Friendship is Home

A Rather Busy Awakening

“Ughh, my everything...”

With that tired mumble, Damien felt the last dredges of unconsciousness fade away. Full awareness returned to him slowly, his mind running a mile a minute as he thought over the last few notable things he remembered. Trying to make proper sense of them just confused his half-awake mind even more, but he fought past the confusion and forced himself fully awake. Now, let's see here; assault, death, dark void, spider-web of light orbs, warmth, weird voices, home?

Huh...

Okay, so that was a bit weird. None of it had felt like a dream, and he remembered it all perfectly. Which was something that had never happened before when he dreamed, which likely meant it was all actually true. In that case, the fastest way to check would be to open his eyes. After all, if he'd actually been reborn or something on a new world, then he wouldn't recognize his surroundings. Or at least they'd look a little weird to him.

Only, he wasn't sure he really wanted to take the chance that it had all just been his imagination running wild. He didn't believe in rebirth or reincarnation or anything like that, so why would he, of all people, be given a second chance on some new world that apparently both wanted and needed him. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like it was just his horrible luck playing a joke on him.

Letting out a soft sigh, Damien inhaled, and immediately coughed to dislodge the bunch of grass he'd just managed to swallow. Eyes opening with a sudden snap, he coughed a few more times, and then spat to get the rest of the grass out of his mouth. Only to leave his mouth hanging open, as he found himself starring at the lush-green grass covered ground about an inch from his face. Taking stock of the situation, he grunted, slowly forcing his sore and odd-feeling body to roll over onto his back so he wasn't starring into the grass and trying to inhale it every time he breathed.

This left him starring upwards at a brilliant canopy of tree leaves and branches instead, the deep blue of a starry night sky and its stars sparkling through the few faint gaps in the foliage. Despite being slightly surprised at the sight, as he'd not seen a forest so thick and lush except in history books back on Earth, he couldn't help but feel something was a bit odd.

The trees and such were a bit brighter, more detailed and life-like then he remembered them being during his few nature walks through the small parks in his hometown. It was almost distorted in a way, not a bad way per say, more like looking at a cartoon. Yeah, that was a perfect way to describe it, if he wasn't seeing things. Taking a deep breath, as Damien pushed himself up and shifted, he fell into a sitting position, gazing out at the huge forest that surrounded him on all sides, and seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance.

“It looks, like a cartoon?” he questioned softly, bringing a hand up to run through his...”HOLY SHIT!”

Damien tried not to freak out as he stared.

...and stared.

Then just for good measure, he stared a bit more.

After a moment or two, he began to slowly flex his hand. Once, then twice, before turning it over a few times. Then he flexed it again, before spreading out his fingers and just continuing to stare at his hand in half confusion and half awe. He couldn't be sure if what he was seeing was real, but he could feel his hand when he flexed and moved it. It certainly felt real enough, which likely meant this couldn't just be a hallucination.

His hand had somehow been transformed, changing to match the same bright cartoon-like appearance, detail, and color as seemed to be normal in this world. If anything, his hand looked more like it had been animated for a children's show, rather then the flesh and blood limb he knew had been attached to him only yesterday.

Realizing that if his hand had been transformed, the rest of him had likely followed, Damien glanced down at himself. Sure enough, every single part of him had been similarly transformed into this cartoon-like style. Not only that, but he was still naked. Completely naked, and sitting on his ass in the middle of some weird cartoon forest with a new cartoon body.

A forest in a whole new world, that a voice belonging to someone he hadn't been able to see had sent him to...

Right. Well, when he thought of it like that, he kind of sounded a bit crazy.

. . .

That couldn't be true though, right? He hadn't gone crazy, he was definitely not losing it, not even a little bit. But then again... The sounds of nature echoed all around him, the grass and wind felt real against his hands and face, and the smell of the wild filled his nose. It was so much more detailed then on his world. But, in a dream, wouldn't things naturally feel more realistic and detailed then they did in reality?

He supposed this could be a dream; but something deep inside told him that it wasn't. It told him that this was all real, that it was really happening, and that he was wide awake.

As he sat there and pondered this, Damien couldn't help but wonder what exactly he was supposed to do now. He didn't know where he was, or what he was really meant to be doing in this new world. Could he really afford to open up his heart once more? Could he chance falling for the same tricks and inevitable betrayals that he'd suffered through too many times already? That voice had promised that this world would be a home to him, that he would be needed.

But he'd heard promises before. Would the beings that inhabited this world even bother to welcome him? What if he looked too different, spoke too oddly. The thought of opening himself up again, only to be betrayed once more, cut at him deeply. With each passing moment, he began to think of more and more horrible possibilities, and question after question filled his mind as his breathing slowly began to quicken. A heavy rapid-rasping noise echoed through the clearing of the forest as the panic began to set in, and the world distorted and rippled around him seemingly in response.

'SMACK!'

“...Oww,”

Rubbing his cheek to soothe the pain of having just slapped himself, Damien focused on breathing evenly. It had been a long time since he'd broken out into a panic attack like that, especially one caused by his own thoughts and feelings. Slowly taking a few deep breaths, Damien allowed the calming action to restore his normal state of faint-emotionless focus. He couldn't allow stuff like that to happen to him, in this new world he needed to remain calm and think about what he should be doing next, and then just do it.

He supposed in that case, the best thing to do would be to take note of his current situation. Analyze what had happened to him, and determine what steps he needed to focus on.

First things first, he had died. Only to be 'resurrected?' to live in this new world instead.

Secondly, he'd been unsure of his decision to live in a new world. Let alone call it, home, of all things given his past. Until a warm feeling of unconditional and overwhelming ...kindness, yeah, kindness, had been shared with him in that strange void of darkness.

Third, the voice that seemed so welcoming had told him he'd be important to this new world. Not only that, but he would both need the inhabitants of this world, and be needed by them in return. He still wasn't quite sure how to feel about that, having stopped caring about others long ago.

Fourth, choosing to exist in this world had changed him. His new body both felt, and from what he could see, looked different. He was almost certain the changes had not been limited to his appearance. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew this body was far different than his old one.

Last, but not least... He was still. Fucking. NAKED!

Damien ran his hand backwards through his hair, as he always did to calm himself, and stifled a groan of annoyance at his continued nakedness. Letting his hair fall back into place, he had to pause and stare at the strands just noticeable out of the corner of his eye. The sight of white, instead of the normal dirty-blond he was used to seeing, was a rather shocking surprise, and made him wonder just how various the changes he'd undergone really were. For now, though, he should be worrying about where he was, not what he looked like.

Letting his gaze sweep around the clearing and nearby forest once more, Damien made sure to take note of everything in his surroundings. He was slightly displeased to note he couldn't recognize anything, but on the other hand he wasn't too surprised. This just another point towards accepting he'd really arrived on a new world. Annoyance, however, was in full swing. The voice that had sent him here hadn't left him with anything. It had deposited him in some strange place completely defenseless: no clothing to cover himself, and no weapon to protect himself with.

With nothing else to do, Damien carefully climbed to his feet. Surprise was his next strong emotion. His body was moving and reacting so...it was hard to explain. It was almost like he was lighter, yet heavier at the same time. More flexible, and yet more tense and honed like a spring about to be released. His body felt so different, he had a little trouble actually believing that it belonged to him, and not some buff and highly-trained youth that worked out constantly. His new cartoon-like appearance went much more then skin-deep.

With the feeling of soft grass underneath his feet, Damien began to slowly walk forward. The wind flowed through the nearby trees and around his bare body. He embraced the rather unique situation and the feeling of his genitals being ruffled by the breeze. Though the situation was a bit odd, he actually felt quite at home, as he moved silently through the forest. Soft imprints in the grass were the only sign of his silent presence as he moved deeper into its depths, or possibly closer to civilization. He didn't really care either way. It wasn't like he had anything better to do at the moment anyways.

As he wandered through the forest lit by the moon, Damien let the sounds of night and nature flow around him just like the cool wind. It was a situation one would never find themselves in back on earth. Civilization had caused such places to disappear into the notes of history. But here, in this new world...he could hear the sounds of nocturnal creatures moving through the forest, the calm hours of night welcoming them with open arms in the otherwise silent embrace of the night.

“Move faster you two!” a strong feminine voice shouted, “We need to hurry to Ponyville and find out what's happened to the Princess!”

“Yes Captain!” echoed two voices, one male and one female, in response.

Blinking curiously, Damien gazed upwards to where the voices seemed to be coming from, staring at the dense foliage above. Was there some sort of tree-village in this forest or something? A village in the trees would definitely be pretty cool, but he couldn't really see any signs that pointed towards something like that. But then again, how else could someone be talking from what would otherwise just be air?

Maybe he just hadn't been looking hard enough? The foliage, tree branches and leaves, along with the night-sky, no matter how bright the moon was, made it a bit difficult for him to see. His night vision was poor at the best of times, so it was certainly possible he'd just missed something. Still, those voices sounded rather worried, and had that one mentioned a 'Princess'?

“Captain! Lookout!” shouted the male of the two responding voices from moments before.

“ARGH!”

Damien's eyes narrowed, and he wished he could see what was happening as the stronger feminine voice from before shouted out in pain. In an instant, the dense foliage above was suddenly no obstacle to his poor night vision, which had sharpened, lighting up the night in a way he hadn't seen since he was young. As he caught his first sight of what was happening, he couldn't quite say if he was really so sure he was actually awake.

Flying in the sky above him were what appeared to be three horses with wings, and an ominous cloud of starry black smoke.

“What the heck?” Damien stared up at the unbelievable sight, as not only should horses not be able to fly, but was that cloud...squeezing the third horse? “No, they don't look big enough to be horses, I guess they'd probably be better classified as ponies. Or, well, pegasi since these are flying,” he contemplated. The captured pegasus continued to cry out in pain as the other two tried to free her, seemingly trying to cut the smoke with their wings.

“Dammit! Let the Captain go!” shouted the male voice, a loud female “Yeah!” calling out as well.

“AGUHAHHH!!” the strong female that was captured screamed even louder, and a faint 'crack' seemed to echo in accompaniment.

“CAPTAIN!” the two other pegasi cried out in concern, redoubling their efforts on freeing their captain from the cloud of starry black smoke.

“AHHHH, ... L-LEAVE! H-HAGGAHH, HELP, HELP THE PRINCESS!” the captured pegasus forced out through her screams.

On the ground below, Damien felt his fists clenching even as he bit down on his lower lip, as he stared up at the horrible scene. He'd long since given up caring for others, but even so, he still felt a faint desire to help when someone was suffering right in front of him. But at the moment he was useless. He couldn't fly and had no way to reach the torture happening in the sky above the foliage.

As the Captain Pegasus's voice cried out her order, he knew immediately that neither of the other two pegasi wanted to follow it. But when an additional “NOW!” echoed out through another tortured scream from the captured pegasus, they both gave a single strong beat of their wings and blasted away towards what he figured was the 'Ponyville' they'd mentioned before being attacked.

“Hehehe...such a noble little pegasus...” a dark raspy voice seemed to echo along the wind, “Such a pitiful end, goodbye my subject.”

A sinking feeling filled Damien at the smoke's words, and he swore mentally as the cloud suddenly released the pegasus. She immediately began to plummet towards the forest below, and despite flapping her wings...no, she was only flapping a single wing. Her other wing was bent at an odd angle, and didn't seem to be moving at all, even as she desperately flapped her other wing as hard as possible.

He made the connection in an instant, that crack from before had been the odd cloud somehow breaking one of her wings. Which would now lead to her certain death, as if colliding with the dense foliage above didn't kill her, then tumbling and crashing through before smashing into the ground from such a height would. Especially without being able to slow herself, she was a goner.

“This, is going to end badly...”

Springing forward at a rapid sprint he pushed as much force into his legs as possible, willing himself to run faster and carry himself forward. He knew that his appearance would likely shock, maybe even terrify, this pegasus if this world didn't have humans like him in it. But if he actually managed to do something about her falling, he hoped she wouldn't freak out and immediately run away from him. Hopefully the creatures of this new world were welcoming like the voice had suggested, or else this rescue would turn out pretty badly. He just couldn't leave her to certain death.

...wait? Why couldn't he just do that?

It had been a long time since he had cared enough about the fate of another to actually act. Ever since 'that' betrayal he'd pushed aside any desire to help others. He hadn't felt fear for another in many years, nor the desire to put his own life on the line to aide someone else, especially if nothing was in it for him. Yet here he was, body already moving and mind seemingly already made up. Rushing forward without any hesitation, which was completely unlike him these days.

Pushing those thoughts aside to focus as he approached one of the nearby trees, he ignored the sudden heavier feeling of his movement and shoved the flat of his metal-covered foot against the trunk of the tree, not even pausing to wonder why he was suddenly wearing metal armor-like boots and a pair of jeans as he scaled the trunk of the tree.

One foot in front of the other, he ran vertically up the side of the tree trunk. It was almost like he'd been performing parkour all his life, his movements were swift and certain, not an action wasted. Legs burning with exertion, he reached the climbable tip of the trunk, and with a powerful combined thrust from both his legs he launched himself upwards. Like a bullet he tore through the dense foliage and out into the open air with a spin, the fabric of a cloak, that hadn't been there before, fluttering in the wind.

Heavy breathing rebounding off something that was now covering his face, Damien paid it no mind as he quickly locked his eyes onto his still plummeting target. Reaching out with his left hand, a left hand suddenly covered in a mix of metal and scales instead of flesh he noticed absently, he wrapped his clawed finger-tips around the barrel of the wide-eyed pegasus. Ignoring the odd circumstances and strange things that kept happening, he tugged her right against his side, wincing faintly at her sharp pained whimper.

Wishing he'd been a bit more gentle, but not really being able to do anything at this moment, he just held her tighter against his side. The skin-tight suit-wearing pegasus's wide eyes, eyes far larger than a normal pony back on earth, were staring at him in complete shock, but once more he ignored it. Spinning them both to reduce momentum they plummeted together back through the dense foliage, his body protecting the injured pegasus from further harm.

'BOOM!'

A couple short seconds after passing through the tree cover, a resounding boom echoed loudly through the silent night-air of the dark forest. Damien and the pony had crashed into the ground with incredible force, causing it to crater inwards and then bubble outwards into a decently sized impact crater. The accompanying shockwave cutting into the ground and creating a perfect circle of destroyed grass, stone and earth. Breathing a little heavily, Damien lifted his foot out of the deep indentation he'd made in the ground, and walked with a slow purposeful walk out of the crater they'd made.

Still held tight to his side, staring at him with eyes wider still, the pegasus made no sound. Her eyes, despite being huge and wide, contained two tiny shrunk pupils, her good wing had glued itself to her side, and her ears were pinned back. The sight was both adorable, and a little heart-breaking, because Damien knew it meant this pegasus was likely terrified.

“You alright?” he asked simply, noting that whatever was covering his face also seemed to be distorting his voice into a rasp.

The pegasus finally seemed to come to her senses, and without a moments warning began squirming and struggling in Damien's grasp. Not wanting her to get injured by his sharp claws, Damien gently and carefully lowered her to the ground onto her four hooves. He didn't react or make any threatening movements as she practically tripped over herself to flee and stand in front of one of the nearby trees a short distance away, still staring at him in terror.

“W-What, w-what a-ar-are you?” she stuttered out, voice weak.

Damien couldn't contain his wince this time, the pure terror in the pony's voice cutting him deeply. Despite having long stopped caring what others thought of him, it still hurt when someone was scared of him. He knew he wasn't the most friendly or open person, but it wasn't like he was dangerous or anything. He had never hurt or attacked anyone, and was always helping back when he bothered with such a thing.

Making sure not to advance on the pony or do anything that might scare her more, Damien decided to take a look at the clothes that had suddenly appeared on his body. He didn't know how it had happened, but at some point between reaching that tree and taking his first step up the trunk he'd gained a full set of clothes, and even had his body altered slightly at the same moment. His feet were now covered in a pair of silver plate-armor style boots that gleamed in the moonlight, and a pair of dark blue jeans like those he'd worn back on earth protecting his modesty.

A mask-like object had covered his face, kind of like the ones Anbu wore in that Naruto anime he'd seen a few episodes of. Along with that, a tattered cloak hung over his shoulders and arms, with a hood covering all but a few strands of white hair from peaking out around his mask. None of those things compared to the rather abrupt change his arm and hand had undergone though. His flesh and blood limb had been replaced by an arm made of metal and scales.

The underside of his arm and hand seemed to be made of an icy-blue scaled texture, a mix of scales and skin. The upside of his arm was plated with the same silvery metal that covered his new boots, ending in claw-like tips for each of his fingers. This by itself wasn't even the weirdest part, that was the fact that his arm still felt completely normal, not heavier or anything. In fact, he could swear his arm felt stronger than it had been before than anything.

“I'm human,” he stared bluntly, “You can call me Damien, and I mean you no harm little po, p-pon...ug...ughh...ugghhhhhh!”

Damien's words trailed off as he collapsed to one knee, coughing after an agony-filled groan. He struggled to take a few deep breaths, but only made some rasping noises as he tried to force air into his lungs. His chest had constricted, a painful pulling sensation making him want to just shut his eyes and pass out on the forest floor beneath him. Everything was on fire as he fought to stay conscious at the sudden assault of pain his body was undergoing. He instinctively knew that whatever had given him his clothes and new arm, were the reason he was feeling this, like he'd been...drained somehow?

“Knew, t-this was, a bad... bad idea,” he ground out, falling backwards onto his ass as he continued to struggle to breath.

“Ar-are you, um, alright?” the strong feminine voice of the pegasus said uncertainly, but much less terrified then before.

“It's, no-noth... nothing, nothing really,” he forced out through heavy breaths, “How's, y-your wing?”

Before the pegasus could answer, Damien let out a strangled gasp of pain, his new clawed hand rising up and clutching at his bare chest as he drew in another painful breath. Struggling to keep calm and breathe, he barely noticed the echoing clops of the pegasus's hoofs against the forest floor as she nervously approached and uncertainly dropped to her barrel and stared at him in concern, her ears still pinned back nervously.

“I don't think so Mister Human, you look and sound like your in pain,” she voiced, now more calm despite her still obvious nerves.

“Heh.. is it, t-that, obvious?” he asked amused, letting out a deep wet-sounding cough as blood splattered the inside of his new mask. “Ugh...that's, n-not...good.”

“That sounded bad D-Dam, Damien, is there anything I can do?” she asked, ears flicking up as her tail straightened, fighting off the last of her nerves in the face of his obvious injured state.

Damien opened his mouth to speak up and assure the pegasus that there wasn't anything she could do, not even knowing what was really wrong with him in the first place. It was obvious that his change had been much larger then he'd originally believed. Some strange power had granted him the ability to save this pegasus, along with the clothes he'd desperately wanted to cover himself. But that same power had drained him. Not to mention wrecked havoc with his insides, he could still barely breathe, and every breath was now combined with a few coughs, most of which also brought up blood from his seemingly injured lungs.

Focusing, Damien tried once more to speak, only to be cut off by another wet cough and slump faintly, his claw leaving his chest and colliding with the ground to hold him up in his kneeling position. It seemed likely that he wouldn't be able to get any more words out at this point, and he was fairly certain in another few seconds he'd be completely unconscious considering how his vision was starting to darken around the edges. Taking one final raspy breath, he forced his eyes fully open, and stared into the muzzle and eyes of the pegasus who was now only inches away from him, staring in concern.

She looked terrified, but it was no longer because he frightened her. Damien could see that easily, is was because she now appeared to be terrified for him. Though he found it a little odd her opinion and mood had changed so suddenly, he figured it likely had something to do with him having saved her moments ago. And now that he obviously wasn't going to hurt her, it didn't matter how strange he looked because he was now in pain. If he could of, he would have chuckled. He could already tell these ponies were going to be interesting to get along with, if he survived whatever was wrong with him.

“Damien! Human!” she shouted, panicked, before finally narrowing her eyes and speaking once more in that strong voice, “Don't you dare pass out Soldier! Stay Awake!!”

Starring into the pegasus's strong orange eyes Damien tried to force himself to stay conscious, but he could see his vision darkening with every second, and felt his body weakening and shutting down. It was kind of a shame, he would have enjoyed actually getting to speak to the pegasus, maybe finding out why she was so concerned about that Princess, what that weird cloud of stars had been, and maybe even get some answers about this world, since she was the first inhabitant of it he'd met and all. Heh, maybe he would have been lucky and she could have known what was happening to him with this weird drained feeling.

“STAY AWAKE!”

Damien heard the pegasus's voice, but he couldn't manage to keep his eyes open and felt himself falling closer and closer to the ground as the darkness of unconsciousness began to take hold of him. Then, in an instant, his eyes snapped back open as the darkness was forced away by a brutal pain in his face. Shards of the mask that had been created to cover his face fell to the forest floor as the pegasus's brilliant gold-furred hoof pulled away from where she'd just slammed it into him.

As she lowered her hoof to the ground, Damien couldn't do anything but stare, unable to believe this pegasus had just smashed her hoof into his face of all things. What type of way to keep someone awake was that? His thoughts were interrupted the very next moment though, as images began to assault his mind. Image after image as concepts and ideas wrote themselves into his mind and knowledge that he hadn't had access to before was cemented. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but Spitfire hitting him with her hoof had driven a rather large amount of her knowledge of Equestria into him.

It was a rather large surprise, the sudden compounding of knowledge that he hadn't possessed a moment ago. He could tell it wasn't a complete encyclopedia of the worlds knowledge or anything, but it would definitely give him a hoof up...hand up he meant in his integration with the world. The various pony puns and methods of speaking would keep him amused for a decade at least though, so that was something to look forward to. Not to mention he'd gotten lucky, Spitfire did indeed know what was wrong with him, or at least suspected what it might be.

Spitfire's shouting voice continued and he took another hoof to the face as she tried to keep him awake, but it wasn't enough and he fell on his face at the hoofs of the injured Captain of the Wonderbolts. The drained feeling from before transformed into a feeling of a vast emptiness, as he finally lost the fight against unconsciousness. A single thought comforted him as he passed into the darkness.

Having 'Magical Exhaustion Backlash' meant he had to at least have magic in the first place...