Evergreen Heart

Chapter 1
And so I died.

Branches whipped across my face, thorns tore at my clothes and skin. The blood from numerous cuts and scratches stained the leaves, and still I ran. I knew at the very core of my being that it was pointless. I mean I won't lie, I was an overweight man in his thirties with all the grace and endurance of a snail. I was never going to outrun these creatures, not in a million years. And yet the will to live, that survival instinct of all living things kept pushing me on. Even as my legs throbbed with lactic acid build up, my lungs burned and my dry throat screamed out at me for mercy, I kept going. I hauled my body across a fallen log, nearly twisting my ankle as I did so. I could hear a river ahead of me. Maybe if I crossed it they would stop following me. Do Timber Wolves even swim? The show never answered that. I sadly found out that they do.

I never imagined this was how I would meet my end. I'm not even sure how I ended up here in the first place, in the fictional world of My Little Pony. That sort of thing only happens in fan fiction. And yet here I was, in the middle of what I assumed was the Everfree Forest, running for my life from a pack of Timber Wolves. Let me tell you, the show does not do these things justice. They are absolutely terrifying. Not only are they a lot bigger than the cartoon would suggest, but they also emit an unnatural aura of dread. And stink to the high heavens, like a bog or rotting leaves dredged up from the bottom of a slow running river, mixed with the sickly sour smell of rotting meat on a hot summer’s day.

How did I get here and into this mess? Like I said, I'm not sure. All I remember is that I was on my way home. The weather report forecast rain. It had just started to drizzle as I was opening my car door. Then there was a blinding flash and deafening thunderclap, and when I regained my senses I was lying face down on the forest floor. Sounds like a bad cliché, I know, but that’s all I remember.

I don't really consider myself a Brony. I mean yeah, I watch and like the show, but I don't go to conventions, and unlike some fans I don't have a boatload of pony merchandise. Except for a Pinkie Pie plushy. Not that you care or anything.

In any case, as soon as my senses returned to me, I painfully picked myself up off the forest floor. I felt completely disoriented. I grew up in a small city and the nearest thing we had to a forest was an overgrown park. I had absolutely no clue what to do aside from a few survival tips I picked up watching the discovery channel. As far as I could tell, it was the middle of the night. I mean, with the moon overhead and all, that was a really astute observation. The thing that bothered me was the inexplicably silhouette of a unicorn on the surface...

“It can't be,” I gasped. “I'm in Equestria?”

I don't know how long I stood there staring at the moon. My brain had pretty much crashed to blue screen. Your Mind.EXE has encountered a critical error. Abort. Retry. Fail? WTF? Reboot loser! Do it now! Yeah.... to say I was shocked would be an understatement.

I was snapped out of it when the image shimmered and disappeared. It had been a while since I watched the pilot episode, but I clearly remembered this part. The return of Nightmare Moon. At least now I knew 'when' in the timeline I had arrived. Not that it did me any good at the time. Barely a moment had passed since the silhouette vanished when I was startled by the bone chilling howl of a wolf. The first call was picked up by another, and then another. Now, had these been regular wolves, I wouldn't have cared too much since they rarely attack humans. But I remembered what lurks in these woods, and I had no desire to meet it. I started to move away from the sound as fast as my legs would carry me.

I don't know how long I ran, but I had barely traveled a mile or so when I found myself in an ambush. A dozen pairs of glowing green eyes stared at me from the undergrowth. I was surrounded. My first instinct was to run, but I squashed that with some effort. My poor condition aside, running from predators only set them off. That left me one option, to fight.

I looked around for a weapon, any weapon, settling on a large piece of wood littering the forest floor. I slowly bend down to pick it up, not taking my eyes off the approaching Timber Wolves for even a second. My improvised club in hand, I backed towards the nearest tree. At least that way they wouldn't be able to get the jump on me from behind.

A bolt of fear went through my spine when the first one fully emerged from the bushes. It was much bigger than I expected, and a whole lot meaner looking than the somewhat silly wolves in the cartoon. This one had a mane of thorny vines and instead of maybe eight peg or stake like teeth, it had dozens of thick rose like thorns at least two inches long in its maw. The second one to emerge seemed to be largely covered in what looked like poison ivy, the inside of its mouth covered in tiny needles like an inverted cactus. I swallowed hard, my arms shaking from the adrenaline that was racing through my body.

The first one lunged at me. I clumsily sidestepped and it smashed face first into the tree behind me. I brought the club down across its head as hard as I could. Either I must have hit something vital or the tree did more damage than I thought, because its head pretty much shattered in a shower of twigs and leaves and other detritus. Emboldened by my success I turned to swing at the second one, but its jaws snapped shut around my club and with a wild jerk it tore the weapon from my hands. With a loud crunch it bit the thing clear in half. My mind decided that perhaps running was the better choice after all, and before I even realized what I was doing my legs were already carrying me away with the wolves in hot pursuit. And that leads me to now.

I finally reached the river, its waters surprisingly calm. Without hesitation I jumped in and began to swim across. The shock of the cold water reinvigorated me some and I made it across in good time, but sadly so did the Timber Wolves. Their wooden bodies floated effortlessly across the water like the ferryman across the river Styx. My body felt heavy as I hauled myself onto the shore. The ground was muddy and slippery and I lost my footing several times, and that proved to be my doom. I barely made it twenty paces from the river when a set of jaws clamped down on my left leg. I'll be honest, I shrieked like a little girl from the pain. I don't know what that thing had for teeth, but it made short work of my jeans and tore a fist sized chunk of flesh from my calf. Needless to say, I wasn't running after that.

I went down hard, smashing into the ground face first. I felt my nose break and nearly threw up as tears made my vision blur. A snarl from behind made me roll over, kicking out with my good leg. I caught one in the snout but two more jumped me, biting and tearing at my limbs. My clothes and flesh were shredded in mere moments. One of them bit down on my right arm. The bones snapped like twigs and all I could do was thrash and scream in agony. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. My other arm got broken and then torn off at the elbow, my blood spraying across the forest floor. One of them sank its teeth into my belly and tore me open. My guts spilled out like streamers of confetti. I began to choke on my own blood. Tears streamed from my eyes as I wordlessly begged for my mother. Yeah, my mind had been reduced to a gibbering wreck by that point. A helpless child, calling for the safety only a mother’s arms could offer. I felt myself slipping away as a pair of jaws descended on my face.

Then the ground trembled and a rainbow colored shock-wave burst through the forest. All I saw was white, before things changed forever.