Chapter 1: Strange New World
Chapter %i%: Strange New World
When I woke up the first thing I noticed was the noises. From every direction I heard a multitude of sounds, ranging from leaves rustling to birds chirping. Next, I immediately felt that whatever I was lying on was cold and somewhat damp. Opening my eyes resulted in my retinas being assaulted by bright sunlight, filtered slightly through some leaves.
Struggling to process this, I just stayed there in silence for several long moments. “What?” I asked, to no one in particular. I started to stand up, only to fall flat in the dirt. Looking down, instead of seeing the hands that I was expecting, I instead saw black furred legs, which ended in paws.
I immediately started hyperventilating, not knowing what was going on. After what felt like hours I managed to calm down to the point I could think straight.
“This must just be… a dream, albeit just a very realistic one,” I reasoned, while knowing it was false I hoped that if I could convince myself it was, “I'll wake up back in my bed and everything will go back to normal.”
After stating that I heard water flowing, and felt something on the top of my head shift. “What was that?” momentarily confused, I then had another thought, “Wait, I should probably find out what exactly I am, even if this is just a dream.”
Yet again shakily standing up, this time on four legs, instead of the two I was used to, I immediately noticed another issue. “I don't know how to walk, great.” I started awkwardly moving towards the water, stumbling every few steps. Upon reaching it and looking down I nearly had another panic attack. Looking back at me was an orange face with a snout, pointed ears with black tips at the top of its head, and a snout, topped off with a white bottom half. Taking a few more deep breaths I looked at the rest of my body, coated in orange fur, with a white underside and black legs, and a fluffy orange tail with a white tip. Thoughts racing mile-a-minute I could hardly form a coherent word, stuttering what can only be described as gibberish, as I realized I was a red fox.
After I gathered my thoughts I noticed that I was thirsty. “Okay how am I supposed to drink,” I asked myself, knowing that canines didn’t simply just lick the water, there had to be something they did to transport it into their mouths. Looking at the water, and consequently my reflection, I was drawing a blank, distracted by the sinking feeling that this probably wasn't a dream. I decided to stop trying to overthink it and just try, and thankfully, however I ended up here, I had at the bare minimum the ability to drink in this strange new body.
After sufficiently quenching my thirst I started thinking about what I should do. “Well I can talk, so if I can find humans maybe I can explain what happened, but then again, there is the possibility that humans can't understand me, which would be an issue.” I suddenly heard something snap, and decided that it was probably not the best idea to stay in the same place in a forest that may be filled with predators, and realized I should start moving to look for something, hopefully some kind of food source, or maybe even civilization.
After what was probably several hours it finally felt like I was able to walk somewhat reliably, however I still struggled with getting over larger obstacles like large branches and whatnot. Nonetheless I pushed on, stopping when I heard a strange sound in the distance. Feeling something shift on my head once again I realized it was probably my ears turning to the sound.
“Huh. That'll take some getting used to.” Hearing the sound I got closer, and as I approached I realized that I was hearing humming, and it was not just some animal sound, as I noticed a melody. Once I got closer to the sound I noticed who was making it. It was a small, butter yellow horse, with bright pink hair, although horse would probably be the wrong word, given my size they were probably closer to a pony. They appeared to be holding some kind of basket in their mouth, and they were humming. The oddest thing however was that this pony had what appeared to be a pair of wings at their side.
“Oh my gosh that's adorable.” I said under my breath. This pony, however, seemed to hear me, their ears flying up.
“Is somepony there?” They asked in a soft voice. They turned their head towards me. “Oh, it was just a fox, sorry little one, I don't have anything for you right now, I'm gathering these berries for my friend Harry.”
Taking a moment to process what they just said I blinked twice, and seeing that I wasn't trying to do anything the pony started to turn away.
“Wait, please don't go!” I hurriedly said.
The Pegasus eeped. “Y-you can talk?” they asked timidly.
“I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, but yes I can talk. I’m not supposed to be a fox, do you know any nearby cities or anything, so maybe I could find out what's going on?”
“W-well I know somepony who could help you, she is smart when it comes to magic.”
Magic? I thought to myself, under any other circumstance I wouldn't believe it was real, but given I am a fox talking to a pegasus that might explain a lot. “Yeah, that sounds great, could you take me to her?”
“I-I suppose I could, I just need to put this back home.” She then turned, and I guessed that I should probably follow her.
After some time we entered a clearing with a large tree that had windows and a door carved into it, yet it appeared to still be perfectly healthy. “You should probably wait out here, bringing a predator into my house might cause a commotion,” the pegasus explained. “A-also I couldn't help but notice your… odd gait, are you okay?”
“Yeah, as I told you I am not supposed to be a fox, I used to be bipedal, I had to learn how to walk earlier today.”
The pegasus stopped for a second, only to then enter their house. Hearing talking inside the house my ears perked up. “Hello Angel, I will need you to watch the other animals for a bit longer, I need to visit Twilight, don't worry I'll be back soon.” Following that came a moment of silence, followed by the pony talking again. “Sorry, this is important, your salad will have to wait.” After they said that I heard what I can only describe as grumpy squeaking. The pegasus walked out of their house, no longer carrying the basket. “O-okay let's take you to Twilight now.”
Following a long bout of silence a question popped into my mind. “I just realized, I never got your name, what is it?” I asked.
“Oh, i-it’s Fluttershy,” they answered, “I-if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?”
“Oh, no problem it's…” I trailed off, drawing a blank. “Wait, something's wrong, I can't remember my name.” After that sank in for a moment I started panicking. “WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER MY NAME?!” I shouted in panic.
Fluttershy said something, but due to me freaking out I didn’t process what she said. Wracking my brain for my name I just couldn't seem to remember it, only causing me to panic more. Then, suddenly, I felt something gently touch my head. I realized that I had been hyperventilating and my new ears appeared to be pinned down to my head. Allowing myself to calm down, I looked up, as Fluttershy started talking in a soothing voice.
“It's going to be okay, just calm down and it'll be fine.”
I took a deep breath. “Thank you for helping me calm down, I just can't remember my name at all. Do you think this Twilight person could help with that?”
“I d-don't know, maybe?” Fluttershy said, cautiously, “I don't think I've heard of something like this happening before, but if anypony in town can help you it would be her. A-also I'm sorry for asking you that, I didn't mean to upset you.”
“You had no way to know,” I stated, “It's okay, let's just get to your friend.”
What was probably about 20 minutes or so dragged on for hours as an uncomfortable silence filled the air. Trying to reason why I couldn't remember my name I couldn't think of anything. What was odd was that it appeared I could remember everything else perfectly fine, I only couldn't remember my name.
At least, I thought the only thing I couldn't remember was my name. I didn't know if I was just forgetting a lot more that I had no way to know I forgot. No, I thought to myself, panicking over this will get me nowhere, I'll find a solution to this somehow.
As we rounded a corner I noticed the town Fluttershy was taking me to, it mainly consisted of houses with thatched roofs, looking rather quaint. As we came closer it dawned on me how large the town actually was, something I didn't really notice when I was farther away.
“O-okay, now that we're entering Ponyville you should probably t-try not to draw much attention to yourself, it could cause a commotion.” Fluttershy told me.
Confused, I tilted my head at her. “What should I do then? Wouldn't being in town be strange enough?”
“Oh, no it's fine as long as you're with me, I have a lot of animal friends, just you talking might cause panic related to some… recent events.”
Confused even more by the lack of elaboration I decided it would probably be best to leave it at that and just play along. Walking into town there were a ton of ponies of all colors, mostly without wings, but I noticed a few pegasi. Fluttershy’s words also ring true as we didn't elicit more than a few glances, but everyone seemed to just move on with their days. “Okay, we're getting close,” Fluttershy whispered to me. We approached a large tree, somewhat reminiscent of her house, but larger. I noticed a plaque next to the door that read “Golden Oaks Library.”
Fluttershy knocked on the door, and I heard a voice from inside the library. “Come in, the library is open!”
Fluttershy opened the door and walked inside as I followed her. As I entered I noticed the bookshelves, around the entire room, and a wooden table with a sculpture of a horse head on top of it.
“Oh, Fluttershy,” the same voice from earlier said, appearing to be happier than previously. “If I may ask, why are you here?”
“I met someone who needs your help,” she explained, gesturing to me.
The pony who was talking, whom I now guessed must be the Twilight that Fluttershy told me about, walked around the table. She was lavender with dark blue hair, containing a purple and pink stripe. I also noticed that she had a spiral horn peeking out from her mane. “Oh?” she inquired, “What exactly is the problem?”
“I'm not supposed to be a fox,” I stated, looking at Twilight.
The purple unicorn seemed to be taken aback, clearly not expecting me to talk. “Alright, is this something to do with Discord? Did the elements not reverse everything he did?” she asked, her voice betraying a slight panic with the second question.
“I don't know what any of that means, I'm not exactly from this world.”
Twilight immediately brightened upon hearing that, her eyes taking a manic glint. “Really? Tell me everything.”
Author's Note
this has been sitting in my google drive for a while now waiting to be posted
next chapter whenever i get around to writing it
also if you could tell me what you think that would be great!