Getting Started

{5yrs, 11months}

Walking down a dirt road, that Mira told me leads to a town where we can pick up a few provision and maybe see about getting me a better weapon than my stone tipped spear, I continue our conversation that has left me more than a little…confused? “So if a mare smacks me on the ass with her tail then that means she’s interested in me?” I asked. Honestly the more I learn about this world I now live in the stranger it gets.

“Correct, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be a mare.” Mira replies with a giggle

Groaning and facepalming, “So you mean to tell me if a stallion does it than it means the same thing?” Because of this all I can picture now is some stallion thinking I’m gay and using their tail to smack my ass while giving me a flirty smile. “If some stallion does such you are here by immediately ordered to stop me from slapping the flirty smile that I guarantee they will have off their face.”

“I accept on the condition that I get to stop you my way.” She replies with a grin that gives me pause.

“Fine, but at least make sure whatever you do its worth whatever the fallout may be.”

“Then you have yourself a deal.” She replies.

For the last few weeks Mira and I have been discussing the different cultures that exist on Equis. Mainly pony society since that’s where Mira worked most often, and by work, I mean she collected love, the actual emotion for the hive. Which is apparently an energy/food source for changelings, of course this was before she became an exile. On that note apparently becoming an exile means your name is changed to reflect this, so any attempt to join a new hive is meet with difficulty, and that’s the reason why she tried to tell me her name was Shattered Mirage at first.

Anyways she has been filling me in on all the different things of importance that have happened in this weird ass place. Like there were apparently humans here before I got here. Five of them to be exact, who sadly went crazy and tried to destroy Canterlot Castle about twenty years ago, from what she heard, it was because they were stuck here. She told me that because of this many of Equestrias allies have also adopted a very harsh polices against any humans. Apparently they are to detain them by any means necessary and send them to Equestria to face trial.

Though not a single one has been seen since then, this has caused many to become concerned as to what they’re up to. Mira believes, and so do I, that once I begin to make myself known they’re going to try to reach out to me. If they do though I’m gonna jaw the fuck out of those assholes, I mean seriously, boo-fuckity-who they can’t go fucking home again. What the fuck is the big fucking deal? Like that shit hole of a planet is even worth going back to.

But I digress; Mira has explained many things about this world. Like all of the different denizens that live on this planet, which consist of ponies, minotuars, griffins, zebras and many other races, even fucking Dragons motherfucker.

I couldn’t fucking believe it when she said that. Dragons, I actually get to meet real, live dragons up in this bitch. That literally made my fucking day. I asked as many questions as I could think about them. Come to find out when they are still hatchling they eat gems to strengthen their scales, that’s only for the first couple decades though after that they switch to a more meat based diet so that they can begin to gain the muscle-mass needed for flight, fighting and, many other things. They do still consume gems and certain minerals on occasion but, gems are more of a snack or dessert. The minerals they eat serve a variety different purposes, like a small amount of sulfur added to their diet can drastically increase the output of flame in their breathe attacks.

With every question I learned more and more about the world and, to be honest I was hungry for knowledge. The more I knew the less I could fuck up, blowing our cover in whatever town we ended up in, and given our current predicament, anonymity was our best chance at survival.

“WALKER!” Mira shouts loudly in my ear.

“Ahh. What the hell Mira? Why the holiest of fucks are you screaming in my ear?” I rub my left ear trying to get the tinnitus to subside, seriously for being so short she has a set of lungs on her.

“You were doing that glazed over, spacing out thing again.”

“Well yeah I was just thinking about all the stuff you’ve told me so far. It’s a lot to take in… heh that’s what she said.” I chuckle at my dirty little joke.

Mira rolls her eyes too use to my dirty jokes after hearing for the last three weeks or so, to even be bothered and trust me there was quite a few of them. “Anyway, as I was saying the next closest town is a pony one so you really need to pay close attention or else they’re gonna catch on to us.” That’s another thing I’ve really come to like about her
in the short time I have known her, no matter what’s going on she always has my best interest at heart.

I mean she could just turn herself into a pony and leave my sorry ass on the roadside or turn me in and get some reward money but instead she has taken it upon herself to educate me on all the shit I would have no clue about if I was by myself. For being part of a race that is supposed to be all about deception and manipulation she’s certainly upfront and honest about everything.

Like she told me when she first saw me in the clearing she tried to use a simple mind control spell on me, to have me hold off the other two so she could get away. She had quickly realized it wasn’t working and switched tactics. After some discussion and testing we discovered that while I am immune to any sort of mental subversion magic in and of itself, a wide range of other spells work just like normal. I have to say being tossed around by telekinesis was the highlight of my fucking day.

SMACK!!

“Oww. God damn it Mira. Why are you being so abusive?” I ask with faux hurt tinting my voice.

“Because you were doing it again, I mean seriously how often are you gonna space out like that?” She asks with a raised eyebrow.

“I told you I am thinking about everything that has been happening up until now. Making sure I remember everything. I mean hell I forgot my own name, forgive me for being worried about the fact I might forget something else.” I reply with a well executed eyeroll.

“Whatever.” She replies with a sigh.

“Hey look,” I place a hand on her shoulder getting her to look up at me. “I really appreciate all the help you’ve been giving me, and I know I’m not always the easiest to deal with but I’m scared of losing more of who I am.” I say, casting my gaze to the ground, the weight of what has happened thus far weighing down on me again. “I’m just really worried is all; especially after what you told me happened to the other humans that showed up here: I keep wondering if I am gonna lose it just like they did.”
Mira sighs and pulls me into a tight embrace. “Listen Walker if something like that ever happens I’ll be there to help pull you back from the edge. You saved my life when we first met, you did it without knowing anything about me or even what was going on so at least let me return the favor. If you ever forget I’ll be there to remind you of who you really are, okay?” She gives me a smile and tightens the hug just a little.

I smile hugging her back just as tightly. After a few moments we break the hug. “You know Mira you are the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“That’s because besides that bear living with you at the campsite, I am the only other thing to happen to you that you can even remember.” She quips with a grin.

“Well I guess that is true” I grin back as we continue down the…road? “Hey Mira I got a question for you.”

With a sigh of regret, knowing it’s going to be another one of my odd questions “What is it this time?”

“Well considering everything you have told me about this world, all of the different places and ‘people’ that live here, don’t you find it kind of strange that a number of the predominate races that live here not only share certain physical traits but also a number of unique abilities that are similar to certain mythological beings reported to have existed on my planet?”

“Huh.” She pauses for a moment to think then begins walking again. “I never really stopped to think of that. I mean I remember what you have told me about all the different species on your planet even the ones from mythology so I do agree that many do certainly share a variety of similarities with a number of the races that live here. Though what I find most strange is the fact that not only is you history littered with sightings of these supposed mythological beings but also from what you have told me some of them are actual living breathing beings on your planet. Like zebras, cows, even earth ponies to some degree seem to have an actual analog in your world.” She responds with a hand to her chin. “This does seem to indicate some level of interaction between our worlds, though as to what extent is anyone guess really. On a side note, do you ever stay on one topic for more than five minutes at a time?” She asks.

“Well since I have such an excellent source of knowledge why stay on one topic. Also why in the world would I want to stay on such a depressing topic any way? I mean seriously, it leads back to the whole ‘who am I’ spiral. If I get caught up in that crap I end up shutting down for who knows how long and lose track of my sense of self. So what’s the point in bothering thinking about it? I have few memories of my old ‘home’ world but nothing of who I am or was. To me this is literally the best chance I could ever ask for to reinvent myself.”

I mean seriously I am like 5’ 9”, weighing around probably 260ish. I have what amounts to shit brown hair, hazel eyes and my eyesight is crap, well in the sense I can see clearly up to about fifty feet in front of me after that it’s all downhill. So as one could imagine I am… or rather was a lazy fat bastard in my old life. Maybe now I can make some changes to that. I mean since I’m in an entirely new world, with no memories to hold me back, I can fix what I fucked up to begin with.

“On top of all that I am in a world full of magic, actual honest to god magic, not that cheap parlor trick crap ‘magicians’ try to play off as magic. Now don’t get me wrong, from what I do remember there were some that were able to pull off some incredible feats, but there was no actual proof that what they were doing was real magic. All of it at best was clever misdirection followed up with smoke and mirrors, not that it wasn’t entertaining mind you, it just that it wasn’t actual magic.” I explained.

“I’m glad that you’re enjoying your time here so much.” She replied with a hint of sarcasm.

“Sarcasm is not a foreign language my dear bug.” I quip back, which in turn earns me a smack to the back of the head for calling her a bug again. She doesn’t like it when I call her ‘bug’ but she knows I’m just being affectionate in my own way.

“Seriously Walker, you’re going to say the wrong thing to somebody one day and it’s gonna hurt, a lot.” She says with a sigh.

“I know, but I just can’t help myself when an opportunity pops up like that. I know I shouldn’t be such a dick, but I feel like I kept a lot of shit inside before all this, and like I said this is a chance to reinvent myself, and I intend to take full advantage of that. Not to say I am going to be rude to everyone I meet but if they can’t handle a goddamn joke then fuck them. I don’t want to be a doormat cause some prissy ass little bitch can’t take it. I mean if the situation requires a certain amount of decorum then I definitely understand the need to be respectful. Up until a certain point though, I’m not going to kiss ass just be treated like shit. If a motherfucker refuses to respect me I’m gonna return the god damn favor.” I tell her with a hard look in my eyes.

“Fine, I can understand that but will you promise me something?”

“Depends on what that is.”

“If we do meet up with some sort of nobility or whatever and some ass kissing, as you so eloquently put it, is required will you at least let me do the talking?” It almost sounds like she is begging me for this.

“Fine, I’ll let you do the talking but if they keep being a bag’o douche then they’re going to have to deal with me.” Giving her an ultimatum felt wrong, but there is no way I am going to let them disrespect me or her, especially her.

“That’s fine.” She sighs, glad that I at least gave her that much. “Now the next town is still a few hours away but we should still be alert for any travelers on the road.”

Considering we are both wanted criminals, literally due to our species, being seen by anybody right now would be a very bad idea. So as a precaution Mira turns herself into a male unicorn with a white coat and a pink mane and tail. She then grabs my upper arm as if she was escorting me down the road.

“You know Mira if you wanted to hold my arm you could have just asked” I say with a lecherous grin. To which she just sighs and shakes her head, like I said I make a lot of … risqué jokes. Damn I love being so fucking verbose, though no fucking clue where it comes from. Wonder if I was a writer before I got here?

Traveling down the road for a while is pretty damn boring, mostly because my traveling companion refuses to speak since we’re nearing the town. During this silence though we both hear the sounds of a scuffle further up the road, with a quick look and nod we dive into the bushes along the roadside, in hopes of avoiding any unnecessary fights.

Skirting the road and keeping as hidden as we can, we come upon a very nasty looking scene. Two griffins wearing what looks like gambesons, the one on the left is green the other blue, seem to be pretty well armed. Throwing knives behind their backs, a short sword on one, a one handed battle axe at the others hip, the left one has what appears to be a heavy crossbow strapped to his back. These two are geared up for a fight and it seems like they had one too, a badly beaten dragon, lay bloodied at their taloned feet.

“I can’t believe this bitch thought she could beat us.” Laughs the one on the right.

“I thought dragons are supposed to be tough” Says the other with a swift kick to the dragons ribs causing her to grunt in pain. “I mean I barely even broke a sweat on that.” He kicks the dragon in the ribs again with a malicious laugh. Man these fuckers are really beginning to push my buttons.

I can understand beating an opponent to the ground and making sure they don’t get back up but this is a bit much, then again I don’t know the circumstance so I really can’t do too much about it. I mean what if that dragon had killed their family or something? Because if that’s the case then fuck the cunt, but if not…

“So what do you think we should do with her? Kill her? Break her legs?” Ask Mr. Blue, wearing a dark sadistic grin.

“No I think we should have our ‘fill’ of her before that.”

“Oh? What are you thinking Brother?”

“That fight left me ‘unsatisfied’ so I think she could satisfy us in another way.” Say Green as he reaches down to the dragon. Grabbing one of her legs he pulls it to one side spreading her legs open.

“Oh I like where you are going with that idea.” Says the other with a grin, as he walks over to her shoulders and holds her down just in case.

A feral growl begins to build in my throat. There are many things I am willing to tolerate when it comes to a fight, but raping your opponent is NOT one of them.
Mira feels my rising anger, quickly placing a hand on my shoulder trying to stop me from doing something stupid while whispering heatedly. “Walker, I understand you’re angry, yes what they are doing is wrong but we cannot interfere. Can you even see how well armed they are right now? They’re obviously prepared for a fight; they managed to take out a dragon, what do you think we could possibly do against them?”

“Something” is my response; I stand up and swiftly charge the one with his back still to us, seeing nothing but blood I drive my spear right towards the back of his skull, which sadly does not connect.

The other one had squawked the moment I revealed myself from the brush, alerting the one in green to my attack. With a simple tilt of his head he dodges the tip. Grinning like a madman blue leaps at me, knocking me to the ground causing me to lose my spear, his hands wrapping around my throat his claws sinking slowly into my neck.

With a sigh Mira stands firing off several blasts of magic at the one on top of me forcing him to let go and back off. “Well Walker what’s your master plan now?”

I hack and cough trying to get precious air back into my lungs. Standing up I look at the two griffins, who are now standing side by with their short sword and battleaxe drawn.”Kill them, that’s my master plan.” Brandishing a throwing knife I lifted while being choked, a grin spreads across my face.

“Haha, what are you going to do with that little thing?”

“Kill you.” I flip the throwing knife into a reverse grip and settle into a crouch.

Laughing at me the two of them walk forwards with all the confidence in the world. Too bad I wasn’t the one they should have been paying attention to.

A huge plume of fire scorches their backs igniting their fur and feathers. The dragoness that was laying on the ground moments ago is now standing and boy does she look pissed as hell. I guess it’s true, hell hath no fury like a pissed off dragoness bent on your total immolation.

Rushing towards the two burning birds she grabs both by the back of the neck slamming them face first into the ground, claws sinking into the now exposed neck flesh. “Make sure you finish off your first opponent before you fight another one, assholes” Tilting her head back while taking a deep breath, she baths their skulls in a torrent of flames cooking their brains.

“Well who’s up for some fried chicken?” I ask just before Mira slaps the hell out of me.

“You idiot, what if I hadn’t intervened!? Huh? Did you even stop to think of that? No, of course you didn’t, want to know how I know you didn’t?” Giving me a hard look she doesn’t give me a chance to respond. “Because you’re an idiot that’s why I knew you didn’t! You just figured since I’ve been helping you out that I would just continue to, didn’t you!? You just assumed I would jump to your rescue and to Tartarus with the consequences! You are seriously the dumbest luckiest idiot on this entire planet!!” she finishes with a sigh, burying her muzzle into my chest.

*God damn it I really am stupid, huh?* Sighing I pull Mira into a hug. “I know it doesn’t mean much but I am sorry. You’re right I did rush into that thinking you would back me up, never thinking to actually ask you first. I really fucked up.” I say rubbing my cheek against the top of her head, making sure to avoid gouging out my eye on her horn.

“Yes you did, you idiot. What would I do if you died, huh? Did you stop to think of that?” Mira asks as tears soak my shirt, making me feel even worse about my idiotic maneuver.

“Not have to worry about a moron blowing your cover?” I ask trying desperately to get her to smile even if only a little.

I succeed in at least getting a chuckle from her, which is still a win in my book. “True, but then I would have had to go back to gathering love, which has a high chance of me getting caught.” Yeah apparently direct feeding generates a thrall like effect in the…food source. Being immune to that sort of effect means she can feed on me without worrying, a nice little bonus that has boosted our dependence on one another, her need for ‘food’ and my need for an ‘adult’.

“While I am glad that you two are all cool with each other again but, do you think I could get a little help? I’m kind of bleeding over here.” Ask the dragoness as she lies on the ground.

Jumping to it Mira and I head over and take a look at some of the wounds, trying to gauge just how much damage has actually been done to her. By the looks of it a number of minor lacerations across her side and stomach. Her left leg is swollen, right shoulder seems to have a few scales missing and her left eye has swollen to the point she can’t see. By the looks of it they really fucking worked her over.

Smack! “Walker! Check the packs on the ground over there see if there are any bandages inside to bind some of these.” Mira practically yells, though in her defense I think I was spacing out again.

Rushing over, I start to tear through the packs in search of anything bandage looking, gauze like, or even a simple first aid kit. Finding simple wraps I run back over gasping slightly from being choked and the fact the adrenaline rush from the fight has worn off.

“These right?” I say holding them up, my mind to all over the place to realize how stupid a question that actually is.

Smiling Mira takes them with a thank you and begins wrapping the dragoness’ wounds. “Just try and relax Miss, we’re going to patch you as best we can. Walker, check to see what else is in the packs. Doesn’t matter what, just start pulling things out, carefully, and make note of anything that may be of some help then bring them over here and I’ll take a look.”

Getting to the task at hand I begin to slowly pour the contents out of the first pack. Nothing out of the ordinary really, clothes, some dried meat, a whet stone, some animal fats to oil the blades. Nothing so far that I don’t know of, though the whet stone and fat does raise that fucking question again. *God damn it go away* Searching through the second results in only more of the same. While searching I come across a small jingly pouch. Being curious and not thinking I open it up to see several gold coins clinking around inside.

“Holy shit. Mira I found their money. Does this mean we’re robbers now?” I ask pouring the coins on to my up turned hand.

Mira, bless her buggy soul, just sighs in response to my pointless question.”Did you find anything in there like, antiseptics or something for pain?”

“Naw, just some stuff to maintain their weapons, some dried meat and clothes.” The clothes were really just thick looking coats for cold weather. Which kind of confused me since they are or rather were covered in fur, you would think they would be fine on that front but eh whatever.

“Well bring over the meat so she can have some, it should help her body begin to replace the blood she lost.” Turning to the dragoness “Now I’m sure you know this won’t replace the lost blood instantly but, it should begin the process. Just take it easy for a few days and you should be good to go.” She smiles though she realizes that the dragoness is staring at me hardcore.

“Is that a human?”

“Uh… no?”

Fuck their goes our cover, well she is injured so we could try and run but then again she is a dragon so she might be able to just sniff us out.

“That totally is. That…is…so…awesome!” She grins

“Okay I honestly didn’t expect that. I mean that was literally not even on the list of expectations that I had set for being discovered. Really? Awesome?” I am so fucking confused. Aren’t humans supposed to be criminals to pretty much every race on this planet? “Umm you aren’t gonna try and turn me in for a reward?”

“Why in the name of Smaug would I do something like that?” A confused look spreading across her face.

“Uh well from what I have heard humans are pretty much wanted criminals for causing trouble in … umm…Camelot? No, Canterlot that’s it.” I couldn’t remember the stupid horse pun name of the place. Damn ponies and their retarded naming scheme. I swear they did it just to insult any humans who show up.

“So? What do I care if some humans screwed with a bunch of ponies?” She says looking up at Mira, waving a clawed hand at her. “I mean look how weak they are.”

Before Mira could even reply “Oh she isn’t a pony, she’s just a changeling in disguise.” With a dismissive wave of my hand I totally fuck up again.

“WALKER!” Sighing Mira facepalms hard, lowering her disguise and wondering why she even bothered to try. “You do realize that even though she said she’s okay with you that doesn’t mean she is okay with changelings.”

“No its okay, I knew the moment you walked up to me, the smell was all wrong.” She waves off the concern continuing her explanation. “She is what I mean though, her species is capable of hiding their appearance but not smell. To a dragon smell is just as important to who you are as is how you look. I mean do you realize how many come out red, black, blue or even gold? It’s enough to be annoying; anyways just hiding how she looks is nothing. Why am I even explaining this?”

“I don’t know, but it’s good to know smell is important among dragons. Did you know that Mira?” I ask chewing on a piece of dried meat while holding another to the dragoness. “Hey since I’m sick of thinking of you as dragon or dragoness what’s your name? I mean its’ awesome talking to you but I just feel like I’m being rude.”

Taking the dried meat she gives me an odd look but decides the meat is momentarily more important. This gives me a chance to really look her over. She looks like she might be as tall as I am, definitely skinner looking, though she does have some good muscle build to her. Her scales are predominately dark purple but with a metallic sheen, her wings are fucking stunning the scales along the edge are a dark blue but the membrane is a pure silver color that just shines.

“ Amethyst” She states after finally swallowing the meat. “My name is Amethyst. Nice to meet you…Walker?”

“Yeah that’s muh name!” I say with a grin now having heard someone else say my name* That’s right say my name.* Raising an eyebrow. *Why do I think that is so cool?* With a quick shake of my head I point over at Mira. “As you already heard her name is Mira. So on behalf of us both it’s nice to meet you Amy.”