Samuel woke up sometime in the early hours of the morning, the cool wind from the broken window brushing against his fur-covered skin.

The sun hadn't risen yet, and the moon was visible through the open window.

The craters on its surface were visible and dark, creating the illusion of a horse's head being painted over the white rock in the sky.

"This really is an alien world..." He whispered to himself as if the sight of small colorful horses flying through the air against all laws of physics didn't prove it before, trying to convince himself to do the impossible and let go of the past, to go out there and start running, jumping, exploring this new and alien world he found himself in! Like an action hero from one of the movies he loved to watch.

As If.

What was the point of this? Why was he here? Why not just let his spirit drift to Sheol? Why here? And why as a fictional animal from a cartoon he barely even watched?

"Does it matter?" No, It doesn't.

But does anything matter? "I don't know."

Sam kept staring at the moon through the broken window, uncaring for how much time passed. He wasn't going back to sleep.

"...I'm going out for a run." And with those whispered words leaving his mouth, Samuel got off the couch and made his way out of the house, frowning at the lack of lock on the door as he opened it, ignored the skittering mouse peeking its tiny head out of a hole in the wall, and exited the cottage.

Hopefully, a run will clear his head.

Sam started to jog down the road, noting down in his mind everything he passed by in order to not get lost.

He steered clear of the colorful town at the foot of the hill, content to run around it, perhaps a lap around the slumbering village was all he needed.

Running like this, simply jogging to clear the mind, feeling the morning dew on the grass, the cool wind brushing against his face, No stunts or Parkour, just a light jog before the sun rises, It's one of the few things Sam can say on the top of his head that he actually enjoys, especially in the fall and early winter, when there aren't any tourists around. Sometimes, when he just wanted to get out of the house for a long time, he'd jog through the entirety of the local nature preserve, just him and the sounds of nature, without having to think about his home life.

One time, Sam joined his Uncle in jogging all the way to Pontiac and then back to West Bloomfield. As much as he disliked his home, he was at least thankful for being raised in the suburbs instead of the Urban city.

Sam didn't know how much time passed since he left the cottage, But he was already halfway around the town, stopping to rest his legs next to a large lake when the first rays of the sun finally started to rise over the horizon.

He sat on a stone at the edge of that lake, watching in silence as the sun's rays reflected on the clear water of the lake, something that Sam would have admitted to be a beautiful sight if he had been raised in any state other than Michigan.

Now, he's not saying that the sight wasn't pretty, but growing up in a place called The Great Lake State meant he saw a lot of sunrises over lakes, what was probably a breathtaking sight of natural wonder to one person becomes a regular day-to-day sight to another, there's nothing Sam could do about it.

"Good Morning~" Sam heard a voice call out as the sun's rays passed over him, followed by more voices singing out with a "Good Morning~ The Sun arrived, the Night is gone~" and so on and so forth.

Sam decided he rested enough and picked himself up from the rock he sat on and returned to his jog, giving the lake behind him one last look before he turned his back and kept running.

"Good Morning~ Good Morning~ To you~" Sam turned his head to see where the singing was coming from, watching a group of colorful songbirds stretch their wings and ruffle their feathers as they jumped off of the branches and holes they slept in.

He started moving his legs quicker, hoping to get far enough away he wouldn't hear the birds start singing Dancing in the Rain.

With more vigor in his steps, Sam's jog took him by an orchard blocked off by a wooden fence. Seeing as he hadn't had anything to eat since he found himself in this new world, he ducked under the fence and made his way towards the orchard.

"Good Morning land dweller, I never seen you round 'ere," Sam kept walking as a red Tanager started following him, speaking with a cockney accent reminiscent of that of a young man from downtown London, late teens or early twenties if the voice was anything to go by.

"That's because I'm not from around here," Sam mumbled as he reached a tree with fresh-looking apples, "Hey, buddy, you mind dropping a few of these apples here for me?" He pointed at a branch, not bothering to try and climb up the tree.
If his earlier attempt to jump was anything to go by, Sam would need a rope to get to that branch, something which caused him to scowl at the knowledge that if he had his Human body he could have easily grabbed a hold of the branch with just a small hop.

"My name isn't Buddy, It's Red!" The Tanager chirped as he flew up to the branch in question and started pecking at the stems connecting the apples to the branch, letting them into Samuel's waiting paws.

"Yep, These look good," Sam nodded to himself as he turned away from the tree, three apples held in his arms as he made his way out of the orchard.

"Where are you going now?" Red asked, the small bird following Sam as he ducked under the wooden fence and returned to making his way around the outskirts of the town.

"To Butterfly's place," Sam told him as he tossed one of the apples into the air, catching it in his paw as it returned down.

"Butterfly... Oh! You mean Fluttershy! She's like the kindest pony around! She doesn't yell and wave her legs angrily when I try to eat," Red chirped happily as he followed Sam, flying short distances ahead before waiting for Sam to catch up, only to fly ahead again once Sam passed him.

"Sure." Sam tried to ignore the talkative bird as he started walking up the hill leading to the cottage, planning on giving his apples a wash in the small stream outside the house.

"Oh! I almost forgot, what are you? You look like an 'Edgehog, But you also look like a Badger, but at the same time you don't look like either of them, while also looking like both!" Red chirped.

"I'm a Chespin-" Sam froze, he didn't mean to say that, he didn't even know what a Chespin was! Was Chespin the name of the fictional animal he turned into? He knew it was a Pokemon or something, but he doesn't remember anything from that show, he hasn't touched that shit since Daniel- It doesn't matter!
"I'm a Human, But I'm also a Chespin..." Sam took deep breaths as he calmed himself down, "It's complicated..."

"A Chespin and a Hyoomen? Never 'eard of either" Red tilted his head as he flapped his wings, landing on the Cottage's door knob, watching the weird new person in the valley wash his apples in the freshwater stream.

"Uh huh," Sam tried hinting to the bird that he wasn't in the mood to keep the conversation going as he picked his freshly cleaned apples and walked to the door, grabbing the doorknob, causing Red to jump up in order to not interfere, and pushed the door open.

Sam didn't bother closing the door as he walked inside, preferring to leave the door open and let clean air enter the place, despite the fact that there was a broken window doing the same thing.

He made his way onto the couch, letting the three apples tumble onto the cushion beside him before he grabbed one and took a bite.

"Ooh~ That looks juicy~" Sam groaned as he noticed the bird was still following him, and worse than that, he was standing on the coffee table in front of him.

Sam stared at the bird, watching as Red stared at the apple before he raised the hand holding the apple above his head, watching with some amusement as the Tanager's head followed the fruit as he moved it about.
"Do you want this?" He decided to ask the bird.

"You'll give it to me? Wow Land Dweller, that's really generous of you~ I'll make sure to tell the other Tanagers to show you the proper respect!" Red exclaimed in chirp, his tiny feet bouncing side to side on the coffee table as Sam passed the apple over, the Tanager starting to peck at the meat of the fruit from where Sam took his bite.

Sam watched the bird pecking out small pieces of the apple to eat before he shook his head and moved his hand to grab the second apple, only to instead feel his paw land on something warm and fluffy.

Sam turned away from the bird to see what he grabbed, only to stare in silence at the smug face of a white bunny, holding an apple underneath his foot.

"Hey there, Window Breaker, good to see you up and about~" Angel Bunny said as he stared at Samuel.

Samuel met his stare with a raised eyebrow, "Yeah, I'm awake, got a problem with that?"

"No, None at all," The bunny said, the voice of a scrappy youngster leaving his mouth as he smugly smiled at Sam.

"...Look kid, give me the apple-"

"Nope~" Angel popped the P as he crossed his front legs over his chest as if they were tiny arms.

Sam let out a tired sigh before he shook his head "...I really don't feel like arguing so listen up," He pointed at the apple Angel was standing over, "I brought three apples, One of them is currently being eaten by this guy," He pointed over his shoulder at the red bird, "And the other is currently under your foot, so just pass me the third apple and you can keep the one you're standing on, deal?" Sam extended his hand towards Angel as if waiting for a handshake.

Angel kept the smile on his face as he squinted his eyes, trying to ascertain why the new visitor in the cottage was acting way nicer than he did the previous day.

"...Deal." Angel reached out and shook Sam's paw, only to pause as the human-turned-Pokemon grabbed hold of his front leg and lifted the young rabbit over his head, using his other paw to grab both apples before he placed him back on the couch.

"Dude! You just stole my apple!" Angel squeaked out as he pointed an accusatory paw at Samuel, the Chespin now holding both apples.

"No I didn't~" Sam smirked as he bit into the second apple, smiling as the fresh juices of the fruit flowed down his throat. It was a bit too sweet, Sam preferred sour apples, but the apple was good nonetheless.

"Yes you did! We shook paws and everything!" Angel stomped his leg onto the Couch, indignantly complaining at the theft of the apple he himself stole from the person who originally stole the apples.

"Here." Angel stopped complaining as Sam grabbed the third apple with both hands, dug his nails into the fruit before he pulled them apart, splitting the apple in half and passing one of the halves to the bunny, "You get half, I get the other half, and this full apple~"

"Why do I get half and he gets a full apple?" Angel pointed at Red before taking a bite from his apple half.

"Because buddy over here helped me pick them, You didn't," Sam said as he finished his half apple and returned to the full apple.

"...Fine. But if you're bringing apples again, you better bring me a full one, ya hear me?!" Angel commanded Sam, the bunny trying his best to look intimidating to the Human.

"Whatever you say~" Samuel waved him off, letting the room fall into a comfortable silence, with only the sounds of singing birds outside the window and of apples being chewed and pecked ringing out in the living room of the cottage.

When Fluttershy walked down the stairs in the morning, she was surprised to find her pet, Angel, talking with the new critter. She was even more surprised to see the critter leaning back on the couch, much more open and laid back than he was the day before as he answered the questions Angel was throwing at him.

Fluttershy didn't want to intrude and make the critter hostile again, so she quietly entered the kitchen to begin working on her breakfast, only to pause as she passed by the open trash bin.

"I don't remember eating these apples..." She whispered, turning to look behind her at the animals on the couch, watching them talk about something she was too far away to properly hear "Maybe I just forgot?" She shrugged and returned to preparing her breakfast.

Not noticing the small red bird flying out of the open front door.

Author's Note

Who would have guessed that having an internal discussion with yourself in regards to the concept of the afterlife followed by a jog outside where you watch the sunrise and steal a few apples would be all it would take to make Sam less of a grumpy asshole to all the creatures around him.

Also, for those who haven't read the original A Walking Chestnut, Red the Scarlet Tanager was a character in that too, If you can even call what he was a character. Going back to rereading that story, I can't help but cringe at how I wrote a lot of it.
This version of Red is obviously going to be different, just like basically everything that I'm bringing in from the OG.

I really want to focus a lot more on the Animals, something I think I really neglected in my original version, I think I made Sam's relationship with the Ponies grow too quickly, I barely gave the Critters any depth before I turned the story into a generic HiE, something I do not wish to do.

Which is why this story has started before the show did! If the Mare on the Moon is anything to go by ;)

In the OG I started off in the Summer Sun Celebration, Here, there's some time before it all begins, time for Sam to explore the area around Fluttershy's cottage and build his repertoire of acquaintances.

Thanks for reading :)