1- Choice of Entrance and Residence
Author's Note
This'll be my first story on this website.
Seeing as how english ain't my first language, it'd be a miracle if the text didn't came out with typos and weird phrasing of words, so all criticism will be appreciated in advance.
1- Choice of Entrance and Residence
Everfree Forest
In the land of Equestria, this location is famous for not following any of the laws of nature, at least as known by the main inhabitants of this kingdom. The fauna and flora of this forest are self-sufficient; meaning they're able to thrive without the intervention of any external components.
The equine residents of this kingdom, being accostumed to a life where the physical manipulation of natural elements is as common as breathing and walking on two legs is to a human, find the autonomous characteristics of the place to be unnatural, with some even believing that this forest either has a mind of its own, or is home to a sentient and ancient force which holds complete control of the place, manipulating it at its will.
These feelings of dread and cautiousness caused by the nature of this location were all just fine by the creature, since the possibilities of any individual strolling around this forest were not high...
Thus making Everfree a good location for it to crawl out of.
...
In the very center of the forest, a hole appeared. It didn't have any imperfections that'd lead to believe it was made by any animals like a mole, nor did it look like it was made by any heavy construction equipment like an excavator. If one were to have stumbled upon the hole, they'd rightfully believe it was a simple circle painted on to the ground, since it didn't seem to have any dirt or stone walls that could indicate this could be a well.
However, as demonstrated by the many unfortunate critters that were casually walking around the forest and accidentally fell into it, this was indeed a hole. No echoing sound from an animal landing came after hours of their original fall, to indicate a bottom to the hole.
For all intents and purposes, this hole was a one way door leading to an endless void.
And from this void, it raised.
First an arm, then pulling up to reveal a head, the other arm, the torso, and pulled up some more to free the legs out. Once it stood up on its hind legs, the seemingly bottomless hole started to shrink and disappeared onto its feet, leaving no trace of ever being there in the first place.
Little sunlight was able to penetrate the forest thanks to its density, letting the creature hide its appearance very easily, and only needing to worry about being properly seen by anything when they were a few meters apart from it.
Well, here I am.
The creature took its time to fully stretch itself, then after a satisfied sigh started scratching the left temple of its head and looking side to side, taking a better look at its surroundings.
Now, a volunteer...
As if the forest knew exactly what it was asking for, a growl coming from the creature's back lead it to look behind, meeting with the sight of a manticore just right on its back. The creature smiled at the mythical hybrid next to it, and turned around to give him a better look.
"Ah, just the type of fella I wanted. Mind coming closer? I want to check just how long I'll have to stay in this place."
The manticore answered the creature's request by pouncing right at it with the intent to feed on a seemingly easy prey, only for his attack to come to a full stop when the creature grabbed at his neck with its left hand, and using its horrifying grip to hold him in the air. After watching the manticore flailing his whole body around, and trying to sting at the creature with the end of his scorpion-like tail while desperately gasping for air, it nodded in satisfacton, with a neutral look and small smile still on its face.
"Yeah, it'll be a brief stay."
Having its inquiries answered, the creature decided to finally end the manticore's life with a single snap. After tossing the body to the bushes next to it, the creature then covered it’s mouth with its left hand before softly letting out a few coughs, then started walking around the forest while thinking on its next course of action.
Alright, Everfree's good enough for a temporary base. First, some quick greetings to the residents and The Six Asses, then I'll go back here and unpack my stuff.
After deciding on its next step, the creature then took a deep breath, and in a manner of seconds changed its bipedal form into an equine one, deciding on a more standard appearance for this world. With a quick glance at its new look, the creature then nodded to itself in satisfaction and started walking out of the forest, whistling a calm tune.
...
Everfree Forest's Edge
Once the creature left the deepest parts of the forest and started walking around the less dense areas, where the natural sunlight was able to shine through, its new stallion disguise became more visible. The creature chose to take the form of an earth pony, a beige-colored body fur, brown messy mane and tail, as well as a lighter brown for its eyes, and one of those birth marks on each side of its gluteal region, prominent on most of the three types of ponies, depicting a wooden butterfly net.
As it continued walking out of the forest while still whistling and stopping a few times to let some small coughs out, the creature heard what seemed to be loud humming a few meters in front of it. Taking slower steps to check the source of the hum without being spotted itself, the creature watched as a grey-furred female pony (a pegasus it guessed, considering the pair of wings coming out of her withers and folded on to her back) with yellow mane and tail fixed a mail bag onto her left shoulder and started reciting loudly to herself.
"Alright, Zecora's package delivered without issues! Now all that's left is, uuh..." As she started scratching the top of her head with one of her front hooves in order to try and remember her next task, the creature used this chance to further study the appearance of the mare in front of it to see if she was exactly who it thought she was.
Once it saw the yellow eyes of the mare pointing at different directions from each other, it knew exactly who the individual in question was.
Well, sure wasn't expecting this one to be the first I'd encounter. The creature thought to itself, smirking in the process. Might as well start with this one, and I'll have the rest of the mammals here accostumed to my presence in record time...
"Excuse me, ma'am?" Along with its appearance, the creature decided to modify its voice into a more softer-sounding one, choosing a tone that would fit better with its new form.
Getting dragged out of her current thoughts, the mare turned to the voice and greeted the disguised creature with a big smile and a wave from her right front hoof "OH, hello!"
"I think i got a bit lost. Do you happen to know where Ponyville's at?"
"Sure, let me show you! I just remembered I need to get back to the post office." The mare pointed with her hoof to a dirt path a few meters in front of them, then lifted both her wings and started flying close to the ground, going at a pony-walking speed to match its new traveling partner's pace next to her. "By the way, I'm Derpy! Nice to meet you."
"Likewise." The creature looked at the grey mare hovering next to it, returning her smile with one of its own, perfectly fabricated to seem just as geniune as a real one. "The name's Fetching Net."