Author's Note

Alright guys. If anyone is confused this is what's happening. I'm working on a complete rewrite of this story, multiple time I read comments about how it could be different and possibly better, I believe I can do that. As such this is the rewritten first chapter of my story, I hope that you will like it. I was a bit unsure if to publish it at first, but as I stated in my own story, stagnation is death and this story stagnated enough for my tastes, there will be some differences in the story with this rewrite but the whole plot will remain more or less the same. I will let both this chapter and the old one online to let all those who wants to draw the differences do so. I will then delete the old chapters in a month. I will do the same to all the chapters until I catch up with the story so far.

Tell me what you think and be ready for the next chapter, see ya!

Edited by: Classy Fox

Chapter 1 Hunter [Edited]

A knock arrived from the door while I tiredly looked outside the windows, I lazily drove my sight from the outside world and looked at the entrance where a doctor had just entered my room. He was an old little man with white hair, a pair of black glasses hanged down from his neck, the doctor wore the standard white coat with a pair of black loafers. At first, he said nothing, maybe he thought I was asleep, but when he noticed that I was looking at him he started talking.

“Mr. Mercer, should I call someone, a priest maybe?” He said in a soft tone.

“That won’t be necessary, thank you.” I replied. He courteously nodded and exited the room without a word. I didn’t want anyone witnessing my death, and prayers weren’t going to make me feel better.

‘Prayers and a priest, pft what a joke… as if Gods ever cared about us. It doesn’t matter anyway.’ What counts is that I’m going to die and I will have to see for myself what’s there in the afterlife if there is one that is. It’s with those thoughts that I saw my room grow greyer, the instruments slowed down until they stopped completely while outside the birds stopped their songs remaining silent.

“Am I already dead? Cause if I am the afterlife it’s pretty shitty.” I muttered trying to stand up and failing horribly when a terrible pain shot out from my guts. “The afterlife sure sucks, the cancer came with me too?” I struggled to say through gritted teeth.

A strange light filled the room blinding me. When I opened my eyes I saw before me a mismatched creature. His body was snake like but mostly fur covered, mostly brown but its head was completely grey. The tail of the creature was covered with hard red scales with a white patch of fur at its end. The creature had four limbs of which not one of them was the same as the other, where his legs where the one of a goat and one of a lizard, his upper limbs were a talon of an eagle and the paw of a lion. To complete the confused picture of the creature there was his head. For starter he had a pair of horns but even those where different from each other, them being an antler and a narwhal horn respectively. On his back he sported two wings, one from a bird and one of a bat. Finally his eyes were yellow with red mismatched pupils, a single elongated tooth was there upon his face alongside a white beard.

“Hello there!” He said in a jovial tone. I couldn’t muster a proper answer so I just stood there trying to understand what was happening.

“What? Speechless? I would be too if I would have to admire such a handsome draconequus such as myself. But as of right now I kinda need you to not be completely amazed by myself. Even if I completely understand.” He said laughing, then a mirror appeared in front of him and he started to look at himself in it, while being upside down.

“What are you?”

“Who moi?” He said putting his claw on his chest. “I’m Discord, Lord, Spirit, God, Prankster and winner of the chaos award but you can call me Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.” He said holding out a cup with his name on it.

“D-Discord? Are you kidding me? That Discord, from Equestria?” I asked trying to understand what was happening. “I thought I was dead not thrusted into a tv show.”

“Why yes! Thirty points to you. Also my dear I already told you my name do you have some kind of memory issue?” He asked popping up a chair from thin air and sitting on it, then proceeded to read my medical papers. “No nothing here, then you just like to ask questions? Probably but either way, I would love to continue our chat over a cup of chocolate tea but I’m in a bit of a hurry here so I have a question for you. What is life?” He asked.

“Life? What kind of question is that?” I asked confused on what he wanted me to answer.

“Just stick with the question and answer truthfully.” He replied.

“Well, ok not like I have anything better to do… Life is, a complex merging of feelings, memories, emotions and experiences.” I tried to answer.

“No not like that.” He said pinching his nose with a claw. “I mean what happens in life?”

“You are born…” I started, “then you reach adulthood after some time?” I finished awkwardly.

“Yes but what do those two things have in common?” He asked again growing frustrated.

“You grow up.” I answered.

“And what happens when you grow up?” He asked probably annoyed by my wrong answers, seeing that he set up two portals one on the ceiling and one on the floor and started to fall forever through them.

“You change?” I tried once again.

“YES!” He said happily making a giant sign appear with the word winner on it. “Finally, you are not the brightest bulb in the factory are you?”

“What.”

“But let’s not focus on that, that was the past. Anyway I’m on a very tight schedule and I really need you to hear me out, I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse.” He said in a weird accent while wearing an elegant suit.

“An offer? From a God?” I said spitting the word out. “I don’t want anything from a God, especially one that boast himself as the prankster god, and god of Chaos and Disharmony. You don’t strike me as the best moral character.”

“Such venom in your words I’m almost physically hurt.” He said in a mocking tone putting a paw on his heart. “I do not know why you hate gods so much mr…” He put himself upside down and read my name on the bed. “Philip Mercer but know this, I’m dying so I don’t really have anything to trick you with. My offer is easy, I will save you from your certain death and you will save my world from the catastrophe.” He said seriously. “The thing is, some other force is trying to make the world static and that will not be good for anyone, the world needs changes but I’m no longer there and here is where you come into the picture.” He said snapping a photo with his talon, then he spit out a photo of us on a paradise island. “See? Usually I’m not the most responsible one out there but I care about my titles, if everything goes stagnant I will be the laughing stock of all the other Chaos Gods out there! The horror!” He shouted “fainting” on a convenient couch right under him while muttering something about Khorne and that he would never heard the end of it.

I thought about his offer for some time, on one hand I would have to trust Discord and even if I knew him already he was still a god, beings that usually tricks mortals for their own amusement. On the other hand he can save me from this shit, I was already dead so I didn’t have anything to lose so I finally conceded.

“Fine.” I said. “I will go to your world, and do my best, but I cannot do much in my conditions.” I said pointing at myself.

“You will?” He shouted springing back up and hugging me tightly. “Oh and don’t worry about that I already choose the perfect body for your mission.” He said while putting me down on the bed. “Deal?” He asked holding out a paw.

I flinched at that but then grabbed it. “Deal.” We said in unison.

PHIL POV LABORATORY 000 CANTERLOT

“Doctor, the test subject is starting to wake up. The final transformation did nothing to its vitals but it assumed the form of a completely new species, it has some similarities to a pony but... Shall we continue the test?” A voice said. A female.

“Absolutely, this will give us more data than ever before.” Another voice, this time a male.

I couldn’t see anything, I could only hear voices. I tried to move but found myself restrained by some force. ‘I shouldn’t have trusted him. Where the fuck am I now?’ I angrily thought.

“Test subject is ready doctor.” The same female voice said.

“Excellent.” The doctor replied with glee. “Let’s start with an easy one, basic stimuli. Dispel the tier 1 protection spell.”

Immediately after I could finally start to move even if only a little bit, with my movements reduced to barely a crawl I started to feel my body. Nothing changed at first impression but I wasn’t so sure. I immediately felt a spike of electricity going through my arm which immediately jerked back to my chest, I wanted to make a sound but found myself incapable of doing such.

“Again.” Another spike and this time my leg jerked back and I felt myself fall backwards before the same force blocked my fall. ‘Am I standing?’

“Excellent, let’s try a new one. Release of tier 2 restrictions” The doctor

I felt the force on me weaken once again, that though also meant that I fell to the ground. I didn’t feel any pain even if I should have, still I was blind so next step was to try and find some sort of light somewhere.

“Specimen 6890 is ready doctor.”

“Excellent open the gate, let’s see if its hunting skills have changed.” The doctor said.

‘Hunting skills? What are they talking about?’ I thought more confused than ever. I heard the sound of a door opening and then a guttural growl from behind me. I didn’t think about it I just turned around and punched whatever it was. My recompense was the sound of broken bones, a low hurtful growl and the sound of something hitting a wall hard.

‘I’m tired of being blind.’ I thought.

“Yes… it became even faster in reactions… excellent! Send in more!” The doctor shouted jubilant.

More doors opened. ‘Fantastic’ Multiple roars came from different angles at once. Now something like that should scare anyone to death but I found myself not scared at all, I felt like I was being attacked by completely harmless critters, they could try but I was still the superior force in the room.

I spun around and grabbed one of those, from what I felt was its face, and threw it at another one that was right in front of me from the sound of it. I hit true and the both of them were thrown away against a wall. The more I remained in there the better I was becoming to hear them and understanding where they were, up to a point where I could almost see them like a bat would. After fifteen of them were disposed of the sudden force returned and I was blocked once again.

“A very interesting test. This time Hunter didn’t absorb any of the specimens.” The doctor said. “Curious.”

‘Hunter?’ I thought confused. ‘Is that what they call me? Am I just a test subject or a creation of said experiments? Why am I even so calm about this, I- I can’t feel my heart fluttering in excitement nor in fear… What am I, what happened to me? I-I want to see for myself. I want to see!’ My thoughts were interrupted by a thin line of light in what I thought was just an abyssal darkness.

I held onto that light, I reached for it, I wanted it I grasped the light that was presented in front of me like a child does to a mother and so finally I could see again. ‘What was that? What has happened… that light, did I just imagined it?’ I looked around me only to see decay and death, dozens of corpses, twisted and corrupted by an enormous amount of flesh which covered their faces blinding them all. The room I was in was filled with those bodies, the sight was one spawned from a nightmare, like hell itself opened its doors and let me peek inside for a moment.

Around me, the wall were covered in blood, the floor was drenched in it so much that it was impossible to see what was lying underneath it. I on the other hand was motionless, my gained sight didn’t gift me back my capability of moving. I never before witnessed such abhorrent vision as the one I saw in that room, that cell. Though, for all my disgust at such a spectacle I couldn’t find in myself the will to be repulsed by it, worse I was curious on what happened and who caused this. The recent ones I was sure, it was I that struck them down, did I felt guilty about it? Not even a bit, they attacked me I didn’t have a choice.

Then though a thought crossed my mind, how did I do that. I couldn’t be so strong, no man could. My witnesses were the dismembered part of one of them, while another had its back broken at an impossible angle while some had their heads completely crushed under extreme pressure, the most violent though was one which was severed in half vertically not by a blade but from pure brute force that ripped its flesh like paper. My musing ultimately was useless because no matter how much I would have wanted to move I couldn’t, so for the moment I remained there, waiting.

Time passed but I didn’t feel it at all, I was too busy dealing with hallucinations, I saw places, events, memories of someone else. Ponies and names that held no meaning for me but I knew those already, I thought I ended up in pony Equestria turns out it’s an anthro one, curious. Anyway my stay in the room was accompanied by those very visions of someone else, even that though was interrupted by the same metallic sound of before. ‘Already a day passed?’ I wondered. I looked around but the sound was coming from behind me so I couldn’t see what was happening.

“There it is Princess.” The doctor voice announced proudly.

“Yes I can see it, is it ready?” A feminine voice asked, one that radiated power and solemnity.

“No your majesty, we still need to conduct a few more tests.” The doctor said.

“Then be fast. I won’t tolerate any further delay.” The voice replied firmly and mercilessly.

“Yes, your majesty.” The doctor said, and then footsteps echoed meaning that she exited the room. “Alright, let’s start the next test.” The doctor started. “All physical abilities are still functional now to test its intellect. Let the test subject enter.”

In front of me one of the walls actually started to rise and revealed a new room behind it.

“Lights on.” The doctor ordered, with that the entire room was washed with an intense light, I was seeing in the dark until that point and wrongly assumed the room was illuminated. The sudden arrival of the light blinded me but not for long, in a moment I regained my vision.

“I don’t like this. Do I really have to do it?” A voice asked from the room behind the wall. She was scared, her voice trembled with barely contained fear.

“Yes, now move.” A stern voice replied.

Immediately after a pale pegasus entered my room, she was holding a mirror in her hands and slowly walked towards me eyeing the dead bodies with pure horror. When she finally arrived in front of me I saw a young mare with crystal blue eyes, a blond straight badly kept mane and the shadow of fear in her very movements and eyes. With trembling hands she held the mirror in front of me. “Who are you?” She asked in a whisper.

In front of me I didn’t see my old self, in front of me there was a pale face with a little uncut beard, the hair were messy and black as the night. The eyes though… They were red as blood with a voracious look into them, those were the eyes of a predator one that was the peak of the food chain. Those were now my eyes.

I tried to speak but in vain, I couldn’t utter a single word. All I could do was stare into the mirror.

“Remove restrictions, tier one and two.” The doctor ordered and I immediately felt myself falling, I recovered fast enough this time and managed to keep myself upright.

“What!? No, no wait please no! I don’t want to die!” The mare shouted frantically, the door behind her closed with thunderous might. She watched her only exit close, desperate she scrunched down on the floor keeping the mirror up above her head hoping that it might defend her from danger.

I moved my hand and grabbed the mirror, only for it to shatter in a thousand pieces like it was nothing. My hand jerked back thinking I got myself hurt, but nothing happened, the mare though flinched and made herself smaller crying on the ground. I grabbed a piece of the mirror, this time I made sure to use only a small amount of strength, and managed to keep it together. I looked at myself in the mirror piece once again.
‘What have I become?’ I thought checking myself.

I looked down at my arm, I reached for the mare but to my surprise my arm almost erupted into a multitude of tendrils. I backed off while the mare continued her desperate cry, I tried once again and again my arm changed. I didn’t want it to change though, I wanted to touch her with my hand and nothing more. I steeled myself and again I reached for her, the tendrils were coming but I didn’t want them I willed them to go away, and they did.

Finally I touched her, she flinched badly and screamed in terror. I jerked back and kept my hand for myself, the mare resumed her hopeless cry on the floor. I didn’t want to cause her anymore strife so I left her alone and walked towards one of the bodies I killed, I reached for it without thinking and so the tendrils came back. This time though I didn’t stop them, I was curious.

The tendrils exited from my arm and shot into the body, carving it like it was nothing. Plunging into it, then they covered it completely and soon I felt it, the tendrils were devouring it, consuming it, in a second the body disappeared and no trace remained behind. I felt better after that at least physically, mentally I was trying to understand what happened. ‘Tendrils, red eyes, inhuman strength, and memories that are not mine. Could I be?’ I wondered and looked around reaching for another corpse. This one was at least two meters from me, I stretched my arm towards it, I wanted to do the same thing I did to the other one. I wanted its flesh for myself, in an instant a thousand tendrils shot out from my arm twisting and bending they grabbed the lifeless body and again consumed it in seconds before returning to me.

‘It seems like it. Red eyes, new memories, inhuman strength, blood red tendrils controlled by me. Just one more test to see if…’ I looked at my arm, and imagined a weapon from my memory, one that I saw many times before, to my bewilderment my arm was coated by tendrils, I felt my flesh turning and bending, it created something, something hard, powerful and deadly. After the tendrils disappeared I stared at my hand now claw. Red pulsating veins stretched through my whole arm, my fingers were replaced by five long and narrowed claws that shined under the light. I moved them as to make myself believe that those were still my fingers, the claws responded and moved. Amazed I moved to one other corpse and plunged one of my finger into it, I perforated its skin like nothing, I shifted my finger and cut it open ripping its flesh apart.

‘Yes. I am.’

‘Prototype.’