Prologue.View OnlineChallenges.Prologue."I really hope this works out, for his and her sake." I woke up with a groan, not daring to open my eyes for fear of what the light would do to the dull throb in my head. I finally manged to muster up the courage to stand up and open my eyes. "Man, I had way to much to drink last nigh-" I broke off suddenly, staring with a gaping mouth at the expansive and way to colourful forest surrounding me. "Ok, what the hell did the bartender slip into my drink?" I whispered to myself while rubbing my eyes, hoping that my vision would change back to the bar I knew all to well. "I'm dreaming... that's it, I have to be dreaming!" I shouted. The sound of a branch breaking behind me caught my attention as I quickly whipped my head around spotting a wolf that seemed to be made out of wood. "Now I know I must be dreaming, in what dimension are wolves made of wood?" The wolf growled at me, obviously not pleased at my ever so witty remark. The wolf slowly inched towards me and I took a few steps back before my back hitting a tree stopped my hasty retreat. The wolf howled and a couple more wolves slipped from the shadows to join their brother in wood. "It's just not my day today is it" I mused out loud eyeing the wolves "I'm not tasty, I'm just skin covered in bones. Go find something tastier." One of the wolves jumped towards me and I narrowly avoided it and it smacked face first into the tree that was behind me, breaking into twigs. The wolves that were obviously awed by my ability to step a few centimeters to the left backed off. "Yeah, back off you stupid bundles of firewood." "ROARRR" there was a loud roar from behind me and I was stupid enough to turn around. Face first into a manticore. Author's Note This is my second attempt at a story, feel free to rip it apart.
Chapter 1: There is always a bigger fish.View OnlineChallenges.Chapter 1: There is always a bigger fish.I sprinted forward chancing a look at the wood wolves that were doing the smart thing and scattering in different directions. I tried to run as fast as possible but the manticore was always right behind me... it was playing with me, amused that I'm fighting against it, amused by the fact that I didn't just give up. Maybe I should just give up, I haven't done anything productive with my life, haven't done anything that would make any impact at all. All I would do next is get lost in another beer after this was over. My pace slowed upon realizing the fact that right now I had a decision, I could continue my headlong sprint towards the break in the trees or I could just give up and accept my fate. Before I could decide the manticore made the decision for me by jumping onto my back and pinning me chest first to the ground with its giant paw. I sighed, realizing that this would be the end to my pitiful life. I went limp, not bothering to struggle against the lions paw on my back. The manticore seemed disappointed that I wasn't putting up any fight anymore. None the less the manticore roared signaling its victory, telling everything in the forest that it was the greatest predator and all should fear its might. The manticore raised its mighty tail and sent it flying towards my lightly padded back, I felt it pierce my skin, the pain was unbearable, It felt like I was being stabbed in the back with a fiery hot poker and the molten metal was dripping into my blood stream. I let out a cry of agony and the manticore pushed its stinger deeper, trying to crush the life out of me. I tried to roll to the side but the stinger was too deep, the pain too much. My mind felt clouded like I had to much to drink, my eyes clenched shut. I couldn't stand the pain anymore and I blacked out. Fluttershy "Come on everybirdy! Foods here!" Fluttershy said in the loudest voice she could. Earning a flock of birds for her efforts. She smiled to herself, this day had started out just perfect. The sun was shining, she had a wonderful breakfast, and she was just finishing up feeding her animal friends She smiled faintly to herself all too aware that something was going to happen to ruin this otherwise perfect day, that is how it always happened. "RAWRR" a roar coming from the Everfree forest tore through her thoughts and the birds around her took flight. "Oh my, looks like Mister manticore is angry. I better go check to see if he's alright!" She ran towards the Everfree forest, hoping that nopony was foolish enough to wander around in the Everfree forest alone and that he just got another thorn stuck in his paw. She was instantly proven wrong upon breaching through the thick leaves of the Everfree forest. She spotted a manticore pinning something to the earthen floor with it's stinger licking its lips while it awaited its breakfast. "How dare you." Fluttershy shouted causing the manticore to look up at her glaring eyes. "Listen here mister! Just because you're big doesn't mean you can be a bully!" The manticore was unable to stand Fluttershy's withering gaze and backed off, Fluttershy continued staring her disappointed gaze until the manticore ran back into the forest. Fluttershy's eyes softened and she ran over to the strangely shaped creature lying on the cold grass covered ground, just now noticing the blood and green venom staining the white sheet covering it's sickly frame. Fluttershy pushed the creature onto her back. Fluttershy was much stronger then ponies gave her credit for, after all she had to be to deal with full grown bears and manticores. She got the strange creature to sit some what comfortably onto her withers and dashed up to her cottage. She stopped in front of the door where Angel was tapping his foot waiting for the breakfast he still hadn't received. "Angel honey, could you please go get Twilight?" He shook his head and tapped his foot louder harder against the ground. Fluttershy gave him The Stare and he quickly scampered off towards town. Just as Angel left Fluttershy pushed open the cottage door and laid the strange creature gently onto her couch. She ducked into her closet and pulled out a roll of bandages and some disinfectant with her teeth. She darted back towards the strange creature and set the items onto the ground next to her couch she proceeded to rip apart the thin white sheet that was covering the wound. She gasped out loud upon seeing it. "Angel please hurry..." Angel Angel tried to get to Twilight's library as quick as possible. All the while wondering how that creature was more important than him getting breakfast. He dodged through the wagons and carts as quick as he could hoping that none of them would run him over. He bounded up to the library and tapped his foot against the door. Nopony came so he tapped harder. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" Twilight's voice came from behind the door sounding muffled and sleep filled. The door opened and a disheveled looking Twilight appeared and looked side to side seeing nopony. Angel rolled his eyes and thumped his foot against the ground angrily. Twilight finally looked down. "Oh, hello Angel. Did Fluttershy send you?" Twilight questioned yawning after. Angel nodded his head yes and grabbed Twilight's hoof and tried to pull her. He met with limited success, dragging her hoof forward a bit. "What ever she needs to wake me up this early in the morning better be important." She groaned before yelling "Spike I'm going to Fluttershys." A muffled groan of acknowledgement came from upstairs. "Lead the way" she said the Angel before yawning. Author's Note Every time I wrote Everfree forest in this chapter I instead wrote Everfree first. Mind please, stahp.
Chapter 2: What is that?View OnlineChallenges.Chapter 2: What is that?"Angel, slow down!" Twilight called after the rabbit. He ignored her, continuing his quick pace, wanting to get back to the cottage as fast as he could so he could get his breakfast. "How can one rabbit be so fast?" Twilight grumbled to herself. "Shawn, I think you've had enough" a guff voice said to the lone figure slouched over his drink. "I'll tell ya when I ad enough." I grumbled back at the bar keeper, my voice slurred from the five empty beers in front of me. I took another quaff of my sixth. "If you drink any more you'll get alcohol poisoning. Hell I'm surprised you still have a liver" the bartender snatched the beer out of my grasp earning a growl of annoyance for taking the sweet mind numbing beverage. "Fucker took my beer..." "What was that?" "Nothin." We fell into a lapse of silence, me staring at him pouring my life elixir down the drain. I began to feel tired, my eyes drooping and my mind becoming clouded. I yawned before closing my eyes and drifting to sleep. The memories of the previous evening ran through my head, along with the persistent throb coursing through my head. Twilight "What in the hay is that!" Twilight shouted pointing a hoof at the figure lying on Fluttershy's couch. The figure had a mane of dark brown disheveled hair with a pointed nose and a skinny face. "It doesn't matter right now! It got attacked by a manticore and got poison injected into it before I could scare the manticore off, do you have a way to help?" Fluttershy questioned looking scared for the beings survival. Twilight nodded and lit up her horn. She was going to attempt to siphon the poison out of the lanky figures body. She begun pouring magic into the strange creatures body and slowly began separating the poison from the creatures blood. A green liquid started slowly oozing out of the open wound, and right onto Fluttershy's floor. "Hehe, sorry about the mess." Twilight said sheepishly, rubbing a hoof against the back of her head and eyeing the green mush on the floor. Fluttershy sprayed disinfectant into the wound and started securely wrapping the creatures shoulder with the bandages she collected earlier. "I just hope it will be okay when it wakes up. I don't think the stinger hit anything important but I can't be sure..." "I'm sure it will be fine Fluttershy. Under your care there is no doubt it will make a full recovery." Twilight smiled warmly at Fluttershy and put a hoof on her shoulder earning a small smile from her. "I'm going to go through a few books to find out exactly what creature this is. Hopefully I can find a way for us to help it more, we have no way of knowing if the wound on it's back is the only problem." Twilight disappeared in a flash of light too lost in her mutterings to even say goodbye. "Spike, I need you to help me find all the books you can on animals in Equestria." Twilight said standing over the unmoving blob of a dragon. "SPIKE!" Twilight shouted jolting Spike from his sleep. "AH!" Spike shouted falling out of his basket and briefly looked at a nearby clock. "Come on Twilight, it's only eight in the morning!" He groaned obviously not pleased with being awoken so early. "It is never to early for studying!" Spike sighed "Fine, but can we at least have breakfast first?" "Good idea! You make something while I get looking for these books!" Spike shook his head in derision and stood up beginning his venture into the kitchen to make his famed pancakes. Twilight started levitating a few books off a section of a shelf "No, no, no, no, no!" She looked through all of the books she had managed to gather finding nothing. "There are no books on this creature anywhere in the library!" Twilight groaned in defeat. "Spike!!" she called in the general direction of the kitchen. Spike walked towards Twilight caring a spatula and wearing a chefs hat. "I was making pancakes." "This is more important. Take a letter" Dear Princess Celestia. Fluttershy has found a unknown creature in the Everfree forest. It has back legs longer than the front and seems to lack a snout. It looks a bit like a bear except smaller and on brief inspection only has hair on the top of its head. I could not find anything in all the books in the library and wanted to know if you have ever encountered any being like this. Your Faithful Student-Twilight Sparkle. Spike lit the letter ablaze sending it off the the princess of the sun... Author's Note This story has a lot more attention than my last one! This one actually got likes, It's amazing!
Chapter 3: What?View OnlineChallenges.Chapter 3: What?I grasped at the waking world, yet it only seemed to slip through my fingers. I heard voices vaguely female, one seemed to be louder than the other, even shouting, yet I couldn't make out one word they were saying, it all sounded like someone was mumbling in my ear. The pain returned it felt like someone was digging their hands through the wound in my back, I couldn't scream, I couldn't do anything but wait until the pain was over. My mind had other ideas and slowly slipped into a state of unconsciousness, the pain becoming a dull throb. The next time I woke up my thoughts were a bit clearer, I was laying on something soft with no memory of how I got here. The last thing I remembered was running away from a mantico-. I bolted upright eyes flashing in every direction looking for the manticore. I should be dead but instead seemed to be in a cottage of some sort with animals laying on the ground and birds sleeping in the plants. I groaned and noticed the moonlight trickling in from the open window across the room. I tried to stand up but only earned a spike of pain running through my previously un-bandaged shoulder for my efforts. I grit my teeth as preparation for my second attempt at standing. This one met with more success, I stood up and proceeded to stumble my way through the labyrinth of sleeping animals towards a room that was flooded with light. I miraculously managed to get into what I now notice is the kitchen without stepping on or waking up any of the animals. "Fuck, my shoulder hurts. I wonder if this place has any beer?" A brief inspection showed that there were none to be found. "Fantastic, what kind of person has no alcohol in their house?" I scoffed at the fact, deciding to find the owner of this cottage and find out the reason why I'm still alive. I stepped back into the main room and noticed a stairwell leading up into the darkness. "It had to be stairs didn't it?" I sighed and trudged towards the stairs. "Hello? Is there anyone up there?" I whispered towards the top of the stairwell hoping that if anyone was up there they would come down so I wouldn't have to climb up the devilish creation. No response, I sighed again and made my way up the stairs. Each step sent a jolt of pain through my shoulder. I glared at the top stair, I was so close. "Come on Shawn. Just three more steps." I grit my teeth and scrambled up the remaining steps laying my hands on my knees and panting heavily at the top of the stairs. I walked over to the bed that was against the far wall and saw... a pony? I put my hand on the night stand to steady myself. What was a pony doing in this bed? Where was its owner? Why did it look like it was part of a cartoon? All good questions I shifted my hand leaning heavily on the night stand, it groaned against my weight obviously not used to such heavy things being put on it, but before I could lift my hand the stand collapsed under my weight. *CRASH* the pony bolted upright frightfully looking around, thankfully finding not finding me."Hello? a timid voice questioned "is anypony there?" "Did... Did it just talk?" I said in a hushed whisper trying to lie as low to the ground as possible. I looked up briefly and straight into the light blue eyes of the pony that was previously sleeping on the bed. Author's Note Rather short chapter but I felt like that was a good place to end it
Chapter 4: ConfusionView OnlineChallenges.Chapter 4: Confusion"Oh, your awake!" The yellow pony stated looking quite excited. 'What the fuck?' I sat there with my mouth agape unable to comprehend that a pony was talking to me. The pony poked me in the chest with a hoof. "Hello?" She seemed to be trying to get my attention, yet I was still wondering how the fuck a pony was talking. "Uh, hello?" I said back as more of a question than a greeting, now it was the ponies turn to look confused. "Oh my, you can talk?" "Of course." 'She acts like shes never seen a human before... wait.' "Are there any other humans around?" She tilted her head to the side and looked confused. "Whats a human? If you don't mind me asking..." Just my luck, I'm in a world with no humans in it that seems to be dominated by a race of intelligent ponies and I have no way of getting back.... why would I ever want to go back? All I had back there is a boring job then drink because I have nothing better to do, I would be doing the same thing everyday, work, drink, sleep, repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat. This is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me and I was here only thinking about how bad it was that I was here. This was a second chance at my life! This was a chance to- "Um, hello?" I just now noticed the yellow hoof waving in front of my face. "Are you okay?" "Oh, yeah, sorry, I just zoned out there for a bit." I said sheepishly while scratching the back of my head with my hand. "Are you sure you're okay? I could go get my friend Twilight and she could-" "No really, it's fine, I'm just tired." I unwillingly yawned and the pony giggled. "Ok, just let me check that wound on your back first and change the bandages." She got out of the bed and trotted around me, allowing me a glimpse at her wings and a picture of three butterflies on her flank. Once she reached my back she tore the bandages off with her teeth earning a hiss of pain from me. She spat the bandages out onto where the nightstand used to be. "Sorry." She put one hoof on my opposing shoulder and looked into the wound. "It doesn't look like it's infected but I the wound is still pretty deep." My eyes were drooping, why was I so tired? She then started re-wrapping my shoulder with the bandages she managed to scavenge out of the broken remains of the night stand trying to be as careful as she could. "Thank you-I never asked your name" "Oh, it's Fluttershy." "Mines Shawn" I yawned again and fought to keep my eyes open. "You should get some sleep, you're still recovering. You can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the couch." I was going to argue that this was her house and I should be the one sleeping on the couch but the idea of going down the stairs again made me wince. Besides, she was already helping me onto the bed. "Good night Shawn" Fluttershy said. I fell asleep as soon as my eyes snapped shut I ran and ran and ran but I could never get away from the gaping maw of the manticore, it had teeth like a shark, and a stinger that could pierce iron. Eyes that were hungry for my flesh it kept chasing me never quite catching me but never falling too far behind. Fluttershy I walked down the stairs and staggered over to the kitchen all the while wondering how this "human" could talk. Just as I was entering the kitchen a flash of lavender illuminated the room. "Twilight, what are you doing here?" I asked the lavender unicorn in my kitchen. "I came to check on that strange creature you found, has it awoken yet?" "Yes, and he can talk! He told me his name is Shawn and he is a human." Twilight looked baffled at the news, her mouth hanging slack. "Can I go see him! Where is he!" Twilight exclaimed, her eyes looked hungry for knowledge. "He's sleeping upstairs, don't wake him u-" I was cut off by a bright purple flash. I sighed and walked back up the stairs to make sure Twilight didn't get out of hand. Author's Note Actually, I'm just going to upload these chapters as soon as they're finished. Happy reading!
Chapter 5: Fear.View OnlineChallenges.Chapter 5: Fear."Just as planned..." I came into the room to see Twilight hovering over the bed of the now sleeping Shawn, Twilight looked to be deep in concentration, her horn lit up purple casting dancing shadows around the dark room. "Twilight I don't think you should be doing this without his permis-" "I could do this to any animal without their permission. Why not with this one?" "But he is not an animal, he can talk." "I just have to make sure it's not dangerous, for all we know he could be a pony eating monster!" Twilight stated before continuing with her scan but once she reached his head her magic cut out. "That's odd" Twilight scowled and lit up her horn again still aiming at his head, she furrowed her brow and her horn grew brighter and brighter as she poured more energy into the spell. Just as her horn reached a light bright enough to rival the sun a crack and a bolt of energy came from the still body and knocked Twilight away into the far wall. "Twilight!" I ran over to the unicorn that slowly got up with a groan. "I'm okay Fluttershy." Twilight said with another groan "why can't I scan that one part?" "Well he asked me if there were any other humans. Maybe he isn't from this part of Equestria, maybe some magic just does not work with him." "Maybe" "Have you sent Princess Celestia a letter yet, does she know what he is?" "I sent her a letter but she still has not replied! I'm starting to worry." "Well, she is a Princess after all. She might just be busy." "Maybe, but she almost always answers right away! If he wakes up be sure to tell me." Twilight blinked out of the room without so much as a goodbye. I sighed into the empty room and went back over to Shawn to see if Twilight had accidentally hurt him in her scanning. He seemed to be fine, so I went down the winding stairs to get some sleep. Meanwhile in Canterlot. A scroll fluttered to the ground to rest at the sun princesses hooves. "No, this cannot be... they couldn't be back, me and Luna killed them all!I choked past a sob. I don't think Equestria can deal with these... monsters... I rushed to Luna's room frantically pounding on the door. I heard a muffled groan that sounded the awakening of my sister. The door opened and a blurry eyed Luna trotted out. "What is it Tia?" Luna questioned not quite awake enough to notice my disheveled state. "Twilight's friend found a creature that seems to closely resemble a human." Luna froze and looked straight at me. I handed her the letter and she looked through it, eyes becoming wider with every word. "It.. it can't be! We killed all of them! We even did a scan to see if there were any left!" A bright green flash appeared above me and I caught a second scroll in my magic. I opened the letter and read out loud. Dear Princess Celestia. I have visited this creature that Fluttershy told me was called a "human" and his name was Shawn. His body structure is quite a bit different than ours and after a brief magic scan it was shown that ~~it~~ he is an omnivore. Something irregular happened when I tried to scan his head though. The first time I tried my magic was cut out but the second time I tried with all my strength and his body discharged a shock wave and knocked me into a wall. Do you know what this creature is? Please send me a letter back, you still have not responded to my last one. Your Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle We both fell into silence pondering how it was possible that a race me and Luna both wiped out could be back again. "...How?" Luna said what both me and her were thinking. "I...I don't know..." I suddenly jolted awake sitting straight up in the too small bed the thoughts of the previous night coming back to me as I stood up and rubbed my eyes. I felt more tired than before I fell asleep.. weird. I walked down the stairs. To my pleasure going down the stairs was much easier than going up. Once I reached the end of the stairs I looked around, immediately noticing the lack of animals and the delicious smell wafting from the kitchen. My stomach grumbled hungrily reminding me of my missed meals. I proceeded to the kitchen where I found the same butter coloured mare-what was her name again? I think it was Fluttershy? Well anyway, she was cooking what from the smell of it appeared to be pancakes. I called out to her. "Eep!" She jumped a few centimeters in the air and wheeled around to stare up at me. "Hello." I said waving my hand in a brief wave. "Hi, you should still be in bed you're healing." I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture. "Psh, I'm fine." "No, you're not. After breakfast you are going back to bed." Fluttershy said quite courageously before shrinking back "If that's okay with you..." I rolled my eyes at the last comment but decided to accept the fact that I wasn't going to win this argument. "Fine." "Okay, now you go sit down while I finish making these." I walked over to the table and sat down with a sigh. Staring down into the deeply etched wood, it looked like shes had this table for quite a long time. It took not even a minute for her to finish up the pancakes and set a stack of them in front of me. I quickly dug in with the supplied fork and knife. I heard the pony giggle from behind me, but I was too hungry to care. These pancakes were delicious and there was no way I was going to stop eating them until I devoured all of them! It didn't take me long to achieve that goal, as soon as I finished my feast and Fluttershy led me back to the upstairs bed, it wasn't to hard getting up the stairs with the yellow ponies help and before I knew it I was tucked into the bed and fast asleep. This time my dreams weren't filled with blood and gore but with a yellow pegasus and heart warming smiles; maybe this won't be so bad after all... Author's Note Stuff might start happening next chapter.
