Adventures of a Man turned Beastly

Again, I don't own My Little Pony.

<><><><><><><>

Cage in a hidden underground laboratory

A behemoth of a creature, muscled to an almost insane degree, opens its green, orange-speckled eyes and takes in what view it can before slowly attempting to sit up from its position on its stomach. It succeeds in getting onto all fours and takes a good long look at what it can see of itself, somehow not having a mental breakdown.

A hunched-over, monstrous build, designed for walking on all fours or bipedally, with an overabundance of muscle in the upper body. Most of this weight is supported on the forelegs/arms, and the small amount of weight relegated to the stocky rear legs can also be supported by the thick tail protruding from its rear. Most of the body is covered in large plates reminiscent of samurai armor from feudal Japan, mainly across the back and arms, with the forearm plates being especially thick, almost to the point of being used as destructive weapons. What is not covered in the plates is instead covered in a thick, scaly hide, mottled greyish-green with hints of blue here and there between the plates. The “hands” are little more than thick, curved claws, most likely used for gripping, climbing, and tearing, and as such are rather stiff. The rear feet are five-toed, flexible, and reptilian in nature, similar to long-extinct carnivorous dinosaurs, yet unique in the fact that the majority of the toes point backwards, and the forward pair of toes are thicker, suitable for climbing.

The creature slowly fumbles to some standing water in the corner of the cage that is glinting in the dim, flickering lights of the filth-encrusted lab, to see if it can get a good look at its visage. Rearing back in surprise, and more than a little shock, it leans in again for a closer look at the insectoid mandibles upon the tapered, plated face that, upon testing, are rather flexible and dextrous. The teeth in the mouth behind the mandibles are thin, almost needle-like, alternated with molars clearly designed for grinding apart vegetation. All in all, desgined to eat almost anything organic, despite the odd orientation.

Leaning its sizable bulk further forward to get a good look behind the small ears that have been swiveling madly, searching for anomalous sounds, the beast sees the pattern of the plates upon its back, along with the large, narrow triangular spines that, upon further inspection, can be made to lay flat alongside the natural armor upon its back with a twitch of unfamiliar muscle.

Satisfied with its inspection of itself and the cage embedded in the wall, almost lost among the various scientific paraphernalia in the room, the creature walks up to the bars and sits down as best it can, appearing to ponder something...

<><><><><><><>

/Still can't believe I'm practically a mutant goddamn armadillo... Screw this cage, I'm not a damned animal... at least, not in mind./

Getting up to all fours and pacing around, I wonder how to get out of here. The rhythmic thuds of my  front claws on the floor bring me to a conclusion, one so obvious I nearly slap myself in the face from the sheer simplicity.

I swing my arm like I'm going to clothesline someone, but instead hit the bars with a loud, metallic clang, barely felt in my heavily armored forearm, but leaving a sizable dent in the bars. I swing again, backhand this time, connecting with another loud clang, breaking a couple bars loose from the top of the cage.

/One last swing should do it!/ And indeed it does, breaking enough bars loose from the roof that I can use my weight to bend them down to the floor. /Now what? Where do I go? What do I do with this new freedom?/

Breathe in a lot of dust and sneeze several times, of course. After I cleared my snout and sniffed a couple times, I took a quick look around and wonder, /Why is this place empty? Where's the mad scientist that put me in this body? Oh hey, look, there's the door!/ Awkwardly rushing over to it, as I'm not quite used to my new body, I smash it down and proceed through. Now I'm on a thin metallic walkway that protests under my weight, bolted to a cavern wall, suspended over a lake.. /Note to self: get off this walkway and don't lean on the railings. How much do I freaking weigh? I must be close to 500 pounds or something and eight feet tall, walkways like this are supposed to be able to support several dozen humans at any given time... Then again, I'm not human. But I'm getting off track. Order of business? One, gee-tee-eff-oh. Two, get food. Three, find something to do. Four, ????. Five: Profit./

Easing my way along the rickety walkway to the left, I go around the corner and find a ladder, leading up to what looks like a trapdoor.. /Crap, this is gonna be tricky./

<><><><><><

A few minutes later...

Finally, I've reached the top. Removing one claw from the rock wall that I've smashed it into to make my impromptu climb, I set my rear feet on one rung of the ladder, roar for no reason, punch the trapdoor loose, and haul myself through... Into a field suddenly being soaked by rain.

/What. The. Hell./ I turn to climb back down into the dry cave only to find the opening I came through has vanished. /See, this is why I don't trust scientists anymore. I got made into an abomination that looks like a mutant armadillo by one, and screwed over by another that makes interdimensional trapdoors. Then again, it might have been the same one... or Discord. He sounds like the type that would do this./

Looking around through the mist caused by all the rain, I see a forest in the distance, with a mountain just beyond it with something big and shiny on it. /That's one big shiny thing, for me to be able to see it from here, through all of this weather./ I start on my great journey to the nearby forest to see what's on the other side, and maybe to find some food.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDthudthudthudthudthudthudthud....

From the recently vacated rain-soaked field, haunting, evil laughter echoes, as if from a cave....