Adapting

I stare at Twilight, shaking my head slightly as she scribbled on the parchment, eyes locked on every word she wrote, every letter her quill spelled out before her. I wonder to myself why she hasn't left, as it has been several hours since she arrived in the morning, but I don't bother to voice my concerns. It wouldn't make a difference either way.

I continue to wonder this until the alicorn looks up at me with a frown. "I don't understand."

I hum, my eyes locking on the door behind her. She takes this as a sign to continue.

"Why did you start there in the story if you aren't going to explain anything else? Who you are, what you do, who these pon--" she grunts, catching my raised eyebrow. I hadn't bothered adjusting to Equestrian speak, and when you live among varied races, you don't hear it often. "... people, I mean. How did you even get here?" Obviously she means Equestria, but for a moment I sit there confused. But it passes, and I shrug.

"Seems that's the big question, ain't it? Long story short, something pulled me through, I wandered in a wasteland til I found my home." I grant her the gist of the story I would tell later for some reason.

"Nopony commented on your strange appearance?" I let her slip in speech slide, not expecting her to change it on my account.

"Well, I had a few comments on my 'lack of emotion' and my 'vast skill set' but other than that, when you live in a town of mixed races, something weird showing up isn't so big. But I'm getting ahead of myself, that comes later." I try to smile, if only to refute one of the points made against me. "I woke up some time after my quick time surgery..."

I woke up some time after my quick time surgery, my arm wrapped in my torn shirt at the wrist up, soaked in blood, mine and... another's. I shake the thoughts from my head, eager to examine my current situation... which was boring as hell. I mean, honestly now? Then again, boring is better than dead...

The bathroom was silent. Absolutely, mind numbingly silent, save the dripping of the faucet. Who turned it on? I'm not sure, because I didn't. Maybe it was fate, trying to annoy the shit out of me, because I needed it or something. I scanned the bathroom, putting the 'drip drip drip' at the back of my mind as I listened for any other noises. There were none at all. When I had been near unconsciousness, I thought I had heard banging on the bathroom door. Whether it had been simply a concoction of my pained mind or the love of my life, I couldn't say.

But I knew I had survived. Hopefully, it was because I caught the bite in time and not because the bites mean nothing, or I'll be pissed.

I grunted, minding my sensitive stump as I shuffled across the slippery floor to sidle against the simple wooden door, pressing my ear against the rectangular barrier and listening carefully for any noise at all. Again, there was none at all. I sighed, knocking my fist on the door and muttering incoherently at the door. There was no reaction, so I laughed bitterly.

"Best make the most of a shitty situation. I could use a hand right about now though, can't do this on my own." I believed it, but despite that I still laughed at my accidental pun, my eyes drifting towards the blackened appendage curled up on the tiled floor, black gunk in a small puddle around it.

I adjusted my ghetto sling when I stood up again, a small shoebox in my hand, which I dropped onto the bed less than gently. The box fell next to the bloody cleaver I had recovered, as well as the knife and a crowbar worthy of Gordon Freeman I had recovered from under my bed.

I pulled the lid off the box and tossed it aside, staring into the box blankly as its contents registered in my mind. It was a simply black object I had used twice in my life. Once was at the firing range, the other was when I had heard someone making noise in the kitchen. The cat was fine, but my pride was not so lucky...

I never fixed the microwave. That was something Stacy always bothered me about. But I digress! The handgun wasn't much to describe, it was a glock I had obtained some time beforehand, with a spare clip and a box of ammo.

I never imagined I would have to use it in quite the way I was going to, but I couldn't effectively use my hunting rifle or shotgun, my compound bow was out of the question. My several thousand dollar crossbow was effectively useless until I could learn to use it better, but it was dead weight at the time. The crowbar was too heavy to use one handed, and apart from the cleaver and knife the pistol was the only weapon that wasn't made useless by my brilliant fucking idea.

I sighed, pulling the holster out of the box and properly fitting it on my chest, thankful that I had put on a new shirt. With the ordeal accomplished without much trouble, I decided to focus on my injury. I made my way into the bathroom and dug around in the cabinets for the gauze I remember being somewhere among our vast medical supplies.

Well, aspirin. I found disinfectant, gauze and duct tape, wrist pumping (hahaha oh god I'm so fucking funny) in victory as I walked over to my bed. I won't go through the details, but let's just say there was lots of swearing, lots of pain and a lot of lack of hand to piss me off.

After I woke up, having blacked out a third time, I stared at the wall for a long time. I can't remember how long I did, but eventually I was interrupted by the ringing of my cellphone in my pocket. I shook away the fog surrounding my mind and pulled the device out of my pocket.

Imagine my surprise to find the caller id read 'Dad.' With the quickness of a coke addict I flipped the phone open, held it to my ear, and heard activity on the other end. "Hello?" I asked worriedly, hoping the activity was anything but what it sounded like.

"Adam... Get off... Go... Adrian... Bastards... Help..." I heard little between the sounds of groaning, screaming and crying before I heard the phone hit the ground.

I couldn't believe my ears. The kids! "Someone pick up the damn phone!" I shouted into the little black device, surprised when I heard just that.

"Daddy?" Alice said tentatively into the phone, obviously having moved a distance away from the sound.

"What's going on honey?!" I asked a little harder than I intended, and I quickly softened my voice. "Is everyone okay?"

She started to whimper, "No. A bunch of mean people came and some of them were hurt and Grandpa didn't want to help them but Grandma was outside and she wanted to help and one of them tried to hurt her and he bit her and Grandpa hit him and Grandma got inside but then the people started trying to get in and then Grandma stopped moving but then one of the people got in the back door and... Adrian." Without another word she starts crying hard, and I'm left to stare blankly at the wall across from me. Suddenly, when I heard Dad yell Mom's name, I remember something.

"Honey, you need to get Michelle and take her into the basement." She keeps crying, but I thought I heard her moving. "Those bad people are going to get inside, and... and Grandma is one of them. You need to get in the basement, lock the door and be quiet, okay?"

She stopped crying long enough to ask, "What? Grandma's not mean..." I heard Dad scream and knew my time was up.

"You need to go, now!" I shouted, holding my phone between my shoulder and head while I grabbed my duffel that I had prepared some time before. I listened for her voice, but the phone fell to the floor and groans quickly drowned out anything that I would have found helpful. "Fuck!" I stared at my own phone angrily, before I launched it at the adjacent wall and shattered it into dozens of little pieces.

Blackness. I was surrounded by an infinite blackness that expanded beyond infinity into an infinitely boring negative fucking space. Beyond the infinitely infinite blackness was, you guessed it, more fucking blackness. I thought I was dead. It was a fair assumption! I had just fallen off a makeshift wooden bridge after being tackled by a massive balrog looking monster thing before falling into a sudden pit that came out of nowhere, where I fell for forever or so, before a bolt of red fucking lightning hit me in the skull.

So I decided I was dead, and thereupon decided to do something about it.

That decision led to me trying to use mind powers. I saw it in movies, I figured it could have been a possibility, but I was crushed under the boot of reality when my results came up negative for mind powers, the only test I was disappointed to get a negative on.

So I did the next best thing and started cleaning my crossbow, and yes Twilight that means exactly what it sounds like. When I tested it and launched off a good bolt (seriously, stop giggling like a middle schooler) I decided it was in working condition and looked around at the interesting infinity of jack shit.

Imagine my surprise when I came face to face with an angel. "Holy shit!" I shouted, floating/rolling/stepping backwards and colliding with another object, which spun me around and held me by the shoulders. It was a young woman with black hair that blended in with the blackness around me, scars all along her neck and wrists and blood red eyes. She was wearing a long black trench coat, black cargo pants and black boots, a black shirt tight on her midsection (it was very lovely to see, trust me. Well, minus the creepiness of her, well, being) and a smirk on her face.

I think we fucked it up, this isn't what I expected at all. She laughed, pushing me away, into the angel. He had brown spiked hair and steampunk looking goggles, a brown jacket over a simple blue shirt with a clock on it. He had a watch on each wrist, a chain that obviously led to a pocketwatch hanging out of his pocket. His eyes were bright orange and inquisitive, a genuine smile on his face.

Are you sure? We asked for a savior, and now we have one.

The woman scoffed, brushing her hair aside. Is that a fucking joke? This little cock won't be able to do shit against me, he's even missing a hand! No, we'll have to try something different.

I couldn't hide my bafflement, and I decided to make my presence known. "Excuse me? What are you two talking about exactly?" The woman looked at me like I was insane.

See? Doesn't even know about that prophecy bullshit. Clockwork, I'm telling you I can do this on my own.

The angel, Clockwork, pushed me away, letting me take my own feet.

That's because we haven't explained it yet, Sin. Keep time straight, or you'll end up messing it up.

She shrugged, looking at me again.

Messed up, messing up, will mess up. It's all relative. I thought you of all gods would know this, I mean really now?

I opened my mouth to try to bring common sense to the situation, but decided against it when both shot me a look of irritation.

No, you aren't dead yet, but if you don't try to survive you will be before the day is out. We might be confusing you, but trust that you will be okay in the end.

I tried to object once more, and opened my mouth only to be interrupted by the woman, Sin.

Shit, it's time. He's talking to Rarity. Cracks began to spiderweb up her side, the areas between changing into something completely different. Her hair began to turn a light brown, her clothing began to change color.

But with her last act, she threw me backwards, laughing. The angel watched as I began to fall again, without any discernible reaction, as though he knew it would happen.

You'll only complicate things, sorry!

Trust me, you don't know what complicated even is.

Then I hit the ground, and everything went dark again. Thankfully, I woke up to something that made a small amount of sense.

Twilight stares at me, mouth agape. "What!? That's what you want me to put down? What about that entire year of your life? The traveling from place to place? The explanation on how you got into that situation!"

I laugh, if only to lighten the mood. "That's the funny thing, I can't remember."

She stares at me blankly. "What. How do you not remember 'those horrifying years'?"

I shrug. "I adapted. How do you condone the murder the people I swore to protect?"

She doesn't answer. Or if she does, she does it after I fall asleep. I think I deserve a nap, don't you?

Before I fall asleep, however, I hear a voice, one I only remember because I had just spoken of it's source some time ago.

"He'll be ready soon, yes?"

"I'm not sure Kiana, it could be some time."

"Do what needs to be done, Twi. The longer we have him around the more danger we're in of his people finding him."

Author's Note

This took longer than expected. I hit a writer's block, more or less, and I couldn't decide how Adam would get into Equestria because I changed a lot in the other story.

This story will be going on a hiatus till the end of the first week of June while I finish up school and things like that, but I couldn't leave you with nothing.