Aw shucks it was nothin', ''Applejack responded, smiling coolly.

"But one would be crazier than a bag o' wet cats ta get in the way of some Timberwolves.''

Quentin blinked a couple times, "Timberwolves?''

Applejack nodded. "Yep, nasty varmints too. I suggest we head out before they go on and reattach themselves,'' Applejack suggested.

"Reattach themselves?!'' Quentin said in shock.

"Yup, and what are yall doin' here in the Everfree Forest?'' Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Quentin was really confused now. "Ever...free forest?''

Applejack smiled and shook her head. "I'm guessin' you ain't from around these parts.''

''That's an understatement,'' Quentin muttered.

Applejack just laughed, "Well c'mon sugarcube, I'll help ya get out of this forest.''

Quentin smiled at the offer. "Thank you, oh and my name is Quentin by the way,'' he greeted, raising a hoof for a hoof shake.

Before he knew it, Applejack had grabbed his hoof with hers and started shaking it enthusiastically.

"Well howdy do Mr. Quentin? A pleasure making your acquaintance! I'm Applejack. Where I come from we sure do like making new friends!'' Applejack greeted warmly, finally letting go of his hoof.

She had stopped shaking it, but his hoof still went up and down vigorously. Quentin finally stopped and whipped his hoof back and laughed dumbly. Applejack smiled kindly.

"Well let's get on outta here before those wolves wake up,'' Applejack warned and sure enough, the logs and trigs started shaking and slowly pieced back together.

"Yeah, I think so too,'' Quentin answered quickly. "Lead the way.''