Chapters Chapter 1: Who, what, where?
Chapter 1: Who, What, Where?
It had started out as a normal Saturday for the residents of Ponyville. The day’s weather had been scheluded to be sunny with some slight cloud cover after noon, thus everypony who didn’t have anything important to do was enjoying the glorious day outside. This included a certain tightknit group of six ponies, who were having a small picnic in the meadows surrounding Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was a having a conversation with Fluttershy, Rarity was trying to give Pinkie Pie’s mane a new look (unsuccessfully, as the pink cotton cloud of a mane returned to its original form with a ‘sproing’ after each attempt, much to the amusement of it’s owner), and Rainbow Dash was, unsurprisingly, hoofwrestling with Applejack. Everypony was having a great time, and everything was going just fine…
That is, until Rainbow Dash noticed the storm clouds forming over the Everfree Forest.
Everypony in Ponyville knew that the Everfree was an unnatural place. It would’ve been bad enough with just the monsters and other ferocious creatures which lived under its shadowed eaves, but the whole place simply didn’t work like the rest of Equestria. With the both wildlife and fauna of the forest managing itself without any interference by the ponies, it seriously unnerved ponies who lived close enough to feel its presence. But perhaps most crucially, the weather over Everfree seemed to adhere to the unruly attitude of the forest beneath it. Indeed, it took real skill for pegasi to control even the small clouds that had been born over the forsaken place. And now there was a small storm forming over it.
And it was moving right towards Ponyville.
Rainbow Dash quickly excused herself from the group and gathered couple of other members of the Ponyville’s weatherteam that had been hanging around the meadows and the sky above, before moving to intercept the stormclouds. Though the storm wasn’t that large, Rainbow Dash and the rest of ponies weren’t really willing to risk the damage it might cause if it got close enough to the town. Besides, it would be a great workout.
After almost half an hour of trying the weather ponies hadn’t managed to disperse, blow apart, or change the course of the storm. If anything, it was now even more ferocious, spewing lightning bolts and rain to the forest. However, just as it was getting unnervingly close to the border of Everfree, it dispersed with one last flash of lightning. The pegasi were more than just little bit baffled by this sudden turn of events, since their previous attempts of stopping the said storm had contributed for nothing. Nevertheless, it had been, after all, a storm of the Everfree Forest, and strange behavior (as far as clouds were involved) was to be expected. After making a brief glance at the forest in case anything had caught fire (unlikely, but possible), the weatherponies left the Everfree’s airspace.
If even one of them had taken a better look at the spot where that last lightning had hit, they might had seen the abnormally large blast crater left by the lightning. They might have had even seen the two figures lying in the crater. But alas, they didn’t look. And thus the situation underneath the trees went unnoticed by pony-eyes.
The rain-soaked forest was silent for a good while after the freaky storm had dispersed itself on the thin air. Not even the more ferocious creatures of the Everfree dared to break the silence that had befallen the forest that usually had its very own cacophony of weird and frightening sounds going on 24/7.
That is, until there was a groan emitting itself from the lightning stricken crater.
There were two figures lying face down at the opposite edges of the soot-blackened crater, of which the smaller was starting to show signs of awakening. The smaller figure seemed to be a reasonably young and slightly small sized unicorn colt with dark blue coat and a messy, long bright blue mane with a very dark blue streaks going through it. His eyes were golden yellow in color, and at the moment looked like he hadn’t had sleep for week. He was covered in strange clothing that seemed to be more than a couple of sizes too big, not to mention shaped wrong for anything equine-like, and they seemed to have signs of burning in them. His cutiemark was still hidden underneath the strange articles of clothing.
The colt was slowly reaching the level of consciousness universally accepted to be proper for rational thinking, but not without making unintelligible sounds to indicate his displeasure of the current situation. Namely, waking up unwillingly. Just as he was, however, he heard another set of sound voicing its own displeasure in similarly unintelligible muttering, but at a much lower voice. The colt froze for a moment, before turning his head SLOWLY to the opposite edge of the crater.
What was laying opposite to the unicorn, was something far less easily recognizable. It could have been mistaken for an unusually large pegasus stallion at the first glance, save for the fact that instead of fore hooves this thing had fore paws not much unlike some cat-like creature. Instead of a pony’s tail it had a long cat’s tail with large tuft of weird, waving black hair, of which its mane seemed also to be composed of. Even its coloration was strange, with a coat that looked to be a mix between light grey and turquoise, with off-white wings and the afore mentioned strange black mane. It too was covered in unusual clothing, but it seemed to be only a couple sizes too large for him, although it too seemed to be burned of at places, with great tears on the back where his wings had pushed through the fabric.
A moment of silence from the colt. Then he did the sensible thing and said:
“OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL!?”
The thing jolted up at the voice, saying something in a language the colt didn’t understand, though it seemed to be a question. Then it turned its head and looked at the distraught unicorn in too big clothes.
“What. The. Fuck?” The thing deadpanned with some foreign accent. Now that it was looking right at the unicorn it could be seen that even its face was abnormal for a pony; it was slightly elongated, looking little cat-like. Its ears were almost ridiculously long and pointed, and as it spoke, rows of small sharp teeth could be seen filling its mouth. Its eyes were bright green and slitted like a housecat’s, and they too looked as if they hadn’t had sleep in far too many days.
“OMG WHAT THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU!?” The unicorn continued speaking in the same calm manner as before.
The thing first looked at the colt for a moment before taking a good long look at its own paws. A moment passed. Then in a similarly calm manner to the unicorn the thing replied:
“GAAAAH WHAT THE SHITTY PIECE OF FUCKING HELL WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MEEE!?”
The creature might had continued its raving (not the kind usually associated with parties) had it not fallen face first on the soot-blackened dirt of the crater in its haste to see just WHAT it currently was.
“…Ow.” the thing replied evenly after a moment, laying face-down in the dirt.
“…Just what are you?” the colt asked in a slightly calmer manner.
And just as things seemed to settle down a bit, the thing decided to reply (still face-down on the ground):
“…I can’t believe that question is coming from a little blue unicorn.”
And at those words, the colt seemed to take stock of its own situation. And as it has been proven by the few moments before, he decided to look at this situation just as objectively and calmly as before.
“OMG WHAT THE HELL I AM A PONY OMG THIS IS SO COOL-“
“…what?” the thing replied amidst the tirade of rambling coming from the unicorn, having finally gotten its face of the ground, which now bore a very confused expression.
“- OH MAN THIS IS SO AWESOME I’M A PONY WOOT LOOK AT THESE HOOVES OH WAIT YOU SAID I WAS A UNICORN-“
“…hey.”
“- OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH THIS IS SOOO AWESOME I WONDER WHAT SPELLS-“
“Hey, listen up.”
“- I CAN USE HOW DO YOU USE MAGIC I WONDER I WHAT MY TALENT IS OH WAITWAITWAIT WHAT’S MY CUTIEMA-“
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!”
The unicorn stopped his incessant rambling to see an almost painful look
“Finally. Okay, first things first, who are you, where exactly are we, and do you have any idea how we got here, and just to be clear, were you something other than a pony before being here?” , it asked in a single breath with a strained look in its eyes.
After thinking for a moment, the colt started speaking:
“Well my name is Jason, I come from Wisconsin, USA, I think we are in Equestria OMG SO AWESOME, and I have no idea how we got here. Oh, and before I fell asleep and woke up here, I was a human. Why’d you ask me that one, anyway?”
“Because there was a possibility that you WEREN’T a human before, and if that was the case then I would have had to come up with something from revealing that I was a one. But USA? Figures. That doesn’t explain my presence though…”
“Huh? What you mean?”
“I mean, that I’m not from America, I’m from Europe. And I assume from that outburst you had that you’re a brony, too. How old are, by the way?”
“You’re a brony too? Then why are you so gloomy?”
“Because I have absolutely no idea how we got here, considering that we are from two completely different places, with seemingly the only thing in common being gender and bronydom, I don’t know why we are here, and I am not even sure that we are in Equestria. And even if we are, there’s no way of telling as of now that we are in THE Equestria, and not, say, some grimdark version of it. I’m also unsure if I am really here, or lying on a hospital bed in coma, though your presence makes that possibility slightly less plausible. Also, it looks like that I’m in the land of ponies YET I AM NOT A PONY. I’M NOT EVEN A HUMAN ANYMORE.” The thing looked kind of exhausted after that tirade, and they both were silent for a moment, thinking what he had just said.
Finally Jason broke the ice: “…Sooo… what’s your name then?”
The thing seemed to think about a moment, and replied, “…Eh, my name is Samuel. But just call me Sam. It’s easier that way.”
“Why did you want to know how old I am?”
“I was trying to think of anything we had in common, in case it might be something relevant to us being here. Where is here, by the way? And what do I look like? I don’t think I’m a griffon, but then what am I?” Sam said with a concerned look in his eyes and a paw held experimentally on his face.
“Ummm, you actually look a little like a cat. I mean, your face looks a little bit, I don’t know, angled like a cat’s. Your ears are really long, and you look like you have sharp teeth. Like, a predators teeth. Also, you got something going on with your mane. It actually reminds me a little bit of Celestia’s mane, only it’s black, and doesn’t wave over your face, just over your back.” Jason answered, his initial feeling of awesome slightly subdued by Sam’s questions.
As Jason went on with this description, Sam was gingerly touching his face with his paws, his facial expression going through several looks of worry and anxiety. Just as his paws went through his mane his expression changed to that of surprised.
“Wow… This feels really WEIRD.”
“Really? How does it feel?”
“It’s like… I don’t know, it’s like wind blowing through my hair lightly, but without the wind. And it’s so freaking long. I’m really not sure what to make of this…”
Sam then craned his neck and took a good long look at his body.
“ Wow, my neck is really long.. Do all ponies have this long neck? Hey, WINGS! I GOT WINGS! OH YEAH! Hey and I got paws, or are they claws, whatever, anyway, so I also have thumbs! And fingers! YES! I HAS FINGERS! AH AM THE SUPERIOR BEING!!”
Jason looked in a kind of excitement and a little bit shocked as Sam was getting into the same euphoria induced rambling he had been just a moment ago. This didn’t last long, however, and Jason saw his expression of glee to turn into that of worry in a moment.
“… But how did we get here? Is there any way back for us? And would we still look like this if we get back…” Sam kept muttering for a minute.
Jason waited for a moment, not quite sure what to do or say next.
“… Sooo… what do I look like?”
“huh?” Sam seemed to snap out of his thoughts.
“I asked, what do I look? How my face looks like?” Jason asked again, quickly descending back to the blessed state AWESOMNESS (capital letters mandatory) where he was just a minute ago.
“… Ummm… Well, um, you look, like, just a normal unicorn. No wait, scratch that. Your face looks kind of a hybrid between human and equine in terms of bone structure, with a small snout, large golden yellow eyes, though they don’t look quite as large as they appeared on ponies in the show, a small horn, which seems to be covered in a thin layer of skin, much like the antlers on some of the deers and their relative species on Earth. Fur is thick but short, with a colouration of dark blue, and your mane, along with your tail, are light blue in coloration, with two dark blue stripes that seem to go through the length of both mane and tale, which are also somewhat longer in length than what was seen on the show. Physically speaking, you look nothing like a normal pony from Earth, but you look almost like a pony from the show… except more realistic and not cartoony. And for the record, I find the fact that we are NOT cartoony at the moment to be both surprising and a little bit frustrating.”
Jason proceeded to close his unhinged jaw that had dropped during the extremely detailed and analytical observation (Jason himself didn’t believe that ponyfication could be described WITHOUT epic levels of awesome bronyism dripping from it). He started to find this ‘Samuel’ to be an exceedingly disturbing when it came to his sudden changes of mood, going from annoyed to near hysterical, to cheerful, to melancholy, and at least currently, to coldly analytical. As Jason thought of himself as a cheerful optimist through and through, he found such quick mood switches to be somewhat strange.
And from the look on his face, Sam’s mood had changed again, this time to great levels embarrassment, likely from his detailed description (with a side order of scientific analysis).
“…Aha,” Jason replied evenly after a few seconds, and added, “ Hey, what my cutiemark looks like?”, craning his neck as he said it, getting back to his cheerful self.
“Don’t know, your flanks covered by your clothes…” Sam trailed off, with a worried look on his face (again).
“Exactly what happened to us?” Sam asked silently. “I mean, look around us. We’re sitting in a CRATER, in a forest, we still got our clothes on, but they seemed to have BURNED, for heaven’s sake. Did we get hit by a lightning or something?”
Jason thought at that for moment (instead of concentrating to feeling generally awesome and 20% cooler than normal), and realized something.
“..Hey.. If we ended up here with our clothes...”, Jason thought out loud, “Then what else did we bring with us?”
Sam’s eyes widened with surprise, only to look down at his person and to deadpan, “I am not wearing any pants.”
“What, you didn’t notice?”
“Well excuse me, I was busy freaking out for having CAT PAWS, thank you very much.” Sam replied with an annoyed look. “ But enough with that, where ARE our pants? And my backpack, for that matter. I had it when that light flashed-“
“Your backpack?”
“Yeah, I was walking to the.. oh god damn it, what’s the word, ummm… University! Yes, I was just walking to the university, when I saw a bright flash of light, and then everything went dark and quiet.”
“There was a flash? I just remember going to bed, and then woke up here.”
“Have you thought about different timezones? I mean, we are like, at least seven hours ahead of the time in the America. It might have happened to us simultaneously.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Pffft. Knowing that is pretty important, if you want to watch MLP, or any other streamed show at our end. I have to wait for till 5 pm. for the show to even start, and usually for a lot longer to get a decent stream.”
“Oh. So it was, what, morning at Europe, when that flash happened? So, I was probably still sleeping… Wait a minute, what country are you from? And university? How old are?”
“…I’m from Finland. And I’m 21.”
“Finland? Isn’t that in Asia or something?”
*sigh* “No, it’s NOT.”
“Then where-“
“Look, it’s in North Europe, but that isn’t the matter at hand right now. The matter is, where are my other stuff?”
With that sentence, Sam started to pat down his clothes and generally wriggle around in his too large clothing. This didn’t last long, as he once more fell face first to the ground due to lost balance.
“…You know, this doesn’t hurt nearly as much as I think it should,” Sam replied from his face-down posture (yet again).
“At least it’s entertaining,” Jason replied with a grin.
“…Hardy har har. You try standing on these legs. I haven’t seen you move at all yet.”
Jason was immediately in the land of Never-Ending Awesomness (mentally), and scrambling to his hooves (physically).
…Only to land on his face just as Sam got back to his sitting position.
“Heheheh. Not as fun when it happens to yourself, is it?” Sam asked with a hint (bucket full) of gleeful malice in his voice.
“Are you kiddin’? This is the best day EVER, no matter how many times I might land on my face!” Jason replied with grin as he scrambled back up, simply refusing to look at the situation from any other view than that of a sheer concentrated awesomeness. “Plus,” he added, “we need to learn how to move ourselves around, right?” he said with a ever widening smile. It was then that he pulled his clothes up enough to see his flank (not as easy as it sounds), and with that, proceeded to squeal in happiness.
“YES!! I HAVE A CUTIEMARK!! NO BLANK FLANK FOR JASON!!”
There was indeed a shape adorning his flank that could only be a cutiemark. It was 3 four-pointed, yellow stars in a tringle over crescent moon. Jason chose to continue his giggling, and feeling awesome.
“Huh. I almost thought that I wouldn’t have one…”
On Sam’s flank was indeed a cutiemark; a black swirl with 5 streaks of different color (blue, red, yellow, green and violet) surrounding it.
“Wow, that’s a really cool cutiemark! What does it mean, though?” Jason asked with a gleeful expression.
“I’m really not sure… What does yours mean, anyway?”
“Oh that’s easy. I’ve always been into the stargazing business; It’s something that I’ve done like, forever! Anyway, enough with staring at each other’s flanks, lets start walking!” Jason replied as he stood up on his legs, only to smack down on his stomach.
“…I really don’t get you. But you got the right idea; we really need to learn how to walk with these legs.”
With that said, they both scrambled up to their feet, and spent next several minutes trying to figure out how to move their new set of limbs laughing (at least Jason did) and swearing in a foreign language(that would be Sam). After over half an hour of tumbling around they finally had gotten the most rudimental control of their own limbs. Jason had already thrown of his clothes (he had had only a white t-shirt on him anyway) along with Sam (who had first been against it, followed by a long struggle against his own clothes as they didn’t get off of him as easily; after all, he had a pair of wings poking out of them).
“So,” Sam mumbled as he was pulling of the last of his clothing (red, burned up t-shirt), “I didn’t have any of the stuff I had before that flash. My jacket pockets were empty, and I don’t see my backpack anywhere.”
“Yeah, and I don’t see our pants anywhere, either.. Let me take a look around..” Jason muttered, as he scrambled out of the crater.
Just as Jason was making a triumphant pose at the edge of the crater due to his newly gained basic motor control, he took a look at the land surrounding the crater, and his face fell for the first time since he had awoken.
“..Ah crap.”
“What? What is it?” Sam asked as he scrambled himself from the crater.
“I just realized that we are in the Everfree Forest, and it’s starting to get dark.”
“..Ah crap.”
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Chapter 2: I am a pony now. Your argument is invalid.
Chapter 2: I am a pony now. Your argument is invalid.
Things were not going well.
At least that’s what Sam would have said, if anyone (anypony) had asked about his situation. Sadly, the only one who might have asked that at the moment was a somewhat small, blue unicorn, who was spending his time grinning like an idiot and blabbering on like one.
They had been walking, well, stumbling really, for some 40-50 minutes (Sam couldn’t tell accurately, since he had lost his watch along with every other thing he had had with him) in search of a way out of the forest, or failing that, some form of shelter. Their attempts of finding out their exact location had been fruitless so far, with Sam’s attempts at flying and the attempts to climb to a tree to survey the landscape by both Sam and Jason had been nearly atrocious. This seemed to be more than slightly degrading in Sam’s opinion, as having wings and cat paws should have made the whole procedure easier. But it didn’t. With no good idea about where to go, they decided to follow the first path they’d find, and stick to it, and after a while stumbling through the long, wet grass, they had found a dirt path, and thus had kept walking on it.
Since their latest attempt to climb a tree had ended in him landing on his head, Sam had optioned to stay silent and just think of the situation. Which wasn’t as easy as you might expect, since Jason had taken his silence as a sign to express his own humble opinion on their current situation.
“- I mean seriously, this is so AWESOME, even though it feels kinda funny when you can’t feel your fingers anymore, it’s almost like walking on my knuckles, but it doesn’t feel like much, and walking in this posture feels unusual, not bad, but unusual, with the ground being so much closer than before! I think I got the basic walking, I mean trotting cycle in control, I wonder if I can jump now-“
As Jason’s tirade was momentarily paused by his attempt at jumping (and consequent falling over), Sam wondered just how long he would be able to cope with someone (he didn’t like to refer to Jason as somepony just yet) so bright and happy and in his opinion, attention seeking. Though he did think that his own, previous behavior had been just as obnoxious (he blamed the sudden shock for it). He simply did not act like that, usually he was more able to keep his emotions under wraps, and he kept feeling embarrassed about it. Not to mention the slight bang of consciousness he had about lying to Jason. But seriously, who in their right mind just goes and tells their whole life to someone unknown? And besides, he had just lied about his name. That wasn’t a big deal, right? His thoughts were quite rudely pushed aside, however, as Jason continued his one-sided conversation unabated by his sudden fall.
“- so I guess that I should practice that a bit before attempting again. But what about magic? How do I use it? Do I just imagine doing something, and then it just happens? How much I should concentrate to use it? What if I go into a full avatar-stage if I try to use it? You know, like Twilight did. Oh man that would be so cool, probably disastrous, but cool-“
With a brief mental image of Jason floating in the air with eyes glowing with power, Sam started worrying over his own form over again (17th time in the past twenty minutes or so). Just what the hell WAS he? There was no piece of fanfic or anything else MLP related he could think of that would explain his form. It didn’t help that he had not even seen his own face yet; the little puddles of water on the ground being far too muddy to serve as any kind clear reflective surface. And the description given by Jason wasn’t exactly calming. Sam simply hoped it wouldn’t be so bad when he’d finally get a clear picture of his facial structure.
“- and my mouth feels kinda funny too, it’s just so LONG, and it feels like it’s, I don’t know, more flexible and more dexterous than before, I guess that’s why ponies can use their mouths to do everything. It’s also funny that there isn’t any sharp teeth in my mouth anymore, they’re all just flat-“
Sam gingerly touched his teeth with his tongue as Jason said that, and shuddered slightly. There were TOO MANY teeth in his mouth now, and far too many of them were sharp. They felt like they were small, long, and sharp, like thick needles. Although he could also feel with his tongue some flat teeth at the back of his mouth, he really didn’t want to think about just what he was supposed to eat in this new form. The same thought-pattern went for his paws. And his tail. And his weird-feeling hair. In fact, as Sam thought over it for a moment, he decided to dumb his whole new body to the mental “Don’t-Really-Want-To-Think-About-It” category.
“- wonder what it would be like to see a manticore out here? Or maybe a Ursa Minor? We might get away from them. I kinda wonder what they would really look like. Would they be like they were in the show? Or would they be completely different? And what else lives in these woods? God I just hope we don’t run into any cockatrices. I hate snakes, and having a head of a chicken and petrifying gaze are really not positive add-ons by my book-“
This one piece of rambling from his unwanted companion really made Sam to think. If this place really was the Everfree Forest, they should have seen some creatures already. But there had been nothing, not even birds could be heard. There were some small insects crawling and flying around them, mostly beetles from what he could see around him. But no large creatures, not even squirrels or any other small critters, much less something monstrous like a manticore. This was odd to say the least. Maybe they really were still on Earth, as the forests he had been in were sometimes like this back home. But that wouldn’t explain the weather, as it had been the beginning of winter where he had last been before that flash. Here it looked like it was still summer.
“-and that’s another thing, what about pony clothing? I know that they do wear clothes in at least formal gatherings and high society parties, but what about day-to-day clothing? Or is it really down to a personal taste? Do ponies ever wear, I don’t know, pyjamas? Would ponies actually wear socks? Oh man that would be funny to see-“
Sam wished, and not for the first time, that they had taken their clothes with them. Jason had had a point, though. All of their clothes (including Sam’s favorite winter jacket) were badly torn and burned from whatever had brought them here, with Sam’s own clothes doubly torn from his new appendages pushing through the fabric, so they really couldn’t have used them anyway. With that last thought he decided to try to use his new wings again, but just like previous attempts, he was barely able to just rustle the feathers, with both limbs still being stubbornly stuck to his sides. He let out a tired sigh as they kept walking on the path.
Things were not going well.
Things couldn’t have been better.
Jason couldn’t remember the last time he had been so excited in his live. He was a pony! A living, breathing pony! And a unicorn, on top of that! All though he admitted to himself of being grateful of that, he would have likely been just as happy being an earth pony. Heck, just being sent to the Equestria would have been enough in his opinion! He was living every brony’s dream! With that thought, he decided to give another try for the whole quadruped jumping, this time actually staying upright after his small leap. With this yet a new reason to smile, Jason started to actually take in his surroundings.
The forest itself was dark and damp, with water dropping from the gnarled trees to the pools of muddy water all over the ground. The trees themselves looked like they were really old, being all gnarled and covered in moss and fungus, with long, warped branches hanging low to the ground. The ground along the path they were walking was full of small thorn bushes, long grass and ferns, with strange flowers and other plants poking out from time to time. The forest was also eerily quiet save for the sound of their own hooves (and paws) hitting the ground.
With that last thought Jason looked with slight worry to the creature walking besides him. Jason had been talking non-stop for at least the last 10 minutes, and Sam hadn’t so much as grunted in response. And though Jason had already been quiet for couple of minutes, Samuel was still silent, just walking along with a worried look on his face.
Jason frowned for the first time after waking up in that crater. For somepony (squeee~) claiming to be a brony Sam seemed to be taking this whole thing pretty heavily. True, he wasn’t a pony, but that wasn’t a reason to be gloomy, right? And what happened to his mood? Back at the crater he had been having some weird mood swings, but now he looked just droopy. Well , he thought, maybe I’m ought to do something about it .
“Hey Sam? You’re okay?”
With that direct question Sam seemed to come to from his self-imposed stupor.
“Huh? Yeah I’m okay. I was just.. thinking.”
“Okay… so, how does it feel?”
“…Really weird. My paws don’t have much of a feeling in them. My wings are near unresponsive. My tail feels weird. And I have too many teeth in my mouth. And too many of them are sharp,” Sam replied with a near monotone voice.
“Aha.” Jason was little at loss as to what to say next, but quickly continued regardless, “So.. What do you reckon we should do when we get out of the forest? Or if we run into anypony? Should we come up with a cover story? Oooh wait wait, we should think of some cool pony names for ourselves!” Jason was once again getting exited, despite his gloomy companion.
Sam actually smiled for a smallest of moments before going back to his neutral impression. “Yes, you’re probably right. In case we really are in Equestria, at least you should have a good backstory,” Sam said, coming to a halt.
“Huh? What you mean, at least I should have?” His puzzlement was clear on his voice and even clearer on his face, as he came to a stop, too. Sam just snorted with a small smirk.
“Have you actually seen what I look like? If I just appear in Ponyville, or any other pony inhabited settlement for that matter without any preceding warning, I’ll be lucky if I get just the Zecora treatment. And you know what would happen if we come across a human city. Which I do admit, isn’t probably the case, since this DOES look a whole lot like the Everfree Forest,” Sam said, warily eyeing the trees around them.
“Aren’t you overreacting just a bit? I doubt that they’d really freak out that badly.”
“I am not willing to take that risk just yet. You saw how they treated Zecora at first in the show. I really don’t want to see that happening to me.”
“Well that’s exactly my point. They only treated her like that at FIRST.”
“Look, can we get back to the matter at hand? My point is, that while I might easily cause panic in any settlement we come across, YOU won’t probably have the same effect.”
“…So, what exactly you had in mind?”
“Easy. I think that when we get out of these woods, and if we ran into anybody or anypony, I should probably just hide, while you gather some information.”
“That.. actually sounds like a plan. Sort of. But what should I ask if I meet anypony? You know, besides the obvious where am I, who are you, where’s the nearest town..”
“Hmmm.. Try to find out at what point in time we’re in. There’s always a possibility that were in some period of time that we recognize. And that might be a bad thing. And also, you should likely try to find out are we in THE Equestria, and not, say, some canon universe.”
“Canon?”
“Cupcakes.”
“Oh.” They both shuddered at the thought.
“So, we get out of the forest, you hide, I find some ponies, or failing that, some people, ask some questions and generally try to get our bearings, and then come back for you. And I probably shouldn’t say anything about humans, or Earth, or the show.” As Jason said this, his face started to lit up again at the thought of meeting other ponies, and possibly even the Mane 6.
Just then he noticed the disgruntled look on Sam’s face.
“Yeah… That’s another thing you probably should remember. Don’t go having a fangasm, okay? I know this is awesome and all, but let’s not unnecessarily freak out any ponies, okay?” Sam asked, actually smiling for the first time since Jason had seen him. It was a concerned smile, but still, Jason saw it as an improvement.
Jason sat down on his haunches and gave a mock salute, grinning from ear to ear. “Aye aye, Captin’! So, what should my backstory be? Ooh, and my name! What would be a cool pony name?” Jason squealed with delight.
“Starstruck the Easily Excited,” Sam said with a small grin.
This had the effect of making Jason laugh. In truth, he was glad that the person he was walking with had brightened up. It would have been terrible to get in Equestria, ponified, no less, only to be stuck with someone continuously grumpy.
“That’s a good one, but how about Starshine?”
“That’s one option… How about Night Sky?”
“Not bad, not bad… But how about Stargazer?”
“Okay, that’s just bad. That’s not a name, that’s a job title.”
“Oh, and what would be better name than that, then?”
“Well what about the one I said already? Night Sky?”
“It might work… If I was a black pegasus.”
*sigh* “True.. but I think it’s still better than your first option.”
“What’s wrong with Starshine, then?”
“Nothing, it’s a good name... It’s just that I can’t say it without thinking about moonshine.”
Jason thought about it for a moment, before replying with a smile, “Hmmm.. Nope! Starshine it is.”
“..Glad that my propositions are taken seriously,” Sam muttered under his breath.
“So, now that that’s done with, what about your name?”
“Huh?”
“Well come on, you should have a pony name too! Or did you plan to just sit in this forest without ever coming out and meeting anypony else?”
“ Well, no, but.. I mean… I really didn’t think this one through, did I?” Sam asked with an embarrassed smile on his face, his long ears flopping ridiculously low.
“Nope,” Jason/Starshine replied with a small laughter as he saw his companion’s comical expression.
Sam scowled for a moment, and after what seemed like a moment of thinking he replied, “Hexus.”
“Ummm… What?” Starshine asked with confusion.
“That’s my new name. Hexus.”
“Wait, just like that? No other options, no thinking about it? And isn’t that the name of some animated villain?” Starshine asked with a confused look on his face, trying to comprehend what just happened.
“It is. And I did think about it.”
“But.. Just Hexus?”
“No, I think I will add something to it later, you know, to make it longer, but for now, Hexus it is. Or Hex for short.”
“But.. But..”
“I have opposable thumbs, Jas- I mean, Starshine. Your argument is invalid.” Sam/Hexus replied with a smug grin.” Besides, I like it. I think it’s a brilliant name.”
As the well-known sentence ‘ What is this I don’t even’ ran through Starshine’s head as a reaction to the Sam’s/Hexus’ suddenly found sense of humor, he wisely decided just to drop it.
“ …Ugh, fine, Hexus. But what now?” he asked as he took a look around. “The sun is setting, and we’re far from being clear of the woods.”
“Good point,” Hex replied, taking a slightly fearful look at the forest around them. “Should we try to climb a tree again?”
With that said, they both started to scamper up a nearby tree with low hanging branches. The difference to their previous attempts, however, was that after a couple times of falling down (and quite a lot of muttering and grumbling of foreign, obviously obscene words from Hex) they both managed to reach the top of the tree. As soon as Hexus reached the treetop next to Starshine, they both took a good, long look at the forest and the land surrounding it.
Then they looked down at the trail they had been following. And back up at the forest canopy.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Hexus said with enough venom in his voice to poison an entire city.
The Forest that they had been walking around, while it had been dark and damp under the boughs, was a roiling see of lush greens, coloured with vibrant hues of orange and red by the setting sun. It was majestic, vast and held its own kind of beauty.
…And it ended just under a hundred meters right of the dirt path they’d been following.
“…We were walking by the edge of the woods the whole time?” Starshine asked with an unbelieving look plastered on his face.
“#&¤%&*&!!!” Hexus screamed out loud a foreign obscenity with a sound not much unlike a bestial roar, causing Starshine to jolt up with a startle (and to almost fall off from the branch he had been sitting on).
“…Feeling better?” he asked after a little while.
“…Little,” came a silent reply from the heavily breathing Hexus. “Let’s just get down and out of these woods,” he continued with anger in his voice and rage on his face.
After gracefully climbing down (falling down halfway to the ground) from the tree, both of them started scrambling through the small bushes and other wild plant life towards the edge of the forest they had seen from above.
“I can’t believe we spent all that time for nothing,” Hex grumbled as he kept pushing through bushes.
“I can’t believe that there’s a path going around the whole forest like that,” Starshine replied panting, his somewhat smaller stature making it harder to fight his way through the forest compared to Hex’s way of just barging through anything lesser than a tree or a boulder. “I mean, who would want to make a path like that, just a little way away from the tree line? What’s the point?”
“Don’t know, but I’m pretty pissed at whoever made that trail at the moment,” Hexus replied with grunt as he kept moving on through and around the obstacles.
They soon got out of the forest and stopped, watching back at the imposing treeline through which had just came. Both looked tired, battered, Hex panting from anger and Starshine from exertion.
“You remember how I said that I would hide when you would go and find out about our situation?” Hexus asked, to which Starshine just nodded, too tired to talk after that battle against the forest and its nefarious plant minions.
“I tell you one thing. I WON’T hide back in that forest, that’s for certain.”
“If you… Even need… To hide…”, Starshine panted, slowly regaining his breath.
“I thought we already agreed that I should hide,” Hexus replied, giving Starshine a sideways look.
“You just have a too pessimistic way of thinking this situation. I really doubt that they’d do worse than stare at you,” Starshine retorded, starting to get slightly aggravated by Hex’s constant pessimism.
“…I hate being stared at..” Hexus muttered.
“And besides, don’t you want to meet other ponies out there?” Starshine continued, not hearing what Hexus had said.
“Well yes, but I don’t want to cause any panic,” Hexus said slightly louder this time, his previous anger being replaced by anxiety.
“Oh please, you couldn’t cause panic even if you tried! You may look a little.. different,” Starshine faltered for a moment, waving his other hoof towards Hexus’s body, “but that’s it! You just don’t look at this from the right perspective,” He concluded, hardly believing that he was encouraging a supposed brony to meet other ponies.
*sigh* “Okay. I won’t go hiding at the first sign of ponies or something else for that matter. Though I will blame you, if things get bad because I dared to walk in the open.” Hex still seemed little nervous, but that was at least an improvement, in Starshine’s opinion anyway.
“Okay,” he replied, “what now? It’s still not night, and I think we should get going somewhere. It probably isn’t a good idea to fall asleep near the forest,” he said tapping his chin with a fore hoof thoughtfully.
“…There’s smoke rising in that direction,” Hex announced, pointing to the left of the forest in front of them.
“What? Where?” Starshine asked, puzzled. “I can’t see anything in that direction.”
“What you’re talking about? It’s right there,” Hexus said, jabbing with his finger (Is it still a finger when it’s a part of paw? Starshine thought idly for a second) towards the same direction, “A couple of really thin, wavering grey lines in the sky. Can’t you see it?” he asked in puzzlement.
Starshine looked again at the pointed direction, but still saw nothing. Just as he was about to tell Hex just that, he happened to see his eyes as Hex was staring at the supposed smoke lines.
“Wait a second… you just did the thing Gilda does!” Starshine shouted with a grin on his face and a hoof pointed at Hex.
“What?” Hex asked with a confused look on his face.
“That thing! The thing that Gilda does! With her eyes! You did it just now!” Starshine shouted, his grin actually getting wider as he spoke.
“Ah.. whu.. I..What?” Hex stuttered, starting to look less confused and more nervous.
Starshine sighed little, and then went on to explain, “Your eyes just went really small, you know, with the iris going miniscule, when you looked over there. Just like with Gilda in the show!” Starshine exclaimed, his smile growing with every moment.
“What, seriously? I didn’t even notice anything…” Hexus muttered, confused and worried.
“Well you did! And that was so AWESOME!” Starshine excitedly replied while making his best Rainbow Dash impersonation.
“…Really?”
“YA RLY!” Starshine shouted, chuckling at his own joke.
“Well, okay. but I still didn’t feel any difference…” Hex said. “But anyway, should we get going, while there’s still some day light left?”
“Oh! Yeah, let’s go. Adventure time, HOOO~!” Starshine shouted with a goofy grin on his face, while starting to trot towards the point Hexus had pointed.
“Oh you just didn’t say that,” Hex groaned, but still smiling slightly at Starshine as he began trotting after him.
Starshine actually grinned a little wider at this, the thought of exploring and meeting other ponies driving of any negative feeling that was left sitting at the corner of his mind. Because despite everything that could have gone wrong and had gone wrong, Starshine, formerly known as human Jason, was certain of one thing as he looked at the sundown over the forest.
Things couldn’t have been better.
Chapter 3: The Great and Magical Pebble!
Chapter 3: the Great and Magical Pebble!
The evening in Equestria was a truly beautiful event, as Celestia’s sun starts to make way for Luna’s moon and stars. With the first constellations of the night shining over the land along with the setting sun, and the singing of the early woken night time birds in the air, it was truly a sight to behold and feel. Unfortunately, near the Everfree Forest, it was a lot less charming affair. The wildlife of the forest, which had been suspiciously quiet ever since the rain storm, seemed as they had decided to make up for their previous silence by creating an extra-terrifying cacophony now that the sun was setting, and the dark of the night was rising. The forest was filled with distant roars, whoops, snarls, howling, and other, less identifiable voices. It was quite terrifying…
…But sadly, the Scary Cacophony© lost a significant part of its fear effect as a song could be heard from one of the two figures trotting along the edge of the forest towards what they assumed to be civilization.
“When I was a little filly, and the sun was going doooooown-“
“Oh God.”
“The darkness and the shadows they would always make me froooown-“
“Please don’t.”
“I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw-“
“I really don’t think you should-“
“But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way to deal with fears at aaaall-“
“You’re not even listening, are you?”
“She said: Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears You'll see that they can't hurt you, just laugh to make them disappear HA HA HA!”
“Nope, you’re not listening.”
“Sooo, giggle at the ghostly Guffaw at the grossly Crack up at the creepy Whoop it up with the weepy Chortle at the kooky Snortle at the spooky And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... HAHAHAHA...heh... LAAAUGH!”
At this point, the smallish blue unicorn that had been singing inhaled for what seemed like twice the air his lungs should be capable of holding before he started to giggle slightly as he walked along. This changed quickly, though, as he saw his companion’s deadpan impression…
…At which point he started to laugh out loud.
His companion, a strange, large cat/pegasus hybrid, just kept his neutral impression, until the unicorn had stopped laughing. And when the unicorn did, the creature smacked him slightly to the back of his head with its forepaw.
“Did you even consider what that song might cause?” Hexus asked with just the slightest hint of a snarl in his voice, still holding a deadpan look on his face.
“Aaaww, come on! You can’t say that isn’t an awesome song!” Starshine replied, still grinning widely despite just having been smacked to the head.
“I’m not saying it isn’t an awesome song. That would be blasphemy. What I’m saying is what if somepony had heard you singing it?” Hexus said, his anger replaced by anxiety. “I mean, how would you have explained it?”
“Well, I guess I could have said that I had heard it somewhere before, and that I felt like singing it. I don’t get why you get so upset about it, it’s just a song.”
“What I really mean with this is that we need to be very careful about what we say and do here. We can’t just go and tell everypony about the show back home. Nor should we say things we’re not supposed to know. They would think that we were crazy! Or worst of all, they might believe us, and that might cause even worse trouble,” Hexus concluded with a worried expression on his muzzle.
“Well what you think we should tell them, then? Like you said back there, we need a backstory. Well technically you said that I needed a backstory,” Starshine said with a thoughtful expression, “but that was before you were coming to whatever town is ahead of us. And you’re still coming, RIGHT?” Starshine gave Hex a sideways look, to which he simply sighed.
“Yes, I’m coming with you. God only knows how badly this will end up for me…”
“Oh lighten up, will you?” Starshine said with a little exasperated sigh, before continuing, “So, about our backstories. What should they be?”
“...Don’t look at me, I don’t even know what I am. I really can’t come up with any real story for myself before I know at least that. Which is just one more reason why I don’t think I should come with you to the town ahead of us...“
Starshine frowned a little, his own cheery mood slightly downtrodden by Hex’s constant pessimism. Honestly, how negative could one person be? All that Hex was missing was some black eyeliner, shredded black clothing and continuous whining about how all life was suffering.
…And with that mental image the frown that had started to settle upon Starshine’s face was driven off by the grin caused by the said mental image.
“Well, maybe you can just wing it if you need to. But what about me, then?”
“What if you came from Trottingham? Just traveling around?” Hexus proposed.
“Naaaw, I don’t have the accent. Manehattan would be much better. I could say I was tired of big city life, and wanted to start fresh somewhere else.”
“And exactly how many fics have had that exact backstory…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Riiight.. Well anyway that’s probably more than enough we need right now.” Starshine said smiling, before he suddenly became more serious than he had been all the time Hex had spent with him (about 3 hours, give or take). “But now, I think we need to focus on a more pressing matter. Something that might be the very thing that either saves or sinks our backstories,” Starshine continued with grim expression. “And that thing would be my…” he paused for a moment (for dramatic effect), “Magic.”
..And his serious expression was shattered as he immediately gave two snorts in a rapid succession.
Hex elected to respond in a similarly elegant and sophisticated manner. In short, he facepalmed, with a groan. (It’s the groan that made it elegant.)
“You just had to do it, didn’t you?”
“Eeeyup.” Starshine replied with an even wider grin.
*Sigh * “So what you really meant with that was that you need to learn to use your magic, right?”
“Yep. I mean, it’d be pretty damn weird if a unicorn of my age wouldn’t know how to use magic, right?”
“…You never said how old you are, by the way. Even though I asked.”
“Wait, I didn’t? I remember that I did.”
“Well, you didn’t. So, just how old are you?”
“18.”
“Are you..? Really?”
“Yeah. Why, did you think I was older?”
“Actually, I thought you might be closer to being 14…”
“Hey!”
“Well I’m sorry, but I did! I mean, with all that.. giddiness of yours, and the jokes, and the fact that your about half of my size…”
“..Well I guess I can understand that reasoning. I really just can’t help it, I’m just feeling so happy right now!” Starshine exclaimed, making a small leap in the air without landing on his face (practice makes you perfect).
“We have realized this.” Hex replied with a slight smirk that did nothing to shrink the huge grin on Starshine’s face.
“But! So. Magic. How do I use it?”
“Maybe… What’s the word?.. Visualizing? Yes, maybe it’s about visualizing what you want to happen and then concentrating on it? I don’t know, I’m just throwing suggestions here.”
“Might as well give it a try. Now is there anything that I could.. Aha! A pebble!” Starshine exclaimed loudly as he came to a sudden halt with an unusually determined look on his face, staring intently at the small rock next to his hooves.
A moment passed. Besides Starshine’s face going through a range of different expressions (most of which could be associated with constipation) nothing happened. But just as Hexus was about to make a sarcastic remark about the situation at paw/hoof, the small piece of rock started to glow blue. And in the next second the afore mentioned pebble started to raise slowly upwards.
Starshine opened his eyes, and a wide grin was soon plastered on his face, just as Hexus swallowed the sarcastic remark he had been preparing, opting to simply nod with approval.
“How exactly did you do that?” Hex then asked curiously, craning his neck this way and that to get a better look at the pebble which was now gently floating in front of the unicorn’s face.
“Well at first I was thinking of how to make this happen and I thought it might work if I just thought that it should start floating, but nothing happened, so I tried again, only this time I imagined how the pebble would raise of the ground, but that didn’t work either, so next I- “ inhale, “got frustrated, and started concentrating on both the pebble and my horn. And although that kind of felt right, like it’s something I should have done in the first place, nothing still happened, so next I concentrated on my horn, and the pebble, and I imagined how the pebble would rise up in the air. And that worked!” Starshine explained in a single exited rush, paused only by his restricted lung capacity, all the while the afore mentioned pebble was floating still right next to Starshine’s ever smiling face.
“So concentration and visualizing are the key for unicorn magic?” Hex muttered, still staring at the pebble. “What else could you do with it? What about enchanting something? Creating something out of thin air? How about illusions? What about the more rare magical abilities like teleporting? Or maybe…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there, you’re getting all scientific and analytical on my sorry plot AGAIN.” Starshine said with a slight worry in his voice, dropping the pebble as he spoke.
“Oh. Umm, sorry.” Hex replied with an embarrassed smile, his long ears once again flapping down against his skull.
“But anyway,” Starshine quickly continued in an effort to cut of the awkward silence that was already descending upon them, “ I’m not so sure that I can do any of those other things you mentioned. I mean, I’m no Twilight Sparkle, after all!” He chuckled lightly. “And anyway, why would I even want to do something drastically powerful like teleporting or something like that?”
“To get us to that settlement over there before the sundown,” Hexus countered with a deadpan impression while pointing with his left paw towards the distant outline of a town or village showing off clearly in the light of the setting sun. “The sun is nearly down, and we’re still way too far away to get there before dark. Not to mention we’re too close to the forest to feel comfortable.” There was a particularly loud roar coming from the afore mentioned forest, showing that at least some creatures there had an excellent sense of timing.
Though what the two travellers assumed to be a settlement had been just a few lines of smoke in the distance (visible only to the Hexus) when they had scrambled first out of the forest, it had since steadily grown in size until even Starshine was able to see the silhouettes of the seemingly multiple storey buildings. Buildings that were not of human design, or at least no human design either of them knew of or recognized. Firstly, the buildings were not shaped like most human buildings, that is to say, like a box. There was no glimmer of vast amounts of steel and glass, and there was far less smoke rising from the town when compared to how many buildings there seemed to be in it. Secondly, there was no noise associated with most human settlements, only the sound of an entire forest full of creatures doing their very best to scare the living daylights out of anyone or anypony unfortunate enough to be in it’s vicinity coming from their right.
“Well, okay, we’re still pretty far of, but I think that if we just leg it, we’ll get there just at the nightfall. Oh, and you should probably try to get those wings of your working as we move. C’mon, Hex! Let’s get galloping! Allonsy~!” And with that sentence, Starshine was running fast towards the settlement, with a goofy grin on his face and a laughter on his lips, leaving a very confused Hexus behind him.
“But- How did- Why would you- WHAT!?” Hexus stammered for a moment before running (and stumbling) after his travelling companion. “Starshine! You crazy-“ Hexus continued his sentence with a quite a lot of foreign sentences as he started running after the erstwhile unicorn, in a tone that could have hinted that the words he was spouting might not have been the kind to be recited in polite company.
The only answer he got was a bright and clear laughter over the sound of their hooves, as the two of them kept running.
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Sorry for both the Chapter lenght and how late it is. Got to take care of some urgent stuff. Plus I got a slight writer's blog. But anyway, New chapter! and I got the next chapter pretty much figured out! Enjoy!
Oh, and there will be better story image incoming courtesy of yours truly. That is, me. Keep well, my minions!
I am very sorry for everyone who has been reading and waiting for this mockery of a story to update, but after all the things that happened, and all the time spent away from this story, and especially because all the trouble I had when thinking how to continue this story. Sadly it is my duty to inform all the watchers of the sad fate befalling this story.
That's right. "Stuck Together" will undergo major revisions.
What, you thought I would cancel it?
There are several, logical reasons for the revisions to occur. Firstly, considering that my method of creating a storyline consisted mostly of me brainfarting all over my laptop, and generally just making a great disgusting mess, the story was in dire nee of refining.
Secondly, after all the things that have happened in the fandom and the series after I started writing, It is another obvious reason for revisions, particularily since the story is just couple of short chapters long.
And thirdly, and this is important, MY CHARACTERS WERE SHIT. Plain and simple. Half the time the story was way too close to self-insert, and when it wasn't, it was just too 2-dimensional. And Most importantly, Sam AKA Hexus, was almost complete as a new brand of Pony Stue. I'm serious. I am certain that even you could see that happening. As the revisions go, I wish that my characters will be far more refined and 3-dimensional. Hopefully this will raise the level of my story.
So, for all those who thought TL;DR, Stuck Together will undergo revisions.
On a related note, once I havethe first of the revisions plotted out, and at the very least roughly written out, I might require the help of anyone willing to proofread my brand of literal insanity. So I would already wish to inform to you, my readers, that in the near future, could at least on among you kindly help this poor, disgusting wretch of a writer by cruelly and villainously telling me what did I do wrong?
Once, more, I am sorry, and don't worry, the revisions won't take as long as the my last hiatus!
