In a Pinchby AkailoChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1Funny things, dreams. They seem like a good thing at first, giving us something to work towards. They are full of your hopes and wishes. Don't believe a word of it, dreams are nightmares in disguise and wishes are nasty little things waiting to bite you in the ass the first chance they get. But what does this have to do with anything you might ask. Anyone would love their dreams to come true right? I mean wouldn't you. I thought that as well and boy was I wrong. Quick word of advice. If a nut job says he can take you wherever you wish to go, don't indulge him, no matter how funny it is. Karma has a funny way of making you pay for that. Started off as a normal day just like any other. On my way to college like normal, thinking of the last episode of My Little Pony as normal, (yes I'm a brony and I'm damn proud of it too). That was until he showed up on my normal route. “You, come here for a second. I would like to have a word with you.” The man was tall lanky, scary as all hell. My mind was screaming walk away you fool! I always did like to ignore my common sense. “Sure what can I do for you.” seemed easy enough, find out what he wants then run for the hills. “What would you say if I told you I could send you anywhere, at any time.” I cocked an eyebrow at this. “I would say you were off your rocker.” I retorted, quite proud of my self at that jab. “I can you know, just tell me where,” alright now this guy was starting to creep me out but I thought why not, might as well humour him. “Fine,” I responded, ”send me to Equestria then, I would love to see it at least once.” With a scoff I turned to walk away, too little too late. Before I knew it the ground opened up below me like in some corny Warner Brothers cartoon. I began to fall into the darkness until the darkness swallowed me whole. ******* Never again, I thought to my self. I've had some bad hangovers over the years but this one was a doozy. My head pounded like my brain was trying to beat its way out with a hammer. Trying to get up I found my self unable to move my body. My arms felt heavy, like lead and I could hardly feel my legs. The worst part, I couldn’t feel the normal warmth of my bed like always. Now I don’t drink very often but even I admit some times I can get carried away. So you can guess warning bells were screaming in my head. Trust me it didn’t do any good for the migraine. Seconds turned to minutes turned to hours turned to days. So it was more like 10 minutes sue me my head was making it hard to keep track of time. You do anything with a hang over and see how you do. Finally I was able to open my eyes a crack to figured out where the hell I had managed to take my nap. Did I mention my head hurt, because the light didn’t make it any better I can tell you that. After a few minutes of the sun trying to melt my brain out of my skull I was finally able to see. The first thing that caught my eye was how blue the sky was. (I was flat on my back couldn’t see much else right now so the weather it is). I chuckled at my self, glad at least I choose to sleep outside in good weather. The thought of waking up in a snow storm really didn't make me feel all too smart. I slowly began to lift my self off the ground. It was surprisingly hard, my whole body felt a lot heavier then it normally did. Blaming it on the booze I started to look around more. What I saw made me wonder if I really was awake at the time. I was in a forest of all things, there isn’t even a forest anywhere close to where I live so how the hell I had managed to fall asleep in one was anyone’s guess. By now I was starting to freak out, who wouldn’t given my situation. Lost and alone in a strange forest with no idea how you got here. Something you should know about me, when I panic I start to talk to my self, it helps me think and get a grip on the situation. Well as always I try my best to start speaking my mind only to have nothing happen. The only sound I was able to create at this time is a guttural groan. It sounded more like something a monster would do to scare little children when hiding under their beds at night. Needless to say this was another thing I didn’t need. Trying my best I formulated as many words as I could to see what was wrong. “Me speak wrong, what happen?” So I could speak but it was like an Orc from a fantasy world or in layman terms like a lobotomised idiot . Wonderful,I thought to my self, I always knew drinking could give you brain damage but never like this. I started to drag my self to my feet, sitting here was doing me no good and it wasn’t going to get me to a town any quicker. Slamming my hands on the ground I push my self up, took me a few seconds to realise my skin had changed colour since last night. Bringing my hands to my face I realised that my skin had gone a pale grey, lumpy protrusions like warts covered my skin. It looked like I had been stung one too many times. Swinging around to get a better look at my body I realised that my whole body was now like this. I now stood a good seven feet tall with arms the size of small trees and legs to match. “What happen me?” I tried to scream out forgetting that I couldn’t form proper sentences at the moment. That’s it, I've gone mad that’s the only answer for this. Well there was enough time to go insane later. I began to look around the area I was comatose in to see if I could locate anything that could come in handy. Nothing all I had was the tattered clothes on my back, well so the speak my shirt was torn to shreds by my new muscled form. My trousers made me look like the hulk, not appealing but at least I wasn’t going around butt nude. I thought I should find some sort of land mark in order to find out where the hell I had got to. Searching the skyline I found what looked like a group of rocky outcrops that could get me higher then the tress and give me some idea where I had ended up. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all I thought to my self. At first I had worried that woodland animals might give me a problem but after a wolf got one look at me it ran for the hills and took any worries I might of had with it. At least I thought it was a wolf, it ran off so damn fast and I couldn’t get a good look at the thing, wolf shaped that was for sure. After an hour of walking I finally made it to the top of a small cliff face and began to look around the area for any sign of, well anything. Nothing, as far as the eye could see nothing but a sea of green and mountains. Dejected I turned around and began my trek to see if I could at least find something to eat out here. All of a sudden however I heard a rustling in the bushes. Now the wolf might of ran but I didn’t want to take my chances with a grizzly or something like that. So I tried quickly to find a place to hide. Before I had the chance however a small creature bounded through the bushes and rammed into my leg. I looked at the tiny thing as it seemed to be stunned from the impact. “Cant be.” I said out loud to my self. Ok now I know I had gone insane, in front of my was a real life pony and I don’t mean the ride around type, I mean a living honest to goodness My Little Pony. Recovering it looked up at me with big eyes, it was terrified and trust me I wasn’t making life any better for it. Just as it began to run back in the other direction more rustling came out of the bushes. This time however it was three large diamond dogs. “Get the escaped pony, or the boss will have our heads,” the largest of the three shouted to the two smaller ones. Before they were able to snatch up the pony they finally realised that seven foot of mussel was now looking at them confused. “It cant be, Boss a troll!.” one of the dogs yapped clearly a bit unnerved. The big dog in the background started to get a sick grin on his face. In his mind he had just hit the jack pot. “We were only meant to get escaped pony, think how much we will get for a creature that is meant to be long dead, Get them both!” Before I could react I now had three diamond dogs pointing spears and nets at me, whatever was going on this could not be good. And now I also had a small pony hiding behind me as if I was some sort of protector. My inner argument was cut short as I was stabbed by a spear, right in the arm. As pain shot through my body I looked down at the wound and saw dark green blood seeping from the new hole in my flesh. I was pissed, that damn mutt just stabbed me. I was angry, beyond angry I was fruious. My body started to work on auto pilot as if some deep instinct had been awakened in my new form. Scooping up the nearest bolder I chucked it at the dogs. Two of them were nimble enough to get away in time, the third now knew what it was like to be a pancake. In a blind rage I began to look for something anything that I could use as a weapon. Just then one of the dogs came in for an attack. Bad idea, in my rage I grabbed him by the legs and then smashed him on the ground instantly breaking his neck. I wasn’t done yet however I took the body and began beating the last of the dogs with it like it was a club. The sight was not pretty, lets just say there wasn’t much left but a stain when I got through with them. As the blood haze began to lift from my mind I was shocked to see what I found, my body had moved on its own during that whole encounter. As I was trying to figure out what had happened I heard a whimper from behind me. “Oh no, the pony,” I thought to my self as I tried to get a better look at it. It was shivering behind a rock formation. “No! please don’t eat me, I don’t taste good.” It was a filly, must be young too. “Me no eat, promise.” I tried to tell her, this seemed to work at little bit. Poor thing was in shock. “Thank you for saving me, the mean dogs were going to take me away to some place bad.” The small filly choked out between sobs. My heart almost melted at the sight of this, the filly was young she had no cuite mark yet from the look of it. Her coat was a berry pink, her mane only slightly darker. Her eyes a stunning green. “Name?” I asked her, I thought I knew who it was already but I wanted to be sure, I remember some ponies having clones in the show. “Ruby Pinch,” she sobbed still rather shook up from the event. “What’s yours?” I tired my best to give my real name, but as hard as I tried nothing came out just more roars. I didn’t want to scare the poor thing even more. Tired and annoyed by my lack of vocabulary I dropped to the floor with a loud thud. She started to giggle at this. “Thud, that's a funny noise, I know that should be your name, Thud.” Thud? What does she think I am some troll who lives in a cave, err well I guess I am a troll now so I can forgive her for that but Thud? “Don’t you like it Mr Thud?” She said giving me puppy dog eyes as if her new pet didn’t like its name, my heart melted there and then. “Fine, me Thud, happy?” You don't say no to eyes like that, you just don't. “Very,” she beamed. “Why are out here?” I tired to ask her, damn I will never get used to this speech. She started to tear up a bit. “Me and Mommy were visiting a town on the edge of Equestria, she wanted to buy new drinks for her shop back in Ponyville.” Her tears were getting bigger now. “When we were on our way back some mean dogs grabbed us, they said we were going to be slaves.” This was really hard on the poor filly so I tried to do my best to comfort her without crushing her, big hands and all that. “Just before they took us underground, Mommy made a lot of noise and told me to run. They hit her before coming after me.” Just then full on waterworks. “I WANT MY MOMMY!” now they had to pay, they just made this cute little ball squee cry and I wasn’t going to stand for it. Besides berry punch was one of my favourite ponies, no way I was going to let her slave for diamond dogs. “Me help, find her.” I said with a big grin which almost certainly made me look like a predator but Ruby didn’t seem to mind. “Thank you Mr Thud,” With that I placed her on my shoulder and began to trek down the path back to where the diamond dogs came from. Little did I know this was only the start of something much bigger. Chapter 2Chapter 2 We had been walking for a while now. I still had no idea where we were going, all I knew was the dogs came from this general direction. If things couldn’t get much worse, the sun was starting to set. It was hard enough to see where I was going in this forest with the sun up, never mind at night. I told myself it was time to set up camp. I didn’t feel happy walking around with a small filly in the dead of night. Looking at the stab wound on my arm surprised the hell out of me. The cut had almost totally gone in such a short period of time. Not that I was complaining but it sort of freaked me out. Pushing it out of my mind I looked for a place where I could bed down for the night. Looked like Ruby had beat me to it however as she snored lightly on my shoulder as I carried her through the thick undergrowth. She was so cute curled up like that in a little ball my heart almost stopped yet again, these ponies are trying to kill me with cuteness I swear. Well at least she didn’t need to worry about finding a bed for the night, I however was starting to get tired and hungry. I had very little wilderness experience so I wasn’t about to go looking for mushrooms or trying to catch something I wouldn’t know where to even start. I figured that fruit was my best bet then perhaps finding a clearing where I could set up a fire for the night to ward away any animals. After a good few hours of searching I finally had everything I needed. I had been lucky and was able to find some fruit bearing trees, no idea what the stuff was but it looked sort of like a mix between an apple and a pear. Smelled fine so I wasn’t too worried about it being poison or anything. As I was gathering wood for the fire I began to feel Ruby waking up from her nap, poor thing must have been overloaded from shock from earlier so I was just glad she was aright. Yawning loudly she began to open her eyes and look at me, jumping off my shoulder while I was sitting down preparing the wood and some flint I had found. “Sorry about making you carry me Mr Thud, I'm normally a big filly and walk all by my self,” Argh that name again still I couldn’t stay mad at her. “Hungry?” I questioned to her and before she even opened her mouth her stomach began to rumble. I couldn’t help but chuckle at this, “ Yes then, here food.” I handed her some of the fruit I had found. She sniffed at it carefully, unsure of what to make of the strange fruit but after a while took a big bite into it. “Wow this is really good Mr Thud, thanks for helping me before by the way, Mommy always told me to thank some one who is really nice to me.” Smiling I returned my attention to the small camp-fire I was setting up before hand. Flint in hand I began to create a good spark to get the fire going. After a few minutes I finally managed to get it lit, part of me was really proud of that. However as the flames began to rise from the pit something caught in my chest. A deep feeling that I couldn’t describe at first but as it began to grow along with the fire I realised what it was. Fear. Something about the fire scared me, no not just scared me terrified me. My body was screaming at me to put it out, get rid of it anything but just get away from the dancing blaze before my eyes. Before I knew it, I was backing away from it almost whimpering. Ruby caught note of this and began to move towards me. “What's wrong Mr Thud?” she asked with genuine worry in her voice. I tried to answer her but my mind had shut off and my blood turned to ice. I had to get rid of the evil thing some way, some how. Without thinking I started to smash the fire with my firsts, just to put it out. I couldn’t feel anything during this all I knew is I had to get rid of it any way possible. It took a while but eventually I heard a small noise from Ruby. I must of scared her doing that. Looking down at my hands, they had both been burned slightly but the strange thing was unlike the cut nothing was happening here. No healing, not sure why I expected it too. I didn’t know why but I didn’t like fire. I thought back to the fight with the diamond dogs, they had called me a troll. I had not really thought about it until now, but what if trolls in Equestira were like trolls in the forgotten realms. Trolls in that group of stories had great regeneration abilities but could be killed with fire, perhaps this is a built in response to protect my self from that weakness. Whatever it was I made a mental note to never get close to fire again, at least if I could help it. Grinning sheepishly I apologised to the small filly and within time everything was quiet again and she had fallen asleep next to me. Remembering my hunger I grabbed one of the fruit I had gathered and placed it in my mouth. What happened next I don’t think I will ever forget. The fruit was the most vile, horrid and disgusting food I had ever put in my mouth. The taste was indescribable but trust me I would of preferred to eat old socks. I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with the fruit, Ruby had liked it fine, even having seconds, it didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest. Downhearted I began to wonder where on earth I would find food now. Then it hit me, that savoy earthy smell, almost like baked potatoes. Searching around I tried my best to find out where that heavenly smell was coming from. Finally I managed to track the smell to the fire pit I had violently crushed, it couldn’t be though I thought to my self, I never cooked anything in it. Digging through the remains all I could find was the piece of flint I had used to start the fire in the first place. Annoyed I brought the stone to my face growling at it for teasing me, it was when I realised it. That wonderful smell was coming from the stone its self. I gave it a tentative lick feeling like a fool. Rocks are not food I kept telling my self but that taste, oh that wonderful taste. Before I knew it I was sucking on the stone like it was made of sugar I couldn’t resist. Without realising I bit down. Stopping in panic I expected pain to shoot through my teeth as I shattered them all on the stone. But no, the stone cracked like it was a piece of sweet rock I used to get while on holiday as a child. Flabbergasted I began to chew the small shards of flint, it felt good, almost right some how. Well now I just couldn’t believe it. I could eat rocks and they were damn good too. I thought perhaps I might be like a dragon and how they eat gems. Promising my self I would try a gem the second I could I began to drift off to sleep, all the while making sure Ruby was safe. “Wake up.” I groaned as I told my self five more minutes wouldn’t hurt. “Wake up Mr Thud, its morning.” Who the hell is Mr Thud, then all the memories of the day before came flooding back to me. Oh right me. I began to drag my self off the ground and tried to get an idea of my surroundings. What I wouldn’t have given for a soft bed right then, my back was killing me for sleeping upright next to a tree. I grabbed a small tree from the ground and tested its balance a bit in my hands. Not a bad weapon considering I was going after potentially murderous animals. I slung the makeshift club over my shoulder and scooped up Ruby, placing her on my shoulders like the day before. Since it was morning I tossed the left over fruit to Ruby and let her munch on that for a while. She seemed happy enough with it. Feeling my own empty stomach I began to recall last night and thought it worth testing. I scooped up a bunch of pebbles from the ground and tossed them into my mouth giving them a satisfying crunch. Ruby was looking at me with an image of disgust on her face, “Mr Thud Mommy always told me never to put dirt in my mouth, its icky.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her, then again I could hardly believe I was eating rocks my self, but here I was. “Me think it ok, taste good,” I don’t think she believed me but in her place neither would I. “A nice dragon back at home used to eat gemstones, is it a bit like that Mr Thud, because I never saw him eating rocks.” I was starting to get a bit annoyed with the question and answer session we were having, and considering I could hardly talk it just made it worse. “It fine, find Mommy yes?” I hoped that would take the subject off my eating habits for the time being. It backfired, now she was starting to tear up. “No cry, no cry.” I tried my best to cheer her up but it felt for naught. The next few hours the only sound I heard was her sniffling as she finally managed to calm down. She's cute sure but I promised my self once I got back to earth I was never going to have children. I guess that was a bit mean of me since she lost her mother but the crying and questions drove me mad. Back on earth I was a loner, I didn’t like to talk to other people at all. I didn’t want friends, I hardly cared about my family and I really didn’t want a relationship. And now look at me, in what was meant to be the bastion of kindness and friendship, with a filly who’s mother was kidnapped and almost killed. Yeah real kind place, and I had only been here a day. After pushing my way past a few more bushes I found something that made my heart soar. A road, sure it was dusty and looked hardly used but a road was a road. And roads meant people,(or in this case ponies). It looked like the road had been barren for a while, the dirt had some slight indentations but from what I could tell nothing very fresh, however it looked like a cart had passed through a while ago. Perhaps that was the slave profession that Ruby had escaped from. With no leads I began to follow the tracks, they were either going to bring me to my goal of finding Ruby's mother or to other ponies. And either would be good right now. Chapter 3Chapter 3 After a few days on this road I was starting to wonder if Canterlot and Ponyville are the only settlements in the whole of Equestira. If I had not been following a road I would have thought I was going in circles a long time ago. My luck had not totally dissipated though, it seemed easy enough to find more fruit to make sure Ruby didn't starve at least. Rocks could be found everywhere so I didn’t have to worry about food either. That was the least of my worries however, keeping a small filly entertained over a long trip, now that’s hard. “I spy with my little eye, something green,” Ruby was finding it hard to not giggle at her own antics. “Tree,” I responded dryly, “Wow, Mr Thud how did you guess so quickly.” I face-palmed at this which hurt like hell, the burns on my hands still had not quite healed yet. After shaking my hand like a fool and getting thunderous laughter out of Ruby I rolled my eyes. “Tree only thing here,” I snapped at her. Before she could respond to me however I heard a scream from the bushes. Without thinking I readied my club and rushed into the bushes to meet head on any foe that dared to cross me. Instead of danger and horrific beasts I found two young unicorns fillies playing by a lake, one splashing water on the other using magic. The attacker a pale blue unicorn with a white mane, the victim a dark green unicorn with black and green mane. In the background sitting on the other side of the lake was a small village sitting at the foot of the mountains. It was an idyllic sight, like something you would see right out of a corny summer family film. It looked like the town may have been used as a mining town once. Close by were old mine shafts and what looked like the remnants of an old set of mine tracks. It was so pleasant I almost felt like just sitting down and enjoying the rest of the day under the shade of a tree, the universe always finds a way to ruin the fun. The two ponies noticed me, their eyes went the size of dinner plates and their mouths hit the floor. “What matter? Never seen troll?” what can I say I couldn’t resist trying to troll them a little bit, they screamed and ran towards the village. “MONSTER! HELP ITS GOING TO EAT US!” They shouted as they tripped over them selves to get to the safety of their village. Oh this was not going to end well. I started to run after them to try and stop what was happening before it got out of control, in hindsight not my best idea. Ponies began to shuffle out of their houses to try and get an idea of what was going on. Only to see a 7 foot large grey beast chasing after two small unicorns. Anyone could guess what happened next, lots of screaming and running and the calling of the local guard. Today was not my day, I tried my best to tell them that I wasn't going to hurt them but all I could do was roar like some deranged beast, panicked speech with a broken voice did not work. Ruby throughout all of this was still sitting on my shoulder laughing her little flank off, sure she thought it was funny but I sure as hell didn’t at the time. Then things went from bad to just down right horrid, so far away from any main city I should of guessed that the town would have had a guard of some kind and here they were out in force. Ponies of all kinds stood before me encased in armour, spears pointed directly at me and a mean glower on their faces. Probably didn’t want a monster eating their foals or something like that, not that I was planing to do that. “Stop, no harm,” I desperately tried to get across to the armoured ponies. Ruby was starting to get a bit worried now, a prank was always funny until some one got hurt and she couldn’t stand the idea of seeing ponies getting hurt. An earth pony began to push his way past the guards in the back, his armour was gold where the others were all basic iron and his helmet looked like a a flock of peacocks had died in its creation. “Halt beast, give up the captive and leave peacefully or we will take extreme measures.” He barked at me, It seemed this guy was the captain of the guard in this town but what was he talking about a captive for, I wasn't kidnapping anyone. “I wont tell you again beast, give us the filly and begone.” What Filly, was he talking about Ruby? “Me no mean harm.” I tried in vain to get them to stop putting my hands up as a sign of peace. “Why should I believe you monster, now back off and leave the filly before I lose my patience.” Now this guy was starting to bug me, a lot. What would it take to convince these damn ponies I wasn’t trying to eat them and kidnap foals. “Not leave Ruby but no hurt you,” I was starting to get mad but I really could not deal with this many ponies if they attacked me and I really didn't think making the town hate me would be a good idea either. “I wont warn you again beast, drop the filly and back off.” Well I really had no choice here it was either attack them or do as they told me. I took my club off from my back and began to lower it to the ground. “He's attacking, subdue him!” the captain shouted, damn he must of thought I was getting my weapon to fight. The four first guards rushed me, knocking one away I tried to get a handle on the situation, it was far to late, I was far to slow to stop the other three, their spears sunk deep into my flesh. Again and again more spears came turning me into a grey pincushion. Time started to slow down, I could hear my own heart throbbing in my chest, I managed to look down long enough to see the green blood ooze from my body. Ruby was screaming as she fell off my shoulder towards the ground. How dare they, how dare they, how dare they. They hurt me, they hurt Ruby, I cant leave her, she needs me. My vision started to go black and I felt like I passed out. Blackness, that’s all I could see. The darkness was oppressive and I couldn’t feel anything, was I dead? I had no idea. “Get up fool!” the voice echoed through the void. “You’re a disgrace to us all, we were great once and finally we have a chance to be great again.” “Who is that?” I yelled as hard as I could into the darkness, still unable to see anything. Suddenly a giant grey stone figure appeared in front of me. “Know your place young-ling, you are not even close to being able to talk to me yet. That damned god promised me a reborn that could bring us back to greatness. Instead he sends me this runt.” The statues eyes began to glow red, and I felt a surge of power drive into my body, “So it seems you can be useful, the diamond dogs never stood a chance. Go young-ling embrace your birth right, we shall meet again.” My eyes snapped open, I couldn’t only see red. The anger was filling me up, I had to do something. They hurt me, how dare they hurt me. Getting back on my feet I ripped the spears from my body in a splash of gore. My wounds started to knit together until they sealed completely. The ponies had no idea what was going on, after all that punishment the beast should have been dead by now, the captain called another charge but this time before they even had a chance to attack me I swung my club taking out four at once. This anger needed to be fuelled and it would be with the blood of ponies. Another board swing took out yet another four of the guards, they began to run but they were not going to get off so easy. Not after hurting me. Roaring loudly I smashed in the roof of one of the local houses, the more ponies in there the better. There would be nothing left when I got through with them. “MR THUD!, stop please stop it!.” Ruby ran in front of my club in an attempt to stop me getting clipped by the side of the makeshift weapon. My blood turned cold, the red mist was striped from my mind as what I had done hit me like a ton of bricks. I rushed to Ruby's side to check any injuries, my mind was on panic mode. I had hurt the pony I was trying to help in the first place. After giving her the once over I sighed in relief, I had not done enough damage to her to be threatening, she would be bruised otherwise fine. “Mr Thud, you should not be so mean to other ponies alright,” she whispered to me as she came too. Although I was relieved, looking around the town the mess that I had caused was spectacular. Buildings were crushed and the bodies of guards lay lifeless on the ground. I had no idea if I had killed them or not but I had to get out of there. As I ran towards the forest the guard captain stood in my path his sword in his mouth. “Oh no you don’t beast, you're not getting away after this.” I readied my self to push my way past him, I didn’t want to do any more damage right now. “Please Mr Guard, don’t hurt Mr thud any more, he didn’t mean to be so naughty.” I couldn’t believe it Ruby was standing up for me even though I hurt her. “Didn’t mean it? He trashed at least three buildings and causes who knows how many casualties to my guard.” “But Mr Guard, you attacked him first.” Ruby did have a point there and it looked like it hit the guard as well. “Alright child, if your adamant that he didn’t do anything wrong then he will help rebuild the damage he did. And you were hurt so I want you to also see a doctor before you leave.” he gave me a glare before walking off back towards to the town. It took a good week before all the damages were fixed, and I got the feeling that even after all this time the ponies here still didn’t like me, I couldn't blame them. The guard captain, who I learned was named Stone Shield, never took his eyes off me. They had me on hard labour the whole time as well, which was not doing wonders for my mood but really there was little I could do. I did break their houses and hurt a lot of their guards. To my shame I had even hit one hard enough to shatter his skull, there was no saving him. They had given me odd jobs around the town as well that needed a lot of body power, surprising how much a troll can lift. Ruby had been checked out by the local doctor who, thank goodness, didn’t find anything wrong with her. Now I may be hated in this small town of Granite Falls, but Ruby really hit it off with the other ponies here, I was half tempted to just leave her here. I shook that thought out of my head, I had to find her mother and it wasn’t fair on her to leave her in a strange place. Truth be told it wasn’t fair to drag her around into danger either but she was my only goal in the world right now. While on my way towards the back of town after another night of fixing up the damaged buildings I managed to stumble over two drunk ponies. I hid quickly so I didn’t spook them but I overheard them talking. I recognised the two. the first was one of the guards a unicorn, white coat with a jade mane his cuite mark was that of two crossed swords. the other a dark brown earth pony with a dirt brown mane, his cutie mark was that of a pick axe, one of the miners. “Did you hear the rumours, apparently the diamond dogs to the north took a bunch of ponies as slaves not long ago. Equestria just ain't safe any-more” “I don’t believe you, diamond dogs ain’t that smart now come on lets go get another drink, you're buyin.” I couldn’t believe my ears, that must have been the slave train that Ruby was a part of. That means her mother is close. Without wasting any time I headed back to the area that myself and Ruby were given to sleep in, they didn’t want Ruby to stay any where near me but she insisted. Scooping as much food as I could for Ruby into the pack I has fashioned together from some left over rope and a old burlap sack I had found, I grabbed Ruby from the makeshift bed. Stone Shield was not going to be happy about me skipping out of the rest of the work but I had a clue and dammit I was going to take it. Looking back once more at the small village I steeled my self and plunged into the dark forest. Chapter 4Chapter Four. Boy I should of expected that from the start. When Ruby woke up she freaked out that we had left the village without saying goodbye. She is damn scary when she is angry for a filly. I finally managed to calm her down long enough to say it was because I had found a clue on her mothers whereabouts. It had been a few hours since I had left the village of Granite Falls, filly in hand. I tried my best to find the road I had been following before I had stumbled on the town. It was not so easy in the dark of night, the tree line was so thick that much of the moonlight wasn't filtering through though the moon was almost full. After a time I came across a small clearing in the forest, it was enough for me to get my bearings or at least I hoped. As I had mentioned before, back on earth I was a loner. I didn’t care much for people so I took to gaming as well as other more nerdy pastimes. One of which was astrology. I was always fascinated by the night sky and the endless possibilities of what might have been out there. With this hobby I was very knowledgeable in the placement of the stars. Ecstatic that I had stumbled upon this makeshift map I began to scan the clear sky for the north star. As I scanned the sky a deep feeling of dread began to grow inside me. I had not thought of it before I really don’t know why, but there was no fighting it now, I really was no longer on earth. The stars resembled nothing I had ever seen before. I had run out of town without any idea of where north was and even worse I now had no idea of the way back either. It didn’t take long for Ruby to catch on that something was wrong and was starting to look rather scared. “Mr Thud, are we lost?” she asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes, “If we are lost we will never find Mommy and now no one will ever find us. Mr Thud I'm scared.” Now I was feeling like an idiot. I really should learn to plan these things out better but since there was nothing I could do now, I figured I would try and calm Ruby down at least, I didn’t need her panicking as well. “No, we not lost. I have compass, north this way.” I picked a random direction and hoped to any gods that might be around at the moment to feel sorry for me. After a bit of walking in circles I was getting annoyed, the whole forest looked the same to me. I was glad that at least the sun had started to rise during all of this, at least I could see now. I had to try and find some way to get an idea of where I was and where I should be going. Thankfully Ruby managed to fall back asleep during all of this, I swear that filly could sleep through an earthquake. The only way I was going to know where the hell I was, was to get above the tree line. Oh boy this was not going to be easy. Ever since my transformation I've been at least double to the size of a normal human in bulk, I had no idea if I was going to be able to even pull myself up the tree to get a good look around but I had to try. Making sure that Ruby was secured to my shoulders I attempt to pull my self up the trunk of the tree. It was no easy task but I managed to get high enough to sit on one of the higher branches of the tree. Finally I could see something, the area was a sea of green, even the road was hidden by the arboreal clouds. Mountains reached for miles like the spine of the world. I was about to give up hope when I saw a cave towards the mountain side. Without any idea where to go next I began to plot the easiest path to the cave entrance, I should have been paying more attention and I might of noticed the sound of cracking wood below me. The branch had been finding it more then hard to keep me up for as long as it had, poor thing never stood a chance versus my massive build and I should of known it. The fall was quick at least but I don't think the pain in my butt will leave me for a while. What's funny however is through all of this ruby was still asleep on my shoulder, I was surprised she had not fallen off during that, pony fur must be like glue I thought to my self. The sun was now high enough to see properly around the forest, I poked Ruby a few times to wake her up. “Do I have to go to school today?” So cute I could hug her till she stops breathing, damn these ponies far to adorable for their own good. Another prod and she was finally coming around, “Oh good morning Mr Thud,” she said with a yawn, “Did you find out where we are yet?” “Found some place, going now.” with that I rummaged through my pouch giving her some of the food I had acquired from the town. One of the best things I had ever made, finding a bag for a troll was never going to be easy, I'm just glad they didn’t need the sack I took. We were almost there now, I let Ruby finish her breakfast before climbing the trail that led up to the cave that I had seen before hand. Finally I had managed to get to the cavernous maw of the mountain, the cave entrance was huge. It made me feel like a dwarf and that was quite a feat considering my new body. The area outside looked frequented, it was like something had been placed outside the cave entrance many times digging away at the earth leaving indentations in the soil and grit. Cart tracks headed inside the cave mouth and given the trail I had just climbed the owners must have been desperate to take this route. Either that or extremely stupid. Looking into the dark cavern I saw old lanterns illuminating the stone work, shadows dancing around the cave walls. This place was not inviting in the slightest but it looked well used and I remembered that diamond dogs often lived underground, my brain was screaming at me not to go in but I felt drawn to the place. With few other clues I had little choice, I began to take my first tentative steps into the unknown. “Mr Thud, are you sure this is safe, it looks scary.” I put my hand over the filly in an attempt to calm her and nodding quickly to convince her that I was sure that this was what we needed to do at the time. She seemed to accept that but I knew she was still scared. Time felt slower in the depths of the earth, but oddly I felt at home. Something about the stone and the earth made me feel safe. I felt almost calm down here like nothing could stop me but I didn’t know why. I could feel gems pulsating in the walls, singing to me, calling to me. I could of stayed in this very hallway for the rest of my life. But there was more important things to do right now. The deeper into the tunnel I went the more alive I felt, it was almost like I could sense what was around me, like the earth its self was talking to me. “You are troll, son of the stone and true ruler of these lands.” a strange voice echoed through the cave system. “Who talk?” I screamed into the darkness. Ruby looked totally confused at me, “Who are you talking to Mr Thud.” I looked at her, “you not hear voice?” I asked. She just shook her head at me. Now I was stating to get a bit worried if I was hearing voices, it was almost like that dream I had back in granite falls. “Foolish young-ling, of course she can not hear me for she is pony and lesser then us. Now listen well, drop your pointless quest. I have more important work for one such as you, deep in these caves are the bastard race of the earth, the diamond dogs. They defile the stone and take what is not theirs. Crush them, crush them all.” my vision was slowly beginning to fade to red as I felt anger rage within me, how dare the lesser races take what is not theirs. I was about to rush into the darkness rage flaring when Ruby began to talk to me. “Mr Thud why have we stopped, shouldn’t we keep looking for Mommy?” At this I shook my self back to my senses wondering what I had been thinking about all this time, I was unable to remember the most of it. The strange voice began to ring through the chamber again, “Young-ling do not try my patience, your pet pony wont be with you forever and when she is gone you will embrace your birthright.” Once again the halls were quiet. The small cavern halls began to widen after a time opening up into a great chamber deep within the mountain. Quickly I managed to find a hiding place behind a stack of boxes and began to get an idea of the rooms lay out. The caverns roof stretched for miles, I was unable to see the top. The hall was full of life, but it was by no means a pleasant place. Cages lined the walls full of creatures of all shapes and sizes, I was able to make out ponies of all races as well as some breeds of timber wolf. In the higher alcoves of the caves more large bird creatures were chained to the walls, to my knowledge it was both griffins and other birds of prey. There was even what looked like a bipedal cat in there but it may have been a trick of the light. Dogs shuffled around the room moving cages from place to place, loading some of them up on carts. Large scaffolding lined the cave walls allowing the dogs a way to get from point A to point B with shoddily made ladders and lifts. It would have been awe inspiring if the cries of the enslaved didn’t echo through the halls. Bodies of dead slaves had been piled into a pit in the corner, the smell in the cave was vile I was surprised the dogs could just keep walking around in this. Ruby trough all of this was just quiet through shock if nothing else. I think she just realised how close she was to being here herself. I looked around the room to see if there was anything I could do at all for the poor souls trapped in this small piece of hell. I should of watched where I was going, in my haste to move from one pile of boxes to another I had managed to knock over a bunch of crates. The whole cave knew I was here now, this was not going to end well at all. Panicking I took my club off my back and readied my self into a battle stance. At least ten diamond dogs had seen me and were rushing to circle me. “Who are you beast,” one of the dogs shouted at me, “He is ugly, what should we do with him,” another one responded. I was in trouble and I knew it. I was backed into a wall. I didn’t want to provoke them any more then I had done, my eyes shot around the room desperate for an escape route. “Give me back my Mommy you mean dogs,” I was shocked, Ruby had jumped off my shoulders and was trying to confront the diamond dogs herself, what was she thinking she was going to get herself killed. “Or what little pony. Perhaps we should take you instead.” one of the dogs lunged for her but before he could I smashed his head in with my club, well so much for not provoking them I thought. “I will kill you for that beast,” a dog shouted, Ruby just grinned at him in a way a child would at a funny joke. “Oh I wouldn’t do that meanies, you will make him angry and you wouldn’t like him when he's angry.” now Ruby was trying to provoke them even more, I don’t know what she was thinking but I felt like I had no choice. Steeling my self I charged in at the dogs taking out at least three with one swing of my club. The others were quicker arming spears in my direction, they charged. The battle was going in my favour for a long time, dogs ran in only to be turned into mush at the hands of my club. Others were faster using more short ranged swords, they cut into my skin only to have it reknit in seconds. Archers began firing a volley of arrows in my direction. Some almost hit Ruby but I was able to scoop her up in time to stop her being hit by a stray shot. The hits were starting to hurt more then the ones before and my wounds were healing slower, my regeneration wasn't going to last much longer at this rate. With one more reckless swing I managed to take out almost every dog attacking me, I never even saw it coming. As I was catching my breath a small glass vial smashed on the ground next to me, the smell was a sickly sweet as it bellowed up from the broken glass. I tried my best to keep my eyes open and keep fighting but it was no use, falling to the ground I let sleep over take my body hoping with all my being that we would be alright.
Chapter 1Funny things, dreams. They seem like a good thing at first, giving us something to work towards. They are full of your hopes and wishes. Don't believe a word of it, dreams are nightmares in disguise and wishes are nasty little things waiting to bite you in the ass the first chance they get. But what does this have to do with anything you might ask. Anyone would love their dreams to come true right? I mean wouldn't you. I thought that as well and boy was I wrong. Quick word of advice. If a nut job says he can take you wherever you wish to go, don't indulge him, no matter how funny it is. Karma has a funny way of making you pay for that. Started off as a normal day just like any other. On my way to college like normal, thinking of the last episode of My Little Pony as normal, (yes I'm a brony and I'm damn proud of it too). That was until he showed up on my normal route. “You, come here for a second. I would like to have a word with you.” The man was tall lanky, scary as all hell. My mind was screaming walk away you fool! I always did like to ignore my common sense. “Sure what can I do for you.” seemed easy enough, find out what he wants then run for the hills. “What would you say if I told you I could send you anywhere, at any time.” I cocked an eyebrow at this. “I would say you were off your rocker.” I retorted, quite proud of my self at that jab. “I can you know, just tell me where,” alright now this guy was starting to creep me out but I thought why not, might as well humour him. “Fine,” I responded, ”send me to Equestria then, I would love to see it at least once.” With a scoff I turned to walk away, too little too late. Before I knew it the ground opened up below me like in some corny Warner Brothers cartoon. I began to fall into the darkness until the darkness swallowed me whole. ******* Never again, I thought to my self. I've had some bad hangovers over the years but this one was a doozy. My head pounded like my brain was trying to beat its way out with a hammer. Trying to get up I found my self unable to move my body. My arms felt heavy, like lead and I could hardly feel my legs. The worst part, I couldn’t feel the normal warmth of my bed like always. Now I don’t drink very often but even I admit some times I can get carried away. So you can guess warning bells were screaming in my head. Trust me it didn’t do any good for the migraine. Seconds turned to minutes turned to hours turned to days. So it was more like 10 minutes sue me my head was making it hard to keep track of time. You do anything with a hang over and see how you do. Finally I was able to open my eyes a crack to figured out where the hell I had managed to take my nap. Did I mention my head hurt, because the light didn’t make it any better I can tell you that. After a few minutes of the sun trying to melt my brain out of my skull I was finally able to see. The first thing that caught my eye was how blue the sky was. (I was flat on my back couldn’t see much else right now so the weather it is). I chuckled at my self, glad at least I choose to sleep outside in good weather. The thought of waking up in a snow storm really didn't make me feel all too smart. I slowly began to lift my self off the ground. It was surprisingly hard, my whole body felt a lot heavier then it normally did. Blaming it on the booze I started to look around more. What I saw made me wonder if I really was awake at the time. I was in a forest of all things, there isn’t even a forest anywhere close to where I live so how the hell I had managed to fall asleep in one was anyone’s guess. By now I was starting to freak out, who wouldn’t given my situation. Lost and alone in a strange forest with no idea how you got here. Something you should know about me, when I panic I start to talk to my self, it helps me think and get a grip on the situation. Well as always I try my best to start speaking my mind only to have nothing happen. The only sound I was able to create at this time is a guttural groan. It sounded more like something a monster would do to scare little children when hiding under their beds at night. Needless to say this was another thing I didn’t need. Trying my best I formulated as many words as I could to see what was wrong. “Me speak wrong, what happen?” So I could speak but it was like an Orc from a fantasy world or in layman terms like a lobotomised idiot . Wonderful,I thought to my self, I always knew drinking could give you brain damage but never like this. I started to drag my self to my feet, sitting here was doing me no good and it wasn’t going to get me to a town any quicker. Slamming my hands on the ground I push my self up, took me a few seconds to realise my skin had changed colour since last night. Bringing my hands to my face I realised that my skin had gone a pale grey, lumpy protrusions like warts covered my skin. It looked like I had been stung one too many times. Swinging around to get a better look at my body I realised that my whole body was now like this. I now stood a good seven feet tall with arms the size of small trees and legs to match. “What happen me?” I tried to scream out forgetting that I couldn’t form proper sentences at the moment. That’s it, I've gone mad that’s the only answer for this. Well there was enough time to go insane later. I began to look around the area I was comatose in to see if I could locate anything that could come in handy. Nothing all I had was the tattered clothes on my back, well so the speak my shirt was torn to shreds by my new muscled form. My trousers made me look like the hulk, not appealing but at least I wasn’t going around butt nude. I thought I should find some sort of land mark in order to find out where the hell I had got to. Searching the skyline I found what looked like a group of rocky outcrops that could get me higher then the tress and give me some idea where I had ended up. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad after all I thought to my self. At first I had worried that woodland animals might give me a problem but after a wolf got one look at me it ran for the hills and took any worries I might of had with it. At least I thought it was a wolf, it ran off so damn fast and I couldn’t get a good look at the thing, wolf shaped that was for sure. After an hour of walking I finally made it to the top of a small cliff face and began to look around the area for any sign of, well anything. Nothing, as far as the eye could see nothing but a sea of green and mountains. Dejected I turned around and began my trek to see if I could at least find something to eat out here. All of a sudden however I heard a rustling in the bushes. Now the wolf might of ran but I didn’t want to take my chances with a grizzly or something like that. So I tried quickly to find a place to hide. Before I had the chance however a small creature bounded through the bushes and rammed into my leg. I looked at the tiny thing as it seemed to be stunned from the impact. “Cant be.” I said out loud to my self. Ok now I know I had gone insane, in front of my was a real life pony and I don’t mean the ride around type, I mean a living honest to goodness My Little Pony. Recovering it looked up at me with big eyes, it was terrified and trust me I wasn’t making life any better for it. Just as it began to run back in the other direction more rustling came out of the bushes. This time however it was three large diamond dogs. “Get the escaped pony, or the boss will have our heads,” the largest of the three shouted to the two smaller ones. Before they were able to snatch up the pony they finally realised that seven foot of mussel was now looking at them confused. “It cant be, Boss a troll!.” one of the dogs yapped clearly a bit unnerved. The big dog in the background started to get a sick grin on his face. In his mind he had just hit the jack pot. “We were only meant to get escaped pony, think how much we will get for a creature that is meant to be long dead, Get them both!” Before I could react I now had three diamond dogs pointing spears and nets at me, whatever was going on this could not be good. And now I also had a small pony hiding behind me as if I was some sort of protector. My inner argument was cut short as I was stabbed by a spear, right in the arm. As pain shot through my body I looked down at the wound and saw dark green blood seeping from the new hole in my flesh. I was pissed, that damn mutt just stabbed me. I was angry, beyond angry I was fruious. My body started to work on auto pilot as if some deep instinct had been awakened in my new form. Scooping up the nearest bolder I chucked it at the dogs. Two of them were nimble enough to get away in time, the third now knew what it was like to be a pancake. In a blind rage I began to look for something anything that I could use as a weapon. Just then one of the dogs came in for an attack. Bad idea, in my rage I grabbed him by the legs and then smashed him on the ground instantly breaking his neck. I wasn’t done yet however I took the body and began beating the last of the dogs with it like it was a club. The sight was not pretty, lets just say there wasn’t much left but a stain when I got through with them. As the blood haze began to lift from my mind I was shocked to see what I found, my body had moved on its own during that whole encounter. As I was trying to figure out what had happened I heard a whimper from behind me. “Oh no, the pony,” I thought to my self as I tried to get a better look at it. It was shivering behind a rock formation. “No! please don’t eat me, I don’t taste good.” It was a filly, must be young too. “Me no eat, promise.” I tried to tell her, this seemed to work at little bit. Poor thing was in shock. “Thank you for saving me, the mean dogs were going to take me away to some place bad.” The small filly choked out between sobs. My heart almost melted at the sight of this, the filly was young she had no cuite mark yet from the look of it. Her coat was a berry pink, her mane only slightly darker. Her eyes a stunning green. “Name?” I asked her, I thought I knew who it was already but I wanted to be sure, I remember some ponies having clones in the show. “Ruby Pinch,” she sobbed still rather shook up from the event. “What’s yours?” I tired my best to give my real name, but as hard as I tried nothing came out just more roars. I didn’t want to scare the poor thing even more. Tired and annoyed by my lack of vocabulary I dropped to the floor with a loud thud. She started to giggle at this. “Thud, that's a funny noise, I know that should be your name, Thud.” Thud? What does she think I am some troll who lives in a cave, err well I guess I am a troll now so I can forgive her for that but Thud? “Don’t you like it Mr Thud?” She said giving me puppy dog eyes as if her new pet didn’t like its name, my heart melted there and then. “Fine, me Thud, happy?” You don't say no to eyes like that, you just don't. “Very,” she beamed. “Why are out here?” I tired to ask her, damn I will never get used to this speech. She started to tear up a bit. “Me and Mommy were visiting a town on the edge of Equestria, she wanted to buy new drinks for her shop back in Ponyville.” Her tears were getting bigger now. “When we were on our way back some mean dogs grabbed us, they said we were going to be slaves.” This was really hard on the poor filly so I tried to do my best to comfort her without crushing her, big hands and all that. “Just before they took us underground, Mommy made a lot of noise and told me to run. They hit her before coming after me.” Just then full on waterworks. “I WANT MY MOMMY!” now they had to pay, they just made this cute little ball squee cry and I wasn’t going to stand for it. Besides berry punch was one of my favourite ponies, no way I was going to let her slave for diamond dogs. “Me help, find her.” I said with a big grin which almost certainly made me look like a predator but Ruby didn’t seem to mind. “Thank you Mr Thud,” With that I placed her on my shoulder and began to trek down the path back to where the diamond dogs came from. Little did I know this was only the start of something much bigger.
Chapter 2Chapter 2 We had been walking for a while now. I still had no idea where we were going, all I knew was the dogs came from this general direction. If things couldn’t get much worse, the sun was starting to set. It was hard enough to see where I was going in this forest with the sun up, never mind at night. I told myself it was time to set up camp. I didn’t feel happy walking around with a small filly in the dead of night. Looking at the stab wound on my arm surprised the hell out of me. The cut had almost totally gone in such a short period of time. Not that I was complaining but it sort of freaked me out. Pushing it out of my mind I looked for a place where I could bed down for the night. Looked like Ruby had beat me to it however as she snored lightly on my shoulder as I carried her through the thick undergrowth. She was so cute curled up like that in a little ball my heart almost stopped yet again, these ponies are trying to kill me with cuteness I swear. Well at least she didn’t need to worry about finding a bed for the night, I however was starting to get tired and hungry. I had very little wilderness experience so I wasn’t about to go looking for mushrooms or trying to catch something I wouldn’t know where to even start. I figured that fruit was my best bet then perhaps finding a clearing where I could set up a fire for the night to ward away any animals. After a good few hours of searching I finally had everything I needed. I had been lucky and was able to find some fruit bearing trees, no idea what the stuff was but it looked sort of like a mix between an apple and a pear. Smelled fine so I wasn’t too worried about it being poison or anything. As I was gathering wood for the fire I began to feel Ruby waking up from her nap, poor thing must have been overloaded from shock from earlier so I was just glad she was aright. Yawning loudly she began to open her eyes and look at me, jumping off my shoulder while I was sitting down preparing the wood and some flint I had found. “Sorry about making you carry me Mr Thud, I'm normally a big filly and walk all by my self,” Argh that name again still I couldn’t stay mad at her. “Hungry?” I questioned to her and before she even opened her mouth her stomach began to rumble. I couldn’t help but chuckle at this, “ Yes then, here food.” I handed her some of the fruit I had found. She sniffed at it carefully, unsure of what to make of the strange fruit but after a while took a big bite into it. “Wow this is really good Mr Thud, thanks for helping me before by the way, Mommy always told me to thank some one who is really nice to me.” Smiling I returned my attention to the small camp-fire I was setting up before hand. Flint in hand I began to create a good spark to get the fire going. After a few minutes I finally managed to get it lit, part of me was really proud of that. However as the flames began to rise from the pit something caught in my chest. A deep feeling that I couldn’t describe at first but as it began to grow along with the fire I realised what it was. Fear. Something about the fire scared me, no not just scared me terrified me. My body was screaming at me to put it out, get rid of it anything but just get away from the dancing blaze before my eyes. Before I knew it, I was backing away from it almost whimpering. Ruby caught note of this and began to move towards me. “What's wrong Mr Thud?” she asked with genuine worry in her voice. I tried to answer her but my mind had shut off and my blood turned to ice. I had to get rid of the evil thing some way, some how. Without thinking I started to smash the fire with my firsts, just to put it out. I couldn’t feel anything during this all I knew is I had to get rid of it any way possible. It took a while but eventually I heard a small noise from Ruby. I must of scared her doing that. Looking down at my hands, they had both been burned slightly but the strange thing was unlike the cut nothing was happening here. No healing, not sure why I expected it too. I didn’t know why but I didn’t like fire. I thought back to the fight with the diamond dogs, they had called me a troll. I had not really thought about it until now, but what if trolls in Equestira were like trolls in the forgotten realms. Trolls in that group of stories had great regeneration abilities but could be killed with fire, perhaps this is a built in response to protect my self from that weakness. Whatever it was I made a mental note to never get close to fire again, at least if I could help it. Grinning sheepishly I apologised to the small filly and within time everything was quiet again and she had fallen asleep next to me. Remembering my hunger I grabbed one of the fruit I had gathered and placed it in my mouth. What happened next I don’t think I will ever forget. The fruit was the most vile, horrid and disgusting food I had ever put in my mouth. The taste was indescribable but trust me I would of preferred to eat old socks. I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with the fruit, Ruby had liked it fine, even having seconds, it didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest. Downhearted I began to wonder where on earth I would find food now. Then it hit me, that savoy earthy smell, almost like baked potatoes. Searching around I tried my best to find out where that heavenly smell was coming from. Finally I managed to track the smell to the fire pit I had violently crushed, it couldn’t be though I thought to my self, I never cooked anything in it. Digging through the remains all I could find was the piece of flint I had used to start the fire in the first place. Annoyed I brought the stone to my face growling at it for teasing me, it was when I realised it. That wonderful smell was coming from the stone its self. I gave it a tentative lick feeling like a fool. Rocks are not food I kept telling my self but that taste, oh that wonderful taste. Before I knew it I was sucking on the stone like it was made of sugar I couldn’t resist. Without realising I bit down. Stopping in panic I expected pain to shoot through my teeth as I shattered them all on the stone. But no, the stone cracked like it was a piece of sweet rock I used to get while on holiday as a child. Flabbergasted I began to chew the small shards of flint, it felt good, almost right some how. Well now I just couldn’t believe it. I could eat rocks and they were damn good too. I thought perhaps I might be like a dragon and how they eat gems. Promising my self I would try a gem the second I could I began to drift off to sleep, all the while making sure Ruby was safe. “Wake up.” I groaned as I told my self five more minutes wouldn’t hurt. “Wake up Mr Thud, its morning.” Who the hell is Mr Thud, then all the memories of the day before came flooding back to me. Oh right me. I began to drag my self off the ground and tried to get an idea of my surroundings. What I wouldn’t have given for a soft bed right then, my back was killing me for sleeping upright next to a tree. I grabbed a small tree from the ground and tested its balance a bit in my hands. Not a bad weapon considering I was going after potentially murderous animals. I slung the makeshift club over my shoulder and scooped up Ruby, placing her on my shoulders like the day before. Since it was morning I tossed the left over fruit to Ruby and let her munch on that for a while. She seemed happy enough with it. Feeling my own empty stomach I began to recall last night and thought it worth testing. I scooped up a bunch of pebbles from the ground and tossed them into my mouth giving them a satisfying crunch. Ruby was looking at me with an image of disgust on her face, “Mr Thud Mommy always told me never to put dirt in my mouth, its icky.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her, then again I could hardly believe I was eating rocks my self, but here I was. “Me think it ok, taste good,” I don’t think she believed me but in her place neither would I. “A nice dragon back at home used to eat gemstones, is it a bit like that Mr Thud, because I never saw him eating rocks.” I was starting to get a bit annoyed with the question and answer session we were having, and considering I could hardly talk it just made it worse. “It fine, find Mommy yes?” I hoped that would take the subject off my eating habits for the time being. It backfired, now she was starting to tear up. “No cry, no cry.” I tried my best to cheer her up but it felt for naught. The next few hours the only sound I heard was her sniffling as she finally managed to calm down. She's cute sure but I promised my self once I got back to earth I was never going to have children. I guess that was a bit mean of me since she lost her mother but the crying and questions drove me mad. Back on earth I was a loner, I didn’t like to talk to other people at all. I didn’t want friends, I hardly cared about my family and I really didn’t want a relationship. And now look at me, in what was meant to be the bastion of kindness and friendship, with a filly who’s mother was kidnapped and almost killed. Yeah real kind place, and I had only been here a day. After pushing my way past a few more bushes I found something that made my heart soar. A road, sure it was dusty and looked hardly used but a road was a road. And roads meant people,(or in this case ponies). It looked like the road had been barren for a while, the dirt had some slight indentations but from what I could tell nothing very fresh, however it looked like a cart had passed through a while ago. Perhaps that was the slave profession that Ruby had escaped from. With no leads I began to follow the tracks, they were either going to bring me to my goal of finding Ruby's mother or to other ponies. And either would be good right now.
Chapter 3Chapter 3 After a few days on this road I was starting to wonder if Canterlot and Ponyville are the only settlements in the whole of Equestira. If I had not been following a road I would have thought I was going in circles a long time ago. My luck had not totally dissipated though, it seemed easy enough to find more fruit to make sure Ruby didn't starve at least. Rocks could be found everywhere so I didn’t have to worry about food either. That was the least of my worries however, keeping a small filly entertained over a long trip, now that’s hard. “I spy with my little eye, something green,” Ruby was finding it hard to not giggle at her own antics. “Tree,” I responded dryly, “Wow, Mr Thud how did you guess so quickly.” I face-palmed at this which hurt like hell, the burns on my hands still had not quite healed yet. After shaking my hand like a fool and getting thunderous laughter out of Ruby I rolled my eyes. “Tree only thing here,” I snapped at her. Before she could respond to me however I heard a scream from the bushes. Without thinking I readied my club and rushed into the bushes to meet head on any foe that dared to cross me. Instead of danger and horrific beasts I found two young unicorns fillies playing by a lake, one splashing water on the other using magic. The attacker a pale blue unicorn with a white mane, the victim a dark green unicorn with black and green mane. In the background sitting on the other side of the lake was a small village sitting at the foot of the mountains. It was an idyllic sight, like something you would see right out of a corny summer family film. It looked like the town may have been used as a mining town once. Close by were old mine shafts and what looked like the remnants of an old set of mine tracks. It was so pleasant I almost felt like just sitting down and enjoying the rest of the day under the shade of a tree, the universe always finds a way to ruin the fun. The two ponies noticed me, their eyes went the size of dinner plates and their mouths hit the floor. “What matter? Never seen troll?” what can I say I couldn’t resist trying to troll them a little bit, they screamed and ran towards the village. “MONSTER! HELP ITS GOING TO EAT US!” They shouted as they tripped over them selves to get to the safety of their village. Oh this was not going to end well. I started to run after them to try and stop what was happening before it got out of control, in hindsight not my best idea. Ponies began to shuffle out of their houses to try and get an idea of what was going on. Only to see a 7 foot large grey beast chasing after two small unicorns. Anyone could guess what happened next, lots of screaming and running and the calling of the local guard. Today was not my day, I tried my best to tell them that I wasn't going to hurt them but all I could do was roar like some deranged beast, panicked speech with a broken voice did not work. Ruby throughout all of this was still sitting on my shoulder laughing her little flank off, sure she thought it was funny but I sure as hell didn’t at the time. Then things went from bad to just down right horrid, so far away from any main city I should of guessed that the town would have had a guard of some kind and here they were out in force. Ponies of all kinds stood before me encased in armour, spears pointed directly at me and a mean glower on their faces. Probably didn’t want a monster eating their foals or something like that, not that I was planing to do that. “Stop, no harm,” I desperately tried to get across to the armoured ponies. Ruby was starting to get a bit worried now, a prank was always funny until some one got hurt and she couldn’t stand the idea of seeing ponies getting hurt. An earth pony began to push his way past the guards in the back, his armour was gold where the others were all basic iron and his helmet looked like a a flock of peacocks had died in its creation. “Halt beast, give up the captive and leave peacefully or we will take extreme measures.” He barked at me, It seemed this guy was the captain of the guard in this town but what was he talking about a captive for, I wasn't kidnapping anyone. “I wont tell you again beast, give us the filly and begone.” What Filly, was he talking about Ruby? “Me no mean harm.” I tried in vain to get them to stop putting my hands up as a sign of peace. “Why should I believe you monster, now back off and leave the filly before I lose my patience.” Now this guy was starting to bug me, a lot. What would it take to convince these damn ponies I wasn’t trying to eat them and kidnap foals. “Not leave Ruby but no hurt you,” I was starting to get mad but I really could not deal with this many ponies if they attacked me and I really didn't think making the town hate me would be a good idea either. “I wont warn you again beast, drop the filly and back off.” Well I really had no choice here it was either attack them or do as they told me. I took my club off from my back and began to lower it to the ground. “He's attacking, subdue him!” the captain shouted, damn he must of thought I was getting my weapon to fight. The four first guards rushed me, knocking one away I tried to get a handle on the situation, it was far to late, I was far to slow to stop the other three, their spears sunk deep into my flesh. Again and again more spears came turning me into a grey pincushion. Time started to slow down, I could hear my own heart throbbing in my chest, I managed to look down long enough to see the green blood ooze from my body. Ruby was screaming as she fell off my shoulder towards the ground. How dare they, how dare they, how dare they. They hurt me, they hurt Ruby, I cant leave her, she needs me. My vision started to go black and I felt like I passed out. Blackness, that’s all I could see. The darkness was oppressive and I couldn’t feel anything, was I dead? I had no idea. “Get up fool!” the voice echoed through the void. “You’re a disgrace to us all, we were great once and finally we have a chance to be great again.” “Who is that?” I yelled as hard as I could into the darkness, still unable to see anything. Suddenly a giant grey stone figure appeared in front of me. “Know your place young-ling, you are not even close to being able to talk to me yet. That damned god promised me a reborn that could bring us back to greatness. Instead he sends me this runt.” The statues eyes began to glow red, and I felt a surge of power drive into my body, “So it seems you can be useful, the diamond dogs never stood a chance. Go young-ling embrace your birth right, we shall meet again.” My eyes snapped open, I couldn’t only see red. The anger was filling me up, I had to do something. They hurt me, how dare they hurt me. Getting back on my feet I ripped the spears from my body in a splash of gore. My wounds started to knit together until they sealed completely. The ponies had no idea what was going on, after all that punishment the beast should have been dead by now, the captain called another charge but this time before they even had a chance to attack me I swung my club taking out four at once. This anger needed to be fuelled and it would be with the blood of ponies. Another board swing took out yet another four of the guards, they began to run but they were not going to get off so easy. Not after hurting me. Roaring loudly I smashed in the roof of one of the local houses, the more ponies in there the better. There would be nothing left when I got through with them. “MR THUD!, stop please stop it!.” Ruby ran in front of my club in an attempt to stop me getting clipped by the side of the makeshift weapon. My blood turned cold, the red mist was striped from my mind as what I had done hit me like a ton of bricks. I rushed to Ruby's side to check any injuries, my mind was on panic mode. I had hurt the pony I was trying to help in the first place. After giving her the once over I sighed in relief, I had not done enough damage to her to be threatening, she would be bruised otherwise fine. “Mr Thud, you should not be so mean to other ponies alright,” she whispered to me as she came too. Although I was relieved, looking around the town the mess that I had caused was spectacular. Buildings were crushed and the bodies of guards lay lifeless on the ground. I had no idea if I had killed them or not but I had to get out of there. As I ran towards the forest the guard captain stood in my path his sword in his mouth. “Oh no you don’t beast, you're not getting away after this.” I readied my self to push my way past him, I didn’t want to do any more damage right now. “Please Mr Guard, don’t hurt Mr thud any more, he didn’t mean to be so naughty.” I couldn’t believe it Ruby was standing up for me even though I hurt her. “Didn’t mean it? He trashed at least three buildings and causes who knows how many casualties to my guard.” “But Mr Guard, you attacked him first.” Ruby did have a point there and it looked like it hit the guard as well. “Alright child, if your adamant that he didn’t do anything wrong then he will help rebuild the damage he did. And you were hurt so I want you to also see a doctor before you leave.” he gave me a glare before walking off back towards to the town. It took a good week before all the damages were fixed, and I got the feeling that even after all this time the ponies here still didn’t like me, I couldn't blame them. The guard captain, who I learned was named Stone Shield, never took his eyes off me. They had me on hard labour the whole time as well, which was not doing wonders for my mood but really there was little I could do. I did break their houses and hurt a lot of their guards. To my shame I had even hit one hard enough to shatter his skull, there was no saving him. They had given me odd jobs around the town as well that needed a lot of body power, surprising how much a troll can lift. Ruby had been checked out by the local doctor who, thank goodness, didn’t find anything wrong with her. Now I may be hated in this small town of Granite Falls, but Ruby really hit it off with the other ponies here, I was half tempted to just leave her here. I shook that thought out of my head, I had to find her mother and it wasn’t fair on her to leave her in a strange place. Truth be told it wasn’t fair to drag her around into danger either but she was my only goal in the world right now. While on my way towards the back of town after another night of fixing up the damaged buildings I managed to stumble over two drunk ponies. I hid quickly so I didn’t spook them but I overheard them talking. I recognised the two. the first was one of the guards a unicorn, white coat with a jade mane his cuite mark was that of two crossed swords. the other a dark brown earth pony with a dirt brown mane, his cutie mark was that of a pick axe, one of the miners. “Did you hear the rumours, apparently the diamond dogs to the north took a bunch of ponies as slaves not long ago. Equestria just ain't safe any-more” “I don’t believe you, diamond dogs ain’t that smart now come on lets go get another drink, you're buyin.” I couldn’t believe my ears, that must have been the slave train that Ruby was a part of. That means her mother is close. Without wasting any time I headed back to the area that myself and Ruby were given to sleep in, they didn’t want Ruby to stay any where near me but she insisted. Scooping as much food as I could for Ruby into the pack I has fashioned together from some left over rope and a old burlap sack I had found, I grabbed Ruby from the makeshift bed. Stone Shield was not going to be happy about me skipping out of the rest of the work but I had a clue and dammit I was going to take it. Looking back once more at the small village I steeled my self and plunged into the dark forest.
Chapter 4Chapter Four. Boy I should of expected that from the start. When Ruby woke up she freaked out that we had left the village without saying goodbye. She is damn scary when she is angry for a filly. I finally managed to calm her down long enough to say it was because I had found a clue on her mothers whereabouts. It had been a few hours since I had left the village of Granite Falls, filly in hand. I tried my best to find the road I had been following before I had stumbled on the town. It was not so easy in the dark of night, the tree line was so thick that much of the moonlight wasn't filtering through though the moon was almost full. After a time I came across a small clearing in the forest, it was enough for me to get my bearings or at least I hoped. As I had mentioned before, back on earth I was a loner. I didn’t care much for people so I took to gaming as well as other more nerdy pastimes. One of which was astrology. I was always fascinated by the night sky and the endless possibilities of what might have been out there. With this hobby I was very knowledgeable in the placement of the stars. Ecstatic that I had stumbled upon this makeshift map I began to scan the clear sky for the north star. As I scanned the sky a deep feeling of dread began to grow inside me. I had not thought of it before I really don’t know why, but there was no fighting it now, I really was no longer on earth. The stars resembled nothing I had ever seen before. I had run out of town without any idea of where north was and even worse I now had no idea of the way back either. It didn’t take long for Ruby to catch on that something was wrong and was starting to look rather scared. “Mr Thud, are we lost?” she asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes, “If we are lost we will never find Mommy and now no one will ever find us. Mr Thud I'm scared.” Now I was feeling like an idiot. I really should learn to plan these things out better but since there was nothing I could do now, I figured I would try and calm Ruby down at least, I didn’t need her panicking as well. “No, we not lost. I have compass, north this way.” I picked a random direction and hoped to any gods that might be around at the moment to feel sorry for me. After a bit of walking in circles I was getting annoyed, the whole forest looked the same to me. I was glad that at least the sun had started to rise during all of this, at least I could see now. I had to try and find some way to get an idea of where I was and where I should be going. Thankfully Ruby managed to fall back asleep during all of this, I swear that filly could sleep through an earthquake. The only way I was going to know where the hell I was, was to get above the tree line. Oh boy this was not going to be easy. Ever since my transformation I've been at least double to the size of a normal human in bulk, I had no idea if I was going to be able to even pull myself up the tree to get a good look around but I had to try. Making sure that Ruby was secured to my shoulders I attempt to pull my self up the trunk of the tree. It was no easy task but I managed to get high enough to sit on one of the higher branches of the tree. Finally I could see something, the area was a sea of green, even the road was hidden by the arboreal clouds. Mountains reached for miles like the spine of the world. I was about to give up hope when I saw a cave towards the mountain side. Without any idea where to go next I began to plot the easiest path to the cave entrance, I should have been paying more attention and I might of noticed the sound of cracking wood below me. The branch had been finding it more then hard to keep me up for as long as it had, poor thing never stood a chance versus my massive build and I should of known it. The fall was quick at least but I don't think the pain in my butt will leave me for a while. What's funny however is through all of this ruby was still asleep on my shoulder, I was surprised she had not fallen off during that, pony fur must be like glue I thought to my self. The sun was now high enough to see properly around the forest, I poked Ruby a few times to wake her up. “Do I have to go to school today?” So cute I could hug her till she stops breathing, damn these ponies far to adorable for their own good. Another prod and she was finally coming around, “Oh good morning Mr Thud,” she said with a yawn, “Did you find out where we are yet?” “Found some place, going now.” with that I rummaged through my pouch giving her some of the food I had acquired from the town. One of the best things I had ever made, finding a bag for a troll was never going to be easy, I'm just glad they didn’t need the sack I took. We were almost there now, I let Ruby finish her breakfast before climbing the trail that led up to the cave that I had seen before hand. Finally I had managed to get to the cavernous maw of the mountain, the cave entrance was huge. It made me feel like a dwarf and that was quite a feat considering my new body. The area outside looked frequented, it was like something had been placed outside the cave entrance many times digging away at the earth leaving indentations in the soil and grit. Cart tracks headed inside the cave mouth and given the trail I had just climbed the owners must have been desperate to take this route. Either that or extremely stupid. Looking into the dark cavern I saw old lanterns illuminating the stone work, shadows dancing around the cave walls. This place was not inviting in the slightest but it looked well used and I remembered that diamond dogs often lived underground, my brain was screaming at me not to go in but I felt drawn to the place. With few other clues I had little choice, I began to take my first tentative steps into the unknown. “Mr Thud, are you sure this is safe, it looks scary.” I put my hand over the filly in an attempt to calm her and nodding quickly to convince her that I was sure that this was what we needed to do at the time. She seemed to accept that but I knew she was still scared. Time felt slower in the depths of the earth, but oddly I felt at home. Something about the stone and the earth made me feel safe. I felt almost calm down here like nothing could stop me but I didn’t know why. I could feel gems pulsating in the walls, singing to me, calling to me. I could of stayed in this very hallway for the rest of my life. But there was more important things to do right now. The deeper into the tunnel I went the more alive I felt, it was almost like I could sense what was around me, like the earth its self was talking to me. “You are troll, son of the stone and true ruler of these lands.” a strange voice echoed through the cave system. “Who talk?” I screamed into the darkness. Ruby looked totally confused at me, “Who are you talking to Mr Thud.” I looked at her, “you not hear voice?” I asked. She just shook her head at me. Now I was stating to get a bit worried if I was hearing voices, it was almost like that dream I had back in granite falls. “Foolish young-ling, of course she can not hear me for she is pony and lesser then us. Now listen well, drop your pointless quest. I have more important work for one such as you, deep in these caves are the bastard race of the earth, the diamond dogs. They defile the stone and take what is not theirs. Crush them, crush them all.” my vision was slowly beginning to fade to red as I felt anger rage within me, how dare the lesser races take what is not theirs. I was about to rush into the darkness rage flaring when Ruby began to talk to me. “Mr Thud why have we stopped, shouldn’t we keep looking for Mommy?” At this I shook my self back to my senses wondering what I had been thinking about all this time, I was unable to remember the most of it. The strange voice began to ring through the chamber again, “Young-ling do not try my patience, your pet pony wont be with you forever and when she is gone you will embrace your birthright.” Once again the halls were quiet. The small cavern halls began to widen after a time opening up into a great chamber deep within the mountain. Quickly I managed to find a hiding place behind a stack of boxes and began to get an idea of the rooms lay out. The caverns roof stretched for miles, I was unable to see the top. The hall was full of life, but it was by no means a pleasant place. Cages lined the walls full of creatures of all shapes and sizes, I was able to make out ponies of all races as well as some breeds of timber wolf. In the higher alcoves of the caves more large bird creatures were chained to the walls, to my knowledge it was both griffins and other birds of prey. There was even what looked like a bipedal cat in there but it may have been a trick of the light. Dogs shuffled around the room moving cages from place to place, loading some of them up on carts. Large scaffolding lined the cave walls allowing the dogs a way to get from point A to point B with shoddily made ladders and lifts. It would have been awe inspiring if the cries of the enslaved didn’t echo through the halls. Bodies of dead slaves had been piled into a pit in the corner, the smell in the cave was vile I was surprised the dogs could just keep walking around in this. Ruby trough all of this was just quiet through shock if nothing else. I think she just realised how close she was to being here herself. I looked around the room to see if there was anything I could do at all for the poor souls trapped in this small piece of hell. I should of watched where I was going, in my haste to move from one pile of boxes to another I had managed to knock over a bunch of crates. The whole cave knew I was here now, this was not going to end well at all. Panicking I took my club off my back and readied my self into a battle stance. At least ten diamond dogs had seen me and were rushing to circle me. “Who are you beast,” one of the dogs shouted at me, “He is ugly, what should we do with him,” another one responded. I was in trouble and I knew it. I was backed into a wall. I didn’t want to provoke them any more then I had done, my eyes shot around the room desperate for an escape route. “Give me back my Mommy you mean dogs,” I was shocked, Ruby had jumped off my shoulders and was trying to confront the diamond dogs herself, what was she thinking she was going to get herself killed. “Or what little pony. Perhaps we should take you instead.” one of the dogs lunged for her but before he could I smashed his head in with my club, well so much for not provoking them I thought. “I will kill you for that beast,” a dog shouted, Ruby just grinned at him in a way a child would at a funny joke. “Oh I wouldn’t do that meanies, you will make him angry and you wouldn’t like him when he's angry.” now Ruby was trying to provoke them even more, I don’t know what she was thinking but I felt like I had no choice. Steeling my self I charged in at the dogs taking out at least three with one swing of my club. The others were quicker arming spears in my direction, they charged. The battle was going in my favour for a long time, dogs ran in only to be turned into mush at the hands of my club. Others were faster using more short ranged swords, they cut into my skin only to have it reknit in seconds. Archers began firing a volley of arrows in my direction. Some almost hit Ruby but I was able to scoop her up in time to stop her being hit by a stray shot. The hits were starting to hurt more then the ones before and my wounds were healing slower, my regeneration wasn't going to last much longer at this rate. With one more reckless swing I managed to take out almost every dog attacking me, I never even saw it coming. As I was catching my breath a small glass vial smashed on the ground next to me, the smell was a sickly sweet as it bellowed up from the broken glass. I tried my best to keep my eyes open and keep fighting but it was no use, falling to the ground I let sleep over take my body hoping with all my being that we would be alright.
